White Knight's War

The White Knight’s War

Author :~ pixel
Rated: R mostly, but maybe some NC-17 later ~ depends how it goes
Ship: xander/graham/omc
Disclaimer: I own nothing, claim nothing, they all still belong to Joss et al and I’m just borrowing for a while.
Authors Notes 1: Ok this is probably going to have slash, bad language, character death and buffy bashing ~ so if you don’t like ~ don’t read. I don’t have a beta so all mistakes are mine ~ if you point them out I’ll try to fix them. There’s an explanation etc in prologue.
Authors Notes 2: Concrit and reviews always welcomed and appreciated, helps me know i'm not talking to myself here.

Vampires and Mages and Lawyers ~ Oh My.


Angel hadn’t had much luck trying to sleep, he just couldn’t stop thinking about everything he’d found out the day before. He knew that he’d be staying to help and hoped all his people would join him; he just didn’t know if Xander would trust him, after the way he’d behaved. He still couldn’t believe how much the young man had changed; in Angel’s mind all the Sunnydale people had been caught in a kind of time warp, he expected them to look and behave exactly as they did the last time he saw them. Trying to deal with a grown up Dawn and a surprisingly mature Xander was hard for him. In the end he decided he’d have to forget everything he thought he knew about them and get to know the adults they’d become.


As he came downstairs, figuring he’d have another go at talking to Xander, Angel watched the people in the lobby. Everyone was working hard, but the atmosphere was lighter than he’d expected. There was none of the tension that had permeated the room the previous afternoon, and he realised just how badly his presence and behaviour had affected everyone. As he looked on, Xander came up from the basement; stopping at each group in turn, he gave a few words of encouragement or answered questions from his people. And they were Xander’s people; Angel realised, everyone in the room listened to the young man and seemed to take comfort in his words and gestures. Even after everything Angel had seen and heard the day before, he hadn’t judged Xander right. He’d assumed the younger man was just a figure head, leader in name only because of the prophecy, but what he was looking at now was a general marshalling his troops.


Xander worked his way around the room until he drew level with Angel at the foot of the stairs, “Angel?”


“I was wondering if we could talk?”


“Sure, I was going to grab some breakfast, want to come with?” Xander headed off to the kitchen with Angel following close behind.


“Breakfast at four in the afternoon, keeping vampire hours now?”


“Well most of the beasties do come out at night, so it makes sense. Besides I’ve been travelling so much even my jetlag has jetlag; my body has no idea what time it should be, just that I’m hungry.”


“I’m glad to see that some things don’t change.”


“Just for that you can get your own blood, it’s in the fridge.”


When Angel looked he saw a whole section full of blood bags, more than enough to feed both him and Spike for a month. Gesturing at the supply he asked, “You were that sure we’d stay?”


“Pretty much, at least I knew Spike would and hoped you’d listen long enough to understand what we’re doing.”


“Going to war against Buffy?”


“Yeah, and that freaks me out about twice as much as it does you; but we don’t have a choice.”


“I know,” A look of disbelief crossed Xander’s face as Angel continued, “Look I was an idiot yesterday. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe you; it was just…….I had this dream, that one day I’d get redeemed and that somehow Buffy and I would be together, accepting what you said meant that I’d never have that.”


“It isn’t easy giving up your dreams, does this mean you’re staying?”


“Not like we have much of a choice, I kind of like the world the way it is.”


“And the others?”


“I’m pretty sure Fred and Gunn will want to help and you already talked to Spike and Wes last night.”


“You were eavesdropping.” Xander’s words were a statement not a question.


“You knew?”


“Vampire senses now, remember? Spike and I both knew you were there. Couldn’t have been much fun for you, listening to us.”


“Not exactly, I never realised how much Spike had changed. I still saw him as a monster, the jealousy didn’t help much.”


“You don’t need to beat yourself up too much Angel, it took a long, long time for me to change the way I saw Spike, and I was around to watch him change. I’m as guilty as anyone for not seeing beyond his demon, I couldn’t understand it at all when Buffy first started trusting him.”


