Angel looked him up and down. He was still strapped to the chair, like usual, and he was unemotional, unmoving, like he was frozen in his spot. Generally, it was silent. He wasn't making a sound and neither were Angel nor Spike. Knox wasn't looking at either of them; he was just looking straight forward. He was just waiting, waiting for them to do the inevitable.

"So what do you think?" Angel asked Spike. "We have to find something to do with him. I wanted to ask the others, but after what happened earlier, I'm not sure if that's such a good idea."

"They're not mad at you or anything, you could still ask them. Plus, this bloke and the situation with Connor are two entirely different problems."

"I'm not so sure. Do you know anything about this, Knox? Is there a way Illyria could be inside someone without fully taking them over?"

Knox shook his head, but said nothing.

"I say we just kill 'im," Spike suggested. "What's the point of keeping him alive, anyway? So he can uselessly sit there and not answer questions. He's evil, and I know you're pretty much anti-evil here."

"So many people have died, Spike. I know he's evil, but I'd feel guilty taking another life, any life from this world. Then again, he did technically cause what happened, in a way, so maybe death is the best outcome here."

"Really?" Knox spoke for the first time. "You're just going to stand over me and discuss my death? Do you have any common courtesy?"

Angel shrugged. "Not for sick, murderous bastards like you."

"Oh, like you're any different." It was barely a mumble, but both Angel and Spike heard what he said as clear as day.

"Excuse me?" Angel leaned in close to Knox, and then shifted to his vampire face. Knox was used to evil, though, so he didn't flinch and eventually Angel pulled away. They all knew he really wasn't going to do anything. "Well, Spike, it's up to you. It's officially your job to figure out what to do with Knox. Kill him, have someone kill him, throw him in a cage, do whatever you want with him. I've got other things to worry about."

"Like this Connor boy?"

For some reason, he took a short pause. He just wasn't entirely sure what to say. But then: "Yeah, like Connor."

After Angel left the lab, Spike turned himself to Knox. "Well, well, well, what to do with you," he toyed.

"Also, things are kinda hectic over here because Faith showed up. To make a very long story short, Faith's been getting into some minor arguments with people," Willow spoke long-distance on the phone to Xander, who was all the way in Africa, the half that wasn't murdered by Illyria.

"Hey, maybe I should come too," Xander joked, "and give Buffy a hard time. She'd enjoy that, wouldn't she? Man, Buffy and Faith together in one apartment. I think I can see the smoke coming from both their nostrils alllllllll the way over here."

Willow chuckled. "Eh, it's not that bad, I guess. They just have their differences; you know, with Buffy all fighting and determined to find who's responsible and Faith-"

"Willing to do anything to prove Broody-Man's innocence?" Xander finished for Will.

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Well, as far as I see it there's no question. Angel's involved, somehow. The question is: How? And why. I guess why is a pretty good question."

"Is that Xander?" Dawn yelled at Willow as she was walking by the guest room and happened to hear Willow talking on the phone. When she nodded, Dawn came running in and jumped on the bed next to Willow and she put it on speaker phone. "Hi, Xander! How are you?" Dawn asked, having not heard from Xander in a while.

"Hey, Dawnie, I'm okay, mostly. How are you?"

"Oh, I'm great. Rome is great, school's great, the boys are-"

"Okay, Dawn, that's great," Xander interrupted, not really in the mood to hear about any boy drama Dawn may be going through. "So, you guys think I can talk to the Buffster, or is she busy?"

"Well, there's more Slayer protest against Angel stuff going on right now, so I'm not sure if that's a good idea," Willow responded. "I never thought I'd hear so much hatred for a…for a vampire." Willow frowned at her words.

"Oh, yeah, sure," Xander said a little sadly. "Well, you guys will just have to call me back, then."

"We will!" Dawn reassured Xander.

Willow hung up the phone and her and Dawn both made their way to the living room. Gathered in the living room were Buffy, Faith, Andrew, Kennedy, and two other Slayers that Willow hadn't exactly been acquainted with, yet. One looked mean, though, with long black hair with purple streaks and a permanent snarl on her face. She had her arms crossed and was staring intently at everyone else, as if working the scene, checking to make sure nothing was going to happen. The other was short and thin, and had light brown hair that was curled. She at least seemed nicer.

