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Author's Chapter Notes:
This is part 2 of 4th episode in Angel Season 5.I couldn't get a beta to go through this chapter so please forgive me for any grammar mistakes. REVIEWS ARE REQUESTED AND APPRECIATED.

Some of the dialogues and scenes are from the episode HellBound from Angel Season 5. Episode was written and directed by Stephen S. DeKnight. Source is Buffyworld.com (http://www.buffyworld.com/)


Wesley and Gunn are sitting at the conference table with Buffy, Fred and Angel.

"Perhaps we should reconsider this." Wesley said. Two disapproving female voices came against his suggestion.

"You think? Seen enough horror flicks to know these things always turn out ugly." Gunn said.

Just then the door opened and in came Dawn.

"Dawnie?" Buffy asked dumbfounded.

"Hey Buffy." Dawn addressed her sister while looking around.

"What are you doing here Dawn?" Angel questioned.

"I came to spend time with Spike. He told me to come today." Dawn explained distractedly. "Do you know where he is?"

Buffy couldn't tell anything to her sister. She didn't want to lie to her again. But she couldn't explain the truth either.

"We have a situation here Dawn. Maybe it's not the right time now." Angel stated.

"Don't worry. Spike and I will be somewhere private. We won't interfere."

"I'm sorry Dawn. Spike is not available right now." Wesley said.

"What is it? What's going on? Does this situation have anything to do with Spike?" Dawn started to fire her questions.

"Sorry Dawn. I can't-" Angel was interrupted by Buffy. "It's ok Angel. She has the right to know." Buffy turned towards her sister. "Spike has disappeared and he was seeing ghosts before he disappeared. Fred said Spike was slipping into hell. We are trying to save him before it happens." Buffy explained. Dawn was wide-eyed and didn't say anything for a moment.

"Wh- What? Hell? No. It can't be. I mean how could it be? He saved the world. He was a hero. He cannot go to hell. I won't believe it." Dawn was becoming fanatic.

"It's true Dawn. Spike said it himself." Fred acknowledged.

"What are you going to do to save him?" Dawn asked Buffy.

"We're trying to find him first." Buffy said.

"Can't we call in Willow? She's good with Magical stuff. She might be able to do something." Dawn suggested.

"Already tried. I couldn't reach her. She was in a mission or something like that." Buffy said weakly.

Eve escorted a pretty blonde woman in a red dress into the room.

"All right. Let's get to it. Eve tells me that you've lost a ghostie." Psychic said.

"You better go Dawn. We'll tell you after this is over." Angel told Dawn.

"No." Dawn said simply. She took a seat next to Buffy. "I'm staying." Angel looked at Buffy who nodded to go ahead. Angel turned towards the Psychic. "We're ready."

Psychic took a seat at the head of the table. "Now, I have pilates at the crack of why-am-I-awake? So we're gonna move this right along. I will mutter a few calming words to get us into the zone, and then we'll see if we can scare up your missing spook. OK. Clear your minds- which, judging by the looks of you, won't be that hard."

"Should we hold hands?" Fred asked.

"Only if you're lonely. Now, zip it and let me do my sweet funky." she took a deep breath and exhaled.

"I call upon the guardian of souls, the keeper of the passage. Let our breath flow from what is to what has passed. Bless us with the presence of the lost. Grant us communion with the world beyond our reach. Give voice to those who can no longer be heard. I beseech you, open your gates- reveal your secrets." her eyes open with a start "I sense a presence."

"Damn right you do." Spike said standing next to her.

"Very close" Psychic stated.

"Skip the claptrap and tell them to get me out of here." Spike said.

"So much pain-" Psychic paused.

"He's in pain?" Dawn asked holding Buffy's hand tightly. Buffy squeezed Dawn's hand back in assurance.

"The dark soul- so much suffering." Psychic continued.

"Dark. Pain. Suffering. They've got it. Now tell them to help me!" Spike tried to tell.

"It's coming-it's coming-" Psychic was shaking.

"I'm already here. What are you going on about?" Spike was confused.

Psychic was frightened by what she saw. "Oh, God. I can feel it. The dark soul-it's here. It's- it's the R-" she couldn't finish the sentence.

"The Reaper! The bloody freakin' Reaper! Go on, tell 'em!" Spike was shouting now.

"It's the-" the woman grabbed her own throat, trying to pull at her necklace. "Aah!"

"Whoa!" Gunn exclaimed.

"What's happening?" Fred dreaded.

The psychic woman is choking.

"Spike, stop it." Angel ordered.

"It's not me, you git." Spike bit back at Angel.

