"It comes down to trust." "Ours is a dangerous business." "Friends, enemies." "These lines-- they do not exist for men like us." "There's no Better Business Bureau for what we do." "Customer complaints are dealt with through... killing, torture, beating... sometimes fire." "We call it word-of-mouth advertising." "If I'd known this was going to be a seminar, I'd have worn my name tag." "Just want to make sure we know where we stand." "Right now you're standing on the brink of my patience." "I agreed to meet with your distributor, Emil, not your muscle." "What?" "Dante and Philip?" "They're assistants... here to make us more comfortable." "Don't think of them as muscle." "Are you hungry?" "I could get Dante to fix you a fish sandwich of some sort." " This is a waste of time." " Please." "Please." "My distributor is simply cautious." "He'd like me to verify the merchandise before we move forward." "Now... who is this?" "My muscle." "What we've got here is a modification of the TS-1 1 3 sniper rifle." "We've altered its targeting and firing mechanisms to fit the parameters you gave us." "The scope works along amplified thermal wavelengths." "Girl... you're making me so hot right now." "Wow." "Turned on by a woman holding an enormous gun." "What a surprise." "We replaced the delivery system with a balantine energy charge... eliminating the need for conventional ammunition." "Wolfram and Hart has 200 units ready now." "We'll begin making more once we receive payment." "And your boss doesn't mind selling this exciting weaponry to someone like me?" "As long as it doesn't show up in L.A." "We choose our battles, Emil, and you sidestepped the issue of payment." "You'll get your money." "You'll get nothing until I meet with your distributor." " I'm not going through middlemen." " Ah!" "Did you just refer to me as a middleman?" "You are lucky Wolfram and Hart has such good word-of-mouth advertising." "Here." "Call this number." "He'll arrange everything." "To think, I used to sell this guy collapsible swords." "Almost makes me" "You'll pay for that!" "No one double-crosses me.!" " What hit that guy?" " I'm not sure." "Down!" "Yes, thank you, Wesley." "I'd love a gun." "I don't-don't want any" " Fred!" "Fred?" "Medical's optimistic." "She should be up and about soon." "That's not the point." "What the hell was Fred doing there in the first place?" "I needed someone who could explain the weapon convincingly." "Nobody else here knows how to explain a gun?" "I needed someone who wouldn't arouse Emil's suspicions, someone I could trust." "And so, conveniently, the only person who could go with you... was Fred." " What does that" " She shouldn't have been there." "It was a reckless decision." "Fred has more than proven herself in the field." "There was no reason to think" "We found her bleeding to death on the ground." "From now on,you clear it with me before using any of my people." " Your people?" " Got it?" " Kind of hard on him, weren't you?" " Well, she could've" "Been killed." "So you said." "I think you're making too big a deal about this." "From what I understand, her wound wasn't all that severe." " You weren't there." "You didn't see her." " But she's okay." " You're still beating him up." " He can be careless." "Focuses too much on the big picture?" " Overlooks the people involved?" " Something like that." "Willing to risk anything or anyone... for the greater good." "But, hey, I'm just asking." "Could it be there is another reason... you're getting so mad at him about this?" "Hmm." "Stealing your son, for instance?" "We don't talk about my son." "You don't trust Wesley, do you?" "I mean, I can see that." "He did turn Connor over to your sworn enemy." "He didn't mean for that to happen." "He thought he was doing the right thing." "And I guess it all worked out." "Connor's okay." "You're happy." "Maybe Wesley knew what he was doing after all." "Even if he doesn't remember any of it." "That's got nothing to do with" "I just want to be kept informed." "That's all." "Is it?" "Or are you worried about the next time Wesley betrays you, trying to do the right thing?" " They gave me the all clear." " I was just coming down to find you." "Though I do have to take a boatload of antibiotics." "Apparently there's some concern about where that grappling hook's been." "We're taking the cyborg apart in the lab right now." "You should see how intricate it is." "It's like an M.C. Escher picture, but with wires and flesh instead of geese." "I'm sorry about what happened, Fred." "Are you kidding me?" "I feel bad because all I had to do was hide, and I couldn't even do that right." " I should have done a better job protecting you." " What?" "That didn't come out" "Do you realize how patronizing that sounds?" "Protecting me?" "I just meant you shouldn't have been there in the first place." " That's not for you to decide." " Yes, it is, actually." "I made the call." "I screwed up." "Listen to you." "You're blaming yourself because poor Fred got hurt." "Stop trying to be all valiant." "You're coming off like a self-pitying