Part 3

The Mansion on Crawford Street

The two master vampires were sitting next to a roaring fire, each drinking a mug of blood, Angel had arranged for Fred and Gunn to go back to LA and keep the Agency going with Lorne's help. All that sorted, Angel turned to Spike.

"So tell me what happened?"

"Ha, where do you want me to start?" chuckled Spike. "I know you've had someone watching me."

"Tell me about the chip, the Initiative," Spike shivered at the memories Angel's words summoned. "Why you got your soul, Buffy. I don't know tell me about you, talk to me like you used to." Angel pleaded

"You won't like what I have to say about most of it." Spike searches Angel's face for a reaction, but only gets an understanding concerned look. "Okay, let's start at the beginning." He sighs "The Initiative, simple not a nice place torture don't wanna go back there, now the chip..."

"Spike," Angel interrupts. "If you're not going to take this seriously then don't bother, I just wanted to talk with you. If you can't be bothered then don't take the piss."

"I'm not taking the piss." Spike says sadly. "You don't want to know what happened in the Initiative." Tears started to fall down Spike's cheeks, Angel leans over and cups his chin in his hand his face to look at him.

"Yes, I do, talk to me." He pulls him into his arms so Spike's head is resting on his chest, tucked under his chin.

"Okay," Spike sighs feeling safe for only the second time in the last century. "As you know, I came back to Sunnydale to kill the Slayer after Dru left me, again. Figured it was Buffy's fault anyway and didn't have much left to live for, so might as well go out with a bang or make it a hat-trick by killing her, but as soon as I got into town I was captured by the soddin' solder boys, shoved into a cell, all white walls and an electric glass front. Thought the Slayer had got funding and it was her fault."

"Well little did I know it was worse, so much worse..." a shiver ran through Spike, Angel held him closer. "They didn't feed me for days, just left me there. Then out of this hole in the ceiling popped a blood pack. I grabbed it, drank it down. Next thing I know I'm laying spread eagle, strapped to an operating table with my head cut open and my stomach split up the middle while they poked around to see, "How it all works." After that I promptly passed out again. Woke up later in what could only be called a dormitory full of vamps."

"That was not fun. Had to fight to stay alive, the weaker ones fed the stronger ones, you know how it goes. Stupid pricks thought I was too small to be a problem, they didn't know who I was. Some of the older ones knew and didn't even bother fighting me, used them as me minions. Was okay for a while."

"Then the solder boys decided it was time to have some fun. That's when I found out about the chip. Tried to fight them see couldn't though dammed chip kept firing. Wasn't to bad at first nothing Angelus hadn't done before; you know knives, whips, a bit of flaying, holy water nothing major. Then along came Riley Finn." Angel's grip round Spike tightened. "Yep Buffy's Riley. He upped the stakes. Started cutting bits off, then sowing them back on just to see how long it took to heal. Liked me he did cause I healed faster than the others being the eldest."

"Then...then he grew board of chopping things off he...he...Angel, I can't...I can't..." tears were rolling down Spike's face again.

Angel could feel the anger boiling to the surface as Spike spoke, but fought it down.

"Yes you can. I got you my Boy, I'm not going anywhere, talk to me please."

Spike took a deep breath and clung to Angel as if he were a balloon that would float away at any minute. "Then the rapes began..." Spikes voice took on a despondent tone as if he was relaying facts not reliving them. "Riley would stick his cock in my mouth and make me give him...a...blowjob while the rest of his squad...fucked my arse. Made, the big mistake once of making Riley come before the rest of the squad had finished. As punishment he took out his knife and flayed the skin off my back."

"Didn't make a sound mind, not one sound, they wouldn't break me" Angel detected a slight tone of pride in Spikes voice. "Christ if I could live through Angelus on a bad day I would live through this. Wasn't a very sensible idea just made them want to hear me scream even more, but they never did. I promise they never herd a single sound from me." Spike had a fearful look in his eyes as he said this.

"I believe you. I remember." Angel had a sad proud smile on his face; his Boy hadn't been broken, not once. He was still the wild free spirit he always was and as much as Angelus had wanted to break him, Angel was glad he never had.

"One of Riley's favourite games was to play with the mind," Spike continued. "He had two stakes, one was real, one fake plastic, you never knew which it was gonna be. He would stake you then watch, to see the reaction on your face when you knew it wasn't the real one, otherwise you were dust. He didn't care. It was after one of these "rape and stake" sessions that I started forming a plan." Angel chuckles.

"Don't say it, I know most of my plans don't work and you know I do it on purpose for the challenge. Well I gathered the minions, those I knew would be loyal to me and we started gathering things. You know bits of wire, a watch, plastic knives things that wouldn't be missed. In the end we even managed to get hold of some C4 don't ask me how, I never asked."

"So the plan was simple. I rigged a bomb; one of the interesting things about the chip is that as long as you don't hit, or aim to do any direct damage, like point a gun at a human, the chip doesn't fire; you can blow up a bomb, killing thousands of humans and no migraine. Found that a bit ironic really."

"We set the bomb in the solders lounge, again don't ask me how it got there, I didn't ask, sometimes it was best not to. We fed as well as we could that night on the other vamps and waited. I'd already figured a way to hog wire the exit panel, thank god for books, sun light, hyper activeness and a sire who likes to sleep in the day and gets very pissed off if he can't." They both chuckle at the memories.

"Glad I could be of some use, was a hard lesson for you to learn."

"Yep, but worth it, otherwise I would still be in that place. So we waited for the bang, people started running about, in chaos,"

"Your middle name."

