Chapter Two: This is HELL.

They'll never see
I'll never be
I'll struggle on and on to feed this hunger
Burning deep inside of me

It swirled, twirled, caused the winds to blow harder, hitting the light poles, lights flashing, blaring its beat as if it were alive. But it wasn't it was just a ripe in the inter-dimensional folds of time and space, in Faith's words, "Another Fucking Portal." Angel and Connor were right behind it. It seemed to be like a hand that grasped them and lifted them up in the air.

Cordy, Faith, Fred, Wes, Spike, Gunn, and Robin all ran toward the big, swirly hole thing in order to rescue them from its grasp. What they didn't expect was to ALL get sucked up in it. They all floated around, becoming sick and dizzy until it seemed like the floor hit them in the face.

They thought that the fall was bad. NOPE. WRONG. BZT. What was worse was the actually opening of the eyes to see where they landed.

The first thing that they heard as they got accustomed to being on solid earth was, "Oh Dear Lord," in that British slightly nasal tone of the man they known as Rupert Giles, Buffy's Watcher at the old Sunnydale High.

Cordy didn't want to open her eyes. Fear filled her guts and worked its way up to lodge in her throat. "Oh God," she thought, "I'm in Hell. I'm paying for all of the horrible things that I've ever done. Please don't let this be Sunnydale. I never want to ever be in SunnyHell again."

She heard Angel and Spike behind her. They seemed to be saying exactly the same as what she was thinking. She opened her eyes in resignation to see what she feared. The old library. Buffy. Xander. Willow. Giles.

And HERSELF.

Oh Boy. This was not good.

Wesley, in charge, almost shouted, "No way in hell are we going to stay here! Everyone start researching, there's got to be a way out of this fucking shit hole!"

Buffy looked like she was going to faint. "Angel…" she whispered so softly that no one heard her. She had tears in her eyes. She took a breath, "Oh God, you must have escaped the chains at the mansion." She quickly realized what she had uttered and turned to see if anyone had heard her. She strangely caught the eye of Spike staring at her, as if he knew something that she didn't. Thinking back of all the vampire lore, Buffy thought that he must have heard her using vampire super-hearing.

"Oh, my," Giles reiterated again.

"Well, if I woke up this morning thinking that it was going to be raining evil beings, I would've slept in." Of course, the stupid comments came from the original 'Zeppo Boy', named Xander Harris.

"HEY. We're not evil," Fred interrupted the town idiot, "We just fell out of the portal. My name's Fred. This is Gunn, Robin, Wesley, Baby Connor, Angel, and Cordy. Oh. You all know Spike, Angel and Cordy…you went to school with them. Well, not Angel and Spike cause their all vampires and school's during the day and we wouldn't want them to burst into flames, but hey you all knew that. Right? 'Cause if you didn't, I'm just joking. There are no such things as vampires. Or monsters in general. Don't worry what I'm talking about. I'm silly. No, I'm drunk. Don't listen to the drunk girl." Fred babbled, fully intent on continuing if it wasn't for the glares she was receiving from the others. "Ok, I'll shut up now."

"Umm, yes we know about vampires. 'Cause Buffy's a Slayer. That's a secret though, one I probably shouldn't have told you, but hey, if you didn't know then, you know now." Willow seemed to chatter as much as Fred did, and that was quite a feat to accomplish.

"Ok, if we're done being bloody blabbering idiots, can we get to the whole finding a blinding way out of here." Spike was in a great hurry, truly upset that he'd miss another great episode of his favorite show, Passions. "I'm going to miss Passions. They're finally going to bring Timmy back to life again. I can't miss that."

"I can't believe that you are that obsessed with that show. You're a freak," Angel always found ways to upset Spike, no matter what the occasion. The two always found ways to annoy the other.

"I'm not a freak. You're a damn Nancy boy from hell."

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, You are."

"I'm married. You're the poof."

"I'm not a poof, you're the biggest poof-ter in the world. And at least I wasn't a eunuch."

"I AM NOT A EUNUCH. SEE, there's Connor and my wife's pregnant. That proves that, So HUH."

"Oh, My GOD. You both are the biggest dorks on the planet. Can't you go FIVE MINUTES without fighting? God, you both are worst than my parents were." Cordy had to make that point as the appointed 'mother' in the group.

Buffy, stood with her mouth hung open listening to the love of her life bickering with the vampire that had devoted his life into killing as many slayers as he possibly could in his undead life. To her they sounded like two brothers arguing, not the deadliest of enemies. She stood quietly gawking at them, until she heard the words "married" and "wife" come out of Angel's mouth. In that moment, she pictured their wedding, their children, the nights that they would spend making love and holding each other throughout the day. She would marry Angel. She just knew it.

