William’s Tale
Anya moved to Spike’s side. “Can you contact Spike, William?”
“He is very weak but he is still paying attention to what we are saying.” Giving a slightly self-deprecating smile, William made a suggestion, “I believe he is a tad concerned with what I might say.”
“Does Spike know the cure?” Buffy asked urgently. She needed to get Spike back. William was seriously messing with her mind. If she could get back the irritating pain in her butt, maybe she wouldn’t have to think about the whole Angel turned someone when he had a soul deal. Or the Spike has a soul, but it’s been in hiding after existing through twenty years of Angelus abuse and ewww…did she say that Angelus wanted him too?
William shook his head apologetically. “No, I’m sorry, Miss Buffy, but all he knows is that the cure is not blood.” Looking down at the untouched mug in his hands, he shyly admitted his predicament, “I appreciate Miss Rosenberg’s efforts, but I can’t drink this, I’m sorry.”
“Blood can’t help? What about Slayer’s blood?” Buffy asked, shocked into speaking before thinking of all the ramifications her questions might incur.
“Blood is not the cure, regardless of where it comes from, Miss Summers.” William firmly informed the young woman. His use of her surname was deliberate. As far as William was concerned, even if slayer’s blood had been the cure, he would not drink. He was shocked that she had even broached the subject. Very unbecoming.
“But I thought Slayer blood was like the miracle cure all for vampires?” Buffy asked confused.
“In normal circumstances it would be. However, Lyaliac demons in this dimension are far from normal,” William quietly informed her.
“I would like to know what you know about them and your…er…unusual predicament. Is there something I can get you before we discuss the situation, William?” Giles asked calmly, reaching for the untouched cup of blood. He refused to believe that his slayer seemed to be offering her blood to a vampire.
“Would a cup of tea be too much trouble?” William asked shyly as he relinquished his hold on the cup.
“Not at all,” the ever correct Englishman replied as he moved towards the kitchenette.
As Giles prepared the tea, the occupants in the living room sat silently, all lost in there own private musings.
Anya knew there was something she was forgetting. She tried desperately to call forward all her memories on the type of demon that had slashed the vampire. She kept glancing at William, hoping that she would notice something that would trigger the knowledge that she knew was tantalizingly out of reach of her normally agile mind.
Willow was thankful that whatever was up with the not-so-scary vampire had succeeded in taking the limelight away from her. The longer everyone stayed focused on him, the longer she had to come up with a good reason for doing the spell. She didn’t think they would be too sympathetic about the truth. ‘It’s not my fault they don’t understand what sort of pain I’m in,’ she thought petulantly. She was convinced that no one before her had experienced the depth of pain that she was going through.
Xander fumed. While he was angry that Buffy hadn’t staked the bleached menace, he was far more incensed that Spike had gotten further with Buffy than he ever had. He was also furious that not only had Anya not told him that was she still part demon, but then she had to go an open her big mouth about what he’d said about the blond slayer. Now he was going to have to do a whole lot of fancy explaining for something he never wanted Buffy to know. It wasn’t fair. He liked his fantasy life. Now, because of his girlfriend- who might still be a demon- and her lack of ability to keep her big mouth shut, he might have to let go of a long cherished dream and that was something he had no intention of doing without a fight.
Buffy couldn’t get over the information from Anya. She tried. She really did. It didn’t matter how she twisted or turned it, it was freaking her out. What else had Angel kept from her? How badly had she been betrayed by the council? Did Giles know? She knew it wasn’t reasonable, but she so wanted everything to be Spike’s fault.
As Giles prepared the tea, he let his mind drift to the ridiculous descriptions his books gave of William the Bloody prior to his turning. The William he was meeting now was a far cry from the ruffian highwayman that was depicted in the supposedly well researched tomes. This William was far closer to the way Giles had always suspected he had been. The council didn’t seem to be aware that there were ways other than their books to study subjects of interest. Giles would never have admitted it to the group in his living room, but the Slayer of Slayers was someone he had a great deal of interest in.
Once the tea was served and Giles was seated comfortably, he turned to Anya and asked her to elaborate on what she had said earlier about the three vampires with souls.
“I know the least about Lawson, so I’ll start with him,” Anya told them, decisively.
“This is just what I’ve heard through the demon grapevine, but that’s usually fairly accurate,” she warned them. “Lawson was a sailor on a submarine during WWII. Angel was on the submarine too. I don’t know why, but Angel turned him. All I know is that there was some reason and it had something to do with the American Government. Spike could tell you more about it. He was there, too. I know that Angel’s soul was in place and it’s common knowledge that souled beings create souled beings, so that’s why Lawson kept his soul.”
Turning to the reticent blond, Giles asked, “Can you give us anymore information about this, William?”
“I wish that I could. But the demon is most insistent that I say nothing that will cause Miss Summers any emotional pain,” William replied sadly.
“What? Wait…the demon doesn’t want to cause me pain?” Buffy asked incredulously. She wondered briefly if she had been sucked accidentally into an alternate reality, because the idea that Spike didn’t want to cause her pain was sooo not happening.
“I have tried to explain to him that his feelings for you are inappropriate, but unfortunately he can be rather stubborn.” William suddenly cringed and moved a shaking hand to his head. “My apologies, it appears that the demon did not wish Miss Summers to know that he is in love with her.”
Giles tried to solve the evolving problem. “Surely he realises that the emotions he thinks he is feeling are a result of the spell that Willow did?”
