EPILOGUE

ONE WEEK LATER

"Counselor, you are aware of the charges against your client?"

"Very much so." Alan Shore said. "I am also aware that, last I checked, the town of Sunnydale does not fall under the purview of the Los Angeles DA's office. You're more than welcome to ask them to refile." He paused. "Assuming, of course, they have recovered from the immense corruption scandal that has been unfolding the past two years."

The young prosecutor winced.

"Of course, if you were as ambitious as you seem, you could drive down there yourself."

Alan Shore had only heard rumors of what was going in Sunnydale – much of which sounded far more like something you would find in a slasher film – but he was gambling that this ADA – who looked like he'd been out of law school maybe a year knew more. Judging by how pale he had turned, he had guessed right.

"Mr. Shore, remind again what your relationship is with Ms. Lehane," the young ADA asked.

Alan looked melancholy before maintaining his professional air. "I'm her attorney now, that's all that matters. What also matters is that when she confessed to her crimes she was underage and had no authority to speak without an adult being present. Now I realize given the chaos that unfolded when she appeared on scene as well as the political pressure your office was undergoing the department's desire to close this case as quickly as possibly but this is first year law school stuff."

The ADA gave a weary sigh. "I wasn't assigned to Miss Lehane's case, and it is a grievous error, but you have to consider this from our office's point of view. You are asking us to vacate the confession of a confessed double murderer on what is a technicality."

"Need I remind you how many cases are working through the appellate court based on coerced confessions?" Shore said.

"I've seen the file. She walked into the station of her own free will and said she wanted to confess. At no point during her statement did she mention her age. It's hardly the same compared to some of the atrocities the Innocence Project is backlogged with." She looked through the file. " She was also a suspect in the first crime she confessed to."

"That crime was an accident," Shore began.

"Maybe it wasn't pre-meditated. Disposing of the body, lying about it to the Sunnydale PD, fleeing jurisdictions when it was clear she had been caught, that seems pre-meditated to me," the ADA said. "Furthermore from the moment she was processed until the last few days your client has never made an attempt to advocate for herself."

This prosecutor was clearly going places. Shore hadn't wanted to play the next cards in his hand – the little he had heard had sent chills down a spine he had thought was made of steel – but he realized he'd have to.

He decided to drop the oily persona he used with all but his few friends. "Let's put the law aside for a moment," he began slowly. "When you were handed this negotiation, I'm sure you were smart enough to try and track down the original ADA who handled it."

"I did," The ADA knew where this was going. "Not long after this case he went into private practice. He didn't particularly want to take my call when I asked him about it."

"A wise man, considering the firm that's behind it," Shore looked at him. "Wolfram & Hart do not have an office in Boston, but I've seen more than a few of their clients who have representation. They're not the kind of people you mess with, and I don't scare easily." He lowered his voice. "The outside pressure you're getting – it's not just from your office."

The ADA sighed. "The truth is, not long after I was handed this case I got the distinct feeling I was being set up to fail. This case is potentially high-profile. You send a shark to handle it, not a guy whose been on the job six months."

"Heads you lose, tails you lose." Shore nodded sympathetically. "And small wonder. I handled one of Miss Lehane's cases when she first got into the system. It was pro bono work, the kind of thing a cocky defense attorney frowns at as being beneath them. Which is sadly how I handled it."

"She had a record as a juvenile?" the ADA asked.

Shore shook his head. "It was a child protection services case. I don't blame the original prosecutor for not picking up on the discrepancy. She was the definition of 13 going on 30 when I met her. Normally, it's the bad seeds that I'm drawn too in my line of work, but for some reason – maybe because I saw too much of myself in her – I wanted to wash my hands of the whole thing as quickly as I could."

"You did a half-assed job," the ADA guessed.

"A half-assed job by me still works a lot of the time," Shore said. "No, where I screwed up was I missed the warning signs. And in Faith's case, they were as big as billboards. An attorney like yourself would have done a better job than I did. As soon as I was done, I shook her hand and didn't think of her again."

He paused. "That is, until I saw this." He took out a newspaper clipping from the Boston Globe with Faith's mug shot on it.

"We all make mistakes in our jobs," the ADA said.

"But those of us in our profession often see the results play out in real time," Alan said sadly. "I never found out how exactly the scared thirteen year old I met ended up a double murderer less than four years later but it is at least partially on me."

