Chapter 14
Angel stood there, surrounded by the blackened and charred remains of his apartment, and stared at the crib that had once held Conner. Buffy lay on the bed, curled in on herself. She was still crying despite the fact that she was asleep. Angel had had to carry her home because when she had tried to stand, her legs hadn't been able to hold her and she had collapsed back onto the ground sobbing and repeating their son's name. They had stayed there, holding each other for about an hour.
Buffy had cried all the way back to the Hyperion. He couldn't bear to see her like this, but he was also not able to bear with the fact that his son, his miracle baby, was gone. Angel had drawn Sahjan the best he could remember. It was a way to vent a tiny portion of the grief he was feeling.
Finally, Angel stirred and went to Buffy. He touched her cheek lightly and wiped away the tears there. She opened her eyes and looked at him. They were red and puffy.
"Buffy, come on baby. We're gonna go and get our son back." Angel said gently.
"How?" she asked hoarsely.
"We're gonna look up this guy Sahjan, we might torture him, and he's gonna open the portal for us."
Buffy sat up, wiping the tears away. She looked down at Angel coldly, her demeanor changed before his eyes. She went from the fragile mother who had just lost her baby, to a hardened slayer that was ready to wreak vengeance on the people who took her son. "As long as I get to help with the torture."
"I promise, you will."
Fred and Gunn were standing across from Lorne in the lobby.
"I just don't believe it." Fred said.
"Yeah. It's true." Lorne answered.
"No. It can't be. The baby's not gone."
"I'm sorry, sweetie, but he is."
"Not like that. Not a portal." Gunn looked at her. "There, there is pulling and there is noise, and there is nothing to hold on to. Nothing at all..."
"Baby..." Gunn started.
"He must have been so scared."
Gunn wrapped her in his arms, "Shh. I know." He stroked Fred's hair. "This is making less and less sense." He turned to face Lorne. "You expect us to believe that Wesley, our Wesley, just walked up to Holtz and handed over Connor?"
"They'd been meeting secretly." Gunn threw up his hands. "I read that much before Wesley attacked me." Lorne said.
"Then you read him wrong!" Gunn said.
"He was not taking Connor for a stroll, Charles. When he left here with that child he wasn't planning on coming back, ever."
"God. Why?" Fred murmured.
Angel and Buffy came down the steps. "I don't care why. All I care about now is getting my son back. Then I'll deal with those responsible. They'll all pay. Including Wesley." Angel held Buffy's hand tightly. He looked at Lorne. "Quor-toth dimension. Ever hear of it?"
"No."
"That's where the portal lead. That's where our son is now. Quor-toth. Find out everything you can about it." Angel said.
"Yes." Lorne said as he left.
"We're going there, aren't we?" Gunn asked.
"I am." Angel said.
"You're not going alone." Buffy said.
"Right. We're with you all the way." Gunn put in.
"Good." Angel said.
"It's just..." Gunn started, then broke off.
"What?"
"Well, don't we need to open one of those portal's first?"
"Yeah."
"Right. But the last time we had to do that..." Angel and Buffy just looked at him. "I mean, well, it wasn't any of us that knew how. The guy that figured it out... Angel, how're we gonna do this without..."
"We don't need him."
"We don't?"
"No. We're gonna find that son of a bitch who opened up the portal in the first place." He dropped a sketchpad on the desk and sat down in Wes' chair, Buffy on his lap. "His name is Sahjhan. He's some kind of inter- dimensional demon." Fred and Gunn looked at the drawing of Sahjhan. "He's been behind this from the beginning."
At that moment Faith and Spike walked in.
"Hey guys, what's going on?" Faith asked cheerily. "I have food if anybody wants it."
When they just looked at her, Faith finally noticed the hardened faces of Buffy and Angel. She also noticed the slight redness of Buffy's eyes. She knew the other slayer had been crying.
"Oh God, what's happened? Where's Conner?" Faith asked.
"In hell." Buffy replied steely. "And we're gonna get him back."
"What do mean luv?" Spike asked.
"Wesley took Conner and gave him to Holtz. Holtz took our son and went to hell with him." Angel replied.
