Part 1
Vision of power, power of vision
When she returned to the lobby, Angel wasn't alone anymore. He had company in the form of the green skinned demon, Lorne. She froze in the spot for a moment, feeling uncomfortable walking in on the conversation of two of her childhood heroes. For a minute she pondered the possibility of just standing there and eavesdropping on their discussion, feeling as if she was the witness of history being made, but she dismissed it as being too silly. She entered the lobby clearing her throat loudly to make sure the two noticed her appearance. The demon turned towards her and seemed surprised.
"And where have you been hiding this pretty lady?" he asked Angel who seemed to only now remember she had been in the hotel too. It was obvious the conversation he had with Lorne hadn't been about her and it had been so intense he had fully forgotten about her.
"Hi, I'm Joy," she introduced herself as she walked over to him.
"And seeing as you're not screaming, I guess you're in the demon hunting business," Lorne said referring to the fact he hadn't had any reaction from her concerning his appearance.
"You could say that," Joy admitted. They couldn't guess *how* involved she was. "But I'm here as a client," she added. "And I'm not a paid killer or something like that," she hurried to assure him.
"No one said you were," Lorne smiled at her, her aura had a strange vibe that screamed 'not of this world' and the pain was practically clawing its way outside of her soul and he didn't even need to hear her sing to know that. There was something troubling about her, like her presence would only bring disaster with it.
"She was about to tell me what her problem is, but then she had to go to the bathroom," Angel explained. "And I was the one who thought she was a paid killer."
"Like I said it's a family problem," she repeated.
"You mentioned it," Angel remembered.
"There might be a bit of an inconvenience though," she told them and Angel was already thinking his from another dimension theory was true and was now somehow repenting that he had accepted to talk to her.
"What kind of inconvenience?" Angel dared to ask.
"My business, my family business, isn't here...anymore. It used to be here, but it kind of...well, migrated," she explained, while Lorne seemed to take an interest in her strange appearance, particularly the mark on her face.
"Migrated?" Lorne asked fascinated.
"Yeah..." she sighed. "I guess you should hear the whole truth, right?" the vampire and the demon nodded. "My brother was bit by a Ghola one night when he was out in a club. He started changing after a few days. After 24 hours he was turned completely. Now Gholas have certain migration patterns. I followed him all the way to Mexico and then here. Last I heard they're heading down to this town called Sunnydale, the whole herd's gonna be there. I thought it's time I stop chasing him and I can't very well face the whole lot of them alone. I can take out 4 or 5, but not twenty."
"Sunnydale?" Lorne arched an eyebrow. He knew what this city meant for Angel.
"And you want to kill your brother?" Angel wanted to know.
"Lord, no. I want to cure him," she pulled a red glowing vile from her boot.
"Gholas can be cured?" Angel looked over at Lorne for an answer. He had met Gholas in his days and fought a few of them, but seeing as they were so rare, he didn't really get to know the species well.
"Human hybrids, maybe. Even if they turn they're still around 30% human," Lorne explained. "But they don't usually go for big cities. You could say they're country folk. It doesn't make them any less vicious though. Those Gholas are nasty puppies."
"I got this cure right out the heart of Mexico, an old man gave it to me, told me all I had to do is feed it to my brother and he'd be back," Joy told them the flawless story she had made up with Jacques. They had fought a great deal of Gholas in her time. In the future, the demons had multiplied so much they had become another plague on humanity's back, in very many ways similar to vampires, except they were bigger, meaner and a whole lot easier to spot in a crowd. Once the Gholas had figured out that the only thing keeping them from spreading was their herd unity, many left the pack and went on to spread their genes in the world. In her time, slayers weren't only named vampire slayers, they were also ghola slayers. There was actually one slayer - of the three active ones existent in her time - that referred to herself as nothing else but the ghola slayer. As for the cure, there was no such thing. She only wished there was, then many would have been spared. There were actually mad men running around in her time claiming they had found a cure for vampires. Her father had been 'cured'....
"So why didn't you come earlier?" Angel interrupted her thoughts. "While he was still in LA."
