Never thought I'd see the day they trusted Lindsey McDonald over me! Idiots!

And now that my spell is up, we have a few minutes of privacy. Anyone who sees this will instead see us arguing. Time for real talk.

I've been playing a long con to gain admittance to the Circle of the Black Thorn, and see the Earthly players at the head of the apocalypse.

The last time I saw Cordelia Chase, she kissed me, and gave me a one-shot vision with it. That's how I knew where the real power was.

We're never gonna be able to take down the Senior Partners. But we can take out their current agents on Earth, and make them hurt.

The Senior Partners will pound us into the dirt even if we succeed. We're not making it out of this one, but we go down swinging. As heroes.

So we're agreed. We'll need to take out the members of the Circle separately, and all at once. Until the time comes, keep up the infighting.

Hamilton's smug satisfaction is starting to get to me. Why does he assume he's the smartest in the room?

They like when my lieutenants distrust me, but not when they distrust me too much. There's just no pleasing some people.

The reward doesn't matter. All that matters is the fight. Prophecies are bunk anyway.

Okay, here's the game plan:

As for me, I'm going after the biggest of the big kahunas: Archduke Sebassis.

All right, let's see if this part of the gambit paid off.

Oof. Hamilton hits like a mother--

And since I was counting on it, I already poisoned the Archduke. Hamilton was my real target all along.

Definitely not my least painful plan, I'll say that. But I'll be damned if he thinks he's gonna take me down without a fight.

Hamilton may be the toughest bastard around, but somehow he never learned to avoid the classic villain mistake of boasting too much.

Hot DAMN, that's got to be the strongest blood I've ever tasted. And now Hamilton's strength is also mine!

All right, guys, who's still alive?

Let's go to work.