A fic-shaped vent that I needed after last week's Angel ('Reunion')... comments welcomed.

If they'd been outside an L.A. office complex, the two of them would've looked like co-workers sharing a secret vice beyond the boundaries of a nicotine-hostile environment. An art director's slightly loopy assistant, maybe, (all purple glass beads, gold coin jewelry, and pink-streaked hair) and a transplanted-from-N.Y. business manager (ultra-sharp tailoring, bearded face, caffiene-inspired twitchiness). Unlikely friends; even more unlikely work-place allies. But as most wage-slaves instinctively know, appearances and attitudes hardly matter after a few crises. In the place where the pair actually existed, crises were daily fare, while the trivial appearances were subject to change without any real notice.

"I *still* can't believe he did that." Tyche took a long drag on her cigarette and glared at Minos, who was leaning back against a cloud, his head tilted back to the sun. "And it was *not* my fault. It _wasn't_. I really tried, okay?"

"No one's saying it's your fault, kid." Minos didn't even open his eyes, just took a sip from his mug, on which 'Accountants Do It With Interest' was emblazoned on the side.

"Oh, they so are. 'A Morgog worshipper? Was that the best you could do?' I'd like to see that bitch Moira do any better with what I had to work with last night."

"She's just unhappy that he's screwed up the long term projections now, you know that---"

"Like I'm not? Do you have any idea what kind of traffic I'm going to be getting, with him off on this solo lunatic-fringe crusade? Hell-o! Evil does not stop just because one soldier goes AWOL, you know!"

"He's not AWOL. Yet." Minos took another sip of his coffee and grimaced, opening his eyes and shrugging awkwardly. His mouth quirked in an unconscious frown as he turned to his friend. "He's still officially on the books as Enlisted. It's not an irredeemable setback... Although it is gonna be just about literal murder to balance the scales on this one." He took a swallow from his mug and chuckled wearily before taking a drag from his own cigarette, speaking through the exhaled smoke. "Accounting is going nuts. Rham and Dyon are already putting in for overtime."

"*Everyone's* putting in for overtime." Tyche blew a stream of smoke through her nose, sending a rapid jetstream across the north Pacific, then rubbed at the lines forming between her eyes with the heel of her hand. "I swear, Mi. I looked, I scanned, I searched *everywhere* for something big enough, supernatural enough, to really distract the guy.... and the best I could come up with was that dumb-ass suicidal metal-head. It's like the Opposition shut down for the night, at least in L.A." She tapped virtual ashes off the end of her cigarette and studied the glowing tip grimly. "The closest real crisis I found was in San Diego! And they'd never have gotten there in time, even if I could've sold that."

"I know." Minos gently squeezed her knee as Tyche gave a ragged sigh. "The Opposition probably did it on purpose. They're not stupid, They might have told everyone to lay off until sunrise. They've had this in the works for a while---"

"Then why didn't somebody stop Them!" Tyche threw her cigarette out into the mist (setting off a minor flare of sunlight in the upper atmosphere) and got up to pace along the edge of their fogbank. "If this temptation of Angel's was where the Darla mess was going all along, there should've been _something_ that could've prevented it!"

"Like what, exactly? What do you think would've stopped him from facing this?"

"How should I know! I'm not God, I'm just one of the Powers! They could've had a blow-out on the freeway, they could've hit a traffic jam, He could've made Wes or Cordy or Gunn burst an appendix---"

Minos frowned again, disapproval etching lines around his eyes, hinting at his real age. "You *know* why She can't do that."

"Why? Why why *why*, in the name of all that's Holy? She can part the Red Sea for some slaves escaping from Egypt, turn staves into snakes, hold conversations through burning bushes with itinerant shepherds, but He can't cause a non-fatal rollover in Burbank? Gahhhh!"

"Tyche---" Minos warned.

"No, I'm serious! This is bad, and you know it! Angel is unique, he's freakin' pivotal to the existence of the world in the next few decades, and he's walking _willingly_ into a sea of red-ink karmic debt, and that isn't reason enough to make sure things don't get any worse?" She closed her eyes and collapsed back onto the edge of the indeterminate mist next to Minos. "I'm sorry, I look at this situation, and I'm thinkin' an Intervention is in order. One with lightening bolts. Possibly earthquakes. Hey, it's L.A., it's not like it'd even be a stretch for Her!"

Minos waited a second for his friend to calm down a little, then slowly spoke. "Ty... an Intervention is only for the last-ditch, absolute, fate-of-the-world moments. Where there's no hope left, and there's a balance to preserve. You *know* that. And Angel just had one miracle exercised on his behalf two years ago."

