Title: Soulless, Evil Things
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Rating: PG-13 (language, violence)
Disclaimer: Joss is the genius behind these characters; I am but a lowly follower. I make no money from any of this, so please don't sue me. Some dialogue was cribbed directly from Episode 88 "Into the Woods," written by Marti Noxon.
Written for: Inspired by You Got the Stones Challenge #44, which I will outline at the end of the fic.
Notes: Takes place sometime after S5's "Shadow" and goes AU from there. Many heartfelt thanks to HonorH, Illmantrim the Wanderer, Aeneas, Alliterator, and AppomattoxCO for being sounding boards and letting me bounce stuff off them. I did not want to make Riley the bad guy in this fic, but when it went that way in spite of my best efforts, they gave me a way to do it without making it a "BashFic." You guys rock!

---

Chapter 1: Decision
"So, Jung divided the unconscious into the collective and the personal," Riley explained. He and Buffy were patrolling together for once, and Buffy was taking the opportunity to get some help with her Psychology homework. "He--"
"What's that?" Buffy pointed to a slowly-moving, moaning lump under a tree. They separated a bit and approached it cautiously, weapons ready. Buffy relaxed when she recognized it. "Spike." Her eyes widened in concern as she took in his condition. Not so much concern for him, but worry about what could damage him, of all vampires, that much. Cuts and bruises covered his face, and blood matted his hair. "Riley, keep watch. Whatever did this might still be around. Spike?" She turned him over as gently as she could. "What did this?"

"Buffy," he whispered. "You came...knew you would..." His eyes rolled back, and he fainted.

"Oh, God. Riley? We need to get him someplace safe so he can heal and tell us what did this to him. If there's a new Big Bad in town, I need to know about it, and soon."

"Isn't his crypt right over there?"

"Yeah. Go get the door for me, 'kay?" She effortlessly picked Spike up and began carrying him that way.

"What a woman," Riley said, admiration in his voice. He loped ahead and burst through the door of Spike's crypt, surprising Harmony.

"Hey! Rude much? Don't you knock? People, like, live here, you know." She gasped when Buffy followed Riley in. "Blondie Bear? What did you do to him?" Harmony shouted, jumping to a logical conclusion.

"It wasn't us." Buffy laid Spike on the sarcophagus. "Have you heard anything about a new player in town?"

Harm sniffled a little while Buffy and Riley took Spike's duster off and cut his blood-soaked T- shirt away. "No, nothing. But he tends to protect me from nasties. Oh my God ."

Spike's entire torso was one big bruise, from below his collarbones all the way down to his jeans. Several ribs were obviously, horribly, broken, and five deep claw marks sliced diagonally downward from his left shoulder to his right hip. "Jeez," Riley said. "I mean, I don't like the guy, but I wouldn't wish this on him."

Buffy was shaken too. "Good thing he has vampire healing," she said, voice trembling a little. "Can you take care of him, Harmony? He should recover in a couple of days, and we need to know what did this. In the meantime, I'll call a Scooby meeting."

###
The Scooby meeting didn't produce anything, since Buffy and Riley couldn't tell them what they were dealing with. After giving the group a head's-up that a new Big Bad had apparently hit Sunnydale (again), Buffy did another sweep through Spike's graveyard, but found nothing.

The following night, she made the crypt her first stop. Harmony's tear-streaked face portended bad news. "He-he won't wake up. And I think he's w-worse, not better," she said between hiccuping sobs, clutching a plush unicorn.

Buffy could see for herself that Harmony was right. The bruises, which had been dark purple the day before, had turned black, and the claw wounds, rather than healing, had grown deeper and wider. Spike also seemed delirious, shaking his head back and forth and muttering. "'s ridiculous. Don't love her. Couldn't possibly..." He trailed off and quieted.

"Have you been able to make any sense of what he's been saying?"

"No, not really," Harmony sniffled. "He's mentioned Dru a couple of times. And you. Not me though." She sounded a little bitter about that.

Buffy patted her arm awkwardly. "We'll start with the research right away. Can't be too many beasties out there that can do this to a vampire. You might want to lock the door if you can. Do you have the number for the Magic Box?"

"Ew, that place that sells all those smelly weeds and mummy hands and stuff? No."

Buffy searched her pockets and came up with a business card. "If he wakes up, or there's any change, call and let us know, okay? It's important, Harmony." She looked down at Spike, who had resumed his muttering and thrashing. "See if you can get some blood into him. That might help. I'm going to go tell Giles and Willow about this."

Harmony padlocked the door after Buffy left and sat beside Spike, holding his hand and crying. She hadn't even been this scared at the Mayor's Ascension, and she'd died then. Spike was all she had, and she was terrified of losing him. "Please, Blondie Bear," she whispered. "Come back to me."

Spike couldn't hear her. Lost in a haze of madness and mist, he wandered through his own mind with Drusilla at his side. "Come, my Spike. We have much to do. Must stop the bad Slayer from guddling about in your head so. And fix what the men in white broke."

She led him upwards. They passed the Chaos Demon from South America, which raised its glass at them, then morphed into Angel, wearing a pair of novelty Christmas antlers. "I dunno, Spike," Angel said. "Maybe you should be wearing these, all things considered." He held them out, but Dru escorted him past without stopping.

Willow stepped out from behind a tree. To Spike's astonishment, she pulled a Hershey bar from her ear. "Magic," she explained. "But magic won't help you. It's always blood. Screaming inside you to work its will. Makes you other than dead." She began to eat the chocolate. "Blood is life."

Dru pulled him onwards, but he watched Willow over his shoulder until she was out of sight in the fog. They stopped at what Spike felt was the top of the incline. Dru hummed to herself for a minute, then recited, "Jack and Jill went up the hill, to fetch a pail of water." She gave Spike a violent shove. As he tumbled down the slope, he heard her faint voice. "Jack fell down and broke his crown..." Then everything went black.

Back in the crypt, he abruptly sat straight up, eyes open wide, and clutched his head. "Ow! Bloody hell!" He crashed back and lay still.

Harmony waited to see if he'd move again. He didn't, so she left his side momentarily to get herself some sustenance from the refrigerator. She figured it was going to be a long day.

###
"I think I've got it," Willow said.

They sat around the big table in the Magic Box, books scattered all over. Xander and Anya were sharing one book and holding hands, Buffy and Riley sat across from them with another, while Willow and Giles had a book apiece.

"An Elaphip'antera demon." She frowned. "Oh. This is bad. Really bad."

"Worse than the apocalypses we've dealt with before?" Buffy raised an eyebrow.

"Bad for Spike, I mean," Willow clarified. "If he doesn't get...oh." She closed her mouth with a snap.

