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Angst ahoy!

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Buffy closed her eyes for a moment, letting Spike's admission sink in. It wasn't a theory or just popular opinion anymore, Spike said that he loved her. There was no way he would say that to Drusilla if he didn't really mean it. She still couldn't understand how he could possibly love her (taking into account both their history, and the fact that he was a soulless demon), but the way he was standing up for her proved that he really did.

There were a million questions Buffy wanted the answers to. And she really wished she could've talked to Spike in private about the whole 'love' thing without crazy-ass Drusilla threatening to kill her.

Dru had to take a few moments to compose herself. She covered her mouth with her hand, looking as if she might be violently ill. She knew that he loved the Slayer, of course, but actually hearing him say the words made bile rise in her throat. But she calmed down, telling herself that it was a good thing that Spike finally stopped telling porkies. Now she could help him see the way to rid himself of the sickness of being in love with the Slayer.

Spike blinked away tears. "I know hearing that hurts you, Dru... and I'm sorry for that. I'm so bloody sorry... I never wanted to hurt you."

"I saw her all around you... invading your thoughts and dreams. I knew it before you did..." Dru mumbled.

"Yeah... you did know it before I did. I didn't realize it until... later." He didn't want to mention the dream that had made his feelings for Buffy crystal clear to him. Spike kept his eyes on Drusilla, he was too afraid to see Buffy's reaction to his declaration. It would kill him to see the disgust that was, no doubt, present on her face -- it would hurt much worse than when Cecily had spurned him. "I swear to you, pet, back in Brazil, I had no idea I was in love with... I wasn't lying to you when I denied it. I really didn't know..."

Dru took a breath and shook her head. "It's good that you said it... Yes... it's good. Now you can begin to heal."

Spike's brow furrowed. "Heal?"

"From your disease, loving her is a horrible, horrible disease. Angel had the same sickness, but I couldn't save him... I have the cure at my fingertips now, I can make you well. I can't be with you as long as she lives," Dru said gravely.

"And I can't be with you if you kill her. Decide which thing you want more -- me, or killing the Slayer -- because you can't have both." Spike squared his shoulders, trying to be strong.

Dru joined her hands under her chin, as if in prayer. "One flows into another, Spike -- like a river to the sea. The universe demands the Slayer's death. And only then will love and fragrant blossoms return. The stars... they whisper to me, telling me how it must be."

Spike growled and looked around, needing to destroy something. He picked up a vase of flowers on a stand near Buffy, and then threw it against the far wall where it shattered. Dru put her hands up in front of her face and flinched. "You had to wait 'til now to want me again?! I bloody well begged you to stay with me back in Brazil -- and you spit in my face!"

"I had to make peace with it all, Spike," Dru said reasonably, slowly lowering her hands from her face.

"I deserved better treatment than that! I loved you... I loved my black goddess, unreservedly, for over a hundred bloody years. You were my Sire, my lover, my whole bloody world... I would've done anything for you!"

"You betrayed me with her!" Dru yelled, pointing a shaking hand at Buffy.

"I bloody well did not!" Spike fired back, at first thinking she'd meant 'betrayed' in the sexual sense.

"It started when you went against me and Angelus... We were your family, your blood, and you turned your back on us... Worse! You took her side against us!"

Spike started pacing back and forth in front of Buffy. He and Drusilla had had this row more than once right before they'd gone their separate ways. "The truce with Buffy... I did that for us! How many bloody times do I have to explain it?! Angelus comin' back was the worst thing that ever happened to us!"

"And I did this," she pointed to Buffy, "for us, as well. But you've got to play your part, too, for it to work, my love. You've got to finish her."

Spike purposely switched to another subject quickly. "If you and Darla really do plan on trying to bring Angel back over to the dark side, then you can bloody well do it without me! I hate both of the bastard's personalities, but at least when he's all soul-havin', he wants nothing to do with any of us."

It wasn't easy for Drusilla to give up on her dream of being a big, happy family again, but she had to finesse Spike, promise him whatever he wanted, just as long as he pledged his love to her again. She could convince him to reunite with their family later, if need be; she could convince Spike of anything, given enough time. "If that's what you want... then we don't have to go back to L.A. You and me bein' together again is what matters most. We can go anywhere in the world you fancy goin'. Now... kill her so we can be on our way and start a new, grand chapter of our lives together." Dru looked hungrily at Buffy, imagining seeing Spike rip the girl's beating heart out of her chest.

"I'll go away with you... go wherever you want, do whatever you want. I love you, Dru." He walked up to her and put his arms around her. "Please, baby, let's just get out of this sodding town -- get as far away as we can, and never think about it again! Let's just leave her here and go!" Spike put his hands on the sides of Drusilla's face and kissed her frantically, desperately.

Dru whimpered, squeezing her eyes shut and then shaking her head violently. She growled and pushed him away as tears ran down her face. "No! Don't you dare touch or kiss me when your mind is consumed with her! Your lips are acid, burning holes in my face! It burns!" she cried, wiping madly at face.

"Dru, pet... please..." He tried to touch her, but she knocked his hands away.

