Lorne couldn't exactly tell Angel what was going to happen, because he didn't necessarily know. When Angel sang, though, he saw something very, very dark, something absolutely insane, which led Lorne to believe things were about to get crazy. The problem was that he wasn't sure exactly what he saw. It was odd.

After he explained this to Angel, he left Angel alone in his office.

After several minutes, anybody had yet to come back. Angel went to his private elevator and brought it up to his room. He wasn't planning on sleeping or anything like that. No. Far from it. There was too much to do, too much to think about. Sleeping would have to wait.

The second he sat on the bed, though, exhaustion washed over him. He hadn't slept in more than twenty-four hours. So it started with sitting, and before he knew what was happening he was falling back on his bed, asleep.

As he was asleep, he dreamt of terrible, terrible things.

"Fred!" Wesley called after her.

"Stop!" she yelled, stopping suddenly and spinning around, her brown hair flying behind her. She was running off quickly through the building, unsure of where she even planned to go. All she knew was that she needed to get out of here, get away from her so-called friends. "Stop chasing me! I need to be alone."

"Fred, I will not leave you alone."

"Why not?"

"Because you might do something stupid!" he said. A look of hurt flashed on to Fred's face. "No," Wes kept going. "I didn't mean it like that."

"Stupid? Stupid? What Angel did was stupid."

"What Angel did was save your life."

"I can't believe you; you of all people would be okay with this. He killed so many people, Wesley!"

"He didn't do anything, he just let it happen."

"How are you even okay with this?"

"Because you're alive!"

Both of them remained silent for a few moments after that. Neither knew what exactly could be said.

Finally, Wesley spoke again. "I don't know what I would've done without you, Fred. If you had… If she had taken over your body, what would I have done? How would I have lived without you? When I said you might do something stupid, it was because you might. I know you feel bad, horrible, even, and you don't believe everyone should have died for you. I get that. I get you, too. I know you. You can't live with yourself now, and to get rid of the pain you might feel you could do something idiotic like take a gun and-"

"I wouldn't," Fred said defiantly.

"Really? Look me in the eye and say you promise you wouldn't."

She tried to look him in the eye, but she couldn't. His gaze was too strong. She felt guilty, for some reason.

"Exactly," Wes whispered.

"He still didn't have to do it. Wesley, he…" She couldn't continue. Suddenly she burst into tears and practically fell into Wes's arms yet again. He held her in an embrace as she cried on his neck and on his shoulder. She shivered and shook, but Wes never let go of her. It was humiliating, she realized, for him to have to hold her like this two days in a row. "My parents," she spoke once she finally regained her composure just a little bit.

"I am so sorry."

"Wes, so many people died because of me. Angel thinks it was his fault, Gunn thinks it's his, but neither of those is true. It's my fault. They all died because of me. I'm the murderer, not Angel or Gunn or even Knox. It's just me."

"You didn't choose this. It's not your fault you got infested by a monster."

"Wes, Angel needs…" Harmony started talking when she rounded the corner and saw Wes holding Fred and talking to her softly. Wes saw her, but didn't acknowledge her. His full attention was on Fred. Harmony didn't want to interrupt the moment between the two, so she just stood there awkwardly watching them.

"Wesley, can you promise me something?"

"Anything."

"I know I'll want to do something stupid, like you said. So just stay with me. Stay with me and don't let me do something I'll regret." She began to cry again.

"Of course," Wes said and leaned down to kiss her lightly on the lips.

Neither of them was going to pretend that suddenly, because of their little conversation, all their problems were solved. No, Fred still felt guilty, like it was her fault. Wesley still felt happy she was alive but was still weighing the thoughts of what Angel did on his mind. They both knew it'd be a long time before Fred was okay, and they both knew she still would hate the fact so many people died essentially for her. In that moment, though, Fred felt great warmth in her kiss with Wesley. This wasn't a fairy tale or anything, so none of her problems were solved with just a kiss, but she felt a tiny, tiny bit better, which was something. Her mind kept going back to everybody who died. Her parents and thousands of other innocent people. They were supposed to help the helpless. Instead, they ended up taking jobs at an evil law firm and murdering every potential client they could've had.

No, Fred was far from okay. But with Wesley by her side, she could try and feel better.

Or, at least that's what she believed. There was no guarantee.

"Are you guys done?" Harmony questioned, still standing awkwardly by the side.

