He was really gone. Clem had occupied his crypt since he'd left, and if Clem didn't know anything about him, it meant he hadn't come back yet.
Would he ever?
After checking to make sure he wasn't there, Ally focused all her thoughts on training Dawn, alongside Buffy, and forget everything until she was in a state of mind that allowed her to decide on what to do about it. She was definitely not there, not after everything her sisters had told her that same morning.
And then, it was Dawn's wellbeing in high school that kept her mind busy. From what Buffy had told her, it was completely possible for the high school to turn into a huge monster and try to eat Dawn. Anything could happen in there.
Anything.
Both eldest Summers girls decided to accompany Dawn, just to make sure everything was safe and nothing was trying to kill their sister on her first day. And also to familiarize themselves with the new high school. Buffy had spent three years in the old high school, in those same grounds, so it was a bit of a trip down memory lane for her, while for Ally, it was a chance to imagine how it would have been to attend high school like a normal kid, instead of finishing her basic education in a military base where she was the only kid.
But she wouldn't change her time with Riley and Graham for anything in the world. She would never forget her boys.
"Now, remember, if you see anything strange... or, you know...dead." Buffy started to warn Dawn, although Ally had to hold back a laugh when she compared Buffy's speech to one any other big sister or mother would give their teenage relative on their first day in high school.
"I got it." Dawn assured them, already dreading the rest of Buffy's advices.
"And stay away from hyena people, or any lizard-type athletes, you know, or if you see anyone that's invisible."
The eldest brunette chuckled at that, getting a fake death glare from the blonde in return.
"Hey, Buffy, I think it's pretty safe to say I'm not going to see anybody that's invisible." Dawn smirked, sharing an amused look with Ally.
"You know, you could still drop out. Only nerds finish high school." The blonde insisted.
"Buffy!" The junior Slayer gasped, her nerdy side getting into the defensive.
"You know, I don't really think it's fair for you to try and scare me on my first day of high school. 'Cause it is so redundant."
The eldest still scowled. "The place is evil."
"Tough to let 'em go, huh?" Someone said from behind them, all three of them turning at once.
Buffy took the lead, although she looked a bit confused at the sudden interruption. "Hi."
A tall dark skinned man was standing before them, hand outstretched in front of him. "I'm Robin Wood. New principal."
"Oh, uh, Buffy Summers. This is Ally, and Dawn."
"Nice to meet you."
"Hi." Both brunettes said in unison.
"So you're the new principal. I expected you to be more... aged."
He lightly smiled, glancing from one girl to the others. "Huh. You seem a bit young to have such grown-up daughters."
Both young girls burst into laughter, Ally trying to muffle the sounds with Dawn's shoulder and failing miserably. Buffy was going to have a fit later.
"Oh. Uh, uh, no. Sister." Buffy corrected as she pinched Ally's arm.
"Oh," He looked ready for the ground to open and swallow him, trying to fix his mistake as soon as possible. "right, um, of course."
"You didn't really think they're my..." Buffy chuckled awkwardly, her hand flying to her head. "it's my hair. I have mom hair." She turned toward her sisters, looking for reassurance.
"No..." Dawn assured her, way more merciful than Ally, who was still trying to stop laughing.
"I actually have heard of you, Miss Summers. Graduated from the old high school, am I right? But I didn't know we had another two Summers girls attending this year." He was nice, definitely not the scary kind of principal. Or maybe it was just a façade.
"I'm not a student." Ally rectified, yet couldn't help but frown. Why did he know about Buffy?
It seemed the blonde was thinking the same. "Uh, yeah. How did you...?"
"Well, I better get back to work. Gotta start deadening young minds. It's really nice to meet you. You have fun."
Once he was far enough, Buffy quietly muttered her impression. "That was suspicious."
"More like creepy." Ally supplied, watching the man with a frown, Dawn's hand in hers. Any time something remotely dangerous or suspicious got near Dawn, her overprotective-sister side took over, needing to physically know Dawn was alright at all times.
The teen wasn't feeling as concerned, though, as she escaped Ally's grip and walked backwards toward the entrance. "You betcha. Bye."
"Oh, Dawn..." Buffy started again.
"I know! You never know what's coming. The stake is not the power. To Serve Man is a cookbook. I love you. Go away." She shooed them, flicking her arms toward them.
"She used to hug me until the bell rang, and then I'd have to push her inside." Ally pouted, watching Dawn walk away while she leaned her head onto Buffy's shoulder. "She's growing up so fast."
"Tell me about it."
Both eldest sisters walked inside the building after Dawn was gone, soon splitting up to get to know different areas of the centre where their baby sister was more than likely going to face danger in the following years.
