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The New Initiative by
"No it's true, I swear to God." "Spike, you're a vampire. Shouldn't that make your tongue burst into flames or something?" "Only if I'm lying, whelp." "Seriously, five girls at one time?" "I never said they were all girls." Xander blushed suddenly. "You mean you... with guys?" Spike looked at him with raised eyebrows. "What did you think I was doing with Angelus for all those years?" "That is *so* not the image I want in my brain right before I go to sleep. You realize I'm going to have nightmares now." "Don't be such a prude, whelp. Sex between blokes can be much better than with birds. You can't tell me you've never thought about it." Xander was finding the ground particularly interesting at that moment. "Nope, never thought about it. I'm a guy. A big, manly, macho guy and... Oh, look. My apartment building. Well, thanks for pulling that demon off me earlier, and walking me home, although I didn't need it. No vampire can stand against the Xandman when he's psyched for battle. Remind me to buy you a beer sometime. Well, see ya." Xander made his escape into the building, watched by an amused and slightly hopeful vampire. Spike continued to watch until he was sure the boy was safely inside his apartment, then turned and started walking back towards his crypt. --- Xander threw his keys down on the table just inside the door as he entered his new apartment. He chuckled as he thought back to some of the jokes the vampire had told on the trip home, but was still rather embarrassed at the turn the conversation had taken towards the end. He was finding himself enjoying the blonde's company more and more, but there was no way he could ever let on to him that he had indeed had thoughts of sleeping with a guy, considering who his fantasy guy was. Since Anya had left him two months previously, Spike seemed to be the only one who could cheer him up. The others all tried their best, but he felt almost stifled by their enthusiastic attempts to lift him out of his depression. It wasn't that he missed Anya particularly. It was more the idea of her, and the feeling that someone wanted him just for being him. He couldn't help feeling that he was never going to have a normal, successful relationship. Being around Spike helped. He was insulting and obnoxious, but Xander never felt any malice behind his words. In fact arguing with Spike was becoming one of his favourite past-times. He got the impression that the vampire was enjoying it too. They found themselves patrolling together more often than not. His friends had seemed to twig that the pair of them worked well as a team, and the vampire was raising fewer objections to helping the Scoobies recently. There was no denying that he was a helpful addition to a demon-fighting squad, with his strength and extra-fast vampire reflexes. Plus, he had a lot of aggression to work out since he was incapable of harming humans. Xander was shocked when he'd first realized that he thought of the blond vampire as a friend now. He was shocked still further when he discovered himself watching and appreciating the way Spike's body moved during a fight. After a fairly major wiggins, he'd decided to just accept the fact that he was possibly gay. To test it he had started checking out other guys to see if he found any attractive but so far that hadn't worked. None of the guys had caused any reaction in him, except Spike. Cursing himself for falling into an attraction that could never come to anything, he decided to simply ignore it and enjoy the vampire's friendship. --- Xander walked
into his kitchen area and opened the fridge, hoping to find something for
a late-night snack. He was dismayed to discover that, not only was there very
little edible food, but he was also out of milk and orange juice. He sniffed
into a tub of Chinese take-out Deciding that he needed food before he went to bed, he picked up a stake and cross, tucking them into his waistband for easy access. He was still high on adrenaline from the earlier fight and figured that a walk down to the nearest 24-hour convenience store would help him burn off the extra energy. The night was calm and quiet, and Xander felt confident that he would hear any approaching demons before they had the chance to snack on him. He walked cautiously, well aware of the dangers inherent in wandering around Sunnydale alone at night. Despite his weaponry, Xander was starting to feel a little uneasy about his late-night walk. Something was pricking at the edge of his awareness, and he'd almost decided to go back to his apartment when the sharp crack of wood breaking nearby made him pause. He turned in a circle, scanning the darkness for threats, but found none. There was a sudden noise to his left and he whirled around sharply, grabbing the stake from his waistband. A painful sting in his thigh made him yelp, and he reached down automatically to swat away whatever insect had attacked him. A small dart, similar to the ones Willow used to use on Oz, met his fingers, and he realized immediately what it was for when his vision started to cloud over. His mind was awash with fear and confusion as he dimly felt himself fall to the ground. He was unconscious before he hit it. --- Giles looked up from his book when he heard the tinkling bell of the door opening. It was rather late for customers, but he certainly wouldn't turn down a sale. He frowned a little in general irritation when he saw the smug blond vampire enter with a proprietary air. "Spike, what do you want? And don't smoke in here! How many times do I have to tell you?" Spike tossed his half-finished cigarette to the floor and ground it out with the sole of his boot, earning himself a pained glare from the watcher. He glanced about, a little surprised to see Giles alone in the magic shop. "What's going on? Is there an emergency? You know, if there's demon arse to be kicked it's only fair that you tell me about it. Why should you white hat types have all the fun when you don't even enjoy it." "I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about, Spike. Why do you think something is happening? Weren't you supposed to be patrolling with Xander again tonight?" The vampire's expression of unconvincing righteous indignation was replaced by a slightly worried frown. "Yeah, but he wasn't home when I went round to collect him. I figured he must be here. You don't know where he is?" The former-watcher didn't seem too concerned. "I wouldn't worry unduly. He's probably late finishing work today, or possibly he's met someone new. That would certainly be welcome. He deserves a bit of happiness, and he's been so miserable since Anya left." Spike growled at the mention of Xander's ex-girlfriend, or it might have been at the thought of Xander meeting someone else. "Well, that's just rude! Standing a bloke up for a new bit of stuff." "If you're that keen to patrol tonight, Buffy and Riley were supposed to be going out with Willow for a sweep round the older cemeteries. I'm sure they wouldn't mind you joining them. Well, not a lot, anyway." The vampire seemed a little distracted by his thoughts. "Huh? Oh, yes, I'll do that. And if I bump into the whelp I'll damn well give him a piece of my mind!" Spike left the shop in a swirl of black leather, and Giles went back to his book, shaking his head at the strangeness of some of his charges. --- "So where's Riley tonight?" the red-haired witch asked with a voice slightly muffled by the large lollipop she had in her mouth. "He got an important phone-call just before coming out. He said he'd catch us up in a bit." "I guess we don't really need him. We've got the whole slayer-wicca thing going on. The forces of darkness tremble before us!" Buffy laughed at her best-friend's antics. "I'm not seeing too much trembling going on, Wills. In fact I'm not seeing a whole lot of forces of darkness, either. This place is deader than usual tonight." She paused, catching sight of something approaching them. "And speaking of deader..." Willow looked to see what had caught the slayer's attention. She bounced perkily. "Hi Spike! What are you doing here? I thought you were patrolling with Xander in town tonight." Buffy frowned in concern as she saw the pre-occupied and worried expression on the blonde's face. "Spike, what's up?" "Have either of you two seen the whelp tonight? He's not at the magic shop and I've checked his apartment twice." Willow shook her head, suddenly a lot less perky. "No, we haven't seen him. Have you been to the construction site? He might have gotten the chance to do some overtime." Spike brightened up at the suggestion. "That's a good idea, Red. I'll do that. Check the Bronze too. Giles seemed to think he might have hooked up with someone, but he wouldn't do that, would he. Still, it's worth checking out." Buffy found herself warming to the blond vampire at the obvious concern for their friend. She gave him a semi-friendly smile. "Don't worry, Spike, I'm sure he's okay. If we see him we'll tell him you were looking for him." "Thanks, pet." Spike replied over his shoulder distractedly, as he hurried away to continue his search. The two girls continued their patrol, strolling quietly between the gravestones. Willow finished her lollipop and stuck the stick in her pocket to throw away later. "I've never seen Spike so flustered before. Do you think Xander's alright?" "I'm sure he is, Will. I think I'll swing by the construction site tomorrow, though, just to make sure." Buffy was interrupted by a shout from behind them and the sound of running feet. Riley rushed up, breathing hard and obviously excited. "Buffy! Oh, hey Willow. Buffy, that phone call was from Graham Miller. You remember him; he was one of my guys in the Initiative and stayed in the military after I got out." "Sure, Riley, I remember him. He seemed like a decent guy." The slayer was a little bemused by her boyfriend's uncharacteristic excitement. "Yeah, he is. Well, they've got a new mission, some demon nest in the rainforest they need to clear out, and they've asked me to go along as a civilian advisor. This is the sort of thing I'd be perfect for. Instead of taking orders, I'd be giving them, and I think I can really help out with this sort of situation. The only thing is, I'd have to leave tonight. It'll only be for three weeks max. Do you mind?" Buffy was rather taken aback by his enthusiasm. "I thought you wanted to get *out* of the military, not get back in." "This wouldn't be like before. As a civilian advisor I wouldn't just be dumbly taking orders, and the equivalent rank is actually a promotion." His tone was pleading for his girlfriend to understand. "Graham assured me that they're just going to clear out the nest. No secret projects or experiments, and Graham wouldn't lie to me. I really want to give the government a second chance to do good, and I really believe I can help." Buffy was quick
to reassure her boyfriend, who could be extremely sensitive about being useful.
"Yeah, you're probably the best person to do this. I guess I'd feel better
about the government interfering in monsterville if you're around to advise
them. I'm going to miss "You're the best, you know that. I'm really sorry I have to go so quickly, but I'll be back before you know it." He placed a last quick kiss on Buffy's lips and sped off, presumably to go and prepare. The two girls watched him go and Buffy sighed. Willow turned to her. "Buffy? Aren't you worried about him, you know, being brainwashed by the government or something?" "Yeah, a
little, but it'll probably be fine. The government must have realized by now
how badly they do when they try to get involved with the demon underworld.
Besides, it's not like I could force Riley to stay. Well, I could, but he'd
hate me for it. He has some issues Willow smiled fondly at her. "I hope Riley appreciates you, Buffy." "He does, Will, he does." --- It is said that hearing is the first of the five senses to return to an unconscious person. This didn't appear to be the case when Xander woke up. The first thing that he was aware of was pain, a dull pounding in his head, and he wondered fuzzily for a moment just how much he'd had to drink the previous night. He considered opening his eyes for a long time. It seemed to be a lot of bother just to see what he was sure was the sight of his own, familiar bedroom. An itch on his nose flared up to interrupt his musings, and he turned his drifting thought processes to the contemplation of scratching that itch. After a short time the persistent itch became sufficiently annoying that he raised his arm to scratch it. Or tried to. Xander became rather alarmed when he realized that his arm wasn't working, and he peeled his eyes open, blinking rapidly at the bright light. Terror washed away the remaining effects of whatever drugs were still in his system, as he registered his situation. The reason he
couldn't move was due to the fact that he was strapped down to what felt unpleasantly
like a dentist's chair. It was in a mostly reclined position, and his arms
and legs were secured firmly with strong velcro straps. Despite furious, panicked
struggles, he He seemed to be in a small white room. All he could see was a wall in front of him and two walls to the sides. There didn't appear to be any furniture, apart from the chair, and Xander presumed that the door must be behind him, beyond his field of vision. There were panicked yells ringing through the otherwise quiet room, and Xander was startled to discover that they were coming from him. His cries were causing his head to pound in earnest, and he controlled himself, quieting down and allowing his body to relax. The headache subsided a little, and he turned his energy to trying to figure out who had taken him, and how quickly his friends would be able to rescue him. Just as he was dismally concluding that he had no idea about either question, he heard the sound of a door opening behind him, and heavy footsteps echoing in the small room. He twisted his head round to see what was approaching him, and wasn't particularly reassured by the sight of a soldier carrying a clipboard. The soldier stopped in front of the chair and peered at the clipboard, ignoring Xander's frantic pleas to tell him what the fuck was going on. He let the clipboard drop to his side and his eyes swept over Xander from head to foot. Xander flushed with embarrassment when he realized that he was wearing only a flimsy white hospital gown. When he spoke, the soldier's voice was brisk, and sounded almost friendly. "Mr. Harris, I'm Major Sanderson. Let me be the first to officially welcome you to the New Initiative." Xander managed to plaster a sarcastic look on his face, although he was feeling terribly vulnerable, held immobile and covered only by the flimsiest of garments. "You have *got* to be kidding me! You do know what a spectacular mess happened the last time you guys tried this, don't you." "Yes, the
failure of the original Initiative was unfortunate. However, it has been determined
that the aims and methods were fundamentally sound. We believe they would
have succeeded, but for some disruptive elements. We're not going to make
the same mistakes Xander interrupted loudly. "Recruited me! Fuck you, if you think I'm ever going to work for you." "Mr. Harris, please calm down. I'm afraid we're not giving you a choice in this matter. You'll be serving your country for the benefit of all mankind, removing the underworld threat and assisting in creating a powerful weapon for the defence of your country and way of life." "You're mad." Xander was seriously concerned about this man's sanity. He seemed to be trying to persuade him that working for this 'New Initiative' would be a good thing. He let out a shaky laugh, although he was far from seeing any humour in his situation. "You want to make another Adam. You can't possibly think that I'll help you." Major Sanderson smiled wryly at the captive man. "Mr. Harris, I've read your complete dossier. I'm well aware of the fact that you won't work with us willingly. As I said before, you're not being given a choice in the matter. I've been assigned as your handler, and it's my responsibility to ensure that you are fully co-operative. We'll begin your training shortly." Xander was rapidly becoming very alarmed by this conversation. His heartbeat was racing and he could feel a cold sweat breaking out on his skin. He didn't think he'd ever been in a worse situation, but he was determined not to break down in front of this man. His handler, and just what the fuck did *that* mean. Xander felt his
arms straining against the straps, and he urged himself to relax and calm
down. He wasn't going to lose it here, he just wasn't. He tried to speak,
but all he could manage was "I won't co-operate." This was starting
to feel like some very bad spy movie, The Major looked at Xander for a moment, then spoke, bewildering Xander with the apparent change of subject. "Your dossier indicates that you are familiar with the original Initiative's escaped test subject, Hostile Seventeen. In fact there are reports that it actually took shelter in your place of residence for a short time." "Spike? He's a he, not an it." Xander was annoyed and worried by the Major's reference to the vampire. He was suddenly distracted by the realization that Spike was in very great danger from this new group of soldiers. He would surely be a prime target, and could possibly have been captured or killed already. Xander bit his lip to stop himself from asking if Spike was alright, knowing that it would only display one of his vulnerabilities. Major Sanderson continued speaking. "You must therefore be aware of the efficacy of the behavioural modification circuit embedded in it's brain. That was an experimental procedure and we're delighted with how effective it has been." Xander *really* didn't like where he saw this conversation going. The pounding in his head renewed with full force, prompting thoughts of why exactly he had a headache. "There have
been several new models of the 'be-mod chip', as we like to call it informally.
We now have the capability to actually program specific instructions into
it's circuitry, and modulate the stimulus level for training purposes."
He pulled a small device out of one of He pressed a button
on the device, and Xander's senses were immediately overwhelmed by the searing
pain coursing through his brain. It felt like something white-hot had been
shoved up inside the base of his skull and was stirring his brain matter.
