Lady Artz: Hey everyone and welcome to my brand new story called Rewritten Destiny. Be advised, this is the first time I have ever written an Angel story, but it has been bugging me for the last two weeks. So here goes nothing.
Much love and overflowing gratitude to all those who have faved, followed, and reviewed all of my other stories. I certainly hope that you will do the same for this one as well.
There will be no Sneak Previews or Brief Recaps like in my other stories.
One final note before we begin. I do not own Angel or anything else I make references to. Okay, I think that covers everything.
On with the show!
Chapter One: Not Worth Saving
A man with dark brown hair, almost black, and forest green eyes led the way with a large flashlight. He was wearing a white under shirt, a red button down shirt, a light brown leather jacket and black pants. Following directly behind him was a beautiful young woman with long, wavy brown hair and dark hazel eyes. She was wearing a black spaghetti strap shirt, a light purple long sleeve button down blouse, and tight black pants.
Bringing up the rear was their ring leader and newly proclaimed champion of good. He had dark hair, dark eyes, and was very handsome. He wore black pants, a dark grey shirt, and a long black overcoat.
"Doyle, are you sure you're going the right way?" The brunette woman asked her heels clacking loudly on the stone flooring.
The forest green eyed man, now identified as Doyle, turned and gave her an exasperated look, making his companions come to an abrupt halt.
"Yes, I am sure, Cordelia. Now stop complaining." Doyle answered his Irish accent a bit heavier due to his irritation at being questioned.
It wasn't uncommon for there to be ripples and unrest within this trio. Despite the vampire's and the girl from Sunnydale's previous interactions, they were still getting used to each other and the whole mission to 'help the hopeless'.
"Well you can't blame me for complaining. We're wandering around in a dank, smelly, maze like warehouse all because you got a vision of some swirling vortex thingy." Cordelia complained as they started walking again.
"Portal, Cordy. He saw a portal and it must be important if the Powers That Be sent him a vision about it." The dark champion spoke up, trying to keep the domestic tranquility.
"But Angel, did it have to be in some place so…" Cordelia started searching for the right word to describe their current environment.
"Creepy?" Doyle offered his tone slightly sarcastic.
"Dark?" Angel supplied trying to be helpful.
"I was gonna say filthy, but those adjectives work just as well." The brunette replied in an almost know-it-all sort of way.
Both men sighed before walking ahead. The woman's sometimes simple mindedness was still something they were getting used to.
"Hey! Wait for me!" She yelled running after them.
She caught up to them once they had reached a large room. There wasn't anything really special about the room. There was a window on the opposite wall, leading out to the alley. There were a few empty boxes littered about, some paper, and there were packing peanuts scattered sporadically.
"We wandered around for the last hour trying to find this place when all we had to do was go through that window?" Cordelia griped gesturing to the only window in the room.
"Look, I just go where the visions tell me to, alright?" Doyle snapped lightly.
Before their small debate could continue, the air in front of them began to spark and the wind picked up. The sparks became more dominant as they formed into lightning, the papers and the peanuts being blown away towards the walls and down the hall. The lightning connected to the walls, almost like anchor points. The lightning then formed a large vertical oval. Within the oval, a swirling vortex of blue, white, and silver formed, its light brightening the entire room.
Angel brought his battle ax up, holding it with both hands, and took his battle stance. Cordelia raised her crossbow and aimed it at the vortex. Doyle simply stood there, hands in his pockets. He had neglected to mention what else he had seen his vision, particularly the person, not creature, that was about to brought into their world from another dimension.
"What are you doing, Doyle?!" The brunette hissed as the Irish man started to inch towards the portal.
"Catching." He answered simply, a slight smirk on his face.
The vortex glowed brighter and then a woman came flying out of the portal and right into Doyle's waiting arms. He kept her standing while the vortex disappeared, the brightness dimming down and enshrouding the room in shadows.
"Easy, easy. You're okay. Slow, deep breaths. Traveling between dimensions is no picnic." The green eyed man joked trying to break the tension in the air.