"Hey, I've only been in the system six months. I know as well as you do how badly screwed up it is," the ADA said sympathetically.

"The difference is, guys like me get paid to make it tougher than it should be," Alan said. He shook his head. "Sorry. I don't usually bear my soul to the people who represent the enemy." He paused. "Even people who know me well would be surprised I had one."

"I get it. This case is an open wound," the prosecutor told him with compassion – something you rarely heard from a city employee. "You said you were from Boston, so I'm guessing you only know Sunnydale based on rumor."

"That's more than enough," Alan was curious. "How much do you know?"

"I'd dismiss what I heard as rumor myself, but I trust the people who tell these stories on everything else," the ADA said. "I'm a facts and figures woman myself. And the facts tell me some interesting stories. Such as that if you were to do a percentage count, it has a higher crime rate than some of the bigger cities in America. Hell, there are probably towns in Africa and the Middle East with lower crime rates than Sunnydale."

"I'm going to ignore the subtle racism and concentrate on what you actually said," Alan told her.

"I know I was being unfair. At least in a town, say in Kenya or Qatar, us good liberal people could excuse ourselves with the air of 'they're not civilized', the ADA said. "You tell me there's a small town in the biggest state in the Union where hundreds of people a year, most of them children, either die or go missing and they'd call you a liar."

Alan was genuinely appalled to hear this. "How much of this could be the part of the corruption scandal?" he asked curiously.

"I was told that it was the tip of an iceberg that no one wants to look below the surface to see the rest of," the ADA said. "And honestly, just looking at these numbers is enough to scare the shit out of me. That's not what I wanted to tell you. The last several years there has been a slow but significant drop in those figures both before and after the corruption scandal became public. And while no one will go on the record Faith Lehane was on the Sunnydale PD's radar well before the original investigation into Alan Finch's murder."

Now Alan was curious. "I will admit that among the people who have been advocating for Miss Lehane's release are several current and former Sunnydale residents."

"That's interesting, considering that at least a few of them were among her targets, according to the reports I have," the ADA said. "I found it slightly strange that one of the people who she tried to kill – Elizabeth Summers – is among those who gave a character report for her release."

"Only slightly strange?" Alan was actually enjoying this conversation now.

"Compared to some of the rumors, this isn't even in the top 50," The ADA was too. "Look, let's both be honest. I think when it comes to the case of the State of California Vs. Lehane, the term 'extenuating circumstances' doesn't even begin to cover what happened in Sunnydale."

"Agreed. And perhaps it is best not only for my client but our general sanity that we dispose of this matter as quickly as possible."

"Indeed. So why don't we together and draw up a deal for Faith that not only is what is best for her but collectively pisses off everybody involved?"

Now Alan was smiling fondly. "ADA Southerlyn, I don't believe I caught your first name when this process began."

"Serena."

"I hate to tell you this but, given your attitude, I don't think you're going to have this particular position much longer."

Serena lowered her voice. "The truth? I only took this job last year to help my cousin. Her father was murdered last year and she went into something of a tail spin."

Alan's tone changed. "I'm sorry to hear that."

"Well, honestly things got worse from there. Her dad was a cop too, and after he died she started to spiral. She was a detective but she'd been getting a reputation. After that, it started to get worse and she was discharged a few months ago." Serena frowned. "We were close growing up. Some people even said we looked like sisters. I took this job to try and help her but she kept pulling away. She wasn't even happy when I took this job. Said the city would chew me up just like it did her and her father."

Alan shook his head. "Is she…"

"Something happened a few months ago. She still won't tell me what." Serena told him. "All I know is that she's now convinced that something is looking out for us, even if we don't know what it is." Serena shook her head. "And the thing is, for months before that she kept saying that the world was a black hole with no light."

Privately Alan wondered if Serena's cousin had attempted suicide and the paramedics had saved her. The problem was that didn't click with what he knew about many of these cases. Most of them were angry that they were alive.

"The thing is, I've already seen enough at this job and what probably happened to Serena to see she might not have been wrong." Serena said. "My cousin is going to move in a few weeks and I've bene considering job offers on the other side of the country so I can stay close."

Alan considered this. "I'd advise Boston just to enjoy your company still more, but I will be frank. I've had to represent my share of clients who have far darker pasts with less extenuating circumstances than Faith does. I'm not saying it would be as bad for you there as here, but I know of some colleagues who've gone through worse and a couple of months ago, a member of the DA's office was essentially executed in his parking spot."

