Improvising Atonement, 16/?
Jul. 5th, 2008 10:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sevendeadlyfunCharacters: Ensemble
Rating: NC-17 overall
Summary: A vampire with a soul comes to Sunnydale to help The Slayer. Can a demon ever atone?
A/N: Thanks to my ever watchful (and adorable) beta,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
noandwhere for her usual superb work and ninja-like speed! Written for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
tamingthemuse prompt #102-Thus spake Zarathustra. Includes dialogue from the BtVS S1 episode "Prophecy Girl" and Nietzsche's Thus Spake Zarathustra. Previous Parts founds here or in tags.
“What news?” The claws reached out, beckoning from the shadows.
Once, perhaps, they had been hands. The hands of a man? Darla tipped her head to the side, mouth pursed in thought. To imagine him as a man was to imagine him as a mortal. Weak. Flawed. Imperfect.
Impossible.
“The Slayer lives,” she said coolly.
“Then William is dead. Angelus will be…displeased.” The words were flat. No grief for their lost kin from him, only statement of fact. There was no room for love while they stared down an apocalypse.
“He lives, my Master,” Darla rejoined. “He has convinced her of his…sincerity.”
“Truly?” He steps forward, hideous grey flesh warmed by the flickers of torchlight.
She shuddered, distaste curdling her still-human features. “There was hugging.”
*~*~*
“Shot you down, huh?” The hazel eyes he couldn’t quite meet were warm, but unsympathetic.
“She said she wasn’t interested in being my vehicle of denial,” Xander responded. “As if! I don’t need a vehicle to be in denial.”
“You have to admit, it was pretty crummy thing to do to your best friend,” Buffy said softly. “You know she has feelings for you, Xander. And watching you play ‘I’m not looking’ with Will during research is a huge suck-fest for her. Asking her to the dance isn’t exactly a sweet gesture after all that not-looking.”
“I’m not looking,” Xander insisted. “He’s a vampire. Vampires bad, remember?”
“He’s hot. He saved my life.” Buffy shrugged, taking a large bite of the red apple in her hand.
Xander looked away. How the hell could he win the argument if she kept insisting on bringing facts into it?
“Talk to him,” Buffy suggested, voice firm. “He’s in the library with Giles. They’re researching. Something. In books, even.”
*~*~*
“We are in the final days,” he intones, the claws that were once his hands entwined with the fragile seeming fingers of the child next to him. “And soon we shall rule the world above. It is written that Man is something to be surpassed. What have ye done to surpass Man?”
“Everywhere resoundeth the voices of those who preach death,” the boy answered. “ And the earth is full of those to whom death hath to be preached.”
“Thus spake Zarathustra,” The Master concluded, a gleeful rictus highlighting the horror of his bat-like features.
“Take to the streets,” the Anointed One directed, staring out at the assembled masses. “Preach death.”
The roar of the gathering vampires echoed through the tunnels under Sunnydale.
*~*~*
Xander stopped just inside the doors. He was going to go in there and talk to Will. Just as soon as he figured out what the conversation would be about, he was going to have one. With Will. About something. The sudden shout drew his attention outward.
“You’re wrong,” Will insisted, slamming his hand down on the wooden table. “Stop getting your prophecies from penny candy wrappers, Watcher. That book’s full of rubbish.”
“It’s not rubbish.” Giles’s voice was soft, and Xander had to strain to hear his next words. “This is the Pergamum Codex. There is nothing in here that has not come to pass. And this prophecy is explicitly, disturbingly clear. Buffy will face The Master and she will die.”
“No.”
The words, ripped from two throats, exploded in the quiet of the library. Will whirled around, eyes locked on Xander.
“No,” Xander repeated. “She’s not going to die. This Master guy, he’s tough?”
Will nodded. “Head of the Order of Aurelius, and from the stories I was told, he gained control by killing Aurelius himself. If he’s really that ancient, then yeah; he’s tougher than any vampire she’s ever faced before.”
Xander nodded.
“Then she doesn’t face him alone.”
Will smiled, his hand coming up to skim the air by Xander’s face before falling limply at his side.
“Right,” he said briskly. “Got a prophecy to bollocks up, Watcher. What’s say we get plotting?”
Chapter 17
Rating: NC-17 overall
Summary: A vampire with a soul comes to Sunnydale to help The Slayer. Can a demon ever atone?
