full 3/4 1/2   skin light dark       
 
The Road to Hell... by All4Spike
 
Chapter 3
 
<<     >>
 
Chapter 3
 
They walked in an awkward silence until they neared the apartment complex where Giles lived, at which point Buffy mused aloud, “I wonder if Giles will remember you…?”
 
“Guess we’re about to find out…” Spike muttered in wry amusement as Buffy flung the door open without knocking and burst into her watcher’s apartment.
 
“Giles? We’ve got a big problem!”
 
Giles gave a startled squeak, put down his cup and hurriedly pulled out a handkerchief to blot the spilt tea off the book he’d been reading. He then looked up at Buffy and asked sceptically, “Bigger than a Hellgod intent upon creating hell on earth?”
 
“Yes! Giles! Someone put a spell on me to steal my memories!”
 
While Giles regarded her in silent amazement, a throat was cleared pointedly behind her.
 
“Oh, and him too,” she added offhandedly, waving vaguely over her shoulder to where Spike was hovering just outside the mystical barrier preventing him from entering the watcher’s home. “He’s the one who figured it out.”
 
Giles stood and asked sympathetically, “Do you think that might include…?”
 
“Oh, god, I hope so.” Buffy said with feeling, then turned towards the door and pointed at Spike. “Do you recognise him, Giles?”
 
Giles peered at Spike and slowly shook his head. “No… no I don’t believe I do. Do you have reason to think that I should?” He beckoned to Spike and added kindly, “Come in young man. Close the door. You’re letting all the warmth out.”
 
Spike smirked, stepped into the apartment and turned, with his duster flaring out behind him, to close the door. He began wandering around the room, idly touching things, flipping through the LP’s in the rack and reading the titles of the books on the table.
 
When she realised that she had basically caused her watcher unknowingly to invite a vampire into his home, Buffy tittered nervously. Then she realised what Giles’ lack of recognition meant and her face fell. “Yeah. I think you kinda should. I guess that means you’re affected too.”
 
“Really? Oh, dear Lord. That’s not good. Well, never mind. It should be easy enough to deal with,” Giles said confidently. “What we need is a general reversal spell.” He headed for the bookshelves.
 
“Won’t work,” Spike said glumly. “First thing I tried.” He looked up from the book he was flicking through. “When everything else failed, I went to see a demon mage I know in New York. He tried all the counterpells he could think of. Nothing worked. Eventually told me that it’s the kind of spell that you can only have reversed by finding the original spell-caster.”
 
“You’re English?”
 
“Yeah. What’s it to you?”
 
Giles waved away Spike’s suspicion. “Oh, nothing.” He cleared his throat. “So what led you here then…?” He hesitated and looked at Buffy, waiting for her to provide a name.
 
“Spike. His name is Spike.” Buffy turned to the vampire and snatched the book from him, tossing it carelessly onto the table. “Stop interfering with Giles’ stuff and show him the coin thingy.”
 
Rolling his eyes, Spike took the talisman from his pocket and handed it to Giles, who grabbed a magnifying glass and peered closely at it.
 
“Had vague memories of being in Sunnydale a couple of years ago, then everything is blank for months. When it clears up again, I’m baggin’ it and killing my own kind. No soddin’ clue why, but I still am. It’s all very wrong, but it feels right, which in itself is utterly wrong. The mage made that thingamabob for me. It helped me remember a few things, including the slayer here, so I figured it was her fault. Had to fight a compulsion to stay away from Sunnyhell, but finally got here last night. Turns out she’s under the same spell—and now you too.”
 
“Fascinating, utterly fascinating,” Giles murmured absently, turning the talisman over to examine the reverse. “I must say this is some of the most elegantly skilled workmanship I have ever seen. I would be curious to know the craftsman.” He looked up at Spike. “And this artefact somehow helped you regain some memories?”
 
Impatient for Giles to get past the boring research and into the spell-breaking part of the evening, Buffy thrust her hand into Spike’s duster pocket and withdrew the card, holding it up for Giles to read. “You have to hold the coin thingy between your hands and read this out loud, Giles. You should get some flashes… kinda like movie trailers of what’s missing.”
 
“Ingenious…” Giles murmured as he silently read the spell. Then after clearing his throat, he recited it out loud.
 
Buffy anxiously chewed her bottom lip and shifted from foot to foot while Giles stood motionless, his eyes tight shut. His face paled, then he opened his eyes and immediately reached for the crossbow that was propped up against a chair. He levelled it at Spike, saying ominously quietly, “You stupid girl. Have you learned nothing? You brought a vampire into my home? Have youtotally taken leave of your senses?”
 
“Oy! Don’t talk to the slayer like that, you git!”
 
Buffy glanced at Spike in astonishment. He looked just as surprised as she was at his outburst.
 
After a second she recovered and protested, “Truce, Giles! We’ve got a truce!”
 
Giles’ tone was scathing. “And you honestly expect a soulless creature such as this to be honourable enough to respect a truce?” He gestured with the crossbow. “Do you know what this vampire did? He persuaded his consort to hypnotise me into thinking she was Jenny so that I would tell Angelus how to awaken Acathla and send us all to Hell.”
 
“Did I? Don’t remember that. Neat. Would you rather Angelus had tortured it out of you?” Spike drawled, “’Cos I’d wager he’d have enjoyed that a lot more than you. Seems to me, I prolly saved your ungrateful arse.”
 
