Chapter Three: Family Bonding
"End of the world?" Wesley asked. "Could you be a bit more specific?"
"Not exactly," The Host apologized. "All I'm getting is one really big fight, with the outcome at pretty much all of us being really dead."
"I'm gonna get you that water now," Angel muttered, getting up from beside Katherine.
"Thanks," she whispered. Great. So they were all going to die. Because of her. Suddenly, being here didn't exactly seem like such a great idea. Not like she had a choice in being at the Hyperion, but now all of these nice people were going to die because of her. "When?" She croaked out. She expected shunning, mass amounts of glares. Not warm smiles and reassuring words.
"Not for another few years," The Host replied kindly, before turning back to Wesley.
"So we've still got time before we need to prepare?"
"Oodles and oodles of it," The Host agreed. "What I saw is pretty far off, so don't spend your time worrying about it now. Well, kiddies, I gotta say, this has been fun. It's always a riot with you people, but I gotta head back to Caritas. Tell Angelcakes I say goodbye, will you?" He waved to Katherine then left the room.
"I think I'll go and check this up in one of my books. As vague as The Host was about our impending death, perhaps I can find a prophecy-" Katherine furrowed her eyebrows- "That will explain what shall happen. At least we have a time frame," Wesley muttered, leaving the room.
"Mmm, I'm feelin' the need to get my hurt on. Think I'm gonna go patrol the streets, see if I can find any vamps. There's still a lot of time before sunrise. Later, girls."
"And then there were two," Cordelia quipped, which earned her a small smile from Katherine. "Listen, about the apocalypse thing? I used to live in Sunnydale, and we have our own Hellmouth. I hung out with Buffy Summers and her crew, and I can't begin to tell you about the number of times we faced one apocalypse or the other."
"Wow." She still didn't feel better about her part in all of it.
"You know," Cordelia continued, studying her, "you have nothing to feel bad about. This end-of-the-world thing was probably coming long before you showed. It's not your fault."
"Uh huh."
"There's always something out there trying to end the world, trying to bring about darkness. There's always going to be something out there. But we always beat them back and we're going to keep beating them back. We're the good guys. It's what we do."
"But what if that thing is my sister?"
Cordelia smiled gently and smoothed Katherine's hair. "How 'bout we cross that bridge when we get to it? Which, thankfully, won't be for a bunch of years and shows that the Powers have some sense of mercy."
Katherine smiled. "You lived in Sunnydale? On the Hellmouth?"
"Went to school on it. The Hellmouth, I mean."
"...Think you could tell me about some of those bad guys you beat back?"
Cordelia grinned. "There was this one time that Buffy and I went to a frat party and nearly gotten eatten by this giant snake demon in our junior year. And this other time, this guy brought his brother back from the dead -think Frankenstein- who used to be my boyfriend -the non-dead guy, not Frankenstein- and they wanted my head to make him a girlfriend."
"How nice," Katherine replied weakly.
"Oh, oh!" Cordelia said excitedly. "Lemme tell you about the time the Mayor was evil and at our graduation, he was gonna turn into this gigantic snake demon-"
"-Sunnydale attracts a lot of snakes, huh? Remind me to never go there."
"-And kill us all with the help of his vampire army, but we rallied the whole graduating class and fought back. Staked my first vampire that night. It was pretty cool," she admitted with a dorkish grin. "Blew up the school and everything."
"You...blew up your high school? You people really know how to party in Sunnydale."
Cordelia smiled. "There was this other time when Angel went bad and tried to kill us all. He actually killed...you're not loving this, are you?"
Katherine looked slightly depressed. "No. I mean, yes. I mean...your other stories are great. It's just...I don't really wanna hear about Angel being one of the bad guys."
"I see. ...It's 'cause you like him, isn't it?"
Katherine looked revolted. "Oh, God no!" She exclaimed. "No, no, no! A world of-!" She shuddered. "That would be just so very wrong." Cordelia raised an eyebrow. "I really don't," she repeated, much calmer.
"Okay." She sounded unconvinced.
"Do you have any more stories?" Katherine asked meekly.
"Um...wanna hear about the time this demon named Vocah blew up our offices and almost killed me with fake visions?"
"Sure."
"Hey, how is she?" Angel asked as Cordelia softly closed the bedroom door.
"Feeling better. Though I think she might have a thing for you."
Angel grinned. "I sincerely doubt that."
"Took you pretty long just to get a glass of water," she commented wryly.
Angel shrugged. "Had to take a couple of calls. New clients."
"At a quarter to midnight?"
"No rest for the weary. ...Or something like that. Anyway, I think I'm just going to put this by her bed. In case she wakes up and wants it."
"Okay. See you downstairs."
Angel quietly opened the door and strode across the length of the room, placing the glass down on the nightstand.
"You know, for a vampire, you're not particularly stealthy," a hoarse voice mumbled.
Angel turned, offended. "I thought you were sleeping."
