“Lindsey, you haven’t said a word since we got back,” Darla pouted.
Lindsey McDonald looked at Darla with his cool blue eyes and said nothing. As always, she managed to conjure in him feelings of lust, disgust and desire to know more. He packed all of these emotions back in and gave her a curt smile. “I’m waiting to see what the word is from the senior partners on the little ‘extra’ you and Dru brought back from the pier.”
Darla gave him a coy smile and turned her back to him. She thought about how easy it was to get the two brats and Spike to boot.
Earlier
“She’s here.” Drusilla announced as she and Darla clomped on the boardwalk towards the amusement park.
“Yes, Dru. We’ve been following her all night.” Darla said with a condescending sneer. “We do this one little thing for the senior partners and we’ll have our happy family again.”
Ignoring Darla, Drusilla ran down the boardwalk, creating a commotion as she passed, laughing wildly. Before the end of the pier, she stopped and sat down. She began to sway as she got caught up in the voices that continually whispered to her. “He feels now. They put a soul in his brains. All icky and pink goo. He’s been in. With her.”
Darla hoisted her up in mid sentence and shook her violently. “That’s enough, Dru. Look, they’ve split up.”
Giving the blonde vampire a sweet smile, Drusilla skipped over to where Spike was standing, absently waiting on line while Angela and William pointed out this thing or that. Suddenly, he felt a jab in the middle of his back. “You’ve been a naughty boy,” he heard from behind him.
“Dru. So nice to have you back. Couldn’t stand the Chaos Demon post nasal drip?” Spike replied smoothly. He held the children’s hands very tightly, but was relieved that they hadn’t said or done anything. They simply stared up at Drusilla and squeezed his hands back.
“Actually,” another voice purred, “we’ve come to do a job. A little business, a little pleasure. Lots of fun.”
Drusilla still holding the stake to his back, Spike turned to see who else had spoken. They had maneuvered off of the line for the Tilt a Whirl ride and were standing just inside the entrance to the park proper. No one had noticed the confrontation. “Didn’t Angel stake you a couple years back?” he asked with a smile as he saw Darla for the first time in nearly a century.
A look that was both hurt and angry preceded Darla’s words. “We’re not here to talk about me. Let me have the kids, and you will come along for the ride. We wouldn’t want anything happening to them if their Uncle Spike wasn’t around now would we?”
Angela and William looked up at him, unsure, and he nodded back at them. He released their hands and Darla grabbed them. He had to make sure they stayed safe. He didn’t know what he would do if something were to happen to them. One false move from him, and they would die. With Darla, he didn’t doubt it. What he didn’t know was that she had received explicit orders not to harm them in any way. As they exited the park, Dru kept the stake firmly pressed into his back under his duster.
When they reached the law offices of Wolfram & Hart, they didn’t expect what happened next. As Spike went through the metal detectors, the alarms went off. He took off his coat and it still went off. He removed his change, his cigarette holder, his lighter and the knife out of his boot and the alarm still went off. When the guard passed the wand over his head it began to go off.
At that, he was whisked away and they hadn’t heard any news about him yet. Not that Darla had cared. He was a reckless fool. And if Drusilla was right, he was the Slayer’s latest beau. Darla just didn’t understand. What was it about this Slayer that got her children in such a state?
The Eighth Depth of Hell
“Cetatari, you look ghastly.” Asmodeus purred.
The female pursed her blackened lips and threw her lusterless hair over her shoulder. “Flattery will get you nowhere, Asmo.”
Asmodeus glared at her and retrieved suave look he had on earlier, and reached for her skeletal hand, kissed the withering flesh on it and released it. “Please, my dear, it’s Asmodeus.”
“What do you want?”
“You. To rule by my side. As we speak, the motions of our puppets on earth are bringing me closer to opening the Gates.”
“What, that pitiful group of lawyers who fancy themselves conjurors? I’d almost forgotten about them.”
“The same. I told you they would be useful someday.”
“What about the Oracles? Surely they will seek to intervene on the earthly plane.” she asked.
Asmodeus chuckled. “Don’t you remember? They were killed. The Powers sought to bring them back, but they are but helpless children right now. They are being held as we speak by those same pitiful conjurors.”
Cetatari favored Asmodeus with a smile that was both coy and revolting. She offered her hand to him this time and he helped her from her throne. She raised their hands together and twirled herself so that she was in his arms. “Devilish, my dear.”
“As always. Say you will rain unholy terror and wreak havoc with me when we are released from this realm.” He looked at her intently as he slowly crushed her exposed ribcage.
Cetatari laughed and the sound was like a thousand voices screaming out in pain. Humor danced in her bottomless eyes as she answered. “I look forward to it.”
Elsewhere at Wolfram & Hart
Lila stood in the dank stone faced sub basement and looked at the children in the cage and couldn’t help but feel a little sympathy for them. She didn’t know what Asmodeus had planned for them, but she guessed that it couldn’t be pleasant. Had they grown since they got here? They had had plenty of room in the cage, as long as they remained seated. Now, the boy’s head reached almost the top of the cage and their elbows and toes were now sticking out through the bars.
