Ritual Part 2

Title: Ritual Part 2

Author: Velvet Crypt

Disclaimer: Joss is God. I own nothing.

Spoilers:

Summary: Spike and Xander discover the up side of the ritual.

Spike felt the wall coming down before he saw it. The magic ran across his back like spider legs. One second the wall was there. The next it was not. And he looked across the expanse of the room to wide eyes and wary expressions.

“Hello, children.” He smirked. No response. ~Well, what the hell?~ “Did you miss us?” Ah, Red and Tara were blushing furiously. Buffy covered her face with her hands. Giles pulled off his glasses to wipe them. Spike’s smirk faded. “What?” he demanded. Willow desperately didn’t make eye contact.

“Umm…the errr, wall…didn’t work quite…right.” She choked out. Spike’s eyes narrowed.

“Not quite right?” he repeated.

“Errr, I guess on your side…it was a wall. On our, umm, side…it, err, umm, …wasn’t.” She finished in defeat.

“So what you’re saying is that you saw everything.” He stated tonelessly.

“W-we heard everything t-too.” Tara added, looking away.

“Bloody hell.” He groaned and smacked his head against the wall in irritation, then fixed each of them with a deadly gaze. “I don’t want to hear one word out of any of you, understand? Xander doesn’t need to know you saw…or heard anything. Just shut the hell up about it.” Vigorous nods all around.

“Shu’ the h’ll up ‘bout wha’, Wil?” Xan’s sleepy voice murmured as Xander turned on his side and nuzzled Spike’s chest. Spike looked down and caught the warm gaze of his mate. He couldn’t stop the smile that came across his face. With a sleepy smile in return, Xander began rubbing small circles on Spike’s stomach.

“Hi, Wil,” he breathed.

“Hi, Xan. The wall is down.” Spike warned, wanting to give his nummy all the time he needed to adjust to having just shagged and mated a vampire. A vampire that all of his friends hated.

Xander tilted his head to eye the others but didn’t stop rubbing. “Hi, guys.” He called and lay his head back down on Spike’s chest.

“H-Hi, Xander,” Willow stuttered. Spike rolled his eyes. ~Oh, well done witch. Why don’t you just say, ‘Hey Xander, I just watched you shag an undead bloke into the ground and then let him steal half of your soul’.~

“Are you feeling all right, Xander?” Giles asked, wiping his glasses. Xander stretched against his lover like a cat. He smiled and nodded.

“Doing great, G-man. Never better.” He rolled onto his back, but didn’t move away from Spike. “I spose you’re wondering what this is about,” he began. A flurry of activity greeted his comment.

“N-no! Not wondering,” Willow grasped Tara’s hand and they both turned away to inspect the door.

“Not at all, Xander.” Giles began digging through his pockets.

“Don’t wanna know.” Buffy just turned bright red. She continued to stare at them, though. Xander furrowed his brow.

“What’s going on?” he demanded. No response. “Spike, what the hell is going on?” Spike sighed and scooted Xander forward a bit so that he could stand. He reached a hand down and helped Xander up.

“You people are bloody terrible at this, you know.” He glared at them.

“Bloody terrible at what, Wil?” Xander stepped up to him. “What aren’t you telling me? What are you trying to-“ He stopped as the world exploded into color. Swaying, he felt strong arms surround him and hold him upright.

“Xander?” Spike shook him slightly. “What the fuck is going on? Your eyes just changed color.” The others began to gather around, worry evident on their faces.

Xander blinked and slowly dropped his gaze to Spike. “Did you know you have a sparkling white light shooting from your chest?” He asked absently. Spike looked down, and seeing nothing, brought his eyes back to his mate.

“I don’t see anything, luv.”

“Oh, damn. Too bad, there are lots of other pretty lines of light coming from you too. Red ones blue ones, green ones.” Xander still sounded dazed. “But the white one…it’s right there. It’s pouring from your chest…and into me.” He reached out to touch something in between their bodies.

As soon as his hand passed through the lines of crystalline light, his head rocked back. He felt worried, scared, guilty, angry, frustrated…and then his hand found the white light. He stared from his hand to Spike’s face in awe.

“You love me.” He whispered. Spike tensed.

“What are you going on about, whelp?” He tried to sound angry. Xander only shook his head.

“No, I can feel it. It’s in the light. You love me.” He smiled and tears began to fall. “I never knew. But it’s all here. It’s warm, and safe and welcoming.” He laughed, throwing his head back and closing his eyes to drink in the feeling. “Everyone should be loved like this.”

