|
|
Fated Series - Within Your Eyes -- by Kismet
Rating:PG-13
Description: The rescue, but will something that happens in the confines of a cell spell the end for Buffy and Spike? A hidden player makes his presence felt.
Disclaimer: This is a work of amateur fiction. All characters etc. are the property of their respective creators and no copyright infringement is intended. The author reserves rights over her work and storyline. Feel free to read and enjoy, though ! (Song lyrics by David Bowie for the movie soundtrack 'The Labyrinth')
**THERE'S SUCH A SAD LOVE, DEEP IN YOUR EYES,
A KIND OF PALE JEWEL,
OPENED AND CLOSED WITHIN YOUR EYES.
I'LL PLACE THE SKY, WITHIN YOUR EYES.
THERE'S SUCH A FOOLED HEART, BEATING SO FAST,
IN SEARCH OF NEW DREAMS
A LOVE THAT WILL LAST.
WITHIN YOUR HEART, I'LL PLACE THE MOON.
WITHIN YOUR HEART, AS THE PAIN SWEEPS THROUGH.
MAKES NO SENSE FOR YOU.
EVERY THRILL HAS GONE,
WASN'T TOO MUCH FUN AT ALL,
BUT I'LL BE THERE FOR YOU
AS THE WORLD FALLS DOWN.
IT'S FALLING, IT'S FALLING DOWN.
FALLING IN LOVE. **
"What are you ?" Riley walked over to the table and began leisurely fingering the weapons that they had found hidden under her trench-coat. A double-headed, sickle-bladed axe as long as a forearm. A long, heavy silver dagger with runes incised into the blade and a dark purple gem in its hilt. Several throwing discs which she had never found a use for. "Superhuman strength, vampire reflexes, incredible agility. What kind of demon is hiding under that face ?"
The last blow to the cheekbone made it feel as though her eyes were going to pop out of their sockets, but Buffy raised her head defiantly. "Just a girl who's going to kick your ass right through your stomach when this is over." How long had it been ? An hour ? Two ?
The slap jerked her head around and blood trickled from the corner of her mouth as her teeth cut into her cheek. She tasted its metallic, coppery tang as the world slowly swam into focus again. Then she turned hard, glittering eyes to the man who was standing bent over her, his hands on the arms of the chair. The cut quickly healed itself silently.
Thank God for Slayer resilience, she thought, but it still hurt !
"You know," Riley said conversationally. "I liked you, Buffy. I thought you were sweet, if kind of strange. It shows that you can't tell even with the best of them.. If the question I'm asking is too difficult, then just answer me this. Did you..."
"Sleep with him ?" Buffy sneered. "He was a better lover than you would ever be in a million years, pencil prick."
A muscle twitched in his cheek and his hands balled into fists, but then one of the others, who had been silently watching, came over and took his arm. They went into a huddle in a corner as Buffy let her head droop down towards her chest as if in fatigue.
She could hear some of what they were saying, but not all.
"No use......not even bruising...."
"Time. We can't hold here indefinitely without being found out..."
"Not getting any information...should proceed to.."
She felt as if she had been worked over by a pack of vampires, steam-rollered and put through a car wash. But however physically tired she was, it was nothing compared to the emotional chaos she was fighting to keep from slipping into.
The session in Giles' house had hurt more than she cared to admit, and her friends' words had brought all the uncertainties she had been trying to hide from into the light. She had been with Angel, trying for an impossible connection, and look at all the carnage and hurt that had ensued. Was she walking down the same path again, this time sacrificing her friends and her life as she knew it for an old enemy ? What was she doing here ?
The anxiety that she felt answered that question. If they could do this to her, what had they done to Spike ? That was a thought she didn't want to hold.
And therein lay the answer to all her questions, but it shone so brilliantly, with such a strange light, that she did not dare to reach out for it.
It was love. Real love, the genuine article. The thing that millions of souls were desperately seeking right now. She almost groaned loud. Why was it that she had to keep falling in love with vampires ? Surely she was making Slayer history with this !
A hand came down on her shoulder. Not especially cruel, just impersonally firm. It was Nathan. The other one called George or something was kneeling down at her feet, cutting through the rope that found them to the chair legs as Nathan trained his gun on her.
"Get up slowly," he instructed.
Falling in around her and flanking her with Riley at the head, they led her out of the generic-looking room and into the hall, her hands still tied behind her. She tried to see as much as she could though it wasn't much as they were all much taller than her. As far as she could gather the place was very modernistic, looking for all the world like some spin-off from the Pentagon. They passed other guards who greeted them before stepping into the lift again, which went down.
Second floor, she noted, trying to get her bearings. Second last. Must be underground because the three has been replaced by a G for ground floor.
The doors slid open and she blinked. There was only a small room here, hardly larger than a portion of hallway, and there was a heavy metal door like something out of Star Wars blocking their way. Two more guards flanked it.
"New catch," Riley said to them.
There was a pause. The guard to the left said uncertainly, "We didn't receive word from Head about it."
"It's still early, she hasn't come in yet. So I came direct."
Buffy's ears pricked up. Whatever this organisation was, Riley had brought her in here of his own accord, it seemed.
"New prisoners have to be authorised by Head," began the guard, but Riley cut him off.
