"Time Bomb"
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S5/EPISODE 19
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| Written by: Ben
Edlund |
Original Air Date: April 28, 2004 |
In the hell dimension basement ("Underneath"),
Gunn is laid on the table, pleading with the torture demon as it prepares
to cut his heart out. As the demon raises the blade over Gunn's chest,
a tremor shakes the house. The demon pauses and looks around the basement.
The door comes flying off its hinges. Illyria strides down the steps into the basement. She backhands the demon, sending it flying across the room. She rips the necklace off of Gunn.
Gunn sits up and clutches his head as his memories return, "Gunn, Charles Gunn." He looks up at Illyria, "You're ... Fred. You look ... terrible."
She grabs him and pulls him off of the table.
He remembers who she is now, "Illyria."
As the torture demon gets back to its feet, Illyria orders Gunn to "Move." She gives him a shove out of the way.
Gunn tells her he can't leave the dimension, "unless someone else puts on the necklace ... takes my place."
The demon rushes Illyria.
The torture demon is lying on the basement table, wearing the necklace. It raises the dagger above its own chest and plunges it in.
Angel is standing behind the desk in his office, Wes is sitting in front of it, explaining, "I didn't send her. We were discussing Gunn. I explained his situation, our inability to get him out. She nodded, created a portal and disappeared."
Angel is skeptical and irritated as he paces behind his desk, "So, she's just, what? Helping you out? She's your little 'helper.'"
Wes wouldn't put it that way.
Angel reminds him, "Well, she sure was helpful beatin' me up." ("Origin")
Wes doesn't say anything.
Angel asks if Wes knows why Illyria is doing these things for him.
Wes wonders if it matters, perhaps she'll be able to get Gunn out.
Angel reckons she's just as likely to get him killed, "It doesn't track, Wes. Why would she take on any risk for us?"
Wes doesn't think Illyria is facing any risk, "She has the power of a god."
Angel notes she has the ego of one as well.
Wes points out she did rule the world once, "This sort of thing goes to one's head."
Angel continues pacing as Wes tells him he's making progress with her, "There is distance, of course. She would never accept any of us as peers. I afford her some amusement at the very least. It may be why she's still here."
Angel isn't buying that as he counters, "She's still here because this place reeks of influence. She had everything, Wes. Everything. You think she's not looking to get that back?"
Wes would rather not presume her wants, "But I understand the resource. The power she represents. If we could just find some way to integrate her. To convince her to --"
Angel interrupts him, "To do what? Join the team?"
A portal opens in the office, Gunn and Illyria come through it. Gunn lands on his hands and knees on the floor. Wes gets to his feet.
Illyria grabs Gunn by the throat and lifts him off the floor as she looks at Wes, "This, thing --"
Angel steps toward her, telling her to let Gunn go.
Illyria ignores him, "It's important to you."
Wes calmly tells her to stop.
She continues, "It holds value. Worth beyond price."
Angel demands more firmly she let Gunn go as he moves toward her.
Wes grabs Angel's arm briefly, stopping his advance toward Illyria. Wes takes a couple of steps toward her himself, "Yes, great worth. A great debt. You're talking of the debt, aren't you? Of what we owe you."
She releases Gunn, sending him crashing to the floor, "Of what you owe me." She walks out.
Angel looks at Wes, offering a sarcastic, "Go team."
Gunn steps off the W&H elevator, into the upper floor lobby. He heads down the hall, to his office. He opens the door and finds the desk stacked high with two columns of paperwork.
A unkempt Wes is in his office, clutching one of the archive source books, "All pre-Christian works dealing with the demon age. Same for primordium. Index any mention of the Old Ones." He lays the book on his desk, which is littered with books and papers, and peruses it briefly.
Gunn steps up to the partially open door, noticing the office is cluttered with open books laying everywhere, including the floor.
Wes, who seems to have a somewhat tenuous grasp on his sanity, greets him and asks if it's his first day back as he scurries to a cabinet in his stocking feet, retrieves another book and rushes back toward his desk. He pauses, looks at Gunn, "I stabbed you. I should apologize for that but I'm honestly not sure how. I think it'll just be awkward." ("Shells")
Gunn agrees, "Good call."
Wes says, "Okay" then hurriedly opens the book and sets it on his desk. He takes a seat in the chair as he peruses it.
Gunn says he wasn't looking for an apology, then admits he doesn't know if he'd accept it. He steps into the office, "Besides, I just got my heart cut out of my chest every day for two weeks straight. Compared to what, a little jab in the gut? Kinda over it."
Wes remains distracted as he shuffles papers on his desk, "So, uh, what are you looking for?"
Gunn doesn't know, "A compass maybe? The thing that killed my friend just saved my life. No one knows why. This place just went Poseidon on my ass." He takes a seat on the opposite side of Wes' desk, "I don't know which way is up."
Wes looks around, "Everything is .. " He gets up from the desk and moves quickly to the books scattered on the floor, "... a bit odd." He crouches down and picks up a sheet of notes from the floor, "I suppose we have to adjust." He stands back up, looks around nervously and taps the paper in his hand, "I imagine that's all this is, adjustment."
Gunn isn't sure what Wes is talking about, "Adjustment?"
Wes answers, "To ... things. To ... myself. To this place." He kneels on the floor beside the books, "To Illyria."
Gunn agrees she takes some getting used to.
Wes notes, "You can't look at her without seeing ..." His face betrays a slight crack in the facade, the pain of grief just below the surface, but he quickly masks it, "her body's previous owner." He laughs, a sarcastic kind of laughter.
Gunn doesn't say anything, just looks downward.
Wes continues, "But then, what comes out of her mouth? Pure, unadulterated vertigo. We look so tiny to her."
Gunn asks, "But you got her on a leash or something, right?"
Wes laughs bitterly, "No. No. She's monumentally self-possessed." He retrieves a scroll from the floor, unwinds it and winds it back up almost immediately, setting it back on the floor. He checks his watch, taps it, "She still thinks she's the God-King of the universe."
Gunn wonders if Wes is saying she's "like a TV star."
Wes corrects that notion as he raises his watch to his ear, "No, nothing that bad. Bit more violent, though."
Illyria and Spike are working out in the W&H training room. She punches him in the chest, sending him sliding across the room but he stays on his feet, "All right, grandma. Give ya that. Good one." He rushes her. She strikes out at him with a kick but misses. She throws a punch and misses again. She throws another punch which Spike intercepts. He punches her in the face.
Illyria glares at him as she stalks around him, "This shell, you had affection for it. For Fred."
Spike admits that, "Tons. Loved the bird."
Illyria stops in front of him noting, "Yet you strike at her form without sentiment."
Spike explains, "You ain't her. I can see it. Lord knows, I can smell it. And I got no problem hitting it." He strikes out at her, she blocks the punch. He takes advantage of that and knees her in the ribs.
She moves her hand to where he connected and backs up a few steps, "You're adapting."
Spike tells her that's what they do.
Illyria isn't impressed, "Adaptation is compromise." She drops to the floor and sweeps her leg toward his legs, trying to take him down. He jumps up, avoiding the attempt.
A cocky Spike informs her, "It's called learning. But then I guess you know everything there is to know."
Illyria steps toward him, "When the world met me? It shuddered, groaned. It knelt at my feet."
Spike mocks her, "Dear Penthouse, I don't normally write letters like this but --"
She punches him in the face, knocking him back.
As he rubs his jaw, she tells him, "Illyria was all they needed to know."
Spike continues taunting, "And then came the Internet."
Illyria stalks around the room, "You have nothing. Your kind has pulled this domain apart. Each of you has snatched a tiny piece of it. Even those with the mightiest hoards are paupers."
He reckons he gets it, "The one who dies with the most toys wins, eh?"
She answers, "To never die, and to conquer all, that is winning."
Spike rushes her. She throws out her arm, doing her time manipulation trick, miring Spike in slow motion in midair ("Shells"). She walks around him. When he lands, time returns to normal. He turns to find her behind him. He reckons that's cheating. She punches him, sending him slamming into the wall and crumpling to the floor.
Angel calls into the training room on the intercom, asking to see Spike for a minute.
Illyria tells him he may go.
Spike wipes the blood from his mouth as he offers a sarcastic thanks for her permission, gets to his feet and leaves.
Outside the training room, Angel watches Illyria inside through a window. Spike notes the time manipulation thing is "a royal bitch" but he's getting a handle on her fighting style and moves.
Angel tells him to stop the training sessions.
Spike protests, pointing out that testing Illyria is sharpening skills he didn't know needed sharpening.
Angel tells him they aren't testing her, "She's testing us."
They both turn to note Illyria has entered as she breathes heavily and clutches her ribs.
Spike figures his hits took a bit of a toll, "Got her winded at least, didn't I?" He looks at Illyria, "That's right, little Shiva. Reckon you'll think twice next time."
Illyria looks around the room, confused.
Gunn is sitting behind his desk, staring at the tall stacks of paperwork piled on top of it. He reaches out and takes a folder from one of the stacks and opens it.
Lorne knocks on the door and sticks his head inside. He's looking more conspicuous than usual, wearing a gray fedora and sunglasses. He comes into the office and closes the door behind him, "Shoulder to the wheel already, huh?"
Gunn notes he had to get started sometime, "That's what I keep telling myself anyway." He tosses the folder onto the opposite stack and retrieves another.
