Note of warning: Imagine the usual disclaimers. Here be monsters! And anybody who read this before seeing Angel: the Series (that is, episodes A Hole in the World and Shells) will be a) spoiled, and b) hopelessly, hopelessly lost.HOLES (Flashback) Fred: Her childhood home a nest, a womb Master of Chaos / stuffed toy by the bed by the window, an orchid in bloom on the wall hangs a starburst quilt when she leaves she falls (out of a library, through a hole, into hell) when she leaves she falls (in love, in LA, with an angel) when she leaves she falls (taking hope into Hell, in the company of heroes) when she leaves she falls and they find there’s a hole in their world. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Act One All-seeing Eye (Teaser in three parts) "They reproduce by “You just like stabbing “Invoice reads: vomiting up crystals me.” Science Department. to form eggs.” “I’m shocked - Winifred Burkle.” “Are you trying shocked that you’d say that. “You need me to sign ...?” to turn me on?” I much prefer hitting you “Been signed.” with blunt instruments.” Fred/Wesley Angel/Spike Knox (with Gunn, in absentia) this this ... but this is is is love love love opening onto: ACT I: poor brave blundering heroes tripped into hell like schoolgirls singing opened up their can of worms (Wolfram & Hart is Pandora’s box) all their hiddens, dirty red things stripped them naked - pet devil never saw (the blind leading the blind) then fell in love. Full of hope. Think they’re on a quest. In a box now. I saw it all! Now what? ... begin triple duet: Angel/Spike, Fred/Wesley, Gunn/Knox: ("This is a house of death.") “No secrets in the house of pain.” “You move on Fred, and I'm gonna put you down hard.” “And... is that all right with you? “You think I don't see the way you look at her?” ”Fred and me?” “Stay away from her!” “Last year, you wouldn't ask me that question. “You just take what you want--” The man becomes civilized. “--no matter who it belongs to.” “You ever hurt her, I'm gonna kill ya like a chicken,” Stinging echoes all around them. Hell is a house of echoes but saying and doing are two different things “It's bollocks, Angel!” and Wes is always reaching for his weapons ”You can't ever see the big picture, (“A Slayer must always you can’t see any picture!” reach for her weapon.”) “I am talking about something primal, right?” (“I’ve already got mine.”) “You know, the human race has evolved, Spike! Vampire souls. Straw for the fire. Plus, there's a thing called teamwork!” Think they’re civilized. “You just want it to be the way you want it to be.” Think they’re special. “It's not about what I want!” Think they know what they want-- what they deserve. Haven’t a clue where they’re going. Only just begun. “If cavemen and astronauts got into a fight, who would win?” “Do the astronauts have weapons?” Poor pretties must always reach for their weapons. We already have ours. Foreshadowing. Lies. “I couldn’t find any invoice on it.” Truth. Foreshadowing. “It's probably just a mummy.” 5.1/ash/to Angel equals change “Mummies can be a lot more trouble than you think.” 5.8/light/to Spike equals change (She touches the crystal) 5.15/air/to Fred equals change (Pandora's Box) ”Don't mess with the Nest Egg!” (Pandora's Box) "It opened, and there was air." (Lindsey slots the crystal into the Machine that releases change) (As Cordelia's ghost rises) cavemen (EARTH FIRE AIR WATER) astronauts Spike’s an astronaut 5.22/tears/to Wesley ... equals change? Angel’s a caveman Spike’s for the cavemen-- --Angel’s for the astronauts “All the guys agree that astronauts don't stand a chance against cavemen, so don't even start.” (The Dioscuri) “You and me, this isn't working out. I'm saying you should go.” (“Stop touching me!”) “The way I figure it, Lindsey brought you back as a spirit bound to this place so you'd (“We’ve got his hands.”) become...invested in it.” (“We’ve got his hands.”) (“--you can take what you want--) “I'm not attached-- (--but nothing is yours.”) friendship I just don't have anywhere else to go.” friendship teamwork love (“Just take my hand.”) love teamwork technology philosophy passion “What if you did?” passion philosophy technology weapon caves fire fire caves weapon weapon caves “But the cavemen have fire. caves weapon weapon That's what they live with in their caves. weapon The astronauts should at least have some sort of weapon.” “You are my sunshine--” “--you make me happy--” (She falls) (Fade to black) ACT II: Helpless Puppets glass half empty glass half full holes are empty shells must fill “I'm a mummy, aren't I?” “We're gonna work this.” “Handsome man saves me ... I know you gotta go be book man.” Handsome man saves me Must some man save me? Handsome man saves me “Wes and Fred?” Must some man save me? Handsome man saves me “You didn't know?” Must some man save me? “I didn't know.” blind blind blind blind leading the blind blind blind blind “No. Not this girl. Not this day.” “But you can kill a hundred, a thousand, a thousand thousand and the enemies of Hell besides and all we need is for one of us - just one - sooner or later to have the thing we're all hoping for. One... good... day.” “You know I'll be there. I'll slip in... have myself a real good day.” “I do deserve to go to hell. But not today.” ... Look at them. Champions in hell. Flies struggling in the honey-jar, bugs smashed on the window. Left me a window, did he? Now there’s mercy for you. Sealed away with his unmentionables. Thinks I’m buried. But-- Look at him! Vampire champion. Angelheart, dark soul. Shining armor of wolf ram and hart, sword of the law, blindfold. Looking to save what’s rotting through. Wears this place well. Heh ... as within, so without. All about the law. This place. Angel’s box. Once a sanctuary of holiness. Deconsecrated by the torturer’s taint. Centuries of evil buried beneath ... whose sacrifice will redeem this temple, then? Now that the trap’s snapped shut. (“All channels, we have a code black. Affirmative. We are closing Pandora's Box.”) Why did they dare come here? ... “... what was in that box?... a name, a history, anything ...” “Where did it come from?” “It just showed up. No return address.” “Senior partners?” “Doesn't add up, but I'll hit the White Room. Talk to the conduit.” “What about Doyle—uh, Lindsey? The man likes to play his games.” “... Winifred Burkle. Go.” (“Bottom line is ...”) Jennifer, please send anyone else who isn't working Miss Burkle's case to me. (“You ever hurt her, I’m gonna kill you like a chicken.”) (“Angel Investigations. We help the helpless.”)(“ ... even if you see 'em coming, you're not ready for the big moments. No one asks ...”) The physical form of the conduit is determined by the viewer. You are failing. “I'm not the issue here.” I believe that you think that. This is the part where I need to be clear. I am not your friend. We can make a deal.” Deals are for the devil. “You want someone else - a life for hers - you'll get it. You can have mine.” I already do. (“--for their life to change, not really. But it does. “) “Don't touch me. Lindsey and I had nothing to do with that. I'm not lying. I'm not.” (Eve cowers on Lindsey’s bed, wearing his shirt, waiting in covert. But the blinds to her garden window are drawn shut.) “Have you...heard from him? About him?” “Oh, this is truly poetical.” “If you're talking about a sarcophagus that doesn't match anything in our records... there's nothing that's not in our records except what came before. The old ones.” ”The original demons. Before human kind. They were all driven out of this dimension.” (“You’ve never seen a real demon.”) “The ones that were still alive. But long before that, they were killing each other all the time, and they don't die the way we do. (“Death doesn't have to be the end, not in our world.”) You need to find the Deeper Well.”(“So what are we, helpless? Puppets?”) “It's called Illyria, a great monarch and warrior of the demon age murdered by rivals and left adrift in the Deeper Well.” "... They made her a princess." “Fred's skin is...hardening like a shell. "Really? - Oh. When I got here they... I think she's being hollowed out They didn't do that. so this thing can use her to gestate, - Well. That's nice for her." to claw its way back into the world.” (“I lost Cordelia because something violated her. It crawled inside and used her up.”) The Deeper Well is almost like a prison for the dead.” (Full fathom five my father lies ...) If something gets out, it's