Title: Slayers Present and Future
Author: victoriamartynne
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I own nothing!
Spoilers: None, I think!
Summary: A future slayer is kidnapped and it's up to the Fang Gang and the present slayer to get her back.
Cordelia watched them leave and turned back around to go into the office again, grabbing the coffee that Fred had got her on her way back in. God, that had been hard, she thought.
She sat back down at Wes's desk and picked up the sketch. She gasped when she saw what Maggie had drawn.
"Damn." She muttered and bolted out of the office, the sketch still in her hand.
She tore across the lobby, past a startled looking Anya and Willow and threw open the basement door.
"Angel!" She shouted and then lost her footing as she fell over a sweater that had been left on one of the steps.
She screamed as she fell down half of the basement stairs. She landed at the bottom in a heap, the sketch still in her hand. Willow and Anya, hearing the bumps, came to the top of the stairs.
Angel instantly rushed across to her. "Cordy, are you okay?"
She lifted her head slightly and groaned. "Nothing broken. Who left that damn sweater there?"
She looked up and saw the pink sweater Buffy had been wearing strewn across one of the middle steps. "Never mind." She replied, glaring at the slayer who stood in the middle of the basements in shorts and a vest.
Angel helped her sit on the bottom step. "What were you going to say"?
She remembered the sketch. "Oh God, I spoke to Mr and Mrs Wilson and she drew me a picture of the demon who kidnapped her daughter."
She thrust it in his direction and Buffy came to stand behind him so she could see.
Intrigued, Willow and Anya came down the stairs too.
"It can't be, the Master's dead." Angel argued.
"I don't care; he kidnapped Carla Wilson last night." Cordelia said, rubbing her elbow where she'd grazed it on one of the steps as she fell.
"But I destroyed his bones." Buffy said weakly, remembering how schizo she'd gone on the remains of the master.
"Yeah, and I was hung upside down over his bones before you did ready to be killed." Cordelia replied. "I know he was dead, but Mr and Mrs Wilson saw him kidnap their daughter last night. Somehow he must have been resurrected."
"Maybe your clients are just trouble causers." Buffy suggested.
Cordelia shook her head. "No, they were the real thing."
"How can you be so sure?" Willow asked from behind her.
"I just know, okay?" Cordelia said angrily.
"Okay, calm down." Angel soothed, diffusing the situation. "Why don't we all go back upstairs and get Wes and Giles to do a little investigating."
Buffy stepped around Cordelia and picked up the offending sweater, leaving Angel and Cordelia alone in the basement.
He sat down next to her and put an arm around her. "Are you okay?"
"No, they were so upset. They saw the whole thing and they couldn't do anything to help. He used some sort of power on the husband. He said it felt like he was frozen in place."
Angel nodded. "I never heard of him having that power but anything is possible. It's been years since I've known him."
Cordelia remembered him telling her that the Master was the head of Angel's line of vampires. "If he is alive then we need to get Carla off him and quickly."
Cordelia and Angel went back upstairs to find Wes and Giles already there.
"Giles, he can't be alive. Why would he do this to me?" Buffy was complaining to Giles.
"He put me through all that and then he comes back to haunt me."
"Oh for God's sake Buffy grow up!" Cordelia snapped. "He's not come back to haunt you! He's kidnapped a little girl who has nothing to do with you. Not everything in life revolves around you!"
Buffy spun around to face around her. "Can you remember what the Master did to me?"
"And what about all the people he killed?" Cordelia shouted. "At least you're alive. I mean, sure he did kill you but you survived. You beat his bones with a hammer until they were dust. I'd say you got him out of your system then. He's in LA, not Sunnydale. This has nothing to do with you!"
Everyone had suddenly gone silent. "Then why is he here now while I'm here? I'm sure Angel agrees with me."
She looked to Angel for support.
Cordelia almost growled. "Buffy, Angel doesn't love you anymore."
Buffy laughed. "Of course he does, he always will. He's taking me out to dinner tonight."
Cordelia sighed. "No, he doesn't. He was taking you out tonight to tell you. Angel and I have been seeing each other for the past year." She saw tears start to well up in the slayer's eyes. "I'm sorry Buffy; I didn't want you to find out like that."
