Anya held up a box of L'Oreal Feria Rich Mahogany Copper Brown for Harmony's perusal. “I chose this for you.”
“Isn't that the same one you're using? We'll look like sisters,” Harmony responded. “Are you cool with that?”
“It's a little redder than mine. Our skin tone and features are very different. You'll look more Celtic. Nothing like me. Nothing like Willow, either. And, most importantly, nothing like Harmony Kendall.”
“And I'll be able to go out at night sometimes and not be under your feet all the time.” Harmony didn't sound as enthusiastic about the prospect as might have been expected.
“You haven't been under my feet. I have enjoyed your company,” Anya told her.
“Really? That's cool. Because I've really enjoyed staying with you. It's been really neat, having a girl friend again. What I've really missed about being a vampire. Willow's been pretty cool, but there's always that thing about me biting her that time, also I was horrible to her at school for ten years, and we were only friends for one week. And then I got like this. You really enjoy having me to stay?” Harmony was delighted.
“Yes. I always feel the others are only friendly to me because of Xander. It would be nice having a friend of my own.” Anya was unemotional, simply stating a fact.
Harmony hugged her anyway. “Thanks, Anya. I promise never to bite you, even if this thing stops working.”
“Also,” Anya added, “you make a valuable contribution towards my rent.”
Just then the earthquake struck.
“So you're this ‘Slayer’ and you fight vampires and demons? What about Spike and Willow?” Riley asked.
“Willow's my friend from school. Normal human. Except for being a witch. Spike, he's my - my trainer. The Slayer gets certain, guess you'd call them, ‘support personnel’. There's this whole organisation. Not big with the up-front help, but I've got Spike.” Buffy wasn't going to reveal Giles' part in things, nor go into detail about the Watchers' Council, but Riley had obviously already guessed that there was something unusual about Spike and a bit of blurring of the roles seemed in order.
“So, that's why he's a TA here? To be handy?”
“Pretty much.” Buffy realised that this wasn't even a lie. She knew now that she was indeed the reason Spike had applied for the Teaching Assistant job, when he could undoubtedly have found something more lucrative. “He was keeping an eye on me at High School, too.” Definitely not a lie.
“So.” Riley was silent for a while. “I guess it's sort of ‘you keep my secret, I keep yours’ time, huh?”
“Okay, deal.”
Just then the earthquake struck.
Three people sat in the cafeteria. Or rather two people and a vampire. Tara Maclay, Willow, and Spike. Tara had explained how she had sought out Willow in the hope that the two together could perform a spell that would restore the population's voices. Willow talked with her about witchcraft. Spike put in the odd word, but mostly just watched the two girls, smiling contentedly.
“C-can you read minds?” Tara asked him suddenly. Spike didn't even realise that she was talking to him. “S-Spike? Mr Walworth? C-can you read minds?”
“Well, obviously bleeding well not, Glinda, or I'd have known you were talking to me,” Spike replied affectionately.
“I-it's just - you brought me my favourite coffee blend without even asking, and you sugared it for me just right. And why did you call me ‘Glinda'?” Tara asked. ‘And you seem fond of me,' she added, but only in her thoughts. ‘Not fancy me, but care for me as a friend. Yet we've never met before last night. And I'm pretty sure you know I'm gay. And your aura is - strange.’
“Glinda the Good Witch,” Spike explained. His brow furrowed. “I don't know about the coffee thing. Maybe you've stood in front of me in here sometime and I've seen you with it, and noticed it subconsciously. Or something. Red, you do the psych and the human behaviour stuff, am I making any sense?”
“Guess so. You are pretty good at the noticing stuff. Oh, blast, look at the time! I need to pick up some books from the library and get to my next class. See you, Spike. I'll give you a ring, okay, Tara?” Willow finished the last of her coffee and hurried off.
“Better get going myself, love,” Spike told Tara warmly. “I've got a pile of lecture notes to copy. I'll be seeing you again, I bet, if you're going to be hanging out with Willow. Bye.” He hurried off too, leaving Tara staring thoughtfully into the dregs of her coffee.
