It's Not Enough

By:  Morrigan



A/N:  Beta'd once again, by the fantastic Blacknblue2.  *Hugs!*

Thank you, SO much, to those who have been reading and reviewing so far.  It really keeps me going.  And to those of you who are reading and not reviewing, Thanks.  But, come on, give me a holler!  I'd love to hear what you think.  *L*

Here goes.  Hope you enjoy it.  :)


Disclaimer:  All characters still belong to Joss Whedon and ME.  But, I've been busy making plans...




Later, back inside...


"Oh, you guys should have seen it!  It was so cool!"

Everyone was in the kitchen, listening to Andrew tell the tale of what had happened to him.

"I was taking out the trash, because I'm very responsible, that way, when I got this feeling that someone was watching me!  But, like, I didn't want whatever it was to know that I knew, you know?  So, I played it cool...  Just waiting for my chance to-
 OWCH!"

Willow smiled up at Andrew, apologetically, from her position on the floor, as she finished putting a bandage on one of his skinned knees.  She hadn't meant to press too hard...  Really!

Looking around at all the faces that surrounded him, Andrew began to tell his tale again, when he noticed that most - if not all - of those faces already held looks of disbelief.

"Bollocks."

Spike's half whispered curse drew Andrew's attention to the battered, and now shirtless vampire, who was seated across the table from him.  His left shoulder was a mass of bubbles from the peroxide Buffy had poured over it.  Anya was standing to Spike's right, wrapping gauze around his bandaged forearm.

After staring a little too long, Andrew pouted and gave in.

"Oh, fine!"  He exclaimed.  "I just didn't want to sound like such a nerd."

"Oh, but that's ok!"  Anya nodded her head, enthusiastically.  "Because, you are a nerd."

"Thanks...  I guess."

Andrew frowned, and began to re-tell his story.  As he got to the part where the uber-vamp had dropped him, his eyes glazed over, dreamily, and his voice took on a note of excitement.  He began gushing like a girl.  A very raspy girl.


*  *  *  *  *


One hour earlier...


"Come to Daddy."

Having dropped Andrew, the uber-vamp now faced Spike and snarled, threateningly.

"Boy..."

Spike addressed Andrew, his eyes never leaving those of the creature he intended to kill.

"Get out of the way."

But Andrew didn't.  He crouched, frozen in place by either shock or pain, or both.  His mouth worked as if trying to say something that wouldn't come out before the creature solved the problem for them.  Spike watched as she kicked Andrew viciously, sending him rolling several feet away, to land in the gutter behind him.  She moved no closer to Spike, but within her thunderous growls, he thought he could hear something very much like laughter.

"Kicked him to the curb, did you?  For me?"  Spike asked.  "I'm flattered.  So, what are you waiting for?  Let's dance."

Spike strode the last few feet between himself and his target, swinging the axe swiftly at her neck, but the uber-vamp was quicker.

She ducked the swing with lightening speed, and responded by reaching up to wrench the axe out of Spike's grasp while delivering a kick that swept his legs out from under him.  Spike hit the ground hard and barely avoided being stomped, rolling out of the way, just in time, before her foot came down where his head had been.

"Leaping back to his feet, and putting some distance between the two of them once again, Spike taunted, "Just like a woman!  Always kickin' a fella, when he's down!"

He realized, almost too late, that he hadn't backed up quite far enough, as the battle-axe swung down across his chest.  Spike leaped back, bringing his arms around him as it passed, slicing through the sleeve of his duster, and leaving a lengthwise gash in the arm underneath.

Without leaving any time for reaction, the uber-vamp pursued him, continuing to back Spike down the sidewalk as it lunged, hacked, and swung the axe wildly, until finally, as if bored, she tossed it to the ground.  Grinning, she assumed Spike's previous cocky stance and gesture, daring him to come forward.

Spike was more than happy to oblige her.

With a feral roar of his own, Spike charged full speed into the ancient vampire.  The two collided in a whirlwind of fists, claws, and fangs, neither one noticing Andrew, who had managed to pull himself together enough to slink away to watch from behind the bushes that lined the driveway.

