Episode begins with recap of Convictions:

Girl in alley: "Who are you?"

Lawyer: "This is to confirm that you have been rescued by Angel CEO and President of Wolfram and Hart."

Girl: You run a Law Firm?"

Angel: "Well just lately."

Wesley: Why on earth are we here?"

Fred: "What?  Because we're crusaders against evil and now the law firm that represents most of the evil in the world has given us its L.A. branch to run however we want?"

Angel: We're tearing this place inside out."

Lorne: "Yes, it's perfect. It's the project you've been waiting for. It's Joanie Loves Chachi meets the Sorrow and the Pity."

Angel: "Harmony?"

Harmony: "Hey, boss."

Angel: You're my secretary?"

Fred: "Have you see my lab? It's giganamous, and I'm in charge."

Eve: "I'm just wondering if you're ready for the next step?"

Gunn: "You don't know me or you wouldn't be asking me that question."

Eve: "Charles agreed to let us enhance his mind with a comprehensive knowledge of the law."

Angel: "We're going to change things. We came to Wolfram and Hart because it's a powerful weapon. We'll deal with whatever comes next."

The amulet from Chosen falls out of an envelope on the floor.

Wesley: "Spike."

Angel: "Spike."

~Beginning of Episode~

*Flashback to Sunnydale: Inside the hellmouth during the end of Chosen.

Spike: "Go on then."

Buffy: "No, you've done enough, you could still..."

Spike: "No, you've beat them back, it's for me to do the clean-up."

Buffy: "Spike."

Spike: "I mean it, I gotta do this. Now go. I wanna see how it ends." He laughs as he turns to ash in a flash of light.

*In Angel's Office.

Spike: "What?"

Harmony: "What the hell are you doing here Spike?"

Wesley: "Harmony please."

Gunn: "This is Spike? The Spike?"

Fred: "Wait a minute, who's..."

Lorne: "Easy guy, no one's going to hurt you."

Gunn: "Speak for yourself, green jeans."

Fred: "Okay would somebody please tell me who..."

Wesley: "William the bloody. he's a vampire. One of the worst recorded. Second only to..."

Angel: "Me. But you're dead."

Harmony: "Well yeah, who here isn't, besides him and him and her, and what are you again?" Points to Lorne.

Spike vamps and rushes at Angel, passing right through him and landing in the middle of a desk.

Spike: "Bugger."

*Opening Credits: Featuring David Boreanaz, James Marsters, J. August Richards, Amy Acker, Andy Hallet, and Alexis Denisof.

Spike: "What? What's happening to me?"

Harmony: "well, I'm no doctor, but I think you're a ghost."

Spike: "I'm no, I'm no bloody ghost."

Harmony: "Hey, you're the one sticking out of a desk, pal. And you can't talk to me like that. We're not going out any more."

Gunn: "Where'd he come from?"

Wesley: "From this." He picks up the amulet.

Fred: "What is it?"

Angel: "Something I gave to Buffy before..."

Spike: "Buffy, is she?"

Angel: "She's okay."

Spike: "Where? Where is she?"

Angel: "Europe, last I heard from her."

Spike: "I want to see her, to talk to her."

Angel: "That's gonna be tough."

Spike: "You can't keep her from me."

Angel: "She's not mine to keep, or yours."

Spike: "Says you. You have no idea what we had."

Angel: "You never had her."

Spike: "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 uck. that's just, I...uck."

Spike: "I must be in hell."

Lorne: "No, L.A., but a lot of people make that mistake."

Fred: "So Spike and Buffy?"

Wesley: "He was an, um, ally of hers for some time, or 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 is nothing like me."

Spike: "Got that right. What have you done to me? What is this place? Who are you people? What the bloody hell is happening?"

*Fred's Lab.

Lorne: "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, then I see them a lot. Sorry. Hazard of running the entertainment division. I gotta get out more."

Spike: "So what are you? Scanner girl?"

Fred: "I'm Fred. I head up Wolfram and Hart's science department."

Spike: "Wolfram and Hart. Heard of that. Thought it was a law firm."

Fred: "It is. Among other things."

