Chapter 32: Ancient tales.
Title: Reunion time.
Author: Nikka
Author notes: Hi everyone, If you need to know about summary, rate and all the rest it's all in chapter 1 I'll just remind you that English is not my native tongue so you may find some spelling & grammar mistakes, you're more then welcome to let me know about them but remember you may find them while you read the story. Have fun.
Disclaimer: Angel & Buffy's characters are not my creation (wish they were) they belong to Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt. Other characters that are not familiar from the show do belong to me.
Author's remark: My chapters as of ch 12 will no longer be reproof by Sigma due to the fact that I have no internet and I'm asking someone else to post the remaining chapters for me. I want to take this opportunity and thank sigma for all the help. And I hope you will continue reading my story even without the excellent work sigma has done. Thank you again sigma for all your great work.
"What can you tell us about the Dorkanious?" Angel jumped right into business. The way he saw it, they've wasted too much time as it is.
"Look it's not that simple, it's been a while since it happened. Like a 1000 years or so." Anya set down on the couch.
"Come on, Anya." Willow said to her. "You remember everything, there's no way you'll forget a thing like the Dorkanious." Willow wasn't buying Anya's explanation.
"Willow we must remember that even if she does remember it doesn't mean Anya met him. I mean a 1000 years ago was the first time the Dorkanious was mentioned as a story, a myth." Giles explained.
"Its not a myth, its real." Giles looked at Anya stunned, so did Wesley and the rest.
"It's real?" Giles asked confused. "How can it be real? It's a myth." Giles found it hard to believe.
"I knew Cordy wouldn't say that name for no good reason." Angel gave Wesley a stare.
"I'm sorry." Wesley apologized when he saw Angel staring at him. "We were told it was a myth. And when people who deal with the paranormal things in life on an everyday basis tell you that something isn't true, that it's a myth, you tend to believe them."
"Okay, so it's real. How do you know? Did you meet him?" Buffy who got over the whole 'he's real' phase asked.
"Well not exactly." Anya said. "You see, around the time I became a vengeance demon strange things started to happen around the village.
"What village?" Gunn asked.
"What strange things?" Willow added.
"My village, were I lived before I changed." Anya explained. "And strange like; people disappearing for hours or days and swear they were gone for not more then 10 minutes."
Anya didn't seem so happy to remember it all. "The strangest thing was me." No one really knew what she meant. "I had dreams about a shadow coming to get me and once I even saw it in broad day light. I thought I was losing my mind."
"Were you?" Fred asked awkwardly.
"No." Anya said a bit annoyed. "Only when I became a vengeance demon I learned the truth. But even then it wasn't an easy thing to do. I mean the Dorkanious is a very very privet thing." she looked around the room, everyone were staring at her confused. "So privet, he usually made any person or demon, that encountered him forgets he ever did."
Everyone took a minute to observe it all. "You say you learned the truth, right?" Buffy asked Anya. Anya nodded her head. "What truth? What kind of demon is he?"
"He's not a demon Buffy, he's not anything. It has no form, no substance. It has the ability to move through time and space. He can go from one dimension to the other. He needs nothing to sustain him, he wants nothing from the world."
"That can't be." Gunn stepped in. "Everybody wants something, human or not."
"Yes, so do the Dorkanious." Anya agreed with Gunn, which didn't make much sense after what she had just said.
"What does he want?" Giles dreaded the answer.
"He's looking for a book, his book." Anya replied.
"A book? That's all? The big bad is checking out a library book. Well if he has no pending fines I see no problem." Buffy joked.
"It's not funny." Anya snapped at Buffy. "It's not just a book. It's THE book." Anya took a moment, and then continued. "In his state as a shadow he can do no harm. But once he gets his hands on that book of his he'll regain his form, his substance. And I can tell you from stories I heard, we really don't want that to happened." Anya looked scared, more than usual.
"How can we stop it?" Buffy got into slayer mode.
"We don't, we can't. You can't fight it you can't even see it. Unless he wants you to, unless he possess you." Anya said.
"Posses you?" Fred asked confused.
"Because it has no form the Dorkanious can't touch anything and can't be touched by anyone." She explained. "It can only posses the body of a human or demon for a short period of time and use that body to search for his book. That's what he does, he moves from dimension to dimension, from body to body in search of his 'holy grail'." Anya made it sound like a helpless situation.
"You said people in your village disappeared for hours or even days and said they've only been gone for a few minutes." Fred remembered something. "Did any of them remember what happen to them it that period of time?"
"No, they didn't. They didn't even notice that much time has past."
