Evaluation
After locking the door behind her, Buffy headed in the direction of the shower. Minutes later she emerged and went into her room. She quickly donned a nightshirt and panties.
Before going to sleep she wrote a short note to leave for Willow describing what she and
Spike had discovered.
~~`~~
He stood for a moment, not quite sure how he had come to this place. Spike walked again down the worn path through the forest. The sun's light came down harshly, and he stayed to the shadows the leaves provided. What sun did touch his flesh once again did not harm him, but it was instinct after so many years.
He took in the sight, trying to commit it to memory. The greens and browns of the forest. The reds, pinks, yellows and violets of the wild flowers trying to grow under the shadows.
As he walked, he realized he was not alone. Someone was here with him. The Vampiress. She was watching him, and he could feel it. "I know you're out 'ere." He spun, but no one was there. "I can feel you followin' me." He turned again.
"We have been looking for you." A voice came from behind him, from where no one had been only a moment ago.
Slowly, he turned and saw the woman he had encountered before. The same auburn hair, flowing freely. The skins of many colors surrounded her sleek form. She seemed almost exactly the same as she had before, all but her face. The Vampiress' features were more defined. More Vampiric.
He cocked his head to the side, "Yeah, you said that last time. Got anythin' new to share? Like why the bloody 'ell I'm 'ere?"
She swayed with the light breeze and whispered. "T'mure."
~~`~~
Buffy woke with a terrible ringing in her ears. When she sat up, she realized it wasn't in her ears. It was the same bell that had announced the end of the day last night. She glanced at the digital clock on the wood nightstand. 5:30 A.M.
"Oh, you have got to be kidding." She fell back against the pillow when the bell died. In minutes, a second bell rang. "Alright. Jeez!"
Lazily, she sat up and began her morning routine.
~~`~~
Tara shook Willow after the second alarm. "Sweetie, I think we're supposed to get up."
"Leaving the bed is bad. Sleeping is good." Willow gathered a large portion of the blankets and rolled over with them.
Tara shrugged and got up. She could get showered first, then wake up Willow. She sang back to Willow as she walked out, "I guess I get the hot shower then."
Willow popped up. She hated cold showers. A devious grin came to her face.
"Conservation of water is a good thing," and followed Tara to the bathroom.
~~`~~
Spike and Giles were already seated at the table sharing tea, Spike's had a bit of blood in it that the Council had provided. Pig's blood, but he was used to it by now.
The Vampire scanned the books Giles had been reading over. He picked one up and read the title of the red leather book. "Pure Form?" he asked.
Giles quickly took his teacup from his mouth. "Ah, yes. It shows and explains the purest forms of many known demons." Spike set the book down and began flipping through it. Many of the pictures and diagrams folded out several pages. The raw forms were larger and fiercer looking.
"How about Vampires?" Spike asked.
"The very reason I wanted to study it while I was here." He pulled the book over to him and turned to a specific page, then pushed it back to the Vampire.
Spike cocked an eyebrow at the gray skinned spiny demon drawn on the page before him. "I think I prefer this." He Vamped out for a moment, then suppressed his demon. "This is just god-awful," he said, pointing to the sketch.
Giles watched as Spike's demon was so easily controlled. It was strange. Here he was, a trained Watcher, chatting about the demon world, while having tea with a demon, who five years ago had tried to kill everyone the Watcher cared about. "I think I prefer it as well."
He glanced down again at the picture. "Apparently, that is what Angel looked like in Pylea. Of course, even the pure form Vampires have a human visage, but it is what was pushed back, unlike you and he on earth now, where the demon is pushed back."
Again Spike cocked an eyebrow. "Peaches musta been a sight."
Giles took another sip. "I would think so. The dimensions affect demons differently." Giles reached over and opened another book. "You see here?" He pointed to a few passages. "It tells of the earth before humanity. Demons ruled until humanity came forth. The demons were slowly pushed from this dimension into others. They have been using portals, or doors, for eons to reemerge in this one, but they have never been able to take it back."
Spike nodded. "Not while the Slayer's 'ere."
Giles agreed with a quick nod. "In these separate dimensions, though, the rules are different. In Pylea, Angel was able to see his reflection, and he walked in daylight.
