Still I Rise
Summary: Sequel to Pain is Love. Connor goes off in search of Charlize, who doesn't want to be found. With L.A. as the new Hellmouth the gang could use another Slayer, one that isn't evil.
Disclaimer: HAHA I own Charlize and Damien, and you don't! Kidding! Jeez lighten up, but sadly they are the only thing I own.
Chapter 1: One Day at a Time
"God what I wouldn't give for a war right now." She growled, with a cigarette dangling between her perfectly lined lips. Her hair was dyed a light reddish brown color and her tan had deepened from light golden to a dark honey color that made her ice blue eyes stand out even more.
"Are you that bored?" He arched his right eyebrow, he still looked the same except for blond tips on the end of his light brown hair.
"I'm tired of all this. L.A. was **my** city why didn't we just turn all them and takeover there?" She flipped her long layered hair over her shoulder.
"Come on, you like Romania don't you? If you want to go somewhere else we will." His deep brown eyes caught her blue ones.
"I love it here, it's great and this mansion is wonderful, except for the dead family in the basement." She smiled maliciously.
"Tasted good though." Damien smiled. They stood on the balcony of the master bedroom, he was behind her leaning against her with his hands on top of hers. She was wearing a gorgeous red corset that fit her perfectly and a short denim mini skirt that hardly covered her behind and tall black leather boots that covered her calves.
"Can't disagree there." She looked out over the land. Before leaving L.A. Charlize had never left California, except for being in Quor-Toth. It had been three months since Charlize and Damien had left, they had been all over the place since then. Asia, China, Kenya, Tahiti, Paris, Ireland, and now they were in Romania. She turned around and faced him, it was around three in the morning and they were both wired. "You showed me the world, and I love you for it." She smiled.
"We aren't done yet." He returned the smiled and kissed her lovingly.
"For a vampire you sure have plenty of emotion." Charlize arched an eyebrow and half-smiled.
"For a soulless Slayer you sure kill a lot of people." Damien retaliated, she laughed quietly and kissed her again. "And I'll love you for eternity." He said in-between kisses.
~~~~
"I think we can rule out New Mexico." Cordy said slamming the phone back onto it's cradle. She sat with a huge map of the world in front of her, she picked up a big red marker and marked through New Mexico. There were already marks through North and South Dakota, Oregon, Arizona, Colorado, Maine, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. And this was just the United States. For the rest of the world there was big red marks through Greenland, South America, Russia and Spain. She was sitting at her desk with papers and maps everywhere.
Angel had assigned part of the gang to find Charlize and the rest of them were working on current cases and field work. Cordy, Connor, Anya, Lorne, Buffy, Fred, Xander, Bryan, and Dawn were working on finding Charlize. Cordy also still helped with cases along with Angel, Gunn, Wesley, Willow, Spike, Faith, and Giles.
Connor came through the front entrance, "I don't think she's in the states." He reported to Cordy.
"Why?" She ask picking up her big red marker again.
"I beat this demon to a bloody pulp and he saw her and her friend get on a plane headed for Asia." He said.
Angel, who was sitting in his office with the door open, heard this, got up and walked over to Cordy and Connor. "Connor you can't go to Asia." Angel said to his son.
"Well that one was obvious." Cordy rolled her eyes and punched Angel playfully.
"Dad there is no point in going to Asia because it's very likely that she's not there anymore. She's going to leave us a trail so far and then cover her tracks. Charlize isn't stupid." Connor told his father.
"If you don't think she can be found why are you trying?" Anya asked, pulling up a stool and sitting beside Cordelia.
"That's not what I'm saying, I think we can find her but it's going to be harder than any of you thought." Connor said to Anya.
"So what do we do?" Cordy raised an eyebrow.
"We forget about it, stay in L.A. and wait for her to come to us." Connor smiled.
"I read that letter and she doesn't want to be found, what makes you think she's coming back?" Angel asked his son, unsure of his sudden change in heart.
"Don't worry about it Dad." Connor smiled again. Angel lowered his eyebrows, it seemed to him his son was cracking before his eyes. It was obvious that Connor inherited the brood mode from his father and like Angel; he usually didn't do much else.
