Chapter 16: The Pyramid
Later that evening Buffy and Spike were safely moved into the hotel with the rest of the Scoobies. Most of Angel’s team, with the exception of Angel himself, were gathered in the hotel lobby. Angel was staying by Nina’s side at the hospital until she woke up. Although most everyone suspected he was actually just trying to avoid Buffy and Spike.
It was a wasted effort on his part; however, since the two of them had ensconced themselves in their new suite of rooms to ‘get cleaned up’ before they started the meeting regarding the new prophecy Ethan left for them.
Instead of the somber atmosphere that was expected there was a celebratory feeling in the lobby as the Scoobies mingled with Angel’s team.
Wesley and Giles poured over the prophecy together, arguing over different meanings for some of the words and phrases. Illyria and Dawn sat close by studying each other, while Xander and Gunn traded war stories about their different adventures as the token ‘normal’ humans. Off in a corner Willow sat sipping a strong cup of coffee while Lorne watched over her sympathetically.
“Now what have we learned from this?” He asked her.
“Black magic bad. Pain pills bad. Werewolves bad.” Willow groaned. “Being awake bad.”
“There, there honey. It will get better. You should even be able to think in complete sentences in a day or two.” Willow groaned again and slumped farther down into the sofa she was sitting on.
“Why does she not use her power to heal herself?” Illyria asked Dawn.
Dawn looked over at Willow thoughtfully. “She had a problem with magic before.” Dawn spoke softly so Willow wouldn’t overhear their conversation. “She became addicted to dark magic and almost ended the world. She careful now about how she uses her powers.”
“That is your species biggest weakness, you preoccupation with good and evil.” Illyria said derisively.
“And some would argue that is our greatest strength.” Wesley said without looking up from the aged sheet of parchment he was studying. “I believe this reads that the top of the pyramid is a pair of creatures representing power and wisdom.” He continued without pause speaking to Giles now.
“That would make sense. This speaks of a scholar who was cast out for his controversial beliefs.” Giles paused for a moment skimming farther down the document. “And a collapsed…no, that’s not right. A fallen, that’s it. A fallen God inhabiting a human form.” Giles looked up abruptly his eyes widened comically. “Good Lord!” He exclaimed.
“Hmmm.” Wesley asked. He had only been halfway listening to Giles the main focus of his attention on his pages of the prophecy.
“This is about you!” Giles said loudly.
Conversation around them stopped at his words.
“What?” Wesley raised his head in disbelief. “Where did you get that notion?”
Giles looked directly at Illyria and recited. “A fallen God inhabiting a human form.”
“Wesley rolled his eyes. “That hardly offers concrete proof the prophecy is referring to me.” He scoffed.
Giles shook his head and began skimming down the page for more proof to support his theory.
“So what, G-man? You think Wesley is some sort of avatar of wisdom?”
“What is this pyramid anyway? Its obviously not a structure.” Dawn asked.
“It’s three pairs of individuals.” Giles answered distractedly, still reading through the pages he had.
“What are they supposed to do?” She asked.
Willow stood up and walked over to the other slowly, Lorne followed behind her in case she got dizzy. “Yeah, Giles, are we talking apocalypticy type bad guys or are they helper type good guys?”
Gunn made a sour face and looked at Willow. “Apocalypticy? And they say brothers speak bad English.”
Willow glared at him. “Hey, I’m still recovering from a severe overdose of pain medication here. You’re lucky I can even think of words that have more than one syllable.”
“We haven’t gotten that far yet.” Giles answered Willow’s question. “The first couple of pages primarily discuss the components of the pyramid, not what its function will be.”
“If it came from Ethan Rayne I bet I can guess whether or not its good or evil.” Xander said.
“But if English is part of it, it be that evil.” Gunn said.
“Yeah, I mean Wesley isn’t exactly the diabolical type.” Lorne chimed in. “At least he normally isn’t.” He added weakly, remembering the incident when Wesley took Conner from Angel.
“It isn’t about me!!” Wesley said exasperated.
“I suppose it would depend on the influence of the fallen deity.” Giles said at the same time eyeing Illyria warily.
Illyria glared back at him. “If you believe you are being smart with your comments, you are not. I am well aware of your distaste for me, Watcher. I can feel it pouring out of you, like the buckets of sweat you perspire.”
“Really?” Giles said slowly, not fazed by her venomous nature. “Since you know what I am suggesting, do you have any opinions on my theory?”
