FIC: Family Honour (3-5/?)

["Shadow" <Shadowlander1@xxxxxxx>]

Title: Family Honour (3-5/?)
Author: Shadowlander
Email: Shadowlander1@xxxxxxx
Rating: PG-17
Pairing: A/W/S and others
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters commonly associated with
Buffy the Vampire Slayer and are using them without permission. No
copyright infringement is intended.
Archive: The usual places, anyone else just ask.

FAMILY HONOUR (3-5/?)

Crawford Street Mansion
Pre-dawn the next day -

It was still quiet in the mansion when Drusilla arrived; making a grand
entrance with the help of the luckless fledgling whom had the misfortune
of being on guard duty at the time. And oh what an entrance it was, as
the fledgling in question came crashing through the solid oak door with
a little help from Dru, who wasn't all that amused about being
challenged outside her own home. Her little tree needed her; the stars
continued to sing about her little sister's pain, the song was beginning
to even get on her nerves. She had to do something about it, make the
stars stop singing, or in the very least, get them to sing a new song,
maybe one about a bad little dog and all his playmates in pain? 'Yes,
that would be the perfect song for the stars to be singing,' she thought
climbing over the remains of the door and entering the mansion.

"And to think all this time I've been turning the little knob to get
them to open." Shadow commented, stepping through the remains of the
wrecked doorframe, absently wondering what would have happened if the
door had been made of reinforced steel.

"Must be one of those modern advancements they are always talking
about," a slim dark-haired woman noted dryly, wondering just why she had
to be apart of this little expedition to the wilds of Southern
California, when she could still be in Rio dancing between Enrique and
Ricky. It wasn't like she actually knew any vampires, all right there
was that one vampire about a hundred years ago, who did the most amazing
things with his tongue.

"What the bloody..." a demanding voice yelled bringing her out of silent
musings as a very naked vampire came charging down the staircase. "Dru?
Luv, you're home." Spike said sliding to a stop in front of the three
women his yellow/gold eyes flashing as his face lit up with a smile.

"Now there's something you don't see everyday," Shadow commented with a
smirk, cocking her head to one side as she regarded the naked Spike, who
had opened his arms to take Dru in a bone-crushing hug.

"How come we never get greeted like that?" Midnight asked jerking her
thumb in Spike's direction, one eyebrow arched in question.

"Don't know any homeless naked vampires, I guess." Shadow replied with
a shrug. Only to perk up as another equally naked figure comes down the
stairs a stake firmly in hand. 'Well hello.' She says to herself as
she watched as the dark-haired woman stop at the bottom step to regard
the little group. "Well, this is a twist... nudist vamps."

"Must make it easier to have their wicked ways with unsuspecting
virgins." Midnight commented, suddenly feeling a bit over dressed in
her little black dress.

"Now what did you bring these two here for?" Spike suddenly demanded
pulling away from Dru to growl at the two women. 'Great just what
Sunnyhell needed Midnight and her little sidekick Shadow running loose.'

"Yeah, I love you to, Spike. Still got that excellent taste in clothing
I see." Midnight replied with a smirk daring the blonde vampire to
start something. Maybe Sunnydale wouldn't be so bad, if she got to pick
on Spike, he always was fun to torment and tease.

"I take it these are friends Blondie?" Faith asked, twirling her stake
in one hand. She didn't recognize the two women but they were with Dru
so they had to be friends of the female vampire, and Faith had learned
years ago never to ask too many questions when it came to Drusilla.

"Oh yes, the bestest ever." Dru replied with a smile. "Shadow's going
to help daddy take care of the bad doggies, they'll learn not to touch
our family." She continued merrily, images of torture and mayhem
dancing in her mind.

"You are?" ask Midnight wondering just when her friend had agreed to
that.

"Apparently," Shadow replied absently, wondering if there was a part of
her earlier conversation with Dru she had missed. As far as she knew
she was just giving Dru a lift back to Sunnydale. She had no plans for
staying in town; living over a hellmouth was not her idea of a safe
environment.

"See? She's here to help," Dru replied with an even bigger smile,
pleased that Shadow wasn't putting up too much resistance, she would
hate to have to force her friend. "And she's not like those other
doggies, Shadow's a real wolf. She'll run things just the way daddy
wants." The vampire said before pulling away from Spike and gliding
past Faith on the staircase, there was a little tree she had to see.
Then she would help Shadow take care of things, 'Oh there was just so
much to do!' she thought happily climbing the stairs.