"Look, unless you can reach Head yourself I strongly suggest you let me in. I don't know how long this one is going to remain under control, but if the effects of the stun-net wear off before it's safely in a cell, you can be sure Head is not going to be pleased when she hears about it. I don't care either way."
The guards looked at each other, then stood aside as Riley produced a card and slipped it through the card slot. With a soft 'whoosh', the metal door rose, showing her a stark, pristine modern white hallway with what looked like cubicles to the left and black glass to the right.
"Welcome to Containment Row," Nathan said.
The man in the lab coat leaned back and yawned. He had been on a 12-hour shift, and had ten minutes to go. He was beat, and watching the bank of monitors was tedious work.
He glanced at Number 11 again. The poor bastard was still curled up in one corner, rocking back and forth in that repetitive, unhinged pattern of an autistic child. Well, there was worse to come if he didn't open up and give Head what she wanted to know.
This job required nerves of steel and a complete lack of emotion. The training had been intensive, but unlike some of his colleagues, he still managed to view them outside of himself, the way someone might look at a newspaper clipping of an injured dog and feel an impersonal pity. He also found them extremely interesting, and it was arresting to think that they had once been like him and all it had taken was a simple exchange of blood to turn them into the completely different creatures they were now.
He turned his aching eyes to the other screens. Their occupants' positions varied depending on how long they had been incarcerated and how young they were, but without exception every one of them had allowed his or her game face to show through. That was another thing that made Number 11 catch his attention. He always wore his human face, as if in a last act of defiance.
He cast another glance at Number 11's monitor, and in spite of himself a disgusted tremor ran through his shoulders. He had muted the sound, almost everyone did as the noises wore horribly on their nerves. The vampires didn't know they were being watched, he supposed, and anyway the tapes would pick up any conversations to be reviewed by the unlucky few who drew the short straws at the end of each week. Yet even though there was no sound, something about Number 11's maddening rocking and his human face gave him the chills.
He turned back and dug around in his pocket for cigarettes. Damn regulations all to hell, he thought. I've got ten minutes left and I need a smoke, especially since Brenda is always late for her shift. Bitch.
With his eyes closed and the soothing smoke seeping through him, the man didn't notice when the scene on Number 11's monitor froze, distorted, as the tape, which had been replaying for too long, jammed. Recognising the signal, with a smooth click that was disguised by the overall hum of machinery, the system automatically removed the offending tape and substituted a new one, which began recording the new scene almost immediately.
Four men and a small female between them were standing in front of Number 11's stall.
Buffy gasped when Riley moved out of her way, roughly dragging her forward by one arm. "Spike ! Oh my God." She would have rushed straight through the seemingly open entrance if Riley hadn't held her back.
Spike heard her voice in his head, but then he had been hearing her voice in his head for days on end. Sometimes she was speaking to him, sometimes her voice melded in with Drucilla's until he didn't know where one ended and the other began. And then at other times she was moaning in his arms, calling his name....those times were the good ones.
"You sick bastards !" Buffy struggled in Riley's hold. "What have you done to him ?" Bending forwards suddenly, she drove her foot in a back-kick right into the belly of the man behind her, doubling him over in agony as her anger took hold. With a curse the other three moved in an attempt to restrain the Slayer, whose hands they had tied but whose feet they had forgotten.
In the other cells the vampires heard the commotion and roused themselves, trying to make out what was happening. The girl's voice, however, they recognised. The whisper swept through Containment Row. "Slayer !"
Slayer. It reached through the web of illusions around him, and Spike looked up.
Buffy choked on her rage and horror. His face was pure bone-white and impossibly gaunt, the cheekbones starkly outlined and the blue eyes sunken in. Veins stood out in his neck.
It registered in Spike's mind that she was here, and she was being held back roughly by the men.
His roar of rage swelled impossibly in the echoing hall as he leapt up and dashed at them.
Buffy and the others started back as the electric field came to life, a blue ripple appearing and spreading where nothing had been before as Spike recoiled, hissing in pain as the shock spread through him.
"Slayer !" The clamour rose. "The Slayer ! Spike, the Slayer is here !"
"What the devil...."Nathan and the others began looking around them in confusion as the whoops and yells echoed around them. Slayer. Why was the word familiar ?
"What have we done ?" Riley was saying to Buffy, holding her painfully by a handful of hair. "What should be done. We haven't allowed the monster human blood ever since we caught him mooning around outside your campus a month ago."
"No !" said Buffy wildly. Spike was here because of her. Just as Angel had been sent to Hell and back because of her.
"Yes," said Riley, giving her a painful shake.
"Let go of her if you don't want your throat torn out," snarled Spike. Bloody hell, she was here !
"Buffy, why are you here, you bloody idiot ?!"
"I came to beat the shit out of you for lying to me about going to New York," Buffy gritted through her teeth. "Why do you think ?"
"What ?" said Riley in triumphant amusement. "A fight ? Come and get me if you can."
"Let go of her," Spike said. "She has nothing to do with this. I'm the one you want to kill."
"You're wrong. She has everything to do with it, the demoness."
It took a second before Spike understood. "She's not a vampire !"
"Still a demon." Riley jerked Buffy by the hair again, making her wince.
