Chapter Twenty-Three
Cam resurfaced and moaned as he opened his eyes and blinked. He glanced around the room and noticed a woman sitting in the chair beside his bed, when she saw him looking at her she smiled.
“Welcome back, Cam.”
His vision blurred by the sudden tears, Cam reached out weakly. “Mom? Oh, Mom.”
Buffy moved to sit on the bed and enveloped her son in a hug. “I’m here, baby. I’m here. You’re safe.”
Cameron’s head was spinning as all his memories fought with the implanted ones. An image of himself calmly ordering work to be done on a vampire…on…
“Spike!” Cam struggled to get out of his mother’s grip. “Oh God! What have I done?” He broke down into such uncontrollable sobs that Buffy feared he’d pass out.
“Will!” Buffy needed her friend’s help.
Willow raced into the room.
“What’s wrong?”
Hearing her voice, Cam wiped his eyes and after several hitching breaths managed to speak. “You’ve got to take me back!”
“What? No!” Buffy grabbed his hand. “You’re mine. Maggie Walsh is—”
“I know!” Cam said. “I-I don’t want to go back, but I’ve got to. They’ve got Spike – they’ve done stuff to him. Horrible stuff. I did stuff to him!”
“What?” The two women spoke as one.
Shaking his head, Cam said, “I don’t know how, but I could operate. I worked on him.” His sobs started again. “We’ve got to get him out.” He wrapped his arms around his body and shook uncontrollably. “The things I did…” He heaved as though he was going to vomit but there was nothing in his stomach to void.
“Will,” said Buffy, helplessly looking up at her friend.
Bending down, Willow took Cam’s hand. “Cam, sweetie. You’ve got to be strong.”
His anguished eyes met hers. “But it hurts – it sears inside.”
“It’s the soul, Cam. It will ease. Whatever they did to you in there, your soul is having to deal with it, understand? I can’t help you through it, but be strong. You’re a good person, Cam. The best.” She pushed his hair back from his brow.
“But I’m not good, am I? I did those things. I amputated…oh, God…how could I know how to do that?”
“Spike?” Buffy’s voice was barely more than a whisper.
Cam shuddered and stared down at the hand Willow was still holding. “I…I operated on him.”
Buffy closed her eyes and Willow put a hand on her shoulder to steady her as she swayed.
Realising what his mother had thought, Cam quickly said, “I didn’t operate on him like that!”
Buffy’s eyes opened and he saw the depth of her love for the vampire in her expression.
“What did you do?” Again, it was barely audible.
Cam glanced at Willow, drawing strength from her when she squeezed his hand. “I-I gave him new eyes.” His own widened when he heard how bizarre the words were. “But… his mind…” Unable to continue, squeezed his eyes shut at the image of Spike attacking the poor human tied up in his cell.
“Shh, baby.” Buffy soothed him when all she wanted to do was shake him to find out what had happened to Spike.
“I need to go back. I can’t leave him for them to keep using.” Cam’s voice was stronger, and his tears dried. He twisted his body and then stared at his legs as if noticing for the first time that they were unresponsive. “Mom…”
Buffy felt her heart would break with the sound of that one word. Her son, broken at the hands of the place that had ruined Spike before and by the sounds of it had done even worse to him this time.
Wrapping her arms around him, she pulled him to her breast and rocked slowly to and fro. “Everything will be all right, Cam. I promise that we’ll fix everything.”
She caught Willow staring at her, shaking her head. No words were needed to transmit that the witch couldn’t heal her son. After a few moments, Cam raised his head and took a deep breath.
“We’re going to get Spike, right? I mean…that’s how all this started – I needed to find out what had happened to him.”
To Buffy’s relief, he didn’t ask after Jerry, and she nodded.
Frowning, he said, “They knew that you’d come for me. I remember now.” He glanced at his mom. “That’s why they worked on Spike. He’s their weapon against you.”
“Well that’s where they’ve made a mistake,” said Buffy. “Spike would never hurt me – or any of us.”
“He will, Mom. They’ve made him into a killing machine. He hurts unless he kills and feeds.” Hot tears tracked down his cheeks. “I helped make him like that. He’s not Spike anymore and I don’t know if—”
“We’ll get him out,” Buffy said, but on catching Cam’s expression added, “Whatever happens we won’t leave him there.”
Mother and son stared at each other for a moment and when they broke eye contact they both understood the meaning behind her words. If they couldn’t get him out – or if he was beyond help, then he’d be staked.
Cam made a little noise of distress as a few drops of urine leaked from the catheter. Is this how it was going to be from now on? Forcing the terrifying thoughts away, he focussed on Spike. Raising his head he turned to Willow. “Can you take me back?”
She nodded.
“We need a plan,” said Buffy. “We can’t fail!” She stood up. “I’ll go and get Craig; he needs to be a part of this too.”
Once he was alone with Willow, Cam asked, “You meant it when you said the soul would stop hurting?”
“I did, Cam, but it might take a while and it’s maybe the hurt will always be there to some extent, but you learn to live with it.” She thanked the Goddess for giving her the strength to keep her voice steady as she mourned Cam’s loss of innocence.
Buffy returned with a white faced Craig, who hovered near the door and couldn’t meet his brother’s eye until Cam asked him to sit on the bed. Reluctantly, Craig did so, and Cam said, “I’m sorry.”
Eyes wide, Craig finally met Cam’s gaze. “What?”
“I shouldn’t have tried to keep it from you. I know what you’re like and whatever you’re thinking – what happened to me is not your fault. It’s on me, okay?”
Craig swallowed hard, unable to speak, but shook his head.
“Craig?”
