Disclaimer: I do not own Buffyverse or anything else you may recognize
Thank you to everyone who has favorited, followed or reviewed this fic so far.
Guest 1: Thanks for the review. MCU is on a downward spiral and Feige lacks all self-awareness to realize it. Only 'No Way Home' is worth a shot really.
Guest 2: Thanks for the review. I agree with you, it seems like that, and I hope so too.
Chapter 78- Forgiving
Next day, the past Scoobies did the usual- wake up, take a shower, have breakfast with their past selves, and then finally came back to the viewing room, and their future selves were with them too.
"Turn it on", Summers urged her past self.
"I have to sometime, better do it quickly", Buffy muttered as she turned the recording on at last.
Angel stood in his old, destroyed room, looking at Connor's empty crib, while at Wesley's apartment, Fred replayed the message she'd left on his machine, and Gunn arrived, Fred still in disbelief though Gunn pointed out Wesley had taken Connor, and Fred just hoped they could find him before Angel, did, because Angel would kill him. Fred was still in denial that Wesley was gone forever but Gunn pointed out the facts, and she tried to find his diaries but those weren't around either, but eventually walked to Gunn's truck as he assured her to keep trying and she called again. Wesley's cell phone rang while his slumped body lay nearby.
"The longer he is out there, the more dangerous it will be for him", Giles said.
"And there are always people with bad intentions around", Summers said, referring to the guy who'd robbed Wesley, and they'd see that soon.
Justine entered the headquarters to see 2 Vamps chained up, and told the others that now everything was real, and said Holtz had escaped with the child, and they were gone for good, but he'd asked her to pass on his praise, and now they must finish his work. Angel sat on the floor of his burnt apartment, staring at Connor's crib, while Justine said they were going to kill Angelus.
"Give him a moment for pity's sake!" Willow snapped, before realizing what she'd said. "Right, not something to expect from them."
"They only care about taking down Angel, and any other Vampire in their way", Maclay said with a sigh.
Fred and Gunn stood in the lobby from Lorne, Fred still in disbelief but Lorne said he'd managed to read Wesley a little, and he had gone to visit Holtz behind their backs. Fred was terrified, wondering how scared the baby would have been when he'd been taken into the portal, making Gunn wrap his arms around her.
All felt bad for both Fred and Connor, since Fred would know exactly how that was like, and that was making her even more worried for Connor.
Angel arrived, saying all who'd taken his son would pay, including Wesley, and asked Lorne if he'd heard of Quortoth, but he hadn't, so Angel asked him to find out all about it, while Fred and Gunn assured they'd go into Quortoth with him, but they had to open a portal first, and one guy had figured it out. Angel threw down a sketch of Sahjhan, revealing he was behind this, so they'd find him and make him open the portal.
"I don't think it will be that easy", Tara muttered grimly.
"It wasn't", Rosenberg told her. "If it was a piece of cake, we wouldn't have called you."
Linwood was angry Lilah had met Sahjhan behind his back, but she'd already prepared a report for him, and then he taunted Lilah about how she never won, to which she pointed out she'd a gun to her head, and also explained what had happened, which Linwood called a big win for Holtz, though Lilah pointed out it wasn't really.
"I mean, is it really a win? That place sounds horrible", Xander said.
"As long as Angel and his son are separated, it's a win for him", Summers said in anger, and that only disgusted the past people at Holtz even more.
Fred couldn't find anything on Sahjhan no matter how hard she tried, and Gunn couldn't find a thing either. Angel remembered Cordelia had files on some entities of this sort so Fred decided to call her, but Angel stopped her, saying he didn't want to ruin Cordelia's holiday. "She'll be back soon. And when she does she'll have presents, for Connor. - - And he's gonna be here so she can give them to him, okay?" "Okay", Fred whispered, and then Angel walked out saying to forget about all this, while Fred and Gunn decided to find Wesley and headed out too.
"He isn't gonna be here, is he?" Buffy asked in a hoarse voice.
"No", Harris sighed, remembering when Cordelia had returned in the next recording and found out all that had happened in her absence.
"And neither is Wesley", Rosenberg muttered.
"The 14th recording of this year is actually the last time Cordelia and Wesley meet for a very long time", Maclay told them, and that only increased the dread of the past Scoobies.