"I thought I was the enemy," Serena said with a smile.

"Only in the figurative sense," Alan assured her. "Though I think we both know that everyone on your side of the aisle thinks people in my profession slightly less worthy of salvation than your average cockroach."

"And if we ever meet again, I imagine we would have to act that way for the system to work," Serena said with a sigh. "Still since we are friends right now, how about we try to do what's best for Miss Lehane?"

"It's funny you should mention that" Alan unlocked his briefcase. "Miss Lehane actually had a very specific set of terms going forward. She asked me to put them in legal language, but it's basically her speaking."

HYPERION

THREE HOURS LATER

"Mr. Shore told me that the ADA was agreeable to your terms," Wesley said.

"Damn," Faith said. "I knew the guy had moved up in the world, but I had no idea he was that good a salesman."

"Oddly, he says the ADA didn't require much persuasion," Wesley said.

"How much of my file did she read?" Faith asked somewhat amazed.

"All of it, according to him," Wesley was similarly astounded. "But according to him, she was aware of the outside pressure and was very resistant to listening to it."

"Sounds like our least favorite attorneys did the full court press," Gunn said. "Either she's very brave or she's leaving town soon."

"Apparently both," Wesley told them.

"So I'm not going to need to do any clean up going forward?" Willow asked.

"My guess is, we'll have to do some work with the Sunnydale server when we get back home," Buffy said. "But since you used to do that kind of thing in your sleep, I'm guessing that's not going to be a problem."

Even if Faith had been resistant to agree to the idea of her freedom prior to everything unfolding, no one who had gone through everything's surrounding the hunt for Dawn could argue that she had not demonstrating she had reformed.

After everyone had rested and recuperated for the next two days, the Scoobies had a discussion among themselves and Angel Investigations about what Faith wanted. None of them would have had any problem if she had decided to skip town but they were all very aware that whatever relationship they had with the Council was scorched earth.

Wesley and Giles had filled everybody in on the fissures that had been going on with the Watchers even before Buffy had arrived on the scene. Dawn had filled in some of the gaps during her own captivity. Not surprisingly there had been quite a lot of arguments while she was being held prisoner that her captors had basically pretending she couldn't hear.

"Seriously," she'd told them. "You really think that once they take you prisoner, you go deaf. "

"Given Travers' attitude, he might actually believe that" Wesley had said.

It turned out even among the people who the elders on the council had been certain were some who had a moral compass and thought the abduction and assassination of a thirteen year old girl was a bad idea. No one was inclined to give them points for that – after all, Jonathan had been the only one among them who'd tried to help and he had also been a hostage - but it seemed to mean that there were going to be problems in the aftermath of everything.

Nor were those to be the Councils only problems. You cannot carpet bomb an area outside of a California metropolis and not expect someone to notice. The phone calls had started coming it the minute the first person had spotted the fireball and there had been people who had seen it from as far away as Encino. The military had been trying to use excuses ranging from a training exercise to a failed terrorist attack.

No one had any illusions that the truth would be remotely approached and everyone was fine with that. They were happier with the fact that this was something that was clearly going to have consequences to whatever relationships the Council had both with America and probably other nations across the globe. The Council had managed to hold its pull over the world under the presumption that it could operate in complete secrecy. Everything that had gone FUBAR involving Dawn was a big red warning sign against ever trusting anything the Council said going forward.

Giles and Wesley could not begin to know what the fallout would be. Short term, heads were going to roll – perhaps literally in some cases. Travers was done, Wesley's father just as likely, and most of their loyal associates were going to be sacked or worse. No one was inclined to argue that the Council wouldn't survive – it had gone through far worse disasters in its existence – but it was going to take a long time to recover and restructure.

And that was assuming that the rank and file didn't revolt as soon as they heard what had happened. Giles was already hearing rumblings among his old contacts that several had resigned and several more were considering a hostile takeover of their own. He was gratified to know that many people were beginning to incline that Sam Zabuto's approach was considered vindicated. Many thought for the Council to have any chance of surviving, it had to join the new century. Since many people thought it was stuck in the previous millennium, that could only be an improvement.

The Scoobies viewed this more as an exercise than anything else – they'd all grown tired of the Council years ago and could have given a damn as to what happened as long as they were okay. Giles seemed confident that it would be months, possibly years before the Council could even think of considering Sunnydale again. Everyone would keep an eye out, of course, but that was how you survived on the Hellmouth to begin with. Right now, they had to go back to their old lives – and for most of them, that meant acknowledging the problems they'd had before Dawn's abduction.

