Common Ground

SUMMARY: With the Initiative gone and the chip still in his brain,Spike's only hope seems to be to regain the Gem of Amara. Having heard that Angel has it, he decides to pay a visit to his sire in order to kick his ass and get it back. But what he eventually does find in L.A. is something entirely different...

It looked like the glistening stars had been drawn down from the night sky, lighting darkness, making it shine, making it hum with energy. The City of Angels was never asleep. The trace of a smile lit the handsome features of the dark figure standing dangerously close to the abyss at the edge of the look-out overlooking the city. The smile was gone in a moment.

Angel tilted his head back in his neck and gazed at the starry sky above him. In direct comparison to the fortress of light underneath him,the soft light of the stars was pale and mild, reminding him that heaven was a place so very far from here.

But there *was* good in this city, even if sometimes it was hard to see. There were good people who deserved a chance, and the dark haired vampire refused to give up on it, no matter how hopeless the situation had become.

In the last few months, more and more monsters and demons seemed to have come to the city, and their numbers growing by the night. Angel hadn't had a day off in weeks, and the case he was currently working on gave him a headache. Cordelia, and even Wesley, did their best to help, but the truth was that they all knew it was getting too much for them to handle,too dangerous. Even for him. Ever since Doyle's death nobody could cover him in a fight, and the tall man was beginning to feel it. He needed help. He desperately needed help. And not from a human, because he hated to take them into the fight. They were too frail, and it was too risky. But where to turn? Who to ask? Where could you find allies in the darkness of this city? He couldn't trust anyone. But then again, he had never been good at trusting anyway.

The souled vampire had been so restless these last few days, and at first he had not been sure why. But something was coming. Something was about to happen, and it wouldn't be good. He could always sense these things,and sometimes, like now, he would have preferred not to know.

One last look at the lights of the city, then the dark haired man turned around and got back into the car. Inside, he suddenly hesitated. For a second it crossed his mind not to go back, but to head away from this place instead, as far as he could, without looking back, without thinking about consequences. He smiled sarcastically.

When the car had been parked around the corner, and the walk into his street had begun, he had already known who was there, even before the dark haired vampire saw his face...

Angel stopped a few feet away from his childe and stared at him, frowning. The blonde was leaning nonchalantly against a car parked beside the front door, arms crossed in front of his chest, holding a smoldering cigarette. The number of butts lying on the street where he stood gave away that the vampire must have been waiting for some time. But still he only looked back at Angel with a tiny smile crawling over his lips, and took a long drag on his cigarette, taking time before he answered.

In a second he was on top of him, the blows coming so hard and fast that Angel didn't even have time to react or cover his face. The older vampire struggled to get back on his feet where he had the advantage, but somehow Spike managed to grab him by the throat, the other fist raised,ready to strike again. With the iron grip around his throat painfully pinning him to the ground, Angel stopped his efforts, realizing that this round had gone to Spike. His childe looked down at him with eyes as cold as ice.

"Now let me make this clear. I want the Gem. I know you've got it. And I've got plenty of ways to make your unlife hell until you tell me. So,do we get over with this quickly or do I have to kill one of your friends first?"

"Oh, you're so bloody boring. See, I knew you were going to say that. You'd say that if you had it as well as if you didn't. Now, do I have to turn you into a pile of dust or do you prefer to answer and save that sorry little ass of yours?"

The dark-haired vampire used his childe's momentary inattention to free himself of Spike's grip and punch him hard in the face. He rolled over,and was back on his feet in a moment, as was Spike.

"You had no right to destroy it! You had no right! You bloody son of a bitch! What the fuck am I going to do now?" The vampire stared at his sire with a mixture of rage and desperation that sprung from the realization that what might have been his last chance to get the chip out of his brain had just vanished into thin air.

"Deal? The fucking Initiative's gone and that bloody chip's still in my brain! I tried everything, I destroyed everything that was left and it's still working! It's never gonna stop! How am I supposed to bloody deal with that?!"

