Kin of the Soul
Jun. 29th, 2009 02:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lit_galOh such a hard chapter. Such a very hard chapter to write, and I'm still not sure I like it. 
Once upon a time there was Kin of the Heart where Angel and Xander learned to be friends. Now we're working towards something entirely different.
Kin of the Soul
Slash: Angel/Xander, Angel/Spike
Rated: ADULT
banner by objectivelypink
The big fight scene!
( Part One ) ( Part Two ) ( Part Three ) ( Part Four ) ( Part Five ) ( Part Six ) ( Part Seven ) ( Part Eight ) ( Part Nine ) ( Part Ten ) ( Part Eleven ) ( Part Twelve ) ( Part Thirteen ) ( Part Fourteen ) ( Part Fifteen ) ( Part Sixteen ) ( Part Seventeen ) ( Part Eighteen ) ( Part Nineteen ) ( Part Twenty ) ( Part Twenty-One ) ( Part Twenty-Two )
Angel rested the flat of his sword on his shoulder, and Xander might have stopped to consider how very sexy that looked if he wasn't more than a little freaked out about the coming fight. Across the alley, one of Riley's teams prepared the explosives at the west wall.
"Tell me these guys are good," Xander whispered to Graham. He was a little surprised that Graham was going in with them and not with the army guys going in on the other three sides, but Angel and Spike seemed to accept it without blinking, so Xander supposed something had changed when he wasn't looking.
Now that he thought about it, Graham hadn't really been hanging out with the soldiers except during sword training. Riley's crew had been more than a little disappointed that bullets were more on the annoying than the deadly side with these guys, and apparently their nifty exploding shell bullets used guns that were a little too large to carry into a fight. Three sharpshooters had already gone in to find the Beacon and make sure they were in position to shoot any demons trying to turn it on, and their guns were so big Xander wasn't sure he could lift them.
Faith stretched her back and shifted a little closer. "They'd better be good or this is going to be one short fight when those Scourge set off that Beacon." Two Listers had insisted on fighting with them, and they both watched with their lips pressed tightly together. Xander was guessing he was not the only one with pre-fight jitters.
"They're the best," Graham assured all of them. "The explosives teams will get all sides open at once, and while the other teams don't have as much experience with swords, they're experienced soldiers, so they'll handle their end of the fight."
"Then these uglies are going down," Faith said with a tight smile. "And if the fucking soldiers get in my way, they're going down, too," she warned, looking away from Graham. Xander traded a worried look with the guy.
"No worries, pet," Spike offered. "They get in the way, and I'll cut 'em down to size."
Cordelia rolled her eyes at them. "You two need a dictionary. Look up 'ally'."
"It means the wankers who I won't go out of my way to kill unless they threaten me or mine." Spike's lips curled into a smirk as he stalked closer to Cordelia, ducking his head and reaching out to slip a hand around her waist. "Nothing's touching you, pet," he promised her, his lips moving toward her. Xander cleared his throat and looked away because Spike somehow made kissing look dirtier than porn.
"You aren't ever touching me again if you kill Buffy's soldiers."
Xander looked over, and Cordy had on her 'so not kidding look.' It was a scary look.
"If you're done getting shot down, we need to focus," Angel said. "Four minutes. Xander, keep Cordelia in sight, and both of you stay to the rear. Call out if we have Scourge trying to flank us, and other than that, just pull the wounded to safety. And Spike, if you kill any soldiers, just remember that those two are going to be pulling the wounded out of the way, so they'll be the ones cleaning up any mess you make." Angel took a second to really stare at Spike. No way did Spike care about the soldiers, but Xander had the feeling Spike would protect all Riley's guys if that's what it took to keep him and Cordelia safe. No matter what Spike claimed, he was a giant softie when he cared about someone. Angel turned to the last three members of their team. "Doyle, Tor, Jerry, stay behind the four of us and focus on defense. Keep the demons off our backs."
Xander wasn't as sure about that bit of planning. Doyle looked pale with fear, and Tor was one of the Lister fathers and old enough to be Xander's grandfather. Xander would rather be doing the backing up himself, but he understood why he couldn't. Years ago, he'd called Angel an idiot for thinking he could be in a battle with someone he loved and not have something really bad happen. At the time, he had been trying to cleverly break Angel and Buffy up. But now Angel loved him, and Xander knew if he was in the middle of the battle, Angel would take stupid risks to protect him. Which all meant that Xander planned to actually stay in the rear.
Spike sighed heavily. "Peaches is a lot more fun ta hunt with when the rest of you aren't around," he complained. Moving to the side, he pulled out a cigarette and lit it, watching from the corner of the building as the time ticked down.
"Spike, they can see you," Xander hissed.
"Yeah? I'm just a bloke on the corner smoking, so I'm not all that interesting unless I'm talking to the shadows in the alley."
Okay, that kinda made sense. Xander switched the hand his sword was in and flexed the fingers as he waited for the signal.
"You'll do fine," Graham whispered. "Hell, you're still better with a bladed weapon than I am, so you'll probably do better than I will."
"I won't let anything touch you, boyfriend," Faith said with a grin that promised murder and mayhem. "Besides, we're good at covering each other's backs." She shoulder bumped him and shifted her weight from one foot to the other. Yep, she was ready for the fight.
Xander didn't feel nearly as ready as Faith. Then again, Faith and Graham patrolled about every night when Xander was safely tucked up in bed with a book on city wiring regs. The last time he'd been in a major fight had been graduation.
Back then, he'd done what he had to, but he was more than a little happy to have Angel making the decisions this time around. The deaths of every single person in that fight still weighed him down as much as the look of horror on Jesse's face when the stake pushed into his heart. There were nights that he could swear he saw Harmony's long, blonde hair, and he wished he could just turn back time and tell her to stay home. He should have done that the first time around because asking Harmony to fight was like encouraging a little corgi dog to go after a pit bull. Slightly guilt-inspiring. Xander was officially not cut out to be warrior-guy. Or he was not cut out to be leader-warrior-guy anyway. He was fix-it guy and moral-center guy and kick-in-the-ass guy when Angel put his head up his ass. And now he was covering the rear escape and pulling-the-injured-to-safety guy. He could do that.
A muffled blast startled Xander out of his thoughts, and he found himself running next to Cordelia. She had her short sword up, and an intense look on her face that made Xander suspect that demons would try to get through him before they challenged her.
Angel and Spike went through the hole first, flying through with supernatural grace, and Xander almost felt sorry for Graham who had to scramble over the broken bricks looking way more human than the other front line fighters. The Listers were stuck scrambling over the rubble too, so no supernatural grace and strength there, but Doyle demoned out and managed a single jump over the mess.
Riley's men were standing guard at the hole, so Xander ducked in through the smoke and braced himself for an attack as he went in. Cordelia was close behind him, and inside, he heard her softly say a very unladylike word she probably wouldn't admit to even knowing much less saying under normal circumstances.
The Scourge had brought in extra units after Riley's guys started playing 'poke and run' with the bad guys, but Xander hadn't expected this many. The Scourge were an army—a really ugly army. Sword clashed against swords, and Xander heard gunfire echoing through the enormous warehouse, so either the sharpshooters were choosing targets or Riley's guys were in deep, deep shit. A bleeding Scourge soldier in a uniform totally ripped off from some Nazi came stumbling toward them, and Xander disemboweled him with a quick thrust and retreat move. Not pretty or fancy, but so very effective.
Spike leaped up above the crowd, his face shining with glee, and his body moving with inhuman grace that reminded Xander of a really playful tiger. He landed, and half a second later, a Scourge soldier was flying over the entire melee, his arms flailing before he slammed into one of the metal catwalks and then fell back to the ground.
"Soldier down," Cordelia called. Xander brought his sword up and ran next to her as she aimed for one of Riley's guys. He was down on the ground emptying his gun into the belly of a Scourge who was about to decapitate him.
"Hey, pick on someone who knows which weapon to use." She thrust forward with her sword, and it wasn't a half-bad move. Unfortunately, the Scourge was better than half-good. He knocked her sword to the side, but Xander used the opening to shove his sword deep into the guy's underarm. He started gurgling up blood, and Cordy held out her arm. The injured solder grabbed hold, and Cordelia pulled him backwards while Xander covered them both.
The fight was slowly turning from one giant free-for-all into a number of smaller fights, and Xander caught of glimpse of Faith whirling and kicking her way through a clump of Scourge, Graham at her side, only without the kicking and whirling and more with the straight hacking at enemy arms with his sword. Cordy got the wounded guy to the blasted opening, and the medics claimed him from there, and then the two of them were, once again, stuck watching the action and waiting to see if any more of their own would fall. Xander was just trying really hard to not think about how easy it would be for one of the Scourge to stake their vampires. Technically, a stake to the heart would be just as deadly for Graham or Faith, but Xander found himself searching the warehouse for Angel and Spike.
A bubble of power swept through the building, and Xander screamed as he saw Angel lifted and thrown across the room. Xander hadn't even opened his mouth to call out for someone to help him before the sound of other screams filled the air. The remaining Scourge members clawed at themselves, their skin sliding down off their bodies like melting wax figures.
