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


I think I smell a spurt coming.  This is the last of the set up chapter for the big finale.  All the players are getting their say, and it's time for Jenny to defend herself.


( 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 ) ( Part Thirty-Seven )



"What have you brought us?" The woman asked Jenny, her eyes lighting up. Jenny stepped forward and held up a carved box.

"It's eighteen century, whale ivory and ebony."

"It's small." The man frowned, but the woman cocked her head and the box vanished from Jenny's hand only to reappear in hers.

"It is acceptable," she said. Xander exchanged a seriously weirded out look with Graham. If these people were trying to pretend to not be demons, the look was all wrong, and the whole greedy need for tribute was kinda working against them. From Graham's expression, he was thinking the same thing. Anyone who thought these guys were the emissaries for God god... so not firing on all cylinders.

Jenny turned to them. "Xander, Graham." She spoke their names as if she was happy to see them, but Graham raised his weapon and pointed it right at her.

"I don't know if this will kill them, but it will kill you. So either you encourage your friends to put us back in our own dimension, or I'll kill you, lady."

Jenny stumbled back a step. "Graham. You wouldn't."

"Try me." Graham did not even sound like he was kidding. Oh, Xander had said he would happily kill Jenny, but he didn't think he'd meant it. Graham was sounding very much like he meant it. "You attacked us, first."

"No, I didn't." Jenny brought her hands up toward her face in a gesture of shock, at least that's what Xander assumed.

"Do it," Graham said darkly. "One gesture, one half spoken incantation, and I'll put a bullet through your brain. If you want to live, you will tell me what you did to Angel and how, exactly, to undo it."

"Violence is not permitted," the male demon announced grandly.

"Such animals," the female agreed, and then Graham's gun was simply gone out of his hand.

"Fuck," Graham swore. He reached back toward his belt where he had his knife, but he didn't actually pull it. Xander made sure to keep his hands away from his cinquedea. Angel had given that to him, and he did not want to lose it to the Bobbsey twins.

"Graham, you have to understand," Jenny took a step forward. She looked a lot more confident now that she didn't have a gun pointed at her. "I want to put this right. I want to make Angel whole again."

Xander frowned. "Maybe I missed a memo, but I was almost positive that you did the happy spell that made the soul come off. You were one of the only people who knew about the happy clause... except Whistler... which means the Powers knew." Xander neatly ignored his own part in helping the soul fall off. He'd deal with that guilt later. Right now he turned to glare at the Bobbsey twins. Yeah, getting pissy with demons was never smart, but Xander didn't feel smart. He felt like he wanted to hurt someone else as much as he was hurting. He wondered if the boy twin's boy parts were in a predictable place, because there wasn't a demon Xander knew who liked getting kicked in the reproductive organs.

A hand caught Xander, and he looked over his shoulder to see Graham pulling him back.

"Violence is not allowed here."

"They are too ignorant to understand."

"They can learn."

The Bobbsey twins had a moment of staring at each other, and Xander wanted to wipe the smug looks off their faces so much that his teeth ached with the need.

"Xander, I'm so sorry you were caught in the middle of this," Jenny said, and if Xander had a gun, he really might have shot her. "You don't understand the big picture."

"And you do?" Graham demanded.

"No, but the Powers do. They know how much suffering is caused by the chaos and violence."

"And they want to make it all better?" Graham's voice was sharp with sarcasm.

"Oh hey, would their idea of better be everyone dead?" Xander blurted out. "I get the feeling they're okay with everyone dead. A world of dead people would be pretty calm, and after all, you seem to be saying that the Powers wanted Angelus out so he could help make for lots and lots of death. Not that he's working really hard on the killing thing." Xander stopped, not sure what point he was trying to make because Angelus hadn't gone on any big massacres, which was a little surprising with his history. And even worse, Jenny had a look on her face like she felt so bad for him not being able to understand the way the world really worked—like she was so much better. "So, Giles must love having a wife who totally betrayed him," Xander said with a nasty smile. The look of pain on her face felt good.

"Such ignorance."

"Primitive brains. They are little more than beasts," boy Bobbsey twin agreed. "Enough."

"Oh not even close," Xander muttered, but he could poke fun of Jenny and her patheticness when demons weren't watching.

"Believe me, I would not have done this if there had been any other way. I sacrificed my marriage because I believed this was the right thing to do. Angel was on a path that was taking him farther and farther away from his destiny."

