Have faith in me

by Fiji The Beggar

Continuity: When Willow and Tara performed their teleprotation spell on Glory, it sent her to her home dimension (or to the land of eternal wednesday, I had to get rid of her). Angel still had his epiphany and got back with the A-team. He has gotten back

Title: "Have faith in me"
Category: Action/Drama (I guess)
Rated: R (technically, most of it is PG-13)
Characters: All of em, I guess
Continuity: When Willow and Tara performed their teleprotation spell on Glory, it sent her to her home dimension
(or to the land of eternal wednesday, I haven't decided yet).
Angel still had his epiphany and got back with the A-team. He has gotten back in control of AI though.
Summary: Faith out on pa(t)role, that can't be good!


Cordy heard someone enter the hotel.
"Be with you in a minute." she said, stuffing a magazine in a stack of files.
"Welcome to Angel investigations, whatever the problem is, we've see ... whaaaa? whoooo?" not five feet away stood a scruffy looking woman.
Only half way through her intro did Cordy realise that it was a young woman only now did she recognise Faith.
"Hi Cordelia" Faith not only looked old, her voice was croaking like a Klingon with a hangover.
"Stay back! I'm warning you!" Codry reached for the nearest object "I'm not afraid to use this!"
Faith studied the sandwich Cordy was pointing at her, glanced up at Cordy "you're going to cholesterol me to death?"
"What? NO! I watch what I eat you know, this body is a temple!"
"Relax, I'm not here to fight"
"That reassures me ... NOT, how did you get out of jail anyway"
"Parole came up, good behaviour, put down the sandwich Cordy ..."
"What? Oh, yes."
"... shortage of cells, you know the drill. I really need to see Angel, is he around?"
"What YOU need is a shower and a few gallons of conditioner. Anyway, you can't see Angel, he's sleeping"
In walks Wesley, his face buried in a book entitled "Curses: how to deal with them and are the tax deductible?"
"New case Cordy? What seems to be the pro ... whoooo? whaaaa? Good Heavens!"
"Is that your new motto?" just a hint of the old playful carefree Faith crept through "I really do need to see Angel" and then it was gone again
"And what would you tell me?" Angel was standing right next to the tree of them. Faith closed her eyes for the briefest of moments.
She cursed herself, I'm a slayer, I'm THE slayer, I can't let vampires creep up on me, pay attention dammit!
She stared at Angel, Angel looked back. There was no anger in her eyes, no lust, lust for mayhem, lust for chaos, lust for ... killing.
But there wasn't any love or friendship or joy there either. Her eyes were totally void of life. He had seen this before, but never in humans.
Empty as they were, her eyes did speak, one word, over and over. Help.

---

"They've been in there for ages, what are they doing" Cordy was done sitting around in silence.
Dropping his compelling read Wesley replied "well, she's been here for more than an hour and I still have all my appendices, So I'm not complaining ... much"
Cordy picked up her magazine again, flipped through a couple of pages then cast it aside "what do you suppose she wants?"
"Haven't got the faintest, a place to stay? money? a warm body to cling to?"
Codry gave him a funny look "yeah right, that's why she came to the only place in LA that's short on the warm bodies"
"Hey! I take exception to that."
"You don't count, Wesley."
Wesley jumped up "why not? I have a body and it IS warm!"
Cordy backed off slightly "I'll take your word for it." She paused for a second "we really should go check"
"Well ..."
"Aren't you the slightest bit curious"
"I suppose we could make a quite survey of the situation"
Looking thoroughly bewildered "huh?"
"eavesdrop"
Cordy threw her hands up in the air "thank you!"

It didn't take them long to get their ears glued to the door.
"What ARE they doing in there?" Cordy frowned "it almost sounds like they're ... err ... "
Wesley nodded "fighting"
"I was going to say 'boinking'"
"Yours is worse"
And with that, the dynamic duo crashed into the room. "Looks like you win" Cordy said. But it was quite clear that they were sparring rather than fighting.
Angel hardly ever attacked and when he did, he pulled his punches. Faiths attacks were slow and clumsy. But she wasn't doing this on purpose, Wesley could tell.
This was the best she could manage. Still impressive by human standards, but in the world of vampires, demons and slayers, it was small potatoes.
Angel evaded yet another punch, jumped at the wall and ran across it. He landed right next to Wesley. "Can we have some privacy please" his gaze caught Wesley's eyes.
He kept staring and blocking wild kicks until Wesley stuttered "c..c..certainly" and dragged Cordy out of the room.
Free of the interrupt Angel turned his full attention to Faith.
He found her on the other side of the room, looking through the windows. "Had enough" he called after her. There was no point in asking if there was anything wrong.
She had her arms tightly wrapped around her chest. Her tread was insecure.
"What's the point" she sighed "Let's face it, my slaying days are over."
"You're a little rusty, that's all" He gentle put his hands on her shoulders
She tore herself away from his hold, spun around and hit Angel square in the face "A LITTLE RUSTY?! You think I haven't tried to slay?!!!? First thing I did when I got out
was track down a vampire. He wiped the floor with me! I barely got away!" She retreated back into her arms-across-the-chest pose. "Even on the inside, in the end, I was
barely able to keep the rapegangs at bay."
Angel again approached her, he stopped at arms length. "What did you expect, you didn't train for ages, didn't work out ... "
"That's just it, I DID work out, I DID train. It just wasn't enough" She came out of her pose, looking for something to hold on to. Angel took one step towards her and she
latched onto him. She held him tightly. If he had breath she would have crushed it out of him. There were no tears but Angel could feel her hart. In the past, it had been
powerful, an invitation to vampires to come and bite. Now, it was barely noticeable, like a scared little mouse, hiding in a little cranny of her body.
Angel gentle put his arms around her "It doesn't work that way, Faith. You need a goal, without a goal, you're going through the moves but you lack the motivation to make
that punch land on target, to push through an attack, to ignore the pain. Before, you had a goal, not a good one, but still a goal. No, you don't have to go around saving
the world at every turn. Just fight the good fight. Fight for those who can't fight for themselves. I know you have it in you, in your heart. You've always had people tell
you what to do, what to BE. The Watchers, the Mayor, Buffy, ... even ... me." He paused for the briefest of moments, then even softer than before "Now we'll see what's
inside of you, Who Faith really is."
Now, the tears came, not give-me-a-towel-sobbing-tears, gentle tears quietly running down her face. She eased her grip. Angel made no attempt to wipe the tears away. Did
he get trough to her? He couldn't tell, at least she was listening.

---

Wesley was just getting to the final chapter of his tome when "Wesley! Go pack some weapons and your padded suit." Angel, appearing out of nowhere as usual, stormed through
the lobby.
"Certainly boss, what is it? a vampire nest? a really big demon? the end of the world?" Wesley jumped to his feet.
"No, we're going on a trip, you, me and Faith"
Cordy got up ready to protest, but Angel beat her to it "you stay here and hold down the fort"
"but ... err" she tried to think of a valid objection "Visions! What if I get visions? I'm visiongirl, remember?"
"You call Gunn ... or me, on my cellphone" triumphantly sticking the little piece of hardware in the air.
Wesley took it from him, turned it right way up and handed it back
"Ah, thanks" looking thoroughly bewildered "oh, Cordy, Faith's in the shower, said something about conditioner."
Cordy rolled her eyes "ow, all right" She headed off in search of conditioner
"Where are we going exactly, big fellow?" Wesley asked
Angels replay was very matter of fact "Sunnydale"
"SUNNYDALE!?!?!" Wesley and Cordy couldn't have synched it better if they rehearsed it
"With all due respect and might I add quite a few questions as to your sanity but, HAVE YOU GONE STARK RAVING BARKING-AT-THE-MOON-IN-A-PINK-TUTU MAD?" Wesley started pacing
through the lobby, bouncing up and down a bit.
"Well, I realise that there'll be issues ..."
Wesley cut him of "ISSUES???? Reagan and Breszniev had issues, Maggie Thatcher and the Argentinean navy had issues, but this is BIG, I mean HUGE."
Cordy crossed her arms "I knew we should have stayed away from Caritas. I blame Caritas. Singing vampires ... that can't be good."
"Especially if they do Barry Manilow" Wesley agreed
"Badly I might add"
"Excruciatingly"
"Guys, can we leave my musical career out of this? Wesley, start packing, Cordy, Conditioner, We're going to Sunnydale and that is final!"

---

"Faith? ... Faith?" Cordy cautiously inched into the bathroom "I've got your conditioner."
She jumped at the shower curtain being yanked aside. "Ah, thanks"
Cordy wasn't to thrilled about being in the same room as Faith and definitely not a naked Faith. She handed the bottle to Faith.
When she got over the shock, she couldn't help but think 'Nice body'. Then she saw the scars, lots, and big too, and this girl had super heeling. That one, on the inside of her
thigh, "waaw" did I say that out loud she thought.
"Why, thank you Cordelia" Faith smiled slyly "I am pretty proud of them" she ran a finger across one of her breasts.
"I wasn't looking at those ... although they are quite nice" some girls have all the luck she added in her mind
"The scar? murder attempt" she shrugged it off "one of the gangs wanted me dead, well, they all wanted me dead, but this one got close, sneaky bitches. Now if you'll allow me ..."
"What? Oh, sure, take your time"
Faith turned towards the showerhead. Cordy couldn't help but check out her backside 'some girls DO have all the luck' her eyes switched to Faiths head 'I didn't say THAT out loud
did I' but Faith didn't react. Cordy hastily left the scene.

---

This is odd, Wesley thought, Angel is not the van driving kind of guy.
But this was the only means of transport they could get. The only means that didn't involve Angel hiding under a blanket, if needed. Well, that remained to be seen. The van was
in terrible condition, but this was the only one Gunn could provide at such short notice.
"Angel?"
"Hmm"
"What exactly is the plan?" He had kept quite about it until now, but he just had to know.
"Faith needs to get back into slaying, agreed?"
Wesley nodded
"So we go where vampires and demons are plentiful, the hellmouth" Angel made is sound very logical
"Oh, I wasn't aware that there was a sudden shortage of evil things in LA" it didn't seem very logical to Wesley
"True, but in LA, things could get out of control very quickly, there are to many demons and there's Wolfram and Heart"
"ok, right, but on the other hand, we have Buffy."
"Buffy doesn't have to know Faith is there."
"But what about you?" Wesley noticed Angel making every effort to avoid any kind of eyecontact all of a sudden.
"Not an issue"
"I mean, there's you and ... Buffy and then there's Faith and there's all this ..."
"WESLEY! I said it is not an issue!"
Wesley stared at Angel in disbelief.
"Sorry 'bout that"
"I just hope you know what you're doing" Wesley crawled into the back where Faith was napping
"So do I" Angel muttered

