Chapter 64

Fred walked across the lobby toward Lorne and Gunn on the couch, reading from a spell book. "Hey, here's something. Maybe I can have an embolism!" She said as a blaze erupted behind her. Everyone stared as Skip appeared on the floor with Buffy and Angel standing over him.

"What happened?" Wesley asked.

"We had words." Angel said.

"Between the pummeling?" Lorne asked.

"Whatever's happened to Cordy, he's a part of it. We need to bind him to this dimension." Angel winced in pain and sat down to catch his non- existent breath. Buffy sat beside him and checked her stomach. They looked up to find everyone staring at them in shock. "Before he wakes up would be nice."

"I'll call Willow." Fred said.

"Good plan. I'll do it." Buffy said.

"I'm going with you. We need to check on things there." Angel said.

"I was going to check on Dawn. I've never been away from her this long." Buffy shut the door to the dark office and sat behind the desk with a groan. "I'm getting to old for this."

"You're 22."

"Exactly. What Slayer has ever lived to that age?"

"None that I know of. So, I see your point."

Buffy picked up the phone and waited till someone answered. Andrew picked up. "Andrew?! Why the hell are you answering my phone?"

"Because I was the one near it." Andrew answered.

"Who's the one near you?"

"Faith."

"Lemme talk to her."

"Ok."

There was a loud pop and then Faith got on the line. "Hello?"

"Hey Faith."

"Hey B. Where the hell are you? You guys were supposed to be right behind us."

"Something came up here in LA. Cordy's evil, she's pregnant with a demon spawn or something, and my son is the father. That's the gist. Is Willow there?"

"Ok. Wow and yeah. Hold on."

Faith yelled for Willow and a minute later, Willow's voice filled the phone. "Cordy's pregnant and evil and Connor's the daddy?"

"To sum it up. I need your magickal advice Will."

"What's up?"

"Demon from another dimension. What do we need to bind it here?"

"How big and strong is it?"

"Um, twice Angel's size and pretty damn strong."

"Oh, that's easy. Sand of the Red Palm is what you need. Just make a circle around it and you're done."

"That easy?"

"Just don't break the circle in any way and it's that easy. Are you interrogating him?"

"Yeah."

"Then you might want to use a Sphere of the Infinite Agonies spell."

"What's it do?"

"Every second feels like a lifetime. It drives the person or demon insane."

"Thanks. We'll get right on that. Ok, I need to talk to Dawn."

"She's doing good Buffy. She's even started training with the potentials to get ready for the big apocalypse. I didn't get to tell you that yesterday."

"I know. I'm glad she's doing good. Before you go, how're things up there?"

"All on the quiet. We think something big is coming."

"Isn't it always?"

"Pretty much. Here's Dawn. I didn't tell her anything."

"Hey Buffy." Dawn said.

"Hold on Dawnie." Buffy looked at Angel. "Sand of the Red Palm. Make a circle around Skip and don't break it. To make sure he talks, use a Sphere of the Infinite Agonies spell." He nodded and went to tell Wesley. "Hey Dawn. I hear you're getting ready for the big show."

"What's going on? I thought you were supposed to be here when Willow and Faith for here."

"Something came up. You don't need to know right now. I want to talk to you."

"Buffy.."

"I'll tell you later. So how long have you been training with the girls?"

"Not long after you left. Hey, did you know that you're not the only Slayer to have had a kid?"

"So I was told."

"Isn't that weird that Principal Wood is a Slayer's kid?"

"Yeah. It kinda is."

"Oh, Spike says hey."

"Tell Spike I said hey back."

"Hold on."

"What?"

"Hey Buffy." Spike said.

"Spike?"

"In the undead flesh. Faith tells me that you've got trouble up there. Congratulations on becoming a grandmother."

"Nuh uh. I already got drunk over that. Don't need to again."

"You got drunk? Not that I've never seen you drunk. You're pretty interesting when you're drunk."

"Stop bringing it up. I'm not overly pleased."

"I wouldn't be either. I just wanted to let you know that I'm here if you need me."

"I just need you to watch after Dawn."

"Like I promised, I won't let anything happen to her."

"Thank you."

"Now you get back to your duties down there and we'll see you guys when you get back."

"Bye." Buffy hung up and looked at Angel as he walked back in. "Everything's on the quiet, but something's coming is what Willow says."

Angel nodded. "Well, the circle's done. We had some Sand of the Red Palm lying around."

"Yay?" Buffy walked out to find Skip standing in the lobby in the center of a magickal circle inscribed on the floor by a band of reddish sand. The spell enveloped him in an impenetrable energy barrier and bound him both to the mortal plane and kept him confined and helpless. Angel, Buffy, and the rest of the gang surrounded Skip and watched him warily as he tested the barrier.

