Disclaimer: I don't own anything and you know it! I will make claims to Lexia, she's mine. Don't take her from me, or I'll cyber-kick your ass! Thank you come again!

Title: A True End

Summary: Sequel to Friendly Reflection. Lexia and Connor fight to stay together against the apocalypse. As if Connor had never hooked up with Cordy in Rain of Fire.

Rating: I'ma make it R for fun!

Chapter 13:

Lexia held her arms over her head as Wesley pulled tape tight across her ribs. It hurt like hell and made it hard for her to breath. She looked in the mirror above her dresser and saw that her jaw was bruised and swollen and her lip was split. Lexia grimaced and looked away. All that because she had hit the Beastmaster who was more than likely caring hell spawn. This was a great job.

Wesley pulled the last piece of tape tight across her rib cage and looked up at her.

"Are you sure you don't want to go to a hospital?" he asked.

"Naw..." Lexia said pulling down the bottom of her shirt over the tape. "They would just drug me up so I'd be all goofy and no help to you guys."

"You shouldn't be helping. You should get some rest."

"I'm alright," she lied as she tried to put on a long sleeved white button down on and winced when she lifted her shoulders to high. Angel came in the door as she did that.

"I think Fred could take you right now," he said shutting the door behind him.

"Give her some credit," Lexia told him buttoning a few of the buttons. "She a tough cookie."

"How is she?" Angel asked Wesley.

"A few broken ribs. Her back is bruised pretty bad where she collided with the column but she'll be fine if she gets some rest," Wesley said glancing at her.

"Wes, I'll be fine by this time tomorrow," she told him.

Wesley looked at her strangely then at Angel who nodded. He shrugged and gathered up his medical supplies.

"Very well then. I need to get back to researching, maybe see if Lorne's back," he told them and left the room.

Lexia looked up at Angel. "You didn't tell them I'm part demon?"

"Didn't know what type of demon," he said shrugging. "So I couldn't really."

Lexia nodded and moved to her dresser for a hairbrush. She lifted her hand to brush her hair and winced. Angel half smiled and took the brush from her. He turned her around and brushed it out for her. Lexia raised an eyebrow at the fatherly gesture. Then he reached around her for a random hair tie and pulled back her hair. It took him a few minutes but when he was done she had a neat bun near the nape of her neck.

She looked at her hair in the mirror then turned to look at him

"You're such a girl," she told him.

"You should go shopping with me," he half joked.

"So what about Connor and... Cordelia?" Lexia finally asked.

"I looked until the sun came up. Found their sent half a dozen times but I ended up just going in circles."

"They wouldn't be staying in just one place anyway," Lexia said. "They'll keep moving until...."

"I know. That's why I'm going to find some help," Angel said.

"Where?"

Angel took a coin out of his pocket. Then also something that looked like a key.

"Another dimension. Cordelia told me that her guide to the higher plain was also this guy I met when I was trying to save her life. I'm gonna see if he knows what's going on?"

"What if she lied?"

"Then I've wasted a few hours of my already long life," Angel said.

Connor shut the door behind them to a different empty warehouse. This one was dirtier than the last and had ice picks and other metal hooks hanging from the ceiling.

"More hooks?" Cordelia said with a sigh. "Great."

"We could try to find someplace else," Connor offered.

" No. This'll do for now," she told him.

Connor looked down. He felt really defeated and would like nothing more than to go to sleep. Living in this dimension has really softened me, he thought. Plus he kept thinking about Angel and Lexia and how they had turned on Cordelia so quickly.

" Hey, it's okay. We're going to be all right," Cordelia promised.

"I know. I just--I can't believe he tried to kill you," Connor said. "Maybe it wasn't really Angel."

"Connor," Cordelia said tensely.

"Angelus could've tricked us again. And--"

"It was Angel," she broke in. "You know it was."

"Everything he said about how I could help make the world a better place, about being a champion."

"Lies... meant to keep you in your place where he can watch you, control you."

"But Fred, Gunn, Wesley, Lorne, Lexia--I thought they were... good," Connor said.

"What does that mean, really?" she asked walking away a little bit. "Being good? Doing the right thing? By who's judgment? Good, evil--they're just words, Connor. Concepts of morality they forced around your neck to yank you wherever they please. You're with me now. You don't have to live by their rules. You remember why?"

"'Cause we're special," he answered smiling.

"That's right. We're special, and our baby is going to be extraordinary."

