closed ♔ and when we collide | we'll see what gets left over

[dragonsclaw]

WHO || Failboat [closed]
WHAT || After the announcement, Jack calls a meeting
WHERE || Thomas Bancroft's room, the Castle
WHEN || 8am, the day after LA
HOW || Actionspam or prose

Solace's announcement makes the situation unfortunately plain - those who have worked to stop Blade and company for the last five years have been side-lined, and will be until this ends, one way or another.  Jack has sent out a secret communication to all members of the team, asking them to gather in Thomas Bancroft's old room, which has stood empty since his death, and is usually locked.

When they make their way there before 8am, however, they will find the door unlatched.  Jack is already inside, with Gar seated near him, one hand on his arm.  Kat leans against the wall behind Fred, who is seated in a chair.  Her arms are folded, and she's grinding her teeth back and forth.

Comments

[doubletake]

A year or two. Much quicker than the nearly 700 between visits last time.

[Just saying. The look on her face indicates she knows that's exactly what he's doing.]

Well, that explains the getaway car. You'll have to tell me who 'they' is, though. My knowledge on the state of things inside Wynn's castle is vague at best.

[bigbad]

[Spike gives her a sidelong glance before fixing his eyes on the road again.]

Don't take this the wrong way, love, but I'm not going to be telling you everything. I want to trust you. Doesn't mean I can.

[doubletake]

If you can't trust me, then how do you know I haven't already read your mind to get what I want?

[She lifts a brow at him before she turns her own eyes to the road.]

No offense taken, though. It isn't as if I can tell you everything, either.

[bigbad]

That's the part I am trusting you with.

[She wouldn't have to ask if she'd just plucked the information out of him. He just has to hope he's not wrong.]

Just making sure we're clear. This actually is something I can tell you. They is the other section heads. And our brand new, self-appointed Dragon Claws, Hasmed and Solace.

[doubletake]

[That's not exactly how it works, Spike, but he's right about one thing. She isn't trying. Not right now, anyway.

Not that he'd be able to tell either way.]

We're clear. [She didn't come here expecting anything other than a conversation.

His answer has her nose scrunching up.] I always did dislike Hasmed, though I never knew Solace particularly well. Regardless, if they were up to Wynn's standards, one of them would have been named Dragon's Claw already. It sounds a bit convenient to me.

[But that could be her hatred of Hasmed leading her to the worst assumption.]

[bigbad]

Doesn't it just?

[It's cool, Spike's just as paranoid as she is on this particular topic.]

I don't bloody trust him, but that's only part of the problem. I hardly even trust our team right now. Bloody tired of being lied to.

[doubletake]

Things are rarely a coincidence.

[Elena likes to call it being prepared rather than paranoia.]

Aren't we all? [Someone is alwys lying to someone. It's followed them around since the very beginning.] That's the crux of the problems we've always had, a lack of trust, all founded in very real things. We all have different priorities and things we're willing to do for them that don't necessarily line up with everyone else's.

[She leans her head back against the headrest.]

I don't have any reason to lie anymore. You know where I stand.

[bigbad]

Lack of trust and lack of bloody communication.

[He scowls sharply.]

I do appreciate that. Even if where you stand's with the actual bloody devil.

[doubletake]

He does have a name, you know. I wouldn't want you confusing him with one of the other ones.

[It seems like she's teasing him, but it's difficult to say if that's the case or not.]

I assume that isn't why you wanted to talk to me though, is it?

[bigbad]

Right, my bad. Not all devils, right?

[He rolls his eyes.]

I don't know. I just... [He shrugs a shoulder.] It doesn't feel right not getting your side of the story, and no one before wanted to let you tell it.

[doubletake]

Says the poster boy for 'not all vampires.' [Just saying.] But no, that's not what I meant. I meant there are nine and they're all very different. I also happen to know them all quite personally.

[No one likes being confused with someone else. Unless they're doing it on purpose.]

They don't want to hear it because it doesn't align with what they expected from me. They see it as a symbol of their own failures, that they couldn't 'save' me. Or they believe that, no matter what the journey was that took me there, it doesn't matter because the end result is unacceptable. [She says this all with a mild chill, though there's also resignation in her tone.] But if you want to hear it, I'll tell you what I can. Where would you like me to start?

[bigbad]

I'm happy to acknowledge it's most vampires. Makes me specialer.

[He has good priorities.]

I want to hear it. How about you start with your meet cute with the devil. [He raises his hand before she can protest.] Sorry, a devil.

[doubletake]

[Her lips screw into an amused grin.]

Well, I met Azrael the night most of us did, at The Eternal Jade. I didn't know who he truly was until after the attack on Andres. He introduced me to Lucifer nearly a year later, in a field outside of London. It was the same day that I sold him my soul, as you might put it.

