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Chapter 47- Reprise
Next morning, everyone woke up, took their showers, ate their breakfast, chatting a little before coming back into the viewing room, where they sat in their usual positions.
Buffy picked up the remote and muttered. "Here goes."
And then she turned the recording on.
Some dark, deserted corridors littered with trash were shown and some strange, low screams were heard. Angel came around a corner, looking for the source of the sounds. He opened a door, stepped into the room and pulled the chain of the light bulb dangling from the ceiling to reveal that the room was stuffed full of goats. He saw a door at the other side of the room. Angel opened the door to see two men preparing to sacrifice the goats. They started looking for their dagger before Angel revealed himself, playing with that dagger, commenting on the goats.
"Yay, goats!" Dawnster said in a dry tone.
"I think he's going to save the goats", Willow said.
"Well, his redemption has started", Dawnster quipped as chuckles followed.
One man commented on the pre-blessed ceremonial dagger as Angel asked them to sue him or have their bosses do it since they worked for Wolfram and Hart, wanting everything they worshipped, and when they talked back, Angel flashed across the room and pinned the two guys against the wall by their throats, saying he hated to see good blood go to waste, then asked them about the ritual and whoever they were worshipping to but they had no idea as Wolfram and Hart had told them to just do it or something would be pissed off. Angel let them go and began to trash the place as they fled.
"So they were doing this without knowing a thing about it", Giles scoffed. "That's stupider than not doing a ritual while knowing inaction would lead to disaster."
"Summed this situation right up", Summers quipped.
"Guess whatever it is, is gonna be real pissed off", Xander commented.
Gunn checked Stephanie's head, and now it was normal with a slight bald patch but Cordelia assured hair would grow back. Wesley was sitting on a wheelchair. But then Francine said they couldn't thank or pay them, calling the bill ridiculous, and her husband agreed too, and then she said it was impossible to be bitten by a Demon and have a third eye, so this was a scam, going off with Stephanie, to the disbelief of the three.
The past people were just as much in disbelief as the three in the recording.
"I once said that our mind makes up things when we witness the supernatural, but they experienced it!" Giles snapped. "How can they ignore that?"
"Or maybe they didn't ignore, just used it as an excuse to not pay", Xander scoffed.
"Ungrateful pricks", Buffy muttered angrily.
"They deserved payment instead of being cheated like this!" Willow agreed too.
"I mean, they came to them, not the other way round", Dawnster said.
"So it's Cordy, Wes and Gunn who got scammed instead", Tara summed up.
"Yeah, what they did was a pretty dick move", Summers agreed. "The three deserved payment and didn't get it."
"Did they change their minds later?" Buffy asked out of curiosity.
"Well", Dawn trailed off. "It's kind of complicated."
Wesley then told Cordelia to let them go as it was easier for the Sharps to call them con artists than accept reality, though Cordelia pointed out they had bills, and eventually Gunn decided to go out to check the neighborhood.
"Better do something with all that time", Harris muttered.
"Poor them", Tara said.
"Yeah, poor them", Maclay nodded in agreement. "Being scammed like that has got to hurt."
At Wolfram and Hart, everyone was working as Lilah and Lindsey walked together, knowing the review was in 2 days, and then Lilah handed Lindsey a manila envelope, saying she'd dug up everything on the last review and it made the Christmas purge of 1968 look like fun times, as half of the mid-management had been sacked, using actual sacks.
"How does that work?" Dawnster asked.
"Don't even ask", Rosenberg told her.
Lilah reminded both their asses were on the line and suggested some ways to plump up the portfolio before Friday but Lindsey said nothing would make a difference now. Lilah said Henderson had actually pulled her firstborn out of company daycare to offer it up, and now Lilah wished she'd listened to her mother about having kids.
"She wants to have kids just to…" Willow trailed off. "Yeesh!"
"They will sacrifice pretty much everything for more power and to save their skin", Dawn told them, but this was too disgusting for even them.
Buffy was now realizing just more and more that humans could be as horrible as or even worse than the worst of Demons.
Lindsey said they'd stand on the record but Lilah reminded of their screw-ups, including Darla and Drusilla to which Lindsey even they needed time to recover from the burning, and Lilah finally said this was their shot so nothing could happen between now and Friday to screw this up.
"I have a feeling a lot will happen now", Tara said.
"Who is this they're afraid of though?" Xander asked. "Who's conducting the review?"
"The Senior Partners", Giles said in realization as he looked at the future people for confirmation.
"Yes, it's one of them", Summers confirmed, shocking them.
"We're gonna see one of the Senior Partners", Buffy realized. "The powers than Wolfram and Hart."