---

Faith felt Wesley coming into the back, she peered lazily at him.
Wesley noticed she was awake "Feel like a little sparring, Slayer?"
"And what makes you think you can handle me, Watcher?"
"I have you know that HAVE been trained in various forms of unarmed combat, I'm well versed in Judo and whoooaaa" The next thing he knew, he was on his back looking up at Faith.
Some of his ribs complained. He barely managed to avoid Faiths next attack. He somehow got to his feet and dodged a couple of attacks. The movement of the van and the confined space
severely limited his options, this while Faith hardly seemed to notice. The punches kept coming, faster and faster, until ...
A jab, straight at his face, he saw it coming but there was no time left to block it, he barely managed to tilt his head. A glancing blow, but still strong. Wesley reeled, his mind
screaming a warning, it registered too late. Faith wasn't letting up. A solid kick to the gut. Wesley mustered all his strength to stay up, realising to late that that left him
open to even more abuse. Faith picked him up, seemingly effortless and hurled him at the side of the van. She was on top of him before he hit the floor, pulling him back up, ready for
the final blow, murderous intent in her eyes. At least that's what it looked like. She paused, what am I doing?
"What the hell is going on back there?" Angel shouted.
Wesley looked up at Faith, no more rage there, she was closer to crying than anything else.
"Just a spot of friendly sparring" Wesley managed to produce.
Angel grumbled something incoherent.
Faith slumped down on the opposite side of the van. Wesley walked, or rather crawled over to her.
A battle raging in his head, rivalling the one he had just been in.
She's a monster, stay away! She's a confused young woman, she needs help! She can kill me in a split second! She won't. Vampire, demon, human, it makes no difference to her, she's a
killer. She just needs a little help, that's all, just a little help.
"I'm sorry" she kept staring straight ahead.
Wesley gave her a smile, said nothing.
They sat in silence for a while, then Faith spoke again "Thank you for not giving me a lecture, that's not what I need right now"
"I know what you need, I can help you."
Faith glanced at him "Don't be a watcher"
Watcher? Who said anything about Watchers? "Tell you what, stop calling me watcher and I'll stop calling you slayer."
He got a little smile and a nod for his efforts. He settled into a bit of a grin and they sat side by side.

---

Wesley noticed the van going slower, taking more turns. He crawled into the passengerseat. The surroundings looked vaguely familiar, but there was no mistaking, this was Sunnydale allright.
"Where are we heading? The mansion that used to be you lair?"
"No, Buffy patrols there often" Something crossed his mind 'if she still has the same habits, been a while since I've seen her' "We're heading to the motel over on the east side."
"You get things set up while Faith and I report in at the police station" Angel continued
Wesley frowned, then it hit him "oh yes, the parole thing."
Angel pulls up on the motels parking lot. Wesley got out.
At the other end of the parking lot, 2 pitch dark eyes focused on him. A grin spread across the otherwise featureless grey face, baring a double row of razor-sharp misaligned teeth.
Two humans, this one is an easy snack, nice van, loads of cash probably shot through its mind. Then Angel got out and greyface lost the grin, this one was vaguely familiar. And with
a gentle breeze a faint smell washed over him. He sniffed it instinctively and immediately regretted it. The foul stench of dead yet not dead stale meat filled its nasal cavity. He tried to
get rid of it, huffing and puffing. A vampire. Useless half-human freak of the occult. And strong too, to strong for this little run-of-the-mill demon. He was about to make a hasty
retreat when the side door of the van slid open. THE SLAYER! The recognition was instant, He imagined that he could feel several of his ribs ache. A souvenir of his only encounter with
the slayer. But this means, his eyes reluctantly returned to the vampire, as if afraid of what he would discover. ANGELUS! He tried to control himself, which worked for about 2 seconds
then, the hasty retreat turned into a mad dash.
Angel looked over his shoulder. An Engranic demon, he thought, inoffensive.

---

Angel threw the last of the suitcases on one of the beds. The bed protested this sudden burden.
"Careful!" Wesley objected "those are my books!" He looked hurt, asif he had been on the receiving end of the suitcase.
"you brought books" Angel frowned
"only paperback"
Angel rolled his eyes. "Ok, Wesley, you get us settled in while Faith and I go to the police station."
Faith moaned "owww, do I have to."
"The whole point of reporting in is actually being there."
Faith totally ignored Weslies comment and grabbed Angels arm "I don't have to go, do I?" She made an effort to look innocent.
"Wesley's right, you have to come."
Faith pouted her lips, gave him the puppy-dog eye treatment.
"That's not going to work Faith."
She hugged him even closer
"No faith, You can't change my mind" He tried to look away
"Pretty please"
Angel let out a sigh "Wesley" he whimpered
"Sorry old chap, your show, be stern." Wesley couldn't stop smirking
"Faith, you know, we have to erm ... well, there's erm..."
"Oh lighten up" she poked him in the ribs "God you're easy to fool"
It took Angel a full 5 seconds to realise he'd been had.
Wesley decided to save his boss "Be sure to keep a low profile. We don't want the demon population of the hellmouth to be ready for us."
Ah, work, demons, Hellmouth, he could handle that "To late, an Engranic demon already spotted us."
"A what demon?" Faith had a disgusted look on her face "why can't I every fight anything with a cool name."
"Engranic demon" Wesley switched to textbook mode "aka 'stealth' demon ..."
"aka Wimpy demon" Angel interjected
"Well, yes, they're called that aswell."
"I'm going to fight something that hunts hamburgers???" there was that disgusted look again
"Oh no, That's a nickname other demon give them. By demonic standards, they're nothing special. Barely superhuman strength, no special senses, not particularly
though. The only thing they're good at is hiding"
"Hiding?" Faith was increasingly disappointed with her pray
"Well, sort of, you see, they never stick out. They blend into a crowd with ease. You can be standing right next to one and never know it."
"Unless you're a vampire" Angel added
"Yes, Their 'stealth' skill is not that impressive either, a vampire, or a slayer" nodding towards Faith "can pick them out easily enough."
"Enough, how do I find them and how do I kill them?" Faith was ready to go.
"You don't," Wesley said "there are bigger evils out there, we shouldn't waste time on these guys."
"Don't you think he'll tell all the other nasties about us?" Angel objected
"Nah, Engranics keep to themselves. They have a tendency to die quite a lot when they're around other demons."
Angel let this sink in for a while, then he jumped to his feet "come on Faith, police station"
She pouted her lips again "can we at least stop somewhere for a quick kill" She hooked her arm under Angels.
"Weeeeeell, sure, I can probably find a vamp nest or something"
"You say the nicest things" Faith drew closer to Angel with a huge smile on her face.

Wesley closed the door behind them. He took some of his clothes from one of the suitcases and went to put them in the closet. But upon cataloguing
the closet as positively disgusting, he proceeded to open some drawers until he was satisfied that there wasn't a single storage space in the entire motelroom
where something had NOT died. His clothes neatly tucked back in the suitcase, he produces a particularly thick volume of something claiming to be
'The ultimate guide to demons' and settled into the least gross seat. Ethros, Enthaplic, Enigmatic, ah, here it is Engranic demon ...

--- ---

The sewer smelled as disgusting as usual but Hack welcomed the stench. Not even vampires chose to live here. He settled into a forced walk, now only looking
over his shoulder every other minute. No slayer, no Angelus, they hadn't seen him. Just a few more minutes and he'd be home, hungry and tired but home.

Hack carefully picked his way through the well-hidden entry to his lair, checking one last time for possible slayers and vampires with or without a soul.
"Bloody HELL!" he staggered back, clutching his chest where a human would have his heart.
Gurn was home. "Oh, it's you" Gurn understood the art of loading every single word with revulsion. Engranic demons were a funny lot, desperately afraid of other
demons. Loathing their own, yet almost always living in pairs or small groups ... that way, when attacked they could know out the other one and leave him to
the attackers. "You look like you've had a run in with the slayer"
"That's just it, I've seen the slayer!"
"So, I've seen her last week, was busy killing something twice her size, nothing special" 'stupid fuck' Gurn added in his mind
"Nonono, I've seen THE slayer, not Blondie" 'oh lord of the braindead' "and that's not all, Angelus was with her" 'and now it's your turn to be scared'
But Gurn wasn't scared, in fact he smiled. A content grumble rolled out of his mouth.
"Have you gone completely insane?!?!" Hack pinned him against the wall. "THE slayer, Angelus!"
"Not important," he pushed Hack away "handy even"
"WHAT!" If there had been hair on Hacks skull, he would have pulled them out now. "You need the power of 'the one' to survive those two"
"And what would you know about the power of 'the one'?" Gurn rummaged through a pile of rags, until he found the object he was looking for. He turned towards
Hack.
The recognition was instantaneous ... the ... one, or at least, his head. Hack bolted for the door. 'Oh no, you don't' Gurn thought, he jumped at Hack and just
managed to grab him by the ankle. Gurn released his grip, eagerly looking at Hack. The grey form before him made no effort to get away.
"Stand up and face me" With ever increasing glee he saw his newfound minion rise, not a peep of objection, not a hint of hesitation.
Hack blankly looked in Gurns general direction.
'Now, for the real test' Gurn thought
He focussed his thought on Hack 'kneel'
Nothing.
'KNEEL'
Still nothing.
But when he hacked 'the ones' heart to bits, he had got the knowledge together with the power.
He closed his eyes, relaxed his breathing.
Focussing on the split second when their skins touched. He took that tiny piece of memory and stripped it bare, removing every sensory input except for the touch.
No sound, no smell, he deleted the slight pain from landing on the concrete floor, he removed whatever he was thinking at the time.
There, now he had his link to Hack distilled to the strict minimum. He took the link and compressed it, squeezed it into a tiny little ball of energy which he hid
in a corner of his mind, only for him to find, to hold. He was ready, concentrating on the link he looked at Hack again.
He could feel ... something. Maybe it was ...
'Kneel'
His jaw fell open as Hack bent one knee and put it on the floor. IT WORKED!
He drew in a big gulp of air, held it in for a second and, throwing his head back, spit it back out in a titanic scream.
"That's more like it! That's more like it!!!" Gurn started pacing. "What do you think about that?"
Hack, in his powerless state understood that to be a command "I have no more thoughts of my own."
"Damn right you don't! You're mine now! I OWN you! I could order you to kill yourself. Hit yourself in the face."
Without the slightest pause Hacks fist drove into his own face, other than that, no reaction, not even pain.
"HA! What to do next? I need a name, yes, all the great ones have a name. Hmmm, Liege? Lord? Master? No, Sire, that's it, Sire. From now on, call me Sire."
"Yes, Sire"
"Nononono, that won't do, Vampires have Sires, How about ... Sir, simple yet distinguished. Call me Sir."
"Yes, Sir"
"Much better, Now I want that slayer, THE slayer. Come along Hack." He headed out of the door, Hack in close pursuit. Grun paused, looked at Hack. 'No, that won't do
I need an army first. Couple of Vampires, some really big demons.' "Let's go to Willies."

---

Faith crashed into the wall, head throw back, eyes closed. Gasping for air. When her breathing slowed somewhat, she opened her eyes again. A fine layer of dust covered most
of the floor, the furniture and Angels coat. This didn't please Angel one bit when he came back in.
Faith cleared her throat "Got him?"
"Her, and yes, she wasn't going far on a broken leg"
Faith frowned "That was a woman???"
Angel shrugged, looking at his coat with dismay.
Faith wanted to put away her stake. She had to pry open her grip with her left hand. Shaking her right hand, trying to relax it, she turned to Angel again.
"That was intense! Haven't had this much slayage in ... well ... ever!"
"Told you I knew a good place to hunt." Angel smiled.
"Good thing you were with me." She placed her hand on 3 brand new cuts in her left thigh.
Angel helped her up. "Come on, Wesley can take care of that."
Faith matched Angels pace, it hurt her, the scratches ached, more muscles than she cared to count objected to this abuse. But she didn't ask Angel to slow down.
She actually enjoyed the pain. A small price to pay for being back in the game, this time as a good gal. 'I'm a good gal' that made her smile.