Xander brought his sword up defensively and spun around, searching for an enemy. That's when he noticed Spike springing up from the ground where something had thrown him, snarling at the air. One Scourge member exploded into little hard chunks that ricocheted off the walls.
"Faith!" Graham's call made Xander spin around again, and Faith was on the floor, her arms up over her head like someone was hitting her. Graham was spinning around like he was searching for an enemy to fight. He had his sword held high, and he'd pulled his gun out, but he couldn't seem to find anything to shoot at or stab. Xander made quick eye contact with Cordelia, who made 'go-go' gestures with her hand. Xander ran to cover them. Another Scourge exploded, and Xander yelped as a chunk of demon caught him on the shoulder and stung like when the baseball team would throw balls at Xander instead of to him during P.E.
Luckily, Angel was up again and looking a little Angelusy, but now Xander noticed Doyle lying silent on the floor, a pool of blood spreading out from his head. "Doyle!" Xander called, changing course mid-dash. Another Scourge exploded and then a series of them went up at once, showering the warehouse with hard little chunks of demon that hurt like hell when they hit. Xander threw himself over Doyle and tried to defend the injured man and cover his own head.
"Medic! Medic!" Xander looked up at Riley's call, and Riley was shielding Buffy, who was sitting on the ground looking confused and glassy-eyed. Riley yelled loud enough that his voice carried, even over the last pings as the chunks of Scourge hit the inside walls and fell to the concrete. All around, Xander was surrounded by chunks of grayish charcoal that had been the Scourge army, and he pulled his jacket down over his hand before he shoved the nearest pieces away.
"Um, needing medic more for bleeding man!" Xander called out as he waved his arm. There really didn't seem to be anyone left to threaten with a sword, so he was a little more worried about Doyle bleeding out his ears.
"Help me." The pained cry came from near the weapon, and Xander looked over. Tor was trying to push himself up from the floor, but he was bleeding badly. A soldier with a medic bag ran to his side, but Tor was already starting to shake, his head snapping back and then forward, flinging blood across the concrete.
"He's seizing. I need a stretcher!" The soldier got his hands around Tor's shoulders and moved him over to his back as a second soldier ran over with a backpack that he was already unfolding into a stretcher.
"Oi, he's about to blow," Spike called, but the two medics ignored him. One man laid his own body over Tor to hold him down through the seizures while the other snapped the stretcher together. Xander watched in horror as Tor's head imploded with a pop. Grey and red bits from his head splattered in a tight circle, hitting the two medics. The medics jerked back, and Xander threw up on the floor next to Doyle. "Bloody warned you," Spike said. "This one already blew. Hey, you lot, Doyle is still breathin'."
Xander felt hands on him and he just allowed himself to be pulled away as the medics quickly moved to Doyle, attaching IV lines and a breathing mask before they even wiped Tor's blood off their faces. Xander's throat burned, and his stomach started heaving again. Strong hands supported him, holding him as he threw up yellow bile on a small pile of Scourge charcoal. "Doyle?" Xander wiped his mouth and carefully didn't look in Tor's direction. He wasn't surprised to hear Angel's voice right behind him. Who else would hold him when he was vomiting, and if that wasn't love, what was?
"He's still breathing. He doesn't sound as bad as the Listers," Angel said quietly. Then again, Xander couldn't imagine being worse than the Listers.
"I need help with Faith," Graham called out.
"I'm fine." Faith was answering, but even Xander could tell she didn't sound fine. She sounded shaky, and Faith did not do shaky. She made others shake.
Before a medic could get to her, Spike was there on one knee beside her. A medic and his bag came up, and Spike stopped the guy from coming any closer by pointing a sword at the guy's guts. "You soddin' leave her alone. Got it?" Spike demanded.
"She needs help," Graham reached out and caught Spike's sword arm. For a very long second, Xander held his breath as he waited for Spike to backhand Graham into the middle of next week, but instead Spike actually tolerated him, although he didn't lower his sword and the medic backed away, his hands held up to show that he didn't plan to fight over this. The other two medics were carrying Doyle out, and the third guy hurried after them.
"If she needs help, we bloody get her help, but I'm not letting one of them anywhere near her. Did anyone else notice what direction that attack came from?"
"I did." Angel's arms were still around Xander, and now they tightened. Xander looked around in confusion. Riley was still sitting on the floor next to a dazed Buffy, but as Giles came over to sit next to her, he got up and moved toward the center of the warehouse.
"What are you saying?" Riley asked.
"Just said it, mate. That definitely came from your lot, and seeing as how it took out all the demons, you're dense as pig shite if you can't figure out who did it."
"Oh goddess." Willow whispered the words, but in the silence of the warehouse, her voice was unmistakable. "Oh goddess, no. No."
Xander felt the arms around him shift, and then Angel moved forward, his sword held down by his side. "Cordelia, get over here," Angel said quietly. Cordelia was standing near two soldiers, and she frowned in confusion. "Now." Whatever Cordy had going through her mind, she obviously decided to not piss off the already pissed off vampire.
"Geez, alright. But seriously, if they killed the Lister men, I want a chance to poke someone really hard before you go eviscerating them." Cordy sounded all together, but her eyes were puffy and her mascara was streaked sideways from her wiping her eyes with that weird under-eye move that was supposed to keep her eye makeup from running. Xander guessed that not even Cordelia's tricks could save her makeup when she cried that hard. Spike moved to the side so that he was standing in front of her.
"Just help me up," Faith said, her voice still shaky. Xander was even more freaked out about the fact that Graham had to practically lift her. But she was still one up on Buffy who was still sitting on the floor beside Giles not even trying to get up.
"Captain! Kirkop is injured, too," one of the soldiers called.
"I'm fine," Kirkop said in an unhappy voice, but Xander could see red trails up his arms and his neck and even his face, like he had hundreds of tiny broken blood vessels.
"That shouldn't have happened," Willow said, and Xander's stomach turned to stone as he looked over at her.
"Willow? What do you mean?" Giles demanded before Xander could get past the horrible sinking stomach feeling enough to ask the same question. Giles got up from the floor, and Willow's hands fluttered.
"Giles, let's take this somewhere private." Jenny stepped to his side, her hand resting on his arm.
"Let's not," Angel suggested.
"I agree." Riley turned around so his back was to Angel and he crossed his arms as he considered Jenny and Giles. "Kirkop, get to the medics."
"Sir, I'm fine. I'd rather stay here." Xander watched as Kirkop turned to face Giles and Jenny who had drifted closer to Willow and Tara, and this was not feeling good. This was feeling bad. Freaky bad.
"Dead bad guys is reason to celebrate," Buffy argued. "Yeah, the chunks were a surprise. But hey, at least the Scourge made nice messless chunks." However, she had to use the wall to push herself up, so her cheeriness felt a little forced. She stood leaning against the wall, and Xander cringed as he watched her struggle to stay upright.
"Willow, what do you mean that this shouldn't have happened?" Giles turned around and went back to Buffy, getting his arm around her waist.
"I..." She stopped and looked around with wide eyes full of panic. Xander could feel himself pulled toward that desperation. Whatever she'd done, she hadn't meant to... he knew that. She had on her really, really sorry face, but at the same time, two bloody bodies lay on the ground with their heads exploded. The Listers hadn't deserved to die.
"What did you do?" Angel growled.
"Nothing!" she blurted. She turned around to look at Jenny, and Xander realized that Jenny's face had lost all expression.
"Willow, let's go out to the car," Jenny said firmly.
"Jenny?" Giles sounded bewildered, which was not a tone of voice Xander normally associated with Giles.
"Rupert, we can talk about this later." She gave him a tight smile.
Buffy spoke up. "Oh, I'm starting to think we can talk now. Or you can talk now, I’m just going to stand here and fade in and out of consciousness."
"Buffy?" Willow hurried to her side, getting her own arm around Buffy's waist so Buffy was propped up between Willow and Giles. "Jenny, this wasn't supposed to happen."
"What wasn't supposed to happen?" Giles almost yelled.
Willow jerked like he'd hit her, and Giles sighed. Xander started to step forward, but Angel caught him by the arm and pulled him back. When Xander turned to glare Angel into letting him go, he failed miserably because Angel just pulled him closer.
Giles sighed again. "Willow, what happened to the Scourge?"
Willow's gaze immediately went to Jenny, but she just raised her chin and said nothing. Xander noticed several of the soldiers shifting uncomfortably, and hands were starting to come to rest on the butts of guns.
"So," Angel said softly, "you used one of the spells you'd prepared against demons."
Xander looked up to see if Angel was attempting some wildly inappropriate humor. Sometimes Angel's attempts at humor were definitely lacking any humor. However, there was not much of the haha in his expression. "Spells? Against demons? Friendly demons?"
Kirkop held up his arm where a spiderweb of red veins looked distinctly unhealthy. "You did this?" He looked from Willow to Jenny. "My grandmother always said her father was part odmience—a Polish changeling. I always thought she just liked to tell stories about the old country, but I guess your spell hit more than just the bad guys. And those two were on our side." He swept his hand toward the two Lister bodies, but Xander was not going to look at them again.
