As the shock wore off from finding Lorne's severed finger in the box that Clem brought, Angel and Spike explained who Lorne was to everyone else. They all agreed not to say a word about it to Fred. When asked why, Angel explained that Fred was as close to Lorne as Dawn was to Clem and she couldn't bear the thought of her good friend at the hands of some maniacal hell beasts doing lord knows what to him. Plus, Lorne didn't have a clue that Fred was resurrected. He took her death at the hands of Illyria especially hard. So now, they had to figure out what to do next. Buffy came up with an idea.

"I think we need to pay Anne Steel a visit and get her to tell us what she knows. This has to be done during daylight so the tinted van will be taken. Angel, Spike, Connor, and Gunn will come with. The more people this Anne knows are around her, the more likely she'll feel more secure to open up." The others nodded.

They called Gunn and using the tunnels, went to where the vans were located. They took one of the refueled ones and with a last heads up to Faith that she was in charge, took off towards LA. They arrived at Anne Steel's new location at 11am; Connor had guided them to it. There was an overhang that both Spike and Angel could use as they jumped out of the van to avoid sizzling. Connor and Gunn led the way inside. Anne was sitting at a table and she jumped up out of her seat when she saw Gunn and ran around the desk to give him a big hug. She hugged Connor as well but her eyes grew wide when she realized they weren't alone.

Angel kind of hung back as their last meeting from a few years before wasn't all that pleasant. She was very stunned to see Buffy as was Buffy who started putting pieces together. Anne stared at Buffy and vice versa and finally the first spoke.

"You told me I could be Anne. I hope I have made you proud." She said quietly as Buffy's eyes filled with tears as she remembered. Meanwhile, everyone else was very confused.

"Wait a minute, you two know each other?" Spike who had been standing behind Buffy asked. When Anne saw him, she shrieked in fright.

"It's ok Anne, that's just Spike, he's part of our team." Connor explained.

"I will never forget that hair. He nearly killed me and my friends." Anne shuddered as everyone looked really confused.

"What the bloody hell are you talking about? I've never even seen you before. And what's wrong with my hair?" Spike said frustrated and a tad self-conscious while touching his head.

"I wouldn't expect you to remember."

"Why don't you start at the beginning? Because clearly everyone is confused." Gunn said. Anne took a deep breath and began to tell her story.

"I'm from Sunnydale too. The first and only time I ever saw Spike was when my friends and I were part of a vampire worship group and I went by the name of Chantrelle. We thought vampires were the lonely ones so we wanted to join them. What we realized was that most were savage beasts that deserved to be put down. When Spike came to attack my friends, Buffy was there to save us after a friend of hers locked us in an underground bunker. She jumped onto the balcony and held a stake to some creepy looking vampire chick in a long white dress. She looked like she never left the 19th century. Only with that threat were we all let go."

"Drusilla! I remember that now!" Spike said stunned as the others listened and Anne continued.

"A little while later I left Sunnydale to try and reinvent myself yet again and ended up here in LA. I named myself Lily after the flower. That's how I met my now deceased boyfriend Ricky. One day, Ricky and I were at a diner trying to get breakfast when I recognized Buffy working there under the name of Anne. I found her a few evenings later when Ricky went missing. She seemed broken but she never told me what had happened that made her leave Sunnydale." Anne grew silent as everyone looked at Buffy who was gazing down.

"Yes, she's right. I ran away from home and ended up here so I changed my name to Anne so no one would find me. I needed time."

"What?? When did this happen?" Angel asked confused. There was a long pause and then Buffy looked him in the eyes and whispered.

"After I killed you. I finally told my mom I was the slayer and she kicked me out of the house. I had to go fight Angelus and as Willow returned your soul, I still had to do it because of the demon you unleashed. I couldn't stay in Sunnydale afterwards." Angel cringed as pain crossed his face.

"Acathla." He whispered as Buffy nodded.

"Wait, how did you lose your soul that time?" Connor asked curious. Spike jumped in with the unabridged version.

"Oh that's simple; see Angel here is cursed with a soul. When he was Angelus, he tortured some Romanian village girls and they put the curse on him. He can lose his soul if he experiences even one moment of true happiness. And he and Buffy being in love and all.....you do the math kid. I meanwhile, actually fought for my soul to be returned. Which means I can sleep with half this city and still keep my spark burning bright." He smirked all high and mighty at Angel who rolled his eyes.