"Destiny?" Xander asked. "You did it on purpose, which yeah, I knew that, but you did it on purpose because of some plan, didn't you? I swear, I'm going to tell Spike to eat you."

Jenny actually laughed. "The entire government is searching for me, my family has disowned me, and my husband refuses to speak to me. Do you really think one more threat will bother me? But listen to what I am saying: there is a prophecy that a vampire with a soul can regain his mortality. Angel can be human again; he can finally be free of the demon that is destroying him."

"What?"

"The Scrolls of Aberjian contain the Shanshu prophecy—it says that a vampire with a soul will complete the deeds that will make him mortal again. Angel can claim that prophecy." Jenny looked so damn sincere that Xander couldn't even come up with an answer for that. Angel was the demon. The human Liam had died centuries ago, but would he want to be human again?

"What deeds?" Graham asked, focusing on the details when Xander's brain was still spinning out of control.

"The Powers that Be are fighting the forces of evil that are gathering."

"Those guys?" Xander asked looking at the Bobbsey Twins because unless they had some seriously freaky powers hidden away, Xander was fairly sure they'd go down in the first wave of minions. As Powers went, they weren't impressive.

"We are the oracle," the twins answered in identical disdain.

"Let me get this straight," Graham said, "You want Angel to perform certain deeds in return for being human again?"

"It's a chance to regain his humanity." Jenny was practically pleading with Graham to believe her.

"How many deeds? How long is he supposed to serve them? What's their endgame?" Graham asked. Jenny just frowned in confusion without answering. "What are their short-term and long-term goals? Exit strategy? Targets?"

"It isn't important," Jenny said firmly.

"Lady, it definitely is. So, how is taking his soul off supposed to make him want to work for you? Angelus is not interested in being human and he is not going to take orders from these two." Graham crossed his arms and gave Jenny a dirty look worthy of Spike.

"None of you understand. The soul is there to make him suffer, not to let him create some new clan." Now she looked angry.

"Okay, maybe I'm not understanding the logic there," Xander said, "but your family lost someone, so they make this big curse. Only, the second Angel is happy, the soul comes off and then Angelus can kill lots and lots more people. I was there when Angelus came out the first time, half-starved and frustrated and ready to eat the world, and if you're trying to save the world from a monster, that is like the worst plan ever. That plan is pretty much punishing the world, or at least whatever part of the world is near the vampire all cranky with being locked up for a century. And now... now that you've stolen his soul, now you want us to help you hire Angel? Okay, the whole happiness clause is now sounding like the second worst plan ever because that is the worst plan. Angel's not going to work for you."

"Angel is going to understand the danger if he allows his demon to exist. He will want the prophecy." Jenny spoke, but it was the Bobbsey twins who stepped forward. The fog that had been swirling around their feet thickened, and Xander watched a ghostly version of Angelus form from the mist. He was smiling creepily, and blood was splattered on one side of his face. He reached up and collected it with a finger, which he then licked clean.

"So, what sort of information did the Watchers hope to learn?" Angelus was circling, his face amused as he looked at something below him. As he turned away, something else formed in the fog. A man was laying on a table, his hands tied to the corners with ropes so tight that his fingers had swollen to sausages. It looked like bits of masking tape dangled from his back, and Xander gagged as he realized Angelus was slowly skinning strips of skin from the man's body.

The color drained into the paining and now the man was a canvas of red and deathly white. "If you don't tell me, I will just torture you into madness and then turn you." Angelus leaned down next to the man's face and got an expression of mock sympathy. "I'll even be a good master and send you home after you've told me everything. It's wonderful being a vampire—no ridiculous rules to follow. So, who do you think you'll go after first? A child who kept you awake all night? A wife who doesn't understand you?" Angelus reached over and grabbed a trailing strip of skin and tugged.

Two things happened at once: the man screamed and Xander vomited.

"You turned him loose. You took the soul out, so if someone is supposed to feel guilty here, I think you should examine yourself." Graham moved forward with an expression like he was going to strangle Jenny with his bare hands.

"That has always been loose out there. That has been right under the soul the entire time. Angel had a soul when he came to Rupert's apartment and threatened him. Angel had a soul when he allowed Spike to kill Kendra. That was always there. You people just refuse to see it." Jenny screamed, pointing at the shifting mist where Angelus was just starting to drift apart into streaks of red and black. "You're blind, but the Powers have given him a chance to finally purge himself of that evil."

