Gunn's Basement
Gunn is lying on a table, as a demon is about to cut out his heart. Suddenly the sound of machine guns can be heard and the door bursts open. The demon stops what he's doing and goes to stop Illyria who is coming down the stairs. She throws the demon across the room and rips the medallion from Gunn's neck. Gunn remembers who he is and then recognises Fred, but soon realises its Illyria. He tells her he can't leave the dimension unless someone replaces him. Illyria thinks about this.

Gunn's Basement
The demon is on the table with the medallion around his neck. He raises his arm and goes to cut his own heart out.

Angel's Office
Wesley is explaining that he didn't send Illyria to get Gunn, he explained the situation to her and she chose to go. Angel asks if she's Wesley's little helper now, because "she sure helped beat me up".
Wesley tells Angel she was the ruler of the world and therefore is bound to have some power issues, but Angel isn't happy. Wesley says he affords Illyria some amusement and that could be why she's stayed with them. Angel thinks she's after the power and influence of Wolfram & Hart so that she can get back to what she was before. Wesley wonders if they could find a way to bring her on board, and Angel asks if he means make her part of the team.

Just then there's a ripple and Illyria appears with Gunn. She picks Gunn up by the throat and asks Angel and Wesley if this 'thing' is valuable beyond price. Angel tells her to put him down, but Wesley says that Gunn is valuable to them, then asks if she's talking about the debt they now owe her. She says yes and puts Gunn down, then leaves.

Angel looks at Wesley and says, "Go team!"

Opening credits

Main

Wolfram & Hart
Gunn is back to wearing his street clothes as he steps out of the lift. He goes to his office and finds a pile of files waiting for him.

Wesley's Office
Wesley is running round his office in a manic fashion and there are books all over his desk, the floor, everywhere. Gunn calls to him and he looks up, then he says he stabbed Gunn and he'd like to apologise, but he thinks it would just be awkward. Gunn says, "Good call".
Gunn says he isn't looking for a sorry anyway, having his heart cut out every day for two weeks puts things in perspective. Wesley asks what he is looking for and Gunn says "a compass maybe."

Gunn can't get his head round the fact that the thing that killed his friend just saved his life and nobody knows why. He can't work out which way is up. Wesley says it's all adjustment, to the job, to himself, to Illyria. He says he can't look at her without seeing Fred. Gunn asks if Wesley has her on a leash and he says no, that she's monumentally self-possessed, but a bit violent.

The Training Room
Illyria is hitting Spike, but Spike hits her back. She asks if he had affection for Fred and Spike says he 'loved the bird'. Illyria asks how he can hit her without emotion if he feels that way and Spike says, "Because you ain't her."
She goes to hit Spike again and he avoids her blow and hits her instead. She tells him he's adapting, but that adaptation is a compromise. Spike says it's learning. She goes off about how she used to rule, that Illyria was all they needed, but Spike says, "Now they've got the internet".

Spike goes to kick her and she stops time, then she hits him as Angel's voice comes over the intercom telling Spike he wants to talk to him. Illyria tells Spike he can go, but Spike just laughs and walks out.

Spike tells Angel that he's starting to catch on to her moves, but the time stop thing is "A royal bitch".
Angel tells him he has to stop these sessions, he's not learning from her; she's learning from him, testing him. Illyria appears behind Spike clutching her stomach and Spike says, "I got her winded at least. That's right little Shiva, guess you'll think twice next time."

Gunn's Office
Lorne pops in to see if Gunn's ok. He's dressed in his usual colourful suit with dark glasses and a hat. Angel has given him the job of trailing Illyria.

Gunn asks Lorne if he's spoken to Wesley. Lorne says they've exchanged words but he wouldn't exactly call it talking, so Gunn tells him he was in Wesley's office. Lorne tells him not to go in there, it's where he keeps his 'fulltime crazy'. He says Wesley is like two different people, when he's out of the office he's almost catatonic, but when he's inside, he's as jittery as a bug on a hot-plate obsessing over finding every little titbit on Illyria. Gunn asks Lorne if he's spoken to Angel about it, but Lorne says he's not very talkative either. Just then there's a crackling sound and Angel's voice comes over a walkie-talkie Lorne is carrying. Angel tells Lorne they're meeting in his office, now.

