A VISIT FROM THE DARK MASTER
by Soledad
A ''Pathways in the Dark'' stand-alone story.
Re-write of the BtVS Season 5-opener ''Buffy vs. Dracula.
INTRODUCTIONOriginally, I started this story because I found the actual episode so horribly stupid. More than stupid, actually – downright insulting for everyone who likes the vampire sub-genre of horror. And who else would watch Kindred: the Embraced, Angel or BtVS?
I mean, Dracula is a real icon in this genre, he could have been a dangerous adversary for at least half a season. All right, Joss Whedon had plans with Glory instead, fair enough – but why the whole stupid waste of an intriguing character then?
Besides, everyone who is familiar with White Wolf's roleplaying game ''Vampire – the Masquerade'' could have told Joss that Dracula, or, more accurately, Vlad Tepes, a Tzimisce diabolist, had been an Inconnu ever since 1848; and it is highly unlikely that he'd leave the magically hidden Hunedoara Caste, just to see a Slayer. In his over 600 years of existence he'd surely seen enough of them. Probably even killed some of them.
Also, the whole illusionist tricks that were shown in the episode (including the appearance of his caste out of thin air) were too surreal for the usual Buffy thing, that series lacking the sophisticated background that makes Kindred: the Embraced such an intriguing series.
So, I decided that the creature who visited Sunnydale was, in fact, not Dracula, but some other vampire who posed as him. I thought about a Lasombra or Malkavian character because of the actor, Rudoph Martin's excellent make-up. Many people bashed him for his performance – I found it fascinating, especially considering the fact how badly the character was written. He maintained an aura of mystery and sex-appeal – actually, very Lasombra-like.
The next step was finding a matching Lasombra character from White Wolf's online-genealogy. Studying it, I detected a Lasombra scholar of Ancient Blood, a 5th generation Noddist with the name Nahir. No other facts of his life (or unlife) were noted, except that Lasombra himself was his grand-Sire.
Now, it's a game operative that Lasombra characters wield incredible mental powers – a fact that could explain why the Sunnydale people saw things that simply weren't there, like the ''big, honking castle'', as Riley Finn put it. Kindred vampires also are generally able to turn into wolves or birds, and the Sabbat (whom the Lasombra are the driving force of) sometimes possess Vicissitude – the ability of re-forming themselves into other shapes.
It was also decided that Buffy's ''Dracula'' is identical with the ancient (over a millennium old!) Lasombra Noddist, Nahir. But there still were two important questions to be answered – if I wanted the whole story to make any sense:
Firstly, why on Earth did Nahir come to Sunnydale – to Buffy?
Secondly, how could Spike had known him? (The real Vlad Tepes having become an Inconnu about the same time Spike was turned.)
After much thought, I believe to have found a solution for both of these questions. If you want to know it, however, you have to read the story. :)
Oh, and one more thing: I have been asked why I post these stories on the Kindred page when some of them are only remotely related to the show. Well, the reason to write the whole ''Pathways in the Dark'' series is to integrate Joss Whedon's characters in the context of Kindred. Though the main characters often belong to other series, the general background is Kindred, and I didn't want the individual stories to be scattered all around ff.net.
So, enough babbled, on with the story!
CHAPTER ONE: LIVING CONDITIONS
Disclaimer: see Introduction.
Rating: PG-13, for the mentioning of violence and m/m interaction.
Sunnydale, 21st September 2000Angel's old mansion, next to the cemetery
Spike, formerly known as William the Bloody, recently dubbed as ''the toothless wonder'' by the Scooby Gang, felt content. More than content, in fact that he'd ever felt since the Initiative, a secret government organization, put a chip in his brain, making him unable to harass humans.
Sure, he was still unable to hunt, and that fact still bothered him to no end. But otherwise, his (un)life standard shot dramatically up during the summer he'd spent in Los Angeles.
With Angel, no less.
His estranged Sire.
Only that they weren't estranged anymore.
Originally, he hadn't planned to visit the Great Pouf at all. He fled Sunnydale after betraying the Slayer and his stupid friends to Adam, in the hope that Adam would help him to get rid of that sodding chip. But his plan backfired, as usual, and albeit he managed to save the butt of the Slayer , her Watcher, Red and that annoying whelp, he felt it better to leave town for awhile.
Of course, he managed to get himself into deep trouble after a mere week. Playing pool in that bloody demon night club, the ''Rabid Dog''. Having too big a mouth for his own good. Forgetting that he couldn't beat up a gang of filthy humans bikers any more. Not with that neat little peace of hardware in his skull.
He paid the price of his ignorance, big time. He got beaten up so badly, it was hard to bear, even for a vampire. And he would have been group-raped before turned to dust if it weren't for Angel. That magnificent Pouf of his Sire, the saviour of lost souls (or soulless demons… whatever), who just happened to desecrate some slimy demon nearby.
Spike hadn't been so glad to see his Sire for a century.
And, in fact, the Angel who rescued him reminded him more of his old Sire than of the Slayer's tame pet from two years ago. The rage in what Angel killed three men in order to protect his once-favourite Childe was worth of Angelus. Not the insane creature Buffy unleashed into the world three years ago but the old Angelus. The one who gave young William eternal life through his Vitae. The one who taught him, loved him, often hurt and punished him – and abandoned him without a word after the curse.
