The Sacrifice - Chapter 9 - Listen.



The moment was surreal. Both, Cordelia and Buffy simply stared, mouth slightly ajar, completely stunned. Confused.

Overwhelmed.

By the time they picked themselves up off the floor, their movements were careful and slow. Unusually slow.

Cordelia was the first one to rise to her feet, followed by an awe-struck Buffy. There, in front of them, stood a vision. An angel.

Joyce Summers.

She wore a simple yet beautiful white gown and a warm smile. Buffy simply could no0t tear her eyes away from the heavenly image of her mother, and neither could Cordy. Neither of them understood what was happening before their eyes at that time. All they could feel was the surprisingly calm atmosphere that suddenly surrounded them. Undisturbed.

Peaceful.

Serene.

"I should have known this would bring the two of you together." Joyce smiled at the two disbelieving girls, breaking the intense silence. "Eternal foes. Unlikely allies bonded by grief and unique understanding." Her voice was soft, quiet, reassuring.

Her eyes went from Buffy's pale, tired face to Cordelia's emotionally drained one. Her smile never left her lips as she did so.

"You can't be real." Cordelia managed to speak, knowing perfectly well that Buffy's voice was failing her at the moment.

"I'm as real as you two want me to be." Joyce enigmatically answered.

Buffy opened her mouth to speak but then closed it, unable to get on single coherent word out. All she could do was stare and stand close to an equally shaken Cordelia.

"H-How.?" she finally managed to ask, her eyes never leaving her mother's.

"Sweetie, everybody has a purpose. A mission. A calling." Joyce kindly responded. "You have one. Cordelia, here, has one." She smiled with a soft hand gesture towards Cordy. "And this is mine." She added as the two girls stared at her.

Buffy's eyes welled up with tears.

"But you..you're." She began but couldn't finish her thought out loud.

"Are you a ghost? An Angel?" Cordelia asked, finishing Buffy's previous thoughts for her.

"More like a guiding Angel." Joyce replied, taking a step forward. "I was called in for Emily.but the truth is.everybody gets a little lost sometimes." she spoke.

Buffy was.

Cordelia was.

Everybody is. We all get a little lost sometimes.

"We all get lost, but we're never alone. And that's why I'm here. It's my mission. To give some guidance.." She explained, vaguely, in the most peaceful tone ever.

"To whom?" Cordy found herself asking, in a quiet voice.

Joyce paused, smiling at the two girls who stood before her in an emotional state of mind. A world of twists and turns seemed to rest on their frail shoulders. Shoulders that were usually much stronger than they looked right at that moment.

"You." Joyce finally answered Cordelia. "Both of you."

--

To Willow and Xander's surprise, the others seemed strangely calm about the fact that Buffy had gone downstairs to speak to Cordelia over half an hour ago. They hadn't heard anything since then. The others being mostly Fred, Gunn and Wesley. Why were they so calm? Weren't they aware of the animosity between the Slayer and the ex-cheerleader?

"Should we be worrying?" Xander suddenly asked, facing everyone's silent reaction.

"What about?" Wesley inquired.

"About whatever they are saying to one another down there..which they could regret..which they often do!" he pointedly answered.

"Well, when it comes to vocal-wrestling, my money's on Cordy." Gunn said, looking into a book.

"Strangely enough, I have to agree." Giles agreed, almost to himself as the others didn't really listen.

"As long as it's only vocal-wrestling." Fred, who had come down from her room a few minutes earlier, mumbled.

A short silence invaded the room until Willow spoke up her own worries.

"You don't think they're killing each other down there, do you?" she grimaced at the thought of previous Buffy/Cordy meetings that had gone bad.

"Hopefully not." Giles simply replied.

"Hopefully not?? That's not very hopeful." she worriedly muttered back.

"Well, the last thing Barbie needs is another dead acquaintance in that basement." Gunn stated as they all fell silent again.

