Chapter Ten: Brides of Angelus
Lilah looked up from the files she was working on when she heard the soft click of her office door shutting, even though it had already been closed. By that time, though, Angel had glided across the room and was lounging on her black leather sofa. She sighed and made a mental note to have whoever had set up the supposed "vampire detection" system maimed.
"Long day?" Angel asked solicitously, his voice thick with false concern.
"Not as long as the one you must be having if you're here again," she responded. "What is it this time? Finally decide to sue Anne Rice for stealing your one-sided personality for her books, and you're looking for legal representation?"
"Lilah, Lilah, Lilah," Angel said, shaking his head in mock disappointment. "Let me tell you a story. I'm sure you've heard it before. Once there was a vampire with a soul who worked for the Powers."
"Why am I not surprised?" the woman muttered, rolling her eyes.
Ignoring the interruption, Angel continued. "And he had a beautiful and kind seer who got horrible, painful visions of people in danger for him to help. Now, one day she had a vision that wouldn't end, and it was killing her. The vampire got very angry with the evil law firm behind this and violently killed their minion who was causing her never-ending vision. Do you remember the moral of the tale?"
"It's a good thing Connor wasn't around for you to tell bedtime stories to?" Lilah asked dryly.
Angel leaned forward from the couch and held Lilah's gaze as he responded, ignoring her gibe. "I told you not to come at me through Cordelia ever again."
Lilah started laughing. "I'm not," she said.
Before she could even blink, Angel had crossed the room and was leaning over the other side of the desk, glaring menacingly. "Here's what I don't think you're understanding," he said. "I didn't just mean you, I meant Wolfram & Hart."
"And here's what I don't think you're understanding," Lilah countered. "This isn't about you. In fact, you'll be pleased to know that Wolfram & Hart no longer has an interest in you. Although, I'm sure we can work something out, random attacks by various cults, maybe. You know, for old times' sake."
The confusion on Angel's face made Lilah wish for a camera. Pushing the button on her phone that opened the intercom line to her secretary, Lilah said into the phone, "Please call security. I have a visitor who needs an escort out of the building."
"Yes, Miss Morgan," the disembodied voice of an elderly woman replied.
"What do you mean?" Angel demanded.
"It's no longer about you," she said, smiling sweetly. "Turns out it never was. Guess we put too much stock in a prophecy. Then again, we're not the first to do that, are we?" While to the casual observer, Angel's face remained impassive at Lilah's crack, she had spent enough time studying him to know that her dig had hit home. Reaching up, she patted his left cheek, saccharine dripping from her words. "Guess you should have taken the chance to be human when you had it, huh?"
"How do you know about that?" Angel demanded, wondering what else the lawyers knew that he hadn't realized. Shaking his head, he amended his statement. "Never mind. It doesn't matter. Just like it doesn't matter if you're going after me or not. Cordelia is still off limits."
"You know what I think?" Lilah said, as two burly security guards entered her office. She was sure the vampire would break away from them before long, but equally sure he wouldn't return to her office until he was positive she was behind Cordelia's condition. "Something's happened to your seer, and you assume it's us. I'm touched, really. But if you knew for sure, I'd already be dead or hurting. Instead you're once again making vague threats, hoping I'll give myself away. Give me some credit. My world doesn't revolve around you."
Anymore, she added silently as the door closed behind the vampire and his escorts.
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"So, you're vampires," Richard said conversationally. The four were seated in the Fox parlor in an uncomfortable silence. Both Buffy and Cordelia were trying to think of a discreet way they could excuse themselves from the men in order to compare notes and, if necessary, get their stories straight.
Buffy chocked on her tea, nearly spitting it across the room, while Cordelia fared little better, only because she hadn't been drinking when Richard spoke.
"Cousin!" William exclaimed. "Don't be preposterous!"
"No," Buffy said, wiping at her lips with a napkin. "He's right."
William's eyes grew large and he stuttered as he protested the unexpected information. "B-b-but vampire aren't, aren't real. They're fictional!"
"No, William," Richard said, "They're not."
"If you knew we were vampires," Cordy said to Richard. "Why did you invite us in?"
"Drusilla's been here for an entire day and no one's gone missing or died mysteriously. I didn't realize what she was when I originally invited her in, but since she's had her chance to kill everyone here ten times over and hasn't, I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt for now. The same is extended to you as her friend. Plus, you very well could have killed me the other day when we met on the street, but you didn't."
"That's where I know you from!" Cordy exclaimed, realizing that Richard was the man who had pushed her out of the way of the runaway horses.
"To be fair," Buffy said, "We're not really vampires. I mean, we are, but…you remember how we said we're from the future?"
Richard and William nodded.
"Well, in the future, we're not vampires. We're not Drusilla and Darla either, for that matter. My name is Buffy, and that's Cordelia."
"Cordy," the other woman said, smiling.
