Disclaimer: All characters and things from ANGEL and BUFFY belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. If they aren't on the show they belong to me.
Summary: Angel and Spike get a chance to get back the people that meant the most to them after the battle against Wolfram and Hart. But can they keep the real past a secret from the only people they want to share it with? A/C S/B
CHAPTER 24
Angel and Cordelia stood, starring at the picture Connor held out to them; the picture of the three of them when Connor was still a baby, before their world had really caved in around them. The rest of the lobby stood, as silent as Cordelia and Angel.
Finally, Connor broke the silence of the room, pulling the picture back toward him. "So where is your son?"
"My son?" Cordelia raised an eyebrow. Sure, she had thought of Connor as hers on many occasions. When he was a baby she thought she was going to be the only mother figure he would ever know and that he would need her, but as it turned out he didn't need anyone. Holtz had stolen him, and regardless of how Holtz had boasted about raising Connor, Cordelia knew in her heart of hearts that Connor had raised himself. He was like his father. He could manage on his own.
"You know what?" Lorne could tell that Cordelia and Angel were going to need to be alone with Connor if they were going to field his questions about the picture he had found. He also knew that they needed to inform Fred of everything. "Why don't we take Fred into the office and do some…work?"
"Yes." Wesley nodded, still not able to knock the grin off of this face. Fred was back, his Fred. "We'll leave you three alone."
Before Angel, Cordelia, or Connor could object, Fred, Wesley, Lorne, and Gunn had moved into Angel's old office, closing the door behind them.
"Okay, so back to my question…" Connor said, looking at Cordelia and Angel suspiciously. He wasn't sure if they were trying to hide something, but if something had happened to their son, then he felt he should know. He was almost a detective.
"The baby in the picture?" Angel took a deep breath; he thought it would be better to play dumb then anything.
"Right." Connor nodded, reading the back of the picture. "The baby that is supposedly your son."
"Why do you keep assuming he's my son?" Cordelia was confused. Sure, she looked like the mother in the picture but still.
"Because it says right here…" Connor read the back of the picture again. "Connor, one month, with Daddy and Mommy." He finished reading the picture and put it on his lap, looking up at Cordelia and Angel.
Cordelia was shocked at what Connor had read; she looked over at Angel to see his cheeks were bright red. He could not hide his blushing anymore, not since he was human.
And Angel was blushing. He knew he needed to explain the words on the back of the picture to Cordelia, he had written them after all. But he had written them one day back in Wolfram and Hart, when Cordelia was in a coma and Connor had no memory of his real life. When no one remembered Connor. Angel had written those words on the back of the picture because it was what he had wished was true. It was his perfect family; the one he knew he had once had a chance at having. The one that had been taken from him. Sure, Cordelia was not Connor's biological mother, but she had taken care of him since the day he was born like he was her own, and Angel had never doubted that when Connor had begun speaking, his name for Cordelia would have been mommy.
"Well…yeah." Angel started, he knew he would have to lie to Connor and then talk to Cordelia about it afterwards. "That's our son. Mine and Cordy's."
Cordelia went to object, but Connor cut her off.
"Where is he?" Connor asked.
"Well…" Angel shuffled his feet, diggings his hands into his pockets. "He…uh…he was taken from us." Angel looked back up at his son. He wasn't technically lying completely to Connor. After all, baby Connor had been taken from them, and the Connor that stood before him now had no idea who he really was.
"Taken?" Connor asked. "Was he kidnapped? Because I can help…"
"No." Cordelia realized Angel was lying to Connor because he did not know how to explain the picture. She decided she would talk to Angel later about it, but that for the time being she would go along with Angel. "We…we gave him up." Again, that wasn't a total lie, Angel had given Connor up, and even if she had made Angel feel guilty about it, she knew if she hadn't been in a coma when it had happened she would have supported Angel's decision.
"How come?" Connor was hurt by this news, although he did not know why.
"Because he needed a better life. Something we couldn't give him." Angel felt the tears rise in his eyes. Again, this was not a lie. He could have never given Connor the life he deserved.
