Chapter 14

Note: another long chapter. urg.. ummm. This part is a little gruesome. You'll see what I mean. If you think that the rating should be changed to an R, please tell me privately and I'll do it. I don't feel like dealing with the fanfiction.net moderators and having my story plucked out on and deal with all that mess. And besides, if you do report me to the moderators. I just wont finish the story. period. After all, this is the only place I am posting it at. Or, I will finish the story but I will only send the remaining chapters to a select few. Sorrie if I sound mean, but I've been snubbed several times by fanfiction moderators and I am totally sick of it.

***Nemiphoren growled viciously as he tore himself from the worm's hold, as he got away he grabbed the few remaining ones and stomped on them. He quickly rushed to Will's side as the small dirty-blond haired boy was consumed by another mass of worms. Nemiphoren tore them away frantically and he dug his hands into the pile, trying to pull the weak boy out. These creatures had a stronger hold on Will. As Nemiphoren busily tried to free Will, he didn't notice that the worms began to merge together to become a black shadow of a being. It has wicked neon green eyes, its entire body has no consistent form, and it moved like lighting. (Think of Ink (is that how you spell her name?) from Batman Beyond.)

The Creature grabbed the back of Nemiphoren's neck, pulled him up and punched him in the face until he was barely conscious. Then it dropped Nemiphoren on the ground like a limp doll and slinked over to Will. Will whimpered, "No. please, no again. I can't!. please!"

The Creature smiled sinisterly, making no noise as it laughed at Will's futile begging. Then it walked behind the boy and wrapped its hands around him. One the Creatures arms wrapped around his waist and the other held him from the left shoulder and then it began to whisper painful things into Will's ear. Will began to hyperventilate as the words sank in and the creature began to assimilate into his body.

At this time Nemiphoren started to come around once more, but it was too late. By the time he got over to Will, the Creature had disappeared into Will's body. Nemiphoren let out a small whine as he hysterically picked Will up and shook him. "Come on, don't let him beat you again. Not again. No., you'll die. You're stronger than that! You can force him out! . please?. oh god. if only you could believe in yourself. It could never take advantage of you!

(flashback)

"Hey man! Watch it!" Will said as he shoved Nemiphoren's foot away from his head. Nemiphoren growled at the middle-aged man who was the human soul that currently his roommate. Will laughed, "Aw come on, no one likes to have someone's foot on their head."

Nemiphoren smiled, "At least some one's a little happy now."

Will frowned and returned to his depressed state. Nemi rolled his eyes and gave a deep sigh. "Now, don't do that again."

"You brought it up."

Nemi got off the couch and sat on the floor next to Will. "It still hurts that much?"

Will blinked back a few tears, "Yeah, still feel worse than when Cecily rejected me or when Dru left us."

The demon soul looked sad at the mention of Dru's name. He really loved Dru, Will loved her too, but not as much as he did. Will always helped him with all the romantic stuff that kept Dru by his side for centuries. And then there was Buffy, Will loved her first and slowly he managed to also make him fall in love with her too. It was ridiculous, demons didn't love Slayers. And yet he still loved her. The thing was, he was always more practical and levelheaded than Will was. Will was devastated when Buffy told him to that she could never love him, till now, he was still depressed over her. He himself hadn't gotten over Buffy, but he didn't really show it. But Will knew that he hurt too, he just never said anything.

Will moped quietly as Nemiphoren rubbed his back in circles, even though Will was a grown man, he was till as innocent as a child. Never really tainted, no matter what Nemiphoren did. Other souls were usually self- righteous and all that rot, but Will usually let him be. They really had no quarrels, Will's personality was just really pacifying.

-- Spike had been wandering around for a bit, he had just arrived in a small village, almost in the middle of nowhere in China. And then he encountered the Creature. ---

Will looked around worried, "Something isn't right. The atmosphere feels strange."

Nemiphoren nodded in agreement, "I'm getting really trippy vibes 'ere."

Will yelped as he saw the creature approach them. "What the heck is that?!"

Nemiphoren grabbed Will's arm and backed themselves away slowly. " I have no idea what that is and I don't think I want to find out."

Will nodded nervously and gulped. In that instance the Creature disappeared in a flash and tossed Nemiphoren to the side as it attacked Will. Will stood there, frozen in fear. The Creature gave a soundless laughed and then pounced on Will. There was a small struggle, but eventually Will's spirit gave out and the Creature assimilated into his body. Nemiphoren screamed, "Nooooo!!" as he rushed over to Will.

"Will?!" Nemiphoren asked as he shook Will's limp body. "Will. wake up man, this ain't funny."

Then Nemiphoren turned Will's head and saw that Will's pupils and iris had disappeared, only leaving white.

--- The Creature had totally taken over Will, driving him insane with dreams that turned to heart wrenching nightmares and whispers about how worthless he was. Nemi had seen all this happen every time he touched Will's body, but he could never wake Will up from his coma-like state.

It wasn't until almost five months later when Michael had entered Will's body, had they finally exorcised the Creature from Will's spirit body and kept it at bay. But the effects were devastating. Will's mind was completely fried for months after the experience. He could never sleep well due to his fear that his dreams would become nightmares. He didn't trust himself to do anything right and he would always sit in some quiet corner muttering derogatory mantras until Nemi found him and shook him out of it. But the worst of all that the creature had done to Will was that it had managed to regress Will's body and mental state to that of a sickly and dying nine-year-old boy.

(flashback end)

Nemi hadn't even realized he had started cry until he noticed the wet drops splash onto Will's face. 'This can't happen again, it'll kill him. It'll kill the both of us.' Nemi drew Will's lifeless body into his arms and held him tightly, almost as if he was protecting Will from some sort of danger. But it was already too late.

~~~ Michael flung Lucifer up against the wall once they had disappeared to a random, deserted area. "What the hell did you think you were doing?!"

Lucifer angrily shoved Michael back. "I didn't know okay? So just back off."

"My host is going to die and you're telling me to forgive and forget?! You stupid piece of- "

Lucifer held his hand up to stop Michael. "I didn't say that I wanted your forgiveness. I was just saying that I didn't know it was you."

"Bull!"

"I didn't dammit! Once I 'fell', I haven't been able to sense the other Archangels, including you. And you usually don't interfere directly in mortal lives, so you can see why I would assume that you were a hell god."

Michael narrowed his eyes, but let the matter drop. Lucifer usually didn't lie to him.

"Okay then, I also have another issue to bring up. Why did you want to keep me from finding a host? And yes I know why you sent me on those missions."

"Well, why did you follow them?!"

"Because I needed to talk to you."

"Couldn't you have done it sooner?!"

"My host wouldn't have understood, most mortals don't."

"So you had to wait until your host wasn't watching over your shoulder or when you left the body. Now, what did you want to discuss?"

" The final battle, it's not even anymore."

Lucifer rolled his eyes, "Duh. With you on their side, of course I can't win."

Michael sighed as he looked up, "No, if I were to stay away from the battle, you'd still lose significantly."

"What are you saying?"

"Metatron just got a power boost from God, he's been secretly tapping into his power."

Lucifer froze, "You're kidding. How strong is he?"

"About the both of us combined."

"Geez! What has been happening since I 'fell'?"

"Metatron has become corrupt, he's using his status of 'God's voice' to have angels carry out his own selfish ends."

"Well, won't God punish him?"

"Not if he's/she's trillions of light-years away creating other civilizations or dimensions."

"Sh*t.I'm so screwed."

"No, actually not just you."

"What?"

Michael gave another sigh as he sat on top of a wooden crate nearby. "Metatron never understood why God said that 'there has to be a balance'. He figures if he destroys all the monsters and beings in hell, he'll have an easy job. It doesn't work that way. There are three possible outcomes from the final battle. One, you win, world becomes a chaotic demon home."

"Well, I never said I wanted to win."

"I know. Two, it comes down to a stalemate. Everything goes back to the way it was. Everyone is fine. Life goes on. This is the outcome I'm striving for."

Lucifer nodded, "same."

"And then Three, Metatron wins. Have you ever read "The Time Machine" by H.G. Wells?"

Lucifer nodded. "Yes."

"Remember how in the future all the humans lived an ephemeral life, they lost their intelligence, they knew of the monsters and ran away like cowards instead of fighting back. Humans became easy pickings because they were stupid and naïve. Every time one human died they would be forgotten within an hour and no one will ever admit that it happened. That's what's going to happen. Demons are terrestrial creatures, they will always still be around, but humans won't have the knowledge or the intelligence to fight back."

Lucifer's mouth slowly opened as he realized what Michael meant. "It's like Adam and Eve never ate from the tree of knowledge."

"Exactly."

"We can't let him win." Lucifer said in a determined voice.

Michael nodded. "I know, that's why I'm helping you this time."

