Warrior--Parts 8,9,10
Part 8:
Something in Angel's tone dragged Buffy out of her moral outrage.
"Angel?" Her eyes narrowed. "What do you mean 'things are about to get very messy'?" she asked him.
Angel sighed. "It's complicated," he told her.
"Oh, no, you don't!" Buffy exclaimed. She glared at him until he met her gaze. "Don't you *dare* regress back to cryptic-guy again!" she ordered him. "I want an answer. And I want in words and sentences I can understand."
Spike snorted. "Do we *have* that much time?" Spike drawled derisively.
To Buffy's dismay, she heard a still-recovering Xander snicker quietly at the vampire's comment. She shot them both a deadly look, before turning back to Angel. "Angel?" she prompted the souled vampire.
Angel rubbed his temples and sighed. Finally, he looked up. "How much do you know about Warriors?" he asked her.
She shrugged. "They're powerful. They use tele-whatchamacallit. Xander's one and they need to be trained," she listed off. She looked expectantly at Angel.
Angel glanced up at Giles and gave him a look. "You didn't tell them?" he asked the Watcher.
Giles looked a little abashed. "I didn't think it mattered," he admitted. "We'd only just found out
Xander was a Warrior. There was no need to get into the details of his purpose until he was trained. Besides, there was the slight complication of explaining what he was protecting and why." The ex-librarian spared a glance at Spike an Xander snuggling on the armchair. "I guess
that's not an issue anymore."
Willow looked up at the Watcher. "So I'm guessing that, last night with the demons, Xander wasn't protecting a puppy."
"He was protecting Spike," Buffy guessed the obvious.
"What can I say?" Spike remarked. "I inspire loyalty."
Buffy glared at him. "You'll be inspiring a whole lot more than that if you don't shut up," Buffy threatened him. She turned back to Angel. "Okay, Angel, fill-in-the-blanks time," she prompted him.
"The Asuras were an ancient sect of a highly advanced people that lived in the Mesopotamian region before the first recorded civilization," Angel explained. "They were obsessed with controlling the future and consequences and outcomes of events. So, they invoked the spirit of destiny - Fate, if you like - and called upon her to possess them with her power."
"Oooh, I just know this story is going to end badly," Willow spoke in a worried voice.
"Something went wrong, didn't it?"
"Kind of," Angel admitted, before continuing with his story. "What the Asuras didn't understand was that Fate has a set pattern. No one is allowed to control all of it."
"So what happened?" Buffy asked him impatiently.
"Instead of controlling Fate, they became her servants. Guardians of a kind," Angel continued.
"Fate only works through prophecies and premonitions of certain events. The rest is up to us." he explained. "The Asuras became Guardians of certain key figures in those prophecies and events. They were given their powers in order to protect those people until they could complete their part in the event or prophecy."
"My head is starting to hurt," Buffy complained. She took a deep breath. "Okay, so Xander was protecting Spike out of a Warrior-Guy duty-thing. Which means Spike is going to be involved in some sort of prophecy sometime soon," she worked through what Angel had told her.
"Right?" she asked, all of the sudden uncertain.
"Not necessarily," Angel answered almost apologetically.
Buffy looked even more baffled. "Huh?"
"Oh!" Willow exclaimed suddenly. She waved her hand as if she was still in her English class back in high school. "I think I get it!" she exclaimed happily. "Well, sorta, anyway."
Buffy pouted. "See? This is why I do the slaying and leave the brainwork up to you guys," she remarked a little sulkily. She turned to Willow. "Explain it to me. And use less words than Angel did."
Spike snickered and was about to comment, but Buffy shot him a look that could peel paint.
"Well, like Angel said, they were given their powers in order to protect the key figures in the prophecies or whatever, *but*," Willow grinned excitedly. "And this is the bit I got," she added as an aside. "They can also use their powers to protect other things."
She gave a significant glance in Spike and Xander's direction. "Things that are important to them....as long as they don't start slacking off on their day job, I guess," she finished.
Tara gave her girlfriend a proud smile and squeezed her hand. Willow grinned back and wrapped an arm around the other witch.
