Buffy was walking through the cemetery. It was quiet and it looked like just another night. No signs suggesting that one of the most vicious vampires in history was hiding somewhere in town. She had checked the mansion at least a dozen times and found everything covered in dust each time. Nothing, living or non, had moved through that mansion in a long while.

She had only bumped into two freshly turned vampires who she'd staked quickly and easily. She decided it was about time to meet up with Spike and see how his patrol was going. They were supposed to meet up by the main gates, but not for another hour. Spike wouldn't be there yet, but she though she might as well stop and rest her feet. She could just sit there and wait for him and if anything turned up she had a decent view of the main portion of the cemetery.

She sat and relaxed with her back against the concrete wall. This morning there had been another brutally beaten body found by the docks. The girl was last seen by two friends of hers at the Bronze. One of the girls, Christine, said she had seen her dancing with a tall dark man. The girls hadn't wanted to interrupt their friend's fun and now they blamed themselves, but it wasn't their faults. It was Buffy's. Buffy had marched all over town and she still couldn't find Angelus. She'd even pummeled Willy and he didn't seem to know where he was either. Angelus was somehow off radar and it was her job as the slayer to find him and keep as many people safe as possible. Buffy sighed. The girl was only 17.

Spike found Angelus leaning against a large ornate crypt. He was dressed in his favorite, red silk button-up and black leather pants. It reminded Spike of before, when Angelus was insane and far from his old sire. Spike had never let himself think of how much he missed Angelus, but knowing how much he needed him if he ever wanted to be a real vampire again, he'd do anything to get on his grandsire's good side.

"Glad you could make it," Angelus said. "Step inside." Angelus went into the crypt leaving Spike to follow. The crypt was empty except for a large stone coffin and a lot of dust.

"Gone back to living in the dumps, Peaches?"

"Gotta make it difficult for the Slayer to find me. Don't wanna end the game before it's even started."

Spike decided not to ask. Angelus's idea of "playing" was never very fun for anyone but him. Angelus opened a trap door in the apparently solid floor. Even Spike hadn't seen it with all the dust. He followed Angelus down the ladder and into another large room. This room, however, was decorated extravagantly. It was perfectly clean, not a single speck of dust. He had moved Drusilla's old bed from the mansion into the crypt and cleaned all of the bedding. There were two dark wood bookshelves and several antique goth tables. He had a large ornate wardrobe with intricate patterns carved into the wood. At the foot of the bed was a large chest that Spike assumed was where Angelus kept his "toys". He always had plenty of things to beat people with and he liked to keep them somewhere pretty as if that made it art or something beautiful.

"Nice," Spike said.

"It cost an arm and a leg. Not that it was my limbs anyway." Spike laughed and Angelus smiled. They were back together like old times. The good old times. "Now, we better make sure all of that sitting on the Watcher's comfy couch hasn't softened you up, boy," Angelus smirked.

"You wish." Spike pounced on him. They wrestled and fought, laughing and growling. In an hour or two they'd exhausted themselves. Spike had a few bruises and scrapes, but he'd be healed by tomorrow night. Angelus had a long scratch down his left arm where Spike had tried to bite him before he was shoved away. They were laying on Angelus's new oriental rug catching their unnecessary breath when Spike realized how long he'd been gone. It was at least 30 minutes from when he was supposed to meet up with Buffy.

"Bollocks. I have to go. I'm late to meet Buffy," He stood up and dusted off his jeans. He headed for the ladder.

"Spike." The younger turned to look at him. "You can't tell any of them that I'm here. You have to keep up appearances. But don't you forget for one second who your real family is," Angelus said darkly.

Spike just nodded before climbing up the ladder and exiting the crypt. Angelus cleaned up the mess of broken glass that had occurred when Spike knocked him into a table holding a large white vase. His knew his shirt was torn, but he had others. He was more concerned with whether or not his childer might be falling in love with the slayer. The more he watched Spike, the more reason he had to be concerned.

