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 ** Author’s appreciation corner: Lexie – Thank you! :) You’ll just have
to read and see! Pixy – Harmony?!?! Nooooooooooooo! Sorry
– she drives me just a little insane… Except Lornytoons? Hehehehe…
that’s good. Thank you – and yes, Spike will end up with the visions if
that isn’t obvious. He’ll take them grudgingly for a couple of reasons
that I can’t go into… for obvious reasons… :P I figured there needed to
be a replacement connection and it doesn’t seem like Mr. Whedon has gone
into that at all. Angel still needs his redemption – right?
Right. And no problem with the help. Glad to! I can’t wait to
read your stuff & review it! Hurry up and post! (Cracks whip…)
:) Alex – Thank you for saying something that I so badly
wanted to say. I’ve read that same stuff about CC and her baby. I
just didn’t want it coming out as a petty comeback… same with the season 4
crap. I knew where it was headed after watching a few and I wanted to get
out before I got caught staring at the disaster, ya know? Don’t get me
wrong – I love “Angel” and always will – I own the first 2 seasons on DVD and
I’m anxiously awaiting the 3rd. But forgive me if my interest has waned
in the poor storylines - that’s why I’m writing this fanfiction.
Thank you so much for your support & defense. I can’t tell you how
much I appreciate it! Giggleboxsam – I think I did cry when she
left… And thanks! I’m glad you’re enjoying it! Michella – I’ve been a fan since day one as well…
and a shipper the moment Cordelia muttered the words “Hello salty
goodness…” I’m glad you think the characters feel real and the plot lines
are believable. I wouldn’t be doing my job as a writer if either one of
those weren’t there. And thank you… your review lightened my heart and
cheered me up immensely! :) There are more review thanks at the end. This was
beginning to run ridiculously long because I am perpetually longwinded when it
comes to writing anything… :P ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ “Okay, so no swirly hole jumping… what can we do then?” Angel asked as he
paced. Lorne shook his head, not wanting to say the words but knowing he
had to. “Nothing,” the demon said, causing everyone to look at him. “Nothing? What do you mean nothing?” Gunn asked, looking like he
wanted to hit something. “I’m sorry, sugarmuffin, but that’s exactly what I mean. Cordy’s…
well, situation… has nothing to do with what you can do.
It’s not in your hands,” Lorne explained. “You’d better try to explain that better,” Angel growled, stepping closer to
the green man. Lorne held up his hands. “There’s no way I can explain it to you that’s going to make it sound any
better, Angelcakes. Cordelia’s destiny is not yours to figure out,” he
said. Fred crossed her arms and shook her head. “No. I won’t accept that. We’ve beaten the odds before, we’ve
done the impossible. If all that’s true, then there’s a way we can figure
this out too,” she said, trying to sound optimistic. Instead she came off
as desperate. Wesley looked at her sadly. “I’m afraid that Lorne may be correct. As much as we don’t like it, we
may have to accept that Cordelia is gone,” he said. This time Gunn shook
his head. “She may not be with us, but that doesn’t mean she’s gone. She’ll
fight. We need her, and she needs us. She needs us to believe in
her right now, not give up on her,” he said with emotion that was so unlike
him. Cordelia’s eyes welled up at the fight still left in her
family. They hadn’t given up on her completely. “She promised… she promised that she would be with me until I shanshued…
Well, she isn’t here, is she? And now you’re telling me that there is
nothing I can do. I can’t accept that,” Angel said, pacing again.
