Soul Purpose - Chapter 4

Buffy walked across the dimly lit lobby of Wolfram and Hart, her feet leading her back to the medical lab she had found Spike in the other day. She needed advice, a girl’s opinion, and she had decided to talk to Fred about her matter of delicacy.

When Spike had left her in order to go out on the mission with Angel, she’d got to thinking about how she could make the tension between her, Spike and Angel dissipate or at least lessen. Angel had a girlfriend but Buffy knew nothing about her and that’s where Fred was going to come in. Not only was she going to give her the inside scoop on the girl but she was going to guide Buffy to the right decision. Her plan was simple, walk into the lab and talk to Fred.

Buffy pushed the door open and searched the brightly lit room for a sign of the girl in question. When Fred appeared from her office, she smiled broadly.

“Hey, mind if we talk?” Buffy asked.

Fred smiled knowingly as she came down the stairs. “This wouldn’t by any chance have something to do with two vamps we all know and love?”

“Yeah, that obvious, huh?” Buffy ran her fingers over the glass beakers on the shelf nearest her and sighed.

Fred smiled internally over how Buffy was subconsciously doing exactly the same thing Spike did whenever he had reason to be in the lab. She wondered if they knew just how similar they were to each other.

“Well, I’m all ears…there’s nothing on the schedule tonight and I was about to go…”

Fred was cut off by the medical lab doors bursting open, allowing two large men with a stone sarcophagus to enter. She started at first and then walked towards the men, curiosity evident on her face as one of them handed her a clipboard and pen.

“Sign, please.” He said gruffly and Fred read over the invoice.

Buffy frowned at the men and sized them up. Something about them screamed trouble and out of the corner of her eye she noticed that a person who looked like a lab assistant watching them intently.

She turned her head to look at him and he disappeared into a back room. Her interest in him waning, she turned back towards Fred who was staring at the stone object in front of her as the two men left.

“What is it?” She walked over and stood on the opposite side of the artefact to Fred.

“Don’t know…look at these markings, this here…” She pointed to a circular device on the lid as she pawed over it, her hands hovering just a few inches above it as though she was afraid to touch it. “I’ve never seen anything like this before…you?”

“Nope, guessing our girly chat has been put on hold? This takes precedence and all.” Buffy tentatively touched the stone lid and frowned again. Her fingertips hummed where they rested on it, and she could feel coldness creeping up her arm and an overwhelming sense of power.

Something definitely wasn’t right.

“What’s wrong?” Fred watched Buffy closely as she stared blankly at the artefact in front of them; she looked as though she was trying to absorb something or figure something out.

Buffy took her hand off the lid and stared at it. “Something isn’t right, in fact it’s very wrong. This…there’s such a power in it, destructive, old. I feel I should know it somehow. It feels familiar in an unfamiliar way. It’s probably nothing, just my Slayer senses being kooky. They’ve been a little off since Spike called.”

“I can imagine.” Fred touched the lid and felt a little disappointed when she didn’t feel the things Buffy had described.

“What’s it say on the sheet?” Buffy nodded towards the piece of paper that Fred had placed on the table near the wall.

“Not much. It shouldn’t even be up here, we don’t usually deal with this kind of stuff.” As she spoke, Fred felt the air temperature drop. “Is it me, or did it just get a little colder in here.”

“It’s not you…it’s this thing.” Buffy pointed down at the sarcophagus that lay between them and continued to frown. “It’s like it’s sucking the warmth from the air.”

Fred leaned over a little closer even as Buffy stepped away from the artefact.

“So, should probably leave you to study this thing, or whatever it is you do to large stone boxes. We can talk about Spike and Angel some other time, it can wait…” Buffy made her excuses as she watched Fred closely as she ran her fingers over the sarcophagus, wanting nothing more than to be a long way away from the artefact as it was beginning to mess with her senses.

She stayed rooted to the spot when Fred didn’t respond; she just mumbled something as her fingers traced the patterns etched on the lid.

“What’s inside you?” Fred murmured as she let her hand brush against the large coloured gems that decorated it, searching for an answer and hoping it would become apparent all by itself. “What’s with the pretty stones…it’s old…I know it’s old…what’s this…”

As Fred touched the purple stone, there was a grating noise and an opening appeared in the lid, releasing a rush of air and dust into the lab. She instinctively backed away.

Buffy’s eyes widened and she went to grab Fred’s arm to run but by the time she’d moved, the hole had closed up. Buffy and Fred coughed simultaneously as they backed away from the sarcophagus, waiting for the dust to settle. Buffy looked at Fred and Fred looked at Buffy, both of them clearly confused by what had just happened.

Fred moved silently back to the sarcophagus, her brows knit as she tried to figure out what she had done to make it open up. She was determined to do it again.

Buffy kept her distance; unsure of whether to leave Fred alone with such a powerful object or whether she should follow her instincts and leave.

