Author's note: Thank you for all of you who reviewed – you own a special place in my heart. Awwww…

Chapter 7 part b: Mistakes

"Maybe we should check the scroll again." Willow said suddenly. "Just in case we missed anything else." Off Giles' sad look, she quickly added, "Not saying that you can't translate it by yourself. You're a very good translator, Giles."

"That's fine, Willow. You're probably right. If I can miss something as important as the totem, who knows what else I've misread."

Willow smiled and said softly, "I'll go make some tea first."

"Thank you, Willow." Giles returned her smile and left for the office while she went to the kitchen to make tea.

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"Bloody hell."

"Stop teaching her swear words, Spike."

"What? She's gotta know these things. It's the fundamental basis of survival."

Angel just rolled his eyes as he kept walking. They went through another corridor and Angel was relieved at the silence from his two companions.

"Wanker."

"Spike!"

"Tell me the meaning of this word." Illyria demanded.

Spike was only glad to supply. "Well, let's say Peaches here was-"

"That's it, Spike!" Angel turned around, his hand already fisted for a punch to Spike's jaw. But at that exact moment, the metal door between them opened and Angel's fist connected hard with the solid object.

"DAMN IT!" Angel shouted as he waved his hand in pain.

"Yeah, I was just gettin' to that." Spike smirked.

Xander peeked from the other side of the door to look confusedly at them before the door opened wider to reveal Wesley behind him. They both came out of the room they were previously in and joined the three.

"Wesley." Illyria said.

"Illyria." Wesley returned. He gave her a fleeting glance before looking away in one direction. "If I'm correct, I believe the basement would be this way."

Wesley walked to where he indicated and they had no choice but to follow him. Spike started having a conversation with Xander about some silly thing that Angel didn't want to think about and Illyria was silently tagging along at the back. Angel was about to say something to Wesley when he suddenly stopped.

"I think we're here." Wesley said. He opened the door in front of him and sure enough, there was Gunn and Buffy waiting on the other side, waving at them when they saw who it was.

"What took you guys so long?" Gunn shouted from the other side of the room. Xander waved back and went down the staircase to greet them, Illyria and Spike following behind.

Wesley gave Angel a look before following after them, taking his time on the stairs. Unable to interpret the look, Angel was the last to join the group.

"So we're here now. Where is it?" Xander asked.

"I'm assuming it should be in one of those boxes." Wesley said, indicating to the stacks of boxes on the far wall.

"That! No, no – that's going to take hours!" Xander complained.

"Well," Wesley said dryly. "I suggest we start now then."

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They were already halfway through the boxes and still there was no totem.

"Man, this stinks." Gunn said. He turned to Spike and said, "Why aren't you doing anything?"

"I am doing something." Spike said. Gunn raised his eyebrow and Spike said, "I'm supervising."

Gunn threw a box at him and Spike caught it with an 'oof'. "Oi, watch it, mate." He said, throwing the box behind him with the other boxes that came up empty.

"Hey, where's Wesley?" Xander said. They looked around to find that he wasn't among them.

"Hey Wes, what're you doing?" Gunn said. Angel followed his line of vision and found Wesley sitting on the stairs with his head in hands. Angel told them to resume their search while he went to see what the problem was. As soon as Angel was halfway between them though, the floor suddenly started to dissolve from under him, literally.

"What in the bloody hell-" But Spike wasn't able to finish his sentence as he had suddenly fallen through the darkness. Angel quickly rushed towards the stairs which stood unaffected by the chaos. Behind him, he could hear the gasps of his friends as they were too late to escape and Angel had to jump before he too would fall. The floor now had completely disappeared and Angel gazed down to see nothingness.

Angel was holding on to the bars of the staircase but his grip was slipping fast. He looked up and stopped when he saw Wesley just look at him struggling from the foot of the stairs. They stared into each others eyes but nothing was understood, nothing was spoken. Wesley finally turned away and went up the stairs. It was only when he closed the door that Angel in the end lost his grip, and fell into the dark abyss.

