Above and Below
Summary: Set at the end of Season 3 when Connor is "dumping" Angel offshore with the help of Justine. Includes the final moments we see on-screen as well as Angel's first hallucinations, Fred and Gunn's discovery above ground and Cordelia's new life as a higher being.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. I only benefit from the ideas of Joss Whedon and use them with my own imagination. Nothing intended…
Chapter One: The Dump
Angel, Connor, JustineAngel heard the whirring of a small mechanical tool. He opened his eyes and tried to look around. He couldn't see anything but the darkness of the night sky above him and metal walls around him.
I'm in a box. He thought in horror. I'm in a steel box. He couldn't move either. He felt tight bonds on his shoulders, lower body and legs. Steel wire; he was trapped.
'Connor…' He called for the last person he had seen. And why had Connor attacked him back on the beach? He couldn't understand it. But he knew that he wasn't at the beach anymore. '…why are you doing this?' He finished, finally catching sight of Connor over the rim of the box.
'You murdered my father.' Connor said simply as he drilled into the side of the box.
'No, I didn't. I swear.' Angel tried to tell him.
'He's lying.' Justine appeared beside Connor to join the conversation. Angel glanced at her for a second, then looked back at Connor.
'I'm not lying. She knows it.' Angel firmly said, knowing full-well that he was right. He hadn't killed Holtz, although on many occasions he thought he should have.
'You're the prince of lies.' Connor told him coldly. Angel put a few things together in his head.
'That's why you wouldn't let them kill me at the drive-in. So you could.'
'Killing is too good for you.' Connor responded. 'You don't get to die. You get to live.' Angel suddenly became hopeful, and Justine looked up, concerned. She was genuinely surprised at Connor's choice. 'Forever.'
That's when Angel figured it out completely. Connor wasn't going to stake him, or burn him or cut off his head. He wasn't going to kill him at all. He was going to seal Angel inside the box and dump him in the ocean.
God, this isn't good. Angel thought. He heard Connor and Justine finish drilling into the box.
Cordelia, SkipTogether they stood in the middle of a time-frozen highway, making the decision of higher power over being on Earth. Skip; the Powers That Be's guide to worldly beings, and Cordelia; the girl with the visions.
'Cordelia?' Skip called. Spike, Cordelia's old guide during her "troubles" with the visions was showing her a new path to becoming a higher being. At first Cordelia thought it was all some sort of joke, but then realised that the Powers were serious. And she hadn't got to tell Angel that she loved him. While she made her final decision about having to ascend, Skip was getting impatient.
Cordelia turned around to face Skip, to see him tapping his wrist with one finger. Cordelia's time was up. And she was fed up.
'I ever encounter those Powers That Be, we're gonna have a talk. A big talk.' She told him harshly.' Despite her frustration and anger, she knew what she had to do. And her expression told Skip her final decision.
'You're doing the right thing.' He told her.
'I'm scared.' She took a few steps toward Skip, along the time-frozen busy highway. 'But I know it's right. I know somehow it's all gonna be all right.' She sighed, finally giving in and making the decision to go through with it. 'What do I do?'
Spike looked up. 'Just say yes.' He told her.
Sweetly, Cordelia replied, 'I already have.' Suddenly, she began glowing. The light was so bright, and twinkled with small golden stars. Cordelia, in her beautiful white dress floated up towards the sky. As she ascended, Skip watched from below. He watched her and all her beauty disappear to go to another place.
Angel, Connor, JustineAngel looked up at Connor from his prison in the box. 'Some day you'll learn the truth,' Angel told his son, 'and you'll hate yourself. Don't. It's not your fault.'
Connor looked down at him, moving his attention for a split second away from his drilling.
'I don't blame you.' Angel continued.
'Liar!' Connor shot at him.
'Listen to me. I love you.' Angel told Connor as he and Justine disappeared from view. They had walked around the box, gone to get the lid. 'Never forget that.' His words were useless, but he refused the let his son do this to him. 'Connor!' He heard clanking as the heavy lid was moved. 'Connor, never forget that I'm you father and that I love you.' Suddenly the lid was shoved over the opening in the box. Angel watched as it began to filter any light from the boat's beacon light through 3 small square panels of glass. 'Connor! Connor!'