He smelled like her. He walked with her and patrolled with her. He'd even told her about being able to kill demons. Of course she had immediately made sure he still couldn't hurt her before deciding that he should patrol with her. Angelus knew that Spike could hold his own and then some, but that didn't mean he liked the idea of Spike patrolling and killing other demons to keep the world safe. He wasn't going to interfere with it, but he would have to reassure himself of Spike's safety every now and then with a nice sparring match like the one tonight. This time around, loosing his soul had made Angelus seriously miss what he had before. Darla, Drusilla, and Spike by his side. He would have that again. Of course Darla was gone now, but Spike and Dru were out there.

Getting his priorities in order, Angelus decided, Buffy, then Spike, then Drusilla. No, maybe Spike's chip first. Which ever came easiest really.

Spike found Buffy at the gate. She was sitting against the wall, lost in thought. Her long golden hair seemed to shimmer in the moonlight. It looked so soft... "Slayer," Spike said as he approached.

Buffy visibly jumped which made Spike smirk. "What took you so long?" She looked him over once. "You look like you were mobbed. What happened?"

"Nothing I couldn't handle. You ready to head home? I can walk you."

Buffy rolled her eyes. "I don't need you to walk me home Spike." She stood up and dusted off her jeans.

"I was only offering. I thought with Angelus on the loose you might feel better if you weren't alone." Spike was rather amazed when Buffy, rather than interrupting him to argue, nodded and for a second looked almost grateful. Angelus must have had her pretty shaken and they hadn't even seen each other yet. He would be proud to know that.

Neither of them spoke as they walked. Spike thought that Buffy looked a bit dazed, as though she were sleep walking. He was glad she let him walk with her. If she were attacked while in this state, he didn't think she'd see it coming. When they reached her house, Buffy went inside without so much as a glance in his direction. He shrugged and headed back they he came toward Giles's.

The next night, Spike went back to see Angelus. He wasn't sure why he bothered. They'd never exactly been best pals, but he still felt like he wanted to. Maybe he just missed being a part of something like he had before when he had a family. Angelus seemed pleased to hear that Buffy had given him the night off from patrolling. She was going out with a friend she'd said. Spike assumed she meant Willow or someone she met at school.

"So, Spike. Wanna help me with this one?" Angelus asked him.

"What is it?"

"Another not so mysterious and brutal killing. I made it myself," He said looking quite proud.

Spike rolled his eyes. "If Buffy found out that I was somehow involved-"

"Don't worry, Spikey. The big bad slayer won't know a thing. She's not even going to find them right away."

"Them?"

"That's why I need a hand." Angelus lead the way down to his room. When Spike's feet hit the ground at the bottom of the ladder, he had to say he was a bit impressed. Angelus had found himself triplets. He always was drawn to that sort of thing. Anything exciting and unusual and Angelus immediately wanted to destroy it.

They were young, blonde girls, not much older than 15, dressed up in their Sunday best. They looked like they had been walking home from a day at church or a wedding. Their hair looked as though it had been done up beautiful (though it now was dirty, bloody, and horribly disheveled). Their dresses were torn and tattered. Angelus had propped them up on the bed so they appeared to sit arm and arm like three sisters just happy to be together.

"I thought I'd put them in the park. That would be pretty don't you think?"

"Oh yeah, real pretty," Spike said jokingly. "What have you got them all set up for, your own twisted entertainment?"

"For this." He showed Spike a drawing he'd made of them. "I was thinking of slipping it through Buffy's window. She usually sleeps with it open."

Spike sighed not at all happy about having to carry the bodies all the way to park and just so Angelus could continue to torment Buffy. "We'd better get moving then."

They reached the park, each of them carrying a girl in his arms with the third thrown over Angelus's shoulder. Angelus staged the girls sitting on the merry-go-round. In the shadows they looked as though waiting for a friend to come and give them a push. In the morning the sight was sure to be far less childlike and a lot more grisly. Angelus dusted his hands off looking accomplished.

