Title: Till Death Do Us Part
Author: Althea
Disclaimer: "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel" belongs to Joss Whedon and Co. and "Charmed" belongs to Constance M. Burge... I think. But bottom point is that only the plot is mine and some inventory characters that I might add to the fic.
Spoilers: Angel Season Two, Buffy Season Five and Charmed Season Three. Especially the Angel Episode, "I will remember you"
Summary: oh, you know... the usual chaos and ferocious demons wreaking havoc in L.A. No seriously, by some unknown force (probably the Powers that Be) the worlds of the Angel gang, the Scoobies and the Charmed ones from San Francisco came together to defeat and face an evil threatening to destroy our world today. WARNING for future chapters: Major character death. Not really a promising summary but I suck at those so just tell me what you think.
Till Death Do Us Part
Chapter One: Collision Course
"This is killing me." Cordelia Chase stated as she slumped at her table with absolutely nothing to do. They are currently at the vast lobby of the Hyperion Hotel which serves as Angel's Investigations office. "I have no social life, no career at this moment and I cant even get busy by saving mankind because no one wants to call and just make me hear that damn phone ring. I'm starting to forget what kind of ringing that phone makes."
Angel looked at her above the newspaper that he was currently reading and rereading. Cordelia had been going on and on about that certain point for about an hour now and Angel doesn't think that he could handle anymore of those continuing for at least an hour more.
"I mean, what's the use of having a business of saving people when nobody wants to be saved!" Cordy continued much to Angel's irritation. "They go on and on and on about how the world nowadays are so dangerous etc. etc. blah, blah, blah when all they have to do is call US and--"
"At least it's giving you a break from the visions" Angel commented, trying again, in vain to stop Cordy.
"Oh, that's where you're wrong, my brooding vampire!" Cordy exclaimed. "If we don't get phone calls, I get visions. If we get phone calls from the hopeless, whatever, there's no reason for me to have visions. So just come on! I'm ready!"
Suddenly, Cordelia felt the familiar sensation coming over her. Why did she have to open her big and tactless mouth?
*flash* a woman surrounded by mean and hungry vampires.
*flash* a disgustingly looking demon mutilating the girl
*flash* the demon grew awfully large in a matter of seconds
"Cordelia, are you ok?" Angel asked and she noticed that Angel and Wesley, who was previously in the other room, were suddenly beside her, Wesley holding a glass of water and Angel supporing the weight of her head. "What is it?"
"There's a demon on the 23rd street, mutilating a girl with vampires." Cordy shakily and incoherently answered.
"What?" Wesley asked. "A demon is eating vampires with a girl?"
"No idiot! A gir-"
"Get her some aspirin first." Angel commanded.
Wesley obeyed and after a few seconds Cordy's headache is finally subsiding.
"There is this woman on the 23rd street getting attacked by vampires and then there's this demon who suddenly came out from nowhere mutilated her with the vampires just watching. Then the demon just grew, like a balloon, inflated like up to ten feet." The aspiring actress explained. "Angel, you got to stop it before it can kill more humans and maybe grow bigger making it harder to destroy."
"Vampires working with demons." The ex watcher said aloud. "Very peculiar."
"I'm on it." The vampire with a soul announced. "Wesley, make sure that Cordy's ok and I swear that I wont let anything happen to that girl."
"Be careful Angel, I got a bad feeling about this." Cordy said.
"I will, don't worry." Angel said, walking out the door in the late afternoon to face his demons.
***
Piper Halliwell could not believe that she let her sisters talk her into this. She the middle child of the three charmed witches is supposed to be auditioning as an actress in a TV sitcom that they suspect has a demon director on the set, who is probably the demon who's been killing countless innocent actresses in San Francisco. Since they heard the director is probably shooting the sitcom in Los Angeles, they quickly flew over there with Cole and Leo who really doesn't need a plane ticket, rented a hotel and make-over Piper for the audition of one of the characters in the show.
Piper objected that she should be the one doing the undercover operation because first of all, she doesn't know a thing about acting and she really doesn't dig those ditzy celebrity thing. But the two sisters reasoned out that she have to do it since the demon have already seen Prue and Phoebe in one of their little fight, and it would be too obvious if they showed up again so she has no choice but to dress up in this high heels and glitzy dress that they've put on her. The only thing that's been making her feel better is the guidance of his husband Leo, a whitelighter who said to protect her in every step she takes.
So here she is now, walking in this dark alley and a little lost. She felt someone or something following her or looking at her so she quickened her steps. She consciously touched her cell phone in her purse so she can quickly call her sisters in case something goes wrong.
And something did went wrong.
***
Just a few minutes after, Angel was at the crime scene, or would be crime scene if he succeeded in saving the girl and killing the demon. He hid into the shadows and waited.
