Good evening, all!
Well, here we go. The meeting of the minds between the ultimate evils and the ultimate goods. Fondly enough, it ended up far less angsty than I'd thought it might. And far fuller of snark!
Anyway, the horrors are a-coming, so enjoy the Muse's good humour while you still can!
Let me know what you think. I live for feedback!
Enjoy!
In Kindness, Nimue "Though beauty is rare enough
Still we trust
Somehow we'll find it there
With no guarantee
It seems to me
At least it should be fair" - Allison Krauss - That Kind of Love
www.livejournal (dot) com/users/nimuetucker/
Title: Evil Crossies (Chapter Twenty-five - Meant to Be)
Author: Nimue
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Spike/Buffy (Most major characters included)
Feedback: Yes, please
Summary: The meeting of the minds, and of the spirits. But will it go as planned?
Evil Crossies
The key fitted into the lock and Willow pushed through the doorway, Tara and Emma behind her. A small frown stretched across her face. Buffy and Spike should be home by now. I mean, the meeting was less than an hour away. Dawn and Brian had taken the younger kids to a Disney movie and then back to their place for some makeshift camping, complete with tents, in their living room. She smiled, remembering all the little blanket tents sticking up from the floor like a miniature Woodstock.
The frown returned, wondering why she was letting herself into Buffy's house with the key, and not being met at the door by the One-dertwins themselves.
This was not of the good.
Willow hazarded a look back at Tara, who shrugged, leading Emma into the hall and taking off her coat. The door clicked shut behind them.
"I wonder...," the redhead had time to begin before she heard a 'bang' from downstairs.
Eyebrows raised, she looked at Tara again. Tara smiled a little, but shrugged, hanging Emma's coat up on the rack near the door.
Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Slowly. Then an erratic bang-clang-bang-clang- bang. Then back to the steady bang. Bang. Bang.
Slowly, Willow started across the living room to the kitchen, hearing the sound get louder. Louder. She gestured for the two others to stay behind as she proceeded until she found herself at the basement door, her ear pressed against the wood.
Bang-clang-clang-bang-clang-bang 'UUUUNNNHHH!' Willow's eyes shot wide, realizing what she was listening to, and unless Buffy *really* liked fixing an out of balance washing machine, it wasn't something she was supposed to be hearing.
But the meeting was a short time away. And Emma...
Crap.
Willow let her hand fall to the knob, the rhythmic banging starting anew. A subtle turn of the wrist. She'd just call down the steps. Let them know she was here.
Roaring greeted her as the door clicked open. Vampire hearing or not, he seemed a little occupied to notice it.
Spike roars?
Wow.
Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.
"Uh...uh, Buffy?"
The banging stopped dead.
A pregnant pause and a breathy voice answered her. One trying to be not-so- breathy. "Willow?"
"Uh, yeah..." Willow stopped. This wasn't fair. At least she could bail them out a little. In the background, she heard a knock on the front door. "Um, I know that... well, that pesky washer's been acting up and what with the slaying and all the dirty clothes, but ... well, company."
A deeper shade of blush crossed her face, but she at least felt as though dignity was duly given.
Another voice, still shaky. "R...right, Red. Be right up. Just have to... loosen this bolt, then screw it back in."
The dull thud of a smack from downstairs and Willow had to laugh. "Well, don't want to interrupt that... process. Just thought you should know."
She let the door click shut and turned her back, still smiling. Tara had it coming tonight.
~~~@~~~@~~~@~~~
The rest of the gang was in the living room, sitting in a makeshift circle of furniture and listening to Willow and Wesley explain what would happen when the basement door clicked open. To be fair, it hadn't been very long since Willow's... interruption. Everyone had showed up at once.
Both halves of the One tried to be nonchalant, strolling into the living room one at a time. Buffy first, while Spike hung back in the kitchen a beat or two. Like teenagers who'd just been caught doing something not so spring fresh.
Willow grinned at the flushed faced Slayer, long skirt looking a bit rumpled, but still quite presentable, all things considered. "Washer fixed?" Her friend tried to bail, winking slyly.
Buffy blushed a deeper red. "Yeah. You know. With the spin cycle and the hopping and banging and..."
Spike walked in, hastily buttoned shirt and mussed curls forced into trying to behave and failing. "Bit old, that thing," he muttered, jamming his hands in his jeans pockets.
Tara smiled slyly. "But Willow told me you were just finished screwing the last fixture when ..."
Buffy blushed deeper. Spike smirked, rolling his eyes and reaching for a cookie on the plate next to the kitchen entrance. Everyone else looked confused.
"Your washer's broken?" Xander asked. "I could have fixed it."
"All fixed," Buffy squeaked. "It's the fixediest."
"S'properly oiled and screwed now, whelp," Spike contributed. "No problems."
Xander nodded, oblivious. "Next time just call."
~~~@~~~@~~~@~~~
They stood in the center of the room, now devoid of furniture as Willow explained the last details, glancing at her watch nervously every few seconds. "It works like this. We had to set a circle up to keep them all in here and it has to stay exactly the way I show you," she began, pushing people into place around the outskirts. "It's set up this way... well... for a lot of reasons, but mostly it's so it's... balancey."
"Why are we playing ring around the rosy?" Xander asked as he was surreptitiously shoved between Giles and Tara.
"It will keep our visitors tethered inside," Wesley answered, taking a place a few steps from Giles and a few steps away from Anya. Alone.