"Seems like a big moment", Dawnster muttered.
Angel and Kate were talking in the precinct as Angel mentioned all the recent rituals to Kate, but she wasn't interested, and Angel said she could get them on illegal animal butchering, but Kate revealed she was on desk duty till a hearing on Friday, because the captain of two-three had filed a complaint against her for letting a lunatic into his office who'd beaten him up. Angel reminded what he'd done, but Kate said it wouldn't fly at Internal Investigations, plus they said things about her. Kate then said she was a cop and couldn't take a suspension.
"Never saw another way of life, did she?" Buffy said in realization.
"As much as she gets on my nerves, this time I kind of feel bad for her, since she got into this mess while trying to help", Xander pointed out.
"It gets worse", Harris spoke up.
Angel apologized but she pulled out another file, which was of the massacre at the wine cellar, but Angel said she had nothing to do with it, only for her to remind that the dead people had been threatened by him, and she had picked him up and released him 3 hours before their deaths. Angel reminded who was responsible to which she said. "Yeah. But I can't figure out though is why forensics is now telling me that it looks like the suspect or suspects *didn't* break in. - They had to break out. - The victims were locked in that wine cellar with their attackers and I think I am done helping you now." She walked off.
"So this is what you were talking about", Giles said in realization.
"Well, Angel did cross a line when he did that", Tara said. "So I can't really blame Kate this specific time."
"No can do", Willow sighed. "Especially since she's in trouble with her job."
Lindsey entered his apartment, holding a bottle in a brown paper bag as Darla lay on the sofa, light burn scars still on her face as they noted she was getting stronger and Darla reminded he'd found her in the sewer. Then they talked of Drusilla who was gone, but Lindsey assured she'd return, only for Darla to say that Lindsey was the one person who hadn't abandoned her, and he assured he never would.
"Why am I not surprised he has her in here?" Xander wondered.
"She's playing with him again, right?" Buffy asked.
"Yeah, and the idiot's getting played", Rosenberg said with a dark chuckle. "Around her, he completely loses his brain."
Lindsey gave her the bottle and then walked off to take a shower as Darla commented he was never dirty but he said he always was. Darla rolled her eyes, then as Lindsey closed the door to the bathroom behind him, she pushed the blanket aside and got up, stretching. She set the bottle down and as the shower began to run she started to go through Lindsey's briefcase. She found Lilah's envelope and looked through it while sipping the blood.
"She told ya!" Summers said about Rosenberg with a smirk. "Lindsey keeps getting played by Darla."
"And due to his boy crush, he lets her", Dawnster chuckled. "For someone so smart, he's an idiot."
"Yeah, Lilah's the smarter one, and more consistent too", Maclay spoke up. "Even if she's more evil."
Angel arrived at Caritas to talk to Lorne, who made a comment on Angel's 'singing', and then Angel turned to see lawyers in the area. Lorne thought Angel was gonna kill them but Angel said he knew Lorne had read them, and he wanted to know, but Lorne revealed he couldn't divulge information like that. Lorne still revealed he'd heard them babbling in the bathroom and a review was coming on Friday, eventually revealing it was a Senior Partner.
"And that has them all frightened out of their wits", Giles muttered.
"They run 'em, they fire 'em, literally", Dawn commented.
Later, 2 lawyers were singing as Angel walked to Lorne, wanting to know more, mainly because getting to the Senior Partners was his destiny, but Lorne told him he hadn't seen a destiny with Angel in it lately, finding it murky and saying the rituals he'd crashed didn't mean a thing, so stopping them won't stop the review. Lorne eventually revealed that if the Senior Partner manifested as something in this Dimension, it could be killed, and Angel started getting up before Lorne revealed he'd also picked up something called the 'Home Office', saying it could be the source. Angel started walking off while Lorne informed that they'd also like to see him dead, and he turned to see the lawyers giving him hostile glares.
"That's the best they can do", Xander shrugged. "What's the Home Office?"
"Probably their Hell Dimension source", Buffy said. "Have to give it a legal name, since they're lawyers."
They didn't notice the grim looks on the eyes of the future people. That moment had been a brutal eye opener for them as much as it had been for Angel himself.
Angel was searching through his books at the Hyperion. Scratching his head he walked over to the almost empty bookshelf, checked the few books there, dropping them on the ground, then looked around with a sigh. Angel opened the door and walked into the new Angel Investigations office, not bothering to close the door behind him, shocking Cordelia and Wesley, and then he started looking at the books, the two protesting.
"Seriously?" Buffy said. "Now this is just….."
"Harassment", Rosenberg spoke up. "That's what he's doing to them."
