Title: Fever
Author: victoriamartynne
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I own nothing!
Spoilers: None, I think!
Summary: When Cordelia's life is threatened by a fever is it medical or mystical?
She made her way down the stairs slowly, occasionally stumbling. "Wes? Gunn? Fred? Hell, Buffy?"
She reached the lobby and saw them all frozen around the counter. "Oh God."
She sank to the floor and hugged her knees. "What do I do?"
"You can come with me." A voice ordered.
She looked up and gasped. "Skip?"
"The one and only." The demon grinned and held out a hand for her to take. "Here, come with me and I'll explain everything."
She took his hand and they disappeared from the hotel.
Everyone in the hotel unfroze.
"Where are you taking me?" Cordelia asked as the world started swirling around her in a haze of colours.
"Be calm." Skip soothed. "We'll be there in a moment."
A second later they landed on what looked like a cloud. "You took me to a cloud?" She asked in disbelief.
"A mystical cloud." Skip clarified.
"Okay, why a cloud?" She looked around and saw nothing but cotton wool fluff. No walls or ceilings just fluff.
"It's the home of the powers Cordelia. At this point in your journey, you have to take a test to prove your ability to control your demon and prove your loyalty to your warrior."
"Wait a minute." Cordelia turned to look at him again. "I get to meet the powers?"
He nodded. "In a moment you will. But first I have to explain and you have to listen."
She nodded. "There will be two tests. The first will decide whether you will be good or evil. The new demon part of you has to be given a destiny. There is a good destiny and a bad destiny. The test will decide which one you get to live out."
"And the second test?" She asked.
"The second one will be to show your loyalty to your warrior. If you fail the test you will be given another warrior and have to undergo a new test after a year. If you fail that test then you will be stripped of your visions and become human again with a completely different destiny. Do you understand the seriousness of the tests?" He looked at her sternly.
She nodded and gulped. "Bring on the first test."
"Where is she?" Wes asked no one in particular after searching the hotel. "She can't have just taken off without us knowing."
"She did Wes; she was there one moment and the next she wasn't!" Angel shouted. "We were sat talking, I blinked and then she was gone, just like that."
"Yo man, maybe the test thing has started already." Gunn pointed out.
Angel's frown deepened.
"Cordelia Chase, you have been summoned before us to prove your willingness to the greater good." The voice said.
She looked around but didn't see anyone.
"The test will begin!" The voice boomed.
Cordelia looked around and saw two children appear. "Okay, so what do I do?"
"The test has begun!" The voice boomed in response.
She rolled her eyes. "Great, it's like getting one of your obscure visions!"
Out of the corner of her eye she saw a very large brown, scaly demon appear. The two children separated and stood on either side of her, the demon was in front.
"Okay, still confused guys! A little help wouldn't go amiss!" She shouted as she watched the demon approach.
"The test has begun!" The voice repeated.
"I want to be a ballerina." One of the children said.
"I want to be a doctor." The other said.
"I want to eat!" The demon bellowed.
"And I want to know what the hell is going on, but it looks like you don't always get what you want!" She shouted at all three of them.
"I had a mommy and a daddy but they died." The would be ballerina said. "I'm all alone."
"I have a mommy, a daddy, three sisters and a brother." The future doctor said.
"I want to eat!" The demon bellowed again.
"Okay, back off demon guy!" Cordelia ordered. "You can eat later! What the hell am I supposed to do?" She shouted.
"The test."
"I get the point!" She cut the voice off angrily.
The demon began to advance on one of the children. Cordelia jumped in front of it. "Okay, where are you going?"
"I want to."
"Eat! Yes I know!" She shouted exasperated. "What's with the dodgy repetition?"
"Let me past!" The demon ordered.
Cordelia stood her ground and shook her head.
The demon swiped at her and then turned to go to the other child.
"I don't think so!" Cordelia shouted and jumped onto the demon's back with a yell. "No way on Earth, or cloud, are you getting to these children!"
Without warning the demon disappeared sending her falling to the floor. She looked around, the children were gone too.
"That was easy wasn't it?" Skip commented and came to help her up.