"And so they can't get back in uninvited," Tara added, on the other side of Giles, closing a gap.
"Not sure I understand. Are you saying that if we move, then whoever shows up has an all-access pass to our house?" Buffy snapped as Willow pushed her next to Spike, alone at one arc of the circle.
As Willow answered, she shuffled the people on the right, then placed Cyrus and Emma opposite Spike and Buffy, then placed Takina, Oz and Anya opposite Giles and Xander and set off a bit to the side. "Not if we don't move once we're in order," Willow muttered.
Spike scanned the circle, suddenly understanding the pattern. "Shouldn't I be over there, Love?" Spike asked, pointing at Takina, Oz and Anya.
Willow looked at him, blushing and stopping her shuffling. "No. And I hate that this has to be this way at all... because... well... I mean my kids... and...."
Spike nodded sagely. "No worries, Pet. Understood."
"Not with the understanding," Xander pressed as Willow took her spot.
Wesley sighed. "Balance of force," he said quietly. "To keep the power trapped inside, there has to be a balance of good and evil. Not to say that anyone here is evil..." He hazarded a glance to Anya who was looking at her nails, unaffected. Takina just nodded.
"Still not getting it," Xander asked, looking around the circle.
"What Watcher Junior is trying to say, git, is that the demons are on one side, the humans on the other and the Immortals on either end," Spike interrupted.
Xander glanced around the circle, taking it in. He stood at the edge of a loose arc now, Tara to his right, then Giles, then Willow, then Wesley. A pace or two larger separation, and there was Buffy and Spike, shoulder to shoulder. A few more paces, then Takina and Oz and Anya. A few more and Cyrus and Emma. Then a space and back to Xander.
"It's not even," Xander commented, looking across at his wife. "They don't have enough..."
"It's not going to be a battle, Xander," Wesley commented. "And besides..."
"We have more power," Anya commented, staring at Giles. "The force is even."
Buffy nodded. "It's about power," she muttered. "Which is why...?"
"I have to be here," Emma continued, squeezing Cyrus's hand. "Only we can balance you, and even then, it's uneven," she continued. "But it's strong."
Spike eyed his daughter, desperately wanting her to be somewhere else. Somewhere safe, nowhere NEAR the likes of Gwydion and Luke. But in his head, he suddenly saw a picture. Smelled the sweet smell of vanilla and the soft, almost British lilt of his grown daughter as he'd first heard it – before she was even born. "I saved you from them once, daddy."
Spike nodded and Emma smiled quietly.
Sooner or later he'd have to face that she was older than time, and stronger than existence.
He grabbed Buffy's hand and held tight. ~~~@~~~@~~~@~~~
It started fast and without warning. Xander had just finished some tirade on how demons weren't necessarily evil when a little white light had appeared in front of him. They all had stopped talking and watched as the glimmer swirled and grew, then split into two like cells in that human reproduction video they'd all been forced to watch in high school, then spun on its axis and elongated, glowing. Glimmering. Stretching.
Before many of them could wrap their minds around it, the glow took shape, a liquid shape at first, and then became a sparkling solid in front of them.
Cyrus dropped to one knee. Emma followed suit.
Spike and Buffy bowed their heads without even knowing that they were doing it.
The Queen, taller than she'd seemed above, shrugged off a glowing white hood and looked at Emma and Cyrus, a gentle smile on her face. "You do not have to bow before me here," she said sweetly, stretching her hand toward Emma. "This is your world and in it, you are the royalty."
Emma and Cyrus rose, Emma clutching her Queen's hand and the glow extending to the child. Spike made to move towards her – to make sure she didn't need him. But a sense of peace washed over him and he relented.
The Queen and her mate then turned to Buffy and Spike, nodding. They lifted their faces to the Queen and King, nervous but knowing, somewhere, that this was where they got their strength to fight. This was who gave them their gifts.
Their curses came from the others.
As if on cue, a blackness appeared on the floor slightly in front of Anya and Takina. They didn't' move, even when it stretched dangerously close to their feet. Xander lurched forward, but Tara and Giles shot out their arms to keep him in place.
A pair of men rose from the blackness. One in a conservative, proper suit. The other in a red velvet disco-era ensemble, with a red satin shirt underneath, opened to nearly his belly.
Spike couldn't take his eyes from the man in the conservative suit.
Gwydion had chosen to take Spike's father's face again for the visit.
Buffy clung to Spike's hand, squeezing it. Trying to reassure him without words. He closed his eyes and took a breath, remembering that this wasn't his father. This wasn't his future. Not anymore.
The shimmering Queen and her King looked at the pair of men with utter disdain as they became solid. Real, right in front of them.
"It's not quite fair," the Queen began, "to begin these proceedings taking the shape of a loved one." She looked at Spike for a moment. "Torture was not part of the arrangement as I understand it."
Gwydion smiled. "Neither is meeting you in a place with so little in the way of amenities."
"Hey!" Buffy yelped, realizing he'd just insulted her house.
"It is a bit primitive," the King agreed, shrugging at Buffy and smiling kindly.
The Queen nudged him softly. "They do not have the same means that we do to procure such necessities."
"It is a capitalist society," Anya chimed in, gaining an eye roll from Giles.
The King turned to his Queen. "Our girl lives here." Spike growled at the implication. "All it'd take is a wave..."