The woman finally got her bearings and backed away from them. They finally got a good look at her. She had long, crimson red hair that was woven into a single braid with the bangs framing her face. She had deep sapphire blue eyes which was quite the contrast to her hair. She wore dark blue jeans, a black shirt, and a deep red leather jacket which by some miracle, did not clash with her hair.
"There's no need to be afraid. We're not gonna hurt you." Doyle stated his hands held up slightly in a peaceful way.
"Really, the ax and the crossbow say otherwise." She replied with a bit of sass.
Doyle looked back at his friends, who were still in combat mode.
"Put down your weapons." He ordered, "She's just a girl, not some monster, alright?"
Angel lowered his battle ax, but continued to stare at the ginger haired woman. He seemed almost entranced by her and he took a small step towards her. She backed up several steps, eyeing him cautiously. She glanced at the brunette woman, who begrudgingly lowered her crossbow. The vampire with a soul continued to stare at her, making the ginger a little bit antsy. She shifted uncomfortably under his constant gaze.
"My name is…" Doyle started but the red head interrupted.
"Allen Francis Doyle." She interjected her eyes staring at his face as if to judge his reaction.
"That's right." He replied not at all surprised.
The Powers That Be had clued him in a little about exactly where and when the mysterious red head had come from, but he was curious about how much she actually knew.
"That would make her, Cordelia Chase," The ginger responded looking at Cordelia, "And he would be Angel, the vampire with a soul."
Her eyes drifted back to the dark haired champion, who was still staring at her.
"What's your name?" Angel asked softly, taking another small step towards her while relinquishing the ax completely.
It clinked as it fell to the floor and it made the ginger jump slightly.
"Artz, short for Artimes." She replied backing up a few more steps.
She was nearing the window and the vampire could see that she wanted to bolt. He wasn't sure as to why she felt the need to run, but he could see that she was nearing an emotional breaking point. She was obviously frightened, confused, but was doing her best to stay calm and in control.
"Artz, it's a beautiful name." He said softly, giving her a disarming smile in hopes of putting her at ease.
It seemed to have the opposite effect as she took another step back. Her body was already beginning to tremble, but he had to give her credit for being able to stay calm this long. Most humans, most people really, would have already descended to some level of hysteria and would be demanding answers, but not her. She was trying to remain level headed in order to fully ascertain where she was, who she was with, and whether or not she was in danger.
"It's German." She replied quietly.
Angel let his mind run through the language quickly, his face lighting up as he understood what she was saying. He was curious as to why she had brought it up and why it seemed so important to her.
"For Doctor. Artz is German for Doctor." He responded still smiling.
"Let me guess. You're a Whovian." Doyle surmised a smile coming to his own face at the reference.
"Yeah. Um…" Artimes replied starting to become more fidgety, "This is bad. This is very bad."
"What's bad?" Cordelia asked confused, trying to understand what was going on.
"Me being here. It's very bad. I'm not supposed to be here. One of five things has happened. One: I have traversed from one parallel reality into another. Two: I have been drugged and having one hell of a hallucinogenic dream. Three: I am in a coma. Four: I'm dead. Five: I've finally lost my mind which up to this point, I had thought was impossible." The ginger rambled becoming more and more skittish.
The situation was quickly deteriorating and with it, her self control. She was beginning to buckle the longer this conversation went on and they needed to do something or say something that would help her find an emotional anchor so she could sort everything out in a rational manner.
"You're not dead, you're not in a coma, you haven't lost your mind, and no one drugged you." Angel replied hastily, trying to get her to calm down.
She started shaking her head, inching further back towards the window. The vampire didn't understand why she wasn't calming down. Then again, he still didn't fully understand humans. That was the whole point of him having a 'human connection' as Doyle had said to learn these kind of things.
"But I can't be here. You were just a television show. All of you are fictional, but if I've landed in a world where the events I've seen are real then I know too much. I'm a threat, a danger to all of you." The red head rationalized her eyes revealing everything she was feeling, "I have to…I have to…"
"You have to what?" The dark haired champion asked trying to understand.
She then looked directly into Angel's eyes and what he saw in her eyes made his stomach churn in dread.
"I have to die." She stated with absolute certainty.
