Day One

Night - Sunnydale Cemetery

The Sunnydale cemetery at night. The camera faded in on a gravestone.

Andrew Hoelich, 1981-1998

The camera slowly panned down to the ground in front of the gravestone. There was a bouquet of flowers there.

A hand came out of the freshly filled grave and clawed for solid ground. Slowly, Andrew pulled himself out of his grave, now a newly made vampire. He growled when his head cleared the earth, and continued to climb out on his stomach. He crawled along the ground, pulling out his legs. He stopped when he saw a pair of wide spread feet, looking up to see who it was.

Bianca smirked mischievously. "Welcome to the land of unliving. You're not gonna be in it for long."

The vampire Andrew jumped to his feet, growling at Bianca, stepping toward her. Bianca stepped back, kicking into his gut. Andrew spun, kicking Bianca into a gravestone. Bianca used her stolen red Guardian energy to levitate over the top of it, turning toward him, holding her hands toward Andrew, making the red energy glow brighter as Andrew ran toward her, using the power to make him freeze with a wave of energy, running up the side of the mausoleum behind her, flipping over Andrew's head, landing on the ground behind him, spinning to kick him back. Andrew fell into a gravestone, making it break.

Bianca heard something behind her, turning to see Zoey, Willow, Eric, Xander and Oz there, nervous to see them. "What are you doing here?"

"What are you doing here?" Zoey replied.

"Yeah, you don't have to be here, Bianca," Willow told her.

"Not exactly your job," Eric agreed.

"I'm not doing this for a job," Bianca told them. "I--I... And I've got this."

"Yeah, we can see that," Oz told her.

Zoey looked from Bianca to Andrew. "Hey, can either of you tell me something? Why do vampires always learn how to fight right after they wake?"

Because of Bianca being distracted by the others, Andrew was using the opportunity to try to run. Zoey took off her necklace that blocked her powers, glowing with purple power that she used to throw him to the ground.

Bianca turned to face Andrew, hands glowing with red energy as she ripped her hands away from each other, using the red Guardian energy to rip Andrew apart in waves of Guardian power, letting the ashes fall.

Zoey was impressed. "Guess that's a question for another day, huh?"

Bianca was annoyed, looking away.

"Are you all right?" Oz asked.

Bianca didn't face them. "Fine."

Zoey was skeptic, sympathetic. "All right. You know, I like patrolling. It gives such a rush."

"Bianca?" Willow asked. "What are you doing here?"

"What do you think?" Bianca replied. "I'm trying to help."

"Yeah, by almost letting that vamp get away?" Xander asked.

Zoey, Willow and Eric gave Xander a look.

Bianca ignored him. "I know I'm still out of my mind. Because of being sick. Before turning. But ever since getting my soul back... Not sure whether to thank Zoey and Layla or not. Just by the way." Zoey smirked slightly, nodding in acknowledgment. "But ever since getting a soul back... I just wanna make up for what I did. To Brady. To Alice. To Brooke. To Wyatt. To all of you. Just from far away. Without seeing any of you. Because... I..."

"Because you couldn't stand being around us after what happened," Zoey finished sadly.

Bianca looked down. "Yeah. And I had a hold of that vamp. But you guys distracted me."

"Yeah, you're welcome for the assist," Oz told her, semi-sarcastic.

"First of all, what was with the acrobatics?" Xander asked. "How did that happen?"

Oz looked in the direction of Andrew's ashes. "Wasn't Andy Hoelich on the gymnastics team?"

Xander nodded. "That's right. He was." He looked at the ashes. "Cheater."

The others smiled slightly. Bianca looked away.

Willow looked at Bianca. "Okay, and the, uh, second problem I'm having... You were talking some serious trash back there." Bianca shrugged. "Why? I mean, doesn't it piss them off?"

"Well, actually, it throws the vampires off," Eric answered. "Makes them nervous because we're wisecracking. Zoey and I learned that from Buffy, Brooke, Alice, Carmen, Brady and Wyatt."

Bianca shrugged. "I learned it from Spike, Angel and Drusilla."

"Uh, if I may suggest," Oz told them. "'This time it's personal.' I mean, there's a reason why it's a classic."

Eric stepped away. "I've always been amazed with how Buffy, Brooke, Brady, Alice, Zoey, Carmen and Wyatt fought. Even Layla."

Xander sighed. "In a way, I feel like we took your guys' punning for granted."

Willow gave him a scolding look. "Xander. Past tense rule."

"Oh, sorry," Xander told them.

"In the past, we took it for granted," Eric amended. "We won't when the others get back."

"Bianca, if you need my help or Willow's help with a spell to help your mind again..." Eric trailed off.

"No, thank you, Eric," Bianca told him. "All of you are better off far away from me."

"Finally something we can agree on," Xander told her.

"Bite me, Xander," Bianca replied.

Zoey, Willow and Eric gave Xander a look again, trying to change the subject.

"Do you think Buffy, Brooke, Alice, Carmen and Brady know school's starting tomorrow?" Willow asked. "And so would Wyatt's job."

"Tomorrow," Eric repeated. "Right. Big day."

"Oh, I'm gonna be busy a lot," Zoey told them. "With Buffy, Brooke, Brady, Alice, Carmen and Wyatt having to stay away for suspicion of murder until we finally prove they're innocent..." Bianca looked down in guilt because she was one part of the reason why they were on the run. "Giles wants to make sure one of the only protectors of Sunnydale knows how to defend this town. More than just gypsy powers or assassin memories. But actually learning how to fight like Alice and Giles taught Buffy and Brady. Which means training after school. But only till 3:00." Zoey looked at Oz. "And that's when you usually get up. I think Giles likes training me more than I like being trained."

"What do you mean?" Oz asked.

"I think it makes him feel like Buffy, Brooke, Brady, Alice, Wyatt and Carmen are all still here," Zoey answered. "The more he pushes my limit, the more I fight like a Slayer. It drives me nuts."

"Yeah, Giles has been training me to fight like that too," Eric added. "Well, more like Brady. A human hunter."

Willow smiled. "Plus, Giles, Zoey and Layla have been teaching me and Eric more about our latent powers. It's a slow process. But worth it. It would be easier if Wyatt and Carmen were here to help teach us, though. And Alice and Brooke to help Bianca with her Guardian powers, though you seem to got that down a little bit, Bianca."

"I don't need help from Alice and Brooke after what I did to them before Zoey and Layla gave me my soul back," Bianca told them. "The last time I saw you, before the summer started, I told you that I would turn myself in so that we might have a shot at bringing Buffy, Brooke, Brady, Alice, Wyatt and Carmen back to town."

"Yeah, but how would you explain how you suddenly burst into flames when the sun goes up inside a prison?" Xander replied. "No, we talked about this."

"Yeah, Bianca, you're already paying for what happened," Eric told her. "Just relax. We'll figure out another way." Xander opened his mouth to speak. Eric gave him a look. "Without Bianca getting hurt. Or killed."

"I guess we should pack it in," Oz told them.

"Yeah," Eric agreed. "Wouldn't it be great if we finally found something that could clear their names?"

"So they could come home," Xander told him. "But you've been talking to them most, Eric. I mean, to Buffy at least. Which leads to talking to Brady, Alice, Brooke and Wyatt. But no one's talked to Carmen. Even though they've been trying to talk to her."

"Well, yeah," Willow agreed. "I know. I just wish... I wish we could bring them all home."

∞

Los Angeles

Street

Buffy was standing at a payphone, talking with Eric. "So even Bianca was slaying things of the night in our absence, huh?"

Eric was at home in his room. "Yeah. She just felt guilty after everything and wanted to try to make it up, but she wanted us to stay away from her because she doesn't want to hurt us again. Willow and I've been using a simple mind spell to try to help her mind get better."

"Sounds like quite the chore," Buffy admitted.

"Yeah, not easy for a spell to heal a mind that was basically melted by cancer and tumors," Eric agreed. "But at least with the spell and the fact that Zoey and Layla gave her her soul back, Bianca's doing a lot better."

"Then I'm glad," Buffy told him. "Zoey and Layla were life savers that night then."

"Yeah," Eric agreed. "Xander still won't give Bianca a chance though but not like he has a lot of room to say anything since he didn't even tell you, me, Brady, Brooke, Alice, Wyatt and Carmen that Zoey and Layla were doing the spell to give Bianca and Angel their souls back."

"I know," Buffy agreed. "That's why Carmen and Brady don't want to talk to Xander. Brady, Brooke, Alice, Wyatt and I've been trying to talk to Carmen though, but been giving her the space she needs too. What about Zoey, Layla, Giles, Willow, Cordelia and Xander, or Oz?"

"Zoey and Layla are completely healed from that night," Eric answered. "Giles is worried about Alice but Alice keeps in touch with him. Willow and I've been adapting to magic and getting better at helping Bianca. Xander, Cordelia and Oz are just same old same old."

"Any closer to clearing our names?" Buffy asked.

"Very close," Eric answered. "There's something going on with the police, like people are trying to make sure that we don't clear your names, but  swear we're close to it, Buffy. Bianca wanted to turn herself in but we stopped her because we didn't want anyone to find out what she is or anything else or about what we are."

Buffy nodded in understanding. "Good call. Can't believe Bianca would want to turn herself in for us though, Eric."

"Well, she's trying to make amends," Eric pointed out. "In the only ways she knows how."

Buffy nodded. "I know. How's Mom?"

"She's hurting, since she told you, Brooke and Brady to leave and not come back, but she keeps waiting for you, even though I told her that you guys can't come back until we clear your names," Eric answered. "I've been trying to make sure Joyce's okay though."

Buffy sighed. "Thank you, Eric."

Eric  nodded. "But believe me when I tell you that you, Brooke, Brady, Alice, Wyatt and Carmen are gonna be able to come home soon, Buffy."

Buffy smiled. "Good. I miss you, Eric."

"Miss you too," Eric agreed. "I love you."

"I love you," Buffy replied.

They smiled, hanging up.

  ∞ 

Carmen's Dream

Day - Los Angeles Beach

A wave crashed on the sand. In the far distance, a pier stretched out into the water. Carmen stepped into view, walking barefoot across the sand, stopping, looking out over the ocean, closing her eyes, raising her head to just feel the sun on her face and listen to the waves coming in. The camera panned down from her face to her waist. A pair of hands reached around her, clasping in front. Carmen covered the hands with her own, holding them. The camera panned back up to her face, revealing Angel being the one behind her, leaning his head over her shoulder.

