willow_25 | New Story: What If, Book 1 (2 of ?) (Reply)

A/N: A much longer chapter this time, taking the story completely off-canon, and into an AU. Several lines of dialogue from 'The Harvest', all credit to Joss and Co. for the words and the characters.

Chapter 2

Only seven vampires, against a club full of humans. Well, and a few strays in the crowd, but still; not enough vamps to be a serious problem. It should have been a cakewalk, especially with all the pool cues floating around. The humans, though, were oblivious to the danger they were in, and most of the vampires were over a hundred years old. It promised to be quite the party.

Spike doubled back through the crowd as the vampires entered, and dusted the guard by the door first so the humans had a way out. He met Jill’s eyes across the room, and headed for the fledgling on the dance floor, while she followed the vamp climbing towards the loft.

“Excuse me, may I cut in?” He sidled up to the curvy brunette the fledge had in his arms, disengaging and staking the stupid fledgling before he had a chance to protest.

“Rude much, we were in the middle of a dance here!” Cordelia pulled away from the creepy old guy, glancing around for Jesse. “Hey, where did he go?”

Spike chuckled. He’d never understand the human capacity for denial. “I made him disappear, luv. If you don’t want to dance, fine by me.”

Suddenly, the club was plunged into darkness, and Spike was surrounded by screaming teenagers. “Luv, why don’t you head back towards the bar, eh?” Not waiting for a reply, he cut through the crowd, headed for the stage.

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Buffy, Giles, Willow, and Xander raced up to the Bronze, practically skidding to a halt as they reached the door, Buffy in the lead. “It’s locked!” She groaned.

“We’re too late.” Giles tried to control his exasperation, but with the world about to end, it was hard not to be frustrated by something as simple as a locked door.

“I didn’t know…” Buffy was interrupted by the door opening. A small woman popped her head out, stake held aloft.

“Oh, hey, you’re the Slayer!” Jill dropped the hand with the stake to her side. “Thank goodness, I was afraid William would be on his own.” She emerged fully, holding the door open. “The vessel is on the stage. He’s old, so be careful. William’s dusted two already, and I got one, so there should be five more vamps in there, give or take. I’ll keep the door clear, so you can send the humans out.”

Normally, Buffy would have asked a lot of questions at that point, but she wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth. “Right. Giles, you stay with her; guys, come with me.”

Jill turned to face the guy who was obviously a Watcher standing beside her, gaping like a fish. “Hi, I’m Jill!”

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Spike snuck up to the side of the stage, noting the door and it’s guard to his right. On the riser next to the stage stood Darla, and another, even older vamp he knew as George. As far as he’d seen, these were the only two who could identify him. Another vamp stood center stage, and George began dragging a huge man towards him, while Darla watched, rapt.

Well, this was his best chance. He lurched forward as fast as he could, and had the stake imbedded in Darla’s heart before she could even turn around, capitalizing on her distraction. As George passed the victim off, he caught the movement out of the corner of his eye, and turned to find himself face to face with Spike.

“’Ello, mate.” Spike took a shot on throwing a stake towards the older vamp, but of course, his speed was much greater, and George caught the stake inches from his heart.

“William, what a pleasant surprise. I’ve always wanted to kill you.” George moved forward, taking the time to be menacing. It proved to be his downfall, as he wasn’t concentrating enough to avoid the pool cue Spike shoved through his chest.

“Feeling’s entirely mutual.” He sneered, as the vampire turned to dust.

Spike turned, intending to take care of the other guard, and open the back door for the humans. Before he could take a step, he was dragged backwards.

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Buffy watched the vampire she’d fought earlier, now with ugly vessel-mark added, drop the obviously dead bouncer to the stage. A pool cue dropped clattering to the stage off to his right, and Buffy deduced that either someone incredibly klutzy was up there, or another vampire had just been staked. She turned to Willow and Xander, who were nudging people towards the exit behind her. “Guys, stay back here.” She tossed her slaying bag towards Willow, before shaking the stake out of her sleeve into her hand, and moving forward through the terrified crowd.

Buffy really wanted to hang back with her friends and make sure the crowd got out safe, but she knew she couldn’t trust some guy she’d never met to take care of this Harvest thingy. As much as she hated it, it was her duty, and the end of the world meant she’d never have a chance at being un-grounded.

Another scream went up from the crowd, and Buffy looked up to see the bleached-blonde vamp from the cemetery hanging by his neck from the vessel’s hand. When she’d mentioned it to Giles the other day, he’d dismissed the action as a vampire putting down an out-of-control fledgling. But, if the guy was here staking other vamps, she wasn’t so picky that she’d dust him first.

