The sun rose high in the sky and Angel laid in his bed, eyes wide open, staring at the ceiling, just thinking. He did try to sleep the night before, but it hadn't worked too well. At one point he fell asleep and ended up waking up about ten minutes later from a horrid nightmare about Illyria actually taking over Fred and going around killing everybody, and people still blamed him because he could've stopped it.

There was just no winning for Angel in this situation, in his dreams.

After the nightmare, he hadn't bothered to sleep again. He'd be fine for a while without sleep. So he stayed awake and just thought, about everything, all the events of the last few years, ever since he, Cordy, Wes, Gunn, and Lorne rescued Fred from Pylea. She was such an innocent, lonely girl determined not to be the damsel in distress, but Angel rescued her and she came back with them. And, slowly but surely, she became a big part of their team. They were in many life and death situations over the years, but before there were always different outcomes that could've happened, and many different ways to save people's lives. Not in this situation. It was either Fred lived or Fred died, no in between. So Angel made the choice. Was it the right choice or the wrong choice? What exactly would've happened if he let Illyria take over Fred? It was a good question, and one he was glad he didn't know the answer to.

Still. Was Angel right and the world would've been worse with Illyria in it, or could they have stopped her if they needed to?

Angel thought about getting up and out of bed and getting to work, but what was the point? Most of the clients were dead anyway, at least any clients that were in or near L.A. Why did Angel have to get up and go run the place when really there was nothing to run? For the image, that was why. There were still many Wolfram & Hart offices around the world, and they knew about Angel running things over here, and if he just gave up now, they would never take him seriously again. He had to get up and get to "work" because if he didn't, he'd appear a fool, if he wasn't appearing as one already.

Plus, Angel could go check on all of his friends, see how they were doing. He'd still yet to talk to Gunn about what went down in the White Room and he still hadn't found Spike and Knox.

Oh, Knox, whatever was he going to do with him? It was time to think of something. He couldn't just keep people watching over him forever. He could kill Knox, or have someone kill Knox. He surely deserved to die, didn't he, after what he did to Fred? Plus, he was evil, and Angel didn't tolerate much evil at this firm anymore. So death, right? He'd have Knox killed. But what if the others wanted more? Gunn wanted to hurt Knox, and Angel wasn't sure if that was really because of what Knox did or because Gunn had a lot of bent up anger inside of him because of the information he found out about the papers he signed. What if Wesley or Fred wanted to hurt Knox in their own way? That would be wrong, though, wouldn't it, to allow someone to get hurt? What to do with Knox, what to do with Knox. Maybe he'd ask the others what they wanted, and they'd go from there. Yeah, that sounded like an okay plan. Ask the others.

He got up and out of bed after many more minutes of contemplation. It was time for him to get up, walk around, and visit the others. As far as he knew, Wes, Fred, and Lorne had slept here, in the Wolfram & Hart building because none of them wanted to go home and face the absolute silence. Angel couldn't blame them. Gunn might've slept here too, but, as he thought before, he didn't see Gunn last night.

Angel jumped in the shower, got out, dried himself, got dressed in all black, spiked his hair, and then made his way to the elevator. He arrived in his office, but quickly left to go walk around the building. There were still lawyers and others walking around in here, seemingly working but doing God knows what. Angel wasn't very curious, so he didn't ask. Instead, he made his way to Wes's office.

Wesley was walking around, gathering some papers and books. Fred was seated in a chair near the door to his office, curled up in a little ball and sleeping.

"Angel," Wes said in a whisper when he saw Angel. "Did you get some sleep?"

"Yeah," Angel lied, unsure why.

"Well that's great. And just so you know, if you plan on telling that to Fred, you better perfect that lie so it's not so obvious."

Angel cringed. "Sorry."

"Don't be sorry. It's understandable. I'm surprised myself that Fred's even asleep."

"Yeah, me too. Did you get some sleep?"

"Yes, plenty; thanks for asking."

"No problem. So listen, where is Knox?"

"He's in the lab."

"Oh, yeah, okay. So, Wes, I'll see you later, okay?"

"What are you going to do with him?" Wes asked, and they both knew who he was referring to. It wasn't hard to figure out.

Angel shrugged. "Not sure yet. I'll talk to you about it later."

Angel left Wes to do whatever it was that he was doing and left Fred so she wouldn't wake up to him and Wes talking. He decided he should go in the lab and check on Spike and Knox. On his way, he just happened to run into Gunn.

