Chapter 40
“When we met first and loved, I did not build/Upon the event with marble. Could it mean/To last, a love set pendulous between/Sorrow and sorrow? Nay, I rather thrilled,/Distrusting every light that seemed to gild/The onward path, and feared to overlean/A finger even. And, though I have grown serene/And strong since then, I think that God has willed/A still renewable fear…O love, O troth…/Lest these enclasped hands should never hold,/This mutual kiss drop down between us both/As an unowned thing, once the lips being cold./And Love, be false! if he, to keep one oath,/Must lose one joy, by his life’s star foretold.” ~Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Sonnet 36, When We Met First and Loved, I Did Not Build”
They moved like twin shadows, their lithe forms covering ground faster than was humanly possible. There was no other way to keep up with Faith, who had apparently decided that running was her best option.
She’d shoved Buffy through a half-burned door on her way out, diving through an open window that had had the glass blown out from the bomb. Spike had slowed his steps just enough to make sure that Buffy wasn’t badly hurt, and then had pursued Faith, following the quick glimpses he caught of the dark-haired Slayer and the faint traces of her scent.
Buffy joined him before he’d gone too far, and they chased her together, communicating silently. Spike knew that this could only end one way now; he couldn’t let Faith go again and risk her hurting someone else he loved, someone else that he was responsible for.
Spike couldn’t help but think that Faith wanted something from him, from them. She wouldn’t have gone after Wesley otherwise; this wasn’t simply about revenge. He couldn’t quite figure out what it was, though. She had to know that he would kill her for this.
Nearly stumbling at the realization, Spike realized that Faith wanted to die. She wanted them to kill her; she wanted to go out in a blaze of glory, because there was no reason for her to live.
“Bloody hell,” he muttered under his breath. More than anything else, it pissed him off; Spike didn’t like the idea of Faith using him to commit suicide.
Buffy glanced over at him, concern in her eyes. Spike gave a quick shake of his head, not wanting her to hesitate. If Faith did want to commit suicide by vampire, he’d let her; he wouldn’t like it, and he’d probably have nightmares about it for the next century or so, but he’d let her. There were some people, he’d learned, who simply couldn’t be reached.
Spike caught a glimpse of something else out of the corner of his eye, and he frowned. There was a cry of pain ahead of him, and both he and Buffy increased their pace, putting on a final burst of speed.
They found Faith in a clearing, staring at a creature that looked part man, part demon, and part machine. She was holding her arm, and she glanced around wildly when Buffy and Spike skidded to a halt. “What the hell is that thing?” she demanded, forgetting for a moment that they were supposed to be mortal enemies.
“I don’t know,” Buffy said. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Can you say Initiative?” Spike asked.
The creature looked at Faith. “You must come with me,” he said. “Mother wants to see you.”
“You know, my mother told me not to talk to strangers,” Faith quipped.
The man-demon cyborg frowned, as though he didn’t quite understand. “I am Adam, and mother wants to see you.” He turned to look at Buffy and Spike. “You aren’t wanted.”
“Gee, that’s a first,” Faith commented.
“And I feel hurt,” Buffy said.
Spike moved quickly, shoving Buffy out of the way of Adam’s strike at her with the spine that emerged from his arm. The vampire recognized that weapon as coming from a Polgara demon, and he knew what the Initiative wanted the dissected demons for. To a certain extent, this was probably what they’d planned for him, and for Buffy. The Initiative was building soldiers, and they didn’t care how they got them, just as long as they were strong, fast, and obedient.
“You don’t want to tangle with these bastards, Faith,” Spike warned her.
Faith gave him a short nod, knowing that it was better to deal with the devil you knew than the one you didn’t, and that their dispute was only being put on hold. “Truce, then, for now.”
Before Spike could warn her to back off, she attacked Adam again, but he swatted her back like a fly. With a silent look, Buffy and Spike assaulted him together; Buffy just bounced off, and even with the gem, Spike barely made a dent. Seeing that he had managed something, however, caused Spike to throw a punch at Adam’s stomach, going for the solar plexus, where it didn’t look as though he had a lot of metal.
The cyborg was forced to take a step back, but that was it. “I am not weak like you,” Adam said, grinning. “I feel no pain.”
“We’ll see about that,” Faith said from behind him. She took the tree branch she’d broken off and attempted to ram it through his chest. Considering that her usual targets were vampires, Spike had to give her points for consistency, but the branch splintered, leaving Adam undamaged.
He heard the crack of wood, and he shouted at Faith, pulling Buffy down beside him as he dove for cover, just before the rain of bullets began.
~~~~~
The one good thing about looking as bad as he did was that they didn’t have to wait in the ER very long. The triage nurse had taken one look at Wesley and had immediately ushered him back to a curtained cubicle, getting him onto a bed.