"Just waltz in and look through their stuff", Xander scoffed. "Whatever happened to decency."
"Still a dick", Willow reminded.
"But this is the last time, promise", Maclay told them.
"Good, because I can't bear to see him do these terrible things to his friends anymore", Buffy said with a sigh.
Angel took a book and started to leave but Cordelia snatched it from him, instead giving him a phonebook. Angel took the phonebook, threw it to the side and leaned in close to Cordelia, who refused to move out from between him and the bookshelf. "Don't make me move you."
"Will you?" Willow asked. "Will you move her?"
"If he does, it's going to make him look bad", Tara said.
Wesley asked Cordelia to give him the book, and eventually pushed himself out of the wheelchair. "Just give him the damn thing! Let him get the hell out." Cordelia looked over at Wesley, then pushed Angel a step back, turned, took the book and shoved it at him. Angel took it and walked towards the door. "Here. I don't even know what you are anymore." Angel said. "I'm a Vampire. Look it up." Angel slammed the door closed behind him and Wesley slowly collapsed back into his chair, as she started ranting how if it was someone else she'd asked them to get laid but Angel would go evil again, but it'd be better because he'd get some and they could stake him later, only for Wesley to ask for an ambulance as Cordelia noticed at the spreading bloodstain on his shirt in horror.
"Oh my God!" Buffy said, putting her head in her hands. "Angel…"
"Wesley's wound reopened because he couldn't get enough of being a dick", Summers groaned. "Like Cordelia, even I'd stopped recognizing him at this point."
"But then it got better", Dawnster muttered.
"Yeah, it did", Summers said. "And it was an unexpected source, never thought that would happen."
At LAPD HQ, Kate was being reviewed, and on being asked to defend herself, she just said there was nothing to say as every ugly thing over the last 8 months had been laid out, adding she was doing her job, but a man said she'd been isolating herself, reminding her of discovering her dead father, and pointed out the case wasn't solved, so it had frustrated her, a woman finished and she hadn't taken any time off. Kate said it wasn't their business but the man said it was when it affected performance, the woman adding she needed time to grieve, assuring they weren't judging her, but Kate said she was only being fired.
"Yeah", Willow muttered lamely, not really in the mood to comment about this.
Xander was just seeing more of how much Kate had fallen due to her vendetta, even worse than when Angel had laid into her. And it made him sad for her, and a bit scared for himself as it could easily have been him.
The two assured they'd have psychological counseling for her as part of her severance, Kate saying they'd no idea what went on in the city, to which the man scoffed about Demons, then asked for her badge and gun. Kate swallowed, took her gun and badge from her briefcase and closed it. She got up and went to lay her gun and badge on the table in front of the man. Lieu watched her, commenting it was good her father wasn't here to see this as she walked out.
"Okay, she brought this on herself mostly, but was that snippy comment really necessary?" Dawnster asked.
"No, it wasn't, he just said it to rub it in", Summers told her.
An old man with glasses was watching TV in a bookshop when Angel arrived, asking if he was Denver, and he got up in disbelief.
"That guy", Buffy said, all remembering him from the 24th recording's flashbacks. "He's here too now."
"Angel gonna be a dick to him too?" Xander asked.
"Fortunately, no", Harris assured him as they sighed in relief.
Later, Angel and Denver looked through books as Denver said Angel had changed his life back then, as a Vampire trying to do good meant there was still good, asking how that had gone but Angel revealed the truth without mincing words and then went back to business, so Denver said the Senior Partner could manifest as a Kleynach because they used rings to go around, explaining about the Band of Blacknill which had the power to move between Dimensions.
"I've heard of those Demons", Giles said. "And the rings too, though they are dangerous to use."
"Why do I have a feeling Angel wants to use it?" Buffy asked.
"Because he wants to", Rosenberg shrugged.
Angel wanted to use it to get to the Home Office and come back, Denver confused why he wanted to go to Hell, before realizing he wanted to destroy them all, starting how it would make up for the time he'd abandoned Hyperion but Angel's look made him not finish the sentence.
"For that, he already made up", Tara said. "Now it's other stuff he needs to make up for."
Denver then said it was suicide but Angel still wanted to use the ring, while also saying he knew how to kill the Kleynach, bringing an open book where he narrated that the Kleynach had caused a lot of destruction and all who fought them were incinerated, but a brave and worthy Knight had a glove fashioned and blessed by the powers of light, and it could kill a Kleynach just by grabbing its throat.
"I can't believe he has that stuff hidden in his place", Willow commented.
"No one thinks to look for it there", Maclay told her.
