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Author's Chapter Notes:
A HUGE thanks to Dorians Kitten for doing this chapter for me at the last minute, i really appreciate it hun. Also a HUGE thanks to Edgehead (Mel) for maiking the banner *hugs sweetie*.

I have used some lines from season 3 ep Helpless in this chapter but i don't own these line or claim to own them i am just loaning them for this chapter.
Chapter 9

Helpless.

Three weeks later

Spike felt dread wash through him. Something was wrong; he could feel it in every corner of his being. It was Buffy’s 18th birthday and she had gone shopping with Willow to buy a dress for their dinner date.

Their dinner reservations were in an hour and she still wasn’t home. Spike had tried calling Willow at home, but no one was answering.

Joyce watched him pace back and forth “Spike would you please stop pacing, I’m sure she’s fine, she probably lose track of the time” She offered, trying to calm him.

He sighed, desperately wanting to believe that is all it was, but his gut told him something was deeply wrong. He was still focused on all the horrid things that might have happened, when Willow burst through the front door, red faced. She had a split lip and was gasping for air.

“Where’s Buffy?” Joyce demanded

“They took her,” she replied, sounding panicked.

“Who?” Spike asked, fear gripping him.

“I don’t know, we were walking home when a white van pulled up beside us. Buffy tried to fight them but she was so weak, it was like she had no strength at all. They where human though, I scratched one, his skin was warm and his blood was red. I tried to stop them but they knocked me down and took Buffy”

“Did you see their faces?”

“No, they were wearing masks. Spike, she was so scared, she screamed.” Willow sobbed.

Spike felt his throat tighten as he tried to force himself not to panic.

“Joyce, pack a bag. I’m taking you and Willow somewhere safe while I find Buffy.”

Joyce nodded and ran up the stairs. Spike stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Willow.

She was crying softly and little shocked, but she welcomed the comfort.“I tried to stop them, Spike, but they were too strong. Oh god.” She whispered into his chest as he held her.

“It’s going to be okay, Red. I promise, I’ll find her.” He patted her red hair hoping and praying that he could keep that promise.

Spike dropped Joyce and Willow off at his mate Clem’s place. Clem was a demon Spike knew could handle himself in a fight if he had to, but could be trusted not to harm the ladies at all. He called Xander at home and arranged to meet him at the high school.

As they headed inside and moved towards to school library, Spike suddenly stopped just short of the door. He could hear talking, arguing, coming from inside.

“What’s wrong?” Xander asked, only to be shushed by Spike

“They’re fighting about Buffy.” Spike whispered, moving closer to the door and trying to listen to the argument.

“The Cruciamentumis not easy …for slayer or watcher. But it's been done this way for a dozen centuries. Whenever a slayer turns eighteen. It's a time-honored rite of passage…” Spike listened carefully, he didn’t recognize the voice, but he knew Gile’s when he heard him.

Giles cut off the other man, clearly angry and distressed. “It's an antiquated exercise in cruelty. Locking her up in a place... weakened, defenseless... unleashing a monster on her” Spike heard Giles sigh deeply before continuing “If any one on the council still had actual contact with a slayer they'd see, but I'm the one in the thick of it”

“Which is why you're not qualified to make this decision. You're too close”

“I'm not. No test is necessary of her… especially not one as... as perverse as this…. I'm appealing to you as a friend and colleague, Quentin. I know you can put a stop to it,” Giles begged. Quentin, so the little weasel has a name” Spike thought

“I'm sorry. A slayer must be more than physical prowess. She must have cunning, imagination... a confidence derived from self-reliance. Believe me, once this is all over, your Buffy will be stronger for it.”

“Or she'll be dead for it” Spike heard Giles mutter.

Spike almost busted through the doors right then and there but he needed to know for sure 100% that this was the reason Buffy was missing.

“Rupert, if this girl is everything you say, then you've nothing to worry about.”
Giles had heard enough. “You will put a stop to this or I will simply tell Buffy everything and the test will be invalid”


“The test has already begun. Your slayer entered the field of play about ten minutes ago”


“What? How?” Giles asked, stunned


“I had my men pick her up and deliver her to the house”


Giles started to say something but was stopped by Spike and Xander bursting into the library. Spike said nothing and went straight for Quentin, grabbing the elder man by the neck and lifting him into the air.


“Where is she? Where’s Buffy?” He yelled.