Spike: "Also heard they represent some of the worst evil in the universe."

Angel: "It did, among other things, but I'm in charge no."

Spike: "Are you now?"

Fred: "Weird. I'm getting electromagnetic readings consistent with spiritual entities, but there's no ectoplasmic matrix."

Gunn: "Meaning?"

Fred: "Ectoplasm is what makes ghosts visible to the human eye. If he's a ghost technically we shouldn't be able to see him. And I'm detecting brain wave activity."

Angel: "In Spike, 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: "Think I'm hot, do you?"

Fred: "Huh. Luke warm. 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. 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: "Okay, 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? 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'd think that saving the sodding world would be enough to earn me a rest. You'd think..."

Fred: "Spike?"

Spike fades out.

Spike: "Oh, balls."

Gunn: "Now what?"

Fred: "I don't know, he just. What did he mean saving the world?"

Angel: "Oh that, well, Buffy did most of the work. Well, he helped but..."

Spike: "Wha...What ?" He reappears.

Lorne: "Took the whats right out of our mouths."

Gunn: "Where did you go?"

Fred: "Don't you know?"

Spike: "I was...You. This is your fault."

Angel: "Mine?"

Spike: "You brought that bloody amulet to Sunnydale. You would have been the one to use until you chickened out."

Angel: "What did you..."

Spike: "You head me. You left in 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. It 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 a soul doesn't mean I'm going to let myself be led around."

Fred: "Excuse me?"

Wesley: "Did, did you just say...Spike has a soul? You never said."

Angel: "Didn't seem worth mentioning, you know."

Gunn: "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: "You're not in the world, Casper."

*Angel leaves the lab and heads for his office.

Spike: "Running away again. Nice new M.O. 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."

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? You made some devils 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 getting digested."

Angel: "Not gonna happen."

Spike: "Oh, you think you're in control here? Guess again mate. You're no more in control than I am, 'cept I'm not gonna bloody stand for it. While you're just a lying...Groxlar beast."

Angel: "What?"

Angel turns to fight a demon. Spike tries to punch the demon, but his fist goes through him.

Spike: "Oh, Brilliant."

Angel: "'Kay, somebody wanna explain to me how a groxlar 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...I'm meeting with groxlars? They eat babies."

Harmony: "Just their heads. You were supposed to open negotiations with his clan."

Angel: "Negotiations for what?"

Gunn: "Get them to stop eating baby heads."

Angel: "Oh, so that's good. Oh, so this is bad."

Gunn: "No, actually, the gloxlar clan respects someone who takes a strong opening position. Wolfram and Hart didn't just jack me up here with the human laws, also demon laws from every dimension. Probably should have briefed you about the groxlar, but it got a little sidetracked. Plus I've been implementing our reforms, mostly staff overhaul. I've fired forty employees in the past two days."

Angel: "How's that going."

Gunn: "As expected, anger, tears, venomous death threats."

Harmony: "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, okay, too soon, I understand. Slayer loving freak."

Gunn: "Caught an associate we laid off trying to smuggle this out of the voodoo division." Tosses a black doll to Angel.

Angel: "It's a nice likeness."

Spike: "This place just goes on and on, doesn't it? It's 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: "I'm sensing a ripple on its way now. Yes, uh."

Novak: "Novak, sir. Uh, what's this about you shutting down the interment acquisition division?"

Angel: "Interment aqui..."

Gunn: "Grave robbing."

Novak: "Listen, I know you fellas are in charge now, and you're doing a bang up job. I'm with you a hundred and ten percent, but that department brings in mucho revenue to this company."

Angel: "Well, Novak, we'll just have to tighten our belts and do without."

Novak: "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? Okay, he's one of our oldest clients. big potatoes. We stop delivering and he is not going to be thrilled."

Angel: "Then he's probably not going to like it when you advise him that he is no longer our client."

Novak: "Me?"

Angel: "You got it counselor, you tell Mr. mm mm.:

Gunn: "Hainsley."

Angel: "Hainsley, that Wolfram and Hart is under new management and out of the grave robbing business. Now run along and go argue your case."

Novak: "Me."