Carmen reached up with her hand, brushing it against his cheek. "How did you find me here?"

Angel chuckled slightly. "If I was blind, I would see you."

Carmen lowered her hand to take his again at her waist, closing her eyes, embracing his arms tightly around her. "Stay with me."

"Forever," Angel told her. "That's the whole point. I'll never leave." He whispered in her ear. "Not even if you let me die."

Carmen's expression turned from contented to dismayed.

∞

Reality

Night - Carmen's Apartment

In the tiny apartment in a rundown downtown Los Angeles neighborhood, Carmen woke from her dream, looking around sadly, slowly getting up, walking over to the window overlooking the street below. The camera panned away from the window, past the sidewalk, into the street. A police siren got louder as it neared, and an instant later an LAPD squad car raced across the intersection at the end of the block against the red light.

∞ Slayers and Guardians ∞

Day Two

Morning - Helen's Kitchen

The diner was sleazy and small. The cook put two burgers with fries up on he pick up counter. A waitress walked past the counter to hang an order on the spinner. 

Brady walked behind her to pick up the two burgers, a waiter, and he looked extremely bored, taking the two plates, walking them over to a nearby table, setting hem down in front of two roughneck types, taking out his order pad. "Anything else?"

"That'll do us, boy," Roughneck 1 told him.

Brady tore off their bill, putting it on the table. "Pay at the counter." He walked away to another able, where a young couple was sitting, too into each other to notice Brady, but the girl was recognizable from 2.07 Lie to Me, from the vampire club that Bianca and her brother Ford were with at first before Bianca turned into a vampire. "You guys ready?"

The man of the couple, Rickie, was still looking at his girl, who went by Lily now. "Yeah. I think we're good. Um..." He looked at Brady's name tag. "Andre."

Brady glanced at them briefly, looking down at his pad to take their order. "What'll you have?"

Rickie reached into his pocket, pulling out a handful of change. "Well, okay, what can we get with this?"

Rickie dumped the change onto the table, which was mostly pennies, a few nickles and dimes, but no quarters.

"Um..." Brady trailed off.

"Can we get cake?" Lily asked.

"Don't be stupid," Rickie told her. "We gotta eat healthy. We can't have cake." He looked at Brady. "Can we get pie?"

Brady wrote the order down. "We've got a peach pie. I can't guarantee there's a peach in it."

Lily looked at Rickie. "We shouldn't have blown all our money."

"Come on, it was worth it," Rickie told her. Lily smiled. Rickie looked up at Brady, as the couple held out their forearms. "Hey, check this out."

Brady looked at their arms, seeing they each had a tattoo of half of a heart with a ribbon across it, and on their respective arms halves of the ribbon, they had the other's name tattooed. "It's nice, and uh, permanent."

Rickie wrapped his arm around Lily. "Yeah, forever. I mean, that's the whole point."

Lily looked at Rickie and smiled. 

Brady seemed to recognize Lily a little bit, trying to figure out where he remembered her, but since she looked so different he didn't know for sure.

Lily looked up, recognizing him. "Hey, do I know you?"

Brady looked away. "I don't think so."

"Really?" Lily asked. "Where're you from?"

Brady sighed. "I'll get your pie." Lily watched as Brady walked to the cash register. Rickie distracted Brady and they were in their own little world again. At the register, Brady put down the order, looking at a waitress. "I'm not feeling great. Do you think you can cover for me?"

"Sure," the waitress answered, looking at the order. "Okay."

Brady looked at Lily and Rickie one last time before walking out of the diner.

  ∞ 

Wyatt/Brooke's Apartment

Brooke was at the apartment she was living in with Wyatt, cleaning things up.

Wyatt walked in, taking off his jacket. 

"Hey, you're back pretty late after going out last night," Brooke pointed out. "I got back after hunting with Buffy and Alice, but you were still out with Brady."

"Yeah, there's a lot more evil in this city than we first thought," Wyatt told her. "Not sure what all kind of evil bloody nasties are out there, but it's good to go out and try to find them. I mean, it's not as easy to find them since we don't have Zoey, Eric, Xander, Willow, Layla and Giles with us, and Carmen isn't really big into talking to you, me, Buffy, Brady or Alice, but..."

"That's true," Brooke agreed. "But at least we still get to try to find them on our own. The bad guys I mean. You, me, Buffy, Brady and Alice get way too bored and restless if there's not a bad guy for us to take care of. And I know Carmen needs a break from everything, but I wish she'd talk to us."

"Yeah," Wyatt agreed. "Me too."

"Eric called Buffy last night, though," Brooke explained. "Eric, Zoey, Layla, Xander, Willow and Giles are not stopping until they find a way to clear our names, and they think they're close to finally doing so."

"That's great," Wyatt told her.

"Yeah," Brooke agreed. "And Bianca was even willing to turn herself in to clear our names, but the others stopped her because..."

"Because they didn't want Bianca to blow the secret of the supernatural," Wyatt finished. "Yeah, I know. But at least when Bianca has her soul back and Eric and Willow are using spells to help her mind, she actually wants to make up for what she's done.  I know she lost her mind and wanted to turn into a vampire because of her brother Ford's influence, and the cancer and the brain tumors liquefying her brain, so..."

"Yeah," Brooke agreed sadly. "I just really wanna get back home, Wyatt. Buffy, Brady and I did not leave things good at all with our mother, and..."

Wyatt walked closer. "Brooke... it's all right. I know the falling out with you, Buffy, Brady and Joyce was pretty bad, but if you guys talk to her and when we get back home, things might be better."

"Maybe," Brooke agreed. "I just have no idea what to say to her. Buffy and Brady don't either."

Wyatt nodded in agreement. "I know. But take it from me. Being estranged from your family is not very fun. Though me and Spike are on a whole other level when it comes to family drama, and I actually came to like the fact that we were estranged because he turned into a psychopathic dick." Brooke laughed. Wyatt smiled. "Who tried to kill you like he killed my last love to try and turn me mad, but at least you're a Guardian, Brooke."

"That's right," Brooke agreed. "Which means it's not easy to kill me. Not even by Spike or Bianca. And I'm not leaving you, Wyatt."

Brooke and Wyatt smiled, kissing slowly and passionately.

  ∞ 

Street

Brady was walking home after work.

Alice was standing by a building, turning to face him. "Brady."

"Alice," Brady replied.

They walked down the street together.

"I patrolled last night with Brooke and Buffy," Alice explained. "Wyatt and you had some patrolled of your own, I heard."

"Yep," Brady answered. "Lot of evil in this city."

"Maybe more than we realize," Alice agreed. "Buffy did tell me and Broke that Eric called her last night after patrolling, though."

"How is everyone?" Brady asked.

"Zoey's overworking herself since she and Layla, besides Bianca, are the only ones left in town with experienced powers, and it's hard to manage all the Hellmouth work alone," Alice answered. "Layla can't patrol all the time since she has a job at the hospital to keep as a doctor. But Eric and Willow are coming more into their latent powers because of Zoey, Layla and my father, and Eric and Willow are helping Bianca with her mind through spells. Though they wish that Brooke, Wyatt, Carmen and I were there to help them."

"Of course Eric and Willow would want Carmen and Wyatt to help, since they are badass witches," Brady told her. "I feel bad for Zoey and Layla overworking themselves though. And glad that Eric and Willow are helping Bianca with her mind."

"So am I," Alice agreed. "Even given everything that happened. Everything else with Xander and Oz and Cordelia seems to be the same though Dad and Zoey are also helping Eric train more as a fighter so Zoey and Bianca don't have to be the only ones protecting the town securely while we're gone."

"I figured," Brady admitted. "I'm glad Zoey has Eric and Bianca to help her, even if Bianca wants them to stay away from her. Given everything that happened."

Alice nodded in agreement. "You should know Bianca was willing to turn herself in to clear our names. Even though we can't risk that and risk exposure of the supernatural."

"Sounds like how Bianca used to be, before she got sick with cancer and tumors," Brady admitted. "When we used to be together here in this city. Listen, Alice, speaking of Bianca, I saw someone from that old vampire club that Bianca and Ford were in when they first got to Sunnydale before Spike turned them."

"What?" Alice asked in concern.

"Yeah," Brady answered. "One of the groupies that I got Spike to let go when I threatened to kill Drusilla."

"Are you okay?" Alice asked.

"Yeah," Brady answered. "Just trying to stay distracted."

Alice nodded in understanding. "Well, there's plenty of distractions in the city. We can patrol tonight if you want, Brady. And you do have a nice distraction right here."

Brady smiled, raising an eyebrow. "Yeah?"

Alice smiled, leaning closer to kiss Brady. "Yeah."

Brady smirked. "I like that distraction."

Alice and Brady smiled, kissing more passionately.

  ∞ 

Sunnydale, California

Sunnydale High School - Library

Zoey, Willow and Eric were training with Giles and Layla before the first day of school started.

Eric and Layla were practicing with magic while Giles was having Zoey punch both of his gloved hands and learning better to fight.

Eric and Layla were throwing at least 10 bolts of yellow magic (from Eric) and purple magic (from Layla) at each other, managing to block each other repeatedly.

"So, any joy at the cemetery last night?" Giles asked.

"Ashes to dust," Zoey answered, kicking into Giles's padded chest.

"So you killed a vampire?" Layla asked.

"Well, no, we ran into Bianca at the cemetery and Zoey helped Bianca kill him," Eric answered.

Willow smiled. "It was like a group effort. And Eric and I are still helping Bianca with her mind, so..."

"For God's sake, be careful," Giles told them. "I mean, Willow, Eric, I appreciate your efforts to mend Bianca's mind, but with inexperienced magic, it could make things worse, though you are helping her get better. Added the fact that Bianca has stolen Guardian energy, things could go very wrong very fast."

"Eric and I know how to be careful, Giles," Willow told him. "Zoey and Layla love to help me and Eric learn more on magic. It would be easier if Alice, Brooke, Wyatt and Carmen were here too, but..."

"Yes," Layla agreed. "I'm sorry that I can't help you more with patrolling, Zoey. I mean, late night shifts at the hospital--"

"Mom, it's okay," Zoey told her. "It's fine. I mean, I like patrolling, it gives a rush, and Eric and Bianca take up some of the slack since Brady, Buffy, Brooke, Alice, Wyatt and Carmen aren't here, but... I do get tired. Mostly because of the extra fighting trainings with Giles and Eric on top of magic training for Eric and Willow, and patrolling. And now school's starting up."

