jo_anne_storm | TtH100_2 -- Claim: Spike (Reply)

Title: Introductions
Claim: Spike at TtH100_2
Fandom: BtVS/BSG
Prompt: 001 -- Beginning

Rating: FR13

It was all the bloody Council’s fault, of course. In the year 2071 they decided that Spike was obsolete, unneeded. There were over two thousand Slayers in activation that year, with another hundred expected to start slaying each year afterwards as they matured into their powers. The world had changed and the Council was changing with it.

He became their first attempt at a version of cryogenics tailored for demons. A cross between the casket Illyria had spent millennia in and the finally realized dream of human cryogenics.

He had fought them, of course, but even the Slayer of Slayers was no match for twenty of the hyped-up bitches.

He had no idea when they launched him into space, or why they would have. Maybe that’s what they did to all the demons they caught.

The people who finally released him kept him in a cage for weeks, though that may have had something to do with the fact that he had stepped out of what he could only assume was a morgue. A constant stream of tests followed, as well as people questioning him in a language he didn’t understand or even recognize. Finally, as he grew gaunter from lack of feeding, one of the blighters seemed to get that he wasn’t being an arse.

She sat in front of the glass in a suit, small glasses perched on her nose. She smiled at him through too-long bangs and carefully touched her chest. “Laura,” she said before indicating the obvious soldier beside her. “Apollo.”

Title: Blood
Claim: Spike at TtH100_2
Fandom: BtVS/BSG
Prompt: 006 -- Blood

Rating: FR13

Two days after the first foray across the language barrier, Laura developed a nosebleed during one of the question sessions. Spike was overwhelmed by the smell of fresh blood and couldn’t control his reaction: his face went grr.

Laura and Apollo jumped back from the cage, shock and confusion on their faces. They chattered and gestured at each other, Laura absently holding a handkerchief to her flowing nose.

Eventually Apollo talked into the box on the wall, what Spike figured to be some sort of radio system. A few moments later a tall young man appeared at the guarded door, a scorched and tattered book cradled in his hands. Laura took it from him and quickly flipped through it, apparently looking for something.

Finally finding the passage, Laura read aloud to the two men, who wore increasingly shocked expressions.

Title: Scrolls
Claim: Spike at TtH100_2
Fandom: BtVS/BSG
Prompt: 076 -- Religion

Rating: FR13

Author's Notes: The language for the read passages is awful, I apologize in advance. I was trying to make it feel old and prophetic.

If Spike had been able to understand the three human’s conversation, he would have been amused but disbelieving of what Laura had to say.

“So it came to pass in the fifth moon that the People came upon a Beast of the unknown. And it did frighten them.

Pythia held speech with the Beast and it did learn the language of the People.

She offered up the flesh of many creatures yet all were refused. She did offer her own life blood and was rejected. She did feed it the blood of lesser beasts and it fed. It became strong and in gratitude did tell her its story.

Once, the Beast had been the worst creature imaginable until it did fall in love with a Warrior of the People. It did then reject all it had known and was rejected by the beasts in turn. It did regain the Light for love. It did sacrifice itself for love. It did live again to be a Champion of the Gods to fight beside the Warrior for the rest of her life.

The People then betrayed the Beast. They did banish it from the earth, to live in Darkness. Yet the Gods did not reject it, and sent it to the Prophetess as a guide.”

Apollo and Billy both protested, knowing that the President of the Colonies was sure to take the passage literally. She ignored their cries and ordered the door to the Cylon cell opened.

Title: Choices
Claim: Spike at TtH100_2
Fandom: BtVS/BSG
Prompt: 069 -- Choices

Rating: FR13

Spike backed away from Laura as she entered his cage. The blood still flowed from her nose, no longer stemmed by the forgotten handkerchief. She still carried the scorched book and it was close enough that he could smell old blood on the worn cover.

She spoke over her shoulder in a quiet voice to the two tense men. Apollo flexed his jaw and slowly produced some sort of multi-tool. He opened it to the knife portion and silently handed it through the still open door.