Denver then arrived with the glove, saying he'd been using it as an oven mitt but Angel had changed his life, so things would go better now, but he was cut off when his eyes suddenly popped open and blood spilled from his mouth. Angel looked down to see the tip of a bloody sword protruding from Denver's belly. He reached out to catch Denver as he began to fall and someone drove the sword through Denver and into Angel. Darla straightened up behind Denver.
Everyone groaned, their mood plummeting as Dawnster muttered. "And she chose this time at this week to finally go outdoors again."
"The bad guys have the worst timing", Dawn said with a scoff.
"I can see that", Buffy muttered.
"Poor Denver", Willow muttered.
"Yeah, he didn't deserve that", Tara agreed.
"People usually get what they do not deserve", Giles said grimly, thinking of Jenny obviously, and others too, Tara and Doyle included, as well as Denver.
Darla sarcastically called Angel smart for going towards the bleeding mortal. Angel collapsed backwards to the floor and Darla picked up the glove. "The ring's not about vengeance, Angelus, it's about power." She kicked Angel in the face. "We'll get to the vengeance part soon." With that Darla walked out while Angel pulled his body slowly off the sword. He looked in the direction where Darla had just disappeared, then just lay there gasping.
"Vengeance", Buffy muttered. "Does it involve burning?"
"It ended up being something totally unexpected", Summers told her.
Wesley was on a sofa in his apartment, wearing a bathrobe and having a bandage on him as he told Virginia he'd stood up to Angel but she said he could have done it metaphorically instead of this, then said before this she'd never considered how dangerous his work was. Wesley reminded how they'd met, only for Virginia to say she'd grown up with that sort of thing, guns made it real.
The 'gun' comment made Tara rub her head, breathing a little heavily as Willow gave her a hug. "Hey, I'm here, I'm here, it's all right."
Dawn held her hand too to help her out.
Maclay was a little uncomfortable too but not to Tara's level, since she'd been resurrected for years rather than months.
"It gets better later", she simply said to her younger self.
Wesley reminded a zombie had fired it but it didn't make Virginia feel better, then scooted to him as they shared intimacy, wondering if it always seemed like a battle was worth fighting, adding that most people didn't even acknowledge the evil, much less tried to fight it, asking if he would consider giving it up for something else. When Wesley asked if she'd be with someone who would, she said she sometimes felt like she was wrapped in bandages. Wesley asked if this was difficult for her. "I just don't like to see you hurt", she said. Wesley was on the point though. "No. - I mean - I mean breaking up with me." Virginia looked up at Wesley, but didn't say anything.
"Okay", Xander said. "That was out of nowhere."
"We didn't show you everything regarding that relationship", Rosenberg pointed out. "Wasn't important."
"Well, poor Wes", Buffy muttered.
"If it makes you feel any better, it was good while it lasted", Dawn assured her.
"Still, stuff like that hurts", Dawnster said. "Even if it's for a short while."
Kate walked into her apartment carrying a box with the stuff from her desk. She put the box down, took off her jacket and poured herself a stiff drink. She saw the shelves holding her trophies and plaques and went to knock them off while trying to hold back tears. She picked up a photo of her dad and started to cry.
As much as Kate had fallen due to her vendetta, she didn't deserve what was happening to her now, and they could all relate to her grief over her dad, since all of them had grieved over dead loved ones too, more times than they could count.
A car pulled up near Wolfram and Hart at night as Lilah and 2 bodyguards walked out but as they neared the front doors, Angel jumped behind them and knocked both the guards out. Lilah angrily kicked one of the guards, calling them a waste of money as Angel taunted her about the last time they'd met in the parking lot, before saying he wanted the same thing from her he'd taken from Lindsey, taking a hold of her right hand and later she pressed her right thumb to a scanner in a secure elevator.
"I thought he was actually gonna chop it off", Willow commented. "Which wouldn't be surprising considering how he currently is."
"Well, if he had done it one year later, wouldn't have blamed him", Rosenberg said.
"Something horrible?" Buffy asked.
"Yeah", Summers nodded. "Very."
Lilah set it for the 15th floor and pointed out Angel would lead security wherever he went, and he said he was counting on it, wincing a little in pain as Lilah noticed him lifting a hand to where Darla had stabbed him.
"I have a feeling she's going to use that against him", Dawnster muttered.
"The feeling is right", Maclay told her.
Cordelia picked up the ringing phone at new Angel Investigations, calling their office as 'Angphlel Investigations' to Wesley's surprise because she wasn't going to say Angel's name, also telling her he won't come tomorrow. Cordelia said he could spend time with Virginia, and Wesley didn't mention the break-up, telling her she should get out in 'Angphleles' since it was Friday night and she'd have someone she could call.
