Chapter One: The Courtship

Zero Miss Edith Tea Parties To Go… 

“Yes, yes!” Howled the malevolent forces that circled this reality endlessly. Their glee contagious, their wicked fascinations captivated by the scene unfolding before them. The formless, colorless swirls fed off the power that would soon transform this world; one of their sons was waking, the scales were tipping, and they yearned to experience what would come next…so they watched, watched as… 

It breathed deeply, a tasting more than anything else, wanting to know where, when, why. Scents, sounds rushed it, overwhelming for a bare moment at first with the sheer number. Long, so very, very long it had waited for him to come along. Eons had passed, passed in the blink of an eye for some, but not for it. 

Time had meaning for those who waited. Waited for him to be born, to die and be reborn; to hunt and kill and grow, with every passing day, more worthy of what it was about to bestow. Only he could have done this and now, despite the interfering machinations from those who had stopped it before, he had succeeded. 

Ah yes, it thought, waking a little more from its unnatural slumber, this was its day, HIS day. 

But wait, what was this? Something new and not expected, this was. Another long moment passed, its senses growing with every beat of the invisible and universal clock. Emotion filled the air surrounding it, surrounding…them? They were strong ones that were more magickal than anything it had seen in…well, forever. Where did they come from? 

Him, by all things unholy, these emotions were coming off him in waves, thick and strong, they surrounded it, forcing it awake faster, not because these emotions were aimed at it, oh, no, but because the person they were aimed at was oh so interesting to it. 

Gathering its own magick, the second to last time it would need any magicks at all, it prepared to do what it and he had been born to do. Live, rule, strong, powerful, all. 

But first, before it gave up everything to him, it wanted to see. 

Acathla opened its mouth and breathed. 

“So that’s everything, huh?” He said and Acathla smiled at the words, ah, that was his boy. “No weapons, no friends, no hope….Take all that away, and what’s left?” 

The smile on his face could only be described as anticipatory. He had no intention of killing her, oh, no, only maiming a bit despite the sword aimed for her head. He was already planning on pulling back, knowing that she crouched in the sunlight only for a moment to regroup.

Okay, so she angered him in ways he’d yet to experience in his lengthy life. All things considered that was saying something. So he wouldn’t kill her, just wound her enough to keep her weak and off balance until they were facing each other again in the depths of the Hell he was bringing to this miserable little planet. 

Angelus was hard just thinking about it. 

Acathla was nearly giddy with its own anticipation. 

Buffy closed her eyes; fought back the tears at her lover’s voice, both real and imaginary as Angel urged her to kill the demon who had taken over his body, and that demon laughed, a sexy sound that pooled unwanted lust low in her belly. Buffy refused to give into the later; and so, fighting the attraction she had towards the body (lover, mate), the slayer caught the descending sword in her hands, prepared to sacrifice everything for a world she no longer wanted to live in. 

“Me.” 

With renewed energy, Buffy fought Angelus back towards Acathla. She knew what she had to do and was determined to let nothing stop her… 

Except she was too late, and Acathla’s jaws widened, magick thick in the air, running over her skin, through her body and suddenly, just as she was about to use her advantage to thrust her blessed sword through Angelus, thus closing the gateway, the handsome demon was caught in something. Was this some trick? Something, just one more thing, to throw her off? 

The vampire screamed, a piercing sound that echoed throughout the world, and Buffy could have sworn, though she never took her eyes off Angelus, that the stone demon behind him…smiled. Energies ripped through Angelus, swirling in crazy circles almost too fast for her to see. And she was paralyzed, frozen, as she watched all this happen. 

It all seemed to be happening faster now, Acathla’s jaws opened wider and wider as if it was, indeed, going to devour the world with its mouth alone. 

Acathla, for its part, just smiled broadly. It had no idea if anyone could see that smile, what with the stone and jaw agape pose it presented; but this was a glorious day, and it was happy. Every ounce of magick it had, all the strength it possessed found, as it was foretold, its way into the worthy demon before it. 

The demon who was meant to rule, the demon who was meant to possess, the demon who was meant to be all. 

The demon, it seemed who was in love with a slayer. 

Wasn’t life full of wonderful ironies? 

Acathla thought so, and as the blue and red energy swirls calmed, as the slayer realized what was happening, screamed her denial and sorrow, her heartbreak and pain, and tried, despite all of that, to move against the magicks surrounding the two of them and ram her blessed sword through the vampire’s chest, sealing Acathla…the stone demon shattered.

“Nooo! NOOO, GOD NO!” Her shock as the stone demon began to shatter before her eyes was only outweighed by the horror which had instantly surrounded her heart. This couldn’t be happening: was she now the only slayer to ever truly fail the world?

Angelus saw Buffy’s advance and smiled. To the last, his little lover was feisty wasn’t she? He blocked her advancement and took hold of her sword hand, “I guess you weren’t enough babe,” he drawled.

How he’d enjoy the time they were about to spend together. The explosion threw Buffy against the far wall but Angelus remained upright, unconcerned with the shaking, the noise, and the falling rock. He was immune to it after all, as he was a part of it. 

He was it. 

Angelus stalked to his slayer, a smirk dancing around the edges of his mouth, and effortlessly picked her up, carrying her out into the already darkening landscape. Eternal night was about to fall; demons were about to overrun this miserable planet, not only from the depths from which they’d hidden all these long years, but also from another dimension – any other dimension. 

Ah, it was glorious. It was beautiful, magickal, and powerful. And it was all his. Angelus, former Scourge of Europe, the only vampire to actually have sex with the slayer and live, the ruler of the Hellmouth, now owned the world. All of them. 

And the slayer, his dearest love, his greatest obsession, was now solely reliant on him. 

“Dru, my dear,” he shouted to his childe as she crouched in awe in the corner Buffy had thrown her, Spike nowhere to be found. “Come along, we’ve a new world to see and rule.” He paused for a moment in his stride, just long enough to ensure the changes on his house.

Gone were the simplicity of the rooms, the grand hallway, the courtyard. In their place were rooms the size of football stadiums, a castle that spread over most of a town that was rapidly being overrun by its very own Hellmouth. All with a thought did these changes occur, with the simple power of Angelus’ will, strong as it was, did the new ruler of the world change the place in which he lived. In which he planned on ruling the Hellmouth and the world, in which he planned on keeping his slayer. 

“No more Miss Edith Tea parties to go,” whispered Drusilla. “Now its daddy’s party,” she giggled.  

Turning towards the stairs without a backwards glance at his childe, Angelus walked purposely towards his rooms. Their rooms. With another simple thought, Angelus decorated the room, refining several things instantly as he surveyed them in his mind’s eye. A place for Buffy and the things he was going to give her, a balcony for her to survey their lands, a bed, extra large and soft, luxurious in the extreme, with the added necessity of manacles just for his feisty love. 

The beginning was going to be fun, granted, but it was the rest of time he was looking forward to. The time when he put into motion his plans, all his plans, for her…and her friends. Eternity. 

“And Dru,” he said as he turned right, down a long corridor, “Don’t forget to round up the collateral.” He knew Dru smiled her acceptance – she had better, that was for sure – and continued down the hall, his precious burden nestled comfortably in his arms. 

“My star is born,” she whispered to the empty room as she went to do her daddy’s bidding. 

He, Angelus of Aurelius, Scourge of Europe, and Master of everything in Sunnydale and now the world, who had taken the Slayer as a lover, would rule over all of them.

Who said life wasn’t grand?

Part one

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