The camera pans over a floor strewn with blackened rubble to reveal Angel standing in his apartment staring at Connor's empty, soot-smudged crib.

Wes' apartment, night

Fred is replaying the message she left on Wes' answering machine.

Wes voice: "You've reached Wesley Wyndham-Pryce, please leave a message after the tone."

Fred's voice: "Wesley? Wesley it's Fred. Please, if you're there pick up. Please."

Fred plays her message again as Gunn walks into the room behind her.

Gunn: "Uh, Fred?"

Fred: "It doesn't make sense. He wouldn't take Angel's child."

Gunn: "He did."

Fred turns to face him: "It's Wesley! Why would he do that?"

Gunn: "We find him we can ask him."

Fred: "If Angel finds him before we do..."

Gunn: "He'll kill him and we won't be able to ask him."

Fred after a beat: "I think I should stay here in case he comes back and you better go and find Angel before..."

Gunn: "Wesley's not coming back. No toothbrush, no razor, no Mossberg twelve gauge he kept in the closet."

Fred: "He wouldn't betray us. He wouldn't. (Starts to rummage through the stuff on Wes' desk) And he wouldn't leave without saying something to me, not unless not unless he had a hell of an urgent reason!"

Fred dumps out Wes' wastebasket.

Gunn: "I don't think you're gonna find it there."

Fred: "Where are his diaries? He kept lots of diaries."

Gunn: "Well, they're not here and they weren't at the office. Which is where we should be getting back to, get a heads up on Angel."

Gunn and Fred walk out of Wes' apartment building towards Gunn's truck parked at the curb. Fred is dialing her cell phone.

Fred: "We got to find his diaries."

Gunn: "We go to find *him*. I think if he was answering his cell phone he would have the first forty times you called."

Fred: "You're telling me to quit trying?"

They stop and look at each other.

Fred: "Sorry."

Gunn: "Don't be. Keep trying."

They get in the truck as Fred listens to the ring tone on her cell.

Fred: "Come on, Wesley, give us something."

As the truck pulls away the camera pans over from it into the park to reveal Wes' cell phone lying open, ringing. As it continues to ring, the camera pans from the phone to Wes' hand, inches away from the phone, than up to his slumped body.

Justine enters Holtz dark headquarter to see two vampires with their hands fastened with chains to the ceiling overhead.

Justine: "What are they doing here?"

Some men turn away from a table to look at her.

Man: "So we can continue training."

Justine stakes the two vampires in quick succession.

Justine: "No more training and no more practice. From here out - everything is real."

Justine starts to walk out.

Man: "Where is Captain Holtz?"

Justine stops walking: "He escaped - with the vampire's child (after a beat she turns to face the men) as he and I planned. The Captain asked me to pass on his praise. He wanted me to say that you fought valiantly and with honor."

Man: "Where are they - the Captain and..."

Justine: "Gone! - For good."

Man: "What are we supposed to do?"

Justine: "He charged us to finish the work he started."

Angel is sitting on the floor of his burnt apartment, staring at Connor's crib.

Justine voice over: "We're going to kill Angelus."

Intro

Fred and Gunn are standing across from Lorne in the lobby of the Hyperion.

Fred: "I just don't believe it."

Lorne: "Yeah. It's true."

Fred: "No. It can't be. The baby's not gone."

Lorne: "I'm sorry, sweetie, but he is."

Fred: "Not like that. - Not a portal. (Gunn turns to look at her) There-there is pulling and there is noise, and there is nothing to hold on to. Nothing at all..."

Gunn: "Baby..."

Fred: "He must have been so scared."

Gunn wraps her in his arms: "Shh. I know."

Gunn strokes Fred's hair: "This is making less and less sense. (Turns to face Lorne) You expect us to believe that Wesley - our Wesley - just walked up to Holtz and handed over Connor?"

Lorne: "They'd been meeting secretly. (Gunn throws up his hands) I read that much before Wesley attacked me."

Gunn: "Then you read him wrong!"

Lorne: "He was not taking Connor for a stroll, Charles. When he left here with that child he wasn't planning on coming back - ever."

Fred: "God. - Why?"

Angel, coming down the steps: "I don't care why. All I care about now is getting my son back. Then I'll deal with those responsible. They'll all pay. Including Wesley. (To Lorne) Quor-toth dimension. Ever hear of it?"

Lorne: "No."

Angel: "That's where the portal lead. That's where my son is now. Quor-toth. Find out everything you can about it."

