Sherliton's Army
By Len
Rating: R – Spike and
his dirty mouth!
Spoilers: `Gone' – it pretty much branches off into AU at that point.
Teaser: The latest Nasty is only the beginning…the situation is very
draining for two of the gang.
Note: there is a certain element of dark humor in this piece, mainly
because I can't write drama or angst to save my life. Clichés
abound, Evil Critters are borrowed, plot weaves like a drunken man,
names are silly…you know, the usual. Have fun.
Archive: My site – Blood Magic (http://www.geocities.com/voodoo_bloodmagic/enter.html)
to Chelsea's marvelous site, Breathe, and to anybody else who'd like it. Just
let me know so I can visit. Or gloat. Same diff.
More Notes: Takes place in the same universe as my two short
conversation pieces `Confusion, Confessions' and `The Beginning', and
after these two stories. Sorry about the introspective mumbling at
the beginning. It'll get better, I promise.
Also: WILL FIC FOR FEEDBACK!!!
Part One
She strode down the street,
long jacket flapping out behind her, trying to ignore the nagging feeling in
her stomach. It had been a month,
and she was beginning to realize that she was probably going to have to live
with this urge for the rest of her life.
‘However long that’ll be,’ she thought cynically. Without her magic, Willow felt as
defenseless as a baby, and she hated it.
But there was no way she was going to risk hurting those she loved again. She would have to get used to being plain old Willow again. “I’m right back to where I started,” she muttered in surprise, pausing on the darkened street for a moment. “Buffy’s back as the slayer, I’m a alone, Xander’s getting married…well, okay, *that’s* new…”
There was also the bizarre revelation of Buffy and Spike’s relationship. It had been obvious for some time that something was wrong – he and Buffy had come back a little worse for wear that night after killing a big demon, and Buffy brushed past him into the Magic Box. Then she slammed the door in his face. Granted, the Scooby Gang didn’t always use their best manners around the English vampire, but this was surprisingly rude even for Buffy, and it had been the last straw for Spike.
The worst part of it all was there wasn’t any side Willow could take on the matter. Since that night, she and Spike had resumed their old habit of guarding the Summer’s house for demons, under the pretense of star-watching, and she’d try to cheer him up. It was working a little. Buffy wasn’t helping matter any – she hated the vamp for being her weakness, and hated him for being the one to break it off before they both really got hurt. That’s what Willow was guessing, anyway. To date, Buffy hadn’t confided in her about her affair with Spike. It was like they were only friends for appearance’s sake.
In reality, Spike was the one Buffy turned to when she was pulled out of Heaven, just like he was the one she turned to to look after Dawn. Willow couldn’t fault her for that. Spike was the most nonjudgmental person…er…demon she’d ever met. And it wasn’t like Buffy could have told any on the Scoobies the truth about….anything without there being some major freakage.
Willow sighed. Somewhere along the line, they had all grown up and to an extent, apart. Their roles had changed. Giles had left, their enemy was now their ally, and Xander had gone from being Comedy-Relief Boy into a serious young man who was the home base to the entire group. Whodda thunk?
A noise behind her suddenly caught her attention, playing along her already taught nerves like a violin bow. It was only the sound of leaves rustling, but twenty-one years on the Hellmouth had taught her not to ignore her instincts. So she stepped up her pace until she was running.
The noise followed her, now accompanied by a low growl.
Willow was now sprinting, but had a sick feeling that it wasn’t fast enough. Just a little further, she thought – she could see the storefront of the Magic Box…
Her pursuer hit her across the shoulders and she went down headfirst into the pavement. Instead of knocking her unconscious, it merely served to stun her into passivity. A foot then connected with her ribs, rolling her over. She gasped for breath.
And then Willow got a good look at her attacker. Her brain decided abruptly to take a break coffee break, and her world plunged into darkness.
~*~
The next thing she was aware of was someone slapping her face – and not gently, either. Blearily, she cracked open her eyes. “Anya?”
“Shhh! Hurry, we have to get out of here. That monster is beating up my fiancé!”
She helped Willow up into a sitting position and then cringed as the…the *thing* threw out an arm and caught Xander across the chest. They both heard the air being forced out his lungs, and he slammed against the brick wall of a building.
“Okay,” Willow said, trying not to cry out at the pain in her side. “Running away would be good. Running…ow…ow…”
“Yes. Running. Running. Xander. Why isn’t Xander moving?” Anya asked, ending in a screech. She dropped Willow and ran over to him, completely ignoring the hideous demon that swung at her as she did so. The Wiccan was left to her own devices.
The demon also realized this, and it’s head swiveled to meet her gaze. She gulped and scrambled painfully to her feet. And then out of nowhere, a dark figure lept out of the shadows and into the fray. His platinum hair reflected the streetlight. Spike. Willow raised her eyes to the heavens and offered a brief prayer of thanks to whoever was listening.
The monster – or demon, or whatever it was – was a black and scaly with long, curving claws. And way, way too many eyes. It slashed at Spike, who managed to dodge the worst of it, although judging from his hiss of pain it had connected with something. He countered by kicking the feet out from under it. It was up again quicker than she could blink.
Willow bit her lip and straightened, looking frantically for something to use as a weapon. She could feel the power in her begging for release, but she quickly squelched the urge. Instead, she picked up a glass wine bottle sitting on the curb, and crept up behind the thing.
“Stupid bloody spider! Is that the best you got? Huh?” Spike taunted. Blood dripped from his fingertips and he seemed to be favoring his right leg. “Huh? C’mon, let’s see what you got!”