‘Can he tell that I'm part demon?’ she wondered. ‘And - with that aura - what is he?’
And then the earthquake struck.
The earth tremor was a minor one. There was some property damage, a few minor injuries to people struck by falling objects, and the electricity to one of the Fraternity houses was cut off. Hardly worthy of notice by local standards. The people of Sunnydale picked themselves up, dusted themselves off, and got on with their lives. Xander suffered a flood in his basement. Porter House, the one that had lost its power, decided to have an ‘Aftershock Party’. As far as the impact of the earthquake on daily life went, that was about it.
The Initiative facility suffered some minor damage to a few of their holding cells. Riley and Forrest went down to assist in moving some of the specimens while their cells were repaired. Riley chatted to his friend about ‘the Slayer’. He had never heard the term before Buffy's confession, but Forrest had. It was, Forrest said, a legend among the HSTs. A scare figure, equivalent to the Boogey Man to humans. Pure myth. It seemed odd to Riley that someone could dismiss that tale as myth while in the very act of guarding monsters which could have stepped out of fairy tale, or out of a Dungeons and Dragons manual. “How do you explain the things we deal with, Forrest?” he asked his friend.
“They're animals. Plain and simple,” Forrest replied. They were then called upon to restrain an escaping demon. After it had been subdued Riley returned to his own thoughts.
‘Animals?’ he thought. ‘Hostile 17 was imprisoned here. Held by the ultimate in containment technology. Implanted with a microchip that prevented her from taking any offensive action. Yet she escaped through sheer cunning, improvisation, and knowledge of human nature. Could an animal have done that? And Professor Walsh wants her retaken or dead, not in case she kills or maims or destroys property, but in case she goes to the Press. An animal? Do animals have myths and legends? I'm not sure what to believe any more.’
“You won't be coming back, will you?” Spike let out a long plume of smoke, flicked his cigarette butt into the gutter, and gave Olivia a questioning stare.
“I don't know. It's all been a lot to take in.” Olivia looked away, avoiding Spike's stare. “Rupert asked me the same question. I gave him the same answer.”
“Yeah, hasn't been an easy time to be here. Us lot can be a difficult crowd to take at the best of times; not being able to talk was a real bugger. Fairy tale creatures cutting people's hearts out, three other people stuck in the apartment with the two of you and cramping your style, not to mention one of them being a vampire.”
Olivia looked horrified. “Xander's a vampire?”
Spike managed to laugh uproariously and look chagrined simultaneously. “God, wait till I tell him. That's bloody sexist of you, love. There are girl vampires too. Thought Rupes had told you. Don't worry, she's harmless.”
“I knew there was something odd about that Anya,” Olivia stated, and Spike laughed again.
“Third time lucky, love? God, Rupert is going to kill me. I was bloody sure he'd told you Harmony is a vampire. Suppose it slipped his mind, what with having to write everything down and all, and seeing as how she can't bite it's not a big deal. Thought he'd have warned you in case you found her blood in the fridge. I'm not bloody helping, am I?”
“That depends what you're trying to do,” Olivia replied in carefully neutral tones.
“I don't want you not to come back. You're good for Rupert. Saw him with you, he really cares. You make him happy. And Christ does that man deserve some happiness. Finest bloke on God's green Earth, is Rupert Giles. Good. Kind. Brave. God, is he brave. And what he's done for me ...” Spike played with his cigarette packet, sliding one half out, and then changing his mind and putting it away again. “He's given so much. Deserves to get something back for a change. You won't find a better man, love, not ever. Hope you won't let a few little things like monsters, and murders, and earthquakes, put you off.”
Olivia smiled at him. “I'll think about it. That's all I can promise. It's his turn to visit me next time. I'd like to come back, yes. I'd like to get to know you, and his other friends here, properly without having to write little notes for everything. I think I can put up with the monsters. It's the other thing I might not be able to face again.”
“What, the earthquake?”
“No. The ordinary people. The way they look at Rupert and I as if us being together is something to be ashamed of. Like we're crossing a line that shouldn't be crossed. Back in Bath hardly anybody took any notice.”
