A/N:I am TRYING to get this fic up and running a bit quicker honest, but it's hard. Also, did you know this has more chapters (at the time of me writing these words) up than my Harry Potter one...and that was the first one I put up. Grr. Damn writer's block...**goes off searching for products high in sugar content**
**Returns five minutes later with a bag of sugar**
Hello again! Happy now! Veeeerrrryyy happy!!!
Disclaimer:Yadda yadda yadda, its just what I've said for all the other chapters. If you're really that desperate for a disclaimer, go check out those ones again.
Dedication: All of you who gave me website references to discover what's going on in Angel. Much appreciated, thank you. :)
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"Are you OK now?" Gracia asked Keisha, leaning slightly to look at her bowed face.
Keisha smiled somewhat ruefully and rubbed her forehead. "Yeah, I'll be fine."
Gracia, Angel, Keisha, and Luke were all now, half an hour later, in the library. They had met Cecelia there, and she was now stalking around the room, speaking furiously to herself, her hand tightly grasping a crucifix. To say that she had been completely outraged when Gracia came in supporting a weak Keisha with an ashen-faced Luke and a vampire in tow was the understatement of the millenium. After about ten minutes of constant ranting at the Slayer, Gracia had eventually managed to silence her by shouting back for a good five more minutes.
Luke was sitting next to Keisha, staring at Gracia seriously. He had barely said a word since they had come in, but decided that he had to ask his question again.
"What the hell happened?"
Gracia and Angel shared a glance. They both knew that, for the twins' safety, they would have to tell them the truth. For all they knew, they could be hunted for one reason or another. Gracia opened her mouth to speak and took a deep breath.
"You see-"
Cecelia cut in. Even earlier on, she had not quite reached this level of blind fury. And the Watcher was determined to have her way.
"That's enough!" she hissed. "I will not tolerate your non-existent sense and shabby manners any longer! You have seriously shamed everyone tonight, and endangered these people!"
Angel's temper flared at this. He banged his hand down hard onto the table, almost hard enough to break it, and very nearly vamped out.
Without thinking about what it would mean admitting, he growled, "Don't talk to my sister like that!"
Cecelia swung the wooden cross up until it was facing Angel completely and he winced involuntarily, although he didn't turn away.
"I pay no heed to your sort, Angelus," she replied heatedly. "Whatever nonsense you may have managed to convince people with, about regaining your soul through some curse, I am not fooled! You are still a murderous monster!"
Keisha frowned at the woman. "What? What do you mean 'murderous'?"
Luke held up his hand. "Sorry, I'm lost here." Fixing Gracia with a severely questioning look, he asked, "Sister?"
Gracia groaned and buried her head in her hands, knowing that she was completely and utterly screwed. She took another breath and looked him straight in the eye.
"There's no easy way of saying this, so here goes- vampires are real. They're real, and Sunnydale is overrun with them."
Luke's eyes widened. "So you're saying that..."
She nodded. "The guy who attacked Keisha was a vampire."
"The suck-your-blood type?"
"Know any others?" She shrugged, giving Angel a quick, apologetic glance, which assured him that she wasn't including him. "Every generation there's one girl who has the skill and power to fight them, and this time round that happens to be me."
Angel spoke, turning his eyes away from the cross and to his sister. "And Sunnydale is located on the mouth of Hell, so it makes it the perfect place for them."
"And they just go around killing people in this town?"
"Yes. But not just in this town. All over the world. There were a few particularly nasty ones back in Belfast, but Sunnydale is probably the most affected." Turning to Angel, she asked, "You've lived here longer than me. Is it true?"
Angel nodded. "Yeah."
Suddenly, Keisha slammed her forehead against the table, earning shocked glances from three members of the assembled group and a dirty glare from the fourth (needless to say that the singular person was Cecelia).
"Keish?" Luke asked tentatively. "What is it?"
She looked up, tears beginning to shine in her aqua eyes. "This gets better and better. Think back. Meredith...it must have been..."
What little colour remained in Luke's skin now drained until he looked as white as milk.
"Oh. My. God." he finally managed to whisper. Then he shook his head as though he was trying to rid himself of whatever realisation was dawning. "No, Keisha, it can't be. She'd never..."
"It has to be, Luke. I mean, we never found out what killed her. The marks on her neck were there. And Tanya was never found."
