Picking up a large, map-like, piece of paper, Gunn felt resistance. Once he was finally able to pry it off the floor, he noticed a sticky, green residue. "Oh…" He lifted it to his face, trying to see what it is, and got a good smell of the residue. "Oh!" he yelled louder in disgust. "That's foul!"
Angel glanced over to Gunn, seeing what he held. He didn't know exactly what it was, so he stated, "Bring it up to Wes. Maybe he can make something of it."
"Ach… There's more…" Xander spoke as he picked up a few more papers across the room. It was spread into a large puddle across the floor, near the stairs. "I say we trade this house for another." When he saw Angel's only reaction was an expression of sadness, he quickly corrected, "I'll get a mop." Taking a few steps to a closet underneath the stairs, Xander reached for a mop as Spike walked behind him.
"I found this in the kitchen," Spike announced with a bowl in his hand. The bowl held a mix of crushed herbs and powder with purple swirls.
Grabbing the bowl from his hand, Xander eagerly proclaimed, "I'll take it up to Wesley." As started to go up the stairs, but realized he still had the mop in hand. He leaned over the stairs and dropped the mop downwards to Spike. "You'll need this."
Taking a few steps forward, Spike caught the mop. He glanced at the object in his hands, wondering what he could possibly need it for. Looking down a little further, he noticed the green mess below him. "Bloody hell," he muttered as he took a step backwards and shook his shoes free from the residue.
Cracking a smile, Angel watched Spike trying to clean his shoes. He cleared his throat and picked up the broken pieces of the coffee table. "I thought you left."
"No," Spike said, taking a break from wiping off his shoes. "I left the group. I'm not one for the 'Yay! Let's go team!" he exclaimed in a fake, perky voice.
Angel took a few steps closer to Spike and handed him a few random papers to wipe his shoes with. "You never were."
"What's the supposed to mean?" Spike asked, slightly offended. He ignored the papers Angel offered and continued, "You think I didn't want to help?"
With a confused look, Angel started, "Spike--"
"I tried to save her!" Spike interjected. "I did!" he exclaimed as his head sunk. He couldn't stand to look at Angel, knowing what he must've thought of him. "If I could've been faster or stronger… Every night, I think about that--how I could've changed the way it ended. I wanted to save Buffy…" He raised his head, and saw a curious Angel. "But what do you know? You weren't even there."
Angel stared into his eyes, pained. Spike hit him hard with his words. "And it kills me." He glanced over Spike's shoulder to see Buffy floating with a confused look on her face. "What if I never left Sunnydale? What if I never came to Sunnydale in the first place? Would Buffy still be alive? I wonder, everyday, if Buffy's life would've been better without me." Her expression stayed the same, and he couldn't stand to look into her eyes anymore. He glanced back at Spike as she faded into the background. He continued, "Spike, at least you got the chance to be her hero. I couldn't protect her, or save her. But you tried."
Spike took in the words, feeling a little better. "Even so, we all know you were the last person she saw…"
"I'm making a trip to the Magic Box," Xander interrupted as he skipped down the stairs. One he reached the bottom, he added, "Wesley needs some stuff to analyze the goop."
Taking a few more steps forward, Xander walked out the front door. After walking onto the porch, Xander readied himself to go down the steps as he was zapped backwards and into the house. His back slid against the hardwood floor until his head hit the bottom of the stairs. All he saw on his trip down was a iridescent, purple wall form at the end of the porch.