"Cordy," Buffy amended. "I woke up in Drusilla's body a couple of days ago. I don't know how I got here. When you found me, Richard, I'd just dusted a vampire. That man who hit me didn't run away. I dusted him."
"Dusted?" William asked.
"Killed," Richard said. "With a wooden stake through the heart. When vampires are killed, they dissolve into dust. I've never seen it, but that's what I'm told."
"That's right," Buffy said, nodding. "If you've never seen it before, you might miss it if you weren't looking."
"You killed him?" William asked incredulously, sounding repulsed by the very idea.
"It's a good thing to do," she explained, stifling a laugh at the horror in William's voice at the thought of killing. "Vampires are inherently evil. If I didn't kill him, he would have just gone on to kill an innocent person. And he would keep doing it until someone stopped him."
"Forgive me for asking," William said, "but if vampires are so evil, why…"
"Why should you trust us?" Cordy asked bluntly. When William nodded timidly in reply, the seer continued. "Because we're not really vampires. I mean, we are, physically, but our spirits, our souls are good. We have souls."
"Vampires are soulless creatures by definition," Richard said. "How can you have souls?"
"You'd be surprised," Buffy muttered under her breath before explaining aloud. "Because we're not really vampires. We're human."
"Even if that weren't the case," Cordy added, electing to neglect mentioning her lack of fully human status, "we're the good guys. Just because we switched bodies with two evil vampires doesn't make us evil."
"Right," Buffy agreed. "But when we switch back, if you see us again, it won't be us. It'll be Drusilla and Darla, and they're dangerous." Here the Slayer paused, a warning to avoid the two vampires at all costs on the tip of her tongue before remembering that William would, at some point in the future, have to get close enough to Drusilla to be turned. Unless I've already ruined that, she thought, a new fear creeping into her mind. What if my being here and meeting William means that he'll avoid Dru? If Spike never gets sired . . . the implications of such an occurrence raced through Buffy's mind, followed quickly by another, equally sobering thought. Maybe he's not supposed to get sired. Maybe that's why I'm here.
"We have to be careful what we say and do," she announced, deciding to leave the question for later. "I don't want to go back to a world that's completely different from the one I left."
"Very true," Richard said, "the timeline must be preserved."
"How do you know about vampires, Richard?" Cordy asked.
"My father works as a researcher for an organization that deals with vampires and other aspects of the supernatural," the young man replied, his chest puffing out with pride. "The men in my family have worked for the Council for generations. When I finish my studies, I will follow in his footsteps."
"Your father's a watcher?" Buffy asked.
"A what?" Richard said.
"This council your father works for," Buffy explained. "It's called the Council of Watchers?"
"Yes."
Richard and William were surprised when both of the women burst out laughing.
"I'd thought of them," Buffy said to Cordelia. "But then I thought, what, am I crazy?"
"Me too," the other woman confessed, still laughing. "Guess we found them after all."
"What's so funny?" Richard demanded.
A new voice answered him from the room's doorway. "Perhaps it's the irony of a watcher's family inviting three of the most feared vampires into the world into their home."
Four heads turned, as the quartet automatically rose, to see Mrs. Fox standing stiffly in the doorway. A beefy hand was wrapped tightly around her neck and Angelus stood behind her in game face, his other hand on her shoulder, holding the deathly pale, but still alive woman in place.
"Oh dear," Buffy heard William utter before the young man's eyes rolled back in his head and he fell to the floor in a faint.
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"Are the ropes too tight?" Willow asked Spike as she finished tying him to one of the Summers' dining room chairs.
"Not tight enough, Red," he replied seriously. "Make them tighter. Don't want evil me getting out."
"Still not liking this plan," Xander commented from the other side of the table.
"It's either Spike or Angel," Willow reminded him, putting on her infamous Resolve face. "One, I have to do the spell, and I'm here. And two, if something goes wrong, I'd take old Spike any day over Angelus."
From her seat at the kitchen bar, Anya patted the tranquilizer gun laying on the counter next to her. "And I'll be ready just in case evil Spike does get loose."
Dawn came into the room, carrying a box of magic supplies. Taking out the appropriate candles and other ingredients, she arranged them on the table in front of the vampire at Willow's instructions while the witch finished restraining Spike, the finishing touch a blindfold over his eyes.
Stepping back, she dusted her hands against each other, signifying a job well done. Looking at the others, she asked, "Everyone ready?"
At the confirming nods from the other three, Willow began her spell.
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"Oh, bloody hell," Spike moaned, opening his eyes as the dizzying effects of the spell wore off. He found himself lying on the floor of what looked to be a sitting room. Something about the room . . .before he could place it, his eyes were drawn to the other figures in the room. A man who looked familiar, Drusilla, Darla, and – bloody hell, indeed, mate – Angelus holding a middle aged woman in front of him. Wait, he thought, squinting at the woman, Aunt Emma?
