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Chapter Five


The leader stood muttering something to Spike, who nodded when the demon paused, and then looked at Buffy with worry in his eyes.The leader walked away and left two of his sentinels, as he had told Spike, to guard them.

"What's the what then?" Buffy looked agitated which was never good.
"They won't consider it luv, we're stuck 'ere for a bit"
"Why? Can't they tell this situation is screwed for them and us"
"They don't understand, I tried but they think it's an excuse, that we hate each other and it's a way of not dealing"

Buffy sat down hard and thought, about how they could get away with not 'mating' and how they could get that poxy staff from the leader and get back home, in their own bodies.

"What if you 'mate' with the guy that's already here"
"Sod off! No way are you pimpin' my ass out to some bloke"
"Technically it's my ass Spike"
"Not the bloody point, I am not lettin' him do the horizontal with me" he paced and had lit up a fag, he figured he deserved it especially now " Anyway he reminds me of the whelp .Rather it be you, least I know where I been an' what I got"

"And what about me? I would have to do 'it' to my body using yours, there's only a certain amount of therapy you can go for before they find you insane and I'm not there yet"
"Could have fooled me Slayer"
"Coming from someone who had a relationship with a woman who was nuttier than a snickers bar"
"Leave Dru out of this"
"How is she? Still with that Chaos demon?"
"Bitch, it was your fault"
"Yeah cos I begged you to help me and made you side with me against the poof" Buffy said sarcastically
"Point taken"
"Huh?" she looked at him, had she just won that argument? "How can we get out of it?"
"Can't" he looked down and picked at the boots he wore
"We really have to do this?"
"Other option is fight" they both smiled at each other.

Needing to formulate a plan they decided to sit at the mouth of the cave, to get the demons off their backs ,Spike told them that they would do the mating.
The demon leader was pleased, he would have a mystical being that had human form in his zoo. It would be the only one of it's kind and he would gain power from the other demon tribes .
As he was getting what he wanted , he granted Spike the luxury of 'courting' at the mouth of the cave.This gave Buffy and Spike the space they needed to come up with a plan.

The plan wasn't proving easy to come up with. Spikes idea was too simple really, just charge in weapons ready and attack.Buffy's was all strategy and slow, taking one demon at a time, both plans would work but they didn't know exactly how many demons there was.

So , they sat there scowling at each other and looking out at the comets and thinking of getting as far from each other as they could, problem with that was, Willows spell.

Twice Spike had grown impatient with her and had tried to leave Buffy sitting there , both times he got ten steps away and felt drawn back to her side.It was bloody annoying and he was going to rip Red a new one when they got home.

Buffy had tried to run off into the darkness and had found the same thing , she would remind Willow to never do another spell on her so long as she lived.

The hum of demons talking and moving about died off and Buffy knew that they had retired for the night.She nudged a sulking Spike and nodded her head back towards the cave and then put her finger up to her lips .
"Shh, think they are all sleeping" she stood up and motioned for him to follow her.

Spike followed her through the cave and they came across two guards, sleeping heavily and oblivious to the threat.
Buffy pointed down to them and gestured to Spike that they should break their necks.
At the same time, they twisted the demons heads until the tell tale crack and pop was heard.There was no going back now.

They had killed around thirty guards by now and Spike was getting tired off the same old attack, he wanted to step it up a bit. He had a weird sensation deep within him and it didn't sit well with him.It almost held him back like he was on a leash or something.It was the Slayer essence.
' This must be what she feels like all the time' he thought.

Poor girl hadn't got her demon under control, her demon had control of her and she hadn't been able to unleash the power in its entirety. That seemed to bother him , but then, he hadn't been able to beat her before and he couldn't make her his third Slayer.

If she did tap into that power , he would definitely be dust.
They froze outside a large room carved into the side of the cave and Buffy concentrated, she counted five demons all asleep. This was going to be hard, Spike raised the crossbow and Buffy vamped out and brandished her sword.They rushed in and took three out before they had time to react.

The last two had fought bravely but had failed to wound them.There wasn't any more in sight , so Buffy and Spike made their way to the chamber of the leader. They acted normally and even acted as though they were 'mating'. They held hands and walked toward the guards and Spike told them that they were here to initiate the mating, and they wanted proof that the leader would honour his end of the bargain.

The leader spoke with Spike at length and at one point Spike had gotten heated.Buffy looked around the room and saw the staff casually left leaning against the desk within reach.
It was as if Spike knew that she was going to do it, he watched as her eyes fell on the object and he kept an eye on the leader, he didn't notice , so Buffy grabbed the staff and vamped out. Spike punched the leader and he fell back, unconscious.

