A/N: Sorry it took ages for me to update this. I sort of had a change of plan, as I decided that what I had planned for Angel Investigations in this story was too dull and slow-paced, so I had to do a bit of rethinking and researching some stuff a lot more. This chapter is set somewhere between episode two and three or thereabouts of Angel season three.

I got back into this after rewatching the episode of Angel 'Reprise' which starts off with a character called Mrs Sharpe refusing to pay the money she owes to Wesley, Cordelia and Gunn. Knowing what Alexis' other character does to the other character called Sharpe, I had to giggle at the irony. Anyway, have a bit more of the story…

Chapter One – A New Case…

Hyperion Hotel, Los Angeles
October 2001

"Wesley?"

At the sound of the voice, Wesley Wyndam-Pryce suddenly looked up from the book he was reading to see the slender figure of Winifred Burkle standing in the doorway to the office. She was looking at him shyly, peering out from behind her curtain of long brown hair as if apologising for interrupting him. Everything about her seemed a little awkward, as if she still hadn't quite gotten used to being around humans after her time spent in Pylea, but Wesley didn't mind that. Actually, it was one of the things he found most endearing about her.

Setting the book down on the desk in front of him, Wesley got up from his chair to go over to her. "Fred, what can I help you with?"

"Just checking you're okay, is all," she answered him timidly. "I mean, after what happened to Gunn earlier I just wanted to check they didn't get to you that bad too."

Touched by her concern for him, Wesley tried to give her a reassuring smile. "I'm fine, thank you," he answered, "A few bumps and scrapes, but nothing too bad." There were some rather deep scratches running down his ribcage that were painfully protesting he wasn't all that fine at all, but Wesley wasn't about to tell Fred that. Compared to the beating Gunn had taken, Wesley had certainly gotten off lightly. "How is Gunn?" he asked, sounding concerned. After their run-in with the group of graveyard dwelling, as-of-yet-unidentified demons earlier, it was the vampire-hunting former street fighter that had been left most worse for wear.

Fred gave a helpless shrug. "Well, the bleeding's stopped, but he's beat up pretty bad," she said, wishing that it wasn't the case. "He still wants to get out there and finish off the rest of them, though. Have you found out what they are yet?"

At that question Wesley sighed, hating to give the answer she least wanted to hear, but the truth was that he hadn't. "No," he replied, gesturing at the open book lying on the desk and the many more surrounding it, "I've looked in most of these volumes now but I still haven't found anything that matches the demons' description. Perhaps Cordelia's had more luck?"

Fred nodded. "Maybe. I'll go see," she said, preparing to head back out into the lobby where Cordelia was searching on the computer, but she was interrupted by someone else arriving in the office doorway.

The pair of them turned to see Charles Gunn enter the office, very much looking as beat up as Fred had said, but still not content to lie down and let the others do the hard work. "Wes, any luck identifying those demons yet?" Gunn asked, his words slightly distorted by his swollen lip. He was holding an icepack to his forehead and the area around his right eye was visibly turning purple against his dark skin. Several gashes were also running down the left hand side of his face and Wesley grimaced slightly, thinking how lucky he'd been that he himself had gotten away from the demon attack with just a few scratches.

"No, not yet," he said, repeating the answer he'd just given to Fred. "But we're working on it. Angel's out seeing what information he can gather in the underworld and Cordelia's going through the online demon databases. Nothing's come up yet, but I'm sure it will soon."

Gunn gave a nod, not exactly happy that they'd not found anything yet but hopeful that they would at some point. "Good. The sooner we find out what they are and take care of the rest of them, the better. Anything I can be doing to help?" He walked further into the office, temporarily taking the ice pack away from his head, and Wesley grimaced even further at the angry red swelling beneath it.

"No, I think we've got everything covered," Wesley answered in a tone of concern, "Gunn, are you sure you're up to fighting them right now? Even if we do find them, you're not exactly in top form for combat."

Gunn just gave a dismissive shrug. "Come on, English, I've been fighting vampires since I was twelve, remember? I've had worse than this before. Just gives me more reason to want payback."

Wesley nodded, still concerned for his friend but realising it was pointless to argue. If Gunn wanted to fight demons then not much could be done to stop him. "Alright," Wes said, "But if we're going to fight them we have to find them first, and if we want to actually kill them it would help if we knew what they are."

"So what do we know about them?" Gunn asked, moving his icepack again and instead pressing it against the scratches on his face, "Aside from that they're red and scaly and have some nasty claws?"

"Not much," Wesley replied, frustrated that he couldn't give a more satisfactory answer. "Their main identifying feature is the double crescent symbol they had on their foreheads, but I've not been able to find out what that means and none of the demons in my books match all of their characteristics."

