DISCLAIMER: All BTVS characters belong to Joss, I'm just borrowing them. Couple of OC's in there that are mine.
I-E-H
The pain was intense.
And very sudden.
She doubled over, clutching at her stomach, trying not to throw up the pittance she had eaten hours before. And it had been hours. Ages since she'd laid eyes on Spike, searching through this maze of corridors and steel, trying to find the only thing in the world that had kept her going. She couldn't fail now, couldn't let him down.
But damn, this hurt.
A hand on her shoulder made her bristle and she groaned, putting all of her will and strength into standing straight. Fire burned through her veins and she felt weak for a second, and then it passed and she was left with...something else.
Her eyesight sharpened and a newfound strength flowed into her, body and soul.
'Spike.' Buffy whispered, her eyes glazing over for a second.
'Where?' Angel asked and she jumped, having forgotten he was there for a second. He looked at her with those big soulful brown eyes and she felt anger towards him. Many things leapt into her mind, memories that she was sure weren't hers, and she had to look away from him.
'I can feel him. Stronger...' she murmured, closing her eyes and reaching out to her vampire, feeling something akin to a thread between them, bonding them together. She knew all she had to do was follow the thread, it would lead her to him.
'What thread?' The darker vampire was confused and looked around. Buffy realised she must have spoken out loud. 'I don't see a thread?'
'Of course you can't see it.' Buffy snapped, pulling away from him as he tried to keep hold of her. 'You can't see what's two feet in front of you, Peaches.'
'Stop calling me that.' He growled out. 'You sound like Spike.' He sniffed. 'I can't even smell him, let alone sense him.' Buffy glared at him over her shoulder.
'Well I can feel him. He's badly hurt. And he's scared.' She frowned. 'Spike doesn't get scared. I've never seen him...this is bad. This is very bad.' She tightened her grip around the machete she carried, her knuckles turning white. The anger inside her was rising by the second and she was itching to chop something up. The growl she let out took Angel by surprise and she took off at a run down the corridor, not caring if the other vampire followed.
Her mind was focused on only one thing. Nothing else was of any consequence.
I-E-H
'Buffy, I don't understand. I don't...we're mated, this can't be happening.' Spike pleaded with the Slayer as she pushed him back to the ground.
'You knew this would happen one day, Spike.' She said, both sweetly and callously. 'I've always wanted Angel, always loved Angel. I thought about him whilst we were together. You must have known.'
Her words ripped through him like a knife. 'But...Buffy...'
'But...Buffy...' Angel mimicked from behind the blond slayer. 'He always was pathetic and weak. He was the same with Drusilla. Thought she was his destiny. Just can't hold a woman down can you, Willy?'
'Willy? That's such a lame nickname.' Buffy scoffed, curling into Angel's arms as Spike lay desolate on the floor. Tears tracked down his cheeks as he watched the woman he loved with the man he loathed, their mouths meeting a fusing in a kiss that was not theirs. He tried to look away but found he could not, as Riley crouched beside him and tutted.
'She is a little hussy isn't she? Wouldn't you love to rip her throat out right now?' He whispered, smiling at the tensing of Spike's muscles, until the vampire turned to him and fixed red rimmed eyes to his.
'I wouldn't hurt a hair on her head.'
Riley growled in frustration, and the scene shimmered as they landed in Spike's crypt, watching as Buffy kicked the door in. Spike looked confused for a second before he backed up against a wall. The Slayer stormed towards him, stake raised as she advanced.
She staked him, plunged the stake down and the world disappeared into dust.
Except he wasn't dust. He was in the cemetery, kneeling on the floor and holding Buffy in his arms, his clothes saturated with her blood, her heart slowing.
'Wouldn't it be easier? Just to kill her. You'll never save her, never keep her.'
Spike tried to ignore Riley, instead putting his hand over the gaping wound in his Slayer's neck, trying to stem the bloodflow.
'You're not going to save her. She blames you for this.'
Riley's voice cut him, but he didn't know the truth. He looked at the Buffy in his arms, sobbing as she stared back at him. Her eyes were huge and glassy, she was terrified...but her gaze held condemnation and hatred for him. He was stunned.
They were mated. This couldn't be happening. He'd lost her. She'd die trying to save him. Riley was right, he wasn't worthy of her. Even if she did save him, and they survived, she'd go back to Angel. She didn't need him any more.