"By the time I got here from Mexico they were already on their way to Sunnydale. There's either a shrine down there or something *really* bad," she told them seeing the 'really bad' part catching Angel's attention.
"I can't really leave LA right now, you have to understand, but I can send you to someone who'll help you out," he headed for the front desk and wrote down the slayer's address. He then handed it over to the girl. "Go see her, she's the slayer, just tell her I sent you, all right?"
"I need you to come," Joy insisted. "You're the only one I trust."
"She's the slayer. You can trust her, I'm willing to sign that in my blood," the vampire assured her smiling.
"You expect me to trust a slayer? Please, all they see is black and white. They see a monster, they kill it. If I go to a slayer she'll slaughter every Ghola she finds first and then try to figure out which corpse belongs to my brother, provided she knows what a Ghola is of course," Joy couldn't believe that she was talking trash about her own mother, but truth be told she would've done anything to save the future and her parents most of all. Besides what her mother wouldn't know wouldn't hurt her. Not exactly like her mother would've cared right then, she was a little too busy elsewhere those days...one of the many reasons Joy had ended up in her present situation.
"You can trust her," Angel repeated. "You'll fill her in on the details and then she'll know what a Ghola is."
"I'd feel much safer if you'd be there with me," Joy tried to convince him his presence was necessary.
"Where?" came the question from behind them.
"Sunnydale," Angel answered while Gunn made his way towards them.
"Isn't that the place that slayer girl you know is from?" Gunn asked immediately passing to business mode, realizing the girl must be a client. He would have gone for a good fight, especially after the whole turmoil and events he had gone through that day.
"Yeah," Angel nodded and proceeded to explain Joy's situation to him, while Joy herself seemed to have her eyes glued on Gunn.
"Do I have something between my teeth? My shirt on backwards?" Gunn asked when he felt her gaze persisting a tad too long on his persona.
"She stares, I think it's a habit," Lorne smiled while asking himself if the girl wasn't some sort of paid assassin that was studying his opponents before striking. She had that certain eccentricity assassins had and the appearance of a demon hiding under a human disguise. And that sign on her face only brought up more questions. He knew what it meant, but that symbol had no place on the face of a human. Joy gave Lorne a quick look as if she had heard his thoughts. The demon was a little startled and moved uneasily in his seat.
"So are we going to Sunnydale?" Gunn asked, a bit too excited by the offer. "C'mon, a vacation would do us good!"
"You or us?" Angel asked.
"I, for one, don't intend to leave this city ever again. Vegas was enough for me to realize my place is here with my cocktails and soul reading," Lorne stated and Joy shrugged.
"That's what you think," she mumbled and the demon's eyebrows rose surprised at her remark. "I mean...you-you can't expect to never leave again...maybe you'll have an emergency...or something.'"
"Good point," Lorne agreed, but was still a little curios what meaning those words really had hidden behind them. "Could I talk to you two for a moment?" the two men nodded. "In private," he added. "Excuse us," he pushed the two into Angel's office. Joy was alone in the lobby. She suddenly heard the sound of hands clapping. She turned around to see Jacques smiling.
"Ladies and Gentlemen a hand for lady Joy! Talking bad things about her mama! She became what she fear most, a...." the Cajun gave a speech for an unseen audience.
"Fuck you," Joy interrupted him in a low voice, not wanting the men from the office to hear her talking by herself.
"Oh, she just say the f word, tsk, tsk, if your moma could hear you she'd..." Jacques said pacing around the lobby.
"Rip my head off? Sorry, she's a little busy now. Even for that," Joy reminded him.
"Just messing with you, chere," he smiled again. "You doing good."
"Do you really think they'll buy it? The whole Ghola thing. It sounds so unbelievable to me," Joy shared her fear.
"They know squat about Gholas, they were..." he couldn't find the word.
"A minority?" Joy tried to help him.
"Yeah, that's it, so because they little, people don't know much. In New O everybody know about Gholas because there's a lot of them," Jacques explained.
"And the antidote?" she looked at the glowing vile she still held in her hands.