“Hey!” She called, trying to distract the larger vampire. “Shouldn’t you be looking for a meal, instead of playing with your friends?” The vessel turned towards her, giving Spike a chance to kick both feet into Luke’s stomach, heaving himself away. The two vampires dropped to the ground, and Buffy ran towards the stage, jumping up to land next to the vessel.

Spike rolled off the stage, headed for a fledgling who was taking advantage of the leadership void to have a little snack. He threw a hard left to the vamp’s jaw, allowing the teenager to escape, before grabbing another pool cue and staking the younger vampire. Only to be hit across the back, sending him to the ground. Before Spike could get up, he felt a disturbance in the air behind him, and flung himself to the side to avoid the stake he felt sure was headed his way. He moved quickly enough to avoid a dusty ending, but not quite fast enough to avoid a big piece of wood through the shoulder.

“Bloody hell!” Spike screamed, yanking what seemed to be a wooden chair leg out of his right shoulder. He stumbled to his feet, spinning to avoid the kick being thrown his way by the enraged female vampire bearing down on him. “I’m gonna kill you, bitch!” Spike vamped out, hurling the stake towards his opponent, who dodged gracefully out of the way.

“What kind of vampire goes against his own kind? You are weak, a disgrace to the Order of Aurelius.” The female sneered, throwing a punch at his injured shoulder, making Spike howl in pain.

Spike looked up, searching for an advantage over his stronger, uninjured opponent, when he noticed the Slayer watching him. He threw a punch, thankful his good hand was still in working order, giving the Slayer enough time to disentangle herself from the vamp she was fighting and throw a cymbal towards the vamp leaning over him. Spike hit the deck, just in case, and seconds later the cymbal cut the air above him, scattering vampire dust in its wake.

“Well, I may be a disgrace, but I’m not a pile of dust.” He told the dust pithily, heading off to do another sweep of the loft area.

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Buffy watched the vessel’s corpse hit the floor in front of the stage and explode into dust with a great deal of satisfaction. She hadn’t even had to burn down the building. Score one for not being grounded for the rest of the year. Oh, yeah, and preventing the Harvest, too.

Buffy was searching the gloomy interior for a sight of her friends, or any more vamps, when the lights came back on. Jumping down from the stage, she strolled over to meet Willow and Xander, who were running towards her. “Did we win?” Willow asked, looking nervously around the room.

“I dare say we did.” Giles said, coming to stand beside them, cleaning his glasses as he walked.

“Well, I had a little help.” Buffy shrugged, searching the room for anyone else left inside. “Did everyone get out okay?”

“Yeah, except for the bouncer.” Xander nodded towards the stage.

Jill walked over, also scanning the room. “We caught one vamp trying to escape, but I still feel two in the area, one farther away. Did you see William?”

“Bleached blonde, about 5’ 10”, in the vampy way?” Buffy asked, crossing her arms over her chest. Now was the time for answers.

“You didn’t stake him, did you?” Jill’s eyes widened in fear.

“Her friend’s a vampire?” Xander panicked, turning around, looking for another threat.

Behind Buffy, a dark figure dropped from the loft, landing almost silently on the dance floor. “William!” Jill squealed, racing towards him.

“Good heavens.” Giles muttered, watching the small woman run towards the blonde man Buffy seemed to believe was a vampire. Was it possible, that a vampire had gone against it’s own kind, had aided them in stopping the Harvest?

“Giles, that’s him. The vamp I told you about, who killed the other vamp in the graveyard.” Buffy said. “I saw him stake another one, earlier.”

Giles nodded, watching the woman across the room fussing over the vampire, who was bleeding from a chest wound.

“Sodding bitch tried to stake me!” The vampire said angrily. “Stupid, really, I should know better than to get distracted like that.”

“Stop fussing, William, and sit down so I can check for splinters.” Jill pushed the angry vampire towards the closest chair, extracting a piece of metal from a pouch attached to her belt.

Buffy, Giles, Xander and Willow looked on, fascinated. None of them had ever seen a vampire who was calm around humans, let alone one who had not killed a particular human for long enough to make friends with them. Spike looked up, noticing the group watching them.

“Hey, Slayer, thanks for the help back there. I mighta seen a dusty end tonight, if not for you.” Spike nodded at the blonde, who was watching him like a hawk.

“Uh, yeah, well, my curiosity got the better of me, I guess.” Buffy blushed at the look Giles gave her. “You don’t see many vampires who fight their own kind.”

Spike opened his mouth to answer, but Jill picked that moment to pull an especially large splinter out of his chest, and he vamped out from the pain. Willow and Xander both screamed, while Giles and Buffy fumbled for stakes to defend the woman who still had her hands against the vampire’s chest.

“Bloody hell, woman, that hurt!” Spike snarled.

