Summary: Spike has a soul, but no pesky chip. He left SunnyD and came back with Faith and Jonathan. A vampire named Chun made some troubles, using a girl with magical powers to make himself powerful. Spike dusted him. Spike, Faith and Jonathan have Willow with them in the hopes that the ex- badguys can help her deal.
 

Introduction to Pain

Golan was breathing heavily, having just escaped a run-in with the Slayer. He carefully looked around, making sure the coast was clear. When he was certain he'd outrun the Slayer he sat down with a sigh.

Chun's promise had come true. This town was now hell... if you were a vampire, that is. The Slayer, usually a lone wolf, was now an army. How that had happened, Golan didn't know.

He was on his way to becoming a Master, a bit more cautious than the other vampires. He'd already outlasted most of his 'peers.' And he fully intended to be still around at the next turn of the century.

Only the Slayer and her group seemed to have other ideas. Scary ideas that involved him being chopped to little tiny bits.

He became aware of feet marching towards him and stood up, sniffing. Satisfied that they were only vampires like himself he stood out into the open.

"Don't walk around there in the open!" He hissed. "Get out of sight! The Slayer's out tonight!"

The two vampires joined him sullenly. They were darting glares at each others back's, and Golan sighed. "Look, I don't know what's going on with you two, but you'd better leave it outside. Whatever it is, it can only get us staked."

"S'Okay, mate." Assured the shorter one, an unnatural blonde with sharp cheekbones. "I doubt our little... differences will get us staked. Right?"

The taller, darker vampire glowered at the other. "Right." He grimaced.

"So." Said the blonde. "We've just got to town. Where're all the vamps hiding out at?"

Golan sighed. "It's awful. Somehow the Slayer always knows where we've moved to! Keeps raiding us! But I know there's a couple in an old crypt on fifth and Stein, about ten vamps. Keeping their heads down, which I suggest you do too."

The blonde chuckled. "Well, thanks for the hot tip."

Golan blinked. "Wait a second. Don't I know you?"

"You might." Agreed Spike.

"No, wait a second. Let me place it." Said Golan, frowning. "Oh, wait. Now I remember. When the Syc'thian Demon came to town... you're the guy that saved the Slayer's life!"

"You saved Buffy?" Demanded the taller vampire, his face contorting with hatred.

"What, now that's a bad thing?" Demanded the shorter vampire. "I thought you'd be happy about it."

"I. Am." Growled the taller vampire. "You stinking little copycat!"

"Hey!" Snarled the shorter one. "I may not be the first, but I'm doing it right! You got that?"

The taller one growled, his face shifting to gameface. "I truly hate you." He whispered.

"Oh. I see what this is about. This is because I went to Buffy's for dinner yesterday." Said the blonde.

"No. Yes." Admitted the taller vampire. He leaned closer. "I cannot stand the idea of you having any part of Buffy's life. You don't belong!"

"What about you? The only reason you're still here is the Watcher, and his little promise to check his sources for your new girl! What's her name, Cordelia? I remember her. Proper little-!"

"Don't you stain her name with your mouth!" Snarled the taller vampire. "Don't you ever even say her name again!"

"Or you'll what?" Demanded the shorter vampire, shifting into gameface. "You never could take me. And now, while you're still off your game?"

The taller vampire let out a roar, pulled a stake from his coat, whirled and slammed it into Golan's chest. After a moment the shorter vampire joined him, standing staring down at the ashes that had been Golan.

"Feel better?" Inquired Spike.

"A little." Growled Angel.

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

Riley glanced at Sam. "What've we got, honey?" He asked. She glanced at him, frowning.

"Two squads went down to vampires the other day. We think the girl got them."

He sighed. "We're affirmative, then. She was turned."

"Well, as far as I can tell, Chun must have fed her some of his blood, then kept draining her own blood from her. As long as he got to her every few hours, she stayed alive. When he stopped feeding, she died and turned."

Riley sighed. "I'm not sure that's possible."

"Well, I'm not sure if he could just turn her and then keep her in thrall while still draining her."

"Either way. It looks like she's a vampire. Possibly with all his fun immunities to fire and wood. Okay. On the Key project?"

"I set them back a few days with the suggestion that her Watcher might have taken it to England for safe keeping. They sent three squads to 'deal' with the Watcher's Council."

Riley smiled. "Well. That's what I call a win-win; for us. No matter who gets killed, we'll come off smelling like roses."

Sam laughed. "Well, that's all the good news. What about you?"

"Some good news, some bad." Replied Riley. "Dawn's fine, but Willow..."

