Unmasking--part 16 of The Island of Galleno (Only a man who has felt ultimate despair is capable of feeling ultimate bliss.)
by Isabelle
Rating: R (for cursing, mild nudity, adult situations and violence)
Disclaimers: BTVS belong to Joss Whedon, ME, and UPN they are being used for entertainment, I don't own them. The Count of Monte Cristo belongs to Alexandre Dumas--Spike's journey was taken from the idea of the book and is used in the skeleton of the Series.
Summary: The moment that Spike finally has Buffy he is vamp-napped by Riley and a new officer, Jack Marshall and sent to the Island of Galleno off the Moroccan coast where all the leftovers of the Initiative are being placed. Buffy frantically looks for Spike but gets news that he was 'accidentally killed' by Jack, who decides to make Sunnydale his residence. The whole thing is Spike trying to get back to Sunnydale and Buffy thinking he's dead. It's filled with exotic places, tons of Original Characters, mysticism, enchantment, magic and love. It takes him years to find out who he is before he can find the one he loves.
Spoilers: Set after Normal Again, Season 6
Feedback: bih80reviews@yahoo.com
Archiving: Carnal Sins, DeathMarkedLove, and Only Time--all others please ask.
A/N: Yes, in case you didn't notice Dawn/Lugo are a minor couple *bg*
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"I still don't see why you can't tell her the truth, Zeru--she's missing you and all!" Lugo followed Spike around the mansion, taking his coat as he tossed it about, yanking his bow tie. "You have a family--a little kid and I can't believe you're going to let Jack keep your family!"
"What makes you think that I'm going to let Jack keep my family?" Spike snapped at him as he took off his shoes.
"You're leaving her there, after the kid told you he's not happy!" Lugo argued.
"You think I like leaving him there? With Buffy--when I can see sadness coming from her eyes?" Spike roared.
Lugo stood his ground. "But you did--what's stopping you from taking her out of there? Pride? I say screw pride and do what you have to do!"
"I am doing what I have to do--"
"And that would be what?"
Both men snapped and looked stunned as a poised Dawn who was standing in Spike's study with her hands on her hips.
"Dawn." they both said at the same time.
She glared at Spike. "So when exactly where you going to tell us you were back... or alive for that matter?"
Spike gaped at Dawn--she was definitely not the young teen he remembered.
"How did you get in here?" Lugo asked her. She glared at him.
"Up the window, I followed the limo," she snapped back.
Spike smiled. "How are you, nibblet?"
Dawn flushed. "I'm not your nibblet, Spike... you've been dead for 6 years... I grew up."
"Well, technically I've been dead for--"
"Don't get smart with me--where the hell have you been?" she cried, her arms falling about as she paced the room, her curls bouncing as she walked. "I mean... we buried you... or ashes we thought were you. And William... and Buffy--"
"I didn't have a choice!" Spike told her.
"A choice of what? To trim or not to trim?" her eyes were blazing.
"No.. I mean--you have no idea what we've been through!" now there were tears in her eyes.
"And are you even going to tell Buffy?"
There was silence in the room as Spike look down and Dawn's eyes didn't leave his face. "When the time was right."
"Right, because a few more days thinking you're dead won't hurt her!"
Spike sighed and ran his hand through his hair.
"I thought you loved her... everyone thought so... was it just a lie?" she asked him, walking in front of him.
Spike's eyes finally met her and she gasped. There was pain in those eyes--raw pain.
"Where have you been?" she whispered to him.
"I..." he gulped. "That night... I was imprisoned... in the Island of Galleno, I was there for years. I found out there that Buffy was dead... but of course it wasn't true, so I didn't want to come back to a Slayer-less Sunnydale..." he whispered. "It hurt too much."
Thick tears flowed down Dawn's face and she threw herself in his arms. He held her tight for dear life and Lugo thought it best to walk out of the room.
She sobbed against his chest. "We've missed you so much!"
"I've missed you too, Nibblet," he told her back.
She laughed against his shoulder. "I'm 21, Spike--Buffy's age when you 'died'."
"I know... but you'll always be 'lil bit to me," he smiled and kissed the top of her head like he had done many times that summer when Buffy had died.
She pulled back to look at him. "And what's with the beard? she made a face.
Spike smiled and ran his hand through his beard. "Undercover shit."
