Chapter 7

Why on earth did he decide to hold back at the last second? He was so close to making that stupid soldier so miserable and... and then Spike had stopped, just like that. Fuck the bird and her pretty pleading eyes. Now it was the morning after, and he was marching furiously across his crypt, wondering about his actions with bloody Captain Cardboard. And since throwing things in the air and thoroughly trashing the floor didn't get the hoped for results, he stopped and sighed, running his hands over his face. Now that the chip was gone, he shouldn't be scared of her. And really, he was bloody not. He simply hadn't felt like humiliating her further or making her hate him again. She had already been properly humiliated by her own boyfriend, who had kind of dumped her in front of Spike's eyes. So much for all the inner doubts she'd had about leaving the wanker.

Buffy had looked at him and had dared him to continue, and it had become suddenly and perfectly clear that if he told Riley the truth about what happened between him and Buffy, which was why he'd come out in the street, Buffy would have hated it and would have hated him. And he really didn't want that to happen. He didn't want to see disappointment and revulsion in her eyes in the coming days, and the hate... No, he didn't want her to hate him. There was nothing good in making a Slayer hate him. It could be fun for a while, but in the long run, it was definitely a stupid move. She had put her sweet eyes on him, and Spike had added his good sense and his self-preservation instinct, and in the end he had just swallowed the bitter taste and let it go.

No fucking moment of weakness.

And he wouldn't help her because he cared. Hell, he didn't give a fuck about her! He didn't want to help her. He just had a compelling vengeance wish against that commando's boys and the bloody surgeons who had ruined his life, as he had already made clear to her. And there was no way he'd miss the most interesting brawl of the moment! The bloodbath that would follow... demon and human parts all mixed up together. Damn, he wouldn't miss it for the un-life of him!

If he kept repeating this for another ten or twenty times in his head, maybe he would believe it too. Thank you very much. Because the truth was, he couldn't bloody stay away from her. And he didn't want that horrible Adam monster anywhere near her.

Tonight, he told himself. Tonight I'll show Adam what a vampire is capable of. And with that thought, he entered the sewer tunnel, his restless feet leading him to Giles' apartment, where he was going to make a deal with the Slayer and her mates, to help them against the hybrid beast.

"There's no way we're doing that!" Xander stood up from his seat on Giles' couch and began to pace nervously in front of the gathered group. "We don't need Spike for this."

Giles adjusted his glasses on the bridge of his nose. "Spike is a rather strong vampire and he could be of some help to distract Adam while we're doing our spell."

They were talking about joining their forces to defeat Adam, now that they had the Initiative's layouts and knew where to strike. But the Hybrid was still too strong for them, so Xander had suggested they needed one person with Buffy's strength, Willow magic powers and Giles knowledge, all at once, since some ancient spell had to be chanted in Sumerian to weaken him. It had started like a joke, but Giles agreed it was indeed a brilliant idea and they really could join their essences through another spell, adding also the power of the first Slayer for good measure. However, the procedure was risky and every distraction could be fatal, so Buffy had asked if Spike's presence could be of help.

"If he's not playing Adam's game," finished Giles, shaking his head.

"Spike! Of all the people in the whole world, alive, dead or undead, you want Spike. What's happening to you? I want to know, really," Xander inquired. "Since he helped you when you were a Fyarl demon, it's only good talk about him. Spike isn't so bad, let's ask Spike to help us, Spike would know that because he's a demon. Holy shit! What did he do to you? Brain washing? Or did he just drug you?"

Well, Buffy herself was suspicious about the change in Giles' behavior. Not like Spike could have seduced him like he had done with her. Or had he? Buffy shuddered at the thought and tried to drive away the sudden and very inopportune images of the bleached vampire and her dear Watcher being intimate that had come to her mind.

However, she had to give Spike some credit, since his double-cross had revealed really useful information to them, letting them finally understand Adam's plans. And he had also supplied them with the Initiative's layouts, while Riley had stayed inside those buildings for months and hadn't provided much information apart from the fact that Adam took all his power from an uranium core implanted in his chest. And okay, it was a rather important information but still... And now he was going abroad, leaving them to deal with all the mess his beloved mentor had created. Thank you very much. But maybe it was better this way. Nobody wants to fight against his own ex-colleagues and friends.

A resigned sigh erupted from the Watcher's lips as he massaged his forehead. "It's just that lately I got to thinking ... and to know him better. And I think, with due encouragement, that there's a good possibility that Spike could become a valuable ally for us."

"Even without the chip?" Willow asked uncertainly.

"Let's just... Let's just go without him," Buffy announced, crossing her arms as she made her decision. All this uncertainty wouldn't lead them anywhere. "This is too important and we can't take unnecessary risks. We can't forget Spike has worked with Adam, even if to double cross him, and that without the chip he could hurt soldiers or even ourselves. And I really can't keep an eye on him if I'm busy with Adam."

"Right," agreed Xander, gesturing approvingly toward her.

"I agree," admitted Giles.

"So, what are we waiting for?" Buffy asked with a determined tone.

