Disclaimer: Same as previous chapters.

Warning: M/M slash implied.

Chapter 7

Xander sighed, he was getting pissed at what the Powers were doing; he was just starting to get settled in Forks but now the Powers were sending in bounty hunters after him and found himself thinking, his first reaction about the Cullen's weren't human but he couldn't tell what they were though, Lorne said to him, while they're leaving the mall, that they're vampires and that was confusing the hell out of him. He thought, 'Where were the ridges and those god awful yellow eyes?' but he supposed they were a different breed from the ones he knew about, he briefly wondered if Giles knew about them.

Edward looked at Xander's face, he could only get flashes from Xander's mind, though the most prominent image was of a horribly disfigured face leering back at him; it had yellow eyes and ridges and he could see razor sharp fangs in its mouth and he vaguely heard it snarl.

"Well," Alice said, "I'm sorry, that horrible man was such a jerk."

Lorne looked at Alice and said, "He wasn't a man honey, he was what they call a 'balance demon.'"

Edward looked puzzled and said, "What's a balance demon?"

Xander grumbled, "They sound like they're jerks," he looked at Lorne and said, "You sound like you know him?"

"Unfortunately I do know that one Cupcake, he's been manipulating that vampire in Sunnydale for awhile by dangling a false prophecy in front of him," Lorne said.

Xander looked up, "Do you mean Angel? What's the prophecy about?"

"Yeah," Lorne said, "he's the one and the prophecy is called the Shanshu; it promised that if Angel averted the apocalypse he would be turned back into a human."

"Sounds like a pipe dream," Xander said, "to make Angel do whatever they want."

"You got it Cupcake," Lorne said, "I only found out about it being a false prophecy when Rory started to contact his old friends in the hunter community."

Xander eyes darkened and said, "I didn't like Angel but he doesn't deserve to be led around by the nose and I'll tell him myself that he's a pawn."

Lorne nodded but said, "Cupcake, he might not believe you. Remember, you two don't have a stellar relationship."

"Do you think that could've been manipulated by the Powers too?" Xander asked fearfully and he was actually both angry and terrified of how deep the manipulation could have gone.

"Who knows Cupcake," Lorne said, "but being manipulated by the Powers is one thing you have in common."

Xander nodded darkly, he could at least know where Angel came from and he now wanted Angel to be freed from the Powers manipulations like he was.

Edward looked at Xander and Lorne and said, "We're here," as pointed to a rather nice house.

"Nice house," Xander said looking at the house.

"Thanks," Edward said as he grabbed Xander's hand and pulled him up the steps.

"God," Xander said, "I can walk myself, you know that?"

Edward smiled and said, "I promised I'd protect you and I keep my promises."

"Uhh thanks," Xander blushed, "but I really don't want your family to get hurt because of me."

Alice looked at Xander and said, "We would have gotten involved anyways."

As they passed into through the door Xander saw Mrs Cullen sitting, reading a book, she looked at him and smiled and said, "Welcome to our home Xander," as she patted a seat and said, "Carlisle will be with you in a minute."

Xander sat in the couch watching the Cullen family gather, he saw Lorne sit next to him and thanked god again for Lorne, he didn't know where he would be without Rory and Lorne, he'd have probably just run back to Sunnydale and never tried to find his dad. As Xander was musing about that Carlisle walked in and said, "Hello Xander, how are you?"

"Feeling like beating something up," Xander said in a mock cheerful voice.

Carlisle grinned and said, "Xander please tell us about why these people are after you?"

Xander looked at Lorne, who smiled, and said, "The first part of the story will be mine to tell and as Edward may or not have told you I'm not human," and as he took his disguise charm off revealing his green skin and red horns, the Cullen's kept their shock at his appearance hidden.

Edward looked at Lorne blankly and said, "That was a nice trick."

"Thanks, its necessary trick for me sometimes," Lorne said, "but as for the story you guys want to hear…"

****Flashback****

Lorne was closing down his night club for the night when Lorne noticed a man sitting on a stool at the bar, he walked up to him and said, "Well hello there sir, I'm sorry but we're closed for the night."

The man mumbled, "I can't go home, I've done horrible things all for the sake of the greater good," he began to sob, Lorne felt bad for the man and let him sleep on his couch.

The next morning Lorne saw him trying to leave and said, "Are you feeling better from last night?"

"Yeah and thanks for putting up with me and sorry I haven't introduced myself, I'm Rory Harris."

"Well Honey, I'm Lorne and I must say you're not feeling fine, you're radiating pain like a beacon."

"You can sense that can you?" Rory said feeling dejected and more than little fearful.

"Yes I can Rory and I can tell you won't find your salvation at the bottom of a bottle."

Rory's face darkened and said, "You've NO idea what I've done demon and the nightmares I have every night."

Lorne's heart went out to Rory and he said, "I'd like to help, if you would let me Rory."

"Well," Rory said, "I'm getting tired of this life, yeah, I'll try it, I've got to seek my redemption. I can't live this way anymore."

