Los Angeles, California 2002

Hyperion Hotel

For as large as Los Angeles was compared to other cities on the West Coast, the City of Angel's never felt more lonely.

Darkness loomed in the skies covering the daylight. Demons from the black depths below had emerged to the surface and wreaked havoc on the helpless. Evil seemed to have the upper hand in the forever power struggle between the forces. The city's great protector was held underground; forced into a cell, torn apart by the dark force of Evil.

At the Angel Investigation's headquarters in the seventy-four-year-old Hyperion Hotel, the White Hat team sat in its lobby in complete shock and utter dismay. They felt the strength of Evil gaining ground in the city but they could not react. There only chance of hope sat in the basement below consumed by its darkness.

"I can't believe it." A small voice muttered from the red couch placed in the centre of the lobby. Fred sat in a daze holding her head in her hands staring at the tiled floor wondering where they had gone wrong. "We lost it." Her eyes lifted to the hard face of the seasoned vampire hunter standing at the counter running a hand over his smooth bald head. "I can't believe we lost it."

"Ugh," Cordelia Chase scoffed from the edge of the couch rolling her eyes finding the mousy women too dramatic and irritating. "Thank you, Fred for pointing out the obvious—yet again." She rolled her eyes.

Taken back by the sarcastic tone, Fred turned her head to Cordelia, "We lost Angel's soul, Cordy. This is really bad."

"On all of its cosmic levels sweetie. What's happened to Angel is by far the worst possible scenario," The peace-loving Deathwok demon, Lorne smiled at Cordelia careful not to rattle the situation anymore, "So I gotta side with mouse-y over here and say, this is very, very bad."

Cordelia pinched her brows together deepening the frown on her face. "Yeah, I know. It wasn't my fault."

"It's all of our faults," Fred said.

Cordelia snapped her eyes to the young brunette with annoyance. "Don't you think you're being a little bit overdramatic?"

Staring at her with disbelief, Fred opened her mouth to respond when the basement door opened.

Those remaining in the lobby turned their heads to Wesley and Conner stepped out from the basement and closed the door.

Cordelia stood dropping the sarcastic attitude immediately as soon as Wesley and Connor came into view. She held her hands together looking at the men with concern, "So? What happened? What did he say?"

Looking defeated and exhausted, Wesley ran a hand through his unkempt hair and said, "Well, he said, he was not going to tell us anything we need to know in order to defeat the Beast and bring back the sun from its eclipse." Wesley shook his head with disappointment searching his mind for an alternative plan.

Cordelia dropped the fashion magazine in her hand onto the couch seat and started for the basement door when Connor wrapped his hand around her elbow pulling her back.

"What are you doing?" Connor dark haired eighteen-year-old asked.

"I'm going to go talk to him," Cordelia replied.

"What makes you think Angelus will corporate with you?" Wesley asked folding his arms across his chest. He had sensed a strong attraction between her and the vampire of late. Wesley wondered if the young woman was overestimating her crush on him. Who knows how much Angel actually returned her feelings.

Cordelia stood taller with an air of confidence, "Because… Angel and I know each other," she subtlety reminded the group. "I've seen him like this before. I know how to talk to him when he's like this." She turned her eyes to Connor's face and eyed the hand still wrapped around her elbow. "Do you mind?"

Reluctantly, Connor dropped his hand to his side and watched as Cordelia cross the lobby room to the basement door.

The Investigation Team quickly moved to the security desk hooked up to the monitors and camera's pointing at the cell in the basement. Gunn reached over a monitor to the speaker knob and cranked it up to hear the conversation that will shortly ensue.

Basement

With each careful step, the wooden stairs creaked giving away any element of surprise. The basement was dark; lit with a single swinging light bulb in the cell. The air was damp, cold with emptiness was unbearable unwelcoming. There was an Evil presence in the room and the suffocating cold darkness was its proof.

Cordelia silently walked to the thick red safety line painted across the concrete floor facing the cell cage in front of her. She patiently waited at the line staring into the black shadows awaiting his appearance.

"Cordelia Chase," A deep velvet voice purred her name seductively. His tall and board figure emerged from the darkness and stepped underneath the fading light bulb. "About time you've paid me a visit." His soft words were laced with venomous sarcasm which was easily mistaken as an attraction. Angelus stepped forward wrapping his hands around the cell bars. His dark menacing eyes ran over Cordelia from head to toe stripping her clothing from her curvy body in the process. What he had envisioned in his mind was not bad at all but there was always room for improvement, he decided. "Cordy, Cordy, Cordy, you just can't stay away."

Seemingly unintimidated by the soulless vampire, Cordelia stepped forward and said in her best confident voice, "It's been a long day and I think you've done enough damage."

Angelus smirked, "So, no hug?"

"You and I are gonna make a deal," she said with command.

Angelus found enjoyment in Cordelia's tough-girl-act. "Tough." He smirked. "Did you practice that in front of the mirror a few times? Lemme guess. You want to know about the Beast?"