He saw the girl, nervously walking all alone in the alley. She seems to know that something's bad is going to happen to her as she opened her purse and clutched something inside it. And practically on cue, just out of nowhere, five ugly vampires appeared and cornered her. Angel expected her to scream but she didn't. Angel reckoned that she just too scared to but in his amazement, the girl flicked her hand at the vampires surrounding her and they all froze.
It was nothing like Angel had ever seen in his whole life, or unlife. The vampires looked like statues and even the drool of one of the vampires seem to be frozen.
But suddenly they all unfroze, and that's when the girl began to panic, grabbing her cell phone out of her purse and hurriedly punching the keypad to dial whoever she is calling, but one of the bloodsuckers snatched the phone from her hand, dropped it to the ground and squashed it with it's foot.
Angel did not waste any time. He jumped out of his hiding place and started kicking vampire's ass into dusts. They've barely fought back because of surprise attack.
He kicked vampire number one on the shins and vampire number two met his fist on its face. They both burst into flames when they met Mr. Pointy. The three other vampires started running away cowardly but angel dusted one of them by his crossbow. The other two escaped.
"So you think you're so tough do you?" a horrible voice said from behind Angel. He turned around and saw the most hideous and nauseating demon he ever saw.
It was scaly and buckets of saliva were pouring from its mouth. It was maybe seven feet tall with razor sharp claws that seem to be ten inches long each. Suddenly it froze, and Angel turned around and looked at the girl.
Before he could do or say anything, she grabbed his hand and pulled him away from the demon. "Let's go before it unfreezes." She said.
Angel obeyed and they ran through the streets of Los Angeles, making sure that they are as far as possible from the demon when it unfroze. They reached Angel's car which is parked a few blocks away from where the demon is and they stood awkwardly, not knowing what to do or say next now that they're probably out of danger, for now.
"I got to go." She said, backing away. "Thank you, Mr... Thanks."
"Look, maybe you should stay at my friend's house first since I think that you don't have a car and it's dangerous for you to go home with that... thing still on the loose." Angel proposed and he noticed that the girl's hand is starting to flick towards him like she'd done into the other vampires. "And do not try that on me, please." He said grabbing her hand and slowly turning it away from him.
The woman was taken aback of the fact that Angel noticed what she is doing.
"Don't worry, something tells me that were on the same side here." Angel said. "By the way, I'm Angel. And you are?"
"Piper." She said. "Piper Halliwell."
"So, how about crashing into my friend's house just for the night?"
"All right, but just for the night." she answered thinking that it's the best thing to do since she's lost and she could probably call her sisters there.
***
"She's not picking up!" Prue Halliwell stated as she tried again calling her sister Piper. "It's unlike her not to call us."
"I knew that something's bad is going to happen." Phoebe said, sitting at the king size bed in the hotel room that they've rented. "Even if I didn't get any premonitions, I still have a feeling that something's bad is going to happen to Piper."
"But if you didn't get any premonitions," Prue alleged. "and if something bad did happen, she's alright. Because they wouldn't risk loosing one of our sister because of some street mugging, right?"
"But what if it's not just some simple street mugging?" Phoebe asked her brow furrowed in the uneasiness that she's feeling.
"Just think about it this way," Prue comforted her, putting her hand on Phoebe's shoulder and sitting beside her. "Premonitions, bad. No premonitions, good. Ok?"
"Maybe we need to check on the crystal so we can be sure." Phoebe suggested.
"Yeah, maybe we should."
In a big luggage, they've fitted all the things that they might need in casting spells including the Book of Shadows, some spices and herbs and the crystal in which they can cast a spell to know where their fellow witch is.
After doing it, Phoebe looked puzzled.
"What is it?" Prue asked, worry in her face.
"It says that she's here." Phoebe said pointing to a part of the map. "She's not supposed to be in there, she's supposed to be in here." She pointed to a part of the map that is almost opposite of the one Piper is on.
"Maybe she got lost."
"That far? I don't think so."
"So, wanna go check it out?" a voice from their backs said and caught them by surprise.
"Cole, you scared me!" Phoebe exclaimed. She just remembered that Cole and Leo are just on the door opposite them.
"Why? What happened to Piper?" Leo is already panicking, too worried about her wife. "I'm gonna go check it out."
"Leo, wait!" Prue stopped him before he can orb out. "You can't just orb in into somebody's apartment like you usually do. What if she's just lost? You'll create a worldwide panic here."
"We'll do it in the ordinary way." Phoebe announced. "We'll rent a car."
The demon and the whitelighter groaned since they can easily orb in and out of places and they're not used in ordinary transportation, but since they do not want the Halliwell sisters getting mad at them, they just kept quiet and obeyed.
***
"More coffee?"
"No thank you."