"Willow, I'd like a clear answer," Giles said, and Xander was starting to get whiplash from all the demands. However, it looked like whatever weird was going on, Giles and Riley and Buffy had all been unlooplike. Even Tara was looking a little shocked, and that was whole levels of wrong because in the last couple of weeks, Xander had come to think that Willow and Tara were ridiculously in love.
"I didn't do anything." Willow sounded close to crying.
"Mr. Giles," Tara's voice was barely above a whisper, "WWillow didn't cast the spell. Her power was tapped, and whoever cast it pulled on my powers through Willow, but Willow didn't cast it." Okay, for not naming names, that accusation was pretty much pointed right at Jenny.
Willow was already nodding her head at Tara. "I wouldn't cast a spell like that. Angel and Spike could have been all dusty, and I wouldn't do that. Okay, I might do that to Spike because he's soulless and dangerous and really scary, but I wouldn't do that to Angel. He's Xander's best friend, and it really hurts to say that because I know I messed things all up between us, but I wouldn't kill Angel. He has a soul. And Xander gets all googly eyed when Angel comes in the room and there's touching... like they care about each other too much to not touch kind of touching. I wouldn't have ever killed Angel." Willow looked over toward the bodies of the two fallen Listers and tears slipped down her face. "I wouldn't have ever killed them. Tor was really nice," Willow finished with a sob, and Tara hurried to her side.
Xander watched while Giles' back grew stiffer, and he really thought Giles was about to give Willow the motherload of all father-lectures, but then Giles turned toward Jenny. "What did you do?"
"Rupert, this is not the time."
"Actually, I believe it is."
"Hey, I have an idea. Let's just all calm down," Buffy suggested. Willow nodded, tears running down her face.
"We can discuss this in private." Jenny had backed all the way up to the door, which had been blasted open, but Willow and Tara and Giles and Buffy weren't moving. They were all huddled together, supporting Buffy in the middle.
Giles' face got that scary lack of emotion thing going. "Do you think I don't recognize the signature of chaos magic? Are you quite mad? Techno-magic and chaos magic are incompatible. You could have killed us all. And your foolish willingness to cast spells willy nilly has injured Buffy."
"Riley?" Buffy turned her eyes to him. "Help please? I'm not really good at doing the calming people down thing. I'm better at making them mad, but maybe you can play peacekeeper."
Riley stiffened, but he didn't jump in there and start calming people down. "Giles, is Buffy hurt badly?"
"Yes, Giles," Angel said, his voice dangerously soft and lilting with an Irish accent, "are the slayers injured badly?"
"I won't know until I know what spell she used." Giles looked right at Angel without even glancing over toward Jenny, and Xander was thinking that was not a good sign for their marriage. Jenny was slowly turning a pink color, and he thought she was probably getting pretty pissed because she didn't seem the type to be embarrassed.
"It was out of de Aldedelega's Opprimo," Willow whispered. From the silence that fell over the magic-knowing crowd, Xander was guessing that was not of the good. "We found the book in Mr. Rayne's things after he tried to put the forgetting on you before the wedding. But it was only supposed to affect demons, not you, Buffy."
Spike started laughing, and the soldiers shifted nervously. Heck, Xander was nervous because an attack like that probably had Spike itching to taste Jenny's blood, and right now, Xander wouldn't bet any money on Angel stopping him. The laughter was just pretty much reminding all of them that you really couldn't predict what a pissed off Spike might do. "You bloody idiot. Slayers are faster, stronger and heal better than humans. How the fuck do you think that happens without a little demon blood in 'em? Considering how much harder the spell hit them than good old Kirkop there, I guess they're more than an eighth demon and since their heads didn't explode, they're less than half."
"Oh goddess." Willow looked like she was turning green, and Buffy turned to stare at Giles with big eyes.
Instead of answering, Giles looked like he was wilting, and now Riley moved and he moved fast. He got his left arm under Buffy, holding her up with one hand, and his other hand rested on the butt of his gun. The other soldiers were shifting around. If Xander were the suspicious sort, he'd think they were clearing a line of fire toward Jenny. Oh yeah, this was turning so very, very bad.
"I think I want to sit," Buffy said. Graham had Faith in his arms, and her head was resting against his shoulder, so Xander was guessing she couldn't lift it because if Buffy could still sit up on her own, Faith would be fighting like hell to prove she was no worse off than Buffy. Riley carefully settled Buffy on the ground, and several soldiers moved closer. Kirkop actually pulled the strap on his big gun around so that it hung in front where he could rest his elbow on it and glare. Considering that Kirkop had a slightly dark Neanderthal look going for him, he had the scary glare down pretty good. It was going even better with his veiny skin, which made him look a little like a comic book villain. Jenny, however, kept her chin high and still managed to look like she was not-even-doubting-herself girl.
"The first priority was ensuring that the Beacon was not fired. I acted in the best interests of the group. They were going to activate the Beacon."
"I had sharpshooters assigned to prevent that." Oh yeah, Riley sounded pissed.
"It was chaotic. One of the Scourge was going to—"
A soldier with one of those monster guns stepped forward. He was an older man and had a look that would have made Xander avoid dark alleys with him. For two weeks Xander had been living and training with these guys, and Xander would have described most of them as goofy, silly, crass, or overly competitive. Now they all just looked dangerous... and pissed. There was lots of pissed going on. "Lady, I was doing my job, and I didn't even have to worry about refugees darting through my target zone, so that Beacon was covered."
"You couldn't..."
Riley cut her off. "An exploding shell in the head would have stopped any Scourge that got close to the Beacon, but you made a unilateral decision to activate your own version of a Beacon. You chose to selectively attack my unit."
"I targeted the enemy." Jenny looked around, and maybe she noticed the suddenly hard expression on Giles' face. "Rupert, I didn't know this would affect Buffy. You have to believe that. I would never do anything to hurt Buffy or Willow—they're our family."
No one answered her, and Xander could almost smell the homicidal rage in the air. He definitely could smell the dead Listers and his own vomit, and that was doing bad, bad things to his stomach and his psyche, so he definitely didn't need any more dead bodies around.
Looking around at the group, Xander tried putting on his best pleading expression. "Okay, I know I'm not strategy man but attacking your own side is feeling unstrategy, so can we all agree that Jenny stupid and head back to the hotel?"
Xander eeped as Angel turned around and grabbed him, pulling him close before he turned to face the Sunnydale crew. "She's na welcome in my home. You set foot in my territory again and you'll learn what real pain is," he promised in a voice that gave Xander chills. That was Angelus. That was pure Angelus, and Spike stepped forward, his glee shining through as he bounced on his toes. This wasn't even going to be a fight, it was going to be two really big, pissed off demons ripping Jenny into little tiny shreds, and Xander wasn't sure how to stop it. Even worse, Xander wasn't sure he wanted to stop it, and that did not exactly make him a good person.
Jenny pulled a small satchel out from a pocket, and a dozen soldiers had their guns drawn before Xander could blink. It was feeling more and more like the OK corral, and Xander really wished he'd paid more attention in history class because he couldn't even remember if anyone came out of that alive.
Giles stepped forward into the empty territory between Jenny and everyone else. "You need to leave."
"Rupert." Jenny smiled and tilted her head to the side as she reached out her empty hand for him. Giles just stood there as her smile faded and her hand slowly dropped back down to the side. She looked around, but she obviously did not find whatever she was looking for because the emotion drained from her face. Willow was standing in the corner, her face buried in Tara's shoulder as she sobbed, and the soldiers were looking about as homicidal as Spike and Angel, and that was pretty homicidal.
"Jenny, go back to Sunnydale." Giles was using the teacher voice that Xander used to hate.
"I made a choice to save all of us."
"You made a choice," Giles agreed. For a second, they stared at each other, and then Jenny backed up, her hand still clutching that satchel she'd taken out of her pocket. Xander's arm was starting to tingle from Angel's overly-tight hold, but he didn't complain. He felt like one wrong breath and Angel and Spike were going to go racing out into the night and do something that Xander only kinda sorta wanted done. And if they did it... if they ripped Jenny Giles' throat out, Xander just knew he was going to end up in therapy again. He was approaching therapy levels of badness already, and he just couldn't deal with any more.
"Wait," Xander blurted as the obvious suddenly hit him. "You and Spike are okay. You are, right?" Xander squirmed around until he could get a good look at all of Angel. He hadn't worn the Gem of Amara, and Xander made a mental note to make Angel wear it from now on, even if he had to shove it up Angel's ass. Delayed panic made Xander's heart pound so hard that it physically hurt.
"Calm down," Angel soothed him, pulling him close while Xander ran hands over Angel's shoulders and chest looking for burns or injuries. "Calm down, a mhuirnín, we're fine," Angel promised, catching one of Xander's hands and holding it still. "Graham warned us that Jenny and Willow were practicing dangerous magics, and we had a counterspell done. I'm only sorry that I didn't think to protect the rest of you, and for that, she will die if I ever catch her in L.A. again." Angel looked over Xander's shoulder and glared at Giles, but surprisingly, Giles didn't have any sharp comments to throw back.
"Right then," Spike said, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it, "that leaves one bad little witchy."
