Chapter 52: Get It Done
Dawn kept watch over the Potentials. There were so many now, and from all over the world. In an effort to communicate, Giles had purchased stacks of foreign language books.
Dawn went upstairs, doing a sweep. Buffy was in bed with Willow; Sirius was in bed with Faith; Harry was in her bed. With the reveal that Sirius and Faith were now dating Harry, Dawn, Faith and Sirius agreed to the change in sleeping arrangements for the four of them. Since Ginny wasn't here Dawn had said Harry could sleep with her so that Sirius and Faith could share a bed.
Dawn heard crying and followed its path; a young girl was huddled on the floor at the end of the hall, her face hidden. "Chloe? It is Chloe, right?" she asked.
Wearing an expression of utter despair, Chloe looked up at her. But before she could speak, a flash of motion smashed violently into Dawn. She and her assailant crashed down the stairs with a bone-rattling slam onto the foyer floor.
Dawn was pinned, strong hands holding her shoulders tight. Dawn looked up and her eyes went wide at who she saw. In her war makeup and her Rasta braids, the Primitive, also known as the Slayer spirit, sat atop Dawn's chest like a nightmare.
"Sineya, First of the Ones," Dawn said.
The Primitive rasped at Dawn, "My daughter, tell your sister it is not enough."
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Dawn bolted awake. She tried to place where she was before realizing she was in her room. She slid out of bed and yelled. "Buffy!"
Dawn bolted to the door that separated her room from Buffy's and yanked it open to find her sister about to open it from her side. "The Slayer spirit told me to tell you that it's not enough."
"What is not enough?" Buffy asked.
"No idea," Dawn replied.
July 13,2003
"What are we doing here?" Robin asked looking at a vacant lot. "I thought you were taking me to your home."
"Read this," Buffy said as she held up a piece of paper. "Memorize it."
Robin took the paper that said: "The Summers' home is at 1630 Revello Drive, Sunnydale, California." As he got to the word Drive the air in front of them shimmered and the house appeared out of nowhere. "What the heck?"
"Magic," Buffy said as she led him toward the front door and inside. "We thought the Council could protect them. But unfortunately, no one was protecting the Council, and all their Watchers were killed. Word got out, and they've all been coming here since. We cloaked the house to protect the girls already here with a Fidelius Charm."
Andrew stomped into the room, his baker man ensemble complete with a white apron and red-and-white checked oven mitts. "Where the hell have you been?" he demanded, crossing his arms over his chest. "This funnel cake is kicking my ass."
"Robin Wood, this is . . . Andrew. Andrew is . . . actually, he's our hostage," Buffy finished.
Andrew said, "I like to think of myself more as a" —air quotes— "guestage."
"Well, he was evil, people got killed, and now he bakes," Buffy said. "It's a thing."
"Oh," Robin said.
Andrew narrowed his eyes at Buffy. "Could we try to just keep our secret headquarters a little bit more secret? Keep bringing people in, they're going to see everything. They'll see the big board."
"Andrew," Buffy said patiently, "we don't have a big board."
Oh, yes, they did.
Andrew fetched it, saying, "I made it myself."
"Oh, I wouldn't have guessed," Robin said, as he gazed at the dry-erase board labeled SUNNYDALE BIG BOARD with a Sharpie-drawn map and lots of pretty colors.
"This is us," Andrew said, pointing. "And this represents The First in various incarnations. There's no pattern to the naked eye yet, but the instant one emerges, yours truly is on it."
Buffy and Robin drifted away. Andrew called after Buffy, "Where do we put our receipts?"
They walked outside, where Dawn was putting the Potentials through their martial arts paces.
"Punch block combo!" she bellowed.
"Huh!" the Potentials shouted, snapping to.
"Cross block kick!"
"Huh!"
They were doing well, all but one . . . Chloe. She was not keeping up.
Dawn noticed and tried to give Chloe some positive reinforcement.
Buffy introduced Robin to the Potentials and said, "So, what do you think? My girls ready to kick some ass, or what?"
"Well, I'm just not sure The First has an ass that you can actually, you know, kick."
"Principal Wood, hi!" Amanda called, waving at him. "It's so weird seeing you outside of school."
Robin turned away, and Buffy looked at Dawn as she said glumly, "You're right. It's not enough."