"What, Will?" Xander asked, looking at the book...which was in a language he couldn't read. "Ew, ugh." The demon looked like an unearthly cross between a centipede, a cobra, and a jaguar, with huge fangs and claws and a pair of curly horns around its ears.

Willow looked over at Buffy, uncomfortable. "I just remember how it went the last time you had to do that, and, and, it wasn't good, and so, so, I don't think you'd want to do it again, considering how y-you don't even like him."

Comprehension dawned on Buffy's, Xander's, and Giles' faces at the same time. Anya and Riley still looked blank. "Someone wanna fill me in?" Riley said.

"Slayer blood," Buffy whispered. "He needs my blood, or he'll die."

"No. Absolutely not." Riley's voice was filled with concern. "You can't, Buffy."

"How long has he got, Willow?" Buffy asked softly.

"He got attacked yesterday? Maybe another day. He'll just get worse and worse, and then he'll poof."

"I wondered how Dead Boy Junior would bite it," said Xander. "I always thought you'd be the one to finally bring him down, Buff."

"Well...if I don't give him my blood--I will be the one who kills him."

Buffy wasn't sure how she felt about that.

###
She stopped at the crypt on her way back to her house. Observing with satisfaction that the door was indeed locked, she pounded on it. After verifying who it was, Harmony let her in.

"Any change?"

"I think he's a little worse." They walked over to him, and Buffy noted that Harmony was wrong. Spike was a lot worse.

He was muttering and shaking his head again. "Never asked for this. Not right nor proper. Bugger all..."

Harmony started sniffling again, reaching for a glass of... "Harmony? What is that?"

"It's a blood milkshake. Comfort food." She sucked the red liquid up through a straw. "Do you want one? I could--" Buffy made a face, and Harm hastily said, "Never mind. Did you guys find anything out?"

"We're still looking," Buffy evaded. "Has he said anything that might help?"

"No. Just babbling." A big tear slipped down Harmony's cheek. "Are you going to be able to help him? 'Cause, I know none of you like him much and the only reason you haven't staked him before now is because of the chip, and because he gives you information."

"We're working on it, Harm. Honest."

"Hurry. Please."

###
"...so, I'm really torn," Buffy said to Joyce. Her mother had made them hot chocolate, and they sat next to each other on the couch in the living room. "On the one hand, soulless evil vampire who would start killing again if he ever got that chip out of his head. On the other, he's helped us--and you like him, which counts for something."

"Oh, honey." Joyce took her hand. "What a hard decision you've had dropped in your lap."

Buffy took a deep breath. "And if I do...help him, the others won't understand. Riley would have a fit."

"You can't be concerned about what the others would think, if that would interfere with what's right."

"But what if they're right? What if they disapprove because helping Spike is wrong? Soulless, evil thing, remember?"

"If helping Spike was inherently wrong, I don't think this would be that hard a choice." Joyce took a sip of chocolate. "How long until you have to decide for sure?"

"Tomorrow." Buffy took a deep breath and stood up. "I guess I'll sleep on it."

Joyce smiled up at her. "I know you'll do the right thing."

Her mom's faith in her good sense was nice, Buffy thought as she climbed the stairs to her room. She just hoped it wasn't misplaced. She sat on her bed and picked Mr. Gordo up, looking into his inanimate eyes for answers that wouldn't come. She lay down and cuddled the stuffed pig to her chest; before she knew it, she'd fallen asleep.

###
She found herself walking across a foggy moor. Off in the distance stood a bleached-blond figure in a black duster, with his back to her, and a bloodstain in his hair. She strode up to him and whacked his shoulder. "Spike, what are you doing in my dream?"

"Your dream? Isn't it mine?" he countered, giving her that snarky grin that infuriated her so much. "I'll play the Red King, if you'll play Alice."

"Whatever, Spike." Buffy had the uncomfortable feeling that this was a Slayer dream. "What happened to your head?"

"Dru pushed me down a hill. Hit it on something."

"Dru? She's here too?"

"Haven't seen her since she gave me that shove. There's some bald bloke wandering about with cheese on his head, though. Don't know what that's all about."

"So..." Buffy twisted her hands together, a little lost. "What happens next?"

"Dunno, pet." There was that grin again. "Thought this was your dream."

She crossed her arms over her chest. "Well, I'm tired of waiting for something to happen. Hey!" she yelled. "Don't have all day here. If this is a Slayer dream, then hurry up with the message already."

As if in answer to her demand, Glory, clad in a revealing red mini-dress, strutted out of the gloom. "I can't believe you're actually considering letting that--" she pointed at Spike. "--live. This is your opportunity to get rid of him, once and for all. And all you have to do is...nothing."

"And after the severe ass-kicking you gave me, I should listen to you because...? Not to mention the fact that you're, you know, evil. I kinda frown on that."

"Your dream, Slayer. I'm just the messenger." Glory disappeared.

"Well, that was pleasant," remarked Spike. "Nothing like having one mortal enemy give you advice about another mortal enemy."

"Cryptic enough?" Buffy complained. "Could the stupid Powers be more vague? Gah." She heard Spike grunt in pain. "Spike? What's wrong?"

"Buffy...I lo--" Before her horrified gaze, he burst into dust.

Gasping, Buffy woke from the nightmare. Resting her chin on Mr. Gordo's head, she reflected that now she was more confused than ever. Why had she been so appalled when Spike had dusted? She didn't like him, right?

Right?

After she spent the rest of the night restlessly tossing and turning, Buffy made her choice and got out of bed. If Glory wanted Spike dead, then that was a good enough reason to keep him alive. She'd tell the others after the fact. Better to ask forgiveness than permission...especially knowing how they'd react.



document.write('');

A/N: This chapter cribs a snippet of dialogue directly from "Into the Woods," written by Marti Noxon. Many thanks to my reviewers!


Author's Notes: Whoa, thanks for the reviews! For those wondering, this is complete and formatted on my hard drive, so you don't have to worry about getting attached to a WIP and being left hanging. To Squirly4spike, no, we're not going to get a "nice to Spike" Buffy, because that would be out of character for her in Season 5, but we are going to get a "less mean to Spike" Buffy, if that will suffice for you.

---

 

Chapter 2: Action
"Get out," she said to Harmony, without preamble.

"But, what, I don't..."

"Go, Harmony. I don't need you in here as a distraction for what I have to do. Plus, I don't trust you. Don't make me stake you...because I will."

"Fine!" Harmony threw up her hands. "Just be that way. Jeez, guess you woke up on the underside of the mattress this morning, huh?"

