Chapter 3
"Please!" the man cried out as Spike's human features melted away into his true face. The man, who had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time, was struggling against Spike's hold on him.
"Sorry mate, but, you can't get in between a man and his stomach." Spike said before carefully biting the man and slowly draining him. This method of feeding was not Spike's most preferred; the human suffered less pain and more or less went unconscious before dying, but Spike didn't want to get his new clothes dirty (a large black tee-shirt with "Devil's Kar Club" on the back of it and enormous black jeans with three white stripes on the bottom of them).
Dropping the corpse to the ground, Spike noticed that he was standing next to the back door to a store called, "Randall's Music House". Shrugging his shoulders and deciding that he was bored, Spike walked in.
The inside of the store was amazing. Everywhere there were records, 8-tracks, radios, and even some large tape-recorders.
Walking over to a "Listening Booth", Spike put on a set of headphones and looked at his choices.
"Who the bloody hell are these people? Cat Stevens? Sex Pistols? John Denver?" he asked himself. Spike had hardly listened to any music during his unlife. The only record that he had ever bought was the Beatles' "A Hard Day's Night", and he rarely listened to it.
Pushing the button that said "Sex Pistols - Never Mind the Bollocks", Spike waited for the 8-track to be inserted into the player.
It was two hours later, when the store closed, until Spike stopped listening.
Spike killed the only employee who was still working, and grabbed the 8-track he had been listening to and walked out of the store.
Humming the lyrics to himself, Spike looked up to the eastern sky. Sunrise was only about an hour away, and he wouldn't be able to walk home in such a short amount of time.
Deciding whether or not he should start to run or find a place to stay for the day, a kindly man with a black car pulled up next to him and said, "Hey, you need a ride?"
Spike smiled and nodded. As soon as the nice man turned around, he reached in and snapped his neck.
Pulling the body out of the car, Spike looked around it a bit. It was nice, big, and black. After finding some registration in the glove box, Spike found out that the car was a 1957 DeSoto.
Spike also noticed that the car had an 8-track player in it. Excitedly, he put the music on, and drove around till dawn, ducking into his home at the last possible second before burning to a crisp.
When he was inside, he first ran into Darla. She looked at Spike with a hard, cold stare, and said, "You've sent your Sire into a fit. We thought you were hurt."
Spike shrugged and said, "Well, I'll go apologize to her then." He started to walk off into the other room, but Darla stopped him.
"So, you haven't killed the Slayer yet I see."
Spike sighed and turned around, glaring at the older vampire who he hated. "I didn't even go out hunting for her tonight. I'm still not in the mood to kill her yet."
"Angelus would've done it by now." Darla said.
"Yeah, well, Angelus isn't here now, is he?" Spike said, raising his voice the smallest bit. "In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Angelus isn't dead. And, until he shows up again, without a pesky soul, I'm the man of the household. And no one, not you, not Drusilla, no one, will tell me what to do."
The sound of Darla's hand coming into contact with Spike's face made a loud snap through the apartment, bringing the attention of some of the minions.
"You will respect me, William!" Darla screamed. "You may be the only man here, but you are the youngest Childe, and you will act with such. Not even Angel showed this much disrespect to me."
"Tsk, tsk. Naughty." Drusilla said upon entering the room. She shook her finger at the two feuding vampires and said, "We mustn't quarrel. Enemies become friends, who become lovers, and enemies again."
Darla and Spike glared at each other, and then Spike said, "Okay pet. Let's say you and I go to bed. I'll sing you a new song I learned tonight."
Drusilla smiled and held out her hand, waiting for Spike to take it. He did, and he started to lead her out of the room.
And right before they shut the door, Spike heard Darla yell, "And keep it down you two! I want to get some sleep!"
Darla didn't get any sleep that day.
**Flashback - Late 1976 - Boston, MA**
Dawn Summers smiled into the mirror. The hair-dye had worked out perfectly, as Rachel said it would. Her hair, which had once been a lovely hazel color, was now a dark blue.
Once, only a few months before, before she had even met Rachel and Beth and all of her new friends, Dawn had been into the hippie movement with her older sister Buffy. They had spent endless hours in Buffy's room, listening to Buffy's records and braiding each other's hair. Those were the best times of Dawn's life.
And then Buffy had left. She had left a note in her room that said that she had left for New York with her new boyfriend, Parker. He was the "grooviest" boy she had ever met, so she had to follow them. She hadn't taken many of her things besides her clothes, and she didn't even tell Dawn goodbye.
Furious, Dawn had gone and burned every shirt Buffy had given her, every flower chain they had made together, and all of her flower power shirts.
Shortly afterwards, Joyce (their mom), had met Ted, who got her involved in disco. In just a few short weeks, their old conservative mother who always wore blouses and slacks, was wearing tighter clothes and crimping her hair, and going out with Ted almost every night a week, leaving Dawn alone.
