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snoggedIt is with GREAT pride and RIDICULOUS AMOUNTS of pleasure that I bring you the very last chapter of Self-Destruct Button. It took us ten months to get to this point and I'm ever so GRATEFUL to the readers that joined me on this journey and supported me 110%. I couldn't have done it without you. *squish*
Title: Self-Destruct Button (16/16)
Author: snogged
Disclaimer: Joss Whedon and many other corporations own the characters of Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel the Series. I don’t.
Pairing: Willow/Spike
Word Count: 2139
Overall Rating/Warnings: FRAO/NC-17 (This chapter is FRT-13/PG-13)
Setting: Buffy – Post “Chosen”/Angel – set shortly after “Damage.”
Summary: Willow gets a party invitation from a certain warlock in Los Angeles.
Beta(s): The positively stupendous team consisting of:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
angelskuuipo, purplefeen, and velvetwhip. All other mistakes are mine.
Have you forgotten what's going on? PREVIOUS CHAPTERS HERE
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Without so much as a courteous knock, the door to Angel’s office swung open and a sleek muscular man in a dirty white loincloth pushed Cyvus Vail’s wheelchair into their midst. The tubes protruding from the warlock’s red, weathered skin were a hideously disgusting shade of rusty orange and Willow noticed that another IV needle had recently been added to the collection that was draining out his bodily fluids.
Cyvus hacked twice and another manservant was quick to come to his side and offer the sorcerer a bowl to spit phlegm and blood into.
“Gross,” Fred murmured, nearly dry heaving when the second expectoration included obvious bits of intestine.
Turning her head away from the revolting display, Fred flashed a look at Willow. It was clear that Fred was experiencing the very same doubts about Cyvus’s strength that Willow and Spike once had. But that had been their mistake and Willow crossed her fingers in the hopes that no one on her team would falter.
Angel, to his credit, didn’t look fazed in the slightest. In fact, he took that very moment to throw the axe he was holding downwards, slicing an arc through the air before it lodged in the space between Vail’s perched feet. This action prompted the Kith’harn demons that were observing from the hallway to growl and stomp their feet. Wesley and Gunn eyed each other quickly and tightened their grip on the swords they held.
If a fight was coming, they were all ready for it.
“What do you want?” Angel asked tersely.
Vail pursed his lips and his yellow eyes danced with danger. “I believe I was invited.”
Willow grimaced, wishing that Angel had let Harmony bite Eve instead of allowing her to run off with her designer tail between her legs. Given how much of an evil bitch Eve was, it came as no surprise that she had run to the Senior Partners like a…stupid squealing squealer. Okay--so that wasn’t exactly an insult worthy of a “Me-OW”, but still--the point stood. Plus, Eve had run off with the amulet so, no matter what, Cyvus would have known exactly where to find her.
“Well, I think it’s time to un-invite you,” Spike replied, flexing his muscles and letting his game face slip into place.
Willow inhaled sharply, taking a cue from Spike’s shift in demeanor and forcing her thoughts to shift from Eve’s not-so-sudden and totally inevitable betrayal to the magic she was going to need to be the big gun once again. As she sifted through the spells she knew, there was one that caught her by surprise. It was a dark spell, one she had once used to attack Jonathan and Andrew when she had gone evil, one that she thought she had erased from her repertoire during her time with the coven in England, one that served as a painful reminder of the charred hole in Spike’s chest after they’d escaped from Vail before.
Fight fire with fire…
Willow took in a large gulpful of air as tendrils of panic clawed at her throat. Going down this path, using this spell…Goddess, there could be so many consequences. What if she lost control? What if she transformed into the Big Bad Wicca? What if she…?
“Red,” Spike muttered, his hand reaching out to grab hers. His voice and his touch were soothing and steadying, much like an anchor might be for a boat getting tossed about by a stormy current.