Cordelia and Wesley are currently researching about that demon that Cordy saw in her vision when Angel called, saying that he will bring a guest over, the girl that he saved from Cordelia's vision.
A few minutes later, the front door of the hotel opened and in came Angel and the girl he just previously saved.
"Nice job Angel." Cordy complimented when she saw that the girl is safe and sound. "Hi, I'm Cordelia Chase, and you are?" She stuck out her hand to shake the hand of the girl.
"Piper Halliwell." She said, taking Cordelia's hand.
"You must be tired." Cordy said. "Come on, I'll show you Angel's room, you can use that for the meantime, I'm sure he won't mind."
Piper would've turned down the offer but surprisingly enough she felt the exhaustion taking place in her body that the idea of a nice warm bed seems impossible to turn down.
A few minutes later, Cordelia went down and joined Angel and Wesley's discussion that they're having in Angel's office.
"They all just froze like statues." Angel stated. "I've never seen anything like it."
"Who froze?" Cordelia asked, confused. "What going on?"
"The vampires," Angel explained. "When they surrounded Piper, she flicked her hand and they just all froze."
"Well, after all we've seen this past years, I can say that, that's not too weird." Cordy alleged. "I mean, she can be just like Willow, who can spin pencils in mid air, just a little stronger."
"Maybe, but how do we find out for sure?" Wesley asked. "Freezing is still a little peculiar and a totally complicated thing for a witch to do. And it would be too rude to just ask her! And we don't even know if she's a bad or a good witch or if she's even a witch at all!"
"He's right you know." Cordy said.
There was a moment of silence when they suddenly heard someone entering the door. She wondered who would it be at this time of night. She looked at Angel and he seems to be thinking the same thing.
When they all emerged from his office thet found two fine-looking women and two serious looking men waiting.
"Can I help you?" Angel asked.
"Yeah, uh... I'm Prue Halliwell, this is my sister Phoebe, her boyfriend Cole and um... Piper's husband Leo. Were looking for a girl about a few years younger than me and has long brown hair, almost have the same height as i do... Have you seen her?"
Angel, at first didn't trust this crowd of innocent looking people but when he smelled them, he was sure that they are human so he decided not to lie, but he also smelled a demon so he decided to be not completely honest either. If any case that they attacked, he's sure that he can handle them.
"Yeah, I brought her home when she got attacked by... street muggers." Angel lied. No use of including the frozen vampires in case that Piper has been keeping her powers a secret."
In any case, the lady looked confused, but she shrugged it off.
"By the way, I'm Angel." Angel introduced himself and motioned his hands to the other two people who's currently standing behind him. "And this is Wesley Wyndam-Pryce and Cordelia Chase."
"Hi, um... can we see our sister now?" the girl named Phoebe asked.
"She's at the guest room resting," Cordy informed. "I'll go get her."
When Cordelia left to wake up Piper, Wesley returned to his researching but still keeping tabs on what Angel and the new guests are talking about. Angel stroke up a conversation in an attempt to know more about Piper and her sisters and the other two sharp looking men.
"So, where are you from? Because Piper mentioned that she's a little lost and fellow Los Angeles don't get lost at their own turf." Angel inquired.
"Um..." the two sisters first look at each other, an unspoken message passing between them. Angel guessed that they were asking each other if they should tell the truth or not. Angel waited patiently, anyway he's good at telling liars from the ones telling the truth, so there's no problem.
Before they could answer Angel's question, Piper turned up suddenly and they hugged each other like they lost their sister for years. Prue started thanking Angel and they started to move towards the door obviously getting ready to leave. Angel didn't plan to let them leave without knowing what or who Piper is so he spoke up.
"Ok, let's cut to the chase here." Angel said trying to have an eye-to-eye contact with Piper. "What really are you?"
"Excuse me?" Prue exclaimed. "What are you talking about?"
"Why don't you ask your sister Piper?"
Prue looked at an ash faced Piper and gave her a questioning look. Angel noticed that Cordelia and Wesley moved closer to the scene and is listening attentively to the tense conversation that is playing in the lobby of the hotel. Angel waited patiently at Piper to answer the question.
"So?" Angel prodded. "Are you a... a witch or something?"
They looked like they've seen a ghost. Angel saw Phoebe nudge at Piper to freeze him so he suddenly grabbed Piper's hand tightly and turned it away from him to the guest's surprise.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" the blond guy who Angel remembered named Leo exclaimed.
"Answer me first." Angel commanded, tightening his grip on Piper's arm. "What are you hiding anyway? Why are you all so scared of answering my question?"
"You're hurting me!" Piper irately shouted.
"That's it!" Prue exclaimed, and in one swish of her hand, Angel began flying backwards done by an unseen force and crashed into the wall on the other side of the lobby.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Cordy hollered, running towards Angel to help him get up. It took a few seconds for Angel to get his bearings but when he did, he clearly was mad and suspiciously looking at the sisters and the two men.
