Chapter 7: Midnight

Buffy lay on her side, clutching the sheets, as Spike thrust in and out of her from behind, in long slow strokes. One of his hands rested on her hip, which he used to pull himself in and out. His mouth nuzzled her neck and shoulder.

She was amazed that he could be so gentle with her and still be so passionate. It made all that time she'd spent making him hurt her see absurd. This was so much better. Not that she didn't feel like a rough fuck later on. But right now this was perfect.

He shifted his hand from her hip to her stomach which altered their relative positions slightly. When he thrust back into her he the tip of his cock brushed her in just the right place.

"Oh god! Spike!" she cried out as her entire body began to tremble with pleasure.

"Found you're sweet spot did I?" he chuckled. She didn't have to be able to see him to know that he was smiling wickedly; she could hear it in his voice. His hand tightened around her stomach as he began to speed up, careful not to shift their positions again.

He hit her deep inside, faster and faster, harder and harder. Each thrust forced another scream from her lips. She felt like her whole body was trembling violently. It was almost too much. She was no longer in control of any of her body. All there was was that place deep inside her where only he had ever touched her.

Her vision blurred. She was so close, she had gone from clutching the sheets to digging her fingers into the mattress. She didn't think she could take anymore.

"That's it pet, come for me," he crooned in her ear.

Something in his voice re-awoke a little of her old stubbornness. He was speaking to her like he controlled her body. Like he could make it feel whatever he wanted. The fact that he usually could only made her feel stubborner.

Then some part of her mind idly noticed the red numbers on his alarm clock flash 11:59. One more minute she thought, I'll hold on one more minute. Right at the stroke of midnight. I can hold on till then. No giving in till then.

She bit her lip in a vain attempt to regain control of her body. Finally the clock flashed 12:00. She was ready to give in when he next thrust inside her. But he never did.

Suddenly he wasn't touching her anywhere any more. Her body ached from the lack of his touch. A chill ran down her spine. This had happened before.

Her dream.

"Spike?" she asked worried. He wasn't on the bed anymore. She sat up to look for him, and he was calmly walking across the room to where his duster was hanging by the door. He didn't look at her, didn't seem to know that she was even there.

He grabbed something out of the pocket of his duster, and then he walked out the door. Completely naked.

Something was defiantly wrong. Panicked, Buffy looked around the room to find her skirt and blouse. She pulled the skirt on, then as soon as her arms were through the sleeves of her blouse, she ran out the door, buttoning it up as she went.

She easily caught up to him in the parking lot of the building. He didn't seem to be in any hurry.

"Spike? Spike what's going on." He still didn't seem to know she was there. "Spike, please tell me what's going on." She put her hand on his arm, hoping to gain his attention.

It worked. He looked at her hand. Then he grabbed her by both arms, lifted her and threw her across the parking lot. She crashed right through the windshield of a truck and landed in the cab setting off the car alarm.

But the time she managed to pull herself out of the truck there was no sign of Spike.

**********************************

"More egg nog Fredikins?" asked Lorne, who had appointed himself bar tender for the night.

"No, I'm fine Lorne thanks. Actually Ah could use a bit of water."

"For you, anything," the green demon in the, Santa Clause meets disco, suit said.

Angel smiled. It was good to see his friends all happy. They'd had Christmas dinner at Fred's the night before. The idea had been to get together on Christmas Eve as friends to allow them to spend time with their loved ones on Christmas Day.

Then they'd realized how silly that was. Of all his friends only Fred and Wesley had any family. But neither of their families were in town. Besides, when all was said and done, the old gang from Angel Investigations was a family. So Angel had suggested that they all come over to his place for Christmas.

All in all it had been a success. The evening had flown by. They all needed the break and they'd been able to be just friends without having to worry about fighting evil. It was working out to be a perfect evening.

Then the phone rang. Sighing, Angel went to pick it up.

"Angel," he answered.

"Sir, this is security down at the front desk."

"Yes, what is it?" he asked annoyed.

"Sir, the Slayer just came in badly injured. Should we get rid of her or allow her in? Sir?" but there was no one there to respond. At the word 'injured' Angel had dropped the phone and rushed out of the room.

His friends all noticed immediately. Without question they set down their drinks and hurried to join him at the elevator.

