Demon Studies
Disclaimer: Not owning, just breaking. I'll fix em before I give em back, promise.
Summary: The studies begin. What will they discover?
Reviews: Yes please. The response for this bit of insanity is positively inspiring. Thank you all so much. Readers Rock but Reviewers RULE!
A/N: A lot of readers have made assumptions about Giles and his interest in Spike's current condition, hope this chapter clears some of them up.
And as usual, thanks to WayWard Childe for his assistance and encouragement.
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Spike heard the humans starting to move toward the door to his crypt. He swiftly rose and made his way out of his lair. His instincts were screaming at him. Danger. Run. Hunt. Kill. Feed. Hide. Conflicting emotions flooded through his system. Trying to sort them out made his chest feel as if it were being crushed. His head throbbed with the pain of trying to think. He wanted, needed, longed to kill and feed. His stomach ached from hunger, driving him to near madness. His strength was waning and the feeling terrified him which in turn made him angry. He hugged the stone wall and stared at the intruders with wide golden eyes.
In the Initiative Lab…
Maggie Walsh watched as the Hostile got up from his makeshift nest and moved toward the door to his lair. Unfortunately, the camera angle prevented them from monitoring the door itself. She picked up the radio and signaled her soldiers that their prey was on the move.
"Stallings, come in." She said. "The Hostile is moving. Are you covering?" She waited a few minutes before trying again, unaware that her men had been killed by a vampire.
"Stallings, I said the Hostile is moving. Do you have him?" Irritation colored her normally brisk tone.
"Yeah, got him." A male voice radioed back. She smiled in malicious satisfaction. She gave her assistant his instructions for the night and went home to prepare a pop quiz for Monday's class.
Outside Spike's crypt…
The crackle of the radio startled them all. The demon jumped in fear at hearing that voice and reacted to that fear with fury. He growled and charged the small female who seemed to be the source of his 'danger, run' impulses.
Buffy ducked Spike's charge and drove her fist into his jaw, snapping his head back and throwing him backwards into the stone wall of the crypt. He recovered and charged again, this time landing a weak punch on her cheek. The second his fist met her face, he dropped to his knees with his hands clamped around his head. He screamed in agony as the electricity shot through his brain.
Xander picked up the radio and answered the female voice with a gruff 'Yeah, got him' and turned the small device off before dropping it absentmindedly into his pocket. Giles, Buffy and Willow stared in shock at the shaking vampire in front of them. Giles recovered first and raised his dart gun.
"Buffy, Willow, shoot him now. There won't be a better chance." He ordered. Three tranquilizer darts found their target and Spike fell over unconscious. Xander noticed the small black box on the ground next to one of the dead soldiers. He picked it up and flicked the switch. Immediately a red dot appeared on a green grid. He watched Buffy pick up the lifeless blond vampire and start walking to her house with him. The red dot moved with them.
"Hey, G-man. Take a look at this." He ran to catch up with the Watcher. He shoved the gadget at the older man and pointed at the dot and then at the slayer and her burden.
"Oh, dear. This is not good." Giles said. He nodded at the young man. "Good work, Xander. There must be a tracking device. We'll have to locate it and remove it before he wakes."
Summers basement…
Uncertain how long it would take for the darts to wear off, they wasted no time securing the unconscious vampire in the enhanced chains. Willow folded the duster they'd removed and placed it carefully on a chair in the far corner while Buffy and Giles positioned him face down on the small cot. Giles used a small spell that showed them where foreign objects could be located. Bluish lights glowed on Spike's upper right shoulder and again at the back of his tousled blond head.
"The one in his shoulder must be the tracking device." The Watcher concluded. He sent Willow upstairs for a sharp knife and raised the black t-shirt up until the area indicated by the spell was bared. The extreme skinniness of the Master Vampire shocked them all into silence. Willow returned quickly and handed a small paring knife to Giles. He felt around the smooth pale skin for a few seconds before locating a small lump just under the surface. Quickly and carefully, he sliced into the cool, unmoving flesh and dug around until he felt the bit of metal slide toward the surface. He pulled it out and handed it to Xander who dropped it on the floor and raised his foot.
"No! Stop!" Giles yelled sharply. "Flush it. I don't want this location to be the last one they receive a signal from."
Xander cringed at his nearly disastrous mistake. "Sorry, wasn't thinking." He picked up the tiny disc and raced upstairs to flush it, returning quickly.
Buffy handed gauze and tape to Giles and watched silently while he covered the wound and pulled the loose black shirt down.
Willow wrung her hands. "What do we do now?" She asked nervously.
"We wait." Giles sighed as he stood and moved away from the cot. He pulled his glasses off and cleaned them distractedly with his handkerchief. "You all have the watch schedule, right?"
The three teenagers nodded. "Good." He continued. "Buffy, I believe you're first. Oh and Willow, if you could put a sound-proofing spell on the basement, I'm sure Mrs. Summers would be most appreciative." The redhead nodded and searched her memory for a suitable spell to ensure the house's continued peace on the upper floors. A short incantation and the spacious basement was sound-proofed.