Dawn smiled. "Loose it and soon."
They both laughed.
"C'mon--I'm starving... and we have some catching up to do."
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Buffy padded down the hall after she had made sure Giles had everything he needed and had told Dawn to be careful on her drive to campus.
Her sister seemed anxious and fidgety for some reason or another.
She shrugged--probably that new guy she was all excited about. She sighed--remembering what it was like to be all giddy about a guy.
She glared at Jack's room as she passed it--she really didn't know how long she could take anything from him.
But that was the last thing on her mind as she slipped quietly into William's room.
He was one little ball of blankets, curling up against the coldness of the room.
She looked at him for a second, all sweet and innocent and with an angelic smile on his face.
She slipped into his large bed and he woke up.
"Mommy?"
"Shh, baby--go back to sleep," she whispered as she brushed his hair back and kissed his forehead.
"Are you scared, mommy?" he asked, yawning.
"Yup, I need you to keep me safe," she smiled at him and he curled his arms and legs around her.
"I'll keep you safe, mommy," he said as his eyes dozed off.
"Did you have fun with Lord Perling?" she asked him.
His eyes instantly opened and she could see the shine in them. "He took me to McDonalds! And he told the lady in the counter to get me a Piglet! Then he went down the slide with me and colored pictures of Pooh!"
Buffy chuckled. "He did, did he?"
"He's the bestest!"
"The best, my love." she corrected him.
"And he said he would buy me new glasses!" William smiled.
"He did?" Buffy asked, confused.
"Yup--I like him, he fought the bad guys and saved me!"
"He fought?" she asked him.
"Yup! All brave--like a Prince!" he smiled then curled himself up on her.
She sighed when she heard his breathing go steady, telling her he was dead to the world.
Lord Perling, she thought. There was something about him... something familiar yet foreign at the same time. Something that told her he was more than what met the eye...something that told her he was great in bed...wait--he's a married man and she's a semi-married woman!
She shook her head at her internal turmoil.
Bad Buffy.
Very bad Buffy.
.....she bet he had an amazing body--actually she knew he had an amazing body, she felt it when he pressed her against his chest.
And no those eyes... so very blue so soft and caring and he loved William....
He was married. To princess whatever from the desert.
She frowned.
They looked in love.
...they were in love.
She wondered what love felt like and what it would feel to go to sleep in arms that loved you.
Next to her William stirred.
He was her love now.
She held him closer but couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to go to bed each night with a person that loved you intimately and you loved them back.
To think about it--to really think about it she had never felt that love with Jack.
She's only felt like that twice in her life.
Once with Angel when she was very young... that seemed like eons ago.
And then with Spike.
She sighed.
If she shaved Lord Perling's beard and gave him an accent, dressed him in leather...yumm, Lord Perling in leather.
She seriously had to stop this.
Married.
Him.
You.
Married.
No Tango fantasies.
Nope.
Not one.
Not one at all.
....she really would bet money that he had an awesome body.
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Dawn smiled at Spike and he grinned back, a bit amused at the childish behavior she had taken with him, kicking her feet while she munched happily on the sandwich and drinking strawberry milk.
"I feel like I'm 15 again," she blushed, realizing her behavior.
Spike took a sip from his mug of blood and nodded. "As obviously you're not."
She sighed. "I'm so glad you're back... I mean I didn't think you would be back, after all Jack told us you were dust--Riley confirmed it."
Spike's eyes narrowed. "So Capt. America knew 'bout it?"
Dawn nodded. "Yeah, him and Jack are good friends, well they were before Jack retired from the services and went after his father's previous role."
Spike snorted. "Congressman Marshall."
"He's... he's not what he seemed like when we first met him. I know he doesn't make Buffy happy. That's why this is great! Now you're here and you can save her from unhappily ever after," she said, excitedly.
Spike's face bore a frown when she said this. "I'm not here to save anyone, Dawn."
"What about William?" then she gasped. "I mean... Buffy better tell you--"
"I know he's my son," Spike interrupted her.
Dawn's eyes were wide as saucers.
"I don't know how the hell it happened and from the looks of it neither does anyone else but it did, and he's something I'm not walking away from," Spike told her, looking out the kitchen window into the lightening sky.
"How do you know? No one knows," Dawn placed down her milk, suddenly losing the taste for strawberry milk.
