A/N – Thanks to Marsters’ Girl for beta’ing this fiction!
Two days
later...
"Try
again." Spike coaxed, appearing much
more patient than he felt.
Buffy
growled at him but concentrated never the less.
"Ugh!" I can't do it!" She screeched at him a couple of moments
later, and moved to get up, off the mat, but Spike pulled her back down. She landed hard on her butt and growled at
him once again.
"Yes,
you can!" Spike growled at her,
and she immediately fell silent. Her
eyes dropped to the floor, suitably chastised by her sire. Spike sighed; he didn't want to treat her
like a minion. He reached out and
tilted her chin up with two fingers and brushed his lips against hers. "Come on, baby...try again."
Buffy
smiled at him, her demon satisfied that her sire wasn't angry with her. "Okay..." She closed her eyes and
tried again. She could feel
it...inside. *Concentrate...*
Spike
watched as her features flickered, then shifted completely.
Buffy
smiled, opened her eyes and reached up to her face to feel her bumpies, "I
did it!"
Spike
smiled. "You did it." He agreed.
Buffy
laughed and threw her arms around him.
They tumbled back on to the mats they were sitting on. "I felt it and I pulled it out!"
Spike
chuckled at her exuberance and wrapped his arms around her. She lifted her head and pressed her mouth to
his.
They had
been gone four days and there had been no word from either the Initiative or
the gang. Buffy had tried the gang two
days earlier, but before they could get anywhere her keen vampiric hearing had
detected a click on the line...sounding very much like someone was tracking or
taping the call. Since then she'd been too
concerned both for herself and Spike, but also for her friends and family, to
call back again. She knew that if
anything happened they would find some way to contact her...through magic if
nothing else.
She
wasn't quite sure where they were, but they had traveled at least twelve hours
from LA in the past couple of days.
They were in one of the less grungy looking motels. Spike had been teaching Buffy how to control
her inner demon for nearly three days, and today was the first time anything
had worked. Though she hadn't managed
to push her demon away yet Spike knew it was only a matter of time....she'd had
enough of his blood at her siring to result in a very powerful and very
controlled childe.
They had
been lovers for two days, though it seemed like it had been an eternity; they
were so finely tuned to each other. It
felt like everything was finally falling into place for them both.
Buffy
hadn't cried in five days.
There was
no need.
-----
Two days
earlier...
"Well?" Joyce finally asked, after nearly five full
minutes of complete and utter silence.
"Uh,
yes...my apologies..." Giles
shifted uncomfortably and removed his glasses, rubbing them in a long time habit.
"Giles!" Willow prompted.
"The
council have, uh, come to a decision and..." He paused. "I want
to first of all say, that as much as I hate the council they would never have
performed such a tremendous feat if it were not of such universal
importance."
"What
feat?" Joyce asked.
"The
council have, uh, come to a decision and..." He paused.
"And??…
Come on G-man; enough with the suspense!"
Giles didn't even glare at Xander at the despised name.
"The
powers that be...upper beings that hope to maintain the balance between good
and evil...have agreed to remove the threat of the initiative."
"Well,
that’s good right?" Dawn asked,
frowning.
"Uh,
perhaps. It would appear that their
presence in this world was unexpected...they have unbalanced the balance of
forces. By removed they meant
entirely.." Giles continued
ominously.
"You
mean...their research?"
"Everything...The
council has given me..." He pause
for a humourless laugh. "...a word
of warning to prepare."
"Prepare
for what?" Joyce asked, as she sat
down.
"The
beginning of the end."
------
Present
Day....
"Have
you heard anything?" Joyce asked
as the gang assembled in the Summers' sitting room. "Anyone?"
"No,
nothing." Willow watched as Dawn
and Joyce deflated into each other.
"B-but,
that doesn't mean anything. No more
initiative so you know...no big bad chasing them."
"Yeah,
that’s good right?" Dawn looked up
to her mother. "I mean what about
the phone call?"
"What
call?" Xander asked.
"We had
a prank call - no one said anything, but it could have been Buffy...I
guess?" Joyce smiled at her
daughter reassuringly.
"What
about magic call?" Dawn asked.
All eyes
turned to Willow.
"Do
you know of a spell that could contact them?" Giles questioned, leaning forward in his seat.
"Uh...I
think so...maybe." Willow took a
deep breath, then nodded with a bit more trust in herself. "No, yeah. I can."
"What
do you need?" Giles asked.
---
Willow
sat in the middle of the floor on top of a shirt they'd found in Buffy's
room. A large space had been cleared,
and the rest of the gang was perched precariously on the moved furniture. She had blessed the house and its occupants
before setting up twelve candles in a circle.
"Is
she okay?" Joyce asked, as Willow
began to rock back and forth.
"I
hope so." Giles murmured back.
*Buffy?*
*Buffy?*
*Red?*
Buffy
yelped in surprise as Spike suddenly fell to the ground. "Spike!"
*Spike? Is that you?* Willow looked around; she couldn't see anything, just a bright
white light.
*Fuck,
pet, what have you done? Where are
you?* Spike turned around in a full
circle, but he couldn't see her.
Couldn't even sense where she was.
*A
spell..*
*What?!*
*No,
wait...we've been trying to contact you.
The Initiative… Its gone.*
*Gone. What are
you yabberin' about?* He growled,
frustrated at his lack of senses.
*The
PTB's removed them...and everything about them.*
*Captain
Cardboard?* Spike grinned at the
thought.
*Yeah, Riley's
gone, but that's not all...*
*What,
Red?*
*Well,
you can come home now!* Willow tried to
change the subject.
*What
else- oh, it's gone?* Realization hit
Spike, and he stumbled back.
Buffy
whimpered as Spike jerked in her grasp then went still. A blood tear fell from her eyes and splashed
on his lips. Buffy let out a little cry,
as he opened his eyes, and she crushed her lips to his in relief.