"Angel," Wesley whispered. "from my experience and from what I read in books, I believe that these... women are witches. Very powerful indeed."
"Then why are they attacking us?" Cordy asked, obviously still enraged by what they did to Angel and the wall which has now cracks all over it.
"I reckon that they don't want being exposed, and they obviously still don't know that were used to those stuff already." Wesley calmly answered, looking suspiciously at the group who are now diminishing the space between them and the front door.
"Then I think it's time for all of us to have a little talk." Angel said, approaching the sisters and the two men followed by Cordelia and Wesley.
They suddenly all got tense when they felt Angel's presence getting near them.
"Take one step nearer and you'll fly out the window." Prue threatened Angel.
"I think there's no need to go to drastic measures here." Angel started. "Look, I know that you three are witches and one of you is a demon and I think you all can see from our faces that we're not that surprised by our little discovery. I think we're battling the same dark forces here."
The witches looked suspicious, and the demon, which Angel recalled, named Cole, looked more suspicious of them.
Angel broke the tense silence. "So, can we start again?"
"Not so fast batman." Cole spoke up. "You're not human."
"He's not?" Phoebe asked Cole, confused.
"What are you?" Piper asked. Angel can see the tension in her eyes, maybe because the thought of somebody not human rescuing her and inviting her into it's vicinity sounded less appealing.
"Ok, fine. We all have to be fair here." Angel replied. "I'm a vampire."
They all suddenly crouched into their defense mode-
"with a soul." Cordelia added.
The witches, demon and the unknown specie looked confused.
"That's not possible." Leo, who Angel smelled different from humans but is definitely not a vampire or a demon, spoke up.
"Oh, c'mon!" Cordelia exclaimed. "If Angel is a bad vampire then, he would have already eaten Piper long before you guys arrived. Ever thought of that?"
"Ok, we trust you now but you all still have a lot to explain." Prue said.
"And so do you." Cordelia retorted.
"Fine."
"Fine."
***
"We could really use this... Book of Shadows in fighting demons so we do not have to kick ass and get all bloody in battling them. Of course, we have to be witches to cast a spell." Cordelia said. "And that whitelighter thing too is really cool so we do not have to suffer the pain from those cuts and bruises, especially Angel. But I think it wont do any good because Angel is the one who is always being hurt and as you said earlier, he cant heal the dead and Angel is, well, technically dead.
After those weird misunderstanding, Cordelia, Wesley, Angel, Prue, Piper, Pheobe, Cole and Leo sat on the sofa and started to talk about his and her experiences in battling demons and vampires and their own techniques in defeating them.
"It must be great to have those powers in battling those demons you've run into, so you can just flick a finger and they go statue-like or wave a hand and they all go flying away like you did to Angel." Cordelia continued on. She seems to be enjoying herself in talking about the powers of the charmed witches.
"Yeah, but enough about us." Phoebe said. She was the talkative one of the sisters so she and Cordelia are the ones who are carrying the conversation, with the others just piping in when they feel like it or have something to ask. "Tell us about your adventures, and the 'vampire with a soul' story is still a little unclear to me."
"Angel, talk." Cordy told him. "I'll go get more juice."
Cordelia left and Angel looked at the guests awkwardly. Carrying on a conversation is really not his strong point and he's a lousy storyteller except he's telling Wesley about what happened when some demon attacked. The three witches, the demon and the whitelighter waited patiently for him to start telling his story.
"Well, uh..." Angel started.
All of a sudden, they heard a clanking noise from the kitchen and then a breaking glass. Angel quickly rushed to the kitchen and he arrived just in time to catch Cordelia in his arms who is now having a painful vision. Angel noticed that they all followed him to the kitchen to see what is happening.
"What's happening?" Leo asked. "Maybe I can heal her."
Angel didn't answer. He's too worried about Cordelia to even speak. Every time Cordelia has a mind-breaking vision, Angel become worried as hell. He's just good at hiding it in front of Wesley and whoever is there to witness it, but deep inside, he's terrified because he care too much about Cordelia that the thought of loosing her is unimaginable even to him, a two hundred and forty four year old vampire who'd seen countless people die and even kill hundreds of them himself.
Thankfully, Wesley answered for him.
"She's having a vision." Wesley replied. "I don't think that anybody can heal her or that there's anything to heal."
"A vision?" Phoebe asked. "You mean kinda like a premonition but..." she looked at Cordelia. "...a lot painful?"
Cordelia stirred, breathing hard, signaling that her vision is over.
"I swear I'm gonna kill those PTBs when I see them!" she said, touching her head. "Where's the damn aspirin?"
"Cordelia, what did you saw?" Angel asked urgently.
"In one word?" Cordy began. "Buffy."
