[ Disturbing Relations ]

TITLE: Disturbing Relations
AUTHOR: Lindsay Ince [chicago_heat@hotmail.com]
DISCLAIMER: Angel: The Series does not belong to me. Duh.
ARCHIVE: http://www.stas.net/blurred
DISTRIBUTION: Ask, ya shall receive. The best things in life are free (and some of the more mediocre things)
RATING: R
SPOILERS: S2 (though I'm not precisely sure what I'm on about. I haven't watched it)
SUMMARY: Angel comes up with a foolproof plan to stop Darla and Drusilla...except it isn't foolproof.
AUTHORS NOTES: In response to challenge #33 at You Got The Stones?
FEEDBACK: Ah, go on, you will, you will, you will... (See Irish TV series Father Ted for explanation of that phrase!)

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'You've been a very bad Daddy,' Drusilla whispered quietly as she slid a hand up Angel's chest. It rose, cleaving to her touch even though the vampire himself was asleep. Drusilla watched as his eyelashes fluttered as he became restless and then silently walked to the wall where Darla was positioned with a paintbrush.

'What do you think?' she asked.

'Ohhh, its a masterpiece! A work of art!' Drusilla gazed at her childe's work in amazement.

'Come on,' Darla said, gathering up the brush and paint. 'Let's get out of here before he wakes up.'

'If he saw us it would spoil the surprise. No cakes and tea for the princess.' Drusilla said seriously.

Darla looked at her for a moment, then shrugged. 'Whatever.'

Angel tossed and turned violently in the throws of his nightmare. It was one he had experienced before, where his actions as Angelus came back to haunt him. He had grown used to having them, but the contents still upset him deeply. He sat bolt upright in bed when the screams of the innocent got too much.

He blinked once or twice to regain his focus on the world before flashes of red in front of him caught his eye. He got up and walked towards the wall in front of him. A grotesque scene greeted his eye. Red paint daubed the word 'Soon' menacingly on the wall. He walked right up to it to inspect it more closely. Something didn't feel right. Taking a small bit of paint on his finger he tasted it. Blood. They had painted the message with the blood of their latest kill. Angel slammed his hand against the wall before dressing and rushing downstairs to inform the others.

'This has gone too far already, and we have to put a stop to it.' Angel said.

'Well, one easy way to do that,' Gunn replied, holding up a stake and mimicking the action. 'Stake. Heart. Problem solved.'

'We'd never get close enough to them to do it.' Angel answered.

'We wouldn't be able to get close enough, or you don't have the balls to do it?' Gunn challenged.

Angel stared at him with an unwavering eye. 'I can only stake one vampire at a time. Well at least I can where strong vampires like Darla and Drusilla are concerned. And while I stake one do you think the other is going to line up and wait her turn. No, she'd try and kill you or some other innocent person. I won't risk that.'

'He's right,' Cordelia interrupted. 'I sure wouldn't want to face Drusilla after Angel kills her childe.'

'So what's the plan Angel,' Wesley said. 'How do we put an end to this?'

'I called Willow in Sunnydale,' Angel answered. 'She's e-mailing me the incantation she used to replace my soul. We're going to use it on Darla and ensoul her.'

'But what about Drusilla, I really think she could use ensouling too.' Cordelia added quickly.

'No, there's more chance of it working with Darla. she's experienced the guilt and remorse of the undead. Drusilla is too unstable. She's insane, she'd never cope with the strain of having her soul back. She probably wouldn't understand it. No, there's only one way to stop Drusilla.'

'Again, I take you back to my original plan.' Gunn said, holding up the stake again.

'Yes, that's the only way. But I do it. I made Drusilla, I have to finish it. Cordelia, can you get the e-mail? Wesley, Gunn. Start gathering supplies for the ensoulment incantation will you. Call me when everything's ready.'

He walked slowly up the stairs back to his room. Drusilla was a monster. Evil to the core and deadly to anyone unfortunate enough to be caught in her path, but she was his child. Deep down, despite his soul, he still felt the pull towards his childe, just as he recognised why Darla still hung around him. He wanted another way, any way he could to save her, but he knew it was impossible. Drusilla was just one more action he felt he could never atone for.

* * * * *

Darla sat at the table and looked uncomfortably at the dolls around her. Classic porcelain beauty stared glassily back at her. Her eyes swung round defensively at each of them until she looked back realising that she had passed Drusilla, who had had exactly the same expression on her face. That girl was a nightmare ready to happen. She had never been convinced about her, or what Angelus saw in her. She was perfectly willing to back the idea of turning her in the first place, but turning her after you've made her insane? Insanity itself. An insane vampire is a liability at best and a massacre at worst. A massacre wasn't necessarily a bad thing, she mused, so long as it wasn't your own kind being massacred. That was, however, usually the way it turned out where insane vampires were involved.

