lit_gal | Kin of the Soul

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

I so wanted to spurt all the way to the end. Instead, I'm sick.... AGAIN. I swear, I'm trading this body in for a model with a better immune system. Although actually, so many kids at school are sick that our sports teams haven't been able to compete and apparently the drama team was competing for spaces at the toilet, but insisted that the show would go on between the vomiting. I was too sick to go, but apparently, it was not their best show. Personally, I think the health department needs to shut down my whole damn school as a health hazard.

( 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 ) ( Part Thirty-Six )

Students hurried across the concrete and brick mall. At one point, Willow thought he should be going to a place like this, but standing on campus, all Xander could think was that he totally didn't belong here. All these people were wandering around without having any idea that their neat little world view was only totally wrong. They cared about grades. They gathered on the grass, in the shade of the trees, and shared a laptop and giggled about things that Xander probably wouldn't understand. Willow was probably doing the same thing right now back in Sunnydale.

For Xander, that just wasn't a life he wanted. Even Blair had admitted that college people could get tunnel vision—like not noticing that your professor is a goddess who carries a part of one of the most powerful demons in history. If Xander ever got that blind, he hoped someone poked him really hard.

"Dr. Mayet?" Blair asked. Xander watched a thin woman with a mane of pure white hair turn around at his call.

Dr. Mayet turned around. "Yes?" She smiled, and all the wrinkles gathered around her eyes.

For a second, Blair just stared at her with awe, and Xander had the feeling Spike was right under them in the sewers growling. If Spike had his way, they would have waited until dark to do this, but Xander had sided with Blair on that one. No way did he want to meet a goddess when Spike was in a mood to threaten someone. There was stupid and then there were levels of stupid that not even Xander was willing to descent into.

Graham stepped forward. "Dr. Mayet, it's nice to meet you. We were hoping you could give us a little help." He held his hand out, and she stepped forward to take it, smiling warmly at Blair who still looked a little stunned. Even though she must have been pushing sixty, she was beautiful, and as a nineteen year old boy, Xander did not normally go for the soon-to-get-Social-Security age bracket. Or maybe he did because Angel was way older than sixty, but he didn't look it.

"Are you taking my class?" she asked, looking at them with a smile that made Xander want to tell her everything.

"You know my uncle Sal'ic'natiti," Blair finally managed to say, but he was clearly more than a little star-struck. Her reaction was immediate. Her back stiffened, and suddenly she looked less friendly and more like the kind of old lady that would give you a concussion if you tried to steal her purse.

"We need some honest advice and help," Graham quickly added.

"Totally. Man, we are in way over our heads, and we need someone we can trust to point us in the right direction before the universe takes a big dump on our head."

Mayet didn't answer, but her expression did turn a little confused.

"As the person, most likely to get dumped on, I second Blair's vote for us needing help," Xander added. "But maybe we shouldn't be having this conversation here."

"Totally." Blair nodded, his shaggy hair bobbing enthusiastically. "Man, Uncle Sal would kill me if he knew I used his real name in public. Seriously kill me."

For a second, Xander through they were about to get turned down, but then she gave them all a little worried frown and sighed. "Maybe we should go to my office," she offered. Before Xander could open his mouth to agree with that, a white light flashed in his eyes, and he found himself standing in the middle of a whole lot of white nothing.

"Okay, this is creepily familiar." Xander edged closer to Graham. Yep, it made him a wuss, but he'd been through this version of freaky already, and he did not want to see it in reruns. Blair was looking around with wonder, but Mayet frowned at Xander.

"This is familiar?"

"Kinda totally," Xander agreed. "Only you're missing the creepy little girl and the used car salesman lawyer."

Mayet's eyebrows rose so high they nearly vanished into her hair.

"Okay," Blair took a deep breath like he was trying to do one of those meditations he liked, but Xander didn't really think they had time for that. "We're not entirely sure, and we're really hoping we're wrong. Or I'm wrong, because this is my theory, but I think Mesektet contacted Xander."

