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Quick reverse
Potent as the first verse
My amplifier blows on your world's higher
World's sire
Cuts like a barbed wire
The Prodigy – Diesel Power
~~~***~~~
*Caves outside Sunnydale, some time later*
Spike was still getting reports from the survivors, but it all pointed to the same thing: the Initiative was defeated, and as soon as the charges would blow, it would be sealed for good. He eyed the scientists and other hostages huddled together next to a wall. They would need to be taken care of so that nobody could recreate the experiments again.
Buffy, Joyce, and Faith were on the opposite side of the cavern, talking in hushed voices. Spike made his way over to them. “How are you holding up?”
“Everything’s better now that we’re out of that horrible place.” Joyce shuddered as she talked.
Buffy crossed her arms over her chest. “Yes, we’re good, but what now?”
“What do you mean, love?”
“You said you’d blow the place up.” She made a signal toward the prisoners with her chin. “What’s gonna happen to them?”
“Well, we can’t let them go with what they know. So—”
“You want to kill them?” There wasn’t any shock in Buffy’s voice, which Spike took as a good sign.
“I do. For what they did down there, for what they did to you, they deserve to suffer and die. Would be good for morale too.”
“They’re still human.”
“So was Mengele. Can you honestly look me in the eye and tell me you don’t think they would have started cutting you and your mother up bit by bit?”
She lowered her head and covered her face with her palms. Joyce came up and hugged her from behind. “I don’t care if they’re human or not, they deserve whatever you want to do to them. Burn them at the stake as far as I’m concerned.”
“Mom, better not say such things. Remember last time?”
Joyce looked stricken and started apologizing for something Spike knew nothing about. There was a story there for another time.
Faith spoke up as she placed a palm on Buffy’s shoulder. “From what I understand, the truce says the Initiative people are yours to do as you please with, so… enjoy, I guess.”
Spike hadn’t even thought about the truce. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
“Which brings us to my earlier question: then what?” Buffy’s gaze was burning through him, as if searching for something. “The Initiative will be defeated, so the truce will be over.”
Spike felt as if she’d slapped him. “So?”
She huffed. “So what are you going to do after?”
Her question got him mad. “What’s wrong Slayer? Afraid I’ll come hunting for you and yours? Scared I’ll decorate the streets with their entrails to celebrate our victory? You think I did all this to get you out only because of the fucking truce?” He didn’t even want to look at her as she stood there in all her righteousness. Down in the tunnels, when he’d seen her at Angelus’s mercy, he’d realized that he would do anything for her, the love sick fool that he was. Hearing her question his motives got him seeing red. “Know what? If you’re so scared about what comes next, why don’t you just leave?” He could see the idea shocked her. Good. “Get the fuck out of here, go take care of yourself and your mum, lick your wounds, and see what happens as it happens.” Nobody moved. “Go.”
He whirled around and left her there. He needed blood and booze, and luckily for him there were some happy meals with legs in lab coats just begging to sate his hunger.
~~~***~~~
*Buffy’s dorm room, a couple of weeks later*
Buffy woke up from her sleep only to find she couldn’t make a sound. A mimed discussion with Willow later, and it became clear Buffy hadn’t suddenly come down with muteness, but something else was going on. Maybe it was related with that disturbing Slayer dream she’d had the other night. Which, of course, meant they needed to get to Giles and research.
She called her mother first, only to be stumped by the inability to communicate with someone over the phone, especially when the people on both ends are verbally challenged. She hung up defeated.
Walking through town proved an eerie experience, and that was saying something considering they lived in Sunnydale. What was worse though was that because of the silence, she was forced to pay attention to her thoughts and what the places they were passing meant to her.
It was a ‘greatest hits’ of her and Spike: the coffee shop he used to work at, the half-hidden playground they’d had their first tryst in, the burned down, half-sunk, and condemned husk of Lowell House. Just three streets over and one street down was the cemetery where they’d come together, only to fall apart, and ahead was where he’d come so many times to ‘keep in touch’ with her and her friends. Now she’d be at Giles’ and he wouldn’t come. Because she pushed him away.
What did it say about her that her entire sexual experience consisted of four one-night stands? Scott wasn’t her fault. She knew you couldn’t turn someone gay any more than you could turn someone straight. He’d used her as a beard and maybe an attempt to figure out his real self. Parker had been a sleaze who didn’t even merit mentioning, but she’d been silly enough to fall for it. Faith had been something else altogether, and had things been different, maybe they would have had a future. In fact, Buffy wasn’t sure she hadn’t made a mistake when she’d refused to at least become her fuck buddy. Last week she’d hit on Faith after they’d stayed up all night to catch up. The other Slayer had refused, telling her she was up for almost anything, but that she wouldn’t be Spike’s replacement.
Which brought her back to Spike. Though they’d technically done stuff twice, it was only that one time they’d both been in full control of their minds and bodies. He’d rocked her world, and then he’d opened his big mouth and ruined it. Of course, he’d been right about the Initiative, but now that wasn’t the main issue. He was free to kill, and if he did she’d have to dust him.
