Never Fade Away
Again, I was away for a long time and then started drowning with a sudden onslaught of laziness and an extreme amount of work. I'm terribly sorry about that. This is a VERY short chapter. Last chapter I mentioned Lindsey's death (I'm very partial on the subject), now I'm afraid I have to justify it, because there /was/ a reason. Both for Joss and Angel.
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Chapter 4: Angel- Reason
It wasn't exactly fair, perhaps. Life, Angel had discovered (somewhere during his first few years being dead), was not always fair. Yet he had to ruin Wolfram and Hart. He had to destroy every thing of it that he could. If he could freeze the gears for just a fraction of an instant, it would be a fraction of an instant of victory. If it all came crashing down afterwards, he would face that. He hadn't ordered them to stand by his side. He had requested it, and they had all faced the consequences willingly.
Some of them, like Wesley, had paid the price miserably. All of them had somehow been changed by the experience. Even Lorne had been influenced, though he had played a role he would have preferred to abandon. They hadn't truly won, but they had decimated the law firm's forces. They had taken power from them, proving them to not be infallible.
There was one casualty that had been predictable, because Angel had made sure Lindsey wouldn't be able to meet them in the alley. It might not have been a wise decision, but it had been necessary. Lindsey was still a part of Wolfram and Hart. He was still bound to them. That contract didn't break.
In that way, it was a bit of mercy. At least in death, he had some hope of being free, even if Lilah had been pulled back to play a final role. Wolfram and Hart would have hunted him down if he had lived, and they would have punished him severely for defying and then escaping them.
In another way, it was a bit vindictive. It could easily be viewed as just getting revenge for all that had happened before. That wasn't the reason for all of this. They were pretty much equal when it came to seeking vengeance, since they both attempted it so frequently.
They had ended every piece of Wolfram and Hart that they could in that fight, and Lindsey had been part of it.
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All inspiration for this story has simply gone up in flames- flames of the non-reviewing sort, I mean, since my reviewers were all exceptionally kind. I really didn't want it to, but it's just... empty now. I had to force myself to write this chapter. Consider it finished, okay? I'll have one last chapter (which I'll post today) as a tribute. Thank you to everyone who reviewed, I love you all.
Imzadi: I want to thank you for writing that review, especially since A.) It was the only one for chapter 3, and B.) It worked out so nicely for the subject of this chapter. I know Lorne disappointed us all a little. Of course, I had to write the other side, as well. Hope you like it.
As for a previous question posed, I think that yes, you can sign away your fate. People do it every day. You can change your life with simply a swish of a pen and the writing of your name. Of course, fate is hard to figure out, because it might already have incorporated that change...?