((Before you read this next chapter, I want to point out:
this was NOT intended to be a Bangel story. I have nothing against the character of Angel. I am not portraying him as evil.
Nasty reviews about my choice of storyline are not welcome. But I can promise that it will be worth it in the end.
Also, this is a long one because I may not be able to post for a few weeks. But please keep reading.))
He had remembered everything the moment he had woken up. Not that he had had much time to give it much thought. The Slayers stormed in, and one of them hit him. Hard. He fell to the ground, and struggled to recover. Before he could, the Slayer that had hit him landed on top of him, pinning him to the ground. He felt a rib crack. Then, they hauled him up to the bed. They tied him to it. With him subdued, they turned their attention to the Lanaiciesti demons downstairs.
One of the girls stayed with him. He learned her name was Laura. She hadn't been training long. That was obvious in the way she carried herself. But it didn't mean she was incapable of hurting him. By the time the others had returned to start questioning him, Spike was already sporting quite a few bruises on his face and one of his eyes was swelling shut.
"Where is Cara?" The leader moved towards him.
"I'm sorry, who?" He blinked at her blankly.
"You know exactly who I am talking about. But it's okay. Pretend you don't. We'll get it out of you." She opened the heavy curtain on the window enough that it burned his arm. He screamed in agony and they seemed to take a certain enjoyment out of it.
"Now where is Cara?" This went on for quite a while. His burns would just begin to heal when they would do the sunlight again. When that didn't get them anywhere, they took turns pounding on him. When they got tired of that, they used their stakes but were careful not to puncture his heart. They tried holy water to no avail. Finally, they had gone back to the sunlight.
By the time Buffy had broken down the door, he was barely clinging to consciousness. In fact, when he had first seen her, he was certain he had either died or was dreaming. Then, she had moved to him. Suddenly, everything went black and he felt himself slump. Then, he was lost in the darkness.
When he came back to himself, he was in a dark room. At first, his mind panicked. He wasn't sure where he was. As though she sensed his distress, Buffy appeared at his shoulder.
"Spike, relax. You're safe." Her voice had an immediate effect. He calmed down, and looked at her.
"Buffy, I-"
"Hush. There's time for us to talk later. Right now, you need to focus on healing." She touched his cheek, then stood up. "I'll come to check on you later this afternoon. But no one will bother you down here. I promise." She left without another word. He fell into a restless sleep after that.
:~:~:~:
Getting Spike out of the house proved difficult. It proved less difficult when I found the demons in the basement. Granted, they didn't really look like demons. They looked human. But there WERE certain things about them that made me aware of their differences. They were all in bad shape but I knew we had to help them. The girls were leery, but I managed to convince them.
The girls were distracted with the demons and it gave me the chance to call Willow. Instinct told me that she'd be hesitant but ultimately willing to help. She proved that instinct right. Carefully, we managed to get him out of the house without setting him on fire. Getting him into the headquarters was relatively easy, given the excitement. I hid him in the room I had been assigned, knowing no one would bother him if he was there.
I sat with him for a while, but I knew I'd have to face the others eventually. There were so many unanswered questions eating at me, but he was in no shape to answer them. That was clear when he finally did come to. I calmed him, but I knew he needed more rest. And probably some blood. So I decided it was time for the inevitable. As soon as I knew he was calm enough to sleep, I left.
Angel was the first person I ran into. I dreaded the moment I would have to explain to him that I had to follow my heart. I was fairly certain he'd have a very difficult time understanding it. As it turned out, that was a big understatement.
"Hey Buffy. Everything okay?" He stopped me in the hall. His voice was urgent, but I sensed something else underneath his tone. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but I also couldn't ignore it this time.
"Sure, Angel. Everything's all good. Everything okay with you? You seem kinda stressed?" He shook his head and reached up to touch my cheek. I moved away from him. Hurt was clear on his face.
"What is it? What did I do wrong?" I looked up at him.
"It's nothing you have done. I just..." I shrugged. "I guess I realized some things I needed to realize. I'm sorry Angel. But this can't happen." He glared at me, his eyes practically going red with anger. He backed me up against the wall with surprising strength. One hand grabbed my throat.
"You are not sorry now, but you will be." He kissed me roughly, the hand still around my throat. Fear filled me, but it wasn't the fear of danger to my body. The voice that had come from his mouth was not Angel's. It was rough and deeper.
I pulled away from him and glared at him. I could barely get enough air to speak, but I managed it. "Who...are you?" The voice laughed, a deep rumble in his chest.
"You will find out soon enough, my pet. You and that vampire you're hiding. You'll all pay for your sins soon enough." Again, he roughly kissed me, then he released me and I slid down the wall to my knees. The demon disguised as Angel disappeared. Sobs wracked my body. I should have realized sooner.
Willow came down the hall a few minutes after and found me. She helped me up. Slowly, I told her what had happened. She sighed.
"I thought there was something odd going on." She suggested we talk to Giles, but I was reluctant to leave Spike alone, given the threats the not-Angel being had made. She agreed to stay with Spike while I went to talk to Giles.
