Title: Mending the Future

Author: Jade Hunter

Disclaimer: None of the characters or the properties of Buffy the Vampire Slayer belong to me.

A.N: I'm trying to continue all the fics that are supposed to be more than one-shots, but I'm having trouble because I have so many new ideas in my head, lol. Oy vay.

"talking"

thoughts

emphasis

flashback

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Drusilla opened her eyes dreamily. She knew what she wanted. She wanted to make things right, so that they wouldn't turn out like in her vision of the future.

Not going to Sunnydale wouldn't solve things. Her cure lay on the Hellmouth, flowing through the veins of her Sire.

However, if they waited a year and went, things would stay the same. Angelus would return, and wish to end the world. She would have to choose between Angelus and Spike, and though she loved Spike, she was a vampire, and could never disobey her Sire.

Deep inside, Drusilla knew the reason Angelus had tried to awaken Acathla. He had been unhappy, because he had no companion, no Grandmum to keep him company.

For everything to be right again, Grandmum was needed.

But he kills her, my Angel does, she thought, pensively. There's only one way.

"Spike?"

He propped his head up and looked down at her. "Yeah, love?"

"I want us to be a family again, my William," she told him, remembering her words to the Spike in the future.

His gaze narrowed. "A family?" he asked, warily.

"Mmm," she answered, turning her head slightly to look at him.

"I hope you're not talking about Angel, pet," he said, his voice tense. "He's the enemy now."

Spike was surprised when she gazed directly at him, her eyes meeting his. Even more surprising was that she was completely focused, her eyes clear and lucid.

"I know, my pet," she smiled, bringing a hand up to caress his cheek. "But he doesn't have to be."

Spike continued to eye her.

"Grandmum will see to it," she explained, excited. "Daddy will come back, and we'll all be together again."

"Darla?" Spike asked, his brow furrowing. "What does she have to do with this?"

She seemed to drift off, and her voice became weak again, recalling something. "Daddy can return on his own, my Spike," she sighed. "But before he does, he will do something he will regret. He won't be happy, and he will want to make us unhappy, too."

He scowled. "So why the hell are we bothering with him, then?" he demanded.

Her gaze was reproachful, and he was immediately sorry for raising his voice at her. "Grandmum will make sure he's happy."

As much as Spike hated the thought of Angel, having a soul and all that disgusting rot, Spike remembered their time with Angelus and Darla with a bit of fondness, despite some of the head butting that went on between the two male vampires. It was all in good fun, most of the time, and they had always laughed it off, because they knew that they were a family, through good times and bad.

Then Angelus had become Angel, feeding on rats while brooding, and had abandoned them. Darla had gone back to her Sire, the Master, soon afterwards, and Drusilla and Spike had been alone.

Although Spike relished the long years he and his Black Goddess spent together, a part of him still missed the days when the four of them wreaked havoc on the lands.

It was that part that made him ask, "Well, what do we need to do, then?"

The thrilled smile Drusilla sent his way made it all worth while.

"We must go to Sunnydale," she told him, excited that her boy wanted the family back as well. "To the Hellmouth."

"Now, love? You're still weak, not fit for traveling," he protested, softly.

Drusilla shook her head. Despite it having been a few months since she had been attacked, they had stayed in Prague, because Spike wanted to get her well before leaving. His theory was that since the people of Prague had done this to her, their blood would make her better again. In her vision, it had taken him a year to realize that it wouldn't work. That wouldn't work out this time, because if they waited a bit longer, Drusilla knew that Angel would stake Darla.

Right now, they still had time to make things right.

"No, my darling," she said. "If we go now, we'll make it in time."

In time for what? Spike began to ask, but held his tongue as he remembered what she'd said before.

"In time to stop Angel from doing something Angelus'll regret?" he ventured a guess.

Drusilla nodded, pleased with her Childe's intelligence and quick wit.

He frowned, "What's so important that Angelus would regret it?" Spike knew his Grandsire well, and doubted the vampire would ever regret anything.

She beckoned him closer, and he obligingly did so.

"Angel loves the Slayer," she whispered in his ear, as if telling a secret that she'd promised to keep.

Spike recoiled in disgust from the very thought. "What?"

His lip curled, and a shudder racked his body as he imagined his souled Grandsire, drooling over someone who killed their kind. Hasn't he any shred of dignity at all?

"Yes," Dru nodded. "And Grandmum will find out, and she won't like it a bit."

"I doubt she would," Spike answered with a snort.

"She'll go after the Slayer, try and trick her, and will try and make Angel kill the girl. But," Dru held up a finger in warning, "the Slayer loves Angel, too, you see."

He almost choked on the horror that rose in him. What kind of Slayer falls for a vampire?

"So Grandmum has to do the killing all by her lonesome," Drusilla continued. "All alone, and she hates it, and he'll be the one to do it, she doesn't believe he would, but he will, for the Slayer, and – " here, Drusilla made an exploding motion with her hands, "gone."

Spike's mind raced to decode what his Sire was telling him. The conclusions he reached was too horrific to comprehend, something he could not believe that his Grandsire would do – soul or no soul. But Drusilla's visions were never wrong. Ever.

"He'll kill Darla? He'll kill his own bloody Sire?" he breathed out, trying to understand what could drive a vampire to turn on their Sire. Such a thing was not even forbidden because it had never been considered before, never happened before. No vampire would ever think of harming the one that had given them the gift of eternity.

"All for the Slayer," she repeated, then moaned in distress. "The Slayer, that wicked girl, taking Daddy, taking my boy, too! But I won't let her, I won't, Spike, she can't have you!"

Immediately, Spike put aside his shock and went to comfort his princess. Disturbed as he was that she talked about the Slayer taking him like she 'took' Angel – There's no bleedin way I'm gonna fall for the Slayer, he scowled mentally, No bloody way in hell. – he put that aside.

"Don't worry, baby," he crooned, enfolding her in his arms. "Bloody right, she won't have me, you won't let her, I know."

Drusilla stopped her moaning, letting it subside into whimpers as she was comforted by Spike.

He tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear and said earnestly, "Tell you what, pet. If you promise to eat right properly, I'll see how fast I can get us to Sunnyhell, hmm?"

"To save Grandmum and Daddy?" she responded eagerly. "And to punish the wicked Slayer?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "I promise. I'll rip her throat out, and let you feast on her blood."

"Oooh, chop her to pieces, kill her for princess?" Drusilla clapped her hands in delight.

"And smash her bones to bits," Spike promised.

Sighing in happiness, Drusilla wound her arms around Spike's neck, nuzzling into him. "My Spike, so good to me."

She gazed up at him, her eyes bright.

"You'll help me make things right, won't you?" she asked.

He nodded. "I promise, pet. But you need to save your strength."

"Don't worry," she told him, reaching for his hand. "I'll be strong again soon, you'll see."

For a moment, Spike let his despair show. "How?" he asked, brokenly. "No matter how much you feed…you're just not getting any stronger."

She smiled gently. "My cure lies in the Hellmouth, my sweet."

It was enough for Spike. He didn't know how they would cure Drusilla, he didn't know what he had to do. All he knew was that he would go to the ends of the Earth for that cure, and if it lay in Sunnydale – so be it.

"To the Hellmouth it is," he said, his eyes burning with determination.

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~Jade Hunter~