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Fated Series - Endgame -- by Kismet
Rating: NC-17
Description: Buffy, Maya and the rest of the Scooby Gang face Elizabet in her den. But when a surprise turns the table, whose life will Spike buy? And Angel is brought face to face with facts he might have preferred not to know. The ending to the Fated Saga.
Disclaimer: This is a work of amateur fiction. All characters etc. are the property of their respective creators and no copyright infringement is intended. The author reserves rights over her work and storyline. Feel free to read and enjoy, though ! (Song lyrics by David Bowie for the movie soundtrack 'The Labyrinth')
"Well," said Elizabet. "This is certainly unexpected. Care for a drink ? It's on the house."
She was at her usual table, holding court as it were. Only this time she was ringed by the members of her pack. Likewise the Scooby Gang kept a wary half-circle around the Slayer, shutting out curious eyes. The same bartender Buffy had greeted upon entering poured the wine, his nervousness palpable to everyone, then dashed off as fast as he could. With amusement in her grey eyes, Elizabet sipped. "It's real wine, in case you're worried."
"I didn't come to drink," the Slayer said off-handedly. "I'm here to do business."
One red eyebrow arched. "With me ? I must say, I never expected to have dealings with a Slayer."
"I'm not just any Slayer."
"I wonder."
"Try me. Please do."
The French vampiress put down her glass and considered the young woman for a few moments before allowing her eyes to drift to the only other person seated at the table. Maya bared her teeth and made as if to rise, then hissed as a few drops of holy water dribbled onto the back of the hand Buffy held pinned to the table. Little trails of smoke rose from the burns.
Elizabet's eyes flicked back to Buffy, who merely said, "I don't mind damaging the goods, whether a little....or a lot."
Elizabet smiled then. "Come with us."
The lavishly ornamented key she used to open the back door was hung on a long chain around her neck under her clothes, almost like a rosary. One of the three women with her went down first, flicking on a switch to reveal a winding stairway of stone. Buffy went down after Elizabet's beckoning hand, with Willow following apprehensively behind. Xander pointedly adjusted the crucifix around his neck for the benefit of the sandy-haired vampiress behind him, then pushed Maya down the steps before him.
The door closed on Giles and a slender, dark-haired vampire woman with an arrogantly straight French nose and light green eyes who leaned against the wall in the manner of one who is accustomed to, and good at, the underrated task of guard duty. For several minutes they stood in uncomfortable silence on either side of the door.
At last, in seeming desperation Giles looked out over the club. "Er...er....slow night, is it ?"
The woman eyed him down her long nose.
"What am I saying...it is a week night, isn't it ?" He gave a careful laugh. "F...for a week night it does seem rather full now, in retrospect. You must get quite a lot of people on...on weekends. Forgive me, it's been quite some time since I went on the party circuit myself and I'm sure you must have far better things to do than to hear me blabber...Oh, excuse me," the poor Watcher stammered as a young couple swayed up to him, the man obviously drunk.
"Oh-oh schay can you schee, by the Dawhn's eerhlhy light...."the young man carolled right in Giles' face. "Schay, thisch is the lav, darlin'," he said to the dark-haired girl struggling to support him . "Give the lav attendant some change, will you ? I've gotta go viscit the john."
"Doyle !" protested the young woman, rolling her eyes. "That's not the toilet ! I don't know why I even bother coming out with you anyway, you..you alcoholic ! It's always the same, isn't it ?" she appealed to the vampiress. "Men ! I don't know why I bother at all. He apologised so nicely with a Hallmark card and chocolates and champagne after the last time, but the champagne should have warned me, shouldn't it ? And now I'm going to have to drag his sorry ass home..."
"It's the...hic!...lav, I tell you." The young man burped into Giles' face. "Lemme in." With a strong, if drunken, push, he shoved Giles aside and put his hand on the knob. "Come on, Cordy darlin'..."
A strong white hand gripped his, hard, and the vampire woman was blocking his way. "Monsieur, you can't come in here. The lavatory is the other way." Green eyes gave a commanding glance in the direction of the black and white signs on the far wall. "Just along the corridor."
The young man gaped stupidly for a while. "Oh, I schay ! Can't a man go where he wants ? I can pay now, I've got plenny of cash 'ere. I schay we're goin' in here, and we're goin' in, aren't we, Cordy..." He made to clumsily push the woman away, only to be shoved squarely in the chest. "Hey !"
"I will tell you only once more, Monsieur, this way is..."
"Just right for you," Giles finished from behind the woman as the tip of the stake poked painfully into her back. "And if you'll wait a moment, sir, my, er....companion here will take the key out and let you in without a fuss, won't she ?"
Lilian turned her head as they came in, immediately tensing with a mixture of curiosity and wariness as her eyes fell on the petite blond girl in the center of the group. "Slayer." Drawn forward, she approached and slipped an arm around Elizabet's waist, eyeing the girl whom she had heard much about and impersonated with fascination.
"She looks as I thought she would look. She fears, she is uncertain and she is angry. She knows that ahead of her the road will fork and she shall have to choose one or the other. Love and Hate drive her, and Duty takes a paltry third place. She's nervous."
Lilian could tell by Elizabet' light touch on her neck that she was pleased, and the Slayer's large hazel eyes were unsettled with surprise. This was what they all feared ? The monster of their nightmares, the almighty warrior ? Lilian thought that the myth had built a Goliath out of a high-school teen.
