His Slayer, Again
folder
BtVS Crossovers › Misc - Het - Male/Female
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
3
Views:
2,185
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Recommended:
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Currently Reading:
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Category:
BtVS Crossovers › Misc - Het - Male/Female
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
3
Views:
2,185
Reviews:
0
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
I do not own Buffy, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
Chap 5 - Epilogue
CHAPTER 5
Spike woke up sitting on the floor of the cave. He could sense it was daylight in the world above. He looked over at the ruins of his bed. *God, I miss her.* He immediately squashed the rising sense of sadness that threatened to overwhelm him. *I'll save her this time, and it'll be right as rain when I get back.* He headed towards the storm drain tunnels that would take him nearly anywhere he wanted to go.
It took the better part of the day to follow the tunnels from the old crypt back to his motel. Spike waited until dusk until he climbed out and went into his room. He only had to get a few things from the room before he got into his car to head to the Junkyard.
* * *
Spike waited at Jimmy's Auto Recycling for the evil wizard to return. He had reset the timer on the dynamite for one minute. Spike wished for a remote, anything so he wouldn't have to be in the building when Brannok and his demon showed up. But he didn't trust anything else he could rig up to be reliable. The 'present' in the duffel bag, along with a cooler of bagged blood, made up his stakeout supplies.
He sat and tried to wait patiently in the upstairs office. Which was not an easy thing for a hyperactive vampire. *Shoulda brought a Discman or a deck of cards.* He settled for chain smoking and thinking of how he would show Buffy he loved her when he got back to the future when this was all over. Spike was so engrossed in his inner world of wonder that he almost missed the creak of the stairs that indicated someone had arrived. Almost.
So when a very large, purple, clawy demon Spike hated more than any thing else on the planet walked into the room followed by Brannok, the demon-summoning wizard, Spike was prepared. He reached into his partially-open duffel bag and pushed a button. He zipped it shut before the sorcerer was in a position to see the contents that blinked from 01:00 down to 00:59 and kept going lower.
"The Slayer's tame vampire. How droll. Have you been kicked out of your happy home for some reason? Not living and breathing enough for the Good Guys?"
Spike smirked. "Not quite like that, you ponce. Just here to settle accounts."
"How decent of you. Well, you are in my lodgings, so I suppose we can kill you and call it even." Brannok called a command to the demon, which stepped towards Spike. The vampire turned and dove out the window. He rolled when he hit the ground, and came up on his feet and looked up at the sorcerer standing in the broken window. Brannok shouted down at him. "Vampire, come back and play! I promise to keep you alive until you can watch me kill the Slayer."
Spike grinned at the evil wizard. "I don't think you'll be much of anything besides meat paste, you pillock." Then Spike threw himself face down on the ground. The building above him spouted fire and debris. *That'll teach the bastard to threaten Buffy!*
Spike got to his feet to survey the smoldering wreckage. The top floor of the building was mostly gone, and what remained had collapsed onto the ground floor. It was a miracle no large pieces had landed on him. Then Spike paused as he felt a stirring inside himself. It tugged at his soul-covered demon from across town. He recognized it from years ago. *The Hellmouth! Bloody hell, it's open again!*
* * *
"Buffy, it's Xander."
"Ummm?" Buffy answered the phone groggily, still not fully awake from her nap.
"Buffy, you know the sensors I installed in the basement of the high school when my crew rebuilt it?"
Buffy was instantly awake. She felt a knot start to form in her stomach as she anticipated Xander's next words. "The Hellmouth's open?"
"Looks like. You want to call Wills and G-man then mosey here?"
"Yeah, okay. You call Faith. I'll be there in ten."
* * *
In the end, Jenny Calendar saved them. Giles used a Gypsy binding curse she had once taught him, combined in a hodge-podge incantation with an exorcism spell translated from a 14th century church manuscript found by occult researchers in an Albanian monastery. The Hellmouth was resealed, and the world was saved. Again. But at a terrible cost.
Spike watched from an alley down the street. His earlier self carried Buffy's body from the ruins of the high school. He walked slowly, an injury from razor-sharp claws on his left thigh slowing him. The blood matting his hair from the slash on the left side of his head did not slow him, so he ignored it. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered anymore. His Slayer was dead. Again. Spike watched his other self hold the blonde Slayer, and knew they would not be able to revive her.