---

"Ready to get torn to pieces, Wimpy?" an irate vampire of enormous proportions (both in length and width) threw his coat to the side and vamped out.
'Try to survive until I've touched him' Gurn projected at Hack.
The vampire (known as the blob to his buddies) charged, he tackled Hack and smashed him into a brick wall. He turned around and took in the accolades from his friends.
He would have bowed if his girth had allowed him to. Then, a sharp pain in his knee and over 400 pounds of undead flesh made the alley shake.
"You want to play some more?" he grabbed Hacks face and pinned him high up on the wall. Hacks body went limp.
"Excuse me" Gurn put a single finger on the bulging fat protruding from the Blobs waist.
The Blob dropped Hack. Gurn checked his new link, yep, there it was. Quick check of the Hack link, still alive? Yes, he now had two minions.
The four friends of his new pet began to realise there was something amiss. 'Get them' he threw at Blobby.
3 minutes later the last vampire was cowering in a corner "What did you do to them?!"
Gurn couldn't stop himself from laughing. He wondered if it was possible to OD on a powertrip.
This one was rather scrawny. "I deserve better than to be served by ..." He made a dismissive gesture "this."
"Yes, Sir." Ah, the sweet sound of 5 mindless drones who only exist to serve me.
What to do with this one? The Blob settled the issue, or rather, his stomach. "Eat him." He particularly enjoyed the image of Hack chomping down on vile, repugnant undead
flesh.

---

"This the place?" She whispered
"This the place."
"How many?"
"Nine ... ish"
"Nineish? What's that supposed to mean? Is it nine or isn't it?"
He gestured to keep her volume down "I'm sure it's no more than 10."
She was content with that.
"... or 12"
"Spike!"
Spike shrugged, looking totally hurt.
Buffy handed him a loaded crossbow.
"Nah, Got something better" Spike reached behind him and produces a machete "Got it off a vamp straight in from Rwanda, or some place like that."
"Honestly, Men and their toys!" she threw up her hands, almost nicking Spike with the crossbow. Buffy took out her second crossbow and nodded towards the door.
Spike took his place "ready?" The slayer nodded.
Spike burst through the door, Buffy right on his tail. They were in the middle of the room before they realised there wasn't anything there.
"That's bloody annoying" Spike relaxed.
"I thought you had a snitch."
"Yeah, and he's gonna regret this for the entire remainder of his very, very short and painful life." last word muffled as Spike lit his cigarette.
Buffy got ready to head back out when she noticed something "Hold on, your snitch was right."
"How do you figure?"
"Look!" She rubbed her fingers through the dust on the floor.
"Well, bloody hell. Someone beat us to it." he paused, surveying the scene "just couple of footprints. What do you reckon? Little soldier boys back in town?"
"No" she crouched near one of the prints "I don't see any boots, only regular shoes."
"So?" he shrugged "They got a new wardrobe, that's all. Let's go kill something, luv."
"SPIKE!" if looks could stake ...
He sighed "let's go kill something ... " stressing "Slayer."
"And don't you forget it." She raised a finger. Now it was her turn to sigh.
As Spike started to follow her out the door, he paused. Human blood had been spilled here. And there was something odd about the blood. He looked over to the
source of the smell.
"You coming?"
He dismissed it "yeahyeah, Be right with you, l ... " finger shot up again "slayer."

---

Faith was bouncing across the room like a ferret on speed.
"You should have seen it, Angel grabbed him and then I hit him, POW" narrowly missing Wesley. "And then this other one got back up and I ...."
Not that anyone was listening. "What did you do to her?"
"She's just happy I guess ... and pumped up on adrenaline."
They watched Faith slay an imaginary vamp.
"We should take care of that wound."
"Think you can get her back to the planet Earth?"
"I might" Angel cautiously approached Faith. He caught her next spinning kick in mid air.
"What?"
"You're bleeding all over the place."
"Hmm, yes." Faith plumped herself down in a chair, very calm all of a sudden.
Wesley, sat next to her with a first aid kit "This needs to come off".
"WHAT?!?!"
"The trousers"
"Ah, I thought ..." Faith rolled her eyes. She kicked off her pants and sagged back down. The adrenaline rush now gone, she felt drowsy. She felt warm all over.
And now Wesley was touching her, taking longer than he should, or so she thought. She stretched herself. Slaying always made her horny. "I need something"
Wesley looked up from his work and went "ah, yes, the well documented case of the post slaying cravings. Here hold this."
Faith held the bandages in place while Wesley went to get something. This was easy.
Wesley returned with a brown bag sporting an oddly shaped M. "Here you go," leaning closer "I remembered."
Gone was the warm tingly feeling. But she didn't reject the bugers. Slaying also made her hungry. 'One out of two isn't bad' she thought, adding 'damn watchers.'

---

The next week was more of the same. Angel and Faith went out every night in search of demons and vampires, staying clear of places Buffy often patrolled.
During the day, Wesley restocked the first aid kit, got food and asked around for good leads on vamp nest and the like. He also made a point of it to call Cordy every
day. One night, they went out dancing as a reward for Faiths hard work. Well, Faith danced, Wesley slept and Angel broke his personal best at the 100 meters-escaping-
two-women-fighting-over-him. Faith did get some slaying done that night. She discovered one of the guys at the club was a vamp, trying to score in more ways than one.
She teased him all night, making sure he got a good look at her neck. In the end, she gave in to his umpteenth suggestion to 'get some fresh air' and slew him when his fangs
were barely one inch from her neck.
Buffy enjoyed a calm week, she managed to get home shortly after midnight on a few occasions, which in turn greatly annoyed Dawn. Spike was having a terrible week. He wasn't
getting any good leads, nothing good enough to go to the slayer with. He was increasingly convinced that the initiative was back, even went to their base, only to find it
full of cement like it had been for ages now. He sat at home in his crypt and did and redid his fingernails so often that he had to go borrow nailpolish off of Dawn. Shortly
after midnight, and of course the slayer had to come home at that particular time. And all kinds of ugliness and accusations ensued.
Willow and Tara had been playing around with a new spell. They adapted it from a lost objects spell. One of them would hide and the other one would cast the spell, leading
her to her love. It had worked great in Taras room and they were now testing it on a larger scale.
And then there was Gurn. Going from one powertrip to the next. His army had grown considerably. A dozen vamps, almost as many demons, 4 bulky humans (in case he needed his
army during the day) and one half dead Engranic demon which he keeping around for kicks. One of his minions didn't quite fit into any category. He had found it in woods just
outside town. It had killed several of his minions before he could touch it. It listened to his orders but didn't speak, apart from grunts. None of his minions had ever seen
anything like it. He had probed it's mind for a name and had come up empty handed. They settled for calling it 'Tank'. Tank stood over 15 feet tall, at least it would stand 15
feet tall if it would ever stand upright. It walked on its knuckles and was armour plated, sporting 6 inch long fangs and even longer claws. Tanks only weak spots were his
soft belly and its utter lack of speed. Tank lumbered about like a geriatric turtle on valium. Still, the shock effect of Tanks mere presence was enough to warrant keeping
it around. Now, Gurn was ready for bigger things. The slayer and Angelus, with those two, he'd rule over the Hellmouth like a king, no, like an emperor.

---

Where to find them? Their work was obvious enough. The bodycount had been mounting all week long. But they covered their tracks. In, slay, and back out into the night.
Vamps were getting too scared to go out and feed. Many of them had taken to feeding near dawn. Neither slayer, nor the vampire who slays his own hunts near dawn. There
have even been reports of vamps going poof. But Hack, he had seen them. Now, Gurn and his army lay in waiting. His human minions had been keeping an eye on the motel for the
past couple of days. He knew their routine, any minute now, the slayer and Angelus would emerge from their lair. He check his army, over twenty of the meanest spawn of demon
whores the Hellmouth could come up with. Oh, sure, he'd loose 3 or 4 or even 5 of them but he'd get the slayer and the vampire with a soul in return. THERE THEY WERE.
He could practically feel the links already. They were getting into the van, as usual. The slayer was driving, that was new, but not a problem. She accelerated off the parking
lot.
Faith drove fast but not excessively. Angel never really liked driving such a bulky piece of metal. He thought about Wesley's report. Large group of demons, in the woods just to
the east of town. Faith came up to a corner. Would be nice to patrol the woods in stead ...
"WATCH ..."
Out.