"Thanks for the cliff notes Spike."

"Glad to be of service mate."

"Ok we're getting off track here; Anne what happened when you went to Buffy to help with your missing boyfriend problem?"

"I can explain that one; I didn't want to be the slayer so I turned Anne or Lily at that time down and finally I found Ricky dead and looking about 80 years old. Somehow, I knew demons were involved. Lily was brainwashed into following in Ricky's footsteps but I got to her and we both fell through some gooey black portal. To make a long story short, we ended in some demon dimension where they work humans until they age and then they spit them back out. So one or two days here on earth is like 80 years there." Buffy replied.

"Then Buffy was amazing, she kicked practically every demon's butt and got us out of there. I could tell that whatever she was working through, the demon dimension helped her work through it. She was ready to return home. She gave me her apartment that she was renting and her job at the diner. I asked her if I could be Anne and she said yes. After she left, I worked at the diner and found this small youth shelter and started going there. I also started volunteering and eventually went from just one of the members, to the assistant, and when the owner retired, she gave me the place; I added the last name Steel because it seemed strong. I had finally reinvented myself properly. But I couldn't have ever done it without Buffy; not as Chantrelle and not as Lily. And the rest as they say is history." Anne finished.

It was quiet for a while as everyone got their bearings. It was a lot to take in. It was also amazing just how in such a huge world, everything could be connected. People from different sides of the spectrum could come together at the most inopportune of times. Buffy frowned briefly and she asked Anne:

"What is your given name? Like the name you were born with?"

"It was Joan. Do I look like a Joan to you?" Everyone shook their heads no.

"Buffy, where did you get the name Anne from?" Anne asked then curiously.

"It's my middle name; Buffy Anne Summers." Buffy replied. Everyone was quiet again for moment and then Gunn smirked, looked at Anne and said:

"Damn girl! It's like 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon! You have had more names then the Mafia in the witness protection program!" Everyone couldn't help but laugh at that one. It was true. Joan, Chantrelle, Lily, and now Anne; at least she stopped with the last one.

"Sometimes you have to keep going until you feel comfortable in your own skin with your name." Anne answered with a smile.

"Don't mean to be the party pooper here but we did come here for a reason." Buffy said as everyone nodded and Anne raised her eyebrows.

"Anne what do you know about these demon kidnappings and killings?" Gunn asked.

"This has been a frequent occurrence. At first, I didn't pay it any mind but then my kids from the youth center who are friends with some demons came to beg for shelter for their buds. I couldn't turn them away but at the same time I couldn't house demons and humans in the same shelter. If those goons found this place, we didn't stand a chance so I found a place I thought was safe. Apparently, not so; Connor what happened with the demon you saved?" She looked down and then up at Connor. Spike replied:

"Clem survived; he had major surgery and now is resting comfortably in a safe and classified location."

"Oh thank heavens. He was always so sweet and helpful; I would hate to find out he didn't make it. So you are the two vampires with souls the goons mentioned?" She looked at Spike and Angel as both nodded.

"So now what?"

Buffy thought about that question for a moment and then her eyes widened as she got on the phone and called Willow. Seconds later Willow materialized as Buffy told her of her new plan. She asked Willow to put a barrier around the youth center so that the Senior Partner's goons couldn't get in. They would know somehow that Anne was responsible for harboring the demons they were seeking out. She didn't want Anne or any of the kids in danger. As Willow's eyes went black and she started chanting a spell, Buffy dialed another number and got Dawn on the phone.

She told her to call Giles and ask him to look through all of his texts in England about what the hell dimension the Senior Partners operate in is like. Though the library at the base had extensive texts, it didn't have nearly as much as Giles' did. Since Dawn was a watcher in training, it was technically her duty to seek out all of the information. If they were going to rescue Lorne and stop the SP's (Senior Partners) from murdering demons and moving on to humans and who knows who else afterwards, they had to be 100% ready to face anything and everything. Dawn said she would get right on it and she would also call Anya in Italy and have her do some research as well as she was an ex demon after all. She had to know something.

After Willow was done with the spell, she told Anne that if any of the layers of her spell were to be breached, she would know and come with reinforcements before any damage could be done. It was getting late and it was time to head back to base and update the rest of the troops on what was happening. Hopefully, by then Dawn would have some answers from Giles.

It would be soon time to take the SP's down once and for all.