The Story So Far.... chapter and verse

....Our heroes, in the alley, dodge the dragon and go for Angel?s clever fallback plan. But instead of the advertised nice restful stasis, they emerge into a post-apocalyptic landscape. At first they think it's the same place they left, only maybe later. Oopsie, their bad, they must have broken it. Angel follows a trail to a R'ych ambush of someone called The Destroyer. But they arrive just barely too late, to find a boy who came to the offices once, broken in two. Whereupon Angel shuts himself down. Why is it always catatonia with heroes?

Spike lugs him to relative safety, and opts to wake him up with that special power he has to annoy the Big Not-Easy. And then, instead of that 'thanks ever so' he always hopes for, has to fend him off. Hmm, been a while, and Angel seems a tinge different, although the soul's intact. They have a bit of a chat about boundaries, and do let's make a deal. And that's when Spike learns that Connor was Angel's son.

This is a world where the Old Ones seem to have won; we see them mating fearsomely in the sky. Illyria makes her bid to claim acquaintance, but it is made quite clear that in her Fallen state there could be no alliance. Then she has to choose, whether to stake a claim on the world herself, although diminished. She's tempted, but in the end she elects to return to her human and halfbreed comrades, in order to warn them that trouble is coming. Angel contemplates yet another Last Stand, all by himself, but gets outvoted.

Meanwhile, rumpled Scoobydom hits the not-so-solid ground of L.A. pretty much running. Faith's already down in the interdicted zone, rounding up Slayers. The epicenter of the disaster is the ruins of Wolfram & Hart, and that's where the investigative team begins. They're concerned that Angel, or perhaps Illyria, might be the Big Bad responsible. Is Angel gone for good this time? But sifting the unstable ruins for clues, they'd have a hard time declaring him dead off the evidence of one more pile of dust. The ground shifts under them: another day, another band in peril. What number apocalypse is this? Buffy comes in the nick to save them, her axe all handy, telling the tale of her epic war with LAX customs over that salesslip she didn't bring, for those red boots she won in yet another battle. One vote for the Slayer, while customs officialdom has yet to score. So far, so goodly. Let the world saveage begin.

Starts with Buffy's dream of Axcalibur: tree, boots, desert, water, and him. Who? Right, and that dream stuff always works out so well. It's been three months since the big disaster; three weeks since Faith and the Scoobies made it past the barriers to start the cleanup. Faith's beginning to feel she's got it covered. It's pretty clear that Angel and his whole team were at Ground Zero - big power surges, hot spots, have been mapped at both the Wolfram and Hart offices and the Hyperion Hotel. Time elapsed makes it pretty certain they must be dead at the bottom of one or the other rabbit hole, else they'd have materialized by now.

B's acting weird, though, none too keen on hearing the details of disappearing guardians of long gone Old Ones, preferring to stick to the shallow end of the Well; and the result of the furniture outing is disappointing. Still, it takes years to hone such strong powers of denial-based coping, and as it turns out it's an essential skill when Giles takes to giving her peppy talks on leadership. While Wesley is confused to suddenly find himself doing business over coffee with a suave (and very highly-placed)... gentleman named Lupazzi. Who apparently holds his contract with Wolfram & Hart, and tasks him to gain Faith's confidence. Wasn't he supposed to have an elsewhere to be, these days? Like, say, dead? Surely this can't end well. Or, apparently, end at all. In the meantime, though, the service is excellent.

Over a dimension or two, in Hell-A, the team's allowed themselves to be captured by the human Resistance movement (damn that pesky not killing humans clause anyway, kicking in just as lunch was about to be served). Gunn's been convalescing, and the team's been locked away. But there's something increasingly off about Angel. He's a little hungrier, a little less predictable, a little more out there, a shade more Technicolor, than his pals are comfortable with. The presence of Old Ones sets off his demon. Also, it takes serious trauma to shatter powers of guilt-based control that took years to hone. Trauma, and the complete disintegration of all hope. Perhaps luckily for them all, they're offered certain... distractions. A chance to feel useful, let off a little steam.