"That makes sense," Buffy mused. She frowned at Angel. "Why did you have to use so many words?" she demanded.
"Yeah, Peaches," Spike piped up. He'd already missed one chance to jibe at the Slayer, he wasn't about to miss another. "I counted at least eight that aren't in the I-Can-Read Vocabulary List."
He was rewarded with a silent chuckle from Xander. The boy had apparently revived enough to remember that laughing out loud at Spike's Slayer-bound insults was a bad idea. Pity that.
Not that Spike wasn't glad that Xander at least seemed to be conscious of what was going on around him. Xander hit all sorts of protective chords in the blond vampire. Spike would never admit it, but he'd been quite worried about the way the boy had sunk into a zombie-like state after the confrontation with Angel. Despite his intense pride and protectiveness of Xander, Spike was quite ready to admit that he'd fallen for a mortal.
Xander cleared his throat, weakly. "So I'm a Warrior of Fate," he recapped. "I have tele-thingamebob powers that need to be honed. And someday soon I may be called upon to play bodyguard." He glanced up at Angel. "Is there anything else I should know, Deadboy?"
It was decidedly strange to see how the two of them acted and reacted around each other after their cataclysmic confrontation. Both behaved as if the event had never happened.
There was not a trace of resentment in Angel, despite the fact that Xander had effectively taken his Childe away from him. And there was not a hint of apology in Xander, despite the fact that he'd thrown their ally up against the wall less than an hour ago.
Xander claiming Spike as his mate and his subsequently defeating Angel for the right to do so had been all about territory. The Warrior in Xander and the Demon in Angel understood that perfectly. It was business and it was done. And that was that.
"There is the Code, of course," Giles cut in before Angel had a chance to reply. "With the powers came certain instinctive codes of practice. A Warrior will adhere to it instinctively, as you've already demonstrated, but it might be useful to have a copy, anyway."
"So code, training and everything's dandy?" he looked at Angel for affirmation. But once again, the souled vampire was cut off before he'd even opened his mouth.
Buffy frowned. "You know, this all sounds very...un-messy," she pointed out. "Xander has powers - yay! Xander has new job - yay! I'm failing to see the mess that 'things are about to become'," she admitted. "It all actually sounds of the good."
She looked up at Angel, as did every other set of eyes in the room.
"It does," Angel agreed. "If you leave out the Great-Power-In- The-Hands-Of-Darkness
Prophecy that Xander just invoked by claiming a vampire, a child of darkness, as his mate."
"Oh," Xander blanched. "I guess I probably shouldn't have done that then, huh?"
*****
Part 9:
Spike's arms tightened around the boy reflexively. His heart constricted in his chest. Fool, a voice in his head chided him. He was vampire, for God’s sake A demon. He'd barely had one night with this mortal and already his heart hurt at the thought that Xander would ever regret what had happened between them, for any reason. And[delete ‘and’] the thought that Xander might let him go hurt too much to even think about.
The sudden anxiety that went through Spike was not lost on Xander. The boy had spoken without thinking, falling back on what the others would expect him to say, as he had always done. The tightening of Spike's arms around him, however, made him reconsider.
Xander was a good guy. There was no doubt about that. He knew damn well that he could've had a normal life, free of demons and vampires and imminent death. But he had chosen to fight by Buffy's side, not because of the fight itself, or because of Buffy, but because somebody had to and knowing what he knew and being who he was, he couldn't not.
But if he actually looked inside himself and questioned the events of the last day, Xander wasn't nearly so sure of his selfless dedication to the cause. Spike had made him rethink everything.
He wanted the blond vampire to be his in a way that he'd never wanted anything else in his life. The question was, did he want him enough to betray the good fight for him? If he had known that claiming Spike as his mate would lead to the stirring of an ancient prophecy, would he have done the same thing given a second chance?
Xander glance up at the face of the blond vampire whose arms surrounded him and made his decision.
"I probably shouldn't have done that," he repeated slowly. "But given a second chance, knowing what I know..."
The Scooby Gang looked at him expectantly. This was his moment to apologise for his sins. He was supposed say 'Hey guys, I fucked up, help me out?' and they were supposed to shake their heads in that 'That's Xander for you' way and tsk as they pulled him out of the hole he'd dug for himself.