A familiar pain in his chest and stomach. Dozens of pieces of glass tearing at his flesh. And a large one lodged in his skull. He saw what they had hit, but still couldn't
believe it. Some bastard had put a boulder in the middle of the road. FAITH! He checked around but couldn't find her broken body. Then, he checked the drivers seat. There she was.
She, at least, HAD remembered to put on her safety belt.
"Faith?"
She moaned slightly.
"Are you ok."
A painful grimace covered her face "I think, cracked a rib, Wesley's gonna go ballistic."
She was making jokes, good sign "At least you're not bleeding."
"But you are" she yanked the piece of glass out of his skull.
"Are you trying to kill me or something?"
"or something"
"Come on, let's get out of here, someone must have put that boulder there and I'm betting he's still around."
"Damn, safety belt is stuck."
Angel checked it out. The mechanism was bent out of shape. He grabbed hold of it and collected himself. The van was old and wouldn't stand up to a bit of vamp strength. There was
a noise at the front of the car. He glanced over and promptly forgot all about belts. The bloody rock was moving. Arms, legs and a face even a mother would hate emerged.
"What the hell is THAT!?!?" Faith screamed.
They both tore at the belt and nearly sending it through the roof. Angel jumped out of the van, taking Faith with him. They stared in terror at the huge rock-beast. It growled.
The base sound sent vibrations through their bodies, pieces of glass danced on the hood of the van. It nudged the van and sent it crashing into some trees on the other side of the
road.
Faith knew there was no way they could beat this thing, not without weapons. She turned and ran, all of two paces. Demons and vampires, lots.
"What is this, class reunion of Netherworld 1882?" Her stake, she still had her stake. She whispered "Angel, can you throw me at that one" nodding towards the closed vamp.
Angel nodded.
"Do it."
Angel picker her up and hurled her at the vamp, he immediately followed through and punched the nearest demon. Faith, the human missile dove into the vamp stake first. The disintegrating
fiend barely slowed her down. She rolled through and delivered a bone-shattering uppercut to the next candidate. Angel wrapped his coat around a butt-ugly face. The owner of said face
flailed about wildly as Angel spun him around and snapped his neck. Weapons, we need weapons he thought. His way to the van was blocked by the rock-beast and a vampiric mountain of flesh.
He charged lardboy, summersaulted onto his shoulders. From here he could just make it over the living boulder. As he made it to the van, the monster was only just beginning to turn around.
Its huge frame hindered its buddies. The weapons were strewn about, inside and outside the van. Angel just grabbed the biggest one, a formidable battleaxe. In part of the rear-view mirror, he
saw a vamp coming for him, 4 yards, 3 yards, 2, NOW. Angel whirled around. In one motion he hacked the vamps head clear off. He burst through the cloud of dust and planted his axe right in
the middle of a green-brown chest. Without pause he continued onto his next victim, raising the axe high above his head. But before he could land the blow, something landed on him. Tank
nearly pounded Angel into the ground. Tank raised its huge paw again. 'STOP' Gurn rushed over to Angel. He had planned to stride over majestically while Angelus was being restrained.
But after seeing what these two were doing to his army, that plan went out of the window faster than a lover who heard the husband come home. Angel saw him coming and warded of what he thought
was a blow. But Gurn grabbed his wrist and that was that.
Faiths bodycount was going up, sadly, her strength was going the other way. She stood on top of a couple of dead demons. Giving her a height advantage. Panting, sweat running down her face,
mingling with demon blood. Every time she drew a breath the bottom rib on her right side reminded her of her mortality. Nothing could have comforted her more than that dark shape parting the
sea of bad guys. Angel said nothing, he just took position behind her. Faith controlled her breathing. One more time, we might break through, might make it to the motel, Wesley had crossbows ready.
He would ...
"Hey!"
Before she knew what happened Angel had her in a full nelson. Seconds later some piece of slime was holding her feet down. Two more used her as a punching bag. NOW Gurn could do his majestic
stride, that is, if he hadn't slipped on someone's brain.
"What the fuck did you do to my Angel!" restrained, beaten, hurting, her eyes still shot fiery daggers.
Gurn slowly reached over. Faith gritted her teeth. He gently touched her cheek.
Every fibre in her body screamed a warning. Something was very wrong. She wasn't alone in her skull, there was something there. At first barely noticeable, it grew exponentially. Faith dug in
her memories, trying to recover the hand full of lessons her first watcher had given her about mental strength, order and defences, resistance to hypnosis, that sort of thing. She threw up a
barricade, just in time. The force smashed into it like a million tons of water. Her defences were pierced, she tried to plug one hole and a hundred new ones appeared. Soon her barrier
disintegrated completely. The force engulfed her tearing at her, beating her, drowning, penetrating. She collected all her strength for one last scream of protest but a single tear was all
she managed.
Two seconds! She resisted for two whole seconds! Gurn was worried. But now he had everything firmly under control. He surveyed his army, 10 lost in dead and wounded and two gained, but what two.
He was now the most powerful force on the Hellmouth! Collecting Blondie and her vampire would be easy now.
"Angelus, how do I go about enslaving the other slayer?"
"Buffy has many friends, they are what make her strong." was there a hesitation in his voice?
"Ha! They're just humans, well, apart from whatshisname ... Spike. We can handle Spike." He surveyed his army. "Well? We can handle Spike, Right?"
"Yes, Sir!" came the reply, even Tank grumbled something.
"Spike is not your biggest problem. There's Willow." Angel interjected.
"Willow? A tree is my biggest problem?" nothing, just Tanks heavy breathing "That was a joke!" still nothing "LAUGH!"
His army produced a weird sound in perfect unison. Gurn cringed.
He threw up his hands "oh, forget about it."
Gurn pumped Angel for more info on the Wiccan marvel and before long his army was out searching Sunnydale for a little redhead.

--- ---

Willow was walking about on campus. She wanted a good hiding place, but not to good. Tara had to find her soon enough so they could do that OTHER experiment, the one involving vails and scarfs
and very few articles of clothing and lots and lots of naughtiness. She had to hurry, Tara would start looking any minute now. Tara, Tara, Tara, her fellow sister to the dark ones was haunting
her. Tara in that cute little pink thing, Tara in a bathingsuit, Tara in nothing at all. She bumped into someone. Where did he come from all of a sudden? "Sorry 'bout that" she mumbled and was about
to return to Tara dancing in the woods when it hit her.
"Angel!" her face broke open into a huge smile "what brings you to ..." smile fading "Sunnydale?" smile gone. "You're not evil again, are you?"
She wasn't quite sure, but Angels hand holding her upperarm like a vise was a hint.
"Evil again! Somebody help me!" hang on, she was perfectly capable of helping herself. A short silent spell and Angel was sent flying. Time to get the hell out of here. She turned and saw Faith
standing there. Friend or foe? Then she noticed several vampires emerging behind Faith. And she wasn't slaying them. Left, right ... into the science building was her only option. There was a spell
to seal doors, but it took the better part of an hour to perform it. She ran for it. A vamp burst through the door, she willed a monitor into his face. Another one, there, a pencil. Three seconds
later, the bloodsucker was dust. She willed a second pencil at her next target but this one caught it in his hand or rather through his hand. Fire escape, She burst through it and was back inside
just as quick. What was THAT? She headed up the stairs. Behind her Tank got stuck in the doorway. At the top of the stairs, Angel had almost caught her. She concentrated on the vending machine.
It budged. Again! Now it wobbled. Oh COME ON! The machine hit Angel just as he got the top of the steps. Faith pressed herself against the wall to allow vamp and machine to pass her by.
Willow, rewarded with a splitting headache, went up the next flight of stairs, and the next. She had no idea where she was going. Faith jumped for her. "Thicken!"
Faith oozed down the invisible wall like a cartoon character. But Angel was barely slowed by the barrier. "THICKEN" Willow shouted again, her own voice sent sharp spikes of pain through her brain.
At least it stopped Angel. Up more stairs, they'd be back soon. She reached the next floor and promptly collapsed. Her heart was trying to jump out of her chest. Her brain was constantly being pounded
on. She didn't have many more spells in her. Keep going, she ordered herself. Something grabbed the back of her sweater. Without missing a beat she wriggled out of it and set it ablaze with yet another
spell. Another spell meant another blow to her mind. A trickle of blood flowed out of her ears and nose. Ever increasing black spots clouded her vision. Two, Three, Four fresh attackers made their way
over and around their burning comrade. Willow got to the end of the hall, she turned around, tried to catch her breath. She dug deep inside and pulled out one last surge of energy. Every single thing
that wasn't nailed down flew at her enemies. She pushed through the door but her legs refused further abuse. The door swung shut. Coherent thought was quickly becoming a luxury. Touch door. Cast spell.
The words came slowly. Done, no flames? She had gotten some words wrong. Again. Half way through her second attempt, the door swung open. Next thing she knew Faith had pinned her against the wall.
Lots of people around her. One of them surely was Angel. She waited for the sharp pain in her neck, and waited, and waited. Someone stood in from of her, raised his arm. Her bruised and battered psyche
barely noticed the invasion.
"Stand up"
Her body screamed bloody murder but she obeyed. His very own witch.
He fluttered his hand "cast something".
Will produced a small bag of beige powder from her pocket, poured a few grains on her hand and spoke a few short Latin words. Nothing.
Gurn moved in closer, checked out the powder. "What is it supposed to do?"
"Twincklelights"
"Twincklelights?" he looked at the powder intensely. "I don't see any lights. Why are there no lights? Are you holding out on me?"
"No Sir, I think it's because a witch needs to be in perfect sink with herself when she casts. Mental harmony and stuff like that."
"Soooo, I've got myself a witch, hold the spells ... that just leaves me with ... a little human GIRL?" Utterly disgusted, he reached inside himself, yanked out Willows link and crushed it.
No longer being compelled to stand Willow collapsed.
"Throw that" he waved wildly at Willow "THING out the window."



Where is my love? Tara knew she was close. She closed her eyes, relaxed, spoke the spell again "return to me she who is lost, mould my path, intersect it with hers." It was nice to do spells in English
for once, no wrestling with Latin, Greek or some godawfull demon language, a definite advantage of writing your own spells. It was taking hold. She felt something gently tugging at her. The science
building, of course she'd hide there. She's ... , Tara frowned, come on Will, where are you?, ... up there. There was some movement on the 7th floor.
The window shattered, Willow fell.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOO"

Willow vaguely knew what was going on. I don't want to die! There was this one spell ... Gasping for air, she blurted out some Polish words she'd learned by heart.

Tara darted over to Willow. When she hit the ground, there was a brilliant flash of light. Tara ignored it. "Willow!" She was on her knees next to her girl. "OhWillohWill" There was blood everywhere and it
just kept coming. Someone came running. "Call an ambulance" Tara screamed at the top of her lungs. I've got to do something. She had a moment of clarity. Her hand dove into her pocket and she produces half a
dozen little bags. She selected one, ripped it open and sprinkled roughly one third each on Willows head, her heart and her loins. She sobbed the words. The powder changed into a fine mist that sank into
Willows skin. A slightly grey tint spread across her entire body. The bleeding slowed but didn't stop. Tara just drew Willow close and cried. Has she done enough?

