And then there was no more thought.  And then there was just the blue, blue depths of his childe’s eyes, and he was drowning in them.  There was just the pressure, push and pull of that long pale cock he knew so well, doing something it had never done to him before.  There was just the rough, sexy voice he’d heard for a hundred years in his dreams, whispering what he’d always wanted to hear, that he loved him, that he needed him, that he’d never, ever leave him.

And that was all it took.

The pounding on the door, along with Gunn shouting Spike’s name, made them both aware of their surroundings again.  Across the hall, just as clearly, they could hear Wesley calling for Angel and rapping loudly on his door.  They both jumped to their feet, wide awake from the clamor, but when their eyes met across the wide expanse of the bed, they froze, caught by what they saw there.  Before they could move or speak or do anything at all, the door flew open (no doors were ever locked on this wing) and Gunn stumbled in.  He stopped abruptly when he saw both vampires standing naked on either side of the rumpled bed.

“Something’s happening,” he said in a rush.  “Somehow the wards went down.  The Masters are below, in the Hall – Illyria saw them go.”

Spike and Angel glanced at each other again, frowning.

“Pants,” Angel commanded tersely, jogging from the room, across the hall and into his own.  Wesley’s eyes widened at the sight of their naked Clan Master as he quickly passed, but Illyria simply cocked her head.  He stepped out a minute later, leather trousers pulled on.  He was doing up the button fly even as he moved down the hallway toward the stairs.  Spike moved quickly to his side, leather trousers on as well, though he’d done up the bottom three buttons only and seemed unconcerned about the others.  They were both barefoot and bare-chested, and Wesley and Gunn exchanged a worried look.

“Should we get our weapons?” the ex-Watcher asked.

“No.  Come with us,” Angel ordered, striding toward the stairs.  Spike moved smoothly with him and the pets trailed behind in complete confusion.

Once in the basement, Angel didn’t hesitate, pulling the door open and entering without taking any security precautions.  Spike did the same, but the pets all paused, took a deep breath, then went in behind them.  In the Hall they found not only the Clan Masters, their Lieutenants and their minions, but the full Clan of the Magdala as well.  Angel strode through their midst and they parted, sinking down as one in obeisance.  He continued on up the risers, then turned to stand directly in front of his chair.  Spike took up his position just behind and to the right of it.  Before he spoke, Angel gestured for the pets to stand on one side of the star, opposite where his Steward currently knelt.

“Master Angelus,” the crowd below murmured, touching their fingers to their lips.

“Who undid the wards?” he demanded.

Jardin unfolded from his spot at one side of the star and slowly approached.  “I do not know, Master,” he said, wringing his hands.  “We were summoned.  We thought it was you.  Our marks…”  He began, touching his upper right arm lightly, before clasping his hands to wring them nervously.  He stopped abruptly, bowed, then backed away slowly, bowing all the while.

“Maria?” the dark vampire called out.

Maria knelt just on the other side of the star, and stood when he hailed her.  “It was not the Magdala.  We were summoned as well.  We thought…”  Like Jardin, her last words trailed away.

“Thought what?” Angel demanded, beginning to lose patience.

“We thought the prophecy had been invoked.  We have been expecting it for some time,” she finished simply.

Spike frowned in confusion, but bit back the questions he had, knowing that his sire would get to the bottom of things, and quickly.  Both were concerned about the sudden and unexpected gathering of the vampires, but both had also clearly felt, through the communication link provided by the marks, that their charges were still fully under the Master of the Order’s control.

“This is the second time you’ve referred to ‘the prophecy.’  What prophecy?  Explain yourself."

Maria tilted her head in confusion, but answered immediately.  “The Shansu, of course.”

Wesley gasped, and though the others of William’s House were silent, it was clear that they’d all had a similar response.

“What do you know about the Shansu, and why would you think it was occurring?” Angel asked tersely.

“We have known about the prophecy for almost twelve-hundred years,” she replied calmly, while around her whispers rose in shocked surprise and confusion.  “It has never been far from our Clan’s thoughts,” she continued, ignoring that response.  “When Angelus disappeared over a century ago, we suspected he was the source of the prophecy.  It wasn’t until you resurfaced again a few years ago, and we heard whispers of your mission, that we became certain that it was indeed you.  We have listened and watched, and the signs are clear.  The Shansu centers about you.  When we realized what you intended to do with your Order, we were sure it would happen soon.  It didn’t when you ensouled us, and it didn’t when you ensouled the Masters of Aurelius.  Each time we expected it.  We expect it still.  It is our deepest hope to be a part of your great destiny,” she finished simply, bowing in respect.

