At his home, museum curator Niles Weatherford is talking to his assistant Brenda via the telephone. He daren’t leave the artefact unguarded. The bronze statue has been in his care for two weeks now and he still has no idea who made it. In fact, he tells his assistant, he thinks a whole team of people made it. There are too many cultural influences on it.

He asks her to once again pass on his thanks to the museum team for having it shipped to him. He knows he’s a bit of a recluse these days, but it’s clearly excited him. He tells Brenda he’ll let her know if he discovers anything, and places the receiver down.

He turns and looks at the silent bronze statue. An armoured knight, possibly a Cro‑Magnon, he thinks, but definitely something unworldly. The sword it carries — it must be more than human. But he chides himself: that’s ridiculous, right?

His thoughts are lost as he hears the bell of his front door. He’s not expecting company. Cautiously, he opens the door and asks his visitor what they want. He’s gruffer than he’d prefer.

A tall woman stands before him. She’s not wearing shoes, which the professor finds odd. She’s wearing a long black gown, with tied‑back hair in an intricate bun. She has dark eyes, and a Cockney accent that is barely audible, like a whisper.

She says her car has broken down, that she needs to use a telephone. But Niles is already used to this routine. “Sorry,” he says, as he has a million times before. “I’m a very private person. Nobody comes in except my daughter. And she’s on holiday with her mother. The tobacconist around the corner will let you use the phone. Good evening.”

And with that he closes the door and, without realising, exhales. What was that about?

Outside, Drusilla is not amused. Her face leers into frustration as she gets back into the car situated nearby. Her newest foot soldier, whose name she can’t remember, tells her that Lord Archaeus will not be pleased: the statue is the missing part of his plan. Dru simply tells him to drive — she will find another way.

Elsewhere, on the streets of Magic Town, a young boy is being chased by a herd of vampires. They cackle at him as he screams for help. As his feet give way from under him, the boy falls into their waiting arms. Then the arrow strikes the leader in the back.

He turns, irritated more than hurt. Civilians Tricia and Parker are behind him, armed with a crossbow. Tricia is struggling to reload. As the vampires charge towards the young couple, however, Faith arrives from the shadows of the nearest alleyway, landing her foot straight across the leader’s face, knocking his very fine hat off his head in the process.

But there are too many, Tricia thinks. She’s still struggling with the crossbow and Faith is outnumbered.

Then she looks up and sees Angel. She sighs in relief. Parker looks like he’s hyperventilating next to her.

Angel grabs one vamp and holds it in place for Faith to stake it to dust. While still fighting, Faith tells them not to worry: they’re not going anywhere. As one vamp runs to escape, Tricia aims her crossbow, but Angel stops her. “It’s all part of the plan,” he assures her.

Parker dusts himself off and gets annoyed: he didn’t do a thing to help. Tricia comforts him: it’s their first time on patrol. Angel tells him that it takes practice. “I know a guy back in San Francisco, named Xander, and if he can learn to…”

Faith interrupts him. “The point is that Angel or I might not always be around, and it’s good to start learning the ropes.” Parker looks sullen: he tried getting more people to help, but they’re too afraid. Faith decides to call it a night. She and Angel have somewhere to be.

At the Fairweather town house, the team has gathered. Angel and Faith stand amongst their assembled allies: Fred Burkle, the Nitobe Warrior Eldre Koh and Sophronia and Lavinia Fairweather. Fred asks Angel if his plan worked. He nods.

“I made sure the escaped vamp heard I was sticking close to Magic Town to patrol. Basically what they want.”

Faith joins him. “If Archaeus thinks he’s succeeded in pinning Angel down here, then maybe he’ll ease up with the vamp ‘hit and run’ strikes on Magic Town.” Koh takes it all in and, from behind Faith, speaks, grimly. “So we do not patrol Magic Town. That leaves us free to go after Archaeus and rescue Nadira – a risk, but a good one.”

Angel doesn’t agree. He knows what they want him to do, but it may be playing into Archaeus’s plan. He plans to stay in Magic Town. “Somebody needs to stay home and mind the store. And Magic Town – they know me around here. They’ll feel safer.” Fred offers to stay back and help, but Angel tells her no. He’s decided that him staying behind is the best thing to do.

Faith points at him, her anger and temper starting to swell. “You decided? Who elected you Grand Poohbah, Captain Kirk, Lord Commander of this Enterprise?”

Angel puts his hands on the dining table and Fred, subconsciously and unaware of doing so, takes a step away from him.

