Slogging my way through continued (but improving) computer problems and dropping in (and updating) where I can....I give you the next chapter:

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Chapter 10
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"But I don’t understand why I had to leave," Dawn whined. "Not that I don’t love staying over here or anything."

"Mrs. Pratt wouldn’t want you--any of us, really--to be there. She’s the sort of lady that corrects someone in private and Xander was the one she wanted to set straight," Tara reasoned.

"Besides, we need to think up plans for using the nifty robot in our white hat army and you’ll want to add your two cents," teased Willow.

"Okay, mostly I’m thinkin’ how to send the bot out to get a high paying job so Buffy can finally take me to Disneyland," Dawn suggested.

Willow smiled indulgently. "See, I never would have thought of that strategy! Cartoon mice are always an important resource to white hat armies. I watched enough Tom & Jerry, Mighty Mouse and, of course, Mickey to know that much."

"Yeah, maybe drop a piano on Glory’s head or something," giggled Dawn. "If we do go, I’ll have to get Buffy to kidnap Mickey!"

All three girls were hit with a fit of giggles at the picture of Glory going mano a mano with a five-foot mouse in gloves. "Hi, Glory," Dawn mimicked the Disney character, "I hear you want a green ball of energy. Let me introduce you to my friend Kermit!"

"Oh, Xander does THE best Kermit imitation. Too bad he’s not here to do it." Willow began
to look a bit sad at the thought of her dear friend off getting a tongue lashing while they were having such a good time.

Tara sensed what caused the mood switch in her girlfriend and sought to soothe her guilt. "We did the right thing, sweetie. Xander is a wonderful guy, but he’s been kinda out of control lately and Mrs. Pratt really doesn’t have any choice but to put her foot down." She smiled at Willow and whispered, "Maybe it will be in time to save his relationship with Anya. I’m sure nothing but good will come out of it."

"I don’t know if fixin’ up Xander’s latest demony love life badness is of the good or not," Willow began, "but I know he loves Anya, so I just have to keep my fingers crossed and keep hopin’." Willow’s grin looked as forced as the sentiment.

"Anya’s not so bad really." Dawn knew that Willow and Anya were still like two wet cats in a bag when left alone together. "She’s kinda funny and at least you always know what she’s thinking."

"That would be about money or sex…no mystery there," Willow said with a roll of the eyes.

"I think Anya really does love Xander though," Tara said thoughtfully. "I mean for himself. He’s
certainly not rich or powerful or anything like that, but she doesn’t even look at any other fella. Maybe we’re too hard on her. It can’t be easy to suddenly be human again after all those centuries as a demon."

"But she’s not even sorry for all the stuff she did when she was all veiny!" Willow was off and running with the first of many things about her friend’s lover that offended and repelled her. "Sure, she doesn’t talk as much about all the curses as she used to. Xander finally got her to shut up with all the dreamy-eyed reminisces of plagues and dismemberments and creative killings. I still don’t think she regrets even one of them though!" She shuddered at the memory of Anya’s previous trips down demon memory lane. "Even Spike doesn’t go on and on about the ‘bad old days’ like that!"

"Spike used to tell me stories when I’d visit him in his crypt." Dawn looked wistful at the memory of those comparitively simple times. "He usually made the endings happy though. I think he thought Buffy would stake him if he was honest. I mean really how dumb does he think I am? ‘Gave the little girl to a good family that would never put her in a coal bin’ my a…." She stopped as she noticed the raised eyebrows on the witches’ faces.

"It does sound like Spike seems to know that blood-and-death stories aren’t appropriate. Funny, that almost sounds like he still has some clue about right and wrong. I thought Giles said you had to have a soul for that." Willow looked thoughtful at that concept. "Maybe Mrs. Pratt is right and William isn’t completely gone.

"Spike said that Angel’s sire Darla told him that a vampire is whatever the person was like, only even more so and with the gloves off." Dawn tried to explain how she had interpreted that bit of information. "See, it’s like if you were a bad person, you became even more bad as a vampire. Spike must have been a nice guy because he has to work at being all evil." Her eyes widened as she begged, "Don’t ever tell him I said that! He hates anyone thinking he’s not the Big Bad." She relaxed as Willow and Tara nodded in an unspoken agreement at secrecy. "It’s like vampires know right from wrong but just don’t care anymore. At least that’s the way I think it works. I don’t know if that’s a soul or what.

