CHAPTER 8
Buffy looked distinctly ill at the possibility. "Don't spiders have like a million babies at once?" she asked, with trepidation.
"Yeah," Dawn nodded slowly, then brightened. "Oh, but I remember! Brown recluses only reproduce from May until August, like most spiders. You've got months to kill them."
"Hey guys!" Willow called from the other room. "I think I've got something."
Once the others had moved to the table Willow was working at, Spike asked, "What'd you find, Red?"
"Well, the T. Araka account only has the money in it from the Nikki Wood account," Willow said. "In fact, it was opened right before that transfer. Sure they could open a new account for each customer, but then you'd think the name wouldn't be so obvious. So, that's kind of suspicious. Also, Nikki's account was opened just before that, too. I'm tracing where the money in her account originally came from."
"Something else that doesn't add up," Buffy said. "Why is Willow's teacher here? He said he's looking for Angel, but he's pretty well known in the demon community. You'd think anyone who'd direct Gage here, would tell him about Angel's soul."
"Unless he wasn't sent here to find Angel, but Spike," Giles said, following Buffy's logic.
"Right," the petite blonde said. "We didn't ask, but I'd bet whoever sent him here is the same someone whose paying his grant. So, the question is why? You don't think he's a Tarakan, do you?"
"No," Willow said. "For one, the money for his fake grant wouldn't have come from this anonymous benefactor who is also paying the Tarakans. If what Spike told us is correct, the Tarakans would have paid for the grant, right?"
"It seems rather elaborate for them, too," Buffy said. "The others, they just came and attacked. A little subterfuge, but not this much."
"Big word there, Slayer," Spike said.
She shot him a dirty look and asked, "Do you really want to be making fun of me while I'm trying to help you?"
The vampire was saved from responding by the ringing of the bell above the shop door. Xander entered and gave the room a general greeting.
"Xander!" Anya exclaimed. "Why aren't you at work, earning money?"
Crossing the room and kissing his fiancé, Xander replied, "Funny thing about work today. I got there and there was a giant spider web between the structural beams we've already put up. And two mutant spiders guarding it."
"Was anyone hurt?" Willow asked.
"Nope," Xander replied. "Probably a good thing I got there a little early. Only a couple of the guys had arrived and they took one look at it and got back in their cars."
Buffy was already heading for the back room to retrieve a weapon, so she could go deal with the latest spider sighting when Xander continued.
"Luckily, that big axe I used on patrol this summer was in my trunk. Why, I'm not sure. But it came in handy in the slicing and dicing of the eight-legged fiends."
Buffy turned around. "You killed them?"
"Yup," the dark haired man answered proudly. "The Xan-man killed them real dead."
"Good," the Slayer responded. "Just be careful." She turned and addressed the rest of the group. "That goes for everyone. We saw a guy last night who got caught by the spiders. Not pretty. Let's just say being spidered to death rose way up on my list of icky ways to die."
"I can't decide if it's odd or strangely comforting that none of us even blinked at the fact that you have a list of icky ways to die," Xander commented.
"I'm surprised they came into town," Dawn said, ignoring Xander's quip. "They're named brown recluses because they're just that. Recluses. They don't like people."
"The ones last night sure seemed to like people," Spike said.
"Maybe it's the magick," Anya said.
"What magick?" Buffy asked.
"There has to be magick involved somewhere," the shopkeeper replied. "Spiders don't just grow that big naturally." She paused before asking a little hesitantly, "Do they?"
"No," Giles replied. "Generally not."
"Okay, then," Buffy said, taking charge. "If they're magick, we can track them, right?"
Willow nodded. "Sure. I'll do a locator spell."
"Anya," Giles said, "would you please get the ingredients together for a locator spell?"
The woman nodded and left the group to gather the appropriate components.
"Other than that," Buffy said, "Spike, watch out for assassins and Willow, keep working on tracing anything further on the bank accounts. Anything else?"
Willow meekly raised her hand. "Um, my homework."
"What?"
