The first thing Buffy saw when she arrived back at the Magic Box was the broken window. The window hadn't been so much broken as completely blasted away, and she threw herself through the open door that teetered on one hinge.
The wreckage stunned her and she tried to take in all of it. The circular reading table was flipped upside down and cracked into two pieces. The bookcases behind it had collapsed and all the books lay scattered on the floor. Tara lay unconscious amid the debris, her hair cascading over her face. In the front of the store, the glass counter had been smashed and glass was littered everywhere. Lying in a pool of his own blood, his body facing the open door, one hand outstretched to reach for nothing, was Spike. The vampire's eyes were open, his face blank as he stared straight ahead.
"Buffy!" Willow cried, rushing in.
The witch skidded to a stop beside her friend and they both stared at the damage before them.
"Oh my God," Willow breathed, then she saw Tara. "Oh no! TARA!"
Willow raced to her lover's side, panicked as she shook the other girl. Buffy was relieved to hear a pained moan come from Tara.
"Tara! Oh God, Tara! What happened?!" Willow asked as Tara sat up, one hand on her bloodied forehead.
"The window… it exploded and… I heard Dawn scream…"
"Dawn! Where's Dawn?" Buffy demanded, her eyes sweeping the rubble.
"She was with Spike when…" Tara stopped, looking around the shop until she saw Spike on the floor by the smashed counter. "Oh my God."
"The alarm, Buffy, the one we cast to warn us if Glory showed up, it sounded. I think… I think Glory might have taken Dawn," Willow said, her eyes wide and frightened.
Buffy immediately began ripping through the piles of books and broken wood, tossing them aside in a desperate search for her sister. The two witches watched with tears on their cheeks until Tara managed to make her way to Spike's side.
The vampire was completely still and silent, his eyes open and blank. He didn't even blink.
"Spike?" Tara whispered, shaking him gently. There was no response.
Suddenly, a foot came from the right, kicking Spike hard in the gut and rolling him away. Shocked, Tara looked up to see an enraged Buffy.
"Where is she?!" Buffy demanded.
Spike's lack of response only served to make her angrier and she kicked him again. "Where's my sister you undead pain in the ass!"
"Buffy…" Tara tried.
"What happened, you bastard!" she yelled, kicking the prone vampire repeatedly.
"Buffy!" Willow cried. "Buffy STOP!"
Panting heavily, the Slayer stopped, her hands clenched into fists and her face stained with tears.
"Buffy… Spike's… he's not responding. I'm… I'm not sure he's even in there anymore," Willow explained.
Tara crawled over to the blank-faced vampire and looked into the wide, staring eyes. "I think… I think he gone inside."
"Oh good lord," Giles' voice breathed and they looked to see the Watcher, Anya and Xander standing in the open doorway.
"The shop! What happened to the shop?" Anya screamed. "The money!"
The ex-demon raced for the toppled cash register as Giles and Xander surveyed the damage.
"Oh man, what happened here?" Xander breathed.
"Giles, Dawn's missing," Buffy said tersely.
"The advance warning alarm sounded. We think… we think it might have been Glory," Willow added.
"Glory?" Giles repeated, stunned. "How?"
"We don't know. Spike might know, but he's zombie-vamp," Buffy replied.
"He's gone catatonic, Giles," Willow explained worriedly. "He's not responding at all."
Giles walked through the sea of shattered glass to where Willow and Tara sat by the vampire's side. Judging by the amount of blood on the floor and on Spike, the vampire had not gone down quietly, but the open, blank stare on Spike's face worried him. He leaned down and shook the vampire on the shoulder.
"Spike." He shook a little harder when he got no response. "Spike!"
"It's no use, Mr. Giles," Tara said.
Giles sighed. "Unfortunately, if what you say is true and Glory does have Dawn, then we need Spike because he is the only one who has any idea where Glory would have taken her."
"Why?" Buffy demanded. "Why would Spike know where Glory took Dawn? What else are you keeping from us, Giles?"
Giles sighed again. "I know that Spike has done extensive legwork on Glory and her plans to use the Key. It's been his obsession for the last few months."
