A.N: I wasn't too happy with the way I ended the last chapter, I didn't show enough of the relationship between the three characters so this story takes off right where the last one left off. Also in my story Connor is seventeen not eighteen, I feel he was originally supposed to be younger but they made him eighteen to make him and Cordelia legal.
Chapter 2:
"Are you alright?" Fred asked looking back at Connor, in the back seat.
"Yeah," Connor answered in a soft voice, Fred assumed he was in shock of some kind but that wasn't it. Was that thing that attacked him the voice whispering to him? Was it all his imagination? Connor was now more worried than ever about what he had done to Angel.
[And one day they'll find out]
The car continued to speed back to the hotel where the three of them lived and ran their search mission from, though it was the official headquarters of Angel Investigations they hadn't had a client since Cordelia and Angel had disappeared. They didn't anything around Connor but he could here them quite clearly from another room, they were worried they would be evicted from the hotel and Gunn had suggested they focus on getting some clients, however Fred had insisted that finding Angel and Cordelia was their number one priority, even after three months.
Once they arrived back at the hotel Connor quietly ascended the stairs and went up to his room to get changed.
"I'm gonna hit the books see if I can find out what that thing was," Fred said heading back into the office while Gunn followed Connor up the stairs with his eyes. Connor was an amazing fighter, and in battle he was the leader, but he was still only seventeen.
"Right," Gunn replied his attention still stretched. Once Connor was out of sight Gunn walked over to Fred in the office as she flipped through some of the books. "Did Connor seem quiet to you?"
"He was probably just in shock," Fred said. "The again he grew up in Quortoth, he must be used to demon attacks by now."
"Exactly," Gunn said moving to stand behind Fred. "I think maybe something else happened.
"Like what?" Fred asked concerned, turning away from the computer.
"I dunno," Gunn said with disappointment. "Maybe I should go talk to him."
"Are you sure?" Fred asked. Last time Gunn had tried to console Connor it ended in yelling and throwing things, though their relationship had improved quite a bit since then.
Gunn didn't answer; tough he did look a little embarrassed about last time.
"Go," Fred said warmly. "I can handle the research."
Gunn smiled and leaned in to kiss Fred, she returned it then moved back to her research as Gunn made his way up to Connor's room.
*****************
Connor stood naked in the shower free of his wet clothes, which only reminded him of the events of that night, he had shoved them in corner of his room and headed straight into the bathroom to wash away the night's battle.
The water was hot to warm him up after the cold of the water, and of the creature's slimy grip. Connor scrubbed at his skin hard, he wasn't sure what he was trying to clean, was it his body or was it his actions. This had been happening for long enough now that Connor could identify the feeling that had been haunting him, it was guilt.
Water poured down into Connor's open hands and he splashed it into his face and rubbed the remaining through his incredibly short hair, then turned the water off and stepped out of the shower.
Though it was the end of summer Connor's bare skin felt cold once abandoning the warmth of the water, he moved instantly to the towel rack, grabbing a towel and wrapping it around his naked waste.
Connor walked back into the main part of his small room and moved towards a clothing draw, originally when he had moved in most of his clothes had been Gunn or Angel's but the size difference had called for some clothes shopping.
The clock read past midnight and Connor figured Fred and Gunn wouldn't need him for anything else, they weren't going to hunt that creature down tonight after fighting that many vampires.
Connor shut his draw and moved back to his bed, he pulled the towel from his waste wiped his hair off then crawled under the covers and tried to put his guilt to rest.
*****************
Gunn reached Connor's room and the light was turned off but Gunn figured Connor wasn't asleep yet, he knocked on the door wan waited for an answer.
"Connor," he called hoping for a response. "Connor, I know you still up, man."
*****************
Connor rolled over and moaned, not wanting to get up. He moved towards the door slowly as Gunn continues to knock, he really didn't want to get up and kill anything and he really wasn't in the mood to talk.
The door stood in front of Connor and only then did he look down and realize he was still completely naked. He opened the door but only stuck his head through the crack. Gunn stood there looking ready to leave.
