Past Perfect...Pt.1

~And here in the night...~

Spike glanced at Xander as she pulled her hand from her left shoulder. She stared down at her hand. It was covered, almost dripping, in sweet smelling blood.

~As I feel the inferno...~

Xander looked at the glowing, yellowish gold vortex in growing horror.

~I stare in the dark...~

His grip tightened on the ornate pommel of the blessed sword he was holding. Spike watched as she took a deep breath, straightened her spine, and then took a step toward the vortex.

~Thinking what is eternal?~


@@@FlashBack@@@

2004-The Before...

"There really are moments that make you what you are. They set the course for who you're going to be. And sometimes they are subtle moments, and sometimes they are not."

~The man or the moment...~

Spike glared at the dead cheerleader who had worked for the Poof telling him this. She had ruined his 'about to be a noble sacrifice for the world' gesture by appearing and yanking him into the weird upper realm that, Spike was sure under normal circumstances, he would never have seen.

"Well, pet," Spike sneered. "I was about to have one of those moments, but you came along..."

"Oh, Please! All you were going to do was die messily." Cordelia Chase sneered back at him; "The Powers That Be wanted you for a reason. Why, I'll never guess. Angel would have been a better choice, I'm thinking."

Spike rolled his eyes at her. Cordelia waved her hand and a vision-portal appeared, it began showing scenes of LA.

~The act or the reason...~

The world over was a wasteland where demons were roaming around freely. Slayers were being slaughtered by the dozens.

The Cleveland Hellmouth was open and spewing forth all sort of unmentionable evil things.

In Rome, The Immortal stood over Buffy Summers who had a sword through her stomach. She was tired, scared, and knew she was going to die again - betrayed by her lover.

In England Giles was leading an army of Slayers again demons they were fighting at Stonehenge.

Willow was floating over Rio; her white hair blew away from her face as she shouted spells at the demons below her.

Back in Stanford, California Dawn stood back to back with Connor as they defended the college campus.

"We're losing..."

"Well, that's obvious, pet." Spike muttered.

********

1998-Present

~These thoughts fill my head...~

Xander paced in her living room. Her mother and Giles sat on the sofa. Buffy, who had just come back from patrol, leaned against the wall by the front door.

"Why couldn't I go on patrol with Buffy? I'm fine now." Xander all but snarled at them.

"Xan-girl, it's only been two weeks since..."Jessica trailed off not wanting to mention the torture her daughter had gone through. "Just because you can heal fast doesn't mean you're completely well yet."

Xander sighed, "I've told you..."

"No, you haven't." Buffy broke in, "You haven't told us anything!"

"Excuse me! So I don't want to give you a blow by blow of the week *your* boyfriend spent torturing me!"

"Xander," Giles began softly, "You do know what the mark Angelus put on your shoulder means, don't you?"

She glared at him, "Better than you. But you don't have to worry. Angelus never touched * me * sexually. It wasn't about that. Although if I had stayed longer it could have been. No, he just wanted to bring me down...Brreak me..." Her voice began to slowly rise in volume, "Drive me insane if he could...make another Drusilla...hear me scream!!!" Xander was almost yelling at them.

"Xander..." Jessica started.

Xander stopped and closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I'll be okay."

They wondered just who Xander was trying to convince. Them or herself.

"I'll heal, but what I had to watch Angelus do to Spike...." Xander trailed off with a low growl and her eyes glowing demonically.

When Xander had reappeared two weeks ago and collapsed in front of her mother and Giles, Giles had been forced to explain to Jessica who and what Xander was now - well, as far as he knew anyway. It seemed it wasn't totally unexpected as Jessica was far from stupid and she had known for a while something had changed for Xander, that she was different for some reason. Her girl had healed far too fast, and if the broken doors were any kind of indictors, she was way too strong now not to have something behind it all. Seeing what those differences and changes in her daughter allowed first hand and knowing the reasons of the 'why' and 'hows' behind them, it was positively eye-opening. Much more than she ever would have guessed. But, then she'd also managed to learn from Xander's nightmares - and Giles when she confronted him for confirmation - that Spike - William, her Xan's sometime Romeo - was a vampire. Angelus's grandchilde in fact.

Jessica had been livid when she had found that out. It wasn't the fact that Spike was a vampire that upset her, because it wasn't like she hadn't had some suspicions like that already about Spike. No, what had her so angry was the fact that neither, Xander, nor Giles, had told her.