Willow smashed the bottle over its head. It staggered, creating an opening for Spike. The vampire ran at it like a Quarterback, taking it down to the ground.
Or at least, that’s what he had intended. In reality, the monster simply looked down at the vampire that held his torso in a lock with something akin to amusement. Then he grabbed Willow by the hair, plucked Spike off by the neck, and banged their heads together. They bounced off each other and fell in opposite directions. The monster wriggled its mandibles before retreating to the darkness, twittering maniacally.
~*~
“Augh…..ow….”
“Bloody…fucking…hell….” Spike groaned off, and then realized that the pain in his head was too great to engage in further gratuitous swearing. Willow had reached a similar conclusion, and decided to just lie there for a minute until the shops along the street stopped swirling around her.
“Wills? Spike?” a wheezy sounding Xander asked. Willow didn’t move her head. From this angle, she could just make out Orion in the night sky…
“What *was* that thing?” Anya asked, “It looked like one of those horrible little things that used to live behind the washer in Xander’s basement.”
“I think it’s definitely time to hit the books. Let’s go back to the Magic Box…Willow? You okay? Say something!”
“Nnngahh…” she managed.
“Spike?”
“What she said,” he groaned. Then he remembered that this had only been one pathetic monster, and he was a Master Vampire. He also noticed that the whelp and his girl were looking at him with concern. His pride immediately pushed him to his feet. “Need some weapons. Or some bug spray,” he quipped, fighting the urge to sway on his feet. “Red? C’mon, let’s get the hell outta here before he comes back for round two.”
“I hear ya,” Xander agreed. Anya just nodded and wrapped an arm around his waist to guide him to the magic shop.
Spike stayed behind, watching his unlikely confidant get to her feet. She made no attempt to hide her swaying. “You alright, Will?” he asked.
She turned to look at him. “Yeah. I’m just…what the heck was that thing? I hurt all over…”
Spike swallowed hard. There, running down what was quite frankly the most delectable neck he’d ever laid eyes on, were dark rivulets of blood. Oddly enough, it wasn’t out of hunger that he gulped, but out of the realization that whatever had caused that blood to come to the surface must’ve hurt her. Badly.
From the end of the street came the sound of a tin can being kicked, and it was enough to spur her to action. Willow nearly ran the seven feet to Spike, looped an arm around his weakened right side, and hurried down the sidewalk. Spike was oddly grateful for the support, even though it was obvious that Willow was leaning on him as much as she was holding him up.
The pair stumbled into the Magic Shop stood there, gasping. Or Willow gasped; Spike rubbed his temple and tried to ignore the ringing in his brain. Bloody chip…or something.
“Wow,” Dawn said from her perch on the counter. “What happened to you guys? Oh – Willow! Spike! You’re bleeding!”
She jumped off and disappeared into the back room, presumably for first aid supplies. Meanwhile, a subdued Buffy slipped around them, staying as far away from Spike as possible, to turn the deadbolts on the shop door. “What attacked you?” she asked Xander.
“Oh, Buffy – it was horrible! It—“
“It looked like those things that used to live behind the washer in Xander’s basement,” Anya supplied matter-of-factly. Buffy looked blank for a moment, and then remembered what the ex-demon was talking about. She grimaced.
“Oh, ew! You’re saying you were attacked by a giant—“
“No, Buffy,” Willow interrupted. The ringing in her head was getting worse. She just wanted to get this over with and go lie down… “It had two legs, not six. Or, two legs and two arms. Or maybe it really was four legs, only one set worked as arms…”
“It had four limbs, pet. Leave it at that, eh?” Spike muttered, and shifted a little until he was leaning against Willow’s back. Gods Below, he was tired. And Willow’s toasty body heat wasn’t making it any easier to stay awake…
“Why don’t you sit down before you fall down, you two?” Dawn asked, reappearing with a large blue tin. She set it on the back table, and waited for the bleeding pair to drag themselves to the chairs.
Buffy started to pace. “So…what you’re saying is that you were attacked by a giant bugman? Ick. Does it seem to anyone else that demons are getting grosser and grosser?”
“Not only that, but it didn’t even kill us. Spike and I were both pretty much helpless after he whacked us together,” Willow commented, yawning. The demon in Spike objected to being called helpless, but he really couldn’t be bothered growling. He slid down in his chair and closed his eyes.
“Yeah, we were all pretty out of it – it could have come after any of us. But it didn’t,” Xander added.
“But why come after any of us?” Buffy asked. “Even the stupidest demons generally need a reason to attack a person who fights back.”
Anya sighed and mopped up a few drops of blood from the floor under Spike’s dangling hand. She liked her shop neat and tidy. Blood stains scared the customers. “It was chasing Willow when we saw it. I thought she was just really happy to be going to the shop, but then she fell over and it started kicking her.”
Buffy stopped and thought for a moment. “It was after Will? It was big and scary?”
Xander caught where Buffy was going with her train of thought before she could continue. “She hasn’t been using magic again, Buff. You know she hasn’t.”
“Then what the hell was that thing?” she wondered aloud. She looked over to where Spike sat, snoring for some odd reason, and felt the familiar combination of longing and revulsion. Her gaze continued on to Willow, and she opened her mouth to ask the redhead another question before she realized Willow, too, was asleep. Her head was pillowed on one arm, her mouth was slightly open. Classic Willow Study Session pose.
Anya and Xander looked at the pair oddly. “Maybe we should focus more on ‘What the hell did it do to Willow and Spike’?” Xander suggested.
Meanwhile across town, a Wizard in a dilapidated warehouse was calling his army into being.
