Disclaimer: All characters and things from ANGEL and BUFFY belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. If they aren't on the show they belong to me.
Summary: A different turn of events after Season 1 Episode 12 "Expecting" A/C pairing
CHAPTER 81Lorne and Fred starred at the door Cordelia had just fled through with Erin. Both the demon and physicist were in shock that the immortal mother had just taken off the way Cordelia had.
"What are we going to do now?" Lorne asked. "We can't just let Cordelia go out there with Erin." He motioned out the window to the dark, rain covered streets of L.A. "They'll get killed. Erin can't defend herself, she's just a baby."
"I know, I know." Fred sighed. "I don't know what Cordelia was thinking. She never acts this irrational."
"Well, there's only one thing we can do now…" Lorne said, taking a step toward the front desk.
"Lorne, we can't call Angel. Its not like he can pick up the phone right now, he's kind of busy! Remember? He's trying to save the world." Fred said as she followed Lorne to the counter.
Lorne said nothing, picking up his sea breeze and chugging it down, before turning back to Fred. "Who said anything about making a phone call, honey?" He then proceeded over to the weapons cabinet. "Come on, we've got a seer and her little offspring to catch up with." He tossed Fred a crossbow and grabbed one for himself.
Fred stared down at the weapon in her hand for a moment, allowing the simple fact that she and Lorne were going to go try and find Cordelia before any of them got killed sink into her mind. She loved Cordelia like a sister, but she could not believe Cordelia had put her in a situation where she had to choose between keeping herself safe, or going out into a world that was ready to kill her. Fred knew what she had to do in the end as the young woman nodded numbly at Lorne, before leading the green demon out the door and onto the dark streets of L.A.
Jessica watched the Senior Partner's army advance on herself and the rest of the members of Angel Investigation with fascination. There were so many demons coming toward her, all at least twice as big as she was. For the first time in all her years Jessica felt insignificant, minuscule. The demons clearly overpowered her and every other member of her family. She wondered how long it would take for one of the bigger demons to break her in half, let alone the rest of the fang gang.
Jess looked back at Wesley and Gunn. They were human. She gave Wesley ten minutes in the fight tops; she gave Gunn even less considering he was already hurt. She felt bad for the two men who she considered her uncles. They both had their whole lives ahead of them, and neither of them were supposed to be standing by her side. Humans weren't meant for these kinds of battles.
Her eyes then fell on Connor. He was half demon, and strong, she knew that much from growing up by his side. He was a skilled fighter, but he was already wounded. Jess didn't know how long he would make it either.
Then she gazed at her father and Spike. Both of them were vampires, both of them were strong, and both of them had been around longer then the rest of the group's ages combined, but even then, Jess still wasn't sure what kind of a chance they had in the fight against the Senior Partner's army that continued to move toward them.
Jess stood their, watching as the demon's continued to approach, and suddenly she realized she had lost her faith. Somewhere along the way, she had lost hope and confidence they would win this war. And now she had nothing.
"Jess!" Angel's voice broke his daughter's concentration. "Pay attention! We're charging in!"
Jess looked at her father, confusion flying across her face. "What?"
"Are you listening at all or what, kid?" Gunn's voice was muffled by the rain, but Jess could still hear the cockiness in it. Gunn still believed they would win this. He still had his faith.
Jessica had to laugh at the irony of that. Gunn was human. He had the most to lose, and the greatest chance of losing it, and yet, he believed. He trusted with everything he had that they would be victorious in the battle.
And Gunn's attitude was enough to give Jess at least a shred of her faith back. "Yeah. I'm listening. I just don't know how smart of a plan that is." She said.
"What did you have in mind?" Angel asked his daughter.
"Anything but the six of us rushing into that army. There's at least 5,000 demons charging at us." Jess told them.
"That's true." Wesley said.
"Well, we are running out of time!" Connor said over the sound of the rain pounding against the pavement. "They're coming!" He pointed toward the massive demons that were only about a hundred yards away.
"Alright my plan then." Angel said. "Me and Jess will take the group in the middle. Let them cave in on us. Gunn and Spike, you two take the left, Connor and Wesley, you two are on the right."
"Sounds bloody brilliant." Spike said. "Except what happens when they trample us?"
