Shadow Over Hellmouth Chapter 91: That Vision Thing, a buffy: the vampire slayer fanfic

"That Vision Thing"

Based on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Episodes "Bargaining (Part 1)" Written by Marti Noxon, "Bargaining (Part 2)" Written by David Fury, "After Life" Written by Jane Espenson, and "Flooded" Written by Jane Espenson and Douglas Petrie and the Angel Episodes "Heartthrob" Written by David Greenwalt, "That Vision Thing" Written by Jeffrey Bell, "That Old Gang of Mine" Written by Tim Minear, and "Carpe Noctem" Written by Scott Murphy

In the graveyard, at night, Tara ran after a very large vampire running steadily between the headstones. Giles was behind her, carrying an ax. They ran up to a fence, and the vampire was gone.

Tara panted. "I thought the big ones were supposed to tire more easily." She looked over at Giles. "You okay?"

Giles leaned against a gravestone, panting. "I'm fine. I just need to...to die for a minute." He took a few deep breaths. "It was that powder you blew at him made him rabbit off."

"It's sorbis root; it was supposed to confuse him, but...it just kinda made him peppy. It's not supposed to mix with anything; you think he might be taking prescription medication?" Tara asked.

"Yeah, that must be it. Good God, I hope he doesn't try to operate heavy machinery." Giles laughed.

Tara rolled her eyes. "This is serious; we could all be in real shit."

"Guys, heads up."

They both looked up.

Amy stood on top of a large crypt, communicating telepathically. "The vampire's circling back towards you, six o'clock."

Tara and Giles looked around for the vampire.

"Try to drive him back towards the Van Elton crypt."

"Is that the one with the cute little gargoyles?" Tara asked aloud.

The vampire ran back across their field of vision, saw them, turned, and started back the way that he came.

"Left, make him go left!"

Giles threw his ax. It thudded into a tree right by the vampire's face. The vampire turned and headed left. Tara looked at Giles, then they ran after the vampire.

The vampire wound up at a dead end, then turned to go back. Suddenly, Buffy made a fist and punched him in the face. He fell down. Buffy walked over and stood by the prone vampire's feet. He stared up at her.

Buffy smiled. "Big, fast, and dumb. Just the way I like 'em."

The vampire sat up, and she kicked him in the face, then thrust out with her stake, but he grabbed her arm, hit her with his other arm, and got up.

Tara and Giles arrived, grabbed the vampire's arms, and held him while Buffy punched him in the face twice. Then Buffy moved for another punch, but the vampire head-butted Buffy, and she staggered back.

Amy saw a vampire hiding behind a tombstone a few feet away from Katrina and Jenny. "Trina! Jenny! Vampire! Other side of that tomb. You can get the jump on him, if you go the other way."

Katrina and Jenny headed around the side of the tomb.

The big vampire threw both Tara and Giles off him. Buffy ran at him and tried to punch, but he blocked it, picked her up over his shoulders, and swung her around, so her feet kicked Giles in the face. Then he threw her toward Tara.

"Tara, down!" Amy warned.

Tara ducked, and Buffy went flying over her, landing against a wall. Giles grabbed the ax, got up, and swung at the vampire, who grabbed it and spun Giles around, then pinned him against the iron fence with the ax handle on his throat.

"Tara!" Giles choked.

Tara held up her hand and telekinetically choked the vampire. The vampire dropped the ax. Giles picked it up and chopped the vampire's head off.

"Guys, help Trina and Jenny over by the Anderson tomb."

They headed off.

Katrina was being held in a headlock by the other vampire.

"Trina!" Jenny yelled.

Jenny lunged with a stake, but the vampire merely stepped aside. She swung again and missed. The vampire hit her, and she fell down. The vampire continued growling and struggling with Katrina.

"I got it!" Buffy yelled.

Buffy kicked the vampire, and he went down, letting go of Katrina, who landed on the grass beside Jenny. The vampire got up, blocked a kick, and punched Buffy; they exchanged a few more punches and kicks. He got her on the ground and picked her up over his head, and Tara ran in and punched him in the stomach. The vampire dropped Buffy, and Tara kicked him. He shoved Tara away, and Tara landed beside Katrina and Jenny.

Buffy kicked the vampire onto the ground, then staked him as he started to sit up.

"That'll put marzipan in your pie plate, bingo!" Buffy declared triumphantly.

Tara, Katrina, Jenny, Amy, and Giles stared at her as they helped each other up. She smiled and walked over to them.

"What's with the Dadaism, Buffy?" Jenny asked.

Tara smiled. "Yeah, that pie thing is weird - even to me."

Buffy smiled brightly. "I think it's funny."

Another vampire suddenly ran at them.

Tara thrust out her hand. "Dissolvo!"

A ball of blue light flashed from Tara to the vampire, knocking him down.

The vampire stood up, grinned, and took a step forward.

Tara smiled. "Incindere."

A gout of flame spurted up from the ground between them and the vampire.

The vampire stepped back. "Ah. So you got a witch in the mix."

Tara stared at him. "More than one."

Amy held up her hand. "Obfuscate."

A gray ball appeared in her hand, and she threw it at the vampire. It covered his face with some kind of goo, so he couldn't see. He roared and pulled at it with his hands.

He finally pulled the stuff off. Tara rushed him, and he grabbed her by the throat.

Amy held up her hand. "Fragilis."

Another ball of light appeared in Amy's hand and shot over to Tara. The vampire thrust Tara away. She fell to the ground.

Buffy, enraged, ran toward the vampire.

The vampire grabbed Buffy by the throat and lifted her up. "Well, Slayer, let's see what tricks you can manage while I choke the life outta-"

Suddenly, he gasped and let Buffy go. She fell to the ground. The vampire fell face-first beside her - with the ax buried in his back.

Buffy looked up to see Tara standing there. Tara bent over and helped Buffy up.

"Tara!" Buffy exclaimed.

Tara smiled. "Nobody messes with my girl."

"Nice axing."

"My first."

They all started walking.

"So why did you wanna come patrolling with us tonight?" Tara asked Giles.

"Oh, uh, I just wanted to observe how you work together as a group."

Amy looked at him. "You should have just let Tara and me Force-choke the vampires, and then Buffy could have easily staked them."

"Would you be patrolling with her every single night?" Giles asked her.

Amy shrugged. "Well, when there's nothing good on TV."

Giles stared at her in disbelief.

"I'm kidding!" Amy told him, fingers crossed.

"How'd we do?" Katrina asked Giles.

Giles hesitated, then he nodded. "You were more or less adequate."

Buffy, Tara, Amy, and Katrina returned home. Katrina closed and locked the front door.

"Should we go to bed?" Tara asked.

Buffy shrugged. "If you want to, but it's almost six. We should probably shower and get started on breakfast."

"I like sunrise better when I'm getting up early than when I'm staying up late, you know?" Tara asked. "It's like...I'm seeing it from the wrong side."

Amy flopped down on the couch. "Whose turn is it to cook?"

Katrina flopped down to Amy's left. "Tuesday?" She thought for a moment. "Not mine."

Buffy sat to Amy's right. "I declare this 'sit-on-our-asses time'."

Tara sat in the chair. "Good idea."

Amy picked up the remote and turned on the television, which was on channel 3, KEYT, Sunnydale's ABC affiliate.

"This is a special report from ABC News."

Everyone suddenly sat up and paid attention. The graphic on the screen was replaced by a video feed of Charles Gibson and Diane Sawyer sitting on the Good Morning America set.

"-now by the entire ABC network here. Good Morning America was in progress in the East Coast and the Midwest, but we're joined by the entire network just to show you some pictures at the foot of New York City. This is at the World Trade Center. Obviously, a major fire there, and there has been some sort of explosion. We don't fully know the details. There is one report, as of yet unconfirmed, that a plane...has hit...uh, the World Trade Center, and you can see that there is smoke there coming out of at least two sides of the building."

Buffy stared at the video in horror. "Oh, my God."

None of them got up to do anything for the next hour.

Dawn walked downstairs, holding her bookbag. She saw Amy and Katrina watching the news while Tara was checking her laptop.

"What's going on?" Dawn asked.

Tara looked at her. "There's been a terrorist attack on the country. Both towers of the World Trade Center have been hit by hijacked airplanes, and so has the Pentagon. All planes nationwide have been grounded. The South Tower just completely collapsed."

"What?" Dawn stared at the video of the plume of smoke filling the streets of Lower Manhattan. "Uh...uh...where's Buffy?"

"In the kitchen, making you breakfast."

Dawn walked through the dining room and into the kitchen.

Buffy was sliding a pancake from a pan onto a plate. She set a fork and a knife on top of the plate and put the pan in the sink.

"Buffy?" Dawn asked.

Buffy walked over to Dawn and gave her a big hug. Dawn hugged Buffy.

Dawn walked out of the house and closed the front door. She walked down the steps and started down the walk.

Buffy opened the door. "Dawn!"

Dawn turned back, alarmed. "What's wrong?"

Buffy walked down the stairs, holding a brown paper bag. "Lunch."

Dawn smiled happily. "You made me lunch?" She took the bag. "Wow. Thanks."

They both gave small smiles.

Dawn hugged Buffy. "Thank you."

Buffy hugged Dawn. "Be safe."

Dawn pulled out of the hug, turned, and walked off. Buffy watched, thoughtful.

That evening, Buffy, naked, walked from the bathroom to her and Tara's room. She closed the door behind her. Tara was brushing her hair in front of a mirror, also naked.

Tara stopped brushing her hair, set the brush down on the dresser, and got into bed. Buffy turned off the light and got into bed with Tara.

Tara snuggled close to Buffy and started kissing her neck. Buffy wasn't into it.

Tara sensed it. "Honey, what's wrong?"

"Nothing."

Tara frowned. "Hey, Buffy, this is me. This is the room where you don't have to be brave. I still love you."

Buffy sighed. "It's just...what happened today...got me thinking. Why do we even need vampires and demons and all of that shit? Humans are enough evil to be nervous over."

Tara just stared at her.

"I mean...what - what happened, that was intense. That's...gotta change you."

Tara thought for a moment. "It has made me think depressing thoughts, but...it only changes you, if you let it."

Buffy thought about that. "Yeah."

"But?"

Buffy pointed at her head. "It's just kinda...noisy up here tonight, you know?"

"Yeah."

"I-I think I...just wanna go to sleep."

"That's a good idea. You - You should sleep."

"Hold me."

Tara snuggled up to Buffy, then put her face next to hers and an arm across Buffy's middle. "Is this better?"

Buffy smiled. "Yeah. I think it makes things quieter in here."

They lay cuddled up together, Buffy lightly stroking Tara's bare arm.

About two weeks later, at the Hyperion, during the day, Cordelia, Faith, and Kate walked across the courtyard, carrying weapons, slightly disheveled.

Cordelia frowned. "I can understand people that drink too much. I understand people that put a little note on the parking meter that says it's broken when it's not. I don't understand people that worship demons."

"Yeah. Especially Lu-rite demons. The stink on that thing..." Faith frowned at the memory. "If you're a prince of the underworld, bro, take a Jacuzzi every once in a while."

