To Shanshu in L.A

Part One

Wesley turned the page of his ancient text book, he pushed his glasses up his nose and frowned as he read the words. He muttered a little to himself, and his forehead creased as he thought. He flicked to the index and skimmed his finger down the page until he found what he was looking for. He double checked the page number and flipped through until he found it. 'Aha!'

Angel looked up from the book he was reading, Doyle and Cordelia glanced up from the newspaper they were sharing on the sofa. 'Did you find something?' The vampire wanted to know.

'Yes...perhaps...' The watcher told him. 'This book makes reference to the prophecies of Aberjian, a collection of writings that have been collated over the past 4000 years and, if this book is to be believed, placed in the possession of The Wolf The Ram and The Hart.'

'Wolfram and Hart,' Angel said.

'Precisely… these prophecies are in many different languages and pertain to many different subjects … there's a reference here to the holy triumvirate of blind children…'

'Those kids from last week?' Doyle said.

'Yes… and they include something called the words of Anatole and - most importantly - a section on 'the vampire with a soul'.'

'There's a section on Angel?' Cordelia asked 'Neato! Is there a section on me?'

'Yay and verily the 'Stain Be Gone' girl shall remove many stains and irritate many British men as they try to translate the ancient prophecies that foretell the coming struggles against the darkness.' Wesley read in all seriousness, he looked up at her. 'No, Cordelia, there is nothing in the prophecies of Aberjian about you.'

'Very funny, Mr. Joyless translator guy,' Cordelia told him, but Doyle and Angel laughed.

'So what's the prophecy say about Angel?' Doyle wanted to know.

'Well, I don't actually have the prophecy here, this book is just a guide to many different prophecies that exist in the world…'

'So you have, like, the Cliff Notes version?'

'Yes, Cordelia, I have 'like' the Cliff Notes version.'

'Well that's good isn't it? It should speed things up? Isn't that what Cliff Notes does?'

'Reading a book that is tangentially linked to a prophecy is not the same as reading 'The Prophecies of Aberjian for Dummies'.' Wesley retorted.

'Guys!' Angel interrupted, before Cordelia could get in with her furious reply. 'Is there anything useful in that book, besides the fact that this prophecy exists?' He asked Wesley.

The watcher scanned through the page until he hit upon a likely looking paragraph. 'The bit about you … it never mentions you by name you understand...'

'But how many 'vampires with souls' are there?' Doyle asked. 'I'm thinkin' our boy's unique, yeah?'

'Quite… the part about the vampire with the soul is referred to as the …'Shanshu prophecy'.' The watcher leaned back in his chair, 'shanshu ...shanshu...I don't know the word I'm afraid, I'll have to cross reference it.'

'The Prophecies of Aberjian for Dummies is not looking so stupid now, huh?' Cordelia sniped.


Outside the building, a dark, caped figure passed by; taking in the sign that told him that Angel Investigations was located at number 103.


Cordelia nudged Doyle and pointed at something she had seen in the paper. 'Well, would you look at that!' the half demon said in surprise.

'What's up?' Angel asked.

'You remember born again lawyer boy from Wolfram and Hart?' Cordelia said.

'Lindsey.'

'Uhuh...well he's left evil incorporated and just joined the D.A's office as their brand new prosecuting attorney.'

'I guess maybe he really did want to change after all,' the vampire mused.

'Well that's great!' said Doyle, 'another soul saved! He can be one of the good guys now.'

'I hope so.' Angel suddenly froze and looked towards the door.

'What is it?' Wesley asked.

'It's a little late for visitors.' The vampire got up and walked out into the entrance hall of the building. His three employees followed on behind.

The dark, caped figure was sneaking through the lobby. Angel raised his battle axe and the figure shrieked. 'Mr Nabbit?' the vampire said in confusion, as the figure pulled his hood down, revealing his face.

'David?' Cordelia asked

'I'm sorry,' Angel said, looking at his axe, 'I didn't mean to..'

'That was awesome!' the billionaire exclaimed, 'can we do it again?'

'Mr. Nabbit, what's wrong? Are you in need of any help?' Wesley asked him, but David shook his head. 'Me? No. I just popped by to hang. I blew off my meeting with the board of directors because tonight's my turn to be dungeon master. What do you think of my cape?'

'Shiny,' Cordelia told him.

'You guys wanna hang?' David asked. He looked past them into the office and his face lit up in excitement. 'Wow, oh wow. This is it, the place where it all happens, right?'

'You mean the place where we drink coffee and snipe at each other?' said Cordelia, 'this is the very place!'