"Is that a way to get out of the stealth thing?"
"I'll have you know I'm -having a completely innane conversation. I'm gonna go; you need your sleep."
"I've slept for two days straight. I never want to sleep again," she replied, struggling to sit up. Angel grabbed hold of her arm and propped her up. "Thanks."
"Actually, while we're up here and the others are down there...if you're up for it..." It may have been completely dark in the room, but Angel could still Katherine stiffen slightly, then slump her shoulders.
"Yes."
"I didn't asked you anything."
"Yeah, but I know what you were going to ask, so I figure I should just spare you the agony of it and tell you."
"So you are lactose-intolerant."
Katherine blinked. "Huh?"
"It's important, if you're lactose-intolerant," Angel insisted. "That means we can't give you any coffee. Not that you'd want it, anyway, especially the way Cordy makes it..."
"Okay, I know you didn't come up here to ask about my non-lactose-intolerant-ness."
"No. Actually, I came up here to bring you your water." She waited. "And ask about something you mentioned before." She waited some more, because as hard as it was for him to ask her, it would be even harder for her to answer. "Wesley brought it up, actually. I didn't even pick up on it, what with the whole end-of-the-world announcement. ...But I have to admit, I'm a bit curious myself." He reached into the pocket of his coat and pulled out two silver chains and a wallet.
"I was wondering where those went," she replied casually, slipping the chains around her neck.
"So, I'm guessing that..."
"My last name's Summers? That my mom was a Slayer? That she was Buffy? Yeah, you guessed right."
"What's with the past tense?"
"Thought I mentioned it. Celia killed her."
"Buffy's strong. She's the Slayer. She can handle herself-"
"Against a bomb?" Angel was stunned into silence. "Yep. Celia blew up the hotel they were in. I'm pretty sure she wished that I was in it."
"'They'?" Angel asked, not wanting to cause Katherine more grief by reliving her past, but wanting desperately to know.
"They were on their honeymoon. Mom and my new stepfather." Angel flipped open the wallet and pointed to Spike's picture, assuming that if she had vampire blood in her, she could see in the dark just as well as he could. "Uh huh. Oh, but I haven't gotten to the best part of it all yet. Where she kills my best friend right in front of me-"
"You don't have to do this to yourself," he said quietly.
"No, I kind of do. If I let myself forget what she did to everyone I loved, I might let myself forget who she's become. I can't afford to do that."
"You don't have to have the weight of the world on your shoulders like that."
"I guess that's something I got from you and Mom, then."
"Me?"
"Oh," Katherine said, blinking in surprise. "I guess you didn't get to that part of the mystery yet."
"No, not really. I was still reeling from the part where Buffy ends up marrying Spike then getting blown up by some power-crazed psycho sister of yours. ...No offense."
"Hey, she's your daughter."
"Which would make you-"
"Your third cousin twice removed?" Angel smiled. "I really didn't want to tell you."
"Why?" He asked, surprised.
"Because as the Oracles so eloquently told me, you're a Champion. You don't need more stuff to brood about. Especially stuff that technically won't exist for another five years."
"But you're my...daughter," he replied, testing the word out, seeing how it felt. It felt strange, but also good. It gave him comfort in knowing that he and Buffy had the possiblity of a future, and that he would actually have children with her. Children who were as good and decent as their mother. Well, one child, anyway. But there was hope for Celia. You could always be saved. It was something Buffy had taught him.
"Not for five more years," she reminded him gently. Reading between the lines, Angel gathered that she neither expected nor wanted him to feel obliged for her just because she had told him what they were to each other.
"Hey, I'm a dad. It's my job to worry." She smiled slightly. "Now how about you tell me how you got hurt in the first place?"
"So you can kiss it and make it all better? Kinda outgrew that one."
"Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of finding whatever did this to you and kicking its ass."
"It was actually my fault," she admitted, then launched into the final part of the story of events that had led her to Angel.
"So why couldn't you fight?" Angel asked once she was finished.
"I don't know," she replied, frustrated. "I still knew how to, but I couldn't. I didn't have the strength, I didn't have the speed, I didn't have the stamina. Completely useless," she sighed.
"Maybe when you came through the portal," Angel suggested. "Maybe that did something to you."
"If that's the case, then I guess the same thing happened to Celia. Which is a big relief. Unless I'm not going to get my abilities back. In which case, that sucks."
"I'll talk to Wesley, see what he can tell me about that." He opened the door, then turned back, a sliver of the golden light from the hall falling on him. "And for the record? You're not worthless. Even if you don't get your abilities back, you'll still be my daughter and you'll still have your place in this world. Your abilities don't define you. Your actions do."
"Now I know why you're the boss around here. You give one hell of a pep talk," she smiled.
"Actually, I'm not so much the boss as Wes is," he admitted. "But I used to be, so you're not that far off. ...It's a long story."
"'Night, Angel."
"'Night," he replied, closing her bedroom door.
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