BECAUSE OF POPULAR DEMAND, THIS IS THE SEQUEL TO "WHAT WAS LEFT UNSAID," BY THE SAME AUTHOR, WHICH IS LISTED WITH STORIES FROM "BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER." IT TAKES PLACE SOMETIME IN EARLY SEASON 1 OF ANGEL, BEFORE WOLFRAM AND HART REALLY PUMP UP THE VOLUME ON TRYING TO DRIVE ANGEL TO THE DARK SIDE. I FIGURE THAT THIS COULD HAVE BEEN THEIR FIRST ATTEMPT.

Randy the I.T. guy

"Who is this guy, and why are we trying so hard to annoy him?" asked Deanna Everweather.

"His name is Angel," Lindsey McDonald answered, without taking his eyes off the giant metal cyllinder in the middle of the room. "He's a vampire with a soul. He's supposedly a major player in the coming apocalypse, whatever that means. We're trying to make sure that he winds up on our side."

"Isn't a vampire supposed to fight on the side of evil?"

"That's why I was so careful to mention that he has a soul," Lindsey said hotly, looking sideways at his new charge. "A soul means a conscience, and a conscience means no killing, and no killing means... that he's a major pain in our ass. He's a do-gooder, and a mighty powerful one at that."

"How did he get a soul?"

He looked at her straight-on this time, noting again the poor quality of her lavendar suit. Lindsey was starting to get more than a little annoyed with the new intern. For the eightieth time that day, he wondered what on earth he had done wrong to make Holland Manners choose him to take charge of Everweather, and show her the ropes. The little upstart knew all about the law, almost as if it mattered, but knew squat about the occult. Her "I'm willing to learn" vibe was making Lindsey crazy, and she wasn't even hot.

Nevertheless, Lindsey answered her question. "Gypsy curse. He killed one of their charmed daughters, and the elders cursed him with a conscience."

"Well, that's a pretty clever punishment," Deanna marveled.

"Yes, I suppose it is," Lindsey agreed, more humoring the young woman than actually assenting to her assertion.

She turned her attention to the metal cyllinder. It was wide enough around that four grown men could maybe link hands around it, and about eight feet tall. There was an arc-shaped doorway near the floor in its side. A man was lying on the floor with his head inside the cyllinder, legs sticking out. He was wearing a dark purple robe, so dark it was almost black, and his feet were bare. Deanna could hear chanting.

"What's he doing in there?" she asked, whispering.

"He's upgrading," Lindsey whispered back.

"Oh, is he like the I.T. guy?"

"Sort of," Lindsey answered, acknowledging to himself that this was a pretty good analogy for it. "You see, since the lawyers at Wolfram and Hart are lawyers, not wizards, if we're going to wield magick, we have to have some reserves, some source to pull from. It's like the terminal computer at the center of a network that stores all of the information and allows all the computers in the network to function as they do."

"And this big metal thing is the magick terminal?"

"Yeah, basically. And Randlu-Wathric here, with the chanting, is adding a new power to our reserves. It's something that we are in great hopes will bring Angel into the fold, as it were."

"How does it work?" Deanna wanted to know.

Suddenly, the chanting stopped. The robed man pushed himself awkwardly out of the small doorway and stood up. His reddish, burned-looking demon face morphed into something seemingly human, which reminded Deanna of Chandler from Friends, only fat and bald. He pulled off his dark purple cloak to reveal a pair of chili-stained overalls underneath, and a nametag that said "Randy."

"I think we've got 'er done, Mr. McDonald," he said, wiping sweat off his forehead, and stuffing his cloak into a duffel bag. After that, he began pulling on orthopedic shoes.

"Thanks Randy, we couldn't do it without you," Lindsey said, smiling fakely and patting Randy on the back.

"Well, you couldn't do it right without me," Randy said, laughing roughly. "Anyway, just give her about twenty-four hours to charge up, then you can let 'er rip whenever you're ready."

"Great. Thanks."

Randy shook hands with Lindsey and Deanna, and then left the room.

"So," Deanna said, not forgetting her previous question. "How does it work?"

"The new power allows us to change spells already in existence, without breaking the spell. So, if you conjure a tunafish on rye, and then decide that you wanted wheat, you can do that without vanquishing the entire sandwich."

"Oh I see," the intern said, catching on quickly. "So you're going to change the spell that was put on Angel, without having to lift the curse."

"Exactly."