A/N: Something that has been requested a few times, and I've finally got my head around the character. Half-remembered quotes and half-formed ideas have combined to form quoteas. Ideotes? Eh, something like that. Whatever they are, they equal this.
Disclaimer: Blame time off for this one. Half a day off and I'm off to do another drabble. I spoil you all. This one has spoilers for the last few episodes of the season. When I write them all, I'm going to put them into chronological order, because this is just dodgy. Ooh and slightly naughty language. Okay, so it's a naughty word.
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The Enemy
There are two types of people in this word. The stepped on, and the stepping. As long as I can remember I've been trying to be the one who does the stepping. It still burns me that my father laughed and joked with the assholes who came to take our house. He was so pathetic. I used to be determined to be better than him.
I was better than him. I went off to University and I got myself a law degree. I fought tooth and nail against people richer, and smarter than I was. They say the ladder of success is made from the necks of the people you pass, and if that's true then I didn't just go up the ladder. I jumped on every rung.
It's why I was handpicked to join Wolfram & Hart. Holland Manners saw in me a passion. Good and evil don't matter. There are only the strong and the weak. Power is all that matters. Good men starve just like an evil man if they don't have food, they get just as cold. Holland knew I saw that truth.
Then Angel came and took my power away from me, as well as my hand. The bastard didn't even care. It wasn't about power, to him. It wasn't about anything to him except doing the right thing. Not revenge, not money, not power, not even a woman. He took away my power and I wanted it back. I hated him for it.
I thought Wolfram & Hart gave it back to me. They gave me back my hand. Only, to do that they stole all power from someone else. That's when I finally saw them for what they were. They had danced me in front of Angel not caring whether I'd survive or not. I was valuable, but expendable. Their gift hadn't come with strings attached - their gift was nothing but strings.
I did the only thing I could. I left. I went searching for real power, and I found it. African shamans and their magics let me have power, let me take it. Then I went to take my revenge on Angel, pay him back for taking my hand. Went back to L.A., did the whole fight thing and lost. This loss was different to my other one, though. I didn't get defeated here. I realised something.
Angel was the one who'd lost his power. I remember from my days at Wolfram & Hart the whispers. Everyone in the division whispered about Angel, the prophesied vampire with a soul, the wild card in the apocalypse; fated to play a part but not fated to either side. He'd had power. Now, he was just another cog in the machine at Wolfram & Hart, and he knew it.
Its why he's offering me this chance to strike back at the puppet masters through their own puppets. We both know we'll never be able to beat them, and that this mission will probably kill us both and all his little friends besides. I still hate him, but he's giving me the chance to take the power back.
"If you want me, I'm in."
"I want you, Lindsey."
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A/N: Don't know if I got Lindsey right here. I slapped this up quickly and all, (and I couldn't leave that last quote out of it) and I'd like to think it's good, but I don't know if I did Lindsey justice.