Angelus and Darla are still wearing their vampire visage. And they’re very confused. Angel keeps an eye on Illyria, the blue light swirling around them. He looks at the Old One, who’s clearly struggling to maintain the time tunnel. “You have a gift for making the impossible possible.”

Illyria looks tired and breathless. Her words are slow. “It is not impossible. But that does not mean it is easy.“

Angelus finally reaches the end of his tether, with no up or down to support his senses. “What devilry is this?” Darla still eyes Angel curiously.

“You want her to stop?” Angel shouts at his past self.

Illyria’s voice booms over them all. “You are clouding my focus.“

Angelus chuckles. “So even you have limits. If you would tell us what you are trying…”

“I warned you,” Illyria says. She closes her eyes, trying to maintain it, but something slips. Darla is suddenly pulled backwards into the time tunnel, floating away, destabilising the journey. Angelus reaches for her in horror, trying to grab her, but is pulled along with her, and the pair are shot out of the time tunnel, emerging on a field somewhere, somewhen.

Illyria has pain in her voice now. “It was too much. Transporting four, and two the same. Not the same. I did not mean… This portal will not hold. I must—“

And then they’re on a beach. Angel is a short distance away from Illyria when she almost collapses into the sand.

“Illyria, are you okay?”

“We didn’t go far. Just a day and a few degrees.“

“At least we landed during the night,” Angel smiles.

“I have learned a lesson or two since we began talking. So a little credit might be nice.” For a moment, it seems like the God is making a joke. Then she flickers like she’s glitching and Fred is in her place once more.

“Hello Fred. Nice to see you.”

She looks at him, concerned. “You might not feel that way when you hear what I have to say.”

Angel asks her what she means.

“Well, I’ve been thinking, while Illyria was doing. And the more I think, the worse this seems.”

Angel is not following. He asks her to explain a bit less vaguely. “Is this about Illyria?”

“Not at all!” Fred says, surprised. “Actually, we’re doing much better together. I can kind of tell what she’s doing now while I’m gone. And vice versa… I think. No, it’s not that. It’s what we’re doing. Travelling through time.”

“Just think about how unnatural this is. You’ve lived through this. And here you are again. And then you met yourself, and travelled with yourself.”

Angel objects to the idea that he is the same as Angelus. “That wasn’t really…”

Fred shrugs him off. “I know. But it also was. What I’m saying is, I think time might protect itself. And it might not like what we’re doing by going back and changing things. Big things.”

“But we know the future is different now. We’re making a difference.”

“Yeah…” she says, looking away from him. “That may be a bad thing.” Then she points down to a small bird that lands on the beach and walks along the coast. “See that?!”

Angel looks more confused. He asks her to stay on point.

“I am,” Fred insists. “That kind of bird probably doesn’t exist in our present. I mean, the jungle behind us has got to be filled with animals that are extinct now. If we brought some of them forward, it would save a species. That would be really cool and all, but it would also be a huge paradox. The chain of cause and effect would be completely broken.”

Another bird flies overhead, making a call. Neither of them recognises it.

Fred continues. “And I’m starting to think that’s the problem. Not anything that happened a long time ago. Don’t you see, Angel? It’s the paradox that’s the problem!”

Angel sighs. “But what if you’re wrong? What if we go home without making sure? Because I can think of another fool proof way to make certain the future doesn’t happen as we saw it: If Angelus is never created, none of this can ever happen!”

Fred, suddenly and without warning, shifts to Illyria, as if the Old One is demanding to speak. Angel snaps in surprise.

“Oh, come on! I was talking to Fred!”

“And now you are talking to me. Fred is correct. We must return to the present.“

“Wait. You can talk to each other now? How?”

Illyria doesn’t elaborate. She is urgent in her tone. “All that matters is that she is right. I was… impulsive before. I must admit that.“

Angel notices her apprehension. “Don’t you think we should at least check in with home first? What if we’re on the right track and we stop now?”