Wes and Fred pulled apart. Wes kept his eyes on Fred. She still looked rather sad, rather frightened. He wanted to hold her again. He wanted to tell her he'd be there for her, no matter what.

But unfortunately, he had work to do.

Gunn was nervous about going back to the White Room. The last time he'd been there, he had gotten into a little bit of a fight with the conduit that was in the form of a look-alike of himself. That was not something he wanted to face again. He didn't have a choice, though, did he? No, Angel actually wanted him to go down here and speak to the conduit. What would the conduit say?

It didn't take him long for him to get to an elevator, but it took a few minutes for him to gain the strength to push the button to open the doors. When he did, he got in the elevator and took a deep breath. "Here we go," he whispered to himself and then pushed the buttons into the elevator that would lead him down to the White Room.

He felt the elevator moving down and down and down until it finally stopped. The doors opened at a seemingly alarming slow rate. As they opened, his eyes were blinded by the astounding brightness that was the White Room.

Gunn stepped out of the elevator. He didn't see any conduit.

"Hello, kitty, kitty?" he called similar to before, thinking the conduit might be back to the form Gunn was used to seeing it in. "Mirror me?"

"I am here," a voice spoke up from behind Gunn. He spun around to see what he'd be facing this time. It wasn't the cat, and it wasn't himself, either. Instead, it was Fred. Except it wasn't. She looked like Fred, but her hair had streaks of blue in it and her eyes were the same shade. Her head was tilted slightly to the side, as if waiting intently for something to happen.

"You ain't the same as before," Gunn observed.

"I have told you. The physical form is determined by the viewer. Thus, I appear as Illyria."

Gunn shook his head. "I didn't have no idea what woulda happened if Illyria had taken over Fred. I didn't know she would've looked like this."

"Or did you?"

Gunn didn't understand what the conduit was asking, and that didn't matter. He wasn't here for contemplation anyway. "The Senior Partners know what happened?"

"Of course. Like there was any way to avoid it."

"Are they angry?"

The conduit-as-Illyria started circling Gunn slowly. He had to turn his head just to keep his eyes on her. "They are not thrilled with the outcome. They are not displeased, either."

"Do we gotta do this? Speak in riddles? Just answer the damn question."

Suddenly she disappeared and reappeared right in front of Gunn and picked him up like he weighed a mere two pounds. "Why are you here? Did you not understand what I told you earlier? The Senior Partners are tired of you. They are not here to answer your questions."

"Let me down!" Gunn yelled.

"Leave," she ordered. "If I am forced to see you again the Senior Partners will not be happy." She threw him back towards the elevator door.

Standing up, he asked one last question. "Are they mad at Angel's actions?"

"If they were overly mad at your champion with a soul, he would be dead by now."

The conduit disappeared.

Gunn went back into the elevator.

He had nightmares of people. There were thousands, millions, surrounding him, looking up at him, whispering to each other about him, and pointing and judging. Then, in the middle of the crowd, one fell over dead. Then another, then another, then another.

Soon, they were all dead.

But the whispers, the voices did not stop.

"Why did you let this happen?"

"Why did you do this to us?"

"How could you be so heartless?"

"Why did you let us die?"

"How will you live with yourself?"

"I hope you die you rotten, murdering freak!"

And then there she was. She stood tall, brown hair billowing in the wind. Fred was standing there in front of Angel, angrily. "How could you do this to me?" she asked. "If you knew me, cared about me at all, you wouldn't have done this. You're the devil, a sick, sick freak. You don't deserve this life. I should stake you in the heart, Angelus. You're evil! Fall!"

She raised her hands and the ground Angel was standing on started crumbling and before he truly knew what was happening he was falling, falling, falling into forever darkness.

"Oof!" he let out as he landed. Angel was still surrounded by darkness, but he wasn't falling anymore. He was okay. He'd lived.

"You're a fool. I'm gonna stake you!" a different voice said and a body jumped on Angel and he felt the tip of a stake start to pierce his skin.

"Stop, stop!" Angel screamed and tried to fight, but the person was too strong.

"Don't tell me what to do."

Angel found out who was behind the voice. It was Buffy, and she was trying to kill him. With a surge of strength, Angel threw her across the room, or wherever he was.

"Angel, you did me a favor," a different voice said from behind him.

"Wesley?" Angel called.

"Yes. You did me a favor. You saved her life. All I've ever wanted was to be with her."

