Chapter 33-That vision thing

-Buffy-

It's been four days since Cordy had the vision. She's still sick in bed from the hangover of it. She's staying at her apartment for now. She insists Phantom Dennis takes good care of her. Angel and I are both worried. I have come to appreciate Cordy over the past few months and Angel loves her like a sister.

Giles, Willow, Tara and Dawn have practically moved into the hotel. They research day and night. There's just not much of anything on a possibly Greek vampire that's really old. The phone rings and I pick it up. I half hope it's a case. We could use a little distraction and sometimes things seem clearer if you get your mind off of them.

"Angel Investigations," I say. It's Cordy and she's crying.

"We've got to stop her, she's raising an army."

In the end I send Gunn over to pick Cordy up. If she's doing half as badly as she sounds, she needs to be around real people who can take care of her, instead of just a ghost. It's not like we don't have the room here.

When Gunn gets back with Cordy, she looks awful. I don't think I've ever seen Cordy looking awful. It's a bit of a shock to me. She's also very quiet, another un-Cordy like characteristic. Gunn practically carries her to the couch. Fred brings pillows. Angel grabs blankets from a linen closet.

"It's okay, really. We just need to find this chick and totally kill her." Cordy says. She sounds a bit more herself.

"We're working on it. When you called Buffy, had you had another vision?" Giles asks.

Cordy nods. "She's raising an army of demons, not just vampires."

"For what?" I ask.

Cordy shakes her head. "Oh, she's got this weird metallic skin."

Angel freezes. If it's possible for him to pale he does.

"Angel?" I say.

He shakes his head. "It's not possible."

"That really depends on your definition of impossible. I mean ask the average person on the street, vampires impossible and yet. Start talking, Angel." I say.

"The Oracles, I saw them dead."

"Still needing back story here." I prod him.

"The oracles are mystical connections to the powers that be. They were slain by Vocah last year." Wesley explains.

"Vocal? I knew there were people who sang bad but being able to slay people with your voice, that's harsh." I say.

"You ain't never heard Angel sing Mandy." I hear Gunn say under his breath. And that's a whole story I'm going to have to hear at some later less apocalypsey time.

"Vocah, Buffy. He's a very powerful demon. I've seen him mentioned in a few of my books. He has to be summoned from other realms if I remember correctly." Giles says.

"He killed them. I found them in a pool of their own blood, so it can't be one of the Oracles." Angel says. "Did she have any tattoos or paintings on her skin?" he directs this to Cordy.

Cordy closes her eyes and wrinkles her brow "Maybe blue swirly things, or green. I'm not sure."

Angel starts pacing. He's pushing his hands through his hair. "Wes, they were dead. I talked to her ghost. Besides, Vocah wasn't a vampire."

"You're certain Vocah killed them, not something else?" Wes questions.

I'm completely lost and confused and no one seems to be in the mood to catch me up to speed.

"His scythe was there! She said he killed them." Angel snarls.

"Well, they did have the ability to fold time, perhaps something went awry." Wes says.

"Excuse me, fold time?" I say. I give myself points for staying quiet this long.

"They can turn back days, events I would think there would be a limit to the amount of time they can take back, but we know they can take back whole days for certain." Wes says.

"Whole days? Giles, a little help here? How the hell am I supposed to fight something that can turn back whole days? I stake her, she turns it back and it's all undone? Can you say totally not fair?"

"Buffy, please calm down." Giles says.

"No, Giles. I think I have a right to be a little upset here. I can't defeat something that can go all Groundhog Day on me." I say.

Giles looks at me baffled. "Now that we know what you may be facing, we can do some research and find how what to do."

"We don't have much time, not if she's building an army." Angel says.

"I don't know why she'd need an army." I grumble. "Why is that, oh yeah because she can fold TIME." My voice drips sarcasm.

*

Cordy wakes up screaming at the top of her lungs. "You have to find her scepter it's the key." Cordy screams again and then loses consciousness.

Angel is on his knees next to her on the couch. "Cordy?" He shakes her gently. "Cordy." He places a finger to the pulse on her wrist, even though I know he can hear it as well as I can. "We need to get her to a hospital."

I glance out the frosted French doors to the glorious sun shining in the courtyard.

