Just Rewards
(Sunnydale, CA)
(Title Card:
Sunnydale, California
The Hellmouth
Nineteen Days Earlier)
(Buffy and Spike are the only ones left in the Hellmouth. Spike is still glowing from the amulet, sending rays of sunlight out into the Hellmouth, dusting the ubervamps within. Buffy stands in front of him, staring, still holding her scythe.)
Spike: Go on, then.
Buffy: No. No, you've done enough. You could still—
Spike: No, you've beat them back. It's for me to do the cleanup.
(The walls are crumbling around them.)
Buffy: (worried) Spike!
Spike: I mean it! I gotta do this. (He holds out his hand to stop her. Buffy laces her fingers through Spike's. Another earthquake. Buffy lets go of his hand.) Now go! (Buffy runs up the stairs) I wanna see how it ends.
(Spike stands in the crumbling Hellmouth with light shining down on him from above, grinning from ear to ear and laughing as he burns up from the sunlight. He dusts slowly—first his skin singes, then his muscles, then his bones—then he's gone. The Hellmouth crumbles in around him.)
(Los Angeles – Wolfram & Hart – Angel’s Office – Day)
(Spike doubles over in pain, gasping, as he materializes in Angel's office at Wolfram & Hart. He looks around him, panic-stricken, at the unfamiliar faces. He sees Harmony, Lorne, Fred, Wesley.)
Spike: (confused) What...what...
Harmony: (hands on her hips) What the hell are you doing here, Spike?
Wesley: Harmony, please.
Gunn: (sneering) This is Spike? The Spike?
Fred: Wait a minute. Who's—
Lorne: (calmly, to Spike) Easy, slim. Easy. No one's gonna hurt you.
Gunn: Speak for yourself, green jeans.
Fred: OK, would somebody please tell me who—
Wesley: William the Bloody. He's a vampire. One of the worst recorded. Second only to—
Angel: Me. (an angry Spike turns to face Angel) But you're dead.
Harmony: (gesturing widely, rolling her eyes knowingly) Well, yeah. Who here isn't? (looks around) Besides him (to Wesley) and him (to Gunn) and her (to Fred) and... (to Lorne) What are you again?
(Spike, still staring at Angel, transforms into vampire facade and lunges angrily at Angel, snarling fiercely. Angel braces for impact, but Spike goes right through him. Spike stops, turns around, looks down at his body—his legs have disappeared inside Angel's desk.)
Spike: (looks up and frowns) Bugger. (looks down at his body in the desk) What? What's happened to me?
Harmony: Well, I'm no doctor, but I think you're a ghost.
Spike: (points at her) I'm no—I'm no bloody ghost.
Harmony: Hey, you're the one sticking out of a desk, pal. (angrily) And you can't talk to me like that. We're not going out anymore.
Gunn: Where'd he come from?
Wesley: (picks up the amulet from the floor) From this.
Fred: What is it?
Angel: Something I gave to Buffy before—
Spike: Buffy! Is she—
Angel: She's OK.
Spike: Where—where is she?
Angel: Europe, last I heard from her.
Spike: Wanna see her... Wanna talk to her.
Angel: That's gonna be tough.
Spike: (scoffs) You can't keep her from me.
Angel: She's not mine to keep... or yours.
Spike: Says you. You got no idea what we had.
Angel: You never had her.
Spike: (in Angel's face) More than you, you poncy—
Harmony: Oh...my...God! You and the slayer actually... I mean, I know you had that twisted obsession with her, but...yecch. That's just... yecch. (walks away, stops) I... yecch! (leaves)
Spike: I must be in hell.
Lorne: Uh, no. L.A., but a lot of people make that mistake.
Fred: (to Wes and Gunn) So Spike and Buffy are—
Wesley: He was, um, an ally of hers for some time, at least that's what Angel told me. That's all Angel told me.
Gunn: So he's a good-guy vampire like Angel?
Angel: He's nothing like me.
Spike: Got that right. What have you done to me? (looks around the office) What is this place?! (to Fred, Gunn and Wes) Who are you people? What the bloody hell is happening?!
(Science Lab)
(The gang has moved on to the science lab. Wesley is looking into a microscope while Fred scans Spike with a beeping instrument.)
Lorne: (to Wes) Honey of a story.
Wesley: Story?
Lorne: Yeah, the vampire slayer both men loved, both men lost. Oh, I could sell that to any studio in a heartbeat. I see Depp and Bloom. But then I see them a lot. Sorry. Hazard of running the entertainment division. Gotta get out more.
Spike: (to Fred) So what are you then? Scanner girl?
