Post by Angel on Jul 5, 2009 17:19:24 GMT -7
Name: Born Liam, now known as Angel or Angelus, depending on circumstance. (I will have him cross from good to bad as needed or inspired in RP)
Age: Born in 1727
Persuasion: Primarily good, and fundamentally evil, he'll cross this threshold from time to time
Type of Creature: Vampire (Sometimes with a Soul)
Powers: Angel has the common powers and vulnerabilities of a Buffyverse vampire, though he is considerably stronger than most other vampires and demons. He has demonstrated enhanced speed in episodes such as "Blood Money", "Reprise", "Release" and "That Vision Thing", crossing several meters in the blink of an eye. He is a highly skilled combatant and generally fights unarmed, using circular attacks such as spinning kicks and back hands. In addition to his proficiency in many forms of martial arts, he is quite skilled in the usage of a variety of weapons. He typically favors the axe and the broadsword. Angel also possesses some cognitive abilities; he has a photographic memory ("Supersymmetry") which is triggered on occasion, and has displayed a psychic connection to those he has sired on at least one occasion ("Somnambulist"). In "Power Play", he reveals that Cordelia passed on her visions to him earlier that season in "You're Welcome". However, he believes that this was a "one-shot deal", possibly meaning that this ability was only temporary. As Angelus, he displays considerable skill in manipulating others' emotional states and has driven his victims insane, as seen with Drusilla. With or without his soul, he is shown to be an expert in torture, having tortured Giles as Angelus ("Becoming, Part Two") and Linwood as Angel ("Forgiving"). Angel seems to be aware of how skilled he is in a fight, once telling a demon, "If you're lucky, you'll last ten minutes, tops. Really lucky, you'll be unconscious for the last five."
In addition to his supernatural abilities and fighting skills, Angel has displayed a number of other talents. He apparently has "very nice handwriting" and is a skilled artist, first seen in the episode "Passion", using charcoal crayon and China ink to draw portraits. He is fluent in several languages. In "Harm's Way", he tries to learn the language of the Vinji and Sahrvin demons from an instruction tape. He can also drive, owning a 1967 Plymouth GTX for the first four seasons of the show and a Dodge Viper, along with a whole garage full of other cars, in Season Five. Likely because of his age, he has displayed incredible knowledge of demonology and history rivaling (or perhaps even surpassing) that of Giles and Wesley, and has some skill in witchcraft and sorcery, but his natural aptitude for it is only moderate, far below that of Willow's. Angel is competent, but uncomfortable, with using modern technology; he frequently struggles to understand a cell phone (once commenting that they must have been made by a "bored warlock") and confuses computer terminology such as "chatty rooms". He is a convincing improvisational actor, as seen in the episodes "Enemies", "Five by Five", "The Shroud of Rahmon", and "Power Play". Also, Cordelia comments in "Parting Gifts" that "he's a good cook for someone on a liquid diet."
Following "Not Fade Away", After the Fall reveals that Angel is no longer a vampire. His new limitations are unclear, but he clearly retains enough of his old strength to go up against Illyria and do some damage, although he lacks his old healing abilities when in combat. In issue #4, it's revealed that Angel did in fact become human during the battle in "Not Fade Away" as a result of the Senior Partners attempting to deprive him of his strength when he most needs it, and is using various enchantments and glamours to keep up the appearance that he is still a vampire, although there are potential risks involved in a human using the spells he relies on to imitate his old healing abilities for a prolonged period.
After the time reversion, Angel is back to being a vampire, with all of his abilities restored.
History:Born in 1727, Liam (no surname given) was born to a middle-class linen merchant in Galway, Ireland. By 1753, at the age of 27, he develops a taste for alcohol, women and sloth. Liam is a hedonist whose only real ambition lies in seeing the world. For a drunken layabout, this seems a laughable dream, until he is expelled from his house by his disapproving father. While engaging a drunken tavern brawl that evening, he catches the eye of Darla, a vampire disguised as a noblewoman. Upon being tossed out of the tavern for causing trouble, Liam is lured into an alley by Darla, who promises to show him the world, then transforms him into a vampire. The price is the loss of his human soul, along with his conscience, freeing Liam to act upon his darker impulses.
On the night he rises from his grave, Liam sets about murdering the entire community, culminating in an attack on his own house. He first kills his little sister, Kathy, who unknowingly invited the demon in, believing that Liam had come back to her as an "angel", subsequently killing his parents. Kathy's belief that he was an angel was likely the inspiration for his vampire name, "Angelus" (the Latinate for "Angel"). He is later described in historical volumes as "the demon with the face of an angel" ("Somnambulist"). After leaving Ireland, Angelus and Darla cut a bloody swath through Wales and northern England, before finally reaching London in 1760. During Angelus' first meeting with the Master in the city sewers, he openly mocks the older vampire despite the power and authority, showing no fear despite the Master's greater age, and confronts Darla about her decision to remain underground when she could be traveling the world with him. Won over by his words, Darla chooses to live with Angelus, abandoning the Master's leadership.
In May 1764, Angelus and Darla killed the family of vampire hunter Daniel Holtz. Holtz devoted himself to capturing Angelus and Darla, chasing them across Europe. Angelus and Darla had a near miss in France, after making too much noise by ordering room service and eating the waiters. Darla flees to Austria, leaving Angelus in a burning barn and riding off on their only horse. After meeting again in Vienna, Angelus and Darla sire the vampires James and Elizabeth. In Marseilles, 1767, Holtz tracks them down and manages to put numerous arrows in Angelus. Holtz briefly lost them in northern Africa, only to track Angelus to Rome in 1771. Instead of killing Holtz, Angelus and Darla realize that they have come to view him "like family" and make a sport of ruining his life. Holtz abandons his hunt and retires to York, until in 1773 a demon named Sahjhan offers to take him to the future where he may continue his revenge.
Angelus later sires a Puritan by the name of Penn, who mimics Angelus by wreaking havoc on his father and killing his family. Over time, he begins copying Angelus' 'signature' of leaving a cross-shaped mark on the face of his victims in order to spite God. In 1789, Angelus - apparently alone for reasons unknown - encounters The Beast in Prussia, standing in a field of bodies, who seeks Angelus' aid in killing the Svear Priestesses, a group who wish to banish the Beast and who can only be killed by a vampire. When he declines to join with the Beast, he is met with violent reprisal, but a group of Svear priestesses banish the Beast while Angelus is passing out.
In 1860, Drusilla from London, a young woman "cursed" with the "sight," something her mother saw as "an affront to the Lord," catches the attention of Angelus. Drusilla and her sisters are all noted to be virgins, and Drusilla is described as having been "sweet, pure and chaste." While posing as her priest to torment her, Angelus killed her family, which caused Drusilla to flee to a convent. On the day she was to take her holy orders, Angelus massacred the convent (he had an obsession with nuns, including a massacre of those at "Our Lady of Lochenbee"). After having sex with Darla right in front of Drusilla, Angelus finally pushed her over the edge, driving her insane before he finally sired her. Drusilla is Angelus' "masterpiece," an everlasting example of his finest cruelty, as her immortality means that her torment shall never end.
Drusilla, in turn, sires William the Bloody, for whom Angelus largely served as a mentor and "role model". William, who later becomes known as "Spike," goes so far as to call the elder vampire his "Yoda" in School Hard. Angelus taught William about the art of mass slaughter, including an incident during a wedding party where Angelus beat the groom to death with his own arm. Angelus threatens to stake Spike in a London mine shaft in 1880, as punishment for putting the vampire quartet on the run after attracting too much attention. Angelus introduces Spike to the existence of the Slayer as a cautionary tale, but Spike takes it as a challenge. It is also evident that Angel and Spike had a romantic or sexual relationship, if briefly; referenced various times, it is made clear in the Season 5 episode "Power Play" when Spike states "Angel and me have never been intimate. Except that one time."
