How It Was and is to be

How It Was and Is To Be

by John Cope


New York, August 28th 2027.

"Goodbye cruel world!"
Spike stood poised on an armchair in his grotty cellar of a flat. The central feature of the room currently being twelve upright stakes driven into the floor in front of him were he expected his chest to land. This time there weren't going to be any cock-ups like missing, this time he really meant it.

"Don't worry Buffy Daddy's coming!" And he got ready to jump.

To say that the following event was a big blue flash would be an understatement, it was the mother and father of blue flashes, it filled every inch of space in the room and sent a shocked Spike toppling over the back of the chair. His head impacted quite firmly with the carpeted floor followed in due course by the rest of his decidedly undusted body.

"Oh bugger!"

"Blast!"

"Eh!"

Spike had hit his head so hard that he was experiencing an echo, of a word he hadn't said. He opened his eyes and then gave his head a tentative shake to remove the blue tint that was visible all over the place. "Owwww."

"You can say that again an' put brass knobs on it."

"Eh, what?" He'd said that already, but all the same hearing your own voice without opening your mouth and speaking through it was an off putter. "I'm concussed, I've now got concussion on top of depression, can un-life get any worse."

"Not too late then I see." The concussion said simultaneously making noises like it was getting up off the floor and knocking over Spike's stakes. "And I think I'll just shift these out of the way so nobody can do anythin' silly before we've 'ad our nice little chat!"

"The bleedin' cheek," Spike pressed his hand to the top of his head feeling for blood or big skull fracture type holes and found nothing. Twenty six years of Buffy companionship with resultant head trauma had certainly worked with regard to gaining a thick skull. "Now it's re-arranging me furniture."

"Oh look fags." The suddenly very cheerful sounding voice chimed up. There was the sound of a cigarette packet being opened, then sound of the cover of Spike's lighter being flicked back followed by the whizz of the flint being spun and the brief crackle of fire. "Ahhhhh, that's good. First nicotine for four hundred years. Bliss."

"Alright," Spike stood up shakily and pointed a wildly circling finger at a black clad, blond haired man who was stood by the dressing table opposite Spike's extremely unmade bed. "That's it. Take your thievin' mitts off me fags!"

"Why should I." Came the impertinent reply from the visitation. "Firstly you was goin' to off yourself leavin' two whole packets un-smoked, which is makin' me think you might 'ave bottled it anyway. And secondly what's mine's yours so you can naff off mate, I'm smokin'!"

"Why you cheeky bugger!" Spike tried very hard to keep his feet as he lunged across the room to rip the figment of his imaginations throat out. But his left foot dropped neatly in front of his right sending him crashing to the floor. "Owww."

"Sorry mate I'd forgotten 'ow 'ard I landed on me 'ead." A black nail varnished hand appeared before Spike's eyes. "Take 'old an' let me help you up."

Hoping against hope that his hand would pass through the apparition Spike stretched his right hand up from the floor and had it gripped firmly. The hand that took his was solid flesh and blood, but the skin was cold the interloper in his suicide was a vampire just like him. Resisting the pull on his arm Spike looked up into what had from video become so familiar cheekbones and smile.

"Hullo mate, how the devil are you." The other Spike asked through a cloud of exhaled tobacco smoke. "Now I've got so much to tell you mate......."

Spike fainted at this point and didn't hear a word more.

*******************************

When he came too Spike found that he was lying full length on his unmade and not particulary clean bed. Whoever had put him there hadn't helped matters by leaving his boots on along with all his clothes.

*Alright so it was really all a dream and if I look round there won't be a double of me anywhere in this room. Worse case scenario is that that whole thing was part of some complicated scheme by the powers, they're tryin' to stop me offin' meself and make me into a lackey like that wanker Angel.*

*So opening your eyes and looking round won't 'urt then.* Another little voice asked. Spike's eyes stayed firmly shut. *Chicken!*

*Oh bugger it.* Spike opened his eyes and gazed up at the off white ceiling that he'd never got round to painting because he spent so much time at Buffy's. There was nothing visible to suggest an out worldly encounter. Then he glanced along the ceiling to the left and his heart sank. A ring of blue mist hung there it's center a flickering disc of blue light. *Great news, I've a portal into another dimension in me gaffe. Just what a bloke need's if 'e wants to get to the shops in a hurry.*

Sitting up slightly Spike looked straight towards the two ratty armchairs and the sofa that made up the majority of his remaining furniture. (Entertainment had gone on at Buffy's too). And there in the one nearest to him sat the other Spike.
The hair was longer and fuller. It looked like the bloke was almost in need of a pony tail, the face was the same. Or was it, suddenly Spike had the feeling that he didn't look that young. This vampire double looked to have a couple of years less human wear and tear than him. The scar was still there though and Spike couldn't reach any comforting conclusion that he was mistaken in his earlier assessment.