"Angel what is it? Not trouble I hope?" asked Wesley.

"It's Buffy, she's here. She's hurt."

"Buffy? As in the Slayer Buffy?" Fred asked.

"Well that can't be good." Lorne added.

The elevator quickly descended to the ground floor. Angel burst out of the door. He was immediately greeted by several smells. Buffy, her blood, her sweat, her sex, and worst of all, Spike. He didn't even realize that he'd shifted to his game face.

He crossed the lobby with his full speed, leaving his friends behind to catch up. He saw Buffy, she was leaning against the front desk. She was barefoot, and her shirt and skirt had been sliced in several places in the back. It was from these same places that he could smell her blood.

Before she could say anything he had grabbed her arms as if to shake her. "Spike? Where is he?" he demanded.

"First of all, Ow," she said, sounding more annoyed than in pain. He released her.

"Angel?" Fred asked. The others had caught up to him.

"We should get her up to medical," Wesley said.

"Shouldn't we find out what did this to the Slayer? And if it's about to come knocking on our door?" Gunn asked.

"It was Spike," growled Angel as they began to move the wounded Slayer to the elevator.

"What? No," said Buffy, "Well, okay yeah, technically, yes. But it wasn't really him. Spike's a zombie."

"Is that even possible?" Fred asked. They were in the elevator heading up to medical.

"Okay, so maybe not a ZOMBIE, zombie. But he was zombie like. Something's wrong with him."

"Nothing a stake through the heart won't fix."

"ANGEL. It's not his fault, it's a woman. I think. Maybe. I don't know. But he's defiantly not himself," Buffy said.

The elevator doors opened and they stepped out, herding Buffy toward medical.

"It could be done maybe. If you distilled the mystical component of a zombie and mixed it with a vampire's blood," Fred began to ramble. They all stopped to look at her. "But I doubt Spike's an actual zombie. And why would you want a vampire zombie anyway?"

"Perhaps Buffy better start from the beginning." Wesley interjected.

"Okay, so I, um, went to see Spike. And things where going along just fine, then all of a sudden he gets up and leaves."

"Maybe he had someplace to be. By the way, I'm Charles Gunn," he offered her his hand.

"Buffy Summers. Nice to meat you," she looked around at the others that she didn't know.

"I'm Lorne sweetie, and our little rambler here is Fred."

"Nice t' meet you," she said, as she began bandaging the tiny cuts on Buffy's back.

"Likewise. So back to Spike. I'm thinking he didn't just suddenly realize he was late for an appointment and go rushing off without his clothes." Buffy's eyes went wide, realizing what she'd just admitted to, and she began to blush.

"He took off his cloths before he left?" they all looked at Fred, "Oh, never mind," she said, blushing.

Buffy cleared her throat to regain her composure. "So anyway, I went after him, but he didn't even seem to know I was there. So I touched him, really gently, just put my hand on his arm, and he stopped and through me across the parking lot. By the time I'd gotten back to my feet he was gone."

"Well, that does seem odd. I'll contact the psychics see if they can track him. Although if he's under some sort of mind control that could be difficult." Wesley said as he started to leave.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Who says anything's wrong with Spike. He's probably just went out for a drink," Angel said.

"Naked?" Fed asked.

"I have to say Angel, man, this doesn't sound like normal behavior for Spike." He paused thoughtfully and looked at Buffy, "When you take into account the hottie, doesn't sound normal for any man, period," Gunn said.

"Spike's not normal," but Angel didn't even sound convincing to himself.

"Which is why we have to find him. Personally the idea of our knight in shinning leather being under the control of who-knows-what gives me the hebbie-gebbies." Lorne said.

"Which is precisely why we should find him right away. We can also check with the police, a man walking around naked is sure to attract at least some attention." Wesley added.

"Hey wait. I think he took the snake. I didn't see it after he left." Buff said.

"Now there's a snake?" Gunn asked.

"Not a snake. Damn it, what did Dawn call it. It was this red sports car, it was. . . "

"The Viper. Spike's driving my Viper naked." He loved that car. Now there was no way he could ever drive it again unless he had the whole thing reupholstered.

"Viper, yeah that was it."

"Well, that gives a good starting place then. Wolfram & Hart have an excellent anti-theft tracking system for all company vehicles." Wesley said, "We should be able to find him in no time."

