The pacing was getting to her. For the last hour he walked the length of the floor mumbling under his breath. Never one for patience she wasn’t surprised at his unease. “Will you calm down, you’re driving me nuts.” Spike simply growled and resumed his strides. Buffy huffed and returned to the reminders of her torture that she was cleaning from the room.
“I want them dead.” She wasn’t shocked by his snarl.
“Not surprised. Small problem though.”
“What’s that?”
“Daylight.”
“Bullocks!” She threw him one of the swords from the floor.
“Wanna work off a little steam?” She smirked menacingly as she picked up the other sword.
“Itching for a real fight Pet?” His lips curled sardonically into a grin.
“You know where I can find one?” She cocked her head and laughed as he predictably lunged at her. “Really Yoda. You need to learn to control your temper. How did you manage to kill two slayers?” She tsked and engaged in the fight.
“You talk too much slayer.” They fell into a comfortable banter as the blades clashed.
Faith entered the room with her guard up. Sensing vampires and hearing swords clash did little to sooth her already frazzled nerves. She quietly approached the living room and watched the battle rage across the room. From what she could tell they were evenly matched and equally vicious. “Come on Yoda, I’m not even breaking a sweat.”
“I don’t want to hurt you, luv. Too soon after you took a stake to the bloody heart.” He was getting irritated and it showed in the sudden force behind his blows. “Care for a real rough and tumble?” Swords were knocked away and the fight continued with fists.
“You couldn’t beat me if you tried.” She snickered and matched his movements.
“Am I interrupting something?” Buffy turned away from the fight just long enough for Spike to connect a solid blow to Buffy’s chest. She grunted and dropped to the floor. “Sorry.” Faith smiled sheepishly from behind.
“You okay, Pet?” Spike held out his hand and helped her up.
“Yeah, just hurt like hell.” He reached out his hand to cover her scarred flesh.
“No blood.” Faith was still amazed by the tenderness shared by the two. Their relationship went against everything she had ever been taught about vampires.
“I don’t think the bones are finished healing yet.” She moved carefully judging the degrees of pain and then shrugged. “I’ll be fine. Just need to eat.” Faith moved back slightly and watched Buffy warily.
“You get distracted too easily. It’s going to get you killed one day.” Spike shifted a lock of hair away from her face.
“Yeah, well things with heartbeats aren’t exactly Buffy friendly these days. I figured I would deal with the more dangerous one.” She snapped at him and turned toward the kitchen.
“Stubborn bitch.” He huffed and sat down on the couch. “See if I try and help you anymore.” He turned back to the doorway. “You can come in slayer, we’re not going to bite you.”
“Yeah, well, things without heartbeats aren’t exactly Faith friendly these days.” She smiled at his snarl.
“Is it a slayer prerequisite to be a bitch?”
“As a matter of fact it is.” She chuckled and relaxed a little. “So what’s the plan, oh wise and powerful master?”
“Careful, I don’t need to remind you that the truce was made with Blondie, not me. I’m still allowed to bite you.”
“Put a sock in it Spike.” Buffy rolled her eyes and handed him a mug of blood before sitting next to him with her own. He rolled his eyes and got serious.
“Let’s start off easy. What do we know about the watchers?”
“Unlimited money and people. They don’t like you or Faith and they pretty much hate me.” She shrugged carelessly.
“Where do you think they are hiding?” Faith looked at Buffy.
“Don’t know, but they know where we are and sooner or later they will show up here.”
“Are you just planning on hanging out here until they do?” Faith looked at her incredulously.
Before Buffy could respond Spike jumped in, “exactly. We’re going to let them surround us.”
“What?” Two startled slayers just gawked at him.
“Relax Pet. I have a plan.”
“Why isn’t that reassuring.” Buffy groaned and flopped back against the couch.
“Why am I not liking this plan?” Faith sighed as Spike threw her through the door into the night.