Angel still couldn't see Wesley, but he was happy to hear what he was saying. "I-I didn't want to hurt anybody."

"I know," Wesley spoke with concern. "And that's why I'm sorry. I will forever praise you for what you did to save Fred. But you killed so many people. You must be stopped."

He felt the sharp piece of wood pierce his heart. Angel opened his mouth and tried to scream or talk or do anything, but he couldn't. Soon he'd be dust and he'd be gone and forgotten and nobody would care because he did horrible things and Spike would get to live and he'd be the one who the Shanshu prophecy was talking about and Angel would be dead, gone, and-

Angel was back in his room, awake. He was very hot and sweating. It had been a terrible nightmare. He was sure there would be more to come.

He looked outside. It was night. He'd been asleep for many, many hours, having nightmares. It was terrible. He never wanted to sleep again. And yet he felt so tired, for some reason.

It was night! Angel jumped out of bed, still fully clothed. They were all sweaty and clinging to his skin, so he threw them off and tossed on a new pair of clothes. He had to go, go see how Fred was doing and how Wes was doing and if he'd found any type of spell or anything at all that could help them stop fires, and he had to find Gunn to see if he talked to the conduit and how the Senior Partners were reacting. He also had to find Spike and Knox.

Angel made his way to his elevator.

Gunn left work. It probably wasn't a smart thing to do in that time, and he planned on going back, but he just had to see something. He had to.

So many people were dead. He had to go see. There were people he cared about outside of Angel and that group of people. He had to go check on those people, to see if they were dead. Chances were they were all dead, but he had to check. Nobody else was checking on them, so he had to.

His first stop was a place he cared for that helped many homeless teens and was ran by a perfectly nice, innocent woman. Her name was Anne and, as far as Gunn was concerned, she was a saint. She didn't deserve to die. The thought of her just lying there, dead…well, it was enough to shake Gunn up. No one, especially Anne, deserved that. The homeless kids she looked after didn't deserve that either.

He neared the homeless shelter. It looked so small, so frail from this distance, but Gunn had been inside and he knew what strength radiated from just being inside the building. He was afraid, much more afraid than he was earlier, when talking to the conduit. He was about to see a lot more dead bodies.

He entered the building. The first thing he noticed were many teenagers laying on the floor. One had half of his body on the ground and his legs facing upwards on the stairs. He died while he was coming downstairs. Gunn had to close his eyes to stop the tears from coming. He couldn't do this. But he had to. He made his way around to the main office, Anne's office. If he saw her long blond hair sprawled everywhere and her laying there on the ground, what would he do? He'd run, he decided. He'd run because what else could he do?

Slowly, he creaked open the door. All it took was one quick look around the small office to know nobody was in there. Gunn let out a sigh of relief, but he knew it wasn't over yet. Anne could've been anywhere in this building. He had to go around and check.

It didn't take him long to search the whole shelter, up and down. He saw too many dead bodies of homeless teens, and all it did was make him sadder than he already was.

What he didn't find, though was Anne. She was nowhere to be found. Gunn supposed maybe she wasn't at the shelter, but where would she be? Home? No, as far as Gunn knew, she would want to stay here with the teens no matter what, and he didn't even know if she had a real home because she considered this shelter her home. Shopping? Maybe, at a grocery store or something.

Gunn felt defeated. Staying in here wasn't going to help, though, so he rushed out. Outside he saw smoke and a fire in the near distance rise up against the night sky. It was ominous and looked dangerous, and it'd spread soon. They had to stop it, somehow. They had to stop it almost as much as Gunn felt the need to find Anne.

Wes spent most of the day flipping through books, searching for some kind of spell that Angel was looking for, one that could stop all stray fires. It was a difficult thing to look for. He didn't have much luck most of the day.

Until about sunset. Then, he found something that might be useful. It was a darkening spell, one that would turn off all any light in any given area that the person performing the spell chose. Did that light include fires? Wes wasn't really sure, it didn't say, but it was worth a shot, wasn't it? And even if it didn't get rid of fires, it would get rid of all the turned on lights across the areas where everyone died.

Wes suppressed a laugh. People dead, and here he was thinking he'd be doing some favor if he managed to turn off electricity in other states/countries.

Fred stayed with Wes all day, in his office. She just sat there, not speaking or even really moving except to take a sip of water from a cup. She was thinking intently. Wes wanted to feel bad and he wished he could talk to her. Now wasn't the time, though, not yet, not anymore, not here.