In London, in 2010, Harrods is having a sale. In the non-sale portion of the store, Lavinia and Sophronia Fairweather, as well as Arev, Lavinia’s demon lover, are shopping for clothes.

“Arev, you simply must take my side. This dress would look ever so much more charm—”

They’re arguing about colours when the shimmering hole in space appears in the room with them.

“Checking in again so soon?” Sophie says, not even looking up from her magazine. Angel smiles and asks them how everything is where they are.

Lavinia moves towards the portal, holding up the dress in her hands. “Could be better. My size just isn’t—”

Sophie chides her loudly. “You are being ridiculous. If you would just take my advice and—”

But the sisters have started now. “The point is, Arev doesn’t much care for confrontation, so we haven’t reached a decision… Hey, maybe you can help?”

Illyria listens to the conversation between Angel and the Fairweathers. She regards Arev with disgust. “Our only accomplishment is inflicting his race on future generations. Are you satisfied now?“

Angel shushes her. “Wait a minute. Sometimes they don’t get to the point right away. We just need to ask the proper questions.”

Sophie is eager to end her part in the conversation. “Anyway, I’m glad you’re still… wherever you are.”

Lavinia looks up from her other dress. “Yes, at least you weren’t squashed flat when that beastly hotel you were staying at disintegrated.”

Angel is stunned. “Hotel? The one in Dublin?”

Illyria shoots him a look. If he didn’t know better, she was trying to tell him I told you so.

“We should not have doubted Fred!“

Angel grimaces and looks at her. “That can’t be good, can it?”

“Either way, we are going home,” she commands.

Sophie’s voice comes from the scrying bowl on the floor. “So, which one should it be? You are to sort this out for us, right, Angel?”

Angel stutters an answer. “Uh… I like the green one. Gotta go. Sorry!”

Lavinia’s voice screeches at him, but is cut off. “Green one? What green one? Arev—”

Illyria looks at Angel, expecting an argument. “Do not make the mistake of contradicting me. We are leaving, now.“

She begins to wave her hands. The portal opens, the street in Dublin visible before them.

“We can’t go home yet. There’s one more time we have to visit,” Angel insists, but Illyria is adamant.

“No. Whatever is going to happen, we must meet it as intended. Head-on, with both eyes open.“

Then the portal glitches. She doesn’t look back at Angel, but shouts for his aid. “Even I am not boundless, and the last journey took much from me. Angel, you must help guide us.“

“Illyria…” He approaches her side. “I’m sorry, Illyria. We can’t go back yet.”

Illyria watches as the portal begins to change, the destination no longer Dublin in 2010. “Angel, you must think of home.“

“I am,” the vampire says, a look of resolution on his face.

Then the time warp disappears and Illyria and Angel find themselves standing in a town square. The town isn’t large, but big enough to have business trades. Illyria recognises it. Fred has been here before. “Is this…?“

Angel doesn’t confirm her suspicions, but his look does. “I wasn’t a God when I lived here, but this is where my biggest regret happened.”

They are in Galway, Ireland. Angel’s home town.

Illyria is furious as Angel creeps along the village buildings, avoiding the lit windows. “How dare you? We should not be here, and now it will be a long time before I can summon a portal again.“

“Listen. Whatever else happens, I couldn’t go home knowing I had the power to fix this and didn’t. You must understand that, especially now?” She doesn’t answer him. He stays close to the outside wall of one building and tells Illyria what she needs to do. “Stay out of sight. They won’t take well to someone who looks like you in this time period.”

He peers through the window, ensuring he cannot be seen. There’s a man talking business. He’s offering trade to a young man at a table, drink in his hands.

“Now, isn’t that an offer to beat all others? You’ll not hear its like again. Why, if it wasn’t for the high regard in which I hold your family name, I would never make such an—”

“Not interested.”

Illyria looks at Angel. The young man at the table is him at the age of twenty-seven.

