She had barely got any sleep last night because the image of Spike lying in that pool of blood haunted her sleep. Spike was the only one who truly understood her. He treated her like an adult.
Dawn sat at the island, sipping on a glass of orange juice, still in her pyjamas. What would she do without her best friend?
Buffy entered the kitchen from the backyard, closing the door quietly.
‘Hey, shouldn’t you be getting dressed for school?’
‘I’m not going,’ Dawn said.
She looked at Dawn sternly.
‘You can’t stay off Dawnie. You’ll miss really important lessons.’
‘I don’t care about stupid lessons! I want to be here for him!’
‘You can’t make me go,’ Dawn continued angrily.
Buffy sighed. She didn’t want her sister missing more of her education. Plus, after realising how she felt, she wanted to be alone with him. Seeing her sister in so much distress, Buffy decided that it would be best if Dawn stayed at home, just for the day.
‘Ok, you can stay off. But just for today, agreed?’
Dawn crossed her arms and looked to the floor.
‘Dawn!’
‘Agreed.’
With that, the teen sulked off up the stairs. Buffy rubbed the back of her neck.
She took a stroll into the living room to check on Spike. He was still unconscious and Buffy hadn’t caught any movement. She had to inform the others. Get some sort of investigation going. It was the only way they would find the cause of this.
Phone in hand, Buffy dial for Willow.
‘Come on, pick up Will,’ she muttered, waiting for her friend to answer.
‘Hello.’
‘Will, it’s me. I need you to send Tara over here and get everyone to the magic box.’
‘Sure, I can do that. Is everything ok?’ Willow asked, concerned
Buffy paused before answering.
‘Things are a lot worse than they seem.’
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Everyone was sat around the table, except for Buffy. She felt more comfortable standing up. It helped her address her friends.
‘Are we going to start this meeting already? We are missing out on valuable opening hours here,’ Anya commented.
Everyone glared at her.
‘Anh!’
Willow turned her attention to Buffy.
‘You said on the phone that it was a lot worse that it seemed?’
‘When we found him, we thought that someone had just decided to chain him up and torture him for whatever reason. Now, whoever did this didn’t have the intention of torturing him because…’
‘They had removed him from the chains. I do admit it would be strange behaviour for the torturer to just unchain him like that but maybe they did not want him dead,’ Giles continued.
Everyone felt Giles had a feeling he knew who the culprit was.
‘Giles, what are you thinking?’ Willow asked.
‘Maybe it was someone who cared for Spike at one time or another, Am I right?’ Anya suggested.
‘Anya is right. After all, this does mark similar bearing to Drusilla.’
Buffy shook her head in disagreement.
‘No, this wasn’t Dru’s handy work. He wasn’t that beaten up and she would’ve left him in the chains.’
‘Then who? There is no one else who fits the bill, Buff,’ Xander said.
‘I don’t know…all I do know is he was knocked out cold and injected with something.’
Injected? None of them saw any marks on him when they found his body.
‘I think he was poisoned.’
Silence swept over the room until Willow stood up.
‘I can do a trace analysis to see if he has any poison in his blood. But Buffy, what if it’s the same as Angel?’
Good question. Buffy already knew the answer to that.
Then I let him drink my blood she thought.
‘We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.’
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Buffy, Willow and Giles went to the house, while Anya opened up shop and Xander went to work. He asked to be kept in the loop about his condition.
As they approached the house, Dawn came running out the house.
‘OH GOD! He shaking!’
They all ran towards her.
‘Dawn!’
‘Buffy! You have to stop him before he hurts himself!’ she screamed.
They ran inside to see Spike thrashing about on the sofa like a wild animal in a cage. Tara stood in shock. Buffy went straight towards him and pinned him down in an effort to stop him hurting himself. She was terrified. What if she was losing him and there was nothing she could do? Dawn was in Giles’ arms, shielding herself from it. And Willow went over to her girlfriend.
‘I can’t hold him down for much longer, he’s going to break free!’
Buffy struggled to keep him under control.
Eventually the thrashing stopped and Spike had settled down.
‘Thank the lord he has settled…Buffy?’
He noticed how she was looking at him as did Tara and Dawn. They both looked at each other. It wasn’t just about keeping him safe from himself. Something deeper was going on.
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The beautiful weather offered no cheerfulness to Dawn. Something was happening out of everyone’s control and none of them knew who was responsible.
The door opened and shut and she heard footsteps coming towards her. Dawn looked up and saw Tara.
‘Can I join you?’
Dawn nodded and Tara took a seat.
‘B-Buffy thinks someone poisoned him,’ Tara informed.
‘What? Why would someone do that? He hasn’t done anything bad to anyone!’
Tara bowed her head down. When she looked up, Dawn was holding up a necklace. It looked ancient and the green stone shone brightly.
The teen looked sheepishly.
Back inside, Dawn and Tara stood in front of the others.
‘I found it in his hand when I-I found him,’ Dawn explained.
Giles was now in possession of the necklace and was inspecting it thoroughly.
‘It seems to be some sort of amulet. Not sure what it does. I shall consult the books.’
‘But it could lead to whoever did this?’ Buffy asked.
‘Possibly yes.’
‘Good, then the sooner you get started the better.’