"But...Keisha, Tanya wouldn't hurt her. She wasn't like that!" To Gracia, he asked, "When people get...turned...well, are they the same as before?"
Both dark-haired siblings tried desperately to ignore the horrendous memories brought up by this innocent question. Of him torturing Gracia as Grace as he murdered their family and friends. Of him deceiving her into meeting him. Of him taunting her before he killed her. Of him destroying her...
Gracia swallowed and shook her head vigorously. "No. Not at all. Although a few characteristics may be kept, mainly they aren't what they used to be. It's just...demon in there. Why?"
Luke and Keisha looked at each other for a moment and Keisha shrugged, wiping her brimming tears away. Luke sighed and began to explain.
"You see, we have...had a godmother called Meredith. She was quite young, only about forty or something, so it doesn't seem fair. Her and her family were found dead after her eldest daughter Tanya disappeared, and this was about two years ago. We never found out what happened, but the doctors said that there was 'severe trauma to the neck'. Sounds like a vampire. And Tanya was never found."
"You think she was vamped?" Angel asked.
Slowly, hesitantly, Luke nodded. Then he added, almost hurriedly, "But we can't be sure."
"It sounds like it." Gracia said. "I'm sorry."
Keisha took in a deep, shaky breath, sniffed, and wiped her eyes. Cecelia studied them, still cold but slightly less derisive.
"Are you suggesting we spend time in searching for this single vampire, someone who might not even be a vampire? She might have just wanted to escape her family."
Luke glared at Cecelia. "Tanya loved her family. She'd never do anything to hurt them, and she was too shy to go running off."
Behind those glasses, Gracia briefly thought she saw a small, quick spark of interest, but it was soon back to those silver mirrors, steely and hard. She shook her head slightly and looked back at Luke, telling herself to pay attention to what she was a hundred percent sure was happening.
"What did you say her name was?"
"Tanya."
"Tanya what, exactly?"
"Tanya Atkins."
If Cecelia had been a more normal person, with feelings and emotions that were not hidden by an iron-like personality and stance, she might have pulled a face of thoughtful curiosity, but as it was she remained the same as before.
"Why?" asked Keisha. "Do you know something about her?"
Cecelia turned her eyes to the speaker. "I was merely asking. Don't raise your hopes for anything, girl, anything which might eventually fail."
Luke remembered something and looked at Gracia. "What's this about you being Angel's sister? Explanation needed please."
Gracia shot Angel a hidden glance, warning him to keep silent. She hung her head slightly and chewed her lip, striving to look somewhere near resignation and minor regret.
"Have I told you that I'm adopted?" she asked. The twins thought for a moment, then nodded simultaneously. Keisha said, "I think so."
"Well, you see, back in the children's home, they split me and Angel up for some reason. He got fostered whilst I stayed where I was. Later on, he got adopted-I was about three at the time, and couldn't object. Few years on, I got adopted as well, but Angel and I lost contact. When you're eighteen, you can ask for things like birth certificates, find out who your real family is, or was. Both our parents were dead, but it mentioned a sister. Me." Gracia found the lies getting easier and easier as she went on. It was like spinning a silken web to protect herself and her brother. "Anyways, he decided to track me down and found that I'd just emigrated to America. He followed, and we finally met up."
Angel mentally blessed his little sister and her ease at untruths. He guessed she'd become accustomed to them, being the Slayer and having to lie about why she stayed out so late. In her last life, she had been quite different. One of his weapons had been her strong faith in God, and the belief that her sins were casting her down. Just about a century later, the same tactics worked on Drusilla.
Keisha found a problem though, and frowned as she asked, "But why didn't you just tell us that?"
Gracia kneaded her forehead with her right knuckles, hating the way she had to lie to her friends, even if it was simple and the only thing she could do. "I don't know. I'm sorry. My parents don't know that Angel tracked me down. We kept it secret in case they got upset. I thought that if you knew, you might accidently let slip to them. Nothing personal."
"That's OK." Luke forgave.
Keisha shrugged. "I guess you two do look kinda similar."
Gracia smiled at her, then noticed out of the corner of her eye that Cecelia was swelling up in rage at what she knew to be untrue. Having trained as a Watcher for years, she knew a vampire when it was about, and that fact didn't fit in with the rest of the story. She hurriedly checked her watch before Cecelia could object or insult, and before the twins could question the 'murderous monster' comment as well as the crucifix and the mention of 'Angelus'.
