Title: So Much at Stake  (1/?)
Author: spike_me_1
Email: spike_me_1@yahoo.com
URL: http://www.geocities.com/spike_me_1

Disclaimer: I own nothing. All belongs to Joss and UPN.
Rating: R

Spoilers: Everything up to "Never Leave Me." I based this all on the spoilers that are coming in.

Dedication: To Sandy and Thia, for never failing to inspire me.
Summary: Season seven… Spike Me style.
 

.:: Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer::.

"I believe in you Spike."

"For by wise counsel, you shall wage your war..." (Watcher's council explodes)

"I have to admit, I'm glad it worked out this way. I was going to bleed Andrew, but you look better with your shirt off."

"I think it's about time we brought some authority to our presence. Now, Spike, do you wanna see what a REAL vampire looks like?"

"I know these guys... I've seen them before. We are being haunted. This isn't some demon, it's all the same thing. Spike's ghosts, the people you guys saw... from beneath us. It's all the same thing. I know what we're up against: the First."

- seconds later in the Summers living room -

"First what?" Xander asked, puzzlement written all over his face.

"Evil," Buffy stated slowly.

"Oh…" Xander said a little too casually, "Is that all? Well, you grab something pointy and let's get going."

"It's not that simple, Xander," Anya said flatly.  "It's powerful, more powerful than anything that has ever walked the earth.  It's going to take a lot more than a stick to kill this guy."

"Not to mention all the minions." Buffy pointed to the body on the floor. "Plus, it's got Spike.  He must have needed Spike for something because they seemed bound and determined to get him." She paused in thought. 

"First things first.  We need to regroup and make a plan," she commanded in true slayer-style.  "Dawn, go and cover all of the windows.  Use the garbage bags from the kitchen.  Anya, you go and check on Andrew and keep an eye on him.  Something tells me he's involved in this as well.  Xander and I will take care of the bodies.  Willow, get on the phone and call Giles.  I haven't been able to reach him, and we really need him now."

"Glad to know I'm still useful," came a familiar British accent.  The gang turned there heads toward the voice and saw Giles standing in the doorframe.

"Giles!" Dawn yelled as she ran and attacked the man with a strong embrace. 

"You are definitely perfecting the dramatic entrance, G-man," Xander teased.

"Giles, thank God!  Where have you been?  I've been trying to contact you for days.  Travers said…"

"Travers is dead," Giles stated matter-of-factly as he released Dawn.

"Wish I could say I was extremely upset but…" Xander started.

"What?" Buffy exclaimed.  "Dead?"

"Yes, quite.  As well as the rest of the council," Giles explained as he began to clean his glasses with his shirt.

"Oh, my goddess.  What happened?" Willow asked, eyes wide in wonderment.

"There was an explosion.  Destroyed the entire headquarters.  Watchers have been being taken down one-by-one for months now. I barely escaped with my life." Giles winced at the memory of the ax aimed at his head.  "The First means business, Buffy, and we cannot let him succeed."

"So you and I are the only ones left," Buffy asked, still in shock from the news.

"Well, us and Wesley, of course, and…" He stepped aside from the door, revealing three young girls.  "These were all I could gather that hadn't been destroyed yet," he said facing the frightened young girls.

"Giles… wha… who are these girls?" Buffy asked bewildered.

"Buffy, meet your successors: Annabelle, Molly and Kennedy.  They apparently are also the chosen ones.  Everyone," he said as he made eye contact with each Scooby before finishing, "meet the slayers in training." 

The room was silent. 

Buffy stared at the girls and relaxed her demeanor.  She knew the frightened look on their faces all too well.  They wore a look of uncertainty and of burden so great no one else could have possibly understood.  "Come in, girls," she said as she approached them.  "I'm Buffy Summers.  Welcome to the Hellmouth."

- That very moment on the other side of town -

It was cold where he was.  The all too familiar smell of books and gym socks filled the air.  He had spent far too much time in this basement, and now he found himself prisoner in this maze once more.  His tattered body was still chained to the platform that hovered over the seal.  His eyes wandered around this dim cellar, taking in every last detail he could.  The burning of raw flesh on wood surged through his nerves with every small movement he made.

 Mind spinning a thousand miles a minute, the beaten soul tried his best to form a plan of escape.  A few hours earlier, he would have simply let himself be killed here, among the demons, but things were different now.  She believed in him.  Pulling on the chains that restrained his wrists as best he could, he managed to loosen his left ever so little.  Before he could do the same to the right, an unearthly cold hand grasped his wrist and a voice, so full of sickness and hate that even the Big Bad's skin crawled, filled the air. 

"All in good time my son.  You shall be free to terrorize the world of mortals alongside me.  But first," the hideous demon snarled, fangs gleaming in the candle light, " we must do something about that troublesome new soul…."

