Chapter 38
Author's Notes: Wherein Spike and Buffy face down Harmony and her minions, Xander makes a big decision, and Toth shows up. Again.
Chapter 38: Uncertainty
“So, Harmony, I heard you wanted to see me.”
Spike watched Buffy from the shadows; the Slayer was very good at what she did, and it was always a pleasure to see her work. Harmony stopped in mid-stream, looking rather alarmed at Buffy’s presence. She’d been giving a pep talk to the other vampires—a rather sorry lot, in Spike’s opinion.
Except for the big one. His sheer size meant that he could be quite a threat.
“So nice of you to join us, Slayer,” Harmony said, her bravado betrayed by a quiver in her voice.
Buffy rolled her eyes. “Please, Harmony. You suck at being bad, just like you sucked at everything back in high school. I just wanted to get this over with.” She looked over her shoulder. “Spike? Are you going to give me a hand, or do you want to watch?”
He joined her, giving her a mock leer. “You know I always like to watch.”
The corners of her lips twitched. “And yet you’re such an enthusiastic participant.”
Harmony was staring at both of them in wide-eyed shock. “You’re dating the Slayer?”
Spike shrugged. “Actually, we’re engaged.”
“Congratulations,” Harmony replied automatically. Forgetting that she was supposed to be talking to an enemy, she asked, “Have you set a date yet?”
The big vampire growled. “I thought you were going to kill the Slayer.”
“I am!” Harmony snapped, her face shifting. “You’re going down, Buffy.”
Buffy sniffed. “Now I’m scared.” With that parting shot, she sprang into action, executing a roundhouse kick that put Harmony out of commission.
Spike went for the smallest vampire first, wanting to get him out of the way. He staked him cleanly, then ducked a clumsy punch from a second vampire. Out of the corner of his eye, Spike could see the big one with his arms outspread, ready to catch Buffy in a rib-crushing hold. “Buffy!”
She hit the ground, then kicked out, catching the big vampire’s knee with the heel of her boot. He howled in pain, and Spike concentrated on the two remaining minions. Neither were particularly good fighters, and he managed to grab one by the jacket, throwing him at the second, and bowling them both over.
With a manic grin, Spike staked the first, following through to pierce the heart of the second as the dust scattered.
He checked on Buffy, who had the big vampire in a retreat with a series of punches and kicks too fast for him to keep up with. Harmony was edging her way towards the entrance, clearly in an attempt to retreat.
Spike remembered that she’d come to him for shelter the last time, claiming that Buffy was out to kill her. He had had his doubts about that at the time, and now he knew that he’d been right. The Slayer hadn’t much cared about Harmony as long as she didn’t get in the way. Without knowing what she’d do this time, they couldn’t afford to let her get away, and Spike moved quickly to intercept her.
“Where are you going, Harm?” Spike asked. “Thought you wanted to kill the Slayer.”
“I do.” She looked over her shoulder nervously, just in time to see Buffy stake the big vampire with a wooden unicorn. “Now isn’t the right time.”
“Now is the perfect time,” Spike replied, turning her around and pushing her towards Buffy.
Buffy raised an eyebrow and put her hands on her hips. “What am I going to do with you, Harmony?”
“I always liked you, Buffy,” Harmony said, attempting to back away, and running into him.
Buffy sighed. “No, you didn’t, Harmony, and I never really liked you, but I’ll give you a chance to leave town now. If you come back, I’ll kill you.”
Harmony tilted her chin defiantly. “You could try!”
Buffy stepped forward menacingly, stake raised, and Harmony let out an undignified squeak. “Okay, bye!”
Spike let her go this time, since that was apparently what Buffy wanted. Once he was certain she was out of earshot, he raised an eyebrow. “You let her go?”
Buffy shrugged, looking uncomfortable. “Killing her would be too easy. It just feels…wrong.”
He put an arm around her shoulders. “A bit like staking me with the chip in, huh?”
“Exactly, except I would never want Harmony around.”
“You didn’t want me around either.”
“At least you kept things interesting.”
“How come you never chased me off?” Spike asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.
