Part 5
Fred shoved at her glasses, tears forming behind the lens as she stood in front of the abandoned hotel.
She had no idea, how to find any of her family. She blinked, turning, starting to run.
***
“Lorne, Lorne,”
“Hello clinging kitten, nice fashion statement.” Lorne gently removed the young woman’s hands from his neck.
Fred blinked rapidly at the demon. “You don’t have any idea who I am do you?”
“Uh, no.”
Fred scrunched up face. “Damn, that’s right, you weren’t in the hotel when we took the wafer, damn, damn, damn.”
“Honey, you’re not making any sense, I hate to ask this but possibly, you are-“ Lorne twirled his finger at his temple.
“Crazy? I thought I was, and then I really thought I was. All these crazy images of people that I’d never seen, equations that I hadn’t thought of yet, but then it hit me, the Hyperion and the equations they were the right ones to open the portal from Plyea.”
“Eek, no-no, on the Plyea talk- bad place, hell dimension.”
Fred waved her hand. “Slave, or was, escaped but see, I was still in Plyea, I wasn’t supposed to be in Plyea.”
“Honey, no one is,”
Fred nodded then shook her head. “I was, I was supposed to be there, but not now. Angel saved me, but he didn’t, which means that Cordy didn’t have a vision, didn’t get sucked through the Portal, didn’t become a Princess, didn’t need Angel to save her. Which means that something went wrong.”
“I’m seeing a lot wrong with that story.” Lorne looked around for the quickest escape route from the nutty woman.
Fred nodded. “I know.” Her eyes wide, her answer completely oblivious too Lorne’s expression that labeled her nuts.
“See, I went to Hyperion, but it was it all closed up, no Angel, no Wesley, no Charles, no Cordy. But maybe, I thought things just went a little wrong, maybe there was a new office. I went to Cordy’s apartment. The landlord said that the apartment hadn’t been rented in ages. I asked to see it, because, maybe Dennis knew something. But, Dennis wasn’t there. I called for him, and the blind string tried to strangle me. It was his mother,”
Fred leaned in close to the backing away green demon. “Cordy, told me she was homicidal, walled her own son in the wall, ALIVE, well, he’s dead now, but still. But, if Dennis’ mom was still haunting the apartment and trying to kill tenants then Cordelia couldn’t ever had been there, because Cordy vanquished Dennis’ Mom and freed Dennis, well, she had the help of Angel and….”
Fred smacked at her head,” um, the seer before Cordy, I know, Doyle, that’s Doyle. So, then I was kind of freaky, not knowing what to do. Then it hit me, you.”
“Me.” Lorne pointed his finger at his chest.
“Sure, you may not remember everything, but you have to know where Angel, Cordy, Wesley and Charles are, you just have too.” She clutched at his purple lapels.
Lorne gently pushed her back. “I’m going take a wild stab in the dark here, something mystically weird has happened.”
“That’s just it I don’t know, but Wesley will be able to figure it out. That’s why he gave Charles and I the wafer to remember in case something went wrong. Well, something had to go wrong, I just don’t know…”
Lorne stopped the young woman, with a finger to her lips. “Another knife thrown out into the atmosphere. Cordy is ‘the hot chick’, Charles- a strapping bald fella, fighting type and Wesley- a British thinking type. “
“You do remember them?”
“They came in earlier looking for the vampire with a soul and Cordy, honey they weren’t looking for you, though.”
“That’s because they knew where I was…in a cave in Plyea. What did you tell them? Where are they?”
“I told them where Angel was and that I didn’t know anything about a hot chick.”
Fred blinked. “Cordy’s Angels seer, she has to be with him, they’re soul mates, madly in love, they have to be together.”
“Sorry, hon, the vampire with a soul isn’t a real loving type.”
“Oh no, this is worse than I thought, I was…Where are Wesley and Charles? You have to take me to them.”
“Kitten, do you want some new duds, not that you don’t look just smashing in a bag.”
