![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Kin of the Soul
Okay, server issues. If the coding is messed up, give me time. I'm just trying to get this posted at all.
Kin of the Soul
Slash: Angel/Xander, Angel/Spike
Rated: ADULT
banner by objectivelypink
Prompt: Monarch
So, it's Spike, Angel, Wesley and Xander versus Glorificus. Are you ready for a rumble?
( Part One ) ( Part Two ) ( Part Three ) ( Part Four ) ( Part Five ) ( Part Six ) ( Part Seven ) ( Part Eight ) ( Part Nine ) ( Part Ten ) ( Part Eleven ) ( Part Twelve ) ( Part Thirteen ) ( Part Fourteen ) (Part Fifteen ) ( Part Sixteen ) ( Part Seventeen ) ( Part Eighteen ) ( Part Nineteen ) ( Part Twenty) ( Part Twenty-One ) ( Part Twenty-Two ) ( Part Twenty-Three ) ( Part Twenty-Four ) ( Part Twenty-Five ) ( Part Twenty-six ) ( Part Twenty-Seven ) ( Part Twenty-eight ) ( Part Twenty-nine )( Part thirty ) ( Part Thirty-one ) ( Part Thirty-Two ) ( Part Thirty-Three ) ( Part Thirty four ) ( Part Thirty-five ) ( Part Thirty-Six ) ( Part Thirty-Seven ) ( Part Thirty-Eight ) ( Part Thirty-nine ) ( Part Forty ) ( Part Forty-one ) ( Part Forty-two ) ( Part Forty-three ) ( Part Forty-four ) ( Part Forty-five ) ( Part Forty-six ) ( Part Forty-Seven ) ( Part Forty-Eight ) ( Part 49 ) ( Part 50 ) ( Part 51 ) ( Part 52 ) ( Part 53 ) ( Part 54 ) ( Part 55 )
56
Xander got out of the passenger side and headed toward the old mansion. “This place is definitely not Cordelia approved,” he pointed out.
Harmony made a face. “I don't care how much I clean, this is never going to look good. We should go back to the Hyperion.”
“Except that we have a small problem with world ending.”
“That's Buffy's job.”
“And if Buffy can't do it?”
Harmony’s face sort of scrunched up at that.
“Then we find a new dimension,” Spike said as he stepped out from behind some trees, a cigarette in hand. He took a deep drag on it so that the red and glowed in the night. “The white hats have to lose sooner or later, and if now is the time, I can't say I much care.” Spike studied Xander up and down. “I hear you're having some problems.”
Xander blushed. “Whatever Cordelia told you….” He gave a heavy sigh. “Okay, they're probably true. In my defense, things were a little with the screwy after you guys left. And I want to point out that I might've growled of Faith a little, but I never growled at Cordelia. So, if you're planning on getting all possessive or defensive about Cordelia, please just….” Xander stopped again. If Spike was going to get all cranky, there really wasn’t a whole lot Xander could do. “Just not around Angel, okay?”
Dropping his cigarette to the ground, Spike crushed it under his heel. “If Cordelia was brassed off about your attitude, she would've eviscerated you herself, pet. I’m just wondering why you would have ballsed-up your friendship with Faith.”
“What? Oh no. No, there was no ballsing up, and I’m assuming you mean that in the messing up way.”
Spike almost smiled. “You seem normal enough now.”
“He got over the growling,” Harmony agreed. “It was totally weird there for a while. I mean he was growling and talking all cranky and it was totally not like him.”
Spike completely ignored her as he headed for the door. Yep, things were back to normal. “I was having a moment,” Xander defended himself. “I mean, if you guys go leaving me behind, I say I'm entitled to throw it slight hissy fit.” Xander cringed. Yeah, he done more than throw a hissy fit, and he knew it, but when all else failed, repress and ignore. Besides, his need for therapy was less important than making sure that the world didn't get destroyed. He was voting no on world destroying. “So, did Buffy and Riley have any big insight?”
“I doubt those two could recognize an apocalypse if it sat on them,” Spike said with disgust. “As far as I can tell, they aren't doing much to track down the magic this bint is using.”
“And that’s bad?” Xander guessed.
Spike headed into the dusty and dim hall of the mansion without answering. Yeah, it was bad.
“Hey, Wesley!” Harmony sang out, waving enthusiastically as she spotted Wesley sitting at a desk behind an entire mountain range of books. Xander was starting to get a few suspicions about what those two had been up to while everyone else was out running away from Angelus.
