Brace Yourself

Author: enigmaticblue

Rating: PG-15

Archive: If you already have my stuff. If not, just ask.

Disclaimer: You know the drill. I don't own these characters. If I did, they would all be living happily ever after by now.

Summary: The sequel to Collide. There are unexpected consequences to the ritual Buffy did to break the curse on Spike, Dawn is trying to figure out what it means to be the Key, and Willow is coming home. And that's just the beginning.

Chapter 17: Preparations

"I didn't hear you leave,/I wonder how am I still here/I don't want to change a thing/It might change my memory./Oh I am what I am,/I'll do what I want, but I can't hide/And I won't go, I won't sleep,/I can't breathe, until you're resting here with me..." ~Dido, "Here With Me"

Spike watched Willow make the spell preparations warily. Giles had taken Dawn and Bracken back to the house so they could get some sleep, but Tara had offered to help them continue researching. Once the others had gone, Willow explained what they were planning to do. Tara had immediately endorsed the plan.

"It's a good idea," Tara said. "Maybe if the Council knows that Spike can hurt humans, they won't be quite as likely to come after Buffy."

"They won't be coming after her again," Spike said quietly. "If they've hurt her or the baby, there won't be enough of them left."

"Not all the Watchers are involved in this," Tara pointed out reasonably. "Giles said he was going to try to call his friend to try and find out where Buffy is."

"Don't care," Spike said stubbornly.

Willow hesitated, then asked, "What if we can open a portal directly to where Buffy's at? Dawn should be able to do that if the spell works."

Spike immediately understood what she was getting at; depending on how well Buffy was being guarded, they might not even run into the Watchers holding her. "It might be better," Spike admitted reluctantly. "We come in through the front door, an' I might not be able to get to her before they do."

Tara nodded. "Giles said that Travers is done on the Council. They aren't going to come after Buffy again."

Spike wasn't satisfied by that promise. He wanted every single one of them dead. Spike wanted to bathe in their blood; they had taken what was his, and if he had his way, he'd make sure they didn't live to repeat their mistake. "Maybe," he allowed. An evil smile grew as he thought of something. "They might try to stop us."

"They might," Willow said. "So, are you ready to do this?"

Spike still couldn't quite believe that Red would be willing to help him get the chip out, particularly after trying to kill him not that long ago. He wasn't surprised that Tara believed him when he said that he wasn't planning on using his new freedom to kill innocents, but Willow was another matter altogether.

"Why are you doin' this, Red?" he finally asked as she finished putting everything together.

Willow stared at the floor for a minute before finally meeting his eyes. "You've changed," she said. "You guys gave me a second chance after what I did, even though I didn't deserve it. As long as you have the chip in your head, as long as there's something holding you back, no one is going to know just how much you've changed." She smiled, a little sadly. "Besides, I think I've proven that humans do bad things as often as demons do. You need to be able to protect yourself and Buffy."

Spike nodded his thanks, not trusting his voice. It meant something to him to hear Willow acknowledge the changes he'd made, to know that she viewed him as a person, and not as a monster. Maybe it shouldn't have mattered after what she'd done, but it did.

"I need you to step into the circle," she directed, glancing over at Tara. "Can you think of anything I've missed?"

Tara shook her head. "I don't think so."

Willow nodded. "This might hurt," she warned him. "I can't get the chip out of your head, but I can disable it. I'm going to try and do that without making it fire, but I can't make any promises."

Spike nodded, feeling a little nervous; having Willow disable the chip with magic was probably better than hiring a doctor to open his skull, but it was still nerve wracking. "Nothin' I haven't felt before."

Willow grimaced. "Let's hope not, anyway, because if I fry your brain, Buffy's going to kill me."

With that less-than-reassuring comment, she began the spell. At first, Spike couldn't feel anything, and he wondered if it was even going to work. Suddenly, the chip fired, and he dropped to his knees, gasping with pain. "Bloody hell."

He heard Tara say something but couldn't make out her words as the chip fired again, even more strongly this time. The world grayed out, and Spike clutched at his head, rolling onto his side.

"Spike? Can you hear me?"

Tara's anxious face was a little out of focus, but Spike was grateful that he could actually understand what she was saying. Willow hadn't been kidding about frying his brain. "Yeah," he muttered. "Bloody hell."

"I'm really sorry," Willow said, her face appearing next to Tara's. "I thought I could shut it down without causing that much pain."