"That's another thing you must be careful with, Zoey," Giles told her. "I appreciate the effort you, Eric and Bianca put in to keep the vampire population down until Alice, Brady, Buffy, Brooke, Wyatt and Carmen return, but, uh... well, if anything should happen to you or Eric and... should you be killed, Layla and Willow would be devastated, and I should take it amiss."

Now, Zoey and Eric trained with hand to hand combat. Zoey punched toward him.

Eric raised his arm to block it, punching Zoey lightly. "You'd be cranky?"

"Entirely," Giles answered.

"Well, we try not to get killed," Eric told them. "That's part of our whole mission statement. 'Don't get killed'."

"Good, good," Layla told them.

Zoey looked at Giles. "That, and me and Eric training with you before and after school to fill the holes in your non-social life has definitely helped. I am not just the gypsy girl who remembered being the ninja assassin on Halloween last year, and Eric is not just the newbie warlock who remembered being a commando guy on Halloween. Eric and I are the experts who remember how to be the ninja and the warrior who can fight like bosses."

"And with Zoey and I helping Eric and Willow with magic, things are paying off," Layla agreed.

"They definitely are," Willow agreed. "Layla, Giles, don't worry. Things will be okay. Zoey, Eric, they have Bianca to help even though Bianca doesn't want to be around us all that much because she's worried about spiraling again, but as long as Eric and I help her, it's not gonna happen. And Oz and Xander like to help with patrolling too. At least until Buffy, Brooke, Brady, Alice, Wyatt and Carmen get back."

"All right," Layla agreed. "I think that's enough training for one day. I hope you kids have a fun first day of school."

Zoey rolled her eyes, sarcastic. "Right, hope for something else, Mom, since you know I hate school."

Layla gave her a look. "Zoey."

Zoey smiled. "We'll behave."

Zoey, Willow and Eric nodded goodbye, walking out of the library.

Layla turned to face Giles, very concerned. "Do you really think they'll be okay? I know Eric and Willow can handle Bianca's mind and that they're helping Zoey with patrolling, but Zoey's so exhausted with all the training and the patrolling and now with school starting back up, and Buffy, Brooke, Brady, Alice, Wyatt and Carmen not here..."

Giles placed his hands on her shoulders. "Layla. Zoey will be fine. Everything will be once we bring them home. I know you're worried about Zoey. As I am worried about Alice."

Layla nodded in agreement. "I know. I'm worried about Alice too. But we'll bring them home, Rupert. We have to."

  ∞ 

Hallway

Zoey, Eric and Willow were walking down the hallway. Cordelia walked up to them.

"Hi," Willow told her.

"Hey, Willow, Eric," Cordelia told them. "Zoey."

"Cordelia," Zoey replied.

"How was your summer?" Eric asked.

"Oh, I can't believe you brought that up," Cordelia told them. "Las Palmas was the nightmare resort without Carmen. Our parents were trying distract themselves from Carmen being gone by vacationing. How was your summer?"

"Oh, it was okay," Willow told her. "Mostly training for me, Zoey and Eric, and helping Bianca, and patrolling."

"And finding a way to bring Carmen, Buffy, Brooke, Alice, Brady and Wyatt home," Eric added.

Cordelia nodded in understanding. "Is Xander around?'

"Well, uh, yeah, somewhere," Zoey answered.

They stopped.

Cordelia smiled. "Good. Great. I haven't seen him yet." She pulled her hair behind her ears. "Do I look okay?"

Willow smiled, nodding. "Oh, yeah."

"How's my hair?" Cordelia asked worriedly.

Willow smiled. "Uh, it's good."

"He didn't meet anybody over the summer, did he?" Cordelia asked. 

"No," Eric answered. "Who's he gonna meet in Sunnydale but monsters and stuff?"

"True," Cordelia agreed. "But then again he's always been attracted to monsters. How's my hair?"

"Still good," Zoey answered. Oz walked closer. Zoey smiled upon seeing him. "Hi."

Cordelia instinctively grabbed Zoey's arm, turning her around to look at her. "Maybe he's forgotten me."

"Who would wanna forget Cordy?" Zoey asked sarcastically. "Wanna let go?"

Cordelia let go. "Well, I'll just have to make him remember." She smiled. "See ya."

Eric, Willow and Cordelia walked off, leaving Zoey and Oz alone.

Zoey looked at Oz in surprise. "You came to visit me? When I'm sweaty and gross?" She looked at the books in his hands. "And with books. I don't want anymore books."

Oz smiled. "Well, actually, they're kinda for me."

"I don't get it," Zoey told him.

"Well, it's sort of a funny story," Oz told her. They walked down the hall. "You remember when I didn't graduate?"

"Well, I know you had a lot of incompletes, but that's what summer school was for," Zoey told him.

"Yeah," Oz said. "Well, you remember when I didn't go?"

Zoey smirked. "So you purposely got held back? Why?"

"Do you really need an answer to that?" Oz asked.

Zoey smiled. "Well, usually, getting held back isn't a big turn on, but considering the circumstances, I'd say it's kinda cute."

"That's what I was going for," Oz told her.

Zoey smiled.

Two students ran past them, down the hall past a teacher.

"Whoa," the teacher told them. "Slow down, people." They stopped running. "Summer is over. Be somber."

Oz and Zoey walked by as the teacher walked back into his classroom.

"Well, I better go get dressed and cleaned up before class starts," Zoey told him, starting to walk away.

Oz caught her wrist, pulling her back. "Wait."

"No, I'm all sweaty and gross," Zoey told him in a fake pouty voice.

Oz smiled. "I don't care."

Oz kissed Zoey for a long moment. Zoey pulled back, smiling, going to get cleaned up and changed before class.

Willow and Eric were walking along.

Xander ran up to them. "Willow! Eric! Have you guys seen Cordelia?"

"Yeah," Eric answered. "She's around here somewhere."

"I don't want to come on too geeky, bu, uh, okay, I'm psyched," Xander admitted, flashing a big grin. "There's gonna be some heat, if you know what I mean, so you guys might want to duck and cover." Eric rolled his eyes. "And I'm starting to be geeky." Xander smiled. "Okay, bye." He started to go, but came right back. "How's my--"

"Your hair is fine," Willow answered.

Xander had a big grin. "Cool."

Xander darted away.

  ∞ 

Lounge

Larry and another jock walked behind Willow and Eric, and the camera followed them into the lounge.

"This is our year, I'm telling you," Larry told him. "Best football season ever. I'm so in shape, I'm a rock." They stopped by the vending machines. "It's all about egg whites. If we can focus, keep discipline, and not have quite as many mysterious deaths, Sunnydale is gonna rule!"

Xander and Cordelia walked in, finding each other.

"Hey," Xander told her.

"Hey," Cordelia replied.

"Good summer?" Xander asked.

Cordelia nodded. "It was all right, besides missing Carmen."

"Cool," Xander said.

Cordelia sounded disappointed. "Yeah."

They stood in silence for a moment, looking uncertain.

"Well, I'll see ya," Xander told her.

Cordelia frowned. "Yeah, whatever."

Xander turned around, going down the steps. Cordelia walked the other way toward the hall.

  ∞ 

Los Angeles, California

Carmen's Apartment

Carmen was sitting calmly on the edge of her bed, holding a can of Spaghetti-O's in her lap. She just stared blankly around the room, breathing calmly. Tired of being isolated, she stood, walking out of the apartment.

  ∞ 

Street

Carmen was walking along.

They saw a homeless man sitting on the curb.

Ken, the local shelter operator, approached the homeless man, crouching beside him, holding out one of his leaflets. "Hey, how are you? Can I talk to you for a moment? I have something you might be interested in."

Carmen continued walking, passing a store with a recessed entryway.

A homeless woman was cowering there. "I'm no one." Carmen looked at her. "I'm no one." Carmen pulled her hair behind her ear, very sad. "I'm no one."

  ∞ 

Sunnydale High School - Library

Giles was on the phone in his office. "Yes? Thank you, thank you." He hung up, putting the phone down, grabbing his coat and quickly coming out of the office. "I have a lead." Willow, Xander, Zoey and Eric looked up from doing their homework at the table. Layla looked up from the counter. Giles grabbed his overcoat. "I think I finally have proof that will be good enough to clear Alice, Buffy, Brooke, Brady, Wyatt and Carmen's names and let them come home."

"And what makes this different from the last nine leads?" Zoey asked.

"Look, I don't mean to poop the party here, it's just, you get your hopes all up, and then it's just a big fat raspberry, and I feel bad," Xander told him.

"But it's good that we're all still trying, though," Willow told them. "You shouldn't give up."

"Never in a million years am I giving up," Eric told them.

"Yes, one must try," Giles agreed. "Well, I-I-I should go."

Giles hurried out of the library.

Layla watched him go. "You think it'll be enough to clear their names this time?"

Zoey sighed. "I hope so."

  ∞ 

Los Angeles, California

Night - Street

Buffy, Brooke, Brady, Alice and Wyatt had just finished patrolling, and were walking home.

Carmen saw them from across the street while she was walking home as well, stopping in her tracks when she saw them. She hesitated for a moment, but decided to walk toward them. "Guys?"

They looked at her in surprise.

"Carmen, hey," Brooke told her. "How are you?"

"A little better," Carmen answered. "Thank you... for giving me space."

"Of course," Alice agreed.

"Just kinda surprised that you came to talk, since you haven't been talking to us," Buffy admitted.

Carmen nodded, shameful. "I know, and I'm sorry. I was just... I got tired of being alone. And I don't want to push you guys away anymore. I mean, I don't blame you for having to kill Angel, Buffy. And I know that everything with Bianca... Brady and Alice went through hell, and Brooke, so..."

"Well, we are in this together, so..." Brady trailed off.

They smiled a bit.

"You guys just finish hunting?" Carmen asked.

"Patrolling, but yes," Wyatt answered.

Carmen nodded. "Good, good. Um, I'm kind of out of practice with my magic since I haven't used it since that day..." They nodded in understanding. "So, Wyatt, if you ever have time to, uh, help me get back in shape..."

"Of course," Wyatt answered.

"Have you heard from the others?" Carmen asked. "Zoey, Cordelia, Willow, Eric, Layla, Giles? Not really wanting to hear about Xander after what he did."

"Me neither," Brady agreed.

"They're fine," Buffy answered.

