Title: Chained to Fate
Chapter: 2 - The Art of Being Stealthy
Author: Minnie-May
Distribution: Archive permission granted to: Unnatural, WNW, Bookish, Gifted, Only Death and Destiny, Shippers United. 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 dangerous prophecy is unveiled that seems to center around Connor, who is getting…mean? Sequel of sorts to Cruise Control (D/C, W/F, possibly C/A)
Rating: PG-13
Feedback: Yes please! Send to: sweet_senshi@hotmail.com
Spoilers: Buffy S6 and Angel S3 and parts of S4, since this is slightly AU
Notes: Ok this takes place directly after the events in Cruise Control. You don't have to read that fic to understand this one but they're in the same future time frame so you might wanna give it a read. And review…..^_~
Dedication: To Alea for being the Brats Queen and Kristen for asking when I'd have the next chapter out.

A/N: Sorry this chapter took so long to get out. I'm a slow writer, and I've had school and stuff. Hopefully the next chapter should be out sooner.

Chained to Fate

Chapter Two- The Art of Being Stealthy

Dawn sat apprehensively on the round sofa in the middle of the Hyperion lobby. She had no idea how much time had passed since Connor had disappeared into Wesley's office, shepherded in by the older man wanting to inspect the cuff around his wrist. Since then things had been pretty quiet. Gunn and Fred were in the other room researching. Dawn had tried, briefly, to help them but apparently she put some books in the wrong pile and got everything confused. So Dawn had ended up back in the main lobby, one of Cordelia's many fashion magazines on her lap while she waited for her boyfriend. She wondered idly where Cordy and Angel were, but didn't have long to dwell on it as the door to the office opened and Connor exited.

Connor's right arm, the one holding the ornate cuff, was out to his side at a strange angle as he walked towards her. He was slowly easing it around, obviously trying to work the kinks out of his joints. A loud cracking sounded as he rolled his shoulder and Dawn cringed in spite of herself. Connor stood in front of her, staring down at Dawn cross-legged on the sofa, looking a bit pained.

"Ouch" Dawn commented, nodding her head towards his arm. Connor nodded and rubbed his arm gingerly.

"Wes needed to look at my brac- cuff so I had to kind of lean so that he could see it. And then stay in that position while he studied it and got out his books and everything. After awhile I lost feeling in it" Connor winced then and rubbed at his shoulder. "Feeling's back, needless to say."

Dawn gave him a sympathetic look and rose to her feet to massage his shoulder a bit. But when she reached out her hand to rub his shoulder he pulled back away from her quickly, pulling away from her touch. Dawn gave him a disbelieving look and then tried to cover up the hurt that was showing on her face. It was obvious that the whole situation had Connor totally freaked, it would probably be best to act with caution around him

"So what did Wes find out?" Dawn asked casually, leaning her hand against the couch to steady herself.

"I'm not really sure, he found out something though" Connor remarked, eyes darting towards Angel's office and then back to Dawn. "Most of what he said I didn't understand. It was all research talk to me. But he did have the eureka moment so I'm guessing…" Connor trailed off as Wesley exited the office holding a book with a few papers hastily shoved into it. He looked rather pleased with himself and seemed to have a bit of bounce in his step as he crossed over to the teens.

"So…what cha find brainy guy?" Dawn asked. Wesley merely smiled at her and looked around the lobby, taking in its emptiness.

"Angel and Cordy aren't back yet?" he questioned, avoiding Dawn's previous query.

"Nope, I have no idea what's taking Angel so long. I mean Connor and I were attacked by vampires and then walked home. Angel had the car. What's his excuse?" Dawn snorted, flipping her hair over her shoulder. Wes gave her that very British look that Giles sometimes gave her when he was trying to puzzle out how she worked. Dawn turned and rolled her eyes at Connor, but her boyfriend didn't even notice, he was staring fixedly at his cuff. Dawn rolled her eyes a second time and blew out a puff of breath; this was officially the weirdest night ever. And apparently Connor had been taken over by some moody, non-talking alien.

"Where are Gunn and Fred?" Wesley asked, scanning the lobby for a second time. Dawn turned her eyes toward the records room off to the right and Wesley strode off in that direction. Dawn's eyes followed him until his back disappeared into the room and then she turned back to face Connor.

"Was it just me or was Wes totally avoiding answering my questions?" Dawn asked, hoping that would at least snap him out of his daze. Connor blinked several times as if he had been snapped out of a deep sleep and then looked up at Dawn in confusion.

"Huh?"

"Well aren't you just…fun" Dawn commented, plopping back on the sofa and crossing her arms. Connor once again looked perplexed. His head hurt.

