Upstairs in the living quarters Spike walked in flanked in the protective presence's of Angel and Hera. Oz walked in front, a vangaurd they truly needed to slow the on rush of friends towards Spike and reassurance of his well being. They had let Xander drag behind, no one could fail to empathise with the young man's guilty feeling over his action while Glory was in control of his body. That it was Glory in control and not his mind and conscience would have to remain something Xander figured out for himself. His friends could show him the path to redemption, no one could make him walk it. All he had to do was forgive himself. An action of the soul far easier to think about than do.
On first sight of the happy formerly bleached blond vampire everyone knew their prayers had been answered. The baby was fine. Everyone tried to rush the younger vampire, only to have him duck behind Angel and Oz for protection. As was always his habit, Giles tried to sort out the mess before Spike bolted and none of them learned anything of value about his condition.
As he stepped forwards himself he spied the fourth member of the group of newcomers.
"Xander!" His near shout brought almost instant silence to the roomful of over excited mortals. "But, how? Where's Dawn? Is she alive too?"
At his words the room fell silent. Xander hesitantly tried his best to explain what had happened. He tried desperately hard to be gentle when he talked about how only creatures with a soul could be saved on Olympus. As he did so no one was watching the vampires, no one saw Spike take Angel's hand in a desperate grasp as he fought hard to not shed a single tear before that group of mortals.
"But wasn't Spike saved on Olympus?" It was Tara that spotted the most glaringly awful fact in Xander's story. "That would mean that Buffy has been murdering beings with a soul all these years! What happened to those souls? Were they all just sent to Hell no matter what they were like before the demon took over?"
"I'm afraid so child." Hera pushed Spike and Angel towards a couch and made them sit by the simple expedient of pressing her godly strength against their shoulders. They instantly sat. "But, on the plus side we now have those souls back, the innocent ones that is. Those alien demons can keep the truly evil ones for all I care.
"But if they have souls why did we not know this? Why were the slayers born to kill them?" Wesley couldn't fully cope with the idea that he was as guilty as Giles, as Buffy and as Faith of killing ensouled creatures. "We had it drummed into us constantly that they had no souls and deserved no pity!" He shivered in dread and was grateful for the warmth of Gunn's arms going around him and a strong body holding him tight against it.
"Easy man. You'd never have done anything against any creature you know had a soul and was subject to the control of that same soul. Either they didn't know or they simply didn't tell you. Maybe they didn't want you to have a crisis of faith while facing down an evil vamp? There are plenty of them around, as you so well know for a fact!" Gunn ended his statement with a gentle kiss to the side of Wesley's neck.
"Or they're actually run by the same demon's that have taken over Wolfram and Hart." Hera grinned at the black man still snuggling against his chosen mate, the love of his life. "After all they did try to limit their slayer's activities to vampire's only. And vampire's are the most obvious of the Children of Echidna left in this world. Our children. Olympian created. Oh, they have so much to pay for and the time has come, children to make them start paying back with interest due on all accounts."
"But Dawn?" Buffy finally spoke. For the first time since she watched Xander, Dawn and Hera vanish, she spoke aloud and was relevant to the conversation going on around her.
"She wasn't of our world, slayer. There was nothing Hera and the other's could do. But all her memories and experiences are lock up inside Xander's head. She was created only in this last year. All the memories of her as a child and what have you are totally created. Put them aside and face facts. The Key has been destroyed as has Glory." Spike cast a quick glance towards Hera. "I'm supposing here, but Glory is gone isn't she? No more skanky bitch to come poking her hands into folk's heads and unborn babies?"
"She is gone. She will not be back." Hera turned to the grieving slayer and tried very hard to like the poor girl. Only, she couldn't. It was as if she were tainted with something, something that smelled decidedly unpleasant.
Even Faith was shrouded in that stench, to a far lesser degree than Buffy.
Then realisation struck! They were created from the blood of the demons. They were indeed created by Wolfram and Hart, descended from their original demon spawn. They were human enough to have souls but they were alien enough to be traceable as not of this reality. "It was Wolfram and Hart that weakened the world enough to let Glory and the Key through into our world. And now it is time we destroyed them utterly. Sent them home to their own dimension with their tails, or what ever they have, firmly between their legs.. and did I just make a rather rude analogy?"
"Yes, but only a little rude." Spike reassured his friend and Goddess.
"Anyway, my rudeness aside, we are going to fight back. After all they've done to Angel and Spike I think it is time to show them the errors of their ways. And the first task I have for my children is to go steal their current greatest asset. They are regrowing the body of one Lindsey MacDonald in a..." She read from a sheet of paper suddenly in her hands. "...A maturation tank. Seems his corpse was heavily contaminated by, of all things, vampire ash. Now how could that happen? An employee of those bastards getting that friendly with vampires, utterly dead ones at that?" Not that she didn't already know the answer, but she wanted the mortals to all know the answer too. Including that irritating youngster, Xander Harris.
