I am on a serious rant moment right now.
One: I think I know what kinda site this is being that all the stories focus on one couple and so does the layout.
Two: If *people* had bothered to read the AN at the beginning of chapter two entitled "Roomates" they'd have seen my comment on the Spike/Kat-Spike/Buffy issus of my story. But just in case you didn't get it, here:
A/N:Let me explain a few things so the rest of my reviews don't ask what pairing this is. At the moment my story may look Spike/OC, but the ending is definitely Spuffy. Don't worry about that. Katherine doesn't like Buffy for two reasons: 1-Spike loves Buffy. 2-She saw how Buffy treated Spike in the
past. Is eveything cleared up?
So, *please*, {that's sarcasm} don't waste my review space, though I appreciate the reviews that actually have to deal with the plot.
Now, Is everything cleared up??????!
The Magic Box opened on schedule, Anya strangely tolerant of hangovers. Tomorrow was the day of the wedding. After Xander took enough aspirin to dull his headache, he dropped Anya of at the shop to be a jittery mess and went to work at the construction site.
Buffy, Tara and Willow came by later (Buffy having missed her shift and therefore being fired). Katherine and Spike showed up a little after three, Katherine a little perkier than usual.
Anya had spent decades with the blonde and could tell that she obviously had sex with Spike. But she decided, for once, to not comment on it. Katherine gave her a grateful look and she felt keeping quiet was worth it.
Then, her mind drifted back to the reason she was nervously dusting the shelves and not counting the money. Tomorrow she was getting married! “Katherine, I need to speak with you.”
Katherine nodded and followed the ex-demon into the training room. “So?” she sat on the mat in the center of the room and Anya sat across from her. She awaited her friend to speak.
“I don’t know if I can marry Xander. I’m scared he won’t love me anymore when we get old, and what if I can’t have children? If I can’t have children, we’ll die without someone to carry off the genes and Harris name, and what if Xander gets fired? I’ll be the only one bringing in income to our home, and what if Xander wants a younger woman when we’re married, and-“
“Anya.” Katherine pointedly used her human name. Anya looked at her. “He loves you. He wants you. He’ll marry you. He’ll stay wit’ you. ‘Til the day you die.”
“Really?” Anya looked at her friend hopefully.
“I can see your future, Anya. Don’t doubt me so much.” Katherine smiled, meeting Anya’s eyes.
Anya smiled up at Xander. “I do.”
Xander returned it as the priest said, “You may kiss the bride.” He pulled his new wife towards him and kissed her as the doors burst opened.
Everything next happened in nearly a blink of the eye. Warren and Andrew ran in, guns cocked and aimed and shot of rounds wildly. By the time Katherine knocked Andrew out, Warren had run off and the damage had been done.
Anya lay dead at the altar, Xander also lifeless and next to her. Their arms were wrapped around each other and the smiles still on their faces. Buffy was screaming and holding Dawn, also dead. Willow was doing the same to Tara.
Then she stood, intent on taking out the twerps who killed the love her life. Katherine stepped into her path.
“Get out of my way, Katherine.” Willow’s eyes were steadily turning black.
“No.” Katherine replied.
Willow raised her hand and a black lightning bolt flew from her hand towards Katherine. Spike, realizing the only one who could stop her was Katherine, knew she couldn’t afford the magic shock. He stepped in front of the demi-god and blocked it, but the power was enough to turn him to dust.
Katherine’s eyes lit up as she realized what had just happened.
“Oops. Is your boyfriend dead? Look how much I don’t care.”
Katherine was the exact opposite to Willow. Where Willow’s eyes and hair turned black, Katherine’s turned white. “Oh, you will.”
They raised their arms simultaneous and black and white magic flew at the opponents clashing midway to its target. The magic showdown had begun, no one to stop them, for the Slayer was a blubbering mess by her dead sister.
Katherine blinked. “You’ll get married,“ she said over the growing lump in her throat. “I, uh, need to go talk t’Spike.”
Anya should’ve known something was wrong when Katherine called Spike by the name he went by since he was turned. But she didn’t. She only followed Katherine out of the room.
‘Spike, those nerds, you know where they keep?’
‘Yeah, why? What’s wrong, Kat?’
