Rating: R Strong language/some violence.
Couple: Willow / Angel (some minor Willow / Spike because I just can't help it)
Disclaimer: Joss owns all as always. I own nothing. Joss is my God.
Notes: This is a future fic.and it is for the lovely Susi who told us all how much she misses the Willow/Angel fic.
Summary : With all those he loved now deceased; the unexpected arrival of his estranged childe is only mildly interesting until he learns what it is Spike has to show him.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
~Part: 1~ THE PRODIGAL SON
I had expected him much earlier than this. About a decade earlier actually, about the time I felt the loss of Drusilla.
Even through my grief, and yes I did grieve for her, I expected him to come barreling in to my home to kill me once and for all. I could only imagine how excruciatingly painful the loss of his Dark Princess must have been for him despite the fact they had parted ways almost twenty years earlier. He never stopped loving her.
But he never came.
I waited.
But he's here now; I know it before I see him. In fact I know it the moment he steps foot in the city. It has always been like that between us. The link is strongest with my most favored childe, even after all this time.
I haven't seen or spoken to him since...well, since the last of the funerals - about 18 years now.
I can't help but feel curious as to why he has come. So I sit quietly waiting for my childe as he makes his way towards my home, a building he has never been to before but will recognize immediately all the same.
His presence here is a reminder of things I have tried so hard to forget. Tried and failed. Because the last time I saw him....
The first to go had been Anya. I didn't really know her but Angelus met her once in Lithuania around the late 1700's.
It was the ultimate slap in the face, to be granted your humanity after 1100 hundred years, to find love - something rare in this world - to fall pregnant, marry, then die in childbirth, something women so rarely did anymore because technology had come so far. Not far enough for Anya who bled to death on the operating table, but not before learning her child - a girl - did not survive.
Not surprisingly Xander Harris followed his beloved wife 6 years later. The autopsy gave cirrhosis of the liver as the cause of death, but those of us who knew and loved Xander Harris knew that he had died of a broken heart the day Anya was put in the ground with their baby daughter.
Wesley was next. His death left me with mixed feelings, and it still does. His landlord found his body after neighbors complained about the smell coming from his single room apartment. Wesley died alone from a single self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
Giles - stroke. Broke Buffy's heart. I was.....relieved in a sense, I would never have to look at him and see Jenny's face staring back at me and I hoped that he was finally with her somewhere safe and at peace.
Cordelia Chase. I still smile when I think about my beautiful Cordelia. The world threw Cordy a curve ball she never deserved and I like to think the Powers finally decided to reward her appropriately, despite the fact they took her from me. Cordelia isn't dead, but I will never see her again - she has ascended, doesn't exist on this plane.
I grieve for Gunn and Fred but I am filled with joy each Christmas when I get a call from their children. They lived a happy life together and had a beautiful family. I see their family on occasion, I watch over them always. Their eldest daughter is an Oncologist working to cure the cancer that took her Mother at the age of 40. Their sons - all three of them - have taken up where their father left off, fighting the good fight unafraid to face evil and die, as their ever courageous father did five years after the loss of Fred. I killed the vampire that murdered Gunn. Killed his entire clan - the lone straggler I missed did not escape the Gunn boys.
I clutch my un beating heart as the next memory assaults me and I hitch an unneeded breath. This hurts, still.
Buffy.
Buffy and Dawn died together. Instantly. Hit by a drunk driver in a truck on their way home from a birthday dinner the two had shared for Buffy's 30th birthday.
In a bizarre twist of fate, the truck driver found herself in the same prison as Faith - who killed her for the death of her sister slayer - and earned herself a life sentence for her trouble. She's still there now - the oldest Slayer ever lived.
It hurts too much to think about Buffy's senseless death so I don't do it very often and I don't do it for very long. I think sometimes that I hear her laughter, usually just as the sun is rising in the mornings as I drift off to sleep.
I don't rise from my chair to meet him, nor do I open the door. If Spike wants in a locked door won't slow him down. Besides it's not locked; it hasn't been locked for the last half an hour. Since I first felt him outside the building agonizing about approaching me.
