The vampire jumped in to the air and his feet landed square in the Slayer's
chest. He began to punch her in the jaw but Buffy's guard went up and she
used his own moves against him, pushing his fists backwards, causing him to
land on his back. The Slayer then did what she does best: slay.
Buffy was up and walking towards her friends before the dust had settled. She sat down on a near tombstone and said quietly to herself, yet loud enough so other members of the gang could hear, "I rule". Xander, who was sitting across from her, smiled broadly. It was great having Buffy back, he thought to himself.
All of the original gang was sitting there in Restfield Cemetery, with the exception of Giles, who was on Dawn patrol. Anya and Tara were there too, but that night they were oddly quiet, especially Anya. There was a short silence before willow raised her head from the book she was reading and looked over to Buffy.
"Are we expecting any more Vamps tonight?" the redhead asked expectantly. She really wanted to get back and get her homework done, but she didn't want to make Buffy feel like she was being rejected.
"Nope. Undead free." she replied then added quickly, "Speaking of the undead, where is that annoying bleached rat I just love to hate. You know, not that I care." That last part she added icily.
"C'Mon Buff, Spikes' been a great help over the summer, whilst you were gone," Xander said.
"Yeah and, anyway, he is practically good now. He hasn't killed anyone in, like, forever," Willow said whilst cautiously packing her bags.
"Will, that is not by his choice. I'm sure that if he got the chip taken out he would be all 'I want to destroy the world and kill a lot of people' again." Buffy had gotten so used to making fun of the vampire that she slipped in and out of his English accent without thinking.
"Whatever. I think he decided to patrol at another cemetery. The one in the middle of town, I think. Maybe he didn't feel welcome here with all the alive people." At this point Willow was about to make up and excuse to go home but she didn't have to.
"Ok.well.I'm gonna go and patrol some more. You must have a lot of homework Willow.and Tara, and Xand, you have work, right?" her words sounded forced and weak. The whole gang knew how bad a liar she was and noticed this immediately, but said nothing.
They all said their goodbyes and Willow said to Tara as they made their way towards the gates, "Buffy was acting real funny tonight, wasn't she?"
"Yeah," her girlfriend said in reply. "Maybe she has a date."
* * *
Spike had chosen to patrol this cemetery for two, not unrelated, reasons. The first was that it was so old that no new vampires were going to rise and, therefore, it was relatively quiet and the second was that Buffy was not patrolling here.
He needed to think. A soft chuckle came from the back of his throat at this thought. A vampire thinking. It was not very often that a vampire had a single original idea let alone a thought. He growled softly at himself. He had just insulted his own race and, yet, he didn't seem to care. He was a vampire.
"But then, I'm not like other vampires," he told the tombstone of a James Harne.
He had a secret. It was not that he loved Buffy because everyone already knew that. It was something different, something that shaped him as a.whatever he now was.
The chip had flat-lined.
It happened during the Battle with Glory, he thinks, when he was thrown off the ledge. Cracked or something, he thought to himself.
He found out when he got into a fight with Xander over Buffy's death and he hit him. Spike recoiled more out of habit because there was no actual pain. The thing was he acted the same even without the chip. No fresh blood, viscous killings. Nothing. Not that he didn't want to, though.
He knew he had to tell Buffy. But he didn't know how. He had lived this long being good by choice but would Buffy see that? Would she stake him just to make sure? Or would she declare her love for him, knowing he is not evil?
"Yeah right," he shouted into the night, "and then we will get married and live happily ever after. In my sodden dreams."
A whoosh sounded behind him and, before he got the chance to turn around, a pair of feet slammed into his upper back. He fell forward sharply and narrowly missed hitting his head on James Harn. He turned quickly and positioned himself into a fighting stance when he saw his enemy was a petite blonde.
"Slayer, what is your problem?" he said, letting his guard down slightly. "A man can't even walk around a graveyard at night anymore without being attacked."
"A: you should have had a better eye out and B: you are not a man. A vampire does not classify as a man."
Ah, Spike thought, Slayer's getting better with the insults.
"What are you doing here, anyway? Vamps almost never rise or even come here. It's kind of a waste of time," Buffy said, reaching down to tie her boot.
"Uh.a demon.yeah. I heard rumours that a demon was coming down this way," Spike lied. "I was going to get a head start."
"Cool, I could use a good thrashing," Buffy said before quickly realising what she said. "Me being the thrasher and it being the thrashee."
Spike was about to come back with a wonderful retort to that blunder when he heard a long growl off to his left. Half turning his face towards the sound, he morphed into his game face and let his senses take over.
The Slayer was also on red alert, hearing the growl and seeing Spike turn. He looked across to her and, without words, they formulated a plan.
