THE COLONY OF LOST SOULS
Chapter One

"The small cities he had grown up in were lost; the way of life he had known had been long forgotten. Now the world
was a constant battle; the forces of good and evil fighting to gain the upper hand. Gone were the days where evil lurked behind the
shadows, where people lived in blissful ignorance of the forces around them."- Chapter One

Title: The Colony of Lost Souls
Author: crystalix
Rating: 14A
Summary: In a world where good and evil are in a constant battle, where the tables are turned and civilization is now the players-- it’s dangerous to be different. With a dark secret that no one would have expected, a demon is sent to an all too human colony by the very people who wish to destroy him. With the help of a girl who knows nothing more about herself than he does, Angel is thrown into a dangerous world of betrayal, deceit, and love. Leaving him with the standing question; is this all really about him?
Pairing: Buffy/Angel
Disclaimer: All characters (throughout the entire story) belong to Joss Whedon and co. This is with the exception of “Richard Garrison” who is a creation of my own.
Distribution: Please ask first!
A/N: Alternate Universe Fic, takes place in some future timeframe. Yes: There is vampires and demons, yes: there is a council (their roll is somewhat different) but no watchers, and as for the slayers you’ll have to wait and see. But no, Buffy is not a slayer at this point. And as another side note, Angel does have a soul but his past has changed and there is NO happiness clause. The gypsies decided he would be too broody for the nasty, anyway.

Chapter One: COLS

Slowly, carefully, Angel took a deep breath and peered up to the towering structures before him. Two great walls; higher than even he had ever seen and impenetrable from the outside. Around him were half a dozen guards; each glaring at him in a way he had grown accustomed to over the years. It was not his choice to be here, in fact for the past few centuries he had purposely avoided coming near places like these. But the decision was now out of his hands. Some things in life you couldn’t escape, and this place was one of them. It would have been useless to fight orders, in such situations its better to pack your things and move along, they tend to be a little more considerate if you cooperate. Which, for now, was what he needed.

You see, Angel witnessed something that very few people had; the transformation of an entire civilization. The small cities he had grown up in were lost; the way of life he had known had been long forgotten. Now the world was a constant battle; the forces of good and evil fighting to gain the upper hand. Gone were the days where evil lurked behind the shadows, where people lived in blissful ignorance of the forces around them. Now no one could deny the secrets that they had ignored for so long, no one dared pretend it wasn’t there.

Now, humanity survived in small colonies scattered across the globe. They worked under a single group of superiors; only seeing, doing, thinking what they were taught to think-- the right to live where and how they pleased had been stripped from them long ago. Then again, a lot of things about humanity had fallen into the gutter over the last few centuries.

As expected, the not-so human community lived under their own system-- the rules of free reign. Those who fought for evil were rewarded; they lived as lavishly as they felt necessary and had no one to report to. A rewards system of sorts, as twisted as the idea may seem. But the demons that were peaceful… they lived the most dangerous life. They were shunned by their kind, if they lived past the exposure of their “good deeds”. And their fate if they turned to humans was less than an improvement. There a life of isolation and assault faced them. Most humans didn’t care if you were peaceful or not, being different is a hostile threat.

Angel fit somewhere in this category.

A three hundred year old vampire, cursed with conscience, a soul, for nearly two centuries now. Gypsies, was his big mistake.

He would have probably been one of the great leaders of the war if things had gone a bit differently, his demon’s thirst for bloody havoc would have fit right in. Unfortunately for him, fate had other plans. On one pivotal night Angel made the mistake of snacking on a tribe leader, and before he knew it he was on the ground, clutching his head and driving himself to near insanity-- the guilt of his sins hitting him all at once. Since that day, he’s lived in solitude, helping whenever he could and never letting anyone close to him. Every few months he would have to move; someone would figure out who he was. However, even with his private lifestyle, even he was no stranger to scrapes with death. People don’t tend to react well to his situation.

Only few hours ago the tall man had been living in what was left of New York; a city that was overrun by demons long ago (and now, mostly deserted). It wasn’t his favourite place in the world, but he had been there for a few months and had found it a nice change from the battlefield of London. There privacy had been deemed almost impossible; someone was always watching you. New York, on the other hand, had become such a void that everyone kept to themselves; and no one had ever given Angel a second glance.

Then one day, just before sunset, there was a knock on Angel’s door. Before he had time to decide to ignore it, they had broken down the door and he suddenly found himself surrounded by a couple dozen fully armed warriors. All sent by the not-so-demon loving council. That was anything but a fun experience.

The council, unlike its formerly shady days, is one of the most powerful groups out there. Divided throughout the world, they control all of the human cities, making them one of the major players in the war. They had demanded that he report to a colony in California (which was, ironically, home to their main base), and had promptly thrown him into the back of a van headed towards his new “home”.

And that’s how he ended up here. Standing in front of the great walls that surrounded an equally powerful colony. The council had made it nicely impossible for any uninvited guests to get in-- the front gates were far too massive to knock down and the guards would pose a problem to anyone who tried. Feeling one of his escorts kick the back of his leg, Angel reluctantly walked through the entrance. And as he heard the giant doors slam shut behind him, he knew that was it.

He would never be able to walk through those doors again.

End of Chapter One.

 

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