Cordelia rubbed Angel's back, fighting back her own tears.
"I'm sorry I asked." Connor said, realizing he had upset both Angel and Cordelia.
"Don't be." Angel said, feeling the need to explain it all to Connor, even if Connor had no idea it was about him. "We did the right thing."
Connor nodded. "You were too young for a baby. I'm sure he is doing great."
Angel had to smile; he was definitely not too young to have a baby. He was over two hundred years old. "Yeah. He is."
"You see him still?" Connor asked.
"Yeah." Cordelia smiled down at the boy in front of her. The boy she loved like a son, regardless of what Jasmine had forced her body to do to him. "We see him." And that wasn't a lie either. They did see him, he was right in front of him.
"Well, that's good." Connor stood, handing the picture back to Angel. "Sorry I took this."
"It's okay." Angel said, although he was wondering where Connor had gotten the picture from. Before he could ask, however, the phone rang.
"Connor?" Cordelia asked. "Could you get that? I need to talk to Angel for a minute."
"Sure." Connor nodded, moving toward the phone.
"We need to talk." Cordelia said to Angel, taking him by the hand before he could object and leading him up the stairs to the bedroom they now shared. They needed to discuss a few things, one being the picture Connor had just found, and another being how they were going to get Connor's memory back.
Buffy, Spike, Faith, Xander, and Giles stood over the body that had made its way through Giles window and onto his coffee table. They were all examining the writing on the body's stomach, reading the word over and over again silently in there head.
"Slayer…" Spike finally spoke the word out loud, seeming to snap everyone out of the trance they were in. "It could be worse, it could have said slayers…"
"How could that have been worse?" Faith asked.
"Because then whoever did this would know both of you were back, not just the one." Spike told her.
"What I want to know is how anyone knew either of us were back." Buffy crossed her arms over her chest. "No one is supposed to know what a slayer is in this world."
"True, but vampires are also not supposed to exist." Giles said. "Clearly something is terribly wrong."
"Clearly…" Xander nodded. "Okay? So what is the plan?"
"Plan is me, Spike, and Faith go and find whatever vampire or vampires did this while you and Giles research." Buffy said.
"Research?" Xander raised an eyebrow. "That's not really my department. Willow on the other hand…"
"Willow remembers nothing." Buffy said quickly. "So it's you and Giles."
Xander immediately shut up, seeing Buffy's reaction to Willow's name. He didn't know how to respond, but Spike did.
"We'll get her back." Spike said gently, placing a hand on the small of Buffy's back. "We'll get everyone back."
"Xander and I will look into that while you three go out and patrol." Giles offered.
"Sounds like a plan to me." Faith said, breaking a leg off of the coffee table that the body had fallen on. Everyone else looked at her in shock of her action. Faith just shrugged. "What? The table was already broken and its not like there are a bunch of stakes in here."
"Good point." Buffy nodded, taking two more legs off the table, and handing one to Spike. "We'll be back."
Giles and Xander nodded and watched Buffy, Spike, and Faith leave through the front door.
Giles then turned to Xander. "We need to get this body outside. Make sure he wasn't turned."
Xander nodded and helped Giles pick up the body and move it to the back yard where they destroyed it so that if the man had been turned he would not rise again. Neither Giles nor Xander spoke much to each other while they were in the backyard, neither really knew what to say. The world seemed to be falling apart and for once in their lives neither of them were sure they could save it.
Wesley, Lorne, Gunn, and Fred shut the door to the office quickly behind them. Fred quickly took a seat in a chair, and Wesley sat on the edge of the desk next to her. Gunn took what had been Angel's chair, placing his feet up on the desk as Lorne moved to grab a chair and pull it next to Fred. Then all three men sat silently looking at Fred.
"Well, things got complicated after Illyria…" Wesley began, approaching the subject of their return very carefully, not wanting to overwhelm Fred.
"That's an understatement." Fred told the man she loved with a smile, unable to hide her feelings for Wesley, not that she would have to. She knew he felt the same.
"Right…" Wesley nodded, taking a deep breath, and preparing to explain everything to Fred when Gunn jumped in.