"Killing that girl is the only thing that can set you free! If you don't make the right decision here and now, she'll destroy you! I've seen it happen in my visions!"

"...You've seen Buffy kill me in your visions?" Spike asked after a short pause. That troubled him a bit... Drusilla's visions usually came true.

"I saw lots of nasty things happen to you..." Dru closed her eyes and took a calming breath. "There are many possible futures for all of us, depends on which twists and turns we take on the path. But all yours... all your possibilities end horribly, my sweet Spike, if you choose her. You understand why she has to die now?"

Buffy's eyes darted between them as they argued; she'd never felt so powerless. Her fate was being decided right in front of her. "Spike, I wouldn't --"
Dru snarled at her. "Shut up! Don't wanna hear anything out of you, Slayer. 'Cept for your screams as my Spike drains every last drop of blood from your steaming carcass."

"You're discussing whether I live or die -- I have a right to talk!" Buffy yelled.

"You have no rights, whatsoever." Dru put her hand up to block out the sight of Buffy, as she'd done to Harmony back at the crypt. She looked at Spike, shutting Buffy out for the moment. She could see that he was disturbed that, by saving Buffy, he would be dooming himself. "You doubt it can happen, my love? You think she wouldn't kill you or let you die to save herself or one of her little friends? She'd do it in a heartbeat." Drusilla snapped her fingers. "I pulled you out of that burning church," she reminded him. "She put you in that wheelchair you hated so much. She would have loved it if you'd perished in those flames. I took care of you while you were healing. Don't that tell you who you belong with? Remember what she did to you."

Spike shook his head. "Nothing wrong with my memory; I remember all of it... I also remember -- while I was being held captive in that bloody wheelchair -- how you made it no secret that you were shagging Angelus. He took great delight in taunting me with it." Spike's wavering voice and tight face showed how hurt and bitterly disappointed he'd been with Dru's actions back then. "And you just let it happen... You were blind to how unhappy, how tormented, I was."

"I know what you're doin'," Dru said, then clucked her tongue. "Trying to argue 'bout anything else, rather than dwell on my visions of your horrible death, courtesy of the Slayer."

"You think I'm just making this shit up for the sake of arguing?! You think you acting like a giddy schoolgirl with him -- flaunting the fact that you were letting Angelus have his way with you, and grinding my face in the dirt -- didn't rip my heart out?!" Spike asked incredulously.

"Never meant to hurt you, my Spike..." Dru pouted.

"Well... you did. And, if you love me like you say you do, you should've known..." Spike laughed humorlessly. "You know every other bloody thing that's goin' on in the world, so why didn't you know I was miserable? Or is it that you just didn't care?" He put his hands over his eyes, rubbing them and trying to hold the tears in. Shedding tears wouldn't do anything but make him look like a weak nancy-boy in front of the women he loved.

Drusilla had one more peaceful tactic to try. "What possible catastrophe came crashing down from heaven and brought this dashing stranger to tears?" she asked in a soft, sweet voice.

Spike's hands fell away from his face, he looked at her and tilted his head as more pain gripped his mind and heart at that memory. The tears he'd tried keeping at bay slid down his face.

"Do you remember those words, pretty William?"

"'Course I do," he replied thickly. "First words you ever spoke to me..."

She smiled and touched his face. "I rescued you. I delivered you into the world. You are, and have always been, mine -- not hers, not anyone else's. You were meant for me, and I for you. No one ever loved or understood you like I do..."

Spike stared into her eyes, which seemed to be getting brighter and wider. He realized that she was attempting to use her psychic abilities to make him more compliant. He closed his eyes and turned his face away, clenching his jaw. "Don't do that to me, Dru! Don't use that shit on me!"

She frowned and stepped back from him. "I wasn't doin' nothing... Just talkin' to you, is all."

"You bloody well know what you were doing," Spike said in a growl. "Same thing you did to me in that alley a million years ago. Everything you said hit me where I lived, but you used that little something extra to keep me from screaming and running off and convince me I wanted what you were offering."

Dru became indignant, stomping a foot on the floor. "Oh, you wanted it! I know you wanted it! Don't you dare pretend you didn't! You said yes without a second thought when I offered it to you."

Buffy thought Drusilla sounded like a rapist trying to justify what they'd done by telling their victim that they'd 'asked for it'. Very few human beings would ask to be turned if they knew everything it entailed. But Drusilla had been a victim once upon a time herself... A victim in a long line of victims. Spike (or rather, William) couldn't have had any idea what he was really saying yes to.

Spike looked back at Dru. "Yeah, I wanted it... Didn't know exactly what it was, but..."

"I would've had you one way or the other, sweet William. Would you prefer I'd skipped the sugary, buttery talk and pounced on you to take what I wanted? I could have taken you roughly, shredded and ripped your sweet flesh... but I didn't want it to be that way." Dru put her hand to his face again and caressed his cheek, gently wiping away his tears. "The burning baby fish swimming 'round your head have turned into piranha... I only want to save you again, my pet. I was the only one who saw your worth back then, and I'm the only one who can lead you back to your destiny now."

