A/N Betad by seapealsh and dawnofme
Banner by dawnofme

This is my first fanficion - posted Aug 07 on ff.net and elsewhere. I thought I'd dust it off and post it here. Posting TWO chapters per day - so make sure you don't get muddled! The one with an odd number is the second one:D



Hello Mr. Parker


Hour after hour Spike sat in that cell, his left leg was giving him a lot of pain, as there was barely enough room to straighten it no matter how he sat. He’d no idea how long it had been, but suddenly the bolt on the door was opened. He hadn’t heard anyone approach so he presumed that this place was soundproofed, too. Bright light flooded in, hurting his eyes. He shut them tight, wincing in pain.


A hand reached in, grabbed his arm and pulled him outside. He stood hunched and shivering, too stiff and cold to be able to stand up properly.


“Well, Spike, it’s been quite a while.” The voice was cultured and held a trace of an accent. Its effect on Spike was dramatic. He straightened up sharply and looked at the source of the voice. Surely it couldn’t be…?


“The Immortal,” he said under his breath.


“So nice that you haven’t forgotten me.”


The Immortal smiled the smile that had made countless women weak at the knees. It made Spike weak at the knees too, but not for the same reason.


“Yeah, you’re the kinda fella that leaves an impression all right,” said Spike. “Should’ve known it was you going to these lengths, always was a bloody drama queen.”


Bill stepped forward to hit Spike.


“No, Bill, don’t worry. He’s always been disrespectful. Why would being human change that?” said The Immortal. “How did a grubby little vampire like you manage to do it? Why would you want to?”


Spike said nothing, just stared at his nemesis. In all the run ins that they’d had over the years when he was a vampire, never once had he bested The Immortal. His chances of winning as a human…?


He didn’t see the punch coming but he sure as hell felt it. The blow to his kidneys brought him to his knees.


“Answer the boss when he asks you a question,” growled Gordy.


“Thought it was rhetorical, mate. Thought he’d know already,” gasped Spike, struggling to stand up.


“Oh, but I do know, Spike. Or do you prefer William again now that you’re back to being a nancy boy?” laughed The Immortal. “You did it for a girl, for my girl.”


Spike lunged at him knowing it was futile but doing it anyway. The two vampires grabbed him and pulled him back. A well aimed kick from The Immortal put him back on the ground.

“My girl,” the Immortal repeated.


Before he could get up Bill and Gordy took hold of Spike, one on each arm. They dragged him face down along the floor, his struggles making no difference to their progress. When they got him to the wall they lifted him up and fastened him in the shackles that were already hanging on the wall. Soon Spike was suspended, feet just touching the floor, arms painfully outstretched.


The Immortal stood before him.


“Right then, Spike. Where is Buffy?” he asked.


Silence.


“Where is Buffy?” he repeated.


Again, silence.


“Oh, good. I did wonder that if now you’re human you’d deny me my fun. You’re so pitiful; I can’t believe you’re going to be strong enough not to talk.” The Immortal goaded.


Spike said nothing. He just looked at The Immortal with as much defiance as he could muster.


At a nod from The Immortal, Gordy punched Spike hard in the stomach. Spike jerked in his restraints but gritted his teeth and scarcely a groan was heard.


“Most impressive,” sneered The Immortal.


Again, Gordy moved to Spike. This time he kicked Spike’s left leg, once more finding the exact spot of his old injury.


The pain took Spike’s breath away and his head lolled forwards.


“Come on, Spike. You can end all this, you know. Where’s Buffy? I don’t want to hurt you. Well, not until she’s here to see it.”


“Go…to…hell,” said Spike.


“Oh, I think you’ll be there sooner than me. Do you know what I had to put up with? Buffy continually talking about you, Spike this, Spike that! You! A mere vampire! She spurned me and for what? A bloody ghost! She didn’t know that you lived and still she left!” The Immortal’s voice was rising. “She won’t leave me again! Once she sets foot in this house she’ll be trapped. She won’t be able to leave and when she sees how pathetic you are compared to me she’ll be happy to stay! A champion! She said you were a champion!”


“Is that how you’ve got to get girls these days? Spells?” said Spike.


He braced himself for the inevitable blow. This time it came from The Immortal himself, a vicious punch to the face. Spike lost consciousness. A bucket of cold water thrown at his face brought him round.