Illyria didn’t answer him. Finally Wesley looked up from the papers he had been studying while trying to ignore Giles. “Illyria?” He asked her.
Upstairs Spike was unpacking his few possessions, mainly the TV and game console while Buffy explored their new suite of rooms, specifically chosen for their distance from everyone else.
“Gotta admit, I like this old place.” Spike was saying. “A good deal better than that office building. It doesn’t feel all evil anyways.” He finished setting up the TV and turned around when Buffy didn’t answer.
A slow grin of appreciation crept across his face at the sight before him.
Buffy was naked with her back towards him folding her clothes. “I need a shower.” She said without turning around.
He started to cross the room towards her, but she stopped him. “Don’t even think about it.” She said. “I’m still mad at you.”
Spike could hear the anger in her tone and feel the resolve inside of her. He opened his mouth to make an angry retort, probably going to say something that would ensure he didn’t have sex again in this century, but just then she turned around and anything he was about to say got lost in the sight of her naked beauty before him.
She raised a cocky eyebrow at him and watched him swallow what he was going to say. She sauntered over to him until she was a breath away. The smell of her, the sight of her and feeling of warmth at came from her body had Spike’s mouth practically watering.
“So…” She reached her hand out and lightly brushed it down his chest and over the now prominent bulge in his jeans, pulling it back before the warmth of her hand had time to penetrate the denim. “What are you going to do to make it up to me?”
She expected him growl and throw her across the bed. Either that or pick her up, put her over his shoulder and carry her off to the bathroom.
She never expected him to drop to his knees immediately. Her eyes were wide with shock when she met his and saw the serious emotion in them.
“Buffy Anne Summers, you are the only creature I want to be with for the rest of my existence. If the soddin’ Powers try to separate us by making me human, I will go right out and get turned again.” His eyes flashed gold. “Nothing will ever come between us again.” He swore.
Buffy’s heart swelled with warmth and love. In all honesty she hand only been teasing him when she told him she was still mad at him, but the fears and doubts were still alive inside of her.
Now she knew and she believed without a doubt they really were going to make it work. The strength, love and determination shouting out at her from his gaze, drowned out any of the lingering fears.
“Spike…” She whispered, reaching out to stroke his hair.
He leaned forward into her and ran his tongue through the lips of her sex.
“Spike.” She hissed through her teeth. Her hand tightened its hold on his scalp as he began to eat her like a man starved.
She lost all coherent speech when he moved his mouth upwards and began to suck on her clit in a rhythmic pattern. He brought an arm up and wrapped it around her thighs, grabbing onto the globes of her ass. With his other hand he lifted her leg over his shoulder. Once she was more open to him he began to plunder he warm depths with three fingers.
A whimpering keening began to escape her as she pressed her sex closer to him. Still lost in the blue of his eyes, she swore she could physically feel his gaze as it swept over her naked torso pushing her closer to her release.
“Please, baby.” She whimpered.
He sucked down hard on her clit pushing her over the edge, but before she fell completely he removed his mouth, replacing it with his thumb, rubbing over the distended nub frantically. His face rippled as he bit into the soft flesh of her upper thigh.
“SSSPIIIIKE!!!” She screamed out his name as her orgasm jumped to a previously unknown peak. With a proud grin he let her slowly fall to the floor in his arms, certain that no one inside the hotel’s walls could have missed her piercing scream.
Angel sat next to Nina’s bed holding her hand and talking to her quietly.
“Please come back to me. I’ll make all the bad go away.” He stroked her hair lightly.
Her eyelids began to flicker, as she floated towards consciousness. “That’s it Nina, come back to me, please.” Angel said excitedly.
“Angel?” Her voice came weakly; her eyes continued to flutter open and closed as she tried to adjust them to the light.
“I’m here, Nina.” Angel said urgently, gripping her hand tighter.
“Angel, what happened?” Her eyes finally managed to stay open, but they were only open a slit. Distress and confusion filled her voice.
“Shhh. Its ok.” Angel tried to soothe her. “We were attacked.”
Her eyes drifted shut again and for a moment he thought she had fallen back under, but then she spoke. “In your apartment.” She opened her eyes back up. “But what happened then?”
“You were in a coma. The doctors didn’t know if you were going to wake up or not.”
Nina closed her eyes tight and scrunched her face up as if she were experiencing a bad headache. “I remember bits and pieces, its like a dream. There was a woman…” She paused trying to remember. “She had bright hair and black eyes, she stood over me chanting.”