Lorne: "Yes."

Lorne leaves.

Gunn: "We're going there, aren't we?"

Angel: "I am."

Fred: "You're not going alone."

Gunn: "Right. We're with you all the way."

Angel: "Good."

Gunn: "It's just..."

Angel: "What?"

Gunn: "Well, don't we need to open one of those portal's first?"

Angel: "Yeah."

Gunn: "Right. But the last time we had to do that... (Angel just looks at him) I mean, well, it wasn't any of us that knew how. The guy that figured it out... Angel, how're we gonna do this without..."

Angel: "We don't need him."

Fred: "We don't?"

Angel: "No. We're gonna find that son of a bitch who opened up the portal in the first place. (Drops a sketch pad on the desk and sits down in Wes' chair) His name is Sahjhan. He's some kind of inter-dimensional demon. (Fred and Gunn look at the drawing of Sahjhan) He's been behind this from the beginning."

Headquarters of Wolfram and Hart, night.

Linwood: "So - Sahjhan."

Lilah looks up from her desk to see her boss walk in.

Lilah: "Linwood."

Linwood: "Not much of a handshake, what with being incorporeal and all. You didn't mention that you'd met. And with Angel, too, aparently. All behind my back."

Lilah: "It wasn't behind your back. It's all right here in my report, which I was making sure would be on your desk first thing in the morning."

Linwood: "Very considerate of you."

Linwood chuckles as he pours himself a drink.

Linwood: "That Angel. He sure keeps us hopping, doesn't he? We're in a war you can never win, Lilah, full of sticky, moral quandaries. The side you choose should always be mine."

Lilah: "If it's any consolation, sir, I did have a gun to my head tonight."

Linwood: "Yes, I know. I'm sorry that happened. - So, Sahjhan opened a door to the Quor-toth and in went Holtz and baby?"

Lilah: "That's the long and short of it."

Linwood: "I know you made every effort to preserve that baby for us."

Lilah: "Gun - at my head."

Linwood: "Still - big win for Holtz."

Lilah: "If you call jumping into a cesspool hell dimension a win."

Linwood: "Well, it's certainly not for us."

Wes' office, Gunn and Angel are looking through files and books, Fred is working on the laptop.

Fred: "I'm not finding anything on Sahjhan. Are you sure that's what you heard?"

Angel: "I'm sure. Maybe you're not spelling it right."

Fred: "I tried every permutation - in English anyway. It could be a nickname, which would probably be referenced in Phisto's Dictionary of Demons and Dimensional Spirits."

Angel: Okay?"

Fred: "But's in Ga-shundi and - I don't read Gashundi."

Angel to Gunn: "Did we check the files?"

Gunn: "They're in English. Cordelia's filing system isn't."

Angel: "She was keeping some kind of list of Time and Space shifting Entities."

Gunn: "Okay. Would that be under Time, Space, Shifting, or Entities?"

Angel: "Let's just check them all."

Fred picks up the phone: "It's Monday. What time is it in Mexico?"

Angel hurries over and puts his finger on the phone, hanging up the connection.

Angel: "What are you doing?"

Fred: "Calling Cordelia."

Angel: "Why?"

Fred: "Why?"

Angel takes the receiver from her and hangs it up.

Angel: "I don't wanna ruin Cordelia's holiday."

Fred: "Angel - don't you think she would want us to call? - Shouldn't we be telling her what happened? Maybe she could help."

Angel: "No!"

Fred: "Angel..."

Angel: "She'll be back soon. And when she does she'll have presents, for Connor. - - And he's gonna be here so she can give them to him, okay?"

Fred in a whisper: "Okay."

Angel looks around the office.

Angel: "I'm sorry."

Fred: "No."

Angel: "This - this isn't working. Forget about all this. I gotta go."

Angel walks out.

Fred staring after him: "Did he just say to forget about all this?"

Gunn: "Yeah, he did."

Fred: "You don't suppose he's decided to skip right to the 'dealing with those responsible' part, do you?"

Gunn: "I think we need to find Wesley."

Fred: "Yeah."

They hurry out.

A homeless man is rummaging through the trash in the park across from Wes' apartment. He spots Wes' body and hurries over to i.

Man: "Bro - bro - You alive? Can you talk? Muggers. Bastards. They - they leave you any ID?"

As he pats down Wes' body and finds his wallet. Wes begins to stir. The man flips through the hundreds in Wes' wallet.

