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Dark Reflection

Chapter 4: A Slayer’s Rage

Much love and appreciation to an awesome beta, and an even better author. Thanks Dreams of Spike.

Xander Harris paced around the Magic Shop. Conflicting thoughts ran wild through his head, and drowned him in a sea of confusion. There was so much going on right now, it was hard to focus on the issue at hand.

Glory was running around rampant, sucking people’s brains and all. Willow was pretty much off the deep end since Tara had been attacked by Glory. She really didn’t talk to anyone, just sat around, pretending to do research while her eyes remained distant and vacant.

He didn’t blame her.

If it had been Anya attacked by Glory, he knew he would have gone crazy

He really didn’t blame Willow for attacking Glory on her own. He would of done the same for Anya.

Love made you do the wacky, Buffy had once said.

Maybe that was why he could forgive Anya for being the vengeance demon that she had been. She had slaughtered and tortured men for their crimes, in so doing, becoming somewhat of a criminal herself. Yet she had changed, forced as it might have been, but she had changed. Forced to become a human and adapt to her new life, she had fallen in love with him. She had given him a chance when others hadn’t. She had loved him when others despised him. And for that reason alone, he admired her, even if she was blunt and tactless.

So now he paced around, an engagement ring in his jacket pocket. He wasn’t sure if he should propose to her now, with the badness that was Glory and all. But what if he died, and never really got to let her know how he felt about her. He loved her, after coming to his senses and knocking Buffy off the pedestal he had had her on for so long, and saw her for what she truly was -- one hell of a woman.

He wanted to propose to her badly, but nervousness tugged away at his mind.

What if she thinks I’m only doing this because I might not make it to the actual wedding alive? What if she doesn’t even want to marry me?

As Xander Harris angrily pushed the thought out of his mind, Dawn stepped into the Magic Shop, a cheery smile on her face, blue eyes shining brightly. She walked towards him sensing something was wrong, brown hair bouncing in her haste. She stopped in front of him, her left eyebrow arched high as she asked, “What’s wrong Xander?”

“Oh nothing, Dawnie, just can’t decide whether I want the goodness of a jelly donut or glazed. Hard choice, isn’t it?” he said, a little too casually -- which she perceptively picked up at once.

“So you’re walking aimlessly around the Magic Box, sweating, on the verge of tears -- and it’s all over a donut?” Dawn asked, her lips setting in a skeptical line.

“What can I say, they’re some great donuts,” Xander insisted.

Noticing the slight bulge in his jacket pocket, Dawn reached over and snatched it out. “What’s this?” she remarked with surprise when she saw the tiny black velvet box. Her surprise only increased when she opened it and saw the engagement ring inside. “Oh my…”

Xander covered her mouth with his hand. “You can’t tell anyone, Dawn. Please don’t tell anyone. I kind of want to keep it as a surprise and look all romantic when I present it to her.”

Dawn giggled. “So what do I get out of this situation?” she asked.

“What do you mean?” Xander asked.

“You don’t want me to tell, so I’m gonna have to ask you for some sort of payment. You know, just to make sure I keep my mouth shut.” Dawn informed him, a sly smile lighting up her face.

“So what do I have to do to keep you quiet?” Xander thought about it for a second. “I would like it if you didn’t open your mouth to anyone but me.” A bemused look crossed Dawn’s face. “Wow, that sounded less perverted in my thoughts.” He said as an afterthought.

Dawn raised her eyebrow. “Double eww, with a side of ice cream.” She replied. “Dairy Queen.”

“Some ice cream, that’s it?” Xander looked doubtful.

“Yeah, I think that covers it.” Dawn smiled evilly at the carpenter.

“Then what are we waiting for?”

Xander wrapped his arm around Dawn and they began to head out of the Magic Box. A shrill voice cut the air. “Hey, you’re only supposed to grope me, Xander.” Xander’s eyes went wide, and Dawn could not help but burst out laughing. “You can’t give us both orgasms.”

Dawn stopped laughing, her own eyes going wide at those startling words.

“And on that note, Dairy Queen it is,” Xander whispered in her ear.

Alexander Lavelle Harris was scared. Then again, scared didn’t exactly cover it. He was terrified, horrified that Warren could actually have shot Buffy and Dawn. Personally he didn’t really give two shits for Resident Evil, he was just a soulless monster that should have been staked eons ago. But Buffy – well, it hadn’t even been a year since Willow had done her mojo to bring her back, and she was nearing death again. It wasn’t fair to her, nor was it fair to Dawn. The younger sister had just found out the hard way that she was not really Buffy’s sister, only a key, a green mystical ball of power that if unleashed could open dimensions.