“That was Willow. I asked her to call out your wolf side, hoping that you would heal faster and wake up.”
Tears formed in Nina’s eyes. “Oh my god!” She cried, her voice suddenly much stronger with her anguish. “I attacked her.”
“She’s all right. You didn’t hurt her. You didn’t hurt anyone.”
“How do you know that? Were you with me the whole time?” Nina asked angrily.
“No. You got away.”
Nina let out a harsh bitter laugh. They sat in silence for few more minutes. “I didn’t hurt anyone.” She remembered. “But there was something out there, something that hurt me again.”
“They’re all gone, too. You’re safe now.” Angel assured her. “In a few days, maybe sooner, you’ll be as good as new.” He smiled warmly at the woman before him. She was going to be his salvation now that Buffy had chosen Spike over him. Nina was much better suited towards him, anyway. Where Buffy was still a child in many ways, immature and demanding. Much more like Spike than he first realized actually, Nina was an adult, a stable presence in his life. She would stand by him and understand him when the others did not.
Nina saw the look in his eyes and quickly pulled her hand back from him and turned away.
Angel looked at her in surprise. “What’s wrong?” He asked her.
“Angel, I can’t do this.” She told him, refusing to meet his gaze.
“Can’t do what?” He asked warily.
“I don’t think I can be with you anymore.” She said quietly.
“What? Why not?” Angel demanded.
“I know that I won’t ever be normal, but if I stay with you, its always going to be something. I don’t need normalcy, but I do need some kind of stability.” She finally looked him square in the eyes. “That’s something you can’t give me.”
While Wesley looked at Illyria expectantly the tension in the room was suddenly broken by Buffy’s voice echoing down from above.
“SSSPIIIKE!!!”
Giles pulled his glasses off, his face red with anger and embarrassment.
Dawn grinned. “That’s my sister.” She said proudly. Willow joined her in her mirth.
“Who thought it was a good idea for them to move in here?” Xander asked still cringing.
“I believe Rupert encouraged them to stay here.” Wesley said smugly.
“How was I to bloody well know that she…er… that he...er…that is to say…er…” Giles really didn’t know where to take this.
“Buffy could scream like a banshee when she was receiving orgasms?” Dawn finally filled in for him.
Everyone in the room stared at her in shock.
“Well, what did you guys think would happen when you let Anya watch me all those times?” She asked.
Back upstairs Spike pulled Buffy back into a standing position.
“Now, I believe you were saying something about a shower?”
Buffy nodded dumbly. “Clean good.”
He chuckled low and she shivered at the sound, her eyes fixed on her bit mark on his neck. She wasn’t even aware that her face changed and she was licking her lips.
“See something you want Slayer?” His voice was husky with desire at the thought of her feeding from him, her fangs buried in his neck.
She looked up into his eyes, her eyes glowing brightly. She let her fingers tease his jaw line and his eyes closed under he gentle caress. That’s when she struck, her fangs unerringly hitting their mark. He moaned in pleasure at the attack.
She wrapped on leg tightly around his waist and rubbed her dripping center up and down the length of his zipper. She could feel his cool essence running through her veins coursing through her body wit every beat of her heart.
She pulled her fangs out and leaned back, licking all traces of his blood from her lips.
“I’ll go start the water.” Buffy said as she let go of him. She gave him a toothy grin. “You should definitely be more naked for what’s coming up next.”
Spike watched as she giggled and darted out of the room. He wasted no time in stripping down and chasing her into the bathroom that was now rapidly filling with steam.
On and on they argued loudly downstairs, although the volume was partly to drown out the cries coming from Buffy and Spike upstairs, until Giles finally found the proof he was looking for the prophecy was about Wesley and Illyria.
“AH-HA!!! Here it is!” He cried triumphantly. “Right here in black and white, or yellowed parchment and brownish ink as the case may be.”
“What is it now?” Wesley asked exhaustedly.
“It says right here ‘an Old One returned to this plane after time spent in the deep well, joined with a cast out scholar.’ Could that be anymore clear man?” Giles snapped, slapping the papers down in front of Wesley and turning to face Illyria. “Now suppose you come clean and tell us what you know about this.” He said.
“Fine, but I didn’t believe it myself.” She said defensively. “The whole concept is preposterous.”
“Illyria,” Wesley said warningly. “Tell me what you know about this.”
“There was a prophecy during my time about one of us fighting for the humans, saving them from the destruction they deserve.”
