Wesley felt something soft and warm on his lips, pulling him from a deep sleep. He entered the realm between sleeping and wakefulness where reality is fluid. He looked at Fred, waking him with her warm kiss, like a fairy tale. How had he gotten to this wonderful point? He remembered her kissing him at work. 'Was that clear enough for you?' 'Not even close.' Was this the morning after that? The dreamy state dissipated to make way for the real world. He was in an abandoned industrial building with only a single spell protecting them from the wrath of ferocious demons while the woman he loved woke him with a kiss. So things weren't that bad.

Angel, Gunn, Buffy, Willow, and Faith were standing in a circle talking. Kennedy was watching the door, looking for signs that the Wolf or Ram were approaching. Conner was lying on the ground, asleep. Anne, Lorne, and Teresa were looking after him. Xander was asleep, he had probably just gotten of a watch shift. Oz was talking to Nina. Harmony was talking to Spike, they appeared to be arguing. Wesley locked eyes with Fred. "What did I miss?"

"Big meeting, I think Angel wanted to wake you but Faith told him not to."

"I suppose we should go over there."

"You go, I have to do something." Fred leaned in and kissed him again. He didn't want to leave this moment. He wanted to put it away in its own dimension where it would last forever and then live in that dimension. He pulled away from her, standing to head over to the meeting.

Buffy winced when she saw him approach and at first he couldn't figure out why. "How is your…?" Buffy pointed to her face.

Wesley reached up and touched his face, remembering the severe battering he'd taken yesterday. "Oh it's fine, doesn't hurt at all." Well it hadn't until he'd been reminded of it.

"I can heal that." Willow said

"I think it would be far wiser to focus your energies on us not dying horribly." He pointed at the air around them. "We don't know how long you'll have to keep this up."

"Not very," Willow said

Angel explained the visit from the Wolf and Ram last night, which Wesley was surprised he's slept through. He explained everything that had happened and how last night's conversation had ended. "We need a plan, and fast." Angel said "So far we have none."

Wesley frowned. His mind worked through the possibilities, discarding and retaining bits of information, forming an idea. "I have a possibility, but it's… unpleasant."

"We'll take what we can get." Buffy said

Wesley exhaled slowly, then explained his idea. He had barley finished when Willow cut in. "No, no way. We're not even considering that."

"Will-" Buffy tried to get a word in but was cut off.

"I won't let you even consider something like that. It's unacceptable."

Wesley tried to pacify her. "We'd need their permission for this to even be a possibility."

"It's not one." Willow said "I can't let you guys think of this."

"It's not just up to you." Gunn pointed out

"But I can stop you." Willow said "You'd need my help and even if you could find a way to fight them without me I could stop you. I won't let you do this."

"Okay," Angel said "That plan is out then. Does anybody else have an idea?"

"Is there a way?" Buffy asked "To do that without sacrificing someone?"

"No," Gunn answered for Wesley "It's like Pylea all over again. The only way to win is to suffer losses. There's no elegant solution here."

"There's another way." Willow said "We can't see it but there is. We can find a way to beat them without any more people dying. You all saw what happened to Kate, that can't happen again. There must be some spell, some weakness… No creature is invulnerable."

"We know their weakness." Wesley said calmly "They are tied to the earth. Those bonds are the only things strong enough to maybe choke them."

Willow stormed away from the group. They watched her walk over to Kennedy, who asked her girlfriend what was wrong and received no response. The remaining five all looked at each other. "I think it's a good plan." Buffy whispered so that they could barely hear

"Me to," Faith said "It's the only thing that might work."

"We need to ask them if they'd be willing." Angel said

"Without Willow finding out." Faith said

"I don't like deceiving her." Buffy said "Let's hold of for a little bit, weigh our options. If this is really our only shot Angel can talk to Nina, Willow won't suspect anything."

Upon unspoken agreement they split up. Angel walked over to his son and sat next to him. Buffy approached Willow and Kennedy. She apologized to Willow and hugged her best friend. Gunn walked toward the less populated section of the room and Anne saw him. She left Conner to walk over to her lover. Wesley walked back to where Fred was. Faith approached Xander to see if he was really asleep, and if not to see if he was okay.

Kennedy saw the Wolf and Ram approach, but before she had time to shout a warning darkness filled the room and nobody could see.