But the real freak show starts when they come face-to-face with another Wesley, one not even Illyria can find lovable, victim to a kiss and to his own power-fueled fantasies. If they want to get out, an impossible mission awaits them. It's an Indiana Jonesy perilous journey into the crater formerly known as Sunnydale, reclaiming their own Aurelian heritage, down deep into a river of great mysteries and knowledge hidden far from prying eyes and fangs. The Master here has successfully ascended, leaving behind in this secret library more than one message, too few clues for comfort, and some sage advice for the heirs to his kingdom. Illyria meets another kind of something she knows well, a hatchling, and what's more manages to grab herself a snack. Still, better her than Angel. They bring Shamaniac Wesley what he asks for, but Illyria and Angel stick to the letter, don't feel obligated to tell him or anyone else what will happen when he uses it. Quid pro quo, and this Wesley keeps his end of the deal, sending them home through a portal to the world they know. But what are they returning to? Everyone on both sides of the portal's got a stake in this one.

Angel's X-team emerges from the taffy slowness of the portal... smack into a confusing skirmish between vampires and demons. Then a sting of Slayers arrive and everyone present becomes their target. Angel is enjoying himself way too much, using Gunn as a human shield, till Angel takes a crossbow bolt, Spike gets staked by a blonde, and Angel takes a bite out of another blonde Slayer on his way to the door. At Slayer HQ the two Elder Slayers reminisce about Angel, and Faith shares with Buffy a strangely half-familiar dream, in which the Slayer Primitive appears in a desert tree and speaks to her, a snake is gnawing at the roots, and Faith's got the axe. The Slayer patrol appears, in a panic; Vera's been bit by a big vampire. They look to Faith for everything; Buffy gets pushed aside. She thinks about the changes that she's made, so it won't have to be for them the way it was for her, and then she goes to look for something she can kill.

Nobody's too happy about Angel's latest stunt. Illyria doesn't want to keep his secrets, Gunn doesn't like being left out of the loop, and Spike figures that Angel's buggered his own chances of trying on Mr Good Guy. Gunn and Spike learn from Illyria what they elected to keep from AltWesley; not only That Wesley but everyone in his vicinity is doomed. In response Gunn quits, and heads for Anne's shelter. In this LA, Wesley walks into Slayer HQ, meets Faith, and reports back to Lupazzi. Then he goes looking for Gunn at the shelter, trying to get to the bottom of his contract problem. Gunn asks him what all he doesn't know, and Wesley tells him about the memory spell, what Angel was willing to do to all of them in order to protect Connor.

Nina's got a new career as general of the demon green camp; she's got bodyguards, refugees, and trouble. She's already looking into the melee at the Hyperion, when Angel takes Spike on a scouting mission by ferryman (Spike paying the fare for both of them, but who's counting?) to Lorelei's Attic, built into the shell an Elder God has shed on top of a magical flume. Willie is bartending. Spike meets his old mate Clem. Angel is wondering who's got clout in his city, since they've been gone awhile; and it turns out to be Nina, who gives them a tour of the less public areas. Nina's been taking some werewolf seminars with Oz, so she can control her demon. The refugees can't protect themselves from the demon army Wolfram & Hart brought in against Angel and left behind, or from the predator groups now moving into the vacuum of power. They need some territory they can call their own; the Manatee clan's only letting them kip there as a stopgap measure. She can't find a longterm fix, she's looking for champions, and she asks them both to help. Then she's called away - there's trouble on the docks. Asks them to come and Angel declines, but Spike says he'll go and Angel reluctantly decides to follow.

