Still Ensouled 20

The Adventures of Captain Peroxide and Deadboy

The Angel/Spike Zone of the BtVS Writer's Guild

Chapter XX - One Good Day

"Spike, are you still awake?" Buffy called down the stairs loud enough to be heard by the vampire, but not so loud she would rouse the house.

"Yeah. Come on down."

"Wasn’t sure if you’d want company." She said as she reached the basement floor.

"It’s fine." He sat up and made room for her to sit on the bed. "Didn’t expect you to be up so late. Or is it early?"

Buffy sat beside him on the bed and tried to pretend the smell of sex wasn’t overpowering her senses. "It was here. The First. It just came to me."

"You don’t look too much the worse for wear. Social visit?"

"It kind of was. You know what the weirdest part of it was? It kept telling me how insignificant I was. How I didn’t matter, how we couldn’t stop it."

"But here’s the thing, Spike, we can. I don’t think I ever realized that before. We have the power here, and the First knows it." She took a deep breath and came close to a smile as the smell of the two men she loved more than anything wafted around her. "We have the power."

"Then I guess it’s time to show it."

"I’m going to wake everybody up. We’re ending this today." She stood up and was nearly to the stairs when she turned around. "Thank you."

"For giving me the strength I needed to face this all. I don’t think I would have made it through this week without you here." Spike jumped up from the bed casually and took her hand.

"That’s what we do for each other, we get through it together. You save me, I save you."

"Then I guess we’re pretty lucky we found each other."

"Guess so. Okay, go wake the troops. I’ll be up in a minute." He kissed her hands and watched her go up the stairs.

The hotel was a bustle of activity. Lorne and Fred were at the lobby counter going through contact books trying to build a force, Angel and Gunn were gathering weapons, and Wesley was on the phone with Eve trying to find out what Wolfram and Hart knew about the impending battle.

"Eve, please, I know you’re leaving something out... Just make it happen, any resources at your disposal... Fine, our disposal, we’ll need them just in case... Yes, we’re aware that Connor’s body is still there...Yes Cordelia is doing fine if not better...This can all wait until after, I have every faith that you’ll have it all in order when we arrive...Right, I’ll keep you posted." He hung up the phone and joined Angel and Gunn near their makeshift arsenal.

"Anything new?" Angel asked.

"You mean anything besides calling Wolfram and Hart for help, not really. Although Eve is much more pleasant to deal with than some of the employees we’ve encountered in the past." Wesley’s smile was brief, but did not go unnoticed by Angel or Gunn.

"Okay, let’s just get this ready." Angel said. "Lorne?" He called across the lobby.

"Just a second boss." Lorne returned his attention to the phone. "Okay, so you have how many? And sunlight isn’t a problem? Oh, sweetcakes you are the cherry on my banana boat." He finished the call and joined the men by the weapons. "That was friend of mine from the valley, peach of a guy, aura the color of mustard, but sweet."

"Lorne." Angel warned.

"Right. So he’s got about forty shirago demons working for him, he’s going to set them up at the northern border, and he’ll let us know if anything, um, fangy, makes it to them. So what’s the plan from here?"

"We’re going to set up a perimeter around LA and up the coast. We shouldn’t see too much until sundown, from what I got out of Buffy the main force will be Turok’hon so they’ll have to travel by sewer."

"So you think these things are going to make it out of Sunnydale?" Gunn asked.

"I think that Buffy and Spike will die before they let that happen." Angel pretended to check the strings on a crossbow and then tossed it into the pile of weapons lying on the floor. He felt their eyes on him and looked up. "I don’t know you guys. I’m kind of playing it by ear here. All I know is that come morning if there are Turok’Han in LA I’ll have more than one body to bury."

"Angel," Wesley started, "we’re not really burying him..."

"Wes, one thing at a time okay?" Angel stood up and went into the office. "Let’s just hope this is the day which goes well for us."

"Gee," Gunn said after Angel had left the room, "I could have sworn we just did the apocalypse thing."

"We do seem to be the experts." Wesley chuckled.

"I liked it so much better when I was the expert on sea breezes and Aretha." Lorne said returning to the phones.

"I kind of did too." Gunn said conspiratorially to Wesley.

"So do you think I’m crazy?" Buffy asked her friends as they sat gathered in her room.

"That depends on if you’re in any way kidding." Xander said.

"It’s pretty radical, B." Faith said from her spot against the wall.