At Buffy's glare, she huffed and went downstairs, presumably to spend her day in the sewers. Buffy took a deep breath and swung herself gracefully up onto the sarcophagus, sitting cross-legged next to the still-comatose Spike. "I hope you appreciate this," she muttered. She took a paring knife out of her belt, grimaced, and stabbed herself in the wrist. No vampire suckage from her neck this time. That had been all kinds of bad, and she didn't want a repeat of the experience.

Blood welled up from the wound, and she placed her wrist over Spike's mouth, glad that his vampiric reflexes were still working. As he drank the life-giving liquid, his wounds began closing, and the bruises faded from black to purple to gone . The broken bones knit, visibly. It was almost magical. No, Buffy corrected herself--it was magical. She was grateful for the small favor of not needing to be drained to unconsciousness for this to work.

When he seemed almost totally healed, she took her wrist away. "Spike?"

His eyelids fluttered, and he licked his lips. "Oh...that was...bloody lovely..." His eyes snapped open. "Slayer?" He rolled off the cement casket to his feet, his posture and expression wary. "What in sodding hell is going on?"

"Well, that's a long story..."

When she got to the part about her dream, Spike stopped her. "I was there for that." He tightened his lips apprehensively. "Before I dusted, did I say anything?"

Buffy considered. "You got cut off in the middle of a word. Why?"

"No reason." His shifty eyes told her otherwise, and she determined to pursue it. Later.

"This doesn't mean I like you, or that we're friends, or anything."

"Oh, heavens no. God forbid the Slayer soil her lily-white hands by associatin' with the likes of me. Not that I'm not grateful and all." And just like that, they were back to throwing barbs at each other. He picked up his duster and hunted through the pockets for his cigarettes. "What're you gonna tell all your little Scooby friends? Riley in particular? Captain Cardboard don't strike me as the type to approve of you feedin' yourself to a vampire. Least of all me."

"I don't need permission from them to do what's right," she snapped.

He tilted his head and gave her a contemplative look. "Since when is helping me stay non-dusty 'right'? I mean, I know you keep me around because of my devilish good looks and because I give you information...but I never thought I'd hear you say that ."

She glanced away from him. "It just was, okay?" Her voice was low; he barely heard her. "If anyone's going to dust you, it's going to be me. Just...don't give me a reason to do that, all right?"

"Sure, Slayer. Whatever you say."

###
Buffy leaned against the wall in the Magic Box that night, arms crossed defensively over her chest. Spike skulked in a corner, hands in his pockets and a cigarette in his mouth. Willow and Tara looked sympathetic, but Giles, Xander, and Riley glowered furiously at her.

"I cannot believe you took such a terrible chance--again," Giles began.

"Especially for...him." Riley gestured in Spike's direction.

Spike yanked the cigarette from his lips and started to say something, but Buffy silenced him with a look. "Like I have to explain myself to you!" she said. "I had a Slayer dream, okay?"

"A Slayer dream. That told you to save Spike." Riley wasn't buying it.

"In a manner of speaking. You got a problem with that, Finn?"

"Yeah, Buffy." He slammed his hands down on the table and stood up. "I got a big problem with that. What the hell is it with you and letting vampires bite you? You're supposed to kill them, but it seems like every time I turn around, you're letting them live instead. Or actively saving their lives." His expression changed from outrage to hurt, tinged with fear. "One of these days you'll let it go too far, and then where will we all be?"

"Riley." Buffy stepped up to him and hugged him. Reluctantly, stiffly, he hugged her back. "I know you worry about me. But Spike can't hurt anyone, least of all me. You all know that."

Willow frowned a little. "Yeah, about that...why didn't his chip fire when he bit you? I'd think that Spike should have one heck of a migraine right now."

Buffy rubbed at the bandage around her wrist. "He didn't exactly bite me."

"Here, now." Spike stepped forward, tossing his cigarette away. "I'm not going to let this go on any longer. You lot let her alone. She did what she thought was proper, and you got no bloody business second-guessing her like you're doing."

Riley disentangled himself from Buffy and walked over to Spike, standing over him threateningly. "Shut up. If it wasn't for Buffy protecting you all this time, I would have dusted you long ago."

"I'd like to see you sodding try it," Spike answered, not intimidated in the least.

Riley released his pent-up stress in a massive punch to Spike's jaw. The vampire was rocked slightly by the blow, but a sardonic smile crossed his lips as he rubbed his chin. "That all you got, Soldier Boy?" He cocked his fist and slammed it into Riley's nose, knocking him back into a bookcase. Then he suddenly remembered that he shouldn't do that and grabbed his head, ready for the chip to fire.

But it didn't. And as comprehension dawned on everyone in the room, Spike turned around and ran out of the store.

###
"Sodding. Bloody. Hell." Spike was nearly giddy. How had the chip stopped working? Must have had something to do with the demon venom. Of course, now Buffy would feel obligated to stake him, since he was essentially unleashed. That uncomfortable fact put a damper on his enthusiasm--and was the reason he was currently hiding as far from his crypt as he could, knowing that the Slayer would look for him there first.

So. Now what? No way would Buffy give him a chance to prove that he could be good. And did he want to be good? Why? He was a vampire. He ate people for a living.

But...he was honest enough to admit to himself that, deep down in the dark recesses of his heart, he loved the Slayer. And going back to killing humans would hurt her--which he didn't want to do.

Crap. Rock, meet hard place.

###
Buffy sat in a corner in the training room, her forehead resting on her bent knees. The litany kept repeating in her mind. Spike's chip had stopped working. Spike's chip had stopped working.

That meant she had to kill him. She'd just saved him, and now she had to stake him. It seemed like a terrible waste, and she began doubting herself, wondering if she'd misinterpreted her dream. Maybe Glory was a messenger from the Powers, and maybe they'd wanted her to take the directive literally.

Oh, God. She didn't want to kill him. He was an ally. He'd been loyal to her, in his own way. How could she possibly turn her back on that? Sure, soulless, evil thing...only he wasn't, not really. He didn't have to help her on patrol. He could have done any of a number of things to make her life harder, and he hadn't.

After Spike had bolted, Buffy had retreated to the training room, unwilling to deal with the judgement she knew the Scoobies would bring down on her head. Xander and Riley had started loading for bear, while Willow and Tara prepared the ingredients for a locator spell.

Dammit. Buffy raised her head, resolve face on. She hadn't saved Spike just to have him killed right away. She needed to find him before the others did.

###
She stopped at Willy's first, but no one there had seen him, so she decided to go methodically through the cemeteries of Sunnydale. She knew he wasn't dumb enough to go back to his crypt, so she decided to start at the graveyard farthest away from his home and work her way towards it.

