Title: The Dark Night of the Soul: Ep. 4 -- Catharsis
Author: Angel Kisses 70
Posted: 09-19-2003
Email: Kanrei64@msn.com
Rating: PG-13 for violence
Category: AU; ATS Season 1
Content: A/C
Summary: In my universe, Angel didn’t leave at the end of BTVS Season 3, but Cordelia did go to LA to seek her fame and fortune. When Buffy dies at the end of Season 5 jumping off the tower, Angel decides to leave Sunnydale, unable to face the memories or the guilt. However, since the Slayer is dead (and Faith is still in her coma,) another must be called....
Spoilers: Only if you've never seen ATS Season 1 or 3
Disclaimer: The characters in the Angelverse were created by Joss Whedon & David Greenwalt. No infringement is intended, no profit is made.
Distribution: Anyone besides NF, just ask first
Notes:
Feedback: Yes, please!
Thanks/Dedication:Ep. 4
ACT I
Downtown, LA
Vinnie ran as if the devil himself were chasing him. Glancing over his shoulder, he couldn’t see his pursuer, but he knew that if he didn’t make it to the car with the duffel bag he carried, it would be his last night on Earth. Tony had told him to get this package out of town by sundown. But he hadn’t listened and gotten caught up in a high stakes poker game.
Rounding the corner, he ignored the hookers working the street and headed towards the dark blue Sedan parked across the road. He smiled in relief as his fingers curled around the door handle.
Suddenly, he saw stars as his face was slammed into the roof of his car. He fell to the ground in a stunned heap.
"Gosh, sorry,” Cordelia said, looking down at Vinnie. “I guess I just have trouble expressing myself verbally. I've been struggling with that.”
Snarling, he morphed into the familiar features of a vampire.
She kicked him in the face before he even had a chance to get off the ground. “I don’t think your boss is going to be very happy with you, Vinnie” she said, advancing on him as he tried to scramble away from her. “I believe you have something I want. Something your boss, Tony, doesn’t want me to have."
Trapped against the side of the car, he stammered, "I-I don’t know what you’re t-t-talking about.”
She snatched him up and slammed him against the trunk of the car. "Not something a girl likes to hear, Vinnie. What do you say we skip over the witty banter, and just get right to it.” With lightening fast reflexes, she plunged a stake into his chest.
He exploded into dust.
Sighing, Cordelia shook vampire ash out of her hair, grabbed Vinnie’s duffel bag from the ground where he’d dropped it and ran off in the direction she’d come from.
*****
Inside a sewer tunnel underneath Paramount studios, Angel and Doyle frantically dodged the snake-like appendages of the K’lari demon trapped in the ceiling above them. The venomous mouths on the ends of one set of tentacles kept snapping at them, while another set of tentacles swung at them with a heavy piece of broken pipe.
The sound of running feet and a familiar scent caused Angel to relax slightly. "It's about time," he said, glancing at Cordelia as she stopped just out of the K’lari’s deadly reach.
“News flash,” she snapped, pulling a large broad sword from Vinnie’s duffel bag. “Not a lot of enchanted swordsmiths open on Sunday.” Wading into the fray, she neatly cut off one of the tentacles that suddenly shot towards her. “Had to chase down a lead."
Just as she reached them, the K’lari smacked Doyle in the back of the head with the piece pipe and sent him sprawling.
“Hey! No fair hitting the good guys while their backs are turned,” she yelled towards the ceiling. Spotting the K’lari’s belly hanging through a hole directly over Angel’s head, she tossed him the sword.
Catching it, Angel quickly swung upwards, slicing into it with deadly accuracy.
Green slime splattered down on top of Doyle and Cordelia as she helped him to his feet, drenching them both.
The K’lari bellowed in agony, crashing through the ceiling, onto the tunnel floor. It shuddered violently, then moved no more.
"Make sure you cut up all the limbs and both of its heads this time. Remember to bury the parts separately,” Angel said, tossing the sword back to Cordelia, oblivious to the disgust on her face and the green slime that covered her from head to toe. “I don't want this thing coming back to life again."
She stared at him in angry disbelief. "That's it?"
"I'm gonna go clean out the nest,” he said, walking off down the tunnel. “I'll see you guys back at the office."
She watched him disappear around a corner, then looked over at Doyle, who was busy trying to get slime out of ears. "Okay, am I wrong in thinking that a ‘Please’ and ‘Thank you’ is generally considered good form when requesting a dismemberment?"
"I think he appreciates us,” he said, flicking slime off his fingers and onto the tunnel wall, “In his own...unappreciative way."
"You want to know what I think?” She asked, turning her back on him as she began to slice at the K’lari with the broadsword. “I think he uses his tortured creature of the night status as a license to be rude and insensitive!”
Suddenly, a tentacle shot up from the body and wrapped itself around Doyle's neck choking him.
Unaware of Doyle’s predicament, she kept slicing parts off the K’lari. “Sure, he’s polite to the helpless and the downtrodden, but he ignores the people that are the closest to him. The people that matter the most, you know?”
Pulling at the tentacle around his neck and unable to make a sound, Doyle waved frantically, trying to get her attention.
Cordelia kept hacking away at the K’lari. “Can you say clueless?"
*****
Still covered in green demon slime, Cordelia and Doyle walked tiredly into the office, squinting at the bright morning sun that streamed through the window behind Cordelia’s desk.
Plopping down into her chair, Cordelia stared sadly at the red suede, mini skirt she wore. "Do you think that tentacle spew comes out with dry cleaning?" she asked.
Before Doyle could answer, Angel came out of his office, looking at some papers he carried. Glancing up distractedly, he spotted her. "Ah, good. You're back. Cordy, you need to--."
"No!” she shouted, slamming her palms down on her desktop.
Angel looked startled by the anger in her voice.
Cordelia glared up at him. “I don't care what horrible thing is about to happen. Asteroids are hurtling towards earth. Unspeakable evil is rising in the San Fernando Valley. The Powers-That-Be are getting their own talk show. Whatever it is, I don't want to hear about it. Not until you ask us how it went."
Confused, he looked over at Doyle.
Doyle shrugged and flicked slime off his shoulder and onto the floor.
Angel frowned at the slime spot, then looked back at Cordelia. ”What are you talking about?"
She arched an eyebrow at him. "You do remember leaving us in the sewer with the giant calamari demon?"
"Yeah,” he replied, shrugging, “And you're both here. I assume it went okay, right?"
"Yes, it went okay.” She rolled her eyes. “Of course, it went okay, okay? That's not the point." She crossed her arms and stared silently up at him.
He waited for more, but when she kept quiet, he asked, “And that would be...?"
"Being that it is possible to brood and show a little interest in the feeling of others."
Shaking his head slightly, he looked to Doyle for a translation.
"She thinks that you're insensitive,” Doyle offered matter-of-factly. “And not to bring up the irony, but consider the source."
"So I'm a little reserved,” Angel argued, frowning as Doyle flicked more slime off onto the floor. “That doesn't mean I don't care."
Standing, Cordelia threw her hands in the air. "It's like you don't have a pulse!"
"I don't," he replied, arching an eyebrow at her.
Flustered, she put her hands on her hips. "Well...spend a little time listening to how the living interact. Now what do you want?" she snapped.
Wondering silently if vampires could get ulcers, he sighed. "Call your mother back. She and your father are in town and want to see you.”
TBC