Spike rolled onto his hands and knees, trying to stand. The two women each took an arm and helped him to his feet. "Let me get something for your head," Tara said.

Willow helped support him to the couch in the training room. "Are you okay?"

"Will be," he responded shortly, still in too much pain to even think in complete sentences.

"Here." Tara gently dabbed at his face, and Spike realized that his nose was bleeding.

Willow grimaced. "Is there anything I can get you?"

"Blood would be nice," Spike replied.

She nodded. "Be right back."

Tara finished mopping up the blood and then touched his cheek. "Are you going to be alright?"

He nodded. "Yeah. That was probably the worst headache yet, but if I never have another, it'll be worth it." Spike paused. "You think we should tell anybody else?"

"That's up to you and Buffy," Willow said, reentering the training room. "I don't think it's any of our business."

Spike nodded, taking the blood from her. "You think we'll be able to do this thing with Dawn?"

"I think so," Tara said slowly. "If it doesn't work, we'll figure out some other way. Giles might still be able to work with his friend to get information."

He drained the tub full of blood quickly, thankful that Tara had had the foresight to stock up at the Magic Box, knowing that they might be spending quite a few hours there. "Yeah. Guess we always find a way." Spike raised an eyebrow. "How am I gonna know if the spell worked?"

Willow held out her hand. "Slap me."

Spike didn't feel any real desire to hit her, but he slapped her wrist lightly anyway. Where once before there would have been a sharp shock from the chip, there was nothing. He smiled slowly. "You do good work, Red."

"I would have hated you to go through all that for nothing," she replied lightly. "Feeling better?"

Spike nodded. "I can at least think now, which means we probably should get back to work. Those Council bastards have had Buffy too long as it is."

~~~~~

Giles listened as the phone rang, having already done the math. It would be mid-morning in England, given how late it had been when they made it back to the house. Dawn had been nearly falling asleep at the table, and if she had to open a portal, it would be better if she was well-rested. Bracken, although he'd done his best, hadn't been much help.

Of course, many of the spell books weren't in English anyway, and of all of them, Spike, Giles, and Willow were the two with the best grasp of other languages. Dawn had shown a remarkable affinity for research, however, and Giles made a mental note to start working with the girl as soon as possible. She would make a very good Watcher, if that was something she wanted to do.

Still, she'd been falling asleep, and he'd needed to contact Nigel, so it had seemed like a good idea to come back to the house. When Nigel finally picked up the phone, Giles didn't hesitate. "What do you know, Nigel?"

"Travers has cut off all contact," Nigel replied, obviously knowing who was calling him. "We warned him that he would lose support if he went down this path, but he doesn't seem to care."

"He has been unrestrained for too long," Giles replied. "Do you know where he has her?"

Nigel sighed. "I'm afraid not. I can tell you that there has been no activity on the Council's business account for that sort of thing for the last few days. Whatever preparations he made were done with his own money and not ours."

Giles cursed fluently. "This is my Slayer," he finally said. "If he's harmed one hair on her head, I can't be held responsible for the consequences."

"You'll get no argument from me," Nigel assured him. "If he meets with an accident, there'll be no one asking questions; I can give you that much. And, if we receive any word, you'll be the first to know."

Giles knew that was as good as it was going to get. He trusted Nigel, and he had no doubt that the other man was telling him the truth. Unfortunately, Travers had been in the game for a very long time, and he had his own agenda this time around, one that had nothing to do with the well-being of the Slayer.

"Thank you, Nigel."

"Good luck finding Buffy, Rupert," Nigel said quietly. "Please let me know if you need any assistance."

Giles promised to do so and then hung up the phone. He had no idea what he would do if something should happen to Buffy; he was fairly certain that he wouldn't be able to hold Spike back from going on a rampage. Of course, he was equally sure that he wouldn't want to.

"Nothing, huh?"

He turned to see Dawn standing in the doorway of the kitchen. "I thought you were going to bed."

"I couldn't sleep," she replied. "And I tried."

Bracken appeared behind her. "Is there something I could do?"

Giles frowned, wishing that there was. "I'll make us some tea," he said. "Perhaps that will help."

Dawn gave him a dubious look. "Okay." She hesitated. "If something happens—"

"Nothing is going to happen," Giles promised.

"But if something does happen," Dawn objected, her chin set stubbornly. "I want Spike to stay with me."

In spite of her brave expression, Giles could see the fear in her eyes, and the incipient tears. He didn't try to reassure her again, knowing that Dawn understood that "something" could indeed happen. She'd spent a summer knowing that her sister was never coming home, after all.

"If the worst was to happen, I'm sure that Spike would be more than willing to stay with you, Dawn," Giles said. "And I won't be going back to England."

Relief flashed through her eyes. "You promise?"

"I'm here permanently," Giles promised.

Dawn nodded. "Okay."

"These men that took Buffy," Bracken said. "They will not kill her, correct?"

"I don't believe so," Giles responded. "I think they're more interested in her child, and it will be sometime yet before she's ready to give birth."

Bracken nodded. "Then we have time," he said, putting a hand on Dawn's shoulder. "You can do amazing things; you can save her."

"I'm not the superhero in the family," Dawn responded wryly.

Bracken shook his head. "You saved me," he argued. "You saved yourself."

Giles watched as Dawn turned to look up at him, and he knew that Buffy was going to have an interesting time of it. "Bracken's right," Giles said. "Travers has underestimated your sister and her friends in the past; this time is no different."

Dawn nodded. "I guess."

"Let's have that tea, shall we?" Giles said. "Then you should really try to sleep."