Fred: (scanning Spike) I'm Fred. I head up Wolfram & Hart's Science Department.
Spike: Wolfram & Hart. Heard of that. Thought it was a law firm.
Fred: It is, among other things.
Spike: Also heard they represent the worst evil in the universe.
Angel: It did, among other things, but now I'm in charge.
Spike: Are you now?
Fred: Weird. (picks up a folder) I'm getting electromagnetic readings consistent with spiritual entities, but there's no ectoplasmic matrix.
Gunn: Meaning?
Fred: Ectoplasm's what makes ghosts visible to the human eye. If he's a ghost, technically we shouldn't be able to see him.(writes in the folder) And I'm detecting brainwave activity.
Angel: On Spike? (chuckles) That is weird.
Fred: Also, ghosts generally absorb light and heat energy making the area around them a few degrees cooler. Spike's radiating heat.
Spike: (smirks) Think I'm hot, do you?
Fred: Mm...lukewarm. Just above room temperature.
Spike: Well, what the hell am I then?
Wesley: Whatever he is, it's clearly tied to this amulet. Spike's essence, for lack of a better term, must have been held within it. (to Spike) Do you have any memory of a strange sensation when it released its energy?
Spike: What? You mean my skin and muscle burning away from the bone? Organs exploding in my chest? Eyeballs melting in their sockets? No. No memory at all. Thanks for asking.
Angel: OK, he's connected to the amulet. Last I heard it was buried deep inside of the hellmouth. How did it end up here?
Fred: Maybe he's here for a reason. You know, some higher purpose or something he's destined for. Sent to us by the powers that be to help us or—
Spike: Who gave them the bloody right to do that? (scoffs, paces) Can't a man die in peace without some high almighty deciding it's not his time. Let's have a little more fun with him, eh? You think that saving the sodding world would be enough to earn me a rest. You'd think—
(Spike starts to fade before their eyes.)
Fred: Spike?
Spike: Hmm? (looks at his body) Oh, balls. (disappears)
(Fred goes over to scan where Spike was standing.)
Gunn: Now what?
Fred: I don't know. He just... (looks at Angel) What did he mean, "saving the world"?
Angel: Oh, that—well—Buffy did most of the work. Well, he helped, but—
Spike: (rematerializes) Hmm? What? What?
Lorne: Took the "what's" right out of our mouths.
Gunn: Where'd you go?
Fred: Don't you know?
Spike: I'm—I was... (to Angel) You! This is your fault.
Angel: Mine?
Spike: You brought that bloody amulet to Sunnydale. You would have been the one to use it, until you
chickened out.
Angel: What did you—
Spike: (incensed) You heard me! You left town in the nick of time, didn't you, before the death and mayhem? Abandoned the woman you claimed to love.
Angel: She made the call. Wasn't my choice.
Spike: And this, bloody hell, wasn't mine. I'm not you. I don't give a piss about atonement or destiny. Just because I got me a soul doesn't mean I'm gonna let myself be led around by—
Fred: E-excuse me?
Wesley: Did—did you just say— Spike has a soul? (to Angel) You never said.
Angel: Didn't seem worth mentioning, you know.
Gunn: (frowns) Seems to be a lot of that.
Spike: Or maybe Captain Forehead was feeling a little less special. Didn't like me crashing his exclusive club—another vampire with a soul in the world.
Angel: (in Spike's face) You're not in the world...Casper. (walks away)
(Lobby)
(Angel walks down the hall toward the lobby, and Spike materializes behind him.)
Spike: Running away again. (Angel rolls his eyes and continues walking) Nice new M.O. I can see why heroes like you get rewarded with the shiny new glass and chrome. Why didn't I think of that?
Angel: I'm not responsible for what happened to you. (walks past Harmony's desk)
Harmony: Angel, it's almost three o'clock. You have a meeting scheduled—
Angel: Not now, Harmony.
Spike: And here you've even managed to get my ex-tumble, the littlest vampire, fetching coffee for you. Nice perks for the sell-out.
Angel: Little tip, Spike: Try not to talk about things you don't understand.
Spike: I'm not the prat here. I know you, Angel. What do you think you're doing? Made some devil's bargain to take over this company. Thought you'd use it to fight the evil of the world from inside the belly of the beast. Trouble is you're too busy fighting to see you and yours are getting digested.
Angel: (stops in front of the elevators) Not gonna happen.
Spike: Oh, you think you're in control here? Guess again, mate. You're no more in control than I am. Except I'm not gonna bloody stand for it, while you're just a blind... (looks over Angel's shoulder) Grox'lar Beast.
