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Dead Things

Prologue

Buffy and Spike collapse, completely spent and naked under a carpet after demolishing the lower level of his crypt together. “We missed the bed again,” says Buffy.

Spike looks around at the wreckage. “Lucky for the bed.”

Buffy looks around herself. She likes what Spike has done with the place. It’s pretty nice for a hole in the ground. She tells him she’s thinking of updating the decor of her room. “I think the New Kids on the Block posters are starting to date me.”

Spike offers to help, but he stops. “Are we having a conversation?”

“What?” asks Buffy. “No! No.” She thinks about it a bit. “Maybe.”

Spike just looks at Buffy. “Isn’t this usually the part where you kick me in the head and run out, virtue fluttering?”

“That’s the plan.” Buffy smiles. “Soon as my legs start working.”

Spike caresses Buffy’s shoulder. “You were amazing.”

Buffy looks at Spike. “You got the job done yourself.”

“I was just trying to keep up. The things you do. The way you make it hurt in all the wrong places. I’ve never been with such an animal.”

Buffy flinches away from Spike. “I’m not an animal.”

“You want to see the bite marks?” asks Spike.

Buffy thinks it’s time for her to be going. She wants to get home before Dawn goes to bed. She starts hunting under the rug for her underwear.

“What is this to you?” asks Spike. “This thing we have?”

“We don’t have a thing. We have…this. That’s all.”

“Do you even like me?”

Buffy looks at Spike for a while before she answers. “Sometimes.”

“But you like what I do to you.” Spike reaches around and produces a pair of handcuffs. He holds them up in front of her. “Do you trust me?”

Buffy looks at the handcuffs, and then she looks at Spike. “Never,” she says softly.

Andrew grabs his Frampton Comes Alive album out of Jonathan’s hands. “How can I trust you not to touch my stuff? Actually living with supervillains was not part of the deal!”

This isn’t Jonathan’s idea of a fun time either but they’re on the lam, they don’t have a choice. This doesn’t make Andrew any happier. He wishes they could have at least gotten a new lair with a view, instead of just another basement.

Jonathan picks up his magic bone and tells Andrew to stop whining. He knocks a box of Andrew’s things onto the floor. “And get your sissy crap out of the way!”

Andrew grabs Jonathan and they start to wrestle.

“Hey!” shouts Warren. “When you girls are done touching each other, the cerebral dampener’s ready to be charged.”

Andrew and Jonathan instantly let go of each other and join Warren at his workbench. There’s a small metal sphere in a stand in front of him. They all put on red tinted sunglasses.

Andrew pulls a ziplock baggie containing a prune like object out of his pocket. “Musk gland of a Hombja’moleev demon.” He opens the baggie, and they all recoil from the stench. “Fresh.” He drops it into Jonathan’s hand.

Jonathan uses his teeth to uncork a vial and sprinkles the powder from it over the gland. “Doma voluntatem, libera cupidinem. Erumpe, ignem excita!”¹ The gland in his hand flashes and power flows into the sphere.

Jonathan looks at his smoking hand. “Okay…Ow!”

Warren takes off his sunglasses and picks up the sphere. “Gentlemen, the cerebral dampener is on-line, and with this baby, we can make any woman we desire our willing sex slave.” He smiles. “I know just where to start.”

Act I

Buffy passes a takeout order across the counter to a customer in the Doublemeat Palace. “Doublemeat is double sweet!”

Gina gives Buffy a look from the next cash. Buffy looks back at her. “Just something I’m trying.”

An out of breath Tara arrives in front of Buffy and apologises for being late. Buffy tells her it’s no problem and tells Gina that she’s taking a break.

Buffy takes Tara back into the locker room and they sit down at the table together. Buffy thanks her for coming.

“Is it bad?” asks Tara.

That was something Buffy was hoping Tara could tell her.

“I knew this was going to happen,” says Tara. “What did Willow do now? Did she—she hurt anyone?”

Buffy quickly tells Tara that this isn’t about Willow. She’s been doing really well. She rubs her wrists while she talks. “It’s Spike. He can hurt me.” Buffy notices what she’s doing and hides her hands under the table. “Without his head exploding.”

“Oh, my god! His—his chip stopped working?”