"Angphleles", Xander muttered. "Sounds like a disease to me."
"Ah, no, because then I'd actually have to have some friends. I don't", Cordelia said. Wesley swallowed. "That's not true." Cordelia said after a beat. "You don't count." Wesley said. "Thank you." Cordelia told him. "You know what I mean." Wesley assured. "Things are gonna get better Cordelia... for all of us. You'll see." Cordelia then said. "I'll call you tomorrow. See how you're feeling." Wesley agreed. "That'd be nice." Cordelia wished him good night. "Good night, Wesley." She hung up the phone. Wesley said too. "Night."
"What do nice people got to do to get more friends?" Xander wondered. "I mean, she's a great person now, but has less friends."
"I think it's better to have a few friends who care about you than multiple friends who don't", Harris pointed out to him. "Most of her high school friends weren't really her real friends."
"Angel, Wesley and Gunn are", Summers said. "Well, at least Wesley and Gunn are right now, Angel will be again when he stops being a dick."
"I think I have to agree with that", Dawn said with a nod.
Cordelia was going out when her phone rang again and this time it was Francine. Cordelia first called her out for not paying before noting down the address so she could get the payment.
"So they changed their mind, that's nice", Tara muttered.
The future people had grim looks again.
Francine hung up the phone and turned around to look up at an ugly, white skinned demon, telling it one of them was coming. The demon reached out to stroke Francine's hair and she looked away. The demon put his other hand on her chin and broke her neck with a quick snap.
Now the eyes of the past people widened.
"This is worse than them not paying", Tara muttered.
"Looks like their denial is shattered", Giles muttered. "Skilosh don't like when their spawns are killed."
"So, they killed the whole family?" Buffy asked the future people and got nods. "While they were jerks for not paying, they didn't deserve to die."
"No, they just deserved to have a case filed on them, no matter whatever defense they want", Dawnster told her. "But now Cordy is on her way and the Skilosh are waiting for her."
"Well, crap!" Xander snapped.
"What are they gonna do to her?" Willow asked.
"Don't ask", Rosenberg shook her head.
At Wolfram and Hart, some robed figures were pacing around a pentagram painted on the floor swinging incense burners. The room was filled with lawyers. Lindsey checked his watch. Reed stepped up next to him, reminding him that Lilah hadn't come when a man whispered something to him, and Reed told him to deal with it before informing Lindsey someone had let a Vampire onto the floor. Lindsey scanned the crowded room and saw Lilah coming in with Angel herding her. He alerted everyone and Lilah elbowed Angel in the gut and ran off. Angel forced himself after her, still hunched over. Lindsey hurried across the room, pushing people out of his way.
"Does he have a plan this time for Vampire detectors?" Buffy asked.
"Actually, he does", Summers said.
"And it's pretty smart too", Dawn added.
Security men started moving, listening to their ear pieces. Angel reappeared in another part of the room and scanned the crowd. Pulling out a bottle of water and popping the top off, he waded into the crowd. He grabbed a hold of the long black hair of a small woman and pulled it off to reveal blonde hair underneath. He threw the water into Darla's face as she turned and vamped out. "Vampire!"
"All right, now that was a smart move", Giles agreed, everyone impressed by him.
"A bit lucky, but yeah, pretty smart", Willow said with a nod.
"He planned to end the fight so he thought things through as well as he could", Rosenberg pointed out.
As the crowd milled around them Angel tried to pull the glove off Darla's hand. Darla knocked him in the head sending him flying back. Two security guards tackled her with stakes, but she batted them away and headed for Angel. Lindsey stared at them fighting. Reed sunk to his knees behind one of the robed figures as the air above the pentagram began to shiver and a red robbed demon materializes.
"Senior Partner?" Buffy asked with wide eyes, everyone else staring too.
"Senior Partner", Maclay said with a nod.
"Rarely do they come to this Dimension but when they do, stuff happens", Summers commented.
Angel finally got the glove off Darla's hand and kicked her to the side. Security converged on the downed Darla with stakes while Angel put on the glove. Lilah told them to stake her but Lindsey knocked Lilah across the chin and headed for Darla, knocking the last security guard off her. The red robbed Kleynach turned around and Angel launches himself at it from across the room, grabbing it by the throat with the glove. As soon as the glove touched it, the Kleynach began to dissolve with a scream, while it and Angel were falling backwards through the window.
"And it goes just as soon as it came", Willow muttered.
"Well, this time not a lot of stuff happened even with a Senior Partner's entrance", Dawn shrugged.
"One of the rare times", Rosenberg added.
