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.

Chapter 27

“Will!” Xander’s jaw dropped and he moved quickly to wrap his arms around her. “Will, you’re okay?!”

“Where have you been, Wills?” Buffy threw herself at the pair, trying to squeeze herself between her boyfriend and best friend, jumping up and down. “Oh thank god, Willow!” Closing her eyes, she squeezed the redhead tightly. Willow smiled, looking slightly embarrassed, and held her friend close, patting her on the back.

“Red?!” Spike grinned and walked over to sling his arm around Willow’s shoulders, leaning over to give her a quick peck on the cheek, just as Angel approached her cautiously from the other side and patted her awkwardly on the shoulder. “You’ve got to stop disappearing on us like that!”

“Hey, Willow.” The taller vampire smiled warmly at her and shifting his weight from foot to foot a few times before he muttered, “Oh, hell!” and leaned down to give her a quick hug and a kiss on the forehead.

“Red, nice of you to join us,” Faith smirked, nodding her head at the redhead. Her eyes glimmered suspiciously as she patted the sofa beside her, murmuring, “Take a load off?”

Dawn smiled sheepishly at her friend once the others finally released her and began ushering her toward the sofa. “You came back.”

“I finished what I needed to do,” Willow shrugged nonchalantly. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

“You know about my coma thingie?” Dawn gasped. “How did you know about that?” She plopped down on the sofa beside Willow, after noticing with amusement that Faith had reached over to pat Willow’s knee the moment she sat down.

“I was with you the whole time,” Willow shrugged. “You’re okay now, so I’m back.”

“You…what?” The others joined in a chorus of confused exclamations. Dawn reached over and grabbed Willows hand, squeezing gently. “Okay, 'splainy, please?”

Willow blushed. “Well, you were the only one who could save Spike. The Powers that Be knew that, so they chose not to interfere with the First’s pathetic little attempt to trick you into killing him…”

“The First?!” Dawn shrieked. “Oh my god, that was the First?!” Jumping to her feet, she looked wildly around the room until her gaze fell on Spike, who had been leaning casually in the doorway. Then, she burst into tears, the room spun wildly, and she felt a pair of strong arms catch her and ease her back onto the sofa.

"Shhhh…” She heard Angel murmur comfortingly. “It’s okay, just breathe.”

“Get out of the way, Peaches! Let me have her…” The arms disappeared and were immediately replaced with a more familiar pair, which held her tightly against an equally familiar, hard chest. “Calm down, Dawn.” In contrast to Spike’s calmer tone, which admittedly sounded quite forced, Buffy was yelling in the background. Dawn felt her head swimming dizzily again and groaned loudly. The First was back? “Oi, Harris, calm her down before she makes Dawnie pass out!”

“Shut the fuck up, Spike!” Xander snapped.

Dawn took a deep breath, braced herself, and pushed away from Spike to scream, “Stop yelling at each other!”

“Dawn, luv…are you okay?” Worried blue eyes bore into her own, and Dawn’s stomach clenched. For a moment, it was all she could do to keep everything she’d just eaten from coming up in her boyfriend’s anxious face. “Sweetie?”

“It was a trick. He wanted me to kill you!” Dawn groaned, hiding her face against Spike’s neck. He began rubbing her back soothingly, and she took a deep breath. Spike was still there. Spike was okay. She latched on to that fact, and focused on the feel of his body against hers, and his familiar scent, until she was able to control her breathing again.

“I think you’d better explain,” Angel muttered behind her.

“Ya think?” Faith snorted scornfully. “You’re cute, but sometimes…”

“Honey? I love you, but shut up!” Angel chuckled, taking the sting out of his words. “Willow?”

“Alright, it’s a kind of long story. Do you guys have any booze?” Willow sighed. Dawn popped her head up, looking at the redhead wearily. “I mean, wine, beer, tequila? Anything?” Willow was looking expectantly at Xander, who sighed and nodded his head.