It was then that Dawn had rebelled. She started to wear black, talk back to Joyce, and started to hang out with other people who were like her. That's when she had met Beth, and then Rachel. They were the coolest people she had ever met, and they introduced Dawn to the "punk" style of life.
Rachel was the first person to get Dawn drunk. Beth was the first person to get her high. They said that often, like it was a badge.
The phone rang, and brought Dawn back to reality. Petting her hair one more time, she ran to get the phone.
"Who is this?" she asked, looking at her black-painted nails.
"Dawn? How many times do I have to tell you to stop answering the phone like that?"
"What do you want?" Dawn asked, rolling her eyes at her mom's comment.
"Dawn! Honestly, you are getting so rude! Back when Buffy was around, you were never-"
"I don't think you called to talk about my sister who ran away, so, what do you want?"
"It's getting late, so I hope you don't mind me staying the night at Ted's tonight. I'll be home sometime tomorrow afternoon, but you'd better be at school and not with those awful friends of yours."
"Bye." Dawn said, slamming the phone down. That was another thing she had stopped doing. Going to school. Buffy hadn't finished school, and her mom barely even cared. Buffy was always the favorite. It just killed her mom that Buffy was the one who had run away.
Looking over to the last remaining picture of her sister in the entire house, a perfectly evil plan came to Dawn's head.
If she went and found her sister, she could make her come home, and then get her mom off her case.
**End Flashback**
And now Dawn found herself in the heart of New York City. She had no idea where to look and who to look for. For all she knew, Buffy had taken a different name so she couldn't be tracked.
Walking along, she saw a large sign that read, "The Customs" and walked in. There was a few people there, mostly punks and a few people just walking around.
Walking up to the nearest person, Dawn nodded to one of them, smiling a bit.
One of the people came up to her and said, "Hi. Who are you?"
"My name's Debunu." Dawn said; she wasn't lying. "Debunu" was "Dawn" in Japanese.
"Sean. Where are you from?"
"Boston. Do you know anyone by the name of Buffy Summers?"
Sean shrugged his shoulders and said, "Nope. But, you can try lookin' here later. Everyone who's worth looking for comes to the concerts here at night. If she'll be anywhere, she'll be here."
"Thanks." Dawn said, and turned the other way.
*****
Cordelia and Willow were on their way home from Cordelia and Xander's house and on their way to Giles'.
About halfway there, Willow accidentally ran into a smaller girl who had been walking quickly through a sidewalk cross path.
"Hey! Watch next time, yuppies." The girl said, dusting off her clothing.
The girl was wearing a black sweater with a picture of a skull and bones on it. Her skirt was very short, blue plaid, and had two safety pins holding it together. Her boots went up to her knees, and had blue flames running up them. Her eye make-up was dark, and her long blue hair went down to her back.
"Hey, don't be a square. We didn't do anything to you." Cordelia said.
The girl started to say something else, but Willow said, "Hey now! Look, we're sorry. This started out wrong. My name is Willow, and this is Cordelia."
The girl shrugged and said, "Debunu."
Willow smiled and said, "That's a cute name."
Debunu only glared at the two people and said, "It's not cute." and turned around and started to walk the other way.
Cordelia and Willow both gave each other looks and then continued on their way to Giles'.
*****
"It's a wonderful day in the neighborhood, and wonderful day for a neighbor! Will you be mine? Will you be mine?" droned the overly-cheery man on TV.
Giles watched from the kitchen, and shook his head. Outside, in the main living room, Oz and Xander were watching "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood". They had gotten to Giles' home twenty minutes earlier and ever since then had been glued to the television.
Willow and Cordelia both burst into the apartment, followed by Buffy a few moments later. Giles rolled his eyes; he didn't know how all of a sudden, his home had become a meeting place for these children. He was just a Watcher, not a babysitter.
"Some people are so rude!" Cordelia exclaimed, crawling into Xander's lap. He hardly noticed, he was so into the puppet show on the TV.
"Why, what happened?" Buffy asked, sitting down on the main couch.
"Some weird girl ran into us on the way here. She was totally a brat to us."
Instantly reminded of her younger sister, Buffy asked, "What'd she do?"
"She ran into us." Willow said. "She was a little bit freaky. Blue hair, blue clothes, blue make-up."
"And a weird name to match." Cordelia said.
"What was it?" Buffy asked.
"Debunu." Willow replied. "It sounded like a Chinese or Japanese name, even though she looked American. Oh well...so, Buffy, are you going to the Matches concert tonight?"
"Yes. How about you?"
Willow smiled to Oz, who was still enticed by the TV. "Oz has backstage passes and is taking me to meet them. Cordy, how about you and Xander?"