A glint of light in her eye made Darla realised Drusilla was back from whatever particular fantasy world she had recently been residing in. She made a change to the posture of one of the dolls seated at the table with them and Darla sighed, Drusilla however did not glean her boredom.

'Now, now Miss Edith, sit properly. You wouldn't want to teach my beutiful little girl bad habits.' A confused expression crossed her features. 'My beautiful little girl grandmamma?'

Darla sighed again, realising she would have to explain for about the tenth time the nature of the relationship between herself and Drusilla. It was all in one ear and out the other with her, she didn't take it in, or if she did, it didn't stay there long.

Drusilla's attention had already wandered, to the glittering object around Darla's neck.

'What a lovely necklace, can I wear it grandmamma?' she asked.

Realising her chance to keep the young vampire quiet, she quickly took off the necklace and earrings and fastened them around Drusilla. She sat back in her chair and let her head fall back and revelled in the relative silence, only broken by Drusilla's squeals and idle chatter to her dolls. She almost felt motherly towards her. Despite her apparent insanity and cruel nature, by vampire standards Drusilla was fairly naive. The reuslt of spending one hundred years with Spike. They were hardly the most vicious pair, she chuckled inwardly, comparing Spike and Drusilla's expoilts to what she and Angelus had got up to in their day.

* * * * *

In the Hyperion hotel Cordelia and Gunn stood nervously against the desk watching Angel and Wesley make the final preparations for the ensoulment incantation. Gunn gave Cordy a 'do they know what they're doing' look which she didn't notice as she was eying the Orb of Thesbulah that Wesley gently placed in its holder.

Wesley looked up at Angel. 'Do you want to do it?'

'No, you're Latin is better than mine. Besides I'm a demon, I don't think I'm qualified.'

Wesley picked up the plain silver necklace that Angel had managed to get hold of.

'What is that for?' Cordelia asked impatiently.

'Because we don't know exactly where she is, as opposed to when Willow initially performed the spell on Angelus, she suggested we use something of the 'victim' to draw the power to her, more chance of it working if we do.'

'But if we have it, how can that work?' Gunn cut in.

'Well, this isn't exactly her necklace, its a placebo.' Wesley began.

'All I can remember about the first one is that it was silver. This will have to do.' Angel said shortly.

'Angel was kind enough to draw me a picture of the original, so I will visulise that as Willow explained while I carry out the spell. Now we really should begin.'

A silence fell over the whole room as Wesley began his Latin chant.

* * * * *

Darla settled into the peace and quiet of her soft bed and began to relax. The thing about Drusilla was, she considered, you couldn't turn your back on her for a moment. If you did, she would probably disappear, and bring a whole lot of trouble back with her. She relished the silence for a moment before she heard a loud scream. Obviously Drusilla she jumped from the bed and ran to find her, wondering what the hell she had done now.

As she entered the dank, warehouse like room she stopped. Looking round for Drusilla and seeing nothing she quietly began to tip toe, looking for her.

'Drusilla?' she asked cautiously.

A whimper was all the reply she received, and suddenly she came up the girl curled up in a feotal position behind a table. Wondering if she had had one of those idiotic and bizarre visions she spouted from time to time she slowly bent down to tap her shoulder. In reply she received a quiet scream and a jerk that told her to leave well alone. She sat down on a chair and watched as she slowly pulled herself up from the floor and turned. Darla's shock took a few minutes to spread through her body. The look in Drusilla's eyes was one she had never seen before during their whole acquaintance.

There was a...sanity she hadn't noticed before. It hadn't been there a few hours ago, but all her thoughts flew from her head as Drusilla crumples to the floor again, this time not with the selfish, crocodile cries of a child, but the moving, heart-broken cries of a woman finally coming to terms with her actions throughout her life. As a vampire she didn't scare easily, but this swift and severe change in her companion disturbed her deeply. As she considered what could have poosibly happened to cause this her anger began to boil up. There was only one reason this could have happened so quickly...Angel.

* * * * *

'What have you done to her?' Darla yelled angrily as she yanked Drusilla through the door of the Hyperion Hotel and caught sight of Angel just in front of her. He turned round in shock and simply looked at them. Darla's face was that familiar shade of red blush she wore naturally when she was angry.

'What? I don't know what you mean?' he asked, thoroughly confused at Darla's expression. He was expecting her to look drawn, awash with guilt. Then he caught sight of the sane look in Drusilla's eyes and the necklace around her neck and groaned, realising what she meant.

'It was mistake, it was meant for you...' he began.

'What was? What have you done?'

'We...we restored her soul. She was wearing your necklace, we used it as...as a beacon. The incantation was meant for you, not her.' he finished, stuttering.

Darla lowered her head in realisation and disbelief.

