Two vamps, a girl, and a prophecy

Summary: What happens to Spike (and Angel) after ‘Not Fade Away.’
Rating: NC-17 Explicit sexual descriptions (later on), some language.
Pairings: Dawn/Spike, with a small side of Buffy/Xander.
Feedback: Yes, please. This is my first time posting a fic, so be gentle!
Archive? : Ask me first.
Beta: I need one!
Disclaimer: I don’t own ‘em. I’m just borrowing them for a while since Joss isn’t using them anymore. If I was making any money off of this, I would own a much better laptop!!!

Chapter 14

Dawn awoke some time later to find herself sitting upright on Xander’s bedroom floor. The room was almost completely dark, the only light filtering through the curtains from a nearby streetlight. There was no sign of Angel. Standing up, she smoothed down her clothes and combed her fingers through her hair before opening the door.

As she passed the living room, she hardly even blinked at the sight of Buffy, Faith and Angel struggling to subdue a massive, greenish demon that looked like it had wandered off the set of a Hellmouth-based Kung-Fu movie. “What’s up?” She asked Giles, who was standing in the hallway, holding a thick chain, which he seemed to be trying to use as a lasso. He didn’t acknowledge her question, so she shrugged and moved on, strolling into her room and walking straight to the side of the bed. Spike was lying unconscious on top of the blankets, and she saw that the wound in his stomach had worsened dramatically. There was now a gaping black hole, and the skin around the edges was crumbling in on itself, as if he were dusting in slow motion. “Spike…” She murmured his name mournfully, reached out to stroke his hair, and screamed.

Her hand was glowing. Looking down, she saw that her entire body, clothing included, was shining with a soft greenish light.

“You’re the only one who can save him,” A booming male voice declared from behind her. Shrieking, she turned to see a terrifying black demon with strange, angular scales and ridges covering his body in a bizzare form of armor, and odd blade-like spikes forming a sort of crown on the top of his head. She shrank away, carefully placing herself protectively between him and Spike.

“Who are you? How did you get in here?” Dawn demanded, her voice shaking slightly. He shot her an amused look, then pulled a long, wooden handled blade seemingly out of nowhere. Dawn took another step back, blinking at the knife. It was Xander’s favorite kitchen knife. “What’s with the lame ass weaponry? I’d expect a big guy like you to have some kind of fancy sword or something,” She taunted him. Judging from the sounds in the hallway, the others would arrive any second. If she could just keep him away from Spike…

“It’s not for fighting,” He spoke again at last. Flipping the knife so the blade was toward his wrist, he offered it to her, handle first. “You’ll need this. Don’t let them do what they’re trying to do. It will kill him.”

“You want me to fight them off with this?” Dawn grabbed the knife from him, never one to pass up a chance to take a weapon away from a potential enemy, no matter how pathetic said weapon might be.

“It’s not for fighting, Dawn,” The demon repeated, rolling his eyes and snorting. She suddenly noticed how much he looked like a grotesquely mutated bull, and had to suppress a hysterical giggle. “You’ll have to work quickly. Very quickly, if you know what I mean?” He walked around to the other side of the bed, looking at her expectantly.

“No, I don’t know what you mean!” Dawn yelped as he started to fade away. “What are you talking about? Come back here!”

“You know what you have to do. They’ll try to stop you, but none of them are fast enough. Just do what you have to do, and keep that damn Mohra away from him!” The demon ordered urgently. Nodding toward the bed he said, “Get back to work! You’re not moving fast enough.”

Dawn glanced down and screamed. Her hands were covered in blood, the knife was now protruding from the middle of Spike’s wound, and she was holding what appeared to be a long piece of intestine in one hand. “No! Spike!” Horrified, she threw the disgusting, bloody mess on the bed and turned to run for help. She immediately tripped over a shoe sticking out from under the bed, and fell, grabbing onto the bedspread and pulling it over her head on the way down. “Buffy! Buffy! Help!” She screamed, struggling to untangle herself.

“Dawnie?” Her sister was at her side in an instant, pulling the blanket off her head and stroking her hair. “It’s about time you woke up. That must have been some nightmare, we heard you screaming from the stairwell!”