"Hold on there," Buffy said, but her warning would have probably carried more weight if she had the strength to stand. She didn't. "Tara already said that Willow didn't cast the spell."
"She just helped create it, didn't you pet?" Spike had his friendly voice going, the one that usually led to bad, bad things, and the two people who could actually stop him, Cordelia and Angel, were just watching silently.
Willow looked up from Tara's shoulder. "It was supposed to be a last resort. Like if we were fighting the mayor and the explosives didn't work. It's a really, really dangerous spell, and Jenny said we would only activate it if we didn't have any choice. I never would have...." Willow's eyes skittered over to one of the Lister men, and her sobs cut off her words.
"Yes, that doesn't absolve you of all responsibility." Giles sounded tired. "However, given your relationship with Jenny, I can certainly see how she was able to convince you to prepare such a dangerous spell."
"Bloody hell, you think that's enough?" Spike demanded. "She soddin' well helped prepare the spell and she provided the power to attack Faith. If you're not willing to discipline her, I bloody well will."
"I hardly think that's appropriate," Giles squared off, but Xander was not calling that a fair fight. Yeah, Giles had more to him than tweed, but without some sort of backup, Giles was going down, down, down, and Angel didn't look interesting in stopping the fight. Xander opened his mouth to object, but Angel's fingers dug into the soft of his arm so hard that Xander gasped in surprise and pain.
"So appropriate is letting her get away with murder?" Angel asked. "Two men who wanted nothing more than to protect their families are dead."
"That's a horror Jenny will have to live with," Giles said firmly.
"But Willow lied," Riley interrupted the stare down.
"Riley," Buffy said in a not-too-subtle warning voice.
"No, Buffy, she lied, and we both know it. After the anti-vampire spell Jenny suggested, we asked if they had other ideas for aggressive magical spells, and they both assured us that they did not, yet they've been working on this since shortly after Ethan Rayne's arrest."
"Hey, it's not like we always made the best judgments under fire. I'm the one who set a gym on fire, and you had that whole incident with the truck and the payroll and the mudslide. Let he who is without a history of major stupidity throw the first mudball." Buffy sounded way more serious than usual, but Riley stood up and turned to Willow.
"Willow, I'm sorry, but this sort of conduct is not within the scope of my command authority. This has to go up to the Army JAG office."
"You're arresting me?" Willow sounded ready to hyperventilate, and Xander squirmed in Angel's arms. He didn't want Willow arrested. He just wanted her to be really sorry and never do anything like that again, and she was sorry. He could tell from the look on her face that she was chocolate-chip-cookie-making sorry.
"Riley, as scare tactics go, this is a good one, but enough is enough." Buffy was sounding cranky.
Riley crouched down next to her. "Buffy, I love you, but I'm a soldier. I know from experience that we make choices in battle that... that can haunt us. And if we know we will never have to account for our actions, we can end up on a slippery slope that will lead to a psychologically dangerous place. I’m not saying Willow is culpable for the murders. I'm saying she needs to stand in front of a JAG court and make her arguments. These are soldiers. They'll understand the pressures of command, and they'll understand that I bear some of the responsibility for this because I never insisted that Willow take the combat ethics courses, even when it was increasingly obvious that she was developing into a frontline fighter."
Giles moved to stand in front of Willow, and he was clearly not planning to budge. "Now see here. This is not the military, and we have not been drafted into your army."
"Then she can face accessory to murder charges in the FISA court. The government is quite clear that demonic activity falls under the jurisdiction of the Foreign Intelligence act."
"Buffy?" Willow clung to Tara, but she looked at Buffy.
"Willow," Riley said as he got up and walked over to her, "I doubt they'll sentence you to anything more than taking the classes I should have required you to take in the first place. But if you ignore your responsibility in this tragedy, can you honestly promise to never make a mistake like this again? You allowed an attack that has disabled Buffy for who knows how long, and if Angel hadn't prepared for a betrayal that I never saw coming, you would have dusted Angel and Spike. You know Xander never would have forgiven you if that had happened, not even if this was a mistake."
Willow hiccupped from crying so hard. "But arrested?" Willow turned to Tara. Her eyes were red, and tears started slipping down her face, but she didn't say anything.
Riley rested a hand on Willow's shoulder. "A review board, Willow. If Buffy told you about my first big failure, she told you that I managed to dump half a payroll into a swollen river, and this was a field operation, so the money was in local currency. A hundred soldiers were fishing the river for the last Treasury bag for a month, and I had to go in front of a review. It was a miserable experience, but I survived, and I'm glad I faced my own mistakes. I will speak for you, as will everyone else here. You made a mistake in following Jenny, but I don't believe you're responsible. I just know that I don't have the authority to make that decision legally. Your actions led to two friendly fire deaths, do you really think you should walk away without facing any consequences?"
Without answering, Willow turned her face back to Tara's shoulder and cried. Riley sighed and turned to face a very pissed off Giles. "Jenny Giles has the same choice. Unlike Willow, she is a government employee acting in a military action. She can go before a JAG review board voluntarily, or I will arrest her under the authority of the FISA court."
"How dare—" Giles started to say.
"You didn't object to the laws when I used them to arrest Mr. Rayne for his attack. This isn't open for debate," Riley said. Xander was impressed. Yeah, Xander had stood up to Giles before, but when Xander did it, he always felt like he was some kid. Riley came out looking way more collected and in-charge than Giles. Of course, if Buffy were up and walking around, Xander suspected that Riley wouldn't have been quite so large and in-charge, but without the spell-attack, Riley wouldn't have needed to take charge.
"If he doesn't make her face her actions, I will take my own justice," Angel said, and the Irish lilt was still there. Giles looked over wearily, and maybe he knew he was defeated or maybe he was just too tired to argue, but he didn't have anything to say about that.
"We need to get Faith somewhere quiet," Graham said. Xander turned, and Graham had put her back on the floor at some point. Her head was in his lap and he was smoothing her hair back from her forehead.
"Right then, we're out of here." Spike walked over, scooped Faith up in his arms and headed for the blast hole they'd walked in through.
"I want to know what spell was cast, and I want that information by sunrise or I'll start asking the questions m'self, boyo." Angel pinned Riley with a cold glare, but Riley just nodded his head.
"Understood. I'll make sure we both have the information we need." Riley went back and knelt down next to Buffy, slipping his hand behind her neck. For a second, Buffy looked at him with all this unhappiness, but then she sighed and let him pull her close.
"What a mess," she said softly, and that was the last thing Xander saw before Angel pulled him out into the night... or Angelus did. Xander was starting to think that perfect happiness and perfect pissedoffness both brought out the great soulless one.
Once upon a time there was Kin of the Heart where Angel and Xander learned to be friends. Now we're working towards something entirely different.
Kin of the Soul
Slash: Angel/Xander, Angel/Spike
Rated: ADULT
banner by objectivelypink
The big fight scene!
( Part One ) ( Part Two ) ( Part Three ) ( Part Four ) ( Part Five ) ( Part Six ) ( Part Seven ) ( Part Eight ) ( Part Nine ) ( Part Ten ) ( Part Eleven ) ( Part Twelve ) ( Part Thirteen ) ( Part Fourteen ) ( Part Fifteen ) ( Part Sixteen ) ( Part Seventeen ) ( Part Eighteen ) ( Part Nineteen ) ( Part Twenty ) ( Part Twenty-One ) ( Part Twenty-Two )
Angel rested the flat of his sword on his shoulder, and Xander might have stopped to consider how very sexy that looked if he wasn't more than a little freaked out about the coming fight. Across the alley, one of Riley's teams prepared the explosives at the west wall.
"Tell me these guys are good," Xander whispered to Graham. He was a little surprised that Graham was going in with them and not with the army guys going in on the other three sides, but Angel and Spike seemed to accept it without blinking, so Xander supposed something had changed when he wasn't looking.
Now that he thought about it, Graham hadn't really been hanging out with the soldiers except during sword training. Riley's crew had been more than a little disappointed that bullets were more on the annoying than the deadly side with these guys, and apparently their nifty exploding shell bullets used guns that were a little too large to carry into a fight. Three sharpshooters had already gone in to find the Beacon and make sure they were in position to shoot any demons trying to turn it on, and their guns were so big Xander wasn't sure he could lift them.
Faith stretched her back and shifted a little closer. "They'd better be good or this is going to be one short fight when those Scourge set off that Beacon." Two Listers had insisted on fighting with them, and they both watched with their lips pressed tightly together. Xander was guessing he was not the only one with pre-fight jitters.
"They're the best," Graham assured all of them. "The explosives teams will get all sides open at once, and while the other teams don't have as much experience with swords, they're experienced soldiers, so they'll handle their end of the fight."
"Then these uglies are going down," Faith said with a tight smile. "And if the fucking soldiers get in my way, they're going down, too," she warned, looking away from Graham. Xander traded a worried look with the guy.
"No worries, pet," Spike offered. "They get in the way, and I'll cut 'em down to size."
Cordelia rolled her eyes at them. "You two need a dictionary. Look up 'ally'."