"We all died, the world ended, Darla met with Angel and Spike and somehow we all got sent as humans to this new reality what vampires don't exist in and none of us remembered our old lives except Angel and Spike." Gunn explained. "But now things are going crazy and vampire do exist and we do have our memories and Spike and Angel and evidently Buffy, Faith, and Cordelia are all getting their powers back." He finished with a deep sigh. "Did I miss anything?"
"No. You got it all there." Lorne said, and then leaned in closer to Fred. "If you need a repeat of any of that, I can help you out, sweetie."
"No. I…I got it. It makes sense actually. Our lives were anything but normal before so why should now be any different." Fred nodded. "No, I get it." She then looked over at Wesley. "But Connor…"
"He doesn't remember." Wesley said. "Not yet."
"Angel and Cordy are working on it." Lorne added.
"And the vampires and all…if they are back then something in this reality is wrong, right?" Fred asked.
"Right." Gunn nodded. "We are working on that."
"We should probably work a little harder don't you think?" Fred stood, seeing that Wesley, Lorne, and Gunn had not expected her to handle everything so well. "Come on, guys, I am not made of glass. You should know that by now. Now get up, we have work to do."
Gunn, Wesley, and Lorne looked at each other before smiling. Fred was back, and they couldn't have been happier. They continued to smile as all three of them followed her out of the office and over to the counter where Connor was on the phone. Fred had said it earlier, they had work to do.
Angel and Cordelia entered the bedroom that they now shared. Angel immediately went to the drawer on the side of his bed. He could smell Connor all over it, and that was where he had put the picture of himself, Cordelia, and baby Connor that Connor had found. Angel quickly put the picture back where it belonged, and closed the drawer, looking up at Cordelia with a small smile to find her sitting on the edge of his bed. By her look alone, Angel knew she was about to start one of her famous speeches that you never quite wanted to hear even though you knew you needed to.
"We need to talk." Cordelia told him.
Angel nodded, but his attention was directed somewhere else. Fred's scent was also in the room. He moved toward the table he had kept all the Wolfram and Hart papers on. He picked up the top paper, which smell the most like Fred and began reading it. He realized now how Fred had gotten her memory back. "Illyria…" He mumbled.
"What?" Cordelia asked, thinking he was talking to her.
Angel looked up, Cordelia's voice shaking him from his thoughts. "Illyria." He held up the paper in his hand. "Fred must have read about her. That's how she got her memory back."
"Well that's good to know." Cordelia said softly. "But Angel, we really need to talk…"
Angel sighed. He didn't want to talk. He didn't want to have to explain the words on the back of the picture to her, so he decided to play dumb, and smiled at her. "About what?"
"Angel…" Cordelia seemed to breath his name out, but her face indicated she knew he was trying to play dumb. She patted the bed next to her. "Come sit."
Angel did so immediately. He didn't want to have this conversation with her, but he would never pass up a chance to be close to her. He made himself comfortable next to her. "What?"
"Angel, the picture Connor found…" Cordelia started.
Angel sat back with a sigh, running a hand through his spiky hair. "What about it?"
"Angel, what it said on the back of it…" Cordelia paused before continuing, contemplating her words. "What was written…"
"I wrote it." Angel admitted immediately. "I wrote it when I had just given Connor up and when you were gone."
Cordelia nodded, but she wasn't about to end the conversation there. She just needed to know one more thing. "Why though?"
"Because…" Angel looked down at his hands. "It was my way of escaping reality a little. Because that was what I wanted more then anything."
Cordelia wasn't really following. "What do you mean? What did you want?"
Angel looked up at her. "To be with you; to raise my son with you. To give him the world." He looked back down at his hands. "All the things I never got a chance to do. That picture was my idea of the perfect little family." He looked up, chuckling to himself. "That picture was like my sanity at Wolfram and Hart. I used to take it out and look at it, especially after I got that vision from you…" He looked back at his hands.
Cordelia took his hand in hers, which made him look up at her. He saw a sweet smile on her face. "Angel, I wished for it every day on the higher plan, and every day after I left you at Wolfram and Hart. I just wanted to go back and tell you how I felt about you, and I wanted to keep Connor safe. I wanted to watch him grow up."
