Las Vegas May 13th 9 a.m.

Andrew glanced at his watch, realizing it was 5 p.m. in London. Pulling out his cell phone, he hoped to reach Giles at the office before the head Watcher left. The news was something Andrew didn't want to tell his boss at home. He was grateful that telling Buffy wasn't his responsibility and didn't envy the person who did.

Rhonda Stone had called him thirty minutes ago with the news. The Los Angeles based lead Watcher had been trying to call him since early that morning, but some reason his phone had not picked up any of the messages. She had finally remembered he was stopping off in Vegas at the Pink Flamingo for a little R & R before returning to London. He had left San Francisco yesterday after dealing with a Watcher and Slayer dispute.

"When are they going to realize that it's all about team work?" he mumbled, not realizing he sounded a bit like Giles.

Andrew had been enjoying his time in Rome when he had gotten the call from Giles to attend to the issues in San Fran. He was pretty sure it was really the fact Buffy, Nick, and Dawn wanted him out of the way. But he didn't ask as Dawn drove him to the airport, having packed his bags for him, smiling the entire time saying, "Sorry to see you go, Andrew. Was a real treat, but work, work, work. We have to keep the world safe you know."

"Well a Watcher's work is never done." He sighed as he dialed the head of the Watcher's Council.

*******

London May 13th 5 p.m.

Giles glared at the phone as it rang, wishing it would just disappear-at least until tomorrow. Ignoring the annoying sound, he continued to gather his things, wanting to go home and call it a night. He'd spent the entire day trying to work out a training schedule that worked for the various instructors and students, who all had differing needs.

"Giles? Mr. Giles?" Andrew's voice sounded upset. "Please, Mr. Giles, pick up the phone if you're there."

Rupert rolled his eyes and wondered what poor excuse of an emergency the boy was calling about now. "I'm here Andrew, what is the matter?" he asked once he picked up the phone.

"We're you ignoring me or just the phone?" Andrew squeaked.

Giles reached up, pinched the bridge of his nose, and then took a deep breath before replying, "I was on my way home, Andrew. Now what big emergency that has you frantically calling me, again?"

"Are you sitting down? Oh, but then maybe you aren't the one who needs to sit down…now. Buffy would need to sit down, or maybe not since she's with Nick now, and all," Andrew babbled.

Giles bit his tongue to keep from voicing his lack of patience with the younger man's ramblings. "Could you get to the point, Andrew?"

"Oh, yeah…well I just got a call from Rhonda in L.A., you know the Slayer we left in charge to watch Angel and his gang since we found out that he was working for evil law.com? I have to say that I'm surprised, well maybe not surprised after thinking about it, but--"

Giles being tired and hungry, and ready to go home, finally lost his patience. "Honestly, Andrew! Please get to the point, if there is a point to all of this."

"Oh, sorry. It…it seems Angel and his gang…well, they're dead, if you call Angel dead. Something about trying to go behind Wolfram and Hart's back and take control, Angelus returning and wanting to use their resources so he could take over the world." Andrew rambled on, while at the same time wondering if Spike had been involved, and if so, to what extent and why.

Giles grew silent, his thoughts immediately going to Buffy, wondering how this new was going to affect her. It had taken a lot of convincing to get her to believe that Angel was no longer trustworthy. At least until they had found out more about his involvement in the evil law firm.

"I see." Giles sighed. "Maybe you should make a special trip to L.A. and investigate this further. Andrew, keep me informed."

"Sure, boss, I'll get right to it…" Andrew started, but was unable to finish this sentence, since the older Watcher hung up the phone on his. "How rude! He shouldn't be the one teaching phone etiquette to the newbies."

Andrew had kept all reports about the leather-wearing, blond hunk of a vampire, out of all the L.A. Slayer reports all these months for Spike's sake. He understood where the vampire was coming from in wanting to keep Buffy from knowing he was alive for now. He didn't think it was going to fare well for the Sunnydale Champion when Buffy did find out, especially the part about how long Spike had been back.