~~~

Dawn returned to the room that Buffy and Spike were in once Willow told her that the spell was ready. Buffy quickly removed the blanket that she had placed on Spike's body and quickly let the others into the room. Buffy, the Scoobies, Angel and his team sat in a circle around Spike's body, each of them held a handful of maroon dust. Anya and Giles slowly chanted as they waved two candles over Spike's body on opposite sides. Then they placed some quartzes and crystals on Spike's face and in his hands. As Anya finished the chant everyone blew the dust in their hand toward Spike. Then they sat back and quickly each of them fell into a deep slumber

~~~

Buffy and the group slowly woke up, only to find themselves in Buffy's home. She walked around and examined the objects suspiciously, then she tried to pick up a plate but found out that her hand passed right through it. The others looked at her and nodded, knowing that they were just spectators.

Suddenly they saw another older Buffy walk into the house and groan as she took off her uncomfortable high heels, put her purse on the counter and collapse on the couch. Buffy walked over to her and yelled out a few times, but the older Buffy didn't' notice her or the others. As Buffy stood there looking at her counterpart the door rattled as someone put in the key and opened the door. It was Spike, out in the sunlight! And not only that he was wearing a casual suit and holding two giggling children in his arms. The girl managed to wiggle from Spike's grasp and then ran over to her younger brother and she tapped his nose. "Tag!" she exclaimed, "You're it!"

Then she ran up stairs in a hurry. Spike let go of his son and let him chase his sister up the stairs. The group gave Spike a strange look, but they didn't' say anything. Spike quietly sauntered over to the older Buffy, sat down on the couch and snuggled with her.

"How was work today?" He asked as he placed a soft kiss on her lips, pulled her onto his lap and played with her back hairs on her neck.

"Tiring, I really don't like working with teenagers. Too hormonal."

Spike chortled softly at her comment.

"What?"

He kissed her again, "It's not good to be a hypocrite, luv."

She playfully smacked him and he untangled himself from her embrace. She gave him a confused look.

He gave her an Eskimo kiss, "I'm going to go out and get us some pasta for dinner from Pernice's" ( Italian restaurant, I didn't want to name it something cheesy like Luigi's or Mario's or the Mario brother's.shudders.)

She smiled and hugged him, "You're a lifesaver."

"And you are a delicious chocolate mousse cake."

She smacked him for his ridiculous pun and he laughed as he went out again.

In that instant, the group was transported to the restaurant where Spike was getting his order. While he waited he ran into the local bakery and got a chocolate mousse cake and some flowers from the flower shop.

And then the scene returned to the house once more as Spike walked home with a delighted smile, unable to wait for how his wife reacted to his little treat for her. He flung open the door calling out, "Honey I'm home!"

He paused for a bit, waiting for a reply, which he didn't get. He slowly closed the door behind him and started up the steps. Suddenly the strong smell of blood filled his nose. Whatever Spike was carrying was dropped on the floor in that instant as he rushed up the stairs. "Ricky? Lizzy?" He called out to his children. He held his breath as he opened the door to his kid's room.

Spike's eyes widened in horror as he felt bile rise up to his throat and he quickly rushed towards the bathroom.

Both Ricky and Lizzy where hung to death by a rope tied to their ceiling fan.

During that time Fred and the others walked up the stairs, wondering why Spike had rushed up. Then they saw Spike dash out of his children's room and toward the bathroom. Everyone gave each other a weird look. Since Fred was in front, so she was the first to open the door. She screamed as she backed away and ran towards Gunn. The others shuddered or whimpered as they turned away. Buffy was shaking, terrified that 'her children' were killed in such a way. Giles hurried over to Buffy and held her tightly.

"Don't worry, it's not real. It's not real.. It's not real. It's just a nightmare."

Then Buffy remembered Spike and ran towards the bathroom. As she set foot in the bathroom, she noticed that the ground was covered in pinkish looking water. Spike had forgotten about his urge to vomit and he was staring at the bath, which was still overflowing with the pinkish water. The curtains were drawn around the bathtub, so you could only see the bottom portion.

Spike's breaths were loud and erratic as he slowly approached the bathtub. With shaky hands, he slowly drew back the curtain. The bath was filled with dark red blood and his wife with her throat cut open. Spike screamed as he kneeled by the bathtub staring at his wife, her eyes were still open and looking sideways at the wall. He let out a heart wrenching sob as his tears spilled over, nervously he reached over and closed his wife's eyes and then collapsed on the wet ground.

Buffy stood there frozen at the doorway. Seeing herself dead like that was ghastly and she started to cry as she saw Spike collapse onto the ground. Then she heard a sinister voice whispering around the room.

"It's all your fault." It whispered. "Your fault. it's all your fault Spike. You killed her."

Spike shook his head, "No, I was away. go away!"

"You killed her, you killed your children. You're a monster." The eerie voice continued.

Spike looked around in fear and began to back towards the wall and away from the bathtub. " I didn't kill them!"

"Yes you did. Yes you did. yes you did." The voice echoed and bounced around the bathroom walls.

"Shut up! Go away!" Spike screamed as he clutched his head

"It's all your fault. see."

Buffy suddenly noticed that a knife and blood covered Spikes hands, which wasn't there a second before.

Spike looked down at his hands. "No.. no .. I didn't!"

"Yes you did. yes you did. You killed them. You killed them. You're a monster, you don't deserve to live." The voice continued.

Spike dropped the knife and tried to wash his hands at the sink. But instead of water coming out, fresh warm blood came out of the nozzle.

"You're a killer, you're a killer. You kill those that you love. You killed your family. That's right."

Spike began to sob once more and he dashed out of the bathroom and tried to run downstairs. But the voice kept following him. He slipped on one of the steps and tumbled down the stairs, twisting one of his legs. Then the voice came again. Stronger this time.

"You can't run. You can't hide. You killed them. You're always being watched. You're a killer, you need to die."

The group had jumped back when they saw Spike dash out of the bathroom and fall into a heap down the stairs. Buffy soon followed as she closed the bathroom door.

She gave the others a serious look and said, "Whatever you do, don't go in there."

They gave her a small nod as they watched her run down the stairs and sit down next to Spike. She knew that he couldn't see her or the others, but maybe she could find some sort of way to help. As Spike rocked back and forth repeating in a mantra that he didn't do it, Buffy noticed that he was getting smaller. No, he was becoming younger. Soon, she was watching a 9- year-old Spike crying and shaking where the older Spike had been. Buffy gasped.

Suddenly, the house disappeared and Buffy and the group found themselves out in the middle of a dark, dead forest with dead black trees everywhere and a black sky. Soon, monsters started to come out of the darkness and the younger Spike got up and started to run for his life.

~~~

Nemiphoren frowned. In the past he was able to enter Will's dreamscape while the Creature possessed Will. So, why couldn't he now?

Nemi concentrated harder as he held Will's wrist and then he felt his mind float away from his body.

'There we go.'

~~~ Leng anxiously tapped her fingernails on her pull out table on the airplane. Something was wrong with William now. She could sense it, in fact, it was practically screaming at her. Nimbly she got out of her seat and surreptitiously walked towards the restrooms on the plane. She closed the door, but made sure not to lock it and disappeared.

In the next instance she reappeared in William's penthouse. Leng walked into William's room, not finding him there. When she turned around, she found herself face to face with Aoide. And faster than Aoide could breath Leng gripped her throat and pinned her to wall.

"Who are you and where is William?!"

~~~ Cont.

R&R pweeeaaase?

Chapter 15

Note: Okay, to answer one of the questions. Who is Meteron? You see.. I made a mistake >_< it's suppose to be Metatron, not Meteron. Metatron was the first Archangel ever created. As theory has it, Metatron may have created Lucifer. And I also heard from another theory that before Lucifer fell, he was Lucifael. I'm just trying to incorporate what I think may have happened. (P.S. don't be offended by the religious subtext, because truth be told. I'm agnostic. I just find all religious texts to be really interesting.)

Oh and another thing kiddies! I changed the rating from pg-13 to R, so you're going to have to check out the R section now. sigh. I wish that on default fanfiction.net would just put G>R instead of G>Pg-13. it's just... really annoying for me the change it every time I want to go look around for fics!!!!

OH! AND REMEMBER : NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN UNDER 17 does not mean banned from anyone under 17. Suitable being the key word here. Psh. besides anyone over 12 is considered a teenager or young adult, not child.

Have fun, please R&R.

~~~ ***The group cautiously entered his mindscape, the whole place was dark, like those haunted movies where there was never ending path in the forest of black twisted trees.

The group hurriedly scattered and hid behind some trees once they saw the monsters come out of the darkness and head towards the road. As William was running as fast as he could, he tripped in his haste and fell. Unexpectedly, Nemiphoren appeared out of nowhere and caught up with Will before the other monsters. The group was taken back by his appearance; he looked like street gangster with blue tinted skin and two brown horns poking out of his bright red hair. Buffy cried out, trying to warn Will of the demon. However the demon didn't attack the boy. Instead, it scooped up the little boy from the ground and continued to run while carrying him. Moments later all sorts of beast, demons, and monsters chased after the two running figures.

At that moment, unknown to them all, the Creature smiled as it watched Buffy and her group of friends chase after the demons. 'Well, well, what do we have here? It seems that we have guests. I can't have them waking Will up from my wonderful world of pain I've created just of him. I think I should give them. a 'proper' introduction.'

Buffy nodded towards the others and followed after the group of demons. Eventually the dreary landscape of the dark forest disappeared and so did the monsters as Nemiphoren and Will ended up in a field of flowers. In the middle of the field stood another copy of Buffy, Angel and the Scooby team (excluding the Angel investigations team). Nemiphoren stopped and started to run the other way once he saw the group. Will yelled at the demon soul.

"No wait! We're safe! It's Buffy and the others; they'll protect us. Nemi stop!"

Nemi shook his head, "Things aren't what they seem. We have to get out of here."

"No! Nemi! Let me go!" Will cried out as he wiggled out of Nemi's grasp and ran towards the group!

"Will! Stop! This isn't real! They're going to hurt you. Don't get any close. Damn!" Nemi cursed as he chased after Will's swiftly disappearing figure.

The fake Buffy held out her arms, "Come my precious William. I'm here for you. I'll take care of you."

The other replicas gave Will frighteningly plastic smiles, but Will didn't notice. He was too happy to see Buffy once again.

Nemiphoren profusely cursed as he soon closed in on Will and then gabbed Will before he could reach the replicated Buffy.

The false Buffy gave Nemiphoren a blank look, "Nemi, you know it's not nice to deny Will what he wants. Give him to us."

The other imitations held out their hands. Nemi gripped Will even harder, "Not this time. This isn't going to happen again."

Will winced at Nemi's grip, "Ouch. Nemi, you're hurting me."

Nemi didn't respond but he loosened his grip a little. During this time, he had kept his attention on the fake Buffy the whole time and he hadn't noticed the fake Xander slip away from the group and sneak behind him. Suddenly Nemi blacked out and dropped Will as Xander smashed him over the head with a heavy metal staff.

The replicas narrowed their eyes and gave sinister smiles at the same time as Xander raised his metal staff and speared Will through the upper right leg.

The real Buffy and the group came just in time to watch Xander spear Will through the leg. Buffy screamed as she charged at the fake Xander, but only found herself running right through him, like a ghost. ***