"We can talk about that, if you wanna walk with us," Alice offered.

Carmen nodded. "Yeah. I'd like that."

Lily walked up to them, calling Brady by his alias at the dinner. "Andre? Andre? Brady?" Brady turned to look at her. The others were confused. "Don't be mad. I won't turn you in or nothing. I guess you don't recognize me."

"I do," Brady answered. He looked at the others. "Lily here was at the cult that worshipped vampires where Bianca and Ford were before Spike turned them."

The others nodded in understanding.

"I thought I recognized you," Wyatt told her.

Carmen and Alice nodded in agreement. "Me too."

"So lame, I know," Lily told them. "And yeah, I recognize you three, too. You came to ask about Bianca and Ford with your other friends."

"Yeah," Alice answered. "I, uh, I remember."

"But Brady saved us," Lily explained. She looked at Brady. "I never thanked you or anything."

"Did you tell anyone who I was?" Brady asked.

"Oh, no," Lily answered. "Not--not even Rickie. I mean, I was so surprised to see you here, waiting tables. But I wouldn't tell. I know how it is when you gotta get lost."

They started to walk.

"Do you, uh, do you live nearby?" Brooke asked.

"Well, there's a couple of places," Lily answered. "Uh, they're abandoned, and a lot of people say there." She looked at Brady. "So how come you came up with Andre?"

"It's Brady's middle name," Brooke answered. "Mine's Aria. Buffy's is Anne."

"Brady Andre, Brooke Aria and Buffy Anne Summers?" Wyatt asked in amusement. "Nice."

The others smiled.

Lily laughed lightly. "I love Aria and Anne the most. No offense to Andre. Lily's from a song. Rickie picked it."

"Why do you change your name?" Carmen asked.

"I'm always changing," Lily answered. "My name from the cult, Chantarelle, was part of my exotic phase."

"It's nice," Buffy told her. "It's a--it's a mushroom."

"It is?" Lily asked. "That's really embarrassing."

"Um, well, it--it's an exotic mushroom, if that's any comfort," Buffy told her.

"Well, before that, I was following this loser preacher and calling myself 'Sister Sunshine'," Lily explained.

"What do they call you at home?" Brooke asked. Lily looked away, not responding. "I like Lily."

Lily shrugged. "It's cool for now. Hey, do you have any money?" They stopped walking, while the others gave her a surprised look. "I didn't mean that like... well, I just mean... I know this guy, he's gonna have this kinda rave thing in his basement. We could go. I mean, I could show you if you had... 'cause I'm broke."

"I--I don't think that's such a good idea," Carmen admitted.

"I didn't mean to bug you," Lily told them.

"No, I--I didn't--I didn't mean that," Carmen told her. "It's just..."

"We kinda have to lay low, you know?" Brady asked.

Lily crossed her arms, looking disappointed.

Alice looked down, starting to dig through her purse. "I--I do have the money, though, so why don't you and Rickie go, and then maybe we could meet you some other time?"

Lily raised her hands, waving off the offer. "No, it's okay, it's okay. Forget about it. Just--"

A homeless man rudely pushed his way between them. The group stared after him.

"Hey, wanker, we're talking here," Wyatt told him in a rare show of his London heritage.

The man turned around, looking blankly at them.

"Are you okay?" Buffy asked.

"I''m no one," the man told hem, turning around, walking into the traffic on the street, as the others watched in shock and concern.

The man stopped in the middle of a lane in front of an oncoming pickup truck, facing it, arms stretched wide.

Acting on instinct, Carmen raised her hand and without thinking used her power to freeze the crowded street and the oncoming cars. "No!"

Buffy ran into the street, pushing the man out of the way, landing on the ground next to him. Carmen unfroze the street.

Brooke was impressed. "Not as out of practice as you might think."

  ∞ ∞

The driver stopped when he saw Buffy and the man in the road, causing the other cars behind him to stop.

Brooke, Brady, Alice, Wyatt and Carmen ran to check on Buffy and the homeless man, helping them get up.

"Are you okay?" Alice asked.

"Jeez, I didn't see you," the driver told them.

Brady looked around at the gathering people nervously, knowing that they had to get out of there before anyone could recognize them from being on the run from the law, or if any cops showed. "No, it's okay, we're fine."

"We just... need to go," Buffy told them.

Buffy, Brooke, Brady, Alice, Wyatt and Carmen ran off together.

Wyatt looked at Carmen. "How did it feel?"

"How did what feel?" Carmen asked.

"Using your power to help save someone again," Wyatt answered.

Carmen couldn't help a small smile. "It felt pretty good."

Alice smiled. "Good. I guarantee it'll feel better once you kill a bad guy to save innocents."

They bumped into Ken around the corner, knocking all of his leaflets onto the sidewalk.

"Whoa!" Ken said. They all crouched down to pick up the papers. "Where are you running to?"

"Sorry," Buffy told him.

"Maybe I should ask, where are you running from?" Ken asked. They stood. "You're pretty new around here."

"Actually, me and my siblings are from the city," Brooke explained. "Just got back a little while ago."

Ken nodded. "Uh, you've go the 'look' though."

"The look?" Brady repeated.

"Like you had to grow up way too fast," Ken answered. "What's your names?" They didn't answer. "Hey, um, I'm Ken." He passed them some leaflets. "Here, go ahead, take some of these." They saw that they read 'Come home to Family Home' and had a drawing of a house and a silhouette of a man reaching out to hug a child. "Don't be shy about stopping by. I mean,  guess you're not starving, but... we're not just interested in feeding the body. You might find something you're missing."

"We're all right," Alice told him.

Ken didn't look convinced. "Then why are you here? This is not a good place for kids to be. You get old fast here. The thing that drains he life out of them is despair. I mean, kids come here, and they got nothing to go home to, and... this ends up being the last stop for a lot of them. Shouldn't have to be that way."

(Song:) Back to Freedom - Bellylove

There was a montage of several shots of homeless people around the city. A woman was alone in the street. A boy and girl were huddling together on the curb. A teenage boy was begging from a businessman for help who rejected him as he walked past. A woman with a dirty face was looking ahead.

  ∞ 

Sunnydale, California

Angel's Mansion - Living Room

Bianca was still staying here in Angel's mansion, pacing around, looking upset and alone.

Eric and Willow walked closer.

"Why do you still live here after everything?" Willow asked.

Bianca sighed. "Because I don't have anywhere else to go."

"What about LA?" Eric asked. "You're from there, like Buffy, Brooke and Brady."

"I don't want to go back there," Bianca told them. "Not yet anyway. Not since Billy died. And our mother died of the same thing I had... still have. I don't know. And our father is an abusive dick that didn't care what happened to us, so..."

"But there are other places in Sunnydale," Willow pointed out.

Bianca shook her head. "Here is far enough away from all of you. So I don't risk spiraling and doing something that would make me lose my soul and go completely psycho again."

"But it's so lonely," Willow told her in concern. "Don't you get tired of being alone?"

"Yeah," Bianca answered. "But I'd rather be alone than to do something I'd regret, again."

"Well, we can help you with that, Bianca," Eric told her.

"You can't keep helping me, Eric," Bianca told him. "Not forever."

"Maybe not for forever, but long enough for your mind to stay better," Eric agreed. "Willow and I are getting the hang of this, Bianca. We're stronger than anyone ever even thought we could be."

"Eric and I can help you," Willow told her. "You just have to let us, please." Bianca looked at them for a moment, not knowing what to do or what to say. "We don't want you to suffer mentally like that anymore."

Bianca nodded. "Yes, because I have to suffer at least emotionally for me to keep my soul. Great. Whatever, just do it."

Eric and Willow couldn't help but chuckle. Bianca sat down on the table behind her, in front of them.

Eric and Willow started to do the spell on Bianca, holding their hands on either side of her head, easing her mind, helping it heal a little bit at a time. Eric and Willow's magic energy of yellow was mixing with Bianca's stolen red Guardian energy, which is why they had to do this little by little so that it didn't get worse and they wouldn't get hurt, but causing a beautiful swirl of yellow magic and red Guardian energy around the three of them. "Ostende det siste. Ostende det siste."

  ∞ 

The Bronze

Bellylove was on stage performing the song. It was a very dead night in the Bronze, and depressing.

Xander lounged on a couch. Oz sat on a chair. Zoey sat on a bar stool.

"Boy, I'm glad we showed up for 'Depressing Night'," Zoey told them sarcastically.

"I wonder what they're doing right now," Oz stated.

Xander thought that Oz meant Cordelia and her friends across the club. "Oh, I know what they're doing. Cordelia's gabbing to all of her friends about her passionate affair with Pedro the Cabana Boy, laughing about me, thinking how she still might have feelings about me." He looked at Oz and Zoey. Oz raised his eyebrows. Zoey tilted her head. "Oh, it's possible you were talking about Buffy, Brooke, Brady, Alice, Wyatt and Carmen."

"It's possible," Oz answered.

"Well, at least we know Eric and Willow are helping Bianca, and they should be here soon," Zoey told them. "The Bronze never seems the same without Carmen, though." She looked at Oz to explain. "We used to come here every night, even when we were hanging with Cordelia and the mean girls, or with Xander, Eric and Willow. And then Buffy, Brooke, Brady and Alice came, and Wyatt hung out with us too, and it was fun." Oz nodded in understanding. "Yeah, and the slaying isn't getting anymore fun, either, even with Eric and Bianca's help, even though Bianca usually does it on her own."

"I don't know," Oz told her. "You always look awesome and having fun. And you get every single one you face, especially if Eric's helping, and sometimes Layla when she's not working at the hospital. And Bianca on her own. And you always kick ass at patrolling. Which you do every night. Sometimes twice a night. Some people would say too much."

Zoey looked between Xander and Oz. "Is that what you two brought me here for? Because I'm working too hard and need a break night?"

"Your words, not ours," Xander told her.

"We're not saying that you shouldn't patrol," Oz told her. "We're just saying that you're doing it so much. I mean, even the others took break nights."

"Yeah, but Buffy's the Slayer, and Brooke and Alice's are the Guardians," Zoey told them. "Wyatt and Carmen are badass witches with super strong powers. Brady's a hunter. Eric has hunter fighting and now witch powers, and Willow's just a fledgling witch. Bianca's a vampire with Guardian powers. I'm a gypsy with assassin like fighting abilities. And with only me, Mom, Eric and Bianca still in town and the only ones able to do stuff about the vampires, with Mom usually having to work at the hospital at nights, it's just me, Eric and Bianca. We have to work for it."

