Chapter One: Be With You
Spike sits peaceably in the chair he was tied to. The ropes were a bit tight for his liking, but since he didn't have to worry about his circulation being cut off he didn't feel a need to complain. Besides if he did begin to gripe about the situation then there was every possibility the Slayer and her pals would once again chain him back up in the porcelain bathtub. A fate to be avoided at all cost.
So he allowed the too tight ropes. It wasn't like he couldn't smash the wooden chair to splinters anyway if the need arose. He smirks slightly at the thought of how stupid the slayer's friends were. Concerned about the trouble he might cause they insisted on keeping him tied up, yet they chose something he could destroy simply by flexing if he so desired. Again it was something he wasn't going to bring up because it would mean him going back to being chained up in the bathtub from hell. Not to mention having to put up with the ridicule and disdain from people who should, by all rights, be terrified of him.
Plus it would also mean isolation, a state Spike didn't like existing in. After all the Big Bad, despite being something of a malcontent and a rebel, enjoyed interacting with others. Human, demon didn't matter much to him as long as they were an interesting group, and if he could say nothing else about the Slayer's little toadies, they were an amusing lot.
Demon girl said what was on her mind, whatever was on her mind, and convention be damn. Some of the things that came out of the girls mouth were near enough to make him blush, if he had actually had a complexion. Harris, the whelp, was a right bloody viscous bastard in Spike's opinion. He almost hid it most of the time. Not well enough to fool a master vampire, but as far as his friends were concerned he was the definition of a true blue friend. Spike hoped, for everyone's sake, the boy never got turned. He just knew, deep in his gut, that Harris would make a vampire the likes of which Angelus would be proud to call kin. Red on the other hand had a pair of brass bowling balls hidden up her knickers, though she rarely pulled them out. He seen them twice though, once at the burnt out factory, and again just a few weeks ago when he had shown up at the Slayer's dorm room.
Spike still wasn't sure if he would have turned her, killed her, or only taken a little and left her alive for the Slayer to find. A little message that he could have. Of course those damn bloody wankers had already shoved the sodding chip in his head making him an even bigger joke then when he was alive.
The Slayer herself was the cause of all his problems. Ever since he had come to this cursed town searching, not just for her, but anything that would help bring his dark princess, Drusilla, back to her former glory. The Slayer he had been expecting. His great pofter of a grandsire he hadn't, and didn't care if he never saw him again now that he was gone. He had been hoping the mystical energies the permeated Sunnydale would do the trick of restoring her. While they slowed her decline they didn't halt her descent. Spike had tried everything he could think of, only ever time the Slayer had been there; foiling his every plot, destroying his well thought out schemes, ruining every hope he had of achieving Drusilla's eventual recovery.
He had had chances to kill the girl, more then he cared to count, but something always managed to distract him from adding a third slayer to his trophy bag. First it was the chit's mother, then her friends, even Angelus, the good for nothing ponce that he was, had helped save her. That wasn't the way things worked.
Slayer's were suppose to be alone fighting the forces of darkness. They weren't suppose to have a support team. The occasional ally Spike could understand, but a group of people that dedicated themselves to helping the Slayer was unnatural as far as Spike was concerned. It was suppose to be a one on one fight may the better man win, and the loser die. That was how it should be. That was the natural order of things according to the laws of Spike.
Granted there was always the watcher. Rarely, if ever, did they actually get their hands dirty by becoming involved in the battles their charges, their slayers fought. Their primary excuse for being there was to research all the big bads their slayer came across, to train them in their war, and to record the slayer's life making sure it was all neatly catalogued for future reference.
Of course if he had killed the girl all those years ago he wouldn't of had the pleasure of feeling her tight, lithe body pressed against his just a few short hours ago. The way her slim, soft, and oh so delicate hands had light a trail of fire wherever they had touched along his alabaster skin. If he concentrated he could still feel the tiny electrical jolts coursing through his dead body making him feel almost alive. He could still taste her peach flavored lip gloss along with something else that was distinctively all Slayer.
He knew it was wrong to want to feel her body molded against his. She was Buffy Summers, the Slayer. He was Spike, a master vampire, the slayer of Slayers. He should be wanting to feel her hot, salty blood pouring down his throat not listening to her moan as he gently nipped and suckled the front of her throat with his blunt human teeth while her short nails sent shivers up his spine as they dug small furrows in his back.
Willow walks around Giles over to Buffy who, standing at Giles' counter, continued glaring at Spike, "eat a cookie. Ease my pain," she pleads with her best friend.
Buffy shifts her glance of the blonde vampire to her friend, a slight smile settling on her lips as she plucks a cookie from the tray. "Mm, better?" She inquires as she takes a big bite out of the cookie.
At the sound of Buffy's soft moan Spike feel his body tremble at the memory of her touch as they had explored each other's body during their heated make out sessions. Roughly he pushed the sensation back down. It was a strain, and he found himself needing to take an otherwise unneeded breath as he regained control of his body. He needed to find something to take his mind of what should have been disgustingly disturbing thoughts about himself and the Slayer.
Willow shrugs, a small uplifting of her shoulders, "well baking lifts about thirty percent of my guilt but only seven percent of my inner turmoil," she answers setting the tray on the counter. "Guess that'll just take awhile."
"It'll happen," the blonde assures her friend.
The smell of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies were heavy in the air from Willow's attempt to bake away the guilt she felt over her recent actions. It wasn't quite the aroma of blood, fear, and agonizing pain he was hoping for but it would do in a pinch. "Don't I get a cookie?" He pushes, in as friendly of a voice as he can manage with those particular images of him and Buffy- nuzzling, kissing, cuddling- still floating in his head.
"No," Buffy emphatically states.