~~~

Aoide sighed forlornly as she stared at her mug of tea. She had just told Leng who she was and how she came to associate herself with William and also the strange things that had been happening the last few days. Leng nodded, knowing that Aoide wasn't lying to her.

"But I still have no idea where William disappeared to." Aoide said as she shook her head.

"I can do a tracing spell." Leng announced as she headed to the coffee table. "Can you go find a map of L.A? Using that, I should be able to pinpoint where William is. The sooner we find him, the better. Something is very wrong right now. I don't know what, but we have to get him before it's too late."

Aoide nodded as she ran over to the closet and pulled out a large road map of L.A. and returned to Leng's side. Leng had started to pull out some herbs and potions out of her purse as she prepared for the spell.

"This won't take long. Get ready to leave."

~~~

Lucifer leaned against the old stonewall as he fiddled with his fingers, contemplating the predicament he was in. Finally he spoke, "You know I'm gradually getting weaker as the centuries go by. I can't fight off you guys for much longer. And you probably won't be around to save my ass the next time around."

Michael nodded, looking down at the dirt floor, "I know. You didn't have to oppose Metatron you know! You should have just kept your damn mouth shut."

"And what?! I was the only one there who had the balls to stand up to him! Metatron being the first Archangel does not give him the right to rule over us! We were all created equally in different ways. You've got the strength. dammit! You're probably even stronger than the last time I saw you!" Lucifer yelled at Michael, then he took a few deep breaths and calmed down once more.

"God never appointed anyone to be the leader. Metatron was just a messenger that he used to check up on us."

Michael shook his head, "You could have been redeemed, but no. you had to attack God's son!"

"I thought that God was the one who forced me to fall, I didn't know it was Metatron until a fallen angel told me about what the hell was going on. He always had a grudge against ME! Just because I like humans more, I told him that they couldn't be innocent and stupid forever. He wanted it that way so it'd be easier to rule them! So go figure. he forces me to fall and I have to spend eternity guarding the gates of Hell and humans hate me! Oh the irony of it all!"

"That's not how the Bible tells it." Michael retorted.

"Bull! The Bible only knows what Metatron tells 'his' seers. You know that! You think he going tell the seers, " I didn't like Lucifael and his stupid sentimental feelings toward humans, so I decided to dumped his sorry ass in hell. And P.S. I am also a corrupt power hungry archangels that wants all humans to follow me like zombies."? "

"Your sarcasm isn't helping."

"Quit your idiotic stoic act! Deep down inside, you know what happened, but you're still in denial." Lucifer shouted at Michael, his voice was tired, but determined.

Then, both archangels fell into an uneasy silence, unsure of what to say to the other anymore.

~~~

***At first Will had screamed as Xander pierced his leg, but now he was whimpering as he tried to reach out towards the fake Buffy.

"Please." He cried out to her, "Please help me."

Buffy was looking down on Will

Condescendingly, not moving another inch to help him. Then Willow appeared with an ax in her hand. Her boots came down upon Will's hand, crushing it into the ground, causing him to scream again as he tried to retract his broken hand.

Willow growled at him, "If you don't stop moving little boy I can't make a clean cut."

In that instant she brought her ax down and severed his right arm. The pain was unbearable, his brain was practically blanking out as the white shooting sparks channeled through his whole body. The real Willow shrank back, "No.. I would never do that, why would I do that?! That's not me!"

Lorne took pity on the traumatized witch and hugged her, "It's only a nightmare, it'll soon be over, it's okay. it's okay."

Then the false Giles pulled out a shotgun and aimed at Spike's left leg.

"You should have stayed away from Buffy like you were told," He said and fired. Will gripped the ground with shaking hands, unable to vocalize the pain he was in.

The real Giles took out his handkerchief and started to wring it in his hands. "I-I wouldn't, I mean, oh. God."

Then the fake Dawn walked forward, not saying a word as she plunged a dagger into Will's stomach.

The real Dawn started to cry again and ran into Gile's arms, "Make it stop. Please make it stop, I can't watch anymore!"

The real Willow gasped as she saw a fake Tara appear, she was holding a candle and a few drops of burning hot wax fell onto his skin, causing it to blister, burn and peel*.

The fake Anya was next, she was holding a wicked looking sword and plunged it down into Will's groin. Then she said, "It's what vengeance demons do dear, after all Buffy and Dru wanted revenge on you for being unfaithful to them ."

The real Anya was silent as she watched this, this time truly having nothing to say. Knowing that in the past she had actually done deeds like this to unfaithful men.

Finally the fake Buffy walked forward as the imitation Scoobies backed away from Will's body. The fake Buffy slowly crouched down over the semi- conscious Will. Her nails slowly grew longer and sharper until they looked like five pairs of sinister looking knives. Then she plunged her right hand into Will's chest and pulled out his still warm beating heart.

"You won't be needing this anymore." The fake Buffy said in a menacing tone as she started to back away. Will's weak hand reach out and the edge of her pants and he pleaded to her, "Please. give it back.it hurts. hurts..."

Will's voice gradually became softer as his eyes glazed over and his body fell limp and cold. The fake Buffy tore her pant leg away from him, walked away with the other imitation Scoobies and disappeared. The real Buffy screamed as she ran over to Will's side. She reached out and realized that he had suddenly become tangible.

She quickly shook his shoulders. "Will? Spike. please! No.. it.. noo.."

Buffy didn't realize that she was crying until she saw her tears splash onto Will's cold cheek. She then reached out and picked up his body. Slowly she stood up and walked towards the real Scoobies holding his corpse. Before anyone could say anything Buffy shook her head. "I know that they weren't us. But it's too late."

As Buffy finished her last word the field of grass and flowers started to whither and from the ground rose bones and rotting flesh. Then the lush green hill became black as the skies turned red and rained blood upon them.

Cordy screamed when she realized that she was standing on a skull. She quickly ran over to Angel's side and held his arm in a vice grip. Giles ended up taking off his glasses and shoving them into his pocket. The others were all panicking in their own way. And then the situation suddenly became worse when Will's corpse disappeared from Buffy's arms. She started to look around frantically for him, trudging through the sharp jutting bones and fighting the urge to throw up from the smell of rotting flesh. Anya was the first to notice as they began to sink into the ground that started to swallow them up. It was useless trying to pull out, since the struggling managed to pull them in even faster. Eventually the group blacked out as they were swallowed into the ground. ***

~~~

Leng called out after some intense concentration, "I found him. Let's go."

Leng stood up as she highlighted the hotel where he was at and took the map with her. They grabbed the keys to one of the BMWs that William owned and ran down to the parking garage. Once they got out of the elevator, Aoide blipped the car and they got in, speeding towards their destination.

~~~

***Buffy, the Scoobies, Angel and his team gasped for breath as they woke up. They had blacked out once they sank into the ground. They were expecting to wake up in the hotel, but no, they were in some strange place where everything was gray colored. Dawn suddenly noticed Nemiphoren's slumped over figure that was cradling Will's lifeless body. Suddenly Nemi woke up and looked down at Will, checking his all-white eyes and shaking him a little. Buffy's demon senses were tingling as she turned around and saw Dawn walking over to Nemi.

"No Dawn! You might get hurt!" Buffy yelled out to her.

Dawn ignored Buffy's cry and sat down next to Nemi, Nemi looked at her and then looked back down at Will, "Hey Niblet."

Dawn smiled softly at the endearing name. "Is he dead?"

Nemi shook his head, "No, although I wish he was right now. This is too much. It's like being slowly tortured physically and mentally for him. If I could, I would put him out of his misery right now. Put him at peace, instead of being torn apart bit by bit. But I can't. I can't hurt him."

Buffy now stood behind Nemi and she spoke up, "But we saw him die."

