Chapter Thirty-Four
Introductions
“Spike!” Buffy cried in horror as he slid slowly down the wall and lay in a boneless heap. “Oh, God! Oh, baby! I didn’t m—”
She turned abruptly as she heard slow hand clapping behind her. Angel was grinning from ear to ear, leaning with his left shoulder against the wall, applauding her.
“He’ll be all right – he’s got a thick skull,” he chuckled.
“Thank God that he has, otherwise you would have killed him with that baseball bat,” yelled Buffy.
“Ah, that explains a lot.”
Buffy marched up to him. “What the hell are you playing at – having him all chained up?”
“Just keeping him safe. Didn’t realise that I should have included safe from you, too. You’ve got a good right hand on you.”
Buffy raised her arm to hit him but he effortlessly caught her wrist.
“God, you’re exactly like her.”
“Let go of me, you big oaf!” shouted Buffy, trying to pull free.
Angel let her go. “Buffy,” he said in wonderment. “You’re exactly like Buffy – even down to the way your eyes flash when you’re angry.”
“What?”
Without thinking, Angel pulled her into his arms and nuzzled her neck, breathing deep of her scent. It wasn’t exactly the same but very similar.
“Oouff!” He fell to his knees, and then to his side, hands covering his balls. Eyes watering, he glanced up at Buffy.
“I told you to let go of me!”
Angel rolled over on to his back. “Yeah, just like her!” He struggled to get enough air into his lungs to be able to speak. “I’m not who you think I am.” He let his features vamp out and was pleased to see her back up in fear.
Buffy’s hand flew to her chest. “Oh, my God! But how?”
A rattle of chains behind them indicated that Spike was waking up. He groaned loudly and then added a growl that made both Angel and Buffy look at him sharply.
“Bloody nice to see you, too,” mumbled Spike as he sat up. “Oh, my head.” It was throbbing fit to burst. Being knocked out twice in twenty-four hours wasn’t to be recommended.
Buffy backed up and made her way to Spike, reluctant to turn her back on the vampire.
“He’s the one we’ve been looking for,” said Spike quietly. “He’s not the Angel that you think he is.”
Buffy stared at Angel and watched with fascination as his features faded back to human, the brow smoothing out, the fangs receding, harsh yellow eyes being replaced with brown.
“Wow,” she whispered. It had been weird seeing Spike’s eyes change but the whole face… “Does it hurt?”
“What? My balls or my face changing?” asked Angel as he stood up.
Spike snorted.
Buffy turned to glare at him. “Don’t you say a word – I’m not finished with you.” She punctuated her words with a pointing finger, her relief at him being okay giving way once more to the anger she felt for him.
Another noise, this time to the left of where Angel stood, told them that Rich and Tara were approaching. Sure enough, a very pale Rich leaning heavily on Tara staggered into view.
“Rich! Are you okay?”
Rich managed a bit of a lop-sided smile. “Okay would be a bit strong – still breathing might be more appropriate.” He swayed dramatically and Angel went to help him.
“Keep back,” snarled Tara. She held a hand, palm foremost, out towards Angel, and he stared at her in surprise as he felt the magic flowing from her stop him in his tracks.
“A witch,” he said. “You might be of use.”
“Keep yer sodding hands off her,” snapped Rich, choosing a large piece of rubble as a seat. “What the hell did yer hit me for anyway? And just who, exactly, are you?”
Angel backed off. “You can stop with the magics. I’m not here to hurt anybody –”
“My head kind of disagrees with that,” said Rich, rubbing the bruise on his chin.
“Mine, too,” Spike chirped up.
Spike was delighted to see Buffy and his friends, and he reckoned that he’d deserved the slap from Buffy – he just wished his head hadn’t hit the sodding wall. She must have been worried sick about him.
“Oh, Spike!” Buffy went to him, kneeling by his side and pulling him into the hug that he’d expected earlier. She burst into tears. “I’m so sorry,” she sobbed, “but when I got to the house and saw all that blood and the sofa upturned, I thought…I thought –”
“Shh, love. It’s all right. I’m okay. I should never have left. But the thought of me hurting you…” He kissed the still livid bruise on her neck and closed his eyes as he sensed the blood rushing just below the skin.
