Doesn't Anyone Stay Dead Around Here?
Chapter 22
"We were talking while you were gone, Buffy," Tara said, breaking the awkward silence that had descended on the four humans as they waited for the two demons sharing Spike's body to wake up.
"Huh?" the Slayer looked up, startled out of her thoughts.
"About what we could do to, um, improve our chances," the witch continued.
"Yes," Father Mike interjected. "I think there are some things we can do to weaken the Master, hopefully giving your friend the advantage. It's clear that they are pretty evenly matched. Of course, Spike has the home court advantage, so to speak. And from what Anya's told me of bloodline dominance, I would guess that the Master is holding the edge over Spike simply through that, er, tradition."
Buffy snorted. "Spike's not one to bow to tradition. He enjoys being a rebel. There's no way he'd choose to bow to the Master unless he thought it was to his advantage." She shook her head. "I thought that at too, first. But he's defined his elders before. And the fact that he said he couldn't win…"
"No," Anya spoke up. "Dominance and submission aren't a simple choice like deciding what to wear for the day. Respect of blood elders is ingrained in vampire culture to the point that it's almost not a choice."
"Kind of like you not talking about sex publicly?" Buffy asked dryly.
"Exactly!" the ex-demon exclaimed before furrowing her brows, wondering if she was being made fun of.
"But self-preservation's a pretty strong force, too," Tara said. "And knowing Spike, it's not even a question which of those will win out if we can give him an extra push."
Okay, then," Buffy said determinedly. "What can we do to distract him?"
***
When Spike's eyelids began to flutter, indicating the body's return to consciousness, the exorcism team was ready.
Father Mike moved to stand in front of the vampire, while the three women once again formed a line. This time, however, they stood to one side of the priest, in order to make sure that the vampire could see all of them clearly. He raised his head, and noting the positions of the four in front of him, pulled Spike's lips into a smirk. Seeing that he was awake, the team went on the offensive.
"Before we dust you," Tara said in a serious tone, "I have a few questions. For the Watchers Council."
"You're not going to dust me or you would have done it already," the Master sneered.
"We were," Buffy said, twirling her stake in one hand. "But the council insisted that we get some information out of you first. You know how they are. All about the information."
"Why would I possibly answer your questions?" he asked in an amused tone, as if the very idea that he would cooperate with their interview was ludicrous. *Which,* Buffy acknowledged to herself, *it probably is. Good thing this isn't real!*
Doing her best impression of Faith, Buffy leaned in, smiling seductively. "Simple. You answer the questions, you go quick. You don't, and we'll find out how good a book 'The Complete Idiots Guide to Torture' really is. Your choice."
Before he could respond, Tara spoke. "For the record, how exactly did you manage to get yourself stuck in the Hellmouth in the, 30's, was it?"
"Oh!" Anya said in a surprised voice, as per the plan. "That was me."
"What?" Both Buffy and Tara turned to look at the third woman in simulated shock.
"It was me," Anya repeated, shrugging. She winked at the other women, "You know what they say about a woman scorned."
"What?" The Master asked, outraged. "That was over five hundred years ago!"
"Hey," Anya said, "you should have known better than to jilt a vengeance demon. I mean, really, how stupid do you have to be?"
"Hmmm." Tara nodded her head, appearing to be deep in thought. "Vengeance is a dish best served cold." She looked at Anya. "Good job."
At this point, the Master's attention was focused fully on the women and he was taken by surprise when Father Mike started the exorcism.
"Heinrich Nest," the priest began.
"Thank you, Tara." Anya said as if Father Mike hadn't spoken. "You know," she continued in a tone that indicated she was sharing a life lesson, "it's never too late to extract vengeance."
"Master of the line of Aurelius, do you renounce Satan?"
"Nor is there such a thing as too much vengeance," she said and then turned to the Master. "My fiancé, Xander, is a much better lover than you ever were."
"And all his works?"
"Really. He's great!" She turned to the other women and spoke as if gossiping. "I mean, you'd think vampire endurance, right? But not that one. He was pretty much the wham-bam-not-so-much-as-a-thank-you-Anyanka kind of guy. Humph. Pathetic, really!"
"And all his pomps?"
"No concern for his partner. And that the wham-bam wasn't even all that good!"