She played with the ring hidden under her shirt. She’d put it on a necklace and almost always wore it. It allowed her to understand a bit more about how Spike felt with it: impervious, unaffected by either the need to eat, drink, or sleep, and oh so terribly alone. She’d also solved Angelus’s riddle: the Gem didn’t heal wounds you’d gotten before you put it on, on the contrary. She’d nicked herself on a knife one morning—she took it off to be able to sleep—and the wound didn’t close until she took off the necklace with the Gem, despite her Slayer healing. So it kept her body in the state it was in when she put the ring on.
Of course, she hadn’t told Giles the Gem of Amara—the Holy Grail for vampires—worked just as well on Slayers too. The ramification of what that meant… Faith hadn’t been phased when she’d found out. She’d simply said it made sense. The two of them weren’t called Vampire Slayers for nothing. Sure, it got shortened to Slayer many times, but the rest of the title was always there, in the background, like a shadow. Well, apparently that darkness was there because they had at least a part of a vampire demon inside them. The Council probably knew more about it, but the last thing Buffy wanted to ask Travers was weather she was part demon.
Wesley had told them about the wet-works team that was ready to take both Buffy and Faith out if the Cruciamentum impasse couldn’t be resolved last year. So there would be no rocking the boat. The Slayers got paid, the Council got periodic updates, and the world was protected from demons and the odd apocalypse. Everyone was far from happy, but definitely not murderous. And even with the Gem, Buffy didn’t think for one second the Council wouldn’t go after her if they decided she was ‘tainted.’ Her Mom and friends were still vulnerable and she’d—
Her mind and her feet ground to a halt. She would exchange the Gem for those she cared about, for someone she loved. The Council would probably simply destroy it, but a vampire would use it. Spike had turned the Gem over to another vampire in exchange for her. Sure, he must have known she would try to stop Angelus, but he still did it. He put everything on the line for her. She repaid him by not giving him the ability to walk in daylight. She looked up at the sky. It was overcast today, but behind those clouds was the sun. She’d stolen the sun from him.
Willow gave her a strange look then wrote on the clipboard she’d bought from some guy on the street earlier: ‘Spike?’
Buffy grimaced. She wasn’t sure if she was happy her friend could tell what was bothering her, or upset that she was so transparent. She shook her head and pointed to Giles’s flat, mouthing ‘research.’
Now was not the time to be thinking about the vampire who hadn’t come round since the fall of the Initiative. She had everyone’s voices to get back.
~~~***~~~
*Main Street, the next day*
Buffy was chasing fairytales. Sure, the nightmare version as opposed to the Grimm one, but still a fairytale. Then again, Giles had said the Gem of Amara was a fairytale at some point too.
No. No thoughts about the Gem, or who it belonged to.
She met another couple of those weird helper guys with the untied straight-jackets, killed one, and followed the other as it hobbled away. She hoped it’d lead her to its masters.
Instead it lead her into a trap. Four more jumped her and she found they were really hard to get rid of, when each grabbed hold of a limb and started pulling.
Her left leg got free all of a sudden, and she used it to brain the thing holding her right leg. She was getting ready to get rid of the other two holding her, when the fifth jumped on her. As it was trying to choke her with his sleeves, it was dragged off her and its head was ripped off.
There he was—Spike. He’d come and helped her despite everything. She didn’t have time to deal with, though. She curled up and wrapped her legs around the stocky neck of one of the creatures holding her and managed to break it. Jumping off its body in a crouch, she spotted the last remaining minion limping off out of the alley.
She locked gazes with Spike and her heart skipped a beat. He frowned, tilted his head, and he focused lower. She glanced down and saw what he was looking at. During the struggle, the Gem had climbed out from under her top and was now on full display.
She shook her head. Now was not the time for Spike, the Gem, or anything else except stopping the Gentlemen. She tucked the necklace back under her top and looked around. The last minion was getting away. She rose from the ground and set off in pursuit.
Several minions were protecting the door at the foot of the Sunnydale U bell tower. Jackpot. She charged at them, Spike rushing the ones on her left. Together, they broke through the demented things, and then started climbing the tower. On the top level they found the Gentlemen and their collection of stolen hearts in jars.
Behind one of the demons with demented smiles was the box from her dream. She needed to smash it. She pointed it out to Spike, who nodded, and then they took on the monsters together. When one of the Gentlemen almost managed to bury his knife in Buffy’s shoulder, Spike jumped between them, and got stabbed in the back.
Buffy used the time he’d bought her and reached the wooden box, crushed it, then let out the longest and shrillest scream of her life. When she finished shrieking, the headless bodies of the Gentlemen were lying on the floor, and the remaining minions were making a run for it, away from the tower.
Spike stood next to her, his index fingers wedged in his ears. “That was some scream, love. You all right?” He lowered his hands and winced.
