Author's Note: Thanks to those of you who have left reviews, I really appreciate the encouragement, and I hope the fic lives up to your expectations – while still hopefully surprising you now and then. Enjoy!
Chapter 3: The Mission
Although deep beneath the chaos above, the tunnel was far from silent. The distant sound of distorted echoes resonated all around them, as if the crash of a cymbal a mile away was bouncing off a thousand walls before it reached them. Occasionally even a rat would scramble from between concealed nooks in the brick walls, and the regular dripping of water droplets from the world above gave a heartbeat to what lay beneath.
"Where are we going? And where is Giles? This is his shop!" Buffy asked as the scoobies lowered her the final few feet into the sewer.
"Mr Giles isn't here right now Buffy," Tara soothed her, steadying the clumsy walk of the still armless robot alongside Dawn. "He had to go back to England."
"Oh," Buffy blurted out thoughtfully. "But he didn't say goodbye."
"She raises a good point though," Anya interrupted sharply. "Where are we going? Surely anywhere we pop up in this town they'll find us!"
"There's always the outflow pipe…" Xander added comically. "They say early fall is ideal for the last dip of the year…"
"I don't think I know how to swim." Buffy chipped in obliviously, kicking aside a hollow wooden box in her path with an inelegant crash.
"I think we'll pass on that…" Tara declined politely.
"How about my place?" Spike suggested. "Hellions are looking for sport – pretty unlikely they'll look for it in a cemetery. Place is dead."
The scoobies groaned at the pun. After a few moments, Buffy grinned. "I get it! You're so funny Spike…"
Spike didn't acknowledge her.
"He makes a good point," Tara acknowledged to Willow, who gave a weary nod.
"Okay then. We'll make for Spike's crypt. From there we can figure out our next move…"
They continued mostly in silence through the labyrinthine warrens of endless dank corridors, twisting and turning so often that the scoobies was almost certain they were relying solely on Spike's intimate knowledge of Sunnydale's underworld to guide them. Even though the last few months had established a certain amount of trust between the soulless vampire and his human associates, the thought did not sit too well with many of them.
Dawn was almost certain she kept seeing shadows dancing in the corners of her flashlight's beam, but every time she pointed it down one of the many side-passages along their path, there would be nothing. Just a slowly building sense of unease. She made sure not to say anything. The last thing she wanted was for Willow, Tara, Xander and the others to think of her as a child, frightened of the dark. Nor did she want to worry them. It was like Buffy had told her that awful night, just before dawn:
You have to take care of them now - you have to take care of each other. You have to be strong. Dawn. The hardest thing in this world is to live in it. Be brave. Live. For me.
She glanced over at Buffy - no, the Buffybot - trying to draw strength from the perfect replica of her sister's face. However, at the moment it seemed to be rather occupied, a perplexed focus centred around her lips and eyes.
"Are… are you okay?" Dawn asked her hesitantly.
Buffybot cocked her head to the side thoughtfully. "I'm not sure. Willow, did you finish fixing my ears?"
"There was nothing wrong with your ears Buffy," Willow told her. "What's up?"
"I don't think we're alone. Do people live down here?"
The gang stopped. Spike turned around ahead of them, looking back with guarded eyes. He lifted his face and sniffed once.
"Shite. Just what we need."
"What is it?" Anya asked tensely.
"Vampires. Move it, come on!"
The group surged forwards, running after Spike.
"I thought vampires…. Stayed above ground at night?" Tara wheezed, struggling to keep up and prevent Buffybot from falling concurrently.
"Normally, they do," Spike explained. "Not much fun to be had in a bloody sewer. My guess is, the boys in denim 'n' leather up there aren't too fond of us vamps… Should have bloody known. Elitist garbage. The less pure demon you got in you, the more 'tainted' you are."
They heard laughter as they ran. Rather than getting closer or further away however, the cackling seemed at one moment only inches away, and then only a distant echo. The result filled the air with uncertain dread.
Just as they thought the sounds had died away into nothing, the group sprinted around a sharp corner, only to find a thick-built, blonde vampire standing straight in their path, dressed in a torn grey suit. As the scoobies all ground to a halt, another two female dark-haired undead emerged from the sides of the tunnel, hissing between bared fangs. Their demonic visages were fully exposed, their almost tiger-like, angular yellow eyes filled with hunger and malevolent anticipation.
