Returning home from their battle with Drusilla and the Lorophage, Angel and Faith, after quite the trek across London, are finally approaching the front door of her apartment. Angel says her name, and Faith, on autopilot, tells him that she is absolutely fine and doesn’t want to talk about it. “When did you turn into Oprah?” she jokes. Angel nudges her and points at the front door. “Faith. There’s someone inside.”

The two partners prepare themselves and, within seconds, slam their way into Faith’s apartment, swords drawn and ready to swing. In the main reception area, they find two women, sitting down casually, drinking wine. “Oh hello,” one of them says. They’re both young attractive women, one blonde, the other brunette. The brunette, checking her freshly-painted nails, in a high-pitched and posh English accent, turns to them both. “You must be Rupert’s little friends.”

The blonde, drinking the wine from a very large glass looks at Faith and smiles. “Be a love and top me off, will you?” she says, same accent, nodding at the now empty glass. “There’s a good girl.”

“Who the hell are you?” Faith asks them both, her anger raging, her temper rising. Angel looks at her wearily: it’s been a long night. In an effort to calm her tension, he steps in. “You knew Giles?”

The brunette stands up, and places her hand to her heart. “Bit slow, aren’t they? I’m Lavinia.” She turns slightly, gesturing to the blonde. “She’s Sophronia.”

The blonde looks at her sister, the way siblings do when they’re squabbling. “Sophie. We’re Rupert’s aunts. And clearly I’m going to have to top myself up. Ah, American manners.”

As Lavinia moves deeper into the main residence, she says that they’re his great-aunts technically, to which Sophie tells her that ‘aunts’ makes them sound frumpy. Lavinia points to a portrait above the hearth: “See? That’s us in the portrait. We’re just in from the estate in Bath.”

Faith looks confused. As far as she knew all of Giles’ family were dead and he never mentioned them. Sophie refills her goblet and tells her that they’re in the will, specifically the part that says “all occupants of the country home may remain.” Faith turns to Angel. “I thought he meant the horses.”

Faith guesses that the aunts must use magic, since they haven’t aged a day since the portrait and it was taken when Giles was a child. Lavinia folds her arms, slightly annoyed. “Of course. Mystic talent runs in our bloodline, and we were quite blessed. Used it to stay like this. Not everyone in the family equates proficiency in the arts with being a dreadful bore.”

Angel moves towards Sophie, who’s once again filling her glass. He starts to tell them about his part in Giles death, but Sophie points out that they already know. And they know how it happened. “I won’t hold it against you,” she says to him. He starts to protest, saying more, but she stops him, taking a sip of her wine before explaining: “Dear boy, when you live by magic, you are likely to die by it. Rupert knew that and had made peace with it. If you simply must feel guilty about something, there’s always your hair.”

Faith assumes that they’re in London for shopping and tells them where the guest rooms are. She also tells them that they’ll stay out of each other’s way. Lavinia stops her before she walks away however. “Actually, there is one other matter. The end of magic has had a consequence we didn’t expect.”

Suddenly a loud crash gets their attention as a large, green, lizard-like creature bursts through the door. “Oh,” shrieks Sophie. “How dreadfully Monty Python.”

The creature starts to roar it’s demands. “Lavinia Fairweather! The time has come at last! Your life and soul are forfeit!” The creature doesn’t get far inside however, as Angel takes the remains of the door and slams them into the creature’s head. “You forgot to knock,” he quips. He is not expecting the lizard to roar at him and certainly wasn’t expecting the flash of flame that suddenly erupts from it’s mouth. Faith and Angel jump out of the way. As Faith plunges her blade through the lizard’s jaw, Angel yells at the sisters: “Little help here? I know magic’s gone, but with your power you must have some tricks up your sleeves?”

Sophie is watching, hand on her hip and looks at them. “You mean fighting? God no. We had other priorities.” In between avoiding a swing from the lizard demon, Faith is pissed when she asks them if they wasted their magic on staying young. As Faith swings under, away from another strike, Sophie simply pouts. “Darling, if you’re young, beautiful and rich, what more power do you need?” she asks, with deadly seriousness.

Angel looks at Faith and tells her that they move in three. When they’re finished, Angel swings and decapitates the demon. Faith doesn’t waste much time, angrily turning to Lavinia and ordering her to explain. Lavinia sighs. “I kind of promised him my soul in exchange for a salve that banishes cellulite. Worked like a charm.”

Angel is annoyed, throwing what’s left of the demon out onto the front porch. “You sold your soul for cellulite cream,” he repeats in disbelief. Lavinia shushes him. “Of course not. The deal was that my life and soul were his the day I got my first grey hair. A day which, of course, would never come. But then magic went away and, well, yesterday, there it was.” She pulls the offending strand from her head in disgust. Sophie nods behind her. “It’s hideous,” she states, before saying under her breath that she dyed hers.

