Summary: It's Tabula Rasa, Angel style! A demon from Angel's past temporarily erases the memory of the Angel team so that he can find a way to kill Angel, without him knowing who he really was.
Chapter Four: Awakening
Angel felt something on his hand. At first, it was like a tingling sensation. Then, it became painful. He jerked his hand toward himself and cried out in pain.
'Ow.' He sat up and looked around. Next to him were two bodies. One was of a pale man with bleached blond hair and the other was a black man with almost no hair, cut very finely. 'Ah!' Angel cried out in surprise and jumped to his feet. The blond woke.
'Ah!' he cried as he looked across at the man staring at him. He then looked down at the man next to him and screamed again. 'What the bloody hell is going on?' He jumped to his feet also and stumbled backwards, away from the strangers.
Gunn woke, groaning in pain. 'Ow.' He rolled over onto his back and looked around the room. 'Hey!' he quickly got to his feet, following Spike and Angel. 'Who the hell are you?' he asked in a harsh tone.
'Me?' Angel began. 'I'm…' He couldn't think of an answer.
'Well why don't I begin then.' Spike interjected. 'I'm…' He paused, lost for words also. 'I don't know who I am.'
'Me either. What the hell is going on here?' Gunn added. The trio heard a groan from across the room. Wesley sat up and looked over at them.
'Uh, who are you?' He asked.
'Got a little problem with that question at the moment.' Spike replied. 'So who are you?'
'I'm…' Wesley couldn't come up with anything either. 'I'm not entirely sure who I am.'
Spike rolled his eyes and sighed heavily in annoyance. 'We've got the same problem, mate.'
'So you don't know who you are either?' Wesley asked. Angel, Spike and Gunn shook their heads.
Lorne suddenly woke. 'Ahh!' He screamed, drawing everyone's attention. When they caught sight of the green-skinned, red-horned, surprisingly well-dressed man climbing to his feet they hollered an ear-piercing scream.
'What the bloody hell are you?' Spike shot at him.
'Me? I'm… me.' Lorne replied, taken by surprise. He glanced at each of the men staring at him dangerously from across the room. 'Who are you?'
'What are you?' Gunn asked.
'I'm me. I'm… I don't seem to remember a name.' Lorne was puzzled, as was everyone else.
'Yeah, we've all discovered that.' Angel informed Lorne.
'So what are we gonna do then?' Lorne asked. 'I don't know who I am and you don't know who you are, so what do we do?'
'First, we figure out what the hell you are.' Gunn said as he marched over to Lorne. 'Are those things fake? Are you like, some kind of mascot or something?'
'I don't know. I don't remember.' Lorne told him.
Gunn pulled at one of Lorne's little red horns but all he got was a cry of pain. 'Hey! Ow!'
'Sorry, but these things ain't fake. Man, what the hell are you?'
'Maybe we live in some strange world where these type of things exist?' Angel offered.
'What type of things?' Wesley asked. 'How would you describe this… this… this thing?'
'Hey!' Lorne protested.
'As exactly that; a thing. Maybe this strange world we live in is full of them. Outside of this building, there could be hundreds that look just like this guy.' Angel explained.
'Or maybe, this guy is a freak. He's one of a kind, and he's dangerous.' Gunn jumped to a conclusion and made an advance on Lorne. 'I say we lock him up somewhere until we figure out who we all are.'
'I agree with him.' Spike jumped into the conversation again.
'Come on.' Gunn told Lorne, marching him into one of the offices off to the side of the lobby.
Wesley, Spike and Angel were left in the lobby, alone.
'So... uh… how are we going to find out who we are if nobody in this room knows themselves, let alone anybody else?' Wesley asked.
'Does anybody have ID on them?' Spike suggested as he pulled out his jacket to search the pockets. Wesley was the first to find something.
'I found a drivers license. My name is Wesley Wyndham-Pryce.'
'Well, I got nothing.' Angel said.
'Me either.' Spike added. Suddenly Angel made a discovery.
'Hold on a sec…' He fished into the inside pocket of his jacket and pulled out a small white card. 'Wolfram and Hart. Is that a company?' He looked up for hopeful faces, but found none.
'Well good for you mate, you have a job.' Spike sneered. 'Nice to know that some of us actually have a life.'