written (“The root of the tree will split in two.”) it can be drawn back from the source.” What’s false? What’s true? And who can tell? Ascension or shanshu, Heaven or hell? “If nobody thinks it's too ridiculous, I'm going to pray.” (“So what are we, helpless? Puppets? No.”) (Fade to black) Act III Bottom Line (Glass beaker shatters.) “I am not - I am not the damsel in distress. I lived in a cave for five years in a world where they killed my kind like cattle. I am not going to be cut down by some monster flu. I am better than that! This is a house of death.” (“No secrets in the house of pain.”) “Take me home.” “I've never flown before.” “I've been in a helicopter. Can't lose her, Spike. I lost Cordy.”Fred’s den: secret garden glowing green through the round cosy window, the red walls of a snug little cave. Above her bed is the Tree of Life. (Through Gunn’s office window you can perhaps see one tree. Through Wesley’s, an avenue of them. Through Lindsey’s bedroom window, an Eden for Eve. Through Angel’s windows? ...) “I finally get you up to my bedroom and all you want to do is read. I need noise to keep me here. Feigenbaum. I - I have to find him. He's the master of ...” (“The root of the tree will split in two ...”) Yes or no choices: bifurcation. “Who is Feigenbaum?” “I don't remember. Read to me.” "Once upon a time “She was such a little girl that one did not expect there was a girl who lived all alone to see such a look on her small face. in a horrible cave so far from home it made her chest hurt. And every day in that horrible cave It would have been an old look for a child of twelve, the girl tried to figure out a way to escape and Sara Crewe was only seven. when one day The fact was, however, just like in a fairy tale a handsome man rode up that she was always dreaming on a horse and saved her Now you'd think and thinking odd things that was the end, wouldn'tcha? Dumb old fairy tales and could not herself remember and their happily ever afters. But see, the minute any time when she had not been thinking they got back to the castle the handsome man went away again. things about grown-up people And even though she didn't mean to and the world they high up in that castle belonged to. She felt the girl just built herself another cave. as if she had lived Hoping he would save her again. a long, long time.” But you can't save me this time. Can you?" (“I love you.” “No you don’t.”) Slayer and vampire hold hands in the mouth of Hell. (“We’ve got his hands.”) “Just hold my hand.” (“We’ve got his hands.”) The master vampire and the fledgling hold hands in the sunbeam. (“Touch me again--”) “Do not ask me a question. If you ever ask me a single question, I will kill you outright. You're here about Illyria.” “He can't lie.”Truth or lie? Go Home, or to hell? Play on the eye: Hole, or shell? (Glass breaks). “You did this. You did all of this!” “Technically, that's not the case. I just played my part.” “Why? You couldn't stand the thought of Wes winning her, so you kill her?” “This was all set in motion millions of years ago, Charles, and there's just no way to stop it. (“You're minuscule. A dust mote on the shelf of that great institution.”) Angel's not gonna save her. ... I'm not being clear. I don't mean that Angel's gonna fail to save her, I mean he's gonna let her die.” Bifurcation. Choice. (Fade to black.)ACT IV: Bifurcation "I got lost. I got lost, and they did terrible things to me, but, but it was just a storybook. It was just a story with monsters, not real. Not in the world but - but if you're here and you see me then - then it's real!” “The light...hurts my eyes, but I don't want you to turn it off. But it hurts my eyes.” “If you see what they made of me... I - I didn't mean to get so lost!” “Everything's so bright and hollow. Cavemen win. Of course the cavemen win.” glass half empty glass half full play on perspective shell or hole? “I'll tell you as much as I can. The old ones were demons pure. “You’ve never seen a real demon.” They warred as we would breathe - endlessly. (“I am something you will never be - pure.”) The greater ones were interred, for death was not always their end. “You get to live forever Illyria was feared and beloved as few are. - unable to