COLUMNS THEATER – NIGHT

We start with a sequence of the episode “Destiny” #8
Angel is laying on the floor defeated by Spike. He is coughing, spitting up blood. He gasps as he pulls the stake out of his shoulder. With a pained grunt, Angel rolls over and sits up, looking at Spike. Spike takes the chalice, standing in front of the lit pedestal and ………..

Angel :
Spike... Spike, wait. That's not a prize you're holding. It's not a trophy. It's a burden. It's a …..

Spike : Blah, blah, blah. Give it a rest, hero. I win, you lose, and all your talking’s not gonna change that.

Angel : It’s not your destiny. It’s mine.

Spike as he turns face to Angel : Still can’t accept it? It’s pathetic, really. All your life’s been a lie. Everything you’ve done ; the lives you’ve saved, dreams of redemption ; all that pain … all of it FOR NOTHING. ‘Cause this …. ( looks at the chalice) was never about you.

Cheers.

And he drinks.

Angel : NO !!!

At this moment Spike is infused with an unearthly glow, he exhales sharply, straightens up his body and lets the chalice fall from his hands. As it hits the ground , rolling slowly at his feet, Angel watches this scene with a pained expression on his face while Spike is surrounded by light. When the light fades, Angel starts to groan, gasping and screaming in pain while his face disintegrates, burning up, going to dust.



ANGEL'S OFFICE – NIGHT

Angel wakes up, panting. He looks around, realizing he is sitting in his office. It was only a nightmare.

Somewhere in LA – Night Club “Peppermint Stick”

Spike is sitting at a table near the stage, drinking a whisky while he disinterestedly watches a blonde pole-dancer He finishes his drink, sets the glass on the table and reaches into his jeans to get money for another one. But before he can order, someone places a fresh drink on his table. Spike looks up to see a man. (Christian Kane aka Lindsey - aka Doyle in Spike's version)

Spike thanks him friendly though with a grin on his face.

The man wants to talk to Spike but Spike blows him off.

The man then calls Spike by name reminding him if he had an interesting mail lately.

He has Spike’s attention. Curious Spike asks who the bloody hell he is .

The man answers he is his new BEST friend.


Opening Credits


Back at the Night Club.


Spike and The man are talking. Coming to the conclusion that The man was responsible for bringing Spike back. And Spike can call him Doyle.



LOBBY OF WOLFRAM & HART - NIGHT
Wesley and Gunn are having a heated discussion as they walk down the hall toward the lobby.

Wesley is suggesting a pre-emptive strike to Gunn. They want to take out a powerful warlock.

They both enter Angel’s office, still arguing.

Angel sits at his desk, confused by the sight of them. Angel calls at them, making them notice he is there. They bring up their case, fill him in. Angel asks then if they are doing it because it is right or because it's cost-effective? Gunn says it’s a bit of both and Wesley says it’s a grey area.

Angel is upset, by Wesley’s comment, telling them to explain it to him again.


Back at the Peppermint Stick – Night Club


Spike stands up leaving ‘Doyle’ and walks to the exit. He says he heard enough and that Doyle talks a lot for somebody saying nothing. Doyle puts his hand on Spike’s shoulder to stop him “You’ve got a destiny …”

As quick Spike turns on Doyle, putting his hand to his throat, violently pushing his back to the wall. “Like the destiny that was supposed to be at the bottom of a cup of perpetual nothing?”

Spike accuses him of having him sent on a wild goose chase. Doyle says he doesn’t know anything, he is just doing what They tell him to do. He explains he started to have visions op people in trouble, who needed a hero. Spike tells him that is Angel’s territory .

Doyle says as Angel works the other side of the tracks now they need Spike.

There is a young girl in trouble and Spike has to save her.


DARK ALLEY – NIGHT

A young girl is being attacked by a vampire, her back against the wall, the vampire going for her neck. She screams.

Spike interrupts the vampire, and after some kicking and fighting à la Angel he saves the girl. The young woman thanks him, but Spike says she’s stupid for walking in a dark alley and wearing heels. He tells her to take a cab home.

Doyle is sitting on a nearby fire escape landing. “Believe me now ?”

