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Cordy gasped. "What the hell?" She grabbed Angel's upper arm, holding on for dear life. But Angel kept silent, trying to soak in his surroundings. He had seen this place thousands of times but he was still having trouble registering they were actually there. Standing in the middle of an alleyway in Sunnydale. Cordelia's terrified voice snapped him out of his reverie.
"Angel, what the hell is going on? Please tell me this is all a really bad nightmare and I'm gonna wake up from it some time soon. Please," she begged him.
"Ahh, I'm sorry Cordy, we're really here, as much as I'd like to believe that this is one big, bad nightmare, it isn't, we're really in Sunnydale," he said, once he was satisfied that this wasn't all in his head.
"Oh man, when I find out who did this I am so gonna kick their asses," Cordy said angrily, she was really pissed off that someone had seen fit to send them to Sunnydale. She thought she'd said goodbye to this town a long time ago, she was happy in L.A. She supposed she should have known that things had been too good lately, should have realised that something was going to happen, and now it had. The she remembered her vision, the one prior to her Angel being sucked into the portal.
"Oh my god! The damn powers sent us here!" She said turning to Angel, seeing the questioning look on his face continued to explain. "Before the whole being-sucked-into-the-portal-and getting-dumped-here thing, I had a vision, remember? It was of us in Sunnydale. The damn Powers gave me a sorry excuse for a warning and then sent us here! Jeez, impatient much? We could have packed up and driven, but no, the Powers had to have us here right away! God I hate them sometimes."
"Sometimes?" He asked. Despite the situation they were in Angel couldn't help but smile at Cordelia's last comment.
"Ok, ok most of the time," she said smiling back at him. "What are we gonna do now Angel? We don't know why we're here or how long we're gonna have to stay and what about everyone at home, they've gotta be worrying about us right?"
"Ok well the first thing we have to do is find somewhere to stay because the sun will be up in a few hours and I really don't want to be burnt to a crisp right now." He said light-heartedly, trying to calm Cordy down a little more.
"Yeah good plan, just one small question. Where are we going to stay?" She asked looking up at him expectantly.
"We can't stay at the mansion, too many bad memories and it's too conspicuous, I don't wanna draw attention to us, especially not from Buffy and the Gang. I think it's best if we just deal with whatever we've been sent here to defeat and leave without dragging them into this and causing too many questions...Ummm, I know. We can stay at my old place. You know that apartment I had before the mansion," he suggested.
"Yeah sounds good to me. Just another question though. You haven't lived there for like four or five years have you?" She asked, seeing his nod in affirmation she continued. "So wouldn't someone be like living in it now?"
"Nuh, it was in the basement of an abandoned building, nobody knew about it but me, Buffy and apparently Kendra. It should still be in good shape, assuming of course that the building it was in hasn't been knocked down," he added as an afterthought.
"Won't hurt us to take a look will it?" Cordy asked, more than willing to get out of the alleyway, she'd had a few moments in this alley that she would rather forget.
"It might," another voice from behind them answered. They turned to find themselves face to face with three hungry looking vampires.
"Oh great, just what we need!" Cordy sighed.
At that moment the leader leapt at her, he was stopped midair by Angel, who had grabbed the vamp by his jacket and thrown him against the wall of the Bronze. Angel didn't give the vampire any time to recover as he kicked out and connected with its stomach. One of the remaining two rushed to help the first vampire out, running to Angel and kicking his legs out from underneath him. Angel landed heavily on the concrete, if he had had any breath it would have been knocked out of him. He quickly got back to his feet and punched the second vamp in the face, causing it to momentarily loose balance and stumble backwards and trip over the first vampire. Angel's hand dove into his jacket and found the stake that he always kept there for emergencies. He knelt down next to the fallen vampire and plunged the stake into its heart watching its body disintegrate until all that was left was a pile of dust on the floor.
Angel was too busy dusting the second vampire that he didn't notice that the first had gotten back to his feet until he felt a boot collide with the back of his head. He saw stars momentarily as he pitched forward from the force of the blow. He stopped himself before he hit the ground, using his arms to push himself off the ground and jump at his opponent who was caught off guard and fell under the weight of Angel's body hitting him. As they hit the ground the vampire rolled so that he was on top of Angel holding him down to prevent any blows from making contact.
"Aaaah, Angelus, still fighting with the White Hats I see. When will you learn that your place is in the darkness with us? You don't belong in the light; you don't belong with the good. You've been tainted with a soul, but you're no different than us. It's in you nature to destroy, to kill," he hissed at Angel as he head butted him.