Willow paused at the thought and an odd grin crossed her lips. Hours ago, she had thought of him as a kite string and had decided that Kennedy had been holding her down like an anchor. But it was more likely that she had just got the analogy all wrong. After all, kite strings were thin and they could easily break whereas anchors were sturdy and strong and constantly withstood abuse from the sea.
Coming to that conclusion was enough for her to return her attention to Cyvus who was clutching his chest as another round of wheezing overtook him.
Apparently death coughs were the signal to start the violence because soon after, three Kith’harn demons pushed their way into the room and Wesley and Gunn leapt forward into the fray, plunging their swords into whatever parts of their foes they could.
Spike let go of her hand for an instant and in her peripheral vision, she could see him reach into the pocket of his jeans. Then his hand returned, slipping something hard and rectangular into her palm before he rushed off to join the boys. Spike sliced and diced demon parts with the expertise of a master chef and within a few minutes, he’d most certainly beaten his last record for taking out Kith’harn demons. Of course, one wasn’t exactly a tough number to beat, but he had mentioned besting six of them at once so she was going to call it a triumph.
Willow glanced down at the item Spike had left in her hand and realized it was his lighter. Taking a deep breath and committing herself to quick and decisive action, Willow flicked open the top and rolled the wheel with her thumb, striking the metal against the flint and creating an instant spark. A tall flame burst from the opening and Willow plucked it free with her fingers. The fire, under the full control of her magical prowess, formed itself into a ball and she didn’t hesitate to hurl it at Vail with the adeptness of a World Series pitcher.
“That all you can do, witch? I’ve crapped better magic than that for breakfast,” Vail taunted, looking equal parts amused and snide as the fireball whipped towards him.
With that, a bolt of blue-hot electricity exploded from Vail’s fingertips and instantly collided with Willow’s flame, creating a truly spectacular explosion that engulfed the ceiling of Angel’s office. Willow barely had time to blink before pillars of ash and smoke clouded her vision and she was knocked backwards onto her butt. This would be déjà-vu, since this was exactly the way she had first arrived in Los Angeles, except that things were going a whole lot differently than before. She found herself being embraced by a closing darkness, wondering why there was an eight pound bowling ball in her lap and why she couldn’t wiggle the fingers on her right hand.
****
Willow grimaced, squeezing her closed eyes tighter as she took note of where things hurt. There was a dull, throbbing pain that had settled near the base of her brain stem and a sharp stinging sensation close to her wrist. The first one she understood, given that her years working with magic had prepared her a little for a world of uncomfortable migraines, but the second…that was new.
Then she remembered the fight and the explosion and…Spike. Just the thought of his name made her reach out, blindly groping the air in search of his strong, reassuring hand. Instead of finding skin, however, she managed to trap her fingers in a tangle of IV wires.
“Uhh…,” Willow groaned, wiggling her hand from side to side in an attempt to get it free.
“Willow!”
The voice was chipper, perky, and horribly familiar but it definitely wasn’t Spike’s.
“You’re awake!”
Willow’s eyes flickered open and she saw, with blurred vision, Harmony fiddling with the wires. This was quickly followed by the thump of plugs being roughly yanked from the wall and the resounding clatter of medical equipment falling onto the linoleum floor.
“Oops,” Harmony murmured. “Angel’s not gonna like that, but it doesn’t matter anyway because you’re awake!”
Willow slowly nodded, forcing her body to sit up as much as it could despite the current angle of the bed she was in and rubbing at her eyes to clear the grime away.
“Spike’s gonna be like so happy that you’re awake. He’s been spending like every waking hour in here, which in vamp time is basically like 24/7 because we don’t, you know, sleep unless we get real rough and tumble in the bedroom. But don’t worry, Spike hasn’t been doing any of that. He’s strictly paws off now that you’re his girl.”
Willow frowned, not because of Harmony’s bluntness about vampire sexuality, but because what Harmony was saying didn’t make any sense. If Spike had been so concerned about her, then why wasn’t he with her right now? Thankfully, Harmony had enough brain cells to answer that question before Willow asked.