"Well I gotta have something. I still have Buffy taste in my mouth," he gripes loudly. Not that he really cared that he could still taste the Slayer in his mouth. That alone was disturbing enough that he once again felt the need to suppress any thought related to the blonde slayer only a dozen feet away.
Buffy's glare intensifies as she spits out, "you're a pig Spike."
"Yeah, well at least I'm not the one who wanted Wind Beneath My Wings for our first dance," Spike ruthlessly informs the entire group with the desired results of shutting everybody up in one fell swoop as they all turn to look at Buffy. Just a little reminder that they had done far more then argue and disagree about everything. They had done more then the heavy make out sessions all of her friends had been witness to. There were a few times they had actually talked to each other. Of course they had been between gropes and feels and long, drown out, passionate, tongue dueling kisses.
The look of stunned horror, as she remembers everything that they had actually talked about, washes over her face. Spike smiles evilly at her despite the fact that there is now the very real possibility the Slayer just might stake him rather then risk him revealing her deepest, darkest secretes to her friends. He had just reminded her that while he might be defanged he was far from being the hapless creature they saw him as. "That was the spell," she defends herself to her friends. Feeling her cheeks redden slightly she walks into the kitchen to get away from everyone's stare.
Suddenly he felt a large chocolate chip cookie shoved into his mouth as Willow decided it was better to give up a cookie then let Spike say anything else that might hurt Buffy. Spike didn't care why he was getting the cookie. He was just glad he got that instead of the stake. Now if he could just figure how to get a nice hot mug of blood, life would have been as close to perfect as it could be given his present circumstances.
After shoving the cookie into Spike's mouth Willow quickly followed Buffy into the kitchen. "Did I mention about the sorry part?" Willow inquires sounding twice as guilty as she had just a moment earlier.
Taking a quick glance around the room and the people occupying it at the moment he didn't think there was much chance of any of them doing him any favors. Sighing slightly Spike begins to munch on the cookie without dropping the smallest crumb.
"We may need a forgetting spell later," Buffy replies. She didn't know if it would be possible to go on living having to deal with all the residue emotions Willow's spell had left behind. "I loved him. We were betrothed," she admits to Willow unable to bring up the fact that she still had all those confusing feelings roiling in her stomach.
The restrained vampire can easily detect the slight tremble in the blonde's voice as she gives voice to her emotions. Spike senses Red's displeasure. She had done something rather stupid and other people, people she cared about had almost paid the price for it. "Well at... At least you were getting along," she points out softly trying to find the tinniest bit of good in what she had done.
Spike almost felt sorry for the little witch. It was bad enough that dog-boy had up and left her for no good reason as far as Spike knew, not that anybody was telling him the sordid details of their lives, it was also the first time the witch had to experience somebody ripping her heart out and turning it to pulp right in front of her eyes. Spike could attest to how unpleasant of an experience that was. At least she had friends who cared about her, something he had lacked a hundred and twenty years ago.
"But we weren't," Buffy responds giving her head a slight shake. Spike's eyes widen fractionally at the lie that had just poured out of the Slayer's mouth. "I mean, I wasn't even nice. And the bad-boy thing — over it. Okay, I totally get it. I'd be really happy to be in a nice relationship with a decent, reliable... Oh my God! Riley thinks I'm engaged," a quick thought of her and Riley together flashes through her mind. He was just what she needed to get over whatever it was she was feeling towards the platinum blonde vampire.
Disgusted with herself she gives her head an imperceptible shake as she realizes what she was just thinking. That would be even worse then what Parker had done to her. Using someone just so she could deny what she was feeling, but if she got to know him first. Dated him, allowed a relationship to build up. Something she could throw herself into with everything she had.
Needing to get a gripe on herself she turns towards the back stairwell, "I need to freshen up," she tells Willow in a slight rush as she walks away. She knew she was being rude but at the moment she didn't care. She had to compose herself before she just blurted everything out because there was no way she was going to fall for Spike. He was as evil as vampires come, possibly worse. He was a soulless demon that wanted to kill her, that had killed two other slayers in less then a hundred years. Now if she continued to repeat that to herself over and over again she might just be able to forget the way he turned her insides to mush with the simplest glance.
Spike knew he had gotten to the prissy little blonde slayer and smirks around a mouthful of cookie. It didn't take him long however for him to feel Willow's heated glare on him. Plucking the cookie from his mouth with his long, poorly manicured, fingered hands, "something you want?" He inquires offhandedly, as if it was of no concern to him, as he looks over his chipped fingernails. He knew he was going to have to get his hands on some black nail polish some time soon, after all he did have a reputation to uphold.
"You could try being nicer," Willow emphatically informs him. "It wouldn't kill you, you know," she stammers slightly at the end as Spike looks up at her with cold blue eyes.
Spike's smirk deepens slightly as he scowls at the small redhead, "vampire here. Or'd you forget that little witch?" He asks letting a bit of his anger show. True he might feel sorry for her, but that didn't mean he liked the fact, or that he was going to forgive her anytime soon, for using some freaky mojo on him that made him fall in love with the Slayer. "Niceness isn't a trait us undead are known for," he pauses for a second as he remembers a few of the things Angelus had bragged about back in the day. "Know a few though who send roses, do the whole seduction of innocence thing. Personally I find it a bleeding waste of time. More of a brutal killer myself. Throw in a bloody massacre and I'm right at home," he finishes a gleeful smile plastered on his face.
Willow turns away from him in disgust. She walks back into the kitchen were her next batch of cookies were almost ready to be taken out of the oven. She just didn't understand Spike. His actions almost constantly contradicted his words, or vice versa. He would say one thing yet do something completely different. He acted like a vicious killer, a soulless demon constantly, but she knew that wasn't true, or at least suspected it wasn't the whole truth. There was probably a ton of information on Spike that wasn't written down in any watchers journals anywhere. Facts that only Spike, or possibly Drusilla, would know after more then century.