Dawn suddenly became solemn and quiet. "I wonder if I have a soul? Glory said the key was evil and I’m the Key. Spike said it didn’t matter how I started out but how I am now that matters. But I still wonder if I have a soul…and if Buffy would love me if I don’t."

"Of course you have a soul, silly," Tara rushed to reassure the adolescent. "It’s a lovely one too. I’ve seen your aura, remember?"

"Spike was very smart with what he told you, Dawn. I’d listen to him…at least about that," Willow added. "Buffy’d love you no matter what though. You’re her little sister, no matter how it all happened."

"So maybe what’s important isn’t if you have a soul but how you act?" Dawn hesitantly suggested.

"Sounds right to me. Lots of humans with souls act as bad as any demon I’ve met." Willow filed that thought away to look at more closely at a later time.

~~~

Mrs. Pratt was in the kitchen preparing a proper pot of tea for the shaken young man. There were few trials in life that a good cup of tea couldn’t help put into perspective, after all. There would even be enough to offer a cup to Buffy and Mr. Giles as well. Those two looked as if they could use a bit of it as well.

"So, how DO I keep from becoming the kind of man my shining example of a father has shown me?" Xander really, really didn’t want to become just another rotten apple in the Harris family basket.

"You listen to the voice within you that tells you right from wrong. You make a conscious choice to be kind and always err on the side of love. You treat others as you would wish them to treat you. You choose your own role models. Mr. Giles is one possible choice. He is not a perfect person--no one is, you know--but he endeavors to be a good and decent man." Mrs. Pratt smiled kindly at the boy. "When all else fails, ask yourself what your father would do or say in any given circumstance and then do the opposite!"

"You make it sound easy," Xander said softly.

"It isn’t. Life is hard and the choices are always before you, often coming fast one upon another. You will not always succeed, but the telling part of a man of good character is what you do when you do fail. Do you give up? Or do you make amends? Do you attempt to do better? Those are the making of a good man, the true mark of success." Anne poured out the tea in four cups and motioned for Buffy and Giles to join them. "A good rule of thumb is to always be kinder than necessary, because everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle."

"William was really lucky," Buffy smiled at Mrs. Pratt. "You’re really wise…and nice."

"I’m merely old, I think, and wisdom comes from living." Anne’s sweet countenance showed the true humility at the core of the woman. "I am very lucky to have William as well. He is a good man for all the obstacles he has had in his way of it."

Giles really didn’t want a fight with the good lady, but he hated even more the thought of her eventual disappointment when she finally saw Spike clearly. "Mrs. Pratt, I mean no disrespect, nor do I wish to cause you undue distress, yet I must point out that the being you see only as your son is not the man you knew."

Anne fixed the Watcher with a steely glare, "Do we need to have a private conversation too, Mr.
Giles? I assure you there are things I have available to say to you as well."

Giles shook his head. "No, no, I’d really rather avoid a dressing down. Bad for my image as the mature adult and all." He tried to put a light face on the situation.

"Good. You have been kindness itself in your dealings with me and I wish to call you friend. But I will always side with my son, make no mistake on that," Anne vowed. "I have heard the arguments you have made, read the journals you have offered, and yet I still see the man that my son is.

Once more, Anne held out a staying hand as she continued. "He lost his way. To survive, to be successful in his new form, he made choices. Many were bad ones, to be sure, but they did permit his survival. He lost sight of humans as other than food and humanity as other than dangerous emotions. He was surrounded by those who drew out the worst in him. The device that has caused him such pain was really a blessing in disguise, as it has permitted William to once more be in company with humans as peers. He has once more dipped into the well of humanity that never left him. He is surrounded by all of you now, rather than those who glory in evil and bloodshed."

