In a car, heading for the location they have for Archaeus’ lair, Sophie asks her allies if Angel knows he’s heading into a trap. Faith nods. “Angel resisted Archaeus’s attempts to take him over before, so he should be able to do it this time.”

She whispers under her breath, ensuring no one hears — save perhaps the Nitobe with his enhanced hearing. “I hope.”

Arriving at the location and exiting the car, Eldre Koh looks ahead of them. “Sneaking is no longer an option,” he states, as Drusilla’s foot soldiers, led by Angus, come forward. A welcoming committee. Faith smiles and raises her sword.

“I guess we knew it was going to get noisy sooner or later.”

Deeper into his lair, Drusilla turns to her grandsire. “Faith has arrived with all her fuzzy little ducklings in a line.” Angelus sneers with a chuckle.

“I told you. I was supposed to come in and distract you while Faith brought in her team to get Nadira. Strike now and strike fast and you can finish her. You can finish them all.”

Drusilla purrs into his arms, grinning wildly at the demon. She’s delighted that Angelus is once again amongst them. “And we’re stronger for it.”

Archaeus asks if her forces have engaged the Slayer. Drusilla nods in affirmation. Angus has an appetite for violence.

Archaeus points to the exit. “TAKE CHARGE OF THIS SITUATION PERSONALLY, MY DAUGHTER,” he commands Dru. “TAKE EVERYONE. OVERWHELM THEM.” After she’s gone, he turns to Angel, happy. He’s pleased that he hasn’t had to destroy his offspring.

Angelus smiles, tells him that he’s more than happy to be on the winning team. Archaeus corrects him. “NOT TEAM. FAMILY. A HARD LESSON I LEARNED FROM THE SLAYER IN SAN FRANCISCO. SHE AND HER FRIENDS WERE BOUND TOGETHER. NOT LIKE AN ARMY OR A TEAM – SOMETHING MORE. A FAMILY. AND THERE IS POWER IN THAT. THE MORE WHO ARE BOUND TO ME BY FAMILY TIES, THE STRONGER I GET. THE STRONGER WE GET.”

Now he has a request of Angelus. He must talk to Nadira and convince her to call forth the Magic. With the Magic of Magic Town on their side, they shall be unstoppable.

Angelus hesitates. “I’ll try, but well… it might be tricky.”

Further along in the tunnels, Angus and his vamps have started fighting. Koh has no difficulty killing one vamp, as Fred, with as much effort as she can, takes out another. Faith takes a punch from Angus, who can’t help himself, taunting her.

“I can take it,” she says, wiping blood from her lips. “But having been on both sides of the equation, I’d much prefer to dish it out.” She punctuates her sentence with a kick to Angus’s jaw. It cracks with a satisfying sound.

Sophie and Lavinia each take on a vampire. After dusting two, Lavinia turns to her sister impatiently. “Darling, we discussed this. One of us has to cover while the other reloads.” Sophie smiles. “You know how trigger‑happy I get,” she pouts.

Fred rescues Koh from being overwhelmed. He’s confused by her fist pump, but returns the gesture.

Faith, wrestling with Angus, has hit her last nerve. She pushes back against him, their hands locked in a violent dance. “I’ve learned something watching your hooligan teams play on television,” the Slayer says, scoffing at his soccer jersey.

“What would that be, Slayer?” Angus snarls, as he pushes back.

“Headers,” she says, and head‑butts him directly, his nose breaking with a crack and Faith dropping to kick his legs out from under him. Before Angus can raise himself back up, she’s taken his head off with her sword and he implodes to dust.

Faith exhales for a moment, looking around. A voice comes from behind her. “I’d rather you hadn’t done that.”

Drusilla stands, flanked on all sides by more vampires. “Angus was mine. The little brother I never had. I was still teaching him things.”

Faith turns, weapon in hand but lowered slightly. “Teaching him what? To believe any promise he hears? Look, Dru, we don’t have to do it this way. Whatever it is you think you’re getting from Archaeus, it’s not worth it. You can resist him, like Angel did.”

Drusilla doesn’t move. She tells Faith, calmly, that Angel has come over to them. Angelus is free. Faith gasps loudly. “You’re lying,” she says, gritting her teeth.

Drusilla shakes her head. “It’s true. And since this is becoming tiresome, here’s something else that’s true. I’m afraid we’re going to have to kill you now.”

Faith asks her with what army, but regrets her sentence as more vamps come from the shadows.

The Slayer sighs. “Okay. So I guess I walked into that one.”

Elsewhere, Archaeus asks what Angelus means by ‘tricky’. He tells Angelus that he has something the Magic wants. Angelus presses for more information.

In the tunnels, Faith calls Drusilla out, telling her that she’s been heavily relying on minions. She taunts her about getting her hands dirty.

