Gray
Gray
After having her world destroyed by the Winchesters, Eve wanted to rebuild her family. She claimed a soul with his own dark power and his own moral gray. He would be her champion. Hopefully. Xander just wanted to go home, preferably before the hunters Sam and Dean Winchester caught up with him.
Chapter ONE :: Chapter TWO :: Chapter THREE :: Chapters 4+5 :: Chapter SIX :: Chapter SEVEN :: Chapter EIGHT :: Chapter NINE :: Chapter TEN :: Chapter ELEVEN : Chapter TWELVE :: Chapter THIRTEEN :: Chapter FOURTEEN :: Chapter FIFTEEN :: Chapter SIXTEEN :: Chapter Seventeen :: Chapter Eighteen :: Chapter Nineteen
Twenty
Xander may be willing to admit that Spike has a right to be angry, but he sure isn't willing to give up on his shiny new plan
Xander’s knees hurt, but something told him that he wasn’t in any real danger as he went on hour four of kneeling on the concrete floor. If he were still human, he definitely would have been crippled, maybe permamently. However, Xander was starting to think that he would never be human again.
Spike stopped pacing and grabbed another cigarette and lit it. He seemed to be alternating between quiet cursing and furious pacing/smoking. Xander flexed his fingers and pulled on the rope just hard enough to feel the strands go tight around his wrists, and that then pulled the rope tight around his angles. Yep, Spike had taken the threat of hog tying him and had made it less of a threat and more of a reality, but Xander wasn’t all that shocked.
China-era Spike still danced around the room, but he’d been joined by cross-burned into his chest post-soul Spike. Subtlety wasn’t one of Spike’s great talents.
“If you ever do that again,” Spike finally snarled, and considering they were the first words Spike had said in four hours, Xander nodded. He was willing to agree with anything at this point. “You didn’t know what you were up against. You didn’t know how to kill it, and you just bloody rushed in there like a fool.”
China-Spike leaped into the air.
“I know,” Xander said softly.
“You have no idea what your powers are. You didn’t even soddin’ look to see if you were making a spectacle out of yourself. There were entirely too many humans on that street, and you had to go and make that soddin’ leap.”
“What leap?” Xander asked.
Spike dropped his cigarette on the floor and stomped on it before giving Xander a blistering glare. “What leap?” he demanded, his voice dangerously slow. “What leap? You soddin’ little pillock. You leaped over the fucking cars on the road and landed on the far side before chasing that monster through the alley.”
“I did?” Xander could feel a growing sense of horror and panic. “I front of everyone?” That was so not good. That was as not-good as having glowy eyes. Shit.
Spike dropped down onto an overturned box. “You prat. You didn’t know? Bloody hell.” He suddenly looked very, very tired.
“I smelled chocolate, and I couldn't resist,” Xander said in his own defense. He got a yellow-eyed glare in return. “Really, really good chocolate. It was irresistible.”
“Well you’d better start resisting,” Spike said wearily.
"That or avoid hunters," Xander summed it up. If he couldn't hide, he was going to end up fighting way too much, and since he actually liked hunters, he really didn't want to do that.
Xander wondered what would happen if he ran into Sam and Dean Winchester. And actually, Xander wanted to run into them, but more on a fellow-fighters-of-evil basis than a monster of the week. However, if he showed up glowy eyed and jumping over cars, one of the Winchesters was going to try and kill him for sure.
For a long time, the room was silent, and Xander fidgeted on the cold floor.
Eventually Spike stood and went back to pacing. With every turn, he walked right through gleeful China-Spike, but on about his fourth pass, Angelus appeared next to spectral Spike, leather pants, whip and all. Xander quickly started breathing. He really didn't want to know what Angelusy thoughts Spike had rolling around in his head.
"From the fact that you were around to get arrested and the other git wasn’t, I assume you won," Spike said slowly. He turned and gave Xander a cold glare.
“I kinda ate her,” Xander agreed, “which would be disgusting only by eating I mean I absorbed all her energy until she went poof and vanished in black smoke.”
Spike moved so fast that Xander didn't actually see him move. He just suddenly had Spike right there in his face. “You enjoy that?” Anger rolled off Spike's skin, and Xander's breath caught in his chest. He wanted to lie, he really did. However, Spike deserved better.