Connor is patrolling, hoping to hear something, anything, about what happened to his father; he introduces himself to Buffy and Faith, also patrolling, and they learn he last saw Angel on the day the Really Bad Thing went down. They're looking for the greens, he's seen the sentry, so they pool forces and head for the docks. First they meet Nina. Then Angel. And finally Spike. A demon snatches the axe and Buffy and Spike pursue it. They follow it onto a freight car, kill the demon, get the axe back, working in perfect harmony. But then they try to think of something to say. Say the wrong things. Do the wrong things. Make a spectacular but unfortunate entrance into Slayer HQ. And Spike walks away. And meanwhile Faith tries to get Angel to say he's sorry about the Slayer he attacked. Except he isn't. He walks away too. On the whole, hope and anticipation were lots better than the actual meeting up; the reality resembled nothing more than a series of endings.

Buffy stalks that suspicious furniture and captures a lixie, with which she oddly identifies; Willow and Giles, focused firmly on Drogyn-locating, don't take much interest, but Buffy's spidey senses are tingling, so she borrows it. Angel and Connor talk about Cordelia and around the question of how to integrate two selves, two lives. Preparing for the peace conference Gunn is setting up, Faith and Buffy find Harmony working for Gunn's law office room at the Shelter, and Buffy meets again the Anne she gave her middle name to long ago. Faith fails to convince Buffy to take a more hands-on approach to the Slayers in training. Major Riley Finn turns up for the conference, which takes place at a site that used to be the palace of the Archduke Sebassis.

Nina and Spike cooperate with the Slayers to get some intel from Black Thorn allies; they're trying to suss out the fate of Drogyn, last guardian of the Deeper Well. Spike gave them the heads-up, which pisses Angel off, even though he doesn't tell them that Angel killed him. They argue about Buffy, and Spike throws him out of his flat. Then Spike has to explain to Illyria the concept of closure, and how it differs just a tad from her offer to eviscerate a certain Slayer and display her head on a pole outside their dwelling. Illyria visits Wesley, and can tell that he's been resurrected from the dead by magic; he turns her away decisively. Spike and Illyria experiment with interspecies, er, relations; Spike has a panic attack at the thought of becoming absorbed in her, in classic Old Ones style, but they find a more human-friendly way to share pleasure with one another.

Faith talks to Wesley about Buffy's distancing, and discovers that Wesley wrote a paper on Drogyn, and his father is an expert on the Well; meanwhile he learns that Angel bit down on a young Slayer, and a demon made a grab for Buffy's axe. Giles and Willow invite Wesley, as an expert on Drogyn, to join them on an excursion to the Black Thorn institution called the Abaddon Club, where they expect to find him. Wesley assumes he'll be doing some magic, but winds up holding the bag. He learns more about why slayer.org is not using Watchers much any more, something he's been asking Faith about. They find the body, drained of blood, and Wesley starts to worry about what Angel seems to have become; but he doesn't mention that it was Angel who did the deed. At the conference Wesley goes looking for Angel, to see if Angelus is back; Angel checks out Wesley for deadness quotient, questions who's paying for that resurrection, warns him off whatever he's up to with Faith and at Slayer HQ, and in return for not blowing Wes's cover expects him not to mention who did for Drogyn.

Arguing with Illyria, Buffy accidentally makes the Phoenix Orchid sing, disrupting the conference, and as a result the Zhid claim the palace as sacred territory. Buffy hands Faith the axe to bring the meeting to order, and follows Angel and the lixie to reconnoitre in the Dungeon below the Palace atrium. They do that sewer talk thing, cover a lot of ground. Meanwhile they discover some bodies that give them serious leverage in the dispute, and Riley's got the muscle to make it stick. Nina makes Spike a serious offer. Spike and Illyria are dispatched to find a certain seer who's already turned down Gunn; her domain is the Old Age Home where Angel once lodged briefly, which Illyria calls another Deeper Well. Madame Nacassis makes a wager with Illyria; they play a cutthroat game of strip euchre while the seer practices her leer in Spike's direction. She reads the cards he's been dealt, wins his coat, and agrees anyway to preside over the peace ceremony as required. Then Angel and Spike and Buffy all get married to one another, as a side effect, and speculate about their wedding night. Nina and Buffy talk about being Chosen and never getting to choose. Angel dances with Buffy, Spike cuts in, and on an impulse she invites them both to Rome, to help her address the problem of the Deeper Well. Even if Illyria coming along is part of the bargain. It's a peace offering.

