Disclaimer: All of the characters are Joss Whedon’s.
 
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After a strange pulling sensation, Spike landed in the middle of an outcropping of rocks. Fuck! Sunlight! His demon screamed to run, but after a second he realized he was not actually on fire. Well, that’s a welcome twist, he thought. Apparently the sun in this dimension had no effect on him. Certainly made things easier. Damn lucky too, since none of them had thought about that problem before they said the spell. Typical Willow - never did think through the consequences completely. Spike wondered what other unexpected surprises he was in for.
 
He looked around. The outcropping of rocks was part of a ravine, funneling down toward some sort of massive structure. He crept from rock to rock, keeping a wary eye on his surroundings. At the mouth of the ravine, he paused behind another rock to survey the landscape. A dusty flat area led up to a massive fortress, which looked like it had been hewn out of a mountainside. There were demon guards all over the place.
 
Spike sat back out of sight and thought for a bit. Back door, maybe? Or wait until dark? He did not fancy facing these guys in force. One or two he could handle, but this rescue would go nowhere fast if he got himself gutted again. He made up his mind – he had to wait until dark. The flat area in front of the main door had no cover. If he tried to creep around the back in the daytime he had a very good chance of being seen. Grumbling with frustration, he sat down to wait.
 
After what seemed an eternity the sun finally went down. Spike rose, hefted his axe, and crept slowly around the edge of the open area. There were a few guards still on duty, but they were hanging out around the door, and not patrolling much. He could see their point – who in their right mind would attack this place? He crept around until he reached the craggy walls of the fortress. Following the walls as quickly as he could, he came to a small entrance. It appeared to be some sort of sewer outflow or something. Spike had to bend nearly double to enter it, but it seemed the best way to get in unnoticed.
 
He followed the tunnel for a long way before he saw a grate above his head. He listened carefully, but heard nothing. Deciding to risk it, he edged the grate up a bit. The coast was clear. He pushed the grate to the side, wincing a bit as it grated on the stone floor. Passing his axe through the opening, he pulled himself out. Boots will never be the same, he sighed inwardly. He seemed to be in some sort of storeroom or something. Locating the door, he cautiously stuck his head out. He vamped out to enhance his senses and slowly left the room, taking off silently down the corridor.
 
He snuck through the tunnels for a very long time. He eventually found himself nearing the more populated areas of the building. He stepped quickly behind a corner as he heard several demons approaching. Fortunately, these guys weighed so much they shook the ground when they walked, so hearing them coming was not a big issue. Spike continued on, getting closer to what seemed to be the central portion of the fortress. Then, passing a set of stairs leading down, he stopped and sniffed the air. Slayer. His vampire senses could pick up the faint scent of the woman he sought. He looked around for demons, then quickly slipped down the stairs.
 
Spike followed the faint scent through the halls of the fortress. The tunnels and corridors were much closer to a series of interconnected caves than a building. This had the advantage of leaving many corners and nooks that a thin, black clad figure could hide in to wait for demons to pass. He silently and invisibly made his way through the twisted maze until he reached another corridor with many small rooms opening off of it. The scent was stronger here. He was mildly puzzled to see that none of the doors had any guards on them. You would think that with the Slayer here, they would post extra demons to guard against escape. He let that thought go for the time being and concentrated on finding Buffy.
 
He stalked down the corridor to the last door on the left. He paused, listening, but heard nothing but a human heartbeat. He looked through the small opening in the door and was relieved to see the head of the Slayer. “Buffy!” he called softly. No response. “Buffy!” he repeated a little louder. Bint must be asleep, he mused.
 
The lock on the door was massive, but Spike hadn’t lived for 120 years without picking up some useful skills, including lock picking. Silently, he opened the door, grateful that it didn’t groan on its hinges. He stepped in and closed it most of the way behind him. Then he turned and began saying, “Slayer! It’s me. We have to… “ He stopped and stared in shock at the sight before him.
 
Buffy was naked. Although he had spent much of the past year or so fantasizing about this very thing, in this case lust was the furthest thing from his mind. She was filthy, and covered in welts and bruises. Some looked weeks old, while some were relatively fresh. She was curled in a ball, her hair hanging lank and tangled over her face. One leg looked distorted, as if it had been broken and set badly, if at all.
 
Swallowing his distress, he crouched down and touched her shoulder gently. “Buffy?” he said quietly. He tugged gently to get her to look at him. She cringed away, like a frightened animal, and stared at him with blank, uncomprehending eyes. That was when Spike noticed the final horror. She was pregnant. Not just pregnant, but grossly, hugely so. Spike realized now that he could hear the second heartbeat – and it was clearly not human. Even though they had suspected this might happen, it was a tremendous shock.
 