Lorne attempts to make small talk, "I just thought I'd, uh, drop in to ... to see if you were good .. which you are ..." He clears his throat, "Good."
Gunn notes Lorne's attire and asks about the "incognito."
Lorne tells him Angel wants him to follow Illyria and keep "tabs on her." He holds up a cell phone with walkie-talkie feature, noting he's equipped for the job.
Gunn figures Illyria is still the "headline" at W&H.
Lorne removes the sunglasses, "Front page news. And a walking obituary. Strange times, huh?"
Gunn agrees with that. He gets to his feet and walks around to the front of the desk as he asks Lorne if he's spoken with Wes.
Lorne answers, "Well, we've exchanged words. I wouldn't exactly call it talking. He's still reeling since Our Lady of the Blue Bummer arrived."
Gunn starts to tell him what happened earlier, "Yeah, I was just in his office and --"
Lorne cuts him off, "Oh God, don't go in there! That's where he keeps his full strength crazy."
Gunn admits he noticed.
Lorne continues, "It's like he's two different people. One is almost catatonic. He's the guy you see doing the inpatient shuffle around the hallways and the other is just, cooped up in there all day, jittering like a bug on a hot plate obsessing over every single tidbit he can find on Illyria."
Gunn wonders what Angel has said about it.
Lorne says Angel isn't very talkative these days. His walkie-talkie beeps, followed by Angel's voice asking if Lorne can hear him. Lorne acknowledges he's receiving just fine.
Angel tells him they're to meet in his office, now.
Angel, Gunn, Wes, Spike and Lorne are gathered in the conference room. Spike sums up the topic at hand, "Okay. The upshot is, you don't like 'Babe the Blue Ox' in your house and you want to get rid of her."
Angel confirms that.
Spike asks, "Are we talking pasture or slaughterhouse?"
Angel notes Illyria didn't have much of a problem killing Fred.
Wes offers a correction, "Illyria infected Fred, with no more malice than a viral phage."
Angel realizes Wes is bonding with Illyria, but --
Wes recites the argument as if it's all too familiar, "But she's unpredictable, dangerous. Too powerful a being, too close to being an enemy. Yes, Angel, it's self-evident."
Angel reckons they need to find a weakness, some point of vulnerability.
Wes knows Angel is asking him to find a way to kill her.
Angel wonders if that's going to be a problem for Wes.
Wes answers no.
Angel says they have more than enough problems to be concerned with.
Gunn asks about the apocalypse, noting Lindsey said they were "in the middle of it?"
Wes confirms that, "Oh yes, the thousand year war of good versus evil is well under way."
Angel adds, "Evil just hasn't told anyone about it yet, which is probably why they're winning."
Spike chimes in, "Oh, by the way? We're apparently on the wrong side. Or the right side, if you like winning."
Gunn wonders if they believe that.
Angel suggests he take a look around next time he steps outside, "Because it's true, Gunn."
Gunn asks what it means for them.
Angel answers as he gets up and walks to the window, "Tell us how to fight an invisible war. I don't even know who we're fighting. All the evil we've stopped so far, and we're still the Partners' number one earner."
Hamilton steps into the conference room, "Not anymore. May I ask you something, Angel? Have you ever heard the term, surgical strike?"
Angel wonders if Hamilton has heard of "appointment." He returns to his seat at the conference table.
Hamilton retains his deceptively cordial demeanor, "Illyria destroyed eleven torture units before she found your man, two troop carriers, an ice cream truck and eight beautifully maintained lawns. Not to mention dozens of employees rendered useless to the company."
Angel isn't concerned about it, "Bill me."
Hamilton assures him they will, "The damages are coming directly out of this division's profits. Congratulations. In one swift stroke, you've gone from leader of the pack to staggering at the rear."
Angel isn't clear on the point, "And ...?"
Hamilton reckons Angel is a "motivated go-getter", he can figure out what comes after the "and."
Angel smiles, assuring him they're working on it.
Hamilton notes the Partners have a task they'd like overseen, he'll send Gunn the paperwork. He says it's a simple matter, but involves "some very big players."
Angel points out if this is about getting in the good graces of the Partners, that's not his priority.
Hamilton suggests he consider profits, "It's profits that let you keep this plucky little boat load of good above water." He steps out into the hall, "It's business, boys, not a bat cave." He smiles and slides the doors closed.
Lorne notes he still likes Hamilton better than Eve.
Wes is sitting on the floor of his office among the various open books, papers and scrolls scattered about, resting with his back against the desk. Illyria approaches and asks what day it is.
Wes thinks on it a moment, then tells her it's Monday.
She squats down to talk with him face to face, "And this conversation, we've had it before."
Wes goes through the things they've discussed; our system of temporal measurement, our technology, weights and measures, local customs, world history.
She refers to him as her guide, but also something more. She stands, "You are my betrayer. When you shattered the Window of Orlon, you meant to change the past. To rewrite your history and the history of this body."
Wes gets to his feet, "And instead, I brought back more painful memories." He's come to understand the works of time are irreversible.
She knows altering time was his intention.
He informs her he wanted to bring Fred back.
Illyria knows that would have resulted in her destruction.
Wes confirms that, "as an unintended consequence." He wonders if his betrayal "stings" her.
She answers, "Betrayal was a neutral word in my day. As unjudged a word as water or breeze. No. Or perhaps ... I am only bothered because I am bothered."
Wes sits behind his desk, "That sounds very close to human."
She snaps at him, "Motes of dust! Mayflies who die so soon after they're born, they might as well not live at all."
Wes cautions her, "Now, now. Manners."
Gunn comes into Angel's office, perusing the file Hamilton sent him. He says it appears to be some kind of "ceremonial demon pact", Angel needs to sign as witness for the firm.
Angel asks if Gunn met Hamilton before today in the conference room.
Gunn admits he paid a visit to him in the basement of the hell dimension and offered to get him out. ("Origin")
Angel asks what answer Gunn gave Hamilton.
Gunn wonders if Angel really needs to ask him that.
Angel answers, "I really do."
Gunn says he declined the offer, he's not into making deals anymore.
Angel reckons that's going to make it difficult to be a lawyer.
Gunn says it was tough already, "Making business go smoothly for a bunch of hideous, scaly, evil clients."
Harmony is accompanying a young, blonde, very pregnant woman at the doorway, "Excuse me? I'm here about the demon pact."
Angel and Gunn are meeting with the woman, Amanda, in the conference room. She tells them "they" found her, they were told by seers that her baby was going to be some kind of "holy one." It was a prophecy.
Gunn asks what she knows about the "Fell Brethren."
She says they're very religious, their own religion not the "God one," and they've been extremely supportive bringing her healthy food and vitamins.
Angel wonders if she realizes they're demons.
She confirms that, "They're very open about it."
Gunn informs her demonic pacts should be entered into with extreme caution, "As our client, we have to advise you to --"
A male voice interrupts him, "She's not your client." Gunn looks up to see three hairless, somewhat desiccated looking demons standing at the doorway, "We are."
In his office, Wes retrieves a book from the floor and takes it back to his desk. As he scribbles notes, Illyria looks at her hand, "Odd. It doesn't exist until it cracks apart."
Wes doesn't look up from his notes, "What's that?"
She answers, "Time."
Wes looks up at her, "You don't look altogether well."
She isn't in the mood, "Your opinion of me weighs less than sunlight." She doubles over in pain and reaches out for the desk to support herself. In doing so, she knocks a glass to the floor.
She finds herself transported into the future. She's in the training room. Wes shouts her name.
Angel tells Wes to "Do it, now."
Wes raises a device of some sort and points it at her.
Illyria suffers another pain and finds herself transported to the past, standing in the room outside the training room, with Angel and Spike.
She relives Spike's comment, "Got her winded at least, didn't I? That's right, little Shiva. Reckon you'll think twice next time."
She looks around, confused.
Spike adds, "Good knee to the ribs does tend to catch up on ya, doesn't it?"
She has another painful spasm and finds herself back in Wesley's office, reaching out to the desk to steady herself, knocking the glass to the floor.
She looks at Wes, breathing heavily, "You tried to murder me." She shoves the desk backward, pinning Wes against the window.
Wes has no idea what she's talking about, "I don't want you dead, believe me."
She remembers, "I was there. I saw it." She walks out of the office and heads down the hallway.
From his hiding place behind a large, potted plant, Lorne makes a call on his walkie-talkie. He reports, "Bluebird is in flight", then starts to follow her.
In the lobby outside of the conference room, the Fell Brethren chat amongst themselves.
Harmony approaches and tells them Angel just needs a few more minutes. She offers to get them something to drink.
The Fell leader demands to know what Angel is doing with the "holy vessel".
Harm offers they have a variety of "organic colas" to choose from.
The demon informs her they have a "delicate relationship" with the woman, if there are problems, they should be the ones to deal with it.
Harm assures them Angel will handle things, "That's what he does. Yep. I'm sure he's in there, you know, getting into her head, sowing the seeds of fear. Don't you worry, he will snap her like a pregnant twig."
The demons chat with each other for a moment in their own language. The leader turns back to Harm, "We'll try an organic cola."
In the conference room, Angel asks Amanda if she's sure she wants to do this.
Gunn points out it's not too late to change her mind, he's sure the contract has some flexibility in it, they always do.
She asks if they're not the guys who are supposed to tell her to do it.
Angel answers, "Well, we are. And .. well .. we're not .. we ... uh ...." His walkie-talkie cell phone beeps.
