Angel was sitting behind the old desk in his former office. He felt safe and comforted inside the rich and familiar green walls that surrounded him. Those were things he hadn't felt in quite sometime. Wesley and Cordelia were in front of him and there was an intense silence hanging between the three.

Angel had tried to explain everything as clearly as he could. But he did leave out some details along the way, like for instance, Connor, and Cordelia becoming all crazy evil. But he felt what he did tell them was certainly enough. Spike had tried to help him explain things but seemed to only make the entire situation worse with his off the cuff remarks such as "Well, if you think that's bad, Wes offed his Dad." In response to him trying to explain Illyria's earlier speech about why she still feels the world should grovel before her. Needless to say he told them to both stop helping.

And now here were two of his fallen in front of him. For a long time they had both sat, but now Wesley was up and pacing about the room. On the other side of the small office was Cordelia who was holding her head in her hands with her elbows propped up on her knees.

"So, one more time again, let me get this straight…" Cordelia said looking up "Were dead." She gestured to herself and Wes

"Yes."

"And Fred is dead too, but her body was inhabited by some sort of super old demon from the past with a penitent for leather catsuits."

"Yes" he replied again exhaling

Wesley joined in, "And Spike has a soul?"

"Yes, Spike has a soul."

"And Gunn…"

Angel cut him off. "Gunn had all the legal knowledge of pretty much every species of human and demon implanted in his brain. And now he is in the hospital because of a chance we took to try and overcome the impending Apocalypse that Wolfram and Hart is always going on and on about which, didn't necessarily go well for us. We have been over this already. Several times." He brought his hand up to the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes for a second.

"Okay, okay, look, I'm with you there" Cordelia said "but here is where I get a little thrown off." She paused then looked up at him with a lost expression on her face "We worked for who?"

Angel took a deep breath. They had been going around in circles like this for at least an hour. "Wolfram and Hart. Why is it easier for you two to accept death than to accept that?" he asked exasperated

"Well in all fairness Angel, it is Wolfram and Hart, it's not like you are saying we closed up shop and went to work at the local Dairy Queen." Replied Wesley

"I understand that it is hard to accept, but there were circumstances…"

"Which you have still yet to fully explain to us" broke in Wesley

"That man out there, Angel" Cordelia pointed outside the office into the lobby "That man would never work for Wolfram and Hart. Never."

"I'm not that man; not anymore. And there is no way I can go back to being that man again." He was both angry and quiet when he spoke. He just couldn't make them understand and even more frustrating was that part of him didn't understand either. He turned his back to them as tears began to form in his eyes, but he was determined not to let his emotions get the better of him.

On the other side of the door the other Angel was pacing in the lobby. Lorne was standing against the check in desk and Spike was sitting on the round ottoman-like sofa in the middle of the floor.

"A Soul?" Angel asked in disbelief. "You're not supposed to have a soul! I'm the vampire with a Soul. You're….you."

"Well Angel cakes, believe it. And not only is that a shock, but this boy can sing! That little number he did, well, it almost had me in tears!" the green demon said flapping his hands about as he spoke.

"Well just because you have a soul doesn't mean anything." He replied harshly pointing his finger at the blonde vampire

"Oh, but it does for you? Please, Angel, I saved the world! All noble and just, getting burned from the inside out. And where were you, but sitting behind a desk at Wolfram and Hart."

"That hasn't even happened yet! You can't use that as an example!"

Lorne stepped between them. "Okay, boys just calm down. We will figure something out. I'm quite sure that neither of you are evil so lets not go proving me wrong by killing each other." Lorne looked up to see Gunn coming from upstairs and he was grateful for the interruption.

Looking at Lorne, Gunn asked "What the hell are these two arguing about? And which one is that?" he asked pointing to Angel

"It's me Gunn. The other one is in there." Angel answered gesturing towards the conference room.

They had been in there for a while and he wondered what they were talking about. He wanted to be with them, but his other dimension self decided it was best if Spike was not with him. And there was no way he was going to leave him unattended to. That and it kinda squicked him to be looking at himself. After all the amount of times he saw his reflection in over 240 years, could be counted on one hand and even that was hard to handle.