“You will tell me where she is!” screamed The Immortal


Spike lifted his head, lips split, nose bleeding profusely, and glared at The Immortal. He spat out a mouthful of blood.


“Sorry to disappoint, mate, but you won’t get her from me. I’ll never tell,” he said with as much strength as he had.


“Oh, I will get her, Spike, so why don’t you just make life easy for yourself? You could just stay in your cosy little cell until she gets here. Why put yourself through more pain?”


“Piss off,” said Spike.


Another punch from Gordy.


A grunt from Spike.


“I will hear you scream,” said The Immortal coldly. “Take him back.”


The two vampires untied him and dragged him back to the tiny ice cold cell. They threw him in so hard that he hit the back wall before falling to the ground. The door slammed shut. Spike curled up in the foetal position.


“That was a right barrel o’ laughs,” he muttered.


*~*~*~*


Later, the door opened, again the light stung his eyes and he was dragged outside. This time they took him to one of the pieces of apparatus in the middle of the room. A chair. He struggled as hard as he could to prevent them from strapping him in but to no avail. One punch from Gordy to his stomach and then they had him securely fastened before he got his breath back.


He was tied in so that moving his fingers, toes and eyes was all that he could do. His head was strapped into a brace connected to the back of the chair.


“Well, since you won’t tell me what I want to hear, Spike, we’ll just have to go in and get it ourselves.” The Immortal sneered.


He stepped back to reveal a wizened old man holding a small box.


“Buffy told me how a Prokaryote Stone was used on you to try to deactivate the trigger that The First planted in your head. Oh yes, I had to listen to it all!”


Spike stared at the box.


“You do right to worry, young William,” mocked The Immortal, obviously enjoying himself. “This is a Eukaryote Stone, a cousin, if you like, to the other. Instead of gently releasing images in your subconscious and helping you remember, this thing tunnels through your mind and literally eats the answers we seek out of your mind, sending them back to the host, our Mr. Parker here. If you resist, the pain will be unendurable and the damage to your memory permanent. It’ll be like those memories never existed in the first place so I’ll give you one more chance. Where is Buffy?”


Spike said nothing.


“Just one more thing,” said The Immortal. “This isn’t quite as gentle as the Prokaryote as it enters via the optic nerve, and when it exits…well if you haven’t given it all it wants, it can be a bit vindictive. So I’d try not to resist it, dear William, otherwise it’ll hurt even more than it needs to.”


Mr. Parker stepped forward and opened the box to reveal a small black irregularly shaped stone. As he incanted a phrase, the stone magically transformed into a wriggling slug-like creature.


Spike looked at it in horror as Mr Parker put the box up to his cheek. He felt it slither up his face to the corner of his right eye, then the pain was excruciating. The last thing that Spike saw was the laughing face of The Immortal as, despite himself, he screamed out.


He could feel the creature speeding through his mind. He knew it’d found Buffy, it’d been too fast for him to resist. Somehow, he could hear it relate the details to Mr. Parker although no words were said.


Joy! God, no! He’s not getting her.


Spike resisted and resisted. The creature tried to get past the wall Spike built in his mind around his memories and his knowledge of Joy, but it couldn’t get through. Spike was rigid in the chair with the effort when it finally burst its way back out, searing away the connections to that part of Spike’s memory. The wall was still securely standing but with no possible way to get to it now - the creature had severed the pathway to it.


The stone fell with a rattle onto the ground. Spike went limp. Mr. Parker reached for the stone and put it safely back in its box.


“The woman was in London at the Watchers Council when Spike was taken by your men,” said Mr. Parker.


“No!” cried The Immortal. “I’ll never get to her there.”


“He knows that she will come for him. He was certain of it. There was something that he hid successfully from me, though.”


“What? About Buffy?”


“No,” replied Mr. Parker. “Connected somehow perhaps, but not of her.”


“Go again! I must know!” shouted The Immortal.


“No point. The Eukaryote killed the path to it. It’s locked in there but neither he nor we can access it. It’s lost. I steered it to the thoughts of Buffy and he couldn’t protect them in time but when it went for the other memories he was prepared.”


“No matter. She will come for him, will she?” mused The Immortal as Mr. Parker left the room.


Bill and Gordy un-strapped the unconscious body of Spike and took him to a cell, this time a slightly larger one that was not so cold. The Immortal didn’t want Spike to die before Buffy got there.