Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy or Angel.
Thanks to Oxnate for beta-reading
And this is the first chapter where we finally get to Cordelia's POV. She's the third and final POV we'll be seeing in this fic. Not every chapter will feature POV scenes from all of them, but some will.
There is a serious issue with the timing of "Five by Five" (AtS Episode 1x18) after "Who Are You?" (Buffy 4x16). Namely, that two months happen in between by the dates, but according to Giles when Angel calls him in "Five By Five", Faith woke up 'a week ago'. It gets even thornier from there. If you're curious about the more detailed effort I made to unpack all the issues with trying to triangulate when all this takes place temporally, you can find a meta on my blog, at: .com (/) post (/) 189362258357 (/) so-when-was-faith-actually-arrested-a-commentary
For the purposes of this fic, however, we're going to presuppose that, despite the airdate issues, Episodes 1-17 of Season 1, as well as that first bit of Episode 18 have already happened as of this point, in the interests of simplicity.
This Year's Boy
By Kylia
Chapter 6: Springing the Trap
February 25th, 2000
Angel Investigations, Los Angeles
Cordelia Chase was not one to second-guess herself. Not that she didn't occasionally do it, but it was not a habit of hers. And that was true now. It would be a waste of time to second-guess the choices that had brought her to where she was. Even if where she was sucked, at least compared to where she'd hoped she'd be.
It wasn't that being Angel's secretary/vision girl was all terrible. As annoying as he could be, Wesley was kind of her friend; and so too was Angel, in his growly, unsocialiable sort of way. Though after everything the three of them had been through together, 'friend' seemed kind of an understatement. Not that I can really think of a better word for it.
There was always 'family', but that felt cheesy and hokey. But still, she was close with them.
And she did like that they helped people. Not so much that she didn't wish they'd actually pay. But most clients didn't, or at least not much, not without a lot of prodding.
Sooner or later we'll have to help some rich people. Hadn't really happened yet, had it? At least not enough to get anywhere - Angel had saved Rebecca Lowell, but look how that had turned out. She'd tried to become a vampire and then run off when she went face to face with Angelus.
And now our chances of her referring us to any of the other rich and famous people she knows are zilch.
Which also did very little for her acting career. Not that it was much of anything, at the moment.
Or maybe ever, at this rate. It was hard to audition and practice when you had visions on a near daily basis.
Have I mentioned how much I love this little gift you gave me, Doyle? No? Good.
Cordelia shook her head and stood up to pour herself another cup of coffee when she felt a vision coming. Oh come on!
"Vision!" She called out, collapsing back into the chair, managing to not end up on the floor for a change of pace as images swirled through her head, the pain exploding behind her eyes. The Crowds of L.A. and then they centered out on one person in particular. A guy. Short dark brown hair. Wearing black shirt that looked pretty good on -
XANDER!?
Cordelia didn't have time to ponder what the hell her ex boyfriend was doing wearing flattering clothing or in L.A. because her vision quickly shifted to show Xander walking down a sidestreet - which she recognized - as she glimpsed the time - 1:15pm, so a little over an hour for now - and then a black, tinted-window van pulled up behind Xander, blocking the street behind him as two men in black suits and sunglasses came at him from the other side.
They grabbed him, Xander tried to fight back and then one of them hit Xander with a taser to the neck, and he went limp, as they bundled him up and into the van.
Cordelia's head snapped forward and her eyes snapped open, groaning, hands pressed to her forehead, her neck throbbing like she'd been hit by the taser, her whole body buzzing, though at least that sensation faded quickly enough.
Who the hell would want to kidnap Xander? She briefly entertained the notion it wasn't Xander - he did not dress like that - but it was definitely him. She knew her ex boyfriend. She'd known him since first grade, for crying out loud. As enemies, for most of that time, but you still got to know someone when you argued with them a near-daily basis for almost 12 years.
He looked more or less the same as he had last year, when they'd had a heartfelt goodbye before she stepped on the bus and came to L.A. Different clothing choices aside, anyway.
She looked up to see Angel and Wesley both there, Angel holding out the bottle of aspirin she'd been getting to know very well since her first vision, as well as a bottle of water. He'd grabbed them both quickly, probably the second after he'd seen her land in her chair.
"Have I mentioned how nifty your vampire speed can be?" She popped the lid of the bottle and took six of the pills, wishing the damn things would just work faster. But anything more powerful had other problems. And she wasn't going to drink to numb the pain like Doyle had. She took a mouthful of the water, swallowed, then groaned, rubbing her neck.
"I can almost get why the visions have to come with headaches, but why do I have to feel everything too?" Cordelia grumbled, as much to herself as Angel and Wesley. Wesley's eyes brightened, and he looked like he was about to recite something he'd read in a book somewhere back at her, but she held up a hand. "Ah-ah-ah. Rhetorical question, Wes."