"They'll never guess it's quantum jelly," Jacques named the most loved candy in their time. So, sure, if you would eat a little too much of it certain things took place, like you started floating off the ground or you grew a second pair of hands, but that was the whole beauty of it. Jacques had concentrated something close to a tub of jelly into a glass vile that in certain conditions would give a Ghola human appearance for a limited time of three minutes.
Meanwhile in the office Lorne was discussing Joy with Gunn and Angel, telling them about his bad feelings about her.
"She looks fine to me," Gunn told them. "A bit weird, but okay."
"I say don't trust her," Lorne said. "Whatever you do, don't go to Sunnydale. She's probably just looking to get you out of town so some great evil can wreck havoc on the world."
"But why Sunnydale?" Angel asked not really buying the demon's theory.
"Do you somehow not see the obvious?" Lorne rolled his eyes. "She somehow knows you'd be easier to convince if your ex-belle's life was at stake."
"Buffy can take care of herself," Angel reminded him, but the demon only shrugged.
"Admit it, Angelcakes, just the thought of something bad happening to the merry band of Sunnydale demon hunters -again - makes you turn and twist in your bed at night. Or day," the demon corrected himself.
"I don't really see the harm in it," Gunn interrupted their conversation. "We go, kick some demon ass if there's ass to kick and if not we deal with the lying white hair chick and come back before any apocalypse has a chance to destroy the world. Besides, we live in modern times, one phone call and we're back."
"It's not that easy. You have no idea what she is," Lorne insisted.
"She doesn't smell human," Angel answered Gunn's questioning gaze.
"Her aura is human," Lorne added. "But there's something else there too. Maybe she was made to seem human."
"But by whom?" Angel immediately asked. "Wolfram & Hart?"
"Okay, don't you two think you're gettin' paranoid?" Gunn thought they were both overreacting. "She looks...sorta normal and if she ain't we can take her out, whatever she is."
"Act now, think later? Now there's a plan," Lorne shook his head.
"If you think it's *that* important, then I won't go. Usually when you get a vibe, something bad is bound to happen," Angel gave in. Lorne's premonitions were mostly right and after spending four months underwater he didn't really feel like taking a risk that would maybe endanger his freedom in any way possible. The three men exited the office and found Joy curiously browsing through an old book. She startled when they reappeared in the room.
"Look, I've thought things over and I'm not coming. You can go see the slayer and she'll help you out if you'll let her," Angel explained.
"Fine, I'll go, but I won't see your stinking slayer and I'll just go fight the gholas by myself and if I die it's your fault," Joy retorted a little mad.
"I can't come," Angel pressed the words.
"You have to," Joy repeated but this time they all sensed desperation in her voice.
"There's too much I have to do here," Angel refused to give in to her pleading. Suddenly Joy's attention was drawn to Lorne. She realized it was his fault Angel was now no longer interested in helping her out. She looked back at Angel and bit her lip before deciding to do the unthinkable: sing.
"There was a girl named Nanoube Brought up by the priests of the Plath
One day she woke up screaming in the night
To the flames of the burning temple" it was a song she had learnt from Jacques' father, an old mystic that had been, along with her mother and father, a great presence in her childhood. Even though Angel and Gunn were looking at her strangely, not understanding the sudden burst into song, Lorne was fully aware of her reasons as he started to phase in and out of a strange vision.
"The fire is here to cleanse our fears
Yelled father Yiidah to the people" as she continued her song Lorne sank deeper and deeper into that blurry vision, finally managing to spot things in the mist of the girl's mind. He saw a city, a gigantic metal and steel formation rising miles above the earth and spreading so far he could not see, from his place high above it, where it started or where it ended, where was the earth underneath, but somehow, he knew what this city was...Los Angeles...but it didn't seem one bit familiar to the one he knew, not one building, not one spot of this grotesque contraption was of the old LA. But where had it gone? Into the ashes, a voice answered him. The city of millions and millions of artificial lights started fading away as he heard Joy's voice still singing.
