Part 22
Wesley flattened his tall frame against the surface his body blending into the wooden fence and concentrated on the house across the street. He wouldn’t think about his beautiful friend lying in a pile of dust on bedroom floor or his part on how it happened.
It could be fixed.
Do this and Cordelia will never have experienced any of the horror. His lovely friend and Angel would be back where they belonged. He watched and waited outside Buffy’s house for the Angels and Cordelia to show up.
Wesley moved back even further into the darkness as he saw the vampires and the girl. Wesley was grateful that Cordelia was with them. Had she not been, he would’ve never known which Angel was which.
They were identical in every way except in clothing, but even that was similar both wore leather jackets and dark pants, their shirts being the only thing of any real difference. But, Wesley had no doubt which vampire was his friend.
There was no mistaking the vampire that was engaged in a whispered futile argument with the young woman. The vampire rubbed furiously at his temple while his other hand kept a protective hold on Cordelia, his body between hers and the other Angel. It was a common enough scene, the contest of their wills coupled with obvious love.
Wesley stayed still as Angel pushed the young woman towards Buffy’s house. When the vampires had left he followed hoping that the Angels would keep their speed at a human rate. He couldn’t lose them but he couldn’t interfere, not until the Angeluses were dealt with.
Cordelia had said that the Angeluses had been taken care of, he couldn’t take the chance that his presence would mess that up -too much had already gone wrong.
Wesley paused, holding back, puzzled that the vampires were heading into Sunnydale High School. He understood as soon as they reappeared. Angel B was carrying a rifle. He nodded and began to follow again.
***
Wesley shook his head at the sight before him. Two vampires, looking exactly like his friend brutally fighting, while two others stood and peppered them with tranquilizer darts. He moved closer as the Angeluses crumbled, raising his crossbow as soon as the threat of the soulless vampires was contained and he was free to shoot.
With frustration, Wesley tried to find a shot but the vampires weren’t cooperating with his silence curses and instructions. He knew from earlier the differences between the vampires’ shirts, but both broad leathered-coated backs looked the same.
Wesley lowered his weapon as both vampires each swung an unconscious burden over their shoulder, deciding to follow and wait a little longer for a better opportunity.
***
Wesley debated whether to get any closer to the apartment. There was some validity to the plan of surprising Angel B, shooting first and explaining later. But sneaking up on a vampire was problematic. Wesley moved closer making his decision. Hopefully, the vampires would be preoccupied with the Angeluses and the spell. He couldn‘t keep standing on the street not knowing when Angel B would decide to betray Angel.
Wesley opened the door. The scene before him unfolded in slow motion. Angel turning is back to the closing portal, speaking. Angel B, answering raising the rifle. Wesley jerked out his weapon calling to Angel. Both Angel’s turned, one in surprise then other with his rifle raised. Wesley flinched as the dart knocked him back, his crossbow falling to the floor.
Angel’s exclamation was cut off as he felt the twinge of a prick enter his shoulder. He lurched away from the vampire grabbing for Wesley’s disregarded crossbow. The arrow left the weapon as another dart pierced his chest. Angel’s last sight before losing consciousness was his attacker still standing, the arrow embedded in his chest, but not his heart. His last thought was fuck. His last feeling was fear for Cordelia.
Angel B winced yanking at the bolt and stripping off his bloody shirt. He had wanted to explain- to tell Angel that Cordelia would always be safe, reassuring the vampire before he died but there wasn’t much point to it now. He looked down at Wesley’s slumped form. Angel B didn’t want to kill the human. Wesley was supposed to be his friend.
It wasn’t too late. Just do the spell go back to his time. The drugs would where off both the vampire and the human soon enough. They would be fine and go together to get Cordelia. They would wonder about his actions, but they ultimately wouldn’t care because they were alive and Cordelia safe. It could work.
Angel B looked back to the fallen vampire with a soul. That vampire would go back, would touch Cordelia, would love her be loved by her. Never Angel B, because he would cease to exist, he would never touch or hold Cordy in love. No. Angel B buried any guilt for what he was about to do. It would be worth it. Angel B reached down grabbing Wesley’s neck and twisted.
It was okay. Wesley hadn’t felt the pain of death and neither would the vampire.
Part 23
Fred yelled louder than needed. Gunn poked his head up from the basement, looking to where the young woman was pointing.
