New Game Chapter 14 /16

Sequel to Afterglow and third installment in Dive into Destiny Series

Author: T.Claybourne

Rated PG-13 to NC-17. Sex Violence and language

Pairings involve Spike /Original ( as set up in last story) Angel/ ? Wesley/? Faith /?

Thanks to my Beta, Hawera and my muses, Kurt Cobain, John Lyndon (AKA Johnny Rotten) and Joe Strummer.

Just a reminder: You die hard Spuffy fans you will finally feel some validation in the next story following this one. ( I promise there is a definite and secure Spike /Buffy pairing in Part Four and final story of the series)]

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Chapter 14 The Playing Field( a)

Buffy’s team arrived early at the Hyperion. She had them move the round couch from the center of the lobby into the basement. The idea was that the team would fan out in the lobby. Willow would be on the far left side, closest to the back stairs. That would put her away from the fight to work her barrier spell, and another spell that she hoped would counter Mia’s thrall. It would also enable her to make her way upstairs where she had prepared for a dimensional transfer spell. For that Willow had chosen the very suites that Spike and Emma had once occupied: she felt that the previous connection of that location with the two vampires would add to the energy she hoped to create.

Buffy was to be at the dead center of the lobby. Xander would flank her to the left and Gunn to her right, with Fred on the far right side. Giles would be behind Buffy, manning a crossbow to protect Willow. The vampires would have to come in through the front door because they had put crosses at the other entrances, including the one Angel used to use leading to the sewer.

Buffy was holding The Scythe: there was a consensus that she should use it to protect Willow until she had cast the barrier spell and countered the thrall. Once she had done that, Buffy would hand it over to the Wicca who would then head upstairs to perform the spell which would send the vampires to a permanent inter-dimensional hell.

As the sun went down the tension grew. True to her word and two hours to the minute, a huge hole burst open in Willow’s barrier spell and Mia and Spike walked through it. Next came Wes and Angel who stood on either side of them, Angel on Mia’s left, and followed by Faith on Angel’s left. It was the last person who walk through who took them all by surprise: a seven foot tall man with raven black hair, who stood behind Mia and put his hand on her shoulder.

“Hi, guys,” grinned Mia. “Told you we’d have even numbered teams. This is our sixth player: some of you might recognize him. Mot, introduce yourself.”

Buffy and the others fell to the floor gripping their heads in pain.

“You know Buffy there is only one thing to kill him.” Mia smiled and motioned to the weapon in The Slayer’s hands. “You told me yourself once just how you took out that preacher Caleb with that, I’m thinking that might work today.. Go for it now. Mot loves a good fight he’ll even pull back the head pain. Won’t you, Mot, honey?”

The moment Mot let up on the pain Buffy charged, scythe in hand. Mia sidestepped but the blonde Slayer caught her with the tip of the blade and cut her slightly across the ribs. Buffy sank the weapon into Mot’s side.

Mia looked at the wound in her side which was bleeding, but not badly. “Spike, she ruined my coat.”

Spike chuckled. “We’ll get you a new one, love. Could have been worse.” He motioned to Mot. “Guess the old boy was really off his game, having walked among the mortals all these months.”

Mia looked over at Mot: he was cut nearly in half. “Fucking bitch! Remember how fucking hard my sad souled self had to work to finish him off? One little cut with that scythe thing and….” She shook her head slightly, “ Fucking Council keeping that under lock and key that time I had to kill him.” Mia turned and glared at Giles. “Fucking Council!”

Buffy worked quickly at finishing off Mot. In one long exaggerated movement it was done.

“Ok, where’s that blinding, burning, light we burned to dust with last time?” asked Angel.

Mia, at the same time Angel spoke and immediately following Buffy’s triumph used most of her strength and all of her vamped Slayer speed to elbow Buffy in the back of the head, The small Slayer had just begun to turn back to the vampires. The move knocked her out cold. Mia reached down and grabbed The Scythe. Giles let fly an arrow and it caught Spike in the shoulder. Mia and Spike looked into one another’s eyes as Mia yanked it out. She looked down at the arrow then wiped Spike’s blood from it . Looking at the blood on her hand she turned to the others.

