Disclaimer: Victoria, Kane, and Elizabet belong to me.  Angel, Cordelia, Connor (Jack), Gunn, Fred, Lorne, and the whole vampire bit belong to Mutant Enemy and Joss Whedon.  The Legacy and related characters belong to the SciFi channel…I think.  Anyway, not me.  Kenny and the concept of Immortality belong to Rysher.

This takes place directly after the Angel season 2 finale (what can I say?  I was inspired) and during my story “Shadows of Forever,” Victoria’s first year with the Legacy, but before the Jonathan Boyle incident.

Rated PG-13 for the usual violence, language, and general insanity.  Enjoy!

May, 2002

“Look, Victoria, I know you feel like you need to head for Los Angeles, but we’ve got two different projects about to bust, and Kenny is still in Europe,” Elizabet Aspen told her friend, glancing up from where she was sprawled on her bed working on her laptop.  “I can’t in good conscience let you go right now.  Have you talked to Kane about this?”  The young looking woman ran her hands through her long blonde hair and sighed.  Research was not one of her favorite activities.

Victoria DiThon Kestral tried not to glare too harshly at her friend and fellow Legacy member as she leaned against the doorframe of Elizabet’s room.  “Yes, I have.  He warned me about what you would say, and also told me to tell you that he can handle the Lee case on his own.  I happen to agree.”

“Victoria….”  Elizabet looked at her warily, hands pausing once again over the keyboard.

“Beta, Derek told you himself that he thinks Kane is well on his way to being one hell of a demonologist.  He deserves the lead on this case,” Victoria refuted.  She shook her head.  “But that’s not the point.  The point is that I’m not needed for either of these cases.  The two of you are more qualified, and the San Francisco House will back you up if you need it.  I’d just be muscle anyway.”

Elizabet sighed again and rolled her eyes.  “I know, I know.  You’re too damn convincing for your own good.  Fine.  How long are you planning on being gone?”

Smiling, Victoria replied, “Not very long, honestly.  Just long enough to find out what the hell is going on with Angel.”  She pulled off her Precept’s ring – a mere formality, since the Island Legacy House was run democratically – and walked across the room to hand it to Elizabet.  “You’re in charge until I get back.  I’ll keep my cell on in case you do need me.”

“Sounds good.”  She shrugged.  “Hell, the way these cases are going, I honestly don’t know how much further we’ll have gotten on them by the time you get back.  The Lee case could blow at any moment, which is why I’m probably going to station Kane in the city until it does…but this mess with the Namaric case is taking forever.  I hate hauntings.  Especially when we can’t even tell if the spirit is good or malevolent.  Or real.”  Elizabet sat up and shut down her laptop.  “Get out of here, Tor, before I make you do more research.”

“Good luck, Beta,” Victoria answered, grinning.  “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”  At that, she headed down the hall towards her own room to pack.  Working for the Legacy, an international group that investigated the paranormal, was one of the best jobs Victoria had had in a long time, but sometimes family just had to come first.  Especially when said family was – literally – related by blood.  While she may not have been a full vampire, Victoria was not one to leave her sire Angel hanging.

On the drive from San Francisco to Los Angeles, Victoria wondered more about this latest message from Angel Investigations.  In all of her two hundred odd years, she had never heard of precedence to this whole situation – and she had spent a frustrating seven and a half hours in the San Francisco House’s control room doing research on it before Derek Rayne, Precept of said House, had told her to take a break.  Two vampires siring a *human* child.  And Angel and Darla being the parents, no less.  It could have something to do with Angel having a soul, but Victoria preferred not to think about that, being part vampire with a soul herself.  At least Immortals were sterile – Victoria was really not interested in motherhood.

First there had been the ecstatic phone call at four o’clock in the morning a few months ago while she was still at St. Mary’s College doing a Legacy mission.  It had taken a bit of work, but Victoria had finally managed to figure out that what Angel was telling her was that he had a son.  She would have headed for Los Angeles then, but the St. Mary’s case blew open the next day and she hadn’t been able to leave.

Later, when Victoria was back in San Francisco, she’d been ready to take the trip down, but Angel had told her about all the nastiness surrounding baby Connor, and the desire for the company Wolfram and Hart to get their hands on him.  Being sought after by Wolfram and Hart herself, it had been wise for Victoria to stay away.

Then, two weeks ago, she had received yet another disturbing phone call telling her that Connor had been kidnapped.  Once again, Victoria had been ready to drop everything to help out Angel, but the San Francisco House had run into some trouble with a case and needed every available hand.

And now…that was the weirdest part of all.  Angel had called her in excitement once again, saying that his son was back – as a teenager, no less.  That had settled it.  Victoria needed to find out what the hell was going on with her sire, and that involved leaving Legacy business to Elizabet and Kane.

