~*-*~
As they began to close in on the shore, Connor looked at the mermaids questioningly.
"Can they survive out of water? We had creatures like those in the Quortoth, they couldn't survive out of water."
Katherina scowled.
"Well, 'they' are sitting right here, and 'they' can survive just fine thank you very much."
"Way to go with the tact Little Poof. Chip off the old block you are..."
Connor went to sit down next to his uncle... nephew... granduncle... *relation* with a puzzled look on his face.
"Yeah, and another thing. Why do you keep calling me that?!"
As Spike tried to remember his reasoning for Connor's nicknames, Bianca grew weary.
"Champion?"
Angel sat down next to Bianca.
"Please, Angel's fine."
She beamed. She had permission to call the Champion by his first name. Oh yeah, she was cool.
"Well, Angel... I, we, have to come clean about something."
Katherina turned sharply.
Oh no, you're not telling him now are you?
It's better now than later.
Whatever.
Bianca continued.
"We're not who we said we were. Don't worry, we're not a threat. We're far from that."
Angel tensed up immediately. He already had what he considered one intruder in his life, he wasn't particularly looking forward to bringing in another two.
"Then who are you? What are you doing here?"
It's now or never sis.
Bianca took one last breath.
"We were sent to watch you, by the Powers. To be your seer."
Angel shook his head.
"No, I have a seer. I have Cordy."
"You don't."
"What do you mean I don't?! Cordelia is my seer, I don't need another one! She's going to be at home waiting for me, and that's that!"
The outburst from Angel called Fred over from where she was eavesdropping on Connor and Spike's conversation and she walked over to explain.
"Actually Angel, she's not. Cordelia's not at the hotel, and she's not at her apartment. She's not with her family, and she's not with Groo either. Cordelia's been missing as long as you have."
Angel then turned on Fred. This was becoming something of a repeating pattern...
"Fred, that's not possible. She can't just disappear off the face of the planet!"
Bianca interrupted to save Fred, and from the look on Angel's face things would quickly get ugly.
"Actually she can. And she did."
"Explain. Explain quickly. Or I'm tossing this catch back in."
Angel had one of those expressions that would drain the life from a watercolour. When he was angry, you could tell. Spike would have vouched for this, had he not been highly engrossed in a conversation with his nephew. The two sisters were terrified and Katherina quickly helped each other to escape Angel's wrath.
"We told you were sent by the Powers. We were. We were sent by Cordelia. She's one of them now."
"Cordelia's ascended. Angel, that's why you couldn't find her."
"She sent us as her replacement, once she discovered where you are. We were the only ones who could help."
"Or rather Katherina was sent to be your seer, but being the bitch she is, she though she'd leave you to your own devices. Took a whole load of convincing to get her here, I'll tell you that much. Part of our deal was that I would come and suffer alongside her."
Once again, Bianca put her tail in her mouth.
Bitch.
Go to hell.
Angel tried to take this all in, tried being the operative word. He sat there, stared into space without moving. Everyone on board was worried about him, although Fred was the only one who was prepared to interrupt his thoughts... again.
"Angel?"
"What? Oh yeah."
Angel recollected his thoughts for a moment and then turned to the mermaid that claimed to be his new seer.
"Um, Katherina can I talk to you for a minute?"
Fred and Bianca took this as their cue to walk away. Or at least, Bianca tried to. She was going with more of a slide.
"Sure. What's up?"
"I need to know more. Where's Cordy? What do you mean she sent you? I don't understand."
"Cordelia ascended."
Katherina said as plainly as she could, but Angel still didn't get it.
"Yes, I know that, but it doesn't make sense."
She was clipped as she indicated he had interrupted her.
"If you'll allow me to finish, it would. Cordelia outgrew this dimension. She had to move on to a new plane. She's a higher being now. One of the Powers."
"Wow."
Katherina thought back on this.
"Well, not one of the Powers, she's not that huge. But quite close. Like a Power Roadie."
Angel frowned a the comparison
"Roadie?"
"Well yeah. She's not one of the powers, but she goes around with them and helps out a lot. Either way, she's not coming back. And she can't contact you. At least, not directly. She has to talk through me. And that takes energy. Energy I just don't have."