Nemi shook his head, "No, he can't die in that world which the Creature created for him. He just feels horrific ranges of pain and the Creature feeds off of it. After each episode of his 'dying', it starts all over again. It may be a different dream, but they always end up with him going insane and dying. It just keeps repeating and repeating. It'll never stop."

"We have to find a way to get rid of this Creature," Dawn said urgently.

Nemi shook his head, it's not that easy. It's latched onto him because of his suffering, if you take away his suffering, then it'll go away. But. that. I don't even know if I can bring him back. He's." Nemi stopped, not wanting to finish the sentence, but the others knew what he meant.

Suddenly the group felt a jolt as they felt themselves pulled from Spike's mindscape. *** ~~~

Aoide waited in the car as Leng ran upstairs to where William was and found the group surrounding him. She knew that they were probing his mind. Quickly, she doused both candles and picked up Spike's unconscious form and walked out the door.

Buffy and the other gasped as they really woke up this time, only to find a very tall Asian woman carrying Spike out of the room.

Everyone quickly ran after her departing figure. Angel got to her first.

"What do you think you're doing?!"

"I'm saving him. He's going to die, if you haven't noticed already. You should have never taken this so far!" Leng yelled back, standing her ground against the master vampire.

"He's our friend!" Dawn cried out as she walked over.

"I don't think friends try to kill each other with slow, agonizing deaths." Leng said as she glared at Dawn and the others.

"We didn't know that this would happen!" Giles cut in.

"Then you should have researched it before you started playing with such forces!"

Buffy put her hand on Leng's shoulder, "We need to help him."

Leng shrugged Buffy's hand off and backed a few steps, she narrowed her eyes and spoke to them in an icy, hateful voice, "Haven't you done enough already? It's best that you stay away from him, permanently."

Then Leng swiftly turned around and walked out of the hotel with Spike in her arms.

~~~

Michael suddenly sat up as he felt a slight tingle in his mind.

Lucifer looked at him, "What is it?"

"Leng got William back, I need to go."

"Wait a minute." Lucifer said as he held his hand out.

Michael paused for a second.

"If you forget everything, how can you help me in the final battle?"

"The forgetting potion doesn't work on archangels. I'll schedule a meeting with you sometime."

Lucifer nodded. "Alright."

Then in a flash of light, both archangels disappeared and went on their separate ways.

~~~

Michael tapped Leng's shoulder, "I need to talk to you before you give him the spell."

Leng nodded and they went into another room, out of Aoide's earshot.

Leng looked straight at Michael's violet colored eyes, "What is it?"

"After you give William the forgetting potion and un-exorcise me, I need you to do another spell."

Leng raised an eyebrow. "To?."

" I want you to do a spell that makes me repulsed or hate Buffy. I need to keep William as far away from her as possible. If this fiasco ever happens again, we won't be able to save him."

Leng nodded. "Yes, that is a good idea."

~~~

(the next morning)

William shakily woke up with a groan and rubbed his aching head, "What happened?"

Leng was sitting at the foot of his bed. "You got drunk last night. Luckily Aoide picked me up from my lecture as you were throwing up in the bathroom."

William frowned as he looked down at his bed sheets with is clear blue eyes, "I don't remember."

Leng rolled here eyes, "Well that usually happens when you're drunk."

William shook his head, " I never get drunk."

"Aoide told me that what you told her when you tried to out-drink some 300 pound guy at the bar last night."

William looked at her sheepishly, "Oops?"

Leng shook her head, "You're place is a mess and you are a mess. I'm going to ask Owen to have Dillon come down here."

"I don't like Dillon, he's anal."

"God, you're even picky about manservants. Stop being such a baby. fine I'll call Jeff." Leng told William in an annoyed voice. "I cancelled your meetings for today. Owen took care of everything while you were away on the business trip."

"Business trip?"

"The company in Kyoto.?"

"Oh my god. I can't remember." William groaned as he gripped his head.

"Well then, you better work 10 times as hard now making up for the missed time." Leng said as she walked out of his room.

"Where are you going?!" William called out.

"I'm leaving."

"Already?! But you just got here!"

Leng pretended to examine him in worry, " I was here for about a week."

William gave her a weird look and them mumbled to himself, " I must still be drunk."

Cont.

Chapter 16

Note: I usually don't name my chapters since I understand how people get all confused and . stuff. when they have to remember the title and the chapter. However in this case, if I did name this chapter, it would have been called "Return to Normality" . ~_~ no I'm not President Wilson.

Yes, the story does sound like the theme is coming from Dogma and yes I have seen that movie and enjoyed it. But my ideas are not really from Dogma, actually my ideas came from the "His Dark Materials" Trilogy by Philip Pullman (that man is like a modern day Tolkien, gotta love him.). I saw a lot of things differently after I read his books, great writer he is..

Coughs up a lung. horribly sick right now and hallucinating too. Most of the time I think I'm floating and seeing blue dragons and orange cows. sorry the story is coming so slowly.

R&R pwwwease!





~~~ ( Three months later)

William's POV

Ever since that night when I woke up drunk and Leng hovering over me, I haven't felt the same. There's this sickness, this empty feeling that eats away at your gut and throbs in your mind. I can tell that I've been more self-destructive lately. Not in a suicidal way, but in a way that hurts all those around me. The feeling claws away at me and makes my temper violent and my tongue caustic. This week I've already made Aoide cry and run to her room in broken sobs three times and I've received annoyed and disapproving looks from Owen twice.

I hate this feeling of desperation that comes out of nowhere and makes me practically immobile. I can't sleep anymore and I find myself indulging excessively in clubs, drinking, drugs and sex. My new darker life hasn't affected my day life yet, I've been popping pills every morning. I know I can't keep up this facade forever, but I still keep doing it. I need to live on the edge, because it feels like every moment counts. I try to cram in as many emotions as I can in an hour and sometimes find myself on the verge of going completely insane.

It's so morbid that every time I space out, I think about dying. I hate the thought of being gone forever, not knowing what's happening next. It's like I wish time could completely stop once I die, that way I won't miss a thing.

I can feel this foreign coldness settling in whenever I'm talking to someone and they bring up things that apparently happened while I was 'out of it'. It's funny, it's like there's this one-month gap in my life that I'll never know or see and I'm hearing people tell me about it. Apparently in that time period I had met Aoide. Maybe that's why I'm so hostile to her now. All of a sudden, I have this super strong girl living with me, I have no idea how we met, whether she can be trusted or why I invited her to stay with me. But I'm stuck with her.

I don't trust anyone now, not even Owen. He's extremely annoyed that I call him Owen now instead of Grandpa. And ever time I say "Owen" I can see him mentally flinch. I feel bad and yet I am elated that I have such power over him. I know, it's sick.

Everything was going pretty well after the first week I woke up, until Jeff went over my schedule.

~~~

William nodded as he took the agenda from his manservant, "Thank you, Jeff."

Everything on the agenda was perfectly normal, except for the meeting with one of the TIME journalists located in L.A. William blinked a few times, wondering if it was just something in his eyes, but when he cleared his eyes and saw that it was still there. He was somewhat disturbed.

"Jeff!"

Jeff returned from his position in the doorway, "Yes sir?"

"Why do I have a meeting with TIME magazine?"

Jeff shrugged, "Perhaps you should ask your secretary."

William nodded and speed dialed Sharon.

Sharon was somewhat groggy when she picked up the phone. He had forgotten that it was already 12 at night and that most people were asleep by now.

"Yes William?"

"How did you know it was me?"

"Only you call me at ungodly hours of the night. What's wrong?"

"I have a meeting with this journalist that I've never met. Stephanie Fieldman?"

"oh. she wrote a derisive article about you and your business practices in Time magazine. You said that you wanted to have a 'talk' with her."

William frowned, "What? When?"

"Oh.. oh no sweetie, it was during that time you had amnesia. I'm sorry."

William's eyes darkened and he scowled as he listened Sharon's pitying tone. "I don't want your sympathy Sharon. I just want the matter explained to me. I want a copy of that article on my desk first thing tomorrow morning and a file on Ms. Fieldman."

"No, William, you know I didn't say that!"

"I don't care, it was in your voice."

William hung up on Sharon before she could reply and stormed up to his room. But that night he couldn't fall asleep and instead he desperately tried scratch at the blinds that were like steel shields blocking his memory. ~~~

The next day I had read the article and went through the files on Stephanie Fieldman. Her records were clean as a slate, but I doubt her tactics were. After reading the article about five times I had finally realized what was bugging me. One of the sections talked about the non-regulation methods that one of LuminaCorp's older power plants used since it was changed into a test site for science experiments. The thing was, that power plant was totally off limits, private property and needed a key to get into. After reviewing most of the tapes, I had finally caught some footage of Ms. Fieldman breaking and entering.

~~~

William smiled as he shook hand with Steve Jacobson, editor for the TIMEs office in L.A. Then both men took a seat at opposite sides of the desk.

"So Mr. Dale, what brings you here?"

William sighed deeply and pulled out a file he had in his suitcase. "I am deeply disturbed by the ethics of some of your employees Mr. Jacobson, especially Ms. Fieldman's. not too long ago she wrote a scalding article about me and my company."

Mr. Jacobson shrugged, "The people have the right to know what is going on, freedom of the press."

William shook his head, "It's not the article that I'm unhappy about, it's the measures that Ms. Fieldman has taken to ensure her article."