Harmony also stayed in the office with Wes and Fred, although she sat down and was rather quiet.

After Wes found the spell, he started gathering some of the ingredients, which included a large metal bowl, some form of light (like a light bulb), the blood of a demon (Wes was lucky Harmony was willing to give some of hers), a map to specify where the light would disappear from so they didn't stop anything in the areas where people were still alive, and then some other herbs. Everything aside from the map had to be mixed in said metal bowl.

Just as Wes got everything ready, Angel walked in. "You found something?" he said, not bothering with pleasantries.

"Maybe," Wes admitted. "I'm not sure. We'll just have to try, though."

Angel nodded and left Wes alone to finish gathering everything and prepare for the spell. He walked over to Fred. He needed to speak with her.

"How are you doing?"

"Oh, just great," she replied sarcastically, "thanks for asking."

"Listen, Fred, I don't want it to be like this between us. We're friends. I need…I need you to not be mad at me."

"Angel, you shouldn't have done it."

"It doesn't matter. It's already been done. Now you—we—have to find a way to move on. We're both going to do some inner suffering because of this. We'll survive, though. And you know why? Because we have each other, and without each other, we'd be nothing. We'll keep fighting and keep growing stronger because that's what we do."

"We grow stronger," Fred repeated.

"We do." Angel paused. "You know why I couldn't let you go, Fred? Because of what you mean to me—no, what you mean to all of us. Lorne loves you so much, you know? I'm not sure what it is, but he would be crushed without you. You and Gunn have so much history together, have been through so much, and you guys are at the perfect place now, or so I think, as friends. He cares about you possibly more than he's cared about any friend he's ever had since Alonna. And Wesley? Fred, he's in love with you in a way I can relate to. I've fallen in love as strong as he has once or twice, so I know the look. I also know what it's like to lose the love of my long life, more than once, and it makes me want to fall apart and crumble each time it happens. Can you imagine what your death would've done to Wesley? He might've gone crazy, done something crazy like-" Angel stopped himself just in time from mentioning the name Connor. "The point is, none of us could've lived without you. Including me, because you're one of the closest friends I've ever had. And I know that, no matter what, you'll stay with us and be strong and keep fighting because that's who you are."

Angel surprised himself with the long speech. But Fred looked at him, and he actually smiled.

"Thank you," she whispered.

At the same time, Wesley spoke. "I'm ready."

"Okay," Angel said, turning back to Wesley. "Where are Lorne and Gunn?"

"Lorne's downstairs somewhere, and I assume Gunn is also. I haven't seen him since…well, since earlier today in your office, actually."

Angel frowned. Gunn hadn't come back from the White Room, or did they just not see him come back? Angel felt a moment of worry, but it went over when he realized Gunn was probably still just afraid of facing them too much because of what he did.

"Let's do the spell," he told Wes.

Gunn walked along the street, watching the fire that was still a long ways in front of him. As he walked the silently empty streets, he kept his eyes open for a head full of bright blond hair that could be Anne's. His eyes were on the fire, though, because the fire was hard to ignore. It was growing pretty large and smoke was starting to cover the air.

Suddenly, minutes later, as Wes did the spell, the fire seemed to stop growing, stop moving, and then it was as if it just disappeared. Along with the disappearance of the fire, was the disappearance of all electricity in front of Gunn that he could see. The streetlamps were off and every light that was on when everyone died was off as well. Gunn was now walking the darkest path he could've imagined. He couldn't see his hands in front of his face.

There was light behind him, farther behind him, from the Wolfram & Hart building that seemed to glow far behind him. Plus, people even further back were still alive, so their house lights were on, because the spell hadn't been directed that way, even if Gunn didn't know that.

He started making his way back to the Wolfram & Hart building as best as he could without tripping over anything he couldn't see.

Earlier, when it was still day, Knox woke up to find the blond haired male vampire in front of him, keeping watch. He was again tied to a chair, but much more secure this time so it seemed like there was no possibility of escape. At this point, Knox believed what Gunn had said about them somehow saving Fred, because if Illyria had taken over Fred she would've came and rescued him by now.

"Oh, you're awake," Spike had said when he woke up.

"Yeah," Knox said groggily.

"Well, I suppose I'm supposed to keep watch over you, although I don't know why. There are plenty of things we could do with you in this hell of a place. I think the big old boss man is just deciding how much he wants to hurt you before we do anything drastic."