Chapter 8: The Erinyes

Buffy felt silly wearing the lab coat. Especially since she had to roll the sleeves up several times. But her clothes had been pretty well ripped in back by the glass from the truck window. Luckily even if she and Fred didn't wear the same size coat their shoe size was the same and Fred kept an extra pair of shoes in the lab in case of gooky fluids.

By the time they rejoined the others in Angel's office, Wesley had already made his inquiries.

"As I suspected, the psychics weren't able to find Spike, however we did trace the Viper to an upscale apartment building not too far from here. I'm afraid I can't narrow it down any more than that." Wesley reported.

"No that's good. Just get me in the general vicinity and I should be able to sense Spike." Buffy said.

Wesley nodded, then continued, "You mentioned a woman earlier. Is there anything you can tell us that might give us an idea of what we are dealing with?"

"Um, she's a brunette. Actually I'm not entirely sure about the woman part. I had a dream, it was Slayeresque, but not definitively prophetic, you know?" Obviously they didn't. "Anyway, in the dream they were, you know, having sex, but the whole time she was carving these symbols on his chest."

Wesley grabbed a pad of paper and a pen from Angel's desk and handed them to Buffy. She closed her eyes trying to remember the dream. Luckily she'd taught herself to memorize arcane symbols a long time ago. You never knew when the bad guy would be wearing a clue, or have it tattooed to his forehead or something.

She quickly drew a couple lines and then handed it back to Wesley. "That's the only one I got a clear look at, but I think there were a total of three."

Wesley looked at what she had drawn and his eyes went wide and his face paled. "Oh dear," he said as if he'd discovered that someone hadn't put the milk back in the fridge. "You said there were three symbols yes?" she nodded and he took up the pen and quickly scribbled down something. He then showed what he had written to Buffy, "Were these the other symbols?"

Despite not having gotten a clear look at them in her dream, the moment she saw them she knew they were the correct ones, the same way one knew things in dreams. "Yeah, so what's happening to Spike?" she demanded.

"I have absolutely no idea. But it can't be good."

"Well that was informative." Gunn remarked.

"Wes, the symbols what are they?" Angel asked.

"Yes, well, the symbol Buffy saw is commonly associated with Megaera."

"Who's some demon king right?" prompted Gunn.

"No, quite the contrary, Megaera is hardly a demon. She's not even evil, really. She's one of the Erinyes, or Furies. The other two symbols are for Alecto and Tisiphone her sisters."

"The Furies, can't say they sound like people I'd want over for Christmas dinner." Gunn said.

"They're Greek gods of vengeance," Angel added.

"Like vengeance demons?" Buffy asked.

"Oh no. Quite different," Wesley said, "Vengeance demons grant wishes for people who suffered what are usually rather trivial wrongs in the great scheme of things. The Erinyes on the other hand punishe crimes, usually murder, especially matricide. Generally by driving the murderer to kill themselves. However, I can't imagine how all of this could involve Spike. Even if someone wanted revenge for someone Spike had killed, well, they wouldn't need him to be physically present, all they would have to do is invoke the Furies and they would find him. And if he were being tormented by the Furies he wouldn't seem like a zombie. He'd most likely act crazy or depressed."

"So we don't know that this has anything to with what's happening to Spike at all," Angel said.

"I'd hardly discount a Slayer's dreams so quickly. But right now, I don't think this is going to tell us much. I'll have my department work on it, in the mean time, even if we are rushing in blind, I think our best course of action is to find Spike." Wesley said.

"Finally." Buffy said. She appreciated the need for research, it had certainly saved her more than once, but she was worried about Spike. She needed to see him, needed to know he was all right.

*************************

Despite herself Rebecca Worthington blushed when the vampire arrived completely naked, and completely erect. She couldn't help but wonder if he'd gone to another bar to pick up another girl.

It didn't matter. Such a girl was hardly likely to have the slightest clue as to who she had invited to her bed.

She lead Spike to the guest bedroom which had been locked on his previous visit so as to hide the iron chair that sat in the room.

"Sit," she commanded, and he did so. She quickly closed the manacles over his wrists and feet. He was completely under her control, and would remain so as long as she had access to his blood, but if the Watcher's Academy had taught her anything, it was never to underestimate a vampire.

