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Chapter Eight
 
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"I'll admit to being concerned about all this." Giles allowed his full weight to rest against his desk. He shoved his hands into his pockets and stared at his shoes. There were too many scuff marks. The castle's fault. Walking up the stone steps led to lots of slips and trips.

"Don't blame you." Xander bounced the tennis ball onto the floor. It hit the plaster wall and bounced back. He handily caught it.

The wall was new - installed to give Giles' office an adjoining conference room. It was also one of the few walls in the castle that allowed one to bounce a tennis ball off it, hence Xander's presence in his office. The ball-bouncing was to maintain Xander's eye-hand coordination in spite of the lack of perspective the loss of his eye came with.

"She knows that this is very dangerous?" Giles continued.

"Of course." Bounce.

"And you're okay with it?"

Xander snatched the tennis ball from the air on its return and turned to face the older man. "Giles, look into my eye. I'm very much not okay with what Buffy's doing. I think it's reckless and selfish and...well, it's probably bad for the environment in some way."

"I expect you're about to launch into a counterpoint now."

"Yes, indeedy. I also think Angel's being much worse, so I'm in favor of taking his Spike-shaped toy away. Plus," Xander tossed the ball again. "Once Buffy sets her mind on something, there's not much I can do to dissuade her."

Giles sighed. "I suppose you have a point, there."

* * * * *


Buffy's bedroom had little in the way of decoration. Dawn had bought her a couple of posters - one of N'Sync, one of a kitten - to cover the gloom of the castle walls. The N'Sync poster had been a joke. The other, an attempt to impress upon Buffy the importance of Dawn getting a cat sometime. Buffy didn't know why Dawn wasn't content with the large number of stray cats that used the castle as their shelter, but her sister insisted that having her own kitten was something special.

When she'd first met Spike again, she'd considered going kitten-shopping with him sometime so they could both give it to Dawn as a gift.

That plan had been pushed to the back-burner.

"Almost ready," Willow pulled the quilt and sheet off the bed. "Sorry. Just need to clear everything off."

"It's okay," Buffy said. She watched warily as Willow sprinkled some magical herb over the mattress.

"I know you've heard this before, but it is kinda important - and worrying. Just...Spike's mind is gonna be crazy, you know? Vampire and all. And I'm not really sure how strong the connection will end up being what with the distance." Willow struggled with a match to begin lighting the candles.

"I'll be careful."

"No, you won't. You'll do what you need to to save Spike." Willow sighed.

Buffy didn't respond. Willow was right, there. Her own safety was of secondary importance in this one. Spike was being tortured by Angel right now. She'd do whatever necessary to make this work.

"But just remember that Angel's claim is in there, and it's gonna be dangerous. To both of you. Okay?"

Buffy nodded.

"Right." Willow waved a hand to the bed. "Go ahead and lay down."

Flecks of sage stuck to Buffy's skin as she situated herself on her bed. She reclined, breath short in anticipation.

"Turn your head away," Willow instructed. Buffy complied.

Willow's cold fingers touched the bite mark on Buffy's neck. Buffy jerked slightly in response to the chill. "Sorry," Willow murmured. She continued to smear some oil over it, though. "This is the conduit. Close your eyes, Buffy."

Buffy allowed her eyes to fall closed. Willow's touch remained on the bite mark.

"Think about Spike. He's very far away, and yet he's right here, isn't he? You can be with him."

Buffy wanted so much to be with him. Her neck began to tingle.

"Be with him, Buffy. Now."

* * * * *


"I know you're not as stupid as you seem, Spike." Angel paced around the broken vampire. "You had to have known that I wouldn't just let you kill yourself. No, you came because you wanted to be punished. Isn't that right?"

Spike remained silent, but that wasn't unexpected. He could barely stand, after all, and his eyes kept closing. Angel hadn't let him sleep since he got here.

Angel hated this lazing around, but it was taking longer than expected to get the legal tangles smoothed out. His next step was a big one, and he wanted to be prepared. In the meantime, he had little to do except spend some quality time with Spike.

He punched Spike in the chest, sending him sailing back into the wall. Despite the force of the impact, Spike managed to keep standing. Angel had taught him well so many years ago.

"Hold out your wrists," Angel ordered.

Spike obeyed, presenting trembling arms to him. Angel glanced at the red lines criss-crossed over his wrists already. Deep gouges that revealed white bone. There wasn't much left to cut, but Angel would make do. He positioned the knife and slashed at the already tortured flesh.

Spike whimpered but stayed still. Angel moved to cut the other wrist, when Spike's body seized up. His eyes opened wide for a split second before his entire body collapsed onto the floor like a puppet with its strings cut. Angel sensed the magic running through the air.

He growled.

* * * * *


Dawn jumped to her feet as soon as Angel rounded the corner. Vi took her place beside her. They'd gotten the message from Buffy an hour ago that they'd started the spell. Ever since, Dawn had been on the edge of her seat, waiting for things to start exploding here. Already, a team of slayers was arriving at Wolfram & Hart to provide back-up. As soon as they received the go-ahead from Willow that the claim was gone, they'd go and take Spike out of here.

For now, though, she had to deal with Angel.