The demon fought his way out of the darkness. He shifted and groaned slightly when his right shoulder pulled and stung. He moved, trying to figure out how he got on his stomach. He stilled abruptly when his senses picked up the scents of the humans he'd seen outside his lair just before the pain had hit. The darkness had halted the pain at the time but now his return to consciousness invited the ache to invade his head again. A clinking sound echoed in his aching head. An unfamiliar weight encircled his wrists. His arms were stretched up over his head so he pulled them down to push up and raise his head off the pillow. He paused. 'Pillow?' How did he know what the softness was? Slowly, painfully, he continued inching upwards so he could sit up. The drugs in his system made him sluggish and groggy.
The Scoobies watched curiously as the feral vampire edged his way up the wall until he was sitting. Giles was intrigued to see that the demon was still in complete control. He'd noticed that even unconscious the demon face was firmly in place. Buffy shifted on her feet nervously.
"Spike?" She asked softly.
Golden eyes swung around to fix on the Slayer. A rumbling growl began low in the vampire's chest. The demon bared his fangs and snarled as she stood watching him. He stood up on the cot and tugged at the chains. A surge of adrenaline drove the drugs out of his system and propelled him into action. He prowled along the wall, testing the length of the chains and the strength of the rings holding them.
Giles watched Spike closely. He spoke without turning. "Xander, could you and Willow go up and heat several blood bags for him. He looks undernourished."
"Shouldn't we keep him that way? I mean, hungry equals weak, right?" Xander ventured.
"No. It takes too long for hunger to do more than make him very unstable and volatile. I want to see if the demon will recede if we get him better fed." The Watcher explained patiently.
Willow took Xander's hand and led him to the stairs. "Come on. Let's go tell Mrs. Summers that he's awake."
The demon watched as two of the humans left. He relaxed fractionally as they disappeared from sight. He hopped off the cot and pulled his chains to see how far he could go. He roamed the length of the five feet of enhanced metal links, back and forth in front of the bed. He had enough room to stand two feet away from the bed. The cot had been placed off center of the chains and a couple of feet away from the corner. He surveyed the set up with a sight tilt to his head as he noted the potential hiding place at the end of the cot. He turned back to the humans with a snarl, pulling on the chains once more. His muscles strained as he struggled against the bindings. He roared his displeasure at his confinement, causing both humans to take a small step away from him.
Buffy looked at Giles with confusion in her green eyes. "Why doesn't he say anything?"
"I don't know but I intend to find out." He answered, his gaze never wavering from the prowling figure in front of them.
Xander and Willow returned with a small tray covered with warm bags of animal blood. An empty plastic mug was sitting on the tray as well.
"We didn't know if he could use a mug." Willow explained.
"I doubt it but we'll keep it for later." Giles replied as he picked up a bag of blood. Buffy put a small hand on his arm as he started to move toward the raging vampire.
"Let me." She said.
"No, we need to see if the pain works on everyone." The Watcher shook off his slayer's hand apologetically and returned to the task at hand. He held up the bag and approached the demon, unsurprised when he was grabbed and spun around until he was pulled against the thin chest. He could feel the fangs at his throat and waited calmly. A second later a howl of agony echoed through the room and Giles was abruptly released. The Watcher whirled around in time to see Spike kneeling once more with his hands wrapped around his head as he keened in pain. He picked up the bag of blood he'd dropped and held it out to the vampire.
The demon raised his pounding head and stared uncomprehendingly at the bag. He slowly lowered his hands and tilted his head. Dread welled up as he gazed at the bag. Images flashed through his mind and he whimpered. He could see himself picking up something like that, drinking from it. He could feel the pain as those people began hurting him. He scrambled away from the bag and crawled along the cot until he reached the corner. He squeezed himself into the tiny space and folded his arms over his head, the chains clanking softly as he shook.
The Scoobies watched in sickened shock as the once-powerful vampire crawled along the floor and folded himself into a trembling ball of terror in the corner of the basement.
Tears welling in her large blue eyes, Willow broke the silence. "What did they do to him?" Her voice was a husky whisper.
"I think they t-tortured the humanity out of him." Giles' voice hesitated over the sentence as memories of his own torment at the hands of Angelus floated to the forefront of his mind.
"I didn't think a vampire could have humanity without a soul." Xander murmured, his whiskey hued eyes trained on the shivering vampire in the corner.
The Watcher's voice was gruff as he replied. "Spike has a bit more humanity than most vampires."
"How do you know?" Buffy turned to her mentor almost aggressively. It went against everything she believed to start thinking of vampires as anything other than things to be destroyed.
"I just do." He told her as he removed his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Let's go upstairs."
"Don't I need to stay with him?" Buffy glanced at Spike distastefully.
"No. He's not going anywhere and he can't hurt any of us. Let's leave him in peace, maybe he'll calm down." Giles began urging the teenagers toward the stairs.
They were met in the kitchen by Joyce who held out a baby monitor. "I borrowed this from Sylvia across the street. I thought we could use it to listen for Spike. That way we don't have to keep someone actually in the room with him. Willow said you had her put a sound-proofing spell on the basement but we still need to be able to hear if he needs something."
Giles took the unexpected item with a surge of gratitude for her thoughtfulness. "This will be very helpful. Thank you. I'll go install it."