~~~~
**A week later**
Cordy walked into the lobby with a mug of coffee in her hand. Angel was sitting in the lobby on a couch across from Fred & Gunn. "Morning Cordy." Fred smiled. Cordelia smiled in return and plopped down beside Angel on the couch.
"Has Connor seemed in an usually good mood to anyone else?" Fred asked, breaking the momentary silence.
"Yeah I just thought it was me." Cordy replied, then taking a small drink of her hot coffee.
"Has he talked to anyone about anything, like as in Charlize?" Gunn asked. Angel looked like he was in deep thought and Cordy begun to think back over the previous week.
"I haven't heard him say a single word about her." Cordy finally said.
"Me either." Angel agreed, although it looked like he didn't know what he was agreeing about. "What time did he and Faith come back from patrol last night? I didn't hear them come in." Angel asked, like he was finally back into the conversation.
Cordy was about to reply with an 'I don't know' when the four heard some one coming down the stairs, Gunn and Fred turned around and Angel and Cordy looked up. Faith was awake, "Thing is Angel, he never came back. About two he told me to go back because he was gonna go check on something and then come back here. So I waited up on him, to see if he was okay, and I fell asleep and he never came back." She explained as she stepped off the last stair.
"That's never good." Fred said quietly.
"Nope, never." Gunn agreed.
"Do you have a clue to where he could have went?" Angel leaned forward, anxiously awaiting a reply.
"He had that big leather bag with him, and I just assumed it was full of weapons cause that's what he pulled out of it. I mean there was other stuff in there obviously, and the thing is, now that I think about it he's never taken a bag with us when we went on patrol." Faith thought out loud as she walked over to the couch and sat on the back of the one Fred and Gunn were sitting on.
~~~~
"Hot damn!" Charlize jumped back, laughing as she did so. Damien caught her as she started to fall over, he was also laughing.
"Who the hell are you to?" The Liva demon had been trying to score himself a meal, but no luck.
"You're a sexy beast aren't you?" Charlize smiled as she stood herself back up. The demon, was exactly the opposite, he looked like Michael Jackson except he was rather purple with horns and scaly arms and bright red hair.
"If you weren't dead I would eat you two, I may have to kill you anyway." The demon stepped forward. The three were in an alley in New York, New York and Charlize and Damien were out looking for trouble again.
"See me scared?" Charlize asked sarcastically. Damien took his hands off Charlize's bare hips and put his left hand in the pocket of his baggy black jeans and pulled out a nine inch silver dagger.
"What do you want?" The demon asked rolling his eyes that oddly matched his hair. Charlize smiled, her fangs looking longer than when she was Charli.
"You are gonna do us a favor." Damien said tracing the dagger with his fingers.
"I am?" The Liva demon asked regaining his tough attitude. Damien looked up from the dagger and slammed it through the demon's shoulder, pinning him to the wall. "I am." The demon confirmed, wincing in pain.
"Great." Charlize smiled. "Okay, look we have a way to get you to L.A. unnoticed by regular people now when you get there this is what we want you to do." Charlize explained as the demon was still pinned to the wall because of the dagger.
~~~~
Connor stepped off the plane with his leather bag in his hand. He glanced around the airport; it was more crowded than the one in L.A. almost. Connor had snuck onto the flight, saving all his money he had borrowed from his father for things he could need after he arrived.
He found his way to the bus stop and rode it until it stopped near a cheap hotel, he walked inside to the front desk and stood to be waited on.
"Welcome to New York." She smiled, she had a southern accent and was a cute girl of around 5'6 with shoulder length blond hair and ocean blue eyes.
"Hi do you have an available room?" Connor asked hopefully.
"Yep, hang on just a sec." She smiled, typing in something on her computer. "And you are?" She asked, looking back up.
"Connor Chase." He replied, for all he knew he didn't have a last name, so he just used Cordy's.
"Okay." She typed in something else, "How long do you plan on being here?" She asked out of pure curiosity.