"Oh god, it's already half eleven." Glancing back up at her friends, she suggested, "Maybe we should all go home. My parents will probably go on a rampage if I get home now, let alone later."
Luke looked at his watch and swore. "Keish, we'd better go. Mom is gonna go mad!"
Keisha rose at that, leaning on Gracia and Luke again as she still felt mentally weak. They were half way to the door when Cecelia called Gracia back. Removing Keisha's arm from her shoulders, Gracia told them to go ahead and meet her outside before trudging back to her mentor.
"What is it, Cecelia?"
Cecelia shot her another look that would freeze molten lava in a second. "You have just commited a terrible act against all that the Watcher's council strives for. Few Slayers have ever had friends, and if you really cared about them, then you would not have any contact with them. For two who have no training or special powers, involving them in this dark world has put a threat on their lives. And as for this friendly conversing with the enemy, well..." Cecelia's nostril's flared and she seemed to be at a loss for words in the torrent of contempt she was experiencing at thise moment.
Gracia met her gaze both levelly and coldly as she replied in a low voice, "They know now, and it'll increase their watchfulness. If they fear so much for their lives, it's their choice to disentangle themselves from the mess of a Slayer's life. And my brother," She shot Angel, who was standing waiting for her by the door, a quick glance. "Has a soul and remorse, whether you believe it or not. And as I'm sure you are so busy here, I'll leave you now to get on with your work."
That said, she turned on her heel and stalked across the room, leaving Cecelia Rees to watch as she left the room with Angel. The door shut softly behind them with a click. The noise of receeding footsteps and dimming voices triggered Cecelia's next thoughts and movements. Picking up her case from the desk, she left the room also, but in the oposite direction to Gracia.
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Woohoo! Christmas is nearly here! **Cheers and dances around the room with almost-empty bag of sugar** You shoulda seen me yesterday-my friend spray-dyed my hair bright green, and managed to get some of it down my cheek. As you can guess, we were all hyper, as is normal. Anyways, enough of my pointless babbling. If you've read this far, you might as well click on that little box down there and submit your reviews, hopefully full of praise for lil' ole me! :)
**Returns five minutes later with a bag of sugar**
Hello again! Happy now! Veeeerrrryyy happy!!!
Disclaimer:Yadda yadda yadda, its just what I've said for all the other chapters. If you're really that desperate for a disclaimer, go check out those ones again.
Dedication: All of you who gave me website references to discover what's going on in Angel. Much appreciated, thank you. :)
********************************************************************************
"Are you OK now?" Gracia asked Keisha, leaning slightly to look at her bowed face.
Keisha smiled somewhat ruefully and rubbed her forehead. "Yeah, I'll be fine."
Gracia, Angel, Keisha, and Luke were all now, half an hour later, in the library. They had met Cecelia there, and she was now stalking around the room, speaking furiously to herself, her hand tightly grasping a crucifix. To say that she had been completely outraged when Gracia came in supporting a weak Keisha with an ashen-faced Luke and a vampire in tow was the understatement of the millenium. After about ten minutes of constant ranting at the Slayer, Gracia had eventually managed to silence her by shouting back for a good five more minutes.
Luke was sitting next to Keisha, staring at Gracia seriously. He had barely said a word since they had come in, but decided that he had to ask his question again.
"What the hell happened?"
Gracia and Angel shared a glance. They both knew that, for the twins' safety, they would have to tell them the truth. For all they knew, they could be hunted for one reason or another. Gracia opened her mouth to speak and took a deep breath.
"You see-"
Cecelia cut in. Even earlier on, she had not quite reached this level of blind fury. And the Watcher was determined to have her way.
"That's enough!" she hissed. "I will not tolerate your non-existent sense and shabby manners any longer! You have seriously shamed everyone tonight, and endangered these people!"
Angel's temper flared at this. He banged his hand down hard onto the table, almost hard enough to break it, and very nearly vamped out.
Without thinking about what it would mean admitting, he growled, "Don't talk to my sister like that!"
Cecelia swung the wooden cross up until it was facing Angel completely and he winced involuntarily, although he didn't turn away.