"It's not that I'm saying I don't believe Angel," Buffy stood there arguing with Faith in front of the other three Slayers. Her long blond hair was in a ponytail and swung back and forth as she moved. "It's that we have no hard evidence he didn't do this. We don't even know what caused so many to die!"

"It's Angel, B," Faith argued. "Even if he did something, it wasn't intentional. That doesn't mean we should send Slayers to stake the vampire."

"I disagree," Kennedy fought Faith and walked up next to Buffy. "If this Angel guy did have something to do with all these people dying, justice needs to be given, and the only way to do that is to stake him."

"We should all really calm down," Andrew recommended from the corner of the room. "Would anybody like some tea? I could make some and we could all calm down and…" He shut up when he saw the Slayer with black hair shoot him a dirty look.

"You can't support this," Faith said, turning back to Buffy.

"It's not really my choice, Faith. I don't know what to believe. Everybody's going crazy because of what happened, and they're looking for a way to achieve justice."

"But Angel didn't do anything."

"We don't know that for sure!"

"Guys!" Willow yelled and everyone turned to look at the powerful witch. "Faith's right."

"Thanks, Red."

"To a certain extent," Willow went on. "Buffy, you know Angel never would have done something unless it was to, I don't know, end an apocalypse. And if that's what happened, you shouldn't stake him. B-but if he didn't have a soul, then that would be a different story."

"We don't know if he has his soul or not," Buffy said. "On the phone he sounded normal, but for all we know Angelus could've been playing us."

"Exactly," Willow said. "That's why we need to find out for sure."

"How?"

"Yeah," Faith agreed with Buffy. "How? They're not letting anybody into L.A."

Willow shrugged. "I know teleportation spells. I could send someone to L.A. to see how things are over there, to see how Angel is."

Without further discussion, both Buffy and Faith simultaneously said: "I'll do it."

"No," Kennedy shook her head. "Two people who have history with Angel shouldn't go. It should be me."

"No offense, baby, but you'd probably go to stake Angel no matter what, and that's also the reason we can't send somebody Angel hasn't met before."

"So then we're out?" the Slayer with black hair asked. Willow gave her a slight nod.

"So then it should be me," Buffy said.

"No, no, no, no, no, B, it should be me."

They both looked at Willow as if to say she should be the one to decide. She hated being in this position. Why did she have to choose who would go and who wouldn't? She didn't have to decide, really. But someone had to, and Buffy and Faith surely weren't going to come to a reasonable conclusion on their own.

Gunn and Lorne were walking a street that was behind the building Wolfram & Hart, so no one here was dead because Illyria hadn't come back this way. Still, there were no people to be seen because, even now, at sunset, people were still locking themselves inside, unsure if it was safe to come outside. Gunn felt bad for everybody locked inside their homes, wondering what happened to the rest of the world and if they would survive.

"I'm sorry, honey, I just really don't understand what I'm going here," Lorne said to Gunn once they started walking down the street. "I'm sure you could've done this on your own. This place really gives me the creeps. Well, everywhere nowadays gives me the creeps, but you know what I mean."

"I told you," Gunn talked without looking back at Lorne, who was following behind him. "I sang for you, and you saw this street somewhere in my future. If someone is here, maybe if we keep walkin' we'll find a building that will trigger what you saw when I sang, somehow. Then maybe we'll find Anne, or anybody that I want to find. I know it's a weak plan, Lorne, but I ain't got anything else."

"No, it's fine," Lorne sighed. "In all honesty, it's nice to get out of our workplace for a little while. Things have gone mega-crazy there, am I right? Like, its all—Gunn, look!"

Both Lorne and Gunn stopped and Lorne pointed to a tall red apartment building. Gunn checked with Lorne, and he nodded. They both made their way to the building.

It wasn't anything fancy. In fact, it was kind of old and run-down looking. Still, Lorne remembered this place for a reason, and Gunn was more than determined to search anywhere and anything that could help his cause. They immediately went up some stairs and started walking through halls. It was disturbing to think that there were people behind those doors, wondering what would happen to them and if they'd survive.

On the second floor, Lorne stopped on the third door to the left. He remembered seeing a door like this when Gunn sang, but he wasn't sure how or why. Gunn wanted to find out, though.

If he had thought about it, he probably would have realized walking up to the door and knocking on it probably wasn't a good idea. He heard a commotion inside as if something got knocked over and broke, and then he saw the peephole on the other side darken and then light up again as someone looked through it and then backed away. Then there was whispering inside. Then more darkness covered the peephole.