"Not too long, I'm just checking this place out. I'm thinking maybe a week, enough time to see what I came to see." Connor replied.
"I'll take you up to your room, show you around the hotel." She said walking out from behind the desk with a key in her hand. She was wearing a pair of dark low-rider blue jeans and a red wifebeater and white Nike's with red checks. Her outfit reminded Connor very much of Charli, before she was evil. Red had been one of her favorite colors.
She led him to the elevator and pushed the '3' button and the doors closed and they started to go up. "I'm Dalton Adams." She smiled. A moment of silence later the doors of the elevator opened and She led him to his room: room 217. "If you need anything the number for the main desk is taped to the phone. Enjoy your stay." She smiled and handed him the keys.
"Thanks." Connor returned the smile. Dalton turned and walked back toward the elevator. "Hey Dalton." The sound of Connor's voice stopped her.
"Yeah?" She turned around.
"Do you think you can help me with something?" Connor asked.
"Sure, I get off in five minutes anyway." Dalton replied.
"Okay then could you come back up here when you get off?" Connor asked.
*5 Minutes Later*
"Thanks for coming up here and being willing to help me, I know we just met but I know I need help and I've never been anywhere in the U.S. except L.A." Connor told her as he invited her in.
"Well you don't seem like the psycho killer type, and helping people is what I do other than being a wonderful receptionist here at the Holiday Inn." Dalton grinned as she sat down on the couch. Connor laughed a little and sat down beside of her. "So what do you need my help with?" She ask turning sideways so she could face him.
Connor slid his wallet out of his back pocket and pulled out a picture of Charli and himself at Spike and Buffy's wedding. The picture was of the two of them in front of a fountain in the park in Southern California where Buffy and Spike had gotten married.
Dalton looked at the picture then back up at him, "Is that your wife?" She asked curiously. Charli was wearing her silver dress and Connor was in his tux, the thought had never occurred to Connor that this picture made it look like they were married.
"No she's just a friend." Connor replied, he knew he couldn't very well tell this girl the truth. "Have you seen her anywhere? She ran away from home and her parents are really worried about her." Connor told her.
"Shouldn't you call the police?" Dalton asked looking back down at the picture.
"No, they wouldn't be able to find her. Her father is English and she was born over there and she only came here a year ago, so she isn't exactly a registered citizen of the U.S." Connor lied.
"Oh, well." She was about to say something but she realized he really didn't want the cops involved. "Well I saw a girl that looked a bit like her a couple days ago. She had the same eyes but her skin was darker and her hair was a different color. And she also had a guy with her." Dalton reported.
"Where did you see her?" Connor asked anxiously.
"Suite 16." Dalton replied.
"What's that?" Connor raised an eyebrow.
"You really **have** never left L.A. have you?" She smiled. "It's a night club here in New York." She answered.
"Let's go." Connor commanded.
"Where?" Dalton stood up.
"Suite 16." Connor replied.
~~~~
"Do you think he went looking for Charlize?" Buffy asked Angel. The whole crew was now gathered in the lobby and it was rather crowded.
"We're pretty sure." Angel replied.
"Where else would he go?" Cordelia snapped at Buffy's stupid question. It was getting late and Cordy had gotten up early and it surely wasn't helping her mood any.
"We already have all these places ruled out but there's still half the world left." Anya said picking up the world map that had several big red X's on it.
"I think we should try a more powerful locating spell." Willow suggested. "All we'd half to do is narrow the search down to a state or small country and double the ingredients." Willow explained.
"I could back you up, if you need me too." Fred piped up for the first time during the 'meeting'.
"Ok, it's an idea." Cordy shrugged and looked toward Angel.
"What the hell, we'll try it." Angel agreed.
~~~~~~~~~
A/N: Okay I think that is the longest chapter I have ever written for any story, but there is just so much going on and so much that is going to happen in this fic.not that I would ever give any of it away *winks seductively* So you liked it? Review. So you didn't like it? REVIEW. No matter what you thought, please review and there will be chocolately rewards. XOXO **Charlize**
Summary: Sequel to Pain is Love. Connor goes off in search of Charlize, who doesn't want to be found. With L.A. as the new Hellmouth the gang could use another Slayer, one that isn't evil.
