Max, Isabel, and Tess had selected spots around town Maria was waiting with the Jetta to rush to the rescue in case they needed a quick escape. Isabel had made her way to a building at the far end of the main road and found a fire alarm to pull if it became necessary to draw unwanted attention away from the museum. Tess was nearby waiting to deflect attention if necessary. They had given each other five minutes to get ready, synchronized our watches and everything, Liz thought feeling very James Bond about the entire business. She allowed a slight smile before squashing the notion by reminding herself that there would be no second take if they got this wrong.

"Liz." She looked around and saw Spike coming out of the shadows. "All of the doors and windows are wired. We're gonna need one o' the pod squad to get through." Liz ignored the crack and nodded.

"How many guards?"

"I spotted one inside, but there are probably more." Liz quickly went to retrieve Max and they moved to a window that Spike felt would give them their best chance of sneaking in. Max easily circumvented the alarm, and they let themselves in.

"Let's start at the bottom," Spike suggested and they started looking for a way into the basement. They found it finally, but they also found one of the guards. Spike drew the others back. "That makes two guards. The other is making rounds. Find him first." They spread out. Liz took another staircase to the second floor, listening carefully each step of the way. She heard him long before she saw him and more importantly before he could see her. The guard wasn't very attentive. Obviously, he believed that no one even knew of the place, let alone had intentions of breaching their security.

Moving quickly, she overtook him and hooked one arm around his neck. There was a surprised grunt as she pulled him back and drove a fist into his lower back. She felt a crack just as before, and the body collapsed into dust without a sound.

Okay, that was easy. Liz turned back toward the stairs and headed down them quietly. The last guard was still at the entrance to the basement, and Liz withdrew to find the others. It didn't take long to round up Spike and Max. They had found no one else. After comparing notes they went back to a hiding place near the basement entrance.

The guard was still there and looked as bored as ever. It was clear that his mind was miles away, but there was at least twenty feet of empty floor between them and no way to approach him without being seen.

"Tess," Max whispered. The others nodded and Max left to find his former wife. Tess had accepted that things weren't going to go back to the way they had been automatically, and had begun to try to win him back instead of acting as if he were being unfaithful with Liz. Max knew she still resented Liz, and he tried to understand her point of view, but he found the entire concept just a little too weird. The situation between him and Liz, strained as it was, seemed normal by comparison.

It was some choice, he reflected, between an alien who had been his wife in a former life and a human whose duty it was to hunt and kill things that most people didn't believe in. Except… it wasn't really a choice. He'd do whatever it took to stay with Liz and to keep her with him. No demon or alien was going to take her away from him. Speaking of aliens…

"Tess." She turned to face him, startled by his silent approach. "We're in. We need you to help us get by the last guard and to keep out anyone who happens to check in on him." She nodded silently and followed him.

***********************************************************************

E'tahr looked up at the window from her table in the eating establishment. The local cuisine, such as it was, didn't agree with her. It was just another thing on this planet she found unsatisfactory. Speaking of unsatisfactory… where is that guard?

She had set the guard's path herself. They had seemed reasonably competent, and it was clear they understood what was at stake, but obviously that was not enough. He should have passed that window three minutes ago. Either he was ignoring his duty or something was wrong. She rose and left the restaurant.

The doors were locked just as she had left them and the guard she had left there was in place at the head of the basement stairs. She approached him and he nodded to her. "Where is Clark?" she demanded.

"Clark?" He looked blank for a moment.

"The other guard I assigned. Where is he? He's not following the route I laid out for him."

"I don't know ma'am. I haven't seen him." E'tahr fumed silently. "Have you seen anything out of the ordinary? Heard any odd noises?" He shook his head.

"I've been at my post since you left and haven't seen any sign of trouble." Something was wrong, but E'tahr couldn't put her finger on it. Focusing carefully she spread her awareness throughout the building, or tried to. There was resistance. Something was definitely wrong. She decided to fetch reinforcements to do a proper search of the building. She turned away and started toward the door before she realized what was wrong. A projection! She turned abruptly; taking on her side the blow that would have opened the seam in her husk irrevocably.