***

"Why does this feel so familiar?" Gunn mumbled as he snuck around the side of the dark house. Wes and Fred were behind him, pressed to the side of the house like people out of a bad spy movie.

"Possibly because we've stolen prophecies out of rich households before?" Wes offered, grabbing Gunn's arm before he stepped out right in front of an armed security guard. "Of course the last house wasn't so well guarded."

"I still think we should have utility belts" Fred muttered behind the two men. They turned simultaneously and gave her a strange look. "What?" Fred demanded, "Batman has one."

Without a word Wes and Gunn turned around and began to talk strategy again. Fred pulled the small scrambler out of the duffel bag swinging at her hip and readied it for usage. They would need the scrambler when they had to get through the electronic locks on the doors to the storage section of the mansion. Unfortunately they were still yards away from the building they needed to break into. Both Wes and Gunn had underestimated the amount of guards that would be posted around the rich mansion exterior and it had taken them an hour to get up over the gate and within seeing distance of their target. Already Fred's legs were beginning to cramp painfully from staying in one position too long. She glared vengefully at her boyfriend; so much for him being 'plan guy'.

"Ok but if we're going we better go now while I can still slightly feel my legs" Gunn remarked as a bit of the two men's conversation floated over to Fred. Thank God she wasn't the only one with aching hamstrings.

"Word" Fred put in. Gunn turned and gave Fred another weird look before turning back to his conversation. Another second more of the silent conference in front of her and her two friends turned back towards her. Both were looking particularly grim, which worried Fred a great deal.

"Fred, hand me the duffel bag" Wesley commanded, reaching out his hand to take the bag. Fred eyed him suspiciously while the pieces began to fall into place. Why would Wes need the duffel bag when she was quite capable of carrying it? She briefly entertained the possibility that it might just be an overprotective boyfriend thing but she really didn't think so. They were planning on leaving her behind.

"Oh no you don't! You're going to leave me here and do the double o seven thing all by yourselves. Well don't think about it mister-misters" she quickly amended, pointing an accusing finger at Gunn as well. "You are not going to leave me behind!" Fred finished her rant, panting slightly and a little red in the face.

"Fred! Keep it down!" Wesley hissed, glancing back and forth swiftly to make sure that none of the guards had noticed them. Still in relative safety Wes had that look on his face that meant that he was going to cave into Fred's demands any minute. Score.

"Fred, listen, this is really dangerous and bringing you would be even more dangerous. We have to get across the lawn to that building before any of the guards see us. And if they do? We have to deal with that" Gunn said, trying to back up Wesley. Darn, so apparently this wasn't just Wes' idea.

"You know I run really fast. Hello, Pylea anyone? Running from the law for five years? Rebel with a very good cause?" Fred asked as if both had completely lost their minds. She hated when the Angel Investigations team babied her. As if she hadn't had to endure a hell dimension for five years. She was tough. She was smart. Fred was woman, hear her-

"Ahh!" Fred yelped as a arrow just narrowly missed her head and imbedded itself into the wall behind her. Wes pushed her to the ground and shielded her with his body, hiding both of them behind some shrubbery. Near where they lay Gunn was doing the same thing, giving Fred a pointed look. If they didn't all die now they could definitely complete this one themselves.

The guards walked over to the bushes, from Fred's vantage point on the ground she could see the tips of their boots. The tips of their really expensive boots, Fred thought to herself as moonlight glimmered off the leather.

"What did you do that for?" one of the guards asked, looking over at his friend as if he were possessed.

"I could have sworn I saw something?" the other guard replied sheepishly.

"Like that time you could have sworn you saw something and hit the boss's cat? 32 stitches in the damn thing's leg and it all came out of our paycheck. OUR paycheck. Remember that the next time you shoot one of those damn arrows whenever you hear a twig break," the first guard said angrily, then stalked off to the other section of the compound.

"It was just a mistake, I didn't hit anything this time!" the second guard protested, trailing along sullenly behind the first.

As soon as the guards were out of sight the three crime fighters turned amateur cat buglers rose from the ground and dusted themselves off.

"You were saying?" Wesley asked Fred, quirking an eyebrow. Fred glared at her boyfriend and shoved the duffel bag into his hands.

"Shut up."

***

Cordy parked her car in the clearing in front of the Hyperion and leaned her head on the steering wheel. Another botched audition. After that damn sunscreen commercial Cordy had decided that acting just wasn't the life for her, that helping the helpless was going to become her focus. But, really, helping the helpless didn't pay the bills. Especially the bill for those new pair of shoes she had picked up down on Hollywood when an impulse shopping spree took hold. And who was she to deny her inner nature to shop?