In 1890, Angelus attended a production of Giselle by the Blinnikov, a Russian ballet troupe run by Count Kurskov. Despite being evil, he is moved to tears during the performance (Angel refers to this incident in an episode, saying that he "cried like a baby, and I was evil!"). In 1894, Angelus and Spike are captured by the Immortal's henchmen in Rome and hung by chains from a ceiling while the Immortal had a threesome with Darla and Drusilla. After the henchman free them with little explanation, the vampire duo are enraged when their respective consorts wax about the Immortal's actions. Both vow vengeance against the Immortal, but don't get close to him again until 2004, in the midst of a case for Wolfram & Hart. Darla and Angelus were also present at an earthquake in Budapest around the turn of the century, where Angelus was a particularly "bad boy".
[edit] Cursed
In 1898, while in Borºa, Romania, Angelus tortured and murdered the favorite daughter of a tribe of Kalderash Gypsies, apparently a birthday present from Darla. To avenge her death, the Kalderash gypsies curse him by restoring his human soul, thus afflicting him with a conscience and condemning him to an eternity of remorse for the crimes he has committed. Darla finds Angelus huddling in their apartment muttering about all the atrocities they have committed. Repulsed by his "filthy human soul", Darla tries to coerce the father of the dead Gypsy girl to reverse the curse; an overeager Spike kills the rest of the tribe while Darla is busy negotiating with the man. Seeing her leverage has been wasted, a frustrated Darla snaps the father's neck and leaves. Angelus is left homeless and scavenging the streets for rats. He attempts to kill a woman, but finds that he cannot bring himself to do so.
During the Boxer Rebellion in Beijing, China, the ensouled vampire, now known as "Angel", tries and fails to resume his life with Darla. To satisfy her, he starts killing humans again, but Darla notices that he is only hunting rapists and murderers, never targeting innocents. Darla catches Angel trying to hide a group of Christian missionaries from her. When Angel goes to feed on rats down at the waterfront, Darla kills the missionary family and brings back their infant child as a test for Angel. Unable to kill it, Angel flees with the baby and separates from Darla for good, stating that he can't continue to be something he's not.
Angel arrives in New York City through Ellis Island in 1902. Some time later, during the Great Depression, he traveled through Montana. He also visits Chicago during the 1920s. During World War II, Angel is coerced by The Demon Research Initiative into undertaking a secret mission: he must rescue an American submarine crew from three vampires (including Spike) who were captured by the Nazis as part of an experiment to create super-soldiers. During the mission, Angel is forced to sire a fatally-injured Sam Lawson in order for him to repair the submarine's engine, which was damaged during a German attack. Angel later claims to have known Bugsy Siegel around this time, in the early days of Las Vegas, Nevada's metamorphosis into a gambling mecca.
In 1952, while in Los Angeles, Angel was a resident at the Hyperion Hotel, the future base of Angel Investigations.[1] Although he tried to isolate himself, Angel was sought out by Judy, who had fled her home town after stealing a sum of money from her job when it was revealed that she had a black mother and a white father. Things quickly deteriorate when a string of murders and suicides gripped the hotel, and the guests become increasingly paranoid. As Angel learns, this is the result of a Thesulac demon, a demon living off fear. Although he initially tried to kill the demon, the guests at the hotel turn against him, and Angel is lynched. Surviving the hanging, and disgusted with the humans, Angel freely allows the demon to consume everyone inside the hotel.
Angel claims to have known the Rat Pack and to have been present during Elvis Presley's wedding reception after his marriage to Priscilla Beaulieu in Las Vegas, Nevada on May 1, 1967.
In New York during the 1970s, Angel witnesses a robbery at a doughnut shop.[2] After the robber shoots an employee and runs away, Angel stays with the man as he dies, and then proceeds to feed on him. Disgusted with himself, Angel then exiles himself to the alleyways, where he spends another 20 years homeless and feeding on rats.
Two decades later, a shadow of his former self, the reclusive Angel is sought out by a demon named Whistler in 1996. Whistler persuades Angel to join the fight against evil. He then brings Angel to meet the newly-called Vampire Slayer, Buffy Summers, in Los Angeles. The following year, when he and Buffy finally meet in Sunnydale, he introduces himself, not as Angelus, but as Angel.
[edit] Sunnydale
Although Angel already sees Buffy while she is still in L.A.,[3] he does not introduce himself to her until after her move to Sunnydale, and after her first day at Sunnydale High.[4] The two fall in love, but Buffy does not realize Angel is a vampire until several weeks later in the episode "Angel", when he unintentionally vamps out after kissing her. Though they try to deny their feelings, they cannot resist the passion growing between them, and the two begin to date after Angel helps to save her from a demonic frat party. When they finally consummate their relationship in "Surprise", Angel experiences one moment of pure happiness, which breaks the Gypsy curse, and loses his soul. Without the compassion and conscience instilled by his human soul, Angel instantly reverts to his former evil self, Angelus, in the following episode.[5]
Angelus becomes the "Big Bad" of Buffy's second season.Angelus allies himself once again with Spike and Drusilla, who have recently settled in Sunnydale. Resenting the humiliation he felt because Buffy had made Angel feel like a human being, Angelus takes immense pleasure in tormenting the Slayer and her friends. First, he helps Spike and Dru deploy a powerful demon known as the Judge. After Buffy destroys the Judge, Angelus embarks on a guerilla campaign, lurking in the shadows, preying on Buffy's classmates, sending her gruesome messages, even drawing pictures of her and her mother as they sleep and leaving them in her bedroom.
He proceeds to murder Jenny Calendar, which serves him in two ways; first, he eliminates an enemy (Jenny was born Janna of the Kalderash clan) and destroys her work just as she manages to successfully decipher the lost Gypsy curse which could be used to restore Angel's soul. Second, Angelus uses Jenny's death to viciously torment Rupert Giles, Jenny's paramour and the person on whom Buffy depends most. After this, Angelus widens his focus and begins a scheme to awaken the demon Acathla and bring about the end of the world. Buffy is determined to stop him despite their history, and is able to overcome him in combat. Just as she prepares for the finishing blow, however, Willow Rosenberg is able to restore Angel's soul. Since Acathla can only be stopped by the blood of the individual who activated him, Buffy is forced to sacrifice Angel to save the world. Impaled on the Slayer's enchanted sword, Angel is sucked into Acathla's vortex, which suddenly snaps closed.[6]
Angel returns to Earth in "Faith, Hope & Trick". Because time moves differently in Acathla's dimension, he has experienced hundreds of years of torment, and when he reappears in his mansion, he is in a feral state. Buffy finds him and helps restore him to sanity, but he begins to suspect that whatever force returned him from his Hell has a purpose of its own. He begins to experience what he believes to be hallucinations of his many past victims, most notably Jenny Calendar, taunting him to kill Buffy. He discovers that the First Evil is not only apparently responsible for his return to Earth, but is responsible for the "hallucinations" (The First has the ability to take the form of anyone who has died, and to make itself visible only to whom it wishes). He resists, choosing instead to commit suicide by staying outside when the sun rises, but a sudden, unexplained snow clouds the Sun.[7] Afterwards, Angel maintains hope that he was saved from Acathla's hell for a good reason.