Spike released his own demon in response with a shake of his head. "And here I thought I might get through the whole night without a proper scrap…" he drawled hungrily, his fingers twitching slightly.
"I don't suppose you three know the way to the mall?" Xander asked them mockingly, lowering his red toolbox to the ground with his left arm. "I think we made a wrong turn at the last… manhole."
Without so much as a breath, one of the female vampires leapt at Xander viciously. He barely managed to raise Giles' two-handed axe to hold her back before she was upon him, snarling monstrously. Spike was already trading several chaotic, wild blows with the larger male, seemingly thriving on the ecstatic release of violence, laughing with every strike and licking his fangs.
At first, the third vampire stalked around the edges of the claustrophobic conflict, searching for an opening to end the fight. But once she began to smell the fear in the others, she slowly started towards Dawn.
Tara quickly flipped through her mental list of spells that would fit the situation, but as time ran out began to focus on a disorientation spell. However, before she could release it, a boisterous voice called out.
"Vampires, BEWARE!"
With that, suddenly Buffybot was there, driving her foot into the vampire's stomach and knocking the wind - or lack thereof - from her.
"Dawn," She said in her usual warm tone, not taking her eyes off the fallen vampire. "Stay behind me. I'll protect you!"
The words seemed entirely sincere, however probably would have carried a greater sense of gravitas if they hadn't come from a robot without any arms who was currently struggling to maintain her balance from the force of her own kick. At the same time, the other female vampire had driven Xander to the ground, slowly extending her fangs, entirely focused on the flushing skin of his waiting neck. In a moment Anya was there, drawing a stake from inside her blue jacket and ramming it home into the vampire's back. The exalted grin became a scream, before the scream rapidly became the whisper of falling dust.
Spike was still duelling amicably with the larger vampire, however whether that was the natural result, or rather that of Spike lengthening out a fight he was clearly revelling in, was difficult to say.
As the vampire which Buffybot had knocked to the ground began to rise, Tara made a florid gesture with her arm, forcing it to remain prostrate. Seeing his chance, the risen Xander crossed the tunnel. Without a moment's delay, he raised Giles' axe before swinging downwards as if he were chopping lumber, decapitating the undead creature in one stroke.
Xander eyed the axe appreciatively. "I see why Giles likes this thing…" he whispered to himself, as he swiftly moved to check around the corner from which they'd come. He got there just in time to see a few shadowy figures slinking back into the distant side-passages, clearly aware from the sounds of the battle that their hopes for an easy meal had just been dashed.
Finally satisfied, Spike shattered the last vampire's kneecap with a well-aimed kick, before trapping him in a headlock and breaking his neck with a sickening crack. In spite of herself, Dawn couldn't help but retch slightly.
Tara folded her arms, unimpressed. "You couldn't have done that in a way that wasn't so…. Graphic?" She asked, rubbing the top of Dawn's back reassuringly.
Spike placed a hand to his forehead, which had returned now to its more human-like state. He lowered his arm, glancing at the blood left on his fingers with a cheeky half-smile. "He wasn't exactly making it easy for me love."
"How much further?" Willow asked, the weariness still plain in her eyes.
"Not too far now." He assured her civilly. "Hopefully the wannabe 'Big Bads' will get the message and stay out the way for a while…"
Climbing the final few rungs of the uneven stone hand-holds, Dawn pulled herself into the dimly lit chamber. She had been to Spike's place before, quite a few times actually, but she couldn't recall ever seeing this part of it.
Whereas the upper level was just an ordinary crypt, albeit with a cushy armchair, standing lamp and television set giving the place a paradoxically homey feel, this place was different. It looked as if the entire space had been roughly hewn from rock, though the thick, wooden roots which ran down the walls made Dawn wonder if this had perhaps once been a natural cavern. Another standing lamp stood a few metres away, and further still Spike stood lighting a few candles resting in rock crevices, casting flickering, warm light on both his face and the surrounding walls. He had wired several other bulbs in little clusters on the ceiling, though how Spike managed to get electricity down here Dawn had no idea.
Whilst Tara, Willow and Xander helped Buffybot ascend into the room, Dawn continued to explore. As she approached Spike, she caught sight of a large, luxurious even, double bed, fully adorned with pillows and soft furnishings. Dawn couldn't help but smile. She had always imagined that Spike slept on the raised central stone slab in the crypt, cold and foreboding as any corpse. Picturing him now in the bed robbed a great deal of his alluringly tough image.