She grinned. “I have no idea, but I’m glad I didn’t.”
He felt much the same way.
~~~~~
Xander stepped inside the apartment, feeling as though his life was about to begin. He had no idea how he was supposed to dress to look for apartments, but he figured that if Spike could get one, he should have no problem.
“I, uh, I’m sorry I didn’t have a chance to get cleaned up first,” he told the manager. “I came straight from work.”
He’d wanted to wait to be sure that his boss was going to ask him to stay on before starting to look around, but once he’d been given the word, he’d called immediately. Although there was a part of him that had wanted to ask the others to come along, he’d hesitated. Maybe this was something he should do by himself.
“That’s fine.” She smiled warmly at him. “I understand completely.”
He wandered around the bare interior, trying to picture himself—and Anya—living there. He had a feeling that his girlfriend would be spending a lot of time at his place once they didn’t have to worry about hearing his parents’ drunken fights anymore.
“You’ll need to fill out an application,” she advised. “We’ll run a credit check and talk to your references, and then let you know. We’ll also need first, last, security, and a small cleaning deposit. The total is at the bottom of the application.”
Xander took the form from her and glanced at the figure. It was high, but not too bad now that he’d been given a raise and a permanent position. He looked down at the toes of his work boots, wondering how he’d come to be here.
He was a full-fledged adult now, with a real job, and a real girlfriend, and now he was looking at renting a real apartment. How did that happen?
“That shouldn’t be a problem,” he said finally, looking up at her with a crooked grin. “When will you let me know?”
“It will be a couple of days, but no more than that. Once we run the check, you can sign the lease.” Her tone changed slightly. “Are you going to be living here alone?”
“Huh?” Xander had been looking over the rest of the application, and hadn’t been paying much attention. “Oh, yeah. That’s the plan.”
She nodded, as though satisfied with herself. “Great. Well, I’ll let you know as soon as we’ve finalized everything.”
“Thanks,” Xander said sincerely, exiting the apartment and watching as she locked up after them. “Hopefully, I’ll see you in a couple of days.”
It was that much harder to go home after that, to his parents’ basement that smelled of urine with the occasional rain of plaster dust from disintegrating tiles. The phone rang as soon as he entered, and Xander picked it up. “Hello?”
“Hey, Xander,” Buffy said. “Are you available for a meeting tonight? We’re ordering pizza if you’re hungry.”
“Sure,” he replied. “Where?”
“We’re going to do it at Giles’ place. We’ve already called for dinner, but we’ll save you a few slices if the pizza gets here before you do.” Her voice took on a teasing tone. “Unless you’d prefer bugs.”
“I thought we weren’t going to mention that,” Xander replied.
She giggled. “I never agreed to that.”
He said goodbye, shaking his head. Although he might have liked to be annoyed at her reference to him succumbing to Dracula’s thrall, Xander couldn’t say that he didn’t deserve it. He’d been warned several times, and he’d still been caught.
After a moment’s thought, Xander dialed Anya’s number, not knowing whether Buffy had called his girlfriend to let her know about the meeting as well.
“We have to see them tonight?” Anya asked. “I thought we were going to look for a new place for you to live.”
“I already looked, An,” Xander replied. “They’re checking my credit, and she’s going to let me know in a couple of days.”
“You went without me?” Her voice took on a dangerous lilt.
He swallowed. “I wanted it to be a surprise.”
“So, you don’t care about my opinion?” she asked.
Xander frowned. “Of course I do, but I just found out today that I’m keeping my job, and I went straight over there. It’s the place you said you liked.”
“But you didn’t even tell me.”
He realized that she wasn’t going to get past that point any time soon. “Can we talk about this later?” he asked plaintively. “I need to get cleaned up to meet the others.”
“Fine. I’m not going to be there.”
“Why?”
“I have to wash my hair.”
When he heard the dial tone, Xander knew he was in serious trouble.
~~~~~
Giles looked up at Spike with a smile of welcome as the vampire entered his apartment after a brief knock. “You’re early.”