move, to touch, or to feel... It was laid in the very depths of the well or to affect anything in the world around you... until it disappeared a month ago. But don't worry—I had 'em give you a window. Welcome to hell." The tomb was not stolen. It disappeared. I believe it was predestined to as part of Illyria's escape plan.” “How far does this go down?” “All the way. All the way through the Earth.” “You signed the order to bring it into the lab so you could get another brain boost. It's like I said, I'm just one small part of a great machine.” “I am something you will never be. I'm pure. You and your friends, you're conflicted. You're confused. We're not. That is why you are gonna lose, because we possess the most powerful thing in the world... conviction.” (The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity.) (Gunn attacks him.) Kill him. Kill him! (“I’m gonna kill you like a chicken!”) How . . . disappointing. Is the man a robot? Is there no juice left in his veins? (Wesley tries to inject Fred with medicine, but the needle bends on her skin.) From Hell like an angel. Heh. “The power to draw back Illyria lies in there. From the coffin back to the surface It requires a champion who has traveled From the grave back to the world Angel faces a choice--to let Fred die. from where it lies to where it belongs. As did Gunn--to sign the paper, to kill Knox. If we bring the sarcophagus back to the well, As does Spike--to stay, or go. it will draw Illyria out of your friend As do they all. and into every single person between here and there. This is their power. Your choice.” And here is the bifurcation: “To hell with the world.” “Why did we go there? Heh. Was their choice. They chose to come to Hell. Why did we think we could beat it? (“You seek to save what’s rotted through.”) It's evil, Wesley. It's bigger than anything. ... (“--just one small part of a great machine.”) I walk with heroes. Traveled all the way to Mount Doom. To the hole. Ring of fire. And this is my power: to not let them take me.” (“I do deserve to go to hell. But not today.”) But not to throw the sin away. Oh no. They came to bring hope into Hell. And once in Hell - found themselves facing hellish choices. Look: Angel the champion. At the Well. Has already made his choice. “Spike...” Though no one else knows it yet. “This goes all the way through to the other side. No one except his brother-- So, I figure, there's a bloke somewhere --who stands by him-- around New Zealand standing on a bridge like this one, --at the Crack of Doom— looking back down at us. --bearing hope. Pray Spike doesn’t fall in. All the way down. Pray Angel doesn’t throw him away. There's a hole in the world. Feels like we ought to have known.” (“It’s a play on perspective.”) Escherian perspective tricks: Day and Night. Spike-looking-down equals looking-up-Spike. Up=down. Home=hell. Death=life. Hole=shell. “Please, Wesley, why can't I stay?” But the sands are running down to are running down to down to to “This will do.” Illyria. “Bottom line is, even if you see 'em coming, you're not ready for the big moments. No one asks for their life to change, not really. But it does. So what are we, helpless? Puppets? No. The big moments are gonna come. You can't help that. It's what you do afterwards that counts. That's when you find out who you are.” Whistler (end lines, Becoming, part one) SHELLS Teaser: “Fred? ... Illyria?” ("I had a dream. I had a name.") “Who is Winifred Burkle?” “So you don't know who Fred is.” (swings axe at her) (as he did with Lilah before) ACT I: Secret Backyard Welcome to our secret backyard. Phoenix ashes shall fly upward; Opened boxes flash with light, Spirits return to the fight; Opened coffins birth the air, Ghosts are walking everywhere. Earth, fire, wind and water: Windows, vases, vessels shatter. Welcome to our secret backyard. Behind locked doors, grim rams stand guard; Wolves growl over opened boxes; Harts bleed over paradoxes. House of boxes, house of eyes House of secrets, pain, and lies House of death and house of stairs-- Abandon all Hope whoso enters. Welcome to our secret garden. All the world's hopes ripen therein. Those who taste the fruit of life Rest in peace, abandon strife; They shall drink of