He deeply regretted not telling Buffy of Angel and Spike's visit. He felt at the time that having Spike's resurrection sprung on her, on top of a Spike and Angel doing their 'who loved her more' and 'you love me more than him', competitions, was the last thing Buffy needed.

The Watcher in training couldn't help but think it seemed logical at the time to imply she loved them both but had moved on. Andrew still never really fully understood why he had said that to both the vampy boys. His statement made Angel cry like a baby, and had him mumbling about baking cookies and someone eating said cookies.

Spike's expression was first a said acceptance, and then shocked surprise, as he watched his grandsire crumple before him.

The newly appointed Watcher was now totally convinced that it was for the best that Buffy didn't know that Spike had come back, only for him to die again. Only this time possibly, on the wrong side of good and evil. He found it hard to believe that the blond vamp had turned evil, after getting his soul and sacrificing himself to save the world. Sadly, he himself had seen reports that a blond male fitting Spike's description had been seen fighting beside Angel as part of his gang.

Andrew called and made airline reservations that would get him into L. A. that evening. He planned on stopping by Spike's apartment and making sure there were no mistakes concerning his involvement with Angel/Angelus. He silently prayed that all of this was a mistake and Spike would be alive and well in his apartment when he got there.

In his gut, he knew it was Spike, and that somehow his friend had been seduced over to the dark side.

"Just like Luke's father tried to bring him over the ways of the Sith. Well, except young Skywalker was able to ward off the dark evil and stay in the light, Spike wasn't." Andrew reasoned, trying to figure out how Spike would've gotten involved in something like this.

*******

Rome May 13th 6:30 p.m.

Buffy and Dawn planned tonight as a movie night, since Nick was away on a business trip and would return the next evening. It gave them some much needed sister bonding time.

Dawn was up taking a nap thus leaving Buffy with the job of setting everything up instead of taking a little nap herself. She was feeling unusually tired for some reason.

Buffy jumped when the phone rang and a sickly feeling of dread came over her. "Damn Slayer intuition," she muttered to herself as she reluctantly reached for the phone.

"Hello."

"Buffy, it's Giles."

"Okay, what's wrong?" she asked. She could tell from the sound of his voice that he was the bearer of bad news.

"Buffy, is Dawn or Nick there?"

"Dawn is. Nick is out on business. Why?" Buffy felt her knees weakened, hearing the in Giles voice that was not going to be good. "Oh God! Has something happened to Willow or Xander?"

"No, nothing has happened to either of them, but could you have Dawn come down and join you?"

"Giles, you're really scaring me."

"Please, Buffy, do as I ask." The sternness tone convinced her that he wouldn't continue until she complied.

"Fine, hold on." Buffy placed the receiver to her chest and yelled, "Dawn. I need you to come down here, please." She felt her heart begin to speed up as she waited for her sister to come downstairs. "Dawn, did you hear me?"

"Yeah, I heard you." Dawn rubbed her eyes as she came down, giving her sister a look that said, 'this had better be good!"

"Dawn, Giles is on the phone and I think he as bad news." Buffy returned the phone to her ear and spoke softly, "Okay, Dawn's here and I warned her it's not good news."

Dawn's heart began to race as she moved closer to her sister. Taking Buffy's hand, she couldn't help but think that just when things were looking up, bam, shit hits the fan again.

Giles closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Buffy, I have sent Andrew to L.A. to find out more about it."

"Get to the point, Giles, please," Buffy whispered as she squeezed her sister's hand tighter. With the mention of L.A., she had an idea it was concerning Angel.

"It appears that Angelus may have returned and tried to take over Wolfram and Hart in order to take over the world." Giles hated to be the one to tell Buffy this news.

"Where is Angel…I mean…Angelus, now?" Buffy asked, her voice wavering.

Dawn's eyes grew big. She prayed that her sister would not have to deal once again with taking down the vampire who had been her first love. Not now, just when she's finally getting over the Spike thing. 'Now this has to happen, damn vampire asshole, she fumed quietly, not wanting to make things harder on Buffy.

