Chapter 2

Angel slid open the door to the warehouse. He knew that it was around 4:40 am. He could smell the sun even though sunrise wasn't for almost another two hours or so. It was dark inside but he could see to two women easily enough on the far side of the wide space. As he crossed the distance to them he noticed that the wide space would be perfect for training, a lot of room to move around in.

Illyria greeted Angel in her normal cold silent glare. She turned back to look at the ground after a moment. Angel flashed back to the time he and Wesley had locked down at her in Fred's lab.

"She's either counting oxygen molecules or analyzing the petri dish she just put into her mouth. Or sleeping. I can never quite tell." Wesley said after Angel had entered.

Some things don't change Angel thought.

Angel then focused to the dark corner where Dana was drawing on the dusty floor. And some things do change. He had never seen Dana draw or doodle or anything artistic for that matter. He hesitated not knowing if he should disturb her. Out of all three he was the least physically strong but his skills surpassed Dana if she ever decided to fight him. It was still not a reaction Angel wanted to provoke.

"Uh…Dana, what are you doing?" Angel said making up his mind to take the risk.

Dana's head lifted up. "Last night, the park." She looked back down at what she was doing. "It has been a wile since I fought humans." Dana stopped drawing and looked like she had finished.

"Can I see?" Angel asked. She didn't answer so he made his way behind her and looked down. The dust had been moved around by her finger. It was nothing but zig-zag-lines and scrapings. "Hum. Interesting technique. How do you feel about this peace?"

Dana turned her head to look up at him. "Was that a joke?"

Angel took a moment to think about it. He didn't know. His own humor had changed over time from not having one to being… more dramatic. But now he didn't really know what kind of sense of humor he had. "I don't know. Just trying to fill the silence I guess."

"Does the silence bother you," Dana asked. She sat Indian style and her neck looked uncomfortable turned so far to look up at him.

Angel worked his way back in front of her to take the edge out of her neck. "Not really, believe it or not there was a time when I wished for silence." Dana didn't answer. Angel assuming she wanted him to continue talking so he went on. "I enjoyed sitting in the dark alone reading a book or something. I didn't have a lot of friends back then."

"Do you now?" The question came from Illyria. She had come out of her examination of the dirt. "Do you believe you now have friends or are you as you were, alone in this small world where people close themselves up in smaller rooms."

Angel was silent again thinking over the question. "No," he said after a long moment. "I don't have the same friends I had before," Angel looked at Dana and back to Illyria, "but I have you two as my allies."

"But not friends." Dana said.

Angel looked at Dana. She was small and pail, her hair was dark and messy. Then he looked at Illyria. Blue hair and face with that read leather body suit. His mouth was in a firm line. He trusted Illyria, even felt like he understood her. They spent months together joined at the hip trying to stay alive after the fall of Wolfram & Heart. You don't spend that kind of time getting to know someone with out understanding a little about them. Dana was still such a mystery to him. He knew she was brutalized and tortured when she was a little girl and it was enough to drive her insane. Through their short time together he found her to be hard working and helpful but he still didn't have a feel for her. Until last night he had never seen her fight with a passion for destruction. All her fighting had been more like an android or robot, just going through the motions. Where these two people his friends? Did they think of him as a friend?

Angel walked off into his corner. He had found an old folding chair and sat down in it. He let out a breath of air and remained quit. He didn't know. What could he say? Could he lie? It would have been easier.

"I got the job, if either of you were curious."

Illyria gave one of her rare half smiles but gave no vocal response. The rarity of her smiles was only equaled to the amount of times Angel now changed subjects. She knew he no longer, at least in most cases, had any problem hurting peoples feeling or lying to accomplish his goal.

Dana picked up on the happier topic. "What does a bouncer do?"

"He throws people out of human opium dens when they act undesirably." Illyria answered. Angel gave Illyria a surprised look. "Winifred Burkle." Illyria said as if it were the answer to Angel's unasked question. "Human recreation often surrounds chemicals and fumes that incapacitate them physically and mentally. As a bouncer you will throw them out if they become violent."

"No," Angel said. He gave a short laugh at Illyria's presentation on the recreation of humans. What was really funny was she was probably right.

