Something to Sing About by Lilachigh


Chapter 5 Taking Over


Hand in hand, Spike and Buffy strode along the dark, gloomy streets. Spike had glanced up at the sullen sky and reckoned he‘d be safe enough. It didn’t look as if the sun would ever shine in this world again.

“Which is fine for me, but not for the rest of Sunnydale, pet,” he’d said dryly.

Their boots rang in unison on the filthy sidewalk that had obviously not been swept for weeks. Rubbish and dirt littered their path. Leaves had fallen from the trees but not in beautiful heaps of gold and red but brown and wrinkled and dead. The black branches that remained held skeletal fingers against the iron grey sky.

They were the only people out . The streets were deserted - just the occasional glimmer of a candle in a window showed that a few humans were still trying to carry on living in town.

Buffy shuddered and Spike slipped his arm round her shoulders. “Cold, luv?”

“No, not exactly. Just spooked by the whole place. I can’t believe Ben - Glory - whatever the god fiend is calling itself here - has got to be sorted out all over again. But look at this place, Spike. Our Sunnydale never looked like this even when Glory was opening the Hellmouth. It seems - defeated!”

“I suppose they’ve had much longer to cope with the problem than we did. But this Ben doesn’t seem to be quite as strong as Glory, does he? If Willow can match him as she says at the magics for some of the time without it killing her, then we must have a good chance of destroying him.”

Buffy sighed. “Do you really believe that, Spike? Or are you just making nice with the ‘let’s cheer up the Slayer’ speech?”

The vampire’s arm tightened round her slim shoulders. “Just one of life’s little optimists, that’s me, pet.”

Buffy felt herself smile, almost against her will. He always had the ability to shake her out of any depression she fell into. “And anyway, bleach boy, how do you know the way to Willie’s Bar in this Sunnydale? Did you sneak off there sometimes for a beer when I wasn’t looking? ‘Fess up, husband mine. ”

“All in the pursuit of research, my sweet. I like to know what’s cooking in the demon world - whichever Sunnydale I’m in. And let’s face, it, if you want good gossip, Willie’s is the place to go.”

The wide streets of houses had given way now to narrower roads of shops and warehouses. Spike turned right abruptly and pulled Buffy with him down an alleyway that ran between two derelict buildings. At the far end was a small, wooden building. A candle glowed in the window and in the sullen light, Buffy could see the word “Willie’s” cut into a sign that hung crookedly above the door.

Buffy pulled herself out of Spike’s supporting embrace and marched inside. Eyes of all different colours flashed in her direction - orange, green, yellow, red. There was a furtive scurrying from one or two tables as a couple of vampires made themselves scarce out of the back door.

But most of the customers stayed where they were, gazing sullenly at the Slayer and her mate. Buffy could feel the hatred rise up against her, almost see it pulsating towards them.

Behind the bar, a familiar face and voice. “Buffy! Spike! Well, long time no see. You back in town to stay? Or are you just passing through? Not to stick my nose in where it’s not wanted, of course, but my advice would be to keep on going. Sunnydale’s not much fun at the moment.”

Without breaking stride, Buffy reached forward and grabbing Willie by the front of his shirt, pulled him halfway back across the bar. Glasses and bottles were flying, smashing and crashing in all directions.

A couple of demons leapt to their paws, growling angrily.

‘“Sorry, folks. Didn’t mean to spoil your drinking time,” Spike drawled, leaning against the bar and rescuing a bottle of beer as it slid down the wooden surface towards him. He flipped off the top and drank deeply, his gaze knifing round the room, his deceptive attitude causing the angry stirrings to fade away.

Something flabby with tentacles lurched towards him. With a swift flash of his arm, Spike smashed the bottle against the bar and thrust the jagged end into the demon’s face. It shrieked and cowered back, muttering thickly, dabbing its tentacles at the foul smelling ooze that dripped to the floor.

“Waste of beer,” Spike sighed. “OK, I know you Yanks don’t make good beer, but even that bottled piss water was better than nothing. Now I’ve got nothing and that makes me very, very irritated.”

Buffy shook Willie gently until his teeth rattled. “Do you hear that, Willie. Spike’s getting irritated. If you don’t cooperate, I might just let him take over the questioning.”

“Now, Slayer, why would you do that? Have I ever not - ever not - ” he gurgled as Buffy’s grip tightened, “cooperated with you. Always helped. Right? Tell Spike - ”

“I’m telling you, Willie,” Buffy snapped. She dropped him back on his side of the bar. “Right, now, this Ben guy. This god thingy. Where does he hang out and what’s he up to? Speak now, Willie, or start loosing the parts of your body you’re most fond of!”

“OK, OK. ” Willie rubbed his throat and glancing round at the staring demons.

Spike clicked his lighter on and off and glared at the bar-keeper over the little flame. “We’re waiting!”

“Ben isn’t a demon or a vampire - he’s - ”

“A god. Yes, yahda yahda yahda, we know that,”’ Buffy said impatiently.

“He’s living in the big hotel down town, close to the airport. He’s got a whole gang of minders around him at all times and I’ve heard there’s some sort of magic barrier round the hotel as well.”

