"Connor," Faith said almost excitedly. She wasn't smiling, though. Instead, she looked serious and a bit angry. Then again, who wouldn't be angry while facing the person who killed you earlier that day? "Glad to see you again. Did you come to finish the job?"
"How…how is this possible?" Connor asked, barely being able to speak. He was himself, for now anyway, for as long as he could hold off against the Illyria inside of him. She was fighting and screaming and begging to take control, but Connor somehow found a burst of strength earlier and was able to push her down. He just had to hope he could keep her down for a while longer.
"Oh, pal, I'll show you-"
Faith began to walk forward, but Angel stopped her. "Faith, his eyes," he told her in a hushed whisper.
"What about them?" Faith shouted angrily. She didn't want to listen to Angel right now, she wanted to go and fight because her murderer was standing right in front of, and she deserved to fight him again, didn't she? She looked at his eyes, though, and saw what she didn't see before. They weren't blue. They weren't Illyria. This was Connor, the actually Connor. Anger still boiled in her chest, though, and she still felt an urge to run up to him and fight him.
"Connor, how-"
Angel started, but Connor cut him off.
"I don't know how much time I have. I just managed to take control for just a short amount of time and…I had to come here, I had to talk to you. None of this is me; you guys need to know that. I never wanted to kill Faith and take Fred and, and…" He put his hands to his head as a reaction to a flash of pain that made its way to his brain.
"We know this isn't you," Angel told him quickly. "You don't need to apologize for anything. We can help you."
"You can't help me!" Connor screamed. "No one can! I'm a danger, a risk. I never should have come here in the first place. I need to get out of here before she comes back."
"Connor!" Angel yelled after his son as he turned and ran out of the office. He contemplated chasing after Connor, but he managed to run away too fast and the next thing he knew Faith was falling to the floor and yelping in pain and grasping her head. He ran to her and kneeled in front of her, worried.
It took a few minutes, but eventually Faith was able to sit up after the tremors of pain that filled her head and the visions of who she saw. She shook her head at what she saw. It was like watching a movie as small images flashed in her head, but they were always of Connor. Before she had a vision of Connor bursting into Angel's office, and that had happened. Just now she had a sort of vision of Connor running out of Wolfram & Hart as fast as he could and his eyes turning that creepy blue. Faith instantly explained to Angel what she saw.
Angel was as surprised as she was.
"Whatever's happening to you isn't normal," he stated. "You need help, or an explanation, or something."
"Yeah, well, we better hurry it up. I think I still got a bunch of hours left, but eventually Willow's gonna do a spell to bring me back to Rome."
"I need to talk to Drogyn. He's the only one who claims to know anything about Connor's condition, or so I've heard. Maybe he'll have some sort of explanation about what's happening to you."
"I don't know, Angel. I hope so." Faith closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I hope so."
"So let me get this straight," Anne said, but stopped to take a sip of water. "You can't tell a single lie?"
"Nope," Drogyn responded. "And that is a question. That's why I don't like them."
Anne was in Lorne's office with Lorne, Drogyn, and Spike. She was being momentarily distracted by this odd fellow by the outlandish name of Drogyn. He explained to her how he could not lie, and she was curious with many questions. Of course, Drogyn disliked it when she asked questions, so she tried to stop after a while. Drogyn was sitting at the table rapidly tapping it with his fingers. Anne knew that meant something serious had to be going on (it didn't really take a genius to figure that out, considering a giant chunk of the world dying) and she was curious as to what he had to say. She considered asking him about it, but then decided not to be so cruel.
"Why is she so fascinated with this bloke?" Spike asked Lorne across the room. "I'm a vampire and you're a bloody Pylean demon, surely we'd have more interesting things to talk with her about."
"Hey, say what you want about my kind, but under no circumstances should I be considered 'bloody'." Spike didn't respond and instead started pacing around the room. "Geez, trying to lighten the mood around here is like talking to a brick wall," he muttered to himself. He couldn't blame them though, really. They were all going through some really major stuff.
The door to Lorne's office opened and in walked…Gunn. Spike was disappointed, expecting Angel, who could finally talk to Drogyn because Drogyn was playing some tough guy act and said he'd talk to no one but Angel. Spike had rolled his eyes and was tempted to ask him why he was here anyway, but then decided against it for reasons even he was unsure of.
"Hey, guys, good news." Gunn walked in talking, but stopped when he saw Anne sitting at the table. "Anne? What are you doing here?"
"Gunn," she said and stood up, turned, and looked at him. "I-I couldn't stay in the apartment. I needed to go, to check on my…you know. I didn't get the chance to. Fred brought me here."
"You shouldn't be here. It's dangerous. There are greater threats here more than anywhere else you could be. I don't want you, or anybody, to get hurt."