Xander knelt next to Faith's body. "I'm so sorry. I'm sorry I was such a jerk to you when you came back; that I didn't believe you sooner. I'm sorry I never told you that... I loved you." Xander broke down and cried, cradling the broken body of the dark Slayer to his chest.
Giles looked around at the gigantic corpses of the demons that had died trying to get out of the school and into Sunnydale. So much death. He was almost numb, not from the carnage, but from the demise of one small, blonde woman.
* * *
Two days later, three somber individuals sat inside the Magic Box. Giles closed the book and looked up at Dawn and Xander. "It appears that the explosion at Jimmy's Auto Recycling triggered the Hellmouth's opening."
"What?" Xander's face was a mask of disbelief. "But it was across town!"
Giles cleaned his glasses before responding. "Yes, well, it appears that the artifact Spike warned us about, the Cross of St. Timothy, was linked to the Hellmouth. The energy of the explosion destroying the Cross while it was in town, actually triggered the opening of the Hellmouth."
"But who'd blow up the junkyard?" Dawn's voice was raw with tears cried over the last day and a half.
"I'm sorry, Dawn, but I haven't the foggiest." Giles sounded perplexed.
*It can't be,* Xander thought. *Not even Spike would be crazy enough to use a bomb.* Besides, the vampire had been with at least one of the Scoobies all the time for days before the explosion. *I hope he gets over this. He hasn't sobered up since Buffy died. And Faith. Oh, god. Faith. Someone ought to tell the guys in L.A.*
It would be another three days until the evening funeral. But before that time Dawn would discover she was the new Chosen One, and Spike and Xander would have a rather intense talk about their lost loves. And time-traveling Spike from their future would try to change things again.
* * *
The vampire in question was already most of the way across the country. Through the black spray paint covering almost all the windshield, Spike watched the road. The roar of the engine under the yellow hood of the canary-yellow Charger was his only companion on the drive back to New York. The demon who'd lovingly restored the 440 cubic inch engine and installed the tuned exhaust wouldn't be needing it anymore, and it appealed to Spike like nothing had since the DeSoto.
Spike tapped on the steering wheel to the beat of a Ramones song in his head, as the radio didn't work. *Next time, I'll save her. It'll be different next time.* But it wasn't. Nor the two times after that.
* * *
CHAPTER 6
It was near dawn. The not-black of the night sky over the city had turned dark blue, and the faintest hint of pink was visible in the east. A woman approached the man who sat on the sidewalk in the dirty snow of a cold New York morning. The man appeared emotionally broken: knees pulled up to his chest, head cradled in both hands, a periodic sniffle. The woman walked up to the bleached blonde, stopping well within polite distance, and looked down at him.
"Spike."
*Who the fuck is it now?* The vampire didn't bother to look up. "Go 'way."
"Spike!"
"Sod off!" The choked reply carried some anger this time. The vampire's forehead and hands still rested on his knees.
"William the Bloody, get your scrawny British ass up off the ground before I stake you myself, so you don't hto wto wait for sunrise!"
"Cheerleader?" Spike looked up, confusion on his face. "But...I thought you were..."
"Gone to a higher realm? Yeah, it was freaking wonderful. I got kicked out and sent back down here to help you all. And as if I'm not busy enough in L.A., I get a vision that you need me to come save your ass."
"Go away." Spike's voice was firm and clear this time.
"No. Look. I was sent here to make you understand. You still have a job. We need you. You help balance the cosmic scales. You're a great warrior, and we need all the help we can get."
"Doesn't matter. She's dead." Spike sounded bitterd hed he knew it.
Cordelia looked down her nose at him, turning off the charm, sliding into Total Bitch Mode. "Buffy's dead, and she's not coming back. It isn't fair and it sucks. I get that. You say you don't care if the world doesn't make it. Fine. You say it doesn't matter that the Slayer needs you. Fine. But if you tell me that you don't care about the young woman in Sunnydale that still needs you, I'll know you're full of shit. When I was up there, I saw what went on down here, Spike. I keep an eye on all of you. Especially those that used to be evil."
Spike looked at her, questions in his eyes.
"And yes, I saw how things were between you and Dawn after Buffy's death. It's okay, Spike. You can move on."
"Not again! Every time I think I've finally got things where the soddin' world ain't gonna play kick the Spike again, here it comes! So excuse the bloody hell out of me if I don't say 'Certainly, I'll continue on with my unlife, thank you ever so much!'"
