Spoilers: Post "Waiting In the Wings".. right after Groo arrives. Everything after that? Didn't happen.
For the Buffy characters, besides the ones in the past (season 2), it's right before the episode "Dead Things".
Rating: R.
Distribution: Ask me. I'd probably be flattered. :P
Disclaimer: Joss, Mutant Enemy, Greenwolf, and UPN own the shows and it's characters.. all that jazz.
Summary: Angel Investigations is lead to investigate a strange vision; Cordy and Angel are inadvertently effected.
Feedback: Awww!! Thanks for all the feedback so far! It'd be great to hear what more of what you think as the story progresses.
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---Sunnydale High School Cafeteria | 1998---
Cordelia exited the lunch line after paying, only to have a near run-in with a grinning football player. She halted after trying to move past him with no success, and waited impatiently for him to say whatever he was going to say.
Brad: "Cordelia! I've always seen you around school and stuff.. but we never really talked. It-- It was like-- all this time, I've been wondering.. where have you been all my life?"
Cordelia: "Out of your league."
She replied without mustering any gusto, and finally managed to loose him with a fake to the right and a spin to the left. She sought out the Scoobies' table and sat with a rehearsed smile.
Cordelia: "So! Any news on the pea people yet?"
Buffy: "Pea people?"
Xander: "Pea-- oh peapods. You mean--"
Buffy: "The peapod people? Who are the--"
Cordelia: "What are you--"
Xander: "She meant the pod people."
Buffy: "Oh."
Cordelia: "Right."
They sat motionless for a while, going over the conversation in their head.
Cordelia: "Well?"
Oz came and sat next to Willow, exchanging the usual couple-like gestures.
Oz: "Hey."
Xander: "Hey. So, how goes it?"
Oz: "It goes. Sorry about.. you know.. this morning."
He looks over to Cordelia to make sure she gets an apology too.
Xander: "No problem."
...
Xander: "What happened this morning??"
Oz: "..you know.. you and Cordelia."
....
Oz: "..making out in the library..."
Cordelia: "What?!"
Xander: "We.. didn't.. do that."
Cordelia: "We are over."
Oz: "Oh.. then.. sorry Cordelia."
Cordelia: "Huh?"
Oz: "About walking in on you.. with your guy.."
Cordelia: "I don't have a guy. What guy?"
Her forehead creases as she puts the puzzle together in her mind.
Cordelia: "It must've been the pea people!"
A sudden bang of loud noises, pots and pans no doubt, emit from the kitchen. A shrill yelp follows, and the superfriends march dutifully and discreetly toward it.
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---Angel's Apartment | 1998---
Angel and Cordelia sit across from each other, with the coffee table in between them. It's strewn with miscellaneous ancient texts, in a variety of different languages. They diverted their eyes from each other and sat silently for a while, after finding what they were looking for all day.
Cordelia: "So."
Angel: "So."
She brings herself to look him in the eye.
Cordelia: "I guess this means you were meant to be here."
Angel reciprocates the eye contact, and doesn't break it.
Angel: "Just because there's nothing we can do about it, doesn't mean it was meant to be."
Cordelia diverts her eyes again, pretending that there was something terribly fascinating in the nearby Demon manual.
Cordelia: "Still... we can do whatever we want in this reality, right?"
She smiles brightly and looks at him, removing whatever intensity was there before. Angel is relieved at the sight of her grin, and the corner of his lips curl up shyly.
Cordelia: "Really.. because all this sexual tension you were piling on me was very distracting. You can go be with Buffy now."
The curl evaporates, and she continues to babble.
Cordelia: "I mean.. because.. you had all those fresh teenage hormones.. and I seriously didn't appreciate being around that. Really.. thank God you get to.. you know.. relieve them."
Her cheeks crimson, and his mind shoots a million thoughts a minute.
Cordelia: "Not that Buffy is just a.. well.. you know.. she is the love of your life and all.. and you want to.. and you guys are.."
Angel: "I-- I can't do this. I can't go off la la la-ing with Buffy while Conner's stuck in the future, without a father and a mothe-- and-- and we still have our mission. I didn't earn my shanshu yet, Cordy."
Cordelia: "La la la-ing.. is that what they call it these days?"
She smiled lightly, and then sighed.
Cordelia: "Who's to say you haven't earned it yet, Angel? You've saved the world plenty of times, and you could do it better this time around if you want. With Buffy. Conner's safe with our family, who we still could be with in this dimension. We'll just rewrite it, that's all. A new history."
Angel: "..and what about the old history? The Wesley, Gunn, and Fred we knew?"
Cordelia: "We could still have them.. we could even... Doyle."
Angel's eyes fell out of Cordelia's view once more.
Cordelia: "Doyle. We can save Doyle."
Angel: "You can be with Doyle."
Cordelia glanced away in the same vein as Angel's aversion, just as he looks toward her.
Angel: "Or Groo."
He roughly swallows a sigh.
Angel: "So we have a plan, then. For the future. Do it all better this time."
Cordelia: "Right."
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---Hyperion Hotel | 2002---
Willow: "So Spike.. he might get his soul back?"
Wesley: "Well I honestly don't know, Willow. He'll indefinitely become human, but the text isn't clear on whether... whether is soul is renewed as well. Even if it is, his present self didn't have to begin with.. and I.. I just don't know."
Xander: "Even if he's human... if he's still evil there's no telling what he'd do. Without the chip.. well.. he'd just do it the old fashioned way. Forget fangs, he could work with anything."
