A/N I redid Chapter 3. It tells a little bit about the fight that made Faith and Spike both leave. So, yeah. Enjoy.

Chapter 4

"You three are awfully quiet." Spike said.

"Wouldn't know what to say." Buffy said.

"Fine with me, I was more than half expecting to get an earful from Faith anyway, and when exactly did your sister get unbelievably scary Slayer?"

"What are you doing?" Faith asked.

"What? I told you once, straight up, I'm here to help, and that's all. Think this here is our spot?" Spike played the flashlight beam over the rubble where something had obviously burst up through the concrete.

"How'd you guess?" Angel asked sarcastically.

"I don't fancy sticking my head in there."

"But if something bites it off that'd be a clue." Faith said coldly.

"So, what happened to you?" Buffy asked, trying to relieve some tension between them all.

"Well you saw me. Those ghostly types in the school basement got in my head. Made me flat out bug-shagging crazy, and I'm not exactly bragging about it, but they were stronger than I was. Made me see things, do things. And how come you never told anyone you saw me?" Spike asked.

"I don't know. I guess.. I was partly hoping you were some kind of mirage."

"Sorry to disappoint."

"Not your fault."

"Hold the torch will you?" Spike handed Faith the flashlight.

Faith reached out to take it, and when her hand brushed his, Faith remembered the huge fight that had taken place the night they had both left Sunnydale. Faith pulled the flashlight back hastily with a tiny gasp. Spike looked at her, seeing her emotion.

"Look this.. us working together, it's not a way for us to get back together if that's what you want." Faith said. "I'm still really pissed at what you did to me."

"It's not. Look I can't blame you for being all skittish."

"Skittish? That's not a word I would use for it. You tried to rape me. I don't have the words."

"Must be a trend with you Spike." Angel muttered.

"Neither do I." Spike ignored Angel and kept talking to Faith. "I can't say 'sorry'. I can't use 'forgive me'. All I can say is, Faith, I've changed."

"I believe you."

"Well that's something."

"I just don't know what you've changed into. You come back to town, you make with the big surprises. I don't know what your game is Spike, but I know there's something you're not telling me."

"Look at you. You left Sunnyhell too. But you're right, there is, but we're not best friends anymore, so too bad for me, I'm not sharing. I can be useful, cause' honestly, I've got nothing better to do. You two can make use of me if you want. And there's nothing here, just a bit of slime, mounds of displaced dirt and such, whatever our beastie is, he's gone."

Spike walked back down the street and Faith looked at Buffy. Buffy looked really uncomfortable. Faith shrugged as if to say she were sorry and then headed after Spike. Buffy sighed and turned to Angel.

"Well, that went well." Angel said.

"Shut up." Buffy replied. "This is not the best day in the world."

"No, it's really not."

"Come on. We need to patrol. I told Xander that we'd all meet him at the Bronze later for a recap."

Angel took Buffy's hand and kissed the back of it as they started to walk. She moved closer and put her head on his shoulder. They walked through a couple of the graveyards and down Main Street, but no vamps were out and wanting to play. It was almost time for them to be at the Bronze, so they turned back the way they'd came and headed towards the Bronze. When they arrived, Spike, Faith, Xander, and Nancy were all waiting for them. They walked up to them.

"I found out something interesting and I bet you guys found zilch." Xander said.

"Whacha got?" Buffy asked.

"Anya's been busy lately. That creepy worm thing we've been after is Nancy's ex."

"Really?"

"And I'm bettin' Anya's in there getting her vengeance on."

"Let's go." They all walked in and sure enough, there was Anya with some girl getting ready to make a wish.

"Is this the one you talked to?" Xander asked Nancy. She nodded.

"Tell you what." Anya said to the girl as she saw them approach. "Why don't we put a pin in it? Why don't you go get yourself a drink and we'll pick it up in a few." The girl left. "You guys, I am working here." Anya hissed at them.

"We noticed." Buffy said.

"That's why we're here." Faith said.

"Right.. Did you turn this nice lady's ex into a giant worm monster?" Xander asked.

"Ha-ha!.. yes." Anya said.