Angel: "Go."

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 work to spineless low level flunkies? No offense. 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: "You don't think he's really gone do you?"

Wesley: "That what's on your mind?"

Angel: "Coulda been me, Wes. It was supposed to be me."

Wesley: "You're not feeling guilty?"

Angel: "What? About Spike? That's not...Wolfram and Hart gave me the amulet. They must have expected me to use it, and they had to have known it would have done to me what it did to Spike."

Wesley: "So why bother handing you the keys to the kingdom?"

Angel: "It 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 that 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 were..."

Angel: "What are you doing here? I thought you left town."

Spike: "Don't think I didn't bleeding try. Every time I got as far as city limits I kept popping back here like my insides are getting yanked."

Wesley: "I suspected as much. The amulet is Wolfram and 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, I bet you're loving this aren't you?"

Angel: "Knowing you'll be haunting me until the end of time, hmm. It's a dream come true."

Harmony: "Uh, Boss? That Novak lawyer you sent over to dump the client? Well, he's back."

Angel: "Okay, send him in."

Harmony: "Hmm. Okay."

Three men bring in three buckets filled with gore and place them on Angel's desk.

Angel: "What is..."

Spike: "Old buckets here was right. You guys are doing a bang up job."

Angel: "Harmony, get me Novak's contact list, close relations, next of kin, and let's be discrete about this for the time being okay?"

Harmony: "Discrete? You mean like not tell anyone about bucket o'lawyer?"

Angel: "Harmony, contact list."

Gunn: "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 a shares in Wolfram and Hart, and he's connected up the wazoo, carries influence with power players in the entertainment industry, politics."

Angel: "Oh, he's a necromancer."

Wesley: "Power over the dead, that explains the bodies Wolfram and Hart's been providing."

Angel: "But not what he's been doing with them...Out of my chair."

Spike: "Make me."

Gunn: "What's in the bucket."

Spike: "Your man Novak. 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 by yourself."

Angel: "I'm not going to risk him turning someone else into chowder."

Wesley: "Angel, you have a multi-billion dollar company at your disposal with armed and trained personnel at your disposal."

Angel: "They cramp my style."

Wesley: "You style's not going to cut it with a necromancer. We should probably avoid an eye for eye escalation here."

Angel: "Not going for his eyes, Wes."

Gunn: "I know what you should go for, it'll hurt him, bad."

*W & H garage.

Spike: "Knew you'd pick the viper, so bloody predictable."

Angel: "Spike, get out of the car."

Spike: "No."

Angel: "What?"

Spike: "This haunting you until 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 moves to another car and Spike is waiting inside.

Spike: "Fancy a road trip? This'll be fun, you and me together again. So, where are we off to?"

Angel: "To see the wizard."

*Magnus Hainsley's Mansion.

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 and Hart."

Spike: "I'm his date."

Butler: "Mr. Hainsley is with a customer at the moment. I'm afraid he does not suffer interruption lightly."

Angel: "I'm not so worried about his suffering. Go ahead and interrupt."

Butler: "As you wish. Please wait here gentlemen."

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: "No worries. Looks like this Hainsley keeps one on hand."

*They enter a room with bodies on various positions like mannequins.

Spike: "Man likes to play with dollies."

Angel: "This isn't for him. It's a show room."

*Hainsley's 'work' room. There is a large stone altar with a woman's body laying on it.

Demon: "I thought about going older with it, I don't know more distinguished kind of a fifty something Shirley Temple-Black with it. You know that ultra respectable ambassador to somewhere look, but in the end I went with pretty. I suppose we all do in the end, don't we, in the end. Pretty people just seem to have it so much...whoa," Hainsley inserts his hand into the girls stomach. "hmm, that's something you don't see every, whoa, okay that's feeling a little weird."

Butler: "Excuse the interruption sir, there are some more men from Wolfram and Hart asking to see you, they seem rather adamant."

Hainsley: "Kill them."

Butler: "Very good sir."

*Back in showroom.

Spike: "I don't know, maybe the geezer's just lonely, throws himself a surprise party every night. Picks 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 shoving them back into this stinking world against their will."