Spike leaned into her hand, gazing at her and smiling wistfully as he remembered how he'd felt back then; Drusilla was his savior. He would have amounted to nothing without her. He might have even killed himself, feeling as devastated and humiliated as he had on that night, if Dru hadn't found him.

Buffy was worried Dru could change his mind by bringing those kinds of things up. Spike had told Buffy once how profound and wonderful becoming a vampire had been for him. He obviously thought of it as the best thing that had ever happened to him, and he had Dru to thank for his transformation.

Dru smiled at Spike, continuing to stroke his cheek. "I wanted to be gentle with my little lamb when I found you in that alleyway. I wanted to ease you into death as if into a warm bath, and then I waited under the stars in anticipation for you to be reborn. Yes, I had to use my gifts to make you more... open to what I was offering. But you wanted it, you know you did."

"I didn't know what I was saying yes to, but I felt that it was... that you were my destiny."

"I am your destiny, Spike. You and me, together -- that's the way it's meant to be. Don't be confused by the fluffy bits of tail who swish their hips and flaunt their wares at you." Drusilla flicked a finger at Buffy, like flicking away an insect, but kept eye contact with Spike as she spoke. "I made it possible for the real William to make his presence felt in this world. Remember the sweet kiss of my fangs and how it made you swoon?" She moved her hand to the left side of his neck, slowly running her fingertips over the spot where she'd bitten him. "Remember how your body surged with power when you awoke from your deep slumber? You can feel that way again, my beautiful William..."

"Yes..." Spike whispered, recalling that overwhelming sense of power and strength he'd felt upon awakening. It had been an awesome feeling -- going from being a shy weakling, to feeling like a powerful, bold man for the very first time.

Buffy had to speak up, Spike was sounding and looking all swoony. "Spike, don't let her hypnotize you!"

Dru growled and whipped her head to the side to glare at Buffy -- breaking the trance. "Thought I told you to shut your gob?!"

Spike blinked and stepped away from Dru, shaking his head to clear it. "Bloody hell, you were doing it again, Dru! Stop trying to control me like that!"

"I'm trying to save you from yourself! Why can't you see that, Spike? The Slayer must die. If you won't do it, I will." Dru took a step toward Buffy.

Spike stepped in front of Buffy again with a grim expression on his face, his eyes shimmering with tears. "No. Don't make me fight you, Dru. I don't want to hurt you... but I will. I'm sorry..."

Tears glistened in Drusilla's eyes, too. "Don't be sorry... just be mine again. Be my lovely Spike again." She reached out and touched his face, stroking his cheekbone with a finger. "Please..."

Buffy wanted to hurl an insult at Drusilla or laugh at her, but something kept Buffy from speaking. The atmosphere in the room felt heavy and thick with the emotions emanating from the two vampires. Buffy felt fairly overwhelmed with emotion herself. Even after how horribly she'd treated him, he was choosing her over Dru. Spike really did love her, and he was trying to protect her from the former love of his life.

"You really think she'd want you?" Dru asked, becoming cold and dropping her hand from his face. She was lying to him -- along with visions of his demise at the Slayer's hand, she'd had stomach-churning visions in which Buffy and Spike were shagging like bunnies. But Dru had to say and do whatever she could to change his mind; she had to get him back, she had to get her family back. As a rule, Dru didn't tell tales, but little white lies were okay in desperate situations like these. "You think she would ever let you touch her? You're nothing to her -- you're less than nothing... She can't desire you 'cos it's wrong. She thinks you're beneath her."

"Stop it," Spike said, closing his eyes and putting his hands to his head. "Stop yanking thoughts from my mind!"

"She said those very words to you, didn't she? Yes... she did. Beneath her." Drusilla giggled, nibbled at her thumbnail and batted her eyes at him. "But not beneath her in the fun pony ride way. She meant it the other way -- less than her, not worthy. And that's all you'll ever be to her, William. Why are you trying to protect this mongrel? All she's done is cause you pain!"

"If you think I'm doing this because I... expect anything from her, you're slipping. I know she could never love me, I know my love will never be returned... But that doesn't change how I feel about her. My thoughts starting to get too murky for you to read, are they?"

Drusilla whined and pouted. It upset her that her powers of persuasion hadn't worked on Spike. She didn't want to have to resort to violence with him...

"I'm through playing games... It's over." Spike took a breath, and then asked, "Where's the key to her cuffs? I'm walking out of here now -- and I'm taking Buffy with me."

Buffy perked up. It was coming to a head -- Spike would have to fight Dru, or Dru would let him take Buffy out of the mansion. Buffy felt hopeful for the first time all night. She was sure Spike could take Drusilla in a fight. Hell, he'd nearly beat her more than once before he was chipped.

"The key is right in here, all snuggly-wuggly," Dru said, patting her bosom.

Spike's eyes went to her cleavage. She'd tucked the key into her dress for safekeeping, eh?

"But that bad, naughty Slayer isn't leaving this house alive. Don't make me hurt you, sweet William. I don't want to... but I will."

