(Untitled)

[face_of_angelus]

They had really done it. No more games, no more ghost, no more Angelus. There had to be a reason right? A reason for Wes to have nearly sacraficed himself to get my soul back. A reason Faith had gone to the edge of her own darkness. For Cordelia to have resorted to dark magic in order to bring me back. Why

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[visiongirl]

I was sitting in my room. I hadn't been able to sleep at all since talking to Wesley. Fred and Spike were still missing, no one had seen them. One psycho slayer was stalking around the hotel somewhere, hence the hiding in my room. Hopefully Wes was actually getting some sleep, I mean has he looked into a mirror lately? He was slipping and I wasn't sure that I would be able to get through to him. I only knew one person manpire that could. But I had to go and screw that one with magic fun time. Oh yeah great idea Cordy, why don't you go and cast spells since you have absolutely no experience in magic whatsoever!

I jumped up from my seat when I heard the door open. Turning around I saw Angelus standing in the doorway. Oh God, please don't let my last words be 'oh crap'.

"You can't hurt me!" I said defensively. "I put the sanctuary spell up." I backed away from him further into the room. Where was Wesley? Faith? Were they both dead? One of them for the second time in one week. Maybe we could put that on our business cards. 'Angel Investigations. We help the hopeless...even if we have to come back from the dead'.

[face_of_angelus]

Watching her retreat my face fell. Not exactly the reaction I was looking for.

"Hurt you? Cor, its me." Leave it to Wes to keep everything a big secret. Guess I should have thought of that. Folding my arms in front of me I fought the urge to go any closer to her. She still thought I was him.

"Look Wes figured it out. I'm back, Angelus is gone." There it was.

[visiongirl]

That look on his face, that tone in his voice. It pulled at my heart because it was Angel. Everything from the posture to the hairgel screamed Angel. The only problem was last time a certain evil vampire was pretending to be the manpire I loved I ended up tied naked and spread eagle on the lobby steps. Only to have Spike rescue me. Spike! Oh no, I wasn't falling for that routine again.

"Funny how Wesley didn't mention anything to me about figuring anything out." Not that that would be overly surprising since Wes seemed to be giving Angelus a run for his money on insaneo of the year award. But still! I'm his partner, this was our business and he would have at least told me only probably not since he has a habit of taking off for months at a time and letting me run everything by myself.

[face_of_angelus]

"Not really." Sure maybe this would be one of those things we looked back on and laughed at. Right now I wasn't finding it very funny. Neither was she. She wasn't too likely to change her opinion either considering Angelus had left her naked for the gang to find. Wincing at the memory I studied the floor near my feet.

"Do you think Angelus would come back here trying the same stunt twice? With the sanctuary spell up and everything Cor? Come on, he's not that dumb." Not that I was dumb or anything. "I'll do anything you want to prove its me."

[visiongirl]

"Umm..YEAH I do." Stupid or not, Angelus was bold and that's exactly what he would do if he thought he could get away with it. Of course, why would he waltz into a hotel that had the slayer formerly known as crazy staying here? What was this anyway? Is insanity the new look this fall? I didn't remember reading anything about it in Cosmo. Maybe it's because I forgot to pick up my subscription to Insanoes R Us.

"I'll do anything you want to prove it's me."

Sure, I'll just whip out my handy soul detector. If he really was Angel, maybe he'd let me lock him up in the cage downstairs until I could find Wesley and get confirmation on the whole figuring things out that he never bothered to tell me about.

Since when is locking up the leader what's best for the group?

I shook my head trying to get rid of the memory. That wasn't me, it was her. I was forced to sit inside my body and watch as she did all those horrible things. Sort of how Angel must feel when he's trapped inside Angelus.

"Where's Wesley?" I demanded, not moving an inch, my eyes still locked onto him.

[face_of_angelus]

"Hospital." No it wasn't the most detailed answer but I wasn't going to take a chance sugarcoating anything for her right now. Considering it never worked anyway it wasn't much of a chance.

