Connor lay in bed, awake. He couldn't sleep. He kept thinking about
what had happened a couple of hours ago. The person attacking him was a
girl. He had been quite sure it was a man.
He rolled over onto his side, while visions of the girl floated into his mind. All he knew about what she looked like was that she had black hair. Using this piece of information, Connor's mind unwillingly began to place features upon a blank face.
He saw the wavy black hair surrounding the face, which he saw to have a small, straight nose that was rounded perfectly on the end. Lips appeared next, full lips, coloured so deeply that there was never any need for makeup. Connor willed his mind to stop, but it wouldn't listen. Before he could help himself, eyes appeared on the face making it complete. Nicely shaped eyebrows formed over the deepest green eyes Connor had ever seen in his life. He often wondered how she had managed to get eyes that colour.
"Stop," Connor said out loud. "She's nothing now."
He rolled over onto his back again and thought of Cordelia instead.
~~~
Cordelia sat in the bathtub that was full of warm water and bubbles lightly scented with lavender. She thought of Connor and how he'd looked when he'd unmasked that girl, his expression being one of surprise, of embarrassment, and, oddly, of recognition. She wondered who that girl could possibly remind him of.
Cordelia closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Before she had fully leaned back into the contoured shape of the tub, she jolted forward again, her rate of breathing quickening slightly.
The vision came to Cordelia in bits and pieces, flashes of sore faces, monsters, children of evil. Things became slightly clearer, and Cordelia could see more demons of the same species that they had killed that night, many of them with what appeared to be menacing grins on their gruesome faces. They laughed, and jeered. Suddenly the vision changed and a girl's face appeared, looking slightly scared, but determined. Although they hadn't seen her face earlier, Cordelia knew it was the same person who had been attacking Connor. The demons reappeared - there were about six- and the girl was fighting them.
The vision ended and Cordelia tried to think of some of the scenery, something that would be an indication of any location.
There was none.
Cordelia sighed and contemplated whether or not a half-assed vision would be worth bothering Angel or not. Finally deciding that all her visions, especially ones involving the monsters they were trying to fight, should be presented to the others, Cordelia got out of the bath, put on a bathrobe, and pulled the plug of the tub.
~~~
"You didn't get any feel of a place at all?" Angel asked Cordelia.
"No," she replied. "All I know is that it was dark and there were a lot of demons. . . and a cat," she added.
"A cat?" asked Gunn.
Cordelia nodded. "I don't know. I mean, I think it looked kind of like some sort of alley. Maybe the cat lived there."
"What colour was the cat?"
"Connor, what are you doing here?" asked Angel. "It's three o'clock in the morning."
"Couldn't sleep," answered Connor.
"What relevance does the colour of the cat have?" Gunn asked.
"There's a new cat in one of my hunting alleys. It's strange. It knows what's going on. Sometimes it just sits there and watches like it's a show. Creeps me out."
Cordelia said quietly, "I'm not too sure about what colour the cat was. It was dark and busy and in bits and pieces. Not one of the clearest visions I've ever had."
"So what are we going to do?" asked Fred. "By the time we've checked every alley in town, the could, would probably be-"
"It was white!" shouted Cordelia, interrupting Fred. "The cat was white."
"Sounds an awful lot like my cat," Connor said. "Probably my alley, too."
"Okay, well, I'll say it again," said Angel. "Let's go."
~~~
"I don't know what Angel's doing. He can chase all the psychic-type demons he wants. I don't know anything about it, and, quite frankly, at the moment, I don't care."
"I know you're still on his side, deep down inside. And I'm not asking you t obe any different. I just thought you might know why the demons are so important to him all of a sudden."
"Even if I did know, Lilah, I wouldn't tell you. It's your job to figure stuff like this out. And I think at this point, both you and I know more than Angel does."
"You're right. It's Angel's little boy we have to worry about."
"Connor? How could he know more than Angel?"
"That's your job to figure it out? But when he finds out who that girl is. . . He's in for a bog surprise."
~~~
When the group finally made it to one of the alleys where Connor usually hunted, there were no demons, no vampires; there was nothing save for themselves. That is, nothing except-
"It's the cat," Cordelia said, pointing with her sword.