“No. It still works. Just not on me. I need to know about the spell. The one that brought me back. I’d ask Willow, but—”

“You think it’s you.”

“I don’t know. I feel…different. There are things that— I think…maybe…I came back wrong.”

“No, Buffy, that’s n-not— No! You didn’t!”

Buffy isn’t so sure. “Can you check out the spell? Just see if there’s something that— Could you just check? Please?”

Jonathan and Andrew sit in the back of their van. Jonathan adjusts the gain on their receiver and an image appears on the monitor in front of them. It’s of the interior of an upscale restaurant, shot from about chest height, and moves jerkily, as if from a poorly hand held camera. Jonathan radios to Warren that they have the image.

Warren gets Jonathan’s message, and walks through the restaurant. He swivels around, letting the camera on his tie clip take in the scene. The restaurant is moderately busy, and there are lots of attractive women in view. Warren can hear Jonathan and Andrew through his earpiece. They start arguing over which one Warren should go for. Andrew really likes a redhead.

“The redhead’s too tall,” says Jonathan.

“So get a stepladder,” says Andrew.

Warren can hear them wrestling as he scans the restaurant. He spots a pretty girl sitting at the bar. “Target acquired! Initiating contact.”

Jonathan and Andrew are a little puzzled, they think there are lots of better prospects in the bar, even though Andrew does acknowledge that Warren’s choice is cute. A statuesque girl in a red leather skirt, and showing lots of cleavage passes between Warren and his target.

“Go for the one with the bazoombas!” says Jonathan.

“Go for the bazoombas!” says Andrew.

Jonathan and Andrew both start to chant “Bazoomba! Bazoomba!” over and over. Warren pulls out his earpiece and drops it in someone’s martini glass. The electronic squeal from it shorting out nearly deafens Andrew and Jonathan.

Warren slides into a seat beside his target. “So, how did you get so beautiful?

Katrina smiles and turns toward Warren. “Okay, does that line usually work?” Her smile vanishes when she sees him. “What the hell are you doing here?”

Warren smiles at her. “It’s nice to see you again, too, Katrina.”

Katrina is not pleased to see Warren. She thought she had made it pretty clear that she never wanted to see him again.

Warren waves a hundred dollar bill at the bartender, and indicates that he should freshen Katrina’s drink. “Oh, you’re not still sore about that thing, are you?”

Katrina puts her hand over her wine glass to keep the bartender from adding to it. “What thing would that be, exactly? What, the wind-up slut you tinkered together, or when little Miss Nuts and Bolts tried to choke me to death? What did you expect, to just waltz in here and sweep me off my feet with your cheesy lines and fancy suit?”

Warren tells Katrina that he just thought they could talk, maybe work things out. Katrina doesn’t think that will ever happen. Looking at Warren makes her want to vomit.

“Are you sure about that?” asks Warren. He puts on his red sunglasses.

“Yes. God yes, I’m sure.”

Warren holds out his closed fist, and opens up his hand. The cerebral dampener in his palm flashes.

Katrina looks at Warren. Her eyes have gone blank. She smiles. “I love you, Master.”

Warren takes off his glasses and smiles at Katrina. “I love you, too, baby.”

Buffy arrives home, exhausted after a long shift at the Doublemeat Palace. She freezes, appalled by the sight of Xander and Dawn waltzing around the living room. “Is there singing? Are we singing again?”

Xander tells Buffy that there’s just dancing. They’re teaching Dawn some steps for the wedding reception. Dawn giggles as he dips her, and Xander asks Buffy if she wants to go for a spin.

Buffy doesn’t feel up to dancing. She collapses on the sofa between Willow and Anya. Xander thinks Buffy’s been working too hard lately. Between her job at the Doublemeat Palace and pounding demons they hardly ever see her anymore.

“You are looking a little pounded,” says Anya. Buffy shoots her a look. “Just around the eyes.”

Willow invites Buffy to join them at the Bronze later to unwind.

“Tall glasses of frosty relaxation on me,” says Xander. “Nectar of the working man.”

Buffy declines. She wants to stay home with Dawn, and curl up on the couch with a big bowl of popcorn. She’s interrupted by a car horn honking outside.

