WESLEY: (looking through books) Here's something.

ANGEL: What is it?

WESLEY: The beast of Amalfie, a razor toothed six-eyed harbinger of death. No, wait, that's due to arise in 2003, in Reseda.

ANGEL: I would have guessed Tarzana.

WESLEY: Better cross-reference that. I'm sorry, I don't know what they raised in that box. I'll keep looking.

CORDELIA: You've been looking for two days. You need to relax and charge the brain cells. (Hands him sandwich) Here, eat!

CORDELIA: (hands cup of blood to Angel) You too! (Angel looks up at her) Don't be embarrassed. We're family. (Wesley stares at her)

CORDELIA: What?

WESLEY: It's just I... I'm not used to...

ANGEL: He's not used to the new you.

CORDELIA: I know what's out there now. We have a lot of evil to fight, a *lot* of people to help. I just hope skin and bones here can figure out what those lawyers raised sometime before the prophecy kicks in and you croak. (pause) That was the old me, wasn't it?

ANGEL: I like them both.

WESLEY: (back to books) Uh - oops. I may have made a tiny mistake. The word "Shanshu" that I said meant you were going to die? Actually I think it means you're going to live.

CORDELIA: Okay, as tiny mistakes go... that's not one.

WESLEY: Shanshu has roots in so many different languages. The most ancient source is the Proto-Bantu and they consider life and death the same thing. It's part of a cycle. Only a thing that's not alive never dies. It's - it's saying that you get to live until you die. It's saying - it's saying... you become human.

CORDELIA: That's the prophecy?

WESLEY: Ah, the vampire with a soul, once he fulfills his destiny, will Shanshu. Become human. It's his reward.

CORDELIA: Wow. Angel, human.

ANGEL: That'd be nice.

CORDELIA: Wait. What's that thing about him having to fulfill his destiny first?

WESLEY: Well, it's saying that it won't happen tomorrow or the next day. He has to survive the coming darkness, the apocalyptic battles, a few plagues, and some - uh, several - not that many - fiends that will be unleashed on the world.

ANGEL: So don't break out the champagne just yet.

CORDELIA: Oh, yeah, break out the champagne, Pinocchio. This is a big deal!

ANGEL: I guess it is.

CORDELIA: Typical. I hook up with the only person in history who ever came to LA to get older.

• Cordelia's visions & championhood
• The Shanshu prophecy/scroll of Aberjian

written by: David Greenwalt; Originally transcribed by anonymous. Edited and formatted for this site by Cerd_gwenn. Checked against source by me.. Full transcript at:
http://studiesinwords.de/a22shanshu.html