Spike : What your victim vision? Please. Can’t throw a bloody stone in this town without hitting some bimbo in trouble.

Doyle tells him he is saving people now but in a different way, as there was nothing in it for him when he saved this girl as he wasn’t to try to impress anybody.


ANGEL'S OFFICE - NIGHT
Wesley and Gunn are still arguing while Angel looks on from behind his desk. Fred walks into the office carrying a lab report. Wesley asks her if they can use the WR&H satellite to covertly destroy people.

The sound of the others arguing fade into faint noises as Angel gets lost in troubled thought

Angel tells them they should kill them all.

They all look at him

Fred : What ?

Angel : Warlocks, minions—they're all evil. Sold their kids to the devil. Let's just wipe 'em all out. We got the power to do that, right?

Angel says they should get back to the basics of good versus evil. Gunn mentions they have to tread lightly.

They ask if he is feeling alright. Angel tells them he is tired but Gunn should set up a meeting with the informer.

Angel leaves his office and ambles to his personal elevator with labored breathing

ANGEL'S APARTMENT - NIGHT
Angel steps out of his elevator into his dark apartment. Wes has followed him and helps him as he seems weak. Angel groans he must be sick. Wesley says vampires don’t get sick. Wesley points out that Angel must be having trouble coming to grips with the situation, that he is IRRELEVANT now.
Angel doesn’t understand what he is talking about, but Wes tells him not to worry because they have Spike now as he pulls out a stake. Angel screams … ……..

He awakens, sitting on the edge of his bed, gasping. He wasn't staked.

DARK ALLEY – NIGHT

We see a couple being attacked by vampires, Spike is there defending them.

There are kicks and punches ; Spike's coat billowing around him as he high-kicks a vampire on the top of a car; Spike crouching close to the ground to sweep-kick the ankles of the other vampire, knocking him off balance and sending him to the ground. Spike stands, waiting for the two vampires to charge at him and dusts them. Spike admires the gadgets on his wrists. He then looks up at the couple still crouching behind the car. They asks who he is , he answers face down saying softly ‘I’m the hero’.


LOBBY OF WOLFRAM & HART - DAY
The next morning, Wesley walks up to Harmony's desk and asks her to take something to accounting. She says she can’t because she authorized by accident a bath of the month subscription. He tell her to give them his account code and cut the check. Eve comes up and says he’s solving problems by throwing money at them. He asks what she wants and she tells him she needs Angel.

Wes tells her whatever it is it will probably be handed over to him anyway. She gives him a piece of stone with runes on it, telling the senior partners want to know what it is.

Wes says he will look into it and will fill Angel in.


ANGEL'S BEDROOM – DAY

We see Angel tossing and turning, sleeping in his bed, groaning feverishly.

Fred comes in and says he looks terrible.

Angel tells her something is wrong with him as she assures him she know what to do.

Turns her back to him, snapping on a surgical glove on her hand. “Let's take a look under the hood.”

The set changes and we are in Fred’s lab but Angel is still in his bed. She starts to cut him open, he is fully awake, she removes organs, and with every removal she comments.

Angel asks her to stop but she continues, reaches deeper inside Angel, causing him to wince
”Hang on. Oh. “ as Angel gasps, Fred pulls a fishbowl half-filled with water out of him; upon closer inspection, she sees a goldfish in the bowl,
”There's your soul!” notices the goldfish is dead
”Ooh. We're gonna have to flush this. “
turns, hands the fishbowl to a man in a bear suit who's standing behind her
”Thank you, bear. “
turns back to Angel, sighs
”Huh!”

Angel asks her what’s wrong.

But there is nothing wrong with him he is just “Empty”.


We see Angel still in his apartment, in his own bed, with his chest uncut, groaning with fever.

WESLEY'S OFFICE – DAY

Wesley is showing the relic fragment Eve gave him to Fred. Gunn walks in with a report of vigilante activity. After a while they realize it must be Spike.


BASEMENT APARTMENT - DAY
Doyle gives Spike his own apartment. Spike doesn’t like it, but Doyle says you need a Spartan existence to be a hero.