--

"So you're." Buffy started.

".one of them." Cordelia finished.

Both girls seemed a little struck by Joyce's words and extremely vague explanations. Maybe a little amazed too.

"Them, as in those you strongly curse on a daily basis for those mind- blowing visions?" Joyce sarcastically said, though her tender expression remained. "Yes." She then honestly answered Cordelia.

"The Powers." Buffy whispered, still reeling from the realization that her mother was part of those infamous Powers.

"Did they send you?" Cordelia's voice was shaky and filled with unspoken fears.

"No." Joyce shook her head slightly. "Emily did."

Cordelia stood still for a moment. The simple mention of Emily's name brought small tears to her eyes. Funny how little time she had actually had with Emily and how quick she had been to let her in. A family member. An actual Chase family member. Her eyes grew darker. She should have known better, she mentally berated herself.

"Poor Emily. The girl really tries but obviously, she needed some assistance here. Now that I'm face to face with you two, I can see why." Joyce grinned.

"Assistance." Buffy seemed to register every word one by one.

"Yes. Assistance." Joyce repeated slowly.

"For what?" Cordelia asked in a reluctant tone.

"To make you listen." Joyce said, more seriously. We don't have a lot of time." she then said, looking up to the ceiling for a moment.

Joyce looked back into her daughter's eyes, as if silently comforting her. Without even talking, Buffy understood her mother perfectly. This was Cordy's mission. Buffy took a few steps backwards, until her hands brushed the wall beside her. Cordelia's confused glance was brief before Joyce spoke again.

"Cordelia, I know things are confusing right now, and life seems very unfair at the moment. But you need to listen. You can't shut yourself off from the rest of the world. You can't put these walls up the way you used to. You need to listen. To life, to yourself." Joyce paused, examining the sad expression on the brunette's face. "The hardest thing in this life is to trust where it's leading you." She then whispered to an obviously emotional Cordelia. Joyce took a few steps away from Cordy. "Don't be afraid to trust it." She added, getting further and further away from Cordelia.

The, Joyce stopped and stood still. The room bathed in silence. A silence only broken by Cordelia's gasp when Emily's ghost appeared in the middle of the room. She was surrounded by a yellow halo. Cordy felt her heart stop beating for a few seconds. A warmth and peacefulness seemed to take over the entire room. Buffy stayed back, stunned, and mesmerized by what was unfolding before her eyes. She'd seen a lot as the Slayer, but this was new. Very overwhelmingly new.

"Emily." Cordy mouthed, barely making a sound, as she took a few steps towards her cousin.

"Don't be sad." Emily reassuringly spoke, feeling everything Cordelia was feeling at the moment. "I'm okay."

She could feel Cordy's worries. Her pain. Her sadness. Her near breaking point.

"Everything will be fine." Emily whispered and Cordy stopped in her tracks, suddenly reminded of everything else that had happened after Emily had spoken these words before.

"You keep saying that." Anger could be depicted from Cordelia's shaky breath. "And it's never true." A small tear threatened to fall from her eye.

"Only because you're never listening to me. I mean, really listening." Emily pleaded as she met Cordelia in the middle of the room. "Nothing is a coincidence Cordy. Nothing is chance. There's a reason why I went to Buffy when I wanted to find you." She said, momentarily glancing at Joyce. "I was sent there.. There's a reason why you have the visions.why you have them still. There's a reason why I didn't ask to be saved Cordy.and this is the reason. Right here. Right now." Emily said, staring into Cordelia's confused and tired eyes.

"I don't understand." Cordy swallowed difficultly while shaking her head.

"Remember when I said that pretty much everywhere was too crowded for me?" Emily asked in a serious voice. "Well, it's very crowded in here right now."

Cordy looked around the empty room, confusion sparkling from her.

"Some people want to talk to you Cordy." Emily whispered in an emotional tone.

"Who?" Cordy barely managed to ask, staring at her cousin.

