Disclaimer: I don't own a thing.
Summary: Post AtS and BtVS, Faith and Xander are approached by a secret government agency. Surprises all around.
Rating: PG-13
Chapter 7: Shanshu
Somehow, Faith thought, as her entire body experienced a shock not entirely unlike going through a dishwasher, she was pretty sure that Connor hadn't picked her to throw through the portal because he liked her.
No, she was pretty sure it was because he didn't want Buffy on the other side, lying on top of Spike and sputtering.
Spike shoved her off quickly, rolling away from her. "Get off! Bloody women." He climbed slowly to his feet.
"Aren't you supposed to be dust?" asked Faith, lying on her back for a moment, letting the feeling of vertigo and pain pass through her, her flesh prickling and twitching.
Spike stretched, rolling his head in a tight circle with a sigh. "Only happens to vampires, luv."
"Right. Cause you're not a vampire." Faith stared at him, letting the sarcasm in her words drip down between them. "Cause, you know, you were," she added. "Back in Sunnydale. You were a vampire."
"Call me vampire lite, then," chuckled Spike. "When I told Buffy I'd died, I meant recently." He turned away, the long black duster floating behind him, and for the first time Faith noticed that it was a brand-new duster, not the old one she'd seen him wearing so often. "And then I came back," he added bitterly.
"And you weren't the only one, were you?" asked Faith, trying to figure out what he was talking about.
Spike made a face. "No, I wasn't. How'd you know about that?"
"A guess," admitted Faith. "It's never simple, is it? There's always a grander purpose, a higher scheme, somebody working you over."
"Yeah. Angelus returned," admitted Spike.
"Angel?" asked Faith, surprised.
"No," repeated Spike. "Angelus. And this time without the cuddly side."
"We can give him his soul back again," offered Faith, standing up slowly, facing the former vampire. Spike scowled at her.
"No, we can't. You think D-boy and I didn't try? We fought him, we tried to ensoul him, we tried everything." Spike looked up at the blood-red sky above them. "But Angel's soul...the bloody thing is gone. Destroyed." Spike turned back to Faith, carefully rubbing the tip of his nose. "You have something on you..."
She touched her nose, surprised to find a blade of purple grass there. She brushed it aside angrily, trying to focus on Spike and ignore the colors that were causing her head to pound. "So, what? Why are we here?"
"You're here because Connor thought that Buffy and I together would be a bad idea. He'd planned to come through with me—bad luck he couldn't. This is the place, this is the dimension, and this is where I go all apocalyptic on you." Spike grinned slowly, pulling the piece of paper he'd had before out of his pocket. "I'm going to destroy this world—the whole thing. A rain of fire, a little destruction—and a Slayer, to boot."
Faith glowered at him. "Fine," she said, after a moment's thought. "Let's get this done and get out of here. The rainbow sky is giving me a headache."
--
Connor crouched over the dead demon he'd slain. "And the Ugernoth contains the crystals that can tear reality...this is a good one, you'll like this."
Buffy glowered at him, and then turned back to glowering at Harmony. "I don't want to complain, since I kept a soulless vampire alive and helping me for several years, but she doesn't have a chip," pointed out Buffy. "Or anything else."
"She's pretty well helpless," said Connor.
"Hey!" exclaimed Harmony.
"No offense," added Connor. "But either of us could take her with a major head injury and one hand tied behind our back. Possibly both hands. You can stake a vampire with your feet, right?"
"Never tried," said Buffy darkly. "So, we're just going back to earth?"
"Yeah," said Connor. "There's a bit of fighting to be handled there."
Buffy sighed, watching the boy cut away at the demon's skin with his knife. "I just hope you realize that you're pretty much crazy," she muttered under her breath. "Spike's a vampire. That's not something you can just undo."
"Tell it to the guy with the beating heart," replied Connor. "I'm telling you, he's as human as you or I...okay, bad example, in both cases, but he's human."
"I'm human!" said Buffy, surprised.
Connor glanced at her. "And you've been dead...how many times?"
"Twice," she admitted grudgingly. "Okay, not a normal human, but a human."
"Well, he's not normal either. But he's human," replied Connor. "I don't know all the details—except the insanity part. That was pretty obvious. But he's alive."
Buffy glowered at Angel's son, who she still didn't trust, then turned her glower on Harmony, who she'd never trusted. "Somebody just explain to me right now why I'm not fighting either of you," she muttered under her breath. Connor glanced at her in surprise.
