Turning the Helical Gear
Author: Nickeltaffy
Disclaimer: These characters are Joss's. I don't own them, never did and never will. Thanks for the loan.
Everyone's surprised by Spike's latest transformation – a four year old Spike. The only one who seems to taking it well is Spike and he's up for a little fun and maybe, some payback.
…
Chapter 9
Langdon and Spike had first become friends when Spike was a ghost wandering the evil law offices of Wolfram and Hart afterhours. Spike had come down to the holding cells one evening, exploring and walking through the walls. He happened to pass through the corner of Langdon's cell one evening, when the demon spoke to him, causing him to pause.
"So, what happened to you?" the demon asked the man passing through wall at the corner of his cell.
It was then, they started their friendship. Spike had no problems making friends that were demons, after all he was one himself. He could certain identify with anyone who had seemingly rebelled against authority.
Langdon was a Gaxoejin demon who had among other skills, had the ability to phase matter. He was the only one of his kind in this plane of existence. He had come from a warrior society in a dimension of violence and magic. There, he was considered a disappointment to his clan. His uncommon desire to refrain from violence, had made him an outcast in his family. So much an outcast, that they had magically exiled him into this dimension. The fact that he had been discarded by his family with magic had left a bad taste in his mouth. He had managed to survive several years by his wits in this strange world of warm blooded creatures and oddly blue skies, before Wolfram and Hart had managed to capture him. He had refused to cooperate with evil law firm's plans to exploit his talents and had eventually wound up forgotten in the back corner of the High Security wing. Over the years, he had began to understand the world he found himself in, thanks in part to unending cycle of Law and Order episodes and Lifetime movies on the television.
During one of the early evenings together, Spike discovered that Langdon was able to phase a chair in to the same resonance that Spike exuded as a ghost. Spike was able to sit down for the first time since he had sprung from the crystal, with that gesture a solid friendship was born. Every evening, Spike would make his way down to Langdon's cell for a friendly game of rummy since Langdon was also able to phase a deck of cards to Spike's resonance. They remained tight friends, even after Spike became corporeal. Spike realized that Langdon was the best choice to help him with his mission tonight.
Spike stood aside as Langdon phased through the door of his cell.
"Well? What do you have in mind?" the demon asked Spike.
…..
Spike explained the situation upstairs as he knew it. There were soldiers holding Angel and his team hostage most likely in return for some treasure or weapon. He also explained that everyone considered him to be a child in mind and body, but that Spike wasn't letting anyone know that his mind had remained the same and only the body had changed. Spike had decided to take advantage of this assumption in this plan to rescue the team. Knowing that since Langdon didn't want to broadcast his participation in his plan, Spike realized that Langdon's actions would have to be clandestine. "Oh well, so much, the better" Spike thought.
Not looking forward to a climb back up the necessary number of stairwells, Spike and Langdon phased up from the holding cell level up to the level of Angel's office. They ended up just down the hallway and around the corner from the lobby. They arrived just in time to see Fred being escorted out of Angel's office and back across the lobby in the direction of her lab.
Spike and Langdon decided on a signal to indicate what he wanted Langdon to phase out of the room. Luckily, Langdon could see through walls, so he didn't have to follow Spike to keep an eye out for the signal. When Spike wanted to be phased out of the room, he would indicate it by rubbing the back of his hand across his nose. That way no one would realize the seemingly small child was involved with what was going on.
"Ready? We're clear? Let's see how bloody stupid these soldier really are." Spike grinned at Langdon.
Without his shoes, Spike made no noise as he walked behind the pair of soldiers who were escorting Fred between them. No one noticed the child following them for several minutes. It wasn't until they got the landing before the lobby stairs, that one of the men paused and saw the movement behind them.
"Okay, here we go!" thought Spike, as he pulled the most innocent expression and tried his best to look small and non-threatening.
The soldier's eyes widened as he saw a small child who looked at him unfazed. The man froze in surprise for just a moment before even thinking to move his gun toward the child. The little boy just tilted his head and looked past him to Fred. Sensing the other man had stopped, the other soldier halted Fred by grabbing her arm before she could go up the stairs. Staggering a bit from her sudden stop to her momentum, Fred turned around. Looking briefly up at the men, the little boy made a slow procession between the two stunned men and went over to grab Fred's left hand. He pressed himself up against her leg, with his head tilted down. She reached across her body to put her right hand on his shoulder.
"Spike." She said with gentle surprise.
One of the guards, reached up to announce in the radio that a child had been located in the lobby. He reported that said child had been contained. Spike turned the front of his body toward Fred and faced away from the soldiers, so they could not see the extremely pleased expression on his face. "Oh, what you don't know." thought Spike with a certain amount of delight.
…
The radio suddenly came to life on the lead solder's shoulder in the office. He bent his head over as he listened to the incoming call from his men. Angel also heard the call about the child being located in the lobby, a slow anger began to burn in him. The soldier proceeded over to Elkhorn. Elkhorn looked amused and signaled to the man.
"Well, it seems that there was a little surprise lurking out in the lobby. I've instructed the men to bring it back when they come back with the stone." Elkhorn announced.
The burning radiance surrounding Angel was just beginning to disapate. He began to curl his fingers into a fist, thinking of what would happen if Elkhorn meant any harm to Spike.
….
The soldier received the direction from the radio. They motioned Fred to continue toward the lab. One of the soldiers motioned with his gun to take Spike along with her. She guided Spike over to the stairway railing and put his hand on it. She began help him up the stairs, when she was pushed aside by one of the soldiers. He grabbed Spike up in his free arm. Spike took a deep breath and held himself stiffly as they went up the stairs in his best imitation of an outraged child. The man set Spike down when the group got to the top of the stairs. Spike ran over to Fred and the hand she held out for him. The party went in to the Wolfram and Hart Chief Science lab.
Once they were inside, Spike ran ahead and clumsily tried to climb on one of the stools around one of the lab tables. Fred moved quickly to settle him on the stool and then moved some of the glass vials out of his immediate reach. She turned to the guards.
"The stone is in my office. One of you should watch him." She commanded.
As he twisted from one side to the other on the stool, Spike realized what the fuss was about. " So the soldiers want the stone. Hmm."
One man stepped back against the door to stay with Spike. Fred and the other guard went up the short staircase to her office. A few moments later, Fred was coming down with the stone in hand with her guard behind her. Spike at that moment went up on his knees on the stool and knocked all the beakers on the table onto the floor. The different chemicals mixed on the floor and began to smoke.
The mother tiger came out in Fred and she whirled upon the soldiers, causing them to take a step back.
"You have to do more than stand there, if you're going to watch him." She roared.
She rushed over and put the rock on the corner of the table and roughly pulled Spike off the stool to get him out of danger. She placed him on the other side of her as she turned to deal with the smoking chemicals. She yelled at the soldiers to grab towels and the chemical clean up kit.
"Quickly!" she bellowed when they did not move fast enough to please her.
During the excitement, Spike was taking slow side steps to the corner of the table while the adults were rushing about. He reached up grabbed the stone and rubbed the back of his hand across his nose. He disappeared.
All three adults had been concentrating on the mess of chemicals on the floor when the first guard noticed the stone was gone. He pushed Fred slightly out of the way as he made his way over to the table. Fred was too engrossed in containing the spill to notice what had caught the guards attention.
"Where is the stone?" he asked Fred as he was looking around the room.
"It's on the table." Fred responded without looking up. She stood up and looked at the table and then froze. Her eyes frantically moving around the floor and later the room.
"Where is Spike?"