Sophie turns to Angel. “Since the end of magic is your fault, it only seemed right that you solve the problem.” Angel is aghast, but tells them firmly that he is not taking the blame for their choices. Faith agrees, hastily telling the aunts that their problem has now been solved. “Get the hell out and we’ll call it even,” she states, clearly not joking. Lavinia glides towards her, her voice soft. “Yes, well, the thing is you see, we made that sort of deal quite a lot.” Just as Angel is about to ask how many more times, a tentacle comes through the door of the townhouse!

Angel quickly slices it off, but then he and Faith look outside. The street is jam-packed full of demons and other creatures, all forming some sort of orderly queue outside on the London streets!

As Faith and Angel pick up one of her new sofas to barricade the door, Faith asks the sisters if Giles hated them as much as she’s starting to. Lavinia concedes that it’s more than likely. Another creature comes through the crack in the door, green slime pouring in. “It’s a mucoid,” Lavinia notes, telling them they need salt. Angel yells at her to get some, to which she responds half-heartedly “I have to do everything.”

A further creature now comes through the door, a large demonic spider. It’s willing to compromise, it roars: it only wants their heads! Angel and Faith can keep the other parts!

Demons keep coming, one after the other. A snake demon has Angel in it’s mouth at one point. As it tries to chew the struggling vampire, it stops as Sophie rants at it about it mislabelling a product.

A giant troll tells Angel that he’s not going to fight him because it wouldn’t be fair. He only gave Lavinia a talisman that lets her smoke without getting cancer. His part of the deal was one kiss and he’s disappointed he’s not even going to get that! Faith gives this one the go-ahead, and the troll advances on a horrified Lavinia. The next demon simply watches the scene unfold, much to Angel’s relief.

Ten minutes later, Angel is replacing the front door. Faith asks him if he’s sure, but he’s positive. They haven’t had a visitor at the door in a while. Faith is glad he has a moment and, as he starts replacing the door, she once again brings up the fact that Giles never mentioned the aunts to anyone. And he can’t have hated them, since their picture is on the wall. She turns to the Fairweather sisters. “I just sliced up twenty monsters for you,” she says. “I wanna know the family drama.”

The sisters both look at each other and sigh. Lavinia says that Giles had a differing view of how one should use magic. “All that honour and duty stuff he got from our sister.” Sophie mentions that Giles adored his grandmother Edna, although it’s clear from Sophie’s tone that there wasn’t much love lost between the three siblings.

Angel claims that there’s more than that: the Watcher Files do occasionally mention the sisters, “consulting the girls,” Giles wrote. It did come across as a sore subject he recalls, although Angel has no idea why. He tells the sisters that they’ve earned the story and Lavinia looks straight at Sophie. “He wanted to be a fighter pilot. Did you know that?”

The same room, years ago. Lavinia and Sophie stand there in the reception area of the Giles residence and narrowly avoid their young nephew Rupert, running through the room with a model jet fighter. Lavinia shouts at him as he runs past. “Rupert! Bloody hell! You almost caught your toy on my Mary Quant mini. Again!” Sophie tuts in agreement. “Should’ve named the little blighter ‘Ripper’.”

His father arrives in the room and scoops Rupert up into his arms. “Come along now, Rupert. Your spitfire will have more room for manoeuvres upstairs.” Rupert tells his dad that it’s not a Spitfire, but a Mosquito and his father beams in delight at his son’s knowledge. Behind Mr. Giles is his mother, Edna Fairweather. She looks glum, presumably as she knows her sisters are waiting for her to resume their discussion.

Edna starts before Sophie can continue their talk. “The discussion was over. The Watcher’s Council would never approve entrusting the Shard of Stronnos to the likes of you.” Sophie interjects that their not asking the Watchers – they’re asking their sister and their nephew. Even though Edna tells her son not to fall into her sisters’ games, he chimes in anyway. “The shard is far too dangerous to fall into the hands of, that is…”

Edna interrupts. “What my son is trying to say is that you have never in your lives performed a single responsible act with your gifts. Nor will you reveal what you want with the shard – one of the more deadly objects in the Watcher’s Armoury which can convert matter into energy.” She finishes by explaining that while the Watchers may not have the raw power to deal with the shard, they can certainly keep it away from the flighty reaches of her siblings.

Sophie insists they have a noble purpose. Edna suggests it’s to remove the extra ten pounds she accumulated around her middle. Lavinia is more than happy to jump in with insults of her own, and soon the three of them are squabbling loudly.

Suddenly, from outside, a blind dazzling light catches their attention and a deep voice comes from the glare. “The Fairweather sisters speak the truth.”

The creature materialises inside the residence, a being of light, shaped vaguely humanoid. Edna gasps in surprise. “A light demon!” The demon laughs. “The shard can make energy into matter. The sisters hope to transform their lovers back into flesh, seeing as I have made them beings of light, trapped within their vain paramours’ mirrors.”

The demon claims that the shard will give him and his people substance so that they can conquer the physical realm. And the Fairweather sisters, the gullible fools, led him to it. He knows it’s somewhere in the structure, and as he turns, Edna reaches up on a high shelf for a pink crystal. The Shard of Stronnos. She plans to shatter it before the demon can use it, but he zaps it out of Edna’s hands with a beam of intense light.

