Chapter Six
The next morning, the Scoobies--sans Dawn--made their way to the mansion. Angel was sitting on the couch, waiting. They'd returned with him, and Buffy; the group had talked while Buffy slept.
The knock he'd been expecting for over an hour came. He rose and silently made his way to the door and let them in.
"Hi Angel. She asleep?" Willow asked as they all quickly entered the large room. Giles shut the door, effectively shutting the harming sunlight out.
"Yes," he said, leading them towards the sitting area. "We can't kill him though," he said, lowering himself into a chair.
"What?!" Xander exclaimed a little loudly. "What do you mean? We have to kill him!" Willow hit him on the head, hard. "Ow!"
"Xander will you think? It's not our place. Buffy's got to be the one to kill Spike!" she growled. He was about the protest when Giles agreed.
"Xander, out of all of us, who has Spike hurt at this actual moment?" he asked. Xander ducked his head, his face going red with anger. "Exactly," Giles said, rubbing his forehead. "It's not our fight."
"But we can hurt him." It wasn't a question. Willow was looking at everyone in the room. "And we can make him beg for death," she said, eyes flashing.
"And how are we going to get him to stay in Sunnydale?" Tara asked quietly.
"He'll stay on his own. Buffy's here." Angel replied softly, betraying his anger. "Something that has never changed is Spike's love to finish what he started." Silence fell. There was a strong wind that whipped around the old mansion. The trees outside creaked. Angel heard Buffy stirring and stood.
"Angel?"
"It's Buffy," he said to Willow before leaving the room and going down a dark hallway. At the middle, he opened a door to a large room. "Buffy?"
"Angel," she said, looking around. He sat on the edge of the bed and put her hands in his.
"Are you all right?"
"Fine," she said, yawning. He smiled, but it was strained. He heard her heart pounding in her chest as her brain attempted to come back to reality. She shivered and touched her neck, wincing. He took her hand and kissed it. She sagged and fell into him. He wrapped his arms around her.
"Nightmares," he sated. She nodded.
"Can't sleep for long."
"Try," he said, stroking the lines on her forehead. She nodded again and drifted off. Once he was sure she was asleep, he rested her back on the bed, pulled the covers up, and left. When he returned to the others, all he said was, "Let's go." The look in his eyes made it clear his decision was made.
The group made their way to the other side of the mansion and climbed into the manhole. Angel lead them down the twisting tunnels. The encountered a nest, but it was empty.
"This it?" Xander asked when Angel stopped and looked up.
"Yes." The vampire went up the ladder and silently opened the manhole. Everyone climbed out of the sewers and into the warehouse.
They all wielded multiple weapons except for Angel. Xander had and axe and crosses, Willow a stakes, a small hand sword and holy water, Tara with stakes and holy water and Giles (who was the most impressive and creative) was carrying a sword, a crossbow with a few cross shaped bolts (the rest had crosses etched into them) and a small bottle of what appeared to be holy water.
Angel was more than a little unnerved about Giles' weapons, because he would swear on his un-life that they were made especially for him. And he'd be right. But the fact that Giles hadn't turned on him and had accepted him helping Buffy, he wasn't going to call the other man out on it.
"So where now?" Tara asked, looking around. There were spots of sunlight in the entire loading area. Angel silently led them through the warehouse to the back rooms. After a walk, he stopped and pointed out a room.
"That's Dru's old room, which means Spike's is around here somewhere."
"You don't know?" Xander asked, eyebrow slightly raised. Angel sighed.
"Spike was in a wheelchair. He was usually in Drusilla's room or out here. After she was cured, that is. I have no clue where he was before that."
"Probably with her," the younger man responded.
"We're not going to operate seeing at there is to much that could possibly go wrong and-"
"Giles, we get it. No separating," Xander interrupted. Angel tilted his head to the side slightly and motioned for silence before pushing them farther into the shadows and out of Spike's hearing range.
"Spike," Angel drawled in a taunting tone as he took a few steps towards Spike, who was standing in filtered sunlight. The blond/platinum vampire froze and turned.
"Angel, when did you get into town?" Spike asked with a smirk.
"A few days ago," he said with a shrug. He moved into the light, smiling just the way. "What's been going on since I last stopped by?" The blond sighed dramatically.