Angel went to stand in between the two women. "Buffy why don't we talk?" He suggested and turned to Cordelia. "Let Fred see to your elbow, you're bleeding."
She nodded and went to get the first aid box while Angel took Buffy into Wes's office.
Cordelia found the first aid box and went to sit on the couch next to Fred. "Do you mind?"
The young girl shook her head and took the box off her. "She had to know Cordy."
"I know Fred, but I could have been more tactful about it." Cordelia winced as Fred placed an antiseptic wipe on the wound on her elbow. "At least not shouted it to her."
"Cordelia." Wes interrupted. "Did the Wilson's say anything else about the Master?"
"Just that he used some sort of freezing power to keep Mr Wilson away from him." Cordelia replied.
"That isn't right." Wes mused to himself. "He was just a vampire. He didn't have powers."
"Maybe he learned some." Cordelia said flippantly and shoved her hair back from her face.
Something on her neck caught Wes's attention. "Cordelia?"
"What?" She asked, not realising what he was looking at.
"You neck." Wes looked faint.
She realised what he was looking at. From her position on the other side of Cordelia Fred couldn't see.
"You let him bite you?" Wes whispered incredulously.
"I didn't let him! I wanted him to." She replied and covered it once more with her hair. "And it's none of your business."
"I believe it is!" Wesley shouted now. "If this continues then you could reawaken Angel's bloodlust."
"He didn't drink, he just bit." She interrupted.
"As I was saying, he could get carried away one day and kill you or even turn you!" He shouted. "Is that what you want?"
"Of course not!" She shouted back and then stopped when she saw Xander and Anya come into the lobby from the courtyard where they had been stood with Giles and Willow. "Look, can we talk about this in private?"
He didn't say anything but walked back to his office leaving her to follow.
Once the door was slammed he began shouting at her with her shouting at him in response.
"Yo Fred, girl, what's going on?" Gunn asked as he came into the lobby.
"I think Wes is mad at Cordelia."
"Why?"
"He's mad at something that she and Angel did." Fred replied over the sound of Wes and Cordy shouting at each other.
"What did they do?"
"He bit her."
"Bastard! Vamp's gonna die!" He said angrily and started looking around for him.
"No Charles!" Fred shouted, realising how it had sounded. "She wanted him to!"
He stopped his searching and stood and looked at her and then looked at the two people fighting in Wes's office. "I was normal before I met y'all."
"What's going on?" Angel asked as he and a teary looking Buffy came out of the small room they'd been in.
"Wes saw the gift you gave Cordy bro'." Gunn answered, still looking a little pissed off.
"The gift I what..?" Angel asked and then understood. "Oh."
He marched across the lobby to save Cordelia.
"What gift?" Buffy asked, walking across to Willow.
"Angel bit her." Gunn said without thinking. "I mean, not in a bad way, in a kinda, good way, kinda."
Buffy's faced registered hurt, then anger and then hurt again. She shrugged nonchalantly. "He should have sucked her dry."
"Hey!" Fred complained. "That was mean."
"Don't worry Fred, I probably deserve it." Cordelia said, walking out of the office, leaving Angel to fight it out with Wes. "I mean, falling in love and sharing things with my soul mate means that I should have the blood sucked out of me. After all, it is such a killable offence." She mocked.
Buffy glared at her. "He is not your soul mate."
Cordelia snorted. "Well, he certainly isn't yours. I think you lost that right when you sent him to hell, or was it when you."
"You finish that sentence and I swear I'll make sure you never finish a sentence ever again." Buffy threatened angrily.
"I thought you didn't hurt humans Buffy?"
"You're not human." Buffy said, almost growling.
Cordelia laughed. "I guess not."
"Okay, not to sound like a broken record but what's going on here?" Angel asked, coming out of the office. "Again."
"Just a disagreement baby, it's okay." Cordelia said, putting an arm around him, watching as it made Buffy madder.
Before Buffy could say anything a movement by the front door caught Cordelia's attention.
"Angel, there's someone out there." She whispered, clutching his arm.
"Really? I didn't see anything." He whispered back.
"Angel, you're a vampire, use you senses." Cordelia ordered.
He pulled a face and headed towards the door.