Angel grabbed his son's hand, not wanting to lose him in the dark. "Conner!" He shouted to rouse his son, but he couldn't hear himself. Angel tried to shout again, there was still no sound. Angel gave up and tugged at his son's hand. He felt the boy move, and made sure to maintain his grip while Conner sat up. He felt Conner try to tug his hand away and realized Conner had no way of knowing his father was the one who held him. Conner managed to break their grip, leaving Angel in what was essentially a vacuum. Angel reached out, feeling for anything or anyone. Then some of the darkness dissipated. Angel could see and hear everyone now, but it was clear they could not. The air was now dark green and wading through the darkness were Angel's friends, who were operating without sight or hearing.

"Hello! Is this a joke?" Harmony whined

"Willow I can feel you say something." Said Buffy

"Why won't anybody answer me?" Kennedy asked

"Kennedy? Buffy?" Willow said

"What's going on?" Conner shouted

This was going on around the whole room. The noise was deafening to Angel all though none of them could hear anything. Angel turned his gaze to the door, to the Wolf and Ram. "Is this your grand plan, blinding us?" The Ram shook her head. "What is this then?"

"Once," The Wolf explained "We offered you a choice, to serve us and help up bring about the apocalypse. You accepted that offer. You did not however, uphold your end."

"So my nomination for employee of the month is out?" Angel asked

The Ram grinned. "For a short span in our perception of time, but a great while in the understanding of lower beings you were a most pleasing disciple. You reveled in carnage and destruction. When the Hart asked me for one of my creations I knew you were the most worthy; that you would reflect well on me. We knew of the prophecy, and she wanted to… rig the results." The Ram pressed her hand against the barrier. "You and Buffy, chosen for this task."

"To end the world?" Angel whispered

The Ram nodded. "We created you, as we did her. We brought the two of you together to play your separate parts in bringing us over. Her part is done, yours is not. We have more work for you." The Ram pressed against the barrier. "Kill the witch."

Angel chuckled. "Just because you asked me to? No."

"We changed history." The Ram said "Do you want to see the real future?"

Angel thought about it. "It would be a lie."

"No, a display of our might. Come vampire, we will not force you to see what you do not wish to. We know you have often wondered about how fates might be different without you. We will show you the answer, show you a world where we did not tamper with your fate any more than we already had by creating the slayers, vampires, and werewolves. Do you wish to see?"

Angel knew he shouldn't, but he nodded.

Sunnydale. Angel was in the high school library. He remembered that library. Buffy was holding up a crossbow, pointing it at Angelus, who was holding Giles. Darla, Drusilla, and Spike were hanging out in the background. "Come on slayer, you protect the innocent, put it down."

"He knew what he was getting into." Buffy's voice was cold. "They'll send another."

"Pity," Angelus bit Giles, the man cried out in pain. Buffy shot the crossbow at Darla, but the vampire dodged the shot and snickered. She and Drusilla ran for Buffy. Buffy threw Drusilla toward an approaching Spike. She fought with Darla. Angel wanted to step in and help, but he wasn't there. Angelus was, draining Giles. The scene faded away.

"I'm told your last watcher was killed by the whirlwind gang. They are still active?"

It was still the library. Buffy was staring at the ground while Wesley talked to her. When she lifted her head to answer Angel saw a long scar ran the length of her neck. "Yes,"

"They're very competent, they've been around for hundreds of years, still I trust you'll be able to bring them down one way or another. Divide and conquer would be the proper strategy."

Buffy nodded. "Whatever you say."

"Drusilla is both their strength and weakness, she is psychic but very insane. Eliminating her will weaken them. If there were a way to separate her from the group that would be ideal."

"How do I do it?" Buffy said listlessly

"I'll come up with a plan. In the meantime, you'll need to train more."

"Of course," She put up no argument.

The scene faded once more. "You knew I'd be the one from the beginning didn't you slayer? You knew I'd drain you?" Angelus asked

"No," Buffy said, there was something different about her voice now. She sounded stronger, like the Buffy Angel knew. "I knew I was going to dust you and couldn't wait."

"Spike says slayer blood's like nothing else in the world."