"Well we need to color code you to or something. Kinda like those two up there." He pointed upstairs where Fred and Illyria were.

"You left Illyria alone with Fred?" asked Spike as if Gunn were nuts

"Well, yah, I mean you said she wasn't evil. And Fred seemed to really take to her. Kept babbling on about interdemensional whosa-whatsit or whatever. It is all over my head. Illyria didn't seem to mind her. She wasn't to crazy about the room though, all too small for her ass whooping self I suppose." He paused for a minute and finished making his way down the stairs. "So, now what are you two yelling about?"

"Spike has a soul." Angel spat out, and then as an afterthought added "Oh, and we work for Wolfram and Hart."

"Well, technically 'worked' would me a more appropriate word. After we tried to destroy them, well, I think it is fair to easy to say we received our final write up." Spike said sarcastically.

Gunn cut in "Whoa, back up a minute there" He turned and looked at Lorne "Did I just hear that correctly?" We worked for who."

"Oh you heard right cupcake. Trust me, I've seen it all and that is only the tip of the iceberg." Replied Lorne

"What is that supposed to mean?" Angel asked

"Honey, I'm not at liberty to say just yet. But all will be found out in due time. For now just count blessings that you are in the dark on this one. There is only so much one person can take." He smiled painfully thinking back to what he had seen of himself when Spike and Angel sang for him. At first he had been reluctant to hold anything back from the rest of the crew, but after seeing the story those two told he felt it was for the best. "Trust me."

Illyria stood by the window of Fred's new room starring into the vast expansion of the city. The tall buildings and street lights twinkled in the darkness of the night. Fred was standing by the bed putting away some things they had picked up for her on the way to the hotel.

"So, I'm still a little confused about this whole thing. Are you me? Or am I you? Or if I'm you or you're me does that mean that one of us doesn't really exist?" Illyria didn't answer her. Fred began to fold some clothes to put them in a drawer continuing "I wondered for a long time if I really existed but then they showed up to rescue me and I thought for sure this had to be real, well, not at first, but after a little while. You know?"

Illyria looked at her with cold blue eyes "You are an odd girl."

"Yah, I know, people keep saying that so I guess I should believe them." She paused as if thinking in depth about what she was going to say next and then continued "So, can you tell me how I came to be….um…blue?"

"I liquefied your insides until there was enough room inside you for my essence."

Fred looked at her wide eyed and blinked a few times thinking perhaps it wasn't the best idea to ask that question. Illyria then continued "Although I later found that this shell was not enough to hold me. My powers had to be diminished; otherwise I would have been ripped open from the power I contained inside."

Fred was unsure of what to say to that so she just went with the first thing she could think of stammering out "Oh…Well…that's nice." And then quickly changed the subject "So, you're like a god or something?"

"Or something." She answered solemnly returning her gaze to the window

"Does that mean you have like, special powers?" She asked turning back into her usual more chipper self. "When I was in Pylea I wished for special powers like everyday, like turn invisible or fly. It would be just wonderful to be able to fly, don't cha think? You could be like a bird and go anywhere you want without having to tell anybody anything. You could just escape, like magic. But not the bad magic that lands you in some hell place that you can't get out of." Illyria just starred at her for a moment and then turned back to the window. "Well, maybe it's not the same for you being a god and all." She finished quietly

"There is nothing I wish more than to escape the confines of these walls, but even the sky itself will not permit me to fly far enough. I fear I will never escape what I can not see."

"And what can't you see?" Fred asked interested

"The inside. I feel heavy and without guidance." She turned from the window to look at Fred "I should not care about these things, but the past events are now burned into my memory in a way that I can not escape. It is awkward and unpleasant. I wish for these feelings to end. I fear the past has more control then it should." Illyria quieted and turned back to looking out the window.

Fred thought for a moment about everything thing she had been through over the past five years. She sat down on the edge of the bed and looked over to her blue twin and said quietly "I know exactly what you mean."

TBC…