William reached into his suitcase and pulled out three tapes. "I have footage of Ms. Fieldman breaking and entering into one of my science labs and going through confidential files. So here, the deal: I can either sue you or you fire Ms. Fieldman."

Steve Jacobson put the tapes into a VCR next to his desk and watched as Ms. Fieldman used acid to eat away at the locks and shove open the door. Jacobson was mute the entire time while watching the tapes, when the tapes were over Jacobson turned to William.

"I am truly sorry, but you must know that Ms. Fieldman is one of out best reporters, I can't just fire such a key person. Let me think this over."

William nodded as he took back the tapes and the file. Then, right before he left William looked around the spacious editor's room.

"You know, this would be the perfect place to set up my office."

Mr. Jacobson's face darkened, "This building is not for sale."

William returned with a challenging smirk, "Everything is for sale Mr. Jacobson, you just have to know what your willing to pay for it."

Then Jacobson paled as he struggled to gulp.

William gave a low laugh as he opened the door and strode complacently out of the editor's office.

The next day, Stephanie found a pink slip lying on her desk. ~~~

I wanted to be nice to everyone, I really did. But every time I spoke, the words were caustic and vindictive. It was like I needed to hurts someone. I needed to hurt everyone because I was so lost.

~~~~

Buffy unhappily sat at the kitchen island as she sipped some cold coffee that she was too lazy to heat up again. Three months ago, they had left L.A. right after Spike disappeared once more. But news from Angel said that Spike. or was it William? was out and about and back to his billionaire self. After hearing the news for the first time, she wanted to rush back to L.A. and bring Spike home. However, in the end, she stayed home. Not because she didn't want him. it was the 'what ifs'. Like, what if he was happy the way he was, being a billionaire and all? What if he hated her forever for the pain that she had caused him? What if he refused to see her? What if. what if. what if.?

In the end, the questions came crashing down around her and she let go of the idea of finding him again. Suddenly the phone rang.

Buffy walked over to the phone hanging on the wall and answered, "Hello?"

"Hi sweetie. It's dad."

Buffy froze, one part of her was jumping for joy that her daddy had finally called them after all those years. The other part screamed in bitterness and hate at his audacity to call her after leaving them to be so miserable and penniless.

"Dad." Buffy answered back, trying to get him to say something first. She really couldn't say that she missed him. Because truthfully, she didn't, he was long gone out of their lives for almost ten years. And yet here he was, out of the blue, on the phone with her.

"Buffy," Hank paused for a second. "I've heard what's been happening with you and Dawn. And I wanted to help out. I know that you don't have enough money to pay for Dawn to finish up her classes in the next two years so I'm offering to pay for the rest of her way through college and get the college money burden off of your back."

Buffy gaped, stunned that her father was finally helping out for a change. but something wasn't right. There had to be strings, she knew her dad too well. "But what's the catch?"

There was a disturbing silence on the other side, but finally Hank answered, "In return, I want Dawn to come down to UCLA and live with me. Sunnydale isn't safe for her and your house is barely suitable to live in."

Buffy gripped onto a wooden spoon and broke it with her fingers, trying to hold the rage inside of her. But she refrained from yelling at him, if she pissed off her dad, she could be throwing away Dawn's only chance to complete her education and get a descent job.

After a while of cooling down, Buffy picked up the phone and spoke to her father again. "I'm going to have to think it over."

"Look Buffy, why don't you and Dawn come down to L.A. for a few days and look at the place I've picked out for Dawn and let her see the UCLA campus. I know some people and I think I can get her transferred over there."

All of Buffy's instincts scream 'NO!!!', but Buffy knew that Dawn's future was more important than her problems with her father.

"Okay."

"Great I'll see you on Friday."

~~~ (Friday, early morning)

"Dawn! Do you have all your stuff?!" Buffy yelled as she saw her father's approaching car.

"Yeah! Be down in a minute!" Dawn answered back.

A few moments later, Dawn carried her large baggage down the stairs.

"Is this going to be enough for one week?" Dawn inquired.

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Look, if you don't have enough clothes, we can buy you stuff in L.A."

Dawn nodded and both sisters headed outside to greet their father.

~~~ (that afternoon)

William talked at Jeff as he skillfully put on his tie, "I have a 4 hour meeting later today with some clients from Korea. So I won't be back for dinner, you have the rest of the night off. Lock the door on your way out. If I need help, I'll call you..."

Jeff nodded as, then he picked up William's jacket and helped him put it on. William meticulously flattened the lapels and dusted off the sleeves.

"How do I look?" William asked, not turning around.

"Very professional sir."

"Good."

~~~

Angel gaped as he saw Buffy walk into his office. "Buffy! What are you doing here? Is there another apocalypse coming?"

Buffy shook her head. "Nah, actually I'm here because of dad."

Angel frowned, he really hated Buffy's dad and what he did to her.

"Why?"

"I don't have enough money and dad offered to pay for Dawn's tuition. but there was a catch, Dawn has to live in L.A. with dad and go to UCLA. I don't want to screw up this opportunity for Dawn, so I'm showing her around and letting her see if she likes it around here."

Angel sighed, "I wish there was something I could do."

Buffy shrugged, "There isn't anything anyone can do. I know that your business has been slow lately with Wolfram and Harte gone.Anyways, I wouldn't have been able to take your money."

"So what are you doing here?"

"Oh, just bored. Wondering if there's anything I can do to help out."

"You can help me file papers?"

Buffy threw her hands in the air. "Sure. Beats sitting around and watch my sister being taken away from me." ~~~ (That night)

William bowed a little as he shook hands with his clients and smiled. It was nice doing business with these men, they knew what they wanted and what he wanted. So the meeting ended fairly early; about 2 hours earlier than he had expected.

William quietly retreated to his office and decided to take a break. ~~~ (Meanwhile in an apartment somewhere in downtown L.A.)

Stephanie angrily huffed as she tossed her old files away into the garbage can and then she began to mutter curses as she saw that the garbage can was too full to take anymore. She angrily stood up and picked up the garbage can and walked out of her apartment to the garbage chute near by.

While she was walking, she was distracted, thinking of horrific ways to torture her editor for firing her. Every good reporters broke a few laws to get a great story, if it weren't for her he wouldn't have been able to get some many 'hot' stories before all the other magazines with such detail and coverage. 'That ungrateful bastard.' Stephanie thought as she opened the garbage chute, 'I am the best reporter in L.A.. if only that damn CEO hadn't turning in those @(&*^ tapes!!!!!!!'

With a forceful shove she dumped the garbage, however in her absentmindedness, she hadn't noticed that the chute's spring was wound up so tight. Suddenly her upper body was caught in the chute and because of her thin figure, she didn't have enough strength to pull out. In that moment, the chute closed in on her stomach and forced her to fall through the pipe and into the large garbage can.

Stephanie threw a tantrum in the garbage can, using colorful curses as she tried to climb out of the quicksand-like masses. But fate had other plans. In that moment Bobby, who lived in room 906 finally decided to throw out his old typewriter since he finally got his new computer from his grandparents for his birthday. The heavy metal typewriter began to accelerate more as gravity pulled it down. The resulting velocity was so great that the typewriter kill Stephanie on impact.

Cont.

Part 17:

Detective Anderson looked over his files on the recent death of Stephanie Fieldman. She was found around 24 hours after she died pulverized in the compactor. However the coroner showed that her death wasn't due to the garbage truck. Apparently she was struck in the skull with a heavy object before she was mutilated. The last person she had met was her editor, he was a suspect, however at the time of the murder he was in the office the whole time. The only other person that was possible was William Dale.

It made sense, Stephanie may have seen something in Mr. Dale's files that were confidential and this was the only way to silence her. ~~~ (William's office)

"Sir, Detective Anderson is here to see you."

"What? Why?"

"He says that you're a prime suspect to a murder."

"What?!"

Sharon shrugged and then asked, "Would you like me to call your lawyer?"

William nodded as he furrowed his brow. "Yes, of course."

"Would you like to speak to him now?"

William hesitated for a second and gave a deep sigh, "Sure. I'd like to hear how I somehow got into this mess."

Detective Anderson bowed slightly to Sharon and entered William's office cautiously. William stood up and waved toward the chair facing his desk.

"Please have a seat."

Detective Anderson nodded as both he and William sat down.

"How can I help you?"

"I would like to ask where you were yesterday around 5:30 pm."

"I was in my office for sometime and later I went to the coffee shop across the street to relax and do some paperwork."

Anderson nodded as he pulled out a pad and jotted down some notes. "I'm going to have to question the shop owner to back up your alibi."

William nodded. "Sure. Um, I'm still a little confused as to what I'm being accused of."

"We suspect that you are involved in the murder of Stephanie Fieldman."

"The reporter?"

"Yes. Now, how well did you know Mrs. Fieldman."

"She interviewed me once."

"How did you react to her scathing article about you and your company?"

". perhaps we should wait until my lawyer gets here. I'm not a liberty to say at the moment."

Anderson frowned as he closed his notepad, "Fine. I won't push, but if you."

