Title: Sun and Shadow
Section: Sunnydale II
Part: 9/Cordelia
Author: Mickey the Wonder Pup (a.k.a Arashi)
Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer is property of Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. Angel the Series belongs to Joss Whedon, David Greenwalt, and Mutant Enemy.
Distribution: Eh...gonna be stingy this time and say ask first. You can find my email address on my author profile.
Dedication: The normal people, you know who you are.
Rated:
Pairings: Angel/Cordelia, Fred/Gunn, Wesley/Take a Stab At It, Spike/Buffy, Willow/Tara, Xander/Anya, Riley/Harmony
Notes: This is my first crossover, folks. Be warned. This chapter also turned out kinda weird...
Timeframe: Post-Gone for BtVS and post-Dad for Angel.

~*~ Cordelia ~*~

"Ungh...agh...grrrrr..."
"C'mon, pet, jus' a little farther..."
"Agh! I...I can't..."
"Yes you can, Cordy. Here."
"Ack! I'm gonna lose it!"
"Ow!"
"Oomph! Get your foot out of my stomach!"
"Moof yur arrm..."
"What was that?"
"Moof yur bluh'y arrhm!"
"'Move your bloody arm!'"
"Thanks, Angel."
Spike, Cordelia, and Angel all untangled themselves from one another. Unfortunately, they were victims of another Twister game gone awry. Cordelia's foot had slipped on the mat, and she'd fallen on her boyfriend and boy friend.
"Sorry guys," she apologized sheepishly. "I told you I was gonna fall."
"If Peaches 'ad moved 'is fat leg, maybe you'd've gotten there," Spike grinned wolfishly at his two companions and got smacked in the back of the head by Angel. "Ow."
"Yes, Peaches this, Poofter that," Angel rose and stretched, then helped his girlfriend up, stealing a kiss. "Well, I'm gonna go visit with Buffy, see what she and the rest of her friends are up too. Chances are she's patrolling, but I'm checking the house and the Magic Box first." He shrugged at Spike. "I'll see you around."
"Bye, Poofter," Spike waved. Then he turned to Cordelia, once Angel had left. "What'd he want me to do?"
Cordelia rubbed her temples, grabbing her jacket from off of the chair. "He wants you to go check the cemeteries and see if she's patrolling."
"Ooooooh," Spike nodded. Cordelia shoved his duster at him. "'ey..."
"Go. Leave," Cordelia propelled him out of the door.
"All righ', all righ', I'm going..." Spike shrugged his duster on and set off for the graveyards.
Cordelia sighed and gave Spike's crypt one last, sparing glance and set off her own direction.

Buffy stepped over the condensed remains of a particularly stupid young fledgling and continued her slow trot through the cemeteries. Her Slayer Sense tingled slightly in the back of her head, and she knew a vampire or demon was nearby--hence the Slayer Sense alarm--but she didn't know from where. "Marco!" she called.
The vampire jumped out at her from behind a nearby bush.
Buffy grabbed the vamp by the collar and rolled with it, stradling its waist. "You know, you're supposed to yell 'Polo!' so I can chase you," she informed the ignorant vampire. "But since you cheated, I have to do my job. I hope it was worth it," and she staked the vampire. She rose, dusting off her pants, and continued her lonely walk.
Again, the Slayer Sense went off. "God, what's wrong with all these vamps tonight?" she muttered under her breath. She whirled around, stake poised, as the vampire approached her.
He jumped back. "Whoa, Slayer, didn't come 'ere to go after you."
Buffy sighed and dropped her staking arm. "What do you want, Spike."
"Jus' thought, perhaps, maybe, you'd like a li'l company tonight," he suggested, trying not to sound lewd.
Buffy took it the wrong way. "No. I'm fine by myself tonight."
"I meant...I meant patrollin'," Spike motioned to the grass meekly. He couldn't believe he was doing this. But he and Angel had had a Talk earlier...
"Spike, what have you been doing to push her away?"
"I haven' done anything to push her away."
"Well, what do you say to her?"
Spike then told Angel a few of the tamer comments he'd made to Buffy. Angel had sighed then. "What?"
"With Buffy, it's complicated. But you don't talk to her like that. That makes her stay away. Just...try being nicer. Like, instead of making a lewd comment, ask, 'Do you mind if I join you on patrol?' or 'Need a friend?'. Not, 'Hey, let's roll in the hay together' or 'I know you can't stay away.'"
"I have more tact than that, Peaches."
"Doesn't sound like it."
Then Cordelia had joined them for a game of Twister. "Listen, Slayer, I'm tryin' to be nice here. I promise I won't try anything."
Buffy narrowed her eyes, "You better not."
She started to walk away, and she'd gotten about five feet away before Spike realized he'd better join her. "So...any big nasties lately?"
"Just my job," Buffy answered.
Spike laughed lightly, "What's so bad abou' it?"
Buffy gave him an incredulous look. "It's fast food. DoubleMeat Palace. Yuck."
"I'm more of a Burger King fan myself," Spike nodded. "I've eaten at the DoubleMea' though, a coupla times, when I wanted somethin' warm."
Buffy just stared at him, falling silent. There was something about him that looked different since he came back from Los Angeles. He was more...he seemed more confident, if that was possible. And he seemed more flexible. He'd changed in LA. Someone, or something, had done this to him. But what? Done what to him? Made him more...human? More human, but more vampire...
She decided to ask. "Spike, did you meet someone in LA?"
"I met lotsa people in LA," he replied, not catching the subtext on 'someone'.
"No, I mean, did you meet someone in LA," Buffy persisted, stressing the phrase.
Spike shook his head. "No. I didn'. Why do you ask? Are you j--" he stopped himself, and the smirk creeping onto his features. "Are you just curious?"
"Well, you just seem...different," Buffy shrugged. A vampire jumped out at her again, and she raised her stake, resulting in the female vampire skewering herself on the wood.
"Different? Different how?" Spike asked, mildly curious.
"I don't know, you're just...human...but...more vampire," Buffy sighed. "It's hard to explain. It's almost like if I put my hand on your chest," she did so, right over his heart, "I'd expect it to be beating. But at the same time, it's like...it's like I'd expect you to drain me dry, but I know you--" she stopped, realizing she hadn't moved her hand and Spike was staring at her curiously. Something sparked in his ice blue eyes, something that made her impulses go haywire and totally wreck her wall of willpower.
So she did what her impulses told her too as she flexed her hand on his cool flesh. She stood taller and kissed him.