Angel and Buffy attempt to resume their relationship, but Angel begins to doubt that he will ever be able to give Buffy a remotely human life. When Buffy's mother and even the season's "Big Bad", Mayor Richard Wilkins, tell him that he cannot give her a real future, he tells Buffy that he is leaving Sunnydale after they stop Wilkins, although they share a last dance at her prom. In an attempt to distract Buffy, rogue slayer Faith Lehane shoots him with an arrow coated with poison that can only be cured with the blood of a Slayer. When Buffy is unable to bring him the body of Faith, she tells him to drink from her. He is cured, but nearly kills her in the process when he gives in to his instincts, although he manages to get her to the hospital in time to save her life. He tells Buffy that he's just going to leave without saying goodbye; when they win the fight against Wilkins, Angel and Buffy share a look, and then he leaves for Los Angeles, ironically Buffy's hometown.
[edit] Angel Investigations
Main article: Angel Investigations
In L.A., Angel spends a few months alone, patrolling dives and dark alleys, battling vampires who hunt there and distancing himself from the humans he protects. Soon enough, he receives support in his attempts to redeem himself in the service of others. First, Allen Francis Doyle, a half-demon and fellow Irishman, is sent by The Powers That Be. Almost immediately thereafter, Angel runs into Cordelia Chase, a former classmate of Buffy's who has moved to L.A. to find wealth and fame. The trio form Angel Investigations, a detective agency specializing in supernatural cases whose mission statement is to "Help the Helpless."
Doyle, Angel's trusted friend and sole connection to the Powers, sacrifices himself in the episode "Hero" to save others, leading Angel to become even more protective of those few he holds dear. Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, who had briefly served as Watcher to both Buffy and Faith in Sunnydale, arrives in L.A. claiming to be a "rogue demon hunter," a lone wolf sort who only works solo.[8] After their first case, however, Wesley is eager to stay and assist Angel and Cordelia in their mission. A few months later, they are joined by lifelong demon fighter, Charles Gunn.[9] During this time, three young Wolfram and Hart associates, Lindsey McDonald, Lee Mercer, and Lilah Morgan, attempt to have Angel killed by the rogue vampire slayer, Faith. Under Angel's influence, the deeply troubled Faith starts along her own path to redemption, ultimately turning herself in to the police as the first step toward making amends for her crimes.
As Angel continues to help the helpless in Los Angeles, his good deeds begin to seriously disrupt the plans of the evil inter-dimensional law firm, Wolfram and Hart. In an attempt to control him, the firm resurrects his sire and former lover, Darla, who comes back as a human rather than as a vampire.[10] Wolfram and Hart then summons Drusilla, who turns Darla into a vampire again. Angel turns to a darker side of himself, fires his crew, and embarks on a vendetta against both the law firm and the newly reunited Darla and Drusilla. During this time, Angel refuses to prevent the slaughter of a very large group of Wolfram & Hart employees at the hands of Dru and Darla, although he later aids the Host in averting the end of the world when an attempt to stop time goes wrong.[11] After a devastating spiritual defeat by Holland Manners, who tells him that the evil of Wolfram & Hart simply comes from humanity rather than demons, Angel attempts to shed his soul by having sex with Darla, but instead of happiness, finds despair.[12] A moment of clarity follows the desperate act, and Angel realizes that his purpose is still to do all the good he can, even if he can't do all the good he wants, because, in a world where there's no grand final plan, a single act of kindness can make all the difference in the world.
Having hoped to get her boy Angelus back, Darla is horrified and infuriated by Angel's epiphany, and flees Los Angeles. After a difficult reconciliation that involves Wesley taking over the official position of leader of the group, the Angel Investigations team find themselves transported to the demon dimension, Pylea in the episode "Over the Rainbow" when an attempt to vanquish a demon goes wrong and results in Cordelia being sent into the other dimension. Eventually, after Angel defeats the undefeated Champion of Pylea, the Groosalugg, they return with a new team member, Winifred Burkle, in tow, and to the news that the love of Angel's life, Buffy, has died.[13] During this time, the Angel Investigations team also enlists the help of demon karaoke bar-owner Lorne, known initially only as The Host.
[edit] Fatherhood
Devastated by Buffy's death, Angel spends several months mourning in an Asian monestary. Despite Buffy's miraculous resurrection a few months later, Angel finds that his previously platonic love for Cordelia has grown to be romantic. Before he has a chance to confess his feelings, however, Darla returns, pregnant with his son, to be named Connor. False prophecies, time travelers and betrayal lead to Angel losing his infant son to an old enemy, Daniel Holtz, who abducts Connor soon after his birth, taking him to hell dimension Quor'toth where time passes differently. When Connor returns days later, he is a young man who has been raised by Holtz to believe that Angel is still a soulless monster. Holtz takes his own life in such a way that Connor is led to believe he was killed by Angel, and vows to make Angel pay for the suffering he had caused Holtz. That same night, Connor sinks his father to the bottom of the ocean in a steel coffin and Cordelia ascends to a higher plane, the feelings shared between her and Angel still left unspoken.
Rescued by Wesley from his watery prison three months later, Angel's relationship with Connor is strained. It is complicated further by the return of an amnesiac Cordelia, who prefers to stay with Connor because he told her the truth while the others lied to her (albeit because they thought it was for her own good). When a very powerful demon known only as the Beast arrives and begins an attempt to bring forth an apocalypse, Angel's worst fears are realized when he has to strip himself of his soul and revert to his evil alter ego in order to defeat it. Angelus does indeed overcome the Beast, and is also deft enough to realize that the Beast was a mere "flunky" serving an even deeper evil; the Beast he knew was only interested in smashing and slaughter, and it was unlikely that the Beast would have become smarter since Angelus fought him.
Although he is momentarily free to wreak a little havoc of his own, Angelus is recaptured and re-ensouled with the help of Faith (who almost dies in her quest to capture Angelus) and Willow, culminating in a brief but violent mental battle between Angel and Angelus. After his soul is restored, Angel figures out that the enemy he has been battling is a little closer to home than the group had previously considered, realizing that whatever the Beast's 'boss' is, it is using Cordelia's body to carry out its plans. As it turns out, Cordelia and Connor had sex, when it seemed the Beast would cause the apocalypse and Cordy wanted to give Connor "something real" since he "never had anything real" and because he told her the truth. This results in the conception of a child, who comes to term in a few weeks. It is learned later that this was not Cordelia, but the higher being Jasmine, who had taken over Cordelia's body while she was on higher plane. The child is born by exploding out of Cordy's stomach, which puts her into a coma, and eventually, she dies. The child is born a full grown human and is a divine being known as Jasmine. When people look upon her they are mesmerized with her beauty and do whatever she says, which is to love and be nice and be peaceful. However, Angel finds out that contact with her blood causes the person to see her face as rotting flesh, with holes and maggots upon it. After battling and defeating Jasmine, because he says that humans must have the choice to do good, not be controlled, even if the control makes the world a better place, Angel is offered the L.A. branch of Wolfram & Hart because he ended world peace. Angel acts against all of his instincts and makes a deal with his sworn enemy, in exchange for Wolfram & Hart erasing Connor’s memories and giving him a normal life, and trying to find a way to cure Cordelia. Soon afterwards, he returns to Sunnydale to aid Buffy in her fight against the First Evil, arriving just in time to save her from the mysogynistic preacher Caleb. Buffy sends him back to Los Angeles to prepare to fight in case the Scoobies fail to stop the First, but Angel leaves her with a mystical champion's amulet before he departs.