"That was it?" She asked in disbelief. "That's the infamous seer test? I jump on a demon's back and don't kill it and I get to be good instead of evil?"
"Cordelia, you underestimate yourself." Skip tutted. "You showed that you were willing to face a demon bigger than yourself, to risk your life to save two innocent children. That shows that you were willing to sacrifice yourself for the greater good. With that you can be good."
"And if I hadn't stopped the demon? What if it had been too strong for me or killed me?" Cordelia asked.
"Oh, Fergus doesn't kill people. He's harmless. Quite like that big blue monster in Monsters Inc."
"You've seen Monsters Inc?" She asked with a disgusted look on her face.
"Yeah, I loved that flick!" He enthused.
"So basically that demon wouldn't have hurt me or the children?"
"The children were merely an illusion. And no, Fergus wouldn't have hurt you. He lives up here with the powers, a sort of pet. He helps them out when they need to test a seer. They used to use a Rakna demon until he got a little testy one day and attacked the seer in question." Skip explained and then shut up.
"The second test will now begin." The strange voice boomed again.
"Okay, give me all you've got." She ordered.
She looked around and saw nothing. "Wow, this is going to be a really easy test."
"Cor." A familiar voice greeted.
She turned around smiling and saw Angel. "Hey, what are you doing here? Did they bring you here for my test?"
"Something like that." He smiled.
"Exactly what he said." Another voice said.
She turned around to see another Angel, dressed exactly the same. "Cordelia."
"Oh God." She muttered. "If one of you is Angelus I'm going to kill you dead!"
"Cor, honey, listen to me. I'm your Angel!" One of them insisted.
The other dropped to his knees. "Cordelia, you know I'd never call you honey."
"True." She agreed.
"I'd never drop to my knees, it's not my style." The other added.
"Also true." She decided and then realised what the test was. "Oh crap, I gotta pick one of you two."
"Pick me Cordy." The first one said.
"You know you want me." The second added.
"At this moment in time I don't want either of you!" She exclaimed. "There's something about this whole situation that just screams, porn film! Okay, you sing!" She pointed to the first one.
He looked at her confused and then began to sing Mandy.
Cordelia smiled slightly than frowned. "Okay, enough! Now you."
The other Angel began to sing The Greatest Love of All. She loved that song and he knew it.
"Okay, stop!" She thought for a moment. "Okay you, what would you buy me if we fell out?"
"I'd buy you clothes." The second Angel said and then looked at the other one smugly.
"And you?" She asked the first one.
"I wouldn't buy you anything." He replied. "I'd hope that you'd come back to me without gifts."
The other Angel snorted.
"Who said you could snort?" Cordelia turned on him angrily.
He looked down and mumbled an apology.
"Okay, you." She thought of another question and pointed to the first Angel. "What's the first thing I say after I have a vision?"
"You tell me what you saw."
"And you?"
"You ask for a painkiller."
She nodded. "I know who which one is the real Angel!" She exclaimed and clapped her hands together. "Yay me!"
Both Angel's disappeared. "Oh, crap, hallucinations? Now I feel like an ass!"
A large man with a white beard and hair appeared in front of her. His hair seemed to go on forever. She tried to subtly look behind him to see how far it went but he was too close to her.
"Who are you?"
He looked at her sternly. "Which Angel do you pick? The one who appeared first or the one who appeared second?"
"The one who appeared first." She replied confidently.
"Why?" The old man asked.
She began to look a little nervous and unsure. She looked at Skip for reassurance but his face was blank. "He didn't call me Cordelia, he never calls me Cordelia unless he's mad at me. He didn't snort or look smug with his answers. He said that he wouldn't buy me gifts for me to come back to him. After the epiphany incident I told him that I would have been his friend no matter what, he didn't have to buy me the clothes, although they certainly did help. And he knows that I have always told him what's gone on in a vision before anything else, even asking for a painkiller."
The man studied her for what seemed like ages. Finally he said. "The answer is incorrect."
She looked up from studying her feet. "Incorrect? That's my Angel!"