“I bet you wanna know where he is, right? Well, I’m pretty sure he said he was going to go beat up the surgeon who stitched up your hand.”
Well…that explained the pain encircling her wrist, but-- she paused, mid-thought, to wiggle her fingers-- everything appeared to be in working order. What it didn’t explain was how her hand had been damaged in the first place. Had the spell backfired? Had Cyvus got a shot in? There was only one person in the world that she imagined had the answer to those questions and she wanted him in here A.S.A.P.
“Harmony…,” Willow started.
“You want me to get him?”
“Yes, please.”
“Already here, love,” Spike replied, appearing on the other side of her bed. A small smile curled the corners of her lips as his fingers interlocked with hers. “You know, you’re quite the big gun. Never seen you take anyone out quite like that before.”
“What do you mean?” Willow asked.
“While I was knee deep in Kith’harn entrails, I saw you shoot off that fireball. First, I thought it was gonna get destroyed on contact when the wanker tried to attack you, but then….” He voice trailed off and he looked at her, completely mesmerized.
“But then what?” Willow urged, desperate to hear the rest of his story.
“Wasn’t sure for a second because the room exploded and I nearly lost the breath I don’t have watching you soar through the air from the intensity of it. I hated that I couldn’t get to you in time, love. T’was worth it to see what your power did next. Once the smoke cleared, that electric bolt turned into nothing but sizzle and pop that ultimately managed to singe your hand a bit. But the important part was that after your fireball exploded it into bitty bits, that hot burning flame landed smack dab in center of Vail’s beady little eyes. I lopped off his head with a right bloody arc and it rolled right off the old man’s shoulders.”
A dry heave hitched in Willow’s throat as she had a flashback to something heavy and round land in her lap and Spike’s hand settled on her shoulder, squeezing it lightly.
“Careful, love.”
“Sorry, it was just…I’m pretty sure I got pretty cozy with Vail’s severed head and well, tummies are really good at churning when it comes to the truly disgusting stuff.”
“I’m sure I could find a way to distract you,” Spike said, flashing her a wink before bending down to nibble the top of her ear lobe.
Willow whimpered, feeling shocks of pleasure pass through her as his tongue worried the tender skin. “I don’t doubt that in the slightest, but I…I want to know if everyone else is okay.”
“They sure are, pet. We all got through in tip-top shape,” Spike explained as he moved his lips from her ear and plopped down beside her on the small mattress. “But the real funny bit is that your Slayer called us up. After reaming Angelus out for being a couch potato champion, she asked to talk to me.”
Spike paused, obviously for dramatic effect and Willow found herself inadvertently chewing on her bottom lip as she waited for him to continue. The last time she’d talked to her best friend, Willow had confessed to starting a relationship with Spike and Buffy had bestowed her blessing on them, provided Spike didn’t do anything to warrant a stake through the heart. That hadn’t changed, had it?
“Apparently, she has coupons for gelato and wanted to know if we would double.”
Willow’s eyes widened, her apprehension about Buffy’s intentions dissipating in an instant. She couldn’t wait to return to Rome and meet the woman who wiggled her way into Buffy’s heart. “Can we go?”
“You bet we can, pet. Already got a lovely freighter lined up to up to take us across the Pacific. Should get there in about a week as long as we don’t capsize.”
Normally, the idea of being a boat that long would turn Willow’s skin green, but knowing that Spike would be there with here, made it seem like an exciting adventure.
Willow flashed Spike a goofy grin and pulled him into a deep kiss, folding her body into the curves of his muscular frame. “Anchors aweigh.”
Title: Self-Destruct Button (16/16)
Author: snogged
Disclaimer: Joss Whedon and many other corporations own the characters of Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel the Series. I don’t.
Pairing: Willow/Spike
Word Count: 2139
Overall Rating/Warnings: FRAO/NC-17 (This chapter is FRT-13/PG-13)
Setting: Buffy – Post “Chosen”/Angel – set shortly after “Damage.”