William cut him off, "Don't accuse me of something I didn't do. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a meeting to attend to. Sharon will show you the way out."

~~~

The reporters rushed Anderson as he stepped out of LuminaCorp. Swiftly, the LuminaCorp bodyguards came to his side and helped him navigate through the horde of bodies, microphones and cameras. Detective Anderson suddenly saw one of his colleagues, Eliza, and ran up to her.

"I thought I told you not to leak out anything about the case until we've got the suspects."

Eliza shook her head, " I didn't leak anything. The LAPD chief officer did and so did the TIMEs editor. Now they won't stop hounding us."

The reporters kept pushing forward despite the guard's attempts to keep them at bay. They kept shouting out questions, asking Anderson for a statement or what he was doing in front of LuminaCorp.

Anderson's shoulders fell as he gave a sigh and he turned around to face the reporters. He held his hands up to silence their inquisitions. "We're currently investigating the homicide of reporter, Stephanie Fieldman."

One of the reporters cut in, "Where and when did you find her?"

"We found her at the Recycling compound about 13 hours ago."

"How did she die?" Another cut in.

"We suspect that she received a blow to the skull and her body was dumped into a garbage container near her apartment."

"Why are you here at LuminaCorp."

Anderson hesitated for a second and look at Eliza, who shrugged. Anderson cleared his throat and prayed that he wasn't making a mistake. "We suspect that William Dale may be involved in the murder of Stephanie Fieldman."

The reporters gasped and suddenly the crowd was in an uproar and barraged Detective Anderson with more questions. Anderson shook his head as he retreated to his vehicle and drove away from the crowd. ~~~

Buffy gaped as she watched the live news. She was settling into her room and decided to watch some TV while she put her things away. When suddenly the newscaster announce the live coverage of the murder of Stephanie Fieldman. She had sat down on the bed, drawn into the news. And now, she could feel despair, hate, betrayal, sadness and a gamut of emotions flying through her.

Buffy quickly called Angel Investigations.

"Angel!"

"Buffy? Is that you? What's wrong?"

"Turn on the news."

"Angel ran over to the radio he had and turned to a news station."

He frowned as he heard the news. Then he talked to Buffy again.

"Do you think he's gone back again. to killing people?"

"I don't know. I don't know what's happened to him. Don't you think he would have called us if he woke up?" Angel pinched the bridge of his nose. " I'm. not sure."

"Should I tell the others?"

"No. not yet, we're not sure yet. They said he was a suspect."

"Maybe I should talk to him."

Angel chewed on his lower lip, " I don't think that's a good idea. What if he."

"No. I don't think he did it."

"You don't know what he can do. We don't know him anymore Buffy. He massacred all of Wolfram and Hart. He threatened to kill us and we know he's mentally unstable."

"Fine."

"Just wait for a bit. If things get worse, we'll also investigate."

Buffy nodded. "Okay."

Then Angel said goodbye to Buffy and hung up.

Buffy looked at the phone and fidgeted around the room for a while. During dinner, she could barely eat and she kept spacing out as he mind went a mile a minute. She new that her father disapproved of her behavior and gave him even more reason to take Dawn away, but she couldn't help it.

Finally, that night Buffy broke her resolve and her promise to Angel as she snuck out of the house and headed to William's apartment. She tried to remember as clearly as possible what Cordy told her later about her first encounter with William. Eventually, she found herself in front of a very tall, sleek and expensive building. Buffy quietly snuck around the back and knocked out a janitor who was heading into the building. She quickly changed into his gray jumpsuit. The man at the front desk nodded to her as she passed by. She gave a sigh of relief when she realized that the janitor's name was Alex, which could have been a nickname for Alexandria.

She glanced at the plaque on the sidewall, which indicated that William lived on the 21st floor and headed towards the elevator. When Buffy finally reached his floor, she decided to knock on his door instead of picking it open.

William called from inside, "Who is it?"

Buffy quickly moved away from the peekhole.

William frowned as he saw no one there and thought maybe he was had a package dropped off. He casually started to open the door.

Buffy quickly took this opportunity to kick the door the rest of the way, sending William sprawling on his back. William growled as he picked himself up and reached for the cell phone in his pocket, but Buffy was faster and she kicked it away.

"Who the hell are you?!" William shouted at Buffy.

Buffy frowned, "Don't play stupid with me!"

During their fight Michael had woken up and taken over, now he was pretending that he didn't know Buffy.

"Answer the question."

"Don't you remember?"

"Remember what?"

"Do you know who Cordelia or Wesley are?"

"Who?"

Buffy blanched. "You don't remember."

William threw his hands in the air, "That's it, I'm calling security. Today has been getting worse and worse."

"Did you kill her?"

"Who are you?!"

"I'm Buffy Summers."

"Okay, now why are you so concerned with this case? Are you an officer? Or a detective?"

Buffy gulped, "No."

William frowned, "I'll call the mental hospital while I'm at it."

"Wait!"

"Who the hell are you?! Why is this your concern?!"

"I'm a friend. And I just want to know whether you did it."

"No I didn't."

"Are you."

William cut her off, " I can't believe you have the audacity to walk in here without a warrant and interrogate me! Get out, or I'm calling the police."

"No."

William started to stride toward the phone and Buffy tackled him. William then spun around and shoved her to the floor with so much force that it knocked the air out of her.

"Mrs. Summers, if I ever see your face again. I won't hesitate to report you. If you touch me again, I won't hesitate to kill you."

Buffy stood up and William walked over to the door, holding it open for her. "Wait her, I'm going to have Jeff escort you out. I don't trust you."

As William walked away, Buffy grabbed his sleeve. Instinctively, William's hand lashed out and slapped Buffy across the face. Buffy's shaking hand touched her bruised cheek as tears began to fill her eyes. William glared at her, showing no remorse and walked away.

Buffy never saw William come back out again. Instead Jeff walked out with a plastic bag of ice and handed it to her as he gently escorted her out of the building. Jeff quietly drove her home and dropped her off in front of her father's house. Neither of them had exchanged words during the trip, except to give directions.

As Buffy got out of the car, Jeff quietly spoke to her, "I suggest you stay away from Mr. Dale, for your own safety. I'm not threatening you, I'm just warning you that he's been very short of temper lately. He usually would never hit any woman. But he's been.acting unusual. I'm sorry for what he did."

Buffy nodded, "Thank you. I shouldn't have intruded like that, I'm not sure what came over me.. Why are you being so nice to me?"

"Don't tell anyone. but, truth is, William might have known you, he has a strange case of amnesia. He doesn't remember what happened to him for a week exactly two months ago."

Buffy gaped, but her mind screamed out, 'So that's why!'

Buffy closed her mouth and nodded mutely to Jeff as she turned around and returned to her father's house.

~~~

During the time Jeff had left to drop off Buffy, William called a number that he would have never anticipated to ever have to call.

"Hello?" A dark sinuous voice answered.

"I have a job." William quietly whispered

"What kind?"

"I want you watch Buffy Summers, but if she starts snooping around me or get into anything I'm involved in. then kill her." William answered as his pure violet eyes stared intently at the pen he was twirling in his left hand.

"It'll cost a little more than my usual price if I have to stalk her."

"That's not a problem. You're money will be in the usually drop off point.".

"Pleasure doing business with you."

"Just do your job Shadow."

Cont.

Part 18:

Chapter 18

Note: *sighs* I know the story has been lagging a little, truth is, I'm having a hard time trying to piece everything together, because I keep changing my mind as what's happening at the moment; it isn't as clear cut as the first 14 chapters or so. Yes, it is a b/s fic, but I just wanted to show some problems they might have before getting together. I don't particularly want to make my story where spike suddenly becomes overly nice and buffy and spike go into ultra-love mode. I want buffy to understand what she did to spike and if they get together, I'd rather it be a mutual thing instead of one practically becoming a subservient pansy begging for forgiveness.

OMG. I have been so freaking busy lately! Arg! Stupid teachers. some of them should be repeatedly pummeled with rubber chickens!

~~~

"Took you long enough to contact me." Lucifer said as he stepped out of the shadows of the almost empty bar.

William glared at him with dark violet eyes, "I've been busy."

Lucifer tossed the front page of a newspaper on the table William was sitting at. "So I see."

William glanced at the headline, which read, 'LuminaCorp CEO is number 1 suspect.'

William closed his eyes and shook his head, "I have no idea how this mess happened. look, I'm not here to talk about this. Do you have it?"

Lucifer opened up an intricately carved wooden case, which held a sword with a pure black blade overlaying another sword with a clear, transparent blade. Lucifer pulled out both swords and tossed the clear one to William. William caught the sword with ease and studied it was must interest. He ran his finger along the edge and lifted it. His finger looked untouched, but when he pressed down, a slight bit of blood began to pool at the tip. William licked the blood off of his finger.

Lucifer smirked at William's action, "Satisfied? Both swords are sharpened down to an atom, cuts through anything, even Archangels."

William tested the weight of the sword, "Nice, very light. is there a sheath for this?"

Lucifer pulled open a bottom compartment in the wooden box and pulled out two metal sheaths. "They've been coated with some unearthly, magical metal which is suppose to keep the blades from cutting through. Although, I'm not took sure if that's true. just be careful."

William nodded as he sheathed the sword and tied the scabbard to his back. Then he faced Lucifer again. "When is it?"

"Soon."

William raised an eyebrow. "You don't know?"

"It doesn't really matter, time does not exist on the plane we're fighting on. We could be at war for 100 earth years and not a millisecond would pass here. So it doesn't really matter."

William placed his hands on his hips.

Lucifer laughed as he turned around, getting ready to leave. "If you really want to know. It'll be in 4 to 5 days. It's not like any of us can prepare for it or bring in any new players. We'll just have to wait it out."

With that last word. Lucifer exited the club, leaving William in there alone with his thoughts.

