lit_gal | Kin of the Heart

In this universe, Xander challenged Angel right up front--called him a pedophile to his face. And from there, everything changed.

Previous parts:
Part one: Bumbling to a Save
Part two: Family Ties
Part three: Devil in the Details
Part Four: Bad Karma
Part Five: Rust Upon Iron
Part Six: Mending Fences... or tearing them down
Part Seven: Quiet Waters Mirroring Undistorted
Part Eight: Bait, Swindle and Self-destruct
Part Nine: Deaf, Dumb, and Destiny-blind
Part Ten: The Road Not Taken
Part Eleven: Full Circle on the Lesson
Part Twelve: The Care and Feeding of Humans
Part Thirteen: A Little Brutal Honesty with Tea
Part Fourteen: A Slippery Leash
Part Fifteen: Flesh and Blood and Heart

Part Sixteen: A Slender Thread of Sanity
Part Seventeen: The Enemy of my Enemy
Part Eighteen: The Best Laid Plans
Part Nineteen: The World Turns
Part Twenty: Faulty Logic
Part Twenty-One: The Eyes of a Wounded Child
Part Twenty-Two: The Window Through Which You See the World
Part Twenty-Three: Man is a Knot
Part Twenty-Four: Do Unto Others

Part Twenty-Five: Twists and Turns of Fate

"Bloody hell, the pouf's goin' to whip the skin off me if he finds out I showed you this place," Spike growled, ducking under a tree branch.

"Okay, not to get weirdly personal or anything, but don't you like it when he does that? And that is way disturbing," Xander complained as he followed Spike through the woods.

"You should try a little pain with your pleasure, pet. I'd be happy ta give you a guided tour." Spike stopped and considered Xander with a lewd expression that was clear even by moonlight. Actually, the moonlight gave Spike even more lewd than he normally had in his expression, and that was saying something.

Funny enough, before Faith, Xander knew he would have blushed brilliant red at the offer. Now... now sex wasn't as blush-worthy. Yeah, it'd been great. Compared to his sock puppet of love, it was fabulous and way less likely to cause wrist strain. But the aftermath kinda took the shine off. He'd liked having Cordelia to walk to class and walking the cheerleaders home from practice and bouncing between Buffy's table and Cordelia's table at lunch. Yep, it was stressful keeping all his girls happy, but he'd enjoyed the stress.

Now he had front row tickets for John Lee's droolfest as he chased after Cordy. Xander's only consolation was that he was never getting in her pants. Besides, Cordelia had made it pretty clear that she considered herself close enough to graduation that only college men were appropriate for her level of perfection. And yet, despite Cordelia's brutal comments about 'immature high school boys,' John Lee kept right on shoveling the gifts at her. Trust Cordy to land on her feet. And weirdly enough, he was feeling feetish himself. He was almost weirded out about how on his feet he felt because he'd lost Cordelia. He should be devastated. Instead he was just a little sad but definitely on his feet. If he were still being depressed, he would definitely say they were fated to break up.

Xander stopped creeping through the bushes for a second to really look at Spike. "You know, the whole hitting on me thing is actually a relief. Angel is acting weird enough for all of us, so you being inappropriate is strangely comforting."

"Relief and comfort isn't what I was going for, is it?" Spike complained.

"This is me with the not wanting to know what you were going for. You and the vampy crowd are not even logical on your good days," Xander answered. He shouldn't been this cheerful and bantery... and yet, he was.

"Me? You lot with souls are soddin' barmy."

"So, we both agree that Angel is way out there in la-la land?" Xander asked. Spike stopped and leaned against a tree before looking Xander up and down.

"He's fucking 'round the twist, pet. He went to a bloody church the other night. I followed him out expecting a fight, and he stopped and had fucking tea with a priest. I thought he was nutters before, but the last week he's been even worse."

Xander blinked in surprise. Angel hadn't been going out as much lately, but he had no idea that he'd gone back to Father Carnelias.

"Bloody hell, that's your happy face. You knew he was going to see this bloke, didn't you?" Spike demanded. "I'm surrounded by nutters. I must have sodding well pissed on the universe's cornflakes in a previous life to deserve this hell." Spike looked like angry, but it was the kind of angry he got when Xander or Faith did something he considered particularly stupid and endearing.

