Betad by Carol and dawnofme


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Disclaimer: the characters do not belong to me - they are used purely for fun and not fiancial gain






Chapter Thirty


A Revelation



None of them knew how long it had been since Willow had been put in a cell, but it must have been some hours later when they once again heard footsteps echoing down the corridor.


Willow was huddled in the back corner of her cell when she saw Giles and Maggie walk past. She had to turn her head to try to get a better look. She pushed at the strap running down her face irritably with her fist but couldn’t even feel where the edge of it was let alone push it out of the way.


They all heard the cell door open up.


“Christ, Giles, what are you doing with this bitch?” said Xander, as Maggie and Giles walked into his cell.


Giles said nothing, just looked at Maggie as if for approval. Maggie nodded. It wasn’t until Giles stepped forward that Xander realised he was holding something; he backed away.


“Look, Giles, I know you don’t want to do this.”


Giles simply raised the thing in his hand and pointed it at Xander’s chest - it looked like a paintball gun. He fired it.


“Ow!” cried Xander as it hit him. He looked down at his chest - it was wet but not with blood. The whole front of his t-shirt was soaked. He put a hand up to touch it but collapsed before it got there. He wasn’t unconscious but was paralysed, barely able to still draw breath. When he tried to speak all that came out was a croak.


Maggie and Giles took an arm each and dragged Xander from his cell, passing Willow as they went. Xander caught a glimpse of her.


“Sweet Jesus, what have they done to her?”


He could see the contraption on her head, but it was the way that it was embedded into her that freaked him out. It looked like it had grown on her.


They managed to heave Xander onto the table Willow had been on earlier. They didn’t need to strap him down, as he couldn’t even twitch a muscle let alone move one, but Giles started to fasten straps to his wrists and ankles, his knees, waist and across his shoulders.


“This procedure will be a long one,” said Maggie. “You may find the paralysis wears off before we’re totally finished.” She looked off to the right. “Ah, Michael, you’re here. Is everything ready?”


“Yes, Professor,” answered Michael.


Xander couldn’t see him, but could hear the squeak of wheels so he knew Michael had pushed something into the room. Giles, standing at Xander’s shoulder, noticed him trying to see Michael so he reached out and turned Xander’s head until it was facing to the right instead of to the ceiling.


“Is that better?” he asked.


Xander now wished he couldn’t see. He closed his eyes then opened them again. Still, he saw the same thing; Michael had pushed in a gurney with a demon strapped to it, and was now beginning to cut through the flesh of its shoulder. His metal hand working as dextrously as his own had been able to. Xander was terrified; a tear ran slowly down his face.


“Oh dear, would you rather not watch?” asked Giles. He walked round the table until he knew Xander could see him. “Shame.” He smiled a cold smile and walked towards Maggie, leaving Xander looking at the demon. Xander closed his eyes; there was nothing else he could do.


Ooooooo


Maggie watched Giles talk to Xander with delight. He repeated the words she’d said in his mind as if they were his own, her domination of him complete.


“Well done, Rupert,” she said as he stood next to her.


“Thank you, Professor,” he replied politely.


“I shall leave you to oversee this. Assist Michael in any way he needs. I shall return shortly,” she said, and she left the operating theatre.


Ooooooo


Spike’s body had recovered from the blast, and he was pacing furiously up and down his cell.


“The future’s not set. The future’s not set,” he muttered as he paced.


Spike couldn’t believe Giles’ part in this. If it were just against him, he’d have no problem thinking that Giles had joined forces with Maggie, but Buffy and the others? He just couldn’t believe that he’d betray them.


The door to his cell suddenly opened. Spike stopped pacing and looked at it.


“OK, if the future’s not set then I don’t have to turn the same way out of this cell,” he said as he slowly walked to the door.


He was just about to go out when he stopped short. A brief flash of pain hit his temples and he put his hands up to his head. His eyes widened as in his mind he could see Giles questioning him about the dreams, but more than that, he heard Giles thank the professor.


“Christ, they’re linked,” he whispered. “It’s not Giles’ fault; they got to him somehow.”


He stepped boldly out of the cell and turned in the same direction as he had in his dream, figuring that if he’d told Giles, and therefore Maggie, all about his dream that they’d expect him to avoid going the way that had led him to Adam and recapture. One thing that hadn’t changed was the fact that he was once more naked.


“What is it with that bitch and my clothes?”


He jogged gently along, all the time scanning the area for anything that he could use as a weapon. He saw a small table with round metal legs, so he stopped long enough to rip one off. He swung it a couple of times. It was solid metal and heavy enough for him to inflict plenty of damage with his vampire strength behind it.


He jogged around a corner and stopped.


“Hello, Number Seventeen,” said Maggie Walsh.


“Piss off.”


“Is that the best comeback you have? Rather disappointing, don’t you think?”


“Where are my friends, you bitch?” snarled Spike.


Maggie smiled and waved an arm. “Oh, they’re in here somewhere.”


Spike’s features changed and with a growl he leapt at her with lightning speed, thrusting the metal bar into her abdomen several inches deep. With a cry, Maggie fell to her knees, then fell face forward, her body weight pushing the bar the whole way through her body.


Spike looked down at her and kicked her still body.


“I owed you that,” he said quietly before turning away, thinking the others must be in three fourteen.


He hadn’t gone ten strides when he heard a movement behind him. He whirled around to see Maggie getting to her feet, the bar still protruding from her belly.


“What the hell?” Spike walked back towards her, watching in amazement when Maggie took hold of the bar, and with a shriek pulled it from her body.


“Should have aimed a little higher and using wood would be much more effective,” she sneered as her features changed, eyes demon yellow, teeth long and pointed, brow bumpy.


“A vampire?” gasped Spike. “You’re a bleeding vampire!”


To be continued……..