Disclaimer: All characters and settings are the soul property of 20th Century Fox and Joss Whedon and all of his fellow writers. All rights reserved.
Author's Note: Over ten years ago I wrote this as a Buffy novel that I preliminarily submitted to Pocket Books, the publishing house who came out with all of the Buffy: The Vampire Slayer and Angel: The Series TV tie in related novels. Would like to thank Joss Whedon and his whole team and for everyone involved from the cast for giving many people great entertainment for seven years. Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. The story takes place during season 3 and doesn't completely follow the canon.
Prologue
Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1653
The air around the village was cold and damp. Small billows of smoke filtered out of a few houses from the warm fires that burned inside. The racing of a horse along the trail flew up mounds of mud and dirt towards the rider. He wore a dark cloak with a hood cowering his head. The consistent pounding of the hoof beats grew louder as he rode faster till he reached the front of a village.
Soon some people outside who were busy with their daily chores quickly stopped and ushered their children inside in the presence of the man who had arrived.
At one time he was revered and respected among his fellow colonists and now he was just feared. He liked it. Before he felt he was just a mere person and now he possessed great powers that no one would possibly imagine. It proved important because he was easily able to maintain and deceive everyone that he kept his air of respectability while wielding his dark forces.
He stopped in front a house and slowly got off his horse. He stepped to a door extending his arm pushing it open.
From the sound a woman wearing a long black dress and a white bonnet looked up in anxiety.
"It is time," the hooded man said.
"Please, show mercy on our family," she imploringly said, "I beg of you."
She raised her hands together walking to him.
"I want the girl. She is the chosen."
"No, she is our only child."
"Bring her to me or I will bring my wrath down upon your entire village."
"We can't let him do that," her husband's solemn voice came from the side room.
He walked out with his daughter by his side. She pushed aside the black locks from her beautiful clean face to see the hooded man standing in the archway.
"Mother," the girl said rushing into her mother's caring arms.
"Be brave, my daughter," she said holding her tightly.
"I will try."
"Enough," the cloaked man said, "Come with me, child."
He raised his hand as the mother let go of her daughter into his grip.
The two walked back out to his horse where he mounted her on the back and sat in front of her. The horse trotted away as the parents watched in sadness and a semblance of relief at the same time.
Outside the village he continued riding along the cliffs that overlooked the rocky shores of the cold endless ocean. He stopped when he came inland to a stone bricked building with a wooden thatched roof.
He got off his horse taking the girl with him inside. Inside the door stood in the center of the room a stone slab. Its flat weathered surface was gray and smooth. Underneath four rock shaped pillars were placed at each corner. Overhead the slab a hole was made letting rays of sunlight beam down.
"On the table," he said pointing.
Her face was wet and sullen from the despair she felt under his direction. Her eyes became frozen with fear when she laid herself down. He stepped around her to face the side of the table and lifted the hood from his head.
"Now the spell will be cast," he said satisfyingly to himself.
From inside his cloak he pulled out a sword. The blade was silver and the hilt was of pure gold.
"Goddess Hecate, hear me," he proclaimed holding the sword over her body, "I stand before you with this offering to you."
Thunder boomed as dark clouds began to convalesce in the sky. The ocean brought up high waves of salty air from the winds that began to blow
"Master of your domain grant me the knowledge and the strength to become."
A young woman on a black horse fled along approaching the building. Her blonde hair flew behind her as she rode against the flailing winds.
"Accept thy sacrifice and release the powers of living."
He lifted the sword high over his head facing the blade towards the girl as the loud noise from the door slamming open startled him.
"Welcome, you are about to bear witness to my rising," he said after seeing her step forward in front of him.
I can't let you hurt that girl," she said bellowing between the strong crashes of thunder.
It is by right and by destiny."
"That destiny is going to change."
She threw up her hands grabbing onto his hold of the sword.
"Get out of here and run as fast as you can," she said to the girl.
The girl nodded her head and slide off the slab running out the door. The wind pick up violently. A drizzle of rain began to pour into the sunroof.
"I will not be denied."
She jumped up on the slab attempting to wrestle the sword away from him. She flew a swift kick to his side knocking him to the ground. Her hair and face became damp. In her hands she held the sword over his head as he flailed his arm upward. Her body suddenly flew against the wall dropping the sword by her side.
"I am more powerful than you can imagine little girl," he said striding to her while she pushed herself up from the blow, "Give up now and I might spare your life."