"You're not going to like the sound of this, Angel," She added, looking at the vampire, "but the person we need to rescue is Xander. Though given that he's going to be jumped in an alleyway in the middle of the day, I'm not sure how much help you'll be. What with your daylight allergy and everything."
Wesley and Angel responded to the news by speaking "Xander Harris?" almost at the same time, with Angel emoting enough to sound actually unhappy about the idea, and Wesley just confused.
"Yes, Xander Harris. Xander my ex, Xander Buffy's friend, Xander the guy who hates you more than anyone else, Angel. He's gonna get jumped in an alley downtown." She named the cross streets nearby. "Black van, two guys in suits, they're gonna taze him and grab him." Cordelia rattled off quickly, rubbing his forehead. "If I'm getting a vision, they're probably not just normal people grabbing, too." She'd never had a vision that didn't ultimately end up about the supernatural, sooner or later. It was one of the more predictable parts of the job - even when things looked normal, she could expect something demonic or magical would be involved. Or maybe just a vampire.
"Suits?"
"Black suits, sunglasses, the whole... 'secret service-slash-FBI look," Cordelia waved a hand a bit vaguely.
Wesley furrowed his brow. "Lacking further information, I'd guess Wolfram and Hart," he suggested.
"Why would the evil lawyers want to kidnap Xander? Guy's useless," Angel dismissed.
"Because Wolfram and Hart is neck deep in the supernatural, and has been since its inception. Angel, we've gone over this before." Wesley sounded exasperated. "They know the identity of the Slayer, and they probably know that Mr. Harris is one of Miss Summers' friends."
"I'm still not following," Cordelia said, but from the look on Angel's face, he got the idea.
"They'll try to leverage Buffy to kill me."
"That would be my guess. Or at least gather more information on you from her, if they know about..." Wesley trailed off, clearing his throat awkwardly.
"That Angel and Buffy used to lock lips and do the horizontal tango?" Cordelia offered.
"Yes. Quite." Wesley looked away, looking all British and embarrassed at the subject of sex coming up. Though he had to improve his kissing somehow between graduation and when he came to L.A. Not that that changed the fact that she didn't find Wesley remotely of interest. Which was a pity - he still wasn't, objectively, half-bad looking.
And at least if I liked him my dating life might not be so completely empty. Since moving to L.A., Cordelia's attempts at landing some handsome rich guy, or even finding a steady boyfriend had been complicated by the slowly dawning realization that she didn't just like guys. Though it had put a few things into context for her.
Revelations about her sexuality aside, she'd thought maybe, maybe, being bisexual would have made it easier for her to find someone she liked and could date.
Nope.
It was hard to meet people when you had visions randomly and worked for a vampire with a soul who killed demons professionally.
"Angel has caused quite a few problems for Wolfram and Hart as of late, it could be they want to finally deal with him, permanently. And how better to kill a vampire than with the Slayer?" Wesley concluded, when he got his composure back.
Cordelia thought for a long moment. Wesley had a point, she supposed. Just a few days ago, she'd had a vision that had led Angel to save some former gangster from Wolfram and Hart's demons, then convince the guy - to Cordelia's great surprise - to testify in court against one of the lawyers' clients.
"We shouldn't let them do that to Buffy," Angel said firmly.
"Whose 'we' Angel? You can't go. Too much daylight," Cordelia pointed out. Plus, Xander might just be stubborn enough about being 'saved' by Angel to not come with them.
"I'll get the car," Wesley nodded. "Can you convince Xander to come with us?"
"I don't see why not. I just wish I had an idea of why he was in L.A. What's he doing this far from his precious Buffy?" Cordelia grumbled. "Or Willow." The one good thing about Xander cheating with Willow was that it had ended a relationship that was doomed to end anyway. Xander would never have left Sunnydale and his precious Willow and Buffy to follow Cordelia to LA anyway, and there was no way in hell Cordelia would have stayed in that town even if she had had any other choice.
Not that that outweighed all the bad parts. Or the giant piece of rebar she'd had stuck in her torso.
"And I'll just wait here," Angel went back into his office. It was hard to say what he thought about this, but the notion of saving Xander probably didn't appeal to him. Though saving one of Buffy's friends probably felt worth it to him, Xander or not. It was very hard to tell what the hell the guy was thinking sometimes.
Other times his mind was as one-track as any guys. Buffy, Buffy, Buffy all the day long.
February 25th, 2000
Downtown, Los Angeles
Faith was lost.
Not that she didn't know where she was, or how to get back to her motel a couple blocks away, but lost in terms of having no goddamn clue where the fuck Angel was.
She'd had no luck last night, wandering around town. She had nearly gotten mugged by some random druggie, but she'd managed to punch his face before he could actually use the switchblade in his hand.