He ran to the opening in the atmosphere. He waited expectantly as the chasm got larger. He glanced at Fred.
Fred crossed her fingers.
A vampire clad in leather jumped through. Gunn moved closer. “Angel?”
“Yeah, and more importantly,” he held up a glowing globe. “Cordy.”
“Wesley?” Fred asked looking behind the vampire into the portal that was closing.
Angel jerked to the young woman. “Um…he…”
“Not what we wanted to hear.” Gunn shot his darts.
The vampire fell. The globe in his hands shattered against the floor, the light fleeing from the confines traveling upwards towards the stairs.
“Damn.” Gunn shouted. “I’ll take care of the vamp, you go.”
Fred was already running for the stairs.
***
Cordy shot up on the bed. She was home. She scrunched her brow as Fred burst through the door.
“Cordy,” the young woman flung herself onto the bed taking Cordelia in a huge hug.
“Fred?” Cordelia pushed at the young woman noticing her tears. “Fred, what happened?” Cordelia looked around. “Where’s Angel?”
“It was so awful.” Fred hugged Cordelia again.
“Fred?”
“It’s still awful, I think.” She squeezed, mumbling into Cordy’s shoulder.
Cordelia gave in and let the woman hold her tight. After a moment, Cordelia moved her arms off her. “Fred? Where’s Angel?”
Fred shook her head, tears flowing freely.
“Fred, speak, please.” Cordelia said tightly, the ache that she had felt in Buffy’s house intensified. “He’s fine,” Cordelia denying the inexplicable twisting of her heart. “He said so, he did the spell to get us home. Everything was fine.” She insisted over the feeling of loss and wrongness.
Fred shook her head.
“Damn’t Fred, talk to me.” Cordelia yelled.
Fred gulped and nodded. “Um…Okay….I don’t know where to start,” she sniffled wiping at her face.
“Start with where is Angel.” Cordelia demanded.
“We’re not sure. Okay, that’s not going to work. What do you remember?”
“What? What do you mean you’re not ….” Cordelia attempted to rise from the bed.
“Please, Cordy,” Fred begged, her hands still covering the other woman’s pulling her down.
Cordelia took a deep breath. “I was at my parent’s house. Angel showed up, then the another Angel, Angel B, Wesley sent him because something went wrong, we fixed it, Angel and Angel B went to send Angelus 1 back and make sure Angelus 2 didn’t cause trouble. I was at Buffy’s. I felt something, it wasn’t a vision but it was real, something happened to Angel, so I left Buffy’s but Angel found me, he was alright, we came home.”
Fred nodded, really happy that Cordelia had labeled all the Angels, the chart was already taking shape in her head. “Okay, we don’t remember sending Angel B, don’t know him. But, since we did, it was because Wesley’s potion must have enabled us to realize that something had gone wrong. Anyway, we – Wesley, Gunn, and I, were waiting for Angel to come through the portal with your soul in the orb. It had been about an hour when it happened. Your soul safe in the orb and who we thought was Angel…did you just call him Angel.”
“Uh, oh. … He’s Angel A.”
“Makes perfect sense.” Fred nodded approvingly. “We thought it was Angel A, but it wasn’t.”
“Not Angel,” Cordelia shook her head. “It was. He was wearing…” she puzzled, remembering the shock of the ache, the feeling that was still present. “What happened?”
“We thought everything was fine, so did you sort of. You did express some concerns to Wesley but I didn’t know that until later. Anyway, that night after Wesley and Gunn had left, Angel, the alleged A, came into my room and carried me into your room, we’re going to have to call him Angelus B or Angelus 3, I’ll have to think about that.”
“Angelus.” Cordelia whispered. “No…no.”
“Shush, you were there, a vampire. You staked Angelus B3,” Fred nodded at her compromise.” and told me to go hide in my room and call Wesley. “You, Cordelia…” Fred puzzled,
“Cordy the vamp, told us what had happened. Angel B killed Angel A and took his place, but he forgot his soul wasn’t bound.” Fred looked up. “That was really an important thing to forget, how do you forget something like that.” She shrugged.
“Anyway…you, Cordelia must have had sex with Angel B, thinking he was Angel A,” Fred scrunched up her brow. “That would’ve had to been the reason right? Right.” Fred answered her own question not noticing the blood disappear from Cordelia’s expression or the panic in her eyes.