Mia’s eyes filled with anger as she held her hand up the blood in clear view to all, “Faith, take out that old decrepit man with his little arrows.” Faith used her Slayer-made-vamp speed to reach Giles before he could load another arrow in his crossbow.

Wes looked over at Mot and saw how he was cut in two. “It appears Buffy didn’t cut his heart in half. Perhaps that is the reason for the lack of the destructive mystical energy.”

“Mia has a theory that it was those sodding souls of ours that made us burn to dust,” Spike said, glancing in the other vamp’s direction.

Mia looked over to Wes. “Speaking of hearts, Wes honey, do your thing with your old heart’s desire.” She motioned in Fred’s direction.

Wes headed for Gunn and Fred.

Angel stood back and glared at Mia. “You knocked her out!”

“Sorry, I got pissed off: she ruined my coat. She’s stubborn, just like you. Buffy won’t be out long. She’ll come round soon. Stand and watch for a while.”

“I’m off then, love. I’ll make this one special, just for you. Might bring you a pressie when I’m through.” Spike put her hand with his blood on it to her mouth he pulled it away then pulled her mouth to his kissing her. Emma quickly nicked her own tongue and shared her own blood with him as they had so many times. He pulled away licked his lips and smiled then headed Xander’s direction.

Willow just stood and stared. Things were not going at all as they had planned, and she was at a loss as what to do. Everything seemed change and start going in slow motion as she watched the vampires advance on her friends.

Wesley had gotten to Gunn. Willow watched as Gunn’s big form crashed down on Wesley’s knee, his back breaking. Wesley laughed and went for Fred: she swung the sword but Wes took it from her easily. He held Fred from behind ready to feed and turned to Gunn, making Gunn watch.

Spike reached Xander and with no hesitation, his fist went through Xander’s chest.

Oh my goddess, thought Willow, Spike is actually ripping out Xander’s heart.

Then she heard Mia’s voice yelling at her. “Willow, what are you doing?”

Willow came out of her semi- trance state and looked to Mia standing right in front of her now. Faith was moving up behind Mia, her yellow eyes staring at Willow. Mia didn’t even turn but said, “ Faith go cover Angel. That Slayer has bested him before, I want to be sure it doesn’t happen again. You only help, make sure he gets the kill. You only drink if he invites you.”

“You got it, Mia.”

Mia handed The Scythe to Willow. “This is too easy, there’s still time, do something witch!”

Willow took The Scythe, and immediately unexpected thoughts and images flashed through her mind. She turned and ran up the stairs. She knew exactly what to do. The spell and all its words just seemed to be there, in her mind.

She knew that if she did this now it would change, today. She threw open the door to the room where she had prepared the other spell and closed it behind her, putting the barrier charms in place. Willow sat in the sacred circle on the floor, placing The Scythe in front other. She tried not to think of her dying friends. If she did this right, they wouldn’t die: she would change it all back.

She ran her hand over The Scythe and took a deep breath. Yes, she was going to turn back time. It was the type of magic never to mess with, but she had to. If it worked, only she would remember. She closed her eyes and began the spell. She heard screams but soon the only thing she could hear was a sound like white noise, and the all objects and the area around her looked like ‘snow’ on a television set. She felt nauseous and then, abruptly, she was sitting on the couch in the same suite but the décor was different. Spike stood over her.

“So what’s the word?”…… Willow?.....You with me, Red?”

Willow’s brows came together in confusion.

Spike shook his head and chuckled. “Willow, where are you? Are you in there, Wicca? The curse, you were going to see if you could use it on those slayers Angel turned. Remember?”

It all came back to her as a very alive Mia….no, not Mia, she was different,. Willow hadn’t been able to really say what made Emma different from Mia but she could see it. This girl hadn’t said a word and she could see it. Her face, it was softer, she walked different, she was more casual, less hard looking. She looked as if she had her whole life ahead of her not that she had already lived it. This was Emma. Willow smiled as Emma walked into the room, dressed all in black with a bun at the back of her head. Willow was here again with Spike and Emma, trying to help to save Angel from a plot to bring back The Master.

