Kale

"Ah, my sweet little girl, your parents are such fools to believe that I would just allow for escape without getting what I want," He goaded as he tugged the chains, pulling Angelica from the bed where she was held captive and over to where he could put his hand on her face.

Her skin was like porcelain, her cheeks slightly flushed in pink only because she had been weeping for her parents since she had been taken captive only yesterday. She flinched away as he caressed her face with his hand, his touch making her lips tremble in fear. "When my Mom and Dad find you, you will be destroyed." She scolded her voice trembling in response to his touch and her own distress at being held against her will.

His laugh filled the room, echoing off the walls like thunder rumbling across the sky. "How very touching," He mused patting her cheek with a firm hand. "Your parents will die before they ever find you, my dear." A morbid smile crept into his expression as her eyes began to once again pool with tears and the trembling of her lip grew in intensity. "You might as well get used to the idea that you are now an orphan and your future will be as my slave."

"No," She recoiled then yanking her chains away from his grasp and stepping back out of his reach. "My Mom and Dad won't die, they will come for me and when they do it is you who will be destroyed." Her voice in that instant stopped trembling and a fire grew in her eyes. She closed the doors to her mind, projected her anger into a striking motion and gave a firm shove, the impact of which startled him enough that the moving chains wrapped around his feet sending him to the ground. "Leave me alone!" She pulled the chains free and moved back to her place on the bed.

He rose to his feet, the realization that her strike had burned a long, fiery blister across his face, not hitting him until after he had retaliated—moving to strike her face hard with his hand.

She gasped but reacted in no other way other than to push him away once more. "Leave me alone!" Her fiery, tear riddled gaze locked with his. Deep, deep down inside she was terrified but she would never let him see her fear. She knew that her parents weren't dead and that every word Kale the demon hybrid would speak to her during her captivity here would be sugar-coated lies to try and win her favor. She might only be eleven years old in human years but because she was born from a union of The Slayer and her Vampire husband, she was far older in mental years than Kale gave her credit for. Her name wasn't Angelica Joyce Summers for nothing.

"Easy Xander," Willow insisted holding the icepack against his forehead despite the fact that he was restlessly trying to shift his head away from the cold. "You have a huge goose egg on your forehead be still." She insisted grabbing his arm as he tried to push the ice-pack away and stop the horrible pounding pain radiating inside his skull.

He moaned, tugging against her hand as he struggled to push away the blackness that seemed to be engulfing him. Once again he restlessly shook his head and shifted his position in an attempt to force away the blackness. His eyes fluttered, weighed down with the heaviness of unconsciousness and the brutal pain in his head.

"Relax, you're going to make your concussion worse," She pressed adjusting the position of the ice pack and rubbing his shoulder in an effort to quiet his restlessness. "And it certainly doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that you probably have a concussion."

"Still unconscious?" Giles questioned pulling the step ladder along one of the shelves as he stood on the top rung in an effort to retrieve the research book that he needed. He paused only briefly to watch Willow fight with Xander's restless form about the ice pack.

"Yeah, I have a feeling he's going to be sicker than a dog when he comes to, being that he won't relax." She admitted holding his arm down just to keep him from pushing the ice pack away from the swollen knot on his forehead. "Oz, could you hold his arms down. He's never going to come to if he won't leave the icepack alone long enough for it to do its job."

"Sure," Oz agreed taking Xander's other arm and gently forcing it to remain at his side.

"If he doesn't regain consciousness within the next half an hour or so then it will be best to have him transported to the hospital." Giles reminded watching Willow take care of Xander briefly before returning to his search.

"Are you having any luck with the research on Kale?" She questioned as Xander once again became restless as he tried to force himself awake.

Giles continued his search for texts pulling several of the old tomes from the top of the shelves. "The information is sparse but I'm almost positive that there will be more in one of these books." He added to the stack of books sitting on the top rung of the ladder.
"There has to be some helpful information somewhere regarding Kale, I mean we've accumulated information on every other non-human entity that could possibly exist. He simply has to be in one of those categories, I mean geesh..." She threw up her hands then, letting the ice pack rest upon Xander's forehead as it was melted enough now to conform to the shape of his skull.

"Well, he doesn't have to be per say but the point is a valid one nonetheless." Giles reminded finally acquiring enough books in his stack that he felt it time to come down off of the step ladder and go back to his desk to peruse through all of his chosen tomes.

"Who has to be in what category and what is going on here?" A voice questioned from the doorway to the restricted section of the library.

"Cordie, nice of you to just invite yourself into the conversation unannounced. You do realize that showing up unannounced is a good way to end up impaled on a wooden stake right?" Oz mused shrugging off the condescending roll of the eyes that he received from her in response.

"Bite off dog," She retorted allowing the brutal sarcasm to hang dripping in the air like a cold drizzle. "Not a one of you are deaf…" She paused to flick her hair back off her shoulder, "It's not like I teleported here out of the clear blue." Her expression turned questioning as she awaited someone to provide an answer to her question.

"Can you at least pretend to be useful without being a grumpy like a troll? We've got a problem that is going to require everyone working together." Willow answered her gaze coming full on Cordelia.

"Maybe if I knew the problem, unlike some I can't read minds."

"Kale has taken Buffy, Angel and Angelica to some place unknown and he has the keys not only to the Gates of Hell but also the Plane of Souls. Is that problem enough for you, Cordie?" Oz questioned not even wasting the time to try and explain the minor details figuring it was more a waste of air and effort than it was worth at this point.

"Oh well I…" Cordelia's expression softened slightly as the revelation sank in and she realized that everyone else was just staring at her as if she'd grown green horns from her forehead. Her gaze swept the room once before she moved to sit down on the sofa next to Xander. "What happened to him?"

"He bumped his head and he probably has a concussion and it happened because Kale slammed the portal shut before we could rescue Buffy, Angel and Angelica and now there's no telling where he has taken them." Willow sucked in a deep breath as she had spoken the entirety of those details without breathing at all. "So have you put your troll back in the box now so we can get to the task of finding the others and getting rid of Kale?"

"Well yeah," She answered rolling her eyes in annoyance. "I am not a troll and furthermore I resent that comment."

"Resent it then because you have a troll of an attitude sometimes," Oz admitted his gaze shifting to the couch as Xander pulled his arm free of Oz's grip. "Welcome back to reality," He watched as Xander carefully rubbed his eyes in an effort to get his vision to focus.

"Thanks…I think…" He muttered gently massaging his temples and resisting the urge to sit up or touch his forehead. "My head feels like somebody used it as a bass drum."

"A concussion will do that," Cordelia muttered rather unsympathetically. "Stop whining, you're not dying."

"Cordelia, remember you agreed to put the troll away." Willow reminded, "Besides the bickering sure isn't going to help his headache or help us find the others so…"She turned then as Giles brought the mass of tomes out to the big table and placed them in its center—a signal that he wanted them to make themselves useful and begin searching for pertinent information on Kale. She motioned toward the table as he approached to sit down in one of the chairs. "No time like the present, I will see what I can find on the web."

"Everyone else can begin with these tomes," Giles commanded shaking his head at Xander. "You just rest for now. I had rather you take it easy and not force your eyes to focus so soon after being unconscious."

Xander gave a nod, relaxing back into the sofa and putting the refreshed icepack back against the still swollen knot on his forehead. Everyone else took a seat and began the long task of solving the mystery that was Kale.