(Angel knocks, and Numero Cinco opens the door)

ANGEL: Hi.

(the mailman picks up Angel by the lapels and throws his back against the wall)

ANGEL: Unh! Stop doing that.

NUMERO 5: Perhaps I wasn't clear in our last conversation.

ANGEL: What conversation? You threw me through a window.

NUMERO 5: I heard you speaking. You were going to drag me into your quest for the Aztec demon.

ANGEL: No, I wasn't. I was gonna give you some mail!

NUMERO 5: Oh. Sorry.

ANGEL: Now I'm dragging you back in.

(he throws Number 5 across the room)

ANGEL: I need your help. You and your brothers beat this Aztec warrior thing first time around. And I need to know how.

NUMERO 5: I'm sorry. In case you haven't noticed, I have retired from that life.

ANGEL: Wearing that mask doesn't exactly hide your past.

NUMERO 5: It reminds me that only a fool would want to be a champion.

ANGEL: Fool? Is that what you think of your brothers?

NUMERO 5: (punches Angel) Never disrespect the memory of my brothers. They were honorable men... luchadores. Mexican wrestlers. The greatest that ever lived. Together we were known as Los Hermanos Numeros.

ANGEL: The number brothers? Huh.

(notices a shrine of flowers, pictures, and candles in the corner. picks up a black and white picture of the 5 brothers together, all with masks numbered 1 through 5)

ANGEL: Boy, you guys had no problem getting past the whole irony thing now, did you?

NUMERO 5: It was a different time. One that no longer exists.

(cut to flashback of a wrestling match)

CROWD: !Andale, andale!

NUMERO 2: !Bailamos, lecherita! (SUBTITLE: Let's dance, milkmaid!)

NUMERO 5: We were great warriors in the ring, great heroes. Children worshipped us. Women loved us. Men wanted to be us.

NUMERO 2: Todavia quieren danzar, bailarinas? (SUBTITLE: You ballerinas still wanna waltz?)

NUMERO 5: In all the years we fought, we never lost. Never quit. Never compromised. We were the best. But not all of our battles were in the ring.

(A man in the audience stands and wields a shotgun, pointed at the brothers in the ring. NUMERO 5 notices, and calls to the others. )

NUMERO 5: !Hermanos!

(Two of the brothers put their hands together making a platform as a third steps on their hands, springing toward the man with the shotgun in a forward somersault.)

NUMERO 5: You need to understand. We were more than just luchadores. No one else cared about Mexicans or Chicanos, so we protected our own. The five of us were always joined, always connected. And when necessary, we came together as a fist. We fought monsters and gangsters. Vampiros. We were heroes. We protected the weak... and we helped the helpless.

ANGEL: I know a little something about that.

NUMERO 5: We spent every waking hour together.

(Cut to a Mexican bar, where the brothers hang out, playing cards, lifting weights, flirting)

NUMERO 5: We fought hard. We played hard. Brothers in the truest sense. Never jealous, never bickering. Those were the happiest days of my life.

ANGEL: Wait a second. So you guys always wore your masks?

NUMERO 5: What you are failing to see, my friend, is that we had to be ever-vigilant, ready for action at a moment's notice.

(in th flashback, the telephone rings, and NUMERO 5 answers it.)

NUMERO 5: Si. Si. !Hermanos! The devil has built a robot!

ALL BROTHERS: !Andale! (exit)

NUMERO 5: Surely you have heard about our great victory over the devil's robot?

ANGEL: (shrugs) Sorry.

NUMERO 5: Nobody remembers the good stuff. (stands, walks away)

ANGEL: But tell me about the Aztec warrior.

NUMERO 5: What can I say about a demon who killed the people that mattered most to me?

ANGEL: You can start by saying how you killed it back.

NUMERO 5: I don't know. Can't remember.

ANGEL: Can't remember or don't care?

NUMERO 5: Do not misunderstand me. After my brothers were killed, I tried to carry on... tried to help people. But after a while, the phone stopped ringing. The people went away... until one night when a man walked in. He said his company could use a young man with my abilities.

(a man in a suit, lighted so that you can't really see him, hands Numero 5 a Wolfram and Hart business card. The name? Holland Manners)

ANGEL: Wolfram & Hart.

NUMERO 5: I needed a job. They needed muscle. I knew that Wolfram & Hart was everything my brothers despised. But what did I care? Nothing mattered after I buried them behind San Gregorio. Every year on El Dia de Los Muertos, I prepare this altar for them. And every year, they never come, never visit. Because I am not worthy. But it does not matter anymore. Not after this year. I should have died with my brothers.

ANGEL: But you didn't. You got stuck with the hard part, the carrying-on. No wonder your brothers' spirits never come to visit. Listen to yourself. You've quit. Tell me: Why'd you stop caring?

NUMERO 5: It was not hard. I will show you.

(cut to Five midgets wearing colorful numbered masks fight in a wrestling ring against a full-sized man who chases them around the ring.)

NUMERO 5: This is how my brothers are remembered, what their good deeds earned. They sacrificed their lives as heroes, and it is played out as a farce.

ANGEL: Maybe you expect too much from people.

NUMERO 5: Is it too much to expect them to remember their past? To honor those that fought and died? My brothers are dead, and Tezcatcatl is back to kill again. Why did we bother? What difference did we make?

ANGEL: You made a difference in the lives you saved. And you did it because... it was the right thing to do. Nobody asks us to go out and fight, put our lives on the line. We do it because we can, 'cause we know how. We do it whether people remember us or not, in spite of the fact that there's no shiny reward at the end of the day... other than the work itself. I think some part of you still knows that, still believes in being a hero.

(turns to face NUMERO 5, but he's already ditched the speechifying)

written by: Jeffrey Bell; Original transcript by CariCranberry. Edited & formatted by me.. Full transcript at:
http://www.buffyworld.com/angel/season5/transcripts/5x06_tran.php