Man: "This was no mugging. (Pockets the wallet and gets up, looking around) No you - you..."

The man grabs Wes by his jacket and drags his body behind a bush, glances around furtively, then scuffs the ground where he dragged Wes and hurries away.

Angel is staring at his weapons cabinet. Lorne walks into the lobby and comes to stand behind him.

Lorne: "Hey. I - I talked to a couple of different sources like you asked. Angel the news isn't good. This - this Quor-toth dimension is... - everyone I spoke to is afraid of it."

Angel walks over to the desk and looks through the drawers. Pulls out a staple remover and holds it up next to his ear, clicking it.

Lorne: "And these are not easily rattled people. And that's - that's not all."

Angel drops the staple remover and picks up the spike holding old notes and starts to pull them off.

Lorne: "The portal you saw opened? It was no portal - because there are no portals to Ouor-toth."

Angel examines the tip of the spike.

Lorne: "The only way in - is to rip right thorough the fabric of reality."

Angel walks past Lorne and starts up the stairs. Lorne sighs and follows him.

Lorne: "This isn't a matter of finding an inter-dimensional hotspot or conjuring an opening it with a simple incantation. To punch through to Quor-toth would require dark, dark magics, the kind of power it takes centuries to build."

Angel, still apparently ignoring Lorne, stops in front of the door of his old apartment.

Lorne: "Angel, I know this isn't easy for you but you got to hear it. If you somehow managed to get in, finding Connor would be like looking for a needle in a haystack - the size of China."

Angel: "Needles. Should have thought of that."

Angel enters his old apartment.

Lorne: "You just don't have the resources to conjure up that much dark power."

Tied to the chair in the middle of Angel's scorched apartment is Linwood.

Angel: "Oh, I think we do."

Break

Angel is taking a pair of scissors out of one of the kitchen cabinets.

Lorne: "Angel? - Who is this?"

Linwood: "Linwood Murrow, division president of Special Projects at Wolfram and Hart and - you are?"

Loren: "Ah, deeply troubled."

Linwood: "The you and Angel have a lot in common. Abducting an employee of Wolfram and Hart - then again - he might be too troubled to consider the consequences."

Angel is arranging different implements on the table behind Linwood.

Linwood: "Once the firm finds out what you've done..."

Angel, inspecting a razor blade: "...they'd kill you before they kill me."

Lorne: "Angel - this isn't some slimy demon you got trussed up here. He's human (glances at Linwood) marginally, but still. This isn't gonna bring Connor back."

Angel: "He better hope it does."

Lorne: "Do you even know what you're doing?"

Linwood: "At last count the charges were kidnapping, assault and battery and attempt..."

Linwood trails off as Angel sets down the tray holding his chosen implements on the table next to Linwood, and stares as Angel picks up the note-spike.

Linwood: "...none of which - I intend to press. - In fact, let's not press anything, shall we? (Angel sits down across from him, spike in hand) Wanna find your son? I can guarantee that the full force and faith of Wolfram and Hart will be at your disposal."

Angel leans in close, the tip of the spike hovering in front of Linwood's right eye.

Angel: "Who is Sahjhan? How do I get my hands on him?"

Linwood: "If you'll just hit 'three' - on my speed dial... Cell phone in my jacket pocket."

After beat Angel pulls out Linwood's cell, and does so. Holds the ringing phone to Linwood's ear.

Linwood: "Hello Lilah. I'm sending over a client, and I want you to listen very carefully because I have explicit instructions on how to deal with him. - Give him anything he wants."

Justine is sitting on a table in Holtz' dark, deserted headquarters, carving a stake. Gunn and Fred walk in.

Gunn: "You should get a yard dog or something - 'cause anyone could just walk in off the street."

Justine: "Getting in isn't the hard part."

Gunn: "Really? Is that what happened to Wes? You and Holtz lured him in here then made sure he couldn't get out?"

Justine: "He's a big boy. He knew what he was doing."

Fred: "So, where is he now?"

Justine: "Why should I care?"

Gunn, stepping closer: "Because I'm telling you to."

Fred, stepping in his path: "Great! Let's have more violence. It's such a help. (Turns to Justine) We lost a child, you lost Holtz. Isn't that enough already?"

Justine: "No."

Fred: "So, kill everybody? That'll make you happy? (Justine just looks at her) Oh. There is no happy for you."

Justine goes back to carving and Fred survey's the mess on the floor of the room.

