Disclaimer: As always, Angel the series and all of its characters belong to Joss Whedon and its various networks and production companies, NOT ME. Please don't sue me, I'm not making any money off of this. It's just mindless fun.

Rating: PG- 14, it maybe R (in one section). I'll warn you right before, so if you don't want to read about torture, you don't have to. (Although, its going to be a little worse than usual due to the fact that Angel and Cordy are P.Oed  at Wolfram and Hart. If you don't know what I'm talking about, please read Chapter 4. You'll miss a lot of what's going on, if you don't.)

PS: Again, as with all of my stories, my mistakes are my own. I don't have a beta.

[Thoughts are in italics, speech is in quotation marks, "". Okay?]

Fast Forward

By: Sensue

Chapter 5: Deal with the Devil

Wolfram and Hart (7:00 pm)

Lindsay McDonald sat in the conference room where the rest of the senior and junior staff were celebrating the harsh blow that Wolfram and Hart delivered via the seer's parents, of all people, to Angel and the rest of his goody good squad. The others, including Lila Morgan, his co-partner in this scheme, were toasting each other and getting drunk. The senior partners even came to celebrate, congratulating him and Lila for their 'efforts' in putting Angel in his place. Without the son born of two vampires, the prophecy couldn't come true. And that was a major check mark in Wolfram and Hart's column.

While everyone was slowly getting drunk and becoming severely obnoxious, Lindsay sat at the table thinking that this was too easy, that Angel would soon explode, perhaps even turn to the dark side of his personality becoming Angelus once again. He took a slow drink from his glass, letting the liquor sit on his tongue before swallowing. This wasn't over, not just yet. But, he'd gotten his revenge. Angel would never again see his and Darla's son again. Angel deserved it, he took everything from him. He took his hand, he took Darla, and then he tried to take his life. He took another sip…yes, vengeance was truly sweet.

The seer's parents were well on their way to Aspen for a holiday full of skiing and relaxing. They were assured that when they returned back to the State's, their daughter would be divorced and her children 'taken care of.' Those dumb idiots, how quickly they believed their assurances, they really thought that their daughter would leave 'that Angelo person' after her son was taken. They couldn't know how the rings that bound the couple in marriage also prevented separation.

[**Read A New Beginning at ; if you don't understand this. ~Sensue]

One of the senior partners sat down next to him, again congratulating him on a job well done. He shook the man's hand, a smile on his face. Yes, it was a job well done. He almost couldn't wait to see Angel's reaction. Soon…he should know who kidnapped his son soon. And on top of that it was a demon from the future who wanted to destroy Angel. Sah'jan took Connor to an unreachable dimension, the Quar' toth. No matter how hard Angel and his team tried, they'd never get his son back.

Crash.

Shatter.

Bang.

Speak of the devil, Lindsay thought as Angel, in full vampire face, broke through what was supposed to be an unbreakable pane of glass after the last time Angel had broken in. I guess he's figured it out.

Angel as quick as the superhero his friends associated him with, knocked the lawyers closest to him unconscious and went for Lindsay's throat. "You have two seconds to tell me where my son is or you're not going to have ANY limbs attached to your body, Lindsay."

The smile that was previously on Lindsay's lips was replaced by a bluish tinge that indicated oxygen depravation. His mouth didn't work properly as the need to breath took over all of his thoughts and actions. He scratched and hit Angel's arms in attempt to release the hold on his neck. A small reprieve was granted as Angel released his tight hold for only a second to allow him to draw just one breath, just one small enough for him to answer his question.

"I do't kn—."

"Lindsay, Lindsay," his face was slapped hard with a hand, "that's not what I wanted to hear." The hand that was still around his throat tightened significantly. "Now, where's my son?"

The door to the conference room was thrown open by Wolfram and Hart security guards complete with stakes and tazers.  Angel barely gave them a second glance. Lindsay could now see lights dancing in front of his eyes; his lungs burning now, dying for oxygen. He saw darkness coming and wished for it to take him, so that he could, at least, have a moment without the pain of trying to breath.