On the other side of the door, a small voice cried out: "Gunn?"

He recognized the voice as the voice of Anne. He let out a major sigh of relief. "Yeah, it's me. I'm sorry for just showing up like this." The door remained closed.

"I thought a bunch of people were dead? I thought-"

"Not us," Gunn said, avoiding the topic of her shelter. "I'm checkin' up on some people to see if they survived, thought I'd see if you were okay."

"Oh, Gunn, I'm fine, just really, really worried. I was just here visiting my friend," Anne said and another woman inside asked what was going on. "How'd you find me?"

"Not important right now," Gunn told her. "I'm just glad you're okay. Look, stay inside like you're doin', okay? I'm sure we'll come back later when things are less insane."

"Gunn, what's going on? Really?"

Gunn couldn't answer that right now. "Not now. Look, now that I know you're okay, I should get going."

"Yes. Yes, of course."

Gunn and Anne said a goodbye without the doors ever opening, and then he and Lorne left. Gunn was happy, the happiest he'd been for a while. A perfectly innocent woman survived just by pure luck—visiting a friend. It was a small miracle in a large accident-prone zone.

Angel was back inside his office, moving his chair and desk back into place. The glass near his door was still broken open, but it would be fixed soon enough, he hoped. His desk was also sort of damaged from hitting the wall. It was now uneven and had a long crack on it on the left side. There were really a lot of repairs that needed to be done.

"Hey, jackass."

Angel nearly jumped in the air from the voice that had suddenly arrived behind him. Before, just moments ago when he looked around his office, no one had been there. He spun around almost ready to attack whoever was there, when he saw who it was and his mouth fell open. Standing in front of him was someone he never thought he'd see again, and he had mixed emotions about hearing and seeing this person. It didn't make sense that they were here.

"I-I can't believe it," Angel stuttered. "You're dead, Lilah, in Hell. How are you here?"

Lilah gave her classic evil smile. "What? No 'Hey, how's Hell? Long time no see.' All I get is a 'You're dead'? Like we haven't been down this road before, Angel. I thought you were smarter than that."

"I was just surprised," Angel defended himself, although he had no idea why he felt the need to do such a thing.

Lilah looked the same as she did the last time he saw her, with her long brown hair and a purple top on. She didn't appear harmed or affected in any way by the fact that she spent pretty much 24/7 in Hell.

"Yeah, well, close your mouth before you attract the flies. I've only got a limited amount of time here."

"Why are you here?" Angel asked, getting right down to business, albeit he thought he might already know the answer. The last time he saw Lilah was when they accepted the jobs at Wolfram & Hart and when Lilah did the memory spell to make everyone forget about Connor and for Connor to forget about them. And now, that spell was broken, but not by choice, because Connor remembered. He knew that much from when the actual Connor saw Wesley and said his name.

"Why do you think?" she spat. "I've heard there's been a little flaw in our memory spell thing, which was never supposed to happen. Since I was the one who took care of all that, they had no choice but send me back up here. Actually, I should thank you for allowing Illyria to murder so many people. This little vacation from Hell is all I'll ever get."

"You know what happened to Connor?" Angel questioned.

"Well, I don't know exactly, but it's not hard to figure out. Somehow the impossible spawn from two vampires caused something to happen to Illyria that has never happened before, and that returned his memories. That's about all I know."

"Well, I don't know anything else," Angel admitted. "At least not yet." Feeling tired, Angel sat down on his chair.

"You know, you should get a new desk soon. It's hard to take you seriously with that thing in front of you," Lilah remarked starkly.

"No, these offices should pay for these desks. Do you know how expensive they are?"

"Okay, we're getting off topic, Soul-Boy," she rolled her eyes as she spoke. "We both know that it's not impossible for Connor to admit something about the past to any of your little team by accident."

"Can't you just do the spell to him again?"

She shook her head. "No, it won't work like that, not with whatever Illyria did to him. You either come clean to your friends and wipe the memory spell, or you try and conceal the secret until it eventually blows up in your face. Which would be amusing, by the way."

"I'm not going to tell them. I'm not ready."

"Do you ever think that maybe, just maybe, it's not about when you're ready?"