"Keep your weapons up, and fight with everything you've got." Angel took a step forward, giving a slit grin at the demons charging toward him. "Personally, I've been looking forward to this all day."
And with that, Angel led the charge of the six members of Angel Investigations into the army of demons, with nothing leading him but pure faith, and a picture of Cordelia and Erin in his mind. He had to live through this because he had to see the woman he loved and his youngest daughter again.
Cordelia quickly made her way down the dark, rain covered streets of L.A., holding Erin close to her chest. Not one demon or vampire had tried to stop her, not one of them had come out of the shadows. It seemed even they were afraid of what was going on in the alleyway next to Wolfram and Hart.
Cordelia knew where she was running to, the vision had told her where the battle was taking place; she just wasn't sure what to do once she got closer. She knew she couldn't just rush down into the battle. Alone, she would be killed within minutes, but with Erin clinging to her, Cordelia knew she had no chance of making it a few feet before one of the demons from Wolfram and Hart's army stopped her.
Cordelia stopped running a few blocks away from the alley she knew the battle between her family and Wolfram and Hart's army was taking place in. From her position she could see the top of Wolfram and Hart's building and some sense of relief came over her. In her vision, the building had already crumbled, but since it was still standing, there was a good chance her family was as well.
Erin began whimpering softly, and Cordelia looked down at her daughter to see the five month old squinting, trying to get the rain out of her face.
Cordelia moved Erin's hood over her head more, to block the rain out, and shifted the child even closer to her chest. She then stood there, absentmindedly. She had no idea what to do.
"Cordelia!" Fred's voice rang above the sound of the rain falling.
Cordelia turned to see both Lorne and Fred running toward her, each carrying a crossbow.
"What are you guys doing out here?" Cordelia asked cautiously. She knew they had not wanted to join her when she had left the hotel earlier that day, and like hell she was going back to the Hyperion with them now. She couldn't, she had to get to her family.
"Well, we figured we couldn't just let you come out here and save the day all by yourself." Lorne told her.
Cordelia smiled at the demon and physicist, glad that they weren't about to attempt to talk her out of trying to save Angel, her children, Spike, Gunn, and Wesley.
"So…" Lorne ran a hand through his wet hair, trying to get it to stand up to its normal position. "What's the plan?"
Cordelia grew silent, turning away from Lorne and Fred, and back to the direction of the battle. Even from three blocks away she could hear the clanking of swords, and the screams coming from the battle between Wolfram and Hart's army and her family. She wanted to rush down there and save them all; the problem was she truly had no plan that would allow her to do that.
Angel swung his sword high above his head as yet another demon came crashing down on him. He had killed many already, but also had taken quite a beating himself. As he sliced yet another demon in half, he looked over to see Jessica fighting her heart out a few feet away from him.
He also took the moment to glance over in the direction Spike and Gunn were supposed to be fighting. He couldn't see either of them, but hoped they were okay.
Angel took another glance in the direction Connor and Wesley had been sent to, praying they were both still alive. Especially his son.
Before Angel knew it, he had been tackled to the ground by a huge demon, standing at least eight feet tall, with razor-sharp teeth and spines running the length of his arm.
Angel struggled under the demon's weight, putting his sword between himself and the demon, but he could not get up.
Suddenly, the demon collapsed on top of him, and Angel pushed the body off of him, looking up to see Jessica grinning over him.
"Pay attention." Jess said, wiping the blood from the gash that ran from her hairline past the side of her right eye. "If you fall I'm going down with you. Team effort." She grinned slightly.
Angel nodded, getting back up to his feet, and swinging his sword at yet another demon. "You were never a team player, Jess. Don't start now." He smiled slightly.
"So, when you fall I should just let you?" Jess asked, swinging at another demon.
"Well, if you need to, use me as a shield." Angel smirked.
"I can't if you're a pile of dust." Jess grinned widely back at her father before deflecting yet another demon.
Angel smiled slightly at his daughter as he continued to fight off the collection of demons. This was going to be a long battle, he could feel it. He had no idea how many demons were in the army rushing toward him and his family, he didn't have a clue as to how to close up the giant hole that the demons continued to crawl out of, and he wasn't entirely sure how to win the in the end.
