Author's Note:

I AM SOOOOO SORRY! So sorry guys, that it took me this long to get this chapter posted but I have been very busy with school and work. Not to mention the major writer's block that I got, unfortunately I don't think this chapter is everything that I had hoped it would be but it's the best that I could do. I thought it would be the easier one to write between Two and Three but I actually just finished writing half of chapter three.

I hope you guys will forgive me and continue reading and leaving reviews, and once again I am so sorry for making you guys wait so long.

Chapter Two

There was nothing except the darkness, the silence and the warmth. Some sort of hell dimension most likely, but the warmth…it was not what one would have expected of a hell dimension. Instead of the pain of burning flesh there was only the sort of warmth that one would associate with the embrace of a loved one.

"Do you enjoy this life of yours vampire?"

The silence that seemed to have enveloped him for what felt like an eternity was suddenly broken.

"Never imagined that I would be joining up with the Slayer but I can't say that I hate it. A decent place to live, plenty of cash and a spot of violence once in a while. What more could a bloke ask for?"

"By briefly aligning yourself with the Slayer you have begun a new path. A new destiny awaits."

"Have I now? What destiny is that then?"

"When the time come you will know, when you awaken from this slumber your journey will begin."

"I'm not dead then? Dusted? Darla didn't do me in?"

"Your physical body is unconscious, for now you are in a dream state but soon you will awaken and you will begin to fulfill a new destiny."

"If I'm just sleepin' that means that I made it out, Buffy must've taken out Darla and Angelus then got me out of there. The Slayer saved me."

"The Slayer has chosen her path, your journey with her is now at and end."

"What'd you mean she's chosen a path?"

"The Slayer abandoned her calling, her destiny. Now she lies at the mercy of a new fate. You need not concern yourself with her."

"What the bleeding hell are you on about? Where is she? What have you done with Buffy?"

"We have done nothing, she has made her choice. There are consequences for actions, your actions have given you a new destiny while hers will inevitably lead to her destruction."

"Bollocks, all of it. You can keep my bleeding destiny, I want to know where Buffy is."

"When you awaken, should you choose to pursue the Slayer you may soon find it to be a decision that you will regret."

"Threatening me are you, if I don't do what you want you'll kill me or some rot like that?"

"We do not make threats. We observe, we predict and we remember."

"And you predict that I'll regret going after Buffy?"

"You are understanding us well. Do you also understand that your choice will bring about consequences?"

"I don't bloody care about the consequences, all I want is to make sure that she's okay."

"Your choice is your own vampire; only know that you will not meet us again. When you awaken you will make the decision to accept your destiny or throw it away."

The funny thing about being kicked in the head is that you are usually left with one hell of a migraine afterwards.

When Spike woke up two months later he was lying on a cot that was situated up against a wall in the living room of a rundown apartment, likely located somewhere on the bad part of town. To the right of him was a small kitchen with a small breakfast table and two chairs, and to his left were two doors. Across from him was a couch and a television set that was facing away from him.

He was confused, disoriented and worst of all he was hungry.

That was when the dark haired man came out of the room closest to Spike's cot, which turned out to be a bathroom.

"Who the buggering hell are you and where am I?" Spike demanded.

The man smiled and put his hands up, "Whoa take it easy there, we're all friends here. The name is Doyle and I'm your new best friend."

Spike sniffed and glared at the man before him, "You're a demon, what do you want with me?"

Doyle came closer and stood over the cot, "Half demon thank you very much and I just want to help. I've been sent by the Powers That Be to help you fulfill your destiny."

Spike snorted, "Right, I've got a destiny." He chuckled, "So you were sent by whoever was speakin' to me in that dream I had. Why would the Powers be interested in me, a vampire?"

Doyle walked over to the kitchen and pulled out a beer, "Look, you've been living the life so far. You go where you want, do what you want, kill who you want but then you meet a girl who changes everything."

"Buffy."

Doyle nodded, "Right, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the chosen one. You partnered up with her when her boy toy was ready to send the world to hell, then you hightailed it out of town with your sire until she dumped you for some other demon."

Spike snarled, "You have a point here, mate?"

"I'm getting there, like I was saying. After you and your sire split, you come back to Los Angeles to wallow in self pity only you hear a rumor that the Slayer has switched sides.

You seek her out and partner up with her again, the only problem is that she is still one of the good guys and you were supposed to be one of the bad guys."

"What'd you mean 'supposed to', I am one of the bad guys. I'm evil."

Doyle shook his head, "I'm sorry man but once you made the choice to join the Slayer for a second time you became one of the good guys. You even stopped her from joining up with Wolfram and Hart; if you hadn't been there she'd be lost to the dark side by now."

Spike shook his head, "This doesn't make any bleeding sense."

"You saved the Slayer; it was your first step towards redemption for your years as a killer."

