Title: Altered Egos
Author: Rio
Posted: 01-23-2002
Rating: TV14
Email: raven76@tesco.net
Content:
Summary: The arrival in town of a particularly unusual breed of demon has unforeseen consequences when reality weakens and allows Angelus to come through from an alternate universe... and he’s brought someone with him.
Spoilers: Up to ‘Provider’ in Season 3
Disclaimer: I own nothing, especially not any alternate realities or characters from other people’s TV shows. I just have a sick mind... and that’s all my own work.
Distribution: Let me know if you want to take it. I’ll probably let you...
Notes: Okay, I swore I wasn't going to start another fic for a while, but then this idea bounced back into my head during the interminable bus ride home this evening and I thought I'd give it a shot.
Feedback: Any and all welcome.
Part 1
Cordelia sighed. Okay, time to admit it, she was bored. Connor was asleep, with not even a peep of noise coming from the baby monitor. Angel was out on some errand or other. Gunn and Fred had gone to get something to eat. All she had for company was a certified bookworm and a loony lounge singer. Both of whom were currently deep in research mode thanks to her last pain-free vision.
She still wasn’t quite used to being without the usual vision aftermath of agonizing migraines and dizziness, which had always served pretty well as an excuse to not hit the books with the rest of the gang. Now that she didn’t have that excuse any more, she still couldn’t quite face the full-on research drive. Not yet anyway.
She sighed again, since the first one hadn’t got any attention from the boys. This time Wesley actually looked up from his mouldy old papers for at least a second before frowning at her and burying himself back in history.
Lorne was a little more responsive. “If you’re bored, princess, you could always do my laundry. Lord knows my wardrobe could use a little spritzing up.”
Cordy shuddered. “Are you kidding me? If I went anywhere near your closet, you’d have to send in a search party in a couple of weeks to try and get me back.”
“It’s an item of furniture, not a dimensional portal,” Lorne said. “I know Angel’s a little over-protective of you but not even he’s going to ‘jump into the big evil closet and save Cordelia’” His Angel impression was uncannily accurate.
Cordy stuck her tongue out at him. “All the more reason for me not to go anywhere near it in the first place. Besides, Connor might wake up any minute and need me.”
Lorne shook his head. “That kid is going to be spoilt rotten, I hope you know that.”
“Oh, please. Like I didn’t catch you singing ‘Goodnight Sweetheart’ over his crib the other night?”
“I was merely practicing. He happens to be a receptive audience, which is more than I can say for some of the Philistines around here.”
Demon and seer both jumped as Wesley slammed his book down on the table. “If you both don’t mind, some of us are trying to work here. Either help or take your conversation elsewhere.”
“Okay! Don’t get your panties in a twist,” Lorne said. “We’ll help.” He paused as he frowned down at all the paperwork. “What is it we’re looking for again?” he asked Cordelia.
“Blue, scaly demons with these weird wiggly antenna things on their heads, big, glowy eyes and really long fingers,” Cordy said, wrinkling her nose at the general ickiness of the demons in her vision.
“You know, it’s ringing a bell,” Lorne said. “I have a feeling I should know this one. Ah, it’ll drive me crazy all night.”
“Then you might try helping me look for it,” Wesley suggested with heavy irony.
“It begins with a D, I’m sure of it. Or maybe a T...” Lorne stared into space with deep concentration.
“I’m guessing this could take a while,” Cordy whispered, taking a seat next to Wesley. “Guess I might as well help you out while we’re waiting.”
“I’ve got it,” Lorne shouted a few minutes later.
“Got what?” Wes asked somewhat wearily.
“I remember the name. The antennae are a dead giveaway. Try looking up Fluxite demons in your little book o’ knowledge there.” The green demon was a vision of smugness.
“Um, doesn’t that start with an F?” Cordy pointed out.
“What? I was only three letters off. Give a guy a break here.”