But he felt Spike tense around him at his words and he couldn't do it. He couldn't lie to them. He couldn't lie to Spike.
The brunette sighed and shook his head. "I'm sorry," he told them. He raised his eyes to meet theirs. "But if I had the chance to do it again, I'd do everything exactly the same."* He could practically feel the relief flowing off Spike at his words.
The reactions of the others, however, varied.
Giles' face was peculiarly blank and Xander got the feeling the old man was thinking about his Ripper days. Willow bit her lip, but her eyes were filled with compassion rather than accusation.
Anya didn't look surprised at all, but for some reason Xander hadn't really expected a violent reaction from the ex-vengeance demon. Riley looked thoroughly disgusted, but Xander couldn’t care less what the ex-commando thought. Tara only looked at her girlfriend.
And strangely enough, Angel looked as though he approved.
Buffy's reaction, however, was explosive. "Are you insane?" she demanded. She was on her feet and pacing, waving her arms in her frustration. "He's a soulless demon, you moron!" she yelled at him. "And thanks to your stupidity, you've probably put all of our lives at risk. Again!"
"Buffy!" Willow hissed at her friend in warning. Spike growled and was ready to pounce on the Slayer, chip or no chip, but Xander placed a soothing hand on his chest and the vampire reluctantly subsided.
Meanwhile, Buffy was busy glaring fiercely at Xander. "You're nothing but a liability," she told him. "You're too dumb to realise what you're doing half the time, and all you ever do is get us into more trouble. I don't know what you’re trying to prove with Spike, Xander, and I really don't care! This ends *now*!"
Xander watched her with darkened eyes. "Are you finished?" he asked her.
That wasn't quite the response Buffy was expecting. "Uh, yes," she replied a little baffled. She'd expected her friend to be a babbling mess, begging for her forgiveness.
"Good," Xander told her firmly. "Because I'm sick of listening to you."
Buffy's jaw dropped.
"You might not like it, Buffy, but this has nothing to do with you," he told her. "This is my life and I know exactly what I'm doing. So there are consequences? Well, so what?* I've made my decision Buffy, and it's done. And there's nothing you can do to unmake it for me," he finished, leaving Buffy completely dumbfounded. Spike gently stroked his thigh in approval.
Xander took a deep breath and turned to Angel, clearly taking charge of the situation. "So, this prophecy? How does it go?"
Angel smothered the approving smile that threatened to creep across his lips, but he couldn’t smother the reflection of it in his eyes. "The copy I have is written in early Sumerian," he began his explanation. "I need Giles to check my translation to be sure."
Spike rolled his eyes. "Well give us the gist of it, then, peaches," he prompted the other vampire. "I'm not a big fan of all those thee's and thou's and whatnots anyhow."
"Dot points will do," Xander added.
Angel sighed. "All right," he said and began. "The Prophecy speaks of a Time when a Defender of Prophecy will be at the center of his own prophecy. That the Servant of Fate will have a chance to interfere in Fate directly rather than serve it."
"Kinda like a holiday bonus for all that hard work the Warriors have been doing over the centuries, huh?" Willow chipped in. "Except with a 'foreboding powerful darkness' catch," she hastily added at the other's looks.
"Kind of," Angel conceded. He continued his explanation. "One of signs that the Time is at hand is that a Warrior of Fate and of Good will claim a Child of Darkness as his mate. The consummation and the claiming of the Child, verifying an already existing bond, are said to be signs that the events of the prophecy are at hand."
"Then we can stop it!" Buffy exclaimed suddenly.
The others gave her questioning looks.
"Well, Angel said that the bond must be consummated," she explained. "As long as we keep Xander and Spike from..." she trailed off. It was painfully obvious how much she liked the idea of keeping them apart.
Spike began to snicker, and Xander had the sense to look slightly abashed.
"It's a little late for that, Buffy," Angel told her gently.
Buffy's eyes widened in recognition. "Oh," she said.
Spike couldn't resist. "If it helps, Slayer, it was one damn good shag," he offered as innocently as he could manage.
Buffy threw him a glare but did not comment, opting instead to sulk.
