Giles directed Wesley and Xander towards the center of the circle and they deposited Morghane on the ground next to Lisandra with careful movements - Willow and Oz at their sides.

"Step out of the circle now. All of you."

"Giles, are you sure this is..."

"Wise?" grumbled the ex-librarian. "I have no idea what's going to happen once I complete the counterspell, Willow. Which is why I want you all out of the circle."

"But I can help..."

"Yes, by making sure nothing and no one tries to breach the circle while I'm busy casting it."

The young witch nodded tersely. They didn't have the luxury of time. Willow, Xander, Oz and Wesley retreated, gathering next to Angel's slumped form. Willow brought a trembling hand to her mouth when her eyes landed on the vampire, and knelt by his side, gently shaking his shoulder.

"Angel?"

He did not respond. His eyes were closed, and she could not tell if he was conscious or not.

"Xander..."

"He's gonna be okay, Will," Xander promised with more confidence than he felt.

It was a bit unsettling to look at Angel like that. The vampire usually summoned such a presence around himself. But with his eyes closed, paler than chalk and covered in blood, he looked like a wraith. Like life was hanging onto him by a thread. And maybe that was true, but there wasn't much they could do for him now.

Spreading without the need to consult one another, they took place strategically around the circle of salt. They watched as Giles tied a thin leather strap around one of Lisandra's and Morghane's wrists, binding their hands together and lit some incense around them. The Watcher stood and resumed his circle casting.

He placed four candles at the cardinal points, shouting to be heard over the roar of the battle raging around them. They were dealing with very powerful, malevolent forces. He had to center himself, despite the surrounding chaos, and properly cast the sacred circle.

"Be it known that the circle is about to be cast!"

He unsheathed the athame stuck in his belt and pointed the blade towards the East.

"Hail to the Spirits of the Air

I invoke you and call you

To illuminate this sacred space

And bring it the breath of life

I ask that you send forth your power

So mote it be!"

He lit the eastern candle and repeated the process with the three others in a clockwise manner, invoking the spirits of Fire, Water and Earth, to warm, wash and strengthen the circle.

The fine hair on Willow's arms stood on end. "The circle cannot be penetrated now," she murmured to herself.

Next, Giles picked up the thick leather-bound codex Wesley had brought with him from England and began to read, keeping the athame firmly in one hand.

The spell called for a weapon of some sort, a weapon of balance - although what that meant wasn't very clear, so the black-handled ceremonial knife would have to do.

"Hail to the powers of the spiritual plane

I invoke you and call you

I ask thee..."

"Holy shit"

Giles jumped, startled by Wesley uncharacteristic swearing, his concentration broken as he focused on the latest threat hanging over their heads.

Literally.

He watched, helpless, as another commando found a way to climb on one of the warehouse support beams and stuck a small charge of what looked like C4 to the metal structure.

Giles blanched. If the charge exploded, not only would the ceiling come crashing down on them, but all the vampires in the room - including Spike, Angel and Lisandra - would be incinerated by the light of day in the blink of an eye.

However, the commando couldn't very well detonate the explosives while still hanging to the beam, and there was no access to the roof in this part of the structure. The man would have to make his way back down along the other beams and over the thin wall separating this room from the cells.

Giles quickly motioned to Xander. "Shoot him."

The young man tensed. "Giles, I don't have anymore darts."

The Watcher's expression hardened, although his eyes showed his compassion.

Xander understood. They didn't have the time, and too many lives were at stake. He took aim and pressed the trigger without pause. There was a cry, and another body fell from above.

A detonator clattered to the ground, exploding in a million pieces.

Xander kept the M16 close to his chest. And he did not speak again.

Giles resumed his casting, this time ignoring the sound of the front door finally giving out. Spike and Buffy could handle themselves against a bunch of humans, however well armed they were.

"Hail to the powers of the spiritual plane

I invoke you and call you

I ask thee, please hear my plea

As I present to you your Child

As I come before you to right a wrong

As I beg thee to restore a life

And take another"

Giles lit the herbs mixed in a bowl in front of him.

Willow flinched as a sharp wind picked up inside the confines of the room, throwing her hair in her face, stealing the breath from her lungs.

She wondered if the faint glow which had materialized over Morghane and Lisandra's bound bodies was the product of an oxygen-starved brain.

"Hail to the power of the spiritual plane

I invoke you and call you

I ask thee, please access my demand

As I bow humbly before you

As I avenge the suffering of your warrior

As she lay in your sacred embrace

And draw her last living breath"

The earth shook and what had been a faint glow reached blinding proportions.

The four people around the circle had to shield their eyes.

Giles raised the athame over his head.

"Hear me!"

Willow gasped.

The infernal light dimmed, and revealed a foot-long spear floating above vampiress and Guardian.

The young witch had come across many representations over her days of frantic research to save Morghane.

