Choices-- A second Chance

By Hannah-Freya Anderson

"Well, well ,well what have we here"Angelus mocked the girl who cowered before him

"please sir"she pleaded, her high class English accent was no more than a whisper and a sob, for that, at the present moment, was all she could muster. "Please good sir, I beg of you, and appeal to your mercy..... my father" she whimpered, refering to the elderly man that Angelus now held by the heel o- f his foot over the edge of the sea vessel that was now quite far out,yet still within the bay for which Williamshire was famous. She stared at the handsome man, searching his eye's for some show of mercy, despairingly she saw none.

"My father" she began "will surely drown if you contiue that for he cannot swim!!" she cried in absolute terror as the handsome man that had proclaimed himself to all as Angelus lowered her father once more into the churning see almost up to the poor gentry's mid-chest.

"Please" , the pathetic creture in front of him whimpered again Angelus decided to finish it, the game was growing dull

"My dear," he said with a chuckle and a merry ol' tone "You mistake me..... for I am neither gentle, nor could I care less about your fathers well being!" with that he dropped the old man into the stormy sea, reached over and snapped the girls neck in two. "Ahh....well would you look at that!" he chuckled, "I was right, the human bone structure is fascinating!" With that he let her lifless body fall to the floor. He turned to the other unfortunate passengers who had, like the father and daughter he had just killed, made the tragic mistake of boarding the vessel,

"Well then" he began as he took a step forward "Who'll be next?!"

He gazed around the other shaking,pathetic passengers, there was nothing really special about them, they were about as amusing as a chipmunk........ he knew he would bore of this game , like all others, Angelus new he had potential, he knew that somewhere out there, was his greatest challenge....... he knew. He just couldn't prove it.

"Wait a minute, wait a minute!!" began Cordeilia Chase incrediously as she stared at Wesley, the ex-watcher now assistant detective "Angel actualy told you!!!" she paused, mouth hanging open "I can't believe it!.....it's not fair how come he told you where he hides the Christmas presents and not me!!!!" she fumed"it's desiptivation!!!!"

"I believe" began Wesley as he adjusted his glasses to a more comfortable position on his nose "the word you were aiming for is descrimination and I mus-...." he was about to finish when Cordeilia promptly cut him off

"Whatever!" she said in an exasperated tone as she admired her flawless nails. "Wesley, I just ate lunch for crying out loud I don't wanna spew all over you" she paused as she thought about the simply horrifyingly "Declass'ee" statement "EEEWWW!!!" She screeched. "Anyway where was I??....honestly trying to get people to ACTUALLY listen to you is impossi- oh yeah speewing that's right, anyway as I was saying I WILL END UP SPEEWING IF YOU GIVE ANNOTHER ONE OF YOUR POINTLESS ENGLISH LECTURES!!" "You don't want that do you??" She battered her eye lashes

"No," began Wesley, "but my lectures are not bo-"

"Yes they are" Cordeilia cut in once more she grabbed his arm and proceeded to pull him out the door "come on!" she cried!!

"Wait one moment I simply must grab a jacket, according to the news it's quite chilly out"

"Whatever" Cordeilia stated once again she had stopped listening after the word "jacket" as she carefully applied her lipstick. When she finished she turned around to find Wesley standing behind her.

"You look lovely" he offered.

"I know" she said off handedly.

Wesley sighed "Where exactly are we going?" he asked as he opened the door for Cordeilia. She started to exit

"Millers. They're having this huge sal-" as she placed her foot out side the door a great burst of light proceeded.

Cordeilia screamed as she felt herself begin to fall........

"What.....no takers?" Angelus fiened disappointment. "Well then I guess I'll just have to...." his voice trailed off as a bright of light flashed across the sky, more powerfull than any lightning he had seen, suddenly Angelus heard the nearing scream of a female.

"What the he-" he was about to finish when suddenly a young lady fell from the sky and crashed on the deck with a loud thud. He watched as the lady quickly recovered herself, stood up and brushed herself down. Who was this girl???

Cordeilia looked around, suddenly two men grabbed her and draged her across what appeared to be the deck of a ship "What the hell...who do you think you are buddy!! get your hands off m-"

Just as she was about to finish the men through her to the ground she stood up and whipped around to face them.

"You!" she declared "You will SO be hearing from my lawyers!!" 'if I live...'she thought to herself, she gulped.

"Who are you?" shouted a familiar voice from behind her, she whirled around and, recognising the face of her friend, ran over and hugged him

"Oh Angel, boy am I glad to see you, you have no idea what just happ-"

She stopped suddenly and looked at him "whoa! Angel okay you may be from the 17 hundreds or whatever but PULEEASE that look does SOOO not work for your complexion!!" she placed her hands on her hips "I thought you of all people-I mean GRR's"she placed her hands in the appropriate places on her face to emphazise fangs and horns

"You would have...." Cordeilia trailed off, at a loss for words "I mean honestly Angel what is wrong with you?? even you know that look is soooo 200 years ago!!"