Much as it would be nice to say it was because she was just that good, it was mostly because that guy was so busy going through withdrawal that he was barely there at all. Xander's body was totally useless with reaction times. I need to ditch this body as soon as I can. But she still hadn't found Angel.
And she had no fucking clue where to start looking for him. If she was still strong, she could have tried to find a vampire or demon bar, see if anyone knew where the guy stayed, or something, but she wasn't doing that now.
Shoulda forced Xander to tell me more about Angel and what he was up to in L.A. It was just one comment he'd made that had her knowing it at all, and she hadn't thought it mattered. Her plan had been simple - steal B's body, live her perfect fuckin' life for a couple days, trash it and ruin it, and then ditch town. Maybe steal B's mom's credit card and use that to fly to like, Europe or something. Somewhere far from here.
How long until dark anyway? She'd woken up an hour ago after getting to sleep around sunrise, and she was on her way to the bodega she'd spotted last night, grab some food to have later before waiting until dark to go looking for Angel again.
She saw a digital clock in the window of a nearby store - 1:10. Still too long to go. She covered her mouth as she felt a sudden yawn come on.
"Xander!" Faith heard the sound of a voice - familiar, female behind her. Who the fuck-
She turned around, bracing herself to bolt for a moment, in case one of Xander's little friends from Sunnydale had found her, then she calmed down. They know I'm not Xander, so they wouldn't call out that name if they saw me.
So someone who knew Xander, and didn't know about the change in occupancy. Hopefully someone she recognized and could ditch-
"Cordelia?" She was so surprised she said the name out loud when she recognized the cheerleader coming towards her as she turned. What the fuck? Xander's ex?
Furiously, Faith searched her memory for anything more about Cordelia and Xander. She could ditch the girl easily enough, but if she thought something was up or something... if she called Buffy, they'd know she was in L.A. That was not something she needed. Last she remembered... fuck, nothing. She and Xander broke up, and 'Queen C' stopped hangin' at the library. Beyond that...
"Yes, Xander, it's me. Good to know you can still recognize me, doofus," Cordelia said. "Look, you need to come with me. Now." If Faith didn't miss her guess, she sounded almost... worried.
Doesn't she hate him? What with the whole locking-lips with Red thing?
"Why should I?" She demanded, slowly, backing up a pace. "Look, Cordy, nice to catch up and all, but I've got things to do."
"Can you just not be an idiot for five seconds, Xander? Or is that seriously beyond you!?" Cordelia demanded. "Look, if you don't come with me, then in a few minutes you're gonna be in some major trouble, so let's just go!"
"What the hell are you-"
"I had a vision of you getting grabbed by two goons in an alley, come on!" Cordelia grabbed her wrist and tried to pull 'Xander' after her.
"Vision? What the fuck?!" Cheerleader's got visions now? Two years ago she'd have just walked away from anyone talking crazy shit like that, but knowing that demons and vampires and magic existed made her a hell of a lot less skeptical. What little she remembered of Cordelia - girl didn't go in for lying much, or making shit up.
Did Xander know about this?
Fuck, I hope not. She did not need Cordelia calling anyone in SunnyD up and asking if something was wrong with Xander. Maybe she wouldn't bother.
"It's a long story, Xander. Short version, I get visions of people in danger, and if we don't move, you're going to get tased, so let's go," she said urgently.
Who the fuck would -
Those Council bastards? Had to be them. Who would wanna go after Xander? Guy was hardly worth the effort. But since Xander escaped from them, then maybe they figured out they had the wrong person... fuck.
Fucking Fuck.
"Alright, fine, fine, let's go," Faith yanked her hand free and followed Cordelia down the street, past and around a bunch of people, to a car waiting not far away. Behind the wheel was another familiar face, though.
"Wesley?!" What the hell was her useless wussy former watcher doing here? Shouldn't he be back in the mother country drinking tea and being useless?
"Mr. Harris," Wesley nodded. "I trust Cordelia's explained the situation?"
Cordelia looked at him as Wesley called her 'Mr. Harris', as if expecting something, but Faith had no idea what she was expecting. Fuck. As soon as she was sure there were no council goons nearby, she needed to ditch these two, but -
Wait. If Wesley's here, shouldn't those goons be with him? The idiot had tried to drag her to England once before.
Then again, maybe they canned him because he sucked so bad at everything. Without Faith to watch and B clearly not caring about what the Council wanted - what with springing Xander free from them - he probably had nothing to do.
"Sorta?" Faith answered, hesitating a moment before getting in the car. Even if this was some trap, Wesley being involved guaranteed she could escape it, if she had to. Cordelia got into the passenger seat in the front, and the car started. Though with traffic, they had to wait a bit for an opening.
