Slipped: One
by slayerfest
A/N: This is an idea that I've always been entranced with. I've also written a story about it that had nothing to do with the Buffy/Angelverse with this concept in it. I decided to transfer it into a fic because I know I'm going to want to write it.
I've also encountered some things with a plot similar to this, but I'm hoping it's mostly original. I mean no plagiarism or what have you; if I'm breaking copyright laws, let me know and I'll amend the situation.
***
Cordelia opened the door to the new Angel Investigations offices and was once again taken aback from the putrid smell that came from it. It always seemed to change but it never seemed to leave. She heard Gunn make a noise behind her that was probably similar to the one she was repressing. Wesley walked around the room and was about to place an air-freshener in miscellaneous places but noticed that Cordelia had already done so.
He smiled grimly. “Didn’t work, then?”
Cordelia returned the smile with equal disdain. “I really thought it would help at least a little.”
The former Watcher sighed and sat in a chair near the small desk the three of them shared. “Well, it does smell… different.”
“Different, but not good,” Gunn said, still standing just inside the door and wincing. “Actually, I kinda think it smelled better before you brought the smell of outdoors indoors.”
“Well, it’s going to be fine. We’ve been in here for what, a week? Give the smell time! It’ll get unhappy with us invading its space and probably move out soon.” Cordelia chirped optimistically.
Gunn’s dark eyes stared at Cordelia, disbelieving her optimism. He eventually strode over and pulled up a chair. Cordelia smiled encouragingly and brought out a large sturdy bag from under the table. “Now, while Angel was out cold, I snuck back into the hotel and stole some stuff.”
Wesley’s eyes widened. “Cordelia!”
Cordelia looked back at him. “Relax, Wesley. Just some books and other handy things that Angel never used in the first place. I mean, I’m still vision girl, right? So we need references to demons and everything. And I for one am not going to stand idly by and let Angel run this whole situation. I say we take a stand.”
“Here, here,” Gunn agreed.
Wesley looked in the bag and pulled out a crimson sweater. He raised his eyebrows at Cordelia. “So we’ll strangle the demons with this, then?”
Cordelia’s eyes widened as she snatched the sweater away from Wesley. “Are you insane? No demon is touching this sweater. It’s my favourite one!” Cordy noticed that both Wesley and Gunn were watching her skeptically. She sighed. “All right, I get it, but this was the only article of my clothing left in the whole place. I don’t know what he did with the rest of it, but I was taking this one before he sent it to the terrible fate of… wherever he put everything else. Look, I got useful things, too!” she exclaimed, hastily tossing the sweater on her chair and pulling books and weapons from the bag.
“Ooh. Good axe,” Gunn commented, picking up a double-edged lightweight axe and examining it. “Why have I never seen this before?”
Cordelia grinned. “While I was looking for more of my clothes, I found where Angel keeps the good weapons.”
Wesley looked up from the elaborate crossbow he was adjusting. “Cordelia, are…”
“Oh, relax. I left plenty of weapons for him, too. I just took some of the simpler ones that we could figure out, and left things like the Quadra-edged battle axe and the eighty-pound mace. You know, things that only a vampire could handle anyway.”
Gunn looked impressed, and then frowned. “How the hell does a quadra-edged axe work?”
Cordelia held out her arms in a surrendering motion. “I didn’t even try to figure it out.”
Wesley smiled and started putting books into the bookshelf. “Well, I’d say we’re ready for business. Well, except for the no power and no phone issue… I was so hoping that would have been solved by now.”
Cordy smiled and looked around the room. “Yeah. A demon could walk through that door right now and we’d be able to take him down.”
Gunn cleared his throat. “Uh, guys…” Wesley and Cordy spun around to see a dozen vampires about six feet from the open door and closing in fast. “Next time you say something like that, could you maybe give a warning first?”
Gunn grabbed his new favourite axe as Wesley grabbed the crossbow and stepped closer to the door. Cordelia stuck her head back into the bag of smuggled goods and tried to find the assortment of stakes she’s thrown in there as a precaution of such. A second later, she stumbled back and held her hands tightly to her forehead as a vision blinded her with pain.