Before anyone could react, she jumped through the window, shards of glass going everywhere. She landed outside and took off running. Angel quickly followed after her, but after a few turns, he lost her. He stopped and looked around. No matter which way he turned, there was no sign of her, but he felt a tugging inside of him. He was being drawn in a particular direction, but he ignored it.
About five minutes later, Doyle drove up in Angel's black convertible.
"You lost her, didn't you?" He asked stating the obvious.
"Well I think the woman was crazy." Cordelia commented from the passenger seat, "Talking about TV shows and dying. Talk about a looney."
Angel leaned on the driver's door with both hands and shook his head. Doyle gave her a look that said he was not pleased by her little comment.
"No, she was telling the truth." Angel stated.
"How could you tell?" Doyle asked mildly surprised by the vampire's declaration.
"Her eyes. They show everything that's inside of her; emotions, intelligence, gentleness." Angel answered his eyes softening in remembrance.
The brunette raised her eyebrows in an incredulous manner.
"You're not falling for her, are you? You barely know the woman." Cordelia piped up.
"It's not like that, Cordelia. It's just when I looked at her…it was like every fiber of my being screamed to protect her." The vampire replied getting off the car and running a hand through his hair in exasperation.
The vampire with a soul still felt that tugging sensation and it was getting stronger.
"Look, why don't we split up and…" Doyle started but then grabbed his head, letting out a grunt of pain.
"Doyle!" Both Angel and Cordelia yelled as they braced the Irish man.
Doyle thrashed a bit before he was released from the vision. His breathing was heavy and labored and he looked like he had seen something truly horrific. He looked up at Angel, his eyes wide as a tear rolled down his right cheek.
"We have to find her." Doyle stated almost desperate while wiping away the stray tears.
"Why? Why do we have to find her? What did you see, Doyle?" Angel questioned squeezing the man's shoulder.
"The end of everything." The green eyed man answered looking out the windshield, his eyes distant and like he was a million miles away.
"She causes it?" Cordelia asked jumping to the wrong conclusion.
Doyle's head whipped over to look at the brunette woman, an angry expression on his face.
"No, the exact opposite. If she dies, then our world dies with her. In the vision, I saw her fall to the ground dead. Afterwards, I was killed then you and others I didn't recognize and can only assume that they were our friends in the future. Then I saw the city burning, bodies and corpses everywhere with Angelus right in the middle of it. It wasn't just Los Angeles, the entire world was covered in darkness, so much screaming and so much pain. Everything was dead or dying." Doyle explained more tears coming to his eyes as he remembered what he saw.
"So if she goes and offs herself then…" Cordelia started being rather tactless.
"Our world is doomed." Angel finished rather shocked by the weight of this new revelation, "Move."
Doyle immediately climbed into the back seat and let Angel take the wheel.
"Do you even know where to look?" She asked trying to be the voice of reason.
"I do." The vampire replied putting the car in drive and stepping on the accelerator.
"Where?" Cordelia questioned holding on as he turned the corner quickly and onto the main street.
"There's this pull…like someone is tugging on my soul. I felt it the moment I saw her, so I'm gonna follow the pull." Angel answered focusing on the traffic.
"This is insane!" She exclaimed, "You're going to follow some mysterious pull and hope it leads to her?!"
"Yep." He answered pushing the gas pedal down harder.
The car pulled into an alley and the three of them got out of the car. Doyle was the first to notice the piles of dust. He knelt down and ran his fingers through the dust, lifting it into air and letting it fall back to the ground.
"Looks like someone dusted a few vamps here and quite recently too." He stated standing up and brushing his hands off.
He noticed that the vampire with a soul was focusing on the very cracked front window of a car. There was a fair amount of blood on the glass.
"Angel, man, you alright?" Doyle asked immediately concerned that the vampire might be growing thirsty and might do something he would regret.
"It's her blood. She fought them." Angel answered seemingly in control and his brow furrowed in concentration.
"How can you tell?" Cordelia asked walking over to him.
"She scratched her hand when she jumped through the window back at the warehouse. The smell of her blood is unmistakable." He answered touching the blood and sniffing it, "It's the only blood that doesn't call to me, that doesn't make me want to drink."
