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Author's Chapter Notes:
Hey everyone, I'm baaaack.
Sorry for the long delay the stitches took longer to heal than I thought they would.
Hope you are all still with me?

Ta as usual to my fab beta Jill for sticking with me on this very long journey, and for nominating me at the Spuffy awards.
Don't forget to vote... even if it isn't for me. LOL
Willow rubbed her brow tiredly. She, with the help of Faith and Dawn, had managed to scavenge from the kitchen and office of the Hyperion every last ingredient that might have any spell casting potential. She just hoped it was enough for what she needed to do.


Cordelia had left to collect the ingredients for a truth spell on Andrew. She was also going to pop in on Buffy and Spike and tell them what was going on and that they needed to get back to the hotel as soon as possible.

She and Willow had put their heads together and come up with a rudimentary spell of protection for the hotel, just in case Angel returned before Buffy and Spike.

The spell was nowhere near as strong as Willow would have liked and some of the ingredients looked less than fresh, still, she supposed it was better to have some protection than none at all.



Faith meanwhile was busy sharpening the weapons that she’d brought with her. The thought of using them against Angel, even without his soul, bothered her more than she would admit. Nevertheless, she remembered the last time she’d gone up against him and knew that she couldn’t afford to let her guard down in any way.

Angelus would not be coming to the Hyperion to chat; if he arrived, it would be with one goal.

He’d undoubtedly do his best to kill them all, but his main priority would to be to make sure that Willow wasn’t around to re-curse him.

She hoped that Willow and Cordelia’s spell would be enough, but if by some chance it didn’t work she was determined to be ready for him.



Dawn was doing her best to look on the bright side of things. According to Cordelia the Powers That Be were very interested in Buffy and Spike because they were the focus of some dumb old prophesy that nobody had ever heard of.

Dawn didn’t much care about the powers and their stupid prophesies, she was just happy that, according to Cordelia, it meant that they were destined to be together.


As for Angelus… Well she wasn’t a bit worried. With two slayers, a vampire, one kick ass witch and whatever the hell Cordelia was, Angelus didn’t have a hope. In the mood Willow was in, he’d be lucky if he didn’t spend the next few years as a rat.

If you ask me it’d be an improvement. She openly sniggered at the thought.


Her main concern was actually Andrew. It was bugging her to no end that he’d managed to not only fool them into believing he was on their side, but had also cast spells on them that not even Willow had detected.

She’d spent a lot of time with Andrew in the days before Sunnydale fell, and she’d thought she knew him pretty well. The whole evil trio thing aside, he’d seemed more pathetic than anything else. Sure he’d killed Jonathon, but she’d always assumed he’d only done it because the first was controlling him, like it had done with Spike.

To find out that he was one of the bad guys and had been fooling them for god knows how long had her really rattled. She felt like her faithful old dog had suddenly turned on her. Not that she’d ever had a dog, old or otherwise. Stupid allergies. But she was sure this was what it would feel like… maybe…probably.


Stupid Andrew and his stupid evil plans. Typical really, you trust someone and it’s pretty much a given that they were gonna go all evil on you as soon as you weren’t paying attention.


Dawn pouted. Eyes flickering towards the basement, a thoughtful look settled on her features. Throwing a darting look at Willow and Faith, she chewed on her lip nervously, her mind churning with indecision.


Once they did the spell, Andrew was sure to clam up tighter than a shellfish. Sure, they’d probably get the info they needed, but then she’d never know why he really did it. And she needed to know.


He’d lived in her house for months, they’d spent hours together watching dumb movies that she normally wouldn’t have been caught dead watching. For Pete’s sake, they’d bonded over Orlando and the hotness that was him. How lame.

He’d been the only one who’d really understood what it was like to be the younger sibling of someone that was always gonna be more popular and better at everything.
When everyone in the house was too busy, running after or worrying over Buffy, Andrew had been the one that had had time for Dawn.

