A/N thanks to Carol and dawnofme for their beta work :)


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Meet Your Brother

“Number Seventeen.” It was Maggie’s voice.

Spike stood up. It was the middle of the night, and all the staff, save for a couple manning security, had left long ago. He’d been awake, expecting her to come. She opened the door.

“Come with me.”

He went through it and walked by her side to the door of 314. She pushed some numbers on a keypad, hidden from Spike’s view, and its lock opened with a click. She stepped through the doorway first, which was a good thing as Spike was rooted to the spot for a second before he got a grip and followed her. This place made all the other operation rooms look like kiddies’ playthings; it was crammed with equipment of every description. He followed her to a table.

“Lie down on it, Number Seventeen,” ordered Maggie.

“Bollocks!”

What else could he do but obey? The door was too heavy to break open and he had no insight as to the plans of these rooms; which obviously were not included in the chip’s data. Security would be here in seconds. He got on the table and lay down, fighting panic when she strapped him down so securely he couldn’t move.

To his relief, she didn’t start to access the chip but turned her attention to the wound on his left arm, which by now had burst a few stitches and was weeping pus. He gritted his teeth as she started to remove the other sutures.

“Mm,” said Maggie to herself, “This is a little disappointing, but perhaps not surprising. I had hoped this would have healed over.”

She swabbed at the wound, then took a pair of forceps and, to Spike’s astonishment, she removed a thin strip of what looked to be green scaly skin, about four inches long. He hadn’t seen her put anything in the wound when she’d cut it.

“It’s grown as expected,” continued Maggie. Spike realised that she was recording her findings. “But it was too irritating to the host to remain in place.”

She cleaned the wound out completely, cutting away any necrotic flesh.

“Now inserting specimen B,” she said as she put a tiny white object, about the size of half a grain of rice, into the wound and resutured it again.

She untied the restraints.

“Number Seventeen, get off the bed.”

Spike was happy to oblige, having to resist looking at his arm to see what she’d done.

“Time to meet your big brother,” said Maggie. “Come with me, Number Seventeen.”

Spike followed through a door leading onto a corridor and then into another room. He was ordered to sit down on a high backed metal chair and was promptly strapped to it. Maggie went out of a connecting door to the left and returned a few minutes later.

“Adam, here is your brother, Number Seventeen,” she announced.

Spike couldn’t believe what he was seeing, his mind boggled. The man - well, parts of it were human - standing in front of him was huge with metal plates covering part of his face and chest. His face was partly human, his limbs were demon in origin and from several different species.

“God, I was right. She really has been making a monster.”

Adam walked over to Spike and looked down at him.

“I want to test him,” said Adam.

“That’s why I’ve brought him here,” said Maggie, untying Spike.

“This isn’t going to be good.”

“Number Seventeen, get up and come with us,” she ordered.

The three of them then made their way to a room that was completely empty. Spike could see what looked suspiciously like blood stains all over the room.

“Gulp!”

Adam and Spike went into the room, Maggie closing the door behind them.

“Adam, do not kill Number Seventeen. He is the only one at the right stage to be a help to us. It will be months before he can be replaced.”

“Yes, Mother,” replied Adam, starting to walk towards Spike.

Spike retreated, not willing to strike the first blow. The creature was head and shoulders taller than he was and considerably heavier. He didn’t have long to wait before Adam made contact; with apparently no effort he swiped Spike off his feet and flung him through the air, slamming him in to the wall opposite. Before Spike could get up, Adam picked him up and threw him across the room, once more hitting the wall. This time Spike got to his feet and landed a couple of hard punches, which had no effect on Adam at all. Adam responded by punching Spike viciously in the stomach. He doubled over and fell to the floor. Spike felt something sharp touch the back of his neck. He froze.

“Adam! No!” shouted Maggie.

“All right, Mother,” said Adam, and the pressure was removed.

A huge hand gripped Spike’s shoulder and pulled him up to his feet. Spike could see the weapon that had been put on his neck. It was a bone skewer that jutted out of Adam’s arm, a Polgara demon’s arm. As he watched it retracted back out of sight.

“My brother needs to be stronger,” said Adam. “He will hold me back otherwise.”

“Yes, Adam, I’m going to work on that, but its fighting skills against any but you have been top class so far. I will show you,” replied Maggie.

She opened the door and let Adam out of the room, leaving Spike inside. A panel slid back in the side wall of the room and with a roar a Netsrik demon bounded into the room, running on all fours.

“And my day just gets better.”

The creature attacked; it was almost like a huge werewolf apart from the fact that it wasn’t governed by the phases of the moon. Oh yes, and its fangs were venomous. One good bite and you had about ten minutes before paralysis set in and the area of the bite started to rot away.

Spike had never fought one and wished he had a weapon of some sort so he could get further away from its teeth. A Netsrik was the only demon a vampire truly feared as its venom was just as lethal to vampires as to humans, their enhanced healing skills no match for it.

Spike managed to get a few good kicks in, throwing the creature against the wall, but it got up too quickly for him to move in for the kill. Round and round the room they went. Spike was starting to tire but the demon just kept on coming. Spike’s features hadn’t changed despite drawing on all his vampiric strength - he hadn’t even realised they hadn’t, his conditioning being so deep.

He managed, once more, to hurl the Netsrik to the wall, and this time it was slower to get up. Spike saw his chance; he moved in to kill it, but it was a ploy and the demon turned as the vampire put his hands on its neck and it bit Spike hard on his right arm.