Lorne tries to give his latest report, "Angel ears, this is secret demon. Come in."
An embarrassed Angel covers the phone with his hand as Gunn looks at him.
Amanda says she's had this discussion before. She knows it doesn't sound good, giving up her baby to a cult, but --
Angel's phone beeps again. He slaps his hand down over it and apologizes for the interruption. As Lorne starts to talk, Angel turns it off and puts it into his pocket.
Amanda says the Fell Brethren believe her baby is very special, they'll worship him. She believes he'll be cared for better than she ever could and he'll be someone important. She and her husband couldn't give him that.
Gunn informs her, "The Fell Brethren leader makes Jim Jones look like a Sunday school teacher."
Amanda doesn't know who Jim Jones is. She says they can't afford the baby. Her husband suffered brain damage in an accident at work. They're living on food stamps and disability benefits. The Brethren have told her they can make her husband "whole" again. She wonders how a person can turn all that down.
Gunn closes the file folder in front of him, gets up and walks out of the conference room. Angel follows him out.
A troubled Gunn says he isn't feeling very well.
Angel understands that, "First day back from a vacation in hell, I'm not surprised."
Gunn keeps his back to Angel, telling him, "Do you know what the worst thing about that place was? It wasn't the basement. At least there, you knew where you stood. Demon was gonna cut your heart out and show it to you. Nah. It was the fake life they gave you upstairs. The wife, kids, all the icing on the family cake. But somewhere underneath it, there was the nagging certainty that it was all lies. That all the smiles and the birthday candles and the homework were just there to hide the horror." He turns to face Angel, "Is that all we're doing here? Just hiding the horror?"
Angel says no.
Gunn isn't listening, "'Cause I don't think I can stomach it anymore, not after all that's happened."
Angel tells him he has to, "Listen to me, Gunn. I need you to get through this. To get through all of it so we can figure out the big picture and plot our next move."
Gunn points out Amanda is their next move.
Harm interrupts, reporting the Fell are getting anxious.
Angel instructs her to send them in as he returns to the conference room.
Wes is in the lab, peering through a microscope. Books and papers are strewn about the table.
Hamilton walks up to him, "Curing cancer, Mr. Pryce?"
Wes reckons that "wouldn't be cost effective." He's sure they make a considerable profit from cancer.
Hamilton notes, "The patent holder is a client. So, how's the science game?" He looks around the lab, "I realize you're just filling in but --"
Wes asks if he wants something specific.
Hamilton wonders if anything has turned up on Illyria, telling Wes they have an interest in her as well. He refers to her as a "walking nightmare" but notes Wes seems to be the closest thing to a friend she has.
Wes chuckles, "If you knew her, you'd realize the absurdity of that statement."
Hamilton informs him the Partners do know her.
That gets Wesley's attention.
Hamilton continues, "Yes, they go way back. They don't want her here. They don't want her anywhere at all. But they consider this to be your problem so ... have a nice fight." He starts to depart, pauses, "Oh, you might wanna take a look at the low emanation scanner readouts. Just a thought." He leaves.
Wes checks the laptop sitting next to the microscope and observes the display which appears to be tracking something.
As Illyria strides down the hall, Lorne follows closely attempting to connect with his walkie-talkie, "I repeat, Bluebird got wise. Secret demon's cover is blown. Over." He shakes the phone, "Is this on?" then finally gives up. He asks Illyria when she caught on to him.
Illyria notes, "The vampire plays children's games."
The Fell enter the conference room and hover near Amanda as they gush over the pregnancy. They express their concerns about her health, noting they've got some magazine articles they'll give her.
Angel tells them they can get on with the deal.
Amanda and the Fell take their seats at the conference table. Angel tosses the contract to the leader. He signs it, then slides it in front of Amanda and hands her a pen.
Gunn, who's perusing his own copy, tells her to wait a minute, "Gordabach?"
The leader responds cheerfully, "Yes, Gordabach." He shows Amanda where to sign.
Gunn just wants to clarify a clause that's giving him pause, "No, hang on, I just want to get this clause straight." He reads from the document, "The child will be pampered, worshipped and fed a holy diet of berries, panda meat and urine?" He looks up at the Fell leader who assures a concerned looking Amanda, "It's consecrated urine."
Gunn continues reading from the document, "And on the eve of his thirteenth year, he will be prepared for the rites of Gordabach."
Amanda asks if that's like a Bar Mitzvah.
The Fell leader mutters, "Well, there'll be gifts."
Gunn tells her it's a "ritual sacrifice."
The leader slams his gnarled hands down onto the table, shouting, "Whose lawyer are you?"
Illyria throws the door open and addresses Angel, "You will speak to me."
He tells her he's in the middle of something.
She enters the room and threatens to end it.
Angel gets up from the table and tells her to come with him. He leaves the conference room, she follows him out.
Lorne is outside of the conference room, talking into his walkie-talkie, "Well do you copy, ever? Over." As Angel passes, Lorne asks if his walkie-talkie is on.
An angry Angel ignores the question and walks on down the hall. Lorne realizes this isn't the time to chat and doesn't follow.
Angel stops in the midst of the hallway, turns to Illyria and in a raised voice informs her, "You don't interrupt our work! Understand me?"
She wants to know what's happening, "What is it, poison? Magicks? It impresses me, the power of it. Whatever you've done, it can't save you. To do anything but to bow to my will is absurd yet you conspire --" She winces as she suffers another painful spasm.
Angel tells her they didn't do anything to her.
She isn't convinced, "Jealous. Plankton envying the ocean that holds them."
Angel tells her he has things to do. He starts to walk away from her. She grabs him by the front of his coat, lifts him off the floor and shoves him against the wall, "Ridiculous apes! My death won't prevent your dying. What have you done to me?"
Angel tells her to take her hands off of him.
She releases him, "You don't know, not yet. It's too early." She walks away.
Lorne peers around the corner and approaches Angel, "You gotta keep your thingie on for this to work."
Angel harshly snatches Lorne's hat off his head and walks back down the hall.
Harm intercepts him and tells him things are getting a bit loud in his office.
Angel tells her to let Gunn handle it as he walks past her and heads for the elevator.
Angel enters the lab and tells Wes Illyria is out of her mind.
Wes places a large metal case on the table as Spike asks, "How can you tell? Yesterday she spent two hours mind melding with a potted fern."
Angel says she thinks he's trying to kill her.
Wes asks, "Aren't you?"
Angel hopes Wes has come up with something.
Wes says, "She's unstable. Overloading, to be more accurate. The fusion between her demon essence and her host's body seems to be deteriorating. It's as if her human body can no longer contain the demonic power within." He says she'll destruct, violently, and soon.
Angel wonders when Wes planned on telling him this news.
Wes says he wasn't, he and Spike were handling it. He pulls a large device out of the case, "This is a Mutari generator. It creates a pinhole to an infinite extradimensional space, a negatively charged pocket universe. That should draw her radiant essence, her power, into itself by process of a --"
Angel asks, "Will it kill her?"
Wes answers, "Yes, shall we go?"
Angel says they have to find her first.
Spike shows him the tracking display on the laptop, noting she's in the training room and leaking energy at a high rate.
Angel, Spike and Wes head down the hall toward the training room. Wes is armed with the generator. Spike asks what the damage will be if Illyria destructs.
Wes reckons a conservative guess would be several blocks.
Angel asks for an "unconservative guess".
Wes answers, "Rand and McNalley will have to redraw their maps."
Lorne is waiting outside the training room. As the others pass and enter, he asks Angel if he even knows how to use the walkie-talkie.
They find the training room empty. Lorne says he didn't see her leave.
Spike notes, "Well, that's the problem, you don't always see her when she's --" He turns to dust as Illyria stakes him through the back with a large piece of wood.
Angel tells Wes to "Do it, now."
Illyria doubles over in pain as Angel rushes her. She kicks him, sending him flying across the training room. She kills Wes, then Lorne. Angel morphs into vamp face and leaps toward her. She retrieves an ax from the wall and decapitates him, turning him to dust. As she surveys the carnage around her, she gasps as she's again racked by pain.
She finds herself back in the hallway with Angel telling her they haven't done anything to her as they replay their earlier encounter. She makes the 'jealous plankton' comment, Angel starts to leave, she grabs him and shoves him against the wall. He tells her to take her hands off of him. She experiences more pain and transports to earlier in Wesley's office as she reaches out to the desk for support, knocking the glass off of it. This time, Angel has come along with her.
Angel looks around, confused, "What the hell did you do to me?"
Illyria snaps at him, "You weren't here before."
Wes is bewildered, "Who -- Where did -- What just happened?"
Illyria ponders what's happened, "An aberration in the time line. It wasn't like this --" She screams as she once again experiences pain. She and Angel end up in the hell dimension basement. The torture demon is tossed across the room.
Angel nervously moves around, "Damn it! What the hell was this?"
Illyria glares at him, "You followed me."
Angel notices Gunn lying on the table, "Gunn?"
Illyria is furious, "You've been swept up in my wake."
Angel realizes they're back in the holding dimension.
Illyria demands to know, "How did you worms accomplish this?"
Angel doesn't know what she's talking about, "We didn't -- We -- Accomplish what?"
Illyria angrily explains it, "You ripped me out of linear progression, tore my timeline into shreds and stitched it back together out of sequence."
Angel asks, "Are you kidding?"
