A/N: This Chapter is all about the dialogue, sorry I'm not big with the long reflections these days, But I hope you like it and forgive me for the delay, I lack creative skills, I'm muse-less, and real life is not too inspirational, I just got an urge to write the other day and this is the result.
Chapter 9 Ignorance is bliss
"You do realize She is gonna kick our asses for not telling her sooner right?" the 18 year old said while standing in front of The Wolfram & Hart building.
"I know, but I don't know" The witch hesitated, some part of her wasn't
"Huh?"
"Is just that this thing with the prophecy, it seems fishy somehow, like there's something I should know t but I can't remember"
"Willow, I translated it, Giles translated it, that watcher guy from the languages department translated it, we all came to the same conclusion, we just dismissed because he was dead but now..."
"I just can conceive it; I don't think even soulless Spike from before the chip would do something like that, he wouldn't do anything to hurt her"
"Well 3 years ago I wouldn't thinks so either, he prove me wrong then..."
Dawn let the thought fade, she couldn't think like that they were here to make things right.
"Dawn, she's forgiven him you should too"
"Well we had different things to forgive..."
"Dawn..." Willow started but the younger girl just shook her head, and cut off whatever Willow was gonna say.
"I forgave him ok? But I guess it was too late, and now he's in the hands of the person, who taught him how to be evil, can't lose sight of the big picture Will"
"The one where Spike'll become a huge danger and Buffy won't be able to-"
"She won't have to, I will. And you'll help me"
With a sight the witch agreed. "I hate the big picture"
And with that the pair made their way to the insides of the LA branch of the evilest evil in the world.
"What the frigging hell?" Xander exclaimed "Why would the evil undead take Capitan peroxide's soul, doesn't he already have one? What is he? Collecting them?"
"I'm with the Xan-man what the hell?" The brunette slayer agreed.
"Well the ritual itself is rarely used, it transfers a human soul into a demon vessel, and there aren't many demons who would willingly, subject themselves to such thing"
"so what? He can either be transferring Spike's soul into him, or into another demon. Why?"
"Or trap it in a shiny jar like that time with The Angelus deal" Faith put in.
"No it wouldn't be possible, the ritual with the Muo Ping is quite different, it consisted in taking out the soul by the same means that it was acquired, this is transference"
"Yeah and this time his annoying son is not here to try and stake him" Faith murmured off handily.
"What?" Buffy inquired.
"What what?"
"What did you just say?" The brunette looked clueless at the elder slayer, while the members of the LA gang seemed a bit taken aback, even if they didn't notice the others wonder reflected over their aces.
"What the jar thing?"
"No. after"
"Haven't said a word B"
The blond was about to reply but a voice coming from the doorway cut her off, and the confusion on the others faces went as it came.
"So this is evil central huh? Gotta say I'm impressed" The teenager said with a grin in her face.
"Dawn!" Buffy run to the arms of her sister and the two embraced tightly.
"Hey sis"
"Hi sweetie, I'm so glad you came" she said releasing the younger girl. And looking past her Shoulder where she noticed her best friend standing.
"Will!" She along with everyone else in the room proceeded to greet the newcomers.
Small talk was heard all around as Xander and Willow told each other how much they missed each other, and Dawn pull Buffy aside.
"So where's Will?"
"He's sleeping in Wesley's office"
"Can I go see him?"
"Sure, you won't wake him, I swear he sleeps trough anything"
"So... You've gone more psycho than usual?" asked Spike in a conversational manner, after a few hours, he was feeling better, all things consider.
"Spike shut up" the Vampire said from the other side of the room where he was sitting and reading some papers.
"I'm just saying, crazy doesn't look good on you, not that you're better when you're sane" he muttered the last part.
"I like you so much better when you're unconscious"
"Oh I'm touched Peaches, you like me"
"I'll like you much better when I'm done with you so don't worry, just shut the hell up and wait"
"So you'll keep the torture huh? Tad overdramatic don't ya think? I mean yeah you and Buffy and the big eternal love, and then she turns into my arms..."
"And has Xander's kid?" at Spike's look of confusion he grinned evilly and continue "oh what? Faith didn't tell you? Our little Buffy is a mommy and with Xander no less, didn't take her long to get over your death I guess"
"You're lying!" Spike snarled.
"Wish I was, that's why we fought back then, I told her I wouldn't take her back that she should at least take some responsibility and raise the kid with his own father, that I didn't want anything to do with her anymore"
"You're lying"
"Oh you should have seen her, all weepy and begging me no less"
"She and Xander? But she"
"Well if it is even Xander's, wouldn't put it pass her to have him raise someone else's kid, that bitch would sleep with anyone, look at you"
"Stop talking about her like that and sod off you crazy Bugger"
"Sorry didn't mean to touch a nerve Willy, I don't even know why you keep defending her; she's not worth the pain"
"For you anyway" 'for me she's the world' he thought "so if this isn't your way to get back at her for being with me why do it? Where do you get off?"
"You never were much for the big picture were you Spike?" the other' man's voice went deep and serious.
"Nope, more of a big bad kinda guy"
"That's just too bad, cause what I'm doing here is painting over a Picasso"
"You don't say, and what would that be"
"Say you're not too fond of hat soul of yours are you?"
"Oh look at him he's so cute" Dawn whispered above the sleeping child, and then she gave him a soft kiss on the forehead.