Kate frowned. "It's sad. The only way that some people can find a purpose in life is by becoming obsessed with demons. By the way, Faith, technically, that wasn't a Lu-rite. It was a Mu-rite, a sub-species of the Lu-rite. The male sports a small, tell-tale fin just behind the third shoulder."

"So glad to know we're not the sad people obsessed with demons."

"We have to be a little obsessed. We're detectives that specialize in these things."

Cordelia shot Faith a look. "And we're not sad."

Faith shrugged. "Whatever. Anyone talked to Fred lately?"

Cordelia shook her head. "Not talked. Glimpsed. She pokes her head out of her room every once in a while."

Kate smiled. "Nice girl."

Cordelia nodded. "Nice, but not making the giant strides towards mental health."

In the evening, Cordelia walked into the lobby, carrying two big mousetraps. "So whose turn is it to set the traps?"

Kate and Faith pointed at each other. "Hers."

"You girls amaze me. You'll fight hell-beasts, but you're scared of rats." Cordelia walked towards the basement door.

Cordelia dropped the traps with a scream as the door suddenly opened just as she reached it.

Angel was standing there with a little smile on his face.

Cordelia gave him a hug. "You're back."

Faith and Kate walked over, both starting to smile.

"You guys, he's back!" Cordelia pulled Angel after her into the lobby.

Kate smiled. "Welcome home."

"Hey, what's up, man?" Faith asked.

Cordelia smiled. "So I hope you had a good retreat, all peaceful and meditate-y."

"Sure, until the monks turned out to be life-sucking Shur-hod demons."

Kate frowned. "Oh..."

Cordelia gave Angel a forced grin. "Leave it to you to turn a vacation into work. I guess it wasn't like a holiday, where you come back home to your friends, you know, with some small mementos of your trip-"

"Fishing for gifts?" Angel asked her.

"Yes!"

Angel handed her a large, dusty book.

"Oh...a...book!" Cordelia exclaimed.

Angel pulled it out of her hand and tossed it to Kate. "From the monastery's library."

Kate caught it. "Cool! Thanks."

Angel smiled and handed Cordelia a necklace instead.

"Oh! Oh, my God, it's gorgeous!" Cordelia put it around her neck and grinned. "And look how it brings out my breasts!"

Kate and Faith gave her a look.

"You know you were all thinking it!" Cordelia kissed Angel. "Thanks."

Angel handed Faith a sheathed dagger. "Uh! 16th Century!"

Faith unsheathed it.

"Murshan Dynasty."

A grin spread across Faith's face. "This is a thing of beauty, boss." She whipped the dagger through the air. "Oh, I can't wait to kill something with this!" She looked at Cordelia. "Any visions brewing?"

Angel stepped towards the stairs. "The place looks good. How's Fred?"

Cordelia forced a smile. "Good! She's...doing well."

"Hasn't come out of her room yet, huh?" Angel guessed.

Cordelia frowned. "Not what you'd call frequently. We - We sent up a lot of tacos."

Angel turned back towards them. "I'll settle in and check up on her. You guys can bring me up to date."

Fred was in her room, adding the word "listen" to the scrawls covering the walls. "Listen. Listen. Listen."

There was a knock on her door.

Fred jumped. "Oh. Hi! How are you? I'm just fine. Doing really good here; no need to worry about me, but thanks for checking!" She went back to writing.

"It's me, Fred."

"Oh, Angel." Fred took off her glasses and walked to open the door. "Hi! Hey! You're..." She paused. "It's good to..." She paused again. "Did you have a nice..." She thought of something. "Oh, here, let me make some room!" She took some stuff off one of the chairs.

"I can't come in."

"Of course not. You're worn from your trip. You go rest. We'll catch up later." Fred began to shut the door, not looking at Angel.

"Fred, I wanna talk to you; I just can't come in unless you-"

Fred pulled the door back open. "I invite you. Instead of being rude! Oh, come in. Come in."

Angel walked in and looked at the writing covering the walls.

"It's just a smidge of vampire in you as far as I'm concerned, but the universe has rules. I'm a great believer in rules and theorems, formulas-"

"I get that."

"Aphorisms leave me a little dry."

"How are you?" Angel asked.

"Yeah. Good. Everything's pretty much like when you, you know, went away on your trip."

"Sorry I was gone for so long. I just-"

"Hey, no, you had things you had to take care of. And it's not like I need a babysitter or..." Fred paused. "You're sticking around now, right?"

"Yeah, I am."

Fred let out a short laugh. "Oh, good!"

Angel read the words on the wall behind Fred. "'Listen. Listen. Listen.' What are you listening for?"

Fred sat down on the arm of a chair, pulling her knees up. "The click. When it all comes together and makes sense. There's, like, a click in your brain, and then you understand things again."

"Oh. What happens if you run out of wall space before you get the click?"

Fred hugged her arms around her knees. "I don't know."

"Fred, I know you spent..." Angel stopped as he stepped on some of the trash littering the floor, then moved a chair to sit across from Fred. "...five years as a slave. I know that wasn't a picnic for you. But you're home now. You're safe. You can come out of your room. I know that it's gonna take some time."

Fred got up. "Time. I have a whole treatise on that. It seems to take a lot of it to do just about anything these days."

Fred got on another chair and started to write on the wall.

Angel got up and gently took the marker out of her hand. "Fred. Fred. You don't have to write absolutely everything down."

"Oh, right." Fred laughed. "God, I should write that down."

Angel reached out and helped her down off the chair that she was standing on.

"You just...come on...you just need to take some small steps. Hmm?" Angel pushed the glasses up on her nose with a slight smile, then walked past her and opened the door. "Like, um, coming downstairs and hanging with us for a while. What do you say? There's nothing to be scared of. You're safe here in the hotel."

Angel slowly stepped backwards, out of Fred's room. They heard Cordelia scream downstairs.

"Hold that thought!" Angel yelled.

Cordelia was having a painful vision. Kate, Angel, and Faith ran from different parts of the hotel. Angel and Faith supported Cordelia in a sitting position between them.

"Easy. What is it? What did you see?" Angel asked.

"A bunch of vampires...and...they're crashing a party. They're killing people."

"Where?"

"Wilson College. Bonner Hall."

Kate and Faith headed for the doors.

"Room 918."

"Room 918!" Angel yelled after them.

"They're gonna take hostages. Watch out for the blonde. She's the worst!" Cordelia cautioned.

"Are you all right?" Angel asked her.

"Yeah. Fine. I'm fine. Go. Go!" Cordelia yelled.

Angel hurried after the others. As soon as he was through the doors, Cordelia collapsed, sobbing from the pain.

Faith, Angel, and Kate entered a dorm room littered with male bodies.

Faith picked up a flyer. "So much for inviting everyone."

Angel looked. "Some of them are still alive."

Kate took out her cell phone and called 911, sitting next to the door. "There's been an accident. We need two, maybe three ambulances. Wilson College, Bonner Hall, room 918."

Angel looked around the room, then walked over to the open window. "They're heading east on 6th Street. Take the car."

"What are you gonna do?" Faith asked.

Angel jumped out the window, then ran along the rooftops.

"Oh."

Faith pursued four vampires sitting in a convertible. A blond boy sat between the blonde vampire that Cordelia mentioned and the driver; his dark-haired girlfriend sat between the two vampires in the back seat.

The girl in the back screamed as Angel dropped down onto the hood of the car and grabbed the wheel, swerving the car off the street, into a building. Faith brought Angel's convertible to a squealing stop behind it, and she and Kate jumped out, grabbing some weapons from the back seat.

Angel jumped off the hood, slugged the vampire sitting beside the girl, then pulled the boy and his girlfriend up and lifted them out of the car. "Run!"

The blonde vampire slugged Angel and ran after the kids, only to find herself face to face with Kate and Faith.

The blonde vampire punched Kate, then turned back to hit Angel as he was beating up on two of the vampires while Faith took on the third.

Kate hit one of the vampires, distracting its attention from Angel, then quickly staked it and threw the stake to Faith, who caught it and used it to stake her vampire. The third vampire ran while Angel grabbed the blonde vampire by the shirt, pulled her around to face him, and staked her as well.

She stared at him. "Angelus?" Then she died.

Angel looked down at her heart-shaped locket in his hand.

Cordelia stumbled into her dark bathroom; leaned, panting, on the sink; and looked at herself in the mirror. The bathroom door shut, and the light turned on.

"Oh. Too bright, too bright!" Cordelia called.

The main light turned back off, and a small table lamp came on instead.

Cordelia sighed. "Oh, thank you, Dennis. How'd I ever live without a ghost?"

Cordelia opened the medicine cabinet and took out a bottle of prescription pills. The stopper dropped into the drain of the bathtub, and the water turned on.

"Hot. Really hot. Please." Cordelia swallowed three pills. "Ahh. These visions are killing me. They're getting worse every time."

Cordelia stepped over to the tub filled with bubbles and took off her shirt and dropped it. Her shirt floated up to hang over a hook.

Once she was completely naked, Cordelia got into the bathtub, sat down, and sank back into the bubbles with a sigh. A loofah brush floated up in front of her face.

Cordelia leaned forward. "Oh, Dennis, what'd I do without you?"

She heard the telephone ring.

Cordelia sighed. "No..."

In the Hyperion, Angel was holding the locket. Cordelia, Faith, and Kate were gathered around him.

"Her name was Elisabeth. She and her beloved, James, hung out with Darla and me in Marseilles back in...1767. They had killed a count, then set a big fire and burned his villa to the ground. We had a ship to catch to try to outrun Holtz."

"Holtz?" Kate asked.

"Daniel Holtz. I'd killed his wife and son and turned his young daughter. He pursued Darla and me across Europe."

"What happened?" Faith asked.

"Some soldiers confronted us. James wanted to fight them, but then Holtz showed up."

"Then what?" Faith asked.

Angel was looking at the locket. "Huh?"

"What happened with Holtz?" Faith asked.

"Oh, that's another story."

"We got time."

Kate looked at Faith. "I'm not sure we do."

Cordelia looked at them. "No, because James and Elisabeth had the big forever love. If he's still around, and he finds out who killed her-"

Kate nodded. "He's gonna want revenge."

Angel frowned. "If he's still around and if they're still in love. That was a long time ago."

Cordelia looked at him. "Yeah, two-hundred-plus years, and the girl is still wearing the locket."

Kate turned to leave. "Faith and I'll hit the streets, see what our sources can tell us."

Cordelia smiled. "Uh-huh. See? We have sources now."

Angel smiled. "Oh, you're almost like real detectives now."

Faith followed Kate. "Hey!"

"Just kidding. You should probably check it out." Angel paused. "James really lived for that girl."

Cordelia nodded. "Yeah."

The next day, Angel was looking at the pictures of James and Elisabeth in the locket. Cordelia, leaning on the counter at the other end of the lobby, looked at him, then turned back to the papers in front of her.

"What?" Angel asked, his back still turned towards Cordelia.

"What?"

"What do you want to say?"