They had the staff, they had wiped out half the army of demons and they were heading towards the mouth of the cave.Once they reached the mouth they jumped down the rock face and sprinted off to their camp.

They knew that if there were any of the demons left they would be coming for them soon. Spike packed the camp up and Buffy folded the tent and poles away. They made good time and were away from the clearing within an hour.There was no sign of any demons.

They arrived at the spot that they had come into this dimension and Spike pointed the staff into the air.The staff vibrated and grew hot under his hand. The crystal on the tip glowed blue and it shot out a ray that opened a portal.
Spike smiled at Buffy, grabbed her hand and they jumped through, glad that they would be back in Sunnydale and they could put this behind them, once they were back in their respective bodies that was.

They fell to the ground and rolled away from each other. Buffy raised her head and they were back in Restfield cemetery, which was good. They collected the tent and gear and stashed it away in Spikes crypt, then they headed off to Giles' apartment.

They got there just in time, the sun was already lightening the sky and Buffy felt a faint heat radiate through her, making the demon restless . That was not helped by the lack of blood . Buffy hadn't had any since they went through the portal, so the demon was screaming at her.
'How did Spike deal with this?' she thought

Giles was happy to see they had succeeded in getting the staff and that they were in one piece. He made a pot of tea, the great British tradition when looking for comfort or well, just about any excuse really.

Spike was pacing the floor and it drove Buffy mad to watch, He would make a trench in Giles' wooden floor if he didn't stop soon. The staff wasn't anything special really, yet it held the power to give the vampire and the Slayer back their lives.Giles studied the text one last time and then got the two of them to stand or position themselves in the same way in which the original spell had been cast.

"Is that when we woke up like this or when the soddin' ray hit us Rupes?" Spike asked
"Um, as you were when hit with it I think, and can you not call me that"
"Say please" he joked

Giles rolled his eyes and pointed the staff at the two stood before him.The ray hit them and they shot across his lounge, smashing into his beloved stereo

"Bloody hell, they could of bloody warned me!" he moaned

Giles walked over and dragged Spike over to his couch and then he put Buffy up in his bed, hoping that they would be back to normal and uninjured when the woke.


Giles had a long wait. His chair was beginning to be uncomfortable and he had thought about maybe taking up smoking again. His boredom was driving him crazy.He couldn't even listen to the records that soothed him, the two of them had seen to that!

Buffy woke up in a strange bed and frowned, her head hurt and she ached all over. The post fight come down buzzed through her muscles, she really needed a long hot bath to soak away the aches. She was back in her body! Buffy scrambled out of bed and ran to the mirror. She pulled at her face and checked her back and every inch of herself in the mirror, she was fine, she even leant in to see if she could vamp out and kissed the mirror when she hadn't. She bounded down the stairs to give Giles the good news and stopped dead on the stairs.

Giles' face was a picture of concern and fright, as he hovered over Spike. She crossed the room and stood at the back of the couch, looking down onto the vampire. She stood and watched as his face was constantly morphing from his game face to his human face and the growls were blood curdling.

Giles stood beside her and gripped her arms "What happened while you were there? Was there anything that may have triggered this?"

Buffy shook her head. She wrapped her arms around herself and she started to cry.Giles thought that there was more to this than she was telling them but he sighed and went back to the couch.
She sat on the edge of the couch, close to Spikes knee's. She laid her hand on his and instantly the demon inside him stilled.His game face stayed and he growled . The Slayer inside her would normally have accepted this as a threat but instead she rose up and Buffy felt compelled to stay beside him. The golden eyes searched her and then the demon purred.

"Oh dear God" Giles gasped
"What?" Buffy asked quietly
"His demon , it's at peace with you and doesn't consider you a threat"
"Why would it? I've just spent four days trapped in that body with it" Buffy smiled
"Buffy, the seriousness of this has yet to be made known , but when vampires behave like this they are in submission, something they only ever reveal to either their sires or their mates"

Giles sat and waited for Buffy to realise the seriousness of the situation

"So Spike may see me as a mate now?" she sighed "Great" Her tone was flat , she continued "If this is how a vampire behaves when it takes a mate, then why didn't Angel behave like this?"

Giles thought about her question, "Either he didn't really love you Buffy or his demon didn't, there are so many factors that could have played out with Angel. Maybe it was simply that he was an elder master and they don't submit to a mate"

Buffy laughed "He's purring... who knew vamps purred, it's cute really"

Giles smiled, Spike was certainly clouding his view of vampires and the councils view seemed nothing to hold no truth.

The vampire curled its head in her lap and she played with his hair, she ran her hand over the ridges and the vampire leant in , she pricked her finger on a fang and the vampire shot of her lap and growled.

Giles saw this as an act of aggression and picked up his stake.

This made Spike panic and run.

Buffy took off after him.