Buffy came to stand beside her, "I know, sometimes I can't believe he's real you know? That he is for real "
"I know, who'd a thought you actually turned out to be such a Mom mom huh?"
"Hey! watch it missy"
"See my point?" Dawn said with a raise eyebrow "You're pretty great actually"
"Thanks" She said motioning for her sister to go out of the office into a hallway where they could talk privately for a few minutes.
"So how are you? Really?" The slayer shrugged.
"I've been worse, but I'm scared of so many things, my priority is finding Spike, then I'll see how to deal"
"Right, so you're having Willow reverse that spell? Do you trust Angel's friends?"
"They're ok, plus Wesley may have change over the years but he still seems to be a white hat, I don't think they're dangerous, I however don't know what to think of Harmony, she's been willing to help but..."
"Harmony's here? How come I didn't notice her?! That bitch kidnapped me once" The teenager replied outraged.
"She's Angel's secretary, I thought I told you" The other girl shook her head.
"Harmony is Angel's secretary and you still had doubts he's totally evil?!"
"Weirder things have happen" she stated.
"Buffy he told you to have an abortion! He knew you loved Spike and he still told you to do that"
"I know, why do you think I cut myself off from him?"
"I'm still not sure if we really managed to erase his memories about who Will's father is, and even if we did, he's not that stupid he probably figured it out and is doing God knows what to Spike, just as a distraction to get to Will, or to get Will trough Spike"
"You think I don't know that? Think I don't care?, but this isn't a jealousy deal, this isn't about Will and me, this is bigger than that, I can feel it, not just some macho pissing contest"
"You can't know that, you don't even know if that was Spike"
"Wow, now you're sarting to sound like Angel" said Faith who had been there for a while unnoticed to the two sisters.
"What?"
"Angel, he said the same thing to me yesterday, and anyway, to answer you question I saw him, believe me it was Spike"
"And he still had his soul?"
"Well I would think so seeing as how that's why Angel wants him" the slayer said, and Dawn made a clueless face at her sister, who sighed and tried to explain as calmly as she could.
"Wesley; he was explaining to us how he found records showing Angel picking an interest in rituals to remove souls, we think he might be removing Spike's soul as we speak" Buffy cringed as she spoke , seeing the look of worry her sister was getting.
"Well if that's true we need to know why, why don't we get back" said the girl with a determined face that would make Willow proud.
So they 3 made their way back to the war room, where the Wicca was being brought up to things, and making her own theories.
"My soul? What's my soul had to do with your insanity?" Spike asked trying to get as much info on things as he could, if he was physically restraint he could at least pick something in the great poofness plan to set himself free. That, and he really didn't want to think about Buffy and Xander together right now.
"Well you see, all started a few years ago, when you killed your first slayer" he saw Spike flinch at the memory, in a not so repenty way, but didn't mention it.
"that's what put you on the PTB's map, you could've been a true warrior for the forces of darkness but you were to close minded to even think of anything else than pleasing Dru" Angel spit the name with such disdain, for the first time in this not so pleasant day Spike felt true fear at being at Angel's mercy, evil as he was he'd never hear him say his sire's name with anything not resembling proud at such twisted creation.
"Yeah well, always been love's bitch" The younger vamp said trying to keep his cool, he however thought this was gonna be a long night.
"Anyway, it wasn't enough was it you had to go an get yourself another one"
'oh yeah this is gonna be a bloody long night'
"yeah I was there, I remember"
"And then you went and prove yourself a champion, like me"
"You know how cocky you sound saying that?"
"But the world is not too big for the both of us, and the senior partners had to intervene, good thing Angel had already sold himself to them, soul and all"
"What the hell are you on? "
"So they did what they had to, they got rid of him and send me to fill in"
"You are not Him, who are you?"
"But now a Vampire with a soul is back, after the heroic dying and all, and we can't have that can we?"
"What are you then some shape-shifting demon of some sort?"
"Hell no, I am them and I am in Angel's actual brooding body" Angel said and stood up to where the other Vampire laid and put some more sedatives in his serum, not answering to the questions the other was asking.
They had been gathered for a couple of hours, doing research on Angel's soul, on the Shanshu prophecy and trying to get the location of Spike failing miserably at that.
Dawn had been oddly silent, not voicing much of her opinions after what Buffy told her, she shared several glances with Willow that showed her concern every time the topic of soulless Spike was brought up by someone in the room.
Finally and after doing some mojo and more research Willow said she had found out something about what was keeping Spike off her magic radar, so she went on and explained to the people in the room.
"So whatever is doing this is changing Spike essence? Like one minute he's a vampire, the next he's human, and at times he's a hybrid?" Buffy asked after hearing her friend explanation, which actually solved a lot of the, what is Spike now, questions.
"nope, just his exterior, is a glamour, lots of them actually, that's why I can't find a location, he keeps changing so if I try to scribe for him as a vamp, he'll probably be giving human vibes, if I go for hybrid he's probably a vamp and so on"
"I would guess is a diversionary tactic, I'm sure we can undo the glamour but it would take us some hours days even... " Welsey interjected.
"But it can be done right?" the read headed girl nodded.
"So this isn't a forever kinda deal, Angel is buying himself time"
"Which means he's acting on a time limit, we can stop him from unsouling Spike" Buffy said trying to convince her self more than anything, which lead to dawn sending another glare at the witch who gave her a defeated nod.
"Buffy there is something else you should know..." her little sister said to her.
TBC
R&R