She found the information she needed without his permission. She looked at him.
Spike knew that look. Her face was impassive, set with determination. Her hair was steadily turning to weirdest shade of lavender, as did her eyes.
‘What are you going to do?’
Katherine looked at Spike and there was only a flicker of emotion before it was gone. ‘I’m endin’ this.’
Buffy looked up to see Katherine and Spike staring at each other. From their facial expressions, it was obvious that they were having a mental argument. She elbowed Willow, who tapped Tara and pointed to Katherine, whose hair and eyes were turning lavender.
“How exactly do you expect to do that?” Spike asked out loud.
Katherine held out her right hand. A short dagger with a jagged blade, a lavender color, appeared. “Will, I’m gonna do what I’m ordered. Doesn’t really matter if you’re with me on it. They have to die.” She closed her hand around the weapon.
“They’re human!” Spike exclaimed. Why did he suddenly care? He just did. It didn’t matter, did it? No.
“They’re evil. Don’t get in m’way, Will.” Katherine moved towards the door.
Spike grabbed her arm and pulled her back. She looked at him. She stepped to him and kissed him softly before pulling away.
“Sorry.” She pulled her right arm back and punched him in the nose with all her strength. He flew back onto the reading table, unconscious.
The four females in the shop looked at her. She turned lavender eye to them. “Tell him, I ‘ad to.” She then turned and walked out he store, whistling and twirling the dagger in her hands.
“We’re gonna kill the Slayer and her friends, guys. We’ll be completely successful this time.”
“W-wait! Killing?! W-w-when did killing become a part of the deal?” Jonathan protested against the plan. He didn’t want to be a murderer. Katrina was bad enough.
“Relax, Sparky. It’ll work and we won’t get caught.” Warren sometimes wondered why he dealt with the spineless loser. At least Andrew didn’t protest his ideas.
“I don’t bloody think so.” The nerds turned to see a woman with lavender eyes and hair standing in the doorway. In her hand, a lavender dagger.
“Who are you?” Warren asked. She was a woman. There was no reason to be scared of her. She just had this air about her. This air that said, “fear me”…Not that Warren was scared.
Suddenly the temperature in the room dropped below the freezing point. Papers began to combust into flame.
Andrew and Jonathan abruptly stood and moved close together. “Who-who are you?” the taller of the two asked.
“Name’s Katherine. Better known as ‘Kat the Destroyer’.” She said monotonously.
“I-I read about you. You killed a lot of people in the fourteen hundreds.” As an afterthought and in a quieter voice, Jonathan said, “We pissed you off, huh?”
Katherine gave a short nod before a huge gust of wind swept through, not blowing out the fire, but pinning the three to the wall.
“Y-you don’t have to do this! We won’t kill the Slayer and her friends! Promise!” Warren pleaded as she came closer.
Katherine stared him in his eyes. “I see the future. I can hear the thoughts going through your head. You can’t lie t’me.”
At that, the boys screamed for help.
Her laugh was toneless. “Time’s frozen in the house. Your parents won’t ‘ave to know they had such idiotic fools f’children.”
With that said, she slashed the blade across Andrew’s throat. He gurgled for a moment before his head dropped to his chest.
“I’m gonna die, because you’re crazy-and I’m gonna die next!” Jonathan yelled at Warren as Katherine neared him.
“My…’bosses’…said to let you go.” Lavender eyes looked confused as she concentrated on what the Powers that Be told her. “You’re…fairly innocent. You don’t plan anything dangerous. You can atone for your mistakes. I agree. “ She titled her head to the side. “Go to the Magic Box. Tell them you’re there to help.”
Jonathan was suddenly on his feet and wisely ran out the basement. He was just as quickly on his way to the magic shop and the Scoobies.
Katherine turned to Warren. “You. You plead for your life. For me to allow you to continue living, yet y’take lives. First-your girlfriend, b’cause she didn’t want your pathetic ass anymore.”
Katherine turned to look behind her where her first apparition appeared. “How could you do that to me, Warren? I thought we loved each other? I thought you loved me. But you played with my mind, violated my body and you killed me. And then you tried to frame someone else. How could you?”