“Ah, here we are,” Wesley said, scanning through one of his demonology texts. “Fluxite demons, a branch of the Kalagh-thar family of demons, relatively rare. Feared by other demons – oh, that can’t be good – ah, because of their powers to cross reality. Cross reality? Whatever does that mean?” Wesley took off his glasses and began to clean them. “I can only imagine they have some sort of power over other dimensions. Perhaps they can cross between them without the aid of a portal, something like that.” He looked over at Cordelia. “Did you see any sort of detail in your vision about how they’re a threat to us?”
“Not really. Just your general up-to-no-good demony vibe. Oh, and I saw Angel and me but I guess we were probably fighting them or something. It’s not like I can rewind and freeze frame, you know.”
“Any luck?” came a voice from the doorway.
Cordelia spun round with her trademark grin. “Hey, Angel.”
He walked over to stand next to her and they stood there smiling at each other for a couple of seconds until Wesley cleared his throat loudly. “Actually, we have come up with something. Lorne has identified the creatures in the vision as Fluxites, reality-altering demons. That’s all we have so far, but it gives us somewhere to start at least.”
“Too late for that, people.” Another voice intruded on the conversation, less familiar but not entirely unknown. “The Fluxites have already done their thing... the gateway has opened.”
“Skip!” Cordy and Angel exclaimed in unison, before Angel gave Cordy a puzzled look.
“How do you know this guy?” he asked.
“He’s kind of my guardian angel,” Cordy said hurriedly. “It’s a long story and we really shouldn’t get into it right now. Vision to solve, people to save. So! Skip? Gateway?”
The demon gave Cordy a pointed look at this evidence of her lack of honesty with her warrior, but she ignored him. He let it pass. There were bigger things to worry about right now. “When the Fluxites gather in numbers, they weaken the boundaries between different realities, call them parallel universes if you like. If these places weaken enough, people can pass through from one reality to another.”
“How does that work?” Angel said.
“You know, I’m really not sure. I kind of flunked physics. But it’s probably quantum. These things usually are.”
“So, something’s come through from another reality,” Wesley said, picking up on the demon’s original comment. “Is that what you’ve come to warn us about?”
“Not just something,” Skip said, his expression grave. “Your worst nightmare. Angelus just got back in town.”
Part 2
Cordelia, Wesley and Lorne all shuffled surreptitiously away from Angel. He shook his head in exasperation. “Would you stop that? I’m not evil, okay?”
“Well, you’d hardly be likely to admit it even if you were,” Wesley pointed out, eyeing up the door to his office and the handily accessible chains and padlocks.
“Oh, come on. You guys know me. Cordy?” he pleaded, turning to his seer. “You’d know if I’d turned evil again, wouldn’t you?” He gave her his best puppy-dog eyes.
“Yeah, he’s not evil,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Angelus would never stoop to begging so pitifully.”
Angel grinned at her sheepishly. Skip cleared his throat.
“Um, if we could focus for a second here... I wasn’t trying to imply that our great and glorious champion here has crossed over to the dark side. What I’m saying is more along the lines of his dark side has crossed over.”
Four faces shared identical blank looks, until Wesley whispered, “Oh, dear God, no.”
“Yeah, afraid so. We now have our man there’s evil twin running amok in downtown Los Angeles. The Powers ain’t too happy about that, let me tell ya. That’s why they sent me to give you a heads-up, so you’ll be ready for him. You need to find a way to send him back.”
“Can’t we just kill him instead?” Cordy asked. “Cause I’m not really liking the idea of trying to manoeuvre the big nasty through a dimensional portal without him suspecting what we’re up to.”
“You really think you could kill him?” Skip asked. “With him wearing that face?” He gestured at Angel and Cordy shot a quick glance at the grim-looking vampire beside her. A chill went slithering down her spine. Could she do it? Could she ever harm him, knowing that he and Angel were two sides of the same coin? It wasn’t a comfortable thought, but then neither was being tied up and tortured by a sadistic maniac with pointy teeth.