Xander sighed. “Too much,” he agreed. “It was like Halloween and stuffing my face with way too much sugar, but loving it anyway.”
The fury under Spike's skin faded and he took a step back. He seemed to take a second to regroup, and then he sighed. “I suppose I couldn’t keep you from figuring it out eventually.”
“Figuring what out?” Xander asked.
Spike gave him a wry smile. “How good it feels to feed from someone. Animals won’t fill that need after you’ve fed for real, not completely.”
Xander felt like he'd been kicked in the stomach. The air just left his body. Spike thought he was going to go feeding on random people, and Xander couldn't decide if that was offensive or just really sad. Did Spike think he was weak or was his own need for human blood so strong that he really couldn't imagine Xander feeling any other way? "I'm not looking to go out and eat the locals." Xander kept his voice soft and cautious.
"You sure about that, Harris?" Spike demanded.
"Totally and completely," Xander said firmly. "I know I was way off base going after the leviathan demon. I really get that Spike, and you have every reason to be slightly totally and completely pissed, but people? Not so much with the smelling like chocolate. They don't smell like food. I don't need to feed on random people, or even specific people. This is me saying no to any and all eating of people."
Spike looked down at him, and Xander didn't need the visions to feel the disbelief.
"Honest," Xander promised. "I wasn't tempted to eat any of the cops, not even the real jerks. I did, however, bend a few of their chains. Luckily, none of them noticed."
Spike snorted. "You say that now," he said, and he wasn't even pretending to believe him.
"I say that always."
For a second, Spike pressed his lips together, and Xander suspected that if he sought out his visions right now, Angelus and that whip of his would be right in his face. It took some time before Spike seemed to get control of his temper. "Harris, you're playing with fire."
"Played. I played with fire, and actually that's oddly accurate because as a kid I kind of did play with fire, but in this case, I'm saying that the fire was less firelike and more just really hot." Xander gave Spike his best smile.
Spike whirled away and started pacing again. "You're a bloody fool, and you don't know how deep you're in."
Xander sighed. He couldn't exactly deny it, because he did know the ice was pretty thin under him. "Maybe," he said slowly. The fact was that he didn't feel any more in danger now than he had two days ago. He was still just as disgusted when Spike wallowed in the memory of the orphanage.
"No maybe, Harris. You are. And is you're too bloody young to know you're in trouble. You're not getting yourself killed on my watch."
That was a strange proclamation of not-hatred, but Xander figured that Spike was more likely to cut off his own leg that come any closer to saying anything mushier. Xander opened his mouth to say something equally not-mushily nice, but Spike had turned his back and stalked off to the other room. Great. Xander sighed as he squirmed. Spike's attitude was about as frustrating and annoying as Clem's cooking, but he's come to another universe just to back Xander up, so yelling seemed a little rude.
Not that Xander had a problem with rude.
Usually.
He sighed again. Before he could make any stupid decisions, Spike was back, and holding something. At first Xander thought Spike had more cuffs. At this point he'd welcome cuffs because they were a whole lot more comfortable than rope. Never before had Xander had such an opportunity to consider how scratchy and uncomfortable rope could be.
However, Xander then got a good look at what Spike had in hand, and it was not a cuff. Oh, it was the same leather, the same metal reinforcement, and even the same lock. But the thing in Spike's had was way too big to fit around a wrist.
"Crap," Xander said.
"You brought this on yourself," Spike snapped, but he also stopped. Mixed message much?
"I'm not saying I didn't. I get it Spike. I was stupid. I was flaming piles of stupid on huge mounds of idiot. I shouldn't have gone after the leviathan. I shouldn't have jumped over the cars or talked to the military, although that last one may actually turn out not so bad." Xander looked up hopefully, but Spike did not seem amused. "That was more of a general, generic 'crap,'" Xander explained. "That's my 'oh god there's a pop quiz' crap or a 'holy flaming crap Spike is putting a collar on me 'crap.'"
"There are days I wonder who taught you English," Spike complained, but complaining about the lack of speaking skills was almost friendly territory with them. It was familiar territory, anyway. The less familiar part was Spike walking up to him and fitting the collar around his neck. Xander swallowed, and the feel of the padded leather pressing against the front of his neck made the him aware of every twitch.
