Dawn dialed the first number, waiting for someone to puck up at the other end.

'. . . . '

'Hey Ken, it's me, is Willow there?'

'. . . . '

'Okay, thanks'

'. . . . '

'Hey Will, it's me, just wondering if you could pop by here this morning.'

'. . . . '

'Nothing, I didn't do anything. But it's something we have to deal with before Buffy gets home tonight.'

'. . . . '

'I swear, I didn't do anything'

'. . . . '

'I can't. You'll find out when you get here, but it's something me, in my ex-Keynes can't deal with by myself.'

'. . . . '

'About half an hour?'

'. . . . '

'Thanks Will, see you soon.'

She turned the phone off. One down; one to go. After she dialed the second number, she listened as it only rang twice before someone picked it up.

'. . . . '

'Hey Giles, it's me. Just wondering what you're up to this afternoon'

'. . . . '

'Good, would you mind coming over here to our place this morning?'

'. . . . '

'Nothing's wrong per say, I just need a hand with something'

'. . . . '

'Thanks Giles, see you in about half an hour'

'. . . . '

"Bye'

She placed the phone back on the wall, and headed back to the living room, where Spike was still in the same spot on the couch as he had been when Dawn had helped him to it when they first arrived back. He looked anything but peaceful. His skin was paler than normal. She hated seeing him like this, helpless and in pain. He had become quite a part of her life back in Sunnydale; she wasn't going to let him fade away again from her life, once had been enough. She needed to do this for him; he'd never give up on her, if something was to ever happen to her. She needed to do it for Buffy. Dawn knew that her sister still had feelings for the vampire somewhere. And lastly she needed to do it for herself. Spike was one of her closest friends; he was part of the family. She wasn't going to give up anytime soon.

Dawn looked at her watch. Willow and Giles should be here any moment soon. She'd made herself comfortable on the floor, next to the couch. Just to keep an eye on him. She noticed that he was sweating. She reached and felt his forehead; she knew it would be a wasted exercise, but did it nonetheless. She was surprised that his forehead was quite warm. Whatever it was that was going on with him really was screwing him around. She wasn't even going to try and explain this one, she'd wait for Giles and Willow to arrive before she sent her head into a spin trying to work out what was wrong with him. At that instant, Dawn heard a crashing sound, she got up, smiling to herself and made her way to the front door. She opened to find Willow standing on the other side of the doorway.

'Still haven't perfected that teleporting thing yet Will?' she giggled at her friend.

'Uhm, yeah, still haven't got the arrival part 100 per cent yet' she smiled back at Dawn.

'Well, you'll just have to keep practicing to make perfect then' Dawn said as she gestured for the redhead to come inside.

'So what's the big deal? Why did I have to teleport all the way here on such short notice? I was in the middle of teaching a class'

Dawn lead her to the living room where, when she moved away, Willow was confronted with the icky mess that was Spike.

'That's why you had to come here straight away Will,' she said, pointing to Spike's lifeless body on the couch. 'I picked him up from the airport about 2 hours ago, and he's only been getting progressively worse since then. He's sweating all over the place, and he feels warm, which, last time I checked up on my vampire knowledge, wasn't usually how they were temperature-wise.'

'Oh my goddess' was all Willow could manage to mutter as she moved towards the couch that Spike was on. 'And Buffy knows nothing of him being here?'

'No, she doesn't, and I'd prefer if she knew nothing until we work out what's happening. He obviously came to her for a reason. And the reason is clearly her; even a blind person could see that.'

'Did you call him? Tell him what happened between Buffy and The Immortal? Is that why he came back?' Willow asked, knowing that Dawn had a soft spot for Spike.

'NO! I didn't!! I don't know how you could think that Willow. I hadn't heard from in a couple of months. Hadn't even heard of him from then, until Andrew said he'd been here last month looking for The Immortal. Not that it would matter if I did. It's not why I asked you to come over here. As you can clearly see, he needs help, I have no clue as to what's wrong with him, I've talked to him for about a whole of ten minutes since I met him at the airport'

'Okay, have you phoned Giles?' Willow questioned, trying to move as far away from the whole debate about how Spike got to Rome and why

'Yes, he should be here very soon, I called him after I'd finished on the phone with you.' Dawn said defiantly, she couldn't believe Willow could accuse her of asking Spike to come back.