“Harmony… and Xander.” Wesley took off his glasses, and for a second he looked so much like Giles, and the piles of books looked so much like the library, the Xander could almost believe that the last three years hadn't even happened. Here they were, one more apocalypse threatening to wipe out the universe. You’d think demons would have something better to do with their spare time. “Xander, how are you feeling?” Wesley stood up, his gaze flicking over toward Spike before he focused on Xander again.
“Um… fine.”
“No more bouts of demonic characteristics?”
“Demonic what? Oh no. There is nothing demonic here. I might, however, be having a small case of nervous breakdown. That's an option. So, where's Angel?”
“Upstairs,” Spike said with a jerk of his head toward the stairs, but when Xander looked up, Angel was already standing there. He looked… saner. Not sane, but any move toward sanity was a good one.
“Hey,” he said softly. Angel tilted his head to the side and studied Xander. Moving slowly forward, he almost glided down the last few stairs and across the room, every inch the elegant predator. And yet, Xander wasn't the prey. Instead, Angel had the sort of grace that Xander normally associated with Angelus being in a really lusty mood. His cock started to take interest, and Xander swallowed as Angel moved in on him. Just when Xander expected Angel to grab him and pin him to the floor, one of Angelus’ favorite moves, Angel’s hand came up and gently traced the line of Xander’s jaw. Inching closer until their bodies pressed together, Angel rested his palm against Xander’s cheek and leaned in until their foreheads touched.
“M'fhear,” Angel whispered.
Closing his eyes, Xander wrapped his arms around Angel and stood feeling his strength. This was the Angel Xander loved, soul and demon. Xander might be going to hell for selfishly wanting Angel back, but that wouldn’t stop him from being grateful that it was his Angel’s arms around him. Angel hugged Xander so tightly that breathing was a little bit of a chore, but that was okay, too.
“Right then, I guess that's you sorted out.”
“Who? Me?” Xander didn't bother to open his eyes.
“No, Peaches was having a moment a while back. It seems he thinks he's the king and he can order the rest of us serfs around.”
Xander cringed. Technically Angel was totally in control. If he said something, everyone else did tend to go along. But that worked mostly because Angel didn't actually say much. Spike and Cordelia weren't the kind to appreciate the micromanaging sort of clan leader Angelus had turned into. “Bad?” Xander asked.
“You could say.” Spike sounded guarded, which was the best indicator that it was really, really bad.
“He has been rather aggressive,” Wesley agreed. “I daresay his behavior most recently would have reinforced most of Mr. Giles’ less fortunate impressions of the man.”
“So he’s been acting homicidally jerky?” Xander sighed and leaned into Angel. Whatever had Angel acting all cranky before, he seemed happy enough now.
“Rather,” Wesley agreed softly.
“Well, you guys may have time to stand around and talk about whether or not Angel is copping a jock attitude, but I have a whole bunch of cleaning to do. I don't know why you couldn't have picked a cleaner house. I mean really, there are lots of good houses around here. You'd only have to kill a couple people.”
Xander's eyes popped open and he leaned to the side so that he could look around Angel at Harmony, but she was already heading back out to the car. Sometimes it was easy to forget Harmony was a vampire. Other times, not so much.
Spike threw himself on the end of an old couch, a puff of dust rising into the air as he landed. “Peaches got his knickers in a twist about Dawn.”
“Dawn?” Xander frowned. Angel liked Dawn. If he was going to be honest, Angel liked Dawn long before the rest of them. Through most of high school, Xander was even pretty sure Angel liked Dawn more than him. Dawn had that effect on people. They liked her. Well, except Buffy. Xander didn't have any siblings, but he was pretty sure that trying to sell your sister to a gypsy wasn't good. And Jenny Giles had always been on the fence with Dawn. Of course, Dawn had a bad habit of saying exactly what she thought about people, and she never had liked Jenny much. That probably had a lot to do with it. That's probably the same reason why Spike liked her. Dawn did have a mouth.
“I don’t remember her,” Angel said.
Xander blinked. He was pretty sure memory loss was a bad thing. “Sure you do,” he said in his best encouraging voice. Freaking out probably wouldn't help, so he'd save that for plan B. “She used to give me shit about me giving you shit back when we were more people who hung out together out of some sort of mutual masochism than friends,” Xander reminded Angel.
Spike snorted.