"What's up?" Connor asked tiredly.
"Hey man," Gunn said scratching his head awkwardly. "Could we talk for a while?"
"Do we have to do this now?" Connor asked showing the tiredness in his voice. "I' kind of tired."
"It'll only take a second."
"Alright, hold on." Connor closed the door then moved over to his draw pulling out some clothes to get into while he talked to Gunn, he was looking forward to getting some much needed sleep but looks like his plans had been changed, generally he wouldn't have minded talking to Gunn but after what had happened earlier he really didn't want to deal with him or Fred.
Gunn waited patiently for a moment outside Connor's room, he heard some noises from inside probably Connor getting dressed, he probably thought they were going to go kill something, the kid needed to get out more.
The door opened and Connor invited Gunn in and they took a seat on Connor's unmade bed.
"Connor, I know the last few months have been rough," Gunn put his hand on Connor's back as comfort. "You finally got reunited with your dad and then he disappears, and so does Holtz."
Flashes charged through Connor's brains, remembering finding Holtz, what Justine had told him about Angelus, his father. Why would Angel do that? Having met him it confused Connor so much as to why Angel would have killed Holtz.
"I know lately you've been pretty stressed out, its not just you, Fred and I have been feelin' the burn too," Gunn took a deep breath in preparation for his next statement. "You're just a kid Connor, you're too young to be dealing with this crap. Maybe it's be a good idea if you took some time off, went somewhere and got your head out of this mess."
Connor moved away from Gunn and got to his feet, he had a mildly sad look on his face.
"Where would I go?" Connor asked deliberately pointing out the fact that he had nowhere to go. "Gunn, I know you're just trying to protect me, and I'm thankful that you care but my life is here." An innocent smile came across Connor's face. "With you an Fred, you're my family."
A wide smile came across Gunn's face too, they knew each other well enough that they could part without words however as Gunn moved pass Connor the two shared a brief moment. Gunn laughed quietly, nothing was funny it was more happiness of how thankful he was that Connor was there to keep everything together, he put his hand up and tried pointlessly to mess up Connor's very short hair. Gunn exited the room without saying anything else and Connor smiled as Gunn left.
[He'll never forgive you]
*****************
"So your former boss has a soul, and you're losing yours."
Those words hung in the air long after Lilah had left, and they were only rebuffed by every encounter, these days she spent a lot of her time in Wesley's apartment, doing things Wesley wanted to hate himself for. The heavy scent of sweat and passion hung in the air and Wesley had finally cooled down. There was once a time when just the thought of these things would have killed Wesley, Lilah was once one of his mortal enemies, but now that Angel and he were no longer connected what reason did he have to hate, because she was evil.
Though he would never be able to say it, or even consciously think it Lilah, their relationship meant something to Wesley; he was in love with it. The heat, the hatred, the sex and all the other things that came with it.
Once she left Wesley had to do anything he could for solace, and the next closest thing to sex with Lilah was violence.
Wesley slid out from under the covers where had been lying for nearly half an hour since Lilah left, he moved slowly across the room towards his weapons chest, it didn't have as greater selection as he had at Angel Investigations, but it still had everything necessary for demonic slaughter.
Looking through the weapons Wesley found a small ax to his liking; he also grabbed two stakes and a knife before shutting the chest and heading towards his drawers to get dressed.
After changing into a pair of jeans and a black, long sleeved shirt, Wesley moved straight for the door, he grabbed his brown jacket from his coat rack and shoved the stakes in the pocket, while he put the knife in his belt. Had it been say he would have made an effort to hide the axe but it was early morning, the sun had not risen yet and still wouldn't for hours, there was no one to see his ax.
Wesley got into his car and drove to a worse part of town, where he knew the creatures of the night would be in a larger abundance, one of his contacts had told him about suspicious disappearances in the area, Wesley figured he could do some good there, kill whatever was causing the disappearances.
The car pulled to the side of the road once Wesley reached his destination, he had been here many times before, not in this exact same spot but this area, it was an area ripe with demonic activity. It wasn't a very residential area but amazingly enough people still lived there, mostly poor people, there were also a few homeless people to be found.