"But you're working for it too much," Oz told her.

"Vampires aren't just gonna go into vampire retirement, you know," Zoey told them. "Someone has to do something about it."

Xander and Oz remained quiet, knowing she was right.

(Song Ends)

  ∞ 

Day Three

Morning - Summers House - Foyer

Joyce was writing out a few bills. She heard a knocking at the door, looking up, going over to the door, answering it, surprised to see Layla outside. "Uh, hello."

"Hello," Layla greeted. "Um, may I come in?"

"Oh, uh, of course," Joyce answered, stepping aside, waving her in. "Come on in."

Layla slowly walked in. "Thank you. Rupert, he finally was able to get the police to start to see that Buffy, Brooke, Brady, Alice, Wyatt and Carmen aren't guilty in the murder case."

Joyce sighed in relief. "So Buffy, Brooke and Brady can come home? Alice and Carmen can go to their own families? I know Wyatt only has a brother."

"Well, they can't come home just yet," Layla answered. "The charges still have to be dropped, and that's after the station verifies the lead that Rupert gave them."

Joyce nodded in understanding. "Well, thank you, all of you, for not giving up, Layla. I could hardly, uh..." She exhaled, smiling weakly. "I could hardly leave the house. I'm just afraid Buffy, Brooke or Brady will call and they'll need my help."

"All of these children are the most capable I've ever known," Layla told her. "I mean, they may be confused, u--unhappy at times, but, I, uh, honestly believe they're all going to be okay."

Joyce lowered her arms. "I just wish I could talk to my kids. The last thing we did was fight."

"Joyce, you can't blame yourself for them having to leave, or what they've become," Layla told her.

Joyce nodded. "I don't." She took a deep breath, exhaling. "I blame you." Layla was taken aback. "You and Giles have been this huge influence on them, guiding them. You had this whole relationship with them behind my back. I feel like you've taken them away from me."

Layla was speechless for a moment. "I am just now learning more about what I am myself and how to navigate that with life, just as your children are. Just like Zoey is. And Wyatt, Eric, Willow, Carmen as witches and Oz as a werewolf. Rupert did not make Buffy and Brooke who they are. And Brady became who he is now because of what they've all gone through."

"And who exactly are they?" Joyce asked.

Layla just looked at her.

  ∞ 

Los Angeles, California

Helen's Kitchen

Brady was working, filling the sugar dispensers at the counter.

Lily walked in to talk to him. "Brady? Um, Andre? Can I talk to you?"

Brady glanced up at her, but didn't stop his work. "Look, this really isn't a good time. Can it wait till I get off work?"

"Rickie's gone," Lily explained. "I haven't seen him for more than a day. I--he's never left for that long. I think something's... happened. Maybe something's happened."

"Well, did you call the police?" Brady asked.

Lily sighed. "Rickie skipped out on his parole. Uh, they would just cause more trouble."

"Did you--did you ask around?" Brady asked.

Lily nodded. "Can you help me? Your sisters, your friends? I mean, that's who you are and stuff, right? I mean, you help people, and you know--you know how to do stuff."

Brady nodded in understanding. "All right. Um, I'll talk to Buffy, Brooke, Alice and Wyatt. Carmen, um... we're just now getting back to a good place. I don't know if she's ready to start helping again, but I can ask her."

Lily smiled in relief. "Thank you."

  ∞ 

Blood Bank

Lily led Buffy, Brooke, Brady, Alice, Wyatt and Carmen to the blood bank. "We gave blood lots of times 'cause you get a few bucks. And they have cookies."

"You're a fan of the sugar rush?" Buffy asked in amusement.

Lily smiled.

Brooke chuckled. "That's nice."

A nurse walked closer. "Hi. You here to donate blood?"

"Uh, we're looking for a friend," Alice told her.

"Rickie T," Lily explained. "We come in sometimes."

The nurse nodded. "Rickie, sure. Uh, he's not here."

"Well, do you know if he's been in the last day or so?" Wyatt asked.

"Well, let me check the sheet," the nurse told them.

Carmen saw a man being stuck with a needle, looking squeamish. "This'll probably go faster if we split up."

The others nodded in agreement.

"I can show you guys the places, if we all get to go together," Lily offered.

"Okay, where did we lose you on the whole 'splitting up' thing?" Brady asked.

Lily smiled. "Oh, sorry."

"I was thinking we could check out some of your hangouts, and um, I guess, meet at Alice and Brady's place later," Buffy told her.

"Okay," Brooke agreed.

The nurse walked back over. "Sorry, guys. He hasn't been here."

"Thanks," Alice told her.

"Tell him we're looking," Wyatt told her.

The nurse nodded.

Carmen smiled thinly. "Great."

The group left the blood bank. The nurse lost her friendly demeanor as she watched them go as she swallowed and began to look around nervously.

  ∞ 

Night - Abandoned Building 

A homeless man stirred from his sleep as he heard Brady walk in, but went back to sleep when he saw it was not the cops. Brady made his way along, being careful not to step on anyone. Some of them watched him as he went by. Brady slowly walked along a dark hall, turning a corner, startled by a man with his arms full walking the other way behind him. Brady continued along, soon noticing an old man lying on the floor, dead. The same old man that Buffy and Carmen had earlier saved from the ruck. Next to his head was an empty bottle of drain cleaner, an apparent suicide.

Brady knelt next to the old man, feeling for a pulse, realizing he was dead, putting his arm down, seeing that there was a tattoo of a half heart on his forearm with a ribbon across the heart and the name Lily tattooed on it, confused, shocked. "Rickie?"

  ∞ ∞

Alice/Brady's Apartment

Buffy, Brooke, Alice, Wyatt, Carmen and Lily were waiting there. Brady walked in, closing the door behind him.

"Did you find Rickie?" Lily asked. "I thought of... well, he likes to go to this movie house, you can get in around the back--"

Brady didn't know how to say this. "Lily... I think he's dead."

Buffy, Brooke, Alice, Wyatt and Carmen did not look surprised, but did look sympathetic. Wyatt looked annoyed and frustrated that they couldn't save an innocent.

Lily was very sad and lost. "But... he takes care of me."

"I'm sorry," Buffy told her.

"We're gonna get a place," Lily explained. "His cousin can get him a job at the car wash."

Brady sighed. "Guys, there--there's something else." 

"What is it?" Brooke asked.

Brady sat down.  "The--the person that I found... was old. He--he looked about 80."

"Are you sure it was Rickie?" Alice asked.

"Yeah," Brady answered. "I saw his tattoo, like Lily's, but reversed for his arm and her name on it."

The others were in shock, while Lily was in denial.

"How did he get so old then?" Carmen asked.

"It was like something drained the life out of him," Brady told them.

"Do you mean like a vampire?" Lily asked.

Wyatt shook his head. "No. A vampire couldn't accelerate the aging process. Maybe it was something in his blood. When was the last time you guys gave blood together?"

"I don't understand," Lily admitted. "Maybe it's not Rickie, okay? I mean, I know Brady said he saw the tattoo, but--"

"Lily, this is something you're just gonna have to deal with," Buffy told her.

Lily was flustered. "But he didn't do anything wrong! Why would this happen to him?"

"That's not the point," Brooke told her. "These things happen all the time. You can't just... close your eyes and hope that they're gonna go away."

Lily frowned, looking between them. "Is it 'cause of you?"

"Is what because of us?" Alice asked.

"You know about monsters and stuff," Lily told them. "You could have brought this with you."

Wyatt was very annoyed. "We didn't bring anything with us. You came to us with your problems. If you can't deal, then don't lay it off on us."

Lily couldn't take it, holding up her hands to deny what she was hearing, walking out of the apartment. The others sighed, regretting how this went down.

  ∞ 

Street

Lily stopped walking, leaning against the iron gates pulled across a storefront.

Ken walked up behind her. "Are you okay?" Lily shook her head, barely able to keep from crying. "Hey, it's okay. Maybe I can help."

Lily sniffled. "You can't."

"Look, I know you all think I'm a big square handing out leaflets about hope," Ken told her. "But hope is a real thing, just like despair. And hope can fill up a part of you that's missing."

"But Rickie..." Lily trailed off.

"Rickie?" Ken repeated. "Say, are you Lily?" He smiled. "Right. Right, he was talking about you."

Lily turned to face him. "You've seen Rickie?"

"Oh, sure," Ken answered. "Rickie's with us now."

"Brady said he was dead," Lily told him.

"Well, someone's sure handed you a tall tale," Ken told her. "Rickie's no more dead than I am. Why don't you come to Family Home? We'll get you taken care of."

Lily considered for a moment. Ken smiled. Lily nodded in agreement. Ken took her by the arm, leading her away.

  ∞ 

Blood Bank

A shadow appeared on the other side of the frosted glass of the door. The camera panned down to the doorknob being jiggled. Suddenly the knob got ripped out of the door. Buffy opened the door and walked in, followed by Brooke, Brady, Alice, Wyatt and Carmen.

"If Rickie's dead, then what are we doing here?" Carmen asked.

"We're gonna find out why Rickie's dead and find out if there's anymore people out there like him that ended up dead and save any others," Brooke answered.

"Where do we start?" Brady asked.

"Records," Alice answered. "The nurse was acting shady earlier, and maybe his aging has something to do with his blood. So if we find out what's in his file..."

"We can cross reference with other people's file and see what they have in common and if they're missing and/or dead or not," Wyatt finished.

Buffy nodded in agreement. "All right, let's get looking."

They started to go through all the records.

"Some of these are saying 'candidate'," Brooke told them.

Alice held up Rickie's file. "So does Rickie's."

"Candidate for what?" Brady asked.

"That's what we have to find out," Wyatt told them.

The nurse walked in. "What are you doing?"

"Breaking into your office and going through your private files," Buffy answered simply.

Carmen looked at another file. "Candidate for what?"

The nurse stepped toward the phone on the wall by Buffy. "I'm calling the police."

Buffy reached over to he phone, yanking it off of the wall to break it, letting it fall to the desk with its wires torn.

Brooke turned to face the nurse. "Now, you've got a whole bunch of candidates here. I wonder if any of them are missing like Rickie."

"Hell, I bet they are," Wyatt told her.

"You're getting yourselves in a lot of trouble," the nurse warned.

Carmen shrugged. "We don't want any trouble. We just want to help people. And then I want to go home, be quiet in a room with a chair and a fireplace and a tea cozy. I don't even know what a tea cozy is, but I want one."

