It’s night time in Los Angeles. A particularly bad part of town sees a young woman attacked by a vampire as she walks home. He approaches her and she spins around. Her hair has gone from brunette to a striking blue tint. She rejects his offer of a good time by throwing him into the nearest wall.

As more vampires crowd her, they’re surprised by how fast she is. She cuts her way through them like a hot blade through butter. One shatters his teeth on her diamond hard skin. She tosses others aside like they were snowflakes in the breeze, or insects beneath her notice. The vampires realise who she is: she’s one of Angel’s crew. This is enough to scare them and they start to flee, leaving Illyria the Merciless feeling bitterly disappointed – she had so wanted a brawl. She dispatches them with ease, jumping from the ground to the nearest roof-top in one bound to catch the last. The vamp begs for it’s life – what could she possibly want with it? Illyria is about to kill her when a voice sounds behind her.

As she turns, she comes face to face with a tall figure, who has materialised out of nowhere. He wears a long dark robe, peppered with gold strands, and his voice sounds like broken glass. He announces himself as a being named Discord. He opens his mouth and a noise comes out. It’s horrific: it rips Illyria’s soul apart piece by piece, resulting in her feeling intense physical pain that renders the Old One comatose and lifeless in the alley way…

Elsewhere in Los Angeles, the Groosalugg stands tall, sword in hand, looking out at the ocean. Cordelia the dragon rests in the sun behind him. Unfortunately, any peace that Groo was looking for is being disrupted by a group of fans, who are eager to take selfies and meet their hero. The police are having difficulty holding the crowd back and a woman named Carol Stoga dances her way through the barriers, claiming to be from a charity. When she reaches Groo, she kisses him full on the lips. This wakes up the Groosalugg, who, lost in thought, hadn’t even noticed the crowd in the first place. Eventually the throngs start to get through the blockade, and Groo finds himself having to stand back, his sword possibly a danger to the people.

Groo’s only solution is to board Cordelia and take to the skies, but as he does, Carol grabs a hold of him and is carried aloft. She ends up falling, but Groo jumps selflessly after her, hoping that the dragon will remember to loop and pick them up before they hit the ground. It does so – but suddenly, reality itself seems to distort. What is up, becomes down. What is left, becomes right – and, disorientated and unable to stay aloft, Cordelia and her passengers crash into a mansion, thankfully with only minor injuries.

That night, Angel is on the rooftops, pursuing a Krathlak demon: a big, hippo-sized, purple skinned creature that eats the souls of unborn babies. Angel is taken unaware by the speed of the huge demon and unsheathes his sword, ready to strike. But, as he reaches the demon and prepares to hit his target, the reality around them distorts, the ground becoming the sky. As Angel falls, he strikes, killing the demon and freeing the souls within – but he comes crashing down into a garbage can, his sword sticking out of his thigh. What the Hell was that?

In Silverlake, some time recently, a maid comes into Lorne‘s room and finds him barely conscious, stretched out, unable to move on his bathroom floor. Lorne books an appointment with his demon doctor, who gives him a diagnosis: Lorne has cancer.

Lorne insists that he’s not from this dimension – he can’t have cancer. But the doctor is positive. Something has changed him and no study has ever been done on the long term effects their dimension has on Pyleans. He has six months to live.

Lorne goes walking afterwards and finds himself dropping in on the Hyperion Hotel. It’s quiet – everyone is out and about – apart from Angel, who’s there trying to work out what the reality distortion was and how to repair the problem. As Lorne asks if that’s why he can hear strange noises, the room flips upside down, along with the rest of Los Angeles – and the effect is becoming more widespread – the cars on the streets outside have gone flying to the side, crushing people. The civilians need help. Groo signals from above – he has Illyria.

Taking her inside, Illyria mentions Discord. Lorne asks what the creature looked like. He nods in acknowledgement and explains: in ancient Greece, Aristotle theorised that all the planets in the solar system have their own sound – a vibrational frequency that nobody can hear. It’s called the music of the spheres. Angel wants to know how Lorne knows this, but is rebuffed: they have history lessons in Pylea too!

