Chapter Three

SO, YOU BROUGHT HER BACK AND you didn't tell me?"

Willow, Xander, and Anya just let Spike's words hang in the air, as they looked into the darkness of the night. But the silence was broken when without warning, Spike swept around and grabbed Xander by his shirt and lifted him off of the ground.

"You brought her back and you didn't tell me!" cried Spike angrily.

"Well, now you know," replied Xander.

"I worked beside you all. All summer," insisted Spike, continuing to keep a strong hold on Xander. "Hundred and forty-seven bleedin, days. I saved your sorry lives, all of you."

"Um, yeah, thanks?" said Anya. "And can you now please stop griping my boyfriend."

Spike dropped his grasp of Xander, and he went stumbling backwards into the arms of Anya. "Listen, Spike, we didn't tell you. It was… we, just didn't, alright?"

Spike didn't respond. In fact, his focus had completely dropped from Xander, and his line of sight had now fallen upon Willow, who was still staring into the night. Xander and Anya weren't truly the ones at fault. It had been Willow. And her magicks.

"We have to get her back," insisted Willow, turning away from the window to look at Xander and Anya, not even taking any noted of Spike. "We need to get her back, before she—"

"Kills someone else," suggested Spike, stealing a glance Willow who continued to ignore him.

"She's out there, alone, and confused," said Willow. "The biker gang isn't completely out of Sunnydale. So if there's any chance of bringing Buffy back from this, we'll need to find her before she does any harm and damages her."

"Or the rest of this house," murmured Anya.

"Right Anya, cause the bleedin' window's what's important," snarled Spike.

"Not to mention whatever's left of the living—oh." Xander's words fell short, when the Scoobies saw the utter lack of chaos and terror that "Dawn" had erupted on the other side of the living room. All the furniture was in place, there wasn't any glass shattered anywhere, no electric appliances shorting out. It was almost like…

"A poltergeist?" suggested Willow.

"I mean would it really surprise us that Dawn is screaming at us in an angry teen angst beyond the grave?" cued Anya's badly timed interruption, but she quickly fell silent once more.

"Well, we do have an angry dead girl," murmured Xander. He then glanced around at his surroundings. "A dead girl who's house we're staying in—oh, and who's sister was the one who killed her."

"Yep, I'm gonna go with poltergeist too," agreed Anya.

"But back to the girl who you ripped from her grave," said Spike, attempting to instruct the three Scoobies back on course. "What are we going to do about Buffy?" "Why don't you and Xander try to find her," said Willow, finally giving Spike something resembling a response. "You can track her Spike and Xander's been to Oz's cage before, we can lock her up there. I can perform an spell to banish Dawn's trapped soul into the ether, so we won't be getting so many friendly visits from our less-than friendly Casper."

"What should we do once we've secured her?" asked Xander.

"You should stay with her Xander and try to calm her down, while you come back here Spike and check to see if we've dispelled the ghost," answered Willow, sternly. She continued to keep her gaze from falling upon Spike and his words. "Go."

Xander gave a little nod and started towards the door. Willow finally let her gaze settle on Spike for a moment, and that was when she saw the sheer anger in Spike's gaze, all directed right at Willow. But there seemed to be more anger behind Spike's eyes than he should possibly have for her. What else did he know?

"Let's go Spike," ordered Xander sternly, waiting for him at the door.

Spike drew his eyes away from Willow and silently complied, following Xander out of the Summers' house.

* * * *

The coldness of Sunnydale seemed unusually bearable that night. Of course, having resurrected your best friend, fighting off a posse of biker demons, and seeing the closest girl to your sister dead on the floor, being beaten to death by her own sister, can sometimes do that to a guy. In Xander's case, it may have simply been the fear and the cold that Xander should have been feeling was being engulfed by Spike.

For once, during the entire trip as they scavenged around Sunnydale, Spike remained utterly silently as they hunted for Buffy. The silence unnerved Xander. Spike continued to follow Buffy's scent into the next cemetery. They had already followed Spike through most of Sunnydale, searing with flames and cluttered with the damaged remnants of the street left by the biker gang, but also several severely beaten residence who were out cold on the sidewalk. And through it all, Spike couldn't even say a word or even steal a look at Xander, he was solely focused on finding Buffy.

So Xander decided to be the one to break the silence.

"It's so nice that you've decided to help us out tonight Spike," muttered Xander, as the two of them crept quietly through the cemetery. "The only time your stalking of Buffy has really proved useful. What are the odds?" But he didn't respond, and just commenced with his tracking. Xander sighed, letting a beat pass, until he said, "Fine, you can be as bitter and monosyllabic as you want—hell Oz would say more than that. But just cause you couldn't be the one to bring her back—"

And it was then that Spike lost his concentration. Spike swiveled around and lightly slammed Xander against a tree, and Spike winced in pain as his chip kicked in and Xander cried in pain as some slight terror kicked in. "I would never do that to her," snarled Spike darkly, dropping Xander and taking a step back. "Listen Harris, I've figured it out. Maybe you haven't, but I have."