Willow grabbed some bags with herbs, sand and other things for the spell, while Giles picked up the spell book in Sumerian, a magical gourd, and some candles.

It was strange to prepare to face an enemy like this, Buffy thought as she collected the ropes that would serve them to rappel down the Lowell House lift shaft. She just hoped everything would go well.

Spike cursed in very colorful ways, and even made up some new curses for the occasion, during his sewer trip to the bloody campus. Why the hell didn't they wait for him? When he had arrived at Giles' apartment, he had found the bloody place fucking empty, without a stupid message for him. So he hastened to catch up with them at the University campus, sure to find them there. And sure, they had been there, at the Lowell House entrance. Once he was in the open, he kept himself in the shadows, without letting them know he was there.

Ha! Bloody morons they were, for thinking they could enter from there. Well, technically they could, but they were going the hardest way, not thinking about all the soldiers that would greet them. If only they had waited and listened to him, he would have showed them the 314 lab's secret entrance in the back. The one he was going to take, because he didn't feel at all like being captured once again by those stupid soldiers. However, he would enter the building only when the moment was right.

"Colonel..." Buffy began.

"Shut up," the Colonel interrupted her, as he unzipped the bag his subordinates had confiscated from the Scoobies. Her friends were in military custody, standing in a neat row nearby. "You've got some nerve, lady. You think you and your friends can just keep waltzing into a government installation brandishing weapons like..." He held up the object. "...a gourd?"

"It's a magic gourd," offered Giles.

"What kind of freaks are you people?" the Colonel said, putting the offensive gourd down.

"Adam is here, Colonel. In the Initiative." Buffy tried again, but the man just wouldn't listen. "Those overcrowded containment cells of yours: courtesy of Adam. He's pulling a Trojan Horse on you, he's just waiting-"

"Everything in this installation is under 24-hour surveillance."

"Including the secret lab?" Willow offered.

"Including everything!" he spat. Then, "What secret lab?"

"The one Adam's been using. The one built for the final stage of the 314 project," Buffy explained patiently. The colonel had a blank look on his face, so she continued, "and you have no idea what I'm talking about."

"I know everything that goes on around here," the Colonel stated self-assuredly. "A tick on a mouse couldn't get in without my knowing it. And if Adam wants to try we're ready for him."

"Jolly good," intercepted Giles. "How... How exactly do you plan to get close enough to Adam to remove his power source?"

"Hit him simultaneously with multiple taser blasters," the Colonel said proudly. "Incapacitate him with as much voltage as we can muster."

"Great plan," Xander commented. "That's right up there with 'duck and cover'."

"I've seen Adam hit with taser blasts," Buffy retorted. "He feeds on it. And now you're gonna provide him with an all-you-can-eat buffet?"

"You telling me my business?" The Colonel asked angrily.

"This... is not your business," Buffy stated calmly. "It's mine. You, the Initiative, the boys at the Pentagon... you're all in way over your heads. Messing with primeval forces you have absolutely no comprehension of."

"And you do?" The Colonel challenged her.

"I'm the Slayer. You're playing on my turf."

"Up there, maybe," the man countered. "But down here, I'm the one who's in control."

Suddenly the lights went out, proving he was wrong.

"Sir, the power grid's down. Backup's not responding," one soldier in front of the monitors said.

"It's Adam," Buffy said, getting ready to fight. The screens showed all the containment cells opening simultaneously, their see-through front doors lifted, and unrestrained demons going out into the corridor.

As part of the Initiative was already occupied by the bloody war between humans and demons, Buffy ran along with Giles, Willow and Xander to the project 314 area, whose position Willow's smart mind had guessed by looking carefully at the labs' layout.

The guys moved a wheeled shelf with several canisters, and Buffy tested the wall behind, almost immediately finding the door that led to the secret laboratory. Giles began to place the bag's contents on a steel table. The room was deserted and it was well away from the carnage still taking place inside the structure.

Buffy opened the two doors that led to the secret lab. "Once I'm in, barricade the door behind me," she said. "Is this place okay to be Magic Central?"

Giles nodded. "It, uh, should do."

"How long before the ritual kicks in?" Buffy inquired.

"Five minutes, give or take."

"Buffy, I still don't like you going in alone." Xander was looking at her with a worried expression.

The Slayer turned, mindful of their peacemaker embrace in the elevator shaft, and smiled at him. "I won't be."

It was true, recently they had gradually separated from each other, losing the enthusiasm that had permeated the group at the beginning. The enthusiasm to do things together and the trust to confide in each other. Xander had begun to date Anya and hadn't continued his studies, as opposed to Buffy and Willow. Buffy had started to go out with Riley, and Willow was often busy with her Wicca group, not to mention Giles' crisis, when he had found himself all of a sudden without a job, after Sunnydale's High destruction, and he had started drinking. But during their last meeting, they had realized they could only defeat Adam by combining their forces, and they had all apologized to each other for having strayed from the group and causing the loss of past harmony. Then they had sworn they wouldn't lose sight of each other again, and would always support each other.

