Title: Untold Feelings
Chapter: 3 – Battle
Author: Minnie-May
Distribution: Archive permission granted to: WNW, Bookish, Gifted. All others please ask.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters of Angel (not even Wesley ;_;) they are all owned by Joss Whedon and the fine folks of Mutant Enemy…..lucky….
Summary: A new demon forces the AI team to deal with their feelings for each other (W/F, C/A, slight G/F)
Rating: PG-13
Feedback: Yes please! Send to: sweet_senshi@hotmail.com
Notes: This takes place sometime after Billy in Season three of Angel. The events with Darla and Connor have not taken place yet.
UNTOLD FEELINGS
Chapter Three- BATTLE
"OUCH!" The first thing Gunn did when they appeared in whatever dimension they now inhabited was swing blindly, hoping to get whatever it was that had sent them there. Unfortunately his fist had connected, but it wasn't with any demon, it was with Wesley.
"What the bloody hell was that for?" Wesley asked in aggravation, directing the question to where he thought Gunn would be standing. Everything was pitch black and he couldn't even make out the outlines of his friends.
"Sorry about that English, got a little jumpy" Gunn apologized, looking around at the thick darkness around him for some sign of the Englishman he had previously hit.
"Fred? Are you there?" Wesley asked gently, wishing for all the world that he could see to make sure that Fred was ok. Maybe she was still back at the Hyperion, it was a blind hope but it was something.
"Umm yea, wherever there is. Or would it be here?" Fred asked and Wesley smiled. Well Fred was certainly still with them, which was both good and bad. Good because now he wouldn't have to worry about whether she had made it and bad because it would probably have been a lot safer to just get left behind at the hotel.
"I'm pretty sure it's 'here'" Wesley commented, towards Fred.
"Ok enough with the hooked oh phonics, where are we?" Gunn asked, staring around in the pitch darkness. He still couldn't see anything, his eyes had fully adjusted to the lack of light and he still couldn't see an inch in front of him.
"I'm pretty sure the demon pulled us into an alternate dimension of some sort…apparently the sort without light" Wesley murmured, taking a few cautious steps in the direction of Gunn's voice.
"You mean the makeup demon?" Gunn asked, listening to the sounds of Wesley moving blindly in the dark.
"That would be the Marekiora demon, and yes, that would be the one" Wesley said, trying not to let the hint of aggravation into his voice as he spoke. It was bad enough being trapped in another dimension without light by a demon that wanted to suck the life out of you without having to listen to Gunn refer to it as 'the make up demon'.
Wesley inched forward another couple inches when he suddenly felt some kind of presence on his left. He turned quickly, ready to defend himself and somehow managed to trip and fall over. It was that moment that the lights decided to blare on, showing Wesley sprawled on top of Fred, and Gunn standing approximately two inches from the two of them. Wesley blinked to adjust his eyes to the bright light and looked at Fred underneath him. She gave him a faint, embarrassed smile, which was about the time he realized he was still on top of her.
"Very sorry" Wesley mumbled as he jumped back up. He turned to see Gunn glaring at him like he had somehow planned that. Fred got up and dusted herself off, looking around them at the scarce scenery as she spoke.
"That's ok. At first I thought you were the demon so I thought I was really done for so I guess it was good in a way because it wasn't the demon and I'm still alive- and babbling incoherently. I wish someone would tell me when I was doing that," Fred said blushing as she turned to the two men, who were also staring around themselves.
"Your babbling's cute" Gunn said to Fred, then turned and addressed Wesley. "Not much here is there?"
As Gunn said, the area surrounding them was similar on all sides. Some trees seemed to dot the perimeter but nothing really out of the ordinary. The three were standing on a soft carpet of grass that continued on and on in all directions as far as any of them could see. The sky above was light blue and bright although there was no visible sun anywhere. They could have been anywhere. Granted, a sunless anywhere, but that only narrowed things down by so much.