Dawn grabs her jacket from beside the door. “I’m sleeping over at Janice’s.”

“And I’m falling for that again because of the surprise lobotomy?” asks Buffy.

Willow tells Buffy that she’s already checked things out with Janice’s mom. That’s her outside, come to pick Dawn up.

“I didn’t think you’d care,” says Dawn. “You’re never home, so…”

Buffy gets up off the couch and faces Dawn. “I know. I’m sorry. You know, but I’m here now. All visible and everything. Couldn’t you just stay at Janice’s another night?”

“Her mom’s cooking Mexican,” says Dawn. “She’s going to teach me how to make real tortillas.” The car horn honks again. “Not like I knew you’d be around.” She grabs her things that were under her jacket, and leaves.

Buffy turns back to the others. “Frosty nectar. Now, please.”

Katrina pours champagne for Warren, Jonathan and Andrew. She’s dressed in a French maid costume, with a short-short skirt, fishnet stockings, and stiletto heeled shoes. When she’s finished she stands motionless, holding the bottle with a blank expression on her face. Warren thanks her.

“My pleasure Master,” says Katrina.

Jonathan and Andrew think this is really cool. Warren proposes a toast: “To Crime!”

Jonathan and Andrew raise their glasses. “Crime!” They sip their champagne.

Andrew chokes on his. “Crime tastes funny.”

Jonathan and Andrew look Katrina over. They still think Warren should have gone for the one with the bazoombas, but Katrina is really cute.

“Cute?” asks Warren. “Look at her, man. The shape of her lips. Smooth, silky skin. The way her no—” He laughs. “The way her nose crinkles when she laughs. She’s perfect.”

Jonathan agrees.

“She’s totally hot,” says Andrew.

“So are you, Master,” says Katrina.

“You think so?” asks Andrew.

“Oh, yes, Master.”

Jonathan and Andrew start wondering about how they decide who gets to go first.

Warren cuts the discussion off. He does. He drapes his arm around Katrina’s shoulders. “She’s mine. But don’t worry. You can play with her all you want…after I’m done with her.”

Warren takes the champagne bottle from Katrina and hands it to Jonathan. He pushes Katrina off toward his bedroom.

Andrew takes another sip from his champagne, and coughs.

Katrina pushes Warren up against the wall in his bedroom, and kisses him. She pauses and waits for more instructions.

“I missed you so much.” Warren grabs Katrina and kisses her. “You never should’ve left me. Say it.”

“I never should’ve left you, Master.”

Warren kisses Katrina again. “Tell me you love me.”

“I love you, Master.”

Warren kisses her. “Again.”

“I love you, Master.”

“I love you, too, baby. Get on your knees.”

“Yes, Warren.” Katrina gets down on her knees in front of him.

Warren looks down at her. “Wait. What’d you just say?”

“I said, ‘Yes, War—’” Katrina blinks, and shakes her head. She looks down at the outfit she’s wearing, and up at Warren. “What the—?”

Andrew and Jonathan are fencing with toy lightsabers when Katrina throws Warren out into the lair. “What did you do to me?”

Warren shouts for Jonathan and Andrew to get the dampener. Katrina notices them for the first time. “Who the hell are you?”

“Um, your Masters?” asks Andrew.

Jonathan is scrambling around looking for the dampener. He asks Andrew where he put it.

“You had it last!” says Andrew. He starts looking too.

“Are you kidding me?” Katrina asks Warren. “You were going to share me with these two dorks?”

Andrew finds the dampener, and he puts on his sunglasses. So does Warren. Andrew holds out his closed fist. “Hey… We’re supervillains. Call us Master.”

Jonathan covers his eyes. “Wait!”

Andrew opens his fist, and the dampener sparks. “Aw, crap!” It’s out of power.

“Is that what you used on me?” asks Katrina. “Oh, my God. First a skankbot, and now this? What is wrong with you?”

“I just—I wanted us to be together,” says Warren.

“There is no us, Warren. Get that through your big, meaty head. I am not your girlfriend anymore!”

Jonathan and Andrew look at Warren. “She’s your ex?” asks Jonathan.

“Dude, that is messed up,” says Andrew.