Willow had apologized again to Buffy for what she had done – she wasn't sorry she had done it, but she had admitted she had done it for the wrong reasons and that didn't make it right. She'd had a conversation with Giles and had asked if there was some way she could manage to either get control of her magic or find a way to cleanse herself of the darkness she was aware was part of it.

"There might be some approaches we can take," he told her. "I'm telling you in advance it won't be easy."

"Studying was one of my strong suits in high school," she reminded him.

Giles also realized that given everything that had happened even before Buffy had sacrificed herself that his charges were clearly dealing with massive mental struggles. He knew that he was at least partially to blame – it was the real reason he had left Sunnydale in the first place, to deal with his own grief - but he'd spent so long dealing with their cheerful can-do attitudes that he'd fooled himself into believing they were resilient enough to deal with this.

He knew that they needed help and he also knew he wasn't qualified to give it. A lot of their difficulties were connected to the Hellmouth, to be sure, but there were other stressors that they had been dealing with over the years that were beyond the scope of a Watcher.

Angel, surprisingly, had come up with the solution.

"I know you might consider this a little beneath your normal duties," he told Lorne.

"Hey, any club owner takes on being a therapist as being part of a job even if they aren't an empath demon," Lorne told them. "This just makes it professional."

"Well, since we are talking about this from a professional standpoint," Anya said. "What if I told there was a place in Sunnydale you could do both? Or at least, maybe have a place you can moonlight?"

Everybody from Sunnydale winced. "I wasn't trying to be offensive," Anya said. "That's a euphemism for a job to gather extra income."

"I knew what you meant," Xander blinked. "I guess this is the part where they say engaged couples share a brain because I think I know what you're talking about."

Cordelia got it next. "The Bronze honestly could use a karaoke machine," she said. "And honestly, I think Sunnydale probably has looser ownerships standards than L.A. does."

Lorne considered this. "Probably wouldn't hurt to have an extra source of income in case of another assault from without," he said.

"Hell, given the number of times demons just tend to walk in, that place could use whatever sanctuary protection you have on Caritas," Buffy said honestly.

"And whatever standards Lorne has to be higher than the other class of demon-friendly establishments," Spike said. "I'm sorry how back-handed a compliment that was to your place."

Lorne waved it off. "I'm seeing the Seabreeze glass as half-full. Probably be able to buy the place at rock-bottom prices."

"Does that mean you'd leave Caritas?" Fred actually seemed concerned.

"I'd probably have to anyway," Lorne reminded her. "My guys are good, but best case scenario it's going to be six weeks before I can consider reopening."

"What if I was willing to offer some help on that end?" Xander's mind was beginning to turn. "Anya told you that I'm in construction, right?"

"She did. You asking for extra work?" Lorne said casually.

"Hey, I need to pay for this wedding somehow," Xander said. "Besides, there might actually be a good form of revenue to get into. I mean based just on what I've seen the last week, you have to figure there's a market for these kinds of supernatural repairs."

Wesley looked thoughtful. "Like the kind of people they hire to clean-up after criminal investigations take place."

"Lousy metaphor, good idea," Cordelia admitted. "Heaven knows we've needed some of that around here since we moved in."

"And it would make a good day job for our new friends."

The Scoobies had kept their promise and told Vic, Tilly and Pete the abridged version of what had been going on in Sunnydale and LA. All three had taken it nearly as well as Oz had when he had found out, and they didn't even have the benefit of having lived in Sunnydale at the time. Buffy and the others were beginning to think that perhaps more people were amenable to the truth about the supernatural than Giles had suspected and that the rest, like Joyce, had preferred to live in denial.

They had left certain details out, though – none of them intended to reveal Dawn's secret. Instead they had only slightly fudged the truth – Buffy had resigned from the Watchers two years ago, and their organization had not liked being left out in the cold. They had abducted Dawn from Sunnydale with the intention of using her for leverage over Buffy and her friends, saying that if she did not resume working for them, they would kill her.

None of them seemed to have much of a problem buying that when the Scoobies had gone into very great detail on the actual atrocities the Council had committed that had caused her to leave. Pete had been the only one to question it, and purely on a technical matter.