A/N: Thanks to my ever watchful (and adorable) beta,
noandwhere for her usual superb work and ninja-like speed! Written for tamingthemuse prompt #102-Thus spake Zarathustra. Includes dialogue from the BtVS S1 episode "Prophecy Girl" and Nietzsche's Thus Spake Zarathustra. Previous Parts founds here or in tags.“What news?” The claws reached out, beckoning from the shadows.
Once, perhaps, they had been hands. The hands of a man? Darla tipped her head to the side, mouth pursed in thought. To imagine him as a man was to imagine him as a mortal. Weak. Flawed. Imperfect.
Impossible.
“The Slayer lives,” she said coolly.
“Then William is dead. Angelus will be…displeased.” The words were flat. No grief for their lost kin from him, only statement of fact. There was no room for love while they stared down an apocalypse.
“He lives, my Master,” Darla rejoined. “He has convinced her of his…sincerity.”
“Truly?” He steps forward, hideous grey flesh warmed by the flickers of torchlight.
She shuddered, distaste curdling her still-human features. “There was hugging.”
*~*~*
“Shot you down, huh?” The hazel eyes he couldn’t quite meet were warm, but unsympathetic.
“She said she wasn’t interested in being my vehicle of denial,” Xander responded. “As if! I don’t need a vehicle to be in denial.”
“You have to admit, it was pretty crummy thing to do to your best friend,” Buffy said softly. “You know she has feelings for you, Xander. And watching you play ‘I’m not looking’ with Will during research is a huge suck-fest for her. Asking her to the dance isn’t exactly a sweet gesture after all that not-looking.”
“I’m not looking,” Xander insisted. “He’s a vampire. Vampires bad, remember?”
“He’s hot. He saved my life.” Buffy shrugged, taking a large bite of the red apple in her hand.
Xander looked away. How the hell could he win the argument if she kept insisting on bringing facts into it?
“Talk to him,” Buffy suggested, voice firm. “He’s in the library with Giles. They’re researching. Something. In books, even.”
*~*~*
“We are in the final days,” he intones, the claws that were once his hands entwined with the fragile seeming fingers of the child next to him. “And soon we shall rule the world above. It is written that Man is something to be surpassed. What have ye done to surpass Man?”
“Everywhere resoundeth the voices of those who preach death,” the boy answered. “ And the earth is full of those to whom death hath to be preached.”
“Thus spake Zarathustra,” The Master concluded, a gleeful rictus highlighting the horror of his bat-like features.
“Take to the streets,” the Anointed One directed, staring out at the assembled masses. “Preach death.”
The roar of the gathering vampires echoed through the tunnels under Sunnydale.
*~*~*
Xander stopped just inside the doors. He was going to go in there and talk to Will. Just as soon as he figured out what the conversation would be about, he was going to have one. With Will. About something. The sudden shout drew his attention outward.
“You’re wrong,” Will insisted, slamming his hand down on the wooden table. “Stop getting your prophecies from penny candy wrappers, Watcher. That book’s full of rubbish.”
“It’s not rubbish.” Giles’s voice was soft, and Xander had to strain to hear his next words. “This is the Pergamum Codex. There is nothing in here that has not come to pass. And this prophecy is explicitly, disturbingly clear. Buffy will face The Master and she will die.”
“No.”
The words, ripped from two throats, exploded in the quiet of the library. Will whirled around, eyes locked on Xander.
“No,” Xander repeated. “She’s not going to die. This Master guy, he’s tough?”
Will nodded. “Head of the Order of Aurelius, and from the stories I was told, he gained control by killing Aurelius himself. If he’s really that ancient, then yeah; he’s tougher than any vampire she’s ever faced before.”
Xander nodded.
“Then she doesn’t face him alone.”
Will smiled, his hand coming up to skim the air by Xander’s face before falling limply at his side.
“Right,” he said briskly. “Got a prophecy to bollocks up, Watcher. What’s say we get plotting?”
Chapter 17
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
on 2008-07-06 09:05 am (UTC)Yes, I am adorable, aren't I?
But you're the one with the pinchable ass, so I'd say you win. *g*
no subject
on 2008-07-08 11:01 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2008-07-06 01:16 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2008-07-08 11:01 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2008-07-08 02:50 am (UTC)no subject
on 2008-07-08 11:02 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2008-07-17 10:06 pm (UTC)This made me laugh: How the hell could he win the argument if she kept insisting on bringing facts into it? Even in his denial, there's no doubting Spike is hot. Darla cringing at the hugging was also hilarious.
Thanks for more of this wonderful story.
no subject
on 2008-07-23 04:58 am (UTC)