In the basement, the Watcher made sure the base unit of the monitor was well out of reach of the vampire. The demon remained in the corner but was watching the human's actions through wary golden eyes. When he was finished, he slipped the receiver into his pocket and crouched in front of Spike. He slipped his glasses off again and regarded the shaking vampire with solemn sage green eyes.
"You saved my life. It's time I returned the favor." He said gently.
The platinum head tilted curiously at the soft tone the human used. It was vastly different from the harsh words he'd heard in that place. He wondered if it was safe to drink from the dreaded bags. He could smell the blood encased in the thin plastic and his stomach ached with hunger. His gaze flickered to the hated bags, stark hunger shining in the golden depths. His chains clinked as he shifted restlessly.
Giles followed Spike's gaze to the stack of blood bags on the abandoned tray. He picked up the one that had been dropped earlier and held it out tentatively. "I'll bet you're starving. Did they drug your blood there? Is that how they kept you in control? This isn't tainted. It's safe. You can have all you want. I'll keep buying it until you're healthy again. We'll get you back. I promise."
Spike warily watched the human crouching in front of him. He couldn't understand what was being said but the tone was comforting. He extended a shaky hand and grasped the bag, pulling to him quickly and turning slightly away from the watching human. He brought it up to his nose and sniffed it suspiciously. It didn't smell the same as the other blood they'd given him in that place. He poked a small hole in the plastic with one fang and took a hesitant sip. He knew it wasn't human but couldn't determine just what it was but it would sate his hunger if it wasn't wrong like the other. He drank slowly, waiting for the dizziness that always followed when he drank what those people had given him. His senses remained clear and he drained the bag. He dropped the empty container and looked hopefully over at the remaining stack just out of his reach. Not that he would have dared try to get around the human facing him.
Giles cautiously picked up the empty bag, setting it aside to discard later. He moved over to the tray Willow had placed on the floor and picked it up, carrying it back and placing it on a chair next to the bed. He resumed his position and held out a second bag to the starving vampire. This time the hand that reached out to grasp the nourishment was much less hesitant. The blood disappeared much quicker and the empty bag once more was dropped to the side. A third bag was offered and drained.
The demon was beginning to feel the effects of the blood filling his stomach and his eyes began to droop in exhaustion. For a fearful moment, he thought that maybe the blood had been wrong after all but the other sensations were missing and he let the sleep begin to overtake his body. He didn't know why but he felt safer than he had in the lair. Those people weren't around, he couldn't smell them. Only the scents of the new humans were present in this new place. Some of the scents were familiar but the demon couldn't remember why. The human cautiously reached out and grasped his arm, easing him slowly out of the corner. Giles gave the vampire plenty of time to resist but he let the Watcher gently move him until he was lying on the cot.
Giles unfolded the blanket that had been placed at the foot of the bed and covered up the dozy vampire. He was asleep before the warm covering had settled.
Upstairs in the living room, Giles handed the receiver to Buffy and shakily sat down in the easy chair.
"Would you like something to drink?" Joyce offered the visibly upset Brit.
He nodded. "Yes, please."
"Some tea or something stronger?" She asked as she stood up.
"Stronger, please." Giles answered with a grateful nod.
Buffy watched her mother move over to the cabinet in the dining room and pour a stiff drink. "I didn't know we had that." She said, surprised.
"There's a reason for that you know." Joyce teased her daughter gently. Dawn clattered noisily down the stairs.
"And why are you out of bed?" Joyce admonished her.
"Is Spike here? Is he all right? I want to see him." The thirteen-year-old chattered. "And it's Saturday tomorrow."
Giles sipped his drink and gave a sigh of delight. "He's here but he's far from all right. I don't want you anywhere near him yet as we don't know how he'll react."
"What's he doing now?" Buffy asked.
"Sleeping. I got him to drink three bags of blood and he went to sleep." Giles pulled his glasses off and sat forward, his elbows on his knees. His glass hung from his fingertips and he inhaled deeply. "I don't know that those soldiers did to him but we are going to fix it."
"Not to question your judgment or anything, but why do you care?" Xander asked disbelievingly.
Rupert replaced his glasses and raised tired eyes to the boy. "Let's just say, I owe him and leave it at that."
Buffy got quiet when she remembered Spike's part in Giles' escape from Angelus two years before. It was her Watcher's story to tell so she kept silent.
"Now I think it's time we all retired and approach the situation more refreshed tomorrow. I think he'll sleep the night through." Giles finished his drink and stood.
Buffy nodded and waved the monitor. "Got the ear on. See you tomorrow."
They all said their good nights and solemnly went to their individual homes haunted by the memory of one of the most feared vampires in history shaking in fear in a corner.
Next morning…
Riley Finn stood over the cold bodies of the two soldiers who'd been assigned to watch the Hostile. He'd been awakened early by the relief shift due to take over the monitoring station. Finn noticed the puncture marks on the necks of the corpses and the absence of the radio and tracking device. He pulled a cell phone from his pocket and made the call to report that not only were two of their people were dead but they had lost the Hostile. It was not going to be a good day.
TBC