“Then Angelus B3 and then Cordy the vamp. You didn’t have your soul, that’s what you said, but you were being nice except for killing Angelus B3, but actually that was a good thing, so it wasn’t bad. Cordy the Vamp told Wesley he had to go back and make sure that Angel B didn’t kill Angel A and that he had to kill her, you, Cordy the Vamp. That it wasn’t safe to let you live. Wesley killed you and left. Gunn and I took the wafers to protect our memories from any change in the time line and Angel, we don’t have a clue if its A or B, came through the portal with the orb and your soul but no Wesley. Wesley’s gone. He’s not here. We don’t know where he is. He could be dead, we don’t know. Angel, whichever, is tranquilized.”
Cordelia stared. Cordelia didn’t know which was scarier, Fred’s words or that Cordy understood everything she had said. The question was did she believe it. She knew she didn’t want to.
“I have to see him.”
“Cordy.”
“Fred, we need to know what happened to Wesley.”
“I agree. But you didn’t know for sure, until well, from what Cordy the vamp said until after having sex with Angel B by mistake, thinking it was Angel A, Cordy the Vamp didn’t actually say that, but it’s the only thing that makes sense and you, Cordy the Vamp I mean, seemed pretty mad at Angel B and you, she, did kill Angelus B3.”
Cordelia rubbed at her face, trying to find words and not screams. “Fred, I said talk, not sex.”
Fred nodded. “Right, of course.”
Part 24
Gunn came out of one of the spare rooms, stopping when he saw Fred and Cordy.
“Hey,” he grunted a smile pulling Cordelia into a hug.
“Hey,” Cordelia hugged the black man back. “I need to see him.”
“I…”
“Somebody’s got to figure this out and fix it. You don’t know for sure which Angel is in there.”
“Girl, you messed up once and that was a big one.” Gunn warned.
Cordelia squeezed her fist, digging her fingernails into her palms, fighting the desire to scream, cry and kill. “I’ve heard. But…” She looked back up to Gunn his expression solid in his resolve. “Call Lorne.”
Gunn nodded. “Cordy,”
She paused at the door.
“We’re not going with your ‘gut’ or the vamp’s attire. We’re trusting you not to do anything until Lorne verifies which vampire is in there.”
Cordelia lowered her head in a slow nod.
“Charles, that was mean. Nobody realized it. “ Fred glared. “ And she was right before when you and Wesley couldn’t tell the difference between Angel and Angelus 1.”
“Slept with the wrong vamp,” Gunn reaffirmed his position.
“She told Wesley her doubts, he rationalized them away.”
“Girl, I’ll bet money that Cordy’s ‘gut’ will be right, but I ain’t betting her life, yours, mine or Wes’ on it. Now she knows.”
Part 25
Cordelia walked around the unconscious vampire. Gunn was wrong. She could tell. She plucked at her father’s sweater. He stripped Angel and then killed him. Bastard. Cordelia now knew what the pain that pounded through her at Buffy’s signaled, what the continuing ache was.
It was obvious she had felt Angel die. She no longer was under the illusion that Angel B with his broody soul wouldn’t be capable of such treachery. She believed Fred. She couldn’t ignore the dread flowing inside, the one she denied because there had been a vampire before her with Angel’s face and her dad’s sweater.
God, what a dangerous fool she had been. And Wesley was dead because of it.
Cordelia glanced around the room. The nightstand had four quite lovely stakes for the making.
She shook her head. Cordelia had promised Gunn. She wouldn’t act until Lorne read the vampire. Still she had to hear the justifications of a vampire with a soul that could kill Angel.
“Wakey, wakey,” Cordelia slapped at the vampire’s face.
He growled, jerking at the chains. He blinked. “Cordelia?”
“Yep. You’re in the Hyperion. I’m home. Back to myself.” She twirled to the vampire, showing him her present body.
“Why?” He tugged at the chains again.
“Gunn,” she sat on the edge of the bed. “He’s a bit doubtful about your identity right now. You know how he is about Angelus and for that matter about you.”
“He doesn’t trust me.”
“That little problem you had with going evil all of a sudden still gets him spooked. And we did just come back from a place that was sporting two evil guys and a strange Angel. You can’t really blame him.”
“Tell him I’m not Angelus. You know.” Angel said. “You know it’s me, right.” He pleaded.
