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Chapter 41- Break VIII

Everyone walked to the dining room, sitting down as the food was brought forth. The past people seemed to be in shock, clearly they hadn't expected things to go this bad with Angel and his team.

All of them had only seen Angel when he was a broody, lovesick puppy in Sunnydale, though still a good guy with flaws. But now, they had seen the worst he could get without being Angelus, and clearly, this was not what they had expected, and so it had shocked them all into silence.

But then again, even the future version of the Gang hadn't expected Angel to do this of all things when they'd first seen the recording of this specific event. They had thought he would hold on, and save himself. He'd been living with a lot of guilt for years, so they had assumed he'd be able to live with this too.

But they'd underestimated the connection he had with Darla, which is why failing to save her had made him snap, and now he had gone dark, while also firing his friends because he doesn't want them to stand in the way of himself and darkness.

Buffy finally spoke up. "Did they ever….forgive him?"

"Pardon?" Summers asked.

"I know he doesn't stay this way forever, I have met him quite a few times after this", Buffy said, rubbing and shaking her head. "Did his team, his friends ever forgive him for what he's going to do? As much as I hate to say it, I wouldn't blame them if they didn't. I'm not sure I like the man I saw in this recording."

"Yeah, I don't want to criticize him, because I know what he's going through, but this, I mean, he just fired his friends because they cared about him enough to stay and stop him from his dark path", Willow said what she was feeling about this. She had been going down a dark path too with her magic addiction, but when called on it, she felt they were attacking her, and so she got defensive. After Tara had died, she again felt they were against her due to Buffy not wanting her to kill Warren.

But Angel, he knew exactly how his friends felt about him. He knew they cared about him, loved him, and would do anything to save him. He did not misconstrue their intentions like she had. And instead of appreciating it, he just kicked them out of his life, or unlife, to be more accurate. That was just…..cold. And a dick move.

"Yeah, I know, which is why there is probably no way to defend what he did here, and will do for the next few recordings", Rosenberg said with a sigh. "He disappointed a lot of people with his actions, that's for sure."

"He did, I do not want to sound self-righteous, but this went too far", Buffy said. "Did they forgive him?"

"Well, yeah", Summers said with a nod. "They did, eventually."

"How?" Buffy wondered.

"He had to earn in it back, and he had to earn their trust as well", Maclay explained to her. "When he came to his senses, he realized how badly he had treated them all, and then he did his best to make up for it. After a certain point, when he regained their trust, they managed to forgive him for what he had done and move past it."

"Well, guess there's a silver lining", Dawnster muttered.

"But you know, night's darkest before dawn and all that, and I'm talking about that dawn, not us", Dawn said to her younger self, the little pun joke getting some chuckles from everyone.

"Which means we need to be prepared to see things even worse than this", Xander realized. "Wouldn't think that's possible, unless he goes Angelus or something."

"Well, believe it is all I can say", Harris said.

"Yeah, it's gonna get even worse than what you saw, especially in the next one", Rosenberg told them, making them all gulp. "And that's without him turning into Angelus."

"Well, I guess we have seen worse than that in that case", Giles said with a sigh, since they all had faced Angelus once when he had returned during Buffy's 2nd year in Sunnydale, and of course they had seen the worst of Angelus in the recordings, especially with the gypsy girl, and of course Drusilla too. What he and Darla had done to her was just sickening to the point that while they felt horrible for human Drusilla, they even felt bad for Vampire Drusilla to some extent, since she suffering eternally due to Angelus being too cruel to let her die after what she had been put through.

"Yeah, you have, but it feels worse when it's Angel with a soul doing it, because he has a soul, he has a conscience, he can tell what is right and what is wrong, or less right, from a point of view, but he still chooses to go dark", Summers said with a sigh. "To some extent, it got results too. But it damaged him and his relationships with the others pretty badly for a good while."

"Maybe he should have taken Holland's advice of healthy attachments too", Xander muttered. "And if I'm using that bastard's advice, you know how bad it really is."

"At least he came to his senses in time", Buffy remembered, since had attended her mother's funeral, or at least come after it was done at night, and it seemed to have happened not long after these recordings, so he had recovered from this darkness in time. If he hadn't, he would not have shown up, and she dreaded to think how much worse that already cold and horrible day would have been if he hadn't come for her.

By now, everyone's food was finished too.

"You wanna watch more now?" Summers asked.

"Well, I guess", Buffy said with a sigh, looking at the rest.

"Yeah, we have no choice, we need to watch it", Tara told her, and so they all got up, sighing and nodding, and left for the viewing room.

And this is done, now time for one of my favorite episodes of the Season, then a really average and disappointing episode, then this Season's worst episode, then another decent episode but not as good as it could have been.

And its gonna be a while before breaks get better, they're just there for now.

Anyway, hope all enjoyed and see you all next time with another chapter. Stay safe from the coronavirus ya all!