"I for one think it’s a bold maneuver." Giles said. "In fact, I think it’s bloody brilliant."

"So you think it’ll work?"

"I think it will tip the scales of good and evil forever, Buffy."

"I’ll settle for today, forever is on its own."

"Okay, so I guess we mount up, gather the troops, etcetera, etcetera." Xander said.

"Hang on, there’s quite a bit of this plan revolving around me, ya know. I mean, uh."

"It is beaucoup de mojo, Will." Faith said.

Willow squeaked a little. "We’re talking about a complete loss of control here, and not in a nice wholesome my girlfriend has a pierced tongue kind of way."

The others in the room squirmed uncomfortably at the picture Willow had painted in their minds. "Right, ignoring that image for a moment," Giles began, "I’ll call the coven and enlist their help. We should be ready to go in a couple of hours. The more daylight we have the better."

"Better for you." Spike winced.

"We’ll take every precaution we can Spike, but we can’t let anything stop us once we open that seal."

"Giles is right. Once the seal is opened and we’re inside the Hellmouth every one of us becomes expendable if it means stopping the First." Buffy took her sister’s hand and held it tight.

"Oh!" Dawn said after a second. "I get it." The others looked at her for further explanation. "Pierced tongue." She said quietly.

"Dawn needs to do a research thing." Buffy said pulling her up from the bed.

"Fine, Watcher Junior to the library." Dawn walked from the room with Giles on her heels.

"I’ll call Althinea and the coven." He said pausing at the door.

"Great, all the help we can get." Buffy said before adding. "We’re going to win."

The ride to the high school had been short, but tense. Spike crouched in the back seat of Xander’s car wrapped in a heavy blanket that blocked out the early morning sun and waited for their caravan to reach their target. Once at the school he had rushed out of the fatal rays that he knew would trap him inside once the battle had begun. He placed the amulet over his neck as soon as they entered the main hallway, but it had no immediate effects. He waited for Buffy to say her goodbyes to those staying on the main floor, where they could catch any of the Turok’Han that made it out of the basement, and then headed for the seal.

"Looks like the bloody Children’s Crusade." Spike said with a forced smile as the group of thirty-odd potential slayers passed him.

"Not for long." Buffy said as she joined him.

"Right, let’s go show this thing who has the real power." He followed her and the others down the stairs into the basement and to the room that held the seal of Danthazar. Once there, Faith handed Buffy a knife and the rest of the girls in the room gathered around the seal.

"You first, B." Buffy took the knife and sliced deeply into the flesh of her hand. Then she passed the knife to Faith, who did the same. The Slayers then held their hands out over the seal, letting their blood drip onto the goat’s head that decorated it. Each of the potential slayers followed suit and soon the edges of the seal began to shine with a near-blinding light.

"Can I just say I should have eaten before we left?" Spike said with a grin.

Buffy shot him a disgusted look, but followed it with a smirk. The seal’s glow was now encircling the room and it began to sink into the ground below. As the metal it was made of folded up and formed a sharp point the edges slipped further down revealing stairs carved of stone.

"Well now, wasn’t this thoughtful of the big evil thing?" Spike said as he ran a hand over the walls.

"Beats tunneling." Buffy agreed. "Okay, everyone, weapons ready, we just need to hold them off until Willow can work her spell." They walked down into the stairwell and stepped foot on the rocky ground that made up the Hellmouth floor.

"Don’t mean to burst anyone’s bubble here, Buffy, but my fabulous new accessory isn’t exactly doing anything yet." Spike picked the amulet up from his chest and stared at it willing the gem to bestow him with strength. "That and I look like Elizabeth Taylor."

"Cheer up Liz." Faith said as she passed him. "If Willow’s spell doesn’t work it won‘t matter what your wear."

"I’m not worried." Buffy said.

Spike looked into the enormous cave that made up the Hellmouth and took a step back. Every square foot of surface was covered with Turok’Han, the most primitive vampire. A pure demon, nothing like the human hybrid that he himself was. This was a being of undiluted evil, and they were facing thousands of them.

"I’m not worried." Buffy said again. She stepped to the edge of the precipice they stood on and looked into the sea of vampires. "I’m not worried." She said a bit more assertively. "As long as Willow can work her spell before they see us we’ll be fine."

Spike wanted to believe her, but even as she spoke he could sense that their presence had not gone unnoticed. Within seconds a swarm of vampires lifted their heads to see the intruders and with one body they rushed from the ground far below and up the walls to attack.

