“Xander, will you please tell me what the hell is going on? You’ve been moping around for the last couple weeks and everybody is worried sick.” Cordelia growls at her ex-boyfriend. Xander’s been staring out the window for the last two hours, a haunted look on his face and Cordelia’s finally had enough of the pussyfooting the others have been going through trying to find out what’s bothering the normally cheerful young man.
Xander smiles sadly at Cordy and drops onto the couch across the room with a sigh.
“I guess you’re right Cordy, want to call the others in so I only have to tell this incredible story once?”
“Everybody, get your Asses in here, Xander’s finally going to tell us why he’s been moping around the last two weeks.” Cordy yells at the top of her lungs.
Xander grins sadly at his former girlfriend as the other members of Angel investigations enter the room.
“Okay, whelp, we’re all here. Tell us what’s going on.” Spike says, dropping onto the couch beside Xander and pulling him into his arms.
“Okay, it all started a couple weeks ago when I started having weird dreams.” Xander says, leaning forward and staring Angel directly in the eyes. “I was standing before the Oracles and they were telling me that since my destiny had been changed by Wolfram and Hart, I had been given a second chance but I had to relive my life over again. My old memories and my new memories have been fighting each other ever since.”
“Xander, did the Oracles say how Wolfram and Hart had changed your destiny?”
“Yes, and that’s part of the reason why I’ve been hiding from everybody.” Xander says, pulling off the dark glasses he’d been wearing and showing everybody his eyes had changed from a chocolate brown to blue. A second later they change back to brown. “You see, in our original timeline, I wasn’t Xander Harris.”
“Who are you, Xander?” Giles asks softly as Angel sits upright, nostrils flaring as he stares at Xander. Xander smiles sadly at Angel as the vampire abruptly stands up and crosses the room to stand before the couch where his Childe Spike and Xander and sitting.
“How?” Angel asks, pulling Xander into his arms, then holding the boy at arms length as he looks at him through new eyes. Now the mannerisms that had always annoyed him in the past make sense. Why the boy had seemed familiar when he had first met him and why Xander was the only person his demon hadn’t tried to hurt, rather he’d protected him from any danger. Angelus stops howling in his cage and begins to purr, and Angel allows the demon to emerge, allowing them both to exist in one body.
“Wolfram and Hart’s actions altered my timeline too greatly for the PTB to simply return me to you.” Xander says softly, his hand cupping Angel’s face as he talks to both demon and Soul, “and I needed to be the champion. So they sent me back in time to grow up as Xander Harris.”
“Xander, who are you?” Giles asks again.
“Would you care to do the honors . . . Father?” Xander asks Angel, pulling Spike to his feet so both vampires have him in their arms.
“Father?” Everybody in the room except Xander and Angel/Angelus screams.
“Everybody,” Angel says smiling, “I’d like you to meet my son. Connor Alexander Harris Angel.”