This is my first Buffy fic, so please don't flame me too bad. Hope you like it.

Love's Truth

"We have a serious problem on our hands," Giles said as he addressed the Scoobies, including Spike, who sat uninterested in the corner. They were having another nighttime meeting at The Magic Box after Giles had told them that there was an important matter to discuss.

"Lemme guess," Buffy began nonchalantly, "I have to go and fearlessly defeat the bad guys and save the world." Buffy threw her hands in the air and exclaimed, "Simple!"

"Actually, it's not simple. It's the most confusing and deadly matter that we've had to deal with in a while," Giles corrected.

"Sounds like my specialty," Spike said as he crossed his arms over his chest. "What's the deal?"

"Someone is going to sacrifice a great amount of the strongest vampires, grind their ashes together, and with a few more ingredients-"

"We get a nice soufflé!" Xander exclaimed sarcastically. Seeing the look on Giles face, he said, "Or not."

"As I was saying," Giles continued, "With a few more ingredients, none too good, they'll have the most powerful demon ever created."

"That's bad. But what do they plan to do with this all powerful demon guy?" Buffy asked.

"The usual. Try to take over the world and make it their own personal hell," Giles said as he lifted a book up off a shelf and brought it to the table.

"The head vampire's name is in this book somewhere," Giles continued flipping through the book. "Ah! Here it is!" he said and laid the book on the table so that everyone could read it.

After reading it, Willow said, "Jonathon the Ruthless"? Sounds like a friend of yours, Spike."

The Scoobies turned to him, expecting a sassy comeback, and were surprised when they saw the pale vampire had turned an even lighter color, with a look of horror on his face.

"What's the matter?" Buffy asked him as she looked up from the book.

"You didn't just say, "Jonathon the Ruthless", did you?" he asked.

Giles nodded.

"BLOODY HELL!" Spike yelled and slammed his fists on the table, causing Buffy and Xander to jump.

Spike had turned from a pale, shocked vampire, to a pissed off and scared vampire.

"Who's "Jonathon the Ruthless"?" Xander asked.

"He was my very first partner after I was sired. We did everything together. That's when I killed my first thousands of people. Together, as "William the Bloody", and "Jonathon the Ruthless", we ruled half the vampire population in England. Together, we were unstoppable," Spike paused as he remembered. "Until the other vamps thought that we would kill each other for the title as leader. They knew that we wouldn't share the power. We would sooner stake each other in the back. We both split up, and formed armies out of our followers. The battle lasted 3 months, one of the longest in vampire history. I lost after my best men were slaughtered during a surprise attack. I retreated to Ireland; some of my follower's with me. And until this day, he has remained unbeaten."

The room was silent. Everyone was surprised that Spike admitted losing the battle and that he had been betrayed and beaten. The thought was strange and his reaction to his old friend's name was a bit scary. Spike being afraid of one of his old enemies? That's bad.

"Sounds bad," Xander said.

Spike just nodded as he continued his thoughts.

"Well, I guess I'll just have to stake him," Buffy smiled as she got out of her chair.

Suprising everyone, Spike jumped out of his own chair and grabbed Buffy's arm. "Is that all you think you have to do? This man has beaten an entire army! My army! He isn't just like any other vampire that you've dusted. He's worse." Spike said the last part with emotion in his voice, showing how much he worried about Buffy taking such deadly situations like they were a joke.

Buffy was quiet a moment, trying to read whatever was in Spike's fierce blue eyes.

She nodded, "I know."

Spike searched Buffy's eyes and found how much she didn't know.

"No. You have no idea!" he said as he swept out of the room.

"That was…weird," Xander said as he watched Spike leave the room with a bewildered looked on his face.

Buffy was silent. There had to be more bothering Spike than what he was letting on. His friend had had to been really bad.

She sighed. "I'm going to see what's wrong," she left the Magic Box, following Spike's path.

"Does that mean we can go home?" Xander asked after Buffy had left.

Xander seen the looks on everyone's faces and said, "I guess not."

***

Stupid Slayer! Spike thought as he continued walking through the cemetery, the clear night air giving him less comfort than he thought it would. She thinks this whole thing is a joke! No, not just this problem, her whole sacred duty. She thought her entire purpose was a joke. "Ooohhh, I'm the slayer. I risk my life everyday and don't even give a damn."

Spike growled in frustration. He knew that he was just acting mad because he was worried. Hell, the whole Scooby gang probably knew that after his outburst at the Magic Box.

Suddenly Spike's vampire instincts kicked in and he knew that someone was behind him. He turned, expecting to find Buffy, but never got the chance to know who it was as he was knocked unconscious with a crowbar.

***

Buffy sighed as she walked through the cemetery. Spike was no where to be seen and she had already tried his crypt.

"Well, I guess I'll try Willie's," she said as she headed toward the bar.

A few minutes later, she walked in, causing every demon in the place to look up, none too happy to see her.

Buffy just smiled at everyone as she walked to the bar through the crowded tables.

"Hey Willie. Have you seen Spike?" she asked, making her famous you-better-just-tell- me-so-I-don't-have-to-hurt-you face.

"Nah, not tonight Buffy," he said a bit uneasily.

"You sure?" Buffy pressed.

"Yeah I'm sure. I honestly didn't see him tonight."