He waved his glowing hand and the living room was transformed into a palatial hall, decked in gold and built of marble, gleaming and....
"No!" The Queen reprimanded, waving her hand and turning it back. "She must live a human existence and..."
"What's wrong with my house?" Buffy asked, annoyed. Spike chuckled at her defensiveness.
"Not enough red," Luke commented, nodding briskly and causing the entire room to turn into shades of red, with velvet and plush and seventies disco lighting.
Gwydion shook his head once and it was gone. Back to the earth tones and neutral hues Buffy had chosen.
"It's bad enough that I have to see that every day," Gwydion complained.
The Queen smiled. "So, as I thought, you are not there of your own will."
"It is a useful necessity," the Hell god answered.
"But not one of power," the King commented, a slight smile breaking on his face.
"I have Power!" Luke yelped, insulted. "Powerful power. You know, being a god of Hell and all. Comes with a perk or two."
"Yeah, bad decorating skills," Anya commented, looking at her nails again, bored with the proceedings.
"As much as I hate to interrupt this discussion," Wesley said, apparently as the spokesman of the group, "It seems we have business to attend to." He nodded respectfully at the Queen and King. The glowing pair nodded their assent. "What? No respect for the Hell gods?" Luke whined.
"Would you shut up?" Spike snapped, getting annoyed with this gnat in bad haberdashery.
"Oh, you're a big man now that old Luke doesn't have you all tied up against the wall, crying' bout your little knocked up missy and the rug rat to be," the demon in red velvet teased.
Spike began to lurch towards him when Buffy finally intervened, pulling his hand before he could take a step out of the circle. "Not worth it," she whispered. "Just trying to get you to move."
He looked down at his feet and saw a glow of blue light surrounding the inside of the circle of people, like an insane spherical boxing ring. Spike nodded, suddenly wising up.
"Which leads us to why we're here," Wesley began again, hoping that he could proceed with minimal interruption. The idea of standing before four of the most powerful beings in existence was a bit intimidating. Never mind that they were responsible for bringing all of them into this dimension. One wrong move and there could be no existence in the blink of an eye.
"Oh! Right. Slayer's knocked up again," Luke began. "We heard in passing. Not a big shock and all." He turned to Spike, winking. "Way to go, studmuffin."
Spike clenched his jaw. Giles winced. Wesley pressed on.
"As ... crass... as that was, it does bring us to the point at hand. We've discovered the prophesy..."
"You've only now discovered it?" The Queen asked, a frown of disappointment on her face. "I'd assumed that the Watcher's Council would..."
Wesley looked ashamed. Willow frowned, holding onto Tara. "It only...we can be a little slow," the redhead whispered.
The Queen nodded sorrowfully and turned her attention back to the Hell gods. "We cannot let you interrupt this life," she said sternly. "It has been given our blessing and the soul has been chosen. It can only be changed by the decision of the Chosen."
Both Buffy and Spike looked at the Queen. They *knew*. They knew whose soul the child would receive. They'd chosen it. Somewhere, inside the collective thoughts of the One, it seemed somehow wrong that they could just know, just talk about it as if it were an everyday occurrence when it was such a mystery to those who made it *be*.
Made *her* be.
"Oh you have?" Gwydion crooned, wisely. "Do tell."
The King chuckled. "Do you think we just snapped into being in this godforsaken living room?"
Buffy moved to speak but Spike yanked her hand.
"No worries," Gwydion chuckled. "We know."
Spike's turn to want to lurch into the center and beat something to a bloody pulp. Emma stared at her parents, holding them back with her mind, her spirit, alone.
A concerned look crossed the Queen's lovely face, replaced by the serenity it always held. "You are lying."
"'Fraid not," Luke chimed. "But you're not worried. I mean, being all- powerful and all."
The King looked worried. The Queen looked... less confident. "And what is it that you want?"
"We'll take her," Luke sing-songed, pointing at Emma.
"No." It was a collective snap from every mouth but Luke's and Gwydion's.
"All right," Gwydion pressed on. "The second child."
Another collective "No."
The two Hell gods looked at each other. "You know what we can do with the knowledge we have," Gwydion drew out, smiling.
The Queen and King looked at each other. "We do."
"We *don't*," Spike snapped, feeling as though he had a right to be involved with the bartering on the life of his unborn child. Buffy nodded her agreement.
The Queen turned to Buffy and Spike. "If they truly know the identity of the soul, and they've ever touched it before, then they can gain control over the entity once it exits our dominion to exist on the mortal plane."
Giles turned to Buffy. "Control the soul, Buffy. If they know, and they have ever touched the soul, then they can take over the existence of your child."
Buffy's hand splayed over her belly. Didn't it already have a soul? Wasn't the baby inside of her already a person, just waiting to be? When did this happen? Did it come a little at a time? What ...
"Isn't there any way that we can tell if they've interfered with the soul in the past?" Spike asked, looking alternately between Giles and Wesley.
"Not such a big man now, are ya?" Luke chided. Buffy preemptively pulled Spike away.
The Queen shook her head. "No. It's unlikely that the soul herself remembers and there would be no way of telling. If it's not a voluntary sin, if they ever took control against the will of the soul, then it leaves no mark." Another Universal Truth, washed over both Wesley and Giles, sending their minds reeling. If the soul was tarnished unwillingly, then it wasn't marked?
