An Unaccomplished Fate
Author: enigmaticblue
Rating: PG-15
Disclaimer: I don’t own most of these characters, and I’m not making any money off of the ones that are mine.
Summary: The sequel to Avocation and Under the Sun. Spike and Buffy’s relationship is on solid ground at last, but a new prophecy threatens everything they hold dear. The bonds of family and friendship will be tested, lives will be threatened, and the entire world will hang on the choice of one vampire.
A/N: Any resemblance to canon is pretty
much
accidental.
Chapter 33
“A dream that
waketh,/Bubble that breaketh,/Song whose burden sigheth,/A passing
breath,/Smoke that vanisheth,—/Such is life that dieth./A flower that
fadeth,/Fruit the tree sheddeth,/Trackless bird that flieth,/Summer
time
brief,/Falling of the leaf,—/Such is the life that dieth…Morrow by
morrow/Sorrow breeds sorrow,/For this my song sigheth;/From day to
night/We
lapse out of sight,—/Such is life that dieth.” ~Christina Rossetti,
“Days
of Vanity”
Wesley smiled at the sight of
Willow, curled up on the floor
next to the robot. She had finally finished the rewiring job, and now
April—and Willow—were recharging their respective batteries before
they imbued April with the apparent qualities of the Key.
He eased out of Spike’s spare
bedroom, closing the door
silently behind him. Buffy and Spike sat in the living room, speaking
in quiet
voices. “How is she?” Spike asked.
“Sleeping. I think we’ll be
able to do the spell tonight.”
Spike nodded. “Good. Xander
leaves in a few hours for Los
Angeles. Oscar is going with them and will stay behind to work with
Robert on
defense.”
“And Quinn?”
“She’s refusing to go.” Buffy
smiled reflectively. “She
won’t leave Tara.”
“What’s our game plan?”
Spike took a deep breath and
ran a hand through his already
disheveled hair. “We took one of the Knights to the psych ward, right?”
Wesley nodded slowly, vaguely
remembering that. “Yes.”
“Well, once April is ready,
we’ll take her over there,
parade her in front of the crazies, then release the Knight. That
should give
them the scent.”
“And Glory?”
Buffy shook her head. “One
problem at a time, Wes. We got
rid of the Council, we’ll get rid of the Knights, and then we’ll deal
with
Glory. If Glory shows up before that, we’ll take care of her.”
Wesley couldn’t argue with
their reasoning, or the general
plan. “How is Dawn dealing with the upheaval?”
“She’s dealing,” Buffy said,
sounding a bit grim.
Spike leaned back against the
couch cushions. “About as well
as you’d expect, poor kid. She’s being a good sport about it, all
things
considered.”
“We’ll all be glad when this
is over.” Buffy rose. “I’m
going to catch some sleep.”
Wesley took her place on the
couch next to Spike. “They
released Rupert?”
“With strict orders to rest,”
Spike confirmed. “There’s no
lasting damage; we can be grateful for that much.”
Wesley heard no gratitude in
Spike’s voice, however. Smaller
blessings were overshadowed by their current difficulties, and that
wasn’t
going to change soon.
~~~~~
Dawn had no idea what she was
supposed to pack, considering
that she didn’t even know how long they were going to be gone. Joyce
had
promised that they could supplement what they brought with shopping
trips to
Los Angeles, but that didn’t help her much.
She went over her list:
shorts, shirts, toiletries,
swimsuit, and all the underwear she had. At moments like this, Dawn
wished she
had a favorite stuffed toy, something comforting to bring along on the
trip.
“Dawn? Would you give me a
hand?”
She followed the sound of
Joyce’s voice down the hall to
Tommy’s room. “What’s up?”
“Grab Tommy’s diaper bag?”
Joyce asked, cradling the infant
in her arms. “And his suitcase? I’m sorry, Dawn, but—”
“Did you get your suitcase
downstairs yet?” Dawn
interrupted; Joyce was about to apologize for the inconvenience, for
making
Dawn do so much with Giles still hurt. Dawn thought that she should be
the one
to apologize for causing so much trouble.
Joyce gave a sigh of relief.
“No. I’m going to put Tommy in
his car seat, then I’ll be back up to get the rest of our things.”
Dawn smiled and grabbed
Tommy’s things, pausing as she
caught sight of a stuffed blue elephant someone had given him. He
didn’t sleep
with it; he was more interested in his plastic rattle, or the small
puppy he
could clutch with both hands.