"Did you know I loved Doyle?"
Spike had to think a moment. "The mic you was with when I came for the Gem of Amara?"
"Yes. He sacrificed himself to do what he thought was right. He was a hero, but I hated him for the longest time because he left me. But now I get it. He fought the good fight, no matter what the cost. Like I'm doing now. Like you can still do."
The vampire said nothing, just looked at the ground.
"Spike, Dawn needs you. And if you have the slightest interest in doing what's right, instead of moping about and feeling sorry for yourself, you'll get the hell back to Sunnydale where you're needed."
Spike looked up and smiled at the cheerleader's choice of words. He stood, stretched. Gave Cordelia a once-over that would have made her blush before she was changed. "Okay, ducks, you're right. Just try not to make a habit of it."
Cordelia looked at him. "Well?"
Spike looked at her shrewdly. "I did come to New York to pick up a trinket for the Watcher. 'Fight the forces of evil, defend the defenseless' you know."
Cordelia sighed. "Fine, Spike. I help you get the amulet and you'll go back now?"
"Vampire's honor." Spike pulled the crystal for the time machine out of his pocket and looked at it. "And can you get rid of this? Don't want anyone else goin' back and muckin' up the works."
"Sure Spike." Cordelia smiled. "Let's go." The two warriors for the forces of Good walked off into the pre-dawn streets of the city.
* * *
EPILOGUE
"So, Spike, what do you want to do in honor of Buffy's birthday?"
Spike looked at Dawn, examining her, trying to see something in her eyes. "I figured ouldould go out to visit her grave after dark. Just for a little. Then rent some movies. Why? What'd you have in mind, Dawn?"
She looked at him. He seemed...different since he came back from New York. More focused, maybe. The tiniest bit more considerate. And he called her by her name all the time now. Not Nibblet, or Platelet, or any of the half dozen other terms as he had for all the time she had known him. "That sounds great, Spike. Anything you want to do is fine."
"Great then, it's a date."
Dawn choked and almost shot Vanilla Coke out of her nose. It was official. Spike was different. She managed to stop coughing and wiped her mouth with her arm.
Spike looked concerned. "Unless you don't--"
She looked at him, considering. "No, Spike, I'd love to." Then she smiled at him. And Spike smiled back at his Slayer.
FIN
* * *
Spike woke up sitting on the floor of the cave. He could sense it was daylight in the world above. He looked over at the ruins of his bed. *God, I miss her.* He immediately squashed the rising sense of sadness that threatened to overwhelm him. *I'll save her this time, and it'll be right as rain when I get back.* He headed towards the storm drain tunnels that would take him nearly anywhere he wanted to go.
It took the better part of the day to follow the tunnels from the old crypt back to his motel. Spike waited until dusk until he climbed out and went into his room. He only had to get a few things from the room before he got into his car to head to the Junkyard.
* * *
Spike waited at Jimmy's Auto Recycling for the evil wizard to return. He had reset the timer on the dynamite for one minute. Spike wished for a remote, anything so he wouldn't have to be in the building when Brannok and his demon showed up. But he didn't trust anything else he could rig up to be reliable. The 'present' in the duffel bag, along with a cooler of bagged blood, made up his stakeout supplies.
He sat and tried to wait patiently in the upstairs office. Which was not an easy thing for a hyperactive vampire. *Shoulda brought a Discman or a deck of cards.* He settled for chain smoking and thinking of how he would show Buffy he loved her when he got back to the future when this was all over. Spike was so engrossed in his inner world of wonder that he almost missed the creak of the stairs that indicated someone had arrived. Almost.
So when a very large, purple, clawy demon Spike hated more than any thing else on the planet walked into the room followed by Brannok, the demon-summoning wizard, Spike was prepared. He reached into his partially-open duffel bag and pushed a button. He zipped it shut before the sorcerer was in a position to see the contents that blinked from 01:00 down to 00:59 and kept going lower.
"The Slayer's tame vampire. How droll. Have you been kicked out of your happy home for some reason? Not living and breathing enough for the Good Guys?"
Spike smirked. "Not quite like that, you ponce. Just here to settle accounts."