"Why you...."Spike came right up to the barrier in a rage, then stopped as the smell hit him.
Blood and warmth and salty skin, and the demon in him rankled and rose, driven by starvation. Yet there was more than that. The urge to kill was what rose in him, not just the urge to feed. This was Buffy standing here, with her unique, hot scent coiling around him like the tendrils of some enchantment. The demon wanted to pull her down and have her as completely as it was possible for one person to have another, to draw her death into him and claim her soul for his own.
This time Spike's hiss was of an entirely different kind, and the bloodlust rose in his eyes, clear enough for Buffy and Riley to see as his game face began to flicker into being, his features rippling from demon to human and back again as he fought for control.
"Spike," Buffy said softly, her heart wrenching at the pain in his eyes. One month, the agony he must be going through...
And Spike saw as the horrified, dawning understanding in Riley's eyes guttered out at the unmistakable sound of love in hers.
He let go of Buffy's hair abruptly and shoved the muzzle of his gun into her back as with the other hand, he reached for his card and swiped it into the slot of Spike's cell and entered the code numbers. Then Spike understood.
"Damn you !" he shouted, looking desperately at the other three who held their guns trained on him. "He knows, can't you see ?! He KNOWS !"
"Enjoy each other's company." And so saying, Riley shoved Buffy into the cell and swiftly slotted the card down again, reactivating the field.
The vampires close enough to hear began to laugh. "It's the end of the Slayer. She won't last a minute at the hands of William the Bloody, not in here. The Slayer dies this night."
The Slayer dies. The words ran through Nathan's mind as he watched Number 11 immediately flatten himself against a wall as far away from the tiny girl as he could get. Obviously the vamps meant Buffy, but what was the significance ? Where had he heard that name before ? Was it the name of some little-known form of demon ?
"We're getting out of here," Riley said, snapping him out of his thoughts. Nathan began to protest. "We can't leave the both of them alone in one cell, regulations..."
"I say we leave !!" Riley burst out, turning on him with such naked fury on his face that Nathan recoiled. "It's an order !"
"Get away, Buffy," Number 11 whispered as his face flickered faster, ridges rising and fading away again as his eyes flickered from yellow to blue to yellow.
Far away, Brenda wrung her hands in frustration. Wouldn't you know it, she'd gotten a flat tire and there was no spare in the boot.
She sighed. She was on duty tonight, and if she was lucky she was going to be half an hour late. Ethan was going to have to hold down the fort again, and the Lord knew he was going to give her a hard time about it.
She collected her purse and began walking to the nearest bus stop to campus.
**I'LL PAINT YOU MORNINGS OF GOLD,
I'LL SPIN YOU VALENTINE EVENINGS.
THOUGH WE'RE STRANGERS NOW
WE'RE CHOOSING A PATH,
BETWEEN THE STARS.
AS THE PAIN SWEEPS THROUGH,
MAKES NO SENSE FOR YOU.**
With certainty Buffy knew that Riley had pushed her in here because he knew she would die at the hands of Spike.
Some time had passed and she was not dead yet as she watched Spike huddled, shivering, in a corner. Tenderness rose in her in a suffocating wave.
"I don't know why I let myself fall in love with an idiot like you."
The laughter that came was hollow, a little shaky, but laughter all the same. "Because I'm an irresistibly handsome and charming devil at the best of times, and damn sexy at the worst."
"Though the rest of you shrank in I see your ego is still inflated." Her own laugh sounded a little shaky too. "What were you doing on campus that night ?"
"What do you bloody think ? I was supposed to get out of town, but I wanted to see you one last time, even if it was just glimpse." Spike uncoiled slightly, still facing the wall as he took deep breaths, trying to adjust to her presence here. The demon snarled at him and he snarled back. "Like a wanker nervous about his first date I hung around outside the main gate, smoking. That's when they got me. I'm normally not a wanker; that was a step down for me all thanks to you."
"Wanker or not, you're still cute."
"Can't you come up with something more original, Slayer ? Where's the snappy chit-chat ?"
"I don't know. Near you, somehow all my thoughts scramble up in my head." Buffy took a few steps closer and Spike's hand shot out. "Get away, Slayer, I'm warning you."
"We're both going to die at any rate," she said succinctly. "If nothing happens here the Mad Marines are going to kill us. What's so funny ?"
"They're called The Initiative, love. A group of crazed vigilantes out catching vampires as subjects for experiments. That's why we're all starving in here. They wait till we get too ravenous then drop a bag of blood pumped full of tranquillisers from the ceiling. Once you're out, you don't come back."
"Eeew." She wrinkled her nose. "These people do this voluntarily ? Maybe I could finally convince Giles that my services are not needed any more. They must be working for some cosmetics company. You know, the ones with the 'not tested on animals' labels on their products."
Spike chuckled, but his curiosity was aroused. "Why, pet ? Don't you like what you do ?"
"How can I like bringing death ?" she answered honestly. "Sure, it's a way to take out my frustration, but even if it's vampires I'm killing it's still killing." A pause, then in a low voice she said, " Or maybe I even like killing. I don't know. It's frightening, sometimes, because I think I'm starting to like it. Like Faith and Kendra liked it."