Willow sat on the floor of Principal Wood’s office, directly over the seal. She had a variety of herbs and sands around her, and in her hands she held the axe that Buffy had found. As she held it she felt the power it gave off radiate through her body. She tried to channel the energy into herself while she chanted. The strength of the weapon grew to an overwhelming point and as she tightened her grip her eyes flashed white with the building power.

"Oh. My. Goddess." She whispered as the power washed over her completely.

Inside the Hellmouth the vampires had reached the group and each of them were fighting for their lives. Buffy and most of the potentials held swords and stakes while Faith and Spike fought with bare hands trying to throw the demons over the cliff side to stave them off. Most of the potentials teamed up and seemed to be doing okay, but not all. A few of them were still wounded from the explosion the day before, while some had just not been with Buffy long enough to have enough training to keep them safe. They fought as long as they could, but several ended up being little more than canon fodder.

"Just hang on." Buffy yelled to the rest, trying to keep them focused while she fought. "Just hang on. Willow can do it." She thrust her stake into the chest of a Turok’Han and as soon as it turned to dust she moved on to the next. "Come on Willow." She said to herself.

Willow held the axe in a death grip as she chanted. Kennedy, a potential, and Willow’s girlfriend, watched on waiting for the spell to be complete so she could join the fight below.

"Come on Red." She said quietly. "Make us Slayers."

Willow continued to chant and as she did the air around her began to swirl with power. "Share the power." She said in a hushed tongue. As she spoke the essence of the scythe she held in her hands shot out of the office and passed through all of the potentials, but it did not stop there. The wave of power swept over and around the earth entering every girl on earth that might one day possess the power of the Slayer. Kennedy nearly passed out as that power built in her belly like a fire. She could feel every muscle in her body tighten with a force stronger than any she had ever known.

"You," She said to Willow, "are a goddess."

"And you’re a Slayer." Willow said as she began to come down from the magical high that had allowed her to work a spell that changed every rule of Slayerdom. No longer would there be one girl in all the world who had to shoulder the weight of the world. From that moment on every girl in the world that could be a Slayer was a Slayer. "Go, get this to Buffy." She said, handing the axe to Kennedy.

Once she was gone Willow tipped to the ground beside her, the aftereffects of the spell coursing through her veins. "That was nifty."

Spike continued to fight off the vampires as best he could, and then he saw Kennedy racing down the stairs with the axe. She passed it through the air to Buffy and before his eyes the balance of power in the Hellmouth changed. Where moments before there had been girls dropping to the ground and struggling to get up, there were now nearly thirty Slayers battering a tide of demons back into the Hellmouth they came from. All around him their power was apparent; each now possessed the full strength of a Slayer, while he...

"Ouch." He yelled. The amulet had zapped him. He reached out to touch it and the orb burned his fingers. He released the chain and deflected the attack of one of the attacking Turok’Han. As he thrust the demon to the ground he felt another charge race through his body. "Buffy! I think somebody just turned this thing on!" He called out to her.

Buffy did not hear him right away, as she was battling several of the demons at once, but then she turned towards his voice and looked over to him. As she did another vampire came up behind her and thrust a narrow sword into her side. Spike watched in horror as she dropped to the ground, but he could do nothing to help. The amulet was beginning to burn into his chest and he found himself slammed against a wall near the stairwell as several Turok’Han raced past him and up the steps. He tried to reach out to them but even the smallest of movements seemed to tear a hole in his breast.

A few steps away he watched as Buffy handed the axe to Faith and laid her head on the ground.

"Wow, that’s got to hurt." Spike whipped his head around to see the First, in its favorite disguise, Buffy. "She looks all, what’s the word I’m looking for, Lover? Oh yeah, dead."

"Never stopped her before." Spike hissed through his pain.

"We’ll see." The apparition walked over to Buffy smiling at the carnage around the cave. Spike couldn’t make out the words it taunted her with, but it wasn’t long before Buffy lifted her head from the ground. He felt a wave of relief course through his body and his joy at seeing that she was alive almost alleviated the punishing fire that was building from the Amulet. He watched as Buffy lifted her body up to crouching and then stood up, still clutching her side. As Buffy rose a look of abject terror spread over the First’s face. One of the new slayers passed the Axe through the air, landing it in Buffy’s waiting hand. She quickly decapitated three Turok’Han in one movement before she turned her back on the First and moved onto another group of vampires.

