Every Day I Write the Book - Part Eight

NOTES AND SUMMARY: When last we saw our heroes, Willow was threatening Wesley and Dawn and speaking through the demon Ternis; Giles and Spike had been grabbed off the Tube by said demon; Anya and Buffy had jumped in the Posh Bastard-mobile to find their missing guys. Oh, and other stuff happened too. This part: it's mostly about the action.

Friday night on the Tube was always an adventure. Parties of drunken friends, couples old and young, weekend tourists from the Continent or the suburbs, weary workers fleeing the office for a blessed two days of freedom-- if it could be imagined, it could be found on the Tube on Friday night.

Which was why, Giles considered fuzzily, there seemed to be not much fuss about the robed, seven-foot demon standing over their fallen bodies and speaking in the Slayer's voice, here on a platform of the Piccadilly line.

"You are nothing, Spike." Ternis rocked forward and moved his horned foot to Spike's left wrist. The foot pressed down, ready to slice, and Spike groaned-- whether from the physical pain or the faux-Buffy words, Giles couldn't tell. "You disgust me, soul or not. You're nothing but a monster, no matter how hard you try."

What on earth was possessing Spike to even listen to this shite? Ignoring the weakness that seemed to be creeping through his limbs, Giles shouted, "Bloody rubbish!"

Ternis turned, and hissed in another's voice, Willow's: "Giles. Giles, you want to talk? Want to talk about Jenny dead, in your bed? Your fault, you know. And it could be Anya next."

Giles choked back a wave of nausea and panic, then snapped, "Can't deal with us yourself, Ternis, eh? Have to call in a witch. Pathetic."

"You're the pathetic ones," Willow's voice said through Ternis's grimace.

"Right then," Spike suddenly growled. His free hand went to Ternis's leg and twisted hard, then yanked. The demon fell, releasing Spike's other hand.

Spike got to his feet. He was a bit unsteady, but poised to attack. "Let's try it out. See who's the bloody loser here."

***

"You are!" Willow shouted. Her eyes went even blacker, as she focused on nothing.

Wesley scrambled up, swaying on his feet. "Willow. It's your last chance. Come back to us," he said. She whipped her head toward him, and he ducked the blast of dark energy she threw. The wall cracked behind him.

"I'm right here, failure," she said. And she raised her hands again. "But that could change."

Wesley pulled two crystals from his jeans pockets, one translucent magick-conductor in each hand, and he leapt. Surprised at his movement, Willow paused for a second. Wesley attached the crystals to her temples-- sparks flying out, his hands already burning-- and he shouted, "Transfer!"

He could feel the freeze burn up and down his arms, coming close to his heart, as her enhanced energy flowed into the crystals. Willow screamed, trying to evade his grip, but he held fast.

The magic transferred and was captured, the blackness fading from her eyes, the once-prismatic crystals now reflecting the absence of light. Clear tears slipped down Willow's face-- whether in pain or relief, Wesley couldn't tell.

He hurt all over, just from holding the receptacles of her darkness. What would it have been like to hold that horror inside, he wondered.

From behind him Dawn said, "Wow, Wesley. That was so cool. What did you do?"

Then from the doorway Xander shouted, "What the hell are you doing to Willow?"

***

Ternis's mouth opened, but no sound came out. He coughed, coughed again, then said in his own voice, "I'm not frightened of you, vampire."

Spike moved inexorably forward. "Maybe you should be. Seems like the link with the witch went down-- wasn't working anyway. Don't see any minions down here. Just you against me and Giles." He could hear Rupes crawl to his knees behind him; blood loss must be slowing the old boy down, bet he wouldn't be much help. But Ternis didn't need to know that. "I rather like these odds."

Ternis feinted left, then extended a blue clawed hand toward Spike. Ridiculously simple, really, to catch the hand, twist, then use basic leverage to get the demon on his knees. Spike kicked Ternis in the face, sending him flying back across the platform.

Two neon-clad, multi-pierced men walked on, so busy arguing about Arsenal's chances in the upcoming season that they didn't see the fallen Rexos. Ternis reached up and grabbed the closest one. The man didn't have time to scream; Ternis ripped his claws around the man's face, digging in around the nose stud. "Do you want to see me kill this human? I hear you're not like other vampires. You don't see these things as food but as creatures to save."