This pleasant reverie was broken by a crack of laughter. It was only then that Lilian saw the tall girl with her black hair falling over the leather of her jacket, standing with her hands bound behind her and a nervous-looking mortal boy holding a cross gripping her elbow. She had seen this one before, at the Claim Fight. The one whose master had insulted her.
"Now I know why you wanted her." Maya's low voice was filled with a dry amusement. "She's emphatic, isn't she ? She can read feelings, lift them at random out of our heads. That's why you stepped into the ring at the Fight."
"Huh ?" said the other mortal girl, clearly confused. She clutched at the Slayer's arm, her discomfort evident as she looked from one to the other. "Ring ? Fight ?"
Lilian felt Elizabet's delight. "You do not know, cherie ? Well, this calls for a Telling of the Truth, don't you agree ?"
"It's about time !" Spike called out when he heard the door open. "I don't make offers more than once, and I bloody don't care to stand here much longer !"
"Oh, you will when you see who your visitors are," purred Elizabet's voice, coming down the steps. "Was he always like this ?"
"Always," said a very familiar voice. "The same old Spike."
Chains rattled as he started forward. "Maya ?!" Worry and a brief spurt of joy battled in his heart as he craned his neck, trying to look past the low ceiling of his half of the room. "What the bloody hell are you doing here ?" She had come back......to Elizabet ?! "You little idiot, get out of here ! I freed you already, do you have to keep hanging on to my belt ?" he said in desperation as Elizabet came into view, holding a tied-up Maya by the shoulder.
"He loves her enough to sacrifice himself for her sake." The little blond called Lilian stepped forward. "He's remembering past times and old arguments, and he wants her to go free."
Spike could only stare at her in astonishment as Elizabet laughed. "Do you hear that ?" she called into the darkness above. "This was something you didn't know, cherie. Your lover has been unfaithful as it is in a male's nature to be unfaithful. He loves you, but he loves her too. She was his Queen, did you know that ? His companion in darkness the way you could never be."
The hair on his nape prickled as he tried to look up the stairs. "Who's there ?"
Elizabet smiled. "Let them come down. After all, how will we speak if we cannot see each other's faces ?"
Vampiric hearing told him that there were many people on the stairs, and vampire eyes made nothing of darkness as they came lower. If he had had a pulse, it would have been bursting out of his ears by now.
He could only stare as she moved towards him out of the shadows, bringing the sunlight with her. A light that he had not felt in far too long.
"Buffy."
"Spike." Her face was professionally emotionless. Bloody hell, this wasn't the way he had meant for her to find out about Maya ! He loved her and only her, couldn't she understand that ?
"The Slayer came to exchange your Child for you," Elizabet mocked him with her eyes. "You must have been more than a passing fancy with her; I wonder what you did to earn this honour ? Did you promise her what you promised me ?"
This time he saw the corners of Buffy's mouth compress ever so slightly, and he groaned inside.
"Spike," said Maya. He looked at her and saw the burning question in her eyes, the agony of doubt. Is what they say true ? Is it her that you love after all ?Tell me no.
"Enough games," Buffy said in a tightly controlled voice to Elizabet. "Bring out Angel and let them both go, then you'll have the cub."
Lilian laughed from behind Buffy and Elizabet smiled. In the shadows Xander and Willow shifted uncomfortably, acutely aware of Dreida and Julietta close to them.
"Sire and Grandsire for the Child ?" Lilian said softly.
"You are a beautiful creature," Elizabet said to Maya, stroking her fingers through the cub's black hair in a way that made Spike want to snap at her. "A beautiful child of a strong bloodline, with a mind that I enjoyed. A fitting member for my pack. Sad, then, that it should end like this."
Before the meaning of her words could sink into those assembled, she moved.
It all happened so fast that they could not react in time. Xander just saved himself and Maya from falling over when Elizabet shoved her at him, darting over to Spike as the silver dagger appeared in her hand, taken from the folds of her skirts. Buffy stepped forward only to be jerked back by the hair by Lilian. She would have whirled and driven her stake through the cub's heart, but the sight of the silver blade Elizabet held poised over Spike's chest stopped her, giving Lilian time to slip her own dagger under the Slayer's chin.
Holding stakes and crosses, Xander and Willow came back to back, flanked by the two game-faced members of Elizabet's pack.
Silence reigned.
Elizabet's laughter held a trill of triumph which rippled through its smoky colour. "Checkmate, Slayer." Her grey eyes shifted to gold as the ridges of her game face came forth, and never taking her gaze from Buffy, she reached up and sank her teeth into Spike's shoulder through his black shirt.
The gasp hissed through his teeth involuntarily, his own features shifting as his hands clenched on his chains.
"Gross," grimaced Willow as she and Xander watched in disgusted fascination. The display was blatantly sexual, a sign that de Bouvais was marking her property in a challenge to Buffy. Maya growled in Xander's grasp, her own game face coming forward in rage.
Elizabet licked the blood from her lips for the Slayer's benefit before she kissed the wound. "Shocked, cherie ? But that's the way it is."
"You never wanted Maya at all, did you ?" Buffy tried to stand on tiptoe to ease the pressure Lilian was putting on her scalp. "Are you trying to scalp me, bitch ?"
"I just might. What a hunting trophy it would make, the scalp of a Slayer." The blond empath smiled as she shifted her hold in the Slayer's hair.
"I'm sorry to hurt your feelings, Maya," Elizabet said in her softly accented English, her smoky voice warm. "I would have taken you, but I wanted him more. And why wouldn't I ? Willam the Bloody, feared on two continents, child of the legendary Angelus and beautiful to boot."