She continues ranting, "You caged me in this fractured time frame, in moments that repeat themselves over and over without deviation." She pauses a moment, cocks her head to the side, "But I don't say these words." She looks toward Gunn, "I rip the necklace off, I lift him from the table, we speak. And the demon attacks again." She kicks the demon who has approached her from behind, sending it across the room. She looks to Angel for answers, "Is it of your sciences? How do you unweave time in this way?"
Angel assures her they're not responsible, "We don't have the power to --"
She backhands him across the room, "Do you know what you were when I was young? You were the muck at our feet. We called you the ooze that eats itself!" Angel gets back to his feet as she continues with her insults, "You were pretty at night. You sparkled and you stank You still stink of it!"
Angel has had enough and gets to his feet, "Will you just shut up for once?!"
She's stunned by his insolence, "What?"
Angel answers, "My God, the speechifying. Has it ever occurred to you that now might not be the best time for when-we-were-muck stories?"
She's offended, "You dare to speak to me in this --"
Angel is undaunted, "Yes, I dare and yes, we are looking for a way of controlling you any way that we can. I can't have an 'X' factor like you bouncing around unchecked!"
She's asks indignantly, "Bouncing around?"
Angel presses onward, "Yes, and I know you would do the same thing. I know that for a fact but this is my kingdom lady, not yours."
She reminds him, "I am Illyria, God-King of the primordium! Shaper of things!"
Angel starts to say, "Yeah, well that was then, this is--"
Illyria screams as she's gripped by another spasm of pain. This time she and Angel find themselves in the training room, where she had killed the others earlier. Illyria has the ax in her hand, "Yes, nothing's as it used to be, is it?"
Angel looks at the bodies of Wes and Lorne on the floor, disbelieving, "No."
Illyria tells him, "These are the fruit of your attempt to murder me. Your kingdom turned to ash and stale wind." She slams the head of the ax on the floor, "I slew the white haired one first."
Angel still can't believe what he's seeing, "This can't be."
Illyria looks toward Wes' body, "And then Wesley, as he raised his weapon." She looks toward Lorne's body, "And your demon clown as he wilted in terror."
Angel reckons he's next.
Illyria tosses the ax into the pile of dust that had been Angel, "You were last."
Angel asks why.
She realizes, "You know nothing of this. You're from an earlier point in the timeline. You're a paradox. You're impossible."
Angel realizes what must have happened, "We attacked you."
She informs him she didn't give them the chance, "That, you learn when you become a king." She grabs her head in pain, "You learn to destroy everything that's not utterly yours. All that matters is victory. That's how your reign persists." She circles Angel, "You're a slave to an insane construct. You are moral. A true ruler is as moral as a hurricane. Empty but for the force of his gale." She grabs her head again and gasps in pain, yet continues, "But you, trapped in the web of the wolf, the ram and the hart. So much power here, and you quibble at its price. If you want to win a war, you must serve no master but your ambition." She cries out and doubles over in pain, "You have not lied. My undoing is beyond you, your people. Something is broken inside me." She grabs her head with both hands, "My power is too great. I know this now, as I know it every time I come to this moment."
Angel has been thinking things through as she's been ranting, "If I am here, if I am paradox, then this can all change, can't it? You said things had been altered, what you said, what you did, you can change this outcome!"
She looks at him, "Change is constant, yet things remain the same." A fissure opens in her face and quickly spreads to her entire body as she explodes in a blinding flash of light that sends Angel flying through the air.
Angel finds himself back with Wes and Spike, walking down the hallway to the training room to confront Illyria. He's surprised a moment, "Wes, you're alive! Illyria, she's self-destructing, she's a time bomb."
Spike offers a sarcastic, "Read today's paper, did ya?"
Angel doesn't know what he's talking about.
Spike says he's been going on about that for the past ten minutes.
Angel urgently tries to explain as he follows them down the hall, "I just left a meeting with Illyria. She grabbed me and we phased through time .." Wes and Spike stop and turn to face Angel as he continues, "I don't think she actually meant to do it but -- Look, she's overloading. She's gonna explode."
Wes tells him they know, they've been over all of this already. He enters the training room, followed by Spike and Angel. Lorne is outside the room and again asks Angel if he knows how to use the walkie-talkie before following the others inside.
Angel keeps trying to explain, "She's come unstuck in time, Wes. She knows what happens, she's seen it. She knows we wanna kill her."
Wes recalls her telling him that also.
A nervous Angel looks around the room, "Oh, guys .. this isn't good."
As before, Lorne notes he didn't see her leave.
As Spike starts to say, "Well, that's the problem --", Angel remembers Illyria telling him she "slew the white haired one first." He shoves Spike out of the way as Illyria plunges the large piece of wood toward his back, embedding it in the side of Angel's chest instead.
Angel groans and staggers backward. He pulls the wood from his chest, asking Illyria to wait. He tells Wes to lower the device he has pointed at her and directs him and Spike not to move.
Illyria realizes this is playing out differently, "This too, all changing." She once again is racked with pain.
Angel tells her he knows what happens, "I know you kill us all."
Spike doesn't know where that came from, "Oh, a bit pessimistic, aren't you?"
Angel tells her what he knows from the previous experience, "And then you shudder, and you convulse with pain and then the power inside you explodes."
Illyria remembers, "You were swept up in my wake."
Angel tells her she's not a king anymore, her domain is gone.
She recalls they've had this conversation.
He tells her, "You explode. I was there. It was powerful enough to blow me back through time. I have no idea what it does to the building."
Wes offers, "More like the continental shelf, actually."
Angel says he has to stop that and asks Illyria if she understands, "I cannot have your death blow away my --"
Illyria cuts him off, "Your kingdom?"
Angel will take that, "Yeah. Sure. Whatever."
She looks at Wes, "You ask me to allow you to murder me."
Spike casually notes, "It's not murder if you say yes."
Wes tells her the device won't kill her.
A surprised Angel looks at Wesley, "What? You said --"
Wes admits he lied then explains to Illyria, "This device will draw the energy away from you safely. It will allow you to live."
She considers that, "Your intent is not murder."
Wes says it never was.
Illyria reminds him, "But you tried to destroy me, to bring back Fred."
Wes concedes, "That didn't work. It was a failure. But now I know, you're all that's left."
She isn't sold on the plan, "You want to take my power, to let me live. But I am my power and I would rather be a titanic crater than to be like unto you." She kicks Wes, knocking him across the room and into Angel. Spike rushes her and kicks her in the head on the way past. She looks at him, "I kill you, that's how this ends." She rushes Spike who catches her and tosses her over his head. As he rushes her, she raises her arm and does the time manipulation trick, miring the others in slow motion.
As she doubles over in pain once again, the time manipulation ends. Angel tells her she can choose a different path.
For Illyria, that means being nothing.
Angel points out struggling to hold on to what she was is destroying her.
She looks at Wes, "You would do this to me."
He answers, "I'd try, anyway. Every time."
She grimaces, "I possess so much grace, more grace than this bag of sticks could express. I was the immaculate embodiment of rule." A fissure opens in her face, "I blame this on the weakness of your species."
Wes reckons that's fair as he aims the device at her and turns it on. A bright, violent stream of energy flows from Illyria into the device. Wes switches the device off, Illyria collapses to the floor. Wes approaches her, "Illyria?"
She's lost none of her charm, "Touch me and die, vermin."
Spike notes, "Not a very dramatic difference, really."
Wes says everything is different.
Wes and Angel are watching Illyria through the window into the training room. She's in the same position on the floor she was in when she collapsed. Angel asks for the prognosis.
Wes tells him she won't be able to manipulate time anymore, or walk through dimensions. He also figures her physical strength will be somewhat diminished.
Angel's glad to hear it then asks, "You're gonna stay with her, aren't you?"
Wes confirms that.
Angel sighs, "Wes, I don't like where this is going." He considers a moment, "I don't like where this has been."
Wes assures him, "I'm not in love with this thing, Angel. But, for some reason, I need it right now."
Angel looks through the window at Illyria, "Yeah, that's just weird."
Wes is aware of that, "She could still prove to be problematic for us. Much of what she was is still intact. I doubt she'll ever stop trying to conquer ... everything."
Angel nods, recalling what Illyria said to him, "Serve no master but your ambition." He starts to leave.
Wes asks what that was about.
Angel answers, "I think you may have been right before. About Illyria being a resource. She just might make the team yet." He leaves.
As Amanda sits at the table in the conference room, looking uncomfortable, Gunn and the Fell leader argue loudly out in the lobby. The Fell tells Gunn they had an agreement, the child is theirs.
Gunn assures him he can gut that agreement in court.
The Fell reminds him they're paying for his services.
Gunn shouts, "We're not taking your money!"
Hamilton stands with the other two Brethren a short distance from the argument. He assures them he understands. One of the Fell assures him if Gunn screws up the deal, "Our hoards will fall on this place. There won't be so much as an eyetooth left of any of them!"
Angel steps off the elevator and walks toward the commotion as Hamilton tells the Fell that would be more Angel's business than his.
Angel takes the contract from the Fell who was conversing with Hamilton and approaches Gunn, who is still arguing. Angel tells him, "The baby belongs to the Fell."
Gunn can't believe what he's hearing, "What? She hasn't signed anything, there's nothing on paper."
Angel looks at him a moment, then turns to the Fell, "Gentlemen." He walks back toward the conference room, the Brethren follow. He stops at the door as they go inside and turns back as Gunn calls to him then asks what he's doing.