"I think we're staying home. We'll probably end up meeting with some people down at the Bronze."
Buffy nodded. The Bronze was their occasional hang-out, their second favorite after the Customs. It was a fairly cool place, but the music wasn't always the greatest.
"Maybe you'll meet your mystery vamp again tonight." Willow said, giving Buffy her best "googly" eyes.
"Yeah, right. Why would I even want to meet him again?"
*****
Spike and Buffy were both laughing their asses off. It was just past midnight, and they were both so high that they could both barely talk.
It had started with them meeting each other at the concert. And then it turned into both of them fighting amidst the crowd. And then it had turned into a serious make-out session. And then, they were offered some heroin-laced marijuana.
And now, they were both in each other's arms, in some cheap motel room, about a block from the Customs. How they had ended up there they did not know, but all they knew was that the pretty colors on the ceiling where moving.
"You know..." Buffy said, rolling over to look Spike in the eye. "I don't usually slay vampires this way...but you're-you're specialer than the rest."
"I don't usually kill Slayers this way either." Spike said, and shrugged.
Buffy leaned down and placed a kiss on Spike's parted lips. He instantly responded, and the kiss turned into a passionate one, with both of them fighting for dominance.
And then they started to remove each other's clothing.
*****
Buffy woke up with a start. She looked around the room and noticed that she was alone. And very naked.
Suddenly, she felt very dirty. "I had sex with a vampire! A vampire I barely know! Okay, never trying heroin again!"
Getting up and getting dressed, Buffy couldn't help but smile once. Although she couldn't remember too much from the night, she knew that she had one hell of a time.
*****
Spike woke up cursing. His head was pounding, and he was still trying to fight down the nausea, hoping that he didn't throw up all of the blood he had eaten in the past twenty-four hours.
He had shagged a Slayer! That wasn't part of the original plan!
"Next time," he promised himself, "I'll kill her."
Getting up, he walked out of his and Dru's room and into the main living room, only to find Drusilla on the ground, weeping, and Darla giving him death glares.
"Darla! You #####, what did you do to her?"
Darla's glare turned into a cruel smile, and she said, "I didn't do anything to her William. I'm afraid it was your work this time."
Spike was confused. His work? What had he done to make Drusilla cry?
Darla sighed and said, "What? You don't remember? How typical. Men never remember the good stuff. Drusilla?"
The younger vampire's attention was caught, and she turned her head up, tears still visible on her face.
"Why don't you tell this fledgling what he did wrong?"
Drusilla sat up and wiped some of the tears from her face. She shook her head and said quietly, "All over you, she is. Every part of you is covered in her!"
Spike shook his head and said, "Not following you, pet."
Drusilla collapsed back down onto the floor in heavy sobs, and Darla shook her head and screamed, "What she's trying to tell you is that you had sex with the Slayer!"
Spike's mouth hung open, and Darla smiled, "Now, do you have anything to say?"
Chapter IV
Xander slowly awakened to the sound of Hawaii Five-O's yuppy theme song blaring through the wall of the motel room he had crashed in the night before. He couldn't remember most of the night, or how he got there; he had partaken of the same heroin-laced marijuana that Buffy and Spike had.
A decidedly feminine moan from his side made the army veteran sit upon his elbows and look to his right, jarring the girl from her own slumber.
She sat up abruptly, eyes wide open as she stared at Xander.
When the duo realized that they were not in bed with their respective "better halves," Willow and Xander screamed.
*****
"Oh bugger!" Spike exclaimed once he could speak again. "How did you know about that?" He tried his darnedest to take back the events of the past night.
"That doesn't matter. What matters is what the hell you were thinking, doing something you knew would make your Sire this upset?!?" Darla screamed at her great-grandchilde over Drusilla's keening.
"Well, I was hunting out by the Customs, planning on killin' ‘er when she showed up, and I saw a couple flower people walkin' the other direction. I was hungry, so I ate them . . . got a buzz from ‘em too-must've been freshly stoned-but I figured that I'd fought stoned before with no problem, so I kept on going . . ." the recently bottle-blonde began, pacing in front of Drusilla, who was rocking back and forth on her knees beside Darla.
"So, I get to the place, and there's the Slayer, out with her chums, the ones Dru met the other week when I fought the girl the first time-"
"-Get to the point where you start begging, William!" Darla interrupted, tapping her foot and crossing her arms over her chest.
"Alright, alright . . . Ok. So, I saw the Slayer and her chums, and we started to fight. Then after a while, we get into this game we'd been playing-you know, the one where you keep them guessing which kiss will involve fangs in the neck? Anyway, after a while, someone handed us some buds-I didn't know they were laced with heroin until I'd had one or two, I swear! . . .