***
Please Review!
Author: Althea
Disclaimer: "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel" belongs to Joss Whedon and Co. and "Charmed" belongs to Constance M. Burge... I think. But bottom point is that only the plot is mine and some inventory characters that I might add to the fic.
Spoilers: Angel Season Two, Buffy Season Five and Charmed Season Three. Especially the Angel Episode, "I will remember you"
Summary: oh, you know... the usual chaos and ferocious demons wreaking havoc in L.A. No seriously, by some unknown force (probably the Powers that Be) the worlds of the Angel gang, the Scoobies and the Charmed ones from San Francisco came together to defeat and face an evil threatening to destroy our world today. WARNING for future chapters: Major character death. Not really a promising summary but I suck at those so just tell me what you think.
Till Death Do Us Part
Chapter One: Collision Course
"This is killing me." Cordelia Chase stated as she slumped at her table with absolutely nothing to do. They are currently at the vast lobby of the Hyperion Hotel which serves as Angel's Investigations office. "I have no social life, no career at this moment and I cant even get busy by saving mankind because no one wants to call and just make me hear that damn phone ring. I'm starting to forget what kind of ringing that phone makes."
Angel looked at her above the newspaper that he was currently reading and rereading. Cordelia had been going on and on about that certain point for about an hour now and Angel doesn't think that he could handle anymore of those continuing for at least an hour more.
"I mean, what's the use of having a business of saving people when nobody wants to be saved!" Cordy continued much to Angel's irritation. "They go on and on and on about how the world nowadays are so dangerous etc. etc. blah, blah, blah when all they have to do is call US and--"
"At least it's giving you a break from the visions" Angel commented, trying again, in vain to stop Cordy.
"Oh, that's where you're wrong, my brooding vampire!" Cordy exclaimed. "If we don't get phone calls, I get visions. If we get phone calls from the hopeless, whatever, there's no reason for me to have visions. So just come on! I'm ready!"
Suddenly, Cordelia felt the familiar sensation coming over her. Why did she have to open her big and tactless mouth?
*flash* a woman surrounded by mean and hungry vampires.
*flash* a disgustingly looking demon mutilating the girl
*flash* the demon grew awfully large in a matter of seconds
"Cordelia, are you ok?" Angel asked and she noticed that Angel and Wesley, who was previously in the other room, were suddenly beside her, Wesley holding a glass of water and Angel supporing the weight of her head. "What is it?"
"There's a demon on the 23rd street, mutilating a girl with vampires." Cordy shakily and incoherently answered.
"What?" Wesley asked. "A demon is eating vampires with a girl?"
"No idiot! A gir-"
"Get her some aspirin first." Angel commanded.
Wesley obeyed and after a few seconds Cordy's headache is finally subsiding.
"There is this woman on the 23rd street getting attacked by vampires and then there's this demon who suddenly came out from nowhere mutilated her with the vampires just watching. Then the demon just grew, like a balloon, inflated like up to ten feet." The aspiring actress explained. "Angel, you got to stop it before it can kill more humans and maybe grow bigger making it harder to destroy."
"Vampires working with demons." The ex watcher said aloud. "Very peculiar."
"I'm on it." The vampire with a soul announced. "Wesley, make sure that Cordy's ok and I swear that I wont let anything happen to that girl."
"Be careful Angel, I got a bad feeling about this." Cordy said.
"I will, don't worry." Angel said, walking out the door in the late afternoon to face his demons.
***
Piper Halliwell could not believe that she let her sisters talk her into this. She the middle child of the three charmed witches is supposed to be auditioning as an actress in a TV sitcom that they suspect has a demon director on the set, who is probably the demon who's been killing countless innocent actresses in San Francisco. Since they heard the director is probably shooting the sitcom in Los Angeles, they quickly flew over there with Cole and Leo who really doesn't need a plane ticket, rented a hotel and make-over Piper for the audition of one of the characters in the show.
Piper objected that she should be the one doing the undercover operation because first of all, she doesn't know a thing about acting and she really doesn't dig those ditzy celebrity thing. But the two sisters reasoned out that she have to do it since the demon have already seen Prue and Phoebe in one of their little fight, and it would be too obvious if they showed up again so she has no choice but to dress up in this high heels and glitzy dress that they've put on her. The only thing that's been making her feel better is the guidance of his husband Leo, a whitelighter who said to protect her in every step she takes.
So here she is now, walking in this dark alley and a little lost. She felt someone or something following her or looking at her so she quickened her steps. She consciously touched her cell phone in her purse so she can quickly call her sisters in case something goes wrong.
And something did went wrong.
***
Just a few minutes after, Angel was at the crime scene, or would be crime scene if he succeeded in saving the girl and killing the demon. He hid into the shadows and waited.
