Chapter 1
Buffy was walking the streets by herself at night. She was suddenly wishing that she would have taken Angel up on his offer to walk her home. She couldn’t remember ever feeling so nervous. She walked by a group of guys and hoped that they wouldn’t cause any trouble, but there was no such luck.
“Hey, sweet girl! How much for a lap dance for me and my buddy?” They laughed to themselves.
Buffy tried to ignore them as she continued to walk. She stopped when she heard a noise nearby. She didn’t want to wait around for something to jump out at her, so she took off running. She briefly looked behind her to see if anything was after her, but that brief distraction caused her to crash into a hard chest. She was stunned when she stepped back, looking into the blue eyes of the vampire that was now standing in front of her.
He gave her a smirk. “Hello, cutie,” he said.
Buffy took another step back, dreading the fact that Spike was there. She figured he was back to finally kill her, but knew that she wouldn’t be able to put up much of a fight in her weakened state.
Spike was confused at the look of fear on the Slayer’s face. “You all right, love? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
Buffy didn’t know how to respond. She decided to take the coward’s way out again and took off in the other direction. This time, she knew she was being followed. Her speed wasn’t as good as it used to be and Spike grabbed her instantly. She struggled in his grip. “No, let me go!”
Spike wasn’t one to do what he was told and held her tighter. “Just calm down already. I’m not going to hurt you.”
She finally stopped moving at his words. For some reason, she actually believed him.
He turned her around, so she was looking at him. Something in him broke at the expression on her face. This wasn’t the same girl that he remembered fighting with before. Something was definitely wrong with her. “What happened to you?” he wondered, tilting his head to gaze at her better.
She shook her head. “I…I don’t know. I just wanna go home.”
Spike nodded and let her go. He decided to stick with her if he was ever going to find out what happened. “Yeah, I can do that. I just need to take care of something first.”
Buffy was surprised when she saw Spike walk away and head over to the same men that taunted her before. She gasped when he punched the guy in the face that spoke crudely to her.
“Show some bloody respect,” he spat, watching with a satisfied smile as the men ran away. He then made his way back over to Buffy. He didn’t say anything and just grabbed her hand, pulling her in the direction of her house.
* * * * *
Buffy entered her house, feeling more drained than she could remember.
Spike followed behind her and was surprised that she didn’t revoke the invitation after his last visit.
They moved into the living room and sat down on the couch, neither knowing what to say first.
Buffy finally spoke up when the silence became too much. “Why are you here?”
He shrugged. “I don’t really know. I thought I was done with this town after the last time, but something keeps bringing me back. Are you going to tell me what has you acting so skittish?”
Buffy took a deep breath before she spoke again. “My powers are gone. I don’t know how it happened. I’m just not strong anymore.”
“Well, there has to be something that caused it. Slayers don’t just lose their powers out of nowhere.” He stopped when something suddenly occurred to him. “How old are you, love?”
She raised her eyebrows at his question. “I just turned eighteen. Why?”
“Bloody hell,” he cursed under his breath. “I have a feeling I know what’s causing this.”
Buffy’s eyes lit up now. “What is it?”
“You should ask your watcher. He might be able to tell you better than I can.”
Buffy didn’t understand why Giles would know what was going on and not tell her, but she got up and went to the phone to make the call.
* * * * *
She got off of the phone a few minutes later and walked back into the living room.
Spike noticed the tears in her eyes and for some reason; it bothered him to see her in pain.
“I can’t believe he did this to me. He knew this whole time what was happening and he didn’t say anything. All for some stupid test.”
Spike didn’t know what to say after that. He watched as she sat down next to him, her heartbreak obvious on her face.
She turned to him. “How could he do this to me? I trusted him. He was going to lock me up with some crazy vampire and expect me to win without my powers.”
Spike ran his fingers through his hair, hating what he was about to say. “I don’t think you were supposed to win, Slayer.”
“What? Are you saying that the Council was hoping I would be killed? No, Giles wouldn’t do that.”
“It might not be him, but those blokes he works for. They like their Slayers to be puppets. They like them young and able to do their bidding. I’m sure you already broke all the rules by having your friends involved. Slayers are supposed to work alone. You’re the first one I know of that actually has family and friends around to care for. And I’m sure they don’t care for your feisty attitude either.”
That got a small smile out of her. “Well, Giles said the test would be over now that he told me about it. From what I have heard of this vampire, I really don’t wanna go up against him.”
“Who is he?”
Buffy thought back to what Giles told her. “I think it’s Kralik something, I didn’t get the first name.”
Spike’s eyes grew big. “Zachary Kralik? Bloody hell, they really weren’t planning on you making it out of there alive. He’s bloody insane, even when he was human. He has this thing about mothers. It’s best that you don’t know about that.”
Buffy had a look of fear on her face again. “Okay, now I really don’t wanna go up against him.” She heard a knock on the door. “That’s probably Giles wanting to apologize again.” She got up to answer it.
Spike suddenly had a strange feeling. “Buffy, wait!” he yelled and followed after her. What he saw was Buffy’s unconscious body being held by the demented vampire, Zachary Kralik. Spike vamped out. “Let her go,” he growled.
Kralik only gave him a twisted smirk. “I wanted the mother, but she’ll do nicely.”
Spike attacked him and realized how strong Kralik was. He was kicked into the stairs hard and fell to the ground. Kralik hardly had to put up much of a fight.
He gazed at the girl in his arms. “Time to play,” he said and carried her back to the boardinghouse where he was currently staying.
* * * * *
Joyce came downstairs when she heard the racket and was surprised to see a man passed out on her floor. She walked closer and it was then that she recognized him.
“Spike?” She gave him a firm push to rouse him.
He groaned and touched his head, looking up to see Joyce standing over him.
“Are you all right? What are you doing here?”
He stood up carefully and tried to answer her questions. “I came here for Buffy.” He realized what that may have sounded like when he noticed the distressed look on the woman’s face. “I mean, I came here to help her. She hasn’t been herself lately.”
Joyce didn’t know what he met, but she nodded anyway. “Where is Buffy?”
It was then that Spike realized Buffy wasn’t around. He knew what happened and wasn’t thrilled to tell her mother about it.
Joyce could see that something was wrong. “Spike, where is my daughter?”
“He must have taken her. Don’t worry, I’ll get her back.” He walked out of the house, leaving a confused Joyce to stare after him. He didn’t know where Buffy was being held, so he went to the one person that would probably have the answers. Spike headed to where he kept his Desoto because it would be faster than walking. He had to pay the watcher a visit.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
I was just thinking of this episode recently and figured I could do something with it. I’ll just say that things will be different. I haven’t seen the episode in a while, so I’m sure some of it won’t be exactly what happened. I guess that was the idea anyway, to make it different. I was going to make it a one shot, but I decided to make it two parts instead. For those that are reading Not Your World, it will be a bit longer before I can get another chapter of that in. I just hope you guys wouldn’t have forgotten about the story. Any comments for this one would be much appreciated. Thanks to buffy_the_vamp6 for my banner=)