Angel sat in silence, frowning. Was Lilah right? Was that even possible: for Lilah to be right? She did have a point, he had to admit. It wasn't about him, it shouldn't be about him. It was about all of them, his friends, his family. He had to come clean. He just…he just couldn't. Wiping the memory spell would do so much. How would Wes react, knowing all of the terrible things he did in the past, and all the terrible actions Angel took against those terrible things? Fred would be angry; more than angry that Angel did something else he shouldn't have, according to her. Gunn and Lorne would surely be affected in their own ways. He didn't have to worry about Connor remembering anymore.

"But I know you, and when Mr. Broody makes up his mind, there's no changing it," Lilah went on, mocking Angel. "That's what I hate about you, Angel. Once your mind is made up, there's no changing it."

"Like you were any different?" Angel said and then realized he was using Knox's earlier words.

Lilah chuckled. "Yeah. I guess I was that way. That's over now, though. Now, I get to rot in Hell. But first, I had to come up here and let you know your options. I can get rid of the memory spell once in for all, Angel, before this gets out of hand. If that's not what you want, fine, I'll be forced to leave. So make your decision."

His mind was already made up. "I can't get rid of it, Lilah. Not yet."

"Fine," Lilah rolled her eyes again. "I'll just have to live with that in Hell," she said sarcastically. "Well, I wish I could say it's been nice seeing you."

"Wait!" Angel yelled. "That's it? You just go back to Hell?"

"I have no other business here, Angel. If I don't get back in time I'll get tortured more than usual."

"Do you think I'm making a mistake by not lifting the memory spell?" Angel didn't really care what Lilah thought about him or his decisions, but something inside him made him have to ask her.

Lilah had a truthfully snide comeback. "You don't care what I think."

Then, in the very front of Angel's eyes, Lilah disappeared. There was no flash of light or magical sound or anything; Lilah was just suddenly gone as quick as she had come. Did he make a mistake? Should he have lifted the memory spell? Would it even have made a difference?

There were too many questions to be answered, too many thoughts running through his head. It was too late to change anything now, anyway.

"Boss!" Harmony yelled, running through Angel's door. "He's awake."

Wes slammed a book closed. He was starting to get really angry. Every book he checked, every source he found on Old Ones ended up being useless in this situation. It was official: nothing like this had ever happened before. He peered over at Fred, who was sitting opposite him at the table, flipping through a different book with a serious look on her face. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail and she had her glasses on, looking adorable, like usual. A not-so-sudden urge came over him to go over and kiss her.

Fred looked up and happened to catch Wesley staring at her. He didn't bother looking away and trying to pretend that he wasn't doing the obvious.

"What are you doing?" she asked with a smile on her face.

"I'm done," Wes confessed. "I cannot find a single thing that would lead us to what happened to Connor."

She sighed and closed her own book. "Yeah, I get it. I'm not having any luck either. I feel like we're just going to be on our own with this one."

"I want to take you somewhere," Wes said out of nowhere. It was true, though. He wished he could take her on another date since they only technically had one since truly being together.

"Um, hello, guilt of about half the world on my shoulders."

"Yes. Plus there's the fact that we couldn't go anywhere, now could we?"

Fred laughed, surprising herself. "Yeah, we couldn't."

"Then we'll have dinner together here, tonight. Just us two. Alone."

She smiled. "Speaking of food, it's only a matter of time before Wolfram & Hart runs out of anything to eat."

"Then I guess we'll have to raid a grocery store, or a few grocery stores, however many it takes."

"I love you," she told him honestly. "I can't believe I didn't see it before. I feel like such an idiot. All I know now is that I would've never been able to survive…any of this without you. You've always been there for me. I still feel…horrible…but it helps so much that I have you."

"I love you too," he said. "I honestly don't think my life would have been worth anything if I couldn't help you through all the pain you feel."

Fred blushed. "You're too sweet."

"I can't help it. You make me that way." The pure truth was that Wes wasn't fully intending to be "sweet." He was just saying how she made him feel.

"So tonight?" Fred asked. "Dinner together, alone, just the two of us."

Before Wes had a chance to respond, Spike came walking into the office. He looked content, mostly, which was great. An angry Spike was not someone anyone appreciated dealing with. He came right over and sat on the table without any politeness once so ever. He turned his head and looked at Fred.

"I'm glad you're okay. No matter whatever pain you might feel."

"Thank you, Spike."