"See, there is trouble all over this city, that we've been helping clean up one mess after another," Brady told her. "And we are more than willing to share the trouble."

The nurse looked nervous.

"What are you doing with these kids?" Buffy asked.

"Nothing," the nurse answered. "I just... I give him the names of the healthy ones."

Alice gave her a look. "Give them to who?"

  ∞ 

Family Home - Backroom

Ken was with Lily. "Well, don't you look nice?"

Lily was wearing only a simple white long tunic. "I guess."

"Well, you don't want to wear your own outfit to the cleansing," Ken told her. "It'll get soaked."

"A cleansing is like a baptism, right?" Lily asked.

"Not quite the same," Ken answered, leading her away.

"Will I see Rickie after?" Lily asked.

Ken nodded. "Oh, of course. He's waiting for you. He's very excited."

  ∞ 

Sunnydale, California

Cemetery

Bianca was in the middle of fighting a vampire during hunting/patrolling, spinning to kick the vampire in the stomach. "I swear, whoever you are, vampire face or not, your face sure as hell is turning a hell of a lot of stomachs, including mine. I'm literally quite sick at seeing it. I must have been given your share of beauty. If you make it out of here alive, you should see if there's any plastic surgeons for vampires. You can get plastic surgery for your ugliness, but you will be stupid for eternity. But don't worry, you won't make it out of here alive, so you won't have to make anybody sick with that hideous face anymore and you won't have to live with your stupidness."

Furious and lashing out, the vampire tried to punch her and kick her repeatedly. Bianca used bursts of Guardian energy to block every move, laughing mockingly, shooting a burst of Guardian energy into the vampire to send him flying across the cemetery into a crypt, making him fall. The vampire growled, standing, running toward Bianca. Bianca ducked, sliding between his legs, shooting a small blast of Guardian energy into his crotch, making him scream in agony and fall to the ground. Bianca spun out of the way before he fell on her, standing up as he fell to the ground, smiling, laughing, spinning around to kick the vampire in the face, making him back away past a tombstone next to them, standing, jumping over a tombstone to tackle the vampire to the ground, pinning him down, punching him in the head repeatedly, putting her hands on his head, glowing with Guardian energy until she incinerated the vampire out of existence.

Another vampire arrived behind Bianca, trying to attack her from behind when she was distracted with killing the vampire below her.

Zoey arrived just in time, catching the vampire by the arm, twisting it back, making him groan in pain, kicking him to the ground.

Bianca turned around at the sound in surprise, sighing. "Zoey."

"In a minute, Bianca," Zoey told her. "Kinda busy kicking this guy's ass."

The vampire tried to punch Zoey. Zoey caught his arm. The vampire put both her arms in an arm lock, pushing her against a crypt, gripping her hair, pulling her head back to try and feed on her. Zoey's hands glowed purple as she shot gypsy magic out at the vampire, throwing him away from her to the ground. The vampire jumped over a tombstone to try to attack Zoey. Zoey kicked him back over the tombstone to the ground, using purple gypsy magic to levitate herself over the tombstone, flipping through the air to kick the vampire in the head, making him fall again, landing on her feet soundly, grabbing his arm, twisting it, turning around, pushing his head through a tombstone, making it crack, driving a stake into his heart, making him explode into ash, twirling the stake in her hand, smiling smugly.

Bianca sighed, tilting her head at Zoey. "What are you doing here?"

"Patrolling," Zoey answered in a duh voice. "It's kind of the job only up to you, me and Eric lately."

"There's 12 cemeteries in the entire town of Sunnydale, and you pick this one tonight?" Bianca asked.

Eric walked closer. "Yeah, because we've already checked all the others."

Bianca sighed. "Great. Hi, Eric."

"Bianca," Eric replied.

"At least the rest of the Scoobies aren't here too," Bianca told them. Xander, Willow, Cordelia and Oz arrived. "Nope, spoke too soon."

"What, you gonna start making fun of us now?" Xander asked.

Bianca gave Xander an annoyed look. "It's pointless to make fun of you, Xander, because it will take you the rest of the day to figure it out."

Zoey and Cordelia couldn't help but smirk.

Xander frowned in confusion. "There's not much of today left." Bianca raised her eyebrows as if this proved her point. Xander realized the insult. "Hey!"

Bianca did a bowing hand gesture. "I rest my case. I don't know what makes you so stupid, but it really works."

Xander smirked sarcastically.

"Enough, both of you," Willow told them.

Zoey sighed. "What the hell are you guys doing here?"

"We figured you needed help," Cordelia told them.

"Help?" Eric repeated.

"Also code for 'intervention'," Cordelia told them. "About the vampire slayage overload Zoey and Eric have been doing, and that Bianca hardly accepts help from anyone, even though Willow and Eric have been healing her mind."

Zoey, Eric and Bianca rolled their eyes.

Zoey turned away from hem. "You gotta be kidding me."

"Come on, Zoey," Oz old her. "The overworking, all the training, it could get you killed."

"I'm okay," Zoey told them. "Really."

"They're right, Zoey," Cordelia told her. "When you overwork, you look really tired and worn out and it looks gross." Zoey gave her a look. "We're just worried."

"You, worried?" Eric asked. "Since when?"

"Eric, in case you need any reminding, Zoey is my sister Carmen's best friend, and she used to be my friend too," Cordelia told him.

"And now you guys hate each other," Eric told her.

"More like frenemies," Cordelia corrected.

Xander gestured to Bianca. "I didn't wanna deal with an intervention for Bianca, but we all agreed. I was outvoted."

"Touching," Bianca told him sarcastically.

"Sorry that I don't bond with psychopathic former murderers," Xander replied.

"No, you just try to get me and Angel killed by your friends even while knowing that Zoey and Layla are in the process of trying to give us our souls back," Bianca retorted. "You didn't think you would get caught because you thought both me and Angel would die and that Eric wouldn't ask why Zoey and Layla why you told them to kick our asses when we suddenly got our souls back."

"Guess it really would've been easier if you had been killed too, like you should've been," Xander told her.

"Oh, I'm sorry that my soul return and survival is such a burden to you and your lies to your friends," Bianca told him sarcastically. "I don't get you. Then again, I don't speak hypocritical idiot. No wonder why Carmen and Brady don't wanna talk to you."

"Both of you stop," Willow told them. "This isn't getting us anywhere."

"Yeah, why don't you two argue a little bit louder?" Zoey asked sarcastically. "And drive all the vampires away?"

  ∞ 

Los Angeles, California

Family Home - Tar/Portal Room

The camera showed a small rectangular pool of what looked like black tar, panning up from it to Ken and Lily walking into the room.

"We come to this station to wash away the past," Ken told her. "Go ahead, kneel." He indicated to the edge of the pool and they both knelt down. "We let the water run over the sin and the pain and the uncertainty."

"It looks kinda... dirty," Lily admitted.

Ken smiled. "Yeah."

  ∞ 

Front Door

A man walked up to the door where another man was already standing with Buffy, Brooke, Brady, Alice, Wyatt and Carmen.

Buffy was rambling a bit. "You know, we just--we talked and we said, 'hey, what's with all the sin? We need to change. We're--we're dirty. We're bad with the... sex and the envy and that--that loud music us kids listen to nowadays."

Wyatt rolled his eyes. "You suck at undercover. Where's Ken?"

The men try to slam the door closed, but Buffy kicked it open, and it slammed into his face. The group marched in.

  ∞ 

Tar/Portal Room

Lily reached down to black tar in the pool, hesitating, putting her hand in. The liquid was thick and pitch black, and her hand disappeared in it.

The door swung open, and Buffy, Brooke, Brady, Alice, Wyatt and Carmen walked in.

Ken looked up, standing. "This is a private moment. If you could just--"

"How do you make them old, Ken?" Brady asked. "Do you feed on youth? What's the deal?"

"Do you really wanna know?" Ken asked.

Lily looked back at them. "What's going on?"

They were surprised she was there.

"Lily?" Alice asked in concern.

Suddenly something from inside the pool grabbed Lily, and she screamed as she was pulled into the pool, disappearing into the black slime. The group ran to help, but Ken tried to stop them. Buffy grabbed Ken, pulling him back, trying to flip him to the floor. Ken snapped his body back to get her to let go, but caused them both to fall into Brooke, Brady, Alice, Wyatt and Carmen, causing all of them to fall into the pool as well.

  ∞ 

Ken's Slave Universe

Buffy, Brooke, Brady, Alice, Wyatt, Carmen and Ken fell out of the black pool in the ceiling, landing on the ground hard in what looked like a passageway. They looked up at the pool, then looked around to see where they were.

Lily was leaning against the wall, holding her head.

Brooke stood to check on her. "Lily."

The others stood, walking closer, as they all looked up at the pool in the ceiling. The waves from their fall through it were beginning to dissipate.

Ken was apparently hurt in the fall. "Oh, my face!" They looked over to him. "Ow! My face!" Ken turned toward them, pulling his face and his hair off, revealing he was a demon. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to glue that thing on?" Beneath his mask, Ken's face was red/orange and his head is bald. There appeared to be pieces of skin missing from his forehead, revealing the redder flesh beneath. The others looked at him in disbelief. Ken stood. "Guards!"

Carmen tried to levitate up to the black pool over their heads, but couldn't. "I can't levitate."

Alice, Brooke and Wyatt tried to use their powers as well.

"We can't," Alice told them.

"We're powerless down here," Brooke told them.

"Run!" Wyatt told them.

As demonic guards ran closer, Alice took Lily by the hand, leading her at a run, as Buffy, Brooke, Brady, Wyatt and Carmen followed quickly. One of the guards handed Ken a club. They all ran after the group.

Alice, Buffy, Brooke, Brady, Wyatt, Carmen and Lily ran through a maze of halls and came out on a ledge that overlooked what looked like a large iron works. They were huge vats of molten metal, sparks were flying through the air from one side, and it was hot and smoky. In the shadows, they saw people being used as slave labor, kept in line by more guards with whips. The camera panned through the place showing zombie like humans pounding the metal on anvils, pushing wheelbarrows from place to place and swinging sledgehammers. Some of them coughed hard as they worked. The guards watched and cracked their whips every so often.

Ken and the guards chasing them ran up behind them.