Giles closed his eyes and nodded. "I had hopes that Spike would choose to embrace our fight and even suggested that this chip might have been a plan by the Powers for him to change his path."

Anne looked at Giles appraisingly. "And when did you make this suggestion?"

"He had just moved into his crypt…er…his home after having been sheltered by me from the soldiers who captured him." Giles remembered the sting of rejection he had felt as Spike laughed in his face at the idea. The seeds of his resentment of this particular vampire had been sown then.

"So it was fairly soon after William’s life was radically altered, correct?" Anne asked, eyebrows
raised. She waited for Giles’ expected nod to continue. "Did you think to make the offer again at a later time? Perhaps after William began to help out, to interact, to adjust to his changed status?"

Giles merely stared at the lady, stunned to realize that he had never again made any such offer to the chipped vampire.

"Yet with no assistance from any of you, it appears that William has altered his path." Anne shook her head sagely. "I am very proud of him!"

"We helped him," Buffy argued. "We kept his sorry a…um…kept him from being recaptured by the Initiative. We fed him, put him up in our houses…."

"For which I am eternally grateful, my dear." Anne smiled at the blustering girl "By ‘assistance’ I refer to moral guidance. Did any of you offer any word of encouragement to him in his small victories against his demonic nature? Did any of you offer a hand of friendship with no ulterior motive? Did you offer to help him find his way?"

The sheepish looks on the three faces gathered round the table gave answer even as none spoke a word.

"From what I have observed, my son has had just the opposite from all of you, with the exception of Dawn and Tara. Xander has been the most vocal, but I have noted the remarks, the looks, the slights. For William to have come this far with no help-- with all of you impeding his way, actually--is remarkable! Just imagine how much of his humanity he might have reclaimed had you offered that little bit of help." Anne looked at Giles specifically as she continued, "Yes, you made the offer but let your hurt pride prevent any further offers. You should have realized that he was at a loss and vulnerable when you first approached him. The attitude I have seen you show to William would be enough to prevent his seeking you out at a later time when he was ready for the change."

There was continued silence as each individual tried to process what Mrs. Pratt had just suggested. Had they really made it harder for Spike to change? Had he really made changes for the better against their best efforts to defeat his attempts?

"You didn’t mention Anya," Xander noted. "You mentioned Dawnie and Tara but didn’t say anything about Anya. I don’t think she’s ever been mean to Spike."

Anne nodded in agreement. "No, I haven’t noticed any animosity towards my son coming from Anya’s direction. I did not mention her because she is in a similar situation to William. She is also relearning what it is to be human. Unlike William, however, she is being helped and accepted to a degree."

Anne turned back to address Xander specifically again. "You need to try more kindness in that quarter as well. If you truly do love this girl, you need to show her respect also. She has lived far longer than you, yet you berate her publicly for her mistakes. She is blunt and indiscreet, but you are fully aware of those qualities. If you wish for her to change that portion of her personality, you should show her the respect to correct her privately."

Anne turned to Giles again. "I am surprised a man of your position is ignoring two such valuable resources. Between William’s experiences and Anya’s, you have a wealth of information available to you with only a question asked. I would think that after a thousand years as a demon, there would be little that Anya would be ignorant of and yet you do not appear to ask for her opinion or information at all. William has more firsthand knowledge of his world than any of your books, yet you never even ask his input. I’m surprised at you!"

"Put that way, I’m a bit surprised myself," Giles muttered.