Sharp tendrils The initial pain was over in a second, replaced by the accumulated aches throughout his body. His head was pounding at full force, and his chest was heaving as he fought to breathe again. He could feel sharp stings at his wrists and ankles where the edges of the straps had cut into him as he convulsed against them. His shocked mind was beginning the slide into unconsciousness when he registered that the Major was speaking again. He couldn't see clearly any longer, but he heard "Your training will begin when you've recovered." just before the world went black. --- Spike stumbled wearily into his crypt, chased by the first rays of a new dawn. He had never hated the sunlight more than now, when it forced him to cease the search for his missing friend. It had been four days since the boy had gone missing, and there hadn't been a single clue as to his whereabouts. Buffy had gone to the construction site to check on Xander the day after the girls had met Spike in the cemetery. He wasn't there, and she learnt that Xander hadn't been in to work the day before, either. That meant that no-one had laid eyes on the boy since Spike walked him home from patrol, telling him stories about his sexual conquests. The panic button
was officially pushed, and the full might of the Scooby Gang was brought into
action. Buffy questioned the people in Xander's apartment building, and anyone
she met on the street, while Giles started calling hospitals. The two witches
attempted a locator At night, patrol was forsaken for searching every corner of Sunnydale and questioning anyone they came across. There were very few demons about, and any that they found were interrogated brutally by the slayer or the vampire, and then killed. After three days and nights of searching, exhaustion and despair were starting to sink in. There wasn't an inch of Sunnydale that they hadn't already searched twice at least. The slayer had even beaten up Willy, which would have been fun for Spike to watch, if he hadn't been so worried about Xander. So now Spike was forced to wait in his crypt until the sun set again. It was incredibly frustrating not being able to help during the day. The previous day he'd spent searching the caves and sewers, but there wasn't even a hint that anyone had been in them recently, and they'd decided that there wouldn't be much point in searching them again. His one consolation was that the various members of the Scooby Gang would stop by regularly to keep him updated. He was very grateful to them for keeping him fully involved when they could so easily have been distrustful and ignored him. After a couple of hours of trying to rest, Spike heard a knocking on the door of his crypt. He made sure that he wouldn't be in the path of any sunlight that came in and called a greeting. Willow opened the door, struggling slightly against the weight, and entered the crypt, being careful to close the door completely behind her. Spike could tell by the look on her face that they hadn't found him, but he had to ask. "Any news, pet?" Willow shook her head glumly and went to sit on top of a sarcophagus. The vampire sat down next to her, needing the closeness but not sure whether he wanted to give or receive comfort from the fragile red-head. "What happened when you talked to those pathetic excuses for human beings who call themselves his parents? Did they help?" Willow laughed bitterly. "They don't care. They said they haven't seen him for weeks and they didn't seem particularly bothered about it. His dad told me that if Xander turned up, I was to tell him that he owed rent for the storage of some of his old stuff." Spike could see the tears forming rapidly in her eyes and pulled her close, wrapping his arms around her shaking shoulders. She poured her overwrought feelings out into his chest. "God, Spike! We don't know what to do. We've tried everything we can think of and he's just *gone*! He's been my best friend since we were both four, and I love him. I can't lose him like this, I can't." The vampire tried his best to comfort the distraught witch, but in truth all he wanted to do was curl himself up around her and weep. --- Xander sat on
the floor in the corner of his room with his arms wrapped tightly around his
knees, and rocked. He was aware that he was doing it but couldn't seem to
stop, wasn't even sure he wanted to try anymore. The ever-present headache
was starting to fade again He was starting to feel a tremendous empathy for the chipped vampire. The pain was searing, blinding, leaving him nauseous with a pounding headache. It intensified with every beat of his heart, making him wonder just which of the pulsing blood vessels in his brain were going to burst first under the strain. He would almost welcome it at this point. Mostly, he was feeling terribly guilty for every time he'd laughed at Spike when he got zapped. It was in a vampire's very nature to kill living things, to drink the blood, but Spike was forced to stop, and had no choice but to accept charity from those he hated. His own situation
was very similar. He was going to be forced to work for the people he was
coming to despise with a passion he didn't even know existed. As much as he
wanted to resist them, he knew he wouldn't be able to. Of course, his own
chip worked a little That didn't seem to be the primary function of the chip, though. Every three hours he was taken to the training area where he had to perform a variety of tasks. Each time, a tiny speaker was placed in his ear and a small camera clipped discretely onto the t-shirt they'd given him. He had to complete the tasks under the explicit directions of Major Sanderson in his ear, and any hesitation or attempt to deviate from his instructions would result in the remote-controlled activation of his chip. It didn't take very long before Xander was following his instructions automatically, desperate not to feel the pain again. Each training session lasted precisely two hours, after which he was taken back to his empty room for one hour's rest. His sheer exhaustion meant that he spent most of those rest periods almost comatose, although he had been able to eat some of the food they'd given him. The tasks worried him. He hadn't been told what his mission would be after training, but he was starting to guess and he really didn't like it. Some of the tasks were simple things, like walking through a maze, or hitting a sequence of buttons in the correct order, but some were far more disturbing and difficult. Several times he'd been put in a room with a group of people having a conversation. He'd had to join in, talking about all sorts of things without letting them know that he had a voice in his ear whispering instructions. He sometimes had to steer the conversation in a particular direction to get information, and any time any of the people got suspicious he was given a warning buzz, and had to divert their suspicions quickly or the chip would go off fully. More disturbing still were the times he was given various weapons and told to kill a person. The person was always a dummy, but the sheer nature of the act, and the realization that they would most likely want him to do this for real someday, meant that he had several bouts of pain-induced unconsciousness before he could do it without hesitation. It had been a while since Xander had last considered disobeying the Major. He was aware that he was being programmed, like a dog in training, but he simply didn't have the strength to resist any more. He was broken. -- Xander had no idea how long he'd been in training when it ended. He had stopped counting the sessions some time back, needing all his energy for just surviving this nightmare. He didn't think it could have been more than a few days, but each minute stretched out to infinity. His final training
session was different from the others. The bulk of it was taken up by a difficult
one on one conversation with some girl. Xander was never sure if they were
random people off the streets, or soldiers from the New Initiative, pretending
not to know The conversation was broken off early, with Major Sanderson's voice telling him to open the door to his left and go into the next room. Xander did as he was told, and saw a female vampire, chained tightly to a wall and obviously terrified. He was ordered to interrogate her, needing details such as her real name, place of birth, and other personal information. At one point she stuttered over her answer and the voice in Xander's ear told him to hit her. He did so. When the Major was satisfied with the interview, he ordered Xander to pick up the stake lying next to the door and dust the vampire. Without hesitation, he retrieved the stake and moved towards the female, who was now practically paralysed with terror. She was begging and crying, and just before Xander could move to strike, her face lost it's ridges and became a rather pretty, ordinary human face. Without so much as blinking, Xander thrust the stake into her chest, watching with a numb, detached horror as she turned to dust before him. After a second, the voice in his ear spoke up again. "Very good, Harris. Wait where you are for the moment." Xander stood still, silently staring at the pile of ashes on the floor at his feet. He had just killed a terrified, helpless creature without a moments hesitation. He had truly become the New Initiative's puppet. A few minutes later he was ordered to leave the room. His instructions took him to a part of the complex he hadn't seen before, and into another room with a conference table surrounded by chairs. Sitting at the far end of the table was Major Sanderson. Xander hadn't
been face to face with the Major since their first meeting shortly after he'd
woken up from his surgery. Seeing him now, he felt an overwhelming hatred,
and the urge to jump across the table and rip the monster's face off surged
up within him. Stronger, Xander took a seat as ordered, and listened dumbly while he was congratulated for having successfully passed training, and the first stage of his mission was explained to him. --- Spike lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling of his crypt. The search for Xander had tailed off over the last day. There simply wasn't anything more they could think of to try. Giles had even had the idea of calling Angel and seeing if Cordelia had had a vision, but beyond promising to keep an eye out for the boy in LA, they couldn't help. The Scooby Gang was rapidly losing hope. The vampire was
startled when his door flew open with a bang. None of the Scoobies had burst
in here like this recently, the crisis having drawn them all closer, and even
the slayer knocked before coming in now. He stood up to face the intruder,
and his face took on an "Bloody Hell! Xander?" The boy was standing before him, and he thought he'd never been so pleased to see anyone in the whole of his long existence. Xander was safe and appeared unharmed. Well, not completely unharmed. Spike frowned as he noticed the differences in the brunette. He was wearing the same clothes as he had that night he allowed the vampire to walk him home after patrol, but they smelled of old, stale sweat. The boy himself was giving off the strong scent of despair, and his face was twisted into lines of stress and pain. Worst were his eyes, which seemed haunted to the vampire. They were red and puffy, almost as if he had been crying continuously for days. Spike was seriously alarmed at the state his friend was in. Obviously something truly bad had happened, and he had the strong urge to comfort Xander and make everything well for him again. Xander was moving towards him, and Spike walked forwards to greet him. It seemed like the boy wanted to hug, and though unexpected, the vampire was happy to reach this new milestone in their relationship. He hadn't been able to help him while he was missing, but he could certainly provide him with the support he needed now. When the two were within touching distance, Xander reached round to the back of his pants. Spike's eyes widened in disbelief as he saw the boy pull a sharp stake out of his waistband, and only barely managed to avoid the wild lunge aimed directly for his heart. --- Spike's body acted
on instinct as it twisted and dodged to avoid the stake, but his mind was
still stuck on incomprehension and disbelief. Xander was attacking him, making
a serious effort to kill him! Part of him felt incredibly hurt and more than
a little angry. After all, The saner and more rational part of Spike recognized the wrongness of the situation, though. Even if Xander did want him dead, this wasn't how he would do it. For one thing, he wouldn't attack while Spike was defenceless. The chip in his brain meant that any fight between him and a mortal had only one, inevitable outcome. For another thing, Xander would never be this quiet. He would bloody well rant and scream, letting the whole world know just what it was that the vampire had done to piss him off There was also the look in Xander's eyes. Not a trace of anger at Spike, or hatred, or bloodlust. Just more of the despair and the fear, with occasional flashes of something that, to a Drusilla trained eye, looked like insanity. Something was seriously wrong. Spike was off-balance
as he dodged the stake that came so close to his heart. He fell, and immediately
rolled away to put some distance between him and his attacker. As he flipped
to his feet, Xander regained his own balance, lost in the momentum of his
thrust, and flew Xander acted like a man possessed, struggling fiercely in turns to either sink the stake into Spike, or release himself from that relentless grip. As his struggles became even wilder, the vampire was forced to increase the pressure on Xander's wrists to a point that became painful. Spike felt his chip react, and in his momentary weakness, the boy found the strength to thrust him to the ground, following him down and straddling his body. Spike gazed bleakly into the face of his friend as he felt the tip of the stake press against his chest. The moment seemed to stretch out forever. Spike lay limply, unresisting, unable to fight this mortal being who wore the face that haunted his pleasanter dreams. He closed his eyes and reached a moment of epiphany, of sublime understanding. This was his punishment. His punishment for all the terrible things he had done, and all the things he hadn't done. It was only proper that he should meet his end in this way, the most painful death he could imagine. It was surely what he deserved. He opened his eyes, resolved to meet his death with courage and honour. A cold, shaking hand touched his cheek lightly, as confused blue eyes met Xander's now more aware gaze. The detached insanity he'd glimpsed in those brown eyes only seconds ago was now replaced by an awful, agonized certainty. A whispered "I
can't" and the stake was gone from his chest, flung far away across the
room. Xander immediately crumpled up, gripping Spike's shoulders hard enough
to leave bruises, and burying his face into Spike's t-shirt clad chest. The
vampire's arms came round him Spike tried to speak to him, but fell silent after choking out "Xander...," unable to find the words with which to voice his confusion. It was not made any easier when Xander lifted his head again. His eyes were screwed tightly shut, and his face was set in a rictus of pain. Xander's mouth was opening and closing, forming the words "No, no, no, no..." soundlessly. With a supreme effort of will he released the death grip he had on one of the vampire's shoulders and reached for his own ear, pulling out a small, flesh coloured object and hurling it away as far as he could. The camera pinned discretely to the front of his shirt suffered the same treatment, and he forced his eyes open to look at the reason for his rebellion. Using the last of his strength and the resistance he'd built up to the pain during his training, he stuttered out a warning to the blond through clenched teeth. "G...get out! They're com...coming. Got...got a t...tracer." He gestured feebly to a spot under his arm. He managed only one more word, before the pain intensifying rapidly in his brain caused him to black out. "In...initiati...tive." Spike's eyes widened
in immediate horror and comprehension with the boy's last word. He rolled
over, allowing the boy's dead weight to come to rest on the floor, and kneeled
next to him. He stared down at Xander's face, which was still twisted into
harsh lines of pain, the There, just underneath
the armpit, was a small, raised wound, newly sewn-up. Spike's gently questing
fingers discovered a hard lump underneath the surface of the skin. The vampire
felt a sense of desolation, and a wail formed in his throat. The Initiative
had --- Spike tried to calm himself as he felt panic welling up inside him. There were few things that could really scare him, but the soldiers and scientists who had crippled him so effectively were high on the list. He was defenceless against them. He had realized long ago that it was sheer good luck that he managed to escape them in the first place, and he shuddered whenever he allowed his imagination to stray to thoughts of what might have happened to him if he couldn't. And now they had
done the same thing to Xander, except he clearly *hadn't* escaped. The bastards
had done whatever they wanted to him, and the haunted, detached expression
glimpsed in Xander's dark eyes told its own story about his treatment with
them. The demon raged wildly within Spike, threatening to take control of
him. Its earlier rage against Xander was transformed into sheer fury at the
monsters who had dared to touch what was *his*. The vampire forced those feelings
down, certain that animal violence wouldn't help the Clearly, the boy
had intended to warn Spike so that he could leave before the Initiative came
to collect their captive. Well, that wasn't going to happen. Even if it wasn't
bright, deadly daylight outside, the vampire simply wouldn't leave Xander
to the non-existent mercy of Aware that there
was no time to think of a better plan, Spike spun around and flipped the hatch
leading into his underground chamber open. He grabbed Xander, and lowered
him gently through the hole, trying hard not to bump him on the way down.
It was awkward Spike hurried over to the left wall of the chamber. He knew that there was a sewer tunnel which passed nearby, and hopefully it was close enough for what he had in mind. Pressing his ear to the wall in several places, he attempted to sound out where it would be thinnest. Locating the most
likely spot, he picked up a tall, iron candelabra, which he'd always thought
gave the place character. Fear and urgency lent him strength beyond even his
usual vampiric abilities, and he rammed the end of the metal pole into the
wall. The impact jarred Again and again,
the pole gouged into the wall, and Spike spared a glance at the unconscious
boy to make sure he wasn't being struck by any of the flying chips of stone.
He felt like sobbing with relief when one thrust broke through, leaving a
small hole into the Throwing down the battered metal pole, Spike slipped the duster onto his now aching body and gathered his friend into his arms. It was a tight fit, but he managed to squeeze the unconscious body through the hole he had made, and followed, grateful for once for his slim build. He slung Xander onto his shoulders and started running, trusting his instincts to guide him through the pitch black tunnels. There was no sign of Initiative soldiers so far, but Spike knew that it was only a matter of time before they were followed. He hoped that the tracer would not work effectively underground, but didn't know enough about the technology to be sure. There wasn't anything he could do about it in any case. This was the only chance they had. He tried his best
to confuse any pursuer, taking branches of the tunnel at random. After they
had passed through several forks he stopped, and located a dry, cleanish area
to work in. He laid his burden down on the ground, propping him on his side
so that the tracer Pushing Xander's shirt up out of the way, Spike arranged himself so that he had easy access to the tracer. He closed his eyes for just a moment, feeling the warmth from the boy against his legs. Feelings of helplessness and frustrated rage swept through him, as he asked himself why this had happened. He had done terrible things during his lifetime, and deserved whatever the world dished out, but what had Xander done? What could this innocent child, who fought against the darkness with no obligation, except to his own conscience, have possibly done to merit being treated like this. To have to endure the pain he had obviously experienced. Aware that these thoughts were useless, he swept them aside, turning his concentration to the matter at hand. He moved the knife to Xander's side, willing his own hand not to tremble. Very, very carefully he cut the fresh stitches, one at a time. This action was met with only occasional warning twinges from his chip and he was encouraged. Pulling the edges of the skin apart gently, he examined the tracer buried inside. It was not large, but it's removal would hurt Xander without doubt. Gritting his teeth against the impending pain, the vampire put the knife point against the edge of the wound. In one quick, clean move he drove the knife in, under the tracer, and wedged the object out. His head erupted in agony and black spots began to eat away at his vision. Aware that he had to do one more thing, he fought against the black tide that threatened to pull him under. Putting the tracer down on the floor of the tunnel he brought his knife up and smashed the hilt down, shattering the electrical device into ruined components. Spike sank down, falling on top of Xander as the pain overwhelmed him. He finally succumbed to the dark, thankful for the fact that, if the Initiative found them, at least they would find them together. --- For several seconds after Spike woke up he lay still, analysing his surroundings. All he could smell, apart from the pungent aroma of the sewer, was Xander, his scent particularly noticeable because of the sweat which clinged to his body. The only sounds were the steady drip, dripping of water from somewhere to his left, and Xander's occasional low moan. Slightly reassured that they hadn't been discovered, the vampire opened his eyes, scanning the area with his enhanced night-vision. Confident that they were safe for the moment, Spike turned his attention fully to his friend. Xander was still unconscious, and Spike was very worried by that, aware from first-hand experience of just how fragile the human brain could be. The vampire's chip caused him pain, which was unpleasant but wouldn't permanently harm him. The mortal's mind, however, could easily be damaged by the sort of shock it was being subjected to right now. There was also the matter of the reopened wound on the boy's side. Spike carefully pulled him back up so that he could look at it. The newly cut flesh had bled a little but didn't seem to be too bad. It would be best if it could be sewn up again, but Spike didn't have the ability to do that here. The only major worry was of infection. He kept his knife clean, but not to surgical standards. It was more used to being used to disembowel people, than attempt to heal them. Shaking his head wryly, the vampire lowered his face towards the wound. Every single one of the slayerettes would probably condemn him for this action, but he had good motives for once, damnit! Vampire's bite marks never got infected, and they healed very quickly because their saliva carried strong antibiotics. It was a trait they carried to enable them to keep a stable of humans to feed from regularly, although few vampires chose to do that these days, preferring the eat-and-run approach. Some of the older ones still did it, though. Spike licked his
tongue wetly over the open wound, liberally coating it with the best antibiotic
not actually known to man. He couldn't help savouring his first taste of human
blood for over a year, although the endorphins didn't give him quite the same
rush as they When he was satisfied that the wound was clean, he ripped a strip from his shirt and bound it as well as he could. He put his hand on Xander's shoulder and shook him gently, whispering "Xander, you need to wake up now. Come on luv, wake up for me." Xander remained unresponsive, and Spike soothingly stroked his face, continuing to whisper to the boy. For a moment, Xander seemed like his old self again, the lines of stress smoothed out, leaving a ridiculously boyish face. However, as soon as the vampire stopped his caress, the lines of pain reappeared. Spike sighed. "I guess I'll have to carry you again, then." He got to his feet and reached down, hoisting the boy back up over his shoulder in a fireman's carry. The vampire had no idea where they were, having gotten completely lost trying to lose the soldiers on their tail, so he just started walking. It didn't take long to find a way-out, and Spike set Xander down gently to investigate it. He climbed up the rungs set in the wall and pushed up the manhole cover gingerly. He was relieved to find that it was night-time, and the area seemed deserted. Returning for
Xander, he climbed out of the sewer, glad to get out of the smell. The manhole
had let them out into a quiet wooded area, but Spike could sense humans not
too far away. Approaching cautiously, Spike realized that it was the picnic
site, close to the old drive-in He laid Xander
down gently against a tree just inside the edge of the woods, but out of view
of the park. He sauntered casually towards the humans, relieved when they
didn't pay any attention to him. The vampire was heading towards the side
of the park where he knew the Giving thanks
to whatever power protected lonely phone-boxes from being vandalized, Spike
picked up the handset of the miraculously working phone. He fumbled in his
pockets, locating a quarter and thereby justifying his decision to bring his
coat. Pushing the coin Spike hung up with a jerk, knowing exactly what that sound indicated. The watcher's phone was tapped, and most likely the same was true for all the slayerettes. He realized with a cold wash of fear that the Scooby Gang might even be dead, already. There was no knowing what had happened in the hours he was unconscious. Gazing blankly
into the distance, Spike tried to come up with an alternate plan. Anything.
Hospitals were out, as was going to the police. Even asking for help from
one of the mortals making out behind him in the park would inevitably lead
them back into the Initiative's With a quiet but heartfelt "Fuck!", Spike realized what he had to do. There was one source of aid that a vampire could always turn to in a time of dire trouble, and this situation certainly qualified. He returned nonchalantly across the park to the place he left Xander, and swung the boy up into his arms. Carrying him like a lover, instead of the fireman's lift he'd used before, he hoped that the humans in the park would just think that they were seeking a more romantic, private spot for a tryst, instead of a vampire carrying an unconscious mortal, intending to steal a car. They reached the
car-parking area, which was thankfully deserted, without raising any suspicions.
Locating a likely looking vehicle, Spike quickly jimmied the door open and
pushed Xander in, arranging his body so that it was sprawled nearly upright
in the passenger seat. A lifetime of delinquency paid off as the vampire easily
hot-wired the --- Spike heaved a
sigh of relief as the often-damaged 'Welcome to Sunnydale' sign was passed.
In truth, there had been nothing so far to indicate that they were even being
pursued. Well, nothing except the tap on the watcher's phone and the words
of warning given by the Relaxing slightly
as the town was left behind them, Spike sped up, wanting to get to their destination
as quickly as possible. He still kept up a sharp lookout for police cars,
though. Being stopped in a stolen car would probably spell the death warrant
for both of them. The steady monotony of driving gave him the time for contemplation he'd been lacking earlier. He was still rather bewildered by the events of the past day and night, and questions without answers whirled in his mind. How had the Initiative come back, and for what? After all, the last time the bastards were around, they'd had to be rescued from a bunker full of demons by the slayer and her scoobies. Hadn't they learned anything by that experience? It was clear Xander had been taken by them for some reason a few days ago. During that time they implanted a chip in his brain, although the vampire couldn't figure out why. What was the purpose? It couldn't be to stop him from harming humans, like Spike's chip did. Perhaps it made him go out and attack vampires, but that was stupid! After all, the whelp did that anyway. Spike could certainly understand why they'd want him dead, but not why they sent Xander to do it. Any one of their soldiers would have been able to kill him, given his inability to fight back effectively. Unable to get a handle on the situation, the vampire felt his frustration and helplessness rise. When they were a few miles outside of Sunnydale Xander's condition changed. Spike didn't notice immediately, but after a while his enhanced hearing registered that the boy's heart rate was slowing down. Concerned, he dragged his eyes away from the road for a long look at his friend, preparing to pull the car over if he needed help. Xander seemed to be more relaxed than he had been before. His face, while still marked by lines of stress, was calmer, no longer twisting up in pain. The tremors and spasms which had been passing through him were no longer evident, and his heart rate was settling down into a slow, steady rhythm. The vampire did not know whether to be relieved or concerned by these signs. It was possible that the chip had stopped zapping the boy, which would certainly be a good thing. On the other hand, there was a strong chance that he had been damaged so severely that he had slipped into a deep coma, unresponsive to anything. Needing the answer to that question, Spike reached his hand out and shook Xander's shoulder firmly. That did nothing more than cause the young man to slump to the side. Discouraged, Spike pulled the car over to the side of the road. He reached out with one finger and prodded sharply at the spot on Xander's side where the tracer had been. Through the flare of pain from his own chip, Spike was overjoyed to see the boy flinch away from his touch. It seemed that Xander was no longer being hurt by his chip, and was now merely resting. Not being a medical expert, Spike guessed that Xander's body probably knew best what it needed to recover from its trauma, and he decided not to try and wake the boy. He pulled off into the road again, continuing their journey. --- After a few hours of driving, the vampire realized that they would need to stop for the day soon. He began looking around for a suitable place to hide out in, but nothing was forthcoming. As they approached a service stop, Spike remembered other needs that they would have. He pulled in, drawing up next to a petrol pump. Aware that he
was very recognisable, Spike searched through the pockets of his duster, stuffing
all the money he found into his jeans pockets, and took it off, slinging it
onto the back seat. He glanced back after it and noticed that it had landed
on top of something. He Before leaving
the car he reached over and ran his hand down Xander's cheek. The boy was
still unresponsive to light touches, but didn't seem to be in any distress.
He pulled Xander's eyelids open briefly, gazing into the unfocused brown eyes.
Both eyes seemed normal, and Working quickly,
Spike filled the car up with petrol and headed towards the shop with a last,
brief look in at Xander. He moved around the small convenience store, picking
up bottles of water and a variety of foods and first-aid stuff. There wasn't
any way that he He was glad that he could scrape together enough cash from his pockets to pay for the petrol and groceries. He did have cards with various identities, but he didn't know if they were secure. There wasn't any point in using them when they didn't need to if there was the chance that it would bring the soldiers down on them. Spike returned to the car and dumped his purchases in the boot, a little disappointed that he didn't find any more goodies in there. It was getting late now, and they'd have to find a safe place to stop soon, or he'd be spending the day in the boot, where he wouldn't be able to help Xander. A short time later
they passed by a cemetery on the outskirts of a town. Spike only thought about
it for a second before pulling the car off the road and into the woods surrounding
the cemetery. It wasn't the ideal place for an injured mortal to spend time
in, but they had The vampire glanced across at his companion. He considered for a moment whether it would be best to let him stay asleep, and carry him to a suitable crypt, but dismissed the idea. Xander would need food and water to keep his strength up. Also, the vampire's concerns about comas hadn't entirely dissipated. He would only feel completely reassured if Xander would open his eyes and speak to him, and he needed to hear exactly what had been done to his friend, so he would know just what sort of retribution to exact. --- Spike left the car and walked round to the passenger door. He pulled it open and sank down onto his heels, bringing himself level with Xander. The boy looked so peaceful now, and for a moment the vampire reconsidered his decision. His curiosity and concern won, though, and he put his hand on Xander's shoulder and shook him. He called out firmly, "Xander, you have to wake up now. Come on, pet, it's time to get up." After a minute, the boy showed signs of returning to consciousness. He started to groan, and his face twisted up. Xander struggled to open his eyes. Something was strange, something was different. He was being shaken awake, when usually the end of his rest period was greeted with a quick burst of pain from the chip. He fought hard to rouse himself, sure that the pain would be coming soon if he didn't. When he finally
managed to focus his eyes, his mind couldn't process the sight before him.
