Title: Sweet Peripeteia
Author: Haley Teague – haleyteague@hotmail.com
Setting/Spoilers: This is an alternate ending for season 4's "Soulless," so anything up to and including that episode is fair game. I avoid future spoilers like the plague, so any conjecture in this story that ends up even remotely resembling television reality (although I wouldn't hold my breath) is purely coincidental.
Rating: R – I'd really like something in the PG-15 or PG-16 area. I'm just not comfortable labeling this PG-13, but it's not a hard R by any means. Better safe, though, right?
Disclaimer: This is fanfiction, people; I own nothing except the hope these ideas are based on.
A/N: This is a little dark, because, let's face it – Angelus ain't exactly kittens and cotton candy, now is he? But, if you hang in there, I promise a happy ending.
۵ ۵ ۵
Sweet Peripeteia
"Peripeteia" (pair–uh–puh–tea–uh) is the Greek word Aristotle used to define the key point in a tragedy. It means "reversal." It's the moment when the tragic hero's fate has been reversed, and he was powerless to stop it. For Oedipus, it was the knowledge that his life spent trying to escape the Oracle's words had been in vain; despite his best efforts he had killed his father and married his mother. For Othello it was the understanding that his wife Desdemona, whom he had mortally wounded in a jealous rage, had, in fact, loved only him and been faithful to the end, yet she was going to die anyway. For Angel, it was those fleeting, painful moments when his soul was being ripped from him for the first time. It's tragic when it happens to the hero. When it happens to the villain, however, it's a little sweeter.
This story picks up in the middle of "Soulless" where Cordy goes down to tell Angelus their deal is off since the Beast had already gotten to the priestesses and provides an alternate ending to the episode.
"I told you everything I know. Time for you to pay up."
Cordelia regarded him through the thick steel bars of the cage for a long moment, her face expressionless, before responding, her voice even. "Here's what I don't understand. Why would Angel not remember the Beast if your meeting was as innocuous as you say? There's nothing especially horrific or guilt-inducing about that massacre since you didn't do it. So why would he block it out?"
"Two and a half centuries is a long time," Angelus pointed out disinterestedly, as if he couldn't be bothered to explain his other half's faulty memory.
"True," the woman nodded in agreement of the point, although her tone remained constant, while growing thoughtful. "But I think there's more to it than that. I think you have more control than we've realized when Angel's present. I think you focus on the memories that will hurt him the most. And I think you've been purposely blocking the Beast from him. Now, I wonder why that is."
The vampire remained mute, raising one eyebrow in a silent taunt. Cordelia held his gaze, unflinching, waiting for him to speak. When he did, the cunning, malevolent playfulness was back in his tone.
"You should have taken the Powers up on their offer of that perfect life. You'd be a big star, beloved by adoring fans everywhere instead of whoring yourself out for information I don't have."
"If I really believed that, I wouldn't be down here."
Angelus remained silent, and Cordy feared they'd reached a stalemate. However, she was determined to outlast the vampire.
"Remember why I was following the trail of bodies?" he asked finally, breaking the silence.
It was Cordy's turn to cock an eyebrow as she asked dryly, "You wanted an autograph?"
"I was hungry," Angelus replied, ignoring the other's comment. "But the bodies were all drained. The priestesses needed blood from one of his victims to complete the banishment ritual."
"And since you were knocked out, they took some of yours," Cordy finished for him.
Angelus nodded, but remained silent. The two studied each other, one trying to determine if the soulless half of her best friend was finally telling the truth, the other wondering if the woman before him would really honor her promise. He certainly wouldn't if he were in her shoes. But then again, the good guys had a funny way of honoring deals made with the devil, even when they didn't have to. Finally, Cordelia was the one who broke the gaze, walking back over to the camera and turning it on again.
"Sing," she commanded.
Angelus glared at her, knowing if he sang, Lorne would be able to tell he wasn't telling the full truth.
"Turn it off."
She complied and stepped back to her place in front of the cage, just outside his reach, waiting.