Spike hesitated. The claws looked like they could rip the bloke's face off if Spike made a wrong move. Tricky-- then the other human punched his fist into Ternis's back, then pulled a can of Stella Artois out of his own backpack and crushed it on the demon's head. "Get away from Stan, you flaming ponce!"

Spike used the distraction to jump forward and release the hostage, then he smashed Ternis across his face. Giles moved up beside him, caught one of the demon's hands, and ripped off three of his six claws.

Ternis bellowed, the sound echoing off the tile and concrete, blocking out the sound of a train arriving at the next platform. Then he fled, pushing through a crowd of people.

The two Arsenal fans clung together. "Darren, you wasted a lager on that bastard. You're a true friend," the erstwhile hostage said.

At that, Spike smiled. Pulling Giles forward toward the escalators, he took a quick moment to inspect the neck wound. It had stopped bleeding, at least, and Rupert had some colour back in his face. "So, Dad, you okay?"

"Yeah. You?"

They looked at each other, and Spike nodded. Didn't matter if it had been bad magicks or not-- Willow's words had cut them both deeper than a demon's claws. Then he grinned. "Game for another chase?"

"'Course I am," came Ripper's voice. Giles breathed deep then accelerated to a run, calling over his shoulder, "Now stop wanking about and let's go."

***

Buffy, clinging to the armrest as Anya muscled the Land-Rover through the crowded streets, said crossly, "Let's go, let's go."

"Do you want to drive?" Anya snapped. She checked traffic then pulled onto Knightsbridge. The move cut off another car, which honked, and then a Jaguar tried to pull into her lane. Anyanka rolled down her window and shouted, "Vengeance demon here! I have friends you don't want to meet!"

"God, Anya, just hurry," Buffy muttered. She took a deep breath, trying to connect to Spike. She had felt his distress, a wave so deep and smothering that she had wanted to swim out and drag him away, but now all she felt was-- amusement? He was so weird sometimes.

It was weird too that she could feel him so clearly. She could tell she was getting closer to him. She didn't know how, but she could tell.

***

He was almost there. Head hurt, wrists hurt. And there were so many people, people closing in on him and touching him. Disgusting. But he had to get there to safety, to his friend.

Travers stumbled up Piccadilly Circus to the Criterion, ignoring the noise and the lights, the traffic and the crowd. Truth to tell, he could barely see or hear. Blood trickled down his neck, but he just registered it without feeling it.

"Quentin?" Travers turned to see Khan--at last, his friend-- staring. "Good God, man, what happened to you?"

"Ternis. Rexos demon. He was supposed to get William the Bloody and kill him, torture Giles, but he captured me. Then... I don't remember. Reg, I don't remember." Travers allowed himself to sag against Khan, and the uncontrollable shaking started. "I don't know where Ternis went."

A shriek came from the entrance of the Underground by the statue of Eros. Khan grasped Travers's arm more tightly. "Did you hear that?"

Lord Ternis appeared from the depths of the Underground station, holding a human woman in one unhurt set of claws. Then he saw Travers. The demon discarded the woman, who fell weeping onto the top step of the stairs, and a nasty smile spread across his face. "Ah, there you are. I was meaning to look for you."

***

Willow was looking for those crystals. She wanted her power back. She needed her power back. Wesley was tussling with Xander-- she could always count on her little Xander--and so she had time. She began to move, crawling. Seeking what had made her strong.

Wesley shouted, "Xander, you don't understand!" He managed to land a hard right on Xander's jaw. "Willow's doing magic again!"

"Liar. She wouldn't do that to me," Xander said. He threw a punch, enough to make Wesley wince and step back. Dawn moved closer to the wall, her eyes wide.

And Willow saw one of the crystals. She reached out to grab it. To take back her own.

***

Ternis casually grabbed Travers away from Khan's loosened grip, ignoring the traitor's cry. He pulled a handful of the rare herb out of a pocket in his robe and scattered it over Travers's bleeding head wound. As he did, a wind began to rise, tossing some garbage left on the ground.

Ternis looked up at the sky and smiled. "Perhaps I won't need every item for the spell, after all. Spigos seems awfully eager to be called."

"What, what are you doing?" Travers mumbled, trying to wriggle free.

