The Angel's Knight #8 - A Key to Glory, a Ghost Among Men

#

Los Angeles, October 14, 2017

#

"Hi, Cordy!"

"Who's there? I ... I don't think I recognize your voice."

"I'm not surprised. But maybe it will come back to you in a few moments. Or maybe it won't. Things have gotten murkier as of late. Maybe I'll finally fade from existence altogether. Can't happen too soon, really."

"I don't ... Dawn? Dawnie, is that you?"

"So you still remember. Cool! Of course you're gonna forget me the moment I walk out the door, but it's nice to be remembered even for a minute or two."

"You ... you've been living here with us all this time, haven't you? You came from Sunnydale with Tara when she moved here."

"Yeah. I figured I'd rather stay with the witch that didn't raise my sister as a brain-eating zombie. Not that it made much of a difference. Sometimes I wonder what would have happened to me had I stayed in Sunnydale. You think a burping Hellmouth could have killed a ghost?"

"You're not a ghost, Dawn!"

"Yeah, you'd know. How is Dennis anyway?"

"I am not really sure. When the visions got more intense I moved here. Tara moved into my old place. I guess she is taking care of him now. Why don't you ask her?"

"Not really an option, Cordy. It's hard to talk to people who don't even realize you're there. These days not even Tara can see me anymore."

"Dawn, I'm so sorry."

"Not your fault. I figured out what was happening to me a long time ago. Did some research and all. I can still turn pages, you know? Material as ever, can't walk through walls or anything. It's just people. They don't see me, don't acknowledge me, and if I get fed up and slug them they just get confused."

"It's because Buffy died, isn't it?"

"Got it in one. Those stupid monks made me out of my sister. Still don't know how exactly they pulled that stunt, but ... well, it seems that without the original around the copy is fading."

"You're not a copy, Dawn."

"No? Then what am I, Cordy? I'm certainly not a human being. Humans don't just fade away into nothingness when their sisters die."

Silence.

"Sorry, I didn't come here to mope about the general suckiness of my existence. You haven't exactly got it easy, either. How come you're naked all the time anyway?"

"It's complicated."

"I got time."

"Well, it's ... whenever I get a vision I'm just swamped with sensations, you know? It's not just pictures and sounds, it's everything. Complete five- sense surround. And now that I'm getting them almost constantly I'm sort of hyper-sensitized. I can barely tolerate the feel of this mask on my face. Or the feeling of the carpet beneath my feet."

"Wow! That sucks!"

"It certainly does."

"You could ask Tara to get you a levitation spell or something. That way at least your feet wouldn't touch the carpet anymore."

"Hey, that isn't such a bad idea."

Silence.

"So you ... you're like getting these visions 24/7 now?"

"Pretty much, yes. There is a lull sometimes. And most of the time I just see a lot of stuff I can't make heads or tails of. People I never met, places I never saw, nothing big happening. At other times it hits me like a sledgehammer and shows me thing I really did not need to see."

"Did you see ... I mean ... was I in any of those visions?"

"I think you were. I'm afraid I did not recognize your face then. Sorry about that."

"Not your fault. What did you see?"

"I think it was something from your past."

"Which past? The real one or the fabricated one?"

"The real one, I believe. It sort of went backwards. I saw monks involved in some kind of ritual and then, poof, there you were, stepping right out of a green swirl of energy."

"I don't remember that."

"I don't think you are supposed to. Anyway, then I saw something else. That same green swirl of energy ..."

"Me, you mean."

"Well, yes, I guess. I saw you and a woman that I believe was the uber- bitch that used you to bring about hell on Earth or whatever."

"Glory? You saw Glory?"

"There was a world there. A world filled with fire and destruction. I saw her sitting on a throne, a throne made from flesh and dead bodies. She sat on the ashes of her world and ... and she had that green ... you ... in her hand. Like ... like a scepter or something."

"Was ... was that her own world? Or what she planned to do to ours?"

"Both, I think."

"Glory told me that ... that I was evil. Or not, depending on the point of view. I was never really sure what she meant."

"I think you are ... power, Dawnie. The key to a whole lot of power. That was why she wanted you back so badly. Without you she couldn't be the god she fancied herself to be."

"Yeah, right! A really cool power I have. The power to bring down the dimensional walls and plunge all of creation into hell, but only once at a very specific time and in a very specific place. Apocalyptic one-shot, that's me."