"You like nutters," Xander pointed out with ruthless honesty.

"Ponce." After insulting him with a weird Britishism, Spike turned back toward the woods.

"So," Xander asked casually, "how often has Angel gone to see Father Carnelias?"

"Father Carnelias, is it?" Spike glanced over his shoulder.

"Yes, and there will be no eating of nice priests."

"Bloody hell, I'm on a fucking leash," Spike sighed dramatically. "Right then, here's the sod's secret hideaway." Spike stopped in front of a low concrete building without any windows. The metal door had a warning sign for high-voltage, but there weren't any wires going into or out of the building.

"This is where he's been hanging out?" Xander asked as he walked closer. Spike snatched him by the shoulder and pulled him back so fast that Xander stumbled into Spike's chest, and Spike's arms caught him around the waist.

"Don't know what Angel has in there, but he's got traps set up around here. Best watch your step, pet."

Xander looked around at the empty woods and weeds and a stray beer can tossed under a bush. "Okay, I’m watching the stepping, and I'm seeing a big nothing."

"Blind as a bat," Spike complained softly, and then his hands were on Xander's arms, guiding him in a winding path through the grass and weeds in front of the concrete shed. "If I get you killed in one of Angel's traps, the bastard will brood for the next century.

"I can't say I'd be too happy about the being dead, either."

"Complain, complain."

"If I'm dead, yeah!"

"If you're dead, you won't be complainin' about anything."

"Dead hasn't stopped you from being a whiny pants," Xander pointed out as they reached the door to the strange, squat structure. Spike yanked him around by the arm and growled in his face.

"A whiny pants? You soddin' take that back you little wanker."

"Hey, with Faith gone, you wank as much as I do!"

Spike laughed as he pulled a lock pick out of his duster. "Don't count on it. I still get my end off with Angel, pet." Spike gave him an eyebrow wiggle before he went to one knee in front of the locked door.

"Whatever," Xander said with a dramatic eyeroll of his own.

"I bloody love it when he pins me down and stuffs that big cock of his up my arse. If ya think Faith's finger could set off fireworks, just imagine how it feels to have a great cock shoved up there. Then he bites, and it's bloody brilliant.... well fuck." Spike pushed the door all the way open. Xander leaned over Spike's back to look inside.

"Hello? Quick, you have to help me." A brown-haired man with envy-worthy shoulders and a ridiculously handsome face stood behind the bars in a cage that took up half the room in the windowless building. "You need to call the police. I've been kidnapped by a man who might come back any time."

"I was expecting some lunacy like the Vampire Church of Jesus Christ, not a boxed meal," Spike said. He flashed into gameface as he stood up and took a step forward. The man in the cage quickly backed up to the back of his cell and dropped into a fighting stance.

"Hey, no eating the... um... okay, I really don't quite know what to make of this," Xander finished weakly as he made a grab for Spike's arm. He knew full well that Spike chose to stop because Spike was only about a hundred times stronger than he was, but at least there was no eating of the guy in the cage... yet.

"You're a hostile," the man said, disgust in his voice.

"Not feeling particularly hostile, but I am a bit peckish, how about you, pet?" Spike reached around and slipped an arm around Xander's waist.

"I'm actually more confused than anything else. Spike, is he human?"

"Of course I'm human!" the man objected loudly as Spike sniffed the air.

"Smells like. If you want, I can taste him and find out." Spike smiled viciously, and the guy in the cage turned the color white that you normally find in a bottle of that cheap paste you use in grade school.

"Okay, no eating or scaring of guy until he has a heart attack," Xander amended himself. "And why is Angel hanging out with a guy in a cage?"

"Don't know. If he wanted to get kinky, I would have been more than happy ta play the part of the mouthy prisoner." Spike backed up and leaned against the wall next to the door as he watched the new guy. "Stay back from the bars, pet, we don't actually know if he has any weapons."

At that, Xander stumbled back and pressed as close to Spike as he could without looking like a complete and total wuss. For his part, the guy in the cage just looked totally confused as he looked from Xander to Spike and back again.

"What do you want?" he finally asked, his fists still held ready, which seemed a little pointless because he was on the other side of bars.

"Not to sound cliché, but world peace would be nice." Xander shrugged and the other guy looked extra special confused.