The pull of the priest's questions, combined with Anya's disparaging comments about his sexual prowess were too much for the Master and his head flew back and forth between the two, trying to keep up. This distraction was exactly the reaction the group had been looking for. While Buffy and Tara hadn't quite known how to react when Anya had revealed her past relationship with the Master, neither felt they were in a position to criticize anyone else's choice of romantic partner. Plus, Anya's fervent plea to not tell Xander had put her on even ground with the slayer. Both would keep the other's secret for fear of her own getting out.
Once they judged the Master sufficiently distracted, the four joined hands and said the last part of the ceremony all together. Father Mike had insisted that combing their strengths – his as a priest, Anya's as a being who had lived for over 1,000 years, Tara's mental powers from witchcraft, and Buffy's love for Spike – would be more effective than him alone.
Anya had swelled with pride that her past was being recognized as useful. Tara mentally raised an eyebrow; she was sure the priest didn't believe in magick, but dismissed the discrepancy. She knew her power to be true and decided that's all that mattered. Buffy had opened her mouth to protest the priest's belief about her love for Spike, but then rationalized that he didn't mean love as in "love love," but love as in the sense of protection she felt for any of the innocent she protected on a daily basis. *Not that Spike's all that innocent…* Together the four spoke.
"The Lord rebuke you, Heinrich Nest! Depart, Heinrich Nest, evil spirit, and leave Spike in peace! Leave immediately, Heinrich Nest!"
Even before they finished the final command, the seizures started. This time they were more violent, as if the two demons knew that this battle would determine a final winner. Both were fighting for life, or unlife, as the case may be. The Master knew if he left, his demon would dissipate into the air without a physical host to reside in. If that happened, he wasn't sure if he would return to hell or simply cease to exist. He rather suspected the latter, and the idea terrified him.
Spike knew that if he let the Master win, Buffy would be forced to stake him. He would want her to, rather than let the Master roam free. But he didn't really want to die. More than that, though, he wanted to avoid forcing her to kill another one of her lovers. From what he'd heard, she hadn't taken it too well the last time and he refused to put her in the position to experience that much pain again.
While the two battled and Spike's features shifted between demonic and human, the exorcism team kept chanting their mantra of commands.
"The Lord rebuke you, Heinrich Nest! Depart, Heinrich Nest, evil spirit, and leave Spike in peace! Leave immediately, Heinrich Nest!"
The two were pretty evenly matched, and Spike realized this could be a long fight. He idly wondered who would tire and give up first before gathering his strength for another assault.
The Master was losing and he knew it. He didn't know, however, if Spike realized he had the upper hand yet or not. But the Master's distraction at the beginning of the ritual, combined with the fact that Spike inherently had some advantage since it was his body, meant that the Master felt his hold slipping. The strength pouring out of the four humans, pulling at the Master's demon didn't help matters any, either.
The Master desperately searched for a way to reassert his control. "She'll never love you," he whispered to Spike's demon. "No matter what, all you'll ever be is beneath her."
Spike's demon mentally shrugged and responded in his cockiest tone, "You'll have to do better than that, mate. She's here, isn't she?"
"Only because she doesn't want to lose her sex toy, childe," he responded condescendingly. Then, the Master paused. He could sense something. He ignored Spike's reply and focused on the feeling. It almost felt like…another vampire. One of his bloodline! Anyone had to be easier to control than this infuriating, insufferable childe who was a Master Vampire in his own right. Yes! The Master could tell that the other vampire was young, very young, maybe not even a decade old. He wanted to try and learn more about the other vampire, but extending his senses to study it had only weakened his hold more.
The Master knew that he was quickly running out of options. At this point, he was pretty sure Spike's demon was going to force him out of the body they shared. That meant he could dissipate into the air, or take his chances with this other vampire. With one last metaphysical slap upside the head, the Master abandoned Spike's body.
The exorcism team ceased chanting when the convulsions stopped. They waited, hopefully looking for a sign that their efforts had been successful. However, the fight had taken a lot out of Spike, not to mention that he was now supporting the full after-effects of the multiple doses of tranquilizer. He hadn't realized that the Master had been shouldering half of that burden before. The combined result made it difficult to lift his head and look at Buffy.
