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Author's Chapter Notes:
Ok, two things.
Firstly, I know it’s kind of unbelievable for Dawn to fit inside the cash cart but unfortunately the show didn’t have any Chinese acrobats in its cast and she fits in with my plot. Let’s just pretend the carts are big enough because Angel likes everything bigger (to take the focus away from his huge forehead).
Secondly, I couldn’t have the two geeks in a van without a certain JB speech. Of cause I had to adapt things slightly in the absence of Warren. Makes you wonder what they’d make of Daniel Craig…
Thursday (2 days to go)

The next day, Angel walked onto the stage in front of the ‘April Fools’ hotel and casino, stopping next to the oversized plunger. On his left stood Buffy while to his right, slightly behind him, his ex-wife scowled.

This was the moment Cordelia had to watch all her hard work literally crumble before her eyes. It had taken her years to build her mini empire, overcoming the barriers of discrimination and chauvinism in becoming a successful and respected businesswoman. And now her asshole of an ex-husband was going to destroy it all.

Feeling her eyes on him Angel turned to greet Cordelia for the sake of the TV cameras and newspaper reporters. “Good to see you Cor.” He smirked.

On the outside, she plastered on a fake smile, while inside she seethed.
“Screw you Angel.” She muttered under her breath so only he could hear. He simply chuckled in response.

Not paying attention to the exchange, Buffy was scanning the crowd, her eyes immediately locking on the person who had caused her a restless night due to their reunion the previous evening. Said meeting had left her confused and frustrated.

Spike looked up at the women he loved; holding her gaze, not knowing that behind him Faith was watching the exchange.

Angel moved over to the plunger, and the crowd turned to watch the implosion of the building. All except for the peroxide blonde, who continued to stare at Buffy, and the brunette women staring at him.

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

Oz sat in his hotel room preparing equipment, while watching ‘April Fools’ crumble on his TV. Suddenly, the lights and TV flickered and went out.

He looked around uncertainly. “Huh.”

Heading out the door, he made sure to post a ‘do not disturb’ sign on the handle; he had a lot of equipment, including explosives, in his room and didn’t want the maids discovering them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

While the Munitions expert investigated the new turn of events, the other members of the team assembled in the warehouse around the now completed copy of The Stake vault.

A guard, or rather Andrew dressed as a guard, wheeled a cash cart into the vault, left it in the centre and headed out again, closing the thick metal door behind him. When the vault locks clicked, the false top of the cart opened and Dawn, neatly folded within, climbed out.

“Okay, they’ve put you in the middle of the room, ten feet from everything. You have to get from here to the door without touching the floor. What do you do?”

Dawn back flipped from the cash cart, landing perfectly on a ledge at the edge of the vault.
The others were impressed, all clapping the gymnast.

The practice over, Xander addressed the team. Spike stood a little way behind him, seemingly preoccupied in thought. “Ok, last meeting is five o’clock, we check everything’s in place. Giles's package arrives at seven-fifteen. Seven-thirty, Faith grabs our codes. Jonathon and Andrew deliver Dawn by seven forty five, then there’s no turning back. Willow switches to video and Oz cuts power. After that, it’s smooth sailing…”

“Err, guys…” They all then turned simultaneously as Oz entered, covered head-to-toe in what looked, and smelled, like sewage, seeming decidedly annoyed. “…we have a problem.”

Those who knew Oz knew at that moment there was serious trouble. For the normally laid back easy going guy to show any emotion, especially anger, took something big.

Oz pulled off his shirt, revealing a clean(er) tee shirt underneath. The rest of the group held their breaths discreetly, except for Anya who, true to her blunt form, wafted the air dramatically. Willow was torn between wanting to comfort her boyfriend but being repulsed by the substance which covered him.

“Had to go down into the sewers to figure out what cut the power.” Oz gestured to his person before he began to explain the problem. “The demolition crew have blown up the backup grid.”

All the other members of the team looked confused.

Spike tried to make sense of what he was hearing. “And that means…?”

The blue haired man sighed. “They did exactly what I was going to do; only they did it by accident. So now they know their weakness, and they're fixing it. Meaning we need a new plan.”
He explained, quite possibly saying more in those few sentences than the bleach blonde had ever known him to say in one go.

Spike turned to Xander. “We could always –”

“In two days?”

“Wait.” If they were in a cartoon, a light bulb would have appeared above Oz’s head. The others looked at him expectedly. “We could use a pinch.”