Connor felt a lot better now. Cordelia was right. He just needed to forget all their lies and think about what he knew was true. Cordelia was there for him. He was going to be a father, he had a family to protect. And he wasn't going to let anyone take that away from him.

Lexia followed Angel down the stairs. Fred and Gunn were in the lobby going through items in a cardboard box.

"Scented candles, couple of broken pieces of the Muo-Ping," Fred was saying as they reached the landing. "And some toiletries that smell way too pretty to be evil."

"Not much to go on," Lexia commented coming over to the counter to look.

Fred nodded in agreement. "As insidious lairs go, it kept Cordy's room nice and tidy. I think it even vacuumed."

"Keep working on a way to locate this thing," Angel told them. "If I'm not back in a couple of hours--"

"You're dead, we're screwed, end of the world," Gunn broke in.

"Or, you could stay here with us," Fred suggested smiling nervously. "Here's nice."

"I've done this before. Don't worry," Angel assured them. "Walk in the park."

"If I were you I'd be hating the park right about now," Lexia commented jumping up to sit on the counter.

Angel frowned but ignored her. He took the key and put it in the center of the coin and turned it so it made a locking noise. Then it fell out of his hands and began spinning on the ground. A portal appeared and Angel jumped in, the key following him and the vortex closing.

"I hate portals," Fred said tersely, tossing a candle back in the box.

Lexia sympathized. She really didn't like the thought of Angel being in another dimension and no way of getting him back if anything went wrong. She just had to hope that nothing extreme happened in the next few hours.

Connor stood watch at the window as a guard. The area around the building was surprisingly quite but Connor was tense. He felt like something was going to spring out at him any second and he'd have no way to fight it off.

"He won't give up," Cordelia said from behind him. "You know that, right? He won't stop until he finds us."

"Let him come. I can take him."

"Come over here," Cordelia ordered.

Connor walked away from the window over to Cordelia. She lifted up her shirt revealing her belly and pulled on his hand.

"I want you to know what you're fighting for," she said placing his hand on her stomach.

"It moved," Connor gasped.

"Of course it did," Cordelia said smiling. "That's what babies do when they're happy. I can't tell you how thankful I am that I found someone like you. I just wish they could let us be happy."

"I'll make them," he swore.

"You can't. They're too afraid. But maybe when they see how beautiful our baby is..."

"You think that would change how they feel?" he asked hopefully.

"Our baby's going to change everything, Connor," she promised.

"How soon... before we can show them?"

"A week? Maybe two?" Cordelia guessed standing and walking away. "But he'll find us before that. I know he will. He'll find us and he'll--"

"I won't let him," he interrupted. "I promise."

"I don't want you killing each other. That's never what I wanted..." she trailed off then turned to him suddenly. "Maybe there's another way. A way to bring our baby into the world now--before anyone else can hurt us."

"How?" Connor asked surprised.

"I'll need some very special things. Do you think you can get them for me?"

"Why do I have to look through the book with Latin?" Lexia asked annoyed as she flipped through a book.

Wesley stopped and looked at her book, then took it from her. He handed her another in English and she tried reading through it but her mind was somewhere else. She was thinking about Connor, somewhere hidden in the city, with that thing feeding him lies. It made her chest hurt and feel hollow to think about how they were manipulated and torn apart that way. The only thing she wanted to do now was find Connor and try to talk some sense into him.

"Hey, here's something," Fred who had been pacing as she read an article. "Maybe I can--"

She was cut off as the portal opened up again directly behind her. She jumped and grasped the book she was reading from to her chest as Angel came through and dropped and unconscious demon to the floor. Lexia dropped her own book in surprise.

"--have an embolism!" Fred cried.

"What happened?" Wesley asked.

"We had words," Angel explained limping over to the couch.

"Between the pummeling?" Lorne threw in.

"Whatever's happened to Cordy, he's a part of it. We need to bind him to this dimension," Angel said groaning and sitting down. He noticed everyone still standing around gawking and looked up. "Before he wakes up would be nice."

Connor watched the blonde teenage girl back away from a vampire in a lone alley. She whimpered in fear and looked for a place to run to.

"Mmm... I really love virgins," the vamp said advancing on her.

He lunged to bite the girl who cried out. Connor chose to move then, staking the vamp before he ever reached the girl. The girl looked up at him in shock.

"You all right?" Connor asked her.

"He tried to kill--" the girl squeaked out

"I know. Did he hurt you?"

