Time and Time Again

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Two: Stopping a Massacre

Katie stared up at the Hyperion Hotel where she had spent the first twelve years of her life, where she had been born and raised with Alex and Hope, where her parents had fought and worked together. Biting her lip, Katie inhaled slightly before she forced herself to take a step towards the door, moving up the stairs and pulling the door open, stepping into the lobby.

It looked exactly the way that she remembered it, just as nostalgic and beautiful as it always had been. Katie smiled slightly, brushing a strand of her brown hair behind her ear as she looked around the lobby again, searching for any sign of her father.

"Hi!" A dark-haired girl suddenly appeared right in front of her, her smile spreading across her face eagerly. "Welcome to Angel Investigations! What can we do for you? Demon, ghost, vampire? As long as you've got the cash, we'll be happy to work for you!"

A small chuckle escaped from Katie as she realised who this girl was. "Uh . . . you're Cordelia, right?" she guessed. Cordelia blinked in surprise, but nodded. "Man, Dad didn't exaggerate," she mumbled. "Uh . . . actually, I'm just looking for my—I'm looking for Angel," she corrected automatically, catching the near-slip of the tongue.

Automatically, a wary look crossed her face and she folded her arms across her chest suspiciously.

"Well, he's not here right now," she replied, her tone clicked and her expression fixed intently upon Katie. Thankfully, she was used to being analysed by people and kept her expression completely neutral. "And I don't know when he's going to be back, so is there maybe something that we could help you with?"

"Actually, I'm trying to help him," Katie said, heaving a sigh. "And hopefully the rest of the world. It's a long story," she said as Cordelia's eyebrows hitched in completely confusion.

"Well, you'd better start explaining, because I'm not telling you where he is until you do."

"Really like to, but I don't want to have to explain this fifty times," Katie said with a shrug. "Besides, I think he's the one who should be hearing this first, not you. No offence," she added, "but seeing as how it directly involves him, in more ways than one," she muttered, "I think he should be the first one to hear it, so here's the deal. Angel's about to do something really stupid that he is going to regret later. Now you can either help him by helping me or you could just be stubborn, which means I'll leave here and try and find him on my own. Of course, finding him on my own will take a whole lot longer, which means that I could possibly not make it there on time, thus completing the whole 'he's gonna do something's he's gonna regret' scenario." Katie folded her arms across her chest, raising her eyebrows. "So, which one is going to be? Are you going to be stubborn or are you going to help me out here?"

Cordelia sighed, studying her for a long moment, considering, meeting Katie's green eyes evenly. "I don't know where's he's at," she finally said. "But he was heading for Wolfram and Hart."

Leaning her head back, Katie shook her head. "Great," she muttered. "That's the last place that I want to be right now. Thanks," she said before she turned and headed out of the hotel, racing down the street as fast as she could, plunging into her vampiric speed towards the law firm that had caused so much trouble for her father.

It was about halfway there when she saw them, the two people that she would rather eat liver than actually talk to.

Actually, she only recognised Drusilla, as Darla had already been dead by the time that she had been born, but her mother had described her pretty well. Short and blonde . . . oh, and the fact that she was in vamp face didn't help matters much.

Katie ducked behind a building before poking her head out to keep an eye on them, hoping very much that they didn't recognise her. "Okay, new plan," she muttered to herself. "Follow those two, lead to that moron's house, get inside and wait for Dad, stop him from locking those two in a room with a bunch of lawyers and somehow convince him that I'm from the future and that I'm his daughter. With Mom," she added dryly, shaking her head towards the heavens. "I'm an idiot to think that I was able to pull this out."

Making sure that Darla and Drusilla were out of sight enough, Katie climbed up on top of the buildings, darting across the rooftops and jumping between them, following the vampire girls as they left the shops and stores that they were wreaking havoc on before they changed their direction and was heading towards one of the wealthy houses.

