Brave New World

August 29, 1999 (1:37 am)
"...We didn't know that Angelus was gone," Giles paused as he took another sip of water. "Jenny only knew that his soul was no longer bound to his body. You were also on my mind when I did the spell. Since Angelus was truly gone, the spell must have focused in on you."
Buffy sat quietly for several seconds as she tried to absorb what he was telling her. She turned to look at Giles. He looked a little frightened at what her response would be. She didn't blame him. She was not certain about how she should feel herself.
Slowly, she began to speak. "So...the reason I have a soul is...not because of some higher power as Merrick thought...but rather because you and this Jenny were playing Mr. Wizard with your crystal ball in order to curse someone else and I was the unexpected side effect?"
Giles looked somewhat embarrassed as he nodded his head, "It...It's just a theory. I could be completely wrong. It's just that...with the timing and the fact that-"
"-you two were meddling with things you didn't fully understand?" interjected Buffy, sharply as she rose from her chair and began to pace the kitchen. She was somewhat pissed. Her beliefs that the higher powers were looking out for her had just been dealt a major blow. She knew that she should have been happy that she had been 'cursed', but the idea that they hadn't even known about what they done to her really bothered her.
"Just great," she snarled bitterly. "I'm an accident. Such a confidence builder." She stopped pacing and moved back to her chair. "So why didn't you try this spell on any other vampires? Willow? The Master? Did you even *think* about helping that way?"
"Of course we did," he said running a hand though his hair and pushing the bridge of his glasses back up his nose. "However, we thought that the spell had failed. Well, at first we thought it had worked. The orb had vanished, and I had felt something go though me. However, later on that night, Oz showed up and told us about what he had seen at the factory. When he mentioned seeing someone who had fought alongside the Slayer but had dusted like a vampire, we figured out that Angel had been destroyed. We didn't know that you had been turned, we only knew that you were dead. Oz saw you being bitten and drained, just before he ran. We simply assumed you had been killed and mourned your death. The Council told me that another Slayer had been activated. It never even occurred to me that you might have been turned. Normally, vampires just wish to kill the Slayer, and most are usually quite reluctant to create a minion who could rise up in power above them. But we could only speculate; we didn't know what had happened to make the orb vanish so we assumed that the spell had failed. We gave up on it because we were occupied with other things like surviving, and besides, we did not have any other Thesulan orbs with which we could experiment further to try the spell again. The last magic shop closed over a year ago. In any case, the point is moot now, Jenny's computer was destroyed a few months later, and she no longer has access to any of the documents about the original spell. We no longer have the spell."
Buffy looked fairly grim at that bit of news. "If she didn't know how to do the spell by heart, why did she have it only in her computer? Why no paper copies or a backup on a floppy."
"We had them. They were destroyed in a fire that some vampires set at my old apartment. A lot of information was lost in that fire," he said with regret.
"You said that she'd *had* access to the original spell documents. Where?"
"They are with her family, somewhere along the east-coast. If they are still alive. You see, Jenny discovered only the year before that the curse could be broken if Angelus experienced a moment of contentment, of true happiness-"
"Well that's a pretty stupid idea for a curse," interrupted Buffy. "Add a little happiness and 'Whammo', you get the original killer back...wait a minute! Are you saying that I can't ever be happy?!"
"No!" said Giles quickly. "No, Jenny changed the spell to remove that loophole, and, yes, it was extremely shortsighted." Buffy looked a little mollified. "But, that is the way things frequently turn out when people start seeking revenge. By only focusing on the immediate target, they forget the big picture...what consequences may result from their actions. They are blinded by hate."
Buffy glared at him. Revenge was something that was very near and dear to her heart. "I only really knew Merrick, but...are all Watchers as preachy as you or am I just lucky?"

Oz was feeling very lucky. He had begun to worry that he had messed up and would never find the van when he suddenly spotted it parked alongside the road. He pulled over and leapt out with a crossbow at the ready. A flashlight strapped to the underside allowed him to pear into the abandoned vehicle. Seeing nothing in the front he moved to the side door and checked the back seats. He was relieved to find no body.
*Well, at least they didn't want him for fast food,* he thought to himself. He moved out from behind the van to gaze at the gate across the street. It led to a very large estate that Oz looked over for several minutes while pondering his options. Finally, he came to a decision.
*I think it's time to go round up the cavalry.*

Buffy sighed as she refilled Giles' water glass.
"I'm sorry. I never was much of a people person before...you know...before. I wonder if that's a slayer trait and I just..." she paused to reorganized her thoughts. "I think...I think that I should thank you. If you hadn't been trying that spell, I would have become what the Master had hoped for when he turned me. His own personal 'Super-vamp'. Instead, he got a weak, insane minion who was good for nothing more than a little sex and torture. Or at least that is what he thought." She paused, and an uncomfortable silence fell for a few minutes. Buffy flashed back to that first day as a vampire and remembered something else. "Oh yeah, Merrick wanted to apologize to you. Said you were probably right and that probably means I owe you an apology as well for brushing you off. So, sorry and thank you."
She was silently looking down at her hands on the table. When she finally raised her eyes to look directly into his eyes he was amazed to see tears slowly falling down her cheeks. Something horrible had happened. The thought that she was a vampire and these were nothing but crocodile tears flitted across his mind, but he felt immediate guilt for thinking so. It was a gut instinct welling up inside of him to trust her, and to make her trust him. *For crying out loud, what do I have to lose?* Slowly he reached across to cover her hand with his.
As gently as he could, "If I may ask, Buffy, what happened to Merrick?"
Her face twisted with pain as she confessed, "They made me murder him."

