Buffy and Angel moved cautiously through the manor in silence. Angel concentrated on following Spike’s scent while Buffy tried to move beyond Spike’s pain to try and pinpoint where he was. They passed the kitchen and moved towards the hall where all the administration and clerical offices were located. As they passed Robin’s office Angel stopped and breathed deeply making sure he could still smell Spike. Buffy never paused moving farther down the hall.

“Can you smell him?” Angel asked her.

“No, but I think I can feel him down this way.” She told him.

Angel just stared at her before shrugging. “You’re the Champion now.” He said sulkily.

Buffy turned and looked at him. “I said I was sorry.”

“I’m just saying…”

“Am I going the wrong way? Do you not smell him down here.” She demanded.

“No.” He admitted. “His scent goes down this hall.”

Buffy sighed in exasperation as she turned and continued down the hallway. They walked a little farther before Buffy spoke again.

“How do you know you’re smelling Spike and not just smelling his scent on me?” She asked curiously.

Angel looked uncomfortable, but he answered her anyway. “On you your scent is still predominant, there are just traces of Spike in it. This in purely Spike.”

Buffy didn’t say anything else, they reached the end of the hall and found a set of stairs leading up. Angel stopped again to see if he could still smell Spike.

“Buffy, Faith came this way as well. Her scent isn’t as strong as Spike’s because too much time has gone by, but its definitely her.”

“Up we go then.” The started to climb the stairs, Buffy held her Scythe defensively, unsure of what to expect when they found Faith and Spike.




“Well, Spike.” Robin said hanging up the cell phone. “It looks like your time ran out sooner than expected.”

Spike looked over at Faith.

“You can wake up any time now and help a fella out here, luv.” He told the still unconscious girl loudly.

“Don’t bother trying to wake her up. As long as she’s safe inside that circle she’ll be out cold.” Robin explained. “I was actually planning on using it to capture Buffy, but then Faith found me first. Luckily you stumbled onto us and the whole plan wasn’t for nothing.” Robin paused. “How did you find us anyway?” He asked Spike.

“The question you should be asking is ‘Did I come alone?’.”

Robin laughed at him. “Nice try, but if you hadn’t I think they would have sent someone before now.”

Robin turned to pick up his axe that he had set down to answer the phone. “You’ll be dead in a few seconds anyway, so its too late now.”

“Robin.” The voice didn’t belong to either Spike or Faith.

Robin looked up to see his mother standing in the doorway to the back room. “Baby don’t do this.”

“You aren’t real.” Robin said harshly to the vision in front of him when he recovered his voice.

Spike looked at the doorway Robin was speaking at, but didn’t see anything.

“Wonderful, now he’s gone completely round the bend.”



In the library Dawn used a safety pin to prick her thumb. She squeezed a drop of blood onto the floor in front of her, then she put her hand over it.

She concentrated on Kennedy, remembering everything she could about the brash girl. Willow held Dawn’s free hand and sent her some power as well as her own images and impressions of Kennedy, her eyes glowed a luminescent white.

The floor beneath Dawn’s hand dissolved into a green glow that spread out to reveal Kennedy in the center.

“Its working.” Xander gasped.

The portal grew in size until it could easily fit a large man. Xander went through first. He stepped down onto the portal. He felt like he was going to fall on his face, before his body swung up wildly. When his feet hit solid ground he tried to steady himself against the wave of dizziness he felt.

“How did you get here?” Xander heard Rhona’s voice next to him, but before he could turn towards her he felt Oz dive after her. Xander finally got himself reoriented in time to see Kennedy’s fist flying towards his face.

The impact knocked Xander back into Giles, who had just come through the portal, and then back onto Rhona and Oz. The group landed in a heap on the floor effectively ending the struggle. The weight of the two men and the werewolf pinned the Slayer to the ground.

“Well that’s one way to do it.” Xander muttered. He looked up as first Willow, then Dawn came through the portal. Both stumbled briefly, but overcame their dizziness quickly. Willow quickly took in the mass of limbs and bodies on the floor to her left before focusing on Kennedy, who watched her warily.

“You left without even saying goodbye, Kennedy.” She told her ex girlfriend sweetly.

“I’m not going back with you. You can’t make me.” Kennedy said, trying not to show her fear.

“Believe me, we wouldn’t take you back if you begged.” Dawn answered her. “Just tell us where to find Milton.”

Kennedy got a smug look on her face. “He’s not here.” She told them.

By now Giles and Xander had gotten up, leaving Oz and his wolf strength to hold Rhona.