Not surprisingly, Ally ended up in the new library, checking the book collection, row after row, getting herself lost in a world of her own.
She had just gotten out of the library when she heard Buffy scream and saw her barging into Dawn's classroom.
What was going on? Already in danger? Not even an hour had passed!
Just as she hurried near the classroom, she caught on Buffy's excuse for interrupting the class and probably embarrassing Dawn on her first day. "I just thought you were, um, in danger... of smoking."
Ally rolled her eyes and stepped into the classroom after her big sister. "Uh, sorry. I... kinda made her believe I'd seen someone give Dawn weed. It was just a joke, but I should've known she'd overreact. Sorry." Ally smiled sheepishly at the teacher and students, who were all staring at them, and apologized to Dawn with her eyes, grabbing Buffy's arm and dragging her out of the room.
"I also have two sisters." They heard Dawn add not too happily to her introduction before they closed the door to the classroom.
After talking to Xander about some kind of zombie situation Buffy had experienced in the restroom, they split again, both of the girls looking for anything that could indicate why there were zombies in high school and help them get rid of them.
Not an hour had gone by before her new mobile phone was ringing, Dawn's name displayed on the screen.
Trouble.
"Dawn? Are you alright?"
"Yeah, for now, but there's... dead people here. I'm in the basement with another two students. It's zombies, Ally! They're after us!" Her baby sister's frightened voice informed her, sending her heartbeat right up.
"I'll be right there. Hang on there. Don't let them come near you!"
She'd seen the door to the basement at some point. She knew she had. She only had to run back the way she'd come and find it before the first threat of the school year got Dawnie.
Not two minutes after the call, she found the white door leading down to the basement, poorly lit and built like a concrete maze.
The junior Slayer walked briskly through the labyrinth, her heart pounding hard against her ribcage as fear for Dawn's wellbeing filled her. It'd been a while since she had been that worried. Three months away had almost made her forget what it was like.
She called for Dawn, yet received no answer. Everything looked the same to her, a box here, a pipe there. However, she felt a pull within herself, like a sixth sense leading her through the corridors. She hoped it was leading her toward her sister and not getting her even more lost. She couldn't really tell if she was walking in circles, at least, until she came across a metal door she was sure she'd never seen before. A metal door that seemed to be calling her.
Something was in there.
Would it be zombies or her sister? Or both?
She tried to open the door, but it was tightly locked, probably from the inside. That meant her theory was true, right? There was someone in there. She pulled once again, not caring if she broke the door, even if it was going to be hard to do despite the Slayer strength.
"Dawn?" She called again, trying to let her sister know it wasn't zombies trying to get in, if she was in there.
When she huffed and let go of the metal handle, thinking of some other way to break it open, there was a loud clicking sound. The door had been unlocked.
Nothing could have prepared her for it.
Her heart leapt from her chest, her throat constricted and her breath hitched, a silent gasp barely escaping her lips when she saw him.
Her vampire.
He looked different from what she remembered. His hair was longer and no more his trademark bleach blond. It was curly and messed instead of combed back, and he was only wearing dark pants, boots and an open black shirt, wrinkly and dishevelled.
Yet it was his face that made her question if he was even the same Spike she'd known and not a doppelganger. He looked sombre, not happy at all to see her. He didn't even look frustrated, or angry. It was something else, something dark and sad. Broken.
"Spike..."
She didn't even realize she had stepped forward, unconsciously getting closer to him, to everything she had missed. He was there. He was back.
Her eyes were staring right into his, hence she didn't notice his hand coming up until it softly cupped her cheek. She immediately leaned into it, bringing her own hand to cover his and hold it in place, that chaste touch more meaningful than anything she could ever imagine. She would have closed her eyes if she hadn't been terrified that he'd disappear when she did, that he was only a hallucination or a trick.
Three months. Three months she'd gone without his touch, his voice whispering tenderly to her, his embrace, his loving looks. Three months she'd been without him.
"Ally." He replied, his soft voice sending shivers down her spine.
"Are you real?"
He started laughing, a hysterical and broken sound that made her frown. Suddenly, the laughter stopped, his expression changed and it morphed into one of tenderness.
Copying his previous movements and needing to confirm he was really there, she brought her own hand to his face, her thumb caressing his cheekbone as a sigh escaped his lips. He stepped backwards, further into the room that had previously been locked, and she followed after him, making sure to close the door in case the zombies got to him. He looked tired and she was not risking his life -or unlife- right after she had found him again.
And then she remembered and cursed herself in her mind. Dawn was down there too. In danger.
"Spike, have you seen Dawn? She came down here with some kids." Ally asked quietly, his strange behaviour making her chest hurt in concern.
