A/N Betad by Carol and Dawnofme :)


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Chapter Fifteen


Easier Said Than Done


Buffy got out of Giles’ car, picked up her bag, put it over her shoulder, and walked swiftly to the door of The Initiative building. She swiped her card in the security system and after a pause, the door buzzed open. She was in. She gave Giles a small wave and then stepped inside. She ran quickly and quietly along the dimly lit corridors, ducking into a doorway when two security men walked by. She headed to the 314 complex.


Once there, she looked at the cell Spike had been in when she’d seen him – empty.


“Oh, God,” she whispered as she turned to the door of 314 itself. “Hope this works, Will.”


She put down her bag and took out a double-headed axe. Holding it in her right hand, she punched the numbers of the code onto the door’s keypad with her left. The little red light on it blinked out, replaced with a green one.


Cautiously, she pushed the door open. She closed it without it making a sound, and after a few steps, she saw the body of Maggie Walsh on the floor.


“I wanted to kill that bitch.”


A stride later, she came upon a pile of vampire dust.


“Oh, please God, not Spike.”


Her attention was then caught by the operating tables. She could see the body of a demon on one. A man, who she recognised as Maggie’s assistant Michael, was bent over the body of Spike, cutting into the flesh of his shoulder.


Buffy raced across to the table, grabbing the man and hurling him across the room. She glanced at Spike, their eyes meeting briefly before she turned to Michael, axe at the ready. He was human - it wasn’t in her job description to slay humans, but what he’d been doing made him worse than the demons that he operated on.


“What the hell are you doing in here? You’re sick. And who killed Maggie?”


“I killed Maggie. She wouldn’t upgrade Number Seventeen to a different species of demon’s arm; wanted to use a vampire’s instead,” said Michael, eyes wide. “We need more than one Adam and Number Seventeen is the strongest we’ve ever had. He’s a top class specimen.”


“He’s not a specimen, he’s my boyfriend and right now you’re seriously pissing me off, you freak,” snarled Buffy.


She saw his right hand creeping up the wall towards a switch and without hesitation, she flung the axe, which severed his hand above the wrist.


Michael screamed in agony, staring at the blood pumping from the stump of his arm.


“Now you know how it feels,” said Buffy coldly.


She retrieved the axe from where it had buried itself in the wall and raced back to Spike. She untied the restraints, watching his eyes swim in and out of focus. She looked at the incision made by Michael. Luckily he’d still been cutting through the skin, barely scoring the muscle beneath. In time, it would heal. She grabbed some swabs and tape and quickly bandaged the wound, strapping his arm to his body so he didn’t make it worse by moving it.


“Spike. Spike!” She gave him a little shake.


His eyes cleared and he focussed on her.


“Buffy.”


“Come on, let’s get out of here. Get up,” she urged, glancing around at Michael who was still slumped on the floor, a pool of blood spreading from his arm.


Spike sat up and got off the bed. He staggered and would have fallen if Buffy hadn’t been there. She held him upright. They made their way to the door with slow progress. Spike was uncoordinated due to the effects of the drug.


They got out of 314 and started to go back up the corridor the way Buffy had arrived. Spike’s head started to clear a bit and they were able to slowly jog along. The exit door was in sight when suddenly, Spike stopped. Buffy, who’d been holding his left hand as they ran, was pulled backwards and almost fell.


“Stop!” The order was clear in his mind; he was unable to disobey.


“What the hell? Spike! Come on!” said Buffy.


He slowly turned back to look the way they’d come from. Buffy ran in front of him, grabbing his arm.


“What are you doing?” She looked in his eyes and she could see fear and frustration, but still he started to walk back.


He paused for a second or two, head tilting as if listening, then turned back to look at Buffy.


“Bring her back to me!”


He got hold of her arm tightly with his left hand.


“Spike! Let me go!” shouted Buffy, trying to pull out of his grasp.


His face showed horror at what he was doing, but he increased his grip on her arm and started to walk back to 314.


“Christ, I can’t do anything about it. I’ve got to do what he says.” Spike was anguished.


Buffy tugged and pulled but couldn’t get away from his grip. She still held the axe in her hand but couldn’t bring herself to use it on him.


“Buffy! You’ve got to get away!” Spike was shouting in his mind, his body acting outside of his control. “Willow!” He tried to mind link, but whatever that thing was that had been implanted had made it impossible.


“For God’s sake, hit me! Do something!” He stared at Buffy, desperately trying to convey his words.


But she didn’t; she let him lead her back into 314. As they entered, the door slammed shut behind them, and Buffy got her first sight of Adam. She couldn’t believe her eyes. Even though Spike had described him to Willow, it hadn’t prepared her for the reality of the creature in front of her.


“Well done, Number Seventeen,” said Adam. “Now kill her.”


Spike fought as hard as he could to disobey, but he couldn’t. He swung Buffy round violently, raising his right arm, tearing the bandages she’d put on him just moments before. Not heeding the pain as the wound reopened, he pulled back his fist to slam in to her face.


“Buffy! Bloody HIT ME!”


As if she’d heard him, Buffy finally retaliated and swung the axe. She hit him with the flat of it on the side of his head with enough force to send him sprawling unconscious to the floor. She turned to Adam.


“So, you’re Maggie’s baby, are you? Did you help to kill her, too? Not that she didn’t have it coming, but just seems kinda ungrateful of you, you know, when she’s given you such a fit bod,” said Buffy.


