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Chapter 115- Hell Bound

"Last for the day", Buffy muttered before turning the recording on.

Fred walked into her lab, and sensed something behind her but there was no one when she turned. Then she turned back around to see Spike standing and dropped her papers with a scream, but that was an act to make Spike think he was scary, which he realized.

Chuckles went all around as Dawn said. "First the chip, now the non-corporeal thing, he really isn't scary either of these ways."

"Must be burning him", Xander quipped. "Poor guy…not!"

Fred explained what Spike really was while noting his heat signature had dropped by .02 degrees, and he quipped he was using all his mentalities to prevent himself from slipping into Hell. Fred then said she'd a theory to make him a real boy again, as real as a Vampire with a soul could be, while also mentioning the Shanshu prophecy which Spike was interested in.

"The prophecy never mentioned the specific Vampire, did it?" Willow asked, and got nods.

"So, any chance it can be Spike as well?" Tara asked. "Like, some chance?"

"Could be, but let's just wait to find out", Buffy shrugged, though in her opinion, Angel actually deserved it more, and Spike, she knew he wouldn't want it in the long term.

Fred noted Spike's essence was straddling a dimensional void, so by defying laws of nature she could make him corporeal again, and Spike joked about a hug before falling through, and he fell into the basement, landing flat on his face before hearing chopping sounds, and saw a man at the end of the hall chopping something while on a table with his back to Spike, who walked closer and saw he was chopping off his fingers, and when he turned his face was lipless and cut-up with gashes over his eyes and cheeks. Spike did a double take and the man was gone.

Everyone actually jumped at what they had just seen, frightened by the suddenness of it, as Xander was the first to ask. "Now what was that?"

"Enough to give Der Kindestod, the Gentlemen and Gnarl a run for their money", Buffy summed it up, and none disagreed.

"It was quite the disturbing sight, and I fear this is not the last we shall see of it", Giles warned grimly, and he was usually right about this kind of stuff.

"On the bright side, Fred has a way to bring Spike back", Willow pointed out to Buffy.

"Yeah", Buffy nodded, feeling hopeful. "And knowing her, it should work."

Lorne walked around, talking on the phone as Fred walked to Wesley's room to request some rare stuff, and he could get it in 20 minutes, while also telling her to get a real dinner for herself, and then Eve appeared.

"The one who ruins the moments", Dawn quipped about Eve.

"Who else thought Wesley was about to ask for dinner with him?" Xander asked and all raised their hands. "Come on man, show some spine."

"I believe he is waiting for the right moment", Giles said.

Later, they were at Angel's office with Eve, and it was pointed out that Fred's department had exceeded their quarterly budget by a lot, and then she revealed she was trying to make Spike corporeal, calling it something decent, but Angel was incredulous, only for Fred to point out Spike had saved the world and was a Champion like Angel, making Angel say he hated that word.

"Really? You loved it a lot before", Buffy said as they all chuckled. "Come on, Spike's not bad, I know him."

"With a soul, right?" Tara asked and got a nod.

Fred said he'd be an asset on their side but Angel said he knew Spike better than anyone and he only cared about himself, but Fred reminded he cared about Buffy too so Angel said Spike would run off to her first chance he got, making Fred wonder if that was what Angel cared about. Angel then warned about how charming Spike could be but she knew that already and was trying to do the right thing, so he left it up to her.

"Even if he wants to get with me, why do you care about that? It's up to me and him to care about", Buffy pointed out.

"Guess they have issues", Dawn said.

"Guess? It's obvious they have a lot of them", Willow shrugged, and all nodded.

Spike was back in the lab, which was empty, but then saw a lamp blinking and buzzing, and a dark shadow passed behind him. Then another light did the same as Spike pointed out what he was, but when he entered the hallway, all ceiling lights went on and off one by one, directing him down the hallway before hearing a woman crying at the hall's end. He walked to her, and she was dressed as a maid from the 19th century. When he was near, she got up and held out stubs of what were arms, telling Spike it was coming before disappearing when he did a double take.

Once more, everyone flinched at what they had just seen.

"Is this place haunted or something?" Xander finally asked.

"It is an evil Demonic law firm, obviously something has to be going on there", Dawn pointed out.

"But we never saw it before", Willow reminded.

"Well, they weren't running it before", Tara pointed out.

"Whatever it is, its interested in Spike", Buffy said, sounding grim.

"Looks like it", Giles agreed.

