Everyone had been excessively worried about Ally the days after leaving the hospital. She obviously hadn't been accompanying her sisters and Xander to school in the mornings, and Spike didn't want her doing much around the house until she was fully recovered.
Yet no one seemed to understand that she wouldn't be 'fully recovered' until she got that black substance out of her system. They'd been researching non-stop, checking every single source available, but there didn't seem to be any records of anything similar happening before.
"Shouldn't be up yet, love. You have to rest." Spike scolded softly when he found her up and making breakfast one morning, even before Dawn and Buffy came downstairs.
She rolled her eyes and smiled lightly at his overprotectiveness. "I'm fine, Spike. No more stitches, the bruises are mostly gone, Go back to bed. It's too early for you."
"Can't sleep without you there."
Ally paused in mixing the pancake batter and looked up at her vampire, standing as close as the rays of sun coming from the windows allowed him to. "You feel it too?" She whispered, unsure of what she'd been experiencing since he'd stopped her in the alley.
"You too? Thought it was another one of the side-effects of having a soul, messing with my head." His voice dropped just like hers, in case anyone came down.
She turned her back toward him to close the curtains over the windows and give him more room. "Like… electricity, between us. I swear I can sometimes tell which room you're in. Like… you know, the general direction."
"Same here, Ally Cat. Why do you think it is?" He sat down on one of the stools of the kitchen island.
"Might be related to my… the thing inside me?" She suggested, grimacing like every time she thought about it.
He shrugged, clasping his hands together over the counter. "It did start in the alley."
"When you kissed me." She nodded, going back to the pancake batter and placing a pan on top of the stove.
"Yeah, before hitting you with a brick." He scoffed, unable to forget that detail. He felt bad about it, yet he couldn't regret it. It was necessary.
"You did apologize beforehand." She reminded him, not the least bit angry with him. She'd never been angry at him for that. He'd taken it worse than she had.
"Least I could do, love."
"What are you two doing up already?" Buffy wondered as she stepped into the kitchen. "Oh! Pancakes!"
"Just making breakfast. I kinda want to… go back to a semi-normal routine."
"You're not going to school with us, Alls. You would have to get back alone, and you know that's dangerous for you." Buffy stated as soon she was done talking, fixing her with a firm look.
"I know. I'm probably gonna do some research, then I might read a bit. Maybe I could start training again?"
"No way-" "Not a chance.-" Both blondes reacted immediately, sharing a weirded look between them before looking back at the brunette.
"No training yet." Spike added, getting a nod of agreement from Buffy. If there was one thing they could agree on, was on safety measures for Ally. Like when Glory stabbed her with the crowbar aimed for Dawn. It felt so similar to that period of her life, before losing mom –Joyce –before Hell, yet so different. She wasn't a Potential anymore. She was a Slayer, she had a sacred duty. But she remembered Buffy's piece of advice from that time too. You need to understand that you can't do your job, our job, if you don't let yourself heal first. She needed to heal first. Then she'd get back to work. Not like she didn't have other things to work on meanwhile.
As subtly as possible, as she'd been trying to do it since the hospital, Ally left the kitchen when Dawn got there for breakfast, hopping into the shower instead. Truth be told, she was terrified she'd hurt her little Dawnie, and didn't want to take chances. She'd been out of control when she'd attacked Buffy. It had been a mission. Who knew if Dawn would be next?
When she went back downstairs, dressed in clean clothes and wrapped in a towel, Buffy, Dawn and Willow were already gone, and it was only Spike and her in the house. He was still in the kitchen, eating some Weetabix distractedly.
"You think she noticed?" Ally wondered, sitting in the stool beside him.
"You missing? Yeah, but don't think she knows why."
"Good." She dished some of the leftover pancakes, already cold, and drowned them in maple syrup, her left hand unconsciously finding its way to Spike's leg while she ate. It was magnetic. There was that current between them, one that got stronger the closer they were. One that didn't let them sleep when the other wasn't in their arms. "Can we go out tonight? I don't mean patrolling, relax. I mean… go out, you know, Bronze or something."
"That another try at getting away from Snack Size?"
