Chapter 25

The light didn't blind her anymore. She was almost used to it by now, and the years had been kind to her. Her life hadn't been easy; it was difficult to watch and be able to do little. They sent her to Earth sometimes, as a guide. She was able to help people; though it sickened her that she had to give such cryptic advice to the champions she was sent to.

They had even sent her to a few slayers. She had questioned the wisdom of what she was telling them, but months later, sometimes years later, she saw that The Powers were mostly right.

Being forbidden to see her friends had hurt her. She understood the reasons for that, though. She couldn't trust herself to give them cryptic information. Knowing that she would want to help them as much as she could, The Powers had confined her to another corner of the globe. They had forbidden her from seeing them, even in a disguised form.

She was often in disguise. It was rare that she showed her true face to people. There was little chance she would be recognized, but it was almost fun to look like other people when she was allowed to walk among the living.

Her death hadn't been fun. She hadn't gone quietly; not her. Queen C never went quietly. She understood though, after a while. So many horrible things had been done in her name; she was ashamed that her friends had thought she had conceived a hell god with a child.

Sighing, she watched her friends down below. At least, she thought it was down below. The relationships between space and three dimensional objects here were odd. She could look anywhere and see anything she wanted. Any part of the globe she could imagine was open to her.

So, when she glanced around and thought of Angel, she was greeted with a sight that made her heart stop. He was screaming. She felt a tug on her heart and knew he was calling to her. Focusing a little more, she gasped when he heard what Angel was asking of her.

It took her only a few moments to go to The Powers. They would not listen to reason. A baby, a newborn, was going to die, and her mother along with her, and they were not going to do anything about it. The Powers assuring her all would work out did not assuage the fears raging in her mind.

Angel was in pain, and when she focused in on Fred, the emotional torment she felt was too great to ignore. Her friends had suffered too much. It was time they had some kind of break. If she had to be the one to give that break, she would suffer the consequences later.

It was forbidden for her to have contact with them. She could not go to them; she could not interfere in their lives in any way. She was going to be in big trouble. All that meant nothing at that moment. Damning the consequences, she focused as much as she could.

Putting her hand on Angel's head, she breathed a bit of the power into him that she had years before. Leaning back and fading into her world once again, she watched the vision ravage his mind. He hadn't been expecting it, she knew.

It took only a fraction of a second for her world to shake and crumble. Screaming, the pain flowing through her like an avalanche, she almost begged for forgiveness. She managed to hold back before she felt herself plummeting.

It was like being dropped from a building with a seventy ton weight on her back. She couldn't breathe, she couldn't open her eyes; all she could do was hope and pray that she didn't land back in her body.

The consequences of her actions had crossed her mind, but the thought of revoking her status had never entered her thoughts. She was de-ascending, she realized. She was going to join the living again.

Panic flooded her mind for a brief second, when the yellowed and decaying material of the inside of the coffin flashed in front of her. The Powers weren't that cruel, though, and she quickly realized that she was lying in the damp grass, her hair becoming wet with dew.

The sun blinded her. It was too bright, everything was too green. The brightness of the grass hurt her eyes. Shielding herself, she tried to get into a better position, lying on her face in the grass wasn't very comfortable.

She wouldn't let herself cry. Choking back sobs, she got onto her hands and knees and stared at the gravestone in front of her.

The gravestone had the name Cordelia Chase engraved on it.