Part 20, By Estepheia
Interlude
„The stars are confiding in me tonight, do you hear their song?"
„What is it they tell you?"
„They tell me that the Princess of Wands is Fallen. The Scarlet Tower tumbled and crumbled. And the flaming gaping maw of hell. It swallowed her, oh what a feast that was. They say she tasted sweet and spicy, like vanilla and rust."
„What do I care?" Darla did not even make an effort to hide her lack of interest. She sat on a comfortable bone coloured sofa, raising a bloodfilled chalice to her lips. She had never thought much of Drusilla's ramblings and her supposed visions.
Sometimes Dru had some clever insights, but most of the time Darla found her just intolerably alien and she grew impatient with her quickly.
Drusilla ignored the other vampire's remark. She clapped her hands in glee. „The stars tell me to hurry up, to catch the tumbling heart of my dark Prince."
„I thought you said ‚your' Spike is lost to you, forever? This is about ‚Spoike', isn't it?" she asked, imitating Drusilla's accent.
Drusilla looked at Darla, totally oblivious to her mocking. „Of course I am talking about Spike. Everything talks of Spike, the stars, the moon, even the sun wants to kiss him, or so I heard." She walked through the expensive flat like a sleepwalker
„Oh, no," she suddenly exclaimed, „but the Knight of Swords will pierce him first."
„Well, you know where and when the night train leaves for Sunnydale. Don't let me stop you." Darla said, refilling her goblet from the veins of her handsome prey, who lay squirming on the floor. He was gagged and tied up with silken shawls of scarlet hue. His hazel eyes gazed at her in a strange mixture of reverence and abject terror. His eyes and his build reminded her of another – and she pondered whether she should turn this one. What were Dru's obsessions to her, when she had her own hunger to consider....
It took Darla a while to notice, that Drusilla had indeed gone. And she hadn't even taken her dolls....
Part 21, by Snakes
Willow had informed them that she needed to gather quite a few things before she could attempt the spell. "You guys might as well head home. I'll let you know when I have everything ready". Spike, Dawn, and Giles left Willow to her preparations.
Spike had no idea what he should do. He knew that the watcher wouldn't have forgotten about wanting to stake him, so it really wasn't safe for Spike to go back to Giles' apartment. But if Spike didn't go back, how could he explain that to Dawn? Even though Dawn knew that Spike was in some kind of danger, she would never expect it to be Giles, so she would just assume that Spike was choosing to abandon her. Giles still had Spike right where he wanted him. Spike's only choices were to go back with Dawn and risk being dusted, or to go somewhere safer and risk losing Dawn completely. Spike was well aware that Giles was watching him and looked up to meet his gaze. The hate was still clear in the watcher's eyes, and the smug look on his face made it clear that he fully expected Spike to leave to save himself. Well, that decided it. Spike was going back with Dawn and would take his chances. Giles' smug look faded a bit as they approached the door to the apartment and Spike was still with them.
It was very late, and both Dawn and Giles headed off to bed. Spike stayed up. He usually slept during the day anyway, and obviously he would have to find someplace other than here to get some sleep, so he could remain awake and alert whenever he was around Giles. He'd worry about where later. As he was anxiously considering his situation, he heard a light rapping on the door of the apartment. Who would be here at this time of night? He quietly went to open the door. "Dru?!"
Giles could hear Spike talking to someone out in the living room. It obviously wasn't Dawn. Giles got out of bed, pulled some clothes on, and went out to see what was going on. He saw Spike standing in the doorway of the apartment, having what appeared to be a very intense conversation with someone standing just outside the door. Spike turned when he heard Giles behind him, and Giles saw Drusilla standing in the hallway. She quickly turned and ran off. Spike shut the door.
Anger flared in the watcher. He approached Spike slowly. "So, I was right about you after all. You are obviously plotting something with Drusilla."
"Giles, back off. It's not like I invited her here, she just showed up. I was sending her away before you even came out here." Spike stepped to the side, trying to move away from where Giles was quickly cornering him by the door. "Enough of your lies, Spike. You're dangerous even with the chip. You'll just get Dru to do what you can't. I'm not letting this go on any farther." He pulled out a stake. Just as he was swinging it at Spike, he heard Dawn scream behind him. It distracted him only slightly, but enough that the stake which plunged into Spike's chest missed his heart by several inches. Spike slumped to the floor in pain. "SPIKE!" Dawn was by his side in seconds.