Spike looked blank for a moment, and then eventually caught on. “You mean because you're the colour of that really classy Belgian chocolate, and Rupes is more the colour of Ovaltine made with extra milk, it bothers them? Fucking stupid gits. Now that's something I can't help you with, love. I can put myself between you and vamps and zombies, do it like a shot no problem for any friend of Rupert, but I can't do anything about the way the people in this country think. Can only ask you to ignore it.”
“I'll try. I knew Rupert was a good man, but he must be something very special to inspire such friendship and loyalty. Anyway, it's time I was getting ready to head for the airport. It's been nice meeting you, William.”
“And nice meeting you, Olivia.” Spike frowned. “Do I mean Ovaltine, or do I mean Horlicks?”
Buffy, Willow, and Spike went to the Aftershock Party at Porter Hall together. Spike was in a good mood; happy, laughing, and willing to play silly games with the girls. He divided his attentions evenly between the two girls, so Willow went off by herself to give Buffy a clear field. And stumbled across a dead body.
Drained of blood, and with a mystic symbol carved into his chest.
The party came to an early end. Once the police had finished taking statements from the partygoers, and allowed them to leave, the three friends went off to report Willow's discovery to Giles.
“It's the end of the world,” Giles said gloomily.
“Again?” chorused Buffy, Willow, Spike, and Xander.
“The earthquake, that symbol - yes, taken in conjunction, they are dire portents of the imminent destruction of the world.”
“Hey, I said the earthquake was a portent, and you just went ‘Southern California, fault lines, continental drift, blah blah,” Buffy complained.
“I'm so very sorry. My contrition completely dwarfs the impending apocalypse,” Giles apologised. Buffy couldn't tell whether he was being sincere or not; Spike choked back a snicker. “This is rather serious, you know. The end of the world. Everybody dies.”
“Okay, we stop it,” Buffy announced. “Not like we haven't done it before.” She stared at Willow's sketch of the symbol. “Or seen it before. I know this from somewhere.”
Spike scrutinised it with fresh interest. “So've I, love. On a crypt. In Memorial Rest Gardens.”
“No, Restfield,” Buffy contradicted him.
“Each of you investigate the place you believe to be correct,” Giles suggested. “The rest of us will stay here, research, and await the results of your investigations.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Buffy agreed, arming herself with a crossbow. “Hey, Xan, where's Anya tonight?”
“Staying in, colouring Harmony's hair,” Xander informed her. “The Blonde Bimbo of Blood is going brunette in the interests of disguise.”
“I always wondered if she was a natural blonde,” Buffy remarked.
Xander and Willow looked at Spike. The vampire snatched up an axe. “Best be off to Memorial Rest Gardens,” he said, and left hastily.
The demon was over eight feet tall, muscular, with talons on its fingers. It was crouched inside a mausoleum, scooping the bones of a child into a sack, when the door crashed open.
“Knock knock!” Spike announced himself, axe swinging. The demon lashed out and blocked the blow, and then struck back with a clawed hand. Spike ducked, but was knocked off balance, and the demon dived past him and out of the crypt door. The vampire pursued, grinning with delight at the prospect of a good brawl.
For a couple of minutes the fight was fairly even. The demon had weight, strength, and reach on its side; Spike was faster and more skilful, and his opponent was hampered by its desire to keep hold of the sack. Eventually the vampire slammed the demon face first into a gravestone, pinned it there with one hand, and raised the axe. The demon flailed frantically with the sack and connected with Spike's face, knocking him away, and raised itself to its full height. Spike stumbled backwards and fell; the demon seized its opportunity and ran for its life. Spike spun like a break-dancer and regained his feet. He was about to set off in pursuit of the creature when he sensed a figure approaching from his rear and spun round. Too large to be Buffy. He launched a ferocious axe blow, but then recognised the approaching figure, and frantically pulled back on his swing and diverted it downwards.
Riley paled as the axe bit deep into the ground beside his foot. “Spike!” he gasped. “What the -!”