"I know." Tyche didn't sound subdued.

"If He Intervened every time a soldier faced off with their own dark side, She'd never be doing anything else. Real life is not like 'Touched by an Angel.' Belief in doing the right thing for its own sake, regardless of the life at risk, is supposed to mean something."

"I know."

"There's a *reason* for free will. Otherwise existence and life would have no meaning at all. Angel *has* to be free to make his own decisions."

"I know, I know, I know! And I am not criticizing policy, okay? I'm not. I even agree with it. Mostly." Tyche dropped her head onto Minos's shoulder and groaned in disgust. "But it was *so close*, Mi! It could've gone either way, and if he'd just gotten there late, if I could've just found one major disaster within driving distance of Beverly Hills.... If he'd just taken the time to really talk to that kid with the gun.... It all would've been over by the time Angel got to Manners' place."

"Yeah. It would've been." Minos put his arm around her and patted her shoulder sympathetically. "It wasn't your fault, Ty. You did what you could."

She snorted. "Tell that to Cordelia. *Please*. When she's not blaming herself, or Wesley, or Gunn, she's blaming *me*. I've been getting an earful from her for the last forty-eight hours straight, and I'm sick of it, allright? I can't exactly go down and personally explain to her the reasons she's got limited clairvoyance and precognition instead of perfect knowledge."

"She's smart enough to figure it out if she stops and thinks for a second. The incident with the Scroll isn't so long ago that she won't remember what perfect knowledge _really_ is," the Accountant pointed out.

"Maybe. But she's not thinking much right now. Mostly she's just cursing Us out. Us and Angel. And I kind of agree with her about Angel."

"Tyche..."

"I am so disappointed in that guy."

"You're not the only one. But you can't---"

"How could he do that? HOW?"

"---let it get to you."

"HOW!?"

"You just have to remember that he's... well, not human, but close enough. Mortal, even if he's a vampire. He's been put under a lot of stress, Wolfram & Hart have been pushing him for months, and this was just one time he couldn't force himself to care. I see it a lot in my job. Extenuating circumstances. He reached a breaking point and he wasn't strong enough to resist the chance for some payback. Not that it excuses what he did---"

"*We* don't have a breaking point." Tyche pouted, then narrowed her eyes to slits. "Although maybe I should reconsider that position."

"Oh, no. No, Tyche. Don't." Minos stubbed out his cigarette, spreading darkness through the feathery lens of vapor going by them, and vehemently shook his head. "You *can't* do what you're thinking."

"Oh yeah I can. He *fired* her, Minos. He fired his Seer! His Messenger! Vision Girl is going on welfare! Not to mention that Research Dude and Go-To Guy are now going to be standing in the unemployment line! How does Angel think he's gonna do anything alone? Hunh? I thought he learned something this year! I thought all the time we put in on him, the Oracles giving him info, all the visions that pointed him in the right direction, the Scroll, his ultimate reward and destiny and purpose, getting in touch with his humanity again, I thought he *got* it---"

"He did, you know that---" Minos tried to say, but Tyche was on a roll now.

"Can't tell it by *me*. Let me _also_ add that Xian and Giana are both feeling pretty ripped-off by his recent behavior. Neither of them expected a Warrior they'd worked with to pull this kind of stunt. Gia was even talking about throwing that vase Angel gave her out of this Reality, see if it hits him on the head, knocks some sense back into him...."

Minos snorted coffee up his nose, choked, then laughed. "What was up with that offering scam of hers, anyway? She didn't need any of that stuff, she couldn't *use* it. It isn't even Real here. So why did she...?"

"'Cause she liked to mess with mortal minds. And she was bored out of *her* mind, just like the rest of us up here, why else?" Tyche rolled her eyes, then smiled reluctantly. "Same reason I sent Doyle that vision about Buffy last Thanksgiving. Angel didn't *need* to be there to help her with the Hus. I just thought...."

"What?" Minos asked gently, seeing her lower lip trembling.

"They could get some closure," Tyche mumbled. "I mean, I thought that if he had that day to hang onto, maybe he could hold out for his redemption a little longer... And Buffy couldn't remember it, but she still felt it on some level, so she could move on...."

"Mortals." Minos reached out and threaded his fingers through hers. "You get attached to them, after a while. It's hard not to. Hard not to take it personally when they let you down."

