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Future Sins Past by DreamsofSpike
 
Twisted Family Tree
 
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A/N: Thanks to my wonderful beta, Eowyn315!!! :)




Angel’s wide-eyed expression of shock slowly faded into an angry scowl as the confused haze of bloodlust and pain dissipated with the healing, nourishing effect of Spike’s blood. Angel glared at his former childe, his eyes narrowing with suspicion.

“What have you done to me?”

Spike shrugged indifferently, unaffected by the elder vampire’s wrath. After all, he held the power now.

“Just finished what the little witch started is all,” he explained in an almost bored tone of voice. “She’d nearly pulled it off, too. What, don’t tell me you’d rather be her soddin’ minion-cum-sex slave than my childe? Most likely wouldn’t have been much cummin’ involved, anyway, on your part, at least.”

“I’d rather be dead than be childer to you,” Angel declared in a voice of seething rage.

“Yeah,” Spike drawled. “I’d rather, too. But, unfortunately for both of us, it seems the Slayer and I need you for a little while yet. So, that means I’ve got to keep you alive and out of Red’s hands for the time being. Believe me, if it makes you feel any better, I’d rather see you dust, too.”

“Why? I don’t understand…”

“Why do I want to see you dust? Let me count the bloody ways, mate…”

“That’s not what I meant,” Angel clarified, biting out the words through clenched teeth. “Why did you…?”

“I know what you meant,” Spike cut him off, all traces of humor vanished from his voice. “She was halfway to completing the ritual herself. And once she got it done, trust me when I say not a soddin’ one of us would have been happy with the results. You’d have been her bloody slave, and she’d have used you to help take out the rest of the Slayer’s support system, one by one, until no one was left but me…not that the Slayer’d *want* my help. And that’s when things would have *really* gotten ugly. Not that you wouldn’t have deserved your fair share of it.”

Angel dropped his gaze at the note of disgust in Spike’s voice. “What you did to the Slayer…to her little redheaded mate…no honor or glory in that sort of thing, mate. That was just…just bloody…”

“Bad?”

Both vampires turned toward the door, to see the young vampiress in question standing there, her auburn hair now nearly black, her eyes dark and flashing with anger and magic as she smiled coldly at them.

“Funny, that’s the same word I was going to use.” Willow shrugged. “Slightly different context, though. More…plural. As in…bad, bad puppies. You’re both really in trouble now…”

“You know, the soddin’ dog analogy is getting old fast, pet,” Spike informed her, annoyance in his voice as he sauntered toward her, his casual tone belying the dangerous glint in his eyes. “Maybe you ought to try a different…”

“Maybe you ought to be quiet while I’m talking,” Willow cut him off with a painful jolt of magical power that sent him flying across the room to slam hard into the wall, collapsing to the floor with a groan of pain.

“That’s right,” she sneered, as Spike scrambled to his feet, giving her a wary look of surprise. “Little Willow’s all grown up now. And a so-called master like you should know better than to mess with me…or to take my things.”

A second massive jolt had Spike doubled over in pain, clutching his stomach, as Willow smiled vindictively and moved slowly toward him. As she did, she waved her hand in his direction again, murmuring a Latin word that had the blond vampire gasping in agony, holding his arms across his stomach as he dropped to his knees, struggling to recover enough to even begin to fight back.

“Thought I was going to be an easy slay, didn’t you?” Willow smirked, pinning his hands to the floor, immobilized with a single gesture of her hand. With a coy wink, she shook her head and added, “I’m not that kind of girl.”

Spike fought to free himself of the magical bonds that held him, simultaneously fighting off panic as the powerful fledgling slowly closed the distance between them, and he realized that he was powerless to defend himself against her. He looked desperately up at Angel, who was standing watching her dumbly, as if he was uncertain as to what exactly was happening, and which side he should be on.

“Don’t just stand there, you stupid git! Stop her!” Spike growled at him in frustration as she gripped his hair, jerking his head back so that his eyes locked with hers as her vampire face came to the fore, her emerald eyes shimmering to gold as she gave him a predatory smile.