Suddenly he's there standing in the doorway, cigarette hanging from his lips, black duster - still, black jeans, black shirt, and this is new - black hair.
We regard each other silently for the longest time before he snorts derisively and saunters in through the front door, kicking it shut behind him and falling exhausted into the nearest chair.
He closes his eyes and leans his raven head back against the cushion exhaling a long stream of silent smoke.
"Hello, Childe"
His eyes remain closed when he answers. "Peaches"
I wait patiently, silently, fingers steepled beneath my chin, book resting open on the arm of the chair.
It surprises me when I hear him start to breathe. He does that when he sleeps. Angelus used to beat him senseless for it, but Spike could never seem to help it. He always had been a little closer to human than the rest of us.
He sleeps. Unconcerned by my presence, unafraid of my intentions, perhaps he and I are of the same mind - just don't care anymore, the final death might be welcomed if not sought.
I'm patient, all I have left in this world is time. So I get slowly to my feet, feeling every bit of my 300 odd years as I drape a blanket about his sprawled form and take his still burning cigarette from his long fingers.
~Part: 2~ UNEXPECTED INVITATIONS
I don't sleep much so I'm standing on the roof when I feel his approach a few hours later. He stands beside me in silence for a moment before flicking open his zippo and raising the flame to the tip of his cigarette.
I'm a patient man but I'm mostly tired. I just really want the inevitable confrontation over with so I can get back to my book and console myself with the knowledge that at least William is okay. After everything. He's okay.
"Social call, Spike?"
He snorts shortly "When have you ever had a social call from anyone ANGEL" he sneers, stressing my name and making it perfectly clear he is separating me from Angelus.
For a moment a memory flashes brightly within my mind and I want to tell him I had social calls. Doyle, Cordelia. But even if he believed it he would give me that condescending look that so clearly says 'mortals and half bracken demons don't count.' So I don't take the bait. I don't really have the energy for arguing about this. I'm mostly tired.
"Do you get out much, Angel?"
I know what he means, but I'm deliberately obtuse, its one of the most effective weapons against my Childe. "Every night. Patrol"
He sucks deeply on his cigarette and I smile to myself. He's pissed. Good.
"Monosyllabic to the end, eh Sire?"
I shrug. He huffs. Silence reigns once more.
I study him from the corner of my eye but he looks the same. No new scars, no new bite marks. I had heard he had been running alone for the past 20 years but I didn't quite believe it. He was always such a social creature, so in love with being in love. My beautiful boy.
I sigh a little wistfully and think of things that can never be.
"So still fighting the good fight then."
I nod my head a little distractedly, still not looking at him but that's ok because he's not actually looking at me either. I know how deeply he resents me walking around in his Sire's skin. He hates the sight of me. I understand.
Time to bring this to a head. I don't think I can take much more of his barely concealed disgust. "And you, William. Are you-"
He doesn't allow me to finish the question as he rounds on me angrily "I'm a bloody vampire, mate. I LIKE it. What do you think?" He snarls with flashing yellow eyes.
"I know what ye are, boy. I made ye." I respond quietly, Irish brogue giving away my otherwise well hidden anger.
He looks like he's about to argue and I can already hear his strident denials about my role in his existence, but to my surprise he clamps his mouth shut and simply clenches his firm jaw. I can almost hear him grinding his teeth.
"Helping the hopeless." He scoffs quietly and I can't help but wince at his careless words as visions of Cordelia flitting about the long gone Hyperion Hotel dance before my dead eyes.
He reaches into the ebony depths of his duster and withdraws a scrap of paper. Handing it to me he says, "time you got out more, old man."
I take the offered scrap and watch in silent sorrow as he turns away from me and steps casually off the edge of the roof dropping easily to the concrete 3 story's below before striding off amidst a cloak of swirling leather.
~Part: 3~ IT'S BEEN A WHILE.....
It has been two nights since the visit from my Childe before I consider the address he handed me. Looking up at the imposing façade of the building in front of me I am reminded briefly of a time when I wore my hair long and tied back, when Will stood at my right side, when we brought Europe to its knees. It's that old.