Spike looked through the book some more. He waited a beat before looking back at the watcher. "I been having these dreams."
~~`~~
"Anya, what does it matter?" Xander asked his wife. The aggravation was setting in now.
Anya crossed her arms while she stood by the bed. "It just does." She walked over to the bedroom's door. "At home our door is here, and the bed is there." She pointed to the wall opposite the wall the bed was currently against.
Xander shook his head. "I don't understand why it's so impo-"
"Because I ran into the wall when got up to use the restroom last night. That's why!"
Xander tried his very hardest not to laugh, he really did. It just didn't work. He erupted with it. One quick burst, then he saw his wife's eyes and quickly cut himself off. "Fine, An." He got on his knees and began to shift the bed's position.
Anya did what she did best. She stood far away and gave helpful suggestions. The poster bed was a bit heavier than it looked, and she suggested pushing it with his feet. He gave her a look that let her know that was not how it was done.
She moved to the side to get a better look. "Here," she finally said as the headboard moved about a foot from the wall.
She walked behind it, and tried to help push. "Hold on."
Xander stopped and watched her move behind it more, then trip and fall. He got up quickly and wedged himself between the bed and wall to get to her. She lay on the floor, holding her ankle. "Maybe you were right. We don't need to move it."
The corner of her husband's mouth turned up, and he held a hand out for her to stand up.
She took it and straightened herself up.
"What did you trip over?" he asked
Anya looked at the floor. "That." She pointed down to some wire coming from the wall and into the leg of the bed.
Xander laughed. "What is this? A very paranoid cheap hotel?" He laughed at his obscure joke as his wife stared at him, confused. "You know, they have wires hooked into the wall on the remote controls. Afraid you'll walk out with it." He looked back at the wire. "But this looks different." He squatted down as best he could in the small space and noted that the wire indeed went into the leg of the bed.
The couple looked at the bulb at the top of the post. It looked just like the other three attached to the posts. Xander walked around the bed and stepped up onto the mattress.
He carefully unscrewed the bulb. When he tried to pull it off, it moved a mere inch, enough to see the wire go up and into it. "Oh, God."
"Camera?"
"Camera."
Anya looked at the bed. "Oh, God, Xander...and you said 'take advantage.' 'Don't have to worry about any baddies' you said." She ran out and into the bathroom.
"Like I knew the Council was made up of Voyeurs..." He went after her.
~~`~~
A knocking came from behind the door just after 6:30. Buffy answered while her sister flipped through the few channels allowed in the Council walls. "I know I'm early, but if you're ready we can go get started," Randall said.
Buffy looked down the balcony towards Spike's shared room. "What about Spike?"
~~`~~
Spike looked at Giles for some kind of clue as too his dream's meaning. The man had none.
A knock came from the door. Giles walked over and opened it to reveal Buffy and the young Watcher. "Hi, Giles," she said, smiling. Then she looked past him to the Vampire. "Ready to go test your stamina?" she said with a wink.
The melancholy in Spike's mood quickly disappeared. "Always, Pet." He stood and walked to the door. As he walked out with his Slayer and the young Watcher, he turned back to Giles. "You check that out for me?"
"All of us?"
Spike nodded. He had planned on telling Buffy about the dreams, but not with Randall within earshot. The rest would find out sooner or later, might as well be sooner.
As they headed towards the lift, Buffy slid a note under Willow's door too quickly for Randall to notice, but Spike caught the motion from the corner of his eye.
The Council may have an agenda, but slowly, so did the Scoobies.
Some of the halls were recognizable from last night's excursion. Buffy and Spike both began noting familiar turns to memory. With each other's natural instincts, they hoped to have a viable map in their heads. There was no plan, but evil was afoot. Regardless what the Council claimed to stand for, somewhere along the way they had lost sight of themselves. Buffy had known this from the time she was tested at the age of 18. It was reaffirmed after Angel was shot with a poisoned arrow.
Over the years, she had lost any and all respect for the men and women who claimed to be guides in her duty. The most recent events of Willow's disks were only half of what she had seen wrong here.
