------------------
CHAPTER 6 - The Rising Tide
Cordelia jumped to her feet as the water poured on her head with surprising force. Had she ever wondered what it would feel like if the sky fell on her head, now she probably had a pretty good idea.
From his side of the glass, Angel rose to his feet with a sudden panic. Leaning against the wall, yelling something at Cordy through the glass wall, he found himself completely helpless. All she could see was his lips moving and his fists pounding on the glass forcefully. But she couldn't hear him, nor could she move freely enough to join him in the pounding.
"Angel.!!!"
Her voice came desperate and fearful. Only she could hear it but still, she had to scream. She had to let it out. She squatted down when another valve opened and dropped gallons of water straight on her head. She coughed out some of the water, trying to place herself in a corner of the glass cube in which she was trapped.
"Cordy!" Angel yelled at the moment the second valve opened.
He was just about to throw himself on the glass wall once again when it all suddenly stopped.
Cordy opened her eyes, thinking maybe she'd just gone deaf and wasn't hearing all the trauma anymore. But no. She opened her eyes and looked up, all wet from the previous waterfall, and realized that the water had stopped pouring down. Confusion and panic could not begin to cover what she was feeling right at this instant. Her chest rose and fell under her heavy breathing, and then she quickly turned to face a distraught Angel.
Both hands glued to the glass, pleadingly, he stared at her with frightened eyes.
---------------------
The silence that had been following them in the last half hour was brutally unbearable. They would speak here and there, but mostly, they would just stare at one another in silence. There were no words.
"Do you think he found her?" Fred asked quietly as she and Gunn strolled through a long and dark cave.
"I hope so.I hope so." Gunn only replied, unable to think of something more hopeful at this point.
Gunn's feet splashed into the water on the floor and he could not help but wonder what all this water was about.
"Does Cordy have some sort of water issues that we're not aware of?" Fred asks, looking down at the floor as they walk.
"I'm beginning to think we don't have a clue who Barbie is anymore." Gunn sighed in response.
"Now don't say that." Fred mumbled. "This isn't her.remember.only part of it is her." She reminded a very concentrated Gunn.
The two of them walked for a few more minutes before either of them spoke again.
"Are you okay?" Gunn asked her, seeing how silent she had become.
"Yeah.it's just." she stopped and paused for a moment.
"What?"
"What happened to Lorne.I mean.is he.?" she couldn't even bare to say the words out loud at this point.
"I don't know." Gunn replied, his tone filled with worry and confusion.
On this note, Gunn and Fred reached a light at the end of the tunnel. They both walked through a large door and found themselves in a huge, round room. After spending hours in complete darkness, the bright lights seemed to blindside them for a few seconds. Gunn was the first one to take a few steps into the room, and Fred followed closely behind. They stared, stunned and amazed by what they found in that room.
On the round wall around them were dozens and dozens of silver handprints. So perfectly carved into the white wall. So perfectly sized.
In the middle of the room, some sort of round stage grabbed their attention.
"Gunn." Fred hesitantly spoke as she walked closer to him.
At the moment she spoke the words, a crashing noise resounded in the entire room. Both, Gunn and Fred, jumped and turned to face the entrance, where a large cement door had just blocked their only way out.
"This is not good, is it?" Fred whispered in a shaky voice while grabbing Gunn's shirt from behind.
------------------------
Cordy and Angel both stood still for a few seconds, grasping the fact that the water had stopped pouring from the ceiling. Cordy managed to catch her breath, but found herself unable to tear her eyes away from the now-closed valves. It's as if she expected them to open up again.any time.
Angel's pounding on the glass took her away from her thoughts and she quickly made her way back to the glass wall. The water was now rising up to her knees and she had trouble walking, but she never left Angel out of her sight. Once she reached him, she nearly stopped breathing. The look in his eyes was breaking her heart.
And the feeling seemed to go the other way around as well.
"Are you okay?" She saw him ask from the other side.
Cordy simply nodded, constantly glancing up at the ceiling while responding.
"Cordy, listen to me." Angel said and then felt really stupid for saying that since she could not hear a word. "Can you loosen your straight jacket?" he said, making sure to mouth each and every word properly so she could read his lips.
He could see her struggle with the jacket, trying to free her arms, but after a long and draining effort, he realized that she couldn't. The look of desperation in his eyes was shattering her. All she could do was shake herself in frustration and stare at him with teary eyes.