“The demon remembers that.” Angel tilted his head to the side. Xander waiting for more, but that was it.
“Which is of the good since it happened.” Xander spoke slowly, still not sure exactly what weirdness was going on in Angel's brain.
“The soul doesn’t.”
“Doesn’t what?”
“Doesn’t remember that,” Angel said. And clearly the crazy was a gift that kept on giving.
“Angel, maybe your soul is having a little brown out, you know, like when too many people turn on their air conditioners in summer, only with something memory related.” Xander was starting to have a really bad feeling about this.
Now Spike was looking at both of them like they were crazy; however, Angel shook his head. “The soul doesn’t remember. The demon…. Why didn’t I turn Dawn? I wanted her.”
“Whoa, hey there, no talking about turning anyone,” Xander interrupted. “There will be no turning of Dawn or even discussion of motivations for or against the turning of Dawn anywhere that Buffy is likely to hear. Badness lies that way.”
“Quite so,” Wesley agreed softly.
“Luv, I don't care what brain cells got knocked loose, you'll never forgive yourself if you turn the Bit. You just leave her be,” Spike said. The tone was friendly, but Xander could still hear the warning it in, and Angel’s eyes yellowed. Yep, Angel was still the king of his mountain, and he did not want Spike trying to push him off the top.
“Yep, you don’t want to turn Dawn, so if something is telling you that you want to turn her, that something is lying,” Xander agreed.
Angel looked down at him, the yellow fading from his eyes. “I always wanted to turn her. You’d change, and I don’t want you to change, but Dawn….” Angel tilted his head, and his gaze drifted across the room.
“He’s been like that every time someone mentions Dawn, which is a good sight better than how he’s been when either of us mentioned you,” Spike said as he leaned back and propped a boot on the edge of the couch. “He’s been a right git about not having you here. I felt like we had Angelus back there for a bit.”
Xander studied Spike. That wasn’t the sort of thing Spike would say lightly. That was more a subtle sort of warning, subtle like Spike never did subtle.
“Perhaps we can discuss our adversary,” Wesley suggested. “After comparing notes with Buffy, I’m afraid that I can’t give her high marks for her performance. I find that she’s been relying heavily on technology and the Army, ignoring the magical arts and her own mystical powers as the slayer.”
Xander squirmed around so that his back was to Angel. It made it easier to have a conversation with the others, even if Angel’s hands did slip under the hem of Xander’s shirt and trace small circles on his stomach. His cock really was getting a little too interested. It made it hard to get the blood to go to the big brain; maybe that’s why it seemed like there were a lot of things not making sense.
“Why would Buffy be ignoring the magic?”
“Maybe because she figured her watcher is a git who nearly destroyed an ally because he couldn’t pull his head out of his arse long enough to see he married a shrew as bad as Darla on her worst day,” Spike offered with a smile.
“Okay, ignoring that all that is true,” Xander admitted, “it still doesn’t explain why Buffy would be all anti-magic girl.”
Wesley settled back into his desk chair. “I’m not sure her attitude is anti-magic as much as she is simply dismissing the magical opportunities for intelligence gathering and counter-attack.”
“And again… why?” Xander asked. Wesley and Spike exchanged a look that made Xander’s heart pound a little faster. “What happened?” he demanded. “Why isn’t Willow in there giving Buffy the old magic-good speech? What happened to her?”
“Nothing, pet,” Spike hurried to say. “It’s her little friend.”
“Tara?” Xander’s mouth went dry as he thought of Tara’s shy smile and her kind face. Oh god, please not Tara.
“M'fhear?” Angel asked with just a little growl in his voice, his arms tightening around Xander, holding him close.
“She’s been hurt,” Spike said, but the words sent relief rushing through Xander. Hurt. Not killed, hurt. But if she was hurt, Willow would be all about Tara, which explained Buffy’s lack of magical back-up. “Seems like Glorificus thinks Buffy has a key that can open dimensions, and she’s stirring her fingers through people’s brains trying to find it.”
“And she stirred her fingers through Tara’s brain? Okay, that’s not sounding good. That’s sounding like we may need all sorts of psychiatric care in this town.”
Spike snorted. “That’s not the half of it, luv. Tara’s right ‘round the bend, now. She spends her time staring at nothing and finger painting. You can knock, but there’s no one home. The witch has been spending her time at the military hospital with her little friend, and with Angelus on the loose, the slayer didn’t call us.”
“Which is understandable,” Xander pointed out.
