To Shanshu in SunnyHell

To Shanshu in SunnyHell

By Abs Dax

Spoilers: set after series 5 of Buffy and directly after 'There's no place like Plrtz Glrb' in Angel series 2

Disclaimer: Not mine, borrowed characters, at least I didn't kill Buffy this time!! Oh she's already dead! Huh! This time its not my fault!!!

Excerpts from songs by Alanis Morissette, (Ironic, and Wake Up,) from her album 'Jagged Little Pill.'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BUFFY ANNE SUMMERS

1981-2001

BELOVED SISTER

DEVOTED FRIEND

SHE SAVED THE WORLD

A LOT

Well life has a funny way of sneaking up on you

When you think everything's okay and everything's going right.

And life has a funny way of helping you out when

You think everything's gone wrong and everything blows up

in your face…

Hyperion, night. Cordy, Fred and the guys are entering the garden court.

Fred: "Are-are you sure about that?"

Cordy: "Trust me. Tacos everywhere - and - soap!"

Gunn: "Yo, that portal jumping is a fun ride. We sell it to a theme park we could get paid!"

Angel pushed to the front of the group as they got to the doors leading into the hotel itself. Angel was smiling: "Okay. Can I say it? I wanna say it."

Wesley looked at him "Say what?"

Angel pushed the double doors open, and walked into the lobby. "There's no place like..." His sentence trailed off as he saw Willow sitting hunched up on one of the chairs in the lobby. His smile vanished as Willow looked up at him with a sorrowful expression. "Willow?"

"What's..?" Cordy started to say something and then realised the only reason why Willow would visit Angel, and it wasn't to flirt with Wesley.

Willow slowly stood up, never taking her eyes off Angel.

"It's Buffy." He whispered to himself. Angel glanced up at the ceiling not wanting to believe it but knowing in his soul that it had happened, he looked back at the red haired witch, "How?" he asked simply.

"Saving her sister. And the world, again!"

"Wh…*cough* er… when is the funeral?" Tears rolled down his cheek, and he looked down at the floor. Cordy put her hand on his shoulder.

"We tried to contact you but you were gone for days. It was yesterday . I'm sorry we came here immediately after,"

Willow walked towards Angel and hugged him, Angel held her and closed his eyes, Cordy knew that Angel needed to be alone with Willow for a while. Grabbing Fred's hand she slowly pulled Gunn, Fred and Wesley out of the hotel lobby.

Angel pulled away from Willow, realising what she'd said. "We? You said we, who else came here?"

"Dawn didn't want to live in Sunnydale anymore, too many hurtful memories I guess. Buffy said in her will that she wanted you to take care of her, if possible and we thought the best place for her was here, so we came to find you."

"Oh, well Angel Investigations helps the hopeless so welcome to LA."

"What did you know about the situation in Sunnydale?"

"When Buffy's mother died Buffy told me what was happening. With Glory, and Dawn, and everything, and she told me Spike had joined the Scooby Gang. Which I found hard to believe, Spike being Spike an' all!"

"Good you know about Spike then, just before Buffy died she told Spike to protect Dawn, and he is taking his promise seriously, and he kinda tagged along also."

"Spike? He's here? Last time I saw him he had one of his minions torture me, but Buffy told me he'd changed, she even told me that he loved her, he really is just a misunderstood lonely vampire with a broken heart isn't he. But ya gotta love him. She understood me I think. Spike is better for her than Riley was. He would never leave her. He knows loyalty. And I guess that shows since he's here protecting Dawn."

"Angel, there's er, another thing you need to know about Spike."

"Buffy told me about the chip…"

"Its not just that, but Spike is human, we don't know how, but when Buffy died the hellmouth was sealed by the portal and Spike was standing in the sunlight not burning."

"Spike's human?" Angel looked puzzled "The Shanshu prophesy, it was about Spike not me," he looked down at the floor remembering how he first found out about his destiny, but now it looked like the prophesy hadn't been about him, but about his childe.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Flashback

Wesley was looking at his books: "Ah - oops. - I may have made a tiny mistake." Angel set the cup of blood down and stood up.

"The word Shanshu that I said meant you were going to die? Actually

I think it means that you are going to live."

Cordy: "Okay, as tiny mistakes go - that's not one!"

Wesley: "Shanshu has roots in so many different languages. The most ancient source is the Proto-Bantu and they consider life and death the same thing, part of a cycle, only a thing that's not alive never dies. It's- it's saying - that you get to live until you die. - It's

saying - it's saying you become human."

Cordy: "That's the prophecy?"

Wesley: "Ah, the vampire with a soul, once he fulfils his destiny, will Shanshu. Become human. - It's his reward."

Cordy: "Wow. Angel, human."

Angel: "That'd be nice."

Cordy: "Wait. What's that thing about him having to fulfil his destiny first?"

Wesley: "Well, it's saying that it won't happen tomorrow or the next day. He has to survive the coming darkness, the apocalyptic battles, a few plagues, and some - uh, several, - not that many - fiends that will be unleashed."

Angel: "So don't break out the champagne just yet."

Cordy: "Yeah, break out the champagne, Pinocchio. This is a big deal!"

Angel: "I guess it is."

Cordy: "Typical. I hook up with the only person in history who ever came to LA to get older."

~*~*~*~*~*~

"Angel." Willow was saying his name. He looked at her. "Angel which prophesy?"

Angel sank to his knees on the floor and curled up in to a ball, rocking back and forth, sobbing quietly. The past few moments had just caught up to him. Life wouldn't be the same again. My Buffy is dead, My childe is human. My Buffy is dead, My childe is human. My Buffy is dead, My childe is human. Sorrow and happiness mixed in a lethal cocktail, it could kill a guy if he wasn't already dead.