Katie's heart was pounding in her chest as she jumped back down onto the ground, landing on her feet, and jumped behind some trashcans.

Darla turned around sharply, almost as if she had smelled or heard Katie—or maybe she even sensed her, considering that Katie was half-Slayer. But maybe she thought it was her imagination or maybe she simply didn't care, wanted another challenge, because she just shook her head and continued on her way, leaving Katie to poke her head out from behind the trashcans and followed them up towards the house.

Instead of going to the front door, Katie climbed up the side of the house, slipping into the upstairs window, which said more about her breaking and entering skills than anything else.

Pulling a lock pick out of her pocket, Katie navigated it into the window and popped the window open, darting inside and closing the window.

"So, this is how the other half lives," she muttered, glancing around her as she tossed a sheet of her hair back and headed downstairs.

There was some kind of party going on, she noticed as she kept herself firmly latched within the shadows as she watched the partygoers heading down into the parlour, all of them chatting and laughing, a few of them halfway drunk by the quart of wine they were having. Katie winced, remembering her, Alex, and Hope's first experience getting drunk. That hadn't been fun.

And hanging out in the old abandoned farmhouse where they chosen to thrown up in, unable to go home because Alex was passed out was even less fun.

Tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, Katie gulped and pushed herself out of view as Darla and Drusilla appeared. Her heart was racing in her chest, but she prayed that they couldn't hear it or smell or her or anything that would even remotely give away her location. She really wished that she had brought Sam with her; he was good in a crisis.

When she was sure that they were gone, Katie poked her head from behind the banister again. Sure enough, the two vampires were gone. Katie checked carefully to make sure that they weren't hiding out somewhere, but she couldn't even sense them. Letting out a slow breath, Katie got to her feet and moved out of hiding, taking careful steps down, heading directly for the parlour.

"I love this room," Darla was saying, a sadistic smile on her face as Katie moved closer to the parlour. "Dru, honey, in our new digs, we have to put in a people cellar."

"Assuming that you're gonna last that long," Katie spoke up, alerting everyone to her presence. Darla turned around suddenly, her eyes fastening on Katie as she moved into view, standing in the doorway of the parlour.

"Who are you?" she demanded.

Drusilla gave a small giggle. "Little sister's come to play," she said, clapping her hands in delight. Darla's head turned towards the dark-haired vampire as Katie felt a tremor go through her. She had forgotten about Drusilla's visions, her ability to see the future. "Come to stop Daddy, come to change it all . . ."

Darla cocked her head, turning back at Katie, the distasteful look on her face. "Don't tell me, you're one of Angelus' children."

"Do I smell like a vampire to you?" Katie demanded, arching her eyebrows incredulously. She was hoping that her unpredictable mixed blood might buy her some time and keep them occupied.

"No, you don't," the blonde agreed as Katie stepped further into the parlour. "No . . . I haven't smelled this fragrance before. . . . You're human, but . . . but you're something else as well . . ."

"Yeah, I'm the Slayer," Katie said dryly, folding her arms across her chest and sporting an award-winning smile. Well, that wasn't far from the truth, she reasoned. Being the daughter of one gave her as much of the Slayer powers as being the daughter of a vampire gave her vampiric powers.

A laugh escaped from Darla as she surveyed Katie. "You're not a Slayer," she said, arching her eyebrows. "I know Slayers. No, you're something completely different . . . completely new."

Drusilla giggled. "Come dance with us, little sister," she said playfully, holding her arms out to Katie, who shrugged, reaching into her back pocket and withdrawing a stake.

"Okay," she said cheerfully. "I'll play."

Darla growled as she and Katie circled on another, neither one of them backing down as they all heard footsteps coming down, causing the two women to stop where they were.

"Daddy's here," Drusilla said joyfully. Katie's head whipped around to look at one of the two people that she had never expected nor anticipated that she would ever see again.