"Angelus is dead, as are the rest of his people, it would seem." Giles sighed. "That would mean Wesley and the others were involved as well."

"Are you sure about all of this?" Buffy asked as she started to cry.

"That's why Andrew is going there himself to get more detailed information," Giles answered, wishing he were there in person with Buffy, instead of telling her this over the phone.

"Please let me know what you find out." Buffy started feeling dizzy and was suddenly desperate to lie down. "I'm going to hang up now."

"Okay, I'll let you know as soon as I find something out. I'm sorry, Buffy; I know how badly you wanted to believe he was doing some good by working there." Giles' voice trailed off, unsure of how to comfort her.

Buffy stiffened and her voice hardened. "We don't know what happened yet. Goodbye," she said before hanging up.

Dawn waited quietly for Buffy to tell her all the details of what was going on. She wished Nick were here so her sister would have him to lean on. The one thing she was glad about with Nick's involvement with her sister was that he cared about making sure Buffy was happy and safe.

"Dawnie, Giles doesn't have all the details, but it looks like Angelus might have returned and was going to take over the world by using Wolf and whoever." Buffy wondered what else could go wrong. She stared out the window, her shoulders hunched forward, and avoiding Dawn's eyes. "Seems he and his gang were taken out by the partners or something. Andrew is on his way to L.A. now to get more information."

The tall brunette moved closer to her sister and said, "I'm sorry about Angel."

Buffy stiffened as she pulled slightly away. "We don't know everything yet, so maybe it's not as bad as everyone is making it out to be."

"Maybe," Dawn agreed, feeling hurt that Buffy was pulling away from her again.

"Well, I'm tired and I'm going to try and get some sleep. See you in the morning." Buffy whispered as she let go of her sister's hand and moved quickly to the stairs.

Dawn watched her until she was no longer visible, making sure she heard Buffy's door shut before going to the phone to call Nick's cell phone number.

"Hello?" a deep accented male voice answered.

"Nick, it's me; Dawn."

"Hello, sweet one," Nice greeted her. He wondered why Buffy's sister was calling him. "How is my bella? Getting ready for movie night?"

Dawn wasn't sure if she was doing the right thing, but she felt she had to do something. "Nick, Buffy had some bad news today. Seems Angel may have gone evil and is dead now. We're waiting for more information to confirm it."

Nick sighed. "Where is she now?"

"Upstairs in her bedroom."

"Piccolo, don't let her know you called. I will be home soon and will come over to see her tomorrow," he promised.

"Okay, Nick. Just be careful."

"I will see you tomorrow. Go and get some rest yourself, cara," he calmly instructed.

"Okay, until tomorrow," Dawn replied right before she hung up the phone.

Dawn felt much better after calling him, grateful that he would be here for Buffy tomorrow. She always thought it funny that he called her little one when she was taller than Buffy.

"But he calls her bella. Wish I had someone to call me bella." She sighed, praying Buffy would come to appreciate all that Nick does for her.

*******

Nick felt an urge to hurt something come over him. He had hoped to be there when Buffy heard the news about Angel. It angered him when he realized that for some reason, she must have been monitoring the damn pain-in-the-ass vampire behind his back. They'd discussed Angel's interference in her life when she found out Angel had someone watching her. She promised Nick that she wasn't going to worry about her ex-lover, but concentrate on her future.

"I refuse to let the Slayer slip through my fingers!" He chuckled as he pondered the reason he was with Buffy to begin with. "She will be very useful when it's time for me to take over the world."

Nick was glad Buffy never found out about Spike, but now with his third demise on record, Nick didn't care if she found out about it. If she learned of Spike's having been back in the future, it would only make it easier to manipulate her through the grief of the vampire's obvious rejection.

*******

London May 13th 7 p.m.

Giles sat at home with a glass of Scotch in his hand. He'd just finished talking with Xander about Angel, having already spoken with Willow about what happened in Los Angeles. The next call he had to make was going to be the harder, and he needed time to regroup. Other than Buffy, the news would hit Faith the hardest. She had developed strong ties with Angel and his group during her recovery.