As soon as Willow's back was towards him Spike let the false smile fall from his lips as he brought the chocolate chip cookie back to his mouth. He bite into the pastry, and began diligently chewing despite the fact that the cooked dough now tasted like ash in his mouth. It was better this way though. He had that lesson driven home a hundred and twenty years ago, then later with Drusilla. There was no way he was going to make it again. Especially not with this group of wankers.
Gazing at the floor he could still almost hear the faint echo of laughter over the sounds of Giles' hasty scribble, or the slurping like noises coming from demon girl and the whelp, as their tender kissing verged on groping, over on Giles well worn couch. He could feel eyes on him again, heated, like the witches, only a thousand times more intense then the redheads glare. He also smelt sand, sweat, human blood, demon blood, himself and Buffy so mingled together that he couldn't tell where one ended and the other began.
His head snaps up violently and there she is standing before him in all her beautiful, terrifying glory. "Bloody hell," Spike gasps taking in her appearance at a quick glance. He didn't know what had taken place in the few minutes she had been in the head, but she looked like she had been through one hell of a battle. Several dozen battles actually.
Her face was bruised, there were scratches and scrapes along her scalp, cheek, and chin that instead of detracting from her already stunning beauty only seemed to amplify it. Her normally sunkissed golden blonde hair was frizzled and charred at the ends, all of her clothing not to mention herself looked as if she had acted as a lightening rod during a massive electrical storm. Everything was charred and blackened. There was a long shallow gash along her right shoulder, another just below her left rib cage, plus a deep puncture through her right thigh that still oozed a small trickle of blood from both sides.
He had known those last few comments had been pushing his luck too far. Judging from the intense look in her eyes she had finally decided she'd had enough of him and was going to rid herself of his annoying, undead ass once and for all. She already had his coat on despite the fact it was obviously too large for her. Spike smiles at that, it was fitting in a way. He had taking it off the body of the last slayer he had killed, now the Slayer was reclaiming it.
Buffy can hardly believe it had worked. Spike was back. Her Spike was right in front of her with a look of awe shining in his light incandescent blue eyes. His black t-shirt was stretched taut against his lean muscular chest. She was just able to make out his defined muscles through the dark fabric. In the back of her mind she wonders where he had been, what he had been through vowing to help him recover no matter how long it took. That was for later. Now, though, there were pressing matters she needed to attend to. Matters that involved ripping that shirt off his body as quickly as possible so she could run her hands over his smooth, cool flesh. She smiles knowing it would only take a matter of seconds before she had his skin burning at her ever touch.
A maniacal grin splits the Slayer's face as the look in her eyes intensifies a thousand fold, and Spike knows the end is at hand. He had hoped he'd be able to fight, to go down swinging and the like, but that wasn't to be his fate. He was going to die here, a joke, a laughingstock, a neutered vamp tied to a bloody chair completely unable to defend himself. He glares at her, matching her stare for stare. He might not be able to fight back but he'd be damned if he was going to go out begging for his life.
Spike looks on the Slayer with awe as he prepares himself for the assault he knows is about to descend upon him. She was the personification of violence, sex, and death all rolled into one. He could smell it on her. He had never seen her looking more beautiful, more wanton, or desirable then she was at that moment. He could feel his body begin to respond to her just from gazing upon her.
In a way he was glad it her that was going to be ending his unlife. Out of all the creatures he had encountered over the century, all the battles he had fought, she was the only one he felt was worthy of killing him. "What're you waiting for Slayer?" He snarls at her as defiantly as he ever had.
"What was that?" Giles inquires of Spike, slightly annoyed the vampire hadn't spoken up louder in the first place.
Hearing him speak was all Buffy needed to know that this wasn't just a desire driven hallucination. She lunges forward, grabbing him by his shirt, lifting him off the floor and shattering the chair he had been tied to so quickly he hadn't even seen her move. One moment he had been in the chair the next his back was very nearly pressed into the thick oaken front door of Giles' apartment. Somewhere after being lifted from the now splintered chair and before his back colliding with the hardwood door, he wasn't exactly sure where, her hot, moist mouth attach to his, her silken tongue demanding entry between his cool lips. At the same time she had somehow managed to get his shirt off in-between those two intervening moments. Her bruised and bloody hands were running over his bare skin as if she was trying to feel every inch of his body that she could at the same moment.
Giles turns his head just as the sound of his chair shattering reaches his ears. He barely catches the movement of Spike almost being driven through his door by what appears to be a very bedraggled, possibly even crazed Buffy.
Willow rushes out of the kitchen hearing the wooden chair splinter. Looking at the spot Spike had been she easily finds what was once a sturdy oak chair. Her eyes follow the remains of Spike's shredded black t-shirt, and freeze once she sees Buffy wearing Spike's duster slam the now shirtless vampire into Giles' door with enough force to rattle the frame. Naturally her first thought is that somehow her spell had gotten re-invoked, but then she sees the almost stunned look on Spike's face and she realizes he's just as surprised as she is.
Giles doesn't even see the remains of his chair, shattered beyond any means of repair, on the floor. For a brief moment he thinks Buffy, finally fed up with Spike, is going to end hers and everyone else's suffering. That line of speculation is quickly discarded as Buffy quite firmly mashes her body into Spike's as her mouth seeks his. It almost looks as if she trying to merge their two separate bodies into one. "Oh, bloody hell," he curses softly as he looks over at Willow. "Couldn't you have at least blinded me again? Seeing this spectacle is far worse then just having to listen it," he snarls at the young witch.