Angel's office
Angel wants to get rid of Illyria. Spike asks if he wants her somewhere safe or killed. Angel says she didn't have any problem killing Fred, but Wesley says that she infected Fred without malice. Angel tells them they need to find a way of dealing with her and Wesley says what Angel wants is for him to find a way to kill her. Angel asks if he has a problem with that and Wesley says no.

Gunn tells them he's still having problems getting his head around the idea of another apocalypse. Spike tells him that they're apparently on the wrong side, or the right side if you want to win. When Gunn says he can't believe it, Angel tells him to look round next time he's outside.

Gunn asks how they deal with it, but Angel says he doesn't know how to fight an invisible war, he doesn't even know who the enemy is. With all the evil they stop they're still the partners number one earner. Hamilton enters the room, saying, "Not any more".
He lists the vast amount of damage Illyria did freeing Gunn. Angel just says, "Bill me".
Hamilton tells him the damages are coming straight out of their divisions' profits. Angel just says, "And?"
Hamilton tells him as a corporate go-getter Angel should know what comes after 'and'. Angel tells him it's not a priority, but Hamilton says they need to think about profits because that's what keeps their 'plucky little venture' going. He tells them the Senior Partners have a job for Angel, the file is being sent to Gunn to look over. As he leaves he tells them it's a profit making enterprise, not a bat cave.

Lorne turns to the others and says, "Still liked him better than Eve."

Wesley's Office
Illyria wants to know what day it is. She tells Wesley they've already had this conversation. Wesley says they've discussed systems of temporal measurement, weights and measures, world history, etc, but she then says he's her guide and her betrayer. He shattered the Orlon Window to change time to bring back Fred and destroy her. Wesley says that would have been an unavoidable side effect but that all he did was bring back more painful memories, however he has come to understand how irreversible the works of time are.

Wesley realises Illyria is bothered by his betrayal but she says she's only bothered because she's bothered.

Angel's Office
Gunn walks into the office with a file. He tells Angel it's a contract with some demons and Angel is to act as the firms' witness. Angel asks Gunn when he met Hamilton. Gunn tells him about Hamilton offering to release him from the alternate dimension, but that he turned him down. He says he's not into making deals, not any more. Angel says that would make it difficult to be a lawyer but Gunn says it was always difficult, making business with scaly demons run smoothly. Just then a pregnant woman walks in saying she's there about the demon pact.

The woman tells them that the Fell Brethren found her and told her that her baby was some kind of Holy One. Gunn asks what she knows about them, and she says they're very supportive. Gunn warns her that demon pacts can be riddled with clauses and they should check it, as she's their client. A deep voice says, "She's not your client, we are" and we see three demons standing at the door.

Wesley's Office
Wesley is working on his books while Illyria wanders around his office. He tells her she doesn't look well and she realises that his opinion of her weighs less than some others might, and then she clasps her stomach in pain and knocks a glass of water over as she time shifts to appear in the training room. Angel tells Wesley to 'do it now' so he points a strange gun at her, but she again grabs her stomach as she time shifts. This time she's in the booth outside the training room where Spike tells Angel, "I got her winded at least. That's right little Shiva, guess you'll think twice next time."
Spike looks at Illyria and says, "A good knee to the ribs does catch up on you", and then she doubles over again and is back in Wesley's office knocking the glass over.

She looks at him and says, "You tried to kill me. Again" and shoves the desk at him, pinning him to the wall. Wesley doesn't know what she's talking about and tells her he doesn't want her dead, but she tells him she was there she saw it. Then she walks out of the office.