memory From the well beneath the Tree; Then in rapture ceasing never Wolf, ram, hart lie down together. Pavayne speaks: I am the eye Angel must always deny, The buried monster, boxed away in the beast’s belly. He has made me the cornerstone rejected by the builder, He has bricked me, a living stone, into his spiritual house. A stone which will make him stumble, A rock which will make him fall. As above, so below. I bear witness, now. I can wait. I see all. v/o: Who is there? ... (surprise) You hear me, madam? What are you? Oh, a ghost. (An axe shatters.) How delicious! I am Pavayne. Not a ghost. A bound spirit. (Wesley is left weaponless.) At your service, dear madam. (bowing) Allow me to guide you in this, your brave new world. (turning away) No. You are corrupt. Whose reflection is this? What am I, now? “Oh... now I remember. Madam! Listen to me. And who is this man? Winifred Burkle is the shell I’m in.” I don’t know him. A human. Primitive. “She's the woman you killed. Is he my Qwa'ha Xahn? Leave this shell.” No. “You seek to save what's rotted through. (“Why did we come here?”) This carcase is bound to me. (“This is a house of death.”) (Like living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house ...) ("-you're not concerned-") I could not change that ("-not even remotely-") if I cared to (“The big moments are gonna come. You can't help that. It's what you do afterwards that counts.”) but you have opened my eyes to truth. (“He can’t lie.”) If the world is truly overrun by humans (cavemen!) then I have work to do. Plays on meaning: Does the grave bring birth? Does Fred=Illyria? And is life, death? “It's like a bloody tease.” (holds up the bottle) “It's like, ‘Here's what a bottle of Jack would look like if you actually had one,’ or, ‘here's a drink, but it's very far away.’” “What does that mean? Really?” “It's a play on perspective.” Near or far Flesh or soul Trick of the mind’s eye: Shell, or hole? “Gone. What does it mean that she's gone?” “Well, in the world of men, a person dies, they stay that way.” “Unless you're a vampire.” “Or the ghost of one that saved the world.” “Or Buffy. “Death doesn't have to be the end, not in our world. Rules can be broken. All you have to do... is push hard enough.” “Let's get her back.” (Talking in circles:) Self-blame: “I should've seen it. We'll find it, and we'll put it back.” If I had concentrated harder Resolve: “Fred's soul is out there somewhere. read him better -” I got better.” Disconnection: saving the world. “The sarcophagus was Hope: “Flash fried in a pillar of fire preordained to be released.” There is nothing left but a shell.” Evasion: “Nothing could have stopped it.” Everything she was is gone. Lies: “The sarcophagus was Despair: “I watched it gut her stuck in customs from the inside out. and it should have stayed there, but someone got it out.” (And the circle breaks) “--we'll put it back.” Where is my Qwa’ha Xahn? Madam! Great Illyria! Let me be your guide-- Go away, filth. I’ll find my own way. Near or far Half or whole Trick of the mind's eye: Duo, or solo? Ah, there he is. (Illyria comes to Knox) (Fade to black) ACT II: Dichotomy (three duets: Knox/Illyria, Spike/Angel, Wesley/Gunn) So an Old One can be just as blind as any human being. Very well, madam. Stay peeping in the egg. If you choose to live inside the box like all your fellow fools who am I to open your eyes to the truth? I’ll see you all in hell. Hell? There is no hell. There are only unfolding dimensions. A path across time/space, shifting before us with every step. What do you mean when you say ‘hell’? What is this dichotomy? Trichotomy, madam: heaven, earth, hell. Not duets, but trios! Perhaps dichroism is what you mean? Never mind. You are all savages. Cave-filth, grubbing for roots in the mud. But my course shall lead to the stars. Look, here’s my Qwa’ha Xahn now. “I've been waiting so long for this. I've loved you from the moment I saw you I was eleven, you were ancient. Pressed between the pages of the forbidden texts.” Madam, all you are to him is a dried leaf. A legend. A fossil! He worships me. “I am your priest. I am your servant. I am your guide in this world. I've taken your sacraments placed them close to my heart according to the