"That's not what I said, Buffy," Robin argued thinking that she had been talking to him. "It's an impressive group of recruits."
"They're not recruits," she said. "Recruits are recruited. These girls were Chosen."
"You, Faith and Dawn are doing the best you can with what you've got."
Buffy would not be mollified. "They're not all going to make it. Some will die, and nothing I can do will stop that."
Willow popped out the back door with her arms brimming with weaponry. She put the weaponry to the side. She moved over next to Buffy and wrapped her arm around her wife.
"I take it you're Willow, Buffy's wife," Robin said before looking back at Buffy. "She's just as beautiful as you made her out to be."
Willow blushed. "Yeah I'm her one and only. And you must be Wood," she returned.
"Buffy said you like she and Dawn are a witch," Robin said.
"We also have some wizards here too," Buffy reminded Robin.
"Uh, if Dawn asks, her pointy stuff's right there," Willow said. "See you inside, baby." She wheeled around, "So much cooler than Snyder." Then she went inside.
"She the one that actually flayed a man alive?" he asked, intrigued.
Buffy sighed. "Yes, but don't remind her, please. It's taken awhile for her to get over that."
"Promise," Robin said as he looked at the weapons and then at the Potentials. "This isn't your full arsenal." Off her look, he added, "Show me the vampire."
Buffy led Robin back into the house and down the stairs into the basement. They found Faith sparring with Spike.
Faith turned and smiled. "Hey, Robin," she said.
"Hello, Faith," Robin said.
Spike checked out Robin and said, "And just what brings our good principal, I assume you're the principal, to this neck of the gloom?"
"I'm showing him our operation," Buffy told Spike and Faith. "Us."
"Fine by me," Spike replied, nodding. "Big fight against evil coming up. The more good guys we got, the longer we'll all live."
Robin did not look at him. "Is that what you are? A good guy?"
"I haven't heard any complaints. Well, I have heard a few complaints over the years, but then I just killed whoever spoke up, and that was pretty much that."
Robin turned around and looked at him.
"He's joking," Buffy cut in quickly.
"No. He's not," Robin said.
"No, I'm not," Spike concurred. "But . . . that's the old me I'm talking about."
"Oh, now that you have a soul," Robin said. "And how's that working out for you?"
"In progress," Spike said, lifting his chin.
"Well, you've had some time. You've been in Sunnydale, what ...?"
"Years," Spike said.
"How many?"
"A few," Spike replied tersely.
"Before that?"
"Around." Spike was not loving the third degree.
Faith and Buffy looked at each other feeling the tension. Buffy said to Robin, "We'd better get back upstairs."
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Robin left, and Harry and Buffy fell to sleeping bag duty in his and Dawn's room. It took a long time; there were a lot of Potentials sleeping at their house.
Sirius walked into the room holding a bag that Robin had left. "I took a look inside this," he. "Smelled weird."
"Anything we could use?" Harry wondered.
"Weapons and other items," Sirius answered. "Also, a large book." He held it up for display and began to flip through it. "It's not in English."
"Might need a spell to translate it," Buffy said. "Anything else?"
"Yes," Sirius told her. "A box, it seems to be sealed. It may be only opened by Wiccan magic or maybe a Slayer."
"Good. Keep on it." Buffy, followed by Sirius and Harry walked out of the room and into Faith and Sirius' bedroom.
There dangling from the ceiling was Chloe. She had used a sheet to form a noose, and she had done it right. Her face was blue and slight puffy. She was dead.
Kennedy, Rona, and Amanda joined them.
"What happened?" Kennedy asked. "We heard . . ." She gasped and covered her mouth.
"Harry," Buffy said, staring at the corpse, "get a knife."
"Good thinking," said Chloe . . . standing beside her dead body. They all knew they were gazing at The First. "Good thinking. But, on the other hand, why rush? Up or down, I'll still be dead."
"You're not Chloe," Buffy said coldly.
"Yeah, well, neither is she, anymore," The First said, as if she really didn't care. "Now she's just . . . Chloe's body."
"What did you do to her?" Kennedy demanded.
"Nothing! We just talked all night." She made a little face. "Well, I did most of the talking but Chloe is . . . I'm sorry, was . . . a good listener. Till she hung herself."
"Don't listen to it, any of you," Buffy ordered. "It's The First."