“Nightmare?” Dawn looked around in confusion. She heard a small click and the room was suddenly flooded with light, revealing that she was sitting on the floor of Xander’s bedroom with the chenille blankets Angel had gotten from the linen closet earlier tangled around her torso. Buffy was staring at her with obvious concern, and Willow was hovering anxiously in the doorway.

“You fell out of bed, Dawnie,” Buffy offered her a hand and helped her to her feet. “Are you alright? You’ve been asleep for about eleven hours!”

“What?!” Dawn shrieked. No wonder she had to pee so badly.

Willow winced and stuck a finger in her ear, smiling at her ruefully. “Yep…It’s almost Midnight, Sweetie.”

“No way!” Dawn gaped at her sister, who nodded meekly. “I was screaming?” She frowned thoughtfully, trying to remember, but her brain seemed to be a little foggy.

“Like the hounds of Hell were after you. Well, actually a little louder than the time Tucker actually unleashed the Hellhounds…” Buffy giggled briefly, then sobered. “What were you dreaming about?”

“I don’t know,” Dawn replied, shrugging. “I think it had something to do with Spike? It’s just a blur. There was blood…” She looked down at her hands and shrugged again, unable to recall anything more. A nagging voice in the back of her head insisted she was forgetting something vitally important. “I can’t remember.” She shook her head sadly for a moment, then gave up on the dream in favor of more pressing concerns. “How is Spike doing?”

Buffy bit her lip and glanced at Willow, so Dawn turned to the redhead expectantly. “Will?”

Willow cringed and looked at the floor, and Dawn’s heart sank. “He’s asleep right now, but he had a really rough day. He, uh, can’t eat anymore, and he’s in a lot of p-pain.” Her lip began trembling violently, and she burst into tears. “It’s all my fault!”

“No!” Buffy protested, grabbing her friend in a tight hug. “Remember what Giles said? There was no way you could have known. He didn’t realize, either…” As she spoke, she gently stroked Willow’s hair, the way she often did with Dawn when she was younger.

“I should have called Althenea before we just went off all willy-nilly…” Willow sobbed, pressing her face into Buffy’s shoulder. Dawn felt a bubble of panic rising in her throat…even with everything they’d been through, she’d rarely seen Willow so upset.

“What did Giles say?” Dawn asked, her throat tightening painfully. Buffy looked at Willow uncertainly, as if looking for permission to answer. “What did he say, Buffy?!”

“Giles thinks you’re not so much a key, per se, as some kind of catalyst,” Her sister began slowly. “Basically, he said Angel’s body was already healing, and your energy stimulated that process...sped it up. But Spike’s body isn’t trying to heal itself anymore. The poison is slowly destroying the tissue…”

“And we accelerated that process instead. Giles and I examined him…the venom has eaten a hole in his stomach…the last time he tried to feed…” Willow sobbed loudly. “I’m so sorry, I should have put more thought into it before we tried to heal him. It’s all my fault. If I had just stopped and thought about it…I should have known it couldn’t be that easy.”

Dawn bit her lip to keep from swearing at the troubled redhead. Logically, she realized there was no way Willlow could have known what she was asking Dawn to do, but that didn’t seem to matter to the tight ball of rage that was forming in her stomach, growing more intense by the moment. Closing her eyes, she held up her hand and muttered. “Look, I have to go to the bathroom. I…I can’t deal with you right now.” She turned her back on her sister and the witch, struggling to keep from breaking down in front of them.

“Dawnie…” Willow moaned, and Dawn heard her step closer.

“Save it!” Dawn growled ferociously. “I’m really not in the mood for any more of your apologies or excuses. I just slept for an entire day, after helping you torture…” The thin line holding her emotions in check suddenly snapped, and she spun around, screaming. “I love him, and…and he kissed me…he finally wanted me. But now he hates me, and he’s going to die, and it’s all your fault!” She advanced on Willow, clenching her fists as the redhead let out a pitiful whimper and slumped to the floor dejectedly. “I hate you!” Dawn screeched, leaning over her huddled form.

“Dawn!” Buffy gasped, grabbing her arm and pulling her away from their friend.