His eyes darted frantically around, looking for any possible way that he could escape an unbearable fate. He then realised that he couldn't be heard and didn't try to speak again. Connor stepped forward and peered through the glass at the man he was lead to believe killed his father. He saw Angel's look of defeat and distraught, fixed in his eyes.
Justine and Connor slid two long iron bars through some loops along the side of the box and began to weld them so that there was no possible way that Angel could get out of his prison. Angel looked at Connor with deep, doubtful eyes that pleaded with him not to do what he was doing.
When they had welded the last section of the bars to the side of the box, Connor and Justine exchanged a "ready" glance and moved to the last phase of their plan. They locked down some iron latches and got behind the box. With a great deal of effort, the two managed to push the box off the end of the boat and Connor, with a bizarre look of satisfaction, watched Angel sink into the ocean.
Justine was just glad to have him gone.
Inside the box, Angel felt himself sink underneath the surface of the water.
God, please no.
He felt himself slipping further and further away from his son and Justine on the boat, as well as leaving his friends and Cordelia behind.
Back on the boat, Connor and Justine looked across at each other again, but this time with a slight expression of success. Success in what, condemning a man to eternal suffering? He was already condemned.
Connor watched the surface of the water ripple and bubble where the box had rested for a few moments before going under. The boat began to slowly pull away from the "dump point" and Connor hadn't moved. He simply stood there, watching where Angel had disappeared. He knew that Angel was gone, and that it was because of him. But a part of him cared.
Fred, Gunn
Back at the hotel, Gunn walked down the stairs and over to where Fred was waiting for him beside the lounge.
'Connor didn't want to come for a midnight snack?' She asked as he approached. 'It's okay. I'll scrounge something up here.' Gunn was getting a little worried.
'He… he's not in his room.' He told Fred. 'You didn't see him?'
'No. He's gone? Again?' Fred also became worried, and instantly thought of any ways to find him again. 'Did you as Lorne if…?' She paused. 'No, because Lorne doesn't liver here anymore. Not used to that yet. I'm sure Connor'll… I'm sure it's nothing, but we should probably get a hold of Cordelia or Angel.'
'Yeah, I've been trying. No one's answering.' Gunn replied, looking down at the cell phone in his hand.
'I don't like the sound of that.' Fred said. They glanced around for a moment in silences, unsure of what they should do. Angel was gone. Cordelia was gone. Connor was gone. They didn't know where either of them were, but they didn't like the thoughts that were forming in their heads.
'Where'd everybody go?' Fred finally asked after a few moments of thinking.
Cordelia, Skip
Cordelia had almost risen to become a higher being, and Skip was watching proudly from below.
God, she looks amazing. He thought. She smiled as she rose, the bright light illuminating her still.
Angel
The box continued to sink, and Angel could feel it becoming a drag. All he could think about was Connor, and him thinking that Angel killed Holtz. In a way he felt bad, but he was also in deep sadness over the fact that his son, his son had done this to him. He had no idea how long it would be before his friends knew where he was, or even if they would find out at all.
What if I'm down here forever?
Cordelia, SkipCordelia fully ascended into a twinkling golden ball of light in the sky. The she disappeared, and Skip returned to where he belonged.
AngelAngel's deadly prison continued to sink. Angel could see almost clearly through the glass at everything around him under the sea. And there was nothing. There was just a deep blue-grey colour all around him, then everything went black. He could see nothing but darkness around him. Usually he liked the darkness, but not like this. Not after everything that had happened.
After a while more of sinking, Angel felt a hard thud as the box hit the ocean floor.
Oh, God. Angel thought. I'm going to die down here. There is nowhere I can go, nowhere to get blood. Connor must have known that I wouldn't survive forever down here.
He closed his eyes for a moment and sighed. When he opened them again, in front of the box was Connor.
'Ah!' he screamed, unsure of what he was seeing at first. 'Connor?' He squinted, trying to see amongst the fogginess of the underwater world. He blinked and Connor was gone. He was alone at the bottom of the ocean, left by his son to hallucinate and suffer forever.
Author's Note: I know that some of the stuff I wrote didn't actually happen, but I threw some things in to make it a bit more "full" in the description of the scenes with Angel and Cordelia ascending and descending. Please, tell me what you like so far. Next chapter, more hallucinations and Cordelia's first thoughts on becoming a higher being.