- - An hour and two cups of tea later at the Summers home –

Buffy sat on the couch as she watched Dawn busily taping the black plastic bags to the newly broken windows.  Willow had taken charge of finding places for the SITs to sleep for the night.  Anya and Xander were upstairs playing good cop/ bad cop with Andrew, and having a bit too much fun with it.  Giles sat across from her and this was the first time she had ever seen the man slouch in a chair, no doubt exhausted from his journey. 

"So they do have Spike," Giles asked, searching the girl's face for any sign of emotion.  Buffy raised her eyes from her lap and fixed them on her watcher's gaze.

"Yea.  They surprised us and came in on every floor.  We never knew what hit us," she sighed.  Giles studied her even closer.

"He'll be fine Buffy.  I'm sure of it.  They only need his blood to open the seal.  They have invested far too much in him to kill him now.  Besides," he added rather secretively, "they know you have feelings for him and that you will eventually come to his rescue."  Buffy's eyes widened.  "It's okay Buffy, it's me remember.  We've been through a lot together," he smiled sweetly.  "I've said it once before and I'll say it again, I will never judge you.  I am only proud of the strong woman you've become."

She smiled sweetly at her mentor.  "Thank you Giles, but to be perfectly honest with you, I don't know what I feel.  Yes, I do feel something for Spike, but it's not the type of emotions you're thinking of."

"Isn't it Buffy?" he questioned softly.

"I feel for him Giles.  Truth be told there is something there between us.  It's not love, though.  I never even humored that idea.  But things are different now Giles.  He has a soul.  He went out and killed the very thing he was just to be a better man for me.  I don't know anyone who already has a soul that would sacrifice so much for someone.  He loves me, Giles.  There's no denying that.  Even through all of this craziness; him loosing his mind, being controlled by the First, and killing all of those people; he never once hurt me.  When the time came to harm me, he changed before my very eyes.  The look on his face when he realized what was happening in the cellar…" she hesitated, " I still get goose bumps.  Things are different now…" she stared at the darkened window, "I believe in him.  He knows that."

Dawn came and sat beside her sister, gently laying her head on the blonde's shoulder.  "I've always been a Spike fan," she added.  "I'm still not happy with what he tried to do earlier this summer…"

"But Dawn there were circumstances that…" Buffy interrupted.

"Let me finish," the brunette snapped.  "He is different Giles.  You can see it.  I trust him again, and I believe in him too."

"Had you told me this a few months ago Buffy," the older yet still dashingly handsome man said, "I would have been rather unsettled about you having feelings for Spike.  Quite honestly, I still find it somewhat unnerving, him being a vampire and all, but I do realize that he has gone through a great metamorphosis for you and for the greater good.  I always felt that Spike may hold a higher purpose in the scheme of things.  I honestly don't believe that the chip was a coincidence.  I actually tried to talk to him about it once, but of course he wouldn't hear of it."    Xander and Anya came bounding from the stairs suddenly with large grins on their faces.

"We scared him," Anya chimed. 

"We got the geek to speak," Xander beamed.  "Turns out old Warren told him to come back here and help the side of the evil like a good little storm trooper."  Willow and the SITs entered the room to hear the news.  "Apparently Warren had Andrew kill Jonathan," Xander added sadly.  Buffy and Willow stared sadly at each other.  "His blood was needed to open a seal or something, but it wasn't enough because he is so small." 

"We didn't get the rest of the story cause the girly-man started crying," Anya explained.

"Poor Jonathan," Willow sighed.  "I didn't really like him towards the end there, but I've known him forever.  Remember some of the stuff we went through in high school with him?"

"Believe me, I do," Buffy stated.  She could still see the scared face on little Jonathan the day she talked him down from the bell tower at SDH.  Then flashes of prom and him handing the umbrella to her flew through her head.

"How could Andrew do it?" Xander asked.  "He's certainly not a take-charge kinda guy.  You'd think he would've chickened out."
            "It's the First," Buffy explained.  "It's the same thing that happened to Spike.  We need to get rid of it.  If we run into it, who knows what it could convince us to do."

"When do we head out?" Xander inquired.

"We don't" Giles stated.  "I'm afraid that the slayer's will have to handle this on their own for now."

"And looky here!  Now we have all four slayers," Xander smiled.

"Actually five," Buffy added,  "but Faith won't be coming around any time soon."

"Actually," Giles hesitated, "there are six 'slayers' at the moment.  Two of you are active and four of you are in waiting."

"Well, where's the other one?  Couldn't you get her?" Buffy asked.

"Honestly no.  I didn't need to go looking for her, Buffy."  Giles took a deep breath before continuing.  "She's already here."  All eyes turned to the tall brunette next to Buffy.  "It seems that slayer's blood does run in both your veins."

TBC