A homeless man was rummaging through trash in the park across Wesley's apartment before spotting his body and ran to him, trying to help and get some ID, but then found his wallet and flipped through the money, realizing he hadn't been mugged, and pocketing the wallet, dragged Wesley behind a bush before hurrying away.
"You bastard!" Dawnster snarled angrily at the homeless guy. "How dare you?"
"Some people only have humanity as long as they don't see money around them", Summers said in disgust.
"Poor guy", Tara muttered, since he had messed up badly but it was just getting even worse for him.
Angel stared at his weapons cabinet, Lorne arriving and saying everyone was afraid of Quortoth, and these people weren't easily rattled. Angel clicked a stapler and looked through more stuff as Lorne said it wasn't a portal that had been opened to Quortoth but a rip through the fabric of reality, so they couldn't look through hotspots, to punch through Quortoth would require a build-up of centuries of dark magic, and looking for Connor would be like looking for a needle in a haystack the size of China. Angel said he should have thought of needles and entered his old apartment, while Lorne said he didn't have the resources to conjure that much dark power, but then saw Linwood tied up there, and Angel said they did.
"What? He just….." Buffy trailed off. "He grabbed that guy?"
"He was the godfather, remember?" Dawn reminded them all. "He is responsible too in that case."
Buffy started. "So he's just gonna-"
"I believe he is", Giles said.
"And while not right, he would do anything for his son", Summers said. "Even torture a man."
"Besides, he doesn't count as human to me", Dawnster scoffed at Linwood.
"Guess so", Buffy said, though she was still uncomfortable by this.
Angel took a pair of scissors out of the cabinet as Linwood introduced himself to Lorne, and Lorne just introduced himself as 'deeply troubled'. Linwood said Angel wasn't considering the consequences of abducting him, but Angel pointed out the firm would kill Linwood before Angel. Lorne tried to talk Angel out of it, saying Linwood was still marginally human and this wouldn't bring Connor back, but Angel didn't care. Linwood started listing charges, only for Angel to set down a tray of torture instruments and pick up the note-spike, so Linwood assured he wouldn't press charges, now assuring Angel that Wolfram and Hart would help him.
"No torture then", Buffy sighed in relief.
"Yeah, but if Linwood had continued, there would have been", Willow pointed out to her.
Angel asked about Sahjhan, the spike leaning close to Linwood's eye, and so Linwood asked him to hit '3' on his 'speed-dial', so Angel took Linwood's cell phone and called, with Linwood then telling Lilah he was sending over a client and to give him anything he wanted.
"You can't give him what he really wants", Rosenberg said sadly.
"They're still gonna try though, right? Just to save their own skins?" Tara asked and got a nod.
Justine was carving a stake when Fred and Gunn arrived, wondering if they'd lured in Wesley and made sure he couldn't get out, but Justine said he knew what he was doing, and she didn't care where he was, though Fred tried to diffuse the situation, and noted that Justine and Holtz had been living here together and doing everything but taking out the trash, before the word 'trash' rang a bell. Justine asked them to go but Gunn said they wouldn't till she explained what had happened to Wesley, so she said they were half-right about the not-going part, and then the remainder of Holtz's men arrived as Gunn pushed Fred behind him.
"She still isn't gonna learn, is she?" Buffy scoffed.
"When she does, it'll be too little, too late", Dawn told her.
Gunn took down two men while Justine knocked Fred down while one guy managed to put a knife to Gunn's throat. Justine flashed back to slicing Wesley's throat and stopped the guy, telling both Fred and Gunn to get out, so Fred jumped up and pulled Gunn out with her.
"Okay, not too late, but still late", Dawn said.
"Because Connor is already gone", Giles realized and got a nod from her.
Angel and Lilah walked down the halls of Wolfram and Hart, Lilah noting Angel had stepped it up now, and said she'd been in the place for 3 years before hearing of the White Room, and they entered the elevator which had to go up, with Angel pushing a combination of buttons he got from a paper he had, Lilah telling him a guy in litigation had gone to white room in September and was in an asylum now. Angel pulled a button and a bigger one appeared, while stuffing the paper inside, and then he pushed the button as the elevator dissolved in a blinding white light and when it dimmed, they were in a bright, empty room.
"What do they have here?" Buffy asked.
"The conduit to the Senior Partners, who also happens to be a powerful, ancient being of darkness", Rosenberg explained.