It swung open before he could reach it and Maggie Wilson stumbled through.
Cordelia sidestepped Angel and rushed to her side.
"Maggie, what happened?" She asked and took the frightened woman's arm to lead her into the hotel.
"We were driving home and the monster that took Carla appeared in front of the car."
She said, occasionally sobbing and limping slightly on her left foot. "He got Mark out of the car so I got out as well. He shoved me out of the way and disappeared with him."
Cordelia sat her down on the couch and sat down next to her. "He's got them both now."
Cordelia put an arm around her shoulders while the others seemed to back off subtly.
"Mrs Wilson, have you any idea what this person wants with your family?" Wes asked, coming closer.
She shook her head. "I don't know. We're just a normal family."
"Can I get you a cup of coffee?" Fred asked.
She nodded gratefully, obviously in shock.
"Do you think you need to go to the hospital for your ankle?" Cordelia asked her. "Or I could bandage it for you."
"I think its okay. I fell over before I got back in the car, that's all. I just want my family back." She put her head down into her hands. "I can't bear it."
"I know." Cordelia murmured and stroked her back. "You can stay here until we find out what's happening. There'll be someone to protect you at all times."
She seemed to nod and Cordelia accepted the coffee off Fred for her.
"Cordelia, if I could have a word." Wes said quietly.
Cordelia nodded and stood up, letting Fred take the coffee again and sit down next to Maggie.
"I think we need to hit the underground and see what we can come up with. If the Master is alive then someone must know about it. With her family gone then Mrs Wilson is very vulnerable. She is the only one left which means she might be left for a reason." He told her.
"Okay, so Gunn and Angel could hit the sewers. And we could send Buffy to Merl; see if she can get anything out of him." Cordelia suggested.
He nodded. "That seems sensible. I have a couple of sources I can contact which means that you and Fred can take turns in watching Maggie. Giles, Xander, Willow and Anya can research unusual occurrences; the Wilson's might not be the only family this has happened to."
Cordelia nodded and went to tell the others what was happening.
Lorne chose that moment to come in through the hotel doors and instantly got a job assigned by Cordelia.
Author: victoriamartynne
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I own nothing!
Spoilers: None, I think!
Summary: A future slayer is kidnapped and it's up to the Fang Gang and the present slayer to get her back.
Cordelia watched them leave and turned back around to go into the office again, grabbing the coffee that Fred had got her on her way back in. God, that had been hard, she thought.
She sat back down at Wes's desk and picked up the sketch. She gasped when she saw what Maggie had drawn.
"Damn." She muttered and bolted out of the office, the sketch still in her hand.
She tore across the lobby, past a startled looking Anya and Willow and threw open the basement door.
"Angel!" She shouted and then lost her footing as she fell over a sweater that had been left on one of the steps.
She screamed as she fell down half of the basement stairs. She landed at the bottom in a heap, the sketch still in her hand. Willow and Anya, hearing the bumps, came to the top of the stairs.
Angel instantly rushed across to her. "Cordy, are you okay?"
She lifted her head slightly and groaned. "Nothing broken. Who left that damn sweater there?"
She looked up and saw the pink sweater Buffy had been wearing strewn across one of the middle steps. "Never mind." She replied, glaring at the slayer who stood in the middle of the basements in shorts and a vest.
Angel helped her sit on the bottom step. "What were you going to say"?
She remembered the sketch. "Oh God, I spoke to Mr and Mrs Wilson and she drew me a picture of the demon who kidnapped her daughter."
She thrust it in his direction and Buffy came to stand behind him so she could see.
Intrigued, Willow and Anya came down the stairs too.
"It can't be, the Master's dead." Angel argued.
"I don't care; he kidnapped Carla Wilson last night." Cordelia said, rubbing her elbow where she'd grazed it on one of the steps as she fell.
"But I destroyed his bones." Buffy said weakly, remembering how schizo she'd gone on the remains of the master.
"Yeah, and I was hung upside down over his bones before you did ready to be killed." Cordelia replied. "I know he was dead, but Mr and Mrs Wilson saw him kidnap their daughter last night. Somehow he must have been resurrected."
"Maybe your clients are just trouble causers." Buffy suggested.
