Author's Note: About Spike being knocked out in one fail swoop: It's completely possible, I mean if he wasn't excepting it Buffy could definately wipe him out quick. Plus, as the Author, I can kinda bend the rules, it's an Alternate Universe, so maybe in this one Buffy can knock Spike out in one punch. Okay these are all weak as hell excuses, so lets just say it was author's pergative (sorry, I just channeled Dawn, perogative), artistic license. Again I blow smoochies to everyone who left a review, to the rest of you, I am whoring myself, I am pandering to your basic need to review! Please do it! I just got my Season 5 boxed set, I highly recommend the Espenson commentary for 'I Was Made to Love You' cos Janey rules. As well as the Joss commentary for 'The Body.' Is it just me or does everyone else still cry when Anya asks why we die? Also check out my favorite geek, Danny Strong, aka Jonathon, do the Demonology of Buffy, he's just so hilarious (and in person is so hot) that I just wanna hug him, and squeeze him, and call him George. BTW: if you're a complete Buffy quote-aholic, I hope you've caught my absolute thievery from the show, where I have stolen lines, but some of them are just so perfect that I can't just leave them be. 'Nuff said, on with the story...

I didn't believe Willow. I probably should have, considering she is science girl. It just seemed so unlikely. We had to knock spike back out with a tranquilizer dart to make sure he stayed alseep. I feel bad about it, but it's not like I haven't treated him worse.

"Buffy, I swear, the chip is gone, it doesn't even look like it was ever there, no scarring, no hole in Spike's brain, nothing. I used that thing I took from Warren's when I was looking for InvisiBuffy. I thought it was for robots, but it's like a microchip processor, it says the chip isn't there. I believe the detector thingy."

"But I mean, we all know the chip was there, remember when he tried to bite you? I mean Spike's been Migraine-Boy for so long, I can't even fathom him without it. Maybe it died."

"It didn't die, this detector thingy, see right here?" She showed me a window on the unit, "This is like one of those things they use to find babies in women's bodies, like a sonogram, it would show even the dead chip. Now look." Willow held the baby finder thingy to Spike's head, she moved it all over where we knew the chip once was, "See, nothing."

"Well it sounds like proof Spike's doesn't have a brain either, I mean if nothing shows up it means his head is empty right?" Xander asked.

"Shut up Xander, let Willow work." Xander had been like this since I knocked Spike out, singing his 'Spike is evil' ditty. Which may be true, but I had to know for sure before we did anything. I have a strict ask first slay later policy when it comes to Spike, which probably isn't a good thing. Which on second thought probably got us where we are today.

"Maybe the Initative made the chip so it would eventually just become part of his brain, I mean then the chip could still be there, it could just look like brain." Dawn suggested. She was torn up about this. She had been mad at Spike for boinking Anya's brains out on closed circuit TV, but she still adored him. She was worried, I was worried too, but I was trying to figure out how I could get her to still talk to me after I staked Spike.

"Dawnie, he hit Xander and it didn't fire. Plus there is no technology that can self convert from inorganic to organic matter. It's just not possible." Willow told her.

"What if it's magick? I mean it could be magickly clouded so we can't find it, maybe it's been magickly shut off." Dawn was stretching.

"Dawn, if it were magick don't you think I'd feel it?" Willow asked.

"But even if it's gone we aren't gonna stake him are we? I mean Spike's not evil anymore, he's been good for like 3 years." Dawn knew she had run out of scenarios.

"Dawn, we are going to find out what's going on, until then, there will be a strict no stake policy when it comes to Spike. Okay?" There, I didn't make the policy because of my personal bias, no I did it for Dawn. Yeah, that's it, did it for little sis.

"Unless he tries to eat one of us, then we can stake him right?" Xander asked.

"I guess if it's necessary." God, I hope not.

"I wish Giles was here. He'd have an idea of what we should do." Tara said. Giles, Giles who left so I could be a grown up. And what a failure that's been.

"What would we say? Hey Giles, Spike woke up without his chip today, where should we look for it? Maybe under the sofa in hell?" My sarcasm won't go over well, but it's the truth, I mean what could Giles do about this? "I mean guys, come on, we need to brain storm here. Maybe we can just drive Spike to LA and dump him there, or I hear Tijuana is lovely this time of year."

"He's a vampire Buffy, not an endangered species, you can't just reintroduce him to the wild and leave him there." Xander apparently hates all my ideas that don't involve Spike's immediate dusty demise. It was getting late, I didn't want to continue arguing with everyone.

"Xander, go home. We'll work on this tomorrow, Spike's knocked out, and chained to the chair, he isn't going anywhere."

"But..." He objected.

"No, buts, just go." He hugged Willow and left. "Why don't you guys go to bed. Dawn can you see if you can sleep at Janice's?"

"Why so you can stake him when I'm not home?"

"No, so if he gets out of control, he doesn't eat you. Willow and Tara can hold their own against Spike, but you don't know William the Bloody the way the rest of us do, and you're defensless, it would be best if you left, just in case."