"I'm not your bloody prize," Spike growled out. "This would be highly entertaining if I wasn't on the sharp end of your knife, pet, but this is quite an inauspicious beginning to a relationship, innit ?"
"Quite, now that you point it out, my love." The point of the dagger stroked up and down his belly leisurely. "So I think I'll give you a gift, a present as proof of how highly I value you. You can save the life of one person you love. The question is, who will it be ? Angelus is upstairs somewhere, safely guarded from your mad Drucilla for the moment, but just barely. Will he be the one to go free ? Or will it be your child, the lovely Maya who has the world spread out before her ready for her taking ? Maya the wild, the one who might just last out centuries and be stronger than any of us will ever be. The seeds of it lie in her, cherie, I can see it. Or will you give them both up for the true love of your life, the mortal enemy whom you can never have ? Look at her." Strong, cold fingers caressed his jaw. "She loves you more than she ever loved your Sire, you know. Quite against her creed, she would die for you."
"Look, this is all very nice," spluttered Xander," But what about us ?"
"You, little boy ? You could narrow down my love's choice. Stab Maya to her death, and he will either choose Angel or your Slayer here, both of whom will at least try to save you which is less than Maya might do. Choices, choices. Difficult, are they not ? But so necessary..."
"You're sick," said Willow. "Sadistic."
"I know," Elizabet chuckled. "Almost as good as Angelus and his children, no ?"
Buffy stared at Xander, hard. He gulped and tightened his hold on Maya.
"So, what is it to be ? Elizabet asked Spike.
"Hmmmm.....tough choice. Could I have a little more time to think about it, pet ?" he tried for nonchalance.
"No, my love. I'm afraid not, or I might have to ask Lilian to start slicing slowly at the Slayer's tender little throat."
Maya's eyes were fixed on him in anguish. Their black depths spoke to him: You are my Sire, why are you hesitating ?I left because I loved you; did you not love me ? Will you fail me as you failed Angel and Drucilla ?
I forgive you either way, Buffy's hazel eyes said. I had to die at some point or other, only I never thought that it would be over you. Choose Angel. Choose Maya. Choose yourself. What are you waiting for, chump ?Either way you're going to become my ex-honey.
Forgive me, Maya, he thought silently. Forgive me, wanker. You were a good Sire, whatever it was.
"Buffy," he said hoarsely. "I choose the Slayer."
Her laughter trilled in his ear as Maya slumped in Xander's hold and the knife left Buffy's throat. "I thought so, my love. I know you well."
"You figure ?" Maya said surprisingly strongly. "Well, you don't know me." In a flash she stepped away from Xander, the ropes he had secretly cut falling from her wrists as something metallic flashed through the air.
Spike's head whipped up even as Elizabet screeched, dropping the dagger and clutching her shoulder where the small throwing dagger from Maya's hand had embedded itself. She staggered two steps away from him and he saw his chance. Leg muscles tensing, he leapt up and kicked her squarely in the chest, sending her flying backwards to crash into the long table.
Grabbing Lilian by the arm, Buffy threw her in a judo move, slamming the blond empath to the ground. "Scalp this !" The vampiress disintegrated into dust immediately when the dagger went in, not even having enough time to scream.
"Dreida !" screamed Elizabet. "Warn Ayesha !" She launched herself at Buffy, knocking the small Slayer over as they rolled on the ground, grappling.
Dreida ducked as Xander slung a vial of holy water at her, but Julietta howled as it spattered onto part of her arm and chest. The next moment Xander was sailing over the table to sprawl at Spike's feet, leaving Willow feinting with stake, cross and holy water. "Xander !"
"Xander, you bloody idiot !" Spike did not take his eyes off Elizabet and Buffy. "Get one of their bloody keys and set me loose !"
"Xander !" choked out Buffy as she tried to break Elizabet's hold around her neck. "Stop the other one ! They're going to get Angel !"
"I'm so in demand today !" groaned Xander as he dived for the discarded throwing knife and threw it at Dreida. The vampiress ducked the clumsily thrown blade easily and darted up into the darkness of the stairwell as Willow clubbed Julietta with a chair. "Maya ! Maya ?!"
She was gone.
Angel lifted his head, straining his ears as he fought to identify the sounds coming from somewhere outside the room. He had given up trying on the chains that held him. Thanks to Ayesha, he was feeling better now, but even at full strength he knew he could not loose himself. Vampires had done the job, after all, not mortals. They were unlikely to underestimate him.
He thought it was the vampire woman as the door opened, but he was quite wrong.
She giggled like mischievous child as she came into the circle of intense light from the spotlights that centred on him, her eyes sparkling conspiratorially. "Shhh, don't tell them, but I tricked them and came to see you."
His gold eyes studied her, drawing on experiences his soul would have preferred to leave behind. He knew this mood that sometimes overtook her. 'Let's Forget I Ever Caused You Pain and Play For a While.'
His game face smiled at her ferally. "Clever girl, Dru. Clever girl. Let's keep it our little secret, shall we ? What game would you like to play ?"
She giggled again as she nestled up against him, stroking the skin of his chest, the thick-layered scar from the cross which she had put there herself scant hours ago. "You know what I want to play, doesn't he, Miss Edith ?" Her fingers trailed their way down his torso.
"I want to play that too, but I can't, darling. I'm all tied up. If you let me go...."
"Then you'll hurt me. That's what you want to do." She stepped away and left Miss Edith on a chair. "But I'll put away Miss Edith and we can play like this. I'll make it nice this time, I promise." She kissed him, tongue slipping past his teeth.