Spike had given up on ‘angry’ and moved onto panicked. “The boy has obviously lost his mind.” He waved a hand weakly at Xander.

Xander opened his eyes and smirked. Glancing over at the others, he was again astonished to see lines of light extending from them as well. Some lines extended out through the walls, but most reached out to connect to another in the room. All colors, all levels of brightness. He gaped at their beauty. Looking down, he saw the lights connecting him to the others as well.

He narrowed his gaze and traced the other white lights from body to body. The next brightest was linked between Willow and Tara. Moving up to them he carefully reached out a hand and slid it into the beam. He jerked as he felt the same kind of love pouring between the two women. Laughing, he tried another line; this time leading between himself and Willow. Still white, but smaller.

Love poured through again. This time, however, it didn’t have the same connotations. He didn’t know how he knew; only that he did. It was the love of a sister for her brother. He tested Tara’s link to him. The love of a good friend. Placing a kiss on each of their brows, he moved on to Giles and Buffy. In Buffy, he felt the love of an older sibling for her beloved younger brothers and sisters. He felt a strong love of a daughter in her link to Giles. With a frown, he saw that a white light extended to Spike.

Curious, he dipped his hand into it. Then he laughed. “What the hell? Buffy, if you love him like an annoying older brother, why do you keep trying to kill him?”

Buffy blanched and shot a guilty look at Spike. “I think Spike’s right. You have gone kinda wacko.”

Giles gently gripped Xander’s chin. He tilted the boy’s head right and left. “Are you reading our minds?” He asked pointedly.

Xander shook his head. “No, I told you. There are a million of these lines of lights. They run from person to person. I think white is love. I’m not sure about the others yet.” He shrugged. “I can tell how you’re feeling by the colors, I think. But the real emotion comes through when I dip my hand into the stream.”

Giles hmphed and continued to stare at Xander, so Xander went back to Spike. He pinned him against a wall and rested his forehead on Spike’s.

“I can feel it, Wil.” He whispered. “I can feel it and it warms me like nothing ever has before.” He gently brushed a kiss over the vamps lips. “I wish I could show you how I feel in return.” He looked lost in thought for a moment. “Maybe I can.” He linked fingers with Spike and drew their clasped hands directly into the stream of white. Opening his mind, his heart, his soul…he poured it through the link.

Spike whimpered and his legs dropped out from under him. Now it was Xander’s turn to hold him up. He stared into his lover’s face and watched his eyes turn from icy blue to chocolaty brown. Just as he was about to ask Spike what was going on, the white light between them pulsed and flared out along the white lines connecting Spike to the others.

Xander watched in amazement as, simultaneously, the girls and Giles jerked from an unseen force. They kept their feet, but they were obviously thrown for a loop. He held Spike against him as the light dimmed again. Willow and Tara slowly blinked and then turned to each other. With duplicate smiles, they embraced. Giles pulled his glasses off again and began to frantically wipe them down.

“What the fuck was that?” Buffy breathed. “How? How can you feel that way?” She peered at Spike as though he were a fascinating specimen. “How can a vampire with no soul love like that?” Spike buried his head into Xander’s chest.

“I think I missed something, here.” Xander said, confused.

Giles replaced his glasses. “Yes, well…you don’t appear to be the only one who’s received a gift, Xander.” He began circling the entwined men. “You seem to be able to see emotions. To dwell in them, as it were, should you touch one of these ‘strands of light’. I think Spike may be able to project emotion. Either that, or I am very much in love with you and live only to devise new ways to make you happy and proud to be mine.”

Spike groaned into Xander’s shirt. Giles continued to circle them. Xander looked at the girls with a huge sappy smile on his face.

“So, Spike-“

The door was thrown open. Standing in the doorway was their large balding torturer. Only he looked like the tortured. His clothing was wrinkled, his hair unkept, tears streamed from his eyes and his face was drawn up in a rictus of pain.

“What have you done?” He shrieked. “Undo it! Take it back! Make it stop!”

Buffy didn’t hesitate. She launched herself at him. She sent a spinning kick to his head and then booted him into the room to lay flat on his face in the pile of ritual supplies. He didn’t even try to get up. Buffy looked in confusion from him to the scoobies.

He scrounged in the bags for a moment and then rose to his knees. Still weeping, he now began to laugh as well. He held up the ritual knife used to mark Giles. “No more! I will not endure this any longer.” Before Buffy could kick the knife away, he placed the blade at his throat and dug it in deeply, running it from ear to ear. Moments later, he lay dead in a pool of his own blood.