"Never," she said indignantly.
He lifted his hand and the sword soared to his hand.
"Then I will have the pleasure of watching you die."
He jammed the sword at the same moment she rolled out of his path. She ran around to the back of the slab as he swung the sword against the stone creating a great spark. The spark created a fire that leaped and rose across the floor.
In a sudden move she spun kicking him in the face throwing him backwards. She rushed to him gripping his arms. He pushed his body against hers until her back fell on the slab. In the moment's struggle keeping the hilt of the sword away he reached back and plunged the sword into her stomach. Her eyes glazed over falling slowly closed. Her hair and body lay drenched from the rain on the wet altar.
"I've done it," he said in jubilation, "I am forever eternal."
He raised his sword in victory. As the sword hung high in the air a bolt of lightening hit the blade of the sword causing him to convulse in agony.
The flames had spread out covering the entire room.
"No!" he screamed, "By destiny I was promised."
The surge of lightening coursed through him from the sword to his feet.
"This was my chance!"
"Noooooooo!" his voice echoed as the lightening started to leave his body. His scorched lifeless body fell to the ground beside her. The building became engulfed creating great gray smokes circling away from the roaring fire.
New York, 1998
The backstreet New York City block was silent and empty. Angel staggered down the sidewalk.
His steps were slow and his breathing was labored as he approached a trash can rummaging through it for scraps of food. Nothing. He continued silently into a darkened alley leaning himself up against a wall to rest. His face was soiled as dirty strands of hair covered his brow. For a moment he sighed until he smelled something further down the alley way.
He had picked up the scent of a rat scurrying its way around the garbage cans sitting on the other side. He summoned up what strength he had left to try to catch the rat from stalking it despite the walk in his steps.
The rat immediately vanished behind a group of trashcans leaving Angel to drive them all apart leaping to the ground.
Years ago Angel was once Angelus, a merciless vampire who was consumed of evil and held a penchant for unspeakable acts of torture. The Watchers journals recorded him as "the one with the angelic face". However, in his time something had dramatically changed that made him the person he was now.
It was a century ago that Darla had found and allowed him to kill the Kalderash gypsies' daughter. The fact that she wasn't very bright only made her easier prey to him than others he had taken. However, after her death he never anticipated what her clan would do to him as result of his act.
After he quickly ran through the darkened woods, he soon fell to his knees next to the roaring campfire built inside the forest clearing the clan had made their spot. He saw the body and could hear the sounds of an old gypsy woman softly chanting beneath the cover of a small canopy. When her words ended his eyes suddenly became washed in a white light and immediately vanished. As he looked around he became confused to the man standing above him and his unusual surroundings.
"It hurts yes? Good. It will hurt more," the gypsy elder spoke.
"Where am I?" Angel spoke exasperated.
The man continued with a tone of bitter anger in his voice.
"You don't remember everything you've done for a hundred years. In a moment you will. The faces of everyone you killed...our daughter's face...they will haunt you, and you will know what true suffering is."
"Killed? I don't, I don't..." he said slowly shaking his head.
In a moment his centuries worth of memories came into his mind.
"No," he repeated to himself out loud. His face showed the signs of guilt and regret as his head sank low feeling burdens no one could've bared alone.
Just as Angel sat on the floor of the alley a short man walked from the darkness standing in front of him.
"God, are you disgusting," he said, "this is really an unforgettable smell. This is the stench of death you're giving off here. And the look says, uh...Crazy Homeless Guy. It's not good."
"Get away from me," Angel spoke in anger.
"What are you going to do, bite me?" he asked, "Horrors! A vampire!" he said comically backed away from him. Angel looked up at his face.
"Ah, but you wouldn't bite me on account of your poor tortured soul. It's so sad, a vampire with a soul. It's so poignant."
"Who are you?" Angel asked.
"Let's take a walk."
Angel and the new stranger proceeded to walk down the block and across the street.
"What are you eating?" he said, "Like, a rat once a month." Angel seemed distracted as the stranger pulled at him to avoid an oncoming car he was in the path of.
"Hey!" the stranger exclaimed as another car became in their way. "Look you're skin and bones here! Butcher shops are throwing away more blood in a day than you could stand. Good blood."
"You lived in the world a little bit, you'd know that," he finished saying after they had reached the other side.
"I wanna know who you are," Angel said.
"And I wanna know who you are."
"You already do."