"They were probably possessed by the Dorkanious." Fred concluded and the rest agreed with her.
"So, it was probably looking for the book in your village." Willow added.
"But you said he only possessed them for a short period of time. How can they have been missing for hours even days?" Wesley was beveled.
"The Dorkanious doesn't exists in on reality it moves through realties like a visitor. You can say his surrounded in a bubble of his own reality, where time moves differently. For him and the possessed person it was only 10 minutes, for the world it was hours."
"Where does he come from?" Fred asked the obvious.
"I don't know." Anya replied. "Once I learned about the Dorkanious, and what his capable of, I decided it's best for my interest and life not to ask any more. To tell you the truth I didn't want to know, for a 1000 years I hoped we'll never have to meet." Anya giggled. "My luck that when we finally do meet I'm a mere human."
"No one is meeting anyone, at least not now." Buffy tried to put a positive outlook on things. "We still have time."
"Time for what?" Willow said. "We have no research material, no witnesses, no books. Who can help us? what can we do?" Everyone thought the same thing. They all believed the situation is doomed.
"Cordelia!" Buffy said after a few moments of silence. "She's our link. She's our resource."
"Maybe she is, but we can't contact her, we can only wait and see if she contacts us." Fred reminded her.
"Not necessarily." She looked around the room. "Giles, Wesley!" They both looked at her. "Hit the books, try to find anything you can about the Dorkanious; stories, Legends anything. Anya you can help them." They nodded and began looking at they're books. "Oh and search for a way for us to contact Cordelia." Buffy added. "Willow, Fred." Both girls looked at her. "Search the web, the mystical and magical world."
"Excuse me." Fred said softly and raised her hand."
"What?" Buffy asked.
Sorry to interrupt, but look for what?" Fred asked hesitantly.
"The same as Giles and Wesley; the Dorkanious and a way to contact Cordelia." Buffy clarified. Now she turned to the only one who had nothing to do. "Angel you'll go underground and snoop around, maybe something will turn up."
"I don't want to leave her." He said to Buffy.
"Angel, sitting around here and holding her hand won't help solve this puzzle or save her and our lives." She came close to him. "This will." Angel nodded. "Stay underground till sunset." He grabbed a blanket and rushed out the door.
"What will you do?" Willow asked as Fred searched the web.
"I'll try a different angle." Buffy grabbed her coat and walked out.
"Doyle?" He turned to face her. "You still haven't answered my question."
"Oh." He said surprised. "What question?"
"Why are we here?" Cordelia asked.
"To learn." He replied short and to the point
"'To learn', what does that mean?" Cordelia hated his cryptic answers.
"You'll see." He said and stared at the door, like he was waiting for someone to come in. And a few seconds later someone did. It was Cordelia at age 17. She looked dazed like before when she was 12.
"Not zombie me again. You've gotta be kidding." Cordy didn't seem pleased about seeing herself in that situation.
"What? What's wrong? You look cute." Doyle smiled.
"Of course I look cute that's a given." Doyle smiled; he remembered how Cordelia's self-esteem was always high. Still is. "I meant that I hate seeing myself like this."
"Like what?" Doyle tried to follow.
"Hypnotized, under the control of someone else." Cordy explained.
"You hate losing control." Doyle said to her. "But this search is about letting go and losing control. That's the point of it all." Again Doyle was being cryptic.
Young Cordelia went up the stairs and searched the stacks of books. She didn't open any of the books or even pick one up, she just past next to them barely touching them.
"How does she know what's in the books if she's not even looking?" Cordy asked amazed as she looked at herself going through the stacks.
"She doesn't have to." Doyle explained. "What ever that's inside of her knows just by touching each book softly what it contains." Cordelia looked impressed. "It's easier that way." Doyle joked.
A noise came from the corridor and the door to the library opened. It was Giles followed by Willow, Buffy and Xander. The thing inside young Cordelia noticed that and stepped out of her body and disappeared. Young Cordelia came to and looked around, stunned to find herself in the library alone. She heard voices and came down the stairs.
"Cordelia? What were you doing up there?" Giles asked surprised.
"I- I was looking for a book." She said and wasn't sure if it was even true.
"A book." Xander giggled. "That's… weird." He looked at her.
"Not everyone think 'Superman' is the greatest novel ever written." Cordelia teased him.
"Oh and I guess Danielle steel qualifies?" He teased her back.
"As much as I love hearing you too bickering, we do have other things to do." Giles said to them.
