In the hills surrounding the Suriname desert, Faith Lehane beats herself up for what’s happening in front of her, even though there was no possible way she could have known: as the tribal warriors surround them with spears, trapped inside a rope net, she looks for another way out.

She hopes Reese Zane has just given her one.

‘”Back away. That’s my daughter. Let her up.” The tribal vampires follow the order of Walter Zane, head of Zane Pharmaceuticals – and one of the missing men they were sent to find. They release Reese, cut the rope, but hold the others fast, ensuring Faith and the troop remain imprisoned.

Reese looks up at Walter, his face now normal. She can barely believe her eyes.

“Daddy?”

For his part, Walter seems genuinely pleased to see his daughter, regardless of the circumstances, and extends his hand to her. “I’m so glad my people didn’t hurt you.”

Reese questions his words, needs it confirmed. He pulls himself closer to her. “Your people?” She stares at him in shock, but then he smiles at her and pulls her into a loving hug. “Dad, you’re a vampire? How did this happen?”

Walt seems excited to finally be telling his tale. This gives Faith an idea.

“An accident. But a happy accident. When I flew into Rio, to set up the expedition with the head of our South American Division, I met a woman. Now don’t look at your father that way. It’s been years since your mother passed. And I’m still a man.”

“Things moved fast. There was something irresistible about her. Mesmerising. I invited her to come on the expedition. And as you might guess, there was more to her than a pretty face. Much more.”

As he finishes his story, he puts his hand on Reese’s shoulder. He tells her that while he built the company from the ground up, on his own, his real goal has been to find a cure for the plagues of the world – like the one that took his late wife.

He looks at Reese. Vampires don’t get diseases, he explains. He tells her how powerful he is now, and though he doesn’t know why, they can even travel in sunlight.

He turns to the tribesmen, gesturing at them. “Back in civilisation being a vampire marks you. But these people see it for what it is. A gift. Sure, I could simply keep my newfound status a secret. But I’ve always been too ambitious for that. When I’ve built my following, then I’ll make my move.”

The prisoners are no longer being held under the net, but are flanked by several guards, all with spears and all holding them in place. Faith has heard enough and is keen to venture her opinion, shouting at Zane in condemnation. “And what kind of supervillain-wannabe plan would that be? Turn the entire population of the world into vamps, so nobody will ever get the common cold?”

As she finishes her rant, Walt turns to her and morphs his face in the process. “Of course not,” he grins at her. “If we turned everyone into vampires, then what would we feed on?”

On the edges of Magic Town, the air is quiet. The warehouse, dark and eerie to begin with, is like a graveyard. But then a girder falls. A brick moves. Angel is stunned, but alive. He looks at Brandt, who’s shaking his head, groggy. The light show has now faded and Amy stands above him, the Najakot demon slain at her feet. Her hands crackle with even more of that blasted blue lightning.

She looks down at Angel, grinning wildly. “I’ve got to be honest, that was fun. The more I use this magic, the more I feel it flow through me, the more I realise I’m still barely tapping the potential. Impressed, Angel? Silly that I ever thought I needed your help.” Her eyes are still jet black.

Pulling himself from the ground and grunting in the process, Angel turns to Amy and looks her in the face. He once more tries to dissuade her from these actions. “You do need it, Amy. Or at least, you need my advice. The fact that you’re getting so powerful, so quickly is why you need to slow down. Because it will never be enough and you’ll destroy yourself wanting more and more. But if you’re not going to listen to reason, I’ll have to knock some into you.”

He leaps for her, refusing to give in or back down. But she’s too quick and Amy’s next magical bolt forms a fist, solidly out of smoke, and slams Angel into the wall behind him.

Brandt and his officers move forward, aiming their weapons. “Step down, miss! Right now!” Brandt shouts, giving Amy a chance. “Or you’ll force us to take action.”

Angel cries out a warning to his friend. “Brandt, wait!”

But it comes too late. Amy turns to them, her eyes black, and simply grins at them. “Guns? How cute. You must be new.”