“Where did it go?” Spike demanded, pulling the axe free and turning. The demon had vanished from sight.
“Into the trees. That way,” Riley pointed. There was no sign of the creature.
“Bugger. Think I've lost it,” Spike cursed. He looked back at Riley Finn. His fellow TA was clad in olive drab fatigues and a flak jacket. “Sodding buggering Hell!” the vampire burst out. “You're one of those bleeding commando guys!”
“What do you mean?” Riley began an automatic denial, then realised it was pointless. “Okay, you got me,” he admitted. “I was looking for that Hostile.”
“Hostile? You mean that sodding demon? Yeah, guess it was pretty hostile. Forget your mask, mate?”
Riley shrugged. “When I saw the fight I was expecting Buffy. She already knows about me.”
“She does? Sly bint never said anything about you.” Spike pulled out his mobile phone. “Better give her a ring, tell her I was right and she was wrong about which cemetery. Now we've got to start from scratch finding the bugger all over again.”
“Sorry I got in the way,” the tall commando said, shame-faced. “I thought you needed a hand.”
“You nearly lost one. Or your head.”
“Buffy told me you were her trainer. I guess you're a bit more than that. That spin ... pretty awesome.”
“I watch a lot of Kung Fu movies,” Spike replied. “Hi Buffy. I was right. Caught the bugger stealing bones. He got away when I got distracted by a friend of ours. Riley Finn. You never told me he was one of those military types.”
“Sorry, Spike,” Buffy apologised. “I met him fighting the Gentlemen. We struck a deal. He didn't tell about me, I didn't tell about him.”
“Not gonna criticise you for keeping your word, pet. What'd you tell him?”
“That I'm the Slayer, you're my trainer. That's about it. So you're not mad at me?”
“Not a bit, love. See you back you know where. Okay?”
“Okay, Spike.” Buffy rang off.
During their exchange Riley had been radioing in a report to his base. He made no mention of Spike.
“Same deal applies to me, okay?” Spike offered.
“Sure thing,” Riley agreed. “If I blow my cover any wider I might as well take out an ad in the college newspaper.”
“Hi guys!” Anya greeted them brightly. “Meet the new Harmony.”
“Hi! What ya think?” Harmony asked, twirling to show off her new mane of glossy dark red. “Anya took a couple of Polaroids, but I can't get the full effect.”
“Pretty good,” Buffy complimented. “You've done a great job, Anya. Looking good, Harmony.”
“Yeah, it's really cool,” Willow chimed in. “You look Irish, or maybe Scotch.”
“Scottish,” Giles corrected. “Scotch is the drink. Oh, I don't believe this. We are on the verge of apocalypse, and you're discussing hair, and I'm correcting your English. Perhaps I could bring everyone's attention back to the Vahral demon and his ‘Sacrifice of Three’, whatever that is. I think the end of the world might just take precedence over hairstyles.”
“Nothing's more important than hairstyles,” Buffy responded. “But I guess the apocalypse comes close. So this guy needs three things for his ritual. Blood of a man.”
“Check,” said Willow, looking slightly ill as she remembered the blood-drained corpse.
“Bones of a child,” Buffy continued.
“Check,” Spike acknowledged.
“And the ‘Word of Valios'. What'd that be? Scroll, book, something like that?”
“That seems logical,” Giles agreed. “We should try to prevent the creature completing the set, if it hasn't already. I think we have to act on the assumption that the ‘Word’ is also to be found here in Sunnydale. We must find it first.”
“I'll hit the Magick shop, see if they've heard of this ‘Word of Valios‘,” Buffy announced, getting her coat.
“I'll check the book archives in the museum,” volunteered Willow.
“And I'll check the University library,” Spike added, and then frowned. “Better not go wandering around by yourself tonight, Red. This beastie's a bit of a bastard.”
“I'll go with,” Xander suggested.
“We'll come too,” Anya declared. “I do know something about demons, remember? I might spot something. And Harmony can make a valuable contribution to our fighting strength.”
Harmony looked simultaneously pleased and nervous. Xander didn't look overjoyed, but raised no objection.