"Uh, uh, uh, Lindsay. You don't get away that easily," Angel slapped him once more, hard enough to throw him into the unconsciousness he wished for. Angel looked around once more at the security guards, sniffed the air, then throwing Lindsay over his shoulder, jumped through the five story window that he'd destroyed in order to get in.

 ***RATING CHANGE, RATED R, although some PG 14 movies and TV shows, like Angel, actually show things like this, but just to be on the safe side, RATED R for torture. They showed Angel cutting off Lindsay's hand and massacring a bunch of lawyers, so mine's pretty tame compared to that. But like I said, I just want to be safe. ***

Abandoned Warehouse (~8:00 pm)

Lindsay opened his eyes wearily, shaking the remnants of sleep. He tried to move, but found that his arms were tied behind his back and his legs tied to the bottom of the metal chair he sat in. He opened his eyes, then wished he could close them. Not only was Angel, in vamp face, sitting right in front of him, but he was holding an ice pick. Right against the eye that he opened.

"Wake-y, Wake-y, Lindsay. I know that you're awake now. Now that we won't be interrupted, why don't you just tell me what I want to know? Now, again, WHERE'S MY SON?" His voice was hard and his tone angry. His face was right in front of his, so close that he could feel Angel's voice, rather than hear it.

"I told you, I—," the rest of the sentence was drowned out by a scream as the ice pick was slammed into his thigh. Angel's hand was still on the hilt, slightly moving it to cause more pain.

"And, I told you, that's the wrong answer. Now, where's my son?"

Before Lindsay could gasp out an answer, the door to the warehouse was kicked open. Lindsay gave a sigh of relief, closing his eyes, help was here. They came to rescue him. When he opened his eyes again, disappointment and terror replaced the relief.

God, William the Bloody, Aka Spike, is here. They weren't here to rescue him. William the Bloody was rumored to be the second worse vampire in history, only second to Angelus. And now, he was here to help Angel torture him.

"Angel, what are you doing? You're torturing him!"

"Listen, Spike, I don't need your bullshit right now. I want my son back. And I'm going to get him back if I have to cut off Lindsay's every limb. If you're not going to help me get Connor back, then GET OUT! If you're going to help, grab a knife."

"Alright, I'll help, but what about your soul? Your redemption?"

"It means nothing without my son, my family, Spike." Angel turned his head to face his grandchilde; he turned it just in time to see Spike hit him over the head with a pipe.

Angel lay flat on the ground, blood pouring from the head wound that Spike had inflicted. Lindsay, in attempt to gain an alley against Angel spoke to Spike, "You're William the Bloody, right? You hate Angel as much as I do. Listen, help me. Let me go and I'll see that Wolfram and Hart extends you every offer and opportunity to get back at what he's done to you… and your girlfriend, Drusilla, was it? So what do you say?"

Spike, in typical fashion, punched him in the face, "What do you think I say? I say you're a bloody bastard and I'm going to kill you. You're going to tell me what you did to my 'nephew' or I'll wake Angelus and let him have his way with you. Trust me, you're better off with me."

He took the hilt of the ice pick, still in Lindsay's thigh and pulled it out. His blood ran down the tip to its handle. The blood was then wiped on his face, mixing the blood on his thigh with the blood from the newly forming cuts on his face. "Do you know why they called me William the Bloody? You must know, you know my name." More cuts were made by the ice pick, "I don't really like these ice picks, you know. I'd rather have a railroad spike; they make more of a bloody mess."

Lindsay gasping in fear and pain, unable to keep the secret from his torturers, whimpered, "Stop, please, alright. I'll tell you. I'll tell you, but you aren't going to be able to get him back. He's in Quar'toth; it's a demon dimension that can only be accessed once. It takes dark magicks to open it and once it closes only a rip in the fabric of reality can open it. If you reopen it, it'll destroy this reality. There's no way of getting Angel's son back."