Warren looked at Katherine. “Get that fake out of here!”
“Oh, she’s not a fake, Warren. She’s the real soul, sent by the Powers That Be just f’you.”
“No…” Warren’s face turned into one of anguish. “Katrina, baby, I’m sorry…I’m so sorry…”
“Sorry doesn’t cut it anymore, Warren. You blew it the first time. And then, then you tried to make me your willing slave. And when I realized what you and your sick pervs for friends were doing, you killed me. Rot in hell, bastard!”
She disappeared then and Katherine turned back to her victim. Tears streamed down his face and he was still muttering that he was sorry. “Then, you planned on killing the Slayer and her friends. Granted, there’s no love f’the Slayer, but I do like ‘er friends. And, for this, y’die. But not like the other. Slower…painful.”
She held up her hand and a bullet appeared. She held it up for the human to see. “’S so tiny. Can’t b’lieve this thing could kill the first few mortal friends I allowed myself to have. And you’d have killed them. For that, “ Katherine smiled slowly. “You die, bastard.”
Willow and Buffy were helping Spike sit up when Jonathan ran into the shop like a bat out of hell, scared and out of breath. Buffy stood, expecting an attack from the nerds.
“’K-Kat The Destroyer’ said to come he-here a-and sat that I’m here to he-help.” He stuttered.
“’Kat the Destroyer’?” Buffy echoed.
Anya and Spike shared a look. They hadn’t been with her at the time, but demons still talked of when she went on a rampage that resulted in hundreds of deaths.
“Who’d she kill?” Spike asked sullenly.
“A-Andrew and she’s gonna kill Warren.” Jonathan answered. The bleached blonde put him on edge. And scared the crap out of him.
“Why not you?” Tara asked and Jonathan shrugged in response.
“They must’ve told her not to.” Anya answered logically.
Spike turned and left the shop into the late afternoon, his only parting words, “I’ve got to stop her.”
Warren cried out in pain when the blade dug into his wrist. Katherine watched dispassionately with lavender eyes as blood spurted onto her white clothes and then dripped to the floor. She repeated the same action on the other wrist and let the blood stain her clothes once more.
“Y’don’t deserve t’live, because you don’t understand. No life should be in your hands. Someone’s life o’death shouldn’t be decided by you, just like I shouldn’t be killing you.” Katherine lectured.
She held the dagger in her hand, admiring hr work. A bullet had been slammed into his chest, puncturing his right lung. Various cuts littered his body, shallow compared to the ones on his wrists.
He coughed up blood. “I’m…sorry,” he gasped out.
“I’m…sorry,” he gasped out.
Katherine…a thirteen year old orphan stood there, infamous dagger in hand, her eyes, her heart, her soul uncomprehending to the meaning of the words, “I’m sorry.”
“Sorry?! You’re sorry?! ‘Sorry’ doesn’t bring my parents back, bastard!” Katherine yelled heatedly. She stabbed him in the chest. “If I’m parentless, so are y’children.” She slit his throat.
Six centuries ago came crashing back, haunting her. “No! You don’t get to say it! Redhead would’ve killed you in a week or two anyway. Don’t see why it matters.” Katherine smiled then. It was a cold smile. Dispassionate of all feeling.
“Now, ‘tis time t’say ‘G’day’ to Warren Meers. The would’ve been killer of many, finally killed himself.”
“No-!” Warren yelled as Katherine slashed his throat in one quick motion. The wind holding him against the wall dissipated, pitching his lifeless body next to Andrew’s on the ground.
The fire raged, burning everything except for the bodies. The fire was obviously mystical, for no smoke came from it. She watched idly as everything burned around her.
The dagger disappeared and her hair and eyes returned to normal. Her white clothes bloody, Katherine left the basement and let time in the house resume.
Spike ran as fast as he could towards the house. He could imagine what he’d find if he wasn’t there in enough time to stop her. The smell of blood hit him before he even reached the basement. He saw the two bodies and shook his head. He then backed away and ran out the house to look for Katherine.
It was almost funny. And Katherine would laugh if she didn’t hurt so much. As she walked down Main Street in broad daylight, no one noticed that she was covered in blood. No one noticed the dazed look on her face or the blood on her hands. No one thought she must’ve killed someone or that she was running from someone. They just ignored her.
