Summary:       Another missing piece speaks to Buffy about Spike.  There is more to Anne than meets the eye.  Willow goes to far. 

Disclaimer:    Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy own everything.  But I wouldn't mind leasing Spike from them for a couple of weeks :)

Feedback:     As always, appreciated.

Deeper into Darkness

Buffy wiped the sweat from her forehead.  Training with Anne was nothing like training with Elizabeth.  There was no boredom, no anticipation of movement.  Somehow, over the past two hours, Buffy had found herself knocked on her butt several times by her sister.  Buffy couldn't predict the woman's moves.  It was almost like she was training with –  "You trained with him in Hell, didn't you?"  Buffy threw her towel across the room as she questioned Anne.

Anne gave her the most innocent smile.  "Nothing else to do for hundreds of years.  Did you want me to be out of practice when I came back?  Of course we trained.  Picked up a few pointers from him too.  I almost forgot how good he was.  Still can't figure out why he was never able to kill us.  Don't ever tell him, but he's better than we are.  At least when he's serious about it."

Buffy flopped down on the floor, falling back into the mats, arms spread out around her.  Sarcasm seeped into every word she spoke.  "No.  It wasn't in my plan today to tell the Master Vampire, who already has an ego the size of a small state, that he's a better fighter than I am.  I may not be the most conventional Slayer, but even I don't give away battle secrets to the enemy."

Anne came to stand over the reclining Slayer.  Sure, at one point they had been the same person, had had the same thoughts, but currently Anne was having a difficult time understand how Buffy's mind worked.  Spike wasn't anymore the enemy than she was.  He was a vampire, yeah, but he was a friend and until recently, Buffy's lover.  Anne would never sleep with someone she didn't trust, especially after Parker, so she knew Buffy wouldn't either.  "You still think of him as the enemy.  Why?"

Buffy pushed herself up with her arms.  She had opened this can of worms.  She could smell another sister fight in the making.  "Vampire, remember?  That little chip stops him from killing, but without it, he'd be no different than hundreds of other demons I've dusted.  Don't be fooled by him.  He IS the enemy."

Anne knelt down so that she was eye to eye with Buffy.  Her movements were efficient and without Buffy's recent twitchiness.  Anne could sit for hours without moving a muscle.  There was a sense of outward calm about her.  But if you looked into her eyes, you knew it was a lie.  "If you really feel that way, then why not dust him now?  Why not stop him before he becomes a threat?  It would be the Slayer way."  Buffy's shifted uncomfortably under Anne's steady gaze.  "If you don't have the stomach for it, I'll do it myself.  Just tell me."

Buffy locked eyes with Anne again.  What had she just said?  "You'd kill him?  After everything he's done for you, you'd actually kill him?"  Buffy bolted up, shock pulsing through every fiber of her being.  "He risked his life to save you in Hell.  Was nearly torn apart by demon dogs.  And you casually talk about dusting him.  You ungrateful bitch!"           

Anne threw her head back, laughter spilling out around her.  She was shaking from the force of it.  After a few moments, she regained some control.  When she thought she could speak, she met Buffy's eyes once more.  Buffy's arms were folded in front of her, an eyebrow raised in question.  No, she didn't see the humor in any of this.  "Of course I wouldn't kill him.  Couldn't.  Anymore then you could.  Do us both a favor, Buffy – save the evil, soulless creature speech for someone who'll believe it.  Spike isn't our enemy, hasn't been for a very long time.  The sooner you stop acting like he is, the sooner the others will jump off the bandwagon."

Buffy picked at a loose thread in her training pants.  Her earlier anger replaced by nervousness.  "I don't know what you're talking about.  There is no band.  There is no wagon.  Hence, no bandwagon.  The others are fine with Spike."

Anne stood up casually making her way to the training room door.  She had no intentions of fighting with Buffy.  If she learned anything in Hell, it was that battling one's emotions was futile.  Emotion always won in the end.  Even if the current emotion was split between the two of them.  Anne stopped as she placed her hand on the knob.  "The others are still waiting for you to make a decision.  They would dust him tomorrow if you told them too.  Kiss him or kill him, Buffy, but make up your mind.  You're torturing everyone."  With that, Anne walked out of the room.

Buffy stared at the door.  First her fight with Elizabeth, now her, whatever, with Anne.  The whole missing-part thing was really getting on her nerves.

YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

"They're like an exhibit at the Natural History Museum."  Xander whispered to Willow who was sitting next to him at the research table.  Buffy had called an all Scooby meeting to discuss taking out Rack.  Dawn, Anya and Tara were also present.  Giles was talking to the Slayers in the front of the shop while they waited for Spike to arrive.  Xander and Willow had been watching the three women for some time.  "Like that display they made us study in junior high.  The one the shows how our heads got bigger and our backs straighter and we lost all that hair." 