“I’ll kill the bastard who did that to you,” Craig said, eyes narrowed.
“We’ve just got to help Spike.” The more Cameron thought of what state the vampire was in – the more he thought that a staking would be the kindest thing to do.
The four planned their strategy for over thirty minutes, calling Maurice and Dora up to the bedroom when their decision on exactly what action to take was made. The Carmichaels were their back-up plan. If all else failed and they didn’t return, then the Carmichaels would go to the authorities.
*~*~*~*
Crushing the Libreg with his right hand, Spike raised his head to the ceiling and bellowed. The pain never went away now, not even for a minute. He threw himself at the front of the cell. Snarled and repeated the action again and again. He needed to kill!
*~*~*~*
Willow arrived back inside the Initiative for the third time that night, holding tightly onto Cam. They appeared in the centre of the room, Willow crouched down next to Cam as he sprawled on the floor.
“Are you okay?”
Cam nodded, but couldn’t help but shudder at the sight of his useless legs. Standing, Willow strode over to get the wheelchair and brought it back to the boy.
“Shouldn’t you lie on the bed?”
Shaking his head, Cam said, “No, they know I can get in and out of the chair myself now.”
She put her hands under Cameron’s armpits and heaved him into the chair, averting her eyes as he flushed and reattached the tube to the catheter in his urethra. His hand went to his neck, but there was no way that he could reinsert the line into his vein. Nor did he want to as he knew whatever nutrients were in there, he was sure it was laced with lots of drugs too.
“You’d better go, Aunt Willow,” said Cam, smiling weakly.
“Take care,” said Willow before she disappeared with a rush of wind.
Now he just had to wait.
*~*~*~*
Buffy and Craig hugged before Buffy took Willow’s hand and the pair disappeared. Craig paced quickly back and forth as he waited for Willow to return, worried that the women had actually planned to leave him here.
“Come on. Come on,” he muttered.
With a gust of wind, Willow arrived back. She fell to her knees as she landed.
“Aunt Willow!”
“Craig…I can’t…” Slumping to the floor, Willow lost consciousness.
“Help!” Craig dashed to her side, cradling her head gently.
Her eyes flickered open momentarily. “So tired…” Then she was unconscious again.
Dora and Maurice ran in the room. “What happened?” asked Maurice.
“She passed out when she got back. She’s done too much, but I need to help Mom and Cam!”
“Calm down, lad. There’s no way you can get in there. I’m sure your mother will be fine. Help me carry Willow to the bedroom.”
As he eased Willow onto the Carmichael’s bed, Craig knew that he’d go insane if he had to stay in the cottage. Making his excuses, he went to the small guest room he and his mom had shared and sat on the bed. He needed a plan. If Willow didn’t recover soon – his mom and brother would be trapped in there.
*~*~*~*
The alarm sounded almost as soon as Willow disappeared. Buffy prayed that the witch had gotten back to the cottage okay, as she could see the exhaustion on her face, when Willow had warned her that she might not be able to come back for a while.
Jogging down the corridor, Buffy knew that Craig would be going crazy because he was stuck at the cottage, but a large part of her was glad of it. Willow’s fatigue had meant that she’d been unable to take Buffy exactly where they’d planned which had been the cupboard where the souls were stored, but luckily Buffy recognised that she was close to Cam’s bedroom and so knew where she had to go.
After running down empty corridor after empty corridor, Buffy smiled grimly. Did they really think that she was so stupid that she wouldn’t have realised this was a trap, even if she hadn’t been in touch with Cameron? The place had been eerily silent when the alarm switched off.
*~*~*~*
The alarm sounding took Spike to his knees, hands over his ears as his over-sensitive hearing made the alarm feel as if it were cutting into his brain. He stayed on the floor, alternating his harsh pants with low growls, for a while after the sound stopped. Then raising his head he grinned, baring his teeth, and stood up in one fluid movement.
The door to his cell was open.
*~*~*~*
An inhuman roar echoed in the passageway and Buffy slid to a halt. Cam was wrong – they weren’t sending Spike after her. Her fingers touched the handle of the gun she’d tucked into the back of her pants and prayed that whatever demon was approaching that bullets would kill it.
The roar came again, closer this time. Buffy glanced behind her, the corridor was empty. Whatever it was – the Initiative trusted it to do its job and kill her. Her eyes fixed on the corner, some forty yards in front of her and she pulled out the gun. Widening her stance, she raised the weapon and held it with both hands, thankful that she’d had some training in firing weapons when she had been an active slayer. Her heart was racing, but her aim was steady.
*~*~*~*
Spike flew out through the doorway and spun around, trying to decide which way to go. It was easy to decide as the corridor to his left came to a dead end ten feet away, whereas the right led down to a corner. He loped to the right and the guards watching the monitors breathed a sigh of relief that the vampire hadn’t touched the wall to the left. It was only an optical illusion, merely a reflection of the wall opposite, but the vampire no longer was capable of thinking of anything other than a kill.
The scent, when he caught a whiff of it, made him speed up. This wasn’t a Libreg – this was something so much more appealing. The pain in his head intensified if it were possible and he rounded the corner so quickly that he slipped and hit the wall. Barely missing his stride, with a howl, he lunged towards the small woman, mouth wide, fangs glistening with saliva.
*~*~*~*
Buffy couldn’t help but take a step backwards as the creature hurtled round the corner towards her.
“Oh my God!”
She had just enough time to realise it was humanoid before she took a deep breath, aimed for its head and squeezed the trigger.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Beta and banner by dawnofme.
Chapter End Notes:
Sorry about the evil cliffhanger! *runs for the hills* See you Friday!