Chapter 1

A terrified young man ran for his life. A dark figure with a leather coat billowing behind him made pursuit and launched forward to tackle the shorter figure. The shorter of the two landed hard on the alleyway's disgusting floor and turned around. The tall figure looked at him before winding his fist up for a one way journey to the young man's face. The young man who held his hands up in defence.

"No, wait! I can help you make your soul permanent!" The tall dark figure's fist paused on its journey downwards to crack the man's skull beneath it. Or should I say demon. A demon that looked like a man. The demon knew that he'd pushed the right button and he might actually not get pummelled tonight. As much as he enjoyed becoming part of the pavement. Oh well, there was always tomorrow.

The demon peeked through his fingers and looked up at the dark figure who was now looking at him with a mixture of hostility, dislike and a little bit of curiosity. The demon removed his hand and tried one of his 'charming' grins. He shrugged in, what he hoped was, a nonchalant fashion

"Just because you know about me doesn't make you special. So does everyone else in this entire town."

"But does everyone know that a couple of years ago or so you got the oracles to turn back time? I understand you had quite the time of your undead life. If I remember correctly, and I always do, your little firecracker said," The demon continued in a voice that was Buffy's teary one,

"I'll never forget. I'll never forget. I'll never forget. I'll never forget."

The tall dark figure in front of him drew his fist back was about to hit the demon again when the demon adopted another voice.

"Got a little mor'n you bargained for, eh Bud? The good fight, yeah?" The figure froze as he recognised the voice immediately. And the accent. That Irish accent from a little Irish man. Doyle.

"You've lost your way, strayed from your path. But you gotta hop right back on that horse Angelcakes." The demon now spoke with Lorne's voice.

This was too much for the dark figure who felt emotion overtake him and just fled into the night. Thankful for the way that it just swallowed him up.

"Wait! Angel! Do you want me to help you?" Angel stopped and turned around, his annoyed expression clear on his scarred face. A large scar now ran down his handsome features, cutting diagonally across the left side of his dark face. It was a scar that had been so deep that even his vamp healing hadn't been able to heal it all, at least not yet. It was now a faint, but still visible, red line from his left cheekbone to the top of his lip. Of course when it had been inflicted it almost tore his face in half, but that's another story.

"Why? It's not as if the help you offer me will make any of it better. Didn't you hear? After the big fight with the senior partners I was the only one who left it reasonably sane. Connor and Wesley died, Gunn is now a vegetable in a hospital, Fred (see AN) disappeared, Lorne…well he said he was done. Who else is there?"

"Cordy. You remember her don't you?"

"She's dead." Angel sat down on the floor of the side of the alley, back resting against the wall. The demon joined him with a poignant expression on his face.

"Look I'm not going to pretend that it wasn't pretty heart wrenching to go through your entire life story. And I commend you, the things you've done…" Angel gave him a look, clearly he was thinking of his earlier stage in life. The demon corrected himself.

"I mean the last years of your life, the recent ones. For you it's been a long and tiring road. I'm here to put in some of that 'reward' back in 'unrewarding'." Angel looked at him with an unbelieving smirk on his face.

"So you're telling me that you're a demon that is going to secure my soul."

"Demon is such a harsh word." The demon said with a faint smile that attempted to lift the mood unsuccessfully.

"It's one that applies here." The demon showed his palms in a motion of surrender.

"Okay, okay. But the outside isn't all that counts. You've proven that. A vampire who helps and aids. Why is it so hard to believe that some other of your kind can do the same?" Angel was speechless at this and chose to remain so.

"You're not the only special one here Angel." The demon said with a tone that made Angel think that this was a past hurt. Good.

"So what, are you working for the Powers?" Angel's sarcasm would've hurt someone inside twelve inches of steel emotional walls. And this demon barely had a tinfoil walls. He just responded with a brave smile and continued to wear his heart on his sleeve.

"Well I don't like to spread it. It generally makes demons more willing to tear my heart out." The small amount of sarcasm on the end was about as much as he would throw back at Angel.

"And just listening to you talk is making me want to tear it out, whether or not you have a soul and whether or not you're working for the Powers." The demon's smile faltered and his eyes almost reverted to a puppy dogs.

"Buffy's dead." (See AN) Angel said after a minute's awkward silence.

"I know, I'm sorry."

"Then why did you…"

"Remind you?"

"Yeah. Use her voice? Bring up the hurt?"

"Because you were going to kill me and, in the process, ruin your chances of getting a permanent soul."

"So it's all for my own good."

"I also did it because she isn't the woman you're hung up over. You're hung up over Cordy." Angel looked at the demon with pain in his eyes and the demon flinched. Angel waited for a few seconds before deciding that changing the subject would be the best path.

"So why are you giving me an anchor for my soul?"

"Well the Powers reckon that you should be paid half of your humanity. Just for your great work."