He smiled at her when at last it broke. "Sweetheart...what if the others hear us ?"
"They won't." She was stroking his back now, feeling the muscles tense under the skin. "They're busy fighting; that's how I slipped in."
"Fighting ? Who are they fighting, Dru?"
She pouted. "I want to play, not talk. Don't you want to play ?"
"I do, darling. I want...this." He caught her lower lip between sharp teeth, scraping the skin a little till she laughed and bit his lip in return. "But we wouldn't want them to hear and tell Elizabet, would we ? Then they'd stop our little game like they always do. I need to make sure."
She licked his collarbone. "They're fighting the Slayer's friends." She laughed. "The Slayer's underground, with Elizabet, all underground. Fighting for Spike like little girls, little girls over a piece of sugar candy. Do you remember sugar candy, my Angel ? I like sugar candy...tastes sweet, like you. They'll never come up again, no, they'll stay underground, underground forever. And all fall down, down, down down...." She looked up at him suddenly, and to hide the horror which must have shown on his face he bent swiftly and kissed her hard, bruising her cold lips. She returned it with equal ardour, nails digging into his back as he tore his mouth from hers and trailed little kisses and nips down her neck, making her groan....then scream as he bit down hard.
He had his teeth in her throat and he would not let go, never, not as long as the blood flowed into his mouth and down his throat like wine, like crackling electricity so different from the thick richness of human blood. The blood of their kind. The demon in him laughed, stamping its feet and clapping its hands in victory as his soul sat silent, muted by the glint of the key that hung from the chain around her neck, the key that would unlock his shackles if only he managed to get it.
She tried to bite him and he shook his head violently as a dog would shake a rat, tearing the white flesh. Her hands tore at him, trying to make him let go even as he dug in harder, blood spilling down between them and soaking into her gown, wetting his chest. He was going for the kill, for the kill....
The edges of her hands came down on either side of his neck, a strange blow that she had learned in her time away from him. It stunned him and made his vision swim for a moment as his jaws relaxed.
She sprang away instantly, clapping one hand to her neck. Her face was a child's in its betrayed confusion, hurt to know that he would have killed her and wondering why he would have done it. Even as he watched, the innocent wondering bled away and the cunning returned with rage, and he knew that she would kill him for this.
"Drucilla...."
"You lied to me, Angel." Her hand came away from her neck covered with blood even as the skin healed over the deep wound. Her eyes were as hard as chips of onyx. "You hurt me."
"I can explain, darling..."
"Don't call me that !" she screamed. "You lie, all of you. I'm not your doll, not your little girl !" The chair hit the wall and broke into pieces, and as quick as a striking snake she snatched up one sharply broken-off leg, coming towards him with a terrible clarity in her mad eyes. "You lied to me..."
He lashed out with his leg, trying to kick the improvised stake out of her hands. He cracked her over the wrist, and with a screech of pain she drove the sharp edge of the wood into his leg.
With a gasp at the shooting pain, Angel staggered, feeling the drag of the wood cutting into muscle that gave out under his weight.
"Miss Edith says you've been very naughty, my Angel." With a jerk of her hand she pulled out the wood, making him bite down on his cheek to stifle the cry of pain. Blood gouted darkly out of the torn wound. "Miss Edith says you need to be punished."
Trying to prop himself up on his good leg and the wall, Angel stiffened, preparing himself for the final blow.
The door snapped shut, making both their heads turn. They had not heard it open.
"Get away from him," said the newcomer, leaning against the door. "Or I'll make you sorry you ever set eyes on Elizabet de Bouvais."
"Maya !" Angel pushed himself up, hissing as a stab of pain shot up his injured leg.
Drucilla bared her teeth. "See, Miss Edith ? It's the Tiger. Spike's Tiger.....eenie meenie minie moe, if she squeals, make her go."
"Your nursery rhymes are almost bad enough to do just that." The cub came forward, her gait loose limbed and stalking, all senses painfully sharp as she came into the circle of light. Her eyes glinted from behind a heavy curtain of hair as she took her hands out of her coat pockets. "You look like Hell, Angel."
"It hasn't exactly been a good few days. You shouldn't be here," he gained his balance at last. "She's almost as old as Spike, Maya, you can't...."he broke off as Spike's cub flicked out her tongue to lick her lips, circling like a cat for the kill. The light in her eyes was one of excitement with an utter disregard for life or death. "Maya ?"
"Maya," said Drucilla with a smile that was childlike in its sweetness. "Come play, Maya. We'll play together and I'll share, I promise." The glitter in her eyes was that of madness as the two vampire women weighed each other, each waiting for the other to make the first move.
"Maya !" Angel pulled at his chains . Spike would never forgive him if he stood by and let his cub die at Drucilla's hands. "Get out of here ! Go !"
"Go stuff your head."
Soundlessly, Drucilla sprang, stake raised.
Calculatedly, the cub sidestepped and whirled, the back of her leg slamming across Drucilla's chest and bringing her up short. The stake clattered across the floor to come to a rest right in front of Angel's boots. If Maya had been older, stronger, the blow might have been telling but as it was Drucilla only wavered for a moment. Her fingers curled into claws, she struck out and carved four bloody lines across Maya's cheek, whipping the younger vampire's head around.
Bracing his weight against the chains, Angel scrabbled for the stake with his foot as the two women fought, the dull thud of blows and animalistic snarls and growls ringing through the room. Pants, anger and recklessness gave Maya an edge, but even this early in the fight it was clear that Drucilla had the upper hand. Almost effortlessly she grasped hold of the taller girl's collar and slung her across the room to crash into the wall.