Angel answers, "What we're supposed to. Serve our clients." He goes inside the conference room and closes the door behind him.
The door comes flying off its hinges. Illyria strides down the steps into the basement. She backhands the demon, sending it flying across the room. She rips the necklace off of Gunn.
Gunn sits up and clutches his head as his memories return, "Gunn, Charles Gunn." He looks up at Illyria, "You're ... Fred. You look ... terrible."
She grabs him and pulls him off of the table.
He remembers who she is now, "Illyria."
As the torture demon gets back to its feet, Illyria orders Gunn to "Move." She gives him a shove out of the way.
Gunn tells her he can't leave the dimension, "unless someone else puts on the necklace ... takes my place."
The demon rushes Illyria.
The torture demon is lying on the basement table, wearing the necklace. It raises the dagger above its own chest and plunges it in.
Angel is standing behind the desk in his office, Wes is sitting in front of it, explaining, "I didn't send her. We were discussing Gunn. I explained his situation, our inability to get him out. She nodded, created a portal and disappeared."
Angel is skeptical and irritated as he paces behind his desk, "So, she's just, what? Helping you out? She's your little 'helper.'"
Wes wouldn't put it that way.
Angel reminds him, "Well, she sure was helpful beatin' me up." ("Origin")
Wes doesn't say anything.
Angel asks if Wes knows why Illyria is doing these things for him.
Wes wonders if it matters, perhaps she'll be able to get Gunn out.
Angel reckons she's just as likely to get him killed, "It doesn't track, Wes. Why would she take on any risk for us?"
Wes doesn't think Illyria is facing any risk, "She has the power of a god."
Angel notes she has the ego of one as well.
Wes points out she did rule the world once, "This sort of thing goes to one's head."
Angel continues pacing as Wes tells him he's making progress with her, "There is distance, of course. She would never accept any of us as peers. I afford her some amusement at the very least. It may be why she's still here."
Angel isn't buying that as he counters, "She's still here because this place reeks of influence. She had everything, Wes. Everything. You think she's not looking to get that back?"
Wes would rather not presume her wants, "But I understand the resource. The power she represents. If we could just find some way to integrate her. To convince her to --"
Angel interrupts him, "To do what? Join the team?"
A portal opens in the office, Gunn and Illyria come through it. Gunn lands on his hands and knees on the floor. Wes gets to his feet.
Illyria grabs Gunn by the throat and lifts him off the floor as she looks at Wes, "This, thing --"
Angel steps toward her, telling her to let Gunn go.
Illyria ignores him, "It's important to you."
Wes calmly tells her to stop.
She continues, "It holds value. Worth beyond price."
Angel demands more firmly she let Gunn go as he moves toward her.
Wes grabs Angel's arm briefly, stopping his advance toward Illyria. Wes takes a couple of steps toward her himself, "Yes, great worth. A great debt. You're talking of the debt, aren't you? Of what we owe you."
She releases Gunn, sending him crashing to the floor, "Of what you owe me." She walks out.
Angel looks at Wes, offering a sarcastic, "Go team."
Gunn steps off the W&H elevator, into the upper floor lobby. He heads down the hall, to his office. He opens the door and finds the desk stacked high with two columns of paperwork.
A unkempt Wes is in his office, clutching one of the archive source books, "All pre-Christian works dealing with the demon age. Same for primordium. Index any mention of the Old Ones." He lays the book on his desk, which is littered with books and papers, and peruses it briefly.
Gunn steps up to the partially open door, noticing the office is cluttered with open books laying everywhere, including the floor.
Wes, who seems to have a somewhat tenuous grasp on his sanity, greets him and asks if it's his first day back as he scurries to a cabinet in his stocking feet, retrieves another book and rushes back toward his desk. He pauses, looks at Gunn, "I stabbed you. I should apologize for that but I'm honestly not sure how. I think it'll just be awkward." ("Shells")
Gunn agrees, "Good call."
Wes says, "Okay" then hurriedly opens the book and sets it on his desk. He takes a seat in the chair as he peruses it.
Gunn says he wasn't looking for an apology, then admits he doesn't know if he'd accept it. He steps into the office, "Besides, I just got my heart cut out of my chest every day for two weeks straight. Compared to what, a little jab in the gut? Kinda over it."
Wes remains distracted as he shuffles papers on his desk, "So, uh, what are you looking for?"
Gunn doesn't know, "A compass maybe? The thing that killed my friend just saved my life. No one knows why. This place just went Poseidon on my ass." He takes a seat on the opposite side of Wes' desk, "I don't know which way is up."
Wes looks around, "Everything is .. " He gets up from the desk and moves quickly to the books scattered on the floor, "... a bit odd." He crouches down and picks up a sheet of notes from the floor, "I suppose we have to adjust." He stands back up, looks around nervously and taps the paper in his hand, "I imagine that's all this is, adjustment."
Gunn isn't sure what Wes is talking about, "Adjustment?"
Wes answers, "To ... things. To ... myself. To this place." He kneels on the floor beside the books, "To Illyria."
Gunn agrees she takes some getting used to.
Wes notes, "You can't look at her without seeing ..." His face betrays a slight crack in the facade, the pain of grief just below the surface, but he quickly masks it, "her body's previous owner." He laughs, a sarcastic kind of laughter.
Gunn doesn't say anything, just looks downward.
Wes continues, "But then, what comes out of her mouth? Pure, unadulterated vertigo. We look so tiny to her."
Gunn asks, "But you got her on a leash or something, right?"
Wes laughs bitterly, "No. No. She's monumentally self-possessed." He retrieves a scroll from the floor, unwinds it and winds it back up almost immediately, setting it back on the floor. He checks his watch, taps it, "She still thinks she's the God-King of the universe."
Gunn wonders if Wes is saying she's "like a TV star."
Wes corrects that notion as he raises his watch to his ear, "No, nothing that bad. Bit more violent, though."
Illyria and Spike are working out in the W&H training room. She punches him in the chest, sending him sliding across the room but he stays on his feet, "All right, grandma. Give ya that. Good one." He rushes her. She strikes out at him with a kick but misses. She throws a punch and misses again. She throws another punch which Spike intercepts. He punches her in the face.
Illyria glares at him as she stalks around him, "This shell, you had affection for it. For Fred."
Spike admits that, "Tons. Loved the bird."
Illyria stops in front of him noting, "Yet you strike at her form without sentiment."
Spike explains, "You ain't her. I can see it. Lord knows, I can smell it. And I got no problem hitting it." He strikes out at her, she blocks the punch. He takes advantage of that and knees her in the ribs.
She moves her hand to where he connected and backs up a few steps, "You're adapting."
Spike tells her that's what they do.
Illyria isn't impressed, "Adaptation is compromise." She drops to the floor and sweeps her leg toward his legs, trying to take him down. He jumps up, avoiding the attempt.
A cocky Spike informs her, "It's called learning. But then I guess you know everything there is to know."
Illyria steps toward him, "When the world met me? It shuddered, groaned. It knelt at my feet."
Spike mocks her, "Dear Penthouse, I don't normally write letters like this but --"
She punches him in the face, knocking him back.
As he rubs his jaw, she tells him, "Illyria was all they needed to know."
Spike continues taunting, "And then came the Internet."
Illyria stalks around the room, "You have nothing. Your kind has pulled this domain apart. Each of you has snatched a tiny piece of it. Even those with the mightiest hoards are paupers."
He reckons he gets it, "The one who dies with the most toys wins, eh?"
She answers, "To never die, and to conquer all, that is winning."
Spike rushes her. She throws out her arm, doing her time manipulation trick, miring Spike in slow motion in midair ("Shells"). She walks around him. When he lands, time returns to normal. He turns to find her behind him. He reckons that's cheating. She punches him, sending him slamming into the wall and crumpling to the floor.
Angel calls into the training room on the intercom, asking to see Spike for a minute.
Illyria tells him he may go.
Spike wipes the blood from his mouth as he offers a sarcastic thanks for her permission, gets to his feet and leaves.
Outside the training room, Angel watches Illyria inside through a window. Spike notes the time manipulation thing is "a royal bitch" but he's getting a handle on her fighting style and moves.
Angel tells him to stop the training sessions.
Spike protests, pointing out that testing Illyria is sharpening skills he didn't know needed sharpening.
Angel tells him they aren't testing her, "She's testing us."
They both turn to note Illyria has entered as she breathes heavily and clutches her ribs.
Spike figures his hits took a bit of a toll, "Got her winded at least, didn't I?" He looks at Illyria, "That's right, little Shiva. Reckon you'll think twice next time."
Illyria looks around the room, confused.
Gunn is sitting behind his desk, staring at the tall stacks of paperwork piled on top of it. He reaches out and takes a folder from one of the stacks and opens it.
Lorne knocks on the door and sticks his head inside. He's looking more conspicuous than usual, wearing a gray fedora and sunglasses. He comes into the office and closes the door behind him, "Shoulder to the wheel already, huh?"
Gunn notes he had to get started sometime, "That's what I keep telling myself anyway." He tosses the folder onto the opposite stack and retrieves another.
Lorne attempts to make small talk, "I just thought I'd, uh, drop in to ... to see if you were good .. which you are ..." He clears his throat, "Good."
Gunn notes Lorne's attire and asks about the "incognito."