"No way! Are you saying that thing was Ronnie?" Nancy asked.

"You wish it, I dish it. I thought we were all clear on this. I didn't think you were gonna go all nark on me."

"You wished your ex was a worm?" Angel asked.

"Well.. we were just talking.." Nancy said.

"Anya has a way of.. making things happen." Xander explained.

"I had a quota, the guy had it coming, what's the big?" Anya said.

"I think I'm going to be sick." Nancy said.

"Anya that thing you created, burst through solid pavement and ate her dog." Buffy said.

"Oh! Puppy!" Anya said.

"Wait! That gets your sad noise? People's lives are in danger and you give it up for the yorkie?" Xander asked.

"You never understood me Xander."

"Xander? Who is this woman?" Nancy asked.

"Anya? She's um.. Anya. My ex." Xander explained.

"Oh."

"Hey! Nobody's bragging here." Anya said. She started to get up and Spike went over to her and stopped her.

"Uh-uh, uh, uh, uh." He grabbed Anya's arms.

She jerked away. "Hey! Get your hands off the merchandise, Spike! You don't get to go there again."

"Please. I've already forgotten about our little time together."

"I thought you were Xander's ex-girlfriend?" Nancy said.

"I am." Anya said.

"But you and Spike..?"

"Had a thing."

"Didn't last." Spike threw in.

"But weren't you Buffy's..?" Nancy asked.

"Briefly."

"Never serious." Buffy said.

"And now you're with her?" Nancy pointed at Faith.

"In a way."

"And you're with him?" Buffy asked indicating Buffy and Angel.

"Yup." Buffy and Angel said together.

"Is there anyone here that hasn't slept together?"

"Look, at least we're all bipeds which is more than I can say for Ronnie the worm-boy." Anya said.

"Ok guys can we focus here for just a second? Anya, this Ronnie, he wasn't a worm. Worms are like this big," Buffy indicated a couple of inches with her fingers. "This thing was." Buffy said.

"A Sluggoth demon, am I right?" Spike asked.

"Maybe." Anya said.

"Wait, I didn't wish for that. I don't even know what this whatchamacallit demon is!" Nancy said.

"Sluggoth demon, it's a very large, very nasty natural predator, who died around the crusades." Spike said.

"Same phylum, it's not cheating, I just embellished." Anya protested.

"Well you can un-embellish now." Xander said.

"Bite me Harris. I have rules to work with, vengeance demon codes of conduct. But you'll never understand 'cause you're all so. human."

"I'm not." Angel said.

"And I'm not." Spike said. "I'm a demon, just like yourself Anya, your gonna turn the spell around like a good little vengeance demon or I.. what?"

Anya stared at Spike. "Oh my God!"

"What are you staring at?"

"Oh my God!" A smile began to creep onto Anya's face. Spike looked nervous.

"Right, lets go." Spike said.

"How did you do it?"

"Spike, what's she talking about?" Faith asked.

"I can see you!"

"Nothing, let's go. Got some worm hunting to do." Spike said, trying to rush out.

"How did you do it!?"

"Shut up!"

"This shouldn't be possible!"

"Shut your mouth!"

"How did you get it?"

"I just said you shut up!" Spike decked Anya, who knocked over the table as she fell. Nancy looked around at everyone worried and headed for the door. Spike moved to stand over Anya straddling her and punching her. Anya punched Spike, flinging him across the room where he landed on the pool table, damaging it. Anya stood up in full demon face.

"I'm gonna kick your ass!" Anya said.

"Right bitch! Round and round we.." Spike started.

Faith cut him off. She spun him around to face her. He was in full vamp face.

"You haven't changed Spike." Faith growled.

"She's right." Buffy said behind Spike. He turned to stare at both Slayers that were glaring at him. Buffy punched him, he punched her back, and Faith punched him back twice.

"Workin' out some personal issues are we?" Spike asked the two women. Buffy kicked Spike while Faith punched him. "Hey, I guess this will be first contact since you know when. Up for another round in the balcony then?" Spike asked Buffy. Buffy looked furious and yelled a little as she punched him hard, knocking him to the ground. Spike chuckled, blood on his mouth and got back up. "Right you are love! I haven't changed, not a lick. And watching your face while you two tried to figure me out was absolutely delicious!"