The look Spike gave her when he realised precisely what she was looking at suggested that was probably exactly why he never brought her down here. Drama queen.
She shot him a wicked little smile as she sat down on the end of the bed, crossing her arms knowingly.
"I know this place," Buffy said as she walked, grinning and nodding at both Willow and Tara located either side of her. "Spike and I used to spend time here." Willow lowered her eyes for half a second before they darted uncomfortably to Spike, but Tara just smiled at her with a few patient nods. At the mention of his name, Spike turned to look down at Buffy. Dawn couldn't see the expression on his face, but she could guess what it was when the smile dropped from Buffy's face entirely.
"I'm sorry." she said simply, in a tone that caused Dawn's heart to wrench slightly in her chest as Spike stormed away, climbing up a wooden ladder to the crypt above.
Seeing her always brought the pain of Buffy's death to the forefront of their minds, and poor Buffybot could never hope to understand why they acted the way they did. Perhaps that was a blessing in itself, in some ways.
Dawn rose from the bed, following Willow and Tara as they guided Buffybot to the corner where Xander and Anya had begun to lay out the tools and metal parts they would need for the repairs.
"Can I help?" She asked Willow cautiously.
Willow smiled at her. "Sure thing Dawny. An extra pair of hands would be swell."
Willow looked up as she pulled herself into the crypt proper. Facing diagonally away from her, Spike sat in his armchair, swigging heftily from a bottle of Bourbon as he stared dully at the flashing images on the hazy television screen.
"It's nearly sunrise," Willow stated, getting the vampire's attention. "Dawn's sleeping, but before we all get a bit of rest, I thought we might have some, yknow, planning time?"
"What did you have in mind, red?" Spike asked her, without turning around.
Willow blinked. "Oh, I don't know…" she joked. "I thought maybe getting rid of the horde of nasty demons taking over Sunnydale might be a good start!"
Spike swivelled his head around to look at her. "You sure about that?"
Willow looked puzzled. "Do we have a choice?"
"Yeah," Spike shot back at her. "You got a choice. Leave."
"The cemetery?"
"The town Wil. Whole bloody state come to that. Why are you even still here?"
Willow was taken aback at that. "We're… fighting evil. Vampires, the end of the world; that kind of thing… you know that,"
"You chose to stay here… because of Buffy. Don't try and lie to me – I'm not blind. You've got the best brain in a fifty-mile radius, you could go to any college you wanted – you and the missus down there both. Take Dawn with you, even carpenter boy could get a job pretty much anywhere else."
"I don't know if you've noticed Spike, but we're not done here. The Hellmouth is still pretty active…"
"And it always will be! Nearly every week some new 'big bad' rolls into town and tries it on – and sorry for saying so… wait, no I'm not sorry…. Your days are numbered. If it isn't the Hellions Demons, it'll be something else. Take a hint – go."
Willow froze for a moment as she took in what Spike had said. Awful as it was… he had a point.
"Why are you telling me this?" She asked him finally.
He sighed. "I couldn't save Buffy. I nearly did, but I didn't. Instead, I've been looking after Dawn. Trying to keep her safe – like Buffy'd want. But you know what the best way to keep the little bit safe is? Getting her off the sodding Hellmouth. None of you are the slayer, even the poncey Watcher spewing on about destiny and all that crap has got on a plane and left – and frankly I find it laughable he didn't even suggest you lot do the same!"
There was silence for a moment.
"And what would you do?" Willow asked, which seemed to catch Spike slightly off-guard. He chuckled to himself softly.
"Well, I've got pretty good digs right here! Steady supply of demons to fight – butchers who don't ask a lot of questions when you ask for a few pints of pig's blood. Occasional apocalypse helps to keep things interesting too."
Willow cast her mind into the past, back to the time when she first made the decision to stay in Sunnydale. Staying to support Buffy was certainly a part of that choice – a large part at that. But it wasn't everything. Staying in Sunnydale to fight evil – it gave her purpose, a sense of meaning she had come to realise was more than she ever could have imagined for herself. Tara had felt it too, as had Xander. They didn't need to ever say it explicitly. Their joint commitment had made them a family.