Lorne tells him Angel wants him to follow Illyria and keep "tabs on her." He holds up a cell phone with walkie-talkie feature, noting he's equipped for the job.
Gunn figures Illyria is still the "headline" at W&H.
Lorne removes the sunglasses, "Front page news. And a walking obituary. Strange times, huh?"
Gunn agrees with that. He gets to his feet and walks around to the front of the desk as he asks Lorne if he's spoken with Wes.
Lorne answers, "Well, we've exchanged words. I wouldn't exactly call it talking. He's still reeling since Our Lady of the Blue Bummer arrived."
Gunn starts to tell him what happened earlier, "Yeah, I was just in his office and --"
Lorne cuts him off, "Oh God, don't go in there! That's where he keeps his full strength crazy."
Gunn admits he noticed.
Lorne continues, "It's like he's two different people. One is almost catatonic. He's the guy you see doing the inpatient shuffle around the hallways and the other is just, cooped up in there all day, jittering like a bug on a hot plate obsessing over every single tidbit he can find on Illyria."
Gunn wonders what Angel has said about it.
Lorne says Angel isn't very talkative these days. His walkie-talkie beeps, followed by Angel's voice asking if Lorne can hear him. Lorne acknowledges he's receiving just fine.
Angel tells him they're to meet in his office, now.
Angel, Gunn, Wes, Spike and Lorne are gathered in the conference room. Spike sums up the topic at hand, "Okay. The upshot is, you don't like 'Babe the Blue Ox' in your house and you want to get rid of her."
Angel confirms that.
Spike asks, "Are we talking pasture or slaughterhouse?"
Angel notes Illyria didn't have much of a problem killing Fred.
Wes offers a correction, "Illyria infected Fred, with no more malice than a viral phage."
Angel realizes Wes is bonding with Illyria, but --
Wes recites the argument as if it's all too familiar, "But she's unpredictable, dangerous. Too powerful a being, too close to being an enemy. Yes, Angel, it's self-evident."
Angel reckons they need to find a weakness, some point of vulnerability.
Wes knows Angel is asking him to find a way to kill her.
Angel wonders if that's going to be a problem for Wes.
Wes answers no.
Angel says they have more than enough problems to be concerned with.
Gunn asks about the apocalypse, noting Lindsey said they were "in the middle of it?"
Wes confirms that, "Oh yes, the thousand year war of good versus evil is well under way."
Angel adds, "Evil just hasn't told anyone about it yet, which is probably why they're winning."
Spike chimes in, "Oh, by the way? We're apparently on the wrong side. Or the right side, if you like winning."
Gunn wonders if they believe that.
Angel suggests he take a look around next time he steps outside, "Because it's true, Gunn."
Gunn asks what it means for them.
Angel answers as he gets up and walks to the window, "Tell us how to fight an invisible war. I don't even know who we're fighting. All the evil we've stopped so far, and we're still the Partners' number one earner."
Hamilton steps into the conference room, "Not anymore. May I ask you something, Angel? Have you ever heard the term, surgical strike?"
Angel wonders if Hamilton has heard of "appointment." He returns to his seat at the conference table.
Hamilton retains his deceptively cordial demeanor, "Illyria destroyed eleven torture units before she found your man, two troop carriers, an ice cream truck and eight beautifully maintained lawns. Not to mention dozens of employees rendered useless to the company."
Angel isn't concerned about it, "Bill me."
Hamilton assures him they will, "The damages are coming directly out of this division's profits. Congratulations. In one swift stroke, you've gone from leader of the pack to staggering at the rear."
Angel isn't clear on the point, "And ...?"
Hamilton reckons Angel is a "motivated go-getter", he can figure out what comes after the "and."
Angel smiles, assuring him they're working on it.
Hamilton notes the Partners have a task they'd like overseen, he'll send Gunn the paperwork. He says it's a simple matter, but involves "some very big players."
Angel points out if this is about getting in the good graces of the Partners, that's not his priority.
Hamilton suggests he consider profits, "It's profits that let you keep this plucky little boat load of good above water." He steps out into the hall, "It's business, boys, not a bat cave." He smiles and slides the doors closed.
Lorne notes he still likes Hamilton better than Eve.
Wes is sitting on the floor of his office among the various open books, papers and scrolls scattered about, resting with his back against the desk. Illyria approaches and asks what day it is.
Wes thinks on it a moment, then tells her it's Monday.
She squats down to talk with him face to face, "And this conversation, we've had it before."
Wes goes through the things they've discussed; our system of temporal measurement, our technology, weights and measures, local customs, world history.
She refers to him as her guide, but also something more. She stands, "You are my betrayer. When you shattered the Window of Orlon, you meant to change the past. To rewrite your history and the history of this body."
Wes gets to his feet, "And instead, I brought back more painful memories." He's come to understand the works of time are irreversible.
She knows altering time was his intention.
He informs her he wanted to bring Fred back.
Illyria knows that would have resulted in her destruction.
Wes confirms that, "as an unintended consequence." He wonders if his betrayal "stings" her.
She answers, "Betrayal was a neutral word in my day. As unjudged a word as water or breeze. No. Or perhaps ... I am only bothered because I am bothered."
Wes sits behind his desk, "That sounds very close to human."
She snaps at him, "Motes of dust! Mayflies who die so soon after they're born, they might as well not live at all."
Wes cautions her, "Now, now. Manners."
Gunn comes into Angel's office, perusing the file Hamilton sent him. He says it appears to be some kind of "ceremonial demon pact", Angel needs to sign as witness for the firm.
Angel asks if Gunn met Hamilton before today in the conference room.
Gunn admits he paid a visit to him in the basement of the hell dimension and offered to get him out. ("Origin")
Angel asks what answer Gunn gave Hamilton.
Gunn wonders if Angel really needs to ask him that.
Angel answers, "I really do."
Gunn says he declined the offer, he's not into making deals anymore.
Angel reckons that's going to make it difficult to be a lawyer.
Gunn says it was tough already, "Making business go smoothly for a bunch of hideous, scaly, evil clients."
Harmony is accompanying a young, blonde, very pregnant woman at the doorway, "Excuse me? I'm here about the demon pact."
Angel and Gunn are meeting with the woman, Amanda, in the conference room. She tells them "they" found her, they were told by seers that her baby was going to be some kind of "holy one." It was a prophecy.
Gunn asks what she knows about the "Fell Brethren."
She says they're very religious, their own religion not the "God one," and they've been extremely supportive bringing her healthy food and vitamins.
Angel wonders if she realizes they're demons.
She confirms that, "They're very open about it."
Gunn informs her demonic pacts should be entered into with extreme caution, "As our client, we have to advise you to --"
A male voice interrupts him, "She's not your client." Gunn looks up to see three hairless, somewhat desiccated looking demons standing at the doorway, "We are."
In his office, Wes retrieves a book from the floor and takes it back to his desk. As he scribbles notes, Illyria looks at her hand, "Odd. It doesn't exist until it cracks apart."
Wes doesn't look up from his notes, "What's that?"
She answers, "Time."
Wes looks up at her, "You don't look altogether well."
She isn't in the mood, "Your opinion of me weighs less than sunlight." She doubles over in pain and reaches out for the desk to support herself. In doing so, she knocks a glass to the floor.
She finds herself transported into the future. She's in the training room. Wes shouts her name.
Angel tells Wes to "Do it, now."
Wes raises a device of some sort and points it at her.
Illyria suffers another pain and finds herself transported to the past, standing in the room outside the training room, with Angel and Spike.
She relives Spike's comment, "Got her winded at least, didn't I? That's right, little Shiva. Reckon you'll think twice next time."
She looks around, confused.
Spike adds, "Good knee to the ribs does tend to catch up on ya, doesn't it?"
She has another painful spasm and finds herself back in Wesley's office, reaching out to the desk to steady herself, knocking the glass to the floor.
She looks at Wes, breathing heavily, "You tried to murder me." She shoves the desk backward, pinning Wes against the window.
Wes has no idea what she's talking about, "I don't want you dead, believe me."
She remembers, "I was there. I saw it." She walks out of the office and heads down the hallway.
From his hiding place behind a large, potted plant, Lorne makes a call on his walkie-talkie. He reports, "Bluebird is in flight", then starts to follow her.
In the lobby outside of the conference room, the Fell Brethren chat amongst themselves.
Harmony approaches and tells them Angel just needs a few more minutes. She offers to get them something to drink.
The Fell leader demands to know what Angel is doing with the "holy vessel".
Harm offers they have a variety of "organic colas" to choose from.
The demon informs her they have a "delicate relationship" with the woman, if there are problems, they should be the ones to deal with it.
Harm assures them Angel will handle things, "That's what he does. Yep. I'm sure he's in there, you know, getting into her head, sowing the seeds of fear. Don't you worry, he will snap her like a pregnant twig."
The demons chat with each other for a moment in their own language. The leader turns back to Harm, "We'll try an organic cola."
In the conference room, Angel asks Amanda if she's sure she wants to do this.
Gunn points out it's not too late to change her mind, he's sure the contract has some flexibility in it, they always do.
She asks if they're not the guys who are supposed to tell her to do it.
Angel answers, "Well, we are. And .. well .. we're not .. we ... uh ...." His walkie-talkie cell phone beeps.
Lorne tries to give his latest report, "Angel ears, this is secret demon. Come in."
An embarrassed Angel covers the phone with his hand as Gunn looks at him.