He explains that Aristotle was more on the nose than he realised: he was absolutely right. Not only that, but the Pyleans were so scared of the music of the spheres being disrupted, that they got rid of all their music: the disruption would cause the end of everything, shattering dimensions and destroying the cosmos. Illyria confirms this. She has lived that long.

Now that he knows what to look for in his books, Angel finds them quickly: three demons, Discord, Disharmony and Cacophony. Their sole existence is to bring an end to the multiverse. Groo asks how they fight creatures that powerful. Angel suggests they go back to where Illyria was attacked, but the Goddess screams at him in fear! She pushes Angel aside and tells him that she will not go back there. She’s terrified of the noise Discord hit her with. Lorne volunteers to stay behind with her – he’s not a fighter, after all – but Angel tells him that that’s not going to be an option – he knows more about the demons than they do.

When they arrive at the alley they find a reality that is impossible to describe: bright, colourful shapes fill their eyeline, all different sizes, folding in and out and amongst themselves. The human brain doesn’t process it very well, but Lorne confirms that they need to go inside. As they walk towards their goal, another demon, Disharmony, blocks their path.

At the hospital, against doctor’s advice, Carol Stoga leaves, heading for the Hyperion, where Groo has left his contact details.

Groo, Angel and Lorne confront Disharmony. It claims that there is no such thing as death for it. Angel reckons everything can be defeated and they’ve done it before. The demon laughs – yes, he has, and it was the return of Los Angeles from Hell that released them. The music of reality changed, if only for a moment. And that was enough.

Reality starts to fracture and fall apart. The floor disappears, and the three heroes fall onto a bed of spikes. They’re not real, but they still hurt. Angel helps Lorne up. The song. It’s their song.

The three demons stand before them. They declare that tonight the universe ends. Lorne says that he doesn’t think so. “Your music is out of key,” he tells them. “You’re time was too long coming. That’s why you can’t control what’s happening.” In response, the demons insult him and unleash their power on the trio.

Angel, Lorne and Groo experience what Illyria went through earlier, but this deep into the illusion, it also looks as if they’re coming apart, unravelling, ceasing to be… until Cordelia the dragon roars toward them, breaking the illusion, Illyria astride her.

The demons react in shock. Their illusion shatters, and they’re all back in the alley. Carol Stoga is with Illyria. She arrived at the Hyperion to find the Goddess recovered and anxious to face her fear. She tells Angel to leave Discord for her.

The three demons realise that they’re losing the battle. They decide to enact one final back-up plan and together they harmonise their voices, unleashing a noise that shakes the very foundations beneath them. The world will be destroyed. There is nothing that can stop it.

Lorne tells his friends that this is just the start. The demon harmonies will radiate outward, disrupting the music and destabilising all that is, until something becomes it’s new centre, to control the flow of the notes. They need someone to sing.

Angel goes to jump into the centre of the disturbance. Lorne looks at him. “Sorry Angel-cakes, I love you like an undead brother,” he offers, “but you can’t carry a tune!” He shoves his leader aside and dives into the disturbance. Angel yells after him, but Lorne smiles at him. “Don’t cry for me, Transylvania! I knew this was coming from the moment I heard the bad guys sing.”

As the distortion effect shrinks down further, Angel watches it disappear, Krevlornswath of the Deathwok Clan gone with it.

Illyria mentions that the danger has passed. The harmony of the spheres has been restored. Angel looks around. He thinks the world feels better somehow. As if the sorrow has been wiped clean.

As Team Angel gathers to remember their friend, they wonder if he’s gone forever. Angel says he doesn’t know. He just knows that Lorne seemed happy with what he was doing. Groo wonders if their friend can hear them now. Angel thinks that he is now one with the universe, so of course he can. Or at least that’s what he chooses to believe.

Lorne listens wherever he is and chuckles.

“Oh, I can hear you Angel-cakes. And it’s music to my ears.”