Title: Comrades
Author: Wicked R
Disclaimers: characters belong to Mutant Enemy. No copyright breach intended. Bare in mind, it's just for fun.
Genre: G
Rating: G

Summary/Set: What if Buffy did need saving from the Immortal? More light Buffy bashing.
Pairing: the point here is finding out!
Warning: not beta read. English is not my first language, so be kind.

Angel and Spike asked Andrew about Buffy's whereabouts in chorus when arriving to the Roman apartment.

"Right, because you two both…" Andrew nodded and crossed his arms, "yeah. She's not here. In fact we lost her sometime yesterday. We believe she was more likely kidnapped by the Immortal."

"Haven't you tried to find out where she was taken?" Angel urged him.

"You don't know Andrew that well," Spike shook his head slightly.

"You know he has powers?" Andrew defended himself, "he can freeze time for example and do whatever he wants in the meantime. I phoned the headquarters. Giles and several slayers are due to arrive by tomorrow morning."

"Tomorrow morning might be too late," Angel snarled and the two stormed out the door, this time making sure they don't get stuck in the doorframe, "can you remember where he held us captive back in the days?" Angel asked his childe on the corridor.

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It was magic. Willow would definitely come in handy, Buffy thought to herself as she repeatedly tried to free herself from the spell the Immortal put on her. Although her hands and legs were tied up to the wall behind her, that would've not normally been a predicament, nor would the two dozen vampires that were put on guard to keep watch over her. But this time the cords keeping her down were tied together magically. Nothing other than the reversal spell could have undone them. Nevertheless, she had to keep trying.

Her captors were arguing over who was going to get out to hunt when another dark figure jumped down from the roof amongst them, "you have no right to hunt here," the figure said and Buffy started to think she was also made to hallucinate by some other magic trick, because the tall vampire that spoke was Spike, "this is our territory, our hunting ground," the alleged dust vampire continued, putting on a commanding stance.

"Says who? Since when?" the vampires next to him stood up to face him.

"Stand down, boys," the leader of the pack entered from the side, "I'll be damned! Spike! Haven't seen you since the sixties," he welcomed him with an embrace and a chuckle, "everybody, this is the great William the Bloody, my grandsire. He did own this territory back at the end of the nineteenth century. So according to our unwritten rules, he still does."

"Why should we give in to somebody who didn't bother claiming his territory for over forty years?"

"Come on, Leo," the leader stood up to his grandsire, "forty years is not actually a long time for vampires. Only if you are so young as you."

"I know my history," Leo retorted back, "it wasn't actually him that everybody bowed to, it was the Scourge of Europe. If I see him together with Angelus, as I was told it was in the old days, well…"

"In that case, kneel before the master!" the leader commanded as another tall dark figure came out from the shadows, "anything you wish Angelus," he addressed him. If he was anything like he was back in the nineteenth century, him, the leader had to turn into a minion to please a giant. He knelt down too, along with most of his followers, apart from Leo and his pal.

"You're not Spike's descendant, are you?" Angel stepped to Leo, airing fearlessness and authority, just like Spike, and in such a way that Buffy had to wonder herself if either of them had souls or was it just a bluff.

"No. I was sired in 1970 by Maria Callas," the offensive vampire said proudly.

"A-ha! Do you know who was her sire?"

"Somebody else famous. She was sired by Guiseppe Verdi to preserve her voice. Of course she was interested in more exciting things afterwards than a mere opera house. I come from a very prestigious family."

"And Verdi allegedly died in 1901, but he had been a vampire for over thirty years by then, disguising himself as older. Don't know why he was still interested in music, but he was one of my Drusilla's first pets as I recall. Before this lout over there," he indicated Spike, "maybe because she'd foreseen he'd still be a composer as a vampire. She sensed those special circumstances, my wonderful Dru, so she did," Angel pondered.

"How did you know I was also yours?" Leo asked, more humble this time.

"Just so it happens, boy, that every vampire in Rome is my descendent. I brought the species back into modern day Italy."

"But I'm no descendent of yours," Leo's mate interrupted, "cause I'm from New Zea…" he looked down his chest realising that there was a stake sticking out from it and he dusted.

"Were from New Zealand," corrected the sentence Spike, who had thrown the stake.

"Who doesn't recognise my authority?" Angel turned around to look at all of them,

"now, if you want to feed so badly, then go feed. All of you."

"With all respect, Sire," the leader of the pack addressed him, "we were instructed by the Immortal to keep watch over the slayer at all costs."

"Which part of my orders didn't you understand," Angel said quietly, but threateningly.

The leader of the local vampire gang waved his subjects out, but they could already hear him asking for the Immortal's cell phone number.

"Erom novekedj," Angel started chanting, "kotelet szakits," he took out a sword from under his coat, "ezzel a karddal vadaszt szabadits," and with a swift movement he freed Buffy of her ropes. To her amazed looks he added, "you need to recite the spell in Hungarian, because the Immortal was originally Hungarian.

"Well, we needed to polish the sword with Dru's magic herbs first," Spike added.

"Dru? There's Dru? And how did you get here? The Sunnydale China Syndrome?" Buffy shook her head in protest. Not to mention she never wanted to think about her two ex boyfriends as master vampires, even if they most certainly were.

But before either of them could answer, the vampire gang filed back in, "Immortal says you're no go," said the leader and ordered his boys to attack. They found themselves cornered by the couple of dozens of vampires and more, probably aided by the guards that stood outside.