child." " Hello, Father." " Oh, yeah." "That's mature." "I wish I was your father." "I'd tell you to grow up." "It doesn't work." "I've tried." "What are you doing here?" " You're Wesley's" " I see manners are still my son's strong point." "Roger Wyndam-Pryce." "How do you do?" "Winifred Burkle." "I-I didn't realize you were" "Um, we were just" "I, um, have an employee that I have to belittle... and to show him I'm in charge." "I" " I should let you two catch up." "It was really nice to meet you." " I'm sure I'll see you again soon." " The pleasure is mine." ""Self-pitying child"?" "Imagine how humiliating that will be for her employee." "What are you-- Is Mom all right?" "She's fine." "Sturdy as ever." "No, you and I have business to discuss." "Business." "Oh." "Of course." "Please." "Sit down." "As you may well know... the Watchers Council was destroyed last year." "I heard." "The remaining former Watchers, myself included... have decided to re-form the Council... and I've been sent to contact you." "Are you saying the Council wants me to come back?" "Not necessarily." "Your name's proven to be a point of contention." "There are some who believe that your tenure as Watcher... ranks as our most embarrassing failure." "Really?" "I beat out everybody dying in an explosion... as most embarrassing failure." "Friends and colleagues lost their lives in that event, Wesley." "A little respect." "Sorry." "The Council have agreed to take you back, pending my assessment." "I'm here to evaluate you." "I see." "Well, I'll save you the trouble." "I'm not interested." "This is no time to be stubborn, boy." "The Council are giving you a chance to clear your name." "Our name." "Sorry you made the trip, but I'm perfectly happy where I am." "So this is the haven of evil, is it?" "Not anymore." "This isn't the Wolfram and" " Oh!" " Sorry." "It's okay." "It's no problem." "Sorry." "I'm sorry." " You have the wrong idea about this place." " Do I?" "The atrocities committed by Wolfram and Hart are quite well documented." "We're working to change that." "Under our control, this firm's becoming a... powerful weapon... one that I think can make a difference." "Believe me, we take our work here very seriously." "Oh,you're killin'me.!" "If Louis GossettJr. wants this foam party to happen, he'll keep his mouth zipped." "I've been working on this guest list all week." "Yes, my entire week!" "I don't care about Iron Eagle II, Van." "Nobody did." "Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, you should be ashamed." " I didn't know you had a younger brother." " Lorne." "Yes." "This is my father, Roger Wyndam-Pryce." " How do you do?" " Father?" "Oh, I don't believe it." "Okay, I do believe it, but only 'cause I heard you were in the building." "Well, look at you." "It's like Winston Churchill and a young Richard Harris... had a beautiful love child... which, according to my sources, may not be as ridiculous as it sounds." " Lorne runs our entertainment division." " Entertainment division?" "I can see how that would be very useful in the fight against evil." "You'd be amazed at how many horrible movies we've stopped." " Gunn, this is my father." " It's an honor." "This place is buzzing about you." "You better watch out." "If you're anything like your son here, we might put you to work." " You might be out of luck." " Listen, the lab called for you." "They're working on RoboCop upstairs, need your help." " RoboCop?" " We had an encounter with a cyborg last night... while we were infiltrating a weapons ring." "I should head up there." " Would you like to come along?" " Yes." " If I'm not in the way." " No." "Not at all." "We found cybernetics throughout the body... in most cases replacing entire organic systems." " Was it human?" " We think so." "The nervous system seems human at least... but the rest of the technology's so foreign to us, we can't be sure of anything right now." "This thing really blurs the line between human and robot." "Aha." "So you're not ruling out that a human being could have boffed a robot." "Sex with robots is more common than most people think." "Um... the cybernetics require central processing to function... which means if we can crack its memory... we may find a record of everything it's done until this point." "And maybe figure out who or what it wanted." " Hey!" "Did you" "Sorry." "Um, so far we haven't had much luck decoding the encryption." "Seemstobe abinary-basedsystem, so we'll get there eventually." "We just have to find the right transformed variable." " Okay, I need you on this till we get some answers." " You've got it." "Let us know if you need more resources." "Everyone, I'd like you to meet my father, Roger Wyndam-Pryce." " Hello." " Daddy, eh?" "I always thought Wesley was grown in some sort of greenhouse for dandies." " Spike." " You've heard of me?" "No." "We've met." "1 963, my colleagues and I... fell upon you slaughtering an orphanage in Vienna." "Killed two of my men before you escaped." "Oh." "How've you been?" "I didn't know your father was coming to visit, Wesley." "I'm Angel." " Pleasure to meet