Spike only stared at his sire for a moment, then he slowly shook hi head. It was over. Without the power of the Gem, he would never be able to get someone to free him of the chip. The Gem had been his last chance,and it was gone.

The anger over Angel having destroyed it seemed to disappear without a trace, and suddenly there was nothing menacing about the blond demon,nothing threatening anymore. He walked a few steps away from Angel, then he suddenly stopped and sunk down against a wall, burying his head between his arms, and closed his eyes.

It was hopeless. He would never find a way to get that bloody chip out of his head, and it was getting harder to deal with the consequences. The impetuous vampire wasn't used to this, to being weak, defenseless, he had never been, not even when he was still alive. Even when he was in that soddin' wheelchair he was still able to defend himself somehow. Spike just couldn't get used to it, but the chip never failed to painfully remind him.

How could this have happened to him? He was a master vampire. He had killed two slayers. He had been so strong, respected and feared by both the living and the undead. And now he couldn't even point a fake gun at someone anymore. How's that for a pathetic shell of a loser?

Angel stared at his childe, uncertain about what to do. Should he simply leave, go inside? Spike seemed to have forgotten all about him. But Angel couldn't risk leaving him there. What if the blond vampire decided to come after him and get his revenge later, when he was asleep? His childe might not be dangerous to his friends anymore, thank god, but to the dark haired man, he was as dangerous as ever. He couldn't leave him there.

Maybe because Angel remembered what it had felt like when he had first regained his soul, when he didn't know what to do and how to survive, not even if he wanted to survive. He had hated himself so much it had almost destroyed him. The vampire could still feel the agony, it stirred in his stomach whenever he thought of it, and he hated the feeling.

He had to be out of his mind. But there had been something... a lookin the younger man's eyes, so lost... He couldn't really explain it, but somehow he couldn't leave him there like that.

He was his sire after all. No matter if he hated him, he had created this monster, he was responsible. Something inside of him just wouldn't let him turn his back on his childe, now that he needed his help. And he did, even if he didn't know it yet.

//That helper syndrome of yours is going to get you killed some day. You'd invite the devil in if he sat there on the street looking like a lost puppy, wouldn't you? Angel, this is madness. He's going to kill you. As soon as you turn your back on him, he's going to stake you. This is a bad mistake and you know it.//

The blonde caught it with one hand and just stared at Angel for a moment,still on guard. He had no idea why he had taken Angel's invitation to come in. He hadn't planned to. But before the blue-eyed vampire could think about it he had found himself in Angel's cozy living room. And there he was now. He stared at the blood bag in his hand, eyeing it suspiciously.

//Don't drink it. Get out of here now. It's a trap. I can feel it. Leave. Now. Do what your bloody instinct tells you, it's all that you have left. It's no good. It's wanker blood. You drink some of that, it'll turn you into a whining nancyboy with exactly -that- look on your face. Right there,you see. Now leave!//

Oh God, it felt good. He hadn't eaten since he had left bloody Sunnyhell,and somehow Angel must have known. The wanker didn't expect him to be grateful now, did he?

//Ha! Grateful! To that tosser! Never in my bloody unlife. And if he dropped to his knees, said that everything here was mine and staked himself. Actually, a nice idea, that. You keep on staring at him that way, maybe you will get him hypnotized.//

Inwardly growling at himself, Spike quickly turned away and emptied the blood bag. He hadn't even realized that he was staring at the handsome dark-haired vampire. There was an uneasy silence in which both of them tried their best to ignore how tense the situation was.

Spike stopped and glared at him. "Oh, just fine. Got captured by some commandos who took me to a secret laboratory where they planted a chip in my brain. And yourself?"

The blonde raised an eyebrow. "Oh, I see. Well, why don't we talk about you for a minute? Have you shagged a slayer lately? Killed some innocents? Stole your mate's girlfriend?"

"I should just kill you, it'll make me feel better," the blond vampire said half-heartedly, still exploring the large room and noticing the collection of swords decoratively hung on the wall with a pleased little smile.

Angel tilted his head to the side, arms crossed in front of his chest,and thoughtfully looked at his childe. A crazy little idea was beginning to form in his head. A totally crazy idea maybe, but somehow it made sense.

