Chapter Nine - Tranished Truths
"You know what? This is really getting to me. It's been two and a half months and the old codger still hasn't relented. It's making me sick!"
"Well maybe you should have thought about that before hand"
"I needed something to get my mind off of all the shit that's been happening lately"
"And you did that by drinking three full bottles of his most expensive Scotch. Does underage drinking mean anything to you?"
"Shut cakehole you tart! And what's with the cloths? Do you buy from 'Sluts 'R' Us'?"
"Take that back bleach brain!"
"Look who's bottle blonde!"
Willow sighed and went back to read one of the overly large textbooks on Wicca that Giles had provided for her, not bothering to listen to the batter between her boyfriend and Xander's girlfriend. It was nearly four months to the day that Spike and Buffy had moved to Sunnydale. Three months since Spike had told her everything that night. The end of the school year was drawing close as well as what he had told her would be Buffy's preordained death at the hands of the Master.
Since then he had been overseeing her training in Wicca and contributing to being a major pain in the ass for the girl that he had loved in another reality. All things aside, she didn't know what was going to happen from here on in - let alone Spike raze the hell out of Buffy, like he was currently doing right now…
"I don't think any sane vampire would to drink your blood. It has to be poisonous - hell you're just as bad a Cordelia!"
"I so am not!"
Across the table from her were Xander, Jesse and Angel; all watching the impending fist fight. Each male making bets in which slayer would win should the fight get nasty - they even had popcorn.
"I raise the pot by fifteen to thirty five in favor of Buffy" Xander grinned, pulling a ten-dollar bill from his wallet and tossing it into the pile.
"Don't you think that's being bias?" Jesse managed to ask through a mouth full of popcorn. "I mean she is your girlfriend"
The two teens looked over at the vampire seated next to them for help. Angel shrugged and added a five in vote for Buffy. Jesse rolled his eyes.
"I know why you did that"
"And that would be?" the souled vampire asked coolly.
"Because you have to hots for my best friend's girl"
"What! No I don't!"
Spike stopped his ranting with Buffy to snort with sneering laughter. "Yeah right Gel Boy. The classic puppy dog eyes have been seen on your face since the moment you joined the crew. Take my advice - she'd only stake you through the heart with a big shinny sword before sending you strait to hell. Its not worth it"
Angel only managed to raise an inquisitive eyebrow before Buffy retaliated.
"Hey!" she cried indignantly. "I so wouldn't. He may be a vampire, but he's proved himself an ally so far"
"May I remind you that you still want to dust the ponce even though Jesse has vouched for him. If I quote correctly, and stop me if I'm wrong 'he's like a freaky Batman wannabe that totally overdoes the hair gel, has absolutely no fashion sense and has to have a sixteen year old boy protect him from the big bad slayer. The only reason he's still kicking is because save he has the body of Greek god and' hey baby, lets go shag in a back ally' kinda looks'"
As soon as Spike was finished mimicking her whinny voice, Xander's mouth dropped open with shock that he could have caught flies.
"Wait one minute. You think the dead guy's hot? Oh… I think I'm going to be sick"
As the tacky brunette made a beeline for the washrooms, Spike couldn't help but snigger and shout out "If you puke on yourself, it'll probably start a new fashion trend". Then he caught the look of rage on Buffy's face.
"That was confidential!" the blonde shrieked.
"Yeah, for me to blab of course" Spike smirked.
Willow sighed and dropped a twenty onto the pile. "Raise the pot by twenty to sixty for Spike"
The witch said it at the same moment that Buffy launched herself at Spike, Spike ducked and Buffy went sailing headlong into an oncoming Giles, who at that moment was entering the library with his arms full of books. The pair crashed painfully to the floor and to said that the librarian was furious would be an understatement. He started yelling at Buffy for nearly ruining some of his most precious books and then gave her the punishment of going patrolling.
Muttering hotly in a colorful string of Buffy-isms, Buffy exited the library. Most likely she'd end up dragging Xander along for the ride.