"No. No, you stopped him. Th-thank you," the girl said crying. "Thank you, oh-oh God, thank you so much. Th-thank--"

Connor cut her off by punching her in the face. She fell the ground, unconscious. Connor looked down and could almost see himself punching Lexia the same way and the shocked look she gave him. He looked over at the girl and felt bile rise up in his throat. He took several deep breaths to push the feeling down the bent to pick her up.

Connor dropped the girl to the floor in the warehouse. Her hands were already bound and her face was bruised and swollen where he'd hit her. Connor looked away.

"She's perfect," Cordelia told him happily. "Did you get everything else?"

"Yeah," Connor said softly.

"I know what your heart is telling you, Connor, but it will lie to you if you let it," Cordelia reminded him. "You have to trust me. Be sad, mourn for her, but never forget the truth. She's one of them. One of the average, normal people that fill this world. But what we're doing will elevate her life beyond that and give her death meaning. Her blood for our baby. That's more than fair, isn't it?"

Connor said nothing just looked back at the girl. Cordelia went back to the other room preparing her ritual with the other items he'd gotten for her. Connor had a funny flutter in his stomach and his chest had an odd hollow feeling to it. Is this really right? He wondered. Should I let her kill this girl for our baby?

Lexia watched as Skip awoke in a red circle of light. He looked surprised to be there and reached out to touch the light. When he saw it was a barrier he retracted his hand and the light disappeared.

"Sand of the red palm," he said chuckling. "A child's trick."

"Then why don't you come out and play," Gunn challenged.

"In time,"Skip promised.

"You'll have a lot of that after we make your accommodations a little bit more permanent," Angel said walking toward Skip with his arms crossed. "Fred?"

"Sphere of the Infinite Agonies," Fred read from a book as she walked toward Skip. "Every second a lifetime. Should be able to whip one up in, um... twenty minutes."

"Everything you know or she starts whipping," Angel threatened.

"Hey," Skip protested holding up his hands. "Whoa. I'm just a merc. I go where the deal is and not getting stuck in one of those? Bargain. Anybody got a cig?"

Lexia rolled her eyes and moved to sit on the round couch. She pulled her knees up and rested her chin on them as she listened. Usually she'd be jumping in with her own quips but she was feeling... funky to say the least.

"Cordelia," Angel prompted as he paced. "Where is she?"

"I don't know. This is your dimension, man, you tell me," Skip shot back.

"The real Cordelia. Not this thing that's been posing as her."

"How'd I ever get spanked by such a chump nut?" Skip asked causing Angel to look down with a sigh. "That thing which has turned your life into a burning ring of fire? She is the real Cordelia...Or at least she's in there somewhere. This whole thing..."

"Is it Cordy or not?" Gunn demanded.

"Oh, it's her," Skip assured. "She just ain't driving."

Suddenly Lexia felt her stomach turn. She leapt up and ran to the bathroom hearing Skip's laugh follow her.

"Think it's sympathy nausea?" he quipped before she shut the door.

She just made it to the toilet as everything she had in her stomach came out of her. Once she was all inside out she flushed the toilet and sat on the floor. She heard a light tapping on the door.

"Lexia?" Fred asked sounding concerned. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah," she answered weakly. I'm not the one in trouble, she thought. It's Connor.

Connor leaned his head out the window as all the food he'd had early came out of him. He coughed and spit when he was finished. He could hear Cordelia chanting in the other room. He grabbed one of the bottles of water he'd gotten and opened it taking some in his mouth. He swished and spit again then chugged nearly the whole bottle. He stopped and took a couple of deep breaths.

Pull yourself together, he ordered himself. I can't loose it now.

Connor grabbed another bottle of water and walked into the room Cordelia was in. She was sitting in a circle of white candles rocking slightly as she chanted.

"Vanu'esh. Katahn darh'im. Vajra'ha'esh. Vanu'esh. Katahn darh'im. Vajra'ha'esh..."

Connor turned and went to the other room where the girl was. She was still unconscious, her head leaning against the wall. Connor opened the bottle of water and knelt down. The girl awoke about the same time and gasped to see Connor in front of her.

"It's okay," he assured. "I'm not gonna hurt you."

"Please..." she begged cowering.

"Brought you some water," Connor offered holding the bottle out to her.

"I gotta get home," she cried, ignoring the water. "My mom's gonna be so mad."

"I'm sorry," Connor told her softly.

"I won't tell anyone, I promise," the girl begged weeping now. "Please, just let me go."

"Listen..." Connor heard from the other side of the room.