“It bloody well is not,” Spike snapped. Angel immediately began to growl, his eyes yellowing as he pressed forward, but Xander threw his weight back into Angel, temporarily holding him in place. Putting both feet on the ground, Spike coiled as if he was about to leap up to meet a challenge.
“Oh good lord,” Wesley complained loudly. “Have we forgotten that we came here to fight Glorificus, not each other? Really, Xander, you ought not allow these two to travel without you as chaperone, Xander.”
“Oi!” Spike protested loudly. Angel just kept up with the low growl.
“They have been fighting, and while I must admit that Angel has been most unreasonable, Spike has not gone out of his way to avoid antagonizing him. However, to focus on the adversary, I have found a number of interesting facts. The texts,” Wesley took a huge book off the top of a pile, “suggest that Glorificus was banished to this dimension, doomed to be locked within a prison.”
“Okay, that didn’t work,” Xander muttered.
“Oh the contrary, it might have,” Wesley said. “Angelus was quite aggressive about collecting texts that related to demons capable of bringing Armageddon. Apparently he’d had some experience centuries ago with one particular demon who had the power to extinguish the sun, and it made him wary of any creature of such power. Therefore, his library has extensive research on the various higher level demons. According to the text I’ve found, her enemies locked Glorificus in a prison through which she could see only a shadow of the world, experience only a fraction of the joy and perceive only the barest minimum of the world around her.”
“So they put her in the hole?” Xander guessed. He’d watched enough prison movies to know that when you got put in the hole, it never ended well. Insanity and gory prison breakout tended to follow. Did demons never watch television? They should know these things.
“Ah,” Wesley said, and that was an all-knowing sort of ah. “But that is the description the Cha’atai demons use to identify humans. Humans,” Wesley said as he flipped the pages of the text, “are animals which can perceive only the shadow, not the substance of the world. They experience only a small fraction of the joy or the anguish of the true forms of demons and they can perceive nothing which does not present itself to the beast’s limited senses.” Wesley finished and turned the text around to show Xander the page with all the weird little squigglies that looked like someone had let a three year old loose with a fountain pen, like that meant anything to Xander.
“So….” Xander asked.
“He means that Glorificus is attached to a human, mate.” Spike gave a vicious grin. “And I know how to end a human.”
Kin of the Soul
Slash: Angel/Xander, Angel/Spike
Rated: ADULT
banner by objectivelypink
Prompt: Monarch
So, it's Spike, Angel, Wesley and Xander versus Glorificus. Are you ready for a rumble?
( Part One ) ( Part Two ) ( Part Three ) ( Part Four ) ( Part Five ) ( Part Six ) ( Part Seven ) ( Part Eight ) ( Part Nine ) ( Part Ten ) ( Part Eleven ) ( Part Twelve ) ( Part Thirteen ) ( Part Fourteen ) (Part Fifteen ) ( Part Sixteen ) ( Part Seventeen ) ( Part Eighteen ) ( Part Nineteen ) ( Part Twenty) ( Part Twenty-One ) ( Part Twenty-Two ) ( Part Twenty-Three ) ( Part Twenty-Four ) ( Part Twenty-Five ) ( Part Twenty-six ) ( Part Twenty-Seven ) ( Part Twenty-eight ) ( Part Twenty-nine )( Part thirty ) ( Part Thirty-one ) ( Part Thirty-Two ) ( Part Thirty-Three ) ( Part Thirty four ) ( Part Thirty-five ) ( Part Thirty-Six ) ( Part Thirty-Seven ) ( Part Thirty-Eight ) ( Part Thirty-nine ) ( Part Forty ) ( Part Forty-one ) ( Part Forty-two ) ( Part Forty-three ) ( Part Forty-four ) ( Part Forty-five ) ( Part Forty-six ) ( Part Forty-Seven ) ( Part Forty-Eight ) ( Part 49 ) ( Part 50 ) ( Part 51 ) ( Part 52 ) ( Part 53 ) ( Part 54 ) ( Part 55 )
56
Xander got out of the passenger side and headed toward the old mansion. “This place is definitely not Cordelia approved,” he pointed out.
Harmony made a face. “I don't care how much I clean, this is never going to look good. We should go back to the Hyperion.”
“Except that we have a small problem with world ending.”
“That's Buffy's job.”
“And if Buffy can't do it?”
Harmony’s face sort of scrunched up at that.