"Come and get it big boy." Angelus rushed her and they appeared to be almost evenly matched. The fight was a frenzy, each giving far more thought to eliminating their opponent than self-preservation. Each was beaten and battered. Angel scratched Buffy over her right eye and blood dripped down her face. Buffy missed the heart, but staked his neck. Angel stumbled for a moment and when Buffy went in for the killing blow Angelus kicked her kneecap with such force Buffy screamed and fell to the ground. Angelus knelt down to drink the wounded slayer, but he underestimated her persistence. Buffy planted the stake in his chest and he dissolved into dust. Buffy collapsed over the small pile of dust, too hurt to rise.

A final scene transition. Buffy was sitting in a car with Spike. "I keep expecting you to decide I'm useless and stake me." Spike downed some liquor from a flask and passed it to Buffy.

She took a drink and shrugged, passing the flask back. "I like the company. My watcher's not the most sociable of fellows. Besides you have your uses. I can take on a lot more vamps with you backing me up. I'm more affective and you get to live, win/win."

"It's not just that." Spike said

"It's not?" Buffy asked as she picked up a pair of binoculars.

"For the first time since the initiative put that chip in my brain I have a purpose."

"A purpose?" Buffy put the binoculars down, false alarm.

"I need to go out, do things, kill things. You give me that."

"Good," Buffy said "Maybe even if that chip stops working you'll stick around. You might decide you like killing demons more than people."

"It's more of a challenge." Spike conceded

"Heads up." A cabal of vamps walked into view. Buffy and Spike exited the vehicle and set upon the vamps with a terrible fury. The scene faded.

Angel was in the dark. Everyone was still shouting and bumping around. "It was supposed to be him. Those gypsies, that girl, it was all your doing." Angel fell to his knees, unable to process this new information. "I was supposed to be a villain. You made me a hero because you didn't think I would do as good a job as him." He stared at the Ram.

They stood still and silent, allowing this new information to fill him. Angel put his hands to his head and squeezed, trying to keep his mind together as this new information threatened to tear it apart. Angel had believed himself to be a champion, chosen to do good. But evil chose him, in the belief that he would fail at the good he was meant to do. The curse had been their doing, one of many subtle influences they enacted to change the world, to clear the way for them.

"Show yourself!" Conner had a stake in his hand and was stumbling about, trying to find whatever demon was hiding in the darkness. Angel supposed in a roundabout way that was himself. Conner had never been meant to be born. Angel had never been meant to be either.

"I'm not the one." Angel said "The prophecy isn't about me."

"It is now." The Ram said "We made it so. Then we took the prophecy away."

"We would not have been able to do so with Spike." The Wolf said "Your propensity for self-flagellation made it easy to convince you to give up the one thing you wanted."

"But if I-" Angel's head was spinning. "If I weren't here, it wouldn't be about me. If it weren't for me the prophecy would be about Spike. He could have stopped you."

"In another world." The Ram said "But you're here, humanity's champion."

Angel looked over at Conner. "What if I died?" He had been set up to fail. He had been given somebody else's destiny, so that it wouldn't come to be. But if he were gone…

"You don't want to die Angel." The Ram said "You were never meant to be, but you are." Her terrible smile made him feel unclean, like ants were crawling under his skin. "Accept what you are. Join our side, do our will. You were created to do our will."

Angel looked at his hands. "You created me."

"Yes," The Ram said "Designed you, crafted you from mud."

"So it's kind of like you're my parents." Angel said, thoughts connecting in his mind

The Ram frowned. She shared a look with her sister. They were worried. "Such mortal concepts are meaningless to higher beings, and creations such as you."

Angel stood up and approached the barrier. "I believe you, when you say you created me, that I'm your evil progeny. I just don't care."

"How can you not care?" The Wolf demanded in fury "Your blood is evil!"

"I figure," Angel said "It doesn't matter where we come from. All that matters is who we are. It doesn't matter what people tell us we're going to be, all that matters is who we choose to be and what we choose to do. You created me to fail, but I figure I want to succeed. I guess what I'm saying is" Angel closed in on the barrier and leaned in close to the old ones. "Fuck off."

The Ram cried out with such a terrible fury is threw Angel back. The sound was like steel knives being thrown into the mind where they are twisted over and over. She hit the barrier as hard as she could and a flash of light filled the room, burning the darkness away and scorching their eyes. Angel put a hand in front of his face. "There will be no mercy for you vampire!"

They were gone, the room returned to normal, Willow's spell still in place. Angel stumbled to his feet and looked around the room. Everyone seemed a bit dazed. "What happened?" Spike asked "Were the crazy ladies here?"