"There's a little killer in all of us, love, human or not. But why this morbidity about dying here ? Aren't your intrepid little friends going to come along and bust you out, as they say ?" Bloody hell, she smelled good. Even as his vampire nature began to subside under the force of his will, he realised that her scent was arousing him in an entirely different way.
Buffy closed her eyes against the sudden, unexpected tears. "They found out about us in a ....bad way. I think it was a shock and we..we fought. They don't know I'm here."
Spike felt stunned. She had given up her friendship with them for him ?
"Not that I can blame them. I must be quite an anomaly as far as Slayers go. God, I'm starting to sound like dear old Giles. I'll bet the Council never told him, 'Look here, man. I think we'd better warn you that your Slayer might end up falling in love with vampires every so often. Watch out for undead boyfriends on your doorstep.' " She took another step closer. She was almost on top of him.
"I'm warning you, Slayer. Move away from me before I lose control." His voice came out harsh and grating.
"You fool, haven't you thought that maybe I want you to lose control ? I can think of worse ways to die." Buffy reached out and touched his hair.
With a growl Spike's hand flashed out and closed around her wrist, dragging her down to him as his arms wrapped around her so she was pinned between him and the wall, his game face almost touching hers with fangs bared. "Look at me ! Is this what you wanted ?! Is this what you bloody wanted to see ? I'm not Angelus and I never will be, do you hear me ? I'm a demon and I will not give it up like he did for you, I'm not going to turn into some soppy wanker out there 'doing good' and slaying his kindred. I'm not going to be able to carry you off like some knight in shining armour to a little house with a white picket fence, rose-bushes and a swing on the porch, do you UNDERSTAND ?"
Her big eyes never blinked as she looked at him. She didn't recoil in fear and disgust, she didn't struggle. She just lay against him feeling so goddamn soft and warm and looking so beautiful. Then she reached out a ridiculously small hand and traced his forehead ridges gently, with a feather light touch, and she leaned forward and kissed him, fangs and all.
Spike groaned as his arms tightened automatically around her. His game face melted away as he returned the kiss, feeling its acceptance wash over him.
The vampire sat in a corner of her cell, shivering as the hunger opened and closed in her, thinking.
She had heard it, as they all had.
Her pack-leader was not going to be pleased, nor was the other. Right now she couldn't care less, couldn't think straight. The hunger was all she could think of, and it felt as if every vein in her undead body was crying out for sustenance.
They would come and get her. They had to. She had what they needed to hear.
"You're shivering," Buffy said into the silence. She could feel the tremors running through him, and he felt as cold as ice even though the cell was only cool and he had his leather duster on.
His laugh rumbled in his chest, near her ear. "I can't help it, love. I haven't fed in too long."
And yet you're holding me now, instead of draining me dry, she thought in wonder. What real demon would make a sacrifice like that ?
She knew what she must do, and why she was going to do it.
"Spike, I want you to drink from me."
He thought the hunger had finally ruined his hearing permanently. "What did you say ?"
"I want you to drink some of my blood. I'm the Slayer, remember ? It's not going to affect me as much as it would another human, and if I remember right Slayer blood packs a strong wallop."
There was a stunned silence and he let go of her and rolled away, scooting backwards across the cell. "Are you bloody CRAZY ? Drink from you ? I'd kill you !"
"No you won't," she said with conviction. "You'll stop when I tell you to stop."
"And why on earth would you think that ?"
"Because you love me."
It arrested him, hearing it from her lips. "I do ?" And yelped as she darted over and smacked him playfully.
"Yes you do, you nitwit."
"Whatever you say, love." Then he turned serious again. "But really, are you sure you want to do this ?"
"I'm not going to have you in pain when there is another alternative," Buffy said firmly. "Stand up. That way it will be easier for me to stop you if I need to."
Trembling as much with nervousness as with anticipation, he did so. "I give you full permission to beat the shit out of me if I don't let go, Slayer."
"As if I need your permission." She came into his arms and his trembling increased. He was holding a marvellously alive vessel full of hot, pumping elixir in his arms as much as the person he loved. She had been right, Slayer blood compared to normal human blood was like whiskey compared to water. He knew, he had tried it before. Twice.
She tilted her head to one side, showing him the vein that rose blue-green under her skin. "A little gash."
"The smallest," he promised before sanity left him and his hands crushed her as his game face appeared and his teeth sank through her skin.
It was a mistake from the start. He knew it the moment he tasted her blood but he was too far gone to care. Hot, sweet, flooding his mouth, filling his screaming veins. Strong and heady and redolent of her. He moaned as the first swallow went down, and drew strongly. This and only this, the Communion Wine and the Sacrament of the altars, the bottles of Jack Daniels he used to buy just for the heck of it even though his body didn't need it and he couldn't really get drunk. Like the first time he had tasted Angelus' blood on the night of his siring. All the waters of his life and the first time he had seen the sea. And it didn't just flow, this blood. It galloped through him madly like a live thing, scalding him and warming him, drawing her essence into himself as he had always longed to do. To possess her.
Buffy felt the hairs rise all over her body as he sucked. He had done it that night too, only he hadn't broken the skin. It always tickled and it made the low burning start in her lower belly. Not here, Slayer, she reprimanded herself. Fine thing to think of rolling in the hay here of all places.
