TITLE:
Darkest Before Dawn 32 "Conundrum"
AUTHOR: Nmissi
PART:32/?
DISCLAIMER: I own Nothing and No one.
Especially not Spike. If I did,
what makes you think I'd share him with you?
DISTRIBUTION: Want it? Take it. Just let me know where it's going.
Feedback:
Please. Nmissi@aol.com
SUMMARY: The way the world would work if I wrote the Buffyverse.
No matter what he did in this current lifetime, it
seemed the dark deeds from his life as Angelus kept coming back on him. Darla;
Drusilla; Spike. Now there was Harmony.
That was a laugh. He'd made fledgelings in Sunnydale,
during that short return to soullessness. And despite his thoughts to the
contrary, they had not all died. One of them, at least, had lived long enough
to lead him to this point. That child, or one of his offspring, had joined up
with the mayor, and had been present at that disastrous graduation. And so here
he stood, several centuries from his origin, and feeling closer to his past
than he had in years.
Lilah's slamming door interrupted his reverie.
"I don't have any sick days left, Angel. They're going to
start getting suspicious."
He turned around, enjoying the sight of her. She was pale
and lovely, her dark hair gleaming in the moonlight as it poured through the
window. She opened the briefcase in front of her, and plugged in the laptop.
Gracefully, she sat down before it to work.
He strolled up to
her, and stood behind her, watching over her shoulder as she worked.
"I got in to the system, and acquired the notes from this
morning's meeting. But I don't think it'll work again. If we want to get the
rest of those files, one of us is going to have to get inside the building."
He rested his hand on her shoulder.
"That would be you, Lilah."
She sighed.
"How did I know you were going to say that?"
He squeezed her reassuringly.
"It'll work, Lilah. It has to. Lindsay no longer has
access. As soon as they learn about you, you won't either."
She looked up at him.
"What makes you think they don't know already? The
contract was broken the minute Junior turned me. I'm neither 'living', nor
dead. Nice little loophole, there. I don't see how they could be unaware."
He took a deep and unnecessary breath.
"They know something important, Lilah, something vital
enough to try to kill me and mine. They couldn't corrupt me, couldn't get
control of me- So they decided to remove me. I'm certain they were behind the
shooting at the club. I'm positive of it. We need that information."
He looked down into her upturned face. She had to
understand him, had to realize the importance of this.
" They may know about you, yes. But more importantly,
they may be able to tell us why you're like this, why I can make children like
Lindsay, why he can make a child like you."
He tossed his head in the direction of the stairs.
"Moreover, we need to know why they wanted someone like
her. What use was she to them?"
Lilah answered him roughly.
"Angel, I should think the answer to that is obvious.
She's of the line, and therefore an heir to Aurelius. She's also vapid,
shallow, and easy to control. They remove you and the others; she becomes their
puppet. All nice and neat."
"Except the Senior Partners didn't know about her until
this morning. Only the fairy woman knew."
He had the pieces laid out on the table, but they weren't
coming together to form a picture. Not yet, anyway. There was more to this,
something he'd not figured out yet. But he planned to. And he planned to very
soon.
Lindsay came in out of the kitchen, carrying two mugs.
"Sorry, Lilah. I didn't know you were back."
He passed a mug to Angel, and then leaned over Lilah's
shoulder.
"ooh. Nice. 'Skipper' still works."
"How do you know my password?" she asked.
He shrugged.
"I made it my business to know it, my business to know
everything there was to know about you. Besides- Once I knew you collected
dolls, I just went through the names of all Barbie's little friends until I
located the right one."
Angel smirked, and Lilah rolled her eyes.
"If not for my soon-to-be-fired status, I'd have to do something
about that." She said this with a straight face, but Lindsay smiled anyway.
He'd come to understand her form of teasing. He kissed the top of her head
lightly.
"You want something to drink?"
She nodded, and he
went back into the kitchen.
"Can you go up and check on Harmony for me? She's
probably awake by now. She might be scared, maybe you can put her at ease. We
need her on our side, for now."
Lilah groaned, but she got up.
"I feel myself losing brain cells every time she opens
her mouth."
Angel smiled at her.
"I wouldn't worry, Lilah. You can spare them."
He watched her head into the kitchen, presumably to fetch
that drink Lindsay'd gone after. He looked up at the ceiling, trying to imagine
what his 'guest' was doing right now.
She was decidedly not what he'd expected. Oh, he realized
she was very young. But she was one of the most Human demons he'd ever met.
And despite her lack of a "soul", she didn't really
strike him as evil.
It added to the puzzle.
His children emerged from the kitchen, and his eyes drank
in the sight of them; beautiful, strong, and crafty; children to be proud of.
Lindsay had abandoned the uniform of wall street in favor of blue jeans and a
flannel shirt. He looked surprisingly well in such a get up.
Lilah still dressed in the mode of the corporate killer,
all hard angles and dark colors. But there was softness about her, a difference
in her expression, in her eyes. She had yet to succumb to guilt, as Lindsay
had. It was more as if she'd somehow regained her innocence.
The irony inherent in such a situation could drive one
mad, if speculated upon for too long. He'd somehow taken two very evil humans,
and made them, well…
Was "Good" too strong a word? He'd infected them with
conscience and empathy, and a desire to right their wrongs.
Yes, he decided. They needed to know more, and they
needed to know it now.