It was after the electricity in her apartment had turned off and on a couple of times that Cordelia Chase decided that possibly getting a little acting job on the side might not be so bad. To be honest with herself she had never really given up the dream of being rich and famous. Even with everything that had happened on her birthday, Cordy didn't see why she had to give up her dreams up fight the good fight. Cordy wasn't a quitter and she didn't intend to start being one.

"So I had one bad audition? So what? I'm going on another one tomorrow and I'll be sure to get that one. I mean, I love puppies! And puppy chow is good for puppies so it's just good all around" Cordelia reassured herself as she locked up her car and headed towards the front doors of the hotel.

"Well, who doesn't like puppies?" Angel asked, giving her an amused look when she gave a startled yelp and turned around. Angel had pulled up a few seconds after Cordelia and had just been walking over to say hello when he heard her talking to herself, completely unaware of his presence. It was too good an opportunity to pass up.

"Wow, stalker much?" Cordelia quipped as she sauntered towards the front doors, pride badly hurt. Angel probably thought she was a mental case now, as if the glowing and the visions weren't enough to make her grade A weird.

"Sorry" Angel apologized, grabbing the door and holding it open for her. She walked through without giving him a backwards glance and Angel followed her into the hotel. "So the audition didn't go so well?" he asked, tossing the keys to his car on the counter as Cordelia threw the script she was holding into the garbage.

"Well there's always tomorrow's audition. And the day after that's, and the day after that's. Ectera, Ectera, blah, blah, blah" Cordy said dismissively, not feeling half as unmoved as she was coming off. "How was the driving lesson? Is Connor speed racer yet?" Cordelia asked, steering the conversation away from herself.

"Well there was speed…and terror. To be honest I'm still working on repressing the entire thing" Angel replied giving Cordy a big grin, which she returned.

"My driving wasn't that bad!" Connor protested, coming into the room with two bowls of ice cream, nails painted bright pink. Angel's eyes were immediately glued to his son's periwinkle colored nails. Gulp.

"Umm son?" Angel asked, nodding towards Connor's hands. Connor gave a confused look and then glanced down, turning a bright shade of red when he realized what Angel was referring to.

"Hey! That's my nail polish!" Cordelia said indignantly as she strode over to Connor.

"Sorry Cordy, I didn't bring along any of my own so we had to use some of yours" Dawn replied, appearing in the doorway with a bag of popcorn and tiny cotton balls between her pinkly hued toes. "But doesn't it go great with Connor's skin tone?"

Cordy conceded that it did and while the two girls were talking about the improtu movie night that Connor and Dawn had decided to have when the others left, Angel's eyes strayed back to his son. There seemed to be something…off, about him in some way. Something that wasn't immediately noticeable but there all the same. Connor noticed his father's stare and nervously played with the bracelet around his wrist.

"Dawn, first nail polish now jewelry? What are you trying to do to my son?" Angel asked in exasperation.

"It's not jewelry! It's a cuff!" Connor protested, putting down the bowls of melted ice cream that were effectively freezing his hands off.

"What?" Angel asked, confused into silence. The silence permeated the lobby of the hotel for a whole minute before Dawn finally broke the silence.

"Boy do we have a story to tell you."

***

"This is so tight, did I mention how cool Gwen is?" Gunn commented in a hushed whisper as he snuck in behind Wesley through the now open door of their targeted building. As soon as the door was securely closed behind them Wesley flipped on his flashlight, throwing his beam around the room for the prophesy they were looking for. Beside him, Gunn did the same.

"You mean that girl that killed you? I think I do remember you speaking of her, but if I remember correctly 'cool' was not a word you used to describe her" Wesley commented, walking over to a shelf and carefully moving a few dusty objects.

"Ok so we might have gotten off to a bad start but you gotta admit, setting us up with all these super gadgets was really cool of her" Gunn replied, picking up a spherical object that began to glow.

"Gunn! Put that down before you summon a banshee!" Wes called out in clipped tones. Boy was English on edge tonight, Gunn thought to himself, hurriedly replacing the orb.

"Sorry man" Gunn replied, going over to another shelf and gingerly moving things out of the way. There were a few moments when neither man said a word; both totally focused on the task at hand. It seemed it would stay that way until Gunn began talking again.

"I mean she gave us that scrambler thing and those maps, we would have never gotten in otherwise" he remarked, picking up a rolled piece of parchment.

"Yes, it was very kind of her to share her thieving tools with us" Wesley said dryly. There was another stretch of silence as Wesley went back to work and Gunn turned over the parchment in his hands.

"You think I should ask her out?" Gunn finally asked. Wesley turned from his work to face Gunn, trying to hide the amused smile that was dying to play across his face.