"Angel, I've been meanin' to talk to you," Gunn told him.

"I haven't seen you since yesterday. Is everything okay? Did something bad happen in the White Room?"

"No, don't worry about it. The Senior Partners aren't angry or anything, I don't think. For now I think we should just keep on working like usual."

"How are we supposed to keep working? Nearly all our clients are dead."

"Well, you'll figure it out, Boss. See you around?" Before Angel responded, Gunn was walking away.

Inside the lab, Angel witnessed Spike sitting in a chair, asleep, and Knox tied into a chair that was knocked over on the ground. Neither of them made any sounds as he walked in. Angel slammed the door to the lab to wake Spike up.

He jumped awake but once he saw Angel he rolled his eyes. "Oh. Just you."

"Yep, just me. You didn't hurt him, did you?"

Spike shrugged. "Would it matter if I did?"

Angel made his way over to Knox. It gave him chills when he leaned over and saw Knox's eyes were wide open, just staring upwards. When he saw Angel, he moaned. "Oh, are you here to kill me? Just get it over with already, please. I don't know how much longer I can stay in this chair."

Ignoring Knox, Angel looked back over at Spike. "Sorry for leaving you in here all night. I forgot to come check up on you guys."

"Don't worry about it, mate. How's Fred?"

"She's good. She's asleep. I think she'll be okay, eventually. You can go now, if you'd like. You don't have to watch over him any more if you don't want to."

"Eh, I don't mind. What are you going to do with him?"

"I don't know yet. I want to talk to the others, see what they think."

"Then go do that. I'll stay here," Spike folded his arms over his chest.

"Spike-"

"Don't argue with me, just go!"

Angel turned and left Spike alone in the lab to watch over Knox until they knew exactly what they were going to do with him.

Fred's eyes opened and she stretched herself awake. Wesley walked over to her and kneeled in front of her. "How'd you sleep?" he asked.

She groaned. "Mmm, good, I think. No nightmares or anything. I still feel a little shaken, though. Like, it's hard to wrap my mind around the fact that I'm here because a bunch of people died. It's too much."

"But you're okay?"

Fred yawned. "Have you seen Angel?"

Wes noticed how she avoided the question, and that alarmed him for a few seconds. Did that mean she wasn't really okay? Well, of course she wasn't, and he didn't expect her to be, but he knew that she knew she could answer the question honestly if she needed to. So what was with the whole secretive act?

"Wesley?" Fred sat up straight and frowned as he was just staring off, in thought, it seemed.

"Oh, I'm sorry," he apologized. "I was just…" Wes had no answer. "Yes, I have seen Angel. He seemed okay."

"I'm okay too," Fred said. "I'm not perfect. But I'm okay. What Angel told me last night, well, it gave me a different outlook on things. It helped."

"What did he tell you?"

Fred gave a small smile. "Just how much you all would be lost without me."

Wesley nodded. "I can confirm that we would all be very lost without you."

"As stupid as a question as this may be," Fred started, "would you have done the same thing? Say yes to the death of so many in order to save me?"

"Yes," he answered immediately after.

"Even though so many people died?"

"I would have done it even if it was the entire world that had to die."

Fred hugged Wesley. She felt better this way, with him. She felt a little bad about lying to him earlier, though, about dreaming. She didn't have any nightmares, but she did dream. In her dreams, her parents came to her and she cried. They told her it was okay and that they were happy that she was alive, even if they weren't. They told her it was okay to be happy, even if so many people died. They told her to cherish her life.

She didn't know if they were real or just dreams, but it didn't necessarily matter because they were there, and they told her it was okay, so she decided to listen to them. She wasn't 100% better. Her goal was to try and get to that point.

When Angel walked by Harmony's desk, he asked her if she could call Wes and bring him to his office. She said she'd do it, so Angel walked into his office, sat down at his desk, and started flipping through some paper work that didn't really matter anymore. He wanted to bring everybody in one by one and talk to them about Knox, just so they wouldn't be influenced by anyone else.

What Angel didn't know was that as he was flipping through the pointless paper work waiting for Wes, a teenage boy with brown hair and ice blue eyes was entering the building with not quite his own mind set on murdering the vampire with a soul.

Lorne looked at the list of famous actors, actresses, singers, authors, and other famous people that were on the client list that were now dead. Lorne felt defeated, like there wasn't a single reason he should be here now. With all these people gone, what point did the entertainment division even have now? What point did Lorne serve to Wolfram & Hart? Nothing! He was just dead weight.

