Title: Sympathy For The Devil

Authoress: Sakuri

Rating: M

Summary: Spander slash. Slight AU. In a Sunnydale without Buffy, Spike is being held captive by the Initiative. When a newly de-souled Angelus arrives in town, he may be the only one with knowledge enough to help stop him. Enter Xander, new Initiative recruit, and the only person able to hold the vampire's interest for more than five minutes.

Disclaimer: I own nothing and no one

Chapter Forty Two: Sympathy

xxx

Sakuri: Last chapter! Hope you all enjoyed this story, and thanks to everyone who kept with me while I was writing.

Lyrics taken from, of course, 'Sympathy For The Devil', by the Rolling Stones.

xxx

The Initiative building was a spiderweb beneath Sunnydale, like a network of cracks across the Hellmouth. Fissures under the ground, that broke open when the Initiative exploded.

The air flooded with light and heat and deafening noise. Xander gasped into Willow's shoulder, his lungs immediately feeling seared. He pressed her head further down like he could protect her from the blast, even though it was coming from every fucking direction at once. The earth practically heaved underneath them, breaking and churning, and he hoped like hell they weren't about to fall straight back into the Initiative. He found himself holding onto the concrete like it could save him.

Then a hand clamped onto his wrist hard enough to hurt, and he squinted open his eyes to see Spike reaching for him, anchoring him, while half the town shook itself apart.

He barely noticed when the first wave of noise died down. His ears were ringing too badly. He thought one might even be bleeding. Besides, the dull roar of fires still filled the air and the ground was shuddering ominously beneath them, creaking and groaning. People were screaming, distantly, and about a thousand different kinds of siren added to the chaos.

Xander raised his head slowly, dreading whatever sight he'd be met with.

The first thing that occurred to him was that they were no longer on level ground. The parking lot they'd managed to reach was split down the middle, and great plates of concrete were tipping down towards the chasm that had opened up. Cars had collected down there, most of them alight with flames, and every now and then there'd be a white-blue flash of electricity. The occasional surviving demon was scrambling up out of the wreckage.

"Oh my god!" Xander rasped, meaning it to come out stronger but lacking the voice. He dug his toes into the concrete, instantly paranoid of slip-sliding down into the gaping crack.

Spike had yet to let go of him, though, and now the vampire levered himself up off of Giles and oh so carefully got to his feet. He tugged on Xander's wrist, insistent. "Slowly, pet."

Xander didn't particularly want to move ever again, but Willow was shivering against him and Buffy was already trying to find her balance. He groaned and got to his knees, peering blurrily at the rest of the disaster area. Buildings were sunken or on the point of collapse where the ground had given way beneath them. The flashing, blaring blue and red lights of emergency services were gathered some distance away, unable to get any closer across the fissures. Figures were stumbling through the smoke – most of them demons, Xander realised – fleeing like rats from a sinking ship.

He turned his head to where the main body of the Initiative had been. It was like a sink-hole, a great cavity in the earth. He looked away again quickly.

He got Willow to her feet and the five of them stood there somewhat stunned. Buffy had a gash across her forehead that was dripping blood down her cheek. She wiped at it with the back of her hand, smearing red through her hair. Xander watched, fascinated.

"Right," Spike muttered after a while. He had Giles by the elbow, having dragged him upright. "Come on, then."

The vampire started walking, heading up the slope of concrete they were on. Xander saw him pause at the edge, looking down, and then he'd disappeared over the precipice and out of sight.

Xander might have made a panicked noise as he scrambled after him.

Spike was standing below in the ruined parking lot, head tilted up to look at them. "Jump," he instructed, beckoning impatiently. It was a pretty high drop.

Before he could point out as much, Buffy sprang past him without hesitation and landed in an easy crouch next to the vampire. Then the two of them turned, waiting.

Between them, Xander and Giles helped Willow down first, lowering her towards Spike, who greeted her with a tight smile and a, "Make a pretty good crime fighter yourself, Red."

Giles's drop was a little more inelegant, and he sounded like he'd maybe hurt something, but he got to his feet under his own power so Xander assumed he was fine.

When it was his turn to jump, Xander felt the familiar surge of instincts not his own and automatically rolled when he hit the ground. It still hurt like hell.

"I have to get back to Tara," Willow was saying when he staggered upright again. "I have to see if she's okay." There was a low tone of urgency in her voice, and Xander realised vaguely how close to the college dormitories they were. He hoped that that wasn't one of the buildings under which the Initiative had spread.

"Yeah, okay." He nodded in what he hoped was a decisive manner. "Sounds like a plan."

