Title: Am I Evil? (13/16)
Author: Kylia
Email: kylia_bug@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: Nobody belongs to me, unfortunately. They belong to Joss & Mutant Enemy, and a few other people I don't know.
Rating: R
Spoilers: Everything up to "The Initiative". The story starts during the dorm scene from The Initiative; it's my own twisted world after that.
Category: Willow/Spike
Summary: What if Spike had never been implanted when he visited Willow in the dorms?
Distribution: Fire & Ice, WitchFanFic, Of Sire & Childe, anyone else, ask, and you shall receive
Author's Notes: having a bit of Writers Block. Hoping this will help.
Dedication: To Inell, who knows how I feel.

Willow lay in her lover's arm, at peace, letting her troubled thoughts rest, just for a little while. She knew they had a long rode ahead of them. She could feel the evil in this town, the hold it had. It wasn't like the evil she possessed. Not like the evil of her demon. It was tainted, vile, destroying the purity of evil, which had once been vibrant here. She chuckled softly to herself.

As a mortal she never would have believed that evil could be pure. But it was. She had learned that all things in life were necessary. Even the damned. Even the demons and vampires that roamed the earth. They had a purpose, a destiny if you will.

Sometimes evil was necessary. Sometimes Death was warranted. The Powers That Be had made sacrifices, compromises. They let evil roam free, knowing that many would die. However, when it counted, some creatures, possessed of evil, would do the right thing. They would work to ensure the continuation of all species.

Willow was such a creature. She knew evil. Was evil. However, like her mate, she also knew that nothing could be gained from the destruction of the world. All would be lost, and they would become nothing.

They had been visited once, shortly after she was embraced. The oracles. They told her she had a destiny. They told her about Drusilla's death, and how they had made it possible for all that Drusilla had been to be transferred to Rhianna. Willow didn't know it at the time, but Rhianna was to become her childe. Her first, most powerful childe. She had a soul… sort of.

Although it had been Willow's vampire blood which gave Rhianna her immortality, her unlife. It was Rhianna's merging with Drusilla's power that made her what she was. Her soul never left her body, but was joined with both her demon and Drusilla's. Due to the fact that her body housed two demons, but only one soul, the demons carried the control.

Willow had known the moment Rhianna had come to Sunnydale. She had felt it, through their bond. Willow alerted her daughter to the threat the demon had placed upon them all, confident that Rhianna would take care of it. And she had.

"Luv, you're not sleeping." Spike's voice brought Willow out of her thoughts.

"Not tired. Too much to do yet, too much that will never be done." She spoke softly, turning to face him. His blue eyes held a softness she knew was reserved for her.

"You gave the Slayer a choice? That was more than was necessary. We should have let her die with the rest."

Willow flipped herself over so she was lying on top of him. "Maybe, but aren't we just cleaning up our own mess?"

"How the hell you figure that, Luv. We didn't invite those blokes to come here; we didn't hand the town over. Bloody Hell, Pet, you're not developing a conscious, are you? Peaches and Delia are bad enough!"

Willow giggled as she climbed off of the bed. "Not bloody likely!" She said imitating Spike, then she turned and smiled. "I just mean that if we had come back here sooner, this situation would have been handled."

"And done what? You know as well as I do that if we had stayed after I changed you, we would have killed them all, and the damn Army idiots would still be here. Besides, If I recall, it was Peaches who told us to stay away."

Willow grinned. "You're right. Temporary bout of guilt has now been officially squashed. If there's anyone to blame, it's Peaches and Delia."

That settled Willow climbed back into bed and made Spike remember why he loved her.

Rhianna watched as Melanie slept a dreamless sleep. She had suffered a great loss. Melanie had only been a vampire for three years, and had been mated to Trevor from the start. She relied on him to define her place in the clan. That was no longer the case. She would have to learn to stand on her own, if she were to meet the challenge ahead of her. Willow and Spike would expect nothing less. To fail would mean death.

The Hellmouth was to be Melanie and Trevor's last stop. They were to remain behind, once the threat was eliminated. Despite Trevor's death, the plan had not changed. If Melanie wasn't up to the task, Rhianna had no doubt that Willow would end the child's suffering. She would not accept failure. That was why Rhianna had come.

She had had vision just days before, depicting the events as they might play out. And while Rhianna hoped that Trevor could have been saved, she knew that was not nearly as important as making sure that Melanie was prepared for what lay ahead.

She knew there was a chance the Slayer would choose poorly, and if that happened the entire town would pay for her ignorance. Willow was prepared to decimate the town in order to rid it of the hold the Initiative had on it.

Rhianna, like Willow, had seen what the Initiative was doing. What they were attempting to do. Willow would stop at nothing to end the threat they were posing. Destroying the town would be a small price to pay for their freedom.

And that's what was at stake. Not only their freedom, but also the freedom of every demon that walked the Earth. The Initiative was about to unleash an evil greater than they could ever imagine. They planned on Re-opening the Hellmouth, in an effort to harness the evil within. They believed they had the key to controlling the power. The thought they could enslave them all. They were wrong. However by the time they realized that, it would be too late.

Cordelia lay in bed, listening to the silence that enveloped her. It had been nearly eight years since she had ceased to exist as a mortal. Eight years, since she had died, and begin given a gift. Immortality. At the time she didn't understand the price.

She would never again hear the sound of her own heartbeat. Never again need to take in oxygen. Never see another sunrise. She would never know what it was like to grow old and die. Never have a family, at least not in the traditional sense.

She was technically dead, although not death as man would understand it. Her body lived on, while her spirit was connected to another. Someone more dead than her.

It was this bond, connecting her spirit to Angel that anchored his soul. This bond which allowed her to sense things through him. This link to the man she loved that allowed her to be with him for eternity.

It was probably more accurate to say there were one person, in two bodies. Two dead bodies, but two bodies none the less. She wasn't a vampire, but their joining had caused her to take on many vampiric traits. It had some disadvantages, but she had come to accept them. They were a part of her now, as he was.

Their bond had allowed her to communicate with the Oracles. They had been responsible for what had happened. Cordelia had died helping Angel to battle a particularly strong demon. After her death, Angel had gone to them, begging them to bring her back. They told him they could, but there would be a price. He had been willing to pay it, and so they had brought her back. Not as she had been, but as she was now.

Neither Angel nor Cordelia had ever regretted the choice he made that day. They had made a sacrifice, but it was one worth making. They had been told then that a day would come when they would have to make choices. They would have to rely on the damned to save the world. Now was that time, Cordelia realized.

Willow and Spike had come home to stop a fate that could not be allowed to occur. Cordelia knew that this was the time that had been warned about. This was the event that would change everything, if they let it.

They had made their choice. There was no turning back now, even if they wanted to, and they didn't.




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