Timeline
By Liam
PART FOUR
September 20, 1998
Rupert Giles’ Home
8:21 PM
Angel stared blankly at the young witch. Willow gave another nervous smile. Oz
left the room to tell Giles that the vampire was now conscious. “So,” Willow
began, “you aren’t here to kill everybody, are ya?”
Even with that comment, Willow still talked to him as if he was her best friend.
Angel always liked this girl. She had gumption, brains, and a weird sense of
humor. If Angel hadn’t been so awestruck by Buffy back then, he might have
made a run at this girl.
“I wasn’t planning on it,” Angel deadpanned. “How about setting me
loose?” Angel rattled the handcuffs for emphasize.
“Oh well, that’s good then,” Willow grinned. In a flash, she turned
nervous again. “About the handcuff thing, I can’t really do that. Not to say
you’re a liar or anything, but last time we saw you, you tried to suck us into
hell. No offense.”
Angel smiled at Willow’s niceties. “None taken,” the vampire said.
“Since I assume Oz went to get Giles, you wanna turn the TV on while we wait.
I want to see if Scooby-Doo is on.”
Willow had hoped that Angel was all better, but now she knew. He was still evil.
The Angel they knew didn’t act like this.
“I have my soul,” Angel assured her, sensing Willow’s thoughts. “I have
you to thank for that.”
Giles stepped quickly into the room bearing a crossbow. Buffy was right behind
him with a stake.
“Hi,” Angel said, trying to be cheerful. “I was about to watch Scooby-Doo,
you wanna join me?”
Giles glared at the vampire with a hardened look in his eyes. “You will tell
me how you came to be here, and you will give me a damn good reason why you are
here. Otherwise, I will send you back to hell.”
Angle met the watcher’s icy stare with one of his one. But after a few
moments, the vampire’s eyes softened. “Take a seat,” he said. “You might
want to bring the rest of the gang in here, too. They should hear this.”
**************
Hyperion Hotel
October 17, 2003
“Duncan Smyth is a very interesting character,” Fred said. The girl sat
behind her laptop and studied the web page before her. Everyone gathered around
as she began to rattle off the details.
“Received his doctorate in physics from Cambridge at the age of 21. He was
quickly given a professorship at Cambridge and instant recognition because of
his youth. After that, his career ran into a lot of controversy. Most of it came
in 1987 at the age of 24, when in a thesis published and reported at an
international conference, he basically said all that Einstein reported about
time and space was crap.”
“Damn,” Gunn said. “You gotta have brass to say Einstein was full of
shit.”
Fred continued as if she had ever been interrupted. “Like I said, his career
went downhill. In 1989, his lost all university funding on his experiments to
prove time travel was possible. In 1990, Cambridge finally had enough of his
antics and forced him to resign.”
“Interesting stuff,” Cordelia said, “but what about Schuber?”
Fred quickly jumped to another page she had book marked. “Friedrich Schuber
was a boy genius basically. As a teenager in the 1970’s, he was helping design
computer processors that would redefine the industry. After graduating from the
University of Vienna with a doctorate in chemistry, Schuber became interested in
electromagnetism.
“He gained quite a bit of fame in the field. Eventually, NASA hired him in an
attempt to develop a fuel cell to use on lunar modules, and hopefully later on
the space shuttle. Reportedly he came up with a revolutionary idea, but it seems
he could never quite get it to work. His idea never got past the prototype
stage. NASA fired him in the early 90’s. After that, both Smyth and Schuber
sank into anonymity.”
“Until both began work at a small technology research company in London,”
Wesley observed.
“That’s a hell of a story,” Lilah admitted. “But why would some two-bit
research institute hire a pair of disgraced scientists? Certainly not for
prestige.”
“Unless it was an educated gamble,” Cordelia inserted. “Maybe they took
the chance that both men had refined their work.”
“That’s certainly possible,” Wesley said. “Two men with ideas that if
applicable could change the course of human history. It’d be worth the
gamble.”
“So what?” Gunn asked. “Tom and Harry finally get their toys to work? No,
man. This chick was carrying around a piece of equipment that Fred said was
flawed in its efficiency. That means the technology is probably still new.”
Fred picked up where Charles was heading. “Which means that it will still be
several years before the ideas will finally catch up to the technology.”
“Wait a minute!” Cordelia shouted. “Flawed in its efficiency? Fred?”
That was not something she wanted to hear.
“Angel will be fine,” Fred assured her. “I calculated wasted energy into
the equation when I determined travel distance and stuff. Angel will get
home.”
Cordelia’s blood pressure was still up five points from that. She needed to
lie down, get off her feet. Patting her stomach, she decided Little One could
use a rest two. “Fine,” Cordelia said. “I’m going to go upstairs awhile.
Come get me if you need me.”
Once Cordelia was out of earshot, Wesley turned to Fred. “You’re sure that
there is enough energy for Angel to get home?”
“Oh yeah,” Fred said confidently. There was a 94% chance he had sufficient
energy to come home. Certainly better odds than at Lotto.
*************
“You’re here from the future,” Giles said skeptically. Angel nodded in
response.
“And you’re here to protect CORDELIA?” Buffy added. After the tears had
ceased falling when she learned her love had returned, Buffy had gone into
business mode. She prepared himself for when he woke up. But she was not ready
for this.