"....But Naroube didn't fear the flame
The fire came from within So she rose to her feet and the sword she took..." as the voice started fading away Lorne found himself in a different city. He had seen it once or twice in his life and it didn't seem to have changed much in this vision. New Orleans, home of ancient mystics, gumbo, bayus and good music. He saw a house, a pretty little thing and inside in a cradle, there was a baby with brown hair that one day, not too far into the future, would turn white. And above that little child there were two people. A woman and a bleached vampire that couldn't help but marvel at the miracle before them. A child that shouldn't have been born. The baby of a vampire and a slayer. 'I want to call her Joyce,' a voice whispered in Lorne's ear and the vampire kissed the woman on the shoulder and nodded. 'Little Joycie," he whispered. Lorne collapsed on the floor of the hotel, seeming to go through some sort of shock.
"You're doing this, aren't ya?" Gunn stepped menacingly towards Joy who just shook her head refusing to stop singing.
"D...on..don...'t" Lorne managed to regain consciousness enough to cry out that one word before blacking out again while Joy continued the chant:
"She said 'perish into the abyss
And Katune just laughed at her weak attempt
As her sword swung in the air..." and Lorne found himself in a gigantic cemetery passing between graves -many unnamed, just stone blocks. A figure, a small blond woman passed between them, humming a song that reminded Lorne of the one Joy was singing so he followed her. They passed by a large stone monument that rose higher than any other, the words on it written in gold, fresh flowers laying scattered all over it. It was something on this particular grave that caught Lorne's eye, the name engraved on it. Winifred Burkle. Under the name there was a quote 'We live only to die, so life has no particular meaning or purpose, only death and that's only a begin of a whole other end' and it was apparently by Fred herself, and under the quote it said: Hero, Scientist, Genius, 'Today we morn the loss of a goddess' and it was signed by the president, of whose name Lorne had never heard of. Surprised by the greatness that seemed to have surrounded Fred's death, Lorne had lost track of the blond woman who was now far away from him, in a distant corner of the graveyard. Just by thinking it he suddenly found himself near her again. She was kneeled down in front of a small grave.
' Angel
Devoted Friend
Beloved father
A hero to the end' he read out loud, a feeling of grim things to come filling his senses. He knew this was a far away future, but still couldn't accept the idea of seeing Angel die one day. As he looked over at the graves beside Angel's his eyes filled up with tears. One said:
' Connor
Son of Angel and Darla
Devoted friend
Beloved father
He never stopped fighting'
While another said:
'Cordelia Chase
Devoted friend
Beloved mother
She was never meant for this world'
He passed on to the next:
'Celeste Chase
Daughter of Connor and Cordelia
Sweet child
You left us before your time'
Lorne's hands reached for his face as he passed, frightened to the next block of stone, the next grave in a long endless line.
' Gunn
Devoted friend
Never tired fighter
May you finally find your peace'
The last grave that came before Lorne crashed back into reality said:
'Krevlornswoth of the Deathwok Clan
Devoted friend
His songs will forever warm our hearts'
The woman kneeled by Angel's grave seemed to look up at him with tears in her eyes before Lorne found himself panting on the floor of the Hyperion Hotel hearing the last lyric of Joy's song.
'Naroube was the flame
The fire had become her" Joy concluded her song and tears seemed to fill her eyes as she looked at the blunt Lorne sitting on the floor.
"What did you do to him?" Angel demanded to know.
"Nothing," Joy replied sternly.
"You okay?" Gunn asked Lorne as he helped him up. He was still shaking from the experience and feared that the vision would come back and haunt him and that this reality would soon crumble and nothing would be left but graves and death.
"Go with her," Lorne told Angel. "You have to go."
"What did you see?" Angel questioned him.
"Just go," Lorne said while staring at Joy with pity and sadness. He wasn't sure of what he had seen but he knew whatever it had been, it had to be stopped and Angel going to Sunnydale was one of the first steps that had to be taken. That's what he understood. Unknowing to him though, their deaths had absolutely nothing to do with the reason Joy was there. Their passing was just a memory of her childhood. The rememberance of a bleeding man coming to their house in the middle of the night holding a boy in his arms and crying. 'They're all dead,' he would say. 'They're gone' she remembered the man sobbing while his mother hugged him and the child with big brown eyes staring at them, not understanding where his parents were. He only heard 'gone, gone, gone'.