"The question was a trick. Both Angel's were in fact Angel. Your answer was wrong." He boomed, scaring her. "The reasons you gave for picking Angel number one was what enabled you to pass the test." He smiled.
"What? I passed?"
"You sound surprised Miss Chase." He smiled, looking a lot more friendly now. "You know Angel inside and out. The question you were asked had a double meaning. You failed to answer which Angel was Angel because they were both in fact Angel. You answered correctly, or I'm assuming correctly, in picking Angel's destiny. One Angel was the human part of Angel, the other was the vampire."
"I picked Angel's destiny?" She shouted. "What did I pick?"
"Angel gets to become human." The man smiled.
"How can you do that? Who are you?" She asked suspiciously.
"I thought you would have figured that out by now, you being such a smart girl and all. I'm the head to this organisation. Also known as the PTB or the Frickin Powers, depending on what mood you are in." He smiled.
"So, you're the head Power, the boss man?" She smiled. "Wow! That's big. Can you do anything about the mind splitting pain I still receive with every vision?"
"She's testy isn't she?" He asked Skip who just nodded in response.
"So, I get to stay with Angel and not become evil?" She asked hopefully. "And Angel gets to become human?"
He nodded and placed a hand on her forehead. "It was a pleasure giving you your test."
"It was a pleasure being tested by you." She smiled.
The world started spinning again until she arrived safely back in Angel's bed where she had been before. Only this time she was the only one in it.
She stretched and left the room, running towards the stairs and down into the lobby.
"Hi guys!" She said casually and grinned as they all looked up at her in disbelief. "I'm back!"
Angel came running towards her and caught her into a hug. She wrapped her arms around him grateful for his embrace.
"What happened?" Wes asked when Angel had let her go and they come into the lobby.
"I played for my destiny and Angel's." She replied and smiled at Angel.
"My destiny?"
She nodded. "Yup, I get to be god, not evil. I get to have you as my warrior. And wile I was up there I spoke to the head of the Powers That Be and managed to turn you human."
Wes looked like he was about to faint and bypassed the whole human thing. "You spoke to the head of the."
"I'm going to become human?" Angel asked in disbelief. "When? How?"
"I don't know!" She laughed happily and gripped his hand.
Without warning Buffy came up to hug her. "Thank you Cordelia."
Cordelia pulled away. "For what?"
"For letting me and Angel be together silly." She smiled and planted herself on Angel's knee.
Cordelia's eyes clouded over. "I'm just going to freshen up, I've been on a long journey, I'll be back in a minute."
She hurried to the bathroom and turned on the faucet so he couldn't hear her tears with his vampire hearing. After all they'd been through together she'd hoped that they'd be together when he became human. Without seeing Buffy for three years, it was easy to believe. Seeing Angel and Buffy together now brought on reality. Cordelia would never have Angel. The great forbidden love would always win.
She dried her eyes as there was a knock at the door.
"Open the door Cordelia." He ordered.
He called her Cordelia. "Angel, go be with Buffy." She ordered.
He broke the lock on the door easily and came in the bathroom. "Hey, personal bubble here!" She shouted and then shut up as he kissed her.
He pulled back ever so slowly. "You were saying?"
Words seemed to have evaporated from her memory. "I, uh, I."
"I love you." He told her tenderly. "You and only you."
She smiled shyly. "Really?"
He nodded and then fell backwards against the door. "Angel?" She panicked and fell to her knees next to him. "Wes!"
Wes came running though the lobby. "What's happening?"
"I don't know!" She exclaimed. "He just fell!"
"Cordelia." Wesley soothed the frightened seer. "Maybe it's happening, he's becoming human."
"But it looks so painful!" She stroked Angel's forehead as the vampire ridges appeared.
"Let it pass." Wes urged and stood back.
The ridges disappeared and a bright glow emanated from him. The glow disappeared as soon as it had come.
Cordelia looked down to where Angel's hand travelled to his chest. "Angel, you're breathing!"
He smiled happily. "I'm breathing!" He repeated and then grabbed her. "God, thank you so much. Thank you for doing this."
She closed her eyes. "I love you."
