Buffy watched in fascinated horror as the pair of massive guards hauled Faith, still whimpering and ranting madly, out of the room. Soon after the trio had departed, Dr Huksly emerged from wherever she had hidden herself away. Her expression was a mixture contemplation and determination, as if she was formulating a plan to be immediately carried out. Upon seeing the doctor, Buffy could not help but voice the question that was tearing at her mind.

"Has she really- you know- lost it? I mean, could it be the drugs, or- "

"Faith is confused," answered the doctor calmly. Her voice was strangely soothing; it had a soft, velvety tone that could lull a child to sleep. "She is trying to forget the world that she has built for herself in order to accept the real world, but this fantasy that she's developed is very convincing."

Buffy sat silently, contemplating this for a moment. As she considered Faith's situation, her eyes wandered idly to the security camera mounted from the ceiling. When her eyes had last grazed across it only moments earlier, she had noticed a blinking red light that she assumed indicated that the camera was on. The light was no longer blinking. Buffy crinkled her brow slightly at this, but paid it no further attention.

As the blonde turned back to Dr. Huksly, the psychiatrist swiftly removed a small taser from the sleeve of her coat. Buffy, already quite distracted by recent events, was caught completely unaware as the doctor pressed the device to the slayer's neck and activated it, sending electricity coursing through Buffy's tiny body.

"I'm sorry," Huksly stated softly as the slayer faded into unconsciousness. "I wish I didn't have to do this."

As her senses slowly came back to her, Buffy tried to shake away the blurry hue that had overtaken her vision but was unable to move her head. She realized that she was completely restrained, lying on a cold, metal table. She looked around, observing that she had been moved from the spotless visiting room to a dingy, homemade laboratory. Tubes, bottles, and chemicals of all sorts were scattered about, giving the room a disheveled appearance. Dr. Huksly was standing at a counter at the far side of the room, working diligently. Buffy was able to force her head to the side, and saw two additional tables. The one closest to her held Faith, also tightly restrained. On a table beside the brunette lay a man that Buffy had never before seen, this one not restrained but attached to various life-support apparatuses and tubes.

"Would you get a load of Dr. Frankenstein over there?" quipped Faith, nodding her head in Dr. Huksly's direction. The brunette slayer sounded like she had regained control of herself, though she still looked a little woozy. "So, doc, I'm guessing that getting me all confused and wigged out was all part of your master plan, so spill it. C'mon, its time for the evil mastermind to reveal her sinister plot to the audience."

"Shut up," the doctor snorted coldly as she moved toward the man on the table. She began to plug yet another tube into his arm. Carefully and methodically, she plugged the other end into a large, rickety- looking machine in the corner of the room. Buffy noticed that she had already been plugged into the machine, as was Faith.

"You can't expect me to yell 'you'll never get away with this' in a heroic voice if you don't tell me what you're trying to get away with," Faith continued, sighing in mock frustration. Buffy got the distinct impression that the other slayer could care less about stopping Dr. Huksly at this point; she was just having a little fun with the enemy.

"My husband is very sick," the doctor said without looking up, "and I'm going to use your increased healing powers to make him better. Now shut up."

"You mean you found the super slayer serum in my blood and you're gunna give it to your honey over there on the table? Nice move." Faith sounded distinctly impressed at the doctor's plan. Or, at least, Buffy thought she sounded impressed. She could no longer read anything into the other slayer's tone. Besides, she was too busy trying to loosen her restraints to try to interpret Faith's twisted mind.

"Not quite," answered the doctor. Her mouth seemed to be functioning on its own, as she looked completely absorbed in her work and still managed to deflect Faith's attempts at verbal sparring without even trying. "I am going to use the enchanted, petrified heart of a Golgothos demon to draw out your essence, or the part of your mystical make-up that supplies you with your slaying abilities. The organ has been modified to function inside the device to my immediate right, which will integrate your spiritual energy with a specially designed host fluid that will be pumped into my husband's bloodstream."

"Thanks alot," Faith answered sarcastically. "If you're gunna use me as part of your evil scheme, you could at least explain it to me in English." Faith paused for a moment, her brow contorted in thought. "Wait a minute- where the hell did you get a demon's heart? Where did you learn how to cast incantations? How do you know how a slayer's powers-"

"I'm not even sure that you are a necessary part of my 'evil scheme'," the doctor said, ignoring Faith's questions completely. "Actually, you were just bait."