The door to his office opened and in walked Gunn before Lorne could say anything.

"I need your help, Lorne," Gunn said.

Lorne put a hand on his forehead. "Oh, not now, sugar, I have a headache. Do you know that we pretty much have zero famous clients now? I mean, would it have killed Angel to call us and warn us that an unspeakable amount of people were going to die? We might have been able to save a few clients."

Gunn sat down next to Lorne. "That's what you're worried about? Famous people?"

Lorne thought for a moment. "You're right; they were all mostly jerks anyway. So what's up?"

"Well, I'm searchin' for some people to see if they…weren't attacked by Illyria."

"Oh, honey, why would you do that?! That would cause a lot of stress, thinking about people who probably died. And do you know what stress does to your skin?"

"Lorne."

"Sorry. So who are you searching for?"

"Anne, mainly. I walked around the shelter last night, searching for her, but she was nowhere to be found. I know I might be goin' out on a limb, here, but maybe she's safe, you know? I just wanna see. I have to."

"Oookayyyy," Lorne said in a sing-song voice. "How can I help with that?"

"Well, it involves some singing."

"Oh, of course. Being emphatic, it's all I'm good for." Lorne said this with a grin, to say he was joking. "Alright, tough guy. Sing for me."

The door to Angel's office swung open. Angel was still looking down, at some paper work, with his chair not facing his office door.

"Wes, I know this is a big deal, but you don't have to storm in here all-"

Suddenly Angel's desk was being pushed forward with a surge of strength and Angel was being thrown on the floor as someone leaped in the air, landed in front of Angel, and threw him across the office. The desk hit the wall with a bang and Angel looked up to see his chair being thrown at him. He rolled to the side just in time to mostly dodge the chair except for one leg that hit him in the side. He was still on the ground, and looked to see who was causing this mess.

He was surprised at who he saw because he never thought he'd see him again. Connor was standing above him, looking down with a menacing look and a stake in his hand. He wasn't normal, though. There was something deeply disturbing about Connor's appearance, and he could easily see it was his eyes. They weren't the brown they usually were, they were blue.

Angel was too stunned to react, to fight back, and before he knew it Connor was pinning him to the ground with one hand and raising the other with the stake in it.

"You will die!" Connor screamed.

But the stake didn't come near his chest. It hovered in the air for at least three seconds, which gave Angel the chance to push Connor off of him with a strength that sent Connor sailing into a wall.

The attack didn't faze Connor. He came right back at Angel, running full force and tackling him to the ground. He raised the stake again and this time Angel saw, he saw that this time there would be no stopping whatever was inside Connor from staking him.

It was a flicker. Out of nowhere Connor's unnatural blue eyes flashed back to the brown they always were before. With his new eyes, Connor looked Angel up and down with a confused look on his face, as if he didn't know what he was doing. Connor dropped the stake to the ground.

"Connor," Angel whispered. His son looked afraid and nervous and anxious. He was sweating terribly and his mouth was open in shock. He jumped off Angel and started running to the door to his office. "Connor, wait!" Angel shouted behind him.

Just as Connor started running, Wesley came in through Angel's office door. With a slam Connor bumped into Wes and they both fell to the floor.

They both stood up at about the same time and Connor took a look at the man he ran into. "Wesley," Connor said.

He frowned. "Do I know you?"

Out of nowhere Connor let out a shrill scream. "Leave me alone, leave me alone!"

"Connor, what's going on?" Angel asked, rushing over to his son. He grabbed his arm but Conner swiped it away and backed up into the glass by his door.

Connor kept screaming. "I am not you! I am not what you are! Leave! Me! Alone!"

Angel saw as his eyes turn back into the blue that was anything but normal. "Wes, get some chains." Wesley stood there, unsure what to do. "Now!" Angel yelled and Wes ran off. Alone in the room, Angel began to talk. "Connor, I-"

"I am not Connor," Connor spoke, and Angel heard something in his voice that told him that this was very much not the Connor he knew.

"Right, right, of course," Angel said slowly, playing along.

"Back away. You do not want me to inflict maximum pain. Do not think I am not prepared for any trick you may attempt to pull on me."

"What are you?"

He giggled just for a few seconds. "You know who I am."

"I didn't ask who you were, I asked what."