"When he hit me, I didn't stay unconscious for long."
Cordy studied him, realization dawning in her eyes and a smile slowly spreading across her face. When she spoke, her voice was filled with a mischievous glee. "You helped them."
"He pissed me off," Angelus defended himself. "The enemy of my enemy…"
"Is my friend," Cordy finished the statement. "You hid it from him because you did something good, something he wouldn't have to feel guilty about."
Angelus' stony glare was enough to confirm her assumptions. She nodded once and turned back towards the stairs.
"Wait," Angelus said as she reached up to flip the camera's "on" switch. She paused, her hand on the camera, and looked over her shoulder at him.
"World saving first," she said. "Paying off Faustian bargains later."
۵ ۵ ۵
"When you say 'sacrifices,' Cordy," Gunn said, "I'm starting to wonder exactly what you mean."
"It's not important," the dark-haired woman replied, and her tone brooked no argument.
"She's right," Wesley agreed. He, too, wondered exactly what Cordy had promised Angelus in return for his cooperation. While Gunn, who had been raised on the streets, was far from innocent or naïve, the former watcher suspected his own suspicions were closer to the truth of what had occurred between the seer and the vampire. His recent fall from grace and subsequent relationship with Lilah Morgan had opened his eyes to aspects of human nature far darker than he'd ever before imagined. Now, no longer able to shelter himself in ignorance, Wesley was forced to admit that he knew of very few things the soulless creature locked in the basement would trade his knowledge for.
Wesley now knew the depths personal desperation could drive him to. And he suspected Cordelia of having similar depths. While he certainly wouldn't wish the position he thought the young woman had placed herself in on anyone, he also recognized the importance of Angelus' information and the relative insignificance of each member of Angel Investigations in comparison to the fate of the world. Cordelia was a grown woman; such choices were hers to make. The consequence could be dealt with once the world had been saved.
"We must focus on destroying the Beast," he said, turning his attention back to the text he was searching though, effectively ending the discussion.
"I think banishing him again will fix the sun," Fred agreed, looking up from the book in front of her. "Since the orb he swallowed is what's keeping the sun covered, sending it and him to another dimension should fix the problem."
"Why didn't it before?" Connor asked accusingly. "You said you portaled him somewhere else before."
"I don't know," Wesley admitted. "Perhaps he wasn't gone long enough or since he had the power to return, his influence on the sun wasn't canceled out."
The teen grunted, unsatisfied by the man's answer, but acknowledging it was all he was going to get at the moment. The others turned back to their research and the room was filled with silence except for the occasional scratching of a pencil on paper or the turn of a page.
۵ ۵ ۵
"Of course," Wesley muttered, quickly pulling another book over to him and flipping though it, making comparisons between the partial banishment incantation they'd found in the priestess' house and the two books.
"Of course what?" Gunn demanded.
"The blood," Wesley explained. "Cordelia told us that the Beast emerged where Connor was born."
Connor's sullen glare from the other side of the room was enough to let Wesley know the teen didn't like where he thought the other man was going with this.
"What is significant is not that he was born there, but that he was injured there."
"Huh?" Gunn's question came at the same time as Fred's exclamation.
"The scratch on his cheek! It bled."
"Precisely," Wes said, nodding at the young woman. "Since Angelus' blood was used to banish the beast, it stands to reason that his blood, or blood of someone close enough, like a son, would be instrumental in allowing the Beast to break free from his banishment."
"But Angel's bled plenty of times in the two hundred odd years since he met the Beast," Cordelia argued.
"Yes," Wesley said, "But for some reason, none of them allowed the Beast access to our realm. Probably this time was different because of the confluence of mystical energies surrounding Connor's birth. Possibly even, the blood had to come from a progeny of Angel, something the priestesses never thought could occur."
"Then why'd it take so long for Big and Ugly to show up?" Gunn demanded. "Connor was born over a year ago."
"Time moves differently in different dimensions, Charles," Fred reminded him. "It's possible last year was only a couple of days to the Beast wherever he was."