She looked around the room. Everything was ready for the ritual.

The Erinyes may have turned her down her cry for justice the first time. They may have claimed that since two of the four responsible for her mother's death were already dead, their still living lovers would suffer more in life than in death.

But now instead of asking for their help avenging her mother's death, she would actually funnel some of their essence into the vampire, allowing him to become her tool of vengeance. He would be virtually unstoppable until Willow Rosenberg and Alexander Harris were dead.

Now if only she didn't have to worry about finding him some clothes.

Chapter 9: Blame

"This should be the place. Buffy?" asked Wesley as they got out of Angel's car. One of Angel's cars that was. Buffy couldn't understand why he was so upset about one car when he had a dozen others. If she didn't know that he was well over two hundred years old she would have suspected him of having a mid-life crisis.

"Crap, the only vampire I sense is Angel," Buffy said.

"There's the Viper, looks like old Spikey boy was here though." Gunn said resting his axe on his shoulder. Buffy couldn't help but looking at it from the corner of her eye. She didn't want to be rude and stare, but it look almost like it had been made out of a hubcap.

"In that case I suggest we see if we can find any clues as to where he has gone." Wesley said.

Angel sniffed the air. "This way," he headed toward the entrance to the apartment complex.

They went inside, and Angel lead them to an elevator. "Looks like we're taking the stairs."

"Why? Elevator's not out." Gunn said.

"I can't smell which button he pressed. I'll have to sniff each floor individually until we find the right one. The stairs will be faster than waiting for the doors to open and close on every floor." Angel replied.

Nine floors later. Angel's nose lead them to apartment 914. They all looked at each other.

Gunn shrugged and said, "Knock knock." And banged loudly on the door.

After a few moments the door opened the length of the security chain and a woman peered out at them. "Yes?" she asked.

Buffy may not have had a vampire's sense of smell, but she would have recognized that skanky perfume anywhere. "YOU!" she shouted, and slammed herself into the door with enough force to break the chain and send the woman flying back into the room.

"The girl does make an entrance, you have to give her that." Gunn said as he followed Buffy into the room.

"Really, I'm not sure th-" Wesley stopped suddenly as he got a look at the woman sprawled on the floor. "Rebecca?!" They all turned to look at Wesley.

"Hello Wesley," the woman said as she lifted herself up off the floor. Her accent was unmistakably british. "And you my dear, judging by your manners, you must be Buffy Summers."

"And you're dead if you don't tell me what you did to Spike." Buffy said hauling the woman to her feet.

"Oh dear," Wesley said, "You're not still performing those experiments are you?"

"Hardly, what would be the point? Miss Summers here has already done that work for me."

"Okay anyone want to fill in the blanks for those of us not from Merry Olde England?" Gunn said.

"Yes of course," Wesley said, "This is Rebecca Worthington, she and I went to the Watcher's Academy together. In fact she was Head Girl. However, the council later fired her when they discovered that she had been performing magical experiments on the blood of the Potential she was training. Not to mention her research into several areas involving vampires and forbidden blood rights."

"Neat. Now where's Spike?" Buffy said shaking her.

"Well he's not here. Though I'm sure you're pet vampire could have told you that. I'm not sure where he is actually." Rebecca said.

"Hey, I'm not a pet, I'm the boss here," Angel barked from just outside the doorway to the apartment. No one was paying any attention to him though.

"Yeah, but I'm betting you do know where he is. Or at least where he's going and," Buffy punched her fist through the wall next to the woman's head, "I think you're going to tell me."

"Now, now Miss Summers. You may be uncouth, uncivilized, and unreasonable. But I rather doubt that you will hurt a human being."

"Maybe not, but he's UNdead," Buffy quipped as she spun the woman around and tossed her out into the hallway and Angel's waiting arms. Angel even cooperated and vamped for effect.

"He has a soul, right? I mean. . . he won't . . ." the former Watcher gulped, her bravado no longer holding up. Angel growled, "Alright, just . . . look he's on his way to Brazil. Probably halfway there already. I chartered a flight for him."

"Why's he going to Brazil?" Buffy asked. How the hell was she going to get a flight to Brazil at this time of night?