Hesitating only a moment, Dawn
grabbed the elephant and
shoved it into Tommy’s bag. She wasn’t stealing it; she was just
borrowing. The
toy was something to hold onto.
Dawn hurried down the stairs,
unsurprised to find Spike
standing in the foyer. “Hey, Bit.”
“Hey, Spike.”
“You want some help?”
“Yeah, that would be great.”
Spike followed her back up the
stairs. Dawn fully expected a
speech about how she needed to be brave, or how Spike was sorry it had
come to
this, and he wouldn’t be sending her away if it wasn’t absolutely
necessary.
Instead, all he said was, “I’m
proud of you, Dawn.”
She whirled to face him,
Joyce’s suitcase in her hand.
“What?”
“By all rights, you should be
throwing a fit about now,” he
said quietly. “You could refuse to go, leave your friends, your school,
for who
knows how long. You could make our lives miserable when we didn’t give
you a
choice. Instead, you’re facing it head on.”
Dawn tried to swallow past the
lump in her throat. “I don’t
want to be a burden.”
“Oh, luv.” Spike pulled her
into a rough hug. “You’re not.”
“Yes, I am.”
“You’re a bloody miracle, Bit,
just like Tommy down there.
Don’t you forget that.”
She sniffed. “Okay.”
“Look.” Spike pulled back to
meet her eyes. “Robert has a
pool, and a bunch of other things you’ll probably enjoy. Think about it
as a
vacation.”
“And if you can’t stop Glory?”
“We’ll stop her,” Spike
promised. “It’s part of the
prophecy, innit?”
Dawn had to admit that much
was true. “Shouldn’t I be here
for that?”
“All the prophecy says is that
I’m the Guardian of the Key.
This is how I’m protecting you.”
“Xander’s here! We’re ready to
go, Dawn!”
Giles’ voice floated upstairs,
but Dawn didn’t budge.
Instead, she stared at Spike, trying to memorize this moment, knowing
that this
might be the last time she saw him. The next time they met—if they
met—Glory would be dead, and Spike would have fulfilled his duty.
As though he’d read her mind,
Spike said, “It’s not about
duty, Dawn. It’s about family.”
She smiled, and hoped that it
was a brave one. “I know. I’m
ready.”
~~~~~
“You have to swear to be
careful.” Oscar’s fierce glare and
hard grip demonstrated the depth of his worry. “Your mother would kill
me if
something happened to you.”
Quinn managed a smile. “You
know this is for the best, Dad.
They need me here, and Buffy knows how to work a tactical advantage.”
Her father sighed. “That’s the
only reason I’m allowing you
to stay behind. As it is, I believe my help might be needed. Rupert is
still
hurting quite badly, and I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed taking care
of an
infant.” Oscar cupped her cheek. “Children grow up so quickly.”
“Love you, Dad,” Quinn said,
not knowing of any other way to
reply. “Be careful. We don’t know that they won’t follow you.”
“What they want is here, or so
they think.” But he pressed a
kiss to her forehead. “I’ll be careful.”
Quinn watched as he slung his
bag over his shoulder and slid
into the SUV they had rented. None of their cars was big enough for
everyone,
but the rented vehicle would hold all of them. She watched Xander drive
away
and headed for her own vehicle. She was due to meet the others at Spike
and
Buffy’s house, and hopefully to take care of another menace.
~~~~~
“Okay!” Willow announced.
“April is ready to go.” Her hand
hovered over April’s invisible on-switch. “Just—a warning. The
subroutines for her love of Warren were buried in there pretty deep.”
Buffy raised her eyebrows.
“What does that mean?”
“It means that April thinks
that by helping us, she can get
back with Warren.” Willow winced. “I didn’t want to leave it like that,
but
there wasn’t an option with the short time we had.”
Spike cleared his throat.
“We’ll make it work. Turn her on,
Willow.”
Willow took a deep breath and
did just that.
A whir of sound greeted them,
then April’s eyes snapped
open. She looked around eagerly. “Warren?”
“He’s not here, April.
Remember?” Willow prompted gently.
“Oh, right! If I help you,
I’ll see Warren again,” April
said brightly, her words somewhere between a statement and a question.
Or maybe Willow was reading
more feeling into it than was
actually there. It was so hard to tell with a robot, especially one on
the
level of April. “That’s right. We’re going to the hospital right now.”
They made the trip to the
hospital in relative silence.