There was silence for a moment until Spike asked what everyone in the room was thinking.
“What’s a pinch?”

“Of cause!” Willow stepped in to explain. “A pinch is a bomb, but without the bomb. See every time a nuclear weapon detonates, it unleashes an electromagnetic pulse which shuts down any power source within its vicinity.”

“Like on Broken Arrow.” Dawn pitched in.

All eyes turned to the teen confused.

“The movie?” She added at their blank stares, then turned to the only (female) blonde in the room. “Don’t you remember Anya? Buffy made us watch it all the time ‘cause she had this huge crush on Christian Slater. Anyways, in it John Travolta said near enough exactly what Wills just said.”

“Well anyway,” Willow went on to explain once Dawn had finished her interruption, “Usually the explosion destroys everything you might need power for, so you wouldn’t notice. But a pinch creates a similar electromagnetic pulse, but without the destruction of the explosives.”

“For how long?” Xander asked.

“About thirty seconds.”

Spike thought for a moment. “Could a pinch take out the power of an entire city? Like, for instance…”

“Las Vegas?” Oz finished for him. “Yeah, I think it might. But there's only one pinch in the world big enough to manage it.

“Where?”

“UCLA. Built by a couple of the professors.”

Spike smiled at Oz. “Looks like we’re going home. Jonathon, Andrew, you’re driving. Faith, lookout. Ok let’s get on it.”

“I’m coming too.” The youngest member spoke up.

“I don’t think so Niblet.” Her brother-in-law told her.

Dawn reached in to her back pocket. Pulling out her wallet, she took out her UCLA student pass. “I study biology remember? Got clearance to the science block where I’m guessing this thing is?” She raised her eyebrow in question at Oz, who in turn nodded and looked at Spike.

“Be a hell of a lot easier than breaking in.”

The bleach blonde sighed in defeat.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Friday (1 days to go)

The unmarked white van pulled into the car park of the University Of California Department Of Science.

Spike, Oz and Dawn climbed out of the back. Faith started to follow, only to be stopped by Spike.
“Where are you going?”

“Coming with you.”

Spike shook his head. “Fraid not. You’re lookout remember. You see any security hanging around you call us.” He held up his cell phone in indication.

“But...”

He slammed shut the van door. “No”

“Don’t leave me with these guys!” She pleaded in vain as he followed his two companions into the building.

Faith huffed, clearly annoyed at not being able to participate. She rolled her eyes as the two occupants of the front seat began another ‘intelligent conversation.’

“Alright, I’ll start.” Jonathon told his companion

“But I already though of one.” Andrew whined.

The shorter man sighed. “Ok, are you a man?”

“Yes. Nineteen.”

“Are you alive?”

“Yes. Eighteen.”

“Timothy Dalton”

“You cheated”

Jonathon frowned at the other man. “How can I cheat? I can’t read your mind! You just always think of Timothy Dalton.”

“Well he was the best Bond.” Andrew looked up dreamily.

“Don’t get me started on that again. Connery is Bond. He had style. And Roger Moore was funny. But Dalton? Come on, the guy had, like, no edge.

“Dalton had edge! In Licence to kill he was a rogue agent. That's edgy.”

Jonathan gave him a look of disbelief.

“And he was amazing in The Living Daylights.”

“Yeah, which was written for Roger Moore, not Timothy Dalton! But Connery is clearly the best actor of the bunch.”

“Timothy Dalton should get an Oscar and beat Sean Connery over the head with it!” The blonde yelled.

“Okay, that's it.” Jonathon grabbed Andrew, getting him in a headlock.

Half an hour later and the two ‘children’ could still be heard wrestling. Faith had had enough. She sneaked out the van's back door without the Jonathon and Andrew noticing.

Deciding to check the place out, she disappeared around the back of the building just as a door opened and Spike, Oz, and Dawn exited, complete with pinch.

Sliding the equipment into the back, the trio jumped in after it, oblivious to their missing associate.
“We got it. Let’s go.” Spike practically growled to the two in the front seat who were still interlocked.

Disentangling himself from his friend, Andrew floored the van, and they speeded towards the exit.

“Wait a minute” Dawn suddenly shouted. Andrew slammed on the brakes. “Where’s Faith?”

Spike groaned and opened the vans side door, all five occupants scanning the compound.

“Shall one of us go look for her?” Jonathon asked.

