"She did this once as a prank in college," Xander told Dawn. "But we also did it to some vamps in a nightclub."

"That was so nasty," Cordelia said, shuddering. "Vamp dust caked all over, holy water, ugh."

"Won't be an issue this time," Fred murmured. "Xander? Did you get the blueprints for the adjacent buildings?"

"Yup," He said, shuffling a set of tiny discs around. "All of them, labeled with the map coordinates."

"Great," Fred said. "Let's pull them up on the screens and see if the sprinkler systems are on common water lines. We don’t want any cross-contamination."

Dawn helped Xander set up a few more screens and size the blueprint pictures. "What is it we're looking for?" He asked Fred.

"This," Fred replied, showing them a roughly sketched schematic. "If you see it, mark it on the blueprint."

"What'll we do?" Dawn asked. "'Cause that means the water lines are connected, right?"

Fred nodded. "We'll divert them."

"Ah," Xander murmured. He scanned his blueprint carefully, circling marks here and there. "How are the cubs doing?" He asked Dawn. She had been helping Cordelia and Gunn watch after the five toddlers, who were suffering through the healing process. Lorne had procured them a soothing balm for their sore skin, but the rest of the damage just had to heal on its own. Oh, the adults were also suffering a bit--but they weren't so young that they didn't understand the pain. The poor cubs were scared and hurting and needed constant attention. Wil and Angel were also juggling their duties to the cubs and helping Fred with the planning. Everyone had a part to play in the attack on Wolfram & Hart, but since Fred was their resident sprinkler system expert, she was in charge of that part.

"They're ok," Dawn replied. "Fran's eyes are still swollen shut, though. Gunn's worried that they won't heal right."

"We can find a doctor, you know," Fred recommended.

"Cordelia doesn't want one," Xander said. "She's paranoid about outsiders getting anywhere near the cubs."

"But if they need treatment," Dawn murmured. "I don't want them to be blind or anything." She'd just met the cubs, but she was already in love with them. Yeah, they could be a bit... active, but it was obvious that they didn't have a mean bone in their bodies.

"We'll see," Xander said absently. "And Fred? You're going to need a lot of those diversion thingies. I think Wolfram & Hart have been stealing water from other buildings. I mean, *everything* on this blueprint is interconnected with their place."

•••

Angel checked over each of the others one last time, looking for any deficiencies he hadn't seen in any of his other checks. Everyone but Cordelia, Gunn, and Lorne were suited up and ready to go. All of them had on Kevlar vests with lead plate reinforcements and flame retardant fabric. They were also armed to the teeth. The vampires' advance scouting hadn't found many guards in the areas of the sewers they were using, but they knew they couldn't be too careful.

Mostly, though, Angel was worried because they'd had to speed up their plans so drastically. They'd been thinking of attacking sometime in the next few weeks, but that got bumped up after Wolfram & Hart had tried to kill them again. They roughed up the commando intruders a bit, and then let them go. They didn't want them around when they started working on their plans.

Those plans were eerily similar to ones they'd used before. After considering many options, Angel and the others had decided to use one of Fred's now-classic maneuvers. She was going to alter their sprinkler systems in a manner similar to the way she'd defeated a horde of vampires that had gotten into a crowded dance club. That time, she'd put holy water into the sprinklers. Once they went off, the vampires exploded into dust.

This time, however, the contents of her... contaminants were quite a bit different. She had mixed up a truly frightening mixture of liquid petrochemicals, mostly gasoline and the like. When the smoke alarms were triggered, the sprinklers wouldn't put out any fires. No, instead, they would spray accelerant everywhere. Even mixed with water, the results would be devastating. The plan was to have Xander and Oz go into the lobby of Wolfram & Hart's building and start a small blaze. It wouldn't be difficult to do; the serious security for the law firm started near the elevators. All they had to do was set the smoke alarms off, though, which meant a small smoke bomb thrown in the correct direction.