"Sand of the Red Palm. A child's trick." He said.

"Then why don't you come out and play?" Buffy asked.

"In time."

"You'll have a lot of that.. after we make your accommodations a little bit more permanent. Fred?" Angel said.

Fred picked up a spell book and held it open for Skip to see. "Sphere of the Infinite Agonies. Every second, a lifetime. Should be able to whip one up in.. twenty minutes?"

"Everything you know or she starts whippin'." Buffy said.

"Hey, whoa. I'm just a merc. I go where the deal is and not getting stuck in one of those? Bargain." Skip said. Angel nodded and Fred put the book back down. "Anybody got a cig?"

"Cordelia. Where is she?"

"Hey, this is your dimension. You tell me."

"The real Cordelia. Not this thing that's been posing as her." Angel said.

"How'd I ever get spanked by such chump nuts? That thing which has turned your life into a burning rain of fire? She is the real Cordelia. Or at least she's in there somewhere. It's this whole thing."

"Is it Cordy or not?" Buffy asked.

"Oh, it's her. She just ain't drivin'."

"Something took control of her on the higher plane?"

"Drill a little deeper, Blondie. How do you think she got there in the first place?"

"You're saying her ascension was all part of this thing's plan?" Wes asked.

"No, Cordelia was chosen to become a higher being because she's such a pure, radiant saint. Please!"
Connor watched Cordelia perform the ritual to bring their baby into the world. The only thing she had asked of him was to bring her a sacrifice. The girl, Anna was her name, lay bound and propped against the wall, still unconscious. He stared at her as Cordelia chanted, his face an expressionless mask. Anna's eyes suddenly snapped open and she gasped when she saw Connor kneeling over her.

"It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you." Connor said.

"Please.." Anna said.

"Brought you some water."

"I gotta get home. My mom's gonna be so mad."

"I'm sorry."

"I won't tell anyone, I promise! Please, just let me go." Anna sobbed.

Connor didn't know what to make of the sobbing. Behind him, a voice said, "Listen." He looked around at the sound of the voice, faint as if coming from a great distance. He didn't see anyone else in the empty room. "Somebody there?"

"I've always been there, close to your heart. After all.." Joyce walked out of the shadows. "Isn't that where a grandmother belongs? The Powers have sent me to give you a message."

"You can't be my grandmother. You're the First Evil."

"No. I'm really here."

"Let me go.. please!" Anna cried

Joyce looked over. "Why are you doing this?"

"You don't understand. We need her for our baby. To keep it safe."

"By anointing it in the blood of an innocent? You really think that safety can be plucked from the arms of an evil deed?"

"Good, evil.. they're just words."

"Don't let this happen, Connor. Don't throw away everything that Buffy had strived to help you become."
"Do you really think it matters?" Skip asked. "I mean, nothing I tell you is going to change what's going to happen."

"Cut the doom and gloom. What's taken over Cordy?" Buffy asked.

"Something beyond your comprehension. To give it voice would render your feeble brain into a quivering mass of.."

"Fred? Infinite agony."

Fred stood up with her spell book but Skip held up his hands in surrender. "Okay, you got me. It doesn't even have a name."

"Then what do you call it?" Gunn asked.

"You know, 'master' or 'hey'."

"Unspeakable horror. For real this time." Lorne said.

"No, it doesn't make sense." Angel said, pacing. "Cordy was made a higher being because she proved herself to the Powers by bearing their visions. This thing couldn't.."

"Unless it maneuvered her to inherit the visions in the first place." Wesley said.

"Uh-oh. Better step on it. The rubes are catching up." Skip said.

"It wasn't just her ascension. Everything that's happened to Cordy in the past few years, all of it, was planned." Buffy said.

"You really think it stops with her? Do you have any concept of how many lines have to intersect in order for a thing like this to play out? How many events have to be nudged in just the right direction? Leaving Pylea." He said to Lorne. "Your sister." To Gunn. "Opening the wrong book." To Fred. "Sleeping with the enemy." To Wesley. "Coming back from heaven." To Buffy. "Gosh, I love a story with scope."

"No way. We make our own choices." Gunn said.

"Yeah, sure. A cheese sandwich here, when to floss.. But the big stuff, like a supposed-to-be-dead Slayer and a vampire with a soul squeezing out a kid?"

"Connor.." Buffy and Angel said.

"An impossible birth to make one possible." Wesley said.

"That's what the kid was designed for." Skip said.

"To sleep with Mother Love?" Lorne asked.