“But what exactly does he want in Sunnydale?” Buffy asked. “I mean, he’s been here for some time now, hasn’t he. And apart from killing people and making everyone else’s lives unbearable, what has he done? Is he - ” she stopped, memories flooding her mind - Glory desperate to find the Key to send her home, Dawn’s face when she learnt she wasn’t really Buffy’s sister, her mother’s plea for Buffy to look after her - always. Giving her life to save the world. Spike’s face when she returned.

Willie shook his head, his ingratiating smile vanishing. “No one knows, Slayer. At first there were rumours - you know how they spread amongst demons - ” he nodded towards Spike - “Ben was going to take over the town, then the country, then the world.”

“But he hasn’t yet,” Spike put in slowly.

“No. We’re all waiting to find out. People are falling sick and each day, more demons and vamps are arriving every hour and still Ben just sits up there in the hotel.”

“And that’s all you know?” Buffy said wearily. This was no help at all. She and Spike had learnt the same things about Glory in their own world.

Willie rubbed his hand across his mouth and glanced round warily, but most of his customers had gone back to their drinks now they’d realised the Slayer wasn’t in a killing mood.

He leant back across the bar and spoke in a whisper, so low that Buffy could only just hear him. “There was a demon girl in here last week - scared witless. She’d been working in the hotel but wanted to get out of town. Said she’d seen and done a lot of bad things in her time but this was...well, she said Ben was waiting for the baby.”

Buffy felt a cold chill run through her body. “What baby?”

“Ssshh. Not so loud, Slayer. Walls have ears - and in this bar that’s not just a saying, believe me. I don’t know what baby. Just that he’s waiting for the baby. Maybe it’s some demon prince or something, or has magical powers. We don’t know. But a word of warning, this Ben is like no other demon I’ve ever seen. You’re not going to see him off with a stake or a bottle of holy water!“

“What happened to the girl?” Spike asked.

Willie glanced round again, scared to be overheard, then drew a finger sharply across his throat.

Buffy and Spike left the bar and stood outside in the chill air. She breathed in deeply. Even the smell of rotting rubbish in the gutters was better than the stink inside Willie’s.

“So sweetheart, do you reckon this baby is the Key in this world? A sort of baby Dawn?”

Buffy stared into his eyes, knowing that the anxiety she felt was mirrored there. “If the Key was already here, then Ben would have made a move for it. He’d have opened up the devil dimension and this Sunnydale would have ceased to exist. So perhaps this time the monks have got their timing wrong and they’ve sent the Key in the form of a baby. A baby which hasn’t been born yet.”

Spike shrugged. “Makes sense, I suppose. They sent the Key to you as Dawn, but don’t forget, you weren’t here when all this went down. You were back kicking Glory’s butt in our Sunnydale - and then being dead. So they couldn’t send the Key to the Slayer. Otherwise, the same rules would have applied. Ben would have grabbed the kid, blooded it and - wham - no more Sunnydale.”

Buffy linked her arm through his as they walked back along the deserted streets towards Willow’s house. “Spike this is gross. Making the energy into a teenager was bad enough, but an innocent baby! Ben wants to take the blood from an infant. And surely most girls who were pregnant would have been the first to have gotten out of town when things began to go bad?”

Spike kicked a stone and sent it rattling against a mail-box. “Well, apparently Ben’s still waiting, so either the baby’s mother is here or someone’s coming to town carrying it.”

“Oh great. That’s going to be a fun meeting for us. I can just hear the conversation, can’t you? ‘Hi, welcome to Sunnydale. I’m Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Congratulations - you think you’re pregnant with a normal baby, but hey, really you’re carrying abnormal energy that’s been given you by some stinky old monks and will turn into a Key to an alternate devil universe. There’s a god guy wanting to tear your child apart when it’s born to get its blood. But apart from that, how did you enjoy the play, Mrs Lincoln? And Spike, my dying won’t help this time. I won’t be related to the baby. How can we ask a mother to give up her child to save the world?”

He didn’t reply and she was just about to go on when he stopped and held up his hand. Then in a flash he pulled her into the shadow of a clump of dead bushes by the side of the road as a gang of the zombie like creatures they’d seen when they first arrived came shambling round the corner.Hair matted, their eyes vacant, clothes filthy, but the weapons they carried were obviously sharp and deadly.

Buffy shuddered. These were humans; people she vaguely recognised as neighbours, the lady from the dry-cleaning shop, the guy from the garage, the boy who delivered the newspapers. All had the same angry, confused, insane air about them.

Spike tightened his grip and muttered in her ear. “Stay still, Slayer, unless you want to start staking humans. They’re out hunting.”

Slowly the gang passed by but Buffy still stood there, her head buried against Spike’s chest. She didn’t want to look at him, because suddenly she was confused.

She’d realised that this was her life; she’d been standing, hiding from a pack of maniacs, cold and hungry, sharp thorny twigs digging in her hair. She’d been standing with her arms wound tightly round the waist of a man she loved to the very depths of her soul, wondering how to defeat a Hell God, when she’d realised what she was feeling.

Despite all the trouble and death surrounding her, just knowing that she and Spike were together made her feel ecstatically, overwhelmingly, joyfully happy.

to be continued