ancient ways.” See how he has accepted my seed? (There is a crystal sewn under Knox’s skin) “That's why you were called to me. We're bound together.” He is banal. (Pavayne laughs) “Giles, this is an emergency! (“No weapons... No friends... No hope.”) ... (“Take all that away... and what's left?”) We're on our own.” (“Me.”) Angel’s in hell Buffy’s in heaven And the width of the earth Is a shut gate between them. Like a shaft through the heart Of the shards of a dream Duets crack into solos And the world stands between them. And the riddles they find-- --what they see, what they feel-- Must be weighed by the mind To tell falsehood from real. Up is down. Near is far. Death is life. Foe is friend. And the truth in the tricks? No one knows till the end. (A howl like wind blows through Fred's lab) (Illyria sheds Fred's clothing, shells herself in red serpent armor) “Two half-breeds and a band of primitives. Is this all that challenges me now?” “Stand down and I promise we won't destroy you taking it back. Your choice.” (Bifurcation. Choice.) “I decline.” (What does it mean - that when faced with the choice, she declines?) (time blurs) (glass shatters--) (Illyria grabs Angel and throws him out of Wolfram & Hart) (--glass shatters) (Angel falls) Down=out. Vampire=soul. Falling=rising. Shell=hole. “I saw a blur just before she went Houdini.” “Yeah, like she was pulling a Barry Allen. ... Jay Garrick? Wally--” (“I walk with heros. And this is my power--”) (“You’re Wonder Woman!” “Damn straight.”) “--like she was moving really fast.” "I'm sorry. I just - I have this theory that the more you are aware of time the more slowly it moves, which could make light speed travel possible, but only if you were to concentrate really..." (from Fredless) “Back in the lab, she was standing right there in front of me Ghosts in the machine-- but there was no scent. Nothing. Ghosts in the shell. It's like she wasn't even there.” (“You're not in the world...Casper.”) (“Lindsey brought you back as a spirit bound to this place so you'd become...invested in it.”) How to tell cyborgs from fathers from mirages? "Clouds before the all-seeing eyes." How to tell demons from women from ghosts? ("--demons are more astringent--") Taste tests don't work ("--with a sort of oakie--") How to tell vampires from heroes from ghosts? ("I'm getting electromagnetic readings--") Science won't work ("--think I'm hot, do you?") How to tell earth from heaven from hell? Magic crystals won't guide us. All our sense deceive us. Does Lindsey=Doyle? Does hole=shell? Strange magic tattoos are clouding our eyes. How to tell things apart? It's all in perception plays. Everything lies. Get to the heart. (“Lindsey brought you back as a spirit bound to this place so you'd become...invested in it.”) “Shanshu - “I lost Cordelia - death.” “Angel is going to die?” because something violated her. Angel: "Oh. Anything else?" Cordy: "He certainly took that well.” It crawled inside Wesley: "It's probably years off - And-and I could be way off the mark and used her up. - so - no reason to be concerned." ... so it's good you're not concerned. No way in hell - Not - even remotely concerned." am I letting that happen again!” (Glass shatters) “She was curious. That's why Fred didn't put it into containment immediately. She was just curious.” Pandora. (Wesley looks at the crystals) “Time. The markings refer to a series of concussively timed intervals.” (Lindsey slots the crystal into the Machine--) (--Ash light wind tears--) (Pavayne smiles) ... So am I vexed at being left solo by madam dinosaur? Not at all. All a matter of perspective, you see. Everyone is my friend because, well, it all comes down to choices - And everyone chooses predictably in the end. Gunn and Angel will lie - oh, sorry. I mean ‘hold their tongues’. Lorne will sink into despair. Our poor rogue demon hunter will find the violence in every conceivable situation. And as for Illyria herself? (He laughs) Well-- “... Always messy when you have to open 'em up. That's why I prefer the less invasive procedures. Never got used to the sight of blood. ... There's nothing left to bring back. Miss Burkle's soul was consumed by the fires of resurrection. Everything she was is gone. Forever. “For