"Uh, me? Nothing. What makes you think I wanna-"

"'Cause I know you?"

"Well, it's really...none of my business."

"And that always stops you."

Cordelia stepped closer. "Okay, you have to tell me one thing. You owe me this much. What the hell happened with Holtz?"

"He and his men surrounded James and me. He wanted Darla for what she and I did to his family. He nearly staked me but also threatened to keep me alive, so I gave up that Darla and Elisabeth were down at the docks. James started fighting with me. Holtz ordered us to be killed. We escaped on a horse. Then he ditched me."

The phone rang.

Cordelia answered it. "Angel Investigations and Hyperion Hotel-"

"Cordy, it's me. Put Angel on."

Cordelia held up the handset. "It's Kate."

Angel stood up and walked over to the counter. He took the handset. "Yeah?"

"This guy, James, you're looking for, he's alive, he's in town, and he knows what you did to his heartthrob. He's out for blood."

Angel paused. "I see."

"Want us to track him?" Kate asked.

"Yeah, do that. I'll cover this end."

"What's up?" Cordelia asked.

Angel hung up the phone. "He's alive. Kate and Faith are gonna track him down."

"What if they can't?"

Angel walked away. "Doesn't really matter. 'Cause I know where he'll be headed."

"Here. For you."

Angel opened the weapons cabinet. "I want you to go home while it's still light out and stay there."

Cordelia crossed her arms. "No."

"Yes!"

"Hm-mm."

"Where's my hurling ax? This is all different!"

"I moved some things to the cellar while you were gone."

Angel turned to look at her.

"They were dust catchers!"

"Go home."

"I'm sticking with you!"

"I appreciate your courage, but I don't wanna see you get hurt."

"Well, I don't either! I go home, he'll come after me, because I'm home alone. That's what they do: they come after you when you're alone. 'Oh, sure, Cordy, go home! Be a hostage with the torture and the fear and the tort-'"

"Cordy! Will you, just once, do what I tell you without arguing about everything, okay? Hurling ax. Basement?" Angel walked towards the basement doors.

Cordelia hurried after him. "I'm not arguing! I just know I'd be a lot safer by your side rather than all alone at home."

Angel opened the basement door to find James standing on the other side of it. James threw Angel back against the wall as Cordelia ran back into the lobby.

"Why'd you do it?" James asked.

They exchanged a few punches, then James sent Angel flying into the lobby.

"Because I had something you could never have?"

Angel looked at Cordelia peeking out from behind a pillar. "Get back!"

Angel and James went at it again.

Fred stepped out onto the open hallway, looking down into the lobby. "Angel? I thought I heard company. I came out of my room. Small steps...like you said."

Angel stopped choking James to step back to where Fred could see him. "Go back to your room and stay there!"

Fred turned to go. "Okay, then."

James and Angel resumed their fight.

The phone rang in the Hyperion's lobby, but Angel was too busy fighting to answer it. Cordelia picked up a fire extinguisher and hurled it at the back of James' head.

"I told you to-"

Cordelia picked up a stake and threw it. "Shut up and stake him!"

James intercepted the stake and attacked Angel with it.

Cordelia frowned. "Oops."

James tried to push the stake into Angel's chest. "You never loved anyone...or anything. Go to Hell."

Cordelia jumped on James' back. James turned and sent her flying across the lobby. Angel grabbed a hold of the stake and buried it in James' chest, then hurried over to help Cordelia up.

"It's all right. It's all right. It's over."

Cordelia looked over and saw James was pulling the stake from his chest. Cordelia and Angel stared as the wound closed in front of their eyes.

"Uh, over in what sense?" Cordelia asked.

Angel attacked James and kicked him out through the glass doors, into the sunlight streaming down into the garden court, then hurried back to Cordelia.

Cordelia pointed. "Uh, shouldn't he be on fire?"

Angel hustled her towards the basement. "Let's get out of here."

Cordelia was following Angel down the ladder, into the sewers. "My coat. It's stuck."

"Leave it."

Cordelia slipped out of it and hurried after Angel.

Cordelia and Angel arrived at a fork in the tunnels.

Angel pushed Cordelia towards one of them. "Go that way."

"Where are you gonna go?"

"Go!"

Cordelia went.

Angel soon hurried after Cordelia. He opened a door in the side of the tunnel. "Cordy! This way. Hurry up!"

Cordelia went in. Angel followed and pulled the door shut behind them.

"All right, I've been doing this for a while. Don't stakes through the heart and sunshine kill you guys?" Cordelia asked.

"Sh! He seems to have become-"

"-invincible?"

"Let's not exaggerate."

"The Ring of Amara, when you had that, you were invincible. Does he have a ring?"

"No."

"Hmm." Cordelia thought for a moment. "Did the Amara people make cufflinks or belt buckles?"

"There's only one. Now, be quiet. I think he took the bait."

A deep rumbling sounded, and the tunnel began to shake.

Cordelia threw herself at Angel. "Earthquake!"

"Subway!"

Cordelia let go of him. "Okay, just subway."

Both of them jumped, and Cordelia let out a small scream, as her cell phone suddenly rang.

"Jesus!" Angel exclaimed.

Cordelia fumbled with her phone. "Sorry, sorry, cell phone."

"Cordelia, is that you? Can you hear me?" Kate asked.

"Huh? What? Say that again?"

"There's something that you have to know about James. He's invincible."

"Oh. He's invincible, is he?" Cordelia stuck her tongue out at Angel.

"He went to a slog demon."

"He went to a what?"

"Slog demon."

"Slog demon? What's that?"

"A doctor demon that collects rare organs."

Cordelia looked at Angel. "Some kind of doctor demon that collects rare organs."

"The demon cut out his heart."

"Cut out his heart?" Cordelia repeated for Angel's benefit.

"Yeah, and he can't be killed."

Cordelia looked at Angel. "Absolutely cannot be killed."

"But..."

"Wait. What?" Cordelia asked Kate.

"There's a price. It lasts for only a while, then he dies."

"How long?"

"Six..."

"Six what? What? Hello?" Cordelia looked down at her phone. "No signal." She closed it. "Okay. The guy's invincible, but it lasts for only so long, then he dies."

"How long?"

"She said...I don't know. Six minutes, hours, weeks." Cordelia fumbled with her cell phone. "I hate these. Come on, give me a signal!"

"That's good news. So all we have to do is - is wait him out."

"Right. So we just wait here until we're sure."

With a big crash, James burst through a door a little way down from them.

Angel hurried Cordelia back out into the tunnels. "Cordy, up here!"

Cordelia and Angel pushed through the people crowding the stairs to the subway platform just as a train pulled up. The doors opened.

Angel pulled Cordelia through the open doors, into the train. The doors closed in front of James' nose. As the train pulled out of the station, Cordelia, clinging to Angel's back, stuck out her tongue at James.

"What a creep. Should we get off at the next station and double back?" Cordelia suggested. "He won't expect that. Or should we stay put 'til the end of the line and put as much distance between us-"

"Shh!"

There was a clunking sound coming from the roof.

Cordelia looked up. "He couldn't possibly-"

Angel pushed Cordelia behind him just as James came bursting in through a window at the end of the compartment.

"Get back!" Angel yelled.

"Well, this is a new twist in an old snake. Is it possible you care about someone who isn't you?" James asked.

Angel glanced back at Cordelia. "Don't worry about her."

"But if you've changed. If you aren't the same man that fucked Darla and couldn't care less what happened to her-"

"He has changed. A lot. He has a soul now, and he cares about people."

"So you might feel something when I snap her neck."

Cordelia decided to backtrack. "Well, it's not like he's losing sleep with the caring."

"Lucky me. Now, I can kill the woman you love."

"No, you can't."

"Are you forgetting who's the invincible one here?" James ripped a seat loose and smashed it across Angel's face.

"Angel!" Cordelia yelled.

James hit Angel again, sending him sliding back towards Cordelia and a male passenger standing by the door, leaning on a pair of crutches.

"Catch him!" Angel yelled.

"Catch who?" Cordelia yelled.

Angel pulled the crutches from under the guy's arms, and Cordelia barely kept him from falling.

Angel flipped to his feet and, one crutch under each arm, faced James. "Come on!"

James attacked, and Angel caught his arm with the crutches and used their leverage to twist James around and press him up against the wall.

"How's that, invincible boy, huh? Is that your idea of love, James, hmm? It's not real unless it kills you?" Angel asked.

James panted. "Yeah. What's yours? 'It's fun as long as it doesn't cost me anything'? You don't know what love is!"

Angel backed up, letting James free.

James slid down the wall of the train and looked up at Angel, panting. "You think you won...just because you're still alive? I lived. You just existed."

Angel just stood there, staring down at James, until James suddenly died.

Cordelia saw Angel coming down the steps of the Hyperion. "How's Fred?"

"She's all right, considering. We talked over what happened, and I think she'll be coming out of her room any decade now."

"And how about you?"

"I'm okay."

"So...can we get back to work now?"

"Yeah. Sure." Angel paused. "There's work?"

The door opened, and Faith and Kate strode in.

"What do you know about Nester demons?" Kate asked Angel.

"Well, they like to live in the walls of people's homes. They hatch several times a year. And don't you have to kill their queen or something?"

Faith handed Cordelia a dagger. "Yeah. And if you don't, they infest again, worse than ever."

Cordelia nodded. "We killed a bunch of them in Hancock Park a couple of months ago."

Kate frowned. "I don't think we got the queen."

Angel accepted a knife from her and turned to go. "Well, let's go find out."

The next week, in the evening, Kate and Faith were standing at the counter of the Hyperion, eating Chinese takeout right out of the boxes with chopsticks.

"No, Faith, I mean...I'm not saying we act differently. I just think we should be gentle in..." Kate saw Cordelia walking in. "Hey, Cordy."

Faith waved at her with her chopsticks. "Hey, Cordy."

Cordelia looked at them as she walked by.

"B-plus. C-minus."

Faith and Kate turned to look at Fred, who was sitting cross-legged under a folding table with her own box of Chinese takeout.

"A girl can tell."

Kate crouched down in front of the table. "Fred...if you feel comfortable enough grading our sincerity, how about joining us for the rest of the meal? Isn't that the point of coming downstairs?"

Fred swallowed hard. "I guess that'd be okay." Fred crawled out from under the table and joined them at the counter, picking at the food in her box with her fingers.

"Uh, I-I don't mean to rush you back into the 21st Century, but how about using some chopsticks? Or a fork, maybe." Kate picked up a fork and offered it to her. "You remember forks, don't you?"

Fred took it. "Sure. Who could forget? Fork, fork it over, fork in the road - one I'm not ready to take yet."

Cordelia walked back through the lobby.

Kate smiled. "Hey again."

"I know what you're doing."

"You do?" Kate asked.

Fred smiled. "Told you."

"You're being all fake nice and super-sensitive like 'Poor Cordelia, she's on edge, because she hasn't had a vision in while.' Well, I have information for you. I look forward to my next vision."

"You do?" Kate asked.