"Why?" Mayet asked. Her features seemed to be glowing now, and Xander wasn't sure if that was a good or a bad thing.

Xander shrugged. "She offered to help me find a witch who ripped the soul out of a friend of mine. And really, while soul ripping is never good, getting help from the creepy godlike is feeling even worse. And I'm just now remembering that Mesektet is like your sister or something, so please don't kill me for saying that."

For a second, Mayet just looked at him, and then she slowly got an expression Xander usually saw on Giles. "She is not my sister. We both chose to carry a part of Re for our own reasons, but I feel no allegiance to her. Not beyond wanting her alive in order to protect the piece of Re she carries. And who ripped a soul out of a being? A human soul?

She looked at Xander with such intensity that Xander found himself unable to even form words. He tried to, and the thoughts slipped out of his head like water out of a cracked cup. Blair answered after a second, although he was giving Xander such an odd look that Xander thought he should probably check to make sure his fly wasn't open. He just couldn't seem to get his hands to work, either.

"Our friend Angel had a human soul, but he's a vampire. We think a witch pulled his soul out using a happiness spell because the soul was glued on with a gypsy curse, and she was one of a very small number of people who knew that happiness could make it come unglued. So not cool. But anyway, Mesektet told Xander that the Powers that Be were helping her. Mesektet offered to help Xander find the witch. Now, we want to have a little talk with the witch because pulling people's souls out is like... whoa... seriously bad karma."

Mayet smiled and Xander shook his head as a shiver went through his body. Graham reached over and caught Xander's shoulder and pulled him close, so Xander suspected he was not the only one having issues. Graham wasn't the touchy-feely type, but he was sure touching now.

"And Mesektet offered to help?" Mayet's chuckle was not even a little bit nice. For the first time, she really looked like an old and powerful goddess. "She is more desperate than I had thought. Did you take her help?"

Xander could only shake his head, words still slipping away before they could form.

"For one, I am so not sorry that he turned her down," Blair defended Xander. If that really was Mesektet..."

"It was. Your friend still carries the stain of her touch."

"Eww." The sound slipped out of Xander without him even meaning to say anything. He suddenly wanted to shower... a lot. But the thought of showers just made him think of Angel surprising him in the shower, large hands sliding over his warm skin, the steam rising around them like a mist as Angel kissed the back of Xander's neck before taking the soap out of Xander's hand. Angel had washed him, and that was not a thought he wanted to have... not when they were faced with Angelus. Xander blinked, shocked at his own inability to control his thoughts.

"That's a good way to put it." Mayet's face scrunched up in disgust and suddenly she just looked any other Tom, Dick, or goddess who'd just stepped into a big pile of gross.

"We're looking for some reliable intel," Graham said, his fingers tightened into the soft of Xander's arm. "If these Powers that Be have decided to attack us, we need to know why and where they are."

"And which dimension to hide in," Blair added softly. "Oh man, this is so not the destiny I would have wanted for myself."

Mayet looked at Blair and the last traces of disgust vanished as she smiled at him. "You have no destiny, young one. Had you chosen to follow your demonic path or even chosen to define your life by denying your demonic path, you would have been caught in this battle. However, you've defined your life by your human goals and human beliefs. Unlike so many others, you are free to choose to not get involved."

"And leave them, no way!" Blair looked downright angry, but maybe he realized who he was getting pissy with because the next second he took a step backwards and held his hands up in surrender. "No offense."

She laughed. "No offense is taken, and I am not saying you have to leave them to stay out of this fight. I am saying that demons are drawn back to their own dimensions like..." she waved her hand for a moment, clearly struggling to put her ideas into English, but that was okay because Xander was struggling just to keep up. Actually, he'd been feeling like that pretty much since Blair had shown up, and Xander was starting to think he should have studied demonology instead of drywall.

"Demons are drawn to their dimension like a magnet. And most of them will try to recreate their home here on this world."