Angel: What?
(Angel turns to see the Grox'lar Beast has just stepped out of the elevators behind him. Angel throws a punch at the demon, but the demon punches him back, knocking him down. Spike throws a punch at the demon's head, but his fist goes right through without making an impact.)
Spike: Oh, brilliant.
(The demon goes toward Angel, and they continue fighting hand-to-hand. Angel finally overpowers the demon, throwing him against the wall, and knocking him out.)
Angel: Somebody want to tell me how a Grox'lar Beast got past security? I don't have time for this.
Spike: Of course not. Man's gotta stay focused on profit margins and power lunches.
Harmony: Angel—
Angel: Yeah, Spike? I got a business to run. That means responsibilities, appointments to keep.
Harmony: That was your three o'clock.
Angel: That... (Spike laughs at him.) I'm meeting with Grox'lars?! They eat babies!
Harmony: Just their heads. You were supposed to open negotiations with his clan.
Angel: Negotiations for what?
Gunn: (walks up) Get 'em to stop eating baby heads.
Angel: Oh. So that's good. Oh, so this—this is bad.
Gunn: No, actually the Grox'lar clan respects someone who takes a strong opening position. Wolfram & Hart didn't just jack me up here with the human laws, also demon laws from every dimension. Probably should have been briefed you about the Grox'lar, but we got a little... (looks at Spike) sidetracked. Plus I've been implementing our reforms. Mostly staff overhaul. I've fired 40 employees in the past 2 days.
Angel: (walks away) How's that going?
Gunn: (follows Angel) As expected. Anger, tears, venomous death threats.
Harmony: (to Spike) Listen, I know I was a little crabby before. I mean, hello?! A little awkward seeing you at my work. But if you want to talk or something, you know, about us or... (Spike walks away without acknowledging her) OK. Too soon. I understand...(under her breath) Slayer-loving freak.
(Gunn’s Office)
(Angel and Gunn are talking in his office.)
Gunn: Caught an associate we laid off trying to smuggle this out of the voodoo division.
(Gunn holds up a voodoo doll that has black skin and is wearing a suit just like Gunn's.)
Angel: (takes the doll) It's a nice likeness.
Spike: (walks up to the door) This place just goes on and on, doesn't it? Like a ruddy theme park attraction.
Angel: I'm in a meeting, Spike.
Spike: Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't care.
Gunn: Look, we're ruffling a lot of dangerous feathers out there. There's gonna be a backlash. Count on it.
Angel: Well, we'll just have to ride out the ripples for a while.
Gunn: (looks at the door) I'm sensing a ripple on its way now.
(A man wearing a loud blue dress shirt and a spotted yellow tie walks in the room.)
Novac: Yes, uh...Novac, sir. Uh, what's this about you shutting down the Internment Acquisitions Division?
Angel: (to Gunn) Internment Acqui—
Gunn: Grave-robbing.
Novac: Listen, I know you fellas are in charge now, and you're doing a bang-up job. I'm with you 110%, but that department brings in mucho revenue to this company.
Angel: Well, Novac, we'll just have to tighten our belts and do without.
Novac: No, you're not getting it... sir. I.A.D. is under contract to provide fresh bodies to Magnus Hainsley. You know who he is, right? (Angel looks at Gunn) Oy. OK. He's one of our oldest clients. Big potatoes. We stop delivering, and he is not gonna be... thrilled.
Angel: Then he's probably not gonna like it when you advise him that he's no longer our client.
Novac: (worried) Me?
Angel: (walks toward Novac) You got it, counselor. You tell Mister— (clears throat)
Gunn: Hainsley.
Angel: Hainsley that Wolfram & Hart is under new management and out of the grave-robbing business. Now, run along and go argue your case.
Novac: (unsure) Me?
Angel: Go.
(Novac walks toward the door, shuddering at the thought of his assignment, when Spike addresses him.)
Spike: You don't have to take that from him, mate.
Angel: Stay out of this, Spike. You don't work here.
Spike: Damn right I don't. Look at you. This is what you do now? Delegate the dirty work to spineless, low-level flunkies. (to Novac) No offense. (Angel walks back toward Gunn) The mighty hero reduced to a bloody bureaucrat. If a certain slayer could see you now—
Angel: Get out of here, Spike.
Spike: Gladly. Cruel enough punishment being stuck here as a spook while you play "Chairman of the Boring." But hell if I'm gonna spend my afterlife in your stinking city. Get stuffed.
(Angel’s Office – Night)
(Angel's sitting alone in his office staring out the window, when Wesley walks up to the door. Wesley starts to walk away, when Angel speaks to him.)