“No! Stay the hell away from me!” Dawn whirled around, stomping out of the room and down the hall. At her bladder’s insistence, she locked herself in the bathroom until she stopped shaking and got her breathing somewhat under control. When she finally opened the door, she ran into a solid wall of flesh and shrieked. “Xander!” She panted, holding her hand to her chest. “You scared the crap out of me!” She chuckled weakly, trying to push by him.

To her surprise, he stubbornly refused to yield. “You can be mad at Willow, if you want to. I can understand that,” His voice was tight and angry. “But Buffy didn’t do anything to you.” He frowned down at her, blocking her exit.

“Overprotective much? I’m not mad at Buffy…” Dawn sighed, biting her lip. “I just had to get out of there before I ripped Willow’s frigging head off.” She looked back up at him defiantly. “Her, I’m mad at.”

Xander tipped his head back and sighed loudly. “Join the club.” He groaned, looking down at her and shrugging slightly. “I think Giles is ready to take away her broomstick privileges forever. He’s not too happy with himself, either.”

“Mmm,” Dawn nodded thoughtfully. “You think he could do something about me being such a freak that I can’t even touch someone who’s sick without nearly killing them?” Suddenly, her long forgotten fears about being a complete misfit, not really human, had all came crashing back. How could she ever have thought she’d be able to live a normal life just because Glory was gone? She’d almost convinced herself that with the Hell God gone, she, herself, was no longer the Key. As waves of anger, hurt, and depression threatened to smother her, she let out a choked sob.

“You are not a freak,” Xander murmured emphatically, enveloping her in a warm hug. “You’re amazing.” He kissed the top of her head, and she immediately burst into tears. “Please don’t cry, Dawnie.” He pleaded, rubbing her back comfortingly. “Sweetie, what happened to Spike wasn’t your fault! And look what you did for Angel…he’s practically good as new. It’s not your fault that ‘new Angel’ is still pretty annoying.” He whispered confidingly. Dawn snorted, but continued to cry quietly into his chest.

“Dawn?” She heard Buffy ask hesitantly after a few minutes.

“She thinks she’s a freak,” Xander explained quietly, still rubbing Dawn’s back as she tried to get herself under control.

“What? Dawnie, no!” Buffy exclaimed, wrapping her arms around the two brunettes. “You’re not a freak.” She growled in Dawn’s ear.

“If Spike dies…” Dawn sniffled, unable to continue. She didn’t know what she would do if he died again. She’d barely survived it the first time.

“We’re not going to give up on him, Dawn.” Buffy pulled her closer and kissed the side of her head. “I won’t let you lose him again, I promise. Especially now.”

“So…you’re not upset?” Dawn asked quietly, biting her lip as she looked questioningly at her sister.

“No,” Buffy smiled warmly and hugged her again. “It’s a little weird, but I’m not upset.” She reached up and cupped Dawn’s cheek in her hand. “When he gets better,” she shot Dawn a meaningful look, “I’ll even let him know there’s no stake waiting for him if you decide to…explore this further.”

“Am I missing something?” Xander asked hesitantly, and Dawn snorted again.

“Later, honey,” Buffy giggled, patting him comfortingly on the arm.

Just then, Dawn heard footsteps, and Giles clearing his throat behind her. “I hate to interrupt, but Spike’s awake again. He’s still asking for Dawn.”

“He wants to talk to me?” Dawn looked up hopefully. “I thought he didn’t want me anywhere near him after…”

“He’s asked for you every time he’s woken up,” Buffy said, shaking her head.

“And you didn’t come get me?” Dawn smacked her sister on the arm, and Buffy winced. “You brat!”

“I tried the first two or three times, but you were completely out of it. After that he refused to let me try again. He insisted you needed the sleep.” Buffy replied poutily, rubbing her arm.

“Oh,” Dawn winced. “Sorry.”

“Forget about me…go!” Buffy smiled and shooed Dawn toward her room.

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Author's note: Sorry it took so long to update, the chapter I originally had here was just terrible, and I got a bit blocked while I was rewriting it. I'm still not too happy with this, but in the interest of moving on...