"So you get why I wrote that on the picture?" Angel asked.
Cordelia nodded. "Yeah, and I'm honored by it. But I don't want our future to be filled with regrets from our past. What happened, happened. It was out of our control and we can't go back and change it. We've got to get through whatever is ahead, and then we've got to start moving on with our lives. This is our second chance, I don't want to waste it."
Angel nodded, understanding Cordelia completely. He took her hand, and kissed her softly on the lips. When they broke apart he found a huge smile dancing on her lips. He stood, seeing her pout slightly. "Come on. We've got to get downstairs."
Cordelia looked reluctant to follow Angel and even groaned a little about having to get up, but after a few more kisses from Angel she rose, allowing him to take her by the hand and lead her down the stairs to where the Fang Gang, in its entirely with the exception of Connor still not remembering, was working on the major problems that faced them. Vampires, and shifts in balance. Cordelia had a feeling it was going to be a long night.
Spike, Buffy, and Faith prowled around the Sunnydale cemetery looking for the vampires who had thrown the body into Giles' house. Spike had picked up a scent of what he thought had been the vampire outside of Giles' house so they had followed it, but still had not seen a vampire.
"This is boring…" Faith complained, tossing her stake in the air and catching it. "And I think we are wasting time."
"Well we have nothing else to go on." Buffy reminded her. "Plus, some vampires know we exist, so that means we aren't the only ones on this planet who have our memories back."
"No, the evil dead things got theirs back too…" Faith rolled her eyes. "Hey who thinks that's not a good thing?"
"Quiet." Spike told the Slayers.
Both Buffy and Faith looked at Spike and then realized he had sunk a little lower, moving swiftly and stealthy around the headstones. Clearly, he heard something. Buffy and Faith followed his lead and allowed him to lead them up to a huge mausoleum, which he stopped outside of.
"What?" Buffy found herself whispering.
Spike pointed to the crypt's door. "In there." He whispered back.
"What? The vampire is in there?" Faith asked, her voice also hushed.
Spike nodded. "I'm pretty sure."
"Alright." Faith stood up, stake in hand. "Lets do this."
And before Buffy or Spike had a chance to think of a good battle plan, Faith kicked open the door's of the mausoleum, revealing three male vampires sitting around the tomb they had turned into a card table. All three of them shot up from their seats when they saw Buffy, Spike, and Faith.
"Hey boys, mind if we join the game?" Faith asked with a smirk.
"Slayer!" One of the vampires hissed and then charged at Faith.
Faith moved quickly, thanking that her reflexes had returned as quickly as her memory. She then grabbed the vampire as he flew passed her and pushed him outside the crypt where she tackled him to the ground, shoving her stake right through his heart. She then wiped her hands as he turned to dust and made her way back into the crypt, giving Buffy a high five.
"So?" Buffy turned to the two remaining vampires. "You two can end up like your friend out there or you can give us some information."
The two vampires looked at each other and then back at Buffy. "If we talk you won't kill us?"
"Oh no, we'll kill you, but we will make it quick and painless. If you don't corpoporate we will let Spike deal with you." Buffy motioned to the ex-vampire that she had serious feelings for.
Spike grinned at the two vampires. "I've been alive over a damn century. I walked with Angelus."
"We know who you are." The other vampire spoke this time.
"Well then you know I can torture the bloody crap out of you?" Spike asked with a smile.
The vampires looked at each other again.
"Okay? So who is talking first?" Faith asked, and locked eyes with the vampire on the left. "I vote you."
The vampires didn't even have enough time to react as Spike and Faith moved toward, each pinning one of the vampires against the wall as Buffy made herself comfortable on their card table.
"So…" Buffy began. "I want some information. First off, I want to know how the hell you know me and Faith as the slayers?"
"Every vampire knows who you are." The one Spike had pinned answered.
"How though?" Spike asked him. "You shouldn't even bloody exist let alone know who the slayers are."