He reached his hand out to touch the sharp cheekbones, muttering in a hoarse
voice, "Spike? What are you doing here?" As his mind started to
wake up a little, it hit him that the vampire's presence must mean that he'd
been taken by the soldiers, and he was shaken with a feeling of grief. Then
the truth came back to him. His appalling orders, walking into the crypt and
attacking the vampire, and then disobeying the voice in his ear. He disobeyed,
and the pain raging through his entire body had been worse than anything Gasping for breath, he scrambled out of the car, falling to the ground next to the startled vampire. He retched, the feeling of nausea overwhelming him as the pounding in his head intensified, and his body felt like it was disconnected from his mind. After a long bout
of retching and sobbing, Xander became aware that there were cool arms around
him, holding him close while a comforting voice whispered in his ear "Shh,
pet. It's okay, you're okay now. Just breathe. I'm going to take care of you,
just breathe for me." He The distressed man tried very hard to breathe slowly and deeply, and eventually the tremors wracking through him lessened. He was pulled closer to a cool chest, and he rested his head against it, too tired to protest against the hand that stroked gently through his hair. "Xander, are you okay now, mate?" That was a question, not the soothing babble that had come before it, and Xander thought that he should answer it. After a moment he managed to whimper "It hurts." "What does, is your chip still going off?" He couldn't answer that question. The chip had stopped, replaced by his strongest ever reaction headache, but he couldn't tell the vampire that. It was the very thing that would set it off again, trying to communicate about anything to do with the New Initiative. His mind was too fuzzy to think of something to say that would answer the vampire's question without activating the chip, so he simply repeated, "It hurts." There was a brief sigh from above him and the arms clutched him tighter. In some part of his brain, Xander thought it was funny how the chest beneath his head rose for the sigh, and then stopped moving again. "Okay, pet. Don't worry about it, we'll talk later." Xander felt Spike pushing him away and he protested inarticulately, holding onto the vampire as if he was a rock in a river, stopping him from being drowned. Spike immediately stopped trying to move, and started stroking his hair again. "Don't worry, Xander, I'm not leaving you. I've got some things in the boot that'll help you. It'll only take me a few seconds to get them. It'll make you feel better, I promise." Xander thought about that and nodded. After all, he did trust the blond vampire, and anything that could make him feel better would be welcome. Spike rearranged them both so that Xander was sitting, propped up against the side of the car. The brunette opened his eyes and looked at the vampire, who was smiling friendly at him and trying to hide the look of concern. Xander felt his heart contracting in his chest. He didn't deserve that the vampire should be kind to him after what he had done. He looked down, and sobbed "I'm sorry." Spike frowned a little in confusion, but let it go for now. He rubbed his hands up and down Xander's arms, and said "I'm just going to the boot now. It won't take long. Just sit here, okay?" The miserable brunette nodded almost imperceptibly and Spike jumped up to fetch the things from the boot. He was back in two seconds, pulling something out of one of his bags of groceries. He knelt back down before Xander and held a bottle of water up before him. "I want you to take a few sips of this, pet." Xander looked
at the bottle, and realized how great his thirst was. His mouth was dry and
tasted disgusting, and his throat was closed up. The water looked wonderful,
and Xander reached for it eagerly with his right hand. He was surprised when
the fingers just slapped The fear was reflected in Spike's face, and he saw the vampire swallow hard before murmuring, "Don't worry about that, mate. You probably just went to sleep on it." Xander's left
hand seemed to be working okay, although it was weak from his long sleep.
Spike helped him by holding the bottle up to his mouth, and Xander managed
to take a few mouthfuls of the cool, sweet water. It felt amazing, sliding
down his throat, and he did feel Spike had taken a small packet out of one of the bags, and was reading the back intently. The vampire opened the packet and popped out a couple of pills, which he held out to Xander. "Painkillers, pet. They're the strongest ones I could find." Xander took them with his left hand and placed them on his tongue. Spike helped him with the water again, and he managed to swallow, washing them down with long draughts from the bottle. The water revived him, and made him realize how empty his stomach was. He closed his eyes, leaning back against the car, and asked, "Spike, do you have any food in one of those bags?" "Yes, mate, there's plenty of food, but can it wait until we get inside? The sun's coming up soon." Xander's eyes popped open, and he noticed that the vampire was right. The sky above the trees was already lightening from the new dawn. He tried to push himself to his feet, and nearly collapsed as his limbs let him know just how weak he was. The vampire caught him, and pulled him up. "Do you need me to carry you?" The vampire was perfectly happy to carry his friend, but he thought it might offend the boy's dignity. "No, that's okay. I can manage. If you could just let me lean on you." Xander felt a little embarrassed to be so weak, but he really didn't think he could walk by himself. In addition to his limbs being weak, his right leg felt almost numb, and didn't do much more than jerk when he tried to move it. That, along with his right hand, was causing him a lot of concern, but it was more important right then to find shelter before the sun came up fully. The two of them shuffled out of the woods and into the cemetery. Spike was carrying the bags and taking most of Xander's weight as they walked. He noticed that the boy's right leg was barely moving, mostly being dragged along, but didn't say anything. He was worried though. Human brains were notoriously fragile, and the extended stimulus from the chip could have easily caused brain damage. He just hoped that Xander's problems would get better if they managed to get the chip out. Spike quickly located a decent looking crypt, and broke the door open carefully. It was fairly spacious, and although there were windows to let some light in, they were set in high enough that it shouldn't be a problem for the vampire. It was clean, but there wasn't anything soft for the boy to rest on. Spike dropped the bags and pulled his duster off, while keeping Xander propped up against him. He draped the duster on the ground, and lowered the weak boy down, so that he was sitting on the coat, leaning against the wall. He made sure that the door was re-secured, and grabbed a packaged sandwich from the grocery bags, passing it to Xander. He settled himself on the floor across from the boy and spoke, kindly but firmly. "Xander, I think we need to talk about what's happened now." Xander's eyes dropped down to look at the plastic-wrapped sandwich in his hand. He felt tears welling up again and blinked furiously to keep them away. The vampire was right, they did need to talk, but he couldn't think of what he could possibly say without setting off the chip. The water had revived him, and he could feel the painkillers starting to take the edge off his head-ache, but he was still feeling far from well, and knew that he wouldn't be able to take even a brief warning burst from the chip. "I can't..."
He trailed off, unable to find any words to express himself. Spike was trying
to help him and he couldn't even explain to the vampire why he'd tried to
stake him. The feelings of guilt that he'd been carrying for days started
to overwhelm him and the tears There was a brief rustling, and then Spike was kneeling before him, holding out a clean tissue. Xander accepted it gratefully and tried to hide his face behind it. One cool hand pulled his arms away, while the other gently cupped Xander's face and wiped at the tear tracks with a gentle thumb. Spike made sure that the boy was looking at him before he spoke. He kept his voice soft, not wanting to agitate his friend. "You said that before, mate, but I don't understand. What have you got to be sorry for?" Xander gazed at him in disbelief. Was the vampire serious? "Spike, I tried to *kill* you! Not to mention all those times I laughed at you when your chip went off. I teased you about it. I didn't understand. I'm just... I'm so sorry." Spike's eyes widened in comprehension. He shook his head ruefully at the boy. "You tried to kill me? That's not what I saw. I saw someone suffer appalling pain to save my life. It's true isn't it? If you'd killed me, the chip wouldn't have zapped you like that." Xander screwed
his eyes tightly shut, unable to stand the way the vampire was looking at
him. He didn't deserve to be looked at like that. The way Spike was talking,
it made him sound almost heroic, but that wasn't right. He'd gone to the crypt
fully prepared to stake the His eyes flew open when he felt something cool and soft press against his forehead. Spike was sinking back down to his knees after having leaned forward to kiss him, and was now staring at him intently. "Thank you, Xander." The words were spoken calmly and sincerely. This wasn't the vampire's usual piss take, he honestly believed in what he was saying, and Xander found himself responding to the words with a growing warm feeling inside. The moment stretched out, neither one able to break eye-contact. Xander could still feel the cool lips pressing a kiss to his skin, and the remembered sensation gave him a funny feeling deep inside himself. His stomach chose
that moment to interrupt with a deep growl of dissatisfaction at his continuing
hunger. Xander glanced down at the sandwich that lay half-forgotten in his
lap and picked it up, trying to open the plastic packaging. His fingers slid
clumsily over the Spike frowned as he saw his friend struggling with the food, and he cursed at himself, annoyed that he'd forgotten the young man's difficulties in the intensity of their shared moment. When his lips had brushed against Xander's forehead, he'd meant it as nothing more than a comforting gesture, but the feeling and taste of Xander's skin beneath his own brought back all of the longings he'd been repressing for months. He reached his
hand out for the sandwich and deftly peeled back the plastic. He held out
the edible part for Xander, who stared mutely at it for a second before grabbing
it with his left hand and taking a bite. Spike could tell that the boy was
very troubled by his body's Xander shook his head and continued to eat the sandwich. He did want to talk about it, he desperately needed to hear someone say that it would be alright and that he'd get better, but feared that he would break down completely if he tried to talk. He'd known from the moment that Major Sanderson first triggered his chip that his life would never be the same, but this was too real, too awful to even think about. He tried to think of something to say to change the subject, and hit on the very thing as he realized that he still didn't have a clue what was going on. After all, the last thing he remembered was collapsing in agony on top of the blond vampire in his crypt, and now they were in a different cemetery that he didn't recognise. "Spike, where are we? And how the hell did we get here? You were supposed to leave me in your crypt and escape!" He paused as he remembered exactly why he'd wanted the vampire to run away without him, and with a panicked "No!" he pawed at his side where the bastards had sewn the tracer into him. His fingers met the padding of a makeshift bandage, but the hard lump underneath his skin was gone. He looked at the vampire in shock. "How did you...?" Spike smiled briefly at the confused boy. "Well, I couldn't just leave you there after you'd saved my life and all." Xander frowned
at him in puzzlement. "But... how could you take it out without setting
your chip off?" The vampire opened his mouth to reply but no sound came
out. After a second he shut it again and stared at the ground, a little embarrassed.
Xander's eyes widened and his heart sank as he realized what must have happened.
Once again, Spike's eyes met his fiercely. "Did you *want* to stay for those wankers to find?" he exclaimed incredulously. "No, of course not! It's just..." "Just what? You're allowed to be all noble and heroic but I'm not, is that it?" "I didn't mean..." Xander stuttered, thoroughly confused by the turn the conversation had taken. He looked at the vampire, and was relieved but bewildered to see a glint of amusement in his blue eyes. Then he realised what Spike was doing, and couldn't help smiling in response. "Oh, very clever. I'm sorry, you're right. I guess we've both done a bit of life-saveage recently. Thank you." Spike smiled at him, pleased that the boy had cottoned on to the truth, and Xander smiled back coyly, batting his eyelashes. "My hero!" he simpered. The blond laughed out loud. "And don't you ever forget it, whelp." Xander nodded, laughing, but soon his mood turned more serious again. "Spike, please. What happened? How did we get out of your crypt and where are we?" Spike nodded at the boy. "I'll tell you, pet, but let me put a proper bandage on your side while I'm doing it." Under the vampire's
directions, Xander laid down on his side so that his injury was accessible.
Spike pulled his shirt up out of the way and rummaged through the bags for
the first aid stuff. "Well, mate, there's this hatch that leads down
to my underground lair." His As he spoke, Spike was removing his makeshift bandage and examining the wound. It was clean and didn't seem to be infected so he selected a sterile dressing from among the ones he'd grabbed in the shop, and started taping it over the wound. Xander was trying to concentrate on the vampire's words, but the feeling of cool fingers playing over his skin was distracting him. He felt himself relaxing under Spike's gentle ministrations. "Managed to find a way out which led up to some picnic park after it got dark. I tried to call the watcher and then stole a car and started driving." Xander's eyes snapped open at part of that speech. "Wait, what? What happened when you called Giles? Are they okay?" He started to panic at the thought of his friends being in danger. "Easy, mate. Look, I tried to call Rupert but there was a tap on the line and I had to hang up before I could speak to him. I figured that they were being watched and it was best to get you far away from it all." "Oh god! We have to go and help them." He tried to push himself up but the vampire stopped him. "Don't go getting yourself all worked up, Xander. We both need to rest before we can do anything else." "You don't understand! They're in danger." "How exactly? What is it those prize wankers want?" Xander fell silent as his mind worked furiously to come up with some way of answering the question. He slumped back down in defeat and merely said "We have to help them." Spike stared perplexedly at his friend for a long moment. Finally his eyebrows went up as an expression of revelation crossed his face. "Xander, what did they do to you?" he asked in a carefully controlled voice. When Xander did nothing more than stare at the ground with an expression of intense frustration, the vampire slumped down to sit propped up against the wall with a sigh. "Bugger. You can't talk about it, can you? Those absolute fucking *bastards*!" Xander flinched slightly at his furious exclamation and Spike laid his hand on the boy's back in a comforting gesture. "Don't worry about it, mate. We'll work something out later, but there's nothing we can do to help your friends at the moment. Neither one of us can fight against the army blokes, we'd just be putting our necks out for the chopper if we tried going back now." Xander pushed himself up until he was sitting next to Spike. "I know, you're right. But our running away isn't going to help anyone. Do you even have a plan, or are we just driving randomly?" The vampire was indignant. "Of course I've got a plan. What do you think I am, a moron?" Xander looked askance at him with raised eyebrows and a slight grin. "Um..." Spike rolled his eyes. "Very funny, mate." He was silent for a few seconds. "Look, Xander, I'm going to get you some help, but all the usual places are out, right. Hospitals and such. So we're going to go and see my sire." "You're taking me to Angel? I don't see what he can do to help." "Angel! What, are you daft? That poncy bugger wouldn't be able to do anything, even if he could drag himself away from his personal hair stylist. Besides, it's a dead cert that he's being watched too." "But you just said..." "No, no you've got it wrong. Angel isn't my sire." "He isn't?" "No, I'm taking you to see Drusilla." --- Many possible responses to the vampire's revelation passed through Xander's mind. Most of them were variations on the theme of 'Are you completely *mad*!' or 'What the hell can Miss Loony-toons 2000 do to help?', with a small part of him stuck on 'You're still in love with her.' Finally, he settled on "Spike, that's insane. What on earth could she do, even if she did want to help us?" Spike sighed. "Well, she's psychic isn't she. If there's a way to help you, she'll know about it. Plus, she's got a lot of connections in the demon world. There might be someone else who can help, even if Dru can't" "But she'd never help us. I mean, I'm a human and she dumped *you*. Or had you forgotten." Xander was feeling a little bitter that the vampire's first instinct was to run to his ex-girlfriend, but he recognised that he had no right to feel that way. Spike had never given any indication that he wasn't still completely infatuated by the insane vampiress. Spike looked a little frustrated. "I haven't forgotten, whelp, but she's my sire, she'll help if I ask her to. Besides, she actually always liked you. Called you her kitten, she did. It used to drive me nuts." Xander paused with his mouth open at that. "Kitten? Okay, that's... a little disturbing. Um... was that before or after Valentine's day?" The vampire laughed. "Oh, long before Valentine's day. I'd told her about you in that soldier's costume on Halloween, and she told me that you were her kitten." "Funnily enough, still disturbed by that." Xander's face creased up in a frown. "You told her about me as a soldier? I didn't think you were paying attention to anything except 17th century Buffy." Spike shook his head. "I always pay attention to everything, it's dangerous not to when the slayer's involved." His eyes focused on the ground and his voice turned a little quieter. "Anyway, you were hard to avoid, dressed like that. You were magnificent." Xander's eyebrows shot way up and he blushed. He tried desperately to think of something to say in reply to that but came up empty. The vampire was certainly not easy with the compliments, and he didn't tend to exaggerate about things like that, so Xander knew he was serious. Before Xander managed to say anything, Spike continued. "So, Dru will help us, and then we can go and kick some Initiative arse." Xander was deeply confused. One moment the vampire was complimenting him, and the next he was talking about his 'black goddess' again. The brunette was very uncomfortable, his head was still aching, although not as bad as before, he was sitting on very hard stone, and he was still hungry but didn't want to draw attention to his hand by fumbling with the food. He just wanted things to make sense again, so he asked the question that was at the forefront of his mind. "Are you still in love with her?" Spike frowned at him, startled and a little puzzled. "I was never in love with Dru, she's my sire." Xander stared at him in amazement. "What! How can you say that? You used to fawn all over her. You helped Buffy against Angel for Drusilla. You'd never have done that then if you didn't love her." Spike was shaking his head, looking even more puzzled. "No, you don't understand. It's just that Dru didn't cut the bond until Brazil." "Huh?" That didn't make any sense to Xander, and he wondered if they were talking about the same thing. "What bond?" The vampire cocked his head at the brunette silently for a moment. "What exactly has the watcher told you about sires and childer, about how vampires are made?" Xander shifted against the hard stone, trying to find a more comfortable position before he answered the question. Spike asked, "Are you alright, mate?" "Yeah, it's just a bit hard." Spike cursed. "Shit, I'm sorry. This isn't the best place for you to rest up in, but I couldn't find anywhere else." He got up and fetched the rest of the bandages from the bag. Then he sat back down and arranged them between his outstretched legs to form a cushion. "Here, sit down on this." Xander looked
at him dubiously for a moment, but the vampire just seemed to be concerned
for his comfort. He shuffled over, with the vampire's help, and ended up sat
between Spike's legs, leaning back against his body. It was certainly a lot
more comfortable than the "Just relax, pet. You need to rest." Xander succumbed to the feeling of comfort and laid his head back against his friend's shoulder. "So, pet. Tell me what Rupert said about how vampires are made." "Well, I know that first you have to nearly drain your victim and then feed them your blood. If you give them a little it makes a minion, and if you give them a lot then it makes a childe." Xander was rather surprised when Spike snorted in disbelief. "Bloody hell, do the watchers really believe in that tosh? I thought they were smarter than that." "Why, isn't that right?" "No, mate. You give more blood to make a minion, not less." "What? That doesn't make any sense." Spike sighed. "Look, I'll tell you how it works, but first you're going to have to forget everything you've been told about it. Okay?" Xander nodded, and Spike continued. "Fine. Well, first, the difference between minions and childer isn't really in how much blood they're given. It's about where the blood comes from. If you feed from the wrist you get a relatively weak demon and you become a minion. If you feed from the neck, the demon is much stronger and you have master potential. You become a childe." "Well, okay but why did you say you gave minions more blood?" "The amount of blood dictates how in control of your body the demon is. You usually want your minions to be the stupid, blindly following orders type, so you give them lots of blood which puts the demon firmly in charge. When you're making childer, you do it because you're drawn to something special in the human, so you give them a powerful demon, but with only a little blood so that the human's characteristics can come through too. They're still as physically strong as if they'd had lots of blood, but they've got a mind too, see?" Xander nodded slowly. "I guess that makes sense. Except, if the master vampires are closer to human, how come they're all such assholes." Spike laughed. "Well, the human characteristics that vampires are drawn to usually include psychopathy and a lust for violence and destruction." "Oh. Um, Spike? I don't mean to be rude, but you don't really seem like that anymore. Not so much, anyway." "Yeah, well, I'll get to that later. There's more about making vampires. You see, when a new vampire is created, a bond is formed between the sire and childe or minion. The minion's bond tends to be based on fear, but the childe's bond is all about devotion. From the time that a childe is sired until the moment the bond is cut by the sire, a childe will be absolutely devoted to their sire. They will do anything to make the sire happy. The bond is usually cut after a couple of years, once the sire has taught the childe what they think they need to know, and then the childe can go out and become a master vampire in their own right." Xander was silent while he processed this new information. "So, when you said that Dru cut the bond in Brazil, you meant..." "She finally let me go. I can be my own vampire now, and become a proper master. Well, I could if it wasn't for the bloody chip." Xander frowned. "No, I don't believe that." "Xander?" Spike was puzzled. "When you came back to Sunnydale and kidnapped me and Willow you were heartbroken. Weeping and moaning all over the place. You know, Will was actually more scared when you started sobbing on her shoulder than when you shoved the broken bottle in her face." Spike winced at the memory. "I wouldn't have hurt her, really I wouldn't, and I only hit you so hard because I was drunk and you were fighting back." He paused for a moment. "I*was* heartbroken. Not because I loved Dru, but because I thought I did. She'd kept me tied to her for over a century. Do you have any idea how that can fuck with a guy's head? Sure, I was miserable for ages, but I'm over it now." Xander pushed himself away and turned to look at the vampire searchingly. "So you really never loved her? All that stuff you did was because you were compelled to by this bond?" Spike nodded and pulled him back down to rest against his chest. "Yes, but don't get me wrong. I am fond of her, she was my only companion for decades. But no, I didn't love her. She's not actually my type." "Who is your type, Harmony?" "Not... exactly. Anyway, even though the bond is cut, Dru's still my sire and if I go to her in real need, she has to help me. It's another vampire thing." "Okay, but are you sure that she'll help me too?" Spike's arms tightened around Xander as he answered simply, "Helping you *will* help me." Xander wasn't
sure how he should take that comment, and the vampire didn't seem to want
to elaborate. He decided to just enjoy the illusion that Spike cared about
him, even if it wasn't real. Xander sank down into the embrace and relaxed,
closing his eyes. He drifted --- Xander awoke with an agonised "No. Please!" on his lips. He was shaking hard, and the vampire hugged him tightly and ran soothing hands up and down his sides. "Shh, pet. It's okay. You're awake now, you're fine. Nothing's going to hurt you here." Xander swallowed hard and fought to control his panicked breathing as the sleep cleared from his mind and he realised where he was. "You alright now, mate?" Xander answered Spike's concerned question quietly. "Yeah. Sorry if I woke you up." "Don't worry about it. I wasn't asleep. How are you feeling now? How's your head?" Xander though about it. His head was actually feeling rather better, although still aching, it wasn't pounding like a jack-hammer as it had been before. "Better, thanks. How long was I asleep?" "Only a couple of hours. You should probably get some more rest, but would you like a couple more pills first?" "Yeah, thanks." Spike grabbed the packet of painkillers from the bag next to him and popped a couple out. He helped Xander with the water again, taking a few pulls after the boy had finished to rinse out his dry mouth. He approached the next question hesitantly. "Erm... how's your hand now? I mean... is it any better?" Biting his lip nervously, Xander tried flexing his hand cautiously and was dismayed when there didn't seem to be any improvement. He tested his leg as well, but it was still numbed and unresponsive. "No. No change." he replied bitterly. The vampire sighed in disappointment. Xander could feel the panic rising up within him when he thought about his condition and tried to change the subject. "Spike, I don't think I can sleep again now. Would you talk to me. It helps take my mind off... things." "Sure, Xan. Er... what do you want me to talk about?" The brunette felt a warm glow inside. He couldn't recall the vampire ever calling him anything but Xander, or one of his generic terms, like mate and pet. It felt special, and uniquely personal to be called Xan by him. "Would you tell me more about Drusilla? There's a lot I still don't understand about you two. I mean... if you don't mind." "I don't mind, it's rather a long story though. Let's get settled down properly first." Spike reached over to his bags and pulled out several items of snack food that he knew Xander enjoyed. He carefully opened some of the wrappers and placed the items so that Xander could reach them easily. Then he resettled so that Xander was nestled comfortably between his legs. "Comfy, mate?" Xander nodded and reached for a twinkie with a smile. Spike laughed. "All right then. Are we sitting comfortably, children? Then let's begin." He paused, organising his thoughts. "I guess I'll have to start all the way back with the Bitch." "The who?" Xander asked around a mouthful of snack food. "The Bitch. Angel's sire, Darla. She was a nasty piece of work. When she opened her mouth you never knew what you wanted to do most, fall asleep from boredom, or cut her tongue out in irritation." "Yeah, I met her. She took my best friend down to the Master when he was trapped, and he was turned into a vampire. I had to stake him." Spike was silent for a moment. "Sorry, Xan. Like I said, she was a bitch. Anyway, she turned some gormless Irish pillock, and made him her childe, but kept him with her longer than usual. I don't think she cut the bond until after a decade or so. Angelus was her protégé and she taught him how to be the cruellest bastard imaginable. Of course, even after she cut the bond, he still stayed with her." "Why?" "Because she was blonde. That daft bugger practically starts panting anytime anything with yellow hair walks in front of him. He's got precious little attention for anything else. Even with his soul." Xander couldn't think of a single argument to refute that statement. In fact, it made a lot of sense. After all, when Angel was in Sunnydale he was entirely focused on Buffy, even though their relationship really didn't work. He did have one question, though. "What about Drusilla? She wasn't blonde, and he turned her." "He was only
interested in Dru in the first place because of her visions. She could see
things even before becoming a vampire, and to be honest, I think she was probably
half-insane before Angelus ever met her. He was drawn to that, and worked
hard to send her right Spike sighed. "Of course, the Bitch was furious. She knew that Angelus had been playing with Dru, but he'd never asked her permission to turn her. When Darla found out, she ordered Angelus to break the bond immediately, and he did, but it didn't work. Drusilla had become completely dependant on the bastard while he was tormenting her, and even though the sire-childe bond wasn't in place, she still latched onto him as her reason for living. That was the reason she turned me. "She wasn't
stupid, my Princess. Well, sometimes she was, but she could see that Angelus
wasn't interested in her. After she was turned he ignored her and she couldn't
stand that. One day, I ran into the three of them, literally. I'd been...