better or worse, you made a deal, Mr. Gunn.” (“Deals are for the devil!”) (“He distorts everything. He lies with the truth. It's part of what makes him so dangerous.” Dark Cordelia re Angelus, Soulless) “Is there something you'd like to tell me, Charles?” (“Oops.”) Aha! There you are, madam. Where are you off to now? --To cleanse this world. (Pavayne, aside:) Just as I hoped. (Fade to black) ACT III: Solos, Duets, Trios Duets: Angel/Spike, Wesley/Gunn, Knox/Illyria now become trios: Angel/Spike/Wesley and Knox/Gunn/Lorne plus Illyria alone fracturing in disarray as the rogue demon-hunter at last goes his own way and finally two duets with one trio: Spike/Angel Angel/Spike/Illyria Illyria/Wesley “It was just a piece of paper. I didn't think anyone would get hurt.” “Nothing from Wolfram & Hart is ever free.” “I didn't think it would be Fred.” (“You ever hurt her, I’m gonna kill you like a chicken!”) (Wesley stabs him) (Pavayne watches, well satisfied.)“What the hell did you do?” “I avoided the major organs. He'll probably live.” “Is that supposed to make it all right?” “Nothing is all right! Nothing will ever be all right.” (Connor: “We can't start over.” “We'll get her back, Wes.” Angel: “We can. I mean, we can change things.” “No, we won’t. Fred's soul... Connor:“There's only one thing Her soul was destroyed that ever changes anything-- resurrecting Illyria. and that's death. He let her die.” Everything else is just a lie. ... You can't be saved by a lie.” -from Home) ... “So did I. At the well in England, there was a way to save Fred, but only if thousands of others died in her place. As much as I love Fred, I couldn't let that happen.” What’s this? Is our Dark Soul confessing? How ... novel of him. Never mind: In Wesley and Illyria I trust. (Wesley finds the picture of Illyria's statue) “This is where her temple was millions of years ago, and it's still here . (My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings!) It's out of phase with our time stream. (Look on my works, O mighty, and despair!) Only Illyria can open the gateway.” (In the public library, from which Fred first vanished in her origin episode) “Your breed is fragile. How is they came to control this world?” (Knox lies to her) “You are deceivers.” (“--he can’t lie--”) “--you have opened my eyes to the truth--” (A gust like wind blows past her, but no portal opens) ("... They made her a princess." “I’m with the king.” "Really? - Well. That's nice for her.”) “The gateway is blocked.” “You're a great warrior, Cordelia. “... probably threw a lock on it. You've become - a higher being.” They're big on things (“We have closed Pandora’s box.”) happening on their timetable.” “The markings refer to a series “The wolf, ram, and hart? of concussively timed intervals.” In my time they were weak, barely above the vampire.” (Gunn lies lonely in a hospital bed As Wesley did before He’s lucky if he doesn’t get smothered with a pillow) (Enter trio: Spike/Angel/Wesley) “You're about as low as it gets, Knox “Angel's cut off.- but you're a part of humanity. Death doesn't bother him because That isn't always pretty, there is nothing in life he wants! but it's a hell of a lot better It's our desires that make us human. than what came before. He's got a soul- And if it comes down to a choice but he's not a part of the world. between you and him, He - he can never then yes, I would fight for his life, be part of the world--" just like any other human's. “- Well, he's gonna have to start Because that's what people do. wanting things from life, That's what makes us--” whether he wants to or not!" (Wesley shoots Knox.) (“--hurt her I’m gonna kill you like a chicken!”) “Were you even listening?” Pavayne v/o: See what I mean? Lies. Knives. Guns. We’re always all alone in the end ... and it’s always a happy end. (Fade to black) ACT IV Palindrome (“Shanshu. Shanshu. Or maybe it’s shushan.” Wesley, AtS 1.22) Turning and turning in his narrowing gyre Angel evermore crashes, falls weeping back to earth ... then Sighs. Rises. Shuts his eyes, and tries again to fly. Hell still awaits. The Furies wake. The dead skin, shed-- Fred/Illyria is Illyria/Fred --bleeds to blue from red. Break the spell, break the ring, break the shell-- Fly at