She saw them at the gathering dawn, holding hands they drifted wreathed in a rainbow glow. Her friends, Buffy and Angel. She was afraid to greet them in case they should flee, or evaporate like an unfulfilled wish.

They took up a vigil at the footboard of her bed; Spike was in the basement hiding from the sun.

"Willow, don´t be afraid. We´re here to warn you…" Angel began. He stopped when he saw her terrified look. He looked on her with pity and Buffy took over.

"Spike´s chip isn´t working Wills, he killed me…" Buffy jumped abruptly at the noise of the front door being thrown open.

"Willow!" Xander´s voice called. Buffy tried to move out of the way before Xander dashed into Willow´s room. Buffy gasped at his pale, grizzled face and dishevelled appearance.

Willow shook her head and finally woke from her spirit fogged sleep. "Hey, Wills, message from Giles, he needs Drusilla´s ashes quick! Where´s the Bleached Leech?"

"Ummm, he …he´s downstairs. Why does Giles need her ashes? He´s not going to do anything silly is he?"

Willow´s innocent question had Xander on the verge of revealing their plan for vengeance. He pursed his lips and lied to his life-long friend. "He just needs it for research Wills, nothing more. He just figured some ash might have caught in…" He swallowed the name as if it were venom, "Spike´s coat pockets. Can you go look for me?"

Spike rested in the basement, he could feel the heat through the walls. His blood pounded in his head making his body tremble with the power of all the vampires he´d eaten. Drusilla and her death dwelt in his nightmares. He regarded his dark goddess with new respect. How had she dealt with madness for over a century?

Voices filtered down through the floors above until he could hear them with crystal clarity. The Watcher had found a solution! What the Watcher researched, he remembered destroying before the ink dried. He had burned the books as Angelus feasted on the author. Angelus had delighted in the irony of Spike´s task; a former poet destroying a fellow authors work.

His master…Master no more Spike chided himself. Angelus was dead, bathing in the brimstone he deserved!

Spike knew he would have to be devious; he could deceive Willow but not the Watcher. He smiled in his sleep showing sharp white fangs over his silken sensual lips. His eyelids closed to amber slits as deadly light lasered through the room, a crumb of plaster had fallen from a web and a facet of sunlight hit the far wall. The shaft of light danced with particles. He scowled as he remembered his mother telling him that fairies lived in sunbeams.

Giles greeted Xander at his apartment door. "Did you get it?" Xander held out the small plastic bag toward his fevered friend. Giles snatched the bag of grey powder from Xander´s grasp and strode to the makeshift cauldron in the centre of the living room.

Xander closed the door and looked round the room. The walls were bare, all Giles´ books were gone, but where? He had no time to pack. Xander wandered over to the desk and his eyes fell upon a delicate hourglass holding a reddish grey substance. He moved to pick it up.

"Don´t." Giles stayed his hand. "Have you made your peace, Xander?" Giles asked quietly as he carefully filled the upper half of the hourglass with the last minute measure of ash. He sealed the glass magically and then assembled the stand. It was a most elegant, delicate and precise instrument of annihilation. Giles caught a glimpse of Xander´s puzzled expression at his recent question. "Do you die in the faith Xander? I need all the help I can get! I want to know I can count on you when I use this…" He held up the small hourglass, not much bigger than an egg timer.

"Yes, you can always count on me. Dead or alive I´m your man!" Xander smiled bravely.

Giles´ eyes brimmed with tears. "Thank you. Now… " He sniffed back his tears. "Pizza… I´ve got your favourite."

Xander grinned, not sure whether he could eat pizza now at the hour of his death, but… To hell with it, the condemned man ate a hearty meal and so to food!

"Willow? " Spike´s voice sing-songed. "Willow, listen to my voice, love…" Spike´s eyes looked deeply into her own and she felt her will disserting her. Spike muttered quietly to her about what she must do when she invited Xander to visit.

The lost generations of her family urged her to listen to "their saviour". Her years of living on the Hellmouth warned against monsters with silken voices suggesting unspeakable acts. She listened to both…

Angel paced restlessly. "Pity I´m a ghost!" He glared at his whispering child.

Spike´s face twitched as the chip wound down giving its host weakening shocks; like a stopwatch counting down.

Buffy paced in the opposite direction. Suddenly another vampire appeared in front of her. She threw out her arm to stop Angel dead in his tracks.

"Drusilla…" Angel spoke her name with awe.

She approached them dressed in a long black robe and nuns wimple. "Hello, m´dears. " She smiled at them both. She jerked her head back toward Spike. "Williams´ using m´words I see."