Angel rounded the corner around a tree and was about to call Buffy's name when he saw her and Spike making out in the grass. He just chuckled to himself and walked back to his car.

Cordelia joined Dawn, Willow, Tara, Xander, and Anya at a table in the Bronze and tried to break the unnerving silence. After a few tries, however, she gave up, finding it futile to try. The tension between Xander and Anya's quiet arguing and the unspoken words hanging in the air between Willow and Tara, no one would even try to listen to Cordelia as she attempted conversation about mundane things. Dawn was watching Tara and Willow strangely, almost as if she was waiting for something to happen.
Dawn perked up at the song that suddenly came blaring from the speakers of the club. "Hey! Willow, Tara, why don't you two go out and dance! Xander and Anya and Cordy and I will all join you in a couple minutes. I want a drink and...and..." her eyes pleaded with Cordelia for help.
"I need to ask Xander and Anya's help in planning something for LA," Cordelia blurted. Willow and Tara exchanged looks and shrugged.
"A-all right..." Tara agreed, scooting out of the booth along with Willow and heading out on the dance floor.
Dawn sighed in relief. "I've been trying to get them out there all night!"
Cordelia smiled, "They're...cute together."
"Yeah, they are. Thanks, Cordy. I don't know how I'll repay you," Dawn sighed again. "They've been apart for too long."
Suddenly, Cordelia felt a blinding pain engulf her mind and slammed her forehead down on the table, biting her lip till it bled.
Buffy whirled, stake in hand, and suddenly, a large, six-horned, twelve-eyed, three-armed demon grabbed her. Spike was thrown to the side and into a tree, where he burst into dust.
Cordelia finally opened her mouth, panting as her lungs screamed for oxygen. Dawn, Xander, and Anya looked at her oddly. "Cordy?" Xander asked. "Cordy, are you all right?"
"It's a...it's a vision," she said as loud as she could manage. "Water...water, please..."
Xander caught a waitress's arm, asking her for a glass of water, and turning back to his ex-girlfriend. He traded places with Dawn, concerned for the twenty-one-year-old woman. He rubbed her back soothingly as Anya tried not to seethe. "Here, here's your water," he took the water from the waitress and handed it to Cordelia's shaking hands. He rubbed her back as she drank it. "Better?"
Cordelia nodded, "Yeah. Better. Thank you, Xander."
"What was in your vision?" Dawn tilted her head to the side, curious.
"Nothing you guys need to be concerned about. Angel should be here in a few minutes, and I'll tell him. We still have some time," Cordelia took another gulp of the water and dug in her purse for a bottle of aspirin, coming up empty-handed. She looked at Anya imploringly, "You don't happen to have any aspirin, would you?"
"I don't think so," but Anya checked in her purse anyway. She found a bottle of Tylenol and set it on the table. "Will that help?"
"Maybe," Cordelia emptied some out in her hand and swallowed them dry. "Thanks."
Angel joined them then. "Hey guys, what's--"
"I need to talk to you," Cordelia motioned for Xander and Angel to get out of the booth so she could get out as well. Xander sat back down as Cordelia dragged him away, accidentally bumping Tara into Willow. That caused the two Wiccans to stare at each other for a moment before shrugging and dancing together, instead of two feet apart.
Cordelia explained what the vision told her and jumped into Angel's car with him outside of the Bronze. "What? I just saw them!" Angel frowned, starting up the convertible and pulling out of the parking lot. "I just saw them. They're making out."
"Well it looks like their date is about to be broken up by a six-horned, twelve-eyed, three-armed demon," Cordy answered. "And a couple of demon-fighting detectives."
Angel shook his head and smiled, tossing an arm around the girl of his dreams.

