This story takes place shortly after the season finale of season 5, after the Glory storyline. It is the second in the "Spike & Cerberus" series...

"Cor, I TOL' ya this place was jus' roight fer th' pickin's!" the taller fellow informed his squat companion as they each shouldered an awkward bundle into the truck. "There's nests of them EV'RYwhere!"

 The smaller man eyed the taller one ruefully. "Nyet, comrade. Vonce in my homeland, you could not valk three feet vit'out valking into a demon of some sort!. Until the Slayer there viped them all out or scared dem away, dat is. No vonder the Slayer dat was here died, if she could not manage to clean out vone measly little town!"

 "Oh, roight, mate. 'Vatever' you say." The taller man did not believe Nikki, but the shorter man did not care. He also didn't hear Milton mutter under his breath, "I could believe you're bloody old enough t'know what happened with a Slayer 300 years ago!"

 Truth be told, Nikki didn't like Milton much, but he'd been a good business partner, and in the end that was all that had mattered. The man knew how to handle demons, if maybe not quite as well as Nikki, then well enough and better than most. And Nikki was getting too old to handle so many of them on his own.

 A muffled cry came from within one of the bags. One of them had woken up! Milton was about clobber their captive when it spoke. "WE'LL GIVE YOU A TRADE! JUST LET US GO!"

 Amused, Nikki stayed Milton's hand. "Vat could you possibly offer us?"

 "A vampire that can't hurt you!" came the muffled reply.

 Milton laughed. "You ain't doin' such a hot job of that yerself, mate!"

 "This one has a chip in his head! It keeps him from being able to hurt a human, but allows him to kill his own kind. You could make a petting zoo out of him during the day, & pin him up against other demons at night!"

 Milton had to admit he was intrigued. He looked to Nikki, who nodded. Milton untied the top of the bag to let the vamp's head stick out. "Awright, bloke, y've got my attention. Make sure you KEEP it." He aimed a pistol full of holy water at the vamp, who cringed. His face was covered in burns.

 "He lives in a crypt not far from here. I can show you..."

"PLEEEEASE, Spike? I've never been to a circus!"

 Spike sighed. "What're you talking about? You freaking LIVE in a bloody circus!" He gestured to the surrounding Sunnydale.

 "Spike, how do you want your burger?" Giles asked him from the grill, a spatula in one hand and a meat patty in the other. An apron that said "Kiss the Librarian" completed the look.

 "Just the way it is, thanks."

 Giles stared at the raw meat, his face looking a bit pale. "Quite right, should have guessed that."

 Spike turned back to Dawn's pleading look. God, he spoiled her. "All right, you win. We'll go."

 Dawn let out a happy yip that distracted Cerberus from eyeing the pile of meat by the grill. For a second.

 "Spike, do you think you could..." Giles gestured to the dog with a look of pure irritation.

 "Awww, he just needs someone to play with him!" Xander cooed. He picked up a stick and waved it. "Here Cerbie! Here boy!"

 Cerbie? Spike mouthed distastefully.

 It got the dog's attention though. Xander threw the stick, and the canine went chasing after it. He came racing back with it in his teeth, tail wagging happily.

 "Ok, now drop the stick, Cerbie!"

 Cerberus just stood there in doggy bliss, stick firmly gripped in his mouth.

 "Drop the stick, boy!" Nothing. Xander grabbed one end and began to tug. "C'mon, I can't throw it again unless you give it to me!" Cerberus started to growl playfully. "Spike, you need to train this d--OHMYGOD!!!" He let go in a hurry and scrambled back.

 Cerberus had vamped out. But now that Xander had stopped tugging, he reverted to normal. For a moment, Xander thought maybe he had imagined it.

 "SPIKE!!! You made him a VAMPIRE?!?" Willow shot the bleached-blond boy a look of horror.

 "Aw, now wait a minute, love--"

 "I should think the Humane Society would have something to say about this!" Anya informed him in an authoritative tone.

 Tara laughed in spite of herself, earning her hard looks from the other two girls. Xander was watching the dog warily, edging his way toward the fire poker. Giles looked like he wanted to go home, and was remembering that he already was.

 "It wasn't Spike!" Dawn protested. All eyes turned to her, and she told them the story.

 By the time she had finished, everyone was gushing over Cerberus with cries of "Awww, you poor thiiing!" and "What a good, brave boy!" Everyone but Spike, who looked embarrassed, and Giles, who looked grim.