He would have to think about this. This and a lot of other things. But first he had to get some sleep, he was tired from a long day. Walking over to his bedroom he looked back over his shoulder.

Angel chuckled in amusement. "Well, Spike, a lot of things have changed. If I were you I'd take the invitation and stay. Trust me, you don't want to be alone in this city with no place to go. Especially not you."

"Tomorrow," Angel simply repeated and disappeared in the bedroom, closing the door behind him. He leaned against the door for a moment, a little smile flashing across his lips, then he shook his head, about himself as well as about his impossible childe. He still wasn't sure why he was doing this.

Walking over to the bed, the vampire suddenly hesitated and looked around the room. He walked back over to the door and turned the key. Two times. Then he grabbed a baseball club and placed it next to his bed. Just in case...

"What the hell is *he* doing here?" Cordelia asked the next day when Angel and Spike entered the office of Angel Investigations together, and jumped up from her chair with surprising speed, ready to run. Spike smiled,pleased.

Angel grabbed him none too gently by the arm and dragged him over to his office, closing the door firmly behind them. He leaned against the door and sighed deeply. His childe's presence was always a test of his self-control, and a hard one, too. The younger vampire was simply impossible. And he obviously knew and enjoyed it, the bastard.

Spike walked over to the desk and took up the mail Cordelia had put there, flipping through it. Angel gave him a warning look. Reluctantly he put it down and shrugged.

Ignoring the comment, Angel walked past him and sat down on his chair."I've got something to tell you, Spike. Something important. So why don't you, just for a minute, try to behave yourself and listen?"

"Alright. I've thought about this last night, and I've got a deal to offer you. You can stay here and I'll see to your not being killed. In return, you help me fight evil in this city."

"Right. That's why you came for the Gem. Think about it. No one is ever going to help you get the chip out. You'll have to live with it forever. With that understood, you might as well do something useful."

"Don't you see this, Spike? You've got no choice. You can't defend yourself. Sooner or later they're going to get you, and you know it. It's either going back to Sunnydale and helping Buffy or staying here where nobody knows about the chip yet. You need someone to watch your back. You might as well fight on our side and live, cause if you don't, you're dead already."

"Four days ago a mother contacted me because her three teenage daughters had disappeared without a trace and the police couldn't seem to find them. That's them in the photograph, Sheila, Zoe, and Lucia."

"That's fascinating," Spike said, and yawned. He was more lying than sitting on a chair opposite of Angel in his office later that day. Half-heartedly he glanced at the picture Angel was showing him and grinned. "I can see why you want to help." The girls were pretty, all three of them.

Angel sighed deeply. "Anyway. I found out that these girls are hereditary witches, even though they can't control their powers yet. Yesterday I accidentally stumbled across a Bajora demon near the docks. You know what Bajora demons do with witches, don't you? And there's a full moon tonight."

"Three witches, a full moon, and a demon who loves to feed on witch's blood. Doesn't that ring a bell?" Angel asked, inwardly struggling to keep his temper. Someone ought to give this brat that called himself his childe a good spanking!

"*She* is a he, Spike. And *he* is the leader of the Order of Keran,a sect of Bajora demons from the middle ages. Zera wiped out half of Turkey before they managed to stop him. He was destroyed by a powerful witch who put a spell on him to prevent him from coming back, but unfortunately this spell will lose its power after seven generations. The prophecy says that Zera will be brought back to life through the blood of three sisters from the seventh generation of a family of witches on the night of a full moon."

Angel nodded. "It takes an immense power to resurrect a demon, and it usually involves the blood of innocents. The ritual has to take place on the exact day Zera died. I checked the books. Looks like our friends will try to bring Zera back to life tonight."

Angel got up from his chair and slowly walked around his desk to lean against it opposite of Spike, arms crossed in front of his chest, looking at the blond vampire with a little frown.

"Spike, not only will these girls die if we don't find them in time,if these demons really manage to bring Zera back, we're in big trouble. Once he has risen again, I seriously doubt we can stop him."