"William knows, or he knew the moment we met. And I... I could feel this pull, can't describe it." He sighed and ran his hand through the itchy beard. He couldn't wait to shave.
"You seem so changed... time changes things and complicates them so much," she whispered, coming up behind him.
"Or makes them simpler," he snapped and started pacing.
This is the Spike she knew, moody and the next moment thinking irrationally. She had to smile at the irony.
"Simpler? Lost and floating," she commented.
"She..." he said, trying to find the right words. "I mean, how long was I gone before she threw herself into Mr. Dashing's arms?"
He looked at her, confusion, pain, and desperation shining in his eyes.
She now knew what hurt him the most.
Buffy forgetting--in his view, it was well known, even to Jack, that Buffy never forgot Spike and was probably dreaming of him at the moment.
"I don't think she ever threw herself in his arms... more like he caught her while she fell." she explained, lamely.
"Buffy is not the fainting type," he reminded her.
"She is when the love of her life suddenly is accidentally killed and a week later she finds out she's pregnant--Giles wasn't here. Xander and his whole Anya trauma was taking over his life. Willow was finding Tara once more and then were did we stand? You were what she had, and suddenly it was gone, disappeared. He came in with his white horse and swept her off her feet with his shiny soul and his smile and his promises of not judging her against her 'one night stand' with the baby's father."
"One night stand?" Spike asked, almost flabbergasted.
"We had to explain William," Dawn told him. "Though now it doesn't sound like a good idea... but imagine if the council found out? A Slayer having a vampire's son?"
Spike clenched his jaw, pacing once more the expanse of the kitchen. "I wanted to come home so bad... but then I got the news that she was...and I just lost everything, I lost hope, I lost life, I lost myself." He was quiet for a while. "I've been trying to find him myself ever since."
"We'll help, as long as you come clean to Buffy, Spike--she needs you, perhaps more than ever. William keeps having these dreams and we think he's part of some prophesy and she's no longer the Slayer. She might know her moves but she's not super-girl anymore." she looked down at her feet. "And I think her relationship with Jack is getting... darker."
"Darker?" he asked, almost sick to his stomach.
"They're very vocal about not loving each other anymore--or ever for that matter," she said quietly. "And one night... I stayed over for a long weekend and..." she gulped. "They were fighting in the room and the screams were just... it was just like mom and dad." she looked at him. "He loses his temper and one day I'm afraid he might..." she looked around uncomfortable. "That he might do something rash."
"If he hurts her I'll kill him... no wait, I'm still killing him," Spike growled.
"He's much more powerful than what you think," she told him, touching his forearm lightly.
"No--I'm more powerful than what he thinks, or anyone." Spike said to her. "I know why William has dreams and I know where this is all leading."
"You do?" she asked confused.
Spike looked out to the sky--the sun would be out soon. "Go home now, 'bit--I'll take care of everything."
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He watched as Dawn got into the car and Lugo close the door for her, he walked to the other side of the SUV and drove off.
He felt ... weird.
And unexplicable feeling settled over him as he watched them drive off but he brushed it aside.
He looked at his liquor cabinet and took out his most rare bottle of Bourbon.
$300 bucks a glass. He had bought a box of 25 bottles.
He took seat in his dark room, glass filled to the top as he watched the sunlight enter the room through the opened curtains. Now he was stuck watching the sun from the shadows once more.
He remembered all those years on the island as he bathed in the warmth of the sun.
It was the closest to Buffy he had ever been.
Now he was so close yet so far away it was nerve racking.
He picked up the phone next to him and dialed 52.
Jemina, the house maid that was there five days a week picked up the phone. "Good morning Mr. Perling."
"I'm going to need the number of an eye glass store that features good children's glasses."
He could almost sense the puzzlement in her tone. "Just get me the number, I'll do the rest."
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Dawn yawned as they got out of the gates. "Haven't slept much?" Lugo asked, next to her, looking at her from the corner of his eyes and smiling.
"Why didn't you tell me who had sent you?" she asked him, a bit defensive.
He smiled. "I was told not to."
"Do you always do what Spike says?" she asked him, picking up his CD collection and reading over them.
"I owe Zeru my life," he told her, camly.
"Why do you call him Zeru?" she asked, curiously.