"What are the events of the prophecy?" Tara asked Angel in her quiet way, beating the tense silence that threatened to fall over them.
"That's where my translating gets a little hazy," Angel told them apologetically. "It speaks of Dark sharing in Fate's power and a Choice that must be made. It also talks of a great power rising in the World of Dark. They may be the same thing, but I'm not certain. It's not entirely clear."
"Anything else?" Willow asked the souled vampire. "There's no 'And good will defeat it and everyone will live happily ever after' that you've left out?"
Angel gave the witch a little apologetic smile. "I'm afraid not," he told her. "There is something about Champions and a great battle between two great fighters, but the rest..." he trailed off, spreading his arms helplessly.
"Did you bring it with you?" Giles asked him.
"I didn't think to," Angel replied a little sheepishly. "I had no idea that Xander would be the Warrior spoken of in the prophecy until I got here and..." he tactfully left off the end of the sentence. "I'll call my team and get them to bring it down here with them," he offered. "We're going to need all the help we can get on this one."
"Yes," Giles agreed. "I rather think you're right."
Buffy, who had been very quiet since her outburst and her rather transparent attempt to keep Xander and Spike apart, suddenly looked up at their words. "Well," she said. "You can count me out."
Angel's jaw clenched, Xander ground his teeth, but neither spoke.
"Buffy?" Giles asked in surprise. His charge could be unreasonable at times, but he didn't really believe that she would desert them completely. "You don't mean..." he trailed off, seeing the answer in her eyes. "Oh," he said.
"But Buffy, this could be serious," Willow pointed out to her friend, baffled by her attitude. "Like apocalyps-y serious."
"I don't care, Wills," Buffy told her frankly. "I don't want to have anything to do with it. If Xander wants to fuck a soulless demon, he can pick up the pieces himself."
"You don't mean that, Buffy," Willow begged her friend.
The Slayer met her friend's concerned gaze coldly. "I do and I'm out of here," she declared.
"Come on, Riley." She stormed out of the house.
Riley hesitantly began to follow her.
"You better go, Farmboy," Spike mocked the ex-soldier. "Or she might confiscate your bone."
Riley shot the vampire a deadly look and stalked out.
Willow looked as though she were about to cry. "What do we do now?" she asked the others.
"We do what we always do," Giles told her firmly. "We research the prophecy and figure out a way to stop it."
"But we don't have the Slayer!" the redhead exclaimed.
"No, we don't," Giles agreed. His eyes turned towards the shaggy-haired brunette who was currently snuggling in the armchair with what was once a ruthless vampire. "But we have Xander."
*****
Part 10:
"Xander?" The dark-haired slayerette heard Willow call after him, tentatively. He immediately stopped and gestured for her to catch up.
This was the reason Xander had volunteered to fetch the books from the Magic Box for Giles, after all.
After Buffy's dramatic exit, things at Giles' had gotten pretty tense. Once Angel had called his team in LA and had let the rest of them know that they'd be here by sunset, the cataclysmic events of the morning had suddenly caught up with them all.
As much as Xander hated leaving the embrace of his lover, he knew that both of them had relationships to smooth over. Xander with Willow, his life-long best friend. And Spike with his Sire.
Regardless of whether he regretted it or not, Xander's claiming of Spike had made a mess. And while they were waiting for the LA team to arrive was probably as good a time as any to start cleaning things up.
Willow gave Xander a quick smile as she reached his side. He immediately wrapped an arm around her shoulders and hugged her against him.
It felt good, like old times. Not pre-college old times or even pre-Angel-going-to-Hell old times. But pre-Buffy old times, before they found out that the world was full of big, nasty demons and their lives became dotted with nights spent saving the world.
Deep down, Xander knew they could never go back to those days. They weren't supposed to, even if they could. This was where they were supposed to be. But it felt nice to be able to forget about that sometimes.
Willow snuggled deeply into her friends embrace as they walked. "I missed this, you know," she admitted. "We haven't been close lately, have we?"
"Not really," Xander agreed sadly. He sighed. "This isn't easy, you know, Will. I didn't mean for things to turn out this way. I didn't mean...." he trailed off. His smile had faded and their moment was past. The world was full of demons once again.