Disregarding any personal boundary etiquette, Angel stopped within two inches of Dawn's face. He towered over her in an attempt at intimidation.

It worked.

"What are you doing to him?" Angel glared.

Dawn crossed her arms, summoning a bravery that required an almost willful naivete to the danger Angel represented. "Maybe you just wore him out."

Angel attempted to stare her down, but she didn't budge. She hoped he didn't notice her legs trembling.

"Buffy's doing something, isn't she?" He leaned forward.

"Hey," Vi grabbed his arm. "Buffy won't be too happy if she hears you're acting threatening towards her sister, you know."

Angel never took his eyes off Dawn. "Yeah," he said, lowering his gaze to travel down and up her body. "She wouldn't like that one bit."

After a pause, he stepped back, though Dawn wasn't dumb enough to think that he was relenting. He spread his hands out.

"Good play, whatever it is," he said. "She will regret it, though."

* * * * *


Willow drew the covers up further on Buffy's unconscious body. It was chilly in the castle. Willow wasn't sure if Buffy would feel the cold where she was, but it couldn't hurt to have her covered properly.

The spell had been difficult. The distance made it almost unfathomable, but Willow's growing connection to the earth allowed her to make it happen. When she'd done the trance before, she'd required line of sight with Buffy to enter her mind. Now, she took advantage of the living underground of the planet to channel the psyche across continents. It was risky and could very easily go horribly wrong. She'd known there was no way of talking Buffy out of it, though.

She'd been careful to go over all the potential risks with Buffy. Depending on what happened in Spike's mind, Buffy could wind up with brain damage or, worse, a shock to her system could kill her. They'd established an exit word that Buffy was to use in order to break out of the trance. She'd have little control over the situation other than that, though. In Spike's mind, he would make the rules.

Willow was long out of the practice of making judgments about Buffy's love life. Instead, she had decided on a strategy of unconditional support for her friend. If that involved doing crazy spells to rescue a doomed vampire, then...well, she'd do it.

She sat down in the worn armchair Buffy had dragged into her room. Besides the dresser and night table, it was the only other furniture in the room. Buffy only put forth a half-hearted effort to make the castle her home. This involved a lot of half-completed decorating projects or sparse pictures hanging on the walls (with sticky tack because, you know, stone). She'd never fully settled down, though. Not like everybody else had. Willow and Xander even travelled a whole lot more than Buffy, but their rooms were decked out.

Willow pulled her laptop out of her bag and turned it on. She had a trip to Somalia coming up, and she still needed to make sure all the arrangements were made. Travelling into the middle of a country-wide conflict was never fun, but a coven of witches apparently had found a Slayer. So she had to go, not matter what the political situation.

She glanced back up at Buffy's still body briefly before turning to her preparations.

* * * * *


Dawn couldn't help it. Her eyes kept wandering over to Angel's office in anticipation of...something.

The slayers had arrived in full force, and Rona and Vi were now deliberating on their options. No sign of Angel, though. It had been hours since he'd threatened them. Dawn had never been one to stand around, waiting for the head's up from Buffy. She was a woman of action, after all.

Knowing that this could spectacularly backfire, Dawn approached Harmony's desk. The vampire was doing a final make-up check before leaving for the day.

"Harmony," Dawn greeted her.

Harmony looked at her suspiciously. "I'm not supposed to talk to you."

"Aren't you worried about Spike? You know Angel's hurting him, right?"

Harmony flinched, eyes traveling to the locked corridor where Spike was being held. "Listen, Angel knows what he's doing, alright? I'm not supposed to get involved."

She stood up, shrugged her purse strap onto her shoulder and moved around the desk. Dawn blocked her exit.

"Where is Angel? I haven't seen him in a while. He's not in with Spike."

"Move," Harmony said. "You're in my way."

Dawn remained where she was. "I'm just worried about Spike - "

Harmony rolled her eyes. "God, this isn't all about Spike, okay? Get over him. I have. And so's Angel."

She shoved Dawn into the desk, clearing her path. While Dawn struggled to maintain her balance, Harmony walked to the elevators, her heels clacking on the tiled floor.

Dawn frowned. She straightened up. The items on the desk had been knocked out of place, but she didn't care.

"Did she hurt you? What was that all about?" Rona approached her.

Dawn shook her head. "This isn't good, I don't think."

As if her words prompted it, the lights flickered off. Dawn looked up in surprise. Along with the lights, the steady hum of the air conditioning faded out.

"They cut the power," Vi said. "How cliche is that?"

Dawn grabbed her phone from her pocket. The screen stayed black. "They didn't just cut the power. They did something that shorted out all electronics. Check your phones."

While the slayers did that, Dawn jogged to the locked corridor in the hopes that it might be open now. No such luck. She sighed and turned around. Rona shook her head.

"No phones are working. We're trying the elevators, but the door to the stairwells are locked," she said.

"Why lock us in?" Vi asked. "What's the point?"

Things began to come together in Dawn's head. "He's keeping us from contacting home base." Crap. "He's afraid we're gonna warn them."

"Warn them?" Vi asked.

"Yeah. Angel's not after Spike anymore. He's after Buffy."
 
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