"So," Cordelia said, interrupting the "maybes" and "what ifs," hoping to keep the conversation on task. "Can we send him back?"
"Yes," Wesley said, laying down his pencil. "I believe we can."
۵ ۵ ۵
"I can't," Cordy said gently to Connor. "Someone has to stay and watch him."
Wesley looked at the seer as he emerged from the office, the last of the preparations for the banishment incantation ready, his eyes narrowing thoughtfully.
"You have to go," Cordelia told Connor. "This won't work without you there. You know that. Besides, Lorne will stay with me, won't you Lorne?"
As she asked the question, Cordy turned to the green demon and her gaze left no question that she wasn't asking.
"Sure, sugarplum," he said, nodding at her. "We'll hold down the fort."
"Let's go, then," Wesley said, walking to the door where Fred, Gunn, and Connor waited for him. As he moved past Cordelia, his hand rested briefly on her elbow, squeezing gently. "Be careful."
"I will." The young woman met Wesley's gaze firmly, no trace of trepidation at what she was about to do in her eyes. "You too."
Gunn opened the Hyperion's front door and held it for Fred. Casting one last look at Cordelia and Lorne, he followed her out into the darkness. Connor went next, his body language clearly indicating he wasn't happy leaving Cordy behind, but knowing he had no choice. Wesley followed closely on his heels, pausing at the door and look back once.
"Don't do anything stupid."
Lorne waited until he was certain they were gone before turning to Cordelia. "What's going on?"
The woman regarded him carefully for a minute before a wry smile twisted the corners of her lips up slightly. Taking a deep breath, she sang softly.
"The sun'll come out…today. Bet your bottom dollar that to-da-ay, there'll be sun."
Lorne's red eyes stared at her incredulously, trying to process all that he'd seen when she'd sung. When he finally found his voice, all he said was a soft "Wow."
"I'm sorry to have to ask you this," Cordy began apologetically. "But you're the best one. It can't be Gunn or Fred. And certainly not Connor. Maybe Wesley, but he has to do the spell."
"And you want to do this now," Lorne finished for her, leaving before the others return unspoken.
"I think that's best."
۵ ۵ ۵
Angelus looked up to see Cordelia descending the basement steps. There was something off about the woman. Cocking his head to one side, a smile broke out on the vampire's face as he realized what it was – her clothing. She was barefoot, wearing only loose fitting cotton pants and a tank top.
"Come to pay off your debt?" he drawled, smirking.
"Take off your shoes and belt," she commanded, stopping to once again turn off the camera. "And throw them through the bars past the red line."
He toed off his shoes and tossed them outside the cage as requested. His hand paused on the buckle of his belt, though. "You said I could do anything I wanted," he reminded her. "What if I have plans for this?"
"As much fun as a little S & M with an infamous vampire sounds," Cordelia replied dryly. "I'll have to pass." When Angelus' hand still lingered on the belt, not removing it, she added, "Do you want me to back out?"
In answer, the vampire slowly, sensually pulled the belt from his pants and tossed it through the bars, where it landed next to his shoes.
Cordelia reached into the small of her back, and pulled out a set of handcuffs.
"Oh, kinky."
She tossed them to him and pointed to the front edge of the cage, farthest from the door.
"Go, cuff yourself there. After I'm in and the door's relocked, I'll give you the key."
Angelus regarded her momentarily before doing as she asked. As soon as he was secured, she stepped up to the cage door, and undid the locks. Opening the door, she stepped inside. As she closed the door behind her, Cordy heard Angelus tug at the cuffs and curse quietly under his breath when they refused to give.
"They're magically enhanced," she said without looking up as she re-secured the locks to the cage door. She turned to him and paused, as if sizing him up.
"How do you know I won't kill you?" The question seemed to hang in the air between the two as Cordelia considered her answer.
"You could," she finally said. "But you and I both know you're not getting out of here. You kill me, you'll die. No doubt about it. On the other hand, you don't kill me, you get to live to try and escape Angel another day. Plus, I've got a sneaking suspicion you'd much rather Angel live with the knowledge you've had what he never can. Not to mention the strain this will put on his and my relationship."