Angel O'Connor stepped into view at the top of the stairs, his brown eyes sweeping over the room, colliding with Katie's green ones and he still, staring at her with a frown on his face, confusion flickering across it. Darla didn't seem to notice the exchange between future father and future daughter as she turned towards him, smirking.

"Angelus," she said, tossing a sheet of her blonde hair behind her. "Here for the tasting?"

"Look what we have for you," Drusilla said happily, but Angel didn't even react. Katie's green eyes flickered between her father, his sire, and his childe, knowing already what was going to happen, but knowing that she had to stop this. She knew how heavily the guilt of what had happened had weighed down upon her father. "It's not Daddy. It's never Daddy." Drusilla hissed. "It's the Angel-beast."

"Come to punish us?"

"No, that's my job," Katie said darkly, drawing Darla's attention back to her. "Come on, Darla, or are you really afraid that you might get beaten by a little human girl?"

Darla growled through her fangs, circling around Katie again, who moved into position. Automatically, the lawyers backed up, the fear evident in their faces. "You're dead, little girl."

"Funny," Katie returned. "You would have thought that I'd have stopped walking around."

As though she had reached across and smacked Darla to provoke her, the blonde reacted, lunging at Katie, who fought back just as efficiently as she with any other demon and vamp that she had back in the future. The two women circled around each other, hitting each other with as much proficiency as they possessed.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her father moving towards them, not sure who he was going to help, but that one second of distraction caused Darla to gain the upper hand. Katie grunted as she hit the ground, the stake flying out of her hand as she fell.

Just as Darla was about to move towards her again, to deliver the final blow, Katie heard a familiar growl and looked up.

Angel had caught the stake she had dropped and plunged it into Darla's heart. She looked up at him in shock and disbelief, her golden eyes flashing back to blue as she whispered, "Angelus?" Then she turned into dust, crumbling onto the floor in front of them.

Katie got to her feet, looking back at the place where Darla had stood only a moment ago, before looking at Angel, standing where he had staked Darla, the stake in hand, unable to believe what he had just done. Drusilla gave a scream of anguish before she darted from the room, howling things that Katie neither heard nor understood.

"Thanks," she said, looking up at Angel, who gave a small nod before glancing at the lawyers.

"Don't bring her back," he warned them. "Or next time, there might not be somebody to save you." Holland Manners nodded once, his eyes fixed upon Katie with something of fascination as she glanced towards them, then headed towards Angel.

"We need to talk," she whispered to him. "Just not here." He nodded once, something flickering across his face, as he gestured for her to follow him out to the driveway, where the black Plymouth was sitting. It was years younger than she had seen it, but just as workable as it was when she had inherited it.

Of course, she couldn't exactly drive it around anymore. Not to mention, her driving capabilities left much to be desired.

Climbing into the passenger's seat, Katie glanced sideways at her father as he pulled out of the driveway, navigating through the streets of Los Angeles, heading for the hotel. She glanced down at her hands, using the silence to try and work out what exactly she was going to say to him.

"Who are you?" Angel finally asked, as he looked at her suddenly. She glanced up. "What are you? How'd you know where Darla and Dru would be?"

Katie gave a small sigh, running her hand through her brown locks. "My name's Katherine," she said finally. "Katie, actually. I only get called Katherine when I'm in trouble." A small smile tugged across his face. "I knew where Darla and Drusilla were gonna be because I followed them. As for what I am . . . can we wait until we get to the hotel? I'd rather not have to explain this fifty times."

Angel sighed. "Fair enough. I don't suppose that you can give me a last name?"

"I promise, I'll explain everything," Katie assured him. "But I don't want to go over this again and again. I'm still trying to work out how exactly I'm going to explain this only once."

"Could you tell me anything?" he persisted.

Giving him a small smile, Katie considered. "All right, I'll give you this little titbit," she said brightly. Angel waited expectantly and she was really glad that they were at a stoplight, because she was sure that he would have slammed on the breaks if they were driving.

"I'm from the future."