"Oh and here I thought Buffy was his obsession. Nice to know the guy can split his attentions like that," Xander commented irritably.
"Xander, not now," Buffy snapped back.
"It is true that Spike has been… preoccupied with his feelings for Buffy…"
"He loves her," Tara interjected. "And Dawn."
"Yes, I do believe he does," Giles agreed. "As such, keeping the two of them safe has been his priority. I have yet to determine how much his presence and actions have affected this situation. I know there has been a great deal that he has done in the demon world. What he has uncovered, he has been reluctant to tell me, probably because he thought I would not help him. I have no doubt that he knows more about Glory and the ceremony than he has let on."
"Because Spike never keeps secrets and tells lies," Buffy snarked.
Giles ignored her comment. "It is quite possible that Spike has an idea of where the ceremony is taking place and when. We need to do everything we can to bring him back from wherever he has gone."
"I can try to do that Giles," Willow offered. "There are some spells…"
"Good, Willow. You do that," he confirmed.
"In the meantime, we can go through this box of scrolls Spike had me get from this creepy guy's apartment," Buffy said, indicating the small wooden chest she had dropped on the floor when she returned to the Magic Box.
"Who?" Giles asked.
Buffy picked up the box and handed it to Giles. "Spike told me about this demon guy he killed. He said he heard that he was a follower of Glory and might have a box of scrolls that could help us, but that he never got a chance to go check it out. I told him I would go."
She looked around at the wreckage, frowning guiltily.
"It was why I wasn't here when… Giles you don't think…"
The older man cut her off. "No. I seriously doubt he knew Glory would attack that quickly. If he had, he most certainly would have urged us to move faster. It is likely that he was taken by surprise."
"Still, if I'd been here…"
"You would most probably have been killed or otherwise defeated by her. Glory is very strong," he assured.
"You're probably right," she conceded.
"Well, let's see what's in this box, shall we. Where did you say Spike sent you?"
"Some rat's nest on the other side of town. Real dump that smelled awful. Spike said he killed the guy who lived there."
"Was there a body?" Anya asked suddenly.
Buffy's brow creased. "Actually, no there wasn't. But there was a big bloodstain on the rug. Struck me as odd because Spike isn't known for cleaning up after himself."
Anya looked thoughtful for a moment, then gave a confident smile. "It was probably scavengers. There are demons that eat carrion."
Buffy crinkled up her nose. "Ewwww. So did not need to know that."
"Here, let's clear a space and see what these scrolls have to offer. I doubt we have much time so we need to work quickly," Giles said.
"We're just about ready here, Mr. Giles," Willow announced from where she and Tara sat by Spike.
"Very good. I hope you succeed in bringing him back."
"So I can kill him," Buffy added lowly.
Giles ignored her as he cleared away a safe spot to sit and read the scrolls.
********
Willow lit the incense and cast the spell that would allow her access to Spike's mind. Breathing in deeply, she recited the words and felt her consciousness slip inwards, going through a dark tunnel. When she finally stopped moving, she opened her eyes to see a dark and barren wasteland. The earth was blackened and devoid of all life, fissures in the ground belched foul-smelling smoke. The sky was blood red with ominous black clouds and thunder rumbled in the distance. Looking around across the empty plain, she spied a fortress looming on the horizon.
'Guess that's where I need to go,' the young witch thought.
As she made her way across the scorched earth, Willow realized that it wasn't as empty as she had originally thought. All along the way, there were bodies, covered in black ash, littered on the ground. At first, she thought it was a battlefield and that the corpses were fallen soldiers, but then she realized that the dead ranged from the very young to the very old, with men and women of all ages in between.
'His victims,' she realized, gasping.
Tears stung her eyes as she lost count of the dead; pitiful, twisted bodies strewn all long her way. They were silent as she passed, and only the howling wind answered her unspoken prayers. It sickened her to see them, contorted in their death throes: a young woman preserved in a silent scream here, a man with a railroad spike jutting out of his eye socket there. Hundreds of them, thousands of them; the accumulated carnage of a century of killing, and she wondered to herself how she could have ever considered this creature to be her friend. How she could ever have turned her back to him or left him with her lover or trusted him in any way.