"Don't let her get hold of you !" Angel called out. Maya's fighting technique was superior, since Drucilla had never been interested in learning the martial arts moves that Angel and Spike had found enthralling. Like the majority of vampires she relied on instinct, her superior strength and to some extent, speed. "Whatever you do, just don't let her touch you !" The stake balanced on his boot, then rolled off again. "Damn it !"
Maya kicked the mad vampiress in the belly, winning herself a few moments. Blood had dried under her nose and the blows Drucilla had landed had been staggering, but she felt as if she could fight forever. The fear of Death never passed through her mind, not with the raging anger that washed through her. It was an adrenaline rush, the high that came before the crash. Spike had chosen the Slayer, of course, she had been blind not to see it before, and stupid to come back when she heard he was in trouble. Yet, given the chance, she would have done exactly the same thing over again.
She wanted to break something or someone, to tear and slash and kill.
Catching hold of a handful of Drucilla's hair, she pulled, jerking the older woman's head towards her fist. She felt the snap of bone on bone and there was a ripping sensation as a hank of Drucilla's hair tore away.
With a scream like a banshee Drucilla caught Maya's forearm in a crushing grip, twisting it backwards and up as she slammed the snarling, spitting cub facedown on the floor. Maya yelled as Drucilla twisted, feeling her arm being forced out of its socket, the bones crunching together in their envelope of flesh and skin. The pain shot through her...
Angel was shouting something. She couldn't quite make it out.
"The chair ! The chair...." What was on the fucking chair anyway?
She dug her fingers into Drucilla's ankle under the hem of the gown, nails breaking skin and biting savagely into flesh, but the vampiress still forced down. A bit more pressure and her humerus would snap in two like a twig. Gritting her teeth, Maya raised her chin off the floor and looked up.
So close her nose almost touched a leg, stood a chair with a doll on it. Of course, Drucilla's 'baby'.
Her hand left Drucilla's leg and grabbed the chair, overturning it so the china doll flew up in the air.....
"No !" screeched Drucilla.
Miss Edith landed in Maya's outstretched palm, and with all her strength she threw the doll across the room.
With a cry Drucilla let go and rushed to catch Miss Edith as Maya tried to push herself up, flopping back in pain as her left arm dangled uselessly at her side. She scrambled backwards towards Angel.
Willow scratched at the hands around her throat, her lungs burning for air. Xander lay unconscious amongst the remains of what had been the table. From somewhere in the room she could hear the stomach-turning sounds of Buffy squaring off with the pack leader, but right now all she could see was the enraged face of the vampire straddling her and the angry red blisters from holy water on the wrists of the hands that were choking her.
She tried to call for help, but there was no breath to carry the sound of the word. The world began to flicker in and out, and her last coherent thought was of Oz.
Then the vampire gave a sort of gasp, eyes going wide, and slumped to the side even as she disintegrated into dust. The breath rushed back into Willow's lungs and she coughed on the dust, making a face at the thought of inhaling little bits of vampire. She looked up at the face above her on the stairs. "Cordelia ! You made it ! Where are the guys ?"
"Outside battling evil-vampire-females, what do you think ?" said the brunette with a mixture of irritation and relief. "Would you get up already ?"
"Buffy," coughed Willow. "Shoot Elizabet !"
"I can't." Cordelia gave up trying to aim with the crossbow. "They're moving around too much and I might hit Buffy, which wouldn't give me pain, but..."
"Red !" shouted Spike. "What are you yammering your head off for ? The key !!"
"....now shooting him would relieve my pain," finished Cordelia.
Willow looked down at her chest and saw the ornamented key on a silver chain that had fallen from around the vampire's neck. Grabbing it, she darted across the room to Spike.
"Didn't they give you basic combat training in Watcher Academy, man ?" said Doyle moments before he was hurled down the passageway.
"Sadly, no," Giles managed to grit out as he struggled to force the stake down towards the vampire woman. It was a losing battle he was fighting. "Watchers watch, Slayers fight. A basic arrangement that suited the Watcher's Council, and me, very well till Buffy appeared on the scene. Then I found myself....oh dear," The vampire turned the sharp end of the stake around towards Giles slowly. ".....having to acquire new skills....on the job !"
"We're in the same boat then," Doyle said painfully, climbing to his feet. "I'm just a messenger !" Seeing that Giles was otherwise occupied, he morphed into demon form, causing Dreida to pull up short. Doyle grinned at her, red eyes, thorns and all.
"Hello there."
"This..." Buffy's knuckles impacted solidly on the bridge of Elizabet's nose, "Is for getting such a bad actress to pretend to be me. "This," her other fist crunched into ribs, "Is for nabbing Angel. And this," she leapt into the air, her leg scissoring around so her foot caught the vampiress flush across the cheek, "Is for biting my honey !"
"He's only yours for as long as you can keep him !" Elizabet ducked the successive swing-kicks and caught Buffy by the ankle on the end of the last one, jerking her off her feet and onto her back on the floor. "Which," her knuckles cracked into cement as Buffy rolled away at the last minute to avoid a blow that would have shattered her sternum, but she did not even wince, pouncing onto the Slayer and pinning her on her stomach with a knee in the small of her back, "..you couldn't even when I was not in the picture !" Digging her fingers into the hair of Buffy's scalp, she slammed the Slayer's head into the floor. "You could never keep any man around for long, could you, cherie ? Not Angel, not the crazed Agent of the Initiative, not Spike." She wrenched Buffy's arm up painfully, laughing low. "You're flawed, my dear. Every relationship you begin will end, irrevocably, in tears. And I'll tell you a little secret," she bent over to whisper in Buffy's ear before she sank her fangs in, "I make him feel things that you never could."