"Of course not," Willow agreed immediately. "But it's okay to be happy with the way some things turned out," she suggested mildy.
Xander peered at her. "You mean Spike?" he asked in suprise. "You mean you're not angry that he and I..." he trailed off again.
Willow smiled at him and shook her head. "It *was* a suprise, I admit. But you're going to have to do more than sleep with an undead, souless male demon to lose my respect and support, mister," she declared. Her little brow furrowed as she thought about what she'd just said.
"Those were words I never thought I'd ever say," she admitted ruefully.
Xander grinned at her. "Along with 'Sorry, I can't, I'm busy averting the apocalypse tonight' and 'By the way, mom, I'm dating a werewolf/female witch'."
Willow smiled a little. "Things *have* changed since Buffy came," she replied.
Xander shrugged. "We keep saying 'since Buffy came', but I think things would've changed anyway," he told her. "I mean I'm a Warrior of Fate for Christ's sake, you're a witch and we live on a Hellmouth." He shook his head in amusement. "Things would've surfaced eventually, the only difference is that we probably wouldn't have been as ready for them."
Willow peered at her friend. "You're not angry with Buffy for the way she reacted?" she asked in suprise.
Xander snorted. "Of course I am," he contradicted her. "Furious. But that doesn't change the facts. Things *would've* changed."
They both stopped walking as they reached the Magic Box.
Willow nodded her understanding. "She will understand, you know," she told him. "She'll come around, eventually," Willow reassured her friend.
Xander dropped his gaze and scuffed his boots on the pavement. "*I* don't even understand. How can I expect her to? I keep trying to make sense of it, but..." he trailed off.
Willow pulled her friend around to face her. Xander reluctantly met her gaze. She was wearing that expression that made her look far too wise for her years.
"That's just love, Xander. It doesn't make sense and it's not supposed to," Willow explained.
"You'll do stupid things for it, to protect it. You'll do brave things. You'll do silly things. You'll make rash decisions and you'll make lots of mistakes, but in the end it doesn't matter."
Willow reached out and squeezed his hand. "Because it's love," she told him. "And it's worth it."
For a long moment they stood there in silence. Finally, Xander managed to find his vocal chords again. "Thank you," he told her quietly.
The little redhead smiled and gave him a bear hug, which was quite an impressive feat with her petite form. "Buffy's angry and confused. She may not want to accept it, but she will."
Xander nodded, even though a part of him didn't really believe her. After a moment, they both pulled apart and walked into the Magic Box. Once they were inside they split up to collect the books Giles had sent Xander for, from around the Magic Box.
They met up at the door a few minutes later. Xander gave his friend a shy smile and took the witch's hand. He absently noted that it was a lot smaller and warmer, but as delicately boned as Spike's.
Together, they walked back to Giles' place in silence.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
Spike had protested loudly when Xander had offered to fetch Giles' books from the Magic Box, but it hadn't done him a bit of good. His lover had pulled Spike into a deep kiss to silence his protests and then slipped out the door and into the sunlight where the blond vampire couldn't follow.
Red had made a similar escape from her little blonde witch and with a quick, encouraging smile to Spike, she had disappeared after Xander.
Spike scowled. He knew exactly what Xander was up to by offering to fetch those books for the old man and effectively seperating the two of them. His lover was looking to have a heart-to-heart talk with his best friend and he was expecting Spike to do the same with his Sire.
Xander still had a lot to learn about vampires. A Sire did not equate to a father. A Sire was a vampire's master, his lord, his god. If Spike had loved his Sire, it was with a love that was tainted heavily by fear, hatred, and a passion that had burned through his very skin. There was nothing fatherly about it.
Spike's Sire was definitely not the sort of person to have a warm, heart-to-heart chat with. And despite the fact that Angel had technically still held some sort of power over him up until Xander's claim, the souled vampire had never really been Spike's Sire. Spike's Sire had been lost about a century ago to a gypsy's curse and had never truly been returned.
And the last thing Spike wanted was to have Angel approach him, expecting Spike to spill his cold demon heart.