That was a couple of months ago

She had found out that she had only been a couple months old, and that all her memories prior to the Dracula incident were fake. That she wasn’t really a normal teenager, but a glowing ball of energy, of possibly evil origins. That had to have been hard on her to begin with, even without adding an ounce of psycho hellbitch to the mix.

And now, this.

Xander wanted to kill Warren. If anything happened to either of the Summers girls, he would kill Warren, without mercy. Xander walked up to the receptionist with a wary smile on his face. “Do you think I’ll be able to see Buffy or Dawn anytime soon?”

“No, they are in critical condition, I wish I could let you, but no visitations are allowed. I’d get fired,” said the receptionist, a short, chubby woman with a kindly, sympathetic face.

Xander’s wary smile broke and a flood of tears began sliding down his cheeks uncontrollably. “Please help them,” was all he seemed to be able to say.

“We’re doing our best, sir. Did you need anything else?” the receptionist asked.

“Possibly some tissues. How is Spike doing?” Xander asked, surprised that he even cared. He wiped away at his eyes with his shirt, his face reddening at the fact that he broke down so badly in front of everyone.

“Spike? Oh, you must mean Randy Giles?” she asked.

Xander laughed bitterly, with no real emotion behind it. “Yeah, could I see Randy?” Xander asked. The nurse nodded and gave him the room number in which Spike was being held. Xander headed off to the room, not really sure even as he went why he was going to see Spike at all.

He stepped inside, and the sight of Spike’s body laid out on the hospital bed was enough to bring tears to Xander’s eyes. He strode over to one of the chairs and sat down for a second, breathing hard. After catching his breath he stood up and stared at the broken vampire. Right about his jaw line was a ragged tear, a couple inches in diameter, crusted by black congealed blood. The sheets that covered his chest were marked with blood above the places where Spike had been shot.

Seeing the proud, cocky vampire reduced to this, caused the tears to silently fall from his eyes. He normally didn’t care about the vampire, but the fact that he had taken the bullets for Buffy and ended up like this was a testimony to the love he proclaimed. All at once, it hit Xander, the power of Spike’s willingness to make such a sacrifice for the Slayer.

Maybe I’ve been wrong about him.

“You shouldn’t cry, you know. I’ll heal in no time.” Spike’s voice came out raspy, evidence to the severe pain he was in.

“I know, but it’s hard seeing you like this. I’m used to your smart mouth and witty comebacks, and now you’re all like -- dead and stuff,” Xander said weakly.

“In case you haven’t noticed, Whelp, I’ve been dead for over a century now,” Spike replied, a measure amount of snarkiness in his voice, though also a teasing note that let Xander now he was kidding.

“I just can’t believe Warren. He just shot the three of you, like it didn’t even matter.”

“I don’t matter, not really.” Spike said, his voice barely above a whisper.

“Yes, you do, Spike. I know I haven’t really treated you like you deserve, but you’ve been a great help to us, even before Buffy’s death. Sure, you’ve done stupid things, but there are other things that make up for it. Like today, for example. I was too scared to get married to the woman I loved, but you -- you took a bullet for yours. And that makes you a man in my book,” Xander stated boldly.

“Sometimes I wish I could start everything over, that I would have dumped Drusilla a long time ago, come to Sunnydale and fell in love with Buffy without trying to kill her, and maybe things would be different. But we can’t go back. I’ve just got to accept things for what they are now, even if they aren’t the way I would hve liked,” Spike replied sadly, his throat constricting suddenly.

“We could start over, Spike. After this is all settled and Warren is taken care of, we will. We’ll start over,” Xander assured him quietly, remembering all the bad things he’d done to Spike over the past few years, even when the vampire had not been capable of getting back at him for it in any way.

“Xander, there’s something I’ve got to tell you,” Spike began, his voice grim.

“If it’s homoerotic in any sense, I don’t wanna know, Spike.” Xander said with a dark, wary laugh. “Because this particular conversation is already way too wigsome for my liking.”

“Shut up, boy. The doctor removed the chip in my head,” Spike finished abruptly, waiting for the threats and the stake to come out. For a couple seconds, Xander just stared at him in disbelief.

His chip’s out; he could attack us at any moment…

But when Xander saw the broken look on the vampire’s face, his fears melted away.

A moment too late.

“You don’t trust me, do you?” Spike asked. “After all I’ve done, you Scoobies will just keep pushing me away, no matter what happens.” Spike stopped, looking away from Xander so he wouldn’t see the tears in his eyes. “Just go, whelp. You talk about starting over, but you really don’t mean it.”

Xander bowed his head, lifting his eyes one last time to look at the vampire, before stepping out the door and walking back toward the waiting room.

Outside the Hospital

Warren Meers grinned evilly.