"So, what happens now?" Buffy asked.

Xander snorted, "We stop Angelus's delusions of grandeur."

~As I contemplate treason...~

******

Spike growled as he stumbled through another portal, propelled clumsily forward from a push to the back by Cordelia.

"Where are we?" Spike asked as he looked around. They were in a graveyard, a familiar one if he wasn't mistaken. And, yes, there was his old crypt. He turned toward Cordelia questioningly.

"Where do you think?"

"Sunnyhell, but why?" He asked, then was distracted by the sounds of a nearby fight. As old instincts kicked in he took off towards the fight.

The sight that greeted him was a slight surprise, yet at the same time not. A young girl was fighting a small group of vampires, but it was not the blond he had been excepecting.
It was a shapely brunette dressed in a black leather jacket, white tee shirt, black skin-tight jeans. Doc Martins completed the look.

He watched the girl dust the nearest one, then spread arms wide and grin at the vampires. In her left hand Spike could see a stake. She asked, "Are you even trying? Cause as vamps...you're well, you're laughable!"

One of the vamps rushed the girl and she dusted it with careless flourish. The remaining four tried to dog-pile her and she went down under their weight. Spike started forward but Cordelia grabbed his arm and shook her head. Then there was a growling sound and a yipping laugh that caused a shiver to run down Spike's spine.

The explosion of dust drifted down over the dark haired girl as she now stood panting for breath.

"Bloody brilliant..." Spike said but frowned when the girl walked past him and Cordelia like they weren't even there.

"She can't see or hear us. We're slightly out of phase with this reality." Cordelia told him.

"Her reality?" Spike asked.

"Someone made a wish and with it reality changed."

"When?"

"Towards the end of your battle with Blackthorn. It was how the PTB's were able to grab you without the other side noticing."

Spike nodded, that made as much sense as anything ever did.

"Who's she?"

Cordelia smirked, "She is the Hyena...Guardian of the Hellmouth...Hunt Sister to the Slayer...She sees all and alone will bring the great change...She is the Prophecy Breaker."

Spike blinked.

"Was that dramatic enough or does the spiel need more kick to it?" Cordelia asked.

Spike just blinked again.

Cordelia sighed, "Actually her destiny is kind of a downer really. But with a bit of help..." She waved and a vision-portal appeared.

A vampire in full demon face with bleached blond hair, he was wearing a black leather trench coat. The vampire broke a young man's neck and then carelessly tossed the body aside. As a dark hair vampiress danced into view clapping and singing her enjoyment of the act.

"She'll need the help of William the Bloody..."

"Me?"

Cordelia sighed, "No, William the Bloody. The moment you got your soul and died for the world, you stopped being William the Bloody and became Spike, a champion of the Powers That Be...

********

1998-Present

"Look, Giles, all I know is that it's called 'Acathla' and that it can open a portal that can suck earth into hell." Xander told him as she sat on the table in the library, she kicked her legs back and forth.

"That's all?" Giles asked as he pulled books of the shelves.

Xander scratched her head, "The ritual has something to do with blood...I think? I really wasn't listening when you babbled the explanation the first time. I had other things to worry about."

Giles gave her a 'look'. She had got one similar when that had gone to the museum and Giles realized she had known the guy in charge of the museum. It was a 'look' she got a lot from Giles.

*****

Spike sat on the edge on the small fountain while he read the newspaper. He barely noticed when Drusilla came into the garden. He was missing time and the memories he had were blurry. He repressed a low growl. He hated it when Dru played with his head, often he would be left wondering if he were missing something important.

"Have a nice walk, sweet?" Spike forced himself to ask her. He knew he would forgive her...he always did.

Dru rubbed her stomach as if it hurt, " I met an old man," she raised a hand to her mouth and began to lick her fingers, "he got all stuck in my teeth." She turned looking up at the moon; "It tries to whisper to me..." she looked at Spike, "such dreadful things it whispers."

"What did it say?" Angelus asked as he walked in to the garden.

"Oh look who's still alive. What the slayer still couldn't kill you?" Spike snarked and couldn't stop the flinch when Angelus thumped him in the back of the head as he walked past.

"What did the naughty moon tell my girl? Did you have a vision? Is something coming...tell Daddy."

"It said something terrible comes..." Drusilla moaned and put a hand to her head.

"Where?"

"At the museum. A tomb...like a jack in the box...there's a prize inside!" Drusilla murmured with a coy smile.