"Well, why shouldn't I? I mean the Powers That Be have seen fit to choose me; who am I to refuse? I think of them as gifts. Having-my-head-torn-open-and-hot-lava-poured-into-my-skull gifts."

Fred looked from Cordelia to Kate and Faith.

Angel walked in. "Fred! Good to see you out and about."

"It is, isn't it? Out and about." Fred leaned towards Angel. "I've been forking with Kate."

Angel looked at Kate, eyebrows slightly raised. Kate smiled coyly.

Cordelia started screaming as she got hit with a vision of some clawed demon thing. Angel and Kate managed to catch her before she fell to the floor.

"Are you all right?" Angel asked. "Talk to me."

Cordelia gasped. "There is a coin and, um, two clawed things; it's in Chinatown, I think. An herbalist's shop."

Kate and Faith headed for the books.

"Come on." Angel helped Cordelia up and put a hand on her left shoulder.

Cordelia jerked away with a gasp. "I'm okay. I'm fine. It just caught me off guard a little."

Angel just looked at her.

"Uh, go find the coin." Cordelia started to walk away. "It has a hole in it."

Cordelia entered the staff bathroom at the Hyperion and closed the door behind her. She turned on the light. She went to lean on the sink. There was a knock on the door.

"Yes?"

"Cordelia, that beast you saw...did it have four or five claws?" Kate asked.

"Five."

"You're sure?"

Cordelia pulled up her shirt and counted the claw marks decorating her belly. "Pretty certain."

Kate was standing in front of a table loaded down with books. Fred was pacing behind her, reading a thick phone book.

"Anything of interest yet, Fred?" Kate asked.

"Oh, sure. Lots. H is a fascinating letter. Helicopters, helium, helmets, hernias..."

"Did you happen to notice 'herbs' in your wanderings?" Kate asked.

Fred gave her a big grin. "I did."

Kate just looked at her.

"Oh, right. There are, uh, let's see...five herbalist shops in Chinatown."

Angel walked in. "We got a name or face for these things yet?"

"Circling. I think we might be looking at either a Wan Shan Dhole or a Cantonese Fook-beast."

Faith walked in, carrying a baseball bat and with a backpack slung over one shoulder. "I say we figure out what these fuckers are after we find that coin. We're burning moonlight."

Kate nodded. "Sounds like a plan."

"Hey, Fred?" Angel asked. "I need you to do something for me."

Fred gave him a huge smile.

Cordelia was in the bathroom, taking a couple of aspirins. She'd taken her shirt off and turned to look at her left shoulder blade in the mirror. There were three more claw marks there.

There was a knock on the closed door of the bathroom.

"I told you, it's about finding the coin."

"It's me."

"I'm fine!"

"I'm not leaving until you open the door. I mean it, Cordelia, open up."

Cordelia put her shirt back on, hiding the scratches, opened the door, and gave Angel a bright smile. "See? Fine!"

Angel stopped her from closing the door again. "They're getting worse, aren't they?"

"I'm feeling better. Once I get a little protein in me, I'll be as good as new. Honest. Now, go declaw those things!"

"I've asked Fred to take you home."

"I don't need to go home."

"There is nothing else you can do here. Just...get some rest, okay?"

"No..."

Angel stared at her. "O...kay?"

Cordelia sighed. "Okay." She closed the door.

Angel was sitting in the back of the convertible, with Faith driving and Kate in the passenger seat, as they were driving down the dark streets of LA.

"Five herb shops in Chinatown, and we've been to four. How come whatever we're searching for is always in the last place that we look?" Faith asked.

"I suppose it's one of the unwritten laws of being a dick."

Faith gave Kate an angry look.

Kate smiled gleefully. "A detective."

"So what's the name of this place, anyway?" Faith asked her.

"Van Hoa Dong. It should be up there on the left."

Faith chuckled. "Dong."

Kate rolled her eyes, then turned around to face Angel. "How was Cordelia when you spoke to her?"

"She said she was fine."

"You don't believe her?"

"All right, here we go. Next time, we're hitting the last place first." Faith stopped the car just down the street from the herb shop.

The three of them unfastened their seatbelts and got out of the car. They walked up to the shop.

In the shop, a white-haired older gentleman was measuring out some powder. A woman brought him another jar as Angel, Faith, and Kate walked into the store.

"Your kind not welcome here!" the woman yelled.

"Since when can't a girl buy some ginseng tea?" Faith asked.

"Not you." The man pointed at Angel. "Him! Vampire not welcome!"

Kate frowned. "This is a public facility, and any being may enter. We're looking for an ancient coin."

The Chinese couple exchanged a look, then both let out a scream and flipped over the counter, landing in a martial arts stance.

"Ah, so you think some fancy flipping and a little hollering can intimidate bitches like us?" Faith asked.

Suddenly, their hands turned into long, gray claws.

Faith made a face. "Okay, that creeps me out."

Angel looked at Kate and Faith. "You two take Grandma. I'll take the old man."

A big fight ensued, during which all three of them managed to avoid getting more than superficially cut by the couple's razor-sharp metal claws. In the end, Kate managed to knock the woman over the head while Faith kept her distracted with her wooden baseball bat, sharpened to a point for easier staking action. Angel took a hold of the scarf that the old man wore wrapped around his waist and, with a sudden hard pull, sent the man spinning through the air. The old man crashed into the shelves covering the wall and dropped to land in a heap on the floor.

Faith panted. "Damn. Grandma and Grandpa got game."

"Yeah, I know." Kate looked around. "Now, if we could just find that coin before they come to."

"Guys. Over here." Angel reached down and snapped the leather necklace holding the coin from around the old man's neck.

Cordelia walked out of her bedroom, stretching. "Okay! All ready for bed. Face washed, teeth brushed, tired, tired!" She let out a fake yawn. "You can go now!" She looked around the living room and noticed the lack of an audience for her performance. "Fred? Okay, you can go now, Fred."

She walked over to the kitchen and saw Fred sitting on the floor, eating peanut butter straight out of the jar.

"Sorry. It's been so long."

Cordelia helped her up and put the lid back on the jar. "Not a problem. Here. Take it with you. Enjoy that peanutty goodness in the comfort of your own home."

"Hey. Wait. Angel said-"

"I know. He said you should wait until he calls-"

Fred nodded.

"-but, as you can see, I'm fine. In fact, I'm better than fine. I'm...right as rain."

"I-I never understood that saying, 'right as rain'. How is rain right? Or wrong, for that matter. Okay, I suppose, if there's a flood, it's wrong. And speaking of floods, or maybe just being overwhelmed, what's it like to have a vision?"

"Wow. You know, next to you, I am downright linear."

"Do you see things or smell them or just know...'in your stomach', know? Like, in fifth grade, when I saw Gracie Wells, and I just knew we'd go steady, and, even though we never did, looking back on it, it feels like we did. Is it like that?"

Cordelia stared at her for a moment. "Okay. Time to go."

She started ushering Fred towards the door.

"Has - Has anyone ever told you that you're exactly like Lassie? Yeah. You're like Angel's Lassie. Sure, he does most of the saving, but it's your visions that tell him that Timmy is trapped in the well, or the robbers are hiding in the barn. He really needs and depends on you."

"Well, thanks. I'd be flattered except for the Lassie-being-a-dog part. Dennis, a little help here?"

The door of Cordelia's apartment swung open.

"See? I'm not alone, I have a ghost." Cordelia pushed Fred out the door. "Bye. We'll have to...to..." Cordelia got hit by another vision and dropped to the floor.

Fred crouched down beside her. "Are you all right?"

Fred gently turned an unconscious Cordelia over onto her back. Suddenly, boils appeared all along the side of Cordelia's face.

"A demon. An icky, boil-covered demon."

Cordelia was sitting next to Angel on the edge of her bed with Faith, Fred, and Kate standing by the door, looking at her.

"A storefront downtown on the corner of 5th and something. And there was a key. I should probably draw you a picture of the key."

Angel shook his head. "Cordy."

Cordelia started to get up, but Angel pulled her back down and gently pushed the hair back from her face to reveal the boils that she'd been trying to hide.

Kate stared at them. "Oh, God."

Angel stared at his love. "Cordelia, we should talk about this. You can't ignore what's happening."

"I don't wanna talk. What's there to say? Except 'gross', 'yuck', and 'unclean'." Cordelia looked at the others, who avoided meeting her eyes. "Like you're not thinking it."

"Has this ever happened before?" Angel asked her.

After a moment, Cordelia pulled the sleeve of her sweater up to reveal one set of claw marks. "Earlier tonight."

Kate crouched down for a closer look. "Oh, whoa! Are you saying your vision had a physical manifestation?"

"Yeah."

"And did this new one have anything to do with-"

"The yuck monster." Cordelia pointed at her face. "Yeah." She looked past Angel, caught sight of herself in the mirror, and got up to take a closer look. "This must be a mistake. The Powers wouldn't do this to me on purpose; I mean...I'm a part of their team. Why would anybody do this on purpose?"

Angel came out of Cordelia's bedroom, closed the door behind him, and joined the others waiting for him in Cordelia's living room. "We have to figure this out and now. Anybody?"

"Why would the Powers choose to communicate with Cordy in this way?" Kate asked.

Fred thought for a moment. "Maybe we could ask them."

Everyone turned to look at her.

"Y-You used the word 'communicate', which got me thinking; everything's made of energy, right? Light waves, radio waves, X-rays, even brain waves are all electric energy. If Cordelia is receiving visions from the Powers That Be, they're being communicated somehow. Maybe we could figure out the frequency and trace the calls."

Kate smiled. "Well done, Fred. Faith, I need you and Fred to go to the hotel and get me some books. I'll make a list. We need to research that Chinese coin. Angel, you find that demon and get the key."

"I'm not going anywhere."

"Cordy's had two visions in the same night. You see what it's doing to her. If the Powers That Be are taking such extreme measures, we have to assume the coin and the key are of great significance."

"And so is Cordelia. If I go out and find that key, how can I help her?"

"By trusting me. I have an idea."

Kate opened the door of Cordelia's apartment to let Angel in.

"How is she?" Angel asked.

"Uh. I'm finding out right now. Did you get the...?"

Angel handed her the key as he walked past her.

"Great."

Angel walked into Cordelia's bedroom to see her laying on the bed.

Kate followed Angel into the bedroom. "You're just in time. Would you talk to this young lady? She's resisting the process."

"Process?"

"Oh, my idea. She reads people's auras to set them on their path. That connects her to the Powers That Be. I'm thinking-"

"Sure. She might be able to reverse the process. She might be able to trace the call back to the Powers." Angel sat on the bed.

"Was it there?" Cordelia pointed at her face. "Because I'm gonna be really pissed off, if I'm all Phantom of the Opera, and there wasn't a key."

"It was right where you said."

"Oh, good."

"Why don't you want to try and trace the visions?"

"It's not like I'm morally against it. Hey, might be fun. But with the Powers That Be doing this whole Book of Job thing, the last thing that I want is more noise in my head."

"Maybe you can make the noise stop."

Cordelia sighed. "Yeah."