“I'll stay here and continue my research. There may be something else I can discover that will give us a clue to the identity of this item or the location of the ritual,” Giles concluded. “On your way, then, everyone.”
Giles turned over a page in a heavy tome. An illustration met his eye. A fifteenth century talisman. The Word of Valios. “So, not a scroll,” he muttered. He stared closer at the picture. “Oh, dear,” he lamented. “As Spike would say, sodding buggering damn.” He rose from the table, made his way to a chest, and began to pull out trinkets and amulets. Finding the one for which he was looking, he held it up and examined it, then returned to the book. “The same. Bugger.” He was just about to reach for the phone when the door burst open.
“They shouldn't have left you alone, you poor thing,” Harmony soothed, holding a pack of frozen peas to a swelling on Giles' forehead.
“There were three of them,” Giles pointed out. “It would have taken Buffy and Spike together to defeat all three. I blame myself entirely.”
“Yeah, at least,” Spike agreed. “The one I fought was a tough bugger. Not sure I could take two of them by myself, let alone three.”
“So you had this ‘Word' thing here all the time?” Xander asked. “I thought you were being too hard on yourself at first, but ...”
“Don't be cruel,” Harmony scolded. “He's injured.”
“I bought it at a sorceror's estate sale. I really only glanced at it once. I thought it was a knock-off. Thank you, Harmony, the swelling is going down nicely, I think you can stop now.” Giles resumed his reading of the tome, studying the text accompanying the illustration.
“So they have it now. And probably their sacrifices too,” Buffy added pessimistically.
“I'm sure they're on their way to perform their sacrifice at this very moment.” Giles looked up from the tome. “The Hellmouth. They're going to open the Hellmouth.”
Buffy stood up. “The one in the library? Looks like we're going back to High School.”
They disembarked from the two cars outside the ruined school and assembled outside the wreckage of the entrance. Spike looked at the devastation left by the massive home-made bomb and whistled softly. “You were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!” He didn't bother doing an impression of Michael Caine's voice, reckoning that his normal accent was close enough, and he got a laugh out of Willow, Xander, and Buffy. Harmony didn't know what he was talking about, but wasn't interested enough to ask.
They walked through what had once been the doors, and on into the building. “Never thought I'd come back here,” Harmony remarked, touching a finger briefly to a soot-blackened corridor wall.
“Neither did I, Harmony,” Xander agreed, making an effort to be friendly as Anya seemed to have taken to the vampire. “Hey, maybe I'd better stop calling you ‘Harmony', not much point changing your look if we blow your cover when we talk.”
“I need a new name,” Harmony decided. “Something Celtic.”
“MacNab,” Spike suggested, thinking of the John Buchan book in which a group of bored aristocrats go poaching to alleviate their boredom and adopt the alias ‘John MacNab’. “Jean MacNab.”
“McNab sounds fine,” Harmony agreed, “but I want a more exotic first name. Modesty, or Melody, or Mercedes. That's it! Mercedes McNab.”
“There's a movie actress of that name,” Willow pointed out. “She was in ‘Addams Family Values'. Could get complicated.”
“Michelle,” Harmony decided. “Michelle McNab. Yeuch! What have I just stepped on?”
“Mayor meat. Extra crispy,” Xander explained.
“Eww! Double Eww!” Harmony moaned. She would have gone green had that been possible for a vampire. They walked on, taking more care where they were putting their feet, and came to what had once been the library.
Behind them Riley Finn entered the school, carrying a pheromone detector. He made his way through the shattered corridors, following the traces on the display.
What had once been the library was now a sunken, flat-bottomed, crater. A fissure in the centre marked the site of the Hellmouth itself.
“Whoa,” Willow exclaimed. “Check out the new floor plan.”
“Three of them,” Buffy observed. Three Vahral demons stood in a circle, facing inwards to where a sack, a bottle, and the talisman lay on the ground. They were chanting in some unknown language.
“Don't see any sacrifice people,” Willow noted.
