"Wakey, Wakey", Damon said with a malicious smile.
Angel stood up. "Where am I?"
Damon: "In a room. Just a room."
Angel looked around to see himself in a medium gray room, covered in gray from ceiling to floor.
Damon: "So what exactly is your plan? Did you finally realize it is your destiny to end up in this place. Or do you actually think you can stop it somehow, with your little magic tricks."
Angel just looked at Damon, the key to this was to not let Hell get to Angel. As long as he knew who he was, & what was going on, Willow's spell would succeed.
Damon: "Oh that's it. Ha, ha. Has it been such a long time since you've been in Hell that you've forgotten that there is no you here. Nothingness is all you are. Anything you think is an open book, for you are not a private vessel down here. You're so sure of yourself."
Angel: "You won't get to me."
Damon smiled. "Do you remember what it is to be in Hell? The torture, the pain, the hopelessness. Man, those Oracles sure sent you on a komacozie mission, didn't they. That's the good thing about higher beings. They don't seem to recognize any significance to one life, just life as a whole. You know you are just down here because they want the world to end."
Angel: "You're wrong."
Damon: "Oh, please. The Powers are weak, they grow tired of fighting us. We are & have always been the ones who were meant to win. We were the first. The infinite force. How can you think you can stop Evil, the greatest of all powers. You are nothing. A waste of a life form. You fight & you fight, against your very nature, & you don't get anywhere. You save a handful of lives, the tiniest fraction next to the whole that we claim everyday. You're insignificant, you can't stand up against us. God, you couldn't even save the one person you wanted to save most. You're not a warrior. No great fighter to end the fight."
Angel: "Like you said that's the difference between higher beings & me. I see the significance of each life, even mine. (Angel laughs) You think you're going to get to me that way. & bringing Buffy's death in at the end- is that the best you can do?"
Damon smiled again. "As a matter of fact, no."
The room flashed and suddenly there was no room. Angel was naked, his feet burning on a red hot ground. A whip thrashed at his skin.
Damon: "I can also do this."
Angel: "Physical torment. That's what always gets me. It's not like I've come to regard it as an occupational hazard or anything."
Damon thrashed at Angel with a chain.
Damon: "Still feel up to the wise-cracking?"
Angel, as he took the pain without screaming, forcing a laugh: "Yeah, but at the time I can't think of anything witty to say. Common problem with me, I guess."
Damon, thrashing the chain again: "I would say so. You know why that is, right? Why you don't seem to fit in with the humans, with the lower beings. Because you are not a lower being. You are one of us."
Angel: "Maybe once I was, but not now. That's not the way to get to me either, but you can keep trying, buys me time."
Damon: "& who is in the human world trying to save it, the humans. You told them what to do, but still you aren't up there with them. That's because The Powers know what you are. They sent you down here so that if they succeed, you'll be stuck here."
Angel: "I may just deserve that, but I am not one of you. Whatever I once was-"
Damon, mocking: "What you once were. You still are, can't you see. All your running from your nature, it's just a waste of energy and time. It's inevitable that you end up here, because you are one of us."
The world flashed again. Angel back in the gray room, clothed, & facing Damon.
Damon: "Don't you see that once we defeat The Powers you can reign free. The humans will be ours to do whatever we desire. Underneath this persona, this false identity you've given yourself, you want that. You want us to win. So you can be free. A conscience is just a conscience. You can get over it. Rise above it, Angel. You are a demon. Your purpose is to hurt the humans."
Angel: "That's your purpose. I am not one of you."
In one corner of the room flashed a figure.
Angel: "Darla."
Darla: "Hi there. Long time no see."
Angel: "What did they bring in you for?"
Damon interjected: "Well, as I see it, she is the teacher of your true nature. I think teacher needs to go over some past lessons with you, since you're so forgetful."
Darla: "Angelus (in a flash Darla is behind Angel, arm on his back), do you remember what that first kill was like? That burst of fresh desire overwhelming all of your being. Do you remember it's face. The terror that you gave it before the last painful moments of it's life. Don't tell me that you can't remember that. That you can't feel it now."
A middle-aged man suddenly flashed into the room.
Darla: "You want it. Don't fight it, Angel. It is your nature to give into your need."
Angel: "No."
Darla: "Why not? It's so much easier. What does it matter anyway. It's just one being, let alone a lowly human. I can feel your desire for it now. It's the strongest force in the room."
Damon brought the man forward until he was standing inches from Angel.
Darla circled Angel. "Take it. Don't suppress your being, Angel, it's the one thing you will never succeed in fighting. Give in."
Angel snarled into his vampire face and seized the man by the shoulders. He violently mauled at his neck.
Darla: "Now that's more of the good old Angelus I remember."
Angel stopped himself: "No!"
He thrust the man away from his face & looked down to see the limp body he was now holding was Buffy.