"Let her go." Angel stood and went to the woman.

The woman sat up, gasped as if she's regaining her composure. She has a slight nosebleed. She exhaled.

"Are you all right?" Fred asked.

The psychic woman's head exploded with blood spilled all over Fred, and then collapsed.

Dawn closed her eyes and held onto Buffy tightly.



Gunn and Wesley along with Buffy and Dawn walked out of the conference room into Angel's office to talk alone.

"OK, what the hell was that? I know they used to call Spike "William the Bloody," but why would he go all Scanners on her?" Gunn questioned.

"It wasn't Spike." Buffy stated. Dawn nodded in agreement still shaking from the event.

"Buffy is right. He wouldn't. No advantage in it to kill someone trying to help him." Wesley agreed.

"You saying it was an accident?" Gunn raised a question.

"Or whatever she contacted wasn't the "dark soul" we were expecting."

"So if she wasn't talking about Spike-" Gunn dragged on the sentence.

"Then there's something else here at Wolfram & Hart. Something else a hell of a lot worse." Wesley finished it.

"We must help him Buffy." Dawn spoke softly.

"We will Dawnie. We will." Buffy comforted Dawn. But she had no idea how or what to do.



The sound of running water can be heard as the camera goes through the lab toward a shower. Fred is in a steamy shower. Spike stood there, outside the shower stall, talking to himself.

"Why did it kill her? Reaper's supposed to take souls, not make 'em. If it's come for me-couldn't have been worried she was gonna help. She didn't even know I was there. Unless it wasn't about me."

Spike looked at Fred in the shower.

"Fred, I think I know why it killed her. It was trying to hide something, something it didn't want you to know because-"

Spike reached out and touched his hand to the glass. He's surprised that he can do this, and he tried again, this time his hand goes through the glass.

"Come on. Just-reach out."

Spike tried again, concentrating, and managed to write in the condensation on the shower stall glass. When Fred finished her shower, she started to walk out and noticed the word "REAPER" in the mist on the glass. As she notices it, the glass shatters and Spike is pulled through the wall out of the lab and into the lobby.



Spike is lying on the floor as a man in a business suit walked up the stairs. Spike stood up to face him.

"Come on, then. No more games. No more hiding in the shadows. Let's do this- right and proper." Spike got ready for a battle. He was shocked to see the person who came through. "A lawyer?"

The lawyer looks fairly normal until he turned to walk toward Spike, revealing that one side of his face is bashed in and bloody.

The bloody ghost lawyer whispered "William-" and walked past Spike.

The armless ghost woman reached out for Spike with her stubs. "Please-"

Spike turned, walking away down the stairs. "No!"

The Glass ghost woman moaned as he walked past her on the stairs. "It hurts-"

Spike standing in the main lobby floor now, said "No! I'm not talking to flunkies anymore! You hear that?! Got your number, don't I? You're sending in third-rates to rattle my chains. You're just some little twit of a spirit trying to have a go at me, aren't you? Big bad reaper, come to take me to hell. Not bloody likely." He fell to the ground suddenly as he has painful visions of torture. "Aah! Aah!"

Reaper said chuckling "Oh, yes. Take you screaming. An eternity of suffering for your sins."

The Reaper appeared to Spike for the first time, standing over him, dressed in a cloak reminiscent of Jack-the-Ripper, speaking in an English accent.

"But first… I get to play." he fondled his torture instruments. "Let's get started, then- shall we?"



Everyone including Dawn gathered in Wesley's office going through the books.

Gunn going through a book called out "Got it. The dark soul." Everyone turned around to look at him.

"What's it say?" Angel asked.

"A lot. There are over 3,200 different references. 4 of them are about you." The others looked at Angel.

"What? Give me that." Angel took the book from Gunn.

"This is getting us nowhere." Buffy said frustrated.

"Let me see this. Well, that's not fair. I didn't even have a soul when I did that." Angel was talking to himself and the others ignored him.

"There has to be a way to narrow down the search." Wesley said.

Fred ran into the room, her hair is still wet. "Reaper. Cross reference with the word ‘Reaper.'"

"Where'd you pull that?" Gunn questioned.

"It came to me in the shower." Buffy looked questioningly at the sudden wisdom but didn't say anything.

"Here it is. Matthias Pavayne, dark soul number 182." Angel announced.

"Pavayne-" Wesley got up and walked towards his computer.

"Well, there's not much here. European aristocrat, 18th century. He was a doctor, nicknamed ‘The Reaper' for performing unnecessary surgery on his patients." Angel read from the book.

"Well, what kind of surgery?" Fred asked.

