Part 6:
As the group rounded the corner of the sewer line, they heard the fledgling vampire whistling to himself. It sounded like 'jingle bells'. Doyle looked at Angel with an expression that read, 'amateur'. Angel smiled at him and pulled out his stake. He motioned for the other's to stay put and for Doyle to follow him. They easily snuck up on the vamp and dusted him before he could start the second chorus. Willow breathed a sigh of relief and lead the others forward to where Angel and Doyle stood.
"Aren't there any Jewish vampires?" she whispered to Cordelia who just shrugged.
They walked down a hall way that was lined with doors every few feet. They paused before each, and Angel looked cautiously through their windows for any sign of vampires or Buffy and Xander. Finally the came to a door that housed Angelus. He was lounging in a chair with his feet up on the desk in front of him.
Angel turned to the group behind him and whispered, "Angelus is in there. I need to do this on my own. Willow, give me the vile."
She handed it to him and whispered back, "How will we know it's you and not him?"
"Umm I'll say 'safe', okay?" he whispered, "Now go find the others."
They tip toed passed the door, crouching under the window, and disappeared around the corner.
Cordelia looked back at Angel and mouthed the words 'be careful'.
He nodded, waited for them to be out of ear shot, then slowly turned the door knob and slipped into the room.
After a few minutes of walking, the hall way branched. Doyle and Cordelia took one corridor and Willow and Spike proceeded down the other. Soon Willow found the door to the room with Buffy held captive inside. Willow could see that Buffy was tied to a chair and was bleeding quite a bit. She motioned excitedly to the Spike and put her hand on the door knob. Spike ran forward and stopped her. He looked inside cautiously.
"Come on Spike, let's get her out of there. She looks hurt." Willow insisted in a desperate whisper.
"I found Giles," he said in a low voice.
"Really? Come on hurry, open the door!" she said trying to push him out of the way.
Spike grabbed her, pulling her away from the door and tightly against him. He put his hand over her mouth to silence her.
He whispered in her ear, "Shh! I have a hunch that Giles isn't exactly himself right now, Red."
She pulled his hand way and whispered back, "If you had been tortured, you wouldn't be yourself either. Now, stop being weirder than usual, and help me get them before the vampires catch on to us."
He retained his grip on her and replied softly, "I don't know if you noticed but Giles is, oddly enough, untied. Buffy, on the other hand, is shackled to a chair. Isn't it funny that he hasn't untied Buffy? Isn't it weird that he has a bloody knife in his hand? And why is he seemingly unharmed while Buffy is dripping with blood?"
"Okay, point taken," she sighed with he eyes full of worry, "What are we going to do?"
"I think I can knock him out good before the chip fires off. That should give you enough time to get Buffy untied," he offered looking into her eyes.
"Why are you helping us?" she asked suddenly.
"Uh, Red, I think we should talk about this later," he responded nervously. He looked though the window then turned to her and asked, "Do you have a stake ready?"
"I can't stake Giles," she whimpered.
He put his hands on her shoulders and looked her straight in the eyes. "That's not Giles anymore, Red. If it comes to it, you are going to have to stake him. You're a lot stronger than you think you are."
She felt her stomach flutter and leaned in to kiss him softly on the lips. He looked at her with confusion.
"Thank you," she whispered.
He nodded his head and turned to kick the door open. Willow ran in behind him and started unchaining Buffy.
"Honey, I'm home!" Spike growled and punched Giles in the face.
He put his hand to his head and waited for the pain to start radiating from the chip. Instead he felt nothing. Willow and Buffy both looked up in confusion.
"Hold on a bloody second," he said in surprise. "I can hurt beasties!"
Giles recovered from the blow quickly and decked Spike in the nose.
"OW! That hurt!" he growled and punched Giles again.
Willow continued to struggle with the shackles as Spike repeatedly punched Giles.
"That's for chaining me to the bleeding shower!" Spike said punching him, "That's for never letting me watch Passions! That's for running out of Wheat-a-bix! And that's for playing free bird on your nancy boy guitar over and over and over again!"
When he finished, Giles was lying unconscious on the floor and Spike was standing over him with a look of satisfaction in his eyes.
"A little help over here?" Willow said exasperated by her unsuccessfulness with the shackles.
Spike walked over and kicked the chair roughly causing the legs to break and allowing Buffy to slip her legs out of the shackles. She stood up uneasily and swooned. Willow grabbed her to prevent her from falling.
Buffy focused on Spike and asked in confusion, "What is he doing here?"
"Helping," Willow replied, smiling at him.
"I think my brain's been damaged," she stated confused.
Willow helped Buffy walk down the corridor with a very cocky Spike leading the way. He was basking in the glow of the violence he had just been responsible for. They had shackled Giles and left him in the room until they found the others. Spike greatly doubted he'd wake up anytime soon. Suddenly they heard a scream. Spike whipped around and looked questioningly at Willow.
"That sounded like Cordelia!" She cried.
Without further questioning, Spike ran in the direction of the screaming with a big smile of anticipation on his face. He ran into an open room ready for battle but accidentally slammed into Doyle who had just dusted one of the vampires. Doyle fell to the floor and grunted in pain as Spike tumbled on top of him. Spike once again waited for the pain from the chip, but felt nothing. He looked at Doyle questioningly but Doyle was too busy tossing a stake to Cordelia to notice anything strange. Cordelia dropped it clumsily as the vampire grabbed her and pushed her up against the wall. She screamed trying to ward him off with her fists. Suddenly the vampire cried out in pain as a stake was thrown into his back. He turned to dust leaving Cordelia punching her fists in the air, hitting nothing. They all looked the direction from which the stake had been thrown to see Buffy leaning against the door, holding her side and breathing heavily.
"That bastard did not know how to treat a lady," she stated angrily.
Willow ran into the room behind Buffy to see Xander on the floor leaning against the wall, near unconsciousness. He was badly beaten and bleeding from his neck wound.
He looked up at Willow with thankfulness in his eyes and whimpered, "Medic!"
They walked back towards the room that Angel had entered earlier. Doyle cautiously went into the room, with stake in hand, and found Angel sitting on the floor bleeding from a cut on his forehead.
"Safe," Angel breathed.
Doyle smiled at him as the other's walked into after him.
"Looks like you got your ass kicked," Cordelia quipped, supporting Xander's weight.
Willow crouched down next to Angel and lifted up his hand to inspect it. It was cut up with shards of glass stuck in it.
"My hand got cut up a bit when I shoved the vile into his chest." He explained.
"It worked," she said in awe.
"You were worried it wouldn't?!" Doyle asked shocked.
"I mean, of course it worked!" she corrected.
"Oh, so you're a vampire again, Angel?" Spike said with a secretive smirk, "You know what I discovered while beating the crap out of Giles-"
Willow glared at him warningly. He smiled and said 'forget it'.
"Why would you beat the crap out of Giles?" Cordelia questioned.
Buffy looked at the ground as a tear slowly dripped off her chin and asked quietly, "Willow, how soon can you get together that gypsy curse?"