Angel later walked out of the elevator where Spike waited for him, and they had some small talk where Angel's time in Hell and brief reprieve was mentioned, and then Spike revealed he knew of the prophecy, to which Angel said. "The prophecy's a bunch of bull. They all are. Nothing's written in stone or fated to happen, Spike. You save the world, you end up running an evil law firm." Spike responded. "Or playin' Casper with one foot in the fryer." Angel whispered in his ear. "You think any of it matters? The things we did? The lives we destroyed. That's all that's ever gonna count. So, yeah, surprise. You're going to hell. We both are." He sat on the couch. "Then why even bother?" Spike scoffed. "Try to do the right thing, make a difference..." Angel asked. "What else are we gonna do?" Spike shrugged. "So that's it, then. I really am going to burn." Angel told him. "Welcome to the club." Spike sat beside him. "Least I got company, eh? You and me, together again. Hope and Crosby. Stills and Nash. Chico and the—" "Yeah, are we done?" "Never much for small talk, were you? Always too busy trying to perfect that brooding block-of-wood mystique. God, I love that", Spike quipped. Angel replied. "Not as much as I loved your nonstop yammering." Spike continued. "The way you always had to be the big swingy, swaggerin' around, barkin' orders..." "Never listening..." "Always interrupting..." "And your hair. What color do they call that, radioactive?" Spike finally said. "Never much cared for you, Liam, even when we were evil." Angel shrugged. "Cared for you less." "Fine." "Good." "There was one thing about you..." Angel finally said. "Really?" Spike asked. Angel confessed. "Yeah, I never told anybody about this, but I—I liked your poems." Spike frowned. "You like Barry Manilow."

"Awww, he liked Spike's poems", Buffy said as all laughed. "Even when he was evil, isn't that sweet?"

"As sweet as this little argument", Xander quipped but was shot a glare so he shut up.

"And Barry Manilow is amazing, so perhaps Spike's poetry improved", Giles suggested, because it could be true.

"They still have issues", Willow shrugged.

Spike then saw a man hanging over the ceiling, which Angel didn't see. Later, an agitated Spike was questioned by Angel, Wesley and Fred as he told them what was happening, while seeing ghosts everywhere which only he could see, but according to sweeps, Spike was the only non-corporeal in the building. Spike begged Fred to help him before fading away. However, Spike was still there but unseen to the rest as a male voice taunted him that none could help him.

All gulped again as Xander asked. "So, Spike is being haunted? The Spike?"

"I think that's exactly what's happening", Tara confirmed with a nod, feeling bad for him, and wondered what it was that was after him.

"Must be really scary to scare even him", Dawn commented, a little scared herself by whatever this was.

"They can't see him, what will they do now?" Buffy wondered, concerned for Spike again. "Please save him."

"They will", Willow assured.

Spike saw a shadow glide across the balcony and walked towards it when the elevator opened and the light showed it was going down. Spike walked into it, while in Wesley's office he, Fred and Gunn discussed the whole thing, with Gunn saying Spike would reappear 20 minutes later next to you in the bathroom to make quips about the thing, before realizing it was just with him.

In spite of the tense atmosphere, that brought some chuckles as Giles sighed in relief. "Glad its not me."

"Or me", Xander added.

Fred pointed out he was hallucinating, and eventually said he was going to Hell, but the other two said they'd figured it already. Spike was in the basement again and while the man was absent, his fingers still twitched. A businesswoman with a shard of glass up her left eye appeared and taunted Spike by saying the Reaper would get him, and eventually she pulled the glass out and sliced his face with it before disappearing.

Now everyone was even more creeped out as Buffy said. "They can hurt him too. Its more than just hallucinations, it's a big threat, urgent!"

"Fred is working on it!" Tara tried to calm her down.

"Well work faster!" Buffy said.

Because unlike before, this stuff hadn't happened yet so none of them knew who'd live and who'd die from this point forth.

"These ghosts are so creepy", Dawn muttered, speaking for them all.

Fred worked on equations in her lab as Spike, unseen to her, tried to cheer her on, eventually reaching out to touch her shoulder as his hand created a spark of electricity which made her jump. Angel then appeared and Fred knew Spike had tried to contact her, and they needed to do the same.

"Please do it quickly", Buffy requested.

"For this I believe a psychic is needed, not science", Giles pointed out to them all.

"Well, hope that works, because these things are creepy", Xander said, not that it was anything new.

Later Angel, Wesley, Fred and Gunn sat around a table as Eve brought a psychic, and she sat with them, trying to get into contact with Spike, who was nearby, trying to call out to her, and she mentioned a dark soul, when suddenly something started choking her. Angel assumed it was Spike but it wasn't. She then sat up and gasped as if she was regaining composure, and had a slight nosebleed. When Fred tried to check up on her, she exploded in blood all over Fred before collapsing.

