disclaimer in part 1

Swan Song
By Diane
-----
THE PORTALS

Cordelia was hovering. Hovering off somewhere in that
blissful place between sleep and wakefulness. And she liked
it. The pounding headache that was threatening to make her
brains dribble out of her ears disappeared enough when she
was like this, that everything was ok.

"EUREKA!" Wesley cried.

Her eyes snapped open, and she almost tumbled out of her
chair in surprise. "This new habit of yours is getting
really annoying, Wesley," she grumbled as she blinked and the
roaring pain came back.

"What did you find?" Giles asked as he stacked his own books
up before him in a leaning tower of literature.

She bent over and groaned, inhaling the musty scent of the
carpet.

"D-d-do you need some m-more... more Aspirin?" Tara asked
quietly as the group started to gather.

Cordelia shook her head. "No, I need someone to siphon my
guts out so I don't puke them all over the rug..."

Xander frowned as he looked up from his book and leaned back
into Anya's embrace. "Thank you, Cordelia, for that
wonderful update on your state of health..."

"Shut up, Xander," she growled.

"What's the what?" Buffy asked as she glided into the room,
Angel in tow.

Cordelia looked up, noticing that Angel, somehow, looked a
lot better. He didn't look nearly so weak or shaky on his
feet. And he didn't look nearly so miserable. Just worried
and broody. His brow was creased and furrowed with angst,
his shoulders slumped under the weight of guilt only he
understood.

But when was Angel _not_ worried and broody? Lately, he
hadn't been, but she'd considered it a phase. Perhaps he
was truly back to normal.

She shrugged it off as best as she could.

Wesley was practically bouncing out of his seat, he was so
excited, gripping the rumpled Scroll of Aberjian tightly to
him. He looked distinctly like a kid, grinning there.
'I've got a secret...' his gaze seemed to be saying. "This
took me a few hours to translate, but I think I've got it."

Cordelia frowned. "Didn't you already translate that
thing?"

"Most of it yes, but I didn't think the Shanshu was coming
for a while. There are a _lot_ of things on this scroll
that haven't happened yet, like the beast of Amalfie... I'm
guessing that this prophecy is out of order. Suffice it to
say, I didn't get that far on it because I thought I had
more time. Especially after Angel... Well, after..."

Wesley turned red and started to flounder, and Angel began
sinking further into his seat, obviously wishing he could
just disappear into the cushions.

Everyone was looking curiously, and Cordelia could tell the
questions would start coming if she didn't do something.
"Just cut to the chase, Wesley..." she interrupted.

Wesley seemed to snap back onto track at her words. He
looked down at what he had written. "The vampire with a
soul will Shanshu. Blood will spill at the foot of the
Gothaim and the Gates shall be closed. It goes into a bit
more of the specifics, but blood. The short answer is
blood," he said.

She caught Xander roll his eyes as Anya raised her hand.
"Isn't this getting a little repetitive?" the ex-vengeance
demon asked.

Dawn, who had been sacked out on the floor for the longest
time with books lying across her stomach, out in front of
her on the floor, and pretty much every where else in her
vicinity, was suddenly looking worried.

"No, it's not like last time," Wesley said. "Before, you
were trying to close the portal by stopping the blood. I
think that this time, we need to _start_ the blood."

Giles smiled. "Of course! It's so simple! The rituals to
open and close the portals have been made opposite!
Polarized, if you will. We closed the first one by stopping
blood, and technically, that should have worked, but it was
imperfect. Now, the state has switched. They're still
open, but these new tears were created by Angel's Shanshu.
Blood stopping through death."

Dawn sat up. "Do I have to get cut again?" she whispered,
looking terrified.

"No, Dawn. I don't think so," Wesley assured her. "I think
this is a matter of Angel's blood, since it was Angel that
indirectly created the tears."

"What's a Goth heim?" Buffy asked.

Wesley frowned. "What?"

She shrugged. "You said blood will spill at the foot of the
Goth heim. So. What is it?"

"Oh, you mean Gothaim. I'm not entirely sure, I haven't
translated it yet," he confessed.