Cordelia raised a highbrow and plastered a smug smirk across her attractive face. "Everything you know."

"Oh," With a nod, Angelus narrowed his eyes at her and tilted his head to the side for a moment. "And in return, I get what?" Angelus began to pace back and forth with his hands behind his back. "Wouldn't mind a car," his smile was dark. "I hear the new Mustang is nice."

Following in the vampire's movements, Cordelia paced along with him said, "Something better."

Angelus stepped to the cell bars holding them in his hands, "What's a better ride than a Mustang?"

Cordelia stopped pacing and faced him. Her expression was serious and determined, "Me."

Angelus let her words settle in his mind for a moment. His eyes were on her face taking in every detail of her expression. "You?"

"That's the offer. No more stalling, no more games. You tell me what you know, you get me."

"There must be some confusion. You may have taken out the soul, but I still have the brain." Angelus smirked.

"Then use it." Cordelia held her hands at her hips showing off her hourglass figure. "The Beast, the darkness—the world is falling apart. We're out of time, we're out of ideas. You're the end of the line." She stepped closer to the cell. "You know what it means to be a champion."

Angelus heavily rolled his eyes with disdain, "I'm trying to forget."

"Sometimes a sacrifice needs to be made," Cordelia whispered shifting her eyes from his mouth to his face.

Considering her offer carefully, Angelus added, "And you're still the little lamb. Not that there aren't a few things I wouldn't mind doing to that body—other than the obvious." He tossed her a playful wink.

"Tell us about the Beast, and you can do whatever you want." Cordelia's voice dripped with sex.

"You're lying."

Cordelia shook her head and stared at him with large brown eyes. "Look into my eyes. Angel knows me. You know me. Better than anyone. So, when you look at me, you know I'm not lying."

Thoughtfully, Angelus ran his eyes down the length of her body imaging her straddled across his lap, riding his cock until he exploded. She'd do just fine. Angelus thought to raise an eyebrow. Just fine indeed… Just like all of the other whores. No, she is not worthy enough of my cock. The vampire's grin widened.

"Cordy," Angelus said her name softly with a lingering yearning for her to come closer, "I would rather fuck a dying whore with syphilis than you."

Cordelia felt her confidence deflate in an instant. She stood tall snapping out from the spell of seduction she was falling into. Her eyes narrowed on his face furiously. Never in her entire life had she felt this insulted and belittled.

Angelus' smile grew finding her pain quite amusing. He burst out into a fit of laughter when she whirled around and stormed back up the stairs embarrassed and hurt.

"Did I hurt your feelings? Awe, Cordy don't be like that! Come back!" Angelus laughed calling to her as the basement door slammed closed.

Lobby

Wesley stood from the monitor's desk and watched Cordelia angrily cross the lobby. They were unable to pick up the conversation but he knew what had happened brutally massacred Cordelia Chase's ego.

"I have another idea." Wesley jogged to the basement door and opened it with a new plan floating in his head.

Basement

Angelus' arms hung through the cell bars lazily watching Wesley walk down the steps. "That was quick." The vampire stood straight when Wesley approached him. "Come to butter me up some more, Wes?"

"I have a proposition for you?"

"Do you want to ride me too?" Angelus asked. "'Cause, I gotta say, you're really not my type."

Wesley paused startled by the obscene question, "Um, uh, n—no," he stuttered uncomfortably. "I've come to inform you, that we've located your soul."

Angelus perked up giving the ex-Watcher his undivided attention.

"My proposition to you is we will not restore it if you tell us about the Beast."

Angelus stood silently glaring at Wesley with scrutinising eyes. Neither man tore from their steely gaze from one another until Angelus suddenly snapped his fingers with a grin, "Ah-ha! You blinked!" Wesley's frown deepened. "You know what that tells me, Wesley? It tells me that you're lying to me."

"I am certainly not."

"Lies! Lies! Lies!" Angelus shouted with a demonic roar. "All of these lies! You know what happens to liars, Wesley?"

Unable to respond frightened by the vampire's sudden outburst, Wesley did not respond.

"Your nose grows longer." Angelus tapped his finger at the tip of his nose.

Swallowing his fear, Wesley could no longer restrain his frustration towards the soulless demon. "We don't have time for this anymore, Angel! We've exhausted all of our other resources. Time is running out. The world will be doomed if you do not help us against the Beast!"

"Wrong, Wesley," Angelus held out his finger cutting the ex-Watcher's words off. "This shit-hole is already doomed. I'm just counting down the days until I get to see it tear itself into pieces."

Wesley dropped his arms at his sides unsure of how to get the information needed. He knew time was running out and soon the demons from below will overrun the city taking it over and without a doubt, Wesley knew Angelus would be Hell's leader.

Right where I want him. Angelus smirked basking in the defeat of the former Watcher. "But," a small smile tugged at the corner of his lips, "I am willing to play along…" Wesley picked up his head with genuine surprise, "… for a price."

"Name it."

Angelus' grin widened, "You're a smart man, Wesley. Figure it out."

