"He hates you, Grandmum," Drusilla lilted. "All of us, but especially you and Daddy."

Lilah sat up straight. "Who does, Dru?" There was no sign of Angel, hadn't been for months, but if someone with a grudge against Darla realized that she was inside Lilah's head? That could become a problem.

"He stinks of sunlight," was all Drusilla would say, though. That and, "He's been napping. What a bad boy, sleeping on the job."

Lilah clambered out of bed. The tiniest baby bump had appeared, yet her brief bout of morning sickness had already vanished. Small mercies. She was going to end up being sworn in while she could barely reach the Bible. Perhaps that was for the best, to be sure.

"So who's our next target?" The last couple of attempted releases had been disasters. One had splintered into a hundred shards or so, while another had vanished around the world. Going by the news reports, a child soldier in Uganda had possessed it for about five minutes before being shot down. As with Slayers, you still needed time and experience to learn how to use the things. It was loose now, and no one knew where.

Have you considered the kid who built that robot? Certifiable genius.

"Mears?" Lilah gave that some thought. "He's not far this side of Billy Blim. Do we really want to give him superpowers on top of what he's got already?"

He has two friends, right? The demonologist and the petty wizard? I propose we set up the crisis for any or all of the three. If Warren gets it, he's the best candidate and we find a way to keep him occupied. If it's one of the other two, great-they still have balls for taking over a small town.

Lilah stood there a few moments longer. "They're on the short list," she finally said. "Let's try and make some real heroes before we start unleashing the supervillains."

Suit yourself, Darla grumped. We are gonna need a few people on our side eventually.

"Dear girl," Lilah chuckled, "we're going to be the government very soon. What patriotic hero would think of opposing us?"

*****

Blazing with light, the casing shattered, and released. The hunter crumpled to the floor.

"I'm sorry to tell you," the demon informed him, "something seems to have gone awry. Angelus has dropped off the map, and rumor has it Darla is dead. I'm sure a man of your talents can find other vampires to hunt down, however. Best of wishes."

"No," the hunter breathed. Only that. Denial was always a sad thing.

"It's quite true," he began, as the hunter surged to his feet. There was no ris-

A hand closed around his throat. "He is not dead," the hunter snarled. "Nor is she. I will track them to the ends of the Earth. Beyond, if I must."

The demon scrabbled helplessly at the hunter's impossible grip. No mere mortal could have held him, not even before he'd been cursed with this immaterial state. "How...how can you...you are only...?"

"Only a man?" The hunter bowed his head briefly. "I was. When you suspended me, I was only a man. I am still Daniel Holtz, demon." His fingers tightened, tightened, crushing Sahjian's neck. "But now...now, I am the Dawn."

*****

It was hard, not listening to Hungry.

Hungry was, just like she'd told Faith, the part that felt most like her. Usually, though, Harmony could distinguish two other selves. It was in all the Rationality self-help books to try, though she wasn't entirely sure why it should work.

Survivor was just that. She was pretty sure all vampires had a Survivor. Hers was maybe more vocal. For one thing, her Survivor said things like,Don't eat people unless you're completely certain no one else is around and Don't fight Slayers without an overwhelming advantage. After her attempts at getting an advantage had failed miserably, it was Survivor who'd said to skip town.

Sentimental seemed a lot less common. Sentimental said things like Spare your old friendsthat most vamps would laugh at her for. Harmony wasn't sure how she'd gotten Sentimental, but she had figured out that it wasn't just a weakness. Sentimental, when she was in tight spots that Hungry and Survivor couldn't escape alone, made friends think twice before attacking. Not something you boasted about, but helpful.

Right now, Survivor was saying, Remember that stake in your chest, while Hungry was grumbling and arguing They're not here to see me.

You don't know that, Survivor explained impatiently. The Slayer can fly and speak to animals. Either of those things could tip her off. You didn't know about them, so there may be more ways she could know.

You're right, Hungry said. I should go hide somewhere until I'm crazy from starvation.

That isn't helping and I never said that.

Nice going, Hungry muttered. The tasty one got away. Sure enough, while Harmony argued with herself the healthy-looking businessman had vanished into the Wolfram & Hart building. No demonic taint yet, but he'd be lucky to make it out in that condition.

He wouldn't have if you two didn't fight so much,Sentimental suggested irritably. We're supposed to be on the same side: ours.

Point for the pretend human,Survivor reluctantly acknowledged. Now get out of our decision-making process.

Maybe this sort of decision-making wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

*****

"So these are the security tapes. They show quite clearly the intruder breaking into one of our secured weapons caches, defeating our security personnel with ease, and then...this." A brilliant flare of apparent daylight filled the camera, and six wings unfolded from the intruder's back.

