Title: Sun and Shadow
Section: Los Angeles I
Part: Two -- For Keeps
Author: Arsahi
Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer is property of Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. Angel the Series belongs to Joss Whedon, David Greenwalt, and Mutant Enemy.
Distribution: Eh...gonna be stingy this time and say ask first. You can find my email address on my author profile.
Dedication: The normal people, you know who you are.
Rated: This part is rated PG-13.
Pairings: Ugh! Too many to name!
Notes: This is my first crossover, folks. Be warned.
Timeframe: Post-Gone for BtVS and post-Dad for Angel.

~*~ For Keeps ~*~

"Have fun, poofter!" Spike called into the empty lobby, the words echoing off of the empty walls. He then followed Fred and Gunn out to the car, where Cordelia, Wesley, and Lorne already sat. "So, where're we off too first? Are there any demon bars here tha' serve vampires? I'm a bi' thirsty, and seein' as to how I can't exac'ly bite my own prey..."
The occupants of the car stared at him.
"Wha'?" Spike asked defensively.
"Let's take him by Caritas," Gunn suggested. "Maybe there's some not-exactly-still-potent blood there."
"No'-exac'ly-potent? Are you out of your bloody mind?" Spike scoffed.
"Remind me again why we are doing this?" Wesley rubbed his temples.
"Because we're gonna have to get used to him either way. Looks like he's going to be staying here awhile," Cordelia answered.
"So...uh...Spike," Fred said conversationally. "Where'd you come from?"
"Sunnyhell," Spike replied, the same time Cordelia said "Sunnydale".
Wesley craned his neck back to look at Spike, who had been wedged between Fred and Lorne. On Fred's right and next to the door was Gunn. Wesley rode shotgun with Cordelia. "Oh? How's Buffy?"
A pained, longing expression crossed Spike's features and stayed there. "Alive," he muttered. "Happy for the mos' par'."
"What's the deal with Dead Girl? One minute she's dead, the next she's alive, then she commits suicide and now she's back," Cordelia said. "Why doesn't she just stay dead?"
Hurt added to the expression on his face. "She didn't wan' t' come back," he told them, digging in his duster for something. He searched it inside out, then searched his pockets. "Bloody hell."
"What now?" Lorne asked.
"Don't suppose I can bum a fag from any of you?" Spike asked. "No, you lot are too goody-goody. Queen C, stop a' the neares' drug store. I need a smoke, bad."
Cordelia shook her head and pulled over to the curb. "In there," she motioned. "You better have the money, 'cause no one in this car is paying for your smelly cancer sticks."
Spike smirked at her. "So nice."
As soon as Spike was in the store, Gunn piped up, "Did anyone see that I'm-so-in-love-with-this-chick-you-just-brought-up-but-I-can't-have-her-and-that's-why-I-came-here look on Spike's face when you mentioned Buffy, English?"
"I did," Fred agreed.
"Unfortunately, so did I," Wesley nodded.
"God! What is it with Buffy and the good-looking vampires?" Cordelia whined.
"Jealous much?" Wesley mimicked her speech good-naturedly.
"Shut up Wesley," Cordelia shoved him playfully.
"Here comes the man of the hour," Lorne announced. Spike launched himself into the car, a bottle of some alcohol in one hand and a box of cigarettes in the other. "Whoa. Really packing down on the bad-for-humans stuff aren't you?"
"Sod off, Lizard Boy," Spike told him, a cigarette already dangling from his lips as he sparked it. "Anybody else want one?"
"No," they chorused.
"Wankers," Spike informed them.

"So what's this place?" Spike asked as they parked outside Caritas and stood outside the remains of the karaoke bar. "Cits?" he read from the remains of the sign. "The hell?"
"This is the remains of Caritas, my karaoke bar," Lorne told him.
Spike choked on the smoke he'd just inhaled. "Beg pardon?"
"Lorne runs a karaoke bar," Fred reiterated. "Or...did...I didn't exactly ever get to go because he came here when I opened a portal to Pylea and I went to Pylea and then Cordelia went to Pylea and...I'm babbling..."