"I'm going to get you out of there." He said, trying to reassure her.
"Angel." Cordy began to tell him something but was stopped when she heard the sound of the valve opening up again.
She barely had time to turn around when the water began pouring from everywhere this time. So much for some time to figure out a way out. Gathering all of their strength and energy, they both began to frantically pound on the glass. Cordelia threw herself on it several time, hitting the wall with her forearms and shoulders to the point where she hurt herself, while Angel grabbed the pole that was lying on the ground and began swinging it at the glass.
Nothing seemed to work.
"Cordy!!!" Angel yelled when he saw her break into tears. "She can't give up now..she can't give up." he mumbled to himself as he was desperately trying to make the glass crack.
-------------------------
"Do you really think this is going to work?" Gunn asked a very pensive Fred.
"Do we have any other option??" she raised her eyebrows at him and he new she was getting a bit impatient. "I'm guessing that one of these handprints can open up that door again. It's our only way out." she trailed off, staring at the many handprints that surrounded them.
"What if we don't pick the right one, huh? We all saw what happened the last time." Gunn said, taking a deep breath.
He and Fred stared at one another for a few seconds. They had two options: Wait, or try something. Neither seemed to foreshadow an easy way out at the moment.
Fred took a few steps closer to the wall and noticed some inscriptions carved underneath each handprint.
"Gunn, look at this." she pointed at the writing on the wall.
"What is it?" he asked her with a frown.
Then, that's when it hit Fred like a ton of brick.
"Gunn, this is it." she realized out loud. "This is what Emily was talking about.the things we may not want to see." she trailed off under Gunn's questioning stare. "We're inside Cordelia's memories." she then concluded, reading a few of the words carved in the wall.
After a little while of pondering, Gunn agreed to try one of the handprints.
"Okay." he took a deep breath, fidgeting a little, and then reached to place his hand in one of the carved hands on the wall. "Here we go." he muttered to himself in a shaky breath as he placed his hand into the perfect handprint.
His hand fit perfectly into the form, and at the second his palm touched the cold wall, a bright flash of blue light illuminated the room. Gunn's hand seemed to be sucked into the wall for an instant until he realized that it had only been covered by some sort of sticky green glue that held his hand into the handprint. Fred was blinded by the blue light for a moment and then gasped, seeing what was happening in the center of the room.
The light had emanated from the ceiling, forming a strange blue-ish spotlight on the small round stage they had been looking at earlier. And just as she and Gunn reluctantly looked at it, human forms began to appear. Images. Very familiar images. Progressively, Gunn and Fred saw an image of Cordelia and Wesley take form on the blue stage and they stared in shock at what they saw.
"Oh. My. God." Fred exclaimed, as she watched the scene play out in front of their eyes.
"How do we stop that!?!" Gunn exclaimed, unable to take his hand out of the handprint now. "Please make this stop!" he said in a strangely disgusted way.
"Wait." Fred said, sticking her own hand into another handprint.
At the same instant, Gunn's hand was released and he pulled it to his chest.
"Cordy kissed English??!!" Gunn asked in near disdain.
"huh." Fred seemed at a loss for words, clearly disturbed by the sight of that kiss.
"Okay, that had to be the most horrible kiss in human history.what was with that??!" Gunn exclaimed, shaking his head.
Both he and Fred looked at one another, obviously perturbed by the whole thing.
"No offense to Wesley or Cordy.but that was the most disturbing thing I've seen." Fred mumbled just before another flash of light appeared and her hand became engulfed in the wall, as Gunn's had been earlier.
They both turned to face the stage, this time with a reluctance strongly justified.
Fred's eyes grew wide and her mouth hung open for a few seconds as she stared, speechless.
"I stand corrected." she whispered to herself with raised eyebrows as she stared at the new image of Cordelia that graced them.
"I won't even ask..." Gunn said as he stared, as confused and stunned as Fred.
--
Never in her life had she imaged that she would die this way. This was no way to die. Drowning.
The water was up to her neck and she was struggling to keep herself afloat. On the other side, a frantic Angel had lost his control. Putting on his game face, he savagely began a battle against the glass wall that stood between him and Cordelia.
There was very little time left. He could feel it.
Whatever he tried, nothing worked.
Angel saw Cordelia scream from the inside. He saw her yell something at him but he couldn't make out what it was. Sweat was now rolling down his face as he used every ounce of his vampire strength to break down that wall. He cursed the wall. He cursed Dennis' mother. But mostly, he was cursing himself. The thought of not being able to rescue Cordelia simply felt like he was being staked.
