Kin of the Soul

[lit_gal]

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


Still spurting!!  Five chapters in three days... The spurting is officially over.  But not before we have BLAIR!!  Yep, Blair Sandburg, part demon, all cutie has returned to the cast!  For some things, you just need a geek, and Wesley is, unfortunately, geeking for the other side right now.


( 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 ) ( Part Twenty-Three ) ( Part Twenty-Four ) ( Part Twenty-Five ) ( Part Twenty-six ) ( Part Twenty-Seven ) ( Part Twenty-eight ) ( Part Twenty-nine ) ( Part thirty )  ( Part Thirty-one )  ( Part Thirty-Two ) ( Part Thirty-Three ) ( Part Thirty four )  ( Part Thirty-five )




"It's about time you got your asses back," Faith greeted them when they climbed up out of the sewer.

"It's nice to see you too," Xander answered her as he followed Spike out. "So, guard duty?"

Faith shrugged. "It's better than sitting around thinking of how everything is fucked up," she answered, but before Xander could answer, another voice was calling out.

"Xander!" Blair called with such obvious relief that Xander got the feeling everyone had been more than a little worried about them. That was okay, though, because Xander had been worried about himself. And not just from Angelus.

"About bloody time you got here," Spike snapped at Blair before he walked right past him into the dressing main room of the theater.

Blair made a funny face and looked at Xander like he expected some sort of explanation. Oh, Xander had one, he just didn't want to get into it. He'd already been called stupid in many creative ways... about any way that Spike could call him stupid without saying stupid, Spike had said.

"Nice to see you, too, Spike," Blair told the closed doors Spike had just disappeared behind. "Someone pissed in his blood."

"If he'd had time to get any," Xander said. Yeah, he was feeling not happy with Spike, but he also didn't think the vamp needed to get one of Blair's lectures. More importantly, Xander didn't think Blair deserved to get sat on and his head shaved just because Spike was being cranky. Blair's hair had reached the shaggy stage, so either he was trying to grow it out, or he'd been traveling somewhere exotic enough that they didn't have scissors.

"Angelus again?" Blair asked, the sarcasm vanishing. Faith turned around and headed for the front doors to the theater, hitting one with a fist hard enough to make the chained entrance rattle.

Xander shrugged. "Kinda. He didn't catch up with us, but..."

"It's not easy," Blair finished for him. "Oh man, I feel for you. No way do I understand, because I have never had a relationship like you guys. Nowhere near as close. But man... this sucks."

"Sucks hairy monkey balls." Xander clenched his teeth to keep from saying more. A little voice in the back of his head called him an idiot for turning down the information because now, face with the fact that they didn't have any leads, Xander was thinking that evil help might not be all bad. Mostly bad, sure. He sighed.

"Hey, it'll work out," Blair said softly. He was looking at Xander like Xander was on the verge of breaking.

"Or we'll stake him," Xander said with more than a little bitterness. He followed Spike's lead and headed for the main theater. The clan was going to use the backstage area, so Xander trotted down the aisle toward the back.

"Xander," Blair called, but he kept right on going. The stairs up to the stage were low, and Xander went to take two at a time.

"Xander!"

The stairs wobbled under his feet, and Xander windmilled his arms trying to catch his balance. A hand grabbed at his back and gave him a good push so that he stumbled forward to the main stage.

"The stairs need fixing," Blair explained when Xander turned around to look at him. "That's what I was trying to tell you."

Xander could feel the blood climb into his face. Yep, he was officially an idiot.

"Hey, whoa, no biggie. Geez, they're only stairs," Blair said as he climbed them much more carefully than Xander had. "Man, you've had the worst day ever, haven't you?"

Taking a deep breath, Xander could only nod.

"Yeah," Blair said softly. "Wesley posted to a website Cordelia knew about. He's okay... relatively... and Angelus doesn't seem to be making any big moves to set the town on fire."

That should have been good news, but instead Xander could feel the emotion press up from deep inside. He wanted to cry, but if he started he just wasn't going to be able to stop. Not now. He rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands and tried to grab ahold of his emotions before he totally fell apart.

He hated this. He hated that he didn't have Angel to hide behind when Spike got all growly and he hated that Spike was growly and he hated that they'd had to leave Wesley and he hated that Faith was hurting so much and he really fucking hated himself for still wanting Angelus so damn much. They both called him husband.

Xander pressed his hands against his eyes until they hurt, and he could see spots. Angel and Angelus had both learned to be vampires from Liam. Both had taken his fears and his desires and had molded that into a seriously neurotic vamp with way more vanity than you'd expect in someone who didn't have a reflection. The hair was the same, the insecurity was the same, and the desire in his eyes when he looked at Xander was the same.

