City By The Bay
A Buffy/Charmed Crossover.
Summary: Set in 6th Season. Dawn runs away to San Francisco and it's up to Spike to track her down. Unfortunately Dawn isn't willing to come home and the Charmed Ones aren't willing to hand over a young girl to a soulless vampire.
A/N: There are probably some things off, but I decided to take some creative license. Why not? Anyway, I hope you enjoy my first Buffy/Charmed crossover. Feel free to praise or flame, I'm ready for all!
The sun was setting in San Francisco, the sky fading from bright blue to pink to deep violet as the sun dropped down over the horizon. Shadows began to lengthen on the city streets and the lights of the city began to flick on in preparation for the city's night-life crowd. In a dirty alley, unobserved by all, a dark car sat parked and quiet. The black DeSoto was well camouflaged in the shadows, which was fortunate since if it hadn't been it would have undoubtedly drawn the attention of local law enforcement. Every one of the old car's windows had been covered from the inside with black paint and duct tape, making it impossible to see through them. The only uncovered spot was a small patch in the windshield, presumably so the driver could see where he was going. The interior of this suspicious-looking vehicle was as dark as the outside, and was filled with a thick miasma of cigarette smoke.
As soon as the sun fell below the bay's horizon, the car's door was shoved open and a cloud of smoke came billowing out along with the dark form of a man. "About bloody time." A voice with a cockney British accent snapped as he slammed the door shut and stepped out of the smoke and shadows. He was dressed in all black, down to his boots and leather duster, and his hair was a slicked-back peroxide blonde. He stamped out the last bit of a well-used cigarette, muttering something about being stuck all day in a hot-as-hell car in bloody California weather.
Spike let the smoke filter out of his unmoving lungs for a few seconds before walking back into the alley, remembering pathways that he'd picked up on when he and Drusilla had visited so many years ago. Unlike then, however, he wasn't here to have a good time (not like he could anyway), instead he was here trying to track down one little 15 year old girl who'd skipped off away from home. All the way to bleedin' San Francisco. The bit was going to have some serious explaining to do.
It had already been three days since the bit went missing, apparently she took some money out of her sisters room and headed for the bus stop instead of school that morning. At least he hoped she decided to take the bus, he had to think the nibblet had more sense than to hitch-hike. The sun had already set by the time Buffy burst into his crypt looking for Dawn, and all night before they realized she wasn't in Sunnydale. He'd managed to convince Buffy to stay while he went to go track down the youngest Summers', but after two days of searching and pumping various demons for information all he had was the word of a local snitch that a girl fitting Dawn's description had recently shown up in city. The way the guy had described her as 'tasty-looking but not something I'd chase across city-lines' had earned the lizardy demon a quick death and only served to make Spike even more anxious. He hadn't brought any blood along with him either, which was starting to become a problem - but he refused to go back without Dawn. There was no way he could face the Slayer empty-handed.
Dawn walked along the sidewalk, making sure to keep around lots of people. She hadn't really expected to have made it this far, so she was both excited and nervous. The fifteen year old knew her disappearance had to have been discovered, and though she was totally serious about running-away, she had also been sure one of the Scoobies would have found her by now. 'Maybe they gave up because they couldn't find me.' She thought, 'Or maybe there's some really evil demon doing some evil stuff and they just don't have time to go looking for me... or maybe they just haven't noticed.' She shook off the less-than-happy thoughts. Buffy definitely noticed, and Dawn felt guilty for making her sister sad, but she knew it would be easier on Buffy if she wasn't there. After all, since Buffy had come back from the dead she hadn't been herself. She was in some weird sort of daze all the time, and having a little sister to take care of was just adding to her stress. Dawn knew that Buffy was trying to support her, but they hardly ever spoke to each other besides her being scolded for skipping school and now she just felt like a burden. Who needed a fake little sister to have to take care of anyway? She was, like, thousands of years old, she could take care of herself. And there was that whole thing about Spike... But that was all in the past. From now on she was on her own.
And so, on her own, she'd winded up in San Francisco, for no particular reason other than that's where the buses took her. Three days running, and only a 6 or 7 hour car ride from home. She tugged at the load on her back. She had her book-bag with her, filled with clothes and other essentials, including a spare stake, and her pockets were half filled with quickly-depleting money she'd stolen from her sister's bedroom. So far things were going pretty well. But now the sun had set and she didn't have enough money to get even a cheap hotel room. She'd slept enough on the bus over, but she knew she needed to find someplace with enough people that she wouldn't be a huge target. After living in Sunnydale, she knew at least that much.
