Disclaimer: I don't own Angel or any of its characters. They belong to Joss Whedon. The only character that I do own is Rose Daniels. For reference this takes place at the end of 'Home' for Angel. If anyone wants to contact me, email me at ericpaladin@hotmail.com
Destiny of the Soul
By: David Knight
Angel looked down at Connor, his son, the only son he would ever have, with tears in his eyes as he tried to turn away from his face.
But he couldn't. He looked at Connor's face and all he saw was the shock at what he did. Of thrusting the knife right across his throat.
He had killed his own son.
"I'm sorry Connor... but this is the only way," Angel said softly as he forced himself to do what he had decided, before it was too late. He pulled out from his coat a single glass jar, somewhat reminding him of the one that Wes had used to store his own soul a while back because of two things.
Its shape... and that he was going to use it to store his son's soul in.
He put the jar right at Connor's slit throat and Angel watched as a white glowing form was being pulled not only from Connor's body but also from the sky and Angel couldn't even guess where it was going. _Heaven or Hell. I could pray and wish it was the former of the two but with all he's gone through and all we've gone through, whose to say whomever is running the show wouldn't just send Connor to Hell. Especially after what he did today._
Angel blamed Holtz for this. For how he raised his own son, turned him against him and raised him to be as he was. He blamed Angelus as well, for doing what he did to Holtz so many years ago but also when he had been freed recently, had gotten into his son's head, and made the problems between them even worse.
But most of all he blamed himself. He blamed himself for not being to protect Connor when he needed him the most. He was his father and I couldn't protect him. Angel looked at the jar in his hands and saw that nothing more was coming into it. The jar was glowing white now and he sealed the lid. He put his hand over Connor's face and closed his eyes, making him look somewhat peaceful.
"I'm sorry Connor... I'm sorry for a lot of things..." Angel whispered as the tears started to come down his face. He put the jar away in his coat and then picked up the body of his son in his arms. "... but I promise you, I'm going to set it right for you."
He soon heard footsteps and voices coming from the front door of the shop. He didn't want to answer any questions nor have anyone take Connor's body. He looked down at Cordelia's body. He was so sorry for what had happened to her, there were so many things that he wanted to say, wanted to do and yet he had to do this for Connor first. "I'll see you soon Cordy." he whispered before he rushed out the back with his son and entered into the limousine that had been provided for him by Wolfram and Hart.
It was ironic to Angel, he hated them so much. Fought against them for four years.
Now he needed them to set things right with the only person other than Buffy and Cordelia that held a piece of his heart, a heart that he did not open to anyone easily, not even to Wes, Gunn, Fred or Lorne. They were his friends, they always would be.
But they would never have the place that his son and the two women that he had loved would ever have.
"... I'm sorry Mr Angel. You have my sympathies." the driver of the limo said once Angel came in carrying Connor's body.
_I'm certain you are._ Angel didn't know what the whole game was about, what the Senior Partners had in store for him for the long term, but there was one weapon that he had that they didn't know about. The one thing that Lindsay had told him two years ago.
"The key to Wolfram and Hart: don't let them make you play their game... You gotta make them play yours"
As he had stood there in that office, listening to Lilah dictate to him about taking or not taking the offer would mean, Lindsay's words came back to him. _They want to play a game with me and my friends? Fine, except its my game played by my rules._ He looked forward at the driver, "Take us back to the building." the car started moving and Angel picked up the car phone inside, dialed a number and waited for the other end to pick up.
"Lilah, I'm coming back now. Get ready for it and pick up Cordelia."
* * *
About fifteen minutes later the limo pulled up into the west wing parking deck of Wolfram & Hart. Lilah along with ten other men, all dressed in black robes were waiting for them along with an empty stretcher.
"Hiya boss," Lilah said a little bit too cheerfully to her former enemy as he placed Connor's lifeless body on the stretcher.
"Not in the mood Lilah," Angel growled.
Lilah sighed, "Yeah that was too low even for me."
"Where's Cordelia?" Angel asked.
"Hey we didn't have men placed at the scene ready to do what you wanted. You were the one that insisted on doing it solo." Lilah reminded him.
"Where is she?" Angel repeated, his voice showing his anger.
"When the police found her in her condition, they put her into a medical facility. She's already been transferred into Mercy Hospital... doesn't have the best of doctors." Lilah finally answered.
