Fred closed the cabinet. It was empty. They were really starting to run out of supplies, much more serious than before. If they didn't get anything soon, they (and everyone else in Wolfram & Hart) couldn't stay much longer. Why hadn't anyone gone and gotten food and other supplies earlier? They knew they were going to be staying here for a while, most likely.
"We're running out," a voice said suddenly behind her.
"Ah!" Fred yelped and spun around, seeing her surprise visitor.
Her yelp caused Lorne to jump back himself. Why was she screaming? Did she really not know it was him?
"Oh, Lorne, I'm so sorry," Fred apologized, placing a hand over her chest where her heart was. "You just startled me." She took a look at Lorne. "Oh my God, what happened?"
Lorne was holding an ice pack to his head. He lifted it to show Fred the bruise that was put there by Faith. He told her what happened. "It was brutal," he informed Fred, maybe over exaggerating just a little. All she'd done was hit him once, but still, it hurt! "Thankfully they're doing something about this crazy Faith/Illyria phase thing."
"Yeah, I heard about that," Fred said. Just a little while ago Willow had come into Wesley's office with Gunn and told them that Angel needed Wes and Gunn to go retrieve Illyria's sarcophagus. They ran off hurriedly after grabbing some weapons. "What are they gonna do with Faith?"
"Well, you heard about Buffy being magically locked inside an office by Willow because Faith forced her too?" Fred nodded to Lorne's words. "Well apparently they're letting Buffy out and are going to lock Faith and that other guy Illyria has control over in an office with another one of Willow's spells. This should keep them from escaping and doing Illyria's dirty work."
"Wouldn't it be easier to send Faith back to Rome?" Fred opinionated.
Lorne sighed. "Yeah, you try telling that to the Stubborn Slayer."
"She has to know she's a danger, though, and would be better off in Rome."
He shrugged. "I guess Angel's just worried that Illyria would spend a lot of time practicing controlling Faith from such a far distance. He doesn't want to risk that happening, just in case."
Fred wasn't entirely sure what to think. She supposed it made sense that Angel didn't want to give Illyria the opportunity to control someone from such a far distance, but was magically locking Faith in an office really the answer? Oh, well. When Angel had his mind made up, she wasn't going to go try and talk out all their options with him.
"Anyway," Lorne went on, "like I said, we're running out of supplies. That's what I meant when I scared you."
"Oh, yeah, we are," Fred agreed.
"Hey, I've got an idea!" Lorne shouted. He pulled the ice pack off his head and put it on a table. "Why don't you and I go out and gather some stuff and bring it back here? It'll get our minds off things for a little while, and it'd be great to get out of this building for some time. I'm sure Angel wouldn't mind. What do you say?"
Fred was a little weary. She really wanted to be here when Wes got back, though…
"Don't worry, we won't be going anywhere with any danger," Lorne told Fred.
Finally, Fred gave in. "Alright. That sounds fun. Maybe we should tell Angel first, though?"
"Suit yourself. Let's go."
Angel and Willow brought a still sleeping Faith and guy Illyria used to cut the ropes that previously held Faith to the office that Buffy was still magically locked inside. Buffy was standing by the door, looking out the window with her arms folded, clearly waiting for someone to come let her out. She looked kind of angry. Angel couldn't blame her. It couldn't be fun to be locked inside a lawyer's office, waiting for someone to come let you out, not knowing if something bad is happening outside.
Spike and Lilah were back watching Connor/Illyria. Before Angel and Willow came to let Buffy out, they heard Spike tell Illyria that if she even so much as had a weird look on her face that he found suspicious (like she'd be controlling Faith or someone else) that she'd "regret it." Apparently, Illyria was paying attention to Spike's threats.
"I don't think I ever thanked you," Angel told Willow on the way to the office. "For coming out here and helping out, you know. So thank you. It means a lot. I know things are crazy now, but I hope it's almost over."
"It's no problem," she gave Angel a small grin. "Things were getting too boring anyway."
Angel and Willow both laughed.
In front of the office, Willow undid the spell she did earlier. Immediately Buffy threw the doors open and came bursting out.
"What happened? Are you alright?" she took a glance at Faith. "I guess this means you took care of the problem?" She smiled at Angel.
Angel nearly forgot what to say. "Oh, um, yeah, I guess we did. It was a lot of fun, lot of excitement. It's not over yet, though."
"It never is," Buffy joked.