Just as she was starting to get tired of walking she came across a club that looked a lot like The Bronze. The sign on the roof said P3 which was a weird name, but she figured if she was going to stay up all night in a city she didn't know, she might as well have some fun. Luckily she still had her fake ID she had gotten with one of her friends. She looked way to young to pass for 21, but she got in as an 18 year old with a black 'X' marked clearly on the back of her hand. She didn't even bother going to try to wash it off, alcohol was still 'eww' as far as she was concerned. So instead she decided to head to the heart of the club and straight to the dance floor.
Spike snatched a pinkish demon by the back of his shirt and slammed him unceremoniously to the ground. He was one of many demons Spike had found lurking around searching for suitable prey, and hopefully eighth time's the charm. "Hey there, mate." He said jovially, as the demon got to his feet looking more than a little pissed. "Can't help but notice you taking in the sights. You wouldn't happen to have seen a girl, long brown hair, 'bout ye big, wandering around lookin' lost, now have ya?"
The demon seemed to size Spike up a bit before deciding to play it cool. "Haven't seen anything. Go ask someone else."
Unfortunately for the demon, Spike was pretty good at knowing when someone was lying to him, and within the next second the pinkish demon was pinned to the wall, the vampire's arm pressing hard against his throat. "Izzat right? Sorry, mate, but you're going to have to think a little harder than that."
The demon struggled and attempted to push the blonde vampire off with no success. "Hey, listen man, I said I didn't see anything! There's hundreds of humans through here every night, think I can remember every one of em?"
Spike made a faint growling noise and pulled a stake out of his jacket and placed the tip right between the demon's eyes. Sure, the pink thing wasn't a vampire, but most things didn't like to have spikes driven through their skulls. And he would know.
The demon's eyes crossed a bit and he stilled his struggles. "Hey, hey! Wait, wait a minute, alright! Brown haired girl, like 15-16 maybe? She had this sort of blue backpack on or something, like she was coming home from school. She went into the club over there, I was gonna wait til she came out. I didn't know she was taken already, I swear!" The demon babbled, without taking his eyes off the wooden spike.
The blonde vampire smirked a bit and let the demon drop to the ground. "There we are, not too hard was it?" He slipped the stake back in his duster and brushed some imaginary dust off himself, "Nice word of advice, mate: stay away from that girl, she's mine. Feel free to spread that around." He said before the demon took off deeper into the alley. He was a bit disappointed at not being able to kill anything, but he didn't feel like getting a reputation out here for killing every other demon he got in contact with. Might not sit well with a few people, and he wasn't here to get into any demonic disputes.
He stomped out another cigarette, one of almost a dozen he'd burnt through that night, and headed across the street to a club called P3, being sure to offer a few 'sod off's to the cars honking around him. He got in the club easily, and began looking around. He scowled at how many people where there; even if the bit was in the club he wouldn't be able to sniff her out in this huge crowd of sweaty humans. Instead he decided to lurk around the edges of the dance club, falling easily into the role of a predator stalking his prey. He may be chipped, but all the instincts were there, and who was better at hunting young girls than him? Well, maybe Peaches but he didn't feel like thinking about him right now. He hung back in the shadows around the dance floor and tried to catch a glimpse of the Nibblet among the crowd.
Dancing was already starting to get old. Dawn was tired and she found that going out wasn't as fun when you didn't have anyone to talk to or hang out with. She was about to go and blow a few dollars on a soda when she saw something out of the corner of her eye. She moved around a support beam and looked again. There, lurking on the edge of the dance floor, was Spike. Figures he would be the one to find her, but luckily he hadn't seen her yet. She kept watching him from behind the beam until he turned to search another part of the club, then she took her chance and headed for the back exit. She was so preoccupied with avoiding Spike's gaze that she accidentally ran into someone on her way to the door. She made a quick apology to the slightly stunned woman and rushed toward the door.
The muttered tones of an apology suddenly caught Spike's attention. The blaring music and dozens of different conversations going on would have made it impossible for a normal person to hear, but Spike had his advanced vampire hearing tuned to any sound the bit might make, and he found just what he was looking for. He turned around just in time to see Dawn slip out the back and growled slightly at the fact that she had run away from him. Calming himself down a little, he began moving through the crowd toward the back door. He was so focused on getting to Dawn (preferably before anything else did), that he didn't notice the young woman rushing toward the bar.