Wesley opened the door of his car an walked out into the streets; he figured an old set of abandoned warehouses in the area would be a good place to look for demonic activity, once, while he still worked for Angel, they had cleaned a nest out of that area.
Last time he had been to the warehouses the gates had been brutally disheveled and were barely standing, however since then there had been a great deal of work put into repairing them. A gate stood in front of him held closed by a shiny padlock and a great deal of chain, though none of this meant anything to Wesley, he got his ax to the ready and swung hard into the gate, the first hit had caused a reasonably amount of damage and by the third hit it came open completely.
The gates had gone through a great deal of work, however the buildings were just as hideous as they had always been, not that Wes could blame anyone for not wanting to work near those buildings. Even without the knowledge that demons infested this place regularly there was something naturally creepy about the entire place.
Doors stood in front of Wesley, there was no lock and the doors could be pulled open by only the wind. Wesley gripped the door handle and slowly pulled it open. Inside it was pitch black, Wesley couldn't see a thing and the last thing he wanted to do was fight demons in complete darkness after taking a few steps into the warehouse Wes heard a noise come from the darkness, he brought his ax to the ready and peered into the darkness for the origin of the noise.
Wesley turned frantically, the thing generating the noises was either moving, or there was more than one, either way Wesley didn't want to fight it alone, or at all for that matter. He headed for the door and as soon as he did it came crashing shut, Wes ran forward and pushed against the door only to be hit in the side by something large moving at high speeds. Wesley came crashing to his feet in pain and rolled on the floor for a little while, once at a stop he twisted to his knees and saw a different figure approaching him, it appeared human so it was probably a vampire.
Now at his feet Wesley prepared to fight the vampire, he ax was at the ready and slashed at the approaching figure who jumped back into a battle stance. Wes moved forward, determined and slash down at the figure's head only to have his fist grabbed and punched Wesley hard in the face. After a quick recovery Wesley shot his fist at the figure and connected violently into its jaw. Wesley's vision had slightly adjusted to the light, revealing the vampire as male with a large build dressed in street clothes.
Wes reached into his jacket and pulled out a stake ready to dust the vampire. It came in for another attack, launching a solid kick at Wesley's head, but Wes was too fast as he ducked under the kick and took the vampire's other leg out, the vamp came crashing down beside Wes. His stake at the ready, Wesley thrust it into the vampire's chest as it burst into dust.
Wesley began to get back to his feet and suddenly a large figure, once again bashed into his body knocking him down hard, Wesley looked up to see three more vampire's approaching him, though he had in the past, taking on three vampires solo was no one of Wesley's favored exercises so, accordingly he ran, though he hated retreat.
The three vampires caught up with Wesley before he reached the door, the one in the lead grabbed Wesley's jacket and pulled him backwards throwing him to the ground. The only weapon in Wesley's reach was the knife in his belt, so he grabbed it and stabbed the vampire in the stomach as it grabbed him by the throat, the vampire loosened it's grip and Wesley used that opportunity to push it off, but before Wesley could get to his feet the large figure pushed him down from behind before a hard surface collided with his head knocking him unconscious.
*****************
The murky waters painted all sort of images in Angel's mind, the peacefulness the now reflected only resembled one thing, peace; this was the only thing that could settle the chaos in Angel's mind, for a moment he thought he could see Cordelia.
Cordelia had been on his mind that night, he wanted nothing more than to see her, to be with her, it was the only thing he could think of, he loved her so much and Connor had ruined it all.
But he was Angel's son, it wasn't his fault it was Justine's and Holtz.
[Connor can't be trusted, now that you're not there to protect them, he'll kill them all: Fred, Gunn and Cordelia]
Angel would rather die than let anything happen to Cordelia, he would do anything for her, but killing his own son? It wasn't fair he loved them both more than anything, even after what Connor had done to him he couldn't stop loving him.