“When you left town, I had to take care of everything myself. Somebody had to mind the store while you were getting it together.” As soon as he says it, he knows he shouldn’t have. He’s being too hard. But he’s finally had enough of being questioned.

Faith slams her own hand down on the table. Sophronia pours another glass. Lavinia jumps slightly. There’s a slight grin on Koh’s face. “Excuse me?” the Slayer demands.

“You know what?” Angel says, turning away. “Forget it everyone. Take five or… whatever.” Lavinia offers to go after Angel as he leaves, but Faith looks down at the carpet with a sigh. “No,” she whispers. “I got this.”

In his less-than-opulent warehouse lair, Archaeus is addressing Drusilla, who stands quietly in front of him. “I EXPECTED PROGRESS BY NOW, DRUSILLA,” he barks at her, pacing back and forth before her.

“My pardon, Lord Archaeus. It’s but a momentary setback. I assure you that…”

Drusilla doesn’t have time to finish. Archaeus lifts her by her throat, cutting off her words and snarling at her, angrily. “YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO TAKE CARE OF THIS WHILE I WAS IN SAN FRANCISCO. THESE CONTINUED DELAYS DISPLEASE ME. YOU DO WISH TO REMAIN MY FAVOURITE, DON’T YOU DRUSILLA?“

She sputters an affirmative out of the side of her mouth and he throws her to the concrete floor with a thud. “I DON’T KNOW WHY I’M SO PERMISSIVE WITH YOU. MUST BE A FAMILIAL ATTACHMENT. I FEEL I CAN’T HELP BUT GIVE YOU ONE MORE CHANCE.” As he walks out of the room on his hooved feet, he turns back to her.

“BUT TIME GROWS SHORT. YOU WON’T FAIL ME AGAIN.“

Drusilla agrees with him and wipes tears from her eyes, her make-up smudged, her gown ripped.

“I DO REGRET WHEN WE QUARREL,” he tells her. “BUT YOU MUST UNDERSTAND THAT A FATHER MUST DISCIPLINE HIS CHILDREN. THAT’S HOW I THINK OF MYSELF. AS A FATHER.“

She pledges her allegiance quietly and he smiles through his blood-red teeth. He tells her that, apart from the statue, she also has to return her brother Angelus to the fold. Archaeus tells her that he wants to be a family again, with Magic Town under their rule.

“WE SHALL RETRIEVE OUR LONG-LOST SPIKE,” he tells her, which prompts a smile on her face. “Yes. Spike. All of us together again. Old times.”

Archaeus tells her that when the statue business is completed, Angel will come. He will come for her. He looks at Nadira, unconscious in a cell, her green skin marks pulsating with power, despite her sleeping form.

“AND SUCH ATTACHMENTS WILL BE HIS UNDOING,” he declares.

Faith finds Angel sitting outside on the front porch of the Fairweather house. She starts by telling him that she thought they were okay, but Angel apologises straight away.

He explains that he was used to solo work and then had a team. Then the team faded away and he got used to having Faith by his side. But when she left, he got used to doing everything by himself again – which he admits is a hard habit to break.

Faith sits and listens. He’s also concerned with his last battle with Archaeus. It didn’t take much for the demon to control him. Seconds, minutes – too short a time for Angel to react. If it wasn’t for Spike, he wouldn’t be here, and that makes him nervous.

Faith tells him that he needs to trust his instincts. And her. “I’ve always got your back,” she tells him, before they head back inside.

In the kitchen, battle plans are forming. Sophie wants to make sure that she and her sister get something to do this time: she’s sick of guarding the car. Lavinia concurs. She has put in the practice with the crossbows – she would like a chance to use her skills. “I’m just as heroic as everyone else!” she complains around the circular dining table.

Koh sits there, listening to the two. He quietly tells them, his exasperation showing: “I am not in charge of such things.”

Fred has also received some intel from Brandt that they also need to check out. But Angel and Faith re-enter the room at that moment. Angel looks at them all in the eyes and smiles.

“I’ll tell you what we do. I’m going after Nadira, but I can’t do it alone. I need you. Because we’re a team.”

At his home, recording his newest observations on the bronze statue, Niles Weatherford is interrupted by the phone ringing. He promptly answers it: it’s his assistant Brenda, again. He sighs. Her tone says something is off. She tells him that, due to liability and insurance purposes, the museum board has asked that the statue be returned and worked on at it’s base.