last! Leave the past, Angel, open your eyes-- Coffins gape upon hope; the dead wake; end your unending spiral-- Your sun dawns. Curse, begone. See the phoenix rise evermore burning? (In the library, a trio of voices:) “Yeah, OK “It offends me “You're right. but you gotta admit that you think He's not the problem. he had it coming.” he matters.” You are.” (They fight.) (Angel and Spike against Illryia, upon a patterned starburst floor. They attack as twins--Dioscuri--till at last they are both coming at her, a duet, mirror-images of each other; then she seizes their swords, whirls them around her like suns round the galactic spiral, --a trio-- sends them flying away. Breaking the ring.) “Unimpressive.” (Wind blows.) (She escapes through a portal; Wesley leaps after) (Wesley finds her at the feet of the statue) ("Ah - oops. - I may have made a tiny mistake. The word Shanshu that I said meant you were going to die? Actually I think it means that you are going to live. It's- it's saying - that you get to live until you die. - It's saying - it's saying you become human.") “My world is gone.” “Now you know how I feel.” (A duet) (She allows Wesley to escape from the dead world) “There is one thing more powerful than conviction. Just one. Mercy.” (Angel and Spike are sitting, talking, a duet-- while Wesley isolated between them stares into nothingness) “She still has enough juice to be a threat. We regroup and we take care of it.” (Wesley leaves) “That offer still good? Send me abroad, roving agent and all? ... Maybe we should send Gunn.” “You're not leaving?” “This is what she would have wanted. ... (“I’m love’s bitch It's what I want. (“You know you and I’m man enough I don't really like you. got a to admit it.”) Suppose I never will. willing slave--”) But this is important, what's happening here. (“Why did we go there? Why did we think we could beat it?”) (“That is why you are gonna lose, because we possess the most powerful thing in the world... conviction.”) Fred gave her life for it. The least I can do is give what's left of mine. Things are gonna get ugly. That's where I live.” (A duet.) (Angelus to Wes: “Foul rag and bone shop of the heart. That's where you live.”) Yeats wrote: “This place... I sought a theme was part of the shell.” and sought for it in vain ... “The woman you killed had a name!” And then a counter-theme filled out its play ... She, pity-crazed, had given “This is important to you. her soul away Things have names. But masterful Heaven had intervened to save it. The shell... I thought my dear must her own soul destroy Winifred Burkle. So did fanaticism and hate enslave it, She can't return to you. And this brought forth a dream and soon enough Yet there are fragments. This dream itself had all my thought and love.... memories.” ‘Please...Wesley, why can't I stay?’ “I must learn These masterful images became complete to walk in this world. Grew in pure mind but out of what? I'll need your help... Wesley. ... refuse or the sweepings of a street, Because I look like her.” Old kettles, old bottles, and a broken can “We cling to what is gone. Is there anything in this life but grief?” Old iron, old bones, old rags, “There's love. that raving slut / Who keeps the till. There's hope...for some. Now that my ladder’s gone There's hope that / I must lie down you’ll find something worthy... where all the ladders start that your life will lead you / In the foul rag and to some joy... bone shop that after everything... of the heart. you can still be surprised.” "Even as life and death are not two things but one... In darkness is the light, in light is the darkness." End with two duets: --Wesley/Illyria, Spike/Angel-- all others fractured into solo notes “Someday What?! I’ll go What happened? where there ain’t How can they— What? no rain or snow I-- Still here, ghost? 'Til then, I travel alone. Begone, Pavayne. And I make my bed You’ll pay-- You bore me. with the stars above my head I’ll shred-- (waves hand) And dream of a place (implosion) There. called home.” All gone. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (And in the last image, Illyria touches her sarcophagus and, perhaps, remembers Fred’s memories ... how when she left, she ripped a hole in their world)