Chapter 6
Riley, Xander, and Giles sat in a circle. Slowly, they chanted the words to the spell, each one saying their part. A slight tingling in the air could be felt with every successive chant, the magic swirling around them. When it came to Riley, he breathed deeply and started to recite the words that Giles had taught him. As he spoke, the air became even more charged. Finally, he spoke the last phrase and held his breath. The charging came to a point, sputtered, and then stopped. All three open their eyes.
"Dammit," Riley said. Xander just shook his head as Giles looked at him patiently.
"Riley, you have to feel the words, not just say them," Giles said in his best schoolmaster voice.
"Thank you, Master Yoda," muttered Xander.
Giles shot him an icy glare. "That kind of attitude doesn't help, Xander."
Xander just rolled his eyes. "I'm sorry Giles, but…"
WHAM!!!
All three jumped as something very large and very fast slammed itself on the door. Riley was the first to his feet and ran to the door. From the small porthole he could make out several very large demons smashing into the door. Both Giles and Xander joined him as they looked through to the outside.
"Looks like the fighting's moved to another area of the complex," remarked Giles.
"Yeah," said Xander. "So now they can focus on us."
"Are we in any danger?" Giles asked as he unconsciously stepped back from the door as it was slammed again.
Riley shook his head. "No, the door is made out of an alloy of titanium, so we should be fine for the moment. Either way…" He walked away from the door and headed to a locker on the far side of the room. He punched a code on a keypad and the door opened, revealing a small cache of automatic rifles. He handed one to Xander and then one to Giles.
"Um…no thank you," Giles said. "I prefer the more traditional methods of demon hunting." Riley shrugged, grabbed a rifle for himself and turned to Xander, intending to go through the essentials of Rifle 101.
"All right, Xander, the first thing to realize is…" He abruptly stopped as Xander helped himself to a magazine of ammunition, slammed it home into the rifle, pulled back the firing pin, and tested the site.
"Site's a little off but it should be fine for close quarters," he said as he held the rifle at the ready. Riley just gaped at him. Xander, realizing the look he was getting, got a little self-conscious.
"Well…I was…Rambo for Halloween…honest."
Riley just blinked and shook his head. Giles tried hiding a smile as he gestured back to the floor.
"Well, let's get to it, shall we? "
---
Buffy peered around a dark corner. Nothing.
Where is he?
Since her first encounter with Adam, she'd been keeping to the shadows, trying to be as invisible as possible. She would strain her hearing, but catch only the sound of quick skittering or the sound of hissing. Through it all, she had the uneasy feeling that she was being watched.
Unbeknownst to her, another individual also kept to the shadows, tracking her. Waiting for the proper moment.
Buffy clung to the side of a very large wooden container as she slid over to the next corner. She reached out with her left arm and grabbed the corner, about to peer over.
The individual, seeing his chance, merely pointed at Buffy with his arm.
THOK! THOK! THOK!
Three very fast, very sharp objects flew out and embedded themselves successively on the arm of Buffy's shirt. With a grunt she looked down and saw what looked like large, spiny needles holding her arm to the wood of the box.
"What the fu…?" Before she could even finish, screams filled the air as she looked desperately around. Two vampires and a Morah demon rushed at her. The two vamps from front and rear, and the Morah from the side. Without thinking, she threw a side thrust kick to the morah, snapped-kicked the vamp in front and back-kicked the rear bloodsucker. With her attackers dazed, she clenched her teeth and ripped the wood holding her arm in place from the box. Both vampires came at her again. With the jagged edge of the wooden panel, she slammed it into the heart of the front one, and, without a backward glance, jammed the other end of the panel into the rear vamp. Both screamed as they burst into dust. She quickly turned defensively for next attack.
None came.
The other demon had disappeared. Except for the sound of her heavy breathing and the blood pounding in her ears, she could neither hear nor see anything else. All her senses were on overdrive with the adrenaline leaking into her system. Finally, when no further attack came, she started to control her breathing. She ripped the wood from her sleeve and let it clatter to the ground. Frowning at the needles on the wood, she slowly realized that neither a vampire nor a morah demon had the ability to shoot weapons like that. Her frown deepened as she also played back the attack and recognized how coordinated it was.
One to hold me down, the other three to attack…Great, looks like Adam's taken them to school. But why did the third leave?
She narrowed her eyes at another, final realization.
I'm being tested.
A small shiver ran down her spine as she saw looked around and noticed her situation was just like that of a small lab mouse in a maze. Swallowing, she was about to continue walking when she glanced at the hole made by her in the large crate.
Inside, in neatly spaced holders, were rows of tazers. She quickly looked around and reached in to grab one. She looked at it and was relieved to see it had a full charge. She had no idea how many more demons were around, besides Adam, but the weight of the weapon was reassuring.
Ok Mr. Cyborg, she thought. You want your 'students' to learn from me? No problem. She hit a switch on the tazer and was rewarded by the sound of the capacitor charging.
This is one mouse that definitely roars!
---
Willow woke with a start.