Angel: You don't think he's really gone, do you?
Wesley: That what's on your mind?
Angel: (stands, walks to sit behind his desk) Could have been me, Wes. Was supposed to be me.
Wesley: You're not feeling guilty?
Angel: About Spike? (chuckles) He's not—that's not—that's not— (sighs) Wolfram & Hart gave me the amulet. They must have expected me to use it. And they had to have known it would've done to me what it did to Spike, so—
Wesley: Why bother handing you the keys to the kingdom? (sits)
Angel: Doesn't make sense. What are the senior partners playing at?
Wesley: Maybe there's dissent in their ranks, or maybe there's another player in the game they—and we don't know anything about. Then again, maybe they got exactly what they were after.
Angel: Spike.
Wesley: He may be the one they—
Angel: What are you doing here? I thought you left town.
Spike: (standing in the doorway) Don't think I didn't bleeding try. Every time I got as far as the city limits I kept popping back here like my insides are getting yanked.
Wesley: Hmm. I suspected as much. The amulet's Wolfram & Hart's property. It's bound to this place, and since Spike's connected to it...
Spike: Hey! I'm nobody's bloody property, Percy. So what? I'm just stuck here forever? (to Angel) I bet you're loving this, aren't you?
Angel: Knowing you'll be haunting me till the end of time? (smirks) Hmm. It's a dream come true.
Harmony: (knocks on Angel's door) Uh, boss? That Novac lawyer you sent over to dump the client... well, he's back.
Angel: OK, send him in.
Harmony: Mmm, OK.
(Two men in suits walk into the room carrying three buckets full of a sloppy red liquid, one with a bright yellow spotted tie hanging over the edge, covered in blood.)
Angel: What is...
(The men place the buckets on Angel's desk.)
Spike: (smirks) Ol' buckets here was right. You guys are doing a bang-up job.
(Lobby)
(Angel walks out to Harmony's desk.)
Angel: Harmony, get me Novac's contact list, close relations, next of kin, and let's be discreet about this for the time being, OK?
Harmony: Discreet? Oh, you mean like not tell anyone about bucket-o-lawyer.
Angel: Harmony, contact list.
Gunn: (walks off the elevator, hands a file to Angel) Hey, got word you wanted the file on Magnus Hainsley. Dig this. He's a sorcerer, big time. Rich with old money and older mojo. Owns a respectable block of shares in Wolfram & Hart and he's connected up the wazoo. Carries influence with power players in the entertainment industry, politics—
Angel: (flipping through the file) He's a necromancer.
Wesley: Power over the dead. That explains the bodies Wolfram & Hart's been providing him.
(Angel’s Office)
(Angel walks into his office, followed by Wesley and Gunn.)
Angel: But not what he's been doing with them. (to Spike) Out of my chair.
Spike: Make me.
Gunn: What's in the buckets?
(Angel sighs.)
Spike: Your man Novac. Guess he's been— what do you call it? Downsized.
Angel: It's a message from Magnus Hainsley, and I'm gonna reply to it personally.
Wesley: You can't take Hainsley on yourself.
Angel: (walks toward his private elevator) I'm not gonna risk him turning somebody else into chowder.
Wesley: Angel, you have a multi-billion dollar company at your disposal with armed and trained personnel.
Angel: They cramp my style. (walks into his elevator)
Wesley: Your style's not gonna cut it with a necromancer. We should probably avoid an eye-for-an-eye escalation here.
Angel: Not going for his eyes, Wes.
Gunn: I know what you should go for. (Angel stops the elevator doors before they close) It'll hurt him. Bad.
(Parking Garage)
(Angel walks out of the elevator into the garage. His cars are lined up along the wall. He walks toward a black Viper, opens the door.)
Spike: (sitting in the passenger seat) Knew you'd pick the Viper. So bloody predictable.
Angel: Spike, get out of the car.
Spike: No.
Angel: What?
Spike: This haunting-you-till- the-end-of-time idea of yours is starting to sound appealing. I could drive you completely starkers, right out of your gourd. Yeah, and you wouldn't be able to do a sodding thing about it. (Angel slams the door and walks over to the next car, a silver Camaro. Spike is sitting inside the car in the passenger seat; Angel groans) Fancy a road trip. This'll be fun, eh? You and me together again. So...where are we off to?
Angel: To see the wizard. (starts the car and drives away)
(Hainsley’s House)
(The butler lets Spike and Angel inside Hainsley's house.)
Butler: Do you have an appointment with Mr. Hainsley?
Spike: Let's just say he sent us an invitation.