“I’m good, but what were you thinking? It’s the middle of the day, and you don’t—”
“I know I don’t bloody have the Gem, but I couldn’t let you go at it alone, could I?”
She’d turned so she was facing him now. The wound in his back must have hurt a lot with how stiff his shoulders looked. “And you jumped in front of me to get stabbed. Why did you do that?”
“You know, it wouldn’t hurt you to just say ‘thank you’ for that.”
“I had the Gem, so it wouldn’t have hurt me anyway.” As soon as she said it, she realized she’d just told him what she’d been hiding from everyone but Faith for the past two weeks. By the way his expression turned from surprised to calculating, he understood what it meant.
“It works on Slayers? That’s just neat. Did you try—”
“We aren’t talking about this.” She crossed her arms over her chest.
“Right, then. Well, I’ll be off.” He looked at the sky. “Fun as all this has been, I better get to cover before the sun decides to do something stupid, like come out of the clouds.”
He made to walk past her, but she stopped him with a hand on his arm. “Why are you here, Spike?”
He let out a sigh and pinned her with such an intense gaze it stole her breath. “Because I’m in love with you.”
There it was. He’d said what she hoped he’d say, what she’d dreaded he’d say since the moment she saw him in the Initiative tunnels, trading the Gem for her life. But that still didn’t solve anything. Her eyes stung with unshed tears, but she had to be strong. “What about the truce?”
He snarled. “What about it? I tell you I’m in love with you and all you’re interested in is the fucking truce? Typical.” He made to rip his arm away, but she held firm.
“Please. I need to know.” She would refrain from jumping to conclusions.
He stared at her for long moments, his jaw muscles ticking, and his nostrils flaring. Then he closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and most of the hostility was gone from his gaze when he looked at her again. “I haven’t killed anyone since you left the caves.”
That was… she hadn’t expected him to say that. Her heart lurched, but she once more put her feelings aside. “What about the hostages?”
He sneered. “Butchers. Almost ripped the whole lot limb from limb. They deserved it, too, you know that.”
She gulped and nodded. She remembered some of the thoughts going through her mind while she’d been trapped. She’d wanted Spike to come and rip them all to shreds. Then… he had come, and she’d wanted him to not be a monster. Consistency, thy name is not Buffy.
“In the end I got to choose their fate, as the Master of Sunnydale.” He smirked. “Did you know there’s a demon whose venom drives you insane?” She shook her head. “Nasty bugger. One prick from his stinger, and it’s off to Bedlam. Only way to make the antidote is to kill it and use its own venom to create a brew.” He shrugged. “That’s exactly what I told those so-called scientists and soldiers as they were injected, one by one. Took for bloody ever, since it’s hours before it recharges for full dose. Only finished two days ago. Left that Walsh bird for last. Had her watch every single one of her people get dosed. She saw twenty three of her former underlings get stung and slowly go insane before it was her turn. She was halfway to Loonyville before the venom. Now they’re all in the care of some nice people with white robes and powerful drugs.”
Buffy shivered. “That’s horrible.”
“Maybe, but they’re not dead. I may have drunk from a few of them that first day, but didn’t kill any of ‘em. You can check, they’re—”
“No. I’m never going close to a nuthouse again.”
He frowned. “What happened?”
She shook her head. “Doesn’t matter.” She shuddered again. “So… you…”
He gave her a twisted smile. “Haven’t gone on a murderous rampage, no.”
“What about your minions?”
He winced. “There were some who took issue with my latest ideas, so now there are less minions.”
She frowned. “What ideas?”
“Catch and release, keep a low profile, focus on criminals, you know… the works.”
“You mean—”
“I simply modified a bit the truce we already had. Didn’t go down very well with some of the more violent types, but they’re dust piles by now. Hell, we’ve had some demons decide they wanted to stick around too, strength in numbers and all that rot.”
She felt a lump form in her throat, but managed to speak past it. “I thought patrol was only slow because there were so many casualties in the attack.”
“We didn’t lose many. More of a ‘shooting apples in a barrel’ than a fair fight that was.”
It was time to ask the big question. “So what’s to stop you changing your mind and killing again?”
“Didn’t you hear me? I love you. What more do I need to do for you to under—”
She shut him up with her lips. She’d wanted to kiss him like this for too long. When it finally happened it was so much better than she remembered, she didn’t even think of the bodies around them until she accidentally stepped on one. She stumbled back and looked around. “Okay, that’s gross.” She raised her gaze and could see he was worried. “Wanna go somewhere more private and… I don’t know, less with the dead bodies?”
The smile he gave her lit up his whole face. “Your place or mine?”
“Don’t you share with a bunch of other vampires?”
He scratched the back of his neck with a bashful look. “I actually moved in to a crypt, been cleaning it out and putting in furniture. No dead bodies anywhere by now. You might remember the one—”
“Did you get a bed in there?”
“Well, yeah. Didn’t want to sleep on a sarcophagus.”
“Oh, thank God. Let’s go.”
Diesel Power lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, BMG Rights Management





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