The vampire smirked at Spike. "Is that the garbage they are feeding you now? You should know better then anyone that this world is changing. I can hear your heartbeat, but you have the strength of a vampire. Ever wonder how that happened?"
"Have actually." Spike pressed harder on the vampire's throat. "And now I think you are going to enlighten us a little more on that."
"We were released into this reality because the gateway from the last one opened." The vampire in Faith's grasp responded to Spike.
"What do you mean it opened?" Buffy asked.
"The old reality was overrun with evil. It needed to pour out somewhere else." The vampire explained.
"You mean the old reality, the first one, had…too much evil?" Faith raised an eyebrow.
"Without anyone to stop the evil, yes, it grew and grew. Eventually everything will be destroyed there." The vampire said. "Because there was no balance."
"What is this balance crap?" Spike asked. "What balance? Why does it matter?"
"The balance between good and evil." The one Spike had a grasp on spoke again. "Without it, nothing exists. Reactions, reasoning, fate, existence, it all depends on that balance. Good needs evil just as much as evil needs good to survive."
"Makes sense in theory…" Faith sighed.
"But what does it mean? That this reality is turning evil?" Buffy asked.
"No. It means this reality will now give people an actual reason to exist. Think about it slayer, if we weren't around your life would be…well pointless." The vampire smirked before reaching into Spike's pocket and yanking out a stake and then staking himself.
"What the hell?" Spike's body lunged forward as his weight shifted with the vampire turning to dust.
Faith then looked at her vampire and smiled. "Well, I guess that's your cue to go as well." She then staked the vampire she had pinned to the wall.
"Okay, so I'd say we got the information we came for." Buffy hopped off the crypt.
"Yeah, as creepy as it may be." Faith said.
Spike nodded, taking Buffy by the hand. "We should go talk to Giles."
"Agreed." Buffy nodded and then led Spike and Faith out of the crypt and in the direction of Giles' house. The vampires words rang in her ears, everything he had said made sense. Good and evil did seem to need a balance. Whenever one overcame the other usually something bad happened, and Buffy knew that from firsthand experience. Buffy had a feeling that things were only just about to start making sense and that the real battle was still to come.
Angel and Cordelia descended the stairs of the Hyperion Hotel to find Connor and Gunn sitting at the counter, with Lorne humming a tune as he put some of Angel's weapons back in the cabinet, and Fred and Wesley sitting on the couch over some books, hand in hand.
Connor looked up immediately when he heard Angel and Cordelia come down the stairs, but he said nothing, as if he knew he had made them go upstairs because of the feelings the picture he had found brought up.
Fred was the first to respond to Angel and Cordelia's appearance. She was glad to be back and see Angel and Cordelia finally together. She knew they had waited long enough. "Everything okay?"
Angel nodded, smiling at Fred, letting her know he was glad to have her back. "Yeah, we are okay."
"But we've still got some work to do. This vampire crap and what not." Cordelia sighed flopping herself in a seat across the counter from Gunn and Connor.
Gunn just smiled at Cordelia's attitude. He had missed it. "You crack the whip and we will start working, princess."
Cordelia shuttered at the pet name Gunn had just used for her. "Please don't call me that anymore. Sounds too much like Groo…" Her voice trailed off as she glanced at Angel. She knew he and the Groosalaug had never gotten along and that the mention of the Plyean warrior was still a soft spot with Angel, even though Cordelia knew she had never really had strong feelings for Groo.
Gunn saw the look Angel had in his eyes at the mention of Groo and looked back down at his papers. "Sorry. Won't happen again."
"Who is Groo?" Connor felt the need to ask. For some reason the name sounded familiar, and he thought he could almost place a face to it. A man, with a hair cut like Angel's and big blue eyes. Connor shrugged the image away.
"Cordelia's ex." Angel was the only one who replied to Connor's question, although he did so reluctantly.
"Ex huh?" Connor asked, looking at Cordelia. "Looks like you've had your fair share and you're just out of high school?"
Both Angel and Cordelia held back the comments they wanted to throw at Connor for his remark. They both knew it wouldn't matter anyway, Connor didn't remember them or his past.