“Now, hear me out, Liam. This will set you up well, in a trade not connected to your father, if that be your wish. Or, if you would rather combine—”

“My dear father would never condone such a thing. Besides. I’m not interested,” Liam smirks. He enjoys saying no to this man.

Illyria turns to Angel. It sounds like a joke, but Angel doesn’t think it is. “I would not have guessed it, but you were a terrible bore while you lived.“

“No offence, Illyria, but you might be just a little too interesting in this time and place.”

Illyria looks down at her clothing. “Point taken. I have no desire to see you in such a… human… state anyway.“

Then she voluntarily shimmers and Fred Burkle is back. Angel tells them that they’re not home yet. Fred does not look happy.

“I know. Illyria told me.”

“I can’t get used to this,” Angel tells her. Then Fred spots Liam through the window.

“Oh my gosh! There you are! You look so sad and lost, like a little homeless puppy! I mean, I knew you were once fully human, but you’re just so…”

Angel pulls her away from the inn, racing to the other side of the street. Then Angel spots someone he knows.

“Oh no…”

“Do you know him?” Fred asks, the pair hiding behind the nearest wall. There is a nobleman, immaculately dressed, walking through the village.

“Not exactly. He’s just visiting Galway. But he’ll never leave here. Darla’s going to see to that.”

When Angel starts moving, Fred whispers as loud as she can after him. “What are you doing?”

“Sorry Fred. I’m going to get to their rendezvous point first. This is one life that won’t be lost tonight.” He races up the side of the building with no effort and is on the roof, following the squire through the town streets.

Fred tries to stop him, but he doesn’t listen. Fred leans back against the wall and whispers to herself.

“Not good. Not good at all.”

A few streets away, the nobleman approaches his destination. On a small corner of the village, Darla waits in a garden. “I made an excellent excuse. Just as I promised, I won’t be missed for a couple of hours at the least.”

Darla smiles at him, her voice singing on the wind. “Of that I have no doubt…”

Angel views them from the nearest roof, whispering to himself. “Not this time…” He prepares to pounce — and then is thrown off the roof by someone pushing him. He and his attacker fall off the roof into the bushes surrounding the building.

Darla turns around, having heard them fall. “What was that?”

The nobleman looks at her and reassures her with a friendly hand. She gladly goes with him. “Come with me,” she directs him. “Let’s go someplace more secluded.”

In the bushes, Angel gets up and yells at Fred, his attacker.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

Fred loses her temper back. “I don’t want that guy to die either! But Angel, he’s already dead. We shouldn’t change that!”

“What about you, then? You’re not, but I could have killed you accidentally back there! Don’t ever do that again!”

He stops for a minute, regretting shouting at her. He looks at her gently and asks her a question, his voice lowered.

“You really think what we’re doing is wrong?”

Fred nods. Then Angel shakes his head.

“I don’t agree, Fred. This is our chance to fix things. I’m not giving that up without a fight. If we can’t even help people, what good are we doing?” Then he gets up and runs, intending on pursuing his goal.

He’s stopped when Illyria confronts him. “She cannot stop you. But I can.“

Angel turns to her, anger on his face. He doesn’t want to fight. “That’s true. You can stop me. You could even kill me, if you really wanted to. But will you?”

He walks towards the Old One, looking her square in her glossy eyes. She stares back. And then, without words, he walks away.

Walking around the village, the familiar smells and sights come back to him, despite the centuries since he was last here. He checks on his family’s animals, their sacred trading choice.

He whispers to himself as he walks. “Was my world ever truly so small?”

“Liam, why aren’t you at home?” The voice comes from out of nowhere. Angel hadn’t realised where he was walking.

His father stands before him.

Angel is still nestled in the shadows, his face generally hidden from his father. He hesitates, out of both shock and a little bit of fear.

“Um… Father? Is that really you?

The tone hits like a smack across the head. It’s demeaning and insulting. Not a nice word or inflection in his voice. “Of course it is. Have you taken leave of your wits now, as well as your morals?”

Angel sighs. What had he been expecting?

“Father. You and I have some catching up to do…”