He saw the girl, nervously walking all alone in the alley. She seems to know that something's bad is going to happen to her as she opened her purse and clutched something inside it. And practically on cue, just out of nowhere, five ugly vampires appeared and cornered her. Angel expected her to scream but she didn't. Angel reckoned that she just too scared to but in his amazement, the girl flicked her hand at the vampires surrounding her and they all froze.
It was nothing like Angel had ever seen in his whole life, or unlife. The vampires looked like statues and even the drool of one of the vampires seem to be frozen.
But suddenly they all unfroze, and that's when the girl began to panic, grabbing her cell phone out of her purse and hurriedly punching the keypad to dial whoever she is calling, but one of the bloodsuckers snatched the phone from her hand, dropped it to the ground and squashed it with it's foot.
Angel did not waste any time. He jumped out of his hiding place and started kicking vampire's ass into dusts. They've barely fought back because of surprise attack.
He kicked vampire number one on the shins and vampire number two met his fist on its face. They both burst into flames when they met Mr. Pointy. The three other vampires started running away cowardly but angel dusted one of them by his crossbow. The other two escaped.
"So you think you're so tough do you?" a horrible voice said from behind Angel. He turned around and saw the most hideous and nauseating demon he ever saw.
It was scaly and buckets of saliva were pouring from its mouth. It was maybe seven feet tall with razor sharp claws that seem to be ten inches long each. Suddenly it froze, and Angel turned around and looked at the girl.
Before he could do or say anything, she grabbed his hand and pulled him away from the demon. "Let's go before it unfreezes." She said.
Angel obeyed and they ran through the streets of Los Angeles, making sure that they are as far as possible from the demon when it unfroze. They reached Angel's car which is parked a few blocks away from where the demon is and they stood awkwardly, not knowing what to do or say next now that they're probably out of danger, for now.
"I got to go." She said, backing away. "Thank you, Mr... Thanks."
"Look, maybe you should stay at my friend's house first since I think that you don't have a car and it's dangerous for you to go home with that... thing still on the loose." Angel proposed and he noticed that the girl's hand is starting to flick towards him like she'd done into the other vampires. "And do not try that on me, please." He said grabbing her hand and slowly turning it away from him.
The woman was taken aback of the fact that Angel noticed what she is doing.
"Don't worry, something tells me that were on the same side here." Angel said. "By the way, I'm Angel. And you are?"
"Piper." She said. "Piper Halliwell."
"So, how about crashing into my friend's house just for the night?"
"All right, but just for the night." she answered thinking that it's the best thing to do since she's lost and she could probably call her sisters there.
***
"She's not picking up!" Prue Halliwell stated as she tried again calling her sister Piper. "It's unlike her not to call us."
"I knew that something's bad is going to happen." Phoebe said, sitting at the king size bed in the hotel room that they've rented. "Even if I didn't get any premonitions, I still have a feeling that something's bad is going to happen to Piper."
"But if you didn't get any premonitions," Prue alleged. "and if something bad did happen, she's alright. Because they wouldn't risk loosing one of our sister because of some street mugging, right?"
"But what if it's not just some simple street mugging?" Phoebe asked her brow furrowed in the uneasiness that she's feeling.
"Just think about it this way," Prue comforted her, putting her hand on Phoebe's shoulder and sitting beside her. "Premonitions, bad. No premonitions, good. Ok?"
"Maybe we need to check on the crystal so we can be sure." Phoebe suggested.
"Yeah, maybe we should."
In a big luggage, they've fitted all the things that they might need in casting spells including the Book of Shadows, some spices and herbs and the crystal in which they can cast a spell to know where their fellow witch is.
After doing it, Phoebe looked puzzled.
"What is it?" Prue asked, worry in her face.
"It says that she's here." Phoebe said pointing to a part of the map. "She's not supposed to be in there, she's supposed to be in here." She pointed to a part of the map that is almost opposite of the one Piper is on.
"Maybe she got lost."
"That far? I don't think so."
"So, wanna go check it out?" a voice from their backs said and caught them by surprise.
"Cole, you scared me!" Phoebe exclaimed. She just remembered that Cole and Leo are just on the door opposite them.
"Why? What happened to Piper?" Leo is already panicking, too worried about her wife. "I'm gonna go check it out."
"Leo, wait!" Prue stopped him before he can orb out. "You can't just orb in into somebody's apartment like you usually do. What if she's just lost? You'll create a worldwide panic here."
"We'll do it in the ordinary way." Phoebe announced. "We'll rent a car."
The demon and the whitelighter groaned since they can easily orb in and out of places and they're not used in ordinary transportation, but since they do not want the Halliwell sisters getting mad at them, they just kept quiet and obeyed.
***
"More coffee?"
"No thank you."