"Okay, so... fill me in," She said, once they were on their way to... "Where are we even going?"
"Angel's place, duh," Cordelia turned to look at him. "That's how this whole thing works. I get visions, Angel rescues people. Usually. But he couldn't come this time." She gestured up to the sun, half-hidden behind a cloud. "Which is why I'm glad we found you before the goons in suits showed up."
"Angel?" Then she hurriedly shook her head, as if trying to clear her thoughts. "Angel, right." The way she said 'duh', she expected him to know she worked with Angel. So Xander probably knew, or had at least heard.
Since when do Cordelia and Wussley work with Angel? She couldn't imagine Angel putting up with Cordelia, or the Brit, and yet, apparently he was.
"Forgot that I worked with him?" Cordelia sounded like she was almost half-teasing her. Or Xander, anyway.
"Try not to think about him in general, Cordy," Faith countered, trying to sound like how Xander would say it. But still, if they were going to Angel's place, her plan could work. It could work perfectly. She just needed to get a moment alone with him, trick him just long enough to grab his hand...
She fingered the device in her pocket, rearranging it a bit to get it ready to slip onto her hand quickly.
"How did... how did you even get this whole...vision thing anyway?" Faith asked, trying to make conversation. Clearly Cordelia didn't hate Xander as Faith remembered, or why would she save him? So wouldn't they be doing a bit of catching up?
"Angel's last seer gave them to me as an oh-so-awesome parting gift," Cordelia answered, dripping with sarcasm. "Headaches, surround-sound, and I even get to feel what happens to the people in them!"
Sounds fun. She'd had a few Slayer dreams, but those had just been trippy and confusing. And at least they happened while she was asleep.
"If I had that, I'd return the gift," Faith said, honestly and trying to crack a joke like Xander might. She waited a moment, "Did you keep the receipt?"
"The visions are a direct line to the Powers that Be. They're not exactly something you can return," Wesley said from behind the wheel.
"I would if I could," Cordelia grumbled. "They are not fun, and they happen at all the worst times."
Faith didn't really know what to say to that, so she stayed silent, waiting for them to reach Angel's place.
She was probably gonna have to move fast after switching with Angel. Knock 'Xander' out, make excuses, get out. Of course, with daylight, she would be stuck inside.
Could always take care of Queen C, and Wesley too... she didn't really have anything against Cordelia, but she was hot, and she might as well drink from the hotties, and figure out what it felt like to bring on the game face.
I'm gonna be a vamp for good, soon enough. Switch with Angel, find a sexy lady vamp, switch again... have fun. Gonna have to get used to a liquid diet. She might as well get started, cover her tracks. Though she'd probably just kill 'Xander'.
Leave him for last. Make Angel watch me kill his friends? That would show Angel for pulling that trick on her, pretending to be evil, working with Buffy to get info from her like that. Sorry you two, but Angel's gotta pay... Not that she felt even remotely apologetic as she contemplated killing the two people in front of her.
Totally not. No apology. No nothing. She was a Slayer. That's what she did.
Slay.
Nothing wrong with that. Look out for herself, first and foremost.
February 25th, 2000
On the way to Los Angeles
Getting to L.A. was easier said than done. Obviously, he had to go, and so too did Buffy, to keep Faith under control - probably by beating her up - once Xander got his body back. Willow and Tara were coming so they could cast any tracking spells they needed to cast to make sure they found his body. They'd already confirmed Faith was still in Los Angeles, and made one of those tracking crystal things once they were in town.
That was four people, and then Anya wanted to come.
Giles's red midlife-crisis-mobile was not going to be able to take all five of them, even if Giles was willing to let any of them take the keys. Which left Buffy borrowing her mom's car - but Ms. Summers only agreed to let Buffy take that car if Giles drove. She didn't trust her daughter behind the wheel, which given what had happened last time Buffy had had to drive, was a good idea.
Which left all six of them in the car as they went down the highway towards L.A. They were almost to the right exit, judging by the signs. Xander was in the back, with Anya, doing his best to tune out the public radio Giles had set the dial to, over the objections of himself, Anya and Buffy, though Willow and Tara seemed to enjoy it. Willow didn't surprise him, and obviously Tara shared Willow's interest in all things learning-related. Good for her. Good that Willow had someone who liked knowledge as much as she did - that had been one of the things Oz did for her that Xander had always appreciated.
And not just because Willow was less likely to turn a conversation with him to things that went over his head, when she had had Oz to talk without about them instead.
Last night, Xander had gone on patrol with Buffy, eager to make the most out of his temporary superpowers. They were looking for ADAM, or word of him, or even some sort of idea of what the cyborg Frankenstein was up to, but no luck. Still, Xander had slain two vamps - Buffy got four and some weird five-armed demon with sharp fangs. Sure, he got tossed around a few times by that demon, but even when he landed ten, twenty feet away, he was able to get up and keep going, which was totally cool.
