The darkness was a comfort to Buffy. She felt like she was floating. Sure it wasn't the heaven she recalled but at least it was better than the torture she had just felt. Slowly the floating sensation shifted and she felt herself being pulled on, tugged towards a gray horizon.
It was slightly beyond Buffy's ability to comprehend. She felt like she was dead again. But the last time she died. She was in heaven. Her mom and sister were there making pancakes. She went to the Bronze every night and was happy and carefree. But this place. This was empty. No pain, but no pancakes. Just empty and dark. As the mists got lighter she saw a light. A orb of glowing sparkles. Just hovering there. It was very alluring. Buffy wanted to get closer.
As soon as Buffy thought to get closer it did. It swelled in size and the mists that were surrounding her faded gradually into a scene of an ancient Greek shrine, though slightly falling apart. Columns supporting the outer rim of what may have been a covered ceiling before were chipped and some had large cracks in them. The marble floor had large holes and cracks in it as well where Buffy could see wisps of gray mist flowing beneath. Wisely thinking her way around them she made her way closer to the orb. Nearer the shining ball of familiarity took on an even more familiar shape, a tall roguishly handsome blonde man. Spike.
Now, when Buffy had died before she was fairly certain Spike wasn't there with her. Though she recalled thinking about him there a few times as if he should be. But here he was this time. And there were others here too. Both were sitting at a fountain in the center of the shrine. What looked like identical twins at first turned out to be an oddly ageless boy and girl.
When they both stood and looked at the two champions the more feminine one beckoned out to Buffy and Spike summoning them to the fountain. Spike smirked as if he was expecting this and Buffy tried to take his lead pretending to know what was going on. She did not recognize the twins and didn't want to feel like they had an upper hand with her ignorance.
As Spike opened his mouth to speak, the male figure held up his hands for silence and the female one approached.
“We are glad to see the Champion return to us. We felt it has been many ages since it came with both it's halves. We welcome you again to the In Between. We see you are confused. We understand. The shells you are placed into are so small without form. But we will educate, even if we know you will forget again. Proud Champion we are sad you did not assist in the rebuilding much this incarnation. If anything we see things may have become worse.”
Buffy had no clue what was going on. The In Between? Was she dead? Was she in a new dimension? Not much to it here. Sort of ancienty. Ancienty things never appealed to Buffy as her History teachers could have unanimously agreed on. Now give her a sword and an ancient demon she could handle, but no fight? No point. Buffy was about to ask where she was when the the male one held up his hand to cut her off.
“We know you have questions Champion. We see what you think. We are pleased to tell you that you are not dead. Not quite. We are pleased to tell you that you cannot die. We remind you that your shells may die, and have died. But your soul can never truly die. And we are pleased to see both halves here at one time as it is rare. We hope that perhaps what you learn here will be retained much more than when you are split. We apologize that we cannot be more informative but for all we may push and pull you in the right direction you create your own paths your own destinies. We do not know what will happen past the choices you make. This last time we were not pleased to see such a rift between you. The halves never quite came together, and the In Between could not be whole if it's Champion was not either.”
Spike looked around his surroundings once more. Taking in the shrine, its dilapidated state and the way the fog of gray mist seemed to crush in on it. He felt somewhere in himself that this should be a paradise. Full of green and blue skies and suns that don't burn. Spike looked to Buffy silently asking if Buffy had a clue what was going on.
'Last time I was here was righ' after I saved Sunnyhell but the twins never said this much. Was more like ' oh you useless sod try again' Only more royal “wes” were involved as if they ran the universe. Bloody powers. That's what they had to be. Powers That Be and all that made into people to talk to. Not that they let you get a bloody word in. Soddin fairy people always mysterious no matter what dimension you are in.'
The female spoke once more.
“Oh Spike you are mostly correct. However, we are not the Powers that Be we are the Power that be. For we are one as you are one. Without each other you are not whole. This realm will never be whole. The last time the In Between saw sky was over two hundred incarnations ago but even then you were not whole. We believed that in the romance of Renaissance Italy you showed great potential but alas. We were not pleased when the slayer was burned at the stake before you professed your love. We do not see how hard it can be. But we continue. We wait and we push and we wait some more. We, like you, are eternal. We simply wish eternity were a bit less.. gray. For this is the one realm we do not control. This is the Champion's realm. This realm depends on the Champion.”
Buffy was beginning to get sick of herself and Spike being referred to as only one entity. But as soon as she opened her mouth the male cut her off once more.
“You are but one half of one whole. We regret that the only thing the halves remember is often only the previous incarnation while they are here and often forget that once they are reborn into new shells. We regret it is even harder for the halves to remember this realm when back in corporeal form. This realm does not blend with other existences as we float between and around them. We are everywhere at once and nowhere. We exist beyond comprehension. Even here the Champion of it all sees two figures talking to it however we are here and not here as well. We are merely the way Power is personified in your head. Should you have been Fyral demons we would appear before you substantially larger with horns. And this realm, well what remains of it, would be all black spires and lava flows.”
