Giles was completely aware of his surroundings.
Unfortunately.
Whatever drugs Angelus had pumped into his system were still enough to leave him almost paralyzed, but they left him in the here and now and he wished fervently that he could be anywhere else.
Tara and Willow were on either side of him in the same situation. Clearly Angelus thought they were enough of a threat to incapacitate them. Tara was still trying, though. She chanted under her breath desperate to stop what was sure to happen in the next few moments.
Tara wracked her brain, feverishly trying to find a spell she could grasp but the tranquilizer in her system made it impossible to really concentrate. The magic slipped tantalizingly from her touch when she tried to reach it.
* * *
Buffy was paralyzed as well, but she wasn't drugged. She was just horrified by her own helplessness and the terrifying nature of the situation she was in. She kept trying to say more, to draw Angel's attention away from Spike and Xander, but the words wouldn't come.
Angelus tossed Xander aside like a sack of something unpleasant. Buffy realized with a sick twist in her stomach that he had never wanted Xander at all. He only wanted to hurt him.
But he did want Spike. That was very clear.
Angelus stood in the center of the room naked from the waist down and totally unconcerned by it.
Buffy was used to this attitude from Spike, who had absolutely no sense of modesty, but in Angelus it disgusted her. She figured it was mostly the penis. It stood erect, jutting from his body and dripping pre-cum.
It wasn't particularly ugly, but she now viewed it as a weapon more than anything else. And she felt disgusted that it had been inside her even once.
“Well, now William, you've finally decided to join us.” Angelus stalked over to the smaller vampire, “I think we've waited long enough.” He reached out to grab him and when Spike pulled away instinctively, Angelus chucked, “Uh uh, you wouldn't want anything to happen to someone you might miss.”
Angelus gestured to the minions, who had all moved in closer to the people they were guarding menacingly.
Spike froze and Angelus circled him, looking him up and down, “Take off that ridiculous coat.” Spike glared at him but obeyed, carefully folding it and laying it on the table.
Angelus moved up against his back and Spike felt a shudder go through him that had nothing to do with arousal. Angelus ground his erection against the back of Spike's jeans and sniffed his neck and hair hard enough that Spike felt the pull of his inhalations.
“Mmmm, no one smells like you.” Angelus slammed his against the table suddenly and started to undo the top of his jeans, “And no one feels like you either, you were right about that.”
Something inside Spike snapped and he started to struggle. Instead of instructing the minions to move in, Angelus seemed to enjoy this. They landed on the floor hard with Angelus on top.
Spike noted in disgust that the old git was really getting off on this.
During their struggle across the stone floor, Spike earned himself several deep gauges on the side of his bared hip from uneven spots and Angelus failed to notice where they had ended up.
Which was right in front of the Slayer. Whose feet happened to be free. One deadly accurate kick with enough force to actually lift Angelus' hips off Spike completely and the threat of rape was all but eliminated.
Buffy was shaking with rage; she looked down at Angelus' penis, now very flaccid and snorted in disgust, “Now I know why you kept your bedroom so dark.”
Angelus glared up at her in game face with a snarl, “So you just want to skip ahead to the big finish then? Fine by me!” He got up and quickly donned his pants and motioning to the minions, he hefted a still struggling Spike off the floor and over to a large object covered by a blanket.
One minion held each arm as Angelus whipped the blanket off with flourish.
A massive wooden cross stood towering over them and Angelus grinned, “You want to play the martyr, Spike? You want to be one of the good guys? Why don't we go all the way?”
As the minions dragged Spike over and lifted him up, Angelus pulled out a sledgehammer and several heavy iron nails.
* * *
Oh, God, oh God, oh God, was all Buffy could think as the first nail was positioned over Spike's wrist. This couldn't be happening. Her state of disbelief was shattered when it was pounded home. Spike let out a yelp and Buffy felt it run through her.
* * *
Spike had learned years ago, that most images of Christ on the cross were inaccurate. Nails pounded through the palms of one's hands wouldn't support the weight of the body because they'd tear right through.
Trust Angelus to know something like this as well.
His wrists burned, the power of the Gem was trying to heal them but it couldn't get past the heavy metal spikes in his wrists.
Then came the nail through his feet.
The pain, strangely enough, was not focused on the pierced body parts, rather it radiated through him.
Angelus stood before him and pulled out a ring of thorns and placed it on his head where it would dig into his scalp.
“We may as well do the whole shebang? Shouldn't we, William.”
The crucified vampire choked something out and Angelus leaned closer to hear.
“It's SPIKE you bloody git.”
Angelus jerked back and picked up the spear, driving it into Spike's left side he snarled, “Let's see how much of a git I can be.”