Angel shook his head slowly, his frown deepening.  “Am I human?”  He said loudly, holding his arms out to his sides.  “Is Spike human?” he asked again, glancing toward his childe.  “Do you hear a heartbeat from either of us?”  Maria frowned.  “The Shansu has not occurred, and probably will not for a long, long time – if ever!” he said, growing angrier with each word.  His eyes glittered with gold, and a hint of fang was visible beneath one curling lip.  The Clan Masters of Aurelius, along with their respective retinues, each took a wary step back.

“Human?” Maria ventured, her brow creased with confusion.

“Since you know of the Shansu, it’s only fair that the others of our Order know as well.  Wesley,” Angel said tersely, calling his counselor forward.

The Englishman stepped up onto the lowest riser and turned to face the crowd of confused vampires on the floor.

“The Shansu prophecy states that a vampire with a soul shall save the world, and live again, until he dies,” Wesley recited, giving a straightforward summary of the translation they’d worked out from the codex.  “The souled vampire saves the world and gains his reward, becoming human again and eventually dying, purged of the crimes he committed in his vampire existence,” he explained.  “When Spike regained his soul the issue became extremely complex,” Wesley finished carefully, his eyes now fixed on the floor.

The vampires of Aurelius were dumbfounded by this disclosure, but the Magdala simply shook their heads and looked confused.

“Our Clan has studied the documents relating to the Shansu for over a millennia,” Maria said slowly.  “This is not how we have interpreted it.”

Angel sat down slowly in the chair behind him, and Spike stepped forward until he brushed the back of the chair.  A slender, pale hand came down to rest against one broad, naked shoulder.

“What is your interpretation?” Angel finally asked.

He sounded as if he really didn’t want to know, and the truth was that he’d become very ambivalent about the prophecy since Spike had re-entered his life.  He didn’t want a path that took him further from his already estranged childe.  In the end, if it had to be, he’d rather it was Spike that was rewarded – after all he’d chosen his soul, not been cursed with one as he had.  But that would take them apart as well.  Either way, he was ambivalent, to say the least.  He’d actually hoped that the process of signing it away during the Black Thorn episode had effectively neutralized it as a factor at all.

“Our translation speaks of two vampires with a soul, not one vampire with a soul.  And nowhere does becoming human enter into the reward.”

“Two vampires with souls?” Angel asked, straightening in his chair.  Small tendrils of hope began to wind their way through his thoughts.

“Not two vampires with souls,” Maria corrected.  “Two vampires with one soul.”

Spike glanced down at the dark vampire in surprise just as Angel looked up at him.  Both wore very confused looks, both remembering the conversation that had taken place so recently about the thin moment in time during the Masters’ ensoulement, when they briefly felt their souls not just join in strength to effect the spell, but actually appear to merge.  They looked away quickly, caught off guard by the emotions seen on the other’s face, and returned their attention to the Magdalan standing on the other side of the star.  Before Angel could say anything, though, another voice filled the hall.

“The witches are correct, while you, vampire, as usual, are wrong,” the disembodied voice said disdainfully.  “He is unworthy!” the speaker protested, clearly directing that last comment to another entity as invisible as he himself was.

“The Powers,” Spike heard Angel murmur, a note of wonder and confusion in his voice.

“Hush, brother,” a feminine voice replied.  “Translating the prophecy correctly is not a requirement for fulfilling it,” she chided.  “The others have been met, you know this.”

“I think we should reconsider,” the other said curtly, his voice filled with arrogance.

“You’re not dead,” Angel interjected, standing abruptly to stare around the chamber, seeking out the source of the voices.

“Of course we’re not dead,” the male responded sarcastically.  “Death does not concern creatures such as we.  Enemies of good attempt to perpetrate their evil upon us, but they cannot succeed in the end.  We are stronger than they.  And I think we should reconsider!” he reiterated.

The last words were obviously directed to the other voice again, as though he’d grown bored with even those small exchanges with a lesser being.