Buffy began to wonder about the validity of what the twins were saying. In the last nearly ten years of slaying Buffy knew that just about everything was possible. And the more the strange people spoke the more sense it made. But if all this were true, why would a realm be falling apart because of her and Spike? Why if supposedly there were so many incarnations did she never remember any of this before? Buffy honestly had too many questions and feared this was all too much too fast and wanted nothing more than to go home.
“We know that you know what we speak is true, deep within you Champion. The look of doubt upon your face saddens us. Reach into yourself and feel your other half. You have been drawn together since the beginning of time. Though sometimes things do not always work as they should. We feel as if you are getting close. We tell the half named Spike now that there was no need to 'get' a soul those years ago. Your half was always there near you. For you were near your other half. True it was gone for many years held back by the demon that possessed your shell but it was never very far. Once you first laid eyes on her it returned. Hovering. Near your heart. Within you. The demon felt it. The demon feared it. But the demon accepted it as it saw it as a strength. We believe it was closer to possessing the demon than the other way round.”
“And you, half called Buffy. We were humored at your mother naming you such silly nonsense but we had hoped that the insincere name would help buffet your soul to a happier place so we allowed it. You have always been the difficult half. The fearful half. Your fear makes you stronger. You hold onto what you know and what you feel and for that we commend you. However we saw how you abused the other half. We saw how you abused yourself for feeling for it. And we saw how much in the end you pained to see it taken from you.”
“We believe the Champion as a whole was onto something good in this last incarnation you had become close to each other. In the end you halves were nearly a whole again. Without that small joy what you'd see today would likely be even more rubble and much more dark than it has been. For we must remind you, we, this existence and indeed yourself cannot exist without the other.”
“We are beyond heaven and hell. We are there as well as much as we are here and we see it drifting apart from other realms. We are what you could call the glue and you are the children using it. But this realm is the end of that. The true end of all. You cannot grow here. You can only be. So we send you back. Back to the beginning of the last incarnation. To grow. We shall change nothing. You will repeat it all. All the ups and downs will be as they were. However, we gift you. We will help your shells remember when we can.”
“Do not be overjoyed for we are weakened. You will have a hard time ahead Champion but do not worry. And do not fear. We shall watch over you as we always have. When you despair, come together and feel whole again. The closer you are, the stronger we are. The stronger the realm is and the stronger the ties will be between you. You are strong together, but you are mighty as one. Trust yourself.”
Spike and Buffy felt their pulses race in excitement. They wouldn't forget their love. They couldn't it felt like a warm tide growing in them. A great warming sensation from withing burgeoning its way through their veins. The skin tingled and heated up. Buffy saw Spike's eyes glowing with a heat and passion and fire and he saw the same within hers.
They embraced each other feeling their fires grow. They felt as one. And should a third person have reported what they saw, it would have been a sun radiating out pure passionate heat. There was no way they could ever forget this feeling. Never question the complete rightness of being together.
The twins smiled sadly at each other. And coming together themselves they became one. The realm dimmed. Buffy felt the heat within her slowly fade. Spike felt a small drifting sensation. The slayer began thinking in disjointed French. Spike began to feel hungry. Music was playing. Buffy felt herself dancing, moving to the music between friends. Spike saw visions of people between him and his love.
The only thing was, Spike suddenly couldn't remember what he was just thinking. He saw the slayer there dancing with her friends. A cheeky dark haired boy that would be anything but edible, and a tasty looking red head dancing awkwardly sided next to the slayer. But something about this slayer felt different than his others. She was more than his future conquest. He couldn't quite place it but he would figure it out if it killed him.
Spike sauntered over to the bar telling one of the minions to go get something to eat. He needed the slayer to get away from this crowd. Too many people. Even if draining slayers was the biggest aphrodisiac he could name he didn't fancy doing it in front of quite so many witnesses. Going to a random man dancing behind the slayer he said in a loud voice so the slayer might hear.
“Wheres the phone. I need to call the police. There's some big guy out there trying to bite someone.”
Buffy ran off to the alley. An instinctual need to save the day drove her onward but there was this tiny voice from within saying what she really needed was still inside.
'Come on inner wigglies knock that off we got some slayage to do!'
Buffy ran outside. Spike followed.
Soul Mates by alj
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Well thank you to those who reviewed my last chapter. It means a lot to me for what writer wants to post things if they feel it never gets read. I ask that if you at least slightly enjoy what I have to say or any questions please throw them in the reviews. Suggestions are always nice but keep in mind this is largely going to be canonical with the only changes being centered around Spike/Buffy. Messing with time will always have its changes but what is fate is fated.