It was easier said than done, but they were determined to respect this deal and really happy to recover their enthusiasm in being together as a group.

Buffy walked slowly along the well-lit passage and discovered it ended on a little platform above a large rectangular room, its floor a couple of meters below where she stood. The room was equipped with steel gurneys, several shelves, and carts full of surgical tools. Her attention was caught by a figure tied to a chair and Buffy narrowed her eyes to focus on it. When she realized it was Riley, she gasped and hurried down the steps to join him.

"Riley? Are you hurt?" She asked, wondering if Adam had captured him after they had separated the previous evening, but he stared at her without answering. "Please, say something."

She was about to untie him when she saw his eyes were pleading for her attention. When they had it, he looked at something behind her and she turned around to follow his gaze. Professor Walsh and another doctor were walking slowly toward her, but they were moving way too strangely, like a pair of zombies, and their coats were bloodied.

"What happened here? Why don't you talk to me?" She asked again, while a part of her brain rationalized Professor Walsh should have been dead.

"He can't. He's not programmed to."

Buffy turned to Adam's voice, which had come from the other end of the long rectangular room, but all of a sudden she felt someone grabbing her shoulders. It was Forrest, revived and combined with a yellow demon, that now was trying to hold her back while Professor Walsh approached with a kind of surgery saw to cut her to pieces.

Now that she was close, Buffy could see what had become of Riley's former mentor. Without batting an eye, she kicked and sent Walsh flying against a surgical table, while the clatter of a metal grate crashing to the ground caught her attention on her right. Everyone turned toward the sound and she saw Spike jumping into the room from a high window.

"Spike," Adam said, as soon as the vampire landed on the floor. "Have you come to join us in the slaughter?"

"No, I came to kick your ass." Spike reached the doctors and quickly pulled out the tubes which were feeding them, knocking them out. They didn't put up much resistance, their movements too slow, as if they were simply following orders rather than thinking for themselves. Their bodies folded up like two rag dolls and Spike went over to Forrest, intent on attacking him, giving Buffy the opportunity to run after Adam who was slyly walking away from the lab. If the hybrid had been surprised by his change of side, it hadn't let it on. Spike briefly wondered if Adam had taken into account the possibility of his betrayal when he had removed his chip before they had completed their plans.

Spike shot a quick glance at Riley, who was still bound to a chair, unable to speak. "Good look you've got there," he said, before grabbing a stick from the ground and rushing towards Forrest.

Meanwhile, in the nearby lab, Willow began to chant the spell to combine their essences as Giles lit the candles.

After taking Forrest out of action, which had turned out to be way more complicated than he had expected, Spike ran in search of Buffy, to lend her his help. He found her in a room full of computers and other equipment, where she was having some difficulty fighting against Adam.

Fighting hand to hand with Adam, confirmed to Buffy that the hybrid was still too strong for her and that they had little chance of succeeding until the merging spell took effect. At one point, she saw Spike appearing in the doorway. He stood on the sidelines to watch them fight, and the Slayer briefly wondered what he was going to do. After a while, as if to answer her question, the vampire began to hit Adam in turn. Spike's vampire strength was similar to her own, so it didn't give them a real advantage, but allowed her to gain time. In fact, if the spell didn't work soon, they would both become cannon fodder, giving their enemy the exact pieces he needed to form his army. The thought gave Buffy the chills and she tried not to think about it.

"I see you didn't need my help, after all," Spike said with sarcasm between his shots.

"Look, I really don't need your help. We can handle this all on our own," she said, not wanting to give him the satisfaction. She took advantage of Adam being distracted by Spike to swiftly approach the hybrid and grab his Polgara's spike from his arm, breaking it against her knee.

"Oops, I broke your arm."

Adam retreated a few steps, and before their very eyes, the broken arm healed was replaced with a machine gun. Spike grabbed Buffy and together they jumped and landed behind the counter with the computers, to have some kind of shelter while Adam began to shoot at them.

Temporarily safe, Buffy prayed again for the spell to be ready soon. Spike groaned and pulled off his duster, revealing a bullet had wounded his arm. She looked at him in surprise, realizing he had shielded her with his body. She wondered why he had decided to come and help them after they had cut him out.

"Why... ?" She asked, without ending her question, all her doubts condensed in one single word. Their eyes met for a moment and Spike was the first to divert his gaze, uncomfortable.

"Indeed, I was just reflecting upon the fine line between 'I have everything under control' and 'how the hell did I get into this shit'," he retorted, managing to make her smile for a brief second. But just as Buffy was about to thank him, the vampire started screaming inexplicably, holding his head in his hands.

Author's note: the dialogue with the Colonel and the final part with Adam was taken from episode 4x21, Primeval. I've only added Spike's presence and the interactions with him. I thought it didn't make sense to rewrite the whole part inside the Initiative, making things go a little differently, only to have the same results. So I basically kept the official plot. Adding Spike in it was fun enough :)

Next chapter is the last chapter of this story.