Daddy Issues, Part One

"Daddy Issues, Part One" was the sixth issue of the Angel & Faith comic book series.

Synopsis
Angel went to Highgate cementery to pay his respects to Douglas Adams who was buried there. He had found: "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" in a dumpster back in the 80's which had helped him from committing suicide back then. But something else was there as well, Angel could smell the blood, but unfortunately it was gone now. And the blood trail lead him to an area called Holly Lodge Estate where elderly people lived in public housing.

A policeman stopped Angel, wanting to know what he wanted there and Angel said he wanted to visit a friend. They went inside together while the policeman informed Angel that nothing usually happened or had happened lately, but as they opened the door of an apartment the stench was unbearable. So they found a man who had killed at least 3 elderly people, standing on top of them saying that they had the disease but now he had cut it out. And then he tried to help Angel and the policeman too by trying to kill them. Angel fought back and knocked him unconscious. The policeman impressed by his fighting skills then told him to step back since it was a murder scene and asked him if he knew any of the dead. But Angel said no because he didn't think the one he was looking for had been there for a while.

In the 70s, again in the Highgate Cemetery, young Giles together with 4 other young people, all wannabe watchers, were training. They seemed eager to complete the task and kill a vampire and Giles was the only one that wanted to be careful about it. Only a girl seemed to agree with Giles and his tactics, but before they finished talking on how they should look for the vampire and how to kill it, the vampire appeared in front of them. But Giles realized there was something wrong with that vampire and before he had the time to talk to the others, one of the boys named Philip attacked the vampire. But it was not a vampire, nor a man, and Giles' instincts were right. It was a Lorophage demon, much much stronger than vampires, which used its proboscis and needle-like fingers to draw any sustenance from the minds of his victims. It was a fatal process. Basically the creature fed on its victims traumatic experiences. And those wannabe young watchers had plenty of traumatic experiences from being locked up in rooms with starving vampires or from peering into hell dimensions as part of their training. The demon killed all the young watchers one by one, reaching up to Giles at the end. Giles felt the process, he started remembering all his traumatic experiences including the very last one which was watching just some seconds ago, one of the young watchers, a girl, getting killed by the demon, a girl that he had never found the courage to ask her out. Now Giles was gonna die, first go utterly mad and then die. Just before his end, 2 older watchers came and attacked the demon and saved Giles' life. They had been watching the young ones by distance evaluating them, only a few seconds behind them, which were enough for the demon to slaughter the young ones. One of them was Giles' father and even they were no match for the demon. But the demon had already fed itself and so it ran away from them. That was the day that Giles' innocence had perished.

Giles' relationship with his father was very tense only to be made even worse by the events of that night. Giles blamed his father and called him a murderer, telling him that he had sent them to their death. His father said that it was a tragic event that the Council's intelligence was faulty about. Giles told him that they weren't ready for it but his father replied that nobody was ever really ready for that job and that the specter of death was part of the life that they were chosen for. And we found out that Giles basically never really chose to become a watcher, that life was chosen for him at the age of 10 when he was asked to start studying horror and death together with latin and geometry. But the father insisted, the supernatural road was their heritage, their destiny and they must serve it. Young Giles had already made up his mind and he decided to run away from all of that and follow his own path. But unfortunately he was hardly done with magic and death, but those events would be recounted in due course.

Faith was in downtown London together with 2 other slayers who were fighting a vampire while Faith took care of a girl that had been bitten by the vampire. It turned out that the girl would be alright, as the bite wasn't deep. In the meantime Nadira was ready to dust the vampire, but right before she did, Faith grabbed her hand and stopped her, telling her to take a better look. He was not a vampire, but he was human, and Nadira almost killed him. The man said that "we wanted to be sired" and he asked for it, but since this was against the rules she didn't sire him so he decided to sire himself and took a bite on her. Faith told the girls to call the police and an ambulance. Nadira felt so guilty that she had almost become a murderer, only to feel even worst by saying that in front of Faith who had already been there and done that. But Faith knew that the only reason that she saw that coming tonight while being able to stop Nadira, Was actually because she has been on this road herself and she had done the same mistake; but Buffy didn't stop her in time. Faith had dealt with it and paid for it and now she had used her past mistakes to actually save a life.

So Faith changed the conversation asking the girls if they knew who is "she" that didn't agree to sire the guy because it's against the rules. Nadira said that it probably was the "Mother Superior" and when she rejected to sire him that drove him over the edge and suggested to go after her. But the third slayer said that the Mother Superior hadn't broken any of Harmony's rules. Nadira replied that they were vampire slayers and that was what they do, kill vampires, and asked if it was illegal to kill a vampire that followed the rules. And we then learn from Faith that it was still a gray area, but killing a vampire that followed the rules would only result in starting a war. What they needed was a reason to kill her, and since most vampires came with skeletons in their closets, Faith now was on to that.

Next Angel and Faith were training on the rooftop of Giles' residence. Faith told him about Mother Superior while they train. Angel had heard of her, she attracted goth crowd like flies but she obeyed the rules. Faith added that she stayed out of sight and she didn't use her real name. Angel told her that many vampires picked a different name when they got turned, it was a kind of tradition in some bloodlines and he didn't seem eager to deal with it. But Faith drew his attention when she mentioned that she thought that Mother Superior was up to something since she had already run into 2 different nut jobs that tied to her. Not totally crazy people, more like too drunk people who didn't give a damn about anything, not even their lives or the lives of other people. And Angel had met one of them as well. Faith surprised, told him that she thought that his only mission was to bring back Giles. But Angel added that it was kind of related, the last entry in Giles' diary that was talking about the Lorophage demon, he checked it with the watchers' files and found out that the demon had hibernation cycles. They slept for decades and then woke up to feed themselves when "the stars of the old ones who birthed them align" which meant now.

They went together to Alasdair telling him about the Lorophage demon. He said that this kind of demon was possible to cause an epidemic of madness but unlikely at the same time. There were cases that the victims went completely mad from all the traumatic experiences that were forced to surface but very rarely and only when the attack had been interrupted. The Lorophage demons preferred to drain every drop of their victims' brains and by that they killed them. Faith disagreed bringing Giles as an example, who had survived a Lorophage demon's attack and hadn't died nor went mad. But Alasdair added that Faith had no idea of his days as a Ripper and what he did and how he used magic. Faith still disagreed saying that being young and stupid didn't make one crazy. Before things got worst between them, Angel interfered wondering why the demon left the victims alive. Faith's theory was that the demon was being controlled but Alasdair said that Lorophage demons were resistant to magic. So Faith corrected her theory saying that maybe the demon was hypnotized by someone, by a vampire, as Angel added. Alasdair told them that if the theory was correct, that meant that this was a serious threat and they must put aside whatever else they were working on and focus on that. Faith kind of angry told him they got it and they left the house.

When outside, Angel asked her why she behaved like that, since they went to him to ask for his help. But Faith just thought that he talked too much like every old guy. She had asked the girls to check a little bit and Daphne texted her that the newest residents of Arkham Asylum, people who had lived through very traumatic experiences and would be the perfect meal for a Lorophage demon, have all gone mad and gotten obsessed with Mother Superior. But what Angel didn't understand was what does a vampire gain from making people crazy. There was only one way to find out. Daphne informed Faith that Mother Superior lived in a deconsecrated church that was turned into a nightclub and they decided to go and find her to end all this.

They attacked going inside the church, asking the crowd, human groupies and minor vampires to take them to Mother Superior. But the crowd attacked and a fight started. Angel didn't have the patience for that, and most of all, he hated churches, since they brought back to him very bad memories. It turned out that nuns used to be his specialty; he would torture and then kill them, and he had a vivid imagination. One could say that that was Angelus, but Angel remembered everything and Angel knew what Angelus did and how good that made him feel. Some of his worst memories were from his time in London. So, wanting to end all this fighting, he knocked on a door trying to find Mother Superior, telling her that "it's time for confession, you go first, Mother Superior, it started by "Bless me..." But before he finished, he saw Drusilla inside the room sitting on a throne and being worshiped by her minions. She then told him that she knew what came next. After "bless me" came "Father...isn't that right?"

Meanwhile, somewhere in a pub, a man approached Nadira and another slayer who were having a drink. He knew they were slayers and he was looking for Faith. Nadira told him that they had never heard of her, but even if they had, why should they tell him? The man replied that he had the best reason in the world, because he was her father.

Angel thought that there was something not right with Drusilla. She told them she became somewhat nostalgic - a girl that almost became a nun so she decided to set up shop in a church. And the more things they changed the more they stayed the same. Angel then understood what isn't right with Drusilla; she was now sane!

Continuity
The story was set after "Live Through This", but before "Women of a Certain Age".

Individuals

 * Angel
 * Faith Lehane
 * Drusilla aka "Mother Superior"
 * Highgate Vampire
 * Rupert Giles
 * Mr. Giles
 * Philip
 * Lucy
 * Charlotte
 * Daphne
 * Buffy Summers
 * Allan Finch
 * Nadira
 * George Lehane
 * Harmony Kendall

Species

 * Vampire
 * [Human
 * Lorophage Demon

Locations

 * London
 * Highgate cementery
 * White Hart Pub

Behind the Scenes

 * This was the first time Faith met Drusilla. Ironically it was because of Drusilla that Faith became a Slayer, as Drusilla killed the previous slayer, Kendra Young, which activated Faith.

Collections

 * Daddy Issues