Xander and Riley wouldn't be far behind; they would hit the streets as soon as Willow and Tara finished the locator spell. She needed to find Spike, and fast. She breathed a sigh of relief when what she called her "Spidey sense" started tingling--and it was the particular tingle she got when Spike was around.

"I know you're here, Spike."

He stepped out from behind a mausoleum. "What of it? Come to dust me? We'll have a fine old dance before you do, I can tell you that much."

She sighed. "No. I'm not going to stake you unless you give me a reason to."

Head tilt. "You're willin' to take the chance that I'll still not eat humans, now that sodding piece of plastic's quit working? Why?"

"I don't know, okay? But if Glory wants you dead, I have reason enough to keep you around." She pointed a warning finger at him. "As long as you stay on an animal blood diet and get your violence on with demons instead of people."

"Tchah. People. No bloody challenge to beating up humans." He curled his tongue behind his front teeth. "'Cept you, that is. Reckon we can do a spot of sparring now and then?"

"I'm--"

"Look out!"

He charged past Buffy, attempting to distract something behind her. Horrified, she spun around and watched as a nightmarish creature with many legs, sharp teeth, and huge claws swatted Spike across the grass. He fetched up against a tombstone, unconscious and bleeding. The demon was at least nine feet tall, and it stood over her and roared in triumph.

Belatedly, she remembered that she'd run out of the Magic Box with no weapons.

Well, hell. She was the Slayer. She was a weapon. Nothing in Willow's book had said that these things were venomous to humans, so she just needed to avoid being eaten by it. She delivered a spinning kick to where its solar plexus would have been, knocking it back a few feet, and followed up with a backhanded punch to its jaw when it struck down at her.

It reared back, roaring in pain this time, and tried to bite her again. She avoided it by sliding sideways, then leaped. Climbing up its back, she wrapped her legs around its shoulders, grabbed a horn in each hand, and wrenched its head sideways. With a grunt, it collapsed and lay still, its neck broken.

"Spike?" She jumped down and ran over to him. Ohshitohshitohshit , she thought. Not again...

Yes, again. It had caught him across the face this time, and his cheekbone was laid bare, glistening white in the moonlight. She reached out to touch it, but pulled back. Steeling her resolve, she stripped the bandage from her wrist. She knew what she had to do.

###
Xander and Riley burst out of the woods, weapons raised to strike. They skidded to a stop, appalled at the tableau before them. Buffy sat on the ground, Spike's head in her lap, his lips fastened to her wrist.

"Buffy..." Riley felt like he'd been clobbered in the gut. Intellectually, he knew she'd done this once already, but to see it right there in front of him? It was too much for his wounded psyche to bear. He dropped his battleaxe, turned, and ran into the night.

He pounded along until his legs couldn't hold him up anymore, and fell to his knees in an alley in town, gasping. She was lost to him. He'd known for a long time that she was holding back, that they'd missed a connection somewhere along the way, but he'd never expected to have that fact thrown at him so blatantly.

Raising his head, he looked around to see where he was. His subconscious must have led him here, he thought. He opened the door into the building and walked in. The shadowy goings-on in this place were fairly well-known to him, and he walked up the stairs with the practiced ease of someone who'd been here before, ignoring the vamps feeding from their willing victims.

The dark-haired vampiress was in the room with the bathtub, just as he'd known she would be. Stripping off his shirt, he threw a twenty-dollar bill at her. "Make me forget."

###
Drusilla pouted and sighed. "No longer my Dark Knight. You've put a white hat on now and I'll never get you back. Your burning baby fish have gone out, and you're the Slayer's wether, with a bell on your neck, and bound round the heart by silver chains." She gazed at him sorrowfully. "I've failed you, my sweet William."

Dru faded out, while the real world faded in. He could hear Buffy's voice, as if from a long distance away.

"Don't say it," she said. To whom? He didn't know. "I don't even want to hear anything at all you have to say right now." Pause. "He saved my life, Xander. I'm not walking away from that."

Oh. The whelp. Mr. I'm Dating an Ex-Demon, But No One Else Better. Spike opened his eyes, and Buffy took her wrist away and gave him a little smile. He smiled back, enjoying the sensation of his head in her lap and her blood coursing through his body. He thought maybe he'd lie here for awhile--at least until Buffy noticed that he was milking this for all it was worth and punched him in the nose.

She looked up at Xander. "Well?" she challenged.

He spread his hands and squatted down. "Your decision, Buff. I'll respect it for now; I just hope you don't regret it later. Say, when he's snacking on all your friends." Screw you, Harris, Spike didn't say.

Buffy's lips tightened. "Riley. I should go after him." She pushed at Spike's shoulder, and he reluctantly sat up. "You two? Play nice."

###
The problem with going after Riley, Buffy grumbled to herself two hours later, was that he apparently didn't want to be found. She'd searched the many graveyards of Sunnydale with no luck, thinking maybe he'd gone patrolling alone to blow off some steam, but he seemed to have disappeared.

She could understand why he'd been disturbed. She was a little weirded out herself, after all. Saving Spike was the last thing she'd ever imagined doing--and she'd just done it twice in two days, in a pretty intimate way, too. So, yeah, major wiggins. But they needed to talk, and they couldn't do that if he ran away every time the going got tough.

Buffy made a frustrated noise. She had class in the morning. She couldn't spend all night looking for him. He'd either turn up, or he'd vanish completely. It was up to him. If he couldn't handle being the boyfriend of the Slayer, then maybe she was better off without him.

Her breath hitched in her chest at the thought. She didn't want to lose him. He was solid, comfortable, an anchor in a wobbly world. Safe. Normal. Giving that up would be like being cast adrift.

On the other hand, she had way too much on her mind right now to deal with Riley's insecurities. Her mother's illness and Glory, not to mention school and Slaying. So, if he turned up again, they'd deal. If he didn't...

Then she'd deal by herself. She'd have to.

###
"Harder," Riley gritted. The vamp whore ground her teeth deeper into his forearm, increasing the suction and growling a little.

But it wasn't helping. The image of Spike's lips on Buffy's wrist was burned into his memory, and no amount of whatever this was seemed to be able to erase it.

Well then. Time to ramp it up a little. "Stop." Feral yellow eyes gazed up at him, and fangs worked their way loose. He tilted his head a little, exposing his throat. "There. Bite me there."

"Dangerous."

"I don't care. What am I paying you for, anyway?" He laughed bitterly. "Here for the thrill, right?"

"Okay." She leaned over him and sank her canines into his neck, drinking the spurting blood down in gulps, while he tangled his hand in her hair and held her there.