Spike grabbed Dru by the shoulders and shook her roughly. "Give me the bloody key, or I'll rip your dress off to get it!" he shouted.

"Ooh yes! You know I like it rough!" Dru exclaimed, seeming to laugh and cry at the same time. "Is it Saint Swithun's day already?!"

Buffy strained against her manacles, wishing she could jump in and whoop Drusilla's ass. Besides the fact that Buffy would just plain enjoy kicking Dru's ass, she knew how hard this had to be for Spike. Buffy knew the pain of having to fight someone you loved, too.

Drusilla hissed and scratched Spike's cheek. He responded by backhanding her across the face. He grabbed Dru again, shaking her and ripping at the bodice of her dress to get the key.

Buffy saw a silver key tumble onto the floor near their feet -- it must have fallen out of Drusilla's dress during the scuffle. It was too far away for Buffy to reach it, even if her arms were free. "The key's on the floor, Spike! Next to your foot!"

He tried holding Drusilla at bay while looking down and searching the floor near his boots. Dru started hitting and scratching at Spike more fiercely. Spike growled and shoved Dru, sending her stumbling away from him and against the buffet-style table the blood punch was on. He bent down quickly to retrieve the key, keeping one eye on Dru at the same time.

Buffy was so focused on watching Spike and Dru struggle, as well as being excited at the thought that she might get out of the chains soon, that she didn't notice the minions racing in until they were in reach of Spike. "Behind you!" Buffy yelled.

Spike was just starting to turn when Joshua hit him on the back of the head with a crowbar. Spike grunted and fell to his knees. Joshua smiled as he brought the crowbar down on Spike's head and shoulders over and over again. Spike fell onto his side, bringing his arms up to protect his head.

"Leave him alone, you bastard!" Buffy clenched her teeth and screamed in frustration, rattling her chains and causing the cuffs to cut deeper into her flesh.

Drusilla captured Joshua's wrist before he could hit Spike again. "That's enough. Such a good boy, you are." She smiled and patted him on top of the head. "Was just like when Spike attacked Angelus in this very room... only you're on my side."

"I thought he might do something stupid, like try to hurt you," Joshua said. "Are you okay, Mistress?"

"I will be... yes." Dru walked in a circle around Spike, looking down on him as she fixed her dress. He hadn't ripped the dress off of her, but it would require some mending. "My Spike has been very naughty. He wouldn't be still, so I have to make him take his medicine with a spanking and a spoonful of sugar. Mummy knows best."

Spike was dazed by the blows to his head, but he was trying with all his might to clear his mind. Buffy wouldn't have a chance of surviving if he was put in chains or dusted.

Four other minions loyal to Drusilla were with Joshua, all looking like they'd enjoy taking a few whacks at Spike too. They surrounded Spike, ready to thrash him if their Mistress ordered it.

Spike went into game-face as he got to his knees and started swinging his fists, hitting groins, knees, whatever he could hit from his position on the floor. Two of the minions shouted and backed away from him, holding their crotches.

"Pick him up," Dru ordered. "Make sure to hold him tight, he'll squiggle and squirm and lash out. The cobra spits his venom when he's cornered."

The other minions got a hold of Spike's arms and hauled him up to his feet. Spike tried shaking their hands off of him and pulling free, but they had a good grip on him, and he was still weak and off his game from getting hit on the head. He snarled at them, and then glowered at Drusilla.

"Call them off, Dru!" Spike demanded through clenched teeth as he tried pulling his arms free. "I'm gettin' really angry now!"

"Shhhh! Bad Spike!" Dru scolded him. "I'd hoped it wouldn't become necessary to take these measures, but you're leavin' me no choice..."





Drusilla directed her minions to take Spike to the buffet table. They threw him onto the table on his back and held him down.

"What the bloody hell are you doing, Dru!?" Spike shouted, struggling to get away from her helpers.

"Stop thrashing about," Dru said. "This is for your own good, my pet. Bad doggies must be corrected or they never learn. Sit! Stay!"

Spike kicked his legs out, knocking the punch bowl and cups off the end of the table. The bowl crashed to the floor, blood splashed in all directions.

"Now look at what you've done!" Dru huffed. "My punch is ruined! I've got a mind to punish you good for that, Spike! Bad dog! Bad!" she scolded him, shaking a finger toward his face.

Spike kept trying to get out from under the minions' grasps. Finally, all five minions were able to pin him down successfully.

Buffy pulled on her chains, wishing she could do something. 'Oh God, they're going to dust him!' That thought was painful to her, and not just because it meant she would be also be doomed if Spike died. She just didn't like the thought of Spike being gone. She wasn't really sure when she'd come to the realization that him being gone would be bad... After all, wasn't she just talking about dusting him herself earlier that day? But suddenly, the thought of him not being there -- the thought of never seeing him again, made her heart ache.

If only Spike had picked up the key and taken just one of her manacles off... The key -- Buffy didn't see the key on the floor where it had been a minute ago... Had Spike managed to pick it up before Joshua started hitting him with the crowbar?