Connor frowned. And Angel leapt and sent a punch into Connor's face that made Angel feel sick to his stomach. The glass behind Connor broke as he went flying through and into the main lobby of the floor. Harmony immediately ran around the corner and gasped as she saw the teenage boy lying in the middle of the floor with glass surrounding him. Before Connor had the chance to stand up Angel was on top of him now, pinning him down. He tried as hard as he could not to stare into those icy eyes.

"Harm! Tranquilizer gun, now!" Out of the corner of his eye he saw Harm run away to retrieve the gun.

"Get off me! You will die, Angel, I swear to you I will not leave until you are dead and gone out of this world forever. It'll be fun; I'll take another stake and drive it right through your cold, un-beating heart, because that's who I am, Angel, that's what I do because your son never could. I will not rest until I have-"

To the side a small sound occurred as Harmony pulled the trigger to the gun, causing a dart to fly into Connor's neck. He got a woozy look on his face and before he knew what was happening, he was asleep. Angel stood up slowly, hoping, praying that this would really work and Connor wouldn't jump up unaffected by the dart.

Angel hated the idea of having to do that to Connor, but he had no choice. He was acting like a wild animal; he had to stabilize him somehow.

Wesley came running in with handcuffs and chains to tie Connor down.

By now, almost everyone who worked at Wolfram & Hart was standing around, staring at Angel and the kid beneath him, including Fred, Gunn, and Lorne. Everybody had a look of pure distress on their faces. It was so silent you could hear a pin drop on the carpet.

Wordlessly, Angel bent down and picked up Connor's lifeless body. He turned to Wes. "Bring them to the basement."

Wesley followed Angel on foot as everyone else's eyes followed him.

When they were out of sight, Lorne turned to Gunn and Fred. "Did he say 'your son'?!"

There were cells in the basement of Wolfram & Hart that were, at the moment, unoccupied. Angel brought Connor into one of those cells, tied a chain around his body so he couldn't move, and then handcuffed one of his hands to one of the bars of the cell. The whole time he was doing this, Wes was looking at Angel with a look like Angel was insane.

"Is that really necessary?" Wes asked once Angel was done.

"He was powerful," Angel said. He thought about just how powerful Connor was. He seemed to be a lot more powerful than before. Sure, he was always strong, but there was something different him, other than the eyes, that Angel was trying to understand. For example, he seemed stronger.

"Angel, who is he?" Wes questioned as Angel took a step back from the cell which Connor was now inside. "How did he know my name? I've never met him before. Those eyes, I would have remembered them. He seemed so distraught."

"Wes, this isn't something we can go into right now. There's an emergency."

Wes wasn't listening too well. "The scary thing is I…I recognize him. From where, I couldn't tell you, but it's as if I've seen his face before but can't remember it."

"Wes!" Angel yelled. "You've never met him. You have no idea who he is."

"But you do?"

Angel glanced back at his fallen son that would awaken in a few hours. "I know who he was. At this point, he's been taken over."

"Taken over by what?"

At first, Angel didn't want to say it. He knew, deep inside his gut he just knew. It wasn't certain, not at all, but how could it be anything else? He didn't want to alarm Wes, or at least not yet. He couldn't say what took over Connor. Angel had to figure out if it really was indeed Illyria who was trapped inside his son.

"I don't know," Angel lied. Something Connor screamed stuck with him. Your son never could, he had said. He used the word son. How was Angel going to explain that to everybody? They didn't remember Connor, and Angel wasn't ready to admit what he did to them. He'd have to lie, say Connor was delusional. They'd believe it, right? They saw how he was acting, like a crazy person, so they'd have to believe it. They had to.

"Angel, why are you lying to me?"

He shook his head. "Come on. I need to talk to everyone."

Gathered in his semi-destroyed office were Wesley, Gunn, Fred, Lorne, and Harmony. Angel was standing in front of them, preparing himself for this, thinking over what exactly he was going to say. He couldn't explain Connor, at least not yet, so he had to think of some kind of excuse, but he didn't have any more time.

Fortunately, Spike came running into the office. "What the bloody hell is going on here? Last I knew everything was fine and dandy and next thing I know there are stories about you fighting some super-kid with red eyes?"

"Blue eyes," Gunn corrected him.

"Oh, wank off," he told Gunn.

Gunn raised his hands in defiance. "I'm tellin' you the truth."

"Spike, who's watching Knox?" Angel asked, thankful for the delay in his speaking time.

"I don't know. Jim or Tom or something or other. Now tell me what the hell is going on here."