Fred frantically shook her head. “I want Wesley and Charles.”
***
“This is getting old.” Gunn settled his large frame on the steps, trying to find anyway to get comfortable. “Why don’t we just go in there a force the vampire to listen to us?”
“That didn’t work all that well the first, second or third time we tried it.” Wesley rubbed at his glasses. “What happened?” asking a totally unrelated question.
Gunn understood. “Angelus is what happened, God, what if he killed her.”
Wesley shook his head. “If Angelus had killed her then the prophecy would’ve been completed. Angel has his soul.” Wesley stood.
“Could’ve fooled me the way he’s acting.” Gunn grumbled.
“If Angel won’t talk to us, then I believe are only other choice is to go to Sunnydale.” Wesley said with a pained expression.
“Wesley, Charles.”
Both men turned, smiles breaking over their somber expressions. “Fred,” they both yelled, rushing to the young woman that was running towards them.
***
Fred blinked away her tears, holding on to both men. “I remembered, I remembered the equation, I remembered everything, I came home.”
“I hoped you would.” Wesley smiled.
“Yeah, wasn’t looking forward to taking a return trip to Plyea, just to grab your skinny ass.”
Fred giggled, still smiling.
“Kiddies.” Lorne cleared his throat. “I understand something is not copasetic in this world of ours.”
Wesley nodded.
“Wesley, have you seen Angel yet, Lorne said this was his office. Where’s Cordy?”
“Fred, we have talked to him, but he won’t talk to us.”
“Yeah, the mention of Sunnydale or Cordy sets him off. He threatened to kill us.”
“He wouldn’t. Come on.” Fred pulled at the men.
“Um, Fred, we were thinking giving Angel some time to reflect on our presence, perhaps to …”
“Chill.” Gunn finished for Wesley.
“Wesley, Charles, it’s Angel. He has to tell us where Cordy is.” Fred yanked them both closer to the door.
“Why not. Maybe he doesn’t kill skinny chicks.” Gunn shrugged.
Part 6
Fred pushed her way into the office over the complaints of the seer. “Who are you?” she wrinkled her nose.
“Jack, the vampire’s seer.” He tried to glare at the young woman.
“Pfft, no you’re not.” Fred looked around the small office. “Where’s Angel?”
“Hey, the vamp was serious.” Jack turned to Gunn and Wesley. “Lorne what are you doing here.” Jack asked in surprise at the demon’s presence.
Lorne shrugged. “There may be temporal problem at work, thought I get a ring side seat.”
“Uh.”
Fred rolled her eyes. “Where’s Angel.” She saw the stairs. “Up there?”
“Girl, I wouldn’t. He’s in a bitch of a mood because of those two.”
“Pooh, Charles, Wesley are you coming?”
They both shrugged and followed the running girl.
Lorne glance up the stairs and then at Jack. “Maybe Gimme a call, when the vampire is in better mood.”
“That’s would be a never.”
Lorne looked up the stairs. “You never know.”
“Angel,” Fred yelled repeatedly into the main living area. She squealed as she noticed Angel appear.
“Angel,” she ran up to hug him.
The vampire grabbed at the woman holding her at arms length. “Who the hell are you?”
“Oh, sorry, you don’t know me yet, we’re friends.”
“No were not.”
Fred nodded. “Yes, we are. We all are, you, me, Charles, Wesley,” she pointed to the men. “And Lorne, he’s downstairs or was, and of course Cordy, we’re all family that’s why you have to tell us where she is. You do know, don’t you? Oh god,” she turned to Wesley and Gunn,
“What if he doesn’t? How are we going to find her? No,” she faced the vampire. “You have to know, you wouldn’t let her stay lost, you wouldn’t, you love her.”
Angel clenched his teeth. Any tolerance for the crazy young woman that he may have been harboring flew out of the room. He grabbed her, “Get the hell out of here.”
“Ow, Angel, you’re hurting me.”
