A/N: Sorry if you somehow managed to glimpse the earlier version of this chapter during the five or so minutes it was up. The problem has been solved and corrected!

Chapter 2

The Arrival

Angel took the proposal to go to Disneyland better than anyone had anticipated; he admitted that he had wanted to visit the park since it first opened, but was uncomfortable immersing himself in such large crowds. He still wasn't thrilled about the idea, but he could see how much the others really wanted to go, and agreed that Angel Investigations deserved a vacation.

And so early on a Thursday morning Cordelia, Fred, Gunn, Wesley, and Angel packed into Fred's brand new van and set off, leaving Lorne behind to keep watch on the business (he made it clear he was not a fan of amusement parks and would be happier alone in the hotel than on a ride). Cordelia babbled the entire drive about her numerous experiences at Disneyland, and despite how annoying she became, her stories served to heighten Gunn's interest in the park.

When they finally arrived, they were just a few minutes late for the park's opening, and lines of cars drove up to booths to be directed to parking lots. Cordelia didn't see anything magical along the way, but sure enough when they reached a booth the worker directed them to a different area than the other cars. "They have sensed the non-human presence," Wesley said, as Fred drove down the side street she had been directed to. "This will no doubt take us to the demon lot."

But the side street they were driving along ended in a dead end; a large, odd-looking brick wall stood right in the middle of the road.

"Um…what do we do now?" Fred asked.

"Why did we stop?" Angel asked, frowning.

"You don't see the wall?" Wesley asked curiously.

"Wall?" Angel repeated.

"Interesting," Wesley said. "Well, it seems we are meant to drive on through it…it must be an illusion to prevent humans from coming this way."

"If you say so," Fred said, but she drove very slowly as she approached the wall. Luckily, the van passed right through it.

They continued down the curving street without impediments until they reached the area which Wesley had described as the "demon lot," but which was labeled on a large sign as "Parking Area for Guests Partially or Completely Non-Human." Cordelia thought it looked just like the Lion King parking lots for the human park guests, and the cars parked there for the most part looked no more outlandish than Fred's, but nearly all the people leaving them were not human.

When the car was safely in a parking spot, The Angel Investigations team left the car somewhat hesitantly, passing various demons as they headed for the other side of the lot, where the wait for the tram was. There were various human-looking demons or partial demons who headed straight over there with them, but Cordy noticed that most of the demons were going toward large tents. She watched interestedly as a large group of red demons in robes entered through one side of a tent; a family wearing Hawaiian shirts and Mickey Mouse ears exited. No wonder the tourists here are so weird, Cordy thought.

They had to wait in line for the tram, and didn't manage to get on the first one. When the second one had taken them to the "Non-Human" park entrance, they stepped off, and Gunn grinned excitedly. "Hey, that was actually fun! Can we do it again?"

"That was the tram, Gunn," Cordy said, rolling her eyes. "That wasn't a ride."

"Oh," Gunn said, and to hide his embarrassment he quickly changed the subject. "Where do we go?"

"The sign says over here," Fred said, leading the way, and they approached ticket booth; it seemed Non-Human tickets cost extra, because the man in front of them tried to argue that since he was ¾ Human he should get a discount, while the woman in the booth insisted that unless he was completely Human he had to pay the Non-Human price. The man yelled that he would be contacting his lawyer about this prejudice.

When he finally left, the group was able to buy their tickets, thankful that the woman didn't ask what type of demon Angel was. As they walked over to the park entrance, Cordelia was somewhat upset that it was an unusually cloudy morning, so Angel couldn't enjoy the sun. She noticed that he looked rather unhappy as they approached the ticket checker, and the device that would only let them pass if they had souls.

As Angel passed successfully through the soul detector, his mind was far from the fun of Disneyland. When the argumentative part-demon had mentioned his lawyer, Angel was reminded of Wolfram and Hart, and suddenly thought it was a mistake to leave Lorne back at the hotel alone, if only for a day. No, Angel thought fiercely. I can't be thinking about work…I'm supposed to be on vacation.

Lilah was unfortunately forced to think the opposite. Only two detectors down from the AI team, she didn't notice the vampire and his companions, just as Angel and his friends didn't notice her over the chattering of the crowds.

"I've never seen an error message on one of these things before," the soul detector worker said, scratching his head.

"It must be malfunctioning," Lilah explained, trying to walk through.

"Hey, hold on there," the worker said seriously. "It hasn't confirmed your soul."

"I'm a human," Lilah protested.

"Yeah, well, if you were, you wouldn't have any trouble, would you?"

"It must be the machine that is having the trouble," Lilah said angrily. "Now let me through."

"I can't do that."

Lilah glared angrily back at her new partner. "None of this would've happened if you weren't here," she said through gritted teeth. "I could've entered through the human lot, where there aren't any detectors…"

"Hey, don't blame me," Izzerial said, holding up his now human-looking hands. "I was ordered to come here just like you were."

Lilah rolled her eyes and then addressed the employee. "I think there's a misunderstanding here…I have a soul, I'm just…just not in complete possession of it at the moment. It's on loan to our firm."

"Your firm?" the man said, frowning.

"Wolfram and Hart," Lilah said, stepping closer to the man and smiling rather maliciously. "We're here on behalf of some clients who are…not very happy…with the current conditions of this park, and I have to say that from what I've seen so far, my report will be less than satisfactory. I'm afraid you'll have to be included in it, Mr…."

"No need," the man said hastily. "Go right on through."

"Thank you," Lilah said, smiling, and she and Izzy walked through the soul detector without further incident, not knowing that Angel and his team were only a short ways ahead of them.