Willow replied the same way she had all those years ago. "I'm sorry, Spike, I’ve been over it all again. The curse was designed specifically for Angel. The magic just won't work for us. I came up with a spell but it wouldn't be permanent. I would have to be out of the fight to keep it going, which is probably not a good idea."

"What magic?" Emma asked

"Nothing now, love. Just was hoping to put the soul back in the two Slayers that Angel under the influence of The First sired.

Willow had managed to slip back to a time before Emma had been killed by Drusilla and become a vampire. Angel had still been taken over by The First to distract him as one of the few remaining devoted Aurelians tried to bring The Master back enlisting Drusilla’s help while using the Masters bone dust to enact an ancient rite to bring forth the Master.

Emma was right this moment preparing to go in and save Angel as the rest of them planned to fight any other vampires the First Triggered Angel had created or had with him. Now all Willow had to do was to make sure Dru didn’t get a chance to sire Emma again. If there were no Mia, the day she had just left behind would never happen.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Willow had been silent as she had watched the past unfold. It was strange to be in the past and to know that the horrible future she’d just left behind had not yet happened. Tension here was high. They had to rescue Angel. He was infected with the Master’s bone dust and was slowly becoming the Master himself. All that was left before he became fully transformed into the Master was a ritual that involved killing several Slayers and then the same number of vampires all on the same night. Previously, that would have been impossible because there had been only one Slayer at a time, but now as a result of Willow’s own spell converting all the potential Slayers into actual Slayers it could be done.

Emma was to go down into to the vampire nest the infected Angel had taken up residence in to inject him with the anti-serum. She was going alone because Angel ,once controlled by The First , thought she was already dead , himself having killed her with an arrow to her chest. She would be the last Slayer he would expect, her scent and the sight of her would confuse him. She would be their element of surprise but she had to go now because Drusilla had visited the hotel and discovered that Emma was alive. They were afraid the plan would be ruined if they didn’t act now.

Willow remembered this day all too well. She sat next to Spike and Emma as they rode in the SUV to the warehouse and its basement where Angel and the others were holed up. Emma got out, gave them one glance back and then went into the warehouse, Spike’s coat flapping behind her as she walked. Willow had seen Emma and Mia wear that coat for years but in fact, Spike had only just given it to her less than an hour ago.

“Spike, listen to me, one of the coven seers called just before we left.”

Willow saw he had paid no attention; he was watching Emma as she walked into the warehouse.

“Spike, it’s about Emma.”

That got his attention. He turned to her and cocked his head to the side. “What about Emma?”

“One of the seers from the coven had a vision. She saw Drusilla behind Emma. Drusilla fangs were out, she sank them in Emma. She saw that Drusilla drains her. Spike, the seer says Drusilla is going to drain then sire Emma.”

Spike’s eyes widened. “Your seer saw this in a vision, saw it happening today?”

Willow nodded. “I know our plan doesn’t position you anywhere near Emma because of your scent and Angel maybe catch…….”

“I’ll do what I have to. Dru will not be taking Emma.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

They were at the top of the stairs. Angel pulled Emma by her bun, but as he started to sink his fangs in her neck Emma turned, pulled the syringe filled with the anti-serum from her coat and plunged it into Angel's chest almost as if it were a stake. Angel looked down and saw the empty syringe sticking from his chest; then he fell back, tumbling down the stairs.

Emma didn't stop but started to turn towards the flanking line of friends who were busy taking the nest of vampires. She planned to join them but as she turned she ran smack into Spike.

“Spike?”

“Em.”

“Thought you were supposed to…Only I was supposed to be near the nest. We were afraid he’d catch anyone else’s scent.”

“I’m supposed to always get your back, pet. You said we’d both survive today and I intend to make you keep your word.”

Emma smiled, “You know I love it when you get anything of mine. Besides with this coat on, how could I do anything but keep my word? Did you see me avoid Mr. Big Fang and sink that huge syringe into him? Come on, they look overwhelmed down there. Sheesh, you’d think they’d never taken out a nest.”

Spike grinned. “Not all of them have had the advantage of your training.” He grabbed her hand and they jumped from the higher platform together right into the middle of fight on the floor below.