"The kind you don't recover from. There's a file on him in internal archives, classified histories." Wesley told.

"He worked for Wolfram & Hart?" Gunn was surprised.

"Not exactly. Word spread of his unorthodox practices- fled to California, still under Spanish rule at the time. His arrival coincided with a rash of brutal, ritualistic murders. Pieces of the victims placed in a manner suggesting an intimate knowledge of the dark arts." Wesley read from the computer.

"Pieces?" Dawn asked.

"The slaughter continued for the better part of 20 years. The perpetrator was never caught. At least- not by the authorities" Wesley finished.

"What, you're saying Wolfram & Hart took this guy out?" Angel questioned.

"Why would they do that?" Buffy asked.

"Sounds like their idea of employee of the month." Gunn stated.

"Because they needed his blood. Representatives from Wolfram & Hart were looking to build a new branch in what would eventually become Los Angeles. Unfortunately a Spanish mission was already resting on the site their seers recommended. They needed an appropriate sacrifice to deconsecrate the grounds." Wesley continued to read from the computer.

"So this place is built on the blood of a mass-murdering psychopath?" Fred sounding scared.

"It would appear so." Wesley confirmed.

"But if Pavayne's half as bad as he sounds, he should've been roasting his chestnuts in hell centuries ago." Gunn noted.

"You said something about the dark arts, right? Maybe he knew enough to figure out a way to stick around." Angel suggested.

"That might explain why the mystics can't get a bead on him, too." Buffy agreed.

"What I still don't get are all the ghosts at Wolfram & Hart."

"But there aren't any." Wesley said.

"That's what I mean. High-risk employment. People die here all the time. This place should be full of spooks. So what happened to them?"

"Maybe this Pavayne character's munching on them."

"Oh no." Dawn sounded terrified at that thought.

"Whatever he's doing to them, we need to get Spike back- before he's next." Buffy said to the gang.



Spike is face-down on the lab floor, clawing his way across the room, trying to get away from Pavayne. There are cuts all over his hands and face.

"Vampire soul- watch it struggle. More fun than the others." Pavayne was enjoying it.

"Go to hell." Spike looked up to see Pavayne in front of him.

"Your journey, not mine." Pavayne noticed Fred walk back into her office. "Oh, the pretty. Still trying to save you. Such passion, so-wet and sweet. Perhaps I'll have a taste one day."

Spike got up off the ground and threw a punch at Pavayne's head, but his fist goes right through it.

Pavayne laughed at Spike's attempt. "Still thinking like meat and bone. None here, boy. In this place-" and suddenly Spike and Pavayne are no longer in the lab and appear in the basement. "-all rules are mine. Reality bends. My desire. The way it was meant to-"

"Bending reality? I didn't just fade away. It was you. That's why they can't see me anymore." Spike finally understood it.

Pavayne's voice spoke out. "Parlor tricks. To amuse- like your blood." Spike's wounds disappeared, Pavayne chuckled. "Oh, yes. Nothing here without the will. Your voice- your body-"

The glass ghost woman appeared and said "Clothes you think you wear-" Spike's clothes disappear, and he stood there naked, being circled by the ghosts.

Pavayne's voice still echoed. "William the Bloody. Scourge and destroyer. But scratch the surface-"

The armless ghost woman appeared. "Little nancy, still crying for his mother."

"Know all your hiddens, dirty red things you've done. Then fell in love. Won himself a soul. No more dirty things. Thinks himself special." Pavayne said.

"Thinks it matters." Glass ghost woman said.

"Hell still waits." Hanging ghost man said.

"Knows he deserves it, like all the others." Pavayne's voice was heard.

"You killed them." Spike stated.

"No. Died themselves. Here, in the service of Wolfram & Hart. Little ants, scurrying from the flames."

"Their spirits hung on. Tried to keep from tumbling into hell. Till you gave 'em a shove." Spike was understanding what has been happening all along.

"Burning now. Screaming forever. Like you'll scream."

"If they're in hell, they can't be here then, can they? Just more of your tricks. They aren't real."

"Real enough."

The hanging man attacked Spike, driving a knife into his back. "Hunh!" Spike cried out.

"Hell always hungers for the wicked, boy, and its feeding time."



Wesley, Gunn, and Angel walk into Fred's office, and saw her writing formulas on the windows.

"That's never good." Wesley said.

"What's never good?" Buffy asked Wesley catching up to them where they stood staring. Then she saw Fred. "Oh." was all Buffy said.

"What? Oh, no, I- I just ran out of white board. I'm not crazy. Again." Fred explained.

"Just scary smart." Gunn stated.

