Spike After Fall #2

Plot

Spike stands facing the dragon and remembers, in a short flashback, how he first met it – back at the apocalyptic battle in the alley. Angel said loud and clear back then that he would like to take care of the dragon.

Of course he couldn’t even get that right. Well, here we are, Spike thinks, as he and the dragon face each other. And anyway, is the beast sizing him up? It doesn’t want to fight, does it? (Let’s dip into Spike’s thoughts for a moment, since this inner monologue is best and most entertainingly rendered that way):

No problem… he can do this! It’s just a question of how…

Size is overrated, and he can…

Can what, actually? Hit it?…

Spike, pull yourself together and move…

Um, how about poking the dragon’s eye out? Well, the only result of that would be that the dragon eats him, which he does not find so appealing right now…

Or plug its nostrils? Then it tries to make smoke and its head explodes; very effective and entertaining…

Or the classic, crude version: kicking and punching…

Jump into its mouth and hack it apart from the inside. Maybe he would find treasure in there. Okay, he would have to dodge the flames, so not the best plan…

Its tail. He jumps on it, the dragon tries to snap at him and bites itself, they laugh about it together and then go for a drink…

A thorn in a claw? He looks for it, frees it, and the monster owes him and accepts his offer. Only there probably isn’t a thorn, and it is probably not called a claw either…

Hm.

Spike plants himself menacingly in front of the dragon. “Right then,” he calls out to it. Then he sheathes his sword again and goes back to his motorbike. He has decided to spare it, he explains to the dragon. Whatever reason he has to stay away from here, he respects it. That is only… um… fair…

The dragon nudges Spike. “Oh, come on,” says Spike, before he realises what the creature wants. He climbs onto the dragon – if it wants to go on a trip, he had better do it. As the dragon flies upwards with him, Spike wonders whether this might be a trap. Whatever; he will think of something. After all, it is easier than dealing with annoying humans and an oddly ticking super-goddess.

The dragon sets Spike down higher up in the Wolfram & Hart building.

While he is here, he could perhaps pinch that one desk – he loves the bloody thing.

Spike hears a voice babbling something (I’ll render it word for word):

Pain it hurts alive must stay can’t move why why now…

Spike asks out loud who is there and then follows the voice.

How long will this go on? Now I know how you must have felt… Don’t know how long it’s been, feels like forever. Is that it? Is this my hell?…

Spike reaches the room the voice is coming from. “Oh,” he says, as he sees a figure wrapped in magical fire and energy hanging in mid-air in the middle of the room.

I want out, I want out and do what has to be done. I’m not talking about what they think, or what they believe they have to stop me from, I’m talking about how it should be, what you always knew I could be…

The dragon watches the scene. Spike turns to it and asks what he should do. Should he sacrifice this thing? Should he sacrifice himself? He doesn’t underst… Then Spike is hit by a discharge as he touches the field. He is flung to the floor and every single nerve screams in pain – and that was only for a tiny moment; and this lunatic there lives in the field! Spike realises that this place is not safe – never was and never will be.

Spike rides away from the W&H building. Sorry, he thinks, as the dragon watches him go somehow sadly. But he has to give this place of evil a wide berth. This little interlude has already cost him far too much time, so he has to postpone the search for a new, safe place for his people until tomorrow.

He races back to the amusement park, because he knows he cannot leave the others alone for too long, or… exactly… that… could happen.

Spike looks at the devastation and then runs to the ride where he had left “Frillyria”. Maybe they did not find her; after all, she was outside. He sees the wrecked gondolas, but no trace of Frillyria. Idiot that he is, he had to leave her alone!

He finds the belt of knives she always wore. He can smell sweat and blood and expensive perfume on it; the scent is still strong, so they cannot be far.

Spike has tucked a whole arsenal of weapons under his arms and follows the scent. And the last of the scents belongs to no one from his “herd” – the only one who uses anything similar is Jerry…

Suddenly he finds himself facing a girl with long dark hair, carrying all sorts of odds and ends (we later know her as Spider, or Maria, leader of the Spikettes).

She grumbles quietly to herself that they always leave her out and give her stupid jobs, even though she has been here much longer than the others – well, maybe not in this body, but her mind, her heart, her… She sees Spike and drops everything she was holding. So does he.

She is startled and the spider limbs shoot out of her back. Spike jerks up a knife he was still holding.

The troop of demonic ladies holding the humans in the park are instructed by their leader, together with the humans, on how to behave when “she” arrives:

Avoid eye contact. Don’t stare too long, but don’t look away too quickly either. No speaking loudly and no whispering. If spoken to, answer immediately, unless it was a rhetorical remark or similar. Don’t try to run away or provoke a fight…

“Fred” whispers to Jeremy that she is still busy memorising the first two rules – maybe she should have written them down… The two are snapped at for talking. Fred apologises, but Jeremy quickly takes the blame.