Angel: "I mind."

Butler: "Mr. Hainsley has asked that I send you back to Wolfram and Hart, gentlemen. In a manner of speaking."

Spike: "Uh oh, looks like it's buckets for you."

Angel throws a spoon into the butler's forehead.

Spike: "A spoon? That's just..." The butler pulls the spoon from his head. "Well, okay that's more...Disappointing really."

The butler falls to the floor, dead.

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 to take you down a notch."

Angel: "What is your problem?"

Spike: "You are, you ponce. You're my problem. You got it too good. You're the king of the thirty floor castle, with all the cars, comfort, power, and glory you could ever want, and I save the world, throw myself on 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, innit it? It's not fair.

Angel: "Fair? you asked for a soul. I didn't. It almost killed me. I spent a hundred years trying to come to terms with intimate remorse. You spent three weeks moaning in a basement and then you were fine. What's fair about that?"

Spike: "Are you getting blurry or is it..." Spike fades out.

Angel: "Oh."

*Hainsley's workroom.

Hainsley: "Come in, it's open."

Angel: "Hainsley."

Hainsley: "I didn't know it was the head cheese himself. I thought for sure you were another lackey. You should show more respect."

Demon (now in woman's body): "Oh, oh, I see you guys have a, a thing going on. Don't let me get in your way, I'll let myself out."

Angel punches the body to the ground.

Angel: "So how much do you charge? 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."

Angel: "I'm cutting off your supply, Hainsley. As of now your body shop is...Ack."

Angel begins to choke and rise off the ground.

Hainsley: "Who do you think you're talking to? I eat the dead for breakfast son, and you're just another plate of bacon and eggs." Spike reappears. "A ghost? You brought a ghost as your back-up 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, but that would be too big an insult for the senior partners to overlook. Seems that they've got plans for you." Releases Angel.

Angel: "I've got plans of my own." Dials his 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 IRS. Five minutes from now you'll have nothing but this house. Ten minutes from now that'll go into foreclosure."

Hainsley: "You can't do that."

Angel: "I'll let myself out."

Hainsley: "It's not legal. You think you can get away with that? Haha, I'll sue you to hell."

Angel: "Good luck, we're your lawyers."

Hainsley: "This isn't over vampire."

Spike: "That's how you're going to fight  the forces of evil now? Call the IRS?"

Angel: "Whatever it takes."

Spike: "Hello, IRS, will you fight battles for me, and while you're at it will you wipe my wipe spotty..." Spike disappears.

Angel: "Oh, thank god."

Spike: "Ass. You." He pops back in Hainsley's workroom.

Hainsley: "Power over the dead. but enough about me, let's talk about you. You're a ghost. 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. You can't fight against it, you can't fix it. Hell, you can't even lift a finger because 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 you 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 would require..."

Spike: "Hurt Angel? That it, you want me to hurt Angel? You've come to the right ghost."

*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 pie's gonna be off his menu for a while."

Gunn: "Yeah, well, it's gotta hurt. I mean, damn, who doesn't love pie?"

Fred: "You're back."

Wesley: "Hainsley out of business?"

Angel: "Yeah, for the time being."

Fred: "So, he's not going away?"

Angel: "I think that 'this isn't over yet vampire' may be the tip off. 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 he's going to keep coming 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: "We can't get him out of here."

Angel: "Please, don't tell me that."

Fred: "Okay, 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."

*In the hall outside Angel's office.

Harmony: "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 dif? Just because you've gone all Patrick Swayze."

Spike: "What are you on about?"

Harmony: "Well gee, nothin' much. Just since you're all soulful now, I thought maybe, just maybe, you might have learned to open up a little, you know talk? But I guess a leopard can't change its stripes."

Spike: "Spots, you dink. Leopards have spots."

Harmony: "Oh, excuse me Mr. Brainy. Thank you so much for sharing. Wow, what a breakthrough."

Fred: "We're talking about killing him, 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, mercy, ya know, I'm all for it. Just tell me how we do it."

Wesley: "The amulet is 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 do the trick."

Gunn: "Angel, what do you think?"

