Disclaimer: I own nothing. Everything belongs to Joss Whedon and Warner Brothers.
Title: All That's Good
Part 2: Bloody Hell! Not Another Prophecy!
By
Anessa Ramsey
Leo stared at the Elders, unable to believe what he was hearing. "You can't be serious!"
"We are decidedly so," an imperious man in gray robes said, twirling the end of his long white beard between his fingers.
"He's a vampire."
"It does not matter. He understands the evil of the world in ways that not even we do. He has seen it. He has committed unspeakable acts. It cannot be stopped. This day was destined for him from the birth of the world. It is a prophecy that must be fulfilled. He must do what we ask. He seeks his soul, but one cannot seek what has not been misplaced. William resides in him. He has been there all along. It is his time to ascend. The new moon is in two nights. You must prepare him and the Charmed Ones for the ritual. They are going to need all their power. This will be felt throughout the world. He must complete his mission or in three days the world will end and not even we will be able to stop it."
"Can you tell me how so that I can warn them about what they are facing?"
"They'll know. They will find out during the ceremony. Now go, prepare them. He must ascend. He will ascend."
Leo just looked at their implacable faces momentarily before orbing to the manor.
Paige was sitting at the table, working on a new potion when Leo orbed in. Piper was at P3 and Phoebe was at the newspaper. Spike was sleeping in the basement. Leo had been gone all night. Piper was worried and she was taking out her frustrations on the crew setting up for a catered party taking place that night. "What's the matter?" she asked when she saw his face. He was pale and seemed to be shaking.
It took him a moment to break out of the trance he seemed to be in and when he answered, she just stopped. "The end."
"What do you mean, the end? The end of what?"
"The world."
Paige's eyes widened and she lunged for the phone, quickly calling Piper and Phoebe, ordering them to get home as quickly as possible. This was not good. "Cover the windows with blankets and towels. We need to darken the room. I have a feeling that whatever you're not telling me about the end of the world centers around the vampire sleeping in our basement." She turned when Leo nodded and went to retrieve the blankets.
She, on the other hand, walked into the kitchen and down into the basement. "Spike, get your punk ass out of bed!" she said, stomping down the stairs, making no attempt to be quiet.
"Sod it all, woman, 'm tryin' to sleep. I'm a vampire…it's day, it's what I do."
"Yeah, well, Leo found out what's going on and it seems that the world is going to be ending. There's a whole bunch of stuff about it being prophesized."
He groaned, remembering the Acathla incident with his sire. He liked the world the way it was but he liked his sleep more. "Bloody hell! Not another prophecy," He groaned. He turned his head into his pillow. "Well, then, call me when it's over," he said, rolling away from her. He hugged the pillow tight, but she came over and ripped it out of his arms. She was a major bitch, just like…. His mind wandered back to Sunnydale and the blond haired slayer that he was so in love with. He tried to rape her. He cringed now, thinking about it, but at the time, she drove him to the breaking point.
Now that he was away though, he was thinking clearly for the first time in two years and he wasn't feeling heartsick and mooning over the slayer. He couldn't help but wonder if he had a spell put on him. He was three hundred miles away and he felt nothing. No love, no lust, just a sense of warmth…friendship. He growled. He'd been whammied with a spell and he had a pretty good guess as to who did it. Bloody witch…messin' with his head to get him to protect Dawn. He'd have to have a chat with her when…if… he decided to go back.
Paige backed up a step at the sound of the low growl emanating from the cot. He noticed immediately and quieted down. "No worries, luv. Just realized somethin' is all."
"Yeah, well, Leo needs us upstairs. Piper and Phoebe are on their way home."
"Sure." He rose from the cot and the blanket that had been covering him fell away, leaving him in nothing but a pair of jeans. His bare feet pointed out from beneath the legs of the jeans and she whistled in appreciation of his well defined abs.
"Thanks luv. M'not appreciated nearly as much as I should be."
"Don't let it go to your head. Didn't say I liked anything else, did I?"
He laughed, the first truly mirthful sound she'd heard him make since his arrival the night before. It was nice, full bodied and rich, like a glass of good brandy. She watched him pass her by as he pulled on the black shirt he'd been wearing the night before. "You comin'?" he asked, turning to look at her.
For just a moment she lost herself in his eyes, before nodding and following him up the stairs. She checked to be sure that Leo had sunproofed the house and then told him to come in. Piper and Phoebe walked in a few minutes later.
"What's so important that I had to be dragged out of the club when I have a huge party tonight?"
"And why was I told that there was another family emergency when I said that I had to finish my piece for tomorrow's edition."
Leo sat his wife and Phoebe down before he began. "It's the end of the world."
Silence.
Finally Piper spoke, "Excuse me, but did you say the end of the world?"
"Yeah."
"Guys it's not as if we haven't faced big threats before…what's the deal with the shock?"
"We've never faced the end of the world, Phoebe. It's bound to be a lot harder and completely different than taking on the Source."
"Piper and Paige are right, Phoebe. The end of the world…it's…" Leo tried to find the word to describe it.
"It's bloody and scary and defeating. It's watching everything and everyone you care about get sucked up into something that's bigger than all your greatest fears combined. It's watching your grand-sire steal your love and try to send the world to Hell. It's watching someone you think you love jump into a portal of swirling energy to close the gateway between this world and all the dimensions of Hell only to fall through onto a pile of rubble once the portal is closed. It's realizing that they died the second the energy from the portal enveloped their body. It's watching them get resurrected against their will, yanked out of Heaven and away from the first peace they've had in years, then watching them suffer because their friends couldn't leave well enough alone. It's watching them loose all feeling, watching them push away everything and everyone that used to matter most. That's the end of the world."
They all just stared at him, unsure of how to respond. Finally Paige said, "You sound like you've had experience with this sort of thing."
"Too many times…'m not supposed to be the one tryin' to save the world you know. That's why you're here and why there's slayers and watchers and Scoobies and champions. 'S'not my job. I'm a vampire. I'm supposed to be evil."
"Then why are you here?" Phoebe asked.
"I just wanted my soul…thas' it."
"Wanting your soul isn't evil. It sounds like you haven't done anything evil in quite awhile," Phoebe said, not noticing the way he flinched slightly at the reminder of why he left Sunnydale.
"You're going to get more than you're soul," Leo said, speaking up.
"What now?"
"In two days…the night of the new moon…you will ascend."
"Ascend?"
"You'll become a Whitelighter. A higher being."
Spike started laughing. "You've got to be bloody joking. I'm a vampire, ducks. There's no chance in hell they'd make me one of you…you're angels."
"Apparently it was intended for you all along. Part of that prophecy thing."
"And if I refuse?"
"The world ends."
More hysterical laughter bubbled out of him. "Isn't this just peachy."
Ignoring his hysteria and laughter Paige focused on something he said that the rest of the group didn't catch on to. "Back up. Slayers? Watchers? Scoobies? And Champions? What are they?"
He sighed. "Nothin' to be concernin' yourself with. You'll probably be meetin' 'em soon enough if the world's going to end where I think it is."
"And where's that?" Piper queried.
"Where it's always supposed to end."
"And where's that?" Paige snapped, sick of the ping-pong of words.
He frowned. "The Hellmouth."