"That too. But it's been ages since we went out for anything other than patrolling."
"Then again, patrolling isn't all we did." He smirked, recalling their distractions during the walks through graveyards.
She smirked back, her gaze on the fork cutting through the pancakes. "Yeah, I know, but… It's gonna be fun. Come on." She looked up, doe eyes working their magic.
"Alright. 'sides, you get all dolled up when you go Bronzin'."
That she did. He didn't know if she was trying to cover the bruises and scars that still lingered on her legs or if she'd somehow gotten a look in his head to see what he liked, but she'd hit the nail on the head.
Bloody buggering hell.
She donned a short –extremely so– flowy sweetheart dress with thigh high black stockings, a black fake leather jacket and her usual military boots, her hair falling free in defined waves and dark smoky eyeshadow bringing her silver eyes out.
And she stood there, in the foyer, waiting for him.
Lucky bloke, he was. Hell could unleash all its demons on him and he'd still be a lucky man –vampire.
Buffy was out patrolling. Willow was studying in the college library. Dawn got home sometime after everyone left.
All of them scattered. All of them vulnerable.
Sometime after the first two dances the couple had shared, Spike retreated to the bar, still keeping an eye on his cheerful girl, dancing with some girl she sorta seemed to know, from the Nibblet's high school or some college party or something. He hadn't really paid attention to the other girl.
He wanted a drink. Then maybe he'd get Ally to sit down and relax for a while, instead of dancing till she couldn't stand upright.
Summers women really had something for dancing.
Half an hour later, she was standing beside him, kissing his temple as she informed him she was going to the toilet, while at the same time sending a harsh glare to a couple women who'd sat close to him in an attempt to gain his attention.
That sent them packing.
She felt good. Somehow, the music, and the dancing, and the pretending had the desired effect, and she'd sent her worries to the back of her mind. She needed a break, she just needed a little respite before going back to being the Slayer. That night, she was a relatively normal twenty-year-old out with her boyfriend. Her totally-not-a-vampire, totally-not-a-hundred-years-older-than-her, very loving boyfriend.
She left the toilet stall and approached one of the sinks, cleaning her hands and checking that her make up wasn't too smudged. She wasn't used to wearing any, and could only get a decent result if Buffy helped her put it on.
But everything looked mostly fine. She adjusted the top of her dress before turning to leave the restroom, only to freeze in the spot at the person standing before her.
Smiling softly down at her, like she remembered, was her mother. She was wearing the same clothes she wore the night she died, her blonde hair was neatly held back with a brown pin, and her neck was bite free.
"Mom? How…?" Her voice cracked, unable to say anything. The last few days she'd been thinking about her, thinking about how a mother could do to her daughter what she'd done to Ally. The Slayer had spent years mourning their loss, years thinking it was her fault that they'd died. And yet, after learning of what her own mother had done, what she was going to do, she couldn't believe how tricked she'd lived.
"What is it, dear? Cat got your tongue?"
"You're dead." She choked out, stepping away from the image of the woman who would have killed her until she hit the sinks with her back. It felt so similar to her encounter with Jon that she could only expect the worse from it.
Her mother tilted her head, amused, and held her hands in front of her stomach, clasped together. "Oh, yes. You made sure of that."
"Don't expect me to feel sorry for you now." The Slayer snarled, feeling her voice tremble beneath the fury.
"Right, you know now. Took you long enough, darling."
"What do you want?"
"Want? I just thought it was time I came for a visit. It's been… what? Five years since you watched us die? Your father and me, both?" She paused, expecting some kind of answer before realizing there was none. "You've come far, haven't you, darling? First that… little… uhm, team of strays in LA, then the destined broken family in the Hellmouth… You keep jumping from vampire to vampire, don't you? What? Didn't get enough of them the night we died?"
"What do you want?" She hissed again, holding edge of the sink with her hands so tight she could feel it start to creek.
"Honestly? I just wanted to clear the air, tell you my side of the story."
"So what? You didn't want to sell me to this Big Bag? Wasn't going to kill me that Christmas? Wasn't going to send me to Hell?"
