"Hey! Hey, son. You okay?"
The voice seemed far away, but it was accompanied by a vigorous shaking of his shoulder. He groaned and tried to open his eyes. Pain lanced through his head and he groaned, one arm reaching up to finger the nasty lump that had formed on the back of his skull.
"Son? You okay?"
Responding to the insistent voice, Xander opened his eyes and his blurry vision focused on an elderly man peering down at him.
"Wh… what happened?" he asked, finding his voice.
"I don't know, son. I got off work and found you here lying on the pavement. Looks like someone knocked you into a wall."
Still confused and slightly disoriented, he tried to sit up and remember what happened. Looking around, he saw that it was just after dawn.
'I must have been out for hours. It's amazing I didn't become a vamp snack,' he thought.
Vamp. Snack. Spike.
It all came back in a rush. Spike, their conversation, his awkward thanks, then the scabby guys in monk's robes jumping them. They looked like how Buffy had described Glory's crusty minions. Whoever they were, they'd slammed him into the wall and dragged Spike away.
"Oh. Oh god. Spike. They got him."
"Spike? Who's Spike? Did somebody take your dog?" the man asked.
Xander struggled to his feet, shaking off the last of the disorientation. "No. He's…" What was Spike to them anyway? Certainly not a friend, but no longer an enemy either. He didn't have time to think about it.
"Look, I gotta go."
"Are you sure you're okay? Don't you want to go to the hospital or something?"
He shook his head. "No. I gotta be somewhere. Thanks."
He didn't look back as he hurried towards his apartment. Judging by his watch, he'd been out for hours. That meant Spike had been in Glory's clutches for hours and there was no telling what the god was doing to him.
'And he knows Dawn is the Key. Can he be trusted not to tell?'
The uncertainty made him move faster and he pounded on the door when he got home. Willow opened the door, her eyes wide and frightened.
"Xander! Where've you been?" she asked as he pushed his way inside. "Anya came looking for you at our place. We came back here to wait for you, but you didn't show. We were about to go looking…"
"Xander!" Anya called, rushing over. "What happened? Did you and Spike run into trouble?"
"The guys that work for Glory? Buffy said they were kinda like Hobbits with leprosy? Well, this was a whole flock of Hobbits and they grabbed Spike. I think they're taking him to Glory."
"Oh my God," Willow gasped. "And he knows about Dawn!"
By now Tara was awake, sitting up from the blankets piled on the floor. "What is it? What's happened?"
"Glory's minions took Spike," Xander replied.
"Oh my God," Tara blurted, repeating her lover's exact words.
"Well, what are we going to do?" Anya questioned.
"We have to get him back," Tara said in a voice that brooked no argument.
Her tone surprised them and they gave her odd looks.
"O… okay, but don't we need Buffy…" Willow stammered.
"No, we have to get him back now. Before Glory hurts him. We have to find him," Tara insisted.
"Okay…"
"How do we find him?" Xander asked.
"Oh! Maybe the bot! The bot might have some kind of homing device in it. I mean, Warren's girlfriend-bot was able to track him here to Sunnydale," Willow offered.
Tara was already getting out of bed. "And there's a spell we can use. A locator spell. We can get the ingredients at the Magic Box."
"What's going on?" Dawn's voice asked, tired but worried.
"Dawny!" Willow said, going to the teen and trying to downplay what was happening.
"I heard something about Spike. What's happened to him?"
The others looked at each other. Xander had a story on his lips and he was about to speak when Tara cut him off.
"Dawn, Xander and Spike were attacked. We think Glory's minions may have taken Spike," she explained gently.
Dawn face filled with horror. "No. Oh no. What are we going to do? We have to find him!"
Tara tried to calm her before she became too distressed. "We're going to go look for him. Buffy and Giles aren't back yet. Willow is hoping that the robot Buffy has a homing device in it that is programmed to find Spike. If not, there's a locator spell we can cast. We're going to go to the Magic Box to get the robot and the ingredients for the spell."
"I wanna help," Dawn insisted.
"Dawn… it's too dangerous…" Willow tried.
"If you try to leave me here, I'll just follow. You'd have to chain me up or something to keep me here."
"We could lock her in the closet," Anya offered.
"I know how to pick locks," Dawn countered, then added when they looked at her with shocked faces. "Spike taught me how. He said it could come in handy if any nasties ever caught me and locked me up somewhere." She lifted her chin defiantly. "So locking me in a closet won't do any good, I'll just pick my way out."
Shaking their heads and deciding that a conversation with Spike on what was and wasn't appropriate to teach a fourteen year old girl could come after they had rescued the vampire, they headed out.