"Don't let looks fool you", Maclay warned.
They walked through the room before a girl greeted them from behind and they turned to see her seated on a chair, telling Lilah her fingernails were pretty and she loved red, before telling Angel he'd a taste for red and revenge too, which was much more fun than forgiveness. Angel then said Sahjhan had taken his son, so girl explained Sahjhan was incorporeal now but there was a time his species wasn't. A flashback showed Sahjhan holding a warrior's head before slicing down another, and they caused a lot of trouble, which she liked, but hated chaos, and Angel realized they'd been made incorporeal, the girl calling him smart as the flashback showed another warrior attacking Sahjhan but their weapons passed through each other, and girl said now they just watched and couldn't touch.
"He didn't need to touch to cause any damage", Tara muttered.
"He caused a lot of damage just by doing what he did", Xander sighed.
Girl then said there was a special urn to capture them, and a flashback showed monks chanting around an urn as a Demon like Sahjhan arrived but was sucked into the urn in a streak of light when a monk opened it, and girl now said Angel didn't want the essence in a jar, but something to sink his teeth into, though there was a price, so she asked Angel to kill Lilah, who was about to break her neck without hesitation but the girl giggled and stopped him, saying that was enough for now, and held up a parchment, saying it was a ritual to make him corporeal again. The parchment appeared in Angel's hand as she said she couldn't wait to see it play out, and it dissolved to white again.
"This girl is…" Dawnster trailed off.
"She's not a girl", Harris reminded.
"I can see that", Buffy said, remembering the Anointed One, who also looked innocent but was deadly, and he was just a special Vampire, this was an ancient being of darkness.
"She just likes taking the girl's form, it messes with people a lot", Summers told them.
Fred and Gunn stood in front of a dumpster, Gunn eventually helping Fred into it at her request, and finally got a notebook, and later the two were in Wesley's apartment, looking through his recovered diaries and notes, Fred noting Wesley had separate diaries for Angel, Darla and Connor, and was frightened of some pending doom mentioned in some prophecy, and Gunn flipped through some more of his pages, while Fred thought of the prophecy, and Gunn found it, holding out 'The Father will kill The Son' to her, which she read out loud, and they realized Wesley had thought Angel would kill Connor, and Fred smiled, realizing Wesley had been trying to disprove this prophecy but failed, so this was his reason for taking Connor, and now they had to tell Angel, though Gunn pointed out Wesley had still messed up, but Fred said Angel could begin to forgive him now.
"I don't see that happening until he gets his son", Tara said as the past people looked at her. "We all want them to be friends again but everything that's happened, that is not going to happen so easily."
"I know, I just wish it didn't have to be this way", Willow sighed.
"There's a lot of things we can say that about", Dawn told her.
Angel had just finished making a pentagram on the Hyperion's lobby, Lilah helping him out as Lorne tried to dissuade him, but he didn't listen as Lilah said human blood was next. They looked at the bound Linwood and Lilah picked up a knife, standing in front of him, never taking her eyes off him, but then sliced her palm instead, dribbling her blood in the middle of the pentagram.
"She's one hell of a troll", Dawnster commented.
"She gave up her own blood because slicing her boss would lead to problems, and not slicing at all would also lead to problems", Harris pointed out, and that was true.
"Still, that was some trolling there", Xander quipped.
Angel read from the paper. A blue light began to swirl around the painted circle, then congealed into a vaguely humanoid shape in the middle of the pentagram. Angel reached for his battle-ax. There was a flash of light and a burst of wind and then pentagram was dark and empty again, enraging Angel. On a street there was a flash of light and Sahjhan suddenly appeared in the middle of the road. "What the..." The breaks of a pickup truck screeched, but, unable to stop, the truck ran over Sahjhan, then collided with an oncoming car. The driver of the truck sat behind the wheel in shock - when his vehicle was suddenly overturned by Sahjhan getting up underneath it. "Now this is more like it."
"She gave the wrong ritual or what?" Buffy asked angrily.
"No, this was exactly how it was going to play out, she just didn't give the details", Rosenberg shrugged.
"So, she's a jerk", Willow realized.
"Most higher beings are", Summers shrugged.