[edit] Wolfram & Hart
Angel and his team in the final moments of the series finale; "Not Fade Away".The lines between good and evil blur as Angel moves into Wolfram & Hart, and they challenge Angel's perceptions of himself and his destiny. Matters are further complicated when Spike appears as a ghost, emerging from a familiar amulet sent to Angel in the mail. Sharing a complicated history of murder and mayhem, they have spent more than a century as rivals in everything. Now both possessing souls, and both still in love with Buffy, they have evolved into very different heroes in the war against evil. Forced to co-exist, they wage a protracted, insidious battle of wits, ending when they finally come to an understanding and acceptance of their unique brotherhood on their journey to redemption. Angel's takeover of Wolfram & Hart also comes with a major consequence; his friends and allies in the Scooby Gang, including Buffy, now deem him untrustworthy.
In the episode "Destiny," when they prepare to do battle over the Cup of Perpetual Torment, Spike tells Angel "You had a soul forced on you. As a curse. Make you suffer for all the horrible things you've done. Me, I fought for my soul, went through the demon trials, almost did me in a dozen times over, but I kept fighting. Because I knew it was the right thing to do. It's my destiny." Although the Cup turns out to be fake, Angel's defeat at the hands of Spike is a source for inner turmoil in the following episodes, as he is left wondering if he is still the vampire champion of the prophecy. Most of these events turn out to be the machinations of Lindsey McDonald, a returning nemesis, and after he is defeated, Angel grows more confident once more.
Lindsey's defeat coincides with a last visit from Cordelia, who passes along a single vision to Angel. Now finally understanding that he will never be able to completely stop the forces of evil, Angel decides that temporarily severing the Senior Partners' hold on Earth is enough. Together with his comrades, Angel prepares to suicidally incur the apocalyptic wrath of the Senior Partners as a way of going out in a blaze of glory. They assassinate the members of the Circle of the Black Thorn, the Senior Partners' instruments on Earth for pulling all the political and economic strings. In this effort, Gunn is badly wounded, and Wesley Wyndam-Pryce is killed. Lorne is instructed to kill Lindsey, temporarily an ally, after they've completed their mission, and he does so, leaving behind Angel and his team afterwards. Gunn manages to make it to the meeting point, the alley behind the Hyperion Hotel, where he, Angel, Spike and Illyria engage in battle with the dark armies that the Senior Partners have sent against them. The last words spoken on screen are Angel's, "Let's go to work."
[edit] After the Fall
Angel has been picked up for a canonical "season 6" comic-book series, written by Brian Lynch and plotted by Joss Whedon, a sixteen issue arc titled "Angel: After The Fall." Both Angel and Spike are known to have survived the showdown with Wolfram & Hart's forces on Earth. Season Six is kicked off showing an overall loss for Team Angel after the battle. In retaliation for Angel's stance Wolfram & Hart has seemingly moved the city of Los Angeles to a hell dimension, turning it into a Post-Apocalyptic territory filled with demons. In an attempt to deprive him of his strength and immortality when he needed it most, the Senior Partners have also turned Angel into a human, forcing Angel and Wesley to rely on mystical enchantments to provide Angel with at least a measure of his old abilities.
Angel is still based at the demolished Wolfram and Hart building and is under the watch of the Senior Partners' newest liaison, Wesley. Angel, however, is planning to take the fight to the Senior Partners and free Los Angeles, first by destroying all of the demon lords of Los Angeles (Spike appears to be one of these, but it is later revealed that this is a cover to allow him to move humans to safety). While preparing for the war, though, he rescues citizens in peril and sends them, anonymously, to his son Connor who has set up a safehouse with Nina Ash and Gwen Raiden. Angel is not alone, however. With him is his newest friend and companion, the dragon (which he unintentionally names Cordelia) that was closing in on him in the final scene of the Angel series finale. After befriending the dragon in the alley, they had joined forces to make a powerful team. Having learned the truth about Spike, Angel declares to the demon lords of Los Angeles that he shall free all their human slaves, and arranges to meet them in two days to restore Los Angeles to Earth.
Having used his rituals to heal his wounds, Angel contacts Lorne, now the lord of the Silver Lake area, to confirm his old friend's neutral status in the upcoming struggle against the demon lords, and is reunited with the Groosalugg, who offers his services to Angel in the upcoming battle just before Gunn, now a vampire, destroys the Wolfram & Hart building as part of his revenge against Angel. When Angel goes up against the champions of the Demon Lords, he initially stands alone in his fight. Unknown to him, Lorne went around and rallied all of Angel's friends to come join him in his fight. After the fight is over and the Demon Lords defeated, Angel and crew head back to their old home base: the Hyperion Hotel. Later, shortly after killing a nest of vampires, Illyria reveals to the group that Angel is no longer a vampire. Connor gets angry with Angel for being lied to and takes off. If that wasn't enough, Angel and company then run into Gunn, who is now a vampire.
Upon seeing what has become of Gunn, Angel tells Gunn that he's sorry. Gunn remarks that he figured he would say that, and proceeds to show Angel his base of operations (Angel goes along with it knowing that it is a dangerous situation). Gunn even proceeds to ask for Angel's help in saving L.A. (he clearly has become insane). Angel lies, saying that he will help him even though he is pulling out a stake from behind his coat. He thinks to himself that Angelus would be proud of his deception, but he hates himself even more for it. Gunn is able to beat him in a fight, and proceeds to use a mystical item to remove the magics keeping Angel alive. Gunn leaves him there to die. Despite encouragement from Cordelia's spirit, a vision Angel receives nearly leads him to resign himself to death when it apparently shows him having reverted to Angelus, but Connor's encouragement urges him to keep fighting as he acknowledges that he would never allow himself to become what he saw in that vision. Having been healed by a demon army to fulfill the prophecy as Illyria goes on a rampage in her true state, Angel manages to rally an army of Gunn's captured Slayers while using Bette George to send Spike and Wesley's memories of Fred to Illyria in an attempt to calm her down.
However, Gunn attacks as they attempt to stop Illyria, and although Angel defeats Gunn - refusing to kill him as it would mean he was already taking steps to become the vampire he has seen in the vision. Connor is mortally wounded in the attack, his last words being to assure Angel that he is a good man whether human or vampire. Realising that the Partners need him alive, Angel provokes Gunn into killing him, forcing the Partners to return Los Angeles to the moment when the original battle in the alleyway first began, restoring Angel to his vampire status and Connor and the dragon to life, as well as giving him a chance to prevent Gunn from being sired and take him to a hospital to treat his injuries (although Wesley remains dead). Despite the temporal fold, everyone in Los Angeles retains their memories of the events, and hail the A.I. team as heroes.
One month later, Angel finds it difficult to adapt to being a public hero. After researching the mystery of the vanished Wolfram & Hart building at the public library (one wing of which has been renamed in honor of Fred and Wesley), Angel leaves his dragon in the care of the Groosalugg in an attempt to reclaim his anonymity. Soon afterwards, Angel learns from Betta George that the Demon Lords want revenge against him and are planning to do so by striking at the ones closest to him. Angel, Spike, and George rush to the hospital to protect a comatose Gunn, only to find Illyria already there doing so. Afterwards, Angel visits Gunn, forgives him for his actions in Hell as a vampire, and walks off into the night after leaving him with an Angel Investigations card, continuing his mission to help the helpless.
