Image by Vette - vettehayden@earthlink.net
Chapter 42 – Weight of the World
There was something bright
shining in his face. It kept forcing him from the dreams that he wanted to hide
in. Reality was too much of a nightmare to return to but the light wouldn’t allow
him to stay in the darkness. Finally Wesley gave up and opened his eyes to the
sun beaming down on him.
The intense pain in his
wrist and face brought the memories of their battle crashing down upon him. And
their failure left a bitter taste in his mouth. They would have to go back and
tell the others that Dawn was gone. His mind began to process things a little
faster and as he blinked from the sunlight he remembered Spike.
Wesley looked around to find
the vampire and was relieved to find him lying in the shadow of the open van
door. However, the rays from his natural enemy were encroaching slowly toward
Spike’s unprotected hand. Looking around
Wesley spotted the blanket that Dawn had been trying to hide under. It was half
hanging out of the van where the struggling girl had lost the last of her
fight.
Forcing himself to his knees
and holding his injured arm against his body, Wesley crawled until he could
reach the edge of it. He started crawling toward the vampire, sighing at the
amount of ground he needed to cover. The sunlight was only inches from setting
Spike on fire when with one last rush of adrenaline, the Watcher flung the life
saving material over Spike’s still prone form. Knowing that he would now be
safe, Wesley collapsed back onto the road. His breathing was ragged as he
strived to reach beyond his pain.
“Wesley,” Faith called
weakly. “Are you…there?”
“Yes, I am.”
Being the only one that was
halfway coherent and mobile, Wesley knew he had to get them help. His cell
phone was in the van but as he stared at the height that he would have to
maneuver he remembered the phone that Faith often carried in her pocket.
Wesley rolled over and
pushed to his knees again. Taking a deep breath he crawled over to the Slayer.
She smiled weakly at him as he sat with his back to the van and cradled her
head on his lap.
“It’s going to be all
right,” Wesley said, trying to reassure her. He reached over to her front
pocket, praying the small instrument would be there. It was and for the first
time since Glory had found them, he had hope.
~~~~~~~
Angel said good-bye to Cordelia and clicked the cell
phone off, instantly reaching for Buffy. It wasn’t the good news they had
expected and he knew she would be devastated.
“They never reached
“I should have known they
couldn’t handle it,” Buffy said, pushing Angel away. “He failed me again.”
“Don’t say that. You don’t
know what happened or why or how,” Angel said, hating the amber flashing in his
girl’s eyes. He grabbed her shoulders and forced her to look at him. “You know
that Spike would die for her…for you.”
“No, I don’t know that,”
Buffy exclaimed. “I never thought that…”
“What? That he would hurt
you…go ahead and say it, Buffy. Spike raped you, so did I, but no matter how
many times you throw it in our faces, it’s not going to change. It never will.
Spike worships the ground you walk on and yeah, he was wrong, but do you really
think he would hurt Dawn? Or that he wouldn’t go down fighting for her?”
“He’s right,”
Angel watched as Buffy
looked around at the others then finally back to him. She reached out her hand
and took his. He knew what she was doing and allowed the energy to flow as they
searched for their mate. The distance made it harder but they felt him, the
pain that Spike was in, and the loss.
“He’s hurting,” Buffy said,
tears filling her eyes as she looked up at him. “We need to go to him.”
“I don’t think that’s a good
idea,” Giles said, interrupting them. “The two of you need to stay here and
figure out a way to stop Glory. Especially if she has Dawn.
Xander and I will go.”
It was decided. Angel knew
it was better to keep the strongest soldiers at the home front. The women had
magical powers and Anya…well, Anya had the heart of a fighter. It would be
better if the two men were with them but someone had to go to search for the
others. After the two had gone, the others gathered around the table to start
strategizing. There was an air of resigned desperation to their words and their
plans. They were being thwarted at every turn and Angel could only hope for a
miracle.
~~~~~~~
It was all her fault. If she
didn’t exist then they wouldn’t have gotten hurt. Dawn knew she would never
forget the sound of breaking bones and bruising flesh as long as she lived. If she lived at all.
They had put her in the
backseat with Dreg. The other minion was up front with Ben, someone she had
thought was good and kind. He was a monster, worse even then Glory because he
had a soul.
“How could you do that?”
Dawn asked. “How could you let her?”
“Now, now child,” Dreg said.
“Ben only wants to live like everyone else does.”
“How is he going to live if
everything on earth is destroyed?” Dawn asked, rolling her eyes. “That doesn’t
make any sense at all.”
She had listened the night
before as the others talked. She knew more than they had wanted her to know.