[bigbad]

[Spike just stares at her because is that really supposed to explain things? At all?]

Why?

[doubletake]

He made me an offer I couldn't refuse.

[The corner of her mouth twitches upward, as if she finds that humorous.]

And why not? We all make sacrifices for the things we want, and placing my soul in the hands of the person I love? I don't see how that seems so strange. My life is still mine, my choices are still mine, so I've lost nothing and gained everything.

[bigbad]

[Oh, Elena, you make Spike so concerned for you.]

Presumably you didn't love him yet, if this was your first meeting. What was the offer?

[doubletake]

I believe I did, by the end of it all, even if I didn't realize it at the time. Things rarely go the way we expect, least of all in matters of the heart.

[But she shrugs her shoulders, as if she knows he won't believe her.]

Going into specifics would be telling a story that isn't mine to tell. But the short version?

I made The Devil's agenda my own, and in return, he gave me immortality and power that didn't require me to continue to be a slave to Azrael's blood. Azrael's home was also mine, for some time, until I took my true place at Lucifer's side.

[bigbad]

[.........there are so many red flags here. Spike is EXTREMELY concerned.

But, because he's Spike, he starts with what is probably the most frivolous of them.]

What, does this mean you were having threesomes with Des?

[doubletake]

Threesome has a very wide definition, Spike. But if you're asking for my personal opinion, then no, I wasn't.

[She brushes hair back from her shoulder.]

It's a castle, not a cottage. There are plenty of bedrooms.

[bigbad]

[They don't have that wide a definition, Elena. Spike is left with more questions than ever.]

Why the bugger were you a slave to Azrael's blood in the first place?

[Because what the FUCK?]

[doubletake]

The term 'slave' might have been a bit overdramatic on my part. An addiction would be more accurate.

[That...doesn't really sound better, does it?

That's probably because it isn't. She sighs, any pretense that this is all casual and easy sliding away in the space of a moment. Her eyes focus on the road, and yet seem to see through it as she thinks back on a time that's now over a dozen lifetimes ago.]

You have to understand, Spike, I was...young. Young and angry and desperate. I had tried so hard to become everything I could so that I wasn't some liability, so that I wasn't a disappointment, so that I could actually be a force of change in the world instead of a victim that things simply happened to. And that...woman-

[Her voice chokes slightly, a dark fury rising in her eyes before she stamps it out with a single clench of her jaw.]

-she'd been in my mind against my will. Forced me to do things. She stole my free will and she hurt everyone around me, and she made me watch. I would have done anything to stop her, so I did.

I had to partake of the blood in his veins every two weeks to prevent a very quick and frightening withdrawal, and I made sure to never be late. It augmented my abilities, made me stronger, but it had its drawbacks, obviously. [She looks over at him.] It wasn't enough, obviously. It was never going to be enough. But without it, The Mind Master would have likely killed me in the library when the castle was attacked, or worse.

[Her eyes are drawn back to the road.]

There are things I regret, but none of what I've just told you is one of them.

[bigbad]

Elena, love....

[There's sympathy in his voice, but also resignation. Maybe if he'd paid better attention he could have helped her sooner, saw what she was getting into, but it's far too late now. Years for him, thousands of years for her. She's made her choices. If they happen to be terrible, well, there's no going back now, and she doesn't regret it.]

I just hope you're happy.

[doubletake]

[She gives him an almost sad, but grateful, smile.]

How many of us are as happy as we'd like to be? That number is frighteningly low, if you ask me.

[A cynical view of the world, maybe, but no less true in her eyes.]

There are plenty of times where I'm happy, though. I'm happy with him and with the family I've become a part of. I know I'm where I'm supposed to be. [She leans her head back against the headrest.] But it's still Hell.

[bigbad]

Love, if I were looking for red flags, that'd be one right there.

[He glances over at her, frowning a little. It's very far from the first red flag he's had from her. The whole talking like a brainwashed cult member part, not to mention being in love with him from basically the moment she sold her soul.... yeeeeah.....]

Obviously no one's happy all the time, but if you've got to qualify it like that... love, how deep in this are you?

[doubletake]

I'm the Queen of Hell, Spike. I live in the lowest circle of Hell. It doesn't get much deeper than that, literally or figuratively.

[She says it with an air of amusement, like 'of course I'm deep in this, are u kidding me rn?]

You didn't want me to lie, remember? If I said I was blissfully happy, that would be one in my eyes. I live where the souls of the damned are tortured and their collective misery is all around me, a constant companion. What did you honestly expect me to say? That my life was a never-ending party of sin and debauchery?