I wish I could keep the powers and my body. Xander felt lucky the cops in Sunnydale were so terrible. None of them had noticed him out last night - not that the SPD really noticed anything out at night. Rarely, anyway.
Which, while a lot less immediately important than 'I'm a guy and I want my dick back.' (It was more than that, but still, that's kind of how it boiled down, in a lot of ways.) The prospect of having to avoid the police as long as he had this body wasn't very fun either. Especially if anyone in Sunnydale's police department was smart enough to let everyone else in other towns and cities know to look out for the dangerous criminal that was Faith.
BOLO and all that, like in the crime shows. What does that even stand for? Xander searched his memory, but he couldn't remember.
"I do hope," Giles said as he moved the car onto the exit, and having to slow down as they started to deal with a bit more traffic. "That we have a better way of narrowing down where Faith is than just 'in Los Angeles'."
"We can do the map spell again, but we should just start by going downtown and seeing which direction the crystal takes us from there," Willow suggested.
"Can you make a second crystal?" Anya said. "It shouldn't be that hard, and then we could split up, cover more ground, faster."
"We could," Willow nodded. She looked over at Tara, then shook her head, "But we only have so much of Xander's hair left. I'd rather save it for if we need to do more map spells or something."
Anya pouted, but she nodded, following the logic.
It took them the better part of an hour to start to narrow down where Faith was, as the crystal kept directing them down this street, then that, suggesting she was on the move, but finally staying mostly steady.
"I think we're getting warmer," Willow said, watching the crystal point steadily ahead.
February 25th, 2000
Angel Investigations Los Angeles
Something seemed off, to Cordelia. She couldn't figure out what, or why, or how. But something seemed different about Xander. The drive back, after asking a few questions and making a joke, he'd been unusually quiet. Xander usually - though not always - liked to fill the silence, at least if he wasn't doing something.
And he hadn't objected to being called Mr. Harris, which Xander always did. Nor had he taken any opportunity to insult Angel after he was brought up. Which again, Xander usually did though maybe he was just waiting to do it to Angel's face.
Something was different about him. Which... well, things were different about her. They hadn't seen each other in nine months, so it wasn't really surprising he was different.
As they walked through the doors into the building, Cordelia turned back to Xander. "What are you even doing in L.A. anyway?"
Xander said nothing for a long moment, then finally he just sort of shrugged. "Needed to get away," he said quickly.
"Just... away?" Cordelia shook her head, not believing it for a minute. "So, what, you just ditched Buffy and Willow and came to L.A. for the hell of it?"
"I don't want to talk about it, okay?" Xander insisted, brushing past her quickly, opening the door to Angel's office - it was hard to miss the sign that said 'Angel Investigations', after all. Cordelia rolled her eyes and followed him in, watching Xander grab one of the doughnuts from next to the coffee maker, stuffing half of it into his mouth. Which was pretty typical Xander. Some things haven't changed.
He sat down on the couch in the entryway, crossing his legs a moment, then shifting position again, as if trying to find a comfortable way to sit.
Cordelia stared at him for a moment, as she heard the sound of the elevator coming upstairs. Wesley walked into the office at nearly the same time as Angel stepped out of the elevator. Angel saw Xander, Xander saw Angel, and then Angel looked away, his expression unreadable. As was often the case.
"Hey Angel," Xander said, smirking in a decidedly un-Xander-like way. He sounded like he was trying to bait or tease Angel. Xander was petty when it came to Angel, but usually from a distance.
"Xander," Angel grumbled. He looked at Wesley and her, "Did you see Wolfram and Hart's guys?"
"No, thankfully, I saw him before he got that far. Give it another minute or two and they might have gotten him," Cordelia answered, sitting down behind her desk.
"They don't seem to have followed us either, but one has to assume they'll try again, at least as long as you're in L.A." Wesley looked over at Xander as he said that.
"Wolfram and what?" Xander furrowed his brow. "I thought-" he cut off whatever he was about to say.
"Wolfram and Hart. Evil lawyers," Angel explained.
"Like that's an explanation, Angel," Cordelia rolled her eyes. "Evil lawyers is a given. These ones have demons and vampires as clients and working for them. That's who we think was going to grab you."
"The fuck for?!" Xander demanded.
What is wrong with me? Something kept seeming off about Xander, but Cordelia couldn't figure it out for the life of her. She'd learned to trust her instincts, so something probably was off - probably whatever reason he had for coming to L.A. - but what? And did she actually care?
No, not really. But it's going to bother me until he leaves or I figure it out.
"Impossible to say," Wesley shrugged. "But at a guess, I would suppose they want to use you as leverage against Buffy. Make her slay Angel."