Tears filled her eyes as she looked at the sun that was starting to climb the
sky and remembered Spike lying there unprotected. He was the only one who really
understood her. Understood what it was like to always be living in someone
else’s shadow except unlike her, he didn’t seem to care as much. She knew how
much failing Buffy, Angel and her would hurt him. And she knew what he was
willing to sacrifice to keep everyone safe.
It was up to her now.
Glancing around the car at
the others, she waited until they had seemed to forget about her. She waited
until Ben was pushing the car almost beyond its capacity at 90 miles per hour.
It was time and with a deep breath she grabbed the car handle and pulled.
Nothing happened and she
pulled again…again…and again. Still the door refused to open. The sound of
Ben’s chuckles made her look up.
“Child proof locks,” was all
he said.
Unable to take it anymore,
Dawn broke down into sobs. All she wanted was to wake up at home in bed, with
Buffy hogging the bathroom and their mom cooking breakfast. But that wasn’t
even real…she wasn’t real and she couldn’t even be the hero.
Always second best.
~~~~~~~
Giles slowed the car as soon
as he saw the van tilting precariously on the side of the road. His heart
thudded in his chest at the desolation in front of him. There was nothing good
here and the sight of his three comrades lying in the road made his stomach
turn.
“Oh god, oh god, oh god,”
Xander muttered, climbing out of the car. “This isn’t good is it?”
Relief flooded Giles’ system
when Wesley looked weakly up at him. The younger watcher was clutching Faith’s
hand, letting Giles know that she was alive also. He quickly looked around for
Dawn but already knew she was gone. They had been beaten. Giles crouched down
on the road next to Wesley and searched the other man’s bloodied, beaten face
for any kind of clue as to what had gone wrong.
“It was Glory,” Wesley said.
“I don’t know how…but she found us.” He laughed but it almost sounded like a
sob. “And she kicked our asses.”
It would seem so from the
looks of the three. Spike was trying to stand with Xander’s aid to help keep
the blanket over him until he was sitting in the shade of the van.
“We need to get the two of
you to a hospital,” Giles commented, deciding that to load them in the van
would be the best solution. “Xander, help me.”
Xander was reaching to pick
Faith up when Cordelia’s car screeched to a stop next to them. She and Doyle
hurried over to them with shock and horror on their faces. The illusions had
been shattered that this was going to be easy because it wasn’t. He knew there
wasn’t time to waste. Time was getting late and cars would soon be coming by
even on this back road.
“Wesley,” Cordelia called,
kneeling beside him. She looked over her shoulder at Giles. “He called us
but…this…it’s worse than I thought.”
“Not too bad,” Wesley said.
“We’re alive.”
The silent ‘for now’ hung in
the air but there wasn’t time for that now. Giles brushed Cordelia out of the
way and knelt beside him again.
“Doyle, help Xander and me,”
Giles instructed. “The two of you take Faith and Wesley to a hospital in LA.
We’ll take Spike back to Sunnydale with us.”
It didn’t take them long to
get the pair in the van. Cordelia climbed in the back to watch over them on the
ride while Doyle sat behind the wheel. He watched for a moment praying that he
would get the chance to see them again.
“We need to go, watcher,”
Spike said softly. “They’ve got Dawn.”
Giles nodded and turned back
to the other men.
“Yes, we do.”
Spike curled up in the back
seat with the blanket covering most of him. The vampire was still weak from the
fight. Glory hadn’t been kind to him at all, leaving bruises and welts over his
face and head. Giles got the car going and headed back to Sunnydale.
“Give him blood,” Giles
said, after getting the car going and heading back to Sunnydale.
“Me?” Xander exclaimed. “Why
do I have to feed him?” He turned to look back at Spike. “It’s creepy to have
him sucking on my arm.”
“Xander, there’s blood in
the cooler,” Giles said, with a sigh. He pointed to the small container on the
floor next to Xander’s feet. “Hand him a pack.”
“Wouldn’t want to drink from
you anyway,” Spike said. “You’re not that nummy.”
“Best you ever had,” Xander
said, handing over the package of human blood.
The only sound for the next
few minutes was the sound of Spike gulping down nourishment. He would need all
of the strength he could get when they got back.
~~~~~~~
The moment Buffy saw Spike
she knew. She rushed across the room to take him in her arms. Only once had she
seen him so battered and that was by the Initiative. Never again, she swore as
she led him to the couch. If Dawn was taken then Spike had given everything but
his life to keep her. Thankful that it hadn’t gone that far she settled next to
him. Her fingers ran over his face and head trying to ascertain how badly he
was injured.
“Bring me…thank you,” Buffy
smiled up at Jenny holding a bowl with water and a cloth in it before she even
had to ask for it. Carefully she dabbed
at his wounds to clean away the dried blood and dirt.
“I’m sorry, pet,” Spike
whispered, looking at her with such pain in his eyes that it made her hurt. “I
tried…we tried…Glory was just too strong.”
