Title: Libertas

Author: Dragonmaster

Rating: R

Genre: Action/Adventure/Drama

Pairing(s): Spike/Xander, Willow/Tara

Warnings: Slash, violence, possible misuse of Latin words, possible historical inaccuracies.

Feedback: Please. Send to Wufei05@cs.com.

Distribution: Nummy Treats archive, Wolfwing's site, everyone else, ask first.

Summary: Willow's spell goes wrong and it blasts the boys back in time to the Roman empire, where they are sold as slaves and trained to be gladiators, fighting for their freedom to get back home.

Disclaimer: No Buffy characters are mine. All hail the mighty Joss, even though he won't let Spike and Xander snog in public. Set in early Seas. 6. The whole B/S thing never happened, seeing as how I would love to erase it from my mind.

Libertas

By: Dragonmaster

Prologue:

The phone on the bedside table rang. It took Xander Harris a moment to actually realize what the ringing was, as he was busy trying to figure out why he couldn't feel his legs. Putting the matter of his legs aside, he reached over and put the receiver to his ear.

"'Lo?"

"Xander! Hey, you finally woke up." It was Buffy, who sounded way too cheerful in Xander's sleep-addled mind.

"Time's it?" Xander murmured groggily, brushing his long sable hair out of his eyes.

"Nine p.m. on Wednesday. Last time I saw you was this time yesterday," Buffy replied, amusement evident in her voice. Xander just blinked. "How's Spike?"

Spike. That would explain why he couldn't feel his legs and why there was a corpse in his bed. "Uh, sleeping… I think. Kinda hard to tell with the lack of breathing, an' all."

"I can imagine. Do you think you guys can be at the Magic Box by nine-thirty?"

"Make it ten," Spike muttered into Xander's neck, still not moving. Xander raised an eyebrow at the older man, then nodded.

"How about ten?"

"Nine-forty-five. No way I'm giving you two more time to have sex." Buffy paused. "And I did not just say that."

Spike snickered and Xander whapped him lightly on his shoulder. "Noted. See you later." He hung up the phone and glared at his lover. "I'm beginning to hate vampire hearing."

"S'not like I screen your calls, pet. Can only hear if I'm really close to you." The vampire leered and snuggled closer to the human, purring softly.

Xander laid his head back against the pillows, running a hand through Spike's platinum blonde hair, the other making small circles on the vampire's bare back. He was tempted to just lay like that for forty-five minutes, but he still needed to shower and get dressed. Sighing, the young man sat up. Or at least attempted to; Spike continued to cling to him like a leech.

"William, come on. We need to get up."

"No, we don't. Scoobies don't really need us anyway. I personally see no reason why we can't just stay in bed all bloody week," the vampire drawled. He folded his arms across Xander's chest and rested his chin on them. "Stay 'ere?"

Xander felt a dopey smile appear on his face as he ran the back of his hand down his boyfriend's angular cheekbone. Spike closed his eyes and leaned into the touch, resuming his purring. "Sorry. You don't have to go, you know the only thing you'll do is fight with Buffy and have Dawn paint your nails some godawful color." He reluctantly levered himself out from under a protesting Spike and sat up, pulling on a pair of worn sweatpants. "I'm gonna go take a shower, then grab some cereal." He paused, then grinned at his boyfriend. "Join me?"

~*~*~*~

"Xander, Spike, so good of you to join us," Giles said as the bell above the Magic Box door chimed, announcing the boys' arrival.

Buffy glanced at her watch and grinned. "Ten minutes late. Pay up, Wills." The Slayer held out her hand and Willow reluctantly handed over a twenty.

Xander raised an eyebrow as he took a seat at the table, Spike having opted to sit on the counter. "What now?"

Anya made a face at Spike before answering. "Buffy bet Willow that you two would end up having loud, obnoxious gay sex and be late," the ex-demoness explained with her usual bluntness.

Both Buffy and Willow blushed. "That wasn't what I said!" the Slayer sputtered.

"It was what you meant."

"Actually, the whelp 'ere nearly burned the bleedin' apartment down trying to make a bowl of soddin' cereal," Spike said with a smirk.

"I thought we agreed not to bring that up," Xander said, glaring at his lover. Spike's smirk widened. The mortal sighed and tucked a strand of his long hair behind an ear. "So, what's with the meeting? Some demons trying to end the world again?"

"Good guess," Anya replied. She picked up a pile of books from behind the counter and dropped them on the table, throwing one to Spike.

Willow distributed the books to the rest of the Scoobies, then took her seat next to Tara. "So, what are we looking for?"

"Big, hairy caveman type," Buffy said, opening her book. "There were three of them, all wearing weird armor."

"Armor?" Giles repeated.

The Slayer nodded. "Yeah. I think it was made of bronze. They also had weird helmets on. Kinda reminded me of that Russell Crowe movie we saw the other night."