“Because I get to win.” He snickered and kicked her back further. Crowding over her he smiled and grabbed her lapels. “Now make it good, we’re being watched.” Faith decked him and pulled free from his grasp. Slithering backwards she rolled to her feet.
“Bring it Whitey.” The fight to an outsider’s eyes would have seemed unusually brutal. Spike smiled in appreciation for the slayer’s habit of fighting dirty.
“Ready?” She just grunted in response and he kicked her with all his strength sending the tiny girl careening into the street. Faith stood and glared for a second before turning and sprinting down the street.
“Follow her.” Spike smirked at the quiet order coming from the man hidden in the bushes. He turned back to the house and made a show of carrying Buffy into the bedroom.
“Did they buy it?” She asked as he laid her on the bed.
“Hook, line and sinker.”
Faith raced quickly through the streets, attempting not to stop and laugh at the watchers struggling to keep up with her. She could hear their murmured swearing as she lost them in an alley. Hovering above she waited until they had passed back into the street to drop to the ground. She dropped into the sewer and made her way back toward the mansion. Pulling out a map she followed the maze to the basement of the house.
“Okay, just so you know, it really stinks down there.” She grumbled wiping the invisible smell off her clothes.
“Shower is upstairs, use the back bedroom so they don’t see you.” Buffy snickered as she dropped over the balcony avoiding the windows.
“Time to go play with Willy.” Spike’s smile faded as he noticed Buffy sway slightly. “You okay Pet?” He moved to steady her.
“Shouldn’t have done that.” She raised her hand to cover the wound on her chest. When she pulled her hand away it was covered in blood. “Ouch.” Her legs turned to Jello and fell heavily into his waiting arms.
“Luv, you okay?” A sense of panic gripped him when she didn’t respond. He roared angrily as he pulled her against him. “Buffy.” He whimpered quietly and nuzzled his mark on her throat.
“Why would I want to help you Mr. Travers?” A slender woman with an evil smile sat at her desk and studied the aging Englishman.
“Because you need her caught as much as we do.” Travers smiled. “And I think we can come up with a solution that is mutually beneficial.”
“I’m listening.”
“You promise to keep her contained and you can have her. I don’t want another mishap though. Chipped or not, Rythesna should never have left these walls.” He glared sinisterly at her.
“If she is as powerful as you say she is, there is no way we will ever let her beyond these walls.” The woman smirked.
“Play with her all you want, just keep her contained. I would be interested to see the results of your studies.”
“Then you have a deal Mr. Travers.” He nodded and left the office with his escort.
Things were not going according to plan. “Tell me what I want to know.” Willy shivered slightly and took a step back from the oversized man.
“I don’t know anything.” He ducked out of the man’s reach and slid behind the bar.
“You’re not being straight with me Willy, you know how I hate that.”
“Come on, Spike will kill me.” He whimpered as the gun was raised and aimed at his head.
“And you think I won’t?”
“Alright, alright. Word on the street is they’re shacked up at the mansion. There are some pretty pissed off minions running around. It seems Spike and the slayer decided to off the family. Spike kicked them all out and boarded it up tight. Something happened to Buffy and she’s out of commission. She can’t even feed, she’s like a zombie or something.” The man behind the gun smiled.
“And the other slayer?”
“I don’t know.” He hesitated when the man chambered a bullet. “Come on Finn, I really don’t know. There are rumors she is on her way to LA to get away from those council guys, but I don’t know for sure. All I know is that Spike is pretty pissed at her. Thinks it’s her fault Blondie got staked again.”
“Now, that wasn’t so hard was it?” The agent put his gun back in the holster.
“What do they want her for? The council I mean.” Willy’s voice broke nervously.
“To sell her to us.” He sneered.
“What would you government guys possibly want with a turned slayer?”
“Walsh needs a new test subject. She broke the last one too quickly. Vampires have no stamina.” He shrugged and left the bar. Willy relaxed slightly but jumped back on guard when the shadow emerged from the corner.
“Did you get what you needed?” Willy started to scrub the counter in an effort to hide his trembling hands.