Nobody was hurt and Angel was thankful for that. However Spike had just asked a loaded question. Should Angel tell him the truth about what the Wolf and Ram had said? He thought about their current circumstances. This news would just further upset everyone. Angel decided to keep it to himself. They had enough to worry about. Then darkness fell upon the room again and Angel realized he had damned them all. If he had just told Spike the truth, or started to he would be prepared for the senior partner's manipulation. Now it was too late and they were coming for the other vampire with a soul. There would be no mercy.

"They took your destiny from you." The Ram said

Spike stood there with his hands in his pockets, immobile. "I see that."

"They didn't allow you to take the place on the side of righteousness that had been saved for you. They didn't think you were good enough. Prove them right."

Spike didn't answer the Ram. He squeezed his eyes shut and thought about the things they had shown him. His relationship with Buffy… "She wasn't even there."

Spike didn't have to explain that he was talking about Willow. "No, we put her there."

"Xander, Giles, Joyce, Angel, she wasn't supposed to have them."

"No," The Ram said "You were supposed to be enough."

Spike shook his head. "No, I couldn't ever be. I can be something, but I couldn't take the place of all of those people. She was supposed to be lonely and miserable. You changed that."

"Aren't we nice?" The Wolf asked "Doing that for her,"

"Sure," Spike said "Except for destroying the world you're real nice ladies." Spike laughed. He reached in his pocket for the packet of cigarettes. "You really want me to join you?"

"Your Angel kept the truth from you. He concealed your destiny to hold onto his own."

Spike locked eyes with the Ram and considered this. Angel lied. Well maybe he had been about to tell the truth when the darkness descended. Spike wasn't an idiot, he knew this wasn't the case. Spike played with the thought in his mind. Angel's destiny was supposed to be his. He was supposed to be the vampire with a soul, Buffy was supposed to be his. "Thanks," Spike said

"Your thoughts are illogical." The Ram said "You think that you are glad not to have the fate of Angel because you do not like him. You are glad you don't have Buffy and glad that you are in your current miserable position. You think that if you had Angel's destiny you would be more similar to and this is not desirable to you. That makes no sense."

"Not to you." Spike said "You higher beings don't really get what makes us lower blokes tick." He inhaled deeply from a cigarette and looked at it. "We kill ourselves every day in a million little ways. Yet tell us we're about to die and we panic. Do you know why that is?"

"Lower beings are short-sighted and illogical." The Wolf said

"Sure," Spike said "But we don't think of ourselves as lower beings. You can't get past that mental block. You can't conceive of losing to us and because of that you don't think we really can either. You think you're so far above us and think we know it too, but we don't."

"Your stupidity is not an advantage." The Ram said "It does not aid you."

"Oh but it does pretty lady," Spike said "It really does."

"We will destroy you." She said "We will open you up and take out all the moving parts." Her sunny eyes bored into him, making him sweat. He tried to ignore it. "We cannot lose this fight. We will eat you and your friends when the time comes. Do you not realize this?"

"Nope," Spike said "That's while we'll win. We're stupid and we'll fight to live even when we're already dead." Spike pointed at himself and Angel. "Hell even the bloody ghost fought to live. That's some kind of stubbornness. You're screwed love."

The Wolf and Ram glared. "You are a fool." The Ram said "You will rue this day."

Spike nodded. "Okay,"

"You think we have exhausted our options." The Wolf said "There is a room full of corruptible souls in there. It only takes one to slaughter the witch."

Spike frowned. They were right, a room full of corruptible souls and one soulless vampire were at their disposal. Spike looked around at his blind companions. He looked at Angel. This was all his fault in a roundabout way, but Spike couldn't bring himself to be mad, not really. He'd been manipulated, he'd made mistakes, but he had been punished for those mistakes. When it counted he hadn't let the senior partners seduce him. What about the rest? What would they do? "They will kill her." The Ram answered his thoughts

"Then why are you still talking to me?"

In response another flash of blinding light hit the room. Everyone blinked. "Okay," Buffy said "What the hell is going on? What are they doing to us?"