Despite her outward calm, Cordelia felt a chill go up her spine as Angelus looked at her, his eyes clouded dark with unmasked lust. The creepy, malicious smile she knew to be one of the key signs the demon was in control surfaced, and it took all of Cordy's willpower not to back down from her self-appointed task.
"Yes," he practically hissed. "He'll have to live knowing it was my name you screamed, not his. Never his."
Refusing to rise to the bait, Cordelia tucked her finger just under the elastic waistband at her side, pulling out the small handcuff key she'd secreted away there. She approached him, her steps steady and confident, despite the resounding terror pulling on her heart in an icy grip.
It was a gamble, she knew, to provoke him into proving his dominance over Angel though sex instead of killing. After all, Angel being mad at her for trading her body to Angelus couldn't be any worse than his anger over her sleeping with Connor had been. He could always forgive her. And she had no doubt that eventually he would. Her death, however, would mean an entirely different scenario.
Similarly, she knew she was walking a fine line between Angelus' sexual advances being brutal and violent, and them being at least partially attentive to ensuring she experienced some pleasure. She had no doubt Angelus was a bigger fan of the former, but the latter was more likely to attract him as a path through which he could make Angel hurt. Simply raping Cordelia would mean she became another victim for Angel to feel guilty over. On the other hand, if she enjoyed it…
Reaching out, she decided to try and set the pace for this encounter though example. Cordelia gently took his hands in hers and unlocked the left wrist. She let the cuff drop and softly rubbed his wrist where the metal had bitten into it when he'd pulled on the cuffs. Next, she moved her hands to the right wrist, flinging the cuffs out of the cage as soon as they were free, along with the key, before repeating the gentle ministrations she'd preformed previously.
Her surprise at Angelus not pulling away from her and taking control of the situation quickly turned to an entirely different kind of surprise, when he gently grasped her hands and raised them to his lips, kissing the inside of each wrist briefly. He moved her hands upwards and placed them around his neck before moving his own hands to her back and pulling her flush against him.
He leaned down and captured Cordelia's mouth in a kiss. It started slow and tender, but soon turned hard and punishing. When the seer pulled back, gasping for breath, that sadistic smile had returned to Angelus' face.
"Did you really think it would be all candle light and rose petals?" he sneered before shoving Cordelia hard backwards so that the seer tumbled to the floor. Before she had a chance to get up, he was on top of her, pushing her into the floor, his face inches above her own.
Cordy refused to let the fear she was feeling show in her face as she stared back at the man above her. "I thought you were going to make me scream your name," she challenged.
"Oh, I will," he assured her. "But let's get one thing straight. You call out to him, I will kill you."
"I'm sure you will," she answered coolly, before forcing herself to smile at him coyly. "You going to make this worth my while?"
۵ ۵ ۵
Connor felt the drywall give as he flew through it and into the next room. The teen quickly regained his footing and charged back into the fight, hoping to attack while Gunn distracted the Beast with taunts about the size of its horns.
Connor leapt high onto the creature's back, wrapping his arms around the Beast's head, trying to get a grasp with which he could break the creature's neck. However, the Beast threw him off and went after Gunn again. Connor charged, only to be flung back once more by a swift backhand the Beast tossed off without even looking back.
Fred watched the fight as she chanted along with Wesley. Internally, she was screaming at the boy to keep his distance. If– no, when they completed the banishment spell, both fighters needed to be far enough away from the creature that they weren't sucked through the portal with him.
Pushing her fears for Gunn and Connor, and of portals in general aside, the young physicist picked up the vial of Connor's blood they'd collected before leaving the hotel, and, at Wesley's nod, poured it into the small bowl with the other ingredients of the spell.
The mixture changed from a light brown to a blood red, even thought Connor's blood hadn't come straight from a vein. The two completed the chant and picked up the bowl, slowly moving towards the Beast.
