“Dru, whenever you use a word like family, it just emphasises that you’re not quite all there.” Angel‘s tone is serious as he points at his vampire offspring, demanding she return Nadira immediately. Drusilla stands there, a wry smile on her pale face, innocently tracing a finger down the side of Nadira’s face, the side with the green markings. She’s practically purring at him.

“It’s you’ve who’ve forgotten, Angel. I am what you made me. But we both answer to a higher patriarch, or did you think you could change who you are just because you’ve a little soul wriggling round inside you? You didn’t get to choose.” Her Nadira has a calm look on her face as the finger moves to her neck. “Did you think you could replace your true family with little bits like this?”

Nadira is smiling now, almost smirking.

Angel says he is choosing: by not giving in to Archaeus, like she has, he’s chosen freedom. Drusilla scoffs. “So righteous. So good. And what about me then?” She looks at him now, with daggers in her eyes. “What choices did Angel give his little Drusilla? You made me one of you. Then you left me.”

Angel can only avert his eyes from hers. The shame creeps up in his stomach, the guilt of years of pain and misery. She clocks his body language and smiles.

“No denials? Well, that’s a start. Daddy wants his children all under one roof again. You were part of us, Angel. And you will be again, even if it means…”

She doesn’t have the time to finish her sentence. The time for talking is done, cut short prematurely by Fred Burkle, finally reaching the street from the top floor of Nadira’s building. She stops as soon as she sees Dru. She scoffs at Fred – Angel does like to gather them around him doesn’t he? She teases her sire: does he like them to keep him warm and safe, as if he were a real boy? She laughs and then points at Fred. She orders her soldiers forward.

Fred screams for Angel. He growls, punches his way through them, taking two out with his sword. He grabs another, whom Fred dispatches with a stake. However, she quickly realises that there’s too many of them.

Help comes from a light blade, wrapped around the fist of the Nitobe warrior, Eldre Koh, leaping into the fray with a look of satisfaction on his face. Faith takes out another. The cavalry has arrived. As vampires fall around her, Drusilla gathers her followers and ducks into the nearest alley, Nadira still in her grasp.

With the fight over, Angel turns quickly. Drusilla has vanished. Faith says it’s simple: they go after her, Angel points out that that may be exactly what Archaeus wants. Faith is angry for a moment, but understands the danger. If Archaeus gets around Angel, they’ll have Angelus to deal with too. But Faith feels responsible for her former student. She is determined to be there for her now.

Fred mentions the look on Nadira’s face. Angel agrees: as if she didn’t mind being taken. They want her alive.

Angel has a plan: Faith and Fred will go to Brandt and round up his people. Then they locate Nadira and maybe, just maybe, she can explain to them what the heck is going on.

Faith and Fred find Inspector Brandt in Rory’s, where he’s helping to redecorate since Dru’s vampires trashed it. He agrees to help, but questions why. Doesn’t Nadira have magic super powers? Faith tells him that they’re not sure what Nadira’s deal with the magic is. Fred asks Faith if she thinks the police will help, but Faith is more worried about her protégé. She knows Drusilla is capable of anything.

In her lair, Drusilla is talking to her prisoner as if they’re old friends. “Nadira, darling, we have much in common. Did you know? We both have voices in our heads. Some are wise and others are foolish. It’s up to us to keep them in line.”

Nadira speaks for the first time. “It’s not like that. The magic communicates to me in feelings. I sense things about it. It’s hard to explain. And I don’t keep it in line, as you say.” She stops for a moment, looking at the cadre of vamps that have just entered. “It’s more like we have a relationship. I don’t control the magic,” she insists. Drusilla scoffs. “You obviously have a very narrow understanding of relationships.”

Parting through the vampires, Drusilla extends her arms, allowing Nadira to go first into another room, darker, smellier and just as unsettling. “Nadira, it’s my pleasure,” Dru says, pride in her voice, “to introduce you to Archaeus, the magnificent!”

Letting her eyes settle into the new light, Nadira stares at the creature in front of her. He’s a massive, hooved creature, with red skin the colour of blood. His teeth are also scarlet, sharp and gleaming like crystal in it’s mouth. Spikes jut from his spinal carapace and he has black, blank eyes. His claws are like razors, and he sits atop a make-shift throne, clearly hastily made.

Upon seeing Nadira he stands, almost reverently, and walks towards her. Pointing a claw in her face, his voice is as soft as it can be, despite the hollowness of the guttural sound.

“YOU KNOW WHY I’VE BROUGHT YOU HERE, DON’T YOU LITTLE ONE?“

“Magic Town.”

“YES. AND YOU ARE THE KEY TO MAGIC TOWN.“

Drusilla interrupts. “It’s her boyfriend and sings songs of bells and hummingbirds right into her brain.” Nadira protests her description, but the demon speaks louder.