"The evolution of man through the ages, Xander."  Willow shook her head.  "I don't know.  I think they're more like Barbie dolls.  And they all come with different accessories."  She pointed to Elizabeth.  "There's high-school Buffy.  She's all cute and perky.  Wears her hair long.  Has nifty color-coordinated outfits for patrol.  Everyone likes her."  She moved her finger to Anne.  "There's oh-my-God-I-think-Faith-is-back-and-she's-switched-bodies-with-Buffy-again Buffy.  She has that cold-as-steel look in her eyes.  Her skirts are too short.  Her leather pants are too tight.  She scares everyone."  Willow pointed to her best friend.  "And then there's back-from-the-dead Buffy."  Willow frowned.  "She's, well, ah, confusing.  Nothing seems to make her happy, but nothing seems to make her mad.  She just floats along, like a jellyfish."               

Before Xander could comment on Willow's jellyfish theory, and he had a comment to make, the quiet conversation was interrupted by the arrival of Spike.  Even though the sun had set hours before, Spike had used the sewers to make his way to the Magic Box.  The sound of the basement storage door opening caused everyone to turn in his direction.  "Sorry I'm late.  Had to pick up a spot of blood on the way over."  All three of the Slayers smiled at him.  Same smile, same light coming to their eyes.  "Did I miss anything?"

Giles crossed the room.  "No, Spike, we haven't started yet.  But now that we are all here, I think we can begin."  The Watcher looked back at his charges.  "Buffy why don't you begin?  You said you had a plan."

Buffy walked towards the research table, letting her gaze linger on Spike who sat perched on the counter.  She let out an almost inaudible sigh.  Kiss him or kill him.  Why did she feel that eventually she would end up doing both?  She turned her attention back to the group.  "I have an idea, not really a plan.  Spike said something to me a few days ago, about the element of surprise.  I think Elizabeth, Anne and me should take him on ourselves.  Rack won't expect three Slayers to come after him.  But whatever we do, I want Willow far away from the action."  Buffy placed a hand on her best friend's shoulder.  "I'm not going to let him hurt you again, Wills." 

Willow layered her hand on top of Buffy's, giving it a little squeeze.  "I don't want to get hurt either, but I don't want to sit and do nothing, Buffy.  I might be the only one who can find him."

"I can find him."  Two voices spoke at the same time – Anne and Spike.  Buffy swung around to look at her double.  She knew Spike would be able to sense the moving magik-crack house.  He had once told her evil could detect Rack.  That's how his customers found him.  But Anne wasn't evil.  The other Slayer spoke before Buffy could question her.  "Believe me, I can sense evil.  Been around it for a long, long time.  If you focused, Buffy, you could sense it too.  So could Elizabeth.  It's a Slayer thing.  You use it all the time when you fight.  I just have better sensors right now.  Recently escaped from Hell, remember?  All kinds of evil in that place." 

Giles nodded in agreement.  "I never thought of that, but it does make sense.  You would be in tune with the evil, well, aura that Rack puts off." 

Elizabeth turned to look at her Hell-broken sister.  Such a mystery she was.  Elizabeth hadn't found the time to talk to Anne in private since her return from Hell.  The past few days had been spent dealing with the Scoobies reaction to the new Slayer, the fight between Buffy and Spike, and Giles' endless questions.  "Can you feel him now?"

"Let's find out."  Anne closed her eyes, concentrating on the evil that ran through Sunnydale.  It took her only moments to find him.  "Rack's place is in an alley by the old factories."  She opened her eyes, still concentrating on the evil she could feel down to her bones.  "There are also two fledglings getting ready to hop out of their graves.  Willy's doing good business tonight – about seven vamps, assorted humans, a couple of chaos demons and, ah, Clem.  There's a vengeance demon at the Bronze, but she doesn't seem to be looking for a customer.  And there is a group of demons, Moranga I think, performing some type of ritual at the Hellmouth.  No wiggins needed.  In general, Moranga aren't dangerous.  They're not trying to open the Hellmouth, just leaving an offering at the site."  A brief feeling of dread passed through Anne.  She shook it off.  Then, she turned to smirk in Spike's direction.  "And one very bad demon who could be arrested in several states for what he's thinking about right now, but nothing that would get him dusted."  Spike shifted uncomfortably.  "As long as the lady agreed, that is." 

Spike opened his mouth to speak, caught Buffy eyeing him, and promptly shut it.  So he hadn't been paying attention to the Slayers' conversation.  Okay, that wasn't true.  He had been paying attention to Buffy.  He was just more interested in the skimpy halter top she wore than in what she had been saying.  And he's mind had wandered from the back of her halter, to the skin beneath the front of her halter, and then to the rest of her.  It wasn't evil.  It was plain, old fashioned lust.  Nothing wrong with a good Slayer sex fantasy now and then.  Count on Anne to spoil the fun.  "It's impolite to intrude, pet.  Stay out of my evil thoughts and I'll stay out of yours."  Anne gave him a curt nod in agreement.