"How decent of you. Well, you are in my lodgings, so I suppose we can kill you and call it even." Brannok called a command to the demon, which stepped towards Spike. The vampire turned and dove out the window. He rolled when he hit the ground, and came up on his feet and looked up at the sorcerer standing in the broken window. Brannok shouted down at him. "Vampire, come back and play! I promise to keep you alive until you can watch me kill the Slayer."
Spike grinned at the evil wizard. "I don't think you'll be much of anything besides meat paste, you pillock." Then Spike threw himself face down on the ground. The building above him spouted fire and debris. *That'll teach the bastard to threaten Buffy!*
Spike got to his feet to survey the smoldering wreckage. The top floor of the building was mostly gone, and what remained had collapsed onto the ground floor. It was a miracle no large pieces had landed on him. Then Spike paused as he felt a stirring inside himself. It tugged at his soul-covered demon from across town. He recognized it from years ago. *The Hellmouth! Bloody hell, it's open again!*
* * *
"Buffy, it's Xander."
"Ummm?" Buffy answered the phone groggily, still not fully awake from her nap.
"Buffy, you know the sensors I installed in the basement of the high school when my crew rebuilt it?"
Buffy was instantly awake. She felt a knot start to form in her stomach as she anticipated Xander's next words. "The Hellmouth's open?"
"Looks like. You want to call Wills and G-man then mosey here?"
"Yeah, okay. You call Faith. I'll be there in ten."
* * *
In the end, Jenny Calendar saved them. Giles used a Gypsy binding curse she had once taught him, combined in a hodge-podge incantation with an exorcism spell translated from a 14th century church manuscript found by occult researchers in an Albanian monastery. The Hellmouth was resealed, and the world was saved. Again. But at a terrible cost.
Spike watched from an alley down the street. His earlier self carried Buffy's body from the ruins of the high school. He walked slowly, an injury from razor-sharp claws on his left thigh slowing him. The blood matting his hair from the slash on the left side of his head did not slow him, so he ignored it. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered anymore. His Slayer was dead. Again. Spike watched his other self hold the blonde Slayer, and knew they would not be able to revive her.
Xander knelt next to Faith's body. "I'm so sorry. I'm sorry I was such a jerk to you when you came back; that I didn't believe you sooner. I'm sorry I never told you that... I loved you." Xander broke down and cried, cradling the broken body of the dark Slayer to his chest.
Giles looked around at the gigantic corpses of the demons that had died trying to get out of the school and into Sunnydale. So much death. He was almost numb, not from the carnage, but from the demise of one small, blonde woman.
* * *
Two days later, three somber individuals sat inside the Magic Box. Giles closed the book and looked up at Dawn and Xander. "It appears that the explosion at Jimmy's Auto Recycling triggered the Hellmouth's opening."
"What?" Xander's face was a mask of disbelief. "But it was across town!"
Giles cleaned his glasses before responding. "Yes, well, it appears that the artifact Spike warned us about, the Cross of St. Timothy, was linked to the Hellmouth. The energy of the explosion destroying the Cross while it was in town, actually triggered the opening of the Hellmouth."
"But who'd blow up the junkyard?" Dawn's voice was raw with tears cried over the last day and a half.
"I'm sorry, Dawn, but I haven't the foggiest." Giles sounded perplexed.
*It can't be,* Xander thought. *Not even Spike would be crazy enough to use a bomb.* Besides, the vampire had been with at least one of the Scoobies all the time for days before the explosion. *I hope he gets over this. He hasn't sobered up since Buffy died. And Faith. Oh, god. Faith. Someone ought to tell the guys in L.A.*
It would be another three days until the evening funeral. But before that time Dawn would discover she was the new Chosen One, and Spike and Xander would have a rather intense talk about their lost loves. And time-traveling Spike from their future would try to change things again.
* * *
The vampire in question was already most of the way across the country. Through the black spray paint covering almost all the windshield, Spike watched the road. The roar of the engine under the yellow hood of the canary-yellow Charger was his only companion on the drive back to New York. The demon who'd lovingly restored the 440 cubic inch engine and installed the tuned exhaust wouldn't be needing it anymore, and it appealed to Spike like nothing had since the DeSoto.
Spike tapped on the steering wheel to the beat of a Ramones song in his head, as the radio didn't work. *Next time, I'll save her. It'll be different next time.* But it wasn't. Nor the two times after that.