Spike rolled his eyes and Oz shook his head, reading his friends thoughts. “Then there'll be two of us MIA.”

Suddenly Faith appeared from the side of the building, swiftly followed by two security guards.

“Back it up!” Spike shouted.

Andrew did as he was told and Dawn moved to the back to open the doors. Faith jumped in and the van pulled away, but in doing so one of the doors slammed shut on Dawn's hand.
“Ahhh!” She screamed in pain.

Spike shot straight to her side, cradling her hand in his, staring down Faith. “I say stay in the van, you stay in the van, got it? 'Cause you lose focus for one second in this game, and someone gets hurt.”

“I got it.” Faith bit back.

Spike turned to Dawn, his hardened features softening. “You ok lil’bit?”

“Not really.” She replied through clenched teeth.

“Drop us off at the hospital,” He called to the driver, “That’s going to need an x-ray.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile, back at the hotel in the luxury suite, Willow was busy watching the monitors showing The Stake security cameras while Giles sat on the sofa and Cordelia paced the floor nervously.

“Where the hell are they?” She asked.

“They’ll be here.” Giles said in his Kakistos accent, so used to using it he didn’t realise it wasn’t needed.

“Thanks, that makes me feel so much better.” Cordelia replied sarcastically.

Elsewhere, Anya was at ‘work’ in the casino, while Xander waited in the lobby of the hotel for the missing members of the team to arrive. When the white van pulled up, only Faith and Spike climbed out, with Andrew and Jonathon taking the vehicle back to the warehouse. The two went on to walk past the brunette without a word, entering the elevator with a confused Xander trailing shortly behind.

“Where’s Oz and Dawn?” He asked as Spike pressed the button for their floor.

“Hospital.” The bleached blonde replied simply, sending a glare in Faith’s direction.

Before Xander could question further, the doors opened to their floor and they found Willow stood nervously the doorway to the Innocence suite.
“Erm, guys, we have a problem.” She held up a printout of a mug-shot of Spike coupled with various bits of general information.

Spike took the paper and entered the room, in which Cordelia and Giles sat on the couch anxiously.

Willow further explained. “You’ve been red-flagged. It means the moment you step onto the casino floor, they'll be watching you. Like hawks with video cameras.”

Spike began pacing. “This is a problem.”

“You have any idea how this happened?” Xander asked, shutting the door after he and Faith had also stepping into the room.

Spike shook his head, “No…”

Faith grunted. “Oh come on Blondie.” She turned to the rest of the rooms occupants. “He’s been chasing Angel's girl. They got into an argument two nights ago.”

The peroxide blonde narrowed his eyes.

Faith shrugged. “I was tailing you.”

“Who told you to do that?”

Xander sighed. “I did.”

Spike whipped his eyes around to his best friend.

“Look man, I’m sorry, but I knew you couldn't leave Buffy alone.”

“Who's Buffy?” Willow asked.

“My wife.” Spike said

“Ex-wife.” Xander countered.

Giles then also stood. “Buffy is here?”

“My ex-husband is with your ex-wife?” Cordelia squealed, hands on hips. “Is there anyone here who hasn’t slept together?”

Xander and Spike continued to stare down one another.
“I’m sorry, I didn't know if it would sting you, but it did. You’re out, Spike.”

“He’s out?!” Cordelia yelled, voice an even higher pitch.

“It’s either that or we call the whole thing off. The whole security team knows him now, and they’ll be watching his every move. His involvement puts us all at risk.”

“This isn't your call. This is my job.” Spike said.

“Not anymore.” Xander argued. “You made it my call when you put her before us.”

“You wouldn’t have done the same if it was Anya?”

“I wouldn’t have planned a job I knew I’d probably end up jeopardizing in the first place.”

They continued to face off, furious with each other.

“But, but... he can't just be out. We can’t find a replacement by tomorrow! Who’s going to trigger the vault?” Cordelia asked incredulous.

Xander turned to Faith. “You up for it?”

Faith's eyes drifted to Spike, who looked to be silently seething. Holding his gaze, she replied, “I can do it”

The new leader nodded. “Good.” He then addressed Willow. “Find the others and let them know the change in plan. Curtain goes up at seven.”

Giles took of his glasses, turning to Spike. “Buffy is with Angel now?” Spike cast his eyes downward in an attempt to mask the pain within them. Giles sighed. “She’s too small for him.”





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