What comes after
folder
-Buffy the Vampire Slayer › Het - Male/Female › Buffy/Oz
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
23
Views:
4,592
Reviews:
6
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Category:
-Buffy the Vampire Slayer › Het - Male/Female › Buffy/Oz
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
23
Views:
4,592
Reviews:
6
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BtVS), nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
Chapter 14: Love and Understanding
Chapter 14: Love and Understanding
They were at the edge of the crater and it was almost night. The crater was dark, though the last rays of the sun illuminated the desert around it.
Willow took a flashlight from the glove compartment and started the descent, with Giles right behind her.
When they reached the bottom, Giles opened the bag he carried and started to place the items in it on the ground.
The spell was simple, a summoning for things lost or misplaced. She combined it with a request to the Earth to lend her help in retrieving that which was in her keeping.
Willow thought that the amulet would be drawn to her by the spell, in theory at least, as the amulet could have very well been destroyed by the entire town collapsing on top of it. But she was relying on the amulet being protected by it’s own magicks, as most magical artifacts were.
Everything was taken from the bag, so she approached Giles and started to set things ready. When she was done, Giles asked. “Can I help?”
With a tense smile she replied. “You can cross your fingers, all of them if you can”.
She started the spell and felt confidence return as the magicks surrounded her and gained strength.
Three hours later, Giles drove the car with an exhausted witch in the passenger’s sit. The amulet was firmly held in her hand.
“I believe the mistake is in the assumption that evil is unnatural and the unnatural is therefore evil. After what you told me, and what I’ve seen in the last few days, and in the past, I believe that the real fight should be against evil and not those we consider unnatural”. Giles said resuming their conversation. “After all, demons were first on this Earth, and are perhaps natural to it. And not all are evil”.
“Remember Clem, Giles, he was very kind. And one of the nicest people I ever meet, human or otherwise. He didn’t have any plans to destroy or conquer the world, he just like his TV shows, his snacks and some kitty poker every once in a while.
For that matter neither did Spike. He helped Buffy stop Angel from ending the world with Acathla, and he didn’t have the chip or the soul then. Although he was trying to get Drussilla away from Angel at the time, I really don’t think that was the only reason.
Buffy mentioned she asked him about that at the time and he said he liked the world as it was, that he never understood why Angel was so set on bringing hell on earth.
And Remember the Judge, apparently the judge wouldn’t go near Drussilla or Spike because they reeked of humanity”.
“Yes, and we mustn’t forget that Spike loved and took care of Drussilla for a century. And he loved Dawn”.
“He loves her still. You didn’t see his face. I never saw something like that. An expression of such love and resignation, and the pure love in his eyes never wavered, she set him on fire over and over and he never tried to stop her, never looked away…. Dawn told me that when Spike returned from Africa she threatened him that if he touched Buffy he would wake up on fire. Do you think that’s why…” Willow couldn’t continue, tears falling from her eyes.
“I believed that Spike’s love for Buffy derived from lust. Lust that had generated a sick obsession and nothing more. I continued to believe that even when all evidence pointed to real feelings from him. He endured Glory’s torture for her, he continued fighting with us and taking care of Dawn when she was gone.
But even as I saw this, I continued to consider Buffy as the force behind his caring for Dawn and that is not true, he loved her for herself.
She even turned to him when she felt that no one understood her, and he talked to her, made her feel better”.
Willow had some thoughts of her own in that matter. “She once told me Spike treated her like an adult when she needed it and like a little girl when she needed that.
I think he thought of her as a little sister. I caught them asleep together on the couch one night about a week after Buffy’s death. Both had been crying. I heard them often at night in Dawn’s room talking about Buffy, like fond memories of fights from Spike and comical situations with their mother from Dawn.
She didn’t talk about things like that to anyone else. Maybe because we didn’t talk about Buffy at all.
One time Spike came down after one of their talks and I was in the living room. He didn’t see me, but I saw him crying, sitting on the stairs. I believe it broke his heart to talk about Buffy, but he did it for Dawn, to help her heal.
I discounted it at the time, I couldn’t get it, but looking back now I cannot understand how a soulless vampire could do something like that for Dawn.
How did he know how to help her deal with her loss like that?”
Giles was silent after that, pondering what Willow had told him. He shared her doubt. It didn’t seem possible that Spike not only understood Dawn’s need, but endured personal pain to help her.
