Title: A child shall lead them
Disclaimer: I own nada
Summary: After the events described in Deconstructing Hell Faith, Angel, Xander and Faith try to deal with the biggest challenge of their (un)lives. You should read DH first.
Rating: Teen
Chapter 29: Sunlight
Faith had just started going into labor when the portal appeared. Spike gazed at the portal in awe, grinning. "It's time," he told Dana and Illyria. "You both know what to do?"
"Protect the child, protect the vampire," replied Illyria automatically. "Save the champion."
Spike nodded. "Are we all cool with everything?"
Dana nodded. "I wish we could do more to save him."
"One will die, one will live," replied Spike. "We knew this was coming. We can only save one. And this moment right here, this is what we were building up to… oh, crap, Buffy! I don't have to tell you that's a problem, do I?"
Dana examined the Slayer who was walking alongside the vampire and Xander. "No, you don't. I notice your vampires and Riley kept all the other Slayers out, though."
"Just failed on the most important point," grumbled Spike. "Okay. Before sunlight hits the island, we'll be done with this. Are you both okay with this? I mean, okay, deep in your souls? In that part that gets angry at the thought of the injustice of all this?"
"We are," said Illyria calmly. "It's not fair or right, but it's necessary. Come, Spike. We must go betray a friend."
Xander was practically beside himself as they walked up to the mud hut. "How can she be in labor? I mean, it's too soon, isn't it?"
Spike was reassuring, all oily and smooth. "This pregnancy has been progressing faster than normal, yeah, but it's already at least eight months. She's been like a whale for the last two months."
Angel had a suspicious look on his face; he'd dealt with mystical pregnancies before. He knew that Spike was lying, and had done something to speed things up.
Of course, he wasn't aware how much time he'd lost while trapped in the other dimension, either, and Spike wasn't planning to tell him.
Dana and Illyria took up stations by the door. Harmony was inside, closing the shades in anticipation of the rising sun. "Hi, Angel!" she chirped. He just grunted in reply.
He could smell Connor and Nina, but it was Faith's smell that mesmerized him. That deep, rich smell of Slayer, run through with the smell of her baby. That wonderful smell that drove him all the way to distraction.
Then Spike nudged him. Angel almost spun and hit him, but managed to hold it back. "What?" he demanded.
Spike shook his head. "Take this," he said, holding out his hand. Angel extended his hand, and Spike dropped a cross into it.
It burned like nothing Angel had ever felt. It burned like the combined might of sunlight, holy water, and a cross. It burned like the holiest relic on earth. Angel nearly dropped it, letting out a drowned howl and jumping back.
Spike moved closer, grabbing Angel's collar and backing him up against the wall. "Did your little trip into la-la land clear your head enough to understand?" he asked Angel.
Angel nodded. "I know what I have to do, Spike."
"Which is?" prompted the vampire-turned-human-again.
"I have to give her all the magic building up inside of me—I have to change her."
Spike nodded. "Got that all figured out?" he asked tensely. "Now, have you figured out yet the choice in front of you?"
Angel wrapped his hand tightly into a fist, holding the terrible holy power as close as he could, clearing his mind with the pain. "I have." He pushed Spike away with his free hand. "I didn't realize it until it was almost too late—until I'd slaughtered every person I could find. Until I had loaded myself up with so much darkness I thought I'd never come back."
Spike let out a long sigh. "I knew that would come. But Xander's still alive; that speaks well to your state of mind."
"No, it doesn't. You have no idea how powerful I feel right now Spike. I could crush Illyria with one hand; I could take on an army of Slayers right now."
Behind him, Buffy tensed up.
"I know," said Spike mournfully. "That's why I had to get you and Xander away from Faith. That much power… that little control… well, you know."
"I do know," said Angel dimly. "I didn't really understand it… well, not until yesterday."
"Last week," said Spike. "Well, for us. Time's been passing quicker on this side than on your side."
Angel nodded. "I thought as much."
"So, I've studied up on the vampire lore, and I think right now Connor is your heir—the one who gets all that power when you die."
"What-now?" said Buffy, moving closer.
"It's a vampire thing, love," said Spike. "When you kill a vampire like the Master or Angel, somebody with a lot of pent-up power, that power trickles down to their heirs. After the Master died, Darla, Dru, Angel and I were all a little more powerful. He had a lot of heirs. When Darla died, Dru and Angel got a lot more powerful—I guess I must have too. By the time Dru was dead I was a human again, but I still got a dose of that."
"It makes for interesting politics within vampire clans," said Angel. "The more vampires you sire, the less they have to gain from killing you."
Connor moved out of the shadows where he had been standing with Nina. "The easiest way to break that bond is by denying me—in the traditional vampire way." He flipped a knife out and ran it along the outside of his arm, drawing a long string of blood. He offered it to Angel.
Angel was so far gone it took everything he had to reject the blood, to push Connor aside. "Your blood is not mine," he said, trying to ignore the little voice screaming inside of him. "And you are not my son." He hated saying the words, but today he meant them more than he ever had before.
Connor stepped back, bandaging his arm quickly. He knew just how worked up Angel was right now.