There was a collective jaw drop from the Scoobies.  Had Anne really just done what they thought she had done?  Tara was the first to speak.  "You could sense all that from here?  And y-you read Spike's mind?"

Anne shrugged her shoulders.  She knew these people were her friends, but sharing wasn't something she was accustomed to doing anymore.  It had been too long.  She should have kept her mouth shut.  "Been around him awhile.  I'm sort of tuned into his head.  The rest of the stuff was just general badies doing their thing.  Buf, I'm going to cut out for a few.  Take care of the fledglings.  I'll be back as soon as I'm done." 

Anne was gone before Buffy could offer a protest.  But Elizabeth saw the concern.  "I'll follow her.  You guys rough out a plan.  Whatever you come up with, we're in."  Elizabeth gave everyone a quick smile before she ran out the door after Anne.  They'd dust the vamps, then the two of them were going to talk.

Once the two Slayers were gone, Giles turned his attention to Spike.  Why had neither of them mentioned this to him before now?  "Explanation, if you don't mind."

Spike lit a cigarette.  Anya jumped up from her chair.  She walked around the counter, taking out an ashtray.  Xander and her had been garage sale shopping the week before, when she had come across the old brass and wood object.  It had reminded her of Spike.  If he was going to smoke in the shop, at least he didn't need to put the butts out on her floor.  She handed it to him without a word, then walked back to her seat.

Spike placed the ashtray on the counter next to him.  Had the demon-girl given him a present?  He would think about the meaning of that later.  "Normally wouldn't tell Anne's secrets, but since she brought it up, I guess it's okay."  He took a hit of the cigarette.  "She learned to meditate in Hell.  I know it doesn't seem like the best place to learn something like that, but she used it as a way to escape in her mind.  Now she can use it to do other things."

"Like super spidey-sense?" Xander asked.  He looked around the table at the others who were all giving him the 'ah, what' look.  "Buffy's got spidey senses; Anne has super-spidey sense."

Spike jumped down from the counter, shaking his head.  "Bloody hell, whelp, do you read anything besides comic books?  Yes, like super spidey-sense."  Spike briefly raised his eyes to the ceiling.  How had Ruppert put up with them for so long?  It was enough to make a sane man go daft.  "The thing with me, well, it started in Hell.  If she concentrates enough, she can take a peak into my mind.  Doesn't work on everyone and it isn't automatic.  She went searching in my mind on purpose."  Why I have no idea, he thought.

Buffy turned to Giles, silently questioning the Watcher.  She was doing that a lot lately, ever since Spike and Anne had returned from Hell.  Buffy's connection to Elizabeth had been quick and painless, but there were things about Anne that gave her the heebie-jeebies.  She had briefly spoken with Giles about it.  He understood her skepticism over the newest side to the Slayer personality.  Anne was the closest Buffy had ever come to her own dark side.  Even her short detour into Faith's world hadn't prepared her for the likes of Anne.  "I would say, it's an extension of her Slayer abilities.  A gift she's learned to cultivate over time.  Technically, no Slayer has ever lived as long as she has.  It's impossible to imagine the capabilities she has discovered and refined."  Giles looked back at Spike.  "Are there others of which you are aware?"

"She was reading my mind!"  Buffy's outburst startled the group.  "We were training earlier, and she kept beating me.  I couldn't figure out why, since training with Elizabeth is always so boring.  She was reading my mind.  Looking to see what I was going to do before I did it.  Oh, that is so totally unfair!" 

Spike chuckled.  "Yeah, that sounds like Anne, luv.  I told you, Ruppert.  She isn't like Buffy.  She'll take advantage of any situation.  She was probably walking all around in your head, Slayer, and you never knew she was there."

Xander banged his head on the table.  "Oh God.  Not again."  He was remembering the last time Buffy had mind reading abilities.  He couldn't even be in the same room with her without embarrassing himself.

Willow and Buffy exchanged looks, then promptly burst out laughing.  They immediately told the high school story so the others could share in the joke.  "Poor Xander.  All he could think about was –"  Buffy was cut off. 

"I don't think we need to share that much, Buf.  Everyone gets the idea."  Xander looked nervously in Anya's direction.  "Maybe we should get back to Giles' question.  About the other super-duper Slayer stuff?"  The last thing Xander needed was a no-I'm-not-still-in-love-with-Buffy fight with Anya when they got home. 

Spike raised on eyebrow in Xander's direction.  He didn't need Buffy to tell him what Xander had been thinking about.  He had a damn good idea.  He knew he never liked the whelp, now he was sure of it.  "Like I said, not one for telling Anne's secrets.  You'll have to ask her when she gets back."   