"You really think this will bring Spike back?" Angel asked.

"Well, I had to extrapolate a new variation on interdimensional plasma dynamics on the fly, but- if the math holds-" Fred was mumbling.

"She reminds me of Willow." Dawn said to Buffy who nodded her head.

"All right. First we'll try to get Spike back, and then we'll deal with Pavayne." Angel said.

"Wait. For this to work, it's going to require a massive surge of dark energy to catalyze the process." Fred looked worried.

"How massive?" Angel asked.

"The equivalent of nuclear evil."

"Well, where the hell are we supposed to find that?" Buffy questioned.

"Well-there is a legend that tells of a volcano deep in the forbidden jungles of South Africa-" Wesley started with the history.

Gunn cuts Wesley off. "Or- I might know a place a little closer to home." Everyone looked at Gunn.



A completely naked Spike is lying on the floor of the basement, cringing in the fetal position, as Pavayne leaned over him taking mad joy in torturing him.

"Disappointing." Spike shuddered in pain. "I expected more from soul of vampire. Too much conscience, perhaps, weighing it down."

A portal opened up in the basement right in front of Spike. It's black and slick like oil. The portal has a deep hole in the center, and long black tentacle-like arms reach out toward Spike threatening to pull him in.

"Look- hell knows you're ready, plump and ripe. Beginning to understand, aren't you? The soul that blesses you-" Spike has flashes of a vision of someone being tortured. "-damns you to suffer forever."

Pavayne held Spike's head up toward the portal.

"You go now, William, so I can stay."

Spike struggled to get out of Pavayne's grip.

"Yes, squirm, boy. It won't make a difference. Getting what you deserve."

"You're right. I do deserve to go to hell. But not today."

Spike squirmed free from Pavayne's grip and knocked him off of him. Spike stood up, and looked at Pavayne who was on the floor on his back staring in surprise.

"You dare!" Pavayne challenged. As Spike stood, the portal behind him closed.

"Quite a bit, mate. Reality bends to desire. That was it, right? That's why I could touch Fred, write your name in the glass. All I had to do was want it bad enough." Spike looked down at his naked body and clothing appeared on him again. An angry Spike glared at Pavayne. "And guess what I want to do now, you prissy son of a bitch!"

Spike punched Pavayne through a wall, and they are now standing in an office instead of the basement.

"Keen little racket you've got carved out for yourself, prying off spirits and sucking them down the chute. Kept your own toasties out of the fire, didn't it? 'Til now."

Spike punched Pavayne, who fights back, but not too well. Spike beat him up over and over again.

"Not so much fun when we hit back, is it?"

Pavayne punched back, stronger now. "Starting to be."



Fred, Wesley, Buffy and Dawn are working in the lab on an elaborate machine when Gunn and Angel walk in.

"Make sure it's calibrated to minus .058." Fred said to Wesley. Turning towards Gunn, she asked "Did you get it?"

Gunn handed Fred the flask containing about a liter of a dark liquid. "Make it count. Told me we ain't getting anymore."

"It talks? I didn't hear it talk." Angel said.

"Maybe you weren't listening right."

Fred puts the flask in the machine. "All right, I think we're almost ready."

"How do we let Spike know?" Buffy asked.

Wesley standing at the controls of the machine told "Won't have to."

Fred starting the machine explained. "This baby puts out enough juice to light up ghost city. Anything remotely spectral around here is about to get the tinglies."

A ring on the floor, painted with symbols around the edge was visible. The machine controls are hooked up to the ring.



Spike and Pavayne continued fighting, and Pavayne seems to have control now. Spike just landed on the floor and Pavayne is standing over him, panting.

"Learned a few of my tricks. Means nothing, does it?" Pavayne said and kicked Spike across the room. "I've cheated hell for hundreds of years. Fed it other dirty little souls. Left me alone, let me get stronger. Now, this realm- I am God. And you-" picked Spike up by the collar. "-wood for the fire."

An energy burst goes through the lobby, and both Spike and Pavayne notice it. Spike took this opportunity while Pavayne is distracted, punched Pavayne, and ran away towards the lab.

"This won't do. This won't do at all." Pavayne followed Spike.

Everyone was in the lab waiting for the machine to do its magic.

Fred read her scanner, which beeped. "He's here." she said. Still unable to see Spike, she yelled out to the room. "Spike, step into the circle! Hurry! We've only got one chance at making you corporeal again."

Dawn started to choke at that time. She put her hands to her throat. Pavayne was grasping her throat with his hand.

"Why ever would I want to do that?" Pavayne asked.

"Dawn" Buffy yelled.

