after her talk with sam, buffy goes to find the crossroads in an attempt to barter angel's soul back.
It hadn't been easy to coerce Sam into giving her the details about the Crossroads, and even when she had, the concern and almost heartache his features had been so drawn with had nearly been enough to make her re-think her plans. Almost. Eventually, she'd been able to convince him to tell her the location. Incidentally enough, there happened to be three or four in Cleveland. On further examination, that wasn't terribly surprising. After all, there were people here in excess that Buffy figured wouldn't mind trading a soul or a life for something. Fortune, fame, sex -- anything and everything could be a driving force behind someone's decisions. How could they have any idea just how monumental a soul was? How important it could be? Buffy knew, and she'd already thought through the list of what she was willing to trade for Angel's. It had almost frightened her when she realized how small the list had been of things she
wouldn't do to get it back. Sam must have known this to an extent, and that had been why it had been so terribly difficult to pull any information out of him. When he'd finally told her the location, he'd begged her to be careful, or to let him go with her. She'd turned him down, but had promised she'd come back in one piece. If anyone knew Buffy, they'd know that promise was as empty as promising that the sky was not blue, but it had been impossible to
not say the words, especially with Sam's dark eyes imploring her own.
( even lucifer began as an angel )