He took note of them and, recognizing what they were attempting, ignored both Gunn and Connor in favor of the man and woman approaching him, still chanting. Just as he charged them, the two reached the climax of the incantation, and working in unison, threw the contents of the bowl upon the beast. He froze in place, his mouth open in protest, as a portal opened behind him and sucked him backwards into it.
The four left in the room, each a warrior in his or her own right, remained frozen for an interminably long second, staring at the space where the Beast had disappeared. Gradually the room became lighter, and when the first shaft of sunlight speared through the building's grimy windows, Fred let her hands fall from the bowl she and Wesley were still holding. She slowly walked back to the table they'd set the spell components on and silently began cleaning up, loathe to be the first to break the silence.
Connor still lay on the floor, near the hole he'd created in the interior wall earlier in the fight. Dropping his axe from the defensive position to hang loosely at his side, Gunn crossed the room and offered the teen his hand.
"Good job," he said sincerely. His words broke the lingering disbelief that they'd actual beaten the nearly invincible creature. Connor reached up and took Gunn's hand, allowing the other man to help him to his feet. Peering past the teen, Gunn whistled low as he gazed into the next room.
"Well, if all else fails," he said lightly, "you can always get a job as a wrecking ba—"
The man's words cut off as he spied a familiar glass vase sitting on a table at the far end of the room. Waving at the others to join him, Gunn pointed to the glass container and the glowing soul inside.
"Isn't that…"
"Angel's soul," Fred said quietly. "How'd it get here?"
"The Beast must have stolen it," Wesley said, beginning to push past the others to retrieve the irreplaceable item.
Before he could enter the room, though, the glass vase began to rock back and forth. The four froze, staring at the sight before them. The container's rocking grew faster and more agitated, and the soul within began to swirl around quickly, glowing slightly brighter. As they looked on, the container rose in the air and floated high above the table still shaking, now almost violently.
Suddenly, it shattered, allowing the soul to dissipate into the air, and raining shards of glass down on the empty room as the four helplessly witnessed the loss of Angel's soul.
۵ ۵ ۵
From the top of the stairs, Lorne listened as the muted tones of conversation below were replaced by moans and growls. He gripped the tranquilizer gun in his hands a little tighter and focused his empathic senses. Earlier he'd been able to pick up Cordelia's anxiety and Angelus' malicious glee when the seer had approached him. While the woman's apprehension had fluctuated up and down, Lorne had yet to pick up on anything that would qualify as mortal terror.
As the tempo of the sounds of coupling increased from below, Lorne eased open the door and moved down onto the first step, stopping just before he entered visual range for the room's occupants.
"Oh, Angelus," he heard Cordelia cry. That was his cue that the time was close, but the insincerity in the woman's voice made Lorne pause, cringing as he waited to see if Angelus picked up on it. Thankfully, Angelus either didn't notice or didn't care.
Leaning over, the green demon peeked quickly into the room and was amazed by what he saw. Clothing was strewn about the cell, and the nude seer and vampire were joined together intimately, Angelus lying lengthwise atop Cordelia – hardly surprising considering the sounds he'd been hearing and the fact that Cordelia had gone down there to do exactly that.
What was surprising, though, was the fact that the pair was floating a good four feet off the ground. Angelus tensed, and Lorne's grip on the rifle tightened. This was it – the make or brake moment, when he'd find out if Cordelia's plan succeeded. As the vampire's ecstasy climaxed, Cordelia clung to him, her right hand latched onto his shoulder, while her left snaked up to his neck, pulling his head down for a kiss.
When the two pairs of lips met, time seemed to slow, almost impossibly so. Lorne watched as a white hot glow appeared where their mouths were joined and slowly spread out to encompass the pair in a blinding flash.
The moment broken, Lorne rapidly blinked his eyes, trying to clear his vision. When he could see again, he found not the carnage he had been fearfully expecting. Rather, both were back on the floor, the vampire still atop Cordelia. The green demon was chilled by the almost gothic scene before him. The two were unconscious; their limbs sprawled lifelessly to the sides of their bodies, their skin ashen, as if the life force had been drained from each.
