•••

Angel's head jerked up from where he'd been studying the floor. "Wolfram & Hart."

"Yes, we assumed that," Giles spat. The Watcher was still very upset that he'd been kept in the dark about Angel's and the others' survival. Both Buffy and Angel had tried to explain why they'd decided not to inform the man, and he saw some validity in their argument. However, for the most part he felt they'd underestimated his ability to keep information out of enemy hands and had generally treated him poorly. Unfortunately for him, no one else felt the same way.

"Well, we've all had a chance to review each others' info," Cordelia commented. "Maybe we should plan out what we want to do and just do it."

Dawn pulled a computer display around so that everyone could see it. "Ok, first, we know that Wolfram & Hart are at their weakest right now. Their financial state is, to be blunt, abysmal. As best as we can tell, they're at 10% of peak client load and their office is nearly abandoned."

"Not only that, but they're in the middle of a criminal trial--several of the junior partners have been charged with extortion. The state declined to plea bargain the case, so it's in court starting two weeks ago," Willow added.

"But what are we going to do?" Xander asked. "I mean, blow up the building, kill them, what?"

"That's what we've got to decide," Wil murmured. "What *do* we do?"

"I vote for demolishing the building," Lorne muttered. "There's no way to get all of them, but that'll destroy a bunch of the slimy bastards, plus their records."

"They're probably backed up somewhere," Dawn said. "But the 'demolishing the building bit' has its merits. Without a corporate office, they'll have nearly nothing to stand on in the city."

"Wes?" Oz said quietly to the frowning faun. "What is it?"

"None of us are demolition experts," Wesley commented. "That building sits amongst many others. How are we supposed to destroy it without also causing a great amount of death and destruction to innocents?"

"And what about the magickal aspects of the place that won't just go away via dynamite?" Fred added.

"I doubt all of our magickal abilities together would be able to completely annihilate some of what they must still have standing," Willow admitted.

"But tracking down all of them individually just ain't gonna work," Gunn said. "I mean, even if their work force is way down, that's a lot of lawyers."

"What if we took out all the bosses? The senior partners, that is?" Xander offered. "I mean, without them, what is the firm, anyway?"

"Getting to them might be a problem," Wil replied. "We never saw a senior partner while we were here."

"They don't exist on this plane, remember?" Buffy stated.

"So who's the head honcho now?" Xander asked the Slayer. "It's not in your reports."

Dawn glanced at Willow. "We think its Lilah, actually."

"Lilah?" Angel said, blinking. "That's... really not that surprising. She was always ambitious."

"She broke down a while back," Buffy murmured. "Showed up in Caritas, drinking like a fish. Lorne got to read her."

"What did you see?" Wesley asked the green demon.

Lorne grimaced. "I saw her holding most of the firm's power, whatever that amounted to. I must admit, though, that the picture was pretty bleak. I didn't get the impression she has much of a future."

"She doesn't," Angel said darkly. "As soon as we figure out what we're doing, that is."

"This building," Oz murmured, drawing everyone's attention. "It's big, you know?"

"Huge," Buffy replied. "But like we've said already, we can't exactly blow it up."

"We might not have to--at least not entirely," The alpha wolf said. "If their financial resources are meager enough, they won't be able to repair it very quickly."

"And in the meantime, we can pick off the last of their clients and contractual safety nets," Wesley continued.

"Maybe if we did something like start a fire," Xander said. "Cause lots of damage; maybe get a few of the really nasty ones off the bat..."

"Hitting a few of their finest would definitely rattle them," Fred added. "And if we could get Lilah and Gavin too..."

Giles finally could take no more. "Do you realize that you're talking about killing human beings?" He asked harshly. "Buffy, Slayers do not *ever* kill humans."

"Giles, Slayers do not *ever* let overwhelming evil run rampant without trying to stop it," Buffy retorted. "What, you want to rehabilitate them? Maybe stick them into the same program you've got Faith in? And we've all seen how well that's working," She continued. "Yes, Giles, they're human. They also sold themselves to this *thing* that does nothing but churn out pain and greed and evil and all sorts of mean, nasty things that hurt other humans."

"I will not abide by this brutal... massacre you seem to be planning," The Watcher swore, standing up. "And neither will the Council!"

"Then the Council won't have anything to say about it, will they?" Buffy grated out.