"Oh, really. I think that we'll find a way to open that portal. Thank you for the information. You've been really helpful. And just to be safe, if I find that you, bloody well, lied to me I'm going to cut off the hand Angel forgot." With that being said, the ice pick was stabbed hard into the other thigh and left there.

***Okay, the rating is back to PG-14. The worst part is over! I promise. ~Sensue****

Spike went over to where Angel lay and threw him up over his shoulder, he looked toward Lindsay, "See you soon." Spike walked over to where he found Angel's car. He put him in the back seat and nodded over to Gunn, who was driving his truck they had used to track down Angel. He promised the Princess that he'd find Angel and stop him from doing something that would risk his soul, but he didn't promise her that HE wouldn't do the same. They were all just lucky that he could track his grandsire using vampire senses, or else he might've been too late.

He looked over at the man who had so radically changed his entire existence. He seemed so lost now, not the smiling, joking, somewhat funny man that he'd become while married to the Princess. He thought of the Princess, she was so sad, sobbing at the loss of her son. She cried, it seemed endlessly, until she thought of her family. Her husband, her children, her co-workers, they needed her to be strong. So she pushed the pain and anguish under a tight seal, instead portraying strength and confidence that 'everything was going to be alright.' She then ordered Spike and Gunn to hunt down Angel, to stop him from what she knew that he would do to the lawyers that dared touch his first born. To Wesley, she commanded that he research any and everything that could help them find her son. Fred was told to watch the other children with her life if it was necessary. Nicky and Cathy cried hysterically, crying until they fell asleep in their Aunt's arms, wishing that their big brother would come home soon.

Caritas (~8:00 pm)

Cordy waited until the others had gone about the business she'd asked of them to go see the one person who would've caught her parents scheme to kidnap her son in time, Krevlorneswath of the Deth'wok clan, or the demon she simply called Lorne at his Karaoke club. She took her jeep the drive to the front of his club. The front of the club wasn't much to look at, to deter humans that were unlikely to know that demons existed. The door that actually led into the club was hidden and only those who knew about Caritas knew where the door was and how to open it. Cordy had been taken to the club many times by Angel and Wesley while investigating their cases to "help the hopeless." She opened the door and walked down the narrow staircase to the real entrance of the club. She looked around quickly trying to stay calm, yet finding it exceeding hard to maintain her composure.

How could they? She thought angrily.  Those damn PTBs would send her visions of puppies in a tree if they thought it would help Angel, and Faith and Spike, to an extent, regain their redemption. Now, now, when I needed them to send me a vision to protect my son, they fail me.

She saw who she was looking for over by the bar talking, actually he looked annoyed, to the bartender. As she got closer, she heard Lorne say, "This is not a sea breeze. It's water with flavoring. Don't they teach you anything at school? You're supposed to be a college student, how could you NOT know how to mix a drink! Boy oh boy, do I miss Claude." Lorne took a drink in the glass he held even though he was disappointed in it. He made a face after he swallowed. "Hey, why don't you drink this and see if our customers will come back?"

He turned his head just in time to see his favorite girl, sorry woman, walk through the door. "Princess, Boy, you're a sight for soar eyes. I was just telling my new bartender, Harold, that he should learn a thing about mixing drinks. So, how was your dinner party, which I'm by no way offended, that I wasn't invited to?"

"Lorne, I need your help. My, my parents, they…they stole Connor and let a demon take him to another dimension through a portal. Please, Lorne," her hands started shaking when she put them near her head, "help me, please. Help me find him. There's got to be a way. You have to help me talk to the Powers. I have to get my son back. Why? Why didn't they show it to me? They show me the most insignificant vampire attacks and they can't show me that my son is going to be kidnapped." She put her hands on the table in front of her as if the table could hold her upright.

"Oh, Princess. I'm so sorry. I can't believe that. Your parents kidnapped your son? How could they? Why? No, Forget it, we don't have time. I'll help you. What can I do, though?" Lorne looked greener than usual, very upset by the news.

"I need to talk to the Powers, NOW, Lorne. How do I talk to them?"

"You can't talk to the Powers, sweetheart, no one can."