“I don’t know,” she said, “but I guess we’ll find out soon enough, huh?”
“You won’t have to,” Angel said quietly. “I’d kill him myself before I let him near you.” The others all shifted uncomfortably at the intensity of the vampire’s threat, but Cordy found it oddly reassuring. Creeped out and comforted... oh, yeah, a girl could really get used to that...
“We need to formulate a plan of action,” Wesley said. “The better prepared we are, the more chance we have of beating him. I’ll start looking into these Fluxite demons more deeply. Hopefully, that will give us some idea of how to recreate one of their portals and send Angelus back where he came from... God help them.”
Angel walked over and clasped Skip’s shoulder, carefully avoiding the teeth. “What about you? Are you with us? I could use another fighter.”
Skip looked a little startled. “I don’t know. I’m really only the messenger boy. I’m pretty sure I’m not supposed to get directly involved.”
“Too late,” Cordelia said, slapping a research book into his arms, “you already are. Now start reading.”
***********
A few miles across town, a strong figure in tight leather pants and a black shirt withdrew a hooked knife from his victim’s chest, giving it a final twist as it pulled out flesh and sinew. The demon’s large blue eyes glowed more brightly for a moment before dimming forever, it’s antennae twitching spasmodically in reaction to its violent death.
Angelus stepped over the quivering carcass and offered the blade out to the woman who stood in the shadows. She trailed one long fingernail along the blood-dulled metal before raising it to her lips for a taste. She grimaced. “Tastes like ink. Ugh! Why didn’t they come up with any yummy demons when they were doing the design work?”
“I guess taste wasn’t high on the priority list, more’s the pity.” Angelus put the knife back into its sheath. He pressed closer to her, rubbing his hips against her, licking up the side of her neck as she bared it to him. “Not everyone can taste of cinnamon and shadows like you, baby.” She laughed breathily, trailing her hand down his face and he felt that same old fire, deep in his belly, the craving that had nearly driven him crazy until he had claimed her as his own. His mate. His queen.
She pulled away from him then, making him growl and yank her back. “Easy, tiger,” she said. “We’ve plenty of time for that later. Right now I need someone to eat and a nice hot bath to get the icky demon goo off me.”
He grabbed her by the neck and held her face up close to his. “You know I wouldn’t wait for anyone else.”
Cordelia Chase leant forward and kissed him deeply, druggingly and then smiled against his mouth. “I know that. But then nobody else is worth waiting for...” Then she sauntered out of the warehouse, hips swaying, as Angelus hungrily watched her go and wondered if he would ever tire of that face, that body, that wicked lust for life. He shook his head in amusement. You know, he couldn’t see it happening...
Part 3
“Hey, what’s going on?” Gunn said from the doorway where he and Fred stood surveying the busily researching Fang Gang. “We expecting another apocalypse or somethin’? Cause it’d be nice if you warned us about these things.” He slurped on his soda.
“Angelus is here,” Wesley muttered distractedly, trying to cross-reference three of his books at once.
In a split second, Gunn had run over to the weapons cabinet and grabbed a crossbow. Angel ducked behind the counter. “Would you quit pointing that at me?” he yelled. “Damn it, if I go evil you guys will be the first to know, believe me.”
Cordelia walked over and took the crossbow off Gunn, juggling Connor in her other arm. “Angel’s a little sensitive right now,” she said, with a fond glance in his direction. “But he’s not evil.”
“But you just said...” Gunn spun round to face Wesley, looking confused.
“What? Oh, sorry. Not our Angelus, another one. From an alternative dimension.” Wesley pushed his glasses up his nose and returned to his reading.
“Damn!” Gunn said. “Don’t nobody stay in their own dimensions any more? Whatever happened to good old reality?”
“Sometimes crossing dimensions can work out okay...” Fred said shyly, slipping her arm around Gunn’s waist. He smiled down at her, his tension easing away.
