When the battle was finally over, he couldn't find their bodies. He went back to the alley where they had first started, but the concrete was covered in blood, with pieces of demons lying everywhere – there was no way he'd be able to find them there. He went back to where Illyria told him Wesley had fallen, but the building wasn't there anymore. He walked among the ruins for hours, but he couldn't find his friend.

In the end, he had headstones made for them, and bought plots lying right next to each other. It didn't matter to him that they're bodies weren't actually there…he just needed a place to visit, a place where he could feel surrounded by friends again.

Fred rested between Gunn and Wesley, where she had spent the last few years. A sad smile came to his face as he thought back on the way the two men had fought each other for her affections. She had loved them both with all her heart, and he wasn't sure there was anything in the world that could have changed that.

His eyes rested again on Fred's headstone. So much had happened in the past year, that he had really lost track of her. He remembered when they were all in the hotel together – he had truly believed that nothing could come between them. But love, jealousy, and fate had torn them asunder, ruining friendships that he had been sure could last forever. He had thought they were a family.

There were many regrets that he held in his heart; things going back a hundred years that still plagued him every time he closed his eyes or a had a moment of peace. Fred was one of them. He remembered the way she followed him around when he first brought her back to this dimension, the way she hung on his every word. It had only been a crush, but he was sure that, had he returned her affections, she would have grown to love him.

And that's what he regretted. He had seen the way that Fred loved – so pure and selfless, with her whole heart. He would have given anything to be loved like that. But he had walked right by her, and her love had gone to two of his best friends instead.

A small step beside him, and suddenly he knew that he wasn't alone anymore.

"All three of them?" she asked.

He turned at the sound of her voice, looking down at her as she stared at the headstones.

"Yeah, Faith," he said quietly. "All three of them." He turned his attention back to the headstones. "Why are you –"
"I felt it," she said, nodding at Wesley's name. "When he died, I felt it. It was like something ripped out of my chest. I didn't know something could hurt like that."

He nodded. "The bond between Watcher and Slayer…"

"Angel…how did –"

"He died a hero, Faith. He died fighting. They all did."

"Lucky them." When he looked at her sharply, she shrugged. "They get to go out strong, and us…we're left to carry it – all the things we didn't say to them, all the ways we hurt them…and we can never apologize. We can never fix it."

Looking back at his friends' names, Angel nodded. "Until it's our turn to die. And then someone else gets to carry those burdens."

"What happens when there's no one left?" she asked.

He had no answer for that.