"By enslaving him?" Xander asked. He wiped his mouth, and a trail of slime clung to his skin. He brushed it off on his shirt. "You want to put the soul back in so he'll remember that, and then you're going to tell him that his way out is some prophecy that says he has to obey demons. I'm thinking that's a bad deal."

Jenny gave him the same look she did when he was a kid who mispronounced demon names, which wasn't all that surprising when Giles and Jenny had never gone out of their way to help him do anything right. But he wasn't a kid, and he wasn't the one being big with the stupid. "Xander, this is a chance to truly destroy the demon that has taken over his soul."

"Speaking of, where is his soul?" Xander asked.

"That is unimportant." The Bobbsey twin boy offered, only Xander was not buying that.

"So, you're holding it hostage until the demon does enough damage to make Angel easier to control? Lady, if you think you're on the side of the angels, you're even more brain damaged than I thought, and I never had a very high opinion of you to start with," Graham said.

"I'm thinking she's evil," Xander said. Maybe his honesty was going to get him in trouble, but he was getting to the point where he just didn't even care anymore. "These Powers, you know, the ones that haven't actually shown themselves, they not only set up some guy to get tortured, but they consider this part of their big plan. That's the sort of plan that Spike makes, and as much as I love Spike, he's evil. He's evil, and you're looking pretty evil."

Xander turned to the Bobbsey twins. "Look me in the eye and tell me you aren't the sparkly, pretty version of evil."

The male looked at him with disgust. "You cannot conceive of what I am."

"Which is not a no," Xander pointed at the twins. "Evil. Sparkly evil. Maybe even inconceivably sparkly evil." Xander turned to Jenny. "But they're using earth as a playground and they think we're the toys... or maybe we're the worms that get that icky stuff on the toys. And you think you have a right to hold someone's soul hostage because sparkly evil wants an attack dog on a leash. I'm telling you... right now, I’m thinking maybe someone should just tell Angelus how to find you because that guy on the table... I don't know what he did, but I can safely say you three so deserve to get a little of his attention."

The fog formed into a new image, and Xander stumbled back until Graham caught him by an elbow. Xander gasped as his mother's apartment in Sunnydale materialized. A picture of him during his last visit sat on a shelf above her small table, and his mom was in the kitchen laughing. Her brash red hair dye had vanished about the same time as his father, and now she stood with a pot of coffee in hand and her salt and pepper hair swept up into a ponytail and a smile. Xander felt dizzy as his mom's visitor materialized. Angelus had a knowing smile and the sort of relaxed air that Angel never quite managed.

"No." Xander whispered the word, his eyes already burning as he tried to not cry. She was his mom. And Angel knew he wasn't close to her; Angelus wouldn't go after her. Except Angel knew that Xander still loved her, so Angelus had. The memory of the man Angelus had tortured rose up in his memory so vividly, that for a second, Xander thought he was actually seeing the two images superimposed.

"Fuck," Graham swore. "If you let him do this, I will hunt you down, witch."

"That's the way men have always done this. They slam their way through and never understand that the universe works through magic and rules that they can't even understand."

Xander ignored Jenny's angry protest as he watched his mother fill Angelus' cup before turning her back. Xander searched the scene for any proof that this was an illusion. What had Dr. Mayet said, though? The truth was enough, sometimes, and this actually made sense now that Xander was thinking about it. Angelus wouldn't like someone taking away what he considered his, and he was going to punish someone. Something crawled over his cheek, and Xander raised his hand to brush it away, only to find it was a tear.

His mom had her back turned, and Angelus tilted his head up and sniffed. Was he testing the truth of what she'd just said with a laugh? Was he searching for Xander's scent? Xander held his breath, terrified as his mom turned around again and went to sit down at the tiny table. Angelus dwarfed it, and now Angelus reached out and caught his mom's hand, saying something that made her blush.

"Enough," Graham barked.

"No, I have to know," Xander said, almost panicking at the idea of the vision ending without knowing whether or not she had died just because he still loved her. The people at the table started speeding through time—their gestures turning into flutters until Angelus reached over and touched his mother's cheek before leaving. Outside, Angelus made a small gesture, and a vampire slipped out of the shadow to slink up to Angelus, his whole body radiating submission.

"He's just watching. It's a logical place to watch. It doesn't mean anything," Graham offered, but Xander's fear was a stone in his stomach. Of course it meant something. It meant that when Angelus got too frustrated, his mom was going to be right in the middle of a big old target. Xander closed his eyes and tried to sort through all the fears that crashed through him.