"Anyway, we've got work to do." Gunn reminded the group.
"Right." Angel looked around the room. "Did we find out anything yet?"
"On the vampires or the shift in balance?" Wesley asked.
"Both? Either?" Angel asked.
"Neither." Gunn replied. "We've got nothing."
"And it's not like the information is easy to come across. We're talking about balances and realities tearing open. Things like that don't happen too much. Portals to other worlds…" Lorne trailed off realizing that those types of thing did happen a lot, to members of Angel Investigation anyway.
"Well, maybe we can find where the balance is shifting. There has to be a pinpoint right?" Angel asked.
"Not necessarily. It could be happening in numerous spots." Wesley said.
"But if we could find one, maybe we can figure out a way to go in and close it up." Angel said.
"Sure." Cordelia raised an eyebrow at Angel, letting him know that his idea was extremely stupid. "As long as it doesn't lead to some hell dimension where we will be forced to be slaves, or where some psychopath will raise your child on you when your not looking!" The last part slipped out before Cordelia could stop herself. She saw the hurt her words brought to Angel's eyes and quickly took a step toward him. "Angel…I…"
"It's okay, Cordy." Angel gave her a small smile, but he knew she could see through his act. He knew that she could tell she had hurt him, but he didn't care. He had already forgiven her. They had both done worse to each other before. "It's fine."
"No." Connor spoke up. "It isn't."
The group turned to Connor, wondering if he had gained his memory back. They all held their breaths.
"Did someone take your son through one of these portals?" Connor asked. "You know, the baby in the picture I found?"
Everyone let their breaths out. Connor still did not remember.
"Uh…" Angel looked at Cordelia, and then back at Connor. He didn't know what to say.
"If someone did, maybe we can find your son. It might not be too late." Connor stood quickly.
"Trust me. It's too late." Angel replied.
Connor looked at Cordelia. "You're just going to give up on your child like that." He was furious, and he didn't truly understand why.
"You don't understand…" Cordelia began, and it was true. Connor didn't understand. How could he? He didn't even remember who he really was.
"I understand." Connor was now enraged, but he was scaring himself more so then anyone else. He didn't understand why this particular situation or Angel and Cordelia's son's story seemed to hit him so close to home. It just did. "You just gave up. You're going to let him live a life by the hands of some monster because you don't want to searc for him. You don't want to save him!"
"I have saved him!" Angel growled, slamming his hand on the counter so hard that the group in the room all stood there, shocked. "Damn it! That's all I've tried to do. Save him. Over and over again, but it was never enough was it?" He directed his comment at Connor, even though he knew Connor didn't remember. He was so angry, he needed to get it off of his chest. He needed to say the things he had longed to say to Connor but had been too scared of losing his son by his words. Now it didn't matter, Connor was lost anyway, and Angel was finally going to say his piece.
"Angel…" Cordelia tried to calm him down before Angel said something he would regret, but he wasn't listening to her.
"I gave you everything, but it wasn't enough!" Angel screamed at a shocked Connor. "It was never enough. I tried to find you, I tried to save you, but I couldn't. I apologized a thousand times over for not being able to keep you safe but it didn't matter, you couldn't let it go! You held such a damn grudge that it ate you from inside. You didn't have a problem with me; you had a problem with your damn self! I could see it in your eyes. You wanted to like me and trust me, but you couldn't go against a damn thing that bastard Holtz said could you?"
"Angel!" Cordelia glared at him. He had gone far enough. He was screaming at the son who didn't remember him. What good would that do? "That's enough."
"No, it isn't." Connor repeated his comment from earlier, but this time it came out differently. It was something in his voice, something that made him sound much more sly.
Angel, Cordelia, Wesley, Gunn, Fred, and Lorne all turned to Connor and realized why he sounded different, they could see it in his posture, hear it in his voice, glance at it in his eyes. He remembered.
"He's right." Connor moved around the counter and into the lobby. "He tried to save me." He looked at Angel directly. "He failed, but he did try."
Angel said nothing; his eyes narrowed at his son, the son who finally remembered him.