Katherina continued to speak of the power needed to connect with the higher levels, and spoke about the karmic balance if such a thing was attempted. Naturally Angel wasn't listening. He didn't really care. He wanted Cordelia. And if he couldn't see her, or speak to her, he could at least speak to her through someone else.
"Can you talk to her now? I need to talk to her."
"It's not that simple. I don't know how the Powers operate, I just work for them. Do what they tell me to. I'm like a minion. But with a dental plan."
Angel did a double take.
"The Powers give their employees a dental plan?"
"Mmm-hmm."
Katherina gave a huge smile, accenting her pearly whites. Angel was pleasantly surprised.
"Nice."
Katherina nodded in agreement. She knew she had nice teeth. She returned to the topic of Cordelia.
"Cordelia comes to me occasionally. She told me to tell you she's sorry she can't be with you anymore and that she loves you all very much."
One word stuck out in Angel's mind.
"All?"
"Yeah."
He couldn't get off it.
"Cordelia, she loves us. *All* of us huh?"
Angel's inner-Spike teased him.
Yeah, it would seem that way. You know, from the use of the word 'All'...
Angel growled. Even when Spike wasn't pissing him off personally, he'd be doing it mentally. Little bastard.
"So that's why we had to come with you. I'm your new connection to the Powers That Be."
I don't want a new connection. I want Cordy.
Katherina practically read Angel's mind.
"I know you must hate this. But there's no way to get Cordelia back. I'm sorry."
But this can't be possible.
Again, Katherina seemed to elicit mental powers.
"I know you probably don't believe this. Hell, I was in denial about it too."
Angel edged away slightly.
"Okay please stop that, you're freaking me out."
Angel's new seer rolled her eyes.
"Trust me, if there was some way for me to get back home and away from all of you guys, I'd take it. Especially that gay one with the fish phobia. I really don't like him."
"Gay guy with the fish? ...Oh! That's Gunn. And he's not gay."
Katherina was genuinely shocked.
"Really? Man, it's coming off him in waves."
Whilst Angel pondered over his new seer's observation, Fred took the opportunity to try and get to know Bianca better.
"So you're a mermaid huh? That's so interesting. I've always wondered about the life of other species. Especially ones with such mystery as mermaids."
Bianca wasn't exactly the brightest fish in the sea. In fact, she was quite dense.
"Oh, we don't have mystery. We're really quite healthy."
Fred stopped for a moment trying to understand what her new friend was saying.
"What? No, I mean I never knew mermaids existed. You're mythical creatures and all."
"I wouldn't say mythical. I'd say we were more based in fiction and stuff."
Fred took this opportunity to delve into her childhood dreams of deep sea diving. Living in Texas, she'd never seen much of the ocean, and it was a mystery to her. She spoke dreamily, remembering all the time she spend reading just so she'd know more. Fred always loved to expand her mind and gain new knowledge.
"Exactly. What's life like under the ocean? It's probably wonderful. I'd love to see it. A whole new world where beauty reigns? It's like a new dimension under the water I expect. I've always wondered, since my experience with dimensions isn't very pleasant. But the ocean! That calmness, and exploration. All the different sea life to explore and watch. It must be simply amazing."
Bianca nodded and thought for a while before adding her opinion.
"The food's not so good."
"Oh."
A disappointed Fred and a puzzled Bianca who was rather occupied with her fingernails continued to sit in agreed silence.
Connor and Spike had been talking for a while now, oblivious of the goings on around them. Had they wanted to, they could have quite easily listened in on all the conversations both on deck and inside the main cabin since they were both endowed with vampiric hearing. They had chosen not to, and instead Spike had been regaling Connor with some of the more embarrassing stories about his father. They'd discussed him in some depth, Angel being something they both having directly in common. Although since Spike was talking about Angel, women soon came up in conversation.
"You know, Katherina's quite nice."
"Peach, she's a bitch."
Bitch was a term not widely used in the Quortoth.
"Bitch?"
"Mean, unfriendly, disagreeable, unpleasant..."
Connor interrupted Spike's list of synonyms.
"You don't think she's nice?"