Giles turned on his Slayer. "Do not think such petty threats will have any effect on us now, Buffy. The Council does not live merely to bend to your wishes. The cardinal precepts of slaying stand as they do for a reason."

Angel spoke before Buffy could. "If you don't want Buffy to help us, take it up with her and her alone. This operation," He said firmly, "Is more than just the Slayer, or the Council. You might think they're worth saving, but I don't. And before you start ranting again, I want you to think about that, Giles. You know me. Have I ever taken humanity lightly? No. I kill my own kind so that one day I might be human again. Almost everyone in this room, too, values humanity over all other forms of life. Many have actually lost their humanity, but still they fight for the survival of humans. This isn't the solution we'd prefer, but the only one that will work."

"I disagree," Giles spat. He saw that no one supported him, so he turned to leave.

"Giles?" Wil murmured as the man reached the office door. "I'd recommend against calling in the Watchers' cavalry in your zeal to oppose us."

"And why is that?" Giles asked coldly.

"Because, quite frankly, Watchers make excellent targets," Wesley told his former hero. "And you can be sure that if a few dozen self-righteous Watchers show up in Los Angeles, Wolfram & Hart will take notice. And the results of that, Rupert, will be rather devastating to both this group and yours."

Giles studied his former colleague for a moment before leaving. "That was painful," Dawn said quietly.

"Indeed," Wesley agreed.

"So, plan," Cordelia said, drawing their attention back to the matter at hand. "How are we going to deal with this?"

•••

"Do you think they know we're back?" Cordelia asked Fred as the werewolves worked on lunch. "I mean, it's been two days now."

"Probably," Fred admitted. "We've not been hiding, you know."

"I guess they don't really care anymore," The seer said. "They've not tried anything."

"They might not be able to," Fred commented. "Or maybe they're planning something, the same way we are."

Cordelia frowned. She worried about her cubs. Would the firm target them, since they couldn't yet defend themselves? She hoped not, but Wolfram & Hart were dirty, underhanded lawyers with the morals of a rabid hedgehog. "Did you ever find Thalia's sippy cup?" She asked Fred.

"No. I think she left it at that rest area," Fred replied. "Xander's going to get her a new one when he and Oz go out for stuff today."

"Speaking of Xander and Oz," Cordelia murmured. "Who's watching the cubs?"

"I think Wesley and Gunn are working on their reading lessons," Fred said. "At least, I saw Dawn and Willow carrying books into the office, and Buffy had a weird expression on her face when she ran into the training room."

"Sounds about right," Cordelia said. "At least, the book part. I guess Buffy's not the kid type."

The two women continued to prepare an army's worth of sandwiches in the kitchen while the other occupants of the hotel worked, slept or played. They didn't really notice anything amiss until Lorne began shouting.

"That was Lorne, wasn't it?" Cordelia asked, wiping her hands. "He sounded..."

"Like he was in trouble," Fred finished. "Let's go."

They ran into the lobby only to find Lorne rushing up the stairs. A crowd of black-masked people were already entering the main office, and a hazy cloud of chemical gas was wafting through the hotel. They watched in horror as Lorne collapsed, falling back down the stairs. Cordelia's eyes began to water as the gas reached her.

"We're not..." She began, stopping to cough.

Fred looked up towards the office. She was oddly sure that the intruders were after the cubs. "Wil! Angel!" She shouted as best as she could. "The cubs are in trouble!" She hoped the vampires heard her screaming, since after she'd finished she fell to the ground. Whatever poison they were using was strong, burning her eyes and mouth and making her choke.

Wil was roused by the sound of far too many feet on the stairs. At first he thought that perhaps it was the cubs being overactive again, until he heard Fred's shouting. "Angel?" He murmured, but the dark vampire was already getting up. Within seconds, they were out the door, running down the stairs. The vampires found the office in disarray; the cubs had wolfed out and were running around wildly, screaming and mewling in pain. They temporarily ignored the furry little puppies in favor of the gas-masked commandos that were trying to catch their beloved cubs. The vampires knew that they couldn't fight any more than the intruders could; they were limited to doing things that didn't hurt. It had taken Lorne more than a year to find the right kind of wards for the hotel, but the ones he'd gotten were very effective.