Angel dragged Linwood by the chair to the stairs, Lorne again trying to dissuade him, and eventually Lilah arrived with phone in hand saying the firm's tech team had just registered a severe bio-plasmic disturbance at Tabor and National at the same time as the spell, and Angel realized it was Sahjhan as Lilah said it'd flipped over a 2 ton truck like a Tonka Toy. Angel let go of the chair and Linwood stumbled down the steps, the chair breaking as Linwood landed at Lilah's and Lorne's feet, and then Fred and Gunn arrived to stop Angel.
"I don't think telling him of the prophecy is gonna stop him at this point", Tara said.
"No, nothing will stop him now, not even an army of Slayers", Maclay told her.
Fred tried to stop Angel but failed till she spoke. "The father will kill the son!" Angel turned around as Fred told him of the prophecy, Gunn reminding him of when he'd drunk Connor's blood, and Fred said Wesley was trying to protect Connor, Gunn adding he was trying to protect Angel too, and so were they. Angel turned to the doors as Fred stepped in his way, but he said the prophecy was a lie since he'd never hurt Connor, and never hurt someone he cared about, and made her step aside as Fred and Gunn decided to go after him, while noticing Lilah helping Linwood to his feet, and Gunn asked why they were here as Lorne explained to them in small words, with Linwood saying Angel would pay for this.
"You were ready to give him everything when you were tied up", Dawnster taunted him.
"He wouldn't hurt people he cares about, not again", Buffy said, not believing Angel ever would.
"Just watch", Summers muttered grimly.
As Angel walked out of the Hyperion a crossbow bolt buried itself in his shoulder. Angel looked up and saw Justine shooting a second bolt at him. Angel twisted to avoid the second shot while pulling out the first bolt. He threw down the bolt and continued on his way. The remainder of Holtz's men attacked him and he just punched or kicked them out, then continues on. As he stepped out through the gate Justine hit him with a hard right cross, asking him not to run. Angel intercepted the stake and pushed Justine up against the fence. "I'm not your boyfriend. Find somebody else to smack you around." Angel tossed Justine to the ground and by the time she rolled onto her back, hands raised to parry the next blow, Angel was nowhere in sight.
The 'smacking around' part made Buffy uncomfortable as she remembered when she and soulless Spike used to smack each other around, and only very late had she realized how horrible it was.
"She seems embarrassed", Willow muttered.
Justine got to her feet and hurried towards her car just as Fred and Gunn came out of the hotel. They saw the minions getting up as Justine go in the car. Holtz' minions limped out of the hotel gate and ran for the car, but Justine ignored their attempts to get in as well, and drove off as they decided to follow.
"Now she's realizing her mistakes", Tara said in realization.
"Wasn't soon enough though", Maclay told her sadly.
The driver of the pickup was hunched on the curb, as Angel inquired about her well-being, and got his name as Al Stokley, before asking about the man he'd hit, while looking at paramedics working on a guy on a stretcher. Angel assured the driver he hadn't done anything wrong and looked at the underside of the overturned pickup, reaching over to touch the front bumper then examined his fingers.
"Poor guy", Dawnster muttered about the truck driver.
"Yeah, poor guy for getting roped into this", Summers sighed about him.
Justine was looking around at the lair, putting her hand on the table where Holtz had pinned it and remembered their first and second meetings, her hand being pinned to the table, and sitting at the headquarters as she heard his voice. "I knew you were meant for this." Justine sat at the table's edge and lifted her hand, looking at it.
"Now she realizes she has been used", Buffy said.
Giles wondered if this was how Slayers felt on realizing the Council had used them too. "I don't even know what to say about her. I pity her, but she has done horrible things now, and she is definitely not getting any forgiveness from Angel's team."
"She is gonna get much worse before she gets a little better", Rosenberg warned them.
Fred and Gunn arrived, asking for Wesley as Justine realized Holtz had lied and only cared about getting Angel's kid to punish him, and didn't care about anything else. Gunn asked about Wesley again, Fred saying they wanted to hear his side as Justine said he'd sacrificed everything he believed in to save the kid, but Gunn wasn't hearing it till Justine revealed he was innocent, and that she'd sliced his throat. Fred angrily hit Justine who tried to hit back but Gunn stepped in the way, intercepting the hit and tossing Justine off the table. She came back up and attacked but he tossed her on the ground, telling her to stay down but she didn't listen.
"You really should stay down now", Giles said.
"She is still trying to hold onto her delusions, it's not so easy to just let go", Willow told Giles, who realized she was right.