Amanda says she's had this discussion before. She knows it doesn't sound good, giving up her baby to a cult, but --
Angel's phone beeps again. He slaps his hand down over it and apologizes for the interruption. As Lorne starts to talk, Angel turns it off and puts it into his pocket.
Amanda says the Fell Brethren believe her baby is very special, they'll worship him. She believes he'll be cared for better than she ever could and he'll be someone important. She and her husband couldn't give him that.
Gunn informs her, "The Fell Brethren leader makes Jim Jones look like a Sunday school teacher."
Amanda doesn't know who Jim Jones is. She says they can't afford the baby. Her husband suffered brain damage in an accident at work. They're living on food stamps and disability benefits. The Brethren have told her they can make her husband "whole" again. She wonders how a person can turn all that down.
Gunn closes the file folder in front of him, gets up and walks out of the conference room. Angel follows him out.
A troubled Gunn says he isn't feeling very well.
Angel understands that, "First day back from a vacation in hell, I'm not surprised."
Gunn keeps his back to Angel, telling him, "Do you know what the worst thing about that place was? It wasn't the basement. At least there, you knew where you stood. Demon was gonna cut your heart out and show it to you. Nah. It was the fake life they gave you upstairs. The wife, kids, all the icing on the family cake. But somewhere underneath it, there was the nagging certainty that it was all lies. That all the smiles and the birthday candles and the homework were just there to hide the horror." He turns to face Angel, "Is that all we're doing here? Just hiding the horror?"
Angel says no.
Gunn isn't listening, "'Cause I don't think I can stomach it anymore, not after all that's happened."
Angel tells him he has to, "Listen to me, Gunn. I need you to get through this. To get through all of it so we can figure out the big picture and plot our next move."
Gunn points out Amanda is their next move.
Harm interrupts, reporting the Fell are getting anxious.
Angel instructs her to send them in as he returns to the conference room.
Wes is in the lab, peering through a microscope. Books and papers are strewn about the table.
Hamilton walks up to him, "Curing cancer, Mr. Pryce?"
Wes reckons that "wouldn't be cost effective." He's sure they make a considerable profit from cancer.
Hamilton notes, "The patent holder is a client. So, how's the science game?" He looks around the lab, "I realize you're just filling in but --"
Wes asks if he wants something specific.
Hamilton wonders if anything has turned up on Illyria, telling Wes they have an interest in her as well. He refers to her as a "walking nightmare" but notes Wes seems to be the closest thing to a friend she has.
Wes chuckles, "If you knew her, you'd realize the absurdity of that statement."
Hamilton informs him the Partners do know her.
That gets Wesley's attention.
Hamilton continues, "Yes, they go way back. They don't want her here. They don't want her anywhere at all. But they consider this to be your problem so ... have a nice fight." He starts to depart, pauses, "Oh, you might wanna take a look at the low emanation scanner readouts. Just a thought." He leaves.
Wes checks the laptop sitting next to the microscope and observes the display which appears to be tracking something.
As Illyria strides down the hall, Lorne follows closely attempting to connect with his walkie-talkie, "I repeat, Bluebird got wise. Secret demon's cover is blown. Over." He shakes the phone, "Is this on?" then finally gives up. He asks Illyria when she caught on to him.
Illyria notes, "The vampire plays children's games."
The Fell enter the conference room and hover near Amanda as they gush over the pregnancy. They express their concerns about her health, noting they've got some magazine articles they'll give her.
Angel tells them they can get on with the deal.
Amanda and the Fell take their seats at the conference table. Angel tosses the contract to the leader. He signs it, then slides it in front of Amanda and hands her a pen.
Gunn, who's perusing his own copy, tells her to wait a minute, "Gordabach?"
The leader responds cheerfully, "Yes, Gordabach." He shows Amanda where to sign.
Gunn just wants to clarify a clause that's giving him pause, "No, hang on, I just want to get this clause straight." He reads from the document, "The child will be pampered, worshipped and fed a holy diet of berries, panda meat and urine?" He looks up at the Fell leader who assures a concerned looking Amanda, "It's consecrated urine."
Gunn continues reading from the document, "And on the eve of his thirteenth year, he will be prepared for the rites of Gordabach."
Amanda asks if that's like a Bar Mitzvah.
The Fell leader mutters, "Well, there'll be gifts."
Gunn tells her it's a "ritual sacrifice."
The leader slams his gnarled hands down onto the table, shouting, "Whose lawyer are you?"
Illyria throws the door open and addresses Angel, "You will speak to me."
He tells her he's in the middle of something.
She enters the room and threatens to end it.
Angel gets up from the table and tells her to come with him. He leaves the conference room, she follows him out.
Lorne is outside of the conference room, talking into his walkie-talkie, "Well do you copy, ever? Over." As Angel passes, Lorne asks if his walkie-talkie is on.
An angry Angel ignores the question and walks on down the hall. Lorne realizes this isn't the time to chat and doesn't follow.
Angel stops in the midst of the hallway, turns to Illyria and in a raised voice informs her, "You don't interrupt our work! Understand me?"
She wants to know what's happening, "What is it, poison? Magicks? It impresses me, the power of it. Whatever you've done, it can't save you. To do anything but to bow to my will is absurd yet you conspire --" She winces as she suffers another painful spasm.
Angel tells her they didn't do anything to her.
She isn't convinced, "Jealous. Plankton envying the ocean that holds them."
Angel tells her he has things to do. He starts to walk away from her. She grabs him by the front of his coat, lifts him off the floor and shoves him against the wall, "Ridiculous apes! My death won't prevent your dying. What have you done to me?"
Angel tells her to take her hands off of him.
She releases him, "You don't know, not yet. It's too early." She walks away.
Lorne peers around the corner and approaches Angel, "You gotta keep your thingie on for this to work."
Angel harshly snatches Lorne's hat off his head and walks back down the hall.
Harm intercepts him and tells him things are getting a bit loud in his office.
Angel tells her to let Gunn handle it as he walks past her and heads for the elevator.
Angel enters the lab and tells Wes Illyria is out of her mind.
Wes places a large metal case on the table as Spike asks, "How can you tell? Yesterday she spent two hours mind melding with a potted fern."
Angel says she thinks he's trying to kill her.
Wes asks, "Aren't you?"
Angel hopes Wes has come up with something.
Wes says, "She's unstable. Overloading, to be more accurate. The fusion between her demon essence and her host's body seems to be deteriorating. It's as if her human body can no longer contain the demonic power within." He says she'll destruct, violently, and soon.
Angel wonders when Wes planned on telling him this news.
Wes says he wasn't, he and Spike were handling it. He pulls a large device out of the case, "This is a Mutari generator. It creates a pinhole to an infinite extradimensional space, a negatively charged pocket universe. That should draw her radiant essence, her power, into itself by process of a --"
Angel asks, "Will it kill her?"
Wes answers, "Yes, shall we go?"
Angel says they have to find her first.
Spike shows him the tracking display on the laptop, noting she's in the training room and leaking energy at a high rate.
Angel, Spike and Wes head down the hall toward the training room. Wes is armed with the generator. Spike asks what the damage will be if Illyria destructs.
Wes reckons a conservative guess would be several blocks.
Angel asks for an "unconservative guess".
Wes answers, "Rand and McNalley will have to redraw their maps."
Lorne is waiting outside the training room. As the others pass and enter, he asks Angel if he even knows how to use the walkie-talkie.
They find the training room empty. Lorne says he didn't see her leave.
Spike notes, "Well, that's the problem, you don't always see her when she's --" He turns to dust as Illyria stakes him through the back with a large piece of wood.
Angel tells Wes to "Do it, now."
Illyria doubles over in pain as Angel rushes her. She kicks him, sending him flying across the training room. She kills Wes, then Lorne. Angel morphs into vamp face and leaps toward her. She retrieves an ax from the wall and decapitates him, turning him to dust. As she surveys the carnage around her, she gasps as she's again racked by pain.
She finds herself back in the hallway with Angel telling her they haven't done anything to her as they replay their earlier encounter. She makes the 'jealous plankton' comment, Angel starts to leave, she grabs him and shoves him against the wall. He tells her to take her hands off of him. She experiences more pain and transports to earlier in Wesley's office as she reaches out to the desk for support, knocking the glass off of it. This time, Angel has come along with her.
Angel looks around, confused, "What the hell did you do to me?"
Illyria snaps at him, "You weren't here before."
Wes is bewildered, "Who -- Where did -- What just happened?"
Illyria ponders what's happened, "An aberration in the time line. It wasn't like this --" She screams as she once again experiences pain. She and Angel end up in the hell dimension basement. The torture demon is tossed across the room.
Angel nervously moves around, "Damn it! What the hell was this?"
Illyria glares at him, "You followed me."
Angel notices Gunn lying on the table, "Gunn?"
Illyria is furious, "You've been swept up in my wake."
Angel realizes they're back in the holding dimension.
Illyria demands to know, "How did you worms accomplish this?"
Angel doesn't know what she's talking about, "We didn't -- We -- Accomplish what?"
Illyria angrily explains it, "You ripped me out of linear progression, tore my timeline into shreds and stitched it back together out of sequence."
Angel asks, "Are you kidding?"