Cordy saw Buffy staring at Angel. She saw her get that look on her face. The look that Cordy herself wore whenever she thought of Angel. For a moment, she felt bad for Buffy. She knew what was going to happen. She knew that Angel would leave Buffy, of course, for her own good. If she had wanted to attack Buffy for her utter selfishness, she knew that she wouldn't risk the future; her marriage, her children, and most of all the lives of those they rescued on a daily basis from the evils of LA. They all need to get away from Sunnydale. Get away before someone said something that would inadvertently alert the others to the dangers that they would face. Dangers coming very soon due to the Mayor, Faith, and the Ascension.

"Guys, listen. I think that we should get out of here. NOW. We can't stay here. I'm afraid that we'll change something that will effect the future. Something that will get us killed if we let it change. I know what it's like to want to change things for the better, but believe me whatever you wish would happen will come back to haunt us later when we get back. Please, let's just get out of here."

Angel, like the devoted husband that Cordy trained him to be, immediately and without another word agreed, if only to keep his pregnant wife from becoming upset. The others quickly realized that what she said was true. They needed to get out of the library and into somewhere where they could be alone to discuss their options and strategies on leaving this hell hole, oh, I'm sorry, the Hell mouth.

"Oh. Wait another Cordy. Oh Boy, as if one complete imbecile wasn't enough. Look everyone there's a matched set."

Gunn, Spike, Robin, Wesley, and Angel, who were essentially on their way out the door, stopped in the process, turned around and all, Growled, yes growled at Xander. Now, Xander wasn't smart on the uptake, continued mocking Cordy. "It looks like someone sure knocked you up. What's the matter, can't keep all the guys you slept with straight? Hey maybe I can't help, we can call an emergency meeting of the football team for a DNA test."

The young cheerleader gasped; hurt clouding her face for just a moment before putting that Queen C mask back on. She just couldn't believe it, he actually stung her. She had let him hurt her by not being prepared for this contingency. She knew for a fact that Xander didn't have a fucking clue. The rumors that spread around the school were not only exaggerated, but completely wrong. She had never done anything worse with a boy than make out. She had never been with a boy. Not that way. She couldn't believe that this person was her. It couldn't be. But oh, my god, look at her, not her but the older her. Her hair was colored in blond highlights, cut short across her shoulders. She couldn't believe that she'd done that to herself. She'd never become a "blond" or cut it that short for that matter. And what was even worse was the clothes that she wore. Maternity sweat suits. SWEAT PANTS and SWEAT SHIRT. No way, she must be hallucinating. There was no way that she would ever leave the house dressed that way, pregnant or not.

It took her at least five glances to then realize that she was indeed pregnant. SHE, Cordelia Chase, was with child. Not only with child but it looked like, from the way that little boy was holding onto her legs that she also had another child. What was wrong with her? How could she let herself get that way?  Oh God. This couldn't be happening. She had to keep it together. There was no way anyone would ever find out. NOT in high school, not in college, and not in whatever stage of life that her older self was in.

Just as her younger self was staring at her, Cordy stared back, almost laughing at how stupid she was back in high school. That if she could change one thing, it would be her attitude. She should have…NO, she couldn't think like that. What's done is done and there was no sense in wishing. Wishing only brought more hurt. She should know. One of her old acquaintances Anya, a former vengeance demon, had told her, repeatedly actually, that it was her fault that she lost her powers. That is was her wish that caused the alternate reality to merge with this one, even temporarily.

But the hurt that Xander caused by his crass comments was apparent to all that knew her, her true family. All of them had steam coming out of their ears, all were ready to jump to her defense, ready to attack, maybe even kill for her if she asked. She couldn't have any of them say anything, even by accident in trying to strangle Xander, so she stopped in front of the boys, gently placed a hand for a second on each of their chests and softly said, "Thank you. Thank you for trying to defend me. But he isn't worth it. Let's just go." With those words spoken, she turned towards Xander, inching until she was in her personal space, then taking a deep breath, launched her fist in his face. The crash startled the entire room. Xander had landed clearly at least five feet away. Angel and Spike burst into giggles, shaking their heads at the stupidity of breaking rule #1, never piss of a pregnant woman.

"Goodbye, Buffy, Xander, Giles, Willow. See you all in 6 years or so. We can't stay here. Goodbye and Good luck."

The fang gang all turned, walking slowly in order to help the two pregnant women down the stairs and out the door of the library. The Scooby Gang just staring as they made their exit. The best part of the situation turned out to be that it was past sunset, so the two vampires could make their escape with the others without having to burst into flames, or having to wear very unappealing 'Burkas.'

They all walked in silence all thinking about what had happened. About how they were going to get back.

Angel finally broke the silence. "We should all go to a hotel or something. We need to get some sleep. Tomorrow morning we could go to the Wicca's Magick Shop and see if we can find a way out of here. Is that okay, Wesley?"

"I think that's the best idea anyone has had yet."

They all continued their walk, not considering the fact that the usually most assertive member of the team did not say one word this entire time. Faith walked slowly, focusing on her breathing, but really sore due to the fall out of the portal. Occasionally, a twinge of pain would shoot up her back, but she ignored it, calling herself a wimp for feeling like that. She kept walking never thinking that there was anything wrong at all.