With a giggle, Willow smiled "All mine then" and proceeded to scoop up the money that lay await for her on the table.
"No fair" Angel whined. "You cheated. Use of foresight is prohibited"
Spike burst out laughing.
"Your what? 140? I never thought I'd hear a vampire past his first centennial complaining that a sixteen-year-old girl cheated him. Besides, I would have known if she was using foresight and plus Giles has a very squeaky shoes - you can hear him coming from a mile away. He would have been vampire chow, if any would really like to eat stuffy old Brit"
"I heard that!" Giles yelled from the back room.
"You were supposed too!"
Angel crossed his arms, his looking a little irritated from the sneering sound the blonde's voice.
"Why do you hate me so much? I can understand the whole vampire thing, but I know that it's something else. Xander's animosity is one thing, yours is a whole new ballpark"
Spike stiffened slightly, and caught Willow looking at him out of the corner of his eye. Setting his jaw, the blonde took a deep breath.
"Why do I hate you? Well its something about a crazy vampire named Drusilla that killed my mum and was planning on turning me into her new play toy. I dusted the bitch and all, but oh yeah - she was you're childe. The books say that you drove a clairvoyant young woman in 1860 insane before siring her. Such are the chain of events that make me want to kick your fangy ass"
Without a word more, he turned his back on the Irish vampire and began walking towards the library doors. Time to go home or time to patrol. It might be nice to vent some of his pent-up hatred on Sunnydale's breed of lowlifes - this was what his original Buffy must have felt…
"Spike, wait"
He stopped, his back tensing as he felt Willow following. When she was finally close enough to place a hand on his shoulder, he spoke.
"What?"
"Why don't you tell him the truth? The real truth"
You could have heard a pin drop in the library at that moment. A he turned to look at his girlfriend; he found that the remaining people in the room were looking at him intently, if not a little confused. Giles was leaning against the doorframe of his office; Jesse pausing in the middle eating a sandwich; and Angel with an annoying placid expression.
Willow was scowling at him lightly at him, almost teasingly. She knew exactly why he was keeping the truth to himself (he had told her because he knew he could trust her and that he had no other choice). But it all came down to one thing - he had the fate everything on his shoulders. For a noble man who had once been a vampire, he couldn't seem to get any brakes.
As much as he loved him, sometimes she really irked him too. It caused something to snap inside him. Not anger, but fear. Would telling the truth to more then her keep the red haired goddess he had come to love safe?
Stepping forward, he hugged her close.
"Do you really think that'll help Red? I mean really. What'll they get out of knowing that I, Spike - William - the First Male Slayer - has memories from two realities?" he ignored the shocked looks and the questions as he continued. "Will it make much a different if I tell them in my 'past life' that I've already lived through all this? That I was once a vampire or that I earned a soul because of love and gained redemption only to damn the world worse then any apocalypse could? You remember what Whistler told me - the Powers that Be fucked up. They wanted to give me a reward for saving the world, but sometimes things aren't meant to be. It hurts too much to say it, but I have"
The look on her face let alone the looks he got Giles, Jesse and Angel was the reason why he hadn't said anything. He kissed he lightly on the cheek.
"I love you, but I guess it wasn't meant to be. All the time I've been blessed with in being with you was borrowed time. I don't belong here - you'll die if stay here and if that were to happen, I would never be able to forgive myself"
-.ooOoo.-
Below the city in the bowels of the Hellmouth, evil lurked. It listened with sensitive eyes to the world above and smiled. A week link had finally been found in the chain that made Spike, the Vampire Slayer so powerful. He wasn't of this world and it was the fault of those wretched Powers that Be. The world's first male slayer had been a vampire in his past life and that was something that could be used to their benefit.
His soul was already tainted.
Sure the human soul of a vampire is forced out during the siring so that the demon could enter the body, but the mind was also apart of the trinity that made a human, a human. The slayer still had his memories of those times… and maybe that was all they needed. A few bread crumbs and he would follow the trail, intent to keep the this world safe like he had done for his last…
But because of him, the walls of reality had begun to brake.