"Gladiator," Spike said without looking up.

"Roman demons," Xander said, grinning. "Think they wore togas when they weren't trying to kill you, Buff?" Dawn giggled.

Spike hopped off the counter and handed Buffy his book. "There. That your beastie?" The vampire pointed to a picture on the page. Dark hair covered the demon's body, and it was hunched over, adding to it's apelike appearance.

"That's it," Buffy said. "A Mortuus demon." She put the book down. "Isn't that Latin?"

Giles nodded and looked over Buffy's shoulder. "Yes, it means 'death', I believe." He frowned suddenly, picking up the book to get a closer look. "How very odd."

"Huh?" Buffy asked, confused. "What do you mean?"

Giles took his glasses off and polished them on his shirt. "It says here that the entire Mortuus race lived around Mt. Vesuvius. When it erupted, they were all wiped out."

"So, how did they get here?" Tara asked quietly.

"By magick, I'll bet," Willow said. "And we can probably send them back to their own time, too." She jumped up, tugging on her girlfriend's hand. "We've got the supplies at home."

Buffy nodded, suddenly all business. "Meet us at Restfield Cemetery in a half an hour. Spike, I want you to track down the demons and have them chase you there. Xander, Giles and Anya, get yourselves armed and come with me. As soon as Spike arrives, we'll ambush them."

"What about me?" Dawn asked.

"Call your friend Janice. See if you can stay with her and her parents," Buffy replied, walking into the training room.

Willow stuffed a list into her pocket and she and Tara headed for the door. "Xander, when you guys get to the cemetery, find an open spot and make a circle of stones. We'll use that as a portal to send the demons back." Xander nodded and both Wiccans left with Dawn in tow.

Buffy strode back out of the back room with a sword strapped to her back. Tossing two more swords to Giles and Anya, and a battleaxe to Xander, she turned to Spike. "Will you need anything?"

The bleached blonde shifted into the ridged visage of a vampire and bared his fangs in a feral grin.. "Got all I'll need right 'ere, Slayer."

"Good, get moving. The rest of you, with me."

~*~*~*~

"Xander, stop pacing! I feel like I'm at a tennis match," Buffy said irritably, all trace of her former good mood gone. "He'll be here."

Xander stopped and shot Buffy a sheepish look. "Sorry, Buff. I just can't help worrying about him, you know?" He anxiously scanned the borders of the cemetery, wishing for Spike's vampiric eyesight.

Willow looked up from the spellbook she had been studying, closed it, and walked over to her best friend. "He's okay, Xan. I'm sure of it," she said, laying a hand on the young man's shoulder. He said nothing; merely gripping the axe shaft harder.

"They're coming!" Anya hissed, picking up her sword and moving into position behind Buffy. Willow darted back to Tara's side and took her girlfriend's hand, both witches beginning to chant quietly. Xander whirled around and faced the bushes where his vampire would appear.

With a roar, Spike leaped over the bushes with three armored demons right on his tail. One of them lashed out with a curved short sword and it cut deep into the vampire's side. Spike staggered, hissing in pain and rage.

"Get them into the circle!" Giles yelled, driving one of the Mortuus demons back with his sword. "We can't kill them with any weapon we have here!"

Xander swung his axe and severed the arm of the Mortuus who had stabbed Spike. He beat the one-armed demon with the butt-end of the axe, finally managing to knock it unconscious. Dragging it into the circle, he rushed over to his injured partner, who was swaying on his feet.

"Are you okay, Will?"

"Fan-bloody-tastic," Spike said through gritted teeth. An interesting sight, Xander observed, as Spike was still in gameface. Leaning on Xander for support, the Englishman steadied himself and picked up the short sword that the Mortuus had dropped. "Right, let's go then."

Two of the demons were already in the circle, stuck there by Willow and Tara's magick. Buffy had dropped her sword earlier and was manhandling the final Mortuus into the stone circle. Anya was amusing herself by hurling insults at the Mortui in Latin, a language Xander hadn't even realized she knew. Spike and Giles, both being able to speak Latin, were trying to contain their laughter.

Suddenly, Buffy gave a cry of pain, and the Mortuus broke free, charging at the others. It smacked Anya aside and did the same to Giles, leaving only Xander and a still-swaying Spike.

Spike struggled to stand without Xander's help, attempting to protect him from the enraged demon. He braced himself for the impact, knowing that he'd be sore for the next few days.

The Roman demon snarled, murder in its alarmingly blue eyes, and viciously backhanded Xander, causing Spike to fall back with his lover. The vampire barely registered the pain as his head smacked down hard on one of the stones; the only thing he could feel was Xander's fingers linked with his. The last thought he had before darkness claimed him was that everything would be all right as long as his mate was with him…

Tbc…