The rules that everything was good or bad, black or white disturbed her. Not all humans were good, so why assume all demons are bad? More than once she had been shown that.
If only she could make these people see the truth. Very few things in this world, or any other, are purely good or purely evil.
Spike continued eyeing the portraits. All were Slayers here. In fact, they were nowhere near the area the couple overheard the discussion about cracks and encryption codes.
Randall kept talking about the training and testing that would take place while Buffy was here. How much he looked forward to seeing for himself all a Slayer can do. "And we are very lucky to have some of the most advanced equipment." He turned once more and opened a door.
Vampire and Slayer waked in and looked over the room. It led into three others with a door on each wall. Glass let one look into any room. One was filled with barbells, different weights, and several machines with wires jutting out from it. Another room had three treadmills and, again, a machine with wires coming from every direction. The third room looked to be a sparring room. Mats covered the floor and walls. Two dummies hung from posts in the center of the room.
Randall led them into the second room. "First test, stamina." He brought over a jogging suit for each of them and asked them to change while pointing out two curtains on either side.
When Spike emerged in his bright green jogging suit, Buffy couldn't help but giggle. Spike smirked at her. Then he pointed out, "Not fair. She gets black?"
~~`~~
Willow and Tara knocked on the door. Dawn opened it and smiled at the couple. "Hey, guys." She opened the door wide and allowed the girls to enter.
"Is Buffy gone already?" Willow asked, looking around the room.
"Yeah. That other Watcher came and got Spike and her earlier than they'd planned." The teen saw the redhead frown.
Tara put her arm around her lover's shoulders. "It's ok. We'll talk about all this when she gets back."
"What happened?" Dawn asked and sat back on the couch. Tara took a chair at the table in the small dining area. Willow sat by the brunette.
Just then a rapping came from the door again. Dawn sighed and walked to the door.
"Where's Buffy?!" a frazzled Xander said with Anya following closely.
Willow stood up, seeing her friend's distraught face. "What happened, Xander?"
Xander paced. "They have ca-"
The door knocked again. Dawn rolled her eyes. "Oh come on!" Once again she got up from her seat and opened the door. "Giles?"
"Good morning, Dawn." He came in and saw the already filled living area. "Oh, good. We may have some work to do." Giles set the books and notes he had on the table behind
Tara. "Spike's been having some dre-"
"Hello?" Xander waved his hands. "Hi, I have something to share." All eyes looked at Xander. He grinned and laughed nervously. "There are cameras in our apartment."
"Again with the cameras?" Dawn said as she slumped back to the couch remembering the nerds.
"They are definitely spying." Willow held up the letter. "Buffy musta slipped this under the door before she left this morning." The redhead opened and read the note:
"Wills,
Spike and I tried to go patrol but ended up patrolling the building. They have your disks.
Some guy was trying to crack a code but couldn't. Oh, he thinks you're a genius. Sounded like he only had 'til morning to do it. They seemed worried we found something out with the Diaries. We'll talk after I get back from the testing.
Buffy"
"It sounds as though the Council is looking for something, or looking for what you might know." Giles took off his spectacles in an action all in the room had come to know meant he was either embarrassed or in deep thought. Then he replaced them on his nose. "Spike said he's been having dreams about walking in sunlight. It could be relevant."
Tara looked at him. "I thought Vampires didn't dream."
Giles walked over and sat next to the blonde, but faced the table and brought out some books. "They don't, generally. When they do, it is usually prophetic." The retired Watcher knew that 'Akoshta' was not complete, but what Spike described did not fit in with the remaining scripts of the prophecy.
Anya watched the group move around the room setting up at the little table and couch.
"Excuse me. Would someone please care that there are cameras?"
"On it," Willow said as she typed into her already set up lap top. To that, Anya smiled and sat next to the hacker. Giles, Xander, Dawn and Tara began looking through the books and notes Giles had.
~~`~~
Perspiration ran down her face, back and chest. She was keeping his pace with some effort, but she was going to outlast him. This much she knew. Her body fueled itself every time she took a breath. A large advantage. Her muscles received life replenishing oxygen with every inhaled breath.