Phoebe Halliwell sped over to where her sisters were seated at the bar. They had agreed earlier to get together tonight to hang out and Phoebe was already about 30 minutes late, but that was not the reason for her rushing. She had just had a vision of a demon attack, and since the girl seemed alright just now, she knew it was a vision from the future: a vision she could stop.
She came up to the bar where she was noticed by her sisters. "And just where have you been missy?" Piper said, obviously just having gotten through complaining over her younger sister's lateness. Paige just leaned on the bar with an amused look on her face.
"I just had a vision." Phoebe replied quietly, before leaning in a bit closer and whispering, "This girl I bumped into, she's going to be attacked by demons."
"What kind of demons? Did you see?" Paige whispered back.
"Most of them were scaley and green, and then there was one who looked human except for his face. It was all bumpy." She gestured vaguely to her forehead. "His hair was white-ish, he kinda looked like a demon Billy Idol."
"O-kay..." Paige looked a bit bemused.
"Where's the girl?" Piper asked instead, looking around from where Phoebe came.
"Um," Phoebe looked behind her and scanned the area. "I think she went out the back. Come on, let's go."
As soon as Dawn stepped out of the club she realized her mistake. The alley she'd stepped into was both dark and deserted, which did not mean good. She was about to turn back into the club and risk Spike finding her when a scaley hand was suddenly clamped over her mouth. She tried to scream, but the hand held tight and she was dragged back away from the club's door. There were about five lizardy demons surrounding her, including the one holding her tight. The demon's strong green arms were wrapped around her torso, pinning her arms to her sides. The demon holding her was just saying something about her being bait, when the door to the club slammed open and Spike jumped out into the alley.
It didn't take long for the vampire to figure out the situation, and within the next few moments the demon holding Dawn was ripped off of her and killed, the lizard demon dissolving into nothing. The other four demons looked outraged, while Spike just looked pleased. "And I was just thinking about how much I wanted to kill something - and here you lot are." Dawn scrambled out of the way as the blonde vampire changed into game-face and charged at the remaining demons. He took a bit longer than necessary, enjoying beating each of the demons down before snapping each of their necks. He wasn't too familiar with this kind of demon, but this method of killing them seemed to do the trick as each of the four demons were vanquished into nothing but air.
Spike straightened himself up and looked around to make sure there weren't anymore hanging around. When he was satisfied he turned to face Dawn, "Got yourself a death wish Nibblet?" He asked.
Dawn stood up from were she had slumped down on the wall, feeling upset at herself that she hadn't been able to take one of the demons. She had a stake with her, and she was the Slayer's little sister, she should have gotten at least one. She looked up at the vampire who'd watched over her all summer while Buffy was dead, and instead of saying thank you, like she knew she should have, she settled on, "I'm not going back, you know."
"The hell your not." He snapped back, moving toward the teenage girl. He noticed that Dawn startled a bit, and paused in his steps - mostly because Dawn was usually extremely unafraid of him. Seriously, no matter what he said or did to the bit he could never make her do more than cross her arms and glare at him challengingly. It was very annoying and didn't help his Big Bad self-image very much. It was then he realized that he was still in game-face and made a small huff of annoyance, he couldn't believe that had gotten her to jump! Not that she'd seen him in game-face that often, but she knew he was a vampire. He'd spent a good part of the summer (the part of which Buffy would never know about) describing in detail his most infamous kills, she'd even laughed with him over a few of em! And this was all it took? What a waste of good scaring material.
He was just about to change back and drag Dawn kicking and screaming back to Sunnydale when the door to the club burst open yet again. The appearance of the three women surprised both Spike and Dawn who had expected more demons. Spike, however, wasn't distracted enough to miss the fact that one of the women was one he'd already pegged as the owner of the club (from when he was stalking around the bar) and that another was currently trying to hit him with a flying kick. A literally flying kick. She levitated about five feet off the ground before swinging her leg out to kick him in the head. He brought his hand up quickly to catch her ankle in a solid grip, and tossed her back towards the wall - then his head exploded in pain.
The chip told him quite clearly that these girls were human, if the painful electric shocks going through his brain were anything to go by. That was just his luck, he could deal with demons, but humans made this much more difficult. His vampire ridges slid away as he recoiled from the shock, but he looked up quickly when he heard the Nibblet's startled cry and was just in time to see the club owner woman throw out her hands in a flicking motion. Then, next thing he knew, they were gone.
To be continued...
A/n: Press the button! You know you want to.