"No there certainly isn't" Wesley commented, looking around the place to see if there were any possible weapons they could use to defend themselves with. 'We could always break off tree branches' Wes thought to himself, hoping that there wouldn't be an opportunity to do so. Which was when he noticed the two axes, stuck at odd angles in the grassy growth beneath their feet. "Well that's convenient, here are the axes you had on the table" Wesley announced, pulling them out of the earth and handing one to Gunn.
"Yea I sorta grabbed them when I felt that thing sucking me in-" at this Fred shuddered and wrapped her arms around herself.
"Actually that doesn't make sense though does it? I mean that thing that pulled us in here wasn't what we saw in that book of yours Wesley. The thing in the books was all "grr" and evilly and that thing that pulled us in here was kinda like-" Fred trailed off.
"A big, black blobbly thing?" Gunn put in helpfully. Fred nodded enthusiastically and waited for Wesley to explain.
"Well the demon doesn't actually do the capturing itself. It opens up these dimensional riffs that also have a homing beacon of sorts built in. It'll hone into anything that would be good fodder for the demon and pull it into the riff" Wesley explained as best he knew how.
"So we're 'demon fodder' now? Who else is not liking that idea?" Gunn mumbled, turning the axe in his hand.
"I'm sure it'll be fine" Fred put in. Both Wesley and Gunn turned their heads to face Fred and gave her disbelieving looks. "Well ok not *that * fine but I mean as long as we're just here in this big 'ol grassy field I don't see what we're getting so worked up about. I mean there must be someway back, we just have to figure it out" Fred said, quickly trying to explain herself so that she made sense. She saw the look of understanding pass over Wesley's face and contained a smile that he understood what she was talking about. Gunn shrugged and turned around to scan the perimeter.
"Hey Fred, you know how you said it would be ok just as long as we're here alone?" Gunn asked, his eyes never leaving the point on the perimeter that he had been checking.
"Yea?" Fred asked, suddenly feeling a knot of worry form in her stomach. She really did not like the tone of Gunn's voice.
"Well I don't think we're alone anymore" Gunn said, turning around and pointing to an army of short little demons that were making their way towards them from across the field.
"Oh" Fred said quietly, "well then maybe I take back that 'fine' thing."
****
"Oh my God, what are those little things? They're like those creepy little hobbits from Lord of the Rings" Cordelia said, jumping behind Angel as soon as the demons came into sight.
"You read Tolken?" Angel asked incredulously, while scanning the area for something that could possibly pass off for a weapon.
"Who? I saw the movie, remember the one with that little Frodo person? Gunn fell asleep and kept snoring and Wesley kept waking him up? Weren't you there?" Cordelia asked, glancing at Angel as he strode over to one of the trees nearby and broke off a huge branch, testing it to see if it would make a good weapon.
"I must have been in Thailand…" Angel trailed off, suddenly reminded of the reason he had spent the summer in another country, trying to work out his feelings. But it didn't matter about that now, all that mattered was that he and Cordy got out of this one alive. He broke off another branch from the tree, this one considerably smaller, and handed it to Cordelia.
"Oh yea, that's right. Sorry, must have forgotten about that. I'm so used to having you around and all. Although speaking of Buffy, it really wouldn't hurt to have her around at the moment" Cordelia said, watching as the little gremlin looking things gained on them.
Minutes later there were dozens of the small creatures attacking from all sides. Angel swung the heavy branch like a baseball bat and hit two of the creatures, knocking them into the ones behind them and creating a mini domino effect. Cordelia, surprisingly, was getting some good hits in too. A small creature charged towards her, sharp claws at the ready, and Cordelia smashed the bat into it's face, sending it spiraling backwards. Another one came right on it's heels and Cordelia was ready for that one to, turning slightly and bunting it out of her way. Angel bashed into three more, sending them stumbling back into the crowd and turned to look over at Cordelia.
"Your surprisingly good at this" Angel commented, grunting slightly from the effort of throwing a gremlin that had almost latched onto Cordelia.
"Well you know I played softball in middle school. Of course it was more of a popularity thing and we never really won any games, but I did learn how to swing" and as if to accentuate her point she bashed another demon thing.