“Lila!”
Lila jumped and turned guiltily towards the pentagram that had long been burned into the floor of the room and the image which shimmered over it.
“Yes, master?” she inquired as she kept her head bowed. Even though the image was not the real him, she didn’t want to look at him for longer than a moment or what happened to her predecessor would happen to her.
“Where is Angelus?”
“I-I don’t know, master. He hasn’t arrived yet.”
Asmodeus vented his frustration in a frightening display of lightening crashes and thunderous roars. Angela and William cringed as they hugged each other for support within their confines.
The Hyperion Hotel
“Buffy, for the last time, I know that Wolfram & Hart want me. They always have. If you come, our children will be put in danger.” Angel said patiently as he put together his bag of weapons. He had already convinced Cordelia and Wesley of the same. They had agreed, but very reluctantly.
“I can’t stay behind. They are my children too.” Buffy stated angrily clutching the small case of weaponry she had brought along for the trip. She had hoped that she wouldn’t need them, but tonight’s events proved her wrong.
Angel sighed in frustration. She was right. “Ok. But as soon as we get there, there is going to be a trade. I want you to take the kids and get out of there. I’ll get out on my own.”
Buffy nodded briskly, but in her mind she knew that she would get him out. Angel and – “Spike!” she cried out as they scrambled into his black convertible. In all the excitement, she had forgotten about him. What could they want with Spike? she thought to herself, and hoped that he was alright too.
Angel looked at her sideways and at her anguished expression. He still had to fight revulsion when he thought of Spike with Buffy. But now was not the time to fight. “I’ll get him out too,” he said grimly as they raced through the streets of Los Angeles.
Wolfram & Hart
“Hello, pet.” Spike drawled as he swaggered into the office that Lindsey, Darla and Drusilla occupied.
Drusilla squealed, jumped down from the desk and ran to him and captured him in an embrace and allowed him to spin her around. “They ripped the soul out of the pink! My Spike is back!”
“Back and badder than ever, pet,” he replied as he lit a cigarette.
Drusilla pulled away from him and looked into his eyes. “You’ve been in her. Bad Spike. Miss Edith will give you a tongue lashing.”
“Only Miss Edith? Oh Dru, you tease,” he countered with deadly mirth in eyes.
Darla rolled her eyes. “Welcome back, Will—Spike.”
Lindsey opened his mouth to speak and a loud ‘bang!’ interrupted him. “Looks like we have company,” he said as he pressed the intercom button. “Lila? Please let the senior partners know that Angel has arrived.”
Turning to the three vampires, he smirked and said, “Let’s go and greet our guest, shall we?”
“Actually,” Buffy said smartly with a crossbow in her hands, “You have more company than you expected.” She fired, the bolt first grazing Lindsey’s shoulder and finding its target as Drusilla shriveled first into a skeleton and then into brown ash. As she watched, filled with a certain amount of pride at another clean kill, she looked up to see who had been standing behind her.
“Spike? What are you doing here?” She went to him, ignoring the sirens in the hallway behind her and the commotion that ensued. Darla and Lindsey, despite his injury, had caught sight of Angel in the doorway as he baited them. They gave chase as he ran through the halls of the law offices.
Buffy went to hold him when something stopped her. She looked at him. “Something’s wrong. What did they do to you? Why were you here with them?”
Spike looked at her with an incomprehensible expression on his face. “It wasn’t what it looked like! I had to convince them that I was working with them.”
Buffy shook her head in confusion. “Why?”
Spike looked down and said softly, “They took the chip out of my head.”
Buffy involuntarily gasped and moved away, stake drawn. She had always wondered what would happen if the microchip was ever removed. Now Spike had the freedom to be as evil as he wanted. She didn’t want to kill him. Angel may have been her soul mate, but her heart, her life, belonged to the vampire in front of her.
Bloody say something, he thought to himself. He knew that someday this day would come. The chip would be removed and she would kill him. He only wished it hadn’t been so soon. There were so many things he wanted to do with her, to say. He only hoped that it would be quick. He braced himself.
Buffy looked at him with tears in her eyes, to see the same expression reflected back at her from his face. “Please, tell me why I shouldn’t do this.”
Spike thought quickly. Their relationship had been a surprise to everyone including himself, but they never talked about it. They both knew how the other felt, but it was time to finally say it. “I love you,” he stated with stark honesty. Shocked, Buffy lowered the stake.
He held her shoulders and continued. “I always have. It only took the quiet time the chip gave me for me to realize it myself. I’ll always love you. Please believe me Buffy.”
She stared back at him, her eyes questing his. She didn’t know what to think. She wanted to believe him. He had opportunities before to kill her before he got the chip. He had never taken them. A scream from the hallway roused her from her deep thoughts and she sighed. “Come on, we’ve got work to do.”
