icemink: (Fearful by selene2)
icemink ([personal profile] icemink) wrote2007-04-24 09:38 am
Entry tags:

Fearful Symmetry Chapter 12

Title: Fearful Symmetry
Rating: NC-17
Paring: Darla/Spike/Angel
Summary: Sequal to Sinews of the Heart. Darla and Spike head to L.A. in the hopes that if they manage to corrupt Angel, Wolfram & Hart will remove Spike's chip.

Previous chapters are here.

A/N The events of "The Thin Dead Line" have been subverted for my own purposes.


Chapter 12:

Spike watched impatiently as the two mugs of blood danced around each other in the microwave. All too soon the electronic beep let him know the blood was ready. That meant he couldn't put off talking to Darla anymore. The problem was that he wasn't sure what to say.

He had thought he knew what he wanted, where he stood. But that was before Darla had invited Angel into their bed and opened up all sorts of feelings that Spike had thought he had safely bottled away.

"We need to talk," he told Darla as he set the mug down in front of her.

"Of course," she said sweetly. "What is it you want to talk about?"

He spun one of the kitchen chairs around so that he could rest his arms on the back as he spoke to her. "About Angel. I can't. . . I can't go around in the dark anymore. I need to know your plan. If you actually have one that is." Then he added softly, "It's all right if you don't. I've made things up as I went more than once."

She reached out to cover his hand with hers. "I have a plan. It's only the details I'm making up." He looked at her expectantly. When she realized that he wasn't going to let her get off the hook that easily she continued. "It's simple. All we have to do is remind Angel how much he needs us."

Spike couldn't help but snort. "Yeah, like that's going to happen. The bastard is more likely to grow a second cock than admit he needs us."

She smiled indulgently. "He doesn't have to admit it; he just has to remember it. He's tired of being alone. My boy was never good at it, always wanting to be the center of things."

Spike looked at her doubtfully. It was nice to think that Angel needed them, but he'd seen little proof of that, and he was afraid that Darla was seeing what she wanted to see.

"He never needed any of us," Spike said sadly. "It was always just about him."

"Oh, darling, you really don't know him at all, do you?" her patronizing tone set Spike's teeth on edge. "But then you never met Penn, or James, or Elizabeth–all his failed children. None of them ever worshipped him enough, not until Dru. Why do you think he's gathered all those silly humans around him? He needs family, but they can never be to him what we are."

Spike was still doubtful. He'd heard the names of Angelus' other errant Childer before, but he couldn't see how that proved much of anything. They'd all gone their own way long before he'd come into the picture. And if Darla thought he was going to go about with puppy dog eyes worshipping Angel the way Dru had. . .

"What about them?" he said suddenly. "His wanna-be Scoobies. He's been following us about for the last few weeks. What's happened to the other white hats?"

Darla started to say something then paused. Her forehead wrinkled with concentration as she pondered Spike's words. "You're right, where are they? They can't approve of what he's doing so. . ." She shrugged. "Maybe we should find out."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They quickly discovered that Angel's friends hadn't been to the hotel recently. It didn't take long after that for the two predators to discover their new office, which was currently empty.

A little breaking and entering later, and Darla and Spike were snooping through the cramped, messy office.

"Well, this is good," Spike said. "Looks like Angel already turned his back on his mates."

"This is bad," Darla contradicted him. "They are still playing at being demon hunters. What if something happens to them?"

"Why Darla, I didn't know you cared," Spike teased her.

"I don't. But Angel does. He has a soul, he feels guilt for everything, including things that aren't even his fault. If something happens to one of his humans, he'll blame himself and turn away from us. We have to find them."

"You want us to go about protecting Angel's friends?" Spike shrugged. "Well, at least it'll be a chance to get a good fight or two in."

A quick search of the office came up with a hastily scribbled down address. With no better clue they headed off in search of Angel's old gang.

It wasn't until they started get close to the address that Spike began to worry.

"This might not be such a good idea," he told Darla.

"Why's that?"

"Bit of a rough neighborhood," he told her nodding to the run down strip malls. "And this being LA, you and I are likely to stick out like sore thumbs."

"We're vampires, I'm sure we-" she stopped obviously realizing the thing Spike didn't want to say. With his chip he couldn't defend her from any human assailants. "I'll be fine. Besides," she added thoughtfully. "It's rather quiet out isn't it?"

He listened. Darla was right, it was very quiet. They were no other cars on the road. Nothing was open, and no one was on the street. It was like they were in one of those movies where civilization had ended while the hero was sleeping. Considering this was LA, something supernatural had to be responsible.

And then up ahead they finally saw some activity. Several police cars had a building surrounded; a shelter for wayward teens. It took only a moment for Spike to realize that something was very wrong. None of the cops had their guns out, and there was no attempt to talk to the people in the building. Instead the police were bodily assaulting the building, swarming over it like ants, trying to break through the barricaded windows and doors.

"Looks, like this is the place," Spike said as he brought the convertible to a stop.

A few of the cops had noticed them and were moving towards the car. Spike couldn't shake the feeling that something was very wrong here. Even with the assault underway it seemed too quiet somehow.

"Move along, there's nothing to see here," one of the cops said robotically.

"Zombies," Darla hissed.

Spike realized she was right. The odd quiet came from the fact that none of the cops were breathing or had a heartbeat, and they didn't 'feel' like other vampires.

Spike couldn't help but smile. Normal cops he couldn't do a thing about, zombie cops were something he could fight.

"Sorry officer," Spike said smiling. "We were supposed to pick up some friends from there," he said nodding towards the building the other cops were attacking.

The officer didn't bother to respond with words. Spike had to reach up and grab the cop's nightstick that was aimed at his head. Evidently he'd gotten all the warning he was going to get.