"What? Well, because I'm your ticket home and Harmony...um, anyway, I can open a portal to get us back home."
"What about Spike? And Faith?" asked Buffy.
"They've got their own problems to deal with," replied Connor. "Give me a hand?"
--
Spike stopped running for a second, glancing back to Faith, who was gasping for breath and staggering. "Too many smokes?" he asked idly, stopping.
She stopped and put her hands on her knees, bent over double and wheezing. "I swear to God, I'm giving them up," she gasped. She began patting her pockets, pulling out a carton and pulling a single cigarette out with a shaking hand, holding it to her lips while searching with her left hand for matches.
Spike was spinning his lighter in one hand, glaring at her. She glared back, trying to intimidate him, but he didn't offer her a light, continuing to spin the lighter contemptuously.
"When did you quit?" asked Faith, remembering that Spike had smoked.
"When I took my first breath of air into pink, glistening new lungs and started choking," said Spike quietly. "I tried smoking, but it just didn't work out. Sodding fragile human body couldn't handle it. Coughing, asthma, and then bloody bad breath. That came nearer to breaking me than anything else, when they took my smokes. I could handle everything else they threw at me, but when the bloody powers stole my smokes..." He shook his head abruptly, cutting off the rambling. "Sorry, just a bit out of sorts."
Faith glared at him. "You run pretty fast for an asthmatic," she noted, finally finding a matchbook in her hip pocket. She pulled it out and lit a match, shielding it from the hot wind with her left hand and lighting up the cigarette.
Spike's eyes raked over the cigarette greedily, and he took a deep breath, inhaling the wisps of smoke that made it all the way over to him. "You were sent here to bloody torment me," he decided, turning away.
Faith blew the smoke at him, grinning. "Probably. Where are we running to in such a hurry?"
Spike began walking in the direction he'd been running, his lighter still twirling nervously in his hand. "There's someplace here—we found it in some bloody book—and it's supposed to be the place. Where they are. The partners. Why am I talking to you? I just sound crazier when I talk to you."
"Yeah, you do," agreed Faith, tossing the cigarette to the ground and leaving it smoldering as she strode after Spike. She'd stopped breathing hard, but she still felt a little light-headed. "So, what do we have to face? An army of demons?"
"Nothing that dramatic," muttered Spike. "We just have to overcome our worst enemies to get inside."
"So, me versus B? I can handle it," said Faith, adding a little swagger to her stride.
Spike gave her an angry look. "I meant ourselves, stupid bint," he dismissed her, turning back towards his goal, striding towards an empty horizon made of shattered color schemes and darkness.
"Oh, okay," said Faith, surprised. "You mean, I have to fight you? But you're not a vampire any more, so I shouldn't—"
Spike whirled to face her, cutting her off in mid-sentence. "No, that's not what I mean. I mean you have to face yourself." He hesitated, his head bobbing for a second. "And don't ask me what that means. I have no idea what it means, and I reckon we'll figure that out when we get there."
He turned and began striding on again. Faith sighed and followed him. "So, you came back alive. How'd you manage to hide that?"
"You know how," snarled Spike. "At least you would if you'd think about it for a minute."
Faith thought for a minute. "Nope, still not getting it," she said. There was an edge to her voice; his attitude was starting to annoy her.
"You asked why Connor was allowed to get near me and touch me and nobody else was," replied Spike. "Because Harmony can hear a heartbeat, if she gets close enough. Even Buffy could tell, if she touched me, what temperature my skin is. Because even the braindead soldier-boy can tell I'm breathing, if he's close enough!" Spike glanced back at Faith contemptuously. "Well, that and everything feels so different now that it makes my skin crawl."
Faith, hurrying after him, managed a sardonic smile. "So, it wasn't just insanity, huh? It was also calculated deception. What's up with that, lying to Buffy?"
"It's not a lie!" snarled Spike. "I'm just...not ready to tell her. Not yet."
Faith sighed, sensing yet another angst-filled outburst approaching. "Why is that?" she asked, bracing herself.
To her surprise Spike was quiet, saying nothing. Instead he broke into a trot, moving ahead even faster. Faith took a deep breath and followed him, deciding in that instant that no matter how sweetly sexy the blonde vampire might be, she hated his guts.
They ran for awhile, until Faith was wheezing, at which point Spike slowed down again, letting her catch her breath. He began talking in a quiet voice, and she had to move up beside him to hear him.
