No person left behind ((tag fractured_agent))

[slayers_desire]

April was a little nervous, truth be told. She wasn't nervous about spending time with Jack Harkness again, as she considered him a good friend.

She was more nervous about bringing him to the Vampire Village to talk to Spike.

So much time had passed for Jack, since he last saw Spike. But it was a completely different story for Spike. And so much could go wrong.

April just hoped that things worked out...

Comments

[fractured_agent]

It's been a long time since Jack's been able to leave his universe, and his vortex manipulator is still on the fritz, so he can't use it to teleport to the rendezvous point. So he has to go through the Nexus, meeting up with April there.

"You look nervous."

[slayers_desire]

"I am." April admits that right off the bat.

"My father is living in a different dimension than the Buffyverse one. It is a vampire-ruled dimension."

[fractured_agent]

"A whole world full of vampires?" That's a tiny bit surprising. He definitely got the impression that her original universe was only partially vampire-populated. "Must be nice for him to fit in so easily."

[slayers_desire]

"There are other species, but vampires are the majority species." They do after all have an agreement with the gryphons.

"The other thing you might appreciate, is they believe in free-love. Multiple partners. Multiple wives/husbands."

[fractured_agent]

"Well, that's a refreshing attitude," he says with a smile. Nothing wrong with choosing a single partner at a time, but society shaming you for choosing anything else certainly isn't something he appreciates.

[slayers_desire]

"Spike joined a partnership between Shasta and Jash, a more primal vampire. Jash lost his life sadly." April gives him some background, as she opens the PINpoint to the Vampire World.

[fractured_agent]

"What happened?" he asks, figuring it might be better to know before Spike is in earshot.

[slayers_desire]

"A friend of mine, another vampire, Kat came to the village to learn more about our heritage. Jash grew quite fond of her. During one of her visits, an ancient evil tried to possess Kat. And Jash... sacrificed himself..."

[fractured_agent]

He follows her through the portal as she speaks, and thinks about it. "You said before it's only been a year since this happened?"

[slayers_desire]

"For them, it would have been close to a year. My timeline is a little different. It was March when he died. They are now in December."

[fractured_agent]

A year is a good amount of time to start getting over a loss, though few people need just one. "Anything else I should know?"

[slayers_desire]

"I think I covered the basics." They are approaching Shasta's house, which is on the edge of the Vampire Village, closer to the woods than the other houses.

Shasta herself, a beautiful dark-haired woman, is sitting on the doorstep, feeding a baby deer a bottle of milk.

[fractured_agent]

Jack's having a slightly difficult time getting out of his 'Torchwood mission' mentality, but fortunately it's close to how he would normally handle these sorts of situations.

And beautiful people of any kind are always going to have his attention. He waits for April to make the first move, deferring to her greater knowledge of the place at first.

[vampire_village]

"Evening Shasta..." April greets the other vampire with a friendly hug.

Shasta wraps her hands around her, smiling brightly. "April! What a pleasure to see you again. Is this your guest? Jack?"

[fractured_agent]

"Captain Jack Harkness, ma'am," he says with a flirtatious grin. Even after almost a century and a half of living in Earth's past, he still hasn't gotten out of the habit of using his charm to gain people's trust.

[vampire_village]

"No wonder you stole William's heart." Shasta laughs, standing to hug Jack next. "I'm Shasta. Nice to meet you."

[fractured_agent]

Jack is a very hug-loving kind of guy, and gladly reciprocates. "And you, gorgeous."

[vampire_village]

"Welcome to my house. Do come in..." Shasta walks them up the stairs, and opens the front door. Her house has a more antique-style than anything.

"Where is father?"

"In the serenity garden. For Solace I made a wolf statue to stand guard at the north. In memory of Jash."

[fractured_agent]

Jack makes mental notes of everything he sees and hears out of habit, in case it's useful later. So he wonders what the connection is between Jash and wolves. Maybe some kind of totem spirit or something.

"April told me a bit about what happened. I'm sorry for your loss."

[vampire_village]

"Thank you. Jash died how he would have wished... fighting for someone he loved. It is a shame he couldn't have been with Kat. She is a wonderful woman."

[fractured_agent]

"As reasons to die go, that one ranks pretty high." He's made the sacrifice himself over and over again, but it hurts worse to see others doing it, knowing that they won't come back.

[slayers_desire]

"Would it be okay to go disturb Father at this time?" April doesn't want to interrupt his meditation.

"He could use the distraction. He is not finding peace easily."

[fractured_agent]

"Then let's go see him." It's been a long, long time since Jack has seen Spike, or anyone else with his ex-partner's face.

[slayers_desire]

They enter the serenity garden. It looks like something out of a storybook, with the gazebo and exotic flowers.

The weaving walkway leads them to the gazebo itself, where Spike is sitting on the ledge, looking out to the river below.

[fractured_agent]

Jack doesn't want to startle him, so he just walks up and takes a seat next to him.