'You know, I you're really annoying. You seem to aggravate me on levels that are more… personal than anyone else.' Angel began to try and explain the confusing feelings he was experiencing.
'What are you saying?' Spike asked curiously.
'Well, I think I might know you more closer than just a random co-incidence here. Maybe we work together at Wolfram and Hart and really don't like each other. Or maybe, we're related.'
'Uh! How the hell am I related to you?' Spike shot at Angel. 'I'm bloody English, can't you tell by my accent? You are clearly not English, therefore we are not related.'
'Hey, it's just a suggestion.' Angel protested.
'I think that you're full of rubbish.' Spike laughed. 'There is no way in hell that I'm staying here. You guys can figure out why we can't remember anything, meanwhile, I'll be at the nearest pub I can find. Come join me when you figure it out.'
'Absolutely not.' Wesley jumped in. 'You're not going anywhere until we figure this out.'
'You gonna try and stop me?' Spike challenged.
'I will.' Angel stepped in, not even knowing if he had any strength at all. 'If you leave, then there's no telling what might happen. We don't even know where we are.'
'Well, by the looks of it we're in a hotel of some sort, or maybe a small function centre. This place looks unnecessarily spacious.' Spike commented.
'Big words.' Angel mumbled. Even though he didn't know it, Spike was a vampire. And because of his extremely good hearing, he heard Angel speak.
'What was that?' He asked, even though he had heard perfectly clear.
'Nothing.' Angel was quick to reply, trying to cover his sarcastic comment. Spike advanced on him.
'Look, you bug me.' He began. 'You really, really bug me. Hey, for all I know we probably do work together. But I don't care. I just wanna get my life back and be able to go back to the pub. And why do I have such a fascination for pubs?'
'Maybe because you spent so much time wallowing away your sorrows of failed love while we travelled the globe.' Angel snapped. His eyes suddenly went wide.
'That's vaguely familiar…' Spike added. 'What do you know about me that you're not saying?' He took another step towards Angel. Angel backed off.
'Hey, I don't know where that came from. But I think I may be starting to get my memory back. What about you?' He turned to face Wesley, completely ignoring Spike.
'I remember a name.' Wesley said. 'I called someone close to me by this name.' He confirmed.
'Well? What's the name?' Spike asked.
'Fred.'
'Fred?'
'Fred.'
'Who the hell is Fred? Am I Fred? Are you and I gay or something, Wesley?' Spike was confused and getting aggravated.
'I don't know who Fred is. But there's another name in my head as well. At least, I think that it's a name. It might be a thing, but it's the only thing I can remember that means anything.'
'Stop blabbering and just tell us.' Spike snapped.
'Angel.'
'Angel?' Wesley looked across at Angel.
'And I see your face along with the name. Maybe I call you Angel. Hey, that means we know each other!' He joyfully ran to Angel and hugged him. 'Oh thank goodness I finally know something about who I am.'
'Actually, Wesley you know nothing about who you are. You know who he is.' He pointed to Angel.
'Man, what a girl's name.' Angel moaned.
'Oh get over it you ponce.' Spike laughed at Angel. 'I can't believe that you think so much about your stupid little girly name.' He laughed again and backed away from Angel.
'Hey! At least I know what my name is you stupid English… man.' Angel couldn't even think of an insult to shoot back at Spike.
'Man. Yes, that's me. A man.' Spike chuckled at Angel's stupidity and wandered around the lobby, looking around.
Because they had been squabbling for most of the early morning, the sun had moved around and was now shining into the lobby casting a line of shadow only metres from everyone's feet. Spike walked into the light just as Gunn came out of the little office.
'That freak is locked up. There is no way that he's going anywhere soon.' Gunn informed everyone.
'Great.' Angel said.
'Oh by the way, I found my wallet. I'm Charles Gunn.' He then produced a phot frame. 'And I found this.'
Spike stopped where he stood, in the light, and felt a tingling sensation take over his body. Angel and Wesley stepped towards Gunn to take a look at the photo. It was of Angel, Wesley, Gunn and a woman with long, brown wavy hair. Also, the green "freak" they discovered in the room with them earlier was in the photo.
Suddenly, Spike screamed. 'Ahh!' Everyone turned around to see what was wrong and found that Spike was on fire.
Author's Note: Another chapter down. I hope people like where this is going, and I'll keep writing if you keep reading.
