“You weren’t meant to die like this.”
Spike sighed in frustration and hit the pavement with his sword. Taking a moment to review his surroundings, it didn’t take long to notice that everything was frozen in place. Peaches had his weapon raised and at the ready, a grim look of determination set on his features. A gigantic dragon was motionless in mid-air, the deadly flames that it had breathed out a moment before frozen too. If it weren’t for his frustration, Spike may have thought the whole ‘frozen in time’ thing made for a cool effect.
“What the bloody hell do you want?” Spike all but growled, spinning on his heel to confront the man behind the mojo. He stopped in confusion when said man was a little over five feet tall, wearing a shirt that would make Harris envious and a hat that looks like it was stolen from mummy’s dress up drawer; he certainly didn’t look like the type of fashion victim who could weal the power needed to stop time.
“Right you are; this isn’t my doing; the credit for this one belongs to the big guys upstairs”
Spikes eyes widened comically when he realised the person standing before him had read his thoughts
“This is a brief interlude from the powers that be, I am their messenger and I was sent here with a message.” The man explained. All manner of shock that he was previously feeling was eradicated and a look of annoyance once again graced Spike’s features
“Yeah, well, in case you can’t tell mate, I’m a little busy at the mo’, got this whole saving the world gig going on right now. Why don’t you tottle on home and try again later.” Was Spikes retort
“This isn’t saving the world, William, this is ending it. It was never meant to happen this way and you know it.” Spike didn’t respond. He had known, somewhere, that what they were doing wouldn’t save the world. The only people fighting that were physically strong enough, and, judging by the blood soaked but frozen in time Gunn, alive enough, to fight the good fight were him and Angel. At most, they would last days, maybe weeks, and then what? Hell on earth leaves the back alley ways of L.A and becomes… well… hell on Earth.
“Yeah well, what’s done is done.” Spike replied after a moment, “Only now you’ve probably made it worse!” He accused his onlooker, “Pumped for a fight I was, blood rushing, all fists and fangs, and now I’m here talking to you. When you click your magical heels and return us to the land of the living I’ll be all distracted like, getting taken out within a matter of minutes.” Spikes guilt tactic didn’t seem to work, instead the tiny man in the bad suit smiled at him.
“I work for the Powers that Be, kiddo. You should know by now that what’s done isn’t really done until they say it is.”
“So, what, you sending your army to help fight mate?” Spike asked sarcastically, ending a snort to the end of his question for good measure
“Fighting will not win this war, William. To undo the damage that has been done, time must shift. It wasn’t meant to be like this. We need to undo what has been done and do it right.” The man replied
“Oh, so a bit of time travel then is it? Zap me back to grandads office and we can sit and enjoy the sunshine, maybe go for a ride in one of his big shiny cars and have a chat and I’ll be sure to convince him to change his mind about going up against the senior partners.” Again with the sarcasm
“No, that won’t do.” The man patiently responded, “It wasn’t Angel’s decision that caused this. It was an event in time that made his decision one of actual possibility; something that caused the scales to tip in the favour of darkness. If that event never occurred, none of this would be possible.”
It took a moment, but realisation dawned and shock marred Spikes features
“Buffy.”
“The one and only champ.”
“You… Buffy’s resurrection… you… I have to stop it?”
Spike’s heart was breaking. He didn’t think he would have the strength to stop the woman he loved from being brought back to this world
“Not her resurrection; her death. You couldn’t stop the witch from bringing the slayer back from the dead, no matter what you did. Stopping her death is the only way to stop this.”
“How?” Spike felt like he was in some kind of dream. Surely he wasn’t being given a chance to save the woman he loved from dying, from facing a world of torment upon being brought back from heaven? It seemed too good to be true.
“There’s one small issue though,” Spike knew there would be a catch. He was uncharacteristically quiet as he waited for hat guy to start speaking again.
“We can only go so far. The scales aren’t tipped in our favour right now. Time isn’t ours to control. We can only send you back to the closest of Buffy’s last moments. You said you knew what to do to save her, to be quicker, more clever. You were going to die here today. Given the same opportunity in a different time, would you still be willing to die?
Realisation dawned on Spike; the tower; Buffy’s death. He had his chance to save her as he had done thousands of times before in his dreams. Killing Doc before he got his hands on Dawn. Risking his own life to stop Dawn from bleeding. Making sure Buffy never had to jump. His life in place of hers, it was an easy enough decision.
“Send me back.”
“Woah, hold on there a second mister, it’s not quite as simple as that. There are things you need to know.”
“I don’t need to know anything mate. Been through it all before, felt her death a million times over, redone things in my head so many times. Don’t need to know anything, got it all up here” Spike said, tapping on his head to emphasis his point
“Spike, we are sending you back as you are; souled and chipless. To follow your blood and do what has to be done.”