No one moved. Even when the gun toting men in camo stepped into the room, no one moved. They took a brief look around the room, and then began to file out. As the last one left, he turned back to the gang.

“I don’t know who you are. I don’t know why he wanted you. He paid up. Now he’s dead. We’ll be on our way. If you’re interested, he kept a study on the floor above you. Heard him chanting and saw smoke creeping out from under the door. Maybe you’ll find some answers.” He nodded shortly. “Have a nice day.”

The scoobies still didn’t move. “What the hell just happened?” Buffy asked, staring at the corpse in front of her.

“I have no bloody idea, Buffy. But I rather think the answers may be in that room.” Giles replied absently and began to move toward the door. As one, the others followed, stepping over the body of their captor.

_________________________

“I think I found it!” Willow exclaimed. After hours of searching through mystical tomes and scrolls she was exhausted. Not to mention that their captor had terrible taste in incense. Whatever he’d been burning had given her a headache that was settling right behind her eyes. She held the book up in triumph and scooted over to allow Giles and Tara to each take a spot on the couch next to her.

“It says here, that there is a ritual designed to rid one of unclean emotions.” She began, talking to the boys who were curled up in a love seat together and Buffy, in the chair across from them, as Giles and Tara quickly scanned the paragraph over her shoulders. “Through this ritual, the caster uses a vessel to pour from himself, each unwanted emotion. Each emotion has it’s own separate ritual designed to bind that emotion to that particular vessel. Oh, look…there’s a list.”

She winced a bit, but continued reading. “The vessel partaking the ritual of Punishment shall endure everlasting pain. The vessel chosen as the Marking shall dwell in everlasting fear. The vessel of the Transfer shall ever be consumed by guilt. The vessel filled with the Sight shall ever see futility. The vessel that is Claimed shall exist in eternal submission. The vessel of Violation shall endure eternal degradation.”

She looked up. “But I think we’re okay.” Raised eyebrows met her comment.

“Of course we are, Red.” Spike said snarkily. “I personally am looking forward to my future of degradation. It’ll have all the comforts of home.”

“Wil,” Xander admonished, tapping him on the nose with a gentle finger. “Let her finish.” Spike sighed, but snuggled down against his lover’s side anyway.

“Ummm, well…it seems to be that when the vessels take these curses on during the correct ritual, the caster loses them forever.” She furrowed her brow. “I think this guy was really unhappy. He was so determined never to feel the icky emotions again, that he tried to never feel anything but the good emotions. I don’t think he really thought about that. You cant’ enjoy the good emotions unless you have the bad to show you the difference.”

“Are you feeling sorry for this asshole, Wills?” Buffy sighed.

“I guess a little bit,” she blushed. “But, the rituals didn’t work out. They backfired. And when they did, he became consumed with only the emotions he’d been trying to get rid of. He couldn’t feel any of the good things at all anymore. I think it drove him a little insane.”

“And so he killed himself to get away from them.” Xander said quietly. Willow nodded. “So what went wrong with the spell?”

Willow blushed. “Actually, you and Spike went wrong.” She tried to look everywhere but at her childhood friend. Tara took pity on her.

“I think I see where Willow is going with this,” she said softly. “The rules of the ritual were very specific. The individual rituals had to be performed under the rules of the emotion. Such as, Giles had to have been marked knowing that it could lead to his death or at very least put him under the control of an evil power.” Giles nodded, a thoughtful look on his face.

“Buffy had to be beaten, knowing that she was so strong, it would take what seemed to be an eternity to go down, especially since Spike kept having to stop due to his chip going off. Willow knew that she was taking something very special from me. She knew that for the rest of her life, she’d feel guilty for that. I knew that I would spend the rest of my life seeing visions and knowing there was probably nothing I could do to stop them.”

“But, you two didn’t follow the rules.” Tara continued. “Spike expected you to…r-rape…him, Xander.” She stumbled over the words now unable to meet their eyes. “But you didn’t. You chose to make it…pleasurable for both of you. He wasn’t violated. He was…loved.” She smiled and chanced a glance at the boys. They were staring into each other’s eyes.

“And Spike, you were expected to claim Xander as a minion; make him your slave. But you didn’t. You gave him a choice, and then you made him your equal.” She shrugged. “By breaking the rules, you broke the ritual.”

“So, where does that leave the rest of us?” Buffy asked.

Giles opened his shirt and looked down at his chest. His bare, unmarked chest. Eyes wide, Tara muttered the words to a simple spell and a tiny ball of light appeared in front of her. Gleefully, the witches threw their arms around each other.