:~:~:~:
Spike woke up in the dark room again. He knew he hadn't been asleep very long. He was also aware of a presence in the room. He was certain it wasn't Buffy, but he wasn't sure who it was. Until she spoke.
"Hey, Spike. I'm gonna turn on the light, okay? I can't see in the dark the way you can." Spike opened his eyes, and saw Willow.
"Sure." He struggled to sit up.
"Careful, Spike. You still have a lot of healing to do." Willow flipped on the light and moved to his side. She handed him something, and it took him a moment to focus his eyes on it.
"Where did you get this, Red?" He looked up at her, aware that his tone was slightly accusatory. She held her hands up.
"It's not what you think. I didn't steal it from you. Dawn found it. In Buffy's jacket pocket. Apparently, she's been carrying it around with her since Sunnydale." Spike flicked open the top of the little metal lighter. He remembered the dream, the hint of metal he had seen Buffy holding. Could this be it?
"How..." He started to ask, but then the memory came back to him.
Spike and Buffy were getting ready to face the apocalypse. Again. She asked to use his lighter for something, but he was soon too distracted to ask for it back. Then, came the amulet's power. And the burning. Terrible burning from the inside out. He held on long enough to make sure she got out okay.
When he came back to himself, in Angel's office, he had not been too overly concerned about a lost lighter. In fact, he hadn't spared it much of a thought since. Now, he stared at the lighter in slight disbelief.
"You know what this means, right?" Willow was watching his face carefully. "That she kept it all this time?"
"I...I don't...I don't know what to think at the moment, Red." He met her eyes, trying to clear the lump of emotion from his throat. "She tried to tell me. She even said it. But I...I didn't believe her." He shook his head, remembering that moment.
"Oh, bollocks." He said, as the amulet became hot on his skin. A bright blue light shot up from the amulet and suddenly turnned a warm orange color. "Buffy" He called out to her.
"Spike!" Before Buffy could get to him, the amulet refracted the orange light out into the Hellmouth like rays of sunshine, but with concentrated intensity of laser. The gathered forces of Turok-Han began to crumble to dust. Faith led the other girls up out of the Hellmouth as Buffy rushed to him.
"I can feel it, Buffy."
"What?" She looked at him confused, and concerned.
"My soul." He looked back at her, then away. "It's really there. Kind of stings" Everyone else had gotten out of the Hellmouth, but she still remained behind with him. "Go on, then" He told her, hoping for once she'd listen. She shook her head.
"No. No, you've done enough. You could still-"
"No, you've beat them back. It's for me to do the cleanup" The walls started to crumble around them. They both watched. Faith appeared again, and called down to Buffy.
"Buffy, come on!"
"Gotta move, lamb." She looked back at him, something very much like panic on her face. "I think it's fair to say school's out for bloody summer."
"Spike!" Her voice was full of emotion he couldn't understand at that moment.
"I mean it! I gotta do this." He held up a hand to stop her. Buffy laced her fingers through Spike's, and they burst into flame together. Buffy looked into his eyes before speaking softly.
"I love you." All this time, he had wanted to hear those three words from her. All this time, she had told him it would never happen. And now that he was dying, she said it. But he could not believe she really meant it. Certainly, she was only saying it to comfort him in his last moments on Earth. Possibly, she felt she owed it to him. But she couldn't truly mean it.
"No, you don't. But thanks for saying it." Something briefly crossed her face that he couldn't quite make sense of. The ground shook and Buffy let go of his hand. "Now go!" She ran up the stairs. "I wanna see how it ends."
Despite that, here in his hand was the proof that he needed. She did care. Maybe, just maybe, she really was in love with him despite everything she had always said to the contrary.
"There's something you should know." Willow interrupted his reverie.
"What?" She sat down in a chair near the bed again.
"Angel is human. He found Buffy a few days ago. They had been catching up and she brought him with her to London." Cold dread snaked through his stomach. He remembered the fight, the moment that Angel had Shan-Shued. Of course the prat would go find Buffy as soon as possible.
"Oh." It was all he could think to say. He held the lighter tightly.
"I'm not finished." He looked up at her again. "Buffy knew as soon as she saw you that she had to save you. She called me and I helped. But she wasn't sure what to say to Angel. Until a few moments ago. He found her in the hall and she basically told him she couldn't be with him when her heart wasn't in it. He attacked her. It sounds like he's possessed. I'm sure Giles is going to send a force out after him. But the important part is-" He interrupted her.
"That prat attacked Buffy?" He jumped out of bed, still a bit unsteady. He kept his balance, though, and rushed for the door. "Where is she?"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Calm down, Spike. She's fine. But she's talking to Giles. Who doesn't exactly know you're here, by the way." Spike turned to her, wanting nothing more than to rush after Buffy but knowing it might be best to show some prudence. He nodded and moved back to sit on the bed.
"Buffy is alright, though? You're sure?" Willow nodded emphatically. Spike slumped on the bed, feeling exhausted again. "Okay. But I promise you. Angel will not get away with attacking her." His eyes closed and he fell into blackness again.