With an internal howl of pain and fear, Spike’s vampiric features finally showed and despite the wound, he managed to hold on and break the creature’s neck. It was over. He fell to his knees next to it, the paralysis hadn’t yet kicked in but he was too exhausted to stand.

Spike looked at Maggie and Adam, if they didn’t start to clean the wound soon he’d eventually die from the venom. It wasn’t a pleasant death either. The paralysis didn’t mean you couldn’t feel pain, just that you couldn’t move as your body slowly rotted away starting from the point of the wound.

“Adam, go and get Number Seventeen and bring him to the theatre,” ordered Maggie.

“Thank God.”

Spike was still too weak to stand. Adam picked him up as easily as if he were a child and carried him to the table where Spike had been previously that night. He tried not to count the minutes that had passed since he’d been bitten.

Once on the table, Maggie swiftly got to work, not wasting time with an anaesthetic. She started to clean the wound. It was severe, down to the bone just below his elbow. The pain on top of the exhaustion led Spike to pass out. When he came around, he was in his cell, his right arm bandaged from wrist to above his elbow. To say it hurt was an understatement.

He sat up and wriggled his fingers. They still worked, so it looked like he’d been tended to in time. He looked round him and realised he must still be within 314.

“Willow? Willow? Can you hear me?” He sent the words across his mind, searching for her.

Nothing.

He tried again.

Still nothing.

“Perhaps it’s because I’m so knackered?”

Spike was trying to convince himself but he was worried that being held within the 314 rooms meant he couldn’t reach her.

He looked at the wound on his left arm where Maggie had put the object in. The wound itself had healed and didn’t hurt at all, but he could see a raised track leading up his arm from the top edge of the wound. It was about six inches in length.

“What the hell is going on there? Yeah, coming back in here was a great idea, Spike. Well done, mate. Couldn’t have stayed with the woman you love, oh no, got to go be all sodding heroic.”

He drifted off in to an uneasy sleep to be woken by hearing his ‘name’ called sharply.

“Number Seventeen.” He got to his feet. “Go back to your cell.”

He made his way by Maggie’s side to the door to the 314 complex and was put back into the cell opposite. He realised that it was still night, the day shift hadn’t started yet. Perhaps Willow had been asleep?

“Spike!”

He started and looked around before he understood it was Willow shouting in his head.

“Are you there? Are you OK?”

“Hey, Red. I’m here. No need to shout.”

“Sorry,” she said, lowering the volume. “It’s just I’ve been trying to reach you for hours!”

“You have? Bollocks, I’ve been in the three fourteen complex. There must be something there that can block out our link. Look, tell Buffy I’ve seen Adam; three fourteen’s secret. It’s bloody Frankenstein’s monster but less cute. Creature made up of human and demon parts. Bloody strong - I had to fight it and barely landed a punch, just got thrown about. If that thing gets used by The Initiative it’ll be unstoppable, and the Professor seems to do what it says and not the other way around.”

“Oh my Goddess!” said Willow. “That is way scary.”

“Look, pet, I’ve got to get some sleep; been up all night. Tell Buffy that, well, that I love her, OK?”

Willow could sense him yawning.

“Will do, and check in when you wake up,” replied Willow.

Ooooooooo

Spike woke to find himself strapped on an operating table. He wriggled and tugged at the straps holding him down.

“Number Seventeen, stop that, lie still,” ordered Maggie, coming into view.

Spike forced himself to relax.

“I just need to change the bandages where the Netsrik bit you and thought I’d let you rest as long as you could.”

Now that terrified Spike; Maggie being considerate, it couldn’t be good.

She started to un-bandage his right arm. The bandages were soaked with blood and didn’t smell very sweet. Spike made himself look down at his arm. It wasn’t a pretty sight; the wound was blackened round its edges.

“I think we only just cleaned this in time,” said Maggie. “But the venom still did a lot of damage”

She started to clean the wound again, once more trimming away any irreparably damaged flesh. This time he couldn’t feel a thing as thankfully she’d used a local anaesthetic. The look of it turned Spike’s stomach so he turned away. He noticed the strange mark running up his left arm had now reached his shoulder. After that he just stared at the ceiling.

“Mother, he will heal more quickly if you give him an arm like mine.”

“Christ!”

Spike was startled as Adam walked into the room.

“The time is near - this wound will hamper him and won’t heal as quickly as replacing it,” continued Adam.

“Adam, we need him to be able to pass as a human, remember?”

“Then give him a human arm. There are many vampires here or you could use one of the soldiers.”

Maggie stopped cleaning the wound.

“That is a good point Adam,” she said and started to measure his arm instead. “I’m sure we’ll find a good match.”

“Bloody hell! Willow! Willow! Can you hear me?” he shouted through his mind to no avail. “Shit, I’m back in three fourteen. What if I’m kept here from now on? Fuck!”

He bucked against the restraints in desperation.

“Number Seventeen, lie still,” ordered Maggie. “What’s wrong? Don’t you want to be like Adam? I know we haven’t covered this scenario in your conditioning but you will obey everything I say. Understood?”

She stared at Spike. He swallowed hard then nodded as there was nothing else he could do. He was staring at Adam, terrified that he’d end up like that, when he felt something cold on the skin of his abdomen. He looked down to see Maggie painting a liquid on his flesh.

“It’s a liquid form of the gas we use to knock you vampires out - thought you’d be better asleep since you were so restless.”

“No! I can’t get hold of Red if…”

His thoughts could get no further as the drug took hold and he passed out.

To be continued…….