She suppressed the rush of fear at leaving her magical identity behind. That wasn't what mattered, it was more than that. It was the mission.
"I'm sorry Spike," she said, an apologetic smile on her lips. "It's not that simple. What we do here… it matters. We make a difference to people here. It's the right thing to do. We're staying."
Spike just shook his head with a snort. "I'll say this… You've got guts Wil. Mad as the moon, but still."
He rose from the chair, patting Willow twice on the shoulder in quick succession.
"Come on then, we 'band of buggered' have got to plan our latest suicide mission."
"So, these Hellions guys…" Xander started, gesturing animatedly with his hands. "Do they have any weaknesses – Crosses, Troll-hammers, the screams of a nineteen-year-old Buffster…"
"Pendant breaking, holy water, bunnies…" Anya added helpfully.
"I'm not sure that's the r-right way to think about it," Tara suggested timidly. "From what I saw – they weren't all the same type of demon. But they're all part of the same gang though, right?"
Spike ruffled a hand through his hair thoughtfully. "Might be on to something there," he complimented her. "Had my dealings with a fair few gangs in my time."
"Anything useful?" Willow asked.
"Well…" Spike considered. "Gangs 've got a structure to 'em. Tribal like. Toughest bugger of the lot tends to get to the top. Gives all the orders. Get rid of him…." Spike spread his hands.
"They might all get on their bikes and skedaddle on out of town…" Xander finished, illustrating with an emphatic point.
"That, or they'll spend so long killing each other to decide who's in charge they'll forget all about you worthless sods. Yeah, we get a few deck chairs, put 'em on the roof of the town hall and watch them tear each other to pieces. Place a few bets, blood 'n booze – and we've saved the day! Hooray for the good guys, eh?"
The other scoobies just stared at him coldly. Even Dawn raised an eyebrow.
"Alright fine. Just trying to get myself to give enough of a piss to risk my life for you sods... again."
"Question is," Xander raised, swiftly moving the conversation past the briefest of awkward silences. "How do we figure out which of the boys in black is pulling the strings?"
Dawn cleared her throat. "Well, there's one other person who might have a better idea."
When it was clear no-one had quite caught on to what she was saying, Dawn cast her eyes meaningfully at the deactivated Buffybot lying on the cave floor.
"Oh boy…" Tara said, with some trepidation.
Willow had seemingly finished her repairs whilst Dawn slept. Both of the bot's arms had been re-attached firmly to her shoulders, though in place of the missing skin across her shoulder joints, Willow had wrapped layers of white bandages to disguise and protect the bare metal underneath, and she had done her best to do the same to her hip joints and the shredded jeans below them.
"Want to do the honours, Dawny?" Willow invited, twiddling her hands nervously.
Dawn nodded, crossing to her robotic sister and opening a small hidden panel on her torso.
"Is it in here?" Dawn asked, looking over the panel of lights and components.
"Not quite," Willow corrected her, kneeling next to her and closing the panel gently. Dawn watched as the older girl reached around the back of Buffy's head, though she couldn't quite make out what Willow was doing behind the mess of golden hair. "That should do it."
Dawn almost immediately felt Buffy twitch, and within moments her eyes snapped open.
"Dawn?" Buffy asked, looking around with a slight frown.
"Yeah Buffy, I'm here." Her sister replied. "How… how do you feel?"
Buffy lifted both of her arms simultaneously, wiggling each of her fingers methodically.
"My arms… They're back." She observed with amazement, as she used them to lift herself into a sitting up position.
"Yeah Buffy," Willow told her with a smile. "You're all back together again – best as I could manage anyway…"
"That's good," Buffy observed with her usual optimism, breaking into a familiar smile. "Did we beat the bad guys?"
"Not just yet," Tara broached softly.
"That is to say… Not as of yet" Xander announced a moment later, causing the entire group to stare at him oddly. "Yeah… what she said."
"Then I should go slay them." Buffy decided, starting to rise to her feet before Tara put a hand on her shoulder.
"You will Buffy, but we just want to make a plan first…"
"Ooh, can I help?" Buffy asked with verve, her eyes widening.
"Yes. You can." Anya chipped in, folding her arms. "We want to know what their leader looked like. The demon one. Did you see him?"
There was a dramatic little silence for a moment as Buffy cocked her head in thought.
