"Rotten Apple"

"Hey Ah Na Na
Ignorance is spoken
Spoken

Confidence is broken
Broken

Sustenance is stolen
Stolen

Arrogance is potent
What I see is unreal
I've written my own part
Eat of the apple, so young
I'm crawling back to start

Hey Ah Na Na
A romance is fallen
Fallen

I repent tomorrow
Tomorrow

Is suspended my sorrow
Sorrow

Recommend you borrow" Alice In Chains (Rotten Apple Jar Of Flies 1994)


“Here.”

Startled, Wesley noticed that his book was no longer laying on the desk before him. Instead he was staring at a large cup of coffee and a plate holding a sandwich and chips. Raising his eyes he nodding in thanks to Fred.

The two sat quietly while Wesley ate the small meal. There were no words to be spoken, their situation weighing heavily on all of their minds. Seeing Spike scream and thrash around on the small hospital bed brought home to all involved that time was against them.

It had been two days since Spike had been pulled into his visions and they were no closer to finding out what Wolfram and Hart had done. Either Dawn or Lorne stayed with Spike at any given time and every body else was put to work researching. Only Lorne, Fred and Gunn knew of Angel’s involvement and they wanted to keep it that way. The L.A group did not trust those from Sunnydale and Dawn was too worried about Spike. They simply did not want to cause her any more distress.

“I take ya’ll haven’t found anything yet?” Fred asked as she leafed through some of the notes that littered the top of Wesley’s desk.

“Sadly no.” Wesley sighed. He had long since given up on sleep. He felt tired, weak, and useless. Despite all that they were trying to do for Spike, Wesley was afraid that it would not be enough. Since his visit with Lilah, he couldn’t help but feel that he was missing something. The odd dream he’d experienced crept back into the for front of his mind. Wesley had the odd feeling that if he could only figure out what the dream meant he just might be able to find the answers to their current crisis inside the cryptic riddle.

“What’s this?” Fred asked. Looking at the paper she held forth in her hand Wesley could see that it was a short run down of his dream. Briefly, a phrase spoken to him filtered through his mind.

“If you don’t stop to look beneath the surface, you’ll never see what’s right in front of you.”

“Fred how would you like to help me decipher something?” Wesley asked. Slowly some of the tension left his body. It seemed that whatever lead they were following, it was the right one.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Giles please tell me we found something.” Buffy asked as she came through their hotel room doors. Research and spell books were scattered all over the coffee table and the floor surrounding it. Coffee cups, empty food containers and balled up pieces of paper lay among the wreckage.

Looking up from his pile of notes and the large book he was pursuing, Giles ran a critical eye over his Slayer. He was slightly disturbed to see that Buffy looked on the verge of falling apart. In all the years since becoming her Watcher, Giles had only seen Buffy look this fragile twice before. The first time was around the time her mother became sick and then died. The second time was shortly after Buffy’s own resurrection at the hands of her friends. It galled Giles that Spike of all beings could gain such a response from the girl he saw as his daughter. Despite his feelings, Giles would do all he could to help. He had worked hard to regain Buffy’s trust and if he had to help Spike so that he could keep that trust, then he would help, for now.

“I’m sorry but we haven’t been able to find a thing. Perhaps if we knew all of the details…”

“Giles.” Came Buffy’s shape tone. “Fred already told us what happened.”

“Yes, but she is employed by Wolfram and Hart and I think it would be disastrous to trust anything that they consent to tell us.” Giles stated firmly. The fact that the group worked with Angel was also a mark against them in Giles’ opinion.

“Giles,” Willow called, gaining the watcher’s attention. “Fred would never lie about something like this. She doesn’t have it in her.”

“You would be surprised at what people are capable of.” Giles answered.

“I agree.” Buffy stated rather flatly. “I learned that lesson the hard way.”

Silence greeted Buffy’s distinctly revealing words.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cordelia was in hiding. Two days ago she had woken up from her coma in a nightmare reality. The vision that the Powers had shown her scared her. Cordelia didn’t want to believe any of it but she had never been one to hide her head in the sand. Of course she had never let anyone else do that either.

Sitting quietly in her old room at the Hyperion, Cordelia tried to sort through what she knew. She remembered Connor, Jasmine, and the Beast. She knew that somehow that thing had stolen her body and had used her to give birth to itself. Cordelia even remembered her time when she was in her coma. She had cried silently to herself, unable to communicate in anyway with the people she loved. Soon she had slipped into the recesses of her mind. It was the only relief she could get.

What puzzled her now was the events that had happened after her coma had begun. While Cordelia under stood Angel’s need to save his son, she felt that there must have been a better way. They all knew better than to trust Wolfram and Hart, so Angel’s deal with them troubled her. What she could not forgive was Angel’s deal to wipe everyone’s memories of Connor. He had done so without anyone’s permission or thought of how it would effect them. No matter how Angel tried to justify it, taking their memories was a violation.

Spike’s situation also brought a frown to the brunette seer. The rude and arrogant vampire had gotten a soul because he’d wanted one. Then he’d willingly died to stop the First Evil from ending the world. Cordelia wasn’t stupid. The Powers had shown her everything that had happened in Sunnydale, the good, bad, and very ugly. She had seen the beginning and the end of Spike and the Scoobies reactions to his demise. She had felt his pain upon being brought back from heaven and the agony that the visions brought him. She clearly remembered the torment that she endured when Vocah had trapped her inside of her visions. Her heart broke just thinking of the pain that Spike was currently in. More tears spilled down her face at the thought of what she had to do but Cordelia was no faint hearted little lady. She may not like her mission but it was necessary. The time had come for Queen C to make her come back.

Sunlight gleamed off of the glass tower that was Wolfram and Hart. To the oblivious outsider it looked like any other multimillion dollar high rise but to Cordelia it represented hell itself. Swallowing down her revulsion, Cordelia pulled her shoulders back and held her head high. Fixing her Gucci sunglass so that they perched on her nose at the perfect angle, Cordelia strode purposefully towards the alley beside the building. No one on the street noticed when the pretty young woman vanished.