She was beginning to feel a bit light headed and she reached up and braced her hands against his chest. "Spike, that's enough."
He didn't respond.
"Spike." She pushed against him, only to have his hands splay out and press her against him possessively as he began growling: a powerful, deep rumble of warning.
"Spike !" She felt a flicker of panic as he continued drinking. "Get off !" She struck him again and again on the chest, but nothing happened except the rise in the volume of his growling. "SPIKE !"
Using all her Slayer strength, she brought her knee up between his legs and shoved him off her.
All it did was get his attention and he shook his head slightly, blood still trickling from his mouth as he looked wildly out at her from his game face. Then he rushed at her, hands out.
Whirling, she kicked him square in the chest. He snarled, then ducked her swing and struck her across the face.
"Oh boy !" Buffy said as they began to fight in earnest. "Why is this beginning to feel familiar ?"
Brenda slotted her card through the slot and dashed into the room. "Ethan, I'm sorry ! I had a flat and..."
The man seated with his feet on the desk gave a tiny snore.
"Ethan !"
He jumped, knocking the full ashtray onto the floor and spun around to see Brenda standing in the doorway.
"You've been asleep." Brenda folded her arms over her chest. "And smoking. In the control room."
He gaped for a moment, disorientated, before rallying with, "You're half an hour late !"
"I had a flat," she repeated as he swivelled to scan the screens. Sighing, she pulled on her white coat and entered. Neither of them noticed the shadow that slipped in after her, just before the door slid shut.
"Fine, everything's just fine," muttered Ethan as he quickly scanned the bank of monitors. "Let's just see what Number 11 is..." he swung his chair around. "Holy Mother of God ! There's someone in the cell with him !"
"They're trying to kill each other !" Brenda's hand shot out to hit the alarm button, but never made it because, at that moment, someone grabbed them by the hair and banged their heads together. Both slid bonelessly to the ground.
Quietly, the shadow bent over the unconscious woman and with one tug severed the cord holding her access card around her neck. Then it raised its head and watched the battle taking place in Number 11's cell for a moment before moving over to the machines. Locating the correct reel of tape easily, it raised a gloved hand and pushed a few buttons. With a little click and whirr, the reel of tape stopped recording and popped out into the shadow's hand.
The heel of her boot connected with his cheekbone and sent him crashing into the wall only to rebound and land on the floor. Instantly she pinned him down with one knee in his back, forcing his arm up behind him.
"Spike, snap out of it !"
The boot in her back sent her over his head sprawling onto the floor. She flipped over only to have him land on top of her, teeth coming down towards her neck.
Perhaps it was instinct that made her seize his head and pull his mouth down on hers, but it worked. Immediately the tension went out of him and he sighed into her. "Buffy..."
Then his eyes shot open. "Buffy !"
It all crashed home to him then. What he had tried to do and what he had nearly done. As they stared at each other, separated by an inch of empty air, it was as if the wall was already going up, brick by brick.
There was never any time for words, because the door at the end of the hall slid open and they heard footsteps coming down Confinement Row. This was it, then. In the next few moments, they were going to die. Rising into sitting position, Spike held Buffy protectively, using his body as a shield against whatever was coming down that hallway towards them, his fingers stroking through her hair over and over again as they waited.
The footsteps did not stop at any of the cells before them. Instead, they came on steadily, bearing down on them.
Then, they stopped.
Buffy turned her face away from the safety of Spike's chest and looked up.
Nathan stood at the entrance, and with him was someone with a very familiar smile and a shock of red hair.
"Willow !"
Two other heads popped around.
"Xander ! Giles !" Buffy leapt up in amazement. "What are you guys doing here ?" Behind her Spike got up more cautiously.
"Did you really think we'd let you go off on your own like that, Buffy ?" Willow smiled at her, her eyes shining suspiciously.
"We're your friends, Buffy, you can always count on us for support." Giles put in. "Next time, just give us time to assimilate and adjust, will you ?"
Buffy turned to Xander.
"We followed you after you left," he admitted grudgingly. "After all, we're a team, and a team just wouldn't exist without you, Buffster. We were just going to give up in the rabbit warren of this place when we bumped into Nathan here."
Buffy's eyebrows raised as she stared at the man in question.
"Slayer, I really hate to interrupt this cosy little reunion, but we should get out of here," Spike said from behind her.
They turned to Nathan, but he was staring down at Buffy. When at last he spoke, it was in an incredulous, half-chagrined tone. "The Slayer. Of course. I can't believe it.....it's actually true after all."
"What's actually true ?"Willow wanted to know, but with an impatient noise Xander took Nathan's access card and swiped it through the slot. The action seemed to wake Nathan, who keyed in the code numbers. "Riley knew you were human, didn't he ? All the time I think he knew. He was just using us, and The Initiative, to take his revenge..."
"Wha.. ?"said Willow.
"Later," Buffy walked out of the cell in relief. Spike came after her, but was blocked by Xander whose face was hostile enough not to need further explanation.
The rumble that issued from the blond vampire was a mere warning, but a clear one.
"Xander," Buffy said warningly. "Save it."
Xander looked at Nathan, but the man looked away. "I don't want to see this, and I don't want to know, alright ? Whatever he is to you, he will never be anything more than a monster to me." He motioned to Giles. "Would you please keep your end of the bargain ?"
