CHAPTER FOUR
 
“I suspect he may well be.” Giles’s voice broke into their argument before it could become heated.  “Willow has learned more about them and I have been in contact with the Council.  It seems they may have some old information, dating back to the second World War, about a similar sort of project begun by the Nazis.”
 
“Bloody, buggering, fuck.... “ Spike’s voice was barely a whisper as he stared at Giles, his shock almost palpable. “I can’t believe I didn’t remember....” Giles frowned and gestured for them to enter the house. They walked past him, Spike still in an obvious daze.
 
“Remember what?”
 
“Sadistic wankers. Of course that’s where they got the idea. The big poof took all the paperwork and probably gave it to the US government when he finished his mission.”
 
“Mission?  US Government? Big poo— You mean Angel? What the hell are you talking about, Spike?”
 
“Is there something we need to know?” Giles pushed Spike farther into the room. “If you have information my slayer needs before she gets any further involved with these people....”
 
Spike snapped out of his momentary trip down memory lane and shook his head to clear it.
 
“Was part of a similar little ‘experiment’ back on the Continent during that war. Nazis rounded up all the vampires they could find and ran tests on us to see how or if they could control us. Got caught when I was outnumbered one night. At least Dru got away, but they had me trussed up and muzzled.”
 
“What does Angel have to do with anything?” Buffy glared at him, hands on her hips. “And how did you get away from them?”
 
“Ended up on a submarine somehow. Weren’t but three of us left by then. Couple of really vicious old ugly buggers they’d grabbed from the backwoods and me. They ran out of the juice they used to keep us doped up, and we started eating our way through the Nazis and then the American crew that took over the sub. They’d captured it somehow and were bringing it home when we started picking them off. They figured it out enough to lock us in one part of the ship, but then they couldn’t come back there to fix anything and seems like we were stuck somewhere... I don’t know how they got Peaches to cooperate, but he gets all heroic and somehow swims down and gets into the stuck sub so he can take care of whatever’s killing everybody and get it up and running again.”
 
“Angel? Angel was on a submarine?” 
 
“Weren’t you payin’ attention? We were all on a submarine. And stuck at the bottom of the ocean not too far off shore, I guess. Anyway, old Peaches did for my two ugly buddies, but he let me go after I promised not to bite anybody else.  But one of the sailors – only one that could fix something or other, got hurt in the little dust-up, and the only way to finish the mission to bring the ship and all it’s secrets to shore was to turn that poor bugger so he could finish fixing things.”
 
Buffy’s face turned white and she sank into the big chair. “Angel let you kill and turn somebody?”
 
“No, ’course not! Had to do it himself, didn’t he? Add another thing to brood about for that conscience he got cursed with.”
 
Giles looked at Buffy with sympathy as he began scribbling in a notebook.  “Go on, Spike.”
 
Paying no attention to Giles, Spike knelt in front of Buffy and took her hands in his. “Man was dyin’ anyway, luv. When Peaches turned him, it gave Sam time to make the fix and get the boat afloat again before everybody else died of lack of oxygen. Not to defend the old man, but he did what needed doin’ to save the rest.”  When she visibly relaxed and gave him a small nod, Spike dropped her hands and turned back to Giles. “Threw me and his new get out of ship and told us to swim away. Got to shore alright, cussin’ the day he was born with every stroke. And since he wasn’t around, was up to me to help his new childe learn the ropes.  Spent more than a few weeks together, Sam and I did, before we went our separate ways.”
 
“Fascinating...” Giles murmured as he scribbled more notes. “And you believe that ship was the source of these current attempts to make use of vampires?”
 
“I’d bet anything on it. That sub and all it’s secrets went straight to the US military. I doubt they got much in the way of useful information – the Nazis managed nothing more useful than to kill ‘bout everything they captured – but the idea would have been there waiting to be tried again by another set of wankers.”
 
“And modern technology has made it possible... Your chip is obviously designed to allow them to control you. Keeping humans safe is just a side effect. Or perhaps it was meant to be a way to keep your handlers safe as they pursued their experiments. It’s possible there was meant to be more to the program.”
 
“I told Riley he couldn’t have Spike back,” Buffy said. “And I told him to go look up Slayers.  Spike thinks I shouldn’t have told him what I am. That they’ll want to—”
 
“I know they will, Slayer. Trust me. You need to stay away from them... and him. Don’t trust him.”
 
“Okay, now you’re just being—” Buffy cut herself off as she realized that Giles was not the only person listening. Willow was practically falling out of her chair in eagerness to hear what else they were going to say. Hearing Buffy say that Spike was probably just jealous would be much too revealing of the change in their relationship. “....paranoid. You’re just being paranoid. Because they did things to you when they had you.  And because Riley wanted to take you in tonight.  That doesn’t mean I can’t trust him–them. I’m not a vampire or a demon.”
 
“Quite right. You are neither of those things. However, neither are you completely like other girls. You know that, and now they know it.  As much as I hate to admit it, Spike is quite likely...” Giles sighed heavily and glared at the smirking vampire. “... correct when he says you need to stay away from Agent Finn unless you are among your friends. Not his.”
 
“How do I stay away from my sort-of a boyfriend?  I can’t wait for that conversation ‘Hey, Riley, I’d love to go out tomorrow night. You don’t mind if Giles and the rest of my friends come too, do you?’  Yeah, that will go over big.”
 
“If you go near him, I go too.” Spike’s remark brought the attention back to him and all the Scoobies stared at him.
 
“You, especially, are not going near him!” Buffy put her hands on her hips and glared into Spike’s equally angry expression. “All that would do is get you captured again, and who knows what they’d do to you this time before I could get you out?”
 
“Who knows what they’ll do to you, you stubborn bint? And I won’t be able to fight my way in to rescue you.”
 
“Exactly why you should not be with me, you moron!”
 
Xander spoke up tentatively, waving his hand. “Does anybody besides me find it weird that Buffy and Spike are fighting about who’s going to have to protect who from the bad guys?”
 
“They’re always fighting about something,” Anya said with a shrug. “It’s just since Willow’s poorly-thought-out magic spells, they fight about keeping each other safe instead of who’s going to kill who first.”
 
“Poorly-thought-out?” Willow sputtered her dismay, smothering her anger when she noticed Giles nodding.  “That’s not fair. I was just upset and trying to feel better. I didn’t try to hurt anybody on purpose.”
 
Buffy sighed with relief that Willow and Anya had taken attention away from her and Spike.  Spike turned his attention to Willow and Giles, who were now having something of a glaring contest. Finally, with a heavy sigh, Giles gestured for Willow to follow him into the hallway. Frowning at the others to keep them from following, he led her to the end of the hall before facing her.
 
“I understand that you did not mean, originally, to hurt anyone seriously. You were hurt and angry with us – quite rightly so, I must admit. We failed you when you needed us to be your friends and realize how much pain you were in. However, the fact is, that when you realized what your spell had done, you did not immediately rectify anything, but rather seemed to take some pleasure in our discomfort.  To the point that you sent Spike and Buffy to... render themselves unconscious. A very dangerous situation for a slayer to be in under the best of circumstances. And in an intimate situation with a notoriously dangerous vampire would hardly have been the right circumstances—”
 
“He couldn’t have hurt her,” she interrupted. “And he would have been unconscious too, so even if they did....” – she waved her hand around vaguely – “she would have been safe. He wouldn’t have hurt her. Even if he could. Which he can’t.”
 
“And threatening to make his chip fire until it killed him? Which I believe was your intention when you were angry that Buffy had interrupted your pursuit of additional spells? ”
 
“It’s just Spike,” she muttered. “I don’t see what everybody’s so upset about. He’s a vampire. Buffy kills them all the time. And he didn’t do anything to her. So my spell didn’t hurt anybody and he shouldn’t have yelled at me.”
 
“Forgoing for the moment that he has become a sometime ally for Buffy, and that he has every reason to expect he is safe in my home, he is a sentient being that you were threatening to torture or kill in a most painful manner.  That speaks more to your own sense of right and wrong than it does to Spike’s inherent evilness.”
 
“Fine, fine. I shouldn’t be putting spells on people who are honorary Scoobies.  I get it. No spells on Spike or Anya.” Willow heaved a sigh. “Is that all, Giles?”
 
Giles pinched his nose and squeezed his eyes shut. “Actually, that is not all. It is not even how I intended this conversation to go.”  He squared his shoulders and looked into her impatient eyes. “I would like you to consider meeting with an old friend of mine who will be in Sunnydale soon. She could provide some mentorship and guidance in the use of magic—” He held up his hand when she opened her mouth to interrupt him. “I understand that your anger at me means I am not the person to help you. Hence my having requested the presence of someone skilled in the magic arts, but with no history of conflict with you.”
 
Willow’s tight-lipped response didn’t bode well for her acceptance. “Giles, I don’t need a guardian! I have a genius IQ; I get straight A’s; I could have gone to Harvard; I’ve been able to read adult books since I was six. Why would I need someone to help me learn magic?  All I need is a good spell book.”
 
“And the experience to understand it and the common sense to use it properly—” He stopped talking, obviously struggling to control his anger.  He took a deep breath before continuing. “I am not denigrating your intelligence, simply suggesting that a skilled and experienced practitioner may have valuable insights to share with you. Someone who can guide your reading and assist you with learning to cast spells that will not have unintended consequences could be a valuable colleague and perhaps friend to you.”
 
When she continued to glare at him, a stubborn expression on her face, he said in a softer tone, “Just think about it, please. For your own sake as well as your friends’.”
 
“Spike isn’t one of my friends,” she muttered for lack of any better comeback.
 
“I’m sure he is not. But he can’t harm you, and he is helping Buffy from time to time, so we would appreciate it if his head remained intact.”
 
“I’ll think about it,” she said with little grace, then added, seemingly from no where, “But I think my spell on Spike and Buffy worked. Maybe they didn’t do anything when it was only Buffy – which is really weird – but I’m sure they did before. Gang of demons, my ass. She as much as admitted it. And they like each other now. I can tell.”
 
“Possibly due to the shared trauma of having to fight the urges you wished upon them,” Giles said, although he shuddered inwardly at hearing someone else confirm what he thought he was seeing.
 
“Maybe she’s just grateful he didn’t.... nope. I’m pretty sure they did. I wonder if they’re going to do it again?”
 
“Dear Lord,” Giles said as he gestured for her to precede him into the living room.
 
“It could happen. Look at them.” 
 
“What could happen? Look at who?”  Buffy turned toward them, following up immediately with a questioning “Well?” to Giles.
 
“Nothing.”
 
“Nothing. Well what?”
 
Buffy and Willow stared at each other, their expressions guarded, looking much less like best friends than like opponents sizing each other up. Before Giles could think of a way to break the tension, Xander jumped to his feet.
 
“Okay. Now that we’ve settled that, why don’t we talk about something else?  What do we know about Riley and his buddies?  Good guys? Bad guys?”
 
Spike’s growl was barely audible as Buffy shook her head.  “I don’t know. It’s hard to believe Riley is a bad guy, but the stuff they do down there... I don’t know.”
 
“I’ve done everything but draw you a bloody picture!” Spike snarled. “Have your little meeting without me. When you come to your senses about your boytoy and his friends, you’ll know where to find me!”