Spike promptly set off in what was presumably the right direction. Clearly he was the least affected of all of them, and Xander wondered a little incredulously how often you had to live through large-scale destruction not to be phased by it. To maybe even enjoy it, he realised grimly, as he caught up to Spike and saw the small, cruel smirk that tugged at his mouth.

"You're actually happy that just happened?"

The vampire flicked a glance at him and shrugged, unrepentant. "Not gonna lie about it," was his only response.

Xander just shook his head. Of course Spike wasn't going to lie about it. He never lied, whether Xander wanted him to or not. And this, like the explanation for the bite mark, was a forcible reminder that Spike was a vampire.

That he'd chosen a vampire.

Tired and hurting, Xander didn't say anything else, but trudged after Spike as they began weaving through clusters of displaced cars. Buffy, Giles and Willow were close behind them, and he had to roll disbelieving eyes as he listened to Giles ask Willow if she'd ever heard of the Watchers' Council. He could have picked a better time to try recruiting her, he thought cynically.

He glanced over his shoulder to say as much when Spike suddenly threw an arm out across his chest, stopping him in his tracks. The vampire was staring dead ahead into the smoke and darkness, his eyes golden. Xander instantly froze as well, wondering what the danger was, if it was a demon that had clawed its way out of The Basement or if the ground was about to give way again.

Then the sound of clapping reached his ringing ears. Slow, mocking clapping.

The smoke swirled and there Angelus was, lounging back against a car. He was grinning, looking thoroughly entertained.

"That!" he enthused. "That was like an episode of Survivor!"

Buffy immediately shoved past him. Xander could hear her breathing hard. He expected her to scream in anger at the other vampire, but when she spoke it was low and quiet and absolutely furious.

"What the hell did you do?"

Angelus surveyed the widespread damage proudly. "Pretty thorough, eh?" His accent had gone lilting and cheerful, like he was some typical mischievous Irishman and not the creature responsible for the state of ruin surrounding them. "It's good to be back," he added with a sated sigh of satisfaction.

Both Buffy and Spike reached for the stakes they wore, but Angelus was already opening the car door and sliding inside. From the open window, he pointed at Spike. "Kept my promise, you ungrateful little bastard. Next time I see you I'll snap your neck." It was said with eerie good humour and a cheeky wink, before his eyes slid towards Buffy and something in his expression shifted. "Come get me, Slayer." Then he stamped on the accelerator, and the car was speeding away.

Buffy surged forward, after him. She only managed to get close enough to deliver a spiteful kick to the back bumper, however, and then Angelus was gone.

The Slayer let out a wordless scream of frustration. Xander winced and Giles made a distressed noise at his shoulder. She turned back around, looked frantic as she practically spun on the spot. "I have to go after him. I need a car!" She was eying the scattered cars in the parking lot with obvious intent, and Xander had a moment of hysteria in which he imagined her having gone rogue on the Council, infiltrated the government, escaped a vampire's pyromania – only to be arrested for grand theft auto. He snorted nervous laughter.

But then Spike was digging into the pocket of his camos, pulling something out and tossing it towards the Slayer. She caught it automatically, blinking down at the key in her palm.

"Take Harris's," Spike offered easily, smirking.

"Hey!"

They both ignored him.

"It's outside the witches'," the vampire added helpfully. When the fuck was he ever helpful? When he's screwing me over, Xander answered himself, unimpressed.

Buffy looked between them and nodded once. "Thanks." And then she took off running.

They were quiet, listening to her go, until Giles sighed with mild annoyance. "I had hoped to return her to the Council." He looked around despairingly. "A peace offering, of sorts, when I try to explain all this..."

Xander smiled without humour. "Yeah, good luck with that, G-Man."

"I should go with her," Willow interrupted anxiously. "Tara..."

Next to him, Spike nodded. "You go on, Red. Hope your girl's okay."

Xander glanced askance at him, wondering why the vampire wasn't intending to go with them, but Spike's face gave away nothing.

Willow, though, seemed to realise something, as she let out a quiet, "Oh." Biting her lip, she tugged at Xander's arm until she could pull him into a hug. "I'm really glad you're okay," she said over his shoulder before stepping back slightly. She had dirt across her face and a bruise under her eye where he'd pressed her down to the ground. Her expression was weird, worried and fond and resolved all at once. Her hands pointlessly straightened his ruined shirt. "Have fun, Xander. And don't forget to send us postcards."

He frowned at her, perplexed. "Huh–?"

She'd already turned away to point sternly at Spike and mutter, of all things, "Shovel." Then, with a final warning glare at the vampire, she hurried off in the direction Buffy had disappeared.