Although not fatal, the blow was delivered with considerably more force than she'd expected. She hit the floor and slid several feet. There were four of them, two young men and two girls, one of who was clutching her head with a pained look. Obviously she had been the one holding the illusion. The closest, the one that had struck her was male with blonde hair and pale skin. He looked annoyed and was already coming after her again.

Max saw her raise focus on Spike and raised a hand. The protective shield formed in front of the vampire just in time to absorb what felt like a wrecking ball. He grunted with the strain of holding the shield.

"Thanks," Spike said, shaken by the way the shield, which could turn bullets, was now wavering. He turned to Liz. "Go take care of business. We'll hold her." Liz headed down the stairs.

"Who's 'we'?" Max grunted again as the woman got to her feet and started toward the door while directing another pulse back towards them. Max focused doing something he had never tried before. The shield suddenly shot forward, staggering the woman. "Now!" Spike stepped forward as the shield dropped briefly and delivered an uppercut that lifted her off her feet.

***********************************************************************

Betty Whitaker almost dropped the plate she was washing when E'tahr suddenly appeared in the room. She looked angry. "What?! What's wrong?"

"We're under attack. The husks are in danger. Gather a large group and-" The image vanished. Betty frowned and turned to call to her husband. Together they headed for the museum, calling out as E'tahr had to the residents of the town.

She stopped when a fire alarm went off several blocks away. She looked at her husband and nodded. "Check that out. The rest of us will go to the museum." Less than two minutes later there was a sizable group at the entrance. They headed inside.

Those at the head of the group burst through the door in time to see E'tahr floored by a human none of them had seen before.

***********************************************************************

Liz had to break the lock on the door at the bottom of the stairs, but it proved no great obstacle. The small antechamber she found herself in was deserted. After checking behind the door and in any part of the room that could conceal an enemy, she moved into a much larger room. The walls were lined with large cylindrical tanks, each containing what looked like a person. These, she realized must be the husks.

She moved into the room carefully, looking for enemies or traps, but saw nothing. There wasn't much time so she moved to what looked like a control panel. It was covered in symbols similar to those on the wall of Nasedo's cave, and she couldn't make any more sense of them now than she had then. There was no time to try to puzzle it out.

"Okay, something delicate and something heavy to hit it with." She looked around quickly, trying to find anything that fit her needs. Liz didn't know what alerted her. There was no sound, no motion to catch from the corner of her eye, but something warned her.

Ducking to the right she barely avoided the full impact of the crowbar the man swung at her. The glancing blow on her right hip sent her sprawling as the crowbar, barely slowed by they impact continued on to the cement floor. The impact sent a shock up her attacker's arms and the crowbar slipped from his numbed hands. There were advantages to being a Slayer, Liz reflected as the pain quickly faded. Stepping in quickly, she delivered a roundhouse kick to his chest with her right leg and followed it up with a left cross. It spun him around, exposing his back. Liz aimed a kick at the exposed back, only to have her injured leg give way under her.

Wincing, she tried to get her feet under her but a wave of the man's hand yanked them from under her and she found herself sliding toward him. Desperately she tried to get her feet under her, but she had no traction.

"Liz!" The man looked up, distracted and Liz used her hands to give herself a huge push toward her opponent and lashed out, kicking his legs out from under him. He didn't fall though. Instead he flew back through the air as Tess focused her power and released it in a controlled burst of pure force. His body struck one of the tubes, hard enough to shatter the tube and break the seal on his husk. Both Liz's attacker and the husk in the tube exploded. There was a pounding from above.

"Whatever you're doing, do it fast," Max yelled down. "I don't know how long I can hold them." Liz snatched up the fallen crowbar and smashed the nearest tube. She moved to the next one.