Once the sprinklers started, the building would go up very quickly. Even if Wolfram & Hart had some sort of fail-safe mechanism to keep the upper floors, where the bigwigs' offices were, from being destroyed, if enough damage was done to the lower levels, the building would be condemned. That was what Angel wanted; the law firm would be struck a fatal blow if they no longer had a central place to work. And once those lawyers scurried like rats jumping from a sinking ship, neither Angel nor any of his colleagues had any intentions of letting them regroup.

However, Fred's design was also set up to not cause a catastrophe for the city. They didn't want the building to explode, hence the diluted solution. And, the stuff would be distributed quickly. Then the sprinklers would begin showering clean water. Fred had done many calculations before deciding on an amount of accelerant and a length of time for application. She was going for a fast, severe burn that would also be put out quickly.

A small but vocal part of Angel wanted everyone in the building to be burned alive, especially Lilah. They hurt the cubs, they hurt his friends, and they hurt him, and that meant they had to pay.

•••

Wil led Xander, Oz and Buffy through a maze of sewer tunnels. They were in charge of setting up half of the sprinkler setup. It would take them more than six hours to get all the water pipes for Wolfram & Hart isolated, and another hour to get Fred's cocktail set up. Then Xander and Oz would go up to the surface and set the blaze, while Buffy and Wil met up with the others to wait.

"Anything, Wil?" Buffy asked the vampire. She hadn't seen anything larger or more menacing than a rat for the last half hour.

"Not yet," He murmured. The vampire was in gameface, extending his senses as much as he could.

"Here's our first set of pipes," Xander said, stopping the group. "If Mr. Got-Muscle will just loosen this valve..." Wil reached over and easily twisted the rusted valve. "We'll get started," Xander finished.

Oz helped Xander fit the first pipe, while Buffy and Wil loosened another three and worked on them. It was slow going; somehow the builders had managed to make everything nearly impossible to maneuver without a significant risk of breakage.

Meanwhile, Angel and his group were doing very much the same thing. The vampire was on point, scanning the tunnels ahead of them for interference. Fred was busy going over her plans again and again, while Wesley, Dawn and Willow carried supplies. "Is that one of our pipes?" Dawn asked as they passed a set of valves.

Fred glanced over. "Nope, but we're getting close." She stopped about ten yards later and began to work. "Wesley, I need the--"

"Here," Wesley said, providing Fred with the required implements. "And the spanner as well."

She took the thing gratefully and nodded for Angel to start on another valve. They had so many to do, and not enough time.

•••

"What was that?" Dawn whispered, jumping. She and Fred were bundling up the last of their tools as they prepared to leave the last site.

"It's Wil and Buffy," Angel said. "And they're running."

"Go!" Buffy yelled as she and Wil reached Angel. "Guards!"

Willow grabbed a backpack and streaked down the tunnel, followed by Wesley, Fred and Dawn. Angel got Buffy past him and ran alongside Wil. "What happened?" Angel asked the blonde as they rushed to get away from whatever guards had managed to get both Buffy and Wil to flee.

"After Xander and Oz got to the surface, these guards showed up. Holy water, acid, the works," Wil hissed. "I hope Oz and Xander made it out ok."

"Fuck," Angel swore. "Somebody'll have to go up to check on them." It was the middle of the day, so Wil and he would probably have to stay in the sewers.

"I'll go," Buffy said over her shoulder. "Get Dawn and the others back to the hotel."

Angel glanced over at Wil, who nodded. "Use the street access in the next tunnel on your right," Angel told Buffy. "It's only about half a mile from the building."

She nodded and darted off into the correct tunnel. Angel and Wil moved forward, closer to the others. The guards were still close enough behind them to worry the vampires, and they hoped that Buffy made it out ok.

•••

"Got the, ah, mail?" Xander asked Oz as they strolled casually towards Wolfram & Hart's offices.

"Yeah," Oz murmured. The Raphe reached in front of Oz and held the door open for his lover as they entered the building.

"Well, well. Fancy meeting you here."

Xander turned his head to the left. "Lilah. What an unpleasant surprise."