"I get why they'd try use a drone strike – hard to pin this on them when this is a military operation – but why did they cluster bomb the area?"

Xander, perhaps not surprisingly, had an automatic answer. "They were trying to solve all their problems at once," he told them. "Travers and the Council never had much use for us and that has to have extended to anyone who remotely spent time in Sunnydale. He called in the aerial strike because he saw an opportunity to not only get a new vampire slayer but to eliminate anyone who posed a threat to him and the council."

"And the fact that they might kill innocent civilians in the process?" Tilly looked sick at this.

Giles had no problem answering this. "In the minds of the council, that would have been acceptable collateral damage," he said. "There have been occasions they've done similar actions, only the methods changed here."

"I'd say with friends like these who needs enemies, but I've met some of your enemies," Pete said.

"They were never our friends," Buffy said sincerely. "But I'm always on the lookout for new ones."

That had been Xander's idea too. Considering how well they had handled being thrown in the deep end and the fact that they were all 'currently unemployed' he had offered them two jobs "one daytime, one at night." The construction company he was working at was also looking for people who could do manual labor, which all three were clearly skilled at. "It'll be temporary but it'll be money while you find your feet," he said.

"Sunnydale's always has job openings everywhere," Tara said. "And the rates of tuition at the University of Sunnydale are a lot lower than you're going find anywhere around here."

"And at night, I assume we help you…hunt demons?" Pete said questionably.

"Maybe once you've had some actual training," Buffy said. "You've got the basic skill sets but that can only take you so far."

"Yeah, the Initiative must have been spent years working on it and they ended up nearly getting wiped out by their science project," Willow said. "Before you ask, that giant monster thing that you guys saw before the fiery explosions, that was a primitive version of the real thing."

"That may be the least shocking thing you've told us," Vic said. "Somehow the idea of the U.S. military getting involved with vampires and demons is the recipe for a giant clusterfuck."

"Congratulations," Buffy said. "You've realized in less than a week what it took our government nearly a year and who knows how many lives lost to figure out for themselves."

"We know our history," Tilly assured them. "You're just lucky they decide to destroy your town in order to save it."

"For all we know that was plan B," Xander admitted. "We need to assure you the soldiers got this, not the brass."

"The higherups do seem to be the last to figure out anything," Giles agreed.

"Besides, we won't need your help immediately," Faith said. "I guess it's a lie about not going home again."

One of the terms that Faith had insisted upon when she was released was that she needed to keep busy and supervised. Angel had told them they were planning to get her out of prison even before the crisis began to help with the chaos in Sunnydale and even considering that Buffy was alive, none of them saw any reason to adjust the plan.

The major difference was, after everything that had happened, the Scoobies had resolved all their doubts of Faith's intentions. Giles was more than willing to resume his duties as a Watcher in order to help Faith – who he felt guilty about neglecting the first time around – and even Dawn admitted she'd gotten over the awkwardness.

"I'm not saying I won't have issues going forward," she admitted, "but I never really thought you'd come help save me before. The fact that you did, well, I take back maybe twenty percent of the bad things I've thought about you."

"Kind of low number giving she saved your life, Niblet?" Spike said, tussling her hair.

"Honestly I was expecting less," Faith told her. "I'll earn the other eighty percent back. But try to avoid getting taken so I have to do it."

"I'll do my best," Dawn said with a small smile, "but you do remember where I live and who my sister is?"

"We'll work on that, too," Buffy said.

Faith looked at Angel. "I know you two are gonna need more than a moment but I gotta talk with him the big guy first," she told Buffy.

Spike heaved a sigh. "Now that I think of it, I think I'd better tag along. Not cause I don't trust you lot, but there's something he and I have to talk about first."

He looked at Buffy. "Something that I'm pretty sure those of us who aren't heroes can understand."

Buffy wasn't sure what this was about but she also knew Spike hated Angel's company when they both were pure evil. For him to willingly want to engage, she wasn't sure what this was about but she thought she'd led him."

"We'll give you some privacy," she told Angel.

"What's this about Spike?" Angel's curtness was there.

"You know, I'm tempted to be coy with you and dance for a bit, but as someone who might be the only person on this stinking planet who knows what you went through last year, I'll cut to the chase," Spike swallowed. "What the fuck were you thinking when you decided to screw Darla again?"

Somehow Faith wasn't surprised. She was hung up on the details but she was more stunned by Angel's reaction. He actually looked embarrassed. "She told you."