"Girls!" Xander called.

"Not now." Faith and Buffy called out.

"Nancy. She's gone, and out there all alone. She's worm bait!"

Buffy sighed and looked at Faith. The brunette nodded and Buffy said, "I'll go find her. You stay with Anya, get her to reverse that spell."

"Hey is that it? A little touchy-feely and your off to the bat poles?" Spike called after Buffy as she left.

Buffy ignored him as she and Angel ran out. Spike followed and then Faith ran after him. They were all jumping over rooftops and trying to find Nancy. Buffy heard a scream and she ran faster. For just a moment Buffy paused and found a rope attached to the side of the building she was on. She grabbed on and swung down.

Nancy was clinging on the broken ladder. Below her, the ground broke apart and the Sluggoth demon started to rise up, mouth wide to swallow her. She lost her grip screaming, and just as she started to fall, Buffy came swinging in on the rope, catching her in mid-air. They both swung further down the alley and dropped down onto some conveniently placed soft trash. Buffy came out from behind some boxes, Nancy hanging back against the wall.

"Go B!" Faith yelled before she jumped down with Angel. Spike was nowhere to be found.

Buffy started to advance to where the Sluggoth demon last was, when suddenly the pavement behind her erupted and it rose up out of the ground menacing her. Nancy screamed and Buffy dropped into a fighting stance. Behind Buffy, Spike dropped to the ground and walked over to a barred window, pulling off one of the bars as a weapon.

"You've had your turn Love." Spike said. "Leave the real violence to the demons, yeah?" Spike stepped forward, clubbing the demon with the bar. "That's right, Big Bad's back, and looking for a little death!" Spike reared back, plunging the bar forward as a spear, just as he did this, the demon suddenly morphed into a man, unable to stop his swing, the bar continued, impaling Ronnie through the shoulder and exiting behind him. Ronnie screamed in pain, and simultaneously so does Spike clutching at his head. Spike looked up, horrified. "I'm sorry." Spike pulled out the bar, and Ronnie fell to the ground, Buffy and Angel rushed up. Buffy grabbed a blanket from a pile of trash to wrap around Ronnie. Spike looked down at the bar in his hands. "Right. Wrong. Wrong maneuver. Not hardly helpful. God please help me." Spike muttered. Faith went to help Buffy and Angel just as Spike screamed, "Help me!"

Faith stopped and turned to look at him. "You're not the one who needs help!"

"He's going into shock." Buffy said. She took out her cell phone and dialed 911. Spike continued to mutter to himself while she talked to the 911 operator. "Yeah, I need an ambulance, someone's been stabbed, oh god, on the corner of third and Fairfield. Ok, help is coming try not to move."

"No, no. Too much, too much, too much, too much, too much, in, down, up close, inside me all the way. Deep, deep, deep inside me." Spike said.

Faith started to walk up to him, an angry look plastered on her face. "Look Spike, whatever you're doing.."

"Get away! Get.. uhh!"

"Do it somewhere else! I am through with this!"

"Oh, oh, lucky girl. Call it quits, now there's an option. If only it was so easy, if only.. if only.." Spike turned as if he was talking to someone else and said, "What the hell are you screaming about? I can hear you. No need to SHOUT!!" The last word started out as a scream of rage and by the end sounded like pain. Spike doubled over. He stood back up laughing incongruously as Buffy, Angel, Faith, and Nancy continued to stare at him. "I get it, the jokes on me. Lots of laughs. Yeah. Hey, bring the wife and kiddies, come see the show." He twirled the bar casually between his fingers. "'Cause it's gonna be a circus. This.." Spike moved forward, laying down the bar. He leaned in, facing Faith as she stood a little ways away from Spike. ".. Just the beginning love, a warm up act. The real headliner's coming, and when that band hits the stage, all of this.." Spike stood straight and spread his arms. "All of this will come tumbling in death, and screaming, horror, and bloodshed." He pointed to the ground. "From beneath you, it devours. From beneath.. poor Rocky.." Spike looked as if he was beginning to cry, then sprinted off down the alley.