Buffy had already staked three vampires and Wes was just dusting his first. Gunn swung his axe, decapitating one. Fred and Giles were behind the rest of Angel's team, covering Willow as she concentrated to cast a spell to put out the fires. Fred saw Wes get pinned down by two vamps, one of whom began to sink his teeth into Wes’s neck. Picking up the crossbow, Fred fired and dusted the one who had been about to drink. She saw blood on Wes's neck and from that distance, he seemed quite still. Running towards him she fired again, taking out the other vamp. Buffy glanced in Wes's direction but saw the vampire holding him disappear.

A vamp charged Spike. On instinct Emma whipped around after her dusting and caught sight of it beginning to sink its stake into Spike’s chest. She reached up and knocked the hand of the vampire, preventing it from driving the stake through Spike’s heart by mere inches. She grasped its hand and pulled the stake back out, the force of the pull smacking the vamp in the nose, then just as quickly she sank the same stake through the vampire’s own heart. The action caused both her and Spike to back up a few inches and abruptly both she and Spike fell through some kind of trap door in the floor.

Gunn managed to take down several of the vampires, including Jareth, one of the instigators of the plot. Suddenly, everything grew quiet as the few remaining vamps retreated into the sewers. As Buffy looked around, she saw Wes with Fred.

Willow yelled at Buffy. “Go check on Angel.” Buffy went after him.

Willow looked around and couldn’t find Spike or Emma. She panicked. Had she failed, or worse just sent them both to their death?

Suddenly Spike seemingly shoot up from the floor. “Em, it’s only a small wound I could have climbed out without the boost.”

“Spike, honey, go and get someone to…..”

Spike leaned over and put his hand out.

“The sod I will. Give me your hand.”

“You were staked. It might not have gone through your heart but I know how it feels to have wood go through your chest, so just do it. Buffy?! Wes?! Gunn?! Will one of you pull me out of here?”

“ Bloody hell, you are so stubborn. Just give me your hand. I’m fine.”

Gunn ran over and offered her his hand. “ Need a hand there, Emma? Looks like your sweetie got a little injury.” He grinned. “ It’s cute, you have matching wounds now.”

He pulled Emma up and out of the hole.

Spike scowled at him.

Emma smiled. “Thank you, Gunn, but try not to use the word ‘cute’ when you are referring to Spike. As you can see, he is anything but.”

Gunn chuckled as he shook his head.

Emma’s face became sober, “No, I’m serious, Gunn.”

Spike pulled Emma to him, kissed her and whispered in her ear, “ You already made me a nancy boy by asking for help to get out of the pit: this little ploy will not make up for it. It does, however, remind me why I love you.”

Emma gave a slight sound that was almost a giggle..

Willow was smiling as she watched Spike and Emma. Even with Spike injured they seemed so happy. It was nice because the last time, the time when they had been in this warehouse before, it had been so tragic after the fight. They had all been mourning Emma and frantic to find a way to change it all. Well, now she had managed to do just that.

“ SPIKE!” came a loud hiss.

Willow turned to see Drusilla float down from the Cat Walk above.

“She was mine, the little witch changed it all, all the blood and destruction, my glorious girl, she was with you the same as we once were, and Daddy he … it was oh so pretty. The screams they are music, such beautiful music and the Slayer, the bad Slayer, the one who steals them all, lay defeated at daddy’s feet. The witch was naughty; she reached out and plucked it away.”

Drusilla’s eyes widened and she looked in Angel’s direction. Grinned madly, she moved from foot to foot, clapping. “But Papa, look how wonderful that is!” She pointed to Emma. “ My girl no more, she is dying. She is death.” Drusilla laughed and turned, and then the crazy vampire disappeared into the sewers following the others.

Spike pulled Emma to him. “She’s wrong, Em. There was no more dying even briefly on the surgery table for you, and there won’t be anytime soon. I plan on keeping you around, love.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Willow was relieved, it had all worked. Almost too well. The day after the battle Buffy and Wes had called off the little love affair they had been having. When, after the fight, Buffy had run to Angel while Fred had looked after Wes, Wes had realized that he still cared about Fred and that Buffy still had feelings for Angel. Initially Buffy had been a bit upset by this, but she had been distracted by nursing Angel. It had resulted in she and Angel reconnecting.