Drusilla approached the table, smiling down on Spike.

Spike bared his teeth and gave her a murderous look. "Stop this, Dru!" He thought she was going to stake him for betraying her, and there wasn't anything he could do to prevent it in his current position -- the minions were holding him securely, he couldn't move.

"'Fraid I can't do that, Spike. You've shown that the wicked Slayer has too strong a hold on your heart. She cast her net over you and you can't break free -- like a little moth caught in a spider's web, you are. She is a deceptively cunning one, ain't she? But I can still help you... Yes, I can help you be my sweet Spike again..." She leaned down, staring at him.

The song 'Paint It Black' started playing on the stereo -- Dru couldn't have planned the timing better if she'd tried. Yes, she would have her black-hearted, deadly boy back. No silly, mushy feelings for the Slayer, her groupies, or her kinfolk. Dru would help Spike find and embrace the darkness within him again. When she was through, Spike would insist on massacring the lot of them before leaving town. And that would suit Dru just fine.

{{

Hear the song at the following YouTube link:

Paint It Black - The Rolling Stones

}}

Spike thought her eyes were starting to look bigger and brighter... His human visage slid back into place and he slammed his eyes shut. "Don't use it on me again, Dru! Please!"

Spike hated a lot of things, but being controlled by anyone or anything was at the top of his list. Just the thought of being controlled, having his freewill taken away, terrified him; having the chip was bad enough, but this... this was far worse.

"His eyelids," Drusilla said calmly, giving one of her minions a tap on the shoulder.

Dave moved around to Spike's head, then paused and looked at Dru. "You mean cut the lids off or hold 'em?"

"Hold them open, you fool! I wouldn't disfigure my beautiful boy!" Dru snapped. Then she smiled down on Spike, affectionately tracing his cheekbone with a sharp fingernail. "Would be like takin' a chisel to Michelangelo's 'David', it would."

Dave nodded and then pressed his thumbs against Spike's eyelids, forcing and holding them open.

"Careful not to hurt his lovely baby blues now," Dru cautioned Dave as he held Spike's eyes open. "Eyeballs go squish so easily. I'd have to pluck out your eyes and make them into kebabs if you spoiled my William."

"Right, no squishing. I totally got this," Dave assured her.

Drusilla had never forced herself into Spike's mind like this before. Any hypnotic 'convincing' she'd done in the past was much more gentle. "Don't do this to me, Dru!" Spike pled again, having no choice but to look at her. The gentle hypnotic suggestions Dru had given him back at the crypt were different than this, he'd welcomed her into his mind then.

"It's your fault -- and the Slayer's -- that I must take these measures, Spike," Dru admonished him. "Trust that I know what's best for you, I always have. Hold still and take your medicine!" Her scowl turned into a smile in an instant. "Ooh, it's like Alex in 'A Clockwork Orange' when he's bein' forced to watch all the nasties on the screen. That's one of our favorite films, innit, Spike? I always did fancy you as Alex, so pretty and blissfully evil," she said, tracing the slash she'd given him on his cheek. "The tin soldiers thought they could muzzle you, train you like a dog. But I'm going to make it right again and put you back as you should be -- as you were always meant to be."

Spike tried turning his head, but he couldn't move. He grit his teeth and looked into Dru's increasingly warm and inviting eyes.

Buffy wanted to shout, to demand, that Dru leave Spike alone... but what would be the point? Like Dru would listen to her? So, she had to just watch impotently as Drusilla attempted to drain Spike of any good qualities he'd developed, any personal growth he'd experienced, since he'd been away from her. How could you claim to be in love with someone and still take away their freewill (and violate them like that) without a second thought?

"It's time we strip away the lies," Dru said softly. "You will be as you were before we came to Sunnydale for the first time. Remember, my darling Spike? You want to swim in the Slayer's blood. You want to make her the third Slayer brought down by your hand. The Slayer of Slayers, you are, and this one is no exception... a beautiful trophy she'll make above the mantel."

Spike growled and panted, trying to fight the thoughts Dru was putting in his mind. He wasn't completely free of his old persona, there was still some of the old Spike (the one who enjoyed and prided himself on being evil) left in him, and Dru was speaking directly to that atrophied part of his mind. It was like stirring up a hornet's nest with a stick -- Spike's dormant evil side was being roused, even more so than it had stirred back at the crypt. Dru was drowning out that other voice in his head, the one that loved Buffy, the one that had been taking steps toward becoming a 'good man'. His struggles lessened the longer Dru talked. It didn't matter how hard he fought it, Dru slashed through his mental defenses like a warm knife through butter.

Drusilla continued speaking sweetly to him. "The only thing you want from the Slayer is her blood. You want to drink from her. You want to gulp down her hot, delicious blood and watch the life run out of her. You want to hear her scream and beg for mercy... you savor her fear as readily as you savor her blood.

"The Slayer was iniquitous and put a spell on you -- a spell designed to make you weak, to make you grovel at her feet like a mangy dog begging for scraps. She laughed at you -- her and her friends, they laughed at your helplessness, made sport of your pain. Her spell made you think you loved her. But you could never love her. You love me, and only me. Now you see it was all a cruel, ugly trick; your eyes have been opened to her lies. You don't love her, you've finally seen through her deception and now you're free -- her spell has been broken."