Staked through the heart.
A loud scream of pain escaped Angel's throat and tears rolled down his face as h e saw Cordy's head sink under water. He could see her body still trying to fight off her captive jacket, even as she was drowning. A strong and violent wind began to blow and Angel was shoved away from the glass wall. His back hit the floor and he found himself unable to move back towards the glass. It's like a force was pulling him backwards. Away.
Away from Cordelia.
He yelled at the top of his lungs, the empty veins in his neck remarkably filled with terror and anger, as he never left Cordy out of his sight. She was beginning to run out of oxygen and it was killing him.
The fear on his face was now something he could not hide. He could not mask his horror and dread.
And that's when he heard it.
Like a voice from heaven, it spoke to him. He remembered her words.
"The more scared you get, the more powerful she is."
The voice of a ten-year-old Cordelia Chase rang into the room, making its way through the violent wind and the running water. Angel closed his eyes as he listened to the voice, over and over again. He took deep breaths, even though he didn't need them.
"Beat your fear..face your fear."
The voice then murmured to his ear.
--
"Okay I'm feeling a really unhealthy cycle here." Gunn said as Fred's hand got stuck in the handprint.
Gunn rushed towards her and began to pull on her arm with every ounce of strength in his being.
Fred's hand would still not come out.
Right then, everything became dark. Gunn and Fred froze as they stood there in silence.
"Gunn?" Fred ventured, hesitantly.
"Yeah?" he responded, still holding her arm.
"Just checking." she whispered.
Then, the lights came on again, but only those above the small stage. Gunn and Fred found themselves unable to tear their eyes away from the scene that was displayed before them.
A tall man stood in front of a frail, dark haired woman at the base of a staircase. They were both just staring at one another in silence. At the top of the long staircase, a little girl, no more than 7 years old, eavesdropped on the conversation her parents apparently h ad been having.
Fred and Gunn watched, captivated by what they saw.
"This is none of your business." the man spoke, brushing off his wife.
"It is my business when it comes to our daughter and our marriage. What you do is my business.." The wife argued.
"Shut up." The man shot back through his teeth as he grabbed the woman's hand.
"Let go of me."
The man slapped her face hard and the woman brought her hands to her mouth as to hold back to sound of pain from escaping her throat.
At the top of the stairs, the little dark-haired girl gasped, startled, and the man suddenly looked up to find her there. There was a moment when they both stood still. And then, the father spoke in a commanding tone.
"Cordelia, go to your room!" he ordered, as the little girl's face disappeared from the corridor and she retreated to some place unknown.
The blue light began to fade slowly and Fred's hand was suddenly let go from its handprint. Her arm helplessly fell beside her body while she and Gunn still stared at the stage. With the fading of the lights, the images gradually disappeared, only to leave an empty stage in front of them.
Gunn grabbed Fred's hand as they both stood there speechless. Soon enough, all the lights were turned on again and the large cement door was lifted. Just like that. Magically. It's as if they had both been trapped there for a purpose, and that purpose now filled, they were being let go.
Gunn quickly led Fred out of the door and the both stopped once back in the cave-like corridor. He turned to face her and the expression on their faces was one of complete astonishment.
"That was." Gunn managed to let out, swallowing with difficulty.
"We don't know if that was who we think it was." Fred hesitantly replied.
"How many Cordelia do you know?" Gunn raised an eyebrow. "If it was."
"If it was, then I'm beginning to understand what Emily meant by some things in here we may not be prepared to see." she let out, finishing his sentence.
They both paused for a moment and Gunn looked into her eyes with a reluctant expression on his face.
"You think that really happened?" he decided to ask, even though he didn't really want to know the answer.
Fred simply looked at him and they both lowered their eyes. She didn't need to answer. She couldn't.
Only Cordy could.
They both stood there in silence, back against the wall, processing everything they had just seen.
--
All his life, he'd never been afraid of anything. And as he stood there, he couldn't hide them anymore. He was afraid..of losing her.
beat your fear.face your fear."
"She will play upon your greatest inner feelings." Emily had warned him before they got inside Cordy's head.
The more scared you got, the more powerful she is."
He swallowed back his fear and with a sudden regain of confidence and strength, he threw himself forward. Trying to find that fearless streak inside of him, he gave it his all to save Cordelia. He managed to get through the wind and when his hands found the glass, they went right through, melting in the glass slowly. Angel felt the glacial feel of the glass melting as his hands went right through it.