The world turned to flashes again, & Angel suddenly didn't know anything anymore. The world was darkness. A light shined to his right and he recognized his surroundings. He was in The First Place, the place where Buffy had died.
Angel looked and saw Buffy laying dead in the center of The First Place.
He walked to her, and knelt by her body.
Suddenly the figure stirred, and it's eyes opened: "Angel?"
Angel: "Buffy. Oh god, Buffy, I thought you were dead. I thought I'd lost you forever."
Buffy: "I'm right here. Now, lay down on my lap (the Buffy-figure sat up), rest and go to sleep."
Angel: "I want to, Buffy. But I have this feeling that there's something-."
Buffy: "There is nothing in this world but you and me. It's time to sleep. Close your eyes."
Angel laid his head down on Buffy's lap and rested his eyes.
In another dimension, Cordelia, Harry, Kate, Oz, Xander, and Willow stood holding hands in a half circle around the door. A blue circle protection encircled them, outside was a multitude of blue demons snarling.
Cordelia looked back at the demons directly behind her: "How much time do we have?"
Willow: "Two minutes."
Xander: "So we just have to wait for Angel."
Willow: "Yeah."
Oz: "Why exactly isn't he out here yet."
Cordelia: "Yeah, what's keeping him?"
Harry hadn't spoken for a long time. As she spoke the next words her eyes filled with tears.
Harry: "He's lost."
In Hell, Angel slept on the Buffy-figure's lap. Outside of the void where Angel's false reality of The First Place was, stood Damon and Darla.
Darla: "I should have known she'd be his weak link."
Damon: "OK, so it's working. But I can't wait until we rise up. We'll torture him for eternity."
Darla: "Oh, please. Maybe I'll want to revert him."
Damon: "After what he did to you?"
Darla: "Water under the bridge. He sent me to Hell, a wonderful place. And now, he's helping me go back to the world again."
Damon: "Sorry, Darla. He's mine."
Darla: "No, actually, he's his."
The two looked at Angel once again.
Angel was still sleeping. From a faint distance Willow's voice called his name and he woke.
Buffy: "What's wrong? Go back to sleep."
Angel sat up: "No. There is something I'm supposed to be doing now."
Buffy: "There is nothing in this world but you and me."
For the first time Angel sensed a hint of wrongness with Buffy.
Angel, after a pause: "That can't be. You're dead."
Buffy stood, and remained silent for a few moments. "Of course I am. They claimed my soul."
Angel got a disturbed look on his face.
Buffy: "When I died, they claimed me, and I ended up here."
Angel: "Here? Where?"
Buffy: "You know where you are."
Suddenly Angel did know.
Buffy: "It's not so bad down here. and as long as Willow's spell fails, we can go up again and be happy together."
Angel: "Buffy, I want to be happy with you, but..."
There definitely was something wrong with Buffy.
Buffy: "This is the only way. Give in. Give in to me. Set me free. Go back to sleep."
And with that Angel found himself again.
Angel: "Buffy is free."
Buffy: "No, my soul is confined here because you are confined here. Let us enter the world. When we reign-"
Angel: "She died fighting you. And you did not claim her soul. And your not gonna claim mine, not this moment, not like this."
In under a second the sweet face of Buffy transformed into a massive, malicious creature that better represented what the thing truly was- The First Evil. The First Place melted into fire.
Angel stood tall, awaiting whatever this beast could do to him. Expecting something from the front, Angel was instead catapulted backward, as he shot out of Hell.
Angel was in the center of Cordelia, Harry, Kate, Oz, Xander, and Willow.
Cordelia and Kate: "Angel!"
Harry: "Oh, thank you God!"
Willow: "So Mote It Be!!!"
The door closed. Everyone starred in awe as the markings on the seal physically twisted, outside to inside. Then the door opened. Faster than the speed of light, evil's creatures were thrust into Hell as a wind, that did not touch the group, was closing inward. Then, the flow stopped, but the wind didn't.
Cordelia: "What does this mean? Why isn't it closing?"
Angel: "Guess this is my stop afterall."
Cordelia tried to ungripped Willow's hand, to embrace Angel.
Willow: "No, it'll reverse the spell."
Angel: "It's OK, Cordelia. I know. I finally know the answer now. All my fighting did make a difference, but underneath it all the one thing I couldn't fight was-"
The door closed. With Angel on the human side of it.
Oz: "So much for dramatic exits."
The seal fell to the ground and shattered into a thousand pieces.
Cordelia: "Oh god, you made it, Angel!"
Light suddenly engulfed Angel.
Cordelia: "Or not."
Xander: "I don't get it?"
Kate: "What's happening."
Willow, scared: "I don't know."
Angel fell to the ground, the bright, white light still surrounding him. Then the light left him.
Cordelia: "What happened?"
Angel looked up with tears in his eyes, he was flushed: "I earned my redemption."
Willow: "What about-"
Willow cut off seeing Oz being taken over by the light.
