CHAPTER 7
It dribbled… yet it slithered as well; it was a formless mass but it also exuded intelligence. It set off every alarm bell in his vampire senses but when he stared at it, he couldn't pin down why.
And, try as he might, he couldn't shrug away the feeling of dread that washed over him as Buffy approached the hole.
"This is not good…this is not good…" he muttered under his breath as he resisted the urge to pull her away from the creeping mass.
"Relax, Spike, I'm not going to touch it," Buffy said reassuringly as she crouched down to have a better look at what was pouring onto the floor.
But Spike couldn't relax, he didn't know how to explain it but he knew that they were in big, big trouble. A low hiss caught Spike's attention and his eyes were drawn to the yawning blackness of the hole. Amidst the darkness, the glowing eyes snapped open, turning its malicious gaze upon the slayer.
"Step away, Buffy – NOW!" Grabbing her by the shoulders, he pulled her back against him. A low rumble came from the blackness and both of them glared at the destroyed console.
"That's right, you tosser," Spike growled at it. "You're not going to get her that easily." Pulling at her hand, Spike dragged them both to the far corner, away from the now growing pool on the floor. "We have to get out of here," he told her as he tugged her closer to him.
Buffy rolled her eyes. "You know that's not possible, Spike…we're stuck here, remember?"
"Then we're just going to have to figure out a way to get unstuck, aren't we?" Spike answered sharply as he examined the elevator walls for a weakness.
Buffy eyed her companion worriedly; usually Spike would be up for this kind of thing but not this time…this time, he looked scared. "Spike, what's wrong?" she asked anxiously as she studied his panicked face.
"I don't know, exactly," Spike admitted. "But everything I am tells me that we have to get out of here now or…" lost for words to describe it, he let the sentence trail off.
"Or what?" pressed Buffy, he was really beginning to worry her.
"Or nothing, luv." Spike reluctantly admitted. "I don't think there is an alternative, not one that we could live through, anyway."
The elevator carriage shuddered. "Oh, what is it now?" Buffy grumbled. As if in answer, the elevator tumbled to a halt.
"You did have to ask," Spike growled as the elevator creaked ominously. A low hiss drew his attention once more to the console. The black ooze had risen from the floor and now floated midair. Like liquid suspended in a vacuum, the fat little globules bounced into each other and formed larger ones. It would've been fascinating to watch if it didn't terrify him so much.
Holding the pommel of her sword in a tighter grip, Buffy pulled away from Spike and inched her way around the ooze until she reached the door.
"What are you up to, luv," asked Spike worriedly as he crept around after her, ignoring the malicious hiss that came from the console.
"Well, I figure that, as I managed to pry open the console, I should be able to do the same with the door," Buffy explained as she inserted the sword into the tiny gap between the doors.
Stepping in behind her, Spike laid his hands over hers on the pommel. "On the count of three, then," he suggested.
"Three," replied Buffy promptly. As one, they pulled on the sword. The door creaked in protest and opened a crack, letting in a brilliant light from the other side. Spike let go of the pommel and slid his fingers into the gap; throwing the full weight of his strength into his hands he pried the doors further apart.
Dropping the sword, Buffy ducked under his arms and slipped through the narrow gap. Hearing a muffled gasp, Spike looked up and peered through the gap after her.
"What's wrong, luv."
"Nothing that can't wait," she replied as her hands slipped through the gap and grasped the edges of the doors. "Your turn now…"
With a screech the doors flung open and Spike fell forward, sending him and Buffy flying onto the floor. A deep roar echoed around them, and they scrambled to their feet, their eyes searching the room that they had fallen into.
"Guess we found the white room, then," observed Spike as his eyes took in the gleaming white walls.
"You think?" Buffy asked sarcastically as she dusted herself off.
"Still don't know what the fuss is about, though," mused Spike. "The elevator was scarier than this place."
An answering growl came from beyond the elevator doors.
"Speaking of which," muttered Buffy as she peered into the elevator.
The ooze was now one pulsating mass, twisting and turning in the air as it sucked the last remainders of itself out of the console.
"I don't suppose that there is a back stairs out of here," Spike asked as the black mass twisted into itself and groaned painfully.
"Nope," answered Buffy shortly as she crept forward slowly and grabbed her sword and weapons bag, darting back as the floating mass moaned and edged forward.
"Ugh, that is just gross," she said in disgust as she retreated back to where Spike was standing. "Here," she added as she handed him the weapons bag. "Arm yourself."