"Yes. I did see him." She remembered, nodding emphatically.
Sighs of relief sounded all over the room.
"Well okay then Buff," Willow began with a swing of her arm. "What did he look like?"
Buffy squinted slightly, running through her memory files, conjuring up an accurate picture of the demon and running it through her communication program.
"He was tall!" Buffy told them. "I did not enjoy smelling him."
Spike groaned, dragging a hand down the side of his face, whilst Xander just bit his bottom lip and lowered his gaze. Tara and Dawn kept smiling though, nodding at Buffy encouragingly.
"Do you remember anything… more specific?" Tara asked, brushing a lock of stray hair from falling into her face.
Buffy tried again, running through the unpleasant memories of her capture.
"His ears were pointy. His eyes were dark red, and he had a black mark on his forehead. Oh, and he has very sharp claws. I think the others called him 'Razor'. He wore a jacket like the others, and he had a white man on his shirt."
"There we go!" Dawn said with triumph, turning to the others.
"Not the worst start," Xander acknowledged, rubbing his eye sleepily. "What do you say the rest of us get some shut-eye before we sort out the rest huh? It's been a long night."
"No argument there…" Willow agreed. She looked around the sparsely furnished cave with concern, before casting an obvious glance at Spike's enormous bed.
"Spike?"
"hmm?" He replied with disinterest, before he picked up on Willow's signals.
"Could we just…"
"No… no way. I'd be getting the smell of you lot out of here for days. Weeks!"
Willow gave Spike a pleading, almost puppy-like expression, pouting her lip slightly. He stood sternly, refusing to back down for several seconds before shaking his head and letting out a resigned sigh.
"Fine. Whatever. Only because we need you on form when we get out there. Don't want you getting your Latin twisted and accidentally turning us all inside out."
Willow smirked at him victoriously, and behind her Tara stifled a laugh.
Buffy elected to stand watch over her friends whilst they slept. For a while she paced around the entrance to the tunnel to the sewer below, keeping watch for whatever might rise from beneath.
"You okay?" Dawn's voice asked from behind her, causing Buffy to halt her circular patrol.
"Oh, hi Dawn. Why are you not sleeping?"
"I got some sleep earlier. When you did."
"I'm glad. Sleep is important! You should get at least seven hours of sleep a day."
Dawn raised an eyebrow. "Yeah. Anyway, what's it like for you – when you sleep I mean."
Buffy cocked her head to one side, her face perplexed. "I don't understand."
"Like, do you dream? Or do you see lots of lines of code, yknow like the Matrix or something…"
"No," Buffy answered her.
"Then what?" Dawn pressed, seemingly more curious still.
Buffy thought for a moment, struggling to articulate the concept. "I go away for a while. I'm in one place, then I wake up somewhere else. I don't really like it much."
Dawn frowned. "Have you told Willow about it?"
"No. I'm sure Willow knows what's best. My programming says so." Buffy assured her. Willow knew best after all.
"You don't always have to do what she says you know. It's okay to have your own thoughts on stuff."
Buffy nodded slowly, her face once again thoughtful.
"Spike and I are watching TV upstairs," Dawn continued. "I just wondered… if you wanted to join us?"
Buffy's smile wavered.
"I should keep watch here. In case something attacks the others."
"That probably won't happen." Dawn dismissed. "Spike says vampires tend to leave each other's lairs alone. It's a courtesy thing. Apparently. So, will you come?"
"I'd like that," Buffy admitted. "But I don't think Spike would." She hesitated slightly. "He doesn't like me anymore."
Buffy thought about what Dawn had told her a few moments previously. "Willow says he does – but I think she just doesn't want me to worry."
Dawn's eyes widened in surprise. "That really bothers you, doesn't it?"
"Is that wrong? I don't think I'm supposed to."
"No, no it's okay," Dawn assured her, putting a hand on Buffy's sleeve. "I just didn't know you c-, I mean I didn't know you thought about that kind of stuff. It's okay, we can watch something when we get home. When all this is over."
Buffy smiled. "I look forward to it."
Dawn started towards the ladder, but as she placed her foot on the first rung she looked back at Buffy.
"Let me know okay, if you need anything."
"I am fully functional," Buffy assured her. "I have enough power for eighteen hours."
"That's not exactly what I meant." Dawn replied cryptically, before bidding farewell with a small wave.