"I better keep an eye on her," Giles said, edging past. "Stay in touch, Xander."

Feeling completely lost, Xander squinted suspiciously at the vampire. "Why do I feel like I'm missing something...?"

Spike quirked an eyebrow, light-hearted for the first time since Xander's arrest. He reached out and grasped the human's collar, tugging him forward.

"Come on, Harris."

xxx

Spike's DeSotto, as always, was somewhere nearby. They clambered out of the last of the rubble and collapsed tiredly into it. Spike started the ignition and drove. Xander didn't ask where. He rested his forehead against the cold glass of the window and closed his eyes, breathing in the familiar smells of the car. Over the quiet growl of the engine, he could still hear the not so distant chaos outside. Light flashed behind his eyelids, the orange of fires and the bright blue-red of sirens.

Spike switched on the CD player and turned it up, drowning out everything but his stupid classic rock. Xander eased up somewhat, grateful.

"How many do you think got out?" he asked abruptly, forcing himself to sit up straighter.

"Who?"

"I don't know. Soldiers, demons. Whoever."

The vampire tapped his fingers thoughtfully on the wheel. He was steering them steadily away from the Initiative wreckage. At last he said, "Not sure. Demons would of started running soon as the cells opened. Dunno bout the soldiers."

Least half of them would still have been in the building, Xander thought privately. Maybe more. Not to mention the scientists.

"...What about the Director?"

A muscle twitched in the vampire's jaw. "If she's not dead, she should be. Bitch."

He wasn't entirely sure what his reaction to that was. It was too... big to properly contemplate. He felt numb to it, although he suspected that even when he did get around to comprehending exactly what had happened, his opinion would be somewhat coloured by the sense of betrayal that had been festering for some time now. He'd been locked up in that building. He might still have been locked in there when the entire place had blown sky-high, trapped in a cage like an animal, like a lab experiment, by people he'd fought alongside and worked with for years. No, he really couldn't help feeling more than a little bitter towards them all.

And it didn't help that next to him Spike was radiating the intense satisfaction of a job well done.

Lost in such thoughts, he didn't notice where the hell they were going until Spike suddenly pulled over at the side of the road, cutting off the engine completely and slouching down in his seat. Xander blinked at the cheery yellow road sign in front of them that proclaimed, 'You Are Now Leaving Sunnydale!'

"We are?" he asked dumbly, still a little dazed.

The vampire snorted. "You're sort of a fugitive, pet."

Xander stared at him in shock. Fugitive? God, he was a fugitive. "...Oh."

"There'll be government types swarming this place soon enough. Thought it might be best to get you out of here 'fore they show up."

That... makes sense. Of course the government would investigate when one of their agencies was destroyed without warning. He supposed he should be glad that at least one of them was thinking straight.

He nodded slowly. "Yeah. Yeah, okay."

Spike was watching him like he was waiting for something else, but Xander had no idea what so he kept quiet. Even the urge to babble seemed to have been shocked out of him.

Eventually the vampire let out a slightly annoyed sight and faced forward again, absently turning down the radio a little. "Look. I can drop you off in LA or somewhere, if you want."

Xander looked over at him incredulously. "You're ditching me?" I've been arrested, blown up and dumped in the same damn day? Seriously – no, seriously?

But Spike was narrowing his eyes at him. "No, I'm not ditching you. Jesus, Harris, give me a bit of credit. I just..." He ducked his head, angry and embarrassed at himself. "Was planning on grabbing you and driving off into the proverbial sunset, actually. But you didn't seem real happy bout the whole... the consort thing." He shrugged like it didn't matter, turning to look through the driver's side window. "You want out, now's the time to say so."

Xander stared at the back of the vampire's head, opening and closing his mouth in surprise. Spike's shoulders were tense in his borrowed army jacket – the sight of which, by the way, was still just plain weird. A glance at the back seat told him the leather duster hadn't been entirely written off, though.

Xander recognised when his own thoughts were looking for an escape route, so with force of will he dragged them back to the matter at hand. After a fashion.

"Are we seriously having the Talk?"

"No," Spike protested immediately, whipping around to glare at him.

"We so are! You want to have the Talk about whether or not we have a Thing!"

"Christ, I can hear you capitalising..."

Xander just snorted, managing to make it sound as obnoxious as possible. "You pick now to get all insecure, after you've already – I don't know – married us or something?" He pointed to the bite mark on his neck.

For a moment the vampire looked truly, genuinely horrified. "Sodding hell, we are not married, Harris!" Then, hissing out an indignant afterthought, "And I am not insecure!"