Willow had installed a subroutine that caused April to be quiet unless
she had
a question, even though she’d felt a little guilty for doing so. She
promised
herself that just as soon as this was all over, she would scrub all of
that
from April’s hard drive and either shut the robot down for good, or
find a way
to give her free will and develop a personality of her own.
Willow considered that option;
it could make for a very
interesting experiment.
She had no idea how Spike had
managed to arrange the visit,
but they led April up to the psych ward without incident. Walking
through the
door—where the patients were in restraints on single beds crowded into
a
large room—was a different story. A clamor rose immediately, various
shouts about April being so green and so pretty filled their ears, but
one
voice stood out.
One of the patients, the one
with the tattoo on his forehead
marking him as a Knight of Byzantium, began to pray. “Thank you, God. I
found
it. I found it. Thank you, thank you.”
Willow watched as Spike and
Buffy’s eyes met, and they moved
as one to release the Knight from his restraints.
The noise from the other
patients proved to be too much for
the hospital staff to ignore, because a young man in scrubs spoke from
behind
them. “What’s going on here? What are you doing?”
“We’re taking our friend
home,” Wesley lied smoothly. “From
what I can see, you barely have enough beds as it is.”
Willow suddenly noticed that
the doctor’s eyes were going
from April, to the Knight, and back to April, and his expression was
one of
dawning realization. Wesley seemed to catch that, too, because he moved
to
block the doctor’s entrance. “I’d suggest that you allow us to take our
friend
home now.”
She made a note of his name
tag—“Ben” was the only
part Willow could see. Although it was possible that she’d been
imagining
things, she thought that Ben might know more than he should.
After a tense moment of
silence, Ben stepped out of the way,
and Buffy and Spike led the Knight out of the room by both arms. Willow
put her
arm around April’s shoulders. “Come on,” she murmured. “We have to go.”
“Are we going to find Warren
now?” April asked, and the hope
in her voice caused Willow to wince.
“Not just yet,” she hedged.
“We have a couple more things to
do first.”
And then, with any luck,
Willow would be able to help April
forget all about Warren.
~~~~~
The tall grass was tickling
Buffy’s nose. She and Spike had
followed the newly released Knight to an encampment outside the city
limits. It
was well hidden in an undeveloped area full of scrub brush, grass and
trees,
and Buffy had to admit that if they hadn’t had a guide—however
unwitting—they never would have found the camp.
She could hear orders being
given, although she couldn’t
make out the words. Spike had refused to get too close for fear of
discovery,
and they didn’t have the necessary backup. Wesley and Willow were back
at
Spike’s place, as were Quinn and Tara, trying to get some sleep.
Buffy had promised herself
that when this was all over, she
and Spike would sleep for a week.
“Looks like they’re moving
out,” Spike murmured in her ear.
She nodded, watching as the
Knights suited up, grabbing
weapons and armor. “They’re going to storm the house, I think.” Buffy
did a
head count and grimaced. “There are too many of them, Spike.”
“That’s why we followed the
crazy one,” he replied with a
predatory grin. “Let’s go.”
Buffy followed Spike, moving
as silently as possible, and
immediately realized what his objective was. Two of the Knights were
lagging
behind, but it was going to be tricky to kill them without the
tell-tale jingle
of armor.
Buffy put out a hand to stop
Spike’s movements and picked up
a rock from the ground. She threw it in the opposite direction the
Knights were
headed and the resultant racket caused the two men to turn and look in
their
direction. She held her breath, waiting, and the Knights turned and
headed in
their direction.
Spike unsheathed his sword,
his eyes glittering with unholy
joy; Buffy smirked as she produced her own sword—the one Spike had
purchased to replace her broken Christmas gift.
The Knights might be human,
but they had threatened her
mother, and were ready to kill her sister—even if she was made up.
Buffy
took her promises seriously.
The two men went down quickly;
Spike and Buffy struck as
one, and the Knights’ heads rolled. They stopped to wipe the bloody
blades on
the dead men’s clothes.
Buffy and Spike continued to
follow them, blades out and at
the ready, at least until they got into town. At that point, they
sheathed
their swords and continued following the Knights.
The men were headed towards
Spike’s townhouse, and Spike
spoke in a low voice. “Run ahead, get the others, and get out. We’re
going to
circle around back and come at them from behind.”
“What about you?” Buffy
whispered.
“I’m going to stay out here,
make sure they don’t do
anything that’s going to get anyone killed.” Spike pulled her close for
a hard
kiss. “Be careful.”
“You, too,” she ordered.