The End
Author: victoriamartynne
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I own nothing!
Spoilers: None, I think!
Summary: When Cordelia's life is threatened by a fever is it medical or mystical?
She made her way down the stairs slowly, occasionally stumbling. "Wes? Gunn? Fred? Hell, Buffy?"
She reached the lobby and saw them all frozen around the counter. "Oh God."
She sank to the floor and hugged her knees. "What do I do?"
"You can come with me." A voice ordered.
She looked up and gasped. "Skip?"
"The one and only." The demon grinned and held out a hand for her to take. "Here, come with me and I'll explain everything."
She took his hand and they disappeared from the hotel.
Everyone in the hotel unfroze.
"Where are you taking me?" Cordelia asked as the world started swirling around her in a haze of colours.
"Be calm." Skip soothed. "We'll be there in a moment."
A second later they landed on what looked like a cloud. "You took me to a cloud?" She asked in disbelief.
"A mystical cloud." Skip clarified.
"Okay, why a cloud?" She looked around and saw nothing but cotton wool fluff. No walls or ceilings just fluff.
"It's the home of the powers Cordelia. At this point in your journey, you have to take a test to prove your ability to control your demon and prove your loyalty to your warrior."
"Wait a minute." Cordelia turned to look at him again. "I get to meet the powers?"
He nodded. "In a moment you will. But first I have to explain and you have to listen."
She nodded. "There will be two tests. The first will decide whether you will be good or evil. The new demon part of you has to be given a destiny. There is a good destiny and a bad destiny. The test will decide which one you get to live out."
"And the second test?" She asked.
"The second one will be to show your loyalty to your warrior. If you fail the test you will be given another warrior and have to undergo a new test after a year. If you fail that test then you will be stripped of your visions and become human again with a completely different destiny. Do you understand the seriousness of the tests?" He looked at her sternly.
She nodded and gulped. "Bring on the first test."
"Where is she?" Wes asked no one in particular after searching the hotel. "She can't have just taken off without us knowing."
"She did Wes; she was there one moment and the next she wasn't!" Angel shouted. "We were sat talking, I blinked and then she was gone, just like that."
"Yo man, maybe the test thing has started already." Gunn pointed out.
Angel's frown deepened.
"Cordelia Chase, you have been summoned before us to prove your willingness to the greater good." The voice said.
She looked around but didn't see anyone.
"The test will begin!" The voice boomed.
Cordelia looked around and saw two children appear. "Okay, so what do I do?"
"The test has begun!" The voice boomed in response.
She rolled her eyes. "Great, it's like getting one of your obscure visions!"
Out of the corner of her eye she saw a very large brown, scaly demon appear. The two children separated and stood on either side of her, the demon was in front.
"Okay, still confused guys! A little help wouldn't go amiss!" She shouted as she watched the demon approach.
"The test has begun!" The voice repeated.
"I want to be a ballerina." One of the children said.
"I want to be a doctor." The other said.
"I want to eat!" The demon bellowed.
"And I want to know what the hell is going on, but it looks like you don't always get what you want!" She shouted at all three of them.
"I had a mommy and a daddy but they died." The would be ballerina said. "I'm all alone."
"I have a mommy, a daddy, three sisters and a brother." The future doctor said.
"I want to eat!" The demon bellowed again.
"Okay, back off demon guy!" Cordelia ordered. "You can eat later! What the hell am I supposed to do?" She shouted.
"The test."
"I get the point!" She cut the voice off angrily.
The demon began to advance on one of the children. Cordelia jumped in front of it. "Okay, where are you going?"
"I want to."
"Eat! Yes I know!" She shouted exasperated. "What's with the dodgy repetition?"
"Let me past!" The demon ordered.
Cordelia stood her ground and shook her head.
The demon swiped at her and then turned to go to the other child.
"I don't think so!" Cordelia shouted and jumped onto the demon's back with a yell. "No way on Earth, or cloud, are you getting to these children!"
Without warning the demon disappeared sending her falling to the floor. She looked around, the children were gone too.
"That was easy wasn't it?" Skip commented and came to help her up.