"Oh, let 'em," The First drawled. "The only reason why Chloe offered herself is 'cause she knew what you're not getting. I'm coming, you're going. All this . . ." she gestured ". . . is almost over."
"We'll be here," Buffy said grimly.
"All of you?" The First asked, with a raise of her brow. "But wait. I thought . . ." Her voice altered, becoming that of Buffy. "'They're not all going to make it. Some will die, and there's nothing I can do that will stop it.'" She shifted back to Chloe's voice. "Hey, I didn't say it. But I'll be seeing all of you, one by one." She added cheerily, "TTFN!" Then she disappeared, like a flash of light on the horizon.
"What's TTFN?" Buffy asked stolidly.
Rona swallowed hard. "It's 'ta ta for now.' It's what Tigger says when he leaves."
Amanda added anxiously, "Chloe loved Winnie the Pooh."
Buffy's voice was choked with anger and sorrow. "Harry," she managed, "where's that knife?"
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Faith, Dawn and Buffy dug the grave, placed Chloe next to Annabelle. Next to their failures. They went back into the house, where everyone had gathered; some were sitting in traumatic silence, others were sobbing quietly. Everyone was grieving.
"Anyone want to say a few words about Chloe?" Buffy asked, gazing around the group. No one spoke. "Let me." She paced, and then she said harshly, "Chloe was an idiot. Chloe was stupid. She was weak. And anyone in a rush to be the next dead body We bury, it's easy. Just think of Chloe, and do what she did. We'll find room for you next to her and Annabelle."
As they stared at her, Buffy continued, "Faith, Dawn and I are Slayers. The ones with the power. The First has us using that power to dig our graves. We've been carrying you—all of you—too far, too long. Ride's over."
Kennedy jumped to her feet and cried, "You three are out of line!"
"No," Willow said clearly, "they're not."
Kennedy looked at Willow. "You're Buffy's wife. Are you going to let her talk to you like that? She's not even the most powerful one in this room. With you here, she's not even close."
Buffy turned her attention to the young Potential. Close. Calm. "You're new here," she said, "and you're wrong. Because we use the power that we have. The rest of you are just waiting for us."
Xander ventured forth. "Well, yeah, but only because you kind of told us to. You three are the leaders, Buffy, as in 'follow the.'"
"Well, from now on, we're your leaders as is 'do what we say,'" Buffy shot back.
"Yes, sir," Xander said, with an edge. "But let's not try to forget, we're also your friends."
"I'm not," Anya piped up.
Buffy whirled on her and said, "Then why are you here? Aside from getting rescued, what is it that you do?"
"You will be silent, daughter."
Everyone turned and looked at Dawn and saw that her eyes were absent of any color. Buffy herself realized what was happening, the Slayer spirit was possessing her sister, again.
"I am Sineya, First of the Ones. I am the one that is known as the Slayer spirit, that resides in all Chosen both those called and those waiting to be called. It is time to stand up and rally yourselves. Divided you will crumble and the line that began with me will end with you. You must find the POWER to take the fight to The First Evil." Dawn turned and looked at Buffy. She walked toward her sister, placed a hand on Buffy's forehead and Buffy's eyes clouded over.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Buffy found herself in a cave standing at the edge of a precipice and looking out. She saw thousands of Turok-Han. An army, massing, preparing to march.
To devour.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
"Now, daughter, you know what you face. Prepare." Dawn said. She then collapsed into her sister's arms.
"Buffy?" Willow said as she moved beside her wife. "What did you see?"
Buffy looked at the Potentials and then at Willow. "Scooby meeting," she said. She lifted her sister into arms and headed upstairs as Faith, Anya, Willow, Xander, Sirius and Harry followed.
Buffy set Dawn down on Dawn's bed and then turned to face her friends and family. "The Slayer spirit showed me a vision. The First has an army of ubervamps. I saw thousands of them and their ready to march."
"So, what do we do?" Harry asked.
"Everything's terrible!" Giles cried as he stepped into the bedroom. None of them had heard the front door open, Giles asking where they were or his footsteps on the stairs. "A full catastrophe!"
"Giles, what's wrong?" Buffy said.
"The seers in the coven are certain The First is continuing to gather its forces," Giles said gravely, "I'm afraid war is inevitable."