"Believe me buddy, you and I are a lot different, not just because you'll be a pile of dust in about ten seconds and I won't," Angel retorted as he vamped out, his teeth elongating, and his once smooth face forming ridges over his eyes.
The third vampire had watched as one of his companions had been turned to a pile of dust, but had then turned his attention to Cordelia who had stood by watching Angel fight the two vampires, having forgotten all about the third in her worry. She was broken out of her trance when she heard the aforementioned vampire growl and stalk towards her.
"Hmmm, this should be fun, while your honey over there gets the crap beaten out of him I might have a little snack," he said to her in a low, soft voice. As he got closer to her, he stopped momentarily as if listening for something.
"Interesting," he sung out as he moved closer. "I can hear two heartbeats, the second is faint but it's there. Seems as though it's two for one sale today. Gee how lucky am I? I get to eat a mother and her unborn child."
"You'll have to kill me first, and no way in hell am I gonna let that happen," she threatened as she pulled out her own stake, thankful for once that Angel had insisted she carry one around with her at all times.
The vamp swung at her, expecting his fist to connect with her face. He didn't anticipate her arm coming up to block his attack as the other swung across and hit him in the side of the jaw. He was stunned at the power of the young woman, who was standing in front of him with her fists up and ready to block anything he threw at her.
Good thing you bugged Angel for this training Cordy, she thought to herself. She made a note to remind Angel of this later in case he had anymore whining to do about how he could protect her and that she didn't need to learn how to fight. It was too bad she didn't have a sword with her now; she was always good with a sword. But there was no point in wishing for something else, all she had was a stake and she could work with that.
The vampire swung at her again, this time harder than his last attempt. Again, Cordy put her arm up to block him but this time she couldn't hold him off and his fist connected with her jaw sending her flying. She hit the wall of the alley and slid down until she was hunched over on the ground.
Angel, who was still being held down by vamp number one saw Cordelia get flung against the wall from the force of the other vampires blow. Rage bubbled up inside of him at the thought of Cordelia and his child being hurt in any way. He used all of his strength to roll the vamp on top of him to the ground and then rammed the stake into his chest, turning him to dust in seconds. Before the remains of the vampire could hit the ground Angel was up on his feet and attacking the vamp that had hurt Cordy.
"How dare you touch her." He growled as his fist smashed into the vamp's face again and again. His vampire strength causing the bones to snap under the pressure. Angel was about to hit his almost unconscious opponent again when he heard Cordelia moan in pain. Instead he dropped the vamp, stepped over it, picked up her discarded stake and dusted it without another seconds thought. He didn't even wait to see the last of the vampire's turn to dust as he ran towards Cordelia's slumped form. He was relieved to hear two steady heartbeats, not wanting to think about what he would have done if he had only heard one. He could tell their child would be strong, another fact which he was grateful for.
"Are you ok baby?" He asked softly as he crouched down next to her and lifted her chin, seeing the beginnings of a nasty black bruise forming on her left cheek. He stamped down the rage that once again pushed its way to the surface at the sight of her face; he had to make sure she was alright first.
"Yeah I'm gonna be ok. I've just got a killer headache. Nothing a few painkillers won't help." She said wincing as she felt the side of her face to see how much damage the vampire had done. It was really going to hurt later but she was just glad the vampire hadn't broken anything. What she was really worried about was their baby; god knows what the impact of her hitting the wall could have done to the child nestled inside of her.
"Angel, the baby..." She was cut short as Angel placed a light finger on her lips.
"Shh, the baby's fine, I can hear its heartbeat, strong and steady," he reassured her, watching the fear slip off her face. He kissed her softly on the lips and shifted slightly so he could hug her to him. "Do you think you can stand? Or do you want me to carry you?" He asked. When he didn't hear a reply he pulled back and looked at her face, finding her eyes wide in shock and her mouth forming a large O shape. "Cordy? Baby, what is it?" He asked following her gaze and her hand as she picked up a flyer off the concrete in front of her.
"Tell me why the hell, this flyer, which looks fairly new to me," she said waving the flyer in his face. "Has the date as the 17th of May 1999?" She asked him in shock.
He took the flyer from her and surely enough there it was. On a brand new flyer advertising a band playing at the Bronze was the date of the show written in bold black writing so they couldn't miss it. May 1999.