All that without a soul. He had the chip, yes, but that was just a deterrent from hurting humans, it didn’t explain his actions.
Nothing explained his actions.
They were at the edge of the crater and it was almost night. The crater was dark, though the last rays of the sun illuminated the desert around it.
Willow took a flashlight from the glove compartment and started the descent, with Giles right behind her.
When they reached the bottom, Giles opened the bag he carried and started to place the items in it on the ground.
The spell was simple, a summoning for things lost or misplaced. She combined it with a request to the Earth to lend her help in retrieving that which was in her keeping.
Willow thought that the amulet would be drawn to her by the spell, in theory at least, as the amulet could have very well been destroyed by the entire town collapsing on top of it. But she was relying on the amulet being protected by it’s own magicks, as most magical artifacts were.
Everything was taken from the bag, so she approached Giles and started to set things ready. When she was done, Giles asked. “Can I help?”
With a tense smile she replied. “You can cross your fingers, all of them if you can”.
She started the spell and felt confidence return as the magicks surrounded her and gained strength.
Three hours later, Giles drove the car with an exhausted witch in the passenger’s sit. The amulet was firmly held in her hand.
“I believe the mistake is in the assumption that evil is unnatural and the unnatural is therefore evil. After what you told me, and what I’ve seen in the last few days, and in the past, I believe that the real fight should be against evil and not those we consider unnatural”. Giles said resuming their conversation. “After all, demons were first on this Earth, and are perhaps natural to it. And not all are evil”.
“Remember Clem, Giles, he was very kind. And one of the nicest people I ever meet, human or otherwise. He didn’t have any plans to destroy or conquer the world, he just like his TV shows, his snacks and some kitty poker every once in a while.
For that matter neither did Spike. He helped Buffy stop Angel from ending the world with Acathla, and he didn’t have the chip or the soul then. Although he was trying to get Drussilla away from Angel at the time, I really don’t think that was the only reason.
Buffy mentioned she asked him about that at the time and he said he liked the world as it was, that he never understood why Angel was so set on bringing hell on earth.
And Remember the Judge, apparently the judge wouldn’t go near Drussilla or Spike because they reeked of humanity”.
“Yes, and we mustn’t forget that Spike loved and took care of Drussilla for a century. And he loved Dawn”.
“He loves her still. You didn’t see his face. I never saw something like that. An expression of such love and resignation, and the pure love in his eyes never wavered, she set him on fire over and over and he never tried to stop her, never looked away…. Dawn told me that when Spike returned from Africa she threatened him that if he touched Buffy he would wake up on fire. Do you think that’s why…” Willow couldn’t continue, tears falling from her eyes.
“I believed that Spike’s love for Buffy derived from lust. Lust that had generated a sick obsession and nothing more. I continued to believe that even when all evidence pointed to real feelings from him. He endured Glory’s torture for her, he continued fighting with us and taking care of Dawn when she was gone.
But even as I saw this, I continued to consider Buffy as the force behind his caring for Dawn and that is not true, he loved her for herself.
She even turned to him when she felt that no one understood her, and he talked to her, made her feel better”.
Willow had some thoughts of her own in that matter. “She once told me Spike treated her like an adult when she needed it and like a little girl when she needed that.
I think he thought of her as a little sister. I caught them asleep together on the couch one night about a week after Buffy’s death. Both had been crying. I heard them often at night in Dawn’s room talking about Buffy, like fond memories of fights from Spike and comical situations with their mother from Dawn.
She didn’t talk about things like that to anyone else. Maybe because we didn’t talk about Buffy at all.
One time Spike came down after one of their talks and I was in the living room. He didn’t see me, but I saw him crying, sitting on the stairs. I believe it broke his heart to talk about Buffy, but he did it for Dawn, to help her heal.
I discounted it at the time, I couldn’t get it, but looking back now I cannot understand how a soulless vampire could do something like that for Dawn.
How did he know how to help her deal with her loss like that?”
Giles was silent after that, pondering what Willow had told him. He shared her doubt. It didn’t seem possible that Spike not only understood Dawn’s need, but endured personal pain to help her.
All that without a soul. He had the chip, yes, but that was just a deterrent from hurting humans, it didn’t explain his actions.
Nothing explained his actions.