Angel: We're—I'm from Wolfram & Hart.
Spike: I'm his date. (Angel rolls his eyes)
Butler: Mr. Hainsley is with a customer at the moment. I'm afraid he does not suffer interruption lightly.
Angel: Not so worried about his suffering. Go ahead and interrupt.
Butler: As you wish. Please wait here, gentlemen. (exits)
Spike: Oh, life among the power elite. It's all so civilized. Hainsley grinds up one of your people into chum, and you drop by for tea.
Angel: I'm hoping to avoid a body count here.
Spike: (looks off into the other room) No worries. Looks like this Hainsley keeps one on hand.
(Parlor)
(Spike walks into the adjacent room. Angel follows. The room is decorated like a Victorian parlor, complete with a few dozen people standing around posed, as if it were a wax museum.)
Spike: (scoffs) Man likes to play with dollies.
Angel: This isn't for him. It's a showroom.
(Workshop)
(A woman is lying on a table in the center of a red pentagram that's painted on the floor. A middle-aged man stand over her chanting eerily, while a demon speaks from the shadows behind them.)
Demon: (casually) I thought about going older with it. I don't know, more distinguished, kind of a 50-something Shirley Temple Black with it. You know, that ultra-respectable ambassador to somewhere feel. But in the end I... I went with pretty. I suppose we all do, in the end, don't we? You know, in the end. Pretty people just seem to have it so much— (the man sticks his hand in the woman's belly) Oh. Whoa. There's something you don't see every, uh—(the man reaches a hand back toward the demon) Augh! Mmm! (the man's hand glows orange as the demon's essence flows into the man's body through one hand, and out through the other, going into the woman) OK, yeah, that's feelin' a little weird.
Butler: Excuse the interruption, sir. There are some more men from Wolfram & Hart asking to see you. They seem rather adamant.
Hainsley: Kill them.
Butler: Very good, sir. (exits)
(Parlor)
(Angel and Spike walk around among the posed people in the parlor.)
Spike: I don't know. Maybe the geezer's just lonely. Throws himself a surprise party every night. Picks out one of these painted pigeons and shows her a good time, if you know what I mean. What? I'm sure they don't mind.
Angel: Yeah, I mind.
Spike: Why? They're the lucky ones, aren't they? It's over for them. They've shuffled off, cleanly, the one time. Nobody's shoving them back into the stinking world against their will.
Angel: (angrily) I mind.
Butler: (enters the room) Mr. Hainsley has asked that I send you back to Wolfram & Hart, gentlemen. (reveals that he's holding butcher knives behind his back) In a manner of speaking.
(The butler plays menacingly with the knives trying to intimidate Angel and Spike.)
Spike: Uh-oh. Looks like it's buckets for you. (Angel reaches for a tiny teaspoon being held by a posed person beside him. He throws the spoon at the butler, and it lands in his forehead. The butler screams.) A spoon?! That's just...(the butler reaches up to his forehead, pulls the spoon out, and turns toward Angel angrily) Well, OK, that's more...(the butler collapses) Disappointing, really.
Angel: I know you can't help me, but could you maybe not root for the other team?
Spike: Hey, I'll root for anyone with half a chance of taking you down a notch.
Angel: What is your problem?
Spike: (walks up to Angel) You are, ya ponce! You're my problem. You got it too good. (Angel walks away, Spike follows) You're king of a 30-floor castle, with all the cars, comfort, power, and glory you could ever want, and here I save the world, throw myself onto the proverbial hand grenade for love, honor, and all the right reasons, and what do I get? Bloody well toasted and ghosted is what I get, isn't it? It's not fair.
Angel: (stops, turns to Spike angrily) Fair?! You asked for a soul. I didn't! It almost killed me. I spent a hundred years trying to come to terms with infinite remorse. You spent 3 weeks moaning in a basement, and then you were fine! What's fair about that?!
Spike: (fading again) Are you getting blurry, or is it—(disappears)
(Angel grunts from frustration, then walks away.)
(Workshop)
(Hainsley is rinsing his hands out when Angel breaks the door down.)
Hainsley: Come in. It's open.
Angel: Hainsley.
Hainsley: (drying his hands) Didn't know it was the head cheese himself. I thought for sure you were another lackey. You should show more respect.
Woman: (lying on the table, the woman sits up) Oh, uh, I can see you guys have a thing going on. (walks toward the door) Don't wanna get in your way. I'll let myself out.
(Angel grabs the woman by the arm as she walks by him. Her eyes glow red and she snarls at him. Angel punches her out.)
