Confessions of a Liberal Puritan

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Author's note: This fic is an alternative 3rd installment in my Not-So-Blithe Spirits series (an optional sequel/companion piece to Apocalypse, Now and Then which can be read in place of "What Are Very Old Friends For?") and is dedicated to fanfiction.net reviewer Smallville-HarryPotterfan13, who suggested a rather different Buffyverse identity for a certain heroic soul from the Hercules/Xena pantheon.

The plot-bunny for this particular alternative-AU installment hopped so far into the ‘fluff zone’ that I don’t think it’s ever coming back, so consider yourself warned. :)

Disclaimer: As usual, I own nothing and make no profit from playing with these characters. Any theological implications from this work should not necessarily be taken at face value. Readers are advised to consult the religious professional of their choice before trying this theology at home.

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"THE TROUBLE WITH ARCHANGELS"

Spirits when they please
Can either sex assume, or both.
John Milton, Paradise Lost. Book i. Line 423.

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( Read more... )

I had thought this was possitively the last story in the series that started back in 2007 with Even Archangels Get the Blues, but it turns out . . . not so much.

This is really a companion piece to Apocalypse, Now and Then telling Connor's side of 'what happened next?' at the end of the final AtS episode "Not Fade Away" -- as seen through a very Hercules: The Legendary Journeys-tinted lens.

Warning: This story contains some references to possible romantic entanglements between souls that were once relatives in former lifetimes. Don't read, if that will disturb you.

Standard disclaimers apply. I don't own and I make no profit from playing with the characters and plots of H:TLJ and AtS.

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( WHAT ARE VERY OLD FRIENDS FOR? )

( links to the previous installments )

APOCALYPSE, NOW AND THEN

Epilogue: “A Little Apocalypse, Now and Then” (or “Story Teller, Revisited”)

Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth
Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep.
John Milton, Paradise Lost. Book iv. Line 677.

Somewhere nearby, a little later . . .

Andrew Wells, self-styled Watcher Extraordinaire and Trusted Confidante of the ‘Slayers of Vampyres’, crept out of his hiding place behind some flattened cardboard boxes in the fenced-off dead end of an alley.( Read more... )

( links to the previous installments )

APOCALYPSE, NOW AND THEN

Chapter Six: “Working Out Your Own Salvation”

I was all ear,
And took in strains that might create a soul
Under the ribs of death.
John Milton, Comus. Line 560.

Still in Angel's corner of reality, but a few minutes earlier . . .

When he finally managed to track down Angel’s scent in the midst of the many competing and even less appealing odors of recently dead demons and burning dumpsters, Spike found his annoying grand-sire deep in conversation with the very same winged interloper that he’d half-intended to warn Angel against( Read more... )

( links to the previous installments )

[So sorry for the unconscionably long delay, but I've decided to post this problematic chapter and the two final chapters that come after it just as they are, with all their un-beta'd flaws, lest another four years pass before I finish what I started.]

APOCALYPSE, NOW AND THEN

Chapter Five: “Apokalypsis, or Dropping the Veils”

Servant of God, well done; well hast thou fought
The better fight.
John Milton, Paradise Lost. Book vi. Line 29.

Meanwhile, back in Angel's corner of reality . . .

Angel felt as though he was teetering on the brink of an abyss of hopelessness, now that most of his Ares memories had been restored.( Read more... )

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On to Chapter Six: Working Out Your Own Salvation

[Second 'mea culpa' note: I cannot apologize sufficiently to readers of this story -- if you're still out there -- for letting this sit unfinished for the past four years. I found and revised my draft of chapter five this afternoon, after work, and even though it lost none of the 'preachiness' that my beta readers had been concerned about back in the Spring of 2007, I decided to go ahead and post it . . . IF, that is, I also finished the final two chapters that were meant to follow it. Which I've done tonight, amazingly enough.

The next two chapters are completely un-beta'd, but at least they're a little bit more fun than this chapter, which was so very heavy on the psychological and theological exposition, in spite of my having four years to try to come up with a better way to finish this part of the story.]