Angel sat on one of the couches in the lobby and tried to prepare himself for what he knew was going to be bad news. "Okay Wes, talk." Wesley took a deep breath and began. "Well, the oracles, they were less than hospitable when we arrived. It seems that someone, or something has interfered with their link to Cordelia. There are a number of things that we should have been warned about and people we should have saved but for some reason the visions were re-directed or intercepted before Cordelia could get them. It has been happening for almost two years now." Angel was stunned. He couldn't believe what Wesley was telling him. "Why didn't the powers send someone to tell us?" "They tried, it seems that Wolfram & Hart caught up with our messenger before he had a chance to reach us. They killed him." Cordelia started to cry harder. "Angel, the messenger was Doyle. The powers had sent him back, to warn you and to help us."

Angel roared in frustration. He truly missed his old friend, and now to hear that he had been given another chance at life, to help them, only to have it ripped away from him by that fucking law firm, it was more than he could bear. He fell to the floor crying, Cordelia pulled him into her arms and held him. She looked up at Wesley. "Tell him the rest Wes, he needs to know."

Wesley cleared his throat as Angel turned his sorrow filled gaze toward him. "Angelus is free. He has been made whole, you and he have been separated by magic. He looks the same as you, he has all your memories, everything. He knows about the prophecy, he knows about Connor, and he is in Sunnydale." Everyone blanched at that news, this was possibly the worst thing that could happen. "Buffy, we have to call her, warn her." Angel broke down again as Cordelia's arms tightened around him. "Angel, when was the last time you heard from anyone in Sunnydale?" "Willow, she called me just a few days ago. Her....her girlfriend was offered a job at Wolfram & Hart. She wanted to know if I knew anything about the law firm. Why?"

This was the part that Wesley was dreading. If what the oracles said was true, and he had no reason to doubt them, than Buffy had been killed over a year ago. So had everyone else. "Angel, I'm sorry, but Buffy was killed over a year ago." NO! I won't believe that. It can't be true, Willow said everyone was fine. Buffy was back in college, she and Dawn had moved into an Apartment just a few weeks ago. She can't be dead. Willow would have told me." Angel looked up at Wesley with a hopeful statement on his face. He desperately needed to be right about this.

Wesley lowered his eyes, he couldn't look at the broken man in front of him when he told him the rest. "They're all dead Angel. Buffy, Dawn, Xander, Tara, Anya, the only ones not dead are Rupert and Willow. Rupert because he was in England and hasn't come back since, and Willow because....well because she's the one who killed them." Angel and Cordelia's sobs were the only sounds in the hotel as everyone waited for the rest of the news. "Something horrible happened Angel, Willow delved into the black arts and killed everyone. She's not even Willow anymore. She's the one responsible for freeing Angelus, she's strong enough to control him, the spell gave him balance he isn't insane this time. She runs the Hellmouth, along with her Mate, Spike."

Angel's head shot up and a look of pure fury crossed his face. He might be fully human now and as such have no relation, demonic or otherwise to Spike but he still felt responsible for Angelus's Childer. He loved Spike, not the way a demon loves but the way a man loves. Spike was the only male he ever loved in a physical sense. And now he was in over his head. Willow, or whatever she was now had taken almost everything from him, his reward from the powers, his first love, his friend, his extended family the Scooby's, and Spike. She would be punished.

Angelus was feeling pretty smug. He knew exactly how to play his Childe, show him a little affection and he's yours. Spike always was too needy for a Vampire. Sometimes, when he wasn't ripping his victims to shreds, you would almost think he still had his soul. He was far too gentle, still the poet he was in life, he craved love and affection like a greedy child. Angelus and Drusilla always used this to get him to do what they wanted, for the most part it worked. Why else would he have stayed with an insane woman for over a century? She needed him to care for her, and so she treated him kindly. Now Angelus was using those same tactics to get Spike to choose him over his Mate. With Spike on his side, they stood a chance of overthrowing the current Master of Sunnydale. At least that's what he thought, Angelus always was an egotistical Vampire. So caught up in his plans to overtake Sunnydale and reign as Master he didn't hear or see the current Master of the Hellmouth stalking his way with a murderous gleam in her eye.