An accident on the highway delayed her drastically, and it was late at night as Victoria drove through downtown Los Angeles, trying to find the Hyperion Hotel.  Suddenly, nervous jitters flew through her stomach.  It finally sank in – Angel’s son was now a *teenager*.  All of her early thoughts of playing cool older sister were now moot.  Physically, Connor was older than her.

“Shitty,” Victoria muttered to herself, though with a smile, as she finally spotted the hotel.  “Well, at least now I don’t have to change diapers.”  She parked her SUV on the side of the street in front of the hotel and hopped out, sheathing her sword in her long coat out of habit.  Victoria had no fears that no one was home.  Angel was definitely nocturnal, even if his colleagues were human.

Pulling open the double doors, she descended the steps into the hotel lobby, scanning the room for any signs of life.  Victoria knew what sort of sight she made – a tall teenage girl with short brown hair (currently devoid of hair dye) bedecked in a long trench coat.  If she had been a Goth, she’d have fit right into LA, but for now she was just an unusual sight.

“Hello?” she called out hesitantly.  “Anyone home?”

“Can I help you?” A young woman’s voice tinged with a Texan accent answered her, and said woman appeared behind the counter.  She tried to appear cheerful, but Victoria easily spotted the worry hidden beneath the façade.

Victoria walked across the lobby towards the desk, smiling at the woman.  “Hi.  I’m Victoria DiThon Kestral.  Is Angel anywhere around here?  I’m a friend of his.”

The young woman’s face brightened and she waved her hands slightly in excitement.  “I’ve heard of you!  Angel has pictures of you!”  She hurried around to the other side of the counter and shook Victoria’s hand.  “I’m Fred.  It’s nice to meet you!”

Smiling, Victoria returned the gesture.  “You, too.  I managed to get some time off from my job to come down and meet the infamous Connor.  He here?”

Fred’s face fell slightly, and her eyes suddenly focused behind Victoria’s back.  “Charles!  Did you find any of them?”  Victoria turned to face a young black man, a serious expression on his face.  He walked up to Fred and placed a comforting arm around her waist.

“No one’s at Cordy’s place, and her car is gone, too.  Any answer on their cells?” the young man replied, brow furrowed in concern and confusion.

Fred shook her head.  “None at all.  Oh!  But this is Angel’s friend Victoria.  She just got here.”

“Hey, my name’s Gunn.  It’s nice to meet you.  Heard some about you.”  He also shook Victoria’s hand and tried to appear cheerful.

But Victoria knew something was up.  “Okay, what’s going on here?  I get a call saying that Angel has a son.  Then one saying the kid’s been kidnapped.  And *then* a call that he’s back, but a teenager.  I’m really confused now – came down here to find out what the hell is going on.”  She crossed her arms over her chest and waited expectantly for an explanation.

Gunn sighed.  “That’s what we’re trying to figure out.  Let’s sit down, shall we?”

Victoria stared at the two members of Angel Investigations.  “I remember Angel telling me about Holtz once.  Yet another in his long line of regrets.  This is nuts.”

“Tell me about it,” Gunn replied.  “And now we can’t find Angel, Cordelia, *or* Connor.  Something really strange is going on.  And I’ve got a weird feeling about it.”

“You and me both,” Fred said, moving closer to her boyfriend.  “I wish Lorne hadn’t left.”

Victoria sighed and leaned against a pillar – she had gotten up to wander around and examine the lobby while Gunn and Fred told their story.  “I should have known something like this would happen.  It’s impossible for me to take a normal vacation,” she muttered.  When Gunn and Fred looked at her in confusion, she smiled and shook her head.  “Never mind.  Well, looks like you’ve got someone else to help look for them.”  Victoria looked at the two people in front of her more closely.  “You two look wiped.  Why don’t you guys head home and I’ll do some looking of my own?  I’ll go check out that motel you said he and Holtz had been staying at.”

Gunn nodded slowly.  Normally he would have been reluctant to leave something like this to a girl (a woman, he reminded himself) that he barely knew.  But he had heard a few of Angel’s stories involving his history with this Victoria DiThon Kestral, and knew that she would never cause his friends harm.  Cordy had apparently even met her once.  Besides, he really was tired.  “Thanks,” he said simply.  “Let me get you some directions.”

Twenty minutes later, Victoria pulled up in front of the small motel, proud of herself for only getting slightly lost once.  She was also glad that she’d been able to sleep in this morning before confronting Kane and Elizabet around mid-afternoon.  Going on three o’clock in the morning, it had already been a long night.

This time before Victoria stepped out of the car, she also buckled on the wrist sheaths containing her stilettos and placed her gun in the holster at the small of her back.  Yes, she had heard Angel tell of the vampire hunter known as Holtz.  He may be an old man now, but Victoria knew better than to underestimate him.

