"Go!" Buffy ordered,
slamming the van door shut behind her, and Xander pulled out of the
deserted parking lot before she was even seated, slinging her back
against the seat.
"Buffy," Spike spoke softly from the back of the van.
"Shut up," Buffy snapped.
Willow turned around in the front seat to look at the passengers they
had picked up. Her eyes widened in horror at the sight of the blood
that covered them. "Um, Buffy?" she said hesitantly, frowning. "What
happened back there?"
Buffy did not respond, simply glared straight ahead at the back of
Xander's seat.
"Um, Buffy...please..." Spike tried again; his voice sounded weak.
Whirling around in her seat Buffy fixed a murderous look on him and
snarled, "You are about two seconds from getting staked and I am *not*
playing around! This had better be damn important!"
"How far is your house from the Initiative?"
Irritated, Buffy replied, "About thirty miles or so, why?"
Spike swallowed hard, his eyes showing some relief, but still uncertain
as he answered her, "Good. Um...we...we need to get as far as we can from
here as fast as we can because..."
"Thank you, Captain Obvious," Xander interrupted.
But Buffy was frowning, "I know, but because why?" she pressed him.
"The manual control for my chip...it has a twenty mile radius...when the
chips go back up..."
In spite of her anger Buffy was struck with fear for the vampire.
Cordova probably already knew that Riley had been killed and Spike and
his childe had escaped, and she was *not* going to be pleased.
Turning back to Willow she asked anxiously, "How much time do we have
before..."
Her words broke off as a moan of pain came from the backseat. She
looked around to see Spike doubled over, holding his head in his hands.
Her anger momentarily forgotten as a stronger surge from the chip hit
him and he gasped for unnecessary breath, falling forward with his face
to the floor in the back of the van, Buffy reacted without thinking.
"*Drive*, Xander! We need to get as far from the Initiative as
possible, now!" she almost shouted, climbing over the seat into the
back with the vampires.
Diana struck a defensive posture over her suffering sire, her eyes
warning Buffy away. This stranger to her was stronger than either of
them, and to all appearances furious with them both. If she meant to
hurt Spike, she would have to go through Diana to do it.
That was easy enough. "Back off," Buffy ordered, shoving the weakened
vampiress out of her way. "I'm not gonna hurt him." As she knelt down
beside him and put her arms around his reeling form, pulling him back
up to his knees, she muttered resentfully, "Yet."
"Can she kill you with this thing, Spike?" she asked him, her voice
slow and distinct, trying to cut through the agony he was enduring.
He shook his head before resting it on her arm in front of him. "Just
make me..." he gasped out. "...wanna die."
"Shh," she whispered, unthinkingly smoothing his disheveled,
blood-matted hair back from his face. In spite of her anger with him,
she could still not be anything but gentle with him in the face of his
intense suffering. "Just hold on, we'll be out of range soon." She
turned to call to the front, "How far have we gone?"
Glancing at the odometer, Xander called back, "Ten miles, maybe?"
Another vicious spasm of pain gripped Spike at that moment, and he
clutched at her arm, gasping. And because she could do nothing else,
she sat down on the floor of the van and held him, her arms around him,
crooning soothing nothings into his ear.
The pain had never been this absolutely excruciating, this intense,
before. Never. Not even when he had attacked the soldier who was
beating Diana. Nothing he had ever experienced compared in any way to
the long-distance punishment Cordova was subjecting him to. All he
could do was cling desperately to the soft arms supporting him and
wait, wait for it to finally pass. Some distant part of his
pain-wracked consciousness was aware enough to be surprised that the
Slayer was sitting here with him, holding him, comforting him through
his agony.
After ten minutes or so that felt like an eternity, he felt the pain
slowly beginning to ebb. His body shook violently, his muscles
impossibly tensed and tight. Even after he knew that the chip had
stopped firing, the pain still tore through him with the aftershock
effect of the electric current the chip sent out. Gradually, however,
it became manageable. He started breathing again.
Buffy still sat there, her arms around him. Slowly, cautiously, he
pulled his head up to look her in the eye. "B-buffy..." he began, his
voice almost timid, his eyes hopeful.
His heart sank as he literally *saw* the compassion and concern she had
not been able to hide hardening into hurt and anger again in her eyes,
as soon as she realized that he was going to be okay. She shook her
head as she looked away from him, then abruptly unentangled herself
from him and climbed back over the seat.
As they pulled into the driveway, Xander said, "And you're sure they
won't be able to track us here?"
Buffy looked to Spike, a question in her eyes...a purely business sort of
question. He could read nothing else there.
He shook his head. "No. The tracking device in my chip only works
through the manual control...and we're out of its range now."
"Good," Buffy said, her voice cold as she turned around. "What about
the cameras, Will? You're sure they were down the entire time?"
Willow nodded emphatically. "In fact," she said, pausing as she
scrolled down the screen of her laptop. "They're just now getting them
back up, right....now. So their videos wouldn't have picked up anything
from right before midnight until now."
Buffy nodded, satisfied, and opened the door.
As she came around the back to open the door and let Spike and Diana
out, he was thinking fast. This situation could get very bad for them,
very fast, if the Slayer's little fan club found out about what had
happened to Riley. With their outrage to support her, the Slayer might
very well decide to stake them, even after all the trouble she had gone
to to save them. As he waited for her to open the door, he caught
Diana's eye, and she nodded, understanding. They were going to try to
make a run for it.
But the Slayer was ready for them. Spike's feet had barely even hit the
ground when she had him firmly by the arm and shoved him up against the
inside of the open door. She smiled a wide, false smile, with a
dangerous glint in her eyes, as she said softly, "Don't even think
about it."
Instinctively he tried to push her back, before remembering that his
chip was working again. He winced at the pain caused by the attempt,
and when he opened his eyes again, he saw that she looked angrier than
before. *Oh, bollocks.* He nodded his submission quickly, saying
quietly, "Ok...ok, Buffy..."
Diana, standing a few feet from him, let out a warning growl toward the
woman manhandling her sire. Buffy's grip on Spike's arm tightened
painfully as she went on, "And you better keep Princess Di over there
under control. I know she's chipped, but, ya know, if you wanna hurt
someone bad enough..." Her hand tightened again, and Spike winced.
"...you're gonna find a way. So I think we'd all be a lot happier if
you'd make sure she knows to back off. We clear?"
He nodded again, his head down, then turned as much as he could toward
his childe and said, keeping his voice much calmer and cooler than he
actually felt, "It's ok, pet. Calm down now. You're upsetting our
friend, here."
Diana looked unsure, but she obeyed her sire as always, and ceased her
growling, taking a step back. Buffy had been wise to go for him and not
Diana, he thought ruefully. The vampiress would not run as long as she
thought he was in any danger.
"There we go," Buffy's false smile was back and she moved back a little
to allow him to step away from the van, still gripping his arm, but not
so painfully now. "That's better. Now let's get inside."
At the door they paused. "Spike, Diana, come in," Buffy said.
The moment they were through the doorway, Buffy released Spike's arm
with a disgusted gesture of her hand, as if she could not get her hand
off him fast enough. He was a little surprised as the door was still
open when she did.
She caught his confused glance toward the door and smirked.
"Containment spell. Now that you're in, you're not leaving 'til we take
the barrier down."
He felt an odd sinking feeling in his stomach; well, whatever the
Slayer intended for them, there was nothing they could do about it now.
Then his thoughts were momentarily distracted from pondering their
fate, at the sight of the figure who had just emerged from the basement.
"Darian!" he said, surprised, though the Slayer had told him he was
here. He hadn't given the lad a thought in the events of the evening.
"Sire!" Darian's eyes widened in shock at the sight of him. He had
known they would be bringing Diana back, but the plan had not been for
Spike to come with her. As he walked slowly to stand before his sire,
his eyes welling with tears, and an almost awed expression, he looked
at the Slayer and said softly, "I knew you wouldn't leave him. Thank
you."
Before Spike had time to wonder about that, the Slayer's response made
his stomach flip over inside him.
"Don't thank me yet," she muttered, casting a dark look toward their
little reunion. Then she turned her attention toward her friends, who
had turned worried, expectant faces toward her. It was obvious from
Buffy's demeanor, the way she was treating the vamps they had gone to
rescue like prisoners, that something unexpected had gone down in the
Initiative. But as of yet she had not explained anything to them.
She did not intend to yet. She did not yet understand herself all of
what had happened, or how she felt about it, or how she should feel
about it. She knew that Riley had done unspeakable things to Diana, and
she could understand the rage that could have erupted when the young
vampiress's powerlessness was suddenly lifted from her, and she was
faced with the opportunity to have her vengeance. And the horrific
carnage she had seen – well, the girl *was* a vampire...so it would stand
to reason that her vengeance would involve much bloodshed.
But there was no way that she could justify what had been done to
Riley. He *was* after all, still a person. Still a part of the humanity
that she was duty-bound to protect. Riley should have been brought to
justice for the crimes he'd committed against Diana, but not brutally
tortured and murdered like that. A tiny part of her furiously raging
mind reminded her that justice did not exist for someone like Diana,
someone who legally did not even exist, was not human – that no one but
her would have ever attempted to help the girl.
Her stomach twisted in her, sick at the thought. Guilt overwhelmed her.
If she had not attempted to help Diana, had not shut down her chip,
Riley would still be alive. *Would still be abusing her,* that
traitorous part of her mind inserted. Suddenly she wondered why Riley
and Diana had both been in Spike's suite that night to begin with.
She glanced over at the three vampires talking quietly, intently, in
the kitchen doorway, and noticed for the first time the bloody welts on
Diana's legs, visible under her short, tattered skirt. And Spike... God,
he was a mess! His face, chest and back were bruised and covered in
dried blood from countless wounds, like the ones on Diana's legs. She
had not seen the extent of the damage done to him, even when she had
held him in the darkness of the van.
Suddenly she stalked toward the three, stepping between them to face
Spike. She felt a mingled feeling of guilt and satisfaction when he
almost imperceptibly flinched back, tensing as she took his arm and
pulled him unceremoniously toward the basement stairs. Diana looked
worried and started to follow; Darian was worried too, but pulled her
back. He knew better than to think that either of them could do
anything to stop whatever the Slayer was going to do.
"Diana, stay with your brother," Buffy ordered sharply, opening the
basement door. "Your daddy and I are going to have a little chat."