Katherine opened the door to her home in a poor village in England. Her parents were hours late, and she was worried. She opened it to reveal her aunt, crying. A sense of dread found her.
“Kat, y’mum, a-and dad, they were found by the river.” The aunt wept on the child’s shoulder.
Katherine’s eyes widened and tears formed. Her hair and eyes turned lavender as rage began to build within her. They’d all pay.
And it was just as well. She needed to be ignored until Spike found her.
Katherine entered the pub where the seediest characters that knew of the supernatural world spent their days. No one noticed her presence as she walked up to the bartender. That changed a second later.
“Who killed the witch an’ her husband?” She asked in as cold a voice as she could.
The bartender began laughing, and others joined in. This girl, they all thought. This little girl trying to be intimidating. “Run along, lil’ girl, find a dolly.”
Katherine’s blood boiled and instantaneously, her hair and eyes turned lavender. Electricity crackled around her body. She leapt onto the counter and the bartender was pinned to the wall. The pub was deathly quiet as she said, “Let’s try this again. Who killed the witch an’ her husband?”
She couldn’t bring herself to go into the shop. So, in her bloodstained clothes, she sat on the bench and waited for Spike to finally find her.
“Katherine killed two humans. Do you know why?” Buffy asked.
“A-Andrew and Warren planned o-on crashing the wedding. I think their plan was t-to kill you.” Jonathan answered.
Dawn and Xander had showed shortly after Spike left. Xander wanted to press the issue of Buffy’s “relationship” with Spike that had been brought out into the open last night, but he acknowledged that Katherine killing people was more important. Now, they sat in the shop, tensely awaiting the vampire or the demi-god.
As if she couldn’t understand the concept, Buffy said, “She killed humans. How could she kill humans?”
Spike retreated to the Magic box after not finding Katherine for three hours. As he moved to enter the shop, he noticed a blonde sitting on the bench. It took a moment for him to realize it was Katherine. He walked over to her slowly and pulled her to her feet, getting a bit of blood on his hands.
“I had to.” Katherine whispered to her love, her friend. It was a mantra. If she didn’t say it aloud, she said it mentally.
Spike felt her pain and pulled her to him as she cried. When she was cried out for the moment , he walked her over to the entrance of the shop. She stared at it with foreboding, wanting to skip this part of the night and go to the part where she washes the blood off. Spike pulled her in before she could contemplate running.
Time to face the music.
Katherine knew Spike would do it, and she was trying to be ready. She tried to wipe the few tears she’d shed away before facing the Scooby Gang, bloody hands, clothes and all.
“You killed humans.” Buffy accused.
“My job. Didn’ you hear about my name?” The blonde started to pace the front of the shop as she pieced her thoughts together. She’d seen Faith’s mistake. Nonchalance was not going to work with them.
“Don’t you have any morals? Humans are for the police to deal with.” The uncaring attitude the older blonde sported was making her see Faith once more.
Katherine suddenly stood still and rigid. She slowly turned to face Buffy. “I have a bunch of morals!”
“Oh really? I don’t see how killing people is showing them!” Buffy yelled back.
“I killed them because I had to! I killed them because it’s what I was told to by The Powers! Most of all, I did it for everyone in this entire bloody store! So it wasn’t that only one saw the next year! If you don’t appreciate that, well, sod off!”
“Did anyone else hear, ‘so it wasn’t that only one saw the next year’?” Xander asked, looking around for nods of agreement.
Katherine said, “Yeah. And it damn sure wasn’t going to be me.”
“Is that to justify yourself?”
“Bullshit, Slayer! When I first came ‘ere, you lot were all spiraling down to your own hell! You were all a bloody mess! I could see it all! Mr. Commitment-“ she pointed to Xander. “-Was going to leave Anya at the altar. Then she’d be her vengeance-y self again and we’d all get the porn show of our lives thanks to the Three-Who-Have-No-Lives, starring William and Anyanka! You, “ she glared at Buffy harshly, “would’ve had such a fucked up ‘relationship’ with Will, he’d ‘ave, first, near raped you and, second, run off to Africa to get a bloody soul! Warren’d go complete revenge on your ass for messing up his plans that he’d try to kill you and end up only killing Tara. Willow wouldn’t be able to bring her back and that fact that she only had her love back for a day would be enough to send her over that edge and she’d go black magic on your asses. Giles’d come back to town, but would barely be able to do anything useful in the way of helping. And our only hope of saving the world…Xander and his speech about broken yellow crayons!