"But where is everything else?" asked Fred.
"I'm not sure," Angel answered, "but there was definitely something here. Something that's been killed. I can smell the blood."
"Is it human?" asked Connor.
"I'm not sure," Angel answered again, studying his surroundings very closely. "It might not be." If it's not human, there's definitely an element of human in it."
Connor walked over to the purely white cat. There was no blood on the cat, no dirt of any kind. This was always the case, and it perplexed Connor every time he saw it. He stared at the cat as he stepped even closer to it. The cat stared back lazily at Connor. If cats could look unenthusiastic and bored, Connor would say that that was exactly how this animal was feeling.
There was a movement of shadow beside Connor, and looking to his left revealed the same person, the same girl, who had attacked him before. Connor readied himself to fight when the girl's hand moved, but Connor watched as the girl, with a new mask, reached out and scratched the cat behind the ears.
"What do you want?" Connor asked the girl. She remained quiet and continued to pet the cat, who began to purr loudly. Connor spoke to her again. "Why are you here? And why do you keep fighting me? We're on the same side."
The girl laughed a rather unpleasant laugh that contained no humour at all. "Are we?" she asked, the first words Connor had heard her say.
And yet, oddly, it was as if he'd heard the voice before, so familiar it sounded. She laughed again, and stroked the cat on its stomach as it lay sprawled out on the closed lid of the dumpster that Connor stood next to.
"Who are you?" Connor eyed her suspiciously, completely unaware of the presence of the others who had come to see what was going on.
"Relax, Connor," the girl said. "You were never this uptight in Quor-Toth."
Reacting before he thought, Connor reached out and pulled off the girl's mask for a second time. Waves of wavy black hair fell around the girl's smooth, pale face. Lips were revealed to wear a smug smirk of a half-smile, and dancing with hidden amusement were eyes of the deepest green that Connor had ever seen.
"What are you doing here?" Connor asked her through clenched teeth, not even attempting to hide his feeling of hurt hatred.
"Oh, Connor," she said, smiling sweetly. "I missed you, too."
~~~
"Who is she?"
Angel had found Connor an hour later at his loft, sitting on the windowsill and staring out of the dirty window, a habit, angel had noticed, that Connor seemed to have developed in the past couple of months.
Connor said nothing to Angel. In truth, Connor didn't even acknowledge his father's presence. He knew Angel was there, but he chose to ignore him. He had been doing a lot of thinking that was doing nothing but sending him around in circles, and he wanted desperately to not be interrupted.
"Connor", persisted Angel, "if you know who this girl is, you have to tell us. This could very well be the information we've been looking for."
Connor was silent.
Angel sighed heavily and sat down on the edge of Connor's bed. "I'm not leaving until you talk to me.'
Having learned from experience that was true, Connor reluctantly answered him shortly. "She's no one," he said.
"Why do I not believe that?" replied Angel.
"I don't know, but it would be your own damned stupidity if you didn't," answered Connor. "That girl is nothing and I could care less if the Greerimeens ate her for breakfast."
Ignoring Connor's first remark, Angel asked about the second. "So she's what they're looking for?"
Connor answered again with silence, and Angel knew the answer. That girl, whoever she was, was what those demons were after, and Angel had more than a feeling that Connor knew more than he was telling. But Angel also knew that it had more to do with Connor's old life in Quor-Toth than it did with fighting evil. And that was something that Connor rarely, if ever, spoke about.
Angel stood up silently and left Connor's apartment without another word. On his way back to the hotel, Angel wondered who the girl was, what the connection between the girl and Connor was, why the demons were after her, and how she managed to escape alive when she was fighting a pack of Greerimeen demons alone. All those things swam around Angel's head, and he didn't get to sleep until long after the sun had risen.
~~~
Connor stayed awake at the windowsill for over an hour after Angel had left. He knew what the girl was capable of, and he couldn't think of any reason why the demons would be after her, unless she had tried to escape. Once a person has sworn herself to the Greeimeens, she never leaves until she dies.
Leave it to Regan to back out of a promise she'd made. . .
Connor finally stood up, and stretched. Crawling into bed he thought about what had happened that night, and memories of Quor-Toth came back to him. Quickly he banished them back into the farthest corner of his mind, and promised himself he'd never think of her again. . . unless never became too long. . .