"All because of Angel", Buffy said. "Now Home Office."
Lindsey helped Darla up and towards the door. She turned to look at him for a moment, then hurried out. Lilah, the corner of her lip bloody, looked at the broken window. Angel was plummeting the fifteen stories to the ground, and landed, still clutching the robe, in a shower of glass. The ring landed beside him with a metallic clink. Groaning a little Angel grabbed it and forces himself to his feet. There was a homeless man sitting on a planter in the background, watching. "Okay. Home office." He slid on the ring. "Let's finish this." The ding of an arriving elevator sounded and Angel turned to see the doors of it open on the outside wall of the office building behind him.
"That's gonna take him to the Home Office?" Buffy asked. "The Hell Dimension."
"Yes, it will take him to the Home Office", Harris said, leaving out what the Home Office truly was, deciding to let them see for themselves.
Holland was standing in the open doors of the elevator slowly clapping his hands. Angel walked slowly closer.
"Holland?" Dawnster gasped. "But wasn't he dead?"
"Some people's contracts extend beyond their deaths in this firm", Summers explained to the shocked past people. "Holland is one of those people."
"So, even when they die…" Buffy trailed off. "They have to work for Wolfram and Hart."
"It's like those corporations who suck you dry till you're dead", Xander said. "But Wolfram and Hart then sucks your corpse as well, huh."
"So, no different from any other corporation then", Willow commented. "Just not as subtle about it."
"Being made to work even after dying, there's something really, really sad about it", Giles said, not that he felt bad for Holland, but still, this condition just sounded sad.
"Yeah, it sure is sad", Tara agreed.
"But remember, they agreed to it when they started working there", Rosenberg pointed out to them.
"So they brought it on themselves", Harris added.
"They agreed to sell their souls for power", Dawn agreed.
"So yeah, while the condition is sad, I agree, they themselves don't mind much", Maclay finished.
The past people just nodded. While this condition did seem sad, the lawyers had brought it upon themselves, Holland included, so the sympathy was very, very limited.
"Congratulations. Great victory", Holland complimented him. Angel trailed off. "You're..." Holland nodded. "Holland Manners." Angel muttered. "...not alive." Holland agreed. "Oh, no. I'm quite dead. Unfortunately my contract with Wolfram and Hart extends well beyond that." He gave Angel a big smile, then motioned his head. "Hop on in. You certainly earned it." Angel slowly stepped in, looking at Holland, who laughed. "No. Not a ghost here. No, it's just me. Dead me." He pulled the collar of his shirt aside to show Angel Darla's bite marks, then reached for the elevator buttons. "See? - Home office, wasn't it? I should mention the trip is one way."
"So, dead body walking or something?" Dawnster asked.
"Something like that", Rosenberg told her.
"How is Angel going to even destroy all of the enemies in there?" Buffy asked. "Plus, Wolfram and Hart still exists, so he clearly failed to win this."
The future people didn't say a word, knowing the brutal reality check that was coming. This was so much beyond just winning or losing a war.
Angel stood in the elevator looking out, not saying anything. A homeless person was seen pushing a loaded down shopping cart across the plaza in front of the elevator. "Well, if there are no objections, I suggest we get going. It is rather a long ride", Holland pushes the 'down' button. The doors closed and the elevator descended down the elevator shaft. Angel and Holland were standing side by side in the elevator as the lights from the floors it was passing flash by and typically annoying elevator music played in the background. "Well, this is exciting, isn't it?" Holland smiled. "Going straight to the source. - So, what's the big plan, Angel? Destroy the Senior Partners, smash Wolfram and Hart once and for all?" Angel agreed. "Something like that." Holland asked. "Hm-mm, now tell me just what do you think that would accomplish? In the end, I mean." Angel said. "It'll be - the end." Holland told him. "Well, the end of you, certainly. But I meant in the larger sense." Angel retorted. "In the larger sense I really don't give a crap."
"You do", Buffy told him, not believing Angel had fallen that far. "That's why you are here."
"Yes, a tiny bit of him still does give a damn", Rosenberg said. "He's just in denial about it."
Holland told him. "Now I don't think that's true. - Be honest. - You got the tiniest bit of 'give a crap' left. Otherwise you wouldn't be going on this Kamikaze mission. Now let me see, there was something - in a sacred prophecy, some oblique reference to you. Something you're supposed to prevent. Now what was that?" Angel said. "The apocalypse." Holland agreed. "Yes, the apocalypse, of course. - Another one of those. Well, it's true. We do have one scheduled. And I imagine if you were to prevent it you would save a great many people. Well, you should do that then. Absolutely. I wasn't thinking. - Of course all those people you save from that apocalypse would then have the next one to look forward to, but, hey, it's always something, isn't it?"
