"Where the hell are we now?" Cordelia whined.
"Still in Sunnydale." Whistler answered.
"Argh! Look! You don’t seem to be getting my point. I want to go home! And I don’t care what you think you’re trying to prove to me but I d-"
~
"Angel... I feel like I lost you... You're right, though. We can't be sure of anything."
"Shhh. I..."
~
"Angel." Cordelia realized as she noticed Buffy and Angel sitting on a bed, a few feet away from them.
"When was this?" Cordelia asked as all her anger was replaced by uneasiness.
"1998, Buffy’s seventeenth birthday." Whistler answered.
~
"I love you. I try not to, but I can't stop."
"Me, me, too. I can't either."
~
"Oh my God." Cordelia said with subtle tears in her voice as she noticed a tone in Angel’s voice that she’d never heard before and realized what was about to happen.
"Don’t see that look in his eyes much these days do you?" Whistler asked softly.
"Get me out of here." Cordelia demanded tearfully.
"We’re not done here yet." Whistler stated dryly.
"I know what happens here, I don’t need a visual! Get me out of here!" Cordelia demanded loudly, obviously upset.
Whistler looked at her sadly and snapped his fingers, which was again followed by a white light and a change of location.
"Why are you doing this?" Cordelia whined and wiped away a single tear that trickled down her cheek.
"What are you trying to prove to me?" Cordelia asked.
"Well, this is going to sound about as trite as it comes but in short: their love transcends everything, including what you and Angel have."
"That is the biggest load of crap I have ever heard! And so obviously not true!" Cordelia justified, her tears drying up.
"How do you figure that?"
"People change! He’s over her; he’s marrying me! Angel loves me, now. Plus all that stuff happened over 5 years ago and Buffy’s had other boyfriends too! She probably wouldn’t even take him back, not that I’m say that Angel would ask her too but-"
"Cordelia." Whistler interrupted her babbling and indicated for her to look at the scene in front of her.
~
"I killed Angel! Do you even remember that? I would have given up everything I had to be with— I loved him more than I will ever love anything in this life. And I put a sword through his heart because I had to."
~
"W-when was this?" Cordelia stuttered quietly as she noticed that Buffy looked older compared to the previous scenes.
"A little over two years ago."
"Ha. I see what this is about now. Look, I know Buffy is miss-save-the-world and all but she can’t have everything she wants and the fact that she summoned you or whatever just shows that she knows Angel would never go back to her without magic or a poorly dressed little PTB lackey-"
"Hey!"
"Sorry, but you can just go back and tell her that it didn’t work and also that I’m taking back her invitation because this is just low."
"Buffy doesn’t know anything about this. I was sent by the Powers That Be to make you see what’s right in front of you. Things aren’t like they’re supposed to be."
"And just how are they supposed to be?" Cordelia asked, frustrated with the slightest trace of panic in her voice.
"One of dark, one of light. Two champions bound together by love and destiny battle the plagues of the world and eventually the final apocalypse which is only won if the champions face it together, hand in hand, heart in heart, souls bound, their love transcends the impossible."
"What’s that from?" Cordelia asked.
"A prophecy."
"What prophecy?" Cordelia asked.
"Does it matter?" Whistler asked sympathetically.
"Well, It could be a fake prophecy-"
"Cor-" Whistler interrupted.
"or a trick or-" Cordelia continued.
"Cordelia." Whistler said.
"Angel hasn’t shown any interest in her in years! This isn’t right! You can’t just tell somebody that they should love someone else!" Cordelia yelled.
Cordelia’s yelling is interrupted by a flash of Buffy and Angel passionately kissing in a mausoleum and then another flash followed and they were in a graveyard.
~
" Because—OK, I'm cookie dough. I'm not done baking. I'm not finished becoming whoever the hell it is I'm gonna turn out to be. I make it through this, and the next thing, and the next thing, and maybe one day I turn around and realize I'm ready. I'm cookies. And then, you know, if I want someone to eat— or enjoy warm, delicious cookie me, then...that's fine. That'll be then. When I'm done."
"Any thoughts on who might enjoy— Do I have to go with the cookie analogy?"
"I'm not really thinking that far ahead. That's kind of the point."
"I'll go start working on the second front. Make sure I don't have to use it."
"Angel. I do... sometimes think that far ahead."
"Sometimes is something."
"Be a long time coming. Years, if ever."
"I ain't getting any older."
~
Cordelia again noticed that Buffy looked almost the same as when she’d seen her last.
"When was this?" Cordelia stuttered.
"Last Summer."
"Last Summer?" Cordelia breathed and immediately felt as if someone had hit her hard in the chest.
"When I was…"
"In a coma, right."
"So what? Am I just his substitute until Buffy becomes ‘cookies’ or some crap like that?" Cordelia yelled, shocked.
"No." Whistler said simply.
"Then what?" Cordelia asked.
"Do I not mean anything at all to him? No, no. That’s not right, why would he have asked me to marry him? He loves me. He loves ME!" Cordelia babbled.
"You’re right, he does love you. That’s the reason we came to you instead of him is because we know he loves you and you love him."
"Then why don’t you just leave us alone!" Cordelia spat.
"I told you. This isn’t how its supposed be and out of the two of you, you’re less hardheaded."
"So what am I supposed to do?" Cordelia asked, freely crying now.
"Break it off."
"No! I can’t, I don’t believe you. You don’t even work for the Powers That Be! You’re a liar! " Cordelia screamed.
"Ask Angel about me if you don’t believe me. If you don’t walk away from this, Angel will be the one to suffer and the upcoming apocalypses will be almost impossible to beat if they’re not together. Together they are strong, alone they’re dead."
"But I love him." Cordelia whispered
"I know you do, but do you love him enough to let him go?" Whistler asked and then touched her forehead and sent her back to the hotel.