"It means the wankers who I won't go out of my way to kill unless they threaten me or mine." Spike's lips curled into a smirk as he stalked closer to Cordelia, ducking his head and reaching out to slip a hand around her waist. "Nothing's touching you, pet," he promised her, his lips moving toward her. Xander cleared his throat and looked away because Spike somehow made kissing look dirtier than porn.
"You aren't ever touching me again if you kill Buffy's soldiers."
Xander looked over, and Cordy had on her 'so not kidding look.' It was a scary look.
"If you're done getting shot down, we need to focus," Angel said. "Four minutes. Xander, keep Cordelia in sight, and both of you stay to the rear. Call out if we have Scourge trying to flank us, and other than that, just pull the wounded to safety. And Spike, if you kill any soldiers, just remember that those two are going to be pulling the wounded out of the way, so they'll be the ones cleaning up any mess you make." Angel took a second to really stare at Spike. No way did Spike care about the soldiers, but Xander had the feeling Spike would protect all Riley's guys if that's what it took to keep him and Cordelia safe. No matter what Spike claimed, he was a giant softie when he cared about someone. Angel turned to the last three members of their team. "Doyle, Tor, Jerry, stay behind the four of us and focus on defense. Keep the demons off our backs."
Xander wasn't as sure about that bit of planning. Doyle looked pale with fear, and Tor was one of the Lister fathers and old enough to be Xander's grandfather. Xander would rather be doing the backing up himself, but he understood why he couldn't. Years ago, he'd called Angel an idiot for thinking he could be in a battle with someone he loved and not have something really bad happen. At the time, he had been trying to cleverly break Angel and Buffy up. But now Angel loved him, and Xander knew if he was in the middle of the battle, Angel would take stupid risks to protect him. Which all meant that Xander planned to actually stay in the rear.
Spike sighed heavily. "Peaches is a lot more fun ta hunt with when the rest of you aren't around," he complained. Moving to the side, he pulled out a cigarette and lit it, watching from the corner of the building as the time ticked down.
"Spike, they can see you," Xander hissed.
"Yeah? I'm just a bloke on the corner smoking, so I'm not all that interesting unless I'm talking to the shadows in the alley."
Okay, that kinda made sense. Xander switched the hand his sword was in and flexed the fingers as he waited for the signal.
"You'll do fine," Graham whispered. "Hell, you're still better with a bladed weapon than I am, so you'll probably do better than I will."
"I won't let anything touch you, boyfriend," Faith said with a grin that promised murder and mayhem. "Besides, we're good at covering each other's backs." She shoulder bumped him and shifted her weight from one foot to the other. Yep, she was ready for the fight.
Xander didn't feel nearly as ready as Faith. Then again, Faith and Graham patrolled about every night when Xander was safely tucked up in bed with a book on city wiring regs. The last time he'd been in a major fight had been graduation.
Back then, he'd done what he had to, but he was more than a little happy to have Angel making the decisions this time around. The deaths of every single person in that fight still weighed him down as much as the look of horror on Jesse's face when the stake pushed into his heart. There were nights that he could swear he saw Harmony's long, blonde hair, and he wished he could just turn back time and tell her to stay home. He should have done that the first time around because asking Harmony to fight was like encouraging a little corgi dog to go after a pit bull. Slightly guilt-inspiring. Xander was officially not cut out to be warrior-guy. Or he was not cut out to be leader-warrior-guy anyway. He was fix-it guy and moral-center guy and kick-in-the-ass guy when Angel put his head up his ass. And now he was covering the rear escape and pulling-the-injured-to-safety guy. He could do that.
A muffled blast startled Xander out of his thoughts, and he found himself running next to Cordelia. She had her short sword up, and an intense look on her face that made Xander suspect that demons would try to get through him before they challenged her.
Angel and Spike went through the hole first, flying through with supernatural grace, and Xander almost felt sorry for Graham who had to scramble over the broken bricks looking way more human than the other front line fighters. The Listers were stuck scrambling over the rubble too, so no supernatural grace and strength there, but Doyle demoned out and managed a single jump over the mess.
Riley's men were standing guard at the hole, so Xander ducked in through the smoke and braced himself for an attack as he went in. Cordelia was close behind him, and inside, he heard her softly say a very unladylike word she probably wouldn't admit to even knowing much less saying under normal circumstances.
The Scourge had brought in extra units after Riley's guys started playing 'poke and run' with the bad guys, but Xander hadn't expected this many. The Scourge were an army—a really ugly army. Sword clashed against swords, and Xander heard gunfire echoing through the enormous warehouse, so either the sharpshooters were choosing targets or Riley's guys were in deep, deep shit. A bleeding Scourge soldier in a uniform totally ripped off from some Nazi came stumbling toward them, and Xander disemboweled him with a quick thrust and retreat move. Not pretty or fancy, but so very effective.
Spike leaped up above the crowd, his face shining with glee, and his body moving with inhuman grace that reminded Xander of a really playful tiger. He landed, and half a second later, a Scourge soldier was flying over the entire melee, his arms flailing before he slammed into one of the metal catwalks and then fell back to the ground.
"Soldier down," Cordelia called. Xander brought his sword up and ran next to her as she aimed for one of Riley's guys. He was down on the ground emptying his gun into the belly of a Scourge who was about to decapitate him.
"Hey, pick on someone who knows which weapon to use." She thrust forward with her sword, and it wasn't a half-bad move. Unfortunately, the Scourge was better than half-good. He knocked her sword to the side, but Xander used the opening to shove his sword deep into the guy's underarm. He started gurgling up blood, and Cordy held out her arm. The injured solder grabbed hold, and Cordelia pulled him backwards while Xander covered them both.
The fight was slowly turning from one giant free-for-all into a number of smaller fights, and Xander caught of glimpse of Faith whirling and kicking her way through a clump of Scourge, Graham at her side, only without the kicking and whirling and more with the straight hacking at enemy arms with his sword. Cordy got the wounded guy to the blasted opening, and the medics claimed him from there, and then the two of them were, once again, stuck watching the action and waiting to see if any more of their own would fall. Xander was just trying really hard to not think about how easy it would be for one of the Scourge to stake their vampires. Technically, a stake to the heart would be just as deadly for Graham or Faith, but Xander found himself searching the warehouse for Angel and Spike.
A bubble of power swept through the building, and Xander screamed as he saw Angel lifted and thrown across the room. Xander hadn't even opened his mouth to call out for someone to help him before the sound of other screams filled the air. The remaining Scourge members clawed at themselves, their skin sliding down off their bodies like melting wax figures.
Xander brought his sword up defensively and spun around, searching for an enemy. That's when he noticed Spike springing up from the ground where something had thrown him, snarling at the air. One Scourge member exploded into little hard chunks that ricocheted off the walls.
"Faith!" Graham's call made Xander spin around again, and Faith was on the floor, her arms up over her head like someone was hitting her. Graham was spinning around like he was searching for an enemy to fight. He had his sword held high, and he'd pulled his gun out, but he couldn't seem to find anything to shoot at or stab. Xander made quick eye contact with Cordelia, who made 'go-go' gestures with her hand. Xander ran to cover them. Another Scourge exploded, and Xander yelped as a chunk of demon caught him on the shoulder and stung like when the baseball team would throw balls at Xander instead of to him during P.E.
Luckily, Angel was up again and looking a little Angelusy, but now Xander noticed Doyle lying silent on the floor, a pool of blood spreading out from his head. "Doyle!" Xander called, changing course mid-dash. Another Scourge exploded and then a series of them went up at once, showering the warehouse with hard little chunks of demon that hurt like hell when they hit. Xander threw himself over Doyle and tried to defend the injured man and cover his own head.
"Medic! Medic!" Xander looked up at Riley's call, and Riley was shielding Buffy, who was sitting on the ground looking confused and glassy-eyed. Riley yelled loud enough that his voice carried, even over the last pings as the chunks of Scourge hit the inside walls and fell to the concrete. All around, Xander was surrounded by chunks of grayish charcoal that had been the Scourge army, and he pulled his jacket down over his hand before he shoved the nearest pieces away.
"Um, needing medic more for bleeding man!" Xander called out as he waved his arm. There really didn't seem to be anyone left to threaten with a sword, so he was a little more worried about Doyle bleeding out his ears.
"Help me." The pained cry came from near the weapon, and Xander looked over. Tor was trying to push himself up from the floor, but he was bleeding badly. A soldier with a medic bag ran to his side, but Tor was already starting to shake, his head snapping back and then forward, flinging blood across the concrete.
"He's seizing. I need a stretcher!" The soldier got his hands around Tor's shoulders and moved him over to his back as a second soldier ran over with a backpack that he was already unfolding into a stretcher.
"Oi, he's about to blow," Spike called, but the two medics ignored him. One man laid his own body over Tor to hold him down through the seizures while the other snapped the stretcher together. Xander watched in horror as Tor's head imploded with a pop. Grey and red bits from his head splattered in a tight circle, hitting the two medics. The medics jerked back, and Xander threw up on the floor next to Doyle. "Bloody warned you," Spike said. "This one already blew. Hey, you lot, Doyle is still breathin'."
