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Chapter 12
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Xander arrived in London ahead of Giles, Dawn and Spike. He had finally gotten his interview with the jilted royal and needed to spend some time with females who weren’t still pining for a man who had treated them badly. That left Willow, of all his women friends. Willow had always been his port in a storm, always would be.

"So, three of us have gotten these notes and I’m the only one with so much as a glimpse? I wonder if that means one of us would recognize her. I mean if she’s a
total stranger, why the ghost act?" Xander was busy polishing off a plate of freshly baked cookies that Willow had baked in his honor and mulling over the
whole note mystery.

"Good point. Then again, why use us?" Willow had given the matter some thought herself. "Why not Spike and Giles? There may not be an answer at all. She
may be choosing the contact based on who’s the easiest one to sneak a note to at the time. We’ll never know until we get this whole thing figured out."

"I’m thinking that I want to get my hands dirty on this one. I’ve been out of the combat loop for too long now. I was always the one to go get my axe and head in. Seems like I’ve been avoiding that since I lost Anya. If getting Buffy back isn’t the time to pick up a weapon and get pointed in the right direction, then I don’t know when it would be. When Spike goes in after her, I’m going, too. He may not like it, but that’s what sidekick’s do." Xander finished the last cookie and stood up. "Not a lot of glory as the sidekick, but we get the job done."

"I don’t think anyone thinks of you as just some Boy Robin to Buffy’s Batman," Willow said soothingly. "You’ve always been a brave soldier in the war against evil, Xan. From the time we were in high school, you were always right there.
You have a lot of courage. I’m sure Spike will be glad to have you there to help out. You fought together really well that summer before we brought Buffy back, after all."

"Yeah, I’ve been thinking about that, too. We really shouldn’t have shut him out after we got Buffy back. It was like that whole summer hadn’t happened. No
wonder everything got so screwed up!" Xander had a slight frown on his face as he let himself go back to that disastrous year. "I wish I had thought more about a
lot of stuff back then. Anya and I would have had a few good months at least."

"You can’t live in the past, Xander. You think I don’t regret every moment I threw away that I could have had with Tara? All any of us can do is learn from our mistakes and do better. We can also remember that both Anya and Tara loved us, and that they wouldn’t want us to just stop living because they did. You’re a great guy, Xander, you’ll make some woman really happy. Okay, with your history, you might make some demon really happy. Point is, you’ll find someone to love that will benefit from all you’ve learned. Anya would want that…you to be happy, that is."

The telephone rang, interrupting the bonding of the broken-hearted.

"Oh, hi, Giles! Guess who else is here? Xander!…No, he hasn’t got any new information, but he wanted a little break from all the weepy women for a while. … Okay, we’ll meet in the morning at the Council office. All those wards should make it safe to plot and plan and even share gossip. See you all then. I’m looking forward to seeing Dawnie again. I’ve missed her." Willow hung up and gave Xander a smile.

"Guess I should get some shut eye then if we’re meeting in the morning. Times like this, only having to shut one comes in handy", Xander quipped. "Good thing Spike never cared about little issues like sunlight or we’d be waiting for our meeting. Weird vampire!" Xander yawned and headed in to get some sleep after hugging Willow goodnight.

~~~

Spike prepared for his date with Ilona carefully. They had already chosen the files to steal. The file labeled "Key" involving Dawn and a handful of other files that might contain information useful both in their current situation and in the future were the targets.

Since there was not likely to be another "date" in the offing, they decided they should simply take the files and not bother to make any copies this time. In fact, the files Spike had copied previously were to be taken as well, if only to get them out of the hands of this branch of Wolfram & Hart.

Since they no longer cared about keeping the door open for a possible future tryst, it was Dawn’s idea that they use the fastest way to put Ilona out of the picture. Drugging the lovely CEO was the best solution since it had been so successful the last time. Spike felt uneasy trying to take the vial of sedative
into the building, however. His date was for an intimate dinner in her apartment rather than a restaurant away from the watchful eyes and ears of Wolfram & Hart.

Giles and Spike finally decided the best solution was for the two of them to work together. This would be a chance to test out the strength of the talismans Willow had sent at the same time. Spike would distract Ilona while Giles, under the mystical protection of the talismans, would slip into the file room and take the desired files.

Spike had told how Lindsey entered the L.A. offices undetected until they physically spotted him in the bowels of the building. With Spike giving the best directions for Giles to enter the file room, it would only be necessary to avoid any physical contact with the security staff of Wolfram & Hart. Spike would keep Ilona occupied for at least an hour to allow Giles plenty of time to get in, get the files and get out.

They had decided on a safe house to reconnoiter until they were sure they had been undetected. Dawn was to await them there, painting more of the symbols on the
doors, walls and windows of the warehouse storeroom in preparation. If all went well they would go back to Dawn’s apartment and later fly to London with no problem. If things did not go well, they would need to slip out of Rome and thence to London some other way, avoiding detection by the Senior Partners and
local Wolfram & Hart operatives.

Everything went according to plan until Giles was nearly out of the building. One of the files had an unexpected and hidden computer chip that set off alarms within the building. As soon as Spike heard the clarion, he knew Giles was in trouble. He only hoped the Watcher could outrun the expected security team until he could help him escape.

"Situazioni d’emergenza!" The call proclaiming an emergency came on the loudspeaker of Ilona’s intercom system.

Spike heard her asking questions of her security team and issuing orders to seal the building. He had to do something to get her out of play and quickly. He
could kill her, but his soul screamed out against that plan.

It had been a long while since Spike had had human blood, much less direct from the source, but circumstances required quick action. It was odd tasting human blood again after all of these years. Spike had forgotten how potent it was direct from the tap, how it infused his body with a power and strength that animal blood just could not match. It was almost like drinking something with a high alcohol content after a diet of watered down beer.

He took just enough from Ilona to leave her unconscious without killing her. His soul didn’t even feel a pang, considering the alternatives. It wasn’t quite the type of penetration that Ilona had been expecting, but Spike could tell that she hadn’t disliked it either.

He sped from her apartment toward the area where he knew Giles would be trying to leave the complex. "Hey, what’s the noise all about? Tryin’ to have a date
here, a little romance. Your boss wants to know what the hell’s going on." Spike asked the man who appeared in charge of the security team. Spike was happy to see they didn’t appear to have captured Giles or even located him as of yet.

"Where’s Ms. Costa Bianchi? Why isn’t she here asking herself, vampire?" The guard sneered at Spike.

"She’s not ‘xactly dressed for the occasion, if you get my meaning", Spike replied with a smirk.

"Tell her there’s been a breach of security and we’ve got a handle on it. She doesn’t need to disturb her down time over the matter. It’ll be taken care of by
the time you get back to her apartment, in fact." The commander exuded confidence.

At that point Spike saw Giles from the corner of his eye and realized he was going to have to do something proactive to keep the security team from seeing him as
well. Spike motioned to Giles to make a break for the exit while he turned the guard towards himself.

"Look, I don’t think Ms. Costa Bianchi will just take my word for it, mate. Why don’t you just drop on by and give her the word yourself." Spike saw Giles dash
for the door as he was speaking.

One of the security team chose that moment to take his eyes off of the vampire and yelled an alert to the rest, pointing at the rapidly disappearing back of Giles. The guard with the clearest shot raised his weapon and pointed at Giles’ retreating form. Spike made a flying leap towards the guard, knocking him off
balance and making the shot go wide.

"Well, vampire, good thing we’re not as trusting as the boss. We came prepared for your kind." With that, the guard raised his crossbow and aimed at Spike,
letting loose a bolt of wooden death. The shaft pierced Spike just millimeters above his heart. Spike steeled himself for the pain and began running at top
speed in the opposite direction that Giles had taken. He hoped the security team would follow him instead of the human Watcher. Spike knew he would have plenty of
time to deal with the arrow after they were all safely out of harm’s way.

~~~

"Where’s Spike?" Dawn had asked the same question of Giles multiple times in the past hour. Giles told Dawn that Spike had created a distraction to allow his
escape and that he had assumed the vampire was quickly following him there to the safe house. Every time Giles came up with the same reply, "He should be here shortly, Dawn, he is quite resourceful", she became more and more frantic.

"He should be here by now. Are you sure he got away? Giles, what if they staked him?"

"I wish I could say with certainty that he got away, but you know very well I cannot. I do know that Spike is rather like the proverbial cat, he tends to land on his feet. We can’t go looking for him right now. What if we leave and he turns up only to find no one here? I was spotted, so I cannot go looking and I am
sure you would be easily recognized if you tried to go. If he doesn’t show up in good time, we’ll have one of our slayers organize a search. Rona knows him.
I’ll have her head it if necessary. I really don’t think it will be necessary, however."

"Rona doesn’t like him." Dawn frowned to think her friend’s life might be left in the hands of an indifferent or even hostile slayer.

"Rona will do as she is told by the head of the Council, Dawn. No need to fear. I truly don’t think it will come to that. Most likely Spike is simply leading them on a wild goose chase to prevent them from locating our safe house."

Dawn gave an expression of "pffft" when he stated that Rona would obey easily. "Buffy’s not the only slayer with a will of her own, Giles."

Giles responded with a dirty look. Just as he was about to argue his position where slayer discipline was concerned, they heard a loud bang against the wall near the door.

Dawn jumped and ran to the door, flinging it open before Giles could caution her not to chance opening it. Spike was slumped on the ground with the shaft sticking from the area near his heart. "Oh my God, Giles, they’ve nearly dusted him!"

"Careful, Dawn! Don’t jar him too much. As you said, the arrow is terribly near his heart, we don’t want to dislodge it and finish the job. Spike, are you
conscious?"

Spike had managed to lose the security team following him and make it to the storage unit before he slipped into unconsciousness. Giles was concerned
because the blood loss didn’t seem bad enough to cause the vampire to be in the condition he was in. He remained silent about his concerns, however. He wasn’t about to add to Dawn’s worries by saying anything just yet.

They carefully dragged Spike into the protection of the safe house and closed the door behind them.

After removal of the arrow and inspection of the wound, Giles had to guess that the arrow had either some magic or poison on it to have put Spike into the
nearly comatose condition he was in. He decided to chance using his cell phone and place a call to Willow.

Having a powerful witch on one’s side was of enormous value. Willow teleported Spike to London to analyze the unconscious vampire herself and start whatever
process might be needed to cure him. Dawn and Giles would use more conventional means of transportation to return to England. It wouldn’t do to overuse a resource like Willow!

Giles packed the stolen files into the bags they had readied for the trip and had Rona pick them up to drive them to Milan for the flight leaving for London. No point in making it too easy for the Wolfram & Hart security to track them. So far the talismans had worked perfectly. Dawn had discovered the embedded computer chip and it was now disposed of safely. Giles could but hope that the only view they had of him had been his rather run-of-the-mill backside. God willing they would all be home safe soon.