Part Four

The hulking version of Lorne roared out in anger and then bounded down from the landing, landing on the lobby floor with a heavy thud which reverberated around the room.

'Wow,' Spike stared up the behemoth, a big smile on his face, 'that is one bitching big suit!' The monster roared at Sebassis and then reached out and smacked down one of his entourage, smashing him to the ground. The Archduke fired one of his poisoned darts, but it had no impact on the gigantic Lorne - who just swung his arm out again and smashed another demon.

'Lorne? What the hell is this?' Angel stared between the two green demons, not really believing - never mind understanding - what he was seeing. But Lorne had no answers for him. The empath only stared up in horror and shock at his own monstrous form. 'Stop it! Stop killing! Listen to me … me,' he tried to command. But his monstrous self paid no attention to him.

'Isn't there something you can do?' Lindsey sidled closer to Cordelia and hissed in her ear. 'You're the vampire slayer. You can sort this.'

'Yeah but…' Cordy was stood still, transfixed, 'it's Lorne. I can't kill Lorne! Besides, he's only hurting…' The behemoth swung out again and smacked Lorne across the room. The anagogic demon crash to the floor with a groan. '...demons,' Cordy winced.

Down on the floor, Lorne groaned again. 'Wow I must really hate myself.'

Many floors beneath, Fred and Wesley stood out in the hallway - waiting for the elevator. Fred was swaying slightly - it felt like the whole world was on a roller … rollercoas… on a big dipper. Wesley sighed with impatience. 'Come on come on come on,' he muttered under his breath - still slurring his words.

'Did you press…' Fred waved a vague hand in the direction of the call button. Wesley glanced down. 'Oh…' he reached out and pressed the button. It lit up. 'Yeah. come on come on come on.'

The monstrous Lorne bore down on Sebbassis, growling and snarling. Angel shoved the Archduke behind him and then backed away - waiting for his moment. 'Run!' he hissed at Sebbassis - who scurried away, and hid behind a pole, peering out so he could still see what was going on. Whilst he was distracted, his tiny slave snapped the chain that bound him to his master and scampered away through the carnage.

The Lorne Hulk punched out with his mighty fist and smacked Angel to the ground. Gunn picked up one of the heftier Halloween decorations and tried to smash the demon over the head with it. But it was to no avail. The hulk just shoved him away, he flew across the room and landed with a bump next to the actual Lorne. 'Sorry about that,' the empath demon said.

Cordelia was now face to face with the behemoth. It swung at her, and she ducked, dodging behind it, she grabbed it's arm and twisted it up it's back. It roared out in pain and anger, she clung on determinedly but then it used all of its strength to rip its arm back down to its side. The force sent Cordelia hurtling through the air, until she smacked against the opposite wall and slumped to the ground in a crumpled heap.

'Cordelia!' Doyle abandoned the crowd and rushed to his girlfriend's side, Harmony and Lindsey followed him - and between them they got her sitting back up. 'I'm OK,' she murmured, though her eyes were a bit glazed and she seemed a little stunned. 'Really, I'm fine…'

Angel - having seen Cordy get hurt - was now back on his feet and chasing down the monstrosity. Sebassis was fleeing the scene, crawling up the stairs trying to get away and behemoth Lorne was bearing down on him. Angel jumped on the monster's back, pulling him back down to the lobby. They rolled over on the floor and then sprang back to their feet; Angel pummelled at the demon, repeatedly - but it was having no effect.

Amidst the chaos, the elevator bell dinged and the doors slid open, revealing Fred and Wesley inside, their backs to the lobby, peering out at the corridor on the other side in confusion. They stumbled around - and saw the carnage in the lobby. 'It's here, it's manifested!' Wesley mumbled, thickly - pointing rather needlessly at the giant, green monster in the loud, blue suit.

Angel had since been knocked to the floor, and it was the behemoth's turn to pummel him. Wes and Fred stumbled their way across to regular Lorne, who was back on his feet but frozen in place, just watching the fight unfold - his jaw dropped. Fred held a large, silver, gun-like device. She lifted it and took aim.

'Shoot it, Fred, do it now!' Gunn told her, from down on the floor. But instead of aiming at the hulk - she swung her arms round and pressed the barrel of her gun against Lorne's temple - and fired.

'Oh!' he collapsed to the floor.