"I don't really know any more," said Spike miserably. "She doesn't love me, and I don't think she ever will, you know. First it was all about Angel, then it was all about the Immortal, but it was never all about me. I...I was there for her, and I know it meant a lot to her, but it was never really about love, much as I'd have liked that. Do you know what my life is about, now? Same things it was always about. Loving but not being loved. Fighting. Angelus."
"The more things change, the more things stay the same?" asked Faith, really not understanding too much of this. So Spike was convinced that Buffy didn't love him? And somehow Angelus was mixed up in that. Because Buffy had loved Angel? Faith wished she could get him to talk sense.
But she was afraid to ask him more questions—he started to ramble every time she did that, and she was already tired enough without adding all that boring exposition to her life.
"The more I change, the more things stay the same," said Spike mournfully.
Faith sighed, giving up entirely on trying to get answers of any kind from him. She stomped along behind him in silence, feeling the scratching, itching pain in her soles where they hit the ground.
She hated him.
Spike, for his part, was feeling a lot saner than he had in months. He was close to his goal now, close to the goal he'd set the day he woke up alive and breathing in the sunlight.
"Are you going to be any good in a fight?" asked Faith suspiciously, as it dawned on her that she hadn't seen him fight since he got back, and he'd said he was a perfectly normal human being now.
Spike shrugged. "Not really," he said flatly.
Faith rolled her eyes, making a mental note to kick Connor's butt for throwing her in here with the crazy vampire. Well, ex-vampire. "Hey, there's a door up ahead."
There was indeed a door. Just a door, with nothing behind it. But when Faith tried to step around the upright, an invisible force pushed her back. Spike reached for the doorknob, and then fell backwards, landing with a grunt on the ground and rolling to his feet.
"Right!" he snarled, stalking forward. "So bloody typical."
Faith rolled her eyes heavenward. "Calm down," she advised, her voice just a little scratchy. "If this is anything like the last door we came to, there'll be a demon to greet us and open the door."
"But we're not with Harmony any more!" said Spike, his voice a little stressed. He glowered at Faith. "She doesn't have a soul, you see, and we do. Since we do, we can't get in. And they won't talk to us."
"Who was talking about talking?" asked Faith, curling her hands into fists. "I was thinking more along the lines of laying the smackdown on whatever opens that door."
Spike thought about it for a moment. "That's a good plan," he finally admitted, grudgingly.
"No, it's not," scoffed Faith. "It's a dumb plan. A violent plan." She thought about that for a second. "Which you obviously approve of," she added belatedly. "Dumb and violent. I guess it does sound familiar."
Spike growled at her, his scowl not abating. He leaned forward, examining the door, and tried to touch it. Faith started brushing dirt off her butt, watching the ex-vampire closely.
"Kind of funny that you came back a human and Angel came back a monster," she noted.
"Nothing funny about it," snapped Spike. "And it's not Angel. Angel died. All it is now is his demon. The soul was scrubbed out, cleaned out, leaving just a hollow husk...that happens to a lot of people near me."
Faith's eyes narrowed. "You're trying to tell me not to bring him back. Funny, that, didn't you hate him?" Her voice was a shade too cold.
"You mean, could I possibly be lying so that you won't bring Angel back?" asked Spike, chuckling. "I guess I could, if you put it that way."
Faith glared at him. "So you're just admitting to it?" she asked, angry.
He shrugged. "By now your friends have probably tried eight ways from Sunday to give him his soul back. It won't work, it hasn't worked, it can't work. Ever."
--
Willow sat cross-legged on the floor chanting, while Dawn and Xander watched. "This is creepy," noted Dawn.
Giles glanced at the young Slayers stationed at the corners of the room as he paced back and forth, watching Willow. Xander put a hand on Dawn's shoulder. "It's really not that bad, Dawn," said Xander. "I mean, Willow's done this spell before."
Willow stopped chanting, looking up. "I can't find it," she said, worried.
Dawn glared at Xander. "Right, it's really not that bad. He knew, Xander! He knew we couldn't give him soul back!"
Willow stood up, shaking her head. "There's more," she said quietly, blowing out a few candles. "I could feel residue, mystic residue."
"As if somebody had already tried this spell?" asked Giles, frowning. He turned and began walking to the door, shaking his head. He took his glasses off, stopping at the door. "Did Spike say anything about this?"
"Uh, yeah," said Xander. "I think so." He was silent a moment, thinking. "He said Angel was killed, but then he said Angel was destroyed. I wasn't really paying attention at the time, so I thought he was just repeating himself."