"I don't think there's anything in this bag that will be of use here, luv," Spike told her ruefully.
"Humour me," Buffy retorted, her eyes nervously darting towards the elevator as the growling grew louder.
Pulling a machete out the bag, Spike moved closer to her as the mass moved slowly forward. He couldn't be sure, but it looked like it was not only growing, but mutating.
Long oily tentacles stretched out from beneath it, touching the floor as it moved into the room. The central mass arched into one long backbone, a shape vaguely reminiscent of a snout formed in the front and two glowing eyes snapped open.
"Oh look," said Spike snidely, "The big bad shows it's true colours."
With an ear splitting roar, the black mass became a blur as it leapt forward. Throwing themselves to the ground, they ducked their heads as the mass flung itself over them and landed on the other side of the room. With a low, purring growl, it turned lightly on its newly formed feet and crouched low to pounce. Its eyes glowed in predatory anticipation as its new, muscled, panther-like form gleaming blackly in the light.
Rolling onto her feet, Buffy lifted the sword defensively as Spike scrambled up beside her.
A deep, rumbling, laugh came from deep within the beast, its lambent eyes narrowing in amusement. "That sword isn't going to help you," it hissed. "This is my world, not yours…and here, only my rules apply."
Spikes eyes narrowed suspiciously. When a bad guy started warbling on about how all-powerful they were, it usually meant they were bluffing. "Your rules, eh," he drawled, juggling the machete from one hand to the other as he glanced at Buffy knowingly. "Do tell."
"Don't test my patience, vampire," it hissed back. You are here under sufferance."
"Oh really," Spike muttered. "Silly me, I thought we were here because we thrashed your elevator and vandalised its doors."
A noise that sounded suspiciously like a laugh came from beside him and he sneaked a look at Buffy's face; the slayer was trying in vain to keep a serious face as she brandished the sword threateningly at the 'panther'.
The beast gave a low, purring laugh as it relaxed back onto its hind feet and started grooming itself. Exchanging a puzzled look, Spike and Buffy watched him cleaning his fur. Eventually, Buffy cleared her throat and the beast looked up to study them through narrow eyes.
"You're still here?" he asked disparagingly as he resumed his grooming. "I had hoped that you would've realised by now that this was a diversionary tactic, I suppose you're a bit slower on the uptake than I thought."
"A diversionary tactic, eh," snorted an unconvinced Spike. "Divert us from what, exactly?"
"Oh…you don't know?" the beast teased as it studied its newly cleaned paw. "I wanted to make sure that you were safely occupied elsewhere while I ended the world."
"Not going to happen," Buffy stated flatly as she advanced on the beast.
A low rumbling laugh came from the beast as it dodged out of the way of her lunge. "You're a bit late, my dear," it purred, its tongue lolling out in amusement. "Didn't you notice my use of the past tense?"
"Pull the other one, mate," Spike said derisively. "There's no way you could have known we would come after you."
The beast gave a feline shrug. "I would have thought it rather obvious, even to you, that she would inevitably come here once she knew of my existence - of course, I hadn't been expecting her little visit for another few months, but never mind, all I had to do was move up the date a little."
"You…you couldn't have…there hasn't been enough time," whispered Buffy.
"Time!" it snorted. "Whatever made you think that I'd be constrained by something as inconsequential as time? A little twist here, a little nudge there and voila, the end of the world as you know it."
"Oh please," said Spike sourly. "It takes more than that to bring about an apocalypse."
"Who said anything about an apocalypse?" replied the panther languidly. "I'm not one of your little hell gods, children. I've no need for parlour tricks to end this reality, I merely made it come to pass that your reality never existed in the first place. Welcome to the brave new world, I think you'll find it a challenging new existence."
"But why?" asked Buffy. "What can you possibly to gain from this?"
"Lets just call it scholarly interest," the beast told her. "I want to see how you fare."
"You make it sound like a science experiment," observed Spike dryly.
The 'panther' raised its head and studied the vampire keenly. "Bright boy, it seems you do have a few brain cells to rub together after all – although it would probably be more accurate to describe it as a test... after a fashion."
A chill of foreboding spilled down Spikes chest. "What kind of test are we talking about here, mate."
"Now, now," the beast purred. "That would be cheating. Its up to you to choose what the test will become."
"Oh no you don't," protested Buffy. "I've had it up to here with bad guys who spout riddles…you've got two seconds to tell me what you know before I ram this sword down you throat!"
