Disclaimer: Legal stuff, don't own characters, haven't made any money, this is for entertainment purposes, no profit earned, lawyers go away. –kisses-
Spoiler Alert: There are tidbits from past BTVS episodes and especially the Spanderverse series of stories.
Notes: Story following, "The Cost of Giles".
Everything from the television series through the defeat of Adam also occurred as depicted, in the Spanderverse.
People's thoughts are depicted in italics. You'll find emphasis depicted with an underline.
Coming of the Scooby Army
Ch 1 – Felled
Xander and Spike walked through the Summers' front yard. It was a moonless night with heavy cloud cover and the surrounding darkness seemed to drain away the street lamps' glow before the light could penetrate the gloom surrounding them.
The vampire of course didn't even notice, but Xan had to keep glancing down to check where his feet were going. More proof that his Hyena spirit was still unconscious… his night vision was better with her up and around.
I'm gonna have to drink it, he nervously thought again. He gave a quick glance at Spike striding confidently just in front of him. I-it's for the best, I guess. I have to get rid of her.
He gave a harsh intake of breath as he noted the damage to the front of the house.
"Oh, man. It looks even worse than I thought."
"You'll fix it. You're good at that stuff," Spike replied tersely.
He'd been silent all the way here and had generally been peevish since Xan's ill-considered offer of his blood to tide the vampire over out at the abandoned iron works factory.
Xander had really hoped for an attack on the way, to slice through the tension, but there was never a demon rampage or world-sucked-into-Hell plot when you really needed one.
The front of the house now had a large piece of plywood over the front window looking out on the porch. There was an additional piece of plywood, as well as yellow tape that had been partially torn away in the breeze, over the front door. Pieces of debris were laying in the yard and there was a thick mat of dead insect bodies everywhere they stepped. Otherwise the night was quiet, the street empty except the chirping of bugs out in the night.
"Insects? What are these, gnats," he exclaimed with loathing as he slipped in the gooey, slimy mess.
"Something that your near-victims whipped up. Bit the hell outta all of us, but the bumps have gone away….
"Another reason Hyena was on a tear through town."
"It seems really quiet," Xan noted.
"Hmm. A cop was here, but I can sense he's gone," Spike replied. "Can't sense any quote-prey-unquote in the house. Looks like Joyce's Jeep and White Wicca's car ain't here either. Points to the girls bein' out… hope they're careful."
"A cop? That can't be good."
"Rick was here, too. He'll cover our backs, I think. He seems decent enough, I guess. Whatever - what's done is done and we'll deal with the fallout."
"Let's see if one of the back doors is unlocked," Xander suggested reluctantly.
Carole Stein looked in on Dawnie, whispering her name, but the girl didn't respond and seemed to have fallen deeply asleep. She was grateful for this, as the events in the teenager's life seemed overwhelming to her – it was hard to imagine how Dawn was able to cope.
She made her way to her own bedroom and after changing into a nightgown and getting into bed, picked up her table side novel. She wasn't able to focus on the heroine's trials and tribulations, however. Her mind kept returning to Dawn's situation, and how exactly they would be able to help.
During her telephone conversation with Rick earlier, she'd expressed her worry over child protective services. Dawn had mentioned that they'd already opened a case file on her due to things that had happened during the fiasco with the false-goddess, Glory.
Rick had stated that it may be best for them to relocate the girl. It was an off-hand comment, but it had irritated her, and she hadn't yet let it go. She loved her husband. She wouldn't have married him if she hadn't been able to accept his doggedly rational way of looking at life, but he just didn't get how Sunnydale worked. He, unlike she, hadn't grown up here with the sudden deaths, mysterious disappearances, the unspoken paranoia and nearly weekly odd occurrences. This place wasn't like other places and sometimes you needed to throw rational logic out of the window to cope.
She wasn't even convinced that he'd accepted that vampires and the rest really existed and walked around, yet. Perhaps he had as an intellectual exercise, but in his heart… at his core?
Even with Spike's dramatic demonstration at the Summers' dinner table proving once and for all that sometimes horror tales weren't just stories, his mind continued to insist on more logical explanations and she'd noticed his hesitant stutter when vampires came into the conversation. He had refused to start wearing a crucifix as defense, even though he worked nights, when the beasts were out. And though she didn't see a realistic way for him to sneak it around, she'd brought up the idea of a stake… he'd laughed the suggestion off as 'irrational'.
Carrying a sharp piece of wood seemed the most rational thing to do at night, in her opinion.