And Angel pushed past the others, heading towards the inner room where Faith was in labor. Nobody tried to follow him.
The pain in his hand was so strong now that it was all he could do not to drop the cross. He briefly wondered how Spike had made it this strong. Was it a relic? Had it been dipped in holy water, blessed by a priest? Whatever the reason, it had real power.
The pain was the only thing keeping his head clear of the bloodlust, the only thing keeping him from charging Faith. He realized belatedly how well Spike had known him to have chosen this method of control.
Faith was sitting upright on the bed, between contractions. She looked surprised and pleased to see him, and it made his stomach roil. Didn't she realize—hadn't Spike told her?
Of course not. If Spike had told her, she would have tried to stop him.
"I'm sorry," he told her. "The prophecy—the baby in you—this is just how it has to be."
"Is Xander dead?" she asked in a tiny voice.
Angel shook his head. "The prophecy said that one must die for the daughter to live—one of the protectors. That's him and me. And it says I have to change your daughter."
Faith flinched. "That's what it is, then? You're going to make her a vampire?"
Angel looked down at the raw red flesh of his hand where it was touching the cross. He had no way to explain to her the darkness inside him, the sheer power of it. "Just… just hold still," he said.
She flinched. "What are you doing?" she asked.
He didn't use a knife the way Connor had. He knelt beside her, cutting across his wrist with his fingernails, which were already halfway to being claws. Blood gushed forward, stolen blood he'd drunk from humans. Some of them had been his enemies, but most of them had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
He smeared a cross on her forehead with the blood. "Your daughter will have my birthright; my god-daughter, if you will. My heir. I can't turn her into this, into what I am; I can't do any of that. I'm sorry about this, Faith, I really am."
He pressed down with the finger on her forehead, cutting into the skin. She whimpered a little, but didn't say anything as he finished the cut, cutting a cross-shape underneath his own blood.
His blood would mix with her blood, and while it wouldn't make her a vampire, it would pass enough of the curse to her that the baby inside would be forever altered by it. It wasn't the same as drinking his blood, but it was just as much a curse.
He stood up, moving away. "Whatever they tell you, this was the only way, do you understand?"
He headed for the door at a run, passing by Spike. Dana and Illyria still stood at the door, and for a moment he thought he'd have to fight them to get out. But they let him by, and grabbed Buffy as she tried to follow them, and he realized that Spike had understood more than he'd realized.
Connor and Nina stood together on the beach, and the sky was lightening, red streaks across the horizon. Nina looked scared, and she still didn't understand, Angel saw. Connor did. He was holding Nina's shoulder tightly, holding her back from Angel.
Angel fell to his knees, trying not to look at them.
Nina let out a tiny sob. "Angel—what are you doing?"
"I just want to see the sun rise one more time," he said. "That's all."
"What are you doing?" she shrieked. Connor let her go and she ran forward, wrapping her arms around Angel. "Why? Why?"
She tried to pull him away, back to the safety of the house. He stopped her, grabbing her wrist with his unburned hand. "If I go back in that house I'll kill Faith," he told her. "If I see Xander again, I'll kill him. I already came close to killing him a few times. I've lost every bit of control I have… and like an idiot, I've just let it spiral away from me."
"Angel!" she sobbed.
Connor moved closer. "They don't know, inside. Not yet. They'll figure it out soon, but Spike lied to them, told them Xander was going to die, so they're mostly distracted trying to protect him. I think Buffy knows."
Angel was shaking. Even the cross in his hand was barely enough to keep his head clear. He could feel the sunrise coming, the final sunrise he'd see. "We don't do this because it's easy, or fun, or because it'll save the world. We do this for our loved ones, for those people we know would die if we didn't. I'm doing this for you, Nina—for your future, for your present. I'm sorry."
The sun peeked over the horizon, just the edge of it, and warm rays hit him full on. Immediately he felt searing pain all over, but he held himself erect, trying to push Nina away. "I—I was always a bad person, a bad man, and a villain. Don't mourn for me."
The sun burned away the outer layer of skin, and he was on fire now, a pillar of fire. And suddenly he knew how Spike had felt, burning up to save the world, one glorious gesture that was so powerful it might finally make up for everything.
He threw his head back and laughed as the sun burned him away, tearing every bit of him to pieces. The flames raged for a second, and then there was nothing left but a pile of ashes where Angel had knelt. Nina was screaming, and Connor grabbed her into a hug, glancing back at the mud hut where Buffy was screaming too while Dana and Illyria held her.
"It was a master-stroke," said Lindsey smugly, crossing his arms in satisfaction.
"You nearly ended the world and gave it to the bad guys," said Cordelia crossly.
"All I did was let the bad guys have their way and pump him full of dark magic," said Lindsey innocently. "I knew in the end he'd turn it against them. The one big bowout like that to turn all the dark magic into something a lot purer, so that when the power comes flushing down to the baby it'll get a super-good boost rather than the super-bad boost it would have gotten if he'd turned her, the way they wanted him to think he had to."
"What if he had turned her?" asked Cordelia.
"Well, then you would have had a real problem."