She jumped in, "But--,"

"But, nothing, Princess. You can't talk to the Powers. You can only talk through Conduits, or Links, to the PTBs like yourself. I know where they are, but honey, they don't like us lower beings coming to them. They could hurt you." Lorne tried to persuade her that there was another way.

"They've already hurt me. They took my son. They took him to some sort of a HELL DIMENSION, away from his family, away from his sister, away from me, Lorne. Trust me, they've already hurt me. Now, I want my son back. I want to talk to the powers. Please, Lorne, please." She pleaded, the shaking becoming more pronounced.

Lorne quickly pulled up a chair and pushed her to sit in it. Once she was safely in a seat, he kneeled down in front of her, taking both of her hands in his, "Ok, princess. I'll tell you where the conduit is. Just as a warning, they only allow Champions to enter. I know that you're a champion, but they might not consider you one. I hope that you find the answers that you're searching for and we find mini-Angel soon. I miss the little guy already."

The Conduit (~9:00 pm)

For a place called a 'conduit', it sure didn't look like one. It actually looked like a bunch of rocks with a fire built in the middle. Cordy turned to look more closely. This was the conduit. This was where the PTBs sent their champions. Boy, why don't they just bury them here, instead. "Ok, I'm here. And you know what? I'm sick of you. All of you. You play Gods up there. You play with people's lives. You send me stupid visions, visions that almost killed me. Instead of dying though, I got turned into a 'part-demon' and you know what? I'm not taking your crap anymore. This time you're going to help me. You're going to help me and Angel, your champion, find our son! And I'm not taking 'no' for an answer! I'm not going to leave. I'll stay here forever, if I have to. I want MY SON BACK. Help me get my son back."

A thundering voice, no voices, echoed through the small rocky cavern. "She speaks. But she does not know."

"What? What don't I know? Why didn't you send me a vision? Why didn't you tell me that my son was going to be kidnapped?"

"The warning was sent. He knew. You did not listen. Does she know pain? Yes. She knows pain. She knows despair."

"What warning? No one told me anything. No one told me that my parents had planned to take my son."

"Your question has been answered, lower being."

"NO! It hasn't. Tell me where my son is."

"He cannot be reached. He is lost. You cannot enter."

A flash of light blinded Cordelia, eyes closing to protect herself from the onslaught. When she reopened them, she found Lorne kneeling in front of her asking her if she was okay. "Yes. Lorne, I'm fine. They didn't help me at all. They didn't tell me where Connor was. They didn't tell me why they didn't send me a vision. They said that I did. But I didn't. I didn't see anything to warn me."

"Well, Princess, did they say they sent you a vision or did they say something else?" Lorne asked, helping her off the floor where she had landed.

"They said that 'I was warned, but I didn't listen.' Trust me, if I saw my son being taken, I would've listened."

"What if YOU didn't get the warning? What if someone else did? Did anyone tell you that your parents were going to take Connor? Or anything like that? Something small that you didn't seem to notice at the time, but now that it's happened, you can believe them?"

"Lorne, no. No one told me that my parents wanted to take—oh my, Nicky." Her hand was put over her mouth to stop the coming screams, "He, he told me that my father 'wanted Connor' more than him. That he 'felt' bad. What if he knew? What if he knew that Connor was going to be taken? I have to talk to him. I have to ask him." The shaking that had stopped previously, returned with a fury. Cordy couldn't stand any longer.

The Hyperion (~10:00 pm)

Lorne had to help her walk back to her Jeep and drive back to the Hyperion. The others were already there, waiting for Angel and Cordy to return in order to discuss what they had found out. Spike and Gunn had returned shortly after retrieving Angel, who was still unconscious, from the warehouse. They had carried him into the hotel and placed him on the couch in his office until he awoke. They had come in to find Fred pacing the lobby and wringing her hands. When they asked where Cordy was, the pacing only increased.

