Disclaimer: Joss created all, Joss owns all. Joss wont mind if I borrow Spike and Angel for a little while.
Warnings: Well it's Spangel and then the fanged four. So take that as a warning. But really doesn't Buffy say it best? "You know the usual. Strong language, violence, adult content."
A/N: If you are a die hard Buffy/Angel or Spuffy fan you probably wont like this fic. And, by the way I'm going to try not to distort Joss' work too much. Key word being TRY. The internet has sadly been lacking some quality Spangel stories it seems.
In the city of stars, dreams, and fantasies the sky was grey and rain pounded the city streets. Past where the movie stars brought life to the world's created by struggling writers. Past where the dancers gracefully brought stages to life. Even past where greedy lawyers reveled in the drama of Hollywood marriages and the settlements that came from them there was an old, not so tinkle town warehouse. Old and out of use with a 'for sale sign' chronically posted on it's doors. And within this warehouse there was a vampire. A vampire on a mission to save the world. A mission of redemption. A mission that would determine the outcome of the battle between good and evil. Sounds like a pretty good television pilot, huh?
While the scene would have played out beautifully on a t.v. screen Angel didn't feel quite as cool as he looked. His face felt swollen, his hands felt scraped, and his hair was beginning to do that weird thing it did when the hair gel stayed in too long. His muscles ached from being in this position, on his knees, arms fastened with hand cuffs behind his back, since sunset. Why did every vamp who came to this town have a beef with him? He didn't do anything to them! Okay, admittedly Angel did kill their kind but he never did anything to them personally! Well most of them, there are exceptions to every rule. Three exceptions to be exact. Besides they always told him their plans. Didn't it stand to reason not to tell the hero your evil plans?
Just then footsteps began to approach him, his captors had returned. Angel looked at them with just the right amount of contempt which would have made a wonderful still picture if there had been, for whatever reason, a bunch of cameras around. Since that wasn't the case his expression was wasted on the concrete walls. One of his captors was a scraggly looking man who's long brown hair was in a disarray from the wet weather and was already vamped out. The other was a young woman who neatly closed her umbrella upon entering the archway and who's features were as smooth as porcelain.
"Why don't we just kill him?" snapped the wet vamp, " This isn't smart, keeping him alive. He'll find a way out! Don't tell me I went through all of this-" he jutted his bruised arm out at her, "so you two can chat it up!"
"I'm so sorry Sam," if you asked Angel he didn't think she sounded very sorry at all. It was a patronizing tone that he had used many times as Angelus when addressing those he'd considered beneath him, "It will all be worth it though. Just you wait. A kill lasts only minutes but art takes sacrifice. Isn't that right Angelus?"
Angel felt alarmed at the use of his old name, if she'd known him then her intentions probably weren't all that warm and fuzzy. Well, the handcuffs probably gave that one away, but that's besides the point. "My name's Angel."
"Oh sorry I forgot. It's Angel now, is it?" she asked sarcastically.
"Come on Raine, let's finish this once and for all." begged Sam looking around nervously.
Obviously this conversation wasn't tilting in his favor. Time to put an end to it before it got out of control. With all the strength left in his muscle he tugged his hands apart. Although his muscles screamed and a grunt escaped his lips the cuffs gave way. Using all his stomach muscle he leaped to his feet and staked Sam, the soggy minion. Angel turned to face Raine, by the way if someone just happened to capture this on candle it would be a classic hero meets evil villain shot.
"Well then...that takes care of that." said Raine looking down at the muddy dust Sam had turned into.
"Get out of here. I don't know who you are or what you want but I know I never sired you. I don't know what the hell you think your going to get out of me but you're not. You will wither leave now or that will be you." Angel said as coldly as possible, gesturing to the dust that used to be Sam. To be honest he was putting on great bravado, all his instincts told him to run. Stubborn as ever, he ignored them.
"Of course you didn't sire me Angelus, you were so damn choosy about who you changed," Raine walked slowly around him, getting ever closer. " For God's sake you were Angelus, you couldn't just change people at your whim. You always had illusions of grandeur. Since you were evil you were the most evil there was and now that you're good? You're a super hero, one of the pure. I hope you know you are the same person. I suppose you grew bored of being evil just as years went by you grew tired of Darla, Drusilla, and me? You never even accepted me, because I didn't worship the ground you walk on."
"I didn't grow tired of anything. I was cursed with a soul." Angel growled, wondering why he was bothering to explain himself to her. He couldn't even remember who she was!
"You don't love with your soul Angelus, you love with your heart. And you've always had one of those. Not beating of course but a heart nevertheless. Why the lack of human emotions?" she was very close to him now.
"Look, you want to fight, we'll fight. I'm not going to sit here and be verbally bludgeoned." Angel snapped angrily, wanting to get rid of her.
"Oh," she tipped her head to the right, a cascade of blonde hair falling down, "I thought you enjoyed speeches. You seem so good at them. Fine, you want to fight, we'll fight."
With that they were engaged in full-on battle. Angel was surprised and impressed by her talents, she certainly kept him on the defensive. Most of the blows missed but on particularly well placed kicks caught him in the jaw and sent him sprawling. Ruthless, as vamps often are she followed this with another well place blow to his torso. Then perhaps the most unsettling thing. Fire shot from her palms coming very close to cremating her opponent. Angel managed to move out of the way but he felt the heat and he began to sweat (a hard task all things considered.) Looking into her eyes he began to wonder what he'd gotten himself into and how he knew her.
"Now you're interested. All in good time, Angelus, all in good time. I've picked up a few tricks in the past few years. I think you're about to realize it's a lot more fun to play a game then be a pawn in it." With that Raine faded away. Oops, not to self, better to catch the villain.
As if his night couldn't get any worse he heard a soft laughter coming from the shadows of the warehouse, "How long have you been there Spike?"
"Long enough to see you get your ass kicked by a woman half your size. I never get tired of that by the way." Spike said lightly.
The worst part about Spike's new intangibility was it seemed the only way to stop his mouth was by force. And that was no longer an option. "Do you recognize her, she seemed to know Angelus."
Spike raised an eyebrow challengingly, "Not healthy to refer to yourself in third person, mate." Angel opened his mouth to protest but Spike quickly cut him off, "-I didn't recognize her. But I have a bad feeling about her."
"Why's that?" Angel asked rolling to his feet painfully. In his pain he forgot his rule about asking Spike that question.
Spike shrugged with a slight smirk on his face, "You have a bad history with blondes."
Their eyes met for a moment and then Angel burst out laughing. Either Spike was funny or Angel was becoming unglued.