The woman laughed, regaining some of her composure. "It doesn't matter, even if you got there in time, you couldn't stop him. Nothing can stop him, not sunlight, fire, stakes, decapitation. Nothing."

"Stop him from what?" Angel asked, obviously uncomfortable with the idea of an invulnerable Spike.

"Justice."

"Oh please," Buffy said, "if you want justice hire a lawyer, in fact I know just the law firm for you. You are obviously into the whole vengeance things. What with the Erin's eyes."

"The Erinyes," Wesley corrected from over by a desk where he was shuffling through papers.

"Whatever. Point is, you want someone dead don't you? Who is it?"

"I think I know," Wesley said, holding up a piece of paper. "Willow. And Xander as well from the looks of it."

"Willow? As in cute little red-headed witch, Willow?" Gunn asked.

"Let me see that," Buffy grabbed the paper from Wesley. It had two columns, one titled 'Location of Willow Rosenberg' the other 'Location of Alexander Harris'. Each column contained every address her two friends had stayed at for the past ten months.

"All right. That's it, no more games. Why are you after Willow and Xander?" Angel said as he slammed Rebecca into the hallway wall. He might not care much for Spike, but Willow, and even Xander had been friends of his. He didn't want anything to happen to them.

"Because those foolish children are responsible for my mother's death!" came the woman's angry retort.

"You're mother died in the explosion at the Council's headquarters. I don't see how that could possibly be their fault." Wesley said.

"Don't you? Idiot. But then that's why the Council fired you wasn't it," she looked around the room, "None of you know do you? None of you know what they did, the forces they tampered with, the powers they tapped into. Didn't it ever occur to you to wonder why in the thousands of years there have been Slayers, the First never tired to end the Slayer line until a year ago? It was because of her." She pointed at Buffy. "When her friends brought her back from the dead they altered the natural order of things, allowing the First the chance it needed. If your friends had only left you in the ground," she said glaring at Buffy, "the Council would still exist. My mother, the other Watchers, not to mention all those innocent girls would still be alive."

**********************************

"It's not you fault Buffy, you can't blame yourself for any of this," Angel said.

Buffy wanted to believe him, but just couldn't.

"Angel's right you know. Even if what the crazy Watcher lady said was true, which it SO is not, it's not like you asked to come back," Dawn put her arm around her sister.

Buffy hugged her back, glad for her sister being there, even if it felt irresponsible dragging her along. Not that she had had any choice.

After they had gotten everything they could from Rebecca, Angel's team had leapt into action cell phones at the ready. Buffy had to admit, she was impressed, and glad she'd gone to them. She was starting to think that Giles was leaping to conclusions about the whole evil lawyer thing.

Wesley had called his department. They were going to clean out Rebecca's stash of mystical paraphernalia, and see if they could figure the spell she had cast on Spike and, hopefully, a way to stop him.

Gunn had called to schedule a flight for her and Angel on one of Wolfram & Hart's planes and to let the office in Rio know they were coming.

Angel had driven her to her father's house, so she could tell Dawn that she was going to have to fly to Brazil to find Spike. Not to mention to get some clothes better suited for fighting. On the way she'd used his cell phone to call Willow and Xander.

Her sister of course, hearing that Spike was in trouble had refused not only to go back to bed, but insisted on coming. The argument had woken their father. At which point Buffy realized they didn't have time for this, so she'd given in to Dawn, made a lame excuse to her father, and told him that his car would be returned once it had been cleaned.

On the way to the airport she'd called Giles to fill him in. Now they were on their way. According to Fred, Wolfram & Hart had special planes that not only had that mystic glass that protected vampires from the sun, but also went really fast, so they should actually be able to beat Spike to Brazil despite his head start.

"I know," she told Dawn, "it's not that I want to be dead or anything, but it's wrong me being here. I've always known that. It wasn't supposed to be this way." Buffy looked at her sister, scared that she would see the signs of one of Dawn's teenage, angst, tantrums. But her sister had grown up. Dawn understood this had nothing to do with whether or not Buffy wanted to be with her. "And now, here I am, flying to Brazil to keep my boyfriend from killing my best friend."

Dawn giggled and her face lit up, "Boyfriend? Does that mean you and Spike. . ?"

"He's not her boyfriend," Angel growled.