Xander had taken the news without shedding a single tear, only asking, "and this surprises you about Dead Boy...how?"

The Watcher knew there was no love lost between Harris and the brooding vampire even before Angel had lost his soul and created havoc in their lives. He felt comforted in fact that at least one other person felt the same toward Angel as he did-unforgiving hatred. Xander also expressed his approval after hearing Giles and Wood's attempt to kill Spike that dreadful night.

Willow was a different story. Giles felt put in his place when she was done ripping him up one side and down the other when she found out about it after leaving Sunnydale behind. She reminded him of her evil past and the fact she'd had a soul at the time, and with the help of the Coven and her friends that she'd been able to reform.

With her resolve face firmly in place, she'd also explained that they should not have judged Spike for what The First had programmed him to do. Especially since, when it came down to killing Buffy, he had chosen to save her life instead.

Tonight she noticed the happiness hidden in Giles' voice concerning Angel's destruction and had called him on it. Willow demanded that he attempt to hide those thoughts from Buffy and told him that if he wanted to right the wrongs between him and his Slayer, he'd better keep his true feelings to himself. She had even gone so far as to inform him she was going to issue the same warning to Xander and Robin.

Deep down he knew that Willow was right; the only way for Buffy to get over this was to be impartial about it. To help her find closure, he needed to support her and be nonjudgmental. His concern was that she might never let him get close to her again.

He was surprised when he had heard that Buffy had become involved with the immortal. There had been whispers about the man's questionable dealings, but the Council could never find proof, nor could they find anyone that would say anything definitive or substantial. Giles had met him on his last visit to Rome and found him to be a good influence on both Buffy and Dawn.

Strangely, he couldn't remember how he'd come to feel that way.

The Scotch was having the usual effect. He felt relaxed enough to make one last call to Cleveland before retiring for the night. The news was going to hit Faith hard. Like Buffy, she held a special place for Angel in her heart. It was a good thing that Robin was there for her and that she was no longer alone.

Tomorrow was going to be full of his usual activities, and with all of this on top of it, his day was going to be stressful to say the least.

*******
Africa May 13th 9 p.m.

Xander sat quietly while staring out into the night.

Since coming to Africa, he had learned more about evil than he cared to know. All this time, he'd been sure that witchdoctors where only a product of the Hollywood film industry's overactive imagination. Lately, he found that they truly did exist, and so far, yup, all of them were evil.

It was his first night looking for a new Slayer. The last report had placed her in a small village in Kenya. There was where he met Morobee, who was the leader of the tribe of devil worshippers who had just sacrificed the newly engendered Slayer. The tribe leader had felt the power inside her and convinced the others she would destroy them. Their undying faith in Morobee led them to participate and perform the ritual that ended her life.

It had been a pleasure killing the man.

Hearing that Angel had once again turned evil and died trying to take over the world made him a happy man, yet he was still leery. He couldn't help but think that the undead asshole always had a way of coming back, even when you thought he was finally in Hell to stay.

"Hell kicked him out once before," he mumbled to himself.

Xander knew he wouldn't be able to face Buffy for a while. His hatred of Dead Boy far exceeded his ability to keep his mouth shut on the subject of the bastard being truly evil, as he had always suspected. He was expecting a phone call from Willow telling him the same thing. She would tell him to keep all contact with Buffy to only as needed, and any conversations should be kept newly dead vampire subject free. Especially avoid talking about vampires with souls with whom she had intimate connections.

His tenure in Africa was about to end. There was only one more new Slayer to contact, and then he would be returning to England for some R & R. This village was on the costal region and one of the guides told him very strong magic existed there. Various local sources had informed him that a demon which could grant you your hearts desire lived there, and held trials to see if you were worthy to receive such a gift.

It was time for him to call it a night. He would be leaving early in the morning for the coast. Hopefully, he would hear the confirmations of the great news of Angel's demise come this time tomorrow. This was the one time he wished he had Andrew's job. He would love to be the one that found the truth; that Angel had been evil all along…and was now dust.