"Isn't that what you want?"

"Yes! No. Well, no. Sure, I hate looking and feeling like this, but...if I lose the visions, I wouldn't be able to help you anymore. You wouldn't need me."

"That's not why I need you. You're important. And the visions are just aftermarket extras like Hurst shift or Krager wheels."

"Did you just compare me to a car?"

"It was a very nice car."

"I guess that's better than a dog."

"Cordy, let us try and help. Okay?"

"Okay." Cordelia lay back into her pillow and closed her eyes with a sigh.

Suddenly, Cordelia jerked as she was hit with another vision. She got a shot of a guy's face and his pulsing, exposed brain, then a blurry vision of a person engulfed in flames. She saw the burning guy and some bronze demon. Cordelia screamed.

Angel hurried over to her. "Cordy? Cordy!"

Kate looked down at Cordelia's arms that now looked to be severely burned in the aftermath of the vision.

"Am I a bad person? Am I just a horrible person?" Cordelia asked Angel. "Because I know I can be snippy sometimes."

"This isn't happening, because you're bad. If anything, it's because you're strong. Stronger than you realize."

"I'm not. I know what I said earlier. But I don't want the visions anymore. I tried to be brave. I did. But I'm just scared now. I'm scared all of the time." Cordelia did her best not to cry. "I mean look at me!" She held out her arms, then took a deep breath and wiped her eyes. "What could be so important that the Powers would do this? I don't understand."

"I don't either. Hey..." Angel reached to take a hold of her hand. "Did you make contact?"

Cordelia thought back for a moment, then came to a realization. "The visions aren't from the Powers."

"Who's sending the visions?"

"I don't know." Cordelia winced as she tried to sit up. "But it's local. Earthbound and pretty authentic. It was easy to mistake it for the real deal."

"Are you saying someone's hacked into your head?" Kate asked.

Cordelia nodded. "Transmitting false data through the celestial 'Net. I know it's probably a mile-long list, but I'd start looking at enemies. Who wants to get to you, who has the sizable resources, and who'd be willing to fuck up a pretty face like mine?"

Kate was sitting at her desk, looking at the markings on the coin through a magnifying glass. Angel walked in.

"How's Cordelia?" Kate asked.

"Fred and Faith are looking after her. You figured it out?"

"I think so. Something that you probably won't like to hear is both artifacts are considered objects of good."

"Oh. So the Chinese guy and the boil guy-"

"Were also aligned with the forces of good."

"Damn! So hard to tell these days. You know, they should wear lapel pins or something."

"'Kay. In the meantime, the inscriptions on the key and the coin match. They actually work together to transport you in and out of the other dimension."

"I don't suppose we know what this other dimension is like - I mean besides fortress-y and demon-y."

"Well, based on the burn scars that Cordy received from the last vision, I'd imagine fire isn't out of the question."

"Fire."

"And if the young man is imprisoned, I'd imagine there may be guards."

"Guards." Angel turned to leave the room.

"I don't need to explain to you that, if Wolfram & Hart are behind this mission, it can't be good."

Angel stopped to look back at Kate, then continued out of the office.

Kate got up to follow him.

Angel was looking through the contents of the weapons cabinet.

"Just because Lilah tells you that this man is wrongly imprisoned doesn't mean it's true."

"You're right."

"Nor do I have to explain to you that helping them violates everything that you stand for."

Angel grabbed some weapons. "Right again."

"Good. Then I don't need to convince you to let me go with you."

"Right. No! Kate, I need you to stay here in case anything goes wrong." Angel held up the coin. "Now, show me how it works."

Kate took the coin. "Ready?"

Angel nodded.

Kate inserted the key into the hole in the center of the coin. "This should take you there and bring you back."

Kate turned the key, and little metal bars sprung out from the ends to lock against the coin. Giving it a good twist, Kate tossed it to the floor, where it spun on one end like a top, creating a swirling little vortex of smoke and light.

"You sure I can't come with you?" Kate asked.

"Take care of Cordy."

Taking a deep breath, Angel took a step closer to the spinning key. The ring of light and smoke expanded to include Angel. Angel's image became smeared and translucent, then he and the spinning key disappeared with a small flash of light - while the sword, dagger, and mace that Angel had just armed himself with clattered to the floor.

Kate stared at the items. "Well, shit."

After Angel returned from the other dimension with the guy, they went to deliver him to Lilah. Angel and Kate were sitting in the front, Kate driving. Faith and the guy that Angel rescued were in the back.

Up ahead, two limousines were parked in a spillway. Lilah was pacing between them, checking her watch occasionally. She smiled as she recognized Angel's convertible.

"You know what to do if anything goes wrong?" Angel asked Faith.

"Pop goes the weasel."

Angel got out of the car and walked towards Lilah. Lilah motioned towards the limousines, and six burly bodyguards stepped out.

"To be honest, nobody at the firm thought you could do it - except me. You're a remarkable man, Angel."

"Yeah, and you're an evil bitch. Let's finish this. Take care of Cordelia...you get your guy."

Lilah walked to the back of one of the limousines. The window slid down, revealing a demon in the back seat. Lilah talked to him, and the window slid back up.

Lilah turned back to Angel. "This should only take a moment."

Angel turned to look towards his car, and Kate pulled out her cell phone.

The phone rang in Cordelia's apartment, where Cordelia was laying in bed, sleeping.

Fred got up from where she was sitting on the end of the bed and went to answer the phone. "Hello?"

"Fred, what's the sitch?" Kate asked.

Fred turned to look at Cordelia and saw the boils and blemishes melt away. "Kate, it worked. She's okay."

Kate opened the car door and got out. She motioned to Angel with the phone. Faith got out as well as the guy that Angel rescued, his hands bound with thick rope in front of him. Angel watched as the guy walked past him and to the open door of one of the limousines. The guy propped his arms on the open door to let one of the bodyguards cut the rope while smirking at Angel, then got in the car.

Lilah looked at Angel. "It's just business."

"Right. Just business."

Lilah walked towards the limousine on the right. Angel bent down to pick up a piece of rebar laying in a pile of other thrash and sent it hurtling through the air. The metal bar whistled past Lilah to smash through the back window of the limousine and through the demon's head.

Lilah looked back at Angel, then took a couple of steps closer to the car to look at the demon slumping dead in the back seat. She jumped when Angel was suddenly right there.

"Don't you come at me through Cordelia ever again. You play that card a second time, and I'll kill you."

Lilah watched as Faith drove the convertible over, and Angel got into the back seat, then Faith drove away.

The next morning, in the Hyperion's lobby, Cordelia poured Angel a cup of coffee.

"Cordy, I'm glad you're feeling better and all, but-"

"-you're not really a foodie. I know. But..." Cordelia took the waffles out of the toaster and put one on Angel's plate and the other on her own and poured syrup over them. "Here we are."

Angel looked at his plate. "Heh. Here we are."

"Angel..."

He looked up at her.

"What you did for me was unbelievably selfless...and brave and amazing."

Angel looked back down.

"And it's so great to know the next vision that I have will just be blindingly painful and not turn me into Elephant Man or anything."

"I hear a big 'but' coming."

"What if that guy that you freed is someone or something that's truly terrible? Wolfram & Hart won this time, and it's all my fault."

"It's not about winning, Cordelia; it's about what's at stake. And in this particular scenario, you were way more important than winning. I can't worry about that guy I set free. I did what I had to do. I'll just deal with the consequences when they happen."

They smiled at each other, but Cordelia stopped smiling as soon as Angel was no longer looking.

Buffy was in her and Tara's room, crouched on the floor, looking under the bed. "Where's my clog? I think there's a clog-eating monster under the bed." She got up. "It's really those lesser-known monsters that make living in Sunnydale so hard."

Tara was looking in the closet. She turned to watch Buffy. Buffy went around to look under the other side of the bed.

Tara smiled. "I believe that is a Dawn monster. She borrowed them yesterday."

Buffy went out into the hall. "Dawnie?" She knocked on Dawn's door, which was ajar. "Hey, you up?"

Dawn's bed was piled with clothes, but she was not there. Buffy turned away with a sigh.

Tara walked out into the hall. "You okay?"

Buffy nodded. "I just wish she'd ask before borrowing my shit."

Tara put her hands on Buffy's shoulders. "Breakfast will make all things better."

They kissed, then Tara went back down the hall.

Buffy knocked on the bathroom door, which was also ajar. "Dawnie?"

The door swung open more, and she saw Dawn brushing her teeth.

"Hey, you! Today's the big day, huh? Kinda day that makes you wanna return clogs, don't you think?" Buffy asked.

"I didn't take your clogs."

Buffy sighed, rolled her eyes, and turned away.

Later, in the kitchen, Buffy was making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Tara was by the stove, making pancakes.

"How are you feeling, sweetie?" Tara asked. "You ready to face this thing or not?"

Dawn entered and sat at the counter with a small smile.

"Oh, um, here's some juice, and..." Tara gave Dawn a glass of orange juice. "...pancakes are on the way. Funny shapes or rounds?"

"Rounds are fine."

Tara served pancakes to Dawn. "You got funny shapes, anyway, sorry."

Outside Sunnydale Junior High School, a big sign read "Welcome to Parent-Teacher Day". Various tables were set up with displays, and people were walking around. Dawn and Buffy walked among the crowd. Buffy looked around at everything with interest. She stopped to look at a display. It was a table-top model of a city made with paper cups and cardboard and other such items.

"What is this?" Buffy asked.

Mr. Davis, a young male teacher, was sitting behind the display. He looked up.

"Oh, um, this is our city of the future. I made the hover-cars. They're orange-juice cans, see?" Dawn explained.

"They're very nice." Buffy frowned as she examined the display closely. "But I-I still don't understand."

Mr. Davis smiled. "We're reading Walden. This is, uh...a kid's version of a utopian society. You'll notice there are no schools but an extraordinary number of pizza parlors."

Dawn grinned.

Later, in a classroom, a bunch of parents and kids sat in chairs while Ms. Lefcort stood at the front, talking to them.

"As you can see, we've provided the best in progressive learning. But we can't teach your children unless you do. As parents, you have a responsibility to create the right attitude. To teach your child what school can mean."

Buffy raised her hand.

"Ms. Summers."

Buffy stood up. "School is where you learn."

Everyone was silent for a moment. Dawn felt embarrassed.

"Exactly."

Dawn was very relieved. Buffy sat.

"Parents let kids focus on school as a social experience rather than a learning experience. We want you to get your kids just as excited about education as they are about the lunch hour."

Buffy smiled. "I made lunch today."

Ms. Lefcort frowned in uncertainty. "Oh."

"Yes, before school. Peanut butter and jelly. Dawn takes one every day."

"Tell me about it."

Everyone turned to look at the father in the back row.

"My kid's been brown-bagging it, even though I pay for the lunch program."

A mother on the other side nodded. "It's true. Something has to be done about the quality of the food."

All the people in the room murmured and chattered in agreement. Buffy smiled happily. Dawn looked at her and couldn't help smiling a little, too.

