SET: Post-Shells. (Angel season 5. This used to be in the AtS category, but I thought since it's about Buffy and Spike it would be better to have it in a category where you could search for the two main characters. It helps to know the Angel characters, but if you're determined enough to get to the Spuffy goodness, you can manage even if you don't.)
General rating: M, for scenes of somewhat explicit sexual content, and for swearing.
Story summary (more detailed and less eloquent than the other one): Buffy hears that Spike is alive once more and in LA, so she hops on a plane to go see for herself. However, more or less as soon as she arrives she is attacked by a demon...and their scuffle is not without reprecussions for the Slayer. Buffy finds herself trapped in a hell-like prison constructed of her own guilt. Buffy regrets the way she's treated Spike over the years...with all of her soul, and all of her heart. If no one finds a way to rescue Buffy from her own mind, her guilt will consume her and she will be lost. But are her friends up to the challenge? Can "her champion" - the only one who can save her - bring himself to believe before it is too late?
1: THE PHONE CALL
Buffy sat up sharply in bed, shocked and embarrassed. "DAWN! What are you – Does a locked door mean NOTHING to you!" Buffy tightened her hold on the sheet, which she had wrapped around her bare chest. The layout of the room was such that she could not see her sister directly, but did not miss a second of Dawn's amused expression in the large dressing table mirror. Buffy could see her own rosy cheeks, framed by her sweaty hair. How much had her sister seen...?
"You're such a freak. What were you doing anyway?" Dawn asked, perplexed.
Buffy exchanged a confused look with Spike right beside her. Dawn was almost 18, how could she not understand...
Spike made a grunt of comprehension. "The mirror, luv," he whispered in Buffy's ear. Buffy looked again at the mirror, noticing that no one could be seen sitting beside her. She turned back to Spike, except he was gone.
Buffy looked once more in the mirror, and watched her reflection say, "Yeah. He's not there."
Mirror-Buffy opened her hand while Buffy looked on, and procured an amulet, much like the one Angel had entrusted to her a few months before. "It's for a champion," Mirror-Buffy said, putting it around an invisible vampire neck. Buffy looked again at where Spike had been only moments before. "You'll find the amulet inside the Champion."
Buffy awoke with a start. Her alarm clock kept beeping, but instead of turning it off she reached across the bed for Spike. She found no one. Leaving the alarm beeping its little alarm heart out, she tossed the covers off and made her way to the bathroom. Buffy sighed as she passed through the bathroom doorway, resigning herself to reality. "So it was just a dream after all," she said to herself. "Should've known."
"Let's talk business. Wesley, what have you guys figured out about that stone? You know, the one with the runes on it." Angel shuffled through the progress reports on his desk. Someone had organized them while he'd been sick, and the covers sported sparkly heart and unicorn stickers.
Wesley's face combined a squint and a frown as he replied. "Well...Not much. It seems to be archaic, and demonic in origin, but appears to pre-date any written records. I –"
Angel seemed less patient that usual, and seemed preoccupied with a perturbing matter. "Wes? When you know something for sure, let me know. Especially if it explains what this has to do with the Prophecy."
Gunn spoke up. "Do we even know that it's got anything to do with the Shanshu business? Just because Ms. Blue Hair hinted at it doesn't mean it does."
Wesley stared fixedly out Angel's window. Illyria, Ms. Blue Hair, looked so much like Fred...Wesley couldn't help thinking of the demon as Fred. But he had to stop thinking it, because Illyria had murdered Fred and turned her beautiful body into a shell. It just was so difficult to think of Fred – Illyria – as a bad guy.
Gunn noticed Wesley's discomfort. The lawyer wanted to be comforting, but things were still a bit awkward after the skewering incident. "Uh, English?" Gunn ventured.
Wesley looked up, but did not say anything.
"We could go...get some lunch, or something. If you feel up to it."
Wesley smiled weakly. He was extremely relieved that Gunn seemed to have forgiven him. "I believe I'm up to it," he replied.
The two left the office, the door swinging behind them. Before it had stopped, Harmony entered.
"Morning, bossie!" she greeted, setting a "#1 Boss" mug on the desk in front of Angel. "I brought you your blood. Sorry," she said, scrunching her neck down and her shoulders up, while she smiled apologetically. "I couldn't help drinking a little. Hope you don't mind."
Angel stared at her as he raised the mug to his lips. "Harmony, I'm not taking any calls or having any visitors today. Have Wesley...No, have Gunn do all my client meetings. I'm taking the day off."
"Sure thing. Anything else?"
"No." Angel sighed as his secretary started to leave the room. "Oh, Harmony," he added. "Don't organize my paperwork again."
Spike watched apprehensively as the surgeon checked up on his recently-cut-off hands. Slayers were trouble, no doubt about it. Slayers...Buffy...Spike thought about what Andrew had said, thought about what Buffy would say if he phoned her in Rome. Would it be "Oh, Spike, I missed you so much!" or "You're beneath me"?
"Well, no problems here. It all went fine."
Spike looked at the doctor. "You're sure these are mine?" Spike asked, looking his re-attached hands over. "Sew on the hands of a maniac, and you might get on my bad side."
The surgeon chuckled. "So you heard about Lindsey." He dropped his rubber gloves in the trash. "Don't worry, we don't like you enough for that."
Spike raised his hand and made an obscene two-fingered gesture at the doctor, who smiled, and began to leave the room.
Spike called out to him. "Hey! You know how to make a call to Rome?"
"How's Brazil?" Buffy asked.
"Nice" Willow told her over the phone. "It's extremely warm, but it's –" Willow's description was interrupted by a squeak, which was followed by a reprimanding whisper: "Kennedy, wait 'til I'm – off the phone!"
Buffy smiled wryly. "So Kennedy's with you. You're lucky."
Willow was quiet. Buffy's tone was so...sad. "Buff, What's wrong?"
Buffy felt something in the pocket of her coat. She switched the phone to her other hand so she could reach it. "Oh, it's nothing. Andrew just brought back this Slayer, and she's completely off her rocker. She's a handful – Faith doesn't even know what to do with her."
"Wow," exclaimed Willow sympathetically. "That's really –"
Buffy's phone beeped. "Ooh, call waiting. Hang on, I'll just check who it is."
Buffy answered the new call. "Hello? This is –"
"Buffy," said the male voice on the phone. "It's Angel."
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