“Do you know how she found
you?” Angel asked, standing beside them.
“No…everything was fine. We
had just pulled out of the reservoir when I spotted the car following us.”
“She must have found how the
two of you were leaving then,” Giles said, leaning forward. “And followed it to
the natural conclusion…damn it, we left ourselves wide open.”
“We thought it would work,”
Jenny reassured him with a hand on his arm. “We need to find Dawn before
tonight. There’s only a few hours left.”
“The connection,” Angel
said. “The three of us together should be able to find her location.”
“Yeah, but how are we going
to be able to get Dawn away from Glory?”
“There’s a way,” Spike said.
“Glory is Ben.”
“How’s that?” Anya asked.
~~~~~~~
Spike glanced around at the
blank faces except for Angel. He repeated his earlier statement but the others still
stared at him expectantly. He leaned his head back on the couch in frustration.
“Spike,” Buffy said, sighing
as he dodged her hand holding the cloth. “I need to clean this up.”
“Didn’t you hear me, Luv?”
Spike asked. “Ben is Glory and Glory is Ben. Ben is probably killable.”
“I think it’s some kind of
spell,” Angel said, looking around. “They can’t remember it. It’s her
protection.”
“What spell?” Xander asked.
“Who’s under a spell?”
“All of you are,” Spike
exclaimed, wishing he could shake it into them but knew it wouldn’t work. Angel
knew and understood. Buffy probably would if the three of them were connected.
The demon would allow her to retain the knowledge. “We need to talk alone.”
Buffy looked confused. It
was like she had thought the head injury had loosened a few of his marbles but
she helped him to stand anyway. He was feeling stronger but let her fuss over
him. It felt good. Better than the anger and recriminations that he had been
expecting.
“I still want to know what
spell,” Xander said, as the three of them made their way into the bedroom.
“They’ll let us know soon
enough,” Giles said, softly watching them.
It was as if the Watcher
understood that something was going on that he couldn’t understand and trusted
them to handle it. Maybe it was just Buffy being part of it but he didn’t think
so. He suspected that the man was slowly beginning to trust the vampires to do
what was right.
“What’s going on?” Buffy
asked, as soon as the door closed behind them. “We need to find Dawn and…”
“Shush, pet,” Spike said,
taking her hand. The connection was always there but it could be masked by high
emotions or pushed aside if the will was strong enough. This time it needed to
be strong and he grasped Angel’s hand, too. Without being asked Angel took
Buffy’s. The spark was instantaneous as Spike opened himself to the call of his
mates. It flowed among them…making them one. “Buffy, listen, Glory is Ben. Ben
is Glory.” He waited until she nodded her understanding. “He helped to take
Dawn and…”
“You want to kill him if we
can find him instead of Glory,” Buffy said. “Kill him…kill both.”
“It makes sense,” Angel
said. “And it would be the easiest solution.”
“And also wrong,” Buffy
declared. “He’s human. We can’t kill humans…well, I can’t.”
“Riley,” Spike said softly,
hating to push that button now but it needed to be done. She had allowed it
before and this time the circumstances were a lot more justifiable. “He helped
Glory. He’s not an innocent bystander. He knows what’s going on and he attacked
Faith.”
“We’ll go after Glory if you
want us to but…,” Angel added. “But if we can stop this from even starting we
have a better chance of everyone surviving.”
Buffy pulled away from them.
What they were asking her to do was condone murder. Spike knew it and Angel
knew it but their hands weren’t clean. Their morals weren’t as defined as hers.
She had been chosen to protect human life, not take it but she had to be part
of the decision. And no matter what they thought they would abide by it.
Or at least let her think
it. Spike met Angel’s eyes. He understood and accepted it was for the best. If
she said no then Spike would go alone, try alone and if he succeeded he would
disappear when it was over. He would leave Angel, Buffy, Dawn and the baby to
make a life together. It was the least he could for the life and the opportunities
they had given him.
There was a gentle knock on
the door and Giles slipped into the room. The watcher looked at all of them
before catching Buffy’s eye.
“There is something going on
that I can’t understand,” Giles said. “Or remember…or something.” He laughed
uncomfortably. “Maybe if we work around it, I can help.”
Buffy looked miserable as
she looked at the man who had guided her and she had trusted for a long time.
“There’s an innocent,” she
said, sitting on the edge of the bed. Her hands folded in her lap. “He holds
the key to killing Glory. If we kill him then it’s over but he’s human, Giles.”