"Oh God B! I'm so sor." Faith started.
"Don't!" Buffy said. "Right now I'm not interested in anybody's sorries. All I want is to get my son back and make the people pay for what they did to my baby boy." Buffy's voice started to crack as she said baby boy, but she cut it off and turned off all emotions except hate and revenge.
"Then let's get to work. We're not going to get the little guy back just sittin' around here on out bleedin' asses." Spike said.
Gunn, Angel, and Spike were looking through files and books, while Fred was working on the laptop. Buffy and Faith were sitting in the lobby checking out weapons.
"I'm not finding anything on Sahjhan. Are you sure that's what you heard?" Fred asked.
"I'm sure. Maybe you're not spelling it right." Angel said.
"I tried every permutation in English anyway. It could be a nickname, which would probably be referenced in Phisto's Dictionary of Demons and Dimensional Spirits."
"Okay?"
"But it's in Ga-shundi and I don't read Gashundi."
Angel said to Gunn "Did we check the files?"
"They're in English. Cordelia's filing system isn't." he replied.
"She was keeping some kind of list of Time and Space shifting Entities."
"Okay. Would that be under Time, Space, Shifting, or Entities?"
"Let's just check them all."
Buffy walked in and went over to Angel. "Find anything?"
"Not yet." He replied.
Fred picked up the phone "It's Monday. What time is it in Mexico?"
Angel hurried over and put his finger on the phone, hanging up the connection.
"What are you doing?" Angel asked.
"Calling Cordelia."
"Why?"
"Why?"
Angel took the receiver from her and hung it up.
"I don't wanna ruin Cordelia's holiday."
"Angel, don't you think she would want us to call? Shouldn't we be telling her what happened? Maybe she could help."
"No!"
"Angel..."
"No, Angel's right! 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?" Buffy said, her voice breaking as she came close to crying again.
Fred said in a whisper. "Okay." She went to Buffy and hugged her. "We'll get him back."
Angel looked around the office. "I'm sorry."
"No." Fred said.
"This, this isn't working. Forget about all this. I gotta go." Angel walked out taking Buffy with him.
Fred stared after them. "Did he just say to forget about all this?"
"Yeah, he did." Spike said.
"You don't suppose he's decided to skip right to the 'dealing with those responsible' part, do you?" Fred asked.
"I think we need to find Wesley." Gunn said.
"Yeah."
They all hurried out.
Angel was staring at his weapons cabinet when Lorne walked into the lobby and came to stand behind him.
"Hey. I, I talked to a couple of different sources like you asked. Angel the news isn't good. This, this Quor-toth dimension is... everyone I spoke to is afraid of it." Lorne said.
Angel walked over to the desk and looked through the drawers. He pulled out a staple remover and held it up next to his ear, clicking it.
"And these are not easily rattled people. And that's, that's not all." Lorne continued.
Angel dropped the staple remover and picked up the spike holding old notes and started to pull them off.
"The portal you saw opened? It was no portal, because there are no portals to Quor-toth."
Angel examined the tip of the spike.
"The only way in is to rip right thorough the fabric of reality."
Angel walked past Lorne and started up the stairs. Lorne sighed and followed him.
"This isn't a matter of finding an inter-dimensional hotspot or conjuring and opening it with a simple incantation. To punch through to Quor-toth would require dark, dark magicks, the kind of power it takes centuries to build."
Angel, still apparently ignoring Lorne, stopped in front of the door of his old apartment.
"Angel, I know this isn't easy for you but you got to hear it. If you somehow managed to get in, finding Connor would be like looking for a needle in a haystack the size of China."
"Needles. Should have thought of that." Angel said.
Angel entered his old apartment.
"You just don't have the resources to conjure up that much dark power."
Tied to the chair in the middle of Angel's scorched apartment was Linwood. Buffy stood off to the side, staring callously at Linwood.
"Oh, I think we do." Buffy said.
Angel took a pair of scissors from Buffy.
"Angel? Who is this?" Lorne asked.
