RAVEN’S OFFICE
Opening the simply carved box, he pulled out the faded crumbling piece of parchment, his ageless fingers cresting the soft edges and his bass voice echoed against the office walls
By the hand of grace,
The champion returns,
With light in his heart once more
And sunshine by his side
The world once more will be saved
Should Will see fit.
The choice is his,
Fate rests in his hands
His sacrifice alone will cause his enemies to fall.
Let the angels cry,
And their tears cleanse the world of sins
For he faced judgement day and proved his worth
But all is not lost,
The spark returned,
And love made whole
They alone receive the greatest gift of all.
Letting the paper fall out of his hands, he closed his eyes. The prophecy was in motion, it was out of his hand now. Now he had fulfilled his purpose, maybe soon he could rest; it had been so long since he had truly rest...
BACK TO CHUCK AND GRACE!
He was just standing there, pure fear on his face and she was being to get impatient.
‘Are you gonna let me in or shall I just shoot you on the doorstep?’
‘Come right in!’ Dr Quinn answered, nervously.
Grace smiled and entered the office, taking the chance to look around. There were test tubes dotted around. As she walked in, Dr Quinn noticed the bullets in her belt. They had see-through shells, which allowed him to see what was inside; bright blue liquid. He gulped yet again.
‘Neutron paralyser? You made a deadly weapon even deadlier?’
‘How?’ he continued.
‘Just a few minor adjustments but let’s skip the boring details. Tell me what the serum does.’
She sat down, putting her feet up on the table, waiting for a response. Dr Quinn hesitated. This girl didn’t look older than sixteen but she sounded determined to get the information she wanted whether he co-operated or not.
‘Before I tell you anything, shouldn’t you at least tell me who you are?’ he suggested.
‘My name is Grace.’
He nodded, realising who she was.
‘Oh! So you’re not only the person who carried out the mission but Raven’s daughter?’
‘I guess,’ she said, coldly.
He looked at Grace and sighed. She deserves to know what it does.
‘When injected it reconstructs the DNA of the recipient…it has a different effect on different species. For example, if I were to say, inject a monkey, the monkey would turn into a human, etc,’ he explained.
Grace frowned.
‘Can it turn you into anything?’
‘Not exactly.’
‘What does that mean?’ she asked.
Does she have to be this inquisitive? He thought.
‘It picks out a certain trait or quality in your DNA and turns you into that thing.’
He saw the cogs going round in her head trying to figure things out. Grace lifted her head up.
‘Did Raven tell you what it was for? Who it was for?’
‘He didn’t say anything about The subject, just if it works that the world could be saved. Said "They" were special. Whoever they are.’
‘They are,’ she whispered.
His face softened when he saw the hurt in Grace’s eyes.
‘Why are you so interested about what the serum does? All you had to do is go find them and inject it. It’s not like you have a personal relationship with them.’
Her eyes darkened.
It would be good to get this secret off my chest she thought.
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Since they knew whatever was in his system wasn’t poison, Willow could rule that out. The cloudy liquid sat in the syringe as if it were staring at her almost as if it was taunting her. Letting out a sigh, Willow dug around in the back of her closet looking for her 16th birthday present from her parents. Moving around the slightly dusty boxes, her green eyes swept over the neat carefully written letters written in thick black marker finally something caught her eye.
SCIENCE FAIR 1997
A grin crossed her face as memories washed over her. Pulling the box towards her, she carefully slid her fingers under the yellowing masking tape. A loud ripppppppppppppp sound filled her tiny closet scooting out the open doors. Willow stood and carried the box over to her bed, opening the flaps there stood the deluxe chemistry set she got via courier the day of her 16th birthday.
As always, her parents spared no expense in her lavish gift along with a generic ‘happy birthday love mum and dad’ care and yet, all she remembered from that day was Xander and Buffy showing up 15 minutes after the courier. Both wearing sparkling party hats. Xander, with two gift bags in his hands and Buffy holding a chocolate birthday cake the 16 candles glowing.
Shaking her head Willow focused on her task, carefully setting out the beakers, test-tubes, Bunsen burner tongs, microscope, clean slides and a verity of vials and bottles all containing various different element the rest she left in the box close at hand, should she need them.
Pulling on a pair of rubber gloves, she used a tiny pipette to suck up a tiny amount of solution, placing one drop onto the slide she carefully prepared. With a shaking hand, she sucked up the last of the mixture. If she wasn’t careful then any chance of finding out what the solution was would go out the window.
