"And you believe him?" Anya asked, incredulous, when every Scooby but Ally, Spike and Giles were gathered in the dining room.
Knowing how difficult it would be to understand, Buffy tried to explain, recalling what she's seen earlier that day. "You didn't see him down there. He really didn't know what he'd done. It wasn't in his control." She glanced toward the kitchen from her spot on one of the chairs, wondering how Ally and the vampire were doing.
"Oh, an out of control serial killer. You're right, that is a great houseguest." Xander quipped, sarcasm flowing from him as usual.
Dawn straightened on her seat, eyes wide and throwing fearful glances toward the door to the basement. "Wait, is he… is he staying here?"
"Yeah. Ally would never let him go, not in this state. But I'm not letting him out of my sight, that's for sure." The blonde Slayer assured.
"Buffy" Willow intervened, not quite positive this was the right course of action. ", he's been feeding... on human blood. That's gotta do stuff."
"I'm not keeping him around just to help him. I think there was something there, talking to him, making him do things."
The redhead immediately caught on, finally seeing Buffy's plan. "Something like what was talking to us?"
"Maybe. But if it was, it's been screwing with Spike big time."
Xander, ever the slow learner, still didn't understand the reason behind keeping the vampire with them. "So, you want him around because...?"
"Look, there's something evil working us, and if we are ever gonna have a chance to fight it, we need to learn everything we can about it. This thing has been closer to Spike than any of us." So close that it'd driven him insane during his time in the high school basement. Buffy could only imagine what it'd been like when Ally had found him.
Willow followed the blonde's train of thought. "And if you want to understand it..."
"We're gonna have to get close to Spike." Buffy concluded, nodding.
The dark haired man still wasn't on board, thinking it would be better to kick the vampire out before he could hurt anyone else. "Nah, it's too dangerous."
"Then take safety measures." Spike intervened, stepping into the dining room, his voice low.
"Shouldn't you be in the basement?" Xander inquired, pointing toward the door leading downstairs.
"Ally is asleep. Thought this would be the best moment to discuss this with you." The bleach blond looked at Buffy, dead serious. "She's not gonna like it, but you have to restrain me. If I'm let loose, someone might die. Ally can't always get to me in time."
"You're right." Buffy nodded, unconsciously holding her injured arm tighter against her stomach. "Tomorrow. We'll tie you and see if we find out anything about what this Big Bad is, or why it seems so intent in messing with you. Go back with Ally. She will wake up if you don't go back soon, won't she?"
The vampire nodded, already giving up any idea that he could be free without endangering others, and returned to the basement.
"I don't like this." Ally stated, sitting on Buffy's bed, near the chair Spike was being tied to by her eldest sister.
"You don't have to like it, love, but it's necessary." The vampire retorted, watching the knots the senior Slayer made.
"Why? I can keep the demon calm when it takes control. There's no need to…"
"Yes, there's need. Just… it'll soon be over, love. It's not that bad." Spike played it down, trying to look confident and calm in front of her.
Ally sighed, sinking further down the mattress and hugging her legs against her chest, still not liking the idea of having him tied. "I'll just stay here, then."
They still hadn't told anyone about their engagement. With all that was happening, it wasn't the best moment to do so, and honestly, she didn't really trust Xander not to stake Spike while he was tied up.
But when she stopped, sat, and simply watched him, all she could think about was 'That's my fiancé' and 'My sister's tying up my fiancé'.
She watched over her vampire and sister for hours, lying or sitting on the bed, sometimes taking part in the conversation, sometimes keeping to herself.
A few hours after Buffy got Spike tied up, they realized they had a visitor. While at the butcher's, where she'd gone to buy blood for Spike, Willow had found Andrew, one of the nerds who had tried to be the villain masterminds of Sunnydale the previous year. He had been buying lots of pigs blood too, but it was much more suspicious, given he didn't have to feed a vampire. So Willow had dragged him back to the house in order to find out what he was doing back in town and buying so much blood.
Ally wasn't that interested in the boy. She had other matters to worry about, but the blood he'd bought had come in handy for Spike. She was feeding him directly from the bag right then, while Buffy waited, leaning against the wall next to the door.
They heard Xander and Anya move to the bathroom, and Buffy left to join them, see if they'd gotten anything out of the nerd.
"It's going to be over soon." She whispered, her free hand softly moving from his hair to his neck, fingertips brushing the skin with feather light touches. "Can you imagine their faces when we tell them?"
She saw him holding back a smirk as he drank, his blue eyes moving to her. He was so going to enjoy the reactions.
Buffy came back just as Spike finished the bag of blood. "Better?" The blonde Slayer asked, glancing at her sister once as the brunette left the empty bag on a metallic bowl on the table. The vampire nodded, calm, collected. "Good."