"They seem to be enjoying themselves," Anya comments in a heavy voice from her spot next to Xander on Giles' couch. Xander gapes slightly, eyes wide with disbelief, as he stares at Buffy attacking Spike with a fervor he's never seen on anyone before let alone the tiny blonde slayer. "We should probably take notes," she suggest seriously. Xander turns his head to look at Anya as if seeing her for the first time. "They're doing a much better job then we normally do, well actually Buffy is..."
"An," Xander's less then manly voice squawks.
Willow's eyes widen at Giles words, "this isn't me," she insisted. "I've been good. I've been baking. Baking lots of cookies, no magic, not even the hint of one tiny, little, itsy bitsy spell, just baking Willow here. That's all them, or at least all Buffy."
Buffy presses her body into his, grinding her thigh into his manhood as she straddles his leg. If the feel of her body against his wasn't enough to harden him instantly then the scent of her arousal was. He can't help the heated moan that escapes his lips. As they part slightly the Slayer's tongue delves into his mouth where it begins massaging his tongue, twirling, caressing, drawing it out of his mouth back into hers. Once there she begins suckling on the appendage stroking it with her tongue taking as much into her mouth as she can, as if she was giving his tongue a blow job.
His penis jumps in his pants as he realizes what she's doing him. Weather she's able to read his mind or just his body he doesn't know. Nor does he care overly much as she drives her thigh into his crotch firmly, to the point where pleasure and pain become the same thing. He feels his body go rigid as her ministrations drive him over the edge causing him to orgasm blowing his load in his own pants like an untried schoolboy that he hasn't been in nearly a century and a quarter.
Xander looks to over to Willow as he stands from the couch, "could, you know, make us all blind now? So we don't have to watch."
Giles glances at Willow with a slight look of remorse as he removes his glasses. Willow knew it was about as close as Giles was going to come to apologizing to her. "Obviously some kind of spell is impairing her judgement, making her act irrationally."
"How come we never make out like that in front of your friends?" Anya asks standing up next to Xander. "Buffy doesn't seem to have any problems with enthusiastic forms of affection in public."
Xander looks at her slightly horrified at her suggestion. "An, we've had this discussion about what's appropriate and what's not so. That," he says pointing at Buffy and Spike, "definitely falls in the not so appropriate category."
"That's too bad," Anya says with a slight frown. "Having sex in a public place without anybody knowing is highly arousing which results in much more intense orgasms. Just look at Spike."
Xander gapes for a second before he snaps his mouth close. "We'll talk about it later," he finally answers causing Anya to smile triumphantly.
Shocked, amazed, stunned by what just happened, plus the fact that he hadn't lost an once of hardness under the Slayer's skilled touch, Spike finally pulls his mouth away from hers. He bangs his head back against the door panting for much unneeded oxygen, "sodding hell... You bloody little chit, have you... Lost your sod offed mind," he gasps out at her between labored pants. Somewhere inside his head his rational mind wonders what the hell is going on.
That stops however as thought, rational or otherwise, much less speech, become a sudden problem for Spike as he feels the Slayers teeth on his neck breaking the skin causing a small trickle of blood to flow down his throat. For the second time in half a minute his body becomes rigid and shakes as he lets out a low moan. "Sweet bloody hell Slayer," he groans as he feels his legs turn to a rubbery like substance and the only reason he doesn't slide to the floor is because the Slayer has him pinned to the wall.
Buffy stares at her reflection in the mirror just as she had been for the last several minutes. She had forgotten just how much her and Spike had actually talked while they were under the effects of Willow's spell. It wasn't really forgetting though. It was more like shoving everything involved with the incident out of her mind because if she thought about any part of it she would remember just how safe and protected she had felt snuggled into Spike's strong yet surprisingly gentle arms. She would be forced to remember just how much love she felt radiating outwards from Spike during their passion filled kisses, soft and yielding on the surface yet burning, almost raging with a desperate fire that was just barely touched.
She didn't understand how Spike could get to her so easily. He was everything she fought against, everything she was suppose to hate, a soulless demon, a viscous killer with no remorse for his actions. Yet she was drawn to him. No matter how much she tried to deny it she was and it terrified her. Nobody had ever made her feel like before; not Pike, Owen, Angel, Scott, Parker, or Riley. None of them had ever evoked those intense emotions that the bleached blonde menace to society, also known as Spike, had. The only person that had ever come close to making her feel that free before had been Faith and the times they had simply cut loose at the bronze dancing the night away.
She had already been down that road before and her friends had suffered for it. Falling in love with a vampire who eventual turned on her. It had taken her months before she finally resolved herself to the fact that Angel was well and truly gone. That she was never going to get back the man she loved with all the innocence of sixteen year old girl. That the only thing that remained of Angel was the beast that wore his face.
All the while her friends lived in constant fear of what Angelus was going to do to them. More then a few had even died because she hadn't been able to bring herself to do what she knew she had to do. Each and every time he made sure she knew he was the cause of their death, and each and every time she felt like she was the one who had killed them. All because she couldn't do what needed doing right from the beginning.
She had her shot right after the Judge. She had beaten him, but she couldn't stake him. That one decision had cost so many people their lives, people that should have lived if she had just been able to do what she had been called to do. It was one of the few decisions that she truly regretted making. Not that she wouldn't make the same decision again, which was something else that frightened her.
Especially now with what she was feeling towards Spike, the desires he evoked within her with hardly any effort at all on his part. It was like he had absolutely no idea as to what he did to her. Something she was extremely grateful for because she didn't know if she would be able to resist his advances, despite his somewhat limited charms, if he knew. She just knew, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that if he knew then he would try to press the issue.