"May... maybe we'd know if it was," Willow said meekly. "Can you..."
The Queen shook her head. "I cannot. Identifying the soul in this realm would disparate the soul from all."
"Speaking its name would make it cease to exist," Wesley muttered, eyes wide with understanding. The Queen nodded her reply.
"So, really," Gwydion interrupted, "We're a bit ahead of the game."
A deep breath from the King. "Well, what do you want, then?"
"We told you," Luke answered.
"And we told *you*," Spike began, his eyes blazing with anger, "you can't have either of him." He looked at Buffy. "Take me instead."
Buffy yelped, threading her fingers through Spike's and holding him in an iron vise. "No."
Gwydion and Luke laughed. "Uh, no," Luke said smugly. "Fat lot of good that does us. Now, were you still William the Bloody, and not Willie the Whipped, it might be fun. But as is, you'd just be a pain in the ass."
"He's still a pain in the ass," Giles muttered, causing Spike to smirk.
"Give us a tick," Luke said to the group before grabbing Gwydion and disappearing through the hole in the floor.
The group began to speak quietly among themselves, thinking that the hell contingent was gone, when they reappeared a split second later.
"Okay, if you won't give us the little Peace girl or the little Seer brother of hers..."
"Seer?" Buffy asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Oops," Luke giggled, slapping a hand over his mouth dramatically. "And you won't let us have our fun with the new baby One, then we want pick of the next genocidal maniac, and NO TELLING to this lot..."
The Queen looked a bit shocked. "We cannot let a soul go to you unbidden."
"No, no," Gwydion corrected. "We won't *take* anyone from you in that manner. It'd throw off the balance and even Hell gods can respect the balance. But when we corrupt his human form, you cannot protect the soul, and you cannot interfere by informing our little Legion of Earthly Fighters of our choice."
The King and Queen looked at each other for a long moment, and then looked back at the Hell gods. "Agreed," the Queen said. "We will not interfere as long as the soul is corrupted on *this* plane alone."
Gwydion smiled. Luke hopped up and down gleefully. Both of them had various fingers and toes crossed, but it seemed to be working all the same. They didn't need the Queen's consent to corrupt earthbound souls.
Sometimes it worked to their advantage that the royalty of the upper realms thought them moronic.
"Are we quite finished?" The King asked, annoyed at both the Hell gods and the décor.
"One other thing," Gwydion added, a devious smile on his face. "If we cannot have the next born of the One, we want her to be a Slayer."
Buffy's eyes shot wide. No. Not that. Anything but... she didn't' want her child to go through that. And didn't want to know that as soon as her daughter was old enough, the clock would start on the end of her life.
"No!" She finally said to the group.
The Queen raised an eyebrow. "Why on Earth would you want another Slayer the likes of this one? She has proven herself time and time again superior to your kind."
"Because," Gwydion said, looking at Spike. "This one only survived because Prophesy demanded it. The next... she'd serve her purpose and be gone, like those that went before. I want them to be there when it happens. When their precious Slayer of a daughter finally loses..."
Spike began to lurch forward and Buffy could not stop him. Suddenly, a wall of white appeared in front of the pair, stopping them dead in their tracks.
"And you'll sacrifice control of this soul in return?" The Queen asked, her hand outstretched, holding the One from entering the circle.
"Please no," Buffy whimpered.
Luke and Gwydion both nodded.
"Then so be it," the Queen said solemnly.
"No!' Buffy screamed, crumpling against the wall.
"Won't let her die like that," Spike whispered, falling down next to Buffy. "We'll protect her, Pet. Teach her."
"No," Buffy whimpered again.
They didn't notice the four in the center disappear.
~~~@~~~@~~~@~~~
"It seems a fair trade, Buffy," Giles said softly, approaching the crumpled pair on the floor. "At least she has a chance now."
Spike looked up at the Watcher, holding Buffy's head against his chest. She shook, unmoved by Giles' words.
"Yeah, Buff," Xander said, encouragingly. "We might be in walkers by then, but we know the game better than anyone."
"And we can teach her magic too. That's one plus you didn't have," Willow contributed brightly.
Buffy looked up, eyes wide and puffy, trying to wrap her mind around it. Her daughter. A Slayer. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad...
"Well, this is all well and good," Anya interjected bluntly, "except that they were lying."
"Lying?" Wesley asked, his gaze fixing on Anya. "How do you know?"
She sighed, patiently. "Well, first of all, they're Hell gods. Notorious for NOT telling the truth. Secondly, they did crossies."
Oz nodded sagely. "I saw that. Not that I could believe it, but..."
"They did crossies?" Willow yelped indignantly.
Anya nodded. "Works every time."
"Crossies?" Giles asked, staring at his better half. "Anya, what on earth are you talking about?"
"They crossed their fingers behind their backs and lied, Rupie," Anya said slowly, as if she were trying to explain quantum physics to her son. "They did crossies."
"You've got to be kidding?" Buffy interjected, shaking her head. "Please tell me you're kidding."
Oz shook his head. "I saw them do it too. I just didn't believe..."
"Not just a kid thing," Anya interrupted. "Based on ancient demon law, in actuality."
Buffy looked at Spike. He shook his head. "Thought it was just a schoolyard thing, Pet."
"They did crossies?" Willow asked again.
"Evil crossies," Xander muttered.
"And off we go to plan B," Giles muttered under his breath. "Unbelievable."