You're being an idiot, Spike. I'd never leave. We're connected, heart and soul. I love you and I'm coming for you.
'Lies.' Spike whispered, as the Buffy in his arms died. He wept freely and Riley laughed behind him, hooking his arm round the vampire's neck and dragging him away. He held him up, and as Spike struggled, Riley aimed a solid punch to his kidney.
'See, in the real world, this won't do any damage. But you'll still feel it. The mind is an amazing thing.' He looked across the cemetery and pointed out a figure coming towards them. 'Her fears, your fears...you won't win. Not this time, Hostile. You're nothing compared to me and my army.'
The figure stepped out in front of them and Spike shook his head, a denial passing his lips. Buffy stood in front of him, but not as Buffy any more. Riley dropped him and stepped towards her, his body once again that of the hybrid, not the soldier guise he'd held since starting this torture. He looked down as the crumpled vampire, who backed up against a tombstone, his eyes wide with horror at what had befallen his mate.
Half her face was green scales, her hair half gone. Her body was a mix of parts, grey skin meshed with yellows and blues, only one leg remaining human. Her eyes held nothing of the emotion she'd shown the last time she saw him, and she was covered only in a think white tank top and combats, ripped at the knees. Her left arm was the same scaled green as her face, with the hand missing and a blade in it place. The right arm was that of a Frolax demon, the only part in the bunch that he recognised.
She looked between Spike and Riley, and sneered at the dishevelled vampire. Riley pulled her to him.
'They called Adam, the Demon King. Now I'll take his title, his domain, and she'll be my Queen.' He smiled, running a clawed hand down Franken-Buffy's body. 'I kept all the important parts intact. Although, I might end up causing some damage. But she won't notice. She'll enjoy it and beg for more. All because I tell her too.' He looked over to Spike. 'Killing her would be such a waste.'
Spike shook his head, his mouth forming silent protests that he couldn't voice.
'Don't listen, Spike. I'm coming.'
Riley cocked his head as if he could hear that voice too. He frowned. 'Killing you, on the other hand...' He dropped to the floor in front of Spike and suddenly they were back in the lab, and the stark white burnt Spike's eyes. 'Would be a great pleasure.'
Blinding pain struck Spike, and all he could do was scream.
I-E-H
Buffy yelped as she felt more pain again. It faded as quickly as it started and it spurred her on more. She could feel the disorientation and fear from her mate, and she tried to send positive thoughts to him, following her instinct to find him.
A scream echoed round them and she ground to a halt. Angel snarled behind her, as the overwhelming smell of blood filled the corridor. Two hybrids came towards them, but it took seconds for Buffy to dispatch them. She stopped, looking to Angel for confirmation, fear evident on her face.
'He's here. I can smell him now, don't need to sense him.' Buffy nodded, looking toward the bunker-type door a few metres ahead. She knew Spike was behind that door. The scream had stopped, but the smell of blood was only getting worse. And she was terrified of opening that door. Angel tensed suddenly, and they both turned towards the sound of a dozen demon cyborgs coming towards them. 'Buffy...you have to go. I'll hold these off. Get Spike. Get him out of there!' She had no time to contemplate the sudden concern in Angel's voice.
She ripped the door open without a second thought and threw herself through, finding no time to react as the door slammed shut and locked behind her, blocking off the noises of the fight Angel had begun. She was alone in a corridor, brilliantly lit and windowless. The floor was steel grating, like much of the complex, and the walls tiled. It was a sterile environment. A laboratory.
Too much like a hospital for her liking.
A shiver worked its way up her spine as she approached the only door at the end of the white hallway. It was a door that required a code, but as she laid a hand across the input pad, it clicked and opened, revealing a large room beyond.
A room that would have been white and sterile, if not for the enormous amount of blood covering the floor.
Spike's blood.
Buffy baulked at the sight before her, and tears sprang unbidden from her eyes. Her vampire lay, bruised, bloodied, cut and mangled, spread across a table like a high-school dissection gone horribly wrong. One of his eyes was swollen shut, his scalp was cut open and dripping blood slowly into the growing puddle beneath him. One leg was stripped of skin to the muscle, and his stomach was a mess, open wounds and parts she never needed to see.
'You're early.' An angry voice sounded behind her. 'You never did follow instruction properly.'