Dana gives Willow her drawing of Spike's killer hands on the table, after she took them, on the grounds that he isn't going to need them any more. Flavio Lupazzi talks to Dawn about eggshells and the nature of heroes, and tells her that she is a supernatural creature like him with powers of her own. Flavio meets with Giles to share reports of activity in the Well, and to encourage Giles to send slayers, so Giles of course sends Willow. Flavio meets Illyria for the first time, and down in the Well rips something from the body of an Old One. Back in L.A., while Wesley and Faith are on a mission, Wesley becomes a corpse and is restored only to watch Faith forgetting the whole thing in stages. And speaking of heroes, Buffy faces down Simonetta, the formidable Chief Slayer for Rome.

Dawn has big issues with why Buffy didn't just leave both Boys safely back in the past, where they used to be. Buffy tells Willow she's not sure why she's brought the Boys to Rome with her, but vaguely looks for some sort of resolution so she can live already instead of pondering the Unmade Choices of Buffy. Angel and Spike in the company of Buffy and Illyria naturally discuss the size of their weapons. Spike views the whole thing as a junket holiday from finding purpose, a mission currently on hold as he sticks close to Angel so he can intervene when Buffy learns about Angel's various sins and stakeage inevitably ensues. But Angel has no problem with telling Buffy that Connor is his son. He's thinking too about taking a new role involving predators and prey in need of protection. And he ditches Spike to pursue Buffy's researches with some gypsies who still remember that curse condition, especially after he goes a bit Mr Slurpy. Although he himself has moved on, he tells them breezily, they might want to remember both his faces for future reference.

Buffy and Illyria go patrolling together in a cemetery at the base of the Aurelian wall, and Illyria gets a close look at Buffy l'ammazzavampiri in the field; they discuss the origins of Slayers (and their relation to the Old Ones) and the death of Guardians in L.A. Dawn goes to club Radio Londra to track down a lead on Simonetta's problem, the ten missing persons who went to the catacombs and never came back. Spike goes there just to see her, and makes protective overtures which are none too well received. They enter the catacombs and go though several locked doors in the vicinity of Flavio's palazzo, avoiding mausoleum ick and spiderwebs wrapping a mirror, to find themselves in a centuries-old ballroom underneath the palazzo. And there they find Charlotte, a long-dead Slayer from the time of the French Revolution who killed a Marat demon and went to the guillotine for it, restored as a full-sized doll built out of mechanicals covered in wax. And somehow they awaken her essence, still inside. But she identifies Spike as an enemy who threatens Dawn. Whereupon Dawn has to protect him.

But the room is on fire (aside: Dawn wants it said that this was Not Her Fault, and anyway She Didn't Mean to Do It). Charlotte is burning, and Flavio is on his way. She tells them to run, and they end up back in the tunnels, where they find the spider demon. Spike touches the mirror, and falls into visions - the state of being cutoff from Buffy and Dawn when Buffy returns to life, the beating Buffy gives him in the street, the bathroom assault, and then a scene in which both sisters chain him up and use an ice axe to cut off his hands. And Dawn sees it all, shreds the web, and opens the door, as the mirror shatters. Then Spike gets them both past the spider. While Flavio sees Charlotte melt away, and rips something black from the wax. Meanwhile, Buffy and Illyria have gone to confront the boyfriend about the spider problem, and Buffy watches the final death of another Slayer while Illyria obliterates the tracks of the Terrible Two in the destroyed ballroom.

And speaking of hero roles, Spike tells Dawn the facts about his not-so-glorious resurrection. She tells him she missed him, sort of. He promises he won't leave again without saying goodbye. Buffy decides to confront the ex-boyfriend about Drogyn. And Willow finds and then enters the Well with Trixie the lixie, and from the bridge notes a gap where a dozen coffins are missing. Then she sees a doppelganger on a mirror-bridge upside down. Trixie gets blasted. Willow falls in.