"We know," Buffy said. She waved her hand at Dawn. "Seems the Slayer spirit has been possessing my sister again. It showed me a vision of what we're up against. So, did you bring back any Potentials?"
"Ah, no. Actually, my trip was about something else," Giles replied. "Regarding Spike. I told you my concerns when you recklessly chose to remove the chip from his head."
"Buffy had no choice," Harry said.
"He wouldn't hurt anyone, Giles," Buffy insisted. "He has a soul now."
"Unless the First triggers him again," Giles argued.
"The trigger's not working anymore," Faith said. "Right?"
"We don't know that the trigger's inactive," Giles argued. "But what I've brought may help us to disarm it. And ascertain what it is, exactly, that causes Spike's behavior."
"It was that song, Giles," Buffy said. "I'm telling you; it was the song he was singing."
"Yes, but he has no memory of it," Giles pointed out. He looked at Buffy and Faith. "Is there any part of it that you two can remember?"
"Something old," Faith said. "Maybe a folk song. Didn't really pay close enough attention. Not my kind of music. Assuming he's not de-triggered. This thing you brought will do it?"
"Maybe," Giles said.
July 14, 2003
Buffy and Faith decided to wait till Dawn was awake before attempting what Giles had brought. After all only Willow or Dawn could do it as it would only react to Wiccan magic, not wand.
Muttering to himself, Xander shackled Spike to the basement wall.
"Could have put the chains back up a week ago," he muttered, "Oh, no, we have to work on Spike now, of all times . . ."
"What?" Spike demanded.
"Nothing," Xander replied.
Spike spotted Robin standing a bit away from the others and asked him testily, "What you doing here? You came to see the show?"
"I thought you might need the support," Robin drawled. Buffy had called him and filled him on everything that they had learned and what they were about to do.
"Uh-huh," Spike said, completely unconvinced. He turned to Giles and said, "Right. Let's get this over with. What're you going to do? Some hypnobeam or disarming spell?"
"Not exactly," Giles said. "The First has brainwashed you. There's something in your subconscious that it's using to provoke a violent reaction." He held up a small strange object. "So, we have to put this in your brain."
Spike stared in horror at what appeared to be a pebble between Giles's fingers. "Bugger that."
"The Prokaryote stone will move within your mind to reveal the root of the trigger's power," Giles explained. "It can unleash ideas, images, memories. Hopefully, once you understand what's setting you off, you can break its hold on you."
"'Hopefully,'" Dawn echoed. "So, it might not work."
"The stone's only a catalyst for the process," Giles explained, replacing the stone into a box. "The rest is up to Spike."
"And how d'you expect to get that hunk of rubble into my cranium?" Spike demanded waspishly.
Giles turned to Dawn and Willow who. Willow held a large, ancient text. They took a step forward and Willow said, "Okay. Just hope our pronunciation's in the ballpark."
Willow and Dawn began: "Kun'ati belek sp'sion. Bok'vata im kele'beshus. Ek'vota. Mor'osh boot'ke."
The stone began to slither and stretch into an unappetizingly leechlike creature.
Spike was distressed, to say the least. "Oh, you have got to be joking," he said loudly. "What now?"
Calmly, Giles explained, "It has to enter your cerebral cortex through the optic nerve."
"Oh, bollocks." Spike stared at the creature. "All the rubbish people keep sticking in my head . . . it's a wonder there's any room for my brain."
"I don't think it takes up that much space, do you?" Giles asked. He lifted the box to Spike's cheek. The creature undulating out of the box and crawled onto Spike's cheek, then flattened like a worm and eased its way into his eye.
Then he cried out in pain and yanked on his chains.
Contact.
Spike gritted, "How am I supposed to know if this bug ugly's doing its—"
Before anyone could stop him, Spike lunged from the basement cot in a frenzy, full-on vamp mode. He hit Buffy, slamming her across the room, lunging, fighting. He picked up his cot and flung it across the room, hitting Dawn. She fell to the ground.
"Dawn!" Harry and Sirius cried. "Buffy!" Harry hurried to Buffy while Sirius hurried to Dawn. They took the pair upstairs as Willow followed them.
Faith prepared to take on Spike when he froze. Then the Prokaryote slithered out of his eye and clattered to the floor, once more a solid object.
Spike morphed back to human guise. "Get me out of these sodding things already!" he cried, humiliated. "I'm fine." He said to Giles. "Stone of yours is out, in'it? Did its job. So, I'm de-triggered, right?"