Angel: So how much do you charge, huh? Installing the average demon in a human body? I'm sure a lot of them would love to pass as people. You know, walk amongst the sheep.
Hainsley: Believe me, friend, the average demon can't afford it. (laughs)
Angel: I'm cutting off your supply, Hainsley. As of now your body shop is— (with a flick of his wrist, Hainsley takes control of Angel's body, freezing him in place) Aah!
Hainsley: Who do you think you're talking to? (turns his hand, causing Angel pain; Angel groans; Hainsley pulls Angel toward him) I eat the dead for breakfast, son. And you're just another plate o' bacon and eggs. (Spike shows up behind Angel) A ghost, huh? You brought a ghost as your backup, vampire?
Spike: I'm not here to back him up. I just haunt the bastard.
Angel: Stay out of this.
Spike: Oh, stick it—far as it'll go. You go ahead, wiz. Do what you want.
Hainsley: What I want is to turn you inside out, like a shirt. I could dust you right now, boy. Wouldn't even need a stake. (lets go of Angel, who grunts from the pain he was in) But that would be too big an insult for the senior partners to overlook. Seems that they've got plans for you.
Angel: (exhales sharply) I've got plans of my own. (dials his cell phone) Gunn, do it.
Hainsley: And what was that? Just call in an air strike?
Angel: I just froze all your bank accounts, terminated your paper assets, and turned your books over to a very motivated contact we have at the I.R.S. 5 minutes from now, you'll have nothing but this house. 10 minutes from now, that'll go into foreclosure.
Hainsley: (frowns) You can't do that.
Angel: I'll let myself out.
Hainsley: It's not legal. You think you can get away with that? (scornful chuckling) I'll sue you to hell.
Angel: Good luck. We're your lawyers. (walks out)
Hainsley: This isn't over, vampire.
(Foyer)
(Angel is walking toward the door as Spike follows him.)
Spike: That's how you're gonna fight the forces of evil now—call the I.R.S.?
Angel: Whatever it takes.
Spike: Hello, I.R.S.? Will you fight my battles for me? And while you're at it, will you wipe my wide, spotty...(disappears)
Angel: Oh, thank God. (walks out of the house)
Spike: (reappears) Ass? (to Hainsley) You...
Hainsley: Power over the dead. But enough about me. Let's talk about you. You're a ghost. Well, close enough, anyway. That's just a horrible way to be. You're not here, you're not there, just lost, somewhere in the middle. And you can't fight against it. You can't fix it. Hell, you can't even lift a finger 'cause you simply don't have any.
Spike: Yeah. What's it to you?
Hainsley: I can give you back what's been taken from you—freedom, power of choice. I can put your destiny back in your own flesh-and-bone hands. That's right. A corporeal body. I can make that happen. But to do that, I need you to do something for me. Something that might require...
Spike: (excited) Hurt Angel, that it? You want me to hurt Angel? (grins devilishly) You've come to the right ghost.
(Wolfram & Hart)
(Gunn follows Angel into Angel's office.)
Gunn: Wiped out every asset we could find on Hainsley. Wasn't easy. Man's got his fingers in a lot of dirty pies.
Angel: Yeah, well, I think pies are gonna be off his menu for a while.
Gunn: Yeah, well, it's gotta hurt. I mean, damn, who doesn't love pie? (sits)
(Fred and Wesley walk into the room.)
Fred: You're back.
Wesley: Hainsley out of business?
Angel: Yeah, for the time being.
Fred: So he's not going away?
Angel: Well, I think that, "this isn't over yet, vampire," may be the tipoff. Look, guys, can we get back to my, uh, spiritual crisis?
Wesley: Yes. Spike.
Angel: Popped out on me at Hainsley's place. But we all know that he'll be back and back and back, and I really don't want that happening again, so explain to me how we're gonna get him out of here.
Fred: He can't get out of here.
Angel: Please don't tell me that.
Fred: OK. Wesley...you tell him.
Wesley: I've had my entire department doing thorough research on the amulet. There's not much. Not in the way of releasing Spike from it, anyway. At least not in the conventional sense.
Angel: And what's the unconventional sense?
Wesley: Something he asked for. Eternal rest.
(Lobby)
(Spike appears in the lobby, and walks by Harmony's desk on his way to Angel's office.)
Harmony: (straightening her desk) Fine. Don't talk to me.
Spike: What?
Harmony: Whole time we were a thing, you treated me like day-old rat blood. Why should now be any diff, just 'cause you've gone all Patrick Swayze?
Spike: What are you on about?
Harmony: Well, gee, nothing much. Just since you're all soulful now, I thought maybe, just maybe, you might've learned to open up a little. You know, talk? But I guess the leopard can't change his stripes.
