The vampire exploded into dust, covering her in his ashes from head to toe. It was the fifth she’d slain that night. After Spike had walked away from her, holier-than-thou attitude firmly in tow, she’d felt the need to release her tension somehow. She’d opted for beating the shit out of vamps who were completely unprepared for her bone-snapping rage. Two of them had actually begged her to stake them. She could feel the familiar exhaustion of the fight creeping into her muscles and bones. The one that usually came with a slight feeling of satisfaction. Which had completely failed to appear. The hunt only served to make her more on edge, her muscles still twitching with anxiousness, making her incapable of standing still for any length of time. Frustration boiled inside her.
‘Stupid vampire,’ Buffy thought. ‘Dealing with him was so much easier when he wanted to drain me dry. Least then I didn’t give a fuck what he thought. But no, Buffy had to go get herself involved with another vampire. And now I actually care and have stupid gushy feelings about his feelings. And damn it, I wasn’t the one that was screwing Harmony on a desk!’
Her internal rant continued in much the same manner as she scanned the area, looking for more undead citizens. The worst part, she realized, was that she had to go back to Wolfram & Hart. Giles would skin her alive if she didn’t get to the bottom of this apocalypse and she couldn’t very well explain to him that she needed to get away from Spike before things got even more fucked. And with their track history, it was bound to happen. She couldn’t even be angry at Spike. She’d tried. Hard. Thought about every single time he’d royally pissed her off, every graphic innuendo he’d made, every jab about her past relationships, but the anger just wouldn’t come. If she was honest with herself, the primary emotion she’d felt when she walked into that office was hurt. It had hurt so bad that she wondered at the fact that her heart hadn’t exploded right then. Some part of her recognized that she’d been stringing Spike along for quite a while, offering him no guarantees that half a second later she wouldn’t change her mind. Or, even better, decide to make out with Angel. God, that had been a stupid move on her part. It figured that sooner or later he would walk away from her. But she’d really hoped that he would be the one to stay.
Finding no more vamps, Buffy decided that a shower was in order before heading back to the rest of the group. Hopefully they could figure this thing out quickly so she could get the hell out of Dodge. Being around Spike at this point would be painful. Heart wrenchingly so.
When Buffy returned to Wolfram & Hart approximately two hours after she had left, she found the place oddly empty. The craziness from before seemed to have vanished. She headed straight for Angel’s office, assuming that the group would still be trying to figure out what exactly was going on. Surprisingly the room was completely empty when she walked in.Walking back out into the hallway, she saw the attractive woman from before, Eve, walking down the hallway in her direction, one hand around what appeared to be a handprint shaped bruise on her neck.
“Umm…Eve, right?” Buffy asked. “Do you know where everybody is? I can’t seem to…”
Buffy drifted off, as Eve continued to walk down the hallway, not stopping to answer her question or even really acknowledging her.
‘Well this is getting weirder,’ Buffy thought.
She looked around the rest of the floor for a little while, but soon gave up when it appeared that it was in fact completely deserted. She wondered if they made those dog whistles for vampires too. It would come in really handy right about now. Just one whistle and Angel and Spike would come running. Well Angel would. Spike probably wouldn’t at this juncture. Or ever.
Where were they? She could just wander through the building but it would probably take her hours which she could probably make better use of. Where would they most likely be? She thought about the other people on Angel’s team that she’d seen. The girl from before. The one that had tried to explain Spike’s recorporealization amid her many interruptions. She seemed sciency. The den of evil was bound to have a lab somewhere. She would try her luck there first.
As it turned out, the lab had been remarkably easy to find, and also held the answer as to why the building was so deserted when she’d walked in. Dozens of sleeping employees, both human and demon, were strapped down on beds, blood drying under their eyes. She recognized one of them as the man she’d seen before, who had finally told her Spike’s whereabouts.
“Oh, hi” the mousy girl that she had seen before said, when she noticed Buffy looking around.
