Facing up

For a moment, Spike briefly contemplated the fact that he'd more or less given himself up to someone, who if rumours were to be believed, had had no qualms about skinning Warren alive. 'Doesn't matter', he stubbornly told himself. Buffy was in trouble, and Anna was involved in it all. The woman he loved and his only Childe could be tearing chunks out of each other - he had to stop them.

Willow muttered something underneath her breath, and for a slightly worrying moment, the entire rope illuminated its self in a scarlet glow. The glow brightened to a white before disintegrating the rope. Sitting up immediately, Spike chanced a glance at his friend; he almost recoiled in shock. The young witch before him now looked nothing like his Red. Black eyes stared; almost unseeingly, they were so empty, at him.

"Red, it's ok now... You can stop."

Spike felt faintly ridiculous calling this woman in front of him 'Red', those pretty russet locks were now jet black and inky looking. Yet that was the nickname he was always calling her. The familiarity could only help in trying to pull Willow back out of her current state. It occurred to Spike then, with a sickening feeling, he had no real idea what he was dealing with. Willow stared at him a moment longer, her eyes blinking now, and a touch more warmth seeping through. She looked at him oddly; she appeared to be mouthing his name. On instinct alone, Spike reached out a hand, and cupped her face.

"You're alright, Red. You're alright."

Willow shuddered a little, a touch of auburn began to peak through her inky roots and whispering his name with a small sigh, her transformation was instant; the deathly black eyes and hair was replaced by the pretty red and the green eyes he had grown to care so much for. Impulsively, Spike drew her against him into a hug, Willow rested her cheek against his, panting harshly.

"I-I-I did it, Spike! I did it!"

Spike didn't say anything, he just squeezed her briefly, more tightly, before releasing her.

"Red, Rubes didn't spend all that time in England trying to teach you control for you to just lock up all that power away. He let you come back here, Red. He trusted you could control yourself, so maybe Pet, it's time to start trusting yourself too."

Willow looked at him, lost for words. Spike smiled, but then his face became serious.

"We need to find Buffy and Anna,"

Willow nodded, and together they raced up from the cellar.

0-0-0-0-0-0-

They were walking towards the forest now, not that Buffy minded particularly, but she wondered why they hadn't gone in the direction of his crypt. However, still not quite over Spike's complete change of heart, she felt quite certain she would have walked over hot coals just to have him stand by her side as he was. This warm, all-with-the-smouldering-looks-having Spike was ages away from the shut down and cold Master Vampire she had encountered in the past few days. Yet, at times, she had seen something in his blue eyes that had put her on edge almost.

At times, before Spike seemed to shake it off, there was a hungry gleam in his eyes, but not of the expected sexually hungry kind. It was gleam she had thought she had only seen once before, when Spike had come the closest he ever had to killing her - when he had attacked Sunnydale High. If her mother hadn't be around with an axe on hand – he would have killed her. That vicious gleam, that gloating satisfaction he had briefly presented to her, now seemed to appear every now and again in Spike's eyes. It was as if he couldn't quite help himself.

"Why are we coming here, Spike?"

Buffy asked, despite not minding earlier, this forest had no real positive memories for her. She remembered when she had encountered The First there for the first time. It's impersonation of Angel and Spike as she had tried desperately to track Spike down. She also remembered the place where she had finally found Spike after he had escaped from The First, where she had almost decided she loved him and Spike had thought she was The First ready to recapture him.

"Isn't there somewhere else we can go? Y'know a bit more I dunno happy memory friendly?"

Spike smirked tightly, and Anna and he exchanged a look.

"Trust me on this Luv, there's something here you've got to see."

Buffy glanced around at the tall murky looking trees in disbelief. She heard Spike chuckle.

"Oh no not there Luv, no we're going to the heart of this, where we should always have been."

Buffy rose an eyebrow as Spike pointed at the opening of a cave.

"We should always have been in a cave?"

She repeated sceptically.

"Just trust me alright, when's your ole' Spiky ever let you down before,"

Buffy didn't quite know why, but a real jolt of unease passed through her as Spike encouraged her onward. Despite whatever marvel of brilliance Spike might have found in that deserted cave, her Slayer instincts were going crazy – oh there was something down there alright but it wasn't anything she and Spike really wanted to meet – Buffy was sure of it.

Spike sighed and came to a halt.

"Let go, for once let go of your bloody Slayer self-control and let someone else take control - for once. Trust me, Buffy."

Buffy stared into Spike's blue eyes, now no longer having that odd gleam within them but just earnestly pleading for her to trust him. She glanced at Anna, who quickly looked away from her.

"I'm sorry Spike, of course I trust you."

Spike smiled at her, and Buffy allowed him to lead the way.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Spike sniffed the air in increasing frustration, before finally snarling.

"Nothing, barely anything of her! She hasn't been in the Cemetery for hours!"

Willow groaned.

"Great, well she could be anywhere! What about Anna? You can't track her scent?"