Doyle smiled at her, 'I think a fair bit o' flirtin' goes on too, yeah?'

'Life and death situations can be all sexy,' Cordelia agreed.

But David wasn't listening to them, he had entered the office, still wearing the awed expression on his face. The others followed him in. 'They come here…' he said 'the helpless...in agony.'

'Most of the agony is my visions.'

'They have no one to turn to - so they come to you...they drink the coffee.' The four members of team Angel turned to look at their rather underwhelming coffee maker and then turned back to the billionaire. 'They sit on this sofa,' he sat down and patted it, 'unspeakable fiends from hell hot on their heels.' The team continued to stare at him in silence. 'And what did I do today? Spun off my digital pager network, made a few more million,' they continued staring, 'well several more million. But big whoop! What does that even mean?'

'No more shopping at the pennysaver?'

'I mean… your lives are just so meaningful -so exciting. You fight demons! Any moment one could walk right through that door.' They all turned to look at the doorway. It remained empty, as did the shadowy hallway outside, they looked back at Nabbit. 'You guys seen any cool demons lately?'


Outside Wolfram and Hart, two monks were chanting. They stood over a white circle drawn on the ground. Holland Manners and Lilah Morgan watched, from a safe distance. 'This hallowed ground is made ready. As it is written: he that is of pure darkness shall come into the light,' the monks intoned. The ground shook and the circle burst into flames, the fire reaching up to shoulder height. A figure was brought forth. He wore a long cape and a bronze mask. He stepped through the licking flames and was met by the two attorneys. 'Welcome to Wolfram and Hart,' said Holland Manners, reaching out to shake the caped figure's hand. 'I hope you had a pleasant journey.'


The team were still staring at David Nabbit, and the little billionaire was running out of things to say. 'You guys -ah you never know what's gonna happen around here and that's -ah …' he stood up, abruptly. 'OK it was nice to see you again.'

'You too,' Angel agreed.

'It was fun!' nodded Cordy.

'Drop in again soon.' Wesley told him. Nabbit left and Doyle shut the door behind him. He shook his head: 'tragic.'

'A very wealthy man with just - no life at all?'

'How can that even happen?'

'Money is wasted on the rich,' Cordelia told him.

'I'm going to start researching it.' Wesley suddenly announced.

'Very wealthy men, with no life?' Cordelia frowned, 'seems like a niche thing to look into, if you ask me.'

'No! The word, in the prophecy.'

'Oh that shoe shine thing?'

'Shanshu'

'Yeah.'

'If I get the book of Ranjarin and cross reference it with the book of Kelsaur it should only take ...most of the night.'

'Well you get right on that,' Cordelia told him, 'me and Doyle will…'

But Doyle's body had gone rigid and seized up. He crashed into the couch recently vacated by David Nabbit and held his head as the vision pain overwhelmed him.

'...stay right here whilst Doyle has a vision of our latest creature feature.' Cordelia finished off, looking at him in despair. She went to get the aspirin and some water out of the water cooler.

'It's a woman,' Doyle gasped, 'I think she's homeless, and she's being attacked by a slime demon. Nasty smellin' fella.' He grimaced. Cordelia sat down next to him and handed him the water. She removed the cotton wool from the aspirin bottle for him and shook a couple into his outstretched hand. He tossed them back, 'thanks, Cordy.'

'No problem.'

'Where is it?' Angel asked.

'He lives behind a waste treatment plant in …' Doyle held his head again to try and retain the information he had received from the powers '...Elscando.'

'Got it. Wes, you're with me. Cordy, look after him.'

The two men ran out of the office, and the half demon lay back on the couch with a groan. 'Would you like some Scotch?' Cordelia asked him. He thought about it…


Inside Holland's office the bronze faced demon was pacing. 'You have summoned me for a raising?'

'That's the plan.' Lilah said.

'Who is that you wish to destroy?'

'We've been having vampire problems…'

'A vampire? I do not perform rituals to destroy common vampires, they are weak and easy to kill.'

'This one is rather different,' Holland informed him. 'He has a soul.'

'Angelus?'

'He goes by Angel now, but yes … that's him. He's caused us no end of trouble and we want to bring him down...hence the raising.'

'I will need the scroll of Aberjian,' the demon said.

'It's in our vault,' Lilah informed him.

'The vampire is connected to The Powers that Be?'

The two attorney's nodded.

'Before the raising, I will sever that connection. The vampire shall face this alone.'


Two Police Officers watched as the car drove up, its siren blaring. They sighed with relief when Kate got out. 'Here she is.'

'What's up guys?' she asked, approaching them.