"You can see all that? In your head?" Angelus asked his tone boarding towards awe.

Spike snorted, "No, you moron." Spike said handing him the newspaper, "She read it in the SunnyDale Press."

Angel snatched the newspaper from Spike and read the headline out loud, "Mysterious Obelisk Unearthed."

*****

@The Higher Realms@

Shadow watched SunnyDale it was not something he did often. The many intrigues of the Powers That Be, the Elders and the Senior Partners of W&H had been keeping more than entertained. But every once in a while he tuned in to SunnyDale to watch the drama unfold.

Xander had slowly impressed him. Something that Shadow was sure would make her overjoyed if she knew, he thought vaguely sarcastically.

But right now he was watching a young Red and Buffy as they put a yellow disk into a computer. A frown came to Shadow's face as he watched the stunned look cross Buffy's face when she read the computer screen.

Shadow sighed; he had been hoping the bloody Poof would get staked this time around...he should have known that wasn't very likely. But Shadow had hoped.

****

Buffy and Willow burst through the library doors and Buffy cried happily, "We found it! We found Ms. Calendar's spell to restore Angel's soul!"

Xander where she was sitting a table going through an old text on Acathla looked up at hearing Buffy's exclamation, her expression blank. Cordelia had been sitting across from Xander and had been doing her nails while she had been waiting for Willow to get done tutoring Buffy. Buffy's announcement didn't exactly make her want to jump for joy either. Cordelia hadn't been happy to learn about what happened to Xander at Angelus's hands.

"She said it couldn't be done." Giles said softly, but had known how guilty Jenny had felt.

"Well, she did it anyway! Willow looked it over and said it just might work."

'Even after what that bastard did...' Xander turned away so none of them could see her expression, 'Buffy still wants him. Some things never change.'

Cordelia looked up from her nails, "This is a good thing, right? I mean we can recurse him, can't we?"

Buffy began to pace back and forth, thinking. It was a habit she had picked up from Xander.

"Well, it certainly points that way." Giles said answering Cordelia, "But..." Giles stopped and gathered his thoughts before continuing, "The ritual itself requires a great deal of knowledge of the black arts...more so than I can claim."

"I've been going though Jenny's files, for fun. I...I may be able to work this." Willow said slowly.

Xander slammed the book in front of her closed causing Cordelia to jump. Slowly Xander stood up, "No"

The others looked surprised at the soft venom in the tone. Xander took a deep breath, "For those of you that have just tuned in...Willow, you're not even an amateur witch, and you can't even float a pencil. This spell is so far out of your league it's not funny." She stood up and walked around the table. "This spell is to restore Angel's soul...well, here's a thought...Who cares?"

"I care!" Buffy all but growled.

"Color me not surprised." Xander sneered at her.

"Let's not lose our perspective here, Xander." Giles said trying to head off the fight he could see brewing.

"This is my perspective...Angel's a killer."

"So is Spike!" Buffy shouted at Xander.

"Well, yeah, but here's the real question. Did Spike spend a week in a half torturing you simply because he could? No, Spike just wanted you dead. But he didn't want you to suffer, he didn't try and draw out your suffering, did he?"

"It's not that simple, Xander." Willow said.

"So all should be forgiven?" Xander asked as she sent a disbelieving look at the red head, "Everything he did to me...to Spike? I should forgive that?! Angelus needs to die!"

"Stop it, just stop it, Xander!" Buffy screamed.

Xander glared at the Slayer as Buffy snarled, "What happened wasn't Angel's fault."

"You can paint this in any pretty color you want but it doesn't change what he did!"

"You bitch." whispered Buffy.

Xander's expression turned cold. She looked at the Slayer and knew Buffy would do what she wanted, everyone else be damned. Xander shook her head and left the library.

*****

Later that night, as Xander walked down the deserted streets of the town while on patrol, she wondered if her reaction might have been a bit extreme. She had left the house to avoid Willow's phone calls trying to patching things up between Buffy and Xander. But Xander just wasn't ready to make nice yet.

Xander froze when she heard a slight rustling of the bushes next to her; she pivoted around with her fist held up to throw a punch when a young woman came out of them.

"Kendra," Xander said to the slayer.

"I was going to Buffy's when I saw you walking." She told Xander.

"Let me guess. You're here because a dark power is about to rise in the Dale?"

"Dat's about it."

"Yay."