Reluctantly Spike stared back at his sire. The tall man's beautiful,deep brown eyes rested on him almost reproachfully. He *hated* it when he looked at him like that, all brooding and soul-having. He could never hold his eyes.

Angel got up too, surprised about this unexpected thirst for action. The truth was, of course, that Spike was bored to death, and anything was better than to sit here in this dusty office and listen to Angel babbling on and on about evil demons wanting to take over the world. He hadn't had a decent spot of violence in weeks.

They suddenly stood facing each other, unexpectedly close. Spike looked up at his sire, a sly little smile curling his lips for a second. Angel just stared at him, frowning. Spike chuckled to himself and walked to the door. Angel followed quickly.

"Just a guess, but I'd say somewhere near the hellmouth. It's the perfect place to bring a demon back to life," he answered Spike's question, trying not to show that the look on Spike's face and the closeness of his body had somehow irritated him a little.

They headed for the docks, since Angel had seen the Bajora demon there the other night, and most likely the hiding place of the monsters would be somewhere near. But the warehouses they checked were all deserted.

Angel looked back at him, holding his stare. "What's your problem?"the tall vampire asked, starting to get pissed off with his childe's attitude."Seriously, I wanna know. What the hell is your problem?"

"It's blokes I've trusted for over a hundred bleedin' years stealing my girlfriend. It's soul-having nancyboys shagging slayers and getting into my way whenever possible. It's bloody wankers destroying the soddin' Gem Of Amara and afterwards trying to blackmail me into helping them! Summed up, I guess my problem is you."

Angel stared at him, surprised about the outburst. "Hey, easy! It's not my fault that you can't kill anyone! Stop blaming me! And in case you haven't noticed, I'm *not* Angelus. He's gone. Get over it!"

"Fuck you!" Spike hissed, his blue eyes filled with hatred. He pushed Angel again, taking a threatening step towards him, but then he suddenly seemed to change his mind as if he had just realized that it wasn't even worth the effort.

They both stared at each other coldly. Now certainly wasn't the time and place for this, but the tension between them couldn't simply be ignored. There were a lot of things still unspoken, a lot of unresolved issues,hanging in the air. Angel realized just now how strange it still had to be for Spike to get used to him having a soul. And when he looked at his childe, there was a part of him that remembered. A dark side, buried somewhere deep down, but that side could still recall how it used to be. And that his childe had never looked as irritatingly sexy as in this moment,staring at him as if he didn't know whether he wanted to kill him or not,whether to stay or go.

Only a few yards away a dozen of Bajora demons, armed to their very sharp teeth, was marching towards the warehouse next to them. Their eyes were glowing red in the dark, making them look particularly evil. Spike and Angel exchanged a glance and ran for cover.

Spike rolled his eyes. "Geez, why do you always have to be so melodramatic? Not that I'd care, but if you go in there alone, you're dust, mate, and how's that supposed to help anyone? It won't make any difference."

Angel was feeling an almost uncontrollable urge to grab his childe by the shoulders and slam him head first against the wall. But, with incredible willpower, he resisted.

"Spike, I know you've got no reason to help me. I don't even know if I would if I were you. But it's demons. You can kill them. Violence. Blood. Danger. How about that?"

Angel sighed with relief. He handed Spike a long knife. "Here. They can only be killed by a silver blade through the heart," he explained as they advanced silently. "I'll try to divert them, and you get the girls."

Spike nodded. They had reached the door and stopped, exchanging a look. There was still a tiny spark of anger in Spike's eyes, and Angel suddenly wasn't sure if he could even trust him. But what could he do? He had no choice anyway.

It was a heavy fight, and an extremely brutal one. The moment the Bajora demons noticed Angel, they were coming at him from all sides. Only four of them stayed behind with the girls. Without a noise, Spike stole closer to them, hiding behind some of the large boxes that were piled up everywhere in the large hall. He glanced at the label on one of the boxes.

Spike sneaked up to the demon closest to him and grabbed him, pulling the reptile-like monster straight into the knife he held in his hand. Without a noise, the demon sunk down to the ground, dead. The vampire smiled with grim satisfaction. In that moment, the others noticed him.