"It's Pavayne!" Wesley said.

"He's killing her." Angel concluded.

Everyone charged towards Dawn to try and help her, but Pavayne knocks them all across the room.

Pavayne saw Spike in the room. "Decisions. The girl- heh- or the flesh. There's no time for both."

Spike stared at the machine's ring which is ramping up, clearly almost ready to do it's magic, and then he looked at Dawn across the room.

Pavayne grinning said "There's hope for you yet, boy."

Spike disappeared, and reappeared beside Dawn. "Not really."

Spike knocked Pavayne into the machine's ring just as it activated. The ring glow for a moment and the figure inside became visible. Pavayne is now corporeal. Angel and Buffy got to their feet and walk up to the machine's ring, while the others go to Dawn's side.

Pavayne stood, looking at his body, growled. "No. No! Defilers! I'll-cut you into nothing! I'll feast on your brains. I'll swim in lakes of your own blood."

Buffy punched Pavayne as hard as she could knocking him down. "You'll shut the hell up"

Spike reappeared in the room. "Don't kill him. If he becomes a spirit again, we'll never stop him."

"Fine. No killing. Just a whole lot of bruisin'." Angel tried to punch Pavayne but Buffy beat him to the punch. "Get in line." Buffy punched Pavayne's face into a pulp. Pavayne tried to defend himself but he got his wrist broken as a result. Buffy took out all her anger and frustration on Pavayne. Everyone took a step back from the angry Slayer.

"Remind me never to get into the bad side of Buffy ever." Gunn whispered to Wesley.

"That's enough luv. He might die if you continue." Spike told Buffy who calmed after hearing Spike's voice.

"Are you alright?" She asked.

"I'll be alright luv. You better go have a look at Nibblet. Pavayne is pretty strong." Buffy turned her focus to her little sister who was coming out to conscience.

"Are you alright Dawnie?" Buffy asked kneeling next to her sister.

"I'm ok. Spike?" Dawn asked looking around.

"I'm right here Bit." Spike said from behind. Dawn turned around and tried to touch Spike but her fingers went through him. She dismayed at that.

"I'm sorry." Dawn apologized.

"Don't be. Not your fault." Spike turned towards Fred who was next to Dawn. "Don't suppose you built a spare?" he inquired.

"Most of the pieces I used on this one were practically nonexistent to start with. Even if I could replace them, the chances of finding another power source are- I'm sorry." Fred answered apologetically.

"Don't be, love. Being corporeal or Dawn's life. Not a choice if you ask me. Wouldn't change it for the world."

Fred and Buffy gave him a small smile. Dawn still looked upset.

"There are other things we could try. They're a little riskier, but -" Fred was suggesting when Spike interrupted.

"No. I'm not gonna end up like Pavayne. Cheating hell any way he could, no matter who it hurt."

Fred smiled at his response. "Just proves what I've been telling everybody."

"That I'm a handsome devil who brightens the place up?" Spike smirked.

Fred smiling told him. "That you're worth saving."

Buffy nodded and smiled in agreement. "Definitely worth it."

Spike's face brightened at Buffy's response. "Don't have it so bad, really. Plenty of room. Good company. Even picked up a few new tricks."

Spike reached out and touched Buffy's cheek with his hand. This time he managed to touch it and Buffy felt his hand and melted in it. Her eyes glistened with tears. She gave a laugh filled with happiness and Spike smiled at her. Dawn looked better seeing Spike and Buffy. Spike reached out with his other hand to touch Dawn. Dawn felt his fingers and she gripped it tight with hers.

"I've got my girls with me here. That's good enough for me. I guess there are worse things-than being a ghost."

Fred gave a smile to the happy threesome. She walked back to her friends to help out in the cleaning.



Pavayne is in a restraining cell only a few feet wide. He's standing in it, strapped in by metal bars, with electrodes attached to his head. Angel and Eve are standing in front of him, looking at him.

"Sure it'll hold him?" Angel asked Eve.

"Permanent storage. If there's anything Wolfram & Hart excels at, it's keeping their unmentionables unmentioned." Eve explained.

Angel turned towards Pavayne. "Congratulations. You get to live forever, unable to move, to touch, or to feel- or to affect anything in the world around you. But don't worry? I had 'em give you a window." He shut the door, revealing a brick-sized window cut out of the cell door right at eye-level.

"Welcome to hell." Angel walked away with Eve.


Chapter End Notes:
A touch of Spuffy in this episode chapters. Next chapter will have more Spuffy interaction. As you would remember, it is the PARTY episode. What can happen for Buffy and Spike in that episode?? REVIEW PLEASE.



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