(O.O)
Spike had no idea how long it had been since his capture, but he did know that he spent the entire time in pain.
The Glory-bitch wasn't as creative as Angelus in terms of torture. But she knew exactly how to inflict pain on her captives.
He had lost consciousness more than once during his sessions with her. Throughout the entire time, all she kept asking him was who the Key was.
Idiots. As if he'd tell them about who it was.
He'd rather dust than put his little Bit in danger.
He screamed again as the bitch rearranged his organs because she thought it was funny. That was by far his least favorite method of hers. It took time to recover or regrow his insides whenever they got damaged or destroyed. But rearranging them was something he wasn't certain if his supernatural healing was able to fix. It hurt so badly and he was reaching a point where he was wishing for the damned bitch to just killed him already.
Unfortunately for him, she still wasn't ready for him to die. She must've had some way of measuring his limit because whenever he really thought he was going to dust, she'd stop and tell her minions to feed him blood. Once he had enough of it in his system, the torture resumed.
It was an endless cycle. But he wasn't about to give up Dawn. It was either dust or waiting for rescue, and he was hoping the latter would happen. He knew Steve heard him during the time the man called his cell, so that meant they would come for him. His only concern was whether they would find him in time before the bitch got tired of him and simply killed him.
"You know, the pain will stop if you just tell me who my Key is," the hell bitch said.
He glared at her, not willing to say anything else.
She heard him sigh, before plunging a serrated knife in his chest.
"Fuuuuuuck!" he screamed in pain.
"You know, I wanted to carve you up or maybe strip your skin, like an apple. But now, I'm more curious to see what happens to a vampire, if I open its chest up. Would your organs fall out? Or will they be intact? I mean, I played jigsaw with them earlier, I wonder what they all look like now?"
The knife on his chest slowly moved downwards. He could hear his sternum break as the bitch forced the blade down his chest.
She made a three-inch cut on his chest when they all heard someone knock at the door behind him. Spike froze as he immediately recognized the scent of the person who was on the other side.
"Pizza delivery!" the voice from the other side.
The vampire smirked. Leave it to his Slayer to sound perky at a time like this.
"Did anyone order pizza?" the hellbitch asked her minions.
One by one all of them denied doing such a thing.
Glory shrugged. "Well, I'm hungry anyway. Maybe I'll have pizza brain for dinner. Let them in."
Immediately one of her minions rushed to the door. The hellgod turned her attention back to him. "Shall we continue?"
She grabbed hold of the knife that was still on his chest again, intending to open him up further, when suddenly her minion flew past him.
"What?" she exclaimed before turning to the direction of the door behind him, "YOU!"
"Me. You have something of mine, bitch," his Slayer said, "And I'm taking him back."
The crazy hellgod laughed before taking Spike by the neck and forcing the vampire to face the Slayer.
"You want him back? Give me my Key," she bargained.
"Not a chance. Steve!"
Before Glory could figure out what was going on, someone jumped through her window and threw a circular shield in her direction. The shield hit her head before it ricocheted back to its owner.
"Hi, we've never met. I'm Steve Rogers," he said.
"And I don't care," Glory responded, "You just broke my window."
"Yeah. Sorry, but that was necessary for this to happen."
An arrow flew past Captain America's head and straight to Glorificus' left eye.
"Ow!" she cried before letting go of her vampire captive.
She pulled the arrow out before turning her attention back at her intruders, who already had her prisoner.
"You insolent pests!" She yelled.
Buffy handed Spike to Xander, who was waiting by the door and asked him to take her boyfriend out of there. She then charged towards the hellgod.
"Get me back my vampire!" Glory ordered her minions, as she avoided an attack from the Slayer.
She threw a punch at the Slayer but missed because she received another hit from a shield from behind. She looked at her other assailant, who rushed at her with his unusual weapon.
In normal circumstances, she would've easily dispatched her attackers, but they were relentless. Every time she attacked one of them, the other countered.
She was getting annoyed.
She grabbed the Slayer by the hair before throwing her companion. Steve caught Buffy and used his shield to block the Hellgod's punch.
"Ow! What the hell is that thing made of?" She clutched her hand.
Steve didn't answer, instead, he swung his shield at her before showering her with a combination of attacks. The shield seemed to be doing a number at her so he focused on using it to hit his opponent.