Fred was so upset all she could do was think of Connor. I can't believe this. The poor little boy. He got sucked through a portal. There's nothing to hold on to in a portal. What if he gets sick? What if he ends up in a dimension worse than Pylea? What if they treat him like a cow? There must be a scientific explaination. I mean E=mc2. Energy can't be created or destroyed, only changed. What if there was a way to change it back? What if I can design something that could convert the energy created by the opening of the portal to reopen it? I need a black marker. I need to write this down. I have to think of something to help him. He's just a little boy. He's going to miss his mommy and daddy so much. Just like I did. And Poor Nicky and Cathy. They are so upset. Poor Nicky kept saying that it was his fault that Connor got taken. It wasn't his fault. It's Cordy's parents' fault. She took a marker off of Cordy's desk. She knew that Cordy wouldn't mind, after all the marker was going to help her think of things to try to get Connor back. No she won't mind.

She took the marker and started by the stairwell. Writing down equations and ideas for inventing a 'Portal Opener'. Yup, that was what she was going to call it. The ideas came out in a flood. The space was getting too small. She needed more space on the wall. She jumped, someone touched her. Oh, it was just Wesley. He was talking but she couldn't hear him. He took the marker. "NO! I need that. I have to think. I have to think of a way to save Connor. He's alone. He's alone in a weird Hell Dimension without his mommy and daddy. He's going to be a cow. They're going to hurt him. We can't let them hurt him. We have to find him before they make him forget about everything. About Earth, about his family, about anything that's real. Wesley, Give me back my marker. Please, I need it; I need it." She banged her fists against his chest. Wesley grabbed her trying to stop her from hurting herself. Soon the fight was taken out of her and she collapsed against him, sobbing all of her fears and frustrations for the little boy that she loved.

Spike and Gunn had left the two alone, knowing that Fred would be okay with Wesley. That he'd take care of her and comfort her. Gunn had a spark of jealously seeing them, but he let it go. He knew that he wasn't the one that Fred was meant to be with. She had always loved Wesley, he knew this now. And, it was alright with him. He had also found someone. A beautiful someone that he'd forgotten to call tonight. Shit. His new girl wasn't going to be nice about this. He quickly crossed the room and called her, telling her that it was truly a family emergency and he HAD to cancel their date. And to his astonishment, the lady actually forgave him and told him that she'd call him in the morning to see how he was. Wow, he'd really found 'the one.'

Spike also left the room. He went upstairs to check in on the children. His head was downcast. He failed at his mission. His mission, his only mission, was to protect the children with his life and even in this he had to fail. Nicky and Cathy had ended up sleeping in their parent's bedroom, both cuddled together as if still frightened. He walked over and smoothed their brows. Cathy had her father's brow, same as Connor. When she brooded, she looked exactly like him. Nicky was the more sensitive child. He always was. He always seemed to know if someone was mad at him and took it to heart, even if it was it wasn't important. So, of course, this 'situation' would bother him worse than Cathy. Nicky was still asleep, but he was weeping. Spike sat down on the edge of the bed, leaning in close to Nicky. He rubbed the little boy's back until he stopped the weeping. With his thumb, he wiped away the remnants of his tears.

He straightened; it was time to call for some reinforcements. He went into the other room, one with a phone and called the only people he knew that would come right away without any argument or complaint. The person on the other line told him that they would arrive as soon as they were able to get a flight. He thanked them, then hung up the phone.

Spike took an unneeded breath and went back down the stairs to check on his grandsire. Angel should've awoke by now. If he didn't wake soon, he'd throw Peaches in the pool that the Princess had discovered on her trek through the hotel. How in the world had she found the pool under two inches of floorboard was beside him, but Angel seemed to think it was funny and made fun of her, reminding her of the time she took the linoleum off his floor in their first office. She laughed about it too, but Spike didn't get the joke. It must've been some sort of an inside joke.

The Princess was no where to be found. If she didn't get back soon, he'd have Gunn drive him again in the truck while he sniffed down Cordy. He was becoming the original blood hound of the group. I mean, who else was he going to have to sniff out, the kitten down the street!