They went to the Magic Box first to collect the robot and the ingredients they needed for the locator spell. The 'bot activated with a quiet click and the eyes popped open.
"Hello. Your name is Willow. You're my friend," the robot said cheerfully.
"Uh, yeah. That's right, Buffy-bot."
The robot looked around at all the others staring at her. Dawn made no attempt to hide her shock.
"Oh my god. I mean, you guys told me it looked just like Buffy, but…"
"Dawn!" the robot greeted happily, coming forward to give the teen a hug. Dawn wasn't able to back away fast enough. "You're my sister!"
"Yeah. Right," Dawn replied, hurt.
"Uh, Buffy-bot. We kinda need your help," Willow said, getting the robot's attention.
The robot paused to look at all the people in the room. "Why is everyone staring at me?"
Willow cleared her throat, making the robot look at her.
"Where is Spike?" the robot asked with complete innocence.
"That's why we need your help. Spike is missing and we need to find him. Do you know where we can find him?"
The Buffy-bot blinked several times and looked at each of the individuals in the room in turn, then looked back at Willow, blinked, and said, "No."
"Well we were thinking that maybe Warren had put some kind of homing device in you that would help you find Spike…" Willow tried.
"No. And I don't think I'm a robot," she replied in the same cheerful voice.
"Um, yeah. Right."
"I'll get that locator spell and look up the ingredients," Tara said, eyeing the robot and stepping out of the room.
"I'll help you," Dawn offered, looking for any reason to get out of the training room.
Together Tara and Dawn amassed the supplies needed in order to cast the spell.
"Now all we need is something that belonged to Spike, so we can specify him as the person we want to find," Tara said when they were finished gathering the ingredients.
"Oh! Spike has some clothes at our house. In the basement from when he… you know," Dawn said.
"That will do. And we should get weapons from Buffy's house anyway," Willow agreed.
"Let's go," Tara ordered, shocking them again by her forthright words and atypical assertiveness.
They followed her out of the Magic Box, robot in tow.
Once at Buffy's house, Dawn went into the basement to get an article of clothing that Spike had left behind from his convalescence while Tara set up the spell in the living room.
"Whoa, group play time," Buffy said, coming into the living room.
"Buffy!" Willow greeted. "You're back early!"
"Yeah," Buffy sighed. "Death is my gift. Pffah."
"Huh?" Willow asked.
Buffy shook off her memory and looked around at the others in the room.
"What's going on?"
"Hey! You look just like me!" the Buffybot chirped.
Buffy stared at the robot, her eyes wide. "Oh. My. God."
"No no, it's not what you think," Xander hastened.
"Buffy, I'm going to head off to the… oh good lord," Giles said, coming into the house, but he stopped short when he saw the robot.
"You're Mr. Giles. You're from England," the 'bot beamed.
"Oh dear, I see that Warren finished it in our absence."
Buffy rounded on her Watcher. "You knew about this?!"
Giles looked away nervously. "Well, yes, Spike and I discussed it…"
"SPIKE?"
"Whoa, whoa, wait Buffy, calm down," Xander tried.
"Calm down? Calm down? There's a sex bot with my face on it standing in my living room and you want me to calm down?"
"She's not a sex bot!" Willow interrupted. "Well… not anymore. We've changed her programming."
Buffy scowled. "Oh that makes me feel sooo much better. Where is he?"
"Buffy, please. Let us explain," Willow begged.
Buffy frowned but nodded.
"After you and Giles left for your trip, Spike came to the Magic Box with the robot. He said he and Giles decided to have Warren make a robot that looked like you for us to use as a decoy against Glory. But Spike couldn't tell Warren what we really needed the robot for, so he had him make another girlfriend-bot. Then when it was done, Spike brought it to us so we could reprogram it. Buffy, it's really strong and it fights really well. We took it on patrol last night and it killed eight vampires all by itself," Willow explained.
"Eight?" Buffy repeated.
"Okay, I found these," Dawn said, coming into the room. She was carrying a black t-shirt and pair of black socks.
"Dawn, why are you carrying Spike's clothes?" Buffy demanded.
The teen blinked at her sister. "Buffy, you're back!" She rushed over and hugged Buffy. "Oh, I'm so glad you're back! We need your help!"
Buffy hugged her sister then pulled back. "Okay. Okay. I go away on a vision quest where I meet up with cave-slayer, complete with dreadlocks and facial mud, and when I come back, I find all my friends in my house, a robot that looks like me standing in my living room, and my sister taking a vampire's clothes out of the basement. What gives?"