Once he was deep to his elbow, he closed his eyes, concentrated, and the entire glass wall exploded into millions of tiny pieces.
Angel fell to his knees as the water spread like a flood across the room. He opened his eyes just in time to see Cordelia's body brutally hit the marble floor.
"Cordy!" Angel let out as he pulled himself up and rushed through flood until he reached her.
The water level lowered until there was practically nothing left and Angel threw himself down on the floor beside Cordelia. He grabbed her weak body just as she coughed out mouthfuls of water.
"Breathe.Cordy." he encouraged her as he lifted her up carefully. "That's it.just breathe." he lovingly whispered in her ear.
"An-Angel." she tried to speak but couldn't' get the words out.
Angel quickly untied her and proceeded to take the straight jacket off of her.
"Here, take this off." he said as he helped her out of it and threw the wet piece of clothing on the ground.
She finished spitting the disgusting water she had accidentally swallowed and tried to catch her breath. Angel quickly gathered her into his arms, wrapping himself around her shivering body, whispering into her ear.
"It's okay.shhh..it's okay."
She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, desperately, and tried to hold back her tears, in vain. Her grip was weak but very distressed. She couldn't hold herself up so she let him hold her up into a seating position. She was breathing heavily against his wet sweater when she finally spoke.
"I knew you would come." she whispered against his chest.
Angel buried his face in her wet hair for a moment, unable to answer anything.
Cordy took a deep breath and raised an eyebrow.
"Oh - and I might as well tell you now." she said, breathlessly. ".just for future reference.I plan on being claustrophobic once we get out of here." she said in between in-takes of air.
Angel closed his eyes and held her close. That was typical Cordy and he had never been so thankful for that.
"That's good to know." He whispered against her shoulder as he cradled her into his arms.
On Cordelia's face, it was impossible to see where the water ended and the tears began, but one thing seemed to invade each and every breath she took: relief. The two of them stayed there for a long time, holding one another for dear life.
Never wanting to let go.
-----------
SNEAK PREVIEW OF NEXT CHAPTER: Can Cordelia and Angel escape? The answer will be set in stone...
CHAPTER 6 - The Rising Tide
Cordelia jumped to her feet as the water poured on her head with surprising force. Had she ever wondered what it would feel like if the sky fell on her head, now she probably had a pretty good idea.
From his side of the glass, Angel rose to his feet with a sudden panic. Leaning against the wall, yelling something at Cordy through the glass wall, he found himself completely helpless. All she could see was his lips moving and his fists pounding on the glass forcefully. But she couldn't hear him, nor could she move freely enough to join him in the pounding.
"Angel.!!!"
Her voice came desperate and fearful. Only she could hear it but still, she had to scream. She had to let it out. She squatted down when another valve opened and dropped gallons of water straight on her head. She coughed out some of the water, trying to place herself in a corner of the glass cube in which she was trapped.
"Cordy!" Angel yelled at the moment the second valve opened.
He was just about to throw himself on the glass wall once again when it all suddenly stopped.
Cordy opened her eyes, thinking maybe she'd just gone deaf and wasn't hearing all the trauma anymore. But no. She opened her eyes and looked up, all wet from the previous waterfall, and realized that the water had stopped pouring down. Confusion and panic could not begin to cover what she was feeling right at this instant. Her chest rose and fell under her heavy breathing, and then she quickly turned to face a distraught Angel.
Both hands glued to the glass, pleadingly, he stared at her with frightened eyes.
---------------------
The silence that had been following them in the last half hour was brutally unbearable. They would speak here and there, but mostly, they would just stare at one another in silence. There were no words.
"Do you think he found her?" Fred asked quietly as she and Gunn strolled through a long and dark cave.
"I hope so.I hope so." Gunn only replied, unable to think of something more hopeful at this point.
Gunn's feet splashed into the water on the floor and he could not help but wonder what all this water was about.
"Does Cordy have some sort of water issues that we're not aware of?" Fred asks, looking down at the floor as they walk.
"I'm beginning to think we don't have a clue who Barbie is anymore." Gunn sighed in response.
"Now don't say that." Fred mumbled. "This isn't her.remember.only part of it is her." She reminded a very concentrated Gunn.
The two of them walked for a few more minutes before either of them spoke again.
"Are you okay?" Gunn asked her, seeing how silent she had become.