Justine attacked as Gunn grabbed her arm but got punched, only to punch back as she fell down, muttering she'd trusted the wrong man as Gunn snarled she had to take them to Wesley and he had to be alive. "You call that a fight?" They turned to see Sahjhan standing in the door. "Let me show you how we used to do it."
"Oh crap", Buffy spoke for everyone.
"Why is he here?" Dawnster asked with a gulp.
"To have revenge for his humiliation", Maclay told them.
"This ain't gonna end well", Xander shook his head.
Fred and Gunn realized who Sahjhan was as he remembered Justine had tried to cut off his head and sent her flying off, before facing Fred and Gunn as he listed everything he missed, including smashing things to pieces, and smashed a chair on the table. "Let's start with your skulls." "Or yours", Angel said as he arrived. Sahjhan thanked him for making him corporeal as Angel asked Sahjhan to take him to Quortoth and help him find Connor, then they'd call it even, but he refused, revealing he could only open the entrance to Quortoth one time, and if he tried again, the Universe could be destroyed, which no one wanted. Fred wondered what he was lying about as Sahjhan asked. "Read any good prophecies lately?" Gunn realized he'd written the prophecies as he corrected he'd re-written them. Fred spoke. "The father will kill the son."
"He made those prophecies?" Buffy asked and got nods.
"With his time traveling, it'd have been easy for him", Giles realized.
"Yeah, he used his time mojo to re-write prophecies", Harris revealed.
"What did he get out of it?" Willow asked.
"He's gonna say it in a second", Rosenberg said.
"Yeah. I flitted back and forth in time. Changed the one that threatened me, polished some others. Flitted in a manly way - just so we're clear", he turned to Angel. "You're not really my enemy. You're in my home and I'm gonna kick your ass, but you were never the point." Angel realized. "It was Connor." Sahjhan quipped. "Boy! Can't put one over on you, can you? Oh, wait - already did. It's pretty freaky the first time you see your name in a true prophecy all carved in blood on an official scroll. "The one sired by the vampire with a soul will grow to manhood and kill Sahjhan." Me!" Fred also concluded. "So you planted false prophecies, that Angel would kill his son, and Wesley believed them."
"So that was the prophecy", Tara spoke up. "And he did all this to save his own life from Connor."
"Yeah, that's why he did all this, and Connor, Angel and Wesley paid the price", Summers scoffed in anger and disgust. "And in a way, everyone who got brainwashed by Holtz too."
"He ruined so many lives", Dawnster snarled, clutching her fists in anger, anger over what had happened to Connor, Angel, Wesley and even Justine, all because of Sahjhan. "The bastard."
"Can this prophecy come true still?" Buffy asked, because if even after all this, Connor managed to kill Sahjhan, that would be karmic revenge.
"You will see", Dawn spoke cryptically.
Sahjhan told them. "Thank god he had some spine. Holtz was useless. He wanted to raise your kid as his own! I'm living with a knife over my heart for eleven hundred years and he's into petty revenge! If he'd just killed the damn thing while it was still in its mother we could have avoided all this!" Angel morphed and attacked Sahjhan, but Shajhan deflected him into the wall. Gunn hit Sahjhan and got knocked down. Angel then decked Sahjhan and continued doing so while Fred helped Gunn. Angel also kicked Sahjhan back and dodging a blow, elbowed him before being tossed down. Fred took hold of one of the fire bowls and tossed the burning coals into Sahjhan's face. Sahjhan shook them off and looked at Fred. "Do I look like I need more skin problems?"
"Whatever you get, it's less than you deserve", Dawnster sneered.
"He ruined lives and is so casual about it, the jackass", Xander scoffed.
"We've met many like that", Harris pointed out to him.
Sahjhan went to attack Fred, but Angel knocked her out of the way. Sahjhan kicked Angel then threw him down as they fought more. Angel punched, then tried to kick but Sahjhan grabbed his foot, only to get a headbutt. Sahjhan then tossed Angel hard against the wall. Gunn attacked and got batted away. Sahjhan grabbed Angel by the throat and threw him around a bit more, in the end tossing Angel onto the table. Angel's face morphed back to human. Sahjhan picked up one of the legs from the broken chair and raised it to stake Angel. "Had to put your boy down. Pity. The kid had a big future. I mean big." Justine appeared in the door behind, cradling something in her arms. "Oh well, we all gotta go sometime." As Sahjhan got ready to stake Angel, Justine opened the jar she was holding and Sahjhan was sucked into it in a swirl of light, against his protest. Justine closed the lid of the urn and set it on the floor as the others picked themselves back up, while she revealed Holtz had left it and also said she'd left Wesley at the park next to his place.
