Willow's research confirmed the existence of the Sunset Club.
"It was opened for business two days ago." Willow told the group. "William Fordham Jr., eighteen, is listed as the owner and there's an apartment upstairs from the club. He dropped out of Hemery a month ago."
"My counterpart's memory tells me he showed up next Tuesday." Xander said. "He found Buffy in the student lounge, which means he may very well already know she's dead and his biggest bargaining chip is off the table, but the kids he's lured to that club are still on the table. I think I have an idea on how we can kill two birds with one stone."
"How do you mean?" Giles asked curiously.
"He's planning multiple murders, Giles. Regardless of the fact that he's terrified of dying, he has no right to do that. Someone convicted of such a crime would at the very least spend the rest of their lives in prison. And he wants a vampire to save him. He thinks he's going to get immortality and he deserves prison. So he's going to get prison."
"How exactly, Xander?" Giles asked, a bit alarmed by the grim look on Xanders face.
"There's a telepathic technique, basically it's the opposite of protecting one's mind from intrusion. It locks a person inside their own mind. The hard way would involve torture, but I won't go there. The easy way is simply to lock him in. He'll spend the rest of his short life unable to communicate with the rest of the world."
"You can actually do this?" Jenny asked.
"Theoretically. Alexander's memories don't include him ever doing it, but he was taught the technique. There's an episode of the tv show that aired quite recently where a telepath explains how they locked a mundane, a rude term used by some telepaths, for non telepaths, who was killing telepaths. The local police were deeply prejudiced against telepaths and did nothing about it, so Psi - Cor dealt with it themselves. When they caught the killer, they used the hard way. He spent the rest of his life in a straight jacket to keep from clawing his own eyes out."
"Oh, the hard way." Amy said. "And that's not the way you're going to do it."
"No. The easy way will be hard enough and I don't just mean managing to do it. I really don't want to violate anyone's mind, but we need to face the fact that sometimes humans will be the enemy. And right now, that's Billy Fordham."
"Unfortunately, he's right." Giles agreed. "All too many times humans make bargains with demons and sacrifice other humans to get what they want. But you said you had a way to kill two birds with one stone. What's the other bird?"
"Angel. We need to deal with Angel too. We arrange a meeting between Ford and Angel. And when they're in the same space, I dust Angel. Ford gets a graphic demonstration of what being a vampire means. Maybe he'll change his mind and go home and die in peace. But that's unlikely. But I want to give him the chance to change his mind. And if he changes his mind, I don't have to cross a line I swore I wouldn't cross."
"How do we get him and Angel in the same room?" Cordelia asked.
"You and I are going on a date, to the Sunset Club."
"You want us to be vamp groupies and get close to him, tell him we heard about a vampire that might be willing to give him what he wants." Cordelia eyed him.
"I'll owe you a real date."
"You're damn right you will."
"And how do we get Angel to go along with it?" Willow asked.
"We don't. We take Ford to Angel's place and simply knock on the door. When he answers, I finish him. I can monitor Ford telepathically to make sure he's buying it. I actually won't even need the wood bullets, I can use my denn'bok, like I did on Spike and Drusilla."
"It's a sound plan." Giles stated softly. "I would dearly love for it not to be necessary, but this Billy Fordham is the one who has chosen his path and we must counter him, to preserve the lives of those misguided children."
"We currently don't have any proof." Willow pointed out.
"Not until I make the offer to introduce him to Angel." Xander confirmed. "Once we do and he agrees, then we'll have our proof."
"You have everything you need?" Giles asked.
"Yes." Xander confirmed. "And I already know Angel is the only one living in that building. I double checked."
"What do vamp groupies wear?" Cordelia asked curiously.
"You'll stop traffic if you wear what the vampire Willow wore."
"You mentioned a vampire Willow that was created by an accidental wish in front of a vengeance demon." Giles said.
"So what did a vampire Willow wear?" Amy teased.
"Leather bustier dominatrix thing that pushed everything up. Interesting thing, she liked to lick people and called them puppies. I'm not sure vamp Willow was entirely sane."
"Well, I'm not dressing that way!" Cordelia declared with a glare.
"I totally agree." Xander told her with a grin. "I'd have to kill anyone who saw you dressed like that."
The grim atmosphere was lightened a bit and Xander and Cordelia left to get ready for their mission.
"We've barely gotten started guarding Sunnydale." Willow said softly. "And our first problem is dealing with one of the humans we're trying to protect from demons. A human who wants to trade other humans to a demon and doesn't understand, that will make him a demon too. Which makes him the enemy we need to guard other humans from. That's the definition of irony."
It was also the end of Angel and the last time Billy Fordham ever spoke aloud again. He didn't want to die and seeing Angel dust wasn't enough to make him give up on being a vampire. He died a few months later. And Xander added a new nightmare to an already troubled sleep as even using the easy way was still difficult for the young man to deal with.