"Yeah.it's just." she stopped and paused for a moment.
"What?"
"What happened to Lorne.I mean.is he.?" she couldn't even bare to say the words out loud at this point.
"I don't know." Gunn replied, his tone filled with worry and confusion.
On this note, Gunn and Fred reached a light at the end of the tunnel. They both walked through a large door and found themselves in a huge, round room. After spending hours in complete darkness, the bright lights seemed to blindside them for a few seconds. Gunn was the first one to take a few steps into the room, and Fred followed closely behind. They stared, stunned and amazed by what they found in that room.
On the round wall around them were dozens and dozens of silver handprints. So perfectly carved into the white wall. So perfectly sized.
In the middle of the room, some sort of round stage grabbed their attention.
"Gunn." Fred hesitantly spoke as she walked closer to him.
At the moment she spoke the words, a crashing noise resounded in the entire room. Both, Gunn and Fred, jumped and turned to face the entrance, where a large cement door had just blocked their only way out.
"This is not good, is it?" Fred whispered in a shaky voice while grabbing Gunn's shirt from behind.
------------------------
Cordy and Angel both stood still for a few seconds, grasping the fact that the water had stopped pouring from the ceiling. Cordy managed to catch her breath, but found herself unable to tear her eyes away from the now-closed valves. It's as if she expected them to open up again.any time.
Angel's pounding on the glass took her away from her thoughts and she quickly made her way back to the glass wall. The water was now rising up to her knees and she had trouble walking, but she never left Angel out of her sight. Once she reached him, she nearly stopped breathing. The look in his eyes was breaking her heart.
And the feeling seemed to go the other way around as well.
"Are you okay?" She saw him ask from the other side.
Cordy simply nodded, constantly glancing up at the ceiling while responding.
"Cordy, listen to me." Angel said and then felt really stupid for saying that since she could not hear a word. "Can you loosen your straight jacket?" he said, making sure to mouth each and every word properly so she could read his lips.
He could see her struggle with the jacket, trying to free her arms, but after a long and draining effort, he realized that she couldn't. The look of desperation in his eyes was shattering her. All she could do was shake herself in frustration and stare at him with teary eyes.
"I'm going to get you out of there." He said, trying to reassure her.
"Angel." Cordy began to tell him something but was stopped when she heard the sound of the valve opening up again.
She barely had time to turn around when the water began pouring from everywhere this time. So much for some time to figure out a way out. Gathering all of their strength and energy, they both began to frantically pound on the glass. Cordelia threw herself on it several time, hitting the wall with her forearms and shoulders to the point where she hurt herself, while Angel grabbed the pole that was lying on the ground and began swinging it at the glass.
Nothing seemed to work.
"Cordy!!!" Angel yelled when he saw her break into tears. "She can't give up now..she can't give up." he mumbled to himself as he was desperately trying to make the glass crack.
-------------------------
"Do you really think this is going to work?" Gunn asked a very pensive Fred.
"Do we have any other option??" she raised her eyebrows at him and he new she was getting a bit impatient. "I'm guessing that one of these handprints can open up that door again. It's our only way out." she trailed off, staring at the many handprints that surrounded them.
"What if we don't pick the right one, huh? We all saw what happened the last time." Gunn said, taking a deep breath.
He and Fred stared at one another for a few seconds. They had two options: Wait, or try something. Neither seemed to foreshadow an easy way out at the moment.
Fred took a few steps closer to the wall and noticed some inscriptions carved underneath each handprint.
"Gunn, look at this." she pointed at the writing on the wall.
"What is it?" he asked her with a frown.
Then, that's when it hit Fred like a ton of brick.
"Gunn, this is it." she realized out loud. "This is what Emily was talking about.the things we may not want to see." she trailed off under Gunn's questioning stare. "We're inside Cordelia's memories." she then concluded, reading a few of the words carved in the wall.
After a little while of pondering, Gunn agreed to try one of the handprints.
"Okay." he took a deep breath, fidgeting a little, and then reached to place his hand in one of the carved hands on the wall. "Here we go." he muttered to himself in a shaky breath as he placed his hand into the perfect handprint.
His hand fit perfectly into the form, and at the second his palm touched the cold wall, a bright flash of blue light illuminated the room. Gunn's hand seemed to be sucked into the wall for an instant until he realized that it had only been covered by some sort of sticky green glue that held his hand into the handprint. Fred was blinded by the blue light for a moment and then gasped, seeing what was happening in the center of the room.