She continues ranting, "You caged me in this fractured time frame, in moments that repeat themselves over and over without deviation." She pauses a moment, cocks her head to the side, "But I don't say these words." She looks toward Gunn, "I rip the necklace off, I lift him from the table, we speak. And the demon attacks again." She kicks the demon who has approached her from behind, sending it across the room. She looks to Angel for answers, "Is it of your sciences? How do you unweave time in this way?"
Angel assures her they're not responsible, "We don't have the power to --"
She backhands him across the room, "Do you know what you were when I was young? You were the muck at our feet. We called you the ooze that eats itself!" Angel gets back to his feet as she continues with her insults, "You were pretty at night. You sparkled and you stank You still stink of it!"
Angel has had enough and gets to his feet, "Will you just shut up for once?!"
She's stunned by his insolence, "What?"
Angel answers, "My God, the speechifying. Has it ever occurred to you that now might not be the best time for when-we-were-muck stories?"
She's offended, "You dare to speak to me in this --"
Angel is undaunted, "Yes, I dare and yes, we are looking for a way of controlling you any way that we can. I can't have an 'X' factor like you bouncing around unchecked!"
She's asks indignantly, "Bouncing around?"
Angel presses onward, "Yes, and I know you would do the same thing. I know that for a fact but this is my kingdom lady, not yours."
She reminds him, "I am Illyria, God-King of the primordium! Shaper of things!"
Angel starts to say, "Yeah, well that was then, this is--"
Illyria screams as she's gripped by another spasm of pain. This time she and Angel find themselves in the training room, where she had killed the others earlier. Illyria has the ax in her hand, "Yes, nothing's as it used to be, is it?"
Angel looks at the bodies of Wes and Lorne on the floor, disbelieving, "No."
Illyria tells him, "These are the fruit of your attempt to murder me. Your kingdom turned to ash and stale wind." She slams the head of the ax on the floor, "I slew the white haired one first."
Angel still can't believe what he's seeing, "This can't be."
Illyria looks toward Wes' body, "And then Wesley, as he raised his weapon." She looks toward Lorne's body, "And your demon clown as he wilted in terror."
Angel reckons he's next.
Illyria tosses the ax into the pile of dust that had been Angel, "You were last."
Angel asks why.
She realizes, "You know nothing of this. You're from an earlier point in the timeline. You're a paradox. You're impossible."
Angel realizes what must have happened, "We attacked you."
She informs him she didn't give them the chance, "That, you learn when you become a king." She grabs her head in pain, "You learn to destroy everything that's not utterly yours. All that matters is victory. That's how your reign persists." She circles Angel, "You're a slave to an insane construct. You are moral. A true ruler is as moral as a hurricane. Empty but for the force of his gale." She grabs her head again and gasps in pain, yet continues, "But you, trapped in the web of the wolf, the ram and the hart. So much power here, and you quibble at its price. If you want to win a war, you must serve no master but your ambition." She cries out and doubles over in pain, "You have not lied. My undoing is beyond you, your people. Something is broken inside me." She grabs her head with both hands, "My power is too great. I know this now, as I know it every time I come to this moment."
Angel has been thinking things through as she's been ranting, "If I am here, if I am paradox, then this can all change, can't it? You said things had been altered, what you said, what you did, you can change this outcome!"
She looks at him, "Change is constant, yet things remain the same." A fissure opens in her face and quickly spreads to her entire body as she explodes in a blinding flash of light that sends Angel flying through the air.
Angel finds himself back with Wes and Spike, walking down the hallway to the training room to confront Illyria. He's surprised a moment, "Wes, you're alive! Illyria, she's self-destructing, she's a time bomb."
Spike offers a sarcastic, "Read today's paper, did ya?"
Angel doesn't know what he's talking about.
Spike says he's been going on about that for the past ten minutes.
Angel urgently tries to explain as he follows them down the hall, "I just left a meeting with Illyria. She grabbed me and we phased through time .." Wes and Spike stop and turn to face Angel as he continues, "I don't think she actually meant to do it but -- Look, she's overloading. She's gonna explode."
Wes tells him they know, they've been over all of this already. He enters the training room, followed by Spike and Angel. Lorne is outside the room and again asks Angel if he knows how to use the walkie-talkie before following the others inside.
Angel keeps trying to explain, "She's come unstuck in time, Wes. She knows what happens, she's seen it. She knows we wanna kill her."
Wes recalls her telling him that also.
A nervous Angel looks around the room, "Oh, guys .. this isn't good."
As before, Lorne notes he didn't see her leave.
As Spike starts to say, "Well, that's the problem --", Angel remembers Illyria telling him she "slew the white haired one first." He shoves Spike out of the way as Illyria plunges the large piece of wood toward his back, embedding it in the side of Angel's chest instead.
Angel groans and staggers backward. He pulls the wood from his chest, asking Illyria to wait. He tells Wes to lower the device he has pointed at her and directs him and Spike not to move.
Illyria realizes this is playing out differently, "This too, all changing." She once again is racked with pain.
Angel tells her he knows what happens, "I know you kill us all."
Spike doesn't know where that came from, "Oh, a bit pessimistic, aren't you?"
Angel tells her what he knows from the previous experience, "And then you shudder, and you convulse with pain and then the power inside you explodes."
Illyria remembers, "You were swept up in my wake."
Angel tells her she's not a king anymore, her domain is gone.
She recalls they've had this conversation.
He tells her, "You explode. I was there. It was powerful enough to blow me back through time. I have no idea what it does to the building."
Wes offers, "More like the continental shelf, actually."
Angel says he has to stop that and asks Illyria if she understands, "I cannot have your death blow away my --"
Illyria cuts him off, "Your kingdom?"
Angel will take that, "Yeah. Sure. Whatever."
She looks at Wes, "You ask me to allow you to murder me."
Spike casually notes, "It's not murder if you say yes."
Wes tells her the device won't kill her.
A surprised Angel looks at Wesley, "What? You said --"
Wes admits he lied then explains to Illyria, "This device will draw the energy away from you safely. It will allow you to live."
She considers that, "Your intent is not murder."
Wes says it never was.
Illyria reminds him, "But you tried to destroy me, to bring back Fred."
Wes concedes, "That didn't work. It was a failure. But now I know, you're all that's left."
She isn't sold on the plan, "You want to take my power, to let me live. But I am my power and I would rather be a titanic crater than to be like unto you." She kicks Wes, knocking him across the room and into Angel. Spike rushes her and kicks her in the head on the way past. She looks at him, "I kill you, that's how this ends." She rushes Spike who catches her and tosses her over his head. As he rushes her, she raises her arm and does the time manipulation trick, miring the others in slow motion.
As she doubles over in pain once again, the time manipulation ends. Angel tells her she can choose a different path.
For Illyria, that means being nothing.
Angel points out struggling to hold on to what she was is destroying her.
She looks at Wes, "You would do this to me."
He answers, "I'd try, anyway. Every time."
She grimaces, "I possess so much grace, more grace than this bag of sticks could express. I was the immaculate embodiment of rule." A fissure opens in her face, "I blame this on the weakness of your species."
Wes reckons that's fair as he aims the device at her and turns it on. A bright, violent stream of energy flows from Illyria into the device. Wes switches the device off, Illyria collapses to the floor. Wes approaches her, "Illyria?"
She's lost none of her charm, "Touch me and die, vermin."
Spike notes, "Not a very dramatic difference, really."
Wes says everything is different.
Wes and Angel are watching Illyria through the window into the training room. She's in the same position on the floor she was in when she collapsed. Angel asks for the prognosis.
Wes tells him she won't be able to manipulate time anymore, or walk through dimensions. He also figures her physical strength will be somewhat diminished.
Angel's glad to hear it then asks, "You're gonna stay with her, aren't you?"
Wes confirms that.
Angel sighs, "Wes, I don't like where this is going." He considers a moment, "I don't like where this has been."
Wes assures him, "I'm not in love with this thing, Angel. But, for some reason, I need it right now."
Angel looks through the window at Illyria, "Yeah, that's just weird."
Wes is aware of that, "She could still prove to be problematic for us. Much of what she was is still intact. I doubt she'll ever stop trying to conquer ... everything."
Angel nods, recalling what Illyria said to him, "Serve no master but your ambition." He starts to leave.
Wes asks what that was about.
Angel answers, "I think you may have been right before. About Illyria being a resource. She just might make the team yet." He leaves.
As Amanda sits at the table in the conference room, looking uncomfortable, Gunn and the Fell leader argue loudly out in the lobby. The Fell tells Gunn they had an agreement, the child is theirs.
Gunn assures him he can gut that agreement in court.
The Fell reminds him they're paying for his services.
Gunn shouts, "We're not taking your money!"
Hamilton stands with the other two Brethren a short distance from the argument. He assures them he understands. One of the Fell assures him if Gunn screws up the deal, "Our hoards will fall on this place. There won't be so much as an eyetooth left of any of them!"
Angel steps off the elevator and walks toward the commotion as Hamilton tells the Fell that would be more Angel's business than his.
Angel takes the contract from the Fell who was conversing with Hamilton and approaches Gunn, who is still arguing. Angel tells him, "The baby belongs to the Fell."
Gunn can't believe what he's hearing, "What? She hasn't signed anything, there's nothing on paper."
Angel looks at him a moment, then turns to the Fell, "Gentlemen." He walks back toward the conference room, the Brethren follow. He stops at the door as they go inside and turns back as Gunn calls to him then asks what he's doing.
Angel answers, "What we're supposed to. Serve our clients." He goes inside the conference room and closes the door behind him.
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