"Who are you?"

Xander might have answered except Spike put a hand over his mouth. "Seems like you're the one who needs to be answering some questions. So, who the fuck are you?"

"I won't break. You won't get anything out of me."

Xander looked over at Spike, and that was definitely an amused grin on the vamps face. "Mate, if I want to break ya, I will. You don't seem worth the effort, but if ya make me open that cage to get answers, I'm not leaving without doing some damage."

"Hey, no eating of humans," Xander pointed out.

"He bloody started it, so that puts him on the short list of blood donors," Spike pointed out. "Bloody hell, I'm justifying my eating habits. I hope your soddin' happy," Spike snarled.

"If it means you aren't going to eat random guy—deliriously happy," Xander quickly answered. Yeah, he knew that Spike fed from donors at the suck houses and got in bar fights on the dock just to have an excuse to eat some ship worker guy; however, he didn't want to be anywhere suck-adjacent for any of it. "Look, I'm—" Xander stopped when Spike's hand again clapped over his mouth.

"No giving the prisoner information, pet. Consider that rule one of capture and terrorize."

Xander pushed Spike's hand away. "I really don't want to know the rules for terrorizing. I’m a big old 'no' on all forms of terror, including terrorizing some guy in a cage. So tell him we aren't going to kill him and make nice," Xander said as he gestured toward the cage. Now the guy in there had an expression Spike liked to call gobsmacked. His jaw was literally hanging a bit, just enough to show perfect teeth. This guy should seriously consider a job in modeling.

"Can't do that, pet," Spike shrugged. "I'm not the one who put him in there."

"Oh shit." Xander looked away from Spike and at the cage. "Oh no. No no no. Please tell me that this isn't like loss-of-soul bad. Because I sent Angel to the priest to talk about soul-saving, not soul losing. Oh god, you don't think that the priest actually saved Angel's soul and sent it on to heaven or purgatory or something and just left the vampire parts behind, do you? Because I like vampire you, but vampire him is a little scary in a peeing your pants when he glares at you kind of way."

"And I'm not?" Spike demanded, and he actually managed to look hurt.

"You're way more sane than he is."

"True, but I'm so much better at corrupting young no-longer-virgins," Spike smirked.

"Who the hell are you people?" the guy in the cage demanded loudly.

"They're two meddlers," Angel said from the door, and that was definitely not a happy face. "Spike, get him out of here," Angel said stiffly. Before Xander could object, Spike had grabbed him by the arm and was shoving him toward the exit. No way was he going that easily, though. On his way past Angel, he caught the vamp's arm in both hands.

"No way am I leaving," Xander objected as he held on for all he was worth.

"Bloody fuck," Spike snarled, and then he yanked Xander so hard that Xander's feet came off the ground, but he held on. Angel ended up stumbling to the side and when he lost his balance, Angel slammed both of them into the wall with Xander smushed between Spike and Angel.

With a snarl, Angel jerked back, but Xander stubbornly clung, and this time the force of Angel's pull brought Spike stumbling after because he wouldn't let go of Xander's waist. His hands slipped, and fingers scrambled at his legs before Spike caught him by the knees and started pulling back, trying to wrestle him away from Angel. If not for the two snarling vampires using him like a rope in tug of war, Xander really would have laughed. As it was, his fingers were starting to ache from trying to hold onto Angel.

"Get him out," Angel snapped.

"I'm fucking trying. You get him to let go of your fucking arm."

Angel did just that, pulling at Xander's fingers, but Xander just made a grab for Angel's belt. "How about just telling me what the hell is going on because I am not okay with getting shoved around here. My testosterone levels are hitting new lows and damaging my fragile male ego," Xander loudly complained as he used a foot to try and push Spike away. "And if you've gone evil, I want an update on how, when and where, and I may let Spike eat Father Peter if he went and damaged your soul instead of reassuring it."

That stopped Angel. His hands paused in their task of pulling Xander's grip loose. "If I've gone evil?" Angel asked, clearly confused, but then this whole room was just a nexus of confusion. The guy in the cage was looking ready to collapse with confusion. "Why would you think I've gone evil?" Angel asked quietly. Either Spike sensed a change or Angel did something to make him back off, because Spike lowered Xander so that his feet touched ground.