"Well, the Slayer destroyed the government pillocks--for which all demons are grateful might I add--and there was a hell god who was bent on this key, which turned out to be Little Bit, the Slayer's sis. Long story short on that, Slayer jumped into a portal leading to a hell dimension the god was tryin' to bleed into the world, closed the portal and died. Three sodding months later, Red's got her out of the bloody ground and back here," he said, waving a hand as he finished.
"An now, we're here." he grinned. "How's LA?"
"Spike, do you *really* need to ask that?"
"S'pose not." He pulled out a cigarette and lit it. "So what 'cha doing here 'nyway Peaches?"
"Came to see a friend," he said dismissively. "They got into a pretty bad fight with a demon and ended up hurt. Then, the demon went back for revenge after it was over."
"Of course," Spike scoffed. Angel grinned, which caused William the Bloody to drop his relaxed air and tense. It was an Angelus grin.
"But the demon didn't realize that the person's friends would get their revenge." They four stepped out of the shadows. Angel was behind Spike before he could turn to try and flee.
"You-you set me up! Peaches, what the bloody hell are you doing?!" Willow and Tara said a Latin word in unison and their stakes was flying towards Spike, who barely dove out of the way. Angel grabbed the wooden items out of the air and threw them at the blond. He jumped and clutched a pipe. Xander took a swing at the dangling legs. Spike yelped as the sharp blade grazed his skin while he hastily drew up his legs before dropping to the ground.
The group played "cat and mouse" for an hour. Willow, Tara and Xander, tired, let Giles and Angel take over. They had Spike cornered in a back room, which was a decent size storage room, filled with crated and machinery.
"Spike..." Angel drawled.
"I think the bloody coward is ready to give up," Giles said with a wicked grin. Angelus and Ripper had come out to play. Spike, enraged by the taunt, flew at Ripper and landed on the ground as he sidestepped.
"Guess not," Angelus said, his grin matching Ripper's. Spike spun and knocked over a crate, throwing it at the two, and ran. They followed, but he jumped into the sewers and they were seconds to late. It didn't matter, the kill was Buffy's. But they five had beaten him really *really* badly. Worse than he'd hurt Buffy. Broken ribs, stakes intentionally missing his heart by centimeters, large lacerations that impaired his movement…. It was a miracle he avoided them in the end.
"It had been fun while it lasted," Ripper said with a sigh.
"The boy-o 'll be back." Angelus said with a slight Irish tinge to his voice. "We should get back to Buffy."
Angel's Mansion
The group returned and all guiltily stopped as they entered the sitting room. Buffy saw sitting in front of the fireplace, staring at the low flames. She didn't even look up as she heard them all enter.
"Buffy," Willow said softly. She brushed hairs out of the small cut on her face, wincing as they were pulled from the dried blood. She'd barely avoided a wooden crate that Spike threw towards the group, causing it to bust on the wall. Xander had a sprained wrist and Tara was sporting a lump on the back of her head. Giles and Angel were fine really. Giles was limping a it, but that was because of a slip in the sewers, and Angel wasn't able to move his right arm thanks to an injury to his shoulder from a steel bar that was shoved into it, an inch or two deep.
"Are you all right Buff?" Xander asked, setting down the axe. She continued staring into the flames. Angel tilted his head and listened, his vampire hearing zoning in on her throat. He listened to her hum and quietly copied the notes. Giles, the closest person to him, heard. It was from Walk Through The Fire, from the musical demon's spell.
"Buffy," he whispered, kneeling beside the chair. Angel touched her arm, and she jerked away, head snapping towards his. There was a fire in her eyes, and not a reflection either.
"Do not touch me," she said slowly and with anger. "I wake up from a coffin, pain and blood filled nightmare, only to find you gone." Willow ducked her head. "I had to wake up by my screams with nothing to comfort me as I struggled for air while breaking out of a fucking box." The three shuffled, tears coming to their eyes as reminders of their betrayal. "Give me one reason why I should trust you," she demanded coldly. He looked at her with pain filled eyes.
"You can trust me because you know I wouldn't have left if it hadn't been for a good reason? One I was sure that would help keep you safe?" She scowled at him, but agreed. Yet it took him hours to regain her trust.