"What're you talking about?" asked Xander.

"Willow knew there was a chance she'd come back wrong," growled Spike. "So wrong that you'd have to—that she'd have to get rid of what came back and what it would do. And she knew I wouldn't let her. If any part of it was Buffy, I wouldn't let her. That's why she shut me out then, and why she does now. Because I know what she could do, and she won't let the lot of you believe that about her and what she can do."

"What are you talking about! Willow could never do that to us," insisted Xander.

"That right?" snarled Spike, attempting to hold back his cruel laughter and pain-filled laughter.

"Look, I know you're just covering," continued Xander, "You can't tell me you're not happy. Look me in the eyes and tell me that seeing Buffy alive wasn't the happiest damn second of your whole worthless existence."

Spike sighed, and his angered and teary eyes stared coldly into Xander, and in that moment he could almost feel the pain of that was being produced by the soulless creature. Spike turned away from Xander, beginning to track Buffy's scent again, and he muttered, "The thing about magicks, boy, there's always consequences. Always." And right on cue, there was a blood-chilling scream, coming from the other side of the cemetery. Spike stole a look back at Xander, and the two broke out into a run.

* * * *

The cold and lifeless stare that Spike had given Willow was still haunting the Wicca, as she and Anya assembled the ingredients they needed in order to bring forth the restless spirit. Tara was still asleep upstairs and Anya was gathering the remaining ingredients in the kitchen, leaving Willow to herself and working her magicks, the only thing other than Tara that she believed to still be truly stable in her life. That same dead look had engulfed Willow when she had forced herself to burn the body of Dawn and when Buffy had been strangling her. It was almost as if the angered spirits of the dead were staring back at her. Like Dawn…

Now, the only safe thing for Buffy and the rest of them would be for Willow to put Dawn's spirit to rest. Though, the Scoobies' past encounters with the fallen spirits and poltergeists weren't exactly memorable or, what she'd call, successful, so if worst came to worst Willow could always use her magicks to exterminate the problem.

But that would be her last resort, of course.

Willow sighed. She completed everything that she could do with the ingredients she had, and suddenly realized that Anya had been gone for quite some time. What's taking her so long? pondered Willow. "Anya!" she called, beginning to creep into the kitchen, but Anya wasn't there. "Anya?"

Willow continued to peer around the kitchen, and noticed the small pile of herbs and candles on the kitchen counter. She gave a tiny shrug and decided if Anya wasn't there, then she would have to do the spell all by herself. She began to gather the herbs and candles, when she heard a soft little giggle coming from the living room. "Anya?" Willow dropped the spell ingredients and noticed the knife drawer wide opened. Willow quietly closed the drawer and there was a loud thunk in the living room.

Willow glanced back, and in the doorway to the living room was Anya, gliding into the kitchen, with the missing butcher's knife cutting into the sides of her face. Her eyes had gone completely white, and she continued her vile laughter.

"Oh my god," cried Willow. "Anya!" She rushed towards Anya, quickly grabbing the knife, and when she did it was as if a force was released from her and Anya collapsed on the ground. Willow dropped down to help Anya off the ground, when suddenly a small, shadowy distortion slipped out of Anya and rippled out of the Summers' home, and into the darkness of Sunnydale.

"So, not a ghost," whispered Willow, holding onto Anya.

* * * *

Spike ran through the cemetery at full speed, with Xander following closely behind him. He emerged out of the cemetery and looked down into the wooded area just south of the graveyard, where he could see Buffy attacking a frightened young couple at the bottom of the hill.

Xander came gasping up from behind Spike and peered over his shoulder. "Is that…?"

"Buffy." Without another word, Spike rushed down the hill and into the fray, with the out-of-breath Xander following closely, but not too closely, behind him.

When Spike reached the girl that was once the all-powerful Vampire Slayer, she didn't even take note of the approaching enemy and simply continued to pummel the helpless innocent girl that Buffy was once meant to protect. Her boyfriend lay down on the ground, shaking with complete terror.

Spike hesitated as he neared Buffy, remembering he couldn't hurt her without the chip activating, and quickly went to the poor, helpless boyfriend. He grabbed the boyfriend's arm, and started to pull him away from the scene, when Spike began to sense something. Apparently, even driven over the edge, there were just certain things a Slayer couldn't avoid.

Vampires were one of them.