"Spike," Giles asked. "What do you remember? About the song?"
"Oh, yeah." Spike sighed. "The song. It's called 'Early One Morning.' Old folk ditty."
"What does it mean to you?" Robin queried.
"Mean? Nothing. Just . . ." The next word did not come easily. "My mum. It was her favorite. She used to sing it to me." Self-consciously he added, "When I was a baby."
"And...?" Giles prodded him.
"No 'and.' That's it," Spike shot back.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Willow, Harry and Sirius were taking care of Buffy and Dawn upstairs. Buffy had a bad gash on her head and as Willow ministered to her, she said, "Ow!"
"Sorry, baby," Willow said. "It doesn't look like anything's broken."
"How is Dawn?" Buffy asked.
"She is fine," Sirius answered. "I will wake her if you want."
"No let her sleep," Buffy said. "Between the Slayer spirit possessing her and Spike knocking her out. She could probably use the rest. That said could one of you stay with her and make sure she doesn't have a concussion?"
"I'll stay, Buffy," Sirius assured his goddaughter.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
"Mr. Giles, do you have a moment?"
Giles turned toward Wood. "What's on your mind?" he asked.
"Same thing that's on yours," Robin said. "We've got ourselves a problem."
Giles understood.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Later Giles, Faith and Buffy walked through a cemetery. He had wanted to bring Dawn but Buffy had objected and reminded him that not only had Dawn been possessed recently by the Slayer spirit but she had also been knocked unconscious. Dawn need to rest while the Slayer spirit healed her body. So, Giles reluctantly agreed to leave Dawn at home.
"I don't know, Giles," Buffy said. "Is this really a primo time for a training mission?"
"I'm still your teacher, Buffy," he asserted. "And no matter how adept a Slayer you are, there'll always be new things to learn. Now more than ever it's crucial to maintain the focus upon your calling."
"You make it sound like B and I are sixteen again," Faith said. "And lest you forget, Giles. When I was sixteen it wasn't the best time of my life."
Giles sighed and nodded. He did know. Before he had been fired during Buffy's senior year in high school, he had reviewed the file the Watcher's Council had on Faith. He knew about what the Lehanes had done to their daughter.
"You two may not be sixteen," Giles offered. "But the most effective way of moving forward is to start at the beginning," he observed.
They came to a stop near a fresh grave. Buffy turned to him, saying, "In case you haven't noticed, our plates are kind of full right now. Plus, not sure how I feel about Robin looking after Spike at his place."
He said frostily, "For what it's worth, everyone in your house seemed quite relieved by the arrangement." Then, "Buffy, Faith, I may not technically be a Watcher for either of you anymore, but the fact that your lives are such chaos only underscores the importance of the lessons I can impart to you both."
Buffy glanced at Faith who shrugged, she looked back at Giles. "Fine. Impart away."
So, he began. "We are on the verge of war. It's time we looked at the big picture."
"Did you forget the vision the Slayer spirit showed me?" Buffy asked.
"I did not," Giles said.
"I've seen the big picture," Buffy said. "Thousands of ubervamps…"
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Wood escorted Spike past the door to his apartment and toward the padlocked side door of his garage. Spike was a bit taken aback.
"Live in a garage?" he asked.
As Wood started unlocking the padlock, he said, "This is just my work room. Kind of my . . . sanctuary."
"Little place to unwind, huh," Spike ventured, while Wood opened the door and started inside.
"Hard day principaling got you down, you need a place to cut loose, let down your hair. So to speak."
They were inside and stood in darkness for a moment. Not a problem for Spike, who, as a vampire, could see in the dark . . . and then the lights went on and he registered the dozens and dozens of crosses, all shapes and sizes, blanketing the walls. It looked like something out of the bloody Omega Man
"What the bloody hell's this?" he demanded. He felt as if he had just swallowed ice.
Wood said affably, "I told you. My sanctuary. It's the Hellmouth, Spike. You can never be too careful."
On a tool bench sat a laptop, surrounded by bookcases filled with books.
Wood gestured. "Stay away from the walls. You'll be all right."
Spike looked around the room. "Bit much, in'it?" He scrutinized the principal. "What's your story, Wood?"
He turned on the computer. A menu came up and he began to type.