"I don't know... the guy in the cage maybe?" Xander guessed, still not letting go of Angel's belt as he got his feet under him. He'd learned over the years that vampires cheated when they wrestled. Actually, they cheated at pretty much everything. "When you have a soul and the whole good-guy image going, you don't normally put guys in cages... at least not without trials and lawyers and due process."

"Or leather and whips and kinky toys," Spike added. Xander just ignored him.

"You thought I'd turned evil?" Angel asked again, his expression caught somewhere between hurt and shocked.

"I didn't, Peaches," Spike quickly added. Xander glared at him, but Spike just shrugged. "Without the soul, you sure wouldn't have put him someplace with a toilet and a sink, and he's not exactly suffering any abuse... at least not yet. If you had lost that shiny soul of yours, I'd expect a pretty boy like that to have a lot more marks on him. I'd expect him to be chained up against a wall with his back striped from a cane or whip and his shirt hanging in tatters."

"Okay, TMI," Xander said, feeling faintly nauseous. He really wanted to pretend that pre-soul Angel would never have done anything quite that bad, which was funny because he knew Angelus had done way worse. Hell, Angelus offered to do worse to him and make him enjoy it.

"I'm not evil, and I'm not going to kill or main Riley," Angel said softly, "but you need to leave."

"If you're human, you have to help me. They're monsters," the guy—Riley—said from his cage.

"We're not human, but we're more natural than that abomination you have built under the campus." Angel put a hand on Xander's chest and pushed him back a step before he walked up to the front of the cage. "And you are too stupid to see what is under your nose. Step back from the door," he ordered as he pulled out a key. "Spike, take the boy home."

"The boy isn't going anywhere unless you want to make the boy unhappy for a very long time, and an unhappy *boy* is going to lead to problems that you can't even imagine," Xander said as he danced away from Spike. With human reflexes, that just meant that Spike had to work a little harder before catching him around the waist and pulling him close.

"This isn't safe, what I'm doing," Angel said as he turned to face Xander. Riley took the opportunity to strike out through the bars of his cage, landing a vicious blow low on Angel's back. Angel grunted and then turned long enough to punch Riley in the face hard enough to send him reeling back until he crashed into the far wall. Without even acknowledging the mini-fight, Angel turned back. "I just want you safe."

Xander snorted and shoved ineffectually at Spike's arm that imprisoned him. "Newsflash—we're on a hellmouth. We're never safe. And if you're going somewhere unsafe, I want to be that unsafe place with you as opposed to all the other unsafe place in this town, and face it, this whole town is unsafe."

"Please," Angel said, his jaw tightening.

"No way. So, Riley, are you okay in there?" Xander asked as the guy picked himself back up from the floor. "Xander Harr—" the rest was muffled as Spike slapped a hand over his mouth.

"William," Angel growled.

"He's a fast bugger. Didn't see it coming, did I?"

For a second, Angel just continued to growl, a low constant vibration that Xander could feel in his bones. "If this goes wrong, you will do exactly what I tell you to do," Angel finally snapped. "Spike, you remember Budapest?"

Spike nodded, and Xander could feel the tension between them like when they prepared to hunt together, only this time, Riley was looking like the prey and Xander was really hoping that things were not as fucked up as they seemed to be. Angel stepped forward and slapped Spike on the arm before slipping him one seriously ugly gold and green ring. Spike frowned, but Angel had already turned his back.

"Stay at my side," Angel said to Xander before he turned back to the cage and unlocked the door.

"I won't tell you anything no matter what you do to me," Riley said, his back straight and sweat gathering at the edge of his hairline.

"You already told me everything I needed," Angel said. "Come out."

Riley looked from Angel to Xander, his hands curling into fists and relaxing and curling again nervously.

"Now." Angel ordered sharply. Riley clenched his teeth hard enough to make his jaw bulge, but he walked slowly toward Angel and the open door. Spike had vanished back out into the night, and Xander stepped to the far side of Angel and rested his hand on Angel's back. If Riley was going to keep pissing Angel off, Xander was definitely going to have to calm him down.

"Riley, small piece of advice, don't piss off vampires when they're already pissed because they are way stronger than they look," Xander offered softly. Riley cast him a hateful glare, but he did move a little faster. As soon as came out, Angel grabbed him by the arm and started pushing him toward the door.