Spike answered him in a rather blasé manner.
"I think she's likely to be the second coming of the Antichrist."
"Second? Who's the first?"
Spike didn't even have to pause to answer.
"Margaret Thatcher."
Spike had good reason to dislike that Thatcher woman, having spent the majority of the eighties in the UK enjoying the punk revolution. In a contrast to the other world leaders Spike had come across in his time (and meeting Nixon was a somewhat *interesting* experience), this woman was hip to the existence of the supernatural. And she didn't like it. Lousy whore. What's more is that she criticised his Dru. At the time it was enough for Spike to consider murder, but after calm deliberations he decided she'd made enough enemies for someone else to do it. When Spike thought about it now, he would kick himself for not doing her in when he had the chance. Plus, he was a traditional man. Women in office? Insanity. Usually he was attracted to strong and powerful women. That woman however gave him the creeps.
"So, are you attracted to her?"
Connor looked at Spike for a moment.
"Oh, no. No. I mean, she's part fish."
Spike drew a large breath, and spoke with a mocking tone and a touch of sarcasm, the mocking aimed mostly at himself.
"Naturally you can't be with her if she's part fish. I get you. Relationships are doomed to failure if you cross species. Wish I'd known that earlier."
He looked up at the stars, silently wishing for an absolution. Spike remembered a night similar to this in temperature and atmosphere. A night etched into his memory where he'd spent the majority of the time staring up at the Californian sky with his girl laying by his side, completely naked and covered only by his leather duster. Buffy had found him on the roof of his crypt that night. They never made it back inside. Why did it always have to come back to her?
"Hmm. That look tells me some girl's done you wrong."
Spike raised an eyebrow at Connor. What was with this boy's perception? And how did a teenager, understandably lacking in people skills, manage to pick up on such things? Connor got the look and explained.
"I've watched a lot of TV."
Spike rolled his eyes. Television. Makes sense. He slouched further.
"Women. Too much trouble if you ask me. They're not worth it."
"What makes you say that?"
Spike smiled.
"Experience."
And it was true. Spike couldn't say he'd knew everything when it came to the mysteries of women, but he knew enough to know they were trouble. Cecily. Drusilla. Buffy. Not worth a drop of his time. Never stopped him trying though.
"Women. They never let you in."
"No?"
Spike continued his thoughts out loud to Connor, not in the least bit angry. It was a talk of acceptance and wonderment. Not a slither of bitterness. Which was rather unexpected to say the least.
"I don't know what's with them. I don't understand how females operate. A hundred years, and they are still the greatest mystery of the universe. I think that if you truly understood them, you wouldn't want them."
"So it's a whole 'quest for the unknown' thing?"
Spike smiled. He liked Connor.
"Precisely. Sure, there's say one or two girls in the whole world that could truly make you happy, but then the problem lies with you. You can't make them happy."
"What makes you say that?"
"Experience."
And didn't he know it. The two women Spike ever romantically loved didn't want him. He was beneath both of them. He wasn't bad enough for Drusilla. Far too human and obsessed with the Slayer was her reasoning. Ironically enough, he wasn't good enough for the Slayer. He could never win.
"These girls really did you over huh?"
"You could say so yeah."
Connor smiled and patted Spike's knee in an attempt to lighten the mood.
"It'll be fine, I'm sure of it."
Spike gave Connor a questioning glance.
"What makes you say that?"
"Experience."
Spike intensified his questioning look.
"All right fine, television. But it always works out!"
Spike laughed. He really liked Connor.
"Life isn't a television show Junior. If it were, things would be so much better for me. I might have had a happy ending."
"What was this girl like anyway?"
Angel began to make his way over to where Connor and Spike were sitting. Neither noticed however, Connor was busy idol worshiping and Spike was in dreamland thinking about his girl back in Sunnydale.
"Oh she was amazing to know. She'd make the room light up by just walking in it. When she was with me, she was everything. I didn't need a single thing in world as long as she was by my side. She was sweet, and funny. She was mysterious, and yet at the same time I could read her like a book. She was strong and powerful, even though she'd been through so much. She'd been to hell and back, and yet she was still as ardent as ever. She was smart and determined, and she had this thing she could do with her tongue where she'd..."