"Wait... what? All demons?" Xander frowned. That didn't sound good.

"It's the nature of demons." Mayet agree softly with a small shrug that made her white hair tumble down over a shoulder. "They can no more prevent themselves from trying to change the world than a salmon can prevent itself from going back to the river of its birth to spawn."

Xander thought about Spike, about the way that he just wanted to be loved, and he was fairly sure Mayet was totally full of crap... either that or she was just lying to them. After all, Spike had mailed them that hand of the demon that wanted to send the world to hell, all in order to save the world, and that was not sounding like a creature who was drawn toward hell. Spike was more drawn toward punk music than hell, and Angel had stopped the big world swallowing statue guy. Maybe Xander had a weird expression or she thought he was about to call her on the crap or something because she held a hand up to stop Xander from saying anything.

She gave him a smile, the type you give someone right before you tell them that their dog is dead. "Even Angel. As long as he defines himself as a demon or by trying to escape his demonic nature, then his demon will instinctively act in ways to recreate his home dimension. If he were to try and gift someone with life, then the life would turn out to be one of such twisted power that it opened a door for evil. If he tried to find love, then the love would turn dark and malignant." Her voice was soft... apologetic even, and somehow that made it worse because Xander was pretty sure she wasn't lying to him on purpose.

Xander's breath left him and little black spots danced in front of his eyes as he considered that it had been his love that had freed Angelus. Oh, Jenny helped with her all-purpose happiness, but he was the one who had stood in that room and given Angelus his love. He had brought out the monster that the watchers had written entire books about—him and his favorite ways to torture.

"Not cool," Blair said. "That is so not cool. Angel busts his ass to do the right thing."

"And does it turn out right?" Mayet answered. Blair looked at Graham and Xander, but neither of them were answering. Xander couldn't, because he was suddenly a whole lot less sure that he understood anything. He knew that Angel's love for Buffy had been huge on the creepy scale. And Angel's whole quest to be perfect... so incredibly stupid. And what if their love was just one more way that Angel was all off on the wrong track? Xander's chest physically ached at the very thought. He loved Angel. But what if his love was getting all twisted and was wrong? Xander really wished he could just sit down, but he clenched his jaw and tried to ignore the growing pain and fear.

"So, does that mean you want to do that? Do you want to rip this world apart and make it look like yours?" Blair demanded, and Xander was fairly sure using a voice that smug with a goddess would get you slapped, but Mayet had lots of patience. Way more than Xander's teachers usually showed.

Mayet laughed. "Yes, I do. But my home dimension is a place of calm and tranquility. I fear that it is so calm that you would probably find it intolerable. I admit that I do want that for this world, and part of the reason I teach is to try and help humans find that calm, that peacefulness that mimics my own existence. However, I try to avoid forcing that on anyone. Others have less restraint in that area."

"Like the Powers that Be," Graham said shortly.

"Perhaps." Mayet frowned. "They aren't normally this involved."

"Were the lawyers lying then?" Graham had hated the idea of the Powers being involved, but now he looked like he hated the idea of them not being involved even more. Xander was quickly reaching a point where he didn't care. Finding a nice hole to stick his head in and just hide was sounding good. Actually, for the first time in his life, he understood why his father drank himself stupid. Maybe he had more of his father in him than he wanted to admit because there was a little part of him that just did not want to deal. He wanted to hide somewhere and let Spike fix this. If Mayet was right, then it didn't matter what they did, Angel was doomed to always have his life twist around into something dark, and their love would twist right along with it. A little part of Xander wondered if it wouldn't have been better if Angel had kept on crushing on Buffy. After all, she was the chosen one with all the goodly powers of goodness, and maybe if Angel had loved her, he could have escaped the whole evil trip down Angelus' memory lane.

"I doubt it. The truth is so much more pernicious in the right hands." Mayet looked around at them. "Normally I could be so much more helpful, but the fact is that I have no more answers than they do. Something has shifted destinies until prophesy turns back on itself."