They arrived at the cemetery in record time. Angel and Cordelia sprang from the vehicle, he getting an axe and a broadsword from the trunk of the car, handing one of them to Cordelia, and then leading her to the clearing where he'd last seen Spike and Buffy. They arrived to find Spike and Buffy gone. Cordy frowned and looked up at Angel. "Are you sure this is where you left them?"
"Maybe they went back to his crypt..." Angel suggested, trailing off with a frown to match Cordelia's. He hurried towards Spike's crypt, more worried about hid grand-childe than he was about the Slayer.
"In which case they should be fine," Cordelia told him, stretching her legs to keep up with Angel's considerably longer strides.
"We'll just sit guard by the door for an hour or so and if nothing comes we'll leave," he replied. Cordelia just sighed. It only took them a few more minutes to reach Spike's crypt, where Cordelia stopped a few feet from the door. Angel kept walking for a couple of feet before he realized Cordelia wasn't beside him. He raised an eyebrow, "What's a matter?"
"Okay. Angel, I will follow you to the ends of the world, but I will not go into the crypt and see if those two are playing Hide the Salami," Cordelia told him.
Angel sighed, "All right. You wait here and I'll check." He approached the door quietly, slowly edging open just enough for him to press his ear to a crack to listen for noises of the mattress mambo. Satisfied that they were, he closed the door and turned to tell Cordelia to sit down by the door.
Or, he would have, if Cordelia still stood where he left her.
"Cordy?" he called, frowning. "Cordy? Cordelia?! Cordelia!"
Angel took off, running around the cemetery, calling out his love's name, only to come up empty-handed. Angel's mind raced franctically, only barely processing the thought that he needed to tell someone. His feet started towards Spike's crypt, knowing that Buffy and Spike should be told that Cordelia had been kidnapped. They may know someone who would have the means and motive to take one of the Scoobies.
He threw the crypt door open. "Spike!" he yelled. "Buffy! Spike!"
The noises below suddenly halted. Spike let loose an impressive string of British curses, some even Angel couldn't identify, and surfaced. "Wha' the bloody 'ell do you want, Peaches? I'm kinda busy!"
"Cordy's missing," Angel said.
"Did you try the mall?" Spike asked, raising his eyebrows lazily.
"No, listen, Spike. She and I came over here because she had a vision and I wanted to help you guys out with the six-horned, twelve-eyed, three-armed demon that's supposed to kill you and I turned around and she was gone!" Angel panicked.
Spike heaved a great, burdened sigh and went back underground, surfacing with Buffy in tow. Buffy glared at Angel, "Tell anyone you saw me here..."
"And she'll stake you," Spike finished, fishing a shirt out of the pile of clothing in the corner. He tossed Buffy her shirt and held up the sheet she'd brought with her so she could change in modesty. Not that she had anything either vampire hadn't seen before. "So...Scooby meeting?"
Buffy nodded, "Scooby meeting."
Angel followed Buffy and Spike out of the crypt and hopped into his convertible, igniting the engine. Spike and Buffy pulled out onto the road in his DeSoto, and then led him to the Magic Box. Spike then dropped off Buffy there and drove to the Bronze, where Angel had said he'd last seen the rest of the gang.

Within forty-five minutes, the Scooby gang had assembled in the Magic Box and been told the story of Cordelia's kidnapping, leaving out the part that Buffy was at Spike's crypt. Then they formed into groups of two, with one three-legged group. Xander and Willow paired up, then Tara and Anya, then Buffy and Spike, with Angel leftover. Angel teamed himself up with Tara and Anya's group, seeing a weakness there with Tara's less than glorious magical prowess. "All right," Buffy announced. "Spike and I will go Warren, Andrew, and Jonathan's old lair and see if we can find any clues. Angel, Tara, and Anya will go to the bad side of town and search around there, and Xander and Anya will search the suburbs and stuff. Let's go!"
And they each went their separate ways.

Cordelia sat tied to a kitchen table chair with seisel rope binding her limbs together. She couldn't see anything because of the bandana tied around her eyes and she couldn't talk because of the gag tied around her mouth. Or was it tape? It tasted like cloth, but her lips were stiff. So maybe it was a gag and tape. Her kidnappers must be professionals...
"Ow! Don't hit me with that!"
Cordelia recognized that voice.
"Rahmafim?"
Which translated into: "Jonathan?"
The noises in the background stopped. Then an obviously fake, deep voice said, "Who's Jonathan?"
Cordelia groaned. She'd been kidnapped by Jonathan. Great.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well? How'd you like it? It's my first chapter in a while, and hopefully not the last for a while again. I know there's a lot of long-winded sentences in there, but I'm a little rusty, and the ideas are conveyed well enough I suppose. Hey look there's another one of those sentences...but anyway, lemme know what you thought...did it need more, did it need less...shorter sentences...whatever...C&C appreciated...