While Niles is deeply disappointed, he understands. What he doesn’t realise is, at the museum, sitting in the centre of a bloodied office with corpses everywhere, Brenda is crying, placing the phone on the receiver. Drusilla hovers behind her, blood dripping from her mouth, her next kill imminent.

At the Fairweather House, Angel has picked up his cell and called Inspector Brandt back in his office. Brandt tells Angel that there have been several strange reports from the sewer maintenance people that sounds Magic Town-esque. Angel tells the officer he’ll look into it and tells the gang that they’re ready to move.

After double-checking with Brandt, Angel thanks him for the information and puts the phone down.

On the other end, in his darkened office, Brandt smiles. Fangs emerge from his mouth and his yellow eyes glisten in the dim light of his computer screen. “Always willing to help a friend,” he grins, evilly.

Later, as Angel opens a door to the sewer access tunnels, he places his hand on the hilt of his sword. He knows something is not right. Descending the wooden steps, heading for the tunnel junction, he’s ambushed by several vampires – including Drusilla’s pet foot soldier.

As they surround Angel and attempt to bring him down, he turns, quick as lightening, his broad sword in his hands. He spins, his coat billowing majestically behind him as he moves in one fluid motion, taking the head off one vampire and staking another in his chest without looking. Noticing Dru’s shaved-head minion, Angel grunts. “I’ve had enough of you,” he tells him.

The vampire stands there, rubbing his hands together in anticipation of the fight. Drusilla is suddenly behind him, glaring at Angel from the shadows. She calls her foot soldier off, much to his disappointment. He tells Angel that he’ll keep, and walks away, leaving Angel and Drusilla alone together.

“I don’t know what you think we have to talk about Dru, but if it doesn’t cover the topic of ‘Where’s Nadira?’ then it’s going to be a real short conversation.”

“It is about Nadira,” Dru singsongs back at him. “Walk with me, Angel,” she says and turns.

Her next words surprise him. “I miss us, Angel.” There is no us, he reminds her, only for her to turn and tells him that there is. “It’s the right thing. Archaeus is part of us. And we’re part of him. It’s about belonging, Angel. And we all belong together.”

He looks at her for a moment, straight in the eyes. He seems slightly concerned. “I know the need to belong can be compelling, Dru. But this thing with Archaeus – it isn’t what you’re looking for. It’s not belonging. It’s a trap.”

She tells him he’s wrong. That if he could just talk to Archaeus, he would understand. But Angel declines the offer.

And then, Archaeus himself steps out of the shadows, towering over Angel, his growling voice loud and booming.

“THAT’S DISAPPOINTING. CAN’T REASONABLE BEINGS TALK THROUGH THEIR DIFFERENCES?“

Angel scoffs at him. “You? Reasonable? I would love to see some evidence of that.”

Archaeus shakes his head. “THE EVIDENCE IS RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU,” he declares, gesturing towards Drusilla. “I BROUGHT HER BACK INTO THE FOLD WITHOUT CONFLICT. I COULD HAVE ATTACKED YOU JUST NOW. IT WOULD HAVE BEEN EASY. YOU’RE ALL ALONE. NO BUFFY AND HER FRIENDS TO DEFEND YOU.“

“BUT I DON’T WANT TO DEFEAT YOU. THAT WAS NEVER MY GOAL. I WANT ONLY TO WELCOME YOU HOME.“

Angel grimaces at the demon. “Home? It took me a lifetime to really understand what that word means. The way you say it is offensive.”

He steps back and raises his sword. “I might be alone, but I’ll never join you. If you understand anything about me, you’d know that already. Right now, while you’re making your speech, my friends are arranging your defeat. I don’t care what you do to me, because I know the right thing is going to happen. So let’s get this over with.”

He stands there, unmoving, his enemies in front of him, prepared.

Archaeus almost laughs at him. “IF I WANTED YOU DEAD, YOU’D BE DEAD. IF YOU WON’T JOIN ME WILLINGLY, THEN I’LL SIMPLY IMPOSE MY WILL.” He points a clawed finger at Angel and smiles. “I WILL NOT BE DENIED.“

Angel is suddenly thrown back hard against the nearest concrete wall, his back making an abnormal sound. Green energies flow around Archaeus as he grins. Drusilla moves to Angel’s side.

“This is how it should be. You’ll see. You’ll be home where you belong. You’ll be with your family, Angel,” she says, in her melodic tone.

Angel doesn’t look up at her as he rises. “Don’t call me Angel,” he says, as he gets to his feet.

“I’ve always thought Angelus had a better ring to it,” he says, the demon out, his fangs bared.