"Yep," Spike smiles slyly, "then we opened the cell door and in the confusion made it out...Out of the twelve of us only four made it including me. We made a blood pact that night that we would scatter and find a way to get the chip's removed, we keep in contact, but we ain't had much luck. I stayed here figured it was the best place to be. Teamed up with Buffy, didn't know she was seeing solder boy Riley. He nearly had a fit when he saw me sitting on Giles' stairs, I would have had a heart attack if my heart was still beating, wasn't a good summer all said, Riley used every opportunity he could to find me alone and rape me..."

"Why didn't you leave come to me?" Angel interrupted. "I would have helped you, know that don't you?"

"Come off it, last time I saw you I was having hot pokers stuck in you. Didn't think I was too welcome. Anyway I couldn't leave, had to stay to keep an eye on Buffy and Dawn, you would have been so pissed if anything had happened to them and later I stayed cause I wanted to. I love Dawn as if she were my little sister and Buffy well, not sure about that any more not really been of the mind to sort that one out as of yet. Thought I loved her not so sure anymore. Besides here is the most likely place I'm going to find a way to get this soddin' chip out of my head so I stayed."

"Are you telling me that when you were the big bad and kept trying to kill Buffy that you weren't really trying at all?" Angel says a bit bemused.

"Yeah." Spike looked at Angel's face with a puzzled expression. "Do you seriously think I was trying to kill Buffy?"

"Well yes."

"And how the hell did you think Buffy and the flaming Scooby Gang could possibly live if I actually wanted them dead." An astonished Spike bites back.

"I thought they were good at what they did, that's why they lived." Angel replies defensively.

"Don't be thick as shit. I'm the one who kept them alive, well Dru and me. As soon as we found out that she was yours we did what any good Childer would do and kept them safe."

"How exactly did you do that?" Angel asked suspiciously

"The old way I issued a challenge to the right to take the Slayer, fought lots and won."

"How many fights Spike?" not quiet believing what he was hearing.

"I don't know;" came the flippant reply. "Think it was six Masters a few big fuck off demons and just some run of the mill vamps. You know what it's like a fight is just a fight much the same as the last one. You either win or lose."

"Six Masters!" Angel said in amazement the last time a Slayer challenge had been issued it had been short lived by the challenger, he had only survived two fights and had been two hundred years older than Spike. "But you kidnapped Willow and Xander?"

"Yes I did, but I did it to protect them. Couldn't think of any other way to keep them safe." Seeing Angel's confused face he continued with a sigh, "A new group had come to town and decided that it would be fun to take out the Slayer and her friends so, I kidnapped them in order to keep them safe. Did you seriously think Dru would fall under a love spell, come on she would have seen it coming a mile off and why the hell couldn't I do the spell myself, why did I need Willow to do it? Come on Peaches use your brain, I know you have one somewhere under that brow of yours."

Angel punched him lightly on the arm growling, "Watch it Childe your still not to old to be given a lesson by your elders."

"Is that a promise?" Spike had a twinkle in his eye, making Angel groan.

"Anyway, took care of those stupid upstarts right quick...Was sorry to hear about what happened to Queen C, She okay you know?"

"I don't know; she's missing." Seeing Spikes puzzled look Angel continued, "We were supposed to meet up the night I got put in the metal box."

"Yeah, been meaning to ask you about that what happened. Who the hell was able to trap the mighty Angelus?"

"My son was."

"What you telling me, you made another Childe and didn't tell me?!" Spike shouted

"No, my son, flesh and blood, pumping heart;" came the wistful reply.

"What? How? We can't have kids." A rather bewildered Spike asked

"Not totally sure how it happened. Darla was bought back by Wolfram and Heart an evil lawyer firm in LA..."

"I know who Wolfram & Hart are, I'm not stupid," Spike snapped. "That who you been fighting in LA?"

"Yep."

"Bloody hell!"

"You said it; anyway they bought Darla back alive, as in living, breathing, human. They used her to try and bring out Angelus. Stupid lawyers should have known she could never give me a happy, but they tried. In the end Dru turned her and as always we shagged, we fought, I won, and they disappear."

"Then Darla turns up very pregnant...She staked herself so the baby could live. Conner a boy he was so sweet, innocent but Holtz...You remember him?" Spike nods he knew the story. "Well he came along, something to do with time travelling demon. Stole him from me with a little help from Wesley and Conner ended up in a Hell Dimension Quortoth, the darkest of the dark worlds, where he grew up."

"Sixteen years there, or as close as we can judge, was only a few weeks here," tears were glistening in Angel's eyes, Spike held him closer.

"One minute I have a baby son, then nothing, then an angry teenager. Conner was the one who put me in the box because he thinks I killed his father, Holtz." Angel said the last with a venom tone.

"Hey, we will get him back I promise with all I have, little brother will come home."

"God I've missed you so much." Angel tightens his arms round him. "I'm sorry, for not being there for you when you needed me and for fighting with you...thanks for what you did for Buffy and the others."

"Just don't go telling them, they don't need to know, I'm still the Big Bad here. Okay."

"Okay, I won't tell. Sun's coming up we had better get some sleep there are going to be a lot of questions to answer later."

"Ohhhh," wines Spike like a little boy. "I'm comfy, wanna stay here." Angel glares at him. "Fine my room still where it was?" Spike slowly gets up.

"I was kinda thinking...only if you want to...that maybe...you would wanna share with me?"

Spike looked deep into those chocolate orbs and smiled turned and said, "Sure love." Spike slowly walks towards the master bedroom leaving Angel staring in amazement, "You coming?" he says over his shoulder

"Not yet, but I'm planning on soon," Angel mutters so quietly that even vampire hearing wouldn't hear.