Summary: Willow gets a party invitation from a certain warlock in Los Angeles.
Beta(s): The positively stupendous team consisting of:
angelskuuipo, purplefeen, and velvetwhip. All other mistakes are mine.Have you forgotten what's going on? PREVIOUS CHAPTERS HERE
Banner by
rua1412Without so much as a courteous knock, the door to Angel’s office swung open and a sleek muscular man in a dirty white loincloth pushed Cyvus Vail’s wheelchair into their midst. The tubes protruding from the warlock’s red, weathered skin were a hideously disgusting shade of rusty orange and Willow noticed that another IV needle had recently been added to the collection that was draining out his bodily fluids.
Cyvus hacked twice and another manservant was quick to come to his side and offer the sorcerer a bowl to spit phlegm and blood into.
“Gross,” Fred murmured, nearly dry heaving when the second expectoration included obvious bits of intestine.
Turning her head away from the revolting display, Fred flashed a look at Willow. It was clear that Fred was experiencing the very same doubts about Cyvus’s strength that Willow and Spike once had. But that had been their mistake and Willow crossed her fingers in the hopes that no one on her team would falter.
Angel, to his credit, didn’t look fazed in the slightest. In fact, he took that very moment to throw the axe he was holding downwards, slicing an arc through the air before it lodged in the space between Vail’s perched feet. This action prompted the Kith’harn demons that were observing from the hallway to growl and stomp their feet. Wesley and Gunn eyed each other quickly and tightened their grip on the swords they held.
If a fight was coming, they were all ready for it.
“What do you want?” Angel asked tersely.
Vail pursed his lips and his yellow eyes danced with danger. “I believe I was invited.”
Willow grimaced, wishing that Angel had let Harmony bite Eve instead of allowing her to run off with her designer tail between her legs. Given how much of an evil bitch Eve was, it came as no surprise that she had run to the Senior Partners like a…stupid squealing squealer. Okay--so that wasn’t exactly an insult worthy of a “Me-OW”, but still--the point stood. Plus, Eve had run off with the amulet so, no matter what, Cyvus would have known exactly where to find her.
“Well, I think it’s time to un-invite you,” Spike replied, flexing his muscles and letting his game face slip into place.
Willow inhaled sharply, taking a cue from Spike’s shift in demeanor and forcing her thoughts to shift from Eve’s not-so-sudden and totally inevitable betrayal to the magic she was going to need to be the big gun once again. As she sifted through the spells she knew, there was one that caught her by surprise. It was a dark spell, one she had once used to attack Jonathan and Andrew when she had gone evil, one that she thought she had erased from her repertoire during her time with the coven in England, one that served as a painful reminder of the charred hole in Spike’s chest after they’d escaped from Vail before.
Fight fire with fire…
Willow took in a large gulpful of air as tendrils of panic clawed at her throat. Going down this path, using this spell…Goddess, there could be so many consequences. What if she lost control? What if she transformed into the Big Bad Wicca? What if she…?
“Red,” Spike muttered, his hand reaching out to grab hers. His voice and his touch were soothing and steadying, much like an anchor might be for a boat getting tossed about by a stormy current.
Willow paused at the thought and an odd grin crossed her lips. Hours ago, she had thought of him as a kite string and had decided that Kennedy had been holding her down like an anchor. But it was more likely that she had just got the analogy all wrong. After all, kite strings were thin and they could easily break whereas anchors were sturdy and strong and constantly withstood abuse from the sea.
Coming to that conclusion was enough for her to return her attention to Cyvus who was clutching his chest as another round of wheezing overtook him.
Apparently death coughs were the signal to start the violence because soon after, three Kith’harn demons pushed their way into the room and Wesley and Gunn leapt forward into the fray, plunging their swords into whatever parts of their foes they could.