"Of course she did. Probably thought she was dropping a bomb that I was going to detonate at the worst possible time," Spike said.

"I'm actually impressed by your restraint," Angel admitted. "The old Spike would have thrown that in Buffy's face some time in the last week."

"Give me some credit," Spike said. "We needed to save Niblet first. And it's not like she hadn't at least tried to move on the last two years. Need I remind you of Captain Cardboard?"

"I didn't like him, either" Angel acknowledged. "But we both know Darla's different."

"Yeah, I caught on to that during that last conversation you too had," Faith broke in. "Now would you mind explaining how you did what you did to her and you're still…you know?"

"His usual cheerful self?" Spike finished. "That's actually not the part that interests me. And I get the basic idea from Dru last year: you were in a very dark place a few months back, and you were in such a bad mindset that you decided to crawl into bed with your ex. I get that concept just fine. What I want to know is what the hell happened to make you want the decide that you wanted to throw the soul you earned not once, but twice, away and on her."

The implication was clear. Faith had an idea what it was but she wanted to hear Angel say it. And Angel did. He told them both that he had heard a meeting that was scheduled with the Senior Partners in Wolfram and Hart, and that he had decided that he was determined to 'take the fight to them."

This actually was more worrisome to either Faith or Spike than the fact that he'd ended up in Darla's bed: neither of them knew where the 'home office' was but they were both sure Angel was not planning on coming back. Then he had gotten to the punch line.

Faith and Spike listened to him finish. Spike was the first to react. He began to chuckle. A moment later, so did Faith. Within a minute, both of these hardened killers were laughing hysterically and Faith's sides appeared to be splitting.

"You're taking this very well," Angel said baffled.

"I'm sorry, it's just," Faith was overcome again. "I get you spent most of the previous century in a cave but did you not read a single book or turn on a television any time in that period?"

"It's the typical Angel," Spike was now recovered. "He's been suffering for so long he thinks he discovered it. Seriously, man, you were a vampire for nearly 120 years before we met. Did you really think that the world was a shitshow only because of vampires and the supernatural? Hell, you're Irish. Need I remind you of some of the things my section of our island decided to do to yours while we were there? And that was just about religion! You do know what atrocities were done in the name of King and Country well before the time you decided to snack on that gypsy girl?"

Angel had not thought about it, actually, but now that he did, he remembered that Darla seemed to love religious wars. "Some followers going missing, they just have an excuse to hunt each other instead of us," she'd told him when they were in France. She'd been proven right so many times.

"You know why I never really wanted to destroy the world?" Spike said it in a slightly more sober tone. "Because three times in the last century, I was pretty sure it would happen without us having to do a thing. I spent time in the Somme and the Argonne Forest. I just heard what was going on in Treblinka and did everything I could do to avoid it. And let's not forget that lovely October in 1962 when everybody figured it was a matter of time before the whole world became a giant cinder. Humans have always proven to be their own worst enemies. Only thing that's changed in the last century is that they've become far more efficient than we have."

"And that's the broad strokes!" Faith said. "You read my file. You know the horror story that I lived through and I did everything in my power to bury it. I know there's evil in every single person on this earth. Need I remind you that you're the one who convinced me there was good in them too?"

"Humanity is imperfect by design. I figured that out well before I became a vampire," Spike said. "I grant you I found that a perk rather than the problem you did even when you were still evil, but it doesn't mean I didn't pick up on it quicker."

"Angel, at some level, you've always known about the darkness that everybody has," Faith told the man who'd saved her more than once. "Manners didn't show you or tell you anything you didn't already know. The only difference was you'd really wanted to believe that there was something you fight, something you could battle. You were in such a dark place that you wanted the die doing something meaningful. So the Senior Partners did the worst thing they could have. They told you there wasn't anything meaningful to die for."

"You know what the last thing Buffy said to Dawn before she did that high dive?" Spike said. "The hardest thing in this world is to live in it." He clapped him on the back. "Sounds you to needed to talk more. Probably could have each spared your friends a lot of pain if you had."

"He's the strong, broody type remember?" Faith said with a smirk. "Sharing has never been one of his strengths."

"Excuse me, you two are trying to admonish me about not being open enough?" Angel found it hard to believe he was making a joke.

"Well, you know what they say. Those who can't, make horrible jokes about everyone else being able to do what they can't," Spike said.