Oh...much better. Yeah...getting...a bit...woozy...Should tell her...enough...But, no...it will never...be enough...

His body was sending all sorts of alarms to his brain, but his brain wasn't listening. His heart sped up in a panicked attempt to keep pace with the blood loss, adrenaline pumping into his veins and making the blood all the sweeter for the vampiress. His mind had zoned out into its own universe--but it wasn't long before dizziness slid into an unconsciousness that he wouldn't recover from.

The hand on the back of her head relaxed and fell away, and she realized that she had gone too far. This was one that wouldn't wake up again. Shit. Well, one way to fix that.

She sliced a sharp fingernail across her wrist and held it over her client's mouth.

---

A/N: In case anyone's wondering about Dru's reference to a "wether," it's a castrated male sheep.
 

---

Chapter 3: Consequences
Spike broke off his staring contest with Harris and headed back to his crypt. He was sure Harmony was frantic by now; he hadn't seen her since Buffy had fed herself to him.
 

His mind still boggled. All right, Glory had said she wanted him dead. But for Buffy to save him, in the way she did--and then not to stake him out of hand when she knew the chip wasn't working? Defending him? Was she bloody possessed?

That question stopped him in his tracks. Was she? Why else would she be nice to him? Relatively nice, anyway. But no. He'd been in the dream. She had a practical reason for keeping him around. And that's what it was, a practical reason. Nothing more. She wasn't even throwing him a bone, since she didn't know he was looking for one.

He stopped outside his crypt and banged his head against the wall a couple of times. What a pathetic poof he'd turned into. Bloody hell. He opened the door and walked in.

"Blondie Bear!" Harmony squealed, running across the room and throwing herself into his arms. "I was so worried!"

"Yeah, Harm, I know." He patted her absently on the back. His chip had fried. He could go hunting with her--

No. Bad thoughts, those were. Harmony was a source of temptation, pulling him back toward his old life of killing, maiming, and terror. He needed to decide, right now, where his priorities lay. If he loved Buffy, then he needed to prove to her that he was worthy of love in return. Not bloody well "beneath her."

He pulled away from Harmony and took a deep breath. "Harmony...I need you to go."

"What? Why?"

The hurt on her face steeled his resolve; this would only be more difficult later. And there was no easy way to do this. "I don't love you. This isn't going anywhere, and it's time for me to move on."

Her eyes narrowed. "There's someone else, isn't there? Oh. Migod. You've been, like, cheating on me!"

He spread his hands. "No, pet, it's not like that at all..."

"Who is it?" she demanded. He could see her wheels turning, and a "click" when realization dawned. "It's Buffy, isn't it? You freak ! She is so going to stake you when she finds out that you like her. I mean, God, Spike, I flunked Algebra twice, but even I know that vampire plus Slayer equals bad news." She curled her lip. "Fine! You want to go panting after the Slayer like some kind of sick puppy, you just go right ahead. Just don't come crawling back to me when she hands you your head on a platter." She stomped over to the door. "I'll come back for my stuff when you're not around. Ugh. I can't even stand to look at you right now." The door slammed emphatically behind her.

Spike sat down in his chair, putting his head in his hands. "That went well."

###
"I haven't seen Riley since last night," Buffy told Willow at lunch the next day. "He didn't show up in class today, either. I'm getting worried about him."

"Well, he had a big shock, Buffy. You can't just expect him to act like nothing happened."

"I don't expect that at all. But it would help to talk it out," Buffy said grouchily. "It's not like him to just run away like this."

"Tell you what. If he hasn't shown up by tomorrow, I'll do a locator spell. But I'll bet he's just lying low and thinking about what he wants to say."

"I hope so." Buffy poked at her salad, not really hungry. "Thanks, Will."

"Hey, what are best friends for?"

###
Spike prowled the streets that night, looking for trouble. He spotted a familiar figure skulking in an alley, in a decidedly unfamiliar manner. His eyebrows crawled up his forehead when he saw that figure meet up with a female vampire he knew and they melted into the back of the alley together. He followed at a distance, and it didn't really surprise him when they walked through a door into a notorious warehouse together.

Well. Wasn't this an interesting turn of events? He had a sensation of unseemly glee as he realized what it meant, and how the Slayer would react when she found out.

Spike was a little nervous when he slipped into the inner sanctum of Buffy's bedroom. "Buffy, wake up." He wasn't brave--or stupid--enough to actually walk over and touch her.

She sat up and rubbed her eyes, clutching the sheet to herself. "Spike? What in hell are you doing here? Every time you show up like this, you risk all of your parts, you know that?"

He sighed. "I wouldn't be here if I didn't have a good reason. As usual, I'm here to help you, and I--" He suddenly realized something. "Are you naked under there?"

She rolled her eyes and adjusted the sheet. "Get out."

He shook himself mentally. This wasn't the time. "No, I'm serious. I mean, not about the naked part, I mean..." Oh, the hell with it. He craned his neck trying to look under the blankets.

"Get out or I'll drop you out head first."

Bad Spike. Stop that. "I wanna show you something."

"This better be good, Spike," Buffy said a few minutes later as he led her through the alley.

"Don't know that I'd put it in exactly those terms, but you need to see this." He pushed the door open and they entered together. Buffy looked around in the candle-lit dimness, noting the trash, mattresses, and bathtubs scattered around the room--and the vampires sucking on willing victims.

"What...?" she started.

"Don't stop, Slayer. This isn't what we're here for." His keen eyes had seen that the couple he was searching for wasn't on this level, so he headed towards some stairs on the other side of the floor, Buffy in tow.

It was gloomier up there, and just as messy. Spike cocked his head and gave a snort of satisfaction as his nose told him what he wanted to know. He pushed a door open and silently invited the Slayer to step through ahead of him.

She inhaled sharply. "Riley?"

Spike looked over her shoulder to see the former Captain Cardboard and his vampire mate leaning over a girl, his teeth sunk in her right arm, the vampiress' fangs in her left. Startled, Riley looked up when he heard Buffy's voice, not releasing the arm from his mouth. Yellow eyes glowed under a ridged forehead, and he growled at her.

Buffy stood frozen for one interminable second--then turned, shoved past Spike, and ran out. Riley shrugged and went back to his meal.

Might be a bad idea to leave the Slayer alone right now. She'd just had a rather nasty shock. Spike followed her, adroitly avoiding a pair of guards moving to intercept him. Catching up with her a few blocks away, he put his hand on her shoulder to stop her.

Bad move. She turned around and hit him as hard as she could, sending him flying. "Don't touch me."

He picked himself up. "Buffy..."