"A seraph," Lilah realized at once. "Come to judge us for our caches, perhaps?" Angelic manifestations were uncommon, but the universe did hold a few heavenly realms. Most were no more hospitable to humans than the hells. As for the weapons caches, they were a premium service Wolfram & Hart maintained for certain extraordinary clients. They were supposed to be impregnable.

"A seraph wouldn't have any use for automatic weapons," Lindsay argued. "At least I wouldn't expect him to. Not too clear on the state of heaven these days." On paper, Lindsay was the CEO of Wolfram & Hart. On paper.

The intruder turned, and Darla gasped. What? What's the matter?

He's a dead man. He has to be!

Could he be? Vampire, perhaps?

I...no. I mean, Holtz could be turned, he's not immune or anything but...either he'd walk straight into the sun from self-loathing or students would be debating to this day whether the vampire concentration camps counted as genocide.

"Thank you for the report, Lindsay. Check records for anything on him...contingency plans and such...and ask me before you do anything irreversible." Lilah picked up her purse and strolled out, trying to look casual. So tell me about the history you plainly have with this Holtz. I imagine the angelic imagery is his interaction with the anima effect. He's one of us...which means we need leverage.

Er...not from his family. He doesn't have any. My bad.

Do tell.

*****

"Should we be out...clubbing?" The Buffybot seemed confused by the whole concept, but she was confused by most things. Harmony never felt quite so stupid when she was around. "Lilah's going to be president soon."

"Of course! Parties remind us of the good stuff we're fighting for!" Harmony picked up a shot glass and tossed it back. "All this will go away if the bad guys win. The more you think about it, the harder you wanna fight!" She picked up a second glass. "Can you dr-I mean, can you get drunk?"

"Why would you damage your central processor like that?" Buffybot frowned in confusion. "Is it fun? I can't get drunk. I can break down but not on purpose."

When she put it that way...but Harm's tolerance, like most vampires', was pretty high. She wouldn't get really irrational unless she had a couple of dozen drinks in her. So...reminding herself what she was fighting for outweighed a minor buzz. "Um...well...you're a sexbot, right?"

Buffybot nodded enthusiastically. "I was created to service Spike. Then he went away and Warren made me service him instead. Now I don't have anyone to service and it makes me lonely. Do you need servicing?"

"Um. Thanks but you need to work on, uh, your game." Spike had...? They were broken up. Harmony was her own woman now. She wouldn't get all crazy and jealous. Beat her into scrap,Hungry snarled. The rest of her sighed.

"I know lots of games," Buffybot bubbled. "Which ones do I have to get better at to service you?"

"Uhhhh...Look, it's not that kind of game, okay? I don't like sex with girls, that's all." She didn't have any hangups about lesbians; she just...wasn't one. It'd been a little disappointing, honestly, discovering that vampires didn't really want to have sex with everything that moved. Harmony had been anticipating suddenly wanting women too, but so much for that.

"You don't want me to have sex with you?" Buffybot hung her head. "I need a new boyfriend. Do you think I should talk to Riley?"

"I think we should dance," Harmony suggested. "Guys like watching girls dance. They'll come ask if they can join in and boom! Instant...boyfriend." Not meal, the way she'd nearly said.

"I'm programmed for dancing," Buffybot agreed. She seized Harmony's hand and practically dragged her onto the dance floor. Harm had to admit her programming was pretty good; the bot's dancing was better than hers. Rather quickly a small gathering of handsome guys appeared to watch them. Harm's only worry was that Buffybot might be dancing close enough to her that the pair of them might be mistaken for a lesbian couple, which would-

A loud crash echoed from near the entrance, followed by gunfire. Probably the safest thing to do was head for the fire exits. Unfortunately, Buffybot went all alerty and ran toward the commotion instead. Harm, ran after her, grumbling.

An older man had entered the club carrying a big Hollywood shotgun. He pumped it one-handed, Arnie-style, and blasted someone's head to smithereens. The victim dusted at once. "Vampire hunter," Harm whispered to Buffybot. "Let's-"

Buffybot grinned and stepped forward. She grabbed hold of another vampire in retro-grunge and twisted his head free of his body. "We're on your side!" she proclaimed, grinning like a madwoman.

"He could still be-" Harmony began, but the stranger raised both eyebrows at Buffybot, followed by his gun.

"What are you?" he asked. "Not dead, not alive...and yet not undead. A demon, like as not," the man concluded, and fired.