The shard clatters along the wooden floor, out of Edna’s reach at the lip of the stairs. The demon laughs in triumph and reaches for the shard… which is picked up by the young Rupert, emerging from his room.

All the young Giles does is look at the demon whilst holding the shard and a bright purple light fills the room, heading straight for the light creature.

The creature rises to his full height and beams in joy. “It worked, I have form. I exist in the physical realm.” He can scarcely believe it. He doesn’t have time to enjoy it, as Edna, now wielding an antique axe, takes the demon’s head off, while Mr. Giles covers his son’s eyes.

With the demon gone, Rupert opens his eyes and asks his grandmother if he did something wrong. Sophie tells him that he was brilliant. “Did you see, Lavinia? The boy’s inherited our skill for magic! Not nearly as strong, of course, quite raw and clumsy, but still, do you know what this means?” she asks excitedly.

Mr. Giles looks at Rupert and tells the sisters exactly what it means. “He shall have to enter the Watcher’s Academy straight away. He will be a target for beings like that, as well as a danger to himself and others. He must be properly trained.”

Sophie starts to say that that’s unnecessary – surely the sisters could teach him, but Mr. Giles is adamant. “He is my son. I shall see to his needs.” He grabs Rupert by his shirt, bundles him into his arms and marches up the stairs with him. Rupert has dropped his model plane and desperately reaches back for it, but his father continues. “You won’t need that any longer son,” he tells Rupert as they leave the room.

Edna throws the shard in Sophie’s direction. “Take the bloody shard,” she screeches. Sophie tries to talk, asking about Rupert, but they’re shoved through the front door. “I think you done enough, don’t you?” Edna asks as she slams the door. She narrowly avoids stepping on Rupert’s plane as she leaves the room.

Angel tells them that Giles talent would have come out eventually, but the sisters are disappointed. The young man should never have been forced into the academy. He still had more time left to be a child.

Due to the fact they felt guilty about his magical potential and his missed chances, the sisters kept an eye on him over the years, supplying him with artefacts and rare volumes when he needed them. They even cast some spells for him on occasion.

Angel tells them, firmly, that he intends to bring Giles back to life. He has some semblance of a plan, and Sophie insists that that’s another reason they came: Lavinia calmly pulls the Shard of Stronnos from her bag. “We thought you might find this useful,” she tells Angel.

“That’s Rupert’s essence as a child, I’d imagine,” Lavinia tells them as they look at the glow coming off the shard and connecting with the Tooth of Ammut on Angel’s chest. Faith looks at the shard and then the women: “Hold up. You actually think this is possible? Bringing Giles back from a natural death in a world with no magic?” Sophie suggests that if it’s possible with anyone, then Rupert is a prime candidate due to his latent magical prowess. “I think it’s a splendid idea,” Lavinia concludes.

Sophie isn’t so sure, calling the whole plan daft. As tonight has proven to them, magical debts can come back to bite. Faith agrees with her. Whatever they decide will be, Sophie declares. “You seem like a reasonably clever bloke, despite the forehead, and you seem to care about poor Rupert. Whatever you decide, you have our blessing.” She asks to be shown to her room and Angel tells them that they can share the master bedroom. Faith sarcastically tells him that she missed the part where the residence was left to him!

Lavinia also goes to retire, claiming that sharing with Sophie is not a good idea and she elects to take Angel’s room. She asks Angel to escort her as he promises Faith he’ll take the floor, with a smile.

In his room, Lavinia tells Angel that she is glad they have a moment alone. Angel is flattered, but that’s not what Lavinia wants. She tells him that his plan to resurrect Rupert will work. He mustn’t let anyone interfere or talk him out of it. “The world needs him. But more importantly,” she says, whispering in his ear, “We need him, don’t we darling?”

Downstairs, Faith is horrified when Sophie suggests Faith and Rupert were a couple. Regardless, Sophie wants to tell Faith one thing: if there’s the slightest chance at all, no matter what happens, of this resurrection going wrong, Faith must be prepared to stop Angel whatever it takes. They’re playing with dynamite and it’s not worth the risk.

As Angel and Faith reconvene in the hallway, neither mentions what each sister has told them. In her room, Lavinia looks up at the ceiling and smiles. “Oh, Rupert,” she whispers. “We held our noses and let you get old. But I’ll be buggered if we’ll permit our nephew to die like some commoner who slips in the bath. Not without a fight. If there’s a way to bring you back, Angel will find it. We’ll see to that.”

In the guest room, Sophie looks up at the ceiling and closes her eyes. “And if he must be stopped before he does something horrid to you or to the world, we’ll see he is. Courtesy of Faith. I know, after all these years we’re still using people, but all we’re doing is letting them play the roles they so desperately want. You watched over people long enough, dear boy. It’s time to let your aunties watch over you.”

Faith asks Angel, now that they’re finally alone, how long he thinks the sisters will stay. Angel looks at her glumly. “Longer than we want them to.” He’s interrupted, yet again, by yet another knock on the door.