“Brother,” she admonished.  “You know it is not for us to decide.  We ensure that the prophecies are met, we are not their author.”

“Fine,” the male responded petulantly.  “Then let’s be done with it.”

“Two vampires with a soul,” Angel said slowly.  “I don’t understand.”

“Of course you don’t, you simple creature,” the male replied contemptuously.  “Your understanding is not required, only your presence.  Stand still and we…”

“Brother…”

“I grow weary of this!” he snapped.  “If we must do it, then do it now.”

“Angel, step into the star,” the feminine voice commanded.

Angel took one step forward, then stopped abruptly, glancing over his shoulder.

“Do not fear for your childe.  Your soul is what set the prophecy in motion, but he plays a part in it as well.”

Angel held Spike’s eyes for a long moment, then stepped down the risers and into the star.  The flames at the five tips flared up, even though he didn’t speak the words to activate them.  And even though he didn’t speak the spell to make visibly manifest his soul, it appeared anyway, a blue haze filling the chamber.  The darker blue band of his aura surrounded him, and from it, flying off in the haze, thin tendrils of light appeared, connecting him to the dozens of vampires in the room, and hundreds more outside it.

“You regained your soul through no choice of your own,” the woman explained.  “An act of evil brought a curse down upon you, but from that catastrophe has come great good.  You accepted your guilt and chose redemption, even though you were certain there was none to be had.  You sacrificed your very happiness for good, when you knew that you could rejoin your family and the life you knew – the life you’d enjoyed – many times over, by simply letting the guilt go.  This you did not do, not by your own choice.  And even when you believed you had the chance for redemption and salvation, you signed it away in favor of your childe.”  Spike started at this disclosure, his eyes wide with shock, but before he could say anything, the voice continued.  “For all these things you will be rewarded.”

Silence followed for a minute, and then “William,” the voice called out.

Spike was startled again, turning from his intent focus on the figure at the center of the star to seek out the elusive source of the one that now addressed him.

“Join your sire,” she commanded.

The blond hesitated, then slowly stepped around the chair, down the risers and into the star, to stand beside the older vampire.

Angel’s aura disappeared and the blue haze was abruptly replaced by a pale pink one.  A thin red band outlined Spike’s slender form.  Only the streams of light seemed to remain, but now the source of them was the childe and not the sire.

“You, a demon, sought out your soul.  This took great courage.  Even before that, you had begun to help the cause of good.  At what you thought would be the end, you made the ultimate sacrifice for your friends.  When you returned, you continued to sacrifice your own happiness to ensure the success of your sire with his endeavors against the source of evil in this dimension and without it; Wolfram and Hart, and the Black Thorn.  You never faltered, even though you received little recognition for your efforts.”

Angel frowned, reaching out to touch the back of his childe’s hand.  Spike shook his head, dismissing the guilt he read in his sire’s gaze.  Angel’s hand swept up the slighter vampire’s arm to rest upon a naked shoulder, fingers clasping the strong muscles there.  Where they touched, their auras shifted to a deep purple shade.

“For these things you, too, will be rewarded,” the voice continued.  “However, that either of you would think that reward was to become human is… strange, to say the least.”  There was no small degree of humor in that statement.  “My brother is correct in that.  Where is the reward in such a thing?” she queried, still obviously entertained by the thought.  With that assertion Angel, Spike and the pets belated realized that the Powers were as far removed from humans as the vampires themselves were.

“You see?” the male added, clearly feeling vindicated.

“You will be rewarded,” the female said, ignoring her brother’s comment.  “Both of you.  But your redemption is not so easily obtained.  Scores of decades doing evil cannot be counteracted with a few years of good.  The scales are far from balanced in that regard.

The voice fell silent for a moment, before it continued on again, and this time there was a note of sorrow there.

“Your reward is bittersweet,” she explained, “for it will be many, many years before you find your peace.  In those years you will struggle and fight.  You will be weary and worn before it all ends, but you will have each other, companions in that struggle, and that will, we believe, give you the strength to endure the dark times ahead.  We did not foresee the re-formation of your Clan, but it seems that the author of the prophecy knew more than he disclosed.  The taking of pets, the binding of them to you, means that they, too, will share your fate to some degree.  Their life span will be far greater than it would otherwise have been.  They will be with you for a long, long time, and along with the other warriors you gather, will battle evil with you.  Your destiny is set.”