Spike was just about to jump into the bushes when they burst open, freeing a tall, agile, horned demon. The thing left Spike to get his balance and turned towards the second half of the pair.
"You were right," Buffy whispered as the demon attacked.
"I guess I was," Spike replied limply.
Buffy quickly blocked off it's blows and sent it flying through the air with a perfect roundhouse. The demon landed a metre in front of Spike and, so fast not even the vampire saw it, it was back on its feet and once again moving towards Buffy. Spike, using the space between them, took a step forward and landed on the thing's back, hanging on by the neck.
The thing started to thrash from side to side, shifting its weight to throw Spike off. Buffy, seeing this as her chance, plowed hard into the demon and knocked it to the ground. Swiftly, she grabbed it by it's horns and snapped the head around. Hearing the crack, she dropped the head and looked around her.
No Spike.
"Spike, you stupid vampire, where the hell are you? If you think we are going to play hide and seek you sure has hell have got another think coming!"
* * *
Spike opened his eyes. Clog dancers were going at it in his head. Darkness filled his eye sockets. It was so complete and unbroken that not even he could see. He started to get up but the ground wanted to play and shifted under him, making him fall hard on his butt.
"Bullocks!" he shouted to the darkness.
He felt like he had a ferocious hang over without the fun drinking part. Flipping over onto his stomach, he crawled over to the only wall he could find and used it as a leverage to stand up. It seemed all power of movement from the waist down had failed. He stayed leaning against the wall for what seemed like hours before he got his strength back.
"Slayer," he shouted into the air above him. "Buffy, you get me out of here, now!"
No answer.
When he had fully regained his strength, he made himself change. In his vamp face he could dimly see the layout of what he found out was a tomb. Five stone walls, a grey casket in the middle and, most pointedly, no way out.
Spike circled the tomb a couple of times before screaming out in frustration a word he never used often.
"HELP!"
His loud voice echoed slightly in the large tomb but the sound did not seem to go anywhere else.
"Help me. Is anybody there? Buffy? Horny demon? Anybody?!" he shouted again in vain. "Bloody hell."
In anger, he swung powerfully with his left hand, landing right into one of the stone walls. The force was so incredible that it sent a piece of the stone flying through the air, right into his face.
"Bloody hell!" he screamed as he let the wall have it.
"What are you doing?"
Spike stopped. He had heard a voice.or had he? He turned around slowly to.nothing. Great, he thought, now I'm going all one flew over the cuckoo's nest. He was about to turn and continue his onslaught when it repeated it's question:
"What are you doing?"
The voice was clear and strong, certainly not human. Spike could sense this as he turned towards the darkness.
"What the hell does it look like I'm doing? Redecoratin'?" Spike teased, hoping for some action. "Now how about you and me have one good go?"
He leaned into his relaxed fighting stance and waited for an attack. And waited. No attack.
"Show yourself! Or are you afraid of little old Spike?" A large smirk exploded on his face, a mischeivous smirk.
This disappeared when a small figure emerged from the darkness. It was a girl. She was petite, had large green eyes and long dark hair, which curled slightly at the ends. She reminded Spike of someone but he couldn't remember who. A blue light surrounded her, which lit up the whole tomb, causing Spike to slip unknowingly into his human face. He stared at her for what seemed like an eternity. Her eye's were perfect pools of green, asking him to surrender to her, but Spike quickly pulled himself from the trance.
"What...who...?" he stumbled before regaining control over himself, I have learnt that petite girls sometimes are faster then they look, he thought, remembering Buffy.
"You are right not to judge by appearences, I am not as I seem," the figure said to a suprised Spike. "And neither are you. I can read your mind and your heart, you..." her soft voice trailed off at this point, leaving her mouth half open, as if in shock.
"I'm...I'm what? Christ! Are all women I meet this weird?" he shouted into the darkness above him. "Now love, how 'bout finisfin' your sentences or...or we don't have to talk at all," Spike said as he once again fell into a fighting stance.
The girl just stared at him, the same shock still on her face. She stepped forward a little more, letting him see her fully. She was nothing more then a child but her eyes showed wisdom years ahead of a child's lifetime. The light, which radiated behind her, revealed two dark objects. It took Spike a few moments to figure out what they were but, when he did, the full majesty of her being was revealed.
"Wings, bloody wings."
The black wings suddenly moved behind her, folding in on themselves until all he could see was two dark tips near her feet. His eyes trailed up her body and he realised that she was completely naked, yet the blue light covered her body as if a blanket.
Again she stepped forward, but this time with more of a child's need, and reached out her hands towards him.
"William? Is that you?"
