Officer Davidson: "In the alley below 5th, it was knelling over a dead body- female, age 18-24. Looks like she died of a gunshot wound."
Kate: "But, you didn't find a gun on the suspect. What makes you think he did it?"
Davidson: "It was standing over the body, Kate. Besides, what the hell else should I think. If you hadn't noticed, this guy isn't in costume."
Kate: "I understand that, but since we didn't find the murder weapon, perhaps we should let him go before they get here tomorrow."
Davidson: "Kate, what? OK, I understand you are a little shocked right now, coming in here & seeing this. But, as far as your little plan goes, letting it go still won't answer one very important question: What the hell is it?"
Davidson & Kate were standing in front of a jail cell. In the left corner, crouched a creature with blue skin, black horns, & short white claws.
Elsewhere, at Angel Investigations...
Cordelia: "Is 12 X 12 sixty?"
Oz: "Probably not considering 12 X 5 is sixty."
Harry: "Oz, don't mock. It'll come back to ya. I'm reading this great book on karma, ya know, what you give out comes back to you. You're going to get that mocking back three fold."
Enters Kate: "Guys, we have a situation."
Cordelia: "What?"
Kate: "We've got an unidentified demon in holding down at the precinct. They didn't know what to do with it. They eventually called the government, but someone first called the press. Some reporters are scheduled to see it at 7 AM tomorrow, an hour before the government. So, I figure, we've got about an hour to break it free."
Oz: "Wait, why are they holding it?"
Kate: "They found it next to a dead body."
Cordelia: "& we're breaking it out because?"
Harry: "Cordelia, if the general populous finds out about demons it could cause a mass panic."
Oz: "Not to mention a bunch of crazy demon dance parties."
Harry: "It'll come back to you, Oz."
Kate: "Yeah, mass panic is bad. But, undercover demons deciding now's the time to be less secretive & less discreet about their destructive habits is my biggest worry. So, where's Angel?"
Cordelia: "Club hopping as usual. Harry, is that gonna come back to me? Because that wasn't that bad. Angel's downstairs playing with his weapons."
Kate: "I'll go inform him on what's what." Kate went downstairs.
Harry: "Always Angel to the rescue. Just think about what he did with his fighting attributes before he got his soul back."
Cordelia: "I don't have to think. I remember."
Oz: "Technically that would also be construed as thinking."
Harry: "OK, now you're just trying to goat me."
Cordelia: "Angel was definitely the bad boy. Torturing people, making vamps left & right. Did I tell you, he even killed his own parents?"
Oz: "How's that for a karmic debt."
Harry: "Thinking karmically, it's only fair to assume that someone Angel has created or helped in some major way, will ultimately kill him."
Cordelia & Oz looked at Harry oddly.
Harry: "It's an interesting book, thought provoking."
Oz's odd look dropped, but Cordelia's didn't.
Harry: "What's wrong, Cor?"
Cordelia: "I was just thinking that could work in two ways- someone Angel made a vamp or someone Angel has helped in his many years of P.T.B. servitude."
Later, at the precinct.
Davidson: "Hey, Kate."
Kate: "Hey, I need to get access to the suspect in holding. I want to try talking to it."
When inside, Kate took a key & unlocked the cell.
Kate: "Come with me. I'm going to get you out of here. One false move though, & it'll be dragging your body out of here, you got me?"
The demon nodded. The power went out. Kate took out handcuffs & put one handcuff on it, one handcuff on her own wrist. Kate walked with it to the main room of the precinct & threw a smoke bomb to the floor, & ran out with it.
Kate (unlocking her part of the handcuffs & handing the demon to Angel): "OK, he's all yours. I've gotta get back in there."
Kate ran back inside to where the cell was & laid down on the floor. When the power went back on & the other cops ran in & "woke her", she simply said: "Damn government. Guess they couldn't wait til morning."
Outside, Angel put the dangling cuff on the demon's other hand.
Angel: "Let's take a walk."
Angel took the demon back to the alley where it was found by the cops. A chalk outline lay on the ground.
Angel: "Was she pretty? Was she innocent? What exactly was it about her that made you feel her life needed to be taken?"
The demon said nothing.
Angel: "Are you gonna play the silent game? That's alright because I'm good at making people talk. I would just end your pathetic life now, but this girl was shot, which means you have an accomplice. Who is he? A gun for hire? He kills them, you do whatever your kind does. What do you do? Eat flesh? Fed on souls?"
With that, Angel hit the demon in the stomach.
Angel: "That was to open the lines of communication. Now your turn. Let's start with your name."
Damon (the demon): "I'm Damon. I didn't kill her."