Katrina turns toward Andrew and Jonathan. “Oh, you think? You bunch of little boys, playing at being men. Well, this is not some fantasy. It’s not a game, you freaks! It’s rape!”

Jonathan and Andrew are stunned. That had never occurred to them.

“You’re all sick!” Katrina turns back to Warren. “And I’m going to make sure you get locked up for this. And then we’ll see how you like getting raped.” She starts for the stairs.

Warren yells for the others to stop her. Andrew and Jonathan grab at Katrina’s arms. She elbows Andrew in the face, gives Jonathan a knee to the groin, and runs to the stairs.

Warren tries to grab Katrina but she rakes her nails across his face, leaving deep gouges. She breaks loose, and tries to run. Warren grabs the champagne bottle and bashes her on the back of the head with it. Katrina collapses at the top of the stairs.

Warren backs away, and tells the others to charge the dampener.

Jonathan just looks at Katrina lying motionless on the stairs. “Warren…”

“Charge the dampener,” says Warren. “Andrew…get her up. We’ll give her another dose. A stronger one. Everything’s all right. Everything is going to be all right.”

Andrew kneels beside Katrina and reaches out to touch her. He pulls his hand back away from her head. It’s covered in blood. “I don’t think so. She’s dead.”

Act II

Andrew kneels beside Katrina’s body, rocking back and forth. “Oh, god. Oh, god. Oh, god. Oh, god.”

“This isn’t happening,” says Jonathan.

Warren starts to pace. “I just—I got to… I got to—I got to— Let me think.”

“What’d you do?” asks Jonathan. “What the hell did you do?”

Warren grabs Jonathan and pushes him against the wall. “We did this. Me and Andrew and you. It’s on all of us!”

Andrew is still crying beside the body. Warren tells him to shut up. They have to get rid of the body. Maybe a spell. He asks if Jonathan can teleport it away, but Jonathan can’t move something that big.

Warren turns to Andrew. “Andrew.” Andrew just keeps staring at Katrina’s body. “Andrew!” He looks up. “Is there any…thing that you can summon? Something that… Something that can devour that much?”

Andrew shakes his head. “Maybe a Jaarvlen Flesh Eater. But they’re hard to control. It’d go for us, too.”

“Oh, well, that’s it, man,” says Jonathan. “We’re screwed.”

“No,” says Warren. “We just have to stay calm.”

“Tell that to your girlfriend,” says Jonathan.

“Ex-girlfriend!”

“It doesn’t matter!” says Jonathan. “There’s a link. You knew her, so there’s a link! You don’t think Buffy will be able to put that together? That’s what she does. She’ll figure it out!”

Andrew suggests that they should turn themselves in, tell the police it was an accident. Jonathan agrees. They can’t hide this. Sooner or later the Slayer’s going to find out Katrina’s dead.

Warren gets an idea. “Well, then, maybe it should be sooner.”

“Are you insane?” asks Jonathan.

“Listen! We have two problems: the body and the Slayer.” Warren smiles coldly. “Well, what if there was a way that we could take care of them both…with one big stone?”

Buffy and Willow sit at a table in the Bronze watching Xander and Anya dancing enthusiastically to swing music. Willow’s getting worried that they might have to dance like that at the wedding reception, and she is still clinging to the last thread of her dignity. Buffy asks how she’s doing.

Willow says she’s doing okay. “Some days are harder than the really hard days. It’s easier like this, though, when I’m not alone.”

“I’m sorry I haven’t been around that much,” says Buffy.

“Oh, no. That’s not— it’s okay. We know you’ve been all tied up.”

Buffy’s startled. “What?”

“With your job and the Slaying,” says Willow.

Xander and Anya come back to the table and ask Buffy and Willow to join them in the dancing. Willow decides to throw away her dignity and gets up to join them.

Buffy says she’s going to sit this one out. She holds up her empty glass. “More nectar required.”

“Cool,” says Xander. “Well, shimmy on out when you’re done lubricating.” He leads the girls away.

Buffy takes her glass and wanders over to the bar. She doesn’t really want another drink. She leaves her glass on the bar and goes up the stairs to the nearly deserted balcony. She walks over to the railing and looks down at her friends dancing beneath her. She smiles softly.