Her hands light up an ethereal, deep orange and then, to their amazement, the guns in the hands of the cops all glow red hot. The officers drop their weapons instantly.

Taking advantage of his men’s confusion, Brandt races to Angel’s side and wrenches the vampire to his feet. “This isn’t working out, mate. We’ve got to go! If a wicked great spider demon doesn’t stop her, what will?”

They run, leaving the warehouse through the door, the police officers back away back to their squad cars. “I’m open to suggestions.”

Brandt turns to him unimpressed, hoping for more. “You’re the expert on all this hocus-pocus rubbish.”

Inside the now empty warehouse, Amy and Perry are alone. The witch walks over to the table, the jar containing what’s left of Warren Mears once again hers. She strokes it with affection, and Perry looks at her from his vantage point above. The pixie rolls his eyes.

“I will bring you back, darling. I know it was part of the game we were running with gullible old Angel. But always I was thinking of you. Together again. Just as soon as I’ve dealt with Willow.”

Perry comes fluttering down to her, hoping to get her attention away from the goop. “Mistress! They’ve hooved it! You know they’ll be back with the cavalry.”

But Amy is not concerned. She’s proved her point and beaten Angel. And she has her precious Warren back. Her smile, like the rest of her behaviour, unnerves the pixie. “I’m counting on it, Perry. I think Angel has finally taken the hint. And when he brings me Willow, I’ll be ready.”

In the jungle, the vampires have brought the prisoners to a large circular ruin, the former remains of what looks like a temple. There’s a fire pit in the centre of the circle. Knelt down, tied, in front of the fire, are Faith and the troops. Reese, still walking free, is still questioning her father. She doesn’t know this ritual he’s conducting. “Dad, I don’t understand.”

He turns to his daughter, talks with a father’s cadence, but Faith knows it’s all false. “That’s because you can’t understand, Reese. You can’t understand until you’re standing in my shoes. Looking back on the person you used to be. I spent my whole life trying to be somebody, and I was even more successful than I’d dreamed. And yet, it wasn’t enough.”

He makes a fist with his hands, looks straight into the fire pit as he speaks, in almost reverent tones. “Always, I was reaching for more, looking toward the horizon. Only now, having shed cumbersome mortality, do I realise this is what I had been looking for all along.”

Now he takes his daughter’s hand. “What I’d really been trying to cure is death itself. And now, I’ve found the way. The tribesmen are looking forward to the ceremony, and we’ve afforded you a special honour, daughter. Because once you’ve turned, your first feeding will be the blood of a Slayer.”

From her position kneeling, looking at Reese, Faith sighs quietly and then whispers to Mai on her right. “I don’t think we’re getting any help from Reese Zane.”

“It’s her father. Maybe she can talk him into letting us go.”

“He’s a vampire. I’m pretty sure we’re on our own.”

Sam whispers at the pair. “What are we talking about over there? Getting the Hell out of here, I hope.”

Faith nods, but looks Samantha straight in her eyes. “Yes. And I’m counting on these jokers not speaking English, but keep your voice down anyway.”

Riley, next to Faith, looks around them. “Whatever plan you’ve got, I’m for it. This is the second time I’ve been tied up. I’d like to stay escaped this time.

Faith looks at them all, one by one, making sure they all know what she’s thinking. She hasn’t got a plan, but looks beyond the stone circle, into the jungle. “The plan is sort of a work in progress,” she admits, but then quickly follows with another command. “Just be ready to follow my lead.”

In Magic Town, in Nadira’s sanctuary, two youngsters sit in front of the self-styled guru, clearly nervous. They’re holding hands, sitting cross-legged in front of her. Tricia, the young girl, has snakes instead of hair, and Parker, the young man Nadira recognises as the first person Tricia met in the sanctuary, clearly doesn’t care about the snakes.

They’re worried about how they’re going to be perceived. In Magic Town, he’s the normal guy, out of place, but outside of Magic Town, Tricia feels like a freak. And they’re both worried about being accepted, not just by they’re peers, but by the world.

