The group travelled silently through an even more silent city, four of them carrying the corpse of someone not long ago living. The fifth was empty-handed, save for a katana that he held tightly.
The five made an odd-looking group to be sure; one girl looked not even eighteen, with brown hair and tired but determined etes. Another carried herself proudly, for what had this Old One to fear of any weak demons of this plane? The third was slouched as she bore the dead girl in her arms. Her spiky hair looked more disheveled than most spiky hair, and her silver eyes were unreadable.
The first man, stocky and tall, also had an air of indifference about him as his dark eyes scanned for any danger. The last, slightly shorter than the first man, seemed depressed. His bleached-blonde hair was unkempt and he looked the most weary, after the young girl. Suddenly, he spoke. "Like a ghost town, eh, Angel?"
Angel didn't even bother looking his way. "Yeah," he replied abesently, shifting the girl in his arms into a more comfortable position.
Spike tried again. "How much further? My feet are killing me. And now that I'm all human, I might actually die."
The girl with silver eyes raised an eyebrow. "From feet?" she asked skeptically.
Meghan the Vampire Slayer answered, "A couple more blocks."
"More building and stinking bodies?" Spike grumbled. "Bloody boring after a while."
"I didn't used to think so," Angel remarked. "Then I went and landed myself with a soul... Redemption, atonement, blah, blah, blah. You know the rest."
The Old One turned to stare at the vampire with her piercing blue eyes, but said nothing.
"And now you're running around preventing things like this from happening, right?" Taywen muttered, her silver eyes troubled.
"Something like that," Angel said, a grim smile playing across his face.
They continued on in silence, turning down an alley when they were suddenly surrounded by twenty-odd armed Slayers ranging from fifteen to twenty years old.
Out of the door at the end of the alley came...
Andrew.
"Meghan... Spike! Angel! Two exotic women!" he exclaimed, hurrying forward. "You should have told me you were c oming! I would have-"
"Enough, Andrew, really!" snapped an irritated, English-accented voice. Rupert Giles, more commonly referred to as simply Giles, Buffy's former Watcher, stepped out of the door behind Andrew.
"Oh, Giles, this is all just a big misunder..." Spike trailed off when one of the Slayers levelled a crossbow with his heart.
"I told you I would never want your opinion... But never mind! What are you doing here?" Giles demanded, ignoring Andrew. "I don't recall seeing Wolfram & Hart on our list of allies. Michelle! Get away from them!" Meghan stepped away obediently.
"It's Meghan," Andrew whispered. "And we don't have a list of allies, Giles."
Giles cast an imperious, Watcher-ish glare the young man's way. "The point is, we don't trust you."
"You said she needed help!" Spike hissed accusingly to Taywen.
"Well," she mumbled, fidgeting a little. "I may have left out the not so unimportant detail of her not trusting you... It seemed unimportant at the time... I mean, Old Ones used to get along fine without trust..."
Illyria turned to stare disbelivingly at Taywen. "I have been carrying the dead shell of someone who means nothing to me but something to a person we are supposed to be helping but does not truset us for nothing?!" She looked incredibly angry – or possibly joyful. Who could tell?
Taywen shrugged. "Yeah. Pretty much," she agreed calmly.
Illyria dropped the body of the girl instantly, which caused a bit of shock to pass through the assembled Slayers, Watcher, and blonde-haired men. Angel and Taywen remained unsurprisaed. The latter's mouth twitched, almost a smirk.
"Er... Where's Andrew gone off to?" Spike asked uncomfrotably. Then he noticed a girl standing near Angel. "Hey, Rona. You remember me?" She didn't react at all. Not a good sign. He tried again. "You know I would never be willingly involved with these-" He was cut off again by the sound of cracking bone as one of the Slayers beside Rona gave a strangled shriek, her hands moving towards her neck, and crumpled to the groun, her neck snapped.
Angel smiled an entirely un-Angel-like smile, looking satisfied. He had dropped his dead body as well.
"Angel?!" Buffy appeared behind Giles, along with Andrew. "What did you--?!"
"This is what comes of consorting with evil!" Giles hissed. "No matter how many good deeds you do, you'll always be gray!" He blinked. "Or rather, no matter how much white you add, it only takes a small amount of black and you'll forever have gray!" There was a moment of silence as the people within earshot tried to figure out how this was relevent to the topic.
"Yeah, but if you add some sparkles, you'll get silver," Angelus sneered.
Spike's face registered only shock. "But... Angel... How the bloody hell did you lose your soul?! Again?!"
Angelus shrugged. "True happiness, blah, blah, blah. The usual drill." He rolled his eyes. "Say, how would you like to become a vampire again? No lousy chip to hold you down unwillingly, no lousy soul to hold you down willingly..."
"Capture him... All of them!" Buffy ordered. "And throw them in the dungeon!"
"Buffy? We... We don't have a dungeon," Andrew mumbled.
"It seemed like a good effect." Buffy cleared her throat. "The basement then! Somewhere secure and out of sight!" she growled.
"But I'm a human! A real, genuine human!" Spiek protested. "I don't deserve this."
"'Cause he's a real boy!" Taywen muttered in a high, cartoonish voice.
Illyria glared as four Slayers produced four ropes from... somehwere and began to bind her hands. "I will rip out your eyes when I escape, then your teeth. After, I will slowly cut off every digit on your hands and feet, then the arms and legs..."
Taywen stared straight at Giles as the Slayers bound her hands but didn't seemed to have any sarcasm in store for such an occasion.
"I'll escape. And you know that when I do, you'll wish your friends were dead," Angelus snarled ominously, yet made no attempt to escape, or even struggle, either as they tied him up.
"Leave Spike," Buffy said, before whirling around and stalking inside, Andrew and Giles following a couple of paces behind.
Spike looked uncertain, then followed as well.
The remaining Slayers escorted Angelus, Taywen and Illyria inside.
--
They entered a kitchen and Spike realised they were in a hotel. He thought of Gunn and Wesley, who, for all he knew, were still decomposing in the front lobby. He still couldn't believe Angel had lost his soul for the... third time, was it?? The guy was so irresponsible. The real question was, When did he lose it? At the hotel? When they had been fighting the turok-Han? After the battle? Before that? Recently?
Spike shook his head, pushing the thoughts away. Not something pleasant to think about, not when Buffy was so near. She was as good as his, with Angel gone and all. He smiled. Things seemed to be going well for him, at this point.
Author's Note: Thanks to all who reviewed! Sorry about the delay with this chapter, I was grounded for a week... But I have learned my lesson now.
Also: Please forgive any typos, etc. My word processor doesn't have a spell check and I suck at proof reading... lol
And I had to have Angelus! Sorry if it's a disappointment to anyone, but he's so much better than Angel.