Spike's spider sense was tingling.
"No story, really," Robin said. "Trying to do what's right, make a difference." He looked over his shoulder at Spike. "How about you? What kind of man are you, Spike?"
"Sorry," Spike said tersely. "Not much for self-reflection."
"Yeah," Robin replied, equally tense. "Makes sense."
Whatever the principal had on the screen appeared to satisfy him. Then he pulled open a large drawer in the bench. Spike couldn't see what was inside, but it had caught the man's attention.
"See," the man said, "you strike me as the type of guy who careens through `life completely oblivious to the damage he's doing to everyone around him."
Spike bristled. "That right?"
"I know more about you than you think, Spike," Wood continued. "I've been searching for you for a very . . . very long time." He glared at the vampire. "Ever since you killed my mother."
Spike's anxiety level decreased. Oh, is this all that's about. "Killed a lot of people's mothers," he said.
Robin turned back around and said in a dangerous voice, "Oh, you'd remember mine."
Then, as Spike looked on, he fastened metal braces onto his arms, one extending down to end in a rack of brass knuckles, bit of gladiator-style studded spike at the base of the elbow. The other brace was smaller, fitting over his hand like a wrist protector.
"She was a Slayer," Wood added, with soft, deadly menace.
Ah. It all came together in one package wrapped in revenge. "So that's it, is it? Brought me here to kill me?"
Wood slowly turned around to face him. "No. I don't want to kill you, Spike. I want to kill the monster who took my mother from me."
Then he tapped a key on the laptop, and from the speakers spilled a Scots Joan Baez-like folk version of Spike's mother's favorite song:
"Early one morning, just as the sun was rising . . ."
Spike tensed, gaze darting with fear as his face morphed.
"Oh, there he is," Robin Wood said calmly.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
In the graveyard Buffy and Faith fought with a pair of vampires, flipping them onto their backs, straddling them, and whipped out their stakes. They were about to finish them off when Giles said, "Don't kill them yet."
Faith, Buffy and the vampires looked over at Giles. "Why not?" Faith asked.
"Because I'm asking you both not to," he informed the Slayers.
Buffy and Faith rolled away and the vampires got back up on their feet and the four of them squared off again.
Giles said, "Would you two let these vampires live if it meant saving the world?"
"Sure," Faith answered. She glanced at the vampires. "Seems like nice enough guys."
"Thanks," Faith's vampire said uncertainly.
They fought a little to stay in the game, and then Buffy turned to Giles and said, "Giles, you and I had this conversation before. When I told you, I wouldn't sacrifice Dawn to stop Glory from destroying the world."
"But things are different now, aren't they? After what you've been through. Knowing what you're up against. Faced with the same choice now . . . you'd let her die."
"No," Buffy said as she staked her vampire. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Faith stake her vampire. "I would not."
"So, you really don't understand the difficult decisions you'll have to make," Giles said. "That any one of us are expendable in this war . . ."
"I understand people may die," Buffy said. "But no one is expendable. I will not ask anyone to sacrifice themselves for the world. If Dawn or Harry wanted out, I would have Sirius take them to Grimmauld Place. I would not ask them to sacrifice themselves for the world. I can only make that decision for myself. The Potentials should all get to make the same choice. You know why I have trained Dawn? It wasn't to fight. It was so she didn't have to if she didn't want to. I will not send anyone like lambs to the slaughter to win the war. I will find another way." She pulled out her cell phone and dialed. "Willow, is Dawn awake as Faith and I need a portal."
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Spike was nearly comatose, his eyes glassy as if he was on drugs. Blood streamed down his face.
"Animal like you," Robin flung at Spike, "never cared for anyone but yourself." He striped his mother's coat off the monster's body and laid it gently on the table. "No one else mattered. Just all about the hunt." He pulled a small wooden cross off the wall with a bit of effort.
I'm free, Spike thought in wonder. He felt himself released from the trigger, felt the guilt and shame evaporate along with his memories. His face had changed to his man's features.
He grabbed the principal's arm and kicked him in the chest. The other man reeled backward.
"Sorry?" Robin demanded. "You think 'sorry' is going to make everything right?"
"I wasn't talking to you," Spike tossed off.
That enraged Robin, who launched a full attack, but Spike defended himself skillfully, deflecting each blow. Then he executed a round kick to Robin's head, dazing him.