Angel lost himself in looking at Buffy. It was just weird. They hadn't seen each other in so long, and now here she was, just here, helping out. It was kind of nice, actually, that she was here helping and she seemed to care. Now, if only Spike would keep his eyes off of her.
He closed his eyes and shook his head. He shouldn't think that way. This wasn't about him and Spike and Buffy, and even if it was Buffy could make her own decisions.
For some reason, he thought of Cordelia. How different would things be right now if she were still here?
"Angel, could we talk to you?" a voice said behind him. He turned and saw Fred, who had spoken, and Lorne.
"Sure," Angel told them. He looked back at Willow and Buffy. "Would you mind locking them in, Willow?"
"I'll do it now," Willow told him.
Angel smiled and then turned and walked away with Lorne and Fred. When they were away from Willow and Buffy and everyone else, they stopped. Fred and Lorne looked serious, and Angel was curious as to what they were going to say to him.
"We're gonna go out and get some supplies," Fred just came out and told him. "Like food and water and other such things. We're running out."
"Are you sure?" Angel frowned. "I'm not sure how safe it is."
"We'll be fine," Lorne reassured Angel. "Illyria's here and her army's knocked out, what possible dangers could we find?"
"Yeah, you're right. Just be careful, okay guys?"
"We'll be back soon," Fred said.
They turned and went off their separate ways.
Gunn and Wes arrived at the warehouse where supposedly the sarcophagus was. They paused outside and got their weapons ready. Neither of them were really expecting a fight, but the woman Illyria had control over was inside, no doubt, so they wanted to be ready just in case.
"Angel was lucky he stopped her when he did," Gunn said.
"Yes," Wes agreed. "We should be going in. Hopefully this will be generally easy."
They approached the door. When he reached it, Gunn yanked it open and they charged inside. The building was devoid of a lot of things, and appeared to only hold boxes. Off to the side, though, was the woman Illyria had control over. She was on the ground, knocked out or asleep or whatever Illyria did to people (like Faith) when she was done for the moment. Next to the woman was the sarcophagus.
"I guess Angel talked Illyria into just leaving it here," Wes said, stepping forward.
"This all seems a little too easy," Gunn scowled. "Is it too much to hope that Illyria might just be giving up?"
"I think so, unfortunately." Then he thought about it for a minute. "Or maybe she's not. There's no guarantee that we'll be able to trap Illyria, you know. Maybe she's hoping that once she's whole again she'll be even more powerful. Then, she wouldn't care if we released Illyria or got the sarcophagus or anything."
Gunn groaned. "And we all know who would get the worst end of that deal, if Illyria can't be trapped."
Wes was silent for a few seconds. "Is Anne for sure going to go through with it?"
"Maybe. Maybe not. I don't think she's fully made up her mind yet. We know where I stand on the decision."
"It's certainly a risk," Wes responded. They began moving over to the sarcophagus, getting ready to move it and bring it back to Wolfram & Hart. "She would be saving the world, though."
"Or destroying it, Wes. What if it doesn't work? Then we have an Illyria-infested Anne and an even bigger problem on our hands. I don't know why we're doin' this. I can't believe Angel would do this. Especially since to rid of Illyria he killed thousands, millions, of people."
"He's trying to get through this with his son unscathed. That's why he's done everything, including remove the memory spell."
"Well, we ain't livin' in a perfect world here where no one's gonna get hurt. Why Anne? Maybe it should be Connor."
"Why? Because he did bad things, made bad decisions? Then I should get hurt also, and so should you," he referred to Gunn signing the papers to bring the sarcophagus to Fred in the first place.
"I don't know," Gunn seemed to give up. "If Anne agrees to it, there's not gonna be any changing her mind, so I guess it don't matter what I think." He paused. "The truth, Wes. Do you think freezing Illyria will work?"
Wes didn't answer for a while. They began pushing the sarcophagus out of the building before he said another word.
"I have no idea if it will work," he finally admitted, because he didn't know. On one hand, it could, and on the other, it couldn't. "We just have to hope it will."
"Wesley the hopeful one," Gunn mocked jokingly. But deep inside, he knew hoping was the best they could do.
"Well, this is fun," Lilah said, walking over to Spike. Connor/Illyria was sitting on the floor, staring off in the distance like a good little boy. "Don't you just love watch duty?"
Spike eyed her strangely. "No offense, but I don't really know who you are and I don't really feel like talkin' right now."