* * *
Spike hung on the cross, his shirt had been torn away during the nailing and his pants were tattered. He was barefoot because his boots had been taken off so his feet could be impaled. He was bleeding heavily and only semi-conscious. The surface of the cross continuously burned the skin of the vampire's back. The feeling was somehow beyond agony.
Angelus had ripped the Gem of Amarra from its place deep within Spike's torso and he now gripped it feeling it's power. The minor surgery had not been gentle by any means.
Once Angelus was certain Spike had been beaten almost to the point of submission, he decided to drive the point home.
“Now, Spiky, I was going to be generous and turn a few of your little friends along with your pet Slayer, but I don't think you deserve a little present.”
Angelus yanked Willow up and, unchained her from the wall. Tara let out a cry when he lover left her side but Willow was silent and trembling.
He changed into game face and looked up at his errant childe, “I think I'll kill this one instead. And every time I hear anything even resembling disrespect come out of that filthy mouth of yours, I'll kill another one.”
Spike Looked up blearily, the blood was running into his eyes creating a red haze in his vision. Willow.
She was helpless, looking up at him with wide, terror-filled eyes and he was powerless to help her.
* * *
Giles was watching Spike through this entire exchange and noticed him cast his gaze upward. The slumped, blood-covered vampire whispered something then, Giles felt he needed to know what it was.
The chaos that followed only confirmed this need.
* * *
Buffy watched the cross shatter suddenly, dusting several minions with slivers of wood.
Spike landed on the ground, on his feet.
Buffy blinked in shock, he was still covered in blood but the wounds had healed. Even the gaping wound where the Gem had been extracted was free of blemishes.
Angelus had released his hold on Willow in his surprise, staring at his childe, stunned.
Spike looked down at his wrists. They looked like they hadn't been touched.
He looked up at his grandsire, who actually took a full step back at the hatred in the younger vampire's gaze.
Spike shifted into game face and charged.
* * *
Spike and Angelus hit the floor like they had scarcely an hour before, but this time, Spike was on top and lost in a blood rage.
Angelus made an effort to hold onto the Gem, hoping it's healing powers might at least be able to minimize the damage, but Spike blows fell too quickly to it to heal.
Spike slammed his grandsire's wrist onto the stone hard enough to hear bones crack and the Gem went skittering across the floor.
Tara reached out weakly and gripped it in one pale hand.
Angelus saw his last chance and he grabbed one of the heavy curtains that covered the picture window and pulled it down over himself.
Spike kneeled, bathed in the bright dawn and waited for his end.
But nothing happened.
Instead of smoking, burning flesh, he was simply treated to the pleasant warmth he'd become accustomed to with the Gem.
His gaze flew to where he'd seen Tara picking up the Gem. She opened her palm and showed him the green stone.
Spike looked back at the rising sun in awe.
Then he looked down at a covered Angelus and beat him into unconsciousness.
Standing still a bit shakily, he pulled the keys to the manticles off Angelus' belt and started unlocking everyone.
The other minions had fled when the crucifix had broken and they were alone in the room.
No one said anything at first because they were all in a shell-shocked state.
Giles finally staggered forward, “When you were on the cross, when he had Willow, you said something. Then the cross shattered. What did you say?”
Giles had his suspicions of what had occurred but it seemed absolutely impossible. It had never been done and it could never be done. It was an old story.
Spike stared down at the sunlight on his forearm.
“Spike, please. This is important.” Giles attempted to clean his glasses but one of the lenses was missing.
Buffy leaned against Spike in relief, waiting to hear his answer.
“I said-“ He began, his voice raspy from all the screaming, “I said 'Heaven help me.'”
Giles let out a wheezing breath and just stared at the vampire, who was lit from behind by the rising sun, “Well it looks like they were listening.”
* * *
“Giles, what does this mean? What happened back there?” Buffy was hugging herself, watching Willow prepare the spell to re-ensoul Angel. Part of her wanted to stop the whole thing a reduced him to a dusty cloud.
Actually, most of her wanted to that.
“The oldest covenant ever recorded was between God and Satan. When Lucifer Morningstar and his followers fell from Heaven, they knew that the way back in was by laying their pride aside and asking for help and forgiveness. All demons descend from these lines and it was a time before man was even an idea.
It was said that if a demon was prepared to make a sacrifice, prepared to lay aside everything and kneel before God in service, that all his sins would be forgiven.” Giles looked over at Spike who stood avoiding the chained figure of his grandsire and standing in a shaft of sun, “And he would be redeemed in the eyes of God.”
Buffy stared at Spike from her place at Giles' side, “And this happened to Spike?”
“I can't think of any other explanation. But, Buffy, you must understand that this has never happened before. It isn't in the nature of demons to be submissive to anyone, let alone a power they've been at war with since the beginning of time.”
Buffy kept staring at Spike, who looked like he was no longer in the room in his mind, at least.
Little did she know he was actually somewhere else entirely.
* * *
|
