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banner BY DAWNOFME


Author's Chapter Notes:
thanks to Carol who bravely went through my older stories and beta'd them for me after coming on board with Universal Vampire! :)
Chapter Two

A Bit of a Problem.

Spike walked up and down in Giles’ apartment. What should he do?

“Find Giles,” he said, “The real Giles - he’ll know what to do.”

The sound of his voice sent him halfway to freaking out.

“Hang on a minute. If I’m him, what if he’s me?" Phew, at least in his mind he sounded like himself. “Where will he be? Where was I? My crypt, I was in my crypt. Crap! If he tries to get out of there he’ll be toast in the daylight.”

He ran out of the door and to the graveyard. It took him twice as long as it should have. Bloody unfit body! He’d had to stop twice to catch his breath. Finally he got to his crypt and fairly dived into it.

“Giles!” he yelled, the voice just echoing around the empty chamber. He saw that his pile of clothes, including his beloved leather duster, was missing.

“He better not damage that coat,” muttered Spike as he ruefully looked down at the clothes he’d put on - a pair of tweedy trousers and a wool pullover.

“Yay! Great look, Spike.”

If Giles had left here there was only one option - the access to the sewers. He went to check and, sure enough, the slab over the hole was pulled to one side.

“Shit! Giles doesn’t know the sewers. He could end up anywhere! I’ve got more chance of finding Giles (or should that be me? God, this is confusing!) if I find the Slayer."

He rushed- well, huffed, puffed and slowly made his way - back to Giles apartment. He rummaged until he found the car keys, got in the old grey Citroen and drove to the college campus. He knew which room Buffy shared with Willow.

As Spike was driving, he spotted Xander walking along. He screeched to a halt beside him.

“Hey G man,” said Xander, “What’s the rush?”

“Don’t have time to tell you, just get in! I need to find Buffy,” said Spike, “Oh my God, I sounded just like him!”

“Okay, okay,” said Xander, climbing in. He was thrown back in his seat as Spike floored the car.

Ooooooooooooo

Giles stood there for a moment, wondering what to do.

“Well, I can’t just stay here.”

He walked over and put on the leather coat, knowing it would give some protection from the sun should he need it. He found the access to the sewers covered by a large stone slab.

“I’ll never move that.”

He bent down, ready to heave with all his might, but to his surprise he slid it over easily. He peered into the gloom below, seeing further into it than he’d thought possible. Then he realised that he was in Spike’s body and it was still the body of a vampire, with its enhanced strength and senses. Giles jumped agilely into the sewer and headed off in what he thought was the direction of his home.

As he walked along he began to hear voices from ahead.

“Oh good, I might be able to get some directions. I’m sure I missed a turn somewhere.

Too late he realised that whatever was coming might not be friendly. Sure enough, appearing from round a corner, two soldiers walked into view, weapons slung over their shoulders, chatting to each other as they went along.

Giles froze, knowing that the chances were that these two had seen Spike when he was in the Initiative. Well, he’d just have to reason with them.

The men saw him.

“Hostile 17!” cried the first.

“No, no, just listen,” said Giles, approaching them.

The men reached for their weapons.

“Oh, for goodness sake!” cried Giles, annoyed they wouldn’t listen. He didn’t realise that inadvertently he’d slipped into Spike’s vampire features.

They fired their first shot at Giles, hitting him in the shoulder but in a fluid movement Giles snarled, grabbed the weapon, kicked the hapless soldier and sent him flying backwards. Giles screamed out as his head exploded in pain as the chip fired. The second soldier hit him with a tazer blast and he collapsed unconscious.

The soldier lowered his weapon and spoke into his radio.

“Request a vehicle at the southwest access to the sewers. I have recaptured Hostile 17, repeat, Hostile 17 is in the bag.”

He looked over at the fallen soldier.

“You okay, Phil?”

“Yeah, Graham, I’m okay.” He got up and went over to the unconscious vampire and gave him a bit of a kick with his foot. “Least I got one round in it, hurt it a bit.”

“It’ll be hurting a whole lot more when Professor Walsh gets her hands on it again. She didn’t like it giving her the slip. Come on, let’s get him to the entrance. The vehicle will be here soon.”

They got hold of a foot each and dragged Giles to the rendezvous. They tied his hands and feet and threw him, none too gently, into the back of the army truck.