Nadira has her eyes closed, and, without opening them, answers cryptically. “I can’t give you an answer when you ask the wrong question.”

Parker shakes his head. He doesn’t know the question, which was kind of his point. Nadira sighs, tells him that they probably aren’t meant to be together. Tricia insists that she wants to be with Parker: she doesn’t care one bit. Nadira smiles at them now and tells them, still with her eyes closed, that that wasn’t difficult at all.

Tricia gets it: the key to being accepted by people starts with themselves – and it doesn’t matter what other people think of them – only what they think of each other. Full of smiles, Tricia pulls Parker to his feet, and he looks excited at Tricia. They leave happy, and in love, holding hands, virtually skipping away.

Left alone in her room, Nadira doesn’t even turn. Her eyes are open now, but she has her back to him as she speaks. “Are you going to come in, Angel?”

Angel sneaks his head around the door, with a smirk on his face. “Sorry. I was catching the tail end of your Wise King Solomon routine.” She smiles as he comes to sit with her, asks him about the spider. He looks at her and grins: “Something tells me you already know how it went?”

He helps Nadira to her feet, and escorts her from her room. She asks him what’s to be done, but Angel tells her that if he knew that, he’d be doing it. She grins at him.

“When I was talking to Parker and Tricia just now, there was no magic to it, nor especially any wisdom. Most people know the answers they need. They just don’t know they know.”

Angel looks at her, his hand on his chin in thought. “Amy seems pretty confident. She’s hyped up on Magic Town magic and doesn’t think anything can stop her. Except Willow. She keeps talking about how soon she’ll be powerful enough to take her on.”

Nadira turns to him, glint in her human eye. “Well then. Sounds like you need yourself a Willow.”

In the jungle ruins, Walter Zane comes forward, edging Reese to the front of the fire pit and raises his arms to his followers. “Behold! The newest princess of your tribe!”

Reese turns to him for a moment. “Do they even understand you?”

Walt nods. “They understand the tone, Reese. They understand that I’m important, and that you are about to be.”

He pulls her closer now, all eyes on him. His face is morphed into vampire mode as he approaches Reese and pulls her closer. “Hold still. It will only sting for a moment, and then we’ll be together. We’ll be a team, princess, just like before – but unstoppable.”

As he looks at his daughter, she looks him straight in his eyes, tears flowing from behind her glasses. “I’ve been thinking it over, Daddy. And I don’t want to be your princess anymore.”

Without warning then, Reese uses a stake she’s had on her person since the camp and plunges it straight into her father’s heart! He explodes into dust and there’s a cry from the tribesmen.

Faith chooses her moment. “Now! Mai!” With Faith’s command echoing on the air, Mai the Vampire Slayer rises to her feet in a whirl of blurry motion, and kicks one vampire down to the ground. Faith reaches for his knife with her bound hands and throws it in Sam’s direction.

“Sam! Knife!” As Sam catches it, she turns, having been freed now by Mai. She cuts Riley’s bonds and, free, he turns to Faith. “Clear a path to the ravine wall. It’s our best shot out of here.”

They fight now, through the throng of vampires. Riley finds the time to quip at Faith, fighting back to back with her. “Still glad you came to rescue me?”

Faith grins and then punches a vampire away from her. “I’ll let you know when we’re all topside.” Faith takes a moment and yells at Reese. She’s standing, untouched by the chaos, staring at her hands. Faith wrestles her away and Reese barely blinks.

As the group climb upwards out of the ravine, Faith kicks one vamp as he climbs after them. The tribesmen, unable to follow for the moment, attempt to claw their way up the stone, but are unsuccessful.

Above the ravine, Faith turns to Samantha. She knows the terrain. “Now what? They’ll be after us as soon as they regroup!”

Sam points north-west and turns to Faith. “The river’s that way. If we can backtrack…”

They’re interrupted by a familiar and wonderful sound: a US military chopper, with Martina and Sarah onboard, is approaching them fast. Riley yells incoming and as the chopper comes around, Sarah helps them aboard.