He ached all over, but there was no way he was going to give up. She had matched his speed for four hours now. They looked at each other, both willing the other to give up.
"You'll never keep up, Slayer." He watched her legs. They seemed to be heavier with every step. All he had to do was push a little longer.
His long-lost shirt was thrown over the handle in front of him. She watched the skin, unmarred by his own sweat, but his cool body attracted the moisture that clung to him from the air. "You...forget...Spikey." She took a needed breath. "I... can... always... keep... up... with... you..." She winked at him.
"Or... is... that... keep... you... up?"
With that, he lost his footing and stumbled off the back of the treadmill. He pushed himself off of the ground and sat on the white tile. "Soddin' hell." He looked up at the girl standing on the now stilled treadmill. She took a step and sat on the machine's edge looking down at him. "That was cheatin'. You do know that?"
Buffy giggled lightly. She really was about to give up. It was an attempt to throw him off, slow him down. Not throw him down. "Sorry." The giggling continued.
"Well." Randall walked in the door from behind the couple. They turned to him. "That was a record, Miss Summers." He continued with a bottle of cold water for Buffy, and a thermos for Spike, its contents obvious. "Actually, you two broke the record almost 45 minutes ago." He handed the two a towel each. "The record is now 20 kilometers per hour for four hours, twelve minutes and 3.5 seconds, Miss Summers."
"What did I have?" Spike asked between gulps of much needed blood.
"Four hours, twelve minutes and 3.4 seconds."
Spike shook his head. "Cheater," he said under his breath.
They were now two to two in the stamina tests.
The first had been simple. Each was to hold weights in both hands and hold them at arm's length until they could no longer. Buffy had given out after three hours, six minutes, Spike at three hours eighteen minutes.
The second had been leg presses, as many as you could do. Buffy had 943. Spike had 887.
The third one, after it had been explained, made both of them laugh. No one could have guessed why. They had to hold themselves up between two walls. He had outlasted her by mere seconds. All of these evaluations had resulted in new records, and Spike was the first Vampire to hold a record in the Council's history of its study of Vampires.
"That will be all for today," Randall said as he walked out, then returned with their clothes. The two changed while Randall kept talking. "Quentin wants to see the two of you, that is if he will still be patrolling with you, Miss Summers. There are some things you need to know before you can leave."
"He will, and I'd like a shower first."
"Second that," Spike said as he came from around the curtain. Buffy was out a moment later.
"Very well. I'll show you back to the living area." Randall started out. The blondes passed him in the hall.
"No need, we remember the way." They dashed down the corridor in the correct direction.
~~`~~
Quentin sat in his office doing what had quickly become his favorite hobby. Watching the Slayer's friends. They were a strange group. All but Rupert Giles and the Slayer had a reason to be here. These others just followed. They had no duty, yet they did. "Quite odd."
He shuffled the only known part of a lost prophecy and placed it in a small safe set into the wall just below the screens that had fascinated him as of late.
Apparently, they had all decided to stay in and help Giles with his revisions. Quentin supposed it made sense. The Sunnydale natives had seen more than most of the people now being trained to be Watchers would ever see. The ex-demon alone could probably tell him about demons they had never even documented.
He watched as Buffy Summers entered the apartment. That was Quentin's signal to go to the conference room. She and her Vampire would be there soon, and he needed to make preparations.
He pressed the hidden button, stood and straightened out his jacket and slacks before exiting his office.
~~`~~
"Scoobie meeting?" Buffy sang as she entered the apartment and headed into her room. Willow stood and followed.
"Yeah. Buffy we have major problems."
"Can we do major problems after I catch a shower, Wills?" Buffy went into the bathroom with a change of clothes suitable for patrol.
The hacker frowned. "You might want to know before you take any clothes off."
Buffy laughed at that. "What?" She turned the water on, and warm water began pouring out of the spigot.
"The bathroom has a camera in it."
Buffy froze. "What?"
"The Council, they have cameras in all our rooms. Bathrooms, kitchens...the bedrooms." Willow became sick with her last words.
Buffy turned back to her friend then looked around the bathroom. "Where is it?" There was only the bathtub/shower, a toilet, a sink. She scanned the room.
