(Untitled)

[lornegreen]

Wearily rubbing my eyes, I left the room where Cordy was and headed downstairs. Who would have thought that behing behind the phones would ever constitute as a break from everything for me? Either way, I was glad that Cordy was alive and seemingly unscathed by the ordeal. Willow on the other hand, she was a whole other ball game. No, a whole other

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[signia]

Lorne was literally running around like a great big red eyed chicken with it's head cut off. Although I can understand that having a gigantic stake protruding from your girlfriend's chest can be rather alarming, I seemed to be taking it better than he was.

He was gaping at me with an open mouth. "Lorne?" I asked him. "Drink?" I made a little shoo motion.

I turned to Groo. "Help me get this damn thing out of my ribcage, will you?" I grasped the part that was protruding out the front and Groo grabbed the part that was in my back. "Alright, give it a push."

I gritted my teeth and braced myself. I pulled hard and Groo pushed, and the stake came out. My body heaved and lurched, and the second it left me, I coughed up a mouthful of steely viscous blood. Tasty. "Holy mother of FUCK!" I screamed loudly with the pain. I reeled forward slightly, then steadied myself. Looking down, I frowned. Ruined my damn The Killers teeshirt.

"That's gonna need a bandaid," I said with a frown as I snapped the stake over my knee and tossed it into the

[lornegreen]

I cringed and gritted my teeth as they pulled that thing out. I rushed over to Nia and put my hands on her shoulders to brace her as she teetered. "I think you better sit down, Pumpkin-Nut," I told her, motioning her towards the rounded grey couch, "And then I think you better tell me what happened at the Lawfirm."

I handed her the entire bottle of vodka (which she immediately began to chug) and went to go get to some towels to apply to her wound. I returned and sat beside her, placing them on her chest as she continued to drink heavily from the bottle.

"So?" I asked her, curiously. "You gonna tell me why you had a gigantic stake though you and you're still with us?"

[comshuk_me_baby]

"We were seperated from Angel and Willow when we arrived at the Wolf Ram and Hart building," I explained to Lorne as I sat myself down on the other side of Nia, gently rubbing her shoulder. "There, we ran into a man who called himself Gavin. He said many things to Nia, most of which upset her greatly. Most of which I feel are great untruths. Either way, he was indeed not a very pleasant person to speak with. Such arrogance, so very sure of himself. I was ready to run him through with my sword."

I don't know why I did not. It was obvious to me he certainly needed to be shown he could not treat others in the manner that he did.

[signia]

"Yeah, what he said," I muttered, placing my hand over Lorne's, the one that held the cloth to the wound on my chest. I took another long swig from the vodka bottle and handed it to Groo.

I looked over into Lorne's great big red eyes, a curious expression crossing my face. "Do you know anything about something called Shanshu?" I asked him. It was something that Gavin had mentioned that I didn't quite understand. I had never heard the term before, and I got the feeling that it held some kind of weight.

I still had a lot of questions that needed answering. Maybe Lorne would be able to help me, but I figured anything that delved deep into the world where prophecies were concerned would have to be taken up with Wesley. He seemed to know his stuff when it came to that kinda thing.

[lornegreen]

"The Shanshu is actually a prophecy, Love," I told her as I continued to apply pressure to the bandage on her chest. Fortunately, she had that super healing power that vampires did, and it looked as though she wasn't even going to have a scar come morning. Even at this point, the girl didn't look as though she even noticed there was a hole the size of Texas through her ribcage. If that was me (which, actually, it was not too long ago), I'd be in literal hysterics.

"From what I understand, it basically states that if Angel does enough good deeds to make up for all the bad stuff he did as Angelus, he just might become human again," I explained. "Well, to be honest, it doesn't technically feature Angel's name in writing, rather just a vampire with a soul. It could mean anyone."

[signia]

I looked at Lorne as he spoke, taking in his words, mulling them over. I was putting together the pieces inside my head. "So this prophecy basically says that Liam's reward will be that he's made human again?" I asked. "What would happen, say, if something got in the way of all that? If there was a loophole somewhere that made it so that Liam would forever be a vampire?"

I suddenly felt like the lowest piece of scum on the earth. I don't think at this point, anything could describe literally how low I felt.

[lornegreen]

"Well, I suppose nothing is really set in stone," I said, although rather dubiously. I mean, prophecies were prophecies, but they weren't always correct. After all, technically, Connor wasn't even supposed to be born. But here he is, all bright eyed, rosy cheeked, and vampire fathered. "But these questions are a little odd, Pumpkin. You're beating around the bush here and using me as the stick. They obviously told you something about the Shanshu while you were at the firm, and it directly relates to you."

I searched her face and set my jaw. It was definately the reason she wasn't acting like herself.

"The Shanshu isn't.. about you, is it?" I ventured.

[signia]

"It isn't about anyone as long as I am around," I muttered. I looked down at the hole in my chest, which was already starting to heal. It didn't even really hurt anymore, either. I heaved a sigh.

"Just call me 'Kathryn - Redemption's Roadblock', and maybe you'll get a sense of how terrible I feel," I went on. "Nothing quite says 'I love you' to your long lost brother by being the one thing that robs him of his destiny. Or at least, that's what I am told. It all makes sense though, I won't deny it. I just know that this whole thing is going to cause some pretty ugly sibling rivalry."