Character is from (series, book, creator, or author, if it applies): Buffy and Angel
**Thanks be to Wikipedia, I ripped every bit of this bio from there**
Age: Born in 1727
Persuasion: Primarily good, and fundamentally evil, he'll cross this threshold from time to time
Type of Creature: Vampire (Sometimes with a Soul)
Powers: Angel has the common powers and vulnerabilities of a Buffyverse vampire, though he is considerably stronger than most other vampires and demons. He has demonstrated enhanced speed in episodes such as "Blood Money", "Reprise", "Release" and "That Vision Thing", crossing several meters in the blink of an eye. He is a highly skilled combatant and generally fights unarmed, using circular attacks such as spinning kicks and back hands. In addition to his proficiency in many forms of martial arts, he is quite skilled in the usage of a variety of weapons. He typically favors the axe and the broadsword. Angel also possesses some cognitive abilities; he has a photographic memory ("Supersymmetry") which is triggered on occasion, and has displayed a psychic connection to those he has sired on at least one occasion ("Somnambulist"). In "Power Play", he reveals that Cordelia passed on her visions to him earlier that season in "You're Welcome". However, he believes that this was a "one-shot deal", possibly meaning that this ability was only temporary. As Angelus, he displays considerable skill in manipulating others' emotional states and has driven his victims insane, as seen with Drusilla. With or without his soul, he is shown to be an expert in torture, having tortured Giles as Angelus ("Becoming, Part Two") and Linwood as Angel ("Forgiving"). Angel seems to be aware of how skilled he is in a fight, once telling a demon, "If you're lucky, you'll last ten minutes, tops. Really lucky, you'll be unconscious for the last five."
In addition to his supernatural abilities and fighting skills, Angel has displayed a number of other talents. He apparently has "very nice handwriting" and is a skilled artist, first seen in the episode "Passion", using charcoal crayon and China ink to draw portraits. He is fluent in several languages. In "Harm's Way", he tries to learn the language of the Vinji and Sahrvin demons from an instruction tape. He can also drive, owning a 1967 Plymouth GTX for the first four seasons of the show and a Dodge Viper, along with a whole garage full of other cars, in Season Five. Likely because of his age, he has displayed incredible knowledge of demonology and history rivaling (or perhaps even surpassing) that of Giles and Wesley, and has some skill in witchcraft and sorcery, but his natural aptitude for it is only moderate, far below that of Willow's. Angel is competent, but uncomfortable, with using modern technology; he frequently struggles to understand a cell phone (once commenting that they must have been made by a "bored warlock") and confuses computer terminology such as "chatty rooms". He is a convincing improvisational actor, as seen in the episodes "Enemies", "Five by Five", "The Shroud of Rahmon", and "Power Play". Also, Cordelia comments in "Parting Gifts" that "he's a good cook for someone on a liquid diet."
Following "Not Fade Away", After the Fall reveals that Angel is no longer a vampire. His new limitations are unclear, but he clearly retains enough of his old strength to go up against Illyria and do some damage, although he lacks his old healing abilities when in combat. In issue #4, it's revealed that Angel did in fact become human during the battle in "Not Fade Away" as a result of the Senior Partners attempting to deprive him of his strength when he most needs it, and is using various enchantments and glamours to keep up the appearance that he is still a vampire, although there are potential risks involved in a human using the spells he relies on to imitate his old healing abilities for a prolonged period.
After the time reversion, Angel is back to being a vampire, with all of his abilities restored.
History:Born in 1727, Liam (no surname given) was born to a middle-class linen merchant in Galway, Ireland. By 1753, at the age of 27, he develops a taste for alcohol, women and sloth. Liam is a hedonist whose only real ambition lies in seeing the world. For a drunken layabout, this seems a laughable dream, until he is expelled from his house by his disapproving father. While engaging a drunken tavern brawl that evening, he catches the eye of Darla, a vampire disguised as a noblewoman. Upon being tossed out of the tavern for causing trouble, Liam is lured into an alley by Darla, who promises to show him the world, then transforms him into a vampire. The price is the loss of his human soul, along with his conscience, freeing Liam to act upon his darker impulses.
On the night he rises from his grave, Liam sets about murdering the entire community, culminating in an attack on his own house. He first kills his little sister, Kathy, who unknowingly invited the demon in, believing that Liam had come back to her as an "angel", subsequently killing his parents. Kathy's belief that he was an angel was likely the inspiration for his vampire name, "Angelus" (the Latinate for "Angel"). He is later described in historical volumes as "the demon with the face of an angel" ("Somnambulist"). After leaving Ireland, Angelus and Darla cut a bloody swath through Wales and northern England, before finally reaching London in 1760. During Angelus' first meeting with the Master in the city sewers, he openly mocks the older vampire despite the power and authority, showing no fear despite the Master's greater age, and confronts Darla about her decision to remain underground when she could be traveling the world with him. Won over by his words, Darla chooses to live with Angelus, abandoning the Master's leadership.
In May 1764, Angelus and Darla killed the family of vampire hunter Daniel Holtz. Holtz devoted himself to capturing Angelus and Darla, chasing them across Europe. Angelus and Darla had a near miss in France, after making too much noise by ordering room service and eating the waiters. Darla flees to Austria, leaving Angelus in a burning barn and riding off on their only horse. After meeting again in Vienna, Angelus and Darla sire the vampires James and Elizabeth. In Marseilles, 1767, Holtz tracks them down and manages to put numerous arrows in Angelus. Holtz briefly lost them in northern Africa, only to track Angelus to Rome in 1771. Instead of killing Holtz, Angelus and Darla realize that they have come to view him "like family" and make a sport of ruining his life. Holtz abandons his hunt and retires to York, until in 1773 a demon named Sahjhan offers to take him to the future where he may continue his revenge.
Angelus later sires a Puritan by the name of Penn, who mimics Angelus by wreaking havoc on his father and killing his family. Over time, he begins copying Angelus' 'signature' of leaving a cross-shaped mark on the face of his victims in order to spite God. In 1789, Angelus - apparently alone for reasons unknown - encounters The Beast in Prussia, standing in a field of bodies, who seeks Angelus' aid in killing the Svear Priestesses, a group who wish to banish the Beast and who can only be killed by a vampire. When he declines to join with the Beast, he is met with violent reprisal, but a group of Svear priestesses banish the Beast while Angelus is passing out.
In 1860, Drusilla from London, a young woman "cursed" with the "sight," something her mother saw as "an affront to the Lord," catches the attention of Angelus. Drusilla and her sisters are all noted to be virgins, and Drusilla is described as having been "sweet, pure and chaste." While posing as her priest to torment her, Angelus killed her family, which caused Drusilla to flee to a convent. On the day she was to take her holy orders, Angelus massacred the convent (he had an obsession with nuns, including a massacre of those at "Our Lady of Lochenbee"). After having sex with Darla right in front of Drusilla, Angelus finally pushed her over the edge, driving her insane before he finally sired her. Drusilla is Angelus' "masterpiece," an everlasting example of his finest cruelty, as her immortality means that her torment shall never end.
Drusilla, in turn, sires William the Bloody, for whom Angelus largely served as a mentor and "role model". William, who later becomes known as "Spike," goes so far as to call the elder vampire his "Yoda" in School Hard. Angelus taught William about the art of mass slaughter, including an incident during a wedding party where Angelus beat the groom to death with his own arm. Angelus threatens to stake Spike in a London mine shaft in 1880, as punishment for putting the vampire quartet on the run after attracting too much attention. Angelus introduces Spike to the existence of the Slayer as a cautionary tale, but Spike takes it as a challenge. It is also evident that Angel and Spike had a romantic or sexual relationship, if briefly; referenced various times, it is made clear in the Season 5 episode "Power Play" when Spike states "Angel and me have never been intimate. Except that one time."