"I pay no heed to your sort, Angelus," she replied heatedly. "Whatever nonsense you may have managed to convince people with, about regaining your soul through some curse, I am not fooled! You are still a murderous monster!"
Keisha frowned at the woman. "What? What do you mean 'murderous'?"
Luke held up his hand. "Sorry, I'm lost here." Fixing Gracia with a severely questioning look, he asked, "Sister?"
Gracia groaned and buried her head in her hands, knowing that she was completely and utterly screwed. She took another breath and looked him straight in the eye.
"There's no easy way of saying this, so here goes- vampires are real. They're real, and Sunnydale is overrun with them."
Luke's eyes widened. "So you're saying that..."
She nodded. "The guy who attacked Keisha was a vampire."
"The suck-your-blood type?"
"Know any others?" She shrugged, giving Angel a quick, apologetic glance, which assured him that she wasn't including him. "Every generation there's one girl who has the skill and power to fight them, and this time round that happens to be me."
Angel spoke, turning his eyes away from the cross and to his sister. "And Sunnydale is located on the mouth of Hell, so it makes it the perfect place for them."
"And they just go around killing people in this town?"
"Yes. But not just in this town. All over the world. There were a few particularly nasty ones back in Belfast, but Sunnydale is probably the most affected." Turning to Angel, she asked, "You've lived here longer than me. Is it true?"
Angel nodded. "Yeah."
Suddenly, Keisha slammed her forehead against the table, earning shocked glances from three members of the assembled group and a dirty glare from the fourth (needless to say that the singular person was Cecelia).
"Keish?" Luke asked tentatively. "What is it?"
She looked up, tears beginning to shine in her aqua eyes. "This gets better and better. Think back. Meredith...it must have been..."
What little colour remained in Luke's skin now drained until he looked as white as milk.
"Oh. My. God." he finally managed to whisper. Then he shook his head as though he was trying to rid himself of whatever realisation was dawning. "No, Keisha, it can't be. She'd never..."
"It has to be, Luke. I mean, we never found out what killed her. The marks on her neck were there. And Tanya was never found."
"But...Keisha, Tanya wouldn't hurt her. She wasn't like that!" To Gracia, he asked, "When people get...turned...well, are they the same as before?"
Both dark-haired siblings tried desperately to ignore the horrendous memories brought up by this innocent question. Of him torturing Gracia as Grace as he murdered their family and friends. Of him deceiving her into meeting him. Of him taunting her before he killed her. Of him destroying her...
Gracia swallowed and shook her head vigorously. "No. Not at all. Although a few characteristics may be kept, mainly they aren't what they used to be. It's just...demon in there. Why?"
Luke and Keisha looked at each other for a moment and Keisha shrugged, wiping her brimming tears away. Luke sighed and began to explain.
"You see, we have...had a godmother called Meredith. She was quite young, only about forty or something, so it doesn't seem fair. Her and her family were found dead after her eldest daughter Tanya disappeared, and this was about two years ago. We never found out what happened, but the doctors said that there was 'severe trauma to the neck'. Sounds like a vampire. And Tanya was never found."
"You think she was vamped?" Angel asked.
Slowly, hesitantly, Luke nodded. Then he added, almost hurriedly, "But we can't be sure."
"It sounds like it." Gracia said. "I'm sorry."
Keisha took in a deep, shaky breath, sniffed, and wiped her eyes. Cecelia studied them, still cold but slightly less derisive.
"Are you suggesting we spend time in searching for this single vampire, someone who might not even be a vampire? She might have just wanted to escape her family."
Luke glared at Cecelia. "Tanya loved her family. She'd never do anything to hurt them, and she was too shy to go running off."
Behind those glasses, Gracia briefly thought she saw a small, quick spark of interest, but it was soon back to those silver mirrors, steely and hard. She shook her head slightly and looked back at Luke, telling herself to pay attention to what she was a hundred percent sure was happening.
"What did you say her name was?"
"Tanya."
"Tanya what, exactly?"
"Tanya Atkins."
If Cecelia had been a more normal person, with feelings and emotions that were not hidden by an iron-like personality and stance, she might have pulled a face of thoughtful curiosity, but as it was she remained the same as before.
"Why?" asked Keisha. "Do you know something about her?"
Cecelia turned her eyes to the speaker. "I was merely asking. Don't raise your hopes for anything, girl, anything which might eventually fail."