It was time to finish the job he had started, and put the Slayer out of commission. Once she was dead, then he’d be free to create as much havoc and destruction as he wanted. And there’d be no one to stop him. The nine millimeter was in the pocket on the inside of his puffy black jacket. He had one full clip, more than he needed to take the life of one stupid whore.

Smiling once again, he stepped into the hospital.

Elsewhere in the hospital

Eyelids fluttered open, revealing emerald eyes to the rest of the world. Buffy sat up on her hospital bed, trying to gather her memories of what had happened. Everything was still kind of blurry and muddled in her mind.

Suddenly, it hit her with the force of a head-on collision. Warren had shown up at the house with a gun. She now remembered why she was hurting the way she was. She had been shot, and Spike had been shot as well. Concern for the vampire made her jump out of bed, but a fragment of a memory filtered into her mind, freezing her in her tracks.

Dawn.

Dawn had been shot.

She tore out of her hospital room, ignoring the pain in her abdomen. One of the doctors tried to stop her, and she slid out of his way. “Where’s my sister, Dawn?” she cried out to anyone who might answer. Another doctor tried to stop her and she grabbed his arm and spun him around to face her. “Where’s my sister? How is she doing?” Buffy demanded.

“Dawn Summers?” The doctor asked nervously. He was tall and lean, and in complete shock that a girl of Buffy’s size could lift him up as she had done.

“Yes, Dawn Summers. How is she?” Buffy asked through gritted teeth.

“I’m sorry to tell you this, but she just passed away. She lost too much blood and was in a coma, and there was nothing we could do for her. It was too late and the damage to her brain was done. She’s dead, Miss Summers – I’m sorry.”

Buffy released the doctor, her strength failing her instantly as she fell forward onto her knees. Tears began streaming down her face. Her little sister Dawn was dead. She had failed to protect her, and now she was gone forever – all because Buffy had pissed off a geek and his buddies.

Her body was racked with sobs. Things couldn’t get any worse. She had lost her mother, died and got yanked out of heaven by Willow -- and now, she had lost Dawn, too. Poor little Dawn was gone, and she’d never come back. Buffy wrapped her arms around herself, shaking uncontrollably as tears continued pouring down her smooth cheeks. She couldn’t have spoken even if she had wanted to, her constricted throat currently limited to primitive, guttural sounds.

“Dawn,” She finally choked out her sister’s name, remembering the times she had spent with her, all the sacrifices she had made so Dawn could grow up and be somebody – all had been destroyed, by Warren.

“NOOO!” she screamed, her voice barely sounding human, the Buffy in her receding into the dark recesses of her mind, as the Slayer burst through. Power above anything she had ever felt came forth, as the grief of losing her sister was enough to enrage the power of the Slayer within her. Buffy Summers felt like she was being sucked into something much more larger than her, as if she was being consumed by something. Something indescribable took over her. And the woman that was Buffy Summers was gone, caught up in the raging storm that was the Slayer residing in her.

Doctors stood in her way, trying to prevent her passage, but not for long. A quick jab to the first doctor sent him flying into the wall, laughing as the wall broke, and he was knocked unconscious. Another one stepped in her way, a fat, cheeky male who was kicked in the chest flying across the room.

Realizing they didn’t stand a chance against her, the rest of the doctors ran away, headed towards the stairs and elevator doors. Their fright aroused her, and hopefully her pet vampire Spike would prove to be useful.

Xander was in the waiting room, when there was an uprising of some sort. He didn’t get a good look at what it had happened, but suddenly he found himself knocked backwards into a couch like a useless puppet. And now he saw what it was that was causing this.

Buffy Anne Summers.

His eyes widened in shock seeing the anger burning in her eyes. He considered running away. Even if she was his best friend and all, but that didn’t stop her from looking any scarier or more homicidal at that moment. He saw an elevator shaft and planned on running towards it, but realized he’d leave Spike alone in the hospital. Spike would probably their only chance to stop Buffy from hurting them, Spike was the key to his survival. Xander charged forward, ducking a chair that was kicked at him by the Slayer. He ran and slid across the floor and opened the door to Spike’s room.

Spike was sleeping peacefully, getting the rest he needed to heal his wounds. Hastily, Xander grabbed the vampire out who woke with a start, and immediately the vampire realized something was wrong, his eyes flashing golden.

“What’s going on?” Spike asked, working the words around his broken jaw.

“No time to explain.” Xander replied. The two charged out of the room and were immediately sent flying into the air slamming into the elevator shaft. Spike’s eyes widen up seeing the love of his life suddenly homicidal, but he had no time to react. The elevator door opened, and Spike looked back to see who dared come up now.

It was Warren.

He had showed up with a nine millimeter in his hand, ready to kill the Slayer. And with that the Slayer let out a primal yell that shook the hospital.





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