Spike had expected that Buffy might be in rough shape, but he never could have imagined this abused, catatonic figure before him. He had perhaps in the deepest corners of his mind imagined that she would welcome him as her liberator, perhaps leading to a deeper relationship between them. But he never planned for this unresponsive, frightened creature. How was he going to get her out of here? He had assumed, poorly as it turned out, that she would at least be able to walk, that they would somehow sneak out together and find somewhere quiet to say the spell and open the portal. Could he do it here?
 
Just then his enhanced hearing picked up the sound of an approaching demon. Shit, he thought. He shut the door quietly and quickly stepped behind it. In less than a minute he heard the rattle of the lock. He watched as the door opened and a guard came in. “Eat,” the guard grunted in barely understandable English. He put a bowl of something gray next to Buffy. At first she didn’t respond, causing the demon to backhand her across the face. “Eat!” he commanded again, and this time she obeyed, mechanically, eating with her hands like an animal. As the guard turned to leave, Spike sprung at him with his axe, taking his head clean off before the guard could make a sound. The demon tottered for a moment then fell with a crashing thud.
 
Spike listened. Good. For now, it appeared the guard was alone. But clearly, they needed to get the hell out of here, now. Spike dropped the axe and returned to Buffy’s side. She kept staring into space and eating whatever they had brought her. He gently took her hand out of the bowl. “We need to go, love,” he said, softly. He quickly removed his duster and his blue overshirt. He slipped the shirt on her unresisting form, moving her arms as if she was a rag doll. Then he put his duster on her. As he was guiding her left hand through the sleeve, he gasped. Her hand was missing the little finger. It had been amputated almost completely, leaving a poorly healed, ragged stump. His stomach sank. My God, Slayer, what have they done to you?
 
Having covered Buffy somewhat, he scooped her into his arms. She was dead weight, unresisting and completely unresponsive. He was going to have to leave the axe – there was no way he could manage it and her. Hope I can get out of here without needing it. Spike carried her to the door, listened once more, then carefully poked his head into the corridor. The coast was clear, so he began to make his way quietly down the hall toward the exit.
 
It was even slower going than before. Now he was playing dodge-the-demon with his arms full. He hoped and prayed that she wouldn’t suddenly come to and scream or something – he would not be able to fight off an army of these guys with no weapon and a catatonic slayer in his arms. After what seemed like an hour he finally reached the level of the exit. He waited in an alcove as the guards walked back and forth in front of the great door. He was wondering how long he would have to wait for a chance to make a break for it when there was a commotion in the hall behind him. The door guards ran into the hall to check it out, and he sprinted for the exit. His momentary elation at having gotten out was dashed by the realization that they were shouting about ‘the vessel’ having escaped. He felt he was correct in assuming that Buffy was the vessel, and that they had found the guard’s body.
 
His feelings were confirmed as he heard shouts, roars, and the unmistakable sound of pursuit. Glancing behind, he saw about 15 guards running his general direction, armed to the teeth.Shit, shit, SHIT! he thought. He looked quickly toward the rocks on his left, and then to the right. In that direction across the open space was a forest of twisted, thorny trees. He headed straight for the woods, diving in among the trees headlong. He curled himself protectively about Buffy as the branches lacerated his arms. He zigzagged through the woods, deliberately choosing narrow paths that were reasonably easy to get through for a thin vampire, but would be harder for a 7 foot tall demon. The darkness of the forest gave Spike a bit of an advantage, and the noise the demons themselves made tended to drown out the sound of his flight. After crashing through endless thickets he jumped a small stream and ran a short way up the bank. Then, thinking better of it, he returned to the stream, carefully stepping on exposed rocks so as to leave no footprints. He increased his speed, using his vampire talents to the fullest, and was gratified to hear the sounds of pursuit fading in the distance. He ran through the stream for as long as he could, hoping the water would hide his scent and footprints.
 
After a time, the wood started to thin out slightly at the base of a series of cliffs. Scanning the cliffs, he noticed a little opening in one of them, half hidden by some bushes. He dived inside and was pleasantly surprised to find that it opened into a reasonably sized cave. Nearly spent, he carefully set Buffy down on the ground. He sat down hard next to her, grateful that he didn’t need to breathe at the moment. He winced again at the sight of her blank eyes, her bruised, swollen body. The girl needed a doctor, quickly. He dug into his pocket and found the paper with the chant written on it. It was only then that he glanced at his left wrist. The amulet was gone.
 
TBC