Disclaimer: BTVS and Angel belong to Joss Whedon et al.
Fade Into You
The song "Fade Into You" Clare Bown ft. Sam Palladio is the property of Clare Bowen et al.
Chapter 6 – Fade Into You
"And how do you suggest we convince the Great Wanker to make with the doe-ray-mes then?" Spike mocked Watcher Jr. relentlessly as Wesley and Lorne slipped into a debate over the missing chunks of Spike and Buffy's auras and combined future.
Buffy leaned back into her mate's embrace, tucking her head into his shoulder. They've barely talked about any of it – Angel/Angelus, the funkiness that's going on with the Fang Gang – but their plan was still mostly valid. She'd felt through their bond earlier the satisfaction and surprise Spike felt when he found Angel's missing soul.
And Lorne at least trusts them after his reading which is a plus.
She shivered thinking about how sideways things seem to be going – and fast.
Before it was easy – super-pissed at Angel, never want him back in her life, still scarred from her last run-in with Angelus and hoping he never returns.
But now…
Angelus has returned, he still sees Buffy as his, and hating him…
Yeah. Things got wonky the second she stepped through the doors of the Hyperion.
Before even.
From the moment she unwrapped his necklace and locked it around her neck.
Spotting her shiver, Spike pulled her closer, wrapping her discarded jacket around her dainty shoulders.
Devil take the stubborn bint, but she'd insisted on facing his sire alone. Not that Spike thought his own presence would've helped matters much. He's evil not delusional. But it's tearing him up inside feeling all her turmoil and confusion flowing through their bond.
Yeah, that little mating perk got right muddled up once Green-Jeans told them about their missin' bits-and-bobs.
Nah, he's lyin' to 'imself.
Their bond got right tangled once she stepped into that basement wearing a necklace that's no better than a collar wrapped around her pretty little throat.
Spike could bloody well smell 'is Sire's satisfaction, arousal, and burning anger from his seat in the bleedin' lobby.
An' only the Sire and Spike's Slayer know what was said between the two of them while they were alone down there, an' more what the cunning arsehole figured out just from seein' her and talkin' to her, watching her every move and every flicker of expression crossing her face.
Angelus is a fucking master of that shit, one of the things that made him so damned good at torturing damn near everybody around him.
"Ok, then sweetheart?" Spike whispered in her ear, his nose gently nuzzling among her riotous golden curls.
"Trying to hold it together." She admitted brushing his cheek with her hand. "The thought that either Angel or Angelus is still such a big part of us that we're not, our future's not, complete without him…"
She trailed off a moment slamming her eyes closed as she sucked in a harsh breath.
"Not of the good." She finished, her mate giving her an understanding nod.
As Wesley raised his voice in frustration, Buffy focused back in on their companions, the ex-Watcher and the demon still fighting it out.
"What's the what?" She asked wearily. "All we need is my evil ex-boyfriend to sing a few lines with me and Spike, right?" She arched a brow. "Angelus isn't exactly all that hard to bribe as long as he's stuck in that cage."
Now if he got out it would be a whole different story…
"You're not gettin' in that cage with 'im, love." Spike said immediately, knowing better than most what kinds of demands the Great Wanker was likely to make.
She rolled her eyes at him before staring at Wesley in clear expectation.
"We've, er," Wesley fumbled a moment. "Tried."
"Evil-Angel-cakes won't even hum a ditty for me." Lorne twirled his Sea Breeze. "He knows all too much about my power. Closest he's come is whistling a few Irish songs."
"Molly Malone?" Spike hazarded with a grimace. The two of them would sing/shout that tune whilst drunk on, well, drunks.
Not really one of his proudest moments from being a fledge.
"Quite." Wesley said, distaste firmly planted in his voice. That damned tune is going to be stuck in his head for ages now.
"Other than that," Lorne waved a hand dramatically. "Zip, nada, nothing, my blonde-strudels."
Buffy cocked her head to one side as she "hmm'd" under her breath.
Oi. Spike was familiar with that look on her face. It was the same one she had when she was explaining about the Sire's little treasure hunt that he left behind for her. And the same that she wore while kicking Hell-God ass.
That look – cold, determined, and thoughtful all at once – usually heralded that arrival of a bit o' wickedness from the mind of a damned excellent strategist and warrior.
For all that his Slayer likes to sand-bag and play dumb-blonde, she's quite the bright lil bit 'o' muslin.
"What's brewing in that tricky brain of your's now, pet?" He eyed her with carefully concealed pride.
His dangerous little mate.
"I know a way we can force him to sing…" She flashed Spike a knowing look. "Whether he wants to or not."
Lorne caught her meaning at once with Spike and Wesley not far behind him.
"My magic doesn't work like Sweet's, Buffy-kins." The demon shook his head regretfully.
"I don't think it's your magic she's plannin' on using." Spike said, his eyes locking on his mates, asking a wordless question with his gaze. "Is it, sweetheart?"
She just gave him a bright airy smile and stood, shrugging off her jacket and taking Spike's hand, towing him along at her side towards the basement door, Lorne and Wesley jumping up and following the mated pair down into the basement and Angelus's temporary domain.
"I don't quite understand." The ex-Watcher protested as they all descended the stairs into the damp underground level, Angelus cocking his head to one side and moving over to the bars while the group came into view. "If Lorne's magic cannot be used to replicate Sweet's effect on Sunnydale, then what are we doing down here?"
"Lorne can't do it." Buffy nodded in pleasant agreement as she and Spike stopped just out of reach of Angelus, facing him with their hands entwined to the elder vampire's serious displeasure. "Doesn't mean I can't do it alone."
"What?" Wesley spluttered as Lorne simply frowned thoughtfully as he leaned against the far wall, content to watch events unfold.