“Then we find a new dimension,” Spike said as he stepped out from behind some trees, a cigarette in hand. He took a deep drag on it so that the red and glowed in the night. “The white hats have to lose sooner or later, and if now is the time, I can't say I much care.” Spike studied Xander up and down. “I hear you're having some problems.”
Xander blushed. “Whatever Cordelia told you….” He gave a heavy sigh. “Okay, they're probably true. In my defense, things were a little with the screwy after you guys left. And I want to point out that I might've growled of Faith a little, but I never growled at Cordelia. So, if you're planning on getting all possessive or defensive about Cordelia, please just….” Xander stopped again. If Spike was going to get all cranky, there really wasn’t a whole lot Xander could do. “Just not around Angel, okay?”
Dropping his cigarette to the ground, Spike crushed it under his heel. “If Cordelia was brassed off about your attitude, she would've eviscerated you herself, pet. I’m just wondering why you would have ballsed-up your friendship with Faith.”
“What? Oh no. No, there was no ballsing up, and I’m assuming you mean that in the messing up way.”
Spike almost smiled. “You seem normal enough now.”
“He got over the growling,” Harmony agreed. “It was totally weird there for a while. I mean he was growling and talking all cranky and it was totally not like him.”
Spike completely ignored her as he headed for the door. Yep, things were back to normal. “I was having a moment,” Xander defended himself. “I mean, if you guys go leaving me behind, I say I'm entitled to throw it slight hissy fit.” Xander cringed. Yeah, he done more than throw a hissy fit, and he knew it, but when all else failed, repress and ignore. Besides, his need for therapy was less important than making sure that the world didn't get destroyed. He was voting no on world destroying. “So, did Buffy and Riley have any big insight?”
“I doubt those two could recognize an apocalypse if it sat on them,” Spike said with disgust. “As far as I can tell, they aren't doing much to track down the magic this bint is using.”
“And that’s bad?” Xander guessed.
Spike headed into the dusty and dim hall of the mansion without answering. Yeah, it was bad.
“Hey, Wesley!” Harmony sang out, waving enthusiastically as she spotted Wesley sitting at a desk behind an entire mountain range of books. Xander was starting to get a few suspicions about what those two had been up to while everyone else was out running away from Angelus.
“Harmony… and Xander.” Wesley took off his glasses, and for a second he looked so much like Giles, and the piles of books looked so much like the library, the Xander could almost believe that the last three years hadn't even happened. Here they were, one more apocalypse threatening to wipe out the universe. You’d think demons would have something better to do with their spare time. “Xander, how are you feeling?” Wesley stood up, his gaze flicking over toward Spike before he focused on Xander again.
“Um… fine.”
“No more bouts of demonic characteristics?”
“Demonic what? Oh no. There is nothing demonic here. I might, however, be having a small case of nervous breakdown. That's an option. So, where's Angel?”
“Upstairs,” Spike said with a jerk of his head toward the stairs, but when Xander looked up, Angel was already standing there. He looked… saner. Not sane, but any move toward sanity was a good one.
“Hey,” he said softly. Angel tilted his head to the side and studied Xander. Moving slowly forward, he almost glided down the last few stairs and across the room, every inch the elegant predator. And yet, Xander wasn't the prey. Instead, Angel had the sort of grace that Xander normally associated with Angelus being in a really lusty mood. His cock started to take interest, and Xander swallowed as Angel moved in on him. Just when Xander expected Angel to grab him and pin him to the floor, one of Angelus’ favorite moves, Angel’s hand came up and gently traced the line of Xander’s jaw. Inching closer until their bodies pressed together, Angel rested his palm against Xander’s cheek and leaned in until their foreheads touched.
“M'fhear,” Angel whispered.
Closing his eyes, Xander wrapped his arms around Angel and stood feeling his strength. This was the Angel Xander loved, soul and demon. Xander might be going to hell for selfishly wanting Angel back, but that wouldn’t stop him from being grateful that it was his Angel’s arms around him. Angel hugged Xander so tightly that breathing was a little bit of a chore, but that was okay, too.
“Right then, I guess that's you sorted out.”
“Who? Me?” Xander didn't bother to open his eyes.
“No, Peaches was having a moment a while back. It seems he thinks he's the king and he can order the rest of us serfs around.”
Xander cringed. Technically Angel was totally in control. If he said something, everyone else did tend to go along. But that worked mostly because Angel didn't actually say much. Spike and Cordelia weren't the kind to appreciate the micromanaging sort of clan leader Angelus had turned into. “Bad?” Xander asked.