In 1890, Angelus attended a production of Giselle by the Blinnikov, a Russian ballet troupe run by Count Kurskov. Despite being evil, he is moved to tears during the performance (Angel refers to this incident in an episode, saying that he "cried like a baby, and I was evil!"). In 1894, Angelus and Spike are captured by the Immortal's henchmen in Rome and hung by chains from a ceiling while the Immortal had a threesome with Darla and Drusilla. After the henchman free them with little explanation, the vampire duo are enraged when their respective consorts wax about the Immortal's actions. Both vow vengeance against the Immortal, but don't get close to him again until 2004, in the midst of a case for Wolfram & Hart. Darla and Angelus were also present at an earthquake in Budapest around the turn of the century, where Angelus was a particularly "bad boy".
[edit] Cursed
In 1898, while in Borºa, Romania, Angelus tortured and murdered the favorite daughter of a tribe of Kalderash Gypsies, apparently a birthday present from Darla. To avenge her death, the Kalderash gypsies curse him by restoring his human soul, thus afflicting him with a conscience and condemning him to an eternity of remorse for the crimes he has committed. Darla finds Angelus huddling in their apartment muttering about all the atrocities they have committed. Repulsed by his "filthy human soul", Darla tries to coerce the father of the dead Gypsy girl to reverse the curse; an overeager Spike kills the rest of the tribe while Darla is busy negotiating with the man. Seeing her leverage has been wasted, a frustrated Darla snaps the father's neck and leaves. Angelus is left homeless and scavenging the streets for rats. He attempts to kill a woman, but finds that he cannot bring himself to do so.
During the Boxer Rebellion in Beijing, China, the ensouled vampire, now known as "Angel", tries and fails to resume his life with Darla. To satisfy her, he starts killing humans again, but Darla notices that he is only hunting rapists and murderers, never targeting innocents. Darla catches Angel trying to hide a group of Christian missionaries from her. When Angel goes to feed on rats down at the waterfront, Darla kills the missionary family and brings back their infant child as a test for Angel. Unable to kill it, Angel flees with the baby and separates from Darla for good, stating that he can't continue to be something he's not.
Angel arrives in New York City through Ellis Island in 1902. Some time later, during the Great Depression, he traveled through Montana. He also visits Chicago during the 1920s. During World War II, Angel is coerced by The Demon Research Initiative into undertaking a secret mission: he must rescue an American submarine crew from three vampires (including Spike) who were captured by the Nazis as part of an experiment to create super-soldiers. During the mission, Angel is forced to sire a fatally-injured Sam Lawson in order for him to repair the submarine's engine, which was damaged during a German attack. Angel later claims to have known Bugsy Siegel around this time, in the early days of Las Vegas, Nevada's metamorphosis into a gambling mecca.
In 1952, while in Los Angeles, Angel was a resident at the Hyperion Hotel, the future base of Angel Investigations.[1] Although he tried to isolate himself, Angel was sought out by Judy, who had fled her home town after stealing a sum of money from her job when it was revealed that she had a black mother and a white father. Things quickly deteriorate when a string of murders and suicides gripped the hotel, and the guests become increasingly paranoid. As Angel learns, this is the result of a Thesulac demon, a demon living off fear. Although he initially tried to kill the demon, the guests at the hotel turn against him, and Angel is lynched. Surviving the hanging, and disgusted with the humans, Angel freely allows the demon to consume everyone inside the hotel.
Angel claims to have known the Rat Pack and to have been present during Elvis Presley's wedding reception after his marriage to Priscilla Beaulieu in Las Vegas, Nevada on May 1, 1967.
In New York during the 1970s, Angel witnesses a robbery at a doughnut shop.[2] After the robber shoots an employee and runs away, Angel stays with the man as he dies, and then proceeds to feed on him. Disgusted with himself, Angel then exiles himself to the alleyways, where he spends another 20 years homeless and feeding on rats.
Two decades later, a shadow of his former self, the reclusive Angel is sought out by a demon named Whistler in 1996. Whistler persuades Angel to join the fight against evil. He then brings Angel to meet the newly-called Vampire Slayer, Buffy Summers, in Los Angeles. The following year, when he and Buffy finally meet in Sunnydale, he introduces himself, not as Angelus, but as Angel.
[edit] Sunnydale
Although Angel already sees Buffy while she is still in L.A.,[3] he does not introduce himself to her until after her move to Sunnydale, and after her first day at Sunnydale High.[4] The two fall in love, but Buffy does not realize Angel is a vampire until several weeks later in the episode "Angel", when he unintentionally vamps out after kissing her. Though they try to deny their feelings, they cannot resist the passion growing between them, and the two begin to date after Angel helps to save her from a demonic frat party. When they finally consummate their relationship in "Surprise", Angel experiences one moment of pure happiness, which breaks the Gypsy curse, and loses his soul. Without the compassion and conscience instilled by his human soul, Angel instantly reverts to his former evil self, Angelus, in the following episode.[5]
Angelus becomes the "Big Bad" of Buffy's second season.Angelus allies himself once again with Spike and Drusilla, who have recently settled in Sunnydale. Resenting the humiliation he felt because Buffy had made Angel feel like a human being, Angelus takes immense pleasure in tormenting the Slayer and her friends. First, he helps Spike and Dru deploy a powerful demon known as the Judge. After Buffy destroys the Judge, Angelus embarks on a guerilla campaign, lurking in the shadows, preying on Buffy's classmates, sending her gruesome messages, even drawing pictures of her and her mother as they sleep and leaving them in her bedroom.
He proceeds to murder Jenny Calendar, which serves him in two ways; first, he eliminates an enemy (Jenny was born Janna of the Kalderash clan) and destroys her work just as she manages to successfully decipher the lost Gypsy curse which could be used to restore Angel's soul. Second, Angelus uses Jenny's death to viciously torment Rupert Giles, Jenny's paramour and the person on whom Buffy depends most. After this, Angelus widens his focus and begins a scheme to awaken the demon Acathla and bring about the end of the world. Buffy is determined to stop him despite their history, and is able to overcome him in combat. Just as she prepares for the finishing blow, however, Willow Rosenberg is able to restore Angel's soul. Since Acathla can only be stopped by the blood of the individual who activated him, Buffy is forced to sacrifice Angel to save the world. Impaled on the Slayer's enchanted sword, Angel is sucked into Acathla's vortex, which suddenly snaps closed.[6]
Angel returns to Earth in "Faith, Hope & Trick". Because time moves differently in Acathla's dimension, he has experienced hundreds of years of torment, and when he reappears in his mansion, he is in a feral state. Buffy finds him and helps restore him to sanity, but he begins to suspect that whatever force returned him from his Hell has a purpose of its own. He begins to experience what he believes to be hallucinations of his many past victims, most notably Jenny Calendar, taunting him to kill Buffy. He discovers that the First Evil is not only apparently responsible for his return to Earth, but is responsible for the "hallucinations" (The First has the ability to take the form of anyone who has died, and to make itself visible only to whom it wishes). He resists, choosing instead to commit suicide by staying outside when the sun rises, but a sudden, unexplained snow clouds the Sun.[7] Afterwards, Angel maintains hope that he was saved from Acathla's hell for a good reason.