"That's it, Spike!"  Andrew whispered.  "Kick that bitch's prehistoric ass!"

Andrew's hero worship of Spike was so firmly rooted that he had no doubt in his mind that Spike would prevail.

As Andrew looked on from his hiding place, Spike landed several powerful punches and kicks to the creature, sending her staggering backwards several steps, in a haphazard re-enactment of Spike's own hasty shuffle from moments ago.

Spike's amber eyes were glittering with fierce determination.  His hoarse laughter echoed darkly through the crisp evening air, fangs gleaming wickedly under the illumination of the street light above as he reveled in the freedom that came with a good fight -- the violent abandon that comes with unleashing his demon to take full reign.

Andrew had no doubt in his mind that Spike would prevail...  Until now.

As Spike turned to deliver a round-house to the monster's midsection, she stepped to one side, reached out and snagged the end of his duster and yanked upwards. Hard.

Spike's own twisting momentum, combined with the force of the uber-vamps pull caused a spinning reaction, bringing him up into the air, and as his arms tore loose from the sleeves of his duster, crashing back down the pavement with a bone-jarring crunch.

Momentarily dazed, Spike shook his head and attempted to stand.  His frustrated growls seemed to vibrate through the cement blending with another similar sound coming from above him.  Only, the uber-vamp wasn't growling.  She was purring again.

Confident in her defeat of the lesser vamp, she grasped him with her claws and pulled him up by his upper arms, pinning them to his body.

Refusing to accept defeat, Spike kicked out at her, landing several blows, which proved ineffectual at such close proximity.  In a lazy fashion, which showed how certain she was that she could now take her time, she brought her head down to his left shoulder, with jaws gaping wide, and drove her fangs home.

Andrew gasped as Spike's roar of fury and anguish pierced the night.  He wished that there was something he could do to help.  But what? He spotted the battle-axe lying on the ground, but it was so close to them, there was no way he was going to be able to reach it without being spotted.  And he was afraid that even if he could, he wouldn't be able to hit the uber-bitch without hitting Spike, too.  He had never before felt as helpless as he did at that moment.

"I hear you already!"  Spike cried out, suddenly, looking somewhere past the uber-vamp that held him.  The uber-vamp that was, now setting Spike back down, almost gently.

"Alright, alright!  I get it!"  Spike barked, still looking out past the ancient vampire.

Andrew felt a rush of relief, mixed with confusion.  It looked as though the thing had changed her mind, and was going to let Spike go.  But, why would it want to?  And, Spike appeared to be talking to something that Andrew couldn't see.

Spike took a moment to brace himself before stepping to the side and picking up the axe.  The creature made no move to stop him, and Spike seemed quite comfortable turning his back to her.  He, like-wise, seemed to have lost the desire to fight her.  Instead, Spike lifted his head up toward the stars, closed his eyes and sniffed the air, much like a hound on the hunt.

Andrew's mixed emotional dial stopped dead on fear as Spike's eyes snapped open and fixed themselves right in his direction and said,  "I understand.  It's time."

Spike began heading straight for Andrew, with the uber-vamp following closely behind him.

Andrew tried to flee, but was no match for Spike's vampiric speed.  He caught Andrew by his already injured throat, and pulled him in.

Andrew had lost all hope for the second time this evening.  He squeezed his eyes tightly shut, and waited for the inevitable.  Instead, he found himself being thrown back towards the bushes he had just fled, and watched in shock as Spike whirled around, suddenly, the axe whistling through the air from the force, and neatly decapitated the un-suspecting uber-vamp.  She dissolved into ash before her head ever reached the ground.

Stunned, Andrew turned his wide eyes back to Spike who was now in human guise.  He cast Andrew a brief apologetic glance before
turning his attention back to the invisible entity that Andrew knew could be none other than The First.

"I'm not your toy to break, anymore, you poncy, ineffectual sod!"

Spike dropped the axe to the ground, and pointed into seemingly empty air.