“So what was it you wanted to talk about?” Fred asked as she glanced at Buffy and then let her eyes return to their perusal of the artefact.

Buffy rubbed her temples and sighed as she thought about the situation with Angel and Spike.

Relaxing a notch, she heaved a long sigh and moved to lean against a nearby table.

“I guess I just wanted to try and figure out what to do.”

“Hmm?” Fred straightened up and looked at Buffy where she was staring at her feet.

“I mean, I know how I feel about Spike, and how he feels about me…but Angel.” Buffy raised her eyes to look at Fred as she moved across the room to rest beside her. “I just don’t think he’s taking it well.”

“I think it will take him a while to get accustomed to the idea of you being with Spike, but I don’t think he’ll stand in your way. He has someone now, she’s sweet, nice, and she’ll be good for him.”

“And she’s a werewolf.” Buffy smiled as Fred gave her a look that said it hadn’t gone unnoticed, and it was clearly the butt of many jokes. “Always thought werewolves and vampires didn’t really see eye to eye…”

“Wesley seems to think so.” Fred said in an absent tone of voice as her eyes settled back on the sarcophagus. “He’d love to get his hands on this.”

“Wes? I still can’t hear his name without picturing him with his slicked hair and glasses, all stuffy British and proper.” Buffy giggled as she envisaged her version of Wesley against the rugged one she’d seen earlier in the lab.

“I’ve seen the pictures…he keeps them hidden away, but I saw them once.” Fred pushed her glasses back up her nose and allowed a little giggle to escape her lips.

“He’s improved.” Buffy noticed the way that Fred’s body language changed whenever Wesley was mentioned--she was suddenly timid and shy.

“Has Spike ever been different…I mean, beside the whole chipped and then all soulful thing…I guess that’s kinda a big change, forget I said it.” Fred looked awkward.

Buffy leaned her head back and stared unseeingly at the ceiling as she heaved a sigh. “He’s changed, other than the chip and the soul, he’s changed.”

“He has?”

“Beyond words I think. I’ve watched him growing all these years, redeeming himself and trying to be a better man. It wasn’t easy for him, he went through hell to do the right thing, to do what he felt was right for himself, to be a better man.” Buffy looked over at Fred and caught her smiling dreamily.

She shook her head as she pressed her hands into her back and stretched. She felt tired. Clearly, the jetlag was beginning to catch up with her and she hadn’t slept in almost two days.

“You sound proud of him.”

Buffy raised her brows as she thought about it and then nodded. “More than he’ll ever know. It was so hard for him to be the man he wanted to be. He struggled against odds that were so stacked against him…I think I love him deeper for it.”

Fred placed her hand gently on Buffy’s shoulder and smiled. She knew Angel wasn’t really a factor in Buffy’s life anymore, she no longer felt for him what she used to, and she hoped Angel would see that too and let her get on with her new life with Spike now.

Wrapping her arms around herself in order to keep warm, Buffy gave Fred a little smile and then watched her as she went back to studying the sarcophagus.

She glanced at the clock on the wall. It was gone three in the morning.

She wished Spike would come back soon.


Walking out into the hallway with Fred an hour later, Buffy stretched and then sighed as the ache in her back only got worse. She tried to pinpoint when it had started and in the end came to the conclusion that it was probably caused by Spike’s creaky bed.

When she looked up, she saw Wesley coming toward them and glanced at Fred, noting again that she was suddenly brighter now he was around. She smiled to herself as she wondered if she looked like that when Spike was around her--like she was trying to light up the world with her smile.

“I hear you had a mysterious delivery.” Wesley smiled and touched Fred’s arm gently. “Care to tell me all about it?”

Fred’s smile widened. “It’s a real mystery. It did the weirdest thing a few hours ago, it opened up and closed again but we haven’t been able to get it to do anything since.”

Buffy started walking down the hall again as Fred and Wesley carried on toward the stairs. As the lift doors opened, she felt the all too familiar buzz in her stomach that Spike always gave her. Looking down over the balcony, she smiled at him as he spotted her and walked across the lobby toward the stairs to meet her.

As she went to wave her hand, Buffy felt her stomach lurch and then nothing. She felt empty, like someone had just switched off her Slayer senses. One second Spike had been on her radar and the next there was nothing. Looking over the banister, she saw him standing there looking back up at her.

Spike frowned as he felt her disappear. He’d had her on the edge of his senses since he’d arrived in the building, could tell that his Slayer was nearby, but now she was gone. He was staring right at her, but she wasn’t registering anymore.

Wesley looked down at Spike and noticed the concern etched on his features. He followed his gaze and found himself turning in time to see Buffy drain of colour, hold her stomach and widen her eyes before coughing up blood.

As Buffy fell to the floor the world span around her, drifting away, out of her reach as though wherever she was going it was so deep that there was no coming back. Everything surrounding her fading to black, the last thing she heard was Spike desperately shouting her name and she wanted to cry out to him through all her fear.

Don’t leave me.

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