Dawn decided to head into the kitchen while they were waiting for Giles. "Would you like a drink Willow?' She said as she headed to the fridge to get herself one.

'Thanks Dawnie, that'd be great'

'What would you like we've got OJ, Coke and Water.'

'Water will be fine thanks' she said as she reached for the bottle of water that Dawn was handing her.

Dawn looked at her watch, and as if on cue, there was a buzz on the monitor at the front door. Dawn made her way to the monitor, looked to find Giles standing at the front door. 'Come on up Giles' she said as she pressed the button to unlock the front door. She then made her way back to the kitchen to put the kettle on, because no doubt after Giles found out the reason why she'd called him to come here, he'd need a cup of tea.

She and Willow made their way back to the front door. Dawn opened the door to find Giles there. Both hugged him.
'It's good to see you Giles' Dawn said. She hadn't seen the former watcher in over a month. He had been busy in Cleveland helping a group of Slayers work in keeping the place as vampire free as you could when there was a Hellmouth in the vicinity.

'It's good to see you both as well. I teleported here as quickly as I could, now what was I called here for so frantically? I hope it's of some importance, I was busy researching a Bur'kalan demon that's threatening to terrorize Cleveland' Giles questioned Dawn, at least she didn't feel guilty this time, not like the time she'd called Giles to teleport over the case of Buffy's missing birthday present.

'Of course it's important Giles. Like I'd get you to teleport over here immediately if it wasn't for a second time' Dawn smiled, and then her face became more serious. Giles gestured for some sort of explanation.

'Living Room' was all Dawn said.

Giles moved towards the living room, just as Dawn had instructed. When he set his eyes on Spike, he stopped in his tracks.

'He came to Rome a couple of hours ago. I picked him up from the airport, he was barely conscious then, and he's been out to it since I put him on the couch. I thought that ringing you and Willow was the best of bets.'

'And he didn't say anything about if he'd done anything to cause him to be like this? A demon's name or something...anything?' Giles questioned.

'He's barely said anything to me since I met him at the airport. I asked him what was wrong with him and said he didn't have a clue, said that he'd been like this since he left L.A.'

'Have you spoken to Angel Dawn?' Giles asked.

'Not yet, I wanted to wait and see what you wanted to do first. I'll do it now.' Dawn said as she pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and dialed the number to Angel's cell.

It wasn't long before he answered it

'. . . . '

'Hey Angel, its Dawn'

'. . . . '

'Not much, look I'm ringing for a reason, Spike's turned up here in Rome and he's a bit worse for wear.'

'. . . . '

'Well, I'm not really sure, Giles and Willow are here and Giles asked me to ring you to see if anything out of the ordinary has happened lately.'

'. . . . '

'Mmm Hmm'

'. . . . '

'Well, I s'pose you could call that something out of the ordinary.'

'. . . . '

'He's sweating, he's got a temperature, keeps on passing out in the sense that he hasn't been conscious for more than 10 minutes since he arrived here.'

'. . . . '

'Okay, I'll wait to hear back from you and we'll keep up at this end.'

'. . . . '

'Thanks Angel, bye'

Dawn ended the phone call and put her cell phone back in her pocket.

'So what did he say? Anything happen recently that might help in finding out what happened to Spike?' Willow asked her.

'He said that there was a major apocalypse in Los Angeles only a few hours ago. The Senior Partners of Wolfram & Hart declared all out war on them. Only four of them survived, Angel, Spike, Gunn and Illyria. He said that he couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was that might have caused Spike to end up the way he has. He's going to try and get in contact with some of his old sources and said he'd get back to us as soon as possible.'

'So what do we do till then Giles?' Willow questioned.

'What we do best, I assume.' He said.

Dawn and Willow answered almost mechanically 'Research'

Willow pulled her laptop out of the bag she had brought with her.