He seemed disgruntled that he hadn't been able to find out more, but then Fred added more optimistically, "We were just about to ask Cordelia if she's found anything."

"She hasn't," a female voice suddenly called from somewhere outside the office in the direction of the lobby, having overheard them. "But you know what she has found? The coffee machine. It's that thing in the kitchen that makes not-so-great coffee, but after three hours researching red scaly demons and getting nowhere, the stuff still tastes pretty damn good." They heard the voice getting closer, and then Cordelia appeared in the doorway carrying a tray of coffee mugs. "Seriously," she continued, "I've been stuck on that computer for three hours and nobody once thought to ask, 'Hey, Cordelia, would you like some coffee?' so I had to go get some myself." She was acting annoyed, but they all knew she didn't mean it seriously. She shuffled further into the room and set the tray down on the desk, on top of several of the books Wesley had piled there. "And I thought since I was making it anyway, you guys might want some too," she finally finished, picking up one of the cups and offering it to the person standing nearest to her, which happened to be Wesley.

There was a muttered "thanks" as he took the cup off of her and then she handed the other mugs to Fred and Gunn, pulling a face as she noted the state Gunn was in. "Whoa, those demons must have been even nastier than they looked in my vision. Gunn, do you need any painkillers?" Cordelia asked as he accepted the coffee, but he just smiled at her and sipped the drink.

"Thanks, Cordy, but I'm fine," he said nonchalantly, "Fred's been taking good care of me." At that he smiled at Fred, who blushed.

"Well, it's the least I could do if everybody else is all busy trying to find out what they are," she said shyly. "I probably don't know as much as you about demons, except the Pylean ones, and I don't think these are Pylean because they're red, and there wasn't much of that in Pylea. So, you'll probably have more luck researching them than I would, which means I ought to do something else to help and Gunn was all beat up so I thought I could…help him," Fred eventually concluded, realising she was rambling and then drank a mouthful of coffee to shut herself up. She had a tendency to ramble at times, the result of spending five years in a hell dimension which had driven her slightly crazy, but none of them minded.

"You have helped, Fred," Wesley said, before swallowing a mouthful of coffee and adding, "I just wish the rest of us had done as well with finding anything out. Cordelia, you're sure you've not come across anything useful? Anything at all?" He looked at Cordelia hopefully, but she just shook her head.

"No, nada. Not unless my vision was completely inaccurate and when you got there they all had horns and tails," she commented. "I've found plenty of stuff about demons fitting that description."

"No horns," Gunn said in response, "Just some pretty mean claws and a weird symbol thing on their heads. Does anybody have any idea what that is yet?"

Wesley frowned again, trying to think if he could remember anything that might help them work out what it was, but Cordelia suddenly perked up again. "Oh, that," she said brightly, "I just ran a search for that before I went to make coffee. Let me go check the results."

She went to head out of the office again and back to the lobby, and after a brief pause the others followed her, deciding they'd be more likely to find something out that way than by doing anything else. Cordy set her coffee mug down on the front desk and then crossed to the computer, wiggling the mouse to get rid of the screensaver and then sat down to read the search results displayed on screen. After a few seconds she gave a frustrated groan as she realised none of the results bore any relevance to what they were searching for. "You search for 'double crescent symbol' on a demon database and it gives you results about fake leprechaun scams. How does that make sense?" she complained, "What if I tried, 'double crescent symbol red scaly no-horn graveyard demons'?" She hit the enter key and then leaned back in her chair as the results page displayed. "Great. 'No results found, please change your search criteria'," Cordelia read off the screen with a disgruntled scowl.

Behind her, Wesley sighed and set his own coffee mug down on the front desk before putting up a hand to rub his eyes. It was the middle of the night and he was pretty exhausted, but he knew they couldn't let this drop until they found out what they were dealing with. Cordelia's vision had shown the demons in question committing a particularly bloody massacre, and unless Angel Investigations were able to find out how to kill them then they wouldn't be able to stop it. "There's always the possibility that Angel's found something," Wesley said, trying to remain optimistic, "Someone in the underworld is bound to have a least some informationabout them."

Cordelia didn't look wholly convinced, and sighed again as yet another search term didn't return anything useful. "How long's he been gone for?" she said in response to Wesley's mention of Angel, "Must be a couple hours, at least. Do you think that's been enough time for him to find anything yet?"

"Not if he's having the same luck as us," Gunn remarked, finally getting rid of his now-warm icepack and wincing at the throbbing pain in his head, "We're really not having a good night, are we?"