“They must be around somewhere, the ritual isn't finished. And it's not going to be.” Buffy leaped lightly down into the hollow, followed a second later by Spike, and then by a nervous Harmony. Willow, Xander, and Anya climbed down more cautiously, and then followed their super-powered allies into the fray.
The demons reacted quickly to the attack, but were coming off second-best. Buffy took on one, Spike another, the humans piled onto the third, and Harmony danced round the outside and hit any demon which came within reach. However the demons seemed to have an amazing ability to soak up punishment, and continued to fight.
Riley appeared at the rim of the hollow, drew a pistol, and jumped down into the room. He fired twice at the demon fighting Spike. It rocked under the impact but didn't go down. Spike was wielding a kukri now; a somewhat more convenient weapon than the axe, which he had passed on to Xander. He slashed the demon across the stomach. It recoiled, and then made a frantic dive for the pile of sacrificial goods. It caught up the sack of bones, and dived for the fissure, ignoring the deep gash that Spike carved into its leg as it passed.
The earth trembled. “Bloody kamikazes!” Spike yelled.
“The demons! They are the sacrifices!” Xander shouted in agreement. “Don't let them jump in the hole!” An idea struck him, and he snatched up the bottle. “Blood of a man?” he asked. “Sacrifice this!” He hurled the bottle out of the hollow. From the corridor came the sound of shattering glass, and the two remaining demons roared in frustration.
Buffy's opponent, bleeding from a stake wound in the stomach, seized the Word of Valios and tried to reach the fissure. Buffy tackled it and brought it to the ground, but it continued to crawl onwards, dragging the lightweight Slayer with it. Spike ran to her assistance, as did Riley.
The third Vahral, reeling under a hail of blows from Anya's and Willow's baseball bats and Xander's axe, plus an occasional stab with a hunting knife from Harmony, saw Riley between itself and the Hellmouth. It saw one last chance to fulfil the prophecy and hurled itself forward, body-checking Riley and sending the Initiative agent reeling towards the fissure. It gathered itself to leap after him, and then collapsed as Xander landed a solid axe blow to its spine.
Riley teetered on the edge, frantically trying to save himself, but his momentum was too great. His feet went over and he plummeted into the abyss, his hand just too far out to grasp the rock. Then a hand closed on his wrist and brought his descent to a halt. He swung, crashed into the rock wall of the fissure, and scrabbled for purchase with his feet. Then he looked up into the face of his saviour. Hostile 17.
Riley picked up his Beretta from where it had fallen, and returned it to its holster. He looked round at the two dead demons, then at the group of young people. “Thanks, pal. Xander, isn't it?” he said gratefully to the young man who had helped Harmony haul him from the chasm. “Thank you, miss ...?” he prompted the girl who had saved his life. He had studied the photos of Hostile 17 far too often to be fooled by the dye job.
“Michelle,” she responded. “Michelle McNab.” She smiled at the handsome young soldier. He might have been one of the enemy who had kidnapped her, and experimented on her, but he was cute.
“You saved my life.” Riley continued. “You're really strong for a girl. Not that I'm being sexist or anything, but I'm a heavy guy, most girls couldn't have held my weight.”
“I used to go to the gym a lot,” Harmony tried to come up with a plausible explanation. “And I guess terror gave me strength. Sorta like the Incredible Hulk getting angry.”
“So, you're one of the commando guys, huh?” Xander put in, trying to distract Riley from Harmony.
“Commando guys? I was just passing by. Been doing paintball,” he tried to account for his fatigues, “and I heard someone in here.”
“They play paintball with real guns these days?” Willow grinned wickedly. “Guess I won't sign up for a game after all.”
“I am so dead,” Riley lamented. “Top secret, or supposed to be. I might as well just give you my security code and rank.”
“You've got a security code and rank?” said Xander. “Cool.”
“Please,” Riley entreated them, as they began to make their way out of the High School. “Don't go round talking about this.”
“Oh, we're used to keeping secrets,” Willow replied. “What about you?”
“I've got to make some kind of report,” Riley admitted. “I don't think I can get away with saying I did all this myself. Okay if I mention a little help from Buffy and Spike? They know you two are martial arts types.”