Buffy, on the other hand, had already recovered. She picked up a bloodied knife on the floor, one she was certain the bitch used on her vampire, before joining Rogers. She used the knife to slice the god whenever she was distracted by the captain, all while hitting her with her own punches and kicks.
Glory was surprised. Their attacks were affecting her, and she hated getting hurt. For humans, they seemed to be doing more damage to her mortal vessel than she expected. She tried backing off a bit to get momentum, but they kept coming at her.
She was losing what energy she obtained from her last meal. If they only gave her a second, she'd use it to-NO!
She felt a tingling sensation on her head signifying that her brother was close to waking up. Out of all times to appear, that idiot had to come out-
Buffy used the Hellgod's distraction and delivered a powerful kick at her opponent's stomach, sending her flying towards the bookshelves in the corner.
She had been surprised at how easy it was to fight Glory this time around. She had Steve to thank for that. It seemed that having a super soldier with powers on par with a Slayer came quite handy in dealing with a Hellbitch.
When Glory didn't get back up, she looked at Steve, who nodded. It was the perfect time to end this once and for all. They didn't know if what weapons they had could kill a Hellgod but, if all else failed, they were willing to rip her head off. This was one opportunity they didn't want to miss.
The two fighters approached the shattered remains of the bookshelf where Glory fell and were equally surprised to see that the god was not there. In her stead was a familiar young man's unconscious form.
"Ben!" Buffy cried as she ran to the body.
"You know this guy?" Steve asked as he tried to check the young man for a pulse. There was a slow beat, which was good.
"Yeah. He's an intern at the hospital where mom was admitted."
"Why is he here? And where's Glory?"
Where was Glory indeed.
(O.O)
Dawn had anxiously waited with Tara and Anya for the team to return and immediately ran to the group when they arrived with a very injured Spike in their arms. She nearly cried as she saw the state he was in.
This is all my fault. She thought.
She immediately directed Xander, who was holding Spike, to Steve's room at the upper deck of the apartment and had them lay her injured friend on the bed. She already had a medkit ready and already asked Tara to get blood for the vampire beforehand.
"Dawn, why don't you sit with the others in the living room and let us take care of Spike," Xander asked in a kind voice.
She glared at her sister's oldest friend. Spike was hurt because of her and she wasn't going to leave him until she was certain he was back to his normal, healthy, and snarky self.
"I'd rather stay and help him." She gave him a resolved face.
Xander sighed and acquiesced to the teen's request. He focused his attention back on the injured vampire and grimaced.
Spike was in bad shape. There was a large cut on his chest and his body was covered in bruises. His left leg was definitely broken by how it was in an awkward position. And those were just all the injuries he could see, Xander was certain the vampire's insides were in even worse shape and maybe he had more broken bones than his leg.
Man, Glory really did a number on him.
And the bitch only had the vampire with her for close to eight hours. He couldn't even imagine what would've happened if Spike stayed there any longer.
"What do we do, Xander?" Dawn's small voice took him out of his inner musing.
He turned to the teen and immediately felt bad for her. She was crying and shaking and it was obvious that she was feeling guilty over what happened. Instead of comforting her though, Xander thought that it was best to let her focus on helping their friend.
"Well, we need to set his leg back first, so can you hold him for me?"
The teen nodded, looking determined.
(O.O)
After dropping Ben at the hospital, Buffy and Steve went to his apartment to meet up with everyone. Upon arriving, the first thing she did was ask about her boyfriend.
"Dawn's with him. But Buffy, it was bad. She really did a number on him," Xander said with a serious expression.
Buffy nodded, before turning to the rest of her friends.
"Anyone got injured in the attack?"
"Not really. Miss Romanov handled Glory's minions like a Slayer and we were all able to escape there unscathed," Giles said, not hiding his awe from his voice.
Buffy turned to the other two Avengers, who helped them.
"Sorry, you guys got involved in this."
Clint waved off her apology. "No worries. I got to fly like Superman using magic, that makes up for anything." He grinned as he remembered how he was levitated by one of the witches earlier so he could shoot that Hellgod in the eye.
Buffy smiled for a bit and turned to Natasha, who merely nodded to let her know that she didn't mind getting involved with their problems either.
Once she was sure that everyone was alright, Buffy left them and went to the upper deck where her vampire was resting.
She paused by the stair as she looked at the sight of her sister sitting by the bed silently crying.
"Dawnie?" she called out.
Her sister noticed her arrival and immediately ran into her arms.