As they considered just how bad a night they actually were having, Fred's expression grew increasingly worried, "You don't think he's in trouble, do you?" she asked, "What if he's run into them again?"

The others all looked similarly concerned for a moment, but then Wesley shook his head slowly as he thought it over. "He's not gone looking for the demons, just for information," he reasoned. "If he gets into trouble he knows how to handle himself. I think the best we can do to help him is to find out how to kill these things; they seemed pretty resilient to everything Gunn and I tried against them earlier."

"I'd say that's an understatement," Gunn remarked before glancing over at the weapons cabinet, no doubt thinking about the broken axe he was now going to have to replace.

"Well, what do you suggest?" Cordelia demanded of Wesley, finally abandoning the computer. "Nothing we're trying here's working."

It wasn't, Wesley had to admit that, but that didn't mean they could just give up. "We need to try a different approach," he answered, thinking up an alternative to just sitting here with books and computers and hitting dead ends for a few more hours. "Perhaps we could go to Caritas, and see if anyone there knows something. Or maybe Lorne will be able to help us."

At the mention of the demon karaoke bar, Gunn's attention was suddenly piqued. "Is that going to involve singing?" he asked somewhat apprehensively.

"Maybe…" Wesley answered vaguely, already beginning to walk back out from behind the front desk in his eagerness to get on and do something useful, but any comment Gunn may have had in response to that was spared by the front door to the hotel opening and someone stepping inside. The man in question was, as always, dressed entirely black and looked just as frustrated as the others felt.

"That won't be necessary," Angel said as he descended the steps into the central lobby, his vampire hearing having allowed him to pick up on most of the conversation that had just taken place. "I already tried there, and I don't think any more singing is going to help us."

Cordelia suddenly got up from her chair by the computer and headed out into the main lobby, looking relieved to see him. "Angel, please tell us you've found something," she said, sounding slightly desperate, "Because we have literally got nothing here."

"Yeah, I've got something," he answered, crossing over to the others. "They're Farsoth demons."

Following that answer there were a few moments of silence as they waited for him to elaborate, and when he didn't Cordelia prompted him, "And they are…?"

Angel shrugged helplessly. "I don't know. That's all I've got. There was a Larzan demon at Caritas told me that some Farsoths have shown up in town, but he doesn't know what they want or where they came from, or anything much, really. I was hoping you might have been able to find out something more." He looked at Wesley expectantly, who frowned in discomfort at being put on the spot and racked his brains for something his Watcher training might have taught him about Farsoth demons.

"I can't say the term 'Farsoth' is familiar to me," he eventually admitted.

Cordelia rolled her eyes. "See, you spend all that time pouring over your books but you still can't cram as much into your Watcher brain as they have on the Demon Database," she teased as she headed back over the computer.

Wesley scowled at the affront. "Well, you've already tried all the relevant search terms, and if nothing's returned any useful results so far I doubt that inputting…" he began to retaliate, but his reproach was cut short as Cordy hit 'enter' and the results flashed up on screen, prompting her to exclaim, "I've found it!"

Abandoning his intended end to that sentence, Wesley couldn't help but let his mild surprise show, "…You have?"

Cordelia smiled smugly. "Yes, Wes, there's an entry on Farsoth demons. It's the first result that comes up when you type in 'Farsoth', believe it or not. Says they're a pretty rare species, but highly violent and dangerous…"

"You can say that again," Gunn commented as the others gathered around the computer to read over Cordelia's shoulder.

"…Difficult to kill by using brute force, but they're not very bright," Cordelia continued, quoting from the screen. "Due to their limited intelligence they behave in a manner that is often cultish and fanatical, and will rally round leader of a different species if they believe his greater power and intelligence can bring them more victims. Records of the one known Farsoth tribe don't go back very far in history, but they're currently believed to serve the demon Carsian…"

At that point, Angel, who had been hanging back further behind the others, suddenly spoke up. "Carsian?"

He sounded surprised, and noticing his tone the others turned to look at him. "You're familiar with that name?" Wesley asked.

Angel nodded, still looking a little shocked that the name had come up. "Yes, I've had dealings with him before, back when I was Angelus."

The others too looked a little surprised at this news, but Wesley was already trying to work out how to use this to their advantage. "What do you know about him? he asked insistently.

"Not much," Angel answered, "I know some of his history, but it's been two hundred years since I last saw him and I thought he was probably dead by now. All I know is that when I met him he wasn't some kind of Farsoth demon master, he was just a demon who liked to kill people for sport. How he managed to get Farsoth minions and what he's up to now I have no idea."