"For the love of God, yes. Ask her out. By all means" Wesley said, grinning as Gunn nodded to himself. "And what's that you've got in your hands?" he asked, finally noticing the parchment.

"Oh this? I thought you might know" Gunn commented handing it over. Wesley inspected it by the pale light of his flashlight and frowned slightly, turning it over to view all sides. Gunn stood by, hands in his pockets, waiting for his friend to say something. After several long moments of silence and no indication from Wesley that he was still on planet earth Gunn cleared his throat.

"Something wrong?" Gunn asked, worried by the look on the Englishman's face.

"No, it's nothing. This is the scroll we were looking for" Wesley said, but still looked a bit put off by something.

"That's a good thing right?" Gunn asked.

"Yes, of course."

"Than what's the matter?"

"It's just….rather ridiculous actually. But have you ever gotten a really bad feeling about something?" Wesley asked, then plunged on without waiting for Gunn to answer. "There's just something about this scroll that is giving me-"

"A bad case of the heebee jeebies" Gunn supplied. Wes nodded and placed the scroll into an interior pocket in his jacket. There was no use worrying about meaningless feelings.

"Let's get going" Wesley commented, walking purposefully towards the door. "Fred is waiting for us out there." Gunn nodded quickly and stood behind Wes as he checked to make sure the coast was clear. Wes nodded and Gunn grabbed the door, opening it so that Wesley could sneak out.

"So….do you think Gwen'll say yes?"

***

Lilah Morgan walked into the conference room a few minutes before the other attorneys would be flittering in and looked around. For the first time since taking over Lilah had to admit that she was completely in the dark about the firm's newest project. The extent of her information on this matter was that it was related to Angel's son, Connor, and that if it succeeded it might be able to tip the scales in their favor. For good.

It was the not knowing that was killing Lilah. The way the people in on the secret looked at her, as if knowing one little thing made them superior. Wouldn't they be surprised to know what Lilah knew about them? Adultery, murder, fraud- it was amazing no one had cracked under her rigorous rounds of blackmail. But the senior partners were serious about this one and whatever the senior partners were serious about, everyone else was by default.

Lilah sat in the spot of power at the head of the table, no longer enjoying the view of the seats fanning out around her as if she was a queen. Queens weren't left out in the cold when they wanted to know something, and neither were people that were in the senior partner's favor. Had she failed too many times? Put her trust in the wrong people? Immediately an image of Wesley came to mind but she had it banished before she could even give it a second thought. She was too controlled for this…this nervousness…this waiting. She was Lilah *fucking* Morgan.

The first person to enter the conference room was Gavin, giving her the most infuriating grin. She controlled the urge to trigger a trap door beneath his feet or some worse punishment. It was bad enough not knowing something; it was ever worse that Gavin did.

"Hello Lilah" Gavin said cordially, seating himself next to her. She gave him a distasteful look and rolled her eyes.

"Gavin" she acknowledged as the other attorneys began filling up the room, taking seats and straightening legal pads. To anyone else this would have seemed an innocent enough meeting at any normal law firm. Anyone at Wolfram and Hart, however, would know from the reversed pentagram on the seat at the other end of the table that it was not.

A few words of conjuring and a misty presence occupied the seat directly across from Lilah. The senior partner hadn't taken physical form but that didn't mean that presence still didn't have the power to make Lilah wracked with nerves.

"As you know, we have a new project in Special Projects, a project that all the senior partners want handled with the most care and delicacy." Was it just her or was the mist looking directly at her when it said the last part? Lilah reminded herself that this was not the time to get paranoid and held back any comments about the fact that she was still out of the loop on this particular project.

"Lilah, we hadn't alerted you as to the nature of this project before because of the delicacy of this matter. We know you like to plunge in headfirst. You're a woman of action Lilah and this project consisted of a considerable amount of waiting. But it is finally the time to let you know what's going on. You'll be of the most importance in the next stage" the senior partner told her, it's voice mystical and wispy. Lilah could feel herself on the edge of her seat, like when she was a child and her mother told her an exciting story.

"You see the subject is nearing the next stage. Already he shows signs of the change. When he achieves this next stage Lilah, I want you to be there."

"Of course I will sir" Lilah said, sounding a little too ready, a little too needy. She almost cringed after the words left her mouth and suppressed the urge to backhand Gavin's smiling face. Control, it was all about control.

"Good. I thought you would say that Lilah," the presence said, sounding as pleased as a light mist could sound.

"Just one question though sir" Lilah put in quickly before the mist evaporated without her asking the question she wanted to know most.

"Yes?"

"What does this have to do with Angel's son?"

"Oh…everything."

TBC

A/N: Please, Please, Please leave feedback! It feeds the soul….and the ego.