On some level, she could still hear Gunn and Wesley fighting the vampires and yelling to each other, but mostly she was overwhelmed by the sights and sounds of the message. She watched as a youngish woman poured herself a glass of milk from the fridge and walked about the kitchen aimlessly. Then Cordy was instantly transported to another person, and watched as they walked down the street listening to music on headphones. Then she was transported again to yet another person, and Cordelia recognized that the atmosphere was totally different here; it could be in Japan for all she knew. Then Cordelia flew to yet another person, standing at the base of what was unmistakably the Eiffel Tower.
Cordelia took a great gasp of air and opened her eyes, letting Gunn help her up so she could drink a glass of water. Wesley knelt on her other side. “Are you… no, of course you’re not. What… was that?”
Cordy shook her head and forced the water away. “I don’t know,” she responded weakly, shaking as she helped herself up to a chair. “That was probably the longest vision I’ve ever had… well, except for that one last summer, anyway. It was… weird,” was all she managed to say before she took the glass from Gunn and drank more.
“What did you see?” Gunn asked quietly, taking a seat next to Cordy.
“That’s the thing, I didn’t really see anything. I just went from average person to average person, who didn’t even seem to be in danger. The opposite of danger, really. They were just… doing every day things. The first girl was drinking milk… she sticks out in my mind the most. She was blond, average height, built pretty much like me… and I’m pretty sure she was nearby. But then the next three people weren’t. The second was in New York, the third in Japan, and the fourth in France. It was almost exactly like the Vision Attacks I had in June, but those people were all in danger; these people were just… there.” Cordy looked up wearily, but then became alert and searched the place rapidly. “Where did all the vamps go?”
Wesley blinked heavily and looked away from Cordy. “They… er… left.”
“They left? They just left?”
Gunn nodded. “Yeah, pretty much. They walked in, looked around, and scrammed. It was almost like the were afraid of the place or something.”
Wesley sat up straighter. “Or maybe they were afraid of us.”
Gunn raised an eyebrow at Wesley and looked doubtful. Wesley deflated. “Anyway. Is there anything we can get you?”
Cordy drained the rest of her water and nodded, handing the glass to Gunn. She looked around the room again and nodded some more. “I thought I recognized the smell.”
Wesley raised his eyebrows at her. “What is it?”
“It’s garlic.”
Wesley’s face went slack with realization and he slapped a hand to his forehead. “Of course, of course. This place must have been used as a vampire refuge of sorts. I’ve heard of that sort of thing in big cities, but I’ve never witnessed one before.”
“I have,” Gunn provided, handing Cordy her glass of water. “They’re all over L. A. They’re usually for kids on the street like I was who needed someplace to go where they wouldn’t get eaten. I used to go to them to keep my sister safe. I didn’t know about this one, though.”
“Well, how fascinating!” Wesley proclaimed, grinning. “We have a case.”
“Not really,” said Cordelia, rubbing her head.
“Well, we don’t get any payment, but now we have something to pass the time by. We can research this establishment! Do we know its name?”
“Uh, Wes, shouldn’t Cordy’s vision come first?” asked Gunn, not nearly as enthusiastic.
Wesley’s face fell slightly. “Well… under normal circumstances we certainly would, but I think you’ll agree that we don’t really have anything to go on. If the Powers That Be sent this our way, then perhaps they’ll send us the method of solving it as well.”
***
Paige Hall sat quietly, drinking her glass of milk. Of course, it wasn’t really Paige; she was more of an it at this point. Empty shell, mostly; she could tell her physical self to do the basics while the real Paige went flying around being other people. First she’d been a lady walking in downtown New York; then she’d been a gent in Tokyo; she finished off the tour with a young boy in Paris.
She whizzed back home and reinhabited herself. She shook off the familiar cold feeling that always followed a trip, and finished off the rest of her milk just being herself. It was so terribly dull being one person; she didn’t know how other people managed.
Or, she supposed she did know. She became other people often. It was a fantastic gift that was a genetic trait on the female side of her family. Every daughter born to the mother was to inherit the power. Paige was the only girl in her family, and was very happy to be the only one in the world to be able to leave her body and inhabit others. She could be anyone she wanted; all she had to do was make sure the autopilot was on and concentrate on who she wanted to be.
Today she had concentrated on random, and traveled to several different countries at the drop of a hat.
Paige loved it. It always took her a few minutes after she came back to get over the thrill of being incorporeal. So she always told her autopilot self to pour a glass of milk and sit at the table to wait for her to return.
And now that she was living on her own, she didn’t have to listen to her father’s incessant speeches about how dangerous it was.
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