Luke remembered something and looked at Gracia. "What's this about you being Angel's sister? Explanation needed please."
Gracia shot Angel a hidden glance, warning him to keep silent. She hung her head slightly and chewed her lip, striving to look somewhere near resignation and minor regret.
"Have I told you that I'm adopted?" she asked. The twins thought for a moment, then nodded simultaneously. Keisha said, "I think so."
"Well, you see, back in the children's home, they split me and Angel up for some reason. He got fostered whilst I stayed where I was. Later on, he got adopted-I was about three at the time, and couldn't object. Few years on, I got adopted as well, but Angel and I lost contact. When you're eighteen, you can ask for things like birth certificates, find out who your real family is, or was. Both our parents were dead, but it mentioned a sister. Me." Gracia found the lies getting easier and easier as she went on. It was like spinning a silken web to protect herself and her brother. "Anyways, he decided to track me down and found that I'd just emigrated to America. He followed, and we finally met up."
Angel mentally blessed his little sister and her ease at untruths. He guessed she'd become accustomed to them, being the Slayer and having to lie about why she stayed out so late. In her last life, she had been quite different. One of his weapons had been her strong faith in God, and the belief that her sins were casting her down. Just about a century later, the same tactics worked on Drusilla.
Keisha found a problem though, and frowned as she asked, "But why didn't you just tell us that?"
Gracia kneaded her forehead with her right knuckles, hating the way she had to lie to her friends, even if it was simple and the only thing she could do. "I don't know. I'm sorry. My parents don't know that Angel tracked me down. We kept it secret in case they got upset. I thought that if you knew, you might accidently let slip to them. Nothing personal."
"That's OK." Luke forgave.
Keisha shrugged. "I guess you two do look kinda similar."
Gracia smiled at her, then noticed out of the corner of her eye that Cecelia was swelling up in rage at what she knew to be untrue. Having trained as a Watcher for years, she knew a vampire when it was about, and that fact didn't fit in with the rest of the story. She hurriedly checked her watch before Cecelia could object or insult, and before the twins could question the 'murderous monster' comment as well as the crucifix and the mention of 'Angelus'.
"Oh god, it's already half eleven." Glancing back up at her friends, she suggested, "Maybe we should all go home. My parents will probably go on a rampage if I get home now, let alone later."
Luke looked at his watch and swore. "Keish, we'd better go. Mom is gonna go mad!"
Keisha rose at that, leaning on Gracia and Luke again as she still felt mentally weak. They were half way to the door when Cecelia called Gracia back. Removing Keisha's arm from her shoulders, Gracia told them to go ahead and meet her outside before trudging back to her mentor.
"What is it, Cecelia?"
Cecelia shot her another look that would freeze molten lava in a second. "You have just commited a terrible act against all that the Watcher's council strives for. Few Slayers have ever had friends, and if you really cared about them, then you would not have any contact with them. For two who have no training or special powers, involving them in this dark world has put a threat on their lives. And as for this friendly conversing with the enemy, well..." Cecelia's nostril's flared and she seemed to be at a loss for words in the torrent of contempt she was experiencing at thise moment.
Gracia met her gaze both levelly and coldly as she replied in a low voice, "They know now, and it'll increase their watchfulness. If they fear so much for their lives, it's their choice to disentangle themselves from the mess of a Slayer's life. And my brother," She shot Angel, who was standing waiting for her by the door, a quick glance. "Has a soul and remorse, whether you believe it or not. And as I'm sure you are so busy here, I'll leave you now to get on with your work."
That said, she turned on her heel and stalked across the room, leaving Cecelia Rees to watch as she left the room with Angel. The door shut softly behind them with a click. The noise of receeding footsteps and dimming voices triggered Cecelia's next thoughts and movements. Picking up her case from the desk, she left the room also, but in the oposite direction to Gracia.
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Woohoo! Christmas is nearly here! **Cheers and dances around the room with almost-empty bag of sugar** You shoulda seen me yesterday-my friend spray-dyed my hair bright green, and managed to get some of it down my cheek. As you can guess, we were all hyper, as is normal. Anyways, enough of my pointless babbling. If you've read this far, you might as well click on that little box down there and submit your reviews, hopefully full of praise for lil' ole me! :)
