CHAPTER FOUR ♔ does it run in your blood to betray the ones you love

[coldheritage]

♬ The Truth - Nonpoint

WHO || Failboat, Rafael, Isabella, Nadia  [Closed]
WHAT || After an exciting Grammy night, the Knights meet up with Nadia to hear what she has to say
WHERE || Staples Center, LA -->  Warehouse
WHEN || Feb 8th, 2015  [back dated]
HOW || Actionspam

[  The Knights' mission to stop the signal and prevent Draken's cult from spreading whatever subliminal message  was lurking beneath Keijen Blade's performance was a success.  It didn't come without its bumps in the road, however:  Alexander Anderson showed up, and the Knights ran afoul of the Mind Master.    Buffy nearly died fighting Anderson, but in the end, he was defeated, beheaded, and hopefully put to death forever.   Finnick, though, found himself thrust into a mental illusion that convinced him he might still be in the Hunger Games, and left him uncertain about whether any of his life here was real.  

Another surprise came in the form of an announcement by Nadia Reichenov, an artist working with Crombe and company, that she was changing her band name and taking things in a 'new direction'.   This direction was perhaps revealed when after her performance, she approached the Knights in Rafael's dressing room - and handed them the necklace that connects her to the Nightmare God Malaak'a, saying she was willing to tell them everything.  ]

Comments

[bigbad]

Maybe. But you weren't there. She wasn't--she was crying when I showed up. And I told her we could get her out of there but she wouldn't go. Said she didn't want to while staring me in the face... and using her lipstick to write on the mirror about how the nightmare god was spying on us through her eyes and ears.

[She could be playing them. Spike knows it. It could all be part of an elaborate ploy. But she could have gained his trust without giving away that they were being spied on. She could have given that information to the Nightmare God or gone with them right then and gotten all the information her spying little eyes wanted. Might not have lasted long. Vi knew about the necklace, even if Spike didn't really. But it would have still given her a lot. Instead she'd taken it off before going with them. She'd stood up to her label and switched sides. She changed her band name.

He shakes his head, shoving his hands into his coat pockets.]

First time I saw hope in her eyes was when I smashed that mirror to hide the message. And spouted off some threatening nonsense to wrap around a promise that we would get her out. And she gave up her necklace. [He looks up to meet Buffy's eyes.] I can't know for sure what's going on in her head, but if she is truly trying to make amends, she needs help. And isn't that why we signed up for this? To help people stand up to evil?

[slay]

Spike, that's exactly what I'm telling you. Stand up to Evil.

[ Wow it's almost like she just won't budge on this. It's surprising, actually, to find herself responding so viscerally. When Rafael was explaining, when she was thinking about it in the abstract, helping Nadia seemed fairly innocuous. As long as they kept her apart from Rafael, why not pursue it?

But now she's separating them, luring another person she cares about off to take advantage of alone. To manipulate. To hurt. And now she's a lot less sympathetic to the plight of what before really might have been a frightened woman ready to get out of a situation she'd found she was over her head in. ]

Except she is the evil!

[bigbad]

She's not evil. She's helping us! [Spike crosses his arms, leaning his head forward to look at Buffy. He knows Buffy can be stubborn, but this seems ridiculous. Nadia was one of the bad guys, sure, but people change. And she'd always shown some reluctance to be thrown into the roll she's got now. It is a risk, of course, but Spike's confident it's not as stupid a one as Buffy seems to think.]

What's gotten in to you?

[slay]

What's gotten into me? The same thing that's apparently gotten out of you! Our job! [ She shuts down, raising her voice rather than give him any wiggle room to pull at that thread more. ] We're supposed to watch for evil, to stop it, and you're in a big rush to share a hotel room with it!

[bigbad]

[Spike squints at her, crossing his arms.]

This is bloody unbelievable. Are you jealous?

[Because he honestly can't see any other reason why she'd be acting like this. Nadia isn't their enemy right now. Having doubts about her loyalty makes sense, but this outright refusal to even court the possibility that she's good? That's something else entirely. And since Buffy isn't giving any good reasons, he can only assume she doesn't have them.]

[slay]

What?

[ She bristles. Once upon a time, she honestly would have just rolled with it. Let it happen, worry about dealing with Spike's feelings after the fact. Maybe he'd have responded to that. Not anymore; it's not fair for either of them to go down that road, particularly disingenuously. ]

No. No. God, no. Look, I can't explain it, okay? But I can feel it in my gut. She's bad news.

[bigbad]

Well, your gut thought I was bad news for a while too, and my gut is screaming that we should give her a chance. You're going to have to give me more than a feeling, love. Have you ever even talked to her?

[slay]

I don't think it's your gut telling you anything.

[ It's your dick, Spike. And Buffy has no problem snapping that judgment. ]

[bigbad]

[He rolls his eyes.] Glad to see you have so much faith in me. You know this isn't me going on some extended booty call, right?

[slay]

I know that. [ She tips her head in acknowledgment. ] Not convinced you do.

[bigbad]

[Yep, no faith at all. Which is extremely frustrating, since for the most part, Spike trusts Buffy's judgment. If she thinks Nadia's bad news, there's probably a good reason. But since she's not sharing that good reason, Spike has nothing to go on besides vagueness. It leaves him twitchy and restless, and there's not much he can do about it.