She headed up the stairs by the parking lot and down the hall, checking room numbers as she went.  To her surprise, the door she was looking for stood partially open.  Knocking lightly, she called out a tentative “Hello?” before pushing the door further into the room.

Almost faster than the eye could see, an unknown arm latched on to hers and pulled her viciously into the room with the intention of slamming her into a wall.  Out of reflex, Victoria twisted her arm out of the vice-like grip, ignoring the chafing of her leather wrist sheath on her bare skin, and spun around, simultaneously snapping the stiletto on her other arm down into her hand and dropping into a fighting stance.

Facing her was a teenage boy with shaggy brown hair in a fighting stance of his own, though sans weapons.  “Who are you?” he growled.

Victoria relaxed the stance, though only minutely, and gave him a friendly grin.  “You must be the kid I’ve heard so much about.  Victoria DiThon Kestral.  I’m a friend of Angel’s-“

Her last thought as a foot snapped out to kick her hard in the side of the head was that perhaps that hadn’t been the best name to bring up.  Something about Gunn and Fred’s story now seemed very, very wrong….

When Victoria awoke, she found herself sitting up in the desk chair within the hotel room, her wrists bound behind her back.  A glance at the clock by the bed told her that it was ten o’clock in the morning, though the curtains in the room were pulled shut to provide the room with a dull twilight.  The stiffness in her neck and back also attested to how long she had been out.  The kid must have kicked hard enough to do brain damage – at least she hadn’t died.  That would have been rather difficult to explain.

Said kid was sitting at a table across the room, examining her gun.  Her sword and stilettos were also on the table in front of him, and her trench coat had been laid across one of the beds.  “Hey, be careful with that,” Victoria said, breaking the silence.  The boy’s head spun around to stare at her, apparently surprised that she was awake.  “And would you mind untying me?  My arms are killing me.”

He merely glared at her, the harsh look in his eyes testament to all he had supposedly gone through in his young life.  “Why should I trust you?  You claim to be a friend to the monster.”

Victoria raised an eyebrow.  “The monster?  You mean Angel?”

“Angelus,” was his only response.

“Okay, Angelus,” she answered with a nod.  “Whatever.  And your name is Connor?”

“My name is Stephen,” the teenager growled.

Victoria didn’t think he was expecting her response, which was to smile.  “Fine, Connor, Stephen, whatever.  I think I’ll call you Jack.”  When he did not answer with an affirmative or negative, she nodded.  “Fine, Jack it is.  You can call me Victoria, though Toria or Tor will do in a pinch.  And yes, I am on rather good terms with Angelus.  We’ve tried to kill each other on more than one occasion, and if that doesn’t cement a friendship, what does?”

Now Jack was just shaking his head at her.  “You’re insane,” he said quietly.

“So I’ve been told more than once.  Now, if I promise not to go after my weapons, will you untie me?”  Victoria again smiled charmingly.

Shaking his head, as if doing this against his better judgment, Jack walked across the room and snapped the ropes binding her wrists to the chair.  He remained near her, poised for action, as Victoria merely stretched her arms and back, popping her neck and rubbing her wrists.

“Much better,” she said.  Looking up at Jack, she studied him carefully.  “So the stories were true.  You are strong.”

Jack shrugged and returned to his original seat.  “I guess.”

“And you definitely are your parent’s son,” Victoria continued, hoping to break through at least a few of his carefully constructed barriers.  Cordelia may have healed him of the taint of the hell dimension he had spent most of his life in, but only time would heal the emotional scars of what he had lived through.  Time and friendship, which Victoria was more than willing to provide.

“What makes you say that?” he asked quietly, picking up one of the stilettos and examining it with great interest.

She shrugged.  “Well, you’ve got your father’s coloring and looks.  And your mother’s charming personality, certainly.”  Victoria stood up slowly, waiting for Jack to tense.  When he did not react in a hostile manner, she carefully crossed the room and settled into the chair across from him, but made good on her word not to go for her weapons.

Her last comment was what had startled Jack into silence.  While the past few days had been full of anguish over which man to consider his father, there had been not one mention of his mother, the vampire Darla.  Holtz had told him she had died giving birth to him, but not details – he always claimed that the memories were too painful.  “You…you knew my mother?”

Victoria gave him another disarming smile (he hated how she did that) and nodded slowly.  “Darla?  Yes, I knew her.  Loyal to no one but herself and an unholy bitch, but you have to admit that she came through in the end.”

“What do you mean by that?” Jack asked slowly.  “My dad – Holtz – told me that she died when she was having me.”

“You mean no one told you?” Victoria asked, surprised.  “No, I guess they wouldn’t, not in all the confusion.  Hon, Darla didn’t die giving birth to you.  She *killed* herself in order to save your life.”  Jack stared at her, the pain in his eyes willing it to be untrue.  “Would I have any reason to lie to you?  Darla was my friend,” she said, in a gentler voice.  The two lapsed into silence, at first neither willing to make the next move.