All eyes were on him as Lorne stood up next to the vampire. “I’m sorry, you can not accept it all you want, but it isn’t going to change
anything. But I’ve said that already. And if you don’t want to
listen, I can’t make you. I told you what I needed to tell you. So
responsibility for whatever you do is not on my shoulders,” the green
demon said as he waved to the room full of people and left. The silence
in the room as everyone looked at each other stupidly could have suffocated
even an un-breathing vampire. No one knew what to say… “So what are you bloody wankers going to do about these bloody
visions?” Well, no one knew what to say except Spike. Wesley slowly
sat back down where he had been seated on the floor before. He picked up
a book and started thumbing through it. “Does that mean you’ve decided to accept the visions?” the man asked,
causing everyone to look at Spike expectantly. Spike shrugged as he cast
a quick look at a smiling Cordelia. “Well, mates, it was either that or Hell. And frankly, I’d rather
stick around here in this God-forsaken place, fighting ‘the good fight’ than go
there,” he said, causing Cordelia to roll her eyes. Gunn clapped his
hands together and rubbed them. “Good… we’ve already got a brooding ‘oh woe is me’ vampire, a fruity
karaoke-singing demon, a missing human/demon/seer/evil entity, and three measly
humans. We needed a headache-inducing ghostly vampire to round out the
gang,” he said, sarcasm rich in his voice. Spike rolled his eyes. “Maybe Hell isn’t such a bad place after all,” the blond man said.
Cordelia held up her hands. “Well, buddy boy… you said the words. You are the sole owner of the
freakin’ visions. You lucky bastard,” Cordelia said, sarcasm in her voice
as well. Spike huffed slightly, careful not to draw attention to his side
conversation. This time Cordelia laughed. “I wash my hands of you,” she said, throwing her hands up and exiting the
room, leaving five people wide-eyed as her parting words resonated throughout
the room. *************************************** Cordelia wandered around the law firm as only a soul-y entity could
do. Walking through walls, eavesdropping on conversations, being newly
vision-free… it was all causing a certain giddiness that was actually starting
to make her worry about her sanity. With that thought, Cordelia continued
on through countless walls until she reached her destination. “Whoa, whoa, whoa… could you cap the headlights, please?” Lorne
exclaimed as he threw his hands up in front of his face to block out the
arrived aura. Cordelia crossed her arms in front of her and tapped her
foot in impatience. “Lorne, I need you to tell me what’s going to happen,” she said. Lorne
rolled his eyes as he turned away from her. “Who do I look like, Madame Cleo?” he asked as he reached his minibar. “Lorne! You read auras! And since that’s all I am, I figured
this would be a cakewalk for you. I need to know what’s going to happen
to me now that the Powers have transferred the visions,” she said
hurriedly. “Cordycrumb… you told me you knew what was going to happen,” he said, a concerned
frown gracing his features. Cordy looked to the ground. “I do, sort of… but someone or something took my body again… that wasn’t in
the plan… so who knows what is really going to happen?” she said. Lorne
looked at her seriously. “Princess, if you just search out the answers in that pretty little head of
yours, the answers are all there. You know what’s going to happen,” he
said. Cordelia looked at him sadly. “Maybe I just want someone else to tell me,” she said, causing Lorne to give
her a pitying look as he approached her. “I know that what you’ve been through hasn’t been easy. And sugar, it
ain’t about to get any easier. You’ve got a surly ghost seer that’s going
to need your help, plus you have an upcoming Armageddon in which your friends’
lives are in danger, blasts from the not-so-past-like past, and your own life
in you manicured hands. I don’t envy you… but in the end, the trip just
might be worth it. I…” he stopped as he strained his head to one side,
causing Cordelia to look at him in concern. “Lorne? Are you okay?” she asked, wishing desperately she could touch
him and help him to sit down. “Allah, Powers, Buddah, Goddess, Thor, Christ… Elvis…” Lorne pleaded with
clasped hands to the ceiling every deity he could come up with off the top of
his head, “… give me strength…” Cordelia frowned. “What the hell are you talking abo…” her question was cut off when the door
to Lorne’s apartment burst open. “Did you mean Cordy?” Angel asked, coming to a stop a few feet within the
room and causing three scrambling companions to run unceremoniously into
him. Lorne took on a look of innocence. “Ex-squeeze me?” he asked, putting a hand to his ear in mock
incomprehension. Angel rolled his eyes. “You said you had it from higher authority… is the ‘higher authority’
Cordelia?” Angel expanded his earlier question. Lorne shrugged. “I have no idea what you are talking about…” the green demon said.