Interesting point. How in the hell is he going to react when he finds out about this?

[lornegreen]

"So either the prophecy is about you, or it's not," I stated rather plaintively, "Which one is it?"

I noticed she didn't have a response for that so I pushed again. "Seriously, Nia, I'm confused. And granted, knowing me, that doesn't take much. But c'mon, throw me a bone. If you think you are getting in the way of Angel's ultimate destiny, then am I going out on a limb here when I say that the prophecy isn't about either of you?"

I thought about it for a second and then allowed myself to reiterate. "Or maybe you're saying it's actually about both of you," I ventured. "And that now that you're around, a choice has to be made as to who is more worthy of the goal?"

A conundrum indeed.

[signia]

I looked him in the eye and then kinda rolled my own, heaving a sigh and wearily rubbed my face with both of my palms. I let out a groan.

"No, Lorne, there is no choice. There is no one who is more worthy than Liam," I explained, feeling slightly exasperated with this conversation. "As long as I am around, there *IS* no prophecy. Period. It's null. Void. Done. Zero." I made a little zipping gesture with my hand.

He looked at me, both eyebrows raised. Yeah, it was sinking in to him now. "Liam and I share the same blood, so in the eyes of this Shanshu thing, we're one in the same. One person. It can't and wont choose between us. So I cancel it out. My mere existence is the one thing stopping him from ever becoming human again."

I forced an overexaggerated smile. "Gee, kinda makes me just want to stake myself, don't it?" I looked down at my chest. "Well shucks, I guess that isn't possible now, is it? Maybe if I was a real vampire like all the other girls, it'd be a whole other story

[lornegreen]

"Woah woah woah," I said, putting up both my palms. "Back the train up SugarPie. You lost me at 'exciting news'."

I stood up walked over to her, folding my arms infront of my chest as I leaned up hip up against the desk beside her. "I got the whole cancelled out Shanshu thing - which raises some questions on it's own, but the lab experiment talk is going right over the noggin. Afraid you're going to have to elaborate on that one."

I must have missed something while I was trying to work out the last confusing bit of information she brought me.

[signia]

"The truth is, as I am told by my new friends at Wolfram and Hart, is that I am a fraud. Tried and true," I explained, running my hands through my hair, pushing my raven locks out of my eyes and tossing them behind my shoulders. I folded my arms infront of my chest. "Apparently, someone thought it would be fun to wrest me from my eternal slumber as a phony vampire, give me a soul, and allow me to walk the earth just so I can cancel out my own brother's destiny. You know, just for shits and giggles."

Lorne still had that confused look on his face that seemingly hadn't gone away since I had entered the room in the first place. If he didn't remove it soon, I'd be forced to screw it off him. Or maybe just explain myself, but somehow I was leaning more to the former than the latter.

My expression darkened slightly, as I found myself becoming more sullen and slightly moody. This whole topic totally just pissed me right off. "I'm not even a real vampire," I muttered. "The least they could have done was make it somewhat feasable, you know,

[lornegreen]

Pained me to see the little kitten feeling so rough about all of this. I could understand why she was feeling this way, I mean, about getting in the way of Angel's prophecy and all. But if there was a loophole to cancel it out, there had to be a loophole to well, un-cancel it

[signia]

I rubbed my temples and sighed. Sure, the good news was that I ended up being some kind of uber-vamp super-being thing unable to be killed unless well, you lopped my head off. Wolfram & Hart must have taken a huge gamble in creating me though. I mean, with a soul and the abilities that I had, they didn't expect that I would be on their side, did they? I guess they don't want Liam to be human this bad.

"Thanks, Lorne," I told him in regards to his statement. His looking on the brightside was a big help, but it still didn't make me feel any less upset about being a gigantic prophetic roadblock. "But I just don't know what I am going to tell Liam. I don't know how he is going to take it. I only just got here, I don't need to cause any problems

[_fredburkle_]

After leaving Cordelia's room, we went downstairs to see Lorne, Nia, and Groo. So they were back already? Wow, that was fast. They were all seated, and apparently we interrupted their conversation, but they didn't seem to be mad at us for it. Nia leaned on Lorne, and looked exhausted.

"Hey, you're back! Where's Angel and Willow?" I asked them. But something seemed to be wrong. They didn't look happy. I was sure if it was us, they would say something. I wondered what had happened at Wolfram and Hart.

"What's wrong? Did something bad happen? I'm almost afraid to ask considering the state Willow was in when she left..."

[signia]

I could hear Fred come down the stairs behind me, I had my back to her as Lorne's long arms wrapped themselves around my shoulders as we stood up against the desk.

I honestly didn't know what to tell her, although I am sure by now she could see the gaping hole in the back of my teeshirt, stained with blood, although my puncture wound now merely resembling a scratch.

I pulled out of Lorne's arms and turned to face her, forcing a smile and tucking a lock of hair behind my ear. "Liam found Willow and they left the firm before we could regroup," I told her. I grasped the bottom of my teeshirt and pulled it down, examining the hole which tore out the "R" in my Killer's shirt. "Had a, uh, bit of an altercation while we were there, but we got back okay. As for the other two, we know about as much as you do."