He didn't get halfway through the first sentence before Xander was laughing – real, unstoppable, vaguely hysterical laughter. The kind that made his stomach ache and his head hurt and his breath catch.

Spike rolled his eyes and waited irritably for him to calm down.

"Okay, okay," Xander managed to gasp out as he was finally winding down. "Sorry, couldn't resist. Alright, where to?"

The vampire stared at him pointedly, and Xander knew it hadn't escaped his notice that they hadn't really had any kind of Talk, capitalised or otherwise. But then again, nor had Xander asked to be dropped off at the first populated town they came to, so he figured Spike could just live with the compromise.

Still, Spike might have pressed him on it, but Buffy chose that moment to careen past them in what had once been Xander's car. They broke off to stare after her, sharing a wince. She must have been doing at least 90 in the wrong gear, judging by the unnatural sound the car made as it streaked past. Xander hadn't known it could do 90 in the right gear. They were still watching, wearing mingled expressions of bemusement and mild horror, when she somehow managed to skid hazardously on a perfectly straight and level stretch of road, before dwindling away into the distance.

There was silence in the DeSotto for a minute or so.

Then Xander muttered, "I can't believe you gave her my car, you jerk..."

"Yeah. Sorry bout that, pet."

"Liar." But despite himself, he was kind of amused.

Spike suddenly leaned across the car towards him, and Xander fully expected to be kissed. Couldn't even say he minded, really. Might go so far as to say he'd been waiting for it.

Instead, though, the vampire grasped his chin, angled his face slightly to the side, and licked a cold stripe across his cheek, lapping away blood he hadn't even been aware of until now.

A brief scuffle followed as Xander flailed indignantly and struggled to extract himself.

"Oh my god, you are such a freak! Why do I keep forgetting that?"

Spike looked thoroughly not-sorry, still invading his personal space with his forearm braced against the headrest behind Xander. "Didn't want it going to waste," he explained, in a voice far too reasonable to be genuine.

Only then did he duck his head to kiss the other properly, a quick hard press that tasted of copper and left Xander marvelling that he'd willingly elected to be subjected to this kind of treatment.

Spike just huffed a knowing laugh under his breath and retreated to his side of the car, humming along to whatever song was currently playing. Xander watched as he got into it, tapping out the rhythm on his knee, seemingly oblivious to and unconcerned by the fact that he was totally out of tune. "...Have some courtesy... Have some sympathy, and some–"

"You think she'll catch him?" Xander interrupted, asking the first thing that popped into his head before the vampire really hit his stride and couldn't be stopped. "Angelus, I mean."

Spike stopped singing and nodded absentmindedly, distracted in tugging the dog tags from around his neck. "Course she will. He'll let her catch him." He reached up and, fiddling with the chain for a few seconds, hung them from the rear view mirror.

Xander frowned, both at the gesture and what had been said. "Why would he do that?"

"Loves the bint, doesn't he?" The vampire glanced over at him and raised a cynical eyebrow. "Hates her, too, don't get me wrong. But this is Angelus. Biggest hypocrite I ever met. He's obsessed with the Slayer and either can't or won't live without her."

"Poor Buffy."

Spike bounced his palm off the steering wheel. "Well I'd have more sympathy if she wasn't the exact bloody same. Reason she'll chase him clear across the country, innit?"

"If you say so..."

He shrugged, looking unconcerned by Xander's obvious scepticism. "He'll probably turn her. He was thinking bout it, last time I checked –"

"What?"

Startled, the vampire gave him a wide eyed look like he couldn't possibly imagine what he'd said to merit such a reaction.

"He wants to turn her into a vampire and you see nothing wrong with this?" Clearly, though, he was addressing the wrong audience here, so Xander added in a tone that invited no arguments, "Okay, we have to go after her. We are not letting this happen."

"Oh bloody hell, why not?" Spike grumbled in protest, even as he turned the key in the ignition. "They're perfect for each other. Match made in sodding heaven, you ask me. Only two people in the world who can bitch as much as each other..."

Xander remained nonplussed. "Just drive, Spike."

The vampire obediently steered the DeSotto back onto the road, his movements lazy and relaxed for all his complaining. His mouth was curled upwards at the corner, one arm slung across the back of Xander's seat. "Never know," he said as they sped past the 'Leaving Sunnydale' road sign. "Might have time for that roadtrip of yours on the way, eh?"

Xander fought to keep his expression stern, rather than loose the excited, jittery smile that wanted to break out. "After we catch up to Buffy," he insisted, because he was pretty sure that was the sensible response.

Spike just grinned even wider and floored it.