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A goddess on a mountain top
Was burning like a silver flame
The summit of beauty and love
And Venus was her name.
Shocking Blue - Venus

*A couple of weeks before summer break, Spike’s apartment*
The front door opening and closing rose Spike from his slumber. It took him a couple of seconds to get his bearings, but when he did, he concluded it was the time Tara usually came back from school.
He washed himself, put some clean clothes on, and then went out to talk to his landlord. “How was school today, ducks?”
“I-it was g-good.”
There was a slight tremor in her voice and her heart rate had picked up. Spike’s face darkened. “What happened?”
She flinched, then went about fixing herself a sandwich. “There were a couple of boys. They were…”
Spike listened to Tara’s account with growing anger. Two steroid pumping jocks had let their hormones get the best of them, made a move on Glinda, and called her names for not falling over herself to please them. Some of the things they said had really struck a chord. “Who were they?”
Tara smirked. “Slayer bait one, and witch experiment two.”
He took a moment to imagine all the ways that must have gone down. He almost felt sorry for the morons. Almost. It ticked him off that there were kids in that school who didn’t know not to mess with any member of the Scoobies, but the whole ‘secret identity’ of the whole group all but insured such events would continue. Spike had to have faith his friends—and that’s exactly what they all were, even ‘numbskull’ Jesse, and ‘you’re all beneath me’ Cordelia—would be able to take care of themselves.
Of course, the group was only going to get larger. He’d already noticed Oz in the hallways a couple of times, and he knew the quiet teen would be a great fit, even if he didn’t become a werewolf in this universe. Another potential ‘recruit’ was busy trying to be invisible to everyone—Jonathan. Spike still didn’t know how or if to approach Andrew, but he was sure of one thing, at least: Warren needed to be muzzled fast. During Spike’s ’introspective’ period, while being tortured by the First, and then during a couple of chats with post-black-eyes Willow, the truth had become clear: the boy was a sociopath with too much brains to be ignored. Whereas Spike had killed and maimed because that’s what his demon and his vampire family requested, and while Willow did what she did from a deep rooted desire to ‘fix’ things so that nobody she cared about hurt in any way, Warren’s path to crime was based solely on his desires.
He wanted money, fame, and female slaves. In short, everything the Scoobies couldn’t and wouldn’t offer him, even if they recruited him. For now Spike had Warren put under close watch through various methods. Once he slipped up and did something evil—as Spike was sure he would—he’d be just another statistic.
That was all in the future, though. Time to focus on the present. “Pet, everything set for Boston?”
“Yes. Willow found the house and even hacked into the… Well, she looked around somewhere and got her history.” She looked down. “The things she… she had it rough.”
“I know. That’s why we need to get her out of there. And that’s why you need to be with me. I hope, between the two of us, we can get through to her.”
Tara put her hand on Spike’s. “I’m sure we will. We have tickets for two weeks from now.”
“Willow again?”
“Joyce. She’s coming with.”
“Ah.”
Nothing more needed to be said on the subject. Faith would have her family soon.
~~~***~~~
*The factory, later that evening*
The sound of power tools was deafening. A hodge-podge group of vampires, demons, and humans was busy tearing down walls, building partitions, installing surveillance and utilities, strengthening supports, and transforming the old factory into a modern day headquarters for the discriminate Master of Sunnydale.
Spike made his way through the construction gangs until he reached the nerve center, exchanging pleasantries with the workers as he progressed.
“If we don’t have cables there, we won’t be able to put in the sockets where we need them to plug in the computers in the main office space.” Dalton was pointing to the floor plan that had been changed at least twelve times in the past few weeks since work had started.
“If we put the cables where you want them we won’t be able to anchor the weapons rack in the armory.” Penny waved her hands over another part of the floor plan to emphasize her point.
Dalton frowned and didn’t speak for a few moments. He then drew some lines with a pencil. “If we break the wall here, put in some cable channels through there, and dig up the floors through this part, it’ll take us longer, be more expensive, but we can still have both working electrical plugs, and weapon racks.”
Penny’s face broke out in a victorious grin for a second, before she schooled her features into a frown. “Glad that’s finally settled. Now let’s talk furniture.”
It was a perfect moment to step into the discussion. “Make sure the chairs are the most comfortable things you can find. The rest is just details.” Spike took a look at the table filled with papers and writing utensils to gauge what other progress had been made. Things were looking up.
“So if I say we should get full metal desks, that’d be okay?” Penny had one eyebrow raised in challenge. Normally a minion would be punished for such insolence, but Spike had grown fond of her outspoken nature.
“Fuck. Now that you mention it, you better run all furniture by the missus, otherwise she’ll have all our hides.”
“I already sent the Slayer a couple of ideas and she said she’d get back to me.”
Spike and Dalton shared a look. “Well then, seems you have that well in hand. I’ll just talk to Dalton over here about what books to get.”
Spike spent the next hour playing referee to the two highest ranked minions in his nest, directing the rest of the workers, and dealing with delivery issues. Such were the joys of being a Master.
*
There was a strange hush that fell over the factory. A moving bubble of silence. To a human, or an untrained ear it wasn’t even there, but Spike knew better. Despite the past weeks, and despite her title of Mistress, Buffy’s primary title was still Slayer. So whenever the Slayer walked into his compound the assorted demons and vampires working for him paused in their work, before remembering she was not there for them, and getting back to their tasks.