Before Dawn could make this worse Buffy spoke up, "Yeah, he is. Or maybe not so much right now, but I want him to be."

"What about cookie dough?"

Buffy took a deep breath. She didn't want to do this, but all things considered, Angel had been acting almost like an adult. He deserved an explanation.

"Look, that was, it was a nice idea. But it's not me. Or maybe I just baked quicker than I thought I would. I'm not The Slayer anymore, but I'm still, I'll always be, a Slayer. I'll never be a normal girl, I'll never have the normal life that you wanted for me, that I used to want. Not because of duty and responsibility, I mean all that stuff's real, but because I can't turn my back on who I am. Do you remember Kendra? She once told me that I talked about Slaying as if it was a job, but it's not, it's who I am. And she right. It took me a long time to realize that, to accept it, but it's true.

"And Spike gets that. He loves me for being the Slayer and for being Buffy. And. . .I love him. I know there's lots of stuff that he can't give me. But it's not all stuff I want. The kids, the dog, the picket fence I don't want that. I just want. . . I just want to be loved by someone I don't have to hide myself from or lie to. And that, Spike can give me."

"I'm going to check on our prisoner," Angel said and got up and left the cabin.

****************

Willow was scared. Not so much of Spike, all though she couldn't say she was thrilled with the idea of being hunted by an invincible vampire. She was scared of herself.

That was really all she was ever scared of anymore. Most of the time she was okay. Most of the time she knew she had a handle on things. But, had she mentioned the invincible vampire that was hunting her. When push came to shove, Willow was scared that her survival instinct was too strong, that she would call on whatever power she needed to protect herself, and that way lay potential badness.

And then there was the guilt. She had brought this all on herself. There was no one to blame but her. When Buffy had called to warn Willow about Spike, she'd tried to leave out the part of why Rebecca Worthington wanted Willow dead. But Willow had insisted until Buffy told her.

Buffy had insisted that it wasn't true. That the former Watcher was just crazy. But it made too much sense to Willow. It just felt all too true.

And it wasn't just all those dead girls and Watchers that now haunted Willow, it was Tara and Anya. Had she not brought Buffy back, Warren would never have shot Tara. Had she not brought Buffy back, there wouldn't have been any uber-vamps to kill Anya.

Was she now going to be responsible for Xander's death too. That was almost the worst. Tara and Anya had had some idea, at least as much as Willow, as to what they were doing in bringing Buffy back. Xander had been, mystically speaking, an innocent. He simply didn't know enough about magic to understand the kind of power they had tapped into that night.

"It's going to be okay baby, it's just one vampire, and you've got you're own personal Vampire Slayer body guard." Kennedy said, trying to cheer her up.

For the vigintillionth time Willow wished Tara was there. Tara would have understood.
 

Chapter 10: Promises to Keep

Things were not going well.

They had arrived in Brazil before Spike and made it to Willow and Kennedy's in no time. There had been hugs all around. Well between Buffy, Dawn, Willow, and Angel. Kennedy seemed to think she was more than enough to protect her girlfriend, not to mention she balked as soon as Buffy started making suggestions on how to set up a defense.

Okay, so Dawn would be the first to admit that Buffy could be bossy at times. But Buffy had been doing this sort of stuff for a lot longer, and this really wasn't the time to argue.

They'd agreed to make their stand inside the house. First of all, the sun would soon come up, so they would have to stay indoors if they wanted any help from Angel. Secondly, if they were lucky Spike would still need an invitation to get in.

They weren't lucky. About half and hour after the sun had risen, Spike simply flung the door open and walked in. Things had not improved from there.

First of all it was immediatly obvious that Buffy had held back on some of the details of just how evil this Rebecca woman was. For reasons Dawn could not possibly fathom, Spike was dressed, not in his usual black on black, but a pair of bellbottom jeans with pink flowers embrodered onto the legs, and an old, pink, Spice Girls t-shirt that read "Girl Power". Pink was deffinatly not his color. It just made him look even paler and deader, not to mention that he'd probably stake himself if he knew that he was wearing pink.

It was Kennedy who struck the first blow, or tried to anyway. She leapt at Spike with an axe yelling, "I'll show you girl power," a quip which Dawn ranked as a mere 6.3. Major loss of points for obviousness.