"You're thinking of killing my English teachers, aren't you?" Xander asked. Spike clicked the lock in place, and Xander stretched his neck. The muscles on the side didn't have as much room as they needed, and stretching made the collar press into his skin.
"Just making sure they never teach anyone else again. Death would be optional."
"Good to know," Xander said. Truth was that his English teachers probably deserved flowers and condolences more than death. After all, Spike only had to listen to him. Those women had been forced to grade his essays. Maybe. Xander suspected that some just gave him a D on everything he wrote so he'd pass and never darken their classroom door again.
"So... um... are you calm enough to listen now?" Xander asked.
Spike's mouth almost dropped open. "You're asking if I'm bloody calm?"
"Hey, it's been hours, and you hog tied me and now you collared me, and face it, you always get calmer when you get to really put me in my place, and I am feeling very in my place."
Spike snorted.
"See, that's your 'I'm feeling more relaxed' snort."
Spike narrowed his eyes. "I'm thinking about gagging you."
"Well, yeah. You're also probably thinking of chaining me to a wall. But listen, these people are sort of apocalypse heavy." Xander paused as he tried to figure out how to say the next part.
"Don't say it," Spike warned.
"But we know that Willow is working for someone that knows about dimensions and demons, and Giles knows all about the demons. And they aren't working together. Think how much better they could be doing if they were working together."
"No."
"You don't know what I'm going to say."
"I don't soddin' care. The answer is no." Spike walked over and locked a chain onto the collar and wrapped the free end around his hand. "You're going to say on a leash until you get control of yourself, clear?"
"But we have to go out and--"
"No, we bloody well don't, and if we do, we'll tell people you're my gay bottom boy, got it?" Spike wrapped the chain around his hand several more times until the chain was taut and Xander could feel the pull.
"Got it," he agreed. "But if we could offer them--"
"No."
"Just a few hints about--"
"No."
"It might--"
"No," Spike about shouted. He also gave the leash a hard tug that almost pulled Xander forward, which would have been really bad with this hands tied behind his back.
Xander took a deep breath and looked up at Spike's clear blue eyes. "It's the right thing to do, he said softly. It was. These people may not be his, and the world wasn't exactly their world, but fighting bad guys wasn't a part-time job.
Xander blinked, and checked the specters. William had returned with his notebook and glasses, and a whole bunch of new victims lay scattered across the floor. Well, they weren't new new because from the clothes, some were from the last century, but Xander hadn't seen any of these before. He definitely would have noticed the pile of nuns with mangled limbs and mouths that still worked to say their rosaries. Actually, that was the single most disturbing image Xander had every seen.
"Um, Spike, what's up with the nuns, and please tell me that wasn't you who did that."
"That's the ponce's game, the nuns," Spike said, and Xander didn't have to ask which ponce. Angel. Or Angelus. Xander still wasn't convinced those were actually two separate people.
"Way creepy, and way to creep me out thinking about them."
Spike snorted, but he also loosened his hold on the chain, so Xander wasn't sure what sort of message he was sending. "I never tried to stop him," Spike said slowly, and if Xander hadn't been tied hand and foot, he would have thrown a fist up into the air and done a Snoopy dance of victory. Maybe some of that showed on his face because Spike glared and tightened his hold on the chain. "But if we try to help these morons, we it my way."
"Yep, totally," Xander agreed.
"No running off into some battle half-cocked."
"Absolutely."
"No trusting gits when you don't actually know them."
"Got it."
Spike actually snarled at that, but Xander was agreeing with him. He was totally and completely agreeing with all Spike's conditions. "Those make sense," Xander said. They did.
"I'm reminding you of that when you ignore everything I said and go running off like the bloody moron you are." Spike sounded grumpy, but he walked around Xander and started cutting rope.
Xander winced. Okay, the only thing worse than getting tied up was getting cut loose. Every joint seemed to creak and his limbs were pretty much on fire with pins and needles. "Ow."
"This is nothing compared to what I'll do if you ignore me again," Spike warned, and then he used the collar and chain to jerk Xander to his feet.