"What is Illyria wrong about, the humans and chemicals or you throwing people out?" Dana asked. She looked intently at Angel ready for the answer. She was the one that when out the most but she still had little understanding about people. She spent her life in a PSYCO ward and even when she was in Rome, Buffy and Gilles kept her in, trying to teach her they said.

"The humans and drugs," Angel said. "I will throw people out who are violent or not behaving appropriately at the club. And P3 from what I've heard is a clean place. Just young people dancing and drinking…"

"And doing drugs." Illyria filled in the last part of the sentence. Her face didn't show signs of amusement but Angel could see her eyes were enjoying the joke.

Dana broke out in low giggles. Angel shook his head and Illyria observed all. Moments like these where the three of them could let their harts feel something other than grief and pain were rare, even more than Illyria's smiles.

Piper got up good and early in the morning. She looked around and found the clock on her nightstand. It was Thursday and the clock read 5:45 am. The house was quiet. That was vary rare, especially after baby Chris came into the house.

She got up and looked out the window. It wasn't even light out. The darkness reminded her or the other night in the park. She was not afraid anymore now that it was over. She thought back to the girl. She had only seen the kid for a moment and even then she didn't really see her.

A feeling of sympathy came into her as she reviewed what she remembered about the child. She was small with dirty shoulder length brown hair. Piper hadn't thought about it but the kid was also dirty, like she hadn't had a bath in a long time. And pail not sickly but just not enough vitamin D and not enough food. That hit home for Piper, she was cook and the memory of the kid heroin not eating made her feel bad in that 'guilty for having so much way'.

There was something she was forgetting. Something she knew that she hadn't told Daryl but she couldn't put her finger on it. The girls name! She had heard someone call the girl's name, but what was it. Piper sat on the edge of the bed trying to figure out what it was. D… it started with a D. Da… Da something. It was short like only four letters. Dana! That was it. That female voice had called Dana. Piper stood up. A name was a start maybe she could do something from that.

As she was about to open the door she realized the stupidity of that idea, what was she going to do, feed her? The kid was violent. She killed three people and seriously injured 14 others. Did this girl really even need help? Did she really want to find this girl? The cops were looking for this kid. Finding her might not be a good thing for her or her family. Piper finally figured that now that she remembered the girl's name was a good thing but she should file it away until she could use it.

"Waaaaaaa, Waaaaaaaaaaaaaa…" Chris was crying. Piper smiled and went into the nursery to take care of the kid she could help.

Paige got up around 6:15 am. She had to get to Magic school and make sure things were running. She was still new to the whole thing. She made her way downstairs and into the kitchen. She saw Piper nursing baby Chris.

"Good morning." Paige said as she made a B-line to the coffee.

"Morning,"

"You're up early." Paige observed.

"Big guy here was hungry." Piper gave Chris a little bounce after he was finished. "So what do you have going for you today?"

"Well, I am in the process of interviewing staff."

"What is their like a labor shortage around here?" Piper said.

"Hu?"

"Well I have to hire new people and you have to hire new people; it just all seems strange if you know what I mean."

"No, I've had to do this ever since I got the job; you had two bouncers that got their heads busted. No real similarity to me."

"You're probably right."

"Yes, I am a teacher and educator I know all."

Both women giggled and went on their own separate tasks. Before Paige left she stuck her head back in to the kitchen, "Oh, and I just wanted to remind you that those two new guys Phoebe hired are starting tomorrow."

"Yah, I remember." Paige orbed out and Piper faced baby Chris again, "And I bet their going to be saps," she said in a cutzy baby voice to Chris.

At Magic School Paige was sitting behind her desk going over papers.

"Miss Mathews," Ben was at the door, "can I come in?"

"Sure, Ben, and I told you call me Paige."

"Ah, no, after that hole kiss when you were a kid just makes it feel strange for me so if you don't mind Miss Mathews."

"Well Okay. What can I do for you?"

"Ah, well, I'm not really sure but if you haven't noticed it some of the students are saying their powers are going 'weird'. It may just be nothing and I know some of them are just trying to get attention but still I think I should still bring it to your attention."

"Yah," Paige said. Her face was a total blank, "Well, I will try to look into it." Ben nodded his head and turned to walk out. "Oh ah Ben," Paige said and he turned around. "You haven't told anyone about that…ah…kiss have you?"