Wesley gave a nod as he processed that answer. "Alright, well if we get more background information about him perhaps it will help us find out what his plans are," he said before turning back to Cordy. "Cordelia, what does the article say about Carsian?" he asked her.

She scanned down the page and then read aloud, "Little is known about their current master." There was a pause as everyone waited for her to continue, and then she turned away from the computer to look at them all. "That's it. That's all it says. What kind of crappy entry is that?"

Growing more frustrated, Wesley turned away from the computer again. "Looks like the Demon Database wasn't so reliable after all," he remarked, and then frowned as he tried to think what to do next.

"So does this mean that whatever those demons are up to, they're taking their orders from this Carsian guy?" Gunn asked, wanting to clarify the situation. "And if we want to stop them, we're going to have to stop him?"

"Looks that way," Fred replied, "So now what do we do? Try and find Carsian?"

It was Angel who answered. "Yeah, if he's the one controlling the Farsoths we need to find him; I'm just surprised he's still alive. Last time I saw him he was with a Slayer. I thought she'd finished him off."

At that Wesley suddenly snapped out of his thoughts and turned to Angel intently again, "There was a Slayer involved?" he asked.

Angel nodded. "Yeah. Buffy's not the first Slayer I encountered, Wes. Darla and I ran into her while we were still in Europe, the same time we came across Carsian."

Wesley looked thrilled by that news, relieved that for the first time that night something was going right. "Angel, this could be exactly what we need!" he said enthusiastically. "If Carsian fought a Slayer there could be some information about him in the Watcher's diaries." At that he quickly headed off back into the office to dig up some more books, returning a few moments later with a cardboard box full of what the others assumed must be old Watcher's journals. "What year was it that Carsian encountered the Slayer?" Wes asked Angel, who frowned in concentration as he tried to remember.

"I'm not sure of the exact year, but late 1820's," he said after a pause. "I don't know how much information you'll get from it though. The Slayer was only half of the story; the other half was me and Darla."

Wesley looked up from the box to meet Angel's gaze. "Alright," he said after a moment's pause, and Angel knew Wes was trying to remember what he'd already learned about Angelus and Darla from the Watcher's Academy. "Then we'll try to get as much of the story as possible; both halves of it" Wes said, before going back to scanning through the books in the box. He must have had them arranged in chronological order, as he found the one his was looking for quickly and lifted it out of the box before flicking through to final entries. "This one ends in 1826, with the Slayer's death in Moscow. Would that be it?"

Angel shook his head. "No, I think it'll be the next one, the next Slayer. She was only about seventeen at the time, so you'll probably need the diary for 1827 or 1828."

Wesley set the journal to one side and then picked up the next one in the box, opening it to the first page. Upon reading the entry he muttered, "Damn," and then put the book down again. "I'm missing the next journal," he said, "The one beginning in 1827 isn't in my possession."

It was Cordelia who was first to say something in response to that. "Weren't you supposed to read all of them when you became Buffy's Watcher? How can you not have it?"

Wesley gave her a slightly disgruntled look. "The Council fired me; I was lucky to keep hold of any of the diaries," he responded somewhat resentfully. "As it is, I've only got a handful. I expect the one we require is still in the possession of Rupert Giles. I can call him and ask him to send it over first thing in the morning. In the meantime…" He turned back to Angel. "If the Slayer's just one half, then why don't we get the other half of the story?"

Angel felt everybody's gaze turn to rest on him expectantly, Wesley looking most expectant of all. They wanted to know more about his history as Angelus, something he rarely discussed with anyone. But in this case, telling them about his history with Carsian might be the only way to help them stop the upcoming Farsoth massacre Cordelia had foreseen. He was going to have to tell them everything: about the massacre he and Darla had committed at the monastery in Salamanca, about how they'd made an enemy of Carsian, and about the young Slayer who had got mixed up in it all.

"Alright," Angel began, "I'll tell you about what happened the last time I met Carsian. We weren't exactly friends and there were a lot of things he kept secret, but there were still some things I learned about him. I can't tell you the whole story; I expect the Slayer's side of it is written in that journal that Wes doesn't have, but this is what I know. It started when Darla and I were travelling through Spain, sometime in the early nineteenth century…"

A/N: Sorry that it was a pretty dialogue-heavy chapter and rather slow with not much happening, but now that I've got this out of the way I can get back to the action with Antonia next time round. I'll break up the story occasionally by going back to what's happening in 2001, but I don't want to have too much of that as I'd rather write about what's going on in 1828. My plans are definitely to make this more action packed and a certain rifleman and his Irish best friend will be showing up, so please stay tuned!