"Like disgust for one."
Buffy felt the pressure ease suddenly as Spike jerked Elizabet bodily off her and she automatically rolled away.
His eyes glowing gold, Spike slammed de Bouvais against the wall. "And what about anger, pet ? We forgot all about that one, didn't we ?"
"And desire. Admit it, cherie ! Denial gets you nowhere !" Elizabet kicked him in the groin, spinning out of his grip and expertly gripping him in a headlock. "I played Angelus very well, didn't I ? Tell her how you like it; violent the way you liked it with Maya."
"How did you know ?!"
Buffy saw the gleam of silver under the wreckage of the table and dashed for it. "I'll tell you; girls talk, Spike. Too bad you didn't tell me first." She had to shift Xander off what had once been the table top. "That's it, no more Happy Meals and jumbo Sundaes for you," she muttered.
"How was I supposed to tell you ?!" With a rumbling growl Spike leapt high so they both smashed into the planking that covered the ceiling, with Elizabet uppermost and losing her hold as they crashed down in a shower of dust and splintered wood. "I bloody bit her a little, that's all ! Vampires do that."
"You've been holding back on me in bed ?" Buffy flung back the heavy wooden slab. The silver dagger glinted in the light at her. "Then you run off and sleep with someone else ?"
"Bloody hell, I sired her ! What did you expect ?" Spike blocked a killing blow from Elizabet, hissing as her nails gouged his arm. He remembered how she had killed her opponents in the ring with only her bare hands. He wasn't too worried. He was older, stronger. He was furious with her, the Slayer, and Life in general. "It's not like I could sleep with you that way and have you survive it; that was the reason why we bloody split in the first place ! I was being considerate-like... and you lied to me about coming in with Maya !" Elizabet had him by the throat. "Scared me....half...to...Death !"
"That's a given, since you're already dead. And how do you think it felt like, hearing about it from your Child, whom you cheated on me with ?" Buffy whirled around irefully, the dagger glinting in her hand. "First there was Drucilla, then when you heard she was dead you climbed in my window one night and....and jumped on me, then I have to go and rescue you from The Initiative and find out that Riley is a psycho who would rather kill me than see me with another guy, then you up and disappear. Then I meet Maya, have a cat-fight with her over you of all the stupid things to....then I come here and this older redhead bites you in front of me and tells me that you still have an unhealthy fixation on Angel, who was the last man I slept with before you. How do you think that makes me feel ? Inconsiderate much !"
"I'm not fixated on the wanker !" Spike growled as he staggered back into the wall, trying to break Elizabet's hold around his neck. "When I thought I saw your beautiful face on that street I was so bloody happy I didn't stop to think. Just leapt right into the trap like a sodding fifty-year-old ! How do you think the wanker and I got here in the first place ? I thought you had come here to tell me that you'd thought about it and you'd decided we could have something together. I was even planning to...oof...come back to Sunnyhell and help you with the Slaying business just so I could be...umph!...with you; I turned into a brainless toff !"
Buffy stopped dead, not believing her ears. "You what ?"
The struggling vampires had somehow ended up on the floor, rolling over and over until Spike was on the bottom, Elizabet still having a choke-hold on him so his words came out funny. "Where....exactly...did I lose.....you ?!"
"Right around..." Buffy blushed. "Beautiful. That's the sweetest thing you've ever said to me."
He forced a laugh. "I'll be so sweet I'll give you toothache, even nibble on you a little if that's what you want...but at the moment, love, since you're free, could you give a hand ?"
"Oh. I forgot."
In two steps Buffy crossed the room. Elizabet only had time to turn her head as the Slayer said, "Lights out." Then she was dust.
Spike shook the powdery residue out of his eyes, and by the time that he opened them, Buffy was the one straddling him. She tossed the stake aside and rested both elbows on his chest. "You cheated on me, you're still an evil bloodsucking demon though you claim you want to change, I had to come tearing into LA to save you from an insane woman, but you love me, right ?"
"Cor, what more does it take ? I chose you......oh, bloody hell ! Maya.....Angel ! Drucilla !"
"Look, I think it's a little bad form to throw the names of your past lovers into my face while I'm making love-talk with you ?"
"No, love," Spike twisted his head around. "Where are your friends, except for Mr. Out-For-The-Count there ?"
Buffy frowned. "They ran off. Weird, considering I was being throttled by....oh, My God, there are more of them, aren't there ?"
"More than that, love. Drucilla's not dead."
"WHAT ?"
"Who else but a madwoman would want to kidnap the wanker ?" He swore. "Maya's gone after her !"
"We have to do something !" Buffy pulled her hair out of her face.
"Yes, pet, but first you'll have to get off me ?"
"No," moaned Drucilla. She knelt down on the floor, gathering shards of porcelain in her hands. The floppy cloth torso of the doll was all that was left intact; the porcelain head, arms and legs had shattered upon impact against the wall. "Miss Edith...."
Maya leaned against Angel's legs, fighting not to cry out as she brought her limply hanging left arm forward with her right hand. She had to grip here and force it back into its socket....
White hot pain lanced through her bones and she dropped the useless limb, breathing hard. She couldn't do it by herself. "Angel, I..."
"I can't help you unless you have a key." His boot scraped against the floor as he brought the stake up into her hand. "But..."