He managed, though, and was amazed to see how bright her eyes became as she recognized him in his gaze. *Are those tears in her eyes? For me?*
"Hallo, luv." He smiled weakly.
Before Buffy could reply, a resounding crash was heard from the other side of the room and the four humans turned as one. The bed tiled down at one corner, as if someone had broken one of its legs. They watched in horror as Jarred, now controlled by the Master stood and pulled his wrists apart, snapping the links between the two handcuffs as if they were made of thread.
Buffy's eyes grew wide. Neither she nor Spike had been able to break the handcuffs and both had tried, repeatedly.
"Wow," she said moving in front of the other three. "Jarred must take his vitamins."
"Actually," the Master responded, "I think he's been feeding on drug users. I never did care for the taste myself. But if you can get past that, the blood's quite…invigorating."
"Let me guess," the slayer responded drolly as the Master moved out from behind the bed. "PCP?"
Vampire and slayer circled one another.
"I always did dislike the bantering," the Master said, ignoring Buffy's question. Then, he lunged and the fight began in earnest.
Buffy sent him staggering backwards with a swift uppercut, followed by a sharp jab to the nose. He responded by kicking out and trying to sweep her legs out from under her. The slayer jumped over his extended leg.
"That all you got, old man?" she taunted.
As soon as her feet returned to the earth, she launched into a roundhouse kick to his head, which he dodged. As Buffy was pivoting and regaining her equilibrium, his foot shot up and caught her in the stomach, sending her flying backwards. She landed on her back on the bed and the Master was on top of her in an instant. His knees clamped on either side of her thighs, immobilizing her legs. He pinned her arms above her with one hand and pulled her head sharply to the side with the other, exposing her neck.
"Yes," he whispered so only she could hear, "you'll make a fine vampire."
He lowered his head to her neck, and sank his fangs into her flesh.
tbc
+++++
A/N: Aggggh! Even I'm on edge after that cliffhanger! Good news, though: Consider this the last commercial break before the end! And I promise to have the final part up tomorrow, Tuesday, 4/30. Thanks, as always, for the reviews! I can not adequately begin to describe what they mean to me!
Chapter 22
"We were talking while you were gone, Buffy," Tara said, breaking the awkward silence that had descended on the four humans as they waited for the two demons sharing Spike's body to wake up.
"Huh?" the Slayer looked up, startled out of her thoughts.
"About what we could do to, um, improve our chances," the witch continued.
"Yes," Father Mike interjected. "I think there are some things we can do to weaken the Master, hopefully giving your friend the advantage. It's clear that they are pretty evenly matched. Of course, Spike has the home court advantage, so to speak. And from what Anya's told me of bloodline dominance, I would guess that the Master is holding the edge over Spike simply through that, er, tradition."
Buffy snorted. "Spike's not one to bow to tradition. He enjoys being a rebel. There's no way he'd choose to bow to the Master unless he thought it was to his advantage." She shook her head. "I thought that at too, first. But he's defined his elders before. And the fact that he said he couldn't win…"
"No," Anya spoke up. "Dominance and submission aren't a simple choice like deciding what to wear for the day. Respect of blood elders is ingrained in vampire culture to the point that it's almost not a choice."
"Kind of like you not talking about sex publicly?" Buffy asked dryly.
"Exactly!" the ex-demon exclaimed before furrowing her brows, wondering if she was being made fun of.
"But self-preservation's a pretty strong force, too," Tara said. "And knowing Spike, it's not even a question which of those will win out if we can give him an extra push."
Okay, then," Buffy said determinedly. "What can we do to distract him?"
***
When Spike's eyelids began to flutter, indicating the body's return to consciousness, the exorcism team was ready.
Father Mike moved to stand in front of the vampire, while the three women once again formed a line. This time, however, they stood to one side of the priest, in order to make sure that the vampire could see all of them clearly. He raised his head, and noting the positions of the four in front of him, pulled Spike's lips into a smirk. Seeing that he was awake, the team went on the offensive.
"Before we dust you," Tara said in a serious tone, "I have a few questions. For the Watchers Council."
"You're not going to dust me or you would have done it already," the Master sneered.