Angel spun around to face Lilah and had her up against the wall, "I want her taken care of now. That was part of the deal."
"We're working on it. Without living relatives present, we have to work around the system to get legal holding on her," Lilah explained, "But hey, bending the laws, what we do best here." she sobered up a little, "Meanwhile, we have something else to take care of." She motioned to the black robed men that had Connor's body on stretcher. "You have the soul right?"
Angel nodded, showing her the jar with Connor's soul.
"Okay then... let's go into the Arcanum and give your son the life he never had."
* * *
The Arcanum.
The place where Wolfram and Hart had its special and secret rituals preformed. Where there were warlocks and witches working on deciphering ancient texts that even the scholars and former Watchers that the firm had brought over to their side couldn't decrypt as well as sharpening their skills, waiting to be used or to be called for by a contract that the firm would make with someone, whether it be human or demon.
Angel looked down at Connor's body, now placed on a golden ceremonial table, which was under a circle with runes inscribed under it. He looked at Lilah, "Runes belonging to powers that come Darkness and Light."
"I thought you would have seen already it's not always about the classical good and evil color scheme," Lilah returned, "And technically darkness isn't evil. It's just a force of nature."
"Except it can be so easy to use that people end up becoming corrupted and become agents of evil," Angel pointed out.
"Well yes... for those that don't have the will know how to handle power. Power corrupts and destroys those that can't handle it," Lilah stated, "Basic fundamental of our whole world."
"Explain this to me one more time."
Lilah blinked at her boss in surprise, "I already told you the procedure already and that was before you went to go get your kid."
"Well I want to hear it again so I can fully analyze it so that I know that you aren't pulling a fast one," Angel said coldly.
"Okay," Lilah said exasperatedly, "I can tell working for you just going to be barrels of fun."
"Lilah..."
"The process of reincarnation that we are going to perform on Conner will be one in which we can alter history but to do so that it doesn't affect or alter in any damaging way our current timeline," Lilah began to explain, "As you know we can't bring anyone back from the dead to life... least not in the present anyway."
"And you are an example of that limitation of the Senior Partners powers." Angel said, sounding almost amused.
"Touché," Lilah conceded, "But if they didn't have those limits Angel, they would have long ago resurrected a lot of demons that you wouldn't want to be facing. Demons that would have been on a level of that giant snake thing you killed several years back in Sunnydale."
"Let's get back to the procedure shall we," Angel replied, "You can't bring Connor back to life here and now, so how do you plan on bring him back to life but not as one of the living dead or like yourself."
"Several different mages for different parts of the operation," Lilah returned, "Our three Chronomancers come a demon dimension, brought in here especially for this operation. The Senior Partners really wanted to do good for their end of our deal."
"What do they do?" Angel asked.
"Chronomancers have the ability to bend space and time to their will in limited areas. If there were no limits to everything, we wouldn't even be talking right now and..." Lilah saw the look on Angel's face and decided to just stick to keeping it simple and about business. _Yup. Definitely going like working for him... this is the real hell._ "The Chronomancers will open a portal into the past, eighteen years to be exact. To a specific location that has been determined."
"And that location..."
"Will be to where our Spirit Summoners will cast your son's soul into, which our Blood Priests are tying together with its essence part of his physical body, allowing for his rebirth." Lilah told him.
Angel just stared at her for a moment before speaking again, "I think you made better sense the first time."
"What I am saying is that when Conner's soul gets sent through the time rip, it's going to need temporary physical matter to survive the traversal. Once it makes it way through the other side, it will then enter into the first body that comes into contact," Lilah told him, "First female body that is."
"... the woman that Conner's soul goes into..."
"Won't be possessed. She'll just begin to conceive."
Angel kept his face as neutral as he could but still it was a bit much, "Birth.... he's going to be born again."
"With no memories what so ever of his past life and once he's sent back into the past and born again, it will be like he never existed. Only the dead will remember him. That of course includes you and me." Lilah finished, "That is what you wanted isn't it. That only you out of your entire gang would remember him."
"Yes."
"Well boss I have to say this, if you want to do this, you have to do it now. Otherwise, the window of opportunity will be gone."
Angel looked over his son's body, looking at if he saying he was sorry for all of the suffering he had gone through. He wanted to take it all away, give him a life to cherish... but he had to give him up to do it.
_I will always love you Connor. Even if you never remember me, I will always love you._ Angel vowed before looking towards Lilah. "Do it."