"NNNOOOOOOOO !!!" Drucilla roared, whirling around, her gold eyes almost starting out of her head in fury as she rushed towards them.
Buffy and Spike arrived in the passageway just as Giles staked Dreida.
Buffy glanced around, doing a quick head count. Doyle, Cordelia, Willow, Giles. Xander down in the basement.
"Where's Maya ?" Spike wanted to know.
He was answered by the shriek that practically rattled through the hallway, coming from one of the doors. With one look at each other, Vampire and Slayer sprinted for the doorway.
Maya leapt forward instinctively, putting herself between Drucilla and Angel, stake raised to chest level. Drucilla's headlong rush should cast her right on the sharp point...
With one swipe the mad vampiress snatched away the stake and hit the cub so hard she flew backwards and crashed into Angel before sliding to the floor, just as the door was kicked in by Spike.
"Maya !" shouted Spike, but Drucilla was already on top of her and the stake was coming down...
Raising both legs Angel lashed out, locking his ankles tight around Drucilla's neck and jerking her backwards. The wood struck through flesh and bit down into the floor. Maya screamed once.
"No !" the Sire cried in agony. His Child, his first Child...
There was a snap and a muffled cry as Angel broke Drucilla's neck.
Maya lay shaking on the floor, the stake through her chest. Slowly, her trembling hand reached up and clenched tightly around the shaft of wood that pinned her to the ground, and with a convulsive tug she pulled it free, giving an animal cry of pain as the wood exited her flesh, her face contorting. Slowly, she raised herself, her left arm flopping grotesquely, and she drove the stake through the heart of the still-fighting body of Drucilla.
A shower of dust erupted and Maya slumped back, all the fight knocked out of her, stunned and exhausted. Wonderingly, she touched the bloodstained hole in her shirt below which the skin had already healed over the still-damaged muscle within. "She missed." There was a disbelieving, nearly hysterical laughter to her voice. "She missed..." Tears glittered in her eyes.
Buffy moved forward, breaking the stillness. She snatched the key up and unshackled her former lover, averting her eyes in consideration as Spike slowly approached his Child. "Maya...." he reached out to her.
Her eyes flared yellow and she snapped at him, sharp teeth just missing his fingers as he snatched his hand back.
"Don't touch me !" She scrambled backwards only to come up against Angel's legs, whimpering and snarling as the shock took hold. "Don't you dare touch me !"
Wordlessly, Angel dropped to his knees and put his arms around her. She accepted his touch, burying her face in his shoulder as her own began to shake with sobs. He cupped her head awkwardly, stroking her hair. "It's over now, it's over," he soothed, looking over at Spike who had moved into sitting position on the floor, pale and dumbstruck at his Child's violent rejection of him as Buffy watched with reluctant pity.
And it was Angel who guided Maya out later. It was him whom she clung to like a frightened child, sensing even in her state that his quick movements had saved her. Spike she would have nothing to do with. She would not let him come near her, would not touch him. Buffy gripped the blond vampire's hand hard, knowing his pain and confusion, knowing also that Maya would always remember that Spike had chosen Buffy's own life over hers even though Maya herself had been willing to give her life for him. Maya might never bring herself to forgive her Sire for that betrayal.
Angel's eyes met Buffy's in silent understanding. He knew what pain the rending of the bond between Sire and favoured Child could cause. He knew how important the link was to vampires even if the relationship held just as much Hate as Love. And Maya had been Spike's first in nearly two hundred years, a great rarity among their kind.
Out in the passageway another little drama was taking place. The Scooby Gang and the members of Angel Investigations had found another vampire who had managed to flee the earlier scene, and had her cornered at one end of the hall. She had obviously fought for her ground as a cornered animal is apt to do, and there was a half-circle of clear space around her as she snarled at them with wild yellow eyes.
"We should have brought more crossbow bolts !" Cordelia was berating Doyle. "You never pack properly !"
"It's not like we were planning to go to the Bahamas, Cordy !"
"Oh, you wish !"
The vampire woman's eyes passed over them and fixed on Angel. She knew him and he knew her.
He had Maya cradled in the crook of his arm, cold against his chest under his leather coat which they had somehow managed to find. Her grip around his waist was tight, like a trusting child's, and she looked out at the world through uncomprehending black eyes like a wild creature caged behind bars. And maybe it was this that made him pause as his previous conversation with the vampire woman came back to him, the things she had said. Was there truth to it ? That he was so good at his new calling because it legitimised each kill and satisfied the conscience his soul had suddenly given him ? He enjoyed the kills, deep down he knew he did and he would always do so because the demon was in him. Maybe it was even a part of him, that he constantly felt he had to atone for.
She never blinked, not once, even as her lip lowered over her teeth, her snarling ceasing to silence as she looked at him. Their positions were reversed this time.
Was he even justified in killing them ? Not the monsters that the Powers-That-Be ordered him against, but his ordinary kith and kin. They killed for survival, and most did not bother with the 'art' of torture that he and his Children had revelled in.
You're my kind, it's got to count for something. In her yellow eyes he read words from some forgotten book: We be of one blood, Ye and I. What set him apart from her ? His soul ? Then what of her caring for others of her kind, her kindness to one who was supposed to have been a prisoner ? In his time without a soul, Angel would have done the exact opposite.
"Stake," ordered Buffy, letting go of Spike and moving to the front.
"No."
All heads turned to him. "What ?" said Cordelia at last, shaking her head. "Did I hear right ?"
Angel felt Maya's arms tighten around him. "She doesn't deserve it. She was never part of the plan; merely following orders." The yellow eyes held his, narrowed slightly now. "She....stopped Drucilla of her own accord from doing her worst and she.....she isn't evil."