Cordelia shook her head. "No, they were the real thing."
"How can you be so sure?" Willow asked from behind her.
"I just know, okay?" Cordelia said angrily.
"Okay, calm down." Angel soothed, diffusing the situation. "Why don't we all go back upstairs and get Wes and Giles to do a little investigating."
Buffy stepped around Cordelia and picked up the offending sweater, leaving Angel and Cordelia alone in the basement.
He sat down next to her and put an arm around her. "Are you okay?"
"No, they were so upset. They saw the whole thing and they couldn't do anything to help. He used some sort of power on the husband. He said it felt like he was frozen in place."
Angel nodded. "I never heard of him having that power but anything is possible. It's been years since I've known him."
Cordelia remembered him telling her that the Master was the head of Angel's line of vampires. "If he is alive then we need to get Carla off him and quickly."
Cordelia and Angel went back upstairs to find Wes and Giles already there.
"Giles, he can't be alive. Why would he do this to me?" Buffy was complaining to Giles.
"He put me through all that and then he comes back to haunt me."
"Oh for God's sake Buffy grow up!" Cordelia snapped. "He's not come back to haunt you! He's kidnapped a little girl who has nothing to do with you. Not everything in life revolves around you!"
Buffy spun around to face around her. "Can you remember what the Master did to me?"
"And what about all the people he killed?" Cordelia shouted. "At least you're alive. I mean, sure he did kill you but you survived. You beat his bones with a hammer until they were dust. I'd say you got him out of your system then. He's in LA, not Sunnydale. This has nothing to do with you!"
Everyone had suddenly gone silent. "Then why is he here now while I'm here? I'm sure Angel agrees with me."
She looked to Angel for support.
Cordelia almost growled. "Buffy, Angel doesn't love you anymore."
Buffy laughed. "Of course he does, he always will. He's taking me out to dinner tonight."
Cordelia sighed. "No, he doesn't. He was taking you out tonight to tell you. Angel and I have been seeing each other for the past year." She saw tears start to well up in the slayer's eyes. "I'm sorry Buffy; I didn't want you to find out like that."
Angel went to stand in between the two women. "Buffy why don't we talk?" He suggested and turned to Cordelia. "Let Fred see to your elbow, you're bleeding."
She nodded and went to get the first aid box while Angel took Buffy into Wes's office.
Cordelia found the first aid box and went to sit on the couch next to Fred. "Do you mind?"
The young girl shook her head and took the box off her. "She had to know Cordy."
"I know Fred, but I could have been more tactful about it." Cordelia winced as Fred placed an antiseptic wipe on the wound on her elbow. "At least not shouted it to her."
"Cordelia." Wes interrupted. "Did the Wilson's say anything else about the Master?"
"Just that he used some sort of freezing power to keep Mr Wilson away from him." Cordelia replied.
"That isn't right." Wes mused to himself. "He was just a vampire. He didn't have powers."
"Maybe he learned some." Cordelia said flippantly and shoved her hair back from her face.
Something on her neck caught Wes's attention. "Cordelia?"
"What?" She asked, not realising what he was looking at.
"You neck." Wes looked faint.
She realised what he was looking at. From her position on the other side of Cordelia Fred couldn't see.
"You let him bite you?" Wes whispered incredulously.
"I didn't let him! I wanted him to." She replied and covered it once more with her hair. "And it's none of your business."
"I believe it is!" Wesley shouted now. "If this continues then you could reawaken Angel's bloodlust."
"He didn't drink, he just bit." She interrupted.
"As I was saying, he could get carried away one day and kill you or even turn you!" He shouted. "Is that what you want?"
"Of course not!" She shouted back and then stopped when she saw Xander and Anya come into the lobby from the courtyard where they had been stood with Giles and Willow. "Look, can we talk about this in private?"
He didn't say anything but walked back to his office leaving her to follow.
Once the door was slammed he began shouting at her with her shouting at him in response.
"Yo Fred, girl, what's going on?" Gunn asked as he came into the lobby.
"I think Wes is mad at Cordelia."
"Why?"
"He's mad at something that she and Angel did." Fred replied over the sound of Wes and Cordy shouting at each other.
"What did they do?"