"Welcome to my world," Ken told them. "I hope you like it." Before Alice, Buffy, Brooke, Brady, Wyatt and Carmen could react, Ken and the other demonic guards hit them hard over the heads with their clubs, knocking them out. "You're never leaving."

Ken smiled, licking his lips.

  ∞ ∞

Sunnydale, California

Cemetery

Zoey, Bianca, Eric, Willow, Oz, Xander and Cordelia were still in the cemetery.

"So, Cordelia, are you just here for Zoey, or what?" Eric asked.

"Well, yeah, I mean, since Zoey's and my past as friends even with all the bickering, plus Carmen would want me to help her," Cordelia answered. "And you're not so bad yourself, Eric. Bianca, I'm not sure about."

Bianca nodded sarcastically. "Yeah, thanks for clearing that up."

Xander looked at Cordelia. "I get you wanting to help Zoey and Eric, but Bianca?"

"You lied and technically got Carmen's soulmate killed and are half the reason why she doesn't talk to much of anybody lately," Cordelia replied.

"So you're taking Bianca's side?" Xander asked. "All of you. Fine. When she loses her mind again, I'll be the one to tell you 'I told you so', again, and when she kills someone, we'll just watch and rejoice."

Bianca was getting very annoyed, trying not to lash out. Zoey, Eric and Willow tried to help her keep calm.

"Bianca, hey," Willow told her. "It's okay."

Cordelia looked at Xander. "Everything's a joke with you."

"No, just the fact that Zoey, Eric and Willow keep trying to help Bianca, and that Zoey and Layla wanted to give Angel and Bianca their souls back in the first place even after what they did to Brooke, Alice, Wyatt and Brady," Xander told her. "Let's not forget that Angel killed Layla's sister/Zoey's aunt Jenny, Layla and Jenny's uncle/Zoey's great uncle Enyos, and Zoey and Layla's puppy Snowy, and nearly killed them."

Zoey had had enough especially when Xander brought up her great uncle and Jenny, turning to face him. "Hey! Don't you dare bring Aunt Jenny into this again. It wasn't your choice on what to do, Xander. It was mine and my mother's because of our family heritage and what they wanted to be done to Angel, and what we know they would have wanted us to do with Bianca. And we were all willing to kill them. Aunt Jenny found the curses to give Angel and Bianca their souls back, because that's what our family does. Or did, since me and my mother are the only known ones left. So stop holding it over our heads and let it go. Because we are not gonna keep talking about this when Brooke, Brady, Buffy, Alice, Wyatt and Carmen finally get to come home. Carmen already went through enough. And so did Bianca. So stop trying to make it worse."

Bianca was a little surprised that Zoey was defending her like that.

During their fighting, Eric had been so distracted that he didn't know a vampire was slowly sneaking up behind him, who tackled Eric to the ground before he realized he was there.

The others were surprised, turning to face them. "Eric!"

"I got it," Eric told them, using a blast of yellow magic to throw the vampire off him, standing up.

The vampire ran at Eric. Eric ducked, kicking him in the knee, making him kneel down, punching him in the face. The vampire tried to punch Eric. Eric ducked, sliding past him over the ground, turning back, punching him twice in the legs, jumping up to tackle him to the ground, punching him in the face twice.

Bianca stepped closer to help. "Eric..."

Zoey put out a hand to stop her. "Don't worry. Eric's been training so much. He's got this."

The vampire grabbed Eric, pushing him into a crypt, trying to bite, but Eric used yellow magic to burn him enough to make him let go, pushing him back, kicking the vampire in the head, running closer to tackle the vampire, but the vampire caught him and lifted him up. Eric maneuvered around the vampire's head to flip him to the ground, landing in a crouch next to the vampire. The vampire and Eric both stood. Eric found a shovel, picking it up, using the metal part to hit the vampire across the face, then using he wooden part of the hovel to hit him in the gut, making him lean over in pain. Eric spun the shovel, using the metal part to hit the back of the vampire's head, making him fall to the ground, raising the shovel above his head, spinning it to face the ground, slamming the metal edge through the vampire's neck, decapitating him. He burst into ashes.

The others watched, in shock and impressed.

"Okay," Bianca agreed. "Maybe Eric doesn't need help after all."

Eric smirked. Zoey smiled. Willow, Oz and Cordelia couldn't help but chuckle. Xander was impressed with Eric, but annoyed with Bianca.

  ∞ 

Ken's Slave Universe - Cells

Buffy and Lily were in one cell. Brooke and Wyatt were in another cell. Brady and Alice were in another cell. Carmen was in another. Everyone but Lily was still unconscious, slowly waking up, holding their heads where they were hit and knocked out, dazed but no other damage.

"Lily?" Buffy asked.

"I always knew I would come here, sooner or later," Lily told them. "I knew I belonged here."

Brady looked around. "Where?"

"Hell," Lily answered.

Carmen shook her head. "This isn't hell."

Ken appeared in front of the cells. "Isn't it?" They all looked at him. "What is Hell but the total absence of hope? The substance, the tactile proof of despair. You're right, Lily. This is where you've been heading all your life. Just like Rickie."

"Rickie?" Lily repeated.

"He forgot you," Ken told her. "Well, it took him a long time. He remembered your name years after he'd forgotten his own. But in the end--"

"Years?" Brooke repeated. "But--"

Ken chuckled. "Oh, uh interesting thing. Time moves more quickly here than in your reality. A hundred long years will pass here. On Earth, it's just a day."

"So you just work us till we're too old and spit us back out?" Alice asked.

"That's the plan," Ken answered. "See, Lily, you'll die of old age before anyone wonders were you went. Not that anyone will. That's why we chose you."

Brady gave him a smug look. "You didn't choose us."

"No," Ken answered. "But you got in the way."

  ∞ 

Another Room

Slaves were let out of a personnel elevator, including Buffy, Brooke, Brady, Alice, Carmen, Wyatt and Lily. Buffy tripped and fell to the floor. Buffy and Brady helped her up.

A demonic guard started to explain things to the new recruits. "You work and you live. That is all." He had even less skin on his head than Ken. He was wearing a hood that looked like it was made of human skin sewn together. His chin and cheeks were exposed flesh and muscle, and he had no lips covering his teeth. "You do not complain or laugh or do anything besides work. Whatever you thought, whatever you were, does not matter. You are no one now. You mean nothing." The guard walked to one end of the group, facing the boy standing there. "Who are you?"

"Aaron," the boy answered, afraid.

The guard whaled hard on him with his club, making him fall to the floor, causing Buffy, Brooke, Brady, Alice, Wyatt and Carmen to become annoyed and more determined to save everyone.

The guard advanced on Lily. "Who are you?"

Lily whimpered the answer. "No one."

The guard continued to the next person. "Who are you?"

The boy answered in fear. "No one."

The guard reached Buffy. "Who are you?"

Buffy looked up at him for a moment, then smiled. "I'm Buffy. The Vampire Slayer. And you are?"

Brooke and Brady smiled. Alice chuckled. Wyatt and Carmen smirked.

The guard was incensed at the insubordination, roaring as he wielded back his club to strike Buffy. Buffy sidestepped him, grabbing his arm as he bent over from his follow through, slamming her other forearm down on the guard's, breaking it. Brady kicked the guard to the floor. Brooke, Alice, Wyatt and Carmen still couldn't use their Guardian/witch powers while in this world, but luckily, as Brooke, Alice and Wyatt had proven in the past, they didn't need their powers to win a fight, and Carmen had a little experience with fighting without magic.

Brady picked up the guard's club, swinging it at another guard, striking him in the head, swinging again the opposite way at a third guard, hitting him in the gut. They both fell.

Wyatt looked at the would-be slaves. "Anyone who's not having fun here, follow us."

They all ran out of the room.

  ∞ 

Iron Works

The vats of molten metal glowed brightly. There were sparks flying everywhere as the slaves worked below. The camera panned up to a ledge where two guards were watching them work. A guard walked down a metal staircase. Buffy, Brooke, Brady, Wyatt, Alice and Carmen, along with the small group of would-be slaves including Lily, were hiding beneath it.

Carmen looked up at the guards. "There's no way we can get back up there without meeting new people."

"Okay, Lily, when those guards leave, and they will leave, I want you to take these people and get them up there, okay?" Brooke asked. "Fast and quiet."

"You're leaving me?" Lily asked. "But--"

"Lily," Brady interceded. "You can handle this."

"How do you know?" Lily asked.

Alice managed a small smile. "'Cause we say so."

Suddenly a siren began to wail loudly.

"We've gone public," Buffy told them. "Okay, quick, get them up. Go! Quiet!"

Lily began to lead them away, but came back. "I'm sorry I said this was your fault before."

"Lily, this can wait," Carmen told her.

"Well, in case we die--" Lily started.

Wyatt ushered them along. "Go! Go!"

Lily ran off to lead the group out.

Buffy, Brooke, Brady, Alice, Wyatt  and Carmen exchanged a look of knowing, stepping out into the open to get the attention of the guards to distract them so that Lily could get the others out. When they saw guards running closer, they led them away at a run, winding around through the slaves who were still blindly working away. The guards were big and bulky compared to their small figures darting through the maze, but they managed to keep up.

Buffy saw a pole jutting out of the floor, grabbing onto it, swinging around once, knocking one of the guards out with an aerial side kick, letting go of the pole.

Brooke reached a platform, shoulder rolling onto it, rising to a standing position. A guard jumped up onto he platform and tried to backhand swing at her with his sledgehammer. Brooke ducked, blocking his second swing. The guard kicked up with his knee and got Brooke in the stomach, stunning her, punching her, making her fall to the floor, swinging the sledgehammer at her head. Brooke rolled out of the way, grabbing the hammer's handle, yanking the guard over herself to the floor, slamming him down hard, managing to wrestle the sledgehammer from his grip, swinging it over her head to smash into his head to kill him.

Lily was leading the group of slaves to a set of stairs, ushering them up. "Come on, come on, everybody go. Go!"

One after the other, they quickly climbed the stairs. Lily brought up the rear.

Buffy was fighting a guard, hitting him in the head with a full spinning out to in crescent kick, making him fall. The guard swung his hammer at Buffy's leg, but she jumped high to avoid the swing, stomping on his hands to make him drop the sledgehammer, picking up the hammer, swinging it onto the guard's face, knocking him down. As he tried to get up, Buffy knocked him down again with a snapping roundhouse kick to his chest. The guard stood again. Buffy swung her hammer in an uppercut, striking him in the jaw and sending him flying away in a backflip.

