"Ok now you have me confused. "
"It's hard to say what's wrong when everything hurts."
"Well what hurts the most?"
"Head."
"Is it worse than when the chip would fire?"
"It's getting there."
"Ok, I don't care what you say, I'm going to see if a healing spell helps and if it doesn't I might have one that can help us figure out the poison faster."
"I'm not going to argue."
"Alright, I'll be right back I have to grab a few things from my bag."
Willow left the room and headed downstairs to tell Dawn what she was going to do and grab what she needed for both spells. She had realized earlier at the compound that she might have to do the spells and grabbed what she needed. She and Dawn headed back upstairs. Willow setup to do the healing spell first. Dawn sat next to Spike. Willow did the healing spell and could tell that there was no change so she made sure everything was set up to do the other spell. Willow started the spell and at first nothing happened but then as if it was handed to her a piece of paper appeared. By the end of the spell she noticed there was a name on the paper. Willow stood up and both Dawn and Spike heard her go downstairs. She returned several minutes later.
"You were right Dawn; the poison isn't in any of the books."
"I didn't want to be right about that. We're one step farther from finding a cure now."
"We may not be."
"And what's that supposed to mean?"
"I read in one of Giles' spellbooks that there's a spell that can determine a cure."
"Well that's convenient, there's a but isn't there."
"The spell isn't exactly pleasant."
"If it helps I don't bloody care if it tears a limb off. If it's the only way get it over with."
"I don't think you understand what I mean Spike."
"I don't have to. As long as you know what you're doing."
"If you're sure just give me a little while to set up."
Willow and Dawn both left the room. As they got downstairs Dawn turned to Willow.
"What did you mean by the spell isn't pleasant?"
Willow sighed.
"The spell itself isn't the unpleasant part, it's actually really simple to cast. It's more of what the spell has to do in order to figure out the cure."
"What does it have to do?"
"It has to go through his memories to figure out the type then it analyzes some of his blood to figure out the cure, I'm just not sure what it will have to do since he doesn't remember being poisoned."
"Alright."
"Dawny, I also don't think it's a good idea for you to be here while I do it."
"I'm not leaving!"
"Dawny, I can call you when I'm done but you really don't want to be here."
""Why?"
"Do you remember last year when his chip misfired? I know you pretended to hate him but you told me after everything that had happened, that you had actually wanted to help him but you couldn't. This could be the same situation."
"Fine but you better call me when you finish."
Dawn headed out the front door. Willow sighed knowing this could turn bad fast. She head back upstairs and into the bedroom Spike was in.
"That bad huh?"
"You heard the conversation?"
"Enhanced hearing, Red."
"Right."
"Let get this over with."
"Alright. Give me a few minutes to set up."
Spike nodded. Willow walked downstairs to get the spell book she would need. She grabbed the book and headed back upstairs. The spell called for the chant and the magic casters hands to at the person's temples.
Willow explained this to Spike and after getting his permission started the spell. Almost immediately Spike's head erupted in pain. The spell analyzed Spike's blood almost immediately, that wasn't the hard part. A piece of paper appeared above them and fell to the floor and Willow assumed it was the cure or how to make the cure, but she couldn't check to see if it was. If she broke the connection now they wouldn't get the other answer they needed. She also figured if she broke the connection the paper would go blank. The hard part was happening in Spike's head.
Spike, Angel and the others were standing in the alley. Angel had just said he wanted to be the one to take on the dragon. Spike worked with Illyria to take down the other demons while and trying to give Angel time to take down the dragon. Spike was fighting a few demons. He killed them but more just kept coming. Spike turned around just as a demon he didn't recognize cut im across the chest. The cut stung but Spike kept fighting, ignoring the pain. But shortly after he noticed something wrong. His vision was going cloudy.
"Spike behind you."
Spike turned around just in time to be whacked on the side of the head by something. He closed his eye and when he opened them all he saw was black. And he didn't have time to move out of the way as Angel yelled at him as a different demon ran at him and he vaguely remembered Angel saying something about acid but he couldn't hear him over the dragon roar. The demon made a hissing noise and Spike punched in its general direction but missed. The demon hissed again and all Spike felt was a burning sensation on his face and torso. And then it felt like something was ripping his chest apart. That was where the memory ended.
The spell had allowed Willow to watch the memory as it happened. As the spell ended she lowered her hand and took a deep calming breath. She hadn't expected that to be what had happened. Willow had figured it was something he had done to get in trouble rather than being in a fight to save the world again. She looked at Spike and noticed he'd gone still.
"Spike?"
Willow placed a hand on his shoulder and noticed he was shaking. She then realized the memory might have made him relive what had happened. If that was the case then he was in a whole lot of pain. Spike turned his head towards Willow.
"Hopefully that never has to happen again. That spell is rubbish."
"That bad?"
"You have no idea."
"Sorry, I didn't know it would be that bad."
"Most spells don't tell you what the effects would be."
Willow nodded. She could tell he was still shaking but she wasn't sure what to do. After that spell she didn't want to do a healing spell because she knew he wouldn't want it.
"Can I do anything to help? Given that I kinda did this"
"I don't know."
Willow reached over and picked up the paper. She was amazed to see that there was more than just the cure on the paper. There was also the name of the demon on it.