“Now why don’t I believe that?” Xander asked.

“Kennedy, we know he’s here. You will save yourself a great deal of trouble if you just tell us where he is.” Giles told her.

“I told you he’s not here.” Kennedy insisted stubbornly.

“Enough lies.” Willows eyes flared black as she let her anger flow through her. Kennedy back away from her aware of the danger she was now in.

“Now, Will, you don’t want to fall off the wagon with the black mojo, do you?” She entreated her.

“You’re about to kill my best friend after betraying everything I believe in. I think I can lose control just this once.” Lightning bolts started to run through her eyes as she charged up to her power to make Kennedy tell her what she wanted to know in the most painful way possible.

Giles and Xander looked on in fright and Dawn tugged at Willow’s arm to get her attention. However, Willow’s focus was only on Kennedy, she started muttering under her breath calling on ancient magics as she reached for the terrified girl in front of her.

Strong arms grabbed her and turned her around before she could touch Kennedy.

“Willow!” Oz’s voice brought made Willow realize what she was about to do. She let go of the power abruptly, sagging when she felt the energy leaving her body. Oz steadied her whispering reassurances in her ear.

Kennedy by now had dissolved into tears of fear, Dawn and Giles stepped forward to take advantage of her emotional state.

Xander turned his attention to watching over Rhona, who wisely decided to stay where she was on the floor.

“He’s in room 507. There aren’t any body guards outside the room, but there are three in his suite.” Kennedy told Giles.

“Thank you Kennedy.” Giles turned away. “Xander, you, Dawn and Oz, look for the other Slayers. Tell them we aren’t angry and they are invited to come back at any point.”

“Good idea G-man.” Xander said as reached to pull Rhona up from her position on the floor. “You want to show us the way?”




At the top of the stairs Angel and Buffy entered a wing, that Buffy didn’t think she had ever been in before. As soon as they crossed into it, however, Spike’s presence flowed into her.

((Spike?)) She called out through the bond.

((Buffy!!)) She almost cried with relief when she felt him answer her. She turned to Angel. “They are down this way.”

((Hurry luv, principal man is unraveling quickly. He wants to remove my head too.))

((Hold on Angel and I are coming.)) She told him.

((Angel can’t attack him, he has some spell on that protects from demon attacks.))

“Angel, Spike says Robin has some protection against demon attacks so I’ll have to take him down.”

Angel nodded at her. “Is Faith Ok?”

((Spike how is Faith doing?))

((He has her knocked out cold in some enchanted circle. Watch out for it, pet. I think its meant for Slayers.))

By now Angel and Buffy reached the doorway to the room they were being kept in.

((Spike where is Robin now?))

((In a back room talking to people who aren’t here.))

“Ok, Robin’s in a back room. We go in you grab Faith and I’ll get Spike.” Buffy told Angel.

“Got it.”

They ran in the room.


In the back Robin stood face to face with his mother.

“Robin this isn’t the right thing to do. This isn’t what I fought for.”

“You can’t be my mother.”

“I am, baby. They let me come back to stop you before you do this horrible thing.”

“No!!” He yelled shaking his head. “My mother would want the monster who killed her dead.”

“But that isn’t the monster that killed me.” She pleaded with him.

Robin seemed to be considering her words. His grip on the axe handle loosened then he heard a noise in the outer room. He turned and through the crack in the door he could see Angel dragging Faith out of the circle.

“Just a distraction.” He cursed, rushing into the room.

Robin swung the axe at Angel who rolled quickly to avoid losing his head. Robin swung again and Angel blocked him with one arm pulling back the other one to hit him.

Buffy was struggling with Spike’s chains, finding them too strong to simply break. At Spike’s scream of “NO” she turned to see Angel punch Robin, then start to shake and yell as if he were being electrocuted. He hit the ground with a moan and Buffy could see smoke coming off him. Robin turned his gaze on her.

Buffy had set the scythe down when she entered the room to free Spike. Now she was unable to reach it because Robin was in the way.

“That was a nice trick. Sending a vision of my mother to distract me while you two sneak in. Sorry it didn’t work.” Robin told her. He and Buffy started circling each other. Buffy tried to stay in between Robin and Spike, while at the same time avoiding the circle on the floor and maneuvering Robin to allow her to reach her scythe.

Robin lunged towards her only to stumble over Faith lying prone on the floor, Buffy used that as her opening to attack. She grabbed the scythe and flew at Robin.

