Chapter 17 – Justice Has Been Served


Sunnydale, 2000


The group slowly walked into the house, everyone paying close attention to any sounds they heard. Angel and Spike stepped ahead of everyone else, tapping into their senses to see if they could feel anyone in their general vicinity.

It was as Spike turned around, sensing a presence, that he saw Tessa standing directly behind Darla, who was at the back of the gang, oblivious to the vampire behind her.

“No!” Spike yelled, causing everyone to follow his gaze and panic when they saw Tessa seize Darla by the neck and hold her a couple of inches off of the ground, choking her.

Spike, Angel, and Buffy charged forward, but Tessa’s minions appeared from the shadows of the room, each holding either a pistol or a crossbow.

“Don’t come near me,” Tessa said sternly, her face changing as she looked up at Darla’s scared expression, her hands clawing at Tessa’s as she struggled for breath. “Hello, Darla. Remember me?”

“Let her go,” Spike said, taking a step forward and holding his hands up as a minion put an arrow in his crossbow, keeping it aimed directly at Spike. “She’s not who you want – I am.”

“It’s not all about you, William,” Tessa said, never tearing her eyes off of Darla as she smiled. “Never thought I’d see you again, Darla, let alone as a human. I’m sure there’s an interesting story behind your transformation, right?” She twisted her wrist quickly, breaking Darla’s neck instantly. “Not that I care to hear it.”

Spike, Angel, and the Scoobies all watched in horror as Tessa let Darla’s lifeless body fall to the ground before she looked at Buffy’s friends. “If any of you value your life, you’ll leave now. I don’t wish to deal with you.” She motioned to Angel, Spike, and Buffy. “They’re who I want here, not you. Leave us.”

Buffy looked at Giles and hesitated before nodding at him, watching as he reluctantly turned and walked out of the building, everyone else following him.

Spike and Angel heard them talking as they exited, everyone concerned that leaving Buffy in a room full of vampires would lead to her death.

Spike and Angel, however, knew that out of anyone left inside, Buffy was probably the safest.

“So, we meet at last,” Tessa said as she slowly approached Buffy, studying her. “It’s always pretty blondes with you, isn’t it, Angel?”

“They’re not together anymore,” Spike replied, tilting his head.

“That’s right,” Tessa said, looking at him. “She’s with you, isn’t she?”

“How is that your business?” Buffy asked, tightly clutching the stake she was holding as Tessa’s eyes met hers.

“I suppose it isn’t,” Tessa replied. “Although there’s no use in trying to have a relationship with him – he fails every woman in his life.” She turned her attention to Spike. “Isn’t that right?”

“I’ve done my best to protect everyone I’ve ever cared about,” Spike said, narrowing his eyes at her.

“So you kept Dawn from being kidnapped?” she asked, smirking. “Or Drusilla from being staked?” Angel and Spike exchanged a look, both stunned. “Didn’t you know?”

“I… didn’t know for sure,” Angel said. “I thought I felt someone in our line die, but between Darla coming back to life and a few other… things, I couldn’t be positive if it was Drusilla or not.”

“And you, William?” Tessa asked. “Did you know?”

“I thought something seemed off, but I didn’t know,” he said, confused. “She usually writes, but I haven’t gotten anything from her in-”

“Two years?” Tessa asked, grinning.

“You.” Spike stared at her, shocked. “You staked her?”

“She had it coming,” Tessa answered, crossing her arms. “Just like Angel does.” She looked at him. “You may have a soul now, but Angelus is still inside you, and I’m afraid that he and I have a bit of a past that needs to be avenged, don’t we?”

“What are you talking about?” Spike asked when he saw Angel take a small step back as Tessa moved towards him.

“Your turn will be next, I promise,” Tessa said, smirking at Spike. “You’ve been a bad daddy, William – you need to be punished.”

“What did I do to you?” he asked, angry. “I sired you so that you could maybe have a good life as a vampire instead of dying at such a young age – what’s wrong about that?”

“You let them take me away!” Tessa shouted, taking a few steps toward him.

Buffy moved forward, but as she heard the sound of pistols cocking, she froze, knowing she wouldn’t be able to dodge dozens of bullets that were coming at her if anyone fired their guns.

“I didn’t do anything of the sort,” Spike replied. “Drusilla told me that Angelus and Darla took you for a trip, and since I didn’t know where you were, I told Drusilla that I wanted to wait in London until you returned. It’s not like I didn’t want to see you again – you’re my Childe, and I cared about you.”

“Then why weren’t you in London when I finally did come for you?” she asked. “When I ran away from Angelus and Darla?”

“Dru and I got a letter from Darla that said you had been dusted,” he answered. “So we moved on – there was nothing I could do to change that.”

“Well, I’m standing right here, so obviously that wasn’t true!” she shot back. “Just like every other line they fed you was a lie.”

“What are you talking about?” Spike shouted, upset.

“You’re telling me you don’t know?” she asked, tilting her head. “You don’t know what your friends did to me?”