Angel took him home that night, fed him his own Vitae, cleaned up his wounds – and loved him again, like he hadn't done it for a century. It was a night (and a day) of beautiful, violent passion and lots of blood-sharing, and Spike gave himself willingly into Angel's power again, accepting his Sire's ownership over himself in exchange of the renewing of family bonds. Now, three months later, he still hadn't regretted that decision.
Angel asked him to stay in L.A. for awhile. His Sire wanted to mend their seriously shattered relationship slowly and thoroughly, and Spike was all for that. So he stayed the whole summer, managed to rescue his Sire from some serious trouble – and even got paid for it like the other employees of Angel Investigations.
When the closeness became too much for him, his independent spirit screaming for more breathing room (figuratively speaking, of course), Angel gave him his permission to return to Sunnydale. He even suggested that Spike moved back to the abandoned mansion next to the cemetery, where they used to live with Dru... where Angel himself used to live after returning from Hell.
Spike found the idea splendid. The mansion was a beautiful place – and it could be reached from his old crypt through a 30-metres-walk in the sewers. Two years earlier Angel had actually bought the place, in order to have some sort of headquarters, should he need to visit town, and though it was sparsely furnitured, it was still a lot better than the crypt. Spike spent a considerable part of his savings (from L.A.) for heavy, dark velvet curtains, a new bed and a TV-set, making his new home vampire-friendly.
At the moment he only used the bedroom and the living-room – which still had Angel's sofa and that beautiful fireplace in it – but planned to do more in the near future. At least the phone was still working, so he could reach people during daytime without risking to get extra crispy (as that idiot Harris would have put).
Having reconnected with his Sire brought a change in his attitude as well. Not on the outside, of course – he still was his sardonic, cocky self and he didn't intend to change that a bit – but finding his roots again made him rediscover his long-forgotten finer interests. He used to be a scholar in his mortal days – and as a vampire, too, after Angelus got cursed – and there were so many things to learn, after a century and a half of existence.
During his time in L.A. he not only managed to get an up-to-date laptop (stolen it, actually, from the trashed home of a demon victim who wouldn't have any use of it anymore), but Oz, who let him crash in his place, taught him the fine art of hacking. Considering the fact that the young werewolf was a professional hacker and Spike himself a quick study, it was not surprising how good he became at it in a short time. Now all he needed was an Internet connection – which he quickly got, thank to his excellent contacts among the undead – and a whole world opened up before him.
No, he wasn't as old-fashioned as Angel. Spike always went with the time, tried out every new thing, thank his insatiable curiosity and hyperactive nature, and the Net was the ideal thing for him to learn, to gather information, to find interesting people – and still keep his incognito. The majority of those he chatted with online probably thought he was some college professor, with an unusually strong interest for everything that is preternatural. Most of them wouldn't even thing that he was a vampire.
But there were also a few who knew, of course. There were websites, constructed by and meant for vampires, disguised as fantasy author's harmless databases, and only who knew the secret code could connect the real thing behind them. Spike knew it, of course, having maintained good contacts to the Nosferatu, the best information merchants of undead society. A small colony of them, half a dozen people, even lived in the basement of the mansion, which was fine with Spike. They didn't bother him and he didn't bother them.
He didn't even see them, except Four-Eyes, their scholar and computer wizard, who helped him to connect to all important websites, in exchange of leaving them alone. It was a handy arrangement. Besides, he still spent a lot of time in his old crypt, not wanting the Scoobies – and especially the Slayer – to know about his improved living conditions.
So, it's understandable that he was a bit surprised when – shortly after sunset – there was a discreet knock on the front door. No one was supposed to know that he moved in, except the Nosferatu, and they always came trough the basement stairs when they wanted t o talk to him, which was extremely rare anyway.
Curious, he went to the door and opened it a crack. A tall, slender man stood outside, clad in black leather just like Spike himself, his long, dark hair pulled back into a tight ponytail. A rather large carry-on in his hand and a sleek black car parked next to the cemetery wall revealed that he wasn't from here.
Spike studied the beautiful, disturbingly familiar face for a moment. The man was a vampire, for sure, and a very old one, too. The power radiating from him spoke of extreme age, in spite of his youthful appearance.
The blue eyes – not so vibrant as his own but darker, more greyish – looked back at him with slight amusement.
"Don't recognize me anymore, young William?" the newcomer asked him in a soft, seductive voice. "I am really hurt."
That voice finally gave him away, no matter how much his appearance might have changed during the last century. It was a voice of incredible wisdom and authority that could not have been mistaken to anyone else's.
"Master Nahir!" Spike whispered in awe and with outmost respect, and bent his knee in a proper greeting, not caring that anyone could see him through the open door.
TBC
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End note:
In case you are interested, the Nosferatu colony is introduced properly in my other story, ''The Return of Forrest Gates''. It's posted here, on this site, and the individual characters are even ''cast'' – i.e. they are given certain actor's faces for better visuals.