25

A Little Soul

Even Oz was relieved when the lessons were over for the day. At least things had gotten better, from his point of view, once the kids had actually started cooperating. As far as the reading part of the curriculum, he only required that they read the book. Math was foreign territory to them, and so was anything that the outside world would remotely consider as science. Things they were well versed in, besides reading, tended towards music, languages, demonology and witchcraft.

The twins were still sulky about the whole education business, though, and Oz was the easy target, since he was there. Instead of making comments telepathically, which they'd long since found out they could get away with under just about any circumstances, after all, who would punish a child for thinking, they resorted to speech, but were speaking in Q'xlzr. It was their first demon language, and they were getting about as proficient at it as anyone with a human-shaped mouth could.

"I'm sure your mother would agree with me that that is very rude," Oz pointed out. Once upon a time, the warning probably would have been enough. But the older they got, the more the precocious pair pushed the barriers. Oz suspected that if he hadn't been here for the transformation he likely would not be able to handle them now.

"Mummy doesn't know everything," Alaric stated. "And you don't either, Oz."

"Nobody does," Oz replied evenly. "But we are older than you, and we do know more than you do."

"Mummy's only a couple of years older than us," Ariel put in. "She can't know much more."

Oz sighed. The verbal skirmishes were occurring more frequently now, and he honestly didn't know he could win this one.

&&&&&&&&

"I've been thinking, luv..," Spike began, as he and Rose boarded the lift to their flat.

"You didn't hurt anything, did you?" Rose teased. She'd never have thought of something like that a few years back, Spike reflected.

Spike arched an eyebrow at her. "You'll pay for that later, pet," he warned. "Now, as I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted, I think it's high time we cleared out the stuff we've got stored in the spare bedroom."

"And the reason for this would be?" Rose prompted.

"Time the kids were in separate rooms," Spike answered in a rush. "Should have done it by now."

"They won't like it," Rose predicted. "They may get a little argumentative from time to time, but they still don't like to be apart."

"They're too old to be sharing a room," Spike declared. "They're just going to have to deal with it. We're their parents, babe. We're supposed to be the ones calling the shots, not them."

Rose sighed. "I suppose that you're right, darling. But they are going to create a scene, you know that."

Spike looked a little guilty. "Think we've been letting them get away with too much," he muttered. "My fault as much as yours, sweetheart. But this time they're going to learn that what we say goes."

&&&&&&&

"I wish that you'd learn to write in English," Angel grumbled. "Every time you send me a note, I have to take it to Rose so that she can translate it."

"Speaking you funny language hard enough," the Q'xlzr demon replied. "Vampire want the scoop or not?"

"You know what Havoc & Associates is up to?" Angel asked. "I won't pay you until I get a definite answer."

"Still just getting bits and pieces," the little demon admitted. "But spell have something to do with a soul."

Angel stiffened in surprise. "Who's soul?" he inquired. He had an uncomfortable feeling that he already knew the answer to that one, and he didn't like it.

Blue gray shoulders shrugged, and the tips of its ears drooped. "I no able to find out," it confessed. "Just know Havoc want spell-caster can do something with soul." It gave Angel a calculating look. "More info than you be having before. Vampire pay I."

Angel counted out money into the informant's hand while thinking it was probably time to call a staff meeting. If his hunch was right, there were about to be radical changes at Wolfram and Hart, and none of them good. Unless they could find a way to safeguard him against whatever spells might come.

"You'll keep me up to date, won't you?" he asked the Q'xlzr.

The noseless little demon somehow managed to convey the impression of an injured sniff. "Of course," it replied loftily. "Vampire one of best customers. I making much money." It looked at the bills in its hand. "Should be making more money."

"You'll get more," Angel promised. "As soon as you can come up with more information."

Business concluded, if less that satisfactorily, the demon was now ready to gossip. "How Rose and offspring?" it asked.

&&&&&&&

"Won't do it." Alaric's lower lip protruded in a pout. "First we gotta do these bloody stupid lessons, now this."

"We don't want to be in different rooms," Ariel said. "Please, don't make us, daddy." She gave him a winsome look, and fluttered her eyelashes at him.

Spike and Rose exchanged glances. Different methods, but the selfsame goals. Once again, the twins were united against them. They were the parents, so why did they feel outnumbered?

"The subject's not open for discussion," Spike said firmly. "You're getting separate rooms, and that's the end of that. If I hear any more backchat out of you two, you're getting grounded."