“You’ll live for now.” With a snarl the vampire disappeared in a billow of leather.
“How is she really Spike?” Willy had nothing against the Slayer. She kept the population of brawlers down during her reign on the Hellmouth.
“She’ll be better once I get the council off our backs.” There was an undercurrent of rage that couldn’t be mistaken. Spike was angry and Willy was thankful he wasn’t in the warpath for once.
“We’ve got trouble.” Spike sat down and looked at Buffy’s frozen figure, not really expecting her to respond. She just stared blindly at the wall as if waiting for it to reveal the correct path. “I’m glad you’re interested.” He sighed and continued with his explanation. “Seems the watchers called in some favors. Offered you up on a platter for some soldier boys.” He was frustrated by her lack of response. “They want to study you. Won’t let ‘em have you of course, just thought you should know. Can you even hear me in there?” He sighed and turned away from her giving up talking to her when she was like this.
Her body fell to the floor with a thud. “Ouch.” Buffy sat up irritated with the break in her concentration, and rubbed her head. “How did it go with Willy?”
“Oh, now you want to talk.”
“I was meditating, you should try it some time Mr. Impatient.” She huffed and crawled up onto the couch.
“You were standing on your head.”
“Helps me think.” She pouted and rubbed the bump where she hit the floor.
“Devil, help us.” He sat across from her.
“So how did it go with Willy?”
“The git bought the story, course Willy pissing in his pants goes a long way toward convincing a guy.” He chuckled.
“Is Willy in the know?” She looked over at the sleeping girl by the fireplace.
“No, he thinks you’re down for the count and broom Hilda over there took a run for the border.” Spike shrugged and propped his feet up. “As I said before we may have a problem.”
“Right, government wants to pull a Roswell on me.” She moaned and threw her feet over the back of the couch. Spike rolled his eyes when she dropped her head over the edge of the cushion.
“What are you doing?”
“I told you. It helps me think.”
“Cause you’re a damn loon. It’s not like your heart is pumping any more love.”
“Stuff it Yoda.” She tapped her thigh to the sound of an unheard beat. “You’re right, this could be a problem. The council itself we could handle, but I don’t like the sound of G.I. Joe running around Sunnydale.” He snickered.
“So what do you do when you are out numbered?”
“This is no time for military strategy.” He snorted. “Okay, so it is, but you haven’t bought me the cliff notes, so enough with the pop quiz on this Snow Shoe guy.”
“Sun Tzu.” He rolled his eyes. “You separate them from their allies, Pet. Didn’t the watcher teach you anything?”
“Usually one on one, remember?” She growled at him menacingly. “Alright genius, how do we cut off the army boys from the Council.”
“Nothing changes. We just have a new target.”
“How do you figure that?” Faith sat up and climbed into a chair.
“The Council wouldn’t have hired the goons if they wanted to take me on by themselves. They are planning on sitting back and watching the show.” Buffy sighed heavily. “Ok, so we have a new enemy now what?”
“Well they think Hilda ran for the hills and you are a vegetable.” He paused, thankful she had woken up. Her loss of consciousness earlier sent him into an agitated panic. Faith was ready to stake him to end the pacing when Buffy finally came around. She had never seen a vampire grieve before and Spike’s reaction surprised her. He shook the memories from his mind and turned back to the slayers before him. “That leaves me against the whole herd.”
“They will come in thinking it’s just you and get hit by all three of us.” Buffy smiled beginning to see his plan forming.
“I’m not planning on being here, and neither are you two.”
“They have the place under surveillance. How are you planning on getting out unnoticed?” Faith stretched like a cat and yawned.
“Same way I always get in and out.” Spike sneered.
“It reeks down there.” Buffy whined.
“Where?”
“The sewers.” The blonde crinkled her nose.
“Yuck.”
“Bloody women.”
NEWEST CHAPTER!!
“You sure this is going to work?” Faith looked at Buffy as they dropped down into the sewer.