"If you believe that, you haven't read his history." Jenny sounded so damn happy, but that was his mom who had been sitting and having coffee with a monster who had charmed her.

"His history ended over a century ago. I don't assume that his behavior then will match his behavior now," Graham counted. "I don't mind telling you, in eighth grade, I was a real terror. I bullied pretty much anyone who stand still long enough to get bullied. I got over it."

"And you think he will? He's a demon. No matter what you think of what I did, we have the same objective now. We need to get his soul back to his body."

"Then tell us where it is, and we'll get on it. I don't think we need any more of your help."

"The soul moves along its own path," the girl twin offered. She held up a vial. "But this will return it."

"Return it to the body just as before," the male agreed.

"It's the only way to stop him," Jenny said in a soft voice that was probably meant to sound helpful or something, but right now, everything she said just sounded manipulative and bitchy. Xander looked up as something finally registered.

"Wait. His soul moved on?" Xander held his breath as he looked around.

Graham's eyes closed, and he pressed his lips together.

"But we can bring him back," Jenny said in a sort of bright cheerfulness that really did make Xander want her dead.

"But he's moved on." Xander stepped back, his chest aching so much that he wondered if he was having a heart attack.

"Xander, I'm so sorry," Graham offered, reaching out toward Xander.

"The vial," Jenny started to say.

"So, we pull him out of heaven?" Graham demanded.

"After what he's done, you can't think—"

"I think he was a good man who had asked God for forgiveness. So, if you sent his soul on its path, I'm guessing it found its way home." Graham turned his back to Jenny and moved close enough to Xander to put a hand on his shoulder.

"I think I'm dying." Xander said with a half smile. "Pretty wimpy, huh?"

"No," Graham said firmly. "Lady, I suggest you show us the exit before I break your neck."

Jenny walked to the Bobbsey twin and took the vial before walking toward them, the vial held out. "All of Angelus' evil came from that man. That vampire learned every petty and small thought in his head from the human soul who owned that body. If he's moved on to anywhere, it's hell, and the potion will bring him back from that. It will give him a chance to come back to this world, and even more, it will give him one last chance to be truly human and find a real redemption. One drop of this on him, and the soul is back in the body. Your alternative is to leave Angelus loose to play his games with the people of California. Maybe the Powers aren't the ones using earth as some sort of personal playground. Maybe you're hoping Riley will get pulled into this and the man who tossed you out on your ear will get eaten, is that your game?" Jenny asked. Xander watched as Graham went so still that Xander figured he was trying very hard to not break something. As long as the something in question was Jenny Giles, Xander was actually okay with some breaking.

"You truly are evil," Graham said slowly before turning to Xander.

"The choice is yours, but we do have options. One, we leave things as they are. The statistics are pretty clear that a territory owned by a master vampire has lower death rates than a fractured territory, no matter how many soldiers we put into the area. Spike held the hellmouth more effectively than your group, the slayer, and my unit combined. Even now, Buffy insists that the Hellmouth is quiet, but Riley's unit takes more injuries and casualties than most frontline units, and we can't have soldiers on every corner of L.A. Angelus could end up being less dangerous than the patchwork of minor vampire masters we have now."

"You can't...."

"Shut up," Graham told Jenny.

"Two, we can take Angelus out."  Graham grimaced.  "It would ensure that he didn't target us. Riley and Buffy would both back us, and with their help, we would have a pretty good chance. Three, we can try the soul spell and deal with the consequences. However, I'm not convinced that is a soul spell. It could be." Graham looked over at the Bobbsey twins. "It might be something else, and with Wesley trapped inside Angelus' lair, we have limited resources. Giles might be the best bet to confirm the spell."

Graham moved toward Jenny, and she took a quick step back, but he only snatched the vial from her hand before moving back toward Xander. Grabbing Xander's wrist, Graham forced Xander to lift his hand and then put the vial in it. "The choice is yours, but I'm going to back whatever decision you make."

"Me?" Xander's voice broke like he was some thirteen year old kid.

"Every option has tactical advantages and dangers. This isn't..." Graham stopped. He glared at Jenny Giles for a second before he continued. "This isn't a military decision. You know Angel better than any of us, and this is his life."

Xander stared down at the pale blue liquid in the clear vial.

"I don't think—" Jenny started to say, but then Xander lost his balance, like he was going down a slide standing up. He tightened his hold on the vial as Jenny's voice faded.