you." " You really expect me to shake that?" "I'm not real comfortable with hugging." "No." "I-I realize this may be somewhat of a horror show to you... but, uh, I hope you can keep an open mind." " We really are doing good work here." " So I'm told." "Incessantly, in fact." "I heard we can be of some use." "Of course." "We were just going over the autopsy." " Fred, keep me posted." "Sure." "We found a series of symbols we haven't been able to decipher." "Yes." "Interesting." "We're reading trace radiation signatures, so we've been hesitant to crack it open." "It could be a bomb, some sort of self-destruct device." "Let me help you with that." " Here." "You shouldn't." " Thanks." "Anyway, we were wanting you to decipher it... before we went digging around in there." "Wesley handles this stuff for us all the time." "He's a genius when it comes to languages." "Oh, the academy didn't make him head boy for nothing." "Mind you, as I recall, the pickings were a bit slim that year." "The patent indicates a Hellenic derivation." "I'd say early Moracian, in fact." "It's a directive of some sort... a battle prayer." "Or a binding spell." "The full text is obscured." "I'll need to prepare some sort of effective counter-spe" "What did you just do?" "Unless I'm very much mistaken, I've just activated the bomb." " Do you see a trip mechanism?" "You mean the one I just tripped?" "Get everyone out of here." "We have to evacuate the entire building." " Come on." "Everybody out ofhere right now." " Wait." "What the hell am I worried about?" "Look for an incident device." "A switch or a circuit breaker of some sort." "There's nothing." "Fred!" "You have to get out of here." "Get away from this building as far as possible." " We have no idea how powerful the blast can be." " What about you?" "I'll stay with the bomb, try to defuse it." "It could be our only" "What did you do?" "These symbols were, in fact, Dutrovic in origin... not Moracian, as you surmised." "When interpreted correctly, these symbols spell out the proper procedure... for handling the cyborg's power core, including this fail-safe... in case someone trips the self-destruct device." "Quite simple, really." " What happened?" " I can explain." "Apparently, when Percy here was younger... he used to be known as "head boy."" " Yeah, I already knew that." " Right." "I have nothing else to report." "I accidentally tripped the cyborg's self-destruct mechanism." "Anyone could have made the mistake." "Wesley was just trying to interpret some symbols for us." "Luckily, my father was there to correct my error." "Right." "Your father." "Where is he, anyway?" "Um, Lorne's keeping him entertained." "So I am covered in cherries." "The police arejust pounding on the door, and Judi Dench starts screaming..." ""Oh, that's way too much to pay for a pair of pants!"" "Come to think of it, that's probably not the best idea." " I'll go rescue him." " I'm finished here too." "If you want, I can have someone type up the report about head boy." " Get out." " Suit yourself." "It was a stupid mistake." "Yeah, well, your father's visitjust rattled you." "I find it hard to think straight when he's around." "Fathers and sons." "That can be torture sometimes." "Look, you should see this." "It came from your department." "Reports of assassins that sound a lot like our cyborg." "Well, a group of them took out a demon cabal in Jakarta." "Another group destroyed the Tanmar Death Chamber." "Sounds like they're doing our work for us." "Sounds like they're doing our work for us." " These are good guys?" " I don't know." "I should reference this with the markings we found, find clues as to their origin." "Well, get on it." "If these guys are on our side... somebody should tell 'em before they start trying to kill us again." "He was how old?" "Oh, six or seven." "He must have taken the scroll from my library." "Wesley, I was just telling Winifred... about the time that I caught you with the resurrection spell." " Oh, right." " I couldn't remember." "Why were you doing that?" "A bird had flown into my windowpane." "I think I was trying to bring it back to life." "I can't believe you could even read a resurrection spell at age seven." "Oh, his mother thought he was quite the prodigy." "Well, luckily I caught him, or we'd have had zombie birds... pecking out his little eyeballs." "I was hoping to enlist your expertise in some research." "Oh, no." "You're not gonna try and blow me up again, are you?" " Probably not." " Well, then my expertise is yours." "Would you excuse us?" "Thank you." "The Dutrovic markings suggest an eastern origin." "There might be something in the journals of Saitama." "That, um..." "Winifred." "She seemed to like you." "Yes, well, she's a very special person." "So... you, uh, think a lot of her?" "She know how you feel about her?" " I'm really not going to discuss this with you." " What?" "Oh." "You have a girlfriend already." "Well, Wesley, how am I supposed to know these things?" " For starters, you might have asked." " Well, I'm asking now." "And what a surprise." "You're being