Yet somehow, this short conversation caused Jack to reach a decision.  “I want to leave this city.  Los Angeles,” he said, halting on the name.

“Why?” was Victoria’s only response.

In yet another impressive display of his vampiric heritage, Victoria suddenly found one of her stilettos at her throat.  Apparently he was planning on using force to get what he wanted.  But she met his eyes steadily, not moving a muscle, and slowly the knife lowered and the pain in Jack’s eyes overflowed in the form of tears.  “Because…because I don’t know what to do anymore.”

Victoria stood up from her chair and walked around the table, kneeling on the floor.  She gently removed the stiletto from Jack’s hand and gathered him in her arms, laying his head on her shoulder.  And she held the boy as he cried and clung to her, trying to be rid of all the pain he had collected in such a short life.

And Victoria held the boy who was her brother, and vowed that it would be a long time until he would be hurt again.

A short time later, Victoria and Jack had cleaned out the hotel room and were back in Victoria’s car.  They were sitting in the parking lot of the hotel still, trying to figure out what to do.  Finally, Victoria shrugged.  “We may as well go north, to where I live.  San Francisco, a few hours from here by car.”  She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye.  “First of all, however, we’re going shopping.”

Jack gave her a look of confusion.  “Shopping?”

“Yes, we’re buying you new clothes,” Victoria said with an adamant nod of her head.  “Because frankly, those reek.”  She started up the car and pulled away from the hotel and further into the city.  “Usually I’d take you to see some other friends of mine here in town, but I don’t think you’d like them too much.  So I guess we’re on our own.”

“Why wouldn’t I like them?” Jack asked sarcastically.

Giving him a glance out of the corner of her eye, Victoria replied, “Because I know you have something against anyone who isn’t exactly human.  No big deal to me, but I’d rather not instigate anything.”

The teenager merely shrugged and turned again to look out the window.  Suddenly, he turned to her again.  “You are human, yes?”

Victoria laughed.  “Sure, kid.”  After that, the conversation ceased.

Late that evening, Victoria pulled up to her usual parking spot in front of the Island Legacy House, between Elizabet’s car and Kane’s motorcycle.  Had it only been a little over twenty-four hours since she had left?  Elizabet would be surprised to see her back so quickly, that was for sure.  Victoria hopped out of her seat, prompting Jack to exit the car as well, grabbing his bags of new belongings out of the back seat before following her to the door of the House.  He had been surprised to see the San Francisco House as they drove by, and Victoria had hid a smile at the look on his face when he realized that they wouldn’t be staying there.

“Welcome to Island House,” Victoria said, unlocking the door and entering.  “Home of the largest Legacy reserve team, responsible mainly for North and South America, and a little bit of Pacific Rim Asia.”  Jack was merely looking around the large, airy, room, taking in the living area on one side, and exercise area on the other (showing the greatest amount of interest in the collection of weapons hanging on the wall).  “But I’m babbling.  C’mon upstairs and I’ll get you situated in the guest room.”

Victoria led Jack up the spiral stairs and down the hall, idly noting to herself that Elizabet and Kane weren’t in residence by the absences of their Immortal presences.  She showed him where his room and the bathroom were and left him to get settled in, heading back to her room to check her email.  Jack didn’t want to be found, and Victoria respected that, but she owed Angel at least an email telling him that his son was okay.

Jack wandered into her room a bit later and walked slowly around looking at her things while Victoria continued working on her laptop at her desk catching up on business emails from other members of the Legacy.  Eventually he pulled a book off a shelf and sank to the floor, starting to read.  They stayed this way in companionable silence, and finally Victoria put in a CD to enjoy as well.  She considered it appropriate that Jack appreciated the Celtic music, but that was really no surprise considering his heritage.

About an hour later, Victoria was slightly relieved to feel the double presence of Kane and Elizabet wash over her and their auras flash momentarily before her eyes.  She turned to glance at the door automatically, and in doing so caught sight of Jack dropping his book and jumping to his feet.  When no obvious threat appeared, he relaxed, and rubbed his forehead as if it pained him.

Victoria’s eyes widened.  “Holy crap,” she muttered.  Jack looked at her curiously, and Victoria shook her head to clear it.  “Did you just feel something in your head?” she demanded.  “A tingling sensation?”

“Yes,” Jack replied slowly.  “The same thing I felt from you when you entered my room in Los Angeles.  Only this time it was stronger.”

Getting to her feet, Victoria said, “Come on.  I need to introduce you to Beta and Kane.  And we need to talk.  Apparently you didn’t just inherit things from your father and mother.  You got something from me as well.”