Disclaimer: HAHA I own Charlize and Damien, and you don't! Kidding! Jeez lighten up, but sadly they are the only thing I own.
Chapter 1: One Day at a Time
"God what I wouldn't give for a war right now." She growled, with a cigarette dangling between her perfectly lined lips. Her hair was dyed a light reddish brown color and her tan had deepened from light golden to a dark honey color that made her ice blue eyes stand out even more.
"Are you that bored?" He arched his right eyebrow, he still looked the same except for blond tips on the end of his light brown hair.
"I'm tired of all this. L.A. was **my** city why didn't we just turn all them and takeover there?" She flipped her long layered hair over her shoulder.
"Come on, you like Romania don't you? If you want to go somewhere else we will." His deep brown eyes caught her blue ones.
"I love it here, it's great and this mansion is wonderful, except for the dead family in the basement." She smiled maliciously.
"Tasted good though." Damien smiled. They stood on the balcony of the master bedroom, he was behind her leaning against her with his hands on top of hers. She was wearing a gorgeous red corset that fit her perfectly and a short denim mini skirt that hardly covered her behind and tall black leather boots that covered her calves.
"Can't disagree there." She looked out over the land. Before leaving L.A. Charlize had never left California, except for being in Quor-Toth. It had been three months since Charlize and Damien had left, they had been all over the place since then. Asia, China, Kenya, Tahiti, Paris, Ireland, and now they were in Romania. She turned around and faced him, it was around three in the morning and they were both wired. "You showed me the world, and I love you for it." She smiled.
"We aren't done yet." He returned the smiled and kissed her lovingly.
"For a vampire you sure have plenty of emotion." Charlize arched an eyebrow and half-smiled.
"For a soulless Slayer you sure kill a lot of people." Damien retaliated, she laughed quietly and kissed her again. "And I'll love you for eternity." He said in-between kisses.
~~~~
"I think we can rule out New Mexico." Cordy said slamming the phone back onto it's cradle. She sat with a huge map of the world in front of her, she picked up a big red marker and marked through New Mexico. There were already marks through North and South Dakota, Oregon, Arizona, Colorado, Maine, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. And this was just the United States. For the rest of the world there was big red marks through Greenland, South America, Russia and Spain. She was sitting at her desk with papers and maps everywhere.
Angel had assigned part of the gang to find Charlize and the rest of them were working on current cases and field work. Cordy, Connor, Anya, Lorne, Buffy, Fred, Xander, Bryan, and Dawn were working on finding Charlize. Cordy also still helped with cases along with Angel, Gunn, Wesley, Willow, Spike, Faith, and Giles.
Connor came through the front entrance, "I don't think she's in the states." He reported to Cordy.
"Why?" She ask picking up her big red marker again.
"I beat this demon to a bloody pulp and he saw her and her friend get on a plane headed for Asia." He said.
Angel, who was sitting in his office with the door open, heard this, got up and walked over to Cordy and Connor. "Connor you can't go to Asia." Angel said to his son.
"Well that one was obvious." Cordy rolled her eyes and punched Angel playfully.
"Dad there is no point in going to Asia because it's very likely that she's not there anymore. She's going to leave us a trail so far and then cover her tracks. Charlize isn't stupid." Connor told his father.
"If you don't think she can be found why are you trying?" Anya asked, pulling up a stool and sitting beside Cordelia.
"That's not what I'm saying, I think we can find her but it's going to be harder than any of you thought." Connor said to Anya.
"So what do we do?" Cordy raised an eyebrow.
"We forget about it, stay in L.A. and wait for her to come to us." Connor smiled.
"I read that letter and she doesn't want to be found, what makes you think she's coming back?" Angel asked his son, unsure of his sudden change in heart.
"Don't worry about it Dad." Connor smiled again. Angel lowered his eyebrows, it seemed to him his son was cracking before his eyes. It was obvious that Connor inherited the brood mode from his father and like Angel; he usually didn't do much else.