Spike tried to get oriented. "Willow!" She looked at him. "Somebody here is going to kill you!" Her eyes widened. "Put another protection spell on yourself!" She didn't hear him. By the time the word another had left his lips the room was already in darkness. Spike stood still, mind operating at full speed. There was nothing he could do until the darkness left again. He waited and the moments seemed to stretch on forever. He waited for the blinding flash of light. Spike figured that since he hadn't moved he would still be facing Willow's direction when the darkness was gone. He would be able to make sure she was all right, of course if she wasn't he might never get to see. He might only be able to glimpse the Ram or Wolf in front of him, taking off his head. The moments continued to stretch. That was good right? Or was it bad… The blinding flash of light hit. Spike blinked once, twice. Willow was alive. But she wouldn't be for much longer if nothing was done about the wooden stake sticking out of her abdomen. Conner was standing over the witch and Kennedy grabbed him, throwing him against the barrier.

"You son of a bitch!" Kennedy started toward him. The Wolf and Ram laughed. Each put a hand against the barrier, waiting for the moment it weakened. Buffy knelt down next to Willow. Almost everyone was rushing towards the witch, but Spike was staying where he was, trying to figure this out. He locked eyes with Angel and then looked away, unable to suppress the flare of hatred he felt for his grandsire. Spike went over to the barrier where Kennedy was fighting with such intensity Spike was pretty sure she was going to kill Conner if she got the chance. Conner was doing his best to defend himself, but Kennedy had wrath on her side. Spike tried to grab the slayer but she swung a stake at him. "Stay back!" She warned him

Conner ran for the other end of the room, but Buffy stood up and knocked him down. "I will end you if you try to get up." She warned "Just stay where you are."

Kennedy hung back, not quite willing to take on Buffy. Spike walked over to the group surrounding Willow, but hung back, only observing. "Lift her legs." Wesley said with a quiet intensity "She needs to be elevated." Xander did his best to follow these instructions. Wesley tore some fabric from his shirt and pressed the edges of the wound, trying to stop the bleeding.

"Can she heal herself?" Faith asked

"Willow," Wesley whispered "Can you hear me?"

She nodded.

"Can you breathe?" That seemed like an odd question to Spike

She nodded again.

Wesley picked up her hand and moved it so that it was hovering over the wound. "Can you feel the injury?" That seemed like an even odder question to Spike.

"I can feel what's wrong." Willow's voice was hoarse. "But the barrier-" She coughed and little spots of blood landed on her blouse.

"Don't worry. Just do the best you can."

Willow's hand began to glow. She gripped the stake. Spike noticed the air around them was getting a little less green. He looked at the Wolf and Ram, still touching the barrier. Willow pulled the stake out which Spike knew you weren't supposed to do for stab wounds, but he figured magical healing superseded that. Kennedy approached Willow and grabbed the hand that wasn't holding the stake. The air didn't get any more or less green. Willow pressed down on the bloody hole in her body, blood staining her hands. Slowly the flesh began to knit itself back together. "I'm okay." She gasped "I'm going to make it."

Kennedy hugged Willow, who was still lying on the ground, suppressing tears. "I thought you were going to die." Willow gave Kennedy a weak hug in return.

"Immensely disappointing." The Ram said

"I protest sister." The Wolf said "Super boy should have dealt a more decisive blow."

"His heart wasn't in it, we should have been more patient." The Ram explained

"Shall we try again?" Spike stiffened. Who would they go after this time? Maybe Angel again, convince him that Willow would kill Conner in retribution. But it would probably be someone new. Maybe Harmony, she was after all evil. Perhaps Nina again, or Oz.

"No," The Ram said "Let's go, we'll come back later."

The Wolf looked disappointed but she followed her sister away. Buffy hauled Conner to his feet. Spike watched Angel rush over. "Buffy-"

"Why?!" Buffy demanded of the boy with the bloody hands

Conner looked away. "You can kill me if you want."

"Nobody is going to kill you Conner." Angel promised "What did they tell you?"

"Nothing I didn't already know." Conner said "We're all demons." He looked around the room. "We need to be cleansed. Our presence is corrupting, and the innocent die. They're going to cleanse the world. We've all been corrupted, and must be purged."

Buffy dropped Conner, who hit the ground and lay on his back. He pulled himself up so that he was resting on his elbows. She looked at him with disgust on her face. "How did you become so simple-minded that you believe everything anyone tells you?"

"Well no one ever tells me the truth." Conner said "All the supposed good guys ever do is lie. I figure if the truth is so abhorrent maybe I'll finally get it from the bad guys."