"Yeah and what if I don't want this redemption, what if I want to keep on killing as a matter of fact I'm feeling a bit puckish right about now."

"It's too late my friend; The Powers That Be have seen your potential already and they want to help you."

Spike frowned, "Well you can just forget about it, I want nothing to do with this destiny or whatever your Powers have planned. All I want is to find Buffy."

Doyle sighed, "That's going to be a bit difficult in your current condition, when I got you out of there you were pretty burned up, would've dusted if I hadn't gotten there when I did."

Spike looked at his arms, they appeared to be normal as though he'd never been in any fire, "How'd you manage to find me anyways and why didn't you get Buffy out?"

"I get these visions, flashes of images, names, sounds, addresses sometimes. Mostly it isn't too clear but sometimes I get one that is so strong it's like I'm right there. That's how I knew where to find you; the Powers sent the vision to me because they wanted me to save you and to help you with your destiny."

Spike nodded, "They sent you a vision of me? What about Buffy, is she alright?"

"I can't say, I was only supposed to get you out of there. I can tell you that she didn't die in the fire, I got there just in time to rescue you before the Watcher's Council busted in and took her."

Spike growled, "Those bloody cowards, they waited until she couldn't fight back to take her away, when I get my hands on those bleeding wankers I swear I'm going to tear them apart."

"Slow down there, first you have to take care of yourself. Darla really did a number on you, I did what I could but the leg is still broken and it's healing very slowly. I'm afraid you won't be mobile for a while my friend."

Spike swore under his breath, "What the bleeding hell am I supposed to do, lie in bed until the bleeding thing heals up again?"

Doyle grinned, "I figured you weren't the type to sit around twiddlin' your thumbs so I got you a wheel chair, it won't get you far but there really isn't anywhere for you to go right now."

Spike swore under his breath again, what the hell had he ever done to end up back in a bleeding wheel chair. God, how he hated it. To be an invalid again for the second time in two and a half years, it was so humiliating. No wonder the Powers That Be thought he was goin' soft.

One Month Later (two months after the fight against Darla and Angelus. One month after Spike's dream and waking up to meet Doyle for the first time)

Spike groaned as he moved to sit up, the room seemed like it was spinning around and his head felt three times its normal size. Once the spinning stopped he managed to get a good look at his surroundings and he remembered where he was.

The front door banged open then and Doyle entered with a bag full of groceries in his arm. He kicked the door shut behind him and entered the living room, "Hey, hey Sleepin' Beauty's' awake, how's the head then?"

"Migraine again but it's gone now." He sniffed, "You get my blood and wheatabix?

He sat the grocery bag on the kitchen table, "I gotta say man, that's a nasty combination."

Spike shrugged, "Don't knock it till you tried it."

He moved around the kitchen putting everything away, "I found that friend of yours today, he's been performing over at the Rusty Dragon."

"Its about bloody time, I have to see him tonight."

"You really want to go through with this then; you're going to try to find her?"

"I will find her, no matter what it takes."

"Look I get that your in love with this girl but you've got to move on, we already know what happened to her why not just leave it at that and move on."

Spike snarled, "Listen here, I won't leave her with those council wankers, who knows what they've been doin' to her all this time."

"Alright, alright I get it." He sighed, "Let's get you up and ready to go."

Spike frowned, "You're joking right?"

"How else are you going to see this Lorne fellow?"

"This is bloody embarrassing." He muttered.

Doyle slapped him on the back, "Cheer up, you'll be back on your feet in no time."

Doyle rolled the wheel chair out of his bed room and helped Spike into it before they headed out the door to see Lorne. Because of his current condition Spike hadn't been able to get out very much and thus relied on Doyle to keep him informed of what was going on outside.

Spike was determined to find out where the council had taken Buffy, if they had done something to her and how to rescue her from them. His first step in finding her was to find Lorne, with any luck the green skinned demon might have some information or at the very least be able to help track her down.

As for Spike's leg, it was still healing but much too slowly in his opinion. Darla really had done a number on him, his leg should have been healing a lot faster than it was but because of his new diet the healing process was slow.

Mostly he stayed in and watched television or slept, the occasionally migraine crept up on him every now and then as a result of being kicked in the head but other than that he spent most of his days bored out of his mind.

The Rusty Dragon was small casino in downtown LA; it was a fairly decent place. It catered to both human and demon clientele which is probably why Spike's green skinned friend had chosen to perform there.

Spike and Doyle grabbed a table near the back and waited for Lorne to finish his performance.

Doyle took a sip of his beer and glanced at the vampire, "So what exactly do you think we're going to accomplish by talkin' to this pal of yours?"

Spike shrugged and took a swig or his own beer, "Dunno, Lorne's got connections. I reckon it's a good place to start."