"Now I know I missed something," Shadow said after a moment, feeling
like she just stepped into an episode of the Twilight Zone.

"Ah huh," Midnight replied staring after Dru's retreating form. "Spike!
You want to let us in on what's going on around here?" She questioned
the naked vampire, 'I knew I should of stayed in Rio.'

*******************************

Meanwhile -
In the master's cambers

Drusilla quietly opened the door and poked her head in the room to find
her sire calmly regarding her from the bed. "I came as fastest as I
could, daddy." She said softly, as she slipped into the room, her dark
eyes worried as she took in the small figure clinging to the master
vampire.

"I'm glad you're here." Angelus replied with a small grin, now that all
of his children were present at least the ones that had not been staked
the hunt could begin. Then he noticed an unusual scent on Dru. "Shadow
is with you." He stated, absently rubbing Willow's back as she
whimpered in her sleep.

"I had to bring her, the stars said she would ever be so helpful and
she'll even take care of my Slayer, so you won't have to worry about her
anymore." Drusilla replied eagerly with a wide smile. "Shadow is going
to like my Slayer, take real good care of her." She promised, knowing
that daddy still cared about the other Slayer, although, he liked to
pretend he didn't. Another whimper brought her attention back to
Willow, bringing a frown to the female vampire. "The little tree hurts
inside." She said more to herself, coming to set on the side of the bed
and tentatively reaching out with one hand to brush sweat soak hair away
form Willow's face. "Her body is fighting off the bad doggie's bite."

'Bite!' Angelus felt his demon surge forward. 'The mutt bit Willow!'
closing his eyes in an attempt to control himself, he forced himself to
calm down before saying anything. "Dru, did the mutt bite Willow?" He
asked after a moment, keeping his voice as calm and even as possible.
"What did the stars tell you?"

"Oh yes, the bad doggie bite her, tried to make her like him, all growly
and bad. But he didn't know about the spell." She replied in a low
whispered tone, like she was sharing a secret that no one else most know
about. "It protects her, it's a real good spell." She added happily.

"Dru, how does the spell protect Willow?" Angelus asked, his mind
trying to deal with the consequences of the mutt's actions. 'If he's
passed on the curse to her, he'll die a thousand deaths before I'm
finished with him.' He swore to himself, his demon all ready plotting
the various tortures he would inflict upon the mutt.

******************************

"She's immortal now," a voice answered his question from the door.
"Tied to your life span by that luck demon you helped out a while back.
His thank you for not feeding him to that soul-stealer." Shadow
continued in a calm voice, wondering yet again why she was even
bothering. She didn't want to be here, in the bedroom of a master
vampire; about to step into the middle of a problem that wasn't even
hers to begin with. However, she did have certain responsibilities and
every now and then those responsibilities put her in strange places.
Although she had to admit this was the first time her scared duty ever
led her to a master vampire's bedroom. Well there had been that one
time, but she was there to kill the vamp in question, not about to offer
her assistance.

"I know that!" Angelus growled lowly trying not to disturb Willow too
much. "What does that have to do with this?" He demanded indicating
Willow with one hand, his annoyance with the young woman clear in his
voice. He didn't like Shadow very much, mainly due to the fact that she
was someone who he had never been able to intimidate all that much.
Most times she just smiled that annoying little smile of hers and
proceeds to ignore him. He really hated to be ignored.

Rolling her eyes, Shadow forces herself to remain calm, as much as she
was irritated by vampires in general, it wouldn't do to start a fight
with one in the middle of a mansion full of them. Granted she had a
good chance in taking most of them, not to mention having loads of fun,
it would still be a senseless waste of time and energy. "Angelus, you
can not turn an immortal into a werewolf nor can you vamp an immortal.
It will offset the Great Balance, which will in turn, annoy the Powers
That Be. Which is never advisable under any circumstances, they tend to
fight dirty when some idiot starts messing around with their system."
Noting the master vampire's blank look, "How many immortal werewolves
have you ever heard of?" She asked with a tired sigh.

"None," Dru replied happily.

"Exactly, it would give the werewolf an unfair advantage. Why do you
think you have that deadly allergy to sunlight? If you didn't you'd be
god-like, and the Powers don't like competition in that department. It
all balances out in the end, for every advantage there is a
disadvantage...it keeps things interesting." Shadow replied with a
small shrug.