The realization that he knew the woman was quickly followed by the realization that he was breathing. Not that it was unheard of for Spike to breathe; in fact he did it quite often. However, something about the action seemed off to the vampire, almost as if he had to breath…
Oh, balls! Understanding struck him with certain clarity. I'm human!
"What're you boys doing with me women?" Angelus asked conversationally, directing his remark towards Richard.
"That's none of your concern," Cordy said as bitchily as possible. "What are you doing here?"
"Saw you walking down the street earlier," Angelus replied. "Thought I'd come in and join in the fun."
Quickly, Spike climbed to his feet as Drusilla approached the larger vampire and his hostage.
"I think calling them your women might be a bit of an overestimation on your part, mate," Spike said. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the other man in the room look at him strangely, but kept his attention on Angelus.
Buffy stopped just short of Angelus when William spoke, the familiar tone and language choices giving her hope. Cordy moved forward, drawing Angelus' attention from the young man and wrapped her right arm around Angelus' – the one holding Mrs. Fox in place. Her left hand snaked up and around his neck, gently but firmly turning his face to hers. Standing on her toes, she pulled harder on her neck, forcing his head down and pressed her lips firmly to his in a hungry, searching kiss.
Spike watched the exchange anxiously, and the implications of the situation he found himself in came crashing down on him. I don't have my strength. Which means I'm worth piss all in a fight. What if Red was wrong and that's really Dru and Darla?
Pulling away from Angelus, Cordy pouted and said, "We were only playing, lover." As she spoke, she released his arm and reached her right hand up and traced it down his cheek before running it out and along his left arm, gently tugging it until he released Mrs. Fox and shoved her past Cordelia into the room.
Cordy rewarded him with another kiss, pulling away, but maintaining eye contact as she did so. The moment stretched out, until Cordy slammed her knee into Angelus' groin, followed by a quick right hook, which hit the large vampire squarely on his jaw.
As soon as she saw Cordy move, Buffy rushed forward, attacking from the left as Angelus viciously backhanded Cordy. The seer took the blow well, having expected retaliation, and came up swinging. However, only one of her next three punches landed. Had she been facing Angelus alone, Cordy realized she wouldn't stand a chance, even with Darla's supernatural strength.
Luckily, Angelus was angered enough by Cordy's attack that he missed Drusilla coming at him from the side. Either that, or he deemed Darla the bigger threat. Regardless, Buffy's high kick to his head dazed the vampire, opening him to a flying fist, in the form of an uppercut, from Cordy, which snapped Angelus' head back, knocking him unconscious. He slumped to the floor, taking another punch in the gut from Cordy on the way down.
Leaning over, the seer picked up his head by the hair and pulled it up sharply, releasing it so it thumped back against the floor in a dull cracking sound.
"I think you got him, luv," she heard William say dryly.
"Just making sure," Cordy responded. "We have to tie him up before he wakes up."
"On it," William said, turning to Richard. "Do you have any chains?"
As Richard sputtered while trying to form a response, his mother still clinging to him, a new, middle-aged man appeared in the door to the room. Taking in the scene before him, his eyes grew wide, and he reached inside his jacket. Pulling out fairly good-sized wooden cross, he brandished it forward, thrusting it in the face of the vampire closest to him – Cordelia.
Instinctively, Cordy vamped out, reeling backwards and hissing at the man. Recovering, she stepped backwards and de-vamped, moaning, "How much a cliché am I?"
"Father, no!" Richard cried.
Spike stepped forward to place himself between the women and his uncle. While he had initially been uncertain of the vampiress' identities, and even convinced that the blonde was actually Darla during the little display she'd put on with Angelus, their simultaneous attack of the larger vampire had convinced him the Scoobies and Angel's people knew what they were talking about. As he faced his uncle, Spike mentally prepared himself for the pain he expected to feel from the cross, even though he intellectually knew it would have no effect on his human body.
"William!" Mr. Fox cried. "Step back, boy! These creatures are dangerous!"
"We're not who you think we are," Buffy said, stepping around the sandy blond-haired man in front of her.
"Stay back! I know who you are!" the cross-brandishing man retorted, his eyes shifting quickly between Buffy and Cordy, trying to watch both women at the same time. "You are the brides of Angelus!"
"Did you just call us 'the brides of Angelus'?" Buffy asked incredulously, the cross forgotten as she tried to process Mr. Fox's comment. "Eww. And ohh."
"No kidding," Cordy agreed. "Just when I thought this couldn't get anymore twisted…"
"Father!" Richard said again. "They are not who you think they are."
"Richard," his father said evenly as he kept his gaze on Cordy and Buffy. "No matter how nice they seem, they are vampires. They will turn on you." A new thought struck him and his gaze shifted fearfully to his wife, who was still clutching at her son, tear tracks drying on her face. "Perhaps they already have. Emma, move away from him, quickly!"