"We were," Buffy said, twirling her stake in one hand. "But the council insisted that we get some information out of you first. You know how they are. All about the information."
"Why would I possibly answer your questions?" he asked in an amused tone, as if the very idea that he would cooperate with their interview was ludicrous. *Which,* Buffy acknowledged to herself, *it probably is. Good thing this isn't real!*
Doing her best impression of Faith, Buffy leaned in, smiling seductively. "Simple. You answer the questions, you go quick. You don't, and we'll find out how good a book 'The Complete Idiots Guide to Torture' really is. Your choice."
Before he could respond, Tara spoke. "For the record, how exactly did you manage to get yourself stuck in the Hellmouth in the, 30's, was it?"
"Oh!" Anya said in a surprised voice, as per the plan. "That was me."
"What?" Both Buffy and Tara turned to look at the third woman in simulated shock.
"It was me," Anya repeated, shrugging. She winked at the other women, "You know what they say about a woman scorned."
"What?" The Master asked, outraged. "That was over five hundred years ago!"
"Hey," Anya said, "you should have known better than to jilt a vengeance demon. I mean, really, how stupid do you have to be?"
"Hmmm." Tara nodded her head, appearing to be deep in thought. "Vengeance is a dish best served cold." She looked at Anya. "Good job."
At this point, the Master's attention was focused fully on the women and he was taken by surprise when Father Mike started the exorcism.
"Heinrich Nest," the priest began.
"Thank you, Tara." Anya said as if Father Mike hadn't spoken. "You know," she continued in a tone that indicated she was sharing a life lesson, "it's never too late to extract vengeance."
"Master of the line of Aurelius, do you renounce Satan?"
"Nor is there such a thing as too much vengeance," she said and then turned to the Master. "My fiancé, Xander, is a much better lover than you ever were."
"And all his works?"
"Really. He's great!" She turned to the other women and spoke as if gossiping. "I mean, you'd think vampire endurance, right? But not that one. He was pretty much the wham-bam-not-so-much-as-a-thank-you-Anyanka kind of guy. Humph. Pathetic, really!"
"And all his pomps?"
"No concern for his partner. And that the wham-bam wasn't even all that good!"
The pull of the priest's questions, combined with Anya's disparaging comments about his sexual prowess were too much for the Master and his head flew back and forth between the two, trying to keep up. This distraction was exactly the reaction the group had been looking for. While Buffy and Tara hadn't quite known how to react when Anya had revealed her past relationship with the Master, neither felt they were in a position to criticize anyone else's choice of romantic partner. Plus, Anya's fervent plea to not tell Xander had put her on even ground with the slayer. Both would keep the other's secret for fear of her own getting out.
Once they judged the Master sufficiently distracted, the four joined hands and said the last part of the ceremony all together. Father Mike had insisted that combing their strengths – his as a priest, Anya's as a being who had lived for over 1,000 years, Tara's mental powers from witchcraft, and Buffy's love for Spike – would be more effective than him alone.
Anya had swelled with pride that her past was being recognized as useful. Tara mentally raised an eyebrow; she was sure the priest didn't believe in magick, but dismissed the discrepancy. She knew her power to be true and decided that's all that mattered. Buffy had opened her mouth to protest the priest's belief about her love for Spike, but then rationalized that he didn't mean love as in "love love," but love as in the sense of protection she felt for any of the innocent she protected on a daily basis. *Not that Spike's all that innocent…* Together the four spoke.
"The Lord rebuke you, Heinrich Nest! Depart, Heinrich Nest, evil spirit, and leave Spike in peace! Leave immediately, Heinrich Nest!"
Even before they finished the final command, the seizures started. This time they were more violent, as if the two demons knew that this battle would determine a final winner. Both were fighting for life, or unlife, as the case may be. The Master knew if he left, his demon would dissipate into the air without a physical host to reside in. If that happened, he wasn't sure if he would return to hell or simply cease to exist. He rather suspected the latter, and the idea terrified him.
Spike knew that if he let the Master win, Buffy would be forced to stake him. He would want her to, rather than let the Master roam free. But he didn't really want to die. More than that, though, he wanted to avoid forcing her to kill another one of her lovers. From what he'd heard, she hadn't taken it too well the last time and he refused to put her in the position to experience that much pain again.
