"It's bad, it's really bad." Fred, turning around in those little circles and wringing her hands.

"I am...rather impressed." Giles to Wesley.

"I told you once that you don't need to panic when I am on the job," Wesley to Giles with a wry grin.

"If you can't find her, it probably just means that they're stifling her magic. They're trying to use her, remember?" Buffy to Tara.

"Why did I help do that? What will happen to Doyle now?" Fred again.

What was it about this girl that made Angel so protective? He ought to be furious with the lot of them. "No one could have known," he said softly to Fred. "Right now we need to find Willow, and then we'll help Doyle come back to us. You'll like him."

"You don't understand. I asked Cordelia why Buffy was alive and her beau-- her friend wasn't, and that's when she called Willow, and it was my idea!"

Angel vamped out. There was this girl in front of him, this stranger, and she was vulnerable--she trusted him-- then everything was normal again. Why had he...

"It's Willow," Buffy said from behind Angel. It wasn't a question.

"I think Wolfram and Hart is using Willow. It didn't feel like her presence."

"Well, that would fit with Tara not being able to find her. Willow can speak in our heads if she has to, so I think something is trying to break her." Buffy turned to everyone. "We're going in. Now. You--" to Gunn--"know where these lawyers' offices are, right?"

Gunn nodded.

"Good. You can tell me on the way why these lawyers are so anxious to turn Angel into Angelus."

"It has to do with a prophecy," said Wesley. "Angel will play a major role in the apocalypse, but no one knows yet whose side he will be on. Angelus would side with Wolfram and Hart, always assuming they can keep him from doing too much damage before the apocalypse starts...unless his transformation would hasten it," he said with a distinctly worried expression.

"Prophecy, figures," Buffy said, rolling her eyes, before Angel could tell Wesley that he was standing right there. Buffy went on, "Wesley, can you and Giles find out what else Wolfram and Hart has on Angel? Find out how Willow plays into the whole thing?"

"We could even use the infernal machine," Giles said dryly.

Wesley rolled his eyes and motioned Giles into his office. Then at least one element of chaos was gone.

Angel turned to apologize to Fred, but she was discussing break-in plans with Tara. The two girls spoke so quickly that Angel could only make out every third word or so.

He turned to Buffy.

"You're not coming," Buffy said.

"What? Is it their vampire detectors, Buffy? 'Cause there are plenty of ways--"

"No, although that's one more reason for you not to come. Vampire detectors? Wow...wonder if Giles can figure one of those out to put in the Magic Box. No. If they're using Willow to get to you long-distance, I don't want you any closer."

"But--"

"Angel. It's her soul as well as yours."

"No. Humans have this stupid idea that they can pass the point of no return, that they can do things that are absolutely irredeemable. They have nightmares about it, they fantasize about crossing the line but avoid it, and when they finally cross the line--redemption just begins all over again." He ticked off his fingers. "Faith. You, when you tried to kill Faith, and yes, I know about that. All of us have crossed lines. You can always come back. You can always be forgiven...eventually. Cordelia and Willow didn't do anything irredeemable. Willow won't."

Her eyes softened just a little. "You're still not coming."

"Fine. I'm just supposed to sit around here, and--"

"See to your friend. I met him once. Remember? I recognized him when I saw him, and I hadn’t known he had died. Angel, don't ask him fifty times if he's all right. He's not. Be there. Talk with him. Help him find his place in this world, 'cause his world isn't the same now."

The catch in her voice broke his heart--even still, she could tear him up inside, and it wasn't just from longing--but he made himself ask, "What is it like? Those first few days. He looked like he didn't remember he'd gone; he almost drowned."

"I still have Doyle beat in that department. I dug myself out of my own grave. Score one for Slayer strength." Even after that sarcasm, Buffy's voice trailed off a moment. "Angel, I don't remember. What the first little bit is like."

"Does it mess with your head?"

"No, I could...it's like this. I could call the memory to mind as easily as I could any other memory from the past couple of years; you know, all the human things, selective memory and stuff. But there are things in my head that I know, if I think about them even for an instant, it'll take me to a place I can't get out of. It's like going over a cliff; I have no idea how long it'll take me before I come up or whether I come up at all, whether I just go along at the bottom like I'm still at the edge. And that kind of stops me from remembering. I can't."

Fred and Tara had stopped talking.

Buffy was all business again. "Sorry, all," she said. "Tara, when we find Willow again--"

"Can't keep secrets from her," Tara said. "I don't want to, anyway. Buffy--"

"Later," Buffy said. "Tara, W--sorry, Fred, that's your name, right? And Gunn. Let's go break and enter. The sooner we get Willow back, the less danger there is to everyone, and the longer it takes them to find out we know they have her, the less danger there is to her."

Cordelia suddenly came flying down the stairs.

"Doyle is asleep," she murmured to Angel. "What are you doing about Willow?" she asked Buffy, very loudly.

"Breaking down the back door at Wolfram and Hart." Buffy tossed a sword to Cordelia, who caught it easily. "Coming?"

"Yeah."

Then Angel was alone in the Hyperion lobby.