"Linwood Murrow, division president of Special Projects at Wolfram and Hart and you are?" Linwood said.
"Ah, deeply troubled."
"Then you, Angel, and that Slayer over there have a lot in common. Abducting an employee of Wolfram and Hart, then again, they might be too troubled to consider the consequences."
Angel was arranging different implements on a table behind Linwood.
"Once the firm finds out what you've done..."
Angel, inspected a razor blade "...they'd kill you before they kill me."
"Angel, Buffy, this isn't some slimy demon you got trussed up here. He's human," Lorne glanced at Linwood, "marginally, but still. This isn't gonna bring Connor back."
"He better hope it does." Buffy said.
"Do you even know what you're doing?"
"At last count, the charges were kidnapping, assault and battery and attempt..." Linwood started, but he trailed off as Angel sat down the tray that held his chosen implements on the table next to Linwood, and stared as Angel picked up the note-spike.
"...none of which I intend to press. In fact, let's not press anything, shall we?" Angel sat down across from him, the spike in hand. Buffy leaned over on Linwood's shoulder and looked at Angel. "Wanna find your son? I can guarantee that the full force and faith of Wolfram and Hart will be at your disposal."
Angel leaned in close, the tip of the spike hovered in front of Linwood's right eye.
"Who is Sahjhan? How do I get my hands on him?" Buffy looked at him. "We, how do WE get our hands on him?"
'If you'll just hit 'three' on my speed dial... the cell phone's in my jacket pocket."
After beat, Buffy slid her hand down Linwood's chest and pulled out Linwood's cell, pushing three. She held the ringing phone to Linwood's ear.
"Hello Lilah. I'm sending over a couple of clients, and I want you to listen very carefully because I have explicit instructions on how to deal with them. Give them anything they want."
Lilah, Angel, and Buffy walked down the halls of Wolfram and Hart.
"Kidnapping Linwood. You guys are really stepping up to it. The white room. I mean, they just don't talk about it. God, the white room. I was here three years before I even heard of it. Did he tell you what was in it?"
"Answers." Angel said as they came to an elevator. "Up or down?"
"Up."
Angel pushed the up button and they entered. Once inside Angel pulled out a piece of paper then punched the floor buttons in a certain sequence.
"He tell you how to get there? There was a guy in litigation. He went to the white room in September. He's in an asylum now." Lilah continued.
Angel pulled out one of the buttons, and a new, bigger button appeared above the other ones.
"Wow. I should probably hold on to..."
Lilah reached for the paper in Angel's hand, but he stuffed it in his pocket. Angel pushed the button and the elevator dissolved into a blinding white light. When the brightness dimmed, Angel, Buffy, and Lilah found themselves in a big, white, empty room.
"Hello." A little girl's voice said behind them.
They turned around to see a little girl sitting primly in a chair.
"Angel the vampire with a soul. Buffy the vampire Slayer. Lilah, your fingernails are pretty. I love red." She turned to Angel. "You have a taste for red, too and revenge. I know. It's so much more fun than forgiveness. So what's up?"
"A demon named Sahjhan has taken our son." Angel said.
"Oh, do you want you little baby back?"
Angel took a step forward, but Buffy put a hand on his arm and he stopped.
"Baby's gone. You want Sahjhan. Nowadays you can walk right through him, but in the past they were something else."
A picture appeared and they saw Sahjhan cutting off one warrior's head then turning to engage another armored warrior in a scraggly forest.
"They were all about torture and death. You can relate. Well, they caused a lot of trouble. Don't get me wrong. I like trouble. But I hate chaos. So we changed 'em."
"You made them immaterial." Angel said.
"Smart boy."
They saw Sahjhan attack another warrior, but their weapons went right through the other without causing any kind of damage.
"Now they watch, and they can no longer touch."
"How do you capture them?" Buffy asked.
"Well, there is a special urn."
The picture changed and they saw an urn and some chanting monks. A demon like Sahjhan came into the chamber. One of the monks opened the urn and the demon was sucked into it in a streak of light.
