"Are you quite sure, Buffy?" Giles demanded for the third time.
"Giles!" Buffy exclaimed in annoyance from the Watcher's couch where she was lying down with an ice bag pressed tight against her bruised cheek. "I have told you the story twice already, and without variations I might add, so, yeah, I'm quite sure. Spike... daylight... strong."
"And he was wearing...?"
"I only saw it very briefly, but it was a large golden ring with an embedded green gem. You can pretty much make a copy of it from the impression it left in my cheekbone if you want confirmation."
"The Gem of Amara," Giles intoned like someone announcing the doomsday. "Dear God, it's real."
"So, what can it do?" Xander asked from the chair he was sitting in.
"Well, like with the Holy Grail and other mythical artifacts there is no documented list of its powers," Giles answered. "But from Buffy's description alone we can infer that it at least bestows immunity to materials and substances normally harmful to vampires – maybe total invulnerability to whatsoever harm. She also said that Spike appeared stronger than before and that she couldn't feel him when he was close-by. Anything else is pure conjecture until more information is discovered."
"So, he might be able to, what... just walk in uninvited through that door?" Xander asked and narrowed his eyes as the tactical implications of the situation were starting to become clearer to him.
"Good Lord!" Giles gasped and started reflexively cleaning his glasses. "Let's just hope it won't occur to him to test that hypothesis any time soon." While the Watcher was still busy cleaning his seeing aids, Xander stood up and went to the chest where he knew Giles kept a backup weapons cache. He took out a heavy battle axe and a bottle of holy water and laid them on the table in front of them before sitting down.
"Decapitation with a blessed blade might still work until proven otherwise," he suggested with a grin.
"Or, maybe a bait," Buffy realised suddenly and sat up straight without thinking. After a second or two of total silence, she fell back with a groan followed by Giles and Xander's brief nods of satisfaction.
"I mean, it hit me hard, you know. My dad..." Buffy's ears pricked as her Slayer hearing picked up the all too familiar soft voice, dripping with well-rehearsed vulnerability, reciting the all too familiar script.
She made a beeline for the wooden bench on which an unaware and enthralled freshman was sitting and listening to Parker who was standing in front of her with one of his feet propped up against the seat and his arms crossed on top of his raised knee.
She took a few deep breaths to calm herself before taking the final steps to bring her next to the slimeball.
"Since then, I just don't put stuff off anymore. It's about living for now..."
"Parker, we need to talk," she interrupted his monologue.
He frowned in irritation as the spell he was weaving was suddenly broken and turned his head. "Buffy, I'm in the middle of something here."
He had seen her only once since her teary realization that their one night together wouldn't lead to any deeper commitment. The last time she had been totally trashed, looking disgustedly like a cave woman. He had had to hold down his laughter when she sniffed him and announced in all seriousness that "Boy not nice". After that... his recollections were somewhat vague except that he remembered a paramedic bandaging his head. Maybe something had shot out of the burning bar and hit him.
She grabbed his arm as if he hadn't spoken. "We really need to talk."
"Uh, ummm...," Parker stuttered in shock as Buffy started dragging him away. "Hey, Katie, you're gonna be late for class. I'll catch up later, ok?" he called hopefully over his shoulder.
"Friend of yours?" Buffy hissed through clenched teeth as she kept on manhandling Parker to a spot with a clear visibility all around.
"Yeah. You'd like her a bunch," Parker replied in autopilot, looking wildly around for anyone who might recognize him. "So, what's up?" he tried, playing for time. Receiving no response, an uneasy feeling suddenly invaded his stomach. "You're not...?" He left that hanging.
"And what if I was?" Buffy countered sharply. "What would your so-called honour demand you to do? The right thing?"
"Stop kidding, Buffy," Parker tried to laugh. "This isn't funny!"
"Funny? I thought you were pretty clear that what we had was 'fun'."
"Ok," Parker stated as Buffy let his arm go. "I got my comeuppance and I admit it worked. Now, tell me the real reason for this interruption."
Buffy had been walking around the campus in plain sight for an hour, pretending to be moping and teary, before she spotted Parker. With Spike shielded from her Slayer radar, she just hoped that the PtB were willing to influence the events in her favour for once. So, she assumed her act once more.
"Sorry, Parker," she almost whined, all the time visualising her hands around his throat. "I didn't know what else to do to get your attention. Will you let me make it up to you?"
'Ah, the needy and clingy type,' Parker thought with an internal groan, once again on more familiar ground.
"Yeah, we could do that," he nodded. Maybe there was some more fun to be had, still. "Absolutely."
"Great," Buffy smiled, feeling that her jaw muscles had to be close to cramping. "How about... tonight?" she asked, trying to sound hopeful.
"Oh...," Parker drawled, his act now fully back on track. "Well, the thing is, I'm supposed to get together with some people later."