Wil danced around one commando, who was in the process of pulling out a cross. The vampire nimbly reached around and yanked off the man's gas mask. Angel was also stripping the strangers of their masks, subjecting them to the same treatment they'd given to Wesley and Gunn, who were passed out on the floor. By the time the two vampires managed to get to the last black-clothes intruder, the first ones were writhing on the floor.

Angel motioned to Wil to open a window as he did the same. The gas quickly started to dissipate as fresh air filtered in. Wil then fetched some restraints while Angel tracked down the cubs. Tying up their attackers was short work, so Wil was soon getting Gunn and Wesley off the floor and into a bathroom. They woke up when with the first splash of cold water and worked on rinsing out their eyes and retching violently while Wil went to check on Lorne, Fred and Cordelia.

The two women weren't actually unconscious, and once Wil had propped open the front door to air out the lobby, they managed to stand back up. He helped the now-blind women into the kitchen so they could wash out their eyes. Lorne was already recovering, but Wil took him into the kitchen anyway so that he could wash his face off. Then he was off again, to find Dawn, Buffy and Willow. Meanwhile, Angel got all five cubs into one big bathtub and climbed in with them, helping the screaming infants cleanse themselves.

Buffy was also incapacitated, but once Wil got her eyes washed out, she was able to get around on her own. He tracked Willow and Dawn to a hallway near the office, where they'd been lured by Fred's scream. It didn't take long to get them situated either.

"How are they?" Wil asked as he reached for Mischa and Siobhan. Angel finished washing up Thalia and moved on to Fran.

"It burned them," Angel said starkly. "This wasn't some sort of tear gas. It was meant to kill."

Wil growled and hugged the cubs tightly to him. He'd promised Cordelia that the cubs would be safe. And now this had happened.

•••

When Oz and Xander returned from their trips to the library and the grocery store, they found the hotel to be strangely silent. Caritas didn't open for another few hours, but no one was around at all. "It smells bad in here," Oz told Xander as they trekked up the stairs.

"You don't have to tell me that," Xander replied. "Uck."

"Smells like poison," The alpha wolf murmured.

"It is," Angel said as he walked out of the shadows.

"What happened?" Xander asked frantically. "Where is everyone?"

"Asleep, or trying to sleep," Angel replied. "Wolfram & Hart gassed the hotel."

"Fuck," Oz said succinctly.

"Are the cubs ok?" Xander inquired, worried beyond belief about the children.

"Everyone survived," Angel said. "But the gas left burns. We think they'll all heal up fine, though."

"They just what, threw in smoke bombs?" Oz asked the vampire.

Angel shook his head. "No, they sent in a team as well--straight to the office. They must have been after records."

"Or something," Xander muttered. "The wards would keep them from doing anything directly."

"But that doesn't make any sense," Oz told Angel. "I mean, they had to know that you and Wil would be here, and that the poison wouldn't affect you... it didn't, did it?"

"No, it didn't," Angel assured them. "It only affected the living. And I agree, it was a very poorly planned attack, regardless of what they were after. If it was to kidnap the cubs, then they risked killing them. And if they wanted to kill us, why send in a team, or use something ineffective against vampires?"

"And why use something that doesn't affect vampires if you're going to send in a team to steal stuff from the office," Xander continued.

"And why wait until after eight more able-bodied people show up at an understaffed operation to attack for information?" Oz added. "That just doesn't make sense."

"Wil thinks that they might have been taking a shotgun approach," Angel murmured.

"How so?" Xander asked.

"Well, considering what they did, they could've been aiming for anything. However, they had a chance of killing some of us, gaining leverage against us via the cubs, and getting some of the information we've got against them, and about some of Buffy's clients. Any of that would be useful," Angel told them.

"All fine goals for an evil law firm," Xander agreed, "But not really well planned out. I mean, they didn't get anything, did they?"

"They're all tied up and incapacitated in the training room," Angel confirmed. "Lorne stuck a turntable in there playing Wagner... backwards."

"Gonna make 'em talk, eh?" Xander remarked. "Can I see Siobhan?" He asked. "Or the others? Any of them?"

Angel nodded. "Yeah, just be quiet."

Oz watched Xander run down the hall. "We got the blueprints, and the other supplies," He told Angel. "I'm guessing you're going to want to step up the plan a bit?"

"Yes," Angel said darkly. "They're not going to get another chance."