Lilah turned to face the assembled mages, witches, sorcerers and priests. "Well you heard your boss. Get moving."
They worked their jobs and Angel saw the magic unfold. The three black and silver robed demons raised their staffs to open a dark vortex that looked like a miniature black hole. Four white and blue robed mages worked over the jar that contained Connor's soul while four scarlet clad priests walked away, their job seeming to be done. The white and blue robed mages chanted in a tongue Angel had never heard before but there was little more he could do but watch as the jar glowed bright white and then the soul was released from the jar and went through the vortex.
"Now what?" Angel asked Lilah, who was now looking at her watch.
"Now we wait for your son to get born... and then the ripples of time that will follow." Lilah returned.
* * *
Los Angeles
November 19, 1984
Alyssa Lyons never thought giving birth would ever be this hard. It was also her first child. _I think I might seriously consider having my tubes tied after this!_ she grimaced as she gave another push as told by the doctors around her. She had loved caring the life that been growing within her for the last eight and a half months. When she told her husband Ben that she was pregnant, he couldn't have been any happier. He was going to be a father and Alyssa knew he would be a great father to their baby. She wished he could have been allowed in but the doctors insisted that he stay outside as they needed to have full space since she was two weeks earlier than expected.
"Alright I can see the legs," she heard the doctor say to her, "Give another push Alyssa and I think we'll have your baby out of there."
"ARGHHHHHHHH!!!" Alyssa screamed out as she gave another push. When it was over the pain was gone.
And the sound of a newborn baby crying could be heard.
"Congratulations Alyssa. Its a boy." the doctor told her.
"Its a boy... I have a son..." Alyssa said with a smile on her face. She was soon allowed to hold the infant in her arms after he was cleaned and put in a blanket for his own safety. She looked into his face and saw two emerald green eyes stare back at her, the boy now sounding glad to be in her arms. She smiled as she held him, "My son... my little Gabriel. Welcome into our lives."
* * *
Present
Angel felt a burst of wind go right past him, felt the entire room shake for a moment but then there was nothing at all. He looked for the portal but it was gone, as were the Chronomancers. "What just happened?"
"History reworking itself. Reweaving its threads." Lilah said to him, "We took Connor out of his place, made everything that happened to him, everything that Holtz did to raise him, everything was erased and replaced with a very normal life. Oh and the Chronomancers went back their home dimension after the job was done. They don't particularly like staying in this dimension any longer than they need to be."
"... I want to have a file on his family before I leave for Sunnydale this evening." Angel told her.
"You're the boss," Lilah said.
"I'll be in my office." Angel said leaving her.
_My office... great. Not even a day into the job and he's already made himself at home. The afterlife sucks._ Lilah shook her head, _Now I really wish Wes did succeed in destroying my contract._
* * *
Hours later Angel was getting out of the limo that he taken with him. The driver, Karl, was going to be his personal chauffeur now. He thought for a moment how Karl would handle driving straight into to the apocalypse that known as Sunnydale. Angel didn't know nor did he really care at the moment.
What he cared about was the family he was going to be spying on just this one night. He still had trouble believing it, that only twelve hours ago he had killed Connor and yet Connor no longer existed. He had heard Fred ask 'Who's Connor?' as he was leaving the building. So far Lilah's bosses had delivered on everything that he had asked for. The file that he had read on Connor's new life was great... on paper anyway.
But he had to see it for himself.
He had to see his son be happy.
* * *
Eighteen-year old Gabriel Lyons sat in his bedroom playing Final Fantasy X on his PS2. He was hooked into fantasy just as much as he was into his studies. Probably why his grades were always As. No one called him a geek though. Not when he looked like a 'Total Absolute Mega Hottie' as he had heard several of the members of varsity cheerleading squad call him. Gabriel had to admit that he did look pretty cool.
He had a great life so far and high school had been the best. He hadn't been on any teams but he made friends really easily and got to know a lot of the students. Everyone in school just knew he was going to be valedictorian of the class at Graduation Day come June.
Still he wasn't bookworm. Video games were just one way to relax. Another was talking to his friends from school over the Internet... and then there was Tracy. _Last week was just a little too intense... just glad we didn't go that far._ Gabriel's face reddened as he thought of that memory.
"Gabriel. Dinner's ready." A voice called from down stairs.