[Love isn't enough, after what he's done to you, what he will do to your friends... you know what you have to do]
"No!" Angel yelled in pain. "I can't do it."
[Kill him, kill Connor!]
"No!"
Chapter 2:
"Are you alright?" Fred asked looking back at Connor, in the back seat.
"Yeah," Connor answered in a soft voice, Fred assumed he was in shock of some kind but that wasn't it. Was that thing that attacked him the voice whispering to him? Was it all his imagination? Connor was now more worried than ever about what he had done to Angel.
[And one day they'll find out]
The car continued to speed back to the hotel where the three of them lived and ran their search mission from, though it was the official headquarters of Angel Investigations they hadn't had a client since Cordelia and Angel had disappeared. They didn't anything around Connor but he could here them quite clearly from another room, they were worried they would be evicted from the hotel and Gunn had suggested they focus on getting some clients, however Fred had insisted that finding Angel and Cordelia was their number one priority, even after three months.
Once they arrived back at the hotel Connor quietly ascended the stairs and went up to his room to get changed.
"I'm gonna hit the books see if I can find out what that thing was," Fred said heading back into the office while Gunn followed Connor up the stairs with his eyes. Connor was an amazing fighter, and in battle he was the leader, but he was still only seventeen.
"Right," Gunn replied his attention still stretched. Once Connor was out of sight Gunn walked over to Fred in the office as she flipped through some of the books. "Did Connor seem quiet to you?"
"He was probably just in shock," Fred said. "The again he grew up in Quortoth, he must be used to demon attacks by now."
"Exactly," Gunn said moving to stand behind Fred. "I think maybe something else happened.
"Like what?" Fred asked concerned, turning away from the computer.
"I dunno," Gunn said with disappointment. "Maybe I should go talk to him."
"Are you sure?" Fred asked. Last time Gunn had tried to console Connor it ended in yelling and throwing things, though their relationship had improved quite a bit since then.
Gunn didn't answer; tough he did look a little embarrassed about last time.
"Go," Fred said warmly. "I can handle the research."
Gunn smiled and leaned in to kiss Fred, she returned it then moved back to her research as Gunn made his way up to Connor's room.
*****************
Connor stood naked in the shower free of his wet clothes, which only reminded him of the events of that night, he had shoved them in corner of his room and headed straight into the bathroom to wash away the night's battle.
The water was hot to warm him up after the cold of the water, and of the creature's slimy grip. Connor scrubbed at his skin hard, he wasn't sure what he was trying to clean, was it his body or was it his actions. This had been happening for long enough now that Connor could identify the feeling that had been haunting him, it was guilt.
Water poured down into Connor's open hands and he splashed it into his face and rubbed the remaining through his incredibly short hair, then turned the water off and stepped out of the shower.
Though it was the end of summer Connor's bare skin felt cold once abandoning the warmth of the water, he moved instantly to the towel rack, grabbing a towel and wrapping it around his naked waste.
Connor walked back into the main part of his small room and moved towards a clothing draw, originally when he had moved in most of his clothes had been Gunn or Angel's but the size difference had called for some clothes shopping.
The clock read past midnight and Connor figured Fred and Gunn wouldn't need him for anything else, they weren't going to hunt that creature down tonight after fighting that many vampires.
Connor shut his draw and moved back to his bed, he pulled the towel from his waste wiped his hair off then crawled under the covers and tried to put his guilt to rest.
*****************
Gunn reached Connor's room and the light was turned off but Gunn figured Connor wasn't asleep yet, he knocked on the door wan waited for an answer.
"Connor," he called hoping for a response. "Connor, I know you still up, man."
*****************
Connor rolled over and moaned, not wanting to get up. He moved towards the door slowly as Gunn continues to knock, he really didn't want to get up and kill anything and he really wasn't in the mood to talk.
The door stood in front of Connor and only then did he look down and realize he was still completely naked. He opened the door but only stuck his head through the crack. Gunn stood there looking ready to leave.
"What's up?" Connor asked tiredly.
"Hey man," Gunn said scratching his head awkwardly. "Could we talk for a while?"