"I never heard that."

"It's because it's such a mouthful." Spike turned serious. "This was a shitty world before you were cursed and it ain't gotten any prettier since. It's a messy world, the fight never ends, and it always ends in the same place. Honestly, the smartest thing any of us can do is eat, drink and be merry and just let everything happen the way we know it will."

Spike looked at his grandsire. "The thing is, you, Buffy, the Scoobies, your crew, none of you have ever been all that bright when it comes to accepting that fact. This is a world that's full of lemmings who will just accept things as the way they are. You know that line about how the worst people are good men who do nothing? You and your will never be that kind of people."

Angel considered that. "So the fact that you and Faith have decided to more or less switch sides to fighting against the forces of darkness means…"

"…we've been infected by your brand of stupidity," Faith said. "What can I say? Just surviving is kind of dull."

"What does it say that all of this mockery and insults to my intelligence actually makes me feel better?" Angel asked shaking his head.

"That you like being miserable, you great ponce," Spike said cheerfully. "But misery loves company and you've got a bunch of people who seem to like being in your glower. Try to remember that next time you consider throwing yourself into the arms of one of your exes."

"I'll do my best," Angel said.

"That being said, I had an interesting conversation with your ex before I figured you guys needed my help," Faith said.

"Kind of surprised you let her live," Spike said.

"I must have still had some rust after the last year in lock up," Faith said.

Angel suspected there was more to it than that but he let it go. "Did she mess with your head?"

"She didn't know me well enough to know which buttons to push," Faith said. "That may actually be why she let me live. Wanted to fuck with your head instead."

"What did she tell you?"

"She said it would mean something to you. It doesn't mean shit to me." Faith paused. "I'm telling you this with Spike here so there's a witness. You're going to tell your friends as soon as we're gone. No more secrets."

"I promise." Angel said. "What did she tell you?"

"Holtz is back."

Angel looked paler than usual. Spike was baffled. "Who the hell is Holtz?"

"You wouldn't have known him," Angel said slowly. "She tell you how she knew?"

"I had other concerns." Faith looked at Angel. "I know that look. Something impossible is about to happen."

"That's nothing new. We're used to the impossible," Angel admitted. "I'll tell them mainly because the man you mentioned, none of the things that usually allow this to happen would be the kind of thing he would do."

"What kind of supernatural creature is this guy?" Spike said.

"That's just it." Angel said. "Daniel Holtz was many things but he was always a human being. The only supernatural thing about him was his sense for justice and vengeance. And both of those he came by naturally."

TEN MINUTES LATER

"How sure are you of this?" Wesley asked Faith. "It's not that we don't trust you, but this is Darla we're talking about."

"Yeah, everything she did last year was head games. This could just be one more version of it," Gunn reminded them.

Angel answered. "This wasn't to mess with my head. This was actually her trying to be helpful."

"Seriously? Do we need an intervention?" Cordelia asked.

"The only creature that Holtz would want to kill more than me is Darla," Angel said. "The man tracked us across the continent for five years before she and I slaughtered his family."

Fred winced. "It's always hard to learn more about these things. But he had no connection with the Slayer or the Council as far as you knew?"

Angel actually considered that. "You know, I could see them working together back then. I don't know how many vampires Holtz killed in his career, but it has to have been in the hundreds. And he did it with no supernatural skills at all."

"Guy might have known of them," Faith said thoughtfully. "They did have common interests."

"It's a shame we've basically torched any relationship we have with our most likely source," Wesley said.

"And there's no way he would have made it to America before that," Angel said. He sighed. "Sad part is, he was one of the good guys then and he still is now. If this is true, it's not going to be fun."

"That's the whole reason people come to Angel Investigations," Cordelia said. "Their lives could use more fun."

"Well remember, you guys need help you know where to find us," Faith said. "And try to find us even if you don't."

"Ew, you almost sounded sentimental there," Cordelia joshed.

"Yeah, I've been hanging around too long. We're starting to bond," Faith joked "I need to leave before we all start singing Kumbaya."

"You're serious about this?" Jonathan asked in amazement.

"You survived Sunnydale for three years. You helped us get through graduation," Buffy said. "We can debate the short part but you are anything but an idiot."

Jonathan was still floored. "It's not like have any of the skills from that enhancement spell."

"Yeah but there was never anything wrong with your brain," Willow complimented him. "Besides, based on how everything went down, maybe if we'd invited more people into the Scoobies, more people would have lived."