Xander's air left him, and he struggled to get a stuttering breath into his starved lungs. Blair rested a hand on Xander's shoulder, and Xander shied away from the touch and hurried toward the backstage.

The curtain smelled of mold as he pushed through, and the backstage area had been set up with props from some picnic scene, complete with a red checked table cloth. Cordelia was standing with her arms around Spike, his face buried in her neck, and the pain rose like a wave that left him wanted to fly at them, to hit them until they hurt as much as he did.

"Xander," Blair said, his voice so full of sympathy and love that Xander just wanted to punch him, which wasn't exactly logical, but Xander didn't want to be logical. Graham looked up, and for a second, Graham just stared at him.

"Xander!" Graham finally called out. "I'm glad you're back. It's time for you to take the tongue lashing from Cordelia. I've met drill sergeants with more of the milk of human kindness in them."

Xander frowned and looked over at Cordelia. She didn't look particularly upset—no more than anyone else.

"Next time I offer to do any work with tools, feel free to tell me I'm an idiot," Graham kept right on going. "I think Cordelia plans to give you the lecture about supervising subordinates when they're doing their work."

"Subordinates?"

"After turning the main bathroom into a swimming pool, I am more than happy to admit that I am clearly unqualified with water pipes."

It finally dawned on Xander that Graham was talking about yesterday's plumbing disaster, which, compared to all their other disasters, didn't feel all that disastrous. "Bad?" he asked.

"I wouldn't open the door marked "Gentleman" if I were you. The drains handled most of the water, but some pretty scary things came up them before the water went back down." Graham made a face that made it pretty clear that the disgust levels were too high for a covert ops trained soldier to handle, so Xander made a mental note to just avoid the whole mess. "And Blair here ducked out of his classes, and managed to show up just in time to push a mop."

"The highlight of my week," Blair said. He shook his head. "Actually, compared to the shit Dr. Reynolds gave me, cleaning unidentified organic schmutz was a joy. Man, some people. He acted like I was trying to kill his cat or something. Emergencies happen." Blair headed over to the picnic table and sat on one of the benches.

"I hope he wasn't too put out. I remember my college days, and I do not remember them fondly."

Blair shrugged. "The worst he can do is make me take the semester over." Blair frowned. "Well, he could make me redo a year of work on the practicum, but seriously, dude, believe me when I tell you that your class is not the center of my life.  Only, he didn't." He rolled his eyes again, and it finally dawned on Xander that Blair was in deep shit for leaving the university. Yep, they were all in one big pile of shit together. He wasn't sure if that was better or worse than being in a pile by himself.

"I think my tech school will be a little more understanding," Xander said. It occurred to him that he should call or something, but he wasn't sure what he was going to say. 'Hey, my lover went psychotic, so I think I may need to miss class until I can decide just how homicidal my husband is.' Yeah, that wouldn't go over well. Xander could feel his chest tighten.

"So, where were you two?" Graham asked.

Xander shook his head and tried to focus on the conversation. "Um... we were staying with big scary looking demons that were a cross between a tank and a deformed human. And can I just say, I'm glad they don't get around much, because if they did, the human race would pretty much be hamburger."

"What kind of demon?" Graham asked.

"Does it really matter what kind of demon? Tell me that you got the tracking spell off and that you have some sort of plan because if I have to stay here much longer, someone is going to be joining me in the land of being in a really bad mood," Cordelia warned, stepping away from Spike's side. For a second, Spike just stood there very obviously breathing. Then he stretched his neck in that so-familiar gesture that meant he wanted to pound something... or that he had just pounded something or that he was thinking about pounding something.

"Erv demons," Spike said, "and the boy bollocked up the best chance for finding the witch. There are some rumors that she's thrown in with the Powers that Be."

Cordelia frowned. "Be what?"

"Be sticking their nose in my fucking business," Spike answered. Walking over, he dropped down on the bench. He looked ready to pass out, but then he was up all night doing the hourly check-ins with the lair. While Xander thought he'd be able to stay up and help with that, he'd ended up passed out next to something that was either a sex toy or the world's biggest slingshot, and Xander was not even going to ask which.

"To make a short story, shorter," Xander offered as he walked over to sit across from Spike where the chances of getting sat on were minimized. "Evil people offered information to find Jenny. I told evil people that I didn't like to get involved with evil, and then we left Wolfram and Hart. Spike apparently made some fight club let go of some baby something, so the big somethings took us in for the night, and I am so exhausted that I just want someone to shoot me and put me out of my misery. And Spike is even more tired, so don't poke the cranky vampire."