Doyle and Cordelia both stared at him in shock. They had never heard of a vampire not wanting to drink a human's blood before or at least not having the desire to. Angel lowered his hand and looked down the alley.
"She's hurt…badly. She's losing a lot of blood. I can follow it to her." He stated as he walked down the alley, following the scent of the ginger's blood.
His friends followed him, still trying to wrap their heads around the whole 'not wanting to suck her blood' thing. It was completely unheard of. Vampires would always have that desire to drink a human's blood, even if they were very old and had trained themselves to always have control. The point was that they would always have that desire, that urge, but by Angel's own words, he lacked the desire to drink Artimes's blood. That was something they needed to research at a later time.
A few minutes later, they entered an empty warehouse.
"What is it with her and warehouses?" Cordelia asked looking around the empty building.
There wasn't much there. A few empty crates, some garbage, a few oil drums, and what looked to be a torn and worn out mattress at the back.
"At least it's not a maze like the last one." Doyle commented trying to give his female friend a silver lining.
"She's here…somewhere. I can feel her." Angel piped up looking around, trying to locate the missing ginger.
Cordelia screamed as a male vampire jumped down from above and landed on her. Doyle staked him and helped her to her feet. Several more vampires emerged from all sides and thus started a very long winded fight. Angel was tossed by two of them and landed on his stomach. Before he could get up, one of the female vampires was already on top of him with a stake raised to puncture his heart.
The vampire screamed as she was turned to dust. Angel flipped over to see Artimes holding a sharpened piece of wood.
"You saved me." Angel breathed surprise written on his face.
Instead of replying, the red head joined the fight and staked two more vampires. She ducked, twisted, and flipped around the remaining three vampires and to the dark haired champion, her fighting style was very much like a dance. She dusted one vampire and quickly spun around and dusted another. The last one tried to run but she flipped over him and dusted him as well.
Cordelia and Doyle were both looking at her with shock and a healthy dose of awe. For someone who was supposedly badly wounded, she sure as hell could fight.
"That was amazing." The brunette woman stated.
"My friend Stephanie was a gymnast and a dancer. She taught me. It was her brother, Daniel, that taught me how to combine that with swords, daggers, etc." Artimes explained looking a little embarrassed at how they were staring at her with such awe.
"What happened back in the alley?" Angel demanded softly.
He could see where something had stabbed her from the discoloration of her shirt. He couldn't seem to find the wound though, but the smell of her blood was unmistakable. She had been injured and bled quite a lot. She shouldn't even be standing right now yet she seemed to be perfectly fine.
"There were two girls. There were about to become appetizers, so I saved them. One of the vamps got in a lucky shot and I nearly went through a windshield. Anyways, what are you three doing here?" The red head answered.
"Saving you, of course." Angel replied smiling.
The ginger gave him a dead panned look as if to say he was an idiot.
"Did it ever occur to you that I didn't want to be saved?" She asked her tone snappish and icy.
She then turned around and walked out of the warehouse. Angel followed after her, leaving Cordelia and Doyle behind.
"You may not want to be saved, but Doyle had a vision. He gets visions of people who need to be saved." The vampire with a soul answered trailing after her.
"He also gets visions about things that need to be slain." She replied stopping at a ladder to a fire escape.
She pulled it down and started climbing up the ladder. Once at the top, she climbed up the steps. Angel followed after her once again, being only a few steps behind her.
"And why would you think that you needed to be killed?" Angel demanded as they continued to climb the stairs.
"It's obvious. With the amount of knowledge in my head, I could rip apart your timeline and turn it into confetti. I am the biggest threat to you and your friends. Just imagine what someone would do if they had my knowledge of the future. They could kill you, Cordelia, and Doyle at any moment they chose. Even be sadistic enough to do it when you're at your weakest and most vulnerable state. I am very dangerous to you." Artimes explained climbing onto the roof.
She looked around and finally found what she was looking for. She walked across the roof as Angel continued to follow her.
"That simply means that I need to protect you, keep you safe from people who would use you. That makes you one of the good guys." He countered as she hopped up onto edge of the roof.