"You don't have to worry about me, Gunn. I'll stay out of any danger once I see my shelter."
"Enough of the dramatics," Spike interrupted. "What's the good news?"
"Wes is okay. We also found Faith, and she…damn, I don't know how to explain how she is."
"I must speak with Angel," Drogyn spoke up. "He needs to be here. He must know how urgent this is."
"Trust me, he knows," Spike groaned. "Apparently he's just too good to come here."
Although, just as Spike stopped speaking, the door opened again and Angel walked in followed by Faith. Faith looked like a mess with her hair messed up and in all different directions. Spike wondered what they did in Angel's office to make her look so wound up. Finally he was here, though, and they could talk to Drogyn. Spike was too curious about it to care about much else.
Drogyn stood up as Angel walked in. Immediately his eyes were drawn to Faith. There was something not right about her. He didn't know what, exactly, and he couldn't place it, but there was definitely something bad about her he could not place.
"Drogyn," Angel spoke slowly. Even though he knew he was here, it was still kind of a shock to see him. Shouldn't he be in the Deeper Well, like he usually was? How did he even know about Connor and Illyria in the first place? "What are you doing here?"
"I have information about Connor I must speak to you about." He looked around the room, almost nervously, at all the people inside. "Alone," he added.
"If by alone you mean the three of us, then that's okay," Spike broke in. "I've being waitin' to find out what the hell you're doing here and I'm not just going to leave because you want to talk to Angel alone. What makes him so special anyway?"
"We have been friends for a long time," Drogyn answered. "I trust him, not you."
Spike was getting angry, getting ready to punch Drogyn. Unfortunately, Angel spoke up.
"Spike, take Faith back to my office. She can fill you in on what happened when we went to fight Connor. Lorne, I'm sorry about taking over your office, if you want we can leave."
"Oh, Angel, don't worry about it. Maybe I'll go find Wes and Fred, see how they are."
After some huffing and puffing, Faith led Spike out of the office and Lorne followed behind them. It was then when Angel noticed the other unexpected guest.
"Anne." Angel was generally surprised. He knew she was alive because Gunn told him, but he still wasn't expecting her to show up here, at Wolfram & Hart. "It's good to see you. I'm happy you're okay. With everything that's happened, it's impossible for me not to think about mostly everyone I know who are probably…gone." Angel stopped talking for a few seconds. "I'm sorry. I'm glad you're okay, but why are you here?"
"I just had some stuff I needed to take care of. Fred brought me here."
Angel nodded, and didn't know what else he could say.
"Come on, Anne, let's get outta here," Gunn led her to the door. "They've obviously got some stuff to talk about." Gunn and Anne left.
Drogyn sat back down and Angel sat in a chair next to him. He found himself being extremely frightened at what Drogyn may have to say. What if there was no way to save Connor? Would Drogyn even know if there was a way to save him? What was he doing here?
There were too many questions rushing through his brain, and it seemed liked there wasn't enough time. Plus, he knew Drogyn, and he knew he couldn't begin by asking a whole lot of questions or else he'd get pretty mad. He just had to be calm and patient and wait for the right time for all of the information to come out. Albeit, this was his own son they were going to be talking about, so why in the world should he wait for whenever it may be convenient for Drogyn?
"How do you know about Connor?" Angel questioned, jumping right in.
Before speaking, Drogyn took a deep breath. "As you know, Angel, the Powers That Be are the ones who made me humanly immortal and put me in charge of the Deeper Well. I guess that makes me kind of a worker for them. A servant, if you will. When you and Spike left, the Powers contacted me and told me about Connor and about the piece of Illyria inside of him. Immediately they knew the dangers and what would happen. They told me to come to you and supplied me with countless amounts of information about Connor-slash-Illyria that could possibly happen and what the dangers and affects may be because of him."
"So they told you to warn us about Connor and tell us about the dangerous affects he may have against us," Angel concluded, not asking.
"Yes," Drogyn still responded. "Because the Powers That Be know their champion, they also told me how to help Connor."
Angel got a moment of excitement. It was hard to contain a smile on his face and a cheer. There was a way to help Connor! But if he got his hopes up too high then all the "helpful" things they could do might just turn out to be "hurtful" things for Angel. He couldn't cheer and be happy just yet. There would have to be a catch to what Drogyn was saying, no doubt. There were catches to everything these days.
"What are the ways?" Angel attempted to ask as calmly as he could.
"Well, the first way is that we kill Connor. I know what you're thinking, Illyria can't be killed, and that is partially true. If she had taken full form of someone, she would be nearly impossible to kill, but since she has only taken part control over Connor, we can still end that part of hers existence. You wouldn't be able to do it when she was in control, of course. You'd have to wait for the perfect moment when Connor was in control and then murder him. It sounds cruel, but it would end the threat of Illyria inside Connor."