"You aren't her." He said, sternly.  "And you can't have her."

He pointed to himself and continued, saying, "Slayer of slayers here, remember?  Her death is mine.   An' if I'm not takin' it, I'm sure as hell not goin' to turn it over to the likes of you...  *From beneath you, it devours!*"  Spike sneered.  "You've got that part right, at least.  You are beneath her."

Spike paced back to the sidewalk, picking up his duster, before returning to the driveway to help a still silent and shocked Andrew to his feet.  He pulled him along behind him, as he reached the axe and picked it up also, and thrust it into Andrew's arms, turning back to face the being that only he could see.

"Of course, I s'pose it's fitting that you come to visit me lookin' this way.  Keep it up.  I might just get me another good day, after all."

He turned toward the house, then, pushing Andrew along, in front of him.  He never looked back to see The First brooding, with arms crossed, still in Buffy's form, as he called back tauntingly,

"I will end you, Slayer!"


*  *  *  *  *


Back to the present...

"And I thought I was a goner!"  Andrew went on.  "But, Spike was playing a trick on The First and the next thing you know, *Whack!*  Spike cut off that ugly chick's head and she was dust in the wind!  Spike totally had them fooled!  He was awesome!"


Andrew was all set to continue, but, much to Spike's relief, Buffy chose this time to cut in.

"So, what you are saying, is that even without the trigger, The First still has a yen for Spike's help?"

Buffy had come home with Willow and the potentials only moments after Spike and Andrew had gone back inside.  It took all of her willpower not to break into an all-out panic as they waded through the bloodbath that had once been her neatly arranged front yard.

Once inside, and finding that everyone was alive, she was all about business.  As far as she knew, Willow and Giles had not learned anything new about how to boost her slayer abilities.  But, if The First was going to start sending these vampires and bringers to her home, and was trying once more, to find a way to bring Spike over for Its use, time was running out.

"'Think that about sums it up, Pet."

Spike answered her question for her, instead of Andrew.

"Although," he added,  "I do believe that Miss Coyote Ugly would have settled just fine with having Andrew as a snack, had I not come along."

Andrew squirmed in his seat, uncomfortably, at the thought.

Buffy turned to Willow, imploring with her eyes.

"Will...  Have you?-"

Willow shook her head.

"No.  I've checked out everything, everywhere I could imagine.  Every time I think I've got something, I reach a dead end.  I'm sorry, Buffy...  But, I know there has to be another way.  We'll think of something."

"We don't have time to think of something."  Buffy told her.  "I need to do something now.  I can't keep worrying, every time I walk out that door.  They
aren't waiting for us to venture out so that we can be picked off one by one anymore.  They are taking the fight *to* us!

"Are you?...  Are you talking about finding the slayer-demon thingy?"  Andrew asked, quietly.

All eyes turned to Andrew, suspicious curiosity held in those of Willow, Buffy and Spike.

"I...  might have...  overheard you guys talking about it...  sometime before."  Andrew stated, shrugging sheepishly.

"Yeah."  Buffy nodded.

She wasn't surprised to know that he had eavesdropped.  "We are."

"Well, why don't you just go back through the portal and tell those voo-doo guys that you realize they are right?"  Andrew asked.

"Because," Willow began, rolling her eyes, "Buffy beat them up."

Willow nodded at Buffy, who flushed and turned her eyes to the floor.

"They won't work with her now.  The book said that once the gift is refused, it won't be offered again until the next slayer is called."

"Well, so?"  Andrew asked, looking from person to person, with an expression that said he couldn't see the problem.

"I mean, you beat those guys once, right? So, if the power isn't *offered,* why don't you just go back there and take it?"

Andrew brought up his hands in a questioning gesture.

Willow stood there, blinking, as she thought about what Andrew had said.  She looked to Buffy, who looked to Spike, and saw that he was already looking to her, as well.  They all shared the same dumbfounded expression.

'How stupid can I be?'  Buffy thought to herself.

"Let's gather up the stick figures."  She said, turning to head upstairs after the trunk.

"I'm going back in!"