A confused look crossed Spike's face which was then replaced by suspicion and questions.
"How do you... No one has called me that in decades..."
"It's me William, Vanessa, your sister."
Buffy was up and walking towards her friends before the dust had settled. She sat down on a near tombstone and said quietly to herself, yet loud enough so other members of the gang could hear, "I rule". Xander, who was sitting across from her, smiled broadly. It was great having Buffy back, he thought to himself.
All of the original gang was sitting there in Restfield Cemetery, with the exception of Giles, who was on Dawn patrol. Anya and Tara were there too, but that night they were oddly quiet, especially Anya. There was a short silence before willow raised her head from the book she was reading and looked over to Buffy.
"Are we expecting any more Vamps tonight?" the redhead asked expectantly. She really wanted to get back and get her homework done, but she didn't want to make Buffy feel like she was being rejected.
"Nope. Undead free." she replied then added quickly, "Speaking of the undead, where is that annoying bleached rat I just love to hate. You know, not that I care." That last part she added icily.
"C'Mon Buff, Spikes' been a great help over the summer, whilst you were gone," Xander said.
"Yeah and, anyway, he is practically good now. He hasn't killed anyone in, like, forever," Willow said whilst cautiously packing her bags.
"Will, that is not by his choice. I'm sure that if he got the chip taken out he would be all 'I want to destroy the world and kill a lot of people' again." Buffy had gotten so used to making fun of the vampire that she slipped in and out of his English accent without thinking.
"Whatever. I think he decided to patrol at another cemetery. The one in the middle of town, I think. Maybe he didn't feel welcome here with all the alive people." At this point Willow was about to make up and excuse to go home but she didn't have to.
"Ok.well.I'm gonna go and patrol some more. You must have a lot of homework Willow.and Tara, and Xand, you have work, right?" her words sounded forced and weak. The whole gang knew how bad a liar she was and noticed this immediately, but said nothing.
They all said their goodbyes and Willow said to Tara as they made their way towards the gates, "Buffy was acting real funny tonight, wasn't she?"
"Yeah," her girlfriend said in reply. "Maybe she has a date."
* * *
Spike had chosen to patrol this cemetery for two, not unrelated, reasons. The first was that it was so old that no new vampires were going to rise and, therefore, it was relatively quiet and the second was that Buffy was not patrolling here.
He needed to think. A soft chuckle came from the back of his throat at this thought. A vampire thinking. It was not very often that a vampire had a single original idea let alone a thought. He growled softly at himself. He had just insulted his own race and, yet, he didn't seem to care. He was a vampire.
"But then, I'm not like other vampires," he told the tombstone of a James Harne.
He had a secret. It was not that he loved Buffy because everyone already knew that. It was something different, something that shaped him as a.whatever he now was.
The chip had flat-lined.
It happened during the Battle with Glory, he thinks, when he was thrown off the ledge. Cracked or something, he thought to himself.
He found out when he got into a fight with Xander over Buffy's death and he hit him. Spike recoiled more out of habit because there was no actual pain. The thing was he acted the same even without the chip. No fresh blood, viscous killings. Nothing. Not that he didn't want to, though.
He knew he had to tell Buffy. But he didn't know how. He had lived this long being good by choice but would Buffy see that? Would she stake him just to make sure? Or would she declare her love for him, knowing he is not evil?
"Yeah right," he shouted into the night, "and then we will get married and live happily ever after. In my sodden dreams."
A whoosh sounded behind him and, before he got the chance to turn around, a pair of feet slammed into his upper back. He fell forward sharply and narrowly missed hitting his head on James Harn. He turned quickly and positioned himself into a fighting stance when he saw his enemy was a petite blonde.
"Slayer, what is your problem?" he said, letting his guard down slightly. "A man can't even walk around a graveyard at night anymore without being attacked."
"A: you should have had a better eye out and B: you are not a man. A vampire does not classify as a man."
Ah, Spike thought, Slayer's getting better with the insults.
"What are you doing here, anyway? Vamps almost never rise or even come here. It's kind of a waste of time," Buffy said, reaching down to tie her boot.
"Uh.a demon.yeah. I heard rumours that a demon was coming down this way," Spike lied. "I was going to get a head start."
"Cool, I could use a good thrashing," Buffy said before quickly realising what she said. "Me being the thrasher and it being the thrashee."
Spike was about to come back with a wonderful retort to that blunder when he heard a long growl off to his left. Half turning his face towards the sound, he morphed into his game face and let his senses take over.
The Slayer was also on red alert, hearing the growl and seeing Spike turn. He looked across to her and, without words, they formulated a plan.
Spike was just about to jump into the bushes when they burst open, freeing a tall, agile, horned demon. The thing left Spike to get his balance and turned towards the second half of the pair.