"A kid named Connor attacked here," Angel began. "It's true; he has blue eyes sometimes, but not all the time. They seem to alternate between blue and brown. I think that means something is going on inside him, some kind of multiple personalities thing that's taking over his mind. He seemed to try and fight it, but it didn't work." Angel had to close his eyes to block the tears away.

"Angel, who was he?" Fred asked. "Why did he say something about your son?"

"Yeah, oh, and why would something be taking him over, by the way?" Gunn snidely remarked.

"He's just a kid I know. I have no idea why he said my son. He's delusional, or something. I know him from a case I once worked."

"Why don't I remember this case?" Gunn, again.

"It was a long time ago, back in the me, Cordelia, and Doyle phase," he continued. Angel then gulped. "I guess there's no way around this but to just say it. I think something happened to Connor. He's normally a nice kid, mostly. I think he…I think Illyria has done something to him."

Gasps filled the room. "Illyria?" Fred echoed.

"But she's gone," Wes fought. "How could she have infected someone else?"

"No," Angel disagreed. "She hasn't infected anybody. Spike and I saw her fly into the sarcophagus. Something must've gone wrong when she flew inside him to kill him, somehow."

"Oh, come on," Spike snorted. "Why would it infect this kid and not someone else?"

"I'm not sure."

"Angelcakes, with all due respect, you're not telling us the whole truth," Lorne weighed in. "I can tell."

"Look, I don't know any more than any of you know. I don't even know if Illyria really did do something to him. Maybe I'm just paranoid. For now, we'll just have to wait until he wakes up and I can talk to him."

"Or maybe someone else should talk to him," Wes opinionated. "He did, after all, come to attack you."

"I can handle him," Angel reassured Wes.

"Can you?" Gunn asked. "Because based off what I heard you didn't have no chance until his eyes turned and his other personality kicked in."

Angel rolled his eyes. Rumors and stories sure did travel fast in this building, didn't they?

"It's not just multiple personalities," Wes spoke for Angel. "Angel was right; something is taking him over completely. Whether it is Illyria or not is what we have to figure out."

Angel silently thanked Wes. "We should all just go about things as normal until he wakes up."

"No," Fred shook her head. "You do not kill thousands and thousands of people without asking, ask me to get over it, and then exclude us from what's really going on. I…I recognized this boy, Connor. I don't know from where, but I saw him before."

"Come on, guys," Angel said harshly, and he knew how rude he was being, but what else could he do? Tell them the truth? No, not yet. "If you guys really don't believe what I have to say, that's not my problem. It's as simple as that."

He hated being like this, like a jerk. This wasn't who Angel was. He didn't have a choice, though.

"Who are you?" Fred yelled, tears forming in her eyes. "The Angel we used to know never would have allowed so many to die, and he never would've spoken so vulgarly to us."

"I saved you! Why can't you just be grateful, Fred? Why don't you think it hurts me every time to think about what I did? Because it hurts, it does, and it hurts that I have to stand here and ask you guys to just trust me and believe me and you guys won't do it. We've known each other forever and yet it's like you guys think I'm evil. I'm not evil. I saved you, Fred, because I love you, we all love you, and we can't live without you."

"Angel, I know," Fred said. "I am thankful to be alive, I am. I just want to know about Connor. We all do. Please. Tell us."

Everyone stared up at him, waiting.

"He's just a kid," Angel spoke quietly. "I swear to you, I don't know who he is other than just some kid I helped once. I don't know what's wrong with him, and I want to find out. I'm deeply sorry for raising my voice and sounding angry at you all. I don't want that. We're family. I just…I'm on edge. Everything that's happened in the last few days…well, I'm not trying to make excuses. I'm just sorry."

"Angel, it's okay, we're all on edge," Fred said. "We've all been going through a lot of changes. I'm sorry too, for accusing you. I never wanted to do that."

He was lying to them. Why didn't they see that? Or did they, and were they just not saying anything?

None of them were mad at him or anything for yelling. They knew he didn't mean to yell, it just kind of happened in the heat of the moment.

"Connor's asleep, for now," Angel went on as normal. "I don't know what we want to do until he wakes up."

"I'll start doing some research," Wes suggested. "I'll see if anything like this has happened before."

Fred nodded. "I'll help him."

"We've got our own project goin'," Gunn said to Angel about Lorne. "Let us know when he wakes up."

Angel was left alone with Harmony and Spike. Nobody said anything until eventually they both left and Angel stood there, alone in his office, unsure of what else he could do in that moment to help the situation.

To be continued…