Connor and Wesley stood with their backs to each other as they were surrounded by at least nine demons, with more behind the ones already fighting them. Connor was getting tired; each one of his blows to the demons less precise then the last. Wesley, on the other hand, was fighting smart, using the bit of magic he remembered from the books he had read while they had run Wolfram and Hart to keep the demons away from himself and Connor. But like Connor, Wesley's strength was growing weaker with each passing second.
"I don't know how much longer we can hold them off." Wesley said as the rain pelted against his face.
"I know." Connor said, thrusting his sword into an oncoming demon. "But if we fall right now this whole side will collapse in. Jess and Dad won't be able handle all the troops coming at them." It was as if Connor had accepted his fate, as if he was ready to die, he just knew he had to hold on a little longer, to try and help secure a victory for the Powers That Be and his family.
But Wesley wasn't ready to accept that fate. Not yet. "We aren't going to fall." He released a surge of energy from his palm, knocking over two demons. "We just need to regroup."
"We'll never find our way back." Connor said, glancing over in the direction he thought his father and sister were in. "We'll never get everyone together."
"We have to try." Wesley said, backing away and releasing more energy in the form of fireballs at the demon army approaching. "Come on." And with that, he took off in the direction Angel and Jess were supposed to be in.
Connor took two more demons down with the flick of his sword, and then followed Wesley, only a few steps behind the ex-watcher, with Wolfram and Hart's army of demons only a few steps behind him. Connor hoped that if they found his father and sister, that both would still be alive, he just wasn't sure how realistic of a wish that was anymore. Not in this battle.
Spike and Gunn were both fighting with everything they had, tossing demons aside like each one of them had the strength of ten men, but even then, their efforts seemed pointless. There were too many demons, and only two of them. Still, both the vampire and the young man were not about to give up.
"What do you think?" Gunn managed out over the sound of his sword clashing with an oncoming demon and the rain pouring down. "We got a chance in hell of making it out of this one?"
Spike threw one demon into two more of them, knocking them all down. "Well, it doesn't look like hell wants us making it out of this one."
"True." Gunn said, looking over at the huge hole in the middle of the street that demons were still crawling out of.
"Duck!" Spike's voice bellowed and Gunn did what he was told.
Just as Gunn ducked down, a huge flaming arrow came flying over his head, and hit the wall behind him, fizzling out as the rainwater hit it.
"What the hell was that?" Gunn said, tossing a demon over his back, and using it's body as a blockade from three more demons.
Spike nodded over to a huge demon on horseback, carrying a bow and a sack of flaming arrows. "I think he's angry."
Gunn looked over at the demon, grinning slightly. "Let's give him something to be angry about." And with that, Gunn charged at the demon on horseback.
Spike rolled his eyes, contemplating his next move. Would he follow Gunn into the death trap the ex-lawyer had just run into, or would he just watch Gunn from where he was, and fend off as many demons as he could? Spike sighed after a moment, following after Gunn, and figuring that if one of them fell, the other didn't have a chance of making it out anyway. They both needed to stay alive for as long as they could.
Cordelia stood, cradling Erin close to her chest to shield the child from the rain as she contemplated her plan to get to Angel, Jess, Connor, Spike, Gunn, and Wesley and warn them all about her vision.
Lorne and Fred both stood behind Cordelia, silently passing glances to one another. Both of them were worried that Cordelia wouldn't come up with a plan and the rest of their family would die. They were also both worried Cordelia would come up with a plan and they would all be put in harms way.
"Okay." Cordelia turned around to face Lorne and Fred. "I have an idea."
"We're all ears." Lorne said, although he wasn't sure he was behind any idea Cordelia had one hundred percent. Personally, he felt Cordelia wasn't in the right frame of mind to make any decisions. She was thinking with her heart instead of her head because her husband and children were involved, and she was not about to listen to anything rational. Lorne was afraid her plan would get them all killed.
"I need to get close enough to Angel to warn him." Cordelia said.
Fred looked hard at Cordelia, thinking the seer was losing it as each minute passed. "We know that, Cordelia."
"Somewhere he will see me, but somewhere I can't get killed." Cordelia continued, ignoring Fred's comment as she rocked Erin.
"Right. We know that too." Fred said, still unsure of where Cordelia was going with her words.