"He's hurt because of me, Buffy," she said.
"It wasn't your fault. Sweety. Glory did this," she assured her sister.
But this wasn't enough for the teen. Instead, she continued to sob in her arms.
A few minutes later, her sister calmed down and so she asked if she could be left alone with her boyfriend. Dawn nodded and went to join the others in the living room.
Once her sister was gone, she approached her lover and sat down on the side of the bed, where Dawn occupied earlier. Her hand reached out and gently touched the bruise on his eye. Anger began to fill her heart.
Glory did this to him.
She wanted nothing more than to go back to her house, find that bitch and make her pay some more for what she did to her boyfriend.
How dare she touch what was hers? How dare she make her sister cry?
Now that she knew that the god wasn't as invincible as she initially thought, since she and Steve were able to back her up in the corner, she was now convinced that they could win against her.
All she needed now was for a way to kill the bitch.
She heard a moaning sound from her boyfriend and her attention went back to him just in time to see his eyes open as much as they could.
"Hey," she said softly.
He smiled. "Hey back, Luv."
He asked what happened and she told him what he missed.
"So you and Rogers were able to beat the shit out of that bitch?"
"Yup," she answered proudly, "Beat her enough that she had to run away with her tail between her legs."
"That's my girl."
She smiled. Yes, she was his girl. Just like he was her vampire.
Her smile disappeared as she realized that she was partly to blame for his injuries.
"I'm sorry. I wasn't there when she took you. I promise that I won't let this happen again," she vowed.
"Hush. It wasn't your fault. Nor was it the Bit's fault," he said with conviction.
She was a bit surprised that he guessed that Dawn was also feeling guilty for what happened to him.
"Glory did this to me and you and Steve showed her who's the real boss. I couldn't be any prouder." With his good arm, he slowly pulled her close so she was lying down next to him.
The two laid together in silence, enjoying each other's presence.
A few moments later, Buffy spoke softly, "You know for the first time since Glory showed up, I really get the feeling that we will win this fight."
"I never doubted that you would win against her, pet."
"I know. But now, I'm starting to believe that we can win too. Steve helped a lot and if we combined all our strengths, we could surely beat Glory and protect Dawn."
"Do you want him to call the rest of his team here?" the vampire asked.
"No. I mean, they were a great help today. But we still have to keep the existence of demons and Slayers a secret, so we shouldn't ask all of them to come and help. Steve and I were enough to beat Glory. We just need a way to really kill her. That way she doesn't come back."
Spike nodded in agreement.
(O.O)
The day after they rescued Spike, Buffy and the others arranged another Scooby meeting. This time it was held at the Magic Box.
Clint and Natasha wanted to stay longer to help but Steve kindly asked them to return to SHIELD. One, because the two had done enough and this was a demon issue so, the Avengers didn't need to get involved in the matter. And the second reason was that if they were around, the group couldn't talk about the Key, whose identity was still guarded by everyone.
Thankfully his friends were understanding and left with a promise that if Cap thought they were really needed that he'd call them.
Buffy stood in front of her friends before saying, "We were able to beat Glory until she ran away last night."
"And I call that a win for Team CapSlayer!" Xander exclaimed.
CapSlayer?" Willow tilted her head in confusion. "What happened to Team Scoobies?"
"Oh, we're still the Scooby gang. But, since Steve and Buffy are kind of the leaders of this team and they were the ones who gave Glory a good beat down, I thought it'd be as good a name as any."
"Anyway," Buffy said, bringing the conversation back to the real issue at hand, "Steve and I may have beaten Glory, but she still had enough strength to run away relatively intact. If we want to win against her, we need to kill this demon once and for all. So that's where we'll focus our research on."
She turned to her Watcher.
"Giles, those books that the Council gave you, did they mention anything about how to kill Glory? Or any of her weaknesses?"
Her Watcher took his glasses off and began cleaning them, a reaction she knew was one he did when the man was nervous.
"I finished checking all of the books that the Council had provided and unfortunately, I wasn't able to find anything important regarding this demon. All mentions of Glorificus is that she was a god that was banished from her world into ours and only with her Key, is she able to return home. Otherwise, she is stuck living in this realm for all Eternity."
"What I don't get is that if Glory has been around all this time, where has she been hiding? Shouldn't someone as her be noticed by now. I mean she causes people to go insane and yet no one has caught onto her until now," Steve provided.