Spike: Spots, you dink. Leopards have spots.
Harmony: Oh! Excuse me, Mr. Brainy. Thank you so much for sharing. Wow. What a breakthrough.
(Spike walks toward Angel's office and overhears them talking about him.)
Angel: (os) This is an unusual situation, but I think it's our only choice.
Wesley: (os) It's what we'd do in any case of a haunting, isn't it? An exorcism of sorts.
Fred: (os) We're talking about killing him.
(Angel’s Office)
Fred: I mean, I know he's already dead, but... he'd be gone-dead. Forever. It just doesn't seem right.
Wesley: I agree, but neither is leaving him here, trapped between realms, with no control over his fate, not able to touch anything, affect anything. Unable to fight. Letting him cross over seems the most merciful thing—
Angel: Yeah, yeah, mercy. I'm all for it. Just, hey, tell me how we do it.
Wesley: The amulet's protected, invulnerable to anything, but... the magic that's protecting it doesn't work on hallowed ground.
Gunn: Hallowed. Like a church?
Wesley: Or cemetery, yes. It has to be taken there and destroyed.
Fred: Destroyed how?
Wesley: I think a sharp blow would probably do the trick.
Gunn: Angel, what do you think?
Angel: (sits back in his chair) I think I want to sleep on it.
(Fred places the amulet on Angel's desk. Wes, Gunn, and Fred leave.)
(Angel’s Apartment – Bedroom)
(Angel walks into his apartment and gets ready for bed, climbing under the blankets with a big sigh.)
Spike: (from the shadows near Angel's windows) Well, look at you.
Angel: Aw, no. No. No, no!
Spike: Sitting in luxury's ample lap. Top of the world. Looking down on... well, everyone. It's good to be king, isn't it?
Angel: Ground rules. Haunt me all you want during business hours, but this space—off limits.
Spike: Relax, beefcake. I didn't come for a fight.
Angel: Really?
Spike: Not that I could, right? Can't touch, can't affect anything... Yeah, I overheard your little group powwow about me.
Angel: How much?
Spike: Enough of enough.
Angel: Look, Spike—
Spike: Necromancer tried to make a deal with me.
Angel: What?
Spike: Said he could bring me back—body and soul—if I used our close personal relationship to double-cross you.
Angel: Tempting. So what'd you say?
Spike: You see, right there, that's the problem. You having to ask me that. I don't play for that side anymore, or haven't you heard? Besides... even if Mr. Death could do what he promised, I trust him about as much as you trust me.
Angel: What do you want from me?
Spike: I can't live like this, Angel. Being useless. (sighs) Being nothing. I want it to end.
(Cemetery)
(Angel and Spike are walking through a cemetery together.)
Spike: Suppose this'll do. Feels hallowed enough.
Angel: (looks at the amulet he's holding) Sure you want to do this, Spike?
Spike: (scoffs) What, think I could really stand hanging out with you and your lot, now and forever? Wisecracking ghost sidekick. No bloody thanks. Come on. You know as well as I do, it's for the best. (Angel picks up an urn from a nearby grave) I'm glad it's you, though. Finally doin' me in. Feels right. You being my grandsire and all. Circle of death, eh?
Angel: Good-bye, Spike.
Spike: See you around, Angel. (Angel picks up the urn and aims for crushing the amulet, but hits himself in the head instead.) Uh, I think you missed.
(Angel hits himself in the face again, and then is picked up off the ground unable to move. Hainsley steps out of the shadows.)
Hainsley: And the dead shall rise! Just 'cause I say so.
Angel: Hainsley—
Hainsley: Vampire should think twice before messing with a man who wields power over all things lifeless. (drops Angel to the ground, knocking him out) If you ask my advice.
Spike: Took your sweet time stepping in, Hainsley. I came this close to getting a one-way to the great beyond.
Hainsley: Relax, son. I wasn't going to let anything happen to you. You're the linchpin of my plan.
Spike: Our plan. And you bloody better hold up your end of it. I'm not gonna be used by you.
Hainsley: Yes, you are. But afterwards, I'll give you your reward, just as you asked. I'll put you back in the driver's seat of your afterlife. Control. That's all anyone really wants, isn't it?
(Hainsley’s House – Workshop)
(Angel's lying on the same table that the girl was on before Hainsley put the demon inside her.)
Hainsley: Hello, vampire. Have a nice nap? (Angel tries to sit up, but Hainsley uses his power to push him back down) Naw, don't get up. You've had a rough day. You know, so have I, thanks to you.