"Dawn, get away from him. He's still dangerous. I caught him with Drusilla, obviously plotting our deaths."
Dawn ignored Giles, intent on the injured vampire. "Spike, I'm so sorry. Buffy warned me, but I still didn't manage to prevent this. I'm still just bringing pain on the people I care about." Before he answered, Spike gritted his teeth and yanked out the stake. "Nibblet. You watched out for me exactly as Buffy asked you to do. If you hadn't come out here when you did, the stake... wouldn't have missed. You didn't bring this on me. You saved my unlife."
"Dawn, what do you mean Buffy warned you? What were you supposed to prevent?" Dawn turn to look at Giles, but ignored his questions. "Is there anyone you're NOT willing to kill? I was prepared to ignore the fact that you were willing to kill me, considering that it was the whole 'prevent an apocalypse' thing..." Giles interupted her, "Who said I would have killed you? Did that thing", he gestured at Spike, "tell you that?" Dawn glared at Giles, "NO ONE told me! No one tells me anything! Everyone figures little Dawnie can't handle it! But you've all talked it when you thought I couldn't hear you!"
She turned back to Spike. "Can you get up?" Spike pushed himself to a sitting position, and then struggled to his feet.
"Dawn! What did you mean about Buffy warning you?!"
"In the 'dream' I had over at Willow's, Buffy told me someone was trying to hurt Spike. She wanted me to protect him. I wish she'd been a little more specific! Come on Spike, we need to get that bandaged up, then you're staying in my room where I can keep an eye out for you better. If Buffy gets back, I don't want her to be mad at me for letting you get hurt. I have a sleeping bag, so I'll be fine on the floor. You can have my bed."
"The floor's fine for me, Nibblet. You can have the bed."
"You're the one who's injured. You get the bed."
They were walking toward the rooms, still arguing. Giles stared after them in shock. Buffy had warned Dawn about him? Told Dawn to protect Spike?
Just before they disappeared into Dawn's room, Giles shouted after them, "Spike! WHY WAS DRUSILLA HERE?!" Spike didn't even look back as he answered bitterly, "Among other things, she came to warn me about you, too."
Part 22, by Marguerite
Giles was confused. He laid in bed staring at the ceiling. He couldn't believe that the PTB would send two messages warning the vampire. He was confident that he was right in not trusting Spike. Dawn was being fooled, it had to be. He new that Dawn felt he had liked the rush that killing Ben had given him, but that was different. He had been willing to kill Dawn and but what she didn't know is when we was honest with himself he wished he had, rather then have Buffy gone. He let out a loud sigh. How did he ever manage to invite the two people he wanted dead in this world into his house. * Well… it's not like I want Dawn dead, it's more about it being less complicated without her *
Spike was confused. He laid on the floor, staring at the ceiling. The watcher had tried to kill him, just a few seconds off and Dawn would have been screaming at a cloud of dust. His mind spead through a mass of confusion… Dawn, Buffy, Giles, Dru. Dawn had saved his life. There might be a way to get Buffy back. Giles wanted to kill him. Dawn now knew that Giles wanted to kill him. Dru came from LA to warn him and try to seduce him back. Images and scenes from the day flashed through his mind. He tossed in his sleeping bag and tried to focus, he needed to plan not freak out.
Dawn was confused. She listened while the vampire beside her tossed and turned in her sleeping bag. She though how the movements must be painful with the open wound. She had barely been able to stomach cleaning the wound and wrapping it. They had decided to wait until on of the scoobies could come over to stitch him up. Dawn sighed at the realization that she almost lost Spike. She would never have recovered from that. Then there was the issue with Buffy. She couldn't allow herself to hope…
Finally the three drifted off into a restless sleep…
Giles dreamed of Buffy standing over his bed looking at him with disappointment. He tried to explain to her… but could not.
Spike dreamed of Buffy standing over his sleeping bag looking at him crying. She explain that she tried to stop this from happening, but she had failed
Dawn dreamed of Buffy standing over her bed looking at her with compassion. She consoled her and explained that she would be back and things would be set right again.
When Dawn and Spike went downstairs the next morning they found that Giles had already left for the day. From a quick glance at his room it appeared that he had taken enough stuff to be away for a while.
Neither Dawn or Spike spoke of the events of the evening before, but sat in silence waiting for the next life changing event to happen.
And it did…