 Giles stepped over to Spike and murmured to him, "Are you sure you should let him live? He doesn't have a chip in his head, Spike! How do we know he won't--"

 Spike gave the man a cold look. "Do you think Xander would be standing here with all his limbs intact if Cerberus were dangerous? Do you think I would endanger HER--" he flicked his gaze to Dawn, "-- if he was? I... am... not... killing... my... dog." he said pointedly, voice low and menacing. After a moment his eyes softened. "Look, I know you have reason to be worried, and certainly no reason to trust me. Just think about it this way, then. If vampires were nothing more than killing machines, then Dru and I would have killed each other off long ago. We CAN know friendship. Strip away demons and souls, and all yer left with are bodies, machines whose programs are instincts. We all kill to live because it's self-preservation. But we also know that having a mate to watch yer back is apart of protecting yerself too. He sees all of you as his pack; he won't harm you but he'd give his life to protect you. Just like I would have to save Dru, or Buffy, or..."

 There was no need for him to finish. They both knew that he still bore the scars of what he saw as his failure, the night Buffy died because he wasn't able to protect Dawn.

 But his words had satisfied Giles, who gave him a pat on the shoulder, in a very rare show of affection. Then the man scrunched his nose in distaste, looking about wildly. Something was burning. His eyes widened in horror as they landed on the grill. He scrambled to put out the fire, Xander rushing to his aid. When they had tamed the angry grill, Giles asked with a nervous giggle, "Anyone for pizza?"

 "Next time you let the AMERICAN run the all-American pastime." Xander growled.

"Funny, I don't SEE any vampires..." Milton gave the trigger a little squeeze, letting water drip from the barrel.

 "He's probably out with his human friends! He'll have to come back eventually!" The vamp found himself praying, and wondered who on earth a creature like him could pray to.

 Nikki shrugged. "We can wait a while."

When Spike got back to the crypt that night, he found a little surprise waiting for him. Cerberus noticed them first; however much Spike's senses were heightened, he could only vaguely imagine what it was like for the pup having heightened DOG senses.

 He was rather pleased, truth be told; he could use a little exercise. He and Cerberus made short work of the two vamps who jumped him; he'd started carrying stakes in his coat for the inevitable run-in. Unfortunately he hadn't noticed the scent of humans, having just spent several hours with a handful, until it was too late.

 Milton sprayed him in the face, blinding him. He went down in agony. He tried to fight back, but the chip activating incapacitated him even more.

 Cerberus attacked Milton, ripping a vicious gash in the man's leg, teeth sinking into the bone. Milton let go of Spike, but the vampire was out cold, the repeated jolts from the chip as he struggled having overwhelmed him.

 Nikki came to his comrade's rescue, clubbing the dog with a baseball bat he carried just for that purpose. Vamps might be powerful, but even they fell under a beating if it was fast and hard enough. Once he got the creature subdued, he looked it over. It was a dog, sure enough, but its face was wrinkled like a vamp's. he opened one of its eyes, and saw a demon's there. "Amazing..." he whispered. He had never seen an animal vamp before. He grew excited. "Milton, ve have hit de jackpot!"

 Even in excruciating pain, Milton had to smile at what Nikki showed him.

"But he promised! It's not like him to break a promise."

 As much as Xander was NOT Spike's friend, he had to admit that Dawn had a point. And the vamp was never far from Dawn's side whenever she went anywhere at night. Xander didn't want to alarm Dawn though. "I'm sure he's just out walking Cerbie and lost track of time. They don't allow dogs at the circus, you know; don't you think he should get some quality time in?"

 She nodded, but still pouted worriedly.

 "Tell you what," Giles began, "it's getting late, so why don't you get going? I've got some work I should be doing anyway. I'll tell him you went on ahead when he gets here, and he can meet you there." And this got Giles out of having to go. He tried not to smile too much.

Milton rubbed his hands together in anticipation. They were all set up, everyone was in place, and the gates would be opening soon. He was sure their new attraction would be a crowd-pleaser.

 "Now, let's go over this again, just to make sure you understand." He tapped the water pistol against his head as he circled the vampire and dog, limping slightly. "The room is surrounded by crosses, a holy water moat, and garlic."

 "Kind of bloody hard to miss the smell, mate."

 Milton hit Spike across the back of the head hard. Cerberus snarled angrily from his cage, then whined in frustration when slamming his body against the bars didn't budge them.

 "You will sit patiently as people 'urt you wi' sharp objects an' 'ot pokers. If you try to escape," he looked up at a bucket suspended above Cerberus' cage, "the dog gets it. Keep tha' in mind tonoight when you foight th' chaos demon."

The circus was like nothing Dawn had ever imagined, or any of the others for that matter. Except maybe Xander.

 They had come expecting elephants, strongmen, acrobats, clowns, tightrope walkers, magicians, lions and tigers. What they FOUND was--

 "Demons. The whole place is FULL of them. What kind of lunatic...?" Willow shook her head incredulously.

 "Hey, I know that guy! HI ROGER!" Anya waved vigorously to a demon in one enclosure who was hefting a bus over his head. She ran towards the booth. The others exchanged confused looks and followed.

 "Anya!" The demon smiled happily and set the bus down behind him. He ran over to Anya, who had climbed over the wooden fence despite Xander's protests, and swept her up in his massive embrace.

 There was nothing for the others to do but follow. Willow noticed as they crossed the barrier that there was a ward flowing through it.

 "What are you doing here, Rog?" Anya asked him.

 Before the demon could answer, Xander asked Anya a question of his own. "How do you know this guy?" For once, Anya didn't have a quick response, but Roger answered for her. "We used to date, a while back." Then the demon noticed the look on Xander's face. Not that he was afraid; it was just that, for a demon, he had a good heart. "Oh, but that was a long time ago, and it just didn't work out. We decided to just be friends," he assured the human. And wondered just what his old girlfriend saw in the man.

 Trying to get past the awkward moment, Anya asked Roger again what he was doing there.

 "Oh, it's a long story." And it was, a bit. Roger had been caught by demon hunters a hundred years before. These particular hunters weren't interested in killing demons, though, just in using them for profit. They knew everything about every demon there was, he imagined, all their strengths and weaknesses. They knew how to get a monster to do what they wanted without fear of rebellion. They hired the demons as hard laborers, guards, and sold them as pets. The latest venue was displaying them as sideshow freaks. Roger confessed that he had come to like the life, as had many of the others. They were well-fed, had decent living quarters... No, so long as you didn't piss off the owners, there was no reason to want to leave. But if you tried, chances are there was a sturdy barrier of SOME sort.

 He and Anya chatted a bit longer, then made their goodbyes. The Scoobies made their way through the exhibits, demons performing tricks that showed off their nature. Each had it's own set of barriers, some of them quite odd, like the rubber duckies. The crowd ate it up. Xander was heard to mutter at one point, "You people live in SUNNYDALE. HELLMOUTH. HELLOOOOO. This is nothing new, people..." Willow begged to differ, pointing excitedly to breeds of demons she recognized from her reading. Anya met up with a few more friends, most of them also former boyfriends. One that wasn't was actually a very beautiful demoness who noticed Anya first. Anya glanced at Xander, then pretended not to know her & moved on.

 No one remembered about Spike.

Spike sank to his knees in relief as Nikki shooed the last of the patrons out of the tent and closed the flap. He had been sliced, stabbed, burned, and beaten all afternoon. The two men were quite pleased with the crowd their "safe" vamp and vampire dog had drawn. Now they were going to take him to the main tent for his big fight. Spike wasn't worried though. He knew something his captors didn't. His friends had planned on visiting the circus that night. One of them was a powerful witch. Spike's only concern was that something might have come up. Well, that and they might not think he was worth saving.

 Cerberus whined. Spike scratched the dog's ear through the bars as they wheeled the cage out of the tent. Well, if the Scoobies wouldn't save him, maybe they would at least save the dog.

The Scoobies settled into the front row, center. Dawn couldn't believe their luck. Xander thought it had something to do with the smell, while Willow thought maybe people didn't want to get quite so close to the monsters. They all dug happily into they snack foods, popcorn, nachos, hot dogs, and the like. Xander grumbled a bit at the expense, suggesting that he wasn't going to be eating anything else for a month.

 When the carnage began, he wished he hadn't eaten so much. Now they understood why the vendors were also selling rain ponchos; the grisly scene was messier than attending a Gallagher show. (*For those of you who don't get the reference, Gallagher was a comedian who's shtick was hitting fruits, particularly watermelon, with a sledgehammer, thus showering the first few rows of his audience with gourd entrails. I like him! ^_^*) Luckily for many of the demons, loosing a limb, including one's head, apparently wasn't lethal. Xander reflected that the owners wouldn't want to get their performers killed. Then again, being at the Hellmouth, they could easily re-stock...

 Suddenly Xander remembered about Spike. He had an inkling of what happened to the wayward demon. The next fight confirmed it for him.

 It was Spike. And some demon with antlers on his head.

 "Spike! THEY'VE GOT SPIKE!" Dawn started to stand, but Tara pulled her back down.

 "Wait! You want to start a riot in the middle of demon central? Let's take a minute to look the situation over, here..."

 "But he could get hurt!"

 "And WE could get KILLED," Anya pointed out.

 Tara nodded in agreement, elaborating, "None of the fighters have been mortally wounded. We stand a better chance getting him out of here if we think this through. He'll be okay in the meantime."

 "Presuming he WANTS to leave." Everyone stared at Anya. "Well, come on! You heard Roger and the others! They LIKE it here! How do we know he doesn't?"

 Dawn's eyes filled with tears. "NO! YOU'RE WRONG! He wouldn't leave me!"

 In spite of himself, Xander found that he hoped Dawn was right. He told himself it was just for her sake.

"Hello!" the chaos demon said cordially. It was the same one who had been dating Dru, and it remembered Spike. "Ah, I hope there are no hard feelings...?"

 Spike smiled halfheartedly. "No, mate. There's nothing between Dru and me, now." Saying it, he knew it was true. He might always love her, but too much had happened. "Still, you understand I'm not going to pull any punches? Got a reputation to maintain." And a friend to protect, he added to himself.

 The demon swallowed. "Just don't break the antlers, ok?"

 "Not making any promises, mate. But if it's any consolation, we get out of this and yer free to see Dru with no interference from me."

 The chaos demon's look changed from mournful to hopeful. "Say... you wanna try to escape together?"

 Spike considered, then nodded. They shook on it, then walked out into the ring.

 Dawn was there. He could smell her. After a moment of searching, his eyes found her, and locked with hers. The demon's fist wiped the smile from his face.

Dawn stood again, letting out a cry. Many of the other young ladies in the audience also let out a cry as what they thought was a handsome young man got set upon by the monster. They stifled their cries when they saw the man's face turn into a demon's too.

 After that it wasn't much of a fight. The demon was big and strong, but he wasn't much of a fighter. Spike had spent over a century as a brawler, and was faster. In minutes, he had the chaos demon down.

 Milton and Nikki were disgusted. They had never used this particular demon before; they thought he would put up a better fight.

 "Finish it!" Nikki called from the sidelines.

 "... What?!?" Spike yelled back.

 "KILL HIM! He is useless to us!"

 "NO!"

 Milton shot a quick stream into the cage next to him. Cerberus howled in pain. "DO IT, OR TH' DOG DIES INSTEAD!"

 Spike looked at the cage, then the demon, in horror. There was a time when he wouldn't have given the situation a second thought. Back then, it would have been Dru in the cage, and he wouldn't have hesitated to kill an innocent to save her. Funny how saving people had suddenly grown more complicated for him.

 He scanned the crowd again, finding Dawn quickly. He spied Willow near her. "WILL! HELP CERBERUS!" He looked back at the cage.

 Willow followed his gaze. Smart as she was, it didn't take her long to figure out what Spike wanted. A single word, and the door to the dog's cage swung open.

 Cerberus took Milton down before the man could recover from the shock of the door opening. Spike went after Nikki. He didn't hit the man, only grabbed him. The chaos demon picked himself up, then delivered a powerful punch to Nikki's jaw. The man crumpled in Spike's arms.

 "Let's get out of here!"

 "But the others.."

 Spike shrugged. "If they wanna follow, that's their business. I think most of them would rather stay."

 They looked about. A few demons fought some of the humans who worked for the two men, but most of them just stood there.

 Besides, Spike thought, I don't think Buffy would appreciate me letting a zoo-full of demons free around Dawn.

 He, Cerberus, and the demon took advantage of the distraction the fighting demons provided to run back through the tent the way they'd been brought in, avoiding the wards and barriers that had been placed around the ring to keep them there. The Scoobies jumped into the ring and went with them. The crowd in the stand had freaked out and were beating a hasty retreat.

 The panic had spread to outside. There was a mass exodus to the gate, which resulted in a pileup. They looked behind them and saw a few of the demon hunters giving chase.

 "How are we gonna get outta here?" asked a barely calm Xander.

 Spike looked around. "We ARE outdoors. We don't HAVE to go out the gate." He started to run down one of the less crowded walkways towards a high wall, the others following close behind.

 "Now what?" Xander asked when they reached it.

 "This one's on us!" Tara laughed, as she and Willow held hands. They gestured forward with their free hands. The wall buckled, a few yards of it collapsing.

 "But the wards!" the chaos demon protested.

 "We took care of it," Willow informed them as she and Tara crossed the barrier.

 The others followed happily, but none more so than Cerberus, tail wagging and tongue lolling.

 Once clear, Spike said goodbye to the demon, who went his own way.

 The Scoobies headed back to Giles' place, vamps in tow.

 "Ah. There you are. Did you all have fun?" Giles asked them.

 Spike thought about it a moment. He ached from head to foot, a walking collection of cuts and burns. He looked down at Cerberus, who was still wagging his tail. He smiled. "Yeah. Nothin' like a night out with yer mates."

 He walked in past Giles, the Scoobies coming tiredly behind. They settled down on the chairs and couches around the room. Cerberus hopped up and lay down next to Spike, who had set his feet up on the coffee table and was now channel-surfing.

 Giles was about to protest, but noticing the cuts and bruises on the vamp's face, and the weary look of the dog, he stayed silent. What was a little hair and dirt between friends?