No later than he had thought about her, had she walked through the door. Well, walked is an overstatement: Carried was more like it. Lorne was practically dragging her through the doors and down the steps of the Hyperion. "Um, someone help! The princess is getting pretty heavy. I don't want to drop her."

Angel woke up abruptly, sensing that Cordy was in trouble. It was funny how he could sense when his wife was in danger, but he couldn't sense when his children were. He just let complete strangers out of his home, his territory with his children. He was lucky that they didn't plan on taking all three of them or he could have lost his entire family in one stupid moment. He never should've trusted them. I mean, Cordy didn't even trust them and they were HER parents. Shaking away those thoughts of self-flagellation, he looked around. I'm at the Hyperion. "SPIKE!" His shout was probably heard throughout the entire neighborhood. I'm going to stake him. He came out of the office enraged. Spike had stopped him from finding out where his son was. Spike had prevented him from his revenge. Lindsay McDonald deserved to die and he was going to be the one to kill him. Spike had better not have killed him; He wanted to do it.

Angel, morphing into vampire mode, stormed through the office doors and found his target. He grabbed Spike by the throat and slammed him against the wall. The only thing that stopped him from putting the stake that he held against Spike's chest through his heart was the hand grasping his arm and the woman that was pleading with him to stop; Crying that she didn't want to lose her son, brother-in-law, and husband all in one night.

Angel dropped the stake and let go of Spike. Instead he dropped to his knees and covered his vampire face with his hands, ashamed of what he tried to do. Cordy went to her knees beside her husband and uncovered his face. She didn't care that he was a vampire. She loved him all the same. He wasn't crying, which surprised the others. Yet his face was despair. His eyes, which were hours before, shining with happiness now were full of unshed tears and anguish. He looked at his wife, and saw the tears streaming down her face. He moved so that she could lean against his chest. He could feel the tears being shed on his shirtfront but was unable to release his own emotions. Instead he held his wife closer, wrapping both arms around her and looking at the others crying around them. Fred and Wesley, both crying, held each other trying to receive an offer comfort at the same time. Spike sat on the top stair and said, over and over, "I'm so sorry," in between his sobs. Gunn was trying to be a tough guy and not cry, but failed miserably; Tears escaped the tightly closed lids.

Angel looked up once he'd noticed the others were starting to calm, his face completely serious, "We need to know what happened. I need you all to tell me what you've found. We need to get Connor back home. He belongs with us, with our family. Now, how do we get him back?"

No one wanted to be the one to tell him. No one wanted to acknowledge the truth. They looked down, up, at their hands, played with their buttons and cleaned their glasses. No one looked at Angel. "Well, how do we get him back? How do we get the portal to open?"

Cordy pulled away from Angel's embrace, the tears still flowing, "We can't. We can't get him back. It's entirely my fault that we lost Connor. I should've listened to him. I should've known. They were my parents. I should've known that they'd try to ruin my life. I should've known that they'd sell me out to Wolfram and Hart. It was my fault," the sobs got louder, "my fault…Nicky told me. Nicky, he told me that they wanted Connor. I just didn't listen and now, we can't get him back. You can't open a portal to Quar'toth. It'll destroy the world. We can't get Connor back. He's gone." Cordy cried until she could no longer breathe. She collapsed on the floor, passed out.

Spike reacted; he picked her up and took her upstairs to his bed since the children were in their bedroom. He lay her down and covered her with many blankets, making sure that she wouldn't go into shock in the middle of the night. He came back down to see the others escaping to other rooms in the hotel to give Angel privacy. He sat in the exact same spot; he didn't seem to know that he could move if he wanted to.

"Angel, I'm sorry—," Spike began.

"I don't want to hear it. The only thing that I want to hear is my son's voice. I want Cordy to smile again and my children to be happy. I want everything to be the way it was before those bastards stole my son." Angel got up off of the ground, "I'm going to find a way to open that portal. I'm going to find one even if it destroys the world. I want my son back."

To be continued… Chapter 6 (Untitled, for now)

I know that you're all getting sick of those words,

but you know what: It'll be worth it when I finish. 

Thanks for being patient. ~Sensue