~~~~
**A week later**
Cordy walked into the lobby with a mug of coffee in her hand. Angel was sitting in the lobby on a couch across from Fred & Gunn. "Morning Cordy." Fred smiled. Cordelia smiled in return and plopped down beside Angel on the couch.
"Has Connor seemed in an usually good mood to anyone else?" Fred asked, breaking the momentary silence.
"Yeah I just thought it was me." Cordy replied, then taking a small drink of her hot coffee.
"Has he talked to anyone about anything, like as in Charlize?" Gunn asked. Angel looked like he was in deep thought and Cordy begun to think back over the previous week.
"I haven't heard him say a single word about her." Cordy finally said.
"Me either." Angel agreed, although it looked like he didn't know what he was agreeing about. "What time did he and Faith come back from patrol last night? I didn't hear them come in." Angel asked, like he was finally back into the conversation.
Cordy was about to reply with an 'I don't know' when the four heard some one coming down the stairs, Gunn and Fred turned around and Angel and Cordy looked up. Faith was awake, "Thing is Angel, he never came back. About two he told me to go back because he was gonna go check on something and then come back here. So I waited up on him, to see if he was okay, and I fell asleep and he never came back." She explained as she stepped off the last stair.
"That's never good." Fred said quietly.
"Nope, never." Gunn agreed.
"Do you have a clue to where he could have went?" Angel leaned forward, anxiously awaiting a reply.
"He had that big leather bag with him, and I just assumed it was full of weapons cause that's what he pulled out of it. I mean there was other stuff in there obviously, and the thing is, now that I think about it he's never taken a bag with us when we went on patrol." Faith thought out loud as she walked over to the couch and sat on the back of the one Fred and Gunn were sitting on.
~~~~
"Hot damn!" Charlize jumped back, laughing as she did so. Damien caught her as she started to fall over, he was also laughing.
"Who the hell are you to?" The Liva demon had been trying to score himself a meal, but no luck.
"You're a sexy beast aren't you?" Charlize smiled as she stood herself back up. The demon, was exactly the opposite, he looked like Michael Jackson except he was rather purple with horns and scaly arms and bright red hair.
"If you weren't dead I would eat you two, I may have to kill you anyway." The demon stepped forward. The three were in an alley in New York, New York and Charlize and Damien were out looking for trouble again.
"See me scared?" Charlize asked sarcastically. Damien took his hands off Charlize's bare hips and put his left hand in the pocket of his baggy black jeans and pulled out a nine inch silver dagger.
"What do you want?" The demon asked rolling his eyes that oddly matched his hair. Charlize smiled, her fangs looking longer than when she was Charli.
"You are gonna do us a favor." Damien said tracing the dagger with his fingers.
"I am?" The Liva demon asked regaining his tough attitude. Damien looked up from the dagger and slammed it through the demon's shoulder, pinning him to the wall. "I am." The demon confirmed, wincing in pain.
"Great." Charlize smiled. "Okay, look we have a way to get you to L.A. unnoticed by regular people now when you get there this is what we want you to do." Charlize explained as the demon was still pinned to the wall because of the dagger.
~~~~
Connor stepped off the plane with his leather bag in his hand. He glanced around the airport; it was more crowded than the one in L.A. almost. Connor had snuck onto the flight, saving all his money he had borrowed from his father for things he could need after he arrived.
He found his way to the bus stop and rode it until it stopped near a cheap hotel, he walked inside to the front desk and stood to be waited on.
"Welcome to New York." She smiled, she had a southern accent and was a cute girl of around 5'6 with shoulder length blond hair and ocean blue eyes.
"Hi do you have an available room?" Connor asked hopefully.
"Yep, hang on just a sec." She smiled, typing in something on her computer. "And you are?" She asked, looking back up.
"Connor Chase." He replied, for all he knew he didn't have a last name, so he just used Cordy's.
"Okay." She typed in something else, "How long do you plan on being here?" She asked out of pure curiosity.