Angel: Yours is about to get a hell of a lot worse.
Hainsley: I don't think so. Me necromancer. You...dead. You can't lay a finger on me.
Angel: Maybe not. But what do you think the senior partners are gonna do to you when I turn up missing?
Hainsley: Oh, you're not going to be missing. You're going to show up to work bright-eyed and bushy-tailed tomorrow morning, when you'll reverse the seizure of my personal assets and reinstate the Internment Acquisitions Department.
Angel: And why would I do that?
Spike: (steps out from the shadows) Not you. Me. Wearing your body.
Angel: And to think I didn't trust you.
Spike: Come on, Angel. What choice did I have? Bloody exorcism? Letting you and yours banish me to oblivion? No, thanks. Necro here's gonna give me my body back... after I take yours for a test drive, fix his little problems. And here's the kicker: I go in, and you go... pfft! Off to never-never-come-back land. And then... yours very truly will be running the show. Your cars, your fancy digs, everything—everyone—I deserve...will be mine. (wistfully) And maybe I'll have a go with that Fred. She looks like a goer, and she seems to really look up to you.
Angel: Shut up.
Spike: You know what? You're right. Enough talk. Let's do this, already. I'm itchin' to get physical.
Hainsley: I've never installed anyone in a conscious dead body before. I imagine this is going to be extremely painful. (chuckles) (He starts his eerie chanting again, then plunges his hand inside Angel's belly. Hainsley reaches back toward Spike, and absorbs Spike's energy into his own body. Spike disappears, and Hainsley's hand glows orange. The orange glow flows through Hainsley's body toward Angel's belly, but stops short.)(to the orange glow in his arm) Unh! What? What...are you doing?
(The orange glow goes back up Hainsley's arm and disappears into his chest.)
Angel: Spike...would you mind?
Hainsley: (pulls his hand out of Angel's body) No! Noooo!
Angel: (stands up and faces off with Hainsley, kicking him across the room) Can touch you now, Hainsley.
Hainsley: (controls Angel's body again, throwing him across the room) Think you're clever, eh? But—unnnnh!— Your ghost can't control me for long. I hold the power. I rule the dead. (reaches toward Angel, but can't control him anymore)
Angel: Not today.
(Angel fights with Hainsley and ultimately pushes him into a nearby table, knocking him down to the ground. Hainsley gets up again and engages Angel in hand-to-hand combat again. Angel throws a blade at Hainsley, cutting his head off. Hainsley's head falls to the ground, and Spike's head floats above Hainsley's neck.)
Spike: Oh, bollocks. (Hainsley's body falls to the ground) I was just getting warmed up.
Angel: That was you hitting me?
Spike: The last bit, yeah. Hainsley's been dead since he hit the table. (Angel frowns) Oh, come on. Had to get a few licks in, didn't I?
(Wolfram & Hart – Lobby – Day)
(Wesley and Angel are walking together through the lobby.)
Wesley: I see. So Spike came to you with this plan.
Angel: More or less. Once he learned Hainsley used himself as a conduit for body transfers, our trap fell into place.
(Harmony hands a file to Angel.)
Wesley: A bit reckless. Well, if Spike's going to be sticking around, it'd be prudent of him to share his plans with the rest of us in future.
Angel: Yeah, well, sharing's not something Spike does very well.
Harmony: Preaching to the horse's mouth.
(Science Department – Fred’s Office)
(Fred walks into her office. Spike is standing in the doorway.)
Fred: Spike. What are you...can I help you?
Spike: Well, that's the heart of it, isn't it? The crux. The nub.
Fred: I'm sorry?
Spike: You're the smart one, aren't you? The go-to girl who knows all about this ghost mumbo-jumbo.
Fred: Um... (laughs nervously) Well, actually, Wesley's the occult expert. He—he was trained as a Watcher. He knows about the supernatur—
Spike: Yeah, but you're the science queen. The hows, the what-ifs—that's your cup of tea. You figure things out in that cute little noggin of yours.
Fred: (nervously) I guess. What... I-is there something...
Spike: I'm slippin'.
Fred: What?
Spike: Don't wanna go, but it's like... It's like the ground underneath me is... splitting open and my legs are... straddling both sides of this bloody big chasm. It's getting wider, pulling me in.
Fred: Is that... is that what's happening when you keep vanishing?
Spike: (faces away from Fred) I know what's down there—where it's trying to take me—and it's not the place heroes go. Not by a bloody long shot. It's the other one. Full of fire and torment. And it's happening. And I'm terrified. (faces Fred) Help me?
Fade to black.
Season Five Guide