Lilah didn't say anything.
After a while, Spike gave in. "Why do they all seem to want you back in Hell?"
"I guess my evil choices in the past really rubbed them the wrong way."
Spike chuckled. "I know how that is."
"Yes. The infamous William the Bloody." She rolled her eyes. "Now with a soul," she nearly spat.
"Why are you really here? And don't give me that 'you don't know' crap. I could practically smell the lies on you. Fortunately for you, Angel's too worried about Connor boy here to care."
Lilah smiled. "I'm just here, watching Angel. No other objective, really."
"Well, you've done more than watch. The whole trapping Illyria thing was your idea. That ideas what's been pushin' Angel and almost everyone else."
She frowned. "I guess that's right. Maybe I'm more a help than everyone thinks I am."
During their whole conversation, Spike's eyes never left Connor. "Yeah. But will it actually work?"
Lilah shrugged. "I guess that's what we're going to find out."
Anne looked at the picture. It was a bit crumbled up from being folded in her pocket, but it was still a good picture. Her favorite. It was her surrounded by a bunch of the teens that were staying in the shelter. Some were hugging her, some were being goofy, and others were off to the side, refusing to be in the picture but still in it anyway.
And they were happy.
Not anymore. Now, they were gone.
She missed them. She missed the entire shelter. It gave her life a purpose, really. But it was gone now.
She wiped a tear away from her eye.
Okay, she thought to herself. So I'm sad. That's not an excuse for anything, to make any decisions. I used to tell that to them all the time.
Just because the shelter was gone didn't mean she had to let Illyria inside of her. That wasn't the only reason she would let it happen, though. She wanted to make a difference. She had the power in her hands to do that. Plus, she'd be saving Angel's son, someone who, from what she'd heard, really could've used the help she had given to others.
There were other options. It wasn't like she couldn't start another shelter. There were plenty of other kids to save, whether they were on this side of the world, in the remaining parts of L.A., or in the other half of the world.
She smiled. There was so much potential in the world. All she had to do was start another shelter.
Or what if that wasn't enough? Who else in their right mind would let Illyria inside of them? And if they couldn't find anybody, then what? Then Connor/Illyria would roam free and take the world for her own. Unless Angel (or someone else) killed Connor. But who wanted to do that? More importantly, who would have the strength inside of them to do that?
Perhaps Angel really would. It'd kill him inside, but he'd do it if he needed to.
Anne truly had a lot to think about. Wes and Gunn would be back before she knew it and everyone would need to know if Anne was willing to do it. The problem was, she wasn't 100% positive at this point, and that was a problem. She needed to know exactly what her decision would be.
"Maybe we should pick up some blood for Angel and Spike, too?" Lorne asked Fred. "Or is there plenty around the offices?"
"I think they have enough. One of them would've complained by now if there wasn't. Besides, where would we get blood, anyway?"
Lorne and Fred were outside, walking. It felt good to be out in the fresh air. As it turned out, staying inside a half empty law office for hours on end wasn't as fun as it sounded. Fred was enjoying Lorne's happiness in getting out. When she thought about it, she realized that he was really the only one who hadn't left the offices since that very first day when they found out why so many people had died.
"So I guess what we're going for is many canned foods and bottles of water?"
Fred shrugged in response. "Yeah. What else could we really get? We should've done this sooner before everything went bad."
Lorne couldn't agree more. They were nearing the destination without having run into any trouble yet, and both of them were hoping nothing would occur.
"There we go," Willow said, stifling a yawn. She still really hadn't gotten much sleep, not that anybody else really had. She just did the spell to lock Faith and the guy in the office. Angel and Buffy were standing beside her, making sure everything went okay. Luckily, there were no complications.
"I kind of feel bad," Angel admitted. "When they wake up they're just gonna be trapped in there.
"Yeah," Willow granted, "but it's for the best."
"Now we can get back to our main goal," Buffy said. "Well, at least when Gunn and Wes get back." Angel and Willow had told her about everything, including Gunn and Wesley going to get the sarcophagus. Buffy was right, though. This could potentially almost be over, if all the circumstances lined up correctly.
An aching feeling told Angel it wouldn't be over. Or was that just his normal thinking getting in the way of him hoping this situation would end soon?
Either way, Wes and Gunn would be back soon hopefully, and then when Fred and Lorne got back and if Anne agreed, they'd do what they had to and, with any luck, stop Illyria and save Connor.