Still scowling, Spike stormed up the stairs to Giles' spare bedroom and stood by the curtained window, looking out at the outside world through a tiny crack between the curtains.
Predictably enough, Angel followed him. Spike knew immediately when Angel entered the room, first by his vampiric senses and when he got closer, by smell.
It still disturbed Spike that the smell of his Sire was the same, with or without a soul. The way in which he behaved, however, was completely different. Not a single nuance or movement still held a trace of the bloodsucking fiend he had wreaked havok with across Europe all those years ago.
There was no body heat to detect him by, but Spike knew Angel was standing directly behind him.
"Sod off," he told the dark-haired vampire, without turning around.
Angel didn't seem the least bit pertrubed. He hadn't really expected anything more from Spike given the circumstances. "Do you understand what Xander has done by claiming you?" he asked the blond vampire.
"Booked me up for the rest of his life?" Spike replied flippantly. "Made me a kept man, no more whoring days for me?" He turned and glared at the other vampire. "I'm not a fool," he pointed out.
"I'm not you're Sire anymore, Will," Angel told him softly.
"*Spike*," the blond vampire corrected him. "And *you* never were." His icy blues eyes burned. "My Sire is dead."
Angel dropped his gaze to the floor, not wanting Spike to catch the intense pain that flickered across his face at his once-Childe's declaration. "He doesn't have to be," Angel told him softly, without looking up.
"He is," Spike countered immediately. "You can't be him, Peaches," he told Angel. "And even if you could, you don't have the right. I belong to Xander now." He turned his back on the other vampire and turned his gaze back to the shaded crack between the curtains.
Angel sighed. "Will?" he pleaded. "Please, don't do this, let me--"
Spike cut him off before he could get any further. "I told you to SOD OFF!" he yelled at him, without turning around.
"I can't," Angel admitted softly. "Wil?" he begged.
Spike didn't reply.
"You're brooding, Spike," Angel told him, trying another tack, deliberately using his nickname in the hope of getting an answer out of him. "You're getting more and more like me every day," he added. If nothing else worked, maybe irritating the other vampire would get him an answer.
To what, Angel wasn't sure. All he knew was that he wanted *something* from Spike, some kind of connection. The blond vampire had been a huge chunk of his unlife once upon a time and Angel hated that they were so estranged now.
"I'm nothing like you," Spike spoke so quietly that it was only with Angel's heightend vampiric hearing that he caught it.
'No, you never were,' thought Angel.
"We're on the same side now, Spike," Angel pointed out, his desperation to have some kind of connection with the other vampire evident in his voice. "We don't have to be enemies, anymore."
There was a long silence from Spike.
Finally, Angel sighed heavily and gave up, making his way toward the door. But just before he left the room, he caught a barely whispered answer from Spike.
"I never said we had to be," Spike replied, his voice so low that Angel wondered for a moment whether he had heard it at all. But his senses never decieved him. Satisfied, Angel left Spike alone in the spare room.
Spike stood there for a long time, silently observing the rest of the world through that tiny crack in the curtains and trying not to think about what had just happened.
It was only when he heard Xander's voice downstairs that he finally left the room, bounding down the stairs and across to Xander, immediately pulling the Warrior into his arms and meeting his lips in a furious, needy kiss.
Xander was only too eager to comply. He sank his hands into Spike's soft bleached hair and pulled him tighter against him, sliding his hot tongue against Spike's cool one.
"Miss me?" he teased the vampire when they broke apart so that Xander could breath.
Spike didn't reply. He just reached up one hand and entwined it with Xander's like he'd done last night after their lovemaking. "Yours," he said this time.
Xander smiled and squeezed his hand. "Mine," he affirmed. He pulled Spike back over to the armchair and sat him down, smoothly sliding onto the vampire's lap.
Giles gave them a look and then passed them three of the books that Xander and Willow had fetched from the Magic Box. "Start reading," he ordered them both. "It's unlikely that we'll find anything relating to the prophecy Angel spoke of," he explained, "but at the very least, we should be able to find some references to Warriors."
The Watcher moved on, similarly handing out books to the others.
Xander snuggled down into his lover's embrace and began to read.
Part 11
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