Somehow, the two of us ended up at the motel across the way . . . I don't even know how I got home before sunup, ‘cause I was still high as a kite at the time!" Spike threw his hands up in exasperation, throwing himself into a nearby beanbag chair left by the previous owners of the apartment.
"So let me get this straight . . ." Darla stood in front of the chair, hauling the younger master up by the lapels of the stolen coat he never took off. "You were playing kissing games with the Slayer instead of killing her when you were supposed to? Not to mention, you didn't tell us you were doing it?!? Honestly, William! That is the last straw! Get out of my lair, and you better not come back at sunup unless the Slayer is dead!" she hauled him toward the door.
"Now hold on a minute! Dru! Dru, you knew, I know you did, I told you! Please don't let her throw me out, Dru!" the peroxided vampire begged his Sire, trying to shake some help out of her.
Drusilla brought her arm back, returning it in a Darla-esque bitch-slap to Spike's chiseled features. "Stay away from me, you vile creature!" Drusilla screamed, scratching at her childe's face. "Miss Edith warned me the sun would burn, and Mummy sent her to bed with no tea when she told such lies! And when she was punished, the fairies came, laughing at Mummy! They said that my Spike doesn't love my insides anymore! Not after you loved the Slayer's colors!"
"Loved her? No, Dru! I don't love her, I swear, pet! You're the only one for me, Drusilla, please!" Spike backed away on his hands, trying to avoid the woman's nails.
"My Spike is like a little puppy . . . but now he is a bad dog! The kind of dog that began leaving presents in Mummy's shoe . . . Princess doesn't like cleaning her shoes. I leave them in the sun to dry, but when I retrieve them, the crystal rays of the moon burn my skin like the liquid fire that made my doggy shine bright." Weeping and screaming at the same time, Drusilla continued to pursue her childe with claws and teeth bared.
"Dru, please!" Spike wasn't one to beg, but this was a special occasion . . . he was about to lose the best thing that ever happened to him.
"And now, the birdie must say ‘good-bye' to the doggie." She said, pointing one expertly-manicured middle finger toward the sky in a gesture that neither Darla nor Spike knew she had known.
"There's your answer, William. Now, get out of my sight!" the blonde woman sent one last scathing remark at Spike's back as he sulked out of the apartment, his vow to kill the Slayer once and for all renewed with a vengeance.
*****
After a few seconds of screaming, Willow-once she got a good look at Xander-began to laugh.
"How can you laugh at a time like this?!?" Xander demanded. "It isn't funny! If Cordelia finds out-"
"-Shh, Xander . . . It's okay!-" she interrupted.
"Okay?!?!?" He interrupted right back. "No, it's not okay! If Cordelia finds out, she'll kill me!"
"Xander?" Willow asked, "Are you done? Can I explain how it's okay now?"
"Alright, but I don't really believe it could get good from here . . ." a sigh of dejected acceptance, then, "Alright, whatcha got?"
"Xander, chill." she put her hand up to keep the young man from speaking. "We're still fully clothed!"
*****
Spike walked zombie-like in the raing all night. Before the sun rose, the bone-weary vampire found himself at the Customs.
Carefully positioning himself underneath the stage so that no one would know he was there and try to move the "corpse" into the daylight, the nearly-century-old vampire-grateful for the curtains hanging around the stage-curled into a ball fell into a fitful sleep full of dreams of better times.
*****
So Buff, you up for the Daredevils tonight?" Willow asked a couple of nights after the motel room fiascoes.
"Sure . . . as long as that vampire isn't there, or I'll probably just end up reaming him a new one, no matter who's watching, which I should've done long before now."
"Hold on there, Sister!" the flower-wicca held up her hands, palms toward Buffy. "Chill with the hatey vibes, Buff . . . I know he's a vampire, but this isn't you! Mellow out already!" The lady doth protest too much, methinks, she thought to herself at the same time.
During the redhead's "peace, love, and happiness" speech, Buffy had gotten up and was now pacing in front of her friend.
"You have no idea what it's like, Willow! . . . I mean, one second, I'm fighting like a good little Slayer, and the next, I'm waking up naked in a motel room after sex I don't even remember, knowing it was that vampire who was the other "consenting" party!" the irate Slayer went so far as to use air quotes while she described the experience, so angry was she.
To her credit, Willow had the decency to look shocked. "Y-Y-You slept with a vampire? Wow. Sure beats my night."
When her friend suddenly clammed up, the blonde wheedled more information from her, desperate to change the subject.
"Ah, ah, ah, Willow, no fair. I shared my pain, you share yours. It's in the Best Friend By-Laws or something like that . . . anyway, dish!" Buffy sat down and leaned toward the redhead.
Willow mumbled something unintelligible.
"Can you speak any softer, girl?" Buffy was all ears.
"I woke up next to Xander." Buffy was confused when her friend smirked instead of looking ashamed.