"Too slow," Tess said looking down the long line of tanks. There was a pipe connecting all of them. She followed it to a control box of some sort where a monitor was apparently tracking the flow of nutrients to the husks. "Here," she called. "This should do it." Liz looked at the box and the pipes running from it, and nodded.

It took two swings to destroy the control panel, but the effect was dramatic. The tanks exploded in rapid succession like dominoes falling. The pounding from above stopped immediately. Max called down for them to hurry. Tess and Liz hurried up the stairs and found Max opening the door. The townspeople were sprawled around the room, groaning.

"Okay, move now." They ran across the room and out the door. None of the Skins were in any condition to stop them. Outside it was a different story. There were several more aliens lying in on the front steps, groaning. The teens passed them by and Tess sent a message to Isabel and Maria. They reached the road and turned to move toward the Jetta coming toward them. None of them saw E'tahr rise up behind them.

"Look out!" Isabel's cry and the blast of force that accompanied it, distracted E'tahr. It was a fairly weak blast by her standards, but it was sufficient to stagger her. She tried to reorient herself, but had to dodge. The small red Jetta screeched to a halt where she had been standing. E'tahr lost her balance and staggered into a left hook from the Slayer.

"Liz!" Maria tossed the sheathed blade to her friend. She hadn't had long to decide on a weapon. She was certain one would be needed, but the question was which one. Finally she had simply grabbed the sharpest looking sword, a Japanese Katana as she thought, and put it on the seat next to her.

Liz caught the blade out of the air, unsheathing and swinging it in one fluid motion. E'tahr's head flew clear of her body and exploded. The other Skins were starting to recover and Maria gestured frantically. "In, in, time to go!"

The Jetta was a tight fit but they managed it, only to find their way blocked by a shaky but very angry looking group of aliens. Maria looked behind her, back the way she had come, but they were surrounding her car.

"You're going nowhere," an old woman in the group told them.

***********************************************************************

Alex had had ample time during the journey to regret letting Michael take over driving. Now his eyes widened as Michael accelerated. "What are you doing?!"

"Tess contacted me earlier. The town in full of 'Skins'." He plowed into the mob surrounding the Jetta causing several of them to explode into clouds of skin flakes. The rest scattered. Michael leaned out the window. "Let's go!" The van and the Jetta reversed direction, sending several more Skins running for cover, and headed back to where the jeep was parked. Max, Isabel, and Liz took the jeep the others got into the van. Spike stayed with Maria, much to her irritation.

***********************************************************************

Betty Whitaker came out of her house carrying the box that Nicholas had left in her keeping. She knew what she was about to do was dangerous, but she had no choice. She spoke the words and opened the box. The eyes that stared up at her glowed in irritation.

"You are not the vessel. Nor do you have what I need. Why do you disturb me?"

"We've been attacked. Many of us are dead or dying. They endanger us and thus you and your chances to be whole again. Destroy them for us and you will be safe, and soon you will be whole." The box's resident considered her words for a moment.

"Agreed."

***********************************************************************

The corpse next to her was grinning like a madman and laughing. "Now that was just… neat. Loved the way the van ran right through 'em."

"Glad you enjoyed yourself."

"I live for this stuff," Spike continued, oblivious to Maria's sour mood. He didn't seem to be able to get the smile off his face. "You did great with that katana. Just in time." Maria allowed a slight smile.

"That was pretty smooth. I mean the way Liz caught the sword and took off that alien's head. Whoa." Spike nodded proudly.

"Taught her everything she knows," he boasted. "That girl will be a real terror in the demon circles someday."

"I think Liz has other plans," Maria reminded him. Spike glanced at her, completely oblivious to her concern.

"All Slayers have other plans before gettin' called. A normal life just isn't normal for a Slayer." He shrugged. "'Sides what's the attraction in this 'normal life'?" Maria looked at him incredulously. "What?" He was wearing the same bewildered expression that he always did when anyone looked at him the way Maria was. "Normal is boring," he said somewhat defensively. Maria gave up and concentrated on the road. They were making good time away from Copper Summit, but it was still a long drive and they didn't want to attract attention from the highway patrol. It was necessary to travel at the legal limit. They also had to use a different route to return to Roswell, not wanting to run the risk of meeting Nicholas and the other aliens returning to Copper Summit. Confident they would not run into trouble ahead of them they looked primarily for signs that they were being followed.