Drusilla looked at Angel straight in the eye. It made him feel uncomfortable, her new found sanity. In her eyes he saw all the reproach she had not had the ability to express before. He saw the tear tracks on her cheek and an invisible shiver of fear ran through him. She had been ensouled, everything that had happened to him was happening to her. It nearly drove him mad, what would it do to one that was already insane.

'Darla, I have to talk to Angel, leave.' Drusilla's authoritarian tone shocked both of them. Angel and Darla exchanged glances until she spoke again.

'Now.'

The firmness in her voice conveyed to Darla she would do well to obey. She wasn't used to being given orders, especially by someone who was essentially her grandchild. She could have sworn Drusilla could hear her thoughts.

'You are my childe Darla, you obey me.'

Darla stopped, an acidic reply halted on her tongue. She was right. She was no longer the matriarch, no longer the oldest, the leader. She had been toppled, and now had to take her position again at the bottom of the ladder, the litter of the pack. She didn't like it. It was the way. It wasn't her place to change it.

She reluctantly turned and walked back out into the night to feed. Something young, supple. Something that wouldn't break if she bent it. Spotting a sporty looking young male down the street she quickened her step, eager to shake off the eerieness of the situation and forget it for a while.

* * * * *

Drusilla circled Angel like a predator, saying nothing, but saying everything with her eyes. Angel never turned his back to her. He well knew her state of mind, her habits, the strangeness of this situation. There was silence for miutes, until Angel thought it would never end. Finally she stopped, putting her hand to her chest, over the position of her heart.

'It hurts, do you hurt like this?' she asked quietly.

'Yes.' he replied honestly.

'Does it get better?' she asked hopefully this time.

'It does when you help. When you work against the evil. Atonement is a slow process, a person at a time. every life is special.'

'Was mine?'

The question threw him. He wasn't expecting that. He was only expecting the pain of remembering victims, the suffering of her tortures being repeated back on her three fold. He wasn't expecting his own guilt to be called into question.

'Of course it was.' he answered nervously.

'Then why did you do it? Why did you do those things to me? You drove me insane? Its your fault I did everything I did. you should carry the guilt. I don't deserve this.' she cried out the tears beginning again.

He rushed to her and pulled her into a hug, comforting her and trying to quieten her. She cried bitterly for a long time, until she pulled away and looked into his eyes purposefully.

'It's not your fault, and its not mine. We didn't start this. It's her fault. If it wasn't for her, we would never be this way, never feel this pain. She must be punished.'

Angel felt a sudden wash of confusion, the realisation.

'Darla?' he asked.

'Darla.' she replied forcefully.

Angel could have laughed at that moment at the irony of it. At this moment he should be holding Darla, plotting Drusilla's demise yet here he was, with a sane Drusilla, plotting the end of his sire and consequently hers, yet also her childe. He knew what it was to kill a sire and a childe, no easy task even for a supposedly emotionless vampire, never mind one cursed with a soul. He explained his fears to her, unsure she would be able to cope with it so soon after her transformation.

'She's evil Angel. She'll destroy us, you know she will, it's her way, her pleasure. We must stop her now. Before she ruins more lives.'

'You mean...?'

'She'll kill us both, and the others. You know that as well as I do. We must stop her.'

'Then let me. You need time to adjust, you shouldn't go out yet.'

'No. We both have to be there. She has to see what she's done...to both of us. She has to see. She has to remember. She's destroyed us once, she must understand she won't be allowed to do it again.'

Drusilla lurched towards the desk unsteadily and grabbed the stake that lay upon it. As Angel ran to grab it from her, as yet not certain of her intentions she turned towards him, more composed, eeirily so, and motioned for him to follow her out into the night to look for their relative.

* * * * *

Angel followed Drusilla through the warm, breezy L.A night. As they entered a rather seedy district Drusilla stopped for a moment, and Angel too felt the wash of recognition that his sire was close by. Drusilla, her senses heightened by perhaps her newly found sanity or her sixth sense turned corner after corner, more able than Angel to hone in on the feeling. They found her in an old basketball court, the lock holding the railings together broken so she could tease and play with her kill. They watched as she stopped her feed as she realised the presence of others behind her.

Smiling wickedly, she offered the body out to both of them, the dropped it to the floor.

'Want some? Oh I forgot, you don't do live meals anymore do you. Shame.'

She looked at them with contempt at Drusilla walked a few more steps toward her.

'What's the matter pretty little thing?' Darla continued. 'The stars refuse to talk to you anymore?'

'You don't like me,' Drusilla said.

'10 out of 10 for observation,' Darla said, addressing Angel and more or less ignoring Drusilla. 'Though I don't think you'll be winning any prizes for intelligence with that one.'

'You're evil. The demon inside you, it screams to us. It disgusts us.'