defensive." "You want to talk about me?" "All right." "The last girl I was with I had to chop into little tiny pieces... because a higher power saw fit to stab her in the neck." "You don't want to discuss it." "Fine." "But spare me the sarcasm." "It's too embarrassing." "I have work to do, Father." "Look, all I'm saying is... if you like this girl, tell her." "That's all." "No need for a tantrum." "The Saitama Codex." "What did you just do?" "These are source books, uh, templates." "Uh, I use them... to call forth material in our archive." "So you can simply call forth anything as powerful as The Saitama Codex?" "The archive is extensive." "We have, well, almost any text you can think of." "Do you realize how dangerous these books are?" " In the wrong hands, of course." " Yes." "Yes, of course." "So you have them displayed... open, on a table?" "The most powerful items in my department..." "I keep secure in a vault." "I know what I'm doing, Father." "Well, I hope your vault is a little safer than this room." "Do you even have a lock on that door over there?" "Gaining access to this building isn't easy." "Believe me, the books are safe where they are." "Not to sound self-absorbed, but... you can't seem to keep your eyes off me." "Now, why would that make you sound self-absorbed?" "Don't think I haven't noticed." "You've been very keen on what I've been doing lately." "How's it going, by the way?" "You able to affect the world yet?" "Does that scare you?" "You worried that old Spike might be busting loose of your shackles?" "What are you talking about?" "Save the innocent act." "Your here-to-help cheerleader routine may work on Angel... but I see right through it." "There's more to you than you're letting on." "I could say the same for you... unless you really are happy to haunt around here for eternity." "Well, that's the problem, isn't it?" "I figure I'm trapped here for a reason... and you're part of that reason." "The amulet that did this to me, Wolfram and Hart gave it to Angel." "Gotta assume they meant to make him a ghost, not me." "So why am I here?" "Why don't theyjust let me go?" "Who said the amulet was meant for Angel?" " That's odd." "I know what this is." "You'll never take me to hell, Pavayne.!" " Oh." "Well, that's just something I say... when, uh, it gets dark." " What's happening?" "We lost power, communications." " Can somebody please shut off the" " That's better." " Not sure it is." "Think that means we lost Security too." "Uh, something's wrong with the elevator." "Get Security online." "I need to know if this is a false alarm." "I'm thinkin' it's not a false alarm." " Does this sort of thing happen often around here?" " We should" "Down!" "Father!" "What do you think you're doing?" "I had attack priority." " We're not fencing." " We still follow the basic rules." "There could be more of them in the building." "We should get moving." "That thing went straight for the templates when he burst into the room." " You can't leave them like that." " Grab the books." "Elysium." "In my days, we fought werewolves, vampires... the occasional swamp man." "And now we have protohuman, cybernetic chain fighters." "Yes, well, times are more complicated." "Yeah, I'm beginning to realize that." "You handled that fellow quite readily." "At least you haven't gone soft." "What's our next move?" "You're asking what I think?" "Well, I think we should contact the others, um... find out to what extent" "Phase one complete." "Begin phase two." "In that offiice right here." " Mr. Wyndam-Pryce!" " Winifred." " What are you" " We need to get you to safety." "Now, listen." "Wesley's department has monitored... some sort of spatial disturbance on the roof." "He's gone to investigate." "He asked me to tell Angel immediately." " He sent you by yourself?" " I'm quite capable of taking care of myself." "I just happen to be a bit lost." "Oh." "Okay." "Come on." "Good." "You can feel pain." " Can you speak?" "Let me help you with that." " Stop." "Stop." " Excellent." "We're making progress." "Let's see if you have a sense of self-preservation." "What is my father doing?" "What did he take?" "No." "No." "Tell me or you'll be destroyed." "You're bluffing." "The explosion will kill you as well." "Yes, I suppose it will." "In fact, I'm guessing it will destroy this entire building... killing everyone, my father included... which would be one way to stop your plan." "Gunn.!" "Spike, what are you" " Sorry." "I have to concentrate." " Go" "Shh." "Don't talk." "Yeah." "Thanks." "Angel!" "Wesley's on the roof." "He needs your help." "Gunn, go find out what's happening with security." "Fred, go see who's injured." " I'll go find Wes." " I'm coming with you." " I don't have time" " He's my son." "Oh, uh, Eve's stuck in the elevator." " So tell Maintenance." " Right." "Well, where the bloody hell is Maintena" "Oh, to be honest, I don't even care." "Wesley!" "Wes.!" " Where's Wesley?" " Oh, that's just the thing." "I'm sorry to have misled you, but this was never about Wesley." "Atistrata." "It is, by the way, a pleasure to meet you too." "Don't