"Oh my God, Willow! What about Oz and Cordelia?"
"Oh, don't worry, Buffy. It was all okay." she brushed off the situation quickly.
"Okay? Okay, now you've got me really confused . . . how is it okay?" Buffy asked.
"We slept together . . . literally slept . . . When we woke up, we still had our clothes on in all the right places, except fr a few wrinkles." Toward the end, the younger girl had trouble holding in her giggles, and soon, both girls were laughing.
*****
A few nights after he had been kicked out, Spike had a routine. Shortly before the revelers would come at night, he would crawl out from under the stage and go hunting. He would stay out-either at the music store, or elsewhere-all night. Each morning, Spike would crawl back under the stage, only to begin the cycle again the following night.
This evening, however, Spike had accidentally slept in. He awakened to the noise he had come-in recent times-to call "music."
Deciding he should probably get up and go hunt, the peroxided vampire crawled to the side of the stage so that no one would see him come out from under it.
The first person he saw upon standing up, was Buffy. She was breath-taking--or would have been, had he any breath to take--in an outfit made almost entirely of purple, blue, and yellow body paint; the only true clothing she wore was a purple bikini that left nothing to the imagination. How she wasn't freezing to death-and he studiously convinced himself that her dying would be a good thing-he didn't know.
The Slayer seemed to be focusing on, and walking toward, some unseen person in the crowd. It was almost as though she hadn't seen them in quite a while.
Little did the vampire know that that was exactly the case as he went off to his favorite hunting grounds.
*****
The daredevils just didn't inspire Buffy to dance tonight.
It was weird; she'd had fights in the last few weeks that were so exciting, they just seemed to make everything else pale in comparison.
The Slayer looked up from her dancing "post" in front and to the right of the stage, and saw someone who looked extremely familiar . . . well, except for the blue hair and punk get-up.
Hurrying toward the girl in the blue, Buffy called "Dawn! Dawn, is that you?"
The girl looked at Buffy and grimaced in disdain.
Looks like big sis is still livin' in the past. The expression plainly said.
Just as Buffy reached her sister, Willow appeared, it seemed, out of thin air.
"Oh, Buffy, this is the girl I told you about. Her name is-"
Buffy interrupted the introduction.
"-Dawn. Dawn Summers."
Chapter Five
"-Dawn. Dawn Summers."
"What?" Willow asked, confused. She shook her head a few times and said, "I thought her name was Debunu. She said that it was Debunu."
Dawn only glared at her sister and said, "It is Debunu. In Japanese."
"Dawn, what are you doing here?" Buffy asked, looking around to see if her mother was accompanying her kid sister. When she didn’t see her, she looked to Dawn worriedly and said, "You came alone? What were you thinking?"
"I don’t know. Let’s ask you the same question, Buffy. What were you thinking when you left? Hmm, I don’t see Parker anywhere around...he didn’t dump you did he?"
Buffy’s face turned red and her eyes into solid ice. Willow was still confused, looking from Dawn to Buffy and Buffy to Dawn before the realization sunk in.
"You two are sisters, aren’t you?"
Buffy nodded and Dawn just rolled her eyes. After Buffy’s vision started to clear a little bit, she asked Dawn, "Why are you here? Alone?"
"Decided it was time to make you come home." Dawn said, picking at a loose strand on her skirt. "That, or for me to just stay away."
"Why?" Buffy asked. Dawn’s appearance was still shocking her. The last time she had seen her sister, she had been wearing a long plaited skirt, a billowing blouse, and her hair (which was naturally a dark brown) had flowers braided into it. And she was always much nicer to Buffy, always looking up to her so she could be just like her. But this girl in front of Buffy was so unlike her sister in everyway it was almost scary.
"Because every night it’s either, ‘I’m going out with Disco-Ted!’ or ‘Dawn, why aren’t you more like Buffy?’ I just got tired of it, and decided that if I could send you home, then I could just leave the scene."
"You can’t just leave the scene." Buffy said. "You’re only fifteen."
"Sixteen. And why not? You left the scene. Why can’t I?"
"Because...what would mom think?"
"I don’t think she’s noticed yet." Dawn said, her eyes lowering to the ground for a moment, before a sneer returned to her face. "And I personally don’t care what you or her thinks."
"That’s it. We are going to Giles’ and calling mom this instant to let her know where you are." Buffy announced, grabbing onto Dawn’s wrist and leading her out of the Customs.
She didn’t register Dawn pulling back until she heard the younger girl scream. "I’m not going anywhere with you!" Dawn yelled, grabbing her wrist back. "You know the second you call mom she’ll be down here in an instant ready to take you back to Boston. It won’t do you any good to call her."
"Maybe we should just take her back to Giles’ and discuss everything, okay?" Willow suggested in a calm voice, trying to soothe the teenager.