Angel could see that Cordelia was wearing down fast though; her swings were getting less and less forceful and the demons were getting closer and closer. 'We're going to need to retreat' Angel thought, scanning the area for somewhere they could hide and possibly rest. His eyes came to rest upon the trunk of a huge tree that had fallen over. He knew that it wasn't the best hiding place available but it was the only one that he saw within running distance.
Grabbing Cordelia's elbow he used his other arm to pull back the branch and smash it into the nearest demon. The little creature went flying back, knocking into a row of them behind him and clearing a small path for Cordelia and Angel to escape through. As soon as they had escaped the circle of demons they sprinted towards the fallen trunk. Cordelia was running with all of her energy, her lungs struggling to pull in air. Her legs were burning and the world around her was getting fuzzy, but she still felt as if Angel was pulling her along. Angel put his hand on the trunk and vaulted over like someone from the Olympics. Cordelia glared at the spot where he had disappeared over the fallen tree, wishing she could catch her breath to make a scathing remark. He quickly reappeared at the top of the trunk and yanked Cordy up just as the creatures caught up to them. They stood at the base of the trunk, hissing as the two disappeared over the other side.
"We don't have long" Angel announced once they had dropped to the other side. Cordelia was leaning heavily against the trunk and taking in deep breaths, sucking air into her lungs. Angel, obviously, didn't have to worry about air and began looking around to see how long it would take the creatures to get to this side of the trunk. "It won't take long for them get over here" Angel commented, scanning the area.
"I can't believe this. Why did this happen?" Cordelia asked, shaking her head slightly as Angel broke another branch off the trunk and moved it to his other hand.
"Maybe it has something to do with that demon that we're researching, the one that opens portals?" Angel suggested, trying to get his balance with both weapons.
"Great, I can't believe it. Do I have some kind of sign on my back that says 'suck me through a portal'? Because you'd tell me wouldn't you?" Cordelia asked in aggravation, cupping her cheek in her hand and watching Angel pace. She still hadn't moved from her sitting position against the trunk but her eyes followed Angel as he moved.
"Well the last time it didn't get me too" Angel put in, turning to look at Cordelia. "I won't let anything happen to you."
"Did you notice the creature feature out there Angel? I'm not sure 'let' is an option" Cordelia remarked as the sound of hissing and growling became a little louder. Angel dropped himself into a sitting position beside Cordelia and leaned against the tree.
"Cordy…there's something…" Angel trailed off, losing steam. 'I should tell her I have feelings for her' Angel thought to himself, noticing the way that Cordy had turned her head to the side slightly as she listened. 'I mean it's life or death here' Angel was coaching himself and he was slowly feeling some bravery begin to surface.
"Cordy I have to tell you that I-" Angel began again, but again trailed off as he stared at Cordelia.
"Angel, what is it?" Cordelia asked, a note of worry entering her voice. "You can tell me."
The more Angel stared at Cordelia the harder it became to think clearly. This was CORDELIA. The same girl that had pulled him along into her car when he had been seeing Buffy. The same girl that had been so blunt about everything; who spent all of her time on some little popularity contest no one would ever win. The same Cordelia who had, for the last two years, been his best friend. Angel shook his head as he stared at Cordelia and then smiled. 'This is too weird' he thought to himself, getting to a standing position and brushing off.
"Errr Angel? Did I miss something?" Cordelia asked, as Angel pulled her to her feet. Angel shook his head and handed her back the branch she had been using.
"If we get out of this remind me to tell you something" Angel commented, training his eyes on the top of the trunk.
"What? What? What? Tell me now!" Cordelia pouted, hitting Angel lightly on the arm. "You know how impatient I am!"
"I know, I just think it's a discussion that shouldn't be…rushed into" Angel said, becoming more alert as he heard strange sounds coming from the other side of their barricade.
Suddenly the tree in front of them disintegrated, showing the pack of monsters waiting for them had grown. Behind the small gremlin-like creatures Angel and Cordy had originally been battling there were five or six taller, meaner looking demons. One of them hissed at the two, showing rows upon rows of razor sharp teeth. Cordelia's eyes widened as she looked over at Angel, who lifted both of his branches, readying himself for the attack.
"I can't believe this" she muttered.
****
TBC
