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“Spike!” Buffy yelled over the sound of falling rocks. A boulder dropped onto her should pushing her to her knees. “Do Something!”

Even though he was only on the other side of the narrow space, he couldn’t reach her with the stinger flying wildly through the air and the rocks falling down on them.

“I can’t.” Spike yelled back in frustration. “I can’t get around this damn thing and I can’t get a hold of it either.”

Buffy struggled to climb to her feet, but soon gave up, feeling all of her injuries screaming in protest. Instead she crouched on the ground with her arms covering her head trying to avoid being knocked unconscious.

“If you would have listened to me in the first place, maybe you would be able to do something.” She cried.

Spike flattened himself against the wall, as the stinger flew towards him but it still managed to cut into his chest. Thankfully the poison that dripped from the end didn’t have time to get into his system. “What are you blathering about, Slayer?” He gritted his teeth against the pain.

“If you had finished me off like I told you to.” She insisted. A whimper of pain escaped her as more rocks fell on top of her.

“Bloody buggering hell!!” Spike swore. This stupid fucking stubborn bint, any excuse to prove that she was right and he was wrong.

“Get your arse over here, Slayer. I’ll be more than happy to drain you RIGHT now!” He roared. Deep inside he knew his rage was also fueled by his concern that she wasn’t going to make it against this new attack.

“No!” Buffy yelled back, trying to keep from crying at the pain, exhaustion and the helplessness of the situation. “You had your chance and you turned me down.”

“ARRGH!!” Spike growled out. “Well, you had better hope we die here, because if we don’t, I’m going to wring your bloody neck!”

Buffy didn’t have the strength to yell anymore. “You are more than welcome to try Blood Breath.” She gasped.

Spike saw her drop her arms as more rocks poured over her. He waited until the stinger drew back and then tried to dive across the space to shelter her from the falling rocks, but he didn’t take into account the rocks that were also falling on him. One hit him in the leg, and he fell flat on his face across the tunnel.

Buffy raised her head and met his eyes. In that instant it all disappeared, the rocks, the creature, even this dungeon. It was just the two of them.

She reached out and took his hand, tears gathered in her eyes, but didn’t fall.

“I saw you.” She whispered.

Spike’s eyes widened. “Buffy…Ahhh FUCK!!” He yelled as the stinger came down and pierced his shoulder. This time he could feel the poison pumping through his veins paralyzing him.

“Spike.” Buffy cried, but knew there was nothing she could do. She was too weak. In a matter of seconds, he lay there immobile. “Don’t you dare dust on me, Bleach Brain.”

The creature must have known it hit something because instead of trying to attack now it seemed to be trying to pull its prey out of the tunnel by dragging along the ground. Buffy tried to keep a hold of Spike’s hand and not let the creature have him, but she was too weak and it kept pulling him closer to the entrance.

“Over here.” A loud voice bellowed. Buffy looked behind them and where there was once a solid stone wall there was now a doorway and a dull red arm poking though gesturing her over. “Well, come on. What are you waiting for?” The voice urged.

“He can’t move.” Buffy said desperately. “Please help us.” The thought that this being might not be friendly never crossed her mind.

The creature was getting frustrated the its prey wasn’t coming out as easily as it wanted so again it raised up preparing to sting again. This time when it loosened rocks along the ceiling one came crashing down on Buffy’s head knocking her unconscious.


Upstairs Mastema sat alone in his hall wondering what to do about William and the Slayer. That they were still alive he had no doubt, he could feel the younger vampire clearly and he was certain the Slayer was still with him.

He could only assume that the Wild Card had decided to step in again.

Mastema cursed aloud as he wished once again he could get rid of that one once and for all. Honestly, if he could just find the creature he would be willing to send him back to his own people just to be rid of him, but he couldn’t find him.

Not too surprising since that creature was the one who had built the Garden. Mastema had planned on killing him, but he had found out and had gone into hiding down there many years before.

Most of the time Mastema could forget about him, but then he would appear again, or do something that made it apparent that he still lived down there.

On top of all of this Mastema sensed there was trouble within the Council. He wasn’t sure where it was coming from, but he was certain there were those among them plotting against him. He suspected it was Baraqel, that one was hungry for power. Yet there were many others who also hungered for power.

And losing William in the Slayer would be seen as weakness to those who were plotting against him.

Mastema thought about Ipwet. That one had been a surprise. She was bold and cunning, yet she also had intelligence enough to know her limits. Maybe he could use her to try and find out which of the Council were plotting his demise. He could offer her a more powerful seat on the Council if she succeeded in helping him. The bucking of traditions would upset the older members, but maybe they needed to be upset. Maybe it would put them back in their place to lose some of their power.

His mind again when back to the now missing William. Perhaps Ipwet was right about that one. He would have made a spectacular ‘Second’ to him. All that would be needed would be to reign in his free spirit and rebellious nature, but most vampires could control that if they were offered the right incentive.

It was such a shame that instead he would have to be killed.



Buffy came awake slowly. She opened her eyes and saw a red face with bright white hair staring down at her. She scrambled backwards only to bump into someone else. She turned her head and saw Spike sitting up against a stone wall.

“Spike are you ok?” She asked urgently, glancing back at the creature who had by now backed up away from her.

“Ah, he’s a vampire. He’ll be just fine once the poison gets out of his system.” The creature drawled. Buffy turned to face him fully.