Xander felt hands on him and he just allowed himself to be pulled away as the medics quickly moved to Doyle, attaching IV lines and a breathing mask before they even wiped Tor's blood off their faces. Xander's throat burned, and his stomach started heaving again. Strong hands supported him, holding him as he threw up yellow bile on a small pile of Scourge charcoal. "Doyle?" Xander wiped his mouth and carefully didn't look in Tor's direction. He wasn't surprised to hear Angel's voice right behind him. Who else would hold him when he was vomiting, and if that wasn't love, what was?
"He's still breathing. He doesn't sound as bad as the Listers," Angel said quietly. Then again, Xander couldn't imagine being worse than the Listers.
"I need help with Faith," Graham called out.
"I'm fine." Faith was answering, but even Xander could tell she didn't sound fine. She sounded shaky, and Faith did not do shaky. She made others shake.
Before a medic could get to her, Spike was there on one knee beside her. A medic and his bag came up, and Spike stopped the guy from coming any closer by pointing a sword at the guy's guts. "You soddin' leave her alone. Got it?" Spike demanded.
"She needs help," Graham reached out and caught Spike's sword arm. For a very long second, Xander held his breath as he waited for Spike to backhand Graham into the middle of next week, but instead Spike actually tolerated him, although he didn't lower his sword and the medic backed away, his hands held up to show that he didn't plan to fight over this. The other two medics were carrying Doyle out, and the third guy hurried after them.
"If she needs help, we bloody get her help, but I'm not letting one of them anywhere near her. Did anyone else notice what direction that attack came from?"
"I did." Angel's arms were still around Xander, and now they tightened. Xander looked around in confusion. Riley was still sitting on the floor next to a dazed Buffy, but as Giles came over to sit next to her, he got up and moved toward the center of the warehouse.
"What are you saying?" Riley asked.
"Just said it, mate. That definitely came from your lot, and seeing as how it took out all the demons, you're dense as pig shite if you can't figure out who did it."
"Oh goddess." Willow whispered the words, but in the silence of the warehouse, her voice was unmistakable. "Oh goddess, no. No."
Xander felt the arms around him shift, and then Angel moved forward, his sword held down by his side. "Cordelia, get over here," Angel said quietly. Cordelia was standing near two soldiers, and she frowned in confusion. "Now." Whatever Cordy had going through her mind, she obviously decided to not piss off the already pissed off vampire.
"Geez, alright. But seriously, if they killed the Lister men, I want a chance to poke someone really hard before you go eviscerating them." Cordy sounded all together, but her eyes were puffy and her mascara was streaked sideways from her wiping her eyes with that weird under-eye move that was supposed to keep her eye makeup from running. Xander guessed that not even Cordelia's tricks could save her makeup when she cried that hard. Spike moved to the side so that he was standing in front of her.
"Just help me up," Faith said, her voice still shaky. Xander was even more freaked out about the fact that Graham had to practically lift her. But she was still one up on Buffy who was still sitting on the floor beside Giles not even trying to get up.
"Captain! Kirkop is injured, too," one of the soldiers called.
"I'm fine," Kirkop said in an unhappy voice, but Xander could see red trails up his arms and his neck and even his face, like he had hundreds of tiny broken blood vessels.
"That shouldn't have happened," Willow said, and Xander's stomach turned to stone as he looked over at her.
"Willow? What do you mean?" Giles demanded before Xander could get past the horrible sinking stomach feeling enough to ask the same question. Giles got up from the floor, and Willow's hands fluttered.
"Giles, let's take this somewhere private." Jenny stepped to his side, her hand resting on his arm.
"Let's not," Angel suggested.
"I agree." Riley turned around so his back was to Angel and he crossed his arms as he considered Jenny and Giles. "Kirkop, get to the medics."
"Sir, I'm fine. I'd rather stay here." Xander watched as Kirkop turned to face Giles and Jenny who had drifted closer to Willow and Tara, and this was not feeling good. This was feeling bad. Freaky bad.
"Dead bad guys is reason to celebrate," Buffy argued. "Yeah, the chunks were a surprise. But hey, at least the Scourge made nice messless chunks." However, she had to use the wall to push herself up, so her cheeriness felt a little forced. She stood leaning against the wall, and Xander cringed as he watched her struggle to stay upright.
"Willow, what do you mean that this shouldn't have happened?" Giles turned around and went back to Buffy, getting his arm around her waist.
"I..." She stopped and looked around with wide eyes full of panic. Xander could feel himself pulled toward that desperation. Whatever she'd done, she hadn't meant to... he knew that. She had on her really, really sorry face, but at the same time, two bloody bodies lay on the ground with their heads exploded. The Listers hadn't deserved to die.
"What did you do?" Angel growled.
"Nothing!" she blurted. She turned around to look at Jenny, and Xander realized that Jenny's face had lost all expression.
"Willow, let's go out to the car," Jenny said firmly.
"Jenny?" Giles sounded bewildered, which was not a tone of voice Xander normally associated with Giles.
"Rupert, we can talk about this later." She gave him a tight smile.
Buffy spoke up. "Oh, I'm starting to think we can talk now. Or you can talk now, I’m just going to stand here and fade in and out of consciousness."
"Buffy?" Willow hurried to her side, getting her own arm around Buffy's waist so Buffy was propped up between Willow and Giles. "Jenny, this wasn't supposed to happen."
"What wasn't supposed to happen?" Giles almost yelled.
Willow jerked like he'd hit her, and Giles sighed. Xander started to step forward, but Angel caught him by the arm and pulled him back. When Xander turned to glare Angel into letting him go, he failed miserably because Angel just pulled him closer.
Giles sighed again. "Willow, what happened to the Scourge?"
Willow's gaze immediately went to Jenny, but she just raised her chin and said nothing. Xander noticed several of the soldiers shifting uncomfortably, and hands were starting to come to rest on the butts of guns.
"So," Angel said softly, "you used one of the spells you'd prepared against demons."
Xander looked up to see if Angel was attempting some wildly inappropriate humor. Sometimes Angel's attempts at humor were definitely lacking any humor. However, there was not much of the haha in his expression. "Spells? Against demons? Friendly demons?"
Kirkop held up his arm where a spiderweb of red veins looked distinctly unhealthy. "You did this?" He looked from Willow to Jenny. "My grandmother always said her father was part odmience—a Polish changeling. I always thought she just liked to tell stories about the old country, but I guess your spell hit more than just the bad guys. And those two were on our side." He swept his hand toward the two Lister bodies, but Xander was not going to look at them again.
"Willow, I'd like a clear answer," Giles said, and Xander was starting to get whiplash from all the demands. However, it looked like whatever weird was going on, Giles and Riley and Buffy had all been unlooplike. Even Tara was looking a little shocked, and that was whole levels of wrong because in the last couple of weeks, Xander had come to think that Willow and Tara were ridiculously in love.
"I didn't do anything." Willow sounded close to crying.
"Mr. Giles," Tara's voice was barely above a whisper, "WWillow didn't cast the spell. Her power was tapped, and whoever cast it pulled on my powers through Willow, but Willow didn't cast it." Okay, for not naming names, that accusation was pretty much pointed right at Jenny.
Willow was already nodding her head at Tara. "I wouldn't cast a spell like that. Angel and Spike could have been all dusty, and I wouldn't do that. Okay, I might do that to Spike because he's soulless and dangerous and really scary, but I wouldn't do that to Angel. He's Xander's best friend, and it really hurts to say that because I know I messed things all up between us, but I wouldn't kill Angel. He has a soul. And Xander gets all googly eyed when Angel comes in the room and there's touching... like they care about each other too much to not touch kind of touching. I wouldn't have ever killed Angel." Willow looked over toward the bodies of the two fallen Listers and tears slipped down her face. "I wouldn't have ever killed them. Tor was really nice," Willow finished with a sob, and Tara hurried to her side.
Xander watched while Giles' back grew stiffer, and he really thought Giles was about to give Willow the motherload of all father-lectures, but then Giles turned toward Jenny. "What did you do?"
"Rupert, this is not the time."
"Actually, I believe it is."
"Hey, I have an idea. Let's just all calm down," Buffy suggested. Willow nodded, tears running down her face.
"We can discuss this in private." Jenny had backed all the way up to the door, which had been blasted open, but Willow and Tara and Giles and Buffy weren't moving. They were all huddled together, supporting Buffy in the middle.
Giles' face got that scary lack of emotion thing going. "Do you think I don't recognize the signature of chaos magic? Are you quite mad? Techno-magic and chaos magic are incompatible. You could have killed us all. And your foolish willingness to cast spells willy nilly has injured Buffy."
"Riley?" Buffy turned her eyes to him. "Help please? I'm not really good at doing the calming people down thing. I'm better at making them mad, but maybe you can play peacekeeper."
Riley stiffened, but he didn't jump in there and start calming people down. "Giles, is Buffy hurt badly?"
"Yes, Giles," Angel said, his voice dangerously soft and lilting with an Irish accent, "are the slayers injured badly?"
"I won't know until I know what spell she used." Giles looked right at Angel without even glancing over toward Jenny, and Xander was thinking that was not a good sign for their marriage. Jenny was slowly turning a pink color, and he thought she was probably getting pretty pissed because she didn't seem the type to be embarrassed.
