White Knight's War

Awakenings


Angel looked down at Cordelia’s sleeping body and reached out to take her hand. Wanting to hold onto the one person he was sure he could always count on. He’d slipped into her darkened room to get a few minutes of peace whilst Xander’s people finished preparing to go and get Connor.


The day had been overwhelming for the vampire, dealing with Lindsey and Ethan, having the memory spell broken and figuring out that Wolfram and Hart would be going after his son. But Amy’s spell had been the biggest shock of all.


The whole thing had been surreal and almost anti-climactic; the threat of Angelus had been central to his existence for so long, it was hard for him to believe he was truly free. There’d been no blinding light or searing pain; just Amy lightly holding his hands in hers, and chanting soft words in an ancient tongue.


Yet he knew it was done, he felt lighter than he ever had, the un-relenting pressure that had been Angelus straining to be free of his bonds was gone, as if it had never been, and Angel no longer felt as though his every action was a struggle against some unyielding force.


The biggest change had been in his feelings towards those around him. His family, he recognised that he instinctively wanted to take care of them, in the same way Angelus had always protected those he loved. They weren’t just colleagues anymore or friends, nothing so straightforward as that. They were simply his, to watch over, to protect and to love, and though he still cared for Cordelia, now it was the love of a parent; the same as he felt for Connor, Fred, Gunn and Wes. Staring into her beautiful face and having to accept that she no longer held his heart, Angel could only hope that when she woke up, she would understand why he had done this.


He heard someone slip quietly into the room and glanced up to see Graham standing watching him. “I figured it was about time I checked in on my patient, see if I can make a start on healing her. I know Xan can’t wait to have her back, she must be one hell of a woman, the way he always talks about her.”


Angel didn’t bother to answer just moved away from the bed and let Graham take his place, watching concernedly as the former soldier placed his fingers on Cordelia’s head. The soft glow that surrounded Graham’s hands illuminated the Seer’s face, making her look more beautiful than she ever had, and Angel whispered a short prayer that this would work.


Long minutes later Graham pulled his hands away and fell back into the chair, his face was etched with pain and he was panting as though he’d been exercising hard. Angel ground his teeth together in an effort not to just pounce the man and demand answers and that made him realise that his newly merged self might not be as easy to control as he’d thought.


When Graham caught his breath and raised his head to look at Angel, the vampire began to have some kind of idea what this healing was costing the man; he was pale and drawn, with the smell of pain oozing from his every pore. But there was a part of Angel that just didn’t care, Cordelia was his, Graham wasn’t and it was her welfare that was his priority.


Perhaps realising that Angel was at the end of his rope, Graham began to speak, “ I’ve done as much as I can for now. Her mind’s healed and once she rests she should wake up naturally, then I’ll be able to heal her body. It’ll take a little time though, she’s got a lot to recover from, I don’t think she’ll be awake properly ‘til after you return.”


“She’s really going to be okay?” Even now it was hard for Angel to believe he was going to get her back.


“I promise, she’ll be up and around before you know it.”


“And bossing us all around to boot.” Xander’s voice cut into the conversation. “Angel I hate to do this to you, but we’re ready to go.”


With one last look at the bed Angel followed Xander down to the garage. Listening as the young man explained that they didn’t want to risk the exposure of driving all the way to Palo Alto, so the plan was that they’d get just far enough away from the hotel to avoid prying eyes discovering their location, then Dawn would set up a portal that would take them directly to Connor’s street.


As it turned out they were almost too late, when they threw open the van doors it was onto a scene of complete chaos. There were dozens of demons converging on Connor’s home and with them a number of blank faced young women, Xander grimaced as he realised these were Slayers held in Cuore’s thrall.


The soldier in Xander took over as his people piled out into the street and engaged the enemy, he’d told them to try and take any Slayer’s alive, but he didn’t hold out much hope; when they’d fought the bewitched girls before, they’d discovered that they would rather die than be taken.


Even as he was swinging his axe at the nearest demon, Xander was cataloguing the fight going on around him. So far his Slayers were doing fine, and he watched in amazement as Angel tore through Wolfram and Hart’s demons, like they were little more than annoyances to the vampire. This wasn’t the graceful fighter Xander remembered, Angel was moving with a vicious ferocity, literally tearing his enemies apart. It made Xander hope that this was just a case of over-protective parental instincts kicking in because of the threat to Connor, and not a sign that Angelus was running the show. He trusted Amy, but seeing Angel’s gore-splattered form and madly grinning face, reminded Xander a little too much of the dark days in Sunnydale when Angelus had terrorised the town.


After awhile Xander realised that they were starting to break through the line, but that was partly because the demons were more interested in getting to the house than engaging in battle with Xander’s team. Looking up the driveway, Xander could see a figure standing in the shattered doorway. It had to be Connor, the young man had a sword gripped tight in his fist and was desperately trying to stem the tide of demons pouring up the path.


Frightened faces appeared behind the young man, a middle aged couple and three young girls; Xander watched as Connor spoke urgently to what must be his family, shaking his head before motioning them back into the house. He then turned to face the demons, a look of grim determination on his face. Xander knew that look intimately; he’d seen it on his own face often enough. Connor was going to do whatever it took to keep his family safe, unfortunately Xander could tell that Connor’s best wasn’t going to be good enough.


Connor’s newly awakened instincts and memories might be telling him what to do; but it had been too long since that body had fought a demon, and the numbers coming against him were over-whelming. Xander knew he couldn’t let Connor fail, couldn’t stand by and watch him die; so he gathered every bit of his new powers and literally forced his way up to the house, not caring if the demons he fought lived or died, just so long as they got out of his way.


When he finally reached the steps Connor swung around to face him, his sword at Xander’s throat leaving the White Knight to wonder for a second if he was going to die for his trouble, then the younger man caught sight of the crucifix gleaming at Xander’s throat and seemed to decide he was not a threat. Flashing Xander a feral grin, Connor gutted a demon that had been sneaking up behind them before throwing himself back into the fight.


Finally it was over, there were only a handful of demons left and Angel finally had a moment to catch his breath; he knew that he’d probably frightened his allies as much as his enemies, he hadn’t been able to help himself. The thought of Connor being in danger had sent him wild, his only thought had been to protect his son and so he’d thrown himself at Cuore’s people, killing demon and thralled Slayers alike, it didn’t matter that Xander had wanted the girls taken alive, they wanted to hurt his son, so as far as Angel was concerned that was enough to condemn them.


He shook the bloody haze of battle from his eyes as he realised there was no-one left for him to kill, and took just a moment to appreciate that he was standing in full sunlight, before looking for Connor. He got the first sight of his son, just as he and Xander engaged the last few demons, Angel could only watch in awe as the two young men fought back to back; their attacks flowing seamlessly, as though they’d been fighting together for years.


As the last of their enemies dropped to the ground Xander and Connor lowered their weapons and turned to face each other and Angel almost laughed, when he could just make out Xander introducing himself as politely as any dinner party guest. Then he saw it, a smile breaking across Connor’s face, the first truly open and joyful smile that Angel had ever seen him give. Right then it didn’t matter that the smile was for Xander and not Angel; it only mattered that it was the most beautiful thing Angel had ever seen.

Tbc…..