Angel and Buffy attempt to resume their relationship, but Angel begins to doubt that he will ever be able to give Buffy a remotely human life. When Buffy's mother and even the season's "Big Bad", Mayor Richard Wilkins, tell him that he cannot give her a real future, he tells Buffy that he is leaving Sunnydale after they stop Wilkins, although they share a last dance at her prom. In an attempt to distract Buffy, rogue slayer Faith Lehane shoots him with an arrow coated with poison that can only be cured with the blood of a Slayer. When Buffy is unable to bring him the body of Faith, she tells him to drink from her. He is cured, but nearly kills her in the process when he gives in to his instincts, although he manages to get her to the hospital in time to save her life. He tells Buffy that he's just going to leave without saying goodbye; when they win the fight against Wilkins, Angel and Buffy share a look, and then he leaves for Los Angeles, ironically Buffy's hometown.
[edit] Angel Investigations
Main article: Angel Investigations
In L.A., Angel spends a few months alone, patrolling dives and dark alleys, battling vampires who hunt there and distancing himself from the humans he protects. Soon enough, he receives support in his attempts to redeem himself in the service of others. First, Allen Francis Doyle, a half-demon and fellow Irishman, is sent by The Powers That Be. Almost immediately thereafter, Angel runs into Cordelia Chase, a former classmate of Buffy's who has moved to L.A. to find wealth and fame. The trio form Angel Investigations, a detective agency specializing in supernatural cases whose mission statement is to "Help the Helpless."
Doyle, Angel's trusted friend and sole connection to the Powers, sacrifices himself in the episode "Hero" to save others, leading Angel to become even more protective of those few he holds dear. Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, who had briefly served as Watcher to both Buffy and Faith in Sunnydale, arrives in L.A. claiming to be a "rogue demon hunter," a lone wolf sort who only works solo.[8] After their first case, however, Wesley is eager to stay and assist Angel and Cordelia in their mission. A few months later, they are joined by lifelong demon fighter, Charles Gunn.[9] During this time, three young Wolfram and Hart associates, Lindsey McDonald, Lee Mercer, and Lilah Morgan, attempt to have Angel killed by the rogue vampire slayer, Faith. Under Angel's influence, the deeply troubled Faith starts along her own path to redemption, ultimately turning herself in to the police as the first step toward making amends for her crimes.
As Angel continues to help the helpless in Los Angeles, his good deeds begin to seriously disrupt the plans of the evil inter-dimensional law firm, Wolfram and Hart. In an attempt to control him, the firm resurrects his sire and former lover, Darla, who comes back as a human rather than as a vampire.[10] Wolfram and Hart then summons Drusilla, who turns Darla into a vampire again. Angel turns to a darker side of himself, fires his crew, and embarks on a vendetta against both the law firm and the newly reunited Darla and Drusilla. During this time, Angel refuses to prevent the slaughter of a very large group of Wolfram & Hart employees at the hands of Dru and Darla, although he later aids the Host in averting the end of the world when an attempt to stop time goes wrong.[11] After a devastating spiritual defeat by Holland Manners, who tells him that the evil of Wolfram & Hart simply comes from humanity rather than demons, Angel attempts to shed his soul by having sex with Darla, but instead of happiness, finds despair.[12] A moment of clarity follows the desperate act, and Angel realizes that his purpose is still to do all the good he can, even if he can't do all the good he wants, because, in a world where there's no grand final plan, a single act of kindness can make all the difference in the world.
Having hoped to get her boy Angelus back, Darla is horrified and infuriated by Angel's epiphany, and flees Los Angeles. After a difficult reconciliation that involves Wesley taking over the official position of leader of the group, the Angel Investigations team find themselves transported to the demon dimension, Pylea in the episode "Over the Rainbow" when an attempt to vanquish a demon goes wrong and results in Cordelia being sent into the other dimension. Eventually, after Angel defeats the undefeated Champion of Pylea, the Groosalugg, they return with a new team member, Winifred Burkle, in tow, and to the news that the love of Angel's life, Buffy, has died.[13] During this time, the Angel Investigations team also enlists the help of demon karaoke bar-owner Lorne, known initially only as The Host.
[edit] Fatherhood
Devastated by Buffy's death, Angel spends several months mourning in an Asian monestary. Despite Buffy's miraculous resurrection a few months later, Angel finds that his previously platonic love for Cordelia has grown to be romantic. Before he has a chance to confess his feelings, however, Darla returns, pregnant with his son, to be named Connor. False prophecies, time travelers and betrayal lead to Angel losing his infant son to an old enemy, Daniel Holtz, who abducts Connor soon after his birth, taking him to hell dimension Quor'toth where time passes differently. When Connor returns days later, he is a young man who has been raised by Holtz to believe that Angel is still a soulless monster. Holtz takes his own life in such a way that Connor is led to believe he was killed by Angel, and vows to make Angel pay for the suffering he had caused Holtz. That same night, Connor sinks his father to the bottom of the ocean in a steel coffin and Cordelia ascends to a higher plane, the feelings shared between her and Angel still left unspoken.
Rescued by Wesley from his watery prison three months later, Angel's relationship with Connor is strained. It is complicated further by the return of an amnesiac Cordelia, who prefers to stay with Connor because he told her the truth while the others lied to her (albeit because they thought it was for her own good). When a very powerful demon known only as the Beast arrives and begins an attempt to bring forth an apocalypse, Angel's worst fears are realized when he has to strip himself of his soul and revert to his evil alter ego in order to defeat it. Angelus does indeed overcome the Beast, and is also deft enough to realize that the Beast was a mere "flunky" serving an even deeper evil; the Beast he knew was only interested in smashing and slaughter, and it was unlikely that the Beast would have become smarter since Angelus fought him.
Although he is momentarily free to wreak a little havoc of his own, Angelus is recaptured and re-ensouled with the help of Faith (who almost dies in her quest to capture Angelus) and Willow, culminating in a brief but violent mental battle between Angel and Angelus. After his soul is restored, Angel figures out that the enemy he has been battling is a little closer to home than the group had previously considered, realizing that whatever the Beast's 'boss' is, it is using Cordelia's body to carry out its plans. As it turns out, Cordelia and Connor had sex, when it seemed the Beast would cause the apocalypse and Cordy wanted to give Connor "something real" since he "never had anything real" and because he told her the truth. This results in the conception of a child, who comes to term in a few weeks. It is learned later that this was not Cordelia, but the higher being Jasmine, who had taken over Cordelia's body while she was on higher plane. The child is born by exploding out of Cordy's stomach, which puts her into a coma, and eventually, she dies. The child is born a full grown human and is a divine being known as Jasmine. When people look upon her they are mesmerized with her beauty and do whatever she says, which is to love and be nice and be peaceful. However, Angel finds out that contact with her blood causes the person to see her face as rotting flesh, with holes and maggots upon it. After battling and defeating Jasmine, because he says that humans must have the choice to do good, not be controlled, even if the control makes the world a better place, Angel is offered the L.A. branch of Wolfram & Hart because he ended world peace. Angel acts against all of his instincts and makes a deal with his sworn enemy, in exchange for Wolfram & Hart erasing Connor’s memories and giving him a normal life, and trying to find a way to cure Cordelia. Soon afterwards, he returns to Sunnydale to aid Buffy in her fight against the First Evil, arriving just in time to save her from the mysogynistic preacher Caleb. Buffy sends him back to Los Angeles to prepare to fight in case the Scoobies fail to stop the First, but Angel leaves her with a mystical champion's amulet before he departs.
