Immediately, Dawn felt the powerful connection with her sister, as she stood there, her arm locked with Spike’s – lost to the rest of the world, for the moment. She could see the room around her, was aware as her mother watched her closely, anxiously – but it did not seem to matter to her at the moment.
All she heard and felt was her sister.
*Dawnie? Can you hear me?*
*Um, yeah – as weird as it is to say that. Or -- *not* say that…think that…whatever. This is a little on the freaky side, Buffy,* she informed her dryly.
*More than a little,* Buffy agreed, a bit apologetically. *But I need you to listen to me. We don’t exactly have a lot of time to work with here.*
*Okay – what do you need me to do?*
*For now, you’ll be waiting here, until Spike calls you to let you know the ritual is finished. But when it’s over – when the Slayer has submitted to us – then we’ll need you. You’re the only one who can put me back in my own body.*
*Whoa.* Dawn’s eyes widened in surprise. *And – how does *that* work again – exactly?*
*It’s a really long story, but – let me just sum it all up for now and say that you and me are a lot closer than most sisters would be. A *lot* closer. It’s like you’re – a *part* of me, Dawn. That’s why you could pull me out when the Slayer was in control – why we can do this now – because it’s just natural for you and me to be drawn together. It’s almost like we’re – the same person.*
*Okay, Buffy – this is getting a little scary,* Dawn said slowly in her head. *I’m not really sure what you’re talking about, but…*
*Dawnie, I know it’s weird,* Buffy interrupted gently. *But it’s true. I’ve learned a lot about this whole situation from the Slayer’s thoughts. More than you might think. Let’s just say – there are a few advantages, after all, to temporarily sharing my body with this thing. And I didn’t get it at first – but she sensed it right off. I don’t know how it’s possible – we’ll figure it all out when we get home – but for now, I just know it’s true. We’re like the same person, Dawn. And when we’re touching, it’s like we’re – double strong. That’s why you could help drive the Slayer back.*
She paused, waiting to be sure her little sister was not too lost in the confusing subject matter.
*And that’s why – why Spike said I couldn’t hurt her now? Because with you not in there, when I touch her, it’s just like – you trying to fight her all on your own – right?* Dawn guessed, trying hard to figure it out.
*Exactly – neither of us, separate, is strong enough to beat her – only together. So right now you need to stay away from her!* Buffy finished, vehemently.
*Okay,* Dawn agreed in a slow, hesitant voice. *So – how am I gonna get you back in your own body?*
*Once the ritual is done, and the demon is gone – my body should be – empty,* Buffy went on cautiously, aware that what she was trying to tell her sister could cause some seriously major wiggage to Dawn, and wanting to put it as gently as possible.
The idea was even wigging *her* out.
*Almost as if I was…*
*Dead,* Dawn finished for her in a quiet, grim voice.
*Well – yeah,* Buffy admitted, sobered by the thought. She *really* did not want to die again. *But I won’t be – not really. I’m in Spike, and I’m fine. So – you’ll need to be touching my body – and Spike’s – and if everything works like I think it will, since you’re basically me, and you draw me out, I should be able to go through you back into my body.*
She was silent for a moment, allowing her words to sink in, before asking in a tentative sort of voice, *So what are you thinking?*
Dawn hesitated a moment before replying, *I’m thinking there’s an awful lot of ‘probably’ and ‘should be able to’ in what you just said – and I’m wondering if maybe something could go wrong.*
*Honestly, Dawnie – something probably could…I have no idea,* Buffy admitted honestly. *We don’t know for sure about any of this. Only that in theory – it *should* work. But – if you think it’s too dangerous, Dawnie – if you’re too scared…*
*Of course I’m scared, Buffy,* Dawn interrupted matter-of-factly. *I’m not a complete moron – so yes, I’m scared.*
There was a moment of silence as Buffy tried to determine how her sister had meant her words.
Then, Dawn added softly, *But that doesn’t matter. I don’t think we really have a choice here – do we? This sounds like the only way.*
*It probably is,* Buffy conceded quietly.
*Then that’s what we’ll do,* Dawn agreed. *Just – just make sure Spike calls me as soon as the ritual’s over. I don’t want to wait any longer than necessary. I’m gonna be freaking out enough as it is, waiting.*
*Okay,* Buffy agreed, her tone making it clear that the conversation was nearly over. *Guess we’ve got it, then…*
*Buffy…* Dawn interjected quickly, in a nervous, uncertain voice. *How – I mean – if I’m – part of *you* -- am I even – am I…*
She hesitated, and Buffy waited patiently for her to go on.