Her carefulness wasn't enough, apparently, as he started yelling out of the blue. "Don't you think I'm trying? I'm not fast. I'm not a quick study." His voice started trembling and his eyes glistened, his face once more broken. "I dropped my board in the water and the chalk all ran. Sure to be caned." He laughed, backing away from her, his gaze lost. "Should've seen that coming."
Ally approached him once more, slowly but surely, tears welling up in her eyes at finding him in that state. "What happened to you?" She wondered out loud, pretty sure he wasn't going to answer. The brunette ran the back of her index finger from his temple to his jaw, this time getting him to close his eyes at the touch. She used that opportunity to look him over, yet her eyes didn't make it very far, stopping right on his chest, where his shirt revealed a few scratches. She pushed the shirt aside, more wounds appearing before her eyes, all of them over where his heart should be. "What did you do?"
To her surprise, he actually answered. "I tried... I... tried to cut it out."
She blinked back the tears as she once again met his eyes, her hand softly resting over the deep scratches in his chest so as not to hurt him. "You can't do that." She whispered, her voice low with emotion as his baby blues stared at her intensely. "It's mine."
The moment was lost when her phone started ringing again. It was Dawn. Dammit, she'd almost forgotten about her.
She was somewhere with a furnace. She needed to find her. Where was Buffy, anyway? Surely Dawn would have called her too.
"Uh, Spike?" She turned to him once again after the call ended. "Do you know where the furnace is? Dawn's in danger."
He answered distractedly, looking around the room, lost in his own world. "Left."
"Thanks." She started to head toward the door, but came back immediately and softly kissed him, feeling like he would break if she applied any more pressure. "I'll come back soon, alright? Don't you dare hurt yourself anymore." With one last caress to his cheek, she sprinted away, heading left.
She knew he was in no way ready to get in a fight. He was not in his right mind. Something horrible had happened to him, and guilt was eating her insides. He was like that because she'd left.
It wasn't long before she heard a fight in the distance, drawing her in the right direction. Right on the last corner, when the sounds got even louder, she came face to face with Buffy, Slayer face on.
Time to fulfil their duty.
The little space Dawn and the other teens were in was soon silenced as the Slayers barged in, the manifest spirits turning to face them as the bigger threat. One of them, an old man in a janitor suit, was grabbing their baby sister by the hair, the teen sprawled on the floor with a pained expression on her face.
He was going to get what was coming for him.
Buffy dodged a blow from the zombie teen boy and rolled next to Dawn, kicking the janitor away from her. Meanwhile, Ally beat the teen boy, taking the metal bar he was swinging and hitting him with it. She backed until she stood next to her sisters, standing guard above them.
"Thanks, sis'." Dawn breathed, looking at them with wide eyes. That was a close call.
"We just need to keep them at bay." Buffy informed them. Obviously, she had some kind of plan already.
No sooner had the blonde spoken the three angry spirits attacked them, the Slayers trying to keep them away from the teenagers on the corner. Buffy used a purse filled with bricks as a weapon, throwing it out against the zombies while Ally swung the metal bar, yet it seemed like their opponents were barely affected. They kept getting up and attacking again. Was it ever gonna end?
And then the girl disappeared, leaving the janitor and teen boy to fight both Slayers. Something was going on, something had made her leave.
As the remaining zombies advanced on the sisters, they turned into a pile of yellowish smoke, vanishing right in front of them.
It was over.
As they got the teens back to the somewhat safe corridors of Sunnydale High, Ally couldn't help but think she had go back down there. He was there. Her vampire. Yet something held her back from running down to the basement or telling her sisters about him. Something was wrong with him, and she wanted to figure out what it was before telling anything about him.
"You guys are gonna be OK. School is intense, but you'll do all right as long as you're careful. And you might want to think about sticking together." Buffy advised the teens, trying to make them calm down after their little adventure.
The shy girl in dark clothes, Kit, smiled at the eldest Summers girls. "Thank you."
She hugged them both before stepping back and letting the boy, Carlos, pat them on their shoulders, finally staring at Buffy with a thankful smile. "Yeah, I mean it. You are the coolest mom and sister ever."
Ally snickered while Dawn tried to save Buffy from further embarrassment, hugging them quickly and planting a tender kiss on their cheeks. "OK. Come on, we still have a few more classes to live through."
As they watched the teens go to class, Ally's eyes unconsciously drifted in the direction of the door to the basement, her stomach doing somersaults as she thought of going back to her beloved vampire. He needed help. She couldn't just leave him there, nor did she want to.
"Uh, Buff, I think I'll head to the library, make a list of books that should help Dawn this year. I'll see you back home later." She pecked the blonde's cheek quickly and started walking down the corridor. "Bye, mom." She smirked one last time before rushing away.