Resting the pipette, Willow poured different amounts of solutions into the test-tubes. Filling all bases until they were covered, Willow placed a single drop of the solution into each test tube, placing the slide under the microscope. All there was left to do now was wait.
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Dawn placed her bag down on the floor, hung her coat up and headed to the kitchen. She had to make sure no one was around. If Buffy knew she had skipped school she would be angry. But she had to talk to him, even if he couldn’t hear her.
He was still in the same position as this morning. It was strange how he looked seemingly peaceful. Taking a much needed breath, Dawn sat cross-legged on the floor next to the sofa. Grasping his limp hand in her own tiny one, glancing at the clock, she saw school was in for another 3 minutes and she could hear Buffy moving upstairs.
Sucking up a deep breath, her blue eyes ran over Spike’s face.
‘Hey Spike, I-It’s me. Dawnie... I-I bet you’re annoyed at how many passion episodes you are missing...’ she trailed off letting her mind wander.
Dawn couldn’t help but let the smirk work its way onto her face as she reached into her back pack and pulled out the bottle of black nail polish. Turning her attention to the hand she held in hers, she twisted the cap and proceeded to tell him the latest gossip and happenings in her teenage world. It didn't matter that he wasn’t talking back or making snide comments about the latest ‘wanker or tosser’ she liked, all that mattered that right here right now. It was almost normal. Though sadness tinted that his mind was trapped within its self.
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‘Why…how could he do this to you? Lie to you all this time…’ Dr Quinn said, his voice wavering.
‘He is good at that my "father" deceiving people and crushing their memories,’ Grace spat.
‘I idolised him. I-I thought he was one of the good guys and all to change someone I don’t know the name of.’
His face paled as his role in Raven’s plan suddenly clicked into place. Grace sighed. She knew that this was her fault for following Raven into the meeting. If she had stayed put then someone else would have had the mission.
‘Ever since I found out the truth, he never lied to me about anything…He told me it was for a good reason and I would understand in time. I-I thought I was doing the right thing,’ she said, lifting her head up, frowning.
‘Dr Quinn?’ she whispered.
It was all just too much. He had ran to the trash can to empty the full contents of his stomach.
‘Dr Quinn?’ Grace shouted with concern.
When she told him, Grace never thought he would react like this. Anger, maybe. But being physically sick?
She was about to get up to check on him when he reappeared.
‘Chuck.’
‘Huh?’
He grabbed a paper towel and wiped his mouth as he sat down.
‘My name is Chuck, short for Charles,’ he said, covering his mouth.
He never told anyone his first name. This made Grace grin, until she saw Chuck’s face. He was still looking pale.
‘Are you ok, Chuck?’
‘You mean, besides the fact I feel guilty as hell for making the serum in the first place? I’m peachy,’ he replied.
His soft brown eyes looked straight ahead and saw the once ever so confident girl looking vulnerable and broken. She held her head in her hands and sobbed. Within the second he was knelt beside her.
‘Don’t cry. None of this is your fault you know,’ Chuck soothed.
She looked at him incredulously.
‘I injected him! I knew who he was and I STILL injected him…what does that make me huh?’
‘It doesn’t make you bad that’s for sure.’
He caught the deadly look in her eyes. A look that he had seen before but in someone else. Chuck lifted his hands up in defence.
‘You said yourself that you believed you were doing the right thing,’ he added quickly.
‘Yeah but…deep down I knew it was wrong. Interfering with his un-life, I had no right to do that. No matter who I am.’
Un-life? That perked his interest even more.
‘Un-life? You mean, he’s a vampire?’
Grace nodded.
‘But why would…’
‘Charles, The Subject is special. They could save the world.’ Chuck recalled Raven’s words.
‘What is his name?’ he enquired.
‘Why do you want to,’ she said, before he interrupted her.
‘Listen, I can’t tell you how much I hope I’m wrong about this but I have to know his name, Grace please!’
His anger had taken Grace by surprise.
‘His name is Spike.’
His fears were confirmed. How could Raven be so stupid? Chuck grabbed his coat and headed for the door, leaving Grace bewildered.
‘I’ll just let myself out then,’ she muttered.