"Do we have to do this now?" Connor asked showing the tiredness in his voice. "I' kind of tired."
"It'll only take a second."
"Alright, hold on." Connor closed the door then moved over to his draw pulling out some clothes to get into while he talked to Gunn, he was looking forward to getting some much needed sleep but looks like his plans had been changed, generally he wouldn't have minded talking to Gunn but after what had happened earlier he really didn't want to deal with him or Fred.
Gunn waited patiently for a moment outside Connor's room, he heard some noises from inside probably Connor getting dressed, he probably thought they were going to go kill something, the kid needed to get out more.
The door opened and Connor invited Gunn in and they took a seat on Connor's unmade bed.
"Connor, I know the last few months have been rough," Gunn put his hand on Connor's back as comfort. "You finally got reunited with your dad and then he disappears, and so does Holtz."
Flashes charged through Connor's brains, remembering finding Holtz, what Justine had told him about Angelus, his father. Why would Angel do that? Having met him it confused Connor so much as to why Angel would have killed Holtz.
"I know lately you've been pretty stressed out, its not just you, Fred and I have been feelin' the burn too," Gunn took a deep breath in preparation for his next statement. "You're just a kid Connor, you're too young to be dealing with this crap. Maybe it's be a good idea if you took some time off, went somewhere and got your head out of this mess."
Connor moved away from Gunn and got to his feet, he had a mildly sad look on his face.
"Where would I go?" Connor asked deliberately pointing out the fact that he had nowhere to go. "Gunn, I know you're just trying to protect me, and I'm thankful that you care but my life is here." An innocent smile came across Connor's face. "With you an Fred, you're my family."
A wide smile came across Gunn's face too, they knew each other well enough that they could part without words however as Gunn moved pass Connor the two shared a brief moment. Gunn laughed quietly, nothing was funny it was more happiness of how thankful he was that Connor was there to keep everything together, he put his hand up and tried pointlessly to mess up Connor's very short hair. Gunn exited the room without saying anything else and Connor smiled as Gunn left.
[He'll never forgive you]
*****************
"So your former boss has a soul, and you're losing yours."
Those words hung in the air long after Lilah had left, and they were only rebuffed by every encounter, these days she spent a lot of her time in Wesley's apartment, doing things Wesley wanted to hate himself for. The heavy scent of sweat and passion hung in the air and Wesley had finally cooled down. There was once a time when just the thought of these things would have killed Wesley, Lilah was once one of his mortal enemies, but now that Angel and he were no longer connected what reason did he have to hate, because she was evil.
Though he would never be able to say it, or even consciously think it Lilah, their relationship meant something to Wesley; he was in love with it. The heat, the hatred, the sex and all the other things that came with it.
Once she left Wesley had to do anything he could for solace, and the next closest thing to sex with Lilah was violence.
Wesley slid out from under the covers where had been lying for nearly half an hour since Lilah left, he moved slowly across the room towards his weapons chest, it didn't have as greater selection as he had at Angel Investigations, but it still had everything necessary for demonic slaughter.
Looking through the weapons Wesley found a small ax to his liking; he also grabbed two stakes and a knife before shutting the chest and heading towards his drawers to get dressed.
After changing into a pair of jeans and a black, long sleeved shirt, Wesley moved straight for the door, he grabbed his brown jacket from his coat rack and shoved the stakes in the pocket, while he put the knife in his belt. Had it been say he would have made an effort to hide the axe but it was early morning, the sun had not risen yet and still wouldn't for hours, there was no one to see his ax.
Wesley got into his car and drove to a worse part of town, where he knew the creatures of the night would be in a larger abundance, one of his contacts had told him about suspicious disappearances in the area, Wesley figured he could do some good there, kill whatever was causing the disappearances.
The car pulled to the side of the road once Wesley reached his destination, he had been here many times before, not in this exact same spot but this area, it was an area ripe with demonic activity. It wasn't a very residential area but amazingly enough people still lived there, mostly poor people, there were also a few homeless people to be found.