"Not too long, I'm just checking this place out. I'm thinking maybe a week, enough time to see what I came to see." Connor replied.
"I'll take you up to your room, show you around the hotel." She said walking out from behind the desk with a key in her hand. She was wearing a pair of dark low-rider blue jeans and a red wifebeater and white Nike's with red checks. Her outfit reminded Connor very much of Charli, before she was evil. Red had been one of her favorite colors.
She led him to the elevator and pushed the '3' button and the doors closed and they started to go up. "I'm Dalton Adams." She smiled. A moment of silence later the doors of the elevator opened and She led him to his room: room 217. "If you need anything the number for the main desk is taped to the phone. Enjoy your stay." She smiled and handed him the keys.
"Thanks." Connor returned the smile. Dalton turned and walked back toward the elevator. "Hey Dalton." The sound of Connor's voice stopped her.
"Yeah?" She turned around.
"Do you think you can help me with something?" Connor asked.
"Sure, I get off in five minutes anyway." Dalton replied.
"Okay then could you come back up here when you get off?" Connor asked.
*5 Minutes Later*
"Thanks for coming up here and being willing to help me, I know we just met but I know I need help and I've never been anywhere in the U.S. except L.A." Connor told her as he invited her in.
"Well you don't seem like the psycho killer type, and helping people is what I do other than being a wonderful receptionist here at the Holiday Inn." Dalton grinned as she sat down on the couch. Connor laughed a little and sat down beside of her. "So what do you need my help with?" She ask turning sideways so she could face him.
Connor slid his wallet out of his back pocket and pulled out a picture of Charli and himself at Spike and Buffy's wedding. The picture was of the two of them in front of a fountain in the park in Southern California where Buffy and Spike had gotten married.
Dalton looked at the picture then back up at him, "Is that your wife?" She asked curiously. Charli was wearing her silver dress and Connor was in his tux, the thought had never occurred to Connor that this picture made it look like they were married.
"No she's just a friend." Connor replied, he knew he couldn't very well tell this girl the truth. "Have you seen her anywhere? She ran away from home and her parents are really worried about her." Connor told her.
"Shouldn't you call the police?" Dalton asked looking back down at the picture.
"No, they wouldn't be able to find her. Her father is English and she was born over there and she only came here a year ago, so she isn't exactly a registered citizen of the U.S." Connor lied.
"Oh, well." She was about to say something but she realized he really didn't want the cops involved. "Well I saw a girl that looked a bit like her a couple days ago. She had the same eyes but her skin was darker and her hair was a different color. And she also had a guy with her." Dalton reported.
"Where did you see her?" Connor asked anxiously.
"Suite 16." Dalton replied.
"What's that?" Connor raised an eyebrow.
"You really **have** never left L.A. have you?" She smiled. "It's a night club here in New York." She answered.
"Let's go." Connor commanded.
"Where?" Dalton stood up.
"Suite 16." Connor replied.
~~~~
"Do you think he went looking for Charlize?" Buffy asked Angel. The whole crew was now gathered in the lobby and it was rather crowded.
"We're pretty sure." Angel replied.
"Where else would he go?" Cordelia snapped at Buffy's stupid question. It was getting late and Cordy had gotten up early and it surely wasn't helping her mood any.
"We already have all these places ruled out but there's still half the world left." Anya said picking up the world map that had several big red X's on it.
"I think we should try a more powerful locating spell." Willow suggested. "All we'd half to do is narrow the search down to a state or small country and double the ingredients." Willow explained.
"I could back you up, if you need me too." Fred piped up for the first time during the 'meeting'.
"Ok, it's an idea." Cordy shrugged and looked toward Angel.
"What the hell, we'll try it." Angel agreed.
~~~~~~~~~
A/N: Okay I think that is the longest chapter I have ever written for any story, but there is just so much going on and so much that is going to happen in this fic.not that I would ever give any of it away *winks seductively* So you liked it? Review. So you didn't like it? REVIEW. No matter what you thought, please review and there will be chocolately rewards. XOXO **Charlize**