Dawn’s eyes rolled and she nodded, saying, "As long as I don’t have to braid anything or look at ‘funky’ flowers, then I’ll be fine."
Buffy cringed. Those were her and Dawn’s favorite things to do back it Boston.
On the way home, they were attacked by vampires. They were nothing, fledglings mostly, and Buffy dusted them without a second thought. When she was done, however, she remembered her sister was with them and when she turned around, she saw Dawn’s eyes as big as silver dollars.
"You....you just...killed...that....thing." she said slowly, trying to process it. "You killed something. Someone. And he turned to dust..."
"Dawn, let me explain..." Buffy tried, but Dawn beat her to it.
"What the hell is going on?!" she screamed/asked, and Buffy cringed again. She felt another headache coming on, the ones she usually got from hearing too much screaming from her sister, the ones that could only be solved with a few shots of someone’s secret-potions.
"Dawnie, let’s just get to Giles’ house and we’ll all explain everything." Buffy said in a dead-tone voice, not wanting to say anything until she could get to Giles’.
"Don’t call me Dawnie." Another shudder went through Buffy. She had always called her sister Dawnie.
But she’s really not your little sister anymore. a voice in the back of her head reminded her. You haven’t seen her in months, and you abandoned her and your mother. Of course she’s going to be a little bit resentful.
Buffy then told her head to shut up and the trio trudged the remaining blocks to Giles’ house in silence.
*****
Spike looked up at the approaching dawn. Glancing back down to the nearly-empty bottle in his hands, he said to himself, "This is it mate. You’re gonna watch the sun come up, and no one’s gonna even care. Not Dru, not Darla, not even the bloody Slayer." He stumbled over a rock, sending him head-first into a few punks who were just standing around, probably causing mischief of some kind.
"Hey, do you need help?" one of them asked him, bending down to get a good look at him.
"I want to die." Spike said, rolling over so that he was looking up at the group of kids. That’s all they are. Spike thought. Kids. They think they’re all grown up because they were black and swear a lot and tell their parents they don’t wanna pick up their rooms. The whole bloody lot of ‘em are like that.
"Okay big guy." one of the older kids said, "Let’s get you into some shelter. You smell really bad."
It occurred to Spike that he hadn’t showered in days, or changed his clothes for that matter. He tried to protest as the bigger ones picked him up, but he just didn’t have the energy. He fell asleep on the way there.
When he woke up, he saw that he was sleeping on a cot, with the drapes closed on the window. He looked around, and noticed a few other vampires in the room, all sleeping. Most of them were deathly skinny, and a few had multiple wounds on them.
Getting up to walk around, Spike noticed a sign that said, "Dining Hall." Remembering that he had not eaten the night before, Spike decided that any kind of food, even human, would suffice for him.
On the way through the dark hallways, he noticed a few more vampires standing around, smoking a cigarette or talking over a cup of blood. Spike was happy to realize that this was some kind of homeless shelter for vampires.
"Well, of all the places I could’ve ended up..." he said to himself. His head pounded from a previous night of boozing, and once he made it to the dining hall, he made sure to pick up some aspirin with some blood.
Taking a sip of the blood, he grimaced and nearly spat it back out. Pigs blood. Disgustin’ stuff. he thought before finishing the entire cup and throwing it on the ground. He wouldn’t stay long then, especially if the food was no good. He would leave after sundown.
He spent the rest of the day planning on how to get back into his home. He knew that Darla would want him to kill the Slayer, and that’s just what he would do.
I’ll cut ’er head off. he told himself. And put it on a plate so I can show that bitch who’s the boss around here.
By the time the sun went down, Spike was already in the mood to kill a certain blonde slayer who went by the name of Buffy.
*****
"So, you’re Buffy’s sister. That’s cool."
"I like your hair. It’s better than Buffy’s."
"What’s wrong with my hair?"
The crowd took to Dawn all right, maybe even better than either Buffy or Willow had planned. Cordelia especially seemed to like the girl, and the feeling was mutual.
Giles however, was much more nervous than usual. After explaining to Dawn about the whole ’your sister has a destiny to kill vampires’ thing, Buffy went to see him in his private office near the patio of his apartment.
"Hey G-man, what’s your problem?" Buffy asked, concerned about what might be happening.
Giles started to answer, then listened to Buffy, and then said, "Do not refer to me as ‘G-man’ anymore. It’s highly irritating."
Buffy rolled her eyes. Giles coughed, and then continued. "Buffy, if you did not already know, tomorrow is the feast of Beltane, or May Eve as it is called in the pagan community, and-"
"Let me guess." Buffy interrupted, "Some crazed vampires want to perform some sort of ritual on Beltane to become total squares for me."