'Oh my God!' Harmony abandoned Cordy and rushed over to where Lorne was now lying on the ground. 'They shot Lorney tunes!'

'No, I'm OK,' he mumbled. 'I'm just gonna … rest my eyes… a little bit...'

Across the room, the hulk reared back, towering above Angel, to strike the killer blow - it roared out, leaned in … and then exploded in a shower of confetti.

Regular Lorne had begun to snore.

The sun was just beginning to rise as, yawning, Doyle and Cordelia pushed open the door to their office and stumbled inside. 'Oh - I ache all over,' Doyle complained, collapsing on the green couch, with a sigh, 'and I think I pulled some pretty serious muscles… coffee?' he finished up hopefully.

Cordy hung her jacket up and went to switch the coffee maker on. 'You want any ice for … anywhere?' she asked, raking her eyes over him.

'No - I'm good - I just wanna lie here for about … two weeks,' he closed his eyes.

'You sure? 'Cause - um - those failed splits looked like they might have caused some permanent damage. You know … to … places.'

He smiled, but kept his eyes closed. 'I'm OK… but I'm never dancin' again.'

'Good, 'cause if you dance like that at our wedding, then I'm getting one of those Mexican divorce thingies.'

His smile broadened, and he snuggled down further into the couch cushions. The coffee was now ready, and Cordy picked up the coffee pot and poured them a cup each - stirring in a couple of spoonfuls of sugar, but not bothering with milk - it had been a long night. She carried them over to the couch, balanced them on the arm, picked up Doyle's feet, sat down, rested Doyle's feet back in her lap and then handed him his mug. 'Thanks, Princess,' he said, prying open one eye. He struggled upward to drink.

'So how are you?' he asked her, after he'd watched her for a couple of moments. 'That was a pretty nasty - you know - body smash, back there. You sure you're not concussed or somethin'?'

She shook her head, 'I'm fine - I don't ache at all now. I heal pretty quickly these days.' He nodded. She took a sip of her drink, and wrinkled her brow. 'So… what's up?' he asked her, watching her again. 'You're not in pain… like me, so why the furrowed brow?'

'Lorne told me to forget everyone was evil and just let my walls down,' she said, fixing her eyes on her coffee and frowning. 'I spent all night talking to all the evil Wolfram and Hart has to offer … telling them everything about me, us - our mission. Everything!' She gripped her cup tighter in her hands, resting her elbows on her knee and slumped forward on the couch. 'We're gonna have to do a lot of damage control,' she said. She blew her cheeks out, 'I'm gonna have to kill a whole lot of Angel's clients.'

'That won't make Gunn too happy.'

'Well, what else can I do?' She twisted to look at him, her eyes wide and her expression exasperated. 'I told people about the visions, about being a slayer, about all our mystery demon deaths… you know, all the stuff we're supposed to be keeping from the other side.'

'Hey - hey - relax!' he said to her, giving her a comforting little nudge with his feet. 'Wolfram and Hart have always known all about us, half the minions of hell that were there will be too blotto to remember anythin' that was said to' em, and the other half will have forgotten about everythin' that wasn't eight feet tall, green and wearin' a blue suit. It'll be fine.'

'Easy for you to say.'

'Yeah it is,' he smiled at her. 'If anythin' comes o' this then… well, we'll kill it when it arrives. But you can't hunt down everyone you spoke to tonight and drive an axe through their skull, just 'cause you were a bit more loose lipped than y' should have been. How is that fair? They won't remember. So you can forget.'

'Some Halloween party,' Cordy muttered, she glanced across at her boyfriend. 'You know every year some idiot says 'nothing happens on Halloween' and every year something happens on Halloween. I swear, next year I will snap the neck of the first half wit who dares to say it.'

Doyle chuckled, 'just let me put on my demon face first, love, yeah?' Then he looked thoughtful, 'actually…' he morphed into his spikes, and immediately felt all the aches and pains of the night before begin to recede, as his stronger form came to the fore, 'yeah - that feels much better.' And he finished his coffee in demon face.

The Halloween party had long since broken up, the guests had gone home and the place was now deserted and scattered with debris of the revelry. Lorne's assistant lay in the middle of the lobby floor, sleeping, whilst the janitorial staff swept around him. Fred stood by the trestle table, collecting the empty glasses.

The little group of Wolfram and Hart lawyers stood by the elevator, waiting to take it down to ground level, their suit jackets slung over their shoulders. 'Got to hand it to 'em,' one of them said, 'that was better than last year.'