I was upset and wasn't really Xander breathed out hard. "Jesus, Spike! How can you be so calm about that? Wait! What do you mean, the way Angelus looked at you? You're not a natural blond." Spike chuckled. "Actually, pet, I am. Oh, not this shade of course. It's a sort of sandy-golden colour, and it was much longer back then. Just the sort to tempt Angelus." "Dru turned you because *Angelus* wanted you?" Xander's voice held shock. Spike stared morosely into the distance. "It didn't bother me at the time, I was still so young. But yes, that was my purpose. I existed in order to make Drusilla happy by enticing Angelus into our bed. It worked too. The bastard really liked me. Well, he liked to play with me, it wasn't always pleasant. The trouble was, Dru didn't really understand how turning vampires worked. Angelus had never taken the time to teach her anything apart from how to be afraid of him, so she only had the experience of her own turning as a guide. She thought that the less blood you gave, the better, since Angelus had given her so little. I barely had enough to turn, and I didn't even realise that there was a demon inside me for days. "At first
it was horrible. All I knew was that I wanted to make my sire happy, but she
wanted me to do all these things that revolted me. Killing people didn't come
naturally. As a human I was gentle and compassionate, and although the demon
did give me a lust for Spike smiled ruefully down at the stunned young man. "Don't worry, mate. I got over it. I became exactly what Dru wanted, the baddest, scariest, bloodiest motherfucker around. It was what the demon wanted, and I got used to it in time. "Things changed after Angelus got himself cursed and left us. Darla didn't stick around any longer than it took to pack up all the valuables, and we were left to our own devices. I took care of Dru then, and our relationship became much more equal. I think she actually become fond of me, rather than just wanting what I could do for her. I still had to seduce guys to bring home for her, but not as often. She had trouble doing it herself, you see. She couldn't help her ravings sometimes, and it scared blokes away." Xander was absolutely stunned by what the vampire was telling him. "God, Spike! The way she treated you..." Spike sighed. "It wasn't that bad, pet. We had some good times together, over the years, and after a while I really did believe that I was in love with her, and she was in love with me. It was a shock when Angelus lost his soul again and came back to us. Dru was immediately infatuated by him again, even though he'd gone absolutely mad. He paid her a lot of attention, but I could tell that he was just playing with her. "I'd grown
up since the last time we were all together, and I could see that he wasn't
good for Dru. The bond had matured to the point that I did what I thought
was right for her, rather than what she wanted me to do. That's why she eventually
severed it. After I'd There were a hundred questions running through Xander's mind. He'd never imagined the vampire could have a history like this, and it shocked him. It sounded like Spike had never had anyone who really cared about him, and that seemed deeply wrong. He tried to order his thoughts, and asked the first question. "Why were you upset when you ran into Angelus just before you were turned?" Spike was silent for a long time. Xander had almost given up hope of him answering when he finally started speaking. "Xan..." He sighed. "I was an English gentleman, pet. I had one purpose in life, to find some pretty young deb and get married. The trouble was, I didn't like any of the young girls." There was another long pause. "You see, things were different back then. Society wasn't tolerant of outsiders at all. Certain things were considered evil and repugnant, even if you had no choice about them. I was deeply confused by my feelings. We didn't have guidance counsellors to tell us that it was okay to be gay. I didn't even know what the feelings meant. As far as I knew, I was the only person in the world who felt the same way." Spike swallowed hard as Xander tried to take in this new revelation. "There was this guy. He was tall with dark hair, and though he wasn't very nice, I just wanted to be near him. He thought I was pathetic and called me names. "I'd been trying so hard to be normal. I'd just about managed to persuade myself that I was in love with this silly chit called Cecily. I even wrote her some bloody awful poetry." Spike chuckled humourlessly. "As I was going to give it to her at this party one night, I bumped into the guy. He took the poem from me and humiliated me by reading it aloud to the whole room. Everyone was laughing at me, and Cecily wouldn't even listen to me when I tried to tell her that I loved her. That didn't bother me so much, and I realised that I would never be able to feel the same about a women as I did about that guy, even though he was awful to me. I ran out of there, and straight into Angelus." Spike's tone was bleak, and Xander could tell that this was still very painful for the vampire to remember. He turned around and looked him in the eye. "Spike, I don't know what to say. I'm so sorry." Spike smiled at him. "It was a long time ago, pet. I really should be over it by now. As I said, it's much easier these days." "Still... thank you for telling me." Xander felt honoured to be the recipient of the vampire's confidence, a totally different feeling to when Larry had come out to him in the locker room. Then he had felt deeply uncomfortable. Now he just had this overwhelming urge to... what, kiss him and show him that some people do care about him? He shook his head. "I don't understand, though. Why did you hook up with Harmony if you don't like girls?" The vampire stared
at the ground for a moment. "I told you, I was going off the rails. She
was the exact opposite of what I really wanted, female, blonde, thick as pigshit.
Plus, I suppose she brought out my protective instinct. I mean she's only
got a minion demon, but Xander nodded, agreeing. He actually felt a little guilty since it was probable that one of his troops had staked her sire during the graduation ceremony. Still, he couldn't feel too bad about no letting a bloodthirsty killer out into society. Xander stared down at the floor, trying desperately to work up the courage to ask one final question. He was both hopeful and terrified of what the answer would be, but knew he couldn't wait any longer to find out. Taking a deep breath, he looked the vampire directly in the eye. "So... now that you can do whatever you want, what is it that you want, Spike?" The vampire stared at him intently for a long moment. In that time, Xander thought he looked almost vulnerable. He was shocked at the hoarse tone of his voice when Spike finally answered him. "I want you, Xan." It took a moment for the words to sink in, but when they did a huge smile blossomed over Xander's face. The vampire's answering smile was beautiful, and Xander couldn't help himself when he leaned forward and caught those soft lips between his own. The kiss seemed to last forever, each tasting the sweetness of the other's mouth and becoming instantly addicted. Tongue swept lovingly against tongue as they battled tenderly. Spike's hands came up to caress Xander's head and run gentle fingers through his hair. Spike was floating away in ecstasy until he felt Xander stiffen against him. He was pushed away hard, and was just about to ask the human, terrified, what he had done wrong, when he caught sight of Xander's face, twisted in pain. He was appalled. "God, No! You can't even *kiss* me?" Xander shook his head, fighting with everything he had against the pain. "No. Remote control. They must be close." Spike heard the words dimly as he watched his friend, and maybe his lover, lose consciousness. When the boy started convulsing, he grabbed hold of him and tried to stop him hurting himself, all the while screaming at the injustice of it. "You fucking bastards! You fucking *bastards*!" His worst fears were realized when he caught the smell of blood, and a second later a red trail snaked its way out of Xander's nose. His mantra changed to "Oh God, no. Oh God, no." and he rocked the boy, weeping against his neck. When the blood started dripping out of Xander's ears as well, Spike did the one thing that he never thought he would do again. He started to pray. --- Xander ran, chased by the intense agony that clawed through his mind. He retreated deep inside himself, searching for a place where he could feel happy and secure, and where the pain would never be able to follow. He walked down a corridor of memories, watching the images of his friends, and slowly forgot himself in the past. First came Jesse and Willow, smiling, laughing, growing older with him. Next came Buffy, more Willow, Giles and even Cordelia. In all the images they were happy and content, a living remembrance of peace. Some images he
paused at. The one with young Jesse and Willow laughing hysterically as he
spun the merry-go-round faster and faster for them. The one with the gang
sharing pizza and videos during a quiet period. The one with Giles gazing
at them all fondly like a Xander walked a little faster as he approached the end of the corridor and eventually reached the room. Inside this place he found his most cherished memories and the serenity he was searching for. It was a small room in the shape of a regular polygon, but he couldn't count the walls, and didn't try. Each image held in the walls was precious to him and he stood in the centre and spun slowly, watching each one in turn. In one was Spike, laughing surprisedly at a joke Xander had told him. In another was Spike flashing him the tiniest of shy, tentative smiles. There were many more, all featuring the blond vampire as Xander had seen him in the past few months, happy and hopeful. Xander's breath caught as he reached a particular image, and he stood, transfixed at the vision of Spike's face as he had leaned in to kiss him. Time didn't seem to exist as he stared at that image. Hours passed, possibly days, but Xander didn't care. He was content to remain in that place forever. His silent contemplation was interrupted when the image changed in front of him. One moment Spike was smiling shyly, hopefully, gratefully, lustfully and lovingly, and the next he was clutching his head in pain. Xander raised his hand towards the image, confused, and shook his head. He glanced at the other images nearby and discovered that they, too, had changed. Gone was happy, smiling Spike, replaced with visions of Spike in pain, Spike being humiliated by Xander and his friends, Spike being attacked by humans and unable to defend himself. Xander circled frantically, desperate to find a happy image to cling onto. He found none. Instead he watched, horrified, as each of the Spikes grew gaunt and pale, turning into living skeletons before his eyes. Xander fell to his knees and screamed. "No! Nooooo! Stop this! Please, somebody stop this! Somebody *stop* this!" His cries were
silenced as he felt a momentous change in the very fabric of the room. A being
had materialised before him, a glittering presence, completely out of place
in this world of torment. He stared, unable to look away from the figure.
In the periphery of his The figure was draped in black cloth like a roman toga, and could almost pass for human, but for the golden skin with impossible patterns etched in silver. He held his hands clasped in front of him and stared down at Xander as if he owned even this place, deep within the recesses of Xander's own mind. The figure spoke, and Xander found the strength to marvel that the voice sounded so normal. "Why have you summoned me to this place, lower being?" --- The vampire felt himself disintegrating under the violent storm of emotions. In his arms, he held the source of all his hopes and dreams, and the heartbeat that he had always found comforting was fading, growing slower and weaker. This time there was no question that it was because Xander was getting better. No, Xander was dying. Spike held the body tightly, rocking gently while he wept against his friend's shoulder. Over and over, he muttered "Somebody help him, please. Somebody help him, please..." He couldn't seem to stop. So caught up was he in the sound of that failing heartbeat that he failed to notice the woman who appeared before him. It wasn't until she spoke to him in tones of disdain and contempt, that he became aware of her at all. "Why have you summoned me to this place, lower being?" Spike looked up, too full of panic to question the presence of a glowing, golden woman wearing a toga in the crypt. He stared at her with unfocused eyes. "Can you help him? Please, there's nothing I can do for him now." She turned and inspected the back of the crypt as if uninterested in the tragedy playing out at her feet. "The Powers are aware that great wrong has been done to you and your companion. Since you have both proved useful in the past it has been decided that one of the pain-devices will be removed. You must decide which one, lower being. Tell me now, which shall it be, yours or the child's?" "You can take it out? Oh, thank you. Do it now, please." When the woman stared at him for a moment, Spike continued frantically. "What are you waiting for? Can't you see he's dying!" The woman's voice was a little softer as she asked "You wish me to take the child's, then?" Spike stared at her, uncomprehending. "What? Of course I want you to take his chip. Please, he doesn't have much time left." He was practically moaning in his fear. The woman nodded, sharply. "Very well." She stepped forward and placed her hand on top of Xander's head. Immediately his body relaxed, and the blood stopped flowing from his nose and ears. Spike listened intently and heard the heartbeat, clear and steady once more. He closed his eyes and relished the sound for a moment. When he looked up again, his eyes were swimming. "Thank you." he murmured, hoarsely but sincerely. The woman was
looking down at him, coldly. "The device is removed and the damage is
healed. However, I do not seek your gratitude, lower being. The Powers are
not in the habit of giving gifts to mere mortals or denizens of the underworld.