At the Magic Box, Jenny was dusting merchandise while Giles sat at the counter, doing paperwork. The phone rang.

Giles answered it. "Thank you for calling the Magic Box, your-"

"Rupert, this is Travers."

Giles was surprised. "Oh. Uh, it's...nice to hear from you."

"Let's skip the pleasantries. You're needed back in England."

"What? For what reason?"

Jenny turned to him.

"An emergency meeting is being convened. Someone or...something is targeting Potential Slayers around the world. Four have been killed within the past forty-eight hours."

"What's behind it?"

"We don't know yet. We need to locate and protect as many of these girls as possible."

"But Buffy-"

"She is a Slayer; these other girls aren't. We mustn't let the line be extinguished."

"How long will I be expected to be away?"

"Uncertain. There is a ticket waiting for you at the airport. Be there within two hours." Travers hung up.

Giles hung up.

Jenny put down her duster and walked quickly over to him, frowning anxiously. "What is it?"

"That was Quinton Travers. There's an emergency situation. Something is targeting the Potential Slayers around the world. I'm required to return to England and help protect the girls."

Jenny was surprised. "For how long?"

Giles shrugged. "I need to go home and pack, then I'm off to the airport." He grabbed a sheet of paper and a pen and started writing a note. "Will you be Buffy's Watcher while I'm gone? Assist her with anything that she needs?"

"Of course. But don't you want to wait for her? The school day's almost over."

"There isn't time. I'm to be at the airport in two hours. Give her this note." Giles put down the pen and looked at her. "I'm sorry. This caught me by surprise as well."

Jenny nodded, her mind racing. "May I hire someone here? I can't be here at all business hours."

"Uh, yes, of course." Giles put his hands on Jenny's cheeks and pulled her into a deep kiss. "I love you so much."

"I love you, too."

A while later, Buffy, Dawn, Tara, Amy, and Katrina walked into the Magic Box. Katrina closed the door behind her.

Dawn was holding a large cup of regular Pepsi in one hand and a half-eaten slice of pizza in the other. "So my homeroom teacher, Ms. Lefcort, was like 'Your sister's an example to us all.' Hmm! She wanted to make it National Buffy Day."

Buffy smiled. "She sounded like that shopkeeper that I rescued from a vampire last night."

Jenny picked up the piece of paper and walked out from behind the counter. "Guys."

Everyone looked at her. Jenny gave the paper to Buffy.

At Sunnydale Airport, Giles sat in the ticketing area, reading a book, with a small bag on the floor beside him.

"You really think we'd let you get away with that?" Buffy asked.

Buffy, Tara, Amy, Katrina, and Dawn walked up to him. Dawn was holding a greeting card.

Giles smiled. "I was trying to avoid a scene, really."

Amy stepped forward. "Um, we, uh, brought you some lovely parting gifts." She held out a packaged snack pie. "It's American. Get it? Apple pie?"

Giles took it with a smile.

"A-And a monster, sort of a Sunnydale souvenir, we thought." Tara had a small rubber monster attached to her finger, basically a thimble with arms and a scary face. She bounced it up and down. "Grr! Argh!"

"Thank you." Giles took the monster.

"And I wanted to buy you a can of Old English 800, 'cause, you know, England, and you...and...because, at the time, it sounded really funny. But the guy that lives in the box in front of the store, he, uh, wouldn't buy it for us." Katrina smiled nervously.

Dawn stepped forward. "We got your presents at the gas station." She sat beside Giles. "We were kind of in a hurry."

Giles continued smiling nervously.

Dawn was uncertain, then handed him the card. "Um, we made this in the car. That's why the letters are all shaky."

They all looked on anxiously as Giles opened the card and read it.

Giles was touched. "This is, uh...impossible, really."

Buffy gave him a smile. "We just wanted you to know...we'll miss you. Uh, but we'll be okay."

Giles got up and gathered his stuff. "I better go through security."

Buffy frowned. "Now? We just made it."

"Just, yes, but I need to get to the terminal and wait by the gate."

Dawn stood up. They all looked at each other.

"Well, if we're going to do this, let's do it properly." Giles put down his bag and went over to Amy.

They held out hands toward each other, looked awkward for a moment, then hugged. Giles turned away from Amy, and Katrina hugged Giles. He hugged her back. Then he hugged Tara, then Dawn.

"I'm just a phone call away...if you need anything." Giles held Dawn's face in his hands. "You must promise me."

"I do. I promise."

Giles turned to Buffy. She smiled nervously.

"Buffy. I don't know where to start."

They hugged.

Buffy was almost tearful. "Well, maybe you shouldn't." She let him go. "I'm trying to be stiff-upper-lippy."

"Right, right." Giles removed his glasses.

"Well, you should get going." Buffy tapped him on the shoulder. "Don't you have a critical situation or something?"

Giles replaced his glasses. "Quite right."

Tara put her arm around Buffy as Giles gathered his stuff up again.

"Just, uh...be careful. Please." Giles gave them a last look, then turned toward the metal detectors.

The gang stood in a row, watching him go. Giles put his stuff on the conveyor belt and went through the metal detector.

The gang stood on the sidewalk, looking up at the plane flying overhead. Tara and Dawn had their arms linked.

Buffy sighed. "There he goes."

"What's he gonna do over there by himself?" Dawn asked.

They all started walking to the Jeep.

"I mean...he never talks about people from England. What if he's lonely?" Dawn asked.

"He won't be lonely. He used to live there before, remember?" Tara reminded Dawn.

"And I'm sure we'll talk to him, right?" Dawn asked. "It's not like he's-"

"We'll call him tomorrow, how 'bout that?" Tara put her arm around Dawn's shoulder. "See how his flight was? Yeah?"

Tara and Dawn walked on ahead as the other three paused and looked at the plane.

The next week, during the day, Angel was sitting on the counter in the Hyperion's lobby.

Cordelia was on the computer at the desk behind the counter. "Some people just need a little time alone. I wouldn't worry."

"She's had time alone. Five years. I think that's the problem."

Angel dropped off the counter and walked over to look out at Fred, who was standing in the Hyperion's sunny garden court.

"She's been back in this world for five months, and she still hasn't gone out into it."

Cordelia got up from her desk and walked into the lobby. "Right. And it's not like, the last time that she went out into it, she got kidnapped and ended up living as a slave in a demon-run dinner theater or anything. Oh, wait. Kinda is, isn't it?"

Angel walked behind the counter and leaned on it. "Which is why I'm asking you to, you know, talk to her."

"I'm not so sure that's a great idea."

"You don't like her?"

"Sure, I like her. What's not to like?" Cordelia looked out at Fred. "She's sweet and adorable and...seems to be laughing at something that that shrub just said." She turned back to Angel. "Look, it's not that I don't like her. It's just...I don't get her."

"I'm not asking you to 'get' her. I'm just asking you to...talk to her." Angel looked at Cordelia, a slow smile spreading across his face.

"Fine, we'll chat."

"Thanks."

Cordelia walked off.

Fred sat down on the edge of the fountain in the sun, reading an old book.

Cordelia walked down the steps behind her. "Hi."

Fred screamed and jumped up from the bench. "Ah, oh, you - you startled me!"

"I'm sorry."

"No. No, it's my fault. I'm sorry, okay?"

"Yeah."

Fred walked towards the stairs. "Well, I'll get out of your way."

"No, Fred, I want you to stay! Stay."

Fred stopped and peeked around a pillar back at Cordelia.

Cordelia sat down and patted the fountain wall beside her. "Actually, I-I was hoping we could, you know, talk?"

Fred walked over and sat down. "Well, yeah, of course."

They sat there. Cordelia took a deep breath, cleared her throat, then took another deep breath.

"Did you mean now?" Fred asked.

"Yes! Yes. I'm sorry. It's just I feel a little awkward." Cordelia took another deep breath. "Angel wants you to get out."

"Oh, I see. Okay." Fred got up and turned to walk away. "No, I understand. I only have a few things to pack. It won't take long."

"No, Fred! That's not what I meant. Out into the real world, you know, just for an evening or something."

Fred let out a big breath and smiled. "Oh!" She looked at Cordelia, eyes going wide. "Oh?" She turned to hide her face. "Oh..."

"Well, not by yourself or anything. What if I..." Cordelia paused. "What if we went out together?"

"Well...I suppose I would be okay if I was with you, right?"

"Sure!"

"I mean...that'd be safe, right?"

"Of course, it would."

Fred smiled. "No one would even bother to look at me twice with you around!"

"Exactly." Cordelia reconsidered. "Uh. No. Now, that's just not true! People will notice you!"

Fred was not smiling anymore. "They will?"

"Yes! And you know why? Because you'll be standing on a stage in the white-hot spotlight."

Fred stared at her. "I will?"

Cordelia grinned at her and nodded.

Fred looked away. "Oh."

That night, Sandy and Sunday were sitting at the bar in Willy's Place, drinking.

Willy walked over to them. "Hey, heads up. I been hearin' talk 'bout some kinda demon-huntin' gang in LA."

"So?" Sunday asked. "That's nothin' new."

Sandy nodded. "Yeah, the Slayer can't be everywhere."

Sunday frowned at her.

"No, I mean they're killing everyone. Indiscriminately. Even 'good' demons like you."

Sandy frowned but didn't say anything.

"Attacking demon hangouts, breaking into apartments, stuff like that. Just...watch yourselves." Willy walked away.

"Thanks." Sandy took a sip of her vodka tonic.

Sunday took a long sip of her Bloody Mary, finishing it. "Fucking scary."

"Scary times in general." Sandy finished her drink.

Sunday nodded, then looked around. She looked at Sandy. "Drive me home?"

Sandy nodded.

The next week, at night, in the Hyperion's lobby, Cordelia was looking through a magazine, Kate was reading Black House by Stephen King and Peter Straub, and Faith was playing Lady Sia on her Game Boy Advance. Fred walked down the stairs and walked up to Cordelia. Cordelia jumped and let out a scream as Fred leaned in to look at the magazine. Kate jumped and looked around at them.

Faith didn't look up from her game. "Hey, Fred."

"Sorry! Did - Did I startle you guys?"

Kate smiled. "No."

"Only in the sense of shocking and jolting us. What's up?" Cordelia asked.

"Nothing. Just taking a little stroll and..." Fred looked at the open magazine. "Why would girls wanna look like that? I spent years in a demon-run dinner theater, starving. What's their excuse?"

"Fashion."

Fred laughed, stopped, sat down beside Cordelia, and looked around the lobby. "So...everybody's just reading and hanging out?"

Angel arrived on the open hallway overlooking the lobby, holding a newspaper. "Am I the only one who read this?"

"Read what?" Kate asked.

"Charlton Heston. Double feature!" Angel came down the steps. "At the Nuart. Soylent Green and The Omega Man."

Faith kept her eyes on her game. "Wow."

"It's two for one. Did I mention Charlton Heston? Who's in?"

Fred jumped up and raised her hand. "That sounds great!"

"Fred. Kate?"

"Ugh. I'm gonna pass."

"Faith? Cordy?"

They didn't even look up at him.