~~~

Buffy kept glancing behind her as she tried to keep up with Dawn, her father and the tour group. She had this unnerving feeling that she was being followed, but she couldn't turn around and demand whomever was following her to show themselves.

Buffy sighed as she quickened her pace and returned to Dawn's side. The tour guide was currently pointing at the dorms for UCLA and describing the type of dorm rooms that were inside. Buffy glanced at the tree and suddenly saw a flash of black, he eyes widened as she gripped Dawn's arm a little tighter. Dawn looked at Buffy with concern. "Is there something wrong?"

Buffy shook her head and pretended to brush it off. After this, she had to go talk to Angel.

~~~

***Nemiphoren frowned at Michael's floating figure. This was the second time Michael had taken over and roughly shoved him back into the mindscape. Something weird was going on.

Michael's suddenly raised his head and floated back to the ground and he woke up once more.

Nemiphoren folded his arms and glared at Michael. "What the hell is going on?"

Michael turned around in surprise, not realizing that Nemi was standing behind him. "W-what do you mean?"

"You've been acting strange lately, especially after you met that blond headed girl. I have this feeling that I know her." Michael shook his head a little too quickly, "No you don't. I was just getting bad vibes from her, so I took over to make sure that we sent her away."

Will peak his head out from behind Nemi, "I didn't sense bad vibes from her. Why did you send the bad man after her?"

Michael shoved his hands in his pockets, " I know her and I know that she's bad news. Trust me."

Nemi gave him a suspicious look and finally gave up with a sigh. "Fine, I know you aren't going to tell us what's going on.you have that defensive look right now. But I'm going to figure it out. You never take such drastic measures against any mortal."

Nemi turned around and disappeared with Will.

Michael let out a sigh and shook his head while muttering to himself, 'He'll understand one day. It's for the best.'***

~~~

"Detective Anderson!" The commissioner shouted as he slammed his hand down on the desk. "You weren't supposed to leak out any information! It is against protocol!"

" But sir."

"But nothing rookie!" The commissioner spat back. "I'm reassigning this case to another detective that is more responsible. This is a very rich and influential man we're deal with at the moment. I can't believe that you would tell those media leeches confidential information that hasn't been approved by me! You're suspended without pay starting now."

Anderson shrunk into his chair and finally nodded as he walked away with his head bowed down.

"Damn greedy rookie trying to make himself a media wh*re." The commissioner muttered under his breath. Then he marched out of the office and grabbed a passing officer. "I want Detective Jose in my office ASAP."

The officer nodded as he trembled in fear at the commissioner's wrath and took off for Jose's office.

~~~

Buffy sighed as she sat in Angel's office while nursing a mug. Angel was pacing in the room while muttering curses after hearing what Buffy just told him about her visit to Spike. or was it William? And about this thing stalking her.

"Why did you go visit him?"

Buffy shrugged. "I-I don't know.?"

"I think that William might have sent this stalker guy after you."

Buffy nodded, "Yeah.. I thought so too, but why?"

"He wants you to stay away from him."

"I know, but even the William that we first met wasn't so paranoid or hostile!"

"Maybe he's gone over the edge."

Buffy rolled her eyes, " I don't think so, when I was at his apartment. Something felt off. I still can't put my finger on it though."

"Look, you're priority number one right now. You're in danger and I think you should go back to Sunnydale."

"What?! And lead this stalker back to my home?! No. Way."

"Buffy."

"No.."

"But.."

"NO!"

Angel threw his hands down and gave an exasperated sigh. Damn she was stubborn.

During this moment, a dark figure hidden in the bushes outside of Angel investigations wrote down 'Sunnydale' on his notepad as he pressed his headset closer to his ear, trying to get more information from the microphone he had hidden under Angel's desk.

~~~

Detective Jose examined the cadaver that used to be Stephanie Fieldman and looked back up at the coroner. "Okay, so yer sayin' that Stephanie was hit on the head and killed before her body was dumped into the garbage compactor. The coroner nodded as she lit up a cigarette. Detective Jose gave her a disapproving look. "Seniorita, those things can kill you."

The coroner shrugged, "The fumes I inhale in here everyday will kill me faster than any little ol' cigarette. I stopped caring a long time ago."

Jose sighed as he stuffed his hands in his pocket. "Have you seen this kind of blow before? I find the marking on her skull to be very unusual."

"They are, I'm thinking that whoever killed her was probably on drugs or on some extreme adrenaline rush. Humans can't hit this hard. I've only seen bruises and wounds like this on car crash victims or suicide victims that jump off of buildings."

Jose nodded as he took in the information and carefully assessed it. "Are there any DNA samples on her? From fingerprints? Or maybe rape?"

The coroner shook her head. "Nope. Whoever handled her was very careful, probably wearing gloves."

"Do you know what she was killed with?"

"I was thinking a bat, but no wood splinters. Can't be a pole, unless it was a really thick one. maybe you should check out the recycling center, in the pile where she was found. I know that it's being kept in storage right now."

Jose nodded, "Thank you seniorita." Then he reached over and plucked the cigarette out of her mouth. "You're a nice girl and I like working with you. I'd rather you didn't hurry off into death's arms so soon."

The coroner laughed as she shook her head. "Fine, I'll try. Only for you Jose."

Jose gave her a bright smile as he turned to exit, "Thank you." ~~~

Officer Eliza groaned as she followed Jose into the where house. She groaned once she took a whiff of the odor coming from the saved pile of trash. Jose paid no heed to the smell and started to carefully pry apart the pieces of garbage. Eliza's eye twitched as she stood there, arms akimbo.

Jose rolled his eyes and turned around, "I could use help sometime this century. or are you afraid of breaking a nail?"

Eliza face soured and she mutely headed for the trash pile and started to pry apart the compacted pieces.

Finally, after searching for about 2 hours Jose found a bloodied and smashed typewriter. He waved Eliza over and the both of them studied it with much interest. Jose bagged the typewriter and sent it off to the forensic investigators. ~~~ ***Nemi frowned as he watched Michael's frozen figure levitating in mid air. Michael was acting a little too suspicious lately, especially with him constantly taking control during the strangest times. Nemi concentrated slightly and saw Michael, through William's body, opening up a drawer beside his desk with a key and pull out a little black book with phone numbers.

Nemi made a mental note of who Michael was calling as William's finger stopped under a few strange symbols and a very long phone number. Without alerting Michael, Nemi hurried over to Will and woke up. With their combined abilities, they managed to tap into the mindscape and eavesdrop on Michael's conversation.***

"Do you have the notes for today?" William asked the person on the other line.

"Yes. Apparently this girl is from Sunnydale, she's only visiting because her younger sister, Dawn, is thinking of enrolling into UCLA."

"Good. go on."

"Buffy visited Angel Investigations today at around 4:30 in the afternoon. Buffy seems to have enhanced senses from what I could tell. She seemed to be able to sense me following her."

"You're going to have be more discrete. remember, no matter what happens. This is not to be connected back to me."

"Yes, of course, it's apart of the contract."

"Is that all?"

"Oh, and the girl will most likely stay for another 2 weeks. And from what I can tell, she is in need of financial help."

Michael nodded slowly while filing away the information. "Good, I our meeting will be a different time tomorrow. I have a meeting all day and I might not be able to catch you. In that case, update me the day after tomorrow."

"Understood." With that last word, Shadow hung up.

Michael studied the phone for a second and decided not to hang up. He quickly speed dialed Sharon.

"Sharon."

"Yes?"

"I want you to look up Buffy Summer's financial records, debts, jobs, . actually, just give me the whole nine yards."

"Alright."

*** Michael finally shook out of his trance after he hung up. Before Michael could notice, Nemi quickly curled up with Will on the floor and pretended to be sleeping. Michael glanced at the sleeping figures and let out a sigh as he stretched a little and wandered off. Will still kept his eyes tightly shut as he clung onto Nemi. Nemi, on the other hand, immediately shot his eyes open once Michael was out of range and narrowed his eyes; studying Michael's retreating figure.

Nemi turned back to Will, "We have to find out what's going on."

Will looked up at Nemi quietly and nodded, "He's doing something bad, I can feel it. But I don't know why? Why does he want to hurt this Buffy girl?"

Nemi rolled the name on his tongue a few times, "Buffy. Buffy. It sounds so familiar, but I can't put my finger on it."

Will nodded in agreement. "I think we should find out more about her and why she's supposedly so 'dangerous'." Will added the little air quote, emphasizing the little lecture that Michael had given them earlier on how dangerous this girl, Buffy, was and how they should stay away from her.

Nemi's eyes looked distant as he stared at where Michael was levitating earlier, " I have a plan."

Cont.

Chapter 19

Sorry, I've been really slow lately due to tons of schoolwork, college apps and my club. I'll try to type faster.

Eliza groaned as Jose kept watching the surveillance tapes over and over again. Unfortunately there was only a surveillance camera watching the hallway and nowhere else. The garbage chute, where Stephanie was killed, was just around the corner at the end of the hallway.

The tape always showed Stephanie walking out of her apartment with a garbage can and then returning. No one was in the hallway at all for hours before that and no one was even near the end of the hallway during the time of Stephanie's murder.