"Oh, no, I was going to do all that. And then I was going to send you to kill your precious destined sisters. Well, not me, but the one I serve. And you are going to do it, in the end, darling. The vampire can't hold you back forever. What they put inside you? The essence of darkness? It's still settling. Once it has made your body its home, you are going to turn into the Dark Slayer again. It's inevitable, and it's only going to take a few more days."
"You're lying."
"You don't believe your own mother? How sad. Guess you'll have to wait and see. See how you kill your darling baby sis with your own hands." She grinned widely, taking one step closer to her daughter. "And I'll be watching my dear daughter fulfil her mission. There's no escape but death, honey. You'll see."
"I won't do it."
"What makes you so sure?"
Ally's jaw clenched, her fingertips bleeding from the constant pressure against the sink. She wasn't going to kill Buffy or Dawn. She wasn't. She wouldn't let that thing take control. She'd fight. I'm stronger than this. "I takes more than a demonic thing to defeat a Summers Slayer."
"Yes. Another Summers Slayer." And with one last grin, the woman who claimed to be her mother was gone.
She breathed in deeply when she finally found herself alone in the restroom and turned to wet her hands with cold water, only to flinch and scramble away from the sink when she saw her black eyes in the mirror.
She had to get out of there.
She rushed out of the restroom and freaked out even more when she couldn't find Spike where he'd been in the bar. Running as if her life depended on it, she headed for the backdoor, pushing whoever stood on her way, needing the cool air like a drowning sailor, starved of oxygen.
Instead of being able to breathe when she was out, she felt her throat constrict at the sight of her love's bleach blond hair standing in front of one of the girls who'd been fluttering around him in the club. And she knew the girl wasn't having fun. She was being killed. She knew that posture well enough.
She sprinted toward her boyfriend, still not quite processing the fact that he was drinking from an innocent, and grabbed his shoulder to pull him away from the girl, her distressed state and the thing inside her giving her a boost that sent Spike flying into the opposite wall of the back alley.
"Run." Ally snarled at the girl whose neck was dripping blood, her face wet with tears. "Run, now."
Ally turned back toward her vampire, who was just getting up, shaking himself while he… Was he humming? He still had his game face on, and was starting to grin like a maniac as he whipped the remaining blood from around his mouth.
And yet, it wasn't his appearance that shocked her the most. She didn't know if it was because of the black-eye-thing she had going on –if that essence of darkness inside of her that pulled them together like magnets was stronger while she was like that– but she could feel it. That wasn't her usual Spike. Spike was a mix of human and demon, in which the demon got out in a fight, but the human made the decisions. Lately, the soul was mixed into the equation, making matters a tad more complicated, but this… It was the demon through and through. The demon was in control. The demon made the decisions. The human was nowhere near the surface, and she could feel it all. The darkness in her was overjoyed with the sight of the demon, the power he had in that moment. The rest of her was trying to find a way to get the rest of him back.
"Spike?"
He snarled and charged at her, making her have to move out of his way and get into a defensive position. She had to get him to stop. Like he'd done with her.
"Spike, stop!" She yelled when he tried to tackle her again, this time grabbing his arm and twisting it before smashing him into the wall, holding his arm on his back. "Spike, you've got to stop, listen to me. Come back. Don't let the demon control you. Please, baby, come back." She whispered in his ear, even as he stirred against her hold. It wasn't working.
How did he do it? He'd said she hadn't recognized him at first. How did he get her to stop?
She loosened her hold just enough for him to turn around, fist aiming for her head, before she ducked and pushed both his arms against the wall, this time facing him.
"Baby? Look at me." She ordered, keeping his wriggling body stuck to the wall until he did so.
As soon as the demon's yellow eyes looked into hers, he stilled, the other part of him beginning to merge once more. The demon was still in control, but she could feel the human and the soul push, climb their way to the surface. Not only that, but the demon recognized her, somehow. It could see the darkness. It was relaxing under her hands.
It was purring.
"Better?" Ally whispered, letting go of his arms and bringing a hand to his cheek. The demon purred again even as he was being replaced and thrown back to the depths of Spike, game face changing into his human visage.
