Disclaimer: All the characters belong to Joss Whedon. No beta, so keep your fingers crossed! Reviews are good. All hail reviewers!
Goes AU after Life Serial.
 
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Another night, another patrol. Buffy had wandered through Sunnydale’s cemeteries one by one, dusting a fledgling or two. With one cemetery to go, she was dragging. She felt so tired all the time these days. She dragged herself out of bed in the morning, dealt with the Sullen Teenager from Hell, suppressed the urge to strangle Willow for eating the last of something again, listened to the 795th lecture from Giles about how she needed to take more responsibility for her life, dealt with the Return of the Sullen Teenager from Hell after school, then, just when everyone else started settling down on the couch to relax, she got to go out and patrol. For something new and different. As she kept walking toward her final stop on this night’s Tour de Sunnydale, her mind kept running through what she thought of as The List. Those fucking basement pipes. Dawn and her attitude and her increasingly sneaky behavior. The bills. The lack of funds to pay said bills. On top of all of this, she had the inescapable longing to return to that warm, peaceful place she had been. A place of love, rest, and absolutely no vampires or busted pipes.
 
She sighed, and entered Restfield Cemetery. She half hoped that Spike would show up. He was annoying, he cheated at kitten poker, and he had totally allowed her to get wayyy too drunk the other night. But he was someone to talk to who didn’t expect her to act all happy and chipper, and that was something. Sometimes she thought she should just get another Bot, put it in her place, and take off to Mexico or something. Maybe then the Scoobies would shut up and leave her in peace.
 
“Evening, Slayer.” Buffy spun around to see Spike behind her, lighting a cigarette. She really was getting sloppy these days. She had been so lost in her own thoughts that she hadn’t even noticed the approach of a vampire. Even if the vampire was Spike, she should probably be a bit concerned about that.
 
“What do you want Spike?” Buffy feigned exasperation. She was truly torn between wanting the company and being too damn tired to deal with anyone.
 
“Just out for a walk,” Spike replied. “Thought you might like a little company on patrol.” Besides, you look ready to drop, Slayer. Gonna be someone’s midnight snack if you don’t get your game on, he thought to himself. She seemed so lost and out of it these days. He marveled that her fabled friends didn’t seem to notice. Wankers.
 
“Thanks, but I was just about to go home for the night,” said Buffy. She made up her mind – the more she hung out with Spike the more aggravation it was going to cause, either from him or from her friends’ disapproval. Best to play the avoidance game.
 
“And miss my company?” said Spike, trying to prolong the interaction. “We could go for another drink…“
 
His teasing was interrupted by a howling blast of wind. He and Buffy spun around to see something they could not quite comprehend. It was as if a shimmering wall of glass had appeared at the edge of the cemetery. It rippled, and sparks shot out from it. As they watched, figures formed on the other side of the wall, then burst through like someone diving through water. They were demons. They were very large, and there were a lot of them. Spike flew to Buffy’s side. They assumed a fighting stance as they watched ten, then twenty demons emerge, with more behind them.
 
Spike did some quick mental math and looked at Buffy. “Um, Slayer…?“ This did not seem like a particularly winnable battle.
 
Buffy understood him and agreed, “Yeah. Time to go.” They needed a more defensible position, and preferably some weaponry.
 
They turned and sprinted toward Spike’s crypt. But the demons were extremely fast as well, and caught up to them, surrounding them before they could get there. They fought side by side, whirling and kicking. After a time, they got separated. Spike was surrounded by demons with skin like plate armor and fists like bricks. He fought harder than he had ever before, but he was losing. There were just too many of them. As yet another punch rocked him backward, he heard Buffy screaming, “Get your fucking paws off of me!” Frantically, he looked around for her. He saw that at least 6 of the demons had grabbed her arms and legs and were bearing her off to the wall.
 
“Buffy!” Spike yelled, trying to fight his way toward her. But before he could get too far, one of the demons thrust his clawed hand into Spike’s abdomen. Spike dropped to his knees, gasping, with a deep, ragged gash across his midsection. He struggled to do something, anything, as he watched the demons running back toward the wall, the Slayer kicking and screaming in their midst. Then the last of the demons crossed the barrier, and it winked out of existence with a flash. Spike weakly called the Slayer’s name, then collapsed on the ground.
 
