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[ 002 | Video ]

I need everyone to listen closely.

[It's unusual for Angel to show his face on the network, especially if it comes to leaving a message of his own. He'll reply to people here and there, but largely, he doesn't think it's worth the effort -- phones being the invention of a bored warlock and all.

But this is different. This is urgent, and it's written all over his face, his jaw squared and his mouth set in a hard line, tense.]

Your pal Tom that started warning people over the network, apologizing for this creep from his world? Don't trust him. In fact, stay as far away from him as you can -- lock yourselves in, do whatever you have to do, but do it immediately. He's the one responsible for these murders.

[He hadn't been sure at first. He'd smelled the blood of more than one of the victims on Tom when they'd gone to investigate one of the more recent crime scenes together, but it hadn't been enough to go on -- Tom could have just gone to two or three different sites to help handle the aftermath and picked it up that way -- but then Angel himself had gone to each and every point of discovery. Every one.

And at each one, he caught the same scent. None of them belonged to this 'Harry Warden,' but each and every trail lead back to the same place.

He hadn't wanted to believe it at first, thought he had to have been mistaken, but his senses had never lead him wrong before now. People were surprising where demons and other vampires were predictable. Angel expected better from humans, admired humanity for what it was -- there were always bad apples, but even after two and a half centuries, he wasn't used to them coming in mild-mannered packages like Tom Hanniger.

Just goes to show. And yet, something about it still didn't sit right with him, like it couldn't possibly be as cut and dry as Tom lying, but there's no time for him to try and pick that apart now. What matters is keeping people away from him, getting Tom contained somehow and keeping him from doing any more harm than he already has.]

Every one of these crimes leads back to him. There is no Harry Warden, that story is nothing but a decoy.

Do not try to go after him on your own. He might be human, but that means he's unpredictable-- this guys is killing like he's got nothing to lose. Get yourselves somewhere safe, each and every one of you. Arm yourselves if you have to, just in case.

This will be over soon. I promise.

[He plans to see to that personally.]

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_{[Martha. Charlie. Souji. These are people who've been murdered, just ones Adam knows and has heard about. All at the hands of... who, Tom? Dean's alternate universe twin? The soft-spoken guy who's supposed to be a friend of his in the future?

He's no stranger to being half out of his mind with no sleep and too much adrenaline, but days of having a killer on the loose, not knowing what's going to happen... It leaves Adam loopy, fingers white-knuckled around the phone.]}

So... it wasn't an event. _{[He's compelled to speak up, even if his Mirror is the one who really knows this guy. Tom had called it his event. The evil he'd brought. He'd even apologized. Who to believe? Tom? Angel? Neither?]} How? How'd he do it?

_{[It's not the question he really wants an answer to, but it's the one that comes out.]}

No. It wasn't an event.

[Though he wouldn't put it past the mansion to pull something like that, this was-- more personal, somehow.]

How?

[He shakes his head, unseen.]

Dean killed him before I could get the details.

_{[How. Yes, how. Had he--? Was he--?

The fact that Dean's name enters the conversation stirs a dim feeling of surprise. So Dean had taken him out. Well, then. He breathes through his nose for a moment before speaking again. His voice doesn't even waver.]}

Are you sure he was human?

Tom was human. There's no question about that.

[Human on the outside, at least. Angel has plenty of reason to suspect that metaphysically, that may not have been the case.]

It's possible that he was being controlled or influenced by something that wasn't.

Doesn't sound like you know that for sure. Dean must have had a reason.

_{[The first and foremost point that matters--maybe the only one that does--is that Tom might be guilty of slaughtering a bunch of people like they had been party favors. Just sacks of meat to dig into.

It reminds him too much of the monsters who hide themselves behind human faces, in full control of what they are. Maybe the hard way he says the words makes it sound like he's trying to start a good old-fashion debate about it, which couldn't be father from the truth. Facts are facts are facts. People are dead, Dean has experience. He stays clipped, not wanting to linger on circumstances that aren't his to dissect down to the last iota.]}

He might be back. What are you guys going to do with him?

I don't know for sure because he got shot before I had the chance to find out.

[He's more than a little bitter about that -- but it saved a life. It probably saved a lot of lives. He has to remember that.]