But Spike was not in the place Kennedy expected him to be. He grabbed the handle of the axe, twisted it, and slammed the flat of the blade into Kennedy's head. Before she could recover, he picked her up and threw her at Angel who was starting an attack of his own.

Dawn watched as Buffy, Angel, and Kennedy tried and failed to stop Spike's progress. Nothing seemed to hurt him or slow him down. Willow meanwhile kept her distance, throwing in spells, but they didn't seem to effect Spike.

Dawn's job was much simpler. They had brought Rebecca Worthington along with them. Often a witch, or at least some part of her, like her hair, was needed to break her own spell. So it seemed wise to drag her along. Now Dawn held a knife to the throat of the gagged and bound witch as she watched the others getting pummeled.

Spike broke past the other's defenses, grabbed Willow, and wrapped his hand around her throat, choking her, and preventing her from speaking.

Dawn looked around desperately. The others were all down. Buffy was trying to pull herself out of a wall, Angel was trapped in a small corner by the sunlight being let in by a fallen wall, and Dawn couldn't even see Kennedy.

She didn't know what else to do, so she spun around so her back was to Spike and she was facing Rebecca. Then she yanked on Rebecca's shoulders as Dawn tumbled over backwards. Dawn's foot rose up to catch Rebecca in the stomach and to throw her towards Spike.

It worked. Dawn gracefully rolled back up to her feet, while Rebecca flew over her head and into Spike and Willow. Spike interpreted Rebecca's momentum as an attack, and momentarily released Willow so as to bat Rebecca into Kennedy, who was just now reemerging from the outside.

Dawn rushed in between Spike and Willow, her knife upraised. She knew it was dumb, but there was nothing else she could do. Willow was still coughing and sputtering on the floor behind her. Maybe this would give her the time to get away.

She braced herself, tensing her muscles for the blow she was sure was coming. But it never did. He didn't try to hit her, or throw her, or kick her. Instead he tried to step around her. She moved with him, blocking him. So he tried to go around her the other way. Again Dawn blocked him, keeping herself between Spike and Willow.

Buffy rushed over to her little sister's aid, Spike turned sensing her, and sent her sprawling back to the floor. He turned back again, and once again tried to move toward Willow. But he seemed unwilling, or unable to touch Dawn.

Dawn reached behind her to give Willow a hand up, then the two of them backed into a wall. Spike followed.

"Um, guys? Any ideas here?" Dawn asked.

Kennedy started to charge Spike again when Buffy grabbed her arm.

"Hello, already made that mistake here. He's not attacking anyone right now. Let's take advantage of the time out and figure out what's going on. You okay Dawn?"

"Just peachy," not that Dawn really felt that way. It would have been easier not to be scared if Spike's eyes were not a red swirling vortex of energy. Never a good sign.

Buff grabbed a rug up off the floor and tossed it to Angel so that he could get past his prison of daylight and join the rest of them.

They were all so absorbed in watching the standoff between Dawn and Spike, that none of them noticed that Rebecca's gag had slipped during her fall. Her eyes narrowed as she watched the young girl who had come between her and her revenge. Spying a discarded axe she muttered under her breath and the axe lifted in the air, then flew end over end straight toward Dawn's head.

Dawn saw the movement out of the corner of her eye. Before her brain could process what it was, Spike leaped in front of her catching the axe with his shoulder. Spike fell to his knees.

"NO!" Rebecca screamed.

Blood began to trickle down Spikes chest in three distinct rivulets. As everyone watched the blood formed itself into three red snakes that fell to the floor. The snakes wriggled across the room straight toward Rebecca. One of the snakes pushed it's way down her throat, while the other two slithered into her eye sockets.

"Eewwww!" Buffy, and Dawn said in unison.

Then Rebecca began looking around frantically from side to side, clutching her ears and crying, "No, no. I didn't do it. Shut up. I didn't. . . I didn't."

"Is she okay?" Buffy asked.

"I think the Furies have decided to punish her," Angel said.

"Hey," Kennedy interrupted, "I must have cut Spike with that same axe a half dozen times and he didn't even seem to notice."

Willow sighed, "That's cause you didn't cast the spell on him. He wasn't invulnerable to her. No witch with any brains casts a spell like that that she can't undo. The real mystery is why Spike couldn't attack Dawn."