Giles sighed and said, "In the tenth century, several demon-like children, known as Lampijerovics, killed an entire group of witches in eastern Europe for a ritual of cleansing. Ever since then, on twenty year intervals, when the moon and the Earth are aligned just correctly with the dark planet, Saturn, then these creatures come forth to obtain something called-" he flipped through the pages, and scanned down one before finding the answer. "-Living Death."
"So like vampires? Undead?" Buffy asked.
"No, living death. Living disease, or plague. If these demons properly finish this ritual, the result will be the death of over one forth or more of the cities citizens. All these creatures have to do is exhale once, and the air surrounding them will be filled with the Black Death, or bubonic plague."
"Yummy." Buffy said, looking at some of the pictures in the book. "Well, where will they do it and how can I kill them?"
"Well, all my current research has pointed to the Italian district, approximately two miles from here. Once the ritual has started, the place where it is being held will become darker than the surrounding area, so we’ll have to use that as our only guess as to were it is being performed. Other than that, to kill these demons, especially during their transformation, you must burn them alive. One by one, or the ritual will not stop, and they may come back more powerful."
"Okay. Then, let’s get on it. Willow’s the major spell girl, we can get her to do some mojo to help us locate this place." Buffy said. "Xander and Cordy can have fire duty until the ritual, and Oz, well, he’ll have to be chained up because tomorrow is a full moon, right?"
"Yes, correct." Giles said. "Well, let’s prepare. I certainly do not want to die from blisters and pussticles."
Buffy looked disdainfully at her Watcher and said, "Giles? Gross."
*****
The sun slowly set on the second day of Spike’s wonderful stay at the institute for vampires. He had tried to escape the night before, but had found it impossible. The nurses who worked there (all mightily powerful she-demons) had told him that the price of staying was that you had to work for every night you slack off.
Faced with no other choice but to work, Spike had just gone through the motions, leading to the ‘accidental’ death of three fellow vampires (which had gone thankfully unnoticed).
But now, he was itching to go out and get some Slayer’s blood. The air was buzzing with magical activity, and Spike knew that something big was possibly going down nearby. He figured that if something dark and scary was happening, that the Slayer and her people would be there, trying to put a stop to it.
They won’t even know I’ve been there, until they notice that their poor Slayer is dead, drained, and with her head missing! he thought happily, practically skipping along the dimly-lit roads.
Once he made it to the source of the magic, he looked up to it in awe. The entire building was glowing black light. It was almost like there was a black hole on a poor Italian street.
Spike shook himself out of his self-inflicted trance and walked up to the door. He heard fighting going on inside of the building, and then the battle cry of the Slayer, followed by a shriek of whatever-it-was that was making the dark mojo.
Spike smiled. She’ll save the day, and I’ll kill her. Bloody wonderful. he thought, waiting for the perfect moment to enter.
*****
"All right now." Giles said, looking over his various maps and diagrams of the inner city. "We’ve had Willow do a tracing spell of any dark magic in the Italian district, and all of her sources point to here." He pointed to a single spot on the biggest map. "The Mario il Mercato di Pasta italiano is the main location of all of the dark magic. It’s an old pasta warehouse...I believe Xander said it’s been boarded up since the early fifties."
"Well, it looks like I go to Mario’s then." Buffy said, doing some round kicks into the air. "I’m ready for a little rumbling."
"You’re taking Willow and Xander with you." Giles said. "Willow will be using her wiccan knowledge to find the source of the magic, and Xander will be burning the creatures."
"So my job is to make sure that they’re knocked unconscious so Xander can burn them up?" Buffy asked. Giles simply nodded, and she grabbed her long purple jacket. "Well, it’s nearly sundown, so, I’ll see you after I stop the Apocalypse."
"Wait!" Giles said. Buffy turned around, and the older man ran to her side. He placed a large necklace in her hand. "This is a rose quartz. It’s a protection stone."
Buffy smiled and said, "Thanks! This is so sweet!" She looked into the stone, and twirled it in her face.
"This is the hardest thing you’ve done yet." Giles said, sitting down. "You’ve never stopped an Apocalypse before. It’s not just an average battle. These are the things that get most Slayers killed. I wish I could go to make sure you don’t get hurt, but, under rules of the Council, Watchers are not allowed to help out in Apocalyptic battles."
"That’s all right, Giles. I know you work two jobs and if you could be there you would but you have to put food on the table some how." Buffy said. Giles stared at her, not understanding the statement. She laughed, shook her head, and said, "Sorry. Not one of my best Buffy-isms. I didn’t mean to be uncool."
Giles smiled and said, "I understand. I was that way at your age as well."
Buffy sat down on the floor next to Giles. "It’s been a crazy last few months, hasn’t it?" she asked him.
"That it has."