Angel went to grab his coat. "Looks like it's just you and me, Fred. Well, the worm certainly has turned."

Fred giggled. "Y-Y-Yeah. The worm's turning and..." She stopped smiling. "Am I the worm?"

"No. You may not know this, Fred, but certain friends and coworkers have been known to accuse me of being the quiet, stay-at-home, sulky one."

All three of them turned to look at Angel.

"Some people...just don't know how to have fun anymore."

The next night, Kate was sitting behind her desk, listening to Fred.

"And he opened every door for me, and he paid for the tickets. And even bought a giant popcorn. And every few minutes, he'd go like this." Fred motioned like she was tipping a tub of popcorn towards someone, then laughed. "Because he wanted me to know it was okay for me to have some." She dropped in a chair. "And he's so lonely, because he's the last man on Earth."

"Angel?"

"No! Charlton Heston. The Omega Man? Omega being the last letter of the Greek alphabet, so it's a metaphor." Fred jumped back up. "And he walks on the street side and not the building side. It's old-fashioned but kind of chivalrous, you know?"

Kate was confused. "We're back to talking about Angel."

"Right. And even though he didn't talk a lot, it was still okay. It was comfortable. It wasn't that awkward kind of quiet. You know that awkward kind of quiet?"

There was a moment of silence.

"No. That's never happened to me."

Angel and Cordelia walked into Kate's office. Angel looked from Fred, who smiled at him, to Kate.

Angel held up his newspaper. "Hey, did anybody else see this?" He laid the paper down in front of Kate. "Police found the body of twenty-six-year-old Woodrow Raglan in a two-bedroom suite at the Elondria Hotel. Unnamed witness said it was as if his insides had just-"

"-collapsed." Kate thought for a moment. "You know, there was something else like that...last week."

"Um, may I just point out that no one is actually hiring us to look into this and that we should be doing more important things?" Cordelia brought up.

Kate held up a newspaper clipping. "Here. Ten days ago, a body...found in another hotel room...under similar conditions."

"What do you think? Spell, curse,...serial demon?" Angel suggested.

Kate shrugged. "Tough to say. Worth a closer look."

"I'll say. Cordelia, open up a case file. We have to get on this right away." Angel handed Cordelia the file with the newspaper clipping as he walked past her, out of the office.

Cordelia took a printout from the printer and carried it over to where the others were leaning against the reception counter.

Kate looked at the others. "There was a third victim five weeks ago. They were all young, healthy males. They all died in expensive hotel suites."

"Can you imagine shelling out all that money for a snazzy suite, and then, kerplop, you're a big bag of mush bones?" Fred asked, then thought for a moment. "I guess it wouldn't be good wherever that happened."

Kate looked at her, amused.

"Oh...please continue."

"Faith, I was thinking you could interview the staff of these hotels where the guys died. I'm meeting a contact of mine from the coroner's office in thirty minutes. See what I can learn about these bodies."

Cordelia looked at Kate. "They were all members of the same health club. The bodies...when they weren't...you know...dead ones."

Angel walked over to look at Cordelia's printout, pulling out his car keys. "Cordy and I'll go check out the gym."

Cordelia grabbed the keys. "I'll drive."

They all left - except for Fred, still standing in front of the reception desk.

"I'll just stay here." Fred laughed. "Okay. I'll do that."

Cordelia and Angel walked into the health club. They spotted a club attendant and walked up to him. His name tag read "Phil".

"Hi. I was just wondering, could I ask you a few questions? My name is Angel."

Phil shook Angel's hand. "Angel. Good news, dude, we are running our best offer ever! Okay, I can get you a six-month trial membership right now for three-hundred-fifty dollars."

"No. I'm looking into some guys that were members here." Angel pulled out the newspaper clipping and showed it to him.

"Oh, yeah, Woody, right. I heard he, like, died."

"He, like, did. Along with the others. All members. So I need to ask you, Phil, does the club condone steroid use?" Cordelia asked.

"No. No, no, no, a-a-absolutely not."

"Then we should probably keep this between ourselves, don't you think?" Angel suggested. "We'll just take a look at their records, and we'll get out of your hair."

Phil hesitated. "Yeah, yeah, o-okay."

He, Cordelia, and Angel left.

Cordelia, Angel, and Phil were looking through some papers in the office.

Phil shook his head. "You know, I-I-I don't see anything that connects the three of them - except they were all in the evening Pilates class together."

"Pilates, is that like Tae Bo?" Angel asked.

Phil laughed. "Yeah...if you're living in 1999."

Angel and Cordelia walked into the room where a group of people were participating in an exercise class.

"Relax your neck and shoulders; using your lower abdominals, bring the spine down to the floor. Take a deep breath in and, as your arms come up to the ceiling..."

Angel circled the room; he looked out of the big window at the back of the room.

Angel came up behind Cordelia. "There is a retirement home in the street behind us. I'm gonna check something out."

"I'll come with you."

Angel knocked on the door of room 316. The nameplate read "Marcus Roscoe".

An old man wearing big, round glasses slowly opened the door.

"Mr. Roscoe. My name is Angel." Angel handed him one of his business cards.

"Angel Investigations."

"This is my...partner, Cordelia Chase."

Cordelia handed Marcus one of her business cards, which had "Cordelia Chase, Senior Associate" printed on it.

"Would it be all right if we came inside and asked you a few questions?" Angel asked him.

"Well, it's, uh, pretty late."

"Shouldn't take long."

Marcus turned and walked back into his room, leaving the door open. Cordelia walked in. Angel shifted but remained standing outside.

Marcus turned back and motioned to him. "Come in if you're coming."

Angel walked in and closed the door behind him. He looked around, then walked over to the window. "Nice to have a view. I bet you, uh, spend a lot of time enjoying it."

"Not that, uh, much..."

Angel held up the pair of binoculars that he found on the windowsill.

"Uh. Well, I don't see any harm in looking. That's about all I can do anymore. Uh...what is it you want?"

"Your help." Angel put the binoculars down and pulled out some newspaper clippings. "I wonder if you've seen either of these men across the way in the gym."

Marcus flipped through them. "No. I don't think so. I'm more of a girl watcher. You know what I'm saying? Jesus...they all died? How?"

"That's what we're trying to find out."

"You work with the police?"

"I'm a private investigator. I work with a team."

"Hmm, sounds nice. I was a salesman. Worked alone for fifty years."

"Hmm." Angel spotted a shelf holding various pottery. "Nothian herb jar." He picked it up. "That's a...pretty exotic item. Did you, uh, deal in the occult?"

"Occult, shmoccult. I traveled a lot. Picked up some trinkets."

Angel spotted some extreme sports magazines laying on the table. He put the jar back on the shelf. "Do a lot of bungee jumping, Mr. Roscoe?"

"More than you might think, Mr. Angel."

"Just Angel."

Marcus took off his glasses and put them in the breast pocket of his shirt. He took a couple of steps closer to Angel. "I'll remember that." He looked at Angel. "Alli permutat anmia-"

Cordelia walked up behind him and clapped a hand over his mouth. "Hey, asshole! No! Bad! Bad bedwetter!"

"What's up?" Angel asked her.

"Duh!" Cordelia stared at Angel in disbelief. "God, you didn't piece it together? He's trying to do a body swap."

"Really?" Angel asked her. "You think?"

"I'm Cordelia. I don't think. I know. Okay?" Cordelia gave him a big grin.

Angel gave her a small smile in response. "Okay. Thanks."

Cordelia shoved Marcus down onto a chair.

"Did you happen to notice a small Algurian conjuring orb? Could have been glowing."

Cordelia walked over to Marcus' shrine and picked up the orb. She brought it over to Angel. "I got his conjuring stone."

Angel took it into his hand.

"You can't take that!" Marcus yelled.

Angel closed his hand, crushing the stone to powder.

"You...! You don't deserve that body!" Marcus yelled.

"Funny. I was gonna say the same thing to you."

Angel started to leave - with Cordelia falling in behind him.

"You're pathetic!" Marcus stood up. "You're both pa-"

Angel turned back. "You should try and keep a lid on that rage, Marcus. It's...not healthy."

"Help..."

Angel and Cordelia walked out of Marcus' room.

"What's going on?" an attendant asked them.

Cordelia smiled. "Grandpa's having a bad night."

The next day, Buffy was waiting in line at the bank to deposit her latest paycheck.

The teller smiled. "Hi, Buffy."

Buffy smiled. "Hi." She offered her check, deposit slip, and driver's license.

The clerk took them.

Suddenly, the body of a man crashed through the glass window and landed on the floor. Buffy heard sounds of screaming and turned around. There was broken glass everywhere. People were running around, screaming. A large demon stood in the middle of the room. He gave a loud roar and started throwing people around.

Buffy ran up behind him. "Hey!"

The demon turned around.

"Are you in the wrong line?" Buffy pointed. "That's for deposits." She pointed. "That's for withdrawals, and this one...is for getting kicked in the face."

The demon came forward, and Buffy kicked him back. She blocked a couple of punches, then kicked him again. He surged right back, and she blocked a couple more punches, ducked another punch, then punched him in the face. Buffy raised her hands to swing, and the demon grabbed her and lifted her up onto his shoulder. She kicked and hit his back as he carried her.

Suddenly, Buffy heard a gunshot. Both Buffy and the demon looked over to a bank security guard standing there, pointing his gun at them. He looked very nervous.

"Put the girl down."

The demon threw Buffy at the guard. She crashed into him, and they both fell to the ground. As Buffy got up to a sitting position, she saw a couple of other male customers attacking the demon and getting quickly beaten up.

Buffy picked up the gun and looked at the guard. "These things? Never helpful."

She tossed the gun away. The demon was still fighting off various other people. The gun hit the floor and went off. Buffy and the guard ducked.

The demon ran for the door, shoving another guy into Buffy's path as she tried to pursue him. By the time that she got the guy out of her way, the demon had escaped. Buffy stared after him in frustration. Then she gave a determined frown.

Later, at the Magic Box, Tara and Dawn walked over to the table and put down some more books. Tara sat next to Jenny.

"Oh, come on, Jenny. I am so old enough to do research. Do you really think I'm not mature enough?" Dawn asked.

"I think you're very mature for your age...but you're still only fifteen."

"Right, fifteen. As in teenager. You know, if you don't let me look at the pictures, I'm gonna learn everything I know about demons on the street."

Jenny sighed and handed her a book. "Knock yourself out."

"Thank you. See?" Dawn sat. "No biggie. I can totally handle it." She opened the book and checked out the first page. "That's a weird place for a horn." She looked again, then slowly closed the book. "That's not a horn."

"You know, I still don't get it. I mean...what kind of a demon would rob a bank?" Jenny asked.

Tara smiled. "The kind that wants money."

"What do you even call that?" Jenny asked.

"This?" Dawn held up a book, turned to a picture of a demon. "I'm guessing on how you say it. It's got an apostrophe. I think it's 'MmmFashnik', like 'Mmm, cookies'."

Buffy emerged from the back room.

Dawn held up the book toward Buffy. "This your guy?"

