Episode 2:
I hear a thunder in the distance
See a vision of a cross
I feel the pain that was given
On that sad day of loss
'My Own Prison, by Creed-
She just felt it. She couldn't explain how or why, but she did. She woke up in the middle of the night, and she knew at once that her son was gone.
And she knew that something bad had happened to Angel, too, because he would have never let anyone lay a hand on their child. He had promised it to her, and she had seen the truth in his eyes. Angel just couldn't lie to her. He had never been able to.
But when she opened her eyes, all she could feel inside was hollowness. And so she knew it. There was something wrong with her son, something terribly wrong. She could no longer feel him.
In spite of what she had believed once, the liaison between her and her child hadn't broken once he wasn't inside her anymore. In fact, it had become stronger than ever. No matter what she did, no matter how far away she was from him, she could still feel what he felt. It wasn't like she shared his soul or something, no. She knew damn well that she was soulless. However, there was an unbreakable link that connected her to the boy, a link that told her how her child was doing since she'd abandoned him.
No, not abandon. She would never do that. She just had to get away, far away from him. He was such a little, fragile and innocent thing, while she was so evil and powerful… No, she couldn't stay near him. She was too afraid of what it could happen if she did, of what she could do. It wasn't like she thought that she'd harm her son in any way, no. She was too attached to him, and it would be like hurting herself. But she had done so many horrendous things…
Angel had understood. He'd promised he'd take care of Connor for her, that he wouldn't let anything bad happen to thing. And now, however, her unbreakable link with her son was broken and she feared the worst.
There was only one way to find out the truth.
She was going back to the City of Angels…the least angelic place in the whole world.
Cordelia and Angel were kissing on the couch. Everyone else was minding their own business – Lorne and Fred were watching Connor while Wesley and Gunn were training in the basement, so they had the whole lobby for them both.
She broke off the kiss and whispered in his ear:
'I love you.'
Just three words, and yet those words had changed her entire life the first time Angel had pronounced them, two weeks ago, awakening feelings inside her she didn't knew that existed. And since then they had lived the fairy tale – with ugly demons, deadly prophecies, killing visions and psycho demon hunters, but for her was okay. It felt much more real that way.
But she still had the uneasy feeling in her stomach that told her it wouldn't last long. Good things never lasted long around here.
And very right she was, because as soon as Angel had whispered the words 'I love you too', she saw it. The worst vision she'd ever had.
She had seen Angel's death. And she had also seen her own.
When Wesley and Gunn heard the hurried footsteps and the loud, breaking noises upstairs, they knew at once there was something wrong. They grabbed the closest weapons at hand and ran upstairs. What they saw wasn't pretty.
There were at least twenty enemies surrounding them, both human and demoniacal. Wesley and Gunn exchanged only one somber look and they began to fight, without thinking whether they'd win or not. It never truly mattered: they fought because they had to. After all, they were heroes.
None of them ever saw Cordelia's sword slipping from her hand as an excruciating vision hit her, neither they saw Angel turning around, his lips forming her name as the wood crossed his heart and he turned to dust. None of them saw the end of the two Champions, so busy they were fighting the good fight. And no matter how long it passed, none of them would ever forgive himself for not seeing it, for not being right there when they had to.
They didn't see Holtz and Justine sneaking in and making their way to Connor's bedroom, and of course they didn't see when they knocked Fred and Lorne and took the baby with them. But Wesley did see when they tried to sneak out, and being the heroic fool he was, he tried to stop them. It had only taken a sudden movement of her white hand to his throat start bleeding as the cool blade sliced it.
He fell on his knees, dropping his axe and grabbing his bleeding throat with his hands. The pain blinded his vision as he fell on his back, but he caught one last glimpse of Holtz and Justine running away, Connor in her arms, while the demon Sahjaan followed them.
After that, everything turned black.
There were sometimes when Whistler truly hated his job. This was one of those nights. He had been sent to look for the vampire Angel, he had been set to put him in the right path. He had done so, and much more. He had prepared him, he had given him a reason to do good. He had turned him into a Champion. Or at least he had helped.
And now he was gone, after all his efforts, after all he had gone through, turned to ashes by a mere piece of wood. It wasn't fair. The Powers That Be had let him save the mother of Angel's child, after she had shown her selflessness with an ultimate sacrifice – the sacrifice that had started the actual birth – but not Angel, no matter all the acts of selflessness he had made over the years. In the end, all the things Angel had done didn't make the slightest difference.
Whistler sighed, as he watched from afar the blonde vampire, who was on her way to Los Angeles.
I hope this time the Powers know what the hell they're doing, he thought, before he started to follow her.