"Yes you are," Spike agreed. He took a swig from the potent alcohol in his left hand after removing the cigarette with his right. "Is there anythin' lef' of this place?"
"Not after Holtz blew the place up," Lorne replied sadly. He hung his head. So did Gunn, Wesley, and Fred. Cordelia just rolled her eyes and grabbed Spike by the arm, shoving him in the front seat.
"I'll be right back," Gunn dashed down the incinerated steps and came back with nothing. "Everythin' down there is ash."
"You're lucky something didn't collapse on you," Fred scolded gently.
"Ah I'm all right," Gunn threw a friendly arm around her shoulders and hugged her like that. "You know everythin's coo'."
Spike frowned at Gunn and Fred, then glanced at the empty bottle in his hand. He wondered when he'd gotten to be such a wuss that it only took one bottle of Jack to put him under the table. Then he put his head in his arms and cried.
Everyone rushed over to the car and piled into the backseat. "What's wrong, Spike?" Fred asked.
He mumbled something, and then louder said, "Leave me 'lone. I'm fine." He sniffed, tossed the empty bottle out of the car, and looked to Cordy. "Where're we goin' now?"
"Oh! I know!" Fred cried. "Let's take him to the library!"
"What?" Spike looked back at her. "The bloody library? No. Books, bad. Bad, bad books. No books."
"O...okay," Fred buckled her seatbelt as the others did too. Cordelia drove off, pointing out various spots. They drove by her apartment complex and by Wolfram & Hart.
Wesley saw a few demons of the peaceful sort walk into a discreetly marked warehouse. A vinyl banner proclaimed the warehouse to be 'El Demonios y Seres Humanos'. Spike squinted at the banner. "'El Demonios y Seres Humanos'...hey, Watch--" he closed his eyes, shook his head, and continued, "Pryce, doesn't that mean 'the demons and humans'?"
"Yes I believe it does," Wesley nodded. "Anything named that should be safe."
"For demons," Spike said. "Lemme go on in, I'll check the place ou'. If it's okay, I'll come ge' you two...three...uh..."
"Five, darlin'," Cordelia patted his leg.
"Five," Spike nodded. He climbed out of the car, pulling out a cigarette and raising it to his lips, then lowering his hand. "Who are you all again? I remember Queen C's name...and...you're...Fred," he pointed to Fred. "Righ'?"
Fred nodded. "This is Gunn, and that's Lorne, and that's Wesley."
"Gunn, Lorne, Wesley, righ'," he nodded. Spike then went into the club, leaving Cordelia, Wesley, Lorne, Fred, and Gunn to entertain themselves.
"I'd better go with him, make sure he doesn't hurt himself," Lorne hopped out of the car and caught up with the tipsy vampire.
The car was engulfed in silence. Fred broke the silence. "Is he gonna be okay?" she asked quietly. "He seems pretty torn up about Buffy..."
"He'll survive Hurricane Buffy," Cordelia rolled her eyes. "Angel did. Though why that girl keeps attracting vampires..."
"Heads up," Gunn said quietly, discreetly nodding to a group of four vampires approaching the vehicle. The vampires passed the car and turned into the sidewalk leading up to El Demonios y Seres Humanos. "...Maybe not."
Spike and another vampire tumbled out of the club. Spike punched the other vampire in the face, his game face surfacing as he fought brutality with cunning and swiftness and strength. He threw the other vampire into the wall, and the vampire ducked as Spike faked a punch to the face and brought his knee to the younger vampire's midsection. "Learned tha' one," he grunted around his elongated teeth as he slammed his elbow on the base of his opponent's neck, "from the," he jammed his knee up to the vamp's nose, "Slayer!" He knocked the vampire back into the wall with a mighty roar and pulled a stake from his duster, promptly staking the vampire. The crowd that had gathered around them clapped and whistled and hooted for Spike. And for the first time since he'd gotten the chip in his head he felt respected, and feared as well as the demons and vampires and humans parted for him. He felt...like himself. He felt like Spike.
Lorne threaded his way through the crowd and approached Angel's car. "Did you guys see that? Spike really kicked demon butt! That was the most amazing display of vampiric strength I've seen in a long time. Besides Angel, of course."