“You see, you try to be with them, but you always end up in the dark…” Buffy’s smile fades. “…with me.” Spike steps up behind Buffy on the balcony. “What would they think of you if they found out all the things you’ve done?” He caresses her shoulder. “If they knew who you really were?” His hand slides down to her hip.

“Don’t,” says Buffy.

“Stop me.” Spike’s hand continues down to the hem of Buffy’s skirt. He lifts it up, and he pushes in close behind her.

Buffy moans softly and grips the rail as Spike presses up behind her. She closes her eyes.

Spike presses himself against Buffy. “No. Don’t close your eyes. Look at them.”

Buffy looks down at her friends as Spike moves against her.

“That’s not your world,” says Spike. “You belong in the shadows…with me.”

Buffy continues to look down at Xander, Willow and Anya, dancing below her while Spike moves against her.

“Look at your friends and tell me you don’t love getting away with this.” Spike whispers in Buffy’s ear. “Right under their noses.”

Xander limps toward the Magic Box the next morning with Willow. He strained himself doing the Funky Monkey last night. They are both surprised to see Tara coming out the door as they approach it.

“Tara. What are you doing here?” asks Willow. “I mean, uh, it’s okay for you to be here if you have things that you have to be here for.”

Xander looks back and forth between Willow and Tara, and decides to leave them alone together. “I’m going to go bring Anya up to speed on that monkey situation.” He smiles at Tara, and goes inside.

“There’s a monkey problem?” asks Tara.

“Only if you don’t stretch first.” Willow notices the large book that Tara is carrying. “The Brekenkreig Grimoire? Light reading?”

Tara seems to be embarrassed, and reluctant to talk about it. She moves the book around behind her back.

“No, it’s okay. I didn’t expect you to stop doing magic just because… You don’t have to hide it. I’m not— I’m doing better. No spells for 32 days. I can even go to the magic shop now, as long as someone’s with me at all times. But, uh, but it’s better now. It really is. You know, if you were checking on me.”

Tara says that she wouldn’t do that. She was just looking for Buffy.

Willow hasn’t seen Buffy since last night. She looks at Tara. “She’s not around much these days. We kinda miss her.”

“I’m sure she feels the same way,” says Tara. “If you see her, can you tell her that I need to talk to her? It’s important.”

“Yeah. Of course I will.”

“Thanks.” Tara starts to go, but she turns back. “Will? I’m… I’m glad you’re doing better.”

Buffy walks through the cemetery that night, with a stake in her hand.

Spike pours himself a glass of blood in his crypt. He sprinkles a pinch of burba weed it into it. He stops. He can sense something outside. He moves toward the door and places his hands against it.

Buffy stops outside Spike’s crypt, and presses her hand against the door.

Spike leans against the door for a moment. He pulls it open and steps outside. He looks around. There’s no one in sight.

Buffy walks briskly through the cemetery. “Don’t think about the evil blood-sucking fiend. Focus on anything but the evil blood-sucking fiend.” She hears a girl scream.

Buffy looks toward the heavens. “Thank you!”

Buffy sees a demon chasing Katrina toward the woods at the edge of the cemetery. She runs after them and jumps onto the demon’s back. It vanishes. So does Katrina.

Buffy stands up and looks around. She’s alone in a clearing in the woods. “Huh?”

Time and space shifts, and Buffy is back by the edge of the cemetery. She hears sobbing and turns around. She sees Katrina lying on the ground near the top of an embankment. She walks toward her. “It’s okay. I’m going to get you out of here. Can you walk? Are you hurt?”

Buffy shifts again, she’s back in the woods. She hears voices whispering to her. “Buffy. Buffy… What did you do? What did you do? Buffy…Buffy…” She puts her hands over her ears.

Buffy shifts back to the edge of the cemetery. Spike is lying on the ground in front of her with a bloody lip. “Ow! Bloody hell! What’d you do that for?”

“Spike?” A demon jumps at Buffy from behind. She punches it away.

Buffy shifts again. She hears Spike calling her, and turns to see him coming toward her, his face unmarked. “Spike? What’s happening?”

“So, you thought you could just slip away, then?” asks Spike. “Vampire. Remember? I can feel you.”

