The screaming was easy enough to follow, leading the Slayers and vampire straight to where Nancy was about to be eaten by her ex. Buffy grabbed a rope in a nearby building and jumped to grab Nancy before she fell straight into the giant worm's mouth, Ally and Spike climbing down the side of the building to back Buffy up.
Right as the blonde Slayer recovered from her fall behind some boxes, the worm disappeared, only to turn up beside Buffy as she looked for him.
Ally stood next to Buffy, ready to fight with her against Ronnie, but Spike seemed to be hungry for some violence, as they hadn't really let him have any fun at the Bronze. He walked behind them an tore a pipe from a wall, brandishing it as a weapon. "You've had your turn, love. Leave the real violence to the demons, yeah?" He proceeded to hit the worm with the metal piece, making Ally jump back a bit while Buffy stared, dumbfounded. "That's right. Big bad's back, and looking for a little death!" He stepped back to gain a bit of momentum, and ran forward as he held the pipe over his shoulder, like a lance.
And right before he reached the worm, as the pipe grazed its skin, the demon turned back into a man, the metal going through his shoulder and making him scream out.
Ally wasn't sure whose screams hurt the most, Ronnie's cries of pain or Spike's. The vampire stared at the man in horror, his face torn with guilt for a few moments before he covered it with a simply shocked expression. "I'm sorry." He muttered before taking the pipe out of Ronnie's shoulder, the man falling to the floor.
Buffy and Ally burst into action, grabbing a blanket from a nearby trash can and covering the injured man with it, the vampire muttering to himself behind them. "Right. Wrong. All wrong. Wrong maneuver. Not hardly helpful. God, please help me." He paused for a moment and looked over to the girls kneeling beside Ronnie. "Help me!"
"You're not the one who needs help. He's going into shock." Buffy chastised as she got her phone out and dialled 911.
However, Ally couldn't help but frown at Spike's change of demeanour. This was not the Spike that had been with them all evening. This was the Spike that she'd found in the basement. What was happening to him?
As Nancy approached her ex, Ally stood from her crouched position and walked toward the bleach blond, still talking to himself. "No. No. Too much. Too much. Too much. Too much. Too much. Too much. Too much... Inside me all the way. Deep, deep, deep inside me."
"Spike? What's going on?" Ally called softly, carefully getting closer.
"Get away!" He cried, covering his head with his arms and shaking them as if to shoo her away, making Ally stop a few feet from him, frozen. He didn't want her near? "Get. Uhh..."
"Go somewhere else!" Buffy screamed over his blabber.
"Oh, oh, lucky girl. Call it quits. Now, there's an option. If only it were so easy. If only-If only-If only-" He turned around and looked somewhere on the other side of the street, as if he could see something that the others couldn't. "What the hell are you screaming about? I can hear you. No need to SHOUT!" He finished with a long cry, hunching over.
Ally couldn't take it anymore. She had to do something. He was suffering. She couldn't leave him like that. She ran over to him and placed her hand on his shoulders, taking the pipe from him with the other and throwing it away before resting it on his cheek. "Spike. Calm down. There's no one here. No one's shouting. It's gonna be alright, okay?" She whispered tenderly, running her thumb across his cheekbone.
To her surprise, he started laughing, straightening himself and turning around, facing them again. "I get it. The joke's on me. Lots of laughs. Yeah. Hey, bring the wife and kiddies. Come see the show" He paused, his face turning serious again. "'cause it's going to be a circus. This..." He strode forward and stood right before Ally. "just the beginning, love. A warm-up act. The real headliner's coming, and when that band hits the stage, all of this..." He backed away, his arms coming up, gesturing around. "all this... will come tumbling in death and screaming, horror and bloodshed. From beneath you, it devours. From beneath..." His face crumbled, looking down to the floor almost in tears. "Poor Rocky."
Before a tear managed to escape his eyes, he glanced at the scene around him, stopping on Ally for a second before running away as fast as possible.
"Stay with him!" Ally ordered her sister as she followed after the vampire. She couldn't leave him alone.
The chase ended in a church, probably the last place on Earth Ally would have thought to find Spike. She walked inside, searching the shadows for him, the candles near the entrance and the moonlight streaming through the windows giving enough light to see the huge cross at the end of the aisle.
Why would he come here?
She treaded down the aisle, constantly looking around, until a tall shadow emerged from the corner and approached her. He was bare-chested, his t-shirt tightly clutched in his hand, looking down absently as he stopped a few inches from her. "It didn't work. Costume. Didn't help. Couldn't hide."
"Spike, tell me what happened to you, please." She pleaded, reaching up for him, only for him to flinch and recoil, finally looking her in the eye. She wasn't sure what was worse, as he looked terrified. "Sorry. Sorry, I won't touch you if you don't want to. Just... please... talk to me." She held her hand out for him, far enough not to touch him, but close enough for him to take it if he wanted to. "Can we sit down and talk?"
"No. No. No, no, no." He turned to the side, stepping away from her as he mumbled again, his voice trembling. "She wants the spark. There was no spark. Nothing inside. Nothing to give. She didn't say. Didn't say. Never said it."
"Spike." She called for him, still standing in the aisle as she watched him move around. "Tell me what happened."
More lucidly this time, he faced her again, even as he didn't look at her directly. "I tried to find it, of course."
"Find what?"