His skin was all the same dull red color; the only break in it was the bright white hair that only stood about a quarter inch off his head and what appeared to be blue jeans that covered his four legs. He stood about six and half feet tall and also had an extra pair of arms to match his extra pair of legs.

“If you try anything, I will gut you.” Buffy told him, hoping she sounded stronger than she felt.

“Hey now, is that anyway to treat someone who just helped you?” She noticed he had a deep Southern accent. Actually, his voice sounded almost exactly like that actor who married Angelina Jolie. Billy Bob Something.

“The question is why did you help us?” Buffy asked suspiciously.

“Well shoot, I see someone about to get eaten by one of those things, I figured you might need a hand.”

“Are you one of the Old Man’s ‘pets’.” Spike’s voice rasped. Buffy looked back at him relieved to see he was indeed regaining control of his body.

“More like one of the inmates. Actually I’m usually the only one, most of the others I find too late, and they’ve already been dinner and they are on their way out the other end. Know what I mean?” He gave a chuckle.

Spike and Buffy exchanged a look; Buffy tried a polite smile and nod.

“How long have you been here?”

“I have no idea. You can’t really tell time down here, you know. I tried to keep a count of the days at first, but then some days I forgot to mark and other days lasted so long I marked them twice. I’ve never been real good at keeping up with things.”

“How did you get here?” Buffy asked.

“I was here before all those monsters. I built this place.”

“What do you mean you built this place?” Spike asked. He kept trying to move his arm, but so far with no luck. Without him saying anything Buffy seemed to know what he was doing. She moved carefully so she didn’t aggravate any of her injuries and began to rub on his arms, attempting to get them moving again sooner.

“I mean I built it.” The creature told them. “My kind are known for our digging abilities. We have a way of working with dirt and rock. We can make a palace out of a coal mine, know what I mean?”

Buffy gave Spike an incredulous look.

“Sure we do.” Spike said, to keep the guy talking.

“So this vampire shows up and offers a good deal of gold to anyone willing to come and work on his dungeon. Now my people don’t usually take contract work, but I had made some mistakes in my past, so I didn’t have all of the things most of my people did. Personally, I couldn’t care less, but then I had a litter. That changes a man.”

Buffy was saw that Spike was now able to move his arm, so she moved so she could rub on the other one.

“So you decided to take the job?”

“Shit yeah. For what he was willing to pay, I could guarantee my girls got into the best schools and had the best things.” The creature smiled proudly. “They were all girls, my litter. And the prettiest little girls in the whole community. Even the ones who didn’t like me had to admit that.”

He sighed. “They probably think I’m dead now, either that or their momma convinced them I abandoned them with the gold.”

“What happened?” Buffy asked gently.

“I was just about finished here when I heard some of the vampires talking about how they needed to finish ME off. Well I showed them. I took off into the ground and they haven’t been able to find me since. Plus all those nasty creatures they keep in there can’t get to me either.”

“Why didn’t you just dig your way out then?” Spike asked.

The creature looked very sheepish. “That’s the one problem with my people, we can’t dig up and to get out of here I would have to dig up.”

“What do you mean you can’t dig up?” Buffy asked.

“Just that, we can’t dig up.”

“You can’t dig up.”

The creature looked at her like she was stupid. “No. We can’t dig up. I just said that.” He looked as Spike. “Kinda slow is she?”

Spike grinned. “You get used to it.”

Buffy hit him in the arm. “Ow.” Spike snapped.

“Look’s like you have feeling back in this arm too.” Buffy said sweetly.

“I have a few other appendages you can rub, pet.” Spike said with a grin.

“Gross, Spike.” She said. Then looked away quickly hoping he didn’t notice the blush that crept across her face. “So you save our lives and we don’t even know your name.”

“Oh sorry about that.” He stuck out one of his hands. “Solum. Solum Rocca, Jr.”

“I’m Buffy and this is Spike.” Buffy shook his hand. “Thank you for saving us.”

“Not a problem. You’d be surprised how lonely you get down here after a few years.”

Spike started shaking his legs trying to get the feeling to move down towards his feet so he could walk again. He looked at Buffy and saw how tired and worn she still was, not too mention hungry.

“So what do you eat?” Spike asked him.

“Oh, there’s food all over the place.”

“Please tell me you aren’t talking about demon meat.” Buffy couldn’t help but say.

He gave her a strange look. “Shoot, no. I was talking about fish.”

“Fish!!”

“Yeah, come on I’ll show you.”

Buffy looked at Spike. “Can you walk yet?”

Spike could see the hope in her eyes and even though he really wasn’t ready to, he tried to stand up. “I think I could if you help me.”

She was at his side in an instant. He was surprised at how comfortable he felt in her presence now and how much he had come to depend on her.

“And you left this on the ground, but I grabbed it for you.” Solum said picking Spike’s duster up and handing to him.

“There’s my baby.”

“Its sick how much you depend on that coat.” Buffy said teasingly. Even though things were far from solved, she felt much better here on Solum’s side of the dungeon.

Solum moved off in front of them, leaving them to follow behind.

“Can we trust him, you think?” Buffy whispered soft enough so only Spike could hear her.

“Everything down here has tried to kill us so far.”

“But if he really does have food…” She said longingly.

Spike looked at her. Her cheeks were gaunt and her eyes had dark rings under them. “We’ll check it out. But stay on your guard Slayer.”

"I'm always on my guard Spike." She said.

"Unless you are asleep, or.."

"You do realize I could drop you any time right?" She said.

He just smiled at her certain she would do no such thing.





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