No matter how much she wanted to just let herself go she couldn't. She couldn't put her friends through that again, couldn't subject them to the: anxiety, apprehension, fear, dread- of waiting for Spike's chip to breakdown or fail. Then have to wait for her to come to grips with the fact that another one of her lovers had become a brutal killer that she couldn't stake until the fate of the world hung in the balance. Something that wouldn't happen because, unlike Angelus, Spike would never jeopardize his happy meals on legs.
That only left her with one option. Crushing every single feeling she had for the bleach blonde vampire that was now as harmless as any newborn kitten. Crush them, burn them, bury the ashes so deep in her subconscious that they would never again find the light of day. Replace everything she felt with one simple mantra: Spike is evil. Spike is a soulless disgusting thing. Spike is a heartless creature with no feelings. Spike would gladly kill you and all of your friends. Repeat as often as needed, and if at all necessary insult or beat as ruthlessly as possible. Feeling confident with the mask she had draped over herself she turns away from the mirror, pulls open the door, and steps out onto the back hall.
"Shouldn't we be like trying to stop them?" Xander's whining voice drifts down the hall to her. "Separate them or something?"
She could almost see Giles scowl as he retorts, "be my guest. Go right ahead and separate them."
"Maybe we could like throw heavy objects at them," Willow suggest. "Ohh, books. We have lots of books and they're really heavy, we could throw books at them... Or maybe not," she finishes softly, almost in shame.
"We aren't throwing any books at them," Giles responds briskly if slightly exasperated.
"It's too bad you watchers are so stuffy you don't believe in modern technology. If you had a camcorder here we could make an instructional video that we could sell on the..."
"Hey guys," Buffy says cutting Anya off as she reaches the kitchen divider. Everybody's head, except for Anya's, swivels towards her so quickly she thinks the entire group has likely given themselves whiplash. That's before they turn to look back towards Giles' front door, then back to her. "What's up?" she inquires as she steps into the pallor to see what has everybody so freaked out.
"Isn't this interesting," Anya muses as she slowly swivels her head to look at Buffy then back at the front door.
"But," Xander begins but stops as he quickly looks back and forth between Buffy and Buffy. "That's. How. But," he continues as he tries to figure things out in his own head.
Giles almost smiles before his slight scowl returns, "I knew something was amiss," he states actually sounding happy.
Her gaze stops as soon as she spots Spike pinned against Giles' door by some cheap hussy with bad hair and even worse fashion sense. Everything she had just been telling herself in Giles' bathroom flies out the window, she can almost hear the glass shatter and sprinkle to the ground below, as the only image her mind picks up is that there is some strange woman running her hands over Spike's body. A body that is hers alone to touch. That strange lips were tasting skin that was only Buffy's to taste.
Her mind stops registering what the people around her are saying so she never hears Giles telling her that the thing mauling Spike is some type of Buffy doppelganger. She strides forward, her only intent to bodily remove the tramp who would dare touch what was her. A small smile plays across her lips as she imagines the trollop trying to fight back against her. That smile turns to furious scowl as she hears the small groan escape from between Spike's lips.
Spike was completely enjoying the form of death the slayer had chosen for him. He didn't know if it was possible, but he more then thought it was likely, for him to combust from the fire the Slayer had burning inside him right now. He didn't know how long he had lasted this time, surely longer then the last, as time itself had stop having any meaning quite awhile ago. The bliss he was experiencing at the Slayer's hands was like nothing he had ever know before.
The blonde vampire couldn't help the soft moan that passes through his mouth, most of which was swallowed by the Slayer as her lips, covered in his own blood, were pressed against his. Her hand had long since replaced her thigh on his jean covered erection as she more firmly straddled his own thigh as she practically writhed sliding up and down his leg. Her strong yet surprisingly gentle, almost delicate grip was more then enough to keep him from regaining more then modicum of his strength. Which meant he was still completely at her mercy.
He felt the top of her tongue slide along his upper row of teeth. Then before he knew what was happening she impaled her tongue on his canine. An instant later the first drop of her blood hit his tongue. It was just as he remembered it from nearly a hundred years before, the ultimate aphrodisiac. Only this was more so, a dozen, a hundred times as potent, he didn't know. He only knew it was stronger then anything he had ever tasted before.
Spike felt his body revitalize even as the Slayer's grip tighten to an unbelievable level. The combination was beyond anything he had a hope of withstanding. There was nothing he could do. He felt his body drain of everything he had for a fourth time, in what felt like an eternity, but knew wasn't more then a mere handful of minutes.
The Slayer emitted a low growl. The support she had been providing him with was gone, and he felt himself drop to the floor like a limp noodle. His knees slap against the floor, a moment later his back, shoulders, and head hit the door with a dull thwack as he struggles to stay conscious.
Buffy barely felt, what for most people would have been a vise like grip digging into their shoulder, as a strong arm pulled her around. "What the..." Her own anger driven voice began to ask before the words stopped dead as Buffy stared into her own green eyes.
She slams her backfist into what she assumes is the Buffybot's head staggering the machine but not enough to drop it to the ground. "I can't believe Willow put the fucking bot back together," she snarls as Buffy regains her balance.
Buffy had never been hit so hard before in her life. The reason she was even conscious had more to do with the fact she had already started moving back away from her doppelganger then because she was actually strong enough to take a punch from her. "This time," her battered twin hisses at her while the same hand that just knocked her nearly senseless lashes out grabbing her by the throat.
With ease that surprises Buffy she's hoisted into the air as if she were a sack of feathers. "I'm going to personally make sure your melted into the slag that you are," she finishes as her hand begins tightening around Buffy's neck.
Spike's glazed eyes begin to focus on the sight in front of him as his strength begins to come back to him. At first he thinks he's still in some type of delusional state as he sees the two Buffy's before him. One was real Buffy, the other some kind of demon that had just had her way with him as if he was a fop for her amusement.