"What do you want Drusilla?" Buffy spat the question at the new spectre.

"Ere to help, I am. Watcher´s done a spell." She giggled. "I´m going to help save the world." She exchanged a smug look with them both.

Buffy, leapt up and punched the air. "Yes! Go Giles!!!!"

Xander answered the phone whilst holding a slice of cheese dripping pizza in his other hand.

"Hi Wills, you want me to come over now? Why what´s the matter? Of course… One knight in shining armour coming up, see you soon."

Giles studied Xander as he hung up the phone. He swallowed the last piece of food in his mouth and it hit his stomach like cold poison. He stood up and handed Xander his coat. "It´s cold out, be careful Xander…" He squeezed the young man´s shoulder briefly and wished him God´s speed.

The door closed and he sat down to await the end alone.

Xander ran to Willow´s place. It was dusk with infant stars barely waking in the evening sky. Spike stopped him mid-pace. They looked at each other for a precious moment. It was as if they exchanged places, then both attacked with a roar of outrage.

Tearing claws and teeth then pallid flesh and weakening sinews spelt Xander´s defeat reflected in amber eyes.

Spike heaved an unconscious Xander upright and walked him to Willow´s door.

Willow opened the door and saw Xander holding an unconscious Spike.

"Hey, Wills, your Leech boyfriend attacked me!" Spike looked amused as Willow´s shocked face took in the illusion he´d created. "Where do you want him?"

She gasped and pointed at a wooden chair in the corner. "We´d better tie him to it, do you have any rope?"

Spike knew that he must convince Willow that he was tied to the chair. He started using his name a lot. Then when Giles arrived after Willow had called him she would reinforce the illusion in the Watcher. Giles was not easy to trick, especially if he suspected that someone he mistrusted was deceiving him. He trusted Willow.

Giles arrived shortly after the call. Willow embraced him with tears in her eyes. He hugged her, stroking her back comfortingly.

"Spike´s in here, Giles. Xander said we ought to tie Spike to the chair, because he might escape. I still can´t believe that Spike is behind an apocalyptic scheme. Spike has helped my family for generations…"

"Where´s Xander Willow? " Giles asked. He looked round the living room taking in Spike´s bound form on the wooden chair. His eyes were shut, but his head still jerked up at the mention of Xander. Giles took a couple of paces to the vampire just as Xander came from the kitchen with a bowl of popcorn in his hands. He raised his hand in greeting to Giles.

Giles placed a brown leather Gladstone bag on the floor by the chair legs. He opened it and retrieved a rubber ball gag. He forced the ball into the vampire´s mouth. Spike´s eyes opened wide and he thrashed about on the seat, unable to break his bonds or utter an intelligible sound.

Willow lunged forward at the barbarous act but was restrained by Xander, his face a mask. "But Xander, I love him…" That only made him grip her arms harder.

Giles looked over at Willow and extracted a hammer and chisel from his bag. They clinked together and Willow struggled further. Spike breathed heavily from the chair, and began to shake his head violently when Giles straightened with his instruments in his hands. Giles held Spike´s jaw steady and glared into the ice blue eyes with insane glee.

"Now, I´ll prove that chip´s gone haywire, eh Spike?" He said through gritted teeth. "You," He yanked the blond hair to right and left, manoeuvring the head into the right position. "However, will barely survive the proof!" He glanced over at Xander to see him plunging his hand into the popcorn and smiling at him encouragingly.

Spike, looked up at Giles with tear filled eyes, his face pouring with sweat, a tiny rivulet of blood-tinged spittle ran from the corner of his mouth, as resigned to his fate, he bent his head for the first blow…

Willow shut her eyes at the first dull crack.

The second and third fractured the skull and Giles warmed to his work.

After the first blow Spike´s body had jerked spasmodically, by the third he sat limp as his body betrayed him. His dead eyes rested, unfocussed on the picture of the Scooby gang in happier times.

Giles put aside his tools and plunged his fingers into the grey pulp of the brain; his expression grew puzzled when he couldn´t find what he looked for. He began to delve more deeply, and then changed direction suddenly spattering brain on his face and some matter slid over his lips, his mouth became slack as his search became more frantic. His breathing increased and he almost cried out when no brain remained and his mouth closed on a morsel of cranial flesh.

He stepped back and blinked, his fingers dripped with blood. He found no chip… He stared at the bound body and at the discarded brown-haired scalp.

"Xander!"

Willow´s terrified scream jolted Giles from his torpor and he sank to his knees amongst the blood and brain and wept for his slaughtered son.

End of part 6

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