To be contd.
Well, here we go. The meeting of the minds between the ultimate evils and the ultimate goods. Fondly enough, it ended up far less angsty than I'd thought it might. And far fuller of snark!
Anyway, the horrors are a-coming, so enjoy the Muse's good humour while you still can!
Let me know what you think. I live for feedback!
Enjoy!
In Kindness, Nimue "Though beauty is rare enough
Still we trust
Somehow we'll find it there
With no guarantee
It seems to me
At least it should be fair" - Allison Krauss - That Kind of Love
www.livejournal (dot) com/users/nimuetucker/
Title: Evil Crossies (Chapter Twenty-five - Meant to Be)
Author: Nimue
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Spike/Buffy (Most major characters included)
Feedback: Yes, please
Summary: The meeting of the minds, and of the spirits. But will it go as planned?
Evil Crossies
The key fitted into the lock and Willow pushed through the doorway, Tara and Emma behind her. A small frown stretched across her face. Buffy and Spike should be home by now. I mean, the meeting was less than an hour away. Dawn and Brian had taken the younger kids to a Disney movie and then back to their place for some makeshift camping, complete with tents, in their living room. She smiled, remembering all the little blanket tents sticking up from the floor like a miniature Woodstock.
The frown returned, wondering why she was letting herself into Buffy's house with the key, and not being met at the door by the One-dertwins themselves.
This was not of the good.
Willow hazarded a look back at Tara, who shrugged, leading Emma into the hall and taking off her coat. The door clicked shut behind them.
"I wonder...," the redhead had time to begin before she heard a 'bang' from downstairs.
Eyebrows raised, she looked at Tara again. Tara smiled a little, but shrugged, hanging Emma's coat up on the rack near the door.
Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Slowly. Then an erratic bang-clang-bang-clang- bang. Then back to the steady bang. Bang. Bang.
Slowly, Willow started across the living room to the kitchen, hearing the sound get louder. Louder. She gestured for the two others to stay behind as she proceeded until she found herself at the basement door, her ear pressed against the wood.
Bang-clang-clang-bang-clang-bang 'UUUUNNNHHH!' Willow's eyes shot wide, realizing what she was listening to, and unless Buffy *really* liked fixing an out of balance washing machine, it wasn't something she was supposed to be hearing.
But the meeting was a short time away. And Emma...
Crap.
Willow let her hand fall to the knob, the rhythmic banging starting anew. A subtle turn of the wrist. She'd just call down the steps. Let them know she was here.
Roaring greeted her as the door clicked open. Vampire hearing or not, he seemed a little occupied to notice it.
Spike roars?
Wow.
Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.
"Uh...uh, Buffy?"
The banging stopped dead.
A pregnant pause and a breathy voice answered her. One trying to be not-so- breathy. "Willow?"
"Uh, yeah..." Willow stopped. This wasn't fair. At least she could bail them out a little. In the background, she heard a knock on the front door. "Um, I know that... well, that pesky washer's been acting up and what with the slaying and all the dirty clothes, but ... well, company."
A deeper shade of blush crossed her face, but she at least felt as though dignity was duly given.
Another voice, still shaky. "R...right, Red. Be right up. Just have to... loosen this bolt, then screw it back in."
The dull thud of a smack from downstairs and Willow had to laugh. "Well, don't want to interrupt that... process. Just thought you should know."
She let the door click shut and turned her back, still smiling. Tara had it coming tonight.
~~~@~~~@~~~@~~~
The rest of the gang was in the living room, sitting in a makeshift circle of furniture and listening to Willow and Wesley explain what would happen when the basement door clicked open. To be fair, it hadn't been very long since Willow's... interruption. Everyone had showed up at once.
Both halves of the One tried to be nonchalant, strolling into the living room one at a time. Buffy first, while Spike hung back in the kitchen a beat or two. Like teenagers who'd just been caught doing something not so spring fresh.
Willow grinned at the flushed faced Slayer, long skirt looking a bit rumpled, but still quite presentable, all things considered. "Washer fixed?" Her friend tried to bail, winking slyly.
Buffy blushed a deeper red. "Yeah. You know. With the spin cycle and the hopping and banging and..."
Spike walked in, hastily buttoned shirt and mussed curls forced into trying to behave and failing. "Bit old, that thing," he muttered, jamming his hands in his jeans pockets.
Tara smiled slyly. "But Willow told me you were just finished screwing the last fixture when ..."
Buffy blushed deeper. Spike smirked, rolling his eyes and reaching for a cookie on the plate next to the kitchen entrance. Everyone else looked confused.
"Your washer's broken?" Xander asked. "I could have fixed it."
"All fixed," Buffy squeaked. "It's the fixediest."
"S'properly oiled and screwed now, whelp," Spike contributed. "No problems."
Xander nodded, oblivious. "Next time just call."
~~~@~~~@~~~@~~~
They stood in the center of the room, now devoid of furniture as Willow explained the last details, glancing at her watch nervously every few seconds. "It works like this. We had to set a circle up to keep them all in here and it has to stay exactly the way I show you," she began, pushing people into place around the outskirts. "It's set up this way... well... for a lot of reasons, but mostly it's so it's... balancey."
"Why are we playing ring around the rosy?" Xander asked as he was surreptitiously shoved between Giles and Tara.
"It will keep our visitors tethered inside," Wesley answered, taking a place a few steps from Giles and a few steps away from Anya. Alone.