Fred: "You were living in here together, sharing everything. - Except taking out the trash, I guess. - I imagine loosing Holtz is like losing a father. (Justine stops carving for a moment) Or worse. (Justine goes back to carving and Fred turns to face Gunn) The trash! I'll explain that later."

Justine gets up: "I think it's time for you to go."

Gunn: "We're not going anywhere until you tell us what happened to Wes!"

Justine: "Well, you're half-right. About the not going part."

Gunn looks around to see what remains of Holtz' men file into the room behind him. He pushes Fred behind him and turns to face them.

As Gunn parries the first attack from the men, Justine knocks Fred down. As Fred picks herself back up she sees that one of the men has a knife at Gunn's throat.

Fred: "No!"

Justine flashes back to her slitting Wes' throat.

Justine: "Wait!"

Everyone freezes.

Justine: "Get the hell out of here."

Fred jumps up and pulls Gunn out of the room with her as Justine watches them go.

Lilah and Angel are walking down the halls of Wolfram and Hart.

Lilah: "Kidnapping Linwood. You're really stepping up to it. The white room. I mean, they just don't talk about it. God, the white room. I was here three years before I even heard of it. Did he tell you what was in it?"

Angel: "Answers. (They come to an elevator) Up or down?"

Lilah: "Up."

Angel pushes the up button and they enter. Once inside Angel pulls out a piece of paper then punches the floor buttons in a certain sequence.

Lilah: "He tell you how to get there? - There was a guy in litigation. He went to the white room in September. He's in an asylum now."

Angel pulls out one of the buttons, and a new, bigger button appears above the other ones.

Lilah: "Wow. I should probably hold on to..."

Lilah reaches for the paper in Angel's hand, but he stuffs it in his pocket. Angel pushes the button and the elevator dissolves into a blinding white light. When the brightness dims, Angel and Lilah find themselves in a big, white, empty room.

Girl: "Hello."

Angel and Lilah turn around to see a little girl sitting primly on a chair.

Girl: "Angel. Lilah. Your fingernails are pretty. I love red. (To Angel) You have a taste for red, too - and revenge. I know. It's so much more fun than forgiveness. So what's up?"

Angel: "A demon named Sahjhan has taken my son."

Girl: "Oh, do you want you little baby back?"

Angel takes a step forward, but Lilah puts a hand on his arm and he stops.

Girl: "Baby's gone. - You want Sahjhan. Nowadays you can walk right through him, but in the past they were something else."

We see Sahjhan cutting off one warrior's head then turn to engage another armored warrior in a scraggly forest.

Girl: "They were all about torture and death. You can relate. Well, they caused a lot of trouble. Don't get me wrong. I like trouble. But I hate chaos. So we changed 'em."

Angel: "You made them immaterial."

Girl: "Smart boy."

We see Sahjhan attack another warrior, but their weapons go right through the other without causing any kind of damamge.

Girl: "Now they watch, and they can no longer touch."

Angel: "How do you capture them?"

Girl: "Well, there is a special urn."

We see an urn and some chanting monks. A demon like Sahjhan comes into the chamber. One of the monks opens the urn and the demon is sucked into it in a streak of light.

Girl: "They're expensive and hard to come by. - But you don't want his essence in a jar. You want something you can sink your teeth into. (Angel slowly turns his head to look at Lilah) You know these things always come at a price. - Kill her."

Lilah looks from the girl to Angel, who is reaching over without hesitation to break Lilah's neck. The girl let's out a giggle, but stops him before he can complete the action.

Girl: "That's good for now. (Angel lets Lilah go) I can see why they respect you. Now, as to your demon made flesh. It's a big ritual. All here."

The girl holds up her hand. On it lies a folded piece of parchment. The paper disappears from her hand and reappears in Angel's.

Girl: "Can't wait to see how it turns out."

The scene dissolves back into white.

Gunn and Fred are standing in front of a trash dumpster.

Fred: "Okay. Throw me away."

Gunn: "You want me to put you in the trash."

Fred: "Well, either Wesley took the diaries with him or he trashed them. We're lucky we got here while it's still full."

Gunn wrinkles his nose: "Yeah."

Gunn offers his folded hands and Fred uses them to climb into the dumpster.

Fred: "God, somebody ate that?"

Gunn: "Any luck?"

Fred comes up with a notebook in her hands: "Yes."

Gunn and Fred are in Wes' apartment, looking through his recovered diaries and notes.