They held each other for few moments before a loud cough made them part.
“Look, can you stop with the snuggling – it’s kind of making me feel ill,” said Angel with a grimace. “I think we’ve got a lot of talking to do.”
“It’s you!” exclaimed Rich suddenly.
“Rich, honey, we know that he’s the vampire that we’ve been looking for,” said Tara, putting a hand on his shoulder as she stood beside him.
“We do?” Rich’s brow furrowed.
“Tara, how did you know that? You weren’t here when he showed us what he is,” said Buffy.
“Who,” added Angel. “I’m a who, not a what.”
“Why the hell are you all talking at once?” asked Spike, rubbing the back of his head. He felt entirely too battered to follow this.
“His aura,” explained Tara. “It shows the evil that he’s done.”
“It does?” said Rich, Buffy and Angel in unison.
Spike just groaned and carried on rubbing his head.
Tara nodded. “It’s very clear to see.”
“That’s so not fair,” whined Angel. “I have a soul now. Surely that should make my aura show that I’m not evil?”
“That’s not the way auras work,” replied Tara with a bit of a shrug. “They show the whole of what you’ve done in your existence. I’m thinking that the soul is pretty new?”
“Not especially,” replied Angel. “I’ve had it a century or so.”
“A century? You’re a hundred years old?” Rich couldn’t believe his ears. He glanced at the faces of Buffy and Spike and saw that they were equally shocked.
“So, you are at least twice that age. Your aura will change when you have existed as a souled vampire longer than unsouled.”
Angel smiled. That was better. Not long to go before his past evils were dispersed a little.
“You’re good,” said Angel.
Tara stuck her chin up a little. “I know.” She was determined to let this vampire know that she wasn’t afraid of him, even if it wasn’t quite the truth.
“So, you’re over two hundred years old?” said Buffy, eyes wide.
“Yeah, and please resist the urge to say ‘you look good for your age’. Believe me, it gets kind of old,” Angel replied with a grin.
“But, it’s you,” said Rich.
All of the others stared at him.
“If you’ve seriously hurt him…” said Buffy, glaring at Angel.
“I’m not hurt,” said Rich. “Well, yeah, I am a bit, but what I meant is that it’s him with Spike in the bleeding newspaper.”
“God, yes – it’s obvious now,” said Buffy.
“Shite,” muttered Spike. He’d forgotten about the photographs. “You’ve seen them then?”
“Hard not to when you get off the plane and are mobbed by the paparazzi,” snapped Buffy.
“Oh, God. I’m sorry.”
“So what, exactly, were you doing in that dark alley, Spike?” asked Rich with a theatrical wink.
“Puking,” added Angel, to the amusement of the others. “He was totally wasted and getting kicked out of Willy’s bar as I got there.”
They all giggled.
“Oh, that’s it. Bleeding laugh at the injured party,” grouched Spike.
Buffy sighed. “I can’t believe that you got drunk. You know how you got when you were younger. Why did you choose a gay bar? And a few beers didn’t get you tossing your cookies.”
Spike reached out with a clank of chains and squeezed her hand. “I know, it was bloody stupid, but I thought that I’d never see you again and well…” He rubbed his eyes with his free hand, and then pressed a kiss to her cheek.
“Oh, for God’s sake! What is it with Spikes and being so freaking soppy over women!” said Angel. He just couldn’t stomach Buffy and Spike getting cosy. He knew it wasn’t his Buffy but it still rankled.
“Shut up, you git,” snarled Spike with a low growl as his eyes turned amber. “When are you going to unlock these chains?”
Angel glared at Spike. “You can stay there until we can find a way of getting me out of this hell dimension and back to my own.”
“Until we find a way to cure Spike,” corrected Tara firmly.
Rich gazed up at her in awe. She was truly remarkable. And she was his – all his. As if she felt his eyes on her, Tara looked down.
“What?”
“I was just thinking how much I love you,” replied Rich with a goofy expression on his face.
Angel pushed away from the wall that he’d been leaning on.
“I can’t take this!”