"There's always a fight", Summers muttered, and for the first time, the past people realized just how tired she sounded. The fighting had clearly taken a toll.
"Does it ever end?" Buffy asked, a little scared.
"No, it can never end, there's always something", Rosenberg muttered.
"And none of us are in the habit of looking the other way", Maclay then said.
"Something always comes up", Willow muttered. "I don't think even this mentioned apocalypse will be the last one."
"Most devastating maybe, but definitely not the last", Tara said in agreement.
The elevator shaft and cable dissolved as the elevator continued to plummet into a hellish red glow. Angel snarled. "You're not gonna win." Holland explained. "Well - no. Of course we aren't. We have no intention of doing anything so prosaic as 'winning.'" Holland laughed and for the first time Angel turned his head to glance in Holland's general direction.
"Then why?" Buffy wondered.
"Then why?" Angel asked. Holland asked. "Hmm? I'm sorry? Why what?" Angel asked. "Why fight?" Holland told him. "That's really the question you should be asking yourself, isn't it? See, for us, there is no fight. Which is why winning doesn't enter into it. We - go on - no matter what. Our firm has always been here. In one form or another. The Inquisition. The Khmer Rouge. We were there when the very first cave man clubbed his neighbor. See, we're in the hearts and minds of every single living being. And that - friend - is what's making things so difficult for you. - See, the world doesn't work in spite of evil, Angel. - It works with us. - It works because of us." And with that the elevator came to a screeching halt.
"That's….that's not true!" Xander snapped. "The world doesn't work with evil."
"I used to think the same, we all did", Harris told him. "But it's not true."
"If evil was something to be defeated, then taking down the First Evil would have ended evilness all over the world", Summers said to the past audience. "But it will always exist. Not as powerful as it was, but it's always there."
"Tell me, do you get dark impulses at times?" Willow asked Buffy, Xander and Giles, and none of them could deny. "There's always a little darkness in everyone. We're all a little messed up. And that will never change."
"So no matter what we do, there's going to be some evil in the world as part of the cycle", Buffy whispered, having a look of horror and realization on her face. "It's always going to exist."
"Then this is useless!" Dawnster snapped. "The Slayer Organization has failed!"
"Not if we hold true to each other", Tara spoke up to her, and all of them. "We cannot abandon good people to torment and death."
Buffy was now just watching the screen, clearly shocked by this reality check, and the rest decided to watch what was left, since they had a feeling there was more.
The doors opened and Angel looked out to see a homeless person pushing a loaded shopping cart across the plaza in front of the Wolfram and Hart Office building in LA. Holland told him. "Welcome to the Home Office."
"That….that is not…." Buffy trailed off. "This isn't…."
"It is", Summers told her grimly. "It was never a Hell Dimension full of evil creatures."
"They were people", Giles muttered, taking off his glasses. "Like us."
"Everyone's a little messed up", Rosenberg repeated what her younger self had said. "And little by little, it grows into something big like Wolfram and Hart."
Angel trailed off. "This isn't..." Holland told him. "Well, you know it is. - You know that better than anyone. Things you've seen. Things you've, well - done. You see, if there wasn't evil in every single one of them out there", Angel watched as some people in the plaza start yelling at each other, "why, they wouldn't be people. - They'd all be angels." The glove dropped from Angel's right to land on the floor of the elevator and Angel slowly shuffled out of it. Holland called after him as the doors closed. "Have a nice day." Angel slowly walked down the streets of LA, seeing a prostitute and a potential customer having a verbal disagreement, a woman yelling at a girl.
Buffy still looked horrified at this brutal realization, something she had never even considered till now.
"He broke Angel", Giles whispered. "Without throwing a single punch."
"It's not humans and Demons", Willow explained to Buffy. "Not even good or bad people. There are sides to everyone. Good side and bad side, and there is a bad side. Everyone has it. And people will always have it, and so there's always going to be something to take on."
"But then does it matter what we do?" Buffy asked finally. "If there's always going to be something, it is useless."
"No", Summers shook her head. "It's not. Evil can never be ended, but it can always be fought and slowed down. That's what we did in Sunnydale. Slowed it down. Spike knew that when he stayed to close the Hellmouth."
"Spike", Buffy whispered, having tears in her eyes at his mention. "He sacrificed himself to…"
"To slow it down", Summers said. "Because he knew it would matter."
"And what he did, it mattered", Maclay said. "Just because there is no end doesn't mean fighting it is pointless."
Kate opened the door to her bathroom cabinet and took out a bottle of pills.