"Buffy!" Spike called out again as a huge blast of light shot out from the amulet. "Oh, bollocks." The light blew a hole through the roof of the cave and bore through the entire school. The sun’s rays jetted down the hole and seemed to concentrate on the amulet for a moment before the prism diffracted the light in lethal rays throughout the cave. As the force of the rays blasted stalactites from the roof and sent the Turok’Han bursting into flames the entire Hellmouth began to shake in protest.

Buffy ushered the other girls up the stairs as they fought the few Turok’Han that had not been killed instantly. Once all of them were safely out of harm’s way Buffy stood beside Spike. "Come on." She said, but Spike could not move, the burning was paralyzing and even though he wanted to flee with the rest of them he knew his job wasn’t done.

"Kind of busy right now." The amulet seemed to be drawing power from within his body, pulling on his soul and mingling its strength with that of the sun. "I can feel it Buffy."

"Feel what." Buffy said through budding tears.

"My soul. It’s really in there." He winced again and reached a hand out to her. "Kinda stings."

She gave him a genuine smile and reached out to take his hand. "Come on, you’ve done enough."

"Nope, you’ve done it. Now it’s time for me to clean up the mess." The burning within him grew.

"Spike, I am not leaving you here." Buffy was now feeling the strength that coursed through him, her hand grew hotter within his grip.

"Buffy, this is what I’ve been waiting for, ever since I met you. I’m not leaving until it’s done."

"What are you talking about?" She tried to pull at him, to drag him towards the exit if he would not walk, but the hand she held burst into flames, and while they did not make it unbearable to hold his hand, she knew she would have to let go soon.

"This is all I wanted, Buffy. One day where you would look at me like you are right now. Like I’m a man, a thing worth saving." He sucked back tears and gave her hand a final squeeze before releasing it. "Time to go, Lamb."

The walls around them were beginning to crumble and Buffy knew she couldn‘t stay any longer. She looked at the man in front of her and closed her eyes briefly, fighting back the tears that welled there. "I love you, Spike."

"I want to believe you." He said. "But today that’s not enough. We’re all expendable right?"

"Please, don’t do this. We’ve won. Look!" She yelled at him.

Both of them stared into the Hellmouth where the remaining Turok’Han were fleeing and catching on fire as the amulet continued to shoot its powerful rays of light. "They’re not all dead yet, Buffy. They’ll be back. You’ve got to go now."

"Spike." Buffy pleaded.

He waved his hands in the air and pressed her back. "I mean it. I gotta do this."

"And what will I tell the rest of them? What will I tell Angel?"

Spike shut his eyes and fought the urge to flee, he couldn’t let himself think about Angel, and yet he couldn’t stop himself from doing just that. "Tell him," he paused to lick his lips, "tell him I had myself a real good day."

A large crash of rocks began to fall around them and Buffy started up the stairs. "Go!" Spike said firmly when she turned around to look at him. The ground continued to shake and Spike leaned his head back against the wall. "I wanna see how it ends."

"Goodbye." Buffy said before running up the stairs and out of the building.

A few Turok’Han tried to follow her, but as soon as they reached the ledge the amulet began to quiver and shot out more beams. The burning was now so hot that Spike could smell his chest being singed. He looked at his hands and the flesh that was beginning to turn to ash and he could not fight back a laugh. William the Bloody was about to die saving the world from the evil that made him. He continued to laugh as his neck caught fire and the flames licked at his cheeks. He growled at the pain and just when he thought he was finished burning, the amulet began to suck the light it had expelled back in. He felt the flames retract from his flesh, but instead of turning to ash and dust as he expected there was nothing. All he felt was the darkness. He didn’t think he was in the Hellmouth anymore, he saw no light, no hole in the roof. He saw and felt only black. He held neither form nor thoughts save one: I will always come back to you.

"We’re ready to go." Wesley called.

Angel closed the phone in his hand and set it inside his coat pocket. "It’s there?" He asked.

"Everything’s ready."

"I feel like we’re forgetting something." Angel looked around the hotel lobby, but it was completely empty. All the furniture had been covered, the file cabinets were empty, the lights were off.

"Angel, we’ve got it all."

"There’s something missing."

"Yes, there is." Wesley said as he took the vampire’s hand. "Now it’s time to go get him back."

People just called me a bitch.

Violators will be beaten to death with a shovel

(A vague disclaimer is nobody's friend)