"We didn't do anything to him. Look," Buffy said, gesturing between herself and Cordy. "We're not who you think we are. But he is." She pointed to Angelus. "And he'll wake up soon. We have to restrain him before he does."
"They saved me," Emma interjected, speaking to her husband. "He, he had me, and they attacked him."
Mr. Fox's posture relaxed slightly, only to become once again rigid at a moan from the floor. Spike quickly stepped forward and delivered a sharp kick to Angelus' head, returning the vampire to unconsciousness. Turning to his uncle, he spoke.
"Right then, got any chains?"
"Why?" Mr. Fox asked suspiciously eyeing his normally mild-mannered, fade-into-the-background nephew. "We'll just stake him."
"You can't," Cordy argued.
"Much as I hate to admit it," Spike said, "she's right. It's complicated. Right now we need to take care of him while he's unconscious. So, do you have any chains?"
The man regarded his nephew for a moment before answering. "I do." Turning to his son, he said, "Richard, they are in the chest at the foot of my bed. Please fetch them."
"You have chains in our bedroom?" Emma asked surprised that he husband could have hidden such a thing from her, as Richard left the room.
"Where else are you going to keep them?" Spike asked, a wicked grin crossing William's face. He was rewarded by a muffled giggle from Cordelia and a light slap to the back of his head from Buffy.
"Back!" Mr. Fox cried, stepping forward as Drusilla assaulted the young man. "Don't touch William!"
"That's not William," she said.
Spike rubbed his head, and although the blow hadn't really hurt, he played it up. "Oy, Slayer, go easy on a bloke."
"Whoa!" Cordy said. "Who are you?"
"Spike," Buffy answered for him.
"Spike?" Cordy said incredulously, as she recalled Spike's other name and recognition of the body he now inhabited dawned. "As in-"
The man in question cleared his throat loudly, cutting the woman who he could now clearly tell wasn't Darla off. "As in Spike," he finished pointedly, hoping she would understand that they couldn't let his human family know his future.
"Right," Buffy said, quickly. "So? Tell me you're the cavalry."
"Wish I could, luv," he replied, shaking his head. "But this is only temporary. In fact, I'm not sure how much time I have left. Red said it could be anywhere from five minutes to an hour."
"What's going on?" Cordelia demanded.
"That's what I'd like to know," Mr. Fox demanded. "If you're not William, who are you?"
"Look, mate," he replied. "I don't have time to play twenty questions." Turning his back on the other man deliberately, he spoke to the two vampiresses. "It's some kind of spell. We can't undo it, but you can. Red says there has to be something you were sent back to change, maybe prevent, either intentionally or not. To reverse it you have to figure out what that key event is and make sure it happens. I was supposed to help you find out. We weren't sure exactly when you were. We thought maybe the event was the curse. But it's too early."
"What about our bodies?" Cordy demanded.
"Unconscious," Spike replied. "You've got Dru and Darla in you, but something about them already existing in our time means they can't wake up and take over your bodies."
Both women sighed in relief.
"How do we figure out what the event is?" Buffy asked, wrinkling her brow in frustration.
"You have no idea how weird this is," Spike said, shaking his head.
"What?"
"You. Lookin' like Dru."
"Yeah," the Slayer responded wryly. "We're both sane right now."
Spike chuckled before growing serious. "I don't like it."
"The sanity?" Buffy queried cheekily before growing serious. "I'm glad."
"I hate to interrupt the moment and everything," Cordy said, "but how do we figure out what this crucial event is? It's not like we know what's supposed to happen except for the really big things."
"Maybe I can help," Spike said. "What year is it?" Even as he asked the question, a wave of dizziness washed over him. His knees buckled and he felt himself being caught as Cordy answered his question.
"Eighteen Eighty."
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Bloody hell, Spike thought as Willow's spell pulled him back to his own body. When he opened his eyes, he found the blindfold gone and Dawn's concerned face inches from his own. Over her shoulder he could see Anya holding the tranquilizer gun at the ready.
"No need, Demon girl," he said wearily. "I'm me."
"What happened?" Dawn demanded. "Did you find them?"
"I did," he confirmed.
"And?" Willow asked.
"She's fine," the vampire assured Dawn before guiltily pulling his gaze from the relief he saw in her eyes. Instead he looked bleakly to the drained, worn out Willow at his side. "I know what they have to do to come home." He shook his head sadly. "But they won't. She won't. We're all doomed."
To be continued in: Chapter Eleven, which doesn't yet have a title. Sorry
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A/N: Well, kids, I don't have a lot to say today. Of course, my thanks go to those who left fabulous and wonderful reviews this time around – Jedi Buttercup, Lia, Zana, Lora Darcey, Vette, and JC Skywalker. THANK YOU, guys!