Lorne raised the tranquilizer gun in his hands and fired two shots into Angelus' exposed back.
۵ ۵ ۵
The group that entered through the Hyperion's front doors was dejected and solemn. The unexplainable loss of Angel's soul meant that the drive back through once again sunlit streets had been tense and silent.
Cordelia looked up from the magazine she was reading while sitting on the circular piece of furniture in the middle of the lobby and, taking in the air of melancholy surrounding the group of fighters, quickly scanned them to ascertain that everyone was there and no one was losing large amounts of blood. Seeing nothing amiss, she looked past them to confirm once again that the sun was indeed shining down outside the Hyperion's walls.
"What's wrong?" she demanded, her gaze focusing on Wesley, unquestionably the leader of this expedition. "You got the sun back. Did you not get rid of it?"
"The Beast is gone," the man said softly. He lifted his gaze to meet Cordelia's. "I'm afraid we have some bad news about Angel."
"What about me?"
As one, the four fighters turned to look in the direction of the voice. The dark-haired vampire stood in the door to the office, a cup of blood in one hand, as he leaned against the door's wooden frame. Before any of the others could process what they were seeing, Connor had already crossed the space and knocked his father down, the blood in the vampire's glass flying everywhere.
"Connor, no!" Cordelia cried, rushing towards the two. Connor ignored her, and, straddling his father's waist, the teen rained blow after blow down upon the vampire. When Cordy reached them, she grabbed his arm on the back swing, and using a strength that surprised even herself, pulled Connor backwards hard enough to yank him off the other man.
The seer placed herself between Connor and his father, her back to the still prone vampire, trying to keep the young man from continuing his assault.
"Angel?" Wesley asked cautiously.
"Yeah?" the vampire replied distractedly, half laying on the floor, half sitting, looking down at his now ruined clothing in distress, as he tried to brush the spilled blood off the fabric.
The automatic response, so familiar, along with the vampire's almost trivial anguish over his clothing convinced the three members of Angel Investigations still standing just inside the hotel's lobby that this was their souled friend, not the evil imitation they'd left locked in the basement cage.
"Angel." Wesley practically breathed the word as realization of exactly what he was seeing sunk in.
"Angel!" Fred cried, running forwards and bending down to hug the vampire. "I'm so glad you're back!"
The vampire returned the hug, smiling. "Me too." Looking over the woman's shoulder at the other three men, he asked. "You did banish the Beast, right?"
Wesley nodded before explaining the group's earlier mood. "When we found the Beast, we saw … we thought your soul had been lost." Narrowing his eyes, the former watcher asked, "How did you get it back?"
Angel turned his gaze from Wesley to the woman who was no longer trying to hold his son back, but simply standing beside the boy, and back to Wes before answering in one word.
"Cordy."
The group's attention shifted to the seer as she moved away from Connor to face everyone at once.
"I had a vision," she explained. "The Powers told me how to return Angel's soul to him."
"So, all this time, we were all worried about that shaman being able to finish the job, and all we needed was you?" Gunn asked. "Is that another one of your mysterious demon powers?"
"I think it was kind of a one-time deal," the woman said, her smile increasing marginally as she heard Angel snort and mutter what she assumed was something along the lines of "It better have been."
"There's more," she said, the butterflies in her stomach now fluttering more than when she'd first approached Angelus with her offer. She was nervous how the others would react, but even more so how Angel would respond to her news. He knew she'd returned his soul. The rest she hadn't yet told anyone, not even Lorne.
"It's permanent."
A/N: If you enjoyed this, I have a story in the "Buffy" section of this site that's really a story that focuses on Buffy, Cordy, Angelus, Angel, Darla, Dru, Spike, and William. The Fang Gang and the Scoobies show up, but the main characters are Cordy and Buffy – check it out; you might like it. Of course, a shameless plug wouldn't be complete w/o adding I have other "Buffy" stories, too, if that's your bag.