Dru smiles. She extends her hand and one of her lackeys puts a sword in it. “Poor Drusilla,” the vampire wails. “The wallflower with a sword. So long since anyone asked her to dance.”

She moves towards Faith with menace. Fred steps forward, but Koh intervenes. “Trust her,” he whispers. Drusilla tells Faith to come to her. “Embrace death,” she coos.

Faith meets her sword with her own parry before she can move another step. “Get bent,” she tells the vampire, who whirls herself out of the way, like she’s dancing with an invisible partner.

“Are we a little slow?” she taunts Faith. “It’s from fighting so many minions, I bet.” She blocks another of the Slayer’s blows. “Dulls the reflexes. Puts sleepy thoughts in your brain. But you are enthusiastic.”

She swings with her own blade, slashing Faith across the top of her arm, drawing blood. This pushes Faith on, and she returns the attack. Drusilla takes advantage of the changing tactics, elbowing Faith in the chin, knocking her down to the ground.

She cackles in the darkness. “A discarded page from an old diary, sticking to a wet, grey rock. Who discarded you, Little Flutter? Is there no guardian Angel come to save you?”

Elsewhere, alone and quickly, a hand turns a key in the cell door and rouses a confused Nadira from her unconsciousness. It’s Angelus.

Or rather, Angel. Nadira is stunned. Angel smiles at her. “You know, this might’ve been the first time you’ve actually been surprised to see me. Didn’t the Magic tell you I was coming?”

Nadira shakes her head. She’s been keeping the Magic out — she can’t risk it helping them and giving Archaeus what he wants. She dreads what he’ll be able to accomplish with the Magic at his side.

“I’d like to think the Magic would choose me over Archaeus. But it’s just too unpredictable. No, I won’t call it.”

Angel helps her to her feet and they exit the cell, her green skin markings potently shining in the darkness.

Archaeus stands before them, however.

“THAT’S A SHAME. IT WOULD HAVE BEEN CONVENIENT. STILL, IT WAS A GOOD IDEA, ANGELUS. WORTH A TRY.”

Nadira turns to Angel in shock. “No!” she yells, realising as Angelus holds her that she’s in more danger. He demands a chance to have another crack at her, begs Archaeus for another go.

And then he winks at her. A slight smile. Nadira peers at him, her left eye locked on him, green light shining from her pupil.

And then Angel turns, swinging his sword, his deception complete, slashing Archaeus straight across his broad chest, causing an almighty tear in his carapace, exposing organs, leaving blood dripping.

Angel grabs Nadira and runs, as Archaeus stares in complete disbelief. He charges after them, Angel’s name yelling on the air.

Angel sends a text as they turn a corner. He knows what he’s doing. Nadira asks if he knows where he’s going, but Angel insists that as a vampire, he knows his way underground. “We tricked Archaeus into taking me to you. Making sure none of his underlings were around to chase us.”

“That’s all there was to it?” the Seer asks.

“No,” Angel smiles. “But that’s Faith’s problem.”

Archaeus is not that far behind them now, gaining ground.

At the site of Dru and Faith’s battle, Drusilla raises her sword to complete the fight. “This is how it ends for the mighty Faith. Legends will tell the tale of Drusilla, the Slayer of Slayers, the loveliest of the…”

She’s interrupted by a text message alert on Faith’s phone. She raises her finger to shush Drusilla’s bragging. She looks down at the message.

‘I GOT HER’, it reads. Faith grins. Koh recognises the look, and tells Fred and the sisters to quietly start the car. Lavinia is already halfway there.

Faith swings, disarming Drusilla with a smile. As Drusilla spins to strike Faith with her long fingernails, Faith catches her in the chest with her boot, throwing Drusilla to the feet of her followers, her face spattered with her own blood.

She’s stunned. Outraged. She screams at the top of her voice and points her minions at Faith. “Kill her!”

Faith turns to Koh. “Time to run.”

They barely get to the car in time.

At the Giles townhouse, Nadira thanks them for rescuing her. She believes she is safer with them than in Magic Town. “So close to the centre of Magic Town, my bond with the Magic would be nearly automatic. Here, I can block it out.” She confides in Fred that she’s not sure she can trust the Magic right now.

Outside, watching from another room, Faith thanks Angel personally, and also reminds him that she let Drusilla whale on her as a distraction to give him time.

“We got lucky,” Angel tells her.

“I prefer to think it was the deft execution of an excellent plan. But I never turn down a little luck when it comes along.”

Angel reminds her that getting one over on Archaeus doesn’t mean that they’ve defeated him. “Right now,” Angel says grimly, “I’m sure he’s rolling out Plan B.”

In the centre of Magic Town, Rory exits an off‑licence and begins the walk back to his bar. He stops as he reaches the main shopping street.

There’s a large bronze statue in the middle of the street, being secured in place by security guards.

He stands there staring for a moment.

“Well, what the bloody hell do you suppose that’s all about?”