"Yeah." She glanced away, then turned back to him, fiercer than before. "But it's not just me he's letting down, or the Powers. He has people who *count* on him. They count on him to at least try! And then he turns his back on the lives of the not-so-innocent, then he ditches his best friends, and I'm not even mentioning Kate Lockley or Faith. Kate is *never* gonna trust him again, you know that, and God, Goddess, I don't want to be around when somebody tells Faith about *this* screw-up, she's gonna be so hurt and confused... and in another few days it's going to be hasta-la-vista to the mission, and it's all going to be POINTLESS---"

"That still isn't enough reason---"

"Why not? Why can't we let him see how far he gets without us, hunh?" Tyche growled under her breath. "That'd teach him. He'd stop whistling his little walk-on-the-dark-side tune if he realized he was all on his ownsome, no clues, no signposts from the Powers and ..."

"You can't."

"Watch me! I am just fed up enough---"

"You can't, because Cordelia won't. And neither will Wesley, or Gunn. And there are still too many other people who care, who'll step in if they fall."

"Angel doesn't deserve them. You know that."

"Hey, leave accounting to the Accountants, okay? Do I tell you how to do your job?"

"....no."

"So lighten up already. There's still hope. There's still a chance."

"You *better* be right about that, Calculus Boy."

"There could be a reason for all this, you know. Some kind of Destiny at work, one you can't See yet." Minos rubbed her arm, watching the sun sink down over the ocean from a viewpoint no mortal ever got to see. "Maybe it was inevitable. Maybe he had to be given the choice, and fail, in order to prevent something worse down the line."

"Like what? Something worse like Darla and Drusilla snacking on a day-care center? Gosh, you know... I think something like that could have been prevented already if he'd *killed* them when he had the perfect chance!"

"Don't be so sure."

"Are you kidding me?!"

"Dru's got the Opposition feeding her info too, remember," Minos pointed out. "That's probably why Angel couldn't prevent Darla from rising. No matter what, she would've seen him coming, and got there in time. Some things are inevitable, Tyche. *You* should know that."

"And some things are huge, enormous, nightmarish lapses in judgement and morals and good sense. *You* oughta know that."

Minos nodded slowly. "Okay, I won't deny it. Free will makes bad things happen sometimes. Angel just proved it. And I'm sure he'll find it out personally, before too long."

"Hmph."

"So there's no reason for you to imitate him and deliberately stop feeding Cordelia the visions that Angel Investigations can help with, is there?"

"Gahhhh."

"You've been hanging out with your Messenger too long, you know that."

"Shut. Up." Tyche pushed her hands through her hair and closed her eyes. "I'm *still* pissed off at him. And I still think Cordelia should just walk away. There's a fortune-teller in Santa Monica who could do wonders with the Sight, and she's got an ex-ninja boyfriend who'd be *happy* to help the helpless and protect the vulnerable, and I wouldn't have any second-guessing self-righteous Manilow-music-murdering vengeance-hunting vampires to work around, and---"

"Objectivity. Distance. The big picture--- remember all that? I know you've *heard* of them, Ty."

"Screw that! He should've listened to Us! He doesn't appreciate Us! He thinks he's better than Us, more compassionate and 'in touch' and realistic, and then he pulls *this* crap! Who does he think he is, the Second Coming? What gives him the right to judge? His soul? His suffering? So what! There are six billion mortals down there who have suffering souls, and I can find a dozen in L.A. alone who wouldn't have let two vampires they were responsible for make a snack of some people they were mad at!"

"Ty... don't. "

She was silent for a long time in the place where the Powers were, which translated into half a second in the reality where one of Her Messengers resided. A half a second where one of the Powers That See considered Her options, then made a choice.

To make up for the delay, She made sure that the vision Cordelia received was extra-clear and specific. And that the migraine that followed was mitigated as much as possible by the knowledge that it was a situation that she, Gunn and Wesley could handle alone, whether Angel paid attention to his Seer or not. But that there would still be enough reason to try to convince him to go along.

"Nice work."

"Yeah, thanks, fine, whatever, bite me."

"Later, maybe." Minos smiled crookedly as he helped Tyche to her feet, then poured the rest of his coffee onto and through the cloud at his feet. Somewhere over San Dimas, the smog became abruptly browner. "We're back on the clock now."

"Right... right." Tyche squinted at the event horizon, then rolled her eyes. "Great. I can See six situations, five crises, and three disasters developing from Here. Stop by Personnel and tell Them I'm going to need more help before dawn, okay? I can't sift through the entire space-time continuum and feed the results to the Messengers fast enough when Angel's mistake just tripled my workload. Not without *some* help."

"Will do. And if you or Sybil get any hints about the long-term---"

"I'll let you know, yeah. The Shape of Things to Come is changing, I can tell you *that* much." Tyche glared down at Los Angeles for a second, then shook her head. "And if Angel doesn't like how the big picture turns out... he's got nobody to blame but himself."