"You speak!" began Angel as he saunted towards her cockily. "As if you know me... That however, I know is not possible, as I no longer socialize with pathetic little humans like you".

Awestruck ,gobsmacked and yet tactfully as ever, Cordeilia gave Angel a hard poke in the ribs. "Hey, just who do you think you're talking to!! I may be your employee but so! I'm also a person, Angel what the hell is wrong with you??" she looked into his eyes and it hit her."Oh man!, I can't even turn my back on you for one minute!!you did it with Buffy again didn't you!! I'm telling you, where she leads dark forces follow and now I'm going to die... great I didn't even get to dry clean my dress I wonder if they'll choose the right dress......" She grabbed Angelus by the collar. "Oh god what if they choose the wrong dress!" she paused in absolute horror "What if when they put my picture in the paper they choose a bad one!" she looked away. "Okay, so I've never taken a bad picture but some are better than others!" what will my parents say?"

With that Cordeilia Chase did the most pathetic thing she'd done in years, she burst into tears.

Angelus watched in amusement as the young woman mumbled to herself. She then suddenly burst into tears. "Well" she cried between sobs "At least I have one comfort...when you kill me I can come back and haunt Buffy to death!!" she started to cry again, he stared at her, his eyes boring into her like knives.

"You." he said in confusion."You speak to me like you know me! I told you I do not know you and still you persist! tell me child, where do you know me from? how do you know my name?"

Cordeilia composed herself at once her tear filled eyes imeadiately darkened "How do I know you??, How do I know you!?" she cried in disbelief. "How do I know you??" she stated again. "How?...I'll tell you how! You-me slayerettes REMEMBER! you losing your soul REMEMBER? Buffy and you sleeping together REMEMBER??? All of us restoring your soul REMEMBER? and oh, not to mention the fact that you've tried to kill us thousands of times . . "

She began to advance on him. "I've fed you blood, I've done an exorscisme with you, I've worked for you, I've made you cups of coffee," as she moved toward Angelus she counted the things of on her fingers "I've been donut girl,I have MIND NUMMING VISIONS FOR YOU FOR A WHOLE YEAR GODDAMIT AND WHAT DO I GET?? I get HOW DO I KNOW YOU!!!" By now she had reached Angelus, she leaned in close. "Well, and let me tell you, BUDDY, I predict a horrible and painful staking from the slayer for Y. O. U.!!" she spelled out the last three letters and emphasized the threat by pushing him. Hard.

Angelus' mouth hung open, not only was this young woman a beauty, but she also stood up to him, and refused to be cowered by authority....perhaps this was the challenge he had been waiting for, he would have to test her a little further....

"Well, well, well little girl it seams you've proved the impossible, your words are actually as big as your mouth!" Angelus threw his head back as he burst out laughing. The look of indignation that crossed the girls face was hillarious!

Suddenly he felt a stinging blow to his face He stumbled back in shock 'the young lady actually punched me!' his mind screamed in amazement 'And it wasn't to bad a punch either, had I been human that probably would have knocked me unconsious!' he thought.

"Can you do no better than that!" the young lady glared at him, seething, when suddenly a strange look passed across her face........

Cordeilia leaned in really close, Angelus was about to get a taste of his own medicine, Cordeilia hadn't been the "slayer" of boys for most of her life to have learnt nothing. She was about to hit Angelus where it hurt.

"Actually I probably can!" She replied. "Tell me Angel have you stalked enough girls already to know what they talk about?"

A look of confusion crossed Angelus' face, it was, she noticed, quickly hidden, but it had been there none the less 'bingo!' she thought, she looked around and noticed that she had almost everyone on the ships undevided attention 'oh yeah' she thought to herself 'revenge is sweet'

"Well" she asked again, "have you?" she began again before Angelus even had a chance to answer "Well I'm guessing not by the cocky grin on your face" she whispered knowing the others couldn't hear.

"Just yesterday" she began again, her voice regaining it's usual level of projection "I had the most Detailed chat with Buffy" she trailed off letting the suspence of the others build "And let me tell you" she said to Angelus "she didn't have a good word to say about," Cordeilia raised her fingers to form quotation marks she used them as she said the last part of her sentence "THE NIGHT" Cordeilia noticed that now, if she hadn't before, she had EVERYONE's undivided attention 'presto' she thought.

Although Angelus would never admit it he had a bad feeling about the way in which this young lady was addressing everyone, he had never heard a lady speak of such things but back when he was mortal "the night" had usually stood for sleeping with someone, 'is that what this young girl is implying?' he wondered 'if so' he thought 'she had better cut to the chase, I'm growing bored' he promptly passed a look to his minions who, equally as promptly, daring not upset their master, stalked towards her carrying wepons of all sorts and sizes.