Anya: "Heh.. not if Buffy's there. That fellow's neutered in more ways than the one."
Xander: "I'd doubt that... but I'm sure it's fine. Buffy will still be a slayer, right?"
Fred: "That's the theory."
Groo: "Why would you join with a beast, initially? Are you not the warriors of good? Summoned to kill all things evil?"
Xander: "That's the theory."
Gunn: "Conan's actually got a point. Chip or not, you shouldn't be trusting him in the first place."
Xander: "Ya know.. that's what I've been saying! Vampire. Vampire slayer. It's a very simp--"
Willow: "Come on Xander, he helps out. He doesn't hurt any--"
Xander: "Point is.. he has no soul. Anything he does is steered by evil."
Anya: "The love isn't."
Xander: "What?"
Anya: "I don't know.. Spike's just weird."
Willow: "You got a point, there. He is weird. Just weird."
Gunn: "What we be thinking about is whether or not they'd be in the same dimension and time Angel and Cordelia were sent to.."
Wesley: "I'd um.. assume so.. the god feeds on second chances.. with Buffy there.. with Angel.. well.. it's all very confusing. If they were sent to a recent enough time, which I'd wager based on the patterns of the god, there could very well be two Buffys, Angels, Cordelias, and Spikes."
Anya: "Kinky."
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---Sunnydale High School Cafeteria Kitchen | 1998---
Buffy: "God Spike, you scream like a girl."
Spike: "What was I supposed to do? I nearly landed on the knife set."
Spike pushed himself off the table, and Buffy looked away instinctively. She saw some cook aprons hanging off hooks on the wall, and headed over to get them.
Spike: "So what now? Where are we? He must've had some sort of teleporta--"
The superfriends pushed through the double doors, Buffy '98 leading. Suffice to say, she stopped in her tracks.
Xander: "What the blimey's going on here?"
Willow: "They must be clones too!"
Xander: "Then who's the guy--"
Buffy '98 fainted on the spot.
Spike: "Don't worry mate, I've always had that kind of effect of her."
Xander: "Sp-- Spike?!"
Buffy grabbed an apron and tossed it roughly at Spike, then got one for herself.
Spike: "Right then. Wouldn't want to endanger the others in swooning.. and what do you mean clones?"
Buffy: "Wasn't that the bot?"
Cordelia: "Oh my god, there are robots now? Are there vampire robots too?"
Buffy: "Cordelia, what are you doing he-- where are we?"
Xander: "The great Sunnydale High kitchen. Technically though, you're in another dimension."
He wiggles his fingers at them.
Willow: "Don't do that! Freaks me out."
He stops.
Spike: "In another dimension, you're still in high school? I mean, makes sense for Xander and all but--"
Xander: "Hey! I reckon I could take you down as a human. Evil or not."
Spike: "Hum-- Bloody hell!"
He takes a deep breath in.
Spike: "He made me human!"
Cordelia: "You were an evil vampire? Then what were you doing with Buffy? Naked?!"
Spike: "Oh no, we weren't doing the naked thing this time."
Buffy: "Spike!"
Xander: "We really need Giles right now. Like.. really."
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---Sunnydale High Library Front Doors | 1998---
Buffy and Spike walks two feet behind the group, with Buffy '98 (now conscious) glad to be far ahead in the front. They reach the door and enter the library.
Giles: "I suppose there'd be no need to investigate. There no real reason to suspect anything mystically deviant here. You seem trustworthy enough."
He smiles at the pair, and then they all move their glances to the sound of the double doors swinging open.
Angel: "Buffy."
He stands up to see her, then sees the rest of the group following.
Cordelia: "..and Buffy??"
Spike: "..and Spike."
Spike notes his own presence with a lack of his usual cockney, and a distant look in his eyes.
Giles: "Are these more travelers?"
The librarian creases his forehead and glowers apprehensively toward Spike.
Willow: "We were going to ask you that. Oh, and don't worry about him.. he's human too."
Angel: "Do.. do you have your soul?"
Spike's eyes drop toward the floor, darting without focus and tears welled in the corners. He sits, eyes still facing downward, and he doesn't answer.
Cordelia: "If Spike's here then.. maybe this isn't the shanshu. I mean.. it doesn't make sense. Is it his destiny too? Why would you go back to 1998, Spike?"
Buffy '98: "Back to 1998? I thought you guys were.. were just from another dimension.. but.. you're from the future?"
Buffy: "Angel.. Cordelia... he did it to you too? How are you here?"
Buffy 98' tilted her eyebrows and stepped back a bit after hearing the other Buffy speak. It was just plain freaky.
Cordelia: "He? Are we talking about Mr. Al Capone with superpowers? Because yeah."
Buffy: "We have to get back. How do we get back?"
Angel sits back down.
Angel: "There are a few things we need to get straight before we come up with a plan."
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---Magic Shop | 1998---
Spike opened the entrance door viciously and ranted as he wheeled toward the bewildered clerk.
Spike: "A plan. That's what it is. If mister-sodding Dapper Dan isn't going to get on with it, I'm going to. I'm tired of it, putting it off whenever he can. The slayer's dead, as of tonight!"
He vamped out, grabbed the man's collar, and pulled his neck roughly to his fangs. Then he paused, raised his head, and proceeded to whisper creepily in his ear.
Spike: "Heal me quick, wizard.. and maybe I wont give you a hickey.. that way you wont have to wear a turtleneck to your funeral, and shame your mum with your dirty lifestyle...""
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