"Okay mom." Gabriel called down as he went to the nearest save spot to save his progress so he wouldn't lose an entire hour of game play. Once he did he turned off the console and was about to go downstairs until someone brushed past him.
"Last one down cleans the table!" an energetic black haired fourteen year old ran right past him.
"Becky slow down or you're going to fall down." Gabriel chided his littlest sister.
"She acts too much like a little girl Gabe." A voice said from behind him.
"Let her act how she wants Susan. She'll grow up soon enough," Gabriel returned, but turned to look at his sixteen year old sister with a coy smile on his face, "Kind like you have."
"You little..." Susan swatted him on the shoulder.
"Susan! Gabriel! Come on down before your food starts to get cold!"
"Coming mom!" the siblings said together as they walked down the stairs and took their places at the table. Gabriel noticing that Rebecca, or Becky as he and Susan had taken to calling her, had already started to eat. "Couldn't wait to stuff your face huh munchkin?"
"You were late," Becky said, "Looks like you two have to clean the dishes."
"Gee. What a chore," Susan said sarcastically. "Think Mr. Top Ten Percent of the Country can handle it?"
"Oh come on," Gabriel shrugged as he started to eat, "It's really not that big of a deal okay."
"You figure out where you are going yet son," Ben Lyons asked, "I mean you've got pick. Any school will take you. We already have scholarship letters from Villanova, Harvard, Duke, Notre Dame..."
"It not that important to me right now," Gabriel shrugged as he ate into his stake, "This a great stake mom."
"Thanks Gabriel," Alyssa smiled, "But your father and sister are right. Especially considering you scored in the top ten percentile for your SATs."
"I can't take all of the credit for it. If it wasn't for Rose helping me out I probably would have gotten at least a hundred points less." Gabriel said.
"On another subject," Susan decided to step in as she wanted to know something herself, "You and Tracy going to try the same school bro?"
Gabriel's face reddened when she asked that, "We... we haven't discussed it yet..."
"It's not a great idea." Ben said getting a look from everyone. "What? I love Tracy, I really do, but I don't think it's the best way to go."
"Tracy's a Vegan." Becky teased, getting a laugh from everyone.
"Maybe I should go to college overseas," Gabriel mused, "Like maybe Russia. Hey is there any place further away than Russia?"
"Don't even think about it." Alyssa chided him.
"I'd like to a propose a toast," Ben said raising his glass, "To the top ten percentile..."
"Hold it," Gabriel interrupted laughing as everyone else was as he got up and walked to his dad, putting his hand down but had his glass in his other hand. He looked at his family before speaking, "Since this is my special day because I'm so brilliant,"
"And humble," Susan quipped.
Gabriel ignored her as he went on, "And well... unfortunately that will mean I must spend at least a few more months with you freaks..."
"Oh Gabe!" Becky pouted.
"That is so mean." Alyssa muttered but everyone knew Gabriel didn't mean it. Sure they teased once and a while but it was all good-natured and everyone knew how to take a joke.
"Okay okay. Seriously no joking." Gabriel said seriously as he raised his glass up, looking at everyone one of them, and thanking god for giving him this life. This life that he treasured more than anything else in the world. "To family."
"To family." Ben said toasting with his son. Everyone went to sit down and continue on to eat and to tease a little but Gabriel stopped for a moment as he looked out the window and thought he saw something.
"Gabriel?" Alyssa asked.
Gabriel wasn't hearing her right now, he just looked out the window and for the briefest of moments, he saw a man in black leather walking away. When he saw the face it was only for a second.
But he could have sworn he saw tears coming down his face.
"Gabriel?" Alyssa spoke louder, this time getting his attention.
"Oh... um sorry mom. Just kind of spaced out there for a moment." Gabriel muttered. Dinner went back to normal, but for Gabriel the man that he saw, he couldn't shake him off his mind.
Nor could he ignore the feeling that somehow, in some way he couldn't understand... he knew him.
* * *
Angel walked away from the Lyons home with tears in his eyes. He had seen enough. His son was happy and that was all that mattered to him. The Senior Partners had held every end of their deal. There was nothing to be sorry for.
"I will always love you... my son..." Angel whispered in the wind. He was now as ready as he was ever going to be for the battle that lay ahead in Sunnydale. He would have to be. He had a world to protect so that his son could live in it without fear, without fighting, without killing. He had the chance for a normal life. He was going to let him have it.
"Give me one reason why I shouldn't stake you right now vampire."