"My God, Drusilla, you're pathetic, you know that!?" Buffy uttered with disgust. She had to say something, even if it made no difference. "You couldn't be happy with the family of sea monkeys, you had to send for the 'Getting Guys Through Hypnosis' kit in the back of the comic book, instead. It's really sad that the only way you can get Spike on your side is by screwing with his mind!" Buffy was afraid that Dru's manipulation of Spike's mind was working... he wasn't struggling anymore.

Dru ignored Buffy, kept a pleasant smile on her face and her eyes trained on Spike's. She touched Joshua's arm and said, "Be a dear, if she says another word, bash her head in?"

"I'd love to, Mistress." Joshua smiled at Buffy, hoping she'd say something else -- just one word, even a syllable would do. He'd thoroughly enjoyed punching Buffy in the face before, and he'd be happy to do it again -- maybe he'd get more of her blood on him... It was delicious!

Buffy bit her tongue to keep from saying anything in response. This was a nightmare... just when she thought they'd get out of here alive, Dru turned the tables, dashing her hopes again. 'Please fight her, Spike... We're both screwed if you can't resist her...' she thought as her eyes remained glued on Spike and Dru and her heart thudded in her chest.

Drusilla touched Spike's lips with a forefinger. "Do you understand?"

"Yes..." Spike whispered.

Dru leaned down and kissed Spike on the lips, and then straightened back up. She motioned for the minions to release him, Dave let go of Spike's eyes and stepped back.

Spike sat up slowly and swung his legs over the edge of the table. He growled, rubbing his eyes and then put a hand to his head. "Bloody hell... what happened?" His skull felt like it was packed with gauze, he felt unfocused like he'd just woken up after a long sleep. "My head is killin' me."

Dru ran her hand up his arm and onto his shoulder. "My boys had to punish an' restrain you. The Slayer made you turn on me."

"She... did?" Spike asked. He was having trouble remembering everything clearly.

"Mmhmm. She cast a spell over you, made you bow and scrape at her feet."

"Yeah... I remember now." Spike slowly turned his head to look at Buffy.

What Buffy saw was not at all encouraging -- Spike's eyes were glassy and cold. His jaw worked as he glared at her, he looked like he wouldn't have a problem with killing her now... It was the same kind of look she remembered getting from him when he'd first arrived in Sunnydale, when he'd hated her.

Spike hopped off of the table and turned to face Joshua. Spike was shorter and slimmer than the ex-football player, but menacing those taller than him had never been difficult. "Hit me with a blunt object, didja?"

"I'm sorry..." Joshua swallowed hard. He tried to explain, "You were hurting Mistress Dru, I had to --"

Spike laughed and shook his head. "I understand. I wasn't in my right mind at the time, and you were protecting Dru. Her safety's all that's important to me. So I can't be too brassed off, now can I?"

Joshua smiled uncertainly.

Spike smiled and clapped Joshua on the back, then put a hand on his shoulder. "No hard feelings, mate."

He breathed out with relief and smiled wider. "Oh good, 'cause I was worried you'd --"

Then Spike clutched the back of Joshua's head and slammed his head down onto the tabletop again and again. Finally, Spike finished by kneeing Joshua in the face and let him fall, barely conscious, to the floor. The git reminded him of Riley Finn, so it hadn't been easy to stop. Riley... now, that was someone Spike would enjoy crossing paths with again real soon...

"Aww, Spike, don't hurt him too much," Dru said, delighted to feel Spike's malevolent and vicious side surging once again. "He was just worried 'bout me."

"Whoa, dude, chill!" Dave exclaimed, holding his hands up in surrender, as he looked at Joshua groaning on the floor. "I thought you said 'no hard feelings'?"

"And now there aren't," Spike said calmly as he straightened the cuffs on his coat. "I didn't twist his head off or stake him, now did I? He just got a little warning, is all -- a love tap, really." He started to turn to Dru, but then rounded on Dave. Spike's brows formed a V. "And who the bloody hell are you?"

"Uh... Aloha! I'm Dave. How's it hangin'?" Dave tensed when Spike put a hand on his shoulder. "I didn't squish your eyes. I was careful..."

"Listen, Dave, you're obviously new to the whole 'minion' thing, so I'll give you a tip: I'm a Master vampire, 've been causing mayhem, destruction, and death for more than a hundred years."

"Yeah, that's soooo gnarly! I was totally stoked when --"

Spike gripped Dave's shoulder tightly, making him wince. "You're a minion; you're a peon. You don't speak to me 'less I speak to you first. Comprende?"

"Uh, yeah, okay. I mean, uh, comprend-a-mente, boss. Oh... is it cool for me to be talking now? Or should I just like shut up...?"

Spike rolled his eyes, put his hand over Dave's face and pushed him away. "Idiots... Why are so many minions brain-dead?"