"We're not killing Connor," Angel said, not even taking a minute to consider it.
"Angel, I know that-"
"I don't care, Drogyn. I will not hurt Connor. He will not die." His mind was certainly made up. "What is the second option?"
"The second is nothing more than a temporary solution. If Connor were somehow able to learn to push Illyria down, then he may be able to be taught how to keep her down for extremely long periods of times, being himself mostly. Although, there is no doubt Illyria would break free sometimes, so he would still be a risk."
The second option didn't sound so great also, Angel thought. It was a lot better than the first option, but Angel could only imagine how terrible it'd be to live with a constant other force trying to push your brain out of the way so it can control your body. He didn't say anything. He had to hope, to wish, that the third option was something useful, something that could be done.
"The third, and final option," Drogyn continued, "is kind of win-lose situation, even I must admit. There is a way, and only one way, that the Illyria inside of Connor may be removed. The rest of Illyria is inside her sarcophagus in the Deeper Well. If she were to be released, though, and take full control of another body—like she was going to do to your friend Fred—then every part of her would need to be with her in order to take control of the body. The part inside Connor would fly out of him and join her inside the other body she was going to take control of."
Angel closed his eyes in defeat. That was it? With the third option, if Illyria were to take control of someone than all the people who died would have been for nothing. He couldn't bring her back when he had stopped her by killing millions of people. None of these options to save Connor were good options, and he surely wanted to save Connor. He couldn't live in this world, not if Connor was constantly living in struggle of fighting over his own body from Illyria, which ruled out leaving things how they were now and the second option to save Connor. That left either killing Connor or bringing Illyria back, like either of those were really choices.
What could he do?
That's when it hit him; truly hit him, that he couldn't do anything. Not alone, at least. This wasn't only his son he would be affecting; it would affect all of Angel's friends as well. And they didn't know about Connor. And in order to help him make this decision, to decide what would be best for the world, he needed their help. He'd only get their real, true help if they knew the truth about Connor.
"I'm sorry about the choices," Drogyn said. "I know this must be hard for you."
Angel stood up. He'd made up his mind. The memory spell had to go. "It is," he admitted. "We'll make it work, somehow. We have to."
"Angel, before you leave I must do what I despise and ask you a question. What was up with Faith? There was something odd about her that I can't place."
"She was killed by Connor earlier today," Angel simply opened up. "Then she came back to life, miraculously."
Drogyn's eyes widened and his mouth fell open. "Remember when I told you the Powers told me what dangers may come from Connor? Well, you'd better sit back down. This is one of the dangers."
As Connor was running away with his blue eyes, Illyria couldn't help but ponder how the hell Faith was alive. He'd killed her! Illyria used Connor's body to thrust a knife into her stomach. There was no way she could have survived. So how was she alive?
Plus, when Connor was around her, Illyria felt all weird and tingly, like there was something very different about her. Somehow her coming to life had caused a change of events, and neither Connor nor Illyria was sure how or why. There was definitely something strange about her being alive, though, and he was curious as to why she was alive. There had to be a reason. They would have to find the reason why.
Wesley and Fred stayed with each other through the night, throughout everything, without leaving the office. At one moment Lorne almost came in the office, but decided against it, thinking that they probably wanted to be alone anyway, and it would be rude of him to interfere.
Wes and Fred kissed, and did more than kissed, and felt closer to one another than they ever had before. Being together emotionally and physically made Fred happy, happier than she'd been all in the past days since she found out what Angel did for her. It was selfish, and she knew it, but being with Wes had combined some of the greatest feelings of her life into one and she was jubilant. She could still feel guilty, think about all the fallen people, and be happy at the same time, right? Or was that wrong? Was she going against what she believed by being happy right now?
"I love you," Wesley told her.
"I'll never get tired of hearing you say that," Fred said.
"I'll never get tired of saying it."
Fred smiled and decided it was okay to be happy, as long as she had Wesley by her side.
When Angel was seated again, Drogyn wasted no time talking about what he'd learned from the Powers That Be.
"They told me what would happen if Connor and Illyria were to kill someone," he spoke quickly. "It is very dangerous. The person would not die because Illyria isn't fully inside Connor and killing someone will most likely be against his will. That does not mean there is no consequence, though. Faith and all of us are in extreme danger in her condition."
"I don't think so," Angel fought for her. "She's seeing weird visions of Connor, but that's it."