Jill smacked her vampire companion across the cheek. “Put the fangs away, William, before you get staked again.” Then she calmly returned her hands to his chest, to resume splinter removal.

Buffy started. She’d never seen a human be so calm around vampires. Not even her first Watcher, who'd been a good fighter, if lacking her strength. Maybe the woman wasn’t human, either.

“Right, sorry.” Spike’s face morphed back to his human features, a bit abashed that he’d lost control like that, especially with an audience.

Giles was absolutely fascinated. He couldn’t wait to get home and start researching this. He’d never heard of a human who could control a vampire, which is what he assumed was happening. “I say, William, is it? How did you come to be fighting other vampires, if I may ask?”

Spike rolled his eyes. He’d figured that if it came to that, he’d go to the Slayer for help, which of course meant dealing with the Council wanker, but he was cranky from loss of blood, and he’d prefer not to tell the whole miserable tale tonight. Besides, Dru was home all alone, and he wasn’t heartless enough to leave her chained up for any longer than he absolutely needed to.

“Look,” Jill interrupted. “I’m sure you have plenty of questions, but William’s hurt, and right now I need to get him home and get some blood into him.” Jill put the metal object back into her pouch, and turned to the other humans. “He’s no danger to humans, I’ll vouch for that. We’ll come see you in a few nights, if you like. Where can we reach you?”

Giles haltingly explained his position as high school librarian, and Spike just barely managed not to howl with laughter at the whole thing. A mild mannered librarian as a Watcher? He’d never cared for the Council, but it seemed that they’d done things a sight better in his day. Jill simply gave calm assurances that they would seek the Watcher out when ‘William’ was healed, and turned to go. Spike hauled himself out of the chair, conscious of nothing much other than the pain in his chest, and followed her.

“Wonder who the other kids were, don’t you?” Jill murmured once they got outside.

“Strange lot that. Never heard of a Slayer out and about, milling with the humans before. A Slayer in high school.” Spike shook his head. “Now I’ve seen bloody everything.”

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Angel watched Spike and the human woman get into a VW bus and take off at an alarming speed, just as the Slayer and her friends emerged from the empty club. He hadn’t heard what went on inside, but he’d scented the younger vampire’s blood. It made him wonder why Spike wasn’t dust, and why Darla was.

He was thrilled, if surprised, that Buffy had managed to survive the Harvest and the Master had not been freed from his prison. But the loss of his sire was completely unexpected, and the pain had shifted his focus from Buffy and her friends.

He'd miss Darla; even if the bitch had rejected him ever since the soul, she was his maker, and he'd loved her. Evil slut; she obviously hadn't cared about him. Darla's rejection had soured him on the whole idea of vampire families. Without his soul he'd been a proud patriarch, training and mentoring his clan in the ways of blood and pain; now he couldn't stand the sight of them.

Angel focused through his pain and loneliness, hoping to catch up on the Slayer's conversation with her Watcher and find out what the heck was going on around here. What he heard was a series of speculations on why the vampire they knew as William would be helping them. No way. There was no friggin' way his brat of a grandchilde was going to worm his way into their group. Whether he was actually planning to help, or setting things up to kill his third Slayer, Angel would not allow Spike's success. These were his humans, it was his destiny to aid the Slayer in protecting the Hellmouth. Spike had better get gone, and quick, or Angel would send him right after Darla.

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Buffy curled in a ball around Mr. Gordo, replaying the night in her mind. A vampire who killed his own kind, who was friends with a human, and had showed up to help her fight the Master's followers. It was like living in bizarro world. The unknown vampire William confused and troubled her, but it had been nice to fight alongside someone. That move with the cymbal was totally cool. His fighting style impressed her, although she would refuse to admit that if asked.

She shivered and pulled her blankets tight around her body. She didn't want to be the Slayer, and after Merrick's death, and her subsequent family troubles, she'd given up patrolling. Seeing the vampire fighter in action, she had to admit she was out of practice. If she truly did have to take up the mantle of defender of humanity in a permanent way, she'd need to train more. Only her ingenuity and a helping hand from the mysterious British vampire had saved her and the patrons of the Bronze.

There was also the annoyingly cryptic Angel to consider. He'd warned her about the Harvest, then Spike had shown up to help. She wondered if they were working together. Was tall, dark and hottie a vampire too? She rolled onto her other side. William might know.

William… He wasn't her type; and undead, so no date-age potential there, really. Plus, the human girl he'd been with. Still, she'd noticed the gorgeous bone structure, and the way his muscles rippled as he moved. Plus, really yummy ass. Buffy shook her head to clear it. She'd never met a cute vampire before. The ones she usually came in contact with were ugly, dirty, and smelly. William had been clean and handsome. It was another freak-inducing point to think over. She'd never thought she would find herself attracted to a monster.