"And if we've learned one thing these last few months is that we need all the friends we can get for this fight," Xander was looking at Jonathan and everyone else. "It helps keep us alive."

"Unless you know, you get brought back from the dead and your friends forget to look underground so you have to claw your way out of your coffin and walk through the town like a zombie who hasn't his morning latte." Everybody looked at Buffy. "What? It's still too soon to joke about it?"

"Should we be hopeful or alarmed that Buffy's now joking about what happened to her?" Anya said carefully.

"This is stage six of dealing with grief. At least that's what I think I learned from Advanced Psych when our teacher wasn't part of the military-industrial-demon complex," Buffy said in the same tone.

"Yeah, she's fine," Dawn said with a smile she hadn't had even before her abduction.

Their three new friends looked a little flummoxed at this. "I'm really starting to which someone had a working neuralyzer right about now," Pete said.

"I'm pretty sure someone in Sunnydale has a set," Jonathan said.

"Does explain why everyone was so willing to engage in such selective denial," Willow agreed.

Faith and Spike walked over to the Scoobies. "Just to be clear, at no point on the ride home does B get behind the wheel," Faith said.

"Am I ever going to live that down?" Buffy said wryly.

"First rule of Slayer club; you never let your fellow Slayer live anything down," Faith said.

"I'm pretty sure the first rule of Slayer club is don't try to kill your fellow Slayer," Willow said. "but since both of you broke that rule multiple times, we made need to draft a new set."

"One of the benefits of the Council being burned to the ground," Giles said. "We can write a new set of guidelines. Perhaps some that actually work."

"Maybe we can actually use something modern to write them down," Xander said. "Like maybe on a printing press, at least."

""You okay with this?" Buffy asked. "Last we met; you never found a rule you didn't break."

"That only applies to bad rules. I'm reformed now. Absolutely rehabilitated." Faith said in a monotone. "No danger to society."

"You don't have to say that Faith," Tara said gently. "You're free now."

"Hey as long as I get a say in writing the rules this time, I'll be fine with following them," Faith said sincerely.

Xander raised an eyebrow. "I'll believe that when I see it."

Faith turned to Anya. "So when the two of you finish doing it, does he still-"

"Okay, okay, I believe you!" Xander shouted quickly.

"What's wrong Xander? I keep telling you that you should be proud of your prowess and stamina," Anya told him.

"Please, please, don't put them in the same car," Xander pleaded with Buffy.

"They can ride with me. I'd love to hear how this turns out," Spike said gently. "Course when they're finished I might consider a vow of celibacy."

"Just to be clear, we're taking our own car," Pete said. "Given the choice between bedroom talk and the supernatural, I think the three of us are going to need some time to figure out how deep were in."

"I'll ride with you," Jonathan said. "You're gonna need somebody who knows the way. Plus I can give you some details from an outsider's perspective that might help."

Tilly looked at Jonathan. "None of what's happened puts you off this?" she asked. "You're not scared going back to the lion's den?"

"You're always scared," Jonathan said honestly. "I think everybody who lives in Sunnydale is afraid even if they don't know why exactly. But all things considered, when you know why you're afraid, it's actually less frightening. And it's a lot less frightening when you have people who are scared for the same reasons you are."

He looked at them. "So what do you say? You want to help save Sunnydale?"

Pete, Vic and Tilly looked at each other. "Yeah, alright," the three of them said nonchalantly.

The three of them were scared, of course. But that's the best thing about a place about Sunnydale. It's always better to be scared with friends than without them.

THE END (FOR NOW)

One minor detail. Yes I couldn't resist the fact that Elisabeth Rohm left Angel in 2001 to play Serena Southerlyn on Law and Order and was never seen again on the series. So I offered an explanation. Alan Shore is, of course, a star of both The Practice and Boston Legal and given Faith's origins, I figured they might have met. (He isn't working at either firm from those series, for the record but he would know Wolfram and Hart.)

This fanfic has been very gratifying to my heart and soul as it has helped me realize that I can write Buffy fanfic after everything that involves Josh Whedon. At some point I will continue this series and I have laid the groundwork for at least one storyline and I have the idea for another. When I get back to this series is an open question, but it has been so much fun writing in Whedon's voice again that I think I can do so appreciating the art if not the artist.

Thank you for sticking with me, and please continue to read, review and enjoy.