"The spark. The missing... the piece that fit. That would make me fit." His breathing was getting ragged, more laboured, even if he wasn't moving at all. "Because you didn't deserve..." He stopped mid sentence and backed away again, back into the shadows. "God, I can't... Not with you looking."
Ally was barely holding herself upright, her hands clutching each other to keep her from reaching for him, shaking as she listened to him. What had he done? What had he been looking for? What was that spark?
The piece that would make him fit. What the hell was that?
"I dreamed of giving it all to you. Give you everything. Even told the Nibblet. But I didn't have it. Didn't have anything to give you. And now it's here, in me, all the time." He walked around the benches, nearing her from behind. She didn't turn. He didn't want her to look at him as he talked. "The spark. I wanted to give you what you deserve, and I got it. They put the spark in me and now all it does is burn."
The spark. It burned. They put the spark in me. What was it that would make him fit? That he didn't have? Something he didn't have, but others did.
It clicked. She understood. She'd seen it before, hadn't she? The burn.
"Your soul." She realized, closing her eyes as tears threatened to spill.
He'd gotten his soul back. For her.
"Bit worse for lack of use." He confirmed, somewhere behind her, chuckling humourlessly.
She looked at him, the first few tears managing to leave her eyes and slide down her cheeks. "You got your soul back. Why?"
"It's what you wanted, right? It's what you wanted, right?!" His voice got louder as he walked past her and closer to the altar, the cross. "And-and now everybody's in here, talking. Everything I did...everyone I... and him... and it..." He paused and looked over his shoulder at her briefly, not even letting her see his face. "the other, the thing beneath-beneath you. It's here too. Everybody. They all just tell me go... go... to hell." He turned halfway, part of him still covered by shadows, yet his eyes were so bright, so full of emotion, they stole a sob from her throat.
The first of many to come that night.
"Why?" She cried, her mind making up images of what his life had been like since he'd gotten his soul back. Who knew how long it had been, before he ended up in the basement, before she found him. He'd brought himself so much pain for... "Why would you do that?"
"Why does a man do what he mustn't? For her. To be hers. To be the kind of man who would nev-" He cut himself, his voice already broken, like hers, and turned his back on her once again. "to be a kind of man." He started walking toward the cross again, his words more desperate. "She shall look on him with forgiveness, and everybody will forgive and love. He will be loved."
She wondered how he wasn't flinching away from the cross, the holy object like poison for them. Like her. She was poison for him. She'd done that to him. He'd gotten his soul back for her. It was burning him because of her, her mistakes, her carelessness. She'd left him in a vulnerable state. The vampire who had so much goodness and humanity inside him, who stupidly decided to give himself to a Slayer, to her. She'd just up and left, too caught up in her own problems to realize what he was going through. All that pain...
"I already loved you. I've long forgiven you of anything you've done, because you changed, without your soul... Because you were the one by my side when I had nothing... The one I could always turn to... I've loved you for so long..." She shook her head, trying to gather her thoughts. "I didn't need a man, or a... soul. I needed you. I only ever need you. I'll always love you, no matter what... no matter if you have a soul or not."
"So everything's OK, right?" He wondered out loud before leaning against the cross, his arms going over it as his body started to smoke.
She had never moved so fast. She couldn't remember a time she'd been so scared, not since Glory had taken Dawn, at least. One moment she was in the middle of the aisle, the next she was grabbing Spike's arm and yanking hard, throwing them both to one of the benches on the first row, the piece of furniture crashing under their weight and sending them both to the floor.
He thrashed about, trying to get her away from him and crawl back to the altar, but she held his arms on his sides and straddled him as tears fell from her face to his chest. "Stop it! Stop! Stop it!" She screamed, pushing against him until he ceased moving, his chest heaving beneath her.
"She deserved better. She deserves better. Much better. Much better. Can't give something that's broken. It's burnt. Broken. Too much. She deserves much better." He whispered, his eyes set on her, wide open.
Ally hushed him with her finger on his lips as she got off of him, kneeling beside him. "She only wants you." She spoke softly, freeing his arms and treading her fingers through his hair as he watched her attentively, still not moving. "I can't live without you. I love everything about you. I can't help it if I feel this way." She smiled lightly, caressing his face as she sang lowly. "Oh, I'm so glad I found you. I want my arms around you. I love to hear you call my name." His breathing eventually calmed down, yet his eyes never left hers, holding her gaze as he relaxed under her attentions. "Baby, I love you. C'mon baby. Baby, I love you. Baby, I love, I love only you."
And as the flames of the candles died down and hours passed, the girl held her love between her arms, his head on her lap as she softly sang to him, a lullaby like no other, with no intention of making him sleep, but keep him with her, safe.
When Ally realized it was soon going to be daytime, she helped him get back on his feet and pull the blue t-shirt over his head, placing her hand over where the deep scratches were the previous week. Only one gash was still there, and healing fast.
He was getting better. She would make sure he got better.
"Wanna come home? Or... You know, somewhere you can stay?"
"The basement." He muttered, his eyes studying her face as he'd been doing for the last few hours.
"You sure you wanna go back there? I can tell Buffy..."
"The basement." He repeated, interrupting her, before walking around her and out of the church.
"Wait, I'll go with you." She hurried after him, soon reaching him as he'd stopped to wait for her at the door, his hand lightly outstretched. She smiled as she took it, intertwining their fingers. "But you have to promise to open the door when I come see you, alright?"
He nodded, his blue eyes sincere as he stepped out of the holy building, the one place he'd chosen to do his penance.