"That was it?" She asked in disbelief. "That's the infamous seer test? I jump on a demon's back and don't kill it and I get to be good instead of evil?"
"Cordelia, you underestimate yourself." Skip tutted. "You showed that you were willing to face a demon bigger than yourself, to risk your life to save two innocent children. That shows that you were willing to sacrifice yourself for the greater good. With that you can be good."
"And if I hadn't stopped the demon? What if it had been too strong for me or killed me?" Cordelia asked.
"Oh, Fergus doesn't kill people. He's harmless. Quite like that big blue monster in Monsters Inc."
"You've seen Monsters Inc?" She asked with a disgusted look on her face.
"Yeah, I loved that flick!" He enthused.
"So basically that demon wouldn't have hurt me or the children?"
"The children were merely an illusion. And no, Fergus wouldn't have hurt you. He lives up here with the powers, a sort of pet. He helps them out when they need to test a seer. They used to use a Rakna demon until he got a little testy one day and attacked the seer in question." Skip explained and then shut up.
"The second test will now begin." The strange voice boomed again.
"Okay, give me all you've got." She ordered.
She looked around and saw nothing. "Wow, this is going to be a really easy test."
"Cor." A familiar voice greeted.
She turned around smiling and saw Angel. "Hey, what are you doing here? Did they bring you here for my test?"
"Something like that." He smiled.
"Exactly what he said." Another voice said.
She turned around to see another Angel, dressed exactly the same. "Cordelia."
"Oh God." She muttered. "If one of you is Angelus I'm going to kill you dead!"
"Cor, honey, listen to me. I'm your Angel!" One of them insisted.
The other dropped to his knees. "Cordelia, you know I'd never call you honey."
"True." She agreed.
"I'd never drop to my knees, it's not my style." The other added.
"Also true." She decided and then realised what the test was. "Oh crap, I gotta pick one of you two."
"Pick me Cordy." The first one said.
"You know you want me." The second added.
"At this moment in time I don't want either of you!" She exclaimed. "There's something about this whole situation that just screams, porn film! Okay, you sing!" She pointed to the first one.
He looked at her confused and then began to sing Mandy.
Cordelia smiled slightly than frowned. "Okay, enough! Now you."
The other Angel began to sing The Greatest Love of All. She loved that song and he knew it.
"Okay, stop!" She thought for a moment. "Okay you, what would you buy me if we fell out?"
"I'd buy you clothes." The second Angel said and then looked at the other one smugly.
"And you?" She asked the first one.
"I wouldn't buy you anything." He replied. "I'd hope that you'd come back to me without gifts."
The other Angel snorted.
"Who said you could snort?" Cordelia turned on him angrily.
He looked down and mumbled an apology.
"Okay, you." She thought of another question and pointed to the first Angel. "What's the first thing I say after I have a vision?"
"You tell me what you saw."
"And you?"
"You ask for a painkiller."
She nodded. "I know who which one is the real Angel!" She exclaimed and clapped her hands together. "Yay me!"
Both Angel's disappeared. "Oh, crap, hallucinations? Now I feel like an ass!"
A large man with a white beard and hair appeared in front of her. His hair seemed to go on forever. She tried to subtly look behind him to see how far it went but he was too close to her.
"Who are you?"
He looked at her sternly. "Which Angel do you pick? The one who appeared first or the one who appeared second?"
"The one who appeared first." She replied confidently.
"Why?" The old man asked.
She began to look a little nervous and unsure. She looked at Skip for reassurance but his face was blank. "He didn't call me Cordelia, he never calls me Cordelia unless he's mad at me. He didn't snort or look smug with his answers. He said that he wouldn't buy me gifts for me to come back to him. After the epiphany incident I told him that I would have been his friend no matter what, he didn't have to buy me the clothes, although they certainly did help. And he knows that I have always told him what's gone on in a vision before anything else, even asking for a painkiller."
The man studied her for what seemed like ages. Finally he said. "The answer is incorrect."
She looked up from studying her feet. "Incorrect? That's my Angel!"