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Angel grunted as he fell on a cemented floor for the second time in less than a week. He got up to see that the others were still shaking off their disorientation. Angel surveyed the room and his heart fell. There was light in the room, but there were no obvious source points. There were no windows or doors to speak of, just an endless view of walls.

"Bugger this, I need a smoke."

Angel turned to see Spike take out a packet of smokes and light one up, taking a long drag before calming down, though his scowl was still in place.

"So where the hell are we?" Gunn asked, suddenly beside Angel. They watched as Xander tapped the walls, trying failingly to find a way out.

"He tricked us!" Xander said when he finally accepted that his efforts were useless.

"No duh." Buffy said. She looked around before saying, "But this place couldn't be real. Maybe it's mystical."

"Do you think he pulled that thing like in the ballet last time?" Gunn asked suddenly.

"Maybe." Angel said. It was a plausible probability. But since Wesley wasn't sending any demons their way, it was harder to find a way out or a point of weakness.

"So that's it, then." Spike said. "We're stuck here until pixie knows when, and the world is doomed because we got the wrong guy."

"Curious." Illyria said suddenly after her long silence.

"What?" asked Angel.

She looked at him and answered, "He spoke my name."

"Yeah, and he only calls us he or she." Xander complained.

"That was not my meaning." Illyria told him.

Angel arched his eyebrows for her to elaborate. She looked at him for a moment and then seemed to dismiss him. But as she walked past, she said "I never uttered it in his presence."

Everyone was silent for a moment. Then Xander said, "Well, Giles was doing introductions earlier, maybe-"

"No." Buffy said as she remembered, "He never made it to her."

They were silent again and Angel decided to snap them out of it. "It's not him." He told them. "He's alive, and Wesley's dead."

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I'm sorry Wes, but I can't keep you here.

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"So where does it say about the totem?" Willow asked.

"It's…" Giles looked at the scroll frowned as he said, "Honestly, I do not know. I thought I translated everything perfectly."

"Well, that's weird." Willow said. "Not even a hint of it?"

"No. It was quite a surprise to me when he asked where I kept it."

"Do you think…?"

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"You can't be sure of that, Angel." Gunn said. "All we have are Illyria's words; we never found his body. It could be-"

"Wes is dead," Angel interrupted, "and I know... because I killed him."

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Please forgive me.

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Wesley looked up at the dark Hyperion hotel, most of the lights off except for the ones in the welcoming lobby. Wesley slowly outstretched his right hand in front of him and opened his closed fist. On top of his palm was a small hill of dust, its magical properties giving it a strange glint in the moonlight. He whispered a few words before blowing it from his hands, the wind bringing it towards the hotel.

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"It wasn't your fault. Wes knew what he was up against and Vail just got the best of him."

Angel drew in a breath as he turned to look at all of them. He knew it would come eventually; it was time for the truth, and his words came slowly.

"I came back. Wesley was alive, but just barely. There wasn't much time and he was dying." Angel paused before he continued, "So I turned him."

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Forgive me…

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Wesley entered the hotel and went straight for the office. He was relieved when he saw that his spell had worked. Willow and Giles were both temporarily frozen in mid-conversation, overlooking the scroll. Wesley moved to the other side of the table and turned the scroll around.

He uttered a few words under his breath and the portion of the scroll that they weren't able to translate began to move and shift on the ancient page. Finally they settled, having turned to the same language as the others. Wesley read it quickly in silence and was taken aback as to what it foretold. He sat back on the chair, unable to support himself in his surprise. But he knew he had a job to do.

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"I had to make a decision."

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Wesley stood up again and whispered some more words. But instead of returning to its previous state, the words on the scroll simply became jumbled, some overlapping the other, becoming tiny blobs of black.

Wesley dismissed them and went out of the office. But before he left, he went over to the weapons cabinet and instantly found what he was looking for.

"Lily." He whispered as he took out the crossbow that he came into this world with. It was an old-looking crossbow, dried blood staining its rotting wood. He smiled as he looked at it fondly only for a second before tucking away. Looking back once, he said a silent farewell, and left the Hyperion.

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Forgive me, Wesley…