“Whoa, vamp, don’t be hurting Fred,” Gunn yanked at the vampire as Wesley pulled Fred behind him.
“I want you all out of here now.” He growled going back into his bedroom slamming the door.
The three friends looked at each other. “I’m not leaving.” Fred said stubbornly.
The men nodded.
Part 7
Angel paced his room, anger beating at his skull. They humans hadn’t left and from what he could tell they had set up camp in the office, running Jack off. He growled. Angel was going to have to follow through with his threats it seemed.
He stalked to the stairs, stopping on the bottom as he heard Cordelia Chase’s name again. Cordy. Her friends in Sunnydale had called her that when she could respond. He had called her that over her screams as he raped her over and over again.
A sharp pain pierced his body causing him to slump into the shadows of the steps preventing him from stopping the humans from talking about Cordelia Chase, forcing him too listen.
“Wesley, what could’ve gone wrong?”
Wesley sighed into his chair. “I imagine there are countless possibilities. I just…Angel knew the importance of keeping to the past time line. Both he and Cordelia did. I can’t believe that…it had to have been something Angelus did.”
“But what? He couldn’t have killed her, Angel still has his soul.”
Angel leaned forward, the pain lessening as the need to get rid of the humans turned into a need to understand what the hell they were talking about.
“Yeah, except its back to beige. Hell worse. He wasn’t this bad, when Darla showed up fucking with his head.”
“Charles,” Wesley said disapprovingly as Fred squeaked and threw her hands up to her ears.
“What, the vamp’s pissing me off, we can’t wait for one of his epiphanies. He needs to fucking tell us what happened to Cordy.”
Angel gripped at the banister. They were crazy. Darla was dust. He had killed her himself.
“Wesley, what about her parents or her friends in Sunnydale.”
“Yeah, let’s take a road trip. Maybe she’s still there.”
“Cordelia left Sunnydale because her family lost all of their money. If she was still there, that would mean her father didn’t cheat on his taxes, I can’t image anything that Angelus could have done that would’ve prevented Mr. Chase from committing a crime.”
“Maybe, he killed him.”
Angel winced back into the steps.
Wesley shrugged. “Possible, but Cordy said in her letter that her parents would be gone for a week. And if Angelus were still loose when they did return, Cordelia and Angel wouldn’t have put them in any danger from Angelus. Angel would’ve taken Cordelia away from her home. Damn’t, why didn’t Angel just do the spell? It was so simple, he didn’t even have to see her, just do the spell and send the orb back.”
“Not see her for himself, right.” Gunn rolled his eyes. “There no way the vamp wouldn’t see her, hell they probably were making out as soon as he popped into town.”
“Gunn.”
“Charles is right, Wesley. You remember how he was before he left. Angel was frantic. He would’ve had to make sure that she was safe and then well…the kissing would’ve started….” Fred pushed at her glasses. “Would he kiss a teenage Cordy?”
“Hell, girl, she would’ve mauled him and I’ll tell you what, Cordy wasn’t the ugly duckling that waited until LA to turn into a major hottie.”
“Gunn, you didn’t even know her in Sunnydale.” Wesley shoved at his glasses.
“You did, am I wrong?”
“No. But talking about Angel and Cordelia’s ….habit of being intimate frequently isn’t getting us anywhere.”
Angel stared at the humans. They were talking about a Cordelia and Angel that he didn’t know. A slow ache spread in his gut. They were talking about two people that he wished he had known.
“Well, neither is your blaming Angel.” Fred insisted.
“I wasn’t. It’s just…” Wesley rubbed his forehead again. “ I know he wouldn’t have sent her back before Angelus was dealt with, even if he had wanted to, Cordelia would’ve argued, he would’ve backed down. In addition, he had to realize it would’ve been more difficult trying to protect the Cordy of that time, even if she trusted him, she wouldn’t believe him or she would’ve gone to Buffy, no he needed Cordy to be there.”