"And since Willow is immortal the curse can't effect her." Angelus
guessed pleased at the news. He had not been looking forward to dealing
with the curse if it did affect his Willow. She rarely, if ever, didn't
share his bed when he was in residence, when she didn't it was because
he had decided her presence wasn't needed. He didn't like the threat of
a curse telling him he couldn't have Willow in his bed, even if it was
for only three nights a month. Then something occurred to him, "You
said that for every advantage there was a disadvantage, what are the
disadvantages to Willow's immortality?"

"You just had to ask that, didn't you?" Shadow questioned with a small
growl. "Technically, she isn't immortal, neither is Cordelia or Faith,
especially Faith. It's all in the wording, Angelus. To be immortal,
you have to be exempt from death or oblivion...it all goes back to the
Powers and their Great Balance. The one constant in the universe is
change...being immortal nullifies that change, and you just can't have
that, you're back to annoying the Powers. So you go to the next best
thing, you slow the aging process down until it ceases to be a variable.
Your girls still age, they just do it very slowly, about every
thousand -
two thousand years, give or take a few hundred years. And they are still
vulnerable to injury and illness like other humans, and they could still
die. But hell you cut anyone's head off; they're going to die...even
demons."

"Why is my Faith different?" Dru asked suddenly cocking her head to one
side. She did have plans to turn her own slayer into an immortal and
wanted to know how is was going to affect her blonde lover. She had
gone through too much with the other Slayer now to lose her to some
strange clause of TPTB.

With a defeated sigh, Shadow runs a hand through her hair wishing that
Midnight had decided to be the one to check in with Angelus. But no,
Midnight was downstairs with a naked Spike playing strip poker of all
things right now, getting caught up with the recent events. 'I can't
get a break here, can I?' she asked herself taking a deep breath before
dropping this next little bomb on the two vampires.

******************************

Meanwhile...
The Factory District

Oz had just finished beating the hell out of the young pup that dared to
challenge his place in the pack, when Veruca walked in, her latest
plaything not far behind her. Growling low in his throat as the two
approached, he locked eyes with her and without warning broke his
opponent's neck with a quick twist.

"Was that really necessary?" Veruca asked with a wicked smile. She
always loved to watch him while he worked; he never failed to excite
her, especially when he was dominating one of the lesser pack members.
He just had an air about him that oozed power, she knew that she had
been lucky a year ago to be the one to find him and his companion and
bring them into the pack. Oz was going to go far and she planned to do
it at his side, as his primary mate, as they set the world on fire.

"He shouldn't have challenged me." Oz replied stepping over the body,
his kill already forgotten as Veruca put her arms around his neck and
pulled him into a kiss. Only to be interrupted by his best friend's
arrival, the one person within the pack that would dare to do so, a
goofy grin on his face even as Oz growled at him.

"Hate to interrupt," Xander said with a smirk, not at all concerned
about Oz's apparent annoyance. "But just got word, Dru's back...brought
two strangers with her, one of them smells like a wolf." He reported
eager to spill a little blood. He had really thought of nothing else
since he and Oz's "exile" from Sunnydale. His friend wasn't the only
one who lost his parents to Angelus and his damn children. He could
still hear the screams, see the carnage of what the master vampire did
to his parents. Granted they weren't the greatest in the world, but
even they didn't deserve what Angelus and Drusilla did to them that
night. And the worst part of it was the damn tape, the one they had
sent to the magic shop, the tape that recorded the last six hours of his
parents lives. Xander had watched the entire tape three times, before
Giles had caught him and had it destroyed. But that didn't matter, he
had already memorized every scene, every scream, his hatred for the
vampire had consumed him that night. He swore on his parents' graves
that he would kill Angelus, but only after making the master vampire
suffer, like his parents were made to suffer. If it was the last thing
he did, Angelus would die by his hand.

"One of us in the company of a vampire?" Veruca questioned with disgust
practically draping herself over Oz. Her hands running up and down his
body, she had made plans for her and Oz to play with her latest fucktoy.
Every since her mate had come back to this town he had been distracted,
she knew it had to be that human that he had come back to claim. Why he
would still want her after being a vampire's whore was beyond her, but
Oz was making a name for himself and the pack he now lead. It would be
worth putting up with the girl once he cemented his control of the
territory, besides she would still be his primary mate, the power that
went along with that would still be hers. 'Let him have the little
whore, the pack could always use another breeder,' she thought smugly.