"Lorne, you've only seen Angel fight. The rest of the time you're in Caritas," Cordelia replied.
"Well...yeah. But it's safe to go inside. Humans can't be hurt," Lorne told them. He still seemed a bit awed. "Most vampires are so sloppy at fighting..."
"And you would know this...how, Lorne?" Cordelia got out of the car and locked it.
"I've seen vampires fight outside of Caritas," Lorne informed her. "But really, it's safe in the club. Humans are safe."
"Well, what are we standin' around goofin' off for? Let's party," Gunn grabbed Wesley's and Fred's arms and led them into the club, Cordelia following, and Lorne trailing behind them.

"So I punched the bloke, smack! And he tries t' kick my legs ou' from underneath me, bu' see, I'm smarter 'n tha'," Spike was telling a crowd of vampires and demons and humans around him about a time in Brazil. He tapped his temple for emphasis. "Then I grab 'im by the throa', righ'? And throw tha' tosser in'o the cryp' and i' falls apar'." He was beginning to lose control of his t's and h's. The other demons kept buying him drinks, and Spike was never one to refuse a good drink. "An' the Schlay," he shook his head, trying to clear it of the fuzziness that had developed, "an' the Slayer," he emphasized the word to pronounce it correctly, "was in the bushes, hidin' like a sissy. So's I kick tha' demon in'a 'ead so 'ard 'is 'ead falls off."
"Wow," said one of the female vampires reverently, siddling up to him. "Say...you're Spike, aren't you? William the Bloody?"
"The very'ne," he replied, slurring "very" and "one" into a single word by accident. "Killer a two Schlayers! Childe o' Druschilla and grand-childe o' Angelush, great-grand-childe of Darla!"
"Wow," she said again, pressing her way to the front of the crowd finally and pressing her body against his left side. "So you know the Slayer?"
"Know 'er? I shagged her in'o obliv'on," Spike stated proudly.
Suddenly, a scream ripped through El Demonios y Seres Humanos. Lorne ran from where he had been chatting with his cousin Landok, who had returned from Pylea and started up a club in the fashion of Lorne. "Oh my god, Angel!" Cordelia cried from the center of the room, clutching her head and wheezing. "Oh my god! It's Angel! And Connor!"
Spike jumped up but immediately regretted it as the world swirled around him. "Connor?" he asked, as the club had gone silent.
Cordelia struggled to her feet. "Angel's in trouble!" she fought off Gunn and Wesley as they tried to help her out. Instead she shoved the keys to Angel's convertible into Wesley's hands and stumbled out of the door, dragging Spike with her. "Oh my god, they're gonna get Connor," Cordelia whispered, going over the vision she just had again in her mind. "They're gonna dust Angel. Move your asses, Gunn, Wesley, Fred, Lorne!"
"Wha' the bloody 'ell was tha'?" Spike rubbing his head and closing one eye, looking at her.
"A vision," Cordelia explained as everyone piled into the car. "And you are so unbelievably hammered, aren't you?"
"I guess," Spike shrugged. He lurched forward when Wesley paused briefly at a stop sign and lurched backwards when they accelerated.
"Why'd you have to get drunk when Angel's going to be attacked?" Cordelia asked despairingly. "Without you we may as well just be killed. Angel's the only other one with strength like yours, and without that, Angel's going to die again and Connor's going to too."
"I kin still figh'," Spike scoffed indignantly and almost rolled into the front seats as the car stopped.
"You can't even stand," Cordelia shook her head as she climbed out of the car and dug in the trunk for a weapon to use. She pulled out a sword, attempting to expertly wield it. Spike followed her, steadying himself for a moment on the door. He took a deep, unneeded breath and walked in a straight line to the trunk, pulled out an axe, and followed Wesley and Gunn. "In the back," Cordelia motioned, "it was in the back!"
Spike grabbed Gunn's arm, "Hit me."
"What?" Gunn looked at Spike like he'd lost his mind.
"Hit me, dammit," Spike snarled.