Rory and Lorne began to meet each other every week; Lorne did his best to help Rory break his drinking habit and was helping him get back into shape. Lorne found out about Rory's demon hunting past and found out through his own sources that Rory was once one of the most tireless of humanities defenders from supernatural evil but he had disappeared years ago and was rumoured to have died and weeks later he and Rory found about the Shanshu Prophecy and after that Rory became a man possessed, he would disappear for days and come back bloody and smiling. One day Lorne said, "Rory, what are you doing?"

"I'm fine Lorne," Rory said, "I'm making a plan to undo one of my greatest crimes and, hopefully, this will help redeem myself."

"Oh Honey," Lorne said as he got up, "please be careful with what you're doing."

Rory looked at Lorne and said, "Lorne, you've been helping me with this second chance. I want to let you know I love you," as he said that he walked towards Lorne and kissed him lightly on the lips.

"Oh Honey," Lorne said as his skin turned a very deep green and they began to undress frantically.

The next morning Rory was gone but there was a note saying:

Lorne baby,

I love you but I have to head back to Sunnydale to aid my nephew, please understand. I'll be back with my nephew in a couple of days and I'll explain why I have been so busy and what I have been doing, thank you my love for giving me this second chance.

***Flashback ends***

Xander looked at Lorne and said, "You loved Rory?"

"Yes, I did love Rory," Lorne said, "I know it's too much to expect that the Powers spared him."

Xander's face darkened, he was going to make the Powers pay for what they did to Lorne and to Rory, he wanted to hit them, and he wanted them to hurt like how Lorne must be hurting. His anger was lifting, he looked at the Cullen's and Jasper said, "Forgive me; your anger was beginning to disturb me."

"It's alright," Xander said, "but please don't do that again."

Carlisle looked at Xander and said, "I trust you're the nephew that Rory sacrificed his life for?"

"Yeah," Xander said, "and I'll be seeking revenge for that."

"Don't seek revenge," Carlisle said gently, "I've been around and have seen too many people die because of their need for revenge."

"Well," Xander grumbled, "I've got my own reasons to hate the Powers now."

Carlisle said, "Xander, we might understand if you tell us more about what these Powers did to you?"

Xander began to tell his story, from the night Rory took him from Sunnydale and finding out what Rory did to him as a baby and the spells of submission and loyalty that were cast on him so he'd be the perfect little soldier for the Powers and then the trip up to Forks where he'd finally met his father.

Edward said quietly to the other members of the Cullen's, "It's a good enough reason for Xander to hate the Powers," and thought to himself, 'And it's enough reason for me to hate the Powers for what they did to Xander.'

"It was more than those spells of loyalty and submission that were cast on you," Lorne said.

"What do you mean?" Xander asked, "I'm pissed off enough at the fact those spells were cast on me."

"Well," Lorne said, "I did a ritual and found out about some spells that suppressed your natural gifts and tendencies and it used the hellmouth's energies to power them."

Xander sighed, "Of course they would do spells like that, my life sucks like that."

Lorne looked at Xander and said gently, "Why do you think school is beginning to make sense? What was now fuzzy is clear."

"I thought it was because I was truly happy," Xander said quietly.

Lorne smiled, "And it was partly due to that Cupcake and it's also why you can't go back to Sunnydale for awhile yet, the constant rain is actually helping you get over the magic that was constantly cast on you."

The Cullen's looked horrified, what was done to Xander was horrible enough and the fact that he was just a pawn in this damned game.

Xander stuck his hand into his pocket and pulled out the card from Wolfram and Hart, he looked at it in surprise and remembered he had thrown it out, as he looked at the card he gestured to Lorne.

"Oh, what is it Cupcake?" Lorne asked as he had noticed the panicked look on Xander's face.

"I threw this damned card out when that creepy lawyer gave it to us," Xander said, "and now its back."

Lorne said, "It means that the Senior Partners really want you to contact them and in our case that can be a good thing or a really bad thing."

Carlisle looked up and said, "I've made my decision; we'll help you Xander but you have to accept the way we'll help you."

"What way?" Xander asked not sure if he would like how they'd seek to help him.

"It's nothing intrusive, you just have to get used to us protecting you," Carlisle said.

Xander looked at them and said, "Fine with me if you guys know enough to give me space when I need some, this will be fine."

Edward nodded as he watched Xander through narrowed eyes, he was going to enjoy this; he had wanted to learn more about Xander and he was going learn everything about Xander as he could. He couldn't read Xander as well as others.

Xander looked at the card and asked, "Could I make a phone call?"

Lorne guessed what Xander was doing and said, "Cupcake no, this is a bad idea."

"We need the help and the Senior Partners might be able to provide it," Xander said with a tone in his voice suggesting he had already made up his mind.

"Who're the Senior Partners?" Carlisle asked, hoping to God that they weren't evil.

Lorne quickly explained about Wolfram and Hart's reputation and who, or what, the Senior Partners were rumoured to be and what exactly he had heard from the few hunters.

Carlisle looked at Xander and said, "No Xander, I can't let you call them, they sound like that they might not have your best interests at heart."

Xander sighed and was about to tear the card up when the card began to glow bright red, Xander dropped it in surprise as the card fell to the floor and created a massive swirling vortex that grabbed Xander and the rest of them and pulled them inside and then closed, leaving not a trace of them.

TBC

Please rate and review