"Did that actually make any sense to anyone?" Blair asked, but at least he gave Xander a sympathetic look.

"Not really." Grabbing the coffee pot from the hot plate balanced on the microwave balanced on a small refrigerator, Graham poured two cups. Xander amused himself by imagining the electrical fire the small tower of appliances could cause if they were all plugged into an ungrounded outlet, and he was guessing they were.

Graham pushed one of the steaming cups in front of him. "I worship you, you know this, right?" Xander asked as he curled his fingers around the cup.

"You say that to all the guys who bring you coffee." Graham straddled the bench and sat next to Xander so that Xander was sandwiched between him and Blair. Yep, hopefully he'd get a little backup on the avoiding-evil part of the story because if Xander had to tell how he turned down the information again, he needed a little protection from Spike's tongue. Of course, Spike probably could have tortured him into taking the information from Holland, so it was nice that he hadn't, but Xander really wasn't fond of verbal beatings any more than he was physical ones.

"The somethings would be Erv demons," Spike said. He reached over and stole Graham's coffee. "A while back, I found out that a fight club had captured a forty year old Erv and were trying to make it fight in the ring. I ripped the owner's guts out and suggested that someone set it free."

Blair gasped. "Oh man. That is seriously fucked up."

Graham frowned at Blair. "Why?"

"Would you kill a kid?" Blair demanded.

"What? Of course not!" Graham physically pulled back in horror.

Blair just nodded. "I didn't think so. Erv are huge demons... they live for like thousands of years. But they don't mature into their full form until they're two or three hundred. Forty... that's like not even hitting adolescence, yet."

Putting down Graham's coffee, Spike arched his back. "Young ones look like a garden-variety demon—something human-sized and scaly, but the fight promoters had captured Malish just so they could claim to have an Erv in the ring. They wanted me to fight him. Wankers. I'll fight a full-grown Erv before I'll kill some ankle-biter."

Xander frowned as he remembered the story about Spike and Drusilla and a very unlucky orphanage. "But didn't you..."

"I wasn't fighting them," Spike cut him off and glared. "They were prezzies for Dru, and that's a different thing. I don't fight children to prove I have knackers big enough to earn a little respect. That's closer to Angelus' game."

The room fell silent as that name fell like a bomb into the middle of them. Xander stared at his cup, tracing a finger around the circle formed by the rim. Cordelia was the first to move. She sat down next to Spike, and his arm went around her waist. "And now that someone brought up Angelus, maybe you two can stay on topic and tell us what happened at Wolfram and Hart."

"Ask the boy," Spike said, turning a not-happy expression toward Xander.

Xander cringed, half waiting for the English insults to start again, but Spike just glared at him.

Graham put a hand on Xander's arm. "Xander?"

"I couldn't take the information from Holland. He's evil. And evil is not usually trustworthy." Spike opened his mouth, but Xander plowed ahead. "And even if it's trustworthy, you don't really know what evil really wants because, hello, evil. I vote no to evil."

"Okay, now I know I missed something," Blair said with a frown. "Who's evil?"

"Bloody hell, just tell from the time you disappeared from the elevator. I'm too bloody tired ta make any more editorial comments," Spike said with a sigh. Bringing his cup up, he drained the coffee before heading for the small kitchen area. While he pulled a packet of blood out, Xander told them about the white room and the girl and Holland Manners and his information. As far as Xander was concerned, it was a win because now they had the rumor about the Powers that Be, but Spike still growled the second Xander mentioned the slip of paper in Holland's hand.

Xander finished, and looked around the room. If he'd expected anyone to jump to his defense, he was disappointed to see that most everyone had on expressions that suggested they just weren't sure what to think. Well, except Spike who was clenching his teeth and clearly trying to not say something unnice. Something else unnice. He'd already been plenty of unnice, but Xander was thinking he was a little justified since the lack of a soul meant that he really didn't even understand Xander's dilemma. In his head, it was like someone just offered him a million dollars free and clear, and Xander had decided to turn it down. Yeah, not really smart, except Xander was still thinking it was the smartest choice he could make. He wished now he hadn't made it, but it was the right choice.

"When you're considering intel, the source is as important at the actual information. Can we even trust their word that the Powers that Be are involved?" Graham finally asked in the awkward silence that followed the end of Xander's story.