Gunn lets out a sigh: "You getting anywhere?"

Fred: "Well, he was meticulous. He kept separate diaries for all the major players: Darla, Connor, Angel. - And he's frightened."

Gunn moves over next to her.

Gunn: "Well, what's he frightened of?"

Fred: "I'm not sure yet. Pending doom sort of thing, in the later entries, some sort of prophecy he was trying to repudiate. It says here: it can't be coming. It can't be true."

Gunn: "That's doomy."

Gunn stand up and flips through more of the pages he is holding.

Fred: "So I guess what we're looking for is this prophecy. I just don't know where we're gonna..."

Gunn: "I do."

Gunn hands Fred the note that has 'The Father will kill The Son' written on it.

Fred: "The father will kill the son."

Gunn: "Wes thought Angel..."

Fred: "...was going to kill Connor."

Fred looks back through her documents and smiles: "Yes! That's the prophecy. Wesley couldn't accept it. He kept trying to disprove it, but the text and the commentaries - everywhere he turned kept bringing him back to the same place. This is great! I told you he had a reason for taking Connor."

Gunn: "Yeah."

Fred: "Wes did the right thing. The only thing he could do under the circumstances. Now we have to find Angel and tell him right away."

Gunn: "And he'll forgive Wesley for taking his son and giving him to his mortal enemy?"

Fred: "Well - maybe *begin* to forgive."

Angel straightens up from painting a circle and pentagram on the floor of the Hyperion's lobby.

Lorne: "Angel, please do not do this thing. We'll find some other way."

Lilah: "There is no other way."

Lorne: "You know, not speaking would be a really good look for you."

Angel: "How's that?"

Lilah: "Looks about right."

Angel: "What's next?"

Lorne: "What's next is we reconsider this. Angel, you're messing with primordial powers of darkness here!"

Angel to Lilah: "Next?"

Lorne: "Buddy, is this really how you want to get Connor back?"

Angel to Lorne: "What's next!"

Lilah consults the notes: "Human blood."

Angel takes the paper from her and reads, then looks from Lorne to Lilah. Lilah turns and both she and Angel look at Linwood sitting bound to his chair across from the pentagram.

Lilah picks up a knife and walks over to stand in front of Linwood. Never taking her eyes off his face she slowly slices the knife across the palm of her left hand, then goes to dribble some of her blood into the middle of the pentagram.

Angel turns out the lights and starts to read from the paper.

Angel: "Corpus granok Sahjhan demonicus."

A blue light begins to swirl around the painted circle, then congeals into a vaguely humanoid shape in the middle of the pentagram. Angel reaches for his battle-ax. There is a flash of light and a burst of wind and then pentagram is dark and empty again.

Angel: "Where is he? Huh?"

Angel bangs the ax into the floor then levels it at Linwood: "Where is he?!"

Linwood has no answer.

On a street there is a flash of light and Sahjhan suddenly appears in the middle of the road.

Sahjhan: "What the..."

The breaks of a pickup truck scream, but, unable to stop, the truck runs over Sahjhan, then collides with an oncoming car. The driver of the truck sits behind the wheel in shock - when his vehicle is suddenly overturned by Sahjhan getting up underneath it.

Sahjhan: "Now this is more like it."

Break

Angel is dragging the chair with Linwood still tied to it up the stairs.

Linwood: "Lilah! Do something!"

Lorne: "Angel, killing this creep isn't going to solve anything. You don't wanna do this."

Angel: "That's where you're wrong."

Linwood: "Angel, we had a deal! I gave you everything you asked for. What more do you want from me?"

Angel: "I want my son back."

Linwood: "Lilah!"

Lilah comes running, cell phone in hand: "Hey, whoa! Flag on the play. The firm's tech team just registered a sever bio-plasmic disturbance at Tabor and National at the same time as the spell."

Angel: "Sahjhan?"

Lilah: "Whatever it was flipped a two ton truck like a Tonka toy."

Angel lets go of the chair and Linwood tumbles down the steps, the chair breaking to pieces, and lands at Lilah and Lorne's feet.

Fred and Gunn come running in, stopping Angel at the bottom of the steps.

Fred: "We need to talk."

Angel: "Not now."

Angel tries to get past her, but Fred steps in his way again.

Angel: "Fred!"

Fred: "There's something you need to know before..."

Angel moves around her and runs for the doors.

Fred: "The father will kill the son!"

Angel stops on the landing and slowly turns around.