Cordelia and Wesley are currently researching about that demon that Cordy saw in her vision when Angel called, saying that he will bring a guest over, the girl that he saved from Cordelia's vision.
A few minutes later, the front door of the hotel opened and in came Angel and the girl he just previously saved.
"Nice job Angel." Cordy complimented when she saw that the girl is safe and sound. "Hi, I'm Cordelia Chase, and you are?" She stuck out her hand to shake the hand of the girl.
"Piper Halliwell." She said, taking Cordelia's hand.
"You must be tired." Cordy said. "Come on, I'll show you Angel's room, you can use that for the meantime, I'm sure he won't mind."
Piper would've turned down the offer but surprisingly enough she felt the exhaustion taking place in her body that the idea of a nice warm bed seems impossible to turn down.
A few minutes later, Cordelia went down and joined Angel and Wesley's discussion that they're having in Angel's office.
"They all just froze like statues." Angel stated. "I've never seen anything like it."
"Who froze?" Cordelia asked, confused. "What going on?"
"The vampires," Angel explained. "When they surrounded Piper, she flicked her hand and they just all froze."
"Well, after all we've seen this past years, I can say that, that's not too weird." Cordy alleged. "I mean, she can be just like Willow, who can spin pencils in mid air, just a little stronger."
"Maybe, but how do we find out for sure?" Wesley asked. "Freezing is still a little peculiar and a totally complicated thing for a witch to do. And it would be too rude to just ask her! And we don't even know if she's a bad or a good witch or if she's even a witch at all!"
"He's right you know." Cordy said.
There was a moment of silence when they suddenly heard someone entering the door. She wondered who would it be at this time of night. She looked at Angel and he seems to be thinking the same thing.
When they all emerged from his office thet found two fine-looking women and two serious looking men waiting.
"Can I help you?" Angel asked.
"Yeah, uh... I'm Prue Halliwell, this is my sister Phoebe, her boyfriend Cole and um... Piper's husband Leo. Were looking for a girl about a few years younger than me and has long brown hair, almost have the same height as i do... Have you seen her?"
Angel, at first didn't trust this crowd of innocent looking people but when he smelled them, he was sure that they are human so he decided not to lie, but he also smelled a demon so he decided to be not completely honest either. If any case that they attacked, he's sure that he can handle them.
"Yeah, I brought her home when she got attacked by... street muggers." Angel lied. No use of including the frozen vampires in case that Piper has been keeping her powers a secret."
In any case, the lady looked confused, but she shrugged it off.
"By the way, I'm Angel." Angel introduced himself and motioned his hands to the other two people who's currently standing behind him. "And this is Wesley Wyndam-Pryce and Cordelia Chase."
"Hi, um... can we see our sister now?" the girl named Phoebe asked.
"She's at the guest room resting," Cordy informed. "I'll go get her."
When Cordelia left to wake up Piper, Wesley returned to his researching but still keeping tabs on what Angel and the new guests are talking about. Angel stroke up a conversation in an attempt to know more about Piper and her sisters and the other two sharp looking men.
"So, where are you from? Because Piper mentioned that she's a little lost and fellow Los Angeles don't get lost at their own turf." Angel inquired.
"Um..." the two sisters first look at each other, an unspoken message passing between them. Angel guessed that they were asking each other if they should tell the truth or not. Angel waited patiently, anyway he's good at telling liars from the ones telling the truth, so there's no problem.
Before they could answer Angel's question, Piper turned up suddenly and they hugged each other like they lost their sister for years. Prue started thanking Angel and they started to move towards the door obviously getting ready to leave. Angel didn't plan to let them leave without knowing what or who Piper is so he spoke up.
"Ok, let's cut to the chase here." Angel said trying to have an eye-to-eye contact with Piper. "What really are you?"
"Excuse me?" Prue exclaimed. "What are you talking about?"
"Why don't you ask your sister Piper?"
Prue looked at an ash faced Piper and gave her a questioning look. Angel noticed that Cordelia and Wesley moved closer to the scene and is listening attentively to the tense conversation that is playing in the lobby of the hotel. Angel waited patiently at Piper to answer the question.
"So?" Angel prodded. "Are you a... a witch or something?"
They looked like they've seen a ghost. Angel saw Phoebe nudge at Piper to freeze him so he suddenly grabbed Piper's hand tightly and turned it away from him to the guest's surprise.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" the blond guy who Angel remembered named Leo exclaimed.
"Answer me first." Angel commanded, tightening his grip on Piper's arm. "What are you hiding anyway? Why are you all so scared of answering my question?"
"You're hurting me!" Piper irately shouted.
"That's it!" Prue exclaimed, and in one swish of her hand, Angel began flying backwards done by an unseen force and crashed into the wall on the other side of the lobby.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Cordy hollered, running towards Angel to help him get up. It took a few seconds for Angel to get his bearings but when he did, he clearly was mad and suspiciously looking at the sisters and the two men.
