A Very Ordinary Evil

Part 6 – Dr Willow Von Fronkensteen


Two days later


Willow looked, gloatingly, at her finished product. It was like a flak jacket, but it wrapped around the upper chest, extending above and below the heart. She had made the item from one of the few pieces of scrap in her parent’s garage, a torn kevlar sail from her father’s brief flirtation with yachting. At the core of the abbreviated jacket were discarded pieces of half-inch thick steel armour, which she had scavenged from the local Military scrap heap. It would certainly keep Spike safe long enough for her to defuse anything that may start.

It was getting towards dusk, the time she had arranged for Angel and Whistler to arrive. She had also called Giles, to make sure that he brought Buffy and Xander at around the same time. She looked around the kitchen once again, making sure that all six chairs were placed correctly. She smiled, her mischieviousness rising to the top.

Hearing a knock, she went to the door “Come in Angel. This must be Whistler, Hi!” She smiled, trying to make clear to Angel that she was willing to move on.

Angel glowered as he entered the house. “Willow.” His greeting was almost a growl. He was obviously still out of sorts about her pressuring him into helping.

Whistler seemed to be a lot happier. “Yep, that’s me, Whistler. And you must be Willow. Hi. So, Angel tells me you’ve got some ideas about what the chip that young Billy’s got actually does. Great, y’know, it’s time us good guys did some scientific research too, instead of leaving it to the other side all the time. Yer got anything to drink?”

Willow was amused, it wasn’t often she met someone who babbled more than her. “Please sit down, Whistler, I’ll explain everything once all the participants are here. And what would you like to drink?”

“Scotch would be nice.”

“Umm … okay. I’ll try and find some.”

Before Willow could even leave the room, the doorbell rang again. “Sorry, Whistler, I better get the door.”

So saying, she opened the door, to see Giles, Buffy and Xander all there. “Come in.” Willow turned, leading them to the lounge. The new arrivals looked surprised at the gathering. “Okay, all of you sit down and introduce yourselves. I have to go and get the rest of the participants.”

She went and banged on the door to the cellar. “Okay!” She yelled, “bring them up now!”

Spike emerged, flak jacket under his shirt, dragging the firmly trussed vampire behind him. He went straight to the kitchen, forced the creature to sit and tied it firmly to the kitchen chair.

“Spike was in your cellar?” Buffy queried.

“How do you think I got the other vampire and our other unwilling volunteer?” Willow asked her.

“Volunteer? I thought you were going to tell us what you’d discovered about the chip.” Buffy sounded confused.

“No, I have a set of theories, but to be certain which is correct I have to carry out an experiment.”

Spike emerged from the cellar again, dragging a pallid yellow creature of roughly humanoid appearance, but scaled and fanged. The beast ahad had vicious claws.

Spike dragged the demon into the kitchen and tied it at the other end of the row to the vampire.

“Please, could you all move into the kitchen. Now, Buffy, can you sit there, Xander, over there please, Angel, could you sit next to the tied up demon, and Whistler, next to the other vampire. Good.

Now, what I was able to work out, was that the chip is one of three things, but I don’t know which. The only way to be sure is to have Spike hit each of…”

The protests, yelling and complaints erupted. Buffy was standing, waving a finger and shouting. Xander looked confused. The fury on Angel’s face was clearly evident. The vampire was bellowing in no uncertain terms and the yellow demon was ululating wildly. Nothing could be understood. The only person seemingly unaffected was Whistler.

Willow reached into her pocket and pulled out a whistle. The piercing tone immediately cut through the enormous din being made.

“Good, now sit down, listen this time and don’t interrupt.” Willow put on her resolve face. “Now, the only way to be certain of what the chip does is to see Spike’s reactions when he acts violently. He will hit you each, once, hard but not dangerously. He knows perfectly well that, if he doesn’t follow those rules, he’ll be turned into a radish with a soul. As for you, what we learn will be very important. It’ll tell us what the Initiative’s overall goal was, not just ADAM, but the other things we still don’t know about. It’s worth a small amount of pain.”

Buffy looked up at Willow. “I don’t understand what you’re doing Wills.”

“Buffy, can you just trust me please. I’ve given you my trust often enough.”

“Is he still going to hurt when he hits me?”

“Definitely. I wish I could connect him to an EEG to get actual brainwave readings of each event, but beggars can’t be choosers.” Willow smiled lopsidedly as she concluded.

Buffy still looked somewhat sulky, but nodded. “Okay, but one punch only.”

Willow smiled. “Spike, are you ready?”

“Oh yes pet, I’m looking forward to this more than you can possibly imagine.”

“Let’s begin then.”

Spike smirked, walked up to the tied and helpless vampire, hauled back and drove his fist hard into the unfortunate creature’s face. “Well, pet, that didn’t hurt, it was … neat.” He looked back at the vampire, now unconscious, its head lolling forward and chuckled.

“Do you just want me to move along the line pet?”

“That’s easiest Spike. Sooner this is over, the better. Remember, not too hard, Whistler’s one of the good guys.”