He rolled over onto his side, while visions of the girl floated into his mind. All he knew about what she looked like was that she had black hair. Using this piece of information, Connor's mind unwillingly began to place features upon a blank face.
He saw the wavy black hair surrounding the face, which he saw to have a small, straight nose that was rounded perfectly on the end. Lips appeared next, full lips, coloured so deeply that there was never any need for makeup. Connor willed his mind to stop, but it wouldn't listen. Before he could help himself, eyes appeared on the face making it complete. Nicely shaped eyebrows formed over the deepest green eyes Connor had ever seen in his life. He often wondered how she had managed to get eyes that colour.
"Stop," Connor said out loud. "She's nothing now."
He rolled over onto his back again and thought of Cordelia instead.
~~~
Cordelia sat in the bathtub that was full of warm water and bubbles lightly scented with lavender. She thought of Connor and how he'd looked when he'd unmasked that girl, his expression being one of surprise, of embarrassment, and, oddly, of recognition. She wondered who that girl could possibly remind him of.
Cordelia closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Before she had fully leaned back into the contoured shape of the tub, she jolted forward again, her rate of breathing quickening slightly.
The vision came to Cordelia in bits and pieces, flashes of sore faces, monsters, children of evil. Things became slightly clearer, and Cordelia could see more demons of the same species that they had killed that night, many of them with what appeared to be menacing grins on their gruesome faces. They laughed, and jeered. Suddenly the vision changed and a girl's face appeared, looking slightly scared, but determined. Although they hadn't seen her face earlier, Cordelia knew it was the same person who had been attacking Connor. The demons reappeared - there were about six- and the girl was fighting them.
The vision ended and Cordelia tried to think of some of the scenery, something that would be an indication of any location.
There was none.
Cordelia sighed and contemplated whether or not a half-assed vision would be worth bothering Angel or not. Finally deciding that all her visions, especially ones involving the monsters they were trying to fight, should be presented to the others, Cordelia got out of the bath, put on a bathrobe, and pulled the plug of the tub.
~~~
"You didn't get any feel of a place at all?" Angel asked Cordelia.
"No," she replied. "All I know is that it was dark and there were a lot of demons. . . and a cat," she added.
"A cat?" asked Gunn.
Cordelia nodded. "I don't know. I mean, I think it looked kind of like some sort of alley. Maybe the cat lived there."
"What colour was the cat?"
"Connor, what are you doing here?" asked Angel. "It's three o'clock in the morning."
"Couldn't sleep," answered Connor.
"What relevance does the colour of the cat have?" Gunn asked.
"There's a new cat in one of my hunting alleys. It's strange. It knows what's going on. Sometimes it just sits there and watches like it's a show. Creeps me out."
Cordelia said quietly, "I'm not too sure about what colour the cat was. It was dark and busy and in bits and pieces. Not one of the clearest visions I've ever had."
"So what are we going to do?" asked Fred. "By the time we've checked every alley in town, the could, would probably be-"
"It was white!" shouted Cordelia, interrupting Fred. "The cat was white."
"Sounds an awful lot like my cat," Connor said. "Probably my alley, too."
"Okay, well, I'll say it again," said Angel. "Let's go."
~~~
"I don't know what Angel's doing. He can chase all the psychic-type demons he wants. I don't know anything about it, and, quite frankly, at the moment, I don't care."
"I know you're still on his side, deep down inside. And I'm not asking you t obe any different. I just thought you might know why the demons are so important to him all of a sudden."
"Even if I did know, Lilah, I wouldn't tell you. It's your job to figure stuff like this out. And I think at this point, both you and I know more than Angel does."
"You're right. It's Angel's little boy we have to worry about."
"Connor? How could he know more than Angel?"
"That's your job to figure it out? But when he finds out who that girl is. . . He's in for a bog surprise."
~~~
When the group finally made it to one of the alleys where Connor usually hunted, there were no demons, no vampires; there was nothing save for themselves. That is, nothing except-
"It's the cat," Cordelia said, pointing with her sword.
"But where is everything else?" asked Fred.