~~~

Spike was hanging from the ceiling of Glory’s bedroom. His face bore witness of the fits and starts of the mad hell god and her idea of questioning a prisoner.

Glory paced around the vampire, anger glittering in her eyes. "I have a riddle for you, precious," she pronounced the last word dripping with sarcasm. "How is a vampire that won’t talk like an apple?"

She grabbed Spike’s hair and pulled his head back, exposing his throat to the dagger she held. She ran the blade from his Adam’s apple to mid-chest, leaving a trail of blood from the shallow cut.

"Think I can do you in one long strip?" Her threat to flay Spike was clear as her motions left no question of her intent.

"I really don’t see why you care about these people anyway. They’re meat sacks only good for a brain suck to me and a blood suck for you. Either way, they’re only good for suckage." Glory wrinkled her nose in distaste.

Spike gave a snort of bitter laughter. "You’re lying to yourself, hell bitch. You like this world more than you want to admit. Look at all the human things you seem to enjoy! You got the bloody mall in your closet and half the current line of Revlon on your vanity!"

"I deserve beautiful things! I’m a god! How dare you put me in the same category as these insects that crawl all over this ball of dirt as if it were dung," she sneered.

"Still, humans created all of that stuff you like so much and use to try to make yourself worth lookin’ at. Humans--okay, most of the high-end designers are Marut-Oza demons, but the worst evil they do is encourage women to try to look like starved twelve-year-old boys and design God awful fashions no one in their right mind would wear." Spike curled a lip in derision. "Wait…YOU wear them, but that just proves my point."

Glory’s blow laid open Spike’s right cheek. He was just glad she hadn’t used the hand with the dagger. ‘Ego the size of her dementia; good to know. Just wait for the right time and try to stay undusty in the meanwhile,’ he thought to himself.

"You wanna know who the Key is? Fine, I’ll tell you." Spike saw the hell god perk up at finally getting what she had spent hours fishing for.

"Start talkin’. You make me happy and maybe I’ll let you live after all." Glory perched on the sofa in anticipation.

Spike steeled himself for a bad reaction to his little plan. "Yeah, okay, the Key. Here’s the thing….." He twisted in his chains looking for a weak spot, a position that might make escape possible. "It’s that guy. Ran things in the last campaign, now the number two guy. What’s his name? Oh, yeah, Dick Cheney."

"We shall bring the bleeding and beaten body of the Vice-President to you at once, o fantabulous one," promised Murk in excitement.

"Dick Cheney is not my Key, you idiots! Firstly, he’s clearly a demon, so again with the impure. Also, he’s old as grit and the Key is new in its current form. Obviously the vampire is lying."


Spike laughed weakly, a small trickle of blood trailing from his lips. "Yeah, but it was fun. And guess what, bitch, I’m not telling you jack. You’re never gonna get your soddin’ Key. You might be strong, but in our world you are a first class idiot. Slayer’ll send you to hell all right, just not one you rule."

Glory drew herself up to her full height and looked at Spike with malice. "I am a god."

Spike continued to test the chains that held him captive. "God of what? Bad home perms?"

Glory moved towards him yelling, "Shut up!"

"Okay, sorry. I just had NO idea that gods were such prancing lightweights. Yup, the Slayer is going to kick your skanky, lopsided ass back to whatever place would take a cheap, whorish, fashion victim ex-god like you." Glory patted her allegedly lopsided backside in unconscious neurosis, as Spike prepared himself for a taste of Glory-delivered hell.

He got it. Glory’s kick was forceful enough to break the chains holding Spike. Unfortunately, it was also strong enough to break several of his remaining intact ribs. Hitting the wall in the hallway also completed the job of shattering his left leg that she had begun during her torture session.

Spike knew that he had to move as quickly as his broken body would allow if he had a chance in hell of escaping the crazed god and her scabby pets. "Good plan, Spike," he mumbled as he half ran, half crawled towards the elevator and freedom

The sounds of Glory ordering her horde of hobbits to bring him back were all the encouragement Spike needed to move faster than should have been possible as his hand hit the closed elevator door. He tried to pry the door open only to discover an open shaft with the elevator car a couple of stories below him. "Oh God," he prayed to any deity willing to listen to a damaged demon.

He leaned forward and let gravity pull him down into a rough landing on top of the elevator car just as Jinx appeared in the doorway.

Jinx yelled, "He’s in the lift! Quick, downstairs!"


Spike opened the hatch and fell through into the car itself, trying to summon up the strength he would need to get out of the elevator and the building before being recaptured. No Marines or Cavalry were going to show up to save his bacon. As far as anyone knew, he was off for a sulking walk right about now.

The elevator doors opened to an armed gaggle of scabby gargoyles led by Murk. "You do not insult Glory by escaping! The most sensational one is not finished with you yet."

Spike struggled to his feet and prepared to put up a fight only to have Jinx hit him once more with a taser.

"Bloody hell," he mumbled as he fell at their feet. His last clear view was of Glory morphing into the young doctor that Buffy had been chatting up at the Bronze a few weeks ago. The same doctor currently treating his mother!