"Fine." Dawn stormed off to call Janice.

"Buffy? This is gonna be okay. We'll figure something out. I mean maybe we can give him Angel's curse, then he'll have a soul and not want to bite anyone."

"Yeah and never ever be happy again, brilliant idea Will. Do you really think that curse would last on Spike? He wouldn't care, he'd go out and get happy with half of Sunnydale if it meant getting rid of his soul." He'd probably start with me, and once again I would be responsible for the loss of a soul.

"Don't worry, we'll figure something out." Tara reassured me, and the two of them went upstairs. I had to call Anya, maybe this was the result of the vengeance she had struck on my behalf. When I was sure they were upstairs and Dawn was gone, I called her.

"Anyanka, Patron Saint of Scorned women I call to thee. Appear before me, um.. now!" I read it in a book, I figured it would work. The puff of smoke let me know that it did work.

"Who calls upon Anyanka, what unworthy creature... Buffy? Sorry, I was gonna do my schpiel, but it's just you."

"Thanks, really."

"What's up? Oh look, Spike's tied to a chair, is this a kinky sex thing? I'm not so much into watching as I am taking part, you know Xander always had this threesome fantasy with you and me..."

"Please stop, I don't want to hear it."

"Well, it's not like sheep were involved or anything. Just loin clothes and a Xena costume and..."

"Stop it." Just the visual I didn't need.

"Fine, what's up? I see Spike is safely out of Warren's hands, so my work here should be done. You don't get a second wish, and like hell am I reversing anything."

"It's Spike, there's something wrong with him."

"Buffy, I couldn't make him not love you or get over his S & M fantasies, I mean you didn't wish it."

"It's not that, his chip is gone."

"What?"

"His. Chip. Is. Gone. Do I need to spell it out for you?"

"No I heard you, but I didn't do that, you didn't tell me to do that."

"Could it have gotten lost in the back tracking? I mean could moving time backwards have gotten the chip sucked out of his head or something?"

"Buffy, I can reverse a day, but if the chip was in his head when I reversed it, it should still be in there. I mean, like I said, if you didn't wish it, I didn't do it. Maybe the chip was gone before your wish?"

"But how? I mean the iniative put it in, and who ever took it out would have to be like a super surgeon, cos there is no scar or anything. Willow said it looks like the chip was never implanted in his head, NEVER! Remember when Riley had the chip taken out of his heart? That doctor couldn't take out Spike's chip, and he was like an expert in de-chipping or something."

"What about Warren?"

"Warren just makes robots, and terrorizes me with his wierd science fiction wet dream gadgets."

"But that's a lot of computer-y stuff, I mean maybe he knew how to dechip Spike."

"Willow did steal that chip reader from his lair. I don't know. I mean who would know if he was capable of this?"

"The two boys, his minions, I bet they would know. They are safely tucked away in jail, becoming someone's bitch as we speak. You've seen Oz, you know what happens behind bars."

"When did you get so insightful? Does that come with the whole being a demon thing?"

"No I was always this bright, none of you ever noticed. I think you should head to thejail and see what the two of them know, beat it out of them if necessary."

"I can't. I can't just leave Spike here, and I can't just waltz into the police station demading to see them."

"I would suggest walking in, not waltzing, unless you have a really good partner..."

"Anya! Back on track here!"

"Sorry."

"Could you go? You're Miss Teleport 2002, you should be able to zap in there, talk to them and zap out before anyone notices."

"I'm only supposed to use my powers for work related issues. D'Hoffryn gets mad if I use them for other tihngs, and trust me, you don't want to be near Arashmahal when D'Hoffryn gets pissed!"

"Well, there are lots of scorned people in jails. Or, hey you could say you accidentally ended up in there, that you were aiming for the Espresso Pump, but missed by a couple hundred feet."

"My skills are rusty after having been outside of the fold for so long. I guess, just this once, but don't even think about making this a regular thing."

"Thanks, and you know I won't ask to do anything, and I won't kill you unless you start to seriously mess up my turf."

"Is that a threat slayer?"

"No, just a forceful suggestion."

"Fine, I'm off to jail, just like in Monopoly, do not pass go, do not collect $200. You don't happen to have $200 just sitting around do you?"

"You know the rules."

"Stupid boardgames and their rules. Looks like you're going to have your hands full in a second anyways, Sleeping Evil is waking up." With that Anya disappeared in a poof of smoke. As I turned around I could sense Spike was waking up. What was I supposed to tell him? What am I supposed to do?

"Bloody Hell, feels like my head is splittin' in two." M' head was throbbing, and I felt out of it. The last time I felt like this was whe I woke up in the iniative, and that was cos' I was tranquilized.

"You're not that lucky."

"Well, luck be a lady tonight, love. It appears the lady hasn't staked me yet." But she has drugged me and chained me to a chair.

"Yet being the operative word, Spike."

"What's the big deal? I'm chipless, doesn't mean I'm going to eat your precious Scooby gang." 'Yet' again being an operative word I am thinking but definately not saying.

"Over my dead body will you ever touch them."

"You know when you were just a dead body, I still didn't touch them, remember?"

"You had the chip, I'm not an idiot Spike, I know what you're capable of."

"Yeah, I'm a regular terror. Big Bad has it bad for a slayer, or are we so quick to forget? You've got me whipped!"

"C-H-I-P, Spike, say it with me, Chip, rhymes with whip."

"Didn't work on you, remember? Plus love, as everyone is so fond to remind me, a chip isn't a soul, it's just a behavior modification device."

"Whatever."

"Don't whatever me Missy! I know why you haven't staked me. You love me, you can't live without me, can you? I'm the only person in the whole wide world who loves all of you. Who makes you feel? Who listens to you? Who isn't your judge, jury and exocutioner? That's right, it's me. If you stake me, you'll be more alone than you can even imagine."

"I have friends, and family, I'm not alone."

"A slayer's always alone, love. You know that better than anyone, bcause in the long run, you will never find another human being like you."

"Acutally I've met two, I think Dru got to know one of them, Kendra. And Faith, gotta have Faith, she might be ape-shit homicidal, but she's a slayer too, so I've met people just like me, I'm not alone."

"Well, unless you're Red, you're not exactly sharing your bed with either of them now are you?"

"God! Is everything about sex to you?"

"No, it's not. It's about love. It's about trusting someone enough to be completely vulnerable, about giving someone the chance to hurt you. Which is a thought you just can't bear. Everything has weaknesses, even you."

"Great, you love me because you can hurt me?"

"Pain's got nothin' to do with it. If it hurts it means you cared enough, you invested enough, that you can be hurt. If you don't care, the pain isn't there. Trust me on that one. Angel hurt you, repeatedly from what I gather. Riley, you never let soldier-boy even come close. You kept him so far away it's amazing he didn't need to dial long distance to have a chat with you."

"We were close, you don't know anything."

"I know he loved you with every piece of himself, even the parts our Miss Walsh put in him. But he knew, don't kid yourself, he knew you didn't love him. He could see it in you. Even when you were mad at him, you weren't hurt, and you hurt him so many times, so many ways, that the only way to get rid of the pain was to cover it up with physical pain. He didn't turn into a vamp junky because he needed a bleedin' hobby, that's for sure!"

"You hated Riley."

"I didn't hate him, I envied him. I thought that even if you didn't love him at least he got to be near you, he got to touch you, share your bed, share your life. I honestly thought he had the better end of the deal, I loved you but I couldn't get near you, he could. Now I know, I had the better deal. It was better to not know what I was missing, because now I don't know how he went on after you."

"He went on and got married to the first bitch he met. That's how much I meant to him, after all the talk about how much he loved me, and how I was the one for him, he went and married the first girl he met! If he really loved me, it wouldn't have happened that way, at least not for a couple of years. He didn't love me, I know that now."

"Bullshit, the little Misses is what he settled for!" Sometimes, I could rip her head off just to see if there is a brain inside, "He couldn't have you so he took the closest thing he could find. She's opposite of you, you know. You're short and blonde, she's tall and dark haired, it's his way of covering that everytime he's in a crowd and he sees a petite blonde, that he's always waiting for her to turn around and be you. With the wife, he will never make that mistake. But she's like you, strong willed, enlightened to the demons around her, whip smart, she couldn't look like you."

"I don't want to talk about this any more, it's in the past. It's like someone elses life."

"No, it's your life! And you'd do best not to forget that."

"Shut up."

"Untie me."

"No."

"Why not? The chip's broken, so what?"

"It's not broken, it's gone."

"Gone? As in never to return?"

"Yes. Well, maybe. How do you feel about souls?"

"I'd rather not have one if Angel's an example of the freak I'm gonna turn into."

"He's not a freak."

"A broody, overly pretentious, poof who can't have the women he loves because he goes evil again. Trust me, I'm with you on the 'No Angelus' bus, but you really don't want me with a soul, I'll be useless."

"No you won't."

"It took Angel a hundred years to come to terms with his soul. I'd rather not waste my time like that."

"Well chained to a chair it is then. suit yourself." Buffy got up, she was heading to the stairs.

"So that's it? No soul, no freedom?"

"I'm tired, and I don't want to deal with you anymore."

"I haven't fed from a living human in almost 3 years. What if I told you I could control myself not to do it again?"

"I'd know you were lying to me."

"What if I told you I wouldn't do it, because I love you?"

"I'd still know you were lying."

"I don't lie to you."

"You also don't hurt me remember? Well you did, you lied to me."

"So did you."

"When?"

"When you said you never cared." When I said it the look of terror that crossed her face spoke volumes. She's stunned that I could call her out like that. I know her better than she'd ever like to admit. When she snaps out of it she turns and goes up the stairs, I can hear her, when she whispers, "I never said I didn't care."