He knew what she wanted. What they all wanted. Bloody hell, what he wanted. But he simply couldn't give it. "I don't remember anything."
"Could be withdrawal." Buffy suggested, crossing her arms over her chest and sitting on the edge of the bed.
Ally approached her, shaking her head. "He didn't drink enough…"
Spike, though, cut her off pretty quickly. "No, not that. I don't remember… what I did."
Both sisters stared at him, shocked. "Nothing?" The blonde inquired, a light frown creasing her forehead.
"It's all flashes here and there. It's like I'm watching someone else… do it, attack people, drink. When you stopped me at the Bronze" He looked at Ally, swallowing when he thought back to that moment, the horror. "it felt like waking up. I don't remember how I got there."
Buffy glanced between them, still astonished at the depth of their relationship, their connection. How would it feel? To be so close, so in sync with someone that you could literally feel where they were, reach into them when they were at their worst? Would their connection have worked had they not been in love before they put that thing inside Ally? It was too complicated, so she went for the answers that seemed easier. "When did your chip stop working?"
"I wasn't aware that it had, you know. Not 'til now. Things have been wonky since I got back, ever since…"
"You got your soul." Ally finished for him, closing her eyes to see images of the church, the moment she realized what he'd done.
"Figured that's what it was like, it'd been so long since I had one." He half-joked, shrugging as much as he could with his arms tied to the armrests of the chair.
Buffy leaned forward, interested in the matter. She wondered how one could get a soul without being cursed, like Angel, without the 'happiness factor' to worry about. "How did you do it? How'd you get your soul back?"
"Saw a man about a girl." He sighed, his lips turning downward when he saw the flash of guilt on Ally's face. "I went to seek a legend out. Travelled to the other side of the world, made a deal with a demon."
"Just like that?"
"No, not just like that." He hesitated. He didn't want Ally to listen to that. It would only make her feel worse. Yet Buffy didn't seem ready to let it go. She wanted to know. "There was a price. There were trials…"
"Trials?"
He sighed again, wishing she would just let it go. "Torture, pain and suffering. Now, could you let it go?" He snapped angrily at the blonde, seeing how her sister turned into a ball on the bed next to her, her face half-hidden behind her knees. Bollocks.
His guilt-trip was interrupted by the sounds of a scuffle coming from the Nibblet's room, where their hostage was being interrogated. Both sisters got up from the bed in an instant and went to check on the others, leaving the vampire alone in the room. Alone to face the other.
Both Slayers broke into Dawn's room to find Xander leaning against the chest of drawers and Andrew on the floor with Anya seemingly beating the truth out of him. They blinked, surprised at the scene, while Anya smiled at them.
"Everything okay?" Ally asked, eyeing the boy weakly asking for help.
"Fine." Anya grinned, completely at ease with the situation.
"Okay." Buffy shrugged and left the room to return to their prisoner/boyfriend.
Dawn's voice drifted from downstairs, making them halt on their way. "Hey, Alls! Riley on the phone!"
"I'll be back soon." Ally assured Buffy before running downstairs. Graham and Riley had been excessively worried since the hospital, and she knew they would keep checking on her frequently until things were better and they knew more about what was inside of her. Meanwhile, she was caught between being bothered by their extreme concern and warmed by their overprotectiveness. She really did love those boys. Seven years, and they still treated her like she was their precious little girl.
As soon as she picked up the phone and greeted Riley, she heard a crash coming from the upper floor, and it was not just Anya hitting Andrew. It was much louder.
"Sorry, Rye. Something's up. Call you later."
She sprinted upstairs, jumping the steps three at a time, and reached Buffy's room just as she kicked Spike's face, knocking him out, although he was already on the ground. Around his mouth was blood, but it was not Buffy's, she didn't have any bite marks. Instead, nerd-boy whined beside Buffy, holding his hand to his neck, bloodied and trembling. When had he come to Buffy's room?
Oh, right. Huge hole on the wall.
Ally's eyes flitted right back to Spike, unconscious, as she kneeled by his side. The demon had taken control again, and she hadn't been close enough to stop it.
The stress was getting to her. Her head felt fuzzy, but she pushed through the fog to bring some water, a rag and some hot chocolate to the basement. Buffy and Ally had had to chain Spike to the wall, just in case, but the brunette had made sure that he was lying on top of the mattress, at least moderately comfortable. He was still out, lying unconscious with his arms dangling from the chains, blood smeared around his mouth.
Ally kneeled beside her fiancé and started wiping the blood off his face carefully, wondering how he would take it when he woke up. He'd been devastated last time, when he attacked Buffy. He'd been ready to die. He'd thought Buffy would kill him, and he would have let her.