Spike punched the cop and wrested the nightstick out of his grasp. Grinning, he leapt out of the car and spun around to confront the other officer who was struggling with Darla. Spike tried to pull the zombie off of her.

"I hate zombies," Darla said as she leaned back and kicked the cop in the head.

The heel of her shoe embedded itself in the zombie's eye. The thing still didn't die, although now it was more twitching than fighting. Spike tossed it aside, as he turned back towards the first one who had regained his feet at this point.

"This is useless," Darla called out. "We need to find the zombie master."

Useless, maybe. But Spike thought it was also a lot of fun. Sure zombies were hard as anything to kill, but they were dumb and slow.

"You do that then," he told Darla, as he tried to smash in the head of his opponent with the nightstick. "I'll stay here and look for the cheerleader. Make sure Angel's friends don't get killed; that's the plan right?"

A few more blows to the zombie's head and he wasn't getting up. Of course that left the dozens more that were concentrating on the building.

"Are you sure?" Darla asked.

He bent down to kiss her. "I'm sure. They're zombies remember. I can fight zombies. You sure you can take on their master?"

"Don't make me give the 'I was killing before your grandparents were born' speech," she warned him with a smile.

"Off with you then," he told Darla, before throwing himself into the fray.

For the first few minutes he enjoyed nothing but the sheer pleasure of the fight. Had the zombie cops all turned on him, he might have been in trouble; luckily they were splitting their efforts between him and the shelter.

Then he heard screams and yells come from around the other side of the building. Shoving off his current opponents, he made a dash for the fire escape of the neighboring building. Once he was above the general melee he headed for the roof, circumventing most of the zombies.

He came down behind the shelter where the zombies had started to break through barricades. He shoved his way through the clumsier undead, pulling them back away from the opening they had created. Then he pushed his own way inside the building.

Inside he found a gathering of frightened teenagers with homemade weapons standing in a small kitchen. He could smell blood, and lots of it coming from another room. The whole place was filled with terror and anxiety.

"Is he one of them?" one of the girls asked raising a pot she intended to use as a weapon.

"Don't see that it matters," one of the large boys said. "Not exactly one of us, is he?"

Perfect, thought Spike. "Look, mate I'm here to help," he said.

To emphasize his point, he slammed the nightstick hard into the stomach of one of the encroaching cops forcing him back into the general throng outside.

"Now are you just going to stand there," Spike asked as he continued to try and keep the zombies from entering, "or are you going to help me put that table in front of the door?"

Luckily the girl had some sense, and as soon as she started moving towards the kitchen table, a few of the other kids started to help. Spike was just shoving the table against the shattered remains of the door when a young blonde woman came into the room.

"Vampire!" she yelled pointing at Spike.

"Hey, hold on," Spike responded, holding his hands up as he used his legs and back to keep the table against the door where the zombies were trying to push through. "I'm here to help."

"Yeah, you're dark and misunderstood and tragic," the blonde said. "Like I'm going to fall for that."

"Anne, doesn't Gunn hang with a bloodsucker now?" one of the boys asked. "Supposed to be some kind of good guy."

"Right, exactly," Spike agreed, trying to ignore the pounding of the zombies on the other side of the table. "Name's Angel, have a soul, good guy, whole nine yards."

"You're not Angel, and you're not good," Anne argued, her arms crossed.

A window shattered as one of the undead cops tried to force its way in.

"Yeah, so I'm not Angel. And thank god for that, but here's the thing. You really want to fight them and me at the same time? Or do you want me to save your pathetic lives?"

Anne thought about it for a moment then nodded. "If he even looks at you funny, kill him," she told the others before grabbing a first aid kit from the top of the fridge and heading back into the other room.

Spike sighed in relief. He had no idea how Anne had known he was a vampire. The trouble was that although he could fight zombies, he was completely at the mercy of the teenagers.

Luckily, it seemed like the zombies were going to be a problem for a while. He just had to hope that before Darla dealt with the zombie master, the cops would do enough damage to the barricades that he would be able to escape from the shelter when everything calmed down.
lafemmedarla: (Default)

[personal profile] lafemmedarla 2007-04-24 06:30 pm (UTC)(link)
I never thought I'd see the day when Darla and Spike would actually... fight crime! My world's all askew. But in a fun way :D

Great update! Looking forward to the next part.

[identity profile] icemink.livejournal.com 2007-04-24 07:23 pm (UTC)(link)
lol glad you like having your world askew. Although I'm not sure if fighting zombie comps qualifies as fighting crime.

And I hope you feel better soon.

[identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/_jealousy_/ 2007-04-25 04:49 am (UTC)(link)
There's just no way in which that wasn't funny. :D

[identity profile] icemink.livejournal.com 2007-04-25 05:09 am (UTC)(link)
Thanks. I didn't really think of it as a funny chapter when I was writing it, but you're right, it is.

(Anonymous) 2007-04-28 01:12 pm (UTC)(link)
fabulous, i do like how you write Spike and Darla.

[identity profile] icemink.livejournal.com 2007-04-28 07:19 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you so much. I think they make a very intersting pair.

[identity profile] rebcake.livejournal.com 2009-02-18 05:38 am (UTC)(link)
"Yeah, you're dark and misunderstood and tragic," the blonde said. "Like I'm going to fall for that."

Heh. Well no, he's not, and you're not. Go, Anne!

I love the whole "off with you" rom/com adventure exchange. It's all sort of Romancing the Stone. Great fun!

[identity profile] icemink.livejournal.com 2009-02-19 04:55 am (UTC)(link)
Glad you liked it. And glad you liked Anne. She's a favorite of mine, but I don't often get a chance to write her.