---

Xander was carrying a box full of books, just heavy enough to be annoying. He was trying to keep up with Anya who darted from shelf to shelf. Occasionally, she'd stop and give Xander a little peck on the cheek.
Just enough to keep him going.
Giles was going over the books. Everything was moving along ... except for those 250 pounds of chickenfeet. At least the damn things didn't have an expiry date. He looked up, maybe I could offer a free list of
spells with every purchase of 2 chickenfeet. Spells that actually require chickenfeet. There are at least two. That cheered him up, until he remembered the specifics about the spells. There aren't THAT many
people who need protection against vicious ravenous dodos, but making chocolate taste like Brussels sprouts was even less useful. Unless one likes Brussels sprouts.
Buffy was enjoying a slayage free evening, now she had time to read some of Giles' books. Killed that one, and that one, and this one ... twice, sneaky bugger.
Dawn was bravely facing the eternal mountains of useless homework. She had triumphed over the evil mutated beast of chemistry and was now about to tackle the gorge of archaic geography.
The only one who was really in a foul mood was Spike. He was over in a dark and comfy corner cursing every single demon he'd ever met. There simply wasn't anything to maim, kill and destroy around these days.
So, he settled for gawking at Buffy. She was very nice from this angle, he tilted his head, from any angle really. Suddenly he felt very uneasy, a chill went down his already cold spine. He was being watched
... by ... Dawn!!! Don't watch me, he thought, Buffy don't like that. Oh, Bloody 'ell, she's coming over.
"Spike!" she proclaimed asif the simple utterance of his name would put an end to war, world famine and bad hair days.
She moved in closer, ran her fingers across the back of his hand and looked him straight in the eyes, taking special care to blink a lot.
"You're really smart, right?"
"Smart? No, little thing, I'm devious, cunning and resourceful, but not smart."
"No, I mean, you've been to places, seen the world, France, England, Europe, that sort of stuff."
Good God ... stop looking at me like that "S...Sure, why do you ask." Did she notice the stutter?
He stuttered! Ha! The brutal killer of thousands is putty in my hands "Well," She moved even closer, acting all girlie like "what's the capitol of Slovakia?"
"Oh, that's all? Sure, errrmm, let's see" wherever he looked, she caught his gaze "Slovakia, Slovakia, Yeah sure, been there a little while ago" 1896 "met
a couple of Slovaks" ate em really "Vienna, Yep, capitol of Slovakia is Vienna."
"Thanks" she made a little jump and went back to her books.
Buffy discarded the book, she had made it to page 85 before she'd gotten tired of turning the pages. Hang on, what was Dawn doing over there with Spike. Her brain kicked into Dawn + Spike = bad mode. She spied her
sister sitting back down, next to "Capitol of Slovakia" she wrote "Vienna".
"Spiiiiiiiiiiiike"
Bleedin'Hell, here it comes, don't come near my sister ...
"First!" her finger shot in the air, He loved her, but he was beginning to hate the damned finger "you shouldn't help Dawn with her homework"
Hang on, this was new. "Why the hell not? You do it, witches do it."
Buffy sighed "let me rephrase that you shouldn't just TELL her the answer, the aim of an exercise like this is to get her to open an atlas" She felt like she was explaining the workings of a carburettor to a bushman.
"How am I supposed to know that? I'm dead. And I'm evil, I don't do homework"
"Whatever, second, the capitol of Slovakia is not Vienna, it's Prague"
"What are you on about? Last time I was there, then capitol was definitely Vienna!"
"and when was that?"
"1896"
"And what happened in 1914?"
"Ah, what can I say? Oops, forgot about that one"
Giles just had to join the struggle. "You forgot the First World War?"
"Well, things get blurry after a while."
"Several million dead got blurry?"
"Well, yeah."
Now it was Dawns turn "As entertaining as this all is ... which is it, Vienna or Prague"
"Prague"
"Erm, no Buffy, actually it's Bratislava, cold war ending and all that." Giles interjected. Ok, this Spike liked
"OH! You guys are impossible!" Dawn dove into her backpack and yanked out her atlas.
Buffy proudly pronounced "There, I hope we all learned something"
Spike smiled widely "Sure did, Forgetting the First World War is good for Dawns education."
"NO!" Buffy buried her head in her arms.
Giles got ready for another round of kick the dead horse when the phone rang.
"Anya, can you get that?"
The reply came from amongst the shelves "Can't, arms loaded to capacity"
"Very well" he dragged himself over to the phone "Magic shop, we close at ... Tara? Is that you? Slow down. What? Yes, Willow."
He started feverishly snapping his fingers. Everyone turned towards him. "WHAT?!?! Yes, we'll be right over, sit tight."
Buffy was already besides him "We'll be right where?"
"It's ... Willow, she was attacked. She's in the hospital"
"She'll be alright though, right?" Dawn was looking very pale.
"No ... Yes ... Maybe, she's in intensive care"
Xander was already at the door "comeonletsgo"
Everyone headed out, Buffy stopped Giles "What attacked her?"
"Tara didn't say, Buffy"
"How can this be? Slayage was at an all time low."
"I don't know, maybe Willow can tell us."
They followed the rest "I hope so" Buffy muttered.

---

The entire gang stormed into the hospital, again. Something was seriously wrong if you could find your way to intensive care
blindfolded. Buffy was first, Giles closely behind.
"Tara! Where's Willow."
But Tara brushed right past her and latched onto Giles. Buffy had to remind herself again that Willow was not her girl anymore.
Not that she'd ever thought of Willow ... in that way. But still it hurt.
Giles was used to being the make it right person. He just let Tara cry. When her tears subsided somewhat, She finally said something.
"Can you talk to the doctors? They won't let me in her room, not family and all that."
"Certainly"
Tara sagged back into her chair.
"You OK?" Buffy inquired, gesturing at the blood on her clothes.
Tara lifted her head wearily "Oh, that, not mine." They stared at each other "There was so much blood" she whispered.
"Did the doctors tell you anything?"
Her reply came even slower this time. "Not much" In a low voice she added "could go either way" switching back to her regular voice,
angrily "What does that mean? Why do they feed you such crap."
Buffy wanted to share her own opinion of the medical profession but Giles cut her of.
"I got you 5 minutes."
Tara shot up, mumbled "thank you" and almost ran to Willows room. The nurse at the door gave her a stern look. "No more than 5 minutes."
She ignored him.

She had watched Willow through the window but now that she was in the same room as her, everything seemed so much more real.
Half a dozen machines going bleep. Willows very shallow breathing. The bruises, the cuts, some of them had required stitches.
She sat down, held Willows hand "Willow?" Nothing. She knew Will wouldn't answer but she had hoped never the less.

Willow was in a weird place. For hours (days?) there had been noises, images and pain, odd smells and confusion. Things had quieted down
now. The sounds had gotten quiter and more regular. She was almost sure that the images she saw were in her mind only. The pain had gone.
But not completely. Every time she tried to really relax, lie back, a sharp pain in some part of her body yanked her back into this tense
unnatural position. She had tried to go the other way, wake up, but the untold masses of drugs they had given her restrained her.
Something had changed, somewhere in the chaos, something was drawing her in. It had been there for just a few seconds (minutes? hours?).
It provided her with a beacon, an anchor in the waking world. Someone was touching her, holding her hand. She was sure it was Tara.
She didn't know which way the floor was, but she KNEW Tara was here with her. She wanted to talk to Tara reassure her but the drugs stopped
her. 'TARA!' she screamed in her mind.

Tara's head shot up asif she'd been zapped with a million volts. "Willow?"
'Yes, my sweet little Tara, I can hear you'
Tara checked the machines, they were still happily bleeping away. She wasn't talking to a ghost.
Then she saw the corners of Willows mouth creep up just a fraction of an inch. She went all dizzy in the head, Willow is alright, Willow
is alright!
"How are you doing?"
'Not good, it hurts, it's confusing, don't go away.'
Tara didn't have the heart to tell her she'd only get 5 minutes. "What happened? Who did this to you?"
'Faith'
"Faith? The other slayer?"
'Yeah, but it wasn't really her, she was under a spell or something, tell Giles, he'll know, he knows everything.'
"Willow?"
'Yes?'
"That flash of light, what was that?"
'A spell by Copernicus, translates kinetic energy into photons, doesn't work that well'
The nurse came in, again looking stern.
"I have to go now, Willow. But don't worry, I'll be back soon."
'I love you' but it was too late, the contact had been broken. The hand was gone, the anchor cut. Willow found herself floating on an ocean
of random images and weird sound. It didn't bother her anymore, Tara was here, she'd watch over her.

---

The gang was sitting around Giles who was explaining Willows condition. Buffy detached herself from the group. There was something there.
She walked over to Willows room. She'd been right. From a dark corner, near the stairwell, Spike was watching the two witches.
"You've always been into carnage" she crossed her arms.
Spike shot her a look "You're wrong"
"Ah yes, you figured, Buffy like Willow, me show concern about Will, Buffy like me"
"What is it with you woman! Not everything is about you! Yes, I love you ..."
Up came the finger again. Spike slapped it aside, chip didn't kick in.
He took a step closer, barely inches from the slayers face. "I love you, live with it. And I like the redhead too. Mind you, none too proud of it,
but that's the way it is."
He came even closer, mouth right next to Buffies ear.
"Everything changes, it all stays the same,
Everyone guilty, no one to blame,
Every way out, brings you back to the start
Everyone dies to break somebody's heart."
Buffy swallowed "That was ... nice"
"Words aren't mine, feelings are."
Moment of silence ... Spike? Feelings?
Spike pushed open the door to the staircase "And if anyone ever comes near the witch again, I'll tear em to pieces"
He vamped out "very ... small ... pieces"
Exit Spike.
Buffy was left with her confusion. Things had been so much simpler when she could just hate Spike.

--- ---

Giles entered the magic shop. With Willow down for the count, Tara guarding her and the Summers girls trying to come to terms with it all
(Dawn doing the coming to terms, Buffy doing the impatiently waiting for a breakthrough) Xander and Anya served as his research team.
If he was surprised, he didn't show it. "Wesley" he nodded
"Rupert"
Giles simply stood there waiting for the obvious
"It's Angel ... and Faith ... they've gone missing"
"We know"
Xander pushed his way past Giles "Your rogue slayer nearly did Will in!"
"But we know she wasn't responsible" Giles said, more to Xander than to Wesley.
"I didn't know this" Wesley looked tired. He had probably been looking for his friends before coming here. Several books lay on the table, a few open
most still closed, all of them indexes of demons. It was clear that Wesley had no good leads. Giles reached beneath the counter and produced his
nearly-good stuff. He poured Wesley a double "Here, have a" he checked the bottle "grappa" When did I pick up grappa? Giles was pleased to see that
Wesley didn't gulp it down, he hadn't given up, yep. "Xander, Anya, check these books for any demons with strong mental powers, touch telepaths,
thrall spells, you know ..."
"We'll know it when we see it?" Xander submitted
"Yes, something like that." Giles took a seat opposite of Wesley. His eyes burned, he proceeded to remove his glasses only to remember he had finally
given in to Willows suggestions to try contacts. As he took out his glasses and switch one visual aid for the other, he allowed his thoughts to wander
to the frail body lying in the hospital. Watchers received special training. Block out excess feelings for your slayer. And the definition of excess was
pretty broad. And he didn't just have Buffy to have excess feelings about. Willow, Tara, Anya, Xander, hell, he even felt things besides utter revulsion
for Spike. And now there was Angel and Faith to worry about. Comforting, familiar glasses on his face, he was ready to face the world again, and all
it's unholy creatures. "Wesley, tell me everything"
Wesley started describing Faith and Angels first kills when Giles stopped him "Everything, Wesley, from the top."
Wesley told them everything, Faith showing up at AI, Angel coming up with his half-cocked plan, the deal with the cops to report in in Sunnydale rather
than with her parole officer, the ride over, but when he described their first night in Sunnydale, Anya interrupted.
"An Engranic demon? Nasty sort."
Both ex-watchers stared at her. Only a few months ago, Giles would have dismissed such a comment, but he knew Anya now "What makes you say that? They're
not exactly know for their extreme power."
"Well, sure, NOW, but back in the old days, I mean wow, wouldn't want to run into them then."
"Anya," maybe she was wrong this time "our books go back hundreds of years before you were born, Engranics have always been pushovers."
"Nono, not always, you see, I've known this spirit who haunted a really really old castle in Syria"
Xander cringed visibly, he had heard one to many stories of Anyanka 'knowing' this or that demon. Many involved sweating, grunting and situations which
were anatomically impossible for humans. Still, this was a spirit, they didn't have bodies ... unless it was a poltergeist, then it could take control
of a ... OH NO! MENTAL PICTURE! Quick think of something else, naked Buffy. NONONONO I shouldn't think of naked Buffy, something else! Xander happend
to be looking in Giles's general direction, before he could assert any sort of control over his over-active and positively sleazy mind, the inevitable
jumped on in there ... naked Giles. AAAARGH. Quick, back to the demons, aaaah, this one is covered in pus and bile, that's good, pus and bile are good.
Luckily, Anya didn't notice a thing "So the spirit tells me of all these wars the Engranics were waging. Killing those who opposed them by the thousands.
Human and demon alike. The Engranics were easily 10 times stronger back then, regenerative blood, incredible stamina, you get the picture." Both Brits
nodded. "Anyway, after a couple of centuries of this submit or die ... well, submit AND die really. The other demons made a grand alliance, the
Engranics were now loosing battles. This went on until the Engranic Empire was reduced to a few strongholds. NOW, "
Anya leaned in closer asif sharing the secret of life, the universe and everything. "this is when the Engranics made a deal with some god. One of them
would gain all the power he needed to take over the planet. Of course, gods being divine pains in the ass, there was a price."
"He made them weak" Wesley added
"Makes sense, they had enough power to take over the world to begin with. So this god grants them what they already have, sits back and enjoys the
ensuing chaos" Giles completed Wesleys reasoning "What power was this one fellow granted?"
"No one knows, I doubt even the Engranics know, their empire collapsed before they could figure it out."
"Could the power be mental?" Wesley asked, more to himself than anyone. "seems logical, they had physical might, their god gave them a way to control
their enemies"
Giles joined in "And the power still exists, because, the way those spells work ..."
Wesley finished "the power disappears, the price goes away ... and they're still paying the price."

