x_furiousangels: And if you go...
"I'm not scared. I'm not scared. I'm not scared... Please, Wesley, why can't I stay?"
All she could feel was the pain. The pain overwhelming her as everything became too hot, and her world began to fade, and she felt like she was about to devoured into nothingness.
Wesley, don't let me go. Wesley, please...I can't...
Her heart stopped beating, and she felt herself falling and falling and falling until suddenly it was as though she had been caught in a feathered pillows. The heat that had been burning her up gave way to blessed coolness, and the darkness to a gentle light.
"Got her!" a man said in what sounded like an Irish accent.
"It's all right, Fred," a familiar woman's voice told her. "You're here with us and safe. Just rest."
Fred nodded, not feeling any more pain as she drifted off to sleep.
*****
Slowly, she blinked her eyes, not sure where she was. She was lying on what appeared to be an old-fashioned settee in the middle of a large hall with marble columns and no ceiling opened to what seemed to be a sky full of electrical clouds. The last thing she remembered was being in her room, being held by Wesley as she died then someone...someone familiar speaking to her...
"You're finally awake," the familiar voice said again as a gentle hand cupped her cheek.
Fred looked over, swallowing deeply when she saw the owner of the voice, not quite believing it. "Co--Cordy?" she said softly. "Is--am I--is this heaven?"
Cordelia gave her a smile and took her hands helping her to sit up. "Not exactly. This is more a lookout station. When we saw what Knox had done to you, we knew we had to intervene."
"We--we?" she asked, feeling confused, not sure what was going on.
"We, as in her and me," came the reply as a man walked forward. He was a small man with dark hair and blue eyes, and Fred recognized the Irish accent she had briefly heard before. "I tell ya, though, it was close, trying to grab ya before you were consumed."
"Consumed? By--by Illyria?" Fred remembered how hot she had felt and how she had thought she was being devoured, taken inside something bigger and more infinite than herself.
"Yes," Cordelia told her softly. "If me and Doyle hadn't acted, your soul would have been absorbed into it, for all intents and purposes destroyed. It wasn't easy, though - you were pretty weak when we caught you, which was why you slept so long."
Fred looked around, suddenly wondering what had happened to Wesley and the others. "How long?"
"Almost a year."
*****
"Wesley's dead?" Fred repeated softly, tears filling her eyes as she stood next to one of the columns in the room, look-out station, whatever this place was.
"Gunn too."
"Are they--?"
"Gunn's...well, because of the deals he made..." Cordelia shrugged and looked over at Doyle.
"What about Wesley?" When Cordelia didn't answer, Fred turned to her. "Cordy, where's Wesley?"
"I'm not allowed to tell you. Not yet," she said.
"Why? Why can't you tell me? Cordy, I need--."
Cordelia reached out and took Fred's hand, leading her over to the edge of the room. "When we saved you, Fred, your soul became tied to the Powers, just like mine and Doyle's were when we took on the visions. You weren't supposed to die when you did because you were supposed to be there to help others. You, Wesley, Angel, all of you were supposed to help the helpless, but you got pulled away by Wolfram and Hart, and they destroyed what the Powers had been working to set up for so long. Now the Powers need that balance redressed."
She stared at her friend, her eyes wide, wondering what she meant. "How?"
With a wave of her friend's hand, the wall of the room disappeared to reveal an overview of the earth. But instead of of clouds and land, it was made of multiple pinpoints of light, some white, some black, many yellow.
"Those are the people of the world, Fred," Cordy told her. "The white are the good ones, the black those already corrupted by evil. The yellow...those are the ones in danger. The ones that have been targeted by darkness. They're the ones that need help. And you're going back to help them."
Fred took a step back in disbelief, shaking her head. "But I'm not...I'm just..."
"You're not just anything, Fred. You're an Angel of the Powers now, and they need you down there."
She waved her hand again, and the view of Earth flew in closer and closer to where England was located, down and down until it focused in on one of the yellow figures, which took shape into a tall man with greenish hazel eyes, greying hair and a look in his eyes that Fred could only describe as defeated.
"Rupert Giles needs you."