"I'm not sure," Angel answered, "but there was definitely something here. Something that's been killed. I can smell the blood."
"Is it human?" asked Connor.
"I'm not sure," Angel answered again, studying his surroundings very closely. "It might not be." If it's not human, there's definitely an element of human in it."
Connor walked over to the purely white cat. There was no blood on the cat, no dirt of any kind. This was always the case, and it perplexed Connor every time he saw it. He stared at the cat as he stepped even closer to it. The cat stared back lazily at Connor. If cats could look unenthusiastic and bored, Connor would say that that was exactly how this animal was feeling.
There was a movement of shadow beside Connor, and looking to his left revealed the same person, the same girl, who had attacked him before. Connor readied himself to fight when the girl's hand moved, but Connor watched as the girl, with a new mask, reached out and scratched the cat behind the ears.
"What do you want?" Connor asked the girl. She remained quiet and continued to pet the cat, who began to purr loudly. Connor spoke to her again. "Why are you here? And why do you keep fighting me? We're on the same side."
The girl laughed a rather unpleasant laugh that contained no humour at all. "Are we?" she asked, the first words Connor had heard her say.
And yet, oddly, it was as if he'd heard the voice before, so familiar it sounded. She laughed again, and stroked the cat on its stomach as it lay sprawled out on the closed lid of the dumpster that Connor stood next to.
"Who are you?" Connor eyed her suspiciously, completely unaware of the presence of the others who had come to see what was going on.
"Relax, Connor," the girl said. "You were never this uptight in Quor-Toth."
Reacting before he thought, Connor reached out and pulled off the girl's mask for a second time. Waves of wavy black hair fell around the girl's smooth, pale face. Lips were revealed to wear a smug smirk of a half-smile, and dancing with hidden amusement were eyes of the deepest green that Connor had ever seen.
"What are you doing here?" Connor asked her through clenched teeth, not even attempting to hide his feeling of hurt hatred.
"Oh, Connor," she said, smiling sweetly. "I missed you, too."
~~~
"Who is she?"
Angel had found Connor an hour later at his loft, sitting on the windowsill and staring out of the dirty window, a habit, angel had noticed, that Connor seemed to have developed in the past couple of months.
Connor said nothing to Angel. In truth, Connor didn't even acknowledge his father's presence. He knew Angel was there, but he chose to ignore him. He had been doing a lot of thinking that was doing nothing but sending him around in circles, and he wanted desperately to not be interrupted.
"Connor", persisted Angel, "if you know who this girl is, you have to tell us. This could very well be the information we've been looking for."
Connor was silent.
Angel sighed heavily and sat down on the edge of Connor's bed. "I'm not leaving until you talk to me.'
Having learned from experience that was true, Connor reluctantly answered him shortly. "She's no one," he said.
"Why do I not believe that?" replied Angel.
"I don't know, but it would be your own damned stupidity if you didn't," answered Connor. "That girl is nothing and I could care less if the Greerimeens ate her for breakfast."
Ignoring Connor's first remark, Angel asked about the second. "So she's what they're looking for?"
Connor answered again with silence, and Angel knew the answer. That girl, whoever she was, was what those demons were after, and Angel had more than a feeling that Connor knew more than he was telling. But Angel also knew that it had more to do with Connor's old life in Quor-Toth than it did with fighting evil. And that was something that Connor rarely, if ever, spoke about.
Angel stood up silently and left Connor's apartment without another word. On his way back to the hotel, Angel wondered who the girl was, what the connection between the girl and Connor was, why the demons were after her, and how she managed to escape alive when she was fighting a pack of Greerimeen demons alone. All those things swam around Angel's head, and he didn't get to sleep until long after the sun had risen.
~~~
Connor stayed awake at the windowsill for over an hour after Angel had left. He knew what the girl was capable of, and he couldn't think of any reason why the demons would be after her, unless she had tried to escape. Once a person has sworn herself to the Greeimeens, she never leaves until she dies.
Leave it to Regan to back out of a promise she'd made. . .
Connor finally stood up, and stretched. Crawling into bed he thought about what had happened that night, and memories of Quor-Toth came back to him. Quickly he banished them back into the farthest corner of his mind, and promised himself he'd never think of her again. . . unless never became too long. . .