Interesting that at the same time, he can insist that I have something in my purse….
He'd also refused to contribute the cyborg-being he'd mentioned to anything supernatural. It was only a 'twisted boy genius' who'd built it out of scraps and a corpse. As if every high-school science nerd could whip together a half-man, half-machine? (1)
Not for the first time, she wondered if staying in the town was a good idea for her husband's mental health. She wasn't convinced that he had the temperament to accept the usually-unseen-except-for-here corners of this mysterious world. She sighed to herself and worried until she forced her mind back to Dawn's circumstance and her husband's suggestion.
No, Dawn needs her 'family', no matter how imperfect, she nodded to herself. And, I'm just going to have to see to it that Rick gets on board this bus.
Xander and Spike walked around the house to the back. Joyce had two rear doors off of the kitchen. One, now also lying as debris in the yard, opened onto a small back porch. This former doorway was also covered in thick plywood.
The second door was intact and opened off onto the side yard. When Xander tried the door handle, he found it locked.
"Swell. I really need to talk to Tara about a key to this place," Xan said.
"Amateur," Spike smirked at him, making him feel a bit of relief regarding the faux pas from earlier.
The vampire reached out and easily twisted the doorknob, snapping the lock. With a push of his fingertips, the door swung open.
"You realize that'll be another thirty bucks to replace," Xander deadpanned. "And I should look into an actual alarm system."
"You do realize that demons don't think about stuff like that," Spike smirked back.
"I need some hot coffee and a few towels… I'm still soaked to the bone," he replied, preceding the vampire into Joyce's kitchen. "I wonder where Wills and T are?"
"Giles' maybe. Or that detective's. Let's get that potion and get this done with before Snarly-Bitch causes another knock down, yeah?"
Without a second glance, he pushed around the mortal with him and went straight for the refrigerator. Grabbing a container from within, he tore the lid off and began gulping huge mouthfuls of the animal blood within. As he gulped, he strode purposely to the cabinet under the kitchen sink.
"I guess," Xan replied half-heartedly while flipping the light switch. When he turned, he found Spike thrusting a beaker in his face. He took it reluctantly.
"Whatever the worries are, get over 'em and chug-a-lug," Spike said. He turned away and took several more mouthfuls of liquid from the container being squeezed in his hand. The cold pig's blood did not hit the spot in any way approaching human, but he was almost desperately trying to push the thought of Xander's salty richness out of his insistent brain. The mortal had done a stupid thing and despite the chip, he should be a lot more careful about the stuff that came out of his mouth.
In the meantime, Xander sighed and uncapped the inky looking brew. It smelled vaguely of licorice but also of something unidentifiable. Whatever ingredients Tara had used, it wasn't appetizing.
"Have I mentioned the tragic history I've had with magic?"
"Have I mentioned that 'you' tried to kill two people tonight? Drink it," Spike insisted.
Xander closed his eyes and brought the brew close to his mouth. Hesitating was a mistake, as his intake of breath only allowed him an unhealthy lungful of the potion.
"If this turns me into a toad, I'll never forgive you," he said with a grimace.
His eyes were tightly closed when Spike glanced at him briefly before turning away again to continue gulping greedily from his nearly empty container.
Xan girded himself against his doubts about what he knew needed to be done and swallowed Tara's potion, though not without an expression of utter disgust.
"Ugh, God! That's about the nastiest stuff I've ever swallowed! I'm starting to worry if Tara uses sewer water in her potions."
"So long as it works. Then you and me will talk about what you're worried about in getting rid of your animal spirit hitchhiker."
Xander looked both surprised and impressed by the observation, "Who said I was worried about getting rid of a possessing spirit? I never said that."
"Didn't have to… you've been dragging your feet all the way over here and trying to piss me off. No doubt to distract me so you could avoid quaffing. Feel anything different?"
"You know, you're pretty observant for a blood thirsty fiend," he smiled.
"I've been around a while."
Xan went to respond with a joke, but before he could his features twisted into a grimace of confusion, "Oh-oh."
Before Spike could ask what the problem was, the young man's entire body went rigid. His mouth gaped open in a soundless yell as he fell to the floor.
End Chapter 1
(1) Apparently, Rick didn't bother to acknowledge the demon-parts that helped make up Adam, as well as forgetting that Warren didn't actually build him – he just made some modifications. A fact he would have been told during the Scooby Gang's explanations following the cover up of the Slayer's death.