The demoness grabs Fred and wants to make an example of her. Jeremy warns her that she has no idea what she is doing, but she is about to find out. Then he calls on Illyria to kick her ass. But “Fred” has no idea… Jeremy tries to persuade her to change – doesn’t it work like that? He has no idea, because Spike does not talk to him about it. He looks at “Fred” worriedly, when someone appears and orders the demoness to stop. She shrinks back, stammering that she didn’t mean to…

Another demoness appears – apparently the one they were expecting, the leader of this whole troop. And apparently everyone respects, if not fears, her.

She explains to her subordinate that she does not care at all what she meant or didn’t. She is just stupid, and her kind always do what they are not supposed to. And she is really annoyed about it. The “shells” (the humans) will understand soon enough. Won’t they, she asks Jeremy, whom she does not think quite as dim as her subordinate. Then she pushes him aside and turns to “Fred”. Fred is intimidated and has no idea what the demoness wants with her of all people; she is only standing here with the others…

The demoness presses herself against Fred and says yes, she is only standing there, practically crackling with power. She is almost bursting, and the demoness would quite like to make sure that happens. “Fred” does not understand what she means…

Uh-huh, she does, but if she wants to play shy, that’s fine.

Then she turns to everyone. They should listen carefully: they are all going to die – with as little whining as possible, please – so they should start praying to whatever gods they like. They will need some others for work; which for those means they will just die later, tired and sore.

She then explains to the humans that they do not deserve even to learn her name, only this much: she is the Lord/Lady of Beverly Hills. And no 90210 jokes! She has heard them all, and anyway there is no reason for the prisoners to make jokes.

One of the demonesses, named Noelle, tries to speak to her and point something out – which makes the lady angry. Then she sees what she wanted to show her…

A truck is racing towards them. Spike is at the wheel, and the unconscious girl is slumped in the passenger seat.

Jeremy cheers, which immediately draws the lady’s attention back to him. He quickly explains that he just loves trucks.

Spike takes quick stock: she looks okay, Jerry seems fine too, as does the little boy with his new parents and the annoying teenagers.

And then there is this strange girlie in the skin-tight clothes… well, that must mean he should run her over. Spike changes as he drives towards her.

The lady is quite taken with the fact that it is a vampire; that promises fun. And, um, does anyone else get the impression that he is driving straight at her?

The lady pulls “Fred” to her.

No, Spike shouts, but he knows it is too late. Everyone stares in shock. The truck hits her and is stopped as if by an obstacle, as “Fred” has turned into Illyria. Spike grins with relief before the airbag hits him.

Spike is dragged out of the truck by the demon ladies. He can smell the expensive perfume even more clearly now. As all the women draw him into a fight, he cannot help thinking that it kind of turns him on.

They argue among themselves that this is the vampire they absolutely wanted to avoid, and Maria brings him here, to them of all places! In Maria’s defence, Spike says he can be very persuasive. He calls to Jeremy to check on Illyria.

She is caught up in a fight with the demon lady and seems to have the upper hand. Illyria finds it pathetic that for all her bragging she gives up after the smallest blow.

The demon lady’s eyes glow and she asks what makes Illyria think she is giving up?! They are only just getting started!

The eyes of some of the humans begin to glow in the same way, and their skin shows marks like those on the demon lady’s skin – like lots of shells – as the life is somehow sucked out of them.

Illyria tries to attack her again. “Stop,” she says, and catches Illyria’s fist.

Jeremy holds one of the women in his arms and says, stunned, roughly in Spike’s direction, that the humans are dying, rotting… Spike can do nothing; the demonesses are holding him.

Until then the lady did not even know Spike’s name and is surprised. Wow, she says. Well, be that as it may, apparently they have nothing that interests her – apart from the fun they are having here right now. With that she throws Illyria to the ground with all her strength. Spike has to watch. He cannot help her, cannot move. He is sorry; then he is knocked unconscious.

When Spike comes to, he is chained to a wall. “Wake up,” orders the lady, who sits beside him and scratches deep across his chest. She whispers in his ear that she can touch him as much as she likes and nothing happens – she can take absolutely nothing from him. He and his girlfriend (Frillyria, that is) are like a foreign language to her.

Spike wants to know where she is.

He surely does not want to see her right now – not a pretty sight, the lady answers. He should relax. She may not be able to use his power, but she can use his connections.

The demon lady gets up and says she has to go now; they will see each other later.

For the first time Spike notices that he is not alone in the room, as hands reach out towards him.

Oh, he doesn’t have to thank her, she says as she leaves. She turns round once more and her eyes glow as she explains that although she is utterly evil, she is not completely evil. If she is going to lock him up here, she at least wanted to leave him his friends for company…

The rotting humans are in the cell with him, stretching their arms out towards him and calling for Spike.