*Am I really a *person* at all? I mean – I don’t understand. How can I be a *part* of you? Aren’t I – well -- *me*?*
*Dawnie,* Buffy gently tried to find an answer to the same questions that had been plaguing her ever since she had read the partial truth about her sister in the demon’s thoughts. *I’m not sure how it all works. We’ll need to figure it out when we get home, like I said. All I know is – something about you – your *existence* was caused by magic – and you’re a part of me. That’s all I know. I’m sorry – but as soon as we get rid of this thing – we’ll figure it out. Okay?*
Dawn’s voice sounded small, and insecure, and not the least bit reassured by Buffy’s words. *Okay*.
*I’ll talk to you soon, Dawnie. It’s time to go,* Buffy told her apologetically, adding after a moment’s hesitation, *I love you.*
*I love you, too.* Dawn’s response was automatic, as she deliberately withdrew her hand from Spike’s arm, though she was nowhere near ready to.
As the world around her came back into focus, she looked between her mother and Spike, blinking as if just waking from a deep sleep, before sinking down into the chair beside Spike, across from her mother.
“Well. That was – weird beyond all weirdness, ever,” she remarked flatly, looking up at her mother with a serious expression on her face.
“What did she say?” Joyce asked, an anxious frown creasing her brow – and Dawn remembered that she had not actually spoken aloud during her conversation with Buffy.
“Um – she just told me – how to get her back into her body after the ritual’s over. It’s – it’s simple. Easy. Nothing to worry about.”
Her words were technically true – “in theory” – but that was not the part of the conversation that was troubling her. She could not bring herself to tell her mother *all* of what Buffy had said – not yet.
She still had to figure it out for herself.
Was she even real? Even a person at all? Or just an extension of her “sister’s” personality?
It was all terribly confusing and frightening – and suddenly – Dawn felt very, very alone.
“I’d better get dressed,” Joyce said, grabbing some clothes and hurrying about the room as she headed toward the bathroom. “At a time like this it’s best to be prepared for anything….”
“Yeah,” Spike replied with a grin that was a little forced, and very tired. “Wouldn’t do to have the impending apocalypse catch you in your nightdress!”
Joyce gave him a gently reproving smile – that suddenly faded as his words registered. “Wait – apocalypse?” she echoed uncertainly.
“If the ritual doesn’t go as planned,” he shrugged, a bit too dismissively for Joyce’s comfort, “but it will. We’ll win.” He glanced up at her, and stopped short when he saw the worry in her eyes. “Well, Joyce, a demon like that gets control of a Slayer’s body – no telling what could happen. But those sorts of nasties usually are pretty intent on doing as much destruction as possible. Wouldn’t put it past her to try to wipe out the whole world.”
Joyce stared at him for a moment longer before rushing off to the bathroom.
The next moment, Dawn was surprised to feel a strong, cool hand close around hers. She looked up to see Spike’s weary blue eyes focus on her face in a look of compassion and concern, though he did not say a word.
She looked away for a moment, her eyes downcast as she asked calmly, “Did you hear that?”
He nodded slowly. “Every bloody word.”
“What – what *am* I, Spike?” Dawn asked, looking up at him through troubled, tearful eyes. “Why am I even here?”
“You’re a bloody brilliant, beautiful young woman, is what you are – and my Little Bit,” he assured her gently, raising his free hand to push a stray lock of long, dark hair back from her face. “And as for the second bit – can’t rightly say for sure. I just know that if you *weren’t* here – I’d be dead right now – and so would your sister, for that matter. Your existence is what’s held the Slayer back so far – so I’d say all in all it’s a bloody good thing. So I can’t say why you’re here – just that I’m bloody glad you are.”
The tenderness in his voice brought fresh tears to her eyes, and Dawn found herself leaning forward and allowing the vampire to hug her close for a few minutes.
“There now, Bit – it’s all right,” he gently soothed her, running one hand through her hair soothingly. “We’ll get it all sorted.”
Dawn nodded, pulling reluctantly away from him. She knew that they had work to do, and did not want her tears to hold him back from doing what he needed to do.
“You’d better go,” she reminded him quietly, sniffing back tears as she released his hand.
The subtle, but definite change in his expression at her words, reminded her of the state of mind he had been in when he had entered the room, and she realized how difficult it must be for him to face what he was going back to, as he rose reluctantly to his feet with a sigh.
“Right, then. Off I go. Be ready by the phone, Bit. I’ll call you when it’s over.”
“Spike,” she spoke softly, following him to the door.
He stopped in the doorway, without turning, as he waited for her to speak.
“Remember – it’s not Buffy in there – okay?” she said quietly. “So – do whatever you have to do.”
He simply nodded, not wanting to allow his emotions to get the better of him, not now, just when he was about to go back into the fight. Without a word, he walked out the door and toward his own room.
Those simple, surprisingly vital words echoed in his mind as he opened the door, to see the Slayer lying still on the bed, her eyes closed in the appearance of sleep. But his sharp hearing had picked up on the slight increase of her heartbeat as he had entered the room – and the tension in her bound body made it clear that she was awake, despite her best efforts to disguise the fact.
