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Chapter 49
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Buffy looked at the taser that Spike handed to her. "Hum…except for a rocket launcher, modern weaponry and Buffy are usually non-mixy. Maybe Oz should have this little goodie."

"Works for me, kitten." Spike kissed Buffy lightly and gave a thumbs up to Oz as Buffy handed the high tech weapon over to him.

"I had a thought," Oz announced. "No one here has seen me without all the grr and fur. I could scout around, see if Angel’s ready for the big dust-up."

"Prefer you not say ‘dust-up’, lad; vamp here, kinda sensitive about some things." Spike tried to look severe as he teased Buffy’s old friend.

Oz nodded and replied, "Understood."

"How do you feel about takin’ a bit of a gamble?" Spike had been turning an idea around in his mind during their day of waiting and now it was time to share. "Need a bit of a chat up with the clerk first though."

Spike strode towards the cell holding Dilby, key in hand. "Here’s your moment of truth, Dilby. You can decide your future--how long it lasts and how you’re gonna spend it--right here and now."

"What do you mean?" Dilby was still terrified of the vampire, even though the times he had been bitten had proven to be less horrific than anticipated.

"Need to choose sides for real, not by default. Are you in or out?" Spike tilted his head and waited for the answer.

"I’m not a fighter. I don’t have any special powers… well, unless you count my ability to plea bargain a case in an average of twenty minutes. Somehow, I don’t
think you are wanting me to litigate for you." Dilby took in the dead serious look the vampire was giving him and drew in a deep breath.

"Look, I don’t really owe the firm anything. I did a good job for them and then they decided to make me the scapegoat when a case went sour. I worked hard for them, did things I’m not proud of and that’s saying something for a lawyer! So far you people haven’t been brutal with me, haven’t abused me too much. I guess if I have to actually take a side it would be yours." Dilby looked resigned to whatever mayhem he might soon be involved in.

"Good choice, little man." Spike smiled broadly. "We get out of this alive, or undead in a couple of cases, and I’ll make sure you get taken care of. Not a bad sort of bloke after all. Here’s the deal: you know this place better than we do. You’ve been working that front desk for a while, yeah?" At Dilby’s nod, Spike continued. "How about a bit of actin’, you up for that?"

"I did minor in theater arts; seemed like it went with criminal law. What do you have in mind?" Dilby ran a nervous finger under his collar as he finally, by his own free will, threw his lot in with the little rebel band and sealed his fate.

"Nothing too dangerous," Spike reassured the balding man. "The Partners used to meet some of their clients here, right?" Dilby nodded again and Spike resumed. "All you need to do is act like you’re doing your normal job. Oz here’s gonna pretend he’s a client of Hart’s who’s here a bit too late to meet up with his counsel. All you have to do is pretend you’re giving a pissed off client the grand tour to soften the blow of the meetin’ being called on account of death. That’ll give the two of you a chance to scope things out, maybe catch Angel’s eye and see if you get a thumbs up for the plan to start gearing up."

"Might work." Oz looked thoughtful as he mulled over the idea.

"You sure none of these sods set their peepers on you without the muzzle and bad hair day?" Spike asked Oz. It would be critical for Oz to pass for a client, not an escaped prisoner.

There was no hesitation in Oz’s reply. "Totally."

"Right then, let’s get this show on the road." Spike took Buffy’s hand in his and raised it to his lips for a quick kiss on her knuckles. "I fancy getting home soon. No offense about the accommodations, just no place like home, yeah? Got a welcoming committee on the other side and I don’t think they have unlimited patience. Last thing we need is a whole bloody army stormin’ the doors and muckin’ things up."

"I can’t wait to see Dawn and the guys!" Buffy looked hopeful. "I’ll have to do some major sucking up to Giles about Eddie though. He tried to warn me and this time he was right. I’m really going to hate admitting that!"