The elevator bell rang, the door slid open - and Knox stepped out - as the lawyers stepped inside. He caught sight of Fred, cleaning. 'Uh … we have people to do that,' he said to her.

She looked down at all the glasses she had collected in her hands. 'Oh,' and put them back down again.

'I fixed our baby.'

'What?'

He grinned his lopsided, rueful smile and explained his meaning. The stun grenade - he'd worked it out. What he couldn't work out was why he had agreed to work on it that night. It was Fred's turn to smile ruefully. 'Yeah - there's a lot of that going around. I kind of wished you were here.'

That made Knox smile even wider. 'Well the night is still young…' he evaluated his words, 'well, I mean - no - it's … over, actually. But … did you wanna get a cup of coffee?' he asked hopefully.

Fred screwed her face up. 'Actually - I could do with a drink.'

Inside Angel's office, Wes and Angel had laid Lorne out on the couch and were tucking him up with a blanket, as the rays of morning sunshine came streaming in through the necro tempered glass. Spike and Lilah sat on the desk, watching them. Lorne muttered in his sleep and wriggled a little.

'That thing…' Wesley said slowly, straightening up, 'I think it was a manifestation of Lorne's subconscious. It peeled away from his mind, using Lorne's supernatural powers to punch it's way into our world.'

'Punch being the operative word,' Angel said, he still felt a little sore and tender from the pummelling. 'Why was it trying to kill everyone?'

But Wesley shook his head - he didn't think it was. It was simply processing the conflicts that Lorne normally dealt with in his sleep, acting out the emotional responses he had to the people around him.

'I guess Lorne makes some judgements after all,' Angel said. Wesley nodded. 'How are you?' he asked. It was Angel's turn to nod. 'I'm OK - it feels…' he half glanced towards Lilah, 'a little … you think I should talk to her?'

'What do you want to say?'

He had no answer to that.

'What would you want her to say to you?'

He couldn't answer that either. Wesley nodded, again, 'well - I'll be off,' he glanced over at Spike, 'Spike,' he said, nodding his farewell, '...Lilah.' His tone was cooler as he spoke to her. He headed for the door and she slid off the desk and followed him out, without so much as a backwards glance at Angel. 'Wesley,' she said to him, stopping him as he entered the lobby. He turned back to look at her. 'I thought you might wanna talk,' she said.

'About…?'

'Look - I'm sorry about last night,' she said, lowering her voice, 'you know it doesn't mean … we were under a spell, there's nothing...'

'We don't have to talk about this, Lilah,' Wesley cut her off, 'as long as you are not upset by what happened to you last night, then there is nothing for us to discuss. We are no longer in a relationship.'

'Right,' she nodded sarcastically, and smirked to mask the hurt. 'You're freeing yourself up for something better … well, good luck with that,' and she walked away. Wesley turned to leave - seeing Fred and Knox across the lobby, drinking together and laughing.

...

Gunn stuck his head round the office door, 'hey,' he walked inside, looking over at where Lorne was sleeping before continuing his conversation with Angel. 'I spoke with Sebassis' people, explained what I could.'

'So, what are we looking at?' Angel asked him worriedly. 'Lawsuit? Demon war?'

But Gunn shook his head and smiled. 'No. It seems like they enjoy a little blood sport at their social functions. Looks like we're OK.'

'We're not OK,' Angel disagreed. He waved his arm towards where Lorne was sleeping off the effects of the party. 'We've been so focused on the dangers outside that we didn't see the ones within. This place is trying to change us, Gunn - we can't ever forget that.'

Gunn looked uncomfortable, nodded his head- and then smiled again. 'Pretty damn good party though. I'll see you tomorrow,' he checked his watch. 'Well - today, but … later today. Oh - and your chair...'

'What?'

'Don't sit in it, I already called janitorial.'

Angel looked worried, 'why can't I…?'. Spike, still sitting on the desk, peered over to look at the chair and then sat back up with a great, big grin on his face. 'You pissed in the big man's chair?' he smirked in delight. 'That's fantastic!'

Gunn sighed. 'Spike, can you please turn off that warm fuzzy?'

'What? The Lorne thing? Wore off,' he grinned again, 'I just think that's bloody fabulous!'