"Oh boy!" Dawnster covered her mouth in horror, realizing why Kate was taking the pills, and the other past people were staring in horror too.
"Don't give up", Willow whispered to her.
Angel slowly walked down the street passing a homeless man with a brown-bagged bottle under his arm, a young man standing by a lamp post. Wesley was lying in the dark on the sofa in his apartment, staring at nothing. Cordelia was s getting ready to leave the office. Angel entered the Hyperion Hotel just as the answering machine went off as Cordelia's voice said. "Hi, you've reached Angel Investigations. We help the hopeless. Leave a message and we'll get right back to you." It beeped. Kate's voice said. "You did it, didn't you? You bastard..." Kate was sitting on the floor of her apartment her head leaning back on the seat of a chair, holding the phone so she could speak into it but with the other end resting on top of her forehead instead of against her ear. There was an empty bottle of booze sitting next to the phone, and the bottle of pills is lying beside it. White pills were spilled out on the floor. "You made me trust you. - You made me believe. - No, it wasn't you." She lay back on the floor, knocking over the bottle. "It was me, right? I couldn't take the heat..." Angel walked over to where the answering machine was sitting on the counter. Kate's voice said. "That's what they're gonna say. Then you're gonna feel all bad - or you won't care. But then, then I won't care either. I won't feel a thing."
"Help her", Buffy said in a hoarse whisper, still feeling shattered to her core by this reveal.
Leaning on the counter, Angel turned down the volume on the machine, then turned towards the stairs. Angel entered his apartment, stopping a few steps in. "What do you want, Darla?" He held up the ring and looked over his shoulder. "You want this?" Angel dropped the ring on the floor and Darla hurried over to pick it up. Before she could, Angel grabbed her arm and sent her stumbling towards the wall. "Or maybe what you really want is this!" He pushed her up against the wall and gently brushed the hair back from her face). "That may be - what you really want, isn't it?" He kissed her softly, then, when she didn't react, he did it a little harder. Darla pushed him away. "Don't play games with me." Angel told her. "I'm not playing. I just wanna feel something besides the cold."
"Me too", Buffy whispered to herself as Dawnster stroked her back, trying to comfort her.
"Don't do this", Xander muttered to Angel. "Don't, this wasn't you!"
Angel pushed Darla back onto a table, lowering himself on top of her and kissed her again. Darla reached up and pushed his jacket off his shoulders, kissing him back. Angel stripped off his jacket with her help, still kissing her. Suddenly Darla began to laugh and Angel pulled back the same time she pushed him and got up. Angel asked. "Why're you laughing?" Darla continued to laugh, not answering him, and Angel hit her, sending her crashing through the glass doors leading to his bedroom. Angel slowly walked after her as she rolled over and looked up at him. "Don't you feel the cold?" Angel grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her up. Darla asked. "What're you doing?" "It doesn't matter", Angel stroked the side of her face. "None of it matters."
"It does", Willow shook her head. "Even if it's a little bit, it does."
"Why?" Buffy muttered, uncomfortable on seeing Angel and Darla doing what they were doing, since it reminded her of those times with Spike and herself, where she too had used him.
He kissed her again and she responded. They fell back onto the bed and stripped off each other's clothes. The curtains in the open window billowed in the wind of the thunderstorm outside as some books dropped on the floor, their discarded clothes and then the bed was shown. Angel and Darla were lying on the bed asleep, Angel on his back, Darla on her side with her back to him. A loud crack of thunder rang out and Angel suddenly sat up with a gasp.
"No", Buffy whispered, remembering what had happened last time something like this was going on. "No, please no."
While the future people knew Angel wasn't losing his soul, Summers still found this uncomfortable due to the creepy parallels with when he had lost his soul after sleeping with her.
"I can't even….." Buffy trailed off.
"Put the next one on", Harris told her. "Quickly."
"Will it…." Buffy started.
"Just do it", Summers said.
"There's some more", Maclay told her. "What Holland said was incomplete."
Buffy, almost like she was on autopilot, picked up the remote, coming to the next recording.
Well, this was hard to write due to how deep Holland's speech and Angel's realization was. While what Holland said was depressing, it was sadly true as well. Holland managed to break Angel without throwing a single punch. Now this is how you break a hero, sure the Dark Angel arc was terribly done, but this specific scene still worked due to the truth bomb in it. Though I still maintain the best breaking down of a hero was done in Daredevil Season 3, that was something else.
And since Buffy is more black-and-white compared to Angel, I think Holland's revelation will affect her as badly as it affected Angel.
Anyway, hope all enjoyed and see you all next time with another chapter. Stay safe from the coronavirus ya all!