“Okay, so I guess that ‘exception to every rule’ thing holds true,” he conceded before turning back to the others. “So, what are we doing to stop this guy? We *are* gonna stop him, right? And who’s the dude with the chin ring?”
“That’s Skip,” Cordelia said, rocking Connor gently to settle him down. “He’s a messenger from the Powers, only now he’s been conscripted.” Cordelia smiled wickedly at Skip, relishing the demon’s discomfort at being dragged into their little group. After everything he’d put her through – and on her birthday too! – he deserved whatever he got.
It said something about the nature of working for Angel Investigations that both Fred and Gunn accepted this explanation at face value. Having been briefed on what they should be looking for, the two of them set to work helping with the research. Cordelia glanced over at Angel. He’d come out from behind the counter and was flicking through some sort of demonology textbook while he paced back and forth. She frowned. This couldn’t be an easy prospect for him to deal with. He hated Angelus for what his demonic alter-ego had done throughout the ages, as well as more recently – having to face him directly wouldn’t be pretty. Cordy had to admit she didn’t exactly relish the thought of facing Angelus again herself. There was something about the guy that made her flesh crawl – almost as if someone were not only walking all over her grave but digging it up…
Skip watched Angel and Cordelia watching each other – albeit only when they thought the other wasn’t looking – with a sense of bemusement at seeing them interact on an ‘up close and personal’ basis. Sure, he’d known they were crazy in love with each other but knowing and seeing it were two entirely different things. Most of the demons who worked for the Powers were completely hooked on the whole Angel and Cordy saga... if there was something interesting going on in their lives, you could pretty much guarantee a high level of pointless traffic through the oracle chamber. It was the closest they had to a soap opera. The Powers didn’t really pay any attention – but then, love wasn’t their strong point.
He fidgeted as he watched them now. They were a family, them and the little guy, even the other humans and the singing demon. Looking out for each other. It was nice, homely, even in the middle of an emergency of dimension-busting proportions. He really didn’t want to be the one to disturb the familial bliss, but someone was going to have to warn them that Angelus hadn’t come through alone... and he didn’t know how they were going to take the news. His arm still ached in damp weather after the last beating Angel had given him, even if the big oaf *had* apologised afterwards. The last thing he wanted to do was give the vampire a chance to hit him again, but he couldn’t put it off any longer.
“There’s something else I ought to mention,” he began tentatively. “You, um, you might not only have to deal with Angelus.”
“Is this another of your little ‘withholding the facts until the last possible second’ power trips, by any chance?” That was Cordelia, looking suspicious, not that he blamed her.
“Well, not exactly. I just... well, I didn’t know how to tell you this. It’s kinda complicated.”
“Oh, and our lives are so simple and uncluttered,” Cordy laughed. “Look, we’re used to complications. Whatever it is, we’ll deal. Just spit it out already so we know what we’re fighting.”
“You.”
“Huh?” Cordelia looked confused.
“Well, not you as such,” Skip sighed. This was even harder than he’d thought it would be. “As best as we could work it out, in the universe that this Angelus comes from, he was never cursed with a soul, he never fell in love with the Slayer and tried to destroy the world. Unfortunately, he did go to Sunnydale... where he became obsessed with a certain beautiful cheerleader.”
“Cheerleader?” Cordelia said. “But you just said he didn’t fall in love with Buffy...”
“He doesn’t mean Buffy,” Angel said quietly, moving to stand by her side. “He means you. Right, Skip?”
The demon nodded slowly. “I’m afraid so. Angelus was always the obsessive type but he really lost it in this case... he turned her, then tortured and killed Darla and Drusilla when she asked him to. I guess she didn’t like the competition. Imagine everything bad about yourself in high school,” he said now to Cordelia, “magnified about a hundred times, with no conscience and no remorse. I’m afraid Angelus made you into a monster.”
TBC