While the two Xander, the two Slayers and the two witches were chasing down Anya and getting the younger Xander back to his own reality, Angel was getting set back on the path he'd originally been sent to Sunnydale for.

"Hey, Angel." A voice Angel hadn't heard in nearly two years spoke behind the ensouled vampire. He slowly turned around and looked at the badly dressed demon who called himself a Balance Demon. A title granted by some kind of higher power.

"Whistler, what do you want?"

"To do my job, you know, keep the balance. And lucky me, I'm assigned to help you correct the imbalance you represent and you've caused."

"What are you talking about? What imbalance?"

"There isn't supposed to be a vampire with a soul on this plain of existence. The vampires here aren't like vampires in other stories or realities, you're demons running around in dead human bodies. A soul doesn't belong in a dead body, ever. Therefore your existence violates the balance. But the choices you've made have thrown off the balance even more, therefore you must balance out those choices with better choices."

"What choices are you talking about?"

"Harris told you having a soul should give you a conscience, you had a century after getting cursed of not exercising that conscience. Letting the McNally kid get taken was simply the latest incident where you stood by and did nothing to help a human in trouble. You spent a century standing by, heck you even chose to kill humans during that time, bad humans mostly, but still humans."

"You know why I avoid humans."

"Temptation, yes. But humans live with temptation everyday, some times they give in, some times they don't. It's no different with you, you have to live with temptation too, learn to manage it and balance out the imbalance. People died over the last century that you could have helped and chose not to. And there's Sunnydale and the Slayer, you were sent to deliver a message, not try to get into her pants."

Angel glared Whistler. "I fell in love with Buffy!"

"Than you're a moron on top of everything else. The gypsies told you that you were cursed so that you would suffer for your crimes, or rather Angelus' crimes. Being happily in love doesn't cause suffering for the person in love. You should have realized that being happy endangered the curse, which risked Angelus being loosed. Therefore him actually being loosened is on you and you allowed more people to die. More imbalance that needs to be balanced. You want to be human again so you and the girl you love can be happily together. Whether you're a vampire with a soul or a human being, the imbalance remains. Try to become a human again if you want, no one cares, but the imbalance your existence and your choices have created is something my bosses do care about. You're being given another chance to address the imbalance, to help people. I suggest you take it, the soul could end up back in Hell if the demon gets sent back there, true, but whether the soul is free of the demon or not, it will still face judgement for your own choices. Try to balance the ledger while you have the chance." Whistler advised.

"And how am I supposed to do that?" Angel demanded, he understood the concept, the human he'd been originally, Liam of Galway, had been raised Catholic after all.

"Someone will be sent to you, he's got his own ledger he's trying to balance. He's started to get visions and he thinks they come from us, explain to him that they don't come from us or from anyone for that matter. He's a natural born Seer, he could use his gift in different ways, but because he, all on his own, feels the need to balance his choices, he Sees people in need. Between the two of you, you can help them. Maybe you'll meet others along the way who feel the need to help or balance their own ledgers. If you need advice, consult the Oracles of the gods. The gods don't get involved directly much anymore, but they are still around. See you around sometime."

Angel glared at the spot the annoying little demon had just been standing in and wondered why Whistler hadn't just explained all that the first time they'd met, it could have saved a lot of pain and misery for everyone along the way. And why did it matter to these higher powers anyway, what was it in for them? On the other hand, Angel had decided to try being a better person and maybe this was the way to do it. So, who was this guy who was coming to help him? And when would he be showing up anyway?

Turned out it was a week later.

"Hey, I'm Doyle and you are a hard man to track down. But than you're not really a man, are you?" Another badly dressed human looking fellow stood in front of Angel, mostly human, Angel realized, the smell indicated something else.

"You're not entirely human, are you?" Angel asked.

"Half Bracken on my father's side, I'm not a bad guy just because I got demon blood. At least I try not to be."

"Doyle, huh? I was told you'd be looking for me, we're supposed to help each other balance each other's ledgers apparently. Make up for past mistakes and bad choices by helping people."

"Yeah, man. See, I get these visions, migraines with pictures really. People in need."

"Yeah, so I was told. Come on, i need to explain a few things to you. You can call me Angel. And seriously, you dress worse than this guy I used to know."

"Hawaiian shirts are classics!"

"They're eyesores."