Wesley opened the door of his car an walked out into the streets; he figured an old set of abandoned warehouses in the area would be a good place to look for demonic activity, once, while he still worked for Angel, they had cleaned a nest out of that area.
Last time he had been to the warehouses the gates had been brutally disheveled and were barely standing, however since then there had been a great deal of work put into repairing them. A gate stood in front of him held closed by a shiny padlock and a great deal of chain, though none of this meant anything to Wesley, he got his ax to the ready and swung hard into the gate, the first hit had caused a reasonably amount of damage and by the third hit it came open completely.
The gates had gone through a great deal of work, however the buildings were just as hideous as they had always been, not that Wes could blame anyone for not wanting to work near those buildings. Even without the knowledge that demons infested this place regularly there was something naturally creepy about the entire place.
Doors stood in front of Wesley, there was no lock and the doors could be pulled open by only the wind. Wesley gripped the door handle and slowly pulled it open. Inside it was pitch black, Wesley couldn't see a thing and the last thing he wanted to do was fight demons in complete darkness after taking a few steps into the warehouse Wes heard a noise come from the darkness, he brought his ax to the ready and peered into the darkness for the origin of the noise.
Wesley turned frantically, the thing generating the noises was either moving, or there was more than one, either way Wesley didn't want to fight it alone, or at all for that matter. He headed for the door and as soon as he did it came crashing shut, Wes ran forward and pushed against the door only to be hit in the side by something large moving at high speeds. Wesley came crashing to his feet in pain and rolled on the floor for a little while, once at a stop he twisted to his knees and saw a different figure approaching him, it appeared human so it was probably a vampire.
Now at his feet Wesley prepared to fight the vampire, he ax was at the ready and slashed at the approaching figure who jumped back into a battle stance. Wes moved forward, determined and slash down at the figure's head only to have his fist grabbed and punched Wesley hard in the face. After a quick recovery Wesley shot his fist at the figure and connected violently into its jaw. Wesley's vision had slightly adjusted to the light, revealing the vampire as male with a large build dressed in street clothes.
Wes reached into his jacket and pulled out a stake ready to dust the vampire. It came in for another attack, launching a solid kick at Wesley's head, but Wes was too fast as he ducked under the kick and took the vampire's other leg out, the vamp came crashing down beside Wes. His stake at the ready, Wesley thrust it into the vampire's chest as it burst into dust.
Wesley began to get back to his feet and suddenly a large figure, once again bashed into his body knocking him down hard, Wesley looked up to see three more vampire's approaching him, though he had in the past, taking on three vampires solo was no one of Wesley's favored exercises so, accordingly he ran, though he hated retreat.
The three vampires caught up with Wesley before he reached the door, the one in the lead grabbed Wesley's jacket and pulled him backwards throwing him to the ground. The only weapon in Wesley's reach was the knife in his belt, so he grabbed it and stabbed the vampire in the stomach as it grabbed him by the throat, the vampire loosened it's grip and Wesley used that opportunity to push it off, but before Wesley could get to his feet the large figure pushed him down from behind before a hard surface collided with his head knocking him unconscious.
*****************
The murky waters painted all sort of images in Angel's mind, the peacefulness the now reflected only resembled one thing, peace; this was the only thing that could settle the chaos in Angel's mind, for a moment he thought he could see Cordelia.
Cordelia had been on his mind that night, he wanted nothing more than to see her, to be with her, it was the only thing he could think of, he loved her so much and Connor had ruined it all.
But he was Angel's son, it wasn't his fault it was Justine's and Holtz.
[Connor can't be trusted, now that you're not there to protect them, he'll kill them all: Fred, Gunn and Cordelia]
Angel would rather die than let anything happen to Cordelia, he would do anything for her, but killing his own son? It wasn't fair he loved them both more than anything, even after what Connor had done to him he couldn't stop loving him.
[Love isn't enough, after what he's done to you, what he will do to your friends... you know what you have to do]
"No!" Angel yelled in pain. "I can't do it."
[Kill him, kill Connor!]
"No!"