"Now there's me lass." Angelus grinned wickedly as Spike gave a low growl at his use of the possessive word. "Does me heart good to see you made good use of the presents I left you. How's that collar feel?"
Spike's face flashed to his demon for a moment as he wrestled for control before he tore out the wanker's fucking throat.
"What does he mean?" Wesley demanded as the trio near or behind the bars seemed content to have a staring competition.
"Council of Wankers," Spike sneered at Wesley. "Have been hidin' information on and from the Slayers. Didn' want them gettin' too powerful, too independent from the Council. So they hid weapons, tools, and lore to make the Slayers feel more vulnerable, like that damned Cruciamentum bollocks. Made 'em more controllable didn' it, and the ones that didn' last or weren't controllable well that was no great loss. Another Slayer always pops up."
"Ooh." Angelus said with a spiteful look in his eyes as Buffy leaned into Spike for a millisecond at the reminder of her own Cruciamentum. "Wee Willy's been crackin' the Slayer's books open along with her knees." He finished with a leer.
The mated pair refused to flinch at the accusing, betrayed tone buried in Angelus's voice. They knew when they completed their bond that if he ever came back he would be indescribably pissed over their union. From his perspective it was a betrayal of the lowest sort, worse by far than their alliance during Acathla, that of Childe and Mate not merely Childe and Enemy. No matter what his soul did to help bring it about, Angelus would have his pound of flesh out of them over it one way or another.
And if his ire caused dissention among the soul's Fang Gang all the better.
Frankly, both Spike and Buffy would rather he took it literally from their bodies than be forced to listen to him talk about either one of them with that lewd smirk.
Angelus's words have a way of cutting much deeper than any knife or whip could in his hand.
Buffy spared Wesley a glance from the corner of her eye.
"Slayers, all Slayers, are inherently magical." She explained as she crouched pricking her finger and drawing a rune on the floor in her own blood. "It's one of the things that separates a Potential from a Slayer. Just one of many things the Council has hidden in recent centuries. After Sweet's unhappy departure from SunnyHell I learned how his spell worked just in case he ever decided to come back for revenge."
"You're not resoulling me, now, are you lover?" Angelus's voice was silky with his implied threat. As bad as his Childe and Mate joining as Mates themselves was, nothing would be as bad in his eyes as Buffy shoving that damned soul down his throat herself.
Spike snorted.
"Nope, Sire." He answered for his otherwise occupied mate. "Jus' need you to sing a nice little tune with us for Green-Jeans over there." He pointed cheerily to Lorne, a mocking smirk on his face as Angelus growled.
"I don't sing." The pissed-off Master vampire hissed as Buffy stood with a patronizing giggle.
"Oh, lover." She tsked. "Who said you have any choice in the matter?"
With a little grin her eyes flashed silver before she began the song using a modified version of Sweet's spell. It would only effect the three of them and only for this one song. Each would join when needed and Lorne could get the reading the Fang Gang seemed so fucking desperate for.
Buffy: "If you were the ocean and I was the sun, If the day made me heavy and gravity won, If I was the red and you were the blue, I could just fade into you."
Spike: "If you were a window and I was the rain, I'd pour myself out and wash off your pain. I'd fall like a tear so your light could shine through, then I'd just fade into you."
Angelus felt the pull of her damned spell sucking him under as the two of them stared into each other's eyes before turning the full effect of their gazes onto him. As their voices joined together the magic grabbed him by the balls and pulled the words out of him.
Buff and Spike: "In your heart, in your head, in your arms, in your bed, under your skin. Until there's no way to know where you end, and where I begin."
Angelus: "If I was a shadow and you were the street, the cobblestone midnight is where we first meet. Til the lights flickered out, we dance with the moon, then I'd just fade into you."
Lorne gasped as he saw Angelus's aura for the first time. It was so different than Angel's. That was to be suspected, he was a soulless psycho killer after all, but there was something else to it too… Lorne could almost put his finger on it when his attention was drawn to the future spirally out before him as Buffy and Spike joined in for the chorus and bridge.
All three: "In your heart, in your head, in your arms, in your bed, under your skin. Until there's no way to know where you end, and where I begin. I wanna melt in, I wanna soak through, I only wanna move when you move. I wanna breathe out when you breathe in, then I wanna fade into you."
The men's voices faded away as the spell started to lose it's grip, leaving Buffy alone to finish the song that she'd begun, the words haunting in their meaning.
Buffy: "If I were just ashes, and you were the ground, and under your willow they laid me down. There'd be no trace, that one was once two. After I fade into you…"
She almost hit her knees except for Spike's arm around her waist as the spell let go of her, the magic leaving a void in its wake.
"Oh. My. Showbiz." Lorne gulped down his Sea Breeze, stunned by what he saw in the three of them both alone and combined.
"What?" Wesley whispered harshly, although it was rather pointless with three super-charged beings in the basement. "What did you see?"
Lorne gave a small smile as the spell broke.
"Perfection." He whispered more from shock than any attempt at secrecy. "A perfect triad made from utterly balanced power."
He gestured towards the implacable form of Angelus, the vampire's arm still reaching for Buffy's weakened form through the bars from when she almost collapsed.
"Passion."
Then he motioned to Buffy.
"Honor."
Finally to Spike who turned his head to stare at the demon with a glint of gold in his icy-blue eyes.
"And loyalty. Together there's nothing the three of them can't do. Including killing the Beast and bringing back the sun." He shook his head with a cluck of his tongue. "Now getting them to work together…that's the hard part. And I wouldn't make any bets on how or why it'll happen. All I know is it's not going to be easy. Not for them or anyone around them."
He chuckled as he walked towards the stairs with a light spring in his step.
"Should be very, very entertaining watching the fireworks though…"
