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Author's Chapter Notes:
Okay, I know everybody hated me after the evil cliff-hanger last week. I hope you will forgive me now.

When the spell shatters, what are the consequences? Expect aliens, kitten-dealers, a brawl, and a harsh wake-up.

Many thanks again to my steadfast betas puddinhead and Passion4Spike.
I needed a second to focus back to my surroundings. Three dark, menacing figures stood in the doorway: the door itself lay in splinters. Something seemed wrong with them. I couldn’t see their faces clearly but they looked distorted.

“Spike, hiding behind the skirts of the Slayer again? Come out and pay up!” the leader of the group shouted. Who the hell was Spike?

As we stepped towards the table, the others scrambled out of their chairs. William pulled Dawn behind him and with his outstretched arm signaled me to stay back too.

Cave man! I didn’t actually feel helpless here. Looking around me, I grabbed a brass statue that felt heavy and solid in my grip. I saw Mr. Giles reach for a heavy leather bound book and Alex went for a large silver candlestick. The thugs were not impressed.

“Whoever you are, leave immediately or I will call the police,” stated Mr. Giles loudly. He sounded unafraid. He could’ve fooled me, but I saw his hand tremble slightly.

“We are three against you. Better bugger off now before it’s too late,” added William to the threat.

The three stepped into the light and I heard Dawn gasp. They looked horrible. Their brows were full of ridges like a Klingon and their eyes glinted golden and feral. Maybe this was an alien abduction after all!

“We don’t have any quarrel with you, Slayer, we came just to collect the debt from Spike.” The speaker showed a row of sharp glinting teeth and his speech was slurred.

Why was he looking at me? He’d addressed me as slayer. What did he mean? Slayer of what? I felt like I’d stepped from a fairy tale into a nightmare without any stopover or guide book. And when he said Spike he’d been looking at my companion – well, smooching partner. Was his name Spike? Whoever would name himself after a dog? Well, that’s assuming he wasn’t called after the weapon he was hiding in his jeans. I had to forcibly pull my brain out of the gutter with a firm promise to come back to these thoughts later.

“Are these… vampires?” I heard the shy blonde ask timidly.

That was a disturbing theory. Do monsters like vampires really exist? Considering that we all seemed to have lost our personal memories, I couldn’t be sure what was real anymore. I guess that was as good an explanation as my alien abduction.

“Don’t fool around here, Gimp. Collect the kittens. That is what I pay you for!” The raspy deep voice came from behind them.

Reality just made another jump towards horror movie as a small creature stepped through the door. Yes, I said creature, because this clearly was not a human, if you ruled out crazy scientists experimenting on man-beast hybrids. The raspy voice came from a mouth full of razor sharp teeth and its breath was rattling through a row of gills. It was a walking, talking shark, dressed in a fine tailored suit with manicured human hands. I looked down, yes, and expensive custom-made leather shoes.

And had he said kittens? Who has a debt in fluffy balls of kittens? Or was kitten a code word for something sinister, like drugs? That would be harsh if my cutie turned out to be a down-and-dirty candyman.

Well, the appearance of his boss clearly enraged Gimp. With a roar he charged forward and all hell broke loose.

While two attacked William – Spike? – one went straight for me. Without thinking, I raised my leg and kicked him in his balls. Well, that’s what they teach you in self defense class, right? What left me speechless was that my kick propelled him straight through the window and out into the street.

Mr. Giles and Alex had pulled one attacker away from William and were pounding on the thug without much effect. He just tossed them aside like they were children. The girls had the good sense to huddle unobtrusively behind the counter.

William grabbed the collar of his opponent’s shirt and threw him out of the door like he was a rag doll. Wow, seeing him doing this left me even more flabbergasted. How did we get this super-charged? No amount of weight lifting could make you so pumped up.

“Get them out of the shop! The space’s too confined and we might hurt the girls!” William shouted.

I went after him as he charged through the door. Don’t ask me why, but it felt like the right thing to do. With us both in the street, the last thug followed us out of the shop.

It was a ballet. A dance of pure violence and grace. William and I moved in harmony, back to back, punching and kicking. Attackers came at me in a blur and left me no moment for coherent thought. We changed opponents without any noticeable signal and I could hear his triumphant, animalistic roar when an especially vicious kick hit its target. It was exhilarating - my blood pumping in my veins, the adrenaline giving me a high. I was actually sorry when they were all lying motionless on the ground and the dance ended.

“Seems you go free this time, Spike,” came the rasping voice again. The boss had just watched the slaughter, not dirtying his manicured fingers. “Nice of you not to dust my enforcers. Halfway intelligent ones are hard to come by, as you know. You get another week, then pay up. I would hate to hurt a regular customer more than necessary.” With that statement he pivoted round on his heels and left us staring after his retreating form.

I turned around and stopped dead in my track. During the fight I was just reacting, concentrating on my target, only dimly aware of William – Spike. He’d seemed like a natural extension of me. Now I was looking consciously at him for the first time since the fight started. His eyes were golden and ridges had formed on his forehead. He looked dangerous, feral. A formidable, sleek beast, his animalism calling to me.