End Part 1
Vision of power, power of vision
When she returned to the lobby, Angel wasn't alone anymore. He had company in the form of the green skinned demon, Lorne. She froze in the spot for a moment, feeling uncomfortable walking in on the conversation of two of her childhood heroes. For a minute she pondered the possibility of just standing there and eavesdropping on their discussion, feeling as if she was the witness of history being made, but she dismissed it as being too silly. She entered the lobby clearing her throat loudly to make sure the two noticed her appearance. The demon turned towards her and seemed surprised.
"And where have you been hiding this pretty lady?" he asked Angel who seemed to only now remember she had been in the hotel too. It was obvious the conversation he had with Lorne hadn't been about her and it had been so intense he had fully forgotten about her.
"Hi, I'm Joy," she introduced herself as she walked over to him.
"And seeing as you're not screaming, I guess you're in the demon hunting business," Lorne said referring to the fact he hadn't had any reaction from her concerning his appearance.
"You could say that," Joy admitted. They couldn't guess *how* involved she was. "But I'm here as a client," she added. "And I'm not a paid killer or something like that," she hurried to assure him.
"No one said you were," Lorne smiled at her, her aura had a strange vibe that screamed 'not of this world' and the pain was practically clawing its way outside of her soul and he didn't even need to hear her sing to know that. There was something troubling about her, like her presence would only bring disaster with it.
"She was about to tell me what her problem is, but then she had to go to the bathroom," Angel explained. "And I was the one who thought she was a paid killer."
"Like I said it's a family problem," she repeated.
"You mentioned it," Angel remembered.
"There might be a bit of an inconvenience though," she told them and Angel was already thinking his from another dimension theory was true and was now somehow repenting that he had accepted to talk to her.
"What kind of inconvenience?" Angel dared to ask.
"My business, my family business, isn't here...anymore. It used to be here, but it kind of...well, migrated," she explained, while Lorne seemed to take an interest in her strange appearance, particularly the mark on her face.
"Migrated?" Lorne asked fascinated.
"Yeah..." she sighed. "I guess you should hear the whole truth, right?" the vampire and the demon nodded. "My brother was bit by a Ghola one night when he was out in a club. He started changing after a few days. After 24 hours he was turned completely. Now Gholas have certain migration patterns. I followed him all the way to Mexico and then here. Last I heard they're heading down to this town called Sunnydale, the whole herd's gonna be there. I thought it's time I stop chasing him and I can't very well face the whole lot of them alone. I can take out 4 or 5, but not twenty."
"Sunnydale?" Lorne arched an eyebrow. He knew what this city meant for Angel.
"And you want to kill your brother?" Angel wanted to know.
"Lord, no. I want to cure him," she pulled a red glowing vile from her boot.
"Gholas can be cured?" Angel looked over at Lorne for an answer. He had met Gholas in his days and fought a few of them, but seeing as they were so rare, he didn't really get to know the species well.
"Human hybrids, maybe. Even if they turn they're still around 30% human," Lorne explained. "But they don't usually go for big cities. You could say they're country folk. It doesn't make them any less vicious though. Those Gholas are nasty puppies."
"I got this cure right out the heart of Mexico, an old man gave it to me, told me all I had to do is feed it to my brother and he'd be back," Joy told them the flawless story she had made up with Jacques. They had fought a great deal of Gholas in her time. In the future, the demons had multiplied so much they had become another plague on humanity's back, in very many ways similar to vampires, except they were bigger, meaner and a whole lot easier to spot in a crowd. Once the Gholas had figured out that the only thing keeping them from spreading was their herd unity, many left the pack and went on to spread their genes in the world. In her time, slayers weren't only named vampire slayers, they were also ghola slayers. There was actually one slayer - of the three active ones existent in her time - that referred to herself as nothing else but the ghola slayer. As for the cure, there was no such thing. She only wished there was, then many would have been spared. There were actually mad men running around in her time claiming they had found a cure for vampires. Her father had been 'cured'....
"So why didn't you come earlier?" Angel interrupted her thoughts. "While he was still in LA."