"To create a vessel." Angel said.

"Look out, the monkey's thinking again." Skip said.

"Being inside a human makes it vulnerable, doesn't it? That's why it had to stay hidden. Why it needed to create something stronger to pour itself into."

"Wait, so the big nasty inside of Cordy is going to give birth to itself?" Gunn asked.

"Circle of life. It's a beautiful thing." Skip said.

"How do we stop it?" Buffy asked.

"Well, that's the easy part, slick. All you gotta do is find Cordelia and chop her head off."

"There has to be another way."

"Sure. Stab her in the heart, kidney.. a couple of pokes in the lung."

"A way that won't kill Cordy in the process. I'm not killing my friend."

"It takes a whole lotta crammin' to get that much sweetness into a human. It's in every hair, every cell, every molecule of Cordelia's body, and it ain't letting go until it's got a brand new bag."

"What happens to Cordy then?"

"Drained of her life force during labor. Those contractions are a real bitch."

"Tell me about it." Buffy mumbled. She looked up at Skip. "It'll kill her, won't it?"

"Or she'll end up a head of cabbage."

"What do you want to do?" Wesley asked Buffy and Angel.

"The only thing they can do. Kill a friend they both have come to love like she's a sister and save the world." Skip said. He looked at Buffy and Angel. "Times like this: really gotta suck being you two."

Buffy looked at Angel who looked just as pained as she felt. Angel sighed and looked at Skip. "How do we find her? How?"

"Well, I'd go with a Bu'shundi ritual but you're going to need a sacred Hutamin paw.."

"Got it." Lorne said.

"What?"

"Cordy, the real Cordy, kept one in her desk drawer."

"Probably a knock-off. It's not some trinket you throw in a desk draw.." Skip stopped when Lorne pulled up a tiny furry hand with claws.

"She thought it was a back scratcher."

"Get started." Angel said.

"Wait! Did I say Bu-shundi? I meant Ru-shundi. It's a whole different.." No one was buying it. "Crap."
"They hate us because we're special." Connor said, trying to make Joyce see it his way.

"I don't hate you. Please.." Anna cried.

"They're scared because of what you've done, not because of what you are." Joyce said.

"They wanted to kill me when I was still inside of my mother!" Connor protested.

"But that changed when they saw you, held you in their arms, felt the warmth of your skin, the goodness in your heart. Buffy felt it everyday because she told me in her silent prayers to keep you safe."

"And it'll happen again when they hold my child. It's the only way."

"You have a choice, Connor. That is something more precious than you'll ever know. Ask Buffy."

"What choice? They're hunting us like animals!"

"Because you're acting like one. As a vampire, your father killed without mercy or remorse because he didn't have a soul. What's your excuse?"

"You think I want to do this?"

"Then don't."

"I have to."

"Why? Because she told you? That's not the Cordelia you think you know. There are things happening, Connor, things that I can't.. It has to be your choice. You can stop this."

"Her blood for our baby's.. that's fair, isn't it?"

"Please.. I wanna go home!" Anna cried.

Connor wheeled on her. "SHUT UP!"

"This isn't you Connor." Joyce said. "Buffy would never have raised you to be this way."

"You've been gone a long time. How would you know?"

"Because she's my daughter! I feel her pain, her anger, her hurt, like it were my own. And because I can feel that, I know what she feels about you. She feels the good in you and no matter how much you're beaten or twisted or lied to, it's still there, in your heart. We both know it and deep down, you know it, too."

Connor stared at Joyce, knowing it was all true. "What do I do?"

"Let her go and then you get out of here before it's too late."

Connor leaned down and reached for Anna. She pulled back, terrified. "Shh.. it's okay." He started to undo the ropes around her wrist.

"You're all right now. Everything's going to be all right." Joyce said to Connor.

"What are you doing?" Cordy asked from the doorway.

Connor turned around to find Cordelia standing in the doorway holding a meat cleaver. He stood up, nervous. "Nothing. I.."

"It's time. Take her in the other room."

Connor hesitated and Joyce urged him on. "Listen to your heart."

"She didn't do anything. We should let her go." Connor said to Cordy.

"No, we shouldn't. We need her, Connor. Our baby.." Cordy said.

"Shouldn't be anointed with innocent blood."

"Anointed? Who's been filling your head with big confusing words?"

"Just been thinking about it."

"Or maybe.. a little birdy's been pecking at you behind my back."

"She'll lie to you." Joyce said.

"You know how much they love to use the magick, Connor. A spell for this, a spell for that.."

"Close her out, baby."

"Whatever you're hearing, whatever you think you're seeing, it's a trick."