I stepped nearer, drawn by his exotic beauty. The curious thing was that I didn’t feel fear. He stared at me as I stretched out my hand; my fingers gently caressed his brow. I’m not sure he had even noticed his change. As my fingertips tentatively explored his ridges, the wrinkles faded, melting under my caring touch and his eyes shifted back to an electric blue.

“So, William? Spike? Who are you?” I whispered.

He just stared at me. “I can smell you, luv. You’re intoxicating, musky in your arousal. Your aroma is driving me crazy.” He murmured hypnotized. Had he heard my question? Then he shook his head like a dog shedding water from his pelt. “Sorry. Got… distracted. Might be Spike, but I also like it when you call me William.”

~*~

Mr. Giles and Alex stood gob smacked inside the shop door where they had watched the fight.

“Wow, where did you learn that?” spluttered Alex as he made clumsy boxing imitations. “Wang, bang baby! It looked like you’re used to doing this. Maybe you’re both pro wrestlers! That would be cool, wearing those form-fitting, low cut costumes.” His eyes glazed over until he heard the warning growls from Spike.

“Sorry, mate! Fingers off what’s yours, right?” Alex mocked in a fake British accent. “You were clearly marking your territory over there under the stairs. Don’t think I didn’t notice.”

More of this testosterone crap and this Alex might earn himself a sample of my newfound talent in hitting people.

“Bloody well right!” growled Spike back with a fierce scowl at the boy.

The possessiveness in his voice made me quiver. God, I had to wrestle down my inner Gloria Steinem, but that was sexy as hell. A fantasy of me, dressed only in ripped underwear, chained to his bed ran through my head. Definitely not R-rated.

Dawn raced over to me and gave me a bear hug. “Are you ok? I just heard the noise. I was too frightened to take a look! But they told me you were fighting against the thugs.”

She turned her anxious glance towards Spike and repeated, “Are you hurt?”

It took me some time to calm her down, but after she had verified that neither of us was harmed, she released her death lock on me.

The redhead was clearly excited too, but not in a way I liked. She tried to turn me into a lab experiment, asking me to lift various items and trying to test my reflexes. When I refused she had the audacity to declare that, with my extraordinary abilities, I was obligated to use them for the betterment of the world. Who does she think I am, Wonder Woman?

During the fight, a slim, black crystal had slipped out of someone’s pocket and slid under the table. When we settled down around the table again, Mr. Giles stepped onto it and it shattered with a loud crack.

The world slipped and turned.

~*~

Buffy blinked her eyes and tried to sort out the jumble of memories. Wow had she…? She looked up, startled when she heard the scratching sound of a chair pushed back in the stunned silence. Spike froze when their gazes locked. Several emotions shifted behind his eyes and the one she could most clearly identify was fear. Fear of what her reaction would be. She gave him a slight nod and reassuring smile, signaling him to stay and he settled back onto his usual place on the stairs. His hand nervously flattened his hair again and again.

Dawn was sitting at Buffy’s side watching her with big eyes. “We knew we were sisters, didn’t we? And Spike promised to protect me. Even when we didn’t recognize each other.”

Buffy could just nod and smile at her sister. That was really remarkable. She reached out and pushed Dawn’s hair behind her shoulder.

“I think some things are so deeply imprinted in you that nothing can erase them. I love you Dawn, you know that, don’t you?” Buffy smiled tenderly at her sister and Dawn nodded.

“I love you too.”

Buffy gave her a tender hug. Over her sister’s shoulder she saw Spike fiddle with his silver lighter, his brows furrowed as he watched his finger’s restless play. Oh my God, she had kissed him - again. What had happened that she was so inevitably drawn to him? Was it the spell again or lay the reasons within her? She had to find out or she would go nuts, of that Buffy was sure.

As if he had felt her attention, Spike suddenly looked up. Time slowed as she fell into the bottomless blue of his eyes. There was so much longing and tenderness in them that it hurt her heart. She was drowning in them and she wished she could go back to the carefree moments before, when she’d been free to give in to her urges.

The sudden ‘click’ of Spike’s lighter closing jarred her out of her thoughts.

Buffy lowered her eyes and composed herself. It was time to get back to business. “Giles, what happened here? How can someone erase our personal memories on such a large scale? Is this some new attack?”

Before Giles could reply, Tara spoke up with tears in her eyes. “Willow, that was you, wasn’t it?” She pointed down to the smashed crystal. “It was the Tabula Rasa spell again. The one you did before to me, to erase the quarrel we had.”

Buffy’s eyes widened as she looked from Tara to Willow. Tara had explained about the spell, but she’d understood it was affecting only single memories, strands of events which were slipped out of the fabric of the mind.