Just as Giles and Wesley celebrated their collective discovery with a new shot of grappa, Spike burst through the front door, literally through it.
Giles threw his arms in the air "Spike! The door!"
"wot? Oh that, sorry 'bout that." He took big strides over to the table "Tell you what, you point me to the big nasty soon to be very dead piece of
troll droppings that hurt our favourite lesbian and I'll go and seriously kill the pansy bugger."
Wesley leaned over to Xander and whispered "Willow is gay?"
Xander couldn't surpress a smile, not that he really tried "yeah" oh, mental picture again ... very nice one this time.
"Well Spike, we just happen to know who did it." Giles said with a bit of a smile on his face.
"AHA!" Spike was almost bouncing around the room with anticipation.
"You're looking for an Engranic demon" Smile faded "we think"
Spike waited, there had to be more than this, foureyes was just drawing it out. But all of Giles's four eyes just stared at him.
"That's it?!?!" Spike leaned in closer "That's all you got?!?" he threw his head back, paced to the counter and back. "You don't get it do you.
This is the part where you lot go 'oh great and wonderful Spike, see that huge piece of snot over there' and then I go 'yeah' and then you go 'that's
the huge piece of snot that disassembled Willow' and then I casually stroll over, RIP ITS FUCKING HEAD OFF and play a couple of rounds of footie with
it and you all appreciate me and give me a gallon of blood and that bottle over there"
"Spike ..." Giles tried
"What do you think I've been doing this past week? Trying to get a good lead, so slayer girl and I can go over there and kill, slay and disembowel" He
put his face right in front of Giles's "There's ... nothing ... there" getting closer at every word.
"Spike, you have to try, there's something out there, something powerful" Giles said softly
Spike drew in a big breath.
"DON'T LAUGH!" That shut Spike up "Don't smirk. Don't even shrug your shoulders in a devil may care fashion"
The rebel without a pulse didn't have a witty reply ready.
Giles continued "There's something powerful out there. It took out Angel, it took out Faith at the same time probably. Willow fought it and got beaten
into a pulp. The only things standing between it and total control over the hellmouth are you and Buffy. It will be coming for you, for Buffy."
That last one clinched it.
"Go out there, find this demon, then come and tell us. Then" Giles paused to get Spikes full attention "then we attack it on our terms."
Spike was painfully aware of the 4 pairs of eyes on him. "Fine, I'll do it, Engranic you said?"
Giles nodded.
"Fine, great, I'll go and find this wanker" he strode over to the table "but I'm taking this" and he swiped the bottle of grappa. Took a big swing from it
and went "Good mother of God, where have you been all my death."
Mental note, Giles told himself, stock up on grappa.
Spike headed out, he stopped next to Giles "You know, for an absolute tightassed, know-it-all git, you have a great taste in liquor." and continued on.
He made a point of it to open the remainders of the door, step through it and neatly close the random collection of glass and wood behind him.

---

Spike tore through Sunnydale like a hurricane through Kansas; causing death, destruction and mutilation wherever he came. He promised prolonged existence
to some, threatened death to most. He broke bones, cracked skulls. A handful put up any kind of fight, most just died horrible deaths. Before long, Spike
had blood trickling down his arms (some of it his own). Vampire dust and demon blood had bonded to form a crust covering his face and hair. He now was
little more than a fearsome, all consuming shadow. Only the murderous intent in his stone cold eyes betrayed his presence, that and his fangs, but when
you saw those, your faith was sealed anyway.
Those who survived the onslaught of William the very very Bloody had to contend with a royally pissed of slayer.
Gurn watched over all of this with glee, several of his army had gotten themselves killed. Didn't matter, they didn't tell Spike or Blondy anything. Except,
of course, what Gurn told them to say. How could they ever hope to go up against him? He was the emperor of the Hellmouth and come this time tomorrow night,
he'd almost be a god.

---

Buffy had barely been back 5 minutes when there was a knock on the door. Two or three sighs later, she opened the door. If it hadn't been for the long black
coat and the penetrating eyes, she wouldn't even have recognised Spike.
"Can I come in?" the dark figure, slumped against the doorframe said
"No one revoked your invite." Buffy stepped aside.
"I know, I didn't mean it like that" it took him some effort to draw the next breath "Let me rephrase that: will you accept my cordial offer of companionship"
Buffy looked at the floor "Sure." Only when Spike was half way to the couch did she realise that the sun was rising, a few more minutes and Spike would have
been a side order of vampire, extra crispy. Buffy crashed into the couch opposite of Spike. They sat in silence. Buffy had seen him post-carnage before, this
was different, normally he'd be all over the place, firing one quip after another, unable to keep his hands to himself, looking for snacks.
"Got any blood?"
At least the snack part was still there "Sorry, store was fresh out."
"Bummer"
"Yeah"
Back to the silence. Not an awkward silence, just two people (one of em dead) too tired to do anything, too tired to sleep.
Noise in the upstairs bathroom. Dawn was up. Both registered it, just kept sitting there. Finally, when Dawn came downstairs, Buffy said "I should go and make
breakfast"
"I'll join you"
"Somehow I doubt Dawn likes scabs of demon blood in her cereal." She saw what might have been a hurt look in his face "Why don't you go wash up."
"Hi Spike, kill much?" As always Dawn managed to summarise it neatly
"You have no idea" He leaned in closer "Grrrr"
"Help, help, it's the evil Spike beast" She smiled
Spike returned the smile, Lovely little thing.

10 minutes later, a much happier, and a lot less stinky, Spike strolled into the kitchen. Dawn was enjoying a huge bowl of oddly shaped flakes, she was fiddling
about with that depressingly loud and colourful box which utterly failed in its objective of hinding the fact that it simply contained corn in a weird form. Buffy
was intensely studying a half-eaten pastry. She acknowledged his presence without looking up.
"We really should discuss last night, compare notes, devise strategy." It was only when she heard Dawn go 'WOW' that she looked up. Hey, she mused, there's a vampire
in my kitchen without a shirt on, then she realised, AND DAWN'S HERE.
"Spike!" tortured look on her face "Don't run around naked in front of Dawn!"
"Hey," he tugged at his pants "Not naked."
"Close enough"
"No" Dawn said with a dreamy look in her eyes
"Dawn!" She tried to get a hold on the situation "errrm, Spike, basement, should be some of dads shirts there."
Dawn followed his every move, snapping her head left to right as he walked past her. "THAT wants to have smootchies with you and you play hard to get???"
"Hello! Newsflash. Spike equals dead!"
"Hello! Amnesia much? Angels equals dead too, didn't mind that."
"Eat your cereal."
Dawn shrugged "Still think he's yummy"
"Shut up, you're not old enough to think of people as yummy"
"Not for ME. He's like, ancient, but for you it's ok, cause, you're ancient too."
"Dawn!"
Little sis quietly sang "Spike and Buffy, sitting in a crypt ... what rhymes with crypt?"
"Dear God"
"No, doesn't rhyme with crypt."
Dawns next bug-the-sister was cut short by Spikes return. "Sure you're out of blood?" Before Buffy could reply, he had his head in the fridge "AHA! You've been
holding out on me" his head emerged from the fridge, followed by a plate with a bloody steak on it.
"Eermm, I wouldn't ... That's been in there ... Don't even remember when I bought it."
But Spike didn't heed her warning as he squeezed every last drop of blood from the steak. The Summers girls promptly held a who-can-sport-the-most-grossed-out-look
competition. "Eeeew" Dawn went.
"Eeeew eeeew" Buffy raised her one.
Which Dawn topped with "Eeeew eeeew eeeew eeeew"
"Yes, I think we've established the eeeewness of the occasion ... Oh my god, what's that!" Spike pointed behind the sisters.
As Buffy and Dawn looked away, he quickly licked the plate clean.
"What was that all about" Buffy said
"Nothing"
Buffy peered at Spike "You licked the plate, didn't you?"
"Well ..."
"Eeeew" Dawn went for another round
"Can't you come up with anything else" Spike shot at her.
Dawn raised an eyebrow "Yuk?" she suggested.
"Come on, Dawn. Let's get you to school" she looked at Spike "before I have a close encounter of the gross kind with my breakfast. And you," she pointed at Spike "behave."
"Always, precious."

---

The house held promises of rest and bathtubs but mostly rest. Driving to Dawns school had been bearable, from there to the magic shop had been painful, back home had
been torture. She let herself in "Spike?" Spike had drawn all the curtains. There was a faint smell of something burnt.
"Right here Slayer" Spike got up from the couch, his neck was slightly red.
"got salve for that"
"Nah, don't ..." but Buffy was already in the kitchen looking for the tube.
"Should we get to work now?" he asked when she emerged from the kitchen.
She motioned him to sit down. Sat down next to him, God she was tired. "Giles say 'rest'"
"Strictly minimum-talk girl? Bloody 'ell, that stings"
"Baby" huge yawn, you could fit the heart of a full-grown hellbeast in there.
"You people always expect me to be really tough"
"Hush" She slid down
"Know what, I feel stuff, I feel pain and not just physical pain either. I can be reeeeealy sensitive, I'll have you know and ... Buffy?" He nudged her "Luv?"
"Mmmmm" was all he got out of her.
There she was, passed out, using his lap for a pillow. He gently brushed her hair from her face. "I feel things you know" he whispered "like ... love."
Then, he did some passing out of his own.

---

It took Buffy a second or two to get her bearings. She rolled on her back and looked Spike straight in the eyes.
"Morning Luv, or evening in this case"
"Sun down yet?" She stretched
"No" He looked at a tiny strip of sunlight in the hall. "Shouldn't you go get Dawn?"
"Nah" she tried to get the stiffness out of her neck "Xander agreed to pick her up ... leaves us free to go kill stuff."
Finally, shop talk, "Got any leads?"
"Not much, know that Chinese place near my old school?"
"Went belly-up over a year ago?"
"That's the one, found two Engranics there" she stood up "not our guys"
"They talk?"
"Well, the first five minutes, they tried to convince me to kill the other one"
Spike smiled, Engranics, got to love em.
"But they had no clue what I was on about."
"Anything else?"
"Got many leads, well, not really leads, sort of like leadettes. The Stevenson manor, caves to the west of town, warehouse near the train station, that small ..."
"Hang on," Spike interrupted "that warehouse, had a couple of demons point that way too."
"It's the closest one, might as well start there."
"OK"
"How much longer before sundown?"
"48 minutes" he saw Buffies quizitive look "believe me, when you're a vampire, you keep track of this kind of thing."
"Just enough time then for a quick shower, and before you ask, no you're not invited."
"Bugger."