When safely onboard, heading for safety, Faith takes a moment to turn to a quiet and despondent Reese. “I’m sorry, Miss Zane. About your father.”

Reese doesn’t look back at Faith. She stares out of the chopper, over the jungle they’ve just survived. When she does turn, her voice is low, and Faith knows the weight she’s feeling. “Whoever it was that I killed, he wasn’t my father anymore,” she says to the Slayer, before resuming her silent stare at the rapidly disappearing greenery.

Perry the Pixie is nervous this time, as he turns to Amy, magic crackling. There are bottles around the room, all sparking with power. “Everything would seem to be in place, mistress. If you burst open that hulk of a spider with just a few bottles, I hate to think what all this…”

Amy looks up at him and snaps, impatient. “And that’s why you aren’t paid to think, Perry. Although, in fairness, I don’t really pay you at all. You’re more like an intern.”

“Hello, Amy.”

Amy turns at the voice and smiles that cruel, sardonic grin. “Angel. Third times the charm, that it? And what did you bring me this time? A demon earwig? A magical kung-fu cockroach?”

He moves aside, opening the door to allow someone through. “You made short work of the spider. Figured I’d bring in the big guns.”

Amy turns from him now, excited. She adjusts her flowing robe in a sense of expectation, picks up a book from the table. She steals a glance towards ‘Warren’ at the same time. “So, at last, the mighty Will…”

Her face drops when Nadira Kureishi walks over the threshold of the door and into the room. She smiles gently at the witch. “Sorry to disappoint. But we figured why send all the way to America for Willow, when I’m just right around the corner?”

Amy is angry now, annoyed that her plans have been thwarted. “You’re that guru woman. You think a trap I designed for Willow isn’t strong enough for you?”

She screeches a spell out of her mouth, activating her trap. “Nareth Amalchai Katu Parumba.”

Blue energy from each bottle flows into a huge, glowering mass, pelting at Nadira and blinding everyone in the room. Angel shields his eyes as the light hits Nadira, and the room is plunged into darkness, save the blue glow surrounding the former Slayer.

And then, calm and collected, Nadira, her human side obscured, her magic flesh glowing an even brighter shade of green than usual, just looks at Amy. Her voice is soft and warm.

“Okay. You can stop now.”

And the magic stops. Everything does. The blue energy gathers at Nadira’s bare feet and she looks down at it. She smiles, and skips over it like it’s a game of hopscotch. Then she stops, her green markings shining iridescently. Different reactions come from her audience. Angel can’t take his eyes off her – whatever has happened to Nadira, both frightens and amazes him.

Amy Madison is on her knees, breathless, struggling to speak, but confused. “That magic… so much… It should have consumed you.”

Nadira casually calls the blue energy from her feet to her hands, where she controls it as it burns brightly, illuminating her smile. “Oh, it wouldn’t do that. It’s my friend.”

Amy looks at her, puzzled, but jealous of the control she sees Nadira command. And then she’s confused again, as Nadira moves her eyes away from her, as if she’s talking to someone else. Her voice changes. It’s low and melodic, like someone talking on a dream.

“Hmm? What’s that? You think she was happier the old way? Yes, by all means. If you really think so, then she should stay in that form.“

Orange sparks fly from the magic in Nadira’s hand.

It flows freely across the room and hits Amy’s square. She disappears, her robe left on the floor. Angel looks at Nadira, and, from underneath the robe, a black rat crawls out and scurries away to safety, squeaking in annoyance.

At the military base where her mission began, Sam walks away from Riley as Faith approaches him. “Riley, wait up.”

Riley sighs under his breath. He doesn’t want this conversation, but not for the reasons Faith might think. “Uh, I figured since we’re back to civilisation, I mean, maybe a better apology…”

He looks up at her, into her eyes and smiles. “Faith, I’ve got no problem accepting your apology. Least I can do after you saved my butt. I mean, I can’t say I’m happy about what you did while pretending to be Buffy. I thought I was getting her back, and when I discovered it was you, in some mystic body exchange, it made me feel… well… like a chump.”