Cordelia rolled her eyes. "God! What about Angel?"
Lindsey shook his head. "Like every soul, that's up to the after-death department now. But he did save the world numerous times, even sacrificing his own life for it… twice. He's a bona fide hero. I think he'll like the afterlife."
"We don't have a Champion now," grumbled Cordelia.
Lindsey chuckled. "Oh, Cordelia." He pointed back at the hut. "Did you really think we were scoping out Harmony to be Angel's Seer? We just asked her if she wanted a job… how thick are you?"
Cordelia's eyes widened. "But… she signed all those papers! She did all those spells!"
"All of them contingent on Angel's continued existence," said Lindsey. "How dumb do you think Spike is? He's known for quite a while that Angel had an expiration date as a Champion, whether because he did the wrong thing and joined the wrong side or because he did the right thing and sacrificed himself. He also knew that Angel had to be the vampire who sacrificed himself for the child in order to fulfill the prophecy without the world being destroyed, and that the child needs to be taught by a vampire with a soul--after the sacrifice. It's no coincidence that he's kept Harmony close, here. The only question now is who we tap for the Seer position. It's Dana or Illyria, and I'm leaning for Dana, because she already gets some visions. With a double-helping, she should be able to see… well, a lot."
Cordelia glared at him. "So you had this planned out all along?"
He grinned. "Spike blew all my plans to pieces a long time ago. I'm just good at doing this on the fly."
Cordelia sighed. "So, you have a Champion, and a supercharged baby of goodness. Plus Spike."
Lindsey made a face. "Spike is more dangerous than anybody realizes."
"Yeah? He scares me stiff."
"He should scare you more. I shouldn't have tried to jerk him around; it nearly blew everything apart. Once he had a better idea what was really going on he did all the work for me. I mean, usually we keep people in the dark because it's too dangerous to let them know the truth! With him, it's far more dangerous to keep him in the dark."
"Information is dangerous," said Cordelia seriously. "Most people work too hard trying to change what can't be changed."
"Spike's very much like us. He knew that, so he didn't tell anybody that Angel was the one who was going to die. He misdirected them all while trying to show Angel the truth. It was brilliant. He's better than most of us, actually."
"Are you trying to scare me?"
"I'm serious. We need to offer him a position."
"We offer very few living people positions."
"You got one."
"I did. But that was part of a far-reaching plot to bring Jasmine here—which of course was part of giving Angel all that dark magical energy that he passed on to the baby."
"Still, that makes a precedent. We need him on board. He already has our Champion in his pocket. If we don't bring him on board our Champion will be his Champion. If we don't bring him on board we'll be cut out of the loop entirely."
Cordelia sighed. "I hate to feed his delusions of grandeur."
Five hours later Faith gave birth. The baby was born with a distinctive cross-shaped birthmark on her forehead, a bloodred mark that echoed the scar on her mother's forehead. The baby didn't cry as much as the others had expected, a short howl followed by a blinking silence.
Xander sat there and held his daughter, all too aware that only the sacrifice of his oldest and most hated enemy had given him the opportunity to ever meet his daughter. He cried while he held her.
Despite her protestations, Illyria held the baby and, in spite of herself, she smiled the whole time, cuddling the baby close.
Dana didn't hold the baby, but she did touch its face with wonder.
Harmony held down any bit of bloodlust while she held the baby, cooing and smiling.
Faith lay there, exhausted, happy, sad, and stared up and around at the strange family she'd collected. This group of monsters and felons and wonderful, strange people, people who had let Angel kill himself to save the world. Her best friend, and the only one who had believed in her when she was at her lowest.
The one who had died to save her baby.
Spike stayed outside with Buffy, Nina and Connor, who were all mourning. He mourned too, trying to reconcile the hatred and love he'd felt for Angel. Trying to let go of his grief. Trying to let go of the inappropriate glee.
He wasn't too surprised when Cordelia and Lindsey showed up. "You're both welcome at the funeral," he said coldly. He wasn't particularly impressed with them today. They had known, more than anybody else. And they had both let it happen.
Watcher's Diary: July 2.
Today the Mother gave birth and the world was turned upside down.
You like that, Rupes? A nice portentous and presumptuous entry.
I mean, so far the kid is normal. Nothing exceptional. Doesn't cry much. No super-powers yet. Probably not till puberty. That'll be a fun, fun hormonal time.
Angel gave his life for the world.
Sucks, huh?
This will be my last journal entry. I've served faithfully as a Watcher to Dana, but I'm afraid I won't be able to continue in that capacity, at her insistence. We're going to be married soon.
I know. Married, me? The last one you'd ever expect, huh? Well, you don't say no to a Slayer, right?
Yeah.
(she'll say I asked her, but she's just being romantic)
…you understand why I mailed this from an anonymous source, right? Don't send Willow looking for us. She'll just get hurt at this point. Yeah, I still don't trust you as far as I can throw you, prophecy solved and all. You're too willing to hurt your own for prophecy, to save the world. I had to throw Angel to the wolves to save Faith; and we're not letting any more of our own get hurt. Not again.
If you need help, … well, don't call or anything. We'll know before you do.