Victoria was once again pacing around a room.  Jack was leaning against one of the pillars in the open downstairs, arms crossed and looking fairly disgruntled.  Elizabet sprawled on one of the couches, and Kane Nalamas, Victoria’s student, was idly playing with the cue ball from the pool table.  It was pushing midnight once again, and Victoria was bone tired, but this new situation took precedence over sleep for the moment.

“So let me get this straight,” Jack finally said.  “The three of you are human.  But you are also…immortal?  You will live forever?”

Elizabet gave a glance to Victoria before replying.  A short conference in German while Jack had been sizing Kane up had reached the decision to spill about the Immortality bit, but leave out everything else supernatural about the trio and their friends – psychic gifts and vampirism at the top of that list.  “Yes.  We’re not demons.  We’re a race natural to this dimension, this planet.”

“And trust me,” Kane added slowly.  “I’ve done extensive research on the subject.  There is no correlation to what we are with any other race or species that I have been able to find history on.  And while there are races of demons that are immortal, they have no companion race that is mortal.”

“Then how come I can sense you if I’m not one of these Immortals?” Jack demanded.

“That’s where I come in.  I first met Angel over a hundred years ago, during the first time he had a soul.”  Victoria stopped pacing and dropped onto the couch to sprawl next to Elizabet.  She tilted her head back to study Jack intently.  “There was a fight with some idiots who wanted to kill us, and he was seriously wounded.  I was injured myself, and would not have been able to move him to safety before the sun rose.  So, he drank from me and we ended up sharing blood.”  She sighed.  “This is where genetics comes in.  I know that Darla would drink from Immortals if given the opportunity – hell, one of my best friends was a willing meal for a period of time.  Our blood is…more potent…than a regular human’s.  So between Darla and Angel, you inherited Immortal blood.”

Elizabet’s eyes widened in shock as the implications sank in.  “Damn, Jack.  We just disproved every prophecy written about you!”  She paused to collect her thoughts as the other three in the room looked at her curiously.  “You are human, born of vampire parents.  You inherited their strength and their speed.  But the prophecies couldn’t have predicted the affect that Victoria and Justin-that other Immortals would have had on you.  You’re also part Immortal, something that has never happened before.”

Shaking his head in disbelief, Jack replied, “But I heal as slowly as any human.”

“Well, there is one way to find out,” Victoria said slowly.  She saw people in terms of their auras, and the colors and hues that surrounded them.  To her, Immortals were always the radiant colors of gemstones, but it was the sparks of electricity that danced around them that confirmed that fact.

Elizabet already knew what she was referring to, and held out her hand to Victoria.  She took it, and held her breath as Elizabet’s Quickening unlocked the protections that her own placed around her to prevent the assault on her senses that permanent Aura Sight would have had.  As Jack’s own aura slowly focused and she tuned down the brilliant shades of Elizabet’s bright topaz and Kane’s flashing ruby, Victoria gave a sharp inhalation of surprise.

His aura was almost the exact same main hue as hers, a royal sapphire, only tempered by the darkness of the silver that Angel carried and the roiling gray that had surrounded Darla around the edges, muting it into a deep midnight.  But there they were, the sparkles of light that danced around his Jack’s form to signify the presence Immortal blood – and a Quickening.  He was not an Immortal or a pre-Immortal since the sparks were very faint and spread out, but the power was definitely there.  However, the color of Jack’s aura merely confirmed one thing to Victoria.

She let go to Elizabet’s hand and took a deep breath to let the colors fade away.  “Jack, not only do you carry Immortal blood, but something else important is also true.  You are my brother.  I don’t care what happens with whom you decided your father is.  But in me, you will always have family.”

After another long discussion with Jack, Elizabet, and Kane about the basics of Immortality and trying to figure out whether it was possible for Jack to be sensed and mistaken for an Immortal or pre-Immortal, Victoria was finally able to get to bed.  She left orders not to be woken before noon and fully expected them to be followed.  However, upon wandering downstairs shortly after eleven in the morning, she was surprised to find only Jack waiting for her.

She paused for a moment partway down the spiral staircase – the teenager had requisitioned one of the longstaves from the multitude of weapons displayed on the wall and was executing a brilliant kata with it.  Whether it was an established routine or Jack was just playing, she had no way of knowing, but it still looked damn good.  Victoria was certainly impressed, considering she had no talent with the weapon and lost on a regular basis to her fellow House-members.  She took another step down the stairs and that brought her within range of Jack’s odd Quickening – which, as it had been found, neither she nor the other two Immortals could sense from him at all.

Without missing a beat, he spun around and ended up in a defensive stance with the staff, eyes meeting hers with a look of intensity that still seemed out of place on the young man.  Victoria definitely needed to show him how to party.

“Good morning,” Victoria said, jumping down the last few stairs and wandering into the kitchen.  “Do you know where Kane and Beta are?”

Jack replaced the staff and joined her in the small open kitchen area to accept a bowl of cereal.  “They left before I woke this morning.  There is a note addressed to you on the board by the door.”