"No. Once Connor or Illyria or whatever realizes the power she has over Faith because of killing her, there will be much more. Illyria will be able to control Faith, literally order her to do whatever she says, whether Faith wants to or not. At the moment, Illyria is just not aware of that power she has over Faith. The closer they are together, the worse it will be and the more Faith will be able to be ordered around like Illyria's puppy."
"And this will happen to everyone Connor kills?"
"Yes."
"Well, we don't have to worry," Angel tried to remain calm. "Faith will be leaving soon, off to Rome. That's pretty far away, so maybe Illyria won't be able to control her from that distance."
"We'll have to hope so."
"Drogyn, thank you. I need to tell the others about what you've told me. But first, I need to do something." I need to lift the memory spell, he added silently.
"Sure, go on ahead. I'll be staying for a while until I believe it is safe."
Angel nodded and told Drogyn he'd see him later, and then he left the office and made his way to his own.
Gunn and Anne, once Angel had arrived to talk to Drogyn, left Wolfram & Hart. Gunn knew what Anne wanted to see, and he also knew that there would be no way to convince her to not go. He understood her reasoning, anyway. She needed to see, even if it was for the worst. She needed a sort of closure that only seeing could fulfill.
So, Gunn brought Anne to the shelter. They carried flashlights since all the lights were off because of Wesley's spell. As they neared the shelter, Anne's walking became slower and her breathing heavier. Gunn was, needless to say, worried about her.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
"Yes. I'm fine. I need to do this."
Gunn admired Anne's strength. If he were her, he didn't know if he'd be able to go check, no matter what. Anne was strong, though.
She pushed the shelter door open and was immediately hit with the smell of the bodies. It might not have been so bad if it was just one body, but considering there were so many, the smell really hit hard. Anne gasped and put her free hand on Gunn's and held it and squeezed. It hurt to see them, the bodies, lying there. Tears were falling down her face, but she just could not turn away. I need to see, I need to see, she told herself over and over again.
After a few minutes of standing still, Gunn pulled Anne away, not caring if she was ready to leave yet or not.
"I can't do that," he told her. "I can't stare at those kids you knew. I'm sorry. If you wanna go back, I won't stop you, but I just don't think it's healthy for me."
"I've seen what I wanted to see," Anne told him. "Will you bring me back to Wolfram & Hart?"
Gunn nodded and embraced Anne in a giant hug that it seemed she needed. "Of course, he whispered in her ear. "Of course I'll bring you back."
"I'm so nervous," Willow said. She, Buffy, Kennedy, Oz, Andrew, and Dawn were in the living room, sitting around or walking around and talking. It was kind of awkward, especially since Dawn saw Kennedy keep giving Oz a few dirty looks, although no one else seemed to notice. "I feel like it should be time to bring her back or something."
Buffy looked at a clock. "She's still got more than twelve hours left, Will. We still have a while."
"I know, I'm just so worried. I can't help it,"
"Aw, baby, it'll be okay." Kennedy walked over to Willow and started giving her a massage. It didn't bother Oz too much, or at least not as much as Kennedy probably would have liked.
"Maybe we could bring her back early," Dawn suggested. "Surely she's found Angel by now."
"We can't do that to her," Andrew argued. "We made a promise to bring her back exactly when we were supposed to."
"Guys, we just have to wait," Buffy shushed them. "When it's time, it'll be time and we'll bring her back. In the meantime, we'll just have to occupy ourselves in other ways."
"Sightseeing, anyone?" Oz said almost as a joke, although it was kind of hard to read on his face that he was joking. Still, a few people chuckled.
Then, Buffy jumped up. "Yes! Oz, you're in Rome, and for who knows how long. We should go out for a little while, keep our mind off things. All of us, we could maybe try and have some fun. What do you guys think?"
"You guys go," Kennedy said. "You deserve a break, Buffy, and someone needs to stay just in case more Slayers become angry and come here or need taking control of." She was a bit weary of staying and having Oz go out with everyone else, with Willow, but she was trying to be as cool as she could about it. Willow was a good, honest person, and she would never do anything behind her back about their relationship. Plus, Willow wasn't straight anymore. Kennedy just felt so protective over Willow.
"I'll stay too," Andrew suggested. "Help Kennedy hold up the fort."
Kennedy rolled her eyes.
"Okay, let's go!" Dawn said cheerfully.
Angel walked into his office and sent Faith and Spike away, saying he needed to do something before he could talk to them. They both had hints about what he may do and didn't argue. They left his office and went somewhere else.
He started looking for something, an address for one of the demons who could lift the memory spell to see if they were behind Wolfram & Hart, where they'd still be alive, unaffected by Illyria. As he was searching, someone appeared in front of him, causing Angel to jump.
"Guess whose back?" Lilah grinned cheerfully. "So you want to lift the memory spell? Well, I know how you could do that."