“Mr Giles, Spike is a combination of the demon and I. I am William. Because I exist, the demon has learned how to feel all the emotions that humans feel. He doesn’t think he is feeling love, he knows he is. Miss Rosenberg suggested marriage in her spell, not love. Surely you’re aware that the two are not mutually inclusive,” William quietly informed the watcher.
“So you’re saying that it’s only the demon part of Spike that love’s Buffy? You don’t love her?” Willow asked quickly, trying to move the conversation away from the subject of spells.
“Perhaps this is a subject for a later time,” Giles intervened, decisively. The pain on the features of the blond vampire had urged him to take back control of the conversation. “Anya, I believe you had more to tell us?”
Anya nodded before continuing. “William was turned by Drusilla. Because she was driven insane by Angelus before she was turned, her humanity and soul were forced to remain. She’s considered totally innocent, but unless she’s dusted she’s never going to be free of the curse Angelus has inflicted on her. Her soul is trapped inside the insane mind of a monster. Angelus knew that she still had her soul because vampires can smell them. He ordered her to never sire a childe and Drusilla was incapable of defying his order. When they came across William, Angelus let Drusilla turn him.
“Angelus wanted to break him. He wanted William to be as dependent on him as Drusilla was. According to the grapevine, if Angelus hadn’t been cursed he was planning on dusting William because after twenty years of rape and torture, he still hadn’t managed to break William and Angelus was beginning to look like a joke.” After this revelation, Anya paused. She still had to tell them about Angel, but they all looked like they needed a minute to digest the information about William.
“You all know that Angel was cursed, but the fact that the soul he was cursed with wasn’t his original soul is something that not many people know about. I only know what I know because I saw it when I saw him at the prom. The soul is older than he is, but it’s definitely related. That’s why I assumed it was his father’s. There was never any question about who Angelus had been in life. Liam O’Conner was a selfish bastard who was lucky he was turned when he was. The vengeance spells that he would have faced had he lived wouldn’t have been pretty. His father was an unloving and pious man who thought he had the right to sit in judgement of everyone around him. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that his soul being used for Angelus’ curse was deliberate,” Anya pronounced her judgement.
“Who cares?” Xander shouted as he stood. “What does all this matter? He’s a vampire!”
“Not anymore he isn’t,” Anya yelled back. ‘That’s it’, she thought. That was what she’d forgotten. Forgetting her anger at the blustering brunette, and excitedly turned back to Giles and Buffy. “The Lyaliac demon is closely related to the Mohra demon in that both return mortality to a vampire. So William is actually a human with a dangerously ill demon. He has a soul and a heartbeat.”
Buffy’s eyes widened comically.
Willow tried to make herself as small as possible she so didn’t want to be blamed for this by Xander.
Giles removed his glasses to clean them, his mind racing.
“He'll still dust if we stake him, though, won't he?” Xander pleaded with Anya.
“No Xander. He wouldn’t dust. He would bleed and probably die,” she replied flatly.
“So we cure him, turn him back into a vampire, and then dust him,” the brunette suggested desperately.
“Well, obviously I didn’t make myself clear. He won’t ever be a vampire again, Xander. He will either be a human with a dead demon or a human with a live demon. The loss of the demon could turn him insane. Cured, he will have all the abilities of the demon with the exception of needing blood to survive. As a human, William was a good man. If he joined your team, Buffy would have a powerful ally,” Anya bluntly explained.
William, who had remained stoically silent during Anya’s unveiling of some of his darkest and most shameful secrets, suddenly wavered and dropped to his knees. He grasped his head between both hands, his expression one of intense, agonizing pain. With a superhuman effort, he turned his head to the slayer and gasped out, “Buffy, pet, I’m sorry.”
Buffy knew with absolute certainty that it was Spike who was speaking to her now. “Talk to me, Spike,” she urged the sweating blonde, her hands moving of their own volition to stroke his shivering back.
“Peaches is on his way, luv. He’s gonna try and take me out.” Spike groaned as he collapsed the rest of the way to the floor.
“Excellent!” Xander chortled gleefully.
“Xander!” yelled every female in the room.
“Get out, Xander,” Ripper snarled at the unrepentant boy.
“What?” Xander responded, his eyes bugging out in shock. “You’re picking the walking dead over me?”
“Listen carefully you insufferable little prat. I will no longer allow you to sully the Slayer’s calling by using it for your personal vendetta’s and bully boy tactics. We both know that the only reason you help at all is because you have some misguided belief that one day Buffy will come to her senses and realise that it is you that she wants. Personally, I would prefer that Buffy date an unchipped William the Bloody than you any day. Thankfully, she is smart enough not to have any interest in you at all.” Ripper repeated his earlier order, “Now, get out of my home.”
Xander glared at the watcher with seething hatred. Turning abruptly towards the unconscious blond on the floor, he swung his foot back in preparation to kick. He stumbled slightly when Buffy moved swiftly in front of Spike.
“Guess that hyena spirit was just showing us what was already there, huh, Xan?” the slayer asked rhetorically, her voice hard.
Stomping angrily towards the front door, Xander didn’t even glance at Anya as he ordered her to leave with him.
“William needs my help. I’m staying.” Her determination was unwavering in the strength of the venomous look he shot at her.
Xander didn’t say a word as he left, slamming the door behind him.
Nothing was said as Buffy and Giles moved Spike back on the couch.
Willow fought back tears as she watched. She knew deep down that this was all her fault and felt an overwhelming sense of guilt. She had to fix this.
She just had to.