I've written quite a lot recently… so here's part nine! I'll try and get part ten out as quick as possible. Maybe today and then I don't think I'll be able to post for a while, People coming to stay blah blah…
Part Nine –
//you've got to be strong, that's when they call you in the night//
Angelus stood stock still for a full minute before Giles was able to pull his attention from the crumpled form of the professor and to the impending doom in the form of the soldiers. There maybe fifteen of them, each with a gun aimed at either Giles or Angelus and they did *not* look happy.
"I suggest we run." Giles whispered and Angelus nodded. In one swift second they turned and fled, neither knew exactly where they were going but Giles followed Angelus in the hope that his tracking skills would lead them to Buffy. Or at the very least out of the labyrinth of the complex, so they could lick their wounds and come up with an actual plan before returning for Buffy later. But a part of him knew that by then it could be too late, the bond between Buffy and Angelus had been heavily stretched all ready and the spells protecting the Base were compounding the pain they must have been going through. Although Angelus displayed no signs of physical discomfort from being apart from Buffy, years of living as a vampire had clearly given him the self-control to hide it and Giles was grateful. Because every time Angelus let some of the pain leak into the link Buffy would feel that pain tenfold.
It was luck that they found Buffy in the end. A patrol of soldiers forced Angelus and Giles to duck into a smaller corridor and from their Angelus had been able to sense Buffy again. She had been moved to a larger cell, the only one on that corridor but she definitely wasn't fairing well. She sat cross legged in one half of the cell, her hair matted and dirty, and she was much thinner than he remembered the lines of her face standing out sharply against the soft tone of her skin. Once again Angelus felt the nagging tug at their link, it had been there for the last few days intermittently – like there was someone else there. It hardly mattered now anyway.
The archway of the door stood open in front of him and Angelus stepped forward to enter the cell only to be blasted back by the force of the electric barrier there. There was no keypad on the door of this cell. Angelus couldn't get in. He watched as Buffy flinched inside as pain coursed through his body. Desperately his eyes searched the area, there *had* to be a way in. At last he spotted the man inside the cell with Buffy, it was another scientist in a long white lab-coat. He appeared to have been asking Buffy questions, judging by the clip-board and pen he'd dropped trying to hide from Angelus attack at the door. Inside the room Buffy had turned her attention back to the scientist and it's frantic struggling to get out of the room. Apparently through the back wall. "Like a shark." She told him before continuing to paw at the ground in front of her.
"Buffy!" Angelus cried trying to attract her attention, but she ignored him, eyes down in front of her, he could feel her calling for help on their link but something was stopping her from moving. From helping herself. Desperate Angelus turned to ask Giles what to do and was met by an empty hallway.
Faith ran through the corridors of the initiative, she and Spike had split the twenty Aurelius vampires that had arrived to help them in two, half to follow her and half to follow him. With four to stay behind in case of a vanguard attack. The problem with setting the explosives around the compound was simple. They didn't know the layout of it, they didn't know even approximately how big it was so Faith was going to follow the main corridor as far as she could West and Spike as far as he could go East. The other vampires would go down any large corridors they passed and each would set the explosives at what they thought was an exterior wall. Any explosives left would be left in the centre of the building before the vampires left, Spike and Faith would then have approximately two minutes to find Angelus, Buffy and Giles before escaping themselves.
It was a simple plan, it had seemed the easiest way to avoid things going wrong. But even as Faith hurtled through the corridors, she knew that a thousand things could go wrong, most notably neither she nor Spike had any idea where Buffy might be being kept. The sheer sprawling length of the building was crushing and positive she had to pulling the operation off successfully. The blank finishing wall of the path Faith had chosen loomed in front of Faith and relieved she threw the explosive toward, barely taking a moment to watch it slid across the floor and rest against the smooth white before she was running back the other way, retracing her route.
Angelus gave in to resignation when he saw that Giles was nowhere within his direct range of sight, and he was not going to look for the Watcher if it meant leaving Buffy. Instead he settled him self on the floor his face close to the electric wall that separated himself from his beloved, closing his eyes he began to slow pull at the link, trying to block out the thing that had wrapped itself so neatly around her mind. A part of him knew it was useless, he was new to being bonded and did not posses the skill to control the link more than that he simply wasn't close enough to Buffy, he didn't know enough about her, and she didn't know enough about him. It wasn't customary to go into bonding with a stranger but at the time it had felt right and for a moment he almost regretted it, if he they couldn't fix whatever was disrupting their link she could die. The only balm in that event would be that he would die with her.
Angelus was startled out of his sorrow by a low hissing sound, opening his eyes he was startled to see a pair of legs blocking his view of Buffy, jumping up he saw Giles standing in front of him, carrying Buffy in his arms. Quickly Angelus pulled Buffy into his own arms, and nodding in thanks glanced around Giles Buffy to see the scientist lying unconscious on the floor, a door open behind him. Through the other door was some kind of laboratory.
"I found the backdoor." Giles told Angelus quietly and the pair began their journey out of the complex. In Angelus' arms Buffy stirred from the drowsy half-sleep she'd slipped into. Angelus opened his mouth to enquire of her health, his eyes all ready scanning her body for anything he'd missed before.
"It's okay. They're not coming for us yet." She told him her voice heavy with sleep and tranquillisers, before she slipped back into unconsciousness.
Sirens screamed through the night air as Angelus carried Buffy into their room, Giles was downstairs with Wesley and Faith had disappeared with Spike on the way back from the Initiative. Though the stench of smoke and death hung thick over the city Angelus was filled with joy at the death of the people who'd hurt his mate. The room was dark light by nothing but the moonlight through the window, setting the room with a gentle greyscale tone. Angelus laid Buffy down on the red silk sheets of her bed covering her with the thick eiderdown's he'd always kept, not out of any need for the warmth, but as a faint reminder of the things he'd wanted as a human and didn't need anymore. He sat watching her for a few more minutes, memorising the pattern of her breath and the way she sighed in her sleep. She woke only a few minutes later, her eyes disorientated from the change in light.
"Angelus…" He was at her side in a moment, showing an unusual amount of compassion and concern, soulless as he was. While part of him wanted to take her whether she was willing or not, another part of him forced himself to wait, even if he was driven insane with want in the meantime.
"Go back to sleep."
"I've been sleeping for a week." She told him dryly and shifted and sat up in the bed pulling him in next to her. "You know, we never did make the bond official." She whispered in his ear letting her breath tickle his senses there as he had done not so long before while her hand travelled down the smooth planes of his chest. Angelus' self control rapidly deteriorated.
TBC…
Well that's most of the actual plot for this book of Pulse done. D'y like?
Again, if anyone wants more details about the Preserving fanfiction idea you can contact me at
halfevilkids@yahoo.com Or if you just want to know what I'm talking about send me an e!
Weasy