"It was out of de Aldedelega's Opprimo," Willow whispered. From the silence that fell over the magic-knowing crowd, Xander was guessing that was not of the good. "We found the book in Mr. Rayne's things after he tried to put the forgetting on you before the wedding. But it was only supposed to affect demons, not you, Buffy."
Spike started laughing, and the soldiers shifted nervously. Heck, Xander was nervous because an attack like that probably had Spike itching to taste Jenny's blood, and right now, Xander wouldn't bet any money on Angel stopping him. The laughter was just pretty much reminding all of them that you really couldn't predict what a pissed off Spike might do. "You bloody idiot. Slayers are faster, stronger and heal better than humans. How the fuck do you think that happens without a little demon blood in 'em? Considering how much harder the spell hit them than good old Kirkop there, I guess they're more than an eighth demon and since their heads didn't explode, they're less than half."
"Oh goddess." Willow looked like she was turning green, and Buffy turned to stare at Giles with big eyes.
Instead of answering, Giles looked like he was wilting, and now Riley moved and he moved fast. He got his left arm under Buffy, holding her up with one hand, and his other hand rested on the butt of his gun. The other soldiers were shifting around. If Xander were the suspicious sort, he'd think they were clearing a line of fire toward Jenny. Oh yeah, this was turning so very, very bad.
"I think I want to sit," Buffy said. Graham had Faith in his arms, and her head was resting against his shoulder, so Xander was guessing she couldn't lift it because if Buffy could still sit up on her own, Faith would be fighting like hell to prove she was no worse off than Buffy. Riley carefully settled Buffy on the ground, and several soldiers moved closer. Kirkop actually pulled the strap on his big gun around so that it hung in front where he could rest his elbow on it and glare. Considering that Kirkop had a slightly dark Neanderthal look going for him, he had the scary glare down pretty good. It was going even better with his veiny skin, which made him look a little like a comic book villain. Jenny, however, kept her chin high and still managed to look like she was not-even-doubting-herself girl.
"The first priority was ensuring that the Beacon was not fired. I acted in the best interests of the group. They were going to activate the Beacon."
"I had sharpshooters assigned to prevent that." Oh yeah, Riley sounded pissed.
"It was chaotic. One of the Scourge was going to—"
A soldier with one of those monster guns stepped forward. He was an older man and had a look that would have made Xander avoid dark alleys with him. For two weeks Xander had been living and training with these guys, and Xander would have described most of them as goofy, silly, crass, or overly competitive. Now they all just looked dangerous... and pissed. There was lots of pissed going on. "Lady, I was doing my job, and I didn't even have to worry about refugees darting through my target zone, so that Beacon was covered."
"You couldn't..."
Riley cut her off. "An exploding shell in the head would have stopped any Scourge that got close to the Beacon, but you made a unilateral decision to activate your own version of a Beacon. You chose to selectively attack my unit."
"I targeted the enemy." Jenny looked around, and maybe she noticed the suddenly hard expression on Giles' face. "Rupert, I didn't know this would affect Buffy. You have to believe that. I would never do anything to hurt Buffy or Willow—they're our family."
No one answered her, and Xander could almost smell the homicidal rage in the air. He definitely could smell the dead Listers and his own vomit, and that was doing bad, bad things to his stomach and his psyche, so he definitely didn't need any more dead bodies around.
Looking around at the group, Xander tried putting on his best pleading expression. "Okay, I know I'm not strategy man but attacking your own side is feeling unstrategy, so can we all agree that Jenny stupid and head back to the hotel?"
Xander eeped as Angel turned around and grabbed him, pulling him close before he turned to face the Sunnydale crew. "She's na welcome in my home. You set foot in my territory again and you'll learn what real pain is," he promised in a voice that gave Xander chills. That was Angelus. That was pure Angelus, and Spike stepped forward, his glee shining through as he bounced on his toes. This wasn't even going to be a fight, it was going to be two really big, pissed off demons ripping Jenny into little tiny shreds, and Xander wasn't sure how to stop it. Even worse, Xander wasn't sure he wanted to stop it, and that did not exactly make him a good person.
Jenny pulled a small satchel out from a pocket, and a dozen soldiers had their guns drawn before Xander could blink. It was feeling more and more like the OK corral, and Xander really wished he'd paid more attention in history class because he couldn't even remember if anyone came out of that alive.
Giles stepped forward into the empty territory between Jenny and everyone else. "You need to leave."
"Rupert." Jenny smiled and tilted her head to the side as she reached out her empty hand for him. Giles just stood there as her smile faded and her hand slowly dropped back down to the side. She looked around, but she obviously did not find whatever she was looking for because the emotion drained from her face. Willow was standing in the corner, her face buried in Tara's shoulder as she sobbed, and the soldiers were looking about as homicidal as Spike and Angel, and that was pretty homicidal.
"Jenny, go back to Sunnydale." Giles was using the teacher voice that Xander used to hate.
"I made a choice to save all of us."
"You made a choice," Giles agreed. For a second, they stared at each other, and then Jenny backed up, her hand still clutching that satchel she'd taken out of her pocket. Xander's arm was starting to tingle from Angel's overly-tight hold, but he didn't complain. He felt like one wrong breath and Angel and Spike were going to go racing out into the night and do something that Xander only kinda sorta wanted done. And if they did it... if they ripped Jenny Giles' throat out, Xander just knew he was going to end up in therapy again. He was approaching therapy levels of badness already, and he just couldn't deal with any more.
"Wait," Xander blurted as the obvious suddenly hit him. "You and Spike are okay. You are, right?" Xander squirmed around until he could get a good look at all of Angel. He hadn't worn the Gem of Amara, and Xander made a mental note to make Angel wear it from now on, even if he had to shove it up Angel's ass. Delayed panic made Xander's heart pound so hard that it physically hurt.
"Calm down," Angel soothed him, pulling him close while Xander ran hands over Angel's shoulders and chest looking for burns or injuries. "Calm down, a mhuirnín, we're fine," Angel promised, catching one of Xander's hands and holding it still. "Graham warned us that Jenny and Willow were practicing dangerous magics, and we had a counterspell done. I'm only sorry that I didn't think to protect the rest of you, and for that, she will die if I ever catch her in L.A. again." Angel looked over Xander's shoulder and glared at Giles, but surprisingly, Giles didn't have any sharp comments to throw back.
"Right then," Spike said, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it, "that leaves one bad little witchy."
"Hold on there," Buffy said, but her warning would have probably carried more weight if she had the strength to stand. She didn't. "Tara already said that Willow didn't cast the spell."
"She just helped create it, didn't you pet?" Spike had his friendly voice going, the one that usually led to bad, bad things, and the two people who could actually stop him, Cordelia and Angel, were just watching silently.
Willow looked up from Tara's shoulder. "It was supposed to be a last resort. Like if we were fighting the mayor and the explosives didn't work. It's a really, really dangerous spell, and Jenny said we would only activate it if we didn't have any choice. I never would have...." Willow's eyes skittered over to one of the Lister men, and her sobs cut off her words.
"Yes, that doesn't absolve you of all responsibility." Giles sounded tired. "However, given your relationship with Jenny, I can certainly see how she was able to convince you to prepare such a dangerous spell."
"Bloody hell, you think that's enough?" Spike demanded. "She soddin' well helped prepare the spell and she provided the power to attack Faith. If you're not willing to discipline her, I bloody well will."
"I hardly think that's appropriate," Giles squared off, but Xander was not calling that a fair fight. Yeah, Giles had more to him than tweed, but without some sort of backup, Giles was going down, down, down, and Angel didn't look interesting in stopping the fight. Xander opened his mouth to object, but Angel's fingers dug into the soft of his arm so hard that Xander gasped in surprise and pain.
"So appropriate is letting her get away with murder?" Angel asked. "Two men who wanted nothing more than to protect their families are dead."
"That's a horror Jenny will have to live with," Giles said firmly.
"But Willow lied," Riley interrupted the stare down.
"Riley," Buffy said in a not-too-subtle warning voice.
"No, Buffy, she lied, and we both know it. After the anti-vampire spell Jenny suggested, we asked if they had other ideas for aggressive magical spells, and they both assured us that they did not, yet they've been working on this since shortly after Ethan Rayne's arrest."
"Hey, it's not like we always made the best judgments under fire. I'm the one who set a gym on fire, and you had that whole incident with the truck and the payroll and the mudslide. Let he who is without a history of major stupidity throw the first mudball." Buffy sounded way more serious than usual, but Riley stood up and turned to Willow.
"Willow, I'm sorry, but this sort of conduct is not within the scope of my command authority. This has to go up to the Army JAG office."
"You're arresting me?" Willow sounded ready to hyperventilate, and Xander squirmed in Angel's arms. He didn't want Willow arrested. He just wanted her to be really sorry and never do anything like that again, and she was sorry. He could tell from the look on her face that she was chocolate-chip-cookie-making sorry.
"Riley, as scare tactics go, this is a good one, but enough is enough." Buffy was sounding cranky.