“But you did change, you accepted the person he’s become; he’s my Childe, he should have been able to count on me.”


“Can’t change what’s done, all you can do is be there for him now; he’ll probably need some support over this fake Seer thing.”


Angel couldn’t suppress a growl as he thought of what his least favourite lawyer had done to Spike. “Lindsey Macdonald has a lot to answer for, he’s been screwing with my people since the day I set foot in LA.”


Xander suddenly smelled worried and his voice was oddly hesitant when he spoke, “Lindsey Macdonald, that’s the name of the lawyer that’s been playing Spike?”


“Yes, it’s not Spike’s fault, that damn lawyer’s very convincing when he wants to be.”


“Oh yeah, Lindsey’s always been able to charm his way into anything. Fuck, this is all I need.”


“You know him?” Angel couldn’t figure out where the former Scoobie could have encountered Macdonald.


“You could say that, met him on my famous lost summer. I can’t believe how much that’s coming back to haunt me.”


“You mean when you…..?”


“Stripped? Yeah, that’s how I met Linds, he used to come in and watch, one of my favourite customers.”


“Wait a sec, you don’t mean that you and him….? Oh shit!”


“Couldn’t have put it better myself.”


“What happened? I mean why didn’t it work out?”


“I knew he was a lawyer but I didn’t know anything about Wolfram and Hart back then. They never bothered with the Hellmouth so Giles never told us about them. I just thought he was charming and sweet and he made me feel like I was someone important. Heady stuff for an eighteen year old small town boy. Anyway one day I was hanging out at his place while he was at work and I saw a file he’d left behind; being nosy and bored I decided to take a look. It was all about you, your friends, enemies, habits etc. Even had a whole section on Buffy and her side kicks, it was funny seeing my name there. I called Dorien and finally got the low down on Wolfram and Hart, they’d all assumed I knew about them, because I worked with Buffy. I figured that Lindsey hadn’t made the connection between Xander Harris, Slayerette and Alex Lavell who strips in demon bars; but sooner or later he’d see my wallet or something and figure it out. I packed my stuff and was halfway back to Sunnydale by the time he got out of court for the day.”


“You didn’t confront him?”


“Hell no, I didn’t want to risk that.”


“You were afraid of him?” That didn’t fit what Angel knew of Xander, he’d never been one to back away from a fight.


“I was afraid, but of me not Linds. I was scared that if I stayed, he’d be able to talk me out of leaving, I just wasn’t sure I’d be strong enough to do it to his face.”


“You loved him?”


“Maybe, I was starting to, guess my taste in men is as appalling as my taste in women, thank god I’ve got Graham. Though I’m starting to wish I hadn’t been completely honest with him about my past, he’s going to be really pissed about Lindsey and he’s insecure enough without that.”


“Do you want me to go with Spike instead of you?”


“No, I’d rather get the confrontation done away from here, but maybe you could come with us; just so long as you promise not to kill him on sight.”


“Can I at least hit him a little?”


“No, if Spike isn’t allowed to hit him, neither are you.”


“Oh, please.” Now Angel’s voice was a plaintive whine.


“Ok, Angel joking, now I’m disturbed beyond belief.”


“What, you can change but I can’t?”


“Yeah, but my only previous memories of you being happy involve Angelus and lots of dead bodies. There’re a couple of other things we need to talk about before we leave.” Xander took a deep breath and tried to figure out how to explain everything without upsetting Angel too much. “Graham can heal Cordelia, we sent a team to the hospital to get her and she should be here by the time we get back.”


Angel was stunned, he’d almost begun to give up hope of ever getting Cordelia back. “You’re sure he can help her?”


“Yes, but you have a decision to make before that happens. Willow was working on a spell to secure your soul, she’d been trying to figure it out ever since Sunnydale. She finally got it right just before she died.”


“You mean that Cordy and I…..?”