The bit made them jump again as Dawn now said. "What the hell is even going on here?"

"That's what I've been asking this whole time!" Buffy said. "What's after Spike?"

"And now it killed their psychic too", Tara groaned. "They couldn't even find out what it is after Spike."

"And Angel thinks he did it", Willow added.

"Well, he clearly didn't", Buffy said. "So whoever it is, come out quickly and leave him alone."

Later, Wesley and Gunn talked as Wesley said Spike wouldn't have done this since she was trying to help him, so there was something a lot worse. Fred took a shower in her stall as Spike was outside, talking to himself, and he started realizing why the psychic was killed. He then managed to touch the glass but the next time his hand went through it, and eventually, he managed to write 'REAPER' on the condensation on the shower stall glass, and Fred noticed when the glass shattered and Spike was pulled away.

"What the hell?" Buffy said again, speaking for all of them. "What is this thing?"

"Like Wesley said, something a lot worse", Giles told her.

"Is it actually the Reaper?" Xander wondered. "Like its here for Spike?"

"Could be, or someone posing as the Reaper", Willow suggested to them.

Spike got up as a lawyer walked to him but his face was beaten and bloodied. The armless woman and businesswoman taunted him too, but Spike was done with flunkies, taunting the one after him, before he went down to the ground due to visions of torture, and the Reaper appeared at last, wearing a cloak like Jack the Ripper and speaking in an English accent. He fondled his torture instruments and decided it was time to play.

"So this…is it", Buffy realized as all of them narrowed their eyes.

"Is it the actual Reaper?" Dawn asked. "Looks more like Jack the Ripper."

"Maybe the Reaper got inspired", Xander shrugged.

"Or Jack the Ripper did", Tara suggested. "Or maybe its not the Reaper at all and just a poser like Willow says."

Angel, Wesley and Gunn looked through books about the dark soul, and 4 out of 3200 references were about Angelus as well, though he pointed he didn't even have a soul when he did that. Fred then arrived and asked them to cross reference the word 'Reaper', quipping it came to her in the shower, and Matthias Pavayne came up. He was a European aristocrat from the 18th century who was nicknamed Reaper due to performing unnecessary surgery on patients. He then fled to California where he committed murders for 20 years, and it turned out he had been sacrificed by Wolfram and Hart to deconsecrate these very grounds, and since he knew the dark arts, he'd eluded Hell and the mystics too. Pavayne was munching on other ghosts too clearly, and Fred said they had to get Spike before he was next.

"So he is the Reaper, just not the one we thought", Tara finally said after a few seconds.

"His blood was used to deconsecrate these grounds", Xander pointed out and all shuddered. "And for some reason, I am not even surprised."

"Wolfram and Hart, what do you expect?" Willow said with a shrug.

"Now he's after Spike", Buffy said grimly. "And he knows dark arts. They need to get him back quickly."

"Fred will figure something out", Dawn suggested to keep her calm.

A bleeding Spike was trying to crawl away from Pavayne, and then he noticed Fred walking to her office, commenting she was sweet with passion and trying to save him. Spike threw a punch at his head but his fist went through, and Pavayne taunted him as they reached the basement, and he said he bent reality, as Spike realized he hadn't faded away but Pavayne had made him invisible to them. He made Spike's wounds disappear before he was suddenly naked with all ghosts surrounding him, all taunting him for his actions, bad and good both, especially crying for his mother and getting a soul for Buffy.

"He doesn't deserve it, but you sure as hell do", Buffy snarled at Pavayne. "Let him go you bastard."

The rest stayed silent, watching it play out.

Pavayne said these people had died here in service of Wolfram and Hart, as Spike realized Pavayne got them. The hanging man then drove a knife into Spike's back while Fred was writing formulas on windows, and assured Angel, Wesley and Gunn she'd just run out of space on the white board and wasn't crazy.

"Well, that's a relief", Xander said to lighten the mood but it didn't work.

Fred had figured out a way but needed a massive dark energy surge, equivalent to nuclear evil, and Gunn eventually led Angel to the white room, pointing out its power, and Gunn told him the conduit now took a form like cats, though Angel was a dog person. Gunn requested to borrow some, and the black panther appeared, eventually agreeing as Gunn petted it.

"Weird and creepy and kind of sweet", Dawn summed up what it looked like.

"Sounds about right to me", Tara agreed with a nod.

"So the panther is better than the girl, nice", Xander said. "That's nice."