Gunn cracked his knuckles as he stepped forward towards him. “I can make him talk… it’s a simple procedure, really… remove head from
shoulders and voila…” he said, causing Lorne to shriek and run behind the couch
and Angel to catch Gunn with his arm. Lorne peeked up from behind the
piece of furniture, his red eyes just clearing the edge. “Okay, okay, okay… no need to result to violence… Why would you think
Princess is so-named ‘higher authority’?” he asked cautiously, standing up
slowly. The four standing in front of him looked at each other and
shifted a little uncomfortably. “We heard her…” Fred squeaked out, peeking out from behind Wesley.
Lorne straightened with a slight frown as Cordelia let out a little shriek of
her own. “You heard her?” he asked, a deeper frown thrown in Cordelia’s direction. “Yeah… it was after you left… we were talking with Spike about the visions…
Spike was being… well… he was being…” Fred stumbled. “Oh stop skirting manners chit and cut to the chase… I was being my regular
bloody old self,” Spike announced his arrival. Lorne nodded. “Okay, I’m following so far,” he said. “They think they heard her say she washes her hands of me…” Spike
supplied. “I, personally, just think they’re nuts. If I were you,
Greeny, I’d get on the horn and order up some of those lovely white jackets
they’ve got in storage around here…” Wesley turned to the ghost with a
frown. “Think we heard Cordelia? If I recall correctly, you were in
the room and just as surprised as the rest of us,” he said, causing all of the
other occupants to nod in agreement. Lorne held up his hands. “Hold it boys and girl… and vampire and ghost…” he said. “There isn’t
much I know, trust me. I told you pretty much everything…” “Pretty much?” Angel growled. The green demon shook his head. “Need to know basis, amigo. And at this point there ain’t one of you
that needs to know. In fact, there seems to be information I’m missing as
well,” he said, glaring slightly at a shrugging Cordelia. All of a
sudden, there was a blindingly bright white flash of light that only Lorne and
Spike could see. When they looked around the room, amid curious and
suspicious looks, they noticed they were missing their brunette entity.
Lorne and Spike looked at each other, eyes wide. “Well… I can say that maybe the ‘need to know’ basis has become a ‘might
like to know’ basis…” Spike said. Lorne closed his eyes and muttered a
long string of curses in another demon language. *************************************** “Shit, shit and more shit,” Cordelia cried as she uncovered her face. She
looked around carefully and noticed that there was nothing… just white.
She sighed as she gingerly took a step towards… well… nothing. “At least it isn’t Pylea, Quor’toth, or… San Diego,” she said with a
shudder. “Cordelia…” a voice said, causing the ghostly woman to turn in circles to
search out the source of the voice. Finding none, she frowned. “I’m guessing that I am actually over the rainbow,” she said with a
shake of her head. “Cordelia…” the voice said again. Her eyes closed in frustration. “Okay, we’ve established that we’ve hijacked the right aura… now what’s
going on?” Cordelia asked. “Your purpose has been served… it is time for the choice…” the voice
said. When Cordelia opened her eyes again, she almost shrieked at the
sight of her own body walking towards her. “Oh, God…” *************************************** ** Okay, so that’s the next part. I know it’s a little short, but I
wanted to get this out there so that my brain can continue working on this plot.
I had to shake some of the cobwebs off. Let me know how it is!!! ** Review thanks, continued… Maliek – I’m glad you are enjoying it. Thank
you and keep on reading! Blaire – I think TheTruth did screw
him/herself when they didn’t sign their review. Honestly, how is anyone
going to take that seriously? It was rather rude and cowardly. I
thank you for your support. As for the story – guidance counselor?
I never thought of it like that! :) And Cordy? Don’t be wary!
Not a chance in hell she’ll be written out or banished to the woodwork without
a purpose (as far as I know at the moment – my muse has a way of running from
me now and again) – she’s just too vital! She’s the heart! Samson – I’m glad you like the idea… I’m fairly fond
of it myself. It fills in a lot of the blanks that have been left.
Don’t worry, there’s more to come… eventually! Yama-Neko – I love a good intrigue too! So,
keep on reading!! Kimmers – Glad you came back! And I’m happy
that you liked it… :) Amanda – Thanks for your review. Staraice – Don’t worry, you’ll get your answers as
to what Cordelia is being punished for. And thanks for your review!
I appreciate it. And to anyone else that I didn’t catch in the reviews… THANK YOU!
Keep on reading and reviewing…:P |