“But that wasn’t it! I changed it when I came here! This time, Xander and Anya’d say, ‘I do’ for bloody sure! But they wouldn’t make it past ‘You may kiss the bride’! Warren and his little sidekick would kill not only Anya, but Xander, Tara, and Dawn! Willow would do the dark witch thing once more and we’d be back at bloody fuckin’ square one! But this time, there’s no way to stop her!
“So, don’t you tell me I have no soddin’ morals! I ’ave plenty of ‘em!”
The color drained from all the humans’ faces at Katherine’s newest revelation. Died…some of them had been about to die tomorrow…!
“So, then…you saved me from killing people?” Willow asked, meekly.
“You’d have killed Warren. And Rack, not that I’d ‘ave been sorry about the asshole.”
“S-so you killed for her?” Tara asked.
Katherine slashed the throat of the unnamed man and moved on in the night. He didn’t matter to her. His life was worthless.
Katherine shook her head of the memory. “It’s already got a few deaths on it, why not?”
She held out her hands in delight as people ran, trying to escape. Electricity flowed from her fingertips and electrocuted all until it smelled of burning flesh.
She shook her head again. “Look, I need to go somewhere where people don’t jump on me without waiting for explanations.” She needed to get out. She felt suffocated, the memories continuously running through her mind. She turned and walked out the store.
Spike was a little unsettled by the declaration. No, he was extremely unsettled and now very glad his friend came to town. He tilted his head to the left and raised an eyebrow at the Slayer. Never one for missing a dig, he said, “And, I’m just wondering, is there any room in your mouth for anything other than your foot Slayer?” Then he was out the door to follow Katherine.
When the two blondes left, everyone turned to look at one another. Willow sat down at the table, trying to grip the concept that Katherine saved Tara’s life and her soul by killing Warren. Tara put her hand on her shoulder. The redhead looked up and smiled at her lover.
Tara was inwardly reeling. Katherine averted her death. Twice. She was so grateful to the blonde demi-god and fellow witch, despite hr having killed two people. She did it to save lives and the world. But she couldn’t help the nagging feeling that her death had been fate…
Xander and Anya stared across the room at each other. Anya was painfully hurt that if Katherine hadn’t come to town, she’d have been left at the altar. Then, she had to come to grips that they would’ve gone through the entire ceremony, only to be killed at the end of it. Xander’s thoughts were on a similar route. Starting with how could he even consider leaving the woman he loved at the altar? Ending at what would he have done if she’d been killed, even only a second before his own death?
Buffy and Dawn could barely take in that if Katherine hadn’t killed the humans, just about everyone in this room, outside of Buffy and Jonathan would be dead by this time tomorrow.
Dawn looked at her sister. She had a deep frown on her face as though she couldn’t understand all that Katherine had just told them and why Katherine would do that for people she just met.
Katherine had told Dawn about her past and the teenager now understood why Katherine knew certain things. How she knew that white magic wasn’t addictive like the dark. How it was healthier for a witch. Also, how the more you practiced it, the less you’d be tempted by the dark. Dawn finally understood why Katherine practicing white magic with Willow was okay. Besides, she trusted Spike’s judgment.
To say Dawn was a little angry at Buffy was an understatement. “I hope you’re happy.” Dawn said.
Everyone turned to look at her, but she was concentrating on Buffy. Buffy looked Dawn in the eye.
“Do you enjoy jumping on people about things before getting the facts? First Spike and the eggs, then Katherine and her morals.”
“What?” Buffy looked at Dawn as if to say, “What are you angry about now?”
“I spent yesterday with Kat.” Buffy raised an eyebrow at the endearment. “We talked. About her life.”
Buffy’s look changed as if to say, “Why should I care?”
Dawn’s responding glare was, “I’m getting there.”