Giles nodded, pushing his glasses up his nose, and swung the barrel of the semi-automatic into the back of Nathan's neck. He crumpled into an insensate heap at their feet.
"H..he wanted to get you out, that was all," Giles explained to Buffy, flushing. "He knew what Riley had done was wrong, but S.s..sSpike was another matter."
Buffy clutched the sleeve of the blond vampire's jacket as Spike gave the Watcher a long look. "Listen people, Spike is not the villain here. Riley is. Riley shoved me in there with Spike knowing that he would kill me, but he didn't. I owe Spike my life, OK ?"
"And I know the way out," Spike added with satisfaction as Xander's fists clenched. "So take it or leave it."
"We'll take," said Willow immediately. "Now let's get out of here !"
The other prisoners were already roused and were pleading to be set free, and the noise tripled as the friends made a dash for it. Willow found herself beside Spike as she clapped her hands over her ears. "How can you stand it ?!"
"They were going to die anyway." He whirled and slipped the card through the slot again, shutting the door and blocking out the awful cries. "I would have killed them for what they learned while we were in there."
"Oh," was all Willow could say as they crowded into the elevator.
Giles began handing out weapons. Spike declined, but Buffy took the stakes even though she wrinkled her nose. "Uhh..Giles, it's not vampires I'll be going up against here."
"It's all I could come up with on short notice," Giles replied apologetically.
"Beggars can't be choosers, pet." Spike earned an elbow in the ribs for his remark.
The lift opened onto two guards in black combat gear carrying guns.
Before anyone could react, Spike struck. In a flash one was lying on the floor and he was holding the other by the throat as the members of the Scooby Gang quickly filed out. He turned a look on Buffy.
Immediately understanding, Willow turned the other way as did Giles. Xander remained, not comprehending, but instantly obeyed though not without vocal protest when Willow took hold of his ear. Grateful for their understanding, Buffy nodded. "Just try not to kill them."
"Then they're not dead men only because of you, love."
He fed in the space of a few heartbeats, leaving the guards unconscious but still breathing beside the lift. "You know that once this is over the sods will be put in cells too. The Initiative is still pitifully clueless about the simplest aspects of becoming a vampire."
"Their tough luck."
They were relatively lucky for the next few halls, coming across only solitary guards whom they quickly despatched. Moving with the sleek wariness of a cat in unfamiliar surroundings, Spike brought them through a door into a stairway. "We have to get up to at least the second floor from where we are on ground level. That's when the garbage chutes begin. Any chute should take us to the collector where we can get out through a loose vent.
"Th..there won't be a lot of physical activity involved, will there ?" asked Giles.
Four pairs of eyes turned to look at him.
"I suppose it was too much to hope for," the Watcher sighed. "Well, there is nothing to be gained by remaining in the stairwell. Shall we ?"
The first floor was clear, without any obstruction, and Willow was relieved enough to say, "Wow, this is going to be easy."
Then they gained the second-floor landing and pulled up short.
There were people in black suits on the landing, and all over the upper stairs, all armed with electric stun-guns and guns loaded with tranquilliser darts. At their head stood Riley.
"Will," said Xander. "Can I just say, jinxed?"
The cries had just begun to die down again when the door whooshed open.
She didn't care anymore. It had been too long and the pain was too great. She was curled up on the cold floor just wishing that the blood-bag would just drop down from the ceiling so she could take it and pass into oblivion.
Which was why she was surprised when the feet stopped in front of her cell. Weren't they supposed to wait until she passed out ?
"Dreida," hissed a familiar voice.
It couldn't be true, she thought. She was hallucinating again, the lack of blood making her see and hear things that were not there. It just couldn't be true.
"Dreida !" the hiss came louder. Her leg muscles screamed as she forced them to work, forced her arms to push her up from the floor.
"You're here," she half-sobbed. "You're really here !" The features of the woman in the black suit swam dizzily in her eyes.
"No time now." The card slipped through the slot and the force-field fizzed out of existence. "We have to get you out of here, now ! Marie is up in the Control Room. Here," she bent and lifted Dreida to her feet, pushing two blood-bags into her hands. "Drink fast, because I'm not going to haul you out of here and kill people at the same time."
It could hardly go down fast enough, and she almost cried when the flow ran out.
"Don't worry about it, you'll get plenty soon enough." And her rescuer began darting from cell to cell, swiping the card through each slot before hitting the number-pads with a surge of electricity from her stun-gun. "Get out of here !" she hissed at them. "Hurry before the guards come ! Out ! Out !" Dazed and disbelieving, the captives began to stumble out of their confines, the stronger ones furious as the sirens kicked into action and bells began to go off.
"Warning, warning," the distorted, electronic female voice rang out through the building. "Security breach 1120395. Warning, all teams to Ground Floor, all teams to Ground Floor. Security seals initiated in two minutes and counting."
The woman pulled Dreida into the lift as the vampires crowded into it, the ones at the back pushing and shoving in their haste to escape.
"One minute thirty-seconds," crackled the voice. "One minute twenty-nine, one minute twenty eight.."