"I don't give a piss about your mum," he informed Robin Wood. "She was a Slayer. I was a vampire."
Robin attacked; Spike gave it right back.
"That's the way the game is played."
"Game?!" Wood shouted, astonished.
"She knew what she was signing up for," Spike retorted, punishing Robin with a brace of hard blows.
"Well, I didn't sign up for it," Robin argued.
"Well, that's the rub, in'it?" Spike said. "You didn't sign up for it, and somehow that's my fault."
Robin threw punches; Spike dodged and deflected them. "You took my childhood . . . when you took her away from me. She was all I had! She was my world!"
Spike stayed with the fight. "And you weren't hers. Does it piss you off?"
Robin hesitated, then came at Spike again. "Shut up!" he shouted. "You didn't know her!" His swing was awkward; Spike avoided it, then pummeled him, beating him to his knees.
"I know Slayers. No matter how many people they got around them, they fight alone," Spike said coldly. Then he beat Wood to his knees. "Life of the Chosen One. The rest of us be damned. Your mum was no different."
Bloody and beaten, Wood stared blearily up at him with desperate defiance. "She . . . she loved me."
Spike delivered the final blow. "So, she said, I expect. But not enough to quit though, was it? Not enough to walk away. For you."
Robin did not respond. He could not. Broken on the floor, he was . . . shattered.
Spike gave each of them a few moments, and then he said. "I'll tell you a story. 'Bout a mother and a son. See, like you, I loved my mother. So much so, I turned her into a vampire so we could be together forever." He paused, then added. "She said some nasty bits to me after I did that. Been weighing on me for quite some time."
He paced, running it through.
"But you helped me figure something out. You see, unlike you . . ." He didn't mind saying that. ". . . I had a mother who loved me back. When I sired her, I set loose a demon that tore into me. But that was the demon talking, not her. I realize that now."
He finally understood, was finally free.
"My mother loved me with all her heart. I was her world."
Confidently he crossed to the laptop and hit a key. The folksy rendition of "Early One Morning" began to play. He listened calmly.
"That's a nice little song you got there," he said to the ravaged man on the floor.
He listened a little longer, then stopped the music.
"Thanks, doctor. You cured me after all."
Menacingly, he advanced on the defenseless man. "I've got my own free will now. I'm not under The First, or anyone's influence now."
He stared up at Spike looming over him.
"I just wanted you to know that . . . before I kill you."
He morphed into vamp face, yanked up his enemy, and bit him, hard . . .
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Giles followed Buffy and Faith. "You don't see it, Buffy," he said as she waited for Dawn to open a portal. "Spike is a liability, Buffy. He refuses to see that. Angel left because he realized how harmful your relationship with him was. Spike, on the other hand, lacks such self-awareness."
Faith got up in Giles' face. "Spike is here not because of Buffy," she seethed as Buffy began to realize that during the last year since flatlining and being brought back that Faith had some form of a relationship with Spike. "Spike is here because I want him here. The only people strong enough to face the ubervamps are me, Buffy, Dawn and Spike. No one else has the strength we do."
"Even after what he did to you, Faith?" Giles asked.
"What?" Buffy said as she looked between Giles and Faith.
"She didn't tell you did she, Buffy?" Giles said surprised that Faith hadn't said anything. "Spike raped her."
Buffy's hand went to her face in shock as she watched Faith turn and run away. She saw the hurt and shame in Faith's eyes.
Buffy rounded on Giles and slapped him. "I think you've taught us everything we need to know. Go back to England, you are not welcome in my home anymore. You know what Faith went through in Boston. You should have let her tell me that when she was ready." She turned and ran after Faith.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Buffy found Faith in a mausoleum a couple cemeteries over. She walked up to the other Slayer and pulled Faith into a comforting embrace. "Does Sirius know?"
"No," Faith answered. "Just as with you, I was too ashamed to admit it to anyone."
Buffy pulled out her cell phone and dialed again. "Willow, is Dawn awake… Good, there is a change of plans. Send Sirius to us."
The portal formed before them and Sirius stepped out of it.
Buffy smiled at her godfather as she handed Faith to him. "Love her, Sirius. With everything you have. She needs that and more."
Sirius looked at Buffy and then Faith, saw the tears in Faith's eyes and nodded in understanding.