She tried to shoo Willow out—she’d already ordered Xander, Giles, and Tara to stay in the waiting room—but the girl shook her head stubbornly. “I’m staying with him.”
“Please,” Wesley said. “I’d prefer it if she stayed.”
“Very well,” the nurse said, hurrying out to get more help.
Willow smiled. “Very nice puppy dog eyes. I didn’t know you could do that.”
“I didn’t either,” Wesley replied. “I thought you might want to stay.”
“If you don’t want me here—”
“I didn’t say that,” Wesley said quickly. “It’s just that…” he trailed off. “I don’t know. I wish I knew how Spike and Buffy were doing.”
“I know,” Willow replied. “Me too, but I think Spike would do me some serious physical harm if I didn’t make sure that you were okay before looking for him.” She glanced over her shoulder. “I could ask Xander to check the map, but I don’t want to leave in case they don’t let me back in.”
“Don’t leave,” Wesley said. “I might not know much right now, but I know I want you here.”
Another nurse came bustling in, followed closely by an intern in medical scrubs. Willow was shoved off to the side as they began to take Wesley’s vital signs and talked about X-rays and other tests they needed to perform. She held his eyes, needing to know that he was okay.
Willow had believed that she would never love someone like she had loved Oz, and that was true; she never would. Oz was Oz, and Wesley was Wesley. That didn’t mean that she didn’t love Wesley, and the thought of losing him did things to her insides that she never would have expected.
She supposed she should have known that you love different people differently. It had been true of what she had felt for Xander, compared to how she felt about Oz, and now there was Wesley.
Willow hoped that there would always be Wesley.
~~~~~
Giles and Tara leaned over Xander’s shoulder, looking at the map as if it would tell them everything that they wanted to know. Little colored dots didn’t really give a lot of information, however; all they were certain of was that Buffy and Spike were staying largely in one spot and that they were still alive. Tara had been fairly sure that if something happened to either of them, they would know.
“What do you think is keeping them?” Xander asked anxiously. “Are they coming?”
“If I knew that, I wouldn’t be staring at this blasted map.” Giles couldn’t prevent the anxiety he felt from turning into frustration. He’d seen what Faith had done to Wesley; Giles didn’t want to know what she might do to Buffy or Spike given the chance.
Although, he wasn’t terribly worried about Spike. The vampire had the gem, and it was unlikely that he would get hurt; Buffy was a different story.
“I’m sure they’re fine, Giles,” Xander said. “You didn’t see Spike; he was ready to go for the kill.”
“I know that both of them are capable of taking care of themselves,” Giles said, calming himself with some effort. “Faith is unpredictable, however. They might—”
Xander shook his head. “I’m serious, Giles. Spike was ready to rip her into little tiny pieces. I don’t think she’ll be able to hurt them.”
The Watcher sighed, unwilling to admit that Xander might have a point. Buffy was his Slayer, out there with not only Faith, but the Initiative and the Council’s team, and there was no guarantee that she would emerge from this conflict safely, particularly given her recent brush with death.
Tara took a breath, and then stopped, uncomfortable with the two men. She was staying because she knew that Willow wanted her there, and because she was worried about Wesley. “Is there something you wanted to say, Tara?” Giles asked.
She shook her head.
“I’m sure they’ll all be fine,” Giles said, more for her benefit than his own. That was his role as the grown-up, after all. Hearing the phone ring, Giles pulled out the cell phone that Joyce had bought him. “Hello?”
“Where are you?” she asked.
“We’re at the hospital,” Giles replied. “Wesley was hurt, but Spike and Buffy were fine the last anyone saw them. They went after Faith and haven’t returned yet.”
“Should I come?” Joyce asked. “If you need me—”
“Stay,” Giles urged her. “We’re just waiting right now.”
Joyce agreed, although her reluctance was obvious. “You’ll call me as soon as you know anything?”
“Of course,” Giles replied. He put the phone away, and glanced over at Xander and Tara, who were watching him intently. “It’s going to be fine,” he repeated.
~~~~~
“Who the bloody hell are they?” Spike demanded.
“How should I know?” Buffy shot back. “Maybe they’ll shoot Adam.”
Spike grimaced. “They are shooting him; they aren’t doing any good.”
That much was true; although the unknown gunmen were firing steadily at the cyborg, Adam was obviously unaffected by the hail of bullets. In fact, he began walking towards one of the spots where the gunfire was coming from, reaching into the bushes to yank out a black-clad man, taking the automatic rifle away and bending it in two. “Do you really think your weapons can harm me?”
“What the sodding hell—” the man began.
Adam was holding the man by the collar with his green, demon hand, and the spine shot out, piercing him through the chest. The demon dropped the lifeless body to the ground, meeting the charge of the next two men with ease.