'It's one of those nutbar ones,' the first officer told her, 'the type that don't make any sense. So we radioed for you.'

'Gee, I'm touched.'

'Come on now Detective Lockley! You know you're getting a rep. You're our go to guy when the weird just gets a little too weird. You always seem to know what's going on.'

'I never know what's going on,' Lockley told them, 'same as everyone else, the difference between me and you is that I know I what I don't know. I work around it. You guys are still trying to make it make sense.'

'Well this one don't make a whole lot of sense,' the second officer told her. 'There was a lot of other worldly wailing and howling and then something slimy dragged a homeless lady away.'

'I'm on it,' she walked past them.

'You sure you don't want any back up?' the first officer called. She shook her head and headed towards the scene of the disturbance.

Angel and Wesley and the homeless woman walked around the corner. 'You two,' Kate said. 'I might have known.'

'See what they do?' the woman said, 'you turn your back on them and they come for you.'

'Well you're safe now,' Angel told her.

'Yeah you sliced him up good,' she agreed. 'He saved me from one of their spies,' she told Kate. Kate folded her arms and stared at Angel, the vampire shrugged. 'By the way,' the old homeless lady said, 'I don't appreciate the dental association watching me like that.' She hit Wesley. 'Ow!'

'He's one of them!' she told the others in a hushed whisper, 'you think I don't know but I know, he's one of them.' She walked off muttering to herself. The two men stayed behind with Kate.

'Hi!' Angel said.

'What was it?' she sighed.

'Slime demon.'

'Right. Gee that's gonna be a fun report for me to write!'

'I'm sorry,' Angel shuffled his feet. 'I know you would have preferred for it to be a regular criminal.'

'Yeah, I miss a good, clean arrest and and a report that doesn't read like a child's riddle book.'

'If it's any consolation …' Wesley started to say.

'It isn't,' she told him, 'thanks for saving that woman, I'll figure something out to tell my supervisor.'

The three of them left the scene, Kate to return to the precinct and Angel and Wesley to go back to the office.


Doyle had moved off the couch and was sitting behind Cordelia's desk. He went into the bottom drawer and took out the bottle of scotch that he kept stashed there. Cordy glanced up from the sofa, 'you decided on a drink, after all?' She glanced across the room and then noticed the bottle that still stood next to coffee maker. She looked back at the one on the desk, frowning, 'where did you get that one from?' A sudden realisation hit her. 'Have you been hiding that thing in my desk?'

He nodded. 'There's another one in Angel's filing cabinet as well.'

'What?'

'Would you get them both for me?'

She stood up, muttering her disbelief and picked up the bottle from by the coffee maker and then went to root in the filing cabinet until she found what she was looking for. Bringing them both back into the outer office, she set them down on the desk next to the one Doyle had got out. They both looked at all three bottles.

'So….what?' she asked.

'Y'know, I really didn't drink that much before I knew I was a demon.' He told her. 'This…' he waved his hands at the bottle, 'all started when I first found out...because I couldn't cope...and then I just never stopped.'

'Do you want to stop now?'

He stood up and shoved his hands in his pockets, as he thought about what she had asked.

'Well...I'm not sayin' I'll never have another drink again,' he said, 'but everything in moderation, yeah? I've been thinking about Lindsey, and how he's managed to make some serious changes in his life. Leaving Wolfram and Hart, that's a big step. It took real courage. And Faith, before him, going to the police and giving up her freedom like that. They lost their way and Angel helped them get back to themselves again... It made me realise...there are some changes that I need to make too. I'm supposed to be gettin' my life back in order...I'm working, I'm payin' back my debts, I've stopped gambling, I'm beginning to accept that there's nothin' I can do about the whole demon thing so I might as well get over it...'

'About damn time ...you're really not tall enough for the whole brooding, tortured act.'

'This is the last bit.' He said, as if she hadn't interrupted. 'To finally get back to where I was, to be me again, I gotta stop drinkin' so much. It's a crutch. And I need to get on with my life without crutches, now.'

'Are you really ready for this?' Cordelia asked him. He nodded, slowly. 'Would you ...would you get rid o' them for me?'

'Of course,' she picked all three bottles up, but before she moved away she stepped closer to him and kissed him on the cheek, 'I'm proud of you, y'know?' He nodded again, 'thanks.'

She went into the office bathroom, and from the glugging sound that emanated from there, he surmised she was pouring all that scotch down the sink ...maybe he should have donated it to Wesley instead. He sat back down in the desk chair, feeling better about himself already. Of course, this new found sobriety was entirely dependent on the vision pain not getting any worse ...