"You were right," Buffy whispered as the demon attacked.
"I guess I was," Spike replied limply.
Buffy quickly blocked off it's blows and sent it flying through the air with a perfect roundhouse. The demon landed a metre in front of Spike and, so fast not even the vampire saw it, it was back on its feet and once again moving towards Buffy. Spike, using the space between them, took a step forward and landed on the thing's back, hanging on by the neck.
The thing started to thrash from side to side, shifting its weight to throw Spike off. Buffy, seeing this as her chance, plowed hard into the demon and knocked it to the ground. Swiftly, she grabbed it by it's horns and snapped the head around. Hearing the crack, she dropped the head and looked around her.
No Spike.
"Spike, you stupid vampire, where the hell are you? If you think we are going to play hide and seek you sure has hell have got another think coming!"
* * *
Spike opened his eyes. Clog dancers were going at it in his head. Darkness filled his eye sockets. It was so complete and unbroken that not even he could see. He started to get up but the ground wanted to play and shifted under him, making him fall hard on his butt.
"Bullocks!" he shouted to the darkness.
He felt like he had a ferocious hang over without the fun drinking part. Flipping over onto his stomach, he crawled over to the only wall he could find and used it as a leverage to stand up. It seemed all power of movement from the waist down had failed. He stayed leaning against the wall for what seemed like hours before he got his strength back.
"Slayer," he shouted into the air above him. "Buffy, you get me out of here, now!"
No answer.
When he had fully regained his strength, he made himself change. In his vamp face he could dimly see the layout of what he found out was a tomb. Five stone walls, a grey casket in the middle and, most pointedly, no way out.
Spike circled the tomb a couple of times before screaming out in frustration a word he never used often.
"HELP!"
His loud voice echoed slightly in the large tomb but the sound did not seem to go anywhere else.
"Help me. Is anybody there? Buffy? Horny demon? Anybody?!" he shouted again in vain. "Bloody hell."
In anger, he swung powerfully with his left hand, landing right into one of the stone walls. The force was so incredible that it sent a piece of the stone flying through the air, right into his face.
"Bloody hell!" he screamed as he let the wall have it.
"What are you doing?"
Spike stopped. He had heard a voice.or had he? He turned around slowly to.nothing. Great, he thought, now I'm going all one flew over the cuckoo's nest. He was about to turn and continue his onslaught when it repeated it's question:
"What are you doing?"
The voice was clear and strong, certainly not human. Spike could sense this as he turned towards the darkness.
"What the hell does it look like I'm doing? Redecoratin'?" Spike teased, hoping for some action. "Now how about you and me have one good go?"
He leaned into his relaxed fighting stance and waited for an attack. And waited. No attack.
"Show yourself! Or are you afraid of little old Spike?" A large smirk exploded on his face, a mischeivous smirk.
This disappeared when a small figure emerged from the darkness. It was a girl. She was petite, had large green eyes and long dark hair, which curled slightly at the ends. She reminded Spike of someone but he couldn't remember who. A blue light surrounded her, which lit up the whole tomb, causing Spike to slip unknowingly into his human face. He stared at her for what seemed like an eternity. Her eye's were perfect pools of green, asking him to surrender to her, but Spike quickly pulled himself from the trance.
"What...who...?" he stumbled before regaining control over himself, I have learnt that petite girls sometimes are faster then they look, he thought, remembering Buffy.
"You are right not to judge by appearences, I am not as I seem," the figure said to a suprised Spike. "And neither are you. I can read your mind and your heart, you..." her soft voice trailed off at this point, leaving her mouth half open, as if in shock.
"I'm...I'm what? Christ! Are all women I meet this weird?" he shouted into the darkness above him. "Now love, how 'bout finisfin' your sentences or...or we don't have to talk at all," Spike said as he once again fell into a fighting stance.
The girl just stared at him, the same shock still on her face. She stepped forward a little more, letting him see her fully. She was nothing more then a child but her eyes showed wisdom years ahead of a child's lifetime. The light, which radiated behind her, revealed two dark objects. It took Spike a few moments to figure out what they were but, when he did, the full majesty of her being was revealed.
"Wings, bloody wings."
The black wings suddenly moved behind her, folding in on themselves until all he could see was two dark tips near her feet. His eyes trailed up her body and he realised that she was completely naked, yet the blue light covered her body as if a blanket.
Again she stepped forward, but this time with more of a child's need, and reached out her hands towards him.
"William? Is that you?"
A confused look crossed Spike's face which was then replaced by suspicion and questions.
"How do you... No one has called me that in decades..."
"It's me William, Vanessa, your sister."