A demon attacks Buffy. She lashes out at it, and it vanishes. Her punch connects with Spike. He falls back onto the ground. “Ow! Bloody hell! What’d you do that for?”

Katrina stumbles up behind Buffy and collapses on the ground at the top of the embankment.

Time shifts again. Three demons materialize and rush toward Buffy. Spike calls out a warning.

Buffy and Spike fight the three demons, but time keeps shifting while they’re doing it. Spike breaks one of the demon’s necks, and Buffy breaks the back of a second one over her knee.

Buffy feels a hand on her shoulder and whirls around. She hits Katrina with a backhanded punch. Katrina spins away, and rolls down the embankment. Buffy forgets about the fight, and runs down the hill after her.

Spike punches the last demon away and tries to follow Buffy. The demon grabs his leg, and Spike falls to the ground. It pounces on top of him.

“Do you mind?” Spike punches his fist right through the demon’s chest.

Spike pushes the demon’s body away, and runs down the hill after Buffy. He finds her kneeling by Katrina’s body. “Buffy?”

Buffy doesn’t take her eyes off the body. “She’s dead. I killed her.”

Another Katrina is watching them from the trees. She vanishes into the darkness.

Act III

Spike tells Buffy that they have to get out of there before someone sees them. Buffy doesn’t look at him. She stays kneeling beside the body. “What did I do?”

Spike grabs Buffy and pulls her away. “All right. Listen to me, Buffy. Buffy!”

“She’s dead.”

“It was an accident!”

“But I killed her!”

Spike tells Buffy that he’s going to take her home, but Buffy doesn’t want to go. He grabs hold of her shoulders. “I’m going to get you home, and you’re going to crawl in your warm, comfy bed and stay there. We’re going to sort this out. Trust me.”

Warren and Andrew watch Buffy and Spike on a monitor in their van. “Two problems,” says Warren. “One stone.”

Katrina opens the back door of the van and climbs in. “Nice job,” says Warren. “She totally bought it.”

“Yeah.” Katrina shimmers as the spell ends, and she transforms back into Jonathan. “Some of my best work.” He has a bruise on the side of his face where Buffy hit him.

Andrew asks what they do now.

“Well, the night’s young,” says Jonathan bitterly. “Got to be some more girls we could kill.”

“We stick to the plan,” says Warren. “Buffy thinks she killed Katrina. It’s her problem now.”

Buffy lies in her bed, trying to sleep. She can hear the voices whispering in her head. “What did you do Buffy? What did you do? What did you do?”

Spike slides into bed behind Buffy. “It’s alright, Luv. Shh. All right. It’ll be our little secret.” He kisses her bare shoulder.

Buffy rolls toward Spike, and kisses him. She pushes him over onto his back.

Buffy rides Spike in his crypt. He’s lying in his bed with his hands raised above his head. She slides her hands up along his arms to his handcuffed wrists.

Buffy punches at something in the darkness.

Buffy straddles Katrina in the woods. She’s lying on her back, with her handcuffed wrists raised above her head. “Do you trust me?” asks Buffy.

Katrina smiles. Then she moans.

Buffy moans as she makes love to Spike in his bed.

Buffy straddles Spike. He’s lying in his bed, in the same position that Katrina’s body had lain in the woods. Buffy raises a stake and plunges it toward his chest.

Buffy straddles Katrina in the woods. She’s lying on the ground with a stake in her chest. Her dead eyes stare at the sky.

Buffy sits up in her bed, awake. She’s fully clothed on top of the blankets of her bed.

Buffy sits on the edge of Dawn’s bed. She reaches out and rests her hand on Dawn’s arm.

Dawn wakes up, and looks at Buffy sleepily. “What time is it?”

Buffy tells Dawn it’s late. “I just want to… I love you. You know that, right?”

Dawn sits up. “What’s wrong?”

“I know I haven’t been everything I should be… Everything Mom was. But I love you. I always will.”

“Why are you talking like this? Buffy?”

“There was an accident,” says Buffy. “In the woods. A girl. She was hurt. I hurt someone.”

“Oh, my god! Is she all right?”

“No. I’m sorry.”

Dawn grabs Buffy and hugs her.