"It's just above the sink...behind the grate for the ventilation system."
Buffy looked up. There was a small reflection from behind the grate. She looked behind her at the clear shower curtain. It might distort things a bit from the outside, but it hid nothing. "I think I'm going to be sick."
"I know how you feel," Anya said from the hallway.
Buffy remembered what Spike had said last night on the balcony just before they went downstairs. "Oh, God! Anya, I'm sorry."
Anya shook her head. "I'll get over it."
Willow interrupted. "Anya and Xander found out when they tried to move the bed."
Buffy's brow crinkled in curiosity.
"I just wanted it on the other wall...don't ask. It has nothing to do with sex, just comfort." Anya said closing the subject for debate.
Buffy headed to the kitchen and began rifling through drawers. "First your disks, now cameras. What else?"
Giles overheard the conversation. "Spike's dreams."
She stopped. "Spike's having dreams?"
"He only told me this morning, Buffy. He wants us to find out why he's having them."
"Why didn't he tell me about them?"
Giles walked to her. "He told me this morning because of a reference I made from these books." Giles held up Pure Form." Buffy took it. "I was looking for more information on Vampires and a dimension's effect on them.”
“You recall Angel's description of his demon reaction in Pylea." She nodded. "Well in Spike's dream, he is able to be in sunlight. There are other things in his dream that may refer to the last of the Vampires in their purest form here on earth, but as of yet I can make no connection with Spike."
Buffy listened then looked back at her friend. "What about the cameras?"
"I think I have an idea on how to give us some privacy, Buff." Willow trailed behind Buffy as she went back into the bathroom, trying to explain the idea she'd been working on most of the day. "I think I can feed their system recorded images. We've been working on it all day."
She set the chair she'd brought from the kitchen in front of the sink. "What do ya have in mind, Wills?" She taped the paper over the grate carefully.
"Well, I hacked into their feed, and let me tell you, whoever they have as the local expert around here should be fired. It was nothing. We all took turns doing mundane things in each of our apartments, and I recorded the images using their own system." Willow pulled out a CD. "Then burnt them," she finished.
"You got your stuff back?" Buffy asked, surprised.
The redhead shook her head. "No. Dawn told one of her new friends about how I lost my disks, and the boy offered to give us some blank CDs. Wasn't what I was looking for, but this is better." She beamed.
Buffy wasn't a computer expert, but she was sure that one image wouldn't do it. "So how is this going to work if they are watching all of us? You only have one computer."
"Well, that's the only glitch." She shifted the CD from one hand to the other. "Only one cam feed can be replaced at a time."
A door closed from the entrance. Spike had heard a good portion of the conversation. "So we have voyeurs again eh', Red?" He walked up to the ladies. "Bathrooms, bedrooms, all the naughty places I'll be guessing."
Willow nodded as did Buffy. She pulled him into the bathroom and pointed at the now covered grate.
"Why not just rip them outta the walls then, luv?" Spike sauntered back to the living room and sat next to Dawn on the couch.
Buffy walked into the room and crossed her arms. "Because we need to be here. There is something they are afraid we know, and now, I want to know what it is." She turned and went into the shower.
"You might want to tell her about those dreams in detail really soon, Spike," the teen offered.
"Knew I was forgetting something."
Twenty minutes later Spike and Buffy were in the lift on their way down to meet Randall.
Spike was almost done describing the second dream when the doors opened.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
I'm so sorry for the lateness of this update. I've been having major technical troubles. First my Lappy went pfft (and let me tell you having the number 6 get stuck while doing rewrites is not helpful) then my hard drive said "Kaylorin #&*% YOU!" and to top is off the mouse on my desktop decided it had really put in as much time working that it could and would rather be burried next to Joyce than be forced to work. So after the traditional yelling at my computer and threatening it with a hammer (kept in my desk drawer just for this purpose) I went the the local Best Buy, showed them the waranty on the lappy and bought a new mouse. Lappy will be back home in 2-3 weeks and until then I have a nice new mouse that points and clicks.
Chapter End Notes:
Hope is was worth the wait. If not, well there's another chappy if u press the NEXt button.