He rolls his eyes.]

I'm going, Buffy. If there's something specific you're worried about you can let me know, and I mean besides my sex life cause that really isn't your business, but the fact is, it doesn't bloody matter if I'm making a mistake. She wants a chance to be a better person. How can you ask me to deny her that?

[slay]

She wants to be a better person? Great. She wants to help us? Great. She doesn't need you in her dressing room to do that.

[bigbad]

Maybe not, but it won't hurt. Having someone around who believes in her, who expects her to be better than she was... it could make a difference. And then there's surviving long enough to do anything when she's got bloody helicopters with rockets coming after her.

[slay]

Yes! It could hurt! It could hurt you! [ Anger shifts to a very genuine, hapless plea. ] Which is exactly what I'm trying to prevent.

[bigbad]

Buffy! [He sounds frustrated. He rubs his head, mussing his slicked back hair a little. He knows he can get hurt. Knowing he can get hurt has never stopped him from anything. If getting hurt was a problem, he wouldn't ever go outside in the day. As nice as it is that Buffy's fretting over him, she should know that about him. He steps forward, putting a hand on her shoulder.]

Please tell me what's going on. You wouldn't be acting like this if there wasn't something. Come on, love. I need to know. [Diplomacy 16 WHICH IS PRETTY GOOD FOR SPIKE he's better at scaring people into talking to him, but that's not an approach he wants to use on Buffy.]

[slay]

[ In the most tragic of close calls, Buffy looks for a moment like she's ready to spill everything, come apart, but she doesn't. Tension ripples through her jaw and she shakes her head, pacing away and throwing up exasperated hands (will 19). ]

I am telling you what's going on. She's mind controlled you before. She's one of the bad guys. She gives me the heebie jeebies. [ She looks back to him, voice lilting up with a slight whine as she asks, ] Can't you just trust me?

[bigbad]

I do trust you. But right now it looks like you don't trust me. [He drops his hand, scowling a little.]

You know, there're people from my world at the castle now?

[slay]

[ She softens at that, and a guilty look settles in a moment later. It starts as unease, then shifts into a cringe of forgetfulness. ] … Our world. [ With everything that was going on, it had never even occurred to her to tell him. ]

[bigbad]

[....]

Our world?

[...he can actually really believe it. He's always felt a weird connection to her. It does seem like the sort of thing she could have told him if she knew, though.]

[slay]

Faith, and Willow, and Robin. They all ... [ She drops her head, sighing. ] Spike, I'm sorry, I should have said something.

[bigbad]

It probably would've been nice. [He's not... really sure how to feel about this. How long has she known? What have they told her about him? Does she know things about Spike that he doesn't know himself?

And what were they to each other in the world before? If what Willow and Faith had told him was true, they couldn't have gotten along well. And where does his bloody soul come into play?

He doesn't ask these questions, settling for a simple one. He's met Faith and Willow. The other one, though....]

Who the bloody hell is Robin?

[slay]

He's —

Please. Spike, I wasn't trying to hide anything from you. [ She feels like she's doing damage control now, somehow the one on the defensive when it should be Nadia who needs to justify herself. Raising her hands, she doubles back to explain herself. ] I didn't take it well, any of it. And the things Willow was saying about you …

[ The twinge in her forehead says she isn't sure still how to reconcile that with the man before her now. She shakes her head. ]

You're happy here. [ She fixes him with an intent look. ] We're happy here. Whatever lives we left behind in Sunnydale, they don't matter.

[bigbad]

I'm not mad. [A little annoyed, perhaps, as he's had little enough knowledge of his past without having Buffy hide that they knew each other, but... it's not important. And if Willow said any of the things she said to him to Buffy... he supposes he even understands.]

But Willow talked to me too. Told me things... murder, kidnapping... sounds like I could've given Nadia a run for her money as far as evil is concerned. [No mind control, sure, though he's not sure if getting his girlfriend back magically counts.] Faith told me that I'm older than I thought and that I've killed... [Wis 17 has him making some connections with what Sehanine had called Buffy, the word he hadn't thought was particularly relevant to him, and what Faith had said he'd killed. A Slayer. If Buffy's from the same world as him.....

Oh, god.

He blanches a little and presses on. Buffy said it didn't matter. He just hopes that if he did finish that sentence, she'd still feel that way.]

But that's not who I am now. I'm fortunate enough to not even remember being that person. Nadia didn't get that chance. She can't, since she's on this side of the veil. But what makes her less deserving of it than I was? Why shouldn't she get the same chance, even if she's got to do it the hard way, with her memories weighing her down? I was lucky. I can't... I have to give her the same chance. If I can become a new person, so can she.

[slay]

[ She's too brain damaged to remember her dream in this moment, which is probably for the best for everyone actually (wis 10). ]

The difference is that when Nadia did those things, she had a soul. You didn't!

[bigbad]

Ah, yeah, that soul. Don't suppose any of your new friends mentioned anything about how that happened, did they?

[Because it's still a big mystery to him. How do you go from being a monster to being a hero overnight? How do you even get a soul? And did that stop him right away? It didn't seem to stop a lot of people from doing terrible things.]