The performance ended and Lorne disappeared backstage for a few minutes before heading out to reunite with Spike.

When he reached their table, Lorne couldn't hide his excitement over Spike's return that is until he saw the wheelchair.

"Billy baby, what have they done to you?" Lorne sat down across and ordered a fruity beverage.

Spike nodded his head, "Good to see you Lorne."

Lorne looked the handicapped vampire up and down, shaking his head in disappointment. " And here I thought I was the one having a terrible time of it with Caritas all burned down."

Spike shrugged, "I'm healing, be up on my feet in no time."

Lorne sighed and glanced at Doyle, noticing him for the first time, "Oh goodness where are my manners, whose your new friend?"

Doyle stuck his hand out, "Doyle at your service."

"Saved my skin this one did, got me out before I turned into a pile of dust."

Lorne glanced back and forth between the two of them, "And Buffy? Don't tell me she-"

Doyle shook his head, "NO, no Buffy's alive far as we know. The Watcher's Council nabbed her just a few minutes after I rescued Spike, here. Problem is we have no idea where they've taken her or what they plan to do."

Spike frowned, "You haven't heard anything, any information that could help find her?"

Lorne shook his head, "Not a peep and believe me I have been listening. What do you think I'm doing here? Truth is either nobody knows a thing or they're too afraid to talk about it, I didn't even know about you until just now."

Doyle glanced at Spike, "I think this was to be expected. The Watcher's Council is too stuffy a lot to be sharin' their doings with the demon world, especially not when it involves their slayers."

Lorne nodded, "I gotta be with this guy on that one, from what I've heard about the council they aren't to found of the non-human types."

Spike kicked the table with his good leg, "Damn it, I have to find her Lorne before they do something that I won't be able to stop. I have to save her."

"I'll keep my ear to the ground, make a few calls to some guys that are a little higher up on the food chain but I don't think the chances are very good."

Doyle pounded his fists on the table then and gripped his head in pain, "Oh sonofa-" he kicked the table a few times, his eyes screwing shut until finally it stopped.

Lorne glanced around not sure what had just happened, "Okay, what was that?"

Spike sighed, "He gets visions from The Powers that Be." He glanced at Doyle who was recovering, "Thought they weren't gonna help me anymore once I rejected their offer."

"Apparently they changed their minds." Doyle moaned.

Lorne looked at Spike, "whoa, slow down. What did the Powers offer you?"

Spike shrugged, "Something about redemption or some rot like that, told them I wasn't interested in anything but findin' Buffy."

"Are you insane, no scratch that, you must be insane if you rejected an offer like that? What were you thinking?"

"I was thinkin' that I don't give a sod about redemption, all I care about right now is Buffy." Spike growled.

Doyle grabbed a napkin and started scribbling things down, "I think we just got our first clue."

Spike turned to Doyle, "What'd you see?"

"Large demon cyborg thing massacring innocents up in Oregon, this girl tried to stop it ended up dead."

"Okay an' how does that help us?"

Doyle glanced up from his napkin, "She was a vampire slayer, when she died your girl Buffy was called."

Lorne frowned, "I'm still confused as to how this vision from the past can help us find Buffy, where was the clue?"

Doyle shoved the napkin to Spike, "The place where this little showdown, uh went down was called the Initiative."

"The Initiative." Spike whispered the words, trying to process them. He had never heard of it before and by the look of confusion on Lorne's face, he didn't know much either.

Doyle took a swig of his beer and leaned back in his chair, "From what I saw in my vision this Initiative place has got some major funding, it was some sort of underground facility or laboratory. My guess is that they built the robo-demon and couldn't shut it down."

Spike nodded, "funding would require lots of money, and I wouldn't put it past those Watchers's to be behind something like this. Maybe some new training exercise or something and the slayer didn't make it."

Lorne frowned, "I don't like the sound of this."

"Me neither, but it's all we've got to go on for now." Spike sighed, "Alright, let's see what we can find on this Initiative place."

"I'll try and contact a few guys I know up north, they may have heard of it."

Doyle nodded, "I'll do the same and pay a visit to the library maybe they had a website or something."

Spike sighed, "I guess all that's left for me to do is get my legs workin' again. I reckon that I'll be needing them pretty soon."

Author's Note: Yeah I know, this chapter is kind o f a letdown, I'm fairly disappointed with it myself but I did what I had to do with it. Show you what happened to Spike, reunite with Lorne, Doyle gets a vision, and that little clue about the Initiative.

In case you guys are wondering, I have changed what happened to the Initiative so that it actually happened to the Slayer before Buffy that is why Xander gets to join the New Initiative. I know it may be kind of confusing right now, you are all like: what does all this have to do with Buffy?

But trust me you will find out a little more about this in the very next chapter which should be up in just a few days, maybe sometime next week.