"Never mind them, my love. You're back." Drusilla put her arms around his neck. "I've dreamed of this moment... Nothin' could put me in a blue mood now." She licked the bloody scratch on his cheek. "Oh bliss! Bliss and heaven! You are gorgeousness and gorgeous-ity made flesh!" Dru exclaimed joyously, paraphrasing a line from 'A Clockwork Orange'.

Spike put his hands on Dru's waist, lifted her up and spun her around in a circle, making her grin and laugh. He let her slide slowly back down his body until her feet were back on the floor. Spike smiled seductively and wrapped an arm around Dru, pulling her roughly against him. "Feels like I've been asleep for ages... God, I missed you, baby," he said breathlessly.

They started kissing passionately, holding each other and running their hands over the other's body. Dave helped Joshua get up from the floor. The other minions felt kind of awkward, not knowing if they'd get in trouble for watching Spike and the Mistress making out. It was pretty hot, but they didn't want to get their heads slammed onto the table next.

'God, I hope he's faking...' Buffy thought as she watched them. If the 'old Spike' was really back in the driver's seat, Buffy didn't stand a chance. It was gross having to watch Spike and Drusilla tonsil box... and there was that slight twinge of jealousy again. She tried to push that feeling away... that really wasn't the point. The point was, she reminded herself adamantly, if the 'old Spike' was back, Buffy's expiration date had finally arrived.





Spike and Drusilla parted, smiling and lightly stroking each other a few moments longer.

"We've got time for the ol' in-out later, pretty Spike," Drusilla cooed. "We've got an important matter to attend to first..." She turned her head to look at Buffy.

Spike turned his head and smiled. "Right... some unfinished business with that one." He gave Dru another soft kiss, and then turned to Buffy. "Well, Slayer... how's it feel to have our roles reversed? I finally got out from under your thumb... and now you're securely under mine."

Buffy licked her dry lips, wincing slightly when her tongue passed over the split in her lower lip. "Spike, Dru messed with your mind..."

Spike sauntered closer to her, going into game-face as he walked. "You treated me like something you scraped off the bottom of your shoe. You humiliated me... beat me... taunted me... mocked me at every bloody turn!" He let out a deep, rumbling growl. "You thought you could make me crawl if I loved you. That was actually a clever tactic on your part -- I'm surprised."

Buffy shook her head. "I never tried making you love me. I had no idea you might love me until Dawn told me!" She noticed he seemed to hesitate for a moment at the mention of Dawn's name. "Dawn, you like Dawn, remember? She's always defending you, she's your friend. She says you're the only one who treats her like a real person..."

"Don't talk to me like I'm a bloody mental patient!" Spike dug the heel of his hand into his forehead. Why did the mention of that stupid little girl make him pause? He felt so confused...

"Just more of her tricks, Spike," Dru said. "She made you think you care 'bout her and her family of freaks, so you would protect them with your own life... she wants you to sacrifice your life for them."

"That's not true!" Buffy insisted, keeping her eyes locked on Spike's.

As Buffy suspected, Spike had faltered when she'd said Dawn's name. He'd actually had affection for Dawn -- but Spike knew now that was a lie too. "You're good, Slayer, I'll give ya that," Spike chuckled. "Makin' me feel anything but contempt and loathing for you and yours... neat trick."

"I didn't do anything!" Buffy groaned. "What you felt was all you, Spike. Nobody made you care about me or my sister. Drusilla is the one controlling you right now!"

Spike growled low in his throat. "I'm not your whipping boy anymore. Payback is a bitch, innit, Slayer?" He stuck his tongue out and curled it up over his fangs.

Buffy swallowed as he came within reach of her. "Spike... please don't do this."

He grinned and laughed wickedly. "Ohh yes, beg me some more, Slayer. I love hearin' you beg for mercy! You remember how you made me beg for a bit of food... starving, I was. But that wasn't enough for you... I had to beg ya. Your turn, Slayer. Now say 'Pretty please with sugar on top', an' maybe I won't make it hurt... too bad... or for too long."

"Dru's making you do this! You have to remember!" Buffy struggled to get out of the chains in vain. The pain radiating from her wrists was excruciating, and blood had started running down her arms where the cuffs had cut into her flesh. Buffy continued to pull against the restraints with all her strength, but it was no use -- she couldn't get free. She had to get Spike to snap out of this thrall Dru had him in -- it was her only chance. "She got in your head and made you think you want to kill me!"

"Oh, but I do want to kill you, Slayer. Don't need no help from anyone else to convince me of that. Killing Slayers is..." He sniffed and smiled, hooking his thumbs into his belt. "Well, it's what you could call a hobby of mine... But you knew that already, yeah?" Spike smirked, pursing his lips slightly and looking quite pleased with himself. "Those crusty ol' Watcher books have a nice summin' up of my glory days, like the Readers' Digest version of my conquests. Well, guess what? Them glory days aren't over just yet."

"You love me -- don't you remember how much you love me?" Buffy hoped to jog his memory. "That crazy loon is manipulating you!"

Spike punched Buffy in the face. She grunted as her head rocked back from the blow and she tasted blood in her mouth from her teeth cutting her lip open again.