He walked briskly towards the way out. Tara waved a hand and he recoiled as if he’d walked into a glass door without seeing it. Angel vamped out and growled angrily, his features changing. Rich almost fell off his pile of rubble when he saw the vampire’s face.
“If you think that you can keep me here, witch, you’re mistaken,” snarled Angel.
“Maybe, if I were on my own, that would be right, but I have the power from a large coven behind me and trust me, vampire, when I say that I could dust you without even touching you.”
All five remained silent and motionless after hearing Tara’s calmly spoken words. Tara made sure her expression didn’t give away the fact that she was lying. She’d managed to bounce a little spell at him but it could no sooner prevent him from leaving than a piece of tissue paper could.
“Bloody hell, Rich, if you ever upset her you’ll end up a sodding frog!” said Spike, quietly.
Angel surprised them all by bursting out laughing. This Spike really did remind him of his lost childe.
It lightened the mood a little and all settled themselves on either the floor or a pile of rubble whilst they talked things through.
“Oh, my God!” exclaimed Buffy, looking aghast.
“What is it, love?” asked Spike, trying to put his arm around her but being brought up short by his chains.
“Mom and Rupert! They’re bound to have seen the papers. They’ll be worried sick. They still think that we’re in London.”
“Oh, Christ,” groaned Spike.
He wasn’t looking forward to explaining what he’d been up to. He felt like that screwed up seventeen year old again. Then he started to chuckle.
“It’s not funny,” chastised Buffy.
Spike managed to suppress his mirth. “No, I know it’s not, but I was just worrying about telling Rupert that I’d been on the hard stuff, and then it hit me that maybe I should be telling him that I’m turning into a sodding vampire!”
“Yeah, like that’s real believable,” added Rich with a laugh that soon had Spike giggling again.
“We need to focus here!” shouted Angel.
Rich and Spike quietened down like kids in a classroom, eyes downcast and looking guilty.
Tara could contain her curiosity no longer. “Angel, in your dimension, have you come in contact with any of our equivalents? I mean Spike, obviously, but what about us?”
Angel was aware of the intensity of the stares that bored into him. “Buffy,” he said quietly.
“What?” she replied.
“No. I meant that I know another Buffy.”
They all exchanged glances. This was strange.
“Really?” she said.
Angel nodded. “Yeah, and it’s so weird because you are just like her in so many ways. Apart from not smelling quite like her –”
“Smelling? Gross.” Buffy wrinkled her face.
“It’s a vampire thing, Buffy,” said Spike. “I can do it now too; I notice it more when my eyes change. Is that how it is for you?”
Angel nodded.
“What else were you going to say?”
This time it was Rich with the question. He was clinging to Tara’s hand as if his life depended on it. She was sitting on the floor leaning back on his legs.
Angel looked a little shifty. He rubbed a hand over his hair. “Um, well that’s why I got a bit…er…cranky when you were kissing.” He looked at Spike and Buffy. “In my reality – Buffy is my girlfriend.”
“What?” Buffy said. “So I’m a vampire, too.” She glanced at Spike. “That’s just…odd.”
“No, my Buffy,” God, he missed her so much that it physically hurt, “she’s the Slayer.”
Tara inhaled sharply. “So the Slayer is real, too?”
“What’s a slayer?” asked Spike, curious to find out about his lover’s parallel life.
“Not a slayer. The Slayer – capital S. She’s the Chosen One. She protects the earth from demons,” said Angel.
“And vampires,” added Tara.
Rich stared at Angel. “So how come she’s your girlfriend? Why hasn’t she…um…staked you?”
“Well, I’m on her side now. I fight for the good guys. And I have my soul. Trust me when I tell you that I feel enough guilt about what I’ve done in the past without adding to it.”
“How come you’ve got a soul?” asked Spike. “When I was looking on the Internet, it said that vampires were soulless.”
“That’s a long story but we have more important things to discuss right now.” He glanced at Tara. “Have you got any ideas?”
Tbc
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Banner by dawnofmeAuthor's Chapter Notes:
Betad by Carol and dawnofme
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Hope you enjoyed this chapter - was great fun to write - more as soon as I can. :)