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Glancing up from the microscope, Willow let out a frustrated sigh, the solution was defiantly a organic compound. The real question was how on EARTH could any organic compound keep a vampire out cold, let alone a MASTER vampire like Spike?
Moving over to the test tubes, her eyes ran over the different coloured liquids out of twenty different tests not one had reacted, well scratch that, the pH indicator did change to a light red indicating the solution was slightly acidic.
Letting out a frustrated sigh, Willow slumped back against her chair. The only thing she could come up with was that the organic compound was compromised by some form of magic. Leaving everything set out on the table, she grabbed her bag, quickly on a last minute impulse, Willow grabbed the last vial and the syringe.
Running over to Buffy’s, Willow opened the never locked door, looking around she saw a typical Scooby central mess, Xander hunched over pizza and comics, Anya complaining about the impracticability of closing the shop and the potential money being lost, Giles with his head in a book and Tara and Dawn talking quietly. Realising Buffy was nowhere to be seen, she took the three steps into the lounge room and there was Buffy vigilant as the last time she had seen here, her green eyes trained onto the still vampire.
Clearing her throat, she waited for Buffy to look up.
‘Guys, to the living room,’ she called, her voice a little weak.
Slowly everyone filtered in, taking a deep breath she reached into her bag and pulled out the syringe and vial.
‘I found this syringe in Spike’s crypt it was filled with a solution… of sorts, I um tested it with a wide range of solutions... I-I was all study science-y girl really like a modern Nancy drew and...’ Willow started to babble before Giles cut her off.
‘Yes, I am sure its all quite interesting but please do tell what you found.’
Taking a deep breath, Willow looked up her own green eyes locking onto Buffy’s
‘Its a organic compound, I-I well t-the other tests came back with negative results... well except the pH test its acidic whatever it is... I am guessing it’s organic with a magic infuse...’ she trailed off unsure how to continue.
‘What does it mean, Will?’ Buffy asked.
‘It means... it means I have NO idea what it is.’
All eyes in the room focused on Spike’s limp form. whatever this was, it was bigger than them all.
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There was no stopping him storming into The Golden Hall, interrupting Raven’s meditation. Opening one eye, a smile spread across his old lips.
‘My boy, you need to learn how to enter a room. One might think you hold a grudge against me.’
‘I didn’t until I found out who "The Subject" was.’
This caught Raven’s full attention. Standing up, his robed bellowed in a magical fashion.
‘Grace told you. I knew she wouldn’t be able to hold it in,’ Raven said with a shred of sadness.
A sarcastic laugh escaped Chuck.
‘I’ve never wished anyone dead before but I do you…what the hell were you thinking?!’
The old man tutted.
‘You shouldn’t wish someone dead. And never ask about things you can’t possibly understand, Charles.’
‘There is no reason for you to be bothered about him. You don’t know the man.’ he continued.
‘I know of him.’
Raven smirked.
‘You know that he is a vampire. Killed two slayers and very well known and that is all.’
Raven began to walk away.
‘I know the reason William is special. He told me so much about him and how he proud he was.’
That was enough to cause Raven to stop in his tracks and turn back towards him. Now it was Chuck’s turn to smirk.
‘What? You didn’t bother to look deeper into my disappearance?’
‘How do I know you’re not lying about meeting him? Everyone knows he has a son, you could have got that information from a book.’ he combated.
‘You’re right, I could have but I don’t remember seeing anything about his son’s powers in any book.’
‘And how would I get this,’ he started.
Chuck pulled a piece of rope with a silver key on the end. A key that Raven was all so familiar with.
‘If I had never met him?’
He stepped closer to the man he once respected.
‘You think you’re so right in doing this, involving Grace. If he were here…’
‘He wouldn’t like it and he would voice that disapproval but he would understand that it had to be done,’ Raven said, simply.
He was sick of explaining why to Grace, never mind the scientist.
‘You think I enjoy this? Taking Spike back to what he was? The poor boy has already had enough heartache; seen so much destruction.’
A beat.
‘I am the last person who would want to inflict that on him again, believe me.’
That was the last thing he said before leaving the room.
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As she pulled on the ugly orange uniform, Buffy let out a sigh. Dawn had left ten minutes ago, after much prodding to spend the night at a friend’s house. Which then got everyone on her case about going to work.
Xander and Giles volunteered to take the watch; everything had to appear ‘normal’ as Giles put it. Pulling her curly blonde locks up into a messy ponytail, Buffy checked her appearance one last time deeming herself semi-human looking. She pulled on the cow/chicken hat and walked down stairs.