Cordelia’s eyes drifted back to the nightstand. It would be so easy. She took a deep breath. “I know you have a soul.” She smiled. “But, my say isn’t enough. Gunn isn’t impressed with my clothing arguments. He just doesn’t trust you and I can’t blame him. After all, all I can say is that you have a soul. I can’t tell him which Angel you are.”
“Cordy, it’s me.” The vampire’s rose in panic.
Cordelia cocked her head, pointing at the sweater. “My father’s. So, it has to be. Unless, Angel B changed shirts with my Angel before killing him, but how could that happen. Angel B has a soul. He wouldn’t betray his soul like that. Would he? Could he?” Cordy shrugged, looking at vampire. “Lorne will read you and then we all will know the truth.” She got up from the bed.
“I have my soul. I AM Angel. Cordy, let me up. I love you, let me touch you, please.”
Cordelia raised her brows. “Sorry. You know I can’t go against Gunn on this. I’m surprised that you would expect me to. Lorne will be here in a flash, Gunn will apologize, and you will say you understand. You do right, you should.”
“I…” Angel stared at the young woman’s frank stare.
He nodded.
Cordelia beamed and sat back on the bed. “I’ll keep you company and you can tell me what happened to Wesley.”
“Wesley.” Angel hesitated.
“Yeah. He’s missing. He followed us, or actually followed Angel B as a back up plan. But, I didn’t see him in 1998 and well, Gunn and Fred are pretty damn positive that they sent him and he’s not here. So, where is he? Do you know? You must have seen him, after all, if you’re here that means he stopped Angel B from killing you. So, what happened?”
“I…”
Cordelia interrupted him. “Was it Angelus? Did he kill him? I could understand that- Angelus is a soulless vampire. Evil, capable of anything and everything, whoa, killing you, me, Wesley, no surprise but Angel with a soul doing horrendous acts, I don’t know. I’ve always had a hard time getting that because with it he’s such a good man, with the biggest heart of anybody I know. Yet, I do know he’s capable of cutting off his humanity, living in the dark, cutting off his friends and family. That Angel has always been scarier than Angelus, too many layers to be a cardboard villain.”
“Why are you talking about me in the third person.”
“Am I? Oh. Well. As I was saying even knowing what I know about Angel and his capability of being cold and dangerous, I never ever would imagine him killing Wesley or allowing Wesley, an innocent- not an evil lawyer, mind you, but an innocent- to be killed. To reject his soul to such an extent would be an act that couldn’t be forgiven, never understood. So, what happened?
Angel blinked at the chill flowing off the young woman. “Angelus.”
Cordelia nodded. “So, he told you before Angelus, which one by the way? Angelus 2 wouldn’t even know that he was a threat, hadn’t met Wesley yet, so was it Angelus 1. He could’ve remembered that Wesley was with Angel when they saved me in 1898, he could’ve remembered that Wesley and Gunn shot him down like a dog when he came to the future and did the spell that threw him back. I guess. Was it Angelus 1?”
Angel slowly nodded.
“So, Wesley told you that Angel B was going to kill you, that Angel B being evil as well as stupid, forgot his soul wasn’t bound, had sex with me, became Angelus B3, and turned me into Cordy the vamp? And then Angelus 1 killed Wesley? And you let him? That’s so unlike you.”
“You weren’t a vampire. You aren’t.”
“No, but lets say that this all happened before. That Wesley, Gunn, and Fred realized what happened before Angelus B could kill them. So, Wesley being Wesley goes back. Only he hasn’t returned.
“Cordy.” Angel mind was spinning. Was the young woman speaking the truth? Had he really forgotten that? Had he let Angelus touch her once again? Oh god. “Cordy.”
“Angel. Why haven’t you asked why Angel B would want you dead?
Angel winced as her glittering glare and cold voice brought the truth to him. “I…Cordy, I…”
“Don’t, I don’t care. I thought I did but I don’t. All, I care about is that you killed Angel and most likely killed Wesley too when he tried to stop you. I promised Gunn that I wouldn’t act until Lorne arrived. But as soon as he gold stars your warped fucked up soul, you’re dust. I don’t settle. There is only one vampire I want and you aren’t him. But, don’t worry I’ll get him back. Time is a funny thing, you can fix you’re mistakes. You have his beautiful face, but that’s all you got.” She moved to the door.
“Cordelia, I have a soul. I love you.”
“There is no version of me that gives a damn.” She slammed the door.