Adam smiled at her.


“I told her Number Seventeen was weak and I was right. You will not find me so easy to defeat.”

He threw a punch at her but she dodged out of the way, landing a blow with the axe. It just rebounded off the metal on his chest and did no damage at all. She swung again and slipped on the blood that covered the floor from Michael’s wound. She fell flat on her back. Almost as she hit the ground, Adam was upon her. He clutched his fingers around her throat and lifted her off the floor.


“Don’t kill her, Adam,” said a voice to her left.


She managed to look over to the source. It was Michael, the severed end of his arm swathed in bandages.


“A Slayer will make an amazing base for another creation and whilst she lives, another will not be called.”


“Crap!” Buffy redoubled her efforts to get free.


“Bring her to me,” he ordered.


Adam started to walk towards Michael when the door to 314 suddenly flew off its hinges and into the room. Adam, Michael and Buffy looked in astonishment; Spike was still unconscious. A slim woman with hair red at the ends but showing black roots walked into the room, sparks crackling about her fingertips.


“Put my friend down!” she yelled.


“Willow! Thank God!” thought Buffy, her throat held too tightly to be able to speak.


Adam just looked at Willow.


“Another little girl for us to play with, Michael,” he said.


Willow extended her hands and the sparks turned into a bolt of power that hit Adam in his chest, pushing him over backwards. He let go of Buffy who fell to the floor, clutching her throat and gasping for breath. Buffy could see Xander going to the prone body of Spike and starting to drag him out of the doorway.


“Way to go, Will,” said Buffy. “Timely, much?”


Adam was back on his feet and started to go towards Willow.


“Buffy! Hurry, I won’t be able to hold him off for long,” cried Willow.


Buffy bolted out of the door as Willow hit both Adam and Michael with another blast before she rushed out of the door after Buffy. She paused again and gave her attention to the doorway; casting a spell to put a shield across its threshold. She was just in time as Adam hurled himself at the doorway, but the shield held, and he just bounced off and back into the room.


“Quick!” she yelled as she rushed away. “That’ll probably only last for half an hour or so.”


Buffy helped Xander lift the still unconscious Spike and carry him away. They took an arm each and dragged him along with no regard to his injuries, desperation at getting out taking precedence.


“How did you get in? Why didn’t you say you were coming? But thank God you did,” said Buffy, following Willow down the corridor.


“Spike told Giles all the plans to this place. I got a bad feeling that you might be in trouble, and so we thought we’d come along via the air vents and see if we could help,” Willow replied.


“It’s just up here,” gasped Xander, pointing to a grid in the ceiling.


They put Spike down, and Xander reached up to move the grid. Spike started to stir. He pushed himself up onto his hands and knees, then he saw Willow standing there.


“Help me Willow, please help me.” Spike tried to mind link with her. She was looking into his eyes but even so, no link was made. Adam’s voice floated into his mind.


“Stop them, do not let them leave!”


Spike put his hands to his head, desperately trying to blot out the orders but to no avail. He stood up.


“Spike? Are you feeling OK?” said Willow, something in his eyes making her back away. “Er...Buffy?”


Spike reached out to get hold of Willow, but then felt a tap on his shoulder and wheeled round to meet Buffy’s fist as it hit him squarely on the jaw. He slumped back to the floor.


“Hey, Buff, he’s pretty heavy to carry, you know. Would’ve been nice to have him able to walk,” said Xander. “Pair of shorts on the guy wouldn’t have hurt either.”


“There’s something going on with him. Adam can control him, so I thought getting out was more important than getting him dressed,” replied Buffy.


“Oh, now you tell us,” said Xander. “Couldn’t we have just left him there in that case?”


The girls glared at him.


“I didn’t mean it! But can we get a move on?”


They managed to manhandle Spike into the shaft, Willow averting her eyes. They made their way out of The Initiative as quickly as they could. Thankfully, Giles was waiting at the prearranged spot.


“What are you two doing here?” he exclaimed as he saw Willow and Xander.


“Not now,” said Buffy. “We’ve got a problem with Spike. Adam can control him. We need to get him somewhere really secure. We can’t go back to my house; they’ll look for us there.”


“Come on, let’s get in the car before Spike wakes up,” said Xander.


They all piled in to the car. It was quite a squeeze. Spike was in the middle at the back with Buffy on one side and Xander on the other. Willow was sitting in the front passenger seat next to Giles.


“So, where are we going then?” asked Xander.


“The old Crawford mansion. That’s remote enough and secure enough,” said Buffy.


“Good idea,” agreed Giles, and he drove as fast as he could to the disused house that Angel used to live in.


ooooooo


The first thing they did, to everyone’s relief, was to dress Spike in jeans and a t-shirt. Then, they fastened him to the wall with chains on both wrists that were long enough to allow him to be laid on the floor and to be able to stand once he was awake.


They dressed his wounds. The one on his shoulder would heal in no time if it had sutures, but they settled for bandaging it securely.


Willow took advantage of him being unconscious and accessed the chip to remove the block on his ability to speak, once again using a little magic to help it along.


That done, they settled themselves in around the corner from Spike, building a fire in the huge inglenook fireplace. Giles had basic supplies in the trunk of his car: blankets, some food, candles and such. After Buffy had told them what had happened in there, they ate in silence. All exhausted by the night’s activities. One by one they fell asleep.


To be continued…