"By the time I got here from Mexico they were already on their way to Sunnydale. There's either a shrine down there or something *really* bad," she told them seeing the 'really bad' part catching Angel's attention.
"I can't really leave LA right now, you have to understand, but I can send you to someone who'll help you out," he headed for the front desk and wrote down the slayer's address. He then handed it over to the girl. "Go see her, she's the slayer, just tell her I sent you, all right?"
"I need you to come," Joy insisted. "You're the only one I trust."
"She's the slayer. You can trust her, I'm willing to sign that in my blood," the vampire assured her smiling.
"You expect me to trust a slayer? Please, all they see is black and white. They see a monster, they kill it. If I go to a slayer she'll slaughter every Ghola she finds first and then try to figure out which corpse belongs to my brother, provided she knows what a Ghola is of course," Joy couldn't believe that she was talking trash about her own mother, but truth be told she would've done anything to save the future and her parents most of all. Besides what her mother wouldn't know wouldn't hurt her. Not exactly like her mother would've cared right then, she was a little too busy elsewhere those days...one of the many reasons Joy had ended up in her present situation.
"You can trust her," Angel repeated. "You'll fill her in on the details and then she'll know what a Ghola is."
"I'd feel much safer if you'd be there with me," Joy tried to convince him his presence was necessary.
"Where?" came the question from behind them.
"Sunnydale," Angel answered while Gunn made his way towards them.
"Isn't that the place that slayer girl you know is from?" Gunn asked immediately passing to business mode, realizing the girl must be a client. He would have gone for a good fight, especially after the whole turmoil and events he had gone through that day.
"Yeah," Angel nodded and proceeded to explain Joy's situation to him, while Joy herself seemed to have her eyes glued on Gunn.
"Do I have something between my teeth? My shirt on backwards?" Gunn asked when he felt her gaze persisting a tad too long on his persona.
"She stares, I think it's a habit," Lorne smiled while asking himself if the girl wasn't some sort of paid assassin that was studying his opponents before striking. She had that certain eccentricity assassins had and the appearance of a demon hiding under a human disguise. And that sign on her face only brought up more questions. He knew what it meant, but that symbol had no place on the face of a human. Joy gave Lorne a quick look as if she had heard his thoughts. The demon was a little startled and moved uneasily in his seat.
"So are we going to Sunnydale?" Gunn asked, a bit too excited by the offer. "C'mon, a vacation would do us good!"
"You or us?" Angel asked.
"I, for one, don't intend to leave this city ever again. Vegas was enough for me to realize my place is here with my cocktails and soul reading," Lorne stated and Joy shrugged.
"That's what you think," she mumbled and the demon's eyebrows rose surprised at her remark. "I mean...you-you can't expect to never leave again...maybe you'll have an emergency...or something.'"
"Good point," Lorne agreed, but was still a little curios what meaning those words really had hidden behind them. "Could I talk to you two for a moment?" the two men nodded. "In private," he added. "Excuse us," he pushed the two into Angel's office. Joy was alone in the lobby. She suddenly heard the sound of hands clapping. She turned around to see Jacques smiling.
"Ladies and Gentlemen a hand for lady Joy! Talking bad things about her mama! She became what she fear most, a...." the Cajun gave a speech for an unseen audience.
"Fuck you," Joy interrupted him in a low voice, not wanting the men from the office to hear her talking by herself.
"Oh, she just say the f word, tsk, tsk, if your moma could hear you she'd..." Jacques said pacing around the lobby.
"Rip my head off? Sorry, she's a little busy now. Even for that," Joy reminded him.
"Just messing with you, chere," he smiled again. "You doing good."
"Do you really think they'll buy it? The whole Ghola thing. It sounds so unbelievable to me," Joy shared her fear.
"They know squat about Gholas, they were..." he couldn't find the word.
"A minority?" Joy tried to help him.
"Yeah, that's it, so because they little, people don't know much. In New O everybody know about Gholas because there's a lot of them," Jacques explained.
"And the antidote?" she looked at the glowing vile she still held in her hands.