There was a silent conference, and while Spike wasn't sure what to make of it, Rose suspected that the children were up to something.

Alaric started to open his mouth to say something, but Spike gave him a look that shut him up. For a moment, the two looked so alike, right down to their expressions, that Rose had difficulty not laughing. It was one of the reasons that she had difficulties in being firm with her son. The same reason that Spike had similar difficulties with his daughter.

"So," Rose said brightly, trying to break the tension. "Shall we start tonight, or do you want to wait until the weekend, darling?" Her eyes pleaded with Spike to wait, give the children some time to adjust.

Spike had intended to implement his plan immediately, but with three sets of eyes looking at him like that, one pair of them being ones he had a hard time saying no, to, he gave in. "I 'spose the weekend's good enough," he agreed reluctantly. "You do enough during the week, babe, without adding this on." He had said that mainly to give the twins the idea that he was delaying things solely for their mother's sake, and not for theirs. Not that such dissimulation usually had much effect. The twins had their ways of getting the whole story. Bleeding unfair it was, too, having kids that could pull stuff right out of your mind like that.

"Thank you, daddy." Ariel flung her arms around him and gave him a big kiss, and Spike felt a sappy grin starting to spread over his face.

&&&&&&

"Here's your demon references, Wesley." Rose dropped a stack of papers on his desk. "Who did the filing on this?"

"Eh?" Wesley looked up from his computer screen. "Are those the references on the Janus demon, Rose?"

"Yes," Rose sighed impatiently. "And instead of being filed under 'j', which any reasonable person would expect, whoever filed this information put it under 'd' for demon. Who could possibly work for Wolfram and Hart and not know that there are thousands of types of demons?"

"Someone who worked here before we took over," Wes answered, only half there. "Did you re-file it properly?"

"Of course," Rose replied. "Do you want me to do any more research for your book, or would you rather have me work out the quarterly budget?"

"Would you?" Wesley's eyes lit up. Then, he saw Rose's face fall, and realized that she had been being sarcastic and he had just caused it to backfire on her. And it was hardly fair saddling her with the mundane chores when his project was a purely personal one. "Never mind, Rose," he said. "I'll do it."

Before either one of them could say anything else, the phone rang. Wesley answered it, but beyond the initial greeting said nothing. Then, he hung up and reluctantly saved the information on his computer screen. "It looks like neither one of us will be doing the quarterly budget right now, Rose," he remarked. "We may have some actual work related research to do soon. Angel has called a staff meeting."

"Did he give you any idea what it was about?" Rose asked, following him out of the office.

"No," Wesley replied. "But he did sound a bit.., tense. I mean, more so than usual. Something big must be up."

"It usually is," Rose pointed out. "Did you ever think it might be kind of nice to be a.., normal person, Wesley?"

Wes laughed. "I think we all do at times," he answered. "But don't you like feeling like you're making a difference, Rose? No matter how small?"

"Sometimes it seems to be so small that it's practically invisible," Rose observed. She sighed. "I guess you're right, though. And think how many people just go through their lives letting it all happen to them and never even try to make a difference."

&&&&&&&&

The mage's attention was focused on the object in front of him. It looked rather like a Rubik's cube, except that it was composed of many colored crystals. There didn't seem to be any other components that he felt were necessary. Stenslow hovered nearby, not wanting to interfere, lest he defeat his own purposes, but he was increasingly impatient.

Then, the cube began to glow. Dimly at first, then with increasing brightness. For a moment, it blazed so brightly that it was almost blinding. It subsided a bit, but continued to glow.

"There," the mage said. "Contained within this receptacle is the vampire's soul."

"Now that you've removed it," Stenslow said thoughtfully. "Would you be able to put it back?"

The mage nodded. "I never cast a spell that I cannot undo," he replied. "Since it is often the case that the magiks do not work the way that one thought they would."

Stenslow nodded equally thoughtfully. But it wasn't just in thought, it was also a signal. Travers nodded back, produced a pistol, complete with silencer and shot the mage in the back.

As the mage slumped forward, and blood seeped from the gunshot wound, Stenslow remarked. "I went to too much damned trouble to get that vampire's soul out for anyone to put it back."

