They both walked in silence, neither one knowing what to say. Angel had scared her tonight. She had thought he was helpless, simply an angel without his wings. When he was fighting the vampire Buffy had watched him with a critical eye. He had moved quickly and with deadly precision, he knew how to fight and was very, very good at it. When he had finished off the vampire and had turned to her she wanted to scream but held it in. His eyes were frightening; they seemed to glow with hate and rage. She was trying to keep a level head and not jump to conclusions, had Angel lied to me? Is he really even an angel, or just a demon? They finally reached Giles' front door and she quietly entered with Angel before sitting on the couch and patting the seat next to her.

Angel sat down slowly not knowing what to expect. He wanted to run from the hurt and distrust in her eyes but another part of him wanted to tell her the truth, show her what he really was. The longer they sat the angrier he got at the whole situation.

Giles had watched the two enter and could tell something was wrong. Angel was bleeding from his back and Buffy was not sitting near or touching Angel and would not meet his eyes. "Is everything all right?"

Buffy took a deep breath and lifted her head, "I think it's time for Angel to finish the story he had started."

Giles looked at Buffy, then to Angel. He wanted to find out what was wrong but thought it better if he let them tell him on his own, plus he was dying to know more about Angel. He went to the kitchen and got his notebook and a pen and a cup of earl grey before returning to the living room and sitting across from the silent twosome. "Whenever you're ready Liam."

"You can call me Angel," he replied shortly.

"Alright, whenever you're ready Angel."

Angel rubbed his hands up and down his face trying to gather his thoughts and silently contemplating how much he should share. These two mortals had been nothing but good to him, he should tell them the truth but he didn't know if it was pertinent at this time to share every detail. "Where did we leave off?"

Giles flipped through his notebook and scanned it with a finger, "We left off… um, we left off when I brought up your, um… wings."

"Right." He sat quietly collecting himself before he began. "When Father gave me my wings they were different. Normally an angel's wings are soft and white and only large enough for them to fly. When mine came in they were black, as I stated before everything darkened on me. They also came in much larger than anyone else's. My feathers were long and wide and my wings were so large that they towered over me and everyone else. The other angels were frightened of me, said I didn't belong there but Father said that it only confirmed what he wanted. He needed someone that could serve a darker purpose."

Angel jumped up and started pacing feeling antsy, "Giles do you smoke? Can I bum one?"

Giles and Buffy looked at Angel surprised, "You smoke? Angels don't smoke!"

Angel looked at Buffy with a small humorless grin, "I'm not that kind of angel."

Giles sat for a moment longer before entering the kitchen and coming out a second later with a cigarette and lighter and handed them to Angel.

"Giles! Since when do you smoke?"

Giles stood defiantly, "Only once in a while! I'm not just the stuffy librarian who drinks tea and reads all the time that you all make me out to be." Buffy rolled her eyes at him before looking back to Angel who was lighting the cigarette and taking a long drag.

"Some things aren't important, but to make a long story short he made me a commander."

Giles' eyes narrowed as he looked at Angel, "Commander of what exactly?"

Angel took a long drag off his cigarette and stared at the moon through the large living room window, "Heaven's army."

Giles tried to hide his disbelieving grin, "Heaven….. has an army?"

Angel jerked his eyes to Giles and glared at him angrily, "Yeah it has an army. Your slayer is a part of it just here on earth." Seeing the other man's shocked expression he shook his head. "Oh don't look so surprised, I know all about slayers and watchers. As commander I know all the important figures. I know who the pawns are and I know who the important ones are, which ones are disposable and which ones aren't."

"How do you know that Buffy is the Slayer?"

Buffy took this opportunity to speak up, "We got attacked tonight, Angel saved me." She suddenly felt angry, "Speaking of, why didn't you tell me you weren't helpless? I was worried sick about that vampire eating you then when you did the psycho thing with the eyes I thought I was going to have to take you down!"

"Psycho thing with the eyes?" Giles muttered quietly, "What eye thing?"