"Xander, stay right behind me. With your luck, you'll set off every trap and get yourself killed."

"Thank you for that vote of confidence," Xander muttered, but he also walked as close to Angel as he dare without making himself a target if Riley decided to make a move. "Any chance you could tell us where we're going that's so dangerous? Because I've seen danger, and you usually aren't this twitchy about storming the castle."

Angel didn't answer immediately as he guided all three of them on a winding path through the clearing. "We're going to see a man about a military installation under the university."

"A man as in a man-man or a demon man or a something in-between man?"

"A general."

"What?" Riley actually stumbled for a step before he caught his footing again.

"I needed your rank and serial number so I could trace your chain of command."

"And my blood? Why did you take a vial of blood from me?"

"Wait," Xander interrupted their little argument. "He took a vial? That's new and weirdly disturbing."

Angel didn't even slow down. "I needed to prove a point."

"Did you like the taste? At this point, if you're planning on draining me, I don't see the reason for the deception." Riley had that sort of stoic tone that Giles sometimes got when the group forced him to endure modern music. Resignation, Willow had called it.

"If I were going to drain you, I wouldn't bother deceiving you. I took the blood to give to your general." They were approaching the edge of the wooded area, and as near as Xander could tell, they were about to come out into the playground area of the old grade school. Up ahead, he could hear the sounds of quiet shuffling and metal clicking against metal ominously. "Xander, stay close," Angel whispered. Then he stopped.

"I've brought the captain and a friend who is also human. Open fire, and you will injure them and just piss me off," Angel said loudly.

A branch snapped to their right, and suddenly Xander had the feeling that this was an incredibly horrible idea for him to come along. Angel was supposed to stop him from doing anything this stupid, only not so much with the stopping this time around. Riley shifted, and Angel must have tightened his hold because the man hissed in pain.

"Angel?" a voice asked. A broad man with a middle just starting to go soft and very little hair stepped out from behind a tree.

"General?" Riley asked. Then he hissed in pain again.

"Captain, stand down," the general ordered. "I wasn't sure you would bring him."

"I said I would," Angel said with the sort of false calm Xander recognized from battle. His hand inched toward his cinquedea. "Xander, stop," Angel said softly.

"I hadn't expected you to bring anyone." The general stepped back, his hand gesturing toward the grade school. Normally Xander would have said that it was stupid to go anywhere that the enemy wanted you to go, but from the sounds of rustling in the woods, they were already surrounded. "Is this your consort whose blood allows you to walk in the sun?"

"Hey, someone's been reading stupid Watcher propaganda," Xander blurted out before he could rein in his tongue. "And please feel free to ignore me."

Angel was already looking back at him with obvious regret at having brought him, and Xander bit his tongue and silently vowed to say nothing else, not even when his brain was about to explode at the sudden realization that the general had claimed Angel could walk in the sun and Angel had not been with the mocking and denying.

"That was a spell, an expensive spell. I knew something was going on, and I needed to find out what," Angel said as he escorted Riley into the clearing. There weren't obvious signs of solders, but the slide and kiddie fort had grown a few new bumps that looked suspiciously like helmets. "Did you find what I said you'd find in the blood?"

"Yes," the general said slowly. He gestured, and a man in green camouflage came out from behind the play fort. "Some suspect that it could have been added to the sample, so we would like a fresh vial collected by my personnel."

Angel nodded. It was Riley who protested that. "A fresh vial to test for what, sir?" he asked as the camouflage guy pulled out a needle.

"You may have been compromised, Captain. Angel here has a file going back to the last world war, so when he brought certain accusations to the joint chiefs, they were a little more willing to listen to him than I expected."

"Joint chiefs?" Xander breathed. They were guys you read about in government class. No one ever talked to people you read about in government class. People like the joint chiefs and the president were like unicorns... people talked about them but no one actually talked to them.

"Captain, if you would give me your arm," the guy with the needle said as he pushed up Riley's sleeve on his right arm, not even asking Angel to let go of Riley's left.

"You'll find I didn't change the sample," Angel said calmly.

The general stood staring up at the sky for a second before nodding. "Your willingness to allow the test does suggest that. So Dr. Walsh really has gone rogue."