"Human, you are definitely surplus to requirements now," Lord Ternis said. With one twist he broke Travers's neck. The Watcher's dead body fell to the pavement, and Ternis bent down and rubbed his hands through the herb and the blood. The wind picked up, gusting around the statue of Eros.

***

As Willow touched her finger to the crystal, there came a cry. "No, you can't!" And Dawn's trainer-clad foot came out of nowhere and crushed the black vessel.

Willow screamed. A noxious gas rose and swirled out of the open door, and she clutched at her head. That magick was gone forever, but she still had one chance. Her eyes darting wildly, she saw the second crystal near the spot where Wesley and Xander struggled. She jumped for it--

But Xander's foot landed heavily on it as he set up for another punch at Wesley. The vessel broke, and again the noxious fumes rose. Willow howled, a banshee sound of defeat.

Xander stopped. "Willow?" And his eyes went huge. Wesley reached over to Dawn, who clung to him. All three stared at her, rocking, rocking on the ground.

She had lost. She was the failure again.

***

Giles and Spike emerged from the Underground just as the wind wailed a warning. Giles looked up at the sky and saw rapidly gathering clouds, boiling purple in the reflection from city lights. "But he couldn't have the ingredients, could he?" he muttered.

"Don't know, but it looks rather nasty weather," Spike said.

Then Giles saw Ternis, lifting to the storm the claws dripping with something he couldn't quite make out. "Spigos! Hear me!"

"Oh, bugger it, I'm so damn tired of arse-wipes trying to end humanity," Spike huffed. He sprinted toward Ternis and tackled him from behind, sending the demon onto the pavement. Ternis got free, then grasped Spike's wrist and bent it at an unnatural angle. Spike, face etched with pain, spun around and planted a Doc Marten squarely in Ternis's face.

Reginald Khan was standing there, staring at-- Travers?-- in shock. Giles shouted "Khan!" and ran to his side. "Khan, we have to do something. The spell we learnt last retreat!"

Khan didn't move. His eyes were fixed on the corpse of Travers.

Ternis had scrambled back up and wrapped his claws around Spike's wrist again. He ripped the skin, laughing at Spike's pain-filled bellow. "I knew I could have this hand!" Spike pulled away, but Giles could see he had been damaged.

A shower of hail spattered across Piccadilly Circus, shorting out one of the giant electronic signs and sending passers-by running for any available cover. One bolt of lightning, then another, flashed across the sky. Thunder drowned out all traffic noise for a heartbeat.

Giles knew he needed one more voice if he was to save Spike, to stop the visitation Ternis had summoned. Khan was clearly useless. Then a polite cough came from behind, and Giles turned. Imran Cumberbatch set down the video camera he'd been carrying and said, "I happen to know the spell, Giles."

"Now!" Giles held out his hand imperatively, and Cumberbatch clasped it. The two Watchers centered, then raised their hands and shouted a call to "End this!"

The wind, hail and lightning stopped. Clouds rolled away, leaving an odour of incredible sweetness mixed with the fuel fumes and the smell of London humanity on a Friday night.

Giles's legs went out from under him. Middle-aged men who'd been running for a long time whilst bleeding and who then had done extremely strong magic could be allowed to sit down rather heavily on the pavement, he thought.

He saw Lord Ternis crumple too, recognizing failure. Spike braced with his hurt hand, wrapped his good hand around Ternis's neck, and snapped it. A foul shriek emanated from the corpse, then the Rexos demon's body puddled underneath his robe.

Spike, cradling his wounded wrist, walked over and crouched down next to Giles. There on the pavement, in the midst of Piccadilly Circus, the two looked at each other. And Giles started to laugh.

Spike grinned back. "See, Rupes. Now don't say that wasn't fun!"

At which moment a Land-Rover, being driven at a clearly unsafe rate of speed down Piccadilly, narrowly missed a railing and pulled up onto the sidewalk by the entrance to the Underground. The doors opened. Buffy and Anya got out.

Spike and Giles stopped laughing. "We're doomed," Giles said.

"No, no, follow my lead," Spike replied. He arranged his hurt hand carefully to hide the torn flesh and odd angle of the bone, then leaned back casually on the other hand--for all the world as if he were reclining in Hyde Park of a summer evening. "Hullo, love! Evening, Anyanka! Nice bit of driving there. And the parking, quite unique."

Buffy's arms were already crossed, her eyes accusing. "Spike. Giles. What the hell were you two doing?"