“There’s something I have to do,” says Buffy. “I have to tell what I did. I have to go to the police.”

Dawn pulls away. “The police?”

“Dawnie, I have to.”

“But…what’s going to happen?”

“I don’t know.”

“They’ll take you away, won’t they?”

Buffy looks down. “I’m sorry.”

“No you’re not! You’re never here. You can’t even stand to be around me. You don’t want to be here with me. You didn’t want to come back. I know that. You were happier where you were. You want to go away again.”

“Dawn.”

Dawn gets out of her bed. “Then go! You’re not really here, anyway.” She runs from her room.

Buffy walks toward the front entrance to the Sunnydale police station.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Spike steps out of the alley behind her.

“The right thing, for once,” says Buffy.

Spike grabs Buffy and pulls her back toward the alley. She doesn’t want to go. He pulls harder, and throws her into the alley. “Sorry, Luv. Can’t let you do that.”

Buffy picks herself up, and tells Spike that she has to tell them what happened. Spike thinks there’s nothing to tell.

“I killed that girl!”

“Demons in the woods?” asks Spike. “Time going wonky? They won’t believe you.”

“I’ll show them.”

“Show them what?” asks Spike.

Buffy looks at Spike. “What did you do?” Spike tells her he took care of it. “What did you do?”

“What I had to!” says Spike. “I went back, and I took care of it. It doesn’t matter now. No one will ever find her.”

They overhear a police officer as he comes out the front door of the station. “Where’d they find her?”

“The river,” says his partner. “She washed up half a mile from the cemetery.”

Spike is disgusted with himself. He shakes his head. “Oh, balls!”

Act IV

Spike tries to put a good spin on this. There still isn’t anything to connect Buffy to the body, and it wasn’t her fault.

“I killed her,” says Buffy.

“It was an accident. It just happened.”

“Nothing just happens.” Buffy starts out of the alley again. Spike tries to hold her back.

“I have to do this,” says Buffy. “Just let me go.”

“I can’t. I love you.”

“No, you don’t.”

“You think I haven’t tried not to?” asks Spike.

Buffy punches Spike and knocks him flying into some garbage cans. “Try harder!” She starts out of the alley again.

Spike grabs Buffy and throws her back into the alley. He’s transformed into his vampire face. “You are not throwing your life away over this!”

Buffy doesn’t believe it’s Spike’s choice. A girl is dead because of her.

“And how many people are alive because of you?” asks Spike. “How many have you saved? One dead girl doesn’t tip the scale.”

“That’s all it is to you, isn’t it?” asks Buffy. “Just another body. You can’t understand why this is killing me, can you?”

“Why don’t you explain it?” asks Spike. Buffy punches him. “That’s it. Put it on me. Put it all on me.” She punches him again. “That’s my girl.”

Buffy punches Spike again, harder. “I am not your girl!” She knocks him off his feet, and gets on top of him. She keeps punching him over and over. “You don’t have a soul! There is nothing good or clean in you! You are dead inside! You can’t feel anything real! I could never be your girl!”

Buffy keeps pounding on Spike’s face while he lies on the ground. He transforms back into his human face, and she keeps punching him.

Buffy stops. She looks at the bloody pulp that remains of Spike’s face, and is horrified by what she’s done. She pulls away from him.

Spike looks up at Buffy, and coughs. “You always hurt the one you love, Pet.”

Buffy backs away from Spike. She steps past him, and walks out of the alley.

Spike tries to reach out to Buffy, but he’s too weak to get to his feet. “Buffy? Buffy.”

Buffy doesn’t look back.

Buffy walks up to the desk sergeant in the police station. He’s on the phone and indicates that she should wait a moment.

Buffy turns away and steps back a bit. The desk sergeant picks up a pen and repeats back what he’s hearing as he takes notes. “You got an I.D. on that body yet?” Buffy freezes while she listens. “Yeah? Okay, shoot. … Katrina Silber. S-I-L-B-E-R.” Buffy closes her eyes, and remembers the first time she met Warren.

Flashback:

Buffy stands in the doorway looking back and forth between Warren and Katrina. Katrina is telling Warren to send Buffy away. “You’re keeping secrets from me—other girls, and who knows what else?”

