All that legal blah blah blah.

[protectorofnone]

It was fully dark outside by the time Kelne and Illyria left Bryce's mansion. Night had fallen and blanketed the city, the sky dotted with bright spots of light, some of which could still be seen through the thick haze of clouds that had come to hover over Los Angeles. While they could have easily hailed a cab to Wolfram & Hart, Kelne decided

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[not_the_shell]

Kelne held me as we moved through the overcrowded streets, the noises surrounding me until I wished to choke. My eyes moved carefully from one form to another, the sad plankton swimming about their superiors...

I wanted to laugh at them, show them true power and exactly what it meant to cross a God-King, to defy and destroy a beauty like Jasmine, but Kelne...his energies flowing into me bade me stop.

A lawyer, he had said...how could a human assist one such as I?

"How do you feel? You look a little... pale."

At this, I did laugh.

"I feel...mortal. It reeks off me and...this form is unpleasant." My hand touched Kelne's chest, stomach, wondering how he could survive trapped as we were.

"I cannot understand..."

The doors opened and I moved forward, not because a human might help, but because The Wolf, The Ram, and The Hart were powerful. Perhaps they could...

"Wesley, come watch TV!"

"No...stop it....stop it from speaking!"

[protectorofnone]

"I cannot understand..."

Her hand was on his stomach now. He looked down and put his hand over hers. Didn't understand what, exactly? This form. That had to be it. Kelne was comfortable in his, but Illyria seemed to be beyond discomfort, her loathing of humanity coupled with her new form causing her some kind of pain. Kelne could only frown, supporting her as they stepped out into the fourth floor corridor. There had to be a way to help her, a way to make her whole so that she could live, function... be with him again.

"No...stop it....stop it from speaking!""Shh, love... clear your mind," he told her, taking her face in his hands and placing a soft kiss on either side of her mouth. "It'll all be over soon. I promise. We're here now... we're going to get you some help. There are powerful people at this firm. They have the strength and the resources to help you, we just need to figure out what the problem is. I need you to do me a favor. I know it won't be easy, but tune out those voices. Just try. Focus on what is here, right now.

[not_the_shell]

We stopped moving and I felt Kelne's hands on the face that was not my own, trying to soothe me somehow. No comfort was found until his lips pressed against mine in the mockery of what we once had together - now trapped within two human bodies, feeble and weak...

We had been perfect and now this was the best we could hope for, it seemed.

His lips left mine yet his eyes did not.

"I need you to do me a favor. I know it won't be easy, but tune out those voices. Just try. Focus on what is here, right now. What's in front of you. Focus on me. Ignore those memories. They're not yours."

I nodded, placing my own hands over his that held my face from moving. My eyes never left his, as I thought back to our times together, the joys in the death...the sheer pleasures between the two of us...it allowed the voice that was The Shell's to disappear, if even for a moment.

"Yes. I am ready now."

[protectorofnone]

"Yes. I am ready now."

"Good." Kelne managed a small smile, carefully taking Illyria's hand in his and giving it a gentle squeeze. "Now come on, baby. Let's go see the Wizard. See if we can't get this all sorted out." Stepping away from the elevator, he slowly began to lead her down the familiar corridor, passing a number of closed doors as they went. He finally slowed to a stop in front of a large set of double-doors that had been left slightly ajar, and, looking to his companion, stepped forward, letting himself in without so much as knocking.

"Miss Morgan, if I might have a moment of your time?"