Author's Note: Thanks all who read and review- feedback is greatly appreciated. Have a good time reading this chapter!

Chapter Two

Rebirth

Amy sat in a circle of other Magick users, her eyes closed. Everyone else was arguing about Amy's suggestion- to bring the Slayer down, and how they could so it.

"But she's so strong-"

"And she has Magick on her side!"

"But, she doesn't know how to use Magick herself-"

"Silence!" Amy finally screamed, losing her patience. Everyone was immediately silent- their lips sewn together by Magick.

Amy smirked. "That's better. Now, I have an idea on how to defeat the Slayer so that we can be free to use our Magicks to wreck havoc on Sunnydale." She glanced around the room, making sure that she had captured everyone's attention. "William the Bloody."

***

Spike lay in his dark prison, for once asleep. Sleeping did no good- after all, he was dead- but it did allow him an escape from his conscious torments. He never dreamed.

Suddenly, Spike was jolted to awareness as a harness pulled on his stomach. He gasped in pain and stood, eyes wide with fear. He was jerked towards a wall, and his body screamed in pain. What was going on?

Spike let out a cry and struggled against the harness- what if he was going into an even worse dimension?

Spike then felt strange- his lungs were tight and they needed something, something that he had not given them in over a century. Spike let out gasp and sucked in the air that would save him. He could breathe…

Spike closed his eyes, feeling faint. What was going on? When he opened them, he had to screw them back together, because all that he saw was unbelievably strong light. He let out a sharp scream and began to sob. Voices murmured around him, voices that were not his own. They scared him, and so he shrank into a fetal position and began to cry. His wrist was throbbing with strong and unbelievable pain, and his cheek was also stinging. He felt a warm liquid substance trickle down his cheek and into his mouth. He coughed in disgust at the bitter taste- it was blood.

"This is no good. He's human again," someone said. The voice was uncannily familiar.

Then he felt strong arms pick him, and something sharp pierced his skin. In only a few moments, he felt unbelievably weak, and then he felt his consciousness slipping away.

***

Amy carried Spike to her car and dumped him in the trunk. She then drove out to one of Sunnydale's many graveyards and opened her trunk. It was nighttime, so no one alive was able to see her open the trunk and dump her "guest" out. As Spike hit the ground, he moaned softly, and then coughed. Amy glanced down at the man, a look of slight pity in her eyes.

"Well, sorry you have to die again." she muttered, and then got back into the car and drove off.

***

Buffy was beginning to hate patrolling alone. She didn't like the way it felt to be totally alone, and for once in her life, she thought about inviting her little sister to come with her. But she shook the selfish thought away, and continued to search throughout the graveyard for newly risen vamps and demons and other nasties that went BUMP in the night.

Not bothering to look where she was going, Buffy hit her foot against something large, and flew forwards. She picked herself up, spitting grass from her mouth, and glanced over. There on the ground was a body.

Buffy froze. What if there had been a vampire attack? What id she had been too late and the person she had tripped over was dead. A low moan from the victim made a flood of relief wash over Buffy. She walked over to the body and bent over it, and turned the person over. At first she didn't recognise him- Spike's bleach had needed to be redone before he had died, and now his hair was a light brown colour. He had also lost considerable weight, and was almost a human skeleton.

Buffy gazed at the face- what she saw was the most cutest, sweetest looking man she had ever laid her eyes on. She reached down and pushed some of the man's hair away from his eyes, and gently stroked his cheek. Spike's eyes fluttered open, revealing a pale blue. Buffy stared for a moment, and then scrambled away in shock.

"Where am I?" Spike murmured, and tried to sit up, but let out a cry when he put weight on his wrist- the one the vampire had snapped nearly a year ago.

Buffy stood, and looked down at the man from a certain distance. She couldn't believe her eyes.

"What's happened? Why is it so dark? No, not again…" Spike started to cry, crystal tears streaming down his cheeks. Buffy had never seen Spike cry like this- sure he was sobbing when Drusilla had left him, but that was somehow very different from this- Spike had still been in power then, and now he was weak.

Buffy bent down again and neared Spike. "It's alright." she soothed, touching his forehead gently. Spike felt her touch and immediately grasped her hand and pulled her to him. He sat up shakily, putting pressure on his other hand, and held onto Buffy.

"I don't want to be alone anymore. Please help me." he pulled away from Buffy and looked into her eyes. Buffy felt something snap within her, and she hugged him to her.

"It's alright, William." she murmured and slowly picked him up. His frail form was nothing to her, and she was amazed at how much weight he had lost. She cradles him to her, and began to walk back to her home, where Dawn and Willow would be waiting for her.

***

"Hey Buffy, you're home ea- oh my God!"

Dawn and Willow jumped off the couch in the living room and ran over to Buffy.

"Who's that? What happened?" Willow asked, deep concern written in her eyes. It wasn't everyday when your best friend brought home a man, being carried in her arms.

"We need to lay him down somewhere, he's weak." Buffy said immediately, and with Dawn's help, brought the man over to the couch. It was then, when he was fully laid out and covered with a blanket, that Willow and Dawn recognised him.

"Is that-" Dawn looked over at Buffy, who had collapsed in another chair. She nodded wearily.

Dawn looked back down at Spike, and back at Buffy.

"Is he still a vampire?"

Buffy shook her head. "I really don't know. He's out of it, so I didn't bother to ask or to check."

Willow bent down by Spike and put a hand over his mouth. She looked over at Buffy and Dawn.

"Spike's alive!" she said, voice carrying her excitement.

"Yeah, we know that Will."

"No, he's alive." Willow said and stood up. "He's human."

Buffy and Dawn stared at Willow for a moment, and then looked back at Spike.

"Wow." Dawn said quietly, as she watched as Spike took a shuddering breath and then coughed.

***

It was a late night in Angel Investigations. Cordelia was collapsed on the couch, head lying on Fred's shoulder. They were both snoring lightly. Wesley sat by the computer at the front desk, head resting on the keyboard, a bit of drool covering the keys. Gunn had already gone home.

Angel was the only one awake, having had a nice and restful sleep during the day. He sat in his office, looking over at Cordy, who was snorting quite a bit at the moment. She was so cute when she was asleep.

Angel jumped a couple of feet in the air when his phone rang. Cordelia awoke with a snort, and then blushed, embarrassed at herself. Fred woke up sleepily, yawning a bit, and then stifled a giggle when she saw Wes. He had not woken up.

" Angel Inves- Oh, hi. Yeah, I'm awake. Yeah, you did wake me up. No, I didn't know that you dusted Spike, why didn't you tell me? Oh, so calling L.A. is long distance, that's a good excuse. Well anyway what? What? WHAT? Yeah, I'll be over in a little bit. Bye."

Angel slammed down the phone and hurried out of his office.

"What's wrong?" Cordelia asked and hurried after Angel's retreating form. Fred didn't follow, because she had fallen back asleep.

"Spike's alive." he said, and grabbed his duster.

"Hold on a minute." Cordelia grabbed Angel's arm and stopped him. "Spike's been alive for a while now, what's the big deal?"

Angel sighed. "Buffy dusted Spike a yea ago, and now he's back, like Darla was."

Cordelia stared. "That means-"

Angel nodded. "that he's human." Angel began to walk again, but Cordelia once more grabbed his arm.

"So you're leaving? Just like that?"

Angel nodded.

"Fine, but I'm coming with you, and we're leaving a note for the others."

Author's Note:

Yeah, the fic's getting better, ne? Anyway, there's a lot more to come, so have a fun time reading and as always, please review!!!!!!!!

~Luna~