"He bit her."
"Bastard! Vamp's gonna die!" He said angrily and started looking around for him.
"No Charles!" Fred shouted, realising how it had sounded. "She wanted him to!"
He stopped his searching and stood and looked at her and then looked at the two people fighting in Wes's office. "I was normal before I met y'all."
"What's going on?" Angel asked as he and a teary looking Buffy came out of the small room they'd been in.
"Wes saw the gift you gave Cordy bro'." Gunn answered, still looking a little pissed off.
"The gift I what..?" Angel asked and then understood. "Oh."
He marched across the lobby to save Cordelia.
"What gift?" Buffy asked, walking across to Willow.
"Angel bit her." Gunn said without thinking. "I mean, not in a bad way, in a kinda, good way, kinda."
Buffy's faced registered hurt, then anger and then hurt again. She shrugged nonchalantly. "He should have sucked her dry."
"Hey!" Fred complained. "That was mean."
"Don't worry Fred, I probably deserve it." Cordelia said, walking out of the office, leaving Angel to fight it out with Wes. "I mean, falling in love and sharing things with my soul mate means that I should have the blood sucked out of me. After all, it is such a killable offence." She mocked.
Buffy glared at her. "He is not your soul mate."
Cordelia snorted. "Well, he certainly isn't yours. I think you lost that right when you sent him to hell, or was it when you."
"You finish that sentence and I swear I'll make sure you never finish a sentence ever again." Buffy threatened angrily.
"I thought you didn't hurt humans Buffy?"
"You're not human." Buffy said, almost growling.
Cordelia laughed. "I guess not."
"Okay, not to sound like a broken record but what's going on here?" Angel asked, coming out of the office. "Again."
"Just a disagreement baby, it's okay." Cordelia said, putting an arm around him, watching as it made Buffy madder.
Before Buffy could say anything a movement by the front door caught Cordelia's attention.
"Angel, there's someone out there." She whispered, clutching his arm.
"Really? I didn't see anything." He whispered back.
"Angel, you're a vampire, use you senses." Cordelia ordered.
He pulled a face and headed towards the door.
It swung open before he could reach it and Maggie Wilson stumbled through.
Cordelia sidestepped Angel and rushed to her side.
"Maggie, what happened?" She asked and took the frightened woman's arm to lead her into the hotel.
"We were driving home and the monster that took Carla appeared in front of the car."
She said, occasionally sobbing and limping slightly on her left foot. "He got Mark out of the car so I got out as well. He shoved me out of the way and disappeared with him."
Cordelia sat her down on the couch and sat down next to her. "He's got them both now."
Cordelia put an arm around her shoulders while the others seemed to back off subtly.
"Mrs Wilson, have you any idea what this person wants with your family?" Wes asked, coming closer.
She shook her head. "I don't know. We're just a normal family."
"Can I get you a cup of coffee?" Fred asked.
She nodded gratefully, obviously in shock.
"Do you think you need to go to the hospital for your ankle?" Cordelia asked her. "Or I could bandage it for you."
"I think its okay. I fell over before I got back in the car, that's all. I just want my family back." She put her head down into her hands. "I can't bear it."
"I know." Cordelia murmured and stroked her back. "You can stay here until we find out what's happening. There'll be someone to protect you at all times."
She seemed to nod and Cordelia accepted the coffee off Fred for her.
"Cordelia, if I could have a word." Wes said quietly.
Cordelia nodded and stood up, letting Fred take the coffee again and sit down next to Maggie.
"I think we need to hit the underground and see what we can come up with. If the Master is alive then someone must know about it. With her family gone then Mrs Wilson is very vulnerable. She is the only one left which means she might be left for a reason." He told her.
"Okay, so Gunn and Angel could hit the sewers. And we could send Buffy to Merl; see if she can get anything out of him." Cordelia suggested.
He nodded. "That seems sensible. I have a couple of sources I can contact which means that you and Fred can take turns in watching Maggie. Giles, Xander, Willow and Anya can research unusual occurrences; the Wilson's might not be the only family this has happened to."
Cordelia nodded and went to tell the others what was happening.
Lorne chose that moment to come in through the hotel doors and instantly got a job assigned by Cordelia.