Tara looked at Buffy. "Doesn't exactly fit the profile for your typical bank robber."

"Maybe they turned down his loan application." Buffy smiled at Tara, then looked at Dawn's book. "That's him. This thing was strong, guys. No weapon that I could see but still really dangerous."

"I'm gonna call Rupert." Jenny stood up and walked over to the counter.

Buffy sat between Tara and Dawn and started kissing Tara's neck. Dawn stared at them and inadvertently let out a squeal of excitement.

Jenny put Giles on speaker and returned to the table. "Say hi, everyone!"

"Hi!" Buffy, Tara, and Dawn called.

"Hi, everyone."

"How's England? How's life?" Buffy asked Giles.

"Uh, I'm not really sure how to answer that. Um, well, I arrived home. I, uh, met with the Council."

"Always a good time."

"Yes. Otherwise, there's, uh, nothing really to report. I, um, I keep a flat in Bath. I-I, uh, met with a few old friends. Almost made a new one, which I think is...statistically impossible for a man of my age."

Buffy chuckled.

"And how are you?" Giles asked.

"Me?" Buffy asked. "Fine. Well, a demon attacked me at the bank today."

"Do we have information on this demon?"

Jenny smiled. "That we do."

Tara smiled. "This one robs banks."

"Oh."

Dawn smiled. "I found him. M-apostrophe-F-A-S-H-N-I-K."

"M'Fashnik. Oh."

Dawn grinned. "Ah-ha! Like 'Mmm, cookies'."

"Uh, no, quite different, actually."

"You know it?" Tara asked him.

"By reputation, yes. They - They come from a long line of mercenary demons that perform acts of slaughter and mayhem for the highest bidder."

Jenny rolled her eyes. "Well, it is the American way."

"Yes, but, uh, the question now becomes...what's out there powerful enough to control one of these things?"

In Sherman Oaks, Chloe was sparring with William in his karate dojo. The class for the evening was over, and the other students had gone home.

Chloe launched a series of right side kicks at William, and he managed to deflect all but one of them. She switched to a roundhouse and managed to hit him in the face.

William nodded. "Okay, that was good. Always switch up your attacks. Never let the enemy see - or guess - what's coming."

Chloe nodded. "Okay."

"I think that's enough for today. I'll see you at the next class."

Chloe nodded and started to walk away, then she stopped and turned back to face him. "Are you really a sensei, or is that just your cover?"

"I'm really a sensei."

"Well, what happens to this dojo if I'm not called...or if I die?"

"It'll close, and I'll return to England, pending my next assignment."

Chloe pouted. "That's kinda sad."

William just stared at her.

"TTFN." Chloe turned and walked away.

That night, Buffy and Tara sat at the island in the kitchen. The light was off, but there was a candle on the island, providing a bit of illumination. Buffy and Tara were eating a dinner of pork sirloin, mashed potatoes, and gravy, which Buffy had cooked. They also each had a glass filled with Champagne.

"I'd like to propose a toast." Buffy raised her glass and smiled. "To my beautiful wife. Happy Birthday."

Tara smiled and raised her own glass. "To my beautiful wife. Happy Anniversary."

They clinked their glasses together, then they drank their Champagne.

Buffy relished the taste. "Mmm, yummy."

Tara smiled. "The perks of having a partner of legal age."

Tara moaned in pleasure as she lay in bed, legs spread, receiving oral sex from Buffy. Buffy lay between Tara's legs, alternately kissing, licking, and eating her pussy. They were holding hands, resting on Tara's left leg, their fingers interlaced.

Tara put her right hand on the back of Buffy's head and gently ran her fingers through Buffy's hair. "That's it, baby, just like that."

Buffy complied, pleased that Tara was pleased with her cunnilingus skills.

Tara removed her hand from Buffy's head. "Put your fingers in. Fuck me."

Buffy pulled back and put her index finger in her mouth. She sucked it for a moment, coating it with her saliva. Then she did the same to her middle and ring fingers. She inserted her index fingers into Tara's pussy, feeling the warm, wet walls wrap around it. Tara moaned her approval. Buffy gently started finger-fucking Tara. Once she had built up a rhythm, she added her middle finger, then her ring finger. She built up speed, plunging her digits into the depths of Tara's pussy.

"Fuck me!" Tara yelled. "Fuck me as hard as you can!"

"Louder. I don't think Dawn heard you." Buffy complied with Tara's demand, then she added her tongue to Tara's clit.

That drove Tara wild. She was in the throes of passion. She kept moaning and humming as Buffy pleasured her, which Buffy was very happy to do.

"I'm gonna cum!" Tara exclaimed.

Buffy pulled her fingers out and put her open mouth directly on top of Tara's pussy. Tara had her orgasm and cummed into Buffy's waiting mouth. On this particular occasion, Tara was a squirter. Buffy swallowed every last drop that Tara had to give, relishing the salty-sweet taste.

Buffy moved up and lay on top of Tara. Tara was breathing heavily, slowly coming down from her climax. Buffy kissed Tara on the lips. Tara, panting, opened her mouth, and Buffy slipped her tongue inside. As the lovers french-kissed each other, Tara tasted her juices in Buffy's mouth.

"I love you." Buffy pulled her tongue out and licked Tara's lips. "I love you so much. Happy Birthday."

"Mmm, thank you. Do you want me to eat you now?" Tara asked.

"In a bit. First..." Buffy pulled away and reached over to the night stand, grabbing two bottles. "...Buffy want beer."

Tara laughed, grabbed the bottle opener, and opened the bottles. Buffy offered one bottle to Tara.

Tara took the bottle with a smile. "Why, thank you."

Buffy clinked her bottle against Tara's. "Cheers."

"Slàinte Mhath." Tara took a gulp of her beer.

Buffy took a gulp of her beer.

Amy was in the living room, sitting on the sofa, flipping through the channels on the TV. She eventually shut it off, set down the remote, and got up.

Dawn walked down the stairs, wearing pajamas.

Amy looked at her. "Dawn? Couldn't sleep?"

"Not really. You?"

Amy smiled. "No."

"You ever try mixing parts of every cereal you got in one bowl?" Dawn asked her.

Amy grinned. "Oh, I love doing that."

"I mean to help you sleep."

Amy yawned. "Does it work?"

Dawn shrugged. "Gonna find out. Wanna come join the experiment?"

"Fuck yeah." Amy walked closer to her, then looked at the front door in the foyer.

Dawn turned to see what she was looking at. The doorknob was rattling and turning.

"Is that locked?" Amy asked quietly.

Dawn was nervous. "It should be."

Suddenly, the door was smashed in, hitting Dawn. She screamed as she went flying back into the dining room. The M'Fashnik demon came in, saw Amy, and tried to backhand her. Amy dodged his attack and kicked him in the stomach. He roared in anger.

Dawn was still laying on the floor, looking fearfully at him.

The demon stared at Amy. "You're not the Slayer."

Dawn sat up and stared at him.

"But you'll do for a start."

He lunged for Amy. Dawn screamed. Amy did a backflip, putting distance between herself and the demon. Dawn continued screaming as the demon rushed at Amy. Before he reached her, Buffy grabbed him from behind and pulled him back to face her.

"You're payin' for that door, asshole." Buffy flung him aside.

He landed on his back on the coffee table, smashing it to pieces.

"Ooh!" Buffy winced. "Table!"

The demon got up, holding a piece of the table. He looked at it, then tossed it aside. It smashed a lamp on a side table.

"You have cost me, Slayer."

"I cost you? That's a designer lamp, ya fucker!" Buffy yelled.

The demon charged her, grabbed her around the waist, and brought her to the floor in the dining room. She hit him, then kicked him off her. He landed on the dining room table, smashing some dishes. Buffy got up, and the demon kicked her; she stumbled backward and knocked into a side table. A glass vase fell, and Buffy caught it with both hands, looking at it in relief.

The demon charged her again, and she kicked him back while still holding the vase, then put the vase carefully back on the table. She kicked the demon again, and he fell back against the wall, smashing some picture frames.

Amy thrust an arm out, getting the demon in a choke from behind; she wrestled him back.

"Amy, no! I want him in the kitchen!" Buffy yelled.

Amy held the demon in the doorway and stepped aside. Buffy gave the demon a serious kick in the chest, and he flew backward through the door, into the kitchen, flew across the room, and banged into the door leading to the back porch. The glass part of the door shattered. The demon growled, then swiped at Buffy, but she ducked and punched him.

Amy followed them into the kitchen and watched Buffy hitting the demon.

Buffy got the demon in a headlock. "Amy, knives!"

Amy telekinetically lifted some large knives from their place on the kitchen counter. "Ready."

Buffy released the demon and ran out of the way. Amy mentally hurled a knife into the demon's throat and another knife into the demon's heart. The demon fell to the floor, dead.

The next day, Dawn and Amy were sitting on the sofa, trying to fit together the pieces of the broken lamp. Jenny and Buffy sat by a desk, looking at papers. Buffy's chair was held together with duct tape. Buffy looked across the living room at the destruction: the front door standing open with a big hole in it, the banister on the stairs broken, and pieces of the coffee table on the floor. Katrina sat across from the sofa, trying to fix the coffee table.

"This is going to take forever, isn't it?" Buffy asked Jenny.

"Not forever. Just a very long time. Uh, here it is." Jenny showed Buffy some papers. "Your first approximation of your new debt."

Buffy stared at the paper in dismay. "I've trashed this house so many times. How did Mom pay for this?"

Katrina smiled. "For starters, she saved money with this shitty-ass coffee table."

Jenny looked at Buffy. "Well, there's always that charging option that Cordy suggested."

"No!" Buffy yelled. "I will definitely...probably not be doing that."

Tara entered from the kitchen. "What do you think the demon wanted, anyway?"

Dawn jumped as the piece of lamp in her hands crumbled.

Tara gave Buffy a sympathetic look. "I mean...aside from costing us a bundle."

"Don't know. Now, he's way too dead to answer that question. Wish I knew who hired him."

"That's it." Katrina dropped the table leg. "This coffee table is gone. Damn it!"

Dawn looked at Buffy. "Also, this lamp's in critical condition."

Buffy was worried.

Amy looked at everyone. "Well, uh, let's take these things out to the trash and give 'em a decent throwin' out."

Amy, Katrina, and Jenny picked up the various pieces of lamp and coffee table and walked outside. Tara walked over to Buffy, concerned. Dawn watched them anxiously.

Tara sat next to Buffy. "Buffy?"

"I don't think I can do this."

"Yes, you can. Your mother dealt with this sort of thing all of the time."

Buffy looked at her.

"She took...one crisis at a time...without the aid of any superpowers...and got through it all. So can you."

"You sure?"

Tara smiled. "I'm positive."

Buffy was slightly reassured. Tara kissed Buffy on the lips.

"So you think we'll starve?" Dawn asked.

Tara looked at her skeptically. "I very much doubt it."

"No chance I'd have to quit school to work assembling cheap toys in a poorly-ventilated sweatshop?" Dawn asked.

"Poorly-ventilated..." Tara frowned. "What have you been reading?"