“So there is.”  Glancing over, Victoria resisted the automatic urge to telekinetically bring the note to her hand and instead used the more mundane method of retrieving it in order to avoid freaking Jack out.  She scanned it quickly as she returned to the table in the kitchen.  “Well, they went into the city to do some field work on one of our cases.  They’ll give us a call if anything happens.”  Victoria grinned at Jack and took a bite of cereal.  “Now, if I were a good girl, I’d do one of two things: drag you into the city and help them out or introduce you to the other Legacy members on the island, the San Francisco House.  Unfortunately, field research is boring, especially considering how the Namaric case has been going.  And secondly, the San Francisco House members are wrapped up in their own caseloads right now.”

“What exactly do you do in this Legacy?” Jack asked slowly.

“That, my boy, is a good question,” Victoria replied.  “You know how Angel and the others run a private investigative office in order to defend people from the nasties of the world?  Well, the Legacy does the same thing, only on a much larger scale.  We’re a worldwide organization, and not only do we deal with demons, but also ghosts and other paranormal phenomena.  My specialties, for instance, are poltergeists and psychic gifts, though I’m usually also called in for stuff involving vampires, for obvious reasons.”

Jack looked confused.  “What is a poltergeist?  Is that like the hauntings Elizabet was talking about?”

Victoria shook her head.  “Hauntings refer to places or things inhabited by ghosts, the spirits of deceased people.  Poltergeists are…really mischievous spirits that were never exactly human.  I guess you could consider them incredibly minor forms of demons, though a lot of them aren’t out to hurt people.  They just want to have fun and freak people out.”

“Then what are the cases that you three are working on right now?” he asked.  “You don’t seem to be very interested in either.”

“That’s because I’m not,” Victoria replied.  “The Namaric situation is a plain and simple haunting.  The problem is that we honestly can’t figure out whether the house is actually haunted, much less whether the spirit has good or bad intentions.  Elizabet is seriously beginning to think that the people who live in the building are playing a hoax.”  She smiled and shook her head.  “The Lee case is much more complicated.  There’s this couple from China who run a store downtown who seem to have acquired the attentions of a demon.  Not one of the nasty ones, mind you – he just claims that they owe him something.  Kane, our resident demonologist, is going nuts trying to figure out what the situation is because neither side is being very forthcoming about what’s going on.”

Jack narrowed his eyes.  “You should just kill the demon and be rid of the problem.”

Giving Jack a half-smile, Victoria replied, “I understand that you were raised in a hell dimension and all, but you really need to get over this concept that demons are all evil.”  Jack opened his mouth to protest, but Victoria held up her hand to silence him.  “I don’t want to argue with you about it.  Just think about it.  When you think you’re ready, I’ll introduce you to a few demons I happen to be on okay terms with.  But I’m not going to push anything.”  She stood up and placed both bowls of cereal in the sink and crossed the room to the wall of weaponry.

Following, Jack appraised the varied pieces of weaponry.  The residents of the Island House had devised a way to tell apart who owned what by using different colored hooks for each of them.  Victoria and Elizabet’s respective collections marked by blue and yellow hooks were by far the largest, but that was understandable compared to Kane’s relative youth.  “This is…quite impressive,” Jack said quietly.

“Which do you prefer?” Victoria suddenly asked.  “Broadsword, rapier, or a curved blade?”  When Jack looked at her in curiosity, she grinned.  “You know, swords.”

“I don’t exactly know a lot about swords,” Jack replied.  Victoria was slightly surprised at the embarrassed look on his face.  “I’m kinda self-taught when it comes to fighting.”

Shrugging, Victoria pulled down two wooden practice swords.  “These aren’t exactly my first choice, but I know that they’re the kind Angel prefers.”  She handed the makeshift rapier to Jack and backed into the middle of the room and fell into a fighting stance.  “So I’ll start you out with this.  If you’re gonna fight the evil in the world, starting with the old-fashioned methods are always best.  We’ll move on to guns and explosives later.”

“You are going to teach me how to fight?” Jack asked, his expression turning to one of amusement.

“No, you already know how to fight.  I’m going to teach you how to win,” Victoria replied with a cocky grin.  “Prepare to meet your match, kid – vampires and demons may fight dirty, but they’ve got nothing on a two-hundred year old teenager.”

It was around mid-afternoon when Elizabet and Kane finally returned from their foray into San Francisco.  Victoria was finishing getting dressed after her shower to wash away the grime from her practice session with Jack.  Considering he had been self-taught, the kid’s fighting style was not only clean but also deadly.  Only Victoria’s quick reflexes had literally saved her life at one point.  Then again, it was her own fault for telling him not to worry about holding back since it wasn’t as if he could do any permanent damage to her.  In hand-to-hand combat, he was an expert, and he would be wicked with a sword in only a short time.