"And so they can't get back in uninvited," Tara added, on the other side of Giles, closing a gap.
"Not sure I understand. Are you saying that if we move, then whoever shows up has an all-access pass to our house?" Buffy snapped as Willow pushed her next to Spike, alone at one arc of the circle.
As Willow answered, she shuffled the people on the right, then placed Cyrus and Emma opposite Spike and Buffy, then placed Takina, Oz and Anya opposite Giles and Xander and set off a bit to the side. "Not if we don't move once we're in order," Willow muttered.
Spike scanned the circle, suddenly understanding the pattern. "Shouldn't I be over there, Love?" Spike asked, pointing at Takina, Oz and Anya.
Willow looked at him, blushing and stopping her shuffling. "No. And I hate that this has to be this way at all... because... well... I mean my kids... and...."
Spike nodded sagely. "No worries, Pet. Understood."
"Not with the understanding," Xander pressed as Willow took her spot.
Wesley sighed. "Balance of force," he said quietly. "To keep the power trapped inside, there has to be a balance of good and evil. Not to say that anyone here is evil..." He hazarded a glance to Anya who was looking at her nails, unaffected. Takina just nodded.
"Still not getting it," Xander asked, looking around the circle.
"What Watcher Junior is trying to say, git, is that the demons are on one side, the humans on the other and the Immortals on either end," Spike interrupted.
Xander glanced around the circle, taking it in. He stood at the edge of a loose arc now, Tara to his right, then Giles, then Willow, then Wesley. A pace or two larger separation, and there was Buffy and Spike, shoulder to shoulder. A few more paces, then Takina and Oz and Anya. A few more and Cyrus and Emma. Then a space and back to Xander.
"It's not even," Xander commented, looking across at his wife. "They don't have enough..."
"It's not going to be a battle, Xander," Wesley commented. "And besides..."
"We have more power," Anya commented, staring at Giles. "The force is even."
Buffy nodded. "It's about power," she muttered. "Which is why...?"
"I have to be here," Emma continued, squeezing Cyrus's hand. "Only we can balance you, and even then, it's uneven," she continued. "But it's strong."
Spike eyed his daughter, desperately wanting her to be somewhere else. Somewhere safe, nowhere NEAR the likes of Gwydion and Luke. But in his head, he suddenly saw a picture. Smelled the sweet smell of vanilla and the soft, almost British lilt of his grown daughter as he'd first heard it – before she was even born. "I saved you from them once, daddy."
Spike nodded and Emma smiled quietly.
Sooner or later he'd have to face that she was older than time, and stronger than existence.
He grabbed Buffy's hand and held tight. ~~~@~~~@~~~@~~~
It started fast and without warning. Xander had just finished some tirade on how demons weren't necessarily evil when a little white light had appeared in front of him. They all had stopped talking and watched as the glimmer swirled and grew, then split into two like cells in that human reproduction video they'd all been forced to watch in high school, then spun on its axis and elongated, glowing. Glimmering. Stretching.
Before many of them could wrap their minds around it, the glow took shape, a liquid shape at first, and then became a sparkling solid in front of them.
Cyrus dropped to one knee. Emma followed suit.
Spike and Buffy bowed their heads without even knowing that they were doing it.
The Queen, taller than she'd seemed above, shrugged off a glowing white hood and looked at Emma and Cyrus, a gentle smile on her face. "You do not have to bow before me here," she said sweetly, stretching her hand toward Emma. "This is your world and in it, you are the royalty."
Emma and Cyrus rose, Emma clutching her Queen's hand and the glow extending to the child. Spike made to move towards her – to make sure she didn't need him. But a sense of peace washed over him and he relented.
The Queen and her mate then turned to Buffy and Spike, nodding. They lifted their faces to the Queen and King, nervous but knowing, somewhere, that this was where they got their strength to fight. This was who gave them their gifts.
Their curses came from the others.
As if on cue, a blackness appeared on the floor slightly in front of Anya and Takina. They didn't' move, even when it stretched dangerously close to their feet. Xander lurched forward, but Tara and Giles shot out their arms to keep him in place.
A pair of men rose from the blackness. One in a conservative, proper suit. The other in a red velvet disco-era ensemble, with a red satin shirt underneath, opened to nearly his belly.
Spike couldn't take his eyes from the man in the conservative suit.
Gwydion had chosen to take Spike's father's face again for the visit.
Buffy clung to Spike's hand, squeezing it. Trying to reassure him without words. He closed his eyes and took a breath, remembering that this wasn't his father. This wasn't his future. Not anymore.
The shimmering Queen and her King looked at the pair of men with utter disdain as they became solid. Real, right in front of them.
"It's not quite fair," the Queen began, "to begin these proceedings taking the shape of a loved one." She looked at Spike for a moment. "Torture was not part of the arrangement as I understand it."
Gwydion smiled. "Neither is meeting you in a place with so little in the way of amenities."
"Hey!" Buffy yelped, realizing he'd just insulted her house.
"It is a bit primitive," the King agreed, shrugging at Buffy and smiling kindly.
The Queen nudged him softly. "They do not have the same means that we do to procure such necessities."
"It is a capitalist society," Anya chimed in, gaining an eye roll from Giles.
The King turned to his Queen. "Our girl lives here." Spike growled at the implication. "All it'd take is a wave..."