"Gothaim... I've heard that..." Giles muttered as he
started unstacking his books, looking for a particular
volume. Finding what he wanted, he started leafing through
it, index finger scanning down the pages. The excited look
on his face peaked, and then fell. "Ah. Gothaim. Oh,
dear."

Cordelia felt her spirits fall at Giles's tone. "What.
Why, oh dear?" she prompted when the watcher didn't divulge
anything further.

Silence. Only the clock was ticking.

Someone knocked at the door, sending everyone's heads
darting upward at the resonating sound.

"I'll get it," Buffy whispered, her face downcast as new
fear started dripping off of her in waves.

"So what's a Gothaim?" Cordelia asked as Buffy opened the
door.

Giles and Wesley were looking towards the door, not paying
attention to her as Buffy stepped aside and let their
visitor in.

Spike.

Even if he was neutered evil, he still made her skin crawl.
She didn't want him there. She didn't want to be near him.
And Cordelia certainly didn't want the guy who had tortured
Angel to help them.

Gritting her teeth and biting down hard on her lip, she
managed to prevent herself from uttering some rather nasty
comments, respecting Buffy's obvious trust for him. Suffice
it to say, tact sucked.

"You all started a party without me, I see..." Spike
muttered suspiciously as he wandered in, his eyes darting
between the room's twelve other occupants.

Cordelia tried very hard not to glare, despite her memories
and her headache egging her on. She made it a full ten
seconds before she lapsed into 'Cordelia's glare of death,
mach one.'

"No big deal," Xander said. "We're just trying to figure
out how to save the world. Again."

Spike raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Yeah, we've got an army of darkness coming our way, and the
only way to stop it is to drop Angel's blood in front of the
Goth thingy..." Willow summarized. "Nothing unusual..."

Spike nodded, although he looked rather confused. "Well,
count me in. Don't got anything better to do..." he
shrugged.

'Cordelia's glare of death, mach two,' initiated in
earnest. "So," Cordelia repeated, tearing her eyes away
from him after the blond vampire had gotten settled, "What's
a Gothaim?"

Giles blinked and then frowned back at his text. It made
Cordelia feel very nervous. Very nervous.

"It's... it's a statue. In the demon dimension."

Giles went silent again.

"So, what's that mean?" Anya asked.

Wesley looked at her grimly. "That means we have to close
the portals from the inside out..."

Silence.

Cordelia turned to Angel. "You remember a big statue, by
any chance? It'd probably be a lot easier if you could tell
us where it was..."

Everyone turned to her, amazed, but she shrugged it off as
Angel fumbled around for an answer. "Cordelia, I wasn't
exactly paying attention to the layout while I was there,
and I don't remember a lot of my time there, anyway..."

Angel looked rather uncomfortable with twelve sets of eyes
all staring at him.

"Oh," Cordelia replied. "Well, it was worth a shot..."

Her denial of the seriousness of the situation gave way to
fear. Deep fear, in the pit of her chest. That same, deep
fear she got whenever Angel got all dark and crazy. Like
earlier in the year, before he'd gone completely round the
bend.

"I'll do it," Spike said. No hesitation.

Cordelia narrowed her eyes at him. Must not comment. Must
not...

"Do what?" Buffy asked.

"I'll take the blood to the statue."

"Spike, you can't just... walk in and..." Buffy fumbled,
turning to Giles. "Can you?" Her voice was light,
hesitant. Like she was overloaded. Angel wrapped his arms
around her, with a small glance to Spike.

Cordelia could feel the subtext going on there, darting
between them like death rays, each bent on smiting the
other. But she couldn't, for the life of her, figure out
why.

"I believe that would actually work," Giles answered. "But
Angel would have to go with him... The blood needs to be
from him, and it has to be bled from the source right there,
at least that's what I've gathered from Wesley's translation
notes..."

Wesley nodded.

Buffy's eyes started to water, but she blinked it away,
taking a deep breath. "How will Angel and Spike get back?"

Cordelia felt the fear come roaring into her head as well.
Fear. Shaky, terrible fear. Angel looked neutral, but
Wesley and Giles were both shifting into their own versions
of weary apprehension. The head ache gave way to a Richter
ten migraine as the look on both Giles's and Wesley's faces
revealed the answer to Buffy's question.

This would be a one way trip.

continue