"The question was a trick. Both Angel's were in fact Angel. Your answer was wrong." He boomed, scaring her. "The reasons you gave for picking Angel number one was what enabled you to pass the test." He smiled.
"What? I passed?"
"You sound surprised Miss Chase." He smiled, looking a lot more friendly now. "You know Angel inside and out. The question you were asked had a double meaning. You failed to answer which Angel was Angel because they were both in fact Angel. You answered correctly, or I'm assuming correctly, in picking Angel's destiny. One Angel was the human part of Angel, the other was the vampire."
"I picked Angel's destiny?" She shouted. "What did I pick?"
"Angel gets to become human." The man smiled.
"How can you do that? Who are you?" She asked suspiciously.
"I thought you would have figured that out by now, you being such a smart girl and all. I'm the head to this organisation. Also known as the PTB or the Frickin Powers, depending on what mood you are in." He smiled.
"So, you're the head Power, the boss man?" She smiled. "Wow! That's big. Can you do anything about the mind splitting pain I still receive with every vision?"
"She's testy isn't she?" He asked Skip who just nodded in response.
"So, I get to stay with Angel and not become evil?" She asked hopefully. "And Angel gets to become human?"
He nodded and placed a hand on her forehead. "It was a pleasure giving you your test."
"It was a pleasure being tested by you." She smiled.
The world started spinning again until she arrived safely back in Angel's bed where she had been before. Only this time she was the only one in it.
She stretched and left the room, running towards the stairs and down into the lobby.
"Hi guys!" She said casually and grinned as they all looked up at her in disbelief. "I'm back!"
Angel came running towards her and caught her into a hug. She wrapped her arms around him grateful for his embrace.
"What happened?" Wes asked when Angel had let her go and they come into the lobby.
"I played for my destiny and Angel's." She replied and smiled at Angel.
"My destiny?"
She nodded. "Yup, I get to be god, not evil. I get to have you as my warrior. And wile I was up there I spoke to the head of the Powers That Be and managed to turn you human."
Wes looked like he was about to faint and bypassed the whole human thing. "You spoke to the head of the."
"I'm going to become human?" Angel asked in disbelief. "When? How?"
"I don't know!" She laughed happily and gripped his hand.
Without warning Buffy came up to hug her. "Thank you Cordelia."
Cordelia pulled away. "For what?"
"For letting me and Angel be together silly." She smiled and planted herself on Angel's knee.
Cordelia's eyes clouded over. "I'm just going to freshen up, I've been on a long journey, I'll be back in a minute."
She hurried to the bathroom and turned on the faucet so he couldn't hear her tears with his vampire hearing. After all they'd been through together she'd hoped that they'd be together when he became human. Without seeing Buffy for three years, it was easy to believe. Seeing Angel and Buffy together now brought on reality. Cordelia would never have Angel. The great forbidden love would always win.
She dried her eyes as there was a knock at the door.
"Open the door Cordelia." He ordered.
He called her Cordelia. "Angel, go be with Buffy." She ordered.
He broke the lock on the door easily and came in the bathroom. "Hey, personal bubble here!" She shouted and then shut up as he kissed her.
He pulled back ever so slowly. "You were saying?"
Words seemed to have evaporated from her memory. "I, uh, I."
"I love you." He told her tenderly. "You and only you."
She smiled shyly. "Really?"
He nodded and then fell backwards against the door. "Angel?" She panicked and fell to her knees next to him. "Wes!"
Wes came running though the lobby. "What's happening?"
"I don't know!" She exclaimed. "He just fell!"
"Cordelia." Wesley soothed the frightened seer. "Maybe it's happening, he's becoming human."
"But it looks so painful!" She stroked Angel's forehead as the vampire ridges appeared.
"Let it pass." Wes urged and stood back.
The ridges disappeared and a bright glow emanated from him. The glow disappeared as soon as it had come.
Cordelia looked down to where Angel's hand travelled to his chest. "Angel, you're breathing!"
He smiled happily. "I'm breathing!" He repeated and then grabbed her. "God, thank you so much. Thank you for doing this."
She closed her eyes. "I love you."
The End