For several long minutes he lay inert, clutching his wounded stomach. Another inch or two and the demon would have completely gutted him. He fought the urge to just close his eyes and rest – if he passed out, no telling if he would wake up before the sun rose and dusted him. Groaning, he slowly hauled himself to his feet. Blood seeped through his shirt, staining his hands. Painfully, he limped off toward the gates of the cemetery. Gotta let her Watcher know.
 
It took what felt like hours to get to the Magic Box. Spike found himself having to rest about every second block. His pale face was nearly transparent from blood loss. Need to get a fucking phone in the crypt someday. Finally, after a last herculean effort, he pulled open the door of the shop and stumbled inside.
 
Giles, Anya, and Xander were there. Giles and Anya had been counting receipts and cleaning up, while Xander waited to drive Anya home. At the sound of Spike bursting in, Xander started with his usual greeting, “What do you want this time, dead boy…“ Then Spike collapsed face first onto the floor in a heap, and the three of them ran over to him.
 
Giles turned the vampire over and gasped at the blood pouring from his wound. “Anya, get some towels or something. Xander, help me get him onto the couch in the training room.” Anya ran to find something to staunch the blood while Xander grudgingly grabbed the vampire’s feet. Giles took the other end and they hauled Spike into the training room. Anya returned, and Giles used the towels to try to slow down the blood loss. “Spike, can you hear me? What happened?” he asked the semiconscious vampire.
 
Spike opened his eyes with an effort. “Demons… twenty or thirty of them,” he gasped out. “They took Buffy. Too many of them…“ Spike passed out completely at that point.
 
“Dear lord,” said Giles. Buffy was clearly in some serious danger. “Xander. We need to get some blood for Spike. He’s the only one who knows what happened to her, and he’s hurt very badly.”
 
Xander grumbled, but grabbed his jacket and went out to hit the butcher’s shop. Anya had brought a first aid kit, and Giles started cleaning and bandaging Spike’s wound. Giles had no great love for the vampire, yet he still winced at the sight of the gaping hole in Spike’s midsection. He shuddered at the thought of what Buffy could be going through. Spike was an incredible fighter. If these things, whatever they were, could take Spike down this hard, Buffy was in trouble.
 
By the time Xander returned, still grumbling, Spike was bandaged and no longer dripping blood on the floor. Giles shook the vampire lightly. “Spike! Wake up! You need to drink this.” Spike roused enough to sip some of the blood Giles held to his lips. Then he closed his eyes and lay back down, exhausted.
 
“Spike, what can you tell us about the demons?” Giles asked urgently.
 
Spike opened his eyes halfway. “Big bastards,” he began. “Tall, nearly seven feet. Really tough skin – felt like metal. Claws were razor sharp. Lots of teeth. Gray skin.” Spike closed his eyes once more.
 
“Where did they take her?” Xander asked, but Spike was unconscious again. They looked at each other. Giles took charge, as usual. “Xander, call Willow and tell her what’s going on. Anya, we need to try to narrow down what these things are.”
 
Anya sighed. “Why can’t these things happen during normal business hours?” But she went to the bookshelves and started to pull out demonology texts.
 
********
 
Hours later, they had narrowed down the list of possible demons to about three dozen, which helped almost not at all. Dawn was asleep on the mat in the training room, having elected to watch over Spike until he woke up. Giles came in to check on her and the vampire. Dawn was curled up, still asleep. Spike looked even more dead than usual. Giles roused him enough to get a little more blood into him, but the vampire lapsed back into unconsciousness again almost immediately.
 
Giles fought the urge to kick something in frustration. How could Buffy have been captured? He knew she had been a bit lax in her training lately, but she was still incredibly fit and strong. What could have happened? He tried to ignore the little nagging voice inside his head that admonished him for pushing her too hard. He was no longer her Watcher, technically. She needed to stop being so dependent on him. But he couldn’t help wonder if she was more damaged by her death and rebirth than he realized.
 