“Oh, come on, now, love!” he scoffed lightly, his confident, subtlely menacing demeanor instantly back in place. “You don’t really think I’m *that* stupid, do you?”
The Slayer realized that she was found out, opening her eyes and smirking up at him mockingly. The door he had just left open for her was just too easy to pass up. “No, Baby – I *know* you are!” she sneered.
A tight, grim smile came over the vampire’s lips, as he sidled slowly nearer to the bed. “I was hoping you’d say that,” he informed her in a low voice of dark menace – just before delivering a vicious backhand blow across her face. Grabbing her hair, he jerked her head back to expose the twin puncture marks on her throat from his earlier attack, his features shifting as he leaned in to growl near her ear, “Just keep giving me reasons, pet – because I’d bloody *love* to keep beating the bleedin’ daylights out of you!”
“You really are no different from me!” she declared, glaring defiantly up at him. “You can say all you want about me liking a helpless opponent – and yet you had to weaken *me* before you’d try to fight me again!” she accused him. “Knew you couldn’t take me at full strength!”
“Yeah, well,” he shrugged, unfazed by her taunts. “You at full strength versus me at full strength, with no soddin’ claims in place to complicate matters – we’ll never know how *that* match would have turned out, will we, pet? You’re the one had to spend the evening systematically wearing me down.”
He shrugged again, tilting her head slightly and leaning in nearer to her throat, glistening fangs extended. “Way I see it,” he continued in a low, almost seductive whisper, “a bloke’s got to compensate somehow!”
“Yeah!” she laughed – but there was an almost hysterical note to the sound. She was desperately trying to conceal how utterly terrified she was. “You’re definitely compensating for *some*…”
Her words were cut off by his hand over her mouth, as he leaned in to bite her for a third time. She fought him for a few brief seconds – and then relaxed, her body gradually going limp beneath him.
Spike drew back, studying her slack face. It had only taken a few sips of her blood this time to bring her to the edge of unconsciousness. Of course, he *had* just bitten her a very short time ago, draining her until she passed out, right before going to Dawn’s and Joyce’s room. She probably had not quite recovered yet – which was a good thing.
Of course – there was always the chance that it was a trick.
But then – did it really matter?
She had been robbed of her blood three times in the space of as many hours – and he was feeling incredibly strong, the Slayer’s blood pumping through his veins suffusing him with a renewed vigor and power like he had not felt in years.
There was no way to be *completely* sure that she was not faking her extreme weakness and near unconsciousness.
But there never would be – and he would never be more ready to take her on than he was at this moment.
She moaned softly as he reached for the chains that bound her to the bed, freeing her wrists and ankles in turn, though she did not get up.
“Rise and shine, love,” he said with a bit too much cheer. “Time to get this bloody show on the road!”
With those words he grabbed her arm and dragged her forcefully off of the bed, and onto the floor beside it. She pulled herself up to a sitting position, gasping for breath, shaking her head slightly as if to clear it, as Spike stepped back for a moment to regard her, before leaning in closer.
“This is gonna be easier than I thought,” he smirked, moving in nearer to her, drawing his fist back to strike her again.
His plan was simple – dish out enough pain, and the Slayer would cave, accepting his dominance – and her own doom.
However, the Slayer had plans of her own.
As he reached her, towering over her menacingly, she struck out in a lightning quick move, grabbing his ankle with more strength than she had appeared to have, and yanking it out from under him, knocking him flat onto his back on the floor.
As she pounced on him with a feral, gleaming grin, a sadistic delight in her eyes, she shot back, “You read my mind -- *Baby*!”
The use of the name infuriated Spike; his eyes narrowed in anger. He had no idea how she had recovered so quickly, or how long she had been pretending to be weaker than she was. Perhaps Buffy’s not being in her body had given the Slayer a bit of an advantage – her demon power not hampered as much by Buffy’s human frailty.
This fight could turn out to be a bit more difficult than he had planned – but it was not one he intended to lose.
“I told you, love,” he smiled boldly up at her, before suddenly raising his head to crack against hers in a brutal headbutt, using the few dazed moments he had given her to reverse their positions, pinning her under *him* instead. “*Stop* calling me that!”
The Slayer glared up at him defiantly, rage and malicious intent in her eyes – and he knew that she had no intention of losing this fight, either.
But one of them was going to have to – and there was no turning back now.
The Slayer and the vampire were both at the peak of their strength.
And the fight was on.
[Reviews - 1135]
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Chapter or Story |
Chapter or Story | 
Chapter or Story
Has been viewed 2261 times
- Text Size +
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Chapter or Story |
Chapter or Story | Chapter or Story - Text Size +