"That's the redhead, right?"

"Yeah. She's really not doing too well."

"Lucky she's in good hands."

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

Willow slapped Jonathan, and he screamed in a high-pitched voice. "You hit me!" He accused.

"Thank you very much, genius. I never would have realized that without your assistance." She said scathingly.

Faith sighed. "Quit beating Jon up." She told Willow.

"Don't call me Jon." Said Jonathan, rubbing his cheek.

"What? Lev better?" Asked Faith innocently. Willow glared at both of them.

"You're both evil." She said. "You'll never be anything but. No matter how hard you try, you'll always live with the knowledge that you were evil... and you enjoyed it."

"Not big with the enjoying here." Said Jonathan.

"And big with the changed here." Said Faith. "Sooner or later you're going to get it through that head of yours; we all did things. Evil things. And we ended up like you. And then got better."

Jonathan rolled his eyes. "I like that. A very verbose description of the redemption process. It was almost like you passed third grade for a moment there."

Faith glared at him. "Okay, you try to do better."

Jonathan smiled. "Willow, grow up."

She slapped him again, eliciting another high pitched scream.

**********

Giles watched Xander and Anya. It was nice that they had finally patched things up. He was happy for them. Really.

Now. If only they could kill those pesky outbreaks of rampant PDA.

He sighed, going back to researching vampires with magical abilities. Chun had been hard enough to kill; the girl, who was apparently a vampire, might be even harder. Since the blood in her was not borrowed, the skills she had her own, Spike's handy bout of quick thinking might be useless.

In a nut, draining her might not make her any more vulnerable to traditional vampire-hunting weapons.

Unfortunately, the closest he could find to an example was Drusilla. A subject he feared was treading a bit close to home for most of the fighters involved.

Still, he read on. Ignoring the sounds coming from the front window of the Magic Box.

They were scaring off customers. Perhaps if he told them that, Anya would become disturbed and... no. Alas, the girl had recently acquired a sense of perspective, and a good one. Money no longer being her top priority, he could not think of anything to make them stop.

Perhaps if he attacked them with an axe... There's a thought. What about attacking the vampire with an axe? Would that be effective?

Now he was just confusing himself. If only they would stop necking in public. His head was almost ready to burst.

**********

"Life sucks." Moaned Dawn.

"Deal with it." Advised Buffy.

"I mean, life really, really sucks."

"So really, really deal with it." Said Buffy.

"Why are we patrolling? Spike and Angel will go do their mojo thing, find a fledgling, get him to tell them about the new hideout, and give us a tip. We'll dust them all without a fight. And we're out here at ten at night!"

"As opposed to?"

"You know! Partying at the Bronze! Dating! Having a life!"

Buffy grinned. "This is about Giles, right?"

"He forgoes a night of Slayage with us for a date, Buffy! Giles! How unfair is that? We're the young and attractive ones. We should be the ones seeing action. Instead it's your old Watcher who sees all the action."

"Okay, true, that's unfair." Agreed Buffy.

"You are way too mellow since Spike got back." Accused Dawn. "You missed him, didn't you?"

"No." Said Buffy. "I didn't miss him. I didn't let myself. But now that he's back, I just feel... happy."

"Yeah. Happy." Said Dawn darkly.

"Now, this is about that cute guy who didn't ask you out." Surmised Buffy.

"When'd you turn into Spike?" Shot Dawn. "Yeah, once again, spot-on, my sister."

"Cuz you got soul!" Sang Buffy happily.

"You aren't going to pass out from too much happiness, are you?" Inquired Dawn. "I'm overloading on saccharine over here as it."

"Sorry." Apologized Buffy. "It's just that everything's been going right for me lately."

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

"Everything's been going right for me lately." Said Mary. "First I got free of Chun's thrall. Then those soldier boys practically offered themselves to me as snacks. Now you come to me, offering me all these fun things!"

Drusilla smiled. "So we will kill the Slayer, and my pretty knight will come back from the dead. And we'll get to see Daddy again."

Mary grinned widely. "It's girls' night out; we're going to paint this town red."

******** A/N: Well, there you have it. For all of you who wanted the fun to keep rolling, the threads to be tied up. . . here we go again! Trust me, the next chapter will be fun. Spike and Angel reunite with Dru! In the most pain-filled sense of the word reunite, of course. Plus, Buffy and Xander have a heart to heart. Faith gets to fight. And Giles is forced to run for his life. Now, since I'm in college now, the installments might get farther apart. . .and vanish altogether if I have a paper due. But I promise, updates when I can! Till then, music lovers!