Cordelia smiled when she saw how her young self looked at Xander. She remembered it was before anyone knew about them. She also remembered the night everyone discovered the truth. It wasn't the only discovery that night. She didn't want to go back to that night. She knew it was near, she wished she could warn them. Warn Buffy, but she knew she couldn't.
"It's getting late and you still need to patrol." Giles said to Buffy.
"Are you going alone or is Angel coming with you?" Willow asked and her eyes sparkled.
"He's on his way. He said he'll meet me here." Buffy smiled, thinking of him. That made Cordy uncomfortable.
"Can we go now?" She asked Doyle, who seemed preoccupied. "Doyle!" She yelled at him. He jumped looking at her confused. "Can we go?" She asked again.
"Not yet, in a minute." He said and kept staring like he was watching a movie.
"Great." Cordy said and set on the stairs.
As expected a few minutes later Angel showed up and Buffy rushed over to him, kissing him. She looked at Xander and saw him frowning. She never deluded herself. She always knew Xander wasn't in love with her. All through high school there was only one girl for him.
Angel kissed her back. Cordy lowered her head and rubbed her neck, hoping by the time she looks up they'll be gone.
"Bye guys, see you tomorrow." Buffy said as she and Angel left.
"Finally." Cordy said to herself and looked up.
"So, Buffy's birthday is next week. Are we planning something?" Xander asked the gang.
"Oh no, not this again. I can't watch it happen all over again." She said to Doyle.
"You won't, we'll be gone soon, just hold on." He assured her.
"Fine but I'm not looking, it's too painful to watch knowing what's to come, knowing who will die and who will suffer." She looked away staring at Giles's office. But the conversation captivated her and she turned to look at them. "So young, so innocent, so stupid." Cordy said to herself.
"Like what exactly?" Cordelia asked.
"Like a P-A-R-T-Y!" Xander spelled it out for her.
"Why should we throw her a party? It's her birthday, she should have the party." Cordelia frowned.
Xander just smiled to Cordelia and turned to Giles and Willow.
"I was thinking a surprise party." Willow said excitedly. "We can have balloons, a cake and those little cuts hats." She smiled.
"Well, I like the idea of the surprise and the party, but no hats for me." Xander said as Willow frowned.
"Me neither." Giles said quickly.
"You're no fun." Willow scowled.
"Fine we'll throw her a party. Now can we go home?" Cordelia was getting testy.
"Not yet, we still have to research about the demon Buffy encountered last night." Giles said and started to hand out books. "Here Xander, read this one, it's easy." Giles handed Xander a book.
"Cordy jumped up and approached Xander. "That book. Doyle, Its so familiar." She said while looking at it.
"Familiar how?" Doyle asked.
"Like I've seen it before. But the thing is I didn't." Cordy was confused.
"Are you sure you've never seen it before, I mean you did see a lot of old ancient books in your days, maybe…"
"I'm telling you I never saw this one. Besides, it doesn't seem to belong here." She looked more carefully at the book.
"I don't understand. Isn't this one of Giles's books?" Doyle asked.
"You'd think so, but it's not. It's not his or from around here." Cordy replied.
"Around where?" Doyle tried to keep up.
"Around earth. Its not from this dimension." She looked at Doyle who didn't seem so surprised. "It traveled here from somewhere else." She looked at Doyle and noticed his expression changed. "Why aren't you surprised?"
"Because I know what book it is. So do you." He looked at her.
"I do?" how could she. She looked at book and then reached out and touched it. Her hand went through the book. She felt a chill and backed away. "It's the book the shadow was looking for - the Dorkanious." She backed away from it.
"Yes it is." Doyle walked up to her.
"How can it be here and Giles wouldn't notice it?" Cordelia couldn't believe there's a book in the library Giles didn't know by heart.
"This book is special." Doyle explained. "Not only does it have to ability to travel through dimensions. It also has the ability to disguised him self. That is why no one knows what this book really is. They see it as something else. Only the rightful owner of the book or some mystical being like, well… you, can sense it's true nature."
"Will it stay here?" Cordelia asked.
"Not for long. Soon it will move on to somewhere else." Doyle looked at his watch. "And so should we." He grabbed Cordy's hand.
"No. Not yet. I need to know what happens next." She didn't want to go.
"You already know what happen, you lived it. Now its time to move on to our next station." He took her hand and they left the library.
TBC
Hi ppl,
I want to thank you for all your reviews. As I promised your wish is my command. So, the stories will be posted as soon as they're done and as soon as I have Internet access.
Hope you like this chapter. And as always if you have suggestion, remarks, even grammar and vocabulary corrections post a review. I read them all.
Nikka.