She slowly opened her eyes and quickly closed them again from the glare of the overhead lights. Groggily, she shook her head from all the cobwebs that had gathered there. She could just make out the faint antiseptic smell she'd associate with a clinic or hospital. With a small smile she faintly remembered having had her tonsils removed at a very young age, and being so tired from the operation, her mother spoon-fed her strawberry ice cream. The smile slowly faded when she caught the faint smell of ozone as well as something burning.
Slowly, she opened her eyes and adjusted to the light from above. From her field of view, she could make out an operating theater of sorts, as well as various (what looked to her) medical instruments. She started to move her head to get a better view, but stopped when a twinge of pain reached up from somewhere between her shoulder blades. Breathing itself was slightly painful, though she couldn't exactly understand why. The last thing she remembered was saving Spike from getting skewered by Adam, and then…something.
She could remember the heady rush she felt at feeling his lips on hers. It was over all too quickly when Xander and Buffy showed up. The rest was blurry, as well as a jumble: terrible pain, fear, the smells of leather, blood, and sweat; being carried, endless screaming, cold.
I'm so cold.
Willow closed her eyes and shivered from the lack of heat in the room. On the far side of the room, Spike's head perked up from where he had collapsed. His vampiric hearing immediately picked up on Willow's breathing as well as the slight increase in her already slow heartbeat. Grateful that he had something else to think about besides his own pitiful condition, he got up and quietly walked over to her bedside. Smoothly, he took off his duster and draped it over Willow's shivering body.
"Welcome back, luv," he said softly.
Her eyes immediately snapped open and she gazed up at Spike. A small, painful gasp escaped her lips and her eyes widened as she saw his face. Spike's face appeared to be have been used as a bizarre canvas by a drunken artist, whose sole paint was that of blood. A bloodshot eye, a bloody nose, and streaks of bloody tears all stood out in stark contrast to his pale skin.
Seeing her eyes roaming this way and that all around his face, Spike looked around. Finding clean cotton gauze, he started dabbing at his face.
"You're probably wondering about this," he pointed to his bloodshot eye, "and this." He rubbed his nose. She gave a small nod.
"You know the old saying 'No good deed goes unpunished'?" he asked. A questioning frown was all he got in response, so he proceeded to tell her about his adventure at finding the lab, and how the doctor had told him to pull the knife out, all at the cost of almost getting his brains flambéed.
Her brow furrowed in sympathy for Spike. He did all that…for me?
Seeing the question in her eyes, Spike half-attempted to brush it off.
"Hell, Red, anyone would've done it.." Willow's eyes bored into him, and slowly, a single eyebrow raised up, questioningly.
"Ok, ok! Maybe I was just there first!" he relented. Bloody hell, why is it when I look into her eyes, she can drag the truth out of me!
Willow's small smile turned to concern again as she looked at his eyes. Not for his eye, but for the tears. In the somewhat short time knowing vampires, she'd never seen one cry. Not even Angel.
As if reading the name of his sire from Willow's head, Spike got all-defensive. "I'm NOT turning into another Bloody Poof!" He started to pace back and forth. Finally he stopped and pointed at Willow.
"You really wanna know why I was bawling my eyes out like a whipped puppy?" Willow nodded. Angrily, he told her about the doctor, what he was, what he did, what he did to HIM, and what his prognosis was. Breathing heavily, he ran his hand through his face and hair.
"So there you have it! I, William the Bloody, the Scourge of Europe for almost 100 years, now has to go to that bitch Slayer and her gang of morons with his hat in his hand and live off their good wishes!" He turned his back angrily and leaned against a wall.
"Now you know why I was this close to going through with Adam's plans."
He leaned there for almost a minute until he heard, in a very gravelly, unused voice, a single word:
"Why?"
Frowning, he leaned over to Willow. "I just told you why!" he said, slightly exasperated. Willow held his gaze evenly.
That's not the answer to the question I'm looking for, her eyes said.
Now it was Spikes turn to frown. Willow closed her eyes and sighed. She opened them again, green tired eyes locked with frost blue.
Why did you save me? Why go through all that for me? Why?
Seeing the question reflected in eyes that held more wisdom than Willow's years, caught Spike off guard. Willow had a feeling about the answer, but knowing a feeling was worlds apart from hearing the words.
Running his hands through his hair, he cleared his throat and swallowed. "Hell…" he started, then stopped. He closed his eyes and forced himself to look into hers.
"Willow I…aw bloody hell…I…couldn't…I didn't want to leave you there."
Willow's eyes misted over a bit. It wasn't quite the answer she looked or hoped for, but it was enough for now. Seeing a small tear go down her cheek, he brushed it softly with the back of his hand. Before he could pull away, Willow turned her head slightly, and gave his hand a very slow, very tender kiss.
From that small, intimate contact, a warm thrill went through Spike's core, and for a brief moment, all the pain, all the sorrow, all the hate seemed lost in that one moment.
Swallowing, he sat down on a stool next to her bedside.
"Sleep now, luv." He said, taking her small, pale hand in his. "No one will bother you, not while I'm watching over you." Willow nodded, slowly closed her eyes, and slept.
(Continued)