“You could say.” Spike sounded guarded, which was the best indicator that it was really, really bad.
“He has been rather aggressive,” Wesley agreed. “I daresay his behavior most recently would have reinforced most of Mr. Giles’ less fortunate impressions of the man.”
“So he’s been acting homicidally jerky?” Xander sighed and leaned into Angel. Whatever had Angel acting all cranky before, he seemed happy enough now.
“Rather,” Wesley agreed softly.
“Well, you guys may have time to stand around and talk about whether or not Angel is copping a jock attitude, but I have a whole bunch of cleaning to do. I don't know why you couldn't have picked a cleaner house. I mean really, there are lots of good houses around here. You'd only have to kill a couple people.”
Xander's eyes popped open and he leaned to the side so that he could look around Angel at Harmony, but she was already heading back out to the car. Sometimes it was easy to forget Harmony was a vampire. Other times, not so much.
Spike threw himself on the end of an old couch, a puff of dust rising into the air as he landed. “Peaches got his knickers in a twist about Dawn.”
“Dawn?” Xander frowned. Angel liked Dawn. If he was going to be honest, Angel liked Dawn long before the rest of them. Through most of high school, Xander was even pretty sure Angel liked Dawn more than him. Dawn had that effect on people. They liked her. Well, except Buffy. Xander didn't have any siblings, but he was pretty sure that trying to sell your sister to a gypsy wasn't good. And Jenny Giles had always been on the fence with Dawn. Of course, Dawn had a bad habit of saying exactly what she thought about people, and she never had liked Jenny much. That probably had a lot to do with it. That's probably the same reason why Spike liked her. Dawn did have a mouth.
“I don’t remember her,” Angel said.
Xander blinked. He was pretty sure memory loss was a bad thing. “Sure you do,” he said in his best encouraging voice. Freaking out probably wouldn't help, so he'd save that for plan B. “She used to give me shit about me giving you shit back when we were more people who hung out together out of some sort of mutual masochism than friends,” Xander reminded Angel.
Spike snorted.
“The demon remembers that.” Angel tilted his head to the side. Xander waiting for more, but that was it.
“Which is of the good since it happened.” Xander spoke slowly, still not sure exactly what weirdness was going on in Angel's brain.
“The soul doesn’t.”
“Doesn’t what?”
“Doesn’t remember that,” Angel said. And clearly the crazy was a gift that kept on giving.
“Angel, maybe your soul is having a little brown out, you know, like when too many people turn on their air conditioners in summer, only with something memory related.” Xander was starting to have a really bad feeling about this.
Now Spike was looking at both of them like they were crazy; however, Angel shook his head. “The soul doesn’t remember. The demon…. Why didn’t I turn Dawn? I wanted her.”
“Whoa, hey there, no talking about turning anyone,” Xander interrupted. “There will be no turning of Dawn or even discussion of motivations for or against the turning of Dawn anywhere that Buffy is likely to hear. Badness lies that way.”
“Quite so,” Wesley agreed softly.
“Luv, I don't care what brain cells got knocked loose, you'll never forgive yourself if you turn the Bit. You just leave her be,” Spike said. The tone was friendly, but Xander could still hear the warning it in, and Angel’s eyes yellowed. Yep, Angel was still the king of his mountain, and he did not want Spike trying to push him off the top.
“Yep, you don’t want to turn Dawn, so if something is telling you that you want to turn her, that something is lying,” Xander agreed.
Angel looked down at him, the yellow fading from his eyes. “I always wanted to turn her. You’d change, and I don’t want you to change, but Dawn….” Angel tilted his head, and his gaze drifted across the room.
“He’s been like that every time someone mentions Dawn, which is a good sight better than how he’s been when either of us mentioned you,” Spike said as he leaned back and propped a boot on the edge of the couch. “He’s been a right git about not having you here. I felt like we had Angelus back there for a bit.”
Xander studied Spike. That wasn’t the sort of thing Spike would say lightly. That was more a subtle sort of warning, subtle like Spike never did subtle.
“Perhaps we can discuss our adversary,” Wesley suggested. “After comparing notes with Buffy, I’m afraid that I can’t give her high marks for her performance. I find that she’s been relying heavily on technology and the Army, ignoring the magical arts and her own mystical powers as the slayer.”