"Maybe that's where I was being unrealistic." Connor's tone of voice changed. "I expected you to succeed. I never gave you credit for trying. You deserved that much at least." Connor gave Angel a tight-lipped smile.
"Connor…" Angel said softly. He knew he had just gotten the closest thing to an apology from Connor that he would ever receive.
Connor shook his head. As far as he was concerned the conversation was over. He turned to Cordelia. "And before it gets awkward, I know that it wasn't you. I know Jasmine was controlling you. So lets just leave it at that."
Cordelia nodded, relieved that they could now steer clear of that topic.
Connor then turned to the rest of the group. "Now does someone want to explain to me what the hell happened?"
The group looked back and forth between each other, and then all eyes fell on Angel. If anyone was going to tell Connor what had happened and how they had gotten to the place they were at right now, it was going to be Angel. Angel sighed; if he had to explain it to one more person he was going to scream.
Giles and Xander sat over every single book that Giles could find that had to do with vampires, demons, or other dimensions. In the new reality, this collection was scarce in Giles household but he and Xander made do with what they had, and so far that had been nothing.
Xander sighed, rubbing his forehead. "We've got nothing, Giles. No explanations, no clues, and I don't think I have anymore brain cells left."
Giles nodded. "I would hate to be the first to agree with you but…"
"But we are screwed." Xander finished Giles' sentence. "So lets just call it a night."
"Not so fast." Buffy entered Giles house with Spike and Faith trailing behind her.
"What?" Giles perked up as his slayer entered. "Did you find something?"
"Oh yeah we did." Faith nodded with a smile.
Giles sat up straight, glad that some information was about to come his way. He quickly indicated for Spike, Buffy, and Faith to sit down across from him and Xander. The two slayers and the ex-vampire did so immediately.
Angel and Cordelia sat across the couch from Connor while Fred, Wesley, Gunn, and Lorne stood behind the couch Angel and Cordelia were on. They were all waiting for Connor's reaction to Angel's explanation of the new reality and how they had gotten there. After a moment Connor nodded slowly.
"Make much sense to you?" Angel asked.
Connor shrugged. "As much sense as anything else in this world does."
Just then the phone rang. Fred moved to get it.
"Angel Investigations…" Fred started but was cut off by the person on the other end of the line. "Oh, hi Giles…yeah…he's right here." She held the phone up. "Angel, it's Giles."
Angel nodded and took the phone from Fred. "Hey Giles…yeah…they did…I see…Buffy's sure?…Yeah…okay…no, no I have an idea…yeah...Darla, yeah. Okay...thanks Giles." And with that Angel hung the phone up.
"What was that about?" Cordelia asked immediately, wondering why Giles would call and why Angel would mention Darla.
"Buffy, Faith, and Spike got a hold of some vampires. They told them that there is some kind of tear or something, that the old reality lost its balance of good and evil and now the evil is spilling into this one." Angel explained.
"Really?" Wesley nodded. "That's odd."
"That makes sense." Gunn said. "No reality as good as this one could last forever."
"Wish we could have experienced it a little longer…" Fred sighed.
Angel nodded, understanding what Fred meant by that. He wished they could have all had a break from the good fight, but he had a feeling the Powers That Be would never let that happen.
"So, what about Darla?" Cordelia asked.
"Giles and I think I should go and try and talk to her." Angel said. "See what the Powers have to say about this."
"Maybe they don't know." Connor offered. "And even if they do, they have really helped us in the past." Connor thought of the times he had seen the Powers sit on their butts and do nothing. He had seen them do this when Angel Inc. had tried to take out the Circle of the Black Thorn, when Cordelia had been taken over by Jasmine, even when Holtz had taken him. All of those times the Powers had done nothing, so what made the Fang Gang think they were going to help them now?
"Maybe." Angel said as he made his way back to the couch Cordelia was on, gently massaging her shoulders. "But it's our only choice." He checked his watch. "Its late. We will all get some sleep and then figure out a way for me to get to Darla in the morning. Sound like a plan?"
Everyone nodded. It sounded like a plan, maybe not a great one, but pretty much the first solid one any of them had come up with.