As Angel saw Buffy close her eyes he swore to himself that, no matter how long he might live after this night, he would never allow himself to forgive her if she died this way. Not for the dying, but for giving up.

He viciously backhanded the man directly in front of him, simultaneously kicking the one behind him, grimly satisfied when he heard a grunt from that direction, caught off guard as a fist connected solidly with his left cheek.

He could no more stop looking at Buffy than a mortal could stop breathing, and he felt like he was watching a train wreck, powerless to stop it as Devon advanced toward her, wielding a long knife with some skill before him body. "Buffy!" he screamed frantically as Devon lunged.

Buffy felt rather than saw the knife come toward her, and she inhaled sharply as she tightly clutched the ropes holding her hands above her head, using all the strength she had left in her arms to swing herself upward and use what momentum she could gain to kick forward.

Angel watched in amazement, temporarily abandoning his current charade of fighting as she somehow managed to connect solidly with Devon's rib cage, sending him sprawling onto his back. A shadow of a smile flitted across Angel's face until he realized that the knife Devon had been about to thrust forward had launched free of his hand and was propelling directly toward Buffy's navel-

And was further shocked when, without even opening her eyes, she sharply brought one knee upward so that it connected with the hilt of the knife, propelling it skyward instead of directly toward her- and somehow managed to angel it so that it sliced through the ropes that were binding her hands before it launched firmly into the wall.

And as Angel looked around at the frozen people around him he realized they were all wondering that same thing as she fell gracefully to the ground before leaping up and looking at her wrists, shaking her hands out slightly. "Those ropes really were tied pretty tight," she said contemplatively, staring at Ethan, who was suddenly very pale. "Color me impressed by your rope-knotting skills."

"How did you-" he half demanded, half-sputtered as she took a measured step forward, rolling her eyes even as she bent her knees slightly and put her arms up, adopting a fighting stance.

"Why does everyone look so surprised?" she questioned coolly, actually sounding somewhat confused as to what all the fuss was about. "Come ON, now. You guys didn't all really think I've lived twice as long as any slayer in history because of dumb luck?" She rolled her eyes again. "Oh, but then, this IS the dumb luck club, of which you are president," she snapped in Ethan's general direction before abruptly landing a roundhouse kick to the man closest to her, sending him falling to the ground, cringing at the sickening crack his arm made as his whole weight landed on it.

"Now, granted, I'm not in the best shape of my life," she quipped, viciously kicking out to her other side and sending another one sprawling. "But I'm sort of angry, here, so let's see what I can do." She cast Angel a withering glance as he continued to gape at her. "Were you planning on helping me here, Joe-to-the-rescue?" she demanded with a toss of her head, before ducking as a fist propelled toward her.

Angel flinched slightly at her quip before snapping out of his stupor, slamming the person directly in front of him against the wall before letting out a grunt of pain as another of Ethan's cronies attacked him from behind.

He heard her utter a low cry to his left and knew that one of them must be doing some damage, unsure whether to be alarmed about that or not before he heard another groan, not hers, and smiled grimly at the sound.

"Are they human?" he called out in her general direction, kicking to his left as he dodged a punch.

"Yes!" she shouted back. "All supernatural beings are being systematically eliminated! I thought- oooof!" she moaned as she was sent sprawling to the ground and he looked over his shoulder in concern as she sprung up as though nothing had happened, unsurprised when one of the men took advantage of his distraction to club him over the head. "I thought I told you that!"

"Guess you didn't get to that part," he quipped.

"Yeah, well, you know, it's not like it would ever occur to either of us to do like the normal people do and go catch up over coffee," she quipped back.

"They're human- I'm guessing that means you're not gonna be thrilled if I kill them?" he inquired abruptly, ignoring her most recent comment and rewarded for his words as the eyes of the man in front of him showed fear for the first time.

"Oh, gosh, let me think about it!" she called sarcastically. "Just do what you have to do!"

"You're- sure?" he inquired, doubling over as one of them punched him in the gut, almost but not quite missing the remorseful note in her voice as she retorted,

"Yeah. I'm not as young as I used to be."

His brow furrowed slightly before he understood her larger meaning, and he frowned as he snapped one of their necks, grimly satisfied as he saw definite alarm flit across Ethan's face out of the corner of his eye, heard Buffy deliver a punch.

"You know what else we have in common, other than the fact that no one ever lets us stay dead?" she shouted abruptly from across the room as she systematically attacked the man in front of her.

"What?" he bellowed back, diving as another man lunged viciously at him and managing to kick the man's legs out from beneath him, take advantage of his surprise at being on the ground to snap his neck as well.

"Neither one of us can just LET. THE. OTHER. DIE!"" she screamed, slamming a final man to the floor and hesitating for a fraction of a second before slamming his head down what Angel realized was hard enough to leave him unconscious but not to inflict any permanent damage before she sprung up, whirling toward him, anger he hadn't expected naked in her face. "You- you," she began sputtering before drawing herself up to her full height and raising her chin, slapping him as hard as she could a she frowned in confusion. "You son of a bitch! THIS WAS MY FIGHT!" she managed to shout, trembling. "I wanted you to be okay!"

"I am okay," he said, blinking in confusion and she opened her mouth to retort before abruptly slamming it shut and whirling toward Ethan instead.

"You're a bigger fool than I thought to keep standing there," she said softly, and her voice was no longer angry but deceptively calm and positively dangerous. "What did you do, call reinforcements? Because I hate to break this to you, but unless they arrive in the next five seconds they're going to be stepping over your dead body to get into this room." She smiled grimly. "Or should I say tomb?"

Ethan smirked knowingly. "I have something better planned."

She gave a hard, bitter laugh that made Angel cringe as he fought to reconcile the fact that a sound that genuinely heartless could come from her mouth. "I had better things planned too. You killed me when you killed my family. And now you get to die."

Ethan's eyes flashed and he suddenly began to chant rapidly in Latin as his head fell back. "Virtus relinquo lemma iam Ostendo lemma atrox Ostendo lemma SUUM atrox Ostendo lemma quis they contemno Ostendo lemma specialis Tribuo lemma incendia Verto suum pectus pectoris Ostendo lemma preteritus Ostendo lemma odium! OSTENDO LEMMA ODIUM!"

He smirked in satisfaction as Buffy and Angel both fell to the floor.