He bristles at that thought. Nobody, ever used him for anything and got away with it let alone some no account demon doing a bad Buffy impersonation. He didn't care if his head exploded in a thousand pieces the bitch was going to know she had been in one hell of a fight. Even as he noticed the demon's hand tightening around Buffy's throat he launched himself at her with a great heave.
At least that had been his attention only demon Buffy sensed his attack before it had truly begun. Her left hand had, palm flat, slammed him back against the door with barely any effort at all. Buffy had her hands wrapped around the demon's wrist trying to pry it's hand off with almost as much success as Spike was having.
Buffy glances around quickly without taking her attention off her two captives. Something was seriously wrong with the picture she was seeing. First she was in Giles apartment. An apartment he hadn't had in nearly two years. The person she was holding aloft wasn't a robot at all but a living, breathing human being. A human being that just happened to look like she did her freshman year of collage.
Giles' apartment, the smell of chocolate chip cookies in the air, Spike tied to a wooden chair- she thought there had been a wooden chair involved there- meant it was either thanksgiving or just after Willow's my will be done spell. Those were the only two times she could recall that Willow had baked chocolate chip cookies in Giles' apartment. She was just about to let her otherself go when a sudden flash of light burst directly in front of her eyes causing her to stumble back.
That was all the incentive her younger self and Spike needed to attack her in a coordinated assault they almost instinctively had when fighting side by side. Once this little tussle was over she was going to have to have a long talk with Willow about her timing. Mainly about how she didn't have any.
All around her she heard the commotion as the room burst into action. Anya was getting out of the way scurrying, like a startled rabbit, into the far back corner. Buffy knew it was the smartest thing any of her past friends were likely to do. She listened as Giles pulled his, already loaded, crossbow out of its hiding place. Xander took a step back, but otherwise stood poised to help when he thought an opening presented itself. Willow, like Anya, had ducked down out of the way. The battered slayer knew however that unlike the ex-vengeance demon, redhead was just biding her time. She knew that this Willow lacked the overwhelming strength that she would gain in later years. A fact that Buffy was grateful for.
Buffy had gotten her eyes closed just in time. At first she hadn't known what Willow was trying to signal to her but she eventual managed to figure it out. As soon as she felt her evil twin stagger back a step she made her move, finally managing to break her doppelgangers grip, she shoves the arm out of her way. Stepping forward she unleashes a straight right cross, that her evil self just barely slips to the side. Out of the corner of her eye, and much to her surprise, she sees Spike come barreling at the slut that wore her face. She however didn't see evil Buffy's right hand, as it guided hers up and over, altering her center of gravity which made it that much easier for it's hard shove to take her off her feet. Sending her flipping over the back of Giles' sofa.
Spike was stunned speechless when his chip didn't go off as he slammed into the Buffy demon. Not one to wonder why something happens, Spike instantly went on the offensive launching a series of hard punches towards the thing wearing Buffy's face. Even blinded as she was she was still managing to deflect, evade, or absorb his punches with no real damage. It was like she knew exactly what he was going to throw and when he was going to throw it before he did. Spike didn't care. It just made him more determined then ever to get past her defenses.
Barely a handful of seconds had passed by while the two whirlwinds traded punches to fast for anyone one to see. Buffy more felt then heard Giles squeeze the crossbow's trigger. Her rage at that instant seamed to jump to an almost palpable level as she moved to the side, caught the bolt as it moved past her, whirled around releasing the bolt at the proper point to send it back where it had originated from faster then the crossbow had sent it at her. There was no way for Giles to avoid the projectile as it buried itself half way through his right shoulder.
While Buffy's spinning around Spike seizes the opportunity he sees before him. A bare instant after she's releases the bolt, almost the same moment as it first hits Giles' flesh Spike, once again barrels into her. This time grabbing her around the waist and lifting her feet off the floor as he drives her forward.
Buffy however is for from helpless. Lifting her legs high enough she leans forward hard pulling Spike off balance. Her legs explode downward onto the back of Giles' well used sofa, which breaks from the force of Buffy's feet hitting the old wooden frame. She uses it much like a springboard extending her legs she propels herself, as well as a very amazed vampire, into the air. Once airborne she manages to roll so that Spike winds up underneath her, a position she would normally enjoy, while she aims them for the middle of Giles' coffee table. A small smile creeps across her face as she takes an enormous amount of pleasure in destroying as much of Giles' belongings as she possibly can.
For a brief instant, as Buffy rolls off the old sofa, she wonders if anyone; Xander and Anya, Giles and her mother, Giles and Ms. Calendar, ever had sex on the couch. She shudders at the imagery her overactive imagination has just placed in her head. She pushes the thought away trying not to think about what had caused it the first place. Spike is evil. Spike is a soulless disgusting thing. Spike is a heartless creature with no feelings. Spike would gladly kill you and all of your friends. Her feelings towards the vampire firmly reaffirmed in her own mind as she repeats her mantra. According to her, only a creature of pure evil would allow some evil Buffy demon/doppelganger to do the kind of things to him that it was doing.
She begins to rise from the spot on the floor she had landed when two bodies crash through Giles' coffee table right next to her. Hearing Spike groan, as he lies stunned under her evil clone, reminds her that there's a fight that has to be fought. Putting herself back in the moment she quickly flips back to her feet. As she lands she sees Willow rushing to Giles side, a crossbow bolt skewering his shoulder. An instant later the other Buffy flips back to her feet, a move identical to the one Buffy herself had just used, except for the familiar black duster that billows around her as she moves.