"We need the clothes for a locator spell," Tara said, taking the clothing from Dawn and bringing it to where she had set up the spell.
"Locator spell?" Buffy repeated, taking in the set up.
"Buffy… last night, Glory's minions jumped me and Spike. They knocked me out and took Spike," Xander admitted.
"Glory has Spike?" Buffy gasped.
Xander swallowed hard and nodded.
"Oh dear, this… this is awful news," Giles stammered, cleaning his glasses and casting a glance at Tara.
"Don't worry. We're going to find him and bring him back," Tara said confidently.
Giles went over to where she was preparing to cast the spell.
"A locator spell?" he asked.
Tara nodded, spreading some cornmeal into a sacred circle.
"I can help," Giles offered.
She gave him another nod and handed him the map of Sunnydale to place in the center of the Circle.
"How long has she had him?" Buffy demanded.
"A few hours. They jumped us as we were leaving the Magic Box last night," Xander answered. "He's probably told her about Dawn by now."
"NO!" Dawn cried. "Spike would never tell Glory about me. Not ever."
"Dawn, Spike's a vampire..."
"A vampire who loves Buffy. And he loves me too. He'd die for us. You know he would."
"Whoa, Spike loves you?" Xander blurted, rounding on Buffy with an accusing glare.
Buffy tried to downplay the revelation. "I found out a few weeks back."
"And you didn't tell any of us?"
"I didn't think it was important."
"Not important? Another vamp falls for you, one that *already* doesn't have a soul, and you didn't think it was important? When were you going to tell us, Buff? After he started killing us or before?" Xander accused.
"Hey! That's not fair! You know Spike can't hurt any of us because of the chip. Besides, he loves me and Buffy, and he loved Mom too," Dawn argued.
"Dawn, Spike can't love. He's a soulless monster who killed people for centuries," Xander countered.
"That's quite enough," Giles interrupted, an edge to his voice. "We need quiet in order to cast this spell. I suggest that you gather weapons we will need to rescue Spike from Glory and be ready to leave once we know where he is."
He and Tara shared a look, then joined hands. Willow, Dawn and Anya looked on while Buffy and Xander did as they were told and gathered weapons. Buffy pulled the Gruth'lak battleaxe out of the weapons chest and studied it, a sad frown on her face.
"So, is this, like, 'I love you forever and I want to make you into my immortal sex slave' love? Or is it 'I'm scarily obsessed with you and will stalk you from the shadows' love?" Xander asked snarkily, out of earshot of Giles and Tara.
"It's a 'I'll be whatever you want, whatever you need, and I'll never leave' kind of love," Buffy replied softly, lowering the axe. "It's messy and complicated and terrifying, but it's real, Xander. At least, it's real to him. Giles told me Spike first told him under the truth spell, so it can't have been one of his lies."
"Okay, but you know… it can't be real."
"I don't know anything," she said.
"Buffy, Spike doesn't have a soul."
She turned to him. "I know, but…" She stopped, thinking, then shook her head. "Look, I can't do this now. I just know that Spike would never hurt me or Dawn, and that right now he's in trouble and we have to do what we can to save him."
"And I know that the guy has been doing a lot for us lately, but you know he's going to tell Glory that Dawn is the Key and you and Dawn should be heading out of town instead of us trying to rescue the soulless killer from a Hell God," Xander countered.
"So it's okay for us to use him and beat him and pump him for information when we need it, but he isn't worth our efforts if he needs our help?" Buffy snapped back.
Xander shook his head and put up his hands. "I'm just saying... Spike's a demon, Buffy. He's not human. He doesn't have a soul and he'll never be Angel."
"You think this is about Angel?" Buffy seethed.
"Isn't it? I mean, come on, you had a thing for a vampire once. It's logical that you could fall for another one."
"I am not in love with Spike!" she insisted. "But he isn't my enemy anymore and he's helped me a lot. He deserves the benefit of the doubt here."
Xander sighed and gathered his thoughts. "But Buffy… in order to save him we're gonna have to find Glory."
Buffy's lips tightened and she nodded. "I know."
Just then Dawn came running to find them. "We found him. Tara and Giles have the spot on the map."
Buffy leveled an expectant look at Xander and held it until Xander looked away.
"Okay. Dawn, you and Tara stay here and be safe. The rest of us will go," she decided, walking towards where Tara and Giles were set up. She glanced over her shoulder. "Xander, are you with us?"
The young man made an unhappy face but finally nodded. "Yeah, Buff. I'm with you."
She gave him a soft smile.
"Let's go."