"What do we tell Angel about the curse?" Fred asked after the conference call had been disconnected.
"Nothing." Wesley said firmly. "Too many times Angelus used knowledge gained from Angel against us all. That's why Angel wasn't included in this call. Unfortunately we also have to consider whether encouraging him to try to be a good person is a good idea. This Whistler fellow may have been part of the manipulation on Angel's life in the first place."
"That makes sense." Gunn said. "If they studied Angel, Angelus and Liam, then they know that this Buffy girl was exactly the kind of girl that would appeal to him."
"And they must have studied her too in order to know if he'd even have a chance with her." Wesley said.
"Maybe not." Cordelia said. "Popular culture may have been enough to program her for that. Vampires are portrayed as romantic tragic heroes in movies and books. Well, there's always one anyway and all the rest are monsters. Buffy was a perfect storm for that. Beyond that, Angel would have adapted himself to be whatever she wanted regardless of what that was."
"She's right." Fred said. "Angel's not known as 'he of the Angelic face' for nothing. And if he targeted any one of us and adapted himself to be what we wanted in a man? Add in the romantic tragic hero part? I'm pretty sure I'd have fallen for it. I was on the verge of it after he led the rescue to Pylea and saved me."
"As for not encouraging him to be a better person." Cordelia said. "Just because it may have been part of that thing possessing me's plot to get itself born, doesn't mean Angel doing good things is a bad idea. At the very least to ensures Angelus continues to suffer, which keeps him caged up."
"At the same time though, it lessens Angel's suffering because he feels better about himself." Wesley pointed out. "And people appreciate being helped and express that appreciation by thanking him. It's a classic catch 22."
"Then if he's going to be suffering either way." Gunn said. "Suffering by helping people reduces the world's suffering a bit and counts towards the soul's progress, doesn't it? And the soul is innocent of Liam or Angelus' crimes, but has to deal with whatever was laid on it before."
"An excellent point." Wesley agreed. "Very well, we continue to encourage Angel to be a better person and we remain alert for the lessening of the suffering aspect of his curse. If it breaks, we don't hesitate, we dust Angelus. Hopefully before he does any damage."
"How do we go about encouraging him though?" Fred asked. "Because so far leaving it up to him isn't doing any good. He can't seem to motivate himself to even do any research into ways of helping. Cordy said it's like without someone guiding him, he's totally clueless. And he doesn't ask because we've left it up to him to figure it out."
"Well there's a variety of different ways we know to help people." Fred said. "He could help out at Anne's shelter, for instance."
"Yeah, Annie would welcome help. She keeps that place going by sheer determination." Gunn agreed.
"And she's familiar with both vampires and Angel." Cordelia said. "She used to be a vampire groupie and Angel helped her out once back when he fired us and was working to take Wolfram and Hart apart."
"Yeah, by locking a bunch of lawyers in a wine cellar with two vampires and letting the vamps kill them all. And that was Angel, not Angelus, doing that." Gunn said. "The soul really doesn't make someone good, just gives them the capacity to know right from wrong and feel something about it. Being good takes effort and practice and a willingness to try."
"And accept that we're not perfect and are going to screw up." Wesley added.
"Point." Gunn agreed. "We never have talked about you kidnapping Connor. We jumped to conclusions and felt for Angel losing his son to Holtz and Qortoth. We didn't stop to consider that wasn't what you wanted to happen. You were trying to protect Connor from a threat that Angel represented. You were being as manipulated as Angel, Cordelia and Holtz were. I'm sorry for how I acted and I'm sorry for not trying to talk it out sooner."
"And I'm sorry for yelling at you." Fred told Wesley. "I didn't listen either and just assumed the worst and I should have remembered you've never done anything to hurt any of us or anyone else and loved Connor just as much as the rest of us."
"Accepted and I'm sorry I didn't consider speaking to any of you about the prophecy or the plan I came up with in my efforts to protect Connor. I forgot that we're a team and that all of us have contributed greatly to protecting this world and we all could have found alternative means of protecting Connor as well."
"On the other hand, not contacting me was probably a good thing." Cordelia said dryly. "Given that I was possessed by what was manipulating everyone and it probably would have had a contingency in place. Just like we're afraid it has a contingency mother in place. Like Nancy Doyle, who we still can't find."
"Which probably means she's either dead or currently being groomed to be a Big Bad for us to deal with." Wesley agreed grimly.