“I’ve moved on. I’m good. If you really want to say sorry to someone, try Buffy. But what you should realise is that whatever apology you think you need to make, it is really about you.”

He places his hand on her shoulder, peacefully. “You think it will make you feel better about what you did or absolve you or something. But there aren’t any shortcuts. You just need to live through it and get up every day and be the kind of person who wouldn’t do something like that again. I hope you figure it out, Faith.”

He smiles at her one more time, the tension gone from his face. He turns and walks away, and Faith can’t help but wonder when he’ll turn up again. She can also see, for the first time, what Buffy thought about him. She may be one Hell of a woman, but you, Riley Finn, are one Hell of a Guy.

As Riley walks away, Faith doesn’t have time to get lost in her thought more. Reese Zane calls her name, and asks if she has a minute. Faith looks around blankly, the job done. “I got nothing but time.”

Reese seems more excited and animated now, the first time Faith has seen her with such confidence and drive. “I’ve just heard DeepScan has accepted the contract to clean out the rest of that vampire nest. Will you be going with them?”

Faith shrugs with genuine mystery. “I don’t know. First I’m hearing about it.”

Reese smiles. “Are you willing to listen to a competing offer?”

Faith rolls her eyes at Reese and chuckles. “Listen? Yeah. The rest depends on what I hear.”

Reese wastes no time with a well-rehearsed sales pitch. She’s nervous now. Whatever she wants, Faith can see she’s keen to have her involved. “There was a time when my father did want to help people. Actually did want to find cures for diseases. In his later years, it became about self-aggrandisement, and in the end… well, you were there.”

“I want to do something to redeem the company name. The head of our London division says there may be an opportunity to expand our operation into Magic Town. There’s a team putting a clinic together even as we speak. I think your skill set makes you a perfect candidate for Chief of Security.”

Faith stops. She sighs. “Magic Town. Of course.”

Reese notices the change in Faith’s demeanour. “My med team says that when Magic Town was created, people were transformed, fundamentally changed on a DNA level. I’m sure I don’t have to explain why that would interest a biotech corporation. You know the place. Your dossier makes that clear. So I can use you.”

Faith looks at her, her face suddenly quite miserable looking. “I left for a reason. It seemed like a good one at the time.”

But Reese grins at her, knowing the Slayer well enough by now to know she thrives on new challenges. “Well then, maybe it’s time to go home.”

In Nadira’s sanctuary, she’s alone meditating, when Angel comes in. “You turned her back into a rat.”

Nadira turns her head and addresses him. “No, the magic did.”

“What’s the difference?”

Now Nadira turns quickly, staring at him. “Angel, you do try my patience sometimes. I don’t control the magic. But it does do me favours sometimes. It’s becoming alive, Angel. A little more every day.”

Angel has no idea what she’s talking about and looks confused. Nadira appears to roll her eyes at him. “Never mind. Your friend has the bottles of magic?”

Angel turns, thankful for the change in subject. “Amy used up most of them springing her magical trap. But I trust Alasdair to keep the last few bottles under wraps. He’s also keeping an eye on the jar of…” Angel’s face grimaces as he thinks about it. “…Warren.”

Nadira looks at him, smiles. Then she offers a suggestion, but it seems like an order. A warning. A nudge. “It’s been a long night, Angel. You need some air. Take a walk.”

As Angel leaves the sanctuary, he looks out into the foggy streets of London. There’s nobody about and the fog is thick, much thicker than usual. The vampire can feel it in the air: something’s coming.

As he turns, he catches sight of a woman, walking down the street. She has her back to Angel, but there’s something about her stance, her walk, her hair that seems familiar. Chasing a hunch, Angel takes off, quickly calling after the stranger and running to catch up with her. “Hey” Excuse me, miss! Ma’am!”

The woman turns around and looks at Angel in absolute shock. He was the last person she expected to see. “Angel?”

Angel looks back in stunned silence for a moment, his brain trying to catch up and a million different possibilities running through his head. He stares back at the woman and then, finally answers her, calling her name.

“Fred?”