“Come in,” Victoria said as a knock sounded on her bedroom door.  She already knew that her two Housemates were back, but hadn’t talked with them yet.  Elizabet poked her head in the door as Victoria started to run a brush through her short hair.

“Well, we certainly had a productive morning.  Nice of you to join us.”  The smile on Elizabet’s face belied the harshness of her words.

“Really?  What happened?” Victoria raised an eyebrow at her long-time friend in interest.  “Figure out whether the damn thing was real or not?

“Yes.  And it’s not.”  Sprawling into the armchair in the corner of Victoria’s room, Elizabet heaved a dramatic sigh.  “A hoax, the whole bloody thing.  The couple finally tried to have their ‘ghost’ do a trick with the two of us there.  My empathy is good for something – the entity was a null zone.  As in, nothing there.  And Kane’s knowledge of movie special effects came in handy when he saw right through the act even before I could say anything to him.  Between the two of us, we pretty much called them on the whole thing.  The Namaric Mansion is officially haunting-free.”

Victoria laughed and put down her brush.  “Then that just leaves the Lee case.  Does Kane have any immediate plans for that one?”  Elizabet merely shook her head, her eyes closed in relaxation.  Victoria crossed the room and sat on the arm of the chair, gently running her fingers through her friend’s hair in affection.  “Then methinks tonight we need to party.  To celebrate the finish of that case, and to show Jack how to have a good time.  Who better to teach him than we three nutcases?”

Elizabet opened her eyes and smiled up at Victoria.  “Sounds like a plan, my friend.  Sounds like a plan.”

A relaxing dinner found Jack much more comfortable with the three Immortals.  He finally began to question them about their pasts, and seemed very surprised to learn that Kane was really not much older than he was in real life.  The two actually hit it off quite quickly after that, and spent a gleeful two hours after dinner playing video games in Kane’s room.

Victoria, as penance for not doing much to help with the case, did the bulk of the paperwork for Elizabet after dinner while the younger woman relaxed.  The two girls held a quick debate in the meantime to decide how to celebrate that evening.  Since their current favorite club happened to also be a haunt for the elven population of San Francisco, they decided not to push their luck in terms of how accepting Jack could be in so short a time.

They finally descended upon Kane’s room to tell the boys that the plan was to hit a techno club frequented by normal, human teenagers.  After being forced to play a few rounds of Smash Brothers with Jack and Kane, the four finally left the Island House and piled into Elizabet’s convertible for a night on the town.

It was pushing one in the morning when Elizabet found Victoria taking a break by the club’s “bar” – being an under-age club, all that was served was water and soda.  “You know how life isn’t normal for us?” she began without preamble, still breathing slightly hard from dancing.  “Ever?”

“Yes…” Victoria answered cautiously, handing over her bottle of water without being asked.

“Well, I sensed an Immortal somewhere around here.  Kane’s trying to figure out where the guy is as we speak.  Where’s Jack?” Elizabet stated as Victoria’s face paled.

“Shit,” was her only response.  Ignoring the strange glances she received from those around her, Victoria pulled herself up onto the bar and grabbed Elizabet’s hand.  At first she cringed away from the visual and mental assault that came from invoking her Aura Sight in such a large crowd.  Then, cracking her eyes open a little, she began to tune out the various sights.  First came the task of ignoring the strobe lights – this was a techno club after all.  But that surprisingly helped with tuning out the subtle shades of the teenagers around her.

Now, to search for the preternatural.  There was a group of were-creatures in another corner, evident by the fact that their auras tended to show their furry sides highlighted by gold.  Victoria also spotted a few scattered witches and sorcerers throughout the crowd, but they were all human.  There was, however, so sign of either Jack or another full Immortal.

“Hey kid!” the bartender finally called as Victoria released Elizabet’s hand and shook her head to clear her eyes.  “Get off the bar!”

Victoria jumped off in one smooth motion, and gave the bartender a shrug and a quick grin.  Then she cursed fluently in Welsh.  “No sign of him.  Where did you say Kane was again?”

“He must have gone outside.  Let’s go.”  Elizabet began to push her way through the crowd towards the door.  The two waited impatiently for three giggling girls to clear the way so they could retrieve their coats (and more importantly, the swords contained inside) and shoved their way out into the quiet clear air outside.  Not more than three steps from the door, a double-shot of Immortal presence hit them both.  Elizabet gave Victoria an expectant look.

She shrugged and headed down the street.  “Kane and someone I’ve never seen before.  I hope to the gods that he didn’t just get challenged.”  Suddenly, the two women heard the sounds of clashing swords.  “Fuck,” Victoria said, her eyes widening.  She and Elizabet broke into a run.  Inwardly, she was cursing herself – Kane was still her student.  He was her responsibility.  He should *not* have been challenged, and he knew to come straight to her if he did!