Spike lay naked in the fetal position as Pavayne taunted him, and a portal opened, black and slick like oil with a deep hole in the center as long black-tentacle like arms reached out, threatening to pull him in. Pavayne then held Spike's head to the portal, telling him he deserved it, and Spike replied. "You're right. I do deserve to go to hell. But not today." He pushed Pavayne off of him and he went down. "You dare?" Spike got up as the portal closed behind him. "Quite a bit, mate. Reality bends to desire. That was it, right? That's why I could touch Fred, write your name in the glass. All I had to do was want it bad enough." Spike looked down at his naked body and clothing appeared on him again as he glared at Pavayne. "And guess what I want to do now, you prissy son of a bitch!"

"Bet you didn't see that coming", Buffy now smirked, realizing Spike wasn't going down without a fight.

"It wasn't just a soul he was taking, it was William the Bloody", Willow said in agreement. "Well, now pay the price."

All watched with interest.

Pavayne was sent flying through a wall as Spike taunted Pavayne, knowing he what he did to the spirits to save himself. He punched Pavayne, then blocked his punch and kneed him twice before ducking a punch and punching him twice. He blocked the next, punched his abdomen, spun and kicked him through another wall before picking him up and punched him repeatedly. "Not so much fun when we hit back, is it?" Pavayne blocked the next punch. "Starting to be." He punched Spike through another wall.

"He is getting a nice beatdown", Dawn smirked, enjoying it.

"But Pavayne just gained the upper hand", Tara said grimly.

"Which means Fred and the rest must work fast", Buffy concluded, though she enjoyed the beatdown herself, and so did the rest.

Wesley and Fred worked on the machine while Angel and Gunn returned with the dark liquid, and there was a ring on the floor with symbols around, the controls hooked to it. Spike went down as Pavayne taunted and kicked him away, then called himself a God, and picked Spike up by the collar when there was an energy burst, so Spike punched the distracted Pavayne and ran off, while Pavayne followed. Fred asked Spike to come into the circle but started choking, and it was Pavayne, and he knocked Angel, Wesley and Gunn across the room. He then asked Spike to make a decision.

"You bastard", Buffy snarled angrily, clutching her fists now, glaring at Pavayne.

"What do you think he will do?" Giles asked her about Spike.

"Make the right choice", Buffy said with no hesitation. "Even if it costs him."

"I believe you", Willow told Buffy, because she had seen Spike do good with a soul too.

Spike eventually knocked Pavayne into the machine's ring as it activated, making him corporeal as the other three got up, and Angel knocked Pavayne out, but Spike reappeared and told the rest not to kill him since it would make him an unstoppable spirit again, so Angel just punched him again.

"I knew it", Buffy said with a smile, and Giles and Xander were surprised, as they started wondering if Spike too was changed with a soul like Angel was. "He made the right choice. It cost him, but he did it."

"And even if he's still a ghost, Pavayne won't be haunting him anymore", Tara pointed out with a smile, and all had to concede that too.

"So, not the worst thing that could have happened", Dawn sighed in relief.

Wesley and Gunn later helped Fred clean up her lab and she went to her office, down-spirited, and told Spike there wasn't much that could be done now, but he assured he'd made his choice and wouldn't change it for the world, proving Fred right that he was worth saving. He also revealed he'd picked up a few new tricks as he held up her coffee mug. "I guess there's worse things...than being a ghost."

"Yeah, like ending up being that guy's victim", Xander said.

"So, will he stay like this forever?" Dawn wondered. "A ghost who can touch some stuff if he wills it?"

"We don't know, Dawnie", Willow pointed out. "There is still some more to see."

Pavayne was in a restraining cell only a few feet wide. He was standing in it, strapped in by metal bars, with electrodes attached to his head. Angel and Eve were standing in front of him, looking at him as Angel asked. "Sure it'll hold him?" Eve assured. "Permanent storage. If there's anything Wolfram & Hart excels at, it's keeping their unmentionables unmentioned." Angel taunted Pavayne. "Congratulations. You get to live forever, unable to move, to touch, or to feel... or to affect anything in the world around you. But don't worry—I had 'em give you a window." He shut the door, revealing a brick-sized window cut out of the cell door right at eye-level. "Welcome to hell." Angel and Eve walked off as the screen went black.

"Hell indeed for one like you", Tara agreed there with Angel. "Now he won't haunt people anymore."

"And Spike's safe from him", Buffy sighed in relief.

"No more than what he deserved", Giles said with a shrug.

"So, anyone else hungry?" Dawn asked.

"Oh yeah", Xander said.

"Let's go then", Willow said as all got up and walked off to eat.

The end of the first four of Season 5. And then next break chapter would be interesting.

Hope all enjoyed and see you all next time with another chapter.