“His schemes are usually pretty good if he’s patient enough to follow the plan.”
“That’s not very reassuring is it?” Buffy just chuckled.
“Take a left at the end of the tunnel. You should see a ladder.”
“Okay.” Faith followed the instructions and found herself standing two blocks down the street.
Buffy turned the opposite direction and started to move through the tunnels. “Pet?” She jumped when she felt the hand on her shoulder.
“Don’t do that.” She sighed and started to relax.
“You sure you are up for this?” He placed his hand gently on her injured chest.
“I’ll be fine. No getting dusty on me either, got it.” She crinkled her brow, trying in vain to look menacing. He chuckled and kissed her forehead. “Random question, what are we doing with them once we’ve caught them?”
“Don’t worry about that, I’ve got it all worked out.”
“Again, that is not very reassuring.” She stepped away from him and started down the hall. “Try not to kill anyone you don’t have to alright.” And with that she was gone, scampering up a ladder to the surface.
“Why do I put up with you again?”
“I have a great ass.” He snorted at the comment as it drifted back down into the tunnel.
“That you do Pet.” Chuckling he made his way to the other side of the house and came to the surface a block away. Sliding out into the darkness he made his way into the woods surrounding the mansion. He smiled when he heard the soldiers breathing ahead of him. He waited patiently until they checked in with their commander before knocking them out and dragging them back to the tunnels. It would be awhile before it was noticed that they were gone. He bound and gagged them and dragged the bodies to an abandoned slaughterhouse a few blocks away. Raising them up by the ropes binding their hands, Spike smiled at the dangling pair. He turned and sprinted back into the tunnels. He found Buffy and Faith in the tunnels dragging four more men toward the house.
“How much time do we have?” Buffy looked down at her watch.
“Before these guys are missed?” He threw one of the soldiers over his shoulder and dragged another behind him. “Twenty minutes maybe. How many more are there?”
“Two on our side. I think one or two more on your side.” Faith picked up on of the other men and followed the two vampires down the tunnel. She snickered as they entered the slaughterhouse and helped Buffy hoist their hostages. “Alright, I’m beginning to see the merit in this plan. Six down, four to go.” She turned and walked back toward the tunnel. “So what’s the plan after we capture the soldier boys?”
“We pay the Council a visit.” Spike growled.
“Ahh, slight problem, chief. We don’t know where they are.” Faith turned back to face him.
“Yes we do.” Faith looked over at Buffy for clarification but she just shrugged and followed them into the tunnels.
“I gave up trying to follow his brainwaves months ago.” Spike rolled his eyes at his mate.
“You’re not helping pet.”
“Well as of,” she paused to look at her watch, “sixty minutes ago you had no idea where they are. Did the Lady of the Lake pop up and give you a sword sending you on the way to Camelot?”
“Close Pet. We’re going to London.” Buffy burst out laughing and fell to the floor of the tunnel they were moving through. “Why are you laughing?” Spike growled.
“London? As in England? As in the other side of the ocean?” She looked up at him with sparkling eyes. “That was good, tell me another one.”
“Think about it Pet. These blokes are American, not likely to follow us across the pond.” He pointed to the soldiers. “Besides, it will take the Travers guy at least a day or two to figure out we left. By then we could have the Council of Wankers under our thumb.”
“You want to take down the Council Headquarters?” Buffy just stared at him.
“You really need to read Art of War luv.”
“Give me the cliff notes version.”
“Take the enemy strong hold.”
“There must be a hundred safeguards there, Yoda. Most of them are probably of the magic variety. Unless you have been hiding your mojo bag, we can’t fight that alone.”
“So we take the Watcher and the Witch.” Spike moved ahead and started to climb the ladder to the surface.
“Giles will never go for it.”
“B’s right, Whitey. G would never pull a raid on Watcher Central.”