I don't have to walk into this building to know what I will find. The only questions I have are who is the Master who has taken up residence here without my knowledge or blessing (for 20 years LA has been my town ~ every vampire clan on this continent and a few others have known it too), and why has my Childe sent me here?
I watch my Sire from where I stand across at the mouth of the alley opposite the building Yoshi has set up his lair. It doesn't surprise me to note that he has come weaponless and I can 't help my snort of disgust. Angelus always was an arrogant prick. Luckily for the bloody great bog-trotting poof I have a little more commonsense. Or perhaps I just want to live a little more than he does. Yoshi is old, almost as old as Angelus - would have been older if not for my Sire's 300 year stint in hell courtesy of one Buffy Summers. And Angel has forgotten what it is to take on a true Master, it has been far too long since he has had to try, all of the clans have left LA to him. Until now.
As he raises his hand to the front door I make my move across the street and stand beside him. He acknowledges me with a slight nod but makes no other sign of surprise at my presence, and nor would he, Angelus would have been well aware of my presence across the street.
My sire cuts quite an impressive sight standing under the slightly yellow glow of the overhead light. He still has that froofy hair I always said I hated and he continues to favor black as his fashion color of choice. I don't pretend to know much about fashion but I remember the Cheerleader used to say he could wear anything and make it look good - she had an eye that one, because he does. Look good. Can't help but snarl a little at that admission, it's all wasted on him. Wanker.
I light up a cigarette and wait for one of Yoshi's minions to open the door. Things are about to get interesting, but I've been looking forward to this and I don't want to give the game away too soon, so I school my features into my most common mask - bored glare number one.
He is obviously young because he doesn't recognize the dark and deadly vampire standing before him even though this beast had been hunting and killing his own kind in this city for decades. He recognizes the interloper's companion however and his eyes widen momentarily in surprise and more than a little fear.
His older clan mates had relayed the legend of William the Bloody to him not two months earlier when the Master vampire had paid his own Master a surprise visit. Here stood the slayer of four Slayers and the lover of one. Yes, William the Bloody was a veritable poster childe for the undead in this town - hell in this dimension.
Minions by their very natures were not the brightest of creatures. Vampire society was very feudal and minions were never created to be anything other than servants or cannon fodder, but even this minion had enough sense to put the pieces of the puzzle together, albeit slowly.
If this was William the Bloody - and it most certainly was - then this dark vampire before him now must be "Angelus! I, mean, ah...M...Master Angelus, p..please come in."
Angel stepped wordlessly into the lair and recognized almost immediately the scent of a very old and rival clan. A clan that had in recent decades effectively eclipsed Aurelius as superior. After all how could Aurelius possibly continue to dominate and rule if it's current patriarch not only shunned vampiric society, but had a soul for good measure.
"Inform Yoshi of my arrival." Angel ordered tonelessly not bothering to wait to see that his instructions were being obeyed before turning his broad back on the minion and facing his childe.
Spike smirked to himself. "Some habits die hard eh Sire." He chuckled earning no more reaction from Angel than a raised eyebrow.
Spike did not offer Angel an explanation as to why he had directed him here and nor would Angel ask for one. To do so would illustrate his ignorance and that was not something any Master vampire would do - particularly in a rival's lair.
Spike met his Sire's smoldering eyes steadily noting once again with more than a trace of disgust just how much Angel reminded him of his wondrous and awe inspiring sire, particularly surrounded in the slightly oriental opulence of the foyer they were currently waiting in.
Spike couldn't help but remember his days as a fledgling spent wrapped in silken sheets imported from Beijing pleasuring the man standing before him now with nothing more taxing on his mind but his intense disdain for Darla who monopolized too much of his Sire's time. Time his Sire could be spending with William in bed or even hunting.
Hearing the minion returning Spike snapped himself from his musings and fixed his eyes once again on Angel.
