desoto_hia873 | De-chipping Spike

When I started reading Buffyverse fanfic, the first big archive site I found was All About Spike. Which worked for me because he was my favourite character. Anyway, one of the things that I was quite delighted with was the wide variety of ways that people came up with to get the chip out of Spike's head.

Being old and fogey as I am (and becoming more so every day), I now can't remember half of the dechipping methods that I've read about. In fact, I can only come up with three. I don't want to spoil people for any stories that they haven't read, so I'm putting this very short list under the cut - click at your own risk.

rahirah has Willow magic the chip out in Necessary Evils. The twist on this method is that Willow didn't ask Spike before she did it and didn't want him to stop her mid-spell, so she 'recited' the incantation in American Sign Language with her hand behind her back. No one said spells had to be verbal, right?

cousinjean had Spike inadvertently remove it himself by wishing it out in a conversation with Halfrek (Perfect World).

missmurchison had Tara magic it out in her charming Spara story Quick and Bitter, Slow and Sweet. Tara was in the process of losing her het virginity to Spike and she didn't want to ruin his pleasure by having the chip go off as he entered her.

ETA: Oh yeah,

cousinjean also had Spike's chip modified in a futurefic so that he could fight humans in self-defense (Future Imperfect). I guess that sort of counts.

I know there were so many more. What ways have you read?

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Spandery examples:

In "Changes" Tabaqui has a sidhe who owes Xander a favor distort the chip so it ceases to work.

In Shadow's "Twilight Time" Xander screws it up with a construction magnet.

In "Repossession" there's a painful spell which must be renewed quite frequently.

Julia, just off the top of my head

A construction magnet? Hee! That sounds like something Xander would do.

One more off the top of my head:

hlynn had Glory remove it in "Sideways Shanshu"

And I can remember another story, though the title and author are totally escaping me. It was written around the end of Season Four, and had Spike's chip get fried after he's slammed into a breaker box or something similar while fighting a demon. He gets all geared up to go kill Buffy and winds up realizing he loves her. I haven't read it in ages, though I know I saved a copy. Have to keep looking.

You've jogged my memory - I read a different story where Glory removed the chip while attempting to brainsuck Spike. Possibly it was Dancing Lessons? I was about to say that I'll have to go look, but - damn!

D'oh! I can't believe I forgot this one:

"Darkest Before Dawn" by

nmissi -- written and posted a chapter a day during rerun hell in Season Five. We'd seen up to "The Body" at that point and then had a six week or so break before new episodes.

The link I gave you is for the first chapter, without any links to the following chapters, here's a better link for "Darkest Before Dawn". Or you can read it on her website, though she's got background images on every page that make it a bit tough.

The sequel, "Unconventional Sunrise" has never been finished, and while it was still good, it never really grabbed me (she was moving away from BtVS fandom at that point and I think that had a big impact on her writing).

Okay, the second story was "Second Chance" by WhiteWolf (and there was a sequel "Choices"), that sadly does not appear to be online anywhere anymore. If you're interested in reading it, let me know and I'll forward it to you.

I stumbled across one other, but sadly I only have the first chapter and no author name (excuse me while I go whack myself upside the head for being an idiot), where it turns out there never was a chip at all... it was all in his mind, so to speak. It's old enough that it's not showing up anywhere online with any of the keywords I've tried.

Wow, you're like an archive unto yourself! Sure, send it along - I'll probably go into withdrawal after the RDAs are over, so I'll a fix. :-)

"The problem is all inside your head", she said to me
The answer is easy if you take it logically
I'd like to help you in your struggle to be free
There must be fifty ways to cure your vampire.

She said it's really not my habit to intrude
Furthermore, I hope my meaning won't be lost or misconstrued
But I'll repeat myself at the risk of being crude
There must be fifty ways to cure your vampire
Fifty ways to cure your vampire

Just hit him with a spell, Nell;
Kick him in the head, Fred;
Cure him with a curse, nurse;
And set the boy free.

Send him to a gypsy, Nipsy;
Get him with a wish, Trish;
Zap him with a charge, Marge;
Just listen to me!

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Hee! You just came up with that now? I love your brain. :-)

In Things Present - Things Past

estepheia and Marcee send Spike back in time. The spell used will only sent flesh and bone, so Spike goes naked. Unexpectedly, the chip is left behind.

In my own fic, Past Glory, I have Warren use a Pockla demon to reach inside Spike's head and remove the chip so he can modify it and use it to control Buffy.

So many imaginative ways to do it. Much more interesting than what we actually saw in S7!

I've only done it in fic once, which is odd considering most of my fic takes place S4/5. But in "Black Satin Voices," D'Hoffryn authorizes Halfrek to use her powers to remove Spike's chip hoping that the lack of a tether will make him attack Buffy (and stop Buffy from making trouble). She pretends to be Cecily to gain access to him when he's sick and magics the chip out of his head.

Oh, and Spike's chip doesn't work on occupants of the painting in "Rhapsody in Oil" but I used the excuse that it was because they were part of another dimension. Does that count? :)

It all counts. So many wonderful authors that I haven't yet read - and you're one of them. I came across one of your fics while reading for the RDA awards and was quite taken with it. Looking forward to reading more (when the next round of RDAs is over, as that's taking up most of my free time at the moment).

julia_here said. I despise the chip and find it much more fun to write Spike without it, so, let's see... 'Notice' has him getting accidentally electrocuted in a fight and it's toast. 'Sweeter Far Than Flowing Honey' has Rack killing it. 'Compass Rose' has Drucilla making a glamor that 'fools' it and basically it doesn't work anymore since no one is human to it anymore. 'Credence' has it being fried 'cause the Initiative is going down and, you know, explosions and etc. and it was being tinkered with... Had one with an MRI machine being used but - a computer chip wouldn't actually be affected by a magnet since it has no magnetic storage on it, so that was a mess-up on my part.

If you want the stories at all, they're all on my site.
:)

I've also read Vamp!Xander hooking him up to a car battery and in a Te story it seems maybe Dru dug it out - it's never really made clear. Also lightening has fried it. I don't have links to those stories, unfortunately.

Wow! You're very imaginative - ME should have hired you. :-)

Heeee.
Computer chips are pretty damn fragile when it comes to electricity, so actually frying the thing would have been super-easy.

Ah well.

De-chipping Spike

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50 Ways To Cure Your Vampire

Re: 50 Ways To Cure Your Vampire

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