"Oh man. It totally sounds like them," Blair hurried to answer. Maybe he could see that Spike was about to lose his battle to not snark. "They are the biggest busy-bodies in the demonic world, and considering that my cousin Whistler and my father totally drank the Kool-Aid, I think I can say that with a pretty high degree of certainty."

"Your dad's one of the Powers that Be?" Xander asked.

Blair almost choked to death on his coffee. "No way. Those are old ones. Some of the demons who were forced out of this dimension, but they've kept their fingers in the pot. Some of the oldest human myths talk about eudaemon or Æsir or ancient gods, and those are pretty much all names for the Powers that Be. I happen to think they're big interfering pains in the ass, but my father will be more than happy to tell you how they guide human history and prepare for the coming battle against the forces of darkness."

Graham took a second to really study Blair, like he was trying to understand the man, but then they really hadn't had much time to actually get to know each other. Graham was sort of post-Blair. "No offense to your father, Blair, but when people start talking about preparing for battles against evil, they're generally blowing smoke up someone's ass."

"No fucking kidding," Blair agreed. "And go ahead and offend my father all you want. I actually tell people that I don't know who my father is, which is oddly okay with my mom. The bastard seduced Naomi because some Powers that Be oracle told him that I had some destiny. Does he stick around for the birth? Does he help my very orthodox Jewish mother through an unplanned pregnancy? Does he even show up when the rabbi figures out she slept with a demon?"

"I'm guessing no," Graham answered.

"I should have warned you to avoid father issues, huh?" Xander asked Graham. He was actually grateful they were off on someone else's issues because he couldn't deal with dealing with his own right now.

"Yeah," Graham agreed. "You need to have my back, Xander. I count on you to keep my foot out of my mouth."

Spike's snort was the closest he'd come to unnice since Xander started his story, and Xander smiled at him. It was nice to have family that tried so hard to not emotionally damage you, even when they were really, really pissed.

"Maybe we can talk about the Powers that Be and whether or not they need slaying," Cordelia suggested, and that set Blair off on another round of trying to choke to death on his coffee. "Problem?" Cordelia asked with the sort of tone that could freeze water.

"No, but if you're going to try to slay the Powers, you're going to need a portal. They aren't even in this dimension. I only know of one of the old ones that...." Blair stopped mid-sentence, his head cocked to the side like he was listening to something. Spike searched the room with a yellow-eyed gaze, and Graham stood up, his hand on his gun. Oh yeah, they were all jumpy.

"Xander," Blair said slowly, "what did the little girl say about the end of the world?"

"Um... that she was the sunset and the bringer of dark in the light. It was pretty much standard 'I am bad guy' dialogue. Seriously, she watches too much late night television."

"Unless she's telling the truth. Oh man. Oh fucking hell. No way." Blair slapped his hand down on the table and got a huge, stupid grin on his face. Before Xander could even ask, Spike was there leaning over the table and getting right in Blair's face.

"Out with it unless you want me to start pulling out organs," he threatened. Normally, Spike wasn't big on the threatening family, but everyone's temper was a little frayed. Xander just hoped that Spike didn't actually pull an organ or two out. Oh, he'd go for the useless ones like the appendix, but he was looking pretty organ-ripping frustrated.

"Hey, no problem. I'm just... I'm thinking that if I'm right... whoa. Man, we have entered uncharted territory."

"Already there, mate." Spike's face folded and crunched until the vampire ridges appeared.

"No fucking kidding," Blair agreed, not looking worried at all. "Okay, the Papyrus of Ani the Scribe, which people always call the Book of the Dead, describes the battle between Osiris and Set. Osiris had started helping humans, and most demons who worship the eudaemon count him as one of the earliest of the Powers that Be. But Set was like, seriously traditional. As far as he was concerned humans were bugs in need of a good stepping on. So Set and Osiris have this big war over whether to kill all humans or help them."

"And Osiris won," Xander offered, hoping to hurry the story along. He loved Blair, but he did not love history the way Blair did. And Spike was looking even less in love with the history lesson.

"Not even." Blair gave a dark laugh. "Osiris got his butt kicked. He got chopped into pieces, several times, until Set finally managed to make him stay dead."

"So, they killed all the humans in Egypt?" Either Xander had slept through that part of history class or he was missing something.

Graham leaned forward. "If you try telling me this was one of the plagues, I'm going to think you're making this shit up."

"No. No way. Oh man, we are talking thousands of years before the Jews ever found Egypt. But here's the interesting part."

"Just make it the relevant part, mate," Spike suggested. Blair waved a hand at him. If he wasn't careful, he was so about to get sat on.