[edit] Wolfram & Hart
Angel and his team in the final moments of the series finale; "Not Fade Away".The lines between good and evil blur as Angel moves into Wolfram & Hart, and they challenge Angel's perceptions of himself and his destiny. Matters are further complicated when Spike appears as a ghost, emerging from a familiar amulet sent to Angel in the mail. Sharing a complicated history of murder and mayhem, they have spent more than a century as rivals in everything. Now both possessing souls, and both still in love with Buffy, they have evolved into very different heroes in the war against evil. Forced to co-exist, they wage a protracted, insidious battle of wits, ending when they finally come to an understanding and acceptance of their unique brotherhood on their journey to redemption. Angel's takeover of Wolfram & Hart also comes with a major consequence; his friends and allies in the Scooby Gang, including Buffy, now deem him untrustworthy.
In the episode "Destiny," when they prepare to do battle over the Cup of Perpetual Torment, Spike tells Angel "You had a soul forced on you. As a curse. Make you suffer for all the horrible things you've done. Me, I fought for my soul, went through the demon trials, almost did me in a dozen times over, but I kept fighting. Because I knew it was the right thing to do. It's my destiny." Although the Cup turns out to be fake, Angel's defeat at the hands of Spike is a source for inner turmoil in the following episodes, as he is left wondering if he is still the vampire champion of the prophecy. Most of these events turn out to be the machinations of Lindsey McDonald, a returning nemesis, and after he is defeated, Angel grows more confident once more.
Lindsey's defeat coincides with a last visit from Cordelia, who passes along a single vision to Angel. Now finally understanding that he will never be able to completely stop the forces of evil, Angel decides that temporarily severing the Senior Partners' hold on Earth is enough. Together with his comrades, Angel prepares to suicidally incur the apocalyptic wrath of the Senior Partners as a way of going out in a blaze of glory. They assassinate the members of the Circle of the Black Thorn, the Senior Partners' instruments on Earth for pulling all the political and economic strings. In this effort, Gunn is badly wounded, and Wesley Wyndam-Pryce is killed. Lorne is instructed to kill Lindsey, temporarily an ally, after they've completed their mission, and he does so, leaving behind Angel and his team afterwards. Gunn manages to make it to the meeting point, the alley behind the Hyperion Hotel, where he, Angel, Spike and Illyria engage in battle with the dark armies that the Senior Partners have sent against them. The last words spoken on screen are Angel's, "Let's go to work."
[edit] After the Fall
Angel has been picked up for a canonical "season 6" comic-book series, written by Brian Lynch and plotted by Joss Whedon, a sixteen issue arc titled "Angel: After The Fall." Both Angel and Spike are known to have survived the showdown with Wolfram & Hart's forces on Earth. Season Six is kicked off showing an overall loss for Team Angel after the battle. In retaliation for Angel's stance Wolfram & Hart has seemingly moved the city of Los Angeles to a hell dimension, turning it into a Post-Apocalyptic territory filled with demons. In an attempt to deprive him of his strength and immortality when he needed it most, the Senior Partners have also turned Angel into a human, forcing Angel and Wesley to rely on mystical enchantments to provide Angel with at least a measure of his old abilities.
Angel is still based at the demolished Wolfram and Hart building and is under the watch of the Senior Partners' newest liaison, Wesley. Angel, however, is planning to take the fight to the Senior Partners and free Los Angeles, first by destroying all of the demon lords of Los Angeles (Spike appears to be one of these, but it is later revealed that this is a cover to allow him to move humans to safety). While preparing for the war, though, he rescues citizens in peril and sends them, anonymously, to his son Connor who has set up a safehouse with Nina Ash and Gwen Raiden. Angel is not alone, however. With him is his newest friend and companion, the dragon (which he unintentionally names Cordelia) that was closing in on him in the final scene of the Angel series finale. After befriending the dragon in the alley, they had joined forces to make a powerful team. Having learned the truth about Spike, Angel declares to the demon lords of Los Angeles that he shall free all their human slaves, and arranges to meet them in two days to restore Los Angeles to Earth.
Having used his rituals to heal his wounds, Angel contacts Lorne, now the lord of the Silver Lake area, to confirm his old friend's neutral status in the upcoming struggle against the demon lords, and is reunited with the Groosalugg, who offers his services to Angel in the upcoming battle just before Gunn, now a vampire, destroys the Wolfram & Hart building as part of his revenge against Angel. When Angel goes up against the champions of the Demon Lords, he initially stands alone in his fight. Unknown to him, Lorne went around and rallied all of Angel's friends to come join him in his fight. After the fight is over and the Demon Lords defeated, Angel and crew head back to their old home base: the Hyperion Hotel. Later, shortly after killing a nest of vampires, Illyria reveals to the group that Angel is no longer a vampire. Connor gets angry with Angel for being lied to and takes off. If that wasn't enough, Angel and company then run into Gunn, who is now a vampire.
Upon seeing what has become of Gunn, Angel tells Gunn that he's sorry. Gunn remarks that he figured he would say that, and proceeds to show Angel his base of operations (Angel goes along with it knowing that it is a dangerous situation). Gunn even proceeds to ask for Angel's help in saving L.A. (he clearly has become insane). Angel lies, saying that he will help him even though he is pulling out a stake from behind his coat. He thinks to himself that Angelus would be proud of his deception, but he hates himself even more for it. Gunn is able to beat him in a fight, and proceeds to use a mystical item to remove the magics keeping Angel alive. Gunn leaves him there to die. Despite encouragement from Cordelia's spirit, a vision Angel receives nearly leads him to resign himself to death when it apparently shows him having reverted to Angelus, but Connor's encouragement urges him to keep fighting as he acknowledges that he would never allow himself to become what he saw in that vision. Having been healed by a demon army to fulfill the prophecy as Illyria goes on a rampage in her true state, Angel manages to rally an army of Gunn's captured Slayers while using Bette George to send Spike and Wesley's memories of Fred to Illyria in an attempt to calm her down.
However, Gunn attacks as they attempt to stop Illyria, and although Angel defeats Gunn - refusing to kill him as it would mean he was already taking steps to become the vampire he has seen in the vision. Connor is mortally wounded in the attack, his last words being to assure Angel that he is a good man whether human or vampire. Realising that the Partners need him alive, Angel provokes Gunn into killing him, forcing the Partners to return Los Angeles to the moment when the original battle in the alleyway first began, restoring Angel to his vampire status and Connor and the dragon to life, as well as giving him a chance to prevent Gunn from being sired and take him to a hospital to treat his injuries (although Wesley remains dead). Despite the temporal fold, everyone in Los Angeles retains their memories of the events, and hail the A.I. team as heroes.
One month later, Angel finds it difficult to adapt to being a public hero. After researching the mystery of the vanished Wolfram & Hart building at the public library (one wing of which has been renamed in honor of Fred and Wesley), Angel leaves his dragon in the care of the Groosalugg in an attempt to reclaim his anonymity. Soon afterwards, Angel learns from Betta George that the Demon Lords want revenge against him and are planning to do so by striking at the ones closest to him. Angel, Spike, and George rush to the hospital to protect a comatose Gunn, only to find Illyria already there doing so. Afterwards, Angel visits Gunn, forgives him for his actions in Hell as a vampire, and walks off into the night after leaving him with an Angel Investigations card, continuing his mission to help the helpless.
Character is from (series, book, creator, or author, if it applies): Buffy and Angel
**Thanks be to Wikipedia, I ripped every bit of this bio from there**