From behind a pot plant, Lorne contacts Angel on the walkie-talkie and tells him that the 'bluebird' is in flight.

The Corridor outside Angel's Office
The Fell Brethren are in a huddle talking as Harmony comes over to them. She tells them Angel needs a few more minutes, but they say they should be in the office if 'the Vessel' is causing problems. Harmony tells them Angel will sort it out.

Angel's Office
Angel asks Amanda, the Vessel, if she's sure she wants to sign her baby over. Gunn tells her there's some 'wiggle room' in the contract.

Amanda tells them that she knows it's bad signing over her baby, but the Fell Brethren think her child is someone to be worshipped, someone important. They can give him everything her and her husband can't. Her husband was left brain damaged after an accident at work and the Brethren have told her they can cure him.

Gunn walks out of the office to Angel's inner office. Angel excuses himself and follows.

Angel's Inner Office
Gunn tells Angel he's not feeling well, which Angel thinks is normal on his first day back from a Hell dimension. Gunn tells him it wasn't the demon cutting out his heart in the basement that was the worst part; it was the happy life upstairs that was used to hide the horror. Then he asks Angel if that's what they are doing at Wolfram & Hart. Angel tells him he needs him to get through this because they have to be ready for the next person they have to help, but Gunn tells Angel Amanda is the next person.

Harmony knocks and comes in. She tells them the Brethren are getting impatient. Angel tells her to send them in.

The Lab
Wesley is looking through a microscope when Hamilton comes in. He tells Wesley that the Senior Partners know Illyria from way back and they don't want her here. In fact they don't want her anywhere, but they consider this to be Wesley's fight. Then Hamilton tells him to check her low-level emissions.

The Hallway
'Secret Demon' tells Angel that Illyria has noticed him following her. When he gets no reply, Lorne runs after her and asks her if she 'made' him in the lift because, "That was a difficult one".

Angel's Office
As Amanda is about to sign the contract, Gunn notices that there is a clause that the child will be prepared for a ritual sacrifice on his 13th birthday. When he points this out, the leader of the fell Brethren angrily asks whose lawyer he is. Then Illyra marches into the office and demands to speak to Angel. The Fell Brethren get annoyed at the disturbance, but when Illyria says she'll end the meeting if he doesn't talk to her, Angel takes her outside.

The Hallway
Lorne is trying to get Angel on the walkie-talkie.

Angel leads Illyria away from his office then angrily turns on her telling her not to disturb their world. She asks what he's used to try to kill her, although she's impressed with the power of he's using, but she thinks it's absurd that he would do anything but bow to her will. Angel tells her they haven't done anything to her, but she just says he's jealous of her. He thinks she's gone mad and tells her he has things to do. She grabs him by the throat, but he just tells her to get her hands off him, and she puts him down saying he wouldn't know yet, it's too early.

Lorne tells Angel he has to "keep his thingie on if this is to work" and Angel just knocks Lorne's hat off. "Oh that's mature!" Lorne says as Angel walks away.
Harmony tells him things are getting 'shouty' in his office but he tells her to let Gunn deal with it as he walks away.

The Lab
Angel walks into the lab and tells Wesley and Spike that Illyria has blown a gasket. Spike wants to know how he can tell.

Wesley tells Angel that Illyria is leaking energy. Her human body can't contain the power she has and now she's going into meltdown. If this happens she'll take out several blocks of the city at a conservative guess, the entire continental shelf at worst. Angel asks when Wesley was going to tell him this and he says he wasn't, he and Spike were dealing with it. Wesley opens a case and takes out a big gun type thing. It's a Mutary Generator. It creates a pinhole into a pocket dimension and will draw her energy into it.