Fueled by her rage Buffy attacks her double like she's never attacked anything before. A straight front kick, that Buffy manages to avoid, leads the way. It's followed by a hard backfist, that Buffy block. She spins throwing a spinning backfist at her twins head followed by crescent kick. The first Buffy ducks under the second she pushes back causing her younger self to fall back.
Xander, seeing his opportunity to play the hero, shouts, "I got her!" As he lunges forward.
Buffy didn't need to hear Xander's shout to know what he was about to do, she could hear his feet as they scrape along the floor as he readied himself. "No you don't," Buffy whispers as he moves forward. Buffy's head slams back into his chest sending him reeling backwards. Dropping to his knees he clutches his chest while he groans from pain more intense then anything he's ever felt before. To him it feels as if his chest had just been pulverized by a wrecking ball. Anya's by his side even before he's stopped moving backwards.
Buffy quickly charges forward as she watches another friend fall. Her duplicate was beginning to blink rapidly. In action Buffy thought meant her eyesight was coming back. She understood the importance of finishing the fight now before the doppelganger got it's eyesight back. If it was able to take out three of the best fighters she knew; Spike, Giles, and Xander while being blind, not to mention being able to casually toss her aside, she knew she had to take it out before it regain it's sight.
Throwing a quick right then left hook, which were both easily blocked, she then tries to connect with another front kick. Her twin blocks this attack as well, stopping it just as the knee reaches it apex. Moving faster then she can follow, Buffy steps up onto her raised knee using it to launch itself into the air. As She rises up her other foot comes up catching Buffy under the chin with enough force flip her over even as her twin's own momentum carries herself over.
The two of them land at almost the same exact moment. Buffy first, crashing to the floor, sprawled out next to a still dazed and barely struggling Spike. While Buffy lands lightly on her feet, dark coat settling around her, scanning the room for the next person to attack her.
Willow had watched the entire proceedings with trepidation. It didn't take a super genius to figure out that this Buffy doppelganger was a much better fighter then anybody else she had ever seen. The last move alone, while Willow couldn't actually see it her mind could reconstruct it, looked like something out of action/martial arts movie. Right down to how dopple Buffy's coat had flared around her before finally coming to rest. Knowing there's no possible way she can beat this Buffy she decides to do something that they should have tried from the beginning. "How about some tea?" The shy redhead asks in a timid voice Buffy couldn't recall hearing from Willow in a very long time.
It's then that Buffy fully realizes exactly what's happened to her. She was in the past. None of these people had every done anything to betray her, well not very much, she amends in the back of her head. They didn't deserve to have the rage she felt towards their older counterparts taken out on them. One part of her mind argued while another side told her to hurt them as much as she possibly could. To destroy them now as they had destroyed her in the future. "Fuck this," she grumbles heading over Giles' kitchen imagining all the various ways she was going to make Lurky beg for taking such broad liberties with her wish.
"How could you do this?" Anya yells from across the room. Obvious angry because she had injured her Xander.
It had been a long time since Buffy had heard such concern for Xander coming from Anya. Appearing in the divider's hollow. One of Giles' larger shot glasses, and his best bottle of scotch in hand. "I told him if he came near me again I'd make him regret it," she answers in a cold voice completely unconcerned by the fact that that had been future Xander and not the one lying on the floor groaning in pain. In her mind they were one in the same.
"This needs to come out," Willow says gaining a little of her confidence back now that it appeared this Buffy wasn't going to kill them out of hand.
"It's not the only thing," Buffy mumbles filling the shot glasses. Willow stares at Buffy not having heard what she blonde had mumbled. Buffy lets out an exasperated sigh, "take it out then," she says loud enough for Willow to hear.
"What? I can't do," she stammers her eyes pleading with Buffy for help.
Buffy downs the contents of the shot glass as she looks at Willow. Wiping her mouth off with the back of her hand she grins a grin that sends a shiver down Willow's spine. "Sure you can. Break the bolt and pull the back out. Make sure there aren't any splinters in the end. Hate to leave one inside his shoulder and have it get infected. Couple days they'd have to chop his arm off." She finishes gleefully as she refills her shot glass and downs the contents as easily as she did the first one.
Willow soft green eyes never leave Buffy's face. Again that little voice in the back of her head just won't go ahead as it tells her things like... These were her friends... That no matter what they did in the future, right now they still cared about her, they still loved her... That she couldn't just watch them suffer needlessly. "Fine," she growls stalking towards Giles.
With all the gentleness of a polar bear mauling a baby sea lion Buffy snaps the bolt in half with her thumb in forefinger. Quickly brushing any splinters present away she grabs hold the bolt sticking out of Giles back. "Hold onto him," she orders harshly. As soon as Willow grabs his shoulders Buffy jerks the end of the bolt out with a quick yank.
Giles bolts awake with a loud scream. His scream causes Willow to jump back with a hoarse shout. It also has the effect of snapping Buffy and Spike out of their unconscious states. The pair jumping to groggily to their feet as they take in their surroundings. Neither of them look overly pleased to see Buffy still among them.
Buffy holds Giles steady for some reason she doesn't understand. She couldn't care less if the watcher suffered some other injury. Ripping open his shirt along his shoulder before he even knows what's happening, taking the bottle of Scotch from where she had placed it on the floor and dumps a portion of the contents over the wound. "Bollocks!" He shouts at the sudden shock to his system as the alcohol snaps him out of the stupor he was in.
"Bandage it and you'll be as good as new," she informs him. Rising back to her feet she moves back behind the counter vowing again to make Lurky suffer for an indefinite amount of time for what he was putting her through.
Buffy takes a threatening step forward as her head begins to clear. "Who the hell are you!" She snaps as her twin pours itself another drink.
Buffy downs the drink. Her hard eyes latch onto Buffy and they seem to soften momentarily before filling back up with the anger that had been there previously. "Figured you would've figured it by now. Guess I'm giving myself to much credit," she scoffs. "Should've remembered how much of a ditz I used to be."