"Gunn and I can take her." Wesley offers. "The rest of you can do research and come to the hospital when it gets dark, if she's still there."

Angel nods. There really aren't any other options. Gunn picks Cordy up in his arms and heads toward the front door.

"We'll call you as soon as we know something." Wes promises.

"Make sure they take care of her." Angel says. At one time I would have been jealous of the tenderness in his voice, but I know Cordy is his Xander. I also know he's mine, heart, soul, mind, body and spirit. It's a good feeling.

*

At nightfall, Cordy is still in the hospital. She's been admitted to a room. They are going to do a battery of tests on her in the morning. Angel and I go to the hospital as soon as the sun sets. Giles and Willow stay behind to do more research on this scepter because right now we have less then zilch.
I hate hospitals. I always have. The antiseptic smell and the death is much worse now. I drop the breathing habit because frankly, I'm trying not to gag. I'm here mostly for moral support. I'm the last person, maybe not the real last person but close, Cordy would want to sit by her bed and hold her hand. That support role belongs to Angel. I'm just here to support him.
He's in her room right now sitting in a chair holding her hand and talking to her. He's talking to her about all the good times they had. He speaks of Doyle and how much they both miss him. I lay my head back against the wall and listen with a smile. Angel is a good story teller. Of course, I'd listen to him read a phone book with that voice.
Wes comes and sits down beside me. He looks tired and I'm not sure when any of us really slept well, certainly not since Cordy's first vision and the research begin. I smile at him. He hands me a cup of coffee.

"Thanks." I take a sip of the liquid. It doesn't feel hot to me although I know it is. Steam comes off the cup. "Wes, who are the oracles, I mean other then what you told us earlier. How does Angel know them?'

Wes hesitates, as if hedging on telling me, and then he caves. "I don't know the details. I heard them through Cordy, who heard from Doyle." He takes a sip of his coffee, reluctant to tell me about this for some reason. He rubs his hand across the stubble on his chin before continuing. "I believe you were there for a portion of it. The Mohra demon Angel slew when you visited on Thanksgiving, Angel needed to know why it had been sent. Typically Mohra demons are hired assassins. Doyle took him to visit the Oracles. They were the only conduit to the powers that we are aware of."

I fix him with a stare. There's something he's not telling me. "Okay, so Angel found them dead?"

"No, that was actually much later in the same year. Cordelia was touched by this Vocah demon. It opened her mind to all the pain and suffering in the world, rather then just the select visions the Powers decide to take a hand in. Vocah was summoned by Wolfram and Hart to take out Angel's links to the Powers. Cordelia was one, the Oracles were another. He murdered them, or so we believed. Angel actually spoke to the ghost of the female oracle." Wes explains

"So what happened? Why is this female Oracle a vampire gathering a demon army? I think we can safely assume she's not gonna teach them how to do the electric slide on go on Broadway."

Wes wrinkles his brow. I think I confuse him, or maybe he's like Giles was when he first became my watcher. He only understood a third of what I was saying. "No, most likely not. I don't know what happened. I've put some feelers out to my contacts. I hope to come up with some sort of explanation. Buffy, we can't even be sure this is the oracle. It could be a vampire with a flair for the dramatic. It wouldn't be the first."

"Tell me about it. Been there, done that, staked Dracula." I say with a sigh. I lean my head back against the wall and close my eyes.

"Dracula? You actually met Dracula?" Wes looks at me incredulously.

"Yeah. He came to Sunnydale to meet me. We had this thing, but not like a thing thing, anyway I staked him but I'm pretty sure he's out there somewhere because he did this rising mist special effects show while I was standing there, after I'd staked him, twice. "

"I'd always assumed he was a myth, merely made up by Hollywood."

"Well myth no more, I met him." I say. I don't go into the whole he bit me I sucked some of his blood thing. Angel is still within vampiric hearing distance. A crazy Angel is not an Angel we want to deal with right now and we don't have the time for him to go hunting all over the world for Dracula.

Wes glances at his watch. "Buffy, you and Angel had better get going back to the hotel. It will be dawn in a little while. If you would have someone bring some books to me, I can sit in Cordy's room and do research."

I smile at him. He was never this nice when he lived in Sunnydale. "I will Wes, thanks again."