Giles knelt at her feet and
took her hands in his. “I know I failed you once, Buffy and I have looked for a
way to redeem myself in your eyes. I have trained you blindly to what the
Council has told me to do until recently. And I’ve never told you that there
are exceptions, situations that fall into a gray area. You can’t save everyone,
Buffy. There will always be someone that is beyond your reach and you can only
do your best and give your best. The three men in this room love you
unconditionally; trust us to make the right choice at the right time. Let us
take this burden from you.”
Buffy looked up at Angel
first then turned to Spike then she slowly nodded. She put her hand on her
stomach and smiled as tears slowly ran down her face.
“Save the world for us.”
~~~~~~~
Through the connection they
had found Dawn’s location. Her energy had called out to them, seeking it’s
protectors to come to her. Giles drove while Angel and Spike kept themselves
tuned into the vibrations that were coming to them in waves. Buffy was
meditating at home to keep the three of them as one.
“Turn right,” Angel said.
Giles followed the
direction, turning down a small side street on the side of town that was slowly
dying out. Fewer than half the streetlights worked leaving dark caves between
the buildings where anything could hide. He shivered as the street they pulled
into was even more forlorn looking. Suddenly two figures darted into an alley
in front of them.
“It was Dawn,” Spike said, grabbing
the heavy metal chain he had brought. He climbed from the car even while Giles
was pulling to the side of the road.
Angel scrambled out and after
instructing Giles to keep the motor running; he followed Spike into the alley. If
Dawn was away from Glory then all they would need to do was to keep her in
hiding until after the appointed time. Running he followed Spike into the alley
where he could hear shouting. Suddenly Spike landed at his feet, sliding along
the wet pavement until he was stopped by a dumpster.
“Glory’s with her,” Spike
groaned. “Go…I’m fine.”
Taking off running, Angel
followed the sounds of shouting ahead. With relief he heard Spike following
him. They would probably need the two of them.
“This is not what I need,”
Glory’s voice could be heard. “You guilt Ben into helping you and now I’ve got
those blood sucking freaks on my tail. I am going to be so glad when you bleed,
little girl.”
The two vampires charged around
the corner, temporarily blinded by car lights on the other side. Caught between
them was Glory and Dawn. Giles climbed out of the car wielding a sword.
“Give it up, Glory,” Angel
warned. “You won’t make it out of this alley alive.”
“Didn’t your lover tell you
what I did to him and his little humans,” Glory taunted, pulling Dawn against
her. “What makes you think that I’m going to lose?”
“She’s weak,” Dawn called.
“Ben is influencing her…they keep switching out.”
Angel signaled Spike to
circle a little to the left as he tried to figure out how to get Dawn away from
the beast. He met her eyes and saw the resignation in them. She was willing to
pay the price if it was necessary. He shook his head. It wasn’t worth it even
if he and Giles had both thought it for a moment. Dawn was going to live.
It happened so suddenly that
it took a moment for him to react. Dawn slammed her foot down on Glory’s then brought
her head back into the blonde’s face. It gave her the edge to dart away leaving
Glory in the middle. It also gave them the advantage because in her surprise
and pain she faded back to Ben.
Giles looked momentarily
surprised at the change while Spike and Angel moved to attack. There wasn’t any
time to waste. They had to act before the two switched again. Spike went to
swing but Ben kicked high into the vampire’s stomach sending him spiraling
backwards. The mortal started to run but was tripped by Angel sending him to
the pavement.
It was at that moment that
he morphed back into Glory.
“What is your problem?”
Glory said, standing and dusting off her dress. “I keep telling you that you
are not going to win this.” She turned, grabbing Giles by the back of the neck.
“See this…crack it like an egg.” Her other hand went to Giles forehead but
Spike swinging the chain into her back knocked her off balance.
“I’ve had it with you
bitch,” Spike snarled, slipping into game face as he wrapped the chain around
her neck.
Angel took the opportunity
to begin punching her face as she clawed to get the chain off of her. Dawn was
right. The god was weakening. They just needed her to switch one more time.
Giles gave them the advantage they needed by driving the sword into her side.
She gave a gasp as she faded to Ben again. His face held surprise and pain as
he realized he didn’t stand a chance.
“Help me, please,” Ben
whispered, holding his hand covered with blood in front of him.
The two vampires and watcher
hesitated for only a moment. There was no choice. Spike tightened the chain,
Angel took Ben’s head in his hands and Giles went to drive the sword in again.
This time the human collapsed to the ground with one last sigh before he was
gone taking Glory with him.
“Is it over?” Dawn asked, crawling out from beneath the staircase she had been
hiding under.
“Yeah, it is Niblet,” Spike said, wrapping an arm around her shoulder
and turning her from Ben’s body.
“Let’s go home,” Angel said.
“Sounds good to me,” Giles
said.
The four climbed into the
car. Dawn leaned over the seat between Angel and Giles.
“Buffy is so going to kick
your asses for letting me see that.”
to be continued…