Xander scoffed, "Like she'd ever do anything to hurt him, even to save me."
Something sounded almost... personal in there? Sure, Buffy delayed killing Angelus, but she had done it.
"Well, I'm sure she'd try to find another way, but she did send him to hell once," Cordelia pointed out. She looked over at Angel. "No offense."
"Right. How am I supposed to take offense at that?" Angel muttered.
Cordelia just rolled her eyes again. Right, go and brood about it some more.
Xander just looked confused for a moment as she and Angel went back and forth there, but his expression returned to normal quickly.
"Look, just hang here until it gets dark, and then we can all go - Angel included - to the bus station or whatever and you can head back to Sunnyhell," Cordelia suggested. "In case Wolfram and Hart tries again."
"Sounds like the kind of fun that isn't," Xander grumbled, but he stayed seated. Angel just shook his head and opened the door to his office, probably to just sit in the dark like he usually did. Xander stuck his hand in his pocket and stood up. "Angel - wait," he said, speaking quickly. "Since I'm here - look, I need to talk to you."
Angel stared at him, as if to say 'you're talking now'.
"Alone," Xander clarified, quickly, sounding... not excited, but like... close?
"Fine," Xander held the door to his office open once he stepped inside, and Xander walked in after him. Angel closed the door behind him. As he did so, Cordelia, watching Xander as the door closed, saw a glint of something. Some sort of metal? It was in Xander's hand as he took it out of his pocket.
Cordelia looked at her computer screen, then back to the door. Something had to be wrong. Like, really wrong. She wouldn't keep getting that feeling that something was wrong if it wasn't. She looked over at Wesley, then shook her head. Wesley didn't know Xander. How would he know if something was off?
"There's something off about Xander," she declared. Wesley looked at her, raising an eyebrow. "I've known him since first grade. There's something wrong with him." She stood up. "And I'm going to find out what." She walked over to the door to Angel's office.
"Cordy-" Wesley started, but Cordelia just raised a finger.
"Don't! Don't go 'Cordy'-ing me, Wesley." She opened the door to Angel's office. Angel was standing next to his desk, Xander not far from him, back facing the door, hands behind his back. One hand was holding the wrist of the other hand loosely, and that hand had some weird... metal contraption on it. It was held to his hand by rings around his pinke, thumb and middle finger.
"Cordy," Angel said, looking up at her. Xander looked back at her, looking furious at the interruption. Like... furious, furious. She'd never seen Xander look that angry before, but if looks could kill, Cordelia would be a smoldering wreck right now. Xander stepped forward quickly, towards Angel, hands coming around from behind his back.
Cordelia had no idea what that metal thing was, but if Xander had been hiding it, it wasn't friendly.
"Angel!" she shouted in warning, and Angel quickly stepped back before Xander could grab his hand, to do... whatever it was that thing did. Moving quickly, Angel pinned Xander to the wall, one hand pressing on his chest, the other pinning his arm to the wall at the elbow, well away from whatever that was.
"You wanna tell me what that's about, Xander?" Angel demanded. Then he growled and his vampire face came out. "Or do I get to force the issue?" He sounded almost pleased at the prospect of being allowed to hurt Xander. Okay, I mean I know you don't like him, but seriously Angel.
Cordelia's eyes narrowed at Xander and she stepped closer, getting a look at him. He didn't look even remotely afraid. Xander could be pretty brave, but this was different. This wasn't brave this was...
Reckless. Almost thrilling in the danger.
"Did you really have to go and ruin it, bitch?" Xander demanded, snarling at her, before looking at Angel. Cordelia recoiled - Xander had called her a lot of names over the years, before they dated and after they broke up - but never once, no matter how badly she treated Willow, had he ever called her 'Bitch'. And again, the anger. The snarl.
Nothing like Xander.
If it wasn't broad daylight, she'd almost wonder if this was vampire Xander, demon controlling him.
Is he possessed?
"Hey, watch it!" Angel shot back, getting in Xander's face.
"Funny. I was just gonna say the same thing." Xander pulled something out of his pocket with his free hand and pressed it to Angel's face. A cross. Angel recoiled, letting go of Xander, and Xander let go of the cross, pulling a vial of water out of his pocket.
"Good thing Xander had this on him a couple nights ago," she heard him mutter, as if referring to himself in the third person was normal. Cordelia grabbed at his arm, but Xander kicked back at her, sending her sprawling, and as Angel moved towards him, the cross-burn on his face already healing, Xander threw the holy water at Angel - it caught him right in the face, and Xander bolted, running as quick as he could while Angel was distracted.
Cordelia heard Wesley get knocked over, and Cordelia pushed herself into a sitting up position as she watched Xander running out the door. Angel, the skin on his face still healing from the holy water, ran after him.