It opened onto a chaotic scene. Humans were running everywhere, men and women in white lab coats, people in somber suits with clipboards and stacks of paper, guards in black combat suits just like the one their rescuer was wearing. Lights were flashing and over everything the sirens wailed as the banks of computers and other machinery began automatic shutdown to protect years' worth of data.
Into this launched fifteen hunger-crazed vampires, striking in fury and deadly, cold hunger, bringing down their shrieking prey like animals of the jungle let loose in a chicken run even as the lift went down for the others. Blood splattered and bodies flew through the air to thump into walls or overturn furniture and equipment. Doors were torn down and glass smashed. The guards who tried to stop the carnage died in vain.
In the melee another black-clad female joined the one who was supporting the limping Dreida, and together they went through a staff escape route and disappeared.
"Forty, thirty nine, thirty eight, thirty seven, thirty six....."
Riley had used the butt of his gun on Spike in the stairway. There was nothing they had been able to do about it, being held at gun point. Nothing that happened would have caused death, of course, but being incapacitated by coursing electricity for a few agonising, searing minutes was not in the agenda. Even Xander had winced when blood spurted from a broken nose, and now the blood was still trickling, staining his red shirt darker red as they were taken, not too gently, out onto the second floor.
"You don't have to be too rough about it, mates," the vampire gritted out as they forced him out with his arms pushed up painfully behind him. "I'm coming quietly after all, but on second thought, maybe the wanker in front of the line is getting off on this."
"I expected more from you, Willow," said Riley as if Spike had not spoken. "I always thought of you as nice. Reliable."
"Maybe I just got tired of being nice all the time," Willow responded, looking at him with a kind of horrified fascination. How could this be the pleasant, friendly senior whom she had known ? The man who had saved her life by pulling her out of the way of a speeding car. "That way at least I won't get taken for granted."
Xander, who was beside her, cast her a look of surprise. "I never thought you felt that way, Will."
"I'm research girl, the nice, boring one. The one who melts into the background kind of thing." Willow allowed her dissatisfactions to rise to the surface for a moment. "Everyone always expects be to behave nicely and well, well boringly."
"I don't see how you can talk about us, seeing as you're Mr.Jekyll-and-Hyde on steroids," Buffy said to Riley's back. "What are you going to do to us anyway, you wacko ? We're human, you can't hold us."
"For aiding and abetting ? Maybe we won't hold you forever, but trust me, it may feel like forever before we're done."
As they rounded another corner Spike tried to give Buffy a reassuring smile. He seriously doubted that The Initiative would do anything of the sort. Even though they were a pack of misguided bastards, they seemed to have quite a high, if twisted, standard of morals.
They reached another set of lifts, and Riley issued an order for the party to split up. The rest of the Scooby Gang was to be sequestered in questioning rooms, but he Slayer and the Vampire were going up with him and four guards. The hairs raised on Buffy's neck. She did not like the thought of them going anywhere with Riley and almost wished that some higher-ranking person would come along and interfere, for she guessed quite rightly that wherever it was the senior was taking them, it was not to the knowledge of his superiors.
"Buffy !" shouted Willow as the other guards began forcing the struggling members of the Scooby Gang to separate rooms. "Buffy !"
The lift doors opened and Buffy and Spike dug in their heels, instinctively knowing that nothing good was going to happen to them wherever it was they were being taken. As her boots skidded to the doors Buffy swung up desperately, bracing her legs on either side of the door. Spike shifted into game face and succeeded in flooring one of the guards holding him before a bolt of electric energy sent him to his knees.
It was then that the alarms went off.
"Warning, security breach 1 . 1 . 2 . 0 . 3 . 9 . 5," the female voice intoned. "All teams to ground floor, all teams to ground floor. Personnel are requested to please proceed to evacuation exits. Security shutdown initiated in two minutes and counting. One minute 59 seconds. One minute 58, one minute 57..."
The guards froze. Through the clear glass separating them from the circular, open centre of the complex they could see the chaos that erupted.
"One 49, one 48, one 47..." Then, from out of nowhere, a pack of wraiths burst onto the scene and the colour red rose prominently to their vision.
Riley swore. " You three !" he indicated two of the five guards around Xander, Willow and Giles and one from those with him. "Split. Two to the Control Room and see what the hell is going on here. You, down to the basement and see if you can manually secure floors three upwards." The Control Room team headed off instantly, but the last remained in hesitation. It was easy to see why. Going down to the underground levels, he might just very well run into a group of ravenous escapees.
Stun-gun in hand, Riley took one stride to the man and struck him across the face. "Move !"
At that moment Giles took action. Twisting, he drove his elbow up into the face of the shorter man who had foolishly underestimated the outwardly docile Watcher and let him grip loosen. As the man reeled back, Giles snatched his gun and brought it down with a crack on his head.
Immediately Willow and Xander jumped into action, taking their captors by surprise. Mass confusion ensued in front of the lifts as Spike came to life and broke the neck of the guard standing over him, then brought down the other as a cat would a mouse. Using the wall as a push-off surface, Buffy flipped over the heads of the two who held her, twisting their arms around and forcing one to stumble to his knees before she kicked him in the face. She was just swinging at the other guard when Riley grabbed her from behind. He gave a gasping cough as her elbow crashed into his ribs, but moments later a jolt of electricity hit her. Set at a rate meant for vampires, it knocked her off her feet and her vision went black, streaked with flying comets with silver tails.