As she finished those words, Angel’s blue aura reappeared and the pink haze shifted to lavender, indicating that the two individual souls were being viewed simultaneously.

“You did not translate the Shansu correctly, Watcher,” the feminine voice said gently.  “But you uncovered the truth of souls, which is no small thing.  Vast and eternal, you said, and so they are.  Each one unique, a power unto themselves, but for the challenge you face, not powerful enough.  For this reason, what has never been done before will be done now.  Two souls, combined, will become greater than the sum of their parts.  With this power, our vampire champions will attempt what none before them has been able to accomplish; to turn the tide of evil that besieges this world from all sides.  You have been given great resources to meet this objective – use them well.

And then both voices, the male and the female together, began to chant:

One soul shall bring salvation…

“Wait!” Angel cried out.

The voices stopped abruptly.

“This lowly creature wastes our time,” the male cried out.  “Silence him so that we may finish our task in peace,” he demanded of his sibling.

“The prophecies do not require the acceptance of those for whom they are written, but it is within his right to ask questions of us in this regard.  What would you know, vampire?”

“The curse.  Will it be lifted?  I don’t want Spike burdened with that.”

“The curse cannot be taken from you,” the male replied haughtily.  “It was given in righteous justice, and it cannot be revoked.”

Angel looked devastated.

“Brother,” the woman chided.  “Do not be cruel in your impatience.  My brother is correct,” she said, now clearly addressing the vampires at the center of the star.  “The curse cannot be lifted, but the Shansu will render it impotent.  The curse will trouble you no longer when the prophecy is invoked.

“How?” whispered Angel hoarsely.

“You were cursed with a soul, Angel, your childe was not.  His cannot be taken from him.  Once your souls are permanently merged, he will provide the anchor to the new soul you share.  He has proven over and over again that he will protect and defend you.  His is a worthy champion, and will serve you well.  As he has been, he will continue to be.  He is your anchor,” she repeated.

Angel turned to stare at the blond beside him, who scowled a bit and hooked his thumbs in the belt-loops of his trousers, trying to counteract the discussion of his merits with a bit of the Big Bad.

“My anchor,” Angel said, a note of wonder in his voice.

“Pouf,” Spike murmured so low that only the two of them could hear it.  But a hesitant, shy smile appeared at the look on his sire’s face.

“There is something else you should know,” the female Power said after another minute.  “The prophecy is a double-edged sword.  Once your souls are merged, they cannot be undone.  You will share the same fate, forever.  There is no turning back from a destiny such as this.”

“I understand,” Angel said, still staring at his childe.

“And you, William?” the voice asked.

“Yeah,” he said, hoarsely.

“Good,” she replied.  “Brother.”  They again took up the chant that had been interrupted a minute ago:

One soul shall bring salvation

And the light and dark shall share it

To live and die and live again

Together throughout eternity

The pink haze filling the chamber blazed up in a sharp, white light.  Angel and Spike gasped and clutched at their torsos, as though in pain, while around them the vampires on the main floor cried out in fear and confusion.  Suddenly the blazing light dissolved, leaving in its place a translucent white haze.  It filled the chamber in place of the lavender mist which had been there a moment before.  The two vampires at the center of the star blinked and straightened, the pain obviously gone, while around them, on the main floor, the other vampires stared at them in astonishment.  Angel and Spike’s aura still shone in a thin band around their bodies, but it was white now for both of them, the red and blue gone.  A more opaque shade filled the gap between them, a bridge that linked the single soul to its two sources.  Within the paler haze that surrounded them, arcs of bright light connected the two figures to all the members of Aurelius.  These lights were strong and clear, and obviously far stronger and more stable than they had been just moments before.

“It is done,” the female intoned.  “Be true to each other, take care of those under your protection, and serve the cause of good.  Never forget that you are our Champions, vampires…”

Her voice died away as though even now she spoke at a great distance.  When the last syllable died down, it was clear that both Powers were gone.

“Hail Angelus and William, Masters of Aurelius!” Maria called out, a tremor in her voice.  She sank down low in obeisance, and all around the chamber her cry was repeated as the others, Masters, Lieutenants, minions and pets, followed suit.