Angel: "I think I wanna sleep on it."

*Angel's penthouse. He walks into his bedroom wearing only silk pajama bottoms, and gets into bed.

Spike: "Well, look at you."

Angel: "Ah, oh 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 the king, innit?"

Angel: "Ground rules. Haunt me all you want during business hours, but this space, off limits."

Spike: "Relax Beefcake. I didn't come here for a fight."

Angel: "Really?"

Spike: "Not that I could, right? I can't touch, can't affect anything. Yeah, I overheard your little group pow wow 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, whadya say?"

Spike: "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 lie like this Angel, being useless, being nothing. I want it to end."

*Graveyard.

Spike: "S'pose this'll do. Feels hallowed enough."

Angel: "Sure you wanna do this Spike?"

Spike: "What? Think I could really stand hanging out with you and you're lot now and forever. Wise cracking ghost side kick, no bloody thanks. Come on, you know as well as I do, it's for the best. I'm glad it's you though, finally doing me in. Feels right, you bein' my grandsire and all. Circle of death, eh?"

Angel: "Goodbye Spike."

Spike: "See you round, Angel."

Angel tries to smash the amulet, but bonks himself in the head.

Spike: 'Uh, I think you missed."

Angel: "Oh," hits himself again. "Oh."

Hainsley: "And the dead shall rise, just because I say so."

Angel: "Hainsley."

Hainsley: "Vampire should think twice before messing with a man who wields power over all things lightly, if you ask my advice."

Spike: "Took you 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 lynch pin of my plan."

Spike: "Our plan, and you bloody well 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 workroom. Angel is on the table.

Hainsley: "Hello, vampire. Have a nice nap? No, don't get up. You've had a rough day, you know so have I thanks to you."

Angel: Your's 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 reverse the seizure of my personal assets and reinstate the interment acquisitions department."

Angel: "And why would I do that?"

Spike: "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 - pht - off to never never come back land. And then yours very truly will be running the show. Your cars, your fancy digs, everything, every one I deserve will be mine. And maybe I'll have a go at 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 itching to get physical."

Hainsley: "I've never installed anyone in a conscious dead body before, I imagine this is going to be extremely painful."

Hainsley puts his hand in Angel's stomach then grabs Spike. Spike disintegrates and starts to travel down Hainsley's arm, and then stops and goes back up his arm.

Hainsley: "What, what are you doing?"

Angel: "Spike, do you mind?"

Hainsley: "No, NO."

Angel: "I can touch you now, Hainsley."

Hainsley: "Think you're clever, eh? Your ghost can't control me for long. I hold the power. I rule the dead."

Angel: "Not today."

Angel punches Hainsley sending him head first into a stone table, Hainsley gets up and hits Angel before Angel throws a silver platter at Hainsley and decapitates him.

Spike: "Oh, bollocks. I was just getting warmed up."

Angel: "That was you hitting me?"

Spike: "That last bit, yeah. Hainsley's been dead since he hit the table. Oh, come on. Had to get a few licks in didn't I?"

*Angel's office.

Wesley: "I see, so Spike came to you with his plan?"

Angel: "Oh, more or less. Once he learned that Hainsley used himself as a conduit for body transfers our trap fell into place."

Wesley: "A bit reckless. Uh, if Spike's going to be sticking around it'd be prudent of him to share his plans with the rest of us in the future."

Angel: "Yeah, uh, well, sharing is not something Spike does very well."

Harmony: "Preaching to the horse's mouth."

*Fred's lab.

Fred: "Spike, what are you? Can I help you?"

Spike: Well, that's the heart of it, innit? The crux, the nub."

Fred: "I'm sorry?"

Spike: "You're the smart one, aren't you? The go to gal who knows all about this ghost mumbo jumbo?"

Fred: "I, um, well actually Wesley is the occult expert. He was trained as a watcher, he knows about the supernatural."

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: "I guess. What. Is there something?"

Spike: "I'm slipping."

Fred: "What?"

Spike: "I don't want to go, but it's, 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: "I know what's down there. Where it's trying to take me, and it's not the place where 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. Help me?"

~End Episode~