Buffy continued, "I mean, this time last year, all I could care about was making sure that I was fly, and that every guy at the raves wanted to have sex with me. And now, I’m spending all of my time fighting demons and creatures that I thought were just story-tale figures. Do you remember the Mystic Warlords?"
"Your first major opponents." Giles said, smiling as he reminisced about the battle. "Xander kept trying to hit on you, and Cordelia decided that she hated you."
"And Willow did her first spell. I remember the look on her face when she made that ball of light and fried the leader’s head off." Buffy said, thinking back to that night. She had been trapped inside of old factory with Xander, Giles, and Willow, with four crazed demons who had been after the blood of a Slayer. In the end, it had been Willow who saved the day, frying the leader who was about to kill Buffy.
"Hey Buffster, we’re ready to go!" Xander said from the living room. Buffy got up and walked out of the room, leaving Giles behind her. Had she turned around, she would have seen tears of pride in his eyes.
The living room was quite the scene. Dawn and Cordelia were watching a concert on television (one of Dawn’s bands; Cordelia hated them), Oz and Willow were making out on the couch, and Xander was standing there with over fifty pounds of stolen ammunition in his hands (he had stolen the stuff on his way home from Vietnam).
"Let’s go then!" Buffy said enthusiastically. Willow sat up quickly from Oz’s lap, wiping some of the smeared make-up from her face. Xander literally jumped to attention; years of military training coming through inside the boy.
"Okay, here’s the plan." Buffy said, looking at Willow. "You’re going to lead us to this place, and find us our Lamper-Lamper-whatever. Then, you’re going to clear out. Get as far away as possible. come back here if you can." She turned to Xander. "Xander, your job is simple. Wait till I know them down, them set them on fire. Questions? Comments?"
Xander and Willow both shook their heads no, and Buffy opened the door.
"Let’s go then!" she said happily, waving her hands towards the door.
Willow went back for one more good-bye kiss from Oz, and Cordelia got up from her spot on the floor and went over to Xander, hugging him and whispering not-so-quietly in his ear, "If you try any funny business this time, I won’t forgive you. Remember that."
"I love you too, Cordy." Xander said, prying the girl off of him. Inner-Buffy cringed. It had been a long time since she had been with anyone. She had thought she had found her life-partner in Parker, but she had been wrong.
What wouldn’t I give just to have a nice relationship with someone who really loves me. she thought, hugging herself.
Xander turned to her and asked, "What’s wrong Buff?"
She smiled sweetly and replied, "Just cold. It’s nothing. So, now, are we ready?"
"Ready we are." Willow said, getting up to join her friends.
Without saying a word, the trio left through the door, shutting it quietly.
*****
Spike watched the Willow girl run out of another nearby door, and decided that it was time for him to take action. Breaking down the nearest door to him, he followed the fighting sounds all the way up two flights of stairs into a huge room where the Slayer and one of her other friends were fighting off about six angry Lampijerovics, who were probably trying to obtain the state of ‘Living Death’.
One of them was knocked to the ground by the Slayer, and Spike watched the boy aim a flamethrower at it, and fire. The scream was horrible, loud and high-pitched, and Spike had to walk away for a second to get over it.
There were only five left...wait, now three (the boy had gotten two more) left, and they were all coming out after the Slayer at once.
Spike knew she was outnumbered. Lampijerovics were nasty buggers, and they weren’t fair fighters. He knew that they would make mince-meat out of his Slayer.
My Slayer? Why in the bleedin’ hell am I callin’ the bint mine? he asked himself.
He watched them back her into the corner of the room, and he couldn’t take it anymore. He didn’t mean to, really, he didn’t, but he flew out of the corner, and into one of the demons, evening the fight for the Slayer.
The fight was short and bloody. Within moments, the thing was on the ground, trying to crawl away from the fire about to engulf it. The next thing he knew, there was that scream again, and nothing remained.
He went after another one of the things, leaving the Slayer with only one to fight. The two fought almost identically, blow for blow, punch for punch, until each demon was near-death. It only took one shot from Xander to finish them both off.
Suddenly, the dark tension of the room lifted, and returned to normal. Buffy smiled at Spike, and said, "Hey, thanks for saving my life. If it wasn’t for you, I would’ve-"
But she didn’t get to finish her sentence. Spike ran off, running faster than he ever had before in his life.
*****
You saved the Slayer! You spent nearly three days planning her death, down to the last bloody second, and then you go and save the bint’s life at the last second! You’ll never be back with Dru again if you keep this up. he screamed at himself, nearing his new home-away-from-home.
He turned the last corner, and was only about a block away from the Customs, when he thought he saw a flash of color coming behind him. He turned around, trying to see who it was, and when he turned back around, he came face-to-face with Darla, who had a metal rod up over her head in striking position.
The pain of being hit over the head with an iron rod lasted only for a millisecond before Spike drifted into darkness.