The creature that landed on the hood of the Jetta, which was second in the small caravan, took them all by surprise. It drove a scale covered and wickedly clawed hand through the windshield. Maria screamed and the car started to swerve. Spike swore colorfully, just as startled as Maria but recovering more quickly. Grabbing the arm, he pulled it away from Maria and toward the back seat. He pulled hard. There was a loud bang and an indignant screech as the creature's head impacted with the roof of the car.

Changing his grip slightly, Spike shoved the momentarily stunned creature away from him as hard as he could. Off balance and with head ringing from the blow, the thing fell from the hood to the street and under the wheels of the car which Maria finally regained control of. There was a wet sounding crunch as the little red car rolled over the demon before coming to a stop.

They weren't the only ones having problems. The others had stopped when the Jetta did. As soon as they had stopped though, a group of demons, just like the first, made their presence known.

Max and Liz piled out of the jeep as four more of the demons emerged from the shadows. These were cautious, after witnessing the fate of their impetuous brother. Spike left the Jetta with a brief warning to Maria to stay down. The group gathered around the car and watched the approach of the demons.

"Where'd these guys come from?" Michael demanded. Spike's eyes narrowed as he took in the details. They were basically reptilian, lean and muscular with reverse articulated legs, hard scales and vicious teeth and claws. There was something familiar about them, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

Michael focused on the nearest one. It flew backward several feet and hit the ground hard, but quickly scrambled to its feet. "Oh crap." The demons closed in, bolder now that they had seen that their intended victims' powers were useless against them. "Max, Tess, work with me here." They concentrated together, focusing on the lead demon. It staggered back. Then it began to convulse, screaming in pain. Before their eyes it stiffened and its coloring changed, becoming gray before exploding into fragments.

"Well," Spike said, sounding as shaken as the others felt. "That's new." The remaining three demons backed away. "Maria, pop the trunk." He moved to the back of the car and retrieved the sword Liz had used earlier and a fire ax for himself.

Seeing this the demons rushed forward. They had lost what advantage their vicious forms and sudden appearance had given them, and Spike and Liz waded into them. Max, Isabel, Michael, and Tess concentrated on disorienting the creatures and knocking them down to make them easy targets. The fight was over in under a minute.

"Well. That was interesting." No one disputed Spike's statement. "There's somethin' familiar about this lot," he mused. "Gather up some of the pieces and I'll check some books back at the factory."

"You're joking right?" Maria asked. "I don't want to touch those things. Even if they did turn to stone when they died."

"We have to find out what they are Maria," Liz reasoned as she picked up a mostly intact head. "I want to take some of these pieces to the school lab for some tests too."

"Fine," her friend groused and picked up a hand from the demon she'd run over. "How am I gonna explain this to my mom?" She gestured at the Jetta's dented hood and broken windshield. "I just can't see myself telling her we were attacked by stone monsters."

"Why not?" Spike asked innocently. "That's what happened." Maria scowled at the vampire, but Spike just grinned, amused by her temper. "Seriously though," he said after a moment. "Tell your mom that a statue fell off the back of a truck and landed on your hood. You've got the proof." He gestured to the hand she was holding; now permanently frozen in the act of stretching its clawed fingers toward something unseen.

The rest had stopped and were staring at the vampire. "What? It'll work, and it's the truth. Just don't tell 'er the part where it tried to rip your throat out." Maria paled and hurriedly put the hand in the trunk as Spike tried hard not to laugh.

Michael shot an annoyed glance at the vampire, which Spike ignored. "Come on," Michael finally said. "Let's go home." This time he got into the Jetta with Maria and made sure there was no room for Spike. He felt immediately warmed by Maria's look of gratitude.