ANGEL'S BEDROOM - DAY
Angel is still in his bed, tossing and turning with fever, when he hears people panting and groaning next to him. He turns to see Spike beside him, lying on top of a blonde, having sex. (We don’t see her face, but we hear her voice over). She talks about the prom, Angel says he was going to take her to the prom. Spike says he has something on his shirt and he can't be a marathon man with all their yammering.

Angel wakes up, once again it was a nightmare ; He's alone and rolls over and sighs in relief, sitting up , hanging his feet off the edge of the bed.


LOBBY OF WOLFRAM & HART - DAY
Angel steps out of the elevator into the lobby of Wolfram & Hart wearing the same shirt he wore the previous day. Fred walks up to him. She looks at him and says he forgot something, his shoes and he should put on a fresh shirt. Gunn runs up and says they’re about to miss it. Angel follows them , still bare feet, passes a refreshment stand into a movie theatre.

They are watching the Apocalypse, Rain of Fire as Wesley tells him Spike will take care of it. Lorne tells Angel that there is something on his shirt. Angel looks at it and sees the stain.


ANGEL'S BEDROOM - DAY
Angel is still hallucinating, we see on his chest a glistening, slimy, blue creature feeding on him.


LOBBY OF WOLFRAM & HART – DAY

We see the gang , Fred is holding a cake with “Way to go Spike” written on it.

Everybody is singing “For he's a jolly good fellow”

Spike has saved the world. They want him to give a speech. He doesn’t know what to say “I'm just a... working-class bloke fulfilling his destiny. It was nothing, really”

We see Angel in the background, sorrowful look on his face.

A fairy appears and grants Spike his wish, “he becomes a real boy”.

Angel watches this with confused disappointment.

Fred listens to Spike’s heartbeat, as Angel goes for his chest, holding a hand over his still heart. His outfit has changed from CEO to Delivery Boy. He's standing beside the mail cart. Consigned to his fate, Angel turns away slowly, sadly, and pushes the mail cart down the hallway.


SPIKE'S APARTMENT – DAY

Wesley and Gunn pay him a visit, they want him to come back and help fight evil at their side. Spike notes WR& H doesn’t change, it changes them.

Gunn : Things aren't that cut-and-dried, Spike. We're making a difference. We're just... playing by a new set of rules.

Spike : So what? You want me to... put on a suit, come play with you?

He suddenly realizes they haven’t told Angel about their offer and suspects they are hedging their bets concerning the prophecy.


EVE'S APARTMENT - DAY
Doyle is lying on the bed talking to Eve, who's sitting on him, straddling him.

He asks her if they have checked up on Angel, she says they are too busy working on a relic.

Doyle talks about having build up Spike and tear down Angel, the senior partners will soon think they are backing the wrong horse, and if they find out who is behind is he is as good as dead. Eve comments on his markings on his skin , the runes. He says that is the only think keeping him off WR&H’s radar. She asks if he will give her what she wants as she reaches out for a box on the bedside table.

LOBBY OF WOLFRAM & HART - DAY
Wesley and Gunn walk out of the elevator , across the lobby. Fred spots them and hustles to catch up to them. They say Spike thinks they sold out, she mentions they should tell Angel. Gunn disagrees. Then Fred realizes nobody has heard from Angel.

They try to call him up but Angel sleeps through it.

ANGEL'S BEDROOM - DAY
The telephone rings in Angel's apartment, but he's still asleep and dreaming.

Angel sits up in bed with a start. There is a piano playing in the background. He turns to see Lorne dressed up western saloon piano player, complete with suspenders and moustache.

Angel : Lorne ?

Lorne tells him he is called Honky Tonk


LOBBY OF WOLFRAM & HART - DAY
Fred waits while Harmony is on the phone.

There is no answer only voice mail. Fred says she’ll go check in as Eve comes up and asks how the tests are going. She says the senior partners really want the analysis of this relic very fast. Finally Fred gives in and goes back to the lab.

ANGEL'S BEDROOM - DAY
Lorne is playing "My Darling Clementine" on the piano. Angel is still in bed beside the piano. Harmony comes in dressed as a saloon girl bringing Lorne a drink.

Angel tells him he is lost and doesn’t know what to do.