“I needed to talk to you about a couple of things.” Spike shut the door behind him and slumped down on the couch. “You know the Magic Box is available.”
“I was aware of that,” Giles replied. “I saw the police tape the other day when I went to get a few things. I’ve already made inquiries into leasing the space.”
Spike nodded, apparently satisfied. “Good. That’s one thing that we didn’t want to change. The place comes in handy.”
“And I
was getting bored,” he admitted. The summer had been longer than he’d like to admit. With Willow and Tara in England, and Spike and Buffy largely self-sufficient, he hadn’t had much to do. “Was there something else?”
“Heard from a friend that there are some vampires in town who’ve found out that I’ve got the ring, an’ they want it.”
Giles wished he could say that he was surprised, but he’d been expecting it. In truth, he was only surprised that it had taken this long. “What do you want to do?”
“I’m goin’ to clear out the cave,” Spike replied. “Think the extra cash may come in handy this year. After that, I want you to hold it for safekeeping. No one would expect it, an’ I know you can handle it.”
Giles pulled off his glasses, polishing the lenses slowly. “I have a safe I could put it in. Will that do?”
“Yeah, that’ll work.” Spike stared down at his hand. “I have to tell you, I don’t want to give it up.”
“Because you’re invulnerable while wearing it?”
“Because I can be with Buffy with it.” Spike’s eyes were vulnerable. “I’m used to bein’ with her any time of the day. Seems like it’s puttin’ up a barrier between the two of us again.”
Giles felt strangely honored by Spike’s confidence, and he could understand why he was concerned. “You didn’t have the ring before,” he pointed out. “Buffy’s feelings for you started long before you came back in time.”
Spike didn’t appear convinced. “Maybe, but this is where things were good. How much of it was the Gem?”
“I honestly don’t believe that’s something you have to be concerned about,” Giles replied. “But you won’t know until you try it.”
“Yeah.” He was quiet for a moment. “Soon as I empty out the cavern, I’ll pass it over. Figure it’s best to make sure it’s where I can still get to it, as long as it’s safe.”
“A good thought,” Giles agreed. “What were you thinking you need the money for?”
“Dunno that it’s a good idea for Joyce to stay here with Dawn,” Spike said. “An’ she could need special treatment she can’t get here. Could solve all our problems to send them away while we take care of Glory.”
Giles sat back in his seat, surprised at the suggestion, but Spike had a very good point. Glory was going to become a problem shortly, and it might be better that she not even know that Buffy had a sister. “Would it be possible for Glory not to know about Buffy to begin with?”
Spike chuckled, although there was little humor in the sound. “Maybe, but Glory tends to go after what she wants with no thought for who she hurts in the process. That, and the fact that she’s goin’ to be brain-suckin’ people right an’ left—Buffy won’t be able to let that go.”
“What would you want to do?” Giles asked.
Spike sighed. “I don’t know, Watcher. There’s a part of me that wants to whisk all of ‘em away, somewhere safe until this is over. An’ then again, I’d like to prevent Glory from doin’ any harm at all.”
Giles frowned. “How?”
“By killing Ben,” Spike reminded him, then laughed. “Never mind. Forget I said anythin’ about it.”
Giles was still puzzled. “Who’s Ben?”
~~~~~
Mairead wasn’t used to California weather yet. It still seemed odd to go outside without carrying an umbrella, whether or not it looked like rain. She was still adjusting to life outside of the coven; she’d been under Gertrude Harkness’ tutelage since the age of sixteen, and had lived with them since eighteen.
She often thought that the only thing keeping her from being terribly homesick was Tara’s presence. Mairead liked Willow, but she wasn’t the sort of person she’d normally have cultivated a relationship with. Oz, on the other hand, reminded her of a school chum she’d been close to.
Looking after the Hellmouth wasn’t quite a full time job, though, and she wanted something else to do with her time while Tara was in classes. The coven had begun arranging her work permit as soon as the decision had been made to send her, and she already had her green card. It was just a matter of finding suitable work.
Mairead frowned as she saw a large, scaly demon entering one of the stores along the main street, and she quickened her steps. She entered the shop to see Giles swinging a statue at the demon’s head.
