Chapter 11 –  The Suicide Mission To Save The World

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                "How are we going to get to the motorcycle?" he asked, looking outside. "The things were everywhere."

                "Easy, we kick their asses." Buffy looked at Dawn, who was looking outside in wonder. "We need to there quick.

                "Where'd these things come from?" she asked.

                "The bloody sky." Spike shook his head. "Fell right down."

                "Oh." She paused. "Hey, wait a second, how do you know? Weren't you both asleep like me?"

                They both turned red. "Um—just happened to see it." Buffy responded uneasily.

                "Right. Just happened." He agreed. Dawn looked at them with a raised brow.

                "Right." She said, unconvinced.

                "Whatever. Come on, we need to get to that bike." Buffy threw a crossbow to Spike and a bat to Dawn. She had an axe.

                Without another word the three opened the door. A few of the monsters noticed this and ran at them. Spike took one down easily with the crossbow. Buffy took down three in one slice, and Spike made a face as green colored what he expected was their blood formed puddles under the dead demons. They continued to make dead bodies, slicing and dicing and bashing the stupid little things until they cleared a route to the motorcycle.

                "I don't know how safe it is for three people on this." He said as he threw the crossbow aside and jumped on. Both Buffy and Dawn did the same.

                "Who cares? Look, there's more coming!" Dawn said, panicked. The sky was sprouting out more of the little monsters. He started it up and the bike roared to life just as the demons started to run at them again.

                Only this time, there were a little too many to fight back.

                "GO!" Buffy cried out, and Spike hit the gas and the three lurched forward. Spike just kept hoping his cycling skills weren't going to fail him when he really needed them. He turned and started speeding down the road at an extremely dangerous speed.

                "They're after us!" he heard Dawn point out behind him. He glanced back for only a second to see that she was right, they were after them.

                And they had no trouble at all keeping up.

                "We have to lose them, 'old on." Spike revered to the right and went down a road, then quickly went to the left the first chance he got. He figured the more turns the better.

                "Watch out!" Buffy cried out. He made a hard turn to avoid a gang of the monsters. This, of course, sort of messed up his balance and it was then he lost control of the bike.

                They ended up going onto the grass. Sadly what was under the grass was a hill, and a very steep one.  The bike launched into the air as it hit the steep part, and Spike continued to try to control the bike, even in mid air.

                They actually landed. It was probably the luckiest break ever, but they landed and lived through it. Spike quickly got the control back and continued to weave his way through the turns to get them off the trail. He kept feeling Buffy's arms get tighter and tighter around his waist. He almost wished he was holding on to someone, because he definitely did not like controlling this thing with two passengers to worry about.

                They got to the Magic Box, by some miracle, and he quickly stopped the motorcycle.

                "Are we alive?" Dawn asked softly, looking a bit dazed.

                "No time to celebrate, Niblet, I think I hear 'em coming." Buffy managed to pry her now white hands from his waist and all three of them entered the refuge of the store.

                While Spike now looked calm and cool, Dawn and Buffy looked like they both had seen ghosts.

                "You guys! You made it!" Willow ran over to them. She blinked when she saw their faces. "Something wrong?"

                "Hill..and..flying..and the motorcycle—" Dawn trailed off. Spike smirked.

                He turned to Willow. "We had a bit of a fun ride, Red. That's all."

                "Fun?!" Buffy repeated, sounding incredulous.

                "Hey, I told you I'd get you 'ere and look where you are?" he smirked proudly.

                "No use fighting over it now." Willow dismissed. "We have obvious problems."

                "Is everyone here?" Buffy asked, slowly regaining her senses after their 'fun' little ride.

                "Yep, everyone. You guys were the last to get here. Come on, we're all in the basement." They were lead downstairs.

                "Xander!" Buffy frowned as she saw him. Anya was dabbing his now swollen lip. He had a scratch mark going from the edge of his chin to the middle of his cheek, going through the edge of his lips to add to it.

                "Let me guess, your portal buddies?" he asked spitefully, glancing at Spike.

                "Xander!" Anya scolded. He scowled. "Stop acting like a baby." He winced as she pressed the washcloth to his wound. He winced.

                "We need to get rid of this djinn thing now. If the portal can do this, I'm sure bigger monsters in large numbers are likely to appear." Tara bit her lip. "We don't have any time."

                Spike knew exactly what she meant about not having any time. He glanced at Buffy, who looked down. "Better get it over with, then."

                "Maybe we can just spend a little time. I think I was really on to something." Willow interjected quickly.

                "Thanks for trying, Red, but she's right." Spike shook his head. "This has to end now."

                Willow frowned at him. "Does that mean I have to call you Spike again?" Anya asked, a disgusted look on her face. "I was getting used to calling you a normal name."

                "I'll take that as a compliment." He smiled sadly. "Listen, all of you, I want you to stay here." That was when he got looks of shock from all of them.

                "You can't seriously want to go alone." Xander blinked. Spike shrugged. "That's suicide."

                "It isn't suicide when you're suppose to be dead anyway." Spike responded quietly.

                "I would suggest we all go. From what happened to Buffy, I doubt you'd be able to win against him, especially in your mortal state—" Giles pointed out.

                "Did I stutter? I am not putting any of you in danger." Spike glared at them all. "So stay here."

                "But you can't go by yourself." Dawn frowned. "Buffy—tell him he can't."