"Great work that I haven't finished."

"That's why you're getting half. A sort of… Hope giver. To help you continue on and march through the days that make it so terrible for you."

"You don't know what it's like. To have to suffer like I have. I've suffered through everything."

"I know," The demon looked at Angel with an understanding expression on his face.

"I don't think you understand. When I went through your life story," The demon underlined the next point in mid air, "I went through your life story. Sure they cut out most of the massacres and some of the gruesome stuff you did as Angelus but I went through all the important stuff. The last years, as Angel with a soul, slaying with Buffy in Sunnydale and then here in L.A., I went through all of that. Feeling what you were feeling, doing what you were doing. Brooding like you did, oh so very much."

Angel gave him a look and the demon showed an apologetic look before continuing.

"You have to understand that I understand. Everything. You can even quiz me." Even Angel couldn't help the twitch that showed the grin about to happen that no one could stop. Even the past months that had been spent in the alleyways slaying vampires and demons.

"So are you my link to the Powers now?" The demon looked at him with a serious expression and replied simply.

"Yeah. But I gotta do the soul anchoring thing before they kill me for incompetency and put in some other dumbass demon who has no clue what he's doing." A quick, harsh and slightly worried expression from the vampire caused him to launch into babble mode.

"I mean not that I'm a dumbass demon who has no clue what he's doing, I'm just saying that the other demon they'd send in would be a dumbass demon who has no clue what he's doing. Unlike me. Of course I know exactly what I'm doing and, lucky for you, I'm no dumbass. After all if I was, then I would not be doing this because if I didn't know what I was doing then I wouldn't even allow myself here. Because I've been through all of your troubles and I know that another pain and trouble in your life is so unneeded at the moment. I mean the stuff you've gone through is enough already. Another headache is not needed. And neither is a babbling demon who should be now doing his duty or he'll get fired and…"

Angel vamped and the demon stopped babbling.

"Do it already."

"Alright, alright. No need to…" Angel growled at him and he finished the sentence off in a whimpering tone which was more of a question than the end of a sentence, "snap?"

Angel vamped out. The demon took a deep breath and then put his pointer and middle finger on Angel's temples. The demon closed his eyes as he concentrated.

"Now just relax. Close your eyes. Think of the ocean. The beach." Angel's eyes burst open and knocked aside the demon's hands. The demon opened his eyes in shock at the sudden disconnection.

"I don't like the beach. I get set on fire at the beach." Angel growled and the demon's eyes widened.

"Okay, okay. Let's try this again shall we?"

"How do I know that you work for the Powers?" The demon paused before answering.

"If I wasn't working for the Powers, let's say that I were to use this to kill you, would you really care? Would your really care if this entire alley was blown to smithereens? With you and I in it?" Angel didn't respond and the demon said,

"Of course not. Look, I have no way of proving it to you, only my knowledge of your past. But you know that you secretly hoped that the answer to the question is that I don't work for them. That I'm here to kill you. At least then you would relax and let me do my work. But I do work for them and I know that you couldn't really care if I killed you because to you there's no way to go but down. The Angel Investigations days are over and gravity's pulling you back down to earth mate. At the rate you're going the end result will not be pretty. I just need you to trust me when I say that I'm giving you a parachute here. Don't become squished pavement goo. Trust me."

"It hasn't been Angel Investigations for so long." Angel said, his only come back to the demon's short speech.

"It still was to you. Even in Wolfram and Hart. It was the same old thing. Fighting demons with your friends, only it was more of a 'Let's throw money at the problem' solution instead of a 'Let's bash their heads in' solution. Took you a while to get used to it huh? Especially since there was this nagging feeling that you were the only one left. This feeling that everyone from the original team was gone. Everyone except for you. Doyle had died in a blaze of hero glory and Cordy was murdered by a 'higher being'. You got lonely didn't you? In your nice penthouse apartment and the many different cars that they gave you. Just knowing that you're the last one left standing. Now more than ever. I went through all that with you. I felt the loathing and hate that you felt for yourself. You don't have to anymore. You may have strayed far from the path but the path has managed to find you. Take it. Trust me."

Angel looked into the demon's eyes and then nodded slowly and deliberately. The demon smiled and returned his fingers to Angel's temples, once again closing his eyes, but this time Angel was visibly tense. Obviously his want for life had returned. And his fear of what the demon would do in his head had finally arrived.

"Relax. Close your eyes. Think of a nice dark night. The moon is full. You're in a beautiful garden, in full view of the moon. The Jasmine has just started to bloom and you can smell the beautiful scent of it in the air. You are at complete peace." Angel actually relaxed at this and the demon began the process.

AN: Alright, in this story it's an AU. Obviously. Anyway. Buffy is dead in this story, Illyria never came to Angel (sorry!), Fred just had to leave for an unknown reason to the gang and Fred and Wesley never got together (once again sorry!).