"To be fair, Watcher has a pretty good track record. Was right about the Poof and the Immortal…only one he got completely wrong was me," Spike reminded Buffy.
"Wasn’t always wrong about me either if I want to be fair. How’d he feel about Captain Cardboard?"

Buffy laughed slightly and shook her head at the mention of Riley. Spike still had some jealousy issues they’d have to work on when life settled down. "I don’t think Giles ever really said much about Riley. I know he hated Maggie Walsh and the whole Initiative idea. If I had to guess, he probably liked the idea that Riley was human but wasn’t too happy with the kind of humans Riley associated with…you know, the old ‘birds of a feather’ thing."

Spike muttered under his breath, "Got that right. Bugger was nothing but a bully in a uniform; no better than a demon himself."

"What’d you say?" Buffy hadn’t been able to hear what Spike had said but guessed it was no compliment to her ex-boyfriend.

"Nothin’. It’s in the past, isn’t that what you’d say?" Spike hoped the whole issue would be put to rest.

"Yes and no. Riley is definitely my past and no part of any future, but I also know I need to apologize for the way I acted when he came back into town with that perfect little wife of his. Things weren’t right between us then, true, but you didn’t deserve my taking his side and not even listening to you. I am sorry, for what it’s worth." Buffy said quietly.

"S’all right, love. Didn’t exactly have a spotless record for you to put your faith in me back then, did I?"

"Well, I did owe you the benefit of the doubt," Buffy admitted. "I mean I should have gotten a little suspicious when he claimed you were some high profile arms dealer!" She laughed at the concept.

"Here now! Not so farfetched! I’ve got my skills, you know." Spike was mildly affronted that Buffy thought him incapable of playing in the big leagues of bad boys.

"Yes, you certainly do!" Buffy agreed and smirked at him. If Spike could have blushed, he would have at her look.

"I just mean that I should have known that you weren’t doing the all-out evil anymore by then. I should have seen the changes in you when they were happening and
helped you with that. Just because I wasn’t in a good place then was no reason for me to be completely blind," Buffy said regretfully.

The last thing Spike wanted for either of them was a painful walk down the lane of past mistakes. After the previous night, it was all about the future and new beginnings, not old hurts.

"Here, love, no need to take a sad tone. The road past had its share of rocky parts, but it did lead us here, right? Can’t say that’s a bad thing. We’ll get it right this time." Spike drew Buffy close to his chest and reverently kissed her forehead.

"Yes, get it right," Buffy agreed, "I’m all about that!"

Spike caressed her back, taking the time to revel in her nearness for a moment before getting back to business. "Guess we need to get this show on the road
then. Looks like you two are up," he said to Oz and Dilby.


~~~

Oz and his "guide" Dilby traversed the hotel from bottom to top with no sign of either Angel or Wolf. They were just about to give up when Oz spotted Angel in a back lounge shooting pool.

Angel gave a startled look at the sight of the boy he hadn’t seen in years. "Oz, is that you?" he asked, putting aside his cue.

"In the flesh," Oz hinted. ‘How are you, Mr. Angel? I was supposed to meet with Mr. Hart about some band business. Didn’t expect to see you so far from the L.A. office." Oz hoped his cover would work and Angel would catch that he was part of the team now.

"Yeah, about that…I suppose this toad here’s already told you that Spike went all antisocial on Mr. Hart. Looks like you’re gonna need a new representative. I happen to have the ear of Mr. Wolf…maybe he’d take you on, since it is his firm and all." Angel was looking at Oz as if trying to decide just where he fit into the whole situation.

"It’s a nice enough day," Angel continued. "How about you meet us in the courtyard in about an hour? I think Wolf’ll have a couple of minutes to spare for an old friend of mine."


"Cool." Oz sounded typically terse and nonchalant.

Dilby and Oz wasted no time in returning to the hiding place to let Buffy and Spike know that the battle was on in barely an hour. Time for Spike to drink that thermos of Slayer Special and mount up.