Angel threw his arms in the air, "Will you two just stop talking? You think I want to talk about this shit? Tell you things that no one should know? Just sit down and shut up and LET ME FINISH!" He was screaming at them by the end if his tirade and his eyes once again had a thin red halo around them. This was not going as he had planned but then again he never could control his temper. He sat down stiffly and lit up another cigarette, daring the other two to say something. He met both their eyes before continuing on.

"As I was saying, I'm the most recent commander of Heaven's Army. You think everything evil stays where it belongs? That heaven has those pearly gates and nothing can get past them? Well it doesn't, things attack us all the time. Lucifer doesn't play fair and neither do I. Father wanted me because I'm a realist, because I lie, and I cheat, and I do whatever the hell it takes to protect Home. No one likes it, but someone's got to do it. I've protected those perimeters for a long damn time. As I'm sure you know time moves differently at Home and in Hell. While I've only been dead for about 250 years, I've served for Father for about 2000. I did whatever he asked no matter how dark and evil it was to protect Home, my home. Then he… then he…" Liam stopped talking and gripped his hair tightly with his hands. He was breathing harshly and felt the need to rip something apart.

Seeing the man start to fall apart Giles spoke up, "I think that's enough for tonight Angel, this seems difficult for you to talk about so we'll pick up.."

"NO! You wanted to talk about this and I need to explain. Just let me get this all out."

"If you insist."

Angel's anger started to fade and he spoke quieter than before, "Father started noticing something was off when I started disobeying orders, going after demons and figures that I wasn't supposed to, putting angels in harms way for no reason. I was getting reckless. Everyone could tell that whatever was in me was overtaking my soul because my eyes were beginning to change. Because I'm part…" He trailed off and suddenly looked nervous before shaking his head as if coming to a decision in his head. "Anyway my anger was manifesting physically. As you've both seen my eyes turn red when I'm upset and if I'm angry enough I lose control and return to a feral mindset. It started happening more and more. Father decided he needed to do something so he decided to punish me and remind me of where the path of darkness leads you."

Angel put his free hand to his neck to rub his tattoos, "These aren't tattoos these are my sins; both living and dead that Father burned into my skin as a reminder of where evil leads you. When I look at them I remember lying in the middle of the street dying. They're written in Enochian, the language of the angels." He sat quietly staring at his shoes. While he had wanted to destroy something earlier he now wanted to find a quite corner to brood and sulk. He felt exhausted and to be honest bipolar, he wasn't sure how much more he could talk about all this but he knew if he finished his story tonight then it would be less for him to worry about in the future.

"After Father reminded me to stay on the straight and narrow things went well for a while, or as well as they could go. It's tiring, fighting constantly and eventually my mind started to stray to darker places again. I was becoming reckless and to be honest with myself I was and still am… unbalanced. I'm having a hard time deciphering right from wrong, good from evil. For some reason it's even worse here then it was at Home. Yesterday, I…" He trailed off, wondering if he should really say anymore. He knew he was not winning friends with his story but felt these two deserved to hear it first hand, especially Buffy. He stared at her and his throat constricted. She was staring at him with her beautiful, innocent eyes. He opened his mouth to continue but his tongue felt thick and he had a hard time forming the words. He cleared his throat and met Buffy's eyes. He spoke in a low even voice, "Yesterday I broke, snapped, whatever you want to call it. My third in command was arguing with me, saying I didn't care how many we lost. Next thing I knew I had stabbed him in the throat and as he fell I felt no remorse. Angels can die, and when they do they cease to exist. There is no Heaven or Hell for them. Father appeared immediately after; I was still standing, covered in blood and holding my dagger. Before I could blink I was on the ground with Father's foot on my back. He cursed me, said for once he was wrong and that I deserved to be Lucifer's. I thought that was it for me and to be honest a part of me wanted that to be the end but then he said that he loved all his children and that I would get one final chance. He would send me to Earth, where like his mortal children I would choose my own path. I'm here until I choose a path of righteousness or eternal damnation. After he said his piece he…" Angel paused and let out a breath. "He ripped off my wings and threw me down to Earth."