But the sight that met their eyes as they rounded the corner was completely unexpected, especially since the first thing they did was trip over a body.  Elizabet grabbed the back of Victoria’s coat and hauled her up as she pitched forward.  Then they stared at the sight in front of them in shock.

Jack, wielding Kane’s scimitar, was in the midst of an intense battle with an unknown Immortal man.  Elizabet made no move to disturb his concentration, though it obviously looked like the Immortal was no match for the young human.  Apparently Jack had been holding back a lot more than he let on in his session with Victoria that afternoon.

Victoria’s first concern, however, was for her student.  After registering the battle taking place before her, she knelt down and turned the body below her over – thankfully, it was Kane.  A very dead Kane, with an unfamiliar dagger struck through his chest, but still with head attached.  She pulled the dagger out and threw it to the side, then hauled him to the side of the alley and further away from the fight.

So concerned was she with her student, that she only looked up at Elizabet’s cry of dismay.  Victoria’s eyes widened as she saw Jack make the beheading blow to the stranger.  The body dropped, and Jack held his pose for a moment before finally lowering the blade.  He turned to the two women, his face alight in triumph.

But he had forgotten one important aspect of Immortality that he had been taught the night before.  And the brilliant blue lightning that began to flow around the beheaded body did not care who the victor of the fight was.  It only wanted an Immortal to join with.  And the closest one standing to it happened to be Elizabet.

“No!” she shrieked in terror and fury, holding her arms out in front of her.  But the power of the Quickening was not to be stopped.  Jack dove out of the way, and Victoria covered Kane’s body with her own, her own skin tingling with the proximity of the essence of Immortality.

Elizabet was wreathed in mist and blue electricity, and her cries of denial turned into screams of mixing pain and ecstasy.  Victoria closed her eyes against the show, fully recalling from her own memories the agony caused by the Quickening, and knowing that the real pain that was yet to come.  Elizabet had never been a headhunter.  She would most certainly be tormented by this needless death.

Finally, the lightning died and the winds faded away.  Victoria cautiously turned her face back towards the alleyway, unsure of what to expect.  Jack had risen to his feet, and was clutching Kane’s sword, his face echoing with shock.  But Elizabet was kneeling on the ground, her own sword out and held before her.

Slowly her head rose, and in the dim light, Victoria saw that her eyes were black.  Elizabet’s more violent personality, known as Omega, had just taken control, and for good reason.  Jack slowly approached her before Victoria could warn him away.  The blonde woman lithely rose to her feet and placed the tip of her cutlass at Jack’s throat.  In a low voice, she growled, “You have no idea what you have done.”

Jack looked mildly surprised, but did not back down.  “This man jumped us and threw a knife at Kane.  I knew he was an Immortal, so I challenged him to protect Kane.  What is the problem with that?”

“You have interfered with the Game.  You had no right to do what you just did!” Elizabet’s voice sounded cold, and Victoria also stood, hoping that she would be able to prevent Jack from being the next to die.  “Leave.  Now!”  She screamed the last word.  Then her eyes rolled back in her head and she collapsed to the ground, out cold.

Jack turned to Victoria, a wild look in his eyes.  “I can’t do anything right, can I?” was all he said before dropping Kane’s sword and bolting.

But Victoria could not chase him, as Kane heaved a breath back to life that next instant.  Then the two of them had their hands full getting an unconscious Elizabet back to her car and back to the Island House.  If she woke up and Omega was still in control, there was a good chance that violence would ensue once again.

The ride back was silent except for the terse explanation that Victoria gave to Kane as she drove and he held their friend in the back seat, still weak from death.

Jack never showed up back at the Island House that night, or the next day.  Victoria packed up his things and sent them down to Los Angeles, even though there had been no response to her many calls to Angel Investigations.

Elizabet ghosted around the House for a few days, until Victoria and Derek Rayne told her to take a vacation.  She disappeared for exactly a week, and then showed up again with a smile on her face.  She refused to discuss what had happened, though Victoria caught her sitting down on the beach one evening, tears streaming down her face.  She just hoped that Elizabet would accept what had happened soon; otherwise, it would tear her apart inside.  They never did find out who the Immortal was.  And without knowing who their current Watchers were, there was no way to find out.

Kane’s only response to the whole incident was to complain that the challenge should have been his.  At least until Elizabet simply gave him a look of absolute disgust – after that, there was no more mention of it in the Island House.

Victoria could only hope that Jack was okay, and that he had found his way home to Los Angeles.  She had found family in the boy, and had come to care about him for his own sake, and not just Angel’s.  Now she understood that she could not heal him from the scars of his life.  Hopefully the boy would eventually find someone who could.

~finis~

Back to the Fanfiction Page.  Back to the Main Page.

This page was last updated: 2.22.5 ~jlg~