Both Spike and Buffy looked at Angel, who once again moved backwards, his expression indicating that he had an idea of what she was talking about.

“What did you do, Angel?” Buffy asked quietly, watching him carefully.

“Better answer the girl fast, mate, before I make you answer,” Spike said in a warning tone.

“I didn’t have a soul back then,” Angel said, looking at Tessa.

“What did you do?” Buffy repeated.

“Angelus liked young children,” Angel answered, keeping his eyes trained only on Tessa. “He saw her as a gift when William brought her to the hotel. He…”

“Tell them,” Tessa said, her eyes watering. “Tell them what you did to me.”

“Drusilla and Angelus took certain liberties with her when she was unconscious,” Angel said, shutting his eyes as memories assaulted him. “And when Darla came, she also partook in-”

“In what?” Spike growled, his jaw clenched.

“We abused her,” Angel answered. “We hit her, raped her, bit her… We kept it a secret from you, Spike, because we knew you’d either try to stake us or you’d take her away, and we all saw her as a toy back then.”

“You did that to a little girl?” Buffy asked, feeling nauseous as she thought about what he had said.

“Angelus had a penchant for hurting young girls,” Angel muttered.

“And you didn’t know?” Tessa asked, looking through watery eyes at Spike, who looked both sick and ashamed.

“I didn’t know,” he affirmed, averting his eyes from hers. “I had no idea.”

“Is that why you went after him?” Buffy asked. “Because he didn’t protect you?”

“I thought he sent me away to endure more pain from Darla and Angelus,” Tessa murmured. “I thought he didn’t care about me anymore and wanted to see me be hurt.”

“I never wanted that for you,” Spike said, his hands clenched into fists. “Had I known that was going on, I would’ve taken you away from them. Why didn’t you ever tell me before you left?”

“Go ahead and answer him,” Tessa said, looking at Angel.

“We only hurt her when she was unconscious,” he answered feebly.

“Unconscious because you would hit me!” she screamed. “You made it so that I had no idea as to what was going on. You three claimed that I had fainted or something along those lines to make sure that I wouldn’t catch on to anything. You’d say I scratched myself in my sleep or that I must’ve hurt myself, always finding clever ways of explaining bruises and healing bite marks, and I didn’t know any better.”

Buffy put her stake into the back pocket of her pants and approached Tessa, her hands up to signal that she wouldn’t do anything wrong. She came face-to-face with her and saw tears roll down her cheeks.

“Nobody should have to live through things like that,” Buffy said quietly. “Not even vampires.” She paused. “But you targeted someone who didn’t know the truth, who would’ve helped you if he had known something was wrong, and my sister died because of it.”

“I didn’t kill her,” Tessa said. “A couple of my minions did.”

“While she was in your care,” Buffy replied. “So I’m blaming you for her death.”

“What do you want me to say?” Tessa asked, her face going back to normal. “I’m sorry? I think I deserve an apology from Angel before I say anything to you of the sort.”

Buffy looked over her shoulder at Angel and saw Spike inching towards him, slowly but surely.

“Might want to demand it quickly because I don’t know how much longer he’ll be able to speak,” Buffy murmured before Spike wrapped his hands around Angel’s throat and threw him against a wall, watching a bunch of minions in the area scatter, afraid of being caught in the crossfire.

As Angel sank to the ground, Spike began pummeling him, kneeling over his grandsire and ignoring the tears in his eyes as he kept swinging.

“How could you do that to her?” Spike asked, oblivious to the fact that Angel wasn’t bothering to fight back.

Angel had known for years that this moment was coming and that when it did, he deserved everything he got as payback and wouldn’t attempt to stop whoever fought him.

Buffy walked towards them, flinching every time she heard one of Angel’s bones break or the sound of Spike’s fist hitting an already bloody area. Tessa, meanwhile, watched the fighting vampires and realized that her vendetta had been for naught – Spike wasn’t to blame for what happened to her.

She moved towards them and saw how much damage Spike was doing to Angel, knowing that in some small way, he was getting back at Angelus and trying to make up for not taking care of her many decades ago.

Tessa carefully took the stake out of Buffy’s pants and was pleased that the Slayer was too engrossed with the fight to notice it being taken away. Tessa put her hand on Spike’s shoulder and gave him a small smile when he looked up at her, his face changing as he began to calm down a little.

“Let him go,” she said quietly. “This isn’t your fight anymore.”

Buffy helped him stand up before turning her attention to Angel, assisting him to stand and letting him put his weight on her as he cringed, the pain from his injuries enough to cause him to nearly bowl over.

Tessa grazed his bloody cheek and looked into his eyes. “I know you’re not him anymore… but as long as you exist, so does he.”

Before anyone could stop her, she shoved the stake she was holding into Angel’s chest and watched him turn into dust before repeating her actions on herself.

The only sounds in the room were Buffy’s startled gasp and the stake hitting the ground.