Time Bomb
Gunn: Listen, please... What did I do? No. No. Wait! Oh. Ah. Find it. Find... Gunn. Charles Gunn... You're... Fred. You look... terrible... Unh! Illyria.
Wes: I didn't send her. We were discussing Gunn. I explained his situation, our inability to get him out. She nodded, created a portal, and disappeared.
Angel: So she's just, what, helping you out? She's your little helper.
Wes: I would hardly call her-
Angel: Well, she sure was helpful beatin me up. Wes, do you have any idea why she's doing all this for you?
Wes: She has the power of a god.
Angel: She has the ego of a god.
Wes: She was ruler of the world, after all. This sort of thing goes to one's head.
Angel: Apparently.
Wes: I wouldn't presume to know what she wants. But I understand the resource, the power she represents. If we could just find some way to integrate her, to convince her to-
Angel: To do what? Join the team?
Illyria: This thing...
Angel: Let him go.
Illyria: It's important to you.
Wes: Illyria, stop.
Illyria: It holds value - worth beyond price.
Angel: I said, let him-
Wes: Yes, great worth. A great debt. You're talking of the debt, aren't you... of what we owe you?
Illyria: Of what you owe me.
Wes: I stabbed you. I should apologize for that. But I'm honestly not sure how. I think it'll just be awkward.
Gunn: Good call.
Wes: Okay.
Gunn: I ain't looking for a sorry. Don't know if I'd accept it. Besides, I just got my heart cut out of my chest every day for two weeks straight. Compared to what - a little jab in the gut? Kinda over it.
Wes: So, what are you looking for?
Gunn: I don't know. A compass maybe. The thing that killed my friend just saved my life. No one knows why. This place just went Poseidon on my ass. I don't know which way is up.
Wes: Everything is... a bit odd. I suppose... we have to adjust. I imagine that's what all this is - adjustment.
Wes: You can't... look at her without seeing... her body's previous owner. But then, what comes out of her mouth, pure unadulterated vertigo. We look so tiny to her.
Illyria: This shell... you had affection for it, for Fred.
Spike: Tons. Loved the bird.
Illyria: Yet you strike at her form without sentiment.
Spike: You ain't her. I can see it. Lord knows I can smell it. And I got no problem hitting it.
Illyria: You're adapting.
Spike: We do that.
Illyria: Adaptation is compromise.
Spike: It's called learning. But then I guess you know everything there is to know.
Angel: We're not testing her, Spike. She's testing us.
Lorne: So are you good? You look good, considering. I just thought I'd drop in and see if you're good... which you are. Ahem... good.
Gunn: What's, uh, with the incognito?
Lorne: About to go on assignment. Angel wants me to start tailing Illyria, keep tabs on her. Got a little walkie-talkie and everything.
Gunn: Guess Illyria still the headline around here.
Lorne: Front-page news. And a walking obituary. Strange times, huh?
Wes: You want me to find a way to kill her.
Angel: You got a problem with that?
Wes: No.
Wes: The thousand year war of good versus evil is well under way.
Angel: Evil just hasn't told anyone about it yet, which is probably why they're winning.
Spike: Oh, and by the way, we're apparently on the wrong side. Or the right side, if you like winning.
Hamilton: It's a business, boys, not a bat cave.
Wes: I've come to understand how irreversible the works of time are.
Wes: Does it sting you... my betrayal?
Illyria: Betrayal was a neutral word in my day, as unjudged a word as water or breeze. No. Or perhaps... I am only bothered because I am bothered.
Wes: That sounds very close to human.
Angel: You realize they're demons.
Amanda: Uh-huh. They're very open about it.
Illyria: Odd. It doesn't exist until it cracks apart.
Wes: What's that?
Illyria: Time.
Amanda: Mr. Gunn, we can't afford this baby. My husband, he was hurt at work. Brain-damaged, doctors say.Incurable. We're scraping by on food stamps and disability. But the Brethren... they say they can make him whole again. Make him... remember who I am. I mean, how does a person turn all that down?
Gunn: I'm not feelin so good.
Angel: First day back from a vacation in hell, you know. I'm not surprised.
Hamilton: And yet you seem to be the closest thing she has to a friend>
Wes: If you knew her, you'd realzie the absurdity of that statement.
Illyria: What is it, poison? Magicks? It impresses me, the power of it. Whatever you've done, it can't save you. To do anything but bow to my will is absurd, yet you conspire-
Angel: We haven't done anything to you.
Illyria: Jealous. Plankton envying the ocean that holds them.
Angel: Yeah, that's great. Listen, I got things-
Illyria: Ridiculous apes. My death won't prevent your dying. What have you done to me?!
Illyria: You do not know. Not yet. It's too early.
Harmony: Boss, it's getting a little shouty in your office.
Angel: Illyria's blown all of her gaskets, man. She's outta her mind.
Spike: How can you tell? Yesterday she spent two hours mind-melding with a potted fern.
Wes: She is unstable. Overloading, to be more accurate. The fusion between her demon essence and her host's body seems to be deteriorating. It's as if the human part of her can no longer contain the demonic power within.
Spike: Hmm. We're thinking that she cracked her engine block and now she's leakin petrol all over the building.
Wes: She's going to self-destruct, violently, and soon.
Angel: And you were gonna tell me this when?
Wes: I wasn't. Spike and I were dealing with it.
Spike: We're motivated go-getters.
Illyria: You were here before.
Angel: Who-where did-what just happened?
Illyria: An aberration in the time line. It wasn't like this-
Illyria: You ripped me out of linear progression, tore my time line into shreds, and stitched it back together out of sequence.
Angel: Are you kidding?!
Illyria: You caged me in this fractured time frame, in moments that repeat themselves over and over without deviation.
Illyria: Is it of your sciences? How do you unweave time in this way?
Angel: This isn't us. We don't have the power to do-
Illyria: Do you know what you were when I was young? You were the muck at our feet. We called you 'the ooze that eats itself'. You were pretty at night. You sparkled, and you stank. You still stink of it!
Angel: Will you just shut up for once?!
Illyria: What?
Angel: My God, the speechifying. Has it ever occurred to you that now might not be the best time for when-we-were-muck stories?
Angel: But this is my kingdom, lady, not yours!
Illyria: Your kingdom! I am Illyria, god-king of the primordium, shaper of things!
Angel: Yeah, well, that was then - This is... Now.
Illyria: Yes. Nothing's what it used to be, is it?
Illyria: I slew the white-haired one first.
Angel: This can't be.
Illyria: And then Wesley, as he raised his weapon... and your demon clown as he wilted in terror.
Angel: And I'm next.
Illyria: No, vampire. You were last.
Angel: Why?
Illyria: You know nothing of this. You're from an earlier point in the time line. You are a paradox. You're impossible.
Angel: We attacked you.
Illyria: I didn't give you the chance. That you learn when you become a king... Unh!... You learn to destroy everything that's not utterly yours. All that matters is victory. That's how your reign persists. You're a slave to an insane construct. You are moral. A true ruler is as moral as a hurricane, empty but for the force of his gale... But you... trapped in the web of the Wolf, the Ram, the Hart. So much power here, and you quibble at this price. If you want to win a war, you must serve no master but your ambition... Aaaah! Aaaaah! Oh, you have not lied. My undoing is beyond you, your people. Something is broken inside me... Aaah! My power is too great! I know this now, as I know it every time I come to this moment.
Angel: Illyria, if I'm here, if I am paradox, then this can all change, can it? You said things had been altered, what you said, what you did. You can change this outcome!
Illyria: Change is constant. Yet things remain the same.
Angel: Illyria, she's self-destructing. She's a time bomb.
Spike: Read today's paper, did ya?
Illyria: This, too... all changing... Unh!
Angel: I know what happens. I know you kill us all.
Spike: Oh, a bit pessimistic, aren't you?
Illyria: You are the Angel from the past You were swept up in my wake.
Angel: You're not a king anymore. Your domain is gone, swallowed by time.
Illyria: And we've had this conversation.
Angel: I have to stop that. Do you understand? I cannot have your death blow away my-
Illyria: Your kingdom?!
Angel: Yeah, sure, whatever.
Illyria: You ask me to allow you to murder me.
Spike: It's not murder if you say yes.
Illyria: You want to take my power... to let me live. But I am my power. And I would rather be a titanic crater than to be like unto you.
Angel: Illyria, the future can change here. You can choose a different path.
Illyria: And be nothing.
Angel: And be what you are. Fighting to hold on to what you were... it's destroying you.
Illyria: I blame this on the weakness of your species.
Illyria: Touch me and die, vermin.
Spike: Not a very dramatic difference, really.
Wes: Everything is different.
Angel: You're gonna stay with her, aren't you?
Wes: Yes.
Angel: Wes... I don't like where this is going. I don't like where this has been.
Wes: I'm not in love with this thing, Angel. But... for some reason, I need it right now.
Angel: Yeah. That's just weird.
Wes: I know. She could still prove to be problematic for us. Much of what she was is still intact. I doubt she'll ever stop trying to conquer... everything.
Angel: 'Serve no master but your ambition'.
Gunn: Angel. What are you doing?
Angel: What we're supposed to. Serve our clients.