"They'll never guess it's quantum jelly," Jacques named the most loved candy in their time. So, sure, if you would eat a little too much of it certain things took place, like you started floating off the ground or you grew a second pair of hands, but that was the whole beauty of it. Jacques had concentrated something close to a tub of jelly into a glass vile that in certain conditions would give a Ghola human appearance for a limited time of three minutes.
Meanwhile in the office Lorne was discussing Joy with Gunn and Angel, telling them about his bad feelings about her.
"She looks fine to me," Gunn told them. "A bit weird, but okay."
"I say don't trust her," Lorne said. "Whatever you do, don't go to Sunnydale. She's probably just looking to get you out of town so some great evil can wreck havoc on the world."
"But why Sunnydale?" Angel asked not really buying the demon's theory.
"Do you somehow not see the obvious?" Lorne rolled his eyes. "She somehow knows you'd be easier to convince if your ex-belle's life was at stake."
"Buffy can take care of herself," Angel reminded him, but the demon only shrugged.
"Admit it, Angelcakes, just the thought of something bad happening to the merry band of Sunnydale demon hunters -again - makes you turn and twist in your bed at night. Or day," the demon corrected himself.
"I don't really see the harm in it," Gunn interrupted their conversation. "We go, kick some demon ass if there's ass to kick and if not we deal with the lying white hair chick and come back before any apocalypse has a chance to destroy the world. Besides, we live in modern times, one phone call and we're back."
"It's not that easy. You have no idea what she is," Lorne insisted.
"She doesn't smell human," Angel answered Gunn's questioning gaze.
"Her aura is human," Lorne added. "But there's something else there too. Maybe she was made to seem human."
"But by whom?" Angel immediately asked. "Wolfram & Hart?"
"Okay, don't you two think you're gettin' paranoid?" Gunn thought they were both overreacting. "She looks...sorta normal and if she ain't we can take her out, whatever she is."
"Act now, think later? Now there's a plan," Lorne shook his head.
"If you think it's *that* important, then I won't go. Usually when you get a vibe, something bad is bound to happen," Angel gave in. Lorne's premonitions were mostly right and after spending four months underwater he didn't really feel like taking a risk that would maybe endanger his freedom in any way possible. The three men exited the office and found Joy curiously browsing through an old book. She startled when they reappeared in the room.
"Look, I've thought things over and I'm not coming. You can go see the slayer and she'll help you out if you'll let her," Angel explained.
"Fine, I'll go, but I won't see your stinking slayer and I'll just go fight the gholas by myself and if I die it's your fault," Joy retorted a little mad.
"I can't come," Angel pressed the words.
"You have to," Joy repeated but this time they all sensed desperation in her voice.
"There's too much I have to do here," Angel refused to give in to her pleading. Suddenly Joy's attention was drawn to Lorne. She realized it was his fault Angel was now no longer interested in helping her out. She looked back at Angel and bit her lip before deciding to do the unthinkable: sing.
"There was a girl named Nanoube Brought up by the priests of the Plath
One day she woke up screaming in the night
To the flames of the burning temple" it was a song she had learnt from Jacques' father, an old mystic that had been, along with her mother and father, a great presence in her childhood. Even though Angel and Gunn were looking at her strangely, not understanding the sudden burst into song, Lorne was fully aware of her reasons as he started to phase in and out of a strange vision.
"The fire is here to cleanse our fears
Yelled father Yiidah to the people" as she continued her song Lorne sank deeper and deeper into that blurry vision, finally managing to spot things in the mist of the girl's mind. He saw a city, a gigantic metal and steel formation rising miles above the earth and spreading so far he could not see, from his place high above it, where it started or where it ended, where was the earth underneath, but somehow, he knew what this city was...Los Angeles...but it didn't seem one bit familiar to the one he knew, not one building, not one spot of this grotesque contraption was of the old LA. But where had it gone? Into the ashes, a voice answered him. The city of millions and millions of artificial lights started fading away as he heard Joy's voice still singing.