"You can't-" Cordelia stood and moved quickly after, seeing Angel pull up short as Xander stopped in a large patch of sunlight on the landing below them, grinning wickedly. Angel was on the edge of the light, looking at Xander.
"Who are you?" Cordelia demanded. This couldn't be Xander. Someone had to be possessing him, or maybe it was some shapeshifting demon. "Because you definitely aren't Xander."
"What, do you actually have a brain in there, Queen C?" 'Xander' scoffed. "Coulda fooled me." Then he kept running downstairs, and Cordelia hurried after, trying to catch up with him. She needed to know what the hell was going on.
February 25th, 2000
Outside Angel's Building, Los Angeles
"Uh, guys?" Buffy said as the crystal directed them to turn down one more street, and then pointed dead ahead at a large brick building just one block away. "The crystal is pointing directly at Angel's place."
"That makes the kind of sense that doesn't. Why would Faith - especially looking like me - head to Angel's place?" Xander demanded, looking at the structure.
"Maybe she's planning on switching bodies with Angel," Willow suggested, laughing as she said it. Then she stiffed. "Maybe she's planning on switching bodies with Angel!" she repeated, this time taking the notion seriously.
"Giles, hurry!" Buffy said, turning to the watcher, urgency in her voice.
"Buffy, we're nearly there," he pointed out, and then he pulled up short, not far from the building. "You might as well get out now while I parallel park this bloody unwieldy thing." Buffy threw open the car door, and Xander squeezed ahead, between Willow and Tara and went out the side door as well. If Faith switched with Angel - well, that would be bad. Very bad.
Buffy ran for the front door of the building, but Xander was close behind her. Less experienced at making the most of his Slayer speed, Xander didn't go as fast as he felt like he could, knowing Buffy could restrain Faith without him if need be -
The front doors were thrown open, and someone bolted out, running as quick as he -
"Faith!" Buffy called out, stopping maybe twenty feet from his body. Faith - obviously still here - also pulled up short upon seeing the two of them, hesitating, looking ready to run either left or right, but knowing they could catch up with her before she made it ten feet.
"It's over, Faith!" Buffy repeated, as Xander stopped next to her.
Faith just sneered at them - Xander hadn't even realized his face could sneer. But apparently, yeah, it could. Huh.
"Always have to come and ruin everything for me, don't you, Buffy," Faith said, 'her' voice dripping with the kind of contempt Xander had usually reserved for Spike. Before she could say anything else, the doors opened again and Cordelia came out of the door, right behind Xander.
"Cordy!" Xander said, unable to stop himself, surprised. Even as he said it, he remembered - she worked for Angel.
"Faith?!" Cordelia demanded, stepping back. "When did - Buffy!? Why aren't you beating Faith up?"
"Because that's Faith!" Xander gestured to his body. Faith tried to grab Cordelia, but his ex managed to avoid her grab. Xander started to run for the two of them, but then Faith pulled something off her hand.
"WAIT!" she shouted, holding up the same device she'd used to switch with him. "Take one more step, either of you, and I break this. Then you'll never get Xan back in his body." She laughed, "Not that I see why you'd care. What's it like to not be worthless for a change?"
"Faith, you're worthless whatever body you're in," Buffy replied, coldly. "You can go ahead and break it if you want, by the way. Willow's got a spell that can do the work. Just give up already."
"Screw it," Xander said, running up to Faith, grabbing at her. Faith did in fact keep her promise, dropping the device and stepping on it before he got to her, but Xander didn't care - he trusted Willow's spell would work, and he was a little too busy grabbing Faith. He took ahold of her - his - wrists.
But because he was trying to refrain from holding too tightly - he didn't want to hurt himself - she managed to break out of his grip. Faith kicked backwards at him. Xander, not expecting it, took the hit on the shin. It didn't really hurt much, but he did stagger back a bit, and Faith started to run away. But then Xander was on her again, grabbing 'her' by the back of the shirt and tugging her back. Then he took her wrists and held on tighter this time.
"Wait, wait, what the hell is going on?!" Cordelia demanded. She looked towards him - to what looked like Faith to her. "Xander, is that -"
"Yeah, that's Xander, Cordy. Catch up already, will you?!" Faith snapped, struggling against his grip. "You're gonna pay for fucking things up, Cordy. You guys want to give me my body back, I'll kill you all. What's more murder?"
"Yeah, no," Xander said. "We're going to make sure your body is chained up before we switch you back into it. Then... then I don't know. Council, probably." At this point, he really didn't mind if Faith died. Like, it wasn't something he was rooting for, but if it happened? Long as it was in her own body, he didn't care one bit.