"Tut, tut, such language," the 'panther' grumbled as it turned its gaze on the slayer. "You're a rash one, aren't you? Well, child, it's really quite simple, the powers-that-be has had a little cabinet reshuffle. They're reanalysing their policies and they're wondering if they may have made a mistake by creating your reality. You've been stirring up quite of lot of trouble of late; causing disturbances in the other realities that cannot be overlooked. It has occurred to the upper management that maybe your kind have been given too much of a free reign."
"Huh?" uttered Buffy bemusedly. "What on earth are you talking about?"
The beast started cleaning its whiskers fastidiously. "I'm talking about free will, Slayer," he explained patiently. "The ability to choose your destiny, the one thing that makes your reality so unique…the one thing that sets it apart from the dimensions of Hell and Heaven."
"Uh oh," whispered Spike.
"Uh oh what?" demanded Buffy, turning the full impact of her glare on Spike.
"Seems that your little vampire friend has figured it out," came a lazy reply from the direction of the beast.
"Well, maybe you should let me in on it because I'm lost here!" she grumbled.
"He's talking about souls, luv," Spike explained uneasily.
"I'm going to need a little more than that, Spike," she answered exasperatedly.
"Let me see if I can explain it to you in terms that you can understand," interrupted the Beast as it clambered up onto its legs. "Once upon a time, long, long ago there was the beginning…"
"Yeah, yeah, I know this story," Buffy said impatiently. "Giles used to rattle it off on a weekly basis."
"Somehow I doubt you've heard this version, slayer," the 'panther' disagreed. "Now, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted…long, long ago there was a beginning and at the beginning reality, as you've come to know it, came into being. This reality was ordered, a place for everything and everyone - a niche, if you will. It was the nature of this reality that for every yin there was a yang, for every ray of light there was a shadow, for every good there was an evil. This was not regretted for it was accepted that this was to be, for they were the two halves of the same creation…"
Buffy rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "Very poetic, cat, now get to the point already!"
"…I'm getting to it!" the Beast irritably replied, its fur bristling in response. "The point is that, though both two sides need the other for the creation to be whole, they could not live in harmony - for just as it was in the nature of the 'darker' beings to create destruction and chaos, it was in the nature of the 'lighter' beings to turn the other cheek. An imbalance began to show, so it was decided to break up reality into many, different, smaller realities – what you refer to as the heaven and hell dimensions. This worked well for a while but soon it was evident that it was not enough. It was with some trepidation that we noticed that, although 'good' and evil' could not live in harmony, they could not live apart either; the dichotomy was wrenching creation apart at the seams."
"You're sending me to sleep here," Buffy pointed out.
"Okay, okay," sighed the Beast. "Here comes the relevant part... the powers-that-be decided that the only way to restore the balance would be to create a new reality which was inhabited by a being which had both good and evil within it. In order to do this, they first had to clear some land, the original inhabitants weren't too happy about this, as you can imagine. I believe you recently met one of the first tenants? I hear it refers to itself as the first evil."
"Been there done that," Spike said impatiently. "The slayer has a point, stop with the bleeding lecture and tell us what we want to know!"
"Well, in order to integrate reality, the powers-that-be not only gave humanity the ability to love and hate, but also the ability to choose between the two. What you humans so lovingly call free will - or a soul. "
"And you're here to take it away," guessed Buffy.
"Not exactly, I'm here to figure out whether or not we should," admitted the furred entity.
"But…you're evil," protested Buffy.
"Your point?"
"How come you get to choose?" she asked.
"I don't…you do," he answered smugly.
"Choose what?"
The beast gazed at her placidly. "Time's up – I hope you're ready," he added slyly as the room began to darken.
"Now wait just a flipping moment… oomph!" The floor gave way and, with a thud, Spike fell forward into the darkness, ending up with a face full of dirt for his troubles. "What the hell…" he thought as he raised his head and looked around. Where the hell was he, and where the hell was Buffy?
Panicked, he jumped onto his feet and peered into the darkness. Buffy…oomph!" Once again, he found himself prostrate on the ground – except, this time, he had an armful of slayer.
"Where are we?" she gasped, peering down into his face from her perch on his chest.
"Search me, luv," he admitted. "I'm as clueless as you are."
With a sigh, she rested her forehead on his shoulder. "We're in big trouble, aren't we?" she muttered into his coat.
Lifting his hand to her hair, he gently stroked it as he gazed at the strange night sky above. "I think we can take that as a given, luv."
TBC…