Giles returned to the main room. Tara had fallen asleep with her head in a book, and Xander was dozing with his head propped up on his hand. Giles frowned a bit at Willow using magic to enhance the internet again. He really needed to speak to her about that sometime. Anya tossed her book down in frustration. “For all we know she could be in any one of 10,000 demon dimensions by now. I’m tired, and I want to go to bed,” she said in her usual blunt way. “Xander! Take me home!” She shook Xander until his head fell off his hand and bounced off the table.
 
“What? Huh?” he mumbled. He shook his head to clear it. “Did we find something?”
 
Giles took off his glasses and pinched his nose. “Xander, take Anya home. She’s tired, and neither of you are helping right now. Come back after you’ve gotten a few hours of sleep.”
 
Tara had woken up at this point as well. “We can stay, Giles,” she offered, rubbing her eyes.
 
“No, you two take Dawn and go home as well. I’ll stay here and watch over Spike. I’ll call you all when he wakes up. Until he can give us more information, we’re just grasping at straws.”
 
Tara went in and woke Dawn. The teen protested, but finally gave in. With another concerned look at Spike, she followed Tara and Willow out to the car.
 
Giles locked the door behind them. He piled up several mats in the training room and threw himself on them, exhausted. But sleep wouldn’t come. What had happened? How much trouble was his slayer in this time? He stared at the ceiling for a long time until sleep finally overtook him.
 
******
 
Spike woke up at 10:00 the next morning, sore, and weak, and initially wondering where the hell he was. Groaning, he tried to sit up, but only got about half way. His groan woke Giles, who rolled blearily off the training mats and stumbled over to the vampire.
 
“Rupert?” asked Spike. “What’s going on?”
 
“You’ve been unconscious for about 15 hours. Let me get you some blood. We need to hear more about what happened.” Giles quickly hustled out of the room.
 
Fifteen hours?? Spike thought. His demon was howling with hunger inside him, but even that was overshadowed by worry. They needed to find her. The longer they left her with those… things, the worse off she was going to be.
 
Giles returned with a large thermos full of blood. Spike drank the entire contents in one long go, not spilling a drop. “Have you got any more?” he asked. He hadn’t been this totally drained in a long, long time.
 
Giles sighed and left again, returning in a few minutes with another full thermos. Spike guzzled that down too, finally taking the edge off the raging hunger. He was moving slowly, like an old man. It was going to be a few days before his insides repaired themselves.
 
“Now, what more can you tell us?” Giles asked impatiently. “Did you see which way they took her?”
 
“They disappeared into some sort of… wall or something,” said Spike. “My best guess is that it was some sort of interdimensional portal or something.” He winced as he sat up straighter, trying to find a comfortable position.
 
The shop door rang at that point. Tara, Willow, and Dawn appeared at the door to the training room. “Spike!” cried Dawn, crossing the room. “Are you ok?”
 
“I’ve been better, Nibblet,” he responded. “Those things took quite a chunk out of me.”
 
“What were they?” Willow asked. “We tried to narrow it down based on what you told us, but we didn’t get very far.”
 
Spike stood up slowly. He swayed for a moment, then carefully moved toward the other room. “Show me what you’ve got,” he said.
 
Tara led him to the table full of open demonology books. Spike eased himself into a chair, wincing. He started going through the texts as Xander and Anya arrived. “Did we figure out what those things were yet?” asked Xander.
 
“Working on it,” muttered Spike. He focused on the pictures in the various books. Too short. Wrong claws. Too wide. Not ugly enough. The others paced around impatiently. It was driving Spike mad, but he tried to rein in his urge to scream at them. They were as worried as he was.
 
Finally, he found them. “There,” he declared, turning the book so the others could see it. “Y’gosoth demons. These are the guys.”
 
Giles snatched up the book and started reading. His eyes grew wide and concerned as he read. After a long few minutes, he put the book down and faced the group. “We need to act quickly, or Buffy may not survive.”
 
TBC