At which point Angel was quick to interrupt.
"Spike! Continue and my fist is going to finish that sentence!"
So much for Happy Time.
"Connor, can we talk?"
Angel gestured so he could move away and talk to his son. Spike got the message.
"Right, don't mind me. I know when I'm not wanted."
Angel laughed to himself. Could Spike not pick up on Angel's waves of hatred?
"I'm going to head off inside. See how Wes and Gunn are doing. Chat with some real men."
That cued a tidal wave of hatred from Angel, who had not noticed the small wink and grin Spike had given to Connor. Angel was about to comment on Spike's insult, but Connor interrupted him.
"You wanted to talk to me Dad?"
"Yeah, I did."
Angel's countenance turned serious for a moment and he sat down by Connor as Spike had done, however on his son's left hand side.
"Listen Connor, I know why you did what you did. And I have to make sure you know that I didn't kill Holtz."
Connor smiled.
"I know you didn't. I don't know exactly who did, but I think it was Justine."
Angel was taken aback by this. Justine had never featured as a suspect originally to him, but now it had been said, it all began to fit together.
"What makes you think it was her?"
"Spike said something."
Angel inwardly groaned. It would have been him wouldn't it?
"He did, did he?"
"Yeah."
Angel still felt like he wanted to know more. Angel PI had just been framed and now he had a personal reason to get to the bottom of this Crime-palooza.
"Where is Justine?"
"I don't know. After what happened, before..."
Connor had got to the stage of guilt where couldn't even say what he'd done.
You dumped me in the ocean, it's not hard.
"She left. And I don't care either. I'm not going after her. Vengeance is unnecessary."
Angel smiled at Connor's maturity that had evolved since he left.
"It's nice you've learnt that."
"Well, Spike's a good teacher."
Angel frowned.
"You know Connor, I don't know quite what he's said to you, but you don't know Spike the same way I do. I think you should be wary of him."
"But Spike's a great guy. He's really funny. Great storyteller too. He told me about the old days."
"I'll bet."
Angel failed to understand how the "Vampire=Mindless Killer" equation didn't apply to Spike. Thrall? Nope. Spike didn't have the concentration span to learn such a technique. Hell, even Angel didn't have the concentration span to learn how to hold someone in thrall, and Angel had been known to mentally torture people for 7 straight years.
"I am sorry for what I did. I know that I jumped to conclusions without seeing the bigger picture. It was wrong."
Angel placed a warming hand on Connor's shoulder, emotionally warming though obviously.
"It's okay Connor. Everyone makes mistakes."
Connor laughed.
That was the moral of last week's Sabrina... So life's not a television show huh?
Angel began the speech that he felt he had practiced for years.
"I understand that you hate me."
"I don't hate you."
"You don't?"
Connor reiterated.
"No. I don't. That's what I said right?"
Angel was mixed at the interruption. Surprised at the revelation, and pleasantly surprised at that. Connor continued, staring mindlessly at his hands as he too began to spill his thoughts of the past few days.
"See, I've had time to think, and I realise that I don't hate you. I don't know you. And I can't hate what I don't know."
Angel didn't know quite how to take it at first, but he smiled at his son and then spoke.
"Well, we're just going to have to get to know each other then, won't we?"
Angel was happy. Here he was, basically given a clean slate by his son to help undo all the damage that Holtz had done. He finally had the chance to be a father. He may have missed the first years of his life, but now he could make things right. Existence was finally looking up. He was on his way back to the hotel that he'd been away from for so long, Wesley was still a loose end, but things were civil and he knew Cordelia was safe. Things were good. He sat with an unusually large smile on his face, and his life was close to being perfectly happy.
Until Connor spoke.
"Dad?"
"Yeah?"
"Did you really nail a puppy to a..."
"SPIKE!!!"
~*-*~
Author's Note: To be continued...
I hope you're enjoying this guys, and believe me when I say that the stuff is really going to hit the fan soon. But just for my own peace of mind, do tell me if you're still reading this...
And about Chosen. I'm still crying. Man... that was one heck of a finale.