"Sir, Dr. Walsh's work has allowed us to capture six different hostiles and conduct testing on..." Riley stopped when the general held up his hand.

Xander couldn't help giving a snort of derision, and the general's eyes focused on him. For half a second, Xander tired to stick with his not talking plan, but he was just not very good with the not talking. "Six demons is like one night's work. I can take out six demons in a night, and I'm not much with the demon-fighting talent."

"Xander," Angel hissed.

"Six minions anyway. I mean, if you thrown a hellhound in there, I’m not going to be good for more than one in a night, and I'm so not even giving myself odds against a moira, but six vampires I could take."

"Dr. Walsh's work will ensure that there won't be any demons left," Riley quickly retorted.

"Captain," the general said, and Riley fell silent, but his back was still stiff as the guy with the needle finished his work and pulled Riley's sleeve back down. "She may have compromised our men psychologically as well as physiologically," the general admitted, "but I still cannot condone allowing civilians to defend a potential battlefront."

"If you have a division of soldiers in here, you'll drive away the harmless and low-level demons that normally keep the hellmouth under control by draining off some of the energy and preventing lunatics from opening it."

"Let the foxes guard the henhouse." The general gave a small laugh. "Not an option the joint chiefs are willing to accept."

"You left me to recover that submarine you wanted so badly," Angel pointed out, and Xander had officially lost track of this conversation three exits back.

"You acted under duress according to the files."

"Only because your men broke into my room and threatened me with a stake before even explaining the mission."

"My men?" The general really laughed this time. "I was three years old at the time you recovered that Nazi submarine. And according to your own words, you aren't alone in guarding this hellmouth. Given your current companion, I have to wonder at the quality of the defensive lines here."

"Xander," Angel said, and it startled Xander so badly that he actually jumped. "Tell the general about what you've helped defeat on this hellmouth."

"Me? Hey, I’m just here for moral support," Xander offered weakly. Angel just stared at him with those cold eyes that made it clear he really wasn't joking. "But offhand, I can remember the Master and the crazy praying mantis lady and Moloch and Machida and Eyghon and the brotherhood of organ stealing demons and we had zombies lots of times and hellhounds and lots and lots of vampires and more vampires and weirdly entrepreneurial vampires and chaos mages. Did I miss anything?"

"Demonic possession by hyenas and reanimated mummies," Angel pointed out. Xander flinched.

"I'm trying to forget them."

Sometime during Xander's little speech, Riley had twisted around to stare at him, and even the general had a shocked expression. Mentally reviewing the list, Xander did have to admit that was a lot of demonic action for anyone.

"And your Dr. Walsh brags about six demons, three of which are harmless species. It's a cover for her work with the soldiers, and we're the ones doing the real work of defending the hellmouth," Angel said in a smug voice.

Riley was already shaking his head. "She wouldn't do that."

The general stepped forward, so close that Xander could see the deep wrinkles on either side of his mouth. "She has, soldier. You've been compromised, and the work we found in her lab during a surprise inspection was enough to justify a court martial even without confirmation that others have been affected." He turned toward Angel. "But we are not willing to allow the area to go undefended. Those in charge of the current direction the Initiative has taken will be disciplined, but the need for local control still exists."

"You can't control this," Angel said with some amusement. He let go of Riley's arm, and for a second, Riley just looked at him in shock before he quickly took his place at the general's side. Xander stepped up next to Angel and tried really hard to not look like a terrified high-school student. "You can be part of it."

"Under your command," the general guessed. It didn't take a mind reader to know how much Riley hated that idea.

"No," Angel said, already shaking his head, "I'm not the one destined to save the world from this hellmouth. I just try to back up the woman who has been keeping the darkness at bay since the Master escaped and loosed the door to hell."

"Someone else is in charge?" The general's back stiffened, and already Xander could tell that he was wondering why he was dealing with Angel. "Another vampire?"

Angel laughed. "No. A few vampires are willing to live and let live, but we carry all the faults of the human who lived in the body before us, only all those faults are amplified. It takes a remarkably good person to create a vampire who is only mildly evil. Most people aren't that good, and most vampires are vicious and ruthless killers. A few are masters of psychological terror and slaughter."