"I don't ... ah!"

"Cordy, are you all right?"

"Y-yes. It's the visions. Some are stronger than others. God, they're really getting worse. How am I supposed to puzzle all of this out if you keep sending me migraines, you stupid Powers?"

"Should I get ... well, I can't really get someone, but I could push someone in your direction and hope they get a clue or something."

"No, it's okay. Well, not okay, but there isn't really anything anyone can do, you know? Aspirin hasn't helped in a long time. Besides, Fred should be back soon. They don't leave me alone for long. Never know when I might sprout some useful insight. I think this one is for you, though. I just saw Glory again."

"Oh! She ... she's still dead, right?"

"Yes, she died when Giles killed her human host. I saw her from before that. When she was in Sunnydale and looking for you. God, that bitch was really completely insane, wasn't she?"

"Well, I remember Giles saying something about how her being stuck in a human body was driving her nuts. That was why she drained all these people of their brains."

"It didn't help much, let me tell you that. At the end there she really thought that she wanted to use you to get back home."

"Uh ... Cordy, that was what she wanted to use me for."

"No, it wasn't."

"It wasn't?"

"No! Her home was destroyed, I saw it happen. She saw it, too, that was what drove her nuts to begin with. Seeing the world she ruled like a god go pop really knocked her for a loop. It only got worse when she got stuck in a human body. She went completely bonkers, the only thing she had straight was that she wanted you back."

"But ... if she couldn't go back home, I mean ... what was that then? What happened on the day that ... that Buffy ...?"

"Glory wanted to return home, Dawn, but since her home no longer existed she wanted to use your power to turn this world, our world, into her new home."

"My ... my power? Cordy, you're not making any sense. What power am I supposed to have? How could cracking the dimensional walls turn our world into a hell dimension?"

"I'm not sure. I don't think it's power you have, Dawn, as much as power you can provide access to. You're a key, remember? A key to an awful lot of power. Enough to change an entire world according to Glory's design."

Silence.

"Why do you think are they showing you this, Cordy?"

"If I knew that my life would be a whole lot easier. Lately I think ... I think the Powers are trying to show me the whole pattern of things, you know? I've seen a lot of events some members of our group were involved in and somehow they never went down exactly as we thought they did at the time. We never saw behind the curtains, if you know what I mean. I see the past of people and sometimes their futures. Something really, really big is about to go down and I believe the Powers want us to understand the big picture. It's just ... there is too much of it, so many pieces of a puzzle and we haven't got a clue what the picture will be in the end. Am I making sense here?"

"Somewhat, yeah! What has Glory got to do with any kind of big picture, though? She's dead and gone and she came from somewhere else anyway, so what could she have to do with the latest version of the apocalypse?"

"I don't think it's about Glory, Dawn. I believe it's about you. What you were and ... well, what you might yet become?"

"Become? Cordelia, the only thing I'm becoming is nothing, okay?"

"Not nothing, Dawn. Even if you're correct, even if you fade away completely, there will be something left. Something that wasn't made out of Buffy."

"What are you ...? Oh, I get it. The Key. You think I will turn back into a green swirl of energy? Just great!"

"There might be more to it. I ... these last few weeks I've been seeing one picture over and over again. A giant torch of some kind, standing in a dark hallway that feels like it's deep beneath the Earth somewhere. I have no clue what it is, but I know it's important and that's why they are showing it to me over and over again."

"What's a giant underground torch got to do with me?"

"Something. I don't know what, really, but there is a connection there. It's like ... I hear your voice and I see your face, at least in my mind I do, and at the same time I see the picture of that giant torch."

"Doesn't exactly tell me much, Cordy."

"After living with obscure visions for the better part of eighteen years, Dawn, you get used to things not making immediate sense. But one thing I know, you still play a role in the big picture. Not sure what role, but you're still in it. You're not fading away."

"Oh really? Try and repeat that two minutes after I've left this room. You won't even remember me having been here."

"Dawn, please ... Dawn? Are you still here? Dawn?"

"Cordelia? Are you talking to someone?"

"Fred? Yes, I was ... I think ... where have you been?"

"Just stepped out to check out the newcomers down below. Apparently we got another mystery on our hand."

"Great, something we really needed around here. Another mystery."

"Did you have more visions? Is that why you were talking to yourself?"

"Was I? I ... I don't remember. Well, can't have been that important, I guess."

TO BE CONTINUED