'I never did like rules, Riley. I thought you knew that.' Buffy turned, swallowing her nausea at what he had done to Spike, and faced the monster her ex had become with determination and hatred in her eyes.
'You never would have lasted in the military, Buffy.' His discoloured eyes raked over her lithe form and she recoiled in disgust. 'But I can change that. You just need a little reprogramming.'
'You want to make me like you?' She spat. 'Please. I didn't think much of our relationship when you didn't look like something out of a hammer horror.'
Riley grinned, and the sight was grotesque. Buffy gripped her machete and gritted her teeth. 'You like the improvements I've made to your tamed Hostile?' He asked, and her grip on the weapon tightened further as he tilted his head in pride. 'I'll even let you keep him as your pet afterwards. He hasn't got a chip anymore though, so he'll probably bite.' He emphasised the point by gnashing his mismatched jaws together and Buffy shuddered visibly. Riley chortled at the action and reached out to her. She jumped back as if burnt. 'Aww, Buff. Don't worry, you'll not feel a thing.'
Buffy froze and Riley smiled in triumph.
Before the tiny powerful hands of the Slayer clamped around his arm and snapped the partially mechanical hand from its holding.
Silence befell them for a second, before Riley roared and backhanded her over towards Spike. Her weapon went flying as she hit the floor and skidded in the vampire's blood and she fought the urge to vomit. She had to kill Riley.
'You dare? You think you can best me as easily as Adam? He spent hours attached to his monitors, he couldn't fight like me before and not now. I am superior to him!'
Except Adam hasn't pissed me off anywhere near as much as you have.
Buffy pulled herself to her feet, using the gurney Spike laid on and whispering an apology as she pushed him back out of the way. The gurney hit the wall with a clang, but the vampire made no noise. He's not dead. No dust. He's not dead. You can still feel him.
Riley advanced towards and Buffy noticed with dismay that he was a lot quicker than Adam. He didn't have the fire power that Adam had though, and she prayed to God that he didn't have the nuclear power centre. Although, it wouldn't hurt to tear him into tiny pieces just to check.
The vampire on the table groaned and Buffy felt her heart jump at the confirmation of life behind her, even as Riley swung a fist at her and she had to duck. She used the momentum to rugby tackle him into the wall at the far end of the lab and she shouted as she pummelled his abdomen ruthlessly.
She didn't have the power that Xander and Willow had bequeathed her, but she did have a new feeling of strength coursing through her veins that she could only attribute to the increased bond between her and Spike. She didn't know what had happened there but she was damn grateful.
The door to the lab had swung shut, but a pounding came from the other side and that distracted Riley.
'Still can't do this on your own, huh?' He pulled her up by her throat and slammed her to the floor, placing a foot on her chest and pushing down. Buffy pushed up with all her might, but for the moment, he had the upper hand. 'Adam slaughtered your friends once before and they were pathetic. These ones can't be any better. The human filth, the impure that I've had to dispatch over the years. It's been a pleasure. Only wish I'd got to that pretty little redhead first.'
Buffy flared up with anger and pushed Riley foot off of her body, spinning on the floor and landing a square kick between his legs before pushing away. Riley yelped in pain and the girl in Buffy was extremely satisfied that he still had the tools to be hurt by that age old manoeuvre. He recovered quickly however, and Buffy scrambled to her feet. She could hear Angel yelling now.
Riley snarled at her. 'That one was for free. The next one is chargeable.'
'I don't have credit.' Buffy snapped back, landing a square kick to his chest and he stumbled backwards. He swung his handless arm towards her and almost connected with her head, but as she dodged, he struck out with the other arm, connecting and knocking her into a monitoring station, sparks flying as she destroyed the equipment.
'Was quite fun getting inside your hostile's head you know. He couldn't stand seeing all the torture you inflicted on him. Especially watching us together Buffy. We were so good. We could be better, you know.' He leered at her again, and grabbed her, pulling her body flush with his hard one and she felt sick. A quick headbutt solved the problem and he let go as she spun her way out of his grip. She dropped to the floor and scrambled for the machete, ignoring the fact that it was slick with Spike's blood.
'There's only one way you'll be better, Riley.' She swung the machete expertly, her eyes fixed on him with a deadly determination. 'In pieces.'
I-E-H
A/N: Do hope you all enjoyed that. I'm still working on the next chapter, hoping to have up soon. I've even got a week off work to try and get this story finished!