“I don’t know, but I doubt it. The only way to be sure that you’ll never lose your soul again is for you to merge with your demon. The soul would be in charge, so we wouldn’t have to worry about Angelus going on a rampage; but the demon would get some sway over what you do. I know how your soul feels about Cordy, but unless your demon feels the same you won’t want to be with her after the merging.”


“So I can stay the way I am, love her but never be able to touch her; or I can become whole and probably fall out of love with her?”


“I know it sucks, but I thought you might want to decide before Graham heals her, it’d probably be easier on you both that way.”


“It’s not really a choice is it? I have to do the spell, otherwise everyone I care about would always be at risk.”


“At least wait until we get back before you tell Amy that you want to do it. You should talk to Spike, that’s where Willow got the idea, his soul and demon are already merged; so he could tell you what to expect. The sun’s almost down, we should grab Spike and get out of here.”


The three men were all caught up in their own minds as they headed out. Spike was none too pleased to hear about Xander and Lindsey and wasn’t sure why his Sire wanted to come with them. He knew how badly Angel was torn over the soul spell, but couldn’t figure out how to help him decide. Angel was busy trying to get his head around the idea of Xander and Lindsey together; and wanting to figure out a way to get his Childe to trust him again. Thinking about Cordelia and the soul spell was just too painful, so he tried to put it out of his mind. Xander was just plain distracted; he really wanted to be doing anything but this, seeing Lindsey again was going to be awful and he’d no idea how he was going to explain it to Graham. With everything he had going on, all the decisions he had to make about the fight to come, he knew that this should be an irrelevance; but he couldn’t help freaking out at the thought of being around his old lover. The three men practically ignored each other as they set out, only talking briefly when they decided to pick up Ethan first.


Approaching the hotel where Amy had located the mage they stopped and began to work out how to approach him.


“Spike and I can probably hold him, chaos magic doesn’t work too well on vampires, there’s nothing living for it to stick to.”


“Lets hold off on the violence, I think that maybe Ethan will be co-operative without it.”


“How’d do you mean pet? Seem to remember the bloke was a right pain in the arse.”


“Yeah but he never tried to really hurt Giles.”


“Turned him into a Fyarl demon, was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.” At Angel’s look of disapproval, Spike continued, “Got a soul, didn’t have my sense of humour removed.”


“Okay, he turned Giles into a demon, but it wasn’t like he didn’t know we’d figure it out; he spent more time warning Giles about the initiative then he did tormenting him. Made me think about the other times he hit Sunnydale, he never actually did anything to endanger Giles’ life, just made a giant pain of himself. They had a history, back in Giles’ Ripper days and I think that Ethan’s going to be looking for a little revenge himself.”


“Well revenge is sort of my speciality.” They spun around to see Ethan Rayne standing just a few feet away, “You know I’m sort of disappointed, I expected you people to show up days ago, I was beginning to think that I’d have to get the bastards by myself.”


The two vampires really didn’t like the fact that Ethan had been able to sneak up on them, but decided to let Xander handle things; whilst they kept an eye out for any unwanted observers.


“Sorry for the wait, but the whole world saving thing doesn’t exactly come with a schedule. I presume I don’t need to give you the big speech about the end of the world; as it seems you already know what happened to Giles.”


“I know he died, and that he died violently, the papers he sent me told me about the prophecies, I suppose you’re the White Knight he was so concerned with; what I don’t know is exactly who killed him.”


“A wannabe watcher named Andrew held the knife, but it was the Immortal who gave the order, him and Buffy.”


“Ripper’s Slayer, never did like her. I’ll give you the papers but Andrew’s mine.”


“Not a problem, though you’ll get a lot of offers of help, you’d be surprised how bloodthirsty some of my Slayers have gotten lately. You’ve got the papers?”


“Right here, “ Ethan tapped his jacket pocket, I would have come to you but I couldn’t seem to get a fix on your location at all.”


“Amy’s done a pretty good job of hiding our location, do you think you’ll be able to work with a Wicca? We’d be even safer if we double up on the wards and they’d never expect us to have access to chaos magic.”


“I’ll work with whoever it takes to get this done, though I’m rather surprised you trust me.”