"Does it?" She asked walking out onto the skinny overhang, no more than foot wide, and walked to the end of it.
Angel started to panic as she neared the edge. What the hell was she thinking?!
"Artz, stop! Please!" He cried out, jumping onto the edge of the roof.
She turned around, her sapphire eyes determined. She had obviously had time to think while they had been trying to find her which did not bode well in his favor.
"No, I won't because even if I was one of the 'good guys'…there would still come a day that you would hate me and I'm not certain that I would be able to handle that." She replied honestly.
That took him by surprise.
"Why would I hate you?" He asked inching towards her little by little.
"Because I know who lives and who dies. I know how Doyle dies and I know how Cordy dies and the horrible things that lead up to their deaths. I know how you meet each friend, both old and new, and I know how they are going to die. I know how Buffy is going to die." She answered solemnly, "Don't you get it yet? I'm not worth saving."
He continued to inch towards her, his eyes locked onto hers. Bringing up the vampire slayer from Sunnydale had been a low blow, but he could see what she was doing. She was trying to convince him that she wasn't worth saving because she knew how everyone important to him would meet their end. That only made him more determined to save her. No one should have to carry that burden alone.
"You're wrong. You may not believe you're worth saving, but I do." He replied firmly.
"Why?" She asked as tears began to form, making her blue eyes shimmer like a rippling pond.
"Because you don't want to die. I can see it in your eyes, everything you're feeling. You're at war with yourself. You want to protect me, but at the same time, the very idea of taking your own life feels completely wrong. Do you know why?" He answered still slowly closing the distance between them.
He had to make her see sense, but more importantly find that one chink her plan of self-destruction and he had a feeling that it had everything to do with her name.
"The Doctor made a promise when he chose his name. Never cruel or cowardly, never give up, never give in. It's the same promise I made when I chose my name, Artz…German for Doctor. Committing suicide is equivalent to giving up, in my mind at least." She replied tears beginning to slip down her cheeks, "But if I don't then you'll…you will…I'm sorry. I can't."
"All I'm asking for is a chance. One tiny, little chance…please, Artz." Angel pleaded reaching out his hand slightly.
She started shaking her head, her eyes revealing her inner conflict. Her hands clutched at her shirt, just above her stomach. She was beginning to crack, her emotions hemorrhaging out of her as she tried to rationalize dying.
"I'm not worth saving. I'm not worth anything. I'm useless, worthless, unimportant…I'm nothing, just nothing." She whispered a sob beginning to rise in her chest.
"Why would you say that?" He asked quietly, moving a little closer.
What could have damaged her this much, to have broken someone who was so strong of will and of heart? He needed to know, he had to know. He had to save her at all costs.
"Because that's what everyone said, what they all said and did. My family…they gave up on me, tossed me aside when I was no longer of use. My friends…they all moved on with their lives, leaving me behind. I wasn't worth staying for. I wasn't worth saving. They all left me in the end, all of them and now I'm all alone." She answered crying harder, "Please, just let me go."
Angel came within a foot of her and looked her straight in the eyes. He could see all the loneliness and despair, sadness and pain. She had been abandoned by all she knew and now, her world had been taken from her as well. She had nothing left and yet he could still see so much goodness in her. She still held hope…even after losing everything, she still believed that things could get better. He looked deeper into her eyes and saw what she needed. She needed him…to be her anchor, her rock, her champion.
"Never, I will never let you go, I will never abandon you, and I'm immortal so I'll never leave you." He replied smiling softly at her.
He watched as the inner turmoil in those sapphire depths began to slow and eventually cease. Her eyes began to glow with a soft blue light before she leaned forward and placed her head on his chest, crying as she made the decision to trust him. He raised his arms to wrap them around her when the small ledge beneath her gave way and she fell backwards, screaming in surprise.
Lady Artz: Whoops! That's all for Chapter One: Not Worth Saving. What will happen in the next chapter? Will she die? Will Angel save her? And what was going on with that blue light in her eyes? What is her purpose in the Angel verse? You'll just have to keep reading, now won't you? Leave tons and tons of reviews and be on the lookout for Chapter Two: Visions and Destinies! Stay Tuned!