The light had emanated from the ceiling, forming a strange blue-ish spotlight on the small round stage they had been looking at earlier. And just as she and Gunn reluctantly looked at it, human forms began to appear. Images. Very familiar images. Progressively, Gunn and Fred saw an image of Cordelia and Wesley take form on the blue stage and they stared in shock at what they saw.
"Oh. My. God." Fred exclaimed, as she watched the scene play out in front of their eyes.
"How do we stop that!?!" Gunn exclaimed, unable to take his hand out of the handprint now. "Please make this stop!" he said in a strangely disgusted way.
"Wait." Fred said, sticking her own hand into another handprint.
At the same instant, Gunn's hand was released and he pulled it to his chest.
"Cordy kissed English??!!" Gunn asked in near disdain.
"huh." Fred seemed at a loss for words, clearly disturbed by the sight of that kiss.
"Okay, that had to be the most horrible kiss in human history.what was with that??!" Gunn exclaimed, shaking his head.
Both he and Fred looked at one another, obviously perturbed by the whole thing.
"No offense to Wesley or Cordy.but that was the most disturbing thing I've seen." Fred mumbled just before another flash of light appeared and her hand became engulfed in the wall, as Gunn's had been earlier.
They both turned to face the stage, this time with a reluctance strongly justified.
Fred's eyes grew wide and her mouth hung open for a few seconds as she stared, speechless.
"I stand corrected." she whispered to herself with raised eyebrows as she stared at the new image of Cordelia that graced them.
"I won't even ask..." Gunn said as he stared, as confused and stunned as Fred.
--
Never in her life had she imaged that she would die this way. This was no way to die. Drowning.
The water was up to her neck and she was struggling to keep herself afloat. On the other side, a frantic Angel had lost his control. Putting on his game face, he savagely began a battle against the glass wall that stood between him and Cordelia.
There was very little time left. He could feel it.
Whatever he tried, nothing worked.
Angel saw Cordelia scream from the inside. He saw her yell something at him but he couldn't make out what it was. Sweat was now rolling down his face as he used every ounce of his vampire strength to break down that wall. He cursed the wall. He cursed Dennis' mother. But mostly, he was cursing himself. The thought of not being able to rescue Cordelia simply felt like he was being staked.
Staked through the heart.
A loud scream of pain escaped Angel's throat and tears rolled down his face as h e saw Cordy's head sink under water. He could see her body still trying to fight off her captive jacket, even as she was drowning. A strong and violent wind began to blow and Angel was shoved away from the glass wall. His back hit the floor and he found himself unable to move back towards the glass. It's like a force was pulling him backwards. Away.
Away from Cordelia.
He yelled at the top of his lungs, the empty veins in his neck remarkably filled with terror and anger, as he never left Cordy out of his sight. She was beginning to run out of oxygen and it was killing him.
The fear on his face was now something he could not hide. He could not mask his horror and dread.
And that's when he heard it.
Like a voice from heaven, it spoke to him. He remembered her words.
"The more scared you get, the more powerful she is."
The voice of a ten-year-old Cordelia Chase rang into the room, making its way through the violent wind and the running water. Angel closed his eyes as he listened to the voice, over and over again. He took deep breaths, even though he didn't need them.
"Beat your fear..face your fear."
The voice then murmured to his ear.
--
"Okay I'm feeling a really unhealthy cycle here." Gunn said as Fred's hand got stuck in the handprint.
Gunn rushed towards her and began to pull on her arm with every ounce of strength in his being.
Fred's hand would still not come out.
Right then, everything became dark. Gunn and Fred froze as they stood there in silence.
"Gunn?" Fred ventured, hesitantly.
"Yeah?" he responded, still holding her arm.
"Just checking." she whispered.
Then, the lights came on again, but only those above the small stage. Gunn and Fred found themselves unable to tear their eyes away from the scene that was displayed before them.
A tall man stood in front of a frail, dark haired woman at the base of a staircase. They were both just staring at one another in silence. At the top of the long staircase, a little girl, no more than 7 years old, eavesdropped on the conversation her parents apparently h ad been having.
Fred and Gunn watched, captivated by what they saw.
"This is none of your business." the man spoke, brushing off his wife.
"It is my business when it comes to our daughter and our marriage. What you do is my business.." The wife argued.
"Shut up." The man shot back through his teeth as he grabbed the woman's hand.