"That would have been my fault." Angel admitted. "After I realised what I had done to Spike I swore an oath to myself that I would make Wolfram and Hart pay. They had systematically driven me insane. Hell, they may have arranged for me to so conveniently find that fucking collar. Your damned collar!" He acknowledged the collar as Hera's originally, only damning their use of it against his childe. "Who else would have a track on the Olympian's artefacts other than their greatest enemies. Anyway, I went back to LA, and found Darla, my sire and their weapon of choice against me, and she was in hiding in Lindsey MacDonald's apartment. There were no rescinding entrance spells in place so I jumped up to the open window and entered. They had wanted Angelus, I gave them Angelus. I ripped his head off and threw it into Darla's waiting arms right before I staked her. And I don't see why you want to rescue him? Hell is the right place for him, he'd be so much at home there. If you do get him back and he so much as looks at me funny, I swear, before all of you, I will kill him again. And again and again until he either gives up existing or you get sick of bringing him back!"
To make matters move along a little faster Hera implanted a more detailed account of all Wolfram and Hart had done to Angel, and through him to Spike directly into everyone's mind. She also picked up a plethora of unvoiced agreements with Angel's oath. Even the emotionally see-sawing Xander Harris had admitted to himself at least, that Angel had good cause to hate those lawyers, and the MacDonald guy in particular.
"Look, we are going to get his body back, partially vampired as it is and someone is going to have to finish his turning. He has so much knowledge and information that is going to be invaluable to us in this up coming campaign. And since he has already met Spike's former employers and helped them, and the other lost Olympian souls, to escape their Hell we owe him a debt of gratitude. We pay our debts, granted mostly in the coin of our choosing, but we honour them all the same." When Hera smiled it could only be described as a purely wicked grin.
"I can't turn him." Spike reminded her of the injunction on his eating habits. "Can't drink human blood and if he's not wholly vampire he's still going to be too human for me. I suppose we could get Harmony to do it, but she swore an oath not to drink directly from a living creature ever again when she became your priestess to the vampire temple." The younger vampire nibbled on his bottom lip as he thought through the problem. Angel and Buffy both watched that action, both desired to do the nibbling for him. "I guess I can give Robert a call? See if he can recommend anyone for the job. But being sire to creature such as this MacDonald character sounds like is not going to be a lot of fun."
"I'll do it." Angel's quietly determined voice cut in on Spike's train of thought. "I think I'd maybe enjoy being his sire. All those ancient rules of submission and dominance..." He chuckled, quite evilly, at the idea of his worst enemy being his youngest childe. "Granted, when I thought my William gone forever I vowed I'd never make another childe as long as I existed, but I'm sure you can grant me a dispensation for this special occasion?" He asked Hera directly for absolution for breaking his vow.
"Who's Robert?" Wesley asked, slightly behind the conversation, or so it seemed, but those who really knew him knew he liked all his i's dotted and all his t's crossed.
"Harmony's fiancé, a nice young vampire she met at the temple. He's part of the co-operative group that runs the slaughterhouse that funds the temple and keeps us all in fresh blood. It's a great line of business for vampires."
Spike laughed at the totally confused looks he received from most of his audience.
"Vampires working for a living, doing legitimate business with humans and living off the proceeds?" Wesley really wanted to make sure he had the facts straight. It worried him even more that there was something rotten in the Watcher's Council. All he was learning that night was in direct opposition to all he had been told from birth by first his father, then by his trainers and teachers in the Watchers themselves.
"Yes. Exactly." Hera replied, making absolutely sure the former watcher was comfortable with his new knowledge before they went any further.
"So, once we have this lawyer suitably turned, what next?" Wesley leaned towards the Goddess, revelling in the feelings of parental love and care that seemed to roll off the Goddess of marriage and childbirth.
"Why, then we bring some more friends home, well, to here in fact. By the time we can get Lindsey MacDonald turned and reunited with his soul, a couple of other souls we recently acquired will have rejoined their hibernating bodies and we will all be together again.
"Oh fuck!" Spike muttered. "I knew they would be waking up the moment I uttered my first word in that damn court room! I bet they're pissed at having been left waiting this long, aren't they?"
"Not at all, child, they're keen to see you again. No one has given them any details of your condition, no one has told them much of what is happening and subsequently they are getting a tad restless and suspicious. We thought you'd want to give them any details concerning your life yourself. When they and Gronmann come here. But before that we have to liberate their new friend Lindsey MacDonald for them." Hera stood up, all the better to pace nervously. "A lot rests on our turning Lindsey, and his remaining in the land of the almost living. If you turn him, you must not torture him, must not stake him. If at all possible." She glared at Angel and waited for his sullen nod before turning to more immediate matters. "Good, that's settled. So, what are we going to do about acquiring his body?"
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