"At least she did something right now", Buffy sighed.
"Sahjhan brought Holtz who brainwashed her, so he was indirectly responsible, now she got payback", Tara pointed out to the rest.
"Now even I pity her, but still can't forgive her", Dawnster shook her head.
"And you shouldn't, because like I said, she is gonna fall even worse", Summers told them. "All it took was a little push."
"What's gonna happen to her now?" Willow asked.
"You'll see in a few recordings", Rosenberg told her.
Later Angel, Fred and Gunn stood where Wesley was but didn't find him, though Angel knew he'd been here due to the blood, and Gunn noted the sun was coming up so Ange should get indoors, while Fred said Lorne was calling hospitals to look for Wesley, though Angel kept staring at the sky.
"He lost his son", Buffy said sadly, her lip quivering.
"Yeah", Summers nodded, equally sad. "It was never the same after this."
Next day, Angel stared at Wesley's tea set as Lorne said he'd cleaned up the pentagram best he could. Angel leaned on the back of Wesley's chair as he said he'd been trying to get his hands on Sahjhan while Fred and Gunn had tried to stop him, but had nearly gotten killed, though Lorne was glad it hadn't worked out that way. Angel picked a teacup, Lorne saying he hoped for the best, before asking Angel to picture a glass, reminding him of the spiked blood that Sahjhan and Lilah had arranged, so he'd have gotten Connor's blood on his hands. Angel said he still did but Lorne assured he'd done everything he could, and so had Wesley, so Angel could start forgiving himself by forgiving Wesley.
"I don't think it's that easy", Willow muttered, knowing how serious this was.
Lorne then picked the ringing telephone, and was told that Wesley had been found which Angel realized too.
"Here it comes", Giles said, as all realized the moment of reckoning was here now. What would happen though?
Angel walked into a hospital waiting room to see Fred and Gunn getting off a couch, Gunn saying Wesley's trachea had been messed up and he'd lost a lot of blood, so he couldn't speak. Fred said Angel being here could help. "Can I see him?" Angel asked. "I'm sure he'd like that", Fred nodded. Angel moved past them into the room and walked inside. There were x-rays of his throat hanging on the wall. Wesley, an IV in the back of his left hand and a bandage around his throat, was lying on the bed with his eyes closed. A heart monitor was beeping in the background. Angel closed the door and walked over to the bed as Wesley's eyes blinked open.
"Damn!" Xander said, again putting a hand over his throat at how bad Wesley looked now.
The others were tense, wondering what would happen. Even the future people were tense, because what happened next was never easy to watch.
Angel broke the ice. "Hey, Wes. I just - I want you to know I understand why you did it. I know about the prophecies and I know how hard it must have been for you to - do what you did. You thought I was gonna turn evil and kill my son. I didn't. It's important you know that. This isn't Angelus talking. It's me, Angel. You know that, right?" Wesley blinked his eyes once.
The past people sighed in relief, thinking Angel had chosen to forgive Wesley, except Willow, who knew there was something darker inside, she could see it.
"Good." Angel suddenly pulled the pillow out from under Wesley's head and pushed it down on Wesley's face. "You son of a bitch, you're gonna pay for what you did! You took my son! You son of a bitch! You bastard!"
"NO!" Dawnster screamed in horror as Buffy wrapped an arm around her, a hand over her mouth and her eyes wide in shock.
Xander looked terrified too, as Tara put her hand over the bottom of her face, looking just as horrified, and Willow looked grim and sad simultaneously.
"Dear God", Giles ran a hand over his head.
"Angel….." Buffy trailed off.
The future people decided to speak when the recording was over.
Fred's and Gunn's heads jerked up out in the waiting room as a heart monitor alarm went off and orderlies ran past them to reach Wesley's room. Angel was in a rage. "You think I'd forgive you?! No! Never! You're gonna die! You hear me? You're gonna pay!" Wesley's hands were fumbling over Angel's arms and shoulders.