"For someone that talks so much you haven't said anything that makes sense," Buffy retorts angrily at being insulted by some cheap clone of herself.
"That's because you never listen to the words coming out of peoples mouths," Buffy spits back. "Put the blinders on and live in your own little fantasy world where you never have to deal with reality. Beautiful way to live your life. That's until reality comes up, and doesn't just slap you in the ass, but crushes your nice little fantasy..."
"Are you gonna get to the ass end of this rant anytime soon?" Spike inquires as he flops down on Giles' broken couch unconcerned by the looks the others were giving him. His little encounter with Buffy's bitchy double had shown him something. He wasn't as helpless as he had originally thought and he couldn't wait to get out of the watcher's flat to test out his limits. "Some of us have a bloody unlife live," he gripes.
"Buffy," Willow says helping Giles stand to his feet. The hasty bandage she had applied doing an adequate job of stemming the flow of blood.
"What?" Both Buffy's respond at the same time. The one standing with her friends in the pallor sounding concerned, the one alone in the kitchen sounding irritated.
"You're both Buffy," she rushes on looking at her Buffy. "She's from an alternate reality or something. Kinda like when my evil vamp self came over from the wishverse," she reasons.
"I'm not from any damn wishverse, no matter if it was a wish that got me here." Buffy growls not really wanting to explain anything to these people, but knowing she was going to have to eventually. All she had wanted was her Spike back. Not to be dumped three years into the past and have to put up with everything all over again. Going through it once was more then enough for her. She wasn't really looking for a repeat performance.
Giles winces as he moves forward, receiving a cold glare from Buffy as she takes notice of him. "Then how would you explain your presence. Here in this reality were you already exist."
"It's called time travel," she answers in a mocking slow voice.
Giles sneers at the notion, "you truly expect us to believe that you traveled though time? From the future I suppose."
"I don't care what you believe," she responds shaking slightly from the anger trying to work it's way out. Her hand was practically shaking with the rage she felt for the man standing in front of her. She had no idea how she was staying her hand from reaching out and snapping his neck like the brittle twig it was. If not for his betrayal Spike would still be alive, she would have gone on living in her fantasy world where her sister loved her, where her friends cared about her, where Giles was still the father she wished she could have had.
"Fine," she says feeling everyone's eyes on her. "You want proof that I'm from the future," she continues looking around at the assembled group of people in front of her. "Just remember you asked for this. It's ninety-nine a few hours after mine and Spike's engagement got concealed thanks to Willow revoking her spell right?" She asks the her younger self.
"Yea," Buffy answers her question. "What's that got to do with anything?"
Buffy ignores herself. Instead focusing in on Giles, "your girlfriend Olivia is going to be dropping by for a visit in a few days." Giles eyes widen slightly he had only gotten the call a day ago and hadn't told anybody about her visit. "I'd advise against. She doesn't really believe what you do and you have evil fairy tales that show up, stealing everyones voice so they can't scream while their hearts are being removed. She can't deal, you break up. So sorry," she says in a mirthless voice that wasn't sorry in the slightest. "You should really invite Tara over," she tells Willow.
Willow blinks trying to remember where she had heard the name before, "Tara?" She questions with a slight shake of her head.
Buffy sighs, "blonde hair, really shy. You originally met her at a wicca meeting you attended before Oz left. She's really nice. You two are almost like best buds. You do a lot of... Spells together," the blonde adds with a secretive smile as recognition shines in Willow's eyes.
Looking to the back of the room were Anya still hovers over a shirtless Xander, "your best friend in the entire world is Helfrek a vengeance demon that was once a human girl named Cecely Underwood, the one time..."
With a heated glare at Buffy, Spike chokes out, "where the hell'd you put my fags?" The vampire snarls loudly cutting Buffy off before she can reveal any of his secretes. The fact that she even knew the name of Cecely Underwood didn't bode well for his piece of mind.
Without even thinking Buffy reaches into her coat pocket. Pulling out a half empty pack of cigarettes and Spike's lighter she tosses them to the blonde vampire. Spike catches them out of the air with barely a glance until he flips open the lighter after putting a cigarette between his lips. His fingers stop moving as he stares at the piece of metal in his hands. "This is my lighter," he exclaims softly as his head whips around to stare at Buffy who's wearing his coat.
When his eyes reach her face he can see a single tear shining against her rather stark complexion. "You're not him," she croaks. Turning on her heel she races up the back stairs almost too fast for anyone to see. A second later everyone on the lower floor hears Giles' bedroom door slam shut with a resounding bang.
"Looks like someone gets the couch tonight," Spike smirks as he ignites the lighter. Laughing softly he puts the flickering flame to his unlight cigarette. He didn't know what this meant to his future self that him and the slayer had gotten so chummy he was telling her intimate details of his life. He didn't much care either. The future was the future and he wasn't going to spend his time wondering about what happened. It either would or it wouldn't and there was nothing he could do about it.
________________________________________________________________________
Be With You - Enrique Iglesias
Monday night I feel so low
Count the hours they go so slow
I know the sound of your voice
Can save my soul
City lights, streets of gold
Look out my window to the world below
Moves so fast and it feels so cold
And I`m all alone
Don`t let me die
I`m losing my mind
Baby just give me a sign
And now that you`re gone
I just wanna be with you
And I can`t go on
I wanna be with you
Wanna be with you
I can`t sleep and I`m up all night
Through these tears I try to smile
I know the touch of your hand
Can save my life
Don`t let me down
Come to me now
I got to be with you some how
Repeat
Chorus
And now that you`re gone
Who am I with-out you now
I can`t go on
I just wanna be with you