"Do you think it's a key thing?" Dawn asked. It had always seemed to her that she'd gotten the short end of the mystical stick. She had always thought she should have cool powers.

"Huh?" asked Angel.

"No," Spike said. They all looked at him. His eyes were no longer red, he seemed to be himself again, except for the pink of course. "Had a promise to keep."

"Spike?" Buffy asked, pulling the axe out of his shoulder, and examining his wound, "Do you remember what happened?"

"Yeah, all of it. Couldn't stop it, I'm so sorry. I never meant to hurt you, well except maybe for Angel."

"What promise Spike?" Willow asked.

"To protect Dawn," he said.

"Until the end of the world," Buffy whispered.

"I don't get any of this," Kennedy said, obviously upset.

"Oh, I think I do," Willow said, obviously happy to be the one with the answers, "I read it last night after Buffy called. Almost all of the literature on the Furies agrees that once they've sworn an oath to exact justice, they can't stop until they've fulfilled their oath."

"Again with the huh?" Kennedy said.

"Rebecca didn't invoke the Furies in the regular manner and get an oath from them. Instead she trapped them, or at least part of them in Spike and forced them to come after me and Xander. I don't think anything like that's been done before. Anyway, the point is, they were in essence a part of Spike, so they had to fulfill his oaths just as if they'd made them."

"So I guess that means I saved the day huh?" Dawn said.

Chapter 11: Epilogue

"Thank god she finally fell asleep. She's going to be impossible to live with for awhile." Buffy said regarding her sister' sleeping form.

"She's never got to be the hero before, pet." Spike said, amused by Buffy's annoyance at her sister.

"All she did was stand there."

"Yeah, stand there facing down a vampire possessed by three angry, insane goddesses who had already taken down two Slayers and a vampire. That takes courage pet. Let her have her moment."

"I guess," sighed Buffy as she snuggled deeper into Spike's arms.

Spike was still amazed that Buffy was willing to be so openly affectionate with him, especially with Angel around.

Thank god the poof had stopped making comments on Spike's attire. Spike didn't know what was worse, that he was the right size that Rebecca had been able to dress him in her clothing, or that he'd had the whammy put on him by a Spice Girls fan.

He was going to have to remember to send Red some flowers or something. Not just for the almost killing her part, but also for being nice enough to put a glamour on him that made him look like he was wearing his own clothes until he had a chance to change.

"You all right?" Buffy asked, "You seem a little distant."

"I'm fine, luv. Just enjoying being the only one in my head." Actually, he wasn't as okay as he'd let on. Having three women actually in your head was even worse than living in a house crammed full of potential slayers. Not to mention the fact that once the Furies found that they couldn't escape from inside him, they'd gone snooping about through his memories.

He had only been able to understand snippets of what they said to each other when they weren't directly addressing him. After all he hadn't used his classical Greek since he was alive. But he'd gotten the impression that even though they usually didn't punish vampires, since they were stuck with him and he had killed his mother, they'd pass the time by trying to drive him insane.

Given enough time, he was sure they would have succeeded. Luckily the death of his mother was an issue he had already dealt with. At least as well as anyone could. Not to mention the First had also tried to drive him insane and had used a much large repertoire than just his mothers death. Still he was a little shaken.

None of that really mattered now though. He had Buffy now. Really had her it seemed, she wasn't going anywhere, and he was going with her back to Italy. Plus she wasn't making any attempt at hiding their relationship from her friends or Angel.

Not to mention the fact that she had made it very clear that she felt he owed her for the timing of his sleep walking episode, and he was more than happy to make that up to her as often as she liked. He hated the fact that he had left her unsatisfied, even if they had been rather rudely interrupted.

If only he could get away with throwing Angel off the plane, he could sneak Buffy into the back and ravish her there without waking the Nibblet. Unfortunately there was no where on the plane he and Buffy could disappear to that would be out of Angel's hearing, and he was sure the older vampire would find ways to interrupt them. So Spike would just have to wait, but he could afford to do that, he and Buffy had all the time in the world.

The End

A/N Please tell me what you think. I'd originally planned for a lot more to happen in this story, but that Viper joke came along, and suddenly the plot was moving too fast. So I'm not entirely satisfied with this ending, but it's the best I've been starring at it for a week and making no progress.