Spike carefully schooled his features into an unreadable mask as the minion, now accompanied by four clan mates, waved the two eldest surviving members of the Order of Aurelius through the foyer towards the main hall.
Spike would have been greatly alarmed if he knew just how closely his shuttered expression and confident gait resembled that of his Sire as they both made their way into the lair. But it was true nonetheless, despite the deaths of Sire, Childer, Lovers, Gypsy curses, government chips, betrayal and one small Slayer, these two demons were undeniably brethren.
~Part: 4~ IF I'D KNOWN YOU WERE COMING.........
Angel was angry. With himself. Not only had he not realized a new Master was in town, but he had not known that this new Master was Yoshi. It was that kind of ignorance that could get you killed, it was that kind of ignorance that could render your protection over the city useless, it was that kind of ignorance that could lose you the territory altogether. The arrival of Yoshi was going to necessitate some very serious damage control, particularly if the Master wished to stay in LA.
Angel never regretted not maintaining Aurelius as Master, even though, as Spike had suggested not five minutes earlier that it was something he was well suited to do. But at this moment he had cause to almost wish he had the backing of the oldest and strongest clan behind him, because Yoshi was formidable to say the least and unless diplomacy proved successful Angel was about to wage a one man war against this clan. A war he would not win. A war he could not afford to lose.
Yoshi kept himself in the kind of surrounds you would expect of a Master of his standing. Elegant oriental furnishings and fine textured silks adorned the main hall where precious works of art hung on the stone walls. Angelus had met Yoshi on various occasions throughout his long unlife and remembered well the Japanese Master's appreciation of high culture. In life he had been a refined and formidable man, in death these characteristics had become even more pronounced.
Yoshi was also a highly gifted tactician and strategist a fact Angel could not afford to forget. While he was still wary of his Childe's presence at his side, he was glad of it nonetheless - Angel's own skills in warfare and diplomacy were considerable, but William's ability to spot a deception or double cross was almost uncanny and Angelus and his favored Childe had been history's most successful war lords almost single handedly responsible for the unarguable dominance of the Order of Aurelius for more than a century.
Upon their entry, Yoshi rose gracefully to his feet from where he had been seated at a large table where various scrolls decorated with Japanese characters was laid before him. He had an undeniably commanding aura, one that each of his minions responded to with deference and deep respect.
Never taking his eyes from the Japanese Master's own black gaze, Angel bowed slowly in the traditional Japanese greeting as he knew Yoshi would expect, before straightening and offering his hand in the time honored tradition of the western world. Both Masters shook hands briefly before Yoshi turned his attention to William and greeted him in a similar fashion.
"It is a great honor to have you in my home this day, Angelus of Aurelius." Yoshi intone in his still heavily accented English.
Angel acknowledged the greeting with a slight nod of his head before responding in kind "I am pleased that you have the time to speak with me, Yoshi."
"We will sit." Said Yoshi returning to his own seat. "We will drink" he continued once Angel and Spike had joined him at the table.
'Oh this should be interesting' Spike thought as a minion appeared at Yoshi's side placing a large crystal goblet of blood before the Master before doing the same for Angel and Spike. 'Bet the farm this is no bagged animal by product' he mused with an internal grin. 'I wonder how Peaches will get out of this one.'
To Spike's very great surprise Angel raised his glass to Yoshi without pause "May good fortune be your companion" he toasted in a serious tone before drinking deeply from the goblet.
His toast was acknowledged graciously and silence reigned for a moment as the three Master vampires savored the ichor in their goblets. It was so fresh it was still warm, and it was pure. Spike guessed that it was most definitely the blood of a human child, and he wondered once more why it was Peaches didn't seem to have any problem whatsoever knocking it back like a thug at a football game. Obviously there had been some significant changes in the poof's life since Spike saw him last and he decided that he was most curious to find out just what else might be different about his Sire.
"You are wondering why I am here. You are here to see why it is I have settled my clan in this city without your consent."
The comment was a statement and not a question and so Angel did not bother to respond but chose to wait for Yoshi to continue instead.