"Bite your tongue!" he growled. "You don't talk 'bout my dark goddess like that, Betty!" He grabbed Buffy by the back of her hair, yanked it and got close enough to snarl into her ear. "You hear me?!"

Buffy yelled and grit her teeth. She looked at Spike out of the corner of her eye. He looked positively evil -- his amber eyes held no warmth or affection for her at all. And there wasn't even a twinge of pain evident on his face from punching her. The chip didn't work... and Buffy's spirits sank impossibly lower.

"Answer me, bitch!" Spike demanded.

Another hard pull on her hair made her shout, "Yes, dammit! I hear you!" She never thought she'd be praying for Spike to be in love with her, but the only hope she had of still being alive five minutes from now was for him to shake off Dru's thrall and remember feeling all those things he'd spoken about earlier.

Spike closed his eyes and smiled euphorically. "God, felt so bloody good bein' able to hit you again! I owe it all to my beautiful Drusilla. She said she'd make everything right again... and she has."

Dru was grinning like a maniac and clapping her hands, bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet. "Oh, this is the grandest gala ball of them all! I'm getting all the presents I wanted!"

Spike let go of Buffy's hair and stepped back, smiling at Dru. "S'wonderful to see you so happy, luv. Does my black heart good, it does."

"You know what would make me happier still, don't you, pet?" Dru asked him, her eyes glittering with dark amusement. "Do it, Spike... Kill her!" she said with barely restrained joy and excitement.

Spike looked back to Buffy and tilted his head, his smile and eyes still full of wicked intent. "Number Three, that's how I'll always remember you, Slayer."

"Spike," Buffy tried to delay the inevitable as long as possible, "this isn't how you want it, is it? With me chained up and defenseless? What kind of great battle is that to brag about? Your demon buddies won't think much of you for killing me this way."

Spike thought about that for a moment, then he smirked and shrugged. "I'll lie. The important thing is that you get your ticket stamped -- how doesn't really matter. After all the bullshit you put me through..." His upper lip curled up over his fangs. "All the beat-downs and broken noses, all the belittling, all the insults you hurled my way...Oh, you've had this comin' a long time now, you stuck-up shrew."

"Yes, make her pay, my darling Spike!" Dru cheered him on. "Make her pay for all of her ill deeds!"

"Y-you remember all that bad stuff I did and said to you -- don't you remember how you loved me?" Buffy asked him, her voice cracking slightly at the end. She felt tears well in her eyes, but they weren’t from fear, they were from hurt and disappointment that the love he had professed just minutes before seemed to be completely erased from his heart. Why did she care? Why did it matter that the love that she hadn’t even known about twenty-four hours ago, or believed in less than an hour ago, was now gone? Buffy blinked the tears back and clenched her jaw, forcing herself to maintain eye contact with him. It only mattered because now he wasn’t helping her, that was the only reason it mattered… right?

Spike's bumpy brow creased, he looked confused for a moment. Then he shook his head rapidly and dug the heel of his hand into his forehead again. "That's... That was a trick! You cast a spell on me -- you made me think and feel things... disgusting things for you!" He spit on the floor. "Was just part of your plan to humiliate and break me!"

"Spike, think! I don't have the power to do that! Drusilla's the one with hocus-pocus hypno powers, not me! And me doing magick of any kind? When have I ever been the least bit witch-y? The closest I’ve ever gotten to using magick was trying that Bacon Genie that cooks bacon in the microwave ‘like magic’! And trust me, that was a miserable failure."

"She had her friends do it, I'll wager!" Dru chimed in. "Those witch friends of hers were all too happy to help her bring you to your knees, my Spike. They laughed at you, they all laughed at you. And maybe she even made those soldiers capture you, told her boy-toy to trap you like an animal -- gave him special, naughty favors for the job, she did."

"None of that is true," Buffy said slowly, looking Spike in the eye. "You have to know it's not true, Spike. Spike, please... please think about this!"

"Get to the ultra-violence, Spike," Drusilla egged him on. She was concerned that he'd paused and had gotten confused a few times. Her thrall shouldn't be wearing off... It was truly disturbing how tight a hold the Slayer had on Spike's mind and heart -- part of him was still fighting this. Just in case it was possible for Spike to come back to his senses, he had to drain the Slayer without further delay -- the only thing that would break the Slayer's spell on him was her blood spilling down his throat. "I want to see you rip her apart. Kill her now!"

Spike stood in front of Buffy, close enough to kiss her (if he still wanted to, that is). He tore away some of the streamers and bows from around Buffy's neck to have full access to her throat.

"Yes, unwrap your present, darling!" Dru giggled with excitement.

"Ready for it, Slayer? I'm gonna finish what I started. I always finish what I start." He grabbed a handful of her hair and yanked her head back again, exposing her throat to him.

"Spike, please don't!" Buffy begged.

Spike opened his jaws wide, preparing to chomp down on her neck.


Chapter End Notes:
* Additional dialogue from the episode, 'Fool For Love' written by Douglas Petrie



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