Eliza shook her head, "Look Jose, whoever killed her was probably hiding around the corner for a long time."

Jose narrowed his eyes as he watched the camera frame by frame for the umpteenth time. "It just doesn't make sense, we would have seen who was waiting there for her. Every person who threw away their garbage always came back and there was no one walking in the back of the hall, or else we would have seen them."

Eliza rolled her eyes, clearly sick of this case. "Look, we're both tired and it's 3 in the morning, we'll come back to the tapes tomorrow."

Jose shook his head, "No, tomorrow we go check out the apartment."

~~~

"Buffy, I think Wesley should watch you."

"No!" Buffy snapped at Angel over the phone. "I don't want my sister getting all paranoid over this. It'll go away."

"Buffy please!"

"I'll be fine, besides I'm the slayer. I can take care of him."

"We don't even."

Buffy cut him off, "No, stop. We'll be fine."

A groan came from the other end of the line followed by a string of curses.

"Angel, just don't worry. Look, I'll go talk to Spike and get this straightened out."

~~~

William looked up at Sharon with violet eyes as she handed him a stack of papers, "There you are William. As much information I could find on Buffy Summers."

William nodded as he leafed through as few pages.

Sharon put her hands on her hips, "Quite a colorful history this girl has, setting schools on fire and getting arrested nearly twice. What does she have to do with you?"

William straightened the papers and looked indifferent, "Oh, I saw her snooping around my penthouse the other day and got suspicious."

"Do you want me to call security?"

William shook his head, "No need. If there is a problem, I can take care of her."

Sharon shrugged and shook her head, "I hope that cocky attitude of yours doesn't get you into more trouble than you can handle."

William laughed, almost sinisterly, "Why Sharon, I thought you had more faith in me."

Sharon walked out of William's office without another word. There was no point in provoking him when he was being such a jerk.

~~~

Jose looked into the garbage chute a few times and muttered to himself. It didn't make sense. If Stephanie was killed before being thrown into the chute then there would have been some sort of trace of a struggle. But what if the attacker caught her unawares?

Okay. so assume that Stephanie was caught unawares and was bashed on the head with a typewriter. Then there should have been a trace of blood around the ground or in the chute, right? Jose stuck his head down into the chute and called out to Eliza, who was standing at the bottom of the chute. "Anything?!"

Eliza shook her head as she stuck a flashlight up the chute and looked around inside. "No! There's nothing, not even a trace of blood."

Jose shook his head and called back down, "Fine! Meet me up here."

As Jose stuck his head out of the chute, he gasped as the spring suddenly sprung back hard and nearly threw him in. He used all of his strength to keep himself from being thrown in and then struggled to pull out. Then he landed hard on the floor as he panted fearfully, "Geez, that thing almost killed me."

Jose's eyes widened. "Oh my god."

Eliza called down the hall, "Hey Jose! I'm up!"

Jose gathered his bearings as he stood up and brushed himself off, then he ran down the hall to Stephanie's room.

Eliza looked at Jose curiously, "Are you okay?"

Jose came back out with a small trash bin and stuck it into Eliza's hand. "Here."

Eliza looked in the trash bin with two scraps of paper in it. "Okay? Jose? You aren't tripping on acid are you?"

Jose shook his head frantically as he studied Eliza's petite figure. "Hmm. You're about the same height and size."

Jose grabbed Eliza's hand and led her to the garbage chute, then he pointed his hand at the chute. "Throw the garbage away."

Eliza raised her eyebrows, then looked down at the trash bin and shrugged. She opened the garbage chute and used her hips to hold it open as she dumped the pieces of paper in. Suddenly, as she tried to pull out, the spring sprung out hard again and she screamed as she felt herself being pulled in. Jose quickly shot his hand out and pried the garbage chute open as Eliza scrambled away from it. Then she turned to Jose and screamed, "What the f*ck is wrong with you?! Are you trying to kill me?!"

Jose rolled his eyes, realizing that Eliza didn't understand why he had her simulate what Stephanie did. "No. Eliza, don't you realize how Stephanie was killed?"

Eliza's eyes widened, "oh.. OH~!"

Jose nodded, "So assuming that Stephanie fell into the trashcan. But I'm still not sure how this typewriter killed her."

"Maybe she fell on it?"

Jose shook his head. "No, the wound would have been different looking. I think someone on the upper floor must have been throwing away their typewriter and they unknowingly killed her."

Eliza rubbed her bruised ribs. ". and I used to never believe in chaos theory.poor gal."

Jose looked at the paper folded away in his pocket and sighed, "We have to exonerate Mr. Dale now."

Eliza winced visibly. "Do I have to come along? I don't think I want to be there when the lawsuit is being filed against us."

~~~

William hummed to himself as he got out of his car, stepped out into the parking lot and started to walk toward the elevator. Suddenly Buffy ran out in front of him and stopped him. William's eyes narrowed; apparently the Shadow hadn't done his job thoroughly, "Yes Mrs. Summer? How may I help you?"

" Call off that stalker you sent after me." She said angrily.

William's violet eyes looked down at her haughtily, "Now why should I do that if you're such a threat to me?"

"I am not a threat."

"I guess attacking someone in their own home has a different definition these days."

Buffy screamed at William, "What the hell is wrong with you?! What did you do to Spike?!"

William looked at her, unfazed by her outburst, "I didn't do anything to Spike. In fact, I'm the only reason why he's alive and sane."

Buffy glared at William, "You're not Spike."

"Bravo, you just realized that?"

"Who are you?"

William shrugged, "Find out on your own, you're a smart girl. I mean you did manage to get into a highly secure building without setting off any guards or the guy who I sent after you. Actually, I'm quite surprised at the moment. You really should be dead, my terms were to have you killed if you even tried approach me."

Buffy looked at William in horror. "Why are you doing this?"

William laughed as she walked over and invaded Buffy's personal space, "Fine, I'll tell you. I'm Michael. as in the archangel and I despise you with every fiber of my being. Spike may love you, but he won't. As long as he doesn't remember who you are, he can't love you and he can't protect you from me. I've seen what you've done to him. You're the reason why he's so f*cked up at the moment. Don't worry, I'll manage to kill you pretty soon, before he can remember who you are. I'll be doing him a favor."

Buffy shrank as she backed away from him. "Get out of his body."

"No can do. I need it."

Buffy suddenly jumped up and tried to spin kick him in the face. But the way Buffy moved instantly gave away what she was going to do. William took advantage of Buffy's unbalanced state in the air and used her momentum to slam her into the concrete ground. Buffy whimpered as he head collided sickeningly with the hard ground and knocked her out.

William looked down at her disheveled body in distaste and speed dialed security. "Hello? This is William Dale, there's a unconcious psychotic girl here in Parking lot A who tried to attack me. Yes, I'd like you take her down to the police station. Make sure she's locked away for good."

~~~

***Nemi and Will secretly watched Michael and Buffy's interaction in the parking lot. Nemi was suddenly very sick as he watched Michael unfeelingly harm the beautiful blue-green eyed girl. At the moment, William was going upstairs to his penthouse. As William entered the penthouse safely they noticed that Michael was pulling out of his control state and they suddenly rushed to the side and pretended to be asleep. Michael looked at their prone figure and relaxed. Good, they hadn't seen what happened. Then Michael quietly walked into a more secluded spot of the dreamscape to take a break.

Nemi and Will looked at each other after Michael left. Nemi murmured to Will, "I think I might know who this Buffy is."

Will started to quietly sob, "Oh god, I hate him. I hate him."

Nemi touched Will's shoulder, "What's wrong kiddo?"

"I remember who Buffy is."

~~~ (the next day)

Nemi approached Michael, determined to give him the tongue lashing of his life. "Michael."

Michael held out his hand as he approached the spot he usually used to take control of William, "Wait. I have an important errand to run at the moment."

"It's really important."

Michael's eyes begged Nemi to let him go, "I really need to go. Can this wait until I come back?"

Nemi sighed as he looked away, frustrated. " Why have you been lying to us?"

Michael's tensed visibly, "Now is not the time."

Nemi growled, "No, we deal with this now."

Just as Michael was about to retort, he could sense Lucifer's presence nearing, " I need to go. We'll deal later."

Nemi lunged at Michael. But Michael was faster and he froze Nemi in his spot, midair. "I'm sorry I had to do that. But I have a more important thing to deal with."***

William 'woke up' just as Lucifer materialized in the room.

"It's time." Lucifer said as he touched the obsidian sword at his waist. William nodded as he retrieved the crystal sword from a secret panel behind his bed.

"Are you ready?" Lucifer asked with a slight bit of nervousness in his voice.

William sighed, his violet eyes a little distant and his brows knit with worry. 'Stop thinking about what Nemiphoren said. Like you said, we'll deal later.'

Then William looked up at Lucifer with stern eyes, "I'm as ready as I'll ever be."

Lucifer nodded and the two powerful being disappeared from the room. ~~~

Jose tapped his fingers against the rails in the elevator nervously as Eliza fidgeted next to him. They were on their way up to William Dale's penthouse. A million thoughts raced through their heads as they tried to prepare themselves from the billionaire's wrath. They approached the door with trepidation and knocked. But never in a millions years had either of them expected William to have mysteriously disappear and William's manservant hysterically trying to find him.

Cont.