Darla's face took on a tone of red as her anger became visible. '*I* disgust *you*? You've got no room to talk. Those souls are like a plague. Every vampire can see it and they will stay away from you in droves.'

'You caused this,' Drusilla answered. 'It's all your fault.'

'My fault! It's *his* doing,' Darla spat, pointing in Angel's direction.

'He made me see what I never have before,' Drusilla began. 'Without you, he would not have been created. I would not have been created. All the harm we've done, it's your fault, not ours.'

'Listen to me pretty girl,' Darla countered condecendingly, 'Anything you did, *you* did. Don't go blaming me by proxy for your mistakes.'

'Mistakes we would not have made if it weren't for you and your evil ways.'

'Hey, you weren't complaining about this two hours ago. What's the deal. Find a soul, blame it on Darla. He's your problem sweetheart, not me.'

Angel watched the interplay between the two women. Darla's insistence on laying the blame at his door, Drusilla's valient attempts to defend him. she was defending him. Even in her new ensouled state and despite her reproaches at her behaviour, she still felt connected to him, dependent on him. It seemed the ties of sire and childe couldn't be broken, maybe their shared guilt had brought them closer. Drusilla's new found sanity probably had a lot to do with that.

He grew disturbed as Darla swiftly made a grab for Drusilla. The blows fell thick and fast as the two vampires fought for superiority, the side of right against the side of wrong. Drusilla's fighting skills certainly improved since her return to the land of the living, and Angel watched, almost spellbound as the two women fought a graceful battle that looked almost like a deadly ballet. Each had a moment to take the advantage, to seem most likely to win, before the other put in a severe blow and they both regain equilibrium. Darla strained to punch Drusilla squarely to the floor, but overstretched. Angel almost leaned forward, fascinated to see what she would do to regain her place. His interest turned to horror as she stood up fully, revealing the wooden stake firmly stuck in the middle of her chest. Her look portrayed one of mirrored horror as she saw her own wound. She put a hand out to him and said 'Angel' in a repeat of her words at her first death.

As Darla disappeared into a cloud of dust for the second time in five years Angel felt a sudden sense of relief among the shock. Relief that she was finally gone, that she could cause no more trouble, do no more harm. That her presence would probably help Drusilla's chances and remove the stain of guilt about her from his conscious mind no matter the scars it left in his unconscious. There was a prolonged silence as both he and Drusilla stood in silence contemplating the death of one who had had such a profound effect on their lives after humanity. The silence was broken by Drusilla's quiet tears, and just as Angel got up the courage to look up to begin to comfort her he found himself lying flat on his back on the ground.

He felt the first tinges of fear as Drusilla tightened the target of the stake to just above his heart. She had positioned it so the tip was firmly poking against his chest. The force was not great enough to pierce him, but he didn't dare move in case he was the cause of his own demise. He looked up into Drusilla's wide, glassy eyes and saw the sanity slowly slip from them, the wild, crazed look returned. The pressure of her guilt and rage at the realisation that the two people that she loved most in the world were the cause of her anguish and descent into madness. She seemed to be waiting for him to attempt something, to struggle free, to hit her. It hit Angel at that moment exactly what she was waiting for. Control. She wanted him to take control, as he had always done. Even with her soul, perhaps especially so, she could not cope with the burdens of an unlife without someone to direct her. Oh she could direct Darla, but Darla had been her childe, a vampire could always maintain control of a childe, it was in their blood. But others were different. He lay there, totally still, not rising to the bait she was tempting him with, even when she

She jumped up quickly and freed him. He took the opportunity to get up and take a few steps back, out of her grasp. Crying again, she waved the stake around as she paced from left to right.

'Why don't you help me. You are my sire, my master. You've always told me what to do, what to say. Tell me now. why do you desert me? I can't cope with this pain. Please, don't make me cope alone!'

'You have to learn Dru, I did. You must, or you won't make it.' He tried to reason with her, even with her rambling she could still coherently listen to him, maybe she would take some of it in.

'I don't want to,' she whispered. 'I don't want to.'

She took the stake in her hand and looked at it closely. Angel tensed, waiting for the moment when she would rush for him with it in an attempt to end the bitterness finally. He waited, ready with a defence. Eventually she looked up at him. Her eyes had cleared and she looked like any other upset, troubled young woman. Her air of fright and isolation reminded him slightly of Faith before she had given herself up. Done the right thing. I hope Drusilla does the right thing, he thought.

Almost in slow motion, but so quickly Angel could do nothing about it, she raised the stake sharply and stabbed it into her own chest. He lunged towards her, pointless he knew, but reached her just in time to feel the dust that had exploded above him land on the shoulders of his jacket. He sat on the ground and looked from the dust of his sire, to the dust of his childe. Their actions, his fault. Two more lives to atone for.

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