Fred looked up. “Wesley, you said if she trusted him. Why wouldn’t ….” Fred took a deep breath. “Why are we assuming it was Angelus of 1898?”
“Cuz, he’s the bad guy. The evil bastard that Wolfram & Hart sent back to kill Cordelia, that one that seems to get a free pass through time, fucking things up.”
“But, didn’t Cordy say in her letter that there were two Angelus. That’s what Angel said.”
Wesley nodded. “Yes, Angel did lose his soul in 1998. But, Angel said that the Angelus of that time, while remembering a dark haired woman he had marked in 1898, hadn’t realized it was Cordelia, he was too busy obsessing with Buffy to notice.”
Angel closed eyes wishing so much that he hadn’t noticed the young beautiful teenager.
“Yes, but Cordy also said in her letter that her plan to remain unnoticed might not have worked real well. What if he did notice her?”
Wesley considered. “Again possible, but it doesn’t get us anywhere.”
“What about the evil law firm, why don’t we go kick some butts. It was their plan, maybe they kept tabs on Cordy.”
“Why would they, in this time line, Cordy was never Angel’s seer. They would have no interest in her.”
“You sure? I don’t mind kicking some lawyer’s assess.”
“Charles, you just want to beat them up.”
“Damn straight, all this shit is their fault.”
“I sympathize with you Gunn,” Wesley took off his glasses. “If Angel doesn’t tell us what happened to Cordelia soon, then we will have to go to Sunnydale. I’d hoped to avoid that as long as possible.”
“Why?”
“Because, I have no memory of my time in Sunnydale other than the real one. When I was there, 1998 had come and gone, Cordelia and Angel’s paths were in line. He left Sunnydale in an attempt to give Buffy a normal life and Cordelia left to become a bad actress.”
“I’m going tell her you said that.” Fred smiled.
“I wish you could, I wish I could. Trying to explain all this to Giles would be a nightmare. He didn’t have much respect for me in Sunnydale, and I can’t believe my actions in this time-line were that different. I might not remember, but I have figured out that I’m in LA and not a watcher anymore. I can safely assume I was fired for incompetence.”
“Oh, Wesley, I can’t believe that you were ever incompetent, I just can’t.” Fred smiled encouragingly. She bit her lip suddenly.
“Wesley, what if Angel can’t tell us. None of us remember anything other than the past we know to be true. He’s been effected- his memories fitting the changed time-line. He won’t know what messed up with Angel and Cordy, will he.”
“No, but he does know what happened to him and to Cordy in 1998 and from that we should be able to pinpoint when the divergence happened and what it was. Then we can fix it. Fred, how’s the spell coming.”
Fred looked up from the computer she had been working at while talking. “I remembered most of the equations from when I did it last, but I need to verify a couple exponents first. You’re going to have to fill in the incantations though.”
Wesley nodded. “When this is over, we’ve got to find away to ensure that Wolfram & Hart does not use another time portal. As long as they have that ability, they will continue to try to fulfill the prophecy. We cannot keep having Cordelia thrown back into Angelus’ clutches or him here, we cannot keep worrying about her dying and Angel being damned.”
“Hell, when this is over, Angel will make sure of it. I imagine the body count will be rising.”
“Gunn, Angel can’t kill the lawyers.”
“Why not? He let a whole room get slaughtered by those blood sucking girlfriends of his.””
“Gunn.”
“Right, that was post Darla mind fuck and Darla fuck.”
“Charles, that’s just crude…and…Cordy told me Angel was really sorry about…you know with Darla and being so mean and firing everyone.”
“Yeah, well, we need that beige fucker back if we want those evil ass lawyers to stop trying to kill Cordy.”
“Charles, Angel can’t kill the lawyers.” Wesley repeated.
“Hey, man, I didn’t see you putting a leash on him, when he went after the lawyers this last time.”
“He didn’t kill any, those two that died, died from heart attacks, and it was to find Cordy. Angel can’t kill the lawyers.”
Angel stood. “Who says I can’t.”