Riley crouched down next to her. "Buffy, I love you, but I'm a soldier. I know from experience that we make choices in battle that... that can haunt us. And if we know we will never have to account for our actions, we can end up on a slippery slope that will lead to a psychologically dangerous place. I’m not saying Willow is culpable for the murders. I'm saying she needs to stand in front of a JAG court and make her arguments. These are soldiers. They'll understand the pressures of command, and they'll understand that I bear some of the responsibility for this because I never insisted that Willow take the combat ethics courses, even when it was increasingly obvious that she was developing into a frontline fighter."
Giles moved to stand in front of Willow, and he was clearly not planning to budge. "Now see here. This is not the military, and we have not been drafted into your army."
"Then she can face accessory to murder charges in the FISA court. The government is quite clear that demonic activity falls under the jurisdiction of the Foreign Intelligence act."
"Buffy?" Willow clung to Tara, but she looked at Buffy.
"Willow," Riley said as he got up and walked over to her, "I doubt they'll sentence you to anything more than taking the classes I should have required you to take in the first place. But if you ignore your responsibility in this tragedy, can you honestly promise to never make a mistake like this again? You allowed an attack that has disabled Buffy for who knows how long, and if Angel hadn't prepared for a betrayal that I never saw coming, you would have dusted Angel and Spike. You know Xander never would have forgiven you if that had happened, not even if this was a mistake."
Willow hiccupped from crying so hard. "But arrested?" Willow turned to Tara. Her eyes were red, and tears started slipping down her face, but she didn't say anything.
Riley rested a hand on Willow's shoulder. "A review board, Willow. If Buffy told you about my first big failure, she told you that I managed to dump half a payroll into a swollen river, and this was a field operation, so the money was in local currency. A hundred soldiers were fishing the river for the last Treasury bag for a month, and I had to go in front of a review. It was a miserable experience, but I survived, and I'm glad I faced my own mistakes. I will speak for you, as will everyone else here. You made a mistake in following Jenny, but I don't believe you're responsible. I just know that I don't have the authority to make that decision legally. Your actions led to two friendly fire deaths, do you really think you should walk away without facing any consequences?"
Without answering, Willow turned her face back to Tara's shoulder and cried. Riley sighed and turned to face a very pissed off Giles. "Jenny Giles has the same choice. Unlike Willow, she is a government employee acting in a military action. She can go before a JAG review board voluntarily, or I will arrest her under the authority of the FISA court."
"How dare—" Giles started to say.
"You didn't object to the laws when I used them to arrest Mr. Rayne for his attack. This isn't open for debate," Riley said. Xander was impressed. Yeah, Xander had stood up to Giles before, but when Xander did it, he always felt like he was some kid. Riley came out looking way more collected and in-charge than Giles. Of course, if Buffy were up and walking around, Xander suspected that Riley wouldn't have been quite so large and in-charge, but without the spell-attack, Riley wouldn't have needed to take charge.
"If he doesn't make her face her actions, I will take my own justice," Angel said, and the Irish lilt was still there. Giles looked over wearily, and maybe he knew he was defeated or maybe he was just too tired to argue, but he didn't have anything to say about that.
"We need to get Faith somewhere quiet," Graham said. Xander turned, and Graham had put her back on the floor at some point. Her head was in his lap and he was smoothing her hair back from her forehead.
"Right then, we're out of here." Spike walked over, scooped Faith up in his arms and headed for the blast hole they'd walked in through.
"I want to know what spell was cast, and I want that information by sunrise or I'll start asking the questions m'self, boyo." Angel pinned Riley with a cold glare, but Riley just nodded his head.
"Understood. I'll make sure we both have the information we need." Riley went back and knelt down next to Buffy, slipping his hand behind her neck. For a second, Buffy looked at him with all this unhappiness, but then she sighed and let him pull her close.
"What a mess," she said softly, and that was the last thing Xander saw before Angel pulled him out into the night... or Angelus did. Xander was starting to think that perfect happiness and perfect pissedoffness both brought out the great soulless one.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Kin Of The Soul 23
Date: 2009-06-29 09:23 pm (UTC)Re: Kin Of The Soul 23
Date: 2009-06-29 09:24 pm (UTC)Re: Kin Of The Soul 23
From:Re: Kin Of The Soul 23
From:no subject
Date: 2009-06-29 09:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-29 09:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-29 09:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-29 10:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-29 10:07 pm (UTC)Amazing all the way around. You hit this nail on the head. Thanks so much for sharing. I look forward to more!
no subject
Date: 2009-06-29 10:13 pm (UTC)I'm so glad you're enjoying this
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2009-06-29 10:36 pm (UTC)"Willow, I'm sorry, but this sort of conduct is not within the scope of my command authority. This has to go up to the Army JAG office."
"You're arresting me?" Willow sounded ready to hyperventilate This threw me at first because you've made it clear that Willow really isn't part of his army group but, with Buffy working with the army guys, I guess technically she is.
"Buffy, I love you, but I'm a soldier. I know from experience that we make choices in battle that... that can haunt us. And if we know we will never have to account for our actions, we can end up on a slippery slope that will lead to a psychologically dangerous place. Oh, just awesome. And the psychology major comes out.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-29 10:39 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2009-06-29 10:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-29 10:47 pm (UTC)And yeah, the part-demons are in some trouble, but we'll have to see how the groups do searching for a cure. I think Angel is pretty willing to torture Willow and/or Jenny if it gets him information to help Doyle and Faith.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-29 10:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-29 11:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-29 11:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-29 11:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-29 11:06 pm (UTC)Jenny is in so much trouble. A calculated attack on ally forces...oh my. She's about two steps away from full treason and she definitely gave the LOAC the finger. She better step lightly or she's never going to see the light of day again...That is if Angel doesn't dismember her first.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-29 11:18 pm (UTC)And you know, I think Willow probably would benefit from some military ethics and LOAC classes. She can treat it as academic study, but she needs to have someone walk her through the reality that power requires responsibility.
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2009-06-29 11:17 pm (UTC)This is sooo good!
I'm glad Willow wasn't a willing participant in casting the spell, but that she is being made to take the consequenxes for helping to develop it then lying about it.
And poor Xander! To know his vampires came that close to being dusted. And what a way for the Slayers to find out about their own demoniness. I hope Jenny gets here ass incarcerated. She's freakin' nuts.
And where's Cordy's big mouth in all this? Her vampires were nearly dusted too!
And squeee..... Angel went all Angelussy protecto vamp. Yummy!
And now I'm wondering if Doyle will still have visions?
Wow, awaiting further developments.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-29 11:27 pm (UTC)And Cordy was crying (and trying to hide it) while Xander was throwing up. Those two are not fighters, and I don't think they were prepared to see people they knew have their heads explode. It made them quieter than normal.
And yes, Doyle is badly injured, Faith is down, and Angel is ALL Angelussy. Oh, that is one cranky vamp.
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2009-06-30 12:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-30 12:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-30 12:19 am (UTC)Yeah, if Riley hadn't taken control of the situation, Angel would have killed her. Much better than canon.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-30 12:22 am (UTC)I really think Riley recognized the danger that either Angel or Spike was about to lose it. He wanted to make it clear that he would punish them.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-30 12:23 am (UTC)I truly appreciated Riley stepping up and insisting that Willow and Jenny take responsibility for their actions and I also appreciated how you portrayed Ripper as torn - he is not happy with Jenny at all and agreed she was in the wrong but she is his wife and the thought of her being arrested upset him.
The last line about being pissed off bringing out Angelus was also a perfect way to close the chapter.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-30 12:26 am (UTC)(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2009-06-30 12:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-30 12:49 am (UTC)(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2009-06-30 02:33 am (UTC)(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2009-06-30 01:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-30 02:31 am (UTC)(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2009-06-30 01:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-30 02:30 am (UTC)And I'm not sure yet what Jenny is going to do. I don't think she'll be amused with Riley's ultimatum.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-30 01:39 am (UTC)You did so very well, lit-gal. You were able to express the anger, fear, dire situations without resorting to writing "he yelled" instead of "he said," yanno? Not too many authors can do that.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-30 02:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-30 01:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-30 02:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-30 02:13 am (UTC)And I hope Willow learns something from this. Sadly, I fear this is not the last we'll see of Jenny, or the damage she could do.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-30 02:25 am (UTC)Thank you so much. Willow is certainly going to get an education--and she's going to get it from people who can give her the history of ethics gone wrong.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-30 02:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-30 02:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-30 02:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-30 02:24 am (UTC)(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2009-06-30 02:38 am (UTC)I probably need to reread it, cuz I skipped bits, this was not a happy chapter.
Those poor Listers!
It was just... wow. Who knew keeping Jenny alive could end up going so badly?
Can the next chapter have Care Bears and kittens? Please?
thanks for sharing (I think) happier writing (this was hard to read, it had to be hard to write!) and update soon please (with happy!)
Tabee
no subject
Date: 2009-06-30 02:41 am (UTC)And I'll try for some Care Bears.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-30 02:48 am (UTC)Okay, quick review: Brilliant chapter!
no subject
Date: 2009-06-30 02:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-30 03:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-30 03:34 am (UTC)(no subject)
From: