Chapter One
March 30, 2004 Los Angelus
Angel
This was it, his chance to show them all. Angel held the necklace that Spike had worn into the Sunnydale Hellmouth a year earlier and smiled. Yes he was opening a hellmouth here in Los Angelus, yes it was the largest of all times, by his estimate it should be a mile across, but he, knew the difference. His own research into the shiny trinket in his hand showed that it would close any hellmouth, and by closing the one owned by Wolfram & Hart he would close every hellmouth on Earth for all time. It was perfect.
In one move he would mark the beginning of the end for evil,. He would show Giles and Buffy once and for all that he Angel was Earth’s true champion. There were only two requirements for it to work, the reluctant ally, he looked over at Illyara and smiled, and the Champion that who had died before to save the world. That was Spike, his Grandchilde, his brother. In a matter of hours the two would have done more for the Earth than 8000 years of slayers., The two would have met evil head on, and destroyed it for all time. Who cared what Cordy had told him? By tomorrow night the world would be on its way to Utopia.
Even as the Hellmouth opened, Wolfram & Hart’s failsafe kicked in and everyone capable of closing a Hellmouth was teleported to Europe. Including Angel, the Powers ‘one true Champion’.
Within seconds of the battle starting William the Bloody fought alone as Illyria exploded.
~~~~~^^~~~~~
Spike, still in LA ten days later
The small part of his brain that still thought coherently was appalled, it had taken him less than a week to devolve back to something that wasn’t human, wasn’t even quite vampiric, And yet this is how we are needed, his soul whispered in his ear sadly. We give up even our humanity so that Buffy, and all of the other Buffy’s out there might live.
And that was simply the truth. He would wake then stand at the Mouth of the largest Hellmouth he had ever heard of and fight sometimes for days, sometimes only minutes. He would rip, destroy and sometimes drain everything that came out. He would fight till he was battered and bruised and then beaten unconscious. Then rise again as soon as he was rested and start all over again.
It never crossed his mind to question why he was not attacked while he was out cold and if it had he would have been convinced that this was hell and he was being tortured. Never once thinking that it was divine providence that was protecting him.
He fought with valor beyond what anyone could hope for, even after his companions were dead or gone. There was no time for plans, no time for fear, just the fight.
He walked once again to the Mouth of Hell holding his katana to his lips he whispered “Blade be true this day.”
In the weeks that followed help began to arrive, by ones and twos they slipped in to battle beside him, Slayers but not the normal kind of course. These were slayers that also carried demon blood. They had felt the Hellmouth’s siren call from all over the hemisphere and had rushed to defend their world. A vampire that had fought alone for so long now led an army.
Buffy
Buffy Summers reached out and touched the indestructible yet invisible barrier, holding the Slayer army out of North and South America. Only those slayers whom were already there were going to be part of this fight, and since Giles and company had been on such a huge recruitment drive she doubted if there was more than one slayer on both continents. Oh people could get out, hence the fact that she was stuck here waiting off the coast of Newfoundland as literally thousands of Canadians rode out by boat or simply swam out to be rescued from the demon waves taking over the Americas.
It wasn’t just humans that were escaping either everyone knew that it was no joke when U.S. Naval vessels had been confronted with a Godzilla type monster in the Pacific. As of the latest they had defeated seven such monsters. The Council was more worried however by the monsters that might be able to live under water and trap unsuspecting travelers. It had taken them several thousand years to kill off all of the sea monsters and they had no idea what they would do this time. It was the end of the world as they knew it.
And for Buffy, the man that she loved was right in the middle of it.
___
Riley and Samantha Finn in the Jungles of South America
“We have our orders Ri,” the woman’s gentle voice said to the scarred soldier as he looked out at the sunrise and at the countless bodies of hostiles that his troops had destroyed the night before.
“I know, Sam.” The man’s voice was gentle, yet filled with pain. “But, how can I expect my soldiers to follow the orders of a President who has deserted his nation? His very people? How can I follow his orders?”
“He is our duly elected leader.” Sam’s voice however was filled with uncertainty. “How can we not follow his orders?”
“I think we need a new election.” Riley answered his wife. “Those who want to can climb in the boats and try to get to safety.”
“And you?” His wife asked him.
“Me?” Riley Finn gave a hard unrelenting smile. “With or without you guys, I’m going to LA and try to help stop this.”
~~~~~~^^~~~~~~
Sunnydale California 2000
Outside of the apartment three sets of eyes watched the show, the first a tall blonde woman looked over at her ghostly companion and nodded before leaving to follow Spike. The second, a ghost of a woman stared at the third a dark haired young woman and frowned, this should have been her sister as surely as Dawn had been, but instead she had failed to reach out to her and make things right. She would do better this time. Boudecia then slipped through the walls and into the house.
Faith had seen neither of the others as she looked through the windows at what could have been hers. If she had been a step faster, a teeny bit smarter, more like Buffy. She had tried, but deep down she knew she was lacking. She loved these people, she wondered if they knew that. She loved them and it hurt to hear how easily they planned taking her down. All she had ever wanted to do was impress them. but instead she had alienated them, and then sided with their enemy. They were right. She was the enemy, and this time she would win, for every one out there like her, everyone that wasn’t quite like everyone else.
Now she had only one role to fill and from the conversations indoors the scoobs had already cast her as the trampy black hat with an attitude and that …that she knew she could do. Faith wiped the tears from her eyes then looked one last time with undisguised longing back through the window at the clique of ‘good guys’ that she wasn’t quite good enough to join and then moved swiftly away.
Boudecia tried to slip into her own body even as William had done but found the way blocked. So she stepped back and looked at the group around her, knowing they couldn’t sense her since she was technically Buffy’s ghost, but knowing also that she could influence Buffy until she got inside. She loved them all still and yet she hated them. They had used her and manipulated her, but so much of that had been her own fault. This time…this time things would be different.
Giles, Xander, Willow, even Anya and Tara, these were her friends. They didn’t truly mean to manipulate her; she was sure even now that they thought they were doing what was best for her. Hell even Angel did, but they forgot the old adage “The road to hell was paved with good intentions”. They needed to let go and let Buffy live her own life. Suddenly she grinned in her ghostly way. She knew the perfect way to get into her own body, by stowing away into Faith’s first. Plus a bonus, she might be able to find Spike and shag him silly.
On the way to the crypt
The pain cut into him even as he walked but he, unlike Buffy of so long ago, had chosen this and he would persevere. He had survived the pain 900 years of unloving on Earth before; he could survive this once more.
But in the end he, William the Bloody, Slayer of Slayers had been chosen. Not Angel, the whelp, even Miss Better-Than-You-Buffy, but Spike and with that his turmoil melted to a cool burn. He could do this, he was better than this.
“Where are you going, William?” The tall well built blonde woman asked him stepping out of the shadows. “You are not living in a crypt.”
Spike nearly laughed out loud at the Valkyrie. Just having one of the Norse versions of Angels around picked his spirits up. One of Odin’s own had chosen him as one of the Einherjar, one of the warriors to one day truly face the final apocalypse. And more even than that, this minor divinity was adamant about Spike’s rights and needs. It was more than he had the first time around. He wondered silently if she would smack the whelp for him.
“And where will I be living, Luv?” He asked pulling out his cigarettes studying the woman that had appeared so quickly seemingly from nowhere. The almost frumpy business jacket over baggy dress pants was much more than Göll had usually worn around the Halls. The tall blonde was known even among her sisters for her daring clothing, or lack there of.
“We have chosen a nice mansion on Bellevue.” Göll said as she inspected her nails. “It has eighteen bedrooms and nine baths in case we all need a place to stay.”
William the Bloody, the Slayer of Slayers, Defender of the Nine Realm’s, Chosen Champion of the Aesir, Killer of the Fenrir Wolf, felt his body stiffen in fear. “You bird’s are going to stay… where?”
“Spike,” The woman began. “You understand that you have to live in this life until your appointed time of death so you can return to Valhalla, right?”
“Yeah luv, I get that.” Spike said the hurt and pain once again spreading through him. It hurt him to his very core. “I can make it.”
The Valkyrie looked over at her charge. “Wanna fuck?”
William started laughing softly. “Love is that your answer to everything?”
“It is relaxing and fun.” She asked said toying with the buttons to her pants. “Simple question Chosen, yes or no?”
“Ahh, that’ll be a no, luv.” Once again she had brightened his spirits.
“Your loss,” Göll said straitening her clothes. “Let’s get home.”
“Nuuuh, luv, let’s go get a beer.” Spike said turning and walking ahead of the woman back towards town.
“They have mead here?” Göll asked beginning to smile.
“No, luv.” William informed her as he lit another cigarette. “We have brewed barley hops, not honey.”
“And you wish to drink this?” She stated scrunching up her face. “At the Halls we have honey mead and fresh food of your choice.”
“Well yeah the beer is weak as cat piss and the music is most likely some teeny bopper boy band picked for their matching pimple patterns but the bloody onion… the bloody onion is fit for a king.” He grinned back at the tall statuesque blonde following him.
“This is the onion you have spoken so highly of for so long?” Göll picked up her pace with an evil grin.
——
Xander followed Giles out of the elders’ apartment hoping to get his father figures opinion on what had been said earlier. Giles might not know it but he was perhaps the only male role model in the brunettes’ life.
As the two fell into step side by side Xander opened the conversation. “So what do we do with Spike now, G-man?”
Rupert Giles looked the younger man over slowly. “What do you mean, Xander?”
“His whole ‘I love Buffy’ speech?” The younger clarified.
Giles harrumphed before answering. “I thought it was obvious? It is a ploy on his part to throw us off guard. Spike is soulless, he has no idea what love is.”
Xander nodded slowly watching the older man. He was truly surprised that the Watcher believed that. For himself
Xander had seen Spike with Dru, hell he had seen Spike mourning Dru dumping him and as much as he hated it, he empathized with the blonde demon. However if Giles truly believed the party line Xander was happy to fall right in line and use it to keep the evil Vamp from his best friend.
The Bronze
It was a new experience for Spike setting in the Bronze eating Blooming Onions and drinking an actually decent beer, no, he had had many onions here, and true he had drunk more beers here than he cared to remember. The difference? He was setting with not only Göll, but Brynhilde and Hulda as well. True they three were easily the most attractive women in the bar, but more than that he was surrounded by friends. He, William Atherton Jamison, was setting in the Bronze eating and just hanging out with three women that were part of his ‘family’, people that would gladly lay down their lives for him. And that, THAT, had the former soon to be again vampire almost giddy.
“Mr.?” A polite feminine voice from behind him spoke. Spike turned to see a truly beautiful young brunette in a tight red t-shirt and a very short mini skirt. “Would you like to dance?”
“NO!” Göll said from beside him as she grasped his shoulder and pulled him back into her breasts. “Just because we brought him out without his collar doesn’t mean that we share.”
Spike seethed as the young woman eeeped and all but ran away. “What the bloody hell was that?” he asked through clenched teeth.
“She wished to have sex with you,” the Valkyrie said nonchalantly.
“And you don’t think I can say no myself?” Will seethed. “And you three are begging me to shag you all the bloody time.”
“You are Boudecia’s,” Brynhilde explained as she finished off another onion. “She would not begrudge our use of you.”
“However,” Hulda broke in. “She would kill both you and the Roman trollop if the girl had so much as touched you.
Spike didn’t bother trying to explain that he wasn’t Boudecia’s, it was a lost cause. The Valkyrie had long since shown themselves to hardheaded to argue with. He truly liked the British born slayer and yes he had been her lover for a very long time, but the simple fact was she wasn’t Buffy. Close…but still not Buffy.
“We are about to be invaded by soldiers.” Göll’s droll voice broke through his thoughts. He looked up to see several young men that he was pretty sure were members of the Initiative they were all large, bulky and entirely to heavy on their feet to ever make it as true warriors. They were also paying close attention to Spike and all but ignoring the three women. Spike rose slowly as the six young men reached the table.
“You poofters have a problem?” He asked smugly.
~~~~~~^^~~~~~~
U.C. Sunnydale campus
Buffy followed the two wiccans back to campus, trying in vain to keep her eyes from glazing over at Willow’s constant chatter on exactly how wrong Spike had been. It seemed that Willow was so deep into her tangent that she no longer was even glancing back at Buffy to get her response.
“I don’t know what he thinks he means.” Willow grumbled. “We aren’t using you. We’re your friends.”
Buffy zoned her out after that as she walked she kept catching movement in the corner of her left eye, but every time she turned to check nothing was there. It kept on long enough that she was getting freaked ‘til suddenly she looked up and a blond haired woman in chain mail was walking beside her or maybe the ghost of said blonde was more appropriate.
Buffy fought back a gasp as the ghost spoke. “You know what they say? If you throw a rock at a pack of dogs, the one that yells is the one you hit.”.
Buffy suddenly had a full on 3D version of Spike’s words as a rock hitting Willow so hard it knocked her down. However, as Buffy turned back to the ghost to refute her she was gone.
tbc
Originally posted at http://seasonal-spuffy.livejournal.com/218701.html