'He was an unrepentant killer for over a hundred years. He tried to kill Buffy lots of times. He tried to kill me, and Xander. The only thing that stopped him was the chip. What could Tara have been talking about when she said he'd changed?'
But hadn't he? He'd been helping them for the past year. He'd taken beatings and risked his unlife to keep the rest of them safe. And Tara insisted on multiple occasions that Spike deserved better treatment from them. But how could he when he had killed so many without remorse or mercy?
'It doesn't matter right now. We need him, so I have to get him back.'
The ground rumbled beneath her feet and she felt a shiver of fear run up her spine. Stepping up her pace she hurried for the fortress, feeling an urgency she hadn't felt before. Eyes were watching her, she just knew it. She could feel them staring holes into her back, and she began to run. Snarls came from behind her and the sound of rushing feet dogged her heels. Terror seized her and she raced across the open plain, praying that she would reach safety before whatever was behind her managed to catch up.
The ground she thought was flat proved to be anything but as holes opened underneath her feet as she ran, tripping her up and adding to her growing panic. The snarls were still behind her and getting closer, but she was almost to the forbidding walls of the fortress. Picking herself up off the blackened ground where she had fallen beside the body of a teenaged girl, she wrenched her gaze away from the horror of the girl's screaming face and made a final dash.
She hit the solid metal doors, sobbing with relief as she found it unlocked. Grabbing the heavy handle in both hands she pulled with all her strength. The door creaked but did not open. Half mad with panic, knowing her pursuers were almost at the gates, she yanked as hard as she could, feeling the rusted hinges begin to give way. She screamed and pulled again, and the heavy door screamed back as it screeched open.
Only opening it wide enough to squeeze her thin body through, she slammed the door behind her and threw the heavy bar. Twin thuds thumped against the other side, nails scraping across the metal, and two howls rose up over the high wall, as she paused a moment to catch her breath and calm down before she took stock of her surroundings.
Leaning against the barred door, she turned around and looked upon an empty stone courtyard. There were no bodies here, in fact it looked as if the open space had been swept completely clean, and there was another door directly across from her, this one wooden and arched. Wiping the sweat from her brow, she staggered her way across the courtyard, and put her hand on the door handle. It, too, was unlocked, but appeared to have been unused for a long time.
It didn't take as much effort to open this door as it had the larger, outer one, and soon she found herself looking down a long, stone hallway. Closing the door behind her, she kept an ear out for any dangers or surprises, and made her way down the hall. There was an opening off to her left and she turned to find a half open door. Flickering light was coming from behind the door, so she slipped in quietly and found herself in a library. The flickering light was coming from a fire crackling in the large stone hearth, but it was who was sitting beside said fire that made her gasp.
His hair was sandy brown and a riot of soft curls that defied their owner by slipping out of the band he tried to keep it in. Thin wire glasses perched daintily upon his sharp nose as he held a well-loved book in his delicate, perfectly manicured hand. He was dressed as a Victorian gentleman in gray tweed, one leg crossed over the other as he read the book in his hand. A cup of tea, long forgotten, sat on the table beside him, along with a small plate of crackers and sausage.
"Spike?" Willow gasped, shattering the quiet.
The figure jumped, dropping the book, and looked at her with shocked eyes.
"Oh! Oh dear…" he stammered, scrambling to pick up the book.
He handled it with great care, stroking the spine to make sure it hadn't been broken.
"Spike, is that you?" she tried again, taking a tentative step closer.
"Spike? Who? Oh no, not I. I am not… he," he replied.
The resemblance was remarkable. Take away the brown hair and tweed, and replace them with platinum blonde and black leather, and it was Spike without a doubt. Her quick mind quickly tried to figure out what was going on.
"William?" she offered.
The Spike look-alike stood up tall and straightened his jacket. "Yes. I am William."
'Okay, like, totally weird. Spike was a real nerd when he was alive.'
"Um, hi. I'm Willow."