Buffy watched the short-lived fight with a sinking sensation in her stomach. Whatever Adam was, he appeared nearly indestructible, and he had no problem killing. Buffy wondered if she shouldn’t be trying to save the lives of the men attacking the demon, but they had been shooting at her and Spike. Even if they weren’t the targets, it didn’t matter; they could have easily been hit.
When three bodies lay on the ground around Adam, Buffy glanced over at Spike, her eyes wide. “Spike…”
“We can’t handle him,” Spike muttered. “There’s no way, not right now.”
“What about Faith?” she asked.
“Get her and get out,” Spike said. “We can’t let the Initiative—”
“Stop!” Adam called.
He had seen Faith try to slip away, and he moved to seize her. For something so big—and made of metal—Adam moved unbelievably fast. Faith ducked his grasping hand, darting away. “I’m not going with you, big and ugly.”
“You don’t have a choice,” he replied.
“Yes, she does,” Buffy said, knowing that they couldn’t allow the Initiative to get their hands on Faith. There was no way she would allow them to get their hands on a Slayer; whatever Faith had done, she didn’t deserve what they had planned for her.
Buffy heard Spike cursing behind her, and she knew that he was not happy about having to face Adam, at least not without a rocket launcher.
Later, looking back, Buffy was never certain exactly what happened. Faith, always impulsive, threw herself at Adam. Buffy moved in to make sure Adam didn’t get his hands on her, and the cyborg turned on her, bringing his fist down on her temple. She went down like a ton of bricks, darkness clouding her vision for a long moment.
When she woke, Spike was carrying her and moving at a quick jog, and Adam and Faith were nowhere in sight. “Spike! Where’s Faith?”
“Dead.” Spike’s jaw muscle was ticking, and Buffy struggled, trying to get down. “Just hold still,” he snapped. “You’re not bloody walking.”
“What happened?” she asked.
“Later,” he said. “We need to get somewhere safe. Adam wanted Faith alive, but he wanted you dead. I don’t want to know what he’ll do once the confusion wears off.”
Buffy stilled, knowing that there was no reasoning with him at the moment. “Where are we going?”
“Your mum’s place,” Spike replied. “It’s closer.”
Buffy was silent the rest of the trip to her mom’s house. Joyce met them at the door, her eyes filled with concern. “Buffy?”
“I’m fine, Mom,” Buffy said, giving Spike a look that he easily interpreted. He put her on her feet, and after a moment, she was fine to stand on her own, the remaining dizziness clearing. “See? I’m great. What about Wesley?”
Joyce gave her a gentle hug, not wanting to hurt her daughter. “Rupert just called from the hospital. They’re releasing Wesley tonight with the understanding that he would go straight home. Willow’s staying with him.”
“How is he?” Spike asked.
Joyce shook her head. “I don’t know the details. Rupert said that he would be okay, so I assumed that he would be fine.”
“I’m sure he will be,” Spike said. “Wesley’s tougher than he looks. Does that mean that Rupert is on his way back?”
“As soon as he finished dropping everyone off,” Joyce replied. “What happened with Faith?”
Spike shook his head. “I don’t want to tell this story more than once.”
“I’ll get us something to drink.”
“Better make it something a little stronger than hot chocolate,” Spike said.
As soon as her mother had left the room, Buffy turned to her boyfriend. “Spike, the Initiative still has Faith’s body.”
“I’m well aware of that, luv,” Spike said evenly. “I had two choices: save you or grab Faith’s body. You think I should have made a different choice?”
“No, I’m just saying that we can’t let them keep it, not after…” Buffy trailed off. They had used a human as the basis for that cobbled-together monster; she only hoped that he’d been dead when they had cut him to pieces. The idea that they’d used a living man…
“Pretty sure he was dead when they started piecing him together,” Spike said quietly, trying to be reassuring. “He wouldn’t have survived something like that; nothing human could.”
Buffy swallowed. “What are we going to do?”
“Now might be the time to get that big Boy Scout to give us a hand,” Spike said. “If he could get us information on that thing, and maybe on where they have Faith’s body, we might be able to do something about it.”
Buffy nodded. “I’ll talk to Riley tomorrow.” She glanced up when her mother came back into the room, carrying a tray of drinks. She had a double shot of scotch for Spike, the same for herself, and a soda for Buffy, who frowned. “I think I deserve a drink, too.”
“You’re not old enough, sweetheart,” Joyce replied.
Spike shared a look with the woman, then handed his glass to Buffy. “Give it a try, luv, if you want.”
Buffy took a healthy swallow and nearly spit it back out. “Blegh!”
Spike rescued his glass. “Yeah, it’s not the most pleasant-tasting stuff.”