Spike followed Willow into the Bronze. Loud music blared, as vampires of all types med; ed; chatting, making out, fighting or torturing the few humans scattered about in cages. The Master was not on his throne on the stage so Willow led Spike to the backroom where the Master was meeting with two other vampires. Willow paused in the doorway with Spike behind her. He was surprised when he saw who they were.
Luke and Darla.
"You believe this...informant?" the Master asked Darla with curiosity.
"I do. She is greedy and seeks advancement by eliminating her superiors," said Darla with a smile.n adn admirable attribute...in a human."
"And you Luke," asked the Master.
Luke shrugged, "Through her betrayal, she has activated the prophesy. She has provided us with the information that will at last give us the Anointed..."
"Who shall bring us the Slayer and bring down her Council," finished the Master. "Still, I am reluctant to believe any human, least of all, a human who would betray her own kind."
"Yes, how terrible," spoke up Spike, sardonically. "What has happened to honor and decency these days? A human who would betray their own kind for their own self-advancement. It's shocking. Almost demonic one might say." He smiled as they turned towards him.
"Spike!" Darla exclaimed "What a pleasant surprise. It's been ages."
"Darla, Luke, Master," nodded Spike in turn. Luke grunted, and the Master waved Spike to come in.
"Ahh Spike. Come in. We were almost finished," said the Master as Willow strutted over to his side.
Moving to embrace Spike, Darla said, "I heard about Prague and Drusilla. I am so terribly sorry for you. I thought that possibly we could release a plague or two over there, when we go back. Something painful... like, maybe, anthrax?" she said in a low, conspiratorial tone of voice. She was surprise by the lack of any response from Spike, and, stepping back, she arched an eyebrow at him.
"It does not matter," said Spike in a flat voice. "Dru is gone. They will all die soon enough. Why poison our own food supply? It won't bring her back."
Darla stepped back in astonishment. She had heard of his change, but, until now, she had put them down as exaggerations. The old brash and irrepressible Spike would have jumped at her plan to create carnage.
Spike stepped forward to take a chair near the Master.
"I heard about LA," Luke rumbled. "Quite impressive."
"Nothing much to it," said Spike casually. "If they lined up against me, I took 'em down."
Darla leaned towards him, "Oooh, I'd love to hear all the juicy details-"
"-but we won't be here long enough," interrupted Luke. "We're heading to LA. Tonight." Darla leaned back in her chair and glared at him.
Spike simply looked at Luke and said nothing.
"Yes, well perhaps you can exchange stories at the Celebration," said the Master heading off the building tension in the room. Luke was sensing the Master's unease with the 'New' Spike and wanted to respond to that feeling by destroying the threat. Ever since he had been linked to the Master at the Harvest as the 'Vessel', Luke had been able to sense the Master's feeling towards others, and it tended to make him a more violent towards those whom the Master disliked. For the most part, the Master did not mind, however with some such as Spike, it could cause problems. Distance seemed to reduce the effect and for that reason he had decided to send Luke and Darla off to Europe to begin advance work on his ultimate rise to dominance there. Though nothing like what he had felt upon the night of the Harvest, the Master still received a pulse of power from Luke whenever he fed within a mile of the Master.
"Willow, my Dear," the Master said turning to look at her. She had taken her usual position just behind his right shoulder. "Take Luke and Darla to the vault and get them the Balm of Nelphix and the Book of Gasgoth." He turned back to Luke and Darla, "I need not tell you how...upset...I shall be should you fail."
Darla's smile faltered slightly, but Luke rose before kneeling before the Master. The Master stretched out his hand and Luke pressed his lips to it. "We shall not fail," he intoned solemnly.
"Very well," the Master said with a smile, "I shall see you before you leave. Why don't you have a snack while I finish up with Spike?"
Luke stood and followed Willow.
Darla said nothing, but Spike could tell she was distinctly unhappy with Willow's elevation during her absence. He knew that the knowledge that a three year old fledgling had taken the position of the 'Master's consort' must have really grated on her. Particularly after her own 400 plus years of service, and what did she have to show for it? Playing leash maiden to the Master's dog now.
Spike turned his attention back towards the Master as he spoke, "So, tell me. What have you been up to? How is Child? She is behaving, I hope."
"Buffy is coming along quite nicely with her training" Spike said carefully. "She's quite good at following orders. She seems to enjoy having something new to do. Once, of course, she finally catches on to what it is that I want her to do. I think she may have been somewhat bored before."
"Well then, I am glad that she has worked out so well for you. I must confess that I was surprised at how taken you seemed with her. I look forward to seeing her soon." Spike arched an eyebrow in surprise at this comment. "You were planning on bringing her with you when you come to the celebration and coronation of my queen. Weren't you?" queried the Master as he watched Spike.
"Yes, of course. The Celebration. Wouldn't dream of missing it. But you didn't invite me here to confirm the number of people in my reservation. So why am I here?" Spike asked calmly.
The Master passed a cup of blood to Spike. "I have achieved much in my three years of freedom, and more because of the assistance of certain vampires such as Luke, Willow and...yourself. However, of late I find myself in a difficult spot because of the persistence of annoying threats to myself. Upstarts who seek my power..."
Spike tensed up, bracing himself for the impending attack. *He knows! Somehow he knows and I haven't got a weapon handy.*
The Master, however, failed to notice Spike's tension and continued on, "Normally, I would deal with this personally. Unfortunately, I do not have the time these days to deal with all of these troublemakers. So I would like to ask, if you could deal with some of these 'problems' in the same way that you dealt with those in LA."
Spike gave no indication of the relief he felt inside. Instead he leaned back in his chair in a relaxed posture and asked, "Who would you like me to kill?"
*Direct and to the point,* the Master thought. *I think I like this new Spike.* He smiled, "It seems that the Sisters of Jhe maybe planning some trouble."