~~~~~

Anya followed Xander through the Sunnydale airport, wishing that it hadn't taken quite so long to get back to Sunnydale. They hadn't been able to get a flight back until early afternoon, however. Even if they had rented a car and driven, they wouldn't have been back any sooner. When they'd called to let Giles know when they were getting into town, he'd reassured them that there wasn't much they could do.

"We're working on a promising line of research now," Giles said. "But Tara, Willow and I have it well in hand. Everyone else is mostly just waiting right now."

Anya wished that she was still a vengeance demon at the moment; she would have been able to grant Spike a wish and hung up Travers and the others by their entrails.

She'd be willing to bet that Spike could be quite creative about his wishes.

Anya honestly didn't mind cutting their honeymoon short for something like this. In the past, she'd always felt as though Xander was putting his friends first, before her, and before their relationship. Now, Anya felt like an integral part of the team, and she'd come to understand that Xander was important, too.

These days, Anya felt like they were a family, and she knew that families took care of each other.

Since Xander had driven them to the airport, no one had to pick them up. Giles had told them to come to the Magic Box, because that's where everyone was. Walking in, seeing everyone around the big, round table, paging through thick magic texts, it felt like old times. The only difference was that Spike was right in the middle of things, and Buffy wasn't there.

"Congratulations," Willow said immediately.

"Thanks," Xander replied, although his smile didn't quite reach his eyes. Anya knew he hadn't stopped worrying since Giles had informed them that Buffy was missing. "How's it coming?"

Giles glanced up. "We believe we have a spell that will work."

"When are we doing it?" Xander asked, motioning Anya to take the only empty chair, while he remained standing. "Tonight?"

"We don't know," Tara replied. "There are a lot of variables."

"Like what?" Anya asked.

"Like whether we go in there and kill everybody who had a hand in this, or we try to whisk Buffy away without them bein' the wiser," Spike replied. "Right now, I'm in favor of a blood bath."

"I think it should be a small team," Xander said quietly. "The bigger it gets, the more risk to Buffy. They went to this much trouble; they might be willing to kill her before letting her go."

"That is the concern," Giles said.

"Tara and I can do the spell," Willow explained. "We're using Dawn, so it's probably better if she stays on this side. The question is who else goes."

"There's no question there," Spike said. "I go, an' I'll take one, maybe two more."

"I would like to go," Bracken said quietly. "I would like to help, since I have not been of much assistance yet."

"Don't say that," Dawn ordered him. "You're doing great."

"I'd like to go with you, too," Xander said. "I say the three of us go; that way, you've got two of us to watch your back. You won't have to worry about the chip firing that way."

Anya saw some unnamed emotion flash across Spike's face, and Willow looked a little guilty. She wondered what that was all about, although she could guess. Anya knew that if anyone hurt Xander, she would do whatever it took to either get him back, or get revenge. If the chip was the only thing standing in between Spike and Buffy, then he'd find a way to get rid of it.

"Makes sense," Spike said evenly.

"I agree," Giles said. "Hopefully, if something should go wrong, Willow and Tara will be able to pinpoint your location, and we will be able to rescue you."

Willow shook her head. "Let's hope that it doesn't come to that."

"What if they try to stop us?" Xander asked, sounding worried. "They're human, Giles."

"They've crossed the line," Giles responded. "If it's your life or theirs, do not hesitate."

"Let them bloody well try," Spike said, almost snarling. "We'll teach them a lesson they'll not soon forget."

Anya raised an eyebrow, certain at that point that Spike had done something with the chip. She wondered how Xander would react when he found out. Of course, it might be better not to tell him for a long time to come.

~~~~~

Buffy drifted in and out of consciousness; every time she was nearly completely awake, she started struggling, certain that she would be able to free herself if she just kept trying. And every time she awoke enough to test the restraints, she felt another prick of the needle, and she floated off again.

Her dreams were continually haunted by tweed-clad monsters with huge teeth, ready to devour her and her baby. When she attempted to run, her feet were leaden, and she could never move fast enough.

And no matter how loudly she called, Spike was nowhere to be found.

~~~~~

"This is so not fair," Dawn muttered rebelliously. She knew that her blood was required for the spell, but she didn't understand why she couldn't go along. Buffy was her sister, after all.

"Get used to it," Spike snapped, his temper frayed. "Life isn't fair."

Dawn glared at him. "I could help."

He returned her glare, then whirled and left the room, heading out to the back alley.

"Don't push him, Dawn," Tara warned her. "He's worried."

"And I'm not?" she asked sharply. "At least he gets to go on the rescue mission."

"You are needed here, to keep the portal open, and then to close it again." Giles' expression was definitely fatherly; Dawn could remember Hank Summers having that look on his face, too. The look where she knew it was time to back off.

Dawn sighed, knowing that she was acting like a brat. "Fine."

Bracken was watching the preparations from the stairs, and Dawn went to sit next to him. "I know it's not easy to be left behind," he said softly.

Dawn flushed. Somehow his understanding only made her more ashamed of her behavior. "I just want to help."

"You are the one leading them to your sister," he pointed out helpfully.

Dawn shrugged. "That's just my blood; that's not something that I'm doing."

"Sometimes what you are is as important as what you do."

Dawn was quiet for a moment, thinking about that. Although she knew that a person was defined by their actions, she understood what Bracken was getting at. No matter what she did, Dawn would always be the Key, just as Buffy would always be a Slayer, and Spike would always be a vampire. There would be times when those identities would take precedence over everything else.

"I'm glad you're going with them," Dawn said quietly.

Bracken nodded. "I'm happy to be of assistance." He looked over at her, his hazel eyes warm with understanding. "Go talk to him."

Dawn knew immediately who he was talking about, and she sighed. She really hated apologizing. They were all on edge because of Buffy's disappearance, particularly since the Slayer was the one who always did the rescuing. The idea that Buffy needed to be rescued seemed wrong.

It was probably worse for Spike, though; he was dealing with guilt over not being there to prevent Buffy from being kidnapped, and fear for their child. Dawn had a feeling that her own worry and fear didn't even begin to touch his.

She saw him sitting on a stack of cartons. The sun was dipping low on the horizon, and so most of the alley was in shade, and the tip of his cigarette burned orange in the dim light. "Hey."

"Hey."

Spike's voice was neutral, but Dawn could tell that he wasn't truly angry with her, just mildly pissed off. She could understand that. "I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it," he said quietly. "We're all short on sleep an' patience right now."

Dawn sighed and sat down next to him. "It's just that Buffy always gets to rescue me, and it would be kind of nice if I could return the favor for once."

"We would have a hard time findin' her without you, Bit," Spike said. "It'd take way too much leg work, and way too much time to track that bastard down; time we can't afford to take."

"I know," Dawn agreed. She leaned into him, resting her head on his shoulder. "What do you think of Bracken?" she asked, changing the subject.

"He's alright," Spike allowed. "Not good enough for you, though."

Dawn felt a smile pull at the corners of her lips. "Would any guy be good enough for me?"

Spike glanced over at her, a teasing light in his eyes. "Probably not," he allowed.

Dawn grew serious again. "Do you think he'll stay?"

Spike looked off into the growing darkness, and then flicked his cigarette butt off into space. "One thing I'll say about Summers women," he said. "They're worth turnin' your whole bloody world upside down for."