Faith began to laugh hysterically as a look of realization crossed her face. "My slayer powers weren't strong enough, were they? I wouldn't have been able to heal jack shit, so you had to get Buffy, the first and the best, to come in and save your boy." The brunette chucked bitterly and closed her eyes, no longer staring at the doctor defiantly. "It figures."

"Don't feel too bad," stated the doctor as she turned to face the brunette, her face devoid of expression. "I simply wasn't absolutely certain that your power was adequate. Since I've got two slayers at my disposal, I'll use you both. Maybe one of you will survive the process that way." Dr. Huksly visually scanned the slayers and her husband, making sure all the necessary attachments were in place, and strolled over to the large machine that the trio was plugged into. She busily commenced turning knobs and pressing buttons in order to start the fluid-switching process.

Buffy, now sure that the doctor was suitably distracted, pulled at the restraints with all her might. Faith turned her head wearily to the side, noticing for the first time her counterpart's attempt to free herself.

"Here she comes, to save the daaaaayy!" Faith sang loudly, falling into a fit of laughter immediately afterward. Her giggling morphed suddenly into a piercing scream as the machine began pumping a stream of glowing energy from her arm. Buffy, taking a deep breath and focusing her strength, tore free from her bonds and ripped the tube from her on arm before the machine had a chance to remove anything from her. The doctor, however, didn't notice.

As the mystical aura drained slowly from Faith's arm into the machine, sparks began to fly from the metallic device. Parts began to short circuit, wires threatened to catch fire, and the works generally began to break down. The doctor panicked as she realized what was happening.

"The raw energy is overloading the computer!" Dr. Huksly yelled as she hurriedly flipped switches and pushed levers in an attempt to alleviate the problem. Her eyes were wide with fear as she cursed silently to herself, her movements becoming more and more frantic.

Buffy hopped from her station and quickly made her way over to Faith, who was still gritting her teeth in agony. The blonde immediately removed the tube from her fellow slayer's arm and freed her from her restraints, intending on pummeling that nutty shrink as soon as the brunette's life was no longer at risk. As soon as Buffy turned to face her captor, however, the machine that the doctor had been operating suddenly exploded, flinging shrapnel and flame in all directions.

Buffy tried her best to shield Faith from the blast as the chemicals and equipment scattered throughout the room ignited. "We've got to get out of here!" the tiny slayer yelled as she grabbed the younger girl's arm, looking for an exit. When Faith didn't turn to escape with her, Buffy turned to the brunette to see her brown eyes focused on Dr Huksly.

The doctor, having been caught in the explosion, was not in good condition. Her face was severely burned and gashed in several places, and a large piece of shrapnel had embedded itself in her leg. Slowly and painfully, she crawled across the floor of the room to the spot where her husband lay. The table that he had been placed on tipped over under the force of the explosion, sprawling him across the floor clumsily. Ignoring the pain of her own injuries, she gathered him in her arms and whispered to him.

"I'm so sorry," she wept shamelessly, "I failed you. I tried, but I failed. It's over now." By this time, his broken life-support equipment had long since given out, and his body was nearing its final moments. It shuddered in one last movement, and then fell into stillness. The doctor smiled sadly. "It's finally over," she whispered, laying her beloved down on the cold, hard floor and resting her head on his chest. "It's over."

Faith watched the display silently and reverently, her own lips drawing into a sad smile to match the doctor'. Buffy, finally able to snap Faith out of her daze with a violent shake, led the taller girl out of the inferno after forcing open the back door with a forceful kick. She and Faith stepped into the night air, hurrying from the burning building just before it collapsed. As it fell, Buffy realized that it was a warehouse of some sort, totally separate from the Institute. She wondered briefly how the doctor managed to smuggle them out of the institute, attain all of that equipment (flawed as it may have been), and secure a--.

Buffy suddenly halted her line of thought, deciding that she didn't care. She just wanted to go home, and she already had enough to worry about now that Faith was once again out of prison.

"So, B, what are you going to do with me?" Faith asked hesitantly, as if she had read Buffy's mind.

"I don't know," the blonde answered. As much as she still disliked the girl beside her, this incident had proven that the slayer was not safe in prison. If not for the ensuing legal trouble, Buffy might have taken her back to Sunnydale; that way, she could keep a close eye on Faith. Suddenly, her thoughts were interrupted by a jet black convertible screeching to a halt in front of her.

"Are you two alright?" Angel called out as he and Wesley emerged from the car. Angel ran hurriedly to the two girls, checking for injuries and surveying the damage. Wesley was careful to keep his distance from Faith, and equally careful to hide the fact that he was keeping his distance.