"They're expensive and hard to come by. But you don't want his essence in a jar. You want something you can sink your teeth into." Angel slowly turned his head to look at Lilah. "You know these things always come at a price. Kill Lilah."
Lilah looked from the girl, then to Angel, who was reaching over without hesitation to break Lilah's neck. The girl let out a giggle, but stopped him before he could complete the action.
"That's good for now." Angel let Lilah go. "I can see why they respect you. Now, as to your demon made flesh. It's a big ritual. All here."
The girl held up her hand. On it lay a folded piece of parchment. The paper disappeared from her hand and reappeared in Buffy's.
"Can't wait to see how it turns out." The girl said as the room flared white and disappeared.
Angel straightened up from painting a pentagram on the floor of the Hyperion's lobby.
"Angel, please do not do this thing. We'll find some other way."
"There is no other way." Lilah said.
"You know, not speaking would be a really good look for you." Buffy said.
"How's that?"
"Looks about right."
"What's next?"
"What's next is we reconsider this. Angel, you guys are messing with primordial powers of darkness here!"
Angel said to Buffy "Next?"
"Buddy, is this really how you two want to get Connor back?"
"What's next!?" Angel said glaring at Lorne.
Buffy consulted the notes. "Human blood."
Angel took the paper from her and read it, then he looked from Lorne, to Buffy, then to Lilah. Lilah turned and she, Buffy, and Angel looked at Linwood sitting, bound to his chair, across from the pentagram.
Lilah picked up a knife and walked over to stand in front of Linwood. Never taking her eyes off his face she slowly sliced the knife across the palm of her left hand, then she went and dribbled some of her blood onto the middle of the pentagram.
Angel turned out the lights and started to read from the paper. "Corpus granok Sahjhan demonicus."
A blue light began to swirl around the painted circle, and then congealed into a vaguely humanoid shape in the middle of the pentagram. Angel and Buffy reached for their battle-axes. There was a flash of light and a burst of wind and then the pentagram was dark and empty again.
"Where is he? Huh?" Angel asked.
Angel banged the ax into the floor then leveled it at Linwood "Where is he?!" Linwood had no answer.
Angel stood there, surrounded by the blackened and charred remains of his apartment, and stared at the crib that had once held Conner. Buffy lay on the bed, curled in on herself. She was still crying despite the fact that she was asleep. Angel had had to carry her home because when she had tried to stand, her legs hadn't been able to hold her and she had collapsed back onto the ground sobbing and repeating their son's name. They had stayed there, holding each other for about an hour.
Buffy had cried all the way back to the Hyperion. He couldn't bear to see her like this, but he was also not able to bear with the fact that his son, his miracle baby, was gone. Angel had drawn Sahjan the best he could remember. It was a way to vent a tiny portion of the grief he was feeling.
Finally, Angel stirred and went to Buffy. He touched her cheek lightly and wiped away the tears there. She opened her eyes and looked at him. They were red and puffy.
"Buffy, come on baby. We're gonna go and get our son back." Angel said gently.
"How?" she asked hoarsely.
"We're gonna look up this guy Sahjan, we might torture him, and he's gonna open the portal for us."
Buffy sat up, wiping the tears away. She looked down at Angel coldly, her demeanor changed before his eyes. She went from the fragile mother who had just lost her baby, to a hardened slayer that was ready to wreak vengeance on the people who took her son. "As long as I get to help with the torture."
"I promise, you will."
Fred and Gunn were standing across from Lorne in the lobby.
"I just don't believe it." Fred said.
"Yeah. It's true." Lorne answered.
"No. It can't be. The baby's not gone."
"I'm sorry, sweetie, but he is."
"Not like that. Not a portal." Gunn looked at her. "There, there is pulling and there is noise, and there is nothing to hold on to. Nothing at all..."
"Baby..." Gunn started.
"He must have been so scared."
Gunn wrapped her in his arms, "Shh. I know." He stroked Fred's hair. "This is making less and less sense." He turned to face Lorne. "You expect us to believe that Wesley, our Wesley, just walked up to Holtz and handed over Connor?"
"They'd been meeting secretly." Gunn threw up his hands. "I read that much before Wesley attacked me." Lorne said.