                Buffy had stayed quiet all during this. She looked at him with a look Spike considered heart wrenching. "I respect what he wants to do." She said quietly. "Are you sure you want to do it alone?"

                "For the love of god—" Xander sighed loudly.

                "Yeah, I'm sure." He replied, nodding. He paused, looking at all the grim faces. "Ah, what's with all the frowns? It'll be all right." He tried to sound upbeat. "I want you all to stay down here where it's safe and all. I'll take the tunnels. That should get me close enough."

                Suddenly Dawn flung herself against him, wrapping her arms around his waist in a hug. Spike frowned, suddenly feeling bad. Instead of being his usual 'I'm too cool for feelings' ways, he wrapped his arms around her. "He'll kill you." She said, her voice muffled as her face was crushed against his chest.

                "Hey now, Nibblet, don't sell me out that short." He gently pried her off him, pushing her back so she was at arm's length. "You just be good, all right? Don't get into too much trouble. Mind your sister." He glanced at Buffy, who continued to be silent. He let go of her.

                "Well if you're going by yourself—" Willow walked over to the shelves of the basement, and picked out a single jar. She opened it and pulled out a strange looking plant. She walked to Spike and handed it to him.

                "I never knew we had some Ymagisi herbs here." Tara said, surprised. Spike looked at it curiously.

                "What's this do?" he asked.

                "It's a protection herb. It's really weird, but just keep it in your pocket. Call it a good luck charm." She explained. "Call it that I.O.U. payment."

                Spike understood what she meant, and smiled. "Thanks." He glanced at the worried expressions around the room, which seemed no different then they looked before. "Well, time to go." He nodded to Buffy especially.

                Buffy moved toward him and to everyone's surprise planted a kiss on his cheek. "Be careful, William."

                He was as surprised as everyone was with this open form of affection. "Always am, Slayer." He replied finally, giving her a wink.

                With that, he turned and left into the tunnel, unable to stand all the sappy goodbyes any longer. He made his way silently through the tunnels to his old home. There he grabbed some of his arsenal. He would need it. The decision he just made was probably the hardest in his life, but he knew this was the only way. He took off his duster and put it down in his crypt.

                No use having it get torn up. After all, he was going to get pummeled and die. His dreams told him so.

                He stepped out of his crypt. All was quiet. He carefully walked through the cemetery, seeing that none of the little demons were about. When he got to the street, however, it was a different story. They were like one big annoying army, marching around like they owned the place. Spike knew he would have to sneak to get past them.

                He hid behind a tree first as a group hopped past him. Seeing it was clear for a moment, he ran across the street and hid behind a house's side. He continued to work his way toward that stupid house this whole mess started from. He was pretty glad he for some reason remembered how to get there.

                Soon enough he had snuck his way all the way to the home. The door was still broken. The place still looked like it hadn't been used in years. There was one difference, though.

                It was glowing brightly.

~~

                The area was entirely quiet from the moment he left. None of them actually knew what to say. Spike had just basically signed his death warrant by going alone, and they were letting him. What's more, everyone was still a little shocked at the kiss they had just seen. Buffy watched Willow as she continued to read the book she had brought down with her here.

                She wished they had had just one more day. Hell, she wished she realized that her feelings weren't going to go away even sooner, before he decided the only way to make her love him was to make a stupid wish to become human. Now he was gone, and she felt so guilty.

                "Hey Giles, what's this say?" Willow suddenly asked. "I totally missed this before."

                "Let me see." Giles took the book from her. "Well then, I haven't seen this script in a long time."

                "Do you know it?" Tara asked, suddenly interested.

                "Y-yes of course." He nodded, sitting down. "Let me see here—well this is interesting."

                "Care to share?" Xander asked, obviously as interested as everyone else was.

                "Well, if I've read this right, it says 'The only way to end the djinn's power is to have the one wish against it.' I wonder who the one is?" he pondered a moment. "It continues to say that if the one fails to do so and dies before he can, the portal will expand and swallow the one being oppressed."

                "Hey, I bet they're talking about Spike." Anya commented idly. "He was the one who gave Mr. Poofy Pants the power to open it, after all."

                Everyone let that information sink in.

                "Which means we just sent the only person that can close the portal out alone to kill a big genie without even the help of undead strength. Wow, what were we on?" Xander summed it up so perfectly.

                "And he thinks he's suppose to die." Dawn suddenly said.

                That got everyone's attention.

                "What do you mean, Dawn?" Giles asked.

                "Well, not like I was sneaking around his room when he was sleeping and borrowing his money, but yesterday he was mumbling about dying to stop the portal in his sleep. Not a very nice dream if you ask me." Dawn paused. "Guess I should have mentioned that earlier, huh?"

                "Didn't you say that Alla was pretty good at tricking people?" Willow asked Tara.

                "Oh my god." Buffy spoke up as the group started to realize what was happening. "It's a trap. He's walking into a trap."

                "And we just let him go into it." Giles added sadly.

                Another pause.

                "What weapons will we need to kill the djinn?" Anya suddenly asked.

                "You don't think he's all ready dead, do you?" Dawn asked, fearfully.

                "No." Anya shook his head. "The world's still here."

                Buffy stood up and without a word ran into the tunnel.

                "Good idea, Buff. You go ahead, we'll catch up." Xander grumbled.