"Thanks, lad. Couldn't o' done it without ya."

"Yeah, whatever," Spike said. "We should get out of here before the slayer shows up."

"About that. You shacking up in the watcher's den. I don't like it."

"That's one thing we agree on then, peaches."

"I mean it, Spike," Angelus shook his head looking distressed. "I'm not as reckless as I was before and I realized I may have a made a mistake with that one."

Spike cocked his head. If Angelus was admitting a mistake like this, it was worth listening to. "What would that be?"

"Giles has a dark past. I wonder if his past might show up in my future."

"Feeling deep now are we?" Spike couldn't help but smirk.

Angelus shook his head. "I won't underestimate him again." He looked Spike dead in the eye. His face was entirely serious. "You won't either. Understand me?"

"No since barking orders sire. I got the memo."

"Good. Now you should run along. I've got a message to deliver."

Buffy woke gently, a small smile on her face. She couldn't remember the last time she'd slept that well. After her date with Riley last night, she couldn't stop smiling. Willow said she was glowing. She liked that description. So Riley wasn't the "normal Joe" she thought she wanted, but he was so much better. He didn't even mention demons once, not a single time the entire night. They went out, saw a movie, got milkshakes after, and then he walked her home. It was almost like it was before, back at Hemery. A nice normal date with a guy who's as close to normal as Buffy thought she could ever have. She sighed happily and looked over at the sleeping Willow next to her.

The wind blew and Buffy shivered. She'd left the window open again. She rolled her eyes at herself. Someday she'd learn to remember to shut it. She reluctantly climbed out of bed, careful not to move too much so Willow could sleep. Buffy went to the window and reached a hand out to close it when she stepped on something. She bent down a picked up the neatly folded paper.

Her heart stopped. It was undeniably familiar. Very slowly with shaking hands, she unfolded the paper. The image of the young girls turned her blood cold. She got a bit dizzy and moved unsteadily to the bed. Willow could feel Buffy's distress even in her sleep and she woke. She sat up and put a hand on Buffy's shoulder.

"Buffy what's wrong?" Willow asked. The slayer didn't say anything, she just handed her friend the paper. That was all she needed to know.

10 minutes later the girls were downstairs. Joyce made them both breakfast, but Buffy didn't touch hers. Willow gave Buffy one last sad look before heading off to school. She didn't bother to ask if Buffy was gonna make it. Joyce put an arm around her daughter and stroked her hair. A few minutes later she called into work. Then she called Giles and told him about the picture. He'd already seen the bodies on the morning news. The girls were found by a brother and sister of 6 and 4 that had gone to the park early hoping to play before they headed to school. The girl was too young to understand why her pretty new friends had fallen asleep in such a place.

After Giles made sure Joyce would look after Buffy who would undoubtedly spend the day blaming herself, he let her off the phone. He looked over at the couch, he couldn't see the other side, but he knew there slept not only the key to his revenge, but a way he could save his slayer from suffering anymore pain at the hands of Angelus.

Giles walked down the sidewalk of a particularly desolate street. This neighborhood had been horribly damaged in the earthquake 3 years ago and was declared uninhabitable. A few demons had moved into the abandoned homes, but there were no other beings for miles.

He found a building that appeared to have hardly been touched or at least had been repaired by a demon looking to make himself a nice home. It was an old one car garage. The mechanical door had been nailed down and boarded up around the edges so no light could get in and the door could no longer open even if the small structure still has electricity.

He double checked his coat pockets for any weapons that might be necessary in securing the building. He had been sure to grab a few stakes, a bottle of holy water, and a machete. That ought to cover anything that lives above ground. The door was locked so he kicked it in. It seemed almost effortless in his current state of mind. Something (or somethings) hissed from inside the room. Vampires reacting to the sudden increase in sunlight. It was a den of no more than four. It took next to nothing for Ripper to dust them. He shined his flash light around the room. It was dusty and dirty with dried blood here and there on the floor. It would do nicely.