The teenager continued. “When she was six, her mom taught her white magic. So, by the time she was thirteen-to-fourteen that she’d have control over herself. That there’d be no way she’d use it for revenge. Wrong. When she was thirteen, both her parents were killed. She spent the next year in the dark stuff, murdering the killers and anyone else that stood in her way.”
“It’s already got a few deaths on it, why not?”
“She became addicted to the magic. She had to work harder than Willow to get cleansed of the dark stuff ‘cause she had no one to help her. After the Powers That Be witnessed her accomplishment, and offered the job. So, you don’t even know why she did it or how it affected her. I didn’t even know until yesterday.”
“Look, I need to go somewhere where people don’t jump on me without waiting for explanations.”
Dawn went into the training room to be by herself as Anya helpfully added, “That’s why she’s called ‘Kat the Destroyer’. “ she went to the door and flipped the sign to closed before going to count the money.
She keeps doing that, justifying herself for things. There’s always something to justify her. Now I found out she had some dark past and that killing Warren and his buddy probably bothered her. I can never win against Katherine.
Katherine was having flashbacks of slitting throats and using magic on humans from six centuries ago. She shuddered as she walked down the dark street, her destination her penthouse apartment.
Katherine dumped the flammable liquid on the tied person. “One mo’ chance.” The human stared at her defiantly. She shrugged and made a fire ball appear in her hand. “Guess not.” She threw it at the human and watched as the body burned.
Spike caught up with her by the time she reached the door and he opened it for her. He pushed the “up” button on the elevator. He put his arms on her shoulders and guided her in gently. She leaned back against him. The doors opened to their floor and he guided her off the elevator and to the door.
“Not so fast, asshole.” She held her hands out and the earth shook. The man fell as Katherine stalked towards him. She pulled his head back and slit his throat with the lavender dagger.
He unlocked the front door and pulled Katherine with him. She watched as he locked the door behind them.
“I’m sorry.” She whispered to Spike as he led her to the bathroom.
“For what?” He couldn’t remember for the life of him what she had done.
“When I punched you, in the nose.”
“Don’t worry about that.” He turned on the shower and started to leave the bathroom when a hand on his arm stopped him.
“Don’t leave me.”
Katherine ran her hand down the pale chest she was using as a pillow. After the impromptu joint shower, they went to her room where they just slept in each other’s arms. She hoped he was sleeping because she didn’t need him to worry about her. She came to help him, not vice versa.
She couldn’t sleep, though that was obvious by the not sleeping. Earlier today had taken her back six centuries into the past. A past where she succumbed to dark magic and killed anyone in her way. A past where a thirteen-year-old girl could be named “Kat the Destroyer” and strike fear in the hearts of many. A past when not even a vengeance demon could wish away her pain, nothing could. And after she realized that what she was doing was wrong and got back on the right track, she felt no better than the year before.
She had blood on her hands.
Katherine walked down the dirt road to her home as the sunset, blood covering her. She was dangerous, she was feared, and she was alone. She’d just killed a contact of the murderer and felt pretty good.
And from the Watchers’ diaries and other texts, it was a lot of blood. At least a hundred people died at the blonde’s hands. It was even said that she killed a meddling Slayer. Her pain and grief had overwhelmed her to a point where she didn’t care what happened to other people, or their families.
Even before today, she’d had blood on her hands. It wasn’t going to wash away.
She did it for Willow. For the redhead. She was too similar to Katherine in the magic. She’d be a powerful witch. And if she got on the right track, without killing someone, she’d be just that more powerful.
She scrubbed her hands furiously, hoping it’d wash off so she could move on. No evidence. She didn’t come this far to be caught red-handed. She scrubbed harder.
Katherine was a murderer. There was blood on her hands. And no matter how hard she scrubbed, it wasn’t washing away.
Spike was awake. Katherine thought he was sleeping, mostly because she hoped he was. The air was permeated by her feelings. The pain, the anger, the regret and the sadness. Acting as if it was a subconscious change, he moved his arm around her waist and pulled her closer to him. He could almost see the smile and hear the sigh.
There was nothing he could do to fix her. The past that haunted her and the present that she wanted to forget. But he could be there for her and hope the wedding would help.