"Angel," Wesley whispered. "from my experience and from what I read in books, I believe that these... women are witches. Very powerful indeed."
"Then why are they attacking us?" Cordy asked, obviously still enraged by what they did to Angel and the wall which has now cracks all over it.
"I reckon that they don't want being exposed, and they obviously still don't know that were used to those stuff already." Wesley calmly answered, looking suspiciously at the group who are now diminishing the space between them and the front door.
"Then I think it's time for all of us to have a little talk." Angel said, approaching the sisters and the two men followed by Cordelia and Wesley.
They suddenly all got tense when they felt Angel's presence getting near them.
"Take one step nearer and you'll fly out the window." Prue threatened Angel.
"I think there's no need to go to drastic measures here." Angel started. "Look, I know that you three are witches and one of you is a demon and I think you all can see from our faces that we're not that surprised by our little discovery. I think we're battling the same dark forces here."
The witches looked suspicious, and the demon, which Angel recalled, named Cole, looked more suspicious of them.
Angel broke the tense silence. "So, can we start again?"
"Not so fast batman." Cole spoke up. "You're not human."
"He's not?" Phoebe asked Cole, confused.
"What are you?" Piper asked. Angel can see the tension in her eyes, maybe because the thought of somebody not human rescuing her and inviting her into it's vicinity sounded less appealing.
"Ok, fine. We all have to be fair here." Angel replied. "I'm a vampire."
They all suddenly crouched into their defense mode-
"with a soul." Cordelia added.
The witches, demon and the unknown specie looked confused.
"That's not possible." Leo, who Angel smelled different from humans but is definitely not a vampire or a demon, spoke up.
"Oh, c'mon!" Cordelia exclaimed. "If Angel is a bad vampire then, he would have already eaten Piper long before you guys arrived. Ever thought of that?"
"Ok, we trust you now but you all still have a lot to explain." Prue said.
"And so do you." Cordelia retorted.
"Fine."
"Fine."
***
"We could really use this... Book of Shadows in fighting demons so we do not have to kick ass and get all bloody in battling them. Of course, we have to be witches to cast a spell." Cordelia said. "And that whitelighter thing too is really cool so we do not have to suffer the pain from those cuts and bruises, especially Angel. But I think it wont do any good because Angel is the one who is always being hurt and as you said earlier, he cant heal the dead and Angel is, well, technically dead.
After those weird misunderstanding, Cordelia, Wesley, Angel, Prue, Piper, Pheobe, Cole and Leo sat on the sofa and started to talk about his and her experiences in battling demons and vampires and their own techniques in defeating them.
"It must be great to have those powers in battling those demons you've run into, so you can just flick a finger and they go statue-like or wave a hand and they all go flying away like you did to Angel." Cordelia continued on. She seems to be enjoying herself in talking about the powers of the charmed witches.
"Yeah, but enough about us." Phoebe said. She was the talkative one of the sisters so she and Cordelia are the ones who are carrying the conversation, with the others just piping in when they feel like it or have something to ask. "Tell us about your adventures, and the 'vampire with a soul' story is still a little unclear to me."
"Angel, talk." Cordy told him. "I'll go get more juice."
Cordelia left and Angel looked at the guests awkwardly. Carrying on a conversation is really not his strong point and he's a lousy storyteller except he's telling Wesley about what happened when some demon attacked. The three witches, the demon and the whitelighter waited patiently for him to start telling his story.
"Well, uh..." Angel started.
All of a sudden, they heard a clanking noise from the kitchen and then a breaking glass. Angel quickly rushed to the kitchen and he arrived just in time to catch Cordelia in his arms who is now having a painful vision. Angel noticed that they all followed him to the kitchen to see what is happening.
"What's happening?" Leo asked. "Maybe I can heal her."
Angel didn't answer. He's too worried about Cordelia to even speak. Every time Cordelia has a mind-breaking vision, Angel become worried as hell. He's just good at hiding it in front of Wesley and whoever is there to witness it, but deep inside, he's terrified because he care too much about Cordelia that the thought of loosing her is unimaginable even to him, a two hundred and forty four year old vampire who'd seen countless people die and even kill hundreds of them himself.
Thankfully, Wesley answered for him.
"She's having a vision." Wesley replied. "I don't think that anybody can heal her or that there's anything to heal."
"A vision?" Phoebe asked. "You mean kinda like a premonition but..." she looked at Cordelia. "...a lot painful?"
Cordelia stirred, breathing hard, signaling that her vision is over.
"I swear I'm gonna kill those PTBs when I see them!" she said, touching her head. "Where's the damn aspirin?"
"Cordelia, what did you saw?" Angel asked urgently.
"In one word?" Cordy began. "Buffy."
***
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