He jumped up, alert now. "Somebody there?"

"I've always been here..." a definite feminine voice said. "Close to your heart. After all..."

Suddenly she stepped out of the shadows. She was one of the most beautiful women Connor had ever seen. Blonde hair, blue eyes, smiling sweetly at him wearing a light colored dress and white sweater.

"...isn't that where a mother belongs?"

Suddenly Lexia was feeling much better, and more determined then ever. She came out of the bathroom to see the gang still interrogating Skip

"It wasn't just her ascension," Angel was saying. "Everything that's happened to Cordy in the past few years--all of it--was planned."

"You really think it stops with her, amigo? You have any concept of how many lines have to intersect in order for a thing like this to play out? How many events have to be nudged in just the right direction?" Skip shot and looked at each person in turn. "Leaving Pylea. Your sister. Opening the wrong book. Sleeping with the enemy. Sparkly over there," Skip said motioning over to Lexia as she walked closer. "Was the only one not part of the plan."

"What's happening to me?" she demanded holding a hand to her sore ribs.

"This isn't my masters doing," Skip told her. "My only guess is the powers are stepping in trying to get you to save your puppy love. Soul mates will do that to ya."

Everyone looked over at Lexia. She took and deep breath and shared a look with Angel. They both seemed to be getting it now.

"The rain of fire," Lexia guessed. "I wasn't supposed to show up. That thing was supposed to go home with Connor and she'd be popping out a whole lot sooner."

"Close, but wrong again," Skip said holding up a finger. "You were never supposed to meet. If you would have stayed with your father and been a good little groupie like the rest of your kind you'd be serving my master right now."

"What makes me so special? How did escape your master's grand plan?"

"Again," he said annoyed. "Soul mates. Destiny, sometimes it's not manipulated. Or it was by two different sources. Otherwise you're all little automatons.

"No way. We make our own choices," Gunn declared.

"Yeah, sure. Cheese sandwich here, uh, when to floss. But the big stuff, like two vampires squeezing out a kid?"

"Connor," Lexia and Angel said together.

"An impossible birth to make one possible," Wesley continued.

"That's what the kid was designed for," Skip said.

"To sleep with mother love?" Lorne said with a sarcastic chuckle.

"To create a vessel," Angel said more to himself than to anyone.

"Look out," Skip quipped. "The monkey's thinking again."

"Being inside a human makes it vulnerable, doesn't it?" Angel guessed. "That's why it had to stay hidden. Why it needed to create something stronger to pour itself into."

"Wait," Gunn cut in. "So the big nasty inside of Cordy is going to give birth... to itself?"

That's like really fucked up incest, Lexia thought to herself.

"Circle of life," Skip agreed. "It's a beautiful thing."

"How do we stop it?" Angel demanded.

"That's the easy part, slick. All you gotta do is find Cordelia and chop her head off."

"Has to be another way," he argued.

"Sure. Stab her in the heart, kidney, couple pokes in the lung--" Skip rambled.

"A way that won't kill Cordy in the process," Angel broke in.

"Takes a whole lot of cramming to get that much sweetness into a human," he informed Angel. "It's in every hair, every cell, every molecule of Cordelia's body and it ain't letting go 'til it got a brand new bag."

"What happens to Cordy then?" Fred asked.

"Drained of her life force during labor. Those contractions are a real bitch."

"It'll kill her?" Angel asked surprised.

"Or she'll end up a head of cabbage," Skip said with a shrug.

"What do you wanna do?" Wesley asked Angel.

"The only thing you can do. Kill the woman he loves to save the world. Times like this? Really gotta suck being you," Skip told Angel.

"How do I find her?" Angel demanded but Skip wouldn't answer so Angel stepped forward menacingly. "How?"

"Well, I'd go with the Bu'shundi ritual but, uh, you're gonna need a sacred Hutamin paw for that--" Skip relented.

"Got it," Lorne declared going behind the counter.

"What?" Skip asked shocked.

"Cordy--the real Cordy--kept one in her desk drawer," Lorne told them going through her desk.

"Probably a knock-off," Skip rationalized. "It's not some trinket you'd throw in a desk drawer--."

"She thought it was a back scratcher," Lorne said pulling it out and showing the gang.

"Get started," Angel ordered.

"Wait, wait. Uh, did I say 'Bu'shundi' ? I meant 'Ru'shundi' . It's--it--whole different--" Skip saw that it was useless as the gang hurried around. "Crap."