"Let them go !" Riley yelled to the guards trying to restrain the Scooby Gang as he dragged Buffy into the lift. Spike tried to grab her ankle but was hit with another bolt of blue energy which slammed him against the wall of the lift.
"No !" Willow screamed. "Don't let them take Buffy !" With a heretofore unknown fury, she snatched up a gun and fired randomly at one of the guards. The bolt of blue electricity shot out and with a spasmodic jerk of outflung limbs the man collapsed onto the floor. She took another one before the lift doors closed. There were three with Riley. One lay dead on the floor, the one whose neck Spike had broken.
"Buffy ! Buffy !" She heard someone call her name, soft and far away as she swam the line between consciousness and blackout. The voice sounded hoarse. "Buffy, love. Wake up." Cool fingers tapped her cheeks, making her head explode into thousands of stars. She groaned her protest as her eyes opened to blinding light.
"Stop hitting me before my brains explode." The light fizzled, then Spike's face swam into focus. The blood had dried on his healing nose, and she was looking up at the ceiling of the elevator, which was going up and up.
He could have laughed with relief. "Get up, ducks. You have no idea what you could catch on the floor of a lift." Gently, his hands still feeling ridiculously weak from two shocks in quick succession, he helped her into a sitting position. They were at the back of the large lift, and the remaining guards had their guns trained on the unlikely pair.
"In the corner opposite the lift," he whispered into her ear. "Chute."
"They won't seal off ?"
"It's a chance we'll have to take, pet. Can you walk ?"
"Ok, lovebirds. Time to stop nuzzling." The muzzle of the gun slipped between them, turned Buffy's head and slid under her chin. She glared at Riley. "I'm not a cow, and you're not on Iowa, farmboy."
"Brave words for someone who'll die soon."
"Why is it," said Spike evenly, looking at Riley with a lazy contempt only he could show to perfection. "You always choose the psychotic ones ? My sire wasn't all there himself, believing he was a broody hen, and now this one."
Buffy never took her glare from the man she had once liked. "Well, now it looks like I'm with you. What does that say about you ?"
"It's three steps up for you is what it is," he replied as the lift doors opened. Sixth floor. Immediately the countdown blared to them. "Forty eight, forty seven, forty six, forty five...."
"Drop the heroic banter," Riley stepped out. "It won't do you any good, any more than that brave front the bloodsuckers liked to put on in front of us when we came in not knowing that we could see everything else through the cameras all the time. Yes," he said as Spike looked up sharply. "Did you think we didn't have surveillance ? It's quite interesting, actually, to see how far your kind can sink. You did a fair bit of moaning yourself."
"Get up," the guard nearest him pulled him up by the collar of his duster, shoving him out of the lift.
"Watch it, mate. This coat is worth more than your miserable hide." With exaggerated slowness, Spike dusted off the soft leather and rearranged the collar, noting the silver slab of the chute in the wall with it's sterile handle. Buffy, he noted with dread, was hobbling. It was a wonder she had not been knocked out by the shock. He'd never thought he'd be doing this, but right now he was thanking whatever invisible force that was up there playing with them that she was the Slayer. He caught her eye.
As Buffy reached him she stumbled and caught hold of his jacket, as if unable to support herself. The guard's fingers flexed at the sudden motion, but no one made any comment when Spike swung her up into his arms.....that was, until he spun around and Buffy's feet caught the guard under the chin, snapping his head up.
She was catapulted out of his hold as an energy blast whizzed under and dissipated along the wall, knocking down the one who had fired it. As the lift doors began closing Spike hurled the three guards in after it, guns and all but was unable to avoid Riley, who almost succeeded in shoving him in after them. As it was he braced his arms on the rapidly closing entrance as Riley tried to force his head down between the doors. His Doc Martens tried for purchase on the carpet, but it felt as if his arm and shoulder muscles were tearing as the security doors slid inorexibly inward.
And suddenly the weight pressing him through was gone and he fell back just as the doors snapped shut.
"Thirty nine, thirty eight..."
Buffy's fist snapped Riley's head back and she reached into her coat and took out a stake.
The tall man shook his fair head, a stunned smile on his handsome face. "Insurance in case lover boy got rough ?"
"Your death sentence," she hissed.
"Slayer !" Spike shouted, but Riley's leg had already swept out and Buffy was going down.
His hands were around her throat, squeezing as she struggled to break his hold, staring up into eyes that were blank except for a haze of madness. He would kill her, she knew with certainty.
Reaching out, she scrabbled and her fingers closed around the stake. It was kill or be killed...
And Riley was plucked off her by the neck, like a chicken, by cold white fingers that actually dug holes through the skin. Stunned, she could only watch as Spike shook him like a puppy would a rat, then sank in his fangs and ripped out his throat.
"Twenty five, twenty four.."
His face was covered with a veil of living blood. His neck and shirt were awash with it, and through it the yellow eyes stared at her.
There was a sound. The sound of her heart breaking.
Then he had scooped her up as he hit the chute with his shoulder, and they were sliding downwards into the darkness, so fast it took her breath away. Flying into the unknown.
Until they burst out into the sunlight and into a huge bin. And then there were flames.
Tell the author what you think: