Discoveries

Episode 5

Unknown Time, Unknown Place:

            Spike opened his eyes. He had no clue where he was. Everything was bright. No, wait. There was nothing. It was just emptiness. He was floating somewhere.

            He remembered everything very clearly. He was a vampire, a vampire with a soul. He remembered Buffy, Giles, Willow, Xander, Anya, the annoying boy, and the girls. He remembered fighting Caleb in the Hellmouth. He remembered the amulet and how it dusted every single Ubervamp. He remembered Buffy saying she loved him, then she left and he was alone. He remembered feeling a burning sensation inside and then the cavern collapsing.

            "William the Bloody," someone said.

            Spike glanced all around. He couldn't find the source of the voice.

            "Who's there?" he called.

            Finally, he turned around and came face to face with someone he didn't expect.

            "Anya?" he questioned, "What are you doing here?"

            "Not exactly Anya," she replied, "I'm using this form to talk to you."

            "The First?" he questioned, "You mean I'm in some hell dimension with the First  Evil?"

            "No, no," Anya said, "You are in a void, a space between dimensions. And I am what you would call on Earth, a god."

            "Wait, you're one of those Powers That Be guys?" Spike asked.

            "Yes, I guess you could call me that," Anya said.

            "So…uhh…what happened?" he asked.

            "Well, you did in fact die," she replied.

            "I know that, but why am I here?" he questioned.

            "Ah yes," she spoke, "You have not fully proven yourself to be worthy of going to Heaven. But you chose the path to redemption. You sought out a soul for the love of a woman. Then you sacrificed yourself to save the world and the woman you love."

            "Okay, well why am I here?" he asked.

            "It hadn't been decided what will become of you," Anya informed, "Well, not before now anyways."

            "What do you mean?" he questioned.

            "You sacrificed yourself to save the world. This was your destiny. Before anyone is born, their paths, or destinies, are already known by us. You have fulfilled you destiny.

            "I see, but what will become of me?" Spike asked.

            "It has been decided…" Anya began, "…You shall return."

            "Return?" he questioned.

            "Return to Earth," she replied.

            "What's the catch?" he asked.

            "You will be different. And you will have no memory of Buffy, her friends, your past, or anything that happened before now. You will have no memory of this at all," she answered.

            "That isn't fair!" Spike shouted in anger, "What's the point of going back if I can't be with Buffy?"

            "I never said that you wouldn't be with her," Anya informed, "You may regain your memories though. You just have to find out how on your own. Good luck."

            Suddenly light consumed him. He could feel the warmth of Earth. It was near.

            "One more thing," she called, "The amulet is the key."

            Spike didn't have time to question, for she was gone. He wondered what it meant though. That's when everything got black. He couldn't see at all. He passed out.

            Little did the powers know that this was not the real Spike; it was something else, something powerful, something dangerous. It had fooled them.

Hotel Parking Lot, Present Time:

            Giles woke up. He was in a lot of pain. He glanced around and noticed his surroundings. He was lying in a parking lot, near a bus. He was surrounded by shards of glass and blood.

            His memories came flooding back as he rose to his feet. He remembered the battle in the school basement, leaving Sunnydale on a bus, and coming to this town in Louisiana. He remembered not allowing Buffy to catch up with the bus as they fled. He had wanted to kill her.

            He remembered threatening Willow and the others. He remembered beating up on Jake and him and Robin Wood taking control of the group. Finally, he remembered getting beaten up by Buffy. The last thing he remembered was hitting the windshield of the bus.

            Giles got on the bus and glanced around. It was empty, except for one person. Robin was lying, unconscious, in a seat. His forehead was bloody and he has many other wounds all over. Giles felt sorry for him, but realized that Wood has deserved it for doing all that both of them had done. He knew that he, himself, had deserved what Buffy had done to him.

            He carefully exited the bus, leaving Robin still lying in the seat. He glanced around the streets and saw that this town was fairly small. That's when he remembered one thing about this place. It was another Hellmouth. Giles took off down the street, looking for someone he knew.

Sunnydale High Basement, May 20th:

            "Giles, we gotta get out of here!" Buffy shouted as she climbed out of the hole.

            Giles and Xander pulled her out. She was still holding the scythe.

            "The First's army is burning up down there," she informed.

            Suddenly, the whole building began to shake. The school was caving in.

            "Get out, now!" Buffy shouted.

            "Buffy?" Spike called.

            Buffy spun to see that Spike was not behind her. She jumped back down into the Hellmouth. Giles began to panic. Buffy was risking her life in order to save a vampire. He didn't like it, but knew that she cared for him.

           He turned and ran towards the exit. He knew that she'd catch up shortly. Just as he was about to leave the basement, he saw someone standing in front of him.

            "Hello Rupert," she said.

            "Jenny?" Giles questioned, as he stopped in his tracks, right in front of the door.

            "She will catch up," Jenny Calendar informed, "and you know it."

            "I do," he replied, "She always comes out okay."

            "Yes, but you don't know one thing," she replied, "She will lose him, the vampire. And she'll never be the same."

            "What do you mean?" Giles asked, the building still collapsing around him.

            "She'll be angry with all of you," Jenny went on, "Angry enough that she will eventually kill you. You cannot wait for her. Let her die here. You will have saved the ones you love if you do."

            "I can't do that," Giles said, "I can't leave Buffy. I love her; I love her like a daughter."

          "Are you willing to risk the lives of Willow and Xander? Are you willing to risk the lives of the girls by letting her live? Save her and die or let her die and save yourselves? Which will you pick?"

            She didn't wait for an answer. As soon as she asked that last question, she was gone. Giles had no clue what he has just spoken to. Had it been the ghost of Jenny from before?  He didn't know.

            He fled the school as it continued to collapse. In a few moments, he was out and met up with all the others.

            "Something big is happening!" Xander yelled over the noise of destruction.

            "We must leave town!" Giles called, as he came up to the gang.

            "Look a school bus," Andrew shouted.

            "What the hell is that going to do?" Faith questioned.

            "Help us to get out of here," Giles answered, "Let's go!"

            Everyone got on the bus and took seats. Jake took the drivers seat. He started the bus and they sped away from the center of the destruction.

The Sewers, Present Time:

            Spike sat alone in the sewers beneath the streets of Haynesville. They were pretty much the same as the ones in Sunnydale. Although a little warmer. He liked it here in this town. But he knew there was something evil about it, he could feel it.

            Spike was still terrified at what had spoken to him the night before. He wasn't sure what it was. He wanted to know what had talked to him. He was sure that if he had fully remembered his past that he'd be able to figure out what it was.

            The ghost of that woman had looked as familiar as Buffy had looked. He knew the black-haired woman from somewhere. He just didn't know where. No memories of her had entered his mind yet. The one thing he knew about his woman was that she gave him a strange feeling. He could feel the evil radiating off of her. It was a great evil, more powerful than anything else.

            He sat on a ledge pondering over everything. He began to think back into his past. He wanted to know who this person was.

           

"You are all part of the plan," Spike informed.

            "I can't!" Spike yelled, "I won't!"

            "You can and you will!" Spike replied.

            "What are you?" Spike asked.          

            "I am you," he answered.

            "No!" Spike shouted, "That's not possible!"

            "Of course it is!" Spike smirked.

            "Why?" Spike asked.

            "You're job is to kill these precious humans. Turn them all into my army!" Spike informed.

            "Do it yourself!" Spike yelled.

            "I would," he began, "If I could. I cannot take solid form. You will do this, or you will suffer unbearable torture."

            "I will not!"

            "You will!"

            "What is this about?"

            Spike transformed into Buffy.

            "It's all about the power!"

            The memory left his mind. That didn't exactly tell him what it was, but it was a good start. He began to search his memory again.

"Buffy, I need to speak with you," he said.

            "What is it, Spike?" she asked.

            "I've been killing."

            "Excuse me?"

            "I've been killing people and burying their bodies in some abandoned house."

            "But the chip?"
            "I'm not sure. It must not work anymore."

            "Sometimes, I wake up in strange places. I have no memories of what happened before."

            He stopped and realized that this memory was leading him down the right path. He just had to keep going, slowly though.

            "So, you're letting her in on all our secrets?" Spike asked.

            Spike turned around and came face to face with himself.

            "You still haven't fulfilled your end of the bargain, Spike," he said.

            Ignoring him, Spike made his way down the stairs after Buffy.

            "I think I buried them there," he told her, pointing to some patches of loose dirt.

            "Stop telling her everything!" Spike shouted.

            Spike didn't say anything; he just continued to ignore Spike. The other Spike began to hum a tune.

            "No," the real Spike whispered.

            Apparently, Spike was seeing this other him in his mind. Buffy couldn't see or hear him.

            "No what, Spike?" Buffy asked, not turning around.

            Spike's features began to transform. His brow pulled back and so did his lips, revealing fangs. The other Spike stopped humming. Spike picked up a fireplace poker and swung it at Buffy, knocking her to the ground. Then he rushed over to bite her.

            She spun over and kicked him in the chest, sending him flying into the stairs.

            "What the hell, Spike?" she questioned.

            Suddenly, hands shot up from the ground.

            "Oh great," she said sarcastically.

            This memory went away like the others. Unfortunately, it didn't help really. But he knew he was close. He went back to thinking.

            "She's going to kill you now," Spike said to the real one, "It's all over."

            Buffy approached the real Spike. He was holding his head, crying. The other Spike disappeared.

            "Go ahead, do it fast," Spike told her, "He said you would."

            "What? Who said I would?" Buffy questioned.

            "Me. It was me. I saw it. I was here the whole time, talking and singing. There was a song," he said.

            "What are you talking about?"

            "I don't know. Please, I don't remember. Don't make me remember. Make it so I forget again! I did what you wanted!"

            "There's something here."

"Oh, God, no, please. I need that. I can't cry the soul out of me. It won't come. I killed, and I can feel 'em. I can feel every one of them."

"There's something playing with us. All of us."

"What is it? Why is it doing this to me?"

"I don't know."

"Will you... Help me. Can you help me?"

            "I'll help you."

            Spike began to get frustrated. All the memories had something to do with something, but they didn't tell him what. It was driving him crazy, he wanted to know. Suddenly, three words entered his mind.

            "The First Evil," Spike muttered.

Downtown Haynesville:

            Giles was lost. He couldn't find anything or anyone he knew. But it was expected since he had just arrived in the town a few days earlier. But he was frustrated.

            Only one thing flooded his thoughts at the moment, the thing that had spoken to him while leaving the high school. He wanted to know if it was really her, Jenny Calendar that had spoken to him. He felt terrible for leaving Buffy to die. But this thing was driving him crazy.

            As he continued walking, thought flooded his mind. That's when he realized what it was. It wasn't Jenny. It was the one thing that had been terrorizing Buffy for two years now.

            "The First Evil," Giles muttered.

The Sewers:

            "The First Evil," Spike muttered aloud.

            It was the one thing that had been torturing everyone for two years. It couldn't take corporeal form, but it could impersonate anyone that had died. And that's just what it had done to him the previous night.

            "It took you that long to figure it out," Buffy said.

            Spike's head shot up. He looked at the slayer and smiled.

            "How'd you find me?" he asked.

            "It wasn't that hard considering that I could see everything in this town," she replied.

            "Go away!" Spike shouted in anger.

            "Come on, Spikey," she said, "It's me, Buffy."

            "No! You're not her!" he shouted, "You're the First!"

            "So, I am," The First/Buffy replied, "What a surprise!"

            "Get away from me!" he yelled, getting off the ledge and backing away.

            "I'm not through with you yet, vampire," The First/Buffy informed, "I still have many plans for you."

            Spike didn't reply. He continued backing up, slowly.

            "Just you wait and see!" it shouted.

            Spike turned and ran off quickly into the darkness. The First/Buffy smirked as it watched. It began to laugh as the last view of the vampire disappeared into the darkness.