"Don't let her in."

"It's Buffy and Angel."

Joyce saw Connor was wavering again, going over to Cordelia's side. "No."

"Trying to turn you against me with a cheap vision of.. Joyce." Cordy smiled and looked over at Joyce for the first time.

Connor looked at Cordelia, amazed. "You can see her?"

"I see the lies."

"Connor, listen to me." Joyce said, trying to stop Connor from joining Cordelia.

"It's not her."

"You have to let her go."

"It's your mother and father. This is how much they hate you."

"I love you. Buffy and Angel love you. Please.."

"Torturing you with this sad imitation of your dead grandmother!"

"Don't let her do this."

"Are you going to let them do this to us? Are you going to let them kill our baby?"

"Connor, listen to me."

Connor was near tears, torn between the two sides. He finally shook his head, gave up, and rounded on Joyce. "You're not my grandmother!" He bent down and yanked Anna up by the ropes around her hands and dragged her out into the next room. Cordelia followed with the meat cleaver, a satisfied smile on her face. He dropped Anna next to Cordelia's magick circle. As Cordelia raised the cleaver to strike, the girl looked up at Connor but it was not the girl any more, it was Joyce. She looked at Connor, her eyes pleading.

"Please.. don't do this, Connor. Don't.." Cordelia brought the cleaver down and buried it in Anna's neck, killing her instantly. A bright spray of blood shot up and hit Connor in the face. Horrified, he looked over at Cordelia, who was also covered in blood. She merely smiled at him.

"There. That wasn't so hard, was it?" She asked.

Connor stared down at the body. From his point of view, it was still Joyce; a pool of blood gathered beneath his grandmother's body as her eyes stared sightlessly up at him, accusing. Connor felt horrible because this was the mother that his mother had lost.

Cordelia lied on a pile of rags in the center of the ritual circle, her labor pains causing her to writhe and gasp. "Connor.. we have to do this.. while it's fresh."

Connor looked back down and now it was just Anna whose dead eyes stared back at him. He hesitated a moment, then leaned down and placed his palm in the pool of blood. "Vanu'esh katahn darh'im vajra'ha'esh. Vanu'esh katahn darh'im vajra'ha'esh. Do it, Connor. Do it now. Do it now." Cordy said.

He walked over to Cordelia and pressed his hand against her straining belly, leaving a bloody handprint on her skin. The blood immediately sunk into her, absorbed by her body, and disappeared. Cordelia shrieked in pain and the entire building shook as an earthquake rocked the city. Cordelia screamed in agony again and Connor kneeled down beside her, frightened. "Cordy! Something's wrong. We have to stop it."

Cordelia laughed hysterically through her pain. "No! It's coming. It's coming, the beginning of a new world."

"Or not." Buffy said. Connor whirled around to find Buffy and Angel standing behind him, broadswords in hand. He stood and faced off with them. Buffy didn't want to hurt him. "She lied to you, Connor."

"Don't listen." Cordy panted.

"To all of us. That's not Cordelia."

"Leave us alone!" Connor yelled. He charged and tackled Buffy to the ground.

"Kill them! Kill them both, Connor!" Cordy said.

Angel ripped Connor off of Buffy and threw him headfirst into a supply shelf. Connor kicked Angel backward into the wall and Angel counterattacked with a series of blows. "You think we want to do this? We don't have a choice!" He threw Connor into the wall, then turned and grabs his sword off the floor. He went over to where Buffy was standing over Cordelia, sword raised. Cordy glared balefully up at them, powerless to stop either of them. Connor grabbed Angel from behind, not able to grab both of them, and pulled him away from Cordy.

Buffy looked down . "I'm so sorry."

As Connor and Angel struggled to their feet and Connor ran across the room to stop her, Buffy brought the sword down in an arc toward Cordelia's neck. But before the blade found its mark, Cordelia's belly suddenly exploded in a brilliant white light that knocked Buffy, Angel, and Connor off their feet. The light expanded and filled the room. Within the brilliance, a glowing tentacled creature writhed and squirmed before coalescing into the form of a fully-grown dark-skinned adult woman. Cordelia's eyes slipped shut and she let out a long agonized breath. Then her head slumped to the side and she laid still. Angel stared at the woman in shock, then grabbed his sword and charged her. Buffy fell to her knees and Angel thought it was a diversionary tactic. Before he could strike, he suddenly came to a halt and stared at the woman in awe and wonder. He lowered the sword and dropped to his knees before her next to Buffy.

"Oh my God." Angel said.

"You're beautiful." Buffy said.

The woman looked at them and smiled. "Buffy. Angel."