“How am *I* supposed to stop her?” Angel demanded defensively, shaking his head as he backed slowly away from the scene. “Have you been *watching* for the last five minutes?”

“You’re her bleedin’ sire, aren’t you?” Spike reminded him as Willow leaned in close as if in preparation to bite. “That still means something to *some* vamps!”

“Yeah,” Willow agreed with a sinister giggle as she traced her fingertips down the column of his throat, eyeing his pale skin hungrily. “Which is the whole point of my little plan. Except that your stupid visions revealed it to you before I was ready.” She shrugged. “But I’m thinking, this can still work out. Two slaves are better than one, right?”

“Wait…slaves?” Angel frowned in confusion.

“I *told* you, you bloody idiot!” Spike snarled in terse annoyance, painfully aware of how near Willow was to getting what she wanted, due to Angel’s apparent inability to add two and two. “She soddin’ drained you so that she could repeat the siring process and make you her childe…which, in the eyes of a sick, sadistic little bint like her, is nothing better than a bloody slave! And if you don’t stop her right now, she’s going to do the same thing to both of us!”

“Oh…okay…this is starting to make sense…” Angel grimaced at his own slowness to catch on, shaking his head to clear it of the haze that seemed to be the result of the harrowing events of the evening.

“That’s nice,” Spike replied with biting sarcasm, as the redhead teasingly mouthed his throat with her lips and tongue, and he strained uselessly against the magic holding him in place. “Now, how about you bloody *do something about it*?”

When he looked up at the vampire he had just resired, he felt an apprehensive chill go down his spine. The amused smirk on Angel’s face told Spike that Angel was clearly not all that concerned with his new sire’s welfare. The words he spoke next made the sentiment even clearer.

“I’m thinking I will. Just…*after* she does you. ‘Cause, you know, that’s gotta be hilarious. And if she drains you, resires you…whatever…and she’s my childe…and you’re her childe…well, then…it’ll be kinda like old times, won’t it?”

Spike stared up at Angel, aghast in disbelief, until Willow shifted so that she was between him and the dark-haired vampire, blocking Spike’s view and smiling cruelly into his eyes, rolling her eyes toward Angel out of his view, and giving Spike a conspiratorial wink.

“Yeah,” Spike scoffed as she twisted his head to the side, in preparation to strike, “until she waits ‘til you’re sleeping to do the same thing to you, and you end up her soddin’ slave! Angel, *stop her*!”

“I’m thinking no.”

Spike’s eyes narrowed in anger, and he opened his mouth to simply use his new authority as Angel’s sire to force him to obey, but before he could get a word out, someone else spoke up.

“I’m thinking yes, if you can…or I could ram this pointy stick through your heart right now.”

Spike had never felt so relieved to hear the Slayer’s voice. Willow turned in surprise to face her, and Spike could see that the tiny but formidable blonde had Angel bent backward over an old wooden table, gripping his throat and brandishing a stake pressed tight against his chest.

“Hey, Buffy,” Willow sneered in a mockery of friendly surprise. “Wasn’t expecting you so soon. But…that’s usually when you decide to show up, isn’t it? Just when I *don’t* need you?”

Spike saw the Slayer’s jaw tighten with her attempt to repress her reaction to the goading words, but she did not respond to Willow in the slightest, instead focusing her attention on Angel.

“You have some sort of power over her because you’re her sire, then I’d suggest you use it.” Her voice was hard as steel as she pressed the stake harder against Angel’s chest, causing him to wince with pain.

“Okay…okay, Buffy…calm down…”

Spike saw the change in Willow’s expression as she realized that Angel was actually going to do it, going to use the power of his sire’s voice to stop her, and she spun around to face him, focusing all her power on Angel, one hand outstretched toward him as she prepared to use her magic to prevent him.

At that moment, Spike felt the magical weights that held him down lifted, as Willow’s energy was diverted, and leapt to his feet behind her, tackling her to the floor before she could begin to cast a spell on Angel. The young vampiress snarled and screamed with rage, struggling to tear free, but Spike’s physical strength was superior to hers, and he held her down with ease.