She didn’t even complete her swing. About a foot away from him she seemed to run into a wall and she felt the electricity race through her. The scythe was wrenched from her hands and went flying behind Robin. She heard Spike’s screams echo her own. She fell to floor and the last thing she heard before unconsciousness took her was Robin’s voice.

“Guess she has some demon in her as well.”

Robin stood over Buffy looking down at her with the axe in his. Spike struggled weakly against his chains.

“This is much better.” Robin said. “Now you can watch while I kill the person who you love most in the world.”

Robin raised the axe, ignoring Spike’s yell. The axe fell downwards.

Before it could reach Buffy, Robin jerked forward so the blade hit the floor harmlessly. He looked surprised for minute before he fell forward on the floor, landing at Buffy’s feet.

Faith stood behind him, the blade from the axe planted in his back.

“Enthusiastic enough for you?” She asked the corpse at her feet.

Spike closed his eyes and breathed deeply in relief as Faith started to wake Buffy and then Angel.



Willow and Giles wasted no time in finding Isaac’s room. Once inside his suite Willow quickly put the guards to sleep using a simple sleep spell, before barging into the office.

Isaac looked up apprehensively.

“You’re too late. They should already be dead.” He informed them immediately.

Giles never faltered, he simply crossed the room and held a sharp knife to Isaac’s throat.

“Call it off now.” He ordered in his Ripper voice.

“Its too late, I just told you.”

“Make the call anyway.” Giles insisted.



Angel searched Robin’s body for the keys to the chains that bound Spike while Buffy checked over her Mate. Faith wandered around the room feeling displaced. Not only had Robin tried to kill Buffy and Spike but he had been working for the very people that had tried to kill her. Granted he had apparently told Spike he didn’t want her dead, but that didn’t really make it much better.

She looked at his body on the ground. She had killed another human.

A ringing from a cell phone interrupted her thoughts. Everyone turned and stared at the phone sitting on a table.

“Should I answer it?” She asked.

“Yes.” Buffy said.

Faith picked up the phone but didn’t offer any greeting. There were a few seconds of silence before a British voice came over the line.

“Is it done?”

“Sorry, but no. We are all very much alive.” She answered. “Well except for Robin that is.”

“Who is this?” The voice demanded.

“Faith.”

“Faith, is that you?” She heard Giles’ voice coming through clearly now.

“Yeah. B and Angel got to us in time.”

“I’m glad you are safe Faith.” Faith felt her heart warm to hear the concern he had for her in his voice.

“Thanks Giles.” She pause for moment. “I had to kill Robin.”

“I’m sorry Faith.” She could hear the weariness in his voice. “I’m assuming there was no other way?”

“He was about to kill B. I just grabbed the scythe and swung.”

“I see.” Giles knew she was hurting, but didn’t know how he could ease her pain right now. “We’ll talk when we get back. We’ll meet in the library.”

“Check. What should we do about Robin’s body?”

“We’ll take care of that when we get back.”

“Ok.”

“Buffy is alright then?”

“She doesn’t look so hot right now and she keeps mooning over vampy, but other than that she seems fine.” Faith told him, grinning weakly at Buffy’s glare.

“Good.” She could hear the relief in his voice.

They said their goodbyes and Giles hung up the phone from talking to Faith.

“They are ok.” He told Willow who was still standing ready behind him.

“Good. What do we do about him now?” She asked.

“Yes what will you do about me?” Isaac asked, he didn’t even seem to realize he still had a knife pressed to his throat.

“As much as I’d like to kill you I won’t. I don’t want to force the girls to train from us. If they’d rather you teach them, I won’t stop them.” Giles demeanor changed and once again the Ripper was out and he pushed the knife farther into Isaac’s throat drawing blood. “If you ever try to come after Buffy again, I will kill you. Then it will be personal.”

Giles stood back from him, putting away the knife. He looked at Isaac’s desk. “And we’ll be taking any texts or scrolls you have regarding Buffy.” He told the other man.

“By all means.” Isaac put together everything on his desk and handed it to Giles, who tried to mask his surprise at his submission. “Although I have to say I think you may be wondering if you’ve done the right thing after you’ve read them.”

“I doubt it.” Giles told him as he turned to leave. Willow exited the room ahead of him. Before Giles left Isaac called out to him.

“I had a visit from Quentin before you left. He was most adamant about keeping Buffy alive.” Giles paused in the doorway knowing he wasn’t finished. “Of course then he turned into Buffy and threatened me.”

Giles didn’t turn around.

“I do believe you will live to regret this decision.” Isaac told him as he watched him leave.