“Why?” Giles demanded. “Why would you care about what happens to Cordelia?
Why would you care if she lives or dies? You two have never been close.”
“Hey!” Cordelia said. “I’m in the room!”
Angel turned his head to give his full attention to the woman that would love
him completely in a few short years. “Because you can’t even begin to
realize the importance of the role Cordelia will play in the coming years.
Hundreds of lives will be lost in the future if she were to die.” Softly,
Angel said, “Because she’s my best friend.”
“How can we even believe you?” Giles questioned. “Only a few months ago
you tried to suck the world into hell.”
“Yeah,” Angel muttered. “Not my finest moment. But you have to believe me.
I NEED her to stay alive. For my own survival as well.”
“Why does this assassin want Cordelia dead?” Giles asked.
“It’s not Cordelia she wants dead,” Angel said quietly.
“Funny,” Cordelia snapped. “It sure seemed like she was shooting at ME.”
“It’s not you she wants dead,” Angel repeated loudly. “It’s the child
you will eventually carry that she wants dead.”
The room fell silent. For several minutes nobody spoke. They were all shocked at
the revelation. Finally, Cordelia spoke, a slight trace of amazement in her
voice. “I’ll be a mom?” she asked.
“Why does this woman want to prevent this child’s eventual birth?”
“Our, uh, her child will evidently become someone of great importance in the
future. I don’t know the exact reasons why she wants to prevent it. All I know
is that she’s jumped to two different points in time to try and prevent this
child’s birth.”
Angel hoped to God that no one caught his little slip of the tongue. They all
seemed to have missed it, all except Giles that is.
“Who is the child’s father?” Giles questioned. The damn Watcher caught his
slip. He had to lie quick.
“I don’t know,” Angel said. “Cordelia never told me, and I didn’t
press her. I figured she’d tell me when she was ready to say.”
Giles seemed pacified for the time being. The Brit thought perhaps his hearing
was going bad for a moment.
“I’m going to be a mom,” Cordelia whispered again.
Everyone tried to process the information they had just been told. It was a lot
to take in, and was quite difficult to comprehend. Cordelia was silently
marveling in the fact she’d eventually become a mother. Xander wondered who
the hell the father was. Giles pondered whether he should kill Angel. Buffy,
however, didn’t believe a word of it. It was all a lot of trouble to go
through over someone like Cordelia.
“Are you going to let me go?” Angel asked. “Are you going to let me do the
job that I came to do?”
After a moments thought, Giles responded simply. “No.”
Angel glared at the Watcher. He respected the man a great deal back then. Hell,
he respected him still. And he was truly sorry for taking Jenny away from him.
But “no” was not the answer he wanted.
“Tough shit then.” With a jerk, Angel tore the handcuff chain in half,
instantly freeing himself of the bed. “I won’t let you stop me from
protecting her.”
Giles quickly leveled the crossbow as the vampire gingerly rose to his feet. The
Scoobies quickly pulled out their stakes, prepared to use them if necessary.
Angel glanced around the room, knowing full well that they would kill him. “In
the future,” Angel started, “Cordelia is my best friend. She knows me inside
and out, better than anyone has since my mother over two centuries ago. She
means too damn much to me to simply bow down. I will protect her, and I will
kill anyone who threatens to harm her.”
Angel cracked the handcuffs around his wrists like walnuts. He discarded the
useless metal on the bed. “Next time you handcuff a vampire,” Angel advised,
“make sure the metal is enchanted. Otherwise, you’d be dead.”
Slowly, Angel grabbed his duster from the chair by the bed. Any second he
expected the crossbow bolt to pierce his heart, ending his existence. Wrapping
the duster around his body to cover his bloodstained shirt, Angel slowly moved
to the bedroom door. Everyone moved to the side to get out of his way, although
none of them knew quite why. Head lowered, the vampire eased his way out the
door and down the stairs to safety.
All the while, Giles had the crossbow trained on Angel’s heart. When the
vampire disappeared, he lowered the weapon with a sigh, not really understanding
what just happened.
“We just let that monster walk out of here,” Xander exclaimed. “We just
let that damn vampire walk out of here! Who knows who he could kill! We should
get him!”
“No,” Giles said. “Leave him be.”
“What?” everyone, including Buffy exclaimed.
“Need it be said that the demon that tried to suck the world into hell just
walked out that door?” Xander asked.
Calming down, Buffy spoke. “Maybe Giles is right. He could have easily killed
Willow when Oz left the room. But he didn’t.”
“So? He knew we’d kill him if he did.”
“No,” Willow said. “I admit, that wasn’t the Angel that we all know but
it wasn’t Angelus either.”
“So the question remains: what do we do?” Oz asked.
“I honestly don’t know,” Giles said. The Watcher dropped the crossbow on
his bed and proceeded to wipe his glasses. “But what I can suggest is that we
gather to offer Cordelia some sort of protection, whether it be from this
mystery assassin Angel spoke of, or Angel himself.”
Giles turned to Cordelia to get her opinion. “Cordelia? Do you have anything
to say on the matter?”
Cordelia was still staring off into space, a slight smile on her face. “I’m
going to be a mom,” she repeated. “That’s so cool.”
TBC