“I AM GATHERING MY FAMILY AROUND ME. AND A FAMILY NEEDS A HOME. SOMEWHERE WE CAN BE SAFE WHILE WE GROW IN STRENGTH. A PLACE WORTHY OF US.” He pauses, looking at her directly, “MAGIC TOWN.“

“AND WE NEED YOU, NADIRA, TO… HOW SHALL I PUT IT? TO MAKE INTRODUCTIONS.” The Seer asks why she would do that. Archaeus grins at her. “IF YOU TRULY CARE ABOUT THE MAGIC, THEN YOU’LL WANT TO TELL IT THAT ARCHAEUS COMES WITH A GIFT.“

Slamming his way out of the Pharmacy, Angel is frustrated. The Pharmacist either can’t or won’t help. They’re running out of allies and running out of options. It’s right at that second that a call comes through from Faith: Brandt has an address.

At his lair, Archaeus creeps closer towards Nadira, Drusilla hemming the Seer in. He tells her that he knows the magic yearns for more from it’s existence. He doesn’t know it as well as Nadira, but beings of power can sense each other.

Nadira stands firm. “You don’t understand the magic, whatever your power.” The demon laughs. That’s why she’s here. “YOU CAN BE OUR AMBASSADOR. YOU CAN MAKE THE MAGIC UNDERSTAND.“

“Understand what?”

“THAT WE WISH IT NO HARM. THAT WE ONLY DESIRE TO WELCOME IT INTO OUR FAMILY AND TOGETHER, WE CAN ALL BE STRONGER.“

The look on Nadira’s face changes slightly, more serious. Her voice is like a rhyme “I didn’t let Drusilla bring me here to be your ambassador,” she says, her green markings glowing. “I came here to save you.”

Outside O’Reilly’s Butchers, Angel, Faith, Koh and Fred are looking for a way in. A mass amount of animal blood has been sent here recently. Drusilla is feeding her army with scraps. Fred finds a man hole with access to the tunnels below. Koh asks why they have to go underground when they have the lair, but Angel wants to play this differently. He calls Sophronia. He needs a favour.

Inside the lair, Archaeus is not amused by Nadira’s words. He asks her to explain further.

“Not to save you,” the Seer says, calmly. “To save all of us.”

She looks up, straight into the creature’s eyes, without regard for Drusilla around her. “The magic in Magic Town is more powerful than you can imagine. It’s aware of itself and becoming more so every day. And the more aware it gets, the more it realises it’s not like everyone else.”

“But the magic is young, immature. It lashes out like a child when it’s afraid. I know the magic better than anyone. It will react. Badly.” Her words are calm, but she doesn’t disguise her warning.

“If you come stomping into Magic Town, it will be afraid and it will lash out. You’ll be lighting the fuse on the biggest bomb in the world. So, no, I don’t really care about saving you. But if that’s part of the bargain to save the people there, then fine. Go somewhere else and leave Magic Town alone.”

She looks at the ground, looking away from the demon lord for the first time. “I tried,” she says. “I really did. To do this the easy way. I woke up one day and I was something different. A part of Magic Town. Even now I’m not sure what I am. But I do know one thing. Whatever else I may be…” She looks up again now, more confidence radiating off her. “I never stopped being a Slayer.”

With the end of her sentence, she finally moves her arm from where it’s been behind her back the whole time. Her hand, somehow, has a stake in it. She leaps into the air, taking Drusilla and the demon by surprise. She kicks Archaeus in the chest, using the impact to bounce back away. She takes out three vampires in short order. They don’t even touch her.

As she moves like a blur, she leaps over Archaeus to gain more momentum, but he reaches out unexpectedly, grabbing the Slayer by her hair. “YOU ARE BRAVE,” he says, bringing her closer to his maw. “AND A FOOL.” He raises her above him in his claws, sneering. Then he slams her to the ground with a thud.

He turns to Drusilla, the unconscious Nadira at his feet. “WE’VE LINGERED HERE TOO LONG. GATHER EVERYONE AND HEAD FOR THE NEW LOCATION. AND BRING HER TOO.” Drusilla doesn’t question him. She just follows.

Outside the Butchers, the Fairweather sisters have arrived. They’ll stay outside, just in case anybody tries to run. They’re a little annoyed: they’ve dressed up for the occasion.

Koh tells them that all is quiet inside. Faith has lost patience.

Entering, Fred tells them there’s no one here. Angel realises why. They used Nadira’s scent to lure them here. There’s bodies hanging on meat hooks above the group, blood dripping to the concrete ground. The smell is nauseating and Fred notices a notice on the wall. It’s written in blood.

“Daddy’s come to take you home, Angel,” the message reads. Angel looks at it with a look of worry on his face. But he’s not giving up. He tells the others, with determination, that they’ll find Nadira and they’re not going to stop until they’ve done it. He looks to Faith.

“Okay with you, partner?”

“Five by five,” she responds with a smile.

Elsewhere, Archaeus chides Drusilla. She has disappointed him. Dru is confused, wondering how. It seems another part of his plan needs completing, a bronze statue that Dru has promised to collect for him. She apologises: Mary, the girl at the school, got away thanks to Faith’s meddling.

Archaeus asks her if she wants to remain his favourite, and she cowers lowly in front of him.

“Oh, yes, my lord, of course. Don’t worry. Your Drusilla will handle everything you’ll see. And don’t worry about that wicked child Nadira. Even if she doesn’t help get the magic on our side, she’ll work perfectly as bait…”

And underneath the chamber Archaeus is in, caged and unmoving, Nadira Kureishi lies there, her green marks fading slowly…