He could feel her study as he continued to back away, stopping only when the wall brought him up short. He was as far as he could be from her in the cage and watched her warily. His demon was close to the surface and he wasn’t sure if he could resist the lure of fresh blood. He could only hope he didn’t do anything stupid to get him deader.

He hadn’t noticed the knife when Apollo handed it to her, or as she studied his demon visage. He had been too focused on the blood dribbling down her face and controlling his baser urges to even consider why she had stepped into his prison.

When she raised the knife to her wrist, light played along the blade, catching his attention. Before any of the humans had time to gasp, he was across the room, holding Laura’s wrist as the knife hovered just millimeters away from her veins.

“I don’t feed off humans, love,” he told her in a quiet voice, his demon-yellow eyes intense. He gently pried the knife from her fingers and closed it back into the multi-tool before handing the assembly back to her.

Laura smiled a pleased smile and left the cage, deliberately turning her back on him. Apollo and the other man remained tense until she was safely through the door and it was once again shut.

“Let’s get our friend some blood, shall we?” she said.

Title: By the Gods
Claim: Spike at TtH100_2
Fandom: BtVS/BSG
Prompt: 078 -- Prayer

Rating: FR13

Author's Notes: No actual Spike in this one, just mention of him.

Commander Adama was less than pleased. He didn’t always like Laura Roslin, disagreed with many of her decisions, but still respected her strength.

He listened quietly to the report his son gave as to the events of the morning, including the President of the Colonies foolishly offering herself as some sort of blood sacrifice to their mysterious “guest”.

His face was impassive as he silently prayed to the Gods to keep the foolish woman safe.

Title: Counting
Claim: Spike at TtH100_2
Fandom: BtVS/BSG
Prompt: 059 -- Cube

Rating: FR13

It was exactly nineteen paces long and nineteen paces wide. He figured if he could pace the floor to ceiling it would be the same. It was a bloody cage and a bloody cube.

He hated it. He hated the enforced stillness the confines demanded. He wanted to move, to interact with the people he could hear through the thick walls, to learn their language and their ways.

With a sigh, he started at the wall opposite from the door and started silently counting his steps. One. Two. Three.

Title: Sick
Claim: Spike at TtH100_2
Fandom: BtVS/BSG
Prompt: 032 -- Smell

Rating: FR13

Apollo was the one who noticed that every time the president came near their mysterious guest that his nose wrinkled up like he smelled something bad.

He asked Spike – he thought that was the weirdest name he had ever heard and could only hope it was a sort of call sign – what was wrong, speaking slowly to try to give the creature a better chance of understanding.

“Bad,” Spike answered, rubbing his nose. Apollo must have worn a confused expression because Spike repeated the word and gestured to Roslin with one hand.

“Bad?” He exchanged glances with the president, utterly confused. He had just flown a twelve hour rotation and hadn’t had time to shower before meeting her for their daily language session with Spike. He knew he smelled worse than Roslin did.

“Bad. Here.” He gently laid his fingers against Laura’s chest, looking sheepish at his action. He spoke a few words in his own language, trying to get the point across even though he knew they wouldn’t understand him.

Roslin sucked in a breath at his fleeting touch. He had pinpointed the exact place of the tumor that was steady sapping her life away.

“Yes,” she replied with a sad smile. “Not bad, sick. Cancer.”

“Sick,” he dutifully repeated. “Cancer?”

Title: Cottle
Claim: Spike at TtH100_2
Fandom: BtVS/BSG
Prompt: 079 -- Hospital

Rating: FR13

Author's Notes:

Spike continued to ask about the term “cancer”, not understanding their vague explanations. He pestered them so often that finally an armed escort showed him to the infirmary, where Doc Cottle showed him pictures of cancer in an old medical journal.

Spike looked over the text, understanding the significance of the spreading growth. It saddened him to know that the gentle woman who had befriended him was going to die a horrible and ugly death.

Explaining the purpose behind the visit piqued Cottle’s interest. With Adama’s permission and Spike’s acceptance, he began to test the stranger’s abilities.