“I don’t but I remember that when we took the initiative down Giles tried to find you, he cared enough to try and make sure they hadn’t hurt you too much. Besides if I even get a hint you’re betraying us, I’ll just feed you to Spike.”


Ethan swallowed hard when he heard Xander talk about Giles looking for him, his feelings for the other Englishman had never changed, but he’d always wondered if ripper still felt the same about him. Biting back his grief, he refused to think about the wasted years, the time they’d lost; instead he’d focus on making those that killed his love pay, and pay dearly.


By the time they got to Spike’s apartment you could cut the tension with a knife; they’d spent the journey telling Ethan everything they could about their situation, but couldn’t delay going inside any longer. Ethan looked at the tense and angry faces on the three men and asked. “What exactly did this gentleman do to get you all so riled up? I thought he was just a lawyer, but he seems to have you all spooked.”


“Fucking git pretended to be my Seer, tried to tell me I was important to the Powers. He bloody played me like a kid, not something I take lightly.”


“Tried to kill me and my people more times than I care to count.”


“Old boyfriend.”


Ethan heard the three replies and then asked. “Maybe you’d like me to deal with him?”


“Much as I’d enjoy that, according to Lorne we need him in one piece; at least for now. Spike why don’t you and Angel go in, Ethan and I will wait out here until we’re sure he’s in there.”


As he pushed open the door of the apartment, Spike could smell Lindsey in the room; he so wanted to rush in and beat the slimy bastard to a pulp, and it was only his Sire’s hold on his arm that enabled him to keep control. “Lindsey.” Spike’s voice was ice cold as he spoke the single word of greeting.


The lawyer looked up and saw that Spike wasn’t alone, he blanched a little when he saw Angel, but surprisingly, he didn’t smell at all afraid. “Looks like you found me out, well it was fun whilst it lasted.”


“Fun?” Now Spike’s voice was a growl and he began straining against Angel’s grip. “You played with my fucking life.”


“Wasn’t about you Spike, you were just a means to an end. Now as it’s over I think I’ll be going.”


“What makes you think we’re going to let you leave?” Angel sounded deadly calm as he looked Lindsey directly in the eyes.


“We did this act before, remember? I hate you, you hate me; I do something despicable and you want me dead. But you guys are the heroes, which means you don’t go around killing humans in cold blood. Now I’ve better things to do then look at your brooding face all day.”


Before Lindsey could get near the door, Ethan entered the room. “You’re right, hero types always have a problem with murder, fortunately nobody ever accused me of having heroic tendencies and I’d be more than happy to prove it.”


Lindsey could feel a great deal of power coming from the stranger, he was pretty sure it was chaos magic, and he tried to remember who in LA could wield that sort of power. Finally he brought a name to mind, from an old file at Wolfram and Hart. “Ethan Rayne?”


“Well done, I’m glad my reputation proceeds me, that means you understand that I don’t make idle threats. I had some dealings with your former employers and I’m certain you remember what happened when one of your colleagues tried to double cross me.”


“You know Angel, I was kidding when I told Spike that taking over the office had corrupted you; but if you’re working with someone like this maybe I was right.”


“Much as I love the irony of you making moral judgements, we don’t have time for this. Ethan and I are both working for someone else; it just happens that right now we’ve got a common enemy. Now grab your coat and get moving, you’re coming with us.”


“Do I get to know who it is that you’re working for?”


“Xander Harris.” Angel watched as Lindsey tried to identify the unfamiliar name.


“What, the kid who used to hang out with your Slayer? Coming down in the world aren’t you.”


Before Angel could reply, Xander ran into the apartment. “I just got a call from Faith, we’re needed back at the hotel, just grab him and lets go.”


Lindsey couldn’t believe his eyes; he just stared at the man who’d entered the room, not hearing the conversation going on around him. Reaching up one hand he tried to touch the damaged side of Xander’s face, but Angel grabbed him before he could get too close, his voice was barely audible as he whispered one word. “Alex?”

tbc……..