Fred: "There is a prophecy in the Nyazian Scrolls. Wesley checked the translation, the commentaries, even went to the mystical oracles, but he couldn't disprove it."

Gunn: "They already fed you Connor's blood, bro. You said it yourself. He smelled like food."

Fred: "He was trying to *protect* Connor."

Gunn: "He was trying to protect *you* - same as we're doing right now."

After a moment Angel turns back to the doors. Fred hurries to step between him and the doors.

Fred: "Angel, the prophecy..."

Angel: "It's a lie. I'd never hurt Connor."

Fred: "How can you know that for sure?"

Angel: "I'd never hurt someone I care about. - Now move."

With a sigh Fred steps aside and Angel leaves.

Fred hurries to Gunn: "We have to go after him."

Gunn: "We can't. He lays a finger on you, I'll have to kill him myself."

Gunn turns and sees Lilah help Linwood to his feet.

Gunn: "What are they doing here?"

Lorne: "There was kidnapping, a spell, dark magic. It's bad, kids."

Linwood: "He's gonna to pay for this."

Lorne: "Really bad."

As Angel walks out of the Hyperion a Crossbow bolt buries itself in his shoulder. Angel looks up and sees Justine shooting a second bolt at him. Angel twists to avoid the second shot while pulling out the first bolt. He throws down the bolt and continues on his way. The remainder of Holtz' men attack him and he takes them down in short order, then continues on. As he steps out through the gate Justine hits him with a hard right cross.

Justine: "Don't run off now. The fun's just staring."

Angel intercepts the stake and pushes Justine up against the fence.

Angel: "I'm not your boyfriend. Find somebody else to smack you around."

Angel tosses Justine to the ground and by the time she rolls onto her back, hands raised to parry the next blow, Angel is nowhere in sight.

Justine gets to her feet and hurries towards her car just as Fred and Gunn come out of the hotel.

Fred: "It does matter. It has to matter."

Gunn: "Fred, he's not thinking about (sees Holtz' minions picking themselves up) What the hell?"

Justine gets in the car. Holtz' minions limp out of the hotel gate and run for the car, but Justine ignores their attempts to get in as well.

Fred and Gunn run to the gate and see Justine drive off.

Fred: "It's her."

Gunn: "Yeah. In Wesley's car. Let's go."

The driver of the pickup sits hunched up on the curb of the street.

Angel: "Are you alright?"

Driver: "I tried to stop it. It's all my fault."

Angel crouches down next to him: "Hey. What's your name?"

Driver: "Uhm, Al - Stokley. Not even my truck."

Angel: "Hey, Al, you wanna tell me what happened here?"

Driver: "Ah, I hit... Oh god. I-I hit a guy, a man."

Angel: "This man you hit, where is he?"

Driver: "I don't know. There - there's no way he could have gotten up. (Looks over at where paramedics are working on a guy on a stretcher) God, those poor people."

Angel: "You didn't do anything wrong."

Driver: "It's all my fault."
Angel after a beat: "No. - No, it isn't."

Angel stands up and walks over to look at the underside of the overturned pickup. He reaches to touch the front bumper then examines his fingers.

Justine is in the underground chamber where Holtz first awakened, looking around. She puts her hand on the table in the spot where Holtz had it pinned and we see flashbacks of Holtz: their first meeting, their second meeting, him pinning her hand to the table, sitting at their new headquarters.

Holtz: "I knew you were meant for this."

Justine sits down on the edge of the table, slowly lifting her hand and looking at it.

A grate slides to the side and Gunn and Fred enter.

Gunn: "Where is Wes?"

Justine: "He's not coming back."

Gunn: "What?"

Justine: "It was all lies - every bit of it. All he wanted was that kid - to punish Angel. He never cared about anything else."

Gunn: "I'm talking about Wesley. His car is parked up top here. You obviously took it from him. Where is he?"

Fred: "We just wanna hear his side."

Justine: "His side? His side's kinda funny. He sacrificed everything he believed in to save that kid."

Gunn: "By helping Holtz take him to hell? I'd like to hear it from the horse's mouth."

Justine: "Your friend's innocent."

Fred: "Is he alive?"

Justine doesn't answer.

Fred: "Where is he?! Will you just tell us?!"

Justine: "Heaven? Hell? - I slit his throat."

Fred hits Justine. Justine tries to hit back, but Gunn steps between them and intercepts the hit, then tosses Justine off the table. Justine comes back up and attacks Gunn. Gunn tosses her on the ground.