Spike sighed and walked up to Whistler, snapping a jab from the elbow. It caught Whistler on the chin with a resounding crack. “Owwwww!” Whistler was obviously hurting. Willow noticed that Spike seemed to be suffering no ill effects from the blow.

Spike was grinning. “Still feeling good. I could get to enjoy this Red.”

“Spike, just carry on, and try not to gloat too much please.” The redhead’s voice was firm and even. Spike was instantly reminded of a schoolmistress.

Moving towards Buffy, Spike allowed his game face to slip on. Grinning evilly he hovered in front of her, savouring the moment. Buffy snarled “You are going to be so dust once that chip’s out,” as Spike fired in a rapid finger strike at her. As the blow landed, Spike’s back arched and he screamed in pain. He reached for his head as he fell from the severity of the effect. “Some things are worth waiting for,” smirked Buffy as she rubbed the base of her nose where Spike had made momentary contact.

Spike looked up at her from the floor, saying “Remember slayer, just one good night.”

Buffy looked down at him, contemptuously. “But never you.”

Willow walked over to Spike, and helped him rise. He shook off her assistance, missing the momentary hurt in her eyes as he did so.

“Well, Chubs, ready?” The mocking tone in Spike’s voice obvious.

“No, but I can’t see you worrying about that, Junior.”

“All too true, pup.” Spike lashed out at Xander, connecting solidly, even as He once again fell, screaming as the chip cut in. Both were on the ground, Xander with a probably broken jaw, and Spike in agony from the chip. Everyone else in the room was stunned. Spike stood, groggily and reached down to haul Xander up. “Sorry mate, I could smell the fear, so I thought I’d make it easier for ya by swinging when you weren’t expecting it.” He looked at Xander carefully, running his fingers across the already bruising jaw. “It doesn’t look broken, just ice it and you’ll be fine.”

He looked around at the astonished expressions on all the other faces. “What? It’s meant to be an experiment, not a brawl. I hit him too hard, that’s all.”

He sauntered over and peered over Willow’s shoulder as she made notes, then walked up to Angel. “According to Red’s list, you’re next, Peaches. I’m really going to enjoy this.”

Angel glared as Spike fired a full-blooded haymaker at him. Connecting solidly Spike saw his Sire fly backwards out of the chair. He started the follow up moves before he realised and brought himself, with difficulty, to a halt. Angel looked stunned, a massive welt forming over his mouth. Buffy, Giles and Whistler all glared at the blond vampire, while Xander watched on in glee.

“Was that you, or your demon, Spike?” Willow’s voice was quiet, but in the silence that followed the ferocity of the single blow delivered to Angel, the question may as well have been delivered with a bullhorn.

“Demon, pet. Even my demon detests Grandpa there.”

“Are you hurting at all Spike?”

“Not in the sligh pet pet. In fact, I haven’t felt this good in a long time.”

Spike moved quickly towards the helpless and now thoroughly terrified demon at the end of the line. He snapped out a pivot kick that broke the creature’s neck with a snap like a dry twig. “No pain there, either.”

“I so want to kill you Spike!” Buffy’s voice dripped venom. “Now Wills, have we finished your stupid idea?”

“Buffy!” The tone of command in Giles’ voice surprised most of those there. “Willow’s idea was anything but stupid. She told me of her three possible outcomes, and one was correct. Now lets all listen to what she has to say.”

“The idea is so simple,” began Willow, “that I feel stupid about not thinking of it sooner. The chip can only work in one way. Like a detector.”

“What kind of detector?” Whistler asked.

“That was why I needed this experiment. I could only think of three types. A demon detector, a soul detector—which is why I needed you, Angel—and a ‘goodness’ detector; hence you Whistler. Since the only time Spike showed any pain was when he tried to hit Buffy and Xander, we know now that the chip only works in the absence of demons. Therefore, it’s a form of demon detector.”

“How does knowing what the chip in Blondie’s head does help us?” Buffy was still smarting, both from the reprimand, and the fact that she suddenly felt like a hanger-on rather than the centre of the group.

“Simple really,” Willow answered quietly. “It tells us what the chip is capable of. With that information, we can try to duplicate it, or make something that does the same thing, but isn’t unnecessarily cruel. They didn’t need to implant the chip into Spike, including it in a collar or in handcuffs would have worked just as well.” Also, if they can make something that works as a demon detector, we could make proper ones, and use them as early warning devices on patrol.”

“Another thing you may want to think about, slayer. It’s a demon detector, right? So that tells us something about the Initiative. I don’t just mean ADAM, I mean its underlying goal. They want to eradicate demons. So you can bet they haven’t shut it down, just shifted their base of operations.” As he said this, he turned and casually staked the still unconscious vampire.

Buffy felt confused and left out. Now Spike was getting into the middle of things too, contributing voluntarily. She hated to admit it, but he had a point, it wasn’t like the government to simply shut down an organisation like the Initiative.

“Well, why don’t we return to the magic shop tomorrow evening to discuss this further. I don’t think that we’ll get anywhere tonight, while pride and egos are bruised.” Giles spoke calmly, but firmly.