While the two battled and Spike's features shifted between demonic and human, the exorcism team kept chanting their mantra of commands.
"The Lord rebuke you, Heinrich Nest! Depart, Heinrich Nest, evil spirit, and leave Spike in peace! Leave immediately, Heinrich Nest!"
The two were pretty evenly matched, and Spike realized this could be a long fight. He idly wondered who would tire and give up first before gathering his strength for another assault.
The Master was losing and he knew it. He didn't know, however, if Spike realized he had the upper hand yet or not. But the Master's distraction at the beginning of the ritual, combined with the fact that Spike inherently had some advantage since it was his body, meant that the Master felt his hold slipping. The strength pouring out of the four humans, pulling at the Master's demon didn't help matters any, either.
The Master desperately searched for a way to reassert his control. "She'll never love you," he whispered to Spike's demon. "No matter what, all you'll ever be is beneath her."
Spike's demon mentally shrugged and responded in his cockiest tone, "You'll have to do better than that, mate. She's here, isn't she?"
"Only because she doesn't want to lose her sex toy, childe," he responded condescendingly. Then, the Master paused. He could sense something. He ignored Spike's reply and focused on the feeling. It almost felt like…another vampire. One of his bloodline! Anyone had to be easier to control than this infuriating, insufferable childe who was a Master Vampire in his own right. Yes! The Master could tell that the other vampire was young, very young, maybe not even a decade old. He wanted to try and learn more about the other vampire, but extending his senses to study it had only weakened his hold more.
The Master knew that he was quickly running out of options. At this point, he was pretty sure Spike's demon was going to force him out of the body they shared. That meant he could dissipate into the air, or take his chances with this other vampire. With one last metaphysical slap upside the head, the Master abandoned Spike's body.
The exorcism team ceased chanting when the convulsions stopped. They waited, hopefully looking for a sign that their efforts had been successful. However, the fight had taken a lot out of Spike, not to mention that he was now supporting the full after-effects of the multiple doses of tranquilizer. He hadn't realized that the Master had been shouldering half of that burden before. The combined result made it difficult to lift his head and look at Buffy.
He managed, though, and was amazed to see how bright her eyes became as she recognized him in his gaze. *Are those tears in her eyes? For me?*
"Hallo, luv." He smiled weakly.
Before Buffy could reply, a resounding crash was heard from the other side of the room and the four humans turned as one. The bed tiled down at one corner, as if someone had broken one of its legs. They watched in horror as Jarred, now controlled by the Master stood and pulled his wrists apart, snapping the links between the two handcuffs as if they were made of thread.
Buffy's eyes grew wide. Neither she nor Spike had been able to break the handcuffs and both had tried, repeatedly.
"Wow," she said moving in front of the other three. "Jarred must take his vitamins."
"Actually," the Master responded, "I think he's been feeding on drug users. I never did care for the taste myself. But if you can get past that, the blood's quite…invigorating."
"Let me guess," the slayer responded drolly as the Master moved out from behind the bed. "PCP?"
Vampire and slayer circled one another.
"I always did dislike the bantering," the Master said, ignoring Buffy's question. Then, he lunged and the fight began in earnest.
Buffy sent him staggering backwards with a swift uppercut, followed by a sharp jab to the nose. He responded by kicking out and trying to sweep her legs out from under her. The slayer jumped over his extended leg.
"That all you got, old man?" she taunted.
As soon as her feet returned to the earth, she launched into a roundhouse kick to his head, which he dodged. As Buffy was pivoting and regaining her equilibrium, his foot shot up and caught her in the stomach, sending her flying backwards. She landed on her back on the bed and the Master was on top of her in an instant. His knees clamped on either side of her thighs, immobilizing her legs. He pinned her arms above her with one hand and pulled her head sharply to the side with the other, exposing her neck.
"Yes," he whispered so only she could hear, "you'll make a fine vampire."
He lowered his head to her neck, and sank his fangs into her flesh.
tbc
+++++
A/N: Aggggh! Even I'm on edge after that cliffhanger! Good news, though: Consider this the last commercial break before the end! And I promise to have the final part up tomorrow, Tuesday, 4/30. Thanks, as always, for the reviews! I can not adequately begin to describe what they mean to me!