Spike let go of her hand for an instant and in her peripheral vision, she could see him reach into the pocket of his jeans. Then his hand returned, slipping something hard and rectangular into her palm before he rushed off to join the boys. Spike sliced and diced demon parts with the expertise of a master chef and within a few minutes, he’d most certainly beaten his last record for taking out Kith’harn demons. Of course, one wasn’t exactly a tough number to beat, but he had mentioned besting six of them at once so she was going to call it a triumph.
Willow glanced down at the item Spike had left in her hand and realized it was his lighter. Taking a deep breath and committing herself to quick and decisive action, Willow flicked open the top and rolled the wheel with her thumb, striking the metal against the flint and creating an instant spark. A tall flame burst from the opening and Willow plucked it free with her fingers. The fire, under the full control of her magical prowess, formed itself into a ball and she didn’t hesitate to hurl it at Vail with the adeptness of a World Series pitcher.
“That all you can do, witch? I’ve crapped better magic than that for breakfast,” Vail taunted, looking equal parts amused and snide as the fireball whipped towards him.
With that, a bolt of blue-hot electricity exploded from Vail’s fingertips and instantly collided with Willow’s flame, creating a truly spectacular explosion that engulfed the ceiling of Angel’s office. Willow barely had time to blink before pillars of ash and smoke clouded her vision and she was knocked backwards onto her butt. This would be déjà-vu, since this was exactly the way she had first arrived in Los Angeles, except that things were going a whole lot differently than before. She found herself being embraced by a closing darkness, wondering why there was an eight pound bowling ball in her lap and why she couldn’t wiggle the fingers on her right hand.
****
Willow grimaced, squeezing her closed eyes tighter as she took note of where things hurt. There was a dull, throbbing pain that had settled near the base of her brain stem and a sharp stinging sensation close to her wrist. The first one she understood, given that her years working with magic had prepared her a little for a world of uncomfortable migraines, but the second…that was new.
Then she remembered the fight and the explosion and…Spike. Just the thought of his name made her reach out, blindly groping the air in search of his strong, reassuring hand. Instead of finding skin, however, she managed to trap her fingers in a tangle of IV wires.
“Uhh…,” Willow groaned, wiggling her hand from side to side in an attempt to get it free.
“Willow!”
The voice was chipper, perky, and horribly familiar but it definitely wasn’t Spike’s.
“You’re awake!”
Willow’s eyes flickered open and she saw, with blurred vision, Harmony fiddling with the wires. This was quickly followed by the thump of plugs being roughly yanked from the wall and the resounding clatter of medical equipment falling onto the linoleum floor.
“Oops,” Harmony murmured. “Angel’s not gonna like that, but it doesn’t matter anyway because you’re awake!”
Willow slowly nodded, forcing her body to sit up as much as it could despite the current angle of the bed she was in and rubbing at her eyes to clear the grime away.
“Spike’s gonna be like so happy that you’re awake. He’s been spending like every waking hour in here, which in vamp time is basically like 24/7 because we don’t, you know, sleep unless we get real rough and tumble in the bedroom. But don’t worry, Spike hasn’t been doing any of that. He’s strictly paws off now that you’re his girl.”
Willow frowned, not because of Harmony’s bluntness about vampire sexuality, but because what Harmony was saying didn’t make any sense. If Spike had been so concerned about her, then why wasn’t he with her right now? Thankfully, Harmony had enough brain cells to answer that question before Willow asked.
“I bet you wanna know where he is, right? Well, I’m pretty sure he said he was going to go beat up the surgeon who stitched up your hand.”
Well…that explained the pain encircling her wrist, but-- she paused, mid-thought, to wiggle her fingers-- everything appeared to be in working order. What it didn’t explain was how her hand had been damaged in the first place. Had the spell backfired? Had Cyvus got a shot in? There was only one person in the world that she imagined had the answer to those questions and she wanted him in here A.S.A.P.
“Harmony…,” Willow started.
“You want me to get him?”
“Yes, please.”
“Already here, love,” Spike replied, appearing on the other side of her bed. A small smile curled the corners of her lips as his fingers interlocked with hers. “You know, you’re quite the big gun. Never seen you take anyone out quite like that before.”