fight it." "It'll be easier for you." "Ready for extraction." "We're finished." "Not quite." "Hello, Father." "Walk away from this, Wesley." "You'll never understand what we're trying to do here." "You're using the Staff of Devosynn to take Angel's will... make him your slave." "Your cyborgs panic a bit too easily." "That creature's more dangerous to mankind than you realize." " You're wrong about him." "He's not what you think." " He's a puppet." "He always has been." "To the Powers That Be, to Wolfram and Hart." "Now he's ours." "You went to a lot of trouble to get this staff." "You had us attacked, you smuggled in a weapon." "You brought in an army so you could escape." "I don't know why you're doing all this... but did you ever once consider there might be another way?" "Did you ever once consider talking to me about it?" "No." "You've failed me enough for one lifetime." " Wesley.!" "Fred?" "Get out ofhere.!" "Fred?" "Get out ofhere.!" "What the hell is going on?" "You know what that vampire is and what he's done, and you follow him anyway?" "Maybe I know what I'm doing." "Why can't you trust that?" "You disgrace yourself with the Council." "You join forces with him, and you have the nerve to ask me why I can't trust you?" "I've done everything you ever asked... and I've done it well." "I asked for this, hmm?" "I wanted to be humiliated?" "No, I suppose I don't know what you really wanted." "You never had any use for me as a child, and you can't bear the thought of me as an adult." "Tell me, Father." "What is it that galls you so?" "That I was never as good at the job as you?" "Or that I just might be better?" "Oh,yes, this is Los Angeles." "We have to talk about our feelings." "Then maybe we'll hug." "It's doubtful." " Hand me that staff." " No." " Now, don't make me shoot you." "Go ahead." " Do you know how powerful that thing is?" " I don't care." "I will kill you for it." "Please believe me." "Oh, I believe you." "I was raised by you, after all." "But I drop this, the crystal shatters, and Angel is restored." "So I reckon, whether I live or die, your plan has failed." "I see." "Well, then maybe if it's someone you care about" "How are you doing?" "You know the worst part about losing your free will?" " Having no control over your body?" " Well, there's that." "And... you get really nauseous." "The effects should wear off before too long." "Any idea where these things came from... and what they were trying to do with me?" "Great, like we don't have enough to worry about." "Now the good guys may be after us too." "We have to assume we crossed some powerful forces when we took over this company." "They're all trying to bring us down." "The perception is that we're weak." "No." "The perception is I'm weak." "That's why they went for me." "They're wrong." "You do what you have to do to protect the people around you." "You do what you know is right, regardless of the cost." "I never really understood that." "You're the guy that makes all the hard decisions, even if you have to make them alone." "Right now I feel like the guy who shot his own father." "Ah, it was just a robot with a fancy glamour." "That thing knew everything about me." "If they had access to the Watchers Council's old files... they'd have your background information, character assessments" "Psychological profiles." "Everything they need." "Like I said, don't beat yourself up." "You know, I killed my actual dad." "That's one of the first things I did when I became a vampire." "I hardly see how that's the same situation." "Yeah, I didn't really think that one through." " You should get some rest." " So should you." "Heard what happened up top." "Offin' your dad and all." "I don't know if you know this, but, uh, I killed my mum." "Actually, I'd already killed her, then she tried to shag me, so I had to" "Thank you." "I'm... very comforted." "Right." "If you're here to tell me about how you killed your parents... perhaps you could wait for another time." "What?" "No." "They're fine." "It's not like you killed your dad either." "Right." "Part of you knew." "Even if you can't admit it to yourself... part of you knew it wasn't him." "No." "I was sure it was him." "You were there." "I killed my father." " He was threatening your friends." " He was threatening you." "He pointed a gun at you, Fred... so I shot him." " Wesley, I" " Hi." "Oh, sorry to interrupt." "I" "But..." "Fred... you're injured." "I know we're supposed to work ourselves to death and all, but..." "I'm guessing that the firm isn't enforcing that rule as strictly as it used to." "And I thought I was going to take you home." "Um, well" " Wesley and I were just" " Go." "You should go." "So the arm-- Have you considered going bionic?" "Hello, Mom." "It's me." "No, everything's fine." "I was hoping to speak with Father, actually." "Yes." "All right." "Hello, Father." "How" "Oh, I didn't realize it was so early there." "I've had a bit of a" "Of course we have clocks in Los Angeles." "Listen, I wanted to" "Nothing's wrong." "I just... wanted to call... and... see how you were." "Grr!" "Arrgh!"