---

Buffy threw her clothes into the hamper. The bathroom was just warm enough to walk around naked. She had left the door open, Spike wouldn't dare come upstairs
anyway. Spike had an entirely different opinion of that. He followed her every move, every curve of her body. And man, did she have curves. She was athletic but
she had just the right amount of fat on her. He liked that. And he liked that firm ass that was now sticking in the air as she grabbed a towel. A low growl escaped
from his otherwise silent body. He was hard, rock hard. Maybe he should go in there and show her just how hard. Half a dozen of positions jumped into his mind, he
owed it to himself to try them all. He'd burst in there and pin her to the wall, shag her senseless. Maybe, if he were lucky, she'd throw him to the ground and ravish
him. Anyway, there'd be hard and sweaty sex in a minute and she'd love it.
She'd love it.
All of a sudden he wasn't hard anymore.
No she wouldn't, she'd hate it, he'd be dust in no time. And he couldn't even blame her.
He looked at her one last time, not at her firm ass, not at her magnificent breasts, no, at her face. He studied it for a moment. I love you, Buffy.
Then he went back downstairs.

---

They stood side by side at the door "How much longer?"
"3 minutes till the Hellmouth belongs to the demons again."
Buffy checked her crossbow, Spike his machete.
"Spike?"
"Yes, luv?" funny, she didn't object
"I ..."
"Come on slayer, out with it"
"I don't really want to go out there" she wrapped her arms around tightly, walked to the little window next to the door "It's just ... It never stops, does it?"
She glanced over at Spike, he shook his head "No, It'll never be over."
She looked at last bit of the sun going down "I mean, we barely got rid of Glory the friggin hellgod and now there's some punk ass little runt who found a really big
gun. And all he want's to do with it is annoy me. I tell myself, I quit. But then ..."
She jumped at the hands that were suddenly on her hips. Spike softly spoke "... but then you think of Willow."
She lowered her head "Yes, and Angel, and Faith even. There's always someone I know who needs help."
"And even if there isn't, you'll invent some reason to go out and save the world or that poor old lady or that schoolbus full of annoying little brats."
She put her head back until it rested on Spikes shoulder.
Spike continued "Because that's what you do. It drives you, like bloodlust drives vampires, drives me ... and like all vamps get dusted in the end ... it will be
the death of you."
She closed her eyes "I don't want to go out there, Spike."
He wrapped his arms around her "But you will and so will I and we'll live and we'll fight the good fight ... and we'll die. I'll be there right by your side when it
finally happens, we'll die together"
He lightly kissed her neck.
The kiss hurt, it burned. It comforted her and that's why she hated it, why it burned. This was Spike, dammit. Monster, demon, drinker of blood, killer of people.
She shouldn't find comfort in his arms. It was wrong. Yet, it helped her, got her ready to go out there, one more time, and one more time after that and after that.
She broke out of his embrace, quickly wiped her tears away.
"Come on, Spike, let's go kill something"
"That's my slayer!" to late sweet girl of mine, I saw your tears. Don't worry, They'll have to stake me first!

--- ---

The warehouse was huge and mostly empty. It had been built in better times. Now, it was way too big for its purpose. Vast areas of the buildings hadn't been used for
over a year, as the layer of dust proved. Occasionally, they'd come across some corners that had been used. Mattresses, empty beer cans, cigarette buts, burnt aluminium
and syringes, but no demons. One time they came across an abandoned vamp nest. Spike had sniffed the empty bloodpacks, at least 6 months old. They moved quietly through
floor after floor, building after building. Whenever Spike took point, Buffy was amazed at just how quite he could be. Spike was a hole in the air, his feet barely
touched the dust on the floor. No breath, no heartbeat, his clothes didn't rustle as he passed from shadow to shadow. They were coming to the more frequently used sections.
Checking the floor for dust was no longer a valid option. Just as they were about to enter yet another room, Spike suddenly stopped.
Buffy nodded at him, what?
Spike held up his hand, wait.
He closed his eyes and slowly drew in a single long breath through his nose. He opened his eyes again, peering into the darkness. Buffy came closer, what, she signalled
again. Mouth right next to her ear he whispered "Smell sweat, human, woman."
Buffy pointed at herself. Spike shook his head and pointed into the next room. They both considered the situation. There was a lot one could tell about a human from
just her smell, Spike thought, has she been running a marathon or the 100 meters? Is she asleep? Is she afraid? This one was awake and standing about, not moving much.
There was only one of em, one human that is, smelling a vampire who hadn't recently fed was nearly impossible. Why was a lone human girl standing about in the dark and
more importantly, why was she doing it here? He leaned closer again "It's a trap."
Buffy shrugged "Do we have a choice?"
Spike quietly shook his head. He checked his machete, still in place, let's go.

Gurn had found a new use for his powers. He was looking through the eyes of one of his demons, one with excellent night vision. Finally, there he was, and the slayer was
with him. Good. He moved Faith into place.

Spike pressed himself against some crates, He had heard something. He put his hand on the heft of the machete and launched himself around the corner of the crate. Buffy
saw Spike disappear around the corner, but before she got over there, he came flying back. As Spike crashed into a concrete pillar, the entire room suddenly bathed in
light. Gurn repeated his orders to his minions, Do NOT attack the enemy, let Faith and Angel handle it. In an hour or so, he was going to be the most powerful demon in
the world and he was going to thoroughly enjoy the last time ever anyone had any chance to beat him.
Buffy grabbed Faith by the wrist "Faith, can you hear me?"
Faith looked at Buffy, there wasn't the slightest hint of recognition. She attacked.
Buffy used the momentum of her attack to flip her on her back. She aimed a punch at Faiths forehead but hit nothing but concrete.
Spike got up, there stood Angel. The two vampires observed each other. "Pity you're not in control" he vamped out "Oh well, let's dance." Spike leapt at Angel. Angel didn't
avoid the attack, he waited until Spike was within striking distance. Then he grabbed Spike by then neck and slammed him into the floor. Spike slashed at his chest. Three
bright red gashes appeared. Neither of the two vamps gave much thought to defence. They just tore at each other. Angel put all his weight behind his punches and slashes.
Spike went for speed. Angel just couldn't keep up. One, two, three good solid blows to the face and he was up against the wall. Spike charged him. Launched himself into the
air and crashed his boot in Angels head. Angel lowered his head.
'That was easy' Spike thought. He came in close for the final blow. Suddenly Angel had his arms wrapped tightly around him. "Didn't know you liked m..." Air ran out. That
wasn't a problem, the cracking ribs were. Just a few more seconds and his ribcage would be a Chinese puzzle. Got ... to ..., he pushed Angels head aside and bit down.
But Angel didn't let go. 'Drop him you moron' Gurn shot at Angel. Angel obeyed. Gurn cursed himself. He had to give his champions more freedom to beat these two. Angel ran his
fingers across his neck. His eyes shot fire. He dove upon Spike, tried to bite his neck. Spike pushed him back with a spinning kick. They went for another round of tearing and
slashing.
Buffy was getting the upperhand. Enthralled Faith was slower then regular Faith, not much, but enough. Faith tried another left-left-high kick combo. Buffy ducked beneath the
kick. One to the stomach. Faith staggered back. Now it was Buffies turn, Faith barely blocked each punch, retreating every time. New tactic. She allowed Buffy to fit her, grabbed
her other hand. Elbow to the chest. Buffy gasped for air but Faith had left her head unprotected. She headbutted Faith in her temple. Faith let go. What to do, what to do?
Something flashed through her mind. Gurn picked up on it. Chip? What's this about a chip? He probed Angels mind for more info. This was too good to be true. He contacted both
his warriors 'switch'. Faith ran at Angel who was blocking Spikes view.
'What now' Spike thought. Then Angel dropped to the floor and Faith came zooming at him in a beautiful arc. The blow sent him flying backwards. He rolled with it, got to his
feet. "Hey! No fair!" he screamed. He ducked underneath Faiths next attack. Barely avoided an uppercut. He tried to run but Faith tripped him. He rolled out the way of her
kick. He had to surpress an urge to hit back. Just keep moving, he told himself.
Buffy faired little better whatever she tried, Angel knew a countermove. Even before she threw a punch, Angel had taken up a perfect defensive pose. He knew her style, her every
move, anything she might come up with. Don't think, just act. Buffy let instinct take over. She just threw herself at Angel.
Every time, he had a split second less to react. It was inevitable. Faiths fist drove into his ribs. He doubled over in pain. Her next kick sent him crashing into a crate, a
wooden crate. He was so distracted by all those pointy pieces of wood that he almost forgot to avoid her next blow. He landed on all fours and spun around to see Faith with her
arm stuck in the crate. Good, this would give him a few seconds ... but Faith yanked her arms back. Wood and nails dug into her flesh. Desperation overtook Spike, there was NOTHING
he could do to stop her. Oh great, now she was pulling a board out of the crate. Swinging it wildly, she drove him back. Back to the wall, out of options, Spike collected all his
strength. He jumped at an overhead beam. Just when he managed to reach it, the nails in the board dug into his shin. He wrapped his good leg around the beam, tore at the board.
The pain nearly knocked him out. Faith was below him, pacing like a hungry wolf, now sporting a sledgehammer, where the hell had the bitch gotten that? He threw the board at her
in disgust. Oh fuck, the realisation came just before the chip kicked in. Next thing he knew, he was flat on his back. Hammer snapped a couple of his ribs, he tumbled across the
floor. Vision blurred. Got the find her. Concentrate on her heartbeat, find it. Rats! Two other heartbeats cluttered hers. Two other? He focused on the source of number 2.
Through the black spots, he saw ... an Engranic. With all he had left in him, he jumped to his feet, only to have Faith swipe them from under him. As he lay on his back,
watching Faith ready herself for the final blow, all he could think was 'I'm sorry, Buffy'.