Willow had been relishing her success for five days now, although it came with a heavy price. The memories she had of her other life overwhelmed her at times, and looking in the mirror at this much younger image threw her for a loop. The fact that nobody else knew what had happened was both a blessing and a burden.

A knock came at her door.

“Hey, Willow, you are leaving the day after tomorrow and I need to talk to you before then.”

“Hi, come in. What do you mean you need to talk, because we talk all the time, we’ve been doing the sights and dinners out and…”

Emma walked in and turned to her. “So, Willow, tell me, who is Mia?”

As Willow stared at her, a chill went through her. “I don’t know,” she lied.

“Willow, I have been having dreams and nightmares about her every night, and you are in some of them. I know you know her.”

“You shouldn’t: it was a special spell, and I’m the only one who should remember.”

Emma sighed. “Let’s sit down. I’ll tell you what I know and you fill in the blanks. I’m pretty sure I know why you HAD to do it, the spell: you had to because of me.”

Willow shook her head. “It wasn’t you. It was just something that looked like you in the future: a future that now didn’t and won’t happen. I changed time back, or rather it’s more like I my consciousness slipped back in time and changed it so you will never be Mia. In the other future you, Emma, actually became Mia. Five days ago when you went to rescue Angel, Drusilla actually caught and drained, then sired you. We put…..”

“A soul in me by using a Lurker demon. Yes I know that part. I know I was lost, confused and afraid. I know what followed after that, what I did and whom I hurt. I know a lot of things about this Mia, like I told you.”

Suddenly the explanation came to Willow: she remembered The Scythe, and that it had a bit of Mia’s blood on it when she had cast the spell. Mia’s blood could have changed things.

Memories came back to Willow: Mia leaving her alive, the reference to vamp Willow which was sort of a different time line, Willow being the power and knowing what to do with it, and Mia just giving her The Scythe during the fight. Suddenly Willow got dizzy and things got fuzzy: she was running up the stairs in the Hyperion five days ago to the sounds of her friends dying. She could hear Mia’s voice.

“I left you alive for a reason. That Lurker thought he got the best of me. Put me through the trials and changed all the rules. Not that I’m not happy with the demon, I am, but I am not to be bested by human or demon. So, we’re going to twist it around on him. You’re going to change it back. Turn back time. To what time in the past is up to you. I won’t remember, so it won’t matter to me if I’m a soulful vampire again. In this new repeat time you’ll just have to take Mot out with that permanent dimensional transfer spell. We won’t have to worry about facing him again. So, in the end I get to turn my knife hard and deep in the Lurker and still accomplish what I set out to do, everything I set out to do. I’ll have killed the Scoobies and Mot. What more can a girl want. Well, except for Spike.”

Willow concentrated hard. Where was she when Mia had told her this? Slowly an image came into her mind: her office at the Watcher’s Council. Oh my Goddess!! Both Spike and Mia had known of this plan.

“What is it, Willow?” asked Emma, bringing Willow back to the present.

“Even at her most evil, it was Mia who made this happen. She told me why but I had forgotten until now. She said it was about being smarter than the Lurker. Mia was never about being the smartest. Even when we almost found them with a locator spell she congratulated us. Do you think she did this for some other reason? Like maybe to beat Mot and stop herself? And if she did, how can that be? Spike was there when she told me everything. Why would an Evil Spike want join her, knowing he would become soulful again? This is all so confusing.”

“I can’t tell you: I don’t remember any of that part of it. I do remember some of the plans, the killing and …and.” Emma closed her eyes for a moment. “The stuff I remember, I have all the feelings, but I feel separate from it too, you know, kind of safe. It’s almost like watching a movie, just a little more intense. As for your questions, who actually knows what part of the human is left in the vampire after the siring? The Council says nothing but no one knows for sure. Even when he was evil Spike ended up falling in love with Buffy, his supposed arch-enemy, and that led to his redemption.”

Willow laughed. “It’s funny how all our conversations eventually end up back with Spike.”

Emma grinned, “Do they?”

“But I guess we should talk about Mia. She ended up back with Spike too.”

Emma’s eyes softened, “She did, didn’t she?

Willow smiled, but then her face became serious. “So, where do we begin?”