Gunn shrugged and did as told. Then he could've sworn he saw little birds fly around the peroxide blond head of Spike's. Spike shook his head, sobered a little. "Thanks, mate," he clapped Gunn on the back and hurried after Wesley, Cordelia, and Fred. Within moments, a large lumbering demon with seven horns and matching eyes with four arms and three legs covered in slime appeared out of the shadows. Spike and Gunn tucked and rolled, ending up behind the demon and striking it in unison. Wesley came over, raised his sword above his head, and nearly cleaved Gunn's arm off. Cordelia managed to stab the slimey demon in one of its arms and screamed when she couldn't grab the sword out. Fred tried her hand at injuring the demon, but failed miserably--even got thrown into the wall behind the Hyperion. Spike brought the butt of his axe down on the demon's shoulder, making it turn towards him, and on a lucky swing managed to cleave off one of the arms--the arm Cordelia had stuck her sword in.
Gunn sliced off another arm from behind the demon, and when it turned around, Spike chopped off one of its legs. It was Spike's second night in Los Angeles, and he was already liking this city more than Sunnydale.
"Stop with the slicing and dicing already!" Cordelia yelled at them as the demon toppled over from lack of all three legs. She brought her sword down and chopped off the demon's head.
"Have to slice and dice, girl," Gunn informed her, chopping off the rest of its limbs with Spike.
Once the demon melted away, Cordelia dropped her sword and ran through the Hyperion until she found Angel, who had just put Connor to bed. She threw herself into his arms, hugging him close. "Oh Angel," she murmured. "Angel, Angel...you're okay...you're okay...you're alive..."
"Yeah, that I am," Angel agreed, returning the embrace. "Not exactly alive, but..."
"You're not a pile of dust," she pulled back and put her hands on either side of his face. "Oh I was so afraid we didn't get here in time," she kissed both of his cheeks.
Angel, bewildered but not rejecting her advances, then asked, "What happened?"
"I had a vision that you," she kissed his forehead, "and Connor were killed by a demon. And we got here in time. Thank God," she kissed him full on the mouth, reassuring herself that he was there.
Angel didn't have time to return the kiss before he heard footsteps and voices pouring into the lobby. Cordelia broke away. "We saved him!" she cried. "See? Look! He's alive!"
"Undead, pet," Spike corrected.
"Where's Lorne?" Wesley asked, looking around. "Is he still in the car?"
"I think so," Fred answered.
Lorne walked in the front door with a blank sheet of paper, looking at it curiously. He handed it to Angel, shrugging. "It's for you. The girl who gave it to me said it was from the Conduit."
Gunn frowned. "Why would the PTB have any beef with you, man?"
"I...I don't know," Angel's brow scrunched up as he read the blank sheet of paper. He suddenly looked up, folding the paper and sticking it in his pocket. "I gotta go. I'll be back soon." He started off, paused, turned around and looked at Cordelia, then thought the better of whatever he was going to do and left Angel Investigations headquarters.

Angel fell into the large spherical dirt pit that was the Conduit's domicile. A large, circular bonfire sat in the center of the circle. "Uh...Conduit?"
"It speaks," voices whispered around him. A female and male voice suddenly spoke above the others.
"It is wary," they said, slightly out of synchronization. "It wants to know why it has been summoned."
"It has a soul," the other voices whispered, awed.
Angel raised his eyebrows. "Are we going to get to a point anytime soon?"
"It has a sense of humor," the male and female voices intoned. "Like its mate."
"Mate?" Angel echoed.
"Friend. Love," the male and female voices announced. "Coworker. Assistant. Mate."
"Cordelia?" Angel whispered.
"It is intelligent," the miscellaneous voices said mockingly.
"What's this all about?" Angel asked, spreading his arms open, then thinking the better of it and folding them, slowly stalking around the fire.
"It has its soul permanent. It has repented enough to keep its soul," the male and females voices told him.
Angel stood there, stunned. "You...you mean, I get to keep my soul? I can keep my soul? I can have a moment of pure happiness and not turn into Angelus?"
"It is correct," the male and female voices said.
Angel let out an ecstatic whoop. "Tell the Powers That Be thank you!"