“What do you mean?” Willow asked.
“While I was knee deep in Kith’harn entrails, I saw you shoot off that fireball. First, I thought it was gonna get destroyed on contact when the wanker tried to attack you, but then….” He voice trailed off and he looked at her, completely mesmerized.
“But then what?” Willow urged, desperate to hear the rest of his story.
“Wasn’t sure for a second because the room exploded and I nearly lost the breath I don’t have watching you soar through the air from the intensity of it. I hated that I couldn’t get to you in time, love. T’was worth it to see what your power did next. Once the smoke cleared, that electric bolt turned into nothing but sizzle and pop that ultimately managed to singe your hand a bit. But the important part was that after your fireball exploded it into bitty bits, that hot burning flame landed smack dab in center of Vail’s beady little eyes. I lopped off his head with a right bloody arc and it rolled right off the old man’s shoulders.”
A dry heave hitched in Willow’s throat as she had a flashback to something heavy and round land in her lap and Spike’s hand settled on her shoulder, squeezing it lightly.
“Careful, love.”
“Sorry, it was just…I’m pretty sure I got pretty cozy with Vail’s severed head and well, tummies are really good at churning when it comes to the truly disgusting stuff.”
“I’m sure I could find a way to distract you,” Spike said, flashing her a wink before bending down to nibble the top of her ear lobe.
Willow whimpered, feeling shocks of pleasure pass through her as his tongue worried the tender skin. “I don’t doubt that in the slightest, but I…I want to know if everyone else is okay.”
“They sure are, pet. We all got through in tip-top shape,” Spike explained as he moved his lips from her ear and plopped down beside her on the small mattress. “But the real funny bit is that your Slayer called us up. After reaming Angelus out for being a couch potato champion, she asked to talk to me.”
Spike paused, obviously for dramatic effect and Willow found herself inadvertently chewing on her bottom lip as she waited for him to continue. The last time she’d talked to her best friend, Willow had confessed to starting a relationship with Spike and Buffy had bestowed her blessing on them, provided Spike didn’t do anything to warrant a stake through the heart. That hadn’t changed, had it?
“Apparently, she has coupons for gelato and wanted to know if we would double.”
Willow’s eyes widened, her apprehension about Buffy’s intentions dissipating in an instant. She couldn’t wait to return to Rome and meet the woman who wiggled her way into Buffy’s heart. “Can we go?”
“You bet we can, pet. Already got a lovely freighter lined up to up to take us across the Pacific. Should get there in about a week as long as we don’t capsize.”
Normally, the idea of being a boat that long would turn Willow’s skin green, but knowing that Spike would be there with here, made it seem like an exciting adventure.
Willow flashed Spike a goofy grin and pulled him into a deep kiss, folding her body into the curves of his muscular frame. “Anchors aweigh.”
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
on 2011-10-16 09:24 pm (UTC)Gabrielle
no subject
on 2011-10-16 09:25 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2011-10-16 10:32 pm (UTC)Gabrielle
no subject
on 2011-10-16 10:49 pm (UTC)Loved it deeply. Thank you so much to have created this stunning series for my fanart.
Great job!
no subject
on 2011-10-16 10:53 pm (UTC)*squish*
Thanks for designing such gorgeous art.
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on 2011-10-17 02:34 am (UTC)no subject
on 2011-10-17 04:40 am (UTC)THANK YOU!
no subject
on 2011-10-18 12:54 am (UTC)This is a great fic and I thoroughly enjoyed the journey. :)
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on 2011-10-18 03:50 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2011-10-24 02:14 am (UTC)no subject
on 2011-12-09 07:12 pm (UTC)I really enjoyed the reworking of this story line and Willow's inclusion. I can see how the Circle would be interested in someone of Willow's power (although they really should have checked her alliances first).
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on 2011-12-09 11:44 pm (UTC)Means so much to me!
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on 2013-06-02 05:47 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2013-06-02 06:58 pm (UTC)