”Why didn’t you tell me about this before?” Wesley stood up angry. “How could you keep something like this from me?”
”You over estimate your importance to me, human.” Illyria said angrily. “The slight emotions this shell retains does not bind me in any way to you.”
“I’m not asking you bind yourself to me, but a little courtesy would be nice. You know, just a little bit of notice that I might play a major part in having to save the world.” He finished sarcastically.
“I TOLD you I didn’t believe it myself.” Illyria all but growled at him. “Why would I lower myself to help your species survive? The sooner you all die out the sooner, I can take back the power you stole from me.”
”If I hadn’t taken your powers from you, you would be gone now and so would the rest of us.”
”Um, not me.” Xander interjected, trying to make the atmosphere a bit lighter with his joking. “I was on a different continently entirely.”
”Oh would you shut up!!”
”Silence.”
Wesley and Illyria yelled at the same time.
Giles sat through their arguing reading farther into the papers, once his point was proved he didn’t care about their personal problems. “I believe that one of the other pairs could be Buffy and Spike.” He shouted out to everyone. “It talks about the Warrior for Good bound to the Vampire with a soul.” Illyria and Wesley both turned to him, interested in what else the prophecy says. “They are to be your guardians.” Giles paused. “No, wait, maybe its Angel.”
Giles read down farther. “Oh dear lord.”
“That doesn’t sound good.” Gunn said.
“It usually isn’t.” Willow agreed.
“I believe we may have a problem.” Giles said.
“Enough with the understatement, G-man. What’s the situation?”
“There are two equal pairs of Warriors who protect the head of the pyramid.” Giles said.
“Which is Wesley and Illyria.” Dawn filled in.
“The only differences between them are that they are complements.” Giles continued. “Contrasting complements.”
“What does that mean?” Lorne asked.
“It means they are like opposites, but make up a whole.” Willow explained.
“So if one is good the other is evil.” Gunn said.
“Right and if the other pair is equal to Buffy and Spike…” Giles said.
“Angel and Faith!” Xander said. Willow looked at him in surprise. “You aren’t the only smart one.”
“And if Buffy and Spike are good that means….”
Angel walked the halls of Wolfram and Hart, lost in his misery. How could Nina have broken up with him? After all the trouble he went through to save her and she just dumps him as soon as she wakes up?
Now Buffy was probably off at the hotel boning Spike into the floor and he was left alone. Why couldn’t he find someone to love who would stay with him and accept him for who he was? So he had a little brooding problem. That only added character.
Not paying attention to where he was going he turned a corner and walked right into Andrew, knocking the younger man to the ground.
“Sorry Andrew, I didn’t notice you.” He held out a hand to help him up.
“Oh! That’s ok, Angel. Its your building, right? You can do whatever you want in it.” Andrew stopped and thought about what he said. “Although, I’d prefer if you didn’t want to knock me around anymore.”
Angel rolled his eyes. “Why are you still here? I though you’d be with everyone else at the hotel.”
“I’m headed over there soon. I just had to check in on Faith first and see if there was any change in her condition, then I had to call and check in back in London and Giles said there was no point in running up our phone bill when evil could pay for it. I mean it wasn’t like it was top secret stuff I had to call on, I just needed to make sure they got the delivery of food for the cafeteria and stuff like that.”
“Wait a minute. Slow down Andrew.” Angel snapped his fingers in Andrew’s face to get him to stop rambling. “Go back to that first part again.”
“What?” Andrew asked trying to remember what he said first. “The heading over there soon?”
“No.” Angel said with forced patience. “The part about Faith.”
“I had to check in and see if there was any change in her condition.”
“Faith is in the city?” Angel asked.
”Yeah, Giles had her sent over when Buffy was healed, I guess he was hoping Spike could fix Faith too.”
”I want to see her.” Angel said.
“Um, I don’t know if I can do that. Mr. Giles said…”
Angel grabbed Andrew by his shoulders. “Andrew, I’ve had a very, very bad week. You don’t want to make it worse, do you?” Andrew shook his head no nervously, he opened his mouth to speak, but Angel spoke before he had the chance. “Now I suggest you take me to see Faith, Andrew. NOW!!”
Andrew nodded his head, in defeat.
“Good boy.” Angel smiled, put his arm around Andrew and lead him towards the elevators that went to the garage.
Spike wasn’t going to be the only one to find his mate.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Trying to get caught up after the month long drama. I'm hoping to have updates on my stories and my site all weekend. (Crossing my fingers now.)