"Right." Cordelia said, still thinking through her plan, her eyes drifting down to Erin.
"So? What are we going to do?" Fred asked, breaking Cordelia's train of thought.
Cordelia looked up at Fred. "You and Lorne are going to stay here with Erin." Cordelia then lifted Erin up, kissing the baby softly on the forehead. "Mommy loves you, baby girl." She whispered to her daughter.
Erin gently laid her little hand against her mother's cheek, smiling up at the woman who had given birth to her. Erin always seemed to know what was going on, and the look in her eyes did not make Cordelia think otherwise. The child knew exactly what was going on around her, and seemed to be giving Cordelia a sign to do what she thought necessary.
Cordelia smiled at Erin, kissing the child one more time and then handing her over to Fred.
"Cordelia, I don't understand." Fred said, pulling Erin close to her so the rain did not hit the baby's face. "What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to Wolfram and Hart." Cordelia said with very little expression in her voice.
"WHAT?" Lorne's eyes grew wide. "No you aren't!"
"I have to." Cordelia said calmly.
The calmness in Cordelia's voice was what scared Fred more then Cordelia's plan. "Lorne's right, you can't go, Cordelia."
"I have to." Cordelia repeated herself.
"Why?" Fred asked. "What is that going to accomplish?"
"I need to get close enough to Angel to warn him about my vision. Wolfram and Hart is the closest building to the battle and the tallest. I will be able to find him easily because I will be able to see everything, and hopefully he will see me." Cordelia explained.
"Yeah, and that will work if you can even get into the building without getting killed." Lorne said.
"The demons are busy fighting in the alley, I'll sneak in the backdoor." Cordelia said.
"I'm not talking about Wolfram and Hart's army, I'm talking about Lindsey and Eve." Lorne said. "And anyone else who is inside Wolfram and Hart right now."
"I'm part demon. I can handle myself." Cordelia said. "Besides, that place is probably the safest building in L.A. right now. The demons won't go in there because they are working for the place. They have no reason to search it."
"But, Cordy, what if something happens?" Fred asked, looking down at Erin who was wiggling around in her arms.
Cordelia's eyes drifted to her daughter in Fred's arms and she swallowed hard. "Just make sure you make it out of here safely, okay?"
"Cordelia…" Fred started, but could see anything she said to Cordelia would be a waste of breath. The immortal seer had already made up her mind, she was going to try and save her family even if she lost her life in the process. "Just make sure you come back. For Erin." Fred tried to smile.
Cordelia lips gave a hint of her 100-watt grin. "I will." She nodded and then turned away from Fred, Lorne, and her daughter and began jogging in the direction of Wolfram and Hart. She needed to get there and figure out a way to warn her family before everything went to hell.
Angel and Jess continued to fight side by side, losing themselves in the battle. The demon inside both of them was screaming to be released, to lash out, to kill everything that moved, but they both controlled that urge, knowing that if they let the vampire in them both completely take over it would be suicide. They wouldn't be able to control themselves; they would probably kill each other.
Jess staggered backwards as they finished off the last of the second wave of demons. A few feet behind the fallen soldiers, another group of demons was approaching.
"Well, at least we get a little break." Jess tried to smile as the rainwater washed the blood away from her lacerated forehead.
"How are you holding up?" Angel asked his daughter.
Jess grinned. "I've seen better days."
Suddenly a flaming arrow came flying from behind Angel and Jess, and hit one of the demons that was approaching them. Both Angel and Jessica turned to see Spike on a horse, with Gunn behind him, holding a bow and another flaming arrow.
"What the hell are you two doing?" Jess asked.
"Buying you two some time to recover." Spike grinned at the girl who had found her way into his heart.
"It's good to know you're both okay." Angel said, approaching the horse Spike and Gunn sat on.
"Same with you two." Gunn said.
"What about Connor and Wesley?" Angel asked, wiping the rain away from his face. "Have you seen them?"
Gunn shook his head. "No."
Jess glanced back over her shoulder to see the demon army approaching rapidly. "Well, I hate to cut this short, but we either got to fight or retreat."
Angel looked at the mass amount of demons approaching them, and then back at Jess, Spike, and Gunn. All three of them seemed worn and tired, the same as he felt. He didn't know how much longer any of them could keep up.