"Ally?"
"I'm here. Are you okay?"
Spike broke eye contact, looking around the alley and blinking, confused. "When did we get out here?"
"What's the last thing you remember?"
"You leaving for the restroom and a chit coming to try an' butter me up. Then it goes blank."
"Has it happened before?"
"Not that I know. What in the bleeding hell did I do?"
She bit her lip, debating if she should tell him about the girl right then or wait until they were home. He already thought he was a bad man. She needed to figure out what was happening before she went adding to that self-hate.
"Nothing, really. Let's go home and try to fill that gap, alright? I'll tell you what I know."
As the couple left the alley, heading for the Summers home, Ally's doppelganger watched them from the top of the building right in front of the Bronze, arms crossed over her chest. "You've got to be kidding me." She walked by the edge of the building, following the couple from the distance, changing into Spike in the progress. "Now it works the other way 'round. Bloody brilliant." He scowled before disappearing in a flash of light.
The witch and the kid had gotten their messages. Good enough for the night.
As soon as they crossed the threshold of the house and caught sight of the mess the living room was, Ally freaked out. She knew Buffy was going to patrol, and Willow was going to be out studying. Dawn had been home alone. Vulnerable.
"Dawn?" The junior Slayer rushed into the living room, taking in all the broken glass and destroyed furniture that only a few hours earlier had been their cosy home. "Dawn!" Dread filled every one of the cells in her body, sprinting upstairs to make sure her baby sister hadn't been hurt or taken or killed. She couldn't let that happen.
"Alls!" Buffy and Willow met her in the corridor of the upper floor, Spike following behind the brunette. "You're back. Oh, god, did anything happen to you? Are you alright?"
"I'm fine. Where's Dawn?"
"It's OK. She's OK. Not hurt. She's just exhausted. Finally fell off to sleep." Willow assured her, exchanging a worried look with Buffy.
"What happened down there?"
"It's the big evil. It's started." Willow confessed fearfully.
Buffy gulped, her face torn in concern. "'From beneath you, it devours.' It's already started."
"It started with Dawn?"
"Both of us." The redhead grimaced, appreciating the still calm presence of the vampire behind Ally. "This thing knows us. It made us think that we were talking to people we knew. Mine said it came with a message from Tara. But Dawn actually saw... Joyce. This thing… it had me for a while… I mean, before it started letting loose with the pulse-pounding terror. But before that, the lies were very convincing. It just seems real."
"People we knew…" Ally repeated, exhaling as she let herself sink against Spike's front, his arm coming around her. "I saw my mother. I talked to her."
They all stared at her with their eyes wide. She could feel Spike's stare on the side of her head, drilling holes for not telling him earlier. He'd definitely scold her about it later. Not then, though.
"She was lying?" She asked in a weak voice, needing confirmation that all of what her mother had said was not true. She needed to know she was not going to kill Buffy and Dawn.
"I mean maybe… maybe to confuse us, to mess us up. Or maybe just to be cool." The witch suggested, knowing that her mother was probably the last person Ally wanted to see. Who would want to see a person that had pretended to love you all your life, only to kill you at fifteen and turn you into a monster, a weapon?
"What did she tell you?" Buffy inquired, reaching for Ally's hand in support.
"Nothing good, but nothing Jon didn't tell me, either." Not completely true, Ally. A voice inside her head reminded her. Freaking Jiminy Cricket decided to turn up right then. Great. Still, she didn't want to tell them all about what her mother told her, she'd wait. "This is crazy."
"Guess that's how you saw your dead friend, love." Spike spoke from behind her, his hand rubbing comforting circles on her side.
"So whatever talked to us tonight, is the same thing that took you?" Willow concluded, glancing from Buffy to Ally. Things were getting so bad, so fast… 'Last year's gonna seem like cake after what I put you and your friends through' Cassie/Big Bad had said. The witch couldn't help but wonder just how bad it could get.