Willow squirmed under the sudden attention. “It wasn’t meant to harm anyone. I just wanted you to stop the constant accusations. Tara, I swear I didn’t know that it would affect all of your memories. It was just a mistake.” She looked around the table clearly expecting everybody to accept her apology.

“How could you, Willow? After what Glory did to my head, after how upset I was the first time. How could you violate me again – despite my protests the first time! Don’t you understand what this means to me?”

Tara clearly was deeply upset. “And this time you put everybody in danger. What if Buffy and Spike hadn’t been here? What if we’d just had wandered off into the dark without knowing what dangers lay out there? Somebody could’ve died. Everybody could have died!”

“But it wasn’t intended to be so powerful. Rack said the modification of the spell is harmless. I don’t know what went wrong. I just wanted to erase a few hours; I just wanted you all to stop nagging me about using magic the way I like it!” As Willow didn’t find any sympathy, she started sobbing.

“Willow, I’m sorry, but I c..c..c..can’t trust you anymore. I can’t be with you at the m…m…moment. Please, y…y…you have to th.h.think about what you do.” Big tears splashed down Tara’s cheeks and Buffy put her arm around her.

Spike frowned at Willow, his eyes stormy grey. “Glinda’s right. Magic has consequences, always! Whenever you use it, you have to pay a price for it. We got off easy this time. What’ll happen the next time something goes wrong?”

“Hey, bleach boy, when did you turn into an expert on magic? What are you doing here anyway? And…” Xander choked on the spiteful words. “And what were you thinking, taking advantage of Buffy? If she’d known who you were, she never would’ve even come near you.”

Spike started to object, but Buffy beat him to it. “Xander, stop it, now!” Buffy was cross about her friend’s meddling. Why did Xander think he had the right to speak for her? “Whatever I did is for me to judge, not you.” She could see Spike flinch, so she hastily added, “He never took advantage of me. If anything happened, it was me who started it. Deal with it.”

“Yeah, and if it hadn’t been for him, we wouldn’t have been in any danger at all,” muttered Xander under his breath.

Giles cut in with authority “Stop it, Xander. We’re not here to judge anybody. As much as I dislike saying this, Spike hasn’t been the one inflicting damage last week. First, it was you, with summoning Sweet, and now it’s Willow, with another spell gone wrong. I’m greatly disappointed in you both.”

Xander huffed. “I know when I’m not welcome. I just wouldn’t have thought that you’d prefer dead-boy over me. Come on Anya, let’s go!” He strode out through the front door. Anya, who’d quietly watched the whole conversation, shot Buffy an apologetic smile and followed him.

Willow slunk in her chair as Giles turned to address her. “Willow, while I was in England, I also spoke with the Coven about you. They were very interested to hear about your talent, but they are concerned about the amount of training you’ve experienced or, more precisely, that you haven’t experienced. I agree with Tara completely. You should limit the use of your powers until you’ve the chance to get a proper training and an introduction into the ethics of using magic. Too many of your spells have gone awry to risk you fiddling around with so much power; you need supervision. I shall have to look into your schedule to arrange a trip to England.”

Willow clearly didn’t like this. Buffy felt sorry for her friend, but on the other hand she’d suffered more than once from a spell gone wonky. Also, what was the name she’d mentioned, Rack? It rang some warning bells in her brain.

“Willow, you said ‘Rack told me’. Who’s Rack? I’ve never heard of him before, was he also someone from the summer camp?”

Tara shook her head. “I can’t remember anyone by that name. Where did you meet him, Willow?”

Willow squirmed in the spotlight of the overall attention. “Ummm, that was a man I met in LA, you know? Meagan from the festival told me about him and she arranged a meeting.”

Spike squinted his eyes at Willow. “There’s more to that. You’re not telling everythin’, Red. I can hear your heart racing. Vampire ‘ere, remember? Who’s this Rack?”

“Oh, he’s nobody, just an acquaintance. He’s interested in magic. We talked a bit about spell work and magic when I visited Meagan in LA yesterday.”

Buffy made a mental note to look into this name; it set a red alert for her, but she still wasn’t sure why. That name had more meaning than Willow was willing to admit. With a glance at the distraught Tara, she decided to take some action.

“Tara… you can stay with Dawn and me for a while. I mean, if you want to… you know we have enough room and it would be nice to have company.”

Buffy could see Giles’ approving nod.

“But… Oh, I don’t know. I don’t want to intrude…” Tara was shyly looking from Buffy to Dawn.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Tara. We’re the ones who benefit most from it. Do you know how lonely the house is with just the two of us?” Buffy asked, interrupting any further arguments.

“Anyway, you should try to eat what she cooks,” added Dawn. “It would be so much fun to have you over for a while. We could watch movies together and play scrabble!”

Buffy could feel the smile Spike was giving her. He clearly also approved of her decision, he seemed to be quite fond of the blonde witch. If only she knew what to say to him now. She briefly turned and gave him a reassuring glance as she, Tara, and Dawn got up and headed for the door.

“Spike, I’ll see you tomorrow, I promise.”





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