Knox groaned. "If you're going to kill me, just do it and skip over all the pointless talk, would you?"

"Oh no," Spike had said, stepping towards Knox. He punched him square in the face and Knox fell over in the chair and knocked his head on the ground. "That was for Fred. Now don't talk anymore, or I'll eat you." He started to walk back to where he was sitting before.

"Aren't you going to tilt me back up?" Knox called.

"Nope," Spike said, and from that point on to the night, Knox didn't say a single word to Spike.

Connor was suddenly surrounded by darkness. He was fearful for a mere second until the voice calmed him down.

It's fine. Once morning comes we'll have sight back, and we'll attack. It spoke.

Connor nodded. "Angel will died tomorrow," he said in tone that was not quite his own. In his hand he gripped a sharp piece of wood, a stake that he was planning on attacking Angel with tomorrow, whether he truly wanted to or not.

"It worked," Wes marveled.

"How can you be sure?" Angel asked, being cautious.

"I just feel it. All lights, including the fires are out where we need them to be."

Harmony stood up and walked over to them. "Well that's great. Can I go home now? I've been here all day."

"Sure, Harmony. Just be careful, okay?"

"Be careful of what? Everyone's dead, including me. But I still need my beauty sleep, so I'll see you tomorrow? You should get some sleep too, Boss, you look exhausted." With that, Harmony walked out the door and left.

Wesley turned to Angel. "You do look tired."

"I just got through with hours of sleep. I don't need more."

"Nightmares?" Fred's voice from the corner of the room suggested, and Angel and Wes turned to her.

Angel decided to be honest. "Yeah, nightmares."

"Well, go try and get some more sleep, even if it doesn't work too much. That's what I'm going to do. We do get stronger, like you said, so maybe you'll grow a resistance to the dreams if you can face them."

"Sure, Fred. Sure, I'll try." For Fred, he would try and sleep again. He knew it would not be easy.

Willow and Kennedy were in Rome, staying with Buffy, Dawn, and Andrew. The apartment was kind of tight because of the two extra guests, but it wasn't their fault, really. Besides, nobody minded because they were all happy to see one another.

At the moment, Buffy and Kennedy went out to go deal with some Slayer stuff. Mostly, Buffy wanted to talk to everybody about Angel, to calm them down and prove that he wasn't Angelus, and she insisted Kennedy come along with her. Andrew didn't go with them, but he went out, and he wouldn't say where. He was being awkward and shady, and, in all honesty, Willow wasn't really concerned with where he was going. Willow had other things on her mind. That left her and Dawn alone.

Willow was sitting on the couch, with her laptop, looking up a bunch of people she knew before, looking for phone numbers or email addresses or anything like that.

"What are you doing?" Dawn asked as she walked into the living room with a bottle of water. She flopped on the couch right next to Willow.

"Oh, just searching around," Willow said. "Ever since this whole…thing happened, I've been looking for anybody I knew. So many people died, Dawn. I guess I just want to call some people and see if their alive, even if I haven't talked to them in forever. It just feels like the right thing to do."

Dawn frowned. "Couldn't you just, like, I don't know, magic it up and search for people that way? It'd probably be easier."

"I could," Willow shrugged. "But there are some people I'm just not ready to, you know, search for like that to see if they're okay. I guess because I'm too afraid of the answer." There was a knock at the front door. "I'll get it," Willow offered and moved the laptop off of her and got up to answer the door.

When she opened it, she was surprised to see Faith standing there. "Hey, Red," Faith smiled a little, then made a smirk. "Where is she?" Faith asked and, without asking, walked into the apartment.

"Faith! What-what are you doing here?"

Giles was right and Faith wasn't able to go to L.A., so she came to Rome to visit Buffy and the others. "Looking for Buffy," Faith said. "I want to talk to her about this thing with Angel."

"Oh," Willow said softly. "Well, she's not here right now. And it's okay, really. Buffy knows Angel didn't have anything to do with this, and she's out right now telling the other Slayers that."

Faith frowned. "Well, they might not believe her. I guess that's what I'm here for, just in case. Back in London some Slayers are talking about staking Angel, like he'd have something to do with this."

"Well, um, it did start in L.A."

Faith glared at Willow. "I know that. Still, I'll just stay here until Buffy comes back. You got anything to eat here? I'm starving." She walked away into the kitchen.

Willow sighed. Well, this should be fun, she thought sarcastically.

To be continued…