"My assignment for my myth class tomorrow is to write a Where Are They Now ending for the Scourge. Since Dr. Gage knows that I know Spike, he's going to expect the truth. And, until we know more about whose sponsoring his grant and where his loyalties lie, I don't think we should share too much with him. We don't want to sic him on Angel, either."
"Why not?" Spike asked.
Ignoring him, Willow continued, "And if Gage is just a pawn in this, he might be stupid enough to try and find Drusilla or Darla. We all know how well that would end. So, what do I tell him?"
"Is there anyway you could just not do the homework?" Buffy asked.
Willow's horrified look at the suggestion was answer enough.
"We are talking about Willow here," Xander pointed out.
"Quite right," Giles said.
"Look," Spike said. "You and me'll cook up a story, Red. You have to mention Angel being here a couple years back and me being here now, since he already knows about that. But other than that, you can just say I haven't told you much and I'm not inclined to talk about it."
"Okay," said Willow. "That way we don't give away any further secrets and if we decide he's safe and you decide to talk to him, I'm not in trouble for lying."
"Good," Buffy approved.
Before she could say anything further, a scream rang out from the basement.
"Anya!" Xander cried, leaping up and leading the charge downstairs.
A horrific sight greeted the gang in the basement storeroom. Anya was standing against the far wall. Between her and the others were three of the giant spiders, slowly advancing on the screaming woman.
Willow raised her hand and muttered a few words in Latin. The spiders froze mid-step. Buffy turned and vaulted up the steps, in search of a weapon.
"Hurry," Willow called after her. "This won't hold long!"
By the time Buffy returned from the training room with a sword, Giles had shooed everyone but Xander back up the stairs in order to clear the way for Buffy. Xander had leapt over the frozen spiders, barely missing them, and was now standing in front of his fiancé, protecting her from the arachnids.
Buffy charged down the stairs and raised her sword behind the middle spider just as the spell wore off. Her sword clanged down, cleaving the center spider in two. However, the others, sensing their once easy prey would no longer be simple to catch, skittered away in opposite directions.
"Get out of here!" Buffy yelled at Xander and Anya.
As the two ran past her and up the stairs, Buffy slowly turned in the room, searching for her enemies. Spotting one of the spiders crouched under a table off to her left, she drew back her arm and threw her sword like a javelin. Unfortunately, the spider saw it coming and shuffled to the side. The sword cut off most of one of its legs, but did no further damage.
"Smart, Buff," the Slayer muttered to herself. "Throw away your only weapon."
"Here you go, pet," a masculine voice said from behind her as another sword was tossed over her shoulder, hilt first. She grabbed the weapon mid air as Spike continued, gesturing to the table. "I got that one, but I don't know where the other went."
As the vampire approached the now seven legged spider brandishing the wicked looking axe he carried in front of him, Buffy extended her senses, trying to pinpoint the location of the other arachnid. However, it wasn't evil; it wasn't demon in origin. Therefore, her *haha* spidey senses couldn't detect the creature.
A small scuffling noise above the Slayer alerted her to its location. Buffy jumped to the side, just as the creature dropped down where she had been. The creature recovered from its fall quickly and managed to dodge the Slayer's first strike. However, it wasn't quick enough to avoid her second. As the creature's now detached head rolled away from its still twitching body, Buffy looked up to see Spike looking around for something to wipe the blade of his axe on to clean off the spider innards coating it. He turned toward her, a mischievous look in his eyes.
"Don't even think about it," she warned moving away from him. "Or I'll clean my sword off on your coat."
"You wouldn't ruin this beauty," Spike said. "It's got history."
"You're right," Buffy conceded, sounding in no way defeated. She shrugged. "And since I plan to take it off you when I kill you, I wouldn't want to ruin it now."
* * * * *
Upstairs, Xander worked on fixing the store's broken window while the others brainstormed ideas for dealing with the spiders. Willow looked up as the two bickering blondes emerged from the basement.
"Come check this out, Buffy," she said.