"Shut up! Just--shut up! You have no idea how close I am to killing you right now." She leaned against the wall of the shop and slid down to a sitting position. "Oh, God. Riley..." She raised her tear-streaked face to look at Spike. "Why?"

He knelt next to her, careful to keep his distance. "I dunno, pet. Sometimes people do daft things when their lives ain't just peaches and cream. Looks like he was visiting a vamp whore and it got a bit out of hand."

"Whore? He was paying ...Oh my God . How does something like this go on in my town and I don't know about it?" She stared at him. "Did you ever--"

"Oh, bloody hell, no! What do you take me for?" he said indignantly.

"A soulless, evil, thing," she answered without heat. She rested her forehead on her bent knees, a sob catching in her chest. "And now Riley's one too...What am I going to tell the others?"

"Not to put too fine a point on it, but you also need to decide exactly what you're going to do about this. I know you've had a vampire boyfriend before, but Angel had a soul to keep him in line. They don't just hand those out as the toy surprise in a Happy Meal, you know."

She lifted her head, hope shining on her face. "Willow could give him one. She knows how."

###
She called an emergency meeting at the Magic Box. The Scoobies sat around the table in various states of shock. Anya sat in Xander's lap, while he held her a little tighter than was strictly necessary. Willow and Tara sat very close together, and Giles kept cleaning his glasses. Spike took up his customary spot, leaning against a pillar with his arms crossed over his chest.

"So, what do you guys think?" Buffy asked. "Can it be done?"

Giles put his glasses back on. "I'm not really sure it's such a good idea, Buffy. Remember that the ensouling spell is a vengeance curse, not a blessing...and depriving him of the opportunity to achieve happiness isn't necessarily the most compassionate act in the world. The curse might have even been specific to Angel; I'm not sure it'll work on another vampire." He took his glasses off and polished them some more. "As much as I liked Riley, it might be kindest to just stake him."

Spike straightened and raised his hand. "I'm in."

"Shut up, Spike," said several voices, and he leaned back again with a disgruntled expression.

"Will?" Buffy pleaded.

"I can do it," Willow said with confidence. "It's the first spell I ever did; I'm pretty sure I can duplicate it."

Tara spoke up timidly. "Wouldn't it be better to do some research first? I think Mr. Giles is right. This is a pretty unknown quantity."

"What about the happiness clause?" Anya said. "Would you want him back if you couldn't have sex with him?"

"Ahn--" Xander started.

"What? Are you saying that if I got vamped, you'd curse me with a soul and a proviso that I couldn't ever have sex again? That would be crueler than dusting me. I mean, Vengeance Demon here. I know cruel."

"Guys." Buffy's voice was desperate and sad. "It's Riley. As far as I know, he hasn't killed anyone yet. We can't just stake him out of hand."

"I can," Spike said.

"Shut up, Spike," replied the same chorus of voices as before.

"I'll get the ingredients together while they hit the books," Willow said, taking Buffy's hand. "If we can do it, we will, Buffy."

###
The vampire bordello was a hive of activity as the inhabitants cleared out whatever personal belongings they had. The Slayer knew of their existence; now they had to move. "Do you know where we're headed?" Riley asked Marissa.

"Not yet," his Sire replied. "They haven't told me."

They joined the crowd heading for the exit, but were stopped by a burly vampire with a baseball bat. "Where do you two think you're going?"

"Um..." Marissa looked uncomfortable and a little hunted. "Wherever the new setup is?"

"You're the ones that brought the Slayer down on our heads. No way are you coming with us." He tapped the bat into his hand menacingly.

"But where will we go?"

"That's not my concern. If you follow us, we'll kill you. Got me?"

She lowered her eyes. "Yeah."

She and Riley stood aside as the other vamps filed out. When they had all left, Riley slammed his fist into the wall, cursing. "The Slayer, huh?" His yellow eyes glittered in the candlelight. "Well, maybe they'll change their minds when I bring them her head."

Marissa embraced him, stroking his back soothingly and resting her head on his chest. She hadn't meant to take things this far with him, but since she had, she was happy about it. He was much smarter than most of her clients, and he filled a need in her that she had been unaware of before she had turned him. "Taking on the Slayer's not safe. You're not nearly strong enough to do that yet."

"No? Then we go hunting tonight." He bared his teeth. "Dangerous, rough, and occasionally bumpy in the forehead region? I'll show her how dark I can be."

###
"Buffy, luv, coming back here isn't the best notion you've ever had."

"Don't call me that. And I can't just sit around and wait for them to figure out the ensoulment spell." She looked around the deserted warehouse. "Looks like they all left anyway." Some candles remained lit, and her expression hardened. "Well, let's make sure they don't come back." She strode through the room and systematically knocked the candles over, setting the trash scattered throughout the place on fire.

Spike, a little more sensitive to flames than she was, stationed himself by the door. As the warehouse turned into a conflagration behind her, she walked calmly past him--"Coming, Spike?"--and out into the alley.

"Now, see, that was just a really bad idea." Riley's voice was cynical and amused.

Spike followed Buffy out to discover Riley and his Sire confronting her. "It's not him, Slayer," he murmured, hearing her breath catch in her throat. "Just a demon wearing his face."

Good. Her jaw clenched and her hand dove into her pocket for a stake. "How's that new lifestyle working out for you, Riley?"

He wiped a smear of redness off his lip, smiling nastily. "Pretty good. I'm introducing Marissa here to the concept that blood tastes better when your victim is screaming in fear instead of just lying there and getting sucked."

"Glad to see that hanging out with a skanky ho has expanded your horizons."

"Better than hanging out with a castrating bitch."

Buffy lunged at him with the stake; he slapped her hand down and sidestepped, while Marissa circled around to get at her from behind.

Spike moved to take Marissa on. "No you don't."

###
"I can do this," Willow said.

"I'm still not entirely sure it's a good idea." Giles cleaned his glasses yet again.

"But, Giles, it's Riley. We have to do what we can for him."

He finger-combed his hair. "I realize how we all feel, Willow. I like the young man too." Putting his glasses back on, he said, "I just can't help but think that our action in this case is somewhat precipitous."

"Well, it's kind of an emergency, isn't it?" Xander asked. "We need to get that soul in him before he does something terrible."

"Yes, quite." Giles gave up and put his glasses back on. "Do you have everything you need, Willow?"

She looked around at the table. "Stinky herbs, check. Orb of Thesula, check. Just need someone to do the chanting with me."

"You are going to pay for that Orb, right?" Anya said.

Willow didn't know whether to laugh or roll her eyes. "Ready, everyone?"

They all took a deep breath.