Gunn: "Stay down!"

Justine: "Uhm - no."

Justine jumps back up and launches herself back at Gunn. After a quick exchange of blows Justine again ends up on the floor.

Justine: "I trusted the wrong man."

Gunn grabs her by the lapels: "You're gonna take us to him and he *better* be alive!"

Shajhan: "You call that a fight? (They turn to see Shajhan standing in the door) Let me show you how we used to do it."

Break

Sahjhan: "So. My home. Uninvited guests. This can't end well."

Gunn: "That's the guy right?"

Fred: "Uh-huh."

Sahjhan: "Hi Justine. I remember you. One of Holtz' groupies. You tried to cut off my head. (Shajahn hits Justine and she goes flying across the chamber) Can't tell you how much I missed doing that. (Turns to face Fred and Gunn) I also missed gravity, friction, and smashing things to pieces."

Picks up a chair and smashes it to pieces on the table.

Sahjhan: "Let's start with your skulls."

Angel: "Or yours."

Shajhan: "Angel. I'm guessing I have you to thank for the whole mortal coil thing."

Angel: "Yeah. - Tell you what: you take me to the Quor-toth world, help me find my son, we'll call it even."

Sahjhan: "Really? You and me? Buddy cop, summer release? We iron out our wacky differences and bond? I don't think so."

Angel: "You're taking me there."

Sahjahn: "Couldn't, even if I wanted to."

Angel: "You're lying."

Sahjhan: "No. *That* I'm telling the truth about. Your kid's gone, for good. I could open the Quor-toth exactly one time. That's why I chose it. Try again - the whole universe could go kaplooey. Bad for me, bad for America."

Fred: "So, what are you lying about?"

Sahjhan: "Oh, well, I don't like to brag, but - read any good prophecies lately?"

Gunn: "You wrote the prophecies."

Shajhan: "More a re-write."

Fred: "The father will kill the son."

Sahjhan: "Yeah. I flitted back and forth in time. Changed the one that threatened me, polished some others. Flitted in a *manly* way - just so we're clear. (To Angel) You're not really my enemy. Your in my home and I'm gonna kick your ass, but you where never the point."

Angel: "It was Connor."

Sahjhan: "Boy! Can't put one over on you, can you? Oh, wait - already did. It's pretty freaky the first time you see your name in a true prophecy all carved in blood on an official scroll. "The one sired by the vampire with a soul will grow to manhood and kill Sahjhan." Me!"

Fred: "So you planted false prophecies, that Angel would kill his son, and Wesley believed them."

Sahjhan: "Thank god he had some spine. Holtz was useless. He wanted to raise your kid as his own! I'm living with a knife over my heart for eleven hundred years and he's into petty revenge! If he'd just killed the damn thing while it was still in its mother we could have avoided all this!"

Angel morphs and attacks Sahjhan, but Shajhan deflects him into the wall. Gunn hits Shajhan and Sgets knocked down. Before Shajhan can do any more, Angel is back and the two of them start slugging at each other.

Fred takes a hold of one of the fire bowls and tosses the burning coals into Sahjhan's face.

Sahjhan shakes them off and looks at Fred: "Do I look like I need more skin problems?"

Sahjhan goes to attack Fred, but Angel knocks her out of the way.

Angel: "Fred!"

Angel attacks again. They exchange more blows, then Sahjhan tosses Angel hard against the wall. Gunn attacks and gets batted away. Sahjhan grabs Angel by the throat and throws him around a bit more, in the end tossing Angel onto the table. Angel's face morphs back to human. Sahjhan picks up one of the legs from the broken chair and raises it to stake Angel.

Sahjhan: "Had to put your boy down. Pity. The kid had a big future. I mean big."

Justine appears in the door behind, cradling something in her arms.

Shajhan to Angel: "Oh well, we all gotta go sometime."

As Sahjhan gets ready to stake Angel, Justine opens the jar she is holding and Sahjhan is sucked into it in a swirl of light.

Sahjhan: "No. No! Don't do that! Nooo!"

Justine closes the lid of the urn and sets it on the floor as the others pick themselves back up.

Justine: "Holtz left it."

Fred: "What about Wesley?"

Justine: "The park next to his place, that's where I left him."

Gunn, Fred and Angel are looking around the area where Wes was earlier, but he is nowhere to be found.

Fred: "Maybe she was lying."