Elsewhere at Wolfram & Hart
“Quite a reunion,” Darla sighed as she stroked Angel’s face. She tried not to let her smile falter as he turned away from her. He didn’t even try to pull against the chains that bound him to the wall. In the corner, she could see his children as they watched the scene before them unfold.
Spike walked in behind Buffy. He was holding her arms behind her and she struggled in his grasp. He glanced over at the children and looked away. He couldn’t stand to see the hope in their eyes die as they saw that he was holding their mother against her will. They had grown in the time they were here and they looked almost twelve. Good thing they had learned early on to buy and dress them in clothes that were too big.
Buffy looked around at the surroundings. The odds were definitely against her and Spike. Angel was chained to the wall with Darla smirking beside him. Her children were in a cage that was too small for their growing forms, guarded by a man and a woman who were backed up by at least a score of assorted demons. She had no weapons except for the stake she always carried in her waistband. Her thoughts were interrupted. *Mother, Father. Can you hear us?*
Buffy looked to her children, startled. Her glance skittered to Angel and she saw that he had heard too. She surreptitiously looked down at her shoes as Spike held her. She saw the pentagram on the floor begin to glow and a mist was swirling around it. I hear you, she thought.
Mother, we must leave now. When we go, you must escape.
Go? Buffy thought at them. How? Where?
You will see us again. But, we can not stay where it is no longer safe. She heard them say in her mind.
As their voices faded from her mind a shower of sparks and thunder emanated from the pentagram and she looked to see what could only be described as a demon prince. The man was huge, at least twelve feet tall and built like a body builder. His body was cloaked loosely with a short red robe which was open to show off his huge pectoral muscles. Below the robe, two back facing men’s legs, which ended in goat’s hooves were exposed. His face was incredibly handsome and would have been perfect except for the large backswept rams horns that emerged from each temple. His eyes were blacker than black and Buffy could see herself reflected in the orbs that were as big as a man’s fist.
His voice bellowed, “You have done well, my lambs. Asmodeus will be pleased.”
Darla’s features twisted in scorn and changed into her vampire guise. As she stalked up to him, she growled. “Sataaran! This is enough. I did your bidding and my debt for your bringing me back is repaid.”
Sataaran looked at her and laughed. He moved his arm behind him and backhanded her so quickly that had she not risen shakily on the other side of the room, no one would have believed he had even done it. “Foolish creature. Bring the Slayer to me.”
Spike hesitated and moved to the center of the room slowly. There was a flash of golden white light and when it ended, everyone in the room including Sataaran was looking around owlishly trying to get the afterglow out of their vision. Buffy looked to the cage where her children were being held. It was empty.
“Now!” she cried out.
Spike released her and ran straight into the group of demons that were still staring at the cage in confusion. He removed the knife from his boot and threw the sword from her weapon bag that he had been hiding at Buffy. The battle was on and it didn’t look good. Sataaran was trapped in the pentagram, but he didn’t allow that to stop him from throwing fireballs in and attempt to stop what was going to happen. Asmodeus needed Angelus to open the gates of hell. He threw another fireball at Angel and he disappeared.
The action had cleared and Buffy turned just as Angel disappeared in a ball of fire. “Angel!”
Buffy looked at the spot where Angel had been, and made short work of the two Zarcon demons she had been fighting. With one circular swing, Buffy beheaded them both. She glanced over at Spike and saw that he was holding his own. Sataaran’s errant fireballs had taken out more than a handful of the demons and only a few remained. She walked right into the pentagram and stood face to waist with the hell lord. She raised the sword and was about to plunge it through his heart when she heard a female voice behind her.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, Buffy.”
Buffy turned to see Spike, with his arms being held behind his back by Darla. They were flanked by the demons who had survived the fray and the man and woman who had taken cover during it.
Buffy’s heart leapt into her throat. “Let him go,” she said calmly.
“Oh. Little Slayer trying to tell me what to do?” Darla asked, with a hard edge to her voice. “No.”
With that word, Buffy saw Spike stiffen. She watched in horror as the wooden point burst through his chest. He looked up at her. “I will always love you,” she saw the words as his mouth formed around them. As he uttered that last word, he burst into dust.
Tears of grief and tears of anger clouded Buffy’s vision. She dropped to the floor pawed through the dust of he who had been the love of her life. She had never told him that, she thought to herself bitterly as she placed a handful into her pocket.
Darla stood above her laughing. Darla’s laugh was stifled as Buffy drove Spike’s knife through her heart. And twisted. Buffy raised the sword which was still in her other arm and with it, parted Darla from her head forever.
The demons who had been standing in a rough circle around the three, were stunned. Now there was only one. She fought like a demon herself, slashing and hacking through everything that got in the way of her sword. Dried tears stained her face, but there was no longer any emotion. When the room was cleared, she left without looking back.
The Seventh Depth of Hell
Sataaran had left the room before the carnage had begun and he took Lila and Lindsey with him. From the depths of his hell, he watched as Angel twitched on the cracked and broken ground. They had a lot of work to do.
TBC