"Five by five," Faith answered quietly, her eyes locked on the blaze behind her.

"We're fine," Buffy said, rolling her eyes at Faith briefly. Despite herself, Buffy smiled. It was good to hear the brunette sounding sane for a change. Turning back towards Angel, she decided to ask the obvious question: "How did you know we were here?"

"I got suspicious when I heard that Faith had been transferred from prison," Angel explained. "When I went to visit her at the institution, I was told that they didn't have any patients by that name. At that point, I figured that there was some foul play afoot."

"Dr. Huksly must have found a way to destroy Faith's records so she wouldn't have to worry about explaining the corpse to the proper authorities," Buffy stated. Again, she briefly wondered how far the psychiatrist's resources went before deciding that she was too tired to care.

"We were able to set up surveillance around the institute," Wesley interrupted. "When we saw your captor emerge with you and Faith in tow, we simply followed them here." The reserved Englishman slid his hands into his pockets and smiled as he continued. "We were planning on bursting in and making a heroic rescue, but that seems quite unnecessary now, doesn't it?"

"Anyway," Angel said as he motioned for them to climb into his vehicle, "we had better get going before the cops show up."

"Good idea," Buffy concurred. "I would rather not be seen standing outside a burning building with a pair of dead bodies inside." Angel whirled around to face Buffy, surprise written all over his face.

"Dead bodies?"

The blonde sighed lightly as she climbed into her ex-boyfriend's car. "I'll explain later."

The dimly lit chamber bristled with tension as the Watcher's Council convened. As its members--eight in number--took their seats around an ancient redwood table, they involved themselves in a heated discussion.

"Why on earth was the woman allowed to take the slayer from prison in the first place? Our spies were already placed strategically throughout the penitentiary to keep tabs on her!"

"Maybe it was a mistake to pay the warden to turn a blind eye to her- "

"Would you rather have a super-powered lunatic heavily drugged in a sanitarium or alert and learning from the criminal element? The decision to ignore the events transpiring in Los Angeles was perfectly logical at the time-"

"Allowing the psychiatrist to destroy Faith's records was a mistake. Now, the law thinks she's in a nut house and the nut house doesn't know she exists. Basically, we have just given her a 'get out of jail free' card."

"The woman was going to kill both slayers, removing two very problematic situations from our midst. There was no reason to interfere."

"You honestly thought a single human was going to kill two-"

"Enough!" called a gravely voice from the shadowy corner of the room. All heads turned to meet the silhouetted figure of a man they both deeply respected and gravely feared: the Supreme Chancellor of the Watcher's Council. The man was garbed in a black cloak, hiding his face from the rest of the Council. In fact, everything about the enigmatic leader was hidden from the members of the Council; he could have been Count Dracula himself for all they knew.

"The psychiatrist was not the one to destroy Faith's records. I ordered our operatives inside the mental institution to dispose of them. Although our slayer is not quite as dead as I would like, this is not an unsalvageable turn of events. Our objective now is to make her as nonexistent in reality as she is on paper."

One of the watchers immediately raised his voice in protest. "We've tried that, sir. Our special operations team is not equipped to deal with this one. They've failed twice in disposing of her."

"You should never have sent those pathetic imbeciles after her," snapped the Chancellor in a tone that made the outspoken watcher shiver. "I have already summoned an assassin. In fact, he should be arriving right about now-"

Just then, the doors to the sacred meeting chamber of the Watcher's Council were thrust open. The Council rose to its feet in shock as they beheld the being that entered into their midst. Instantly, eight voices clamored simultaneously to be heard.

"It can't be!"

"He's supposed to be dead!"

"She rammed a beam through his heart. There's no way he could have-"

"We can't conspire with this evil thing!"

The assembly quieted just enough to let one voice be heard above the cacophony. "But sir, she killed him once already. She will probably do so again. And even if he-"

"Human," the creature in question snarled at the speaking watcher, "you've just sentenced yourself to die." With inhuman speed, he reached out with a cloven hand with the intention of ending the mortal who had spoken against him. Without warning, The creature roared in agony and fell to the ground, clutching its head.

"The spell that I used to resurrect you also binds you from doing harm to any normal human," the Supreme Chancellor stated fearlessly. "I think that your fabled temper would be more useful in dealing with a certain brunette slayer, don't you? I thought that the mighty Kakistos would rather kill the one who sent him to Hell than a feeble human."

"Faith," the ancient vampire growled. With a renewed sense of purpose, Kakistos took his leave of the Council. The Hellmouth, and his long-awaited vengeance, beckoned.