Spike rolled his eyes in frustration. He had died saving the world and the PTB still didn’t trust him?
“Not gunna hurt the girl mate. Chip or no I’d never hurt Buffy or the bit. Not following my blood anywhere mate. Got me a plan and I’m sticking to it. Send me back.”
This time it was his companions turn to roll his eyes.
Would this stubborn, self-conscious vampire ever learn?
“You’re not the brightest bag in the blood bank are you William?” Spikes “oi” of insult falling on deaf ears.
“Follow your blood William, do what needs to be done.”
Before Spike had the chance to speak, he was blinded by a flash of white light.
Pain filled every cell in his body; his ears were ringing and his eyes felt like they were burning out of his sockets. It took a few minutes for the sensations to pass and for Spike to recognise where he was. On top of the rickety man made tower, lightening flashing all around him, a pool of blue and green light forming against the side line and his sweet lil’ bit standing there, blood running from her body and tears running down her face. Buffy was standing in front of her, a smile of acceptance dawning her features. She had just stopped Dawn from jumping and knew now what she had to do.
“Dawn, Dawn listen to me, there’s not much time, listen.”
At that moment, Spike could have cried. The Powers that Be had shifted time for him, given him the chance to make things right, and somehow he had still managed to cock it all up. He was too late and she would die again. Would poor pathetic William ever get it right?
“Follow your blood William, do what needs to be done.” A voice echoed around him. He knew for a fact that he was the only one who had heard it as Buffy and Dawn had not even flinched at the sound of it.
In that second, Spike knew. A grim look of determination adorned his features and, coming out of the shadows of the tower, he walked up to Buffy and Dawn. Tapping Buffy on the shoulder she jumped in shock, obviously not aware that he had been up there with them. She spun around with a look of panic on her face; they didn’t have much time.
“Spike! What are you…?” she didn’t have time to finish the sentence before Spike had punched her in the face, sending her unconscious to the ground. He knew without any doubt that the only reason he had been able to knock her out was because she had been so surprised to see him.
“Spike NO!” Dawn screamed, rushing to Buffy’s side. Spike grabbed her by the shoulders and hauled her up to face him. She was silently sobbing.
“Little bit, listen to me, you need to listen. I can stop this. You need to let me stop this.”
“But Buffy she…”
“Don’t worry about the slayer bit, she’s only down for a few minutes. She will be right as rain to carry you both down off this tower in no time.”
“Spike… I don’t understand” Dawn was frantically shaking her head
“You don’t need to understand Dawn, just listen.” The use of her name seemed to shock her into action. The tears stopped and she looked at the vampire in front of her
“I love you little bit. I will always love you. You have to be strong, and you have to go on fighting the good fight. Take care of Buffy. Tell her… I don’t know if it will matter, but please, tell her I love her. One last time. And tell her I’m sorry.” The tower shook, breaking them out of their moment.
Spike smiled warmly at Dawn, the only person in the world he had ever truly felt loved by. She had started crying again.
“I’m sorry little bit, this might hurt a minute” And Spike lowered his head to her neck, shifting into game face and gently sliding his teeth inside her.
Dawn gasped at the pain, but tilted her head to allow him better access. She gripped his arms with strength Spike didn’t know she had. Spike took deep pulls of her blood until he heard her heart rate slow down. He pulled away from her neck, facing her. He was still in vampire guise and had Dawn’s blood trickling down his chin. Dawn smiled at him with love that he hadn’t known since losing his mum.
“Be strong Dawn, be brave, live. For me.”
At that, Spike turned from Dawn and ran to the edge of the tower, hurtling himself off without a second thought. His body hit the pool of light and contracted, he could feel the portals energy pulling Dawn’s life source from him. He had thought that burning had been bad but this pain was agonizing. His body turned around in the mass, he looked up to see Dawn on the edge of the tower, leaning over and looking at him, tears streaming down her face. A disorientated Buffy crawled over to the edge to kneel beside her sister, a look of shock and confusion marring her features.
Her face was the last thing Spike saw before he disintegrated to ash.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You become a champion by fighting one more round. When things are tough, you fight one more round. -- James J. Corbett
Author's Chapter Notes:
I am sure this idea has been done to death, but what can I say? I love it!
Just a one-shot for now - no very interesting or good-- but I have an idea for a little bit of a sappy sequel so if anyone is interested let me know :)
Just a one-shot for now - no very interesting or good-- but I have an idea for a little bit of a sappy sequel so if anyone is interested let me know :)
Chapter End Notes:
Desperately seeking BETA for other stories, please let me know if you are interested in helping an obsessive spuffy-shipper out :)