Angel is standing where Wes fell, staring at the sky.

Angel: "No. He was here."

Fred: "How can you... Right. The blood."

Gunn: "We should get going. Sun's coming up."

Angel: "He can't be dead."

Fred: "We'll keep looking. Lorne's been calling hospitals all night."

Gunn: "Need to get you indoors, man. We'll find him."

Angel keeps staring at the lightning sky.

Hyperion, day, Angel is staring at Wesley's tea set.

Lorne: "Hey, I, ah, cleaned the pentagram as best I could. The dry blood, well, that's starting to be a look out there."

Angel: "Thanks."

Lorne: "Yeah, well, you know me. Like to keep busy."

Angel walks around the desk and leans on the back of Wes' chair.

Angel: "It's not right. - All I could think about was getting my hands on Sahjhan. Fred and Gunn tried to keep me from..."

Lorne: "Going to far?"

Angel: "Nearly got them killed."

Lorne: "Yeah, you did. I'm glad it didn't work out that way."

Angel walks over to the sideboard and picks up one of the teacups.

Angel: "You think Wesley is..."

Lorne: "I don't know. I hope for the best. You know, there is a bigger picture here, Angel. And in that bigger picture there is a glass."

Angel: "If the words 'glass is half full' are about to come out of your mouth - don't."

Lorne: "No. No, this is more a glass half full of spiked blood. If Sahjhan and that lady lawyer pulled off their feeding plan, you'd have *Connor's* blood on your hands."

Angel: "Don't I anyway?"

Lorne: "No! You think there is something more you could have done? You did everything you could with the knowledge you had. Just like Wesley. - You know, maybe the way to start forgiving yourself is by starting to forgive him."

The telephone rings and Lorne picks it up.

Lorne: "Angel Investiga... Hey, Fred! - They did? And? Okay, where? Uh-huh. Yeah, he's right here. I'll tell him. Okay, thanks."

Angel: "They found Wesley."

Angel walks into a hospital waiting room to find Fred and Gunn getting up from a couch.

Gunn: "Hey. It's good you came, man."

Angel lets out a sigh: "He ask for me?"

Gunn: "Nah, he can't speak yet. Trachea is all messed up. Lost a lot of blood. It's just good you came."

Fred: "He's not completely out of the woods yet. You're being here can only help."

Angel: "Can I see him?"

Fred: "I'm sure he'd like that."

Angel moves past them to the door of room 319 and opens it.

Angel walks into Wes' hospital room. There are x-rays of his throat hanging on the wall. Wes, an IV in the back of his left hand and a bandage around his throat, is lying on the bed with his eyes closed. A heart monitor is beeping in the background.

Angel closes the door and walks over to the bed as Wes' eyes blink open.

Angel: "Hey, Wes. I just - I want you to know I understand why you did it. I know about the prophecies and I know how hard it must have been for you to - do what you did. You thought I was gonna turn evil and kill my son. I didn't. It's important you know that. This isn't Angelus talking. It's me, Angel. You know that, right?"

Wes blinks his eyes once.

Angel: "Good."

Angel suddenly pulls the pillow out from under Wes' head and pushes it down on Wes' face.

Angel: "You son of a bitch, you're gonna pay for what you did! You took my son! You son of a bitch! You bastard!"

Gunn and Fred's heads jerk up out in the waiting room as a heart monitor alarm goes off and orderlies run past them to reach Wes' room.

Angel: "You think I'd forgive you?! No! Never! You're gonna die! You hear me? You're gonna pay!"

Wes' hands are fumbling over Angel's arms and shoulders.

The first orderly runs in and pulls Angel and the pillow off Wes for a moment. Angel shrugs him off and pushes the pillow back down on Wes' face.

Angel: "You took my son! You took my son!"

Fred: "Stop it!"

Angel: "You took my son!"

Two more orderlies and Gunn grab a hold of Angel and pull him off Wesley.

Gunn: "Angel! Stop!"

Angel: "Never! Never!"

Gunn: "Come on, man, stop!"

Angel: "I'll kill him! You're dead!"

The orderlies and Gunn wrestle Angel backwards out of the room.

Gunn: "Angel, stop, man."

Wes is lying on his bed, gasping for breath.

Angel: "You're dead! You're a dead man, Pryce! You're dead! I'll kill you! I'll kill you. You're a dead man! Dead!"

The camera pulls in close on Wes' face, then the end credits come up on the black screen.

Angel, screaming: "Dead!"