"Then you read him wrong!" Gunn said.
"He was not taking Connor for a stroll, Charles. When he left here with that child he wasn't planning on coming back, ever."
"God. Why?" Fred murmured.
Angel and Buffy came down the steps. "I don't care why. All I care about now is getting my son back. Then I'll deal with those responsible. They'll all pay. Including Wesley." Angel held Buffy's hand tightly. He looked at Lorne. "Quor-toth dimension. Ever hear of it?"
"No."
"That's where the portal lead. That's where our son is now. Quor-toth. Find out everything you can about it." Angel said.
"Yes." Lorne said as he left.
"We're going there, aren't we?" Gunn asked.
"I am." Angel said.
"You're not going alone." Buffy said.
"Right. We're with you all the way." Gunn put in.
"Good." Angel said.
"It's just..." Gunn started, then broke off.
"What?"
"Well, don't we need to open one of those portal's first?"
"Yeah."
"Right. But the last time we had to do that..." Angel and Buffy just looked at him. "I mean, well, it wasn't any of us that knew how. The guy that figured it out... Angel, how're we gonna do this without..."
"We don't need him."
"We don't?"
"No. We're gonna find that son of a bitch who opened up the portal in the first place." He dropped a sketchpad on the desk and sat down in Wes' chair, Buffy on his lap. "His name is Sahjhan. He's some kind of inter- dimensional demon." Fred and Gunn looked at the drawing of Sahjhan. "He's been behind this from the beginning."
At that moment Faith and Spike walked in.
"Hey guys, what's going on?" Faith asked cheerily. "I have food if anybody wants it."
When they just looked at her, Faith finally noticed the hardened faces of Buffy and Angel. She also noticed the slight redness of Buffy's eyes. She knew the other slayer had been crying.
"Oh God, what's happened? Where's Conner?" Faith asked.
"In hell." Buffy replied steely. "And we're gonna get him back."
"What do mean luv?" Spike asked.
"Wesley took Conner and gave him to Holtz. Holtz took our son and went to hell with him." Angel replied.
"Oh God B! I'm so sor." Faith started.
"Don't!" Buffy said. "Right now I'm not interested in anybody's sorries. All I want is to get my son back and make the people pay for what they did to my baby boy." Buffy's voice started to crack as she said baby boy, but she cut it off and turned off all emotions except hate and revenge.
"Then let's get to work. We're not going to get the little guy back just sittin' around here on out bleedin' asses." Spike said.
Gunn, Angel, and Spike were looking through files and books, while Fred was working on the laptop. Buffy and Faith were sitting in the lobby checking out weapons.
"I'm not finding anything on Sahjhan. Are you sure that's what you heard?" Fred asked.
"I'm sure. Maybe you're not spelling it right." Angel said.
"I tried every permutation in English anyway. It could be a nickname, which would probably be referenced in Phisto's Dictionary of Demons and Dimensional Spirits."
"Okay?"
"But it's in Ga-shundi and I don't read Gashundi."
Angel said to Gunn "Did we check the files?"
"They're in English. Cordelia's filing system isn't." he replied.
"She was keeping some kind of list of Time and Space shifting Entities."
"Okay. Would that be under Time, Space, Shifting, or Entities?"
"Let's just check them all."
Buffy walked in and went over to Angel. "Find anything?"
"Not yet." He replied.
Fred picked up the phone "It's Monday. What time is it in Mexico?"
Angel hurried over and put his finger on the phone, hanging up the connection.
"What are you doing?" Angel asked.
"Calling Cordelia."
"Why?"
"Why?"
Angel took the receiver from her and hung it up.
"I don't wanna ruin Cordelia's holiday."
"Angel, don't you think she would want us to call? Shouldn't we be telling her what happened? Maybe she could help."
"No!"
"Angel..."
"No, Angel's right! 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?" Buffy said, her voice breaking as she came close to crying again.
Fred said in a whisper. "Okay." She went to Buffy and hugged her. "We'll get him back."
Angel looked around the office. "I'm sorry."
"No." Fred said.