Buffy groaned. She would have to take his word. There were other places to look.

"Ok. Have a good night Willie," Buffy added for good measure, "Or not."

Willie just nodded as the blond slayer walked out of his bar.

Dammit! That had been her last hope. There were only a few other places Spike would be at that time, and Buffy was positive that he wasn't.

She continued along the road, hoping that she would find Spike before he did something stupid.

***

Spike awoke in a damp, dingy room with a boarded up window. He was lying on the cold cement floor with his hands tied behind his back. By the smell, it was a none too pleasant place.

He groaned and shook his head to clear his mind. Spike grew alert after he sensed that he wasn't the only one in the room.

The other person, or perhaps people, were still unconscious. There weren't any guards in the room, but there were at least four outside the door.

He tried to remember the face he saw before he was hit, but his mind was jumbled. The only thing he remembered was storming out of the Magic Box because he was mad at Buffy. Well, that wasn't new.

This is all her fault. Spike thought angrily. If she had taken her duty seriously, he wouldn't have gotten mad and stormed out. She'll pay for this, he thought, but in his heart, he knew that he wouldn't go any farther than yelling at her for it even though it technically wasn't her fault that he was in love with her. No, wait it was her fault that he was in love with her. She was the one that made herself look so bloody hot. She was the one that acted so funny, and cute, and tough. It was her fault.

"Bloody hell," Spike mumbled. Now he was arguing with himself in his head. "Damn slayer."

He silenced himself when he heard the sound of footsteps outside of the door.

He heard the lock being taken off, then the handle being turned.

According to Spike's senses, 4 vampires had entered the room.

One of them approached Spike, and his nose told him who it was. Jonathon.

Spike knew what Jonathon was like, and he decided it was the right time to play dead-or, in this case, unconscious.

"Don't play stupid with me William!" the man said, jerking Spike's head up from the ground.

"I heard you talking about the slayer," the Jonathon's grin spread, making Spike want to rip his head off. Just the evil way his teeth gleamed, and his greasy hair shown, made Spike want to puke. And to top it off, he now knew that Spike knew the slayer. Not too good.

"Oh, hello Jonathon," Spike said as if he had no idea who had been talking to him.

That got him a smack upside the head, causing his head to whip to one side violently. Didn't matter to Spike though. He had withstood horrible amounts of torture in his day.

"I see that you still like to torture people," Spike smiled.

"Stop acting so bloody stupid. I know that you've been helping those stupid mortals. Killing your own kind. You were one of the greatest vampires in history! Now look at you. You don't have any friends. You know those loosers will turn around and stake you as soon as you get your chip out."

So, Jonathon had been keeping track of Spike. His ways were good. Not many vamps knew about Spike's chip, mainly because he didn't want them to make his life more miserable by teasing him about that. It would ruin his reputation even further.

"So, you know about my good friend?" Spike said, motioning the best he could towards his head with the ropes on.

"Yes I know! I just told you that! And if I don't start getting any answers than I'll-" Spike stopped him.

"You haven't asked any questions, mate."

Jonathon had never been that bright, but he was great in battle.

"Well, I will if you shut up," he growled, changing into his game face for the first time. Spike wondered what took him so long; most vamps were in their game faces right away during meetings.

"Yeah, well, you were always so bloody slow when talking, eh Jon?" Spike teased, receiving another hit upside the head. Spike didn't stop. This guy was getting on his nerves, hitting him on the head, messing up his hair! Who did he think he was?

"Well, I don't see why I should answer any questions when you're just going to dust me and grind me up in a big 'o pot."

The vampire's smile faded.

"How do you know about that?" he asked, grinding his teeth to help calm himself down.

"Like you said mate, I work with the mortals. Pretty damn good ones too if they found out about your secret plan, huh?"

Jonathan was so angry by then that he couldn't even speak. His mouth was clamped shut, and his face was turing red. Suddenly, that all went away and a cruel smile replaced it. Spike didn't like that look at all. That wasn't good.

He turned to his men, and said, "Beat him."

Spike shrunk back as far as he could in the corner as Jonathon's men walked towards him, Jonathon's laughing fading down the hall.

***

"Giles!" Buffy called as she entered the magic shop. She had been looking for hours, and still no Spike.

"Giles!" she yelled louder.

"What?" his voice came from right behind her.

"Ah!" Buffy yelled and turned around. "You scared me Giles," she told her Watche as she clutched at her chest.

"Yes, now what do you want?"

"Well, you're in a bad mood," Buffy said, hurt in her voice.

"Well, I'm sorry. It's just this whole "Jonathon the Ruthless" problem. We can't really find out much more about him. We'll have to get Spike to answer a few things. Where is he?" Giles asked, finally looking up from his dusty old book.

"That's the problem! I can't find him anywhere!" Buffy said in exsaperation, throwing her arms over her head in exasperation.

"That isn't good," Giles said in a solemn voice, making Buffy uncomfortable.

"Why? Where do you think he could be?" she asked in a meek voice.

"I don't know where, but I know who," Giles motioned towards the book that was still opened to the page about Jonathon.

]

"Oh no," Buffy whispered while her mind said, Spike, what have you gotten yourself into?

What did you think of the first chapter? Please tell! I promise it'll get more into Buffy/Spike, and the rest of the gang. :^)~