“Do it now!” he ordered his new childe, using the full authority of his new position as Angel’s sire to stop the older vampire’s hesitations and excuses.

“Willow, *stop*!” Angel commanded forcefully. “Don’t move…don’t speak…don’t perform any magic. Just *stop*, now!”

Willow’s body went still beneath Spike, but he hesitated before rising up off her, unsure if she was really under control or attempting to trick them again. Slowly, cautiously, he rose up on his hands and knees, backing up as he climbed to his feet, pulling her roughly up with him.

She offered no resistance, did not say a word, simply shot deadly glares of resentment in the direction of her sire.

“All right…so she’s under control…yeah?”

Spike breathlessly demanded the truth of Angel, his piercing gaze searching the other vampire’s face as Buffy warily let him up off the table, but still held him tightly by the collar of his shirt, unwilling to give him the chance to escape.

Angel looked a bit uncertain as he ticked off on his fingers, “No moving…talking… magic…should about cover it, unless there’s something else I haven’t thought of…”

“Which would be a bloody shock…”

“Hey! I stopped her, didn’t I?”

Indignantly, Spike countered, “Because you were gonna get staked if you didn’t! You wanted to see *me* thoroughly buggered first, didn’t you? Would have let her drain me and turn me into her slave, if Buffy hadn’t happened along…”

“And *what* exactly did I happen along into…?”

“Well, you’ve already turned me into *your* slave, haven’t you, Spike? So, how can you blame me?” Angel retorted angrily, ignoring the Slayer’s tentative question.

“Oh, I can soddin’ well blame you, make no mistake of that! And now that you *are* my ‘slave’, I’ll be ‘blaming’ you ‘til you can’t bleedin’ sit down, you bloody stupid wanker! I’ll be blaming you with…”

“I’ll be *staking* both of you if someone doesn’t tell me what’s going on here!” Buffy declared, cutting off Spike’s furious tirade, glaring between the two of them as they fell silent.

Spike noted, with a sense of satisfaction that quickly gave way to sorrow, that the greater contempt in her gaze was reserved for Angel. The hurt and hatred he saw in her glimmering emerald eyes reminded him of just how deeply Angel’s actions had hurt her, just how much damage he had done, and Spike resolved again, once they had fully dealt with Willow, to make sure that Angel paid for taking her life and crushing the Slayer’s surprisingly tender heart.

“I’ll probably be staking you, anyway,” Buffy said, giving voice to Spike’s thoughts, as she turned toward Angel with narrowed, furious eyes. “You killed Willow. You…you…”

Spike could see her body trembling with rage, saw her hand swiftly rising with the stake clutched tightly in her grasp, and knew that, as much as he would have enjoyed watching Angel’s demise, he could not allow it.

Not yet.

“Buffy, *don’t*!” he cried out, rushing forward and staying her hand before the stake could fall, his hand locked firmly around her wrist and holding it back.

She turned toward him, a bewildered look of something akin to betrayal in her eyes. “Why not?” she demanded. “He murdered my best friend and turned her into a monster! Why shouldn’t I kill him right now?”

“Because he’s the only one who can control the monster he created,” Spike replied without hesitation, holding her gaze firmly, sympathy in his eyes. His voice softened as he added, “Now, with her unable to do any damage…we might have time to…to find a way.”

Buffy’s eyes welled with fresh tears as she looked past him at the sullen young vampire, glaring daggers at all three of them.

“Kill him,” Spike continued, “and for the moment, Willow’s virtually unstoppable. Let him live…for now…and he can keep her under control.”

“And who’s gonna keep *him* under control?” Buffy demanded, casting a suspicious glance in Angel’s direction before fixing Spike with a challenging look.

“Me.”

“You? How’s *that* work? Isn’t he your sire, too?”

“Not anymore.”

“Okay, wait…” Buffy held up a halting hand, the frown of confusion on her face only deepening with his explanation. “I think I’m going to need to hear all the details of this…but I’m not exactly sure I’m going to get them when I hear them. I think we’re going to need some intellectual back up for this one.”

Spike gave her a puzzled look. “Meaning…?”

“We’re Watcher-bound. Come on. Let’s go.”
 
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