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Tara stood looking down and the vampire who had saved her life on more than one occasion. Something was happening to his aura. Normally it was black with flecks of gold. But now the black was disappearing and being replaced with white, the purest of whites. Tara was baffled.
I have never seen anything like this she thought.
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Willow was a bit apprehensive to say the least. Mainly in case he started thrashing around again. There was no other way of finding out for sure. She inserted the needle and drew as much blood as she needed.
Next, the witch sat in the kitchen with a row of eight test tubes each with a different coloured liquid in each.
‘Here goes nothing.’
Willow proceeded to pour a little blood in each. Eyes grew wide as she saw the result.
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She had to get rid of the anger that was bursting inside of her. True, she didn’t know who did this but someone had to feel her wrath.
First off she stalked the graveyards, killing anything that dared cross her path. Then she took out a nest of vampires.
The door banged shut and they looked up to see Buffy holding a bottle of alcohol and a lighter.
‘Slayer!’ one of them hissed.
‘Sorry boys, gotta skip the flames,’ she said before throwing the objects at them.
Fleeing the scene, flames burning behind her. They felt her wrath big time.
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Willow, Giles, Buffy and Tara sat at the dining room table.
‘The amulet isn’t in any of the books,’ Giles stated.
That was strange.
‘W-What does that mean?’ Tara asked.
‘It means it pre dates written history. We certainly won’t be finding anything out from it.’
A sigh escaped Buffy’s lips. Turning to Willow, she gave her a hopeful look.
‘Please tell me you were more successful.’
‘Want the good news or bad?’
Frown.
‘Good.’
‘There isn’t any poison in his system…however there is something inside him. I’ve never seen anything like it,’ Willow explained.
She had got everyone’s attention.
‘Go on,’ Buffy pushed.
‘You see I tested his blood in several different ways to detect what was inside him. The last one, which was green turned orange and soon as the blood hit it. And I’m not sure it’s meant to do that.’
‘So, in other words you have no idea what is in his system?’ Giles added.
‘I’m afraid not.’
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A girl in a white dress stood looking out of the window, up at the stars. Ever since visiting the hell mouth she had been racked with guilt. She didn’t want to do it and she certainly didn’t understand why he had her, of all people to alienate him like that. And every time she looked into The Fountain, she could see the effect of her actions on the people around him.
She was surrounded by people who she knew all her life yet none of them knew who she was, except Raven.
Raven was one of the oldest people, even for The Powers That Be. Long, white hair and a black beard. Everyone thought he was her father and in a way he was but the man could never replace her father.
A tear fell from her cerulean blue eyes. Ears pricked up as she could hear footsteps approaching her.
‘Why?’
‘You know why, Grace,’ Raven answered.
Grace turned to face him.
‘No, no I don’t know why. All you said was I had to go and inject him…you never told me it would kill him!’ she spat.
Raven rolled his eyes. People were starting to get curious.
Young ones are always so naïve he thought.
‘It didn’t kill him. Why are you so bothered anyway? He is just a vampire.’
‘Because he’s…’
At that moment, a woman dressed in purple walked by.
‘Good day Grace and Raven.’
‘He’s good and doesn’t deserve it,’ she said, knowing that wasn’t what she was about to say.
The woman chuckled.
‘Vampires aren’t good, sweetie. Unless you count Angel.’
Grace scoffed.
‘He is only good because he was cursed.’ she reminded her.
Raven shrugged.
‘The girl is right, Freya. Angel was cursed.’
‘Yes, but Spike was chipped. Not our doing but still.’
‘Why are discussing this creature of the night anyway?’ Freya continued.
Now they were stuck. Grace had the perfect solution.
‘We were discussing which slayer he killed was the most violent.’
Raven raised a brow in his daughter’s direction.
A chuckle escaped Freya’s lips. Someone was waving for her to go over.
‘Well, this was nice. Don’t go messing with that magic too much now, Grace.’
‘I won’t.’
Grace waited until Freya had gone a safe distance away. She turned around to face him, golden blond hair swaying as she did.
‘Tell me again,’ Grace ordered.
‘You are fifteen years old…’ he said, not wanting to repeat himself.
All it took was one look and he sank.
‘Without doing this, without injecting him with the serum…the world would become nothing. Everything living or not would be destroyed. He is useless to us as a vampire,’ Raven said seriously.
‘Also, you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t inject him. You wouldn’t even exist. Not an atom of you,’ he finished.
Grace frowned. Curiosity took over.
‘What does it do?’
‘I can’t tell you, Grace.’
She looked at him incredulously.
‘I already know everything else! I don’t see why you can’t tell me what the serum does!’
He didn’t answer her. That was it. She needed answers and fast.
‘Fine. If you won’t tell me, then I’ll just go to someone who can.’ Grace spat, walking away.
‘GRACE!’ he shouted.
As he got to the door, she raised her hand and swung the door shut.
‘She is too much like her mother.’
TBC…
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Disclaimers: All of the characters in this story belong to Joss Whedon.
A:N- Thanks once again to GuitarBabe2005 for all your help.
A:N- Thanks once again to GuitarBabe2005 for all your help.
Chapter End Notes:
What do you think guys? I hope you enjoyed this. Please read and review! Chapter three is on its way.