"He used some demon to put my soul back." Now that I had time to think about it, it sounded like the same guy that had installed Spike's soul. Great. I can already hear that idiot rubbing it in. 'Look's like someone is copying someone else eh mate?'

That and the thought of him and Fred made me grimace. "Guess we can't really play the 'ask me something only I would know' game huh?"

[visiongirl]

"Hospital?" Okay, that was so not helping his case. Not at all. "Why is he in the hospital? What do you mean used some demon?" I was practically bursting at the seams. When did the new cool game become let's keep Cordelia in the dark about everything?

"Is he okay?" Ugh. Why am I asking the evil vampire if he's okay? Angelus probably ate him for dinner and now I'm next and this is all just some big story to try and fool me and I'll just end up tied naked to the lobby stairs again. Okay, breathe.

Besides it didn't make sense for Wes to be in the hospital cause Angelus had hurt him. The Sanctuary Spell was still up and working, unless Angelus caught up with him outside he couldn't hurt Wesley or anyone else in the hotel. Bummer. Cause when I find Wesley? He's so dead. Again.

"Guess we can't really play the 'ask me something only I would know' game huh?"

"Really not. Considering Angelus knows everything Angel knows." How was I supposed to tell whether he was evil or not? Right now I really wished I had some of that handy empath power that Lorne had.

[face_of_angelus]

Let's see, Wes was burnt, cut, beaten and bitten. "I wouldn't exactly say he's having his best day ever but you know Wes, he always bounces back." At least I could count on her blaming Wes along with me when this all was straightened out.

Nothing was working with her and why should it. She wasn't the soul police. I'd have to wait until Wes could tell her it was me himself. Either him or Faith, but the chances of her believing Faith were slim and none.

"I'll be downstairs if you need me. Its good to see you again Cor." Didn't bother waiting for anymore comments from her as I left her room, heading down the steps and back to the basement. Let myself into the cage and locked the door. Home sweet home.

[visiongirl]

Okay. Like he really was just gonna walk away that easily. Maybe he got the message! He showed up here to kill everyone and found out about the Sanctuary Spell and now he knew he couldn't do any violence.

Frowning I followed behind him a distance in the hallway...expecting him to waltz right out the front door. Instead he went downstairs into the basement and locked himself in the cage. What? I mean good! Crap, this whole thing was all my fault.

"What are you doing in there?" I asked, walking down the stairs and looking through the bars in at him.

[face_of_angelus]

"Thought I'd catch up on some reading. Hard to turn pages when your a ghost." Returned her even look through the bars as we stared at eachother. She most likely thought this was another one of Angelus' games. Yeah I remembered the last time we were in this situation. "Not sure where the keys are this time. Hope Wes still has them."

[visiongirl]

"Even harder when there's no books to read." I raised an eyebrow at the empty cage, no books or chair or anything inside of it. Stepping forward tentatively I looked him over. Everything about him screamed Angel, not even coming close to Angelus. But Angelus had a talent for fooling everyone. Somehow I knew if this really was Angel he was already spanking himself mentally, repeatedly and I was just making it worse right now. But dying twice was twice too many for this girl.

"And Wes will be coming back when?" He hadn't even said how badly Wesley was hurt. Should I go to the hospital? Or stay here and guard the hotel? Where was Faith anyway? Ugh. Why do I have to do everything myself?

[face_of_angelus]

"That too." Gritting my teeth I cut my eyes away from her. This would only be harder later, why did it always have to be hard? Because of all the decisions I'd made. Of course if I hadn't of made them, who was going to do it?

"Call Pacific General and ask how he is. Room 308." He and Faith had been fine when I had left. Wes had known I needed to see her, so I had. Was that another mistake? "You might not believe its me and thats fine. Just know I'm here whenever your ready."

[visiongirl]

Okay, this was definitely not Angelus...I think. Better safe than sorry right? Especially with everyone's propensity for DYING around here lately. I hadn't seen smurfette in awhile, so if we died this time. It might be for real.

I thought about asking him where Faith was, but I found myself overwhelmed with a feeling of not caring very much.

"Pacific General, room 308." I nodded at him, giving him one last look before heading towards the stairs.