"Won't matter none, Angelus will still go down," Oz replied in a cold
tone, his eyes glowing with an animal light. Soon he would have Willow
back at his side, where she belonged, then they could rebuild their
lives together like it was suppose to be. And she would never leave
him; she wouldn't dare, not after he had put his mark on her anyway. He
would have preferred to take her as his primary, but that was impossible
after whoring herself to that damn vampire. Oh sure, he knew the real
reason she had made the deal, it was to keep him and Xander alive, so
that they could rescue her at a later date. 'It was a good plan, would
of worked too if Angelus hadn't had that nut bitch Drusilla do something
to Willow's mind,' he told himself, still not believing that his Willow
would run from him like she did if she had been in her right mind. 'No
Dru did something to her that's why he had to hurt her, to try to knock
some sense into her. But all that would change after they got rid of
Angelus and his family. Willow would be back with him and she'd learn
to love him again, even if he had to beat it into her.' He vowed
savagely.

******************************

Sunnydale General Hospital
ICU ward

Joyce Summers carefully brushed a lock of hair out of her daughter's
face and tried to push down the growing fear inside of her. Three days
had passed since she received that terrifying visit from Rupert Giles at
the Gallery. She remembered looking up from her desk and seeing him
standing there, a look of disbelief and sadness on his face, as he
hesitantly explained that there had been a shooting at University and
that Buffy had been rushed to the ER in critical condition. Every since
learning about her daughter's Slayer status and destiny to fight the
forces of evil until death, Joyce had tried to prepare herself for the
day that she would be getting such a visit from Giles, her daughter's
mentor and Watcher. But nothing had prepared her for the cold fist that
had gripped her heart as she heard the words; "Buffy has been shot and
rushed to hospital." No matter how many times she had rehearsed the
possible scenarios; everything from being woken up at three in the
morning by Willow to tell her that Buffy had been killed by some vampire
or other; to having her daughter not coming home at all.

She was brought out of her silent amusing by the sound of a throat
clearing behind her. Turning to the new comer Joyce tries to force a
new kind of fear from overwhelming her as she comes face to face with
the manic who had shot her daughter. "Oz," she says in choked voice,
trying to find the courage to face the young man who was once a close
friend of her daughter's before everything had changed the fall that
Angelus had taken over as master of Sunnydale.

"Mrs. Summers," Oz replied, his eyes unreadable as he smelled the older
woman's fear. He had hoped to have the Slayer on his side as he
reclaimed Willow. He really didn't have anything against Buffy; she had
tried her damnedest to fight Angelus as he was butchering his and later
Xander's families during the vampire's courtship of Willow. Unlike
Xander he remembered how the blonde Slayer would go for days without
sleep as she tried to stay one step ahead of the vampire and his
minions. But it had been a losing battle back then, Angelus had been
too powerful for any of them to fight on their own, no matter how many
times they told themselves otherwise.

They had been fooling themselves back then, Oz knew that now, the years
he had spent in exile had taught him that, before Xander joined him also
being ran out of town for daring to try to defy the vampire. It had
also taught him that the Great Angelus could be beaten, just not by the
old methods they had been using in High School. No to beat the master
vampire, it would have to be demon against beast, and only the strong
would survive.

"Is there a problem here?" another voice asked, from behind Oz. Shadow
stood in the threshold of the door, head cocked to one side as she
calmly regarded the people in the room; her hands folded over her chest
in boredom. The two closest to her where werewolves, she could easily
tell from their corrupted scents. 'Rogues,' she thought in disgust.
'Just what I need, humans who got themselves cursed, great, just great.
Can this town get anymore screwed up?' The woman by the bed smelled
human, as for the figure hooked up to all sorts of equipment actually in
the bed. 'Slayer,' she absently noted. 'At least both of them are
accounted for now.' She added wryly. Behind her she could sense the
other Slayer, Faith who had finally decided that clothing was a good
thing and should not be avoided, hovered just over her shoulder shooting
daggers into the short male now staring back at them.

"What are you doing here?" Oz demanded his eyes hardening. 'So this is
the werewolf that was with Dru earlier,' he said to himself, briefly
wondering why one of them would want to associate with that bastard
Angelus and his family. Then dismissing the thought, it didn't really
matter if one of their own was willing to side with those butchers then
she would just have to pay the price for such actions. 'It will be fun
breaking her,' he thought smugly, 'maybe I'll give her to Xander as a
gift.'

"Me?" Shadow asked with raised eyebrows and pointing a finger herself.
"Oh I'm apart of the 'Sunnydale Unwelcoming Committee and Gardening
Entourage' we're having a blood drive at hospital and are out looking
for volunteers." She replied forming an instant dislike for the young
man and the blonde that seemed to have attached herself to his upper
body. "You look reasonably healthy, want to give until it hurts? Or
just hurt until you give?" She asked with that little grin that Angelus
found so annoying.