***********************************************************************

When Whitaker had disappeared so had Liz's job at her office. The sheriff had stepped in and, with some hints from Michael, had discovered the blackmail material. The fuss that would cause should, Valenti reasoned, keep people from looking to closely at Liz or her friends. After a few questions had been answered about Liz's whereabouts and the last time she had seen Whitaker she was left alone to find a new job, or more precisely an old one. "So how did your mom react to the car?"

"She didn't have to," Maria said as she loaded the last plate into the dishwasher. "Michael and Max fixed it, as good as new. One less complication, Michael said."

"Now why didn't I think of that?" Liz mentally kicked herself.

"You did have a few more important things on your mind," her friend reminded her. "Completely understandable." Liz gave her a grateful look and changed the subject as her father came into the CrashDown's kitchen.

***********************************************************************

"How could you have let this happen?" K'var demanded, glowering at Betty Whitaker. The list of disasters seemed impossibly long. How could he have been so wrong? These people had once been among his most trusted followers, but they had failed him miserably. "E'tahr and thirteen others dead, the husks destroyed, and the royal four have gotten away. How could you have let this happen?" he asked again.

"We didn't 'let' anything happen. Our security wasn't penetrated until you tried to capture them. I'm guessing one of them overheard you. Maybe Liz Parker was listening when you ordered their capture at Vanessa's office." K'var did not respond, too infuriated by her impudence. He took a moment to regain his control.

"Whatever you're about to say won't matter." He turned to see Nicholas enter the room. "Nothing matters at this point."

"The husks may be gone, but you can still have revenge," K'var pointed out. "We have the technology to isolate them. Without the humans in the way they will be easy to find and then we can find the granalith." Nicholas shook his head in exasperation.

"We don't need the granalith, and once we have completed our part of the bargain the royal four will be washed away in the fire that Devarri will bring."

"What are you talking about?" K'var asked, wondering if Nicholas had come completely unhinged. The young man didn't answer. He simply set down the box he was carrying and opened it, drawing out a silver chain at the end of which dangled an irregularly shaped piece of bas-relief, obviously broken from a larger image. On the flat piece of stone was the image of a face, a hideous face.

K'var stared at it, transfixed for some reason by the eyes. It was a moment before he realized that the eyes were glowing. "Your interference and impatience could have cost us everything. It isn't us you'll answer to though." Nicholas' voice seemed to be coming from a great distance. K'var didn't notice. The eyes of the image grew larger and larger still, until they became his entire world.

***********************************************************************

"Oh bloody hell." Spike shut down the browser and then grabbed the pages he'd taken from the printer. He hoped he was wrong, but he rather doubted it. Spike liked chaos. He liked a good brawl, and he got a real kick out of risking his un-life for a little excitement.

But even he had his limits. Just as when he had helped Buffy stop Acathla. Dru had been the biggest part of his reason true, but what he had told Buffy about the human world was still true. He liked the human world. It had a lot to offer even if he couldn't kill humans anymore.

He wasn't prepared to see it all go down the tubes. He left Philip Evans' home office and went out to where Liz was having a dinner with the Evans' family. "Sorry to interrupt," he said, not really caring if he was or not, "but we've got work. Slayer stuff." Phil and Diane both looked unhappy at the interruption, especially since neither of them liked the vampire to begin with, but Liz looked at him expectantly.

"What's up Spike?"

"You need to pack a bag and make yer excuses. We're goin' on a road trip." Liz looked confused.

"Road trip? Where? Why?"

"In reverse order," Spike answered. "I found out what those things were that attacked us. They're servants of a major demon called Devarri. It means big trouble if he gets loose, but we can't do anything about it here. So we're goin' to a place the Skins'll need to go if they want to release him." He scowled. "I hope you appreciate the lengths I'm goin' to to keep the world from endin', cause it'll mean goin' to the one place I never wanted to see again." The group at the table traded confused and worried glances while Spike griped. "On the upside you'll get to meet another Slayer. We're going to Sunnyhell."