< The Sepulcher >

Giles recoiled, not expecting the long-lost artifact to materialize out of thin air.

He breathed deeply, then took a decisive step forward. It all made sense now. The weapon of balance. The very weapon which had brought the Guardian so much grief would now save her life.

Without hesitation, he reached out his hand, and his fingers closed around the spear.

"Watcher!"

Giles flinched, then turned around.

What he saw left him blinking in wonder.

Angel - < no, Angelus, no doubt about that > - stood at the edge of the circle. Angel, their friend, was on his knees, apparently unconscious. Angelus held Angel's torn wrist in a punishing grip, and the souled vampire's limp form was crushed against the demon's body, exposing his battered back, his torso smashed to Angelus' long thighs, his face lying against the demon's silk-clad stomach, his eyes closed and his expression slack.

Angelus evidently could not be here, so it didn't take long for Giles to realize who stood before him.

"The First Evil."

"Yes," Angelus hissed - his handsome face deformed by anger and fear. "Give me the Sepulcher, Watcher, and I'll let you all go free. I'll even spare this one's miserable unlife." Saying that, he shook Angel's unresponsive body. "Or else..." A stake appeared in his free hand, and Angelus viciously pushed the sharp point into Angel's back, piercing the skin, drawing blood, but not reaching the heart. "Undo that circle, Watcher. Now!"

Giles grinned. A black, abnormal smile.

"You lose."

Without another word, he rammed the Sepulcher down, skewering both Morghane's and Lisandra's bound hands with one stroke.

"NO!"

The First's scream of impotent rage was echoed by the twin wails of the Guardian and the vampiress, and Giles had to cover his ears. He took several steps back.

And broke the circle.

The liberation of the energies the sacred space had contained up until that point crescendoed in a blast that threw the five humans several feet into the air to land half-way across the room. Stunned, they still managed to scramble to their feet and half-ran, half-crawled towards the front door.

Spike and Buffy rushed to their help, unscathed, as the commandos they had been fighting a few seconds before retreated. The Watchers picked-up Dunst's still unconscious form and made a mad dash for the outside world and the relative safety of the street.

"Are you guys okay?" asked the Slayer, shouting to make herself understood.

The unnatural winds had picked up in earnest.

"Yes," Giles gasped, panting for breath, but still making sure everyone was accounted for.

Buffy paled.

"Where's Angel?"

They turned around, standing at the threshold of the room, holding their hands up to shield their eyes from the blinding light-show raging at the other end of the warehouse.

Their last vision was of Morghane, straining against invisible bounds and screaming as if she was in unspeakable agony, floating several feet above the ground - while Lisandra was consumed in infernal fire next to the Guardian.

And Angel...

Angelus had disappeared and Angel, too, was suspended in the air by some unknown force. And he too thrashed and shouted as if he was being rent limb from limb.

And then the heat, or the wind, or maybe something else, triggered the explosives attached to the support beam and the blast once again shook the warehouse to its very foundations.

It was more abuse than the structure could take.

The beam seemed to detach itself in slow motion, hitting the ground a few feet away from vampire and Guardian. The deafening clang was like some sort of signal, as the building began to fold in on itself.

"No! Angel!"

Buffy's cry of pure anguish propelled Giles back into action and he firmly seized his Slayer's arm.

"No! You can't go. You'll never reach them in time. We have to get out of here."

"I'm not abandoning him, Giles," Buffy screamed, not even looking at him, struggling to break free.

She succeeded without any effort, until a pair of startlingly powerful arms wrapped themselves around her mid-section.

"I'm not letting you commit suicide, pet."

"Spike," she screeched. "Let me go!"

"He'd never forgive me, luv."

And with that, Spike picked Buffy off the ground and ran towards the humvee. They all pilled up inside the military vehicle in a matter of seconds. Giles took the wheel, turned on the engine, and floored it, backing out of the crumbling warehouse.

In no time they had reached the street and Giles still did not stop, parking the vehicle in a small, dark alley - mindful of Spike's presence. He needn't have bothered. It was snowing again, as the counterspell wrecked havoc with the elements.

As soon as the humvee stopped, Buffy overtook Spike. She rammed her elbow in his ribs and lunged for the door. She made it half-way across the road before being tackled to the snow-covered ground.

"Let me go, you bastard. I can't let him die. Let me go, let me go!"

Spike did nothing but cradle her against his chest, not even trying to shield himself from her blows. The pain she inflicted was not even enough to bring out the demon on his face. He was crying as he watched the warehouse collapse. Another explosion erupted from its center, and his last hope of ever seeing his Sire again died a thundering, splintered death in his chest.

He was crying as the Slayer howled her grief at some deity who never listened.

He was crying as she crumbled sobbing in his arms, clutching his shirt, gasping.

He cried for a long time.