"Someone is undoing the future?" Graham tried to translate.

"No." She looked at him kindly and lifted a hand to him, but Graham stepped backwards, pulling Xander back with him. "No, destiny will eventually happen, but the form and those involved and the time is always in doubt. So many destinies were becoming clear. Fewer and fewer humans were involved in the grand battle, and the champions on both sides were increasingly demonic. With only demonic fighters, one could almost read of the coming battles in the stars." She swept a hand upwards as though she could see stars, but Xander only saw white.

"Humans are involved," Blair said. "Humans are getting too involved, and it's making it harder for anyone to make accurate predictions. Whistler always said he hated it when champions had too much of humanity in them."

"Humans have no destiny—they only have choice." Mayet agreed. "And if you wish to learn what the Powers would want. Ask them."

The whiteness of the room distracted Xander... either that or his brain was getting too stuffed full of weirdness to work right. Because it took him a second to realize that they were in a different kind of whiteness. A shadow seemed to zoom toward them like a cartoon.

"Shit," Graham cursed and shoved Xander back, but Dr. Mayet and Blair were so very, very gone. The gray streak stopped and Xander realized it was an arch and a wall... a medieval type wall with big stones and a lancet arch with a scalloped edge. Very medieval. The arch led into a tunnel, and the whiteness at the end was blinding.

"Um... Graham?"

"Yeah, Mayet pulled a fast one. I hope Spike eats her," Graham answered. He had his gun out, but Xander was pretty sure that a gun was not going to be much use. Not totally sure, but pretty sure.

"If she doesn't run really fast, he will. Unless she has some freaky power and she eats him first," Xander said unhappily. It suddenly occurred to him that she could probably just make him go popping off into some dimension of extra special bright sunlight and dustiness.

"Spike's a survivor. Hopefully she won't stir her fingers through his brain the way she did through yours. That might push him to do something rash."

"She... what?" Xander looked at Graham.

Graham shook his head. "Buddy, she stuck her fingers so far down in your head you were about ready to drool on yourself."

"I was?" Xander got a shiver down his spine.

"Yeah. In training, we had to go under drugs to try and assess our vulnerability and build up a resistance to chemical interrogation. You looked exactly like the guys in the chair. You just seem to be recovering quicker."

"Okay, can I just say that it really is unfair how demons get all the freaky power?" Xander scratched his head and tried really hard to wash away the image of Mayet's fingers sorting through his brain. He hoped she got cooties from him.

"Sounds like they think it's unfair that we get to throw a wrench into all their nicely made plans."

Xander had an answer all ready, but he snapped his mouth closed as Graham raised his gun and targeted two individuals walking toward them out of the arch. Demons. Yep, they were definitely demons—of the shiny variety. They were goldish with blue tattoos all over, and they used way too much hair gel. Xander thought Angel was one to overdo the hair gel, but the male had the worst case of helmet head Xander had ever seen.

"Your weapon is useless," the man said.

"Useless," the woman echoed. "You come seeking answers."

"Look lady," Graham said without lowering his gun. "No offense, but I'm not sure I would trust any answers I got from you anyway. What do you say you just open a door back to the reality I know, and we call this a day?"

"Without your answers?" she asked.

"They are without manners," the male complained. "Let them leave in ignorance."

For a second, the woman looked at them, and Xander held his breath, hoping that they were about to just get kicked out. He'd never wanted to get kicked out so much in his life.

"Wait," a new voice called. Xander looked over his shoulder. Oh shit. Jenny Giles.

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

doingsoso.livejournal.com

Welll Xander is still dealing with a demon, LOL.

At this point I wouldn't trust anyone mixed up with Jenny Giles either.

Sooooo, what's a poor Xander gonna do?

And ewwww, sticking fingers in his head, even metaphorically.

LMAO, but it looks like Xander bollixed up the PTB's plans and prophecies too. Go Xander!

Awaiting developments:)

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Kin of the Soul

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