"This, this isn't working. Forget about all this. I gotta go." Angel walked out taking Buffy with him.
Fred stared after them. "Did he just say to forget about all this?"
"Yeah, he did." Spike said.
"You don't suppose he's decided to skip right to the 'dealing with those responsible' part, do you?" Fred asked.
"I think we need to find Wesley." Gunn said.
"Yeah."
They all hurried out.
Angel was staring at his weapons cabinet when Lorne walked into the lobby and came to stand behind him.
"Hey. I, I talked to a couple of different sources like you asked. Angel the news isn't good. This, this Quor-toth dimension is... everyone I spoke to is afraid of it." Lorne said.
Angel walked over to the desk and looked through the drawers. He pulled out a staple remover and held it up next to his ear, clicking it.
"And these are not easily rattled people. And that's, that's not all." Lorne continued.
Angel dropped the staple remover and picked up the spike holding old notes and started to pull them off.
"The portal you saw opened? It was no portal, because there are no portals to Quor-toth."
Angel examined the tip of the spike.
"The only way in is to rip right thorough the fabric of reality."
Angel walked past Lorne and started up the stairs. Lorne sighed and followed him.
"This isn't a matter of finding an inter-dimensional hotspot or conjuring and opening it with a simple incantation. To punch through to Quor-toth would require dark, dark magicks, the kind of power it takes centuries to build."
Angel, still apparently ignoring Lorne, stopped in front of the door of his old apartment.
"Angel, I know this isn't easy for you but you got to hear it. If you somehow managed to get in, finding Connor would be like looking for a needle in a haystack the size of China."
"Needles. Should have thought of that." Angel said.
Angel entered his old apartment.
"You just don't have the resources to conjure up that much dark power."
Tied to the chair in the middle of Angel's scorched apartment was Linwood. Buffy stood off to the side, staring callously at Linwood.
"Oh, I think we do." Buffy said.
Angel took a pair of scissors from Buffy.
"Angel? Who is this?" Lorne asked.
"Linwood Murrow, division president of Special Projects at Wolfram and Hart and you are?" Linwood said.
"Ah, deeply troubled."
"Then you, Angel, and that Slayer over there have a lot in common. Abducting an employee of Wolfram and Hart, then again, they might be too troubled to consider the consequences."
Angel was arranging different implements on a table behind Linwood.
"Once the firm finds out what you've done..."
Angel, inspected a razor blade "...they'd kill you before they kill me."
"Angel, Buffy, this isn't some slimy demon you got trussed up here. He's human," Lorne glanced at Linwood, "marginally, but still. This isn't gonna bring Connor back."
"He better hope it does." Buffy said.
"Do you even know what you're doing?"
"At last count, the charges were kidnapping, assault and battery and attempt..." Linwood started, but he trailed off as Angel sat down the tray that held his chosen implements on the table next to Linwood, and stared as Angel picked up the note-spike.
"...none of which I intend to press. In fact, let's not press anything, shall we?" Angel sat down across from him, the spike in hand. Buffy leaned over on Linwood's shoulder and looked at Angel. "Wanna find your son? I can guarantee that the full force and faith of Wolfram and Hart will be at your disposal."
Angel leaned in close, the tip of the spike hovered in front of Linwood's right eye.
"Who is Sahjhan? How do I get my hands on him?" Buffy looked at him. "We, how do WE get our hands on him?"
'If you'll just hit 'three' on my speed dial... the cell phone's in my jacket pocket."
After beat, Buffy slid her hand down Linwood's chest and pulled out Linwood's cell, pushing three. She held the ringing phone to Linwood's ear.
"Hello Lilah. I'm sending over a couple of clients, and I want you to listen very carefully because I have explicit instructions on how to deal with them. Give them anything they want."
Lilah, Angel, and Buffy walked down the halls of Wolfram and Hart.
"Kidnapping Linwood. You guys are really stepping up to it. The white room. I mean, they just don't talk about it. God, the white room. I was here three years before I even heard of it. Did he tell you what was in it?"
"Answers." Angel said as they came to an elevator. "Up or down?"