Ooooooooooooo

Spike terrified Xander on his dash to get to the campus, going round corners so fast the car was nearly on two wheels. Xander looked at the grim look on Giles’ face.

“Another apocalypse? Didn’t we just stop one?”

“This is worse, I’ll tell you when we find Buffy,” said Spike.

They left the car and ran up to Buffy’s room, Xander reaching the door before Spike who, once again, was cursing how unfit Giles had let himself get. As Xander’s hand was just touching the handle, Buffy opened the door and stepped out, the pair bumping into each other.

“Xander, hey, what are you doing here?” she asked, “with Giles,” she added as Spike finally got to the door and stood with his hands on his knees, panting.

Spike gestured for them to go inside and when he got in he sat gratefully on the bed.

“We’ve got a problem,” he gasped.

“Yeah, I figured that with the sudden entrance. So what gives?” asked Buffy.

“Remember the demon last night? How it did something to me and to, well...er…”

“Spike,” supplied Buffy, “Yeah, I was there, you know. It hit you and Spike with some sort of force thingy, so?”

“So,” said Spike, talking slowly to emphasise his words, not realising it made him sound even more like Giles, “Something terrible has happened. I’m really Spike and I’m trapped in Giles’ body.” He looked at them seriously.

To his horror they both burst out laughing.

“Good one Giles,” giggled Buffy, “had us going for a moment.”

“Yeah,” said Xander, “Turning into Spike - that is way worse than being a Fyarl demon,” wheezed Xander through his chuckles.

“Dammit, Slayer!” yelled Spike, “I mean it. I went to bed in me crypt and woke up in Giles’ bed and his body, which is seriously unfit, by the way. Bloke’s a certainty for a heart attack.” He kicked a chest of drawers in temper then yelped as the pain coursed through his foot.

He turned to look at Xander and Buffy, who stood looking at him open mouthed.

“My God, Spike, it is you,” said Buffy.

Before he could answer Willow crashed through the door.

“Oh, hi, everyone! Good, you’re all here. We’ve got a bit of a problem. I’ve just seen Riley and he said he can’t make your date as he’s been called in. They’ve captured Hostile 17 - they’ve got Spike!”

Spike, who, being unaccustomed to his breathing having any effect, had been hyperventilating for the past few minutes, he managed to mutter,

“What?” before passing out.

“Giles!” said Willow, going towards him.

“We really do have a problem, Will,” said Buffy, “Because who you’re seeing lying there is, well, it’s Spike!”

Willow looked up at her in horror.

“So that means The Initiative has Giles.”

Xander sloshed some cold water on Spike’s face and slapped it a couple of times. He finally came to.

“What? What did you say?” He started hyperventilating again.

“For God’s sake, Spike, calm down. You’ll faint again,” said Buffy, “Breathe slowly.”

Spike struggled to control it but still managed to gasp, “Yeah, well, haven’t needed to breathe in a long while so it takes a bit of getting used to. So what are you going to do?”

“We could work on switching you back and leaving the bodies where they are,” said Xander.

“Hey!” said Spike.

“Tempting,” said Buffy, “but the Initiative is up to no good, I’m sure of it, and Spike’s harmless. We can’t just leave him there.”

“Hey!” said Spike, with more volume.

“Pain chip,” said Willow.

“Yeah, but harmless? That’s a bit harsh.”

“You looked pretty harmless trying to get up those stairs,” laughed Xander.

“Guys, guys! Can we focus? They’ve got Giles. Whether he’s wrapped in Spike’s body or not, it’s still Giles," said Buffy.

That thought sobered them all.

“Look, from what I’ve heard, I got off pretty lightly with just the chip. The experiments they do,” said Spike.

“I know, I’ve seen some. Not pretty,” said Buffy.

Spike paled at the thought of what might happen to his body. Hell, if they dusted it would he die or would he be trapped here? Neither bore thinking about.

“Let’s get back to Giles' place,” said Buffy, “I’m not sure they haven’t got the whole campus wired, I mean they could put a lock down on it when Spike, er. ..you, came looking to bite Willow and me.”

“Yeah, well, water under the bridge an' all, and I didn’t hurt you,” said Spike sulkily.

“Only ‘cause you couldn’t,” said Willow, glaring at him.

“Come on, we’re wasting time.”

They all got up, piled into Giles’ car and went back to Giles’ apartment.

To be continued………





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