Spike growled again, furious with himself that in his eagerness to find and see Buffy again, he had completely focused on finding her scent, at the expense of blocking out all the other ones... Yes, Anna's he could lock on almost instantly.

"Got her, right"

Spike immediately began sprinting in that direction and Willow hurried to keep up with him.

"But you told her right? I mean you're her Sire, you've got a certain influence over her, right?"

"Yeah, what's your point Red?"

"Back at the house, you told her she couldn't harm any of us, Buffy or any of the gang."

Spike looked grim.

"I did..."

He confirmed, but as he trailed off, Willow had the impression she was missing something.

"I sense a 'but' coming along here-"

"But I only told her, I didn't enforce it on her."

Willow stared at him wide-eyed.

"What! Why? Spike I don't understand-"

"I didn't want to alright! Anna bloody knew I'd tear her head off she so much as tore a hair from your bleeding heads – well unless it was the boy's maybe..."

"Spike, -"

"Angelus used it on me all the time, alright, in the early years. Firstborns, we're remarkably complacent towards our Sire's in the early years, good old Angelus he was never one for missing out on opportunities to exploit me"

Spike snorted bitterly.

"I rather messed up his plans, had real nice set up before Dru brought me along, him and two fit birds for all eternity to mess and rampage with – he really didn't want another alpha male about...Especially not later. Not when I stood up to his sorry arse, bloody killed two extra Slayers then he did!"

Willow frowned, choosing to ignore the smugness in Spike's voice at that.

"But you would never have taken advantage of Anna-"

"I hated it Red. Losing your will, feeling some giant poofter's word set in like sodding God's Gospel, reason why I never wanted a Childe, and why when I found out I had one I promised I'd never use it."

It occurred to Willow then that apart from what she and the gang had seen of Spike, they really knew little about his life at all.

"Hey, now don't need you thinking any sympathetic thoughts you hear, we've got to find Buffy and Anna, that's all you can think about Red. Want you a hundred percent on this."

They resumed in silence for a while, till the track led them to Buffy's house. Spike's sniffed the air, inhaling it seemed as much as he could, he shook his head.

"She ain't here, nothing but Little bit."

Neither had really believed Buffy would be back, but they had hoped, and it was great disappointment they carried on down the road, carried on their following of Anna's scent. They walked in silence for awhile, with Spike wishing wholeheartedly that Anna's scent was not going to lead him to that god-forsaken forest.

"What are you going to do with Anna?"

Willow asked, breaking the uneasy silence.

" If she's-"

"It won't come to that."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

It was almost pitch black down the cave, and Buffy's earlier misgivings came back with vengeance.

"Spike, look maybe you can see in the dark, but we're not all with seeing in the dark eyes."

Anna snorted.

"Speak for yourself."

"Ok, so I'm the only one who hasn't got Vamp eyes, big woop can we please go now! I can't believe I'm saying this but even a game of Kitten Poker! Spike please-"

"Relax Buffy, Anna you can conjure a light can't you?"

Anna gave a moody sort of look, but nevertheless, soon produced a small ball of light that flew in front of them and shone the cave into light for Buffy. The gloomy brown rock and debris hardly inspired any enthusiasm. It was strange, Spike had never brought her to place like this before, she wondered what an earth had got into the Vampire's head.

Eventually, the tunnel came to an opening and seemed to lead to wider larger area of the cave. Buffy shivered, her slayer instincts were going wild, ballistic! Her heart was hammering against her ribcage like she had run a marathon.

"S-Spike, get me out of here! We've got to go- Spike!"

Spike sniggered.

"I really was going to wait a little longer you know, see if you finally cracked it the further we got, but you always do spoil my fun don't you Slayer?"

Buffy looked at him with growing dread and realisation.

"Anna? Anna listen to me, we've got to go now – that isn't Spike."

Anna stared at her coldly, and in that instant Buffy knew.

"You tricked me..."

She whispered, Anna laughed and before Buffy was aware of it, strong rope was tying her hands together behind her back.

"Funny, you even manage to sound betrayed."

Anna mocked, as Buffy tried helplessly to free her hands from the rope, it was no use, her hands were tied. She looked at Anna startled, she knew Spike's Childe had held misgivings about her, but she'd had no idea the young Vampire's disapproval ran so deep.

"Look whatever its telling you, what its promised you its lying! Think what this will do to him, to Spike!"

A look of hatred flashed over Anna's face and she struck Buffy hard across the face, she fell to the ground with a small cry of pain.

"Since when do you care about him getting hurt?"

"Anna, I-"

"You don't give a damn about him, but I do! He's my Sire, and if he can't do what's good for him, then its up to me."

Anna stood threateningly over her, and as Buffy struggled to get back on her feet, with her hands tied, she tried once more to reason with Spike's Childe.

"I love him, Anna. I love him, we're on the same side!"

Anna released a furious growl, and with a vicious kick to the temple, Buffy's world descended into darkness.