On a ledge, Ken and two more guards came out to see what was going on. Ken couldn't believe what he was seeing.

Brady did a roundhouse kick to a guard's face, making him stumble backwards.

Ken was enraged. "Humans don't fight back."

Brady's guard tried to pound Brady's head with his club. Brady ducked, blocking his attack, kicking him in the stomach, twisting the hammer free from his hold, spinning around to slam the hammer against the guard's face, making him flip through the air and fall to the floor.

"Humans don't fight back!" Ken shouted.

Fighting against another guard, Alice swung down with her hands, carrying the guard's hands as well, grabbing him by the neck, spinning around once, throwing him through the air, making him hit a steel beam and fall to the ground. Another guard with a battle ax took a wide swing at Alice, but she leaned aside to make him miss.

"That's not how this works!" Ken raged.

Alice ducked the guard's next swing, avoiding decapitation. The guard swung down again from above, but Alice blocked his attack, doing a front snap kick into his arms, making the weapon hit the guard in the face instead, dazing him enough so that she could take his battle ax, kneeling down, doing a spin so that she could use the battle ax to cut through the demon's legs, making him scream in agony and fall to the ground.

Ken looked at the two guards next to him. "Get down there!"

The two guards with Ken ran to obey him.

Wyatt found a weapon made by one of the slaves, almost like a scythe, picking it up. A guard ran closer. Wyatt swung a backhand punch at his head, but the guard blocked it and shoved his arm out of the way, punching Wyatt with a backhand fist. Wyatt stumbled a little but recovered in time to duck his second swing at his head, doing a side kick to his rear, swinging the scythe weapon through the guard's head to kill him. Two more guards ran closer. Wyatt quickly threw his scythe blade, spinning end over end, at one of them, making it slice deeply into his chest, making him fall.

The other guard tried to attack Carmen next to them. Carmen ducked. When the guard swung toward her again, Carmen somersaulted over his arm, landing on the ground, rolling over to the dead guard with Wyatt's scythe in his chest, picking it up, standing up. The guard fighting her smashed his elbow into Carmen's side. Carmen ducked another hit, following it up with a full spin and a backhand punch to the guard's head, raising the scythe over her head to slam into the guard's chest, pushing it deeply into his wound to make him fall.

Another guard leaped up to catch Buffy unaware with a high punch to her face. Buffy stumbled backward but did not fall. Two more guards joined and tried to surround Buffy. Buffy looked around at them with a glare, snap kicking one of the guards in the face, side kicking the second, and doing a full spinning hook kick to the third, smacking him soundly in the skull.

One the ledge, Ken was disgusted with what he saw, going back through the door in which he came.

  ∞ 

Corridor

The group of slaves ran down the corridor, trailed by Lily. They rounded a corner. As Lily was about to follow them, Ken grabbed her from behind, pulling out a large knife, holding it to her neck, leading her off back to ledge.

  ∞ 

Iron Works

Below, one of the guards punched Brooke in the face, making her stagger, grabbing her by the neck while she was trying to regain her balance, yanking her head up fast and hard, holding her while two other guards punched her in the stomach. Alice and Brady ran to help. 

Alice backhand punched the first guard that was trying to beat Brooke, high kicking the second, making him fall, swinging her battle ax through the first guard's neck, killing him.

Brady swung his arm out in a wide arc and hit the second guard with one blow, knocking him down to his knees. The guard stood, kicking Brady in the stomach. Brady stepped back to regain his balance. Alice threw her battle ax to Brady. Brady caught it, swinging the battle ax through the guard's head to kill him.

Brooke was able to break free of the guard restraining her, doing a roundhouse kick to his stomach. The guard latched onto her arm, trying to throw her, but Brooke reversed the move, managing to throw him off of the platform instead.

A guard dove for Wyatt's legs. Wyatt jumped up, making him dive right underneath him, running, jumping off the platform he was on, grabbing a pole, making it bend under his  weight, riding it down to the floor below.

Carmen sliced the scythe blade through another guard as he tried to hit her, not enough to kill him, but enough to distract him.

Buffy, Brooke, Brady, Alice, Wyatt and Carmen all started to run, and the chase was on again. They didn't get very far when they looked up and saw Ken coming back out onto the ledge and holding his knife to Lily's neck, making them stop in their tracks. Two guards each restrained Buffy, Brooke, Brady, Alice, Wyatt and Carmen.

Ken still had the knife to Lily's throat. "One of you fights, and you all die!" He let go of Lily, pushing her aside, glaring down at the six heroes. "That... was not... permitted."

"Yeah, but it was fun," Wyatt replied.

Ken smiled sarcastically. "You've got guts. I think I'd like to slice you open and play with them." He held up the knife, addressing everyone in the area. "Let everyone know!" Lily cowered behind him. Ken seemed to have forgotten that she was there. Brady looked up at Lily, nodding. Lily realized what he meant. "This is the price of rebellion--"

Lily pushed Ken from behind, making him fall screaming from the high ledge to the floor below. Buffy, Brooke, Brady, Alice, Wyatt and Carmen, and the guards restraining them, just watched as Ken hit the bottom with a loud thud.

Buffy, Brooke, Alice, Wyatt and Carmen gave Lily a surprised look, while Brady smirked proudly, before they all took advantage of the distraction to break free from the guards holding them, punching their captors in the faces and groins, all six of them managing to push the guards together into each other and making the guards fall to the floor in a heap. They jumped onto a pulley landing system, and Buffy jumped high into the air to grab hold of the heavy chain hanging from above that controlled the pulley system, pulling it down with her as she glided back to the floor, using it to pull the landing with them up to the top of the ledge. They climbed the rest of the way hand over hand as quickly as they could, reaching up to Lily. They all ran through the door.

  ∞ 

Passageway

The six heroes and Lily quickly ran down the passageway, finding their way to the slaves struggling with a heavy iron gate.

"They'll be coming," Brooke told them.

Buffy crouched down, taking hold of the gate, bracing herself for a very heavy lift, beginning to raise the gate, straining as she did. "Okay. This... works... the abs... and... the glutes."

As soon as she got it high enough, Alice waved to the others for them to crawl underneath. They all scrambled to the other side.

Brady looked at Buffy. "You're gonna feel this for a week."

Alice, Brady, Brooke, Wyatt and Carmen also slid underneath the gate, turning back to help Buffy raise it enough so that she could slid underneath, but since they didn't have Slayer strength, it was harder for them. Buffy managed to slid through to the other side next to them.

Ken appeared behind the gate, bloodied from his fall, tackling Buffy to the floor as she reached the other side, making her fall into Alice, Brady, Brooke, Wyatt and Carmen and making them all hit the floor, also making himself drop his club next to them. The gate fell down behind Ken, and he suddenly arched up and screamed in pain. The six heroes rolled up to their feet, looking over at him as he continued to scream in pain. The camera panned from his bloody face over his back and to his legs, where two of the gate's bars had impaled themselves through the calves.

The slaves helped each other up through the black slime of the pool in the ceiling.

Carmen picked up Ken's club, walking closer.

Ken arched his back to look up at them. "You've ruined... you..."

"Hey, Ken, wanna see my impression of Gandhi?" Carmen asked, wielding back the club, bringing it down hard onto Ken's head, crushing his skull.

Alice looked at Carmen in confusion, amused. "Gandhi?"

Carmen shrugged, dropping the club. "Well, you know, if he was really pissed off. You guys were right. It feels good to be back in the game."

The six of them smiled, turning to help each other up through the black slime of the pool in the ceiling above, since Alice, Brooke, Wyatt and Carmen couldn't levitate them up since they still didn't have their powers while in this world.

  ∞ 

Family Home - Tar/Portal Room

The would-be slaves were walking out of the room.

Lily was kneeling by the pool, helping Buffy out, and they both helped Brooke, Brady, Alice, Carmen and Wyatt out as well. They all got up, looking at the pool.

Buffy pointed at the pool. "What do we do about--"

Wyatt, with his powers back and some control over portals (but not human teleportation), was able to use his power to close the pool/portal with a flash of light, making tile appear over the pool to match the tiles along the edge, now making it appear to be a six inch deep, empty ceremonial pool. "Got it."

The others looked at him, impressed.

"That's cool," Brooke told him.

The others smiled.

  ∞ 

Day Four

Morning - Brady/Alice's Apartment

The six heroes and Lily had just finished cleaning themselves up, and the six heroes had their stuff packed and ready to go.

Lily was looking at the folding doors that separated the kitchen from the rest of the apartment.

"Let me give you the tour," Alice told them. She walked into the main room, slowly turning to face them. "This concludes our tour."

They chuckled.

Wyatt leaned against the wall.

"It's really nice," Lily told them.

"All the rent's paid up for the next three weeks," Brady explained, turning around. "I spoke to Mitch at the diner. He said you can start on Thursday. He's, uh, he's kind of repulsive, but, uh, he won't give you a hard time." Lily sat down on the bed. "Um, I'll call and check up on you."

Lily looked up at them. "I'm not.... great at taking care of myself."

"Gets easier," Wyatt assured. "Takes practice."

"Guess this means that you need a new name," Brooke told her.

"Yeah," Lily answered. She looked at Brooke and Buffy. "And I really did like Aria and Anne, your middle names." She got an idea, looking at Buffy. "Can I be Anne?"

They smiled.

"We should go," Buffy told them. "Eric left me so many messages yesterday, saying that Giles finally found the way to clear our names so we can go home."

"Buffy, Brooke and I got to make things right with our mother," Brady told them.

Alice smiled a bit. "I'm glad that my father is the one that finally figured out how to bring us home, even if Zoey, Eric, Xander, Willow, Layla and Bianca were all trying all summer, too."

Carmen nodded in agreement, a little nervous. "Yeah. Home, here we come."

  ∞ 

Sunnydale, California

Summers House - Kitchen

Joyce was trying to get a stuck utensil out of the dishwasher. There was a knock at the door, and Joyce looked up, startled, frowning at the fork she pulled out, putting it down. She got up, grabbing a towel and headed out of the kitchen, wiping her hands.

  ∞ 

Foyer

As she was walking to the door, Joyce paused, wondering who it might be, draping the towel over a chair, slowly walking closer, opening the door, seeing Buffy, Brooke and Brady outside, looking sad, tired and disheveled, hoping to have a welcome home. For a moment, Joyce and her children just looked at each other without saying a word. Then they stepped toward each other and held each other close for a long, tight embrace.