"Let go of me."
The man slapped her face hard and the woman brought her hands to her mouth as to hold back to sound of pain from escaping her throat.
At the top of the stairs, the little dark-haired girl gasped, startled, and the man suddenly looked up to find her there. There was a moment when they both stood still. And then, the father spoke in a commanding tone.
"Cordelia, go to your room!" he ordered, as the little girl's face disappeared from the corridor and she retreated to some place unknown.
The blue light began to fade slowly and Fred's hand was suddenly let go from its handprint. Her arm helplessly fell beside her body while she and Gunn still stared at the stage. With the fading of the lights, the images gradually disappeared, only to leave an empty stage in front of them.
Gunn grabbed Fred's hand as they both stood there speechless. Soon enough, all the lights were turned on again and the large cement door was lifted. Just like that. Magically. It's as if they had both been trapped there for a purpose, and that purpose now filled, they were being let go.
Gunn quickly led Fred out of the door and the both stopped once back in the cave-like corridor. He turned to face her and the expression on their faces was one of complete astonishment.
"That was." Gunn managed to let out, swallowing with difficulty.
"We don't know if that was who we think it was." Fred hesitantly replied.
"How many Cordelia do you know?" Gunn raised an eyebrow. "If it was."
"If it was, then I'm beginning to understand what Emily meant by some things in here we may not be prepared to see." she let out, finishing his sentence.
They both paused for a moment and Gunn looked into her eyes with a reluctant expression on his face.
"You think that really happened?" he decided to ask, even though he didn't really want to know the answer.
Fred simply looked at him and they both lowered their eyes. She didn't need to answer. She couldn't.
Only Cordy could.
They both stood there in silence, back against the wall, processing everything they had just seen.
--
All his life, he'd never been afraid of anything. And as he stood there, he couldn't hide them anymore. He was afraid..of losing her.
beat your fear.face your fear."
"She will play upon your greatest inner feelings." Emily had warned him before they got inside Cordy's head.
The more scared you got, the more powerful she is."
He swallowed back his fear and with a sudden regain of confidence and strength, he threw himself forward. Trying to find that fearless streak inside of him, he gave it his all to save Cordelia. He managed to get through the wind and when his hands found the glass, they went right through, melting in the glass slowly. Angel felt the glacial feel of the glass melting as his hands went right through it.
Once he was deep to his elbow, he closed his eyes, concentrated, and the entire glass wall exploded into millions of tiny pieces.
Angel fell to his knees as the water spread like a flood across the room. He opened his eyes just in time to see Cordelia's body brutally hit the marble floor.
"Cordy!" Angel let out as he pulled himself up and rushed through flood until he reached her.
The water level lowered until there was practically nothing left and Angel threw himself down on the floor beside Cordelia. He grabbed her weak body just as she coughed out mouthfuls of water.
"Breathe.Cordy." he encouraged her as he lifted her up carefully. "That's it.just breathe." he lovingly whispered in her ear.
"An-Angel." she tried to speak but couldn't' get the words out.
Angel quickly untied her and proceeded to take the straight jacket off of her.
"Here, take this off." he said as he helped her out of it and threw the wet piece of clothing on the ground.
She finished spitting the disgusting water she had accidentally swallowed and tried to catch her breath. Angel quickly gathered her into his arms, wrapping himself around her shivering body, whispering into her ear.
"It's okay.shhh..it's okay."
She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, desperately, and tried to hold back her tears, in vain. Her grip was weak but very distressed. She couldn't hold herself up so she let him hold her up into a seating position. She was breathing heavily against his wet sweater when she finally spoke.
"I knew you would come." she whispered against his chest.
Angel buried his face in her wet hair for a moment, unable to answer anything.
Cordy took a deep breath and raised an eyebrow.
"Oh - and I might as well tell you now." she said, breathlessly. ".just for future reference.I plan on being claustrophobic once we get out of here." she said in between in-takes of air.
Angel closed his eyes and held her close. That was typical Cordy and he had never been so thankful for that.
"That's good to know." He whispered against her shoulder as he cradled her into his arms.
On Cordelia's face, it was impossible to see where the water ended and the tears began, but one thing seemed to invade each and every breath she took: relief. The two of them stayed there for a long time, holding one another for dear life.
Never wanting to let go.
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SNEAK PREVIEW OF NEXT CHAPTER: Can Cordelia and Angel escape? The answer will be set in stone...