Xander squirmed around so that his back was to Angel. It made it easier to have a conversation with the others, even if Angel’s hands did slip under the hem of Xander’s shirt and trace small circles on his stomach. His cock really was getting a little too interested. It made it hard to get the blood to go to the big brain; maybe that’s why it seemed like there were a lot of things not making sense.
“Why would Buffy be ignoring the magic?”
“Maybe because she figured her watcher is a git who nearly destroyed an ally because he couldn’t pull his head out of his arse long enough to see he married a shrew as bad as Darla on her worst day,” Spike offered with a smile.
“Okay, ignoring that all that is true,” Xander admitted, “it still doesn’t explain why Buffy would be all anti-magic girl.”
Wesley settled back into his desk chair. “I’m not sure her attitude is anti-magic as much as she is simply dismissing the magical opportunities for intelligence gathering and counter-attack.”
“And again… why?” Xander asked. Wesley and Spike exchanged a look that made Xander’s heart pound a little faster. “What happened?” he demanded. “Why isn’t Willow in there giving Buffy the old magic-good speech? What happened to her?”
“Nothing, pet,” Spike hurried to say. “It’s her little friend.”
“Tara?” Xander’s mouth went dry as he thought of Tara’s shy smile and her kind face. Oh god, please not Tara.
“M'fhear?” Angel asked with just a little growl in his voice, his arms tightening around Xander, holding him close.
“She’s been hurt,” Spike said, but the words sent relief rushing through Xander. Hurt. Not killed, hurt. But if she was hurt, Willow would be all about Tara, which explained Buffy’s lack of magical back-up. “Seems like Glorificus thinks Buffy has a key that can open dimensions, and she’s stirring her fingers through people’s brains trying to find it.”
“And she stirred her fingers through Tara’s brain? Okay, that’s not sounding good. That’s sounding like we may need all sorts of psychiatric care in this town.”
Spike snorted. “That’s not the half of it, luv. Tara’s right ‘round the bend, now. She spends her time staring at nothing and finger painting. You can knock, but there’s no one home. The witch has been spending her time at the military hospital with her little friend, and with Angelus on the loose, the slayer didn’t call us.”
“Which is understandable,” Xander pointed out.
“It bloody well is not,” Spike snapped. Angel immediately began to growl, his eyes yellowing as he pressed forward, but Xander threw his weight back into Angel, temporarily holding him in place. Putting both feet on the ground, Spike coiled as if he was about to leap up to meet a challenge.
“Oh good lord,” Wesley complained loudly. “Have we forgotten that we came here to fight Glorificus, not each other? Really, Xander, you ought not allow these two to travel without you as chaperone, Xander.”
“Oi!” Spike protested loudly. Angel just kept up with the low growl.
“They have been fighting, and while I must admit that Angel has been most unreasonable, Spike has not gone out of his way to avoid antagonizing him. However, to focus on the adversary, I have found a number of interesting facts. The texts,” Wesley took a huge book off the top of a pile, “suggest that Glorificus was banished to this dimension, doomed to be locked within a prison.”
“Okay, that didn’t work,” Xander muttered.
“Oh the contrary, it might have,” Wesley said. “Angelus was quite aggressive about collecting texts that related to demons capable of bringing Armageddon. Apparently he’d had some experience centuries ago with one particular demon who had the power to extinguish the sun, and it made him wary of any creature of such power. Therefore, his library has extensive research on the various higher level demons. According to the text I’ve found, her enemies locked Glorificus in a prison through which she could see only a shadow of the world, experience only a fraction of the joy and perceive only the barest minimum of the world around her.”
“So they put her in the hole?” Xander guessed. He’d watched enough prison movies to know that when you got put in the hole, it never ended well. Insanity and gory prison breakout tended to follow. Did demons never watch television? They should know these things.
“Ah,” Wesley said, and that was an all-knowing sort of ah. “But that is the description the Cha’atai demons use to identify humans. Humans,” Wesley said as he flipped the pages of the text, “are animals which can perceive only the shadow, not the substance of the world. They experience only a small fraction of the joy or the anguish of the true forms of demons and they can perceive nothing which does not present itself to the beast’s limited senses.” Wesley finished and turned the text around to show Xander the page with all the weird little squigglies that looked like someone had let a three year old loose with a fountain pen, like that meant anything to Xander.
“So….” Xander asked.
“He means that Glorificus is attached to a human, mate.” Spike gave a vicious grin. “And I know how to end a human.”