The demon raised his staff to strike, and Mairead quickly drew in her power, casting a well-aimed spell in the demon’s direction.
Staggering back a few steps, the demon raised his staff and pointed it at her. “You are not the Slayer.”
“No, and you will not touch her,” Mairead replied. “Be gone.” When it looked as though he might stand his ground, she thrust him outside with as much force as she could muster. “Are you alright?” she asked Giles.
“Quite,” he replied, lowering the statute. “Thank you. That was impressive.”
Mairead shook her head. “The amount of power is unimportant compared to how one uses it.” She glanced around. “Are you taking over here?”
“It’s nice, isn’t it?” he asked. “The overhead is low, and I believe that there’s a market for it. The rent is cheap, mostly because shop owners keep dying.”
She smiled. “It might be a good idea for you to have some protections. I could work on that for you, if you like. We’ve already done our house, and we’ve plans to take care of Buffy and Spike’s homes next.”
“That would be most appreciated,” Giles replied. “It might be nice to at least have some warning when a demon enters the premises.” He paused. “As long as an alarm doesn’t go off every time Spike comes in.”
She smiled. “I think I can make an exception for him.” Mairead gestured to the boxes. “Would you like some help? I haven’t anywhere else I need to be.”
Giles hesitated. “If you’d like.”
“It would be my pleasure.” After some hesitation, she admitted, “I’m a bit homesick, and hearing you speak—”
“Say no more,” he said. “I’ll make some tea.”
Mairead rolled up her sleeves. It was good to have something useful with which to occupy her time.
~~~~~
“Crap,” Buffy said, staring at Giles in dismay. “I completely forgot about Toth.”
“Who?” came the collective question.
“The demon that Giles scared off with Oofdar, goddess of childbirth,” Buffy replied. “He wants to split me into my Slayer and human halves. Last time, he hit Xander instead.”
Xander’s eyes widened. “Why me?”
“You shoved me out of the way,” Buffy admitted. She had noticed that Anya wasn’t there, nor had she been at the Scooby meeting the other night. She wanted to ask Xander if everything was okay, but she didn’t want to embarrass him in front of everybody.
Willow frowned. “How did that work, though? Xander’s not the Slayer.”
“It was like Xander got split into his stronger and weaker qualities,” Buffy replied. “Both were still Xander, but just—more.”
“Probably better if Spike and I don’t risk getting hit then,” Oz pointed out.
She hadn’t even thought of that possibility. If she couldn’t risk the Slayer and human sides being split, Buffy didn’t even want to know what would happen to a vampire and a werewolf. It could get very ugly. “I’ll let Spike know,” she replied. “And you should probably stay off the search tonight, too.”
“Isn’t it just as dangerous for the rest of us?” Willow asked. “I know if it was me—”
Buffy knew that her friend had a point. They all had strengths and weaknesses that could be dangerous if concentrated.
“I don’t think we need to worry quite so much about you three,” Giles said, referring to the three witches. “Both of you can shield yourselves magically the way that the others can’t.” He looked at Buffy. “You may want to think about asking Graham for his assistance.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” Buffy admitted. “Riley was with us the last time, and I’d rather take care of Toth the first time I confront him.”
Giles nodded. “Good. I think between the five of us, we’ll be able to take care of the problem.”
“Five?” Xander objected. “I can go.”
Buffy hesitated. “Maybe it would be better if you don’t, Xan. You could spend some time with Anya tonight. I know you’ve been pretty busy lately.”
He winced. “She’s not happy with me.”
“Then what better chance to make her happy?” Willow asked pragmatically. When the others looked at her in surprise, knowing how she felt about the ex-demon, she shrugged, “I want Xander to be happy. If Anya can do it, fine.”
Buffy saw Oz give her a proud smile and squeeze her hand, and she smiled. As Willow had said, all she really wanted was to see her friends happy.
The phone in the Magic Box rang, and Giles picked up. “Hello?” There was a pause, and he lowered his voice. “Of course. What time?”