Behind her Faith couldn't help the amused smirk that formed on her face.
She still wasn't too sure about this Shadow person, but one thing was
for sure she was a real smart-ass, Faith liked that in people,
especially when they had something to back up the attitude with. And
something told Faith that Shadow had more then enough to back up the
attitude with, the dark Slayer made a mental note to keep an eye on the
mysterious blonde. 'Right after I tear Oz's head off and give it to
Angelus on a silver platter.' She told herself firmly, taking a
determined step forward to get down to business. She and B may have had
their problems in the past, but times change and so do people. Neither
of them were the same two Slayers that had once fought back to back to
keep a horde of demons from overrunning the town. Over the past year
since Angelus cemented his control over the town, and most importantly
over Willow, Cordelia and herself, she had changed, grown-up a bit. The
petty feud she once had with B didn't really matter anymore, not when
they both had something in common to fight for now. Granted the common
ground they had found didn't have anything to do with their sacred duty,
it had more to do with a certain redhead who had given everything to
protect her friends and family. The very least they could do was return
the favour after she made a deal with the devil himself known as Angelus
to protect them all. Besides Mrs. S was in there too with mutt-boy,
Faith liked B's mum always did and it didn't sit well with her that B's
shooter was in the same room with her.

"Is that suppose to be funny?" Veruca said with a hiss, licking Oz's
ear seductively.

"Actually...no, we take our blood drives very seriously at S.U.C.A.G.E."
Shadow replied putting one arm out to stop Faith from rushing into the
room. 'No need to start something just yet with the rogues,' she
thought preferring to take the peaceful way out of this otherwise
explosive situation. She could smell the fear coming off Joyce Summers
in waves as well as the anger rolling off of Faith. The dark Slayer
particularly hummed with her hatred for the male in front of her. Shadow
couldn't put words to that she felt about the male and his blonde bitch,
well not in mixed company anyway. By nature she really didn't get along
with 'rogues'; humans cursed with the so-called werewolf curse.
Especially with the ones that had embraced the "beast within", those
people really annoyed her, mainly because they didn't have the first
clue about the wolf within. Running wild and killing people was not the
mark of a true wolf, granted it was the mark of a beast, but not of the
wolf. It was beings like the two rogues that fancied themselves great
hunters that have led to thousands of years of persecutions for both
Shadow's people and her wild cousins.
"Why don't you do as all a favour and leave now, if you're not going to
give blood?" She asked her patients with the two running out.

"Why don't I just ripe out your heart and your bitch Slayer friend's
too?" Oz questioned back with a growl. 'Time to show this upstart who
was in charge here.' He thought feeling the beast within him coming to
the surface.

Stepping away from the threshold, Shadow got right into Oz's face,
"Don't play with me little boy, I am a hell of a lot meaner then you'll
ever be," she said in a low growl, her gray eyes briefly glowing as she
stared into his. "So why don't you and your whore get out of my face,
before I ripe your head off and feed you to my bitch Slayer friend over
there. You're presence is no longer welcome in this room." She
finished in a near full growl, giving Oz a good look at just how much of
a wolf she was.

******************************
Meanwhile, back at the Crawford Street Mansion

Midnight had just lost her dress to Spike as the two began to move their
little game of strip poker upstairs so they could be alone. 'Maybe
Sunnydale won't be so bad after all,' she thought as she grabbed the
back of Spike's neck and pulled his head down toward hers. After all it
had been a century or so since, she and Spike had ever played around
together for any great length of time.

******************************
While upstairs Drusilla gave a happy little smile as Willow's fever
began to break, the redhead's body temperature lowering for the first
time in days. In a couple of hours her little tree will be awake and
then daddy could be naughty with her for a little bit, at least until
Faith and Shadow got back to tell about the bad little doggie at
hospital. Ms. Edith had told her that Faith and Shadow were going to
keep him from doing bad things to her Slayer whom was sleeping there.

Dru just knew that her friend, Shadow would help take care of things,
after all Ms. Edith and the stars had told her so and they never lied to
her before. Soon the bad little doggie and all his friends would pay
for hurting her little tree, and then Shadow and Midnight would settle
in and they would all be one big happy family.

End Parts Three - Five.

Anyone still with me out there... and can you tell I disliked Veruca
with a passion?

Shadow -
Dir. of Pub. Safety of the SECLGA and Chief Dungeon Keeper.
Vampire Teddy Bear and Flying Fox {Fruit Bat} of the Woods Outback.
The Big Bad and Little Comma.