This action must be repaid in Spike stared, uncomprehending, at the woman. "I don't understand." She sneered. "As recompense for this action the Powers require your servitude. From this moment until such time as you cease to exist, you shall be a servant for the Powers That Be." --- Xander remained kneeling before the obviously powerful being, and gestured to the images around the room. "Please, he doesn't deserve this. It's not right." he whispered. The man glanced
round the room, taking in the horrifying images. He looked thoughtfully back
at Xander. "He is a vampire. It could be argued that he deserves all
this and more. However, the Powers recognise his and your assistance in recent
battles waged against the The human was shocked by the being's words since he'd forgotten his own chip in this inner place of memories. He didn't hesitate over his answer, though. "Take Spike's chip. I probably wouldn't live much longer anyway, but he could have eternity. He deserves the chance to become what he wants to be." The golden man tilted his head and gave Xander a look that he couldn't interpret. For a moment he thought that he was going to be refused, but then the man raised his arms out wide and spoke. "Very well." Instantly, the room exploded. Each of the images shattered into millions of shards, which came raining down on Xander. He flinched, but none of them touched him, dissolving into nothingness before they reached his body. When he looked up again, he saw that the room was as it had been before the images had changed. The man was holding a small object in his hand and looking at it curiously. "Fascinating." He clenched his hand into a fist, and the chip disintegrated into dust. "The task is done, and now the price must be paid." Xander gulped. "Price?" The golden man looked almost amused. "Yes, lower being, the price. The Powers do not grant gifts to humans, and certainly not to vampires. Each action must have a corresponding service. In this case, a life for a life. A lifetime's service is required from you in exchange for granting your request. Are you unwilling to pay this price?" Xander shook his head. He was prepared to do anything so that the horrifying visions he had seen would never become a reality. He raised himself a little higher and spoke firmly. "No. I'll pay the price you ask." "Good. Look at your hand." Xander glanced down, puzzled by the order, and saw that he was clasping something in his right hand. He examined it and discovered the most beautiful chain formed of leather. It was actually three strips of the softest brown leather in varying shades, plaited together to form one large loop that seemed to have no beginning, and no end. It was obviously not natural, nor was it man-made "This is our contract. It forms your part of the bond, and marks you as a warrior for the light. You must place it over your head and from that time until you die you will be our servant." Xander swallowed hard as he caressed the soft leather with his fingers. He looked up at the golden man who was regarding him impassively, awaiting his action. Steeling his resolve, he pulled the loop up over his head and down to rest around his neck. He was surprised by how high up on his chest it laid. From the length of the loop he would have expected it to dip down to the bottom of his sternum, but instead it seemed to fit snugly round his neck, just above his collar-bones. Panicking, he tried to pull it off, and discovered that it no longer fit over his head. A musical chuckle brought his attention back to the being before him. The man was smiling at him as if he were deeply amused by Xander. "I said that this bond would last until you died. You have now accepted our mark and we are pleased, Warrior." Xander flushed at his new title. "Um, I'm not really a warrior, you know. I'm really not that good at fighting. I'm more the 'let myself be pummelled as a distracting tactic' type." "You have
no training, that is true, and yet you have acted as a warrior for the light
for more than four years. We are confident that you can face the challenges
before you. To aid you in your tasks you will be sent a Guide, a creature
who will train you and fight beside "A Guide? Like... like Yoda?" The golden man's face was schooled into a perfectly impassive expression. "I am not aware of any being of that name currently in the service of the Powers." Xander grinned a little. "Okay. A Guide, cool. Wait, how will I know this Guide when I see it?" "That will
not be an issue, Warrior." The man stepped forward until he was directly
in front of the still-kneeling brunette. "You will meet your Guide when
you wake. You must travel with your Guide, and return to the place you originated
from. There, your Guide will lead Xander swallowed
hard. "You mean, back to Sunnydale." He paused, considering all
he needed to do there. "What will the task be? Will I be able to... I
mean, can I..." He was suddenly nervous about what he would be asked
to do. He was coming out of the fog of A hand moved in front of his face and he willed himself to hold still. "The task will become clear when you have reached your destination, Warrior." There was a pause. "There is one final thing you need to know. When two acts of selfless love have been committed, the bond will become permanent." Xander opened his mouth to question that statement. Surely the bond was already permanent? He'd certainly failed to remove the mark when he'd tried to pull it off. And what did this being mean by acts of selfless love? Before he had a chance to voice his questions, the hand moved to rest against his forehead, and he sank instantly into a deep and restful sleep. --- Major Sanderson looked up from his desk at the Lieutenant who had entered nervously. "Well?" "No reports
as yet, Sir. The blocks at 50 and 100 miles are in place, but the further
ones will take another twenty hours to set up. The search teams have also
reported no success, but they've had their remote units set to medium level
at the three mile range, so they "Lieutenant, that is unacceptable. I find it incredible that our highly trained team is incapable of apprehending two fugitives, when one is a vampire unable to harm humans and the other can be incapacitated from a range of three miles." "Sir, it's possible that they've holed up somewhere. We may never find them, especially since High Command are refusing us further troops." "Damn! Harris' training was a complete waste of time and resources. The little shit is obviously perverted. He actually appeared to care for the life of that creature." He stood up and started pacing about the office. The Lieutenant cleared his throat. "Sir. We have received a request from High Command for the revised timetable of operations. They are anxious that phase two is commenced as soon as possible. There may be no more time to find Harris and the vampire. Perhaps we should reconsider the satellite option?" Major Sanderson thought for a few minutes. He shook his head resignedly. "Very well, Lieutenant. We'll have to write-off Harris, but don't stop the search. We still need to neutralise the vampire. How long will it take to get the satellite set up?" "Our next window is at 0900 tomorrow. Weather conditions are forecast to be favourable for that time, so apart from some radio stations receiving some odd signals, there shouldn't be any problems." "Fine. In the meantime, we'll proceed with plan B for the completion of phase one. Make arrangements to have the cargo delivered to the location we agreed upon." "Yes Sir." The Lieutenant saluted the Major and left the room. --- Xander shifted
slightly in his sleep and Spike stilled his hand, not wanting to wake the
boy up. He had been roused from his imposed slumber about half an hour ago
by the crypt brightening with a new day, and he'd discovered that he and Xander
had become tangled, When the mortal showed no further signs of waking up he went back to gently stroking him. The vampire couldn't tear his eyes away from the sight of the dried blood which was still caked around Xander's ears and nose. The sight and the smell sickened him, and yet reassured him at the same time, for the bleeding had stopped. Spike was torn, conflicted by his various feelings. When he had been visited by the golden female the day before, he had been half out of his mind with fear and misery, and later with relief. He had scarcely known what he was doing when he had accepted the woman's mark around his neck, and he didn't know now whether he should regret it or not. On the one hand, the woman had healed Xander. She had removed the chip and given the boy his life back again. Spike would be prepared to endure anything to ensure that his friend had a healthy, happy life, even if it wasn't with the blond vampire, but he was worried that he wouldn't now be able to protect him. The price he was forced to pay was steep. His life, in exchange for Xander's. He would never consider that to be too much to pay, but it meant that he would have to leave Xander, immediately, if the golden woman was correct. Apparently, his servitude would start at once. He was supposed to meet his Warrior soon. Some snot-nosed, upstart kid who he was supposed to train and protect. The woman had said some cryptic things, but Spike got the impression that the kid would lead him somewhere, and from there he was supposed to take the child to 'the place of his first defeat', whatever that meant. All he understood was that they would leave immediately, and there was practically no chance that he would be able to persuade Xander to go with them. Now Xander was whole again, he would do his utmost to save his friends. Spike was terrified that without his help, the mortal would never survive another encounter with the monsters who had crippled him. He closed his
eyes, trying to ignore the smell of the dried blood. His hunger was starting
to make itself felt. It had been several days since he'd fed properly and
the recent frenetic activity was starting to catch up with him. The vampire
hoped that this unwelcome Xander woke once again with a small cry of fear. He found himself pleasantly wrapped up in blond vampire, who was petting him and shushing at him softly. He rubbed his eyes, and thought about the bizarre dream that he had had. "Nightmare, pet?" Spike asked gently. Xander shook his head. "No. Well, yes, but I had another dream before that. It was really weird." He reached his hand up and rubbed at his neck, and was surprised to feel something underneath his collar. Before he could examine it further, he was distracted by the vampire. Spike was dreading having to tell his friend that he was leaving, but he had no idea when the Warrior-git would arrive, and knowing his luck it would be soon. He started uncomfortably. "Xan, pet, I've got to tell you something. It's important." He paused, and took a deep, unneeded breath. "I'm going to have to leave you soon." Xander interrupted in horror. "You're leaving! But... I need you." The vampire silenced the brunette by placing his fingers against the other's mouth. "Don't worry, Xan. You'll be okay. See, I made a deal to get your chip out. You shouldn't have any more problems now, but I've got to keep my end of the deal. I'm supposed to go and be the Guide for some Warrior on a mission. I don't have any choice about going, but you could come with me if you wanted." Spike tried not to sound too hopeful, knowing that the boy would have his own quest back in Sunnydale, but it was what he desperately wanted. Xander was stunned by the vampire's words. His eyes were focused on Spike's neck, where a brown leather collar was resting, just visible above the other's t-shirt. His mouth opened and shut again as he couldn't find the words to express himself. He held out his right hand and flexed it experimentally. Spike was right. His body was healed and the headache had completely disappeared for the first time since he'd been captured by the New Initiative. He smiled widely as he realised exactly what had happened. His odd dream was obviously real, the golden man's mark lying under his shirt collar confirmed it. Xander was now a Warrior for the light, and it looked like he had found his Guide. He reached his right hand out and ran his fingers over Spike's collar. Spike looked away. "It's... it's part of the deal. It marks me as a servant of the Powers That Be. They're the ones who fixed up the mess in your head." "Spike, thank you." Xander spoke softly and sincerely, and the vampire smiled at him a little shyly. "It was the least I could do after you saved my life and all. I hate that I have to leave you, though. I know you're going to want to go back to Sunnydale. Will you promise me that you'll be careful. Please! You're no use to anyone if you're dead." Spike spoke urgently, wanting reassurance that the other man would be alright, even though they couldn't be together. Xander smiled
at him wryly. "I don't think you need to worry about that. It doesn't
look like I'll be going anywhere without you for a very long time!" Spike
frowned at him, confused, and Xander reached up with his left hand and pulled
his own mark out from under his shirt "Where... where did you get that?" he asked hoarsely. "I made a little deal of my own." "But how? When? I don't understand." Xander sighed. "I don't actually understand it myself, to be honest. It feels like it was a dream, but I know it can't be. I was in a room inside my head, and it felt like the world was shattering. Then there was this weird, gold-coloured man and he offered me something I wanted very much. The price was that I had to become a Warrior for their cause. I was supposed to meet my Guide when I woke up. You haven't seen one lying around here anywhere, have you?" Xander's voice had become teasing at the end, as the vampire realised the implications of what he was saying. Spike was a strange
mix of bewildered and delighted. It was taking a while for his mind to process
the fact that *Xander* was his young Warrior, who he was supposed to train
and fight with. His heart leapt as he realised that he wouldn't have to leave
his friend after all. He reached his hand out and caressed the brown leather mark surrounding Xander's neck. He swallowed, and spoke the only words that seemed appropriate. "Welcome, my Warrior." Xander nodded, and responded in kind, still caressing Spike's mark. "Welcome, my Guide." The two were silent, both feeling the sense of rightness that followed those actions. --- Xander grinned at the vampire and started bouncing up and down in excitement. "Spike, this is great! C'mon, we've got to go, we've got a mission." He jumped to his feet and held a hand out to help the vampire up. Spike stayed where he was on the floor and pointed at the window set high up in the wall. "Sorry, mate, but I can't go anywhere for a few hours yet." Xander glanced at the window, frowning as he realised what Spike meant. He looked towards the door, considering for a moment whether he should go without the vampire, but dismissed it. After all, the gold man had told him clearly that he was supposed to travel *with* his Guide. He sat back down next to Spike, who was looking at him anxiously. "I'm sorry, Spike. It's just... I really want to go and help Willow and the others. They're in real danger." The vampire laid his hand against Xander's arm. "Can you tell me about it now?" Xander stared at Spike, feeling his fear return. He took a deep breath and tried to speak. "They... they're..." He stopped, afraid that he would start to hyperventilate if he continued. Spike's hand was making soothing rubbing motions on his arm, and his voice was full of reassurance. "The chip's gone, Xan. Just try. I promise it won't hurt." Xander nodded uncertainly. He closed his eyes and tried to concentrate on the feeling of the vampire's hand on his arm. "They're called the New Initiative." It came out in a rush, and there was no hint of pain in his head when he said it. The brunette opened his eyes and smiled at the vampire in relief. He said it again, slower. "They're called the New Initiative." "Wankers. So what do they want with the slayer, then?" "They want her and the rest of us out of the way so they can do some big plan. Like the Adam thing, but I'm not sure exactly what." Xander gazed bleakly at the wall. "I was supposed to spy on them, find out some information that would help the Major with his plan, and then... " He paused, unable to say the words. Spike just kept stroking his arm wordlessly, silently encouraging him to continue. Very quietly, Xander said it. "Then I was going to kill them." Spike snorted, and Xander turned to look at him, confused. "They're idiots if they thought they could make you do that, pet. You're the most loyal person I know." he explained. Xander's eyes were full of pain. He shook his head. "No, Spike, you don't understand." His eyes were filling with tears as he remembered. "I was going to do it. I would have done anything to.... When I went to your crypt, I was fully prepared to stake you and then go to Giles' place and start lying to my friends. I would have killed them when I was ordered to." Spike touched his face tenderly. "But you didn't, pet. You couldn't even kill *me*." He stared hard at Xander, and asked compassionately "What did they do to you, Xan?" Xander shut his eyes, unable to stand the look in those blue eyes. "I can't, Spike. Not yet. I just..." He bit his lip, trying to keep from breaking down completely as his days of captivity came back to him. Spike pulled his friend close and held onto him tightly. He loathed those Initiative bastards for doing this to the boy. Even without the chip, they were still torturing him. He tried to change the subject a little. "Did the man you saw tell you what we're supposed to do? All I got from the toga'd woman was some cryptic shit about a place of defeat, or something." Xander kept clutching at the vampire, but chuckled weakly at what he'd said. "Yours had a toga too, huh. What's up with that? The guy told me that we were supposed to go to Sunnydale, where *you* are going to lead me to the first task. So what, exactly, did toga-girl say to you?" "Just something about leading my Warrior to the place of my first defeat. It doesn't mean anything to me." Xander was silent for a moment. "Um, Spike. I don't want to bruise your ego or anything, but you have had your ass kicked all over Sunnydale several times. Where was the first?" Spike sighed. "Not really the memories a guy tries to hold in his head, mate." He thought back. "The first time must have been when I stormed into the school to kill the slayer. You remember, it was the same night that Angel offered you to me as a snack, bloody pillock." The brunette nodded. "Yes, that was the first time we fought you. You know, we were expecting you on the Saturday. What happened, did you set your watch wrong or something?" "Very funny, mate." "So I guess
we have to go to the old school. Why there, though? It's just a building site
at the moment. There's nothing except... Oh shit! The hellmouth!" Xander
thought for a minute. "No, it can't be. When they were fixing the floor
in the library, Giles made sure "I don't know, but I have a feeling the toga-twins know what they're doing. I reckon that something must be happening at the school late tonight. They wouldn't have made us sleep throughout the night if they wanted us to leave before now." Xander fiddled with his mark. He remembered the feeling of power that came from the golden man. "I guess you're right. They must have meant for us to spend today locked up here." He disentangled himself from the vampire and stood up. "Um, I'm just going to go..." He gestured towards the door. Spike sat up with a jerk. "What! Where are you going? We're supposed to go together... " Xander was making calming motions with his hand. "I'm not going anywhere, Spike. I just need to... um..." He was rather embarrassed. This wasn't something he really wanted to discuss with the blond vampire. "I need to go and answer a call of nature." Spike raised an eyebrow. "You need to pee. Well, why the bloody hell didn't you say so? Just keep your head down and stay out of sight of the road. Don't forget, the wankers might be around, looking for us." Xander looked at him fondly. "Don't worry, I won't be long." He pulled the door open cautiously, careful not to expose the vampire to any rays, and sidled out. Truthfully, his little problem was rather urgent, despite how little he'd drunk recently, and he was thankful to be able to go without the vampire's assistance. He mentally thanked the Powers and Spike for the return of the use of his limbs. --- The remaining Scooby Gang were busily reading through the spell books for the fifth time, searching for some way to find their missing friends. Hope was almost dead, but they refused to give up. The disappearance of the blond vampire had come as a major blow to all of them. Buffy had been the first to discover Spike's absence, when she'd gone to his crypt to keep him informed of their progress. She'd been alarmed when she found the crypt empty, and horrified when she found the big hole which led into the sewers. It looked like some powerful demon had come crashing through the wall and taken the vampire away. They all jumped when a sharp knock sounded on the door of Giles' apartment. Giles went to answer it, and found a man dressed in an army uniform, with his cap held respectfully under his arm. "Excuse me, Sir. I'm sorry to bother you. I'm looking for a Miss Buffy Summers?" Giles turned around and spoke into the room. "Buffy." The slayer got up from her place on the couch and went over to the door. When she saw who was standing there her step faltered. "Oh God! Riley?" she gasped. The soldier was
quick to reassure her. "Oh, no Ma'am. I'm not here regarding Mr. Finn.
I'm sorry if I've upset you, but I'd like to speak with you about a matter
concerning... well, the trouble you went through with one of our units recently.
My name is Major Sanderson. Giles and Buffy exchanged a glance, and Giles shrugged almost imperceptibly. He motioned the Major inside and closed the door after him. "Thank you, Sir. You must be Mr. Giles. It's an honour to meet you, Sir." The Major gave Giles a hearty handshake and stepped further into the room. "Miss Summers, it's also an honour to meet you. I've been briefed on the actions you took to save American soldiers from that ill-conceived experiment a few months ago. The Government can't ignore the underworld threat, but it's been decided that you should be consulted and informed of all actions we take to deal with it." Buffy interrupted hostilely. "You're setting up another monster-squad. I don't like the sound of that!" "No, no.
It won't be like before. As I said, we intend to consult with you on all aspects
of our involvement in this situation. I'm here today as a courtesy to inform
you of a threat we've been tracking for the past few weeks. There is a pack
of demons of an indeterminate There was a gasp from the couch behind Buffy. Willow had gone paler than usual and was clutching onto Tara's arm. "Oh Buffy, Xander!" Buffy nodded at her, a little pale herself, but not ready yet to trust this army guy. "What do you know about the disappearances? What happens to the people who are taken?" The Major looked at her searchingly. "I'm afraid we haven't been able to determine that. No bodies have turned up, as yet. Why, do you know of a disappearance in this town?" "Yes, our friend Xander, um, Alexander Harris. He went missing several days ago. And another friend of ours, Sp... ah, William. He vanished only a couple of days ago." Major Sanderson looked gravely sympathetic, and flashed a small smile full of concern at the girls sitting on the couch. "You have my sympathies Ma'am. Believe me, we're doing everything we can to locate the nest. It could be possible that the victims are still alive." Giles spoke from behind the Major. He was polishing his glasses furiously and looked very worn. "Do you have a description of the demons. We may be able to help find them." He gestured around at the array of books lying around the room. "I'm afraid
we don't. As I said, they are very good at hiding. It's possible that they
have some kind of camouflage ability." The Major moved back towards the
door. "Thank you all for taking the time to see me. Be assured that I'll
keep you informed about our hunt for --- When Xander returned to the crypt, he found that the vampire had laid out the rest of the food as breakfast for him. He flashed a grin and started to eat. When he took a drink he stared thoughtfully at the bottle. "Hey, Spike. Is there much water left?" Spike dug around in the bags, checking on the water supply. "Yes, mate. I got a few bottles." He held a fresh one out to Xander, who took it with a smile. "Thanks, I feel pretty rank right now. You can probably smell it!" He gave the vampire a self-deprecating grimace and started to peel off his shirt. Holding it up to his nose, he could truly appreciate just how smelly it was. He threw it down on the floor in disgust. There wasn't any pain from the spot under his arm where the tracer had been, so he carefully removed the bandage. The wound had completely healed along with the rest of the damage Xander had suffered at the hands of the New Initiative, and he grinned at Spike, who was still sitting on the floor, watching him with an inscrutable expression on his face. "Those toga-guys sure do the job right, don't they?" There was no response from Spike, and Xander went back to what he was doing with a shrug. He twisted the cap off the bottle of water and started to pour it over his head, gasping a little at how cold it was. It felt great against his skin, so cool and refreshing, washing away days worth of encrusted sweat and blood. He really wanted to take a very long, very hot shower to wash away every last trace of what the bastards had done to him, but he resigned himself to doing without for a while longer. After he'd used up the whole bottle sluicing away the filth on his skin, he picked up his shirt and used it to wipe away the excess water. He checked the Powers' mark around his neck, but it didn't seem to have been affected by getting wet. He guessed that there wouldn't be any problems with it shrinking, since it was so obviously supernatural in origin. Spike was staring,
entranced by the sight before him. Xander's hair was dripping wet and little
trails of water were making their way down his skin. His smooth, well tanned
skin. Spike had known for a very long time that he was attracted to the brunette,
but this was The vampire felt
a surge of joy and ownership as he looked at the mark, and he reached his
hand up to fondle the twin collar of leather which graced his own neck. These
marks meant that they belonged together, that Xander belonged to him, even
if it was only in a He pushed himself to his feet, growling softly at the thought, and was surprised when he fell back against the wall, feeling faint and dizzy. Xander immediately reached for him and helped him to sit down again. "Spike! What's wrong?" Xander was panicked by the blond vampire nearly collapsing. He noticed how pale Spike was, and flashed back to his memory place when all the Spike images had started to grow gaunt and pale from starvation. His eyes widened in alarm and he cupped the vampire's face between both hands, staring into those blue eyes. "When was the last time you ate?" he demanded. Spike blinked and shook off the confusion that his momentary faintness had left him with. "I don't know, a few days ago maybe." "A few days! Spike, why?" Spike looked down, breaking the eye contact. "We were all worried when you went missing, Xan. Didn't really have time to eat." He looked back up into those brown eyes, pleading with his own. "We tried to find you, we really did. We looked everywhere." Xander slumped down a little. "I know. I know you did everything you could, but you should have eaten." He spoke softly but firmly. "Can you take just a little? I mean, drink from someone without killing them?" Spike looked confused. "Well, yes of course I can, but..." Xander interrupted him. "Then drink from me." He pulled his head to the side, baring his neck to the vampire. Spike found himself
reflexively leaning towards the calmly offered neck, and had to make a conscious
effort to resist. He put his hands on Xander's shoulders and held him away.
"Don't be silly, mate. I can't bite people, remember. Got a little present
from the wankers of Xander stared at him for a moment, and then his face broke out into a proud smile. "Oh! No, Spike, actually you don't." Spike regarded his friend suspiciously. "What do you mean?" The brunette was practically bouncing up and down, gleefully. "You don't have a chip anymore. It's gone, just like mine." Spike felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, as a terrible thought occurred to him. "Xander, what did you do?" Xander was a little confused by the vampire's heavy tone of voice. Spike sounded almost... angry? "It was what I asked for from the toga-guy. To have your chip removed." He winced as the grip on his arms suddenly tightened to painful levels. "You did *what*!" Spike thundered at the bewildered brunette. "How could you, Xander? Of all the stupid things to do..." Xander pushed himself away from the vampire and stood up, confused and deeply hurt by Spike's reaction. "Hey, what's your problem? I thought you'd want it gone!" Spike followed
him up and grabbed his arms again, furious about what Xander had done. "Not
at this price! Don't you even realise what you've done?" He took hold
of the mark around the boy's neck. "*This* is for the rest of your life.
You've sold your life away, and Xander lashed
out at the vampire, knocking him away. "Fuck you, Spike! It was *my*
choice. I did it so you can defend yourself, and so you won't ever have to
starve, and because *I* wanted to! I was trapped in that fucking place and
all I could see was you turning into a skeleton before my eyes. You were one
step away from dust and I "Xander..." The vampire's voice was hoarse and shaken. "God, Spike! You did it for me. Why aren't I allowed to do the same thing for you?" Spike swallowed hard, his anger entirely gone. He spoke gently. "Don't you see, pet. It's not the same thing. You had your whole life in front of you and you've given it away for me. I'm not worth that." Xander shook his head. "You're wrong, Spike. You're worth all that and more." The silence stretched out as the two stood, staring at each other. Neither could think of what to say to break the tension that had grown between them. Xander darted forward and caught the vampire when he collapsed again, lowering him gently to the ground. Spike clutched the brunette closely and whispered in his ear, "I'm so sorry, Xan. It's just...no-one's ever done anything like that for me before." Xander pulled back to look Spike in the eye. The last remnants of his anger dissipated under the expression of regret and gratitude that he found there. He stroked his hand through the vampire's hair, soothing him like the vampire had done for Xander when he was in pain. "I know. I thought it was time that someone gave you what you deserved." A look of wonder crossed Spike's face. "Thank you." The words were whispered so softly that Xander could only just hear them. He dropped a quick kiss on the top of the vampire's head. "You're very welcome. Spike, you need to eat. The chip isn't a problem anymore, and you'll be no use to me in Sunnydale if you keep fainting all the time." Xander tried to reason with the vampire, and himself. He didn't actually care about Sunnydale at that moment. All he cared about was that Spike would stop looking so weak and pale. He sat down in front of the vampire and pulled his head to the side again. Spike reached out a hand and gently stroked the side of Xander's neck. "Xan, we shouldn't do this. It's dangerous. What if I took too much?" Xander shook his head. "You won't." He looked the vampire in the eye, intently. "I trust you, Spike." There was a sharp gasp of breath, and then the blond head was being lowered to Xander's neck. He tensed himself, waiting for the sharp pain, but instead felt the gentle caress of a tongue licking against his pulse point. The sensation sent little bursts of lightning through his body, directly to his groin. He felt himself hardening, and groaned. He realised, when the licking changed to nibbling, that Spike wasn't even in game face. The vampire was working his way up Xander's neck, and when he started gently teasing his earlobe, Xander found himself bucking his hips. He was hard as a rock and panting in need. He managed to gasp out a few words. "What... ahhh, what are you doing?" Without releasing Xander's earlobe, the vampire whispered into his ear. "Just relax, pet. It'll hurt you less this way." "But... Oh God!" Xander caught his breath. "It doesn't matter, the chip's gone." Spike stopped nibbling and pulled his head away to look at the brunette. Xander had to restrain a whimper at the loss of contact. The vampire was staring at him, with an indescribable expression on his face. "I don't *want* to hurt you, Xander." Before Xander could process what Spike had just said, the lips had returned to his neck and were now sucking on his pulse point. After a minute of that treatment, he felt like he would explode if it continued any longer. He let out a deep moan, and the sucking stopped. Xander could feel surprisingly soft ridges forming against his neck, and then the sharp prick as fangs penetrated his skin, and the sucking resumed. Both men were so caught up in the sensations that the feeding evoked, that neither really registered the male voice echoing through the crypt, like a ghost's whisper. "One." --- Xander was floating. This was good, it felt... right. It did hurt, but his sensitized flesh was telling him that the line between pleasure and pain was very fine indeed. The delicious
suction stopped, and then a bloody mouth was pressed hard against Xander's.
The vampire ravaged him with a kiss, licking and nipping at Xander's lips,
and pushing his tongue deep inside the boy's mouth. Xander fell back to the
floor and Spike followed him Bewildered, Xander
opened his eyes and stared up as the vampire leapt off him and started pacing
violently across the crypt. Spike's face was set in an agonised grimace, and
he was talking loudly, apparently to himself. "You stupid *fuck*! You
*stupid* fucking moron!" He Xander was deeply confused and a little frightened by the vampire's actions. In a rather tentative voice, while still panting from his arousal, he asked "What's wrong?" Spike faced away from him, leaning into the wall and rested his head against it. He hadn't looked at Xander since jumping off him. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm just so sorry." His voice sounded lost. The brunette pushed himself to his feet, and approached the vampire. "What are you sorry for?" Spike turned towards him. "I was taking advantage. I'm sorry." "Taking advantage!"
Xander couldn't believe it. Hadn't the vampire noticed the rather obvious
bulge in his pants, or the way he had been moaning in pleasure when Spike
started to kiss him? He looked searchingly into the blue eyes across from
him and saw a lot of lust, Something about selfless acts impinged on the back of his mind, but he shook those thoughts away in favour of advancing upon the vampire. Spike was staying perfectly still while Xander walked towards him, allowing Xander to make all the moves. When he was almost close enough to touch the blond, he asked provocatively, "Don't you want me?" Spike let out a brief burst of strangled laughter. He was suddenly very aware that Xander was taller and broader than him, and felt a delicious little thrill pass through him as the brunette stalked towards him, holding him in place against the wall with his very presence. He tried to control himself, needing to understand Xander's motivations before they went any further. "It's not that I don't want you, but I need to know that you want me. Really want me." Xander glanced down, drawing Spike's gaze down to the erection tenting the boy's pants. He shook his head. "That's not what I meant, Xan. I had to get you worked up like that so the feeding wouldn't hurt you, but..." He paused, trying to organise his thoughts, while Xander smelled so good, so close that he could feel the heat coming off him. "I need to know that it wouldn't just be gratitude, that you wouldn't regret it afterwards." Xander moved in
closer still, until his body was one inch from being plastered against the
vampire's. He rested his hands on the wall on either side of Spike's head.
He spoke softly but sincerely, wanting to give Spike the reassurance he needed.
"It's not about this, or Spike looked uncertain but hopeful, and ridiculously young. "Did you?" "Yes. I used to watch you, the way you move when you fight. I like it." He leaned closer and nuzzled his nose against the vampire's hair, causing a shiver in response. "I like the way you smell." He brought a hand to Spike's face and brushed it gently across his cheek. "I like the way you look, and the way you feel." He leaned in and licked the vampire's parted lips. "I like the way you taste." Spike was standing absolutely motionless with his eyes closed and his fingers digging tensely into the wall behind his back. Xander closed his own eyes for a second, then finished what he wanted to say. "And I want to know what you'd feel like inside me." The vampire's
eyes snapped open, and cool hands gripped Xander's upper arms tightly. They
stared at each other for long moments, Spike's gaze questioning and Xander's
calm and trusting. Spike's mouth opened and closed a few times, clearly not
knowing what to say. He "It's something I've wanted for a while, but... " He shrugged, and his voice turned a little bleak. "Spike, you and I both know what we'll be facing tonight. It's possible that... well, there are some things that everyone should experience before they die. Having sex with you is at the top of my list right now, and I know you'll make it good." "Xander, you are *not* going to die." Spike was practically growling. "You are *my* Warrior, and you aren't going to die until I bloody well say so. Alright!" Xander smiled and bumped Spike's forehead gently with his own. "Yes, my Guide. Even so, we've got this nice, private crypt, and a few hours to kill. Can you think of a better way?" Spike thought hard for a long moment. "We could play I-spy." At Xander's incredulous look he smirked. "No, pet. I can't think of a better way. If you're sure?" "I'm sure, Spike." Xander spoke firmly. "So, ah, what do we do first?" Spike smiled gently at him and moved in for a kiss. As the fire built up, the vampire's hand wandered down Xander's torso, until it touched a hot, hard place that made Xander gasp. He pulled back and darted a quick kiss to Xander's nose. "Spike!" Xander whined the vampire's name exasperatedly, but it changed to a squeak as Spike bent down to catch one of Xander's nipples between his lips. The brunette's head fell back and he clutched hold of Spike's back, running his hands down underneath the t-shirt that the blond still wore. Spike continued
his journey down, pausing at Xander's navel to thrust his tongue inside, drawing
another gasp from the brunette. He ended up on his knees in front of Xander,
and glanced up briefly for permission to proceed further. Finding his permission
in the hungry Xander thought his legs would give way when he felt the vampire take his hard length out of his pants and start to fondle it. He was grateful when Spike took hold of his hips and eased him down to lie back on the duster which was still draped over the floor. The vampire leaned over him and placed another kiss on his lips, before tugging his own top off and flinging it to the ground. Xander didn't have the chance to appreciate Spike's body in a way that he was sure they'd both enjoy, since the vampire immediately moved away from him and started searching for something. Xander realized what that must be, and blushed a little at the thought. He saw Spike looking speculatively at something on the floor, and followed his gaze. "Eeew! Don't even think about it, pal." The thought of abusing an uneaten twinkie in that way was horrific. Spike smirked at him. "I don't know, pet. What else is the cream filling for?" He moved to one of the bags and searched through it, pausing when he found the tube of antibiotic gel that he hadn't needed to use on Xander's wound. He popped the cap off and squeezed a little onto his fingers, testing the consistency. It was slick enough, and wasn't designed to be absorbed into the skin too quickly so it should work well enough. The vampire waved it at the boy as he crawled back towards him, and after looking at it suspiciously for a moment, Xander nodded his approval. After another quick kiss to the human's lips, Spike pulled off Xander's shoes and helped him out of his pants. When the boy was completely naked before him he paused, and stared appreciatively for a moment. Xander looked at him, and caught a strange expression flashing across the vampire's face. "What's wrong?" Spike smiled at him, a little embarrassed. "It's nothing, pet. Only... I just realized that I've never actually done this before." "What!" Xander sat up with a jerk, but vampire continued speaking, gesturing for him to relax. "Oh, I've been with guys before, but never on my own. Dru was always there. She used to tell me what to do, so this is kind of like my first time, too." Xander sat, stunned for a minute by that revelation. Then he moved forward and caught the vampire's lips in a tender kiss that lasted for quite some time. When they separated, he nuzzled against Spike's cheek, a little breathless. "I'm honoured, Spike." Spike chuckled. "Yeah, Xan. Me too." He gently guided the brunette back down so that he was laying on his back with his legs open, and knelt between them. "Just relax, pet. I'm not going to hurt you." Xander nodded trustingly. "I know." The vampire put one finger into his mouth and licked at it until it was slick, then leaned over and took the head of Xander's cock into his mouth. Xander gasped and thrust his hips up at the contact. As Spike started a rhythmic sucking, he brought his spit-covered finger down to the cleft between Xander's buttocks and rubbed it against the hole. Xander tensed for a moment, but the feeling of Spike's mouth on his hard length made him relax, and Spike took the opportunity to press his finger inside the boy. Xander stilled his movements as he felt the finger slip inside him. It wasn't painful, just odd to feel breached in this manner. Spike was gently thrusting his finger in and out in time to his bobbing up and down on Xander's cock, and he felt himself relaxing into the sensation and starting to enjoy it. Then, the finger pushed in a little further and bent and... *Holy Fuck*! Spike was determined that Xander should enjoy this, so he employed all his skill to locate that perfect spot inside him, and at the same time increased the suction on Xander's cock. It seemed to work as Xander spasmed against him, arching his body and screaming and coming in hard spurts inside Spike's mouth. The vampire grinned as he continued to suck and swallow, only withdrawing his mouth and finger when Xander relaxed back onto the floor. --- Spike crawled up his friend's body until he could feel the rapid puffs of air against his face. He allowed Xander a minute to get his breath back, and then pressed his lips against the boy's, kissing him lovingly while trailing a hand across his chest in a teasing caress. He pulled back slightly and asked a little smugly, "Did you like that, Xan?" Xander chuckled incredulously. "You're kidding, right? I've never felt anything so good before." He smiled at the vampire and brought his arms up to wrap around Spike's back. "So, that would be the prostate then, huh." Spike nodded. "That would indeed be the prostate. Very useful little gland. So you've never... um... played?" He gestured down Xander's body with his hand. The vampire was intrigued when the brunette turned bright red, and raised an eyebrow questioningly. "Well, we... um, I mean.... Anya tried once. She used her finger, but nothing like *that* happened, so I guess she didn't find it. You know, for a girl who was so addicted to the earth-shattering orgasms, she wasn't too keen on giving them." His mood turned wistful as he thought about the ex-demon. They had had some good times, but he also remembered many instances of her overwhelming selfishness. It had been very hard work to maintain a relationship with her. Xander smiled up at the blond vampire. "It's a good thing that she left." Spike stared at him, a little concerned. "Are you sure you're alright about it, pet?" "Absolutely. I'm over her, really. It took a while, but I really am okay now." He smiled. "You helped a lot. Your friendship has meant a lot to me these past few months." Spike looked a bit embarrassed. "Thanks, mate. I'm glad I could help." He paused for a moment, and then brought his head down to whisper in Xander's ear. "Do you think we could discuss your ex some other time." He ground his jean-clad erection against the boy's hip. "We have some unfinished business to take care of." Xander's eyes dilated and Spike could feel his interest reawakening against his thigh. He smiled and leaned in to kiss the boy once more. Xander hardened further as Spike skilfully teased his lips and tongue with his own. The kiss trailed across Xander's face and down his neck until Spike was sucking on the bite mark, causing Xander to moan and writhe beneath him. Xander's hands trailed a path of fire down the vampire's cool skin, kneading the pale flesh of his back and travelling lower until they were stopped by the barrier of Spike's jeans. Spike could feel the brunette swallow, and then the hands were moving again, skimming the edge of his waistband as they made their way round to the front. Spike continued to play with Xander's neck and lifted his hips to allow the boy easier access. Slightly trembling fingers fumbled with the fastenings of his jeans, opening the button and slowly drawing down the zip. The vampire tensed as one warm and inexperienced hand started exploring. Xander was rather unsure of himself as he began reaching his hand inside Spike's jeans. He had never tried touching another man before and felt a sense of unreality at these actions. He faltered, and would have stopped except the vampire chose that moment to push his head up so he could look at Xander's face. Xander was stunned by the depth of hunger and longing in the blue eyes staring down at him, and it gave him the courage to continue what he'd started. His tentative fingers brushed against Spike's hard shaft, causing the vampire to shudder above him. Xander closed his hand around it and started to pump it awkwardly in the confines of the jeans. He was surprised by the fact that he was actually enjoying the feel of the cool flesh in his grasp. Spike pushed himself away, not wanting to come too soon. He rolled off Xander and removed his boots and jeans. They lay side by side and Xander reached for the vampire to pull him into a kiss. They were both fully naked and writhed against each other, enjoying the sensations of their hard, muscular bodies grinding together. When Spike was sure that Xander was fully aroused he broke the kiss and rolled himself over so that he was kneeling between the boy's legs. He rubbed his hands comfortingly over Xander's stomach. "Are you sure you want to do this, Xan?" The brunette closed his eyes for a moment and the vampire could tell that he was uncertain. However, his expression was determined when he opened his eyes again. "Yes, I'm sure. I want this. What do I have to do?" Spike smiled reassuringly. "Just relax, and let me know if it's too much. I'll take it slowly." He reached for the tube of gel and slathered a generous amount on his fingers. With one hand he raised the boy's hips, and gently eased one finger inside him, resuming the thrusting from earlier. Xander was prepared for the finger from before and took it easily. It became harder
when one finger became two. The sensation was a little uncomfortable, but
Spike was being very gentle, and Xander soon stretched enough to accommodate
the two fingers easily without discomfort. He began to enjoy the slow thrusting
and moved his hips Spike smiled when he felt Xander's hips move and withdrew his fingers. The little disappointed sound that Xander made caused him to smile even wider. He moved into the final stage of preparation and started to push three fingers inside the boy's tight hole. Xander gasped as he felt himself being stretched even further. After a minute he heard the vampire speak, and realized that he had closed his eyes. "Do you think you're ready, Xan?" He opened his eyes and looked directly at Spike. "I'm ready." There was a pause as the fingers were removed and Xander felt empty. He watched as Spike quickly spread gel over his hard cock, and then the blunt head was nudging the entrance to his body. He took a deep breath and nodded his head, and then Spike was pushing forwards, into him. This was different. Different from the fingers and different from how he'd ever imagined it. Spike was filling him so completely, stretching him wider and deeper and much more beautifully than before. He felt his muscles trying to clench around the intruder and forced himself to relax. Spike continued to push, slowly but surely until every inch of him was inside the brunette's body. When he was fully buried he paused, and leaned forwards to stroke the sweat away from Xander's face. "Alright, love?" Xander took a few deep breaths, adjusting to the feel of the vampire touching him so deeply inside. He met the concerned blue eyes and nodded. "Yeah, I'm okay." Spike smiled. He felt the tight passage relaxing slightly from its firm grip on his cock, and took that as the signal to continue. He pulled out almost completely, and thrust back in again slowly, eliciting a groan from the body beneath him. It didn't seem to have caused any pain, so he pushed a little harder next time, changing the angle of the stroke so that it hit the boy's prostate. This time the groan sounded more like a scream, and Spike smiled in triumph. Xander was floating away on a tide of pleasure. He had never imagined that it could feel so good to be penetrated like this. Any pain he felt was overpowered by the waves of pleasure rushing through his body every time the vampire hit that wonderful little spot that he decided was his new best friend. It became too much for him when Spike took a firm hold of his erect cock, and he started thrusting himself back onto the hard length that impaled him. Spike sped up his movements when Xander started to participate fully, and he pumped his lover's cock in time to his own thrusts. Neither of them could continue very long like that, and soon he felt himself being gripped tightly as Xander spasmed and came hard in his hand. That was too much even for his self-control, and he thrust as hard as he could inside the boy and came with a strangled scream. He pulled out of Xander when he felt himself softening, and collapsed forwards, rolling slightly to the side to avoid crushing the human with his weight. Xander wrapped trembling arms around him and pressed a kiss against his lips. It didn't last long since Xander was still trying frantically to get his breath back, but Spike understood the message. He smiled at his lover, and murmured "Thank you." They lay there, relaxing and coming down from the high of great sex. Still wrapped tightly around each other, they slowly drifted off to sleep. --- Xander woke slowly to find himself pleasantly cocooned in a wrapping of skin and leather. The vampire had manoeuvred them both so that Xander was mostly lying on top of him with his head resting on Spike's chest, and had pulled the duster over them, holding it in place with one arm. Spike's other hand was being used to stroke gently through Xander's hair. Xander tried to
keep still and just enjoy the caress, but parts of him complained that they
were stiff and sore from sleeping on the floor. He was also rather itchy where
the evidence of their lovemaking had dried to his body, and couldn't help
squirming. Spike immediately "Are you alright, Xan?" Xander propped himself up on Spike's chest and met the vampire's slightly worried gaze. "I'm fine, Spike." He smiled and leaned up to give the vampire a quick kiss. "Pretty good, actually." Spike grinned back at him. "That's good, pet. I was worried you might have some regrets." "Nope, no
regrets." Xander grimaced slightly and squirmed again. "I'd kill
for a shower, though. And a real bed, although this is nice." He put
his head back down on Spike's chest and nuzzled his cheek against the soft
skin, which was quite warm from Xander's body Spike put his hand back on the brunette's head, but tugged at the hair instead of stroking it. Xander grunted in protest. "You can't go back to sleep, pet. We need to get up." "Why?" That sounded petulant and whiny even to Xander, and the vampire sighed. "It's getting dark. We're going to have to go soon." Xander tensed as he remembered the situation they were in and what they would have to do next. His mood of sleepy contentment evaporated, leaving him wide awake and slightly depressed. He rolled off the vampire and got to his knees. The move had uncovered Spike and Xander couldn't help staring at what he'd been lying on. Spike noticed his interest and grinned smugly, lying back with his hands behind his head. "It's all yours, pet." Xander reached out a hand and traced his fingers softly over the Power's mark around the vampire's neck. His voice and expression were totally serious. "Yeah, I know." Spike stopped smiling and raised his own arm to copy his Warrior's gesture. He nodded sharply and sat up, casting about for his jeans. The two men dressed themselves quickly, though not without some pulled faces from Xander at the smell of his clothes. He glanced across at Spike as he was pulling his shirt on. "You know, the absolutely first thing I'm going to do when this is all over is have a very long, very hot shower. And then I'm going to sleep for a week in my own bed." Spike stared intently at the floor. "I could probably do with a shower myself, pet, but there isn't any running water in the crypt." He met Xander's eyes and raised his eyebrows enquiringly. "Do you think I could grab one at your place?" Xander smiled to himself, easily picking up on what the vampire was asking. "Sure, Spike. Um, the hot water tank isn't very big though. We'd probably have to share to make sure that it doesn't run out." Spike smiled at him and nodded. "I think I could live with that." They gathered up the rest of their things and waited for a few more minutes until it was safe for Spike to venture outside. When the sun was completely set they opened the door warily, checking to make sure that there wasn't anyone around to see them. It was very dark so Xander had to hold onto the back of Spike's coat as they made their way across the cemetery towards the woods where their car was stashed. Xander grumbled under his breath, causing the vampire to chuckle quietly. "The cemeteries in Sunnydale always seemed better lit than this. Ow!" He yelped as he stubbed his toe on a hidden grave marker. Spike checked
the car to make sure that it hadn't been disturbed. He couldn't see any signs
that anyone had found it, so they bundled inside and Spike started backing
it carefully out of the woods. There weren't many cars about at that time
so they had no trouble in joining --- Xander's knuckles were completely white from where he was gripping the side of his seat so hard. It didn't help that Spike kept shooting him amused grins. Xander was trying desperately not to distract the vampire from his driving, knowing that they needed to get to Sunnydale as soon as possible, but he had to literally bite his tongue not to remind Spike that he was mortal and would be seriously damaged if they had an accident travelling this fast. If the occasional terrified whimper made it past his lips, at least Spike wasn't commenting on it. They had only been on the road for half-an-hour when they came up on a cinema complex with a large, badly-lit car park. Spike immediately crossed a couple of lanes of traffic, cutting up some angry drivers, and pulled off towards the cinema. Xander couldn't stay quiet any longer. "What the hell are you doing! We don't have time to catch a movie! And are you *trying* to kill me before we even reach Sunnydale?" Spike sighed in exasperation as he looked for a spot to park in. "I've been driving for as long as cars have existed! I know what I'm doing." He pulled into a space and killed the engine. "But why are we stopping?" The vampire started
shrugging out of his duster. "Because, mate, we can't drive into Sunnydale
in this car. Use your head. It was nicked, *in Sunnydale*, at the same time
as we escaped. They're going to be looking out for it." He gave the duster
to Xander, who took They got out of the car, both pulling on their respective coats. Spike stood admiring the picture Xander made wearing the black leather. "That's a good look for you, pet. We definitely need to get more leather for you." Xander stuck his tongue out at the vampire as he started walking down the row of cars. Xander hurried after him, realising what it was that Spike was doing. "Um, Spike. You can't just take someone else's car. That's stealing!" Spike snorted. "That's the general idea, pet." "But... but it's *wrong*! And what if we get caught? Look, I know you're an evil vampire and all that, but we work for the Powers now. I don't think they'd approve of this." Spike stopped suddenly and whirled on him. "Keep your voice down and we won't get caught. Look, you're a Warrior for the Powers That Be, right?" Xander nodded. "And they appointed me as your Guide, right?" "Um, yes." "So, I'm guessing that you're supposed to be guided by me. I'm going to train you and teach you how to fight, and how to survive, and part of that includes how to make use of what's available." "You're going to teach me how to steal cars!" "Among other
things." Spike sighed. "Listen, this is the only way we can get
into Sunnydale right now, and that's where we need to be. We're not keeping
the cars forever. We've left the other one with a mostly full tank and the
owners will get them back in a few days, good Xander's eyes widened. "I do! It's just.... Alright, I suppose this is best. I'm just not really comfortable with stealing, that's all." Spike grinned suddenly, and put his arm around the boy's shoulders, propelling him down the row of cars. "Don't worry, mate. By the time I'm finished with you, you'll happily steal the Crown Jewels." Xander just muttered under his breath, "Oh my God!" They stopped in front of a decent looking car in a quiet part of the car park. Spike took very little time to get it open and get the engine running, and Xander reluctantly settled himself in the passenger seat. As they were pulling out onto the road Spike grinned at Xander. "See, easy as pie." Xander just shook his head in despair. --- After an hour without them having an accident, Xander had relaxed somewhat. Spike was glad, since this was possibly the last time they would spend together like this. He had no illusions about what was waiting for them in Sunnydale, and even if they did survive the night, things would surely change when the rest of the Scooby Gang became involved. Xander didn't seem to regret what had happened between them, and from their discussion when they'd woken up, Spike thought that Xander would be interested in continuing their physical relationship, but he doubted that Buffy or Giles would approve. He glanced across at Xander, and saw that his friend was watching him with a pensive look on his face. Xander immediately dropped his eyes, as if he were uncomfortable. Spike spared a glance at the road, and then looked back at Xander, who was now biting his lip. "What is it, Xan?" The boy looked at him searchingly for a moment, and then focused his gaze on the car in front of them. "It's nothing. You just look cute in the hat, that's all." He flashed a small grin at the vampire, but still didn't look fully at him. Spike didn't want to push, so he let the silence ride out until it became uncomfortable. After a couple of miles of that, he'd had enough and asked in a gentle tone of voice, "What's on your mind, Xan? Please tell me." Xander looked down at his nervously twisting hands for a few seconds, then turned to the vampire. "Are you going to be alright, tonight? You didn't seem to take much blood when you fed from me." Spike frowned in confusion. Surely this wasn't what was bothering the boy. "It was enough to get me through whatever we have to do tonight, although I'll have to stock up afterwards. Human blood is potent stuff when you haven't had any for a while, and yours was particularly tasty." He smiled teasingly at his friend, but Xander didn't smile back. "Will you..., will you be feeding from humans again, now that your chip is out?" Spike opened his mouth to answer, and Xander continued hurriedly. "I mean, I know it's what you do. Vampire, right. I get that. It's just... well, it bothers me." "Xander, calm down. I'm not going to be killing innocents, don't worry." "You won't?" Xander asked hopefully. "No, I'm one of the good guys now, a fully paid-up member." He touched the leather strip round his neck briefly. "I don't feel the urge to kill, anyway. There are plenty of bad people around who I can snack on, and I won't even kill them if you don't want me to. I do need human blood, though. A vampire can only live so long on animal blood before he starts getting weak and sick." Xander frowned. "Angel didn't drink from humans." Spike raised his
eyebrows. "Is that what he told you? He used to get the occasional pint
of O-neg from Willy's place. Without it he would have been useless to you.
Even with it, he was still a lot weaker than when he lost his soul and started
feeding properly again. You Xander nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah, I guess so. He used to leave most of the fighting to Buffy. I'd never really thought about it." "Mmm. Well, I've been feeling myself getting weaker for a while. I'm certainly not as good a fighter as I used to be. I need human blood, but I won't be harming innocents." "Thank you. Will that be enough for your demon?" "Oh yes. The demon needs blood and violence, and other demons are so much more fun to pound than humans. That's part of the reason why I used to go after slayers, they're more of a challenge." Xander was reassured by the vampire's words. He wouldn't have taken it back, but he had been worried that he'd done the world a disservice by having Spike's chip removed. It seemed, though, that everything would be alright, and Spike would certainly be happier now. That is, assuming they lived through the night. "Did the toga-girl tell you not to kill innocents?" he asked curiously. Spike flashed a slightly embarrassed expression at Xander. "I don't actually remember much of what she said. I wasn't really listening." Xander frowned. "Why not?" The vampire was
silent for a few moments, then he spoke, quietly and sincerely. "You'd
just been dying in my arms, and then you weren't. I was far too busy listening
to your heart beating to hear what she was telling me. I don't think there
was much apart from what I've Xander reached over and laid his hand on Spike's leg. "Thanks." It was whispered, but heartfelt. Spike nodded, and rested one hand on top of Xander's. They continued the journey like that, comforted by the small contact between them. --- They were forced
to slow down as the density of traffic in front of them increased suddenly.
Spike tried, and failed, to see what the hold-up was. Xander leaned out of
his window to try and see what was causing the delay. He peered out for a
moment and then sat back down Spike looked worriedly at his friend, concerned by how pale he'd become. "What is it, Xan?" "A road-block. There's some soldiers up ahead, and they're only letting cars through in single file." Spike swore softly,
although he had expected to meet something like this on their journey back
to Sunnydale. It was the reason he'd insisted that they change cars, and was
why they were both dressed strangely. Spike was still wearing the coat and
baseball cap from the The cars in front of them moved forward and Spike was able to see the road-block. There were only two soldiers, and both of them looked very bored. They were merely glancing at the passengers of the cars as they drove past. Spike could see some strange equipment set up next to them, and asked Xander if he knew what it was. "It's a transmitter.
They're trying to send signals to my chip." Spike reached across and laid one hand on Xander's leg, mimicking the gesture that the boy had made a couple of hours previously. Xander's leg immediately stilled, but Spike could feel the muscles tensed and twitching. He stroked his lover's thigh in a way he hoped was both soothing and distracting. "That works in our favour, then. Those gits obviously think that you won't be able to pass by without collapsing in pain, so they won't be too bothered by the calm ones. Look at them, they're not even paying much attention to the cars." Xander looked, and could see that Spike was right. "We're going to try and pass the block, then?" "Have to, mate." Spike replied. "I'm betting all the other routes into Sunnyhell are blocked too. Just relax and sit quietly. Chances are they won't even notice us. If they do, you get down, alright. There's only two of them so I should be able to take care of them before they call for help, if necessary. You just get yourself out of the line of fire." Xander sighed. "Yeah, okay. I hope it doesn't come to that, though." "Me too, Xan. Me too." Xander found himself relaxing under the vampire's calm reassurance, and the hand on his thigh was starting to have its intended effect. He squirmed a little, feeling his pants becoming constricting. Almost before he knew it, they were at the road block and being waved past by the bored soldiers. Spike kept a careful eye on them as they passed, and was convinced that they hadn't been suspected. The two men breathed a sigh of relief, and started to laugh as the tension was released. They were soon travelling at speed again, not more than an hour away from Sunnydale and the possibility of death, or victory. --- Major Sanderson eyed the docile creatures in the cages with suspicion. He turned to his Lieutenant, who was supervising the final stages of the preparations. "Are you sure these demons will be sufficient, Lieutenant? We can't afford another cock-up this early in the project." "Oh, yes Sir. They haven't been fed, and once the antidote to the sedative has taken full effect, these creatures will be completely lethal." The Major turned back to the five demons, ignoring for a moment their docility, and instead imagined them fast and vicious. The creatures were each large, and mostly humanoid in shape. They had purplish, scaly skin with long arms ending in three sharp claws. As one of them opened its mouth wide in a yawn, Major Sanderson could see the row of vicious fangs. He nodded, reassured that his plan would work. He turned his attention to the rest of the room, taking in the newly rebuilt upper-level, the temporary plank flooring, and the plastic sheeting which was draped everywhere, shielding the cages from the immediate view of anyone who walked in the door. He found it amazing that the local authorities would decide to rebuild this place and re-open it as a high school after everything that had happened here. The Major was happy that the events of this night would probably cause the authorities to reverse that decision, and then the building, and the mysterious power source which he knew was directly beneath him, could fall under military control. It was just a shame that he wouldn't be able to interrogate the civilians about it as he'd intended. Well, perhaps if one of them was left wounded but alive, he could get some useful information out of them before he let the demons finish them off. "Sir?"
His attention was reclaimed by the Lieutenant. "Everything's ready to
go, Sir. The men are in hiding around the perimeter of the school, ready to
fall into positions once the civilians enter. Er... are you certain you want
to be in here? There will be some danger. "Oh no, Lieutenant. I need to be here. I want to see these annoying civilians die." The Lieutenant's eyes widened slightly, although he tried to hide his reaction. Sometimes he was really concerned about his superior's motivations, but it surely wasn't worth his career to say anything. "Very good, Sir. You'll need to remain on the upper-level to keep away from the demons once they've been released." He gestured to the weapons already in place at the top of the steps. "If one does come too close, you need to shoot it through the eye-socket with a wooden projectile. The newest high-energy device has tested to be very effective." He handed a small box with a couple of buttons on it to the Major. "The red button will open all the cages simultaneously. You'll need to wait at least ten minutes after we've administered the stimulant, before you make the call to be sure that it has time to take full effect." Major Sanderson glared at his subordinate. "I'm perfectly well aware of what needs to be done, thank you Lieutenant. If you're quite finished I suggest you give the creatures their shots and leave me to make this work." The Lieutenant gulped, and went hurriedly about his task. Soon, the Major was left alone in the deserted building-site of the old school, listening to the sounds of the demons' growing fury beneath him. --- Buffy returned to Giles' apartment to report in after yet another fruitless search. Giles and the two witches were already there, having had similar luck themselves. The visit from the army guy had all but destroyed the last remnants of hope that Xander and Spike might still be alive, and now they searched with thoughts of vengeance in mind. Giles glanced up as Buffy entered, bet he didn't rise from his seat. "Anything?" he asked lethargically. Buffy merely shook her head, and went into the kitchen to grab herself a drink. The phone rang and Giles went wearily to answer it. Immediately his posture changed from that of a tired old man, to one of alertness and urgency. The others looked at him curiously, and they all moved closer as Giles spoke. "Slow down man! Tell me where you are." The voice on the other end of the line was desperate, and Giles could hear an unearthly growling in the background. "The demons, they're everywhere! They're slaughtering us! Most of my men are dead! Help us, please. At the old school, the one that was blown-up. Please come!" The line was cut off abruptly with a horrifying scream. Giles looked over at the others, his face set into lines of determination. He spoke grimly. "Grab the weapons. I'll explain on the way." --- They paused outside the entrance to the school, and Willow looked at Giles uncertainly. "Are you sure it's here, Giles? It seems pretty quiet." The watcher nodded absently, checking that his crossbow was properly loaded. "The Major said it was the old school that was blown-up. That doesn't leave us with too many options for the location." he responded dryly. Buffy hefted an
enormous axe off her shoulder and passed it to Giles. She was loaded down
with weapons for them all, and started passing them out. "Okay, first
priority is to get anyone alive out of there." She didn't voice the fragile
hope that Xander might be one of Tara answered her hesitantly. "Um, the Major did say that the demons had camouflage ability. Maybe they were hiding?" "Yes, that's
very possible. Now, is everyone ready? Willow, Tara, be ready to give us light
if we need it. Buffy?" The slayer had a firm hold on her stake and had
a large, machete-like knife stuck in her belt. She nodded at the watcher.
"Very well, then. Just remember, With the watcher's final words of advice, the four demon-hunters entered the school cautiously. They walked quietly along empty corridors, rather surprised not to encounter the scenes of carnage they were expecting. Buffy, who was naturally taking the lead, turned to the others. "We should check the library." she whispered. "The demons will be drawn to the Hellmouth." The others nodded their agreement and followed her down the corridors, keeping a sharp lookout for attacks. As they neared
the library, they could hear the sound of growling and howling. There was
no doubt that the demons were inside. The new doors hadn't been fitted yet,
so they waited outside, and let Buffy poke her head around the entrance to
take a look. The slayer turned Taking a firm grip on their weapons, they ventured inside. The place was in the middle of re-construction, and seemed very desolate and bleak. Plastic tarpaulins were draped everywhere, obscuring the view of most of the library, and they were wary of threats coming from behind them. When they were several paces inside the door, Willow glanced up and immediately ran forward, crying out, "Major Sanderson!" The Major was barely visible, lying awkwardly near the top of the steps on the upper-level of the library. As the four neared the bottom of the steps, a strange, gleeful look appeared on the Major's face, and a click sounded in the room, followed by a heavy clanking noise. The sound of growling suddenly stopped, and the four looked around, wondering what had just happened. They were caught unprepared when the five huge demons leapt out on them from behind the tarpaulins. Up on the balcony, Major Sanderson watched, delighted, as the battle raged between the Scoobies, and the demons. --- The Warrior and his Guide walked determinedly towards the scene of their first task. They had ditched the car in an out-of-the-way spot, and were walking to the school, keeping to the shadows as much as possible. Strangely, now that they were so close, Xander's nerves had disappeared. This was familiar to him. The feeling of going into battle, unsure if he'd make it to the next morning. He took comfort from the presence of his companion, knowing that even though he was technically the Warrior, Spike would be the one doing most of the useful fighting. They approached the old high-school, and Spike held up his hand to stop Xander. His keen eyesight had picked up the soldiers surrounding the building, with weapons trained on every entrance. He whispered to the brunette what he had seen. "Well, we have to get in there! Are we supposed to fight all these soldiers?" "I don't think we could, pet. There must be somewhere we can get in, though." They quietly circled around the school, being careful not to give away their presence to the soldiers. At one side there were a few windows which were only guarded by one man. They decided that it would be the best chance of getting in, and Spike gestured for Xander to stay put while he approached the guard. Xander watched from his hiding-place as Spike crept up behind the man and silently wrapped an arm around his neck, choking off his cry and his air supply. The soldier lapsed into unconsciousness, and the vampire dragged him back towards Xander. The whole operation had taken only moments, and had been completely silent. Xander looked oddly at the vampire. "You didn't kill him?" Spike paused in his task of using the soldier's own clothing to restrain him. "I didn't think you'd want me to, Xan." He handed the guard's gun to Xander. "Do you know how to use that?" Xander took it
and expertly flicked the safety off. He grinned at the vampire. "You're
right, I wouldn't have wanted you to kill him." He drew his foot back
and delivered a sharp kick to the soldier's ribs. "I wouldn't have minded
if you'd done that, though." The boy checked Spike rolled his eyes at the expression, but the look he sent towards his Warrior as he followed after him was unmistakably fond. --- One of the windows proved to be easy to open with the aid of vampiric strength. Spike gave Xander a boost and followed him nimbly into the building. Xander looked
around with interest. This was one of the less damaged parts of the school,
and it was easily recognisable as his old maths classroom. He gave a shudder
as he remembered many hours of absolute, mind-numbing boredom in this room.
It did look different, though. The desks and chairs were all stacked up at
the back of the classroom, Spike followed
Xander's gaze. "Oh, calculus." Xander stared at him with his eyebrows
raised. "What? It's just differentiation. That's not so bad. It's the
integration that's the real problem. You see, there are clear-cut rules for
how to differentiate *any* function, but "You're a maths-geek! Hah! I knew you'd have some deep, dark secret. Do you need to be alone with the formulae for a bit?" Spike sighed as Xander teased him. He then whirled about sharply as his friend's expression turned to one of absolute horror, expecting to see some hideous monster behind him. There was nothing, and Spike turned back to Xander to see the horrified look still in place. "What?" "I'm not
going to have to learn *maths* as part of my Warrior training, am I?"
His voice was fearful and pleading. Spike grinned, and Xander could definitely
see the evil that the vampire sometimes claimed to be. As the vampire moved
towards the door, not answering They made their way into the hall, checking first that there weren't any soldiers about. Spike looked both ways and shrugged his shoulders. "Which way now, pet?" "It has to be the library. It's this way." They walked through
the hallways, some charred and some recently renovated. As they approached
the library, Spike grabbed hold of Xander's arm to stop him and moved close
to whisper in his ear. "I can hear growling and fighting, but it's coming
from two different Xander bit his lip for a moment, but quickly made the decision. "We need to check the library first. That's where the worst evil always ends up." Spike nodded his assent. They walked cautiously through the doorway of the library. Unfortunately, their entrance distracted Giles from his fight with a huge, purple demon, and the demon took the opportunity to smash Giles round the head with one of its long arms. The watcher fell to the ground, stunned. Xander screamed, "Giles!", and Spike rushed forwards to defend the vulnerable man. He snatched up the axe that Giles had been fighting with, and stood over him, battling furiously with the ferocious creature. Xander was hard on his heels, but no match for vampiric speed. He had only gone a few paces by the time Spike reached Giles. His rush across the floor of the library was interrupted when he caught the sight of someone standing near the top of the rebuilt steps. He paused, and locked eyes with the person. Major Sanderson had been enjoying the sight of the old man of the group steadily losing the fight against the demon. The girls had been forced away from the library by the other four creatures, but he had no doubt that they were faring just as badly. The old man fell down, and the demon was just about to finish him off when a blond-haired man charged across the library to defend him, almost too fast to see. The blonde's brunette companion was following him and the Major recognised him instantly when he turned to face him. It was the little shit who had cocked up his initial plans for removing these civilians. Xander stood in
the centre of the library floor, filling with equal parts rage and fear as
he recognised this man as his tormentor. He wanted to run up and kill him
with his bare hands, but found himself sinking back into that fear-filled
place where he could do nothing His terror mounted as he watched the Major pull a familiar device out of one pocket. Major Sanderson pushed the button, and Xander felt the pain, the sweat forming on his body. He clapped his hands around his head and was starting to sink to his knees, when he heard the sound of a groan, and his attention was drawn to the fight taking place at the other end of the room. Xander watched as Spike kicked and ducked and swung the axe, always staying between the demon and Giles, who was starting to awaken on the floor. Xander remembered all that had passed between him and Spike during the past few days. He remembered all that the vampire had done for him, and it gave him the strength to realise that there was no pain. His head wasn't throbbing and screaming, and he had a loaded gun tucked into his waistband. He stood up fully, pulling out the gun and aiming it at the Major. Major Sanderson's eyes widened and he dropped the remote control device, realising that it was useless. Major Sanderson was furious. How dare this man defy him, and threaten him! He was just a perverted shit who deserved to die painfully along with the rest of his pathetic little friends. He fell back on his many years of command, and barked out an order in his most compelling tone of voice. "Put that down!" Almost before
Xander realised it, the gun was on the floor. He stared down at it, filled
with despair. He'd dropped it instinctively when the Major had commanded him
to, and once again he couldn't move, couldn't scream, could only stand there
and wait for the Major to Spike glanced up from his fight to see Xander standing in the middle of the library, staring up at something with an expression on his face of total defeat. Spike followed his gaze, and saw something that almost made his heart start beating. There was a man, a soldier, wearing a look of triumph and raising something that looked like a modified crossbow to aim at Spike's friend and lover. The vampire dropped
his axe instantly, and in a move that even the demon couldn't follow, he darted
in and snapped its neck with such violence that it nearly twisted clean off.
He was across the library before the demon even started to fall, and pushed
Xander out of the Xander saw his friend pinned to the ground with a wooden shaft through his heart. He closed his eyes instantly, but the memories surfaced of a thousand vampires he'd seen turning to dust. He screamed. Giles, who was slowly returning to awareness, was the only one who heard the strange but beautiful voice echoing through the library. "Two." Xander turned and opened eyes that were filled with total rage to look up at the man who had killed his lover and partner. He was flying up the steps in a second, and threw himself furiously towards the Major, determined to kill him. He was stopped just before he could wrap his hands around his throat, by a sudden and terrible agony in his gut. Xander looked down, and saw the Major's hand on the hilt of a knife, the blade of which was buried in his stomach. Xander's eyes widened in shock, and he stared for a moment into the Major's eyes. They were filled with triumph and glee and disgust. Then the Major very deliberately *twisted* the knife, and Xander could feel his insides turning into soup, the warm blood gushing out of the wound and down his legs. He knew he was going to die, but there was one last thing he had to do first. Wrapping his hands
around the Major's he used all the strength that his fury and determination
gave him, and pulled the knife out of his own body. Very slowly, with the
Major fighting him every step of the way, he turned the knife around until
the tip was pointing towards Major Sanderson's own chest. Then he threw himself
forward, knocking Xander lay on top of the Major, watching as the blood poured out of the wound and the light disappeared from his eyes. When they were fixed and sightless, Xander collapsed, relaxing fully on top of the dead body and waited to die. --- Buffy finally
managed to pierce the tough, scaly skin of the third demon with her knife,
causing the thick, inky blood to spray all over her. She glanced over at Willow
and Tara, who were forcing the last one back with magic. They seemed to be
holding their own against the creature, and Buffy yelled a quick question
at them. "Will you two be Without looking away or stopping the spell, Willow called out, "Yes, we've got it. Go!" Buffy took off, racing back towards the library where they'd last seen the watcher before they were forced away by the four demons that had attacked them. The last one had gone for Giles, and although she knew that Giles could handle himself, these demons were extremely tough. She entered the library, expecting to see a desperate battle between her watcher and the demon. Instead, the first thing she noticed was someone lying on the floor with a stake through their chest. Someone with blond hair and a black duster. She was kneeling at his side in an instant. "Sp... Spike?" Her voice was blank in her shock at seeing the vampire in this condition. Spike opened his
eyes with some effort, and looked at the slayer. He was lying on his front,
pinned to the floor, and felt an incredible weakness radiating out from his
chest. He could barely move, making only the smallest of gestures with his
hands. "Get it out of me." Buffy's hands
moved automatically towards the wooden shaft, but drew back sharply. "Spike,
I can't!" she said in an appalled tone of voice. "If I move it...
it could kill you!" She didn't add that she couldn't understand how he
wasn't already dust. As far as she could "Just pull it out!" Spike spoke with a deep, urgent, pain-filled growl. Buffy steeled herself, and wrapped her hands firmly around the stake, causing Spike to whimper. She gritted her teeth and pulled with all her strength, needing to twist it to free it from where it had pierced the flooring. Spike screamed as the stake was pulled from his body, and instantly curled up, convulsing from the appalling sensations. Buffy looked closely
at the stake, confirming that it was wooden, and then flung it away, putting
her hands out to comfort the vampire. Spike pushed himself up onto his knees
and pointed across to where Giles was. "I'm fine, check Rupert."
Buffy scrambled over to check With a great deal of difficulty, Spike managed to crawl across the floor and pull himself up the steps towards where he'd last seen Xander. A low keening started in his throat when he saw the blood-soaked tangle of bodies lying there. He pulled Xander off of the Major's body, having to pry his hands off the hilt of the knife. The vampire rolled him over and started checking him out urgently. The huge bloodstain on the boy's shirt confirmed the worst of Spike's fears, and he ripped it open, looking for the wound so he could try to stop the bleeding. He couldn't see anything underneath the slick blood, and ran his fingers lightly over Xander's abdomen. When his fingers didn't encounter a wound, he looked up at his friend's face, confused. Xander's eyes were open and he was staring at the vampire with a bewildered but pleased look on his face. "Spike, hi. Did I die already? I thought I'd notice when it happened. I didn't notice." He looked around, curiously. "I thought the afterlife would be different than this." Spike was rather nonplussed by his friend's words. "Xan, you're not dead. Neither am I, though I don't know why not." Xander's brow creased in a frown. "We're not dead? But..." He propped himself up and ran his hand over his stomach where the knife had pierced him. Apart from the large quantity of blood, there was no visible sign of the injury. "How...?" "I don't know, pet." With the relief of finding Xander apparently unharmed, the last of Spike's energy left him, and he crumpled up on the floor. "Spike? What's wrong?" Xander knelt up next to the vampire, and shook him gently. There was no response and Xander shook him harder. "Shit!" He noticed how pale Spike was, and remembered that he'd had very little blood recently. Xander wiped his
fingers across his stomach, coating them in blood, and waved them under the
vampire's nose. The ridges formed instantly. The brunette gently forced Spike's
mouth open, running his fingers over the vampire's tongue, but he remained
unresponsive. In Xander stroked
the vampire's head comfortingly with his other hand, and slowly started to
withdraw his fingers, forcing Spike to follow them if he wanted more blood.
Very carefully, Xander helped Spike to sit up until the blond head was resting
against his shoulder. When What happened
next was something that neither of them would ever be able to fully describe.
It seemed like the world stopped, and all that existed was the steady flow
of blood from Warrior into Guide. Xander felt every part of himself tingling
at first, building up into Spike awakened the instant the blood started flowing from Xander's neck. He swallowed it instinctively, but was determined to stop drinking the moment he'd had enough to keep him conscious. That resolve was soon overshadowed by the taste of Xander's blood. It tasted different from before. It was still completely and uniquely Xander, but there was something more, something that was making his demon crow in delight at the sheer beauty of the blood. He could feel it flooding his body, lighting fires from deep within. He drank and drank, waiting to feel the lessening of blood-pressure and listening for the sound of the precious heartbeat weakening. Xander could feel
the strangely warm hands clawing at his back and knew that the vampire was
now conscious. Together they knelt up so they could press their bodies closer
together. Xander lowered his own head to Spike's neck and sucked hard on the
nerve point. One hand was still firmly stuck inside the vampire's jeans, but
the other rose up to caress Spike's neck. His fingers encountered the leather
collar, the Power's mark which tied them together. He traced it round, startled,
in some part of his mind that could still think, to find Reluctantly, Spike stopped drinking and pulled away. Xander gave a small whimper of disappointment. They stared at each other for a moment, their faces only inches apart, both stunned by the experience. Xander had only a moment to notice that their collars were separate again, before his lips were claimed by the vampire's. "Xan... Xander?" The stunned female voice filtered its way into their minds, causing them to break apart and look round. Buffy was standing at the top of the steps with some indeterminable emotion flashing across her face. She stood there frozen, staring at them. Xander realised that he still had one hand stuck down the back of the vampire's jeans and eased it out. They all stood still for several seconds, neither Spike or Xander completely sure what to say to the slayer. Eventually, Xander risked speaking. "Buf..." He was cut off as the slim blonde girl hurled herself at him, wrapping her arms tightly around his back and resting her head against his chest. Xander realised she was trembling and looked down to see that she was sobbing. He lifted her head up gently, and smiled down at her comfortingly. "Hey, it's alright." "Oh, God. Xander! You're alive. We were so worried. We thought you were dead!" She gave him a hard squeeze and pulled away, sniffing and wiping her eyes. She turned to Spike, and her eyes hardened slightly. "You bit him, you asshole!" Without any further warning, her fist flew out, catching the vampire on the jaw. Spike put his hand up to his face, feeling the slight bruise forming. He could tell that it had been a half-hearted punch at best. "Hey!" Xander started to try and reason with the slayer, but before he could do anything, she was flying towards the vampire again. Spike put his arms up to defend himself from whatever she would do next, but instead of the violence he was expecting, he felt himself being hugged so tightly his ribs creaked. Buffy stepped away from the vampire after a moment, and stared at the floor to collect herself. She raised her finger menacingly. "Don't think this means I was worried about you, jerk." A small grin formed on her face, although she did her best to wipe it away and look stern. Xander smiled in relief. Buffy's eyes travelled down and saw his ripped, blood-stained shirt. "Are you okay? Are you injured?" Xander shook his head. "No, I don't seem to be. I'm fine. How about you?" He raised his hand to the three deep scratches on her cheek where one of the demons had got too close. Buffy waved it away. "It's nothing, it'll heal." She looked towards the vampire again, and they could both see that she was struggling with something. "You bit Xander. The chip isn't working anymore, is it?" Spike looked her straight in the eye and answered truthfully. "No, it isn't. It's gone." Buffy crumpled slightly, and a rather helpless expression crossed her face. Her hand didn't move towards the stake that they could both see tucked into her waistband, but they knew what she was thinking about. She stared at the vampire, appealing mutely with her eyes. "I'm not going to harm any innocents, I promise." He spoke calmly and sincerely, trying to reassure her. She continued to look searchingly at him, and then her eyes flashed between him and Xander, and Spike could see the blush forming on her face. She bit her lip, and looked resolutely back at him. "Giles said that you saved his life down there." She gestured down the steps. "I hope you mean it, because I would hate to have to kill one of my friends." Spike was stunned for a moment, then his face broke out into a broad grin. "One of your friends?" Buffy smiled back slightly in response. "Yeah, don't let it get around, though." Her eyes flickered back to Xander briefly, then fixed the vampire with the most terrifying stare a slayer could give anyone. "If you hurt him, I'm going to be *very* annoyed." Spike nodded seriously. "Got it." Buffy's attention was drawn to the bloody corpse on the floor. "What's been happening? This guy said you'd been *eaten*, and then he set a bunch of demons on us. Xander's reply was interrupted when Willow raced into the library followed by Tara, calling out, "Buffy, we killed the last one. Is Giles okay?" She stopped dead when she saw Xander. Xander rushed down the steps to greet his oldest friend. He enfolded her in a bear hug, which she returned for a moment. Then she fought to break free, and Xander let her, startled when she started beating at his chest, furiously. "Don't you dare *ever* do *anything* like that *ever* again, Alexander Harris. We were so worried! We thought you were *dead*! Xander didn't think he'd ever seen her so angry. "I'm sorry, Will, I didn't mean to frighten you. I couldn't really help it." Willow looked sternly at him, but tears were glistening in her eyes. "Well, don't let it happen again." Xander found himself with an armful of redhead again, and held her tightly as she sobbed her worry and tension out onto his shoulder. Buffy had helped Giles to his feet, and he was now limping across the room with her assistance. He still looked very dazed, but was obviously better than before. He stopped before Xander and cleared his throat, which sounded rather hoarse, almost as if he wanted to cry himself. "Er, I'm very pleased to see you, Xander. I must say, we were all rather worried about you." He shook Xander's hand briskly, the one that wasn't being clung to like a limpet by Willow. Then he paused, and looking faintly embarrassed, but a lot relieved, pulled Xander into a hug. Giles then turned
to Spike, who was hovering near the brunette, and held his hand out. Surprised,
Spike took it and they shook hands. "I vaguely remember you standing
between the demon and I, just before I blacked out. Thank you. I owe you my
life." Tara was grinning happily, but shyly at both Xander and Spike, and Xander held his hand out to her. She came forward and allowed herself to be pulled into yet another hug. Xander met Spike's eyes and smiled widely. Spike smiled back, but then turned to address the whole group. "Well, hug-time is very pleasant but I think we should be working out how we're going to get out of here now." Buffy looked at him, confused. "What do you mean, get out? Can't we go the same way we got in?" "I hate to break it to you, pet, but the whole school's surrounded by army-blokes with some nasty looking weaponry. Xander and I had to sneak in a window." Giles looked at him in alarm. "We're surrounded? Why do they want us dead so badly?" Xander sighed. "Let's leave explanations for later. Spike, do you think we could all get out through the window in the maths room?" The vampire thought about it. "Probably, yeah. I guess if they'd discovered the guard we trussed up, they would have come in here with all guns blazing. It's worth a try." Buffy nodded. "Right then, let's do it." They organised themselves, picking up assorted weaponry, and headed out. Tara was helping Giles along, letting him lean on her, and staying close to Willow, who was still holding on to Xander tightly. Buffy went in front and Spike took the rear, ready to defend the group if they were attacked. They rounded a corner, and came face to face with a group of soldiers in full combat gear, pointing some very lethal firearms at them. --- Buffy was preparing to throw herself at the soldiers and give the others a chance of escaping, when they each instantly lowered their weapons to point at the ground. The soldier in front pulled his face mask off, and Buffy was stunned to recognise her boyfriend. Riley walked towards her and spoke urgently. "Buffy, thank God you're alive. Is everyone okay?" Buffy gaped at him, and nodded her head. Riley sighed in relief. "Good. Are any of the demons still active?" "No, they're all dead. What the hell is going on!" Another soldier stepped forwards. "Do you know where Major Sanderson is? We've received information that he is currently in this building." Xander called out hostilely. "Why do you want to know where that bastard is?" The soldier looked at him. "I have orders to place the Major under arrest for serious crimes in violation of the constitution. Do you know where he is?" Spike answered him with satisfaction evident in his voice. "You'll find his corpse in the library, mate. Colonel Mustard did it with the lead piping." The soldier looked at him strangely, but took two men and followed in the direction that Spike pointed out. Buffy stepped closer to her boyfriend. "Riley, what's going on? How did you get here?" Riley motioned
to the men behind him, and they all broke up into pairs and took off in different
directions around the school. He glanced over at Giles, who was leaning heavily
on Tara. "I'll explain in a minute, but let's go outside first, where
the medics can check you The Scooby gang
followed him out, to see swarms of soldiers apparently making camp on the
lawns in front of the school. There were three black helicopters, and some
soldiers in handcuffs were being loaded into them. Riley led the group of
friends over to some benches, and a couple of army medics immediately rushed
up. One started looking over In an impressively short time, bags of doughnuts were produced, which Xander immediately grabbed and started eating with a speed that amazed even those who'd known him for a long time. When they were all settled, Buffy asked Riley once more just what was going on. "Well, the operation turned out to be a small nest of harmless demons that weren't a threat to anyone, but the mission commander kept us there observing them with no outside communications allowed. Most of the survivors of the original Initiative were there, ostensibly because we had experience, but we all became suspicious, so one night we got the commander drunk. He started raving about the New Initiative and how they were going to kill the traitors in Sunnydale, you guys. Graham was second in command and immediately arrested the guy. We managed to contact General Haines, who was one of those responsible for the shut down of the original Initiative, and he hadn't even heard of any new operation. He placed a few phone calls, and the result was that we got orders to come here and place everyone involved under arrest. An investigation is going to be held at the highest levels to determine just how something like this could have happened." Buffy smiled at him as he finished his debriefing-like explanation. "You did all that?" Riley gestured round the temporary camp. "It wasn't just me. Some of these guys were survivors of the Adam project, and the rest have heard from the others about how you guys were responsible for them still being alive. Everyone wanted a piece of this." The soldier who'd
asked about Major Sanderson earlier called Riley over, and Riley looked questioningly
at Buffy. She leaned over and kissed him with a smile, telling him, "Thank
you, honey. You did real good. I'll have to think up a suitable reward for
this." He grinned Giles' ankle had been strapped up, and he was now in an argument with the medic, who was insisting that Giles should be taken to hospital to spend the night under observation. He still felt rather dizzy, so he agreed to that, but when the guy started to try and take him away, Giles snapped at him. "I do believe I won't drop down dead if you leave me alone for half an hour with these people. Go on, shoo." He waved the man away, who retreated along with the other medic, leaving the gang alone. Giles turned back to the others. "So, now we finally seem to have a moment to catch our breaths, perhaps you can tell us what happened to you, Xander." Xander took a
deep breath and looked pensively at his friends. Buffy and Giles were sitting
across from them on one bench, while Xander was sandwiched between his teary-eyed
best friend, and Spike, who was sitting close enough that he could feel the
vampire's leg rubbing Xander tried hard to think what to tell them. He couldn't face the thought of explaining exactly what he'd been through during his time with the New Initiative. He could hardly stand to think about it himself, much less answer endless questions and face their smothering sympathy. Xander took another deep breath, and started to tell the edited version of the story. "I was shot with a tranquilliser dart in the street and taken to the Initiative's base. I don't really remember that much about it, but after a while I got out. I ran into Spike, and it became necessary for us to get out of town quickly, so we ran." He looked at Spike, who raised his eyebrows questioningly at how much the boy was leaving out. Xander shook his head slightly, and Spike got the message. He decided to let his friend keep his secrets, if that was what he wanted. "Yeah, we tried to call you, but the phones had been tapped, and it was too risky. We holed up near some town South of here, and waited." Most of the group were looking bewildered by the story, which really was the barest minimum they could possibly explain. Giles took his glasses off, and started polishing them. "Why did you return to Sunnydale when you did?" Spike and Xander exchanged a look. Spike shrugged and fingered the collar around his neck. Xander smiled at him, and turned to answer the watcher. "Well, we had a couple of visitors who told us to come back and look in the school." Giles was completely lost. "Visitors?" Xander shrugged at him. "They were a sort of messenger for the Powers, I think. I don't know precisely." Giles frowned as a thought occurred to him. "Something odd... well, odder than usual, happened earlier. I don't remember much very clearly, but I remember this. Just after Spike killed the demon that was attacking me, there was an odd female voice, which just spoke the one word, 'Two.' Does that mean anything to either of you? Do you remember it?" Xander froze as something tugged sharply at his memory. In his mind's eye, he could see the crypt as Spike fed from him for the first time, and heard the word "One." Then, he remembered the scene as Spike dived into him, taking the stake that was meant for Xander, and heard the word "Two." His memory kick-started, and with a gasp he recalled the toga-guy's final words to him. He turned to Spike, who looked totally confused and worried. "Xan, what's wrong?" "The toga-guy, he said something to me just before he sent me to sleep that I'd forgotten. He said that when two selfless acts of love had been committed, the bond would become *permanent*." Xander could see Spike's eyes widen in shock as he comprehended what Xander was saying. Spike looked down, and felt through the hole in his t-shirt to the unblemished skin where he'd been staked. Then he reached a hand up and tilted Xander's head to the side, checking the place where a bite mark should be. The skin was untouched. They locked eyes, stunned by the revelation. Willow's fearful query broke into their shock. "Guys, what is it? What's wrong?" Xander turned back to face the others. He swallowed hard. "There... there's something that we need to tell you, something important." He stopped, and looked helplessly at the vampire. Spike stepped in and continued the explanation. "The messengers who came to visit us, they were there for a reason. Xander was in a bad way. He was... ill. These two messengers, a man and a woman, came to us and helped us. They took my chip out and healed Xander." Willow interrupted with a gasp. "They took your chip out! Um, should we be worried?" Spike smiled at her. "No, Red. I'm firmly on the side of good these days. Let me explain?" Willow nodded earnestly. "Sorry, go on." "Well, the price for what they did was that both Xander and I would have to work for the Powers That Be. They marked us, gave us some instructions and then pissed off." Giles was staring at them intently. "How did they mark you?" Spike pulled the leather mark out from underneath the collar of his shirt, and Xander did the same. "Basically, the deal is that this git here is the Warrior." He gestured to Xander. "And I'm his Guide." "That's fascinating." The gang could see as Giles visibly slipped into deep research mode. "I seem to recall reading something about mortals becoming bonded servants for the Powers. I think... yes, it was in one of Wesley's books that I only glanced through. I must ask him if I can borrow it." "Rupert!" Spike's voice broke into the watcher's reverie "Sorry... sorry, do please continue. You said a man and a woman visited you. Can you describe them?" Spike shrugged his shoulders. "Gold and silver, glittery, and wearing black togas. That's about it." Giles' mouth literally dropped open in astonishment. "You had an actual encounter with the Oracles? *The* Oracles." Spike and Xander looked at each other with raised eyebrows. Xander answered the watcher. "Er, if you say so, Giles. They didn't leave a calling card or anything." Giles sighed exasperatedly. "Xander, you don't seem to understand. The Oracles are not only messengers of the Powers That Be, they are part of them! They are their most direct voice on this Earth." Spike interrupted him. "Well, whoever they are, we now work for them, and there's more. It seems that the bond has been made permanent by certain recent events. I got staked in the library, right through my heart. It practically paralysed me, but I didn't dust." He gestured at Xander's blood-stained shirt. "And Xander was stabbed, and there isn't so much as a scratch on either one of us now. I'm thinking that when they said 'permanent', they bloody well meant it." Everyone was now staring at Xander with alarm and horror. Buffy voiced what they were all thinking. "That blood's yours? I thought it must have come from the dead guy!" Xander shook his head. "Nope, 'fraid not. I'm fine, though. See?" He thumped his fist against his abdomen a few times. "Wait!"
Everyone looked at Willow as she practically yelled in her excitement. She
poked a finger into Xander's side. "You said earlier that the bond would
become permanent when two acts of selfless love had been performed. Does...
does that mean that you and Spike... Xander stared at her blankly for a moment, then turned around to look at Spike. The vampire shrugged his shoulders, but there was a slightly embarrassed grin on his face. Xander found himself smiling in return, and their hands crept out to link in one another's. He turned back to Willow. "Yeah, I guess we do." Willow squealed, and wrapped her arms around Xander's neck. "Oh, I'm so happy for you!" She looked over at Spike. "And you too, although if you hurt him..." Spike interrupted her. "Yeah, I know. You'll be *very* annoyed. Honestly, as if I would!" Giles had taken his glasses off again, and was polishing them furiously. "Good lord!" he muttered, faintly. "Well, I suppose that your continued existence is proof of your... your mutual feelings." He swayed, feeling dizzy again, and Buffy grabbed hold of him, alarmed. "Maybe we should finish explanations tomorrow. I think you need to go to the hospital now." She spoke to Giles far more firmly than the medic had done, and the watcher knew that the slayer would have the final word on this matter. Buffy gestured the medic over, and called for Riley. The medic took charge of Giles, helping him towards a jeep, and Buffy told him to wait until she was finished, because she'd be going with them. When Riley appeared, she asked him to arrange transportation for the other four to their homes. Xander spoke up at this. "Actually, Buffy, I'd rather walk. Spike, would you see me home?" Spike replied with a rather confused, "Sure, Xan." and watched as Xander received final hugs from the girls. Willow and Tara got in a jeep and were whisked away, and Buffy joined Giles on the journey to the hospital. When they were alone, Spike and Xander started walking in the direction of Xander's apartment. After a few minutes of companionable silence, Spike asked, "Why did you want to walk, pet?" Xander smiled at him with uncomplicated pleasure. "This is just nice. It feels normal. You've walked me home from patrols loads of times, you're good company." "Yeah, you too. I like you 'cause you're easy to get a rise out of." Xander turned to him with an annoyed frown. "Hey! I am *not* easy to... oh! Ha ha. Very funny." Spike smiled at him fondly. "You know, pet, every time I've walked you home before, we've said goodbye outside your building. Every time I was hoping that you'd ask me up, even though I knew you never would." He shot a glance at Xander, who was staring resolutely ahead. "Uh-huh." was Xander's only response. After a few more minutes, Spike gently asked the question that needed to be asked. "Xan, when are you going to tell the others about the chip, and what happened to you?" Xander bit his
lip, and stared at the ground as they walked. Eventually, he answered. "I...
I can't just yet. Not yet. I need time to deal with it myself. I will tell
them, but... when I'm Spike nodded. "Okay. I'll help you, when you need it." Xander changed the subject. "Spike, when you fed from me earlier, something happened. It felt... it felt like I had a whole-body multiple-orgasm, and I think I could feel yours as well." "I know. Your blood, it was different. It was like it had been designed just for me, it tasted and felt so good. I kept waiting for your blood-pressure to drop, so I'd know when to stop, but it never did. Do you realise that I drank more from you than a normal person has in their whole body?" Xander stopped and faced him. "What?" Spike nodded. "I drained you twice over, and you don't even feel light-headed, do you?" Xander thought about it. "No, I don't. I did feel really hungry afterwards, though." They resumed walking. "I guess there's a lot we need to figure out about this whole Warrior-Guide thing." "There is, but let's not worry about it anymore tonight. Whatever it is, it doesn't feel like a bad thing. Rupes will help us figure it out tomorrow." They walked the rest of the way in silence, both starting to relax after the stress of the past few days. They stopped outside the entrance to Xander's apartment building, and Xander turned to face the vampire. He smiled. "Spike, would you like to come up?" Spike smiled back at his friend, lover and Warrior. "Yes I would, Xan. I'd like that very much." Together, they walked inside. The End
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