Buffy was finally getting the better of Angel, which was just aswell, since she was almost out of breath. Angel came in dumb. Had she beaten him that hard? He made no attempt
to block her blows. This was wrong ... he was keeping her distracted! She spun around, to late, Faith crashed into her feet first. Barely staying upright, Buffy caught her wrist
and twisted it. But that left her open to Angel. She blocked his third blow, only to get a kick in the gut from Faith. Ignore the pain, she told herself. Easier said than done.
High kick to Faiths head, follow through, uppercut to Angel, turn back, block Faith, duck! Angels blow went high. Buffy grabbed his arm and flung him into a wall. That took to
long, Faith swung the hammer at her. She tried to evade. The shaft hit Buffy in the head. Reeling, she staggered right into Angels arms. He grabbed both her wrists and pulled her
arms back. Faith mercilessly pounded on her. Her left leg gave way, then her right.
Gurn stopped Faith 'just hold her'. He came down from his elevated position, calmly walked over to the kneeling slayer. He was almost there when he noticed her left arm hanging
limp by her body. Angel had let go. He turned to Angel, ready to chew him out. His minion was in vamp face, he hadn't ordered that.
"Garb her!" he shouted
No, Angel wasn't going to grab her, in stead he took a step forward. Gurn dug inside his mind. Angels link was still there but he couldn't grab ahold of it. Every time he reached
for it, it would slip away. Angel slowly advanced. Gurn closed his eyes, forget there is a monster coming to rip your guts out. He focussed every last bit of his will on the
Angel link. The link become more solid, slowed down, as did Angel. There, he had it! 'STOP!'
Angel stopped, tortured look on his, now human, face. Gurn breathed a sigh of relief. He turned to Buffy again but all he saw was a fist. Then he saw the ceiling as he flew a good
10 feet back. Now Faith was coming for him. He tried to do the same to her link. It worked. Faith tried to advance but it was asif her feet were glued to the floor. Now Angels
link was stirring again. Gurn got to his feet and ran. In his mind, he screamed for his army. They'd take minutes to get here, to long! Both Angel and Faith had stopped moving.
Their struggle against Gurns powers was futile. The power engulfed them again, drowned their free will.
Gurn didn't notice, he was to busy panicking. Something fell on his face, something wet. He looked up. A dark shape detached itself from the rafters. It swallowed him up.
He tried to get away form this thing. His cries became fewer. The dark shape stopped moving. Spike flung his blood soaked head back in an animalistic scream. With all his strength,
he pulled and pulled. It gave way. Spike stood up, panting. He looked at his reward: one Engranic head. He dropped it on the pile of mush that used to be Gurn.
Angel tried to get his bearings. There, Buffy, on the floor. He wanted to go over there but instead found himself in an embrace with an exhausted Faith. Over Faiths shoulder he saw
Spike limping over to Buffy. His eyes shot fire. Spike didn't notice, or didn't care.
He fell next to her limp body. There was no need to check for a pulse. Her strong heartbeat was clear enough. As he drew her close, her face changed into a grimace that eigther
meant she'd just smelt French cheese or that she was in a lot of pain, at least she was up. He pressed her to his chest.
"Love me forever, or not at all,
End of my tether, back to the wall,
Give me your hand, don't you ever ask why,
Promise me nothing, live 'til we die"
Buffy forced her eyes open, she smiled.
"Words not mine" Spike said
"But the feelings are, right?"
Spike just nodded.
They stared at each other.
"Engranic?" Buffy said when it started feeling awkward
"Dead"
"Sure?"
"Tore it's head clear off." He never looked away for even a split second
"That'll do it" then she remembered something "Angel? Faith?"
Smile gone "They're fine" he nodded in their direction 'Bloody stupid hair-gel nancy boy' Spikes eyes shot fire. He helped Buffy up.
Buffy looked away "what's that noise?"
"I'll check it out" Spike headed out. Faith, all done hugging, followed.
Buffy stepped up to Angel. Angel expected a kiss, or at least a loving embrace, what he got was a slap in the face.
"Don't you EVER come to town again without telling me!"
"Buffy ..." no use, he didn't have any excuses to give, not that Buffy would listen if he did.
They hugged.
Buffy didn't really feel like hugging, seemed the right thing to do at the time. She broke away. "Let's go see what Spike turned up."

Just outside the warehouse, they found several dead demons and quite a lot of dust. They stopped next to Faith.
"Gurns army." Faith said
"Who?"
Angel answered Buffies question "Gurn, that's the name of the Engranic."
Faith continued "Guess they started killing each other when Gurn died" she paused a second "Spike found something"
They joined Spike who was standing over another Engranic, this one badly wounded, old wounds mostly.
Buffy squatted next to him "Wanna tell us about your buddies powers?"
It took the beast some effort to muster words "Or what? you're gonna kill me?" he laughed "I'm dead already."
"Well, yeah, wounds like those" Spike jabbed at a badly infected one "but it'll take you a day or two to actually die. We can make it quick."
It looked away "Not my buddy."
"Speak up" Spike jabbed again. The Engranic winced.
"Gurn wasn't my buddy, I hated the piece of shit. Came home one day, the day you came to town" he nodded at Angel "He had killed the one, taken his powers."
The blank stares of his audience told him to elaborate "When the one dies, his powers go to the next Engranic who is spawned unless you know how to trap them. Gurn figured out how."
"Why haven't we had problems with the one before?" Buffy asked
"The one will lead us to glory, when we get the sign and only then. None of us will violate that rule. Well, almost none of us."
Buffy nodded to Spike, then walked away, Faith and Angel joined her.
They heard a dry snap, then Spike followed them.

---

Epilogue

"More" Willow said
"No" Tara did her best to sound stern
"More!" Willow whined
"NO!"
"Not fair, I'm weak and hurt and ..."
"And?"
"And I can't get to the vending machine"
"And?"
"And loads of sugary goodness will make me all better."
"Weeeeeeeeeell" Tara saw a smile growing on Willows face "no."
Will switch from happy-face to extra-pouty-face "me want sugar"
"NO! You'll grow big and fat like pregnant woman" Tara smiled
Willow switched back to happy-face, her mind wandered, pregnant, babies, sweet little cuddly pink cute babies. She felt all warm and fuzzy inside. Which I can never have with Tara.
It was very cold in there all of a sudden. She saw her turmoil reflected in Tara's face. There'd be long drawn-out awkward silences in the near future. They'd need to talk. But this
long drawn-out silence proved to be rather short. Tara solved the problem by finally giving Willow a spoonful of pudding. Willow was so eager that she got some of it on her cheek.
Tara leaned closer. She licked it off, then she caught Willows lips with hers.
All done kissing, Willow saw Spike eyeing them slyly. "Spike!" she yelled.
Spike nearly jumped out of his chair.
"Come here Spiky" She beckoned him.
Spike suspiciously spied the broad strip of sunlight on Willows bed. He carefully joined the witches.
"Soooo," Willow smiled at him "Buffy tells me you took his head of, just for me."
"No! I enjoy killing, remember? I did it for my own perverse pleasure"
Tara and Willow shared a glance "We don't believe him, do we?"
"No," Tara replied "well, I do believe that he's a pervert"
Spike tried to go for a hurt look but didn't quite pull it off.
"... but no, we don't believe him" Tara continued
"Oh alright, I tore his head off for you. OK?"
"You're just a great big teddybear" Will tried to hug him but couldn't quite reach "well, with fangs that is."

On the other side of the bed, Angel was sitting just inches from the sunlight.
"I don't think it's a good idea"
Faith wasn't to sure herself but she persisted "it's ..." she tried to formulate her thoughts "I thought all I needed to do was slay. I slay and everything is five by five again.
That's what I'm here for, right? To slay? But it didn't work. We killed a whole bunch of evils but I don't feel right."
She studied her hands for a few seconds, then continued more quietly "... and I had this creep in my head for days." Subcontiously she tried to wrap herself in a little ball but when
her contious mind noticed she put a stop to it. She was done hinding from the world. "I mean, he was everywhere. Every single thing I've ever done was open to him."
"I doubt he took the time to snoop around" Angel tried, but he wasn't too happy with the idea eigther.
"It's just ... I feel so ..." She didn't finish. "Anyway, I want out, for a while at least."
"Still would prefer if you came back to LA with me"
"I'm a big girl, Angel." For the first time in their conversation, she looked at him.
Suppose you are "promise me that you'll call if you're ever in trouble"
Only when I'm in trouble, she thought?
"Or just to chat."
Faith leaned back, that's better, tried to enjoy the late afternoon sunlight.

Wesley considered how weird his life was, even for a former watcher. To his left, a bleach-haired vampire with a chip in his head who pained his fingernails was happily subjugating
himself to the endless quips and taunts of a pair of lesbian witches. To top things of, this vampire was in love with the vampire slayer. To his right sat another vampire, this one
had a soul and a fetish for hairgel. He was talking to the SECOND chosen ONE. Oh, and here came the former demon, current self-appointed sales manager of a shop dealing in magical
items, accompanied by a blob of energy older than time itself, turned into a young girl.
"Yeaaaargh"
Eight pairs of eyes focussed on Anya.
"Who put that there!" She pointed to one of the fluffy animals Willow had gotten
"Chill Anya, it's a puppy." Dawn shoved the thing at Anya
"Thank god!"
"What's the matter?" Giles spoke up "You're usually not his jumpy."
"It's Xander, he made me watch the horrible movie last night" Anya crashed into the chair next to Giles "It had a " she shuddered "bunny in it that bit peoples heads of."
Dawn went "Cool!"
Wesley smiled broadly and went "Ni!"
Now eight pairs of eyes were on him.
Only Giles said something "aaaaa, don't say the word."
"I didn't know you where a Python fan."
"Wesley, you don't know the half of it."
The two adult, mature, reserved and well behaved English gentlemen swapped a couple of one-liners like "help, help I'm being surpressed", "Spank me! No, me!" and "Bring out your dead".
Much to the bewilderment and quite frankly horror of their audience.
Xander and Buffy had to miss this display as they were on snacks duty a little further down the hall.
"So," Xander summerised "they'll be waiting for a sign that'll never come."
"Hush," Buffy said "If they ever find out, we'll be in deep shit."
Buffy returned to feeding coins to the machine and punching numbers.
"Ain't it grand, Will being all better already"
"yeah, Tara did a preservation spell, worked wonders." again, back to the coins and the numbers.
"Buffy?"
"hmmmm?"
"You're not being very talkative."
"Yes"
"Something wrong?" asif that needed asking
"Uhuum."
"Buffy?"
"Yeah."
"Il pleut dans mes culottes." which was about the entire content of his French vocabulary
"Sure."
...
"WHAT?!" Through a haze, Xanders words came back to her "It rains in your underware?"
"So you ARE alive. Come on Buff, out with it. What's eating you." he thought about his last words "Which could have a double meaning in this town."
That was mildly funny but Buffy didn't feel like laughing right now. She dragged herself over to the window and leaned against it.
I'm fine. No, no problems. I've got PMS. Any of those would put a stop to any further questions but Xander would know she was lying. "It's lots things. I buy problems wholesale."
Xander wasn't going to interrupt her now that she was communicating.
"I'm just so tired" She tapped her skull "up here."
"You get like that, but now there's more."
She nodded.
"Angel?"
She nodded again. "He used to be my solution guy. I go to Angel and all the bad stuff goes away, or at least takes a timeout. But now ..." She squinted into the sun. She never really
enjoyed the sun anymore. "Now Angel is part of the problem. He shows up and there's pain and memories. It used to be kisses and cuddles and no sex."
"And now there's sex?"
"No, and that's where yet another problem comes in." She closed her eyes "Spike."
"Not really following you."
"He's near me so much, and I guess the stuff he does is kind of sweet, and he's easy on the eyes ..." she stopped herself. There were limits to what she'd share, even with Xander. "He
spent the day at my place, you know, the day we killed Gurn."
Xander tried to get into a frame of mind where he could understand Buffies attraction to bleach-boy. It wasn't working. But if that was her choice ... It'll be all right. No, that won't
do it. There was nothing he could say that would cheer her up. He just stepped up to Buffy and put his hand on her neck.
It felt nice to be touched by a hand that produced it's own warmth for once. Funny that he should place his hand exactly where Spike had kissed her. Asif he was trying to erase it with
his bodyheat. It wasn't working. She could still feel Spikes lips there. Was it really so wrong to enjoy the feeling. She looked at Xander, who was wearing his best the world is coming
to an end but I don't care smile. She smiled back, placed her hand on his.
"Come on, let's go throw sweets at the frenzied mob" One day at a time, I'll face the world one day at a time.