Giles sighed.  "Yes, it would be better if we asked her directly."  He took his handkerchief out of his pocket to clean his glasses.  "Maybe we should get back to the problem at hand.  Earlier today I did some research on Rack.  At one time, he was said to be a warlock with enormous power.  His gift, I guess you would say, was in stealing the powers of other magical creatures.  Somewhere along the way, he, well, short-circuited his own powers.  He became addicted to the temporary high that the energy imparted.  Now, I would put him in a class with all other junkies.  He feeds of the energy of warlocks, witches and the like, but all it does is give him a mystical high.  The only magical ability he posses is in directing, or manipulating, his clients.  He puts them on the path, then residually shares in their experience."

"Your telling us, he wants Willow back so he can get a contact buzz?  That's what this is all about?"  Buffy carefully avoided looking at Willow as she spoke.  Nope, didn't want to associate magically induced drug highs with her best friend.

Giles on the other hand, stared straight into Willow's eyes.  The girl had been meddling in magiks she had little control over for some time.  And this is where she had ended up – a conduit for a junkie.  "Yes, Buffy.  Willow's magik is strong, but unfocused.  Rack would find her the perfect candidate to manipulate."  Willow at least had the decency to blush.  "I'm sorry if that hurts your feelings, Willow, but it is the truth.  You let your emotions guide your spells, that's why most have unpredictable consequences.  Rack can sense that, and he is using it to his advantage."

"But the demon that attacked us."  Dawn hadn't completely forgiven Willow for the car crash, but she couldn't sit by while Giles' words hurt someone she loved.  "Rack sent that after us.  Didn't he?"

Giles took a deep breath.  This was going to be unpleasant.  "No.  Rack didn't send that creature after either of you.  It was a manifestation of Willow's mind.  Something she let loose into this dimension while she was under Rack's influence.  I suspect that it stalked the two of you because it had close ties to Willow.  She was the only thing it recognized in this world.  You, Dawn, happened to get in its way and were hurt because of it."

The tears that had been threatening to fall finally burst through.  Willow hugged her arms tight around her while she rocked back and forth in her chair.  "All of this is because of me.  Dawn getting hurt.  Buffy's split personalities.  I'm the cause of all of it.  I probably have something to do with the nerd trio too.  How can any of you stand to be in the same room with me?"

Buffy wanted to offer Willow some comfort, but before she could reach her best friend's side, she was unceremoniously pushed out of the way by Giles.  The Watcher grabbed the arms of the hysterical wiccan.  When he spoke his voice held no comfort.  "Yes.  This is your fault.  Over the past few years, you have proceeded to escalate powers you knew you had no control over.  Instead of mastering one skill and then slowly moving to another, you have drawn on magiks you are ill equipped to handle.  You have manipulated people's minds, you have played with the natural workings of the universe.  You have abused or broken all the laws that govern the workings of true magiks.  And now you and everyone else around you is paying the price for your childish behavior." 

Suddenly, Giles' body was thrown across the room.  Willow's eyes were black with power.  The tears of moments ago completely gone.  "Willow!"  Tara screamed at her love.  "Willow, stop!" 

At the sound of Tara's voice, the black drained from Willow's eyes.  She looked around the table at the stunned and frightened Scoobies.  They were afraid of her?  Willow ran across the room to kneel next to Giles.  "Oh my god, Giles.  I didn't mean to… I didn't know I… Are you okay?  Did I hurt you?"  Willow reached a shaking hand out to the fallen Watcher. 

Buffy's own hand stopped the motion of Willow's.  "Don't touch him, Wills."  Buffy pushed the witch away from her Watcher.  "Giles, are you okay?"  Willow scrambled to a corner of the shop.  Tara went to her side. 

Giles hung his head in sadness.  He hadn't wanted it to come to this.  He had hoped he was wrong.  That Willow wasn't as lost as he suspected her to be.  "Yes, Buffy.  I'm fine.  But this cannot continue.  I'm sorry." 

Buffy nodded in agreement.  She turned to look at Willow as she talked to Giles.  "What can we do?"  Willow was curled into a ball, once again crying.  Tara was whispering in her ear, slowly stroking her hair. 

Giles managed to push himself up into a sitting position.  "There is a coven in San Francisco.  They are teachers of the true magiks.  They may be able to cleanse the darker power from her.  Teach her how to harness her aggression.  Set her back on the right path.  They can help her to recover.  But she needs to go, immediately."

Buffy was still watching the two witches in the corner.  Tara looked up.  "I'll go with her.  I'm not leaving her alone.  We'll leave tonight if you think its best, Giles."  Tara's eyes were filled with love and pain.  Like Giles, she had hoped Willow hadn't become lost in the magik it was now apparent controlled her.  But to attack Giles…  She had gone too far.  There was no way to ignore it now.

---TBC