"I grew tired of my previous surroundings and I found I had conquered all there was to conquer. It was time for me to ...expand." Yoshi took a shallow sip of blood and stole a quick glance at William before he continued. "My favored companion hails from your country. She never speaks of her home, but I am sure she misses it dreadfully and so here we are."
Angel took another sip himself before allowing a slow smile to spread across his handsome face. "I understand your reasons, I too indulged William shamelessly for fifty years by making our home in London despite the despicable weather."
Spike stiffened for a moment shooting a glare at his smiling Sire before snapping his head around to do the same to Yoshi who was chuckling good naturedly at this revelation.
It was while Yoshi was still laughing that Angel chose to continue in his most soft and dangerous tone "What I fail to understand is why you have come to this city knowing I lay claim to it, without the most basic courtesy of advising me of your presence here. Of course I would be willing to forgive such a slight if I were to learn you were merely passing through Los Angeles before you settled permanently...elsewhere."
Yoshi fell immediately silent but his smile remained. "Ah, my plans Angelus of Aurelius will depend entirely upon my companion."
This was not the answer Angel had been seeking and everyone present in the room knew it.
Spike found himself responding automatically to his Sire's anger. He sat straighter in his chair, tensed for action - while he didn't necessarily expect this particular meeting to end in violence he had learned as a fledgling more than a century ago to be ready for any eventuality at his Sire's side.
"Perhaps I should speak to this companion of yours Yoshi?" Angelus queried with raised eyebrows. It was an extremely provocative comment and disrespectful in the extreme. In fact this was as close to issuing a direct challenge as one Master could get to another Master before things went medieval.
Predictably Yoshi tensed and his second in command who was standing to the right of his Master's chair took a threatening step forward ready to take the required action to defend his Sire.
Yoshi composed himself quickly and held one hand up silently gesturing for his childe to stand down.
The room remained silent, the tension in the air was palpable and among it all Yoshi raised his goblet slowly to his mouth as Angelus held his gaze and lounged seemingly unconcerned and completely at ease in his own chair. This was all part of the posturing and power play all vampire Masters involved themselves in. Angelus' body language told the entire room he had nothing to fear from Yoshi despite being in the other Master's lair.
Angelus had always played the game well and perhaps the reason was because for as long as Spike could remember, Angelus really never did have anything to fear from another Master, he had never been anything other than the alpha. This was probably the only instance in Spike's unlife where the outcome of a challenge issued by Angelus was not already certain.
Yoshi placed his glass on the table with deliberate care and dabbed delicately at his mouth with a linen napkin. Without taking his eyes from Angelus Yoshi issued his minions with a seemingly relaxed request "Have my companion join us, Kaj - it seems our guests are keen to meet her, perhaps her reputation as an incomparable beauty has preceeded her?" He queried with an amused raise of his eyebrow to Angelus and Spike.
Angel kept his face deceptively blank. Yoshi had surprised him twice in less than a minute. He had acquiesced easily to Angel's demand to speak with the pet in question and he had divulged that said pet was a female. Angel had known Yoshi for over a century and never had Yoshi shown an interest in women as companions. So what was it about this particular female that afforded her such unprecedented favored status in Yoshi's court?
Spike settled back and got ready for the fireworks to begin. This was the moment he'd been waiting for. The reason he'd been to see his Sire in the first place, the reason he'd convinced his Sire that he needed to be here. So far Angel was probably assuming Spike's warning had been merely to advise him of the presence of a new Master in town, but wasn't' even the half of it.
Angel did not immediately raise his eyes to consider the arrival of Yoshi's pet. Having suggested she join them, it was a further insult to his rival to ignore her arrival in the room, more evidence, as if he needed it, that he was completely unconcerned about offending Yoshi.
He almost considered a vampire's flawless memory a curse. What it meant for him was that the pain of losing all those he loved remained as sharp and fresh as the day they died no matter how far he moved through the passage of time.
His wineglass shattered into thousands of pieces and his suddenly yellow eyes snapped immediately toward the newcomer the second he heard her quiet words of greeting to her Master.
"Willow!"
next