William bowed stiffly. "Pleased to make your acquaintance, Miss Willow, although I am confused as to how you came to be here."
"I came in through the front door."
He looked surprised. "You did? You crossed the… oh. Oh, I see." He dropped his eyes and turned away.
"Yeah, I crossed the field full of bodies."
"The cemetery… yes."
"It's kinda creepy out there, actually."
William nodded. "Yes. Yes, I am aware." He raised his eyes to her again. "You must be very brave."
"Well, I kinda needed to get in here. I'm looking for someone. Hey, maybe you know him. He looks a lot like you only he's got bleached blonde hair and wears a lot of black."
William stiffened and stared at her. "Him? What… what do you want with him?"
"I need his help. Can you tell me where he is?"
William shook his head sadly. "I don't think he can help you, m'lady. He's… he's been indisposed for quite some time. I haven't seen him in a good while. He used to come and taunt me, tease me about my reading and poetry."
"Poetry?" Willow repeated.
William sniffed and turned up his nose. "I'm quite good, really." Eyes opened wide in hope. "Would you like to see?"
"Umm, sure."
He gave her a brilliant smile and scrambled to retrieve a yellowed note pad from a shelf. He handed it to her proudly, and fidgeted his hands as she read the neat handwriting.
"Effulgent?" she repeated.
He gave her a shy smile. "It was my last work. I died before I could write another."
"Whoa. You died?"
"Well, yes, of course. Mr. Parker stole the notepad from me and read the work aloud. It wasn't finished, of course, and the ink was still a bit wet, but… Afterwards, my lovely Cecily rejected me and I ran out into the street." His eyes grew misty and far away. "That's when *she* found me. She saw me, saw what was inside of me and wanted me to be with her. I agreed. It hurt. When she bit me, that is. Hurt a lot, but then it didn't hurt anymore and I went somewhere far away. It was nice there. Peaceful. I could see what was happening to what remained of my body, but I was somewhat removed. It did not affect me."
He paused and looked around the library. "And then I came to be here. Something happened. The demon… the one you called Spike. He… I was called back. We really didn't get along at first. In fact, we rather loathed each other. It was quite unpleasant. But then *they* came, and he protected me from them. He said I would be safe in here, and so far that has been true. They haven't been able to cross the threshold. They tried for a while, but then they stopped trying. That's when he stopped coming to check on me…"
Willow creased her brow, trying to take it all in. Then her eyes opened wide as the truth dawned on her and she gasped, covering her mouth with both hands.
"Oh my goddess. You're his *soul!*"
William blinked at her. "Well, yes. I suppose I am."
She stared at him in abject shock. "What… how… Was Spike cursed?"
"Cursed? Good Lord, no. He chose me."
"Chose you? How?"
"The demon he went to gave me to him."
"Demon? What demon?"
"The one in Africa. The one he went to see after…" He stopped, looking away and lowering his eyes. A slight shudder passed through his thin frame.
"After?..." she prompted.
William shook his head. "After. In the time before."
Willow was confused but she knew she had to let it go. She was running out of time and she had to get Spike back if they wanted to save Dawn.
"Look. I don't understand, but I don't have time right now. I need to find Spike. Can you tell me where he is?"
William looked at the half open door and shied away, wringing his hands. "I cannot leave this room. They'll get me if I do. You should stay here with me. You'll be safe here. The tea cup is always full and the plate replenishes itself…"
Willow motioned for him to be silent. "I can't. People are depending on me. Glory has Dawn and Spike might know where she's been taken. I have to find him and get him to come back with me."
"Oh. I see."
"Can you tell me if he's here in this fortress?"
William nodded slowly. "Yes. I've never seen him go… out."
"Okay. I'm gonna go look for him."
He looked at her with worried, frightened eyes. "Do be careful, Miss Willow. Don't let *them* get you."
She set her jaw and nodded. "I won't." She turned and put a hand on the door jam before casting him a backward glance. "And thanks."
"You're most welcome," he whispered back as she left him behind. "Good luck."
'I'm gonna need it,' she thought to herself as she stepped back into the stone hall.