Chapter 4
Author: Ellen
Rating: NC-17 (overall story)
Spoilers: Season 1
Summary: A retelling of the episode "She" as it might have happened in the Power of Three universe.
Disclaimer: Cordelia, Doyle and Angel all belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy Productions, 20th Century Fox and/or the WB television network. If I owned them, they would still be discovering one another's hidden depths.
Thoughts between Angel, Doyle and Cordelia are marked //like this.//
The last time he had gone to the oracles, he had asked for Doyle's life and they had refused. He had not known then that there could be another way.
Something irreplaceable had gone out of his world with Doyle's death but he had been willing to endure that loss, as he had suffered so many others. He had never felt that he deserved that light shining in Doyle's eyes every time Doyle looked at him, even up to that very last moment. Some things were far too beautiful for him to have any right to enjoy. He accepted that.
Only Cordelia's stubborn refusal to give up had made Doyle's return and all that followed, possible. He could not fail her, could not fail them both, this time.
Angel had known from the moment when the light flashed and he stepped into the chambers of the oracles that something was wrong. The sight of their bodies outstretched on the marble, the blood-covered scythe and then the words of the ghostly oracle, only confirmed what his senses had already told him.
"It is his mark. Vocah. They want you weak, so they have opened her mind to all the suffering in the world. They have the scroll. Only the words of Anatole can help your friend," the oracle's ghost told him, as she faded in and out of sight. "Like so many others, they hide behind Man's law. Stop him."
"I will," Angel vowed, as he picked up the bloodstained scythe. It seemed to hum with power in his hand as he strode out.
Dimly, at the back of his mind, he could still feel Doyle and Cordelia, although the link was narrowed almost to the disappearing point. If he allowed himself to think about it, he could feel their pain; but he felt something new, as well. Faintly, as though from a great distance, he could feel them starting to fight back.
They weren't giving up. He opened his mind just enough to remind them that he wasn't giving up on them.
He could feel a new energy starting to move through the link, as he left the chambers of the oracles behind him for the last time, with Vocah's scythe tingling in his hand.
Angel went in search of Vocah and the scroll.
Vocah knew that his first mistake was leaving the scythe behind.
It had given him pleasure to leave his mark, a flourish of victory, like the mark he had left on the seer's hand. He had not expected the vampire to pick up the scythe, with Vocah's own, distinctive energy signature upon it and to take it in hand to seek him out.
His information had been faulty. He knew that the vampire had acquired a new seer, after his first messenger had died. He was surprised to learn that the first seer had already returned.
It was far too soon for that to happen. The time when the vampire would finally seek to raise his messenger from the dead was scheduled to fall in the distant future. This Raising was intended to prevent it from ever happening.
It was crucial that it be prevented, since the seer was prophesied to return with far more power than he had in his first lifetime, far more than he himself had yet realized.
Vocah didn't like surprises. The combined strength of the two seers was starting to counteract the effect of his mark and he didn't like that, either.
Although they could not defeat him, they could weaken him. They could prolong the process of their own inevitable deaths and in that process, they could cost him energy that he needed for the Raising. This was unacceptable.
When the vampire arrived at the site of the ritual, with Vocah's scythe in his hand, that was more unacceptable still.
Vocah knew, as he felt the power being drawn away from him, that he would not last long enough to finish the Raising. It would not matter. Others would carry on the work. He could hear the chanting continue behind him as he fought.
"Even as life and death are not two things but one... in darkness is the light, in light is the darkness. Arise! Arise! Arise! Arise! Arise! Arise!"
As he felt the ritual being completed behind him, Vocah could take some comfort in the fact that both seers would die without ever learning their true strength. The purpose of the Raising would still be served.
He held on to that small triumph, as Angel struck him down.
The ritual was completed, the box and the participants in the Raising had vanished from the room but Lindsey McDonald was still sprawled on the floor, seemingly unconscious, still holding the Scroll of Aberjian. Angel bent to pull the scroll out of his hand.
For a moment, Lindsey's hand twitched, as though he might grasp the scroll more tightly. Angel growled softly in warning and Lindsey's hand went limp again.
Angel was aware that Lindsey was not completely unconscious but he didn't particularly care. The lawyer could play dead all he wanted; he couldn't fool a vampire but it didn't matter. There would be plenty of time to deal with Lindsey McDonald later, after Cordelia and Doyle were all right again.
Angel took the scroll from Lindsey's loosened grasp and left at a run.
As he did, Lindsey's eyes opened slightly and the lawyer allowed himself a small, secret smile as Angel disappeared, scroll in hand.
The Raising had succeeded, after all. The senior partners could not blame him that Angel had taken the scroll while he was unconscious. With the Raising accomplished, the next part of the plan had already been set in motion. The game was far from over.
Lindsey found himself looking forward to the next round.
"Angel, we have a problem."
At Cordelia's hospital bedside, Wesley held the scroll open to the Words of Unbinding. "This is the rite to dissolve the mark. It is a restoration spell but it is an unbinding spell, also."
"Meaning what?" Angel asked impatiently.
"It is possible that the Words of Unbinding could unbind more than the mark placed on Cordelia. It might affect the bond that you, Doyle and Cordelia share, as well."
Angel's eyes narrowed in realization. "Maybe that's why he let me take the scroll," he muttered.
He wondered how much Lindsey McDonald really knew.
"What?"
"It doesn't matter now. Wesley, is there any way to be sure what the effect of the Words of Unbinding will be?"
"Not without long hours of research and even then, it would be a guess."
"And Cordelia doesn't have that much time. I know."
Angel looked down at the wan, pinched face of Cordelia. "If she dies, the bond goes with her and Doyle's life goes with it. So we really don't have any choice."
"I realize that, Angel," Wesley said quietly.
"Do you have a stake?"
Understanding, Wesley nodded slowly. "I try never to travel anywhere without one."
"I'm glad you're prepared. The question now is how we can make sure that you will know quickly enough whether or not the Words of Unbinding broke the bond as well."
Angel hesitated a moment. "We need Doyle," he went on quietly. "Cordelia could survive physically if the bond is broken, although she might no longer be the Cordelia that we know. I could fake my soul long enough to fool you, even if I had already lost it but Doyle ... "
"I understand. But how are we going to get him in here, when he's unconscious in the Intensive Care Unit?"
"He's only unconscious because he's with Cordelia. Maybe I can pull him back."
"And leave her alone with what's going on inside her head?"
"If the worst happens, she'll be alone in her own head for as long as she lives."
"Which might not be long, I suspect," Wesley whispered, staring at Cordelia.
"Probably not. Be ready to start when I tell you."
Taking Cordelia's unmarked hand in his, Angel closed his eyes and opened up the link inside his mind.