~~~

The warriors and one skinny lawyer entered the courtyard right on schedule, Spike leading the way.

Wolf, Angel at his side, was waiting with a handful of minions lazing about unworriedly.

"Well, Angel, looks like you were right! The blond menace DID come to us. You were right about the wolf wannabe too. You’re battin’ a thousand so far." Wolf licked his lips in anticipation of ending this petty war once and for all.

Wolf rose to his full height, towering over the small group, slathering jowls agape. He leaned in until he was crowding Spike against a pillar and taunted him. "Are you Vidar then? I doubt that, since he’s a god of silence. My experience with you, vampire, shows you to be anything BUT silent!"

Wolf looked around the courtyard then back to Spike again. "This is hardly Ragnarok either. The end battles won’t be in a seedy hotel garden. Perhaps you need a bit of a lesson to understand why you cannot win against me, you walking dead thing.

"You see there are prophecies about ME. Angel here gets the importance of that sort of thing. There is a time and place for me to get nervous about an attack. You and here isn’t it."

Spike didn’t break eye contact with the fearsome demon. "Blue said you were all full of yourself. Not wrong, as usual. You really believe all that mythology shite?"

"I am no myth! I was power before you drew breath as a mewling human. I was feared before you were reborn as animated ash!" Wolf drew himself up in arrogance. "Even as a pup they feared me. The gods of Valhalla wouldn’t go near, only Tyr and I took his arm for his troubles. It took magic and trickery to subdue me and will take the son of Odin to defeat me, according to prophecy." Wolf loomed over Spike as he growled low and reminded him of the myth, "And that will only be AFTER I’ve already killed Odin."

Spike laughed at the demon and his belief in the old tales that likely weren’t even about him anyway. "Believin’ your own publicity now, Lobo? Been pretendin’ you’re a god so long you went over the edge? You know, I met a god once. Right crazy bitch she was too and I know all about crazy bitches. She fell easy enough and she was the real deal. You? You’re nothing but a puffed up demon, kind I kill every day of the week and twice on Sunday."

"Odin drank from the cup of hydromel, the mead of the poets. Do you think William the Bloody Awful Poet is fit to take on the mantle of Odin’s son? To kill me? I think I’m not the only one who’s a puffed up demon." Wolf laughed, then lunged forward, jaws opened to attack the vampire.

The minions had come to life during the male pissing contest and called out for reinforcements, keeping Buffy, Oz and Dilby busy fighting them back from the main area of the courtyard.

Spike was wielding Excalibur with both hands, slicing at the Wolf and drawing plenty of blood but not getting in a good enough cut to do any real damage. Angel stood at Wolf’s side, sword drawn but not engaging in battle.

Spike ducked under the swiping paw of the Wolf and rolled to his feet behind the Partner, neatly slicing a deep gash in the left arm of the furred demon.

Wolf roared in pain and anger as he spun to face his irritating vampire challenger. Spike had already sidestepped away from Wolf’s return blow. The demon grabbed a broadsword from one of his minions, determined to engage in combat with Spike. He had fully intended to simply devour the pest, but a sword had its uses.

The hapless minion Wolf disarmed was immediately picked off by Dilby, who was now grinning from ear to ear in glee at having actually taken down an opponent in this battle. The fact that the opponent had been unarmed at that moment hadn’t registered with the small lawyer. He was filled with newfound confidence at the kill.

Wolf’s broadsword connected with Excalibur, knocking the mighty weapon from Spike’s hand. As the sword clattered onto the stone floor, Spike leapt upon Wolf’s back, his arm going around the demon’s neck in position for a quick snap.

"What are you waiting for, Angelus? That Shanshu that’ll never come? I expect some intelligent backup here!" Wolf growled out to his unmoving ally.

Finally, Angel spoke. "Heat of the battle, Spike, I’d much prefer hitting you with blunt instruments." Then he plunged his sword through Spike’s side all the way to the hilt.