"Angel !" spluttered Cordelia. "Hello ? Wake up and smell the blood ? She's still bloodsucking demon here !"
"So am I, and so is Spike." He looked at all of them. "She's lost her pack in one day, and now she's a rogue again. A female loner in LA; what harm can she do?" He turned back to those yellow eyes. "Go. Go now while you can. I'd advise you to leave LA, but if you choose to stay I'm warning you beforehand; if I catch you killing on the streets I'll stake you as fast as I would any other."
The yellow eyes slowly shifted back to their deep brown, and the ridges of her face settled back into impassive beauty. "So it will be, cher. It is your city, after all."
"I stake no claim."
The circle opened up awkwardly as she stepped forward and the three vampires present could sense the tenseness just under her skin as she passed those who would have killed her moments ago, yet her voice was steady. "It is your city, the City of Angels. And I go home to my own country. If we ever meet again, you'll remember my name. Ayesha, the one who made you see who you were, cher, if even for a moment."
And then she was gone.
TIME FRAME: Three months later.
LOCATION : Sunnydale, California.
Buffy recorked the wine and placed the long-necked bottle in the fridge, next to some plain containers full of a dark-coloured, thick liquid. Pulling her hair over her shoulder, she straightened and hugged herself, looking out at the figure on the verandah.
The swing creaked softly in the night as he rocked it idly with his heels, and with a smile she moved out of the kitchen.
"And to think," Spike heard in his ear as her arms slipped around his neck, "That not so long ago you were telling me that you could never give me a house with a swing on the porch." Buffy kissed his neck, then exhaled contentedly as she looked out into the night.
After the Intitiative's attack on him the last time Spike had shifted house, and for reasons of security as well as conveniance, Buffy had moved in with him. Now they lived together just a few blocks down from Giles, within easy reach of both Willow and Xander. The Slayer Connection, they jokingly called it.
"If you get picket fences I'm bloody moving out," he growled, pulling her around into his lap, making the swing rock and creak wildly. She nibbled on his ear, making him deepen the growl as he pressed his lips to the faintly bruised wound on the side of her neck. A reminder of the early hours of this morning.
They could not remember a time when they had been happier or felt more secure. Both as quicksilver as mercury, they suited each other perfectly, quick to quarrel violently and quick to make up. Buffy enjoyed his quick, biting wit as he did hers, and fighting with him by her side was like dancing with the right partner, the One. They moved in sync, each knowing instinctively what the other meant to do. Their relationship was volatile enough to never be boring, yet Spike felt a wondrous stability about it. There was no fear of being abandoned, to scramble to clutch each other in stranglehold. The urge to possess was still there, but having recognised it they both managed to keep themselves from imposing their strong wills on each other. In a thoroughly ironic way, they could almost have been thankful for all the tumult that had led up to this. It had taught them important lessons, changed them.
"Down, boy," Buffy said when he began to get insistent. "Not yet, there's something I want you to do first ."
"And what would that be, pet ?"
"You never taught me how to play the piano."
Spike half-groaned, half-laughed. "Right now, love, I would do anything but play the bloody piano." The burning in his eyes made her breath catch in her throat, but she was merciless, tugging him up. "Come on."
"Cor, henpecked already !" He followed her inside, watching the way her legs moved in her tights under the big T-shirt. She was the only woman who could look good in a daffodil-yellow shirt with a fluffy bunny on it matched with green tights, he thought with a grin.
The gleaming black instrument stood in its place of honour in the center of the living room. Buffy drew out the seat, then thumped Spike in the chest, pushing him off balance so he dropped onto it. Then she plopped down into his lap. "Well, I'm waiting ?"
"I don't know what possessed me to let you into my unlife; you're insatiable and I'm exhausted !" He laughed when she hit him, fingers reaching to lift the cover of the keys.
There was an envelope sitting on the keys, plain cream and sealed with wax in the old way. There was no identifying mark.
Spike looked at Buffy, but she only raised her brows.
He tore the envelope open and a sheaf of pictures fell out. His fingers began to tremble as he picked them up.
Her black eyes stared up at him from the first picture, full of messages without words as she looked up sultrily at the photographer from her place stretched out on the couch, her lips slightly parted to reveal the hint of teeth. They looked elsewhere in the others, but it was still her. Maya throwing salad at Doyle across the dining table, all of them laughing at something hilarious, the sparkle in her eyes echoed by the glimmer of wine in glasses. Maya picked out in the midst of dancers at some club, lost in the music, caught in motion by the camera as her hair swung out around her. Maya crowing over a fallen Angel in the work-out room of his apartment, with her foot on his chest and her arms raised in a victorious pose. Maya painting Cordelia's fingernails, various items of make-up scattered over the reception table. Maya and Angel on a bridge, both in long coats, her head resting on his chest and his arm around her as they looked towards the camera.
The note was short in comparison, in a hand that Spike found he didn't know at all.
'Sometimes we do things in the heat of emotion, things that we don't mean. Sometimes we say things that cut because inside, we are bleeding. And for these Wounds the only Salve is Time. Yet Love, once born, ever remains, more indestructible than Time itself.
And I've decided to take the advice of one who has become dear to me ; old wounds should not be left to stand. If you.... (Some lines here are scratched out and blurred as if the ink has run) We wondered if you and the Slayer would like to come down some time to the City of Angels, to see what has changed over time.
For he tells me, 'Amor Vincit Omnia.' '
The End
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