"....But Naroube didn't fear the flame
The fire came from within So she rose to her feet and the sword she took..." as the voice started fading away Lorne found himself in a different city. He had seen it once or twice in his life and it didn't seem to have changed much in this vision. New Orleans, home of ancient mystics, gumbo, bayus and good music. He saw a house, a pretty little thing and inside in a cradle, there was a baby with brown hair that one day, not too far into the future, would turn white. And above that little child there were two people. A woman and a bleached vampire that couldn't help but marvel at the miracle before them. A child that shouldn't have been born. The baby of a vampire and a slayer. 'I want to call her Joyce,' a voice whispered in Lorne's ear and the vampire kissed the woman on the shoulder and nodded. 'Little Joycie," he whispered. Lorne collapsed on the floor of the hotel, seeming to go through some sort of shock.
"You're doing this, aren't ya?" Gunn stepped menacingly towards Joy who just shook her head refusing to stop singing.
"D...on..don...'t" Lorne managed to regain consciousness enough to cry out that one word before blacking out again while Joy continued the chant:
"She said 'perish into the abyss
And Katune just laughed at her weak attempt
As her sword swung in the air..." and Lorne found himself in a gigantic cemetery passing between graves -many unnamed, just stone blocks. A figure, a small blond woman passed between them, humming a song that reminded Lorne of the one Joy was singing so he followed her. They passed by a large stone monument that rose higher than any other, the words on it written in gold, fresh flowers laying scattered all over it. It was something on this particular grave that caught Lorne's eye, the name engraved on it. Winifred Burkle. Under the name there was a quote 'We live only to die, so life has no particular meaning or purpose, only death and that's only a begin of a whole other end' and it was apparently by Fred herself, and under the quote it said: Hero, Scientist, Genius, 'Today we morn the loss of a goddess' and it was signed by the president, of whose name Lorne had never heard of. Surprised by the greatness that seemed to have surrounded Fred's death, Lorne had lost track of the blond woman who was now far away from him, in a distant corner of the graveyard. Just by thinking it he suddenly found himself near her again. She was kneeled down in front of a small grave.
' Angel
Devoted Friend
Beloved father
A hero to the end' he read out loud, a feeling of grim things to come filling his senses. He knew this was a far away future, but still couldn't accept the idea of seeing Angel die one day. As he looked over at the graves beside Angel's his eyes filled up with tears. One said:
' Connor
Son of Angel and Darla
Devoted friend
Beloved father
He never stopped fighting'
While another said:
'Cordelia Chase
Devoted friend
Beloved mother
She was never meant for this world'
He passed on to the next:
'Celeste Chase
Daughter of Connor and Cordelia
Sweet child
You left us before your time'
Lorne's hands reached for his face as he passed, frightened to the next block of stone, the next grave in a long endless line.
' Gunn
Devoted friend
Never tired fighter
May you finally find your peace'
The last grave that came before Lorne crashed back into reality said:
'Krevlornswoth of the Deathwok Clan
Devoted friend
His songs will forever warm our hearts'
The woman kneeled by Angel's grave seemed to look up at him with tears in her eyes before Lorne found himself panting on the floor of the Hyperion Hotel hearing the last lyric of Joy's song.
'Naroube was the flame
The fire had become her" Joy concluded her song and tears seemed to fill her eyes as she looked at the blunt Lorne sitting on the floor.
"What did you do to him?" Angel demanded to know.
"Nothing," Joy replied sternly.
"You okay?" Gunn asked Lorne as he helped him up. He was still shaking from the experience and feared that the vision would come back and haunt him and that this reality would soon crumble and nothing would be left but graves and death.
"Go with her," Lorne told Angel. "You have to go."
"What did you see?" Angel questioned him.
"Just go," Lorne said while staring at Joy with pity and sadness. He wasn't sure of what he had seen but he knew whatever it had been, it had to be stopped and Angel going to Sunnydale was one of the first steps that had to be taken. That's what he understood. Unknowing to him though, their deaths had absolutely nothing to do with the reason Joy was there. Their passing was just a memory of her childhood. The rememberance of a bleeding man coming to their house in the middle of the night holding a boy in his arms and crying. 'They're all dead,' he would say. 'They're gone' she remembered the man sobbing while his mother hugged him and the child with big brown eyes staring at them, not understanding where his parents were. He only heard 'gone, gone, gone'.
End Part 1