&&&&&&&

Angel had been waiting for his staff to assemble when he suddenly felt dizzy. He sat down abruptly, before he fell down. He shook his head, trying to clear it, but to no avail. He put his head down on his desk for a moment, hoping the dizzy spell would pass. When he raised his head, a very un-Angel-like grin was on his face. He surveyed his surroundings.

"Well, well, well," he remarked. "All the trappings of power. Whoever took that soul out, I owe them a big favor." The intercom buzzed. He had to think a moment, dredging up Angel's memories, then pressed the button. "What is it?"

"The staff are starting to arrive," Harmony informed him. "Shall I send them right in?"

"Yes, Harmony," Angelus said. "Send them in." This promised to be one hell of a good time. Let all the underlings believe that he was still their brooding, whiny, pain in the ass boss, then start running things his way. He definitely would have to find out who had removed his soul. At the very least, they deserved a quick, painless death.

&&&&&&&

Angelus paced as he talked, trying to keep in character. Didn't want the peons to start getting suspicious, not just yet. "The Q'xlzr demon told me that Havoc & Associates is looking for someone to cast a spell that has something to do with a soul," he said. He just let the bombshell lie where he'd dropped it, sure that they would get the hint. What they didn't know was that from their point of view, at least, it was too late.

"We gotta nip that right in the bud," Spike vowed. "You're a big enough pain in the ass now. Angelus raised it to an art form."

He suppressed a grin. Whatever strange things he could ever have imagined, Spike, not only with a soul, but a family as well, a responsible citizen, no less, was never on the books.

"Perhaps Rose and I should get right into research," Wesley offered. "See if we can find a way to prevent anyone from removing your soul."

"Sounds good," Angelus said. He tried to ignore a queasy feeling. That was easy enough to do, just watching Rose walk away. He couldn't believe that that sniveling, spineless shit had actually had her in his arms, warm and willing and had settled for nothing more than a few kisses. Once he got settled in, made sure that he was accepted as Angel, he'd see if he could remedy that. It had been a long time.

"You wanna do a little ditty for me, big guy?" Lorne asked, more than half hoping that the answer would be no. "See if we can nail it down?"

Angelus shook his head. Right now, the last thing he needed was the empath finding out what had happened. "I don't see that as being necessary," he said slowly. "We know that Havoc & Associates were threatening to do something to us if we didn't play along with them. I don't think it takes a great leap of faith to figure out that getting rid of my soul would play right into their hands."

"Even the kids can tell you that two and two makes four," Spike added. He might get a little put out with his offspring at times, but he never missed a chance to brag on them. "And this sounds about that simple."

"Well," Lorne said. "If you're not going to sing for me, and by the way, Angelcakes, thanks big time for that one, then I guess that it's business as usual for me." He made his exit.

"While Wes and Rose and looking at spells, I'll see what R&D can put together," Fred put in, rising to her feet. "I remember what it was like when you were Angelus before, and I really don't want to sit through another performance."

"You do that, Fred," Angelus replied. "I don't want a repeat performance any more than you do."

"Let me know when there's some ass to be kicked," Spike drawled, hauling himself up. "You gonna be by for sparring practice as usual?"

"I wouldn't miss it," Angelus promised. When the room had cleared, he smiled again. So far, the entire group had bought it. Even Spike, who damn well should know better. He was a better actor than even he had expected. And the thought of kicking Spike's scrawny ass around a practice room held a definite appeal.

&&&&&&

"You've seen him before, haven't you, Wesley?" Rose inquired nervously as they headed back to research.

"Seen who? Oh, you mean Angelus. Yes, I have," Wesley replied. "Didn't you know, Rose?"

"A lot of the things I knew.., then," Rose began, phrasing things discreetly, lest anyone might be listening. "Seem to be fading away. It's almost as if they are getting replaced by new memories."

"Some day when you have the time," Wesley suggested. "You might want to sit down and write out what you do remember from then. Before they all fade."

"I might do that," Rose agreed. "If I can ever find the time. Do you have any idea how much time and effort two six year olds take?"

"Twice as much as one six year old?" Wes teased.

Rose gave him a fondly exasperated look. "We are talking about my children here, Wesley," she pointed out. "I don't know much about normal, human children, but I'd be willing to bet that they'd be.., a day in the park, compared to Alaric and Ariel." She shifted gears back to business. "The last time he lost his soul, didn't you do that yourselves?"

"Much to our regret," Wesley replied. "But I believe we learned our lesson. Whatever happens, we cannot allow Angel to lose his soul again."