"Well, we were just sight-seeing, right--" Spike began, and Giles couldn't bear to think what feeble lie was about to come out of the wanker's mouth. It was clearly up to him to save the little twerp.

"Buffy, it's been rather fraught. And we foolishly didn't tell you that our Watcher business might just happen to become a bit dangerous, and that was clearly a mistake." Anya arrived, and Giles ventured a smile at her. Judging by the rage on her face, it was a blessing she couldn't perform vengeance for herself. "Darling Anya, I'm so happy to see you. Spike and I have had a very hard night, due entirely to our own, er, folly, and we need to be taken home."

Spike had been goggling at Giles, but suddenly the gravity of the domestic situation got through that thick vampire skull. "Oh. Right. We didn't tell you the exact nature of the errand, but we've already suffered for it. And I realize now that we were wrong. Extremely wrong. Extremely bloody wrong."

Buffy and Anya just stared at them. Oh help, it wasn't working.

Cumberbatch interrupted, like an answered prayer. "Ladies, good evening. Giles and William worked valiantly to prevent this Lord Ternis creature--summoned by the late Quentin Travers, if you can imagine-- from calling up Spigos the Gate-Seeker."

"Spigos! What is with his popularity all of a sudden?" Anya said. Then she fixed brown eyes on Giles, and he shrunk into his leather jacket. "And why didn't you ring me, once you realized what was going on? Buffy and I could have helped."

"Small accident with a nasty lot of vampires down Covent Garden," Spike volunteered. "Crushed the mobile like a bug." Then he glimpsed Buffy's steely eyes, and his mouth shut fast.

Cumberbatch said, "Oh, wait. Mr. Khan?"

They turned, to see Khan trying to slip away into the night. Cumberbatch smiled and picked up his video camera. "Mr. Khan, just in case you were wondering-- I do have phone and written documentation that you had set up William here-- " he ignored Spike's frantic signals to stop--" with this freelance assignment you'd given him. I further have video documentation of your refusal to assist Mr. Giles with the basic spell necessary to shut down Lord Ternis."

Khan said feebly, "No one will believe you." But his face showed clearly that he knew he was finished.

Cumberbatch smiled. "Oh, I think the Council will be most interested." He turned to Spike and said genially, "If the Council disciplines Mr. Khan as I fully expect they will, I'll be in charge of processing your speedy entrance into our organization. Even though Mr. Khan was quite wrong to have given you the assignment, knowing that Ternis was trying to dust you, nevertheless you do have it. Shall I expect your report by Tuesday?"

Spike had taken one look at Buffy's thundercloud appearance and buried his face in his good hand. From behind his fingers he mumbled, "Tuesday morning, first thing."

"Wonderful." Cumberbatch beamed generally all around, then said, "I'd better call in the sad death of Mr. Travers. Rampaging gang members, here in the heart of Piccadilly Circus; tragic, don't you find?" Then he saw the awkwardness of the group and shrugged. "Shouldn't you all be getting home? Before the police come to investigate the unorthodox parking space?"

"Yes, thank you, Imran. For everything," Giles said, letting Spike help him to his feet. The two nodded respectfully to Cumberbatch, who returned their nods before pulling out his mobile phone.

Giles, Anya, Spike and Buffy headed back toward the Land-Rover. Before he could stop her, Buffy took Spike's injured hand; at his involuntary protest, she brought his arm into the light and saw his wound. "Oh, Spike. You have no idea how close you are to being staked."

He said with his most charming smile, "Now, love, I can explain--"

"Shut up. You've hurt me, you lied to me again, and you're not going to be easily forgiven. As it is, you're sleeping on the sofa tonight. If you say one more word, it'll be the sofa for the rest of the vacation," she snapped.

He managed to brush a kiss on her forehead, but wisely he kept quiet.

Giles went round to the driver's side of the Land-Rover, and Anya threw him the keys. At his head. He managed to catch them, then smiled across the bonnet of the vehicle. "Darling, I can tell you're angry."

"You could have died, Rupert. You could have died and left me, and I wouldn't have known where you were. I hurt," Anya said unanswerably. She got into the front passenger seat, and slammed the door.

Giles and Spike exchanged glances. It was a sure thing that stopping Lord Ternis was child's play, next to the task which lay before them now. And failure would not be an option.

 

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