Author:
Set: Post-"Shells."
Rating: PG.
"Still believe in this Shanshu stuff?" Spike asked Angel. They'd just destroyed a nest of slime demons. Spike grabbed a towel out of the BMW’s trunk and wiped off his jacket.
"Not today." Angel sighed, threw his sword in the trunk, and closed it. "Not after her."
"We couldn't risk the world." Spike sat in the passenger’s seat; he didn’t even argue with Angel over who would drive. It wasn’t as much fun as it used to be.
Angel buckled his seatbelt. "I couldn’t risk the world, not you. It was my choice." He started the car.
"Hogging the brooding for yourself?" Spike lit a cigarette.
Angel stole it out of Spike’s mouth and took a drag. Spike glared at him and lit another. "She didn’t deserve this. Not after being trapped in that cave for five years." Angel felt tired.
"It's not about deserving things," Spike said. "If it was, no on would need champions; karma would work itself out. And we'd be toast." Spike paused. "Can't be mad at the PTB."
"Not that they ever helped out." Angel’s knuckles turned white as he squeezed the steering wheel.
"As Dawn would say, 'Whoa.'" Spike slouched down in the seat. "Aren't the PTB the whole mission?"
"My link's dead." Angel turned a sharp corner. "And so is the woman who could see through Wolfram and Hart. The only way they could get her was to eat through her from the inside."
Spike sat still, and they fell silent as Angel sped forward. Spike lit cigarette after cigarette until they reached the city limits.