Heavy shot tore through Buffybot's skin and spanged off her metal frame. "Hey! I'm one of the good guys!"

"-psycho," Harm finished to no one in particular.

Buffybot charged up to the man and seized his gun in both hands. She should've been able to rip it free in moments, but the strange hunter cursed under his breath, struck her in the face with the butt of the weapon, and finally managed to free it as she stumbled backwards.

Harm slipped up behind him while the two were fighting, prepared to sink her fangs into his neck, but the hunter somehow got a stake free of his belt in his left hand and drove it upwards into her stomach, narrowly missing her heart. For once Survivor and Hungry agreed; rather than wrench loose to escape the pain she seized his arm and bit his neck anyway. The man shouted incoherently and slammed an elbow into the stake, which hurt enough that she lost her grip and tumbled backwards.

Buffybot finally seemed convinced the man was a real danger; she wrenched a barstool out of the floor and attempted to hit him in the face with it. He blocked it with his shotgun, but the barrels visibly bent, rendering it useless. "Vile thing," he growled under his breath. "Who forged you?"

Buffybot didn't bother answering; she just brought the stool around again. The hunter caught it with one hand, but the effort seemed to wind him. Harmony spun on the ground, sweeping a kick at his legs, and forced him to leap over just as Buffybot drove a fist into what she'd expected to be his gut. The man doubled over, groaning in pain.

He got up anyway, and Harmony was just starting to worry when half a dozen men in uniform also burst through the doors. "Daniel Holtz?" one of them asked. "We've been looking for you. We have information we expect is in your interest to know."

Holtz stood there like a monster at bay, breathing heavily while the remaining five uniforms tased yet another vampire and forced some sort of collar around its neck. "The locations of Angelus and Darla?" he wheezed, as if nothing else in the world could interest him.

"Yes," Security Man said without hesitation. "We have that information too."

"Too?" Holtz snorted. "Tell me that, and perhaps we'll see whether you know anything else worth my time." From his tone, nothing could be.

"Only my employer has the information," Security said, "but there are no strings attached. We're on your side. Please, come with us. We'll deal with these two ourselves."

Holtz sneered at Harmony and Buffybot, but then seemed to put them out of his mind. "Show me," he said, and followed the man out, eyeing the captive vampire.

With Holtz gone, the security team began to follow, one of them smirking at Harmony as he passed. "You're free to go," he said very softly. "No hard feelings."

Harmony stood painfully and began brushing herself off. "What was that about?" The Buffybot shrugged. Slowly, feeling like a clock with sand in its gears, Harmony began turning the situation over in her head. She could figure it out. She needed to do it for herself.

*****

"She was recruiting Holtz," Harmony told Kate and Sam. "Nothing else makes sense. He had powers. Maybe like a Slayer."

"But Slayers are girls," Sam protested.

"Only like a Slayer," Harmony said slowly. "Your powers are something new. Maybe Holtz's are too, something guys can have. I'm not sure. But I know Lilah doesn't want us. She needs enemies."

"What? Why?" Kate scowled at Harmony, and she flinched.

"She needs a bad guy," Harmony explained. "I thought about it all the way back. We're not enough to hurt her, so she's using us somehow to recruit. It's not a very smart plan."

"Sounds clever enough to me," Sam argued. "Our COs have done that before."

"Yeah," Harmony continued. "So did I, in high school. I don't know what else she's planning, but the basic idea is something I did to get hot boys to hit on me. So it can't be too smart."

Kate looked at Sam. "We have got to think further ahead. Harm's seeing through the evil genius who's outplanning us."

Harmony bit her lip. Something was wrong with that, too. But what?

*****

"Anything you want, Mr. Mears. Cyberdyne Research-yes, the name's an in-joke-finds your designs fascinating. We'll pay you whatever your black little heart desires. All right. Think it over." Lilah hung up and turned her attention to Holtz.

He can't see me. You can kick his ass. He can't see me. You can kick his ass. He can't-

"Where are Darla and Angelus?" Holtz cut at once to what he thought mattered. It didn't really. Not even to him. He just didn't know it yet.

"This way," Lilah said simply. She led him down stairwell after stairwell, past the ground floor and into the ritual basement levels, watching him fume.

Finally- "Speak, woman! Where-?"

She turned and opened the door to a very dusty room containing only symbols painted on the floor and a huge crate. "Here. Have we got her dressed?" she called out.

"All done," came the response.

"Then let's open up," Lilah said. A single small door lifted. Holtz, moving cautiously, bent to peer into the darkness, where a small figure waited for him.

"What is this?" Holtz straightened suddenly. "What black art-?"

"Papa?"