Quickly stepping into the lounge, she ran her hand gently across Spike’s face and whispered a quiet goodbye before yelling out a louder one to Giles who was reading in the dining room and Xander who was making himself a small feast in the kitchen.
Closing the heavy oak door behind her, Buffy sprinted towards work; it would only be 5 hours before she was home...
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As Xander pottered around the kitchen, he couldn’t help but let his thought go towards the bleached coma patient in the lounge room. He was surprised at how much he missed the peroxide vampire’s sarcasm and blunt honesty it seemed that only Anya could give Spike a run for his money in THAT department. Those two DEFFINETLY lacked any form of filter.
After placing all his food onto the largest plate he could find, Xander walked back into the lounge room and flicked on the TV the theme song for America’s Next Top Model started to play. Making himself comfortable, Xander was looking forward to watching the women strut their stuff.
After ten minutes, Xander heard a movement on the couch looking up he saw Spike starting to convulse.
‘Giles!’ Xander shouted, whilst desperately trying to hold Spike down.
Startled by his call, Giles ran into the room, seeing Spike thrashing around even with all of Xander’s weight on him. Giles called the Double Meat Palace.
‘Hello, Doublemeat palace, Damien speaking. How may we help you?’
‘Erm, may I speak to Buffy Summers?’ Giles asked as his hand reached out to hold Spike’s shoulders down flinching when he felt the heat radiating off the normally cool vampires body.
‘Buffy here,’ came the overly fake perky voice.
‘Buffy, it Giles. Spike’s convulsing and neither Xander or I can hold him we...’
Before he finished Buffy cut him off.
‘On the way.’
Before Giles could say anything, he heard the dial tone BEEEEEP BEEEEEP BEEEEEEP.
Hanging up the phone, he returned his attention to Spike. Trying to help Xander hold him. All of a sudden, Xander jumped up like he had been burnt.
‘Holy Tabasco sauce! Did I feel what I just felt or am I imagining things?’ Xander yelled, his eyes wide.
‘What Xander!?!’ snapped Giles, struggling to hold Spike on his own.
The vampire was now covered in a thin sheen of sweat. Xander moved and grabbed Giles’ hand, placing it over Spike un-beating heart. A few moments later, the ex-watcher’s eyes also widened and he started spluttering.
The front door slammed open and Buffy ran in using her slayer strength to hold Spike down.
‘G man did you...’ Xander trailed off.
Standing up, Giles didn't take his eyes off the still thrashing blonde.
‘Quite. It seems Spike has a heartbeat…’
TBC...
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Disclaimers: All the characters in this story belong to Joss Whedon and the creators of Chuck (Just the name and how Dr Quinn looks, not the actual character Chuck from the series).
Hey all guitarbabe2005 here sorry about the long delay blame me I have been SUPER busy with school and all so yeah but well here is mine and Elaine’s latest spill haha
On a light note I did study chemistry (ages ago haha) so the chemistry parts are as true as I can make them to keep in line with the story and to the best of my memory not that it was long ago but I was always better at Biology then chemistry needless to say passed BOTH with flying colours yay!!!
Love... Peace... Happiness!!!
Star
Xx
Hey all guitarbabe2005 here sorry about the long delay blame me I have been SUPER busy with school and all so yeah but well here is mine and Elaine’s latest spill haha
On a light note I did study chemistry (ages ago haha) so the chemistry parts are as true as I can make them to keep in line with the story and to the best of my memory not that it was long ago but I was always better at Biology then chemistry needless to say passed BOTH with flying colours yay!!!
Love... Peace... Happiness!!!
Star
Xx
Chapter End Notes:
Hey Guitarbabe2005 again I hope you all liked it sorry to cliffy you all but meh lol gotta save the drama you guys no what to do, hit that little button and please REVIEW!!! Mwa xx
Hey Tennant_Marsters here, gotta love suspense! Trust me, there is an explanation into all of this it just may take a few chapters to unravel. Thanks again to the awesome Guitarbabe2005! Without whom none of this would be possible! Thanks darl!
Hey Tennant_Marsters here, gotta love suspense! Trust me, there is an explanation into all of this it just may take a few chapters to unravel. Thanks again to the awesome Guitarbabe2005! Without whom none of this would be possible! Thanks darl!