Ben smiled and shook his head as he left. Paige smiled and went back to work. There was a stack of résumés that she had to go through. It didn't take long until she forgot all about the kids and powers malfunctioning. It was all she could do to stay awake reading the pages after pages.

Angel was walking around Dana who was standing rigidly in the center of a ring he and Illyria had constructed. He didn't have to leave until around 5: 20 so he had several hours that he could designate to training Dana. She had stopped trying to fallow him with her eyes and now was just standing rigidly.

He side stepped in on her left side and side-kicked. Angel's bare foot made contact with Dana's shoulder, but not hard. Dana recovered from the attack and tried to counter by lunging at him. She was squared off with him and left her stomach exposed. Angel ducked under her first swing and countered with a back front kick to her midsection. Dana again recovered and changed her stance to leave less of herself exposed.

Illyria watched her two companions sparing. From the memories of the Shell she had been sifting through everything Winifred Burkle had stored on Angel since she and him had survived the retribution of the Wolf Ram and Hart. 'Fred' had known a different Angel from the one that Illyria traveled with.

Illyria found in intriguing how these creatures changed. A year ago she had called it weakness and appeasement.

"This Shell," Illyria addressed Spike. "You had affection for it. For Fred."

"Uh-huh. Tons. Loved the bird."

"Yet you strike at her form without sentiment."

"You ain't her." Spike had countered. "I can see it. Lord knows, I can smell it. And I got no problem hitting it." He had then attacked and managed to stick his knee into her side.

"You are adapting." She said.

"We do that."

"Adaptation is compromise." She tried to kick his legs out from under him but he jumped up and avoided her move.

"It's called learning."

Illyria surprised herself when she realized she now agreed. Spike had been a good example of adaptation. Now, Angel served as her model.

Illyria never bothered to over think the subject but she knew that this Angel that she now walked through the world with was different from the Shell's 'champion'. He was darker, more self contained and controlled. He didn't feel things the way he once did. It took more to anger him, in fact the more difficult the world the more stalwart Angel would become. Maybe it was because he no longer wished to become human. It also could have had to do with the knowledge that he was alone in this world.

Illyria could relate with being alone. Once the name Illyria meant something. It had commanded legions and controlled destinies. Everything feared Illyria back then. Now she was diminished, more human, no longer a god. She had lost her guide, Wesley, and now she too was alone.

Illyria watched as Angel knocked Dana to the ground by kicking her knee out from under her. Illyria was fond of the child slayer. She had strength that Illyria had seen from the moment she asked to accompany them. Angel had informed her of what happened to Dana and her past affiliation with him and Spike. Illyria also had the remaining memories from the shell to tell her about Dana. The child was in the right place with her and the vampire. Three individuals that learned and guided each other through this world of pain and loss.

"Ahh, ahh," Dana said as Angel twisted her arm behind her back. Illyria watched on.

"Don't let me get so close." Angel's voice was calm and unstrained by the physical effort. "Remember I don't need a weapon." Angel's face changed into his fears vampire persona. "I've already have them."

He then threw Dana up into the air but she was able to land on her feet with little more than an "humph".

"Think of a strategy and stay with it." Angel stood down and motioned for Dana to come to him. "You start out good. You are calm, controlled. But, you get personal, you get close. You depend too much on your strength and try to overpower me."

Dana looked at Angel. Her eyes were dark. He wasn't sure if she was even listening to him anymore. "You need to focus your energy into precise points. When you punch make it straight and try to make the point of contact hurt as much as possible. When you get so close you can't put as much power behind your punch and you are forced to make it go wide."

Dana nodded her head. She listened to everything Angel had said. He was right, she went too wide and she needed to keep her distance. He had the advantage in close proximity. She couldn't use her superior strength if she couldn't get the leverage, and he did have his own weapons.

Angel relaxed and looked at the ceiling. He took a sniff. "The sun won't go down for another few hours. What do you say you and I go hunting?"

Dana blinked. Angel and Illyria had always done the hunting. "Us?"

Angel looked down at her. "You can practice on someone you actually intend to kill. Also if we are going to stay we need to start getting back into the…." He looked at Illyria to fill in the last part of his thought.

Illyria nodded her head, but didn't say a word. "There are many demons in this city. I would enjoy removing their jaws and cheek bones."