"So we think now that Spike might have known about Angelus?" asked Dawn. "Maybe already tried this spell?"
Giles sighed. "Between Angel's dubious connections, Angelus' appearance, and Spike's appearance, I am at a complete loss as to what we should do now." He rubbed his face.
Dawn shook her head. "This is Spike we're talking about," she noted. "That means that we can't afford to take anything he does for granted."
Willow nodded. "I'm afraid Dawn's right. He was there for us once, but he also tried to rape Buffy—he was a tool of the First before he helped close the Hellmouth."
"And does anybody else remember him beating up on Faith the night before we went to close the Hellmouth?" asked Dawn. "I used to love him like a brother, but he can be dangerous. He's worth saving, if we can save him, but he's also one of the most dangerous people I know."
"That two-Slayer count," agreed Xander.
"We must be cautious," said Giles. "I have Slayers searching for Angelus now. We'll see if they can't get some control of the situation."
"Slayers?" asked Xander, feeling his heart skip a beat. "This is Angelus, Giles! He'll kill them!"
"I have only the most experienced Slayers on this, Xander, and as many of them as I could get," said Giles quietly. "I know the stakes as well as you do, but Faith and Buffy, the only two Slayers who've ever managed to stop him...they're out of our reach just now, and we can't wait for them to get back. They may not be coming back!"
The words struck them all hard, and Xander could feel his knees shaking. He'd been crowding the idea that Faith and Buffy were gone forever out of his mind, trying to keep it back.
Faith was his Slayer, and no matter how much she freaked him out most of the time, he still thought of her as his friend. He'd accepted long ago that she would never warm up to him, that she would continue to treat him with the same heavy-handed attitude that he hated so much, but they really had bonded, they had reached at least some sort of understanding while fighting demons together.
And Buffy was, next to Willow, Xander's oldest and closest friend. The thought of losing her was enough to tear him in half.
--
Spike was squatting on his haunches, staring at the door. His hands were moving continuously, rubbing together, tapping on his thighs, even at one point darting to his mouth. As he chewed his nails Faith shook her head.
"It's some kind of test, right?" she asked, her voice smoky. There was a hint of a crack in her words, and he frowned, rubbing his forehead.
"Maybe," he said roughly, his voice low and laced with frustration and anger. "We'll see."
"I mean, maybe we're supposed to do something," said Faith, her voice as near to patience as she could get. Honestly, sometimes the man—formerly a vampire—annoyed her so much she thought she might kill him.
She'd done it before, killing people. It wasn't really that hard.
"No, I don't think so," said Spike. "If we were, then there wouldn't be a door we can't open blocking the path."
He made it sound as if it made sense. Faith growled, wanting very much to punch him. He'd said that he wasn't going to be any help in a fight, though, and if she were to go around hitting people with her Slayer strength...
Well, that would be falling right off the twelve steps, wouldn't it?
"So you're just going to wait." Faith bounced from one foot to the other impatiently. "Dude, you suck."
"Not any more," he replied. "That was more of a vampire thing."
The door opened, and Faith charged forward, throwing a fist up. To her surprise it was met by an equally strong fist, and she was pushed back in a very familiar way.
The same way Spike had when he was beating on her for throwing Buffy out when they had been fighting the First.
She stared at the vampire in front of them, the back of her neck tingling so hard that for a moment she thought that he'd be followed by an army of vampires. "Oh, crap," she said, picking herself up and finding her balance.
Spike rose slowly, smoothly. "Kind of thought I'd be seeing you again," he said, a resigned cast to his face.
A mirror version of him stared back, his face contorted into a vampiric visage. The mirror Spike managed a small growl, but no words.
"Oh, come on," said Spike, irritated. "The least you can do is a proper hello, me."
"He can't talk," said a voice that shocked Faith, causing her spine to stiffen and her head to spin. "He's just an animal." A double of Faith appeared behind Spike's double, her face twisted in a sneer that even Faith recognized as more than a little broken. "Just like you."
Spike's hands doubled into fists. "All right, Slayer-girl, this is how it goes. You're a Slayer, you do your thing. Take out the vampire-me. I'll take her."
"Nuts!" yelped Faith, moving forward as the shock hit her again.
The shock of realizing that Spike was going to be no good in this fight. He'd admitted to losing his powers, he'd said that he'd be no good in a fight. So now it was her...versus herself. And Spike.
"Have I told you yet that I hate you?" she asked him, seething, as she jumped forward to fight a mirror-Slayer and a mirror-vampire.