Lobby

"Figure it out? That's all he said?" Gunn asked not having a single clue where to start with that tidbit.

Wesley shook his head scanning the mountains of books he had found on the Scourge of Europe. But all of the text circled back around itself revealing nothing of use. "That's all he said, 'Figure it out'. I don't know what to do…" his deflating hopes suddenly lifted again when a thought popped into his mind.

He ran a hand over his bristled chin, configuring his thoughts into a coherent linear line. "All of the volumes about Angel describe Angelus as a single-minded demon. Meaning, he's a demon who's only in it for himself, who lacks any ulterior motive. But there was always something driving behind him—guiding him. Even at his most random state, there was a sort of force pushing him along."

"Evil?" Lorne said with wide red eyes.

"No, no, something more… poetic," Wesley rummaged through the open-faced books until finding the text he needed. He tapped on the pages finding the passage. He faced the group holding the book in his hand and said, "Right here."

Fred peered over Wesley's shoulder and read, "Drusilla?"

"Drusilla," Wesley repeated with a nod. "Drusilla is a vampire, who was sired by Angelus. After of course months of endless torture to the point of insanity. But later she was turned into a vampire—"

"—What's your point, Wes?" Cordelia interrupted with impatiences.

Wesley placed the book back down on the counter, "My point is, obsession. Throughout Angelus' entire history, he has always had a single fixation. Every victim that he killed was for a reason. For a long period, Angelus only killed young girls, thirteen years of age with long brown hair, and names starting with the letter 'K'. The first initial of his thirteen-year-old sister, Kathy." Wesley trailed off as his mind cranked with another hypothesis. "But only one obsession stands out above the rest."

Connor rolled his eyes hating the dramatic anticipation, "Spit it out, Wes."

"The Vampire Slayer,"

Cordelia jumped to her feet with a scowl, "Whoa! Whoa! Hold it. What does Miss-Slays-A-Lot have to do with anything?" The hatred for even the mere thought of the petite Vampire Slayer seethed within her.

"She has everything to do with this," Wesley said feeling a wave of Cordelia's personal hostilely towards the Slayer. "She is Angelus' greatest obsession. She is the only one who's gotten close enough to him to—"

"—Yeah, as he was torturing the rest us in the meantime. No, no, no, absolutely not! She will not help us. I refuse it." Cordelia angrily stood her ground.

"We don't have a choice, Cordy," Wesley said in his best efforts to stay calm and rational. "She is the only option left."

Connor stood in the background taking interest in the supposed 'greatest obsession' of his fathers. What's a Slayer? "What's a Slayer?" Connor asked.

Gunn looked at the teen and said, "She kills demons." Gunn turned his attention to Wesley, who was giving explicit direction to Fred. "Is it smart bringing the Slayer here? I mean, Angel's Evil. Won't she just… slay him?" There were always rumours about the Vampire Slayers trickling around on the streets for some time but he had never met the Slayer in person.

Wesley shook his head, "She'll help us. I'm confident in that. Fred," he turned to the brunette standing by the telephone searching the number to Sunnydale, "call Sunnydale and ask to speak to Willow Rosenburg directly. Tell her we are in need of Buffy Summers. It's very urgent."

Fred nodded and dialled the telephone number and waited for the ring to seize.

"Now to tell Angelus," Wesley mumbled.

Connor eyed Wesley heading back to the basement door to tell Angelus the news. Unable to keep his curiosity at bay, Connor caught up to the ex-Watcher and followed him down the stairs.

Basement

"I assume you've come to make arrangements," Angelus said standing under the dim light with his hands stuffed into his trouser pockets. A slow smirk crossed his dark features with satisfactory, "Not for one second did I lose faith in you, Wes."

Wesley stood at the thick red stripped line. Connor stepped beside him and glared at his father with hatred.

"You were very specific with your terms. I am only disappointed I hadn't thought of it sooner."

Angelus stood quietly patiently waiting for the rugged man to finish. "I'm waiting," Angelus smirked taking enormous pleasure having the former Watcher at his beckon call.

"In very plain terms, it's her you want. The Vampire Slayer,"

Angelus smiled satisfied with the outcome.

"I'll have you know, she is on her way as we speak." Wesley decided to jump the gun a little bit. The phone call to Sunnydale was being made as they spoke. "She should be here late this evening, I suspect. Now about the Beast—"

"—Tsk, tsk, tsk, not so fast, Wes," Angelus wagged his finger through the bars. "I'm not saying a word until she is standing right here." Angelus turned his finger pointing to where Wesley stood. "Remember, these are my terms."

Frustrated but hopeful for the outcome, Wesley nodded his head and turned away leaving Connor in the basement alone with Angelus.

"Who is she?" It had not escaped Connor's attention the serene expression dancing across Angelus' face.

Angelus smiled to himself closing his eyes envisioning her in his mind, "My girl."

"She's a Slayer."

Angelus opened his eyes and wildly grinned at his son. His eyes were bright in the darkness. Excitement washed over his body flooding straight to his cock. With a lowly chuckle, he said, "That's the best part."