It's dark in here. Where am I? So silent... Is that what hell's like? Dark, cold and silent. Maybe I am in Hell. Alone. Yet I'm not in Sunnydale High School library, so the spell must have worked.
A sudden, crazy thought hits him. Maybe Willow read the second spell. Maybe he's been destroyed. But that can't be, he's not a demon. Then again, aren't we all our own demons? After all, Angelus had said there was a monster in each of us. Here he is, groping in the darkness of this unknown place. There is a wall, which tells him he is <in prison> not in Hell as he first thought, but in a closed room. Yet the walls seem immaterial. He looks for the door.
He goes like this for a long time, maybe minutes, maybe hours. He starts to believe he will never see the others again.
What would Jenny do?
She would think about the problem carefully. She wouldn't get carried away. Work things back from <How did I get here> where he was. He must have got in somehow. He has kept close to the walls so far, but leaves their cold certainty to go towards the center. And suddenly he was
Falling. Oz caught Willow just in time. "Are you all right?" he said.
"I think so. How are they?"
"Difficult to say, really", said Xander. They're out of it, I think.
"Definitely", said Cordelia. "Now, what do we do?"
"We wait." said Willow. "And we cross fingers that everything goes all right.
- Anyone want a soda?" said Xander. He left the room without awaiting for an answer.
Cordelia was still looking at the statues in the center of the room. She whispered something no-one could hear.
"Angelus.
- That's right, old buddy, I'm back. You know what's funny? In here we're two different people.You've been a pain in my butt for the past two hundred years.So stubborn. You don't get it, do you? There's no point in fighting me off. Because you have a soul you care for other souls. Like Buffy's. Well I don't. I don't care," he said with a baby-voice.
"And that's what'll lose you." he said. "You'll care too much and you'll die, you idiot. And if you die I die too. That's why I keep fighting you.I think you're a lousy driver, and I want to take the wheel. That's what so funny. We know there are two drivers because we're in the car. The others only see the car, and don't care who's driving it. They just don't want to be run over.
Take Giles, for instance. He never believed Angelus had quite disappeared. That's why he hates Angel. Because he doesn't know.
-Not anymore." Giles stepped into the light where they were both standing.
"Angel, I can help you.
- You can't, Rupie. Get out before it's too late. I'm a lousy room-mate. It's bad enough with both of us in here. There's no room for you.
- Wrong", he said, "There's no room for you."
He ran towards Angel and grabbed him. They disappeared into a
blinding light. They were elsewhere. A large forest.
"Giles, why did you do this? You know what'll happen if he finds us.
- Yes, I do, but this is my soul, and I can do whatever I want with it. The point is, you have to find a way to lock him in someplace. I saw your mind. There's quite a lot of room in there. Find a dusty corner and forget about him.
- What can we do?
- I don't know. Ask Jenny.
- What?
- Nothing."
Angel looked at this large forest. It was full of exuberant flowers. There were strange animals, and flocks of birds in the sky. It reminded him of the rainforest. A deluge of aromas, images, sounds and textures invaded him. Suddenly the birds in the distance started chirping loudly.
"Angel, you're still inked to him. You've blown our cover. He's here.
- I'm sorry. I don't want to endanger you. Let's go back to my place." He tried not to think what this sounded like, and said "I mean to my soul."
"No. If we do, he'll be on his own ground and I won't be able to help you. I know my way round here." and with that he simply disappeared.
Angel was worried. He looked around, expecting to see Giles, but Angelus sprang on him like a wild animal.
"Hello, sweetheart. Miss me, did you?"
He started throttling him. Angel was trying to break free, but right now, his other side was stronger.He was growing more desperate than ever when
Oz looked at Angel.
"I thought I saw Angel move just then. D'you think he might be ..."
Angelus lunged forward and gripped Oz by the neck.
"I hate it when you call me that, sweetie."
Xander leapt forward with a crucifix. Angelus backed away. "You know what", he said, "I never really liked you
and neither does he, so why don't you just take a hike?"
Giles tore Angelus away. He threw himself on him and
Angel woke up."Bring me back. Giles is still inside.
We can't do anything. Giles has to work alone from now." said Willow.
Cordelia stared at Giles, who now lay alone and motionless in the middle of the room.
"This is awful.Can't we do anything at all? But he's
alone, now, eh, Rupie?
- Yes, alone on my ground.
- Well, maybe not for long. I might like it here. There was an awful lot of sadness and woe in that little angel's mind, what with the curse and everything. Well, I may have been locked in herefor a while, but I enjoyed myself almost as much as if I'd actually been on the outside. ou know, I liked making people suffer, Rupie.I fed on your suffering. I mean, blood's nice all right, but this is like the icing on the cake. Well, I certainly had plenty of icing to nibble in there."
Giles was appalled. "I'll send you back where you belong.
- You can't send me backwhere I belong. I'm just a negative state of things. I am what he is without his soul. I am all that remains. Kill me and you'd kill him too. But I'm beginning to like you, Rupie. You may be no vampire, but there's more to you than meets the eye. And lots of icing. Yum. Let's have a look, children, shall we ?"