Catching up: "I'm just saying – Spike wasn't always the sweet little demon we hope he is now." Xander said, still reluctant to trust Spike, even after all that had happened. "The thing…" Buffy whispered to herself, pointing. Spike turned to look at it, and then grinned. "See, the thing is pet, that that demon and me, we kinda get along. Sort of like partners in crime. He keeps coming back; I keep coming back, no matter how many times you kill me…" Spike laughed with horrible cruelty slipping between his fanged teeth. "The storm tonight's gonna help me bring 'im back." "Guys," Tara's started, "I think we need to get Spike back." Buffy's hand shot out faster than any of them could have imagined possible. Her fingers wrapped around Tara's neck and squeezed tightly. Tara gasped for breath, but even her pitiful gasps subsided while her lips turned blue.

A/N: Sorry again for the long intro… And I'm gonna make a normal(er) length chapter now! Arms feeling a lot better. :)

I Can Save You.

Dawn fumbled for a few minutes with the phone in her kitchen, trying with shaking hands to dial Xander and Anya's number. Thunder cracked in the clouds above Sunnydale, signaling the start of the storm. The power was out barely a second after the white flash filled the house. She cursed under her breath, and bolted out of the door before she had time to panic. She knew she was running out of time. The storm that was bringing back a demon that they hadn't learned anything about had begun, and Spike had turned evil, and Buffy had once again lost her mind to the devil. Dawn silently prayed that this was just a little demon, and no big apocalypse coming closer and closer.

She caught up to the couple as they were locking up the Magic Box. Giles' was with them.

"Anya," she panted. Terror was beginning to catch up with her. "Help, Buffy's," she inhaled hard, trying to catch her breath. "She's gone crazy." She put her hands on her knees and sucked in sharps gusts of breath.

"Well then what are you doing here for? You should be chaining her up!" Anya looked emotionlessly at Dawn as if she was being clueless.

"What? But I-"

"Dawn, let's go." Anya walked ahead of Dawn and began towards the Summers' house.

"Wait, what happened to Buffy?" Xander jogged to keep up with the girls that were flying down the sidewalk. It was starting to rain buckets on them.

Giles quickly answered him. "See Xander, ever since Buffy's gotten back, the Devil's been playing mind games on her. When she first got back, he took over her mind and made her attack everyone. I assume the same thing is happening again?" He directed the latter at Dawn.

"Yeah, she attacked Tara. I don't know what happened after that, I came to get you guys." They'd made it down two blocks already with their speedy hurriedness.

When finally they made it back to the house, the front door was open. The lights inside were still out. They filled in one after another and followed Dawn to where she'd left Buffy. When they were following her into darkness, they began to follow their ears, following the sound of mad screaming. They emerged into the living room, to find Willow and Tara holding each other in tears against the back wall of the room.

Looking down to the floor, they saw Spike – leather duster and all – on top of Buffy, holding her hands in one of his above her head, and the other hand wrapped firmly around her throat, straddling her and holding her down in a way that seemed almost effortless. Perhaps Spike was attacking her? But then wouldn't Willow have done some sort of magic to help her? Maybe not it she was still possessed. But never the less they couldn't be sure.

"Spike!" Giles snapped. "What on Earth?"

Buffy was still screaming unintelligible words, hysterics reaching their peek. She started coughing, and against Spike's hold the thrust of her lungs looked painful. When blood started forming at the corners of her mouth, and then dripping down her chin, Spike released his hold on her throat and kissed her where her neck met her shoulders. Her didn't release his grip on her hands though.

"Come back to me love." He pleaded to her softly.

Buffy coughed again, and this time seemed to choke on the blood that was spilling from her lips. She gagged once and then resumed her coughing fit.

"Buffy," Spike whispered to her, feathering his lips along her collar bone. "Come on now long, come back to Spike."

She gasped sharply and her eyes rolled back into her head. She made a gargled sound that seemed generally enough like English. But no one could make it out. She coughed again, less hard, and her eyes drifted downward. Spike's eyes were trained on her face, drinking in every expression. She looked completely and utterly pained. On the verge of hysterics she tried to pull her hands free of his.

Thunder cracked above yet again and everyone jumped.

"Willow the storm," Giles voice boomed across the room. "What do we know?" He tried not the think about the lethal vampire sitting a few feet from himself, who just happened to like the storm.

"Nothing really, just that there are tornado warnings, that's all." Willow and Tara sat down on the couch, still holding onto each other."

Spike slowly released the pressure on Buffy's very sore wrists, and let her sit up. "That's my girl." He said in a more audible tone. She mumbled his name and pulled her face into his shoulder, pressing her forehead to his neck. He rubbed small circles on her back, and then waited.

The scoobies were all staring at him. What happened to Mr. Evil, in alliance with a crazy weather demon guy? He seemed to be gone now. Left in it's place was the Spike they all knew and hated. This Spike, seemed to be the soulless Spike they'd all learned quickly to fear.

Buffy didn't seem to mind though. She smiled widely at his purr when she wrapped her arms around him. He didn't remember anything that had happened since the moment at the Magic Box with Tara. He remembered everything up to holding Buffy in his scorched embrace, and then after that absolutely nothing. He did somewhat recall an intense gut wrenching feeling of his soul being sucked away. But that was all.

"Spike?" Buffy asked sitting up, pulling her body away from him but not letting her arms leave his neck.

He reveled in her touch, and kept his own arms around her waist. "Yes Buffy?" He breathed, leaning in to kiss her.

She kissed back for a moment, before she asked the question everyone was dying to ask. "What happened to you?" Her eyes fixed on his, boring into him, searching for any answers as to why her love had betrayed her.

His eyebrows pulled together in the middle, and he looked down at her confused. It took him a moment to realize that she must mean his soul. "I don't really remember that much," he thought for a second. "I remember holding you, and then some incubus was sucking my soul clean out of me." He noticed then that there was a lot missing there. The whole parts in between. Then he remember that he liked his soul – as much as a vampire could – he had gotten it for her, and now it was gone. Possibly for good. "Well bugger that." He looked away, into the floor beside him. What had happened? He had no idea.

The storm was exploding over head. Light flashed into the windows, and then left them in darkness. They had no idea as to what time it was, but they knew that it shouldn't have been this dark, this dark was midnight, they could only had been in the early afternoon.

"Spike, he's coming for me." Buffy's face twisted into a hurt frown.

"No one's coming for you sweetheart." He kissed her gently again. "And if they were, I'd kill him." He nuzzled against her.

"No, I mean…" She bit her lip which had started to tremble against it's will. "He's coming for me, I can feel it. He had me before. It was like something was controlling me. I know it was him. But I can't stop him." She shuddered slightly and pulled herself closer to him.

"I'll protect you." Spike shut his eyes, feeling her pain. "I won't let anyone hurt you Buffy, trust me." He held her close, not wanting to ever let go of her.