"He must've not told you about the prophesy--he's the chosen one. The one to bring end to suffering. Him and his son."
"Spike's in a prophesy?" she asked, almost amazed.
"Yes, he's very powerful and noble," he's done much good.
"Spike is a vampire, you know that--right?" she asked him and he laughed.
"Of course I now, but he saved my life instead of taking it, for that I owe him everything," he said quietly as they pulled to a red light.
"How did he save it?"
"I was a slave, he won me and set me free. My life changed from that moment," he explained it to her, glancing at her, almost unsure of how she would take that news.
"You were a slave?" Dawn asked, almost horrified. He nodded.
"Here, look," he said and without warning he leaned forward and pulled the back of his t-shirt up revealing along his muscular back thick scars of whips and lashes.
Dawn gasped and tentatively leaned in to touch them. "Oh god..."
He looked down at her as she looked horrified at what had been done to him. "I was trying to save my sister... I was young and foolish."
Liquid blue eyes looked up to him. "What were they doing to her?"
He looked away and gulped. "One of the patrons took a fancy to her, she is very beautiful, my sister is." Suddenly he didn't look as young anymore, more like dark and troubled. "I couldn't stand to hear as she screamed as she was dragged into the private room... so I did what any brother would do... I killed the guards and the patron."
Dawn looked at her, grief stricken. "You killed them..."
"I did... I can still hear her at times begging me not to hurt them, she knew what would happen."
"Why didn't they just kill you?"
"Death is the easy way out in life, don't you think Dawn Summers?" he gave her a small smile.
The entire moment was broken as car horns were heard and Lugo realized that he had been oggling at her for some time.
She blushesd, realizing she had done the same.
"So I spent many months in a dungeon... didn't see the sun for days and days, until I forgot what it looked like. It was there that I grew up." he loked at her as he turned into her dorms. "We grow up in our darkest times, don't we?"
Dawn nodded. "Yes we do."
He parked the SUV. "Home sweet home."
She looked out the window, as if realizing for the first time she was actually in a car. "Right...thanks," she looked at him. "For the flowers, that is."
Lugo went pale. "I... well.. you see--"
But he was cut off when a very amazed Dawn leaned in and kissed his lips.
His eyes went wide, not knowing whether to move or to stay still. But the kiss was short and sweet as she pulled back.
She saw the shocked and completely dreamy look on his face and chuckled. "I don't usually do that," she whispered.
Lugo looked at her her in wonderment. "I'm glad you made an exception."
She laughed. "Maybe I'll make another."
He smiled at her. "Will this happen everytime I buy you flowers?"
"Maybe...maybe next time it'll take more," with that she got out of the car, grinned at him over her shoulder and walked to her dorm.
Lugo watched her walk away with a smile plastered on his face that he was sure would last for days...weeks...months even.
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Buffy graoned as she stretched. Her back was killing her.
She hissed as she stepped over one of William's toys in his room where she had slept that night. Toys were everywhere.
Hearing voices outside she quickly left the room and closed the door so William could sleep a bit more after the long night he'd had.
She could hear Jack chatting very happily and loudly with someone on the phone. She decided to ignore him and go the bathroom...until she heard him say something about Lord Perling.
She quickly walked out the bathroom and went to his room. He was already dressed and putting the finishing touches on his red tie.
"Right, I'll see you then," he hung up when he saw her.
"What's going on?" she asked him, still quite upset about last night.
He smiled at himself in the mirror as his tie was perfected. "We're having a dinner party here tomorrow night, we're inviting Lord Perling over--he seems quite taken with Jacob--"
"William," she glared at him.
He chuckled. "We're going to have him over. I want you to buy the skimpiest dress out there--"
"He's married, Jack! I'm married! I know it doesn't seem like it but we are! And I'm not playing whore for you!" she cried, glaring at him.
"Fine! It doesn't matter what you wear he thought you looked good in your nightgown and bawling like a hysterical bitch!"
She slapped him, growling at him. "My son was lost--the son you've seen grown up and I can't beleive you have no emotion for him at all--you're an asshole!"
He glared at her and straightened his tie walking around her. "But we knew that," he smirked. "Call him personally today I want a gurantee he'll be here."
She glared at his retreating back as he waltzed out of the room humming some happy-dee-do-dee song.
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TBC....