Angel asks where she is and Spike says she's in the training room. They go there and find Lorne outside annoyed that Angel doesn't even seem able to use the walkie-talkie. They all go in, but the room is empty and Lorne says he didn't see her leave. Spike is about to say you don't always see her when she appears behind him and stakes him. Angel says, "Wes, do it now" and she throws him across the room before throwing a knife at Wesley, killing him. She then stabs Lorne before pulling an axe off the wall and beheading Angel as he flies at her. She stands smiling over his ashes. Then she doubles over in pain and finds herself back at her conversation in the corridor with Angel. She lifts him by the throat just as she doubles over again, but this time when she time shifts, Angel is with her.

Wesley's Office
Angel and Illyria appear in Wesley's office. Wesley can't understand how Angel has just appeared there, and Angel wants to know what Illyria did to him. She says he wasn't there before, that he's an aberration in the time line. Again she time shifts and Angel goes with her to the hell dimension where Gunn was trapped. She asks him how they managed to rip her out of linear progression and stitch her back into a fractured time line. She then realises this isn't what she said the first time, and again asks how they did it. Angel tells her it isn't them and she hits him. She then tells him that when she was God-King humans were primordial muck, but Angel just gets angry and tells her to shut up with the speechifying. She can't believe he would dare to speak to her like that, but he tells her he can't have her bouncing around in his kingdom and he will do anything he has to do to stop it, just like he knows she would. She gets very annoyed and starts to scream, but they time shift again, this time to after when she killed them all. She tells him the order she killed them in and he says he's next, but she throws the axe she's holding down in the dust and says, "No, you were last."

Illyria realises he's now a paradox as he's from the earlier time. Angel thinks they attacked her, but she says she didn't give them the chance, that's what it is to be a King. You have to be immoral. She tells Angel he is trapped within the web of the wolf, the ram and the hart, with massive power at his hands and he quibbles at the price. To have true power he must serve no master than his ambition.

Angel realises that if he's there things can change, and she tells him that everything can change as she cracks and light pours from her. Angel is blasted back against the wall and then finds himself walking down the corridor behind Wesley and Spike. He tells them that Illyria is going into overload. The others tell him that's what they've been talking about and don't listen to him as he tells them what's going to happen.

The Training Room
They all walk into the training room as they did before, but Angel realises this "isn't good".
He thinks back to what Illyria said about killing them and he pushes Spike out of the way and gets staked by Illyria as she appears. However, as he's taller than Spike, the stake misses his heart. Angel pulls the stake out and tells Illyra to wait and the others to stay still.

Illyria realises that he is the Angel from the past and he knows what's going to happen. He tells them all that she will explode, but she says he's asking her to let them murder her. Wesley tells her the device won't kill her, that it will draw away her power, but it will let her live. She says she would rather be a titanic crater than be like them as she is her power. She says she kills them, that's how this ends, but Spike throws her across the room, saying she's getting ahead of herself. Angel tells her she can change the end and survive. She asks Wesley if he would do this to her and he says he would try every time. She's annoyed that she can't contain her power within this body then she starts to crack. Wesley shoots the gun at her and her power is drained away and she collapses to the floor. Wesley calls her name and she says, "Touch me and die vermin".
Spike doesn't think there's much of a change in her, but Wesley says everything has changed.

The Lab Observation Room
As they look out into the lab at Illyria, Angel asks what the prognosis is. Wesley tells him she can no longer time shift or walk through dimensions, and that her strength has been decreased. Angel says that's what he needed to know.

Angel tells Wesley he doesn't like where this is going, or where it's been. Wesley says he knows, but for some reason he just needs it right now. Angel says, "yeah. And that's just weird."
Wesley agrees. He thinks Illyria could still be problematic for them, that she'll still try to conquer everything. Angel says, "Serve no master but your ambition".
Wesley asks what he said but Angel just says he could be right about her being a resource, she could still make the team.

Angel's Office
A big row is going on between the Fell Brethren and Gunn. Hamilton is passing the buck to Angel when Angel walks in. He tells Gunn that the baby belongs to the Fell Brethren. He then calls the Brethren through to sign the papers. When Gunn asks him what he's doing, Angel says, "What we're supposed to do. Serve our clients."

Closing credits