"You need to trust me." Emily pleaded. "I know you did before. You need to trust me again." Her eyes were nearly begging Cordelia with honesty.

There seemed to be a very long silence that followed those words. Cordelia didn't hear the gang walk down the stairs. She didn't see Buffy move towards them. She didn't even realize she had stopped breathing until she was breathing again. She lifted her hand to touch Emily's arm but her fingers fell right through the young girl. Ghost. A tear sprung in Cordy's eyes. But, the gesture was enough of an answer for Emily.

Emily brought one of her hands up in the air and made a swift movement towards the rest of the room. As she did so, a huge flash of light, almost like magic, spread across the room, revealing a crowd of people. One by one, these people - some wearing white like Joyce and others trimmed in elegant gold - were revealed to Cordelia. There were dozens and dozens of them, staring back at her, like they somehow knew her. Like they recognized her from somewhere.

It was surreal. It was just like a vision.

Emily gave Cordy one last silent look and then stepped back to stand by Joyce's side.

Three of the people standing in the crowd approached a stunned Cordelia. The Oracles. Cordy knew they had died, yet, there they were. The intensity was palpable.

"Oh my God." Fred whispered as she and the others watched from the stairs.

"We have been watching you Cordelia." One of the Oracles spoke.

"You.you're." Cordelia stammered again.

"Yes we are. All of us. And more." She answered.

Cordelia scanned the room with wide, wandering eyes. Astonishment covered her face.

"We have been meaning to talk to you for a long time now." Another of the Angels kindly spoke. :You have proved to be one of our most valuable and precious seers."

"But the visions." Cordelia started, but was stopped by a high and mighty voice.

".Were not meant for humans." The Oracle finished. "Until you came along. We watched. We worried. We feared. But mostly, we witnessed what these visions taught your soul.and Angel's." she added.

"Angel's?" Cordy frowned, a bit confused.

"Yes. Angel's." they all replied in Unison. "He didn't need the visions. He didn't care. He did not want the seer. He just wanted you. Safe. Alive. You." One of them continued as Cordy held her breath as the mention of Angel. "He proved that when he gave up his redemption and his life as he knew it to save yours.He knew the outcome."

"It killed him." Cordy whispered, holding back the flow of emotions that ran through her.

"Yes. His choice traced his fate."

Cordelia looked painfully disgusted all of a sudden.

"So..that was the plan? You wanted him dead?!" she exclaimed.

"No." they replied all at once. "But this isn't only Angel's mission anymore. It's also yours. You have seen the hurt of those in need, Cordelia." The oracle spoke as the gang watched, silently. "You're mission is only beginning."

There was a short pause that followed the Oracle's statement.

"The union of the seer and the vampire should have broken the Powers in you." Another PTB spoke. "It should have broken the bond between all of us."

"It didn't." Cordy whispered.

"Because you didn't want it to. Neither did Angel. He just wanted you to stop suffering. That's all." They explained.

"But you still took him. How was that supposed to make things better? You took him." Cordy painfully accused.

"No." the Oracles rectified together. "We didn't. He's not in hell. He's not in heaven. He's just waiting."

"For what?"

The stunned expression on everybody's faces was lost to Cordelia.

"For the suffering and confusion to stop. For fate to take its course."

"What does that mean?!"

The three Oracles walked closer to Cordelia as she suddenly fell to the floor in pain. Her knees hit the ground and she grabbed her head screaming. They stood in front of her and watched her as she cried in pain. But there was no vision. Nothing. Just pain. After a while, it stopped, leaving only a tiny headache that she quickly forgot about. She rose her tearful eyes to meet theirs and waited.

Gunn and Wesley threw themselves towards her but they were thrown backwards by an imaginary bubble surrounding Cordy and the Oracles. They couldn't touch her. They couldn't help her.

"What do you want?" Cordelia cried as she looked up to them.