Angel: "I think I got that already. Who did?"
Damon: "I don't know. I heard the shot."
Angel: "Oh, OK, so you don't have an accomplice. Still, that leaves you as a demon with a need to consume something from dead people, which is not OK in my book. Looks like I'm going to end your pathetic life right here afterall."
With that, Angel hit the demon in the face. The demon bled a blue blood. Quickly, the open wound healed. Angel looked at the smooth flesh perplexed.
Damon: "I'm a regenerative demon. I can heal. I heard the shot & I came here. The girl was already dead, but I tried anyway."
Angel: "That's when the cops found you?"
Damon: "It is."
Angel: "Are you lying to me?"
Damon: "Buddy, how could I be? You saw for yourself what I am. Are you going to kill me now?"
Angel: "What?"
Damon: "I'm a demon. Typically, that's what humans do to my kind."
Damon looked down bitterly: "Do it fast. Take mercy on me."
Angel: "I wouldn't kill an innocent creature."
Damon: "(a short laugh) Innocent creature... but, I don't look innocent, do I? That's what it's all about. You people, so afraid of anything unlike yourselves."
Angel: "I know what you mean, considering I'm a vampire."
Damon looked up, fearfully: "Oh, god, what are you gonna do to me?"
Angel: "Let you go."
Damon: "But, you're a vampire."
Angel: "I'm a vampire with a soul. I won't hurt you, really."
Damon: "A soul? How'd that happen?"
Angel: "Long story."
He uncuffed Damon.
Angel: "You're free. But, next time you hear sirens: hide."
Damon: "Thank you. Why'd you break me free?"
Angel: "Because humans are afraid of anything unlike themselves. & they couldn't handle knowing there was anything- let alone so many- things out there unlike them."
Damon & Angel shared a moment of bonding with that.
Damon: "Well, OK. I'll just go back to my box & go to sleep."
Angel: "You're homeless?"
Damon: "Yeah. I would get a place, but I don't have any money. I would get a job, but they don't have any box marked 'regenerative' under the part of the forms where it says race."
Angel: "Where's your family?"
Damon: "They were killed. By humans."
Damon started walking up the alley.
Angel: "Damon? It's not safe for you to be so close to the crime scene. Why don't you come with me, to my home."
Damon: "You really want me to go with you?"
Angel: "Sure I do."
Back at the agency.
Cordelia: "But he's a demon."
Angel: "So am I. He doesn't have anyone, Cordelia. I promise you he's not a threat."
Cordelia: "OK, OK. But, don't you leave me alone in here with him."
Angel brought in Damon.
Angel: "This is Cordelia."
Damon: "Hi."
Cordelia: "Hi. Look, Angel, I have to take off early because they need me tomorrow down at the set. So, how 'bout you stay here with Damon & I'll go get some sleep. Bye."
Cordelia hurriedly left.
Damon: "The set?"
Angel: "She's got a small reoccurring role on 'Days of our Lives'. It's a soap opera. Ya know, TV."
Damon: "Yeah, I know TV. I live in a box, not a cave."
Angel: "Sorry."
Angel took his shirt off, reveling he had a big, bloody slash on his back.
Damon: "What's that from?"
Angel: "Earlier tonight. I was helping a girl with her boyfriend."
Damon: "So you help people for a living?"
Angel: "Why? (with a laugh) You wantta get in on the business?"
Damon: "Let me heal that wound for you."
Angel: "Thanks."
Damon put his hands with the short claws on Angel's wound, & the wound closed up.
Damon: "You look shocked."
Angel: "It's just, I've come across regenerative demons before, but he needed to bleed to heal."
Damon: "You've been across a species like me before, huh? So, you know I can make you human."
Angel: "I know."
Damon: "But you don't want that?"
Angel: "The only reason I could have to want to be mortal again is gone."
That day, Angel tossed & turned in bed.
Buffy: "So how have you been?"
Angel: "Alright. You?"
Buffy: "I'm just fine. Angel, you know I can't tell you everything, correct? I can only tell you certain things."
Angel: "Don't talk at all. You tell me what you need to, & then you always go. So, don't talk at all. Let me look at you."
Buffy: "It's not allowed. I'm only here to tell you that it's about to happen."
Angel: "What?"
Buffy: "Your chance. Look."
Buffy gestured to a building. Angel looked & suddenly the world turned to flashes. Angel saw a building, a door, a vortex, a swarm of monsters, & then he looked at Buffy next to him, she was brown & gray, rotted flesh & bones.
Angel: "Buffy!"
Buffy: "It's not what it seems! Outside to inside, Angel. You can make it switch around! Don't stop it! Reverse it!"