Buffy frowned. She could smell a secret from a mile away, and she somehow knew that Giles was worried about her overhearing for some reason. “What was that about?” she asked once he’d hung up.
His expression was bland. “Nothing, just a delivery.”
Her eyes narrowed. She knew that Giles was lying to her, but Buffy decided to let it slide. She’d figure it out one way or another. “Are we still on for tonight?”
“Of course. Where are we going to start?” Giles asked.
Buffy smiled. “The dump. That’s where he was the last time.”
“I did smell an odor about him,” Mairead stated.
She gave a satisfied nod. “Good. Maybe we can take care of him the first night out this time.”
~~~~~
Willow was more than a little nervous. Her over-active imagination kept going over what might happen should she get split into her better and worse halves. She could easily see herself destroying Sunnydale before Buffy could put her back together again.
“Don’t worry about it,” Oz said, taking her hands in his. “You’re going to do great.”
“What if—”
“No. You’ve changed,” he reminded her. “You’re not the same person anymore.”
Willow took a deep breath. It helped to know that he believed in her. “Yeah.”
“Be careful.”
She shared a kiss with him, gaining both strength and comfort from his embrace. Willow knew that in that other future she’d been with Tara, but she had a hard time imagining herself with anyone other than Oz. Other than Xander, he was the only person she’d ever been in love with.
And the feelings she had for Oz couldn’t compare to what she felt for Xander.
“Gotta go,” she said. “I’ll see you later tonight.”
Giles was already in the driveway with Buffy when they walked outside, the top of his car down in spite of the cooler night air. Willow climbed into the back seat next to Tara, who sat in the middle. “Ready?” he asked.
“Let’s go,” Buffy replied.
Willow wiped her sweaty palms on her jeans and felt Tara’s hand on her arm. “You’ll do fine.”
“Don’t you wonder what would happen?” Willow asked in an undertone.
A shadow passed across her face. “Yeah, but it’s not going to happen. We know what to guard against now.”
Willow nodded, wondering what frightened Tara so much about the idea, and wondering if Mairead knew her fears.
They smelled the dump before it came into view, and Willow wrinkled her nose. “Eww. Who would want to come here?”
Buffy turned in her seat. “Well, Spike did to get stuff for his crypt the last time.”
Willow shook her head, amazed as always at the changes Spike had gone through. “I thought Graham was meeting us.”
“He is.” She pointed.
Willow saw the soldier leaning up against a Jeep, looking pretty relaxed for a guy about to go out and find a demon who could split him in two. Of course, from the little contact she’d had with him, Graham had reminded her of Oz. Even if he was freaking out inside, she didn’t think they’d see much of it on the outside.
“Hey, Graham.” Buffy greeted him cheerfully as they got out of the car.
He smiled briefly, nodding impartially at everyone. “Hey. What’s this demon look like?”
Buffy rolled her eyes. “Down to business, huh? He’s big, black cloak, big staff, and scabby. You really can’t miss him, although it’s probably a good idea if he misses you.”
Graham lifted his rifle. “I’ll do my best.”
Willow noticed that he was carrying a regular gun, rather than one of the special blasters the Initiative soldiers usually had. “What’s up with the regular weapon?” she asked, curious.
“It works better,” he explained. “I’ve got a couple of stakes for vampires. Since we’re not looking to capture demons at this point, no one cares if we kill them.”
“What did you do with all the demons you had captured?” Giles inquired.
Discomfort flickered in his expression. “We killed them. We weren’t going to free them.”
Willow noticed that the only ones who looked uncomfortable with that idea, other than the soldier, were Buffy and Mairead. She wondered if any of the demons were harmless, like the ones Spike helped out on a regular basis.
She caught a whisper of sound to her right, and she turned in time to see Toth leveling his staff in Buffy’s direction. “Buffy! Look out!”
Willow tried to snap up a barrier spell in time, but it was harder to protect someone else, and she wasn’t quite fast enough. Giles, however, moved to protect his Slayer, standing between her and the magical energy.
She just hoped that Tara or Mairead had managed the barrier spell in time.