###
Riley grinned with savage joy. For the first time ever, he felt like he was on equal footing with Buffy. They exchanged a series of kicks and punches, and he could tell that her heart just wasn't in this--and if she wasn't careful, it was going to get her killed.

"What's the matter, Buffy?" he taunted. "Feels like you're still holding back. Of course, you've always held back with me, so why should now be any different?"

"Yeah?" She kicked him hard in the chest, sending him flying back a few feet. "Can't imagine why. I also can't imagine why you'd go to that --" She indicated Marissa, barely holding her own fighting Spike. "--when you had me."

"You never gave me what I needed." He came back at her, grabbing her arm and flinging her into the wall.

"Oh, so your sudden conversion to evil fanginess is my fault? Un-freaking-believable." She pushed off the wall, using the momentum to roundhouse kick his jaw.

"You never understood me, Buffy. You never needed me." He punched her in the face.

"Funny you should say that. Just goes to show that you never knew me at all." She gave him a one-two to the nose and sternum, keeping the stake curled away. She'd decided, upon hurried reflection, not to use it just yet.

"Yeah? That why you went to Spike when your Mom was in the hospital, and I had to find out from him what was going on?" His foot connected with her stomach.

"I didn't 'go to Spike.' He was right there." She uppercut his jaw. "He was there more than you were, in fact."

"Well, maybe if you'd paid more attention to the actual human boyfriend than the demonic vampire hanger-on, I would have been around more." He aimed a blow at her face, but she ducked under it and hit him in the solar plexus.

They hadn't been watching to the battle between Spike and Marissa, but were abruptly reminded when Spike threw her into Riley, knocking them both to the ground. Marissa picked herself up and leaped at Buffy.

###
Willow's head snapped backward, then down. Gazing at the Orb, she began chanting steadily in Rumanian. "Acum! Acum!" she finished. The Orb glowed brightly for a brief moment and went dark.

###
Buffy sidestepped, and Marissa missed her. The vampiress staggered back to her feet, gasping, moaning in pain. Her eyes glowed red, then went back to normal. "Riley? What...I feel..." Tears streamed down her face. "What's going on?"

"Doesn't really matter, sweetheart," Buffy said, and plunged her stake into Marissa's heart.

"You bitch !" Riley roared, as his mate burst into dust. But as both Spike and Buffy advanced upon him, he decided that discretion was the better part of valor. "This isn't over. Not by a long shot." He turned and ran.

Buffy and Spike stared at each other. "What just happened?" she said.

###
"It should have worked." Willow was frustrated.

"I think it did, Will," Buffy tried to reassure her. "It just hit the wrong vampire, is all."

"Good job it didn't hit me, Red," Spike piped up. "I'd have been very bloody unhappy if I'd been nailed with the damn thing instead."

"Uh, guys?" Xander said. "What's the next step? I hate to say this, but if Riley's gone over to the evil side, then we need to take care of it sooner rather than later. The guy's a trained soldier; he can do a lot of damage if we just let him run around loose."

"You might have to start thinking seriously about staking him, Buffy," Giles said uncomfortably. "I realize you don't want to, but you must know that what's walking around looking like him and speaking with his voice isn't really Riley. It's a demon masquerading as him. As such, it falls under your purview as the Slayer."

She sighed. "I know. I was hoping it wouldn't come to this. Thanks for trying, Will." She gave her friend a shaky smile.

"The boy seemed a bit bitter," Spike said. "Wouldn't surprise me if he started coming after you in a pretty personal way, Slayer."

Realization hit her. "Mom, Dawn! I have to tell them--"

"We called them while you were out. They know not to let him in," said Tara.

"Of course, he could just burn the house down over their heads," Anya pointed out.

"Ahn," Xander started.

"No, she's right," Buffy said sadly. "That's exactly what he'd do. I should move them somewhere safe."

"Safe being a relative term in Sunnydale." Spike's tone was sarcastic. He caught Buffy looking at him, a speculative expression on her face. "Oh, no, Slayer. That is such a bad idea..."

"You got a better one? Just temporary," Buffy wheedled. "Until I can get them out of town, someplace that's, like, not here. Maybe Angel can take them in."

Spike let out a put-upon sigh. "Fine. Temporary, mind you."

"I'll call Angel in the morning."

"You'd better. I just got rid of one encumbrance. I'm not overeager to take on two more."

"Yes, Spike." Xander crossed his arms over his chest. "We're all painfully aware that the chip doesn't work anymore."

"Just as I'm painfully aware that you're looking for any bloody excuse to turn me into a big pile of dust. But that's not what I was talking about, you git. I tossed Harm out."

"You did?" Buffy was surprised. "But where did she go?"

###
"Stupid, English...meanie!" Harmony kicked a rock across the campus commons. "Slayer-loving weirdo! She is so going to stake him when she finds out."

"We can hope so, can't we?" The voice in the shadows startled her. Even more so when the owner of the voice stepped out into the open, and she saw who it was. "Or maybe we'll get lucky and they'll kill each other."

"Aren't you Buffy's boyfriend?" she asked suspiciously.

"Used to be." Riley flashed fangs and brow ridges at her. "Of course, I think it would be a lot more satisfying to kill them myself. How about you?"

She walked with him across the lawns of UC Sunnydale. "Oh, sure. All we have to do is defeat the Slayer and a vampire who's killed two of them. Have you forgotten that Buffy's job is to--" She made a stabbing motion. "--slay us?"

"Yeah, well, I think I might have something to say about that." He stopped her outside Lowell House. "Hungry? Let's grab someone to eat, and we'll discuss it over dinner."


Thanks for all your kind reviews! On to the final chapter:

---

Chapter 4: Reaction
A week passed. Buffy's uneasy alliance with Spike held, and Riley was either lying low or had left town altogether. No one had seen him while patrolling, and Buffy crossed her fingers and hoped that he had left to become someone else's problem. Yes, he was an evil vampire now. She should have no compunctions about staking him out of hand. But she really didn't want to, even now.
 

Spike was a conundrum. Alternately sarcastic and solicitous, he gave her no clue what to make of him, or any idea about what game he thought he was playing. After a few days of no Riley, Joyce and Dawn had gone back home, and Spike began patrolling with Buffy.

She had to admit that it was nice knowing he had her back. She didn't have to worry about him like she did with Xander and Willow, because he was stronger than they were...and because she didn't really care if he got killed. At least, that's what she kept telling herself as he charmed and infuriated her, sometimes in the same five-minute time span.

Finally, she couldn't take it anymore. "All right, Spike," she said, hands on hips. They were out on patrol, and she turned and confronted him after another remark. "What is this?"