He waved his glowing hand and the living room was transformed into a palatial hall, decked in gold and built of marble, gleaming and....
"No!" The Queen reprimanded, waving her hand and turning it back. "She must live a human existence and..."
"What's wrong with my house?" Buffy asked, annoyed. Spike chuckled at her defensiveness.
"Not enough red," Luke commented, nodding briskly and causing the entire room to turn into shades of red, with velvet and plush and seventies disco lighting.
Gwydion shook his head once and it was gone. Back to the earth tones and neutral hues Buffy had chosen.
"It's bad enough that I have to see that every day," Gwydion complained.
The Queen smiled. "So, as I thought, you are not there of your own will."
"It is a useful necessity," the Hell god answered.
"But not one of power," the King commented, a slight smile breaking on his face.
"I have Power!" Luke yelped, insulted. "Powerful power. You know, being a god of Hell and all. Comes with a perk or two."
"Yeah, bad decorating skills," Anya commented, looking at her nails again, bored with the proceedings.
"As much as I hate to interrupt this discussion," Wesley said, apparently as the spokesman of the group, "It seems we have business to attend to." He nodded respectfully at the Queen and King. The glowing pair nodded their assent. "What? No respect for the Hell gods?" Luke whined.
"Would you shut up?" Spike snapped, getting annoyed with this gnat in bad haberdashery.
"Oh, you're a big man now that old Luke doesn't have you all tied up against the wall, crying' bout your little knocked up missy and the rug rat to be," the demon in red velvet teased.
Spike began to lurch towards him when Buffy finally intervened, pulling his hand before he could take a step out of the circle. "Not worth it," she whispered. "Just trying to get you to move."
He looked down at his feet and saw a glow of blue light surrounding the inside of the circle of people, like an insane spherical boxing ring. Spike nodded, suddenly wising up.
"Which leads us to why we're here," Wesley began again, hoping that he could proceed with minimal interruption. The idea of standing before four of the most powerful beings in existence was a bit intimidating. Never mind that they were responsible for bringing all of them into this dimension. One wrong move and there could be no existence in the blink of an eye.
"Oh! Right. Slayer's knocked up again," Luke began. "We heard in passing. Not a big shock and all." He turned to Spike, winking. "Way to go, studmuffin."
Spike clenched his jaw. Giles winced. Wesley pressed on.
"As ... crass... as that was, it does bring us to the point at hand. We've discovered the prophesy..."
"You've only now discovered it?" The Queen asked, a frown of disappointment on her face. "I'd assumed that the Watcher's Council would..."
Wesley looked ashamed. Willow frowned, holding onto Tara. "It only...we can be a little slow," the redhead whispered.
The Queen nodded sorrowfully and turned her attention back to the Hell gods. "We cannot let you interrupt this life," she said sternly. "It has been given our blessing and the soul has been chosen. It can only be changed by the decision of the Chosen."
Both Buffy and Spike looked at the Queen. They *knew*. They knew whose soul the child would receive. They'd chosen it. Somewhere, inside the collective thoughts of the One, it seemed somehow wrong that they could just know, just talk about it as if it were an everyday occurrence when it was such a mystery to those who made it *be*.
Made *her* be.
"Oh you have?" Gwydion crooned, wisely. "Do tell."
The King chuckled. "Do you think we just snapped into being in this godforsaken living room?"
Buffy moved to speak but Spike yanked her hand.
"No worries," Gwydion chuckled. "We know."
Spike's turn to want to lurch into the center and beat something to a bloody pulp. Emma stared at her parents, holding them back with her mind, her spirit, alone.
A concerned look crossed the Queen's lovely face, replaced by the serenity it always held. "You are lying."
"'Fraid not," Luke chimed. "But you're not worried. I mean, being all- powerful and all."
The King looked worried. The Queen looked... less confident. "And what is it that you want?"
"We'll take her," Luke sing-songed, pointing at Emma.
"No." It was a collective snap from every mouth but Luke's and Gwydion's.
"All right," Gwydion pressed on. "The second child."
Another collective "No."
The two Hell gods looked at each other. "You know what we can do with the knowledge we have," Gwydion drew out, smiling.
The Queen and King looked at each other. "We do."
"We *don't*," Spike snapped, feeling as though he had a right to be involved with the bartering on the life of his unborn child. Buffy nodded her agreement.
The Queen turned to Buffy and Spike. "If they truly know the identity of the soul, and they've ever touched it before, then they can gain control over the entity once it exits our dominion to exist on the mortal plane."
Giles turned to Buffy. "Control the soul, Buffy. If they know, and they have ever touched the soul, then they can take over the existence of your child."
Buffy's hand splayed over her belly. Didn't it already have a soul? Wasn't the baby inside of her already a person, just waiting to be? When did this happen? Did it come a little at a time? What ...
"Isn't there any way that we can tell if they've interfered with the soul in the past?" Spike asked, looking alternately between Giles and Wesley.
"Not such a big man now, are ya?" Luke chided. Buffy preemptively pulled Spike away.
The Queen shook her head. "No. It's unlikely that the soul herself remembers and there would be no way of telling. If it's not a voluntary sin, if they ever took control against the will of the soul, then it leaves no mark." Another Universal Truth, washed over both Wesley and Giles, sending their minds reeling. If the soul was tarnished unwillingly, then it wasn't marked?
"May... maybe we'd know if it was," Willow said meekly. "Can you..."