“Sit down, hon,” Xander urged Buffy to sit back down on the loveseat they had been sharing. “I’ll go get little Miss Enigma a drink,” He winked at Willow and headed for the kitchen.

“I think you’d better bring drinks for everyone,” Willow called after him. b Xander groaned and his shoulders slumped. “Fine. I’ll be right back.”

“Go help him, idiot,” Faith snorted, making shooing motions at Angel.

“Do they even like each other?” Dawn whispered to Spike after Angel begrudgingly followed Xander into the kitchen.

“You heard him…they’re crazy about each other,” Spike snickered. Nuzzling against her neck, he whispered. “It’s okay, luv. So what if the First tried to trick you? It didn’t work. I’m still here, right?”

“Yeah. But…I did exactly what he told me to do, Spike. I fell for it. I don’t know how you survived, but I nearly helped him kill you,” Dawn whimpered.

“Okay, I was going to wait until everyone was together, and a bit liquored up, but you need to know this,” Willow murmured, putting her arm around Dawn’s shoulder, ignoring the possessive growl this earned from Spike. “The First isn’t dead, but it’s severely weakened since…you know…the battle. We didn’t manage to kill it completely, but…it’s corporeal. It can still change its appearance, with difficulty, but it can still only appear as someone who has died. If we can find it, we can kill it, easily.”

“I dunno...it can still make a pretty quick exit, and it does this dream thingie too,” Dawn moaned. She didn’t realize she had begun to shake all over until Spike took her hands in his, gently holding them still.

“The First really has it in for ol’ Spike, here,” Willow chuckled. “It wants him to die, and the rest of us to suffer as much as possible in the process.”

“Does this mean the Mohra blood would have saved me?” Spike asked quietly. Dawn sat up and frowned at him, but he refused to meet her eye.

“Oddly enough, no, it wouldn’t have,” Willow shrugged. “See, this is where things get weird. See...the First knew there was a chance that Dawn could actually save Spike, and it was probably hoping that she would, because that could have caused Spike more pain than just dying.” Seeing their blank faces, she chuckled softly. “It turns out there’s actually a prophecy that indicates that the Key would someday ‘sacrifice itself to save it’s other half.’ Now, a lot of people think that when two people find true love, it’s because their souls are two halves of a whole.” She smiled affectionately at Dawn and Spike. “The two of you are soul mates. I can see it in your auras, now that I know to look. Your souls have been linked since the dawn of time…no pun intended. I thought Althenea explained all of this? The Key was never an inanimate blob of energy like we thought…it was actually a conscious, sentient, soul-having entity all along. It was Glory’s slave, until it managed to escape and was sent here.”

“But, I didn’t even come from this dimension…” Dawn protested.

“It doesn’t matter. You were still meant to come together. That might even be why Drusilla chose to turn Spike…I suspect he was born sometime around the time you were sent here, but you hadn’t been made human yet, so he needed to stay alive, uh, somewhat alive, until you were.” Turning to Buffy, she bit her lip and said, “According to the prophecy, Dawn was always meant to save Spike’s life somehow, but she should have died doing so. The Powers that Be chose not to interfere because they saw that the First was trying to convince her to do exactly what she was supposed to do. The First knew she might actually succeed, but that she would certainly die doing so. And wouldn’t that hurt Spike far more than his own death? The First apparently has a better understanding of human emotions than the Powers.”

Spike shuddered violently and wrapped his arms tightly around Dawn, burying his face against her neck and nodding his head weakly. “Why?” He muttered, his voice trembling.

Dawn looked at him confusedly, but Willow nodded knowingly. “They…they decided that Dawn is expendable, but that you are not. You’re a champion…the Key is a liability, especially after what happened with Glory.”

“That’s bullshit!” Spike bellowed, jumping to his feet and dropping Dawn on the floor in the process. “They’d just use her like that…no way! That’s bullshit!” He roared and kicked the coffee table, which flew across the room, narrowly missing Buffy, and shattered against the side of the kitchen door. “Those rotten bastards!” Growling loudly, he began pacing frantically back and forth.