And yeah it was kinda sad that the only friend she’d had back then was a former evil nerd that nobody much liked. But at least he’d always had time for her, unlike her sister and the others.


What had made him jump back on the bandwagon of evil? He’d seemed genuinely sorry over his past actions with Warren and Jonathon. She thought she’d got to know him pretty well, in those last few months before the big battle. So how the hell had he gone from repentant geek, to evil spell casting minion of the law firm from hell?

Hmm… guess there’s only one way to find out.

Throwing another unobtrusive glance towards the witch and the slayer Dawn edged towards the basement door.

*********

Doyle’s day had started out pretty good, all things considered. Of course, he should have known it wouldn’t last.

“So much for eternal rest” he grumbled to himself. “Messenger for the powers my arse… more like glorified gofer.”


Moving slowly, careful not to make any noise, Doyle peered around the corner of the wall that he’d spent the last five minutes flattened against.

From the spot he’d chosen, he could see the front of the magic shop that Angelus had entered not twenty minutes before.


Doyle was torn. Should he risk discovery by going closer or would it be better to wait and continue following Angelus when he left. Then there was the completely bad feeling he got about Angelus and what he was even doing entering the shop in the first place.

What the hell is our boyo up too? He fidgeted impatiently. C’mon Angelus where the fuck are you?


Just as Doyle decided he’d had enough of the waiting, the object of his thoughts appeared. And he didn’t look happy.


Darting back into the cover of the alley Doyle waited for the vampire to make his move.


Several tense seconds later the shadow of Angelus’s bulk was backlit across the mouth of the alley by a nearby streetlight and Doyle found himself reflexively holding his breath until it passed.

He waited another thirty seconds and then started to follow.



************



Cordelia had instinctively headed towards the closest place she knew to get magical supplies.


Tain’s was a demon run magic shop that catered to both human and demon. Tain himself was harmless, one of the hundreds of breeds of demons that coexisted alongside humans without most people having a clue that he was anything other than he appeared to be.


He’d always reminded Cordelia a little of one of the blue guys from the original Star Trek, except without the antenna. For the sake of his more clueless customers he’d utilized his chameleon like skin abilities to hide his demon nature. But after the first time Angel introduced them Tain had dropped the pretense for his natural color, a lovely shade of cerulean blue. She liked him; he’d always had a warm smile and a cup of tea ready whenever she’d dropped by.

Now however, his skin was ash grey and the bloody gash across his throat was a shocking parody of his usual smile.



Gasping, her eyes darted around the shop looking for his attacker.

When nobody jumped out at her, she moved cautiously towards Tain’s body.



The body was still warm, the blood still flowing. Shuddering, it occurred to her that whoever or whatever had killed him must have only just left.


She frowned as she got a closer look at the wound on his throat. Ripples of apprehension ran across her skin as she recognized them as fang marks from a vampire.


Dread threatened to choke her as she carefully placed her hand on the dead demons forehead.



Flash of Angel entering the store. Fear as Tain realized that something was wrong. Then forward to another flash, this time chock full of terror as Angelus held him dangling off the floor by his throat.

More flashes of the conversation between the vampire and Tain, as Angelus quizzed him about soul spells and … Oh God…

She gasped, pulling her hand back as if bitten.

A Muo-ping… Shit! Angelus was looking for a Muo-ping. Oh God… he’s gonna trap the soul and keep Willow from returning it.



“Shit shit shit. This is bad” Cordelia muttered, wiping her suddenly clammy hands on her dress. Staring unseeingly at the dead demon at her feet, and overcome with a sense of crushing despair she didn’t sense the door swinging open behind her.




************



Dawn closed the door to the basement with a soft snick. Then fumbling around in the dark she searched for the light switch.


It took her what seemed like hours to find it, but there was no way she was stumbling around in Angel’s creepy basement in the dark. Never mind the fact, knowing her luck she’d probably fall down the stairs and break her neck.


Blinking from the sudden light she waited just long enough for her eyes to adjust before descending.