Lorne tell him to sing it but as Angel tries to bring out one single note, spotlights on him, not a sound comes out of his throat.

Fred remarks she told them he was empty as we see the gang sitting at a bar table.

Wesley says they paid good money, that they paid blood.

Lorne tells Angel the crowd is turning on him. Gunn hisses, revealing his silvery cat-eyes at Angel.

Eve comes in, walks up to the table where Fred, Wes, and Gunn are sitting
to Angel : “ You poor thing. You're really suffering, aren't you?”

Lorne mentions him he still got that stain on his shirt.

Angel looks down to see the slimy creature munching on his chest. He puts his left hand over it and pulls it off.

ANGEL'S BEDROOM – DAY

The instant Angel pulls it off of his chest, he awakens with a fright. He's still holding the creature in his hand. It screeches, and he squeezes it to death, still gasping from the pain.

Eve : Wow. You killed junior.

Angel turns to see Eve standing at his bedroom door holding a box

Angel : Eve ?

Eve : I'm not here, Angel. You're dreaming. But don't worry. The dream's almost over

Eve opens the box, letting out a substantially larger slimy creature. It’s crawling up Angel as she leaves the room. But Angel has the strength to knock the creature off the bed and falls out of the other side of the bed and crawls painfully across the floor.

SPIKE'S APARTMENT - DAY
Spike walks into his apartment carrying a 6-pack of "Brockman" beer only to find his apartment door was open. He sighs and walks in. Doyle is there. Spike tries to get him to leave, but fails as Doyle pretends to have another vision. Holding his head in pain, saying Spike will definitely want to save this one.

ANGEL'S BEDROOM - DAY
Angel crawls across the floor towards the desk. He tries to reach for the phone, He tugs at the phone cord, pulling the phone off the hook, but falls over in exhaustion. The creature crawls slowly on his chest.

Suddenly we see Angel sitting outside in a sunny, grassy meadow in a comfortable leather chair.

Fred is there telling this is nice.

Angel turns to see Fred walking up to him in a country sundress, her hair softly flowing around her face. Wesley, Gunn, and Lorne are following close behind her.

Wesley tells Angel he can stay there as long as he wants to. “Stay forever”.

Angel says it can’t as there is still so much to do. They assure him they can cover things, he can let go, the only thing he has to do is to stop caring.

Fred screams, the others scream, …

And we see Spike reaching down, grabbing the blue creature on Angel's chest, pulling it off throwing it across the room, smashing it into a wall and killing it.

Angel wakes up : “Spike ?”

Spike :” No need to thank me. Just helping the helpless” and leaves the room.

ANGEL'S BEDROOM - DAY
Wesley walks out of the bedroom, wiping his hands on a hand towel, explaining it was a Selminth parasite. It injects anaesthetics and neurotoxins which paralyse the host and cause him hallucinations. The victim doesn’t even notices it is there.

Angel talks about his dreams, about Fred operating on him, Lorne being the Honk Tonk piano player.

Lorne says it was a good thing Spike showed up and saved Angel and asks how he knew.

Angel says he didn’t tell. Gunn wonders how the creature got to Angel in the first place, Fred options it might have escaped from storage.

But then Angel realizes it was Eve, that she was in his room. She brought in the big one when he had destroyed the little one. Wesley says there was only one and maybe Angel is confusing dream with reality. Angel insists, telling the others Eve changed her clothes, but not her earrings as he recognizes them from his dream only it wasn’t a dream.

Eve is flattered he dreamed about her but he is wrong.

Fred tells her she did change clothes and she’s never seen the earrings on Eve before.

Angel is sure the senior partners didn't give him the reins to their law firm just to turn him into a vegetable.

Angel : Playing your own game here? What do you think the partners'll do to you after they find out about your little extracurricular activities?

Eve says things aren’t going well for him and he’s looking for someone outside his little circle to blame.

She walks towards the elevator saying : “

Here's a thought. Maybe you should try looking inward... unless you don't like what you see.

Angel stares angrily after Eve as she leaves. Over his shoulder the gang is standing behind him, watching Eve with suspicious eyes as the elevator door closes on her.