"As you were before you changed," the general said quietly, and Xander froze at the idea of the government having this much information on Angel. However, Angel didn't see that surprised.

"In life I was brutal and cold. My vampire learned to be even worse," Angel agreed mildly. "However, you know I have a soul now, and there are other vampires in town who, even without the soul, are unlikely to cause problems. You'll never find them hunting. You probably won't find them at all. However, the person who I try to support is actually a human. I'll tell her about you and any offer to help, but I won't speak for her. She might be more willing to discuss having a military team reporting to her if she knew you had something to bring to the table."

Angel reached over and rested his hand on Xander's shoulder as the night fell silent. The general frowned as he studied Angel. For long minutes, the silence continued as a jet crawled through the sky overhead, leaving behind a white trail that glowed in the moonlight.

"What sort of support is she looking for us to bring?" he finally asked.

Angel didn't answer immediately, and Xander firmly squashed his desire to fidget. "We have a major situation coming up with the mayor."

The general held up his hand to stop Angel. "We do not get involved in politics."

"He's a demon about to evolve into one of the old ones—demons of incredible power who were forced off the planet thousands of years ago. The last time someone ascended, it took a volcano exploding to stop them."

Xander noticed that both Riley and the general seemed to get a little paler... either that or the moon was casting light that was a little whiter. "We don't have a volcano handy," the general said.

"Explosives," Xander said as he realized where Angel was going. "If we had enough explosives, we could blast him the second he starts turning into the big, creepy, whatever he's going to turn into. We know he's going to be at the school for our graduation, so we could rig something. Oh... wait... the school uses gas for all the chemistry labs. We could turn the gas on and then rig the building with explosives. We'd just need to get the major to run into the school and kaboom, no more mayor."

The general looked at him like he was the one turning into a demon. "You want us to blow up your school? And did you just say that you still attend school?"

"I just lost cool points, didn't I?" Xander asked. Yeah, the general was probably not going to take a high-school kid seriously.

Angel patted him on the back. "General, high school students have been defending against demons that you soldiers couldn't touch. Perhaps I could offer you a small demonstration that these young people have earned the right to command."

"I would like to see any demonstration that could convince me of that," he agreed.

Angel tightened his hand briefly on Xander's shoulders. "Of the eight or nine of us who work together, where would you rank yourself?"

"Like fighting wise?" Xander asked.

"Like fighting wise," Angel agreed.

Xander considered that for a second. Okay, Oz and Willow, Ms. Calendar and Giles, Buffy, Faith, Spike and Angel. Really he knew way too many terrifyingly terrifying people. "Um, if you stripped magic away, I might be able to take two of the group, but the rest of you would kick my ass with one leg tied behind your back. And the two I might beat in a magicless fight... they would both turn me into a grease spot way before I could even draw my blade if they had magic. So, don't give me any lectures about self-esteem here, but I have to say that realistically I'm on the very bottom. I'm way more the ass kickee than the ass kicker, which is okay because I have a sharp tongue and I know how to use it. There is definitely more than one way to skin the person who isn't giving you what you want."

"You could beat Wesley," Angel offered softly as he pulled a stake out of his waistband and offered it to him.

"That is not with the making me feel better. My dead grandmother could beat Wesley, and she's not even the up and kicking kind of dead."

"Do you have a point with this?" the general demanded.

"Your soldiers have been here for almost a year and they have captured six demons, three of which are harmless. Xander is... Xander is more important that you could ever understand, but he's not a front line fighter. I'm still willing to bet that he can do better in one night than your entire secret base full of soldiers did in a year. If he can kill or capture six demons tonight, you take back a recommendation that a small unit be left here under the express orders to follow our leader as though she were their commanding officer."

"That's asking a lot."

"It's just a recommendation."

"And I'm supposed to believe that you're putting up your least competent fighter."

"Oh, he is," Xander snorted. "I can hold my own, mostly because I train with vampires, but I'm second or third or possibly fourth string around here. I'm the guy who carries the water bottle, but then without me, none of them could get a stopped up toilet running again, and toilet fixing is an important skill if you want happy fighters."

Riley found his voice. "Sir, Angel did not want to bring the civilian. The civilian threatened him with unnamed retaliation if he did not."

"The human threatened the vampire?" The general looked at Xander again.