“I can live with that,” agreed Buffy. “Spike?”
“Yeah, that's okay with me,” Spike gave his assent. He wasn't thrilled about the idea, but didn't really see any way around it. Other than throwing Riley down the crevasse again, which was not an option available to his reformed self, and which would upset the others. Anyway, he quite liked the bloke.
“Do I know you from somewhere?” Riley probed, returning to Harmony.
“Maybe,” she conceded. “I didn't get into college, so I've been working in fast food. I might have served you sometime. I'm out of that line now, doing a bit of nursing. I'm a friend of Anya's.”
“Thanks again for saving my life. Maybe I'll see you again some time?”
“Maybe,” Harmony replied, feeling tempted to hint at a date or give him her phone number. He really was cute. Tall, and handsome, and with a boyishly innocent face. She remembered the antiseptic white cells, the electric shocks, and the pains in her head, and resisted the temptation.
“Harmony saved the life of this Riley Finn?” Giles asked, amazed. “One of the very organisation that abducted her, implanted her with a device which causes her agonising pain whenever she tries to follow her natural instincts, and that tried to abduct her a second time? I am quite flabbergasted. May I ask why, Harmony?”
The vampire girl looked at her shoes and mumbled something.
“Why, Harmony?” Giles pressed.
“Because I want you guys to like me,” Harmony confessed. “It doesn't feel natural. I still feel I should be biting people. But I can't. I might as well make the best of it. And you've all been really good to me. I want to be a Scooby too. It's what one of you would have done. So I did it. Yay me.” She seemed far more embarrassed than proud.
“It would take remarkable speed of thought to assess the situation in those terms and then act,” Giles pointed out. “I would have thought only an instinctive reaction would have been quick enough. I'm impressed. Well done, Harmony. Or Michelle, as I gather we are to call you now.”
“Maybe there's more of the human Harmony Kendall left in her than we thought,” Willow remarked, as she returned to campus with Buffy and Spike.
“The old Harmony would have just screamed,” Buffy pointed out. “Harmony the vampire actually did something unselfish and good. She could have just watched him fall to his death, we'd never have thought of blaming her.”
“Vampires are pack animals, love,” Spike pointed out. “They tend to take their cue from the pack leader and the other pack members. She's being influenced by you lot. Same as I was. I only started off being good because I wanted you to be my friends. I think I've got the hang of it by now; but if, at the beginning, you lot had all told me to sod off, I'd probably have gone back to eating people.”
“Don't call yourself an animal, Spike,” Buffy chided him gently. “You're a man. A good man. A man any girl would be proud to have as a boyfriend.”
He caught the meaning within her words. He had been feeling so much better recently that he did not immediately dismiss the suggestion. “Maybe. One day I might think I'm good enough.”
Buffy felt a warm glow at his words. It was driven from her by a new disturbing thought. “If you've turned good, and now Harmony is turning goodish, what about other vampires? I've been slaying vampires for four years, never thinking about doing anything else. Could I save them instead?”
“I don't think so, Buffy,” Willow put in. “Spike's special. I don't think we'll ever find another vampire like him. And Harmony would never have even made a start at being good if they hadn't put that thing in her head.”
“So maybe the experiments are a good thing. Right? If they stop vampires killing people, and we don't have to slay the vamps, and they get a chance to make something of their unlives?”
Spike looked grave. “I've got a bad feeling about that little lot, loves. I don't think they're playing with behaviour modification just to let the vampires have a chance to be accountants or plumbers or what have you. I'm thinking more like them being shipped to Iran, or Libya, or whoever is enemy of the week, and the devices being shut down remotely. Something like that. Controllable killers.”
“Riley Finn seems such a nice guy. Would he be part of something like that?” Buffy objected.
“You're being a bit naïve tonight, pet.” Spike looked to Willow for support, and she nodded agreement. “What makes you think the top bods tell the blokes who do the catching the whole story? He'll think he's working to make the world safe for Christmas, and puppies, and apple pie. Maybe he's right. But I doubt it. I really doubt it.”