* * *
CHAPTER 6
It was near dawn. The not-black of the night sky over the city had turned dark blue, and the faintest hint of pink was visible in the east. A woman approached the man who sat on the sidewalk in the dirty snow of a cold New York morning. The man appeared emotionally broken: knees pulled up to his chest, head cradled in both hands, a periodic sniffle. The woman walked up to the bleached blonde, stopping well within polite distance, and looked down at him.
"Spike."
*Who the fuck is it now?* The vampire didn't bother to look up. "Go 'way."
"Spike!"
"Sod off!" The choked reply carried some anger this time. The vampire's forehead and hands still rested on his knees.
"William the Bloody, get your scrawny British ass up off the ground before I stake you myself, so you don't hto wto wait for sunrise!"
"Cheerleader?" Spike looked up, confusion on his face. "But...I thought you were..."
"Gone to a higher realm? Yeah, it was freaking wonderful. I got kicked out and sent back down here to help you all. And as if I'm not busy enough in L.A., I get a vision that you need me to come save your ass."
"Go away." Spike's voice was firm and clear this time.
"No. Look. I was sent here to make you understand. You still have a job. We need you. You help balance the cosmic scales. You're a great warrior, and we need all the help we can get."
"Doesn't matter. She's dead." Spike sounded bitterd hed he knew it.
Cordelia looked down her nose at him, turning off the charm, sliding into Total Bitch Mode. "Buffy's dead, and she's not coming back. It isn't fair and it sucks. I get that. You say you don't care if the world doesn't make it. Fine. You say it doesn't matter that the Slayer needs you. Fine. But if you tell me that you don't care about the young woman in Sunnydale that still needs you, I'll know you're full of shit. When I was up there, I saw what went on down here, Spike. I keep an eye on all of you. Especially those that used to be evil."
Spike looked at her, questions in his eyes.
"And yes, I saw how things were between you and Dawn after Buffy's death. It's okay, Spike. You can move on."
"Not again! Every time I think I've finally got things where the soddin' world ain't gonna play kick the Spike again, here it comes! So excuse the bloody hell out of me if I don't say 'Certainly, I'll continue on with my unlife, thank you ever so much!'"
"Did you know I loved Doyle?"
Spike had to think a moment. "The mic you was with when I came for the Gem of Amara?"
"Yes. He sacrificed himself to do what he thought was right. He was a hero, but I hated him for the longest time because he left me. But now I get it. He fought the good fight, no matter what the cost. Like I'm doing now. Like you can still do."
The vampire said nothing, just looked at the ground.
"Spike, Dawn needs you. And if you have the slightest interest in doing what's right, instead of moping about and feeling sorry for yourself, you'll get the hell back to Sunnydale where you're needed."
Spike looked up and smiled at the cheerleader's choice of words. He stood, stretched. Gave Cordelia a once-over that would have made her blush before she was changed. "Okay, ducks, you're right. Just try not to make a habit of it."
Cordelia looked at him. "Well?"
Spike looked at her shrewdly. "I did come to New York to pick up a trinket for the Watcher. 'Fight the forces of evil, defend the defenseless' you know."
Cordelia sighed. "Fine, Spike. I help you get the amulet and you'll go back now?"
"Vampire's honor." Spike pulled the crystal for the time machine out of his pocket and looked at it. "And can you get rid of this? Don't want anyone else goin' back and muckin' up the works."
"Sure Spike." Cordelia smiled. "Let's go." The two warriors for the forces of Good walked off into the pre-dawn streets of the city.
* * *
EPILOGUE
"So, Spike, what do you want to do in honor of Buffy's birthday?"
Spike looked at Dawn, examining her, trying to see something in her eyes. "I figured ouldould go out to visit her grave after dark. Just for a little. Then rent some movies. Why? What'd you have in mind, Dawn?"
She looked at him. He seemed...different since he came back from New York. More focused, maybe. The tiniest bit more considerate. And he called her by her name all the time now. Not Nibblet, or Platelet, or any of the half dozen other terms as he had for all the time she had known him. "That sounds great, Spike. Anything you want to do is fine."
"Great then, it's a date."
Dawn choked and almost shot Vanilla Coke out of her nose. It was official. Spike was different. She managed to stop coughing and wiped her mouth with her arm.
Spike looked concerned. "Unless you don't--"
She looked at him, considering. "No, Spike, I'd love to." Then she smiled at him. And Spike smiled back at his Slayer.
FIN
* * *