"Buffy!" Xander called behind them. Xander and Anya hurried up, as Buffy took off her coat to use as a pillow for Ronnie.

Nancy stepped forward looking at Anya. "You. You did this. What are you?" Anya just stared back. Nancy left, running away as fast as she could.

"She's not calling me."

"Ok, help is on the way, look after him." Buffy said. She handed Xander her cell phone and started off down the alley in the direction that Spike fled.

"Where are you going?"

Buffy didn't hear him. She just ran after Spike. Faith followed her and the two Slayers stopped in a graveyard. They spotted a church up ahead, candlelight flickering in the windows. After a moment, Buffy turned to Faith and Faith advanced on the church.

"Faith." Buffy said. The brunette turned. "I'll be here if you need me."

Faith walked to the door and opened it, entering the small church. She walked forward, then stopped, looking around, seeing no one. Suddenly, Spike stepped out of the shadows behind her, bare-chested, and holding his blue shirt.

"Didn't work." Spike said.

Faith spun around and stared at Spike. "What the hell are you.."

"Didn't work. Costume. Didn't help. Couldn't hide." He threw the blue shirt onto a pew.

"No more mind games Spike."

"No more mind games? No more mind."

"Tell me what happened to you." Faith looked down at the deep scratches in Spike's chest, and reached out to touch them.

"Hey! Hey! Hey! No touching! Am I flesh? Am I flesh to you? Feed on flesh. My flesh. Nothing else, not a spark. Fine, flesh then. Solid through. Get it hard, service the girl." Spike looked upset and reached down and started to unbutton his pants.

"Stop it! You.." Faith reached down to stop him from unbuttoning his pants, and suddenly Spike's hand was around her throat. Faith grabbed his arm and hurled him halfway across the church to crash into several pews, smashing them apart. Spike struggled up to a half sitting position.

"Right. Girl doesn't want to be serviced, because there's no spark." Spike looked up and yelled, "Ain't we in a sodding engine?"

"Spike have you completely lost your mind?" Faith asked, walking closer.

"Well yes. Where have you been all night?"

"You thought you would just come back here and be with me?"

"First time for everything. You left too."

"This is all you get. I'm listening. Tell me what happened."

"I tried to find it of course."

"Find what?"

"The spark.. the missing.. the piece.. that fit.. that would make me fit. Because you didn't want.. I can't.. not with you looking." Spike got up and moved into the shadows. "I dreamed of killing you." Faith reached down and picked up a sharp piece of wood. "I think they were dreams. So weak. Did you make me weak? Thinking of you? Holding myself and spilling useless buckets of salt over your.. ending. Angel.. he should have warned me. He makes a good show of forgetting but, it's here.. in me, all the time. The spark." Faith swallowed as Spike walked out of the shadows behind her. "I wanted to give you.. what you deserve. What you wanted. And I got it. They put the spark in me and now all it does is burn."

"Your soul." Faith whispered.

"A bit worse for lack of use."

"You got your soul back? How?"

"It's what you wanted, right? To be like Buffy? It's what you wanted, right?" Spike asked hurriedly. Faith swallowed and looked down. Spike walked past her as he talked, towards the front of the church where a huge cross stood. "And-and now everybody's in here.. talking. Everything I did.. everyone I.. and him.. and it.. the other, the thing.. beneath.. beneath you.. it's here too. Everybody. They all just tell me go. Go.. to hell."

Faith's eyes were glassy with tears and she shook her head slightly. "Why? Why would you do that?"

"Faith shame on you. Why does a man do what he mustn't? For her, to be hers.. to be the kind of man who would nev.. to be a kind of man.." Spike advanced towards the cross. "And she shall look at him with forgiveness.. and everybody will forgive and love.. he will be loved." Spike stood within inches of the cross now, staring at it. "So everything's ok right?" He leaned forward and embraced the cross hanging himself on it as smoke started to rise from his flesh. A single tear fell down Faith's cheek. "Can we rest now? Faith, can we rest?" Smoke continued to rise off him as he hung there on the cross.