Confine him. Find out the cause -- or the motive. We won't know what to do next until we find out if there was another force involved or if this was just... him.

_{[Maybe Adam should care more than he does about the idea of his half-brother shooting someone he's met and talked to. Too bad, so sad. Everything to do with this is drenched in horror, and he's done with that dominating his entire world. Like he'd said, Dean had probably had a reason, a good reason, and now that he knows Dean is some kind of monster hunter, if there's a group of people who'll figure it out, it'll be the Winchesters and their monster club.

This guy, on the other hand, doesn't sound like he's ready to pull his nose out of the shit pile yet, but that's on him. Adam's carrying around his own bitterness; he'll leave others to do the same.]}

If things look like they're going bad again, are we getting another PSA before we start getting picked off?

_{[That much, Adam would appreciate. Whatever keeps the normal people alive and able to defend themselves.]}

It shouldn't come to that. It won't.

[He won't let it. But he knows he's not infallible, nor is he invincible.]

... if anything unexpected does happen, everyone will know. I'll make sure of it.

I bet that's what people were thinking before this started, too.

_{[No one who's human, and consequentially vulnerable, is feeling safe after this; Adam's sure as hell not trusting promises that everything's going to be all right. How is anyone supposed to trust anyone anymore?

Adam's emotions are wound tightly in when he speaks again.]}

Thanks for telling us, anyway.

Probably. But now we know what he's capable of.

[And that means he can keep a close eye on the situation, whereas before it had been left unchecked. Nobody had known to watch Tom. Nobody would have even thought of it, mild-mannered as he seemed to be.]

I just wish I'd found out sooner.

[No deaths would have been preferable.]

Whatever I find out, you'll know. Once it's conclusive.

_{[Adam's not exactly reassured by the thought that they'd learned about Tom's nature through him butchering his way through the mansion. He's with Angel on this one. They're at maximum levels of shittiness without one of their own blowing a mental gasket.

Try as he might not to let this get personal, it is. It's not even that Tom looks like some long-lost twin of Dean's, it's that there'd been something dark and twisted inside the man, and when his fuse had been lit, he'd gone off with a bang. Bloodthirsty. A monster. Not even close to human, for all that he might be human. Adam almost wishes someone will find out Tom had been controlled by something else, if just to keep the answer from being that there's something wrong about Tom, like there's something wrong about Adam.]}

If it were that easy, monsters wouldn't be so hard to spot.

_{[Regardless of who's really guilty or who's really responsible, all it really means in the end is that a person can't trust anybody, even if they look normal, human.]}

I won't hold my breath. But good luck to you guys.

You're right. They wouldn't be.

[Even for him, for all his heightened senses, for all his experience and knowing exactly what to look for and where. Sometimes you still missed them, and people still got hurt, and there was no taking that back. Once it was done, it was done.]

I appreciate it. I'm going to do whatever I can.

... did you know him?

_{[Adam hadn't been entirely serious--his faith is at an all time low, with or without a series of cold-blooded murders that make him want to retreat back into a safe place and never come out--but he can tell that this guy's trying.

Without him having found Tom out, things could have been worse. Adam has to hand it to him there. But had he known Tom?

Where to even start? His thoughts on that subject could fill a book, or at least a drunken ramble.]}

Sort of, not really. But no one really knew him, obviously, if this is what happened.

Fair enough. Guess that's true.

[If he'd managed to surprise even those closest to him, then nobody really knew him at all. Either he was an incredible actor, or whatever had caused this was just buried deep.]

I'm going to take care of the last crime scene. Then see about containment for when--

[You know. When he gets back.]

Hopefully people will be able to sleep a little easier now.

_{[Crime scene. The guy called it a crime scene, but what he'd really meant was...

Adam wouldn't stop being thankful he could hide behind the audio-only function for a long while yet. Out of sight, he pinches the bridge of his nose, eyes closed. He's used to his own mangled body, his own mangled flesh, not other people's.]}

Doubt it.

_{[He could have tried to say "yeah, maybe" or something like it, but it's false sentiment and Adam can't bring himself to pretend, even for a near stranger. That big, relieved exhale Angel's thinking of is more like a choking ball of pressure in Adam's chest.]}

Go, yeah. Do what you have to.

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