Spike was human, the thing he wanted most in his long un-life and his childe was human and loved Buffy as much as he had. But now Buffy was dead and Spike was human, sometimes life does the unexpected.

Willows voice brought him back "Angel, what prophesy are you talking about? Giles said it had said something in the Codex about a vampire helping the key, turning human, when gifts were given, and death would bring life to the undead. It was a different prophesy, Angel, don't worry, once you will fulfil your destiny, you will become human. Be happy, live."

Angel looked up at Willow, and pulled her into a hug, the emotional vampire hugged the witch, Willow put her hand on his head and started to comb his hair with her fingers, he released her waist and pulled away. And with a lopsided half smile, he looked at her, "Hey watch the hair, I've nearly ran out of hair gel!"

"Hope you don't mind, there were a few rooms that were unoccupied so Dawn and Spike have already gone to sleep, they haven't had any rest since… well the events of the past week have been hardest on them especially."

"I understand, at least space isn't in shortage here, grab a room, stay a while."

"Thanks Angel. 'night."

"'Night."

Life has a funny way of sneaking up on you.

Life has a funny, funny way of helping you out.

Helping you out.

It had been a long day, Angel was weary, all he wanted to do was sleep until the next century. He slowly walked up the stairs to his room, he opened his door and not bothering to turn the light on, stripped off his shirt and pants, kicked off his shoes, and collapsed onto his bed. He crawled under the covers and snuggled up to the warm body laying next to him. Wrapping his arms around the human, he pulled the body closer to him, and noticed that the blond was sobbing.

"Hush now, I'm here, Shh," He nuzzled into the humans neck and started to purr, and taking in the scent and feel of the warm blooded human next to him, and drifted off into sleep. The humans sobs started to subside. And soon both vampire and human were asleep. Resting until the new day awoke them from slumber.

"Life's a piece of shit, when you look at it, life's a laugh, and death's a joke, it's true. You'll see it's all a show, people laughing as you go, just remember that the last laugh is on you!" Spike mumbled. He was laying curled up on a nice big bed he'd found in one of the hotel rooms, it felt like home, he felt safe here. It felt like nothing more could go wrong if he was here, so here he would stay. Hours later he was still curled up on the bed, and his sobs were quieter than they were before, but it was still painful. He heard the door open but didn't react, he hurt too much from the loss of Buffy, he heard clothes being stripped off and shoes being kicked across the room. The bed moved and a cool body wrapped their arms around him, and comforted him. The sobs died down, and the other person started to purr, nuzzling into his neck, but not biting, it was soothing he knew who it must be, and once again he felt he truly belonged here, in the arms of his sire. The blood link was still there, even though he was once again mortal, Angel was, and always would be, his sire. And here he would stay. you were my sire, man, my Yoda…

With that thought he drifted of into sleep.

You like snow but only if its warm

You like rain but only if its dry

No sentimental value to the rose that fell on your floor

No fundamental excuse for the granted I'm taken for

'Cause its easy not to

So much easier not to

And what goes around never comes around to you

You like pain but only if it doesn't hurt too much.

You sit… and you wait… to receive

There's an obvious attraction

To the path of least resistance in your life

There's an obvious aversion no amount of my insistence

could make you try tonight

'Cause its easy not to

So much easier not to

And what goes around never comes around to you

To you to you to you to you to you…

There's no love no money no thrill anymore

There's an apprehensive naked little trembling boy

With his head in his hands

There's an underestimated and impatient little girl

Raising her hand

'Cause its easy not to

So much easier not to

And what goes around never comes around to you

To you to you

Get up get up get up off of it

Get up get up get up off of it

Get out get outta here enough already

Get up get up get up off of it

Wake Up.

End.

And Now For Something Completely Different…

And just in case you noticed the Monty Python quote. Here's the song Spike was quoting. Its from Monty Pythons 'Life of Brian.'

Some things in life are bad

they can really make you mad,

other things just make you swear and curse.

When you're chewing on life's gristle,

don't grumble, give a whistle!

And this'll help things turn out for the best:

And...always look on the bright side of life,

Always look on the light side of life,

If life seems jolly rotten, there's something you've forgotten,

and that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing,

when you're feeling in the dumps, don't be silly chumps,

just perch your lips and whistle, that's the key.

And always look on the bright side of life,

Come on!

always look on the right side of life,

For life is quite absurd, and death's the final word,

you must always face the curtain with a bow,

forget about your sin, give the audience a grin,

enjoy, it's your last chance anyhow.

So, always look on the bright side of death.

Ah, just before you draw your terminal breath,

Life's a piece of shit, when you look at it,

life's a laugh, and death's a joke, it's true.

You'll see it's all a show, people laughing as you go,

just remember that the last laugh is on you!

And always look on the bright side of life,

Always look on the right side of life,

Come on, Brian! Cheer up!

Always look on the bright side of life,

always look on the right side of life,

Worse things happens to see, you know.

always look on the right side of life,

I mean, what have you got to lose? You know, you come from nothing,

you're going back to nothing,

what have you lost? Nothing!

always look on the right side of life,

Nothing will come from nothing, you know what they say?

always look on the right side of life,

Cheer up, you old bugger! Come on! Give us a grin! There you are! See?

The end of the film. Incidentally,

this record is available in the forehands.

always look on the right side of life,

Summer's got to live as well, you know? Who do you think pays for all

this rubbish?

always look on the right side of life,

They're not gonna make their money back, you know. I told them. I said

to them. Bernie, I said they'll

never make their money back.

Always look on the right side of life...