Dawnster was cringing at seeing Wesley's fumbling hands and was close to tears now at what was happening, all because of one giant misunderstanding that had led to poor baby Connor being trapped in Quortoth with one of Angel's greatest enemies.
Everyone else was just too terrified or really grim and sad at how things had reached this far.
'And I thought Angel punching me over Faith was a mess', Buffy thought to herself, seeing just how much worse he and his team had it that hers in that year (again, up until poor Tara got shot dead due to that raping scumbag bastard Warren and Willow turned evil).
The first orderly ran in and pulled Angel and the pillow off Wesley for a moment. Angel shrugged him off and pushed the pillow back down on Wesley's face. "You took my son! You took my son!" Fred screamed. "Stop it!" Angel roared. "You took my son!" Two more orderlies and Gunn grabbed a hold of Angel and pulled him off Wesley as Gunn urged. "Angel! Stop!" Angel was screaming. "NEVER! NEVER!" Gunn begged. "Come on, man, stop!" Angel had lost it. "I'LL KILL HIM! YOU'RE DEAD!" The orderlies and Gunn wrestled Angel backwards out of the room as Gunn said. "Angel, stop, man." Wesley was lying on his bed, gasping for breath. Angel roared. "YOU'RE DEAD! YOU'RE A DEAD MAN, PRYCE! YOU'RE DEAD! I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL KILL YOU. YOU'RE A DEAD MAN! DEAD!" Wesley gasped as the screen went black and Angel's roar of "DEAD!" was heard one final time.
Dawnster was shaking now as Buffy grasped her tight, still staring at the black screen, with Willow sighing, Giles rubbing her head, Xander cringing and Tara wiping her face.
"Wesley took his son, Angel can't forgive him for that, especially since for all he knows, Connor might be dead or gone forever", Summers pointed out what Angel would be feeling.
"Wesley was trying to protect Connor though", Dawnster said in a hoarse voice.
"He knows that, but he lost his son still", Willow pointed out to her.
"Holtz is gone, Sahjhan is gone, Justine is too pathetic to give a crap about, so Wesley is the one he's focusing it all on", Rosenberg explained to them. "And he's too angry to be rational anymore. And no one is rational after losing someone they care about."
Giles realized that was right as he remembered he had gone after Angelus on his own after Jenny's murder, and Buffy remembered trying to kill Faith after she'd poisoned Angel, while Dawnster remembered trying to bring her mom back after her death, Xander remembered all of his bigotry after Jesse's death, and Willow remembered going dark after Tara's death.
"That's…right", Buffy finally spoke.
"Wesley shouldn't have taken it all up on his own either", Giles pointed out, even if he did sympathize with Wesley right now, but he had messed up.
"No, he shouldn't have", Maclay agreed with a nod. "When you try to bear the burden of the world on your shoulders, they break."
"And this is when Wesley finally realized it, but it was too late", Summers spoke up.
"It's like with Faith all over again", Xander groaned.
"Yeah, it is", Harris nodded with a sigh.
"You okay to watch the next ones?" Dawn asked in concern.
"Are they all like this?" Buffy asked, clearly shaken by what she'd seen.
"The next 2 aren't", Rosenberg assured.
"That's good, I guess", Tara said. "I guess Wesley isn't coming back for a long while now."
"No, he is going to be off the team for months", Summers confirmed. "But he tries to make up much later, though by then he has lost everything warm about him."
"So he turned into Watcher Wesley or something?" Buffy asked.
"Not completely, but he did become much more ruthless, and you'll know soon", Rosenberg said. "Next few, you can watch on your own."
"We'll come back for the last recording of this year", Maclay added, and got nods from the past people.
"Let's go", Summers said as the future Scoobies got up, and sharing looks with their past selves, walked off.
"You wanna watch the next one?" Dawnster asked Buffy.
"Well, there is no other choice", Buffy said as she came onto the next recording.
Hope the reactions to that ending scene were handled well. I did the best I could.
And I think from this episode onwards till show's end, Wesley is the best-written character on the whole show, with the perfect character arc (actually, I find his whole character arc from Buffy Season 3 to Angel Season 5 perfect), and yes, I'm including Angel Season 4 too. As much as I hate Angel Season 4, Wesley was still written really well, and the direction his character went throughout the Season made perfect sense to me. He was spectacular.
Anyway, see you all next time with another chapter. Stay safe from the coronavirus ya all!