It was only a matter of time.
The Master was content with that. He was prophesied to kill a slayer and it didn't really matter which one fell to his fangs, because once he was free, the other would soon follow. So for now the Master would wait, wait for the one called Spike to come to him. The former vampire turned slayer would have a noble heart. He'd risk everything to keep his loved ones safe and therein would lay his defeat.
In trying to save the world this time, he would unwitting allow an apocalypse to be unleashed upon them.
-.ooOoo.-
It's all about choices. We make our choice and they decided our fates. Benevolent decisions lead us done the path of righteousness, malevolent decisions lead us down the path the damnation. The good and the bad? Those are the shades of gray.
All our lives we are apart of that gray. We make our good and bad decisions, but some times the scales tip. There are times when evil reigns and when goodness triumphs. Such times, mostly the good, are far and few. So the gray prevails and we lead our lives our lives oblivious to the extent of what our choices do to the world.
But are we at fault? Nah. We're only human right?
Human. Demonic. Angelic. Such a fine line separates the Fires of Hell and the Tears of Heaven. In this world, we share it so many different kinds of people, spirits, and monsters. But what is humanity? Do we, as humans believe ourselves about the demons, yet under the angels? No… we're a little bit of both and that's what makes us human.
As a race, we are capable of great and atrocious things.
Our choices…
…do they even really matter?
-.ooOoo.-
"What have I done?"
Spike sighed, head in his hands. A light rain had only just begun to fall over Sunnydale and he stood under it, as if hoping to be cleansed. He felt terrible for what he told Willow, Giles and Jesse - Angel excluded. Why was everything so out of control? Why couldn't he just have the peace he deserved? Growling, the vampire turned slayer kicked at a stray pop can lying on the side of the road.
"Well you bloody well screwed the pooch mate," he muttered to himself. "Royally"
Suddenly his senses began to tingle, his right arm lashed out and a cloud of dust joined the rain. Turing, he stared impassively into the eyes of a couple shocked vamps. French and Japanese - what a combination. So what was the one he just dusted? Portuguese?
The French vampire blinked. "Zhit man. Lazarus iz toast!"
Spike raised his scared eyebrow. "Okay, tell me - what is with you prats and the unoriginal nicknames?"
Japanese vampire glared.
"Oh and Supaiku is original? Word from underworld slayer is that soul of yours isn't so shiny…"
Having the experience of having been a vampire, the blonde was able to put an 'invisible' shield between himself and his foes. So it worked well in keeping the vampires think that his heartbeat hadn't sped up at least five extra beats a minutes.
"And they heard that from? 'The Evil United Chatting Service?'"
He couldn't help but inwardly shudder. Why at such a time did his inner Buffy have to show herself?
"Lets just kill him now. I'd like to zee head of a zlayer roll!"
"Shut up. We don't have the time… and you remember what the Master said?"
Spike was interested now. "What did the Master say?"
The French vampire looked about ready to reply when suddenly he and his companion exploded like the first. Beyond the cloud of dust was a smugly smirking Buffy, Xander 'leashed'.
"Cold feet Spiky? Can't even dust a few vamps?" she laughed, not realizing her mistake.
If it were possible, he just saw red.
"You bitch! The world doesn't revolve around you, you know! Bloody hell, I could have gotten information out of them that could have saved our ass, but you had the Xena didn't you? Christ girl - just leave me the bloody well alone!"
As he stomped off, Buffy and Xander could stare at his back, lost in his wake.
-.ooOoo.-
Sorry I didn't get the chance to update as a Christmas present, but here it is anyway!
So how was that? Sorry I haven't updated in like forever, but I've had another really good fanfic going that has twenty-four chapters and sequel on the way. If I ever do get this story finished, it'll have to be sometime during my brake from my current fiction. But hey, you any of you have any idea on how you'd like to see the story end, and end well, please don't hesitate to review.
But I gotta go. Another 'forgotten' story is calling for an update, so I'd better meet the demands. So yeah, don't be shy. Tell me what you think. Later!