Cordy gasped. "What the hell?" She grabbed Angel's upper arm, holding on for dear life. But Angel kept silent, trying to soak in his surroundings. He had seen this place thousands of times but he was still having trouble registering they were actually there. Standing in the middle of an alleyway in Sunnydale. Cordelia's terrified voice snapped him out of his reverie.
"Angel, what the hell is going on? Please tell me this is all a really bad nightmare and I'm gonna wake up from it some time soon. Please," she begged him.
"Ahh, I'm sorry Cordy, we're really here, as much as I'd like to believe that this is one big, bad nightmare, it isn't, we're really in Sunnydale," he said, once he was satisfied that this wasn't all in his head.
"Oh man, when I find out who did this I am so gonna kick their asses," Cordy said angrily, she was really pissed off that someone had seen fit to send them to Sunnydale. She thought she'd said goodbye to this town a long time ago, she was happy in L.A. She supposed she should have known that things had been too good lately, should have realised that something was going to happen, and now it had. The she remembered her vision, the one prior to her Angel being sucked into the portal.
"Oh my god! The damn powers sent us here!" She said turning to Angel, seeing the questioning look on his face continued to explain. "Before the whole being-sucked-into-the-portal-and getting-dumped-here thing, I had a vision, remember? It was of us in Sunnydale. The damn Powers gave me a sorry excuse for a warning and then sent us here! Jeez, impatient much? We could have packed up and driven, but no, the Powers had to have us here right away! God I hate them sometimes."
"Sometimes?" He asked. Despite the situation they were in Angel couldn't help but smile at Cordelia's last comment.
"Ok, ok most of the time," she said smiling back at him. "What are we gonna do now Angel? We don't know why we're here or how long we're gonna have to stay and what about everyone at home, they've gotta be worrying about us right?"
"Ok well the first thing we have to do is find somewhere to stay because the sun will be up in a few hours and I really don't want to be burnt to a crisp right now." He said light-heartedly, trying to calm Cordy down a little more.
"Yeah good plan, just one small question. Where are we going to stay?" She asked looking up at him expectantly.
"We can't stay at the mansion, too many bad memories and it's too conspicuous, I don't wanna draw attention to us, especially not from Buffy and the Gang. I think it's best if we just deal with whatever we've been sent here to defeat and leave without dragging them into this and causing too many questions...Ummm, I know. We can stay at my old place. You know that apartment I had before the mansion," he suggested.
"Yeah sounds good to me. Just another question though. You haven't lived there for like four or five years have you?" She asked, seeing his nod in affirmation she continued. "So wouldn't someone be like living in it now?"
"Nuh, it was in the basement of an abandoned building, nobody knew about it but me, Buffy and apparently Kendra. It should still be in good shape, assuming of course that the building it was in hasn't been knocked down," he added as an afterthought.
"Won't hurt us to take a look will it?" Cordy asked, more than willing to get out of the alleyway, she'd had a few moments in this alley that she would rather forget.
"It might," another voice from behind them answered. They turned to find themselves face to face with three hungry looking vampires.
"Oh great, just what we need!" Cordy sighed.
At that moment the leader leapt at her, he was stopped midair by Angel, who had grabbed the vamp by his jacket and thrown him against the wall of the Bronze. Angel didn't give the vampire any time to recover as he kicked out and connected with its stomach. One of the remaining two rushed to help the first vampire out, running to Angel and kicking his legs out from underneath him. Angel landed heavily on the concrete, if he had had any breath it would have been knocked out of him. He quickly got back to his feet and punched the second vamp in the face, causing it to momentarily loose balance and stumble backwards and trip over the first vampire. Angel's hand dove into his jacket and found the stake that he always kept there for emergencies. He knelt down next to the fallen vampire and plunged the stake into its heart watching its body disintegrate until all that was left was a pile of dust on the floor.
Angel was too busy dusting the second vampire that he didn't notice that the first had gotten back to his feet until he felt a boot collide with the back of his head. He saw stars momentarily as he pitched forward from the force of the blow. He stopped himself before he hit the ground, using his arms to push himself off the ground and jump at his opponent who was caught off guard and fell under the weight of Angel's body hitting him. As they hit the ground the vampire rolled so that he was on top of Angel holding him down to prevent any blows from making contact.
"Aaaah, Angelus, still fighting with the White Hats I see. When will you learn that your place is in the darkness with us? You don't belong in the light; you don't belong with the good. You've been tainted with a soul, but you're no different than us. It's in you nature to destroy, to kill," he hissed at Angel as he head butted him.