Buffy turned away. She walked off, deciding his wasn't worth her time. Spike went to meet her at the barrier. Faith and Wesley approached them. Spike could hear Angel trying to get through to his son, but tuned the vampire out. Spike considered telling Buffy the truth, but decided against it. It would seem- it would be- self-serving. The four of them were quiet.

After a moment Faith broke the silence. "I could talk to Nina and Oz."

Buffy shook her head. "I'll do it. We'll have to work fast, they could come back at any time. Wesley I need you to talk to Angel and figure out if we can count on Conner. Talk to Gunn as well, let him know we're going through with the plan." Wesley walked off to complete his task. "Faith tell Lorne to get ready to hear a lot of people sing." Faith looked confused, but went to get the Pylean. Spike gave Buffy and odd look. She responded with a steely glare. "How did you know what Conner was going to do?" She asked

"I didn't know it would be Conner. They tried to get me to do the same thing."

"How?"

"They showed me what my destiny would have been if they hadn't interfered."

"What was it?"

Spike shook his head. He made a decision. "I will never tell you Buffy. I'll die first."

She was taken aback by this. "Did you kill me or something?"

"No," His voice was firm. "No more questions."

"Okay," Buffy turned to the room. "Everybody pick a song!"

"I'm really sorry about this." Xander said as he tied Oz's hands

"It's okay," He said "I'm used to failing tests."

Xander gave his old classmate a slight smile. "I remember."

Xander stood up and watched Lorne approach Buffy. "It's a delicate science what I do, we can't be sure that any of them were going to kill anybody."

Buffy didn't answer. She just glanced at Willow trying to comfort a moping tied-up Kennedy and then quickly looked away. Xander caught a glimpse of Anne talking to her seething boyfriend. Harmony was protesting the inconvenience, but she didn't seem mad per say. Conner hadn't offered the slightest protest at being tied up, neither had Oz. Xander had been pretty surprised when Oz failed. Xander was curious who it was Lorne had seen the senior partners could trick or convince Oz into murdering, but that wasn't exactly something he could ask.

"Are you wondering to?" Oz asked

Xander jumped. "Yeah, you always seemed like a nonviolent type to me. Well except for the- hey maybe it's a werewolf thing, like they would just make you turn like-"

Xander cut himself off before he said something he would regret, but Nina knew. "No, because then I would have failed the test as well. Maybe the protection spell prevents it."

"Didn't stop the dark cloud of terribleness." Xander pointed out

Nina shrugged, having lost interest in the conversation. "Are you okay?" Oz asked

Xander walked away to give them some space.

"Not really, but that's not really a big deal right now."

"It is to me." Oz said

Nina moved closer to him, so that they were sitting across from each other. "I figured you would hate me." She said, staring at his bound hands. "I hated you after you lost control."

"I can't hate you." Oz said "Something just won't let me."

"I thought…" She bit her lip and Oz understood.

"You thought it might be you." His heart sank.

"I'm sorry. I had no cause to think that, no right to think you could ever be so petty."

"I don't know that Conner kid all that well, but I doubt he stabbed Willow out of pettiness." Oz flinched. The image of Willow bleeding was stuck in his mind.

Nina nodded. "Who is it?"

Oz shrugged. "I'd tell you if I knew. I don't."

Nina bit her lip and looked away. "Do you love me?"

Oz waited for her to look him in the eye. "Yes,"

Nina looked down. "I wish you didn't."

"I can't help it." He said

"I feel like I should take it all back. I feel like I should say that losing control made me understand what you went through. You tried to help me Oz, you looked after me. I feel like I owe you for that. But the truth is that you gave me hope that I could manage this condition, turn it into something good instead of a burden. Now that hope is gone and I hate you a little for that."

Oz nodded. "I understand."

Nina looked doubtful, but when she looked in his eyes she saw he was telling the truth. "I appreciate that. You're a really good man."

Oz shook his head. "Just a regular man, but with-"

He was cut off by the sound of Buffy clearing her throat. "I need to talk to you."

"Conner please talk to me." Angel sat next to his son, who was lying on the ground with his tied hands resting on his chest. The boy stared at the ceiling, immobile. "Please,"

"Angel," Angel looked up at Faith, who was approaching cautiously. "I'm sorry to bother you." Her eyes flitted to Conner and then back to Angel. "I need to talk to you."

Angel got up and walked a little ways over to talk to Faith. Conner heard every word. He slowly rose from the ground and looked at his surroundings. He decided what he had to do.