The Queen shook her head. "I cannot. Identifying the soul in this realm would disparate the soul from all."
"Speaking its name would make it cease to exist," Wesley muttered, eyes wide with understanding. The Queen nodded her reply.
"So, really," Gwydion interrupted, "We're a bit ahead of the game."
A deep breath from the King. "Well, what do you want, then?"
"We told you," Luke answered.
"And we told *you*," Spike began, his eyes blazing with anger, "you can't have either of him." He looked at Buffy. "Take me instead."
Buffy yelped, threading her fingers through Spike's and holding him in an iron vise. "No."
Gwydion and Luke laughed. "Uh, no," Luke said smugly. "Fat lot of good that does us. Now, were you still William the Bloody, and not Willie the Whipped, it might be fun. But as is, you'd just be a pain in the ass."
"He's still a pain in the ass," Giles muttered, causing Spike to smirk.
"Give us a tick," Luke said to the group before grabbing Gwydion and disappearing through the hole in the floor.
The group began to speak quietly among themselves, thinking that the hell contingent was gone, when they reappeared a split second later.
"Okay, if you won't give us the little Peace girl or the little Seer brother of hers..."
"Seer?" Buffy asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Oops," Luke giggled, slapping a hand over his mouth dramatically. "And you won't let us have our fun with the new baby One, then we want pick of the next genocidal maniac, and NO TELLING to this lot..."
The Queen looked a bit shocked. "We cannot let a soul go to you unbidden."
"No, no," Gwydion corrected. "We won't *take* anyone from you in that manner. It'd throw off the balance and even Hell gods can respect the balance. But when we corrupt his human form, you cannot protect the soul, and you cannot interfere by informing our little Legion of Earthly Fighters of our choice."
The King and Queen looked at each other for a long moment, and then looked back at the Hell gods. "Agreed," the Queen said. "We will not interfere as long as the soul is corrupted on *this* plane alone."
Gwydion smiled. Luke hopped up and down gleefully. Both of them had various fingers and toes crossed, but it seemed to be working all the same. They didn't need the Queen's consent to corrupt earthbound souls.
Sometimes it worked to their advantage that the royalty of the upper realms thought them moronic.
"Are we quite finished?" The King asked, annoyed at both the Hell gods and the décor.
"One other thing," Gwydion added, a devious smile on his face. "If we cannot have the next born of the One, we want her to be a Slayer."
Buffy's eyes shot wide. No. Not that. Anything but... she didn't' want her child to go through that. And didn't want to know that as soon as her daughter was old enough, the clock would start on the end of her life.
"No!" She finally said to the group.
The Queen raised an eyebrow. "Why on Earth would you want another Slayer the likes of this one? She has proven herself time and time again superior to your kind."
"Because," Gwydion said, looking at Spike. "This one only survived because Prophesy demanded it. The next... she'd serve her purpose and be gone, like those that went before. I want them to be there when it happens. When their precious Slayer of a daughter finally loses..."
Spike began to lurch forward and Buffy could not stop him. Suddenly, a wall of white appeared in front of the pair, stopping them dead in their tracks.
"And you'll sacrifice control of this soul in return?" The Queen asked, her hand outstretched, holding the One from entering the circle.
"Please no," Buffy whimpered.
Luke and Gwydion both nodded.
"Then so be it," the Queen said solemnly.
"No!' Buffy screamed, crumpling against the wall.
"Won't let her die like that," Spike whispered, falling down next to Buffy. "We'll protect her, Pet. Teach her."
"No," Buffy whimpered again.
They didn't notice the four in the center disappear.
~~~@~~~@~~~@~~~
"It seems a fair trade, Buffy," Giles said softly, approaching the crumpled pair on the floor. "At least she has a chance now."
Spike looked up at the Watcher, holding Buffy's head against his chest. She shook, unmoved by Giles' words.
"Yeah, Buff," Xander said, encouragingly. "We might be in walkers by then, but we know the game better than anyone."
"And we can teach her magic too. That's one plus you didn't have," Willow contributed brightly.
Buffy looked up, eyes wide and puffy, trying to wrap her mind around it. Her daughter. A Slayer. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad...
"Well, this is all well and good," Anya interjected bluntly, "except that they were lying."
"Lying?" Wesley asked, his gaze fixing on Anya. "How do you know?"
She sighed, patiently. "Well, first of all, they're Hell gods. Notorious for NOT telling the truth. Secondly, they did crossies."
Oz nodded sagely. "I saw that. Not that I could believe it, but..."
"They did crossies?" Willow yelped indignantly.
Anya nodded. "Works every time."
"Crossies?" Giles asked, staring at his better half. "Anya, what on earth are you talking about?"
"They crossed their fingers behind their backs and lied, Rupie," Anya said slowly, as if she were trying to explain quantum physics to her son. "They did crossies."
"You've got to be kidding?" Buffy interjected, shaking her head. "Please tell me you're kidding."
Oz shook his head. "I saw them do it too. I just didn't believe..."
"Not just a kid thing," Anya interrupted. "Based on ancient demon law, in actuality."
Buffy looked at Spike. He shook his head. "Thought it was just a schoolyard thing, Pet."
"They did crossies?" Willow asked again.
"Evil crossies," Xander muttered.
"And off we go to plan B," Giles muttered under his breath. "Unbelievable."
To be contd.