Lilah walked around to stand directly in front of the two men. Oz noted silently that she wasn't looking so good. The past decade hadn't been easy on the woman. "Let me guess... you're planning on triggering some sort of horrible disaster in the building, hoping that if you bring it down, we'll topple to?"

Xander grinned. "Er, no?" He said brightly. "We just got back into town and wanted to stop by and say hello. Long time, no see."

Lilah laughed harshly. "Yeah, right. I must say, though. I'm impressed. Ten years, on the lam. Of course, if we'd ever really wanted to find you, we would've. But what was the point? I mean, you were gone. Just think... little old me got the big bad Angel to hide with his tail between his legs for a decade!"

"Uh huh," Oz murmured, pulling out a small, brown box.

"Is that the trigger?" Lilah said excitedly. "For the bombs you're going to blow us up with?"

"No," Oz replied sarcastically. "It's a present."

"For you," Xander added. "You know, something to show how much we care."

"You *do* realize that you're not going to make it past the lobby," Lilah warned them. "We know you're planning something; I've already got people going into the sewers to find the explosives you've set up."

"Cool," Oz murmured. "So you won't mind if I just toss this over there?" He asked, gesturing towards one corner. It looked like any other empty part of the lobby, but there was a smoke alarm directly overhead.

"I'd rather you not," Lilah said. "It'll just get you in worse trouble."

"Too bad," Xander muttered as Oz let the package fly. Security guards rushed towards both it and the two men, but they didn't reach either location in time. The package landed on the floor with a soft plop and did nothing--at least, not for a second. Then thick, white smoke began to pour out.

"Oh, how original. Poison?" Lilah asked dryly.

"No, just plain old smoke," Xander said, backing up to the door. He and Oz were set to flee, just as soon as the sprinklers went off. It would take a bit for the system to push out all the water already in the building, and they wanted to be close by when the solution hit. Their package was set to explode on a delay, once enough accelerant was present.

"Take them," Lilah told the guards as she turned around for the elevators, waving her hand to dispel the quickly gathering but seemingly innocuous smoke. "I can't believe I stayed here instead of going to court just for that pathetic display. And somebody get me a report on those explosives!"

Oz and Xander ran back through the door and onto the plaza. Then they heard the smoke alarm go off. They glanced back, looking between running security guards to see that no one had disturbed the package yet. It was still billowing smoke, enough so that no one could see to reach it. It didn't matter if they did, however. As soon as someone touched it, it would explode. The package was also packed with a gelatinous accelerant that would burn for several minutes, hopefully long enough to set the contaminated water on fire.

They ran down the street, wanting to be close enough to see if their plan worked. It was a close thing; but they wanted to see if their plan worked.

"Hey!" Buffy shouted as she caught up with them. They grinned at her and ducked into a clothing store, immediately losing their pursuers in a crowd of young shoppers. The three friends looped around and ran back outside, keeping track of where the burly guards were.

"Where are the others?" Xander asked Buffy.

"Going to the hotel," Buffy replied. "What about the--" A small explosion interrupted her. "Well, that part went ok, I guess," She said as the bomb went off. The glass of the lobby didn't shatter, which wasn't all that surprising. After all, this was Wolfram & Hart and their lobby was probably bulletproof.

Oz stared hard at the building. After a few seconds, he saw a bright flash. Then another... and another. "It's working," He said starkly.

Xander watched as the lobby exploded in a fireball. "Yeah, it's working. But maybe we should make our grand exit," He murmured. "Those guards..."

"Are much more concerned with the fact that their place of employment isn't looking very viable anymore," Oz remarked. "But we should leave." They'd tried not to leave any evidence, but... well, they'd deal with that later. Part of the bomb package had contained a jamming device for recording equipment, so they probably wouldn't have to worry about the police trying to track them down from a surviving security tape. Of course, they'd done all they could to make the stuff in the sewers untraceable to them... and Wolfram & Hart were on everyone's bad side, so any investigation would end up pointing back at them.