"Now listen," Spike began with the reason why he had just come walking in here. "Apparently Captain Forehead decided I should be the one to decide what happens with that Knox fellow. I decided to come and ask you guys if you had any preferences. I mean, Gunn already gave him a few nasty cuts, and Lorne's not the violent type, so I figured if you guys had anything you'd like to do or say to him, now'd be your chance."

Wes looked at Fred. There were mass amounts of pain he wanted to ensure on Knox, but he didn't want to do anything extreme that Fred didn't want to do. So he decided he'd leave it up to her. It was her life Knox had threatened, after all, not his, so she had the right to decide.

"Kill him," Fred said innocently, without much malice.

"Well, duh," Spike moaned. "Any preferences on how or-"

"Spike, just do it. I don't care. I don't want to see him ever again. Just get rid of him."

He jumped off the table and started to walk away. If that was all Fred wanted to know, that was all she'd know. He didn't care what way that monster died anyway.

"Wait," Fred said quietly before Spike left. He turned back to face her. "On second thought, there's something I'd like to say to him. I need to see him."

Spike nodded. "Then what the bloody hell are we waitin' for?"

Willow gathered a spell book and the ingredients she needed to do the teleportation spell. She still wasn't 100% sure who was going to go to L.A., and she knew it was about time where she should say who she thought should go. She just didn't know what to do. On one hand, it made some sort of sense for Buffy to go, just because she was Buffy and she cared so much for Angel. But on the other hand, Faith should go because of her reputation with Angel, and the fact that if he was Angelus, Faith would fight to save Angel rather than just stake him.

"So what now?" Faith asked Willow. "Are you gonna pick?"

"You-you know," Willow started, uncomfortable with the conversation, "no matter who I say that probably shouldn't be concrete. You guys can do whatever you think is best."

"Will, just pick," Buffy urged.

Willow sighed, and got ready to make her decision.

Connor was sitting on the ground when Angel walked in, not bothering to struggle against the chains and handcuffs. Instead, he was just sitting there staring off, not really looking in any general direction. His eyes were blue, and when Angel saw that he was startled for some reason.

"Don't worry," Connor spoke in a monotone voice. "I'm not going to hurt you yet."

"I want to speak with Connor, Illyria" Angel ignored his taunts.

"Ah, so you do know," Connor giggled. "There's just one flaw. I'm not Illyria. Well, okay, I'll be honest. I am Illyria. But I'm not all of Illyria. I am some of her strength and some of her thoughts. The true Illyria in her sarcophagus is not aware of the piece of her inside this boy."

"I want. To speak. With Connor."

Connor's eyes closed tightly, so tight that it looked like it hurt. But, almost miraculously, when he opened his eyes they were brown.

"Dad," Connor breathed heavily when he saw Angel, and a bead of sweat broke out on his forehead. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean what I did to you."

"It's okay, whatever. Are you okay?"

"It's coming back." With every word Angel could hear pain in Connor's voice. "I can feel it slowly working its way up my system and into my mind. My mind, my mind. It should be mine."

"Connor, are you okay? The memories came back so suddenly."

"I-" Connor couldn't finish due to a flash of pain hitting his mind, his skull as the voice screamed at him, begging him to let it back in.

"Connor!" Angel screamed, more worried about his son than he ever was before. "Connor, listen to me, I'm going to cure you. I love you."

His eyelids flew open, revealing those icy blues. "You love him? How cute, how sick. How amazingly paradox it will be that your only kid, the one you love will be the one to kill you. It might not be his own mind, but I'm taking over and I'll have full control soon enough. If you're going to find this cure you speak of, I'd do it fast."

"You're a monster. You'll never take over Connor. He's too strong to allow that to happen."

"You have so much faith in your son, and I have to know why. I can see every single one of his memories, you know. I see everything he did to you. I mean, come on, Angel, he locked you in a box and sent you to the bottom of the ocean for three months! Who in their right mind would ever forgive something like that?"

"He's still my son. I don't give up on family, any of them."

"No. Instead you lie to them and play with their memories. Seems fair."

"You know nothing."

"I know everything."

Angel couldn't do this. It was so hard to stand there and argue with his son who didn't have control of his own mind, his own body. It was too much to watch. He had to get out of there. As he moved out of the basement, all he heard behind him was the slow and somehow malicious laughs by Connor brought on by Illyria's control.

To be continued…