On the other side of the room, Xander and Spike looked warily at each other. As one, they each tilted their heads to expose their necks. Xander saw the imprint of his teeth still fresh on Spike’s neck and he smiled. Spike saw two nearly healed puncture marks in Xander’s throat and he smiled back.

“I guess the ritual only took away the bad stuff.” Spike whispered. Xander leaned forward and brushed his lips across his mate’s. Buffy hid a smile.

“Now all we have to do is figure out what happened to Xander and Spike.” Willow beamed.

“It seems that they are connected through the mating claim in some way heretofore unknown to us and the antithesis of the magic has caused a peculiar mirrored effect in them both.” Giles pondered.

Buffy’s eyes glazed. “In English Giles.”

“Oh, yes…hmmm, sorry. When the ritual backlashed, Spike and Xander were caught in it because they broke it. And because they were bonded through the claiming, it seems that they share the power the backlash created. I think Xander can see and feel emotions, and Spike can project them.” He declared.

“That’s so cool!” Buffy exclaimed. “Let’s try them out!”

Giles sighed. “Not exactly the reaction I was hoping for, but I suppose that she is right. We do need to know what these new powers can do. Can you see the lines, Xander?”

“No, he’s turned off.” Spike replied. “When he’s looking at the pretty lights his eyes turn blue.”

Xander grinned. “It’s only fair. When you’re sending out shock waves, yours turn brown.”

“Hmmmm, fascinating. Yet another link.” Giles perked up again. “So, can you…err, turn on?”

Xander shut his eyes and shuddered. When he opened them again, they were blue glaciers. “Got it.”

“Excellent. Now, I want you to watch the, err…lines, while Spike tries to send various emotions across.” Giles commanded.

“So, who’s gonna be our guinea pig?” Spike asked.

Buffy practically bounced. “Ooooooh, me! Me!”

With matching grins, the boys turned to face her.

_________________________

“This bloody well sucks.” Spike complained. “Why can’t I send scary things?”

For the last 30 minutes, Xander had been dipping into emotion streams, learning what each color meant. After each discovery, he would ask Spike to try to send something of that emotion down the light. SO far, they’d found Spike could only send emotions that were the opposites of those imposed by the ritual.

“I can’t bloody well believe this. I have this really amazing opportunity to be evil again, and all I can send are fluffy bunny feelings.” Spike snarled in disgust.

Buffy tried really hard not to giggle, but Spike caught her anyway.

“Oh, I’m so glad that you are amused by this, Slayer.” He growled and threw himself back onto the love seat.

“So, what are the emotions we’ve come up with so far?” Giles interrupted.

“Um, looks like…joy, love, comfort, hope, strength, and various themes on the same.” Willow catalogued, then got an evil grin. “Oh, hey, we haven’t tried out pleasure yet.”

Giles looked confused. “We have joy.”

“No, no, no.” She shook her head. “Pleasure. That thing caused by joy and love.” She wiggled her eyebrows at Spike, who began an evil grin of his own.

“You’re absolutely right, Red,” He said sweetly. “Hang on a mo, will ya? Got to get in the mood.”

He turned to Xander and, grinning wickedly, took possession of the boy’s lips. Nibbling on Xander’s lower lip, he swung a leg over Xander’s lap and nestled down, pressing his crotch against Xander’s. He was immediately rewarded by a low moan and the capture of his own tongue. They dueled passionately for a moment with each other, and then Spike forced himself away.

Xander muttered in protest and Spike kissed him on the nose. “Later, luv.” He whispered. Turning around, he found the witches watching him with grins, Giles wiping his glasses again, and Buffy staring with her mouth slightly open.

Narrowing his gaze, he bundled all of his need and desire into one tiny ball and rammed it down the link into the Slayer. Buffy got wide eyed and her hand shot down to the vee of her legs. Then her eyes glazed over and she dropped to her knees with a keening wail. She curled down, resting her head on the floor as she continued to whimper and small shudders could be seen making their way across her back.

Willow gaped at Spike and then ran to Buffy’s side. Putting her arm around her best friend, she leaned over to whisper. “Buffy, I’m sorry. I didn’t know it would hurt.” Buffy gave one final shudder and laughed weakly.

“Hurt? No. Not at all.” She sat up carefully and grinned at Spike. “I think I’m jealous.”

Spike preened and Willow looked confused. Buffy leaned over to whisper in her ear.

“Spike just made me come harder than I’ve ever come in my life. And he did it with a fucking thought.” She grinned again, and Willow giggled.

“That good?”

Buffy shuddered again and her eyes rolled up briefly. “I’m so jealous.”

_________________________