Cordeilia had seen the look Angelus had directed unboubtedly to one of his "goons" she didn't know exactly what the look had meant but she did know that undoubtably had something to do with her well being 'allright' she said to herself 'you wanna play hard ball..ha!' she spured herself on 'I didn't loose my social status thanks to Buffy, to go and learn nothing from it'.Silently she ran through all her limited, (but still,enough to do impending damage ) knowledge of the martial arts 'ohh ohh' she silently thanked God as she discovered the ever so essential stakes, holy water and crosses that had, over the past 3 or so years had earned a perminent position in her handbag, there as always 'time to kick some bad guy butt' she thought 'o.k so the tough guy thing doesn't work for me- mental note-never become a bikie'.

The goon vampires started to circle and close in on Cordeilia, one of the vampires who wore a red tie, black jacket and blue...'well,' thought Cordeilia 'they vaguely resemble pants I can live with that......UGHHH!' Cordeilia almost shrieked. This dude, vampire or no, has totaly lost it. She looked around her 'o.k so has everyone here' the vampire grabbed a handful of Cordeilia's hair and proceded to attempt to throw her.

"YOOWW!" she shrieked "This isn't a hammerthrow competition you know!" With that a sudden adrenilan rushed through her, with all her might she managed to kick him straight between the legs, he howled in pain, hands rested on his knees, Cordeilia reached into her bag, pulled out a stake....

What was left of the vampire settled on her clothes and hair, or drifted out to sea to meet the dawn that would come in less than a few hours.

Angelus stared on in momentary awe, he knew he should be angry, the vampire Keaune that she had just 'dusted' had indeed been knew and stupid, but had shown early signs of poteneial, as a minion of course, he reminded himself, he refused to share his title as master with anyone, he even resented the fact that Darla was as equally ranked as he,'never mind that' he chided himself as he brought his mind back to more immediate matters. This woman was slaying his minions one by one, as if swatting flies, he had run into many a slayer, killed some, injured all..he knew what they tasted like, smelt like and this woman neither smelt, nor acted like one 'and yet she knows what we are' he concluded to himself, trying to put the remaining pieces of the puzzle into place. But to no avail.

Cordeilia was determined not to show it but she was tirirng- and quickly, ''1 don't know how much longer 1 can keep this up'' Cordeilia muttered between gritted teeth, a vampire charged at her, she stepped asideand he landed on the railing of the side of the vessel Cordeilia charged over to the vampire, not giving him time to recover, grabbed his legs and tipped him over the edge into the wild sea which was churning dangerously. She turned around, preparing for the next attack, to her surprise it never came the only vampire still within current fighting length was the fiend of the fair himself Angelus, Cordeilia took a few steps forward predicting his attack, his face usually god-like was now horrifying, distorted with uncontrollable rage, Cordeilia was frozen with fear 'o.k- mood equals heavy say a wity remark-....like what- good one Cordelia, your mouth which has never failed you before is going to let you down right when you need it the most. Oh whoopie bang doo 1 might as well leap into the arms of de-' she was almost finished concluding her will when Angelus' anger seemed to melt and he burst out laughing to cordeilia's further shock, Angelus' display of good humor was then followed with clapping, she knew he wasn't humored and that this was one of his sick twisted games, she just couldn't figure out which way the dice were rolling- in his favour or hers?.

Angelus couldn't stop laughing, this mortal had dispatched all of his most powerful minions, and also to add to his humiliation it was a MORTAL WOMAN, perhaps if she was a great slayer the humiliation could have been lessened.....' but she is A WOMAN!, a mortal woman no less' He couldn't stop laughing, if he did the others would know something was wrong,he had to admitt he was quite impressed, he was now, if he hadn't been before, convinced that she was the challenge he had been waiting for.

Cordeilia couldn't figure out why Angelus, who should have steam practicaly pouring out of his ears,was suddenly full of humour, 'well maybe a couple of years in hell can do that to a guy' she reasoned, 'nah who am I kidding, something is majorly up' .

Angelus decided to test the young woman, he moved forward,to prepare to attack, he noticed her reaching into,what appeared to be some sort of bag designed to go on one's shoulders, she suddenly whipped out a black object, pushed a button, and, with one click he was in a beam of light, brighter than he remembered even the sun having been, there was an object painted on where the light was coming from, 'a cross' he realized 'clever girl'. "what sort of witch have we here?" he whispered to himself he knew now that he would have to make her one of his minions, this one was too pretty, and too full of such spirit to let die.

Cordeilia didn't like the look Angelus was giving her, it was as if he were evaluating a possesion, it's worth and such and Cordy was no-one's possesion, especially a blood sucking bad guy. Cordeilia had a bad feeling about this, a VERY bad feeling.

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