"We need to find Connor and Wesley." Angel said.
"What about them?" Spike pointed to the demons that were still marching toward them.
"We need to regroup, figure something else out, because us just attacking like this is getting us nowhere." Angel said. "There are too many demons and not enough of us."
"I agree." Gunn said. "We're outnumbered."
"Way to state the obvious." Jess said as Spike helped her up onto the horse.
"Come on." Spike said to Angel.
Angel nodded, jumping onto the horse, surprised by the animal's strength. It was able to hold all four members of Angel Investigations, but then again, it had also galloped out of a hell dimension so Angel wasn't too shocked at the animal's might.
"Alright. Let's go find the other two." Spike said, pulling the horse abruptly and turning it around in the direction Connor and Wesley were supposed to be fighting in. Hopefully they would find the vampire spawn and the ex-watcher still alive and both in one piece.
Cordelia approached the building of Wolfram and Hart with caution, although she knew once she was inside she would be safe. No demons would come and look for innocent people in that building. It was a building of pure evil.
Once Cordelia got to the doors, she opened them and quickly hurried into the dark lobby to find rafters and pieces of the ceiling already covering the floor. The building was on its way to falling, which meant her vision would come true soon unless she stopped it.
She quickly made her way over to the stairs that led to the one floor she had been completely familiar with during the time the members of Angel Investigations had run the building. Once she had climbed the stairs she opened the door and rapidly hurried down the hall to what had once been her family's penthouse.
She rushed into the living, and noticed immediately that the doors to the balcony were swinging open in the wind, and the rainwater was blasting into the penthouse, forming a puddle on the floor in front of the balcony doors.
Cordelia approached the doors with caution, unsure of what was on the balcony and if the balcony would be able to support her. She stepped out into the rainstorm, and noticed immediately that the balcony railing was broken, and hanging off.
Cordelia sidestepped to the opening, afraid that if the wind gave a good gust she would be thrown from the balcony and fall to her death. When she reached the gaping hole in the side of the balcony's railing, she peered over, afraid of what she would find.
Lindsey's body was the first thing Cordelia saw as she looked down the eighteen floors that led from where she was standing to the cold concrete sidewalk below. Cordelia let a way of sickness settle in her stomach as she took in the image of Lindsey's contorted body lying in its own puddle of blood. It was an image she was sure she would never forget for the rest of her life.
"What happened up here?" Cordelia asked herself, managing to tear her eyes away from Lindsey's body as she looked over the other railing and down to the alley below. The alley that her family was fighting for their lives in.
The battle was huge. Cordelia could see the hole the demons were crawling out of, and what she assumed was the line her family had drawn while fighting the demon army. Toward the far end of the alley the demon troops thinned out which gave Cordelia hope that her family was still alive. Now all she had to do was get their attention.
Before Cordelia could devise a plan to get Angel or her children's attention, she felt a hand clamp around the back of her neck, swinging her around and into the wall. She slumped down against the wet wall and onto the concrete floor.
"You stupid bitch." A familiar voice bellowed at Cordelia.
Cordelia slowly looked up, giving her famous Queen C glare to Eve who was towering over her.
"Why would you come here?" Eve asked, tears mixing with the rain that was hitting her face. Her makeup was running down her cheeks and she looked like a shell of the once very self-assured woman she had been.
Cordelia slowly got to her feet, still glaring at Eve. "I have my reasons."
"You know I'm going to kill you right?" Eve asked the immortal mother.
"I know you're going to try." Cordelia shot back. "But you won't."
"Yes I will. If it's the last thing I do, I will." Eve told her. "Your monster of a husband and demon of a daughter took Lindsey from me."
The ground shook, causing the building to shake, and Cordelia to grip onto the wall, scratching to gain some support.
"I have nothing!" Eve laughed bitterly as she threw her arms out. "So I want to make sure my last action is taking you away from your family, because you and that damn baby are all that matter to them."
"Eve, I don't want to have to hurt you." Cordelia told her. "But I will, because right now you are the only thing standing between me and my family, so if you don't back down, I will take you down."
"I don't think so." Eve said with no emotion in her voice, as she slowly removed a small handgun from her pocket, pointing it with a shaking hand in Cordelia's direction. "I think I am going to win this one."