The one next to him lunged, but he managed to duck in time. He turned,and with a quick move stabbed the knife in his back. Two more left. Spike turned around to face them, the demon in him hungry for the fight,his yellow eyes blazing evilly.

Angel knew he was fighting a lost battle. It was ten to one, but luckily for him, the Bajoras weren't the smartest, and a bit sluggish in their movements. He had killed three of them already, but they had him surrounded, and were slowly closing in.

They started to run for the door. Glancing back over his shoulder, Spike noticed that one of the torches on the floor had set a blanket on fire. The flames were spreading rapidly, headed for the boxes filled with explosives.

The Bajoras had noticed the fire too. They started to run around the hall, panicking. Angel was still fighting with some demons. He was cornered,no chance of getting out of there. Spike and the girls had reached the door. He pushed the girls out of the warehouse, slamming the iron door shut behind him. They stared at him with frightened eyes. He cut the ties around the hands of the oldest of them, handing her the knife. "Here, cut them lose. Run as far away as you can. This place will blow up any minute!" He didn't have to tell them twice. Spike stayed behind, watching them running away. He glanced back at the door.

Angel was still in there. Should he try to save the dark haired vampire or save his own ass instead? Why did he even think about it? He*hated* the bastard! He wasn't Angelus, wasn't his sire... But still...

Spike fought his way through the panicking Bajoras to the corner where Angel was. The tall vampire was still fighting with one of the demons,seemingly the leader of the pack. The monster had cut his sire's arm with one of its claws and the wound was bleeding heavily, but still Angel didn't give up, determined to fight until the end. Spike grabbed the demon from behind and slammed his head against the wall, knocking him out. Angel stared at his childe, surprised. "Spike, get out of here! This place will blow up any moment!"

"You don't say!" Spike looked around the hall, trying to figure out how to get out before everything exploded. The flames had almost reached the boxes. They would never make it to the door.

But there was a window just a few yards away. He grabbed his injured sire by the arm, and before the vampire could even protest, he threw him through the window and jumped through the hole after him. A second later, the warehouse exploded with a giant bang.

Having landed on top of Angel, Spike lay still for a long moment, just listening to the sound of fireworks exploding, lighting the night sky above them with breathtaking beauty. For a few seconds of disorientation he wasn't sure if they had made it in time. But they had.

Spike shrugged, and slowly sat up. "All the important parts are still in place." With a tiny smirk Angel sat up beside him, their shoulders touching. The dark-haired vampire pressed his hand to the wound on his arm, grimacing with pain. He was slowly coming to realize that Spike had just saved him.

His childe looked back at him, their faces, their lips only inches apart,their bodies pressed against each other as they sat there. Neither of them moved. For the split of a second, there was something... Electricity. Angel quickly looked away, confused. Spike still looked at him, a mysterious little smile stealing on his lips.

"You're a bastard. Bloody bastard of a wanker, that's what you are. That's what you've always been." He smirked. Then he looked away and climbed back to his feet. The blond vampire leaned his head back in his neck, gazing at the colorful spectacle lighting the pitch dark night sky.

They slowly started to walk away, side by side. Angel glanced at his childe, and somehow he couldn't help feeling proud of him. He wondered why the younger vampire had done it, why he had saved him. And suddenly he was glad that the blonde had come to L.A. He knew he couldn't have saved the girls without his help. He wouldn't even be here now without his help. For someone who declared frequently how much he hated him, Spike had a funny way of showing his malevolence. But then again, his childe had never been quite like the rest. Angel chuckled to himself. It wasn't really *that* bad having him around, actually. As annoying as he could be, he always managed to surprise him. He did things he never would have thought him capable of.

Angel half-smiled to himself, thinking of the way Spike had just looked at him the moment before, and how it had made his stomach spin excitingly. For some strange reason he found himself wishing that the blond vampire would stay around for a while, even though he wasn't really sure why. He could use his help, he really could. That's all there was to it. Or wasn't it?