“Hi…I’m Buffy…we ummm…didn’t so much get a chance to meet meet earlier,” Buffy said.
“Oh I know who you are. I mean Angel talks about you all the time. I mean not so much talks as you know, broods. Not that he broods a lot or anything like that…”
At Buffy confused expression she cut her rant short and settled for:
“I’m Fred. I ramble.”
“Noted,” Buffy said, smiling at the girl. “So do you know where everybody else is? I tried going to Angel’s office but there was no one in there.”
“Well most of the people here are pretty insane at the moment. Had to bash Gunn’s head in earlier since he tried to strangle Eve. Hey, you’re not feeling particularly grouchy are you? Like crying blood grouchy? ‘Cause I don’t really think I could handle an angry Slayer right now.”
“Nope. Anger free Buffy is me. Well mostly,” she said, thinking back to the Harmony incident for what was surely the zillionth time that day.
“Good. I really don’t like hitting the good guys. Or girls.”
“What about everybody else. Angel…ummm…Spike?”
“Oh. Well Angel and Spike are off trying to figure out which one of them the Shanshu is all about.”
“Shanshu?”
“It’s a prophecy that says that Angel will play a part in a future apocalypse and as a reward for his efforts he’ll get to be human again. Or I guess now it might be Spike…it’s all very unclear. Anyways, they’re both off doing their hero thing.”
“There’s a prophecy that says that Angel gets to be human again…or Spike?” Apparently Spike wasn’t the only vampire she had a bone to pick with.
“Umm…yes,” Fred replied softly, noticing the increasingly angry look on the Slayer’s face and starting to rethink her dislike for hitting people in the head with blunt objects.
“That’s just fucking great. It’s a good thing he remembered to give me all his phone numbers and his new address, but failed to mention that he might get to be human again. What the hell is it with souled vampires and forgetting to mention slightly crucial info? Grr.”
“I…I’m sure he meant to tell you, Buffy. I mean…”
“Just tell me where they went and what they’re doing there.”
Buffy hadn’t meant to almost snap at Fred, but this day just kept getting more and more confusing. First Spike didn’t let her know that he was alive for months. And then she finds out that Angel might get to be human again and it didn’t even occur to him to tell her.
“One of them has to drink from the cup of perpetual torment. And whichever one of them does is the one that the prophecy is all about.”
“One of them is going to drink from the cup of perpetual torment? Did this not sound like a trap to anyone else?”
“It’s in the prophecy, so it has to be true. And really whoever drinks from it is meant to drink from it.”
“So, let me get this straight. You guys let Angel and Spike of all vampires go find this cup and duke it out over it? What do you think the odds are that one of them will turn dusty?”
Buffy irritation was steadily mounting, making Fred search the room for things she could use against her, just in case she did go psycho like the other tied up people in the lab.
“Well we…I mean…they’re both adults…and I…I mean we assumed that they would just help each other figure it out…and uh…”
“Okay,” Buffy said, realizing that her anger was getting out of hand and that Fred was really not to blame for all of her personal issues, “do you know where they went exactly?”
“Yes,” Fred said, in a much cheerier voice, glad that they were done with the scolding part of the conversation, “I can tell you.”
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Author's Chapter Notes:
I am so very sorry!!! I know it's been a really long time since I last posted a chapter, but I swear I have a good excuse. I am actually studying abroad in Spain this semester and so I was busy doing new things and all that jazz. But I am back and I have a few chapters written and in the final stages of editing, so I should be another chapter by sometime next week at the latest. I am also working on a new story that I hope to start posting soon.
Chapter End Notes:
Question: What do you think about the way I am writing characters other than Spike and Buffy? I am trying to stay true to the characters and I really want to know if I am doing ok with it. Also, sorry about the lack of Spuffyness in this chapter as I am sure you are all waiting for it. I'm moving it along slow on purpose. I always enjoy the stories that make me wait for it more :)