"It's all relevant. You see, the Papyrus of Ani, the version of the story written by the human scribe, says that Osiris became lord of the underworld and created a place of safety for human souls where the dark one couldn't feast on them."

"He got people a 'get out of hell free' card?" Xander translated.

"Kinda. Yeah. But, the demon world has an entirely different version. The Papyrus of Heket, one of the minor goddesses, says that the people so loved Osiris for fighting for them that they invited him into their afterlife. According to that legend, demons can actually escape the cycle of being shuffled from one dimension to another by finding grace with a higher power who has opened a path only for humans."

"I never heard that, and I've been a bloody demon for longer than you've been alive," Spike said. Xander looked from one to the other, not sure who to believe. Blair would never lie to them, but that didn't mean that Blair knew the whole truth, either.

"If you think the Jews got persecuted, oh man, they have nothing on the cult of Heket. Demons are...." Blair grimaced and shook his head like he was trying to get something particularly horrifying out of his mind. "Let's just say that demons who believe the Papyrus of Heket have short lives and brutal deaths if anyone finds out. Demons are so not into religious tolerance."

"I can't believe demons are into religion at all," Graham said softly. He actually looked a little disturbed by the thought.

"Religion is part of culture. It permeates the language, the thinking, the way demons see the world. Religion is everywhere." Blair threw his hands out.

"I don't soddin' care," Spike cut him off. "I'm still not seeing where this makes any difference. I'm tired and I'm getting more brassed off by the second."

"Geez. You seriously need to drink some happy blood or something," Blair said without actually sounding all that intimidated. Spike growled. "Ra had stayed pretty neutral through all of this, but according to Heket, when he saw that people were capable of pulling a demon into a dimension of eternal bliss, he decided to protect people and give his descendants time to make that journey themselves. He wanted to make sure that the world could never end. I mean, he was one of the old ones. The old, old ones. So, killing him would create such a big bang that... poof... no more world." Blair popped up out of his seat and started pacing. "So, this is the part that a lot of demons actually do believe, because the whole part with demons following human souls into heaven... so not orthodox thinking. Anyway, Ra split his powers and his being. His power remained untouchable in the sun, but his being he divided into five separate parts and gave each part to an avatar."

"Bloody fucking hell. I do not like where this is going." Spike stood up and caught Blair by the arm, forcing him to stop. "Tell me you are not saying what I think you're bloody saying."

"The fifth avatar is named Mesektet. In human mythology, that's the name of the boat that he carried the sun to the horizon before it vanished. In demon history, she's the avatar that carries Ra's power of ending. She's the sunset. She's a child—the symbol of rebirth, which requires death. She's the literal end of the world. Oh man. Xander, I think you met part of Ra. Oh man." Blair kind of fell back down onto the bench like his legs wouldn't hold him anymore.

"And is this bad?" Cordelia asked.

Blair twisted around and looked at her. "Xander just met the most powerful evil being still in existence in this dimension."

"That's bad," Graham agreed. "Maybe I'm missing something, but why would a creature that powerful want to offer to help Xander? No offense, Xander," Graham added with an apologetic look.

"Hey, I’m a little too freaked to take offense at anything right now, so offend away," Xander offered. Okay, if that little girl was ultimate evil, Xander could understand why he was creeped out, but he was kinda wondering the same thing Graham was.

No one answered that, and Xander noticed that everyone had turned to look at Blair. Blair held both hands up in surrender. "No idea. I'm just really hoping I'm wrong on this. Of course, it makes sense that an evil demonic law firm would ally themselves with Mesektet. And it makes sense that Mesektet would not appreciate the Powers that Be trying to interfere with her plans."

"You just don't know where we fit," Xander guessed.

"Not a clue," Blair agreed. "Honestly, I'm really hoping I don't fit at all. I mean, the oracle told my father that his child born with Naomi would have a great destiny, and I am so hoping that doesn't include getting sacrificed to an old one to stop some Armageddon. Trust me, that would not make me a happy camper. Oh, my father would be thrilled, but I'd still be dead."

"No one's getting sacrificed," Spike growled.

"We need to call Riley," Graham blurted out. Spike didn't even bother answering.

"Who can we go to? Who would know the players?" Spike demanded.

"Ma'at. She's the avatar of sunrise and the embodiment of truth."

"Right then, we go to Ma'at. Do you know anything about her home dimension?" Spike asked. He actually looked happy to have something to actually do.

Blair looked up at Spike. "She teaches classes in modern shamanism at California State University, Los Angeles. My uncle knows her."