His expression was one of wounded innocence. "What's what?"

"This." She waved her hands around the graveyard. "It's like you're, I don't know, seeking me out to hang with, or something. Shouldn't you be doing, um, vampire things? Whatever it is that vampires do in their spare time? Instead of running around with the enemy?"

Spike hunted his duster pockets for a cigarette. He lit one and looked at her through the smoke. "Nothin' I'd rather do. Not like I can get a job at the local burger palace, and sitting around watching the telly all night gets right dull. I like patrolling with you, Slayer. 'Snever boring, and I can get a spot of violence without windin' up on your bad side." Plus, you're incredibly hot when you're Slaying , he didn't say.

"But..." She took a deep breath. "I've been noticing things. The way you look at me when you think I'm not looking at you. The way you'll do something nice, and then cover it up by saying something nasty. You're not even as mean to Xander as you used to be."

He tilted his head and slouched against a monument. "Not sure you're ready to hear it, Slayer. Not even sure I'm ready to tell you."

"Oh, God." All her suspicions came crashing down around her head. "You think you're in love with me, don't you?"

"What? No! Well..." he said more quietly. "How do you feel about that?"

"Eugh! You're a soulless, evil vampire. How am I supposed to feel about that, Spike? Honestly!"

"What? I can't love you because I don't have a soul? Utter bollocks. I stayed with crazy Dru for a hundred and twenty years. I loved her to distraction. And in case you haven't noticed, I've been a bit less evil lately."

She opened her mouth to say something, then snapped it shut. With the chip not working, he could have unleashed a reign of terror on Sunnydale the likes of which they hadn't seen for years. He hadn't. Point to Spike. "So, you...love me?"

He stared at the ground, dragging hard on the cigarette. "You're all I ever think about. I dream about you. Sometimes I think I'm drowning. I look at you, and I can't breathe. And I don't bloody need to breathe, so that's really an odd sensation, you know?" His voice faded to a whisper by the end. "The chip didn't neuter me. You did."

"Oh." Her legs didn't seem to want to hold her up anymore, and she leaned against a headstone, trying to wrap her brain around this new reality.

"Oh? Is that all you can say? Par for the course, I suppose." He pushed himself upright and flicked his smoke away, still not looking at her. "Guess I'll shove off. Maybe see what me old Grandsire is up to in LA. Unless..." His gaze met hers. "Unless there's a crumb you can throw me. Unless you can say that it's not completely hopeless."

"Spike--I--"

"Well, isn't this a touching scene?" Riley stepped from behind a mausoleum, applauding ironically. Other vampires came out of the shadows, until they were surrounded by eight, including Riley and Harmony. Armed with baseball bats and two-by-fours, they closed in on Buffy and Spike, growling menacingly. All the minions were large and male.

"I've got your back, Summers," Spike said.

She smiled crookedly. "And I've got yours. This discussion isn't over yet."

No time for talking after that. Riley's minions were young and inexperienced, but enthusiastic. Bagging a Slayer would be excellent for their street cred, if they could do it.

The problem was that this Slayer knew her business, and Spike was no slacker. Buffy staked one, after being punched once, and Spike exchanged blows with another before staking him. A third unlucky vampire, between them, found itself on the receiving end of a pair of stakes, one through his chest, the other through his back. Spike appropriated a two-by-four, Buffy grabbed a bat, and they smashed the ends of them across a headstone to make a pair of pretty serviceable stakes, better weapons than the small ones they'd been armed with originally.

"You all right, Slayer?" Spike swung at Harm, who spun out of the way and crashed into one of the minions, sending it into the splintered end of Spike's plank and killing it. A cut on his forehead bled freely.

"Couldn't be better." Another minion met the pointy end of her bat and burst into ashes. She was bruised but unbloodied. "You?"

"Right as rain."

The last remaining minion started for the Slayer, but Riley growled at him. "She's mine. Help Harmony with bleach-head over there." He bared his teeth at Buffy. "You know what? I've figured out what's wrong with you." He swung and missed.

"Yeah?" She aimed a blow at his head with the bat, which he ducked. "What's that, Riley? What's so wrong with me--" She hit him in the ribs on the backswing. "--that you had to go to a skanky vamp ho to get your jollies?"

"Thing is--" He spun and kicked her in the face. "--you're both anal-expulsive and anal-retentive."

"Really?" Her foot smashed into his knee, sending him to the ground. "How so?"

"You have under- and over-control issues." He rolled from side to side, dodging the blows she aimed at him. "Your under-control issues make you pushy and cruel. And your over-control issues make you stingy and stubborn," he said, hooking a foot behind her ankle and sending her crashing down next to him.

"Yeah?" She rolled to her knees and brought her improvised stake up. "You know what your problem is? You're evil." Down came the stake, pinning him to the ground. As he burst into dust, his face unbelieving, she said, "And I kill evil things."

She looked up to see that Spike had dispatched the last minion, and Harmony was running away. The vampire wiped his hands off on his jeans. "Well, that was a bit of all right." He noticed her lip trembling. "Maybe not, then. Buffy, you didn't have a choice there."

"I know." A tear spilled over her eyelid.

"You know that if he'd killed you, he would have gone after your Mum and the Niblet, right? And all your little Scooby friends? He wouldn't have stopped until they were all dead or vamped." He put a hesitant hand on her shoulder.

"I know," she said again. "I had to do it, much as I didn't want to." Heaving a huge sigh, she climbed to her feet, actually using his proffered hand. She half-smiled, sadly, at his surprised expression. "And, Spike? I'll toss you that crumb."

Finis

---

A/N: The Challenge: Buffy must be nice and non-selfish (NO spells allowed to explain this), Riley MUST prove some of his teaching credentials (ie - not being his usual, dopey self--sorry, Riley fans), and - the hard part - the plot: A big bad threat comes to Sunnydale (quelle surprise!) and Spike is in severe danger with the usual drinkie of the Slayer blood cure - does new, reformed Buffy (a) take this chance to let him die or (b) does she do what she did with Angel-poos? ALSO must feature all of the following: A bar of chocolate in a VERY strange part of Willow's anatomy; those plastic, Christmas reindeer horns; a blood-flavored milkshake; and a cameo role for Drusilla, either in flashback or returning.
And now for some possibly "inside" references. Way back when, a man whose spouse had cheated on him was referred to as having been "fit with a set of horns;" thus Angel's statement that Spike should be wearing the Christmas antlers. It's an old saying, but Angel and Spike would know it. I've also heard rumors that Spike's favorite book was "Alice in Wonderland," which is where the Red King/Alice remark in chapter one came from.

Feedback gives me warm fuzzies.