"Believe me buddy, you and I are a lot different, not just because you'll be a pile of dust in about ten seconds and I won't," Angel retorted as he vamped out, his teeth elongating, and his once smooth face forming ridges over his eyes.
The third vampire had watched as one of his companions had been turned to a pile of dust, but had then turned his attention to Cordelia who had stood by watching Angel fight the two vampires, having forgotten all about the third in her worry. She was broken out of her trance when she heard the aforementioned vampire growl and stalk towards her.
"Hmmm, this should be fun, while your honey over there gets the crap beaten out of him I might have a little snack," he said to her in a low, soft voice. As he got closer to her, he stopped momentarily as if listening for something.
"Interesting," he sung out as he moved closer. "I can hear two heartbeats, the second is faint but it's there. Seems as though it's two for one sale today. Gee how lucky am I? I get to eat a mother and her unborn child."
"You'll have to kill me first, and no way in hell am I gonna let that happen," she threatened as she pulled out her own stake, thankful for once that Angel had insisted she carry one around with her at all times.
The vamp swung at her, expecting his fist to connect with her face. He didn't anticipate her arm coming up to block his attack as the other swung across and hit him in the side of the jaw. He was stunned at the power of the young woman, who was standing in front of him with her fists up and ready to block anything he threw at her.
Good thing you bugged Angel for this training Cordy, she thought to herself. She made a note to remind Angel of this later in case he had anymore whining to do about how he could protect her and that she didn't need to learn how to fight. It was too bad she didn't have a sword with her now; she was always good with a sword. But there was no point in wishing for something else, all she had was a stake and she could work with that.
The vampire swung at her again, this time harder than his last attempt. Again, Cordy put her arm up to block him but this time she couldn't hold him off and his fist connected with her jaw sending her flying. She hit the wall of the alley and slid down until she was hunched over on the ground.
Angel, who was still being held down by vamp number one saw Cordelia get flung against the wall from the force of the other vampires blow. Rage bubbled up inside of him at the thought of Cordelia and his child being hurt in any way. He used all of his strength to roll the vamp on top of him to the ground and then rammed the stake into his chest, turning him to dust in seconds. Before the remains of the vampire could hit the ground Angel was up on his feet and attacking the vamp that had hurt Cordy.
"How dare you touch her." He growled as his fist smashed into the vamp's face again and again. His vampire strength causing the bones to snap under the pressure. Angel was about to hit his almost unconscious opponent again when he heard Cordelia moan in pain. Instead he dropped the vamp, stepped over it, picked up her discarded stake and dusted it without another seconds thought. He didn't even wait to see the last of the vampire's turn to dust as he ran towards Cordelia's slumped form. He was relieved to hear two steady heartbeats, not wanting to think about what he would have done if he had only heard one. He could tell their child would be strong, another fact which he was grateful for.
"Are you ok baby?" He asked softly as he crouched down next to her and lifted her chin, seeing the beginnings of a nasty black bruise forming on her left cheek. He stamped down the rage that once again pushed its way to the surface at the sight of her face; he had to make sure she was alright first.
"Yeah I'm gonna be ok. I've just got a killer headache. Nothing a few painkillers won't help." She said wincing as she felt the side of her face to see how much damage the vampire had done. It was really going to hurt later but she was just glad the vampire hadn't broken anything. What she was really worried about was their baby; god knows what the impact of her hitting the wall could have done to the child nestled inside of her.
"Angel, the baby..." She was cut short as Angel placed a light finger on her lips.
"Shh, the baby's fine, I can hear its heartbeat, strong and steady," he reassured her, watching the fear slip off her face. He kissed her softly on the lips and shifted slightly so he could hug her to him. "Do you think you can stand? Or do you want me to carry you?" He asked. When he didn't hear a reply he pulled back and looked at her face, finding her eyes wide in shock and her mouth forming a large O shape. "Cordy? Baby, what is it?" He asked following her gaze and her hand as she picked up a flyer off the concrete in front of her.
"Tell me why the hell, this flyer, which looks fairly new to me," she said waving the flyer in his face. "Has the date as the 17th of May 1999?" She asked him in shock.
He took the flyer from her and surely enough there it was. On a brand new flyer advertising a band playing at the Bronze was the date of the show written in bold black writing so they couldn't miss it. May 1999.