"He's got a point," Anya agreed, "I've been around for more than a thousand years and only until recently had I heard about this Glory person. So either, she was hiding all this time or she only recently got out of a prison of some kind."
"I doubt that bitch had the patience to hide all this time. So she must've recently got out of prison," Buffy said.
"Oh! If that's the case then there must be a spell that bound her previously. If we can find such a spell then we can permanently solve this Glory issue," Willow said excitedly.
Buffy nodded in approval. She liked the plan so far.
"Well, that's what we need to do. We'll start searching for spells that could bind Glory. In the meantime, we need more protection." She turned to Steve. "Your shield seemed to do a number on her. Do you have more of those?"
The captain shook his head. "Stark, Tony's father, Howard Stark, gave me this shield. He said it was made of a rare space metal called Vibranium. I don't think there are more of them."
"What about Olaf's hammer?" Anya provided.
Buffy turned to the ex-vengeance demon.
"Olaf's hammer was made of rare metal as well and it's really strong. You can use that as a weapon against Glory."
"Anya, you're a genius!" Xander told his girlfriend, who smiled at the compliment.
"Alright, we'll keep the hammer on hand. Where did you guys put it?"
"In the basement. I'll go get it!" Anya hurriedly went to fetch the weapon.
"What about the Dagon Sphere?" Willow supplied.
Everyone turned to the redhead.
"Wasn't that sphere supposed to repel Glory or something?"
Her Watcher looked contemplative. "Hmmm. Perhaps. I need to check it again. Can you and Tara help me check its magical properties? So far, I haven't had much success with it."
The two witches smiled and agreed.
Buffy looked satisfied. Her friends were amazing. After months of not being able to do anything against Glory, they were all giving great ideas on how to stop her. Her and Steve backing the hellbitch to the corner really helped motivate everyone.
"I also think we need to be extra careful. Glory got Spike when he was alone. It would be best not to give her another chance to take anyone else.
"Yeah. I liked the Captain's idea of not getting caught by Glory. I don't think I'd survive if she did to me what she did to Spike," Xander added.
"Speaking of Spike, how is he?" Tara asked.
Buffy gave her a small smile. "He's still recovering. I left him at Steve's house with Dawn."
"Do you think that's safe?" Giles asked her, sounding concerned.
Steve was quick to reassure everyone though.
"My apartment's owned by a relatively harmless demon. He has spells on the complex that prevent violence or the entry of anyone with dangerous intentions to the tenants and their guests. So they're safe there for now."
"Spike's safe and we all need to do the same for ourselves. Stay in groups and never go anywhere alone. This is our best bet," Buffy told her friends, who nodded in agreement.
(O.O)
Spike slowly eased Dawn from his arm. The teen had fallen asleep next to him after crying her heart out because of what happened to him. He settled the girl on the pillow and quietly got out of bed.
His body still hurt, but the combination of blood and excellent first aid applications on him did wonders to his injuries and now he's able to get out of Steve's bed with no problem.
He adjusted gently put a blanket on the sleeping teen before slowly limping down the stairs to the living room area of the apartment.
Once he was downstairs, he beelined towards Steve's landline.
He dialed a familiar number and waited for someone to pick up the phone.
He'd been a careless idiot since this whole Glory debacle started. He should've been more prepared for the bitch, especially after she handed them their ass back at the hospital. However, he'd been too caught up with his relationship with Buffy and then Joyce's death that he'd forgotten the dangers the hellgod posed.
Sure, he called Steve over and the man was indeed a great help. But after this defeat, he was certain that the god wouldn't be as accommodating to her next victim as she was with him. He shuddered to think what his new friends would feel if one of them ever died from the hellbitch's hands.
He needed to find a way to kill the god. Sure, Steve and Buffy were able to beat her to the corner, but they weren't able to kill her and that's a big problem. He knew his Slayer and their mates were currently at the Magic Box planning ways to deal with Glory, but he also knew that they had limited resources. He doubted that they would find anything new with what they had at hand. So he was going to call a favor from an old friend, who probably still wanted him dead.
"Hello?" a voice resounded from the phone's receiver.
"Singer, long time no talk," he said.
"Fuck. How'd you get this number?"
"I'm friends with Max. You really think he wouldn't be able to find your contact information?"
"That damn idjit. I should've burned that brat's ass when I had the chance."
Spike chuckled. He always did enjoy the man's sardonic remarks.
