Author's Note: This is the last chapter, folks. Read on...

"You're sure you're ready for this?" Dawn asked, watching her sister's confidence falter the closer they got to the crypt.

Buffy shook off the nervous butterflies in her stomach and nodded with newfound assuredness. "No more running away," she insisted. "Besides," she added with a rueful grimace, "it's not like he's even there." She came to a halt just outside the crypt door.

For an instant overpowering memories assaulted her. Her kicking the door wide open, stalking right in, heaving Spike up by his lapels, kissing him, loving him... OK, so she was drifting off into fantasy now. But it was a very happy fantasy.

Still, she'd been putting off this task for too long... She knocked on the crypt door.

There were some scuffling sounds inside, and then the door opened a crack, allowing one red eye to peer out at the visitors. Instantly, the door opened as if it was breathing in relief as much as the crypt's temporary caretaker.

"Hi, Slayer!" Clem said, chipper, giving them a little finger wave. "How's it going, Dawn?"

"Good," Dawn said with a small smile. "You?"

"Never better."

Clem's smile faltered for a second, and Buffy shook her head. If it was at all possible, Clem was even worse at lying than Spike was. She decided to let it drop for the moment, though.

"Sorry about the false pretense," she gave him an apologetic smile, "but we're here on post-apocalypse business."

Clem waved them in with a weeping gesture of his arm. "Come on in," he said brightly. "Feel free to take the comfy chair. Would you like some chips? Salsa? Juice? I'm out of soda, but I could make lemonade or...coffee? Would you like some coffee?"

"We're fine, Clem," Buffy assured him with a laugh. A sudden morbid thought struck her – according to her old belief system, Clem was a demon and therefore inherently evil so he must be killed. She watched the friendly demon's floppy ears bounce happily as he devoured a bag of M&M's, and suddenly felt a gnawing deep in her stomach at the thought that she could've stumbled upon Clem during patrol and slayed him for no other reason than her preconceived notions...

"Where d'ya think?"

Dawn's question broke her out of her reverie, and she began to study the crypt wall as well. "It was looking down..." she added thoughtfully.

"One of those skulls?" Dawn suggested.

Buffy grimaced. "That's where they put it in the Magic Box. Can't they at least be original?"

"So...you're complaining because your pathetic, wanna-be enemies play a bad game of hide-and-seek?" Dawn teased.

"No," Buffy protested, "I'm complaining because my pathetic, wanna-be enemies play a game of hide-and-seek that's biased against short people." She looked up at the ledge in despair.

"Have no fear," Dawn giggled, "it's Not-Midget Girl to the rescue!"

"'Midget'?!" Buffy exclaimed in outrage as Dawn tugged the chair over so that she could stand on it and reach the ledge.

"What are we looking for?" a voice suddenly asked right behind Buffy's ear.

"Gah!" she screeched in startled surprise. She hadn't realized Clem was that close.

"Sorry!" Clem put his hands up defensively and flinched backwards. "Please, don't slay me!"

Buffy breathed a sigh of relief, resting one hand over her racing heart. "You just startled me is all," she assured him. A frown marred her brow. "You do know that I'm not going to slay you, right?" she asked, concerned. "My demon friends are off the hook."

"Cool," Clem nodded, having picked up a bag of pretzels somewhere in the interim and now munching on them. "I just figured not because Spike and all, y'know..."

One thing that perpetually astounded Buffy was Clem's ability to never judge or hold a grudge. It was something she had a very hard time with. She glanced over to see that Dawn was too busy balancing precariously on the chair to pay attention to them and quietly whispered to Clem, "How can you stand to be around me?"

The demon looked shocked by this statement. "Why wouldn't I?" he wondered.

"You saw..." her shoulders tensed, "what I did to Spike." A flush of shame crossed her face. "He was your friend. So how can you still talk to me?"

"If I refused to talk to everyone that did something I didn't like, I wouldn't have a lot of friends, now would I?" Clem argued reasonably enough.

Buffy gave him a grateful smile. "Thanks," she said, "for the forgiveness and all..."

Clem batted a clawed hand in the air dismissively. "You didn't do anything to me," he insisted. "I'm not the one who has anything to forgive."

"Yeah..." Buffy agreed sadly. "Have you...heard from him?" she ventured to ask.

"No!"

And there he went with the really bad lying again. However, at that moment Dawn let out a cry of victory, distracting them.

"Found it!" she exclaimed triumphantly, hopping down from the chair, skull in hand.

"Great, you found it!" Clem said enthusiastically. "Uh...what did you find?"