Dana blinked again. Then she ran over to her sleeping spot and pulled out several pointed, wooden, stakes.

Angel and Illyria took that as a yes she wants to come.

The trio moved through the sewer tunnels below the city. Angel led the way, fallowed by Dana and Illyria taking the back. Angel stopped at grating at the end of a tunnel. He reached in and pulled out a large black bag covered in a larger plastic bag.

In the almost complete darkness Dana could hardly see what he was pulling out. "Here," Angel said, handing a large blade weapon to her. "That's a machete. I think you'll like it."

Dana felt the weight of the weapon. "NICE."

Angel pulled out a strange ax like weapon and placed it in one of his big coat pockets. He turned to Illyria, "Would you like one?" he asked nonchalantly.

Illyria shook her head from side to side in a NO. "I rather feel the flesh of my foes tare and rip."

Angel shrugged, after a year he had gotten used to Illyria's obsessions with mutilation. He put the remaining weapons back into the bags and put them back into their hiding place. He then led them down another series of tunnels. He still didn't have the whole system down yet.

They walked around for about several hours until Angel suddenly stopped. "What do you smell?" Illyria asked. The whole world smelled rank to her so she was not accustomed to discerning what 'rank' meant what.

"Death… it's fresh," Angel said and he started running down a tunnel to the left.

Dana and Illyria fallowed. Dana stumbled a few times in the dark. Her eyes were not as sharp as Angel's or Illyria's. "Keep moving," Illyria said behind her, "I don't want to loose the opportunity to commit violence." Dana grunted a reply and kept on running.

They emerged into a small intersection. Angel stood to one side. He wanted to stay out of the light coming in through the manhole cover about a foot away. A young girl's body was left crumpled and broken under the minimal rays. Dana blinked but it was more to the new light than because of the body. Illyria had no reaction at all.

Angel walked around the body, at the edge of the light. He took several sniffs of the air. "What ever did this burned," Angel said. "I can smell a slight sent of smoke.

Illyria looked around the small space. "I see not signs of remains. No fuel for a fire."

"I know," Angel said. "But something did burn here."

Dana came up to the body and looked it over. It was strange to be so close to the dead. She had killed and maimed but then left. She never saw her victims after she hurt them. She secretly thanked God for saving her from herself. She had no where near the guilt that she knew Angel carried.

Dana thought back to Faith. The tall Slayer once said that she too had killed innocents. It was supposed to be a pep talk, to let her know that she was not alone. In some ways that probably influenced her choice to go with Angel and Illyria. He had helped Faith maybe he could help her.

"I'll go up and see the surrounding area." Dana said standing up from the body. "Maybe it didn't go far."

Angel looked to Illyria, and back to Dana. He nodded his head in agreement. Dana went to a latter on the back wall and climbed up to the cover. She lifted it and was out.

Illyria came to Angel's side. "Why did you let the girl go out on her own?"

"Because I know she won't find anything." Illyria turned her head and looked at Angel in her typical questioning glare. "The demon that did this teleported some way. My bet 'flamed' or something like it."

"How do you know this?"

"I've seen it before." Angel pointed to the body, "Can you get that out of the sun for me?"

Illyria grabbed the body and dragged it into the dark. Angel then did his own examination. He memorized her face. It was oval with tan skin and a small nose. Her lips were thin and her cheekbones high. He searched her neck and shoulders for marks. She had no discernable marks of a struggle. He did see a small tattoo on her wrist. It was a circle with seven slices in it. It could also have been a wheel.

"I don't know what this marking means but maybe it's a clue."

"This body once contained magic in it." Illyria stated.

Angel looked up at her. Now it was his turn to ask, "How do you know?"

"My eyes are not like your eyes. I see a fading energy around this one. It is week though. For a body so fresh and potent the energy should be stronger."

"Is it possible that something just took the energy?"

"Yes." Illyria and Angel both looked into each others' eyes. "The lack of wound on the body…"

"…could be how she was killed." Angel finished for her. "That would make sense."

Dana didn't like being alone, away from her…friends. She would go on her own when she felt it was necessary but it still always made her feel naked. She had grown dependent on people to be around her. It was that way in Rome with the slayers. They knew what she was and that she needed help, they were there to take care of her. Unfortunately, the slayers just didn't know how.