Buffy raised her chin defiantly and declared, “Yes, Giles. I do expect Spike to stand by the truce. Like he did last time, when he saved your life and helped me stop Angelus.”
 
“Didn’t need to come here,” Spike pointed out sulkily. “Soon as I found out the slayer wasn’t the one who put the spell on me, I could’a left. Found another way. But no, discovered that the girl was in the same boat and decided to help.”
 
Buffy exchanged a speculative look with Giles when Spike scowled and muttered in a puzzled tone, “Dunno why I did that… ‘t’ain’t natural…”
 
Giles blinked and the crossbow wavered. “Do I remember you saying you weren’t hunting?”
 
“Yeah.” The vampire sounded almost embarrassed. “I’ve been baggin’ it for a couple of years now.”
 
“Do you think…?” Giles allowed the hand holding the crossbow to fall so that the weapon pointed at the floor and tentatively began again. “Is it possible that you have a soul?”
 
Spike reared back in disgust. “No I bloody haven’t! What would I want with a soddin’ soul?”
 
“Giles?” Buffy cried, raising her hands and stepping between the two men. “Focus! Can we just accept the fact that for whatever reason, Spike isn’t about to slaughter us both, and get back to the reason we’re here? The magical erasing of vital Buffy memories?”
 
Giles gave a resigned shrug and laid the crossbow down, taking his glasses off for a thorough polish. “As you say, Buffy. Perhaps that would be best, for now.” He took a seat at the table, surreptitiouslychecking that the crossbow was still within easy reach, and gestured for Buffy and Spike to join him.  

“Hmmm… How to begin? Perhaps if we all pool the new information that the talisman revealed to us and place it in context with what we were allowed to retain, we might be able to deduce what specific experiences the spell-caster wanted us all to forget? There must have been a trigger event. If we can figure out what that was, we’ll have a starting point. My watcher diaries should be able to help us there, assuming they haven’t been tampered with as well. Then, Spike, if you could itemise the reversal spells your mage friend has already tried…?”  

“Can do better than that.” Spike said. He pulled a chair out, reversed it and straddled it, resting his arms on the back. “After he’d eliminated everything else, Lanaro said that as far as he knew, the only thing it could be is what he called a Tabula Rasa spell. Designed to remove specific memories from the named subjects and trap them in a crystal. He said the only guaranteed way to restore our memories entirely is to find the witch or sorcerer responsible and smash the crystal.”

 
~*~*~*~

 
Buffy yawned and rubbed her aching forehead. “Guys?”
 
“Don’t care what you say. I’m tellin’ you I would want to have the glory of killing a slayer with my own two hands. I’d never get someone else to do it for me! Where’s the honour in that? The bragging rights come from a hand to hand battle, fists and fangs and sod all else, otherwise what’s the bleedin’ point?”
 
“Look, you’ve read it for yourself. This entry clearly tells us you contracted The Order of Taraka in an attempt to kill Buffy. Three assassins turned up and were summarily dealt with.”
 
Intent upon their argument, the two men hadn’t heard Buffy. She raised her voice. “Hey! Guys! Way off topic here!”
 
Silence fell at last and one pair of weary green eyes and one pair of stormy blue were turned upon her. “I don’t know about you two, but I’m all recapped out. We’ve agreed that the spell has stolen memories from all of us starting in September of ninety-seven, shortly before Parent Teacher Night. Right?”
 
Giles nodded. “So it would seem. And it’s becoming evident that the focus was for us to forget Spike’s existence and for him to forget ours. However the end point appears to differ for each of us. According to my diary, my memory returns to normal very quickly after the Acathla affair, while you two both continue to be affected all through the following summer.”
 
“Yeah, that summer is almost completely missing.” Spike agreed. “After Dru ran off…” He paused and then shook his head, murmuring thoughtfully, “Wish I could recall what she said about that.” 

He gave himself a little shake and his voice returned to normal. “Anyway, after she buggered off, I mostly come up empty until about October of ninety-eight. That’s a whole year that’s screwed.”
 
“Me too,” Buffy grimaced. “I dimly remember waitressing in L.A., as you know, Giles, but I’m all blurry with blanks until just after I came back home.”
 
Giles let out a quiet groan as he straightened his back, and took his glasses off to pinch the bridge of his nose. “Very good. I think that’s probably as far as we can get tonight… and besides, I need to shower and have something to eat before I leave for the shop. I’ll see if the books there contain any mention of this Tabula Rasa spell.”
 
“Luckily I have no classes today, but I do need to spend some time at home before work…” Buffy added.
 
Spike gestured towards the brightly lit window and put in cheerfully, “Sun’s up, so I’m stuck here for the day.”
 
Giles glared at Spike. “Do you honestly expect me to leave you at large in my home in my absence?”
 
Spike smirked. “Think I might do evil things to your vinyl collection? ‘Course I am evil, so I’d probably play them all at full volume to annoy the neighbours and get you evicted. I could scratch any records that I don’t like. I might even go rifling through your porn collection… and make you an apple pie bed, and… and… put salt in the sugar bowl and sugar in the salt cellar.”
 
Giles refused to be amused. “The fact remains that I do not trust you here alone.” He turned to Buffy. “You’ll have to stay here with him, Buffy. Keep an eye on him.”
 
 
 
<<     >>