"Up."
Angel pushed the up button and they entered. Once inside Angel pulled out a piece of paper then punched the floor buttons in a certain sequence.
"He tell you how to get there? There was a guy in litigation. He went to the white room in September. He's in an asylum now." Lilah continued.
Angel pulled out one of the buttons, and a new, bigger button appeared above the other ones.
"Wow. I should probably hold on to..."
Lilah reached for the paper in Angel's hand, but he stuffed it in his pocket. Angel pushed the button and the elevator dissolved into a blinding white light. When the brightness dimmed, Angel, Buffy, and Lilah found themselves in a big, white, empty room.
"Hello." A little girl's voice said behind them.
They turned around to see a little girl sitting primly in a chair.
"Angel the vampire with a soul. Buffy the vampire Slayer. Lilah, your fingernails are pretty. I love red." She turned to Angel. "You have a taste for red, too and revenge. I know. It's so much more fun than forgiveness. So what's up?"
"A demon named Sahjhan has taken our son." Angel said.
"Oh, do you want you little baby back?"
Angel took a step forward, but Buffy put a hand on his arm and he stopped.
"Baby's gone. You want Sahjhan. Nowadays you can walk right through him, but in the past they were something else."
A picture appeared and they saw Sahjhan cutting off one warrior's head then turning to engage another armored warrior in a scraggly forest.
"They were all about torture and death. You can relate. Well, they caused a lot of trouble. Don't get me wrong. I like trouble. But I hate chaos. So we changed 'em."
"You made them immaterial." Angel said.
"Smart boy."
They saw Sahjhan attack another warrior, but their weapons went right through the other without causing any kind of damage.
"Now they watch, and they can no longer touch."
"How do you capture them?" Buffy asked.
"Well, there is a special urn."
The picture changed and they saw an urn and some chanting monks. A demon like Sahjhan came into the chamber. One of the monks opened the urn and the demon was sucked into it in a streak of light.
"They're expensive and hard to come by. But you don't want his essence in a jar. You want something you can sink your teeth into." Angel slowly turned his head to look at Lilah. "You know these things always come at a price. Kill Lilah."
Lilah looked from the girl, then to Angel, who was reaching over without hesitation to break Lilah's neck. The girl let out a giggle, but stopped him before he could complete the action.
"That's good for now." Angel let Lilah go. "I can see why they respect you. Now, as to your demon made flesh. It's a big ritual. All here."
The girl held up her hand. On it lay a folded piece of parchment. The paper disappeared from her hand and reappeared in Buffy's.
"Can't wait to see how it turns out." The girl said as the room flared white and disappeared.
Angel straightened up from painting a pentagram on the floor of the Hyperion's lobby.
"Angel, please do not do this thing. We'll find some other way."
"There is no other way." Lilah said.
"You know, not speaking would be a really good look for you." Buffy said.
"How's that?"
"Looks about right."
"What's next?"
"What's next is we reconsider this. Angel, you guys are messing with primordial powers of darkness here!"
Angel said to Buffy "Next?"
"Buddy, is this really how you two want to get Connor back?"
"What's next!?" Angel said glaring at Lorne.
Buffy consulted the notes. "Human blood."
Angel took the paper from her and read it, then he looked from Lorne, to Buffy, then to Lilah. Lilah turned and she, Buffy, and Angel looked at Linwood sitting, bound to his chair, across from the pentagram.
Lilah picked up a knife and walked over to stand in front of Linwood. Never taking her eyes off his face she slowly sliced the knife across the palm of her left hand, then she went and dribbled some of her blood onto the middle of the pentagram.
Angel turned out the lights and started to read from the paper. "Corpus granok Sahjhan demonicus."
A blue light began to swirl around the painted circle, and then congealed into a vaguely humanoid shape in the middle of the pentagram. Angel and Buffy reached for their battle-axes. There was a flash of light and a burst of wind and then the pentagram was dark and empty again.
"Where is he? Huh?" Angel asked.
Angel banged the ax into the floor then leveled it at Linwood "Where is he?!" Linwood had no answer.