Both slayer and vampire walked to the table and looked at the maps of Sunnydale and Sunnydale's sewer system spread side by side before Willow. About two inches above them, multiple spots glowed with a soft light.
"The locator spell?" Buffy asked.
"Yup," Willow confirmed. Then, looking at the maps, she frowned. "If they're still retaining their nature as recluses, I figured the spiders would be hiding in the sewers."
"And look at the other hot spots," Dawn pointed out.
Buffy frowned. "Great. The college and the old high school. The Initiative caves and the Hellmouth. Two of my favorite tourist spots."
"Wasn't the Initiative supposed to be destroyed or filled with concrete or something?" Xander asked.
"When was the last time a work order for blocking anything underground was filled in Sunnydale?" Willow asked.
"Quite," Giles said. "We may have taken care of the Mayor, but I fear that not even a nuclear blast could remove all the corrupt city officials left over from his rein."
As he spoke, some of the spots moved slowly above the maps.
"What's happening?" Buffy asked, then groaned and answered her own question. "They're moving. Of course. Why make this easy?"
"Surely there must be some way we can gather them together and kill them all off at once," Giles said.
"Fake flies the size of german shepherds?" Xander asked from his position near the front of the store.
"What about pheromones?" Willow asked.
"Yeah," Buffy said. "Could we summon them to someplace all at once and, I don't now, blow them up or something?"
"Oh!" Dawn said, "I volunteer the school!"
"Naw," Xander said. "We already blew that up once. A second time would just be cliché."
"Not yours," the teen replied, sticking out her tongue at the carpenter. "Mine!"
"Dear Lord," Giles replied, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Is this desire to blow up educational institutions genetic?"
"Hey!" Buffy said indignantly. "I didn't blow up the first one, just…"
"Burnt down the gym?" Willow asked, managing to keep a straight face, despite the humor in her voice.
Spike whistled appreciatively. "Didn't know you were such a pyro, Slayer. I'm impressed."
Buffy pointedly ignored the remark and turned to her sister. "We are not going to blow up your school, Dawn."
"Party pooper!"
"The idea is good, though," Anya said thoughtfully. "I once cursed a military strategist who paid more attention to war than his wife. He was always telling her the best military strategy was gaining the high ground. She wished he'd never be able to reach the high ground again. I granted her wish both literally and metaphorically." The ex-demoness sighed, fondly remembering that particular curse.
"Er, yes," Giles said. "If we can gather all the spiders together, it would be advantageous to pick the battleground carefully."
During Anya's story, Tara had entered the shop. Upon hearing Giles' comment, she said, "Have you figured out a way to gather them together?"
"We were thinking pheromones," the blonde witch's girlfriend replied.
"Like for mating?" Tara asked.
"That's it!" Willow exclaimed. "We should be able to magickally reproduce both male and female mating pheromones. Even if it's not mating season, if we make it strong enough, they should respond!"
"Okay," Buffy said. "Sounds like a go. You guys work on that."
The blonde slayer picked up her bag and slung in over her shoulder.
"Oh, I already know how to do it," Willow said. "But it requires some stuff the Magic Box doesn't carry regularly. We'll have to special order. We can probably have it here by tomorrow."
"I hate to wait," Buffy replied as she walked to the counter and behind it. "Guess I'll just patrol tonight and kill the ones I see. Then we can launch the big assault tomorrow."
She bent down and disappeared behind the counter for a moment. When Buffy reemerged, she was holding the fire extinguisher usually stored underneath the register.
"Okay if I borrow this, Giles?"
The older man nodded his assent warily.
In response to the questioning looks she was receiving from everyone, Buffy pulled a can of lighter fluid and a box of matches out of her bag and showed them to her friends.
"I've got to go clean up the mess Spike and I made last night. Being caught in a forest fire's not real high on my list of icky ways to die, either."
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A/N: Next time we get to go back to Willow's class and see where her classmates think the Scourge would/should be now! Poor Willow, all the information she knows and she can't use it to her academic advantage. Thanks again for the continuing encouragement and support. I hope this story is as much fun for you to read as it is for me to write! ht