Dawn plucked the video camera out of the skull and dangled it in front of them proudly. "Creepy Trio camera removed," she announced.

Clem gulped. "That thing hasn't been...filming me, has it?" he asked worriedly.

"Don't worry," Buffy assured him, "we destroyed all the receiving equipment long before you moved in."

"Oh, good," Clem was now completely unconcerned about the hidden camera in his temporary home. "Well, is that it then?" He seemed in an inordinate hurry to usher them out.

And, when Buffy thought about it, he hadn't invited them in as quickly as he usually did. She raised a suspicious eyebrow in his direction. "Anything been happening around here lately?" she asked casually, moving to sit on the sarcophagus.

Dawn caught the demon's shifty behavior as well and moved to settle in the armchair she'd just returned to its proper place in front of the television.

"No, no," Clem tried to sound sincere and failed miserably, "just the usual reruns." His nervous eyes flicked over to the trapdoor.

"Y'know, I've been thinking," Buffy began innocently, "I feel kind of bad about trashing the downstairs. Have you bothered to fix it up yet?"

"What?" Clem got this cornered look in his eyes. "Er, um...yes! All fixed!" he insisted.

"Really?" Dawn persisted. "Maybe we should take a look, see if there's any work left to do..."

"I feel really guilty," Buffy insisted sweetly, getting up and heading for the dark hole in the floor.

"Wait!" Clem practically leapt in front of her. "You really don't want to—"

"Mustn't be found," a weak, scared-sounding voice whimpered. "'S not how the game's played. Hide myself, hide my shame. Far, far away..."

Buffy's face paled as she recognized the slurred accent even though the voice sounded distorted, distant... "Spike?" she asked in a daze, sudden hope blossoming in her breast.

Clem barely kept his footing as the Slayer shoved him aside, not even seeing him as she dove down into the bedroom. Dawn was right on her heels, although she took the time to actually descend the ladder properly. She gasped at the sight before her, and Clem grimaced behind her.

"If you wanted to stay hidden, you shouldn't have said anything," Clem said apologetically. "Sorry."

No one seemed to hear him.

Buffy remained transfixed by the huddled figure curled into a ball next to the charred remains of the bed. His clothes were dirty and torn, and his knees obscured his face, only allowing her to see the wild dark curls with platinum tips. There was nothing in the figure's posture to indicate that he was her formerly-powerful lover. However, she knew him instantly, nevertheless.

"Spike..." The whispered name escaped her lips like a prayer.

He looked up her at that, his eyes looking terrified, like a cornered rabbit. "Not real, not real," he mumbled to himself. "More nightmares to torment me."

"Spike?" A frown creased Buffy's brow. "Are you all right?"

"Nightmare won't leave," he whimpered. "Nightmare mustn't leave. Over and over, screaming." His eyes squeezed shut tight. "Scream then," he instructed her. "I'm listening. I hear you now."

"Spike, what are you talking about?" There was a deep, sinking feeling in Buffy's stomach as she realized that something was seriously wrong with him.

"Hurt the girl." He waved one hand in the air. "Tell me. Tell me how I hurt the girl." He buried his head back in his hands and curled up even tighter than before.

"Clem?" Buffy abruptly turned to the demon. "How long has he been like this?"

"He just turned up a couple of hours ago," Clem shrugged. "I haven't been able to get much out him. He freaked out when he heard you at the door, wanted to hide... Who knows how long he's been like this?" he concluded.

All-out panic began to overtake Buffy as she cautiously walked over to the sobbing vampire. "Spike?" she whispered softly, comfortingly. "Do you know who I am?"

"Luv." Spike whispered so quietly she could barely hear him. Then he shook his head violently. "No! Don't love, never loved, can't love. Not anything, a monster." His fist struck his jaw with bruising intensity.

"Spike!" Buffy exclaimed in dismay, catching his fist before he could do himself further damage.

He looked up at her in shock and surprise, obviously thinking her to be a figment of his troubled mind.

"It's me," she said slowly and carefully. "It's Buffy." Her fingers reached out to gently stroke his cheek.

He scrambled away as if he'd been burned, retreating further into the rumble. "No, mustn't touch," he insisted.

"Spike..." she reached out for him once more.

"It's wrong!" His voice dropped its usual south London drawl for this exclamation, making him sound strangely like Giles.

Buffy was taken aback by the odd thought, but then shook it off. "No, it's OK," she insisted. "I'm not mad. Look, see?" She gestured to the coat she was wearing, slipping it off as she did so to hand it to him.

He shivered in response. "He hurt you," he muttered. "Dead now, must stay dead..."

"Who's dead?" Buffy asked, confused, stepping cautiously closer once more.

He looked up at her with the most piteous gaze she'd ever seen. "Spike," he answered simply.

"You're not dead," Buffy informed him carefully. "You're right here." She had reached him once again now and cautiously wrapped the duster around his shivering body. He flinched at first but let her finish her task.

"Sorry, luv," he whispered, eyes closed once more. "Weak...so weak...been weak all along. Shoulda stayed away..."

"I'm glad you're back," Buffy insisted. "Spike..." Her hand caught his chin, tilting it upward so that he was looking at her...or, at least, he would be when he opened his eyes again. Her other hand remained on his back, holding him in a loose embrace. "Spike, look at me," she pleaded.

"'m not your whore!"

The vehement tones sounded so much like those of the Spike she knew that she almost breathed a sigh of relief. The accusation was less pleasant, however.

"I know you're not," she assured him. "You're your own man – a good man. I get that now."

The tension in his body seemed to fade at her soothing words. "What do you want of me?" he practically whimpered.

"Don't worry," Buffy cooed softly. "I'm going to find out what's wrong with you, and then I'm going to make whoever did this pay..."

"Only I pay..."

"Uh...yeah," she said, confused. "C'mon, let's get you out of here, do some research, find out whatever spell this is..."

"Can't," he insisted stubbornly, curling in on himself once more. "Can't ask... Not after what I tried to do..."

"Don't worry about that," she assured him, glad that he seemed to be getting more coherent. "I forgive you, Spike." Her lips gently brushed his forehead. "OK?"

"Shouldn't forgive," he chastised lightly. "Shouldn't forget."

"Maybe not, but I do forgive you," she insisted. "Just like you forgave me. See?" she managed a shy smile. "We can still work things out."

"Wrong..." he repeated. There seemed to be a bit of a question in his tone this time, though.

"No, it's not," she informed him. "You were right; it was never wrong. I was just too blind to see..." She took a deep breath. "I love you, Spike..."

His eyes finally snapped open at that and for the first time their gazes locked.

And Buffy gasped and staggered backwards. Whatever was behind those eyes wasn't the man she knew...

"Yeah, can't imagine where he picked that up," Clem dared to comment. "He mentioned something about beetles, but it didn't make much sense."

"P-Picked what up?" Buffy stuttered, still horrified at the seeming stranger in her lover's body.

"The soul," Clem said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"S-Soul?" Dawn seemed pretty shaken up as well.

"Yeah," Clem agreed, "I've been having a hell of a time trying to figure out whether Spike's still in there at all or what."

Shaking, Buffy turned back to look at Spike once more, biting back her sobs at the transformation her lover had undergone. It had taken Angel, what? A hundred years to recover from getting his soul?

"Got it for you," he whispered apologetically.

"Shh," she soothed him instantly, not being able to stand seeing pain on that face even if she didn't know whether the Spike she knew was still inside. "It's OK." Her arms wrapped around him once more as tears started to run down her cheeks.

"Buffy?" he whimpered softly against her shoulder.

"Don't worry, baby," she soothed. "I'm here. I love you no matter what. We'll get through this together, Spike. You and me, just like you always wanted. OK?"

"The spark burns," he sobbed raggedly.

"I know, but I'll make it stop. I'll get you back, make everything better again." She pulled him up to his feet, still holding his body against hers. "I'll take care of you..."

"Buffy?" Dawn began nervously, tears in her own eyes. "What if he's not in there anymore?"

"He is," Buffy insisted vehemently, fighting back the wave of despair that threatened to overcome her. "I love him now; it can't end like this." She stroked his back softly as he nuzzled into her throat. "He has to be..." she added distantly before leading Spike over to the stairs.

"C'mon, love," she whispered into his hair, "let's go home..."

Yup, that's it. No long love story here. Sorry, folks, but I told you it would be sad. Also, I was kind of sick of the whole soul vs. no-soul argument, so I tried to leave this ending vague enough that both sides could accept it. Although, I suppose the pro-soul people will see more hope in this ending than others. Let me know how I did with that since I'm curious.

As for a sequel, it doesn't look like it's going to happen. However, the saga I write after "Skull And Dagger" is finished will deal with similar issues from the episode 'Dead Things' as this story did.

That's all, so let me know what you think of the story overall, and thanks to everyone who's supported me during the sometimes difficult task of finishing.

~Kantayra