“He will if we tell him they are selling out his slayers as lab experiments.” Spike moved the manhole cover out of the way and climbed into the night ending the discussion for the time being. They still had work to do. Buffy groaned and went back to the task at hand. She had a feeling she was not going to talk him out of this one.
“Yet another ‘not liking this idea’ situation.” Faith murmured behind her.
“You and me both.” She grabbed hold of the ladder. “Can’t wait to run this one by Xander.” Faith just laughed as she watched the former slayer slide out into the darkness with an eerie silence.
“No, my life isn’t strange.” Faith sighed and followed her.
“Giles we need to talk.” Buffy bellowed to her former watcher as they entered the library.
“What’s wong?” He rushed into the room and found her sitting on the table next to Faith. Spike was lounging in a chair behind them with his feet propped up on the table.
“General Custer here wants to lead a charge into the lion’s den.”
“Buffy, in English please. What are you babbling about?” The older man sighed and inspected the bunch. They looked no worse for the wear.
“We’ve got a problem. Seems you council buddies went out and hired themselves some G-men to do the dirty work. They kill Blondie and I, and the council let’s them keep B as a guinea pig.” Faith sighed, feigning boredom.
“What?” Giles’ full attention was on the pair of slayers.
“Soldier boys want a new lab rat for their experiments and Travers promised them Slayer.” Spike rolled his eyes. “Got ‘em tied up across town.”
“What are you planning, although I’m sure I don’t really want to know?”
“Spike wants to fly to England and take over Watcher Central.” Buffy counted down mentally as she waited for the explosion.
“You want to what?” The boom was shocking in the quiet room.
“I want to take over watcher head quarters and I need your help.” The matter of fact statement shocked Giles even more.
“Why on Earth would I want to help you do that, Spike?” Giles was furisously scrubbing his glasses.
“Because they will never stop hunting me.” Buffy frowned.
“Besides, these soldier boys are locals. Hopefully they won’t be itching to follow us if we skip the country.” Faith shrugged.
“And what do you purpose we do once we take the citadel?” Giles sat down wishing he kept a supply of scotch on the premises.
“We purpose a trade.” Spike stood and started to pace. “They leave Blondie and Broom Hilda alone and we help Hilda keep the nasties at bay. Demon or otherwise.” Although his last statement was barely a whisper Giles heard it loud and clear.
“I think all this snowshoe guy has gone to his head.”
“Who?” Giles studied his former protégé.
“Sun Tzu. I can’t believe you never taught her watcher.” Spike shook his head at his childe.
“Yes, well it seemed like a lost cause at the time.” Giles chuckled slightly.
“Hey sitting right here.”
“It meant extra studying.” Giles looked pointedly at her.
“Oh.” She growled at Spike and pouted angrily.
“What do you need from me?” The watcher slumped in his chair defeated. He knew if he didn’t help the council would find a way of disposing itself of the trio. Faith may have been a loose canon but she was still an extremely effective slayer. And there was no way he was letting Buffy be turned into an experiment, even if it meant going against everything it stood for.
“We need you and Red to help us get past the protection spells.” Spike resumed his seat and fiddled with a cigarette.
“That’s powerful magic, Spike. I don’t know if we will be strong enough to fight it.”
“Well, you better get cracking then. We don’t have a lot of time. We will meet you in LA in two days. Make sure you aren’t followed.”
Spike stood and signaled to the girls that it was time to leave. Buffy stood and approached her mentor. “Giles, we are going to try not to hurt anyone. I don’t have anything against most of them, I just can’t spend the next hundred years running.” She put her hand on his shoulder to offer comfort but they were both terrified where this plan would lead. He simply nodded and watched them disappear into the tunnels. Picking up the phone with a heavy heart he dialed Willow’s familiar number.
“Hello?”
“Willow, it’s Giles. Round up the others, we have work to do.”
“Meet at the library?”
“No, my apartment, I don’t want anyone knowing what we are doing.”
“Giles, is something wrong?”
“Yes, I’m afraid we’re about to go to war.”
(To be continued...)
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By Daxis Steele