It took everything in Wesley and Gunn not to rush to her. A force pulled them back.

"We want you to choose." Off of Cordelia's confused tears, they continued. "It was never a choice for you. Now it is. You get to choose your life. A normal life, or the one you have here, with your friends, with Angel.fighting the good fight."

They waited for her to reply but she just stared, a little scared now.

"You can give up this life and the visions. Angel took the pain but he left you the choice." They waited. "Do you want to give up this life and everything that comes with it?"

The room stood still. Everyone looked expectantly as Cordelia kneeled on the floor silently. Their eyes were riveted on her and they held their breaths. All of them. Gunn, Fred, Wesley, Buffy, Xander, Willow, Giles.

Then, she heard it in the back of her head again. "Everything will be alright.Just trust me."

"No." Cordelia finally spoke, swallowing back the lump in her throat. "It's crazy, and maybe I am..but I like my life." She whispered.

The crowd before her smiled wholeheartedly, as if that's what they were waiting for.

"We were hoping you would say so."

Emily smiled from the back of the room and breathed deeply. A habit probably.

"The one thing about life is it's the only game you lose by refusing to play." The female Oracle smiled, looking down at Cordelia. "You don't know the rules. You don't know where it's leading you, but you chose to play."

She had chosen to play. The moment she had made love to Angel, she'd chosen to play this game of life. This cycle.

"Your strength shall be rewarded, as will his dedication." The woman spoke kindly.

Cordy suddenly sprung to her feet.

"What?" The innocence and the knowledge danced across her face in a silent battle over which one was dominant.

"It is time for us to fulfill a promise." The oracles said as the entire crowd lowered their heads, closing their eyes.

Then, the Oracle walked towards Cordelia and placed a hand on her shoulders as the crowd began to disappear, one by one.

"Someone up there is looking out for you and must care a great deal. You are never alone." The Oracle whispered as she disappeared also.

The room became dark and all of a sudden, a lightning shot through the darkness, making the walls shake. Everyone grabbed each other to keep their balance.

That's when it happened.

His body, his light.

As if falling from the sky, Angel's naked body dropped from the lightning and fell to the ground with a resounding noise. Cordelia rushed to him, disbelief covering her face, helping his trembling bones up. She wrapped her arms around his neck as time stood still. This was one of those moments none of them could grasp. Only react to. Tears welled up in Cordelia's eyes as she felt him shake beneath her touch. Angel desperately clung to her, unable to hold himself up in a seated position. Xander and the others watched.moved by the sight before them.

Buffy rushed towards Cordelia and helped her hold Angel up in a seating position. Gunn grabbed a blanket and quickly wrapped it around Angel's freezing body.

"Cordy."

His voice was weak and painful. It brought tears to her eyes. Angel had whispered her name with such emotion and despair. He was leaning on her.

"It's okay." she whispered back through her own flow of emotions.

A tear rolled down her face, uncontrollably, as the others watched.

"What's happening to him?" Xander suddenly whispered to Willow and Giles as they watched the two girls cradle Angel.

"His soul is being restored." Giles whispered back, never taking his eyes off the scene. "Like when you reload a computer.you have to process all the data. Angel's processing everything is means to have a soul again." He explained as simply as he could so Xander would understand.

"So he's downloading all the remorse again?"

"Sort of." Willow dismissed him nicely.

They watched as a pained and weak Angle grabbed Cordelia's shoulder in a pleading gesture.

"It's okay.." She whispered again.

Then it dawned on her. The realization hit her like a ton of brick. She quickly jerked her head and looked around the room, looking for her.

Her.

Emily.

But she was gone. Not one trace of Emily was left in the room.

Cordelia stared at the darkness, still holding on to Angel's trembling body, and a few tears rolled down her face as she realized what had truly happened.

What Emily had done.

"Everything's going to be alright." Cordelia whispered in Angel's ear as he leaned against her and let his head painfully rest on her shoulder.