"He's a kid. Highly doubt, his mum would've agreed to your burning her only son."
"She's a witch. You think I'd let her live too?"
"I think she'd kill you before you even step foot on England."
There was silence on the other end and for a moment Spike thought that the man had ended the call.
"Alright vampire, enough chit-chat., what do you want? I've got better things to do than entertain undead bastards like you. So either tell me what you need or I'll hang up and come find wherever yer at and hunt you down personally."
Spike smirked but didn't comment any further to aggravate the man further. Instead, he went straight to the point and purpose of his call.
"I'm calling in on the favor you ower me."
"Goddammit! I knew being saved by you is going to bite me in the ass someday."
He chuckled again, before saying, "Don't worry. I'm not going to make you do anything that will affect your sensibilities, hunter. I just need information and I will leave you alone forever."
"What sort of information? If you're looking for a particular hunter, you know I ain't telling you shit."
"Don't worry, Singer. I won't let you rat on your friends. In fact, you might want to help me since I'm helping people stop a certain demon from ending the world."
The other snorted at his words. "Right. Whatever, vampire. Tell me what you need and I'll see what I can scrounge up."
"The Hellgod, Glorificus. I need you to find everything you have on her or any information on where I can get information about her."
"Why?"
"Told you. I'm helping some humans kill her since she wants to end the world."
"Why? I doubt it out of the goodness of your unbeating heart."
Spike snickered. "Actually, you might as well say that. If you haven't heard the news, I broke up with Drusilla a few years ago, and now, my current beau just happens to care about what happens to this world. So as you had said it, I am doing this out of the goodness of my unbeating heart, as well as for the woman I love and all that rot."
He heard the man snort again from the other line.
"Whatever. When do you need this information?"
"Soon. If you can give it to me tomorrow or the day after, that would be appreciated."
"Alright. I'll see what I can find. You said, Glorificus, yeah?"
"That's right. Some may refer to her as the Beast. But that's about all the information we have on her."
He wasn't telling the man about Dawn or about Glory's Key.
"Right. I'll get back to you as soon as I have something. Remember this is the last time I'll be helping you. After this, I don't owe you jack shit anymore. Ya hear me?"
"Crystal, Robert. Just call back this number once you find something."
He hung up the call after that and slowly limp back the stairs to check on Dawn.
Hopefully, his friend would get back to him before Glory recovered and would take her revenge on them.
(O.O)
Willow cursed herself for her carelessness.
She was supposed to go with Tara to the Fair together, but she wanted to pay a quick visit to the Magic Box to give Giles her research notes of a possible Binding Spell she found for Glory, so she told her girlfriend that she'll meet up with her afterward.
Twenty minutes.
That's how long it was since she and Tara separated after class, and within that time, her girlfriend encountered Glory.
Fuck!
She rarely cursed. But she couldn't help it in this situation. She had been pacing in the hospital's waiting room since they took her girl from her when they arrived earlier. Her heart has been racing nonstop since found Tara sitting alone on the street bench.
Her Tara had been so different and wasn't in her right mind. It wasn't hard for her to figure out that Glory did the same to her girlfriend what she had been doing to several people in town.
She should've been there for her.
Giles, Buffy, and Xander had just arrived and tried to comfort her, but she shrugged them off. She wanted to know how Tara was doing. She didn't need anyone else at that moment other than Tara.
God, please let her be alright.
Guilt was slowly eating her up. After the incident with Spike four days ago, Steve had ordered all of them to stay in groups to avoid being caught off guard by Glory. They have been following this to a tee, until today.
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. This was all your fault! Fuck!
She should've been there. If anything awful happened to Tara because she wasn't there to protect her, she didn't know what she would do.
"Anyone here for a Tara Maclay?" a nurse, who came in, said.
"That would be me! I'm her girlfriend and primary contact!" Willow said as she approached the elder woman.
She didn't miss the woman giving her a stinky eye. But she chose to ignore her. Tara was hurt. She wasn't going to let some judgemental bigot stop her from seeing her girl.
"Alright. Come with me," the woman said before leading her to where her girl was.
TBC
(O.O)
Okay first, let me say that no, I do not plan on adding Supernatural to this universe. I just like Bobby and I thought it would be cool if Spike knew someone like him. So I borrowed the character without permission. Hehehe. Anyway, things are starting to turn bad for our heroes and more badness will come in the next chapters until the end. Thanks again for reading and reviews are deeply appreciated!