"Well, maybe, you could make an excuse. For me?"
"Look, I really have to go now," Parker sighed theatrically and turned around to walk away.
Buffy looked around covertly. Still nothing, so she sprinted after Parker. If this was going to go on for much longer, she was going to stake Parker on general principles and damn the consequences. "Parker, wait!"
Watching the Slayer get dumped and act like a clingy, whiney bitch was oddly satisfying, Spike thought evilly... not that he ever thought any other way. 'Who's love's bitch now?'
"I did this all wrong," he heard the blonde try to salvage the situation. Spike snorted. Anyone with an IQ above Harmony's should have seen the futility of it.
"No, it's cool. We'll hook up later," the wannabe-jonathon dismissed the Slayer, earning him a few points from Spike. The Slayer was left standing on the spot, looking totally broken.
"Well, that was pathetic," Spike drawled as he stepped into view from behind the thick bush that had been his observation spot.
'Finally,' Buffy groaned with a sigh... or sighed with a groan. 'Cocky,' she thought when Spike just casually watched her get ready.
Leaping into action, she started with a back-hander which Spike easily parried. They exchanged a few punches and counter-punches, until Spike managed to land a heavy cross which threw Buffy to the ground. When the vampire got close to her, she kicked him in the chest with both feet which sent Spike sprawling on the pavement. Getting back to her feet, she pulled a pointy stick with some rope tied around it from the ground. When Spike's agile flip brought him upright again, she met his forward motion with the makeshift stake. Just as the stick pierced his chest, his hand grabbed hers over the stake.
"Oh, do it again," Spike purred. "It tickles. You know, in a good way," he continued and pulled her hand and the stake away from him.
Spike's grip had been iron-hard, threatening to crush her hand, but she had noticed the golden ring on his finger.
"The Gem of Amara," she fake-gasped with her eyes wide open, looking for confirmation.
"Oh, yeah," Spike grinned, unaware of the Slayer's play. He lashed out at the stake she was still holding, making her drop it and followed with a heavy punch to her jaw which dropped her to the canvas again. "Official sponsor of my killing you." He vamped out with a growl and lunged at the prone Slayer.
Buffy managed to roll to the side and get back to her feet but then Spike threw her against a lamp post. Momentarily stunned, Spike succeeded in twisting her arm behind her back and get a clear access to her unprotected neck. But just as the vampire was about to sink his teeth into her, she slashed upwards with her free hand and tightened it around his throat. Lifting Spike off his feet she threw him backwards on top of a stone bench. She felt something sprain in her shoulder from the unnatural motion.
Spike followed through with a roll back to his feet and started to laugh. "Getting tired, Slayer?" he mocked and looked around. "Don't see your pet guardian demon here either. Did he dump you too?"
"Shut up!" Buffy shouted, now really angry.
"So," Spike continued jovially. "You let that Parker take a poke, eh? What exactly did it take to get your legs spread this time?"
"You're a pig, Spike," Buffy snarled, holding her sprained arm. She got rewarded with a roundhouse kick to it, making her see stars.
"I wonder what you did wrong, though," Spike continued his musings. "Too strong? Did you bruise the boy? Whatever... Guess you're not worth a second go. Wait a moment! Now that I think of it, someone told me that much. Who might that have been? Oh, yeah... Angel."
Seeing red, Buffy launched a brutal attack on the grinning vampire, totally heedless of her own security. She kicked, punched, head-butted and kneed him until he hit a large, earthenware flowerpot which fell over and broke. She managed to get his arm in a grip behind him and got access to his hand with the ring.
"Take it off me this way and we both burn!" Spike tried as a desperate last attempt.
"Really?" Buffy smirked. "Let's see."
With that she pulled the ring off.
"Oh, God! Spike screamed as he started smoking and sizzling. With a violent yank, he managed to get himself free. Pulling his leather duster over his head, he ran and dove into a conveniently open manhole nearby.
With the no longer mythical ring in her hand, Buffy fell to the lawn, totally spent.
Later in the evening, Buffy, Xander, Willow and Giles were sitting around the Watcher's living room table looking at the gleaming ring lying in the middle of it.
"I like it," Willow nodded approvingly.
"It's small," Xander agreed.
"It's obviously very dangerous. Destroying it would...," Giles started to lecture.
"We don't destroy it," Buffy cut in and everyone turned to look at her in various states of disbelief.
"But, Buffy," Giles tried to reason. "Any vampire that gets his or her hands on this is going to be essentially unkillable." When Buffy just looked back at him with a steady gaze, it suddenly occurred to him. "Oh."
"It's been a while since I've been to L.A.," Xander mused quietly. "Would be good to see Cordy too."
"Thanks, Xander," Buffy smiled gratefully.
"Buffy, are you sure?" Giles asked seriously.
"He should have it," Buffy nodded, making it final.