The three spent the next few hours researching. When it got to lunchtime, Dawn ordered a pizza and they ate that and were soon back into the research. Angel checked in a couple of times and gave them a couple of pieces of information that helped them in the basic sense. Dawn felt that Angel might have been keeping something from her – Something big. She just couldn't put her finger on what it might be. She didn't want to let on to the others, but he seemed hesitant to tell her something. Something that was close to home. She'd have to think about it some more before he rang back with another update.

'What time is Buffy due home Dawnie?' Willow asked, looking at her watch, which read 4pm.

'Today's Thursday, so she'll be working till 10. So, she'll be home by about 11 o'clock tonight.'

'Well, that gives us a few hours still to work out what's happening with Spike' Giles commented looking over to where Spike was still laying on the couch. He'd woken up a couple of times. Not long enough to get any information from him. Each time he woke up, he seemed to be crazier than before.

Willow had mentioned earlier on that he reminded her of the Spike she'd met in the basement of the high school back in Sunnydale when she returned from England last year.

That gave Dawn an idea. She sat herself down in front of her laptop and typed her heart out, obviously set on finding some information out on a particular subject.

'What is it Dawn?' Giles asked.

'Something, just give me a minute and a couple of phone calls and I'll be able to tell you.' She blurted out, as she continued to tap away at the keyboard on the computer. She was scribbling down a few things as she went on a piece of paper next to her. None of it made any sense to Willow or Giles. When Dawn had finished at the computer, she pulled out her cell phone and dialed a number.

'. . . . '

'It's Dawn again; I think I've worked out what might be causing Spike's sudden illness.'

'. . . . '

'You know, I know you know. It's to do with him having a soul. I found the documents you signed the other day. When you were a member of the Black Thorn'

'. . . . '

'You signed it away, I know, that's what the document that they got you to sign was about.'

'. . . . '

'So what was yours is now his then?'

'. . . . '

'I'm guessing that's what's happening to him now. After the battle, it's time to redo what's been done in times past?'

'. . . . '

'Why didn't you just tell me? At least then we would have known what was happening to him'

'. . . . '

'Don't give me any of that crap Angel. It's not worth it; the main thing is that we know now. We can begin to help him now.'

'. . . . '

'Of course we need your help. From what I've read it's going to be rough on him, dealing with all that.'

'. . . . '

'Anything you can find will be welcomed.'

'. . . . '

'I don't mean to be cold and harsh, it's just if you had of told us earlier, then we wouldn't have spent all day searching. I'm not going to hold it against you and any information you can find for us will be most appreciated.'

'. . . . '

'Yes?'

'. . . . '

'You are? Is this because of recent events?'

'. . . . '

'Oh, okay, well we'll look forward to it then.'

'. . . . '

'Take care Angel, we'll talk again soon'

'. . . . '

'Bye'

Willow and Giles were sitting across from Dawn at the table, eagerly waiting for her to tell her about what information Angel had had for her.

'Well?' Willow asked impatiently.

'Well . . .' Dawn dragged on, 'Before the battle with the Wolfram & Hart army that Angel and the others had, which I told you about earlier, it seemed that Angel signed away his part in the Shanshu Prophecy.'

'Shanshu Prophecy' Giles mumbled, flicking through pages of various books, obviously trying to find some writings about said prophecy.

'Don't worry Giles, I can tell you the story of it all later. But the main thing is that the prophecy stated that when the vampire with a soul, once he fulfilled his destiny, will Shanshu. Become human. - It's his reward.'

'Oh' Willow and Giles both said in unison.

'Yeah, so when Angel signed away the Prophecy before destroying the Wolfram & Hart army, somehow, the prophecy didn't completely stop. The Members of the Circle of the Black Thorn, that got Angel to sign his part in the prophecy away, didn't really have their fingers on the pulse, because for some reason they didn't realize that Spike was around and all soul having. So, in the short of it, when Angel signed it away, Spike got lumped with it and the apocalypse of the senior partner's army, bumped him up to Shanshu-worthy.'

With that, all three of them all looked in the general direction of Spike as he grunted and rolled over slowly on the couch. The next few weeks could be interesting. . . . .