"Hey, last time he annoyed me, I played Mario brothers until he was hearing the beeping and the music in his sleep. I may not be a fighter, but I have powers," Xander pointed out.

The general looked around for as second before he gestured with his arm up in the air. "Units stand down, we're going to have a little hunt here, and Xander will be taking lead."

"If I can't kill six vampires, I’m going to be having guilt for the rest of my life." Xander whispered his complaint to Angel.

"You're the one who invited yourself along, so don't fail," Angel answered without much mercy. "You can do this. I've seen you stake seven or eight in a night."

"Yeah, but only..." Xander stopped and looked at Angel. But only when Spike had been trying to cheer him up. Spike's version of cheeriness had been to flush out a dozen demons and point them at Xander so that he could play. After one of the most tiring and stressful nights of his life, he and Angel had found out exactly how Spike was 'helping' to cheer Xander up. They'd all sat down and had a very long talk with Spike about how mayhem and potential death was not actually good for curing human depression. Oh yeah, vampires cheated. It was just a rule.

"So, let's go kill some demons and hope they don't kill me first," Xander said as he held up his stake.

"I won't let them kill you," Angel said, walking behind as Xander headed for the closest cemetery. The general and Riley and three or four soldiers trailed behind them at quite a distance.

"Next time I try to stick my nose in where you think it doesn't go, feel free to kick me to the curb before I get myself in this deep."

"I tried that."

"Try harder."

"If I'd tried harder, I would have broken your fingers." Angel's hand found its place on Xander's back.

"You should considered bribery. I would have given up for a Nintendo 64DD."

"Double D? Like Faith's undergarments?"

"Okay, I do not even want to know how you know that," Xander complained. "I was talking about new and better Mario Brother's games."

"I would rather break your fingers. The noises that come from those games are torturous."

"Complain, complain," Xander sighed dramatically.

"You two will frighten away the vampires," Riley offered in a stage whisper from the rear.

Xander glanced over his shoulder. "Bub, if you think vampires are frightened off by geek talk or humans, you are so not even in the ballpark. No wonder you can't find your ass with both hands and a map. Six vampires in a year—color me unimpressed."

Xander might have had more to say about the soldiers and their track record, only the first vampire appeared around the corner of the cemetery. From the way the fledge was looking over his shoulder with undisguised fear, Spike hadn't even bothered to wait until they all got in the cemetery before flushing the prey.

"Have fun," Angel offered with one last pat on the back.

"Asshole," Xander offered, and then he went darting forward, his stake held down by his leg. "Hey, I got turned around somewhere. Do you know where the Sunnydale Inn is?" he asked cheerfully. God bless vampires and short memories because the fledge forgot all about Spike and focused all his attention on Xander.

"The Inn?" he asked, his forehead bubbling a bit as he struggled to keep his gameface hidden. "Yeah, you have to go down this street here to where you see that streetlight that's a bit more orange." He pointed back north, and Xander had to give the fledge creativity points for trying to get the prey to turn its back. Xander half turned as though he was about to look.

"Yeah, where?"

The vampire didn't answer as he lunged forward with a growl. Xander didn't even try to duck; he just aimed his stake and turned his head as his attacker turned into a cloud of dust that threatened to choke him to death. One down, five more to go, and Xander seriously hoped that Angel knew what he was doing because this was the craziest plan yet.

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

monjinator.livejournal.com

Woo, lots of action in this chapter to offset the talkingness of the last one. I liked this chapter a lot - it had so many good moments that really showed the characters. I love the Spike/Xander dynamic so so much, and I love how, when Angel got there, you showed how Spike listens to Angel, and Xander listens to Angel only when he feels like it, and Spike and Angel aren't willing to hurt Xander, and Xander is willing to use that to his advantage if it gets him answers, and how they have a very complicated and yet natural and growing relationship between the three of them. It was fascinating, and kind of hilarious in this instance, to watch. I can only imagine what Riley was thinking, watching Xander clinging to Angel's belt and Spike trying to tow him outside.

I also LOL'd at the thought of Spike cheering someone up by showering fights and violence on them. Such a Spike way to show he cares.

I have no idea where you want to end up with this series, but I like the developments you started in this chapter a lot, and I can't wait to see where you go with them.

From:

Kin of the Heart

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