She walked on the sidewalk and tried to stay close to the buildings. She circled the block and then moved on into a bigger circle. She knew Angel and Illyria would have moved on through the sewers so she didn't bother going back down. Some people watched her as she walked by. Dana looked down and saw that she still had Angel's weapon. She stuck it into her belt and pulled her shirt over it. It wouldn't prevent people from seeing it but it wouldn't attract as much attention.

As she was walking her slayer hearing picked up ringing, an alarm. Dana went into a run and fallowed the noise. She turned a corner just in time to see a group of dirty street kids braking into a candy store. They had used bats to break a window and were coming out.

Dana recalled the night before. These guys would be no trouble. She came up behind them.

"Hey, give us a hand." One of the kids said to Dana.

Dana stopped. She had intended to stop them, but they had asked her to join them. Why? Why would they ask a stranger to help them? One of the guys climbed out of the window and tried to get past her. She reached out and grabbed him and sent him flying into a wall. The other guys paused.

"What the hell are you doing?" a teenaged girl with dark hair said. Dana was surprised again to realize that this kid looked a lot like her. Or maybe Dana looked alike like them, dirty and unkempt.

Dana just looked at them. The two bigger guys, who were obviously boys tried to take her but again she threw them back in. The girl, who was the last thug, was read to throw down with a bat. The kid swung but Dana easily deflected it. The kid swung again but Dana again blocked.

Dana used the palms of her hands to catch the bat on the third swing. In her mind she realized she was using the lessons Angel had taught her. She hadn't killed or seriously hurt anyone…yet. She easily took the bat away and stared the girl down.

The kid backed away and then made a run for it out the window. Dana was about to give chase when she heard the moan from behind the counter, "uh, uh, uh." Dana quickly went behind the counter and bent over the individual. He was elderly; Dana wasn't good at guessing ages. She saw blood coming from his temple.

"Freeze!"

Dana looked up over the counter and saw a black man and a Red haired woman pointing guns at her. She stood up over the man. The two people kept their guns trained on her.

"Drop the bat." The black man said.

Dana was confused then looked at her hand. She still had the girl's baseball bat. "This isn't mine." She said. She let the piece of wood fall to the ground. The red haired woman took a step closer.

"Put your hands behind your back."

Dana flashed back to LA, the shopping center. Dana was still in her hospital gown. She was munching on sweat cakes and other food items when an employee tried to stop her.

"Um…" He said, "Uh… Hey, you gonna pay for those?" Dana ignored him and continued eating. "Excuse me. Miss, you can't just eat those like that. You gotta take'em up to the register and pay for'em first. Hey, come on." He put his hand on her shoulder, "Knock it off, would…" Dana took his hand held it firm and snapped his arm at the elbow with her free hand. He fell moaning and screaming in pain. Dana just took her surgical saw and left him there.

Dana remembered going over to the cloths hang up on the back wall of the store. She had put on a pair of pants and was holding a shirt when an older black man, a security guard came out with a gun. A lot like the ones that these people had.

"All right, now. You just stay right like that." The old man said. "I don't wanna have to hurt you."

He didn't hurt her at all.

Dana came back to the present as the woman was pulling her hand behind her back. "Do you understand these rights as I have read them to you?"

"I didn't do this." She said. "The man behind the counter is hurt."

"Yah and I know who hurt him," the woman said. "Now answer, do you understand these rights as I have read them to you…what the hell is this?" The red head pulled out Dana's machete.

"That is mine."

The black man went behind the counter and checked out the old man. "He's dead. Skull was caved in."

"Well it looks like murder if I ever saw one. You're coming with us." The woman was pulling Dana two the door. "Daryl, check those other three."

"I didn't kill them, or the old man." Dana was fighting to stay calm. She didn't like the mettle cuffs restraining her; it was too much like being strapped down in the hospital. "Let me go."

"Come on, get in." The woman pushed Dana's head down and into a car. The door slammed shut.

Dana could see flashing lights of other cars. Men and women in uniforms came out and put the boys into the cars. Dana looked forward and saw a mettle screen that separated her from the drivers. What am I going to do now, she thought? She managed to keep calm by taking deep, slow breaths but that would only last so long.

Angel, what would Angel want her to do? Except; Angel may want her to escape, they had evaded capture by demons and monsters why would it be different with humans?