For one of the rarest of times in his life, Angel was completely surprised. He had been taken off guard and could feel the point of a stake at his back, ready to go through, and yet it wasn't going in. The one holding it was actually questioning him. "I'm not a normal vampire."
"No you aren't. Your aura is really conflicting. I feel evil yet there's also something good overpowering it." The female voice spoke; from the tone Angel could tell that it was a teenager, probably no older than his own son. "Turn around."
Angel did and that was when he got a look at her. She looked as tall as Faith did but dressed casually, a purple sweater with blue jeans and sneakers. She had an athletic build by the look of things. She wore red glasses and had shoulder length carrot red hair.
And she smelled like a Slayer... almost.
"Who are you?" Angel asked.
"I could ask the same about you." The girl asked.
"I asked first."
"The name's Rose Daniels..." the girl said as held up her hand and to Angel's surprise produced a ball of fire in her hands, "And I'm one girl you don't want to toy with."
_A Witch and a Potential?_ Angel asked himself as such a combination was unheard of.
Rose looked at him in the moonlight and had a confused look on her face, "... you... kind of look like..." She stared back at the house but quickly back at Angel, making sure he wasn't out of her sight, "Why were here looking at the Lyons? If you wanted to feed on them you would have done it already and if you had I would have staked you on the spot for killing them."
Angel didn't know what to say just then but he knew that time was running out for Sunnydale. He had to be there to help them. Help Buffy... but if things went to hell... "How much do you care for them?"
"What?"
"Would you give your life to protect them?" Angel asked her.
"In a heart beat," Rose said without hesitation, "Gabriel has always been there for me."
"Then be there for him if the world comes to end." Angel said.
"What? What are you..." Rose blinked in confusion.
"You're a witch. You saw my aura. You probably know chaos is on its way and its coming real soon." Angel told her, "There's a war that's about to erupt twenty miles south of here. A war involving the Slayers and the Potential Slayers, like you. A war that I am going to help them fight to stop evil so that this world will have one less nightmare to deal with."
"Then I have to..."
"Stay here and help make sure they are safe." Angel said fiercely to her. "If all goes to hell down there on the battle field, there is no way of telling how it will all end. Over fifteen Potentials that arrived there to be safe have died and many more have already died all over the world thanks to the First Evil. The best way that you can help is by sitting on the side for now and waiting for the end result. Because when the end of this war comes, one thing is very certain. Everything will change for both sides." He looked at her calmly then, his eyes taking on an almost pleading look, "Please. I know you have no reason to trust me because I am a vampire, but I am asking... begging you to please... please do what I said."
The Witch Potential just stared at Angel, wondering what to do, what to make of what he said. It made Angel nervous, wondering if she would actually just stake him right then and there.
Instead she lowered the stake and took it away from him. "... get going."
"Thank you." Angel breathed as a sigh of relief as he went back to limo and closed the door. He told Karl to drive to Sunnydale now. He felt much better now knowing that his son had a Witch/Potential Slayer as a friend.
It was the best defense he could have ever asked for.
* * *
Rose just watched the limo drive away, her mind wondering all about the vampire that she had met, that was to like the others she had killed over the last year. She had been practicing witchcraft a lot longer than she had been slaying vampires, but her parents and grandparents all agreed, the less 'unusual' elements that were in the town, the better off they were because the last thing a family of witches and sorcerers needed was for some dumb bloodsucker to blow their secret into the open. People knowing you were a witch usually meant you were burnt at the stake.
That's one of the things she hated about keeping from Gabriel. The secrets that she had, that she could never tell him because even though she looked normal, she wasn't. There was no way a normal boy like him would ever like her if he knew what she really was.
But now there was this vampire that looked like he knew Gabriel. He even resembled Gabriel somewhat. But what was the connection?
Regardless of that, there was one thing that the vampire did say that she agreed upon. If this war was coming and it turned bad, people needed to be protected. And if she needed to expose herself to do it, to save innocent people like Gabriel, then she'd do it.
She looked back at the Lyons house, and saw Gabriel laughing with his family, a smile came on her face, _Don't worry Gabriel. I'll be here for you, just you've always been there for me._ her face became stern though as she thought of the vampire again, _But one way or the other, I'm going to figure out what that vampire was doing here and his connection to you._
With that thought in mind, Rose went back into the shadows of the forest to make her way home. She had much to think about and much to prepare for.
To Be Continued...