"Fuck you," Faith shot back. Xander held onto her, but he still didn't want to hurt his body too much, so she was able to keep moving. She kicked at his leg again, but this time he was able to sidestep it, and she fell half-over onto one knee, grunting as she tried to flip him or something. But it was easy to stay on his feet.
"Anyway, yeah, this is me," Xander said, looking up at Cordelia. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Willow, Tara and Anya walking towards them, Giles getting out of the car as well. "Hey Cordelia."
"Hey Xander," Cordelia said, shaking her head a bit. "Deja vu," she muttered under her breath. She looked over at Buffy. "Hey Buffy. So... Faith switched bodies with Xander?"
"Hey Cordelia. And Yeah." Buffy nodded. She looked at the building. "So... uhm... how is Angel?" Faith started to make some sort of comment, but Xander tugged at her arm, one quick jolt that made her cry out. Whoops. Fuck. That was gonna need some ice.
"He's Angel," Cordelia nodded. "You know. He broods, he doesn't do much socializing, he kills demons. The usual." She nodded at Xander and Faith. "We have manacles upstairs. Since you mentioned chaining Faith up..."
"Kinky," Faith remarked, though more in an angry growl rather than some sort of teasing comment, and Xander gagged at the thought.
Before they could respond, however, they heard the sound of wheels moving towards them - coming at them, perpendicular to the street Giles had driven in on, was a black van, a black SUV right behind it.
"Oh crap. We should probably get inside-" Cordelia started to say, but before she could say anything else, the SUV gunned it and jumped the curb, driving towards Xander and Faith. He cried out in shock, jumping back, and letting go of his body in the process - Faith rolled away, just barely avoiding the car, or so it seemed, until it pulled up short, bare inches from where he and Faith had just been. Buffy and Cordelia jumped back as well, and with the van and the SUV between the four of them and Willow, Tara, Anya, and Giles; he couldn't see how they were reacting.
The SUV had lowered windows, the passenger and back seat, people in black tactical vests holding guns - real guns, real bullets, fuck. Xander didn't recognize the gun - Soldier boy had no knowledge of it, but that didn't really say a whole lot. He didn't have many memories of that anyway, and soldier boy had been in 'Nam so unless it was an M14, M16, or M60 he didn't know more than how to pull the trigger.
Faith started laughing. It was more of a bitter, hollow laugh, but still.
An attractive - no, more than that, sexy - woman with long brown hair artfully arranged around her face, wearing a black pantsuit stepped out of the van, flanked by two men wearing dark suits and sunglasses, looking like those secret service agents you saw with the President in the movies - or on the news. Somehow, he doubted that's what they were.
"I'd advise against trying anything, Miss Summers," the new arrival said, her voice sly, careful. "Normally we don't try anything this public, but after Miss Chase helped your friend here give us the slip earlier today, we had to resort to other methods."
"Let me guess, Wolfram and Hart?" Cordelia demanded. Then she looked down at Lilah's shoes. "Have to be. Only way you could afford Manolo Blahniks' that nice is by selling your soul." She sounded more jealous than anything else.
"Being evil does come with all the perks," she agreed. "Lilah Morgan, Wolfram and Hart." She nodded. "Now, if you'll kindly step away from Mr. Harris."
"I think you guys might have mixed things-" Faith started to say, chuckling, but before she could finish, the guys with guns directed them both at her, and the two men in suits put hands inside their suits, probably to grab guns of their own from shoulder holsters or something.
"We're on the clock, so please, come quietly," she said. She nodded two one of the suited men, who pulled a taser out of his coat and walked towards Faith - who he obviously assumed was Xander.
"No, really, you guys-" Xander started, but then the guns were pointed at him. Faith looked at the guns, looked at the taser, and then started to run.
"Faith, don't even-" Xander shouted, trying to grab at her, but the security goon was there, zapping her, taser getting her in the chest, and she collapsed. His body collapsed.
"We'll be in touch, Miss Summers," Lilah said, as the other security goon pulled out a gun of his own.
"Do you really think I can't get to you before the guns get me?" Buffy said, bracing herself to move.
"You are a Slayer, so it's quite possible you could avoid one, maybe two, even all three." As if on cue, the front passenger side door of the van opened and another guy in a tactical vest pointed yet another gun at them. "But four? From four different angles? Do you really want to gamble that?" Xander watched, unable to move - he didn't trust slayer speed to be faster than a bullet, whatever the gun - as his body, with Faith inside, was tossed unceremoniously into the van. Then Lilah got in. "Like I said, we'll be in touch."
The other security guy got in, the door closed, and the van and SUV sped off. Buffy started to run after them, but drew up short as the cars changed gears, increasing their speed significantly and she realized how futile it was. The cars were moving too fast.
Xander dropped to the ground, his legs giving out, landing on his ass as he realized what had just happened. Or at least, the ultimate take away.
He was stuck like this even longer.