"Well screw that." The frightened vampire hissed angrily at Spike, recognizing the rebellious, bleached vampire. The demon that would once ally himself with the Slayer to slay vampires and demons with her, was now protecting those very demons from the Slayer. Well, mostly. "Irony's a bitch, ain't it mate?" Spike revealed the stake his was carrying and promptly slayed the frightened vampire, causing it to explode into dust.

The siren-like screams of the vampire alarmed both Buffy, and the agitated vampiric partner.

"Hey!" cried the strangled vampire.

But Buffy's focus quickly fell back to the female vampire, attempting to tighten her grip around the vampire's neck. Quietly, Xander continued to creep down the hill behind the concentrating Buffy. He gave Spike a little nudge towards Buffy, needing a distraction and the vampire gave a little nod.

"Buffy!" shouted Spike, but the Slayer didn't respond. "Buffy, luv, listen to me!" But the silence between Buffy and Spike remained, until it clicked what Spike needed to say. "Dawn."

Buffy's eyes shot angrily at Spike, losing her concentration for an instance and gave Xander the needed time to strike. Xander fueled all his anger and frustration in his fist and firmly struck Buffy, knocking her down to the cold earth below them and releasing the female vampire.

The vampire angrily snarled as she fell from Buffy's grasp and quickly lunged right at Xander.

"Look out!" But the vampire had already grabbed Xander and thrust him to the ground. Spike quickly headed to the vampire, as the demon straddled Xander and held him down onto the ground. The vampire yanked Xander's head to the side, exposing his tender neck. Before Spike could get close enough to Xander, Buffy attacked. She unexpectedly grabbed Spike's leg and sent him stumbling to the ground. Buffy's grip was unimaginably strong—far stronger than any Slayer or demon or creature Spike had ever faced. And if it wasn't becoming shockingly obvious to Xander yet that Buffy couldn't possibly be right, then Spike knew the consideration was slowly beginning to sink in.

Spike struck Buffy with his idle foot and a jolt of electricity stung Spike's head, causing he and the Slayer howled in a mutual amount of pain. Spike freed himself from Buffy's grip and tried to rush towards the feeding vampire. Spike lunged at the female vampire and she lost her hold of Xander, who remained paralyzed with fear on the ground for a moment, watching his life flash by as it had done so many times in the past.

The two vampires hit the ground hard, but the two undead creatures both managed to quickly recover from the impact. Spike's line of sight fell passed the deadly vampire and fell upon Buffy, whose eyes were still locked onto Spike. There was a brief moment, where Buffy and the vampire just remained still in silence, eyeing down Spike, and then both females rushed at Spike in the same instance. Spike prepared himself for the vampire and when she neared him, Spike grabbed the vampire's arms and managed to pull off a full 360-turn and hurled the vampire at Buffy. The undead creature collided into the Slayer, and again sent a jolt of pain surging through Spike.

Xander arose from his fear, attempting to fight off the violent shaking that the vampire had deposited upon him. He jerked back as the Slayer and the vampire hit the ground right in front of him. Buffy hurdled the vampire off from on top of her and then commenced her attack on Spike once again, not even giving a glance towards Xander.

He glanced towards the trembling vampire, who seemed to be out of her breathless breath. "The Slayer," she hissed. And in the moment of incredible fright and terror began to softly chuckle and backed away, realizing that Xander and Spike's focus was lost upon the demon, and she coward away continuing her laughter into the darkness.

"Harris!" shouted Spike, as Buffy's slow creeping broke into run.

He quickly followed after Buffy, in hopes to reach Buffy before she got to Spike. Xander jumped Buffy, wrapping his arms tightly around her neck. Buffy attempted to shake Xander off of her, but he continued to have a strong hold on her. Spike punched Buffy hard in the face, which sent Buffy stumbling backwards into a tree, pinning Xander between her and the tree. He screamed in pain and fell from off of Buffy, who continued to focus all her energies on Spike, and Spike's on her.

But he didn't hold back. Spike hit Buffy hard in the face again, and the loud crack of her nose almost mimicked the horrid cry of pain Spike released, as his hands grabbed his head again. Buffy started to stumble backwards again, and tripped over the recovering Xander, and she fell back slamming her head against the tree.

"Get up and grab her," ordered Spike.

Xander slowly complied. He pushed pain the pain that was shooting through him and Xander got behind the nearly unconscious Buffy and heaved her up from the ground. Spike hit Buffy again, took a moment as he winced in pain, and then hit the Slayer for a final time, until he was positive she was out cold.

"Well that was all kinds of painful," muttered Xander, staring at Spike awaiting a response. But all he did was grab her feet.

"Is the cage nearby?" asked Spike.

"Yeah, it's the next cemetery over," answered Xander, and that was the only thing Spike said to him during the entire duration. As silence fell back upon the two, carrying away the unconscious body of the girl Xander once called his best friend, what Spike said to him before just kept on ringing through his head. There's always consequences.