It was that lull that gave her away and made Spike’s heart leap in his chest. He was so focused on extending his senses in search for her it took him a few moments to realize Penny had been speaking before Buffy entered the factory. She looked at him now with a knowing smirk on her face. Spike scowled at her. “You best not forget your place, Ginger. I may not be the usual type of tyrant, but I’m still your boss.
“Of course, Master. Should I repeat what I was saying, or will the rest of it have to wait until tomorrow?”
He snarled at her. It wasn’t an expression of his anger, it was more a reminder that she should show more respect. Before he could dwell on that, though, Buffy entered the room and all his thoughts centered on her.
No matter how many times he saw her, she always managed to take his unneeded breath away.
***
“What are we doing here, baby?”
“Take a few more steps, you’ll know.”
“What do you me—? What is that?” She frowned, but kept going, her gaze going straight to the place Spike expected her to look at. “That is… mine.”
“Right you are, love.” He took a step forward and pointed at the scythe. “That there is the most powerful weapon in the Slayer’s arsenal bar one – yourself. All you need to do is make with the King Arthur bit and it’s yours.”
Buffy nodded absentmindedly, grabbed the handle, and wrenched the scythe from the rock. “Wow. This is… just wow.”
“In the other world we only found this little pretty near the very end.” He shook his head. “I can only imagine what it could have done had we had it on time… Maybe Glory wouldn’t have…” He sighed. “Anyway, having it now should help you deal with anything coming to this hellhole.”
She looked at him sideways, her attention still clearly on her new favorite weapon. “And what about you?”
He smirked and feigned shyness. “Well, mine’s not so much a weapon, as it’s the near perfect defense.” He held up his left hand, showing her his new adornment. “This here is the Gem of Amara. Most scholars and vamps haven’t even heard of it, the rest think it’s just a fairy tale. Makes the wearer invulnerable to the sun, holy water, crosses, and even staking. I should know, tried them all in the other world.” He chuckled. “Not fool-proof though. Apparently it only takes one pissed off slayer to rip it off your finger and it’s bye-bye Precious.”
“Really?”
“Yup, really. Don’t worry, got a better plan this time.” He removed the ring from his finger, raised his T-shirt, and placed the gem on his belly. “See, I thought about it. The thing with the Gem is that it conserves the body to the state it is in when you put it on. You have a scar? You’ll still have a scar. Missing limb? Still going to miss it.” He clucked his tongue a couple of times. “The problem is a bleeding wound will still bleed, so I can’t cut a hole and squish it in hoping it will close. Swallowing it might work, But I don’t wanna risk it since others might figure that one out and try to rip through my stomach to get it.”
“So your plan is to do a striptease?”
He grinned. “You complaining?”
She blushed. “No, just checking.”
“My plan is you’re going to use the Scythe to slice into my abdomen and I’ll push it in. Since the Gem will be touching me at all times, the wound will close right up, trapping it inside me where it will be safe and sound.”
She jerked back. “You’re kidding me.”
“Not even a little bit.”
“Won’t it hurt?”
He shrugged. “Might sting a bit at first, yeah, but it’s worth it.” He reached for her with the hand that wasn’t holding the Gem pressed to his abs. “Don’t worry, kitten, everything will be just fine.”
She frowned, nodded, and got into a fighting stance. “You ready?”
“As I’ll ever be.”
The pain was sharp as the blade sliced him open, in essence gutting him. He pushed it out of his mind as he pressed the ring inside. Then Buffy withdrew her weapon and the wound closed, the Gem doing its job and quelling the pain as it restored him. It was done. He was so happy he leaped at Buffy and captured her mouth with his, giving her a long, passionate kiss. By the time they stopped trying to devour each other they were both panting.
“Spike?”
“Yeah?”
“I love you.”
He’d be thrice damned if an angel choir didn’t start singing ‘Hallelujah’ that moment inside his brain. “God, baby, I love you so much.”
“You do?”
He drew back a little so as to look her straight in the eye. “Of course I do. Why wouldn’t I?”
“Because you might not love me for me, but me for the other me that will never be, see?”
Only Buffy could make that kind of leap, but that only made him love her more. “I love you. I’m in love with you. It has nothing to do with what was, is, or will have been in the other world, with another us. I, Spike, love you, Buffy.” His cheeks hurt a little from how wide his smile was, but he couldn’t be bothered to care.
“Well, I’m in love with you, too, just so you know.”
“You just made me a very happy vamp.”
Her smile was coy and naughty at the same time. “Well, you make me a very happy slayer, so I guess that’s only fair.”
“Well, if you liked this so much, wait ‘til I tell you what’s behind door number two: the Gem comes with a chamber full of pretties we can sell off and never want for money again.” He pretended to be rethinking. “Well, not quite, since forever is a long time and I’ve seen you shop, but we should be okay for at least a century.”
“Seriously?”
“Would I lie to you?”
She stopped smiling, placed a hand on his cheek, and leaned in. “No, I don’t think you would.” She kissed him, all soft and sweet. His heart all but beat with happiness.

Venus lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Austintatious Tunes





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