According to the Gang, he was being triggered. Something inside his head was pushing his human self and soul inside, and bringing the demon to the surface. Buffy thought the trigger was a song. He'd mentioned something about a song before. The first time was when he told her the other had started singing. So whatever song it was, it made him lose himself to the demon.
As Ally wiped the nerd's blood off the corners of his lips, Spike opened his eyes, turning his head slightly to look at her.
"Hey, baby." She smiled lightly, brushing her thumb across his cheek before resuming her task.
"Did I hurt anybody?" He whispered, drained.
She grimaced and shrugged, but decided to be honest. She'd learnt her lesson about keeping things from him. They could learn more if he knew what he was doing. "You took a good bite out of Andrew."
"Who?"
"The nerd Willow brought."
"Oh." He averted his eyes, probably thinking about what he'd done.
She treaded her fingers through his bleached locks in order to get him to relax, her voice still soft. "He'll be fine. How are you?"
"I don't remember." He croaked, voice raspy, broken.
"It's okay."
"Ally, I don't know why." He looked up at her again, his baby blues finding her grey eyes. She could see the frustration, the pain inside.
"We think we do. Something's playing you. Some ghost or demon has figured out how to control you. Got the gang researching it right now." He started to move himself to a sitting position, and Ally left the bowl of water and rag aside to help him. "Xander has this theory that you're being triggered." She handed him the hot chocolate, but he pushed it aside.
In an even voice, not tremble or indecision, he gave the worst order. "Kill me."
"What?"
"Ally, you have to kill me." He insisted, firm in his decision.
She sat beside him, trying to take one of his hands. "You don't understand. Buffy said that when we left the room earlier, she heard you talking to someone…"
He pried his hands away from hers, frustration building within him. "Do you have any idea what I'm capable of?"
"I was at the Bronze with you. And the basement. I saw what you did. I know. It's not you." She stood and moved to leave the mug of chocolate aside so it wouldn't spill.
"I'm not talking about the Bronze. The people at the Bronze got off easy. I'm talking about me. Ally, you have never met the real me."
"I know you, Spike."
He stood up as well, moving forward as much as his chains allowed him to. "No, you don't. You don't know what I… Buffy got off easy too, here, right here." He shook his head in the direction of the stairs. "You don't know who I was before. Who I am. Do you know how much blood you can drink from a girl before she'll die? I do. You see, the trick is to drink just enough to know how to damage them just enough so that they'll still cry when you…" He choked, disgust painted in his features when thinking about his memories. "'cause it's not worth it if they don't cry."
Ally shook her head, not ready to give him up. "It's not your fault. You're not the one doing this."
"I already did it. It's already done." He paced on top of the mattress, his jaw clenching continually. "You wanna know what I've done to girls Dawn's age? This is me, Ally. You've got to kill me before I get out."
"We can keep you locked up. Keep you here and we'll figure out…"
"You have to kill me." He begged desperately.
He wasn't going to listen to her telling him he was not evil. He was not going to understand it was not him doing all those things. The guilt, the fear of becoming a killer again was too much. How could she reach him when guilt and fear were the only thing he was responding to?
Well, maybe more guilt and fear, of another kind. One that could somewhat get his mind off his current thoughts.
"Are you bailing out on me?" She shot, fists clenching on her sides, face torn. She was not acting. She was just emphasizing all the emotion inside of her. Worry, fear, heartbreak for what he was going through…
He stopped, his head tilting to one side, confused. "What?"
"I literally just told you I want to marry you and now you say you want to die? How can you do that? Why did you even ask me then?" She spread her arms wide, her voice raising with her hands.
"I…"
"So what? You don't want that now? That's it? It's over?" She allowed her voice to cracks and lowered her hands when they started trembling. Her whole body was trembling.
"Love, you know…"
She brought her hands to her head, the dizziness had increased tenfold and her stomach was doing strange things. She felt nauseous. It was too much. She was going to vomit.
She held one hand to her stomach, and Spike stopped trying to explain when he saw she wasn't well. "I need to go to the bathroom. I'll tell Buffy to come down and watch over yo…" A wave of nausea hit her, and she ran to the stairs, shouting at Buffy to go see to Spike as she sprinted to the toilet.
Her stomach twisted as she reached the toilet and shut the door behind her, a burning feeling spreading from her abdomen toward her chest and head.
It was not nausea. No. She knew what it was. She had to… she had to get out. She had to tell them, warn them.
She turned toward the door again just as the burn reached the back of her head, now present across her whole body. He legs failed and her knees buckled, one last thought passing through her brain as the world went black.
I won't hurt my sisters.
And as her head hit the tiled floor, the windows and walls of the house trembled and collapsed in several different points, letting the minions of the new Big Bad in, wreaking havoc in the Summers household.
No one noticed the body on the bathroom floor until the robed figures were gone.