“I’ll tell you nothing, vampire” Quentin chocked back.


“We’ll see about that.” Spike snarled, changing into his game face and throwing Quentin into the book stacks.


“Spike wait… I’ll tell you everything” Giles said, stepping in his way.


“Make it quick, Watcher.” Spike snapped. Shifting back into human form.


Giles went over to his office, located a box with a vial and a syringe and passed it to Spike. “It's an organic compound of muscle relaxants and adrenal suppressors. The effect is temporary. She should be fine by tomorrow.”
Spike looked at the box with a frown. “That’s why she couldn’t fight them, why they were able to overpower her so easily?”“ “I didn’t know they were going to take her like that.”


“I don’t understand. How did they get close enough to give her this… drug?”


Giles pointed to a blue crystal that sat on the table next to them. “A mesmerizing crystal. Stare at it for more than a few seconds and it puts one in a deep trance. While she was under, I…” he started.


Spike looked disgusted; he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.


“Giles…” Xander whispered, shocked.


“You?” Spike asked in a stunned haze.


“It's a test, Spike, The Tento di Cruciamentum. It's given to slayers when they reach, if they reach, their eighteenth birthday” Giles paused for a reaction, but both Spike and Xander just stared at the syringe in Spike’s hand.


“The Slayer is disabled then entrapped with a vampire foe whom she's to defeat in order to pass” Giles explained pacing “The vampire she is to face, his name is Zackary Kralik. As a human, he'd murdered, tortured, more than a dozen young women before being committed to a sanitarium for the criminally insane when a vamp…” Giles ducked when the blue crystal once on the table shattered against the wall next to his head.


“You stupid git! You knew, all this time, what they were planning, what she would have to face and you didn’t say a word” Spike yelled at him. Xander stepped away from Spike seeing how close he was to snapping and not wanting to be in the line of fire.


“In matters of tradition and protocol, I have to answer to the Council”


Spike shook his head, turning away from the man he had once admired for his loyalty to Buffy.


“My role in this was specific, I was to administer the injections, then direct her to the old boarding house on Prescott Lane.”


“I can’t hear this” Spike whispered heading for the library doors


“Spike please…” Giles pleaded.


Spike turned to face him, hurt and betray written all over his face. “How could you do this to her? After everything Angelus put her through?” he hissed, sickened by everything he was hearing.


“I’m deeply sorry, to both you and Buffy, but you have to understand…”


“I can’t ever understand any of this,” Spike spat at him turning to leave again.


“Please listen to me” he begged.


Spike stopped, not turning to face him, but waiting for him to continue.


“We can still stop the test, save her… whatever I have to do, to deal with the council, Kralik… to win back yours and Buffy’s trust…”
Spike turned to face him, before cutting him off. “You stuck a needle in her. You poisoned her” he hissed.


Cordy walked in a second later and everyone stopped talking. “What's going on?” she asked, feeling the tension in the room Xander moved over to her, putting an arm around her. “Cordy, sweetie, this isn’t a good time”
“No it’s a great time, Cordy. Can you go to this address, pick up Joyce and Willow, and take them home? Tell them I found Buffy and I’ll bring her home soon.” H handed her a little note with Clem’s address on it.


“Sure”


“Xander, go with her.”


“You sure? Don’t get me wrong, I don’t really wanna be in the line of fire but things here are a bit tense and, while I’m mad too, I don’t really want Giles dead.”


Spike smiled at the boy. “It’s okay I promise not to kill anyone”



Xander nodded and lead confused Cordy out of the library.


Spike turned back to face Giles who looked so ashamed that he almost felt bad for him. “You want to make things right? Earn our trust back? You can start by gathering up all the weapons we’ll need to take on this vamp and make it quick… we have a slayer to save” he ordered watching Giles nod before moving towards his office




Spike was mad, furious actually, but at the same time he knew Giles had felt conflicted about the council’s orders and had decided to pull Buffy out of the test. He had gotten that much from hearing Giles’ conversation with Quentin. He would give him some points, not many, but some.


Looking up at the stacks, he saw that Quentin was still knocked out from his assault. Good, he thought. He deserved a hell of a lot more, back in the day, Spike knew he would have ripped his throat out, but not now. No, Spike knew his girl wouldn’t like it. Sighing, he headed to the office to help gather up weapons. He had a girl to save.


Chapter End Notes:
So?? what do you guys think?? good update?? let me know : )



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