"Not yet. But I'm looking to find out. Cause you could go either way here."
"I don't understand you."
"Nobody understands me. That's my curse," he said with a small laugh.
He turned around walking towards a nearby hotdog vendor taking out some bills.
"Dog me. Mustard."
"My name's Whistler," he said when he turned his head back to where Angel stood.
"Here you go," the vendor replied giving him the prepared hot dog.
Whistler handed him a bill and said, "Thanks. Anyway, lately it is." He took a bite of his dog.
"You're not a vampire?"
"A demon technically. I mean, I'm not a bad guy. Not all demons are dedicated to the destruction of all life."
"Whadaya mean, I can go either way?"
"I mean that you can become an even more worthless rodent than you already are, or you can become someone. A person. Someone to be counted."
"I just want to be left alone," Angel said beginning to walk away.
"Well, yeah, you've been along for, what, ninety years already."
Angel stopped walking and turned back to him.
"And what a package you are. The Stink Guy!"
"What do you want from me?"
"I want you to see something. We'd have to leave now. You see, and then you tell me what you wanna do."
Whistler's face gained a tone of seriousness when he offered his request.
"Where is it?"
A group of girls walked out of Los Angeles's Hemery High School finishing another day. One of the girls started to complain how her father wouldn't let her buy a new dress because everybody had seen her in everything else she had worn. After being asked if Tyler, her boyfriend, was taking her to the dance she became surprised. She told her friend she had already broken up with him and the only he would get her back is if he begged on his hands and knees. She finished by telling she would wait for him to come. She waved her goodbyes and said a "Call me" to each of her group as they left.
Across the street Angel had kept a close watching on her from a small crack in the window of an old Chevy Impala with the windows covered in black spray paint.
Slowly a short burly man with a mustache walked up to her sitting idly by on the front steps.
"Buffy Summers?"
"Yeah?" she said, "Hi! What?"
"I need to speak with you."
"You're not from Bullock's, are you? Cause I-I meant to pay for that lipstick."
"There isn't much time. You must come with me. Your destiny awaits."
"I don't have a destiny," she spoke confused, "I'm really destiny free, really."
"Yes, you have. You are the chosen one. You alone can stop them."
"Who?"
"The vampires."
"Huh?"
During the evening Angel stood behind a gravestone spying on Buffy and the Watcher as a vampire had her pinned to the ground. She quickly pushed him off letting him fly backwards.
"Oh, God," she uttered, "Oh God...Oh...Oh God...Unh!" Buffy crawled and stood up with the stake in hand. For a moment she felt lost holding the stake until the vampire rushed her. She instantly grabbed him throwing his body to the ground. Haphazardly she rushed to him and collapsed to the ground plunging the stake into his stomach.
"Oh! Not the heart."
She pulled it out plunging into his chest leaving behind a burst of dust. She immediately yelped and jumped backwards on the ground as the Watcher approached.
"You see? You see your power."
The look in Buffy's eyes appeared unprepared of this new realization.
"Why didn't you call?" Buffy's mother, Joyce questioned her in her room after she arrived home.
"I'm sorry. I-I didn't know it was so late. Tyler and I were talking."
Angel watched from the side windows outside into Buffy's bedroom.
"That boy is irresponsible."
"No, Mom. It's not his fault."
"You know we worry, that's all."
After staring at her Joyce resigned and said, "Dinner's in ten minutes."
"Yeah."
Buffy walked into her bathroom facing the mirror as she heard the loud shouts from her parents arguing out in the hallway. Angel could see from the bathroom window Buffy was trying to hold back the tears forming in her eyes. He began to feel for her and a growing need to protect.
"She's gonna have it tough, that Slayer. She's just a kid. The world's full of big bad things," Whistler said to Angel when he arrived in a sewer.
"I wanna help her. I want...I wanna become someone," he said impassionedly.
"God, Jeez, look at you. She must be prettier than the last Slayer. This isn't gonna be easy. The more you live in this world, the more you see how apart from it you really are," Whistler said, "And this is dangerous work. Right now, you couldn't go three rounds with a fruit fly!"
"I want to learn from you," he solemnly said.
"Alright."
"But I don't want to dress like you," Angel said speaking as he looked up and down at his attire. Angel started walking down the sewer way.
"Again, you're annoying me. You're lucky we need you on our side," Whistler said by his side. Both left the stench of waste water and dirty rats behind.