"We'll look into it in the morning. Right now, we are all exhausted. Better go to sleep. You look dead on your feet, Alls." Buffy pointed, looking her sister up and down. Her hair was a bit messed, and her makeup smudged around the eyes. "Come, I'll help you take the makeup off before you go to bed." She offered and led her to the bathroom while Will and Spike went to their respective rooms –or basements. Once they were alone, with Ally sitting on top of the toilet while Buffy carefully removed the thin layer of art she herself had put on her earlier that night. "Wanna talk about your mom?"
"Didn't fool you, huh?"
"I like to think I know my own sister." The blonde smirked.
"She said it's still settling." Ally moved her hand in front of her, gesturing toward her whole body. "And that I'll turn into the Dark Slayer again. That I'll kill you and Dawnie."
Buffy looked her in the eye, dead serious. "She's lying."
"I hope so." Ally bit her lip, just cleared of any gloss she previously had on.
Seeing her sister struggle to believe her own words, Buffy kneeled in front of her, taking her hands and squeezing lightly. "You're stronger than that."
Ally looked right back at her, drawing strength from the strongest woman she'd ever known, one she could proudly call her sister. "We're stronger than that." She smiled lightly, but it soon fell, her hands holding onto Buffy's a bit tighter. "Buffy… tonight… please, don't jump into conclusions, I think there's more to it than we know, than what's obvious… but…" She bit her lip again, shaking her head. Should she tell Buffy? She and Spike had never gotten along. Buffy had told her that when he went back to killing people, she'd stake him. And yet… lately… Buffy was more supportive. Maybe after Spike saved her, she'd finally realized he'd really changed.
"What is it, Alls? What happened tonight? Something other than your mom?"
"We were at the Bronze. Spike was at the bar, having a drink, and I left to go the restroom. Mom appeared then, but then, when I got out, I couldn't see Spike, and I ran out. I was freaking out, Buffy… And then I saw him. He was drinking from this girl…" She tugged at the blonde's hands as soon as she felt her tense and pull back, probably to go get Spike. "I pulled him away from the girl and restrained him, and… He doesn't remember, Buffy! He doesn't know what he almost did tonight! He doesn't know he drank from that girl." She was shaking, her voice trembling with contained emotion.
She had a killer in her house again. Spike, who she'd started to trust, who had been proving himself since around the time Ally arrived to Sunnydale, had almost killed a girl that night. But how? "How is he killing again? What about the chip? I thought it was only the two of us he could hurt."
"I don't know! It wasn't… it wasn't him entirely, Buff. He has no idea of what happened."
"Or he's a hell of an actor." The blonde scoffed, thinking about the implications of having Spike killing again.
"He's not pretending!" Ally whisper-shouted. "He really doesn't know!"
"How are you so sure?"
"I could feel it!" She inhaled deeply, preparing herself to tell Buffy about their strange connection. Would the senior Slayer believe her? "Ever since the… that night, when I…" She swallowed, closing her eyes for a moment to stop the images of herself beating Buffy from assaulting her. "When he stopped me, I'm pretty sure it was not… him I recognized. Not entirely. I recognized the demon part of him. Since the alley, there's been this… current, between us, like electricity, like we're opposite magnets."
"This is starting to sound like a cheesy romance novel, sis." The eldest quirked an eyebrow, disbelief colouring her features.
"Shut up. I'm serious Buffy, I can even feel where he is, and so can he with me. I think it's the black thing they put in me… I think it somehow made a connection with the demon. And tonight… when I saw my mother in the restroom… I was… angry and scared… my eyes went black."
"Like in the alley." Buffy recognized, her eyes wide once again, her mouth hanging open.
"Yes. So I freaked out, ran from the Bronze, trying to find Spike, and when I threw him away from the girl and he turned toward me… I could feel the demon. There was nothing but the demon in control. The human part in him and the soul… they were buried so deep… And then… the demon recognized me, Buffy. It recognized me and it retreated. When Spike was back in control, he couldn't remember any of it. Not even going out of the Bronze."
"This is getting weirder by the second..." Buffy sighed, her gaze falling to the floor, thoughtful. "We'll just… leave it for tomorrow. Or… is it safe, having him here?"
"I think I can restrain him if it comes to it. And I kinda have a radar for him, anyway."
"Good. Then we'll talk about it in the morning."