Whoa… when Angel said he had a secure place to put him, he sure as heck wasn’t joking.

And eww… I don’t even wanna know why he has a honkin’ big cage in his basement.


However, looking at it she had to admit it sure as hell made the book cage back at Sunnydale high school look kinda flimsy.



As she got closer, she could see Andrew curled up against the wall at the back of the cage. He looked so sad and pathetic Dawn had to remind herself that if it weren’t for Andrew she and her sister wouldn’t have spent the last year mourning, while Spike and the others danced to Wolfram and Hart’s tune.



“We lost three of the new slayers and they lost Fred, Gun and Wesley” she blurted angrily.

“Why Andrew?... What did you get? What did they promise you? She demanded moving closer to the cage.

A

ndrew refused to meet her eyes, his jaw was swollen and discolored from where she’d kicked him earlier, and even in with the shadows of the bars of the cage striped across him she could see there was similar bruising on his throat.



Hardening her heart and her gaze Dawn clenched the bars in both hands.

“Look at me you worthless pile of crap. You knew that Buffy and I missed Spike, we might have been under your bloody mojo but I remember the conversations I had with you.”

She snarled, and Andrew jerked in fear, visibly reminded of just who had taught her how to ‘take care of herself’.


“You were on the freakin bus Andrew, you saw how devastated Buffy was… and Anya… Anya gave her life up to protect your worthless hide, how the hell could you do that to all of us?”



Dawn was shaking, she was angrier than she ever remembered being. She wanted nothing more than to enter the cage, lock the door so he couldn’t escape, and finish what she’d started upstairs. But the small part of her that had once thought of him as a friend wouldn’t let her… at least not till she got the answers she’d come for.

Taking a deep breath she stepped back and composed herself.



Watching her warily, Andrew shivered with fear as her expression became blankly serene. When his eyes darted up and met hers, he visibly shook with terror. The look in hers was an exact match for the one Spike got when he was at his most deadly.

Dawn scared him at the best of times, but looking at her now, he was abruptly reminded of the fact that this was the slayer’s sister and that her former best friend had been a soulless vampire.


His eyes followed her nervously as without taking her own off him; Dawn reached down and casually pulled a hidden knife from her boot. Straightening up she reached into the back pocket of her jeans and brought her hand forward, the keys to his prison dangling from them.



“You know Andrew” she offered casually as she moved towards the cage door, “I might not know you as well as I thought I did, what with the betrayal and all. But I do know you well enough to know when you’re holding out on me.”


Glancing down at the knife in her hand, she scrunched her brow looking deliberately thoughtful as she spoke her next words, her tone glib.

“You and I spent a lot of time together back in good old Sunnyhell and we both know that even though you can lie like a rug when you have to, your poker face is for shit.”

Running her thumb deliberately along the edge of the blade she smiled before meeting his terrified gaze.

“So here’s what I think. I think that you were pretty honest upstairs. I think you told us the truth… just not all of it. And more importantly I think I want to know why.”



Holding the keys up so he could see them, Dawn pointed the knife in his direction expertly twirling it in one hand, the way Spike had taught her the summer Buffy was gone.

“So here’s what’s gonna happen. You’re going to tell me what you left out and why you left it out. And then you’re gonna explain to me just why you decided to betray the people that kept your worthless hide alive when the first evil was trying to make you it’s bitch… or… I’m going to come into that cage and show you just how well I can use this knife.”

She smiled again.

“And Andrew… Spike was a very patient and thorough teacher and I was a very quick and gifted learner, so if you’re thinking I don’t have the skills… think again.”



Andrew’s heart was beating fast and hard in his chest, he could feel his terror threatening to overwhelm him. And he was surer than he’d ever been in his life that Dawn Summers meant every word she’d uttered.

Looking at her he hardly recognized the girl he had known in Sunnydale.
This girl was dark, deadly, and much much scarier than her sister had ever been.

Swallowing hard, he scrambled backwards as Dawn reached out and inserted the key into the lock.





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