“Trina, shut up,” says Warren.

Present:

“Warren,” says Buffy.

The desk sergeant hangs up the phone, and looks up. “Now, what’s the problem, Miss?” Buffy is already out the door.

Anya shows Buffy one of the demon mugshots, and asks if this is what she saw in the woods. It is.

“The Rwasundi,” says Anya. “Very rare. Its presence in our dimension causes a sort of…localized temporal disturbance.”

“So, that’s why time went all David Lynch?” asks Buffy.

“Right,” says Anya. “Human perception is based on a linear chronology. Being exposed to the Rwasundi for more than a few seconds can cause vivid hallucinations…and a slight tingly scalp.” She sits down at the round table with the others.

“So, that’s it,” says Willow. “These things just made you think you killed her.”

“She was probably dead long before you stumbled across her,” says Xander.

Buffy knows it wasn’t a demon that killed Katrina. She knows that Warren must have had something to do with it.

“How can you be sure?” asks Willow.

“You always hurt the one you love,” says Buffy.

Dawn is sitting on the ladder up to the loft. “Does this mean you’re not going away?”

Buffy gets up from the table, and turns toward her sister. “Yeah. I’m not going anywhere.”

Dawn jumps off the ladder, and runs back into the training room.

Buffy looks toward the door for a moment before she turns back toward the others. “We need to find Warren and the others. Whatever they’ve done, they’re not going to get away with it.”

“We’re going to get away with it,” says Warren as he reads the Coroner’s report off his computer screen. “‘Injuries consistent with a fall.’ The coroner’s ruling it a suicide.”

“What about Buffy?” asks Jonathan.

“It wasn’t that hard messing her game up,” says Warren. “If she figures it out, we’ll take care of her.”

“We really got away with murder.” Andrew starts to smile. “That’s…kind of cool.”

“Yeah,” says Jonathan. “Cool.” He doesn’t look happy.

Epilogue

Buffy sits on her coffee table facing Tara on the sofa. “Are you sure?”

Tara says that she’s double checked everything. There is nothing wrong with Buffy.

“Then why can Spike hurt me?”

“Well, I said that there was nothing wrong with you, but…you are different. Shifting you out of— f-from where you were, funneling your essence back into your body, it altered you on a basic, molecular level, probably just enough to confuse the sensors or whatever in Spike’s chip, but it’s all just surfacey, physical stuff. It wouldn’t have any more effect than a bad sunburn.”

“I didn’t come back wrong?” asks Buffy.

“No. You’re the same Buffy— With a deep, tropical cellular tan.” Tara smiles shyly at her joke.

“You must’ve missed something,” says Buffy. “Will you check again?”

Tara is a little puzzled by the way Buffy is taking the news. “Buffy, I promise. There’s nothing wrong with you.”

“There has to be!” says Buffy. She’s close to tears. “This just can’t be me! It isn’t me. Why do I feel like this? Why do I let Spike do those things to me?”

“You mean hit you?” asks Tara.

Buffy looks at Tara, and then glances away.

Tara understands. “Oh. Oh. Really?”

Tears fill Buffy’s eyes. “He’s everything I hate. He’s everything that I’m supposed to be against, but the only time that I ever feel anything is when…” She looks at Tara. “Don’t tell anyone, please.”

“I won’t,” says Tara. “I won’t tell anyone. I wouldn’t do that.”

“Why can’t I stop?” asks Buffy. “Why do I keep letting him in?”

“Do you love him?” asks Tara. “It’s okay if you do. He’s done a lot of good, and he does love you.” She notices that Buffy hasn’t said anything. “And Buffy, it’s okay if you don’t. You’re going through a really hard time, and you’re…”

“What? Using him?” asks Buffy. “What’s okay about that?”

“It’s not that simple.”

“It is,” says Buffy. “It’s wrong. I’m wrong. Tell me that I’m wrong, please.” She drops to her knees in front of Tara and starts to cry. “Please don’t forgive me. Please. Please don’t.” She drops her face into Tara’s lap and cries. “Please don’t forgive me.”

Tara gently strokes Buffy’s hair as she cries.

Death Toll

Notes

1. Translation: Tame the will. Release desire. Spring forth, fuel the fire.