'All right guys,' Angel looked sternly round at them both, 'good night, Let Lorne get some sleep alright?' Gunn nodded and headed out. Angel eyeballed Spike, 'out,' he said.

'All right,' he slithered down from the desk, 'just this once.'

Once he was left alone with his sleeping friend, Angel pulled the blanket tighter across him - making sure he was warm. 'Mmm, I'm sorry…' Lorne mumbled in his sleep.

'Hey, It's OK Lorne,' Angel whispered, crouching down beside him and making sure that the pillows looked comfy. 'Just try and get some rest. Get some sleep.'

'It's - it's hard being the host of the party. Yeah…'

'Stop trying to be,' Angel whispered. And, sure that his friend was as comfy as possible on the sofa, he headed up to his own apartment for some much needed sleep.

The sun had gone down and the stars were out - presumably, not that they were ever visible in L.A - and the building was empty, when Doyle heard the distant sound of someone on the roof. He smiled to himself, grabbed a bottle of whisky and two glasses and headed up there - groaning and wincing with every step. He still felt tender. 'You back again?' he asked, as he pushed open the access door and stepped out onto the flat roof of the office block.

'Yeah,' Angel replied, not even turning to look.

'I brought drinks this time,' he held up the bottle and glasses, 'I think we both need 'em - after last night.' He arrived beside Angel, put the tumblers and whisky down on the ledge and then poured them a glass each.

'Thanks,' Angel took his drink, 'I mean - for coming, last night. It meant a lot that you were there.'

'Well we came for the moral support,' Doyle gulped down his drink and then grimaced as the burning liquid hit the back of his throat. 'You've been havin' it tough … not that we were much use in the end. Once I got hit with Lorne's mojo I was making out like I was Fred Astaire and you - well… uh … Cordy filled me in on what you were gettin' up to.' He poured them another drink.

'Yeah - well - I guess everything's an even bigger mess than it was before. And things were pretty messed already.'

'Ah - you'll sort it through - everythin' this family's been through? I think we can take a bit more drama - we always bounce back. Always make it right in the end - look at us. Eighteen months ago...' he chuckled ruefully, 'we wouldna be stood here havin' this chat eighteen months ago. And now here we are … back the way it's supposed to be. Or - you know - near enough. It'll all come out right in the end.'

But Angel shook his head and furrowed his brow. 'I'm not sure,' he said heavily. 'This time… in that place… with everything that's happened before, we were always the same people. Sure we argued, made mistakes - sometimes huge, terrible mistakes - caused the occasional, needless death… but we were always us, you know? All of us. Champions. So we always found our way back to each other. But now - that place gets inside of you, Doyle. It's twisting us, into different shapes, into different people. Soon we won't be the people we were when we went in - and then I don't know who we'll be. Corrupted. Changed. Too busy looking at the bigger picture to see the very people we were supposed to help. And that's exactly what The Senior Partners want.'

'Then that's what you gotta fight,' Doyle turned around, pulled himself up so he was sitting on the ledge and drummed his heels against the wall. 'If you think that's what their game is - then that's what you need to be on guard for. Keep lookin' at them little people, bud.'

'I don't think it's that simple … the changes are inside of us. How do you fight yourself?'

Doyle only laughed, 'you're talkin' to the expert in self fightin', here, man. It's hard - and it's all too easy to lose sight of who y' really are. Let y'self drown.' He looked Angel in the eye. 'But there's always a way back,' he said. 'If y' want it - if y' willin' to fight for it, y' can always get back to who you really are - especially if you've got your friends to help you out.' He poured them both another drink - and then raised his glass in a toast - and smiled.

Angel sighed - and then smiled back. 'So … is Cordy OK?' he asked, 'that was nasty, the way she got thrown across the room like that.'

'Yeah she's fine … she's a pretty tough cookie.'

'That she is,' his smile was warm now. 'And she did really well - twisting Gigana- Lorne's arm back and holding on like that, she did the best of any of us.'

Doyle sipped his whisky. 'Yeah…' he said slowly.

'Did she go home already?'

'Back to Dennis,' her boyfriend nodded.

'You - uh,' he finished his drink, 'you not talked about moving in together yet.'

'Not yet - I need to but…'

'It's hard,' Angel finished up for him.

'Yeah…' He poured them both a fourth drink - and they stayed up on the rooftop for hours, until the bottle was half finished, just talking - the way they had in the early days, back in the very beginning.

A/N Next episode is 'The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco