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A/N Many thanks to Carol and dawnofme for their beta work, and so much more. *hugs*



Chapter Six


Put Things Right



The next morning brought a breakthrough. Willow had worked all night hacking into Spike’s records and now had the full details of all the procedures Maggie had subjected him to, both physically and then via the microchip in his brain.


“The technology is unbelievable,” said Willow, drinking what felt like her thousandth cup of coffee. “They have the ability to, quite frankly, change anything they want. For example, they could interrupt the nerves controlling his arm, or simply shut him down completely. At the moment, things like this can only be done or undone via a probe which connects to the chip and transfers the data, but from what’s written here, they wouldn’t be far from being able to do it remotely. That would mean they’d never lose track of anyone again. They could simply switch off their legs, sight, whatever and track them down. If captured by an enemy, they could just switch it off and shut them down. Basically they could kill them remotely. Too scary.”


“So, are we ready to be able to reverse what was done to Spike?” asked Giles.


“And what about him not being able to spell my name despite me showing him lots of times? Why did that happen?” asked Buffy.


“I’m not sure. It must be tied in with being made mute. Thankfully, that’s been done via the chip. Seems he’s lucky that he escaped the first time, otherwise it would have been his vocal chords themselves, and that we wouldn’t have been able to repair, as they’ve found some way to prevent even a vampire from healing."


“Thank God for that,” said Buffy.


“Yes,” said Xander. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m missing his sarcastic jibes. I guess I’m missing Spike.”


“The only thing we’re missing, is the probe that needs to be in contact with the chip to change these programs,” said Willow.


“A probe? How the hell are we supposed to get one of those?” snapped Buffy in frustration. “The Initiative is not going to let civilians in. There’s no way they don’t know that we took that computer handset.

“I know the reason for that,” said Giles. “I phoned Maggie to ask how she was, the morning after we took Spike. It was something I would have done normally, had we not known that she was such an evil harridan. Apparently, a Neleh demon got loose not long after we’d left the complex with Spike, and smashed a lot of equipment before they killed it. They didn’t know it had been taken.”


“Still needing the probe thingy though,” reminded Buffy.


“No, I don’t think we do,” said Willow. “I think I can make one. All it has to do is carry the signal from the computer to the chip.”


“So you’ve got to stick something into his brain?” asked Xander with a grimace.” Why can’t you just short out the chip or take it out?”


“If the chip shorts out it will leave everything as it is now, and I wouldn’t know where to start at its removal. I’ll deactivate the programming it has and that should just make it dormant.”


“So how exactly are you going to stick that thing into his head?” asked Xander, turning a little green at the thought.


“That’s the easy part. They’ve made a little…um…well, tunnel is probably the easiest way to describe it, leading from his scalp directly to the chip. All I have to do is pierce his skin and it’s in.”


“Ew!” Buffy pulled a face. “Please tell me he’s not going to be awake when you do that?”


“No, it’ll be too risky. If he moved his head at all when the probe’s in there, the damage could leave him a vegetable. I can do a spell to put him out while it’s done. I’ll be ready to do it by this evening. Don’t give him any blood at lunchtime. The spell could make him vomit when he wakes up if he’s eaten too soon before it.”


“Don’t you need to get some sleep, Willow? You’ve been up all night,” said Giles.


“That’s where I’m heading now. I’ll grab a few hours then get the probe done and get to work on Spike.”


As Willow left to go to get some sleep, Buffy warmed some blood and went down to give Spike his breakfast. As usual he was awake and sitting on the edge of the bed, cradling his left hand in his right.


“Morning,” she said, as she got to the bottom step.


He started to get up, then quickly sat down again, remembering the orders he’d been given the day before, hoping that it wouldn’t have been noticed. He’d had to stand when approached for over a year and it was hard to remember not to. When Buffy didn’t react to his movement, he relaxed a little. He still couldn’t work out why he was here; why there’d been no tests apart from that strange one with the squares.


Spike took the blood and drained the bag as fast as possible, so that his vampiric features wouldn’t be on show for long. Buffy held out her hand for the empty bag so he passed it to her, and then held his left wrist again as had become his habit. He hated that it felt like it wasn’t a part of him any more.


Buffy started to say that they were hoping to give him back the use of his arm, but remembering how she’d said the wrong thing before, she stopped herself. He’d find out soon enough.


She was feeling wound up and walked about the basement for a time. Spike anxiously watched her go back and forth, until she decided she needed to work off some tension, and started hitting the punch bag in the corner of the room.


“Is that what the next test will be? Is she going to fight me again? With my arm like this, and my other one chained up, I’ll lose.”


After half an hour, Buffy stopped her workout, and went back upstairs. Spike lay back down on the bed. There was nothing else for him to do.


Oooooo


Spike looked up as the basement door opened. Was it finally lunchtime? It had seemed such a long time since breakfast. Buffy had decided not to go down to try to explain that he couldn’t have any blood, deciding correctly that he’d see it as a punishment.


Buffy, Willow, Giles and Xander came down the stairs. It was the first time that they’d all been down into the basement at the same time. Spike stood up, forgetting, with being nervous at the sight of them all, about his orders to stay seated. He could see they were carrying some things in their arms, and that always meant pain when things were brought into his cell. He backed up and stood as far away from them as his chain would allow. He didn’t meet their eyes.


“Ready?” said Willow.


The others nodded. Spike looked at her as she started to chant a spell. He fell softly to the floor as it worked its effect and rendered him unconscious.


Working quickly, the others unchained his wrist, pulling the bed to the centre of the room under the brightest light and placing the sleeping body of Spike on it. They lay him face down, so Willow could easily get to the back of his head. She put her lap top on a stool that Giles placed on one side of her, and also the hand held computer; which now had a wire attached to it at one end and the probe Willow had made at the other.


“OK, Xander, aim the flashlight at the spot there; where the hair is the shortest.”


Xander turned on the beam and held it steady. Willow pushed a few buttons then picked up the probe that she’d sterilised beforehand and started to push it through the skin where the small disc of bone was missing. There was a heavy thud, and the beam of the flashlight disappeared. She looked around to see Xander sprawled on the floor. He’d fainted. Buffy picked up the flashlight and aimed it at the spot Willow was working on.


“Thanks,” said Willow. “I’m nearly there.”


Once the tip of the probe touched the chip, the screen on her laptop sprang to life. To Buffy and Giles it just looked like gibberish, but Willow started tapping at the keypad. Forty-five minutes later and she withdrew the probe, wiped the incision with an alcohol soaked sterile swab, and turned to Giles and Buffy. Xander had come around earlier, but had staggered up the steps and out of the basement.


“There, that should be it. If the chip works as it should, his arm should be fine, and I’ve undone the message blocking his speech too. Let’s get him back, and I’ll reverse the spell. He’ll wake up about five or ten minutes after that,” said Willow.


They pushed the bed with Spike on it, back to its position near the wall and secured the chain on Spike’s right wrist. Giles and Willow left Buffy to sit with him, both knowing that she wanted to be alone with him when he woke up.


He started to stir after five minutes, and by ten minutes he’d rolled over onto his back and started to sit up. Without realising he was doing it, he pushed himself up with his left arm. Buffy was delighted to see it working again. As he sat up, he suddenly noticed that he’d used his left arm. He looked down at it and then lifted up his hand until it was in front of his face and clenched and unclenched his fist.


He saw Buffy sitting, watching him. He met her eyes for a fraction of a second and then looked back at his hand again. He then did something that she hadn’t seen him do since they’d found him - he smiled. It was only a small hint of a smile, but it was a definite one.


“Spike, uh, Number Seventeen, that’s better, isn’t it?" said Buffy softly.


“Spike? Oh right, the spike’s made it better, that’s what she means.”


He looked at her again and gave a small nod. The relief he felt at having the use of his arm back was enormous. It made the terrible pain he always suffered, when the chip had been programmed, seem a little more bearable.


“I’ll be back with some blood,” Buffy told him as she went up the steps.


When she returned a couple of minutes later, Spike was still moving his left hand, obviously amazed that it was responding again. She held out the blood, wanting to see if he’d take it without being told, whilst his mind was focusing on his hand. But he just looked at it and didn’t reach out, so she told him to take it. He did so with his right hand, and then she went back upstairs. They’d all agreed not to try to get him to talk that night.


Spike was afraid to go to sleep. He was afraid that his left arm would be useless again when he woke up, or that something else would have been done. In the Initiative, they often played mind games with their specimens, taking something away, giving it back and then taking it away again; all part of their way to demoralise and break the demons they were working on. He stayed awake until the early hours of the morning, then finally fell asleep.


To be continued……..