*It's me.*

The clothing had changed, gone were the jeans, black teeshirt and duster. The boots were doc martin like but different in the stitching of the leather. The jeans had been replaced by baggy black combats, with a strip of silver piping up each leg. The doppelganger wore a black uniform jacket on his torso, the cuffs and lapels all bore silver badges, three stars and a chevron, he wore no shirt underneath it. Around his waist was a thick black leather belt with a holster on the right hip. The center of the belt was a round silver buckle which Spike could just make out carried the system of an engraving of the earth and four stars, with what he could only assume to be some kind of spaceship emblazoned over it.

*And I've been drafted?*

"Oooooiee, mate." Spike said, wanting to shout but knowing that his head wouldn't stand it. "Wake up an' tell me what the bloody 'ell is goin' on?"

"What's that .....Oh it's you." The obviously future Spike sat upright in the chair and shook his head. Then looked up at the clock. "Three hours. I must have been soft back then, I'm certain I never slept that long while I was waitin' to tell me what was goin' to 'appen in the future."

He shook his head and lit up another of Spikes cigarettes. "Mind you that was a thousand years ago and I might just not remember properly."

"A thousand...." Spike paused for an unnecessary deep breathe. "....Years!"

"Yes." Nodding the future vampire inhaled deeply. "Does sound alot doesn't it. Don't worry though alot of it's going to be spent screamin' or makin' things scream, there's alot of runnin' and blowin' stuff up, plus admittedly a couple of instances of bein' horribly cut about. But also there's shaggin' and drinking." The vampire smiled whistfully. "Sometimes at the same time, though admittedly there are going to be lots of moments of sheer mind numbing horror and not being able to crap your pants with fear will be a useful trait to have. But to sum up mate do me a favour and don't off yourself. What ever the reason is it can't be that bad."

"Can't be that bad!" Spike coldly replied as he tried to struggle upright. "Buffy's dead, how the hell can you sit there and dismiss it like that.

"Buffy?" The future vampire looked puzzled for a second. "Who the hell was...."

"BUFFY!" Spike rolled off the bed and then struggled till he was upright. "You tellin' me you've forgotten her?"

"I get a faint glimmer of honey from the name, wasn't she some bint I used too....." Spike had to catch real fast as his present twin grabbed a framed photo off the bedside table and threw it at him. "'Ang on mate that could have had an eye out with that."

Future Spike, shaking his head at how much of a wuss he'd been, looked down at the picture. It showed a woman in her early thirties smiling back at him. She was leaning against car, his old De Soto which he suddenly recalled owning for over a century, and then with that memory the girl and woman came flooding back. An elfin blonde, beautiful, she had he now recalled aged well, virtually no lines, and only the faintest hint of grey by the time she died. *Slayer's gene's we decided, her body didn't age quite as fast as other mortals just like how her wounds healed faster than theirs. It was useful, she was still passin' for early thirties when she died aged, what was it?*

"You don't remember 'er?" Spike accused again before the future Spike looked up with eyes full of pain. "How could you forget her?"

"Buffy Anne Summer's, the Slayer." The picture was set carefully on the ground. "I carried her memory in my heart like an open wound for the first quarter of a millenium, even while my body rotted with age and my hands turned to claws that I couldn't morph back. I lost my looks young you see probably cause of what 'appened in 01. Second quarter of a millenium though I got lucky an' found someone else, but also killed stuff mindlessly, tried to toss my life away, but the fates just wouldn't 'ave me. And after five 'undred years I quess I got over her old son. There's nothing more I can say, I've spent the last five hundred enjoyin' meself as best I can."

"Two hundred an' fifty years?" Part of Spike's brain wanted him to scream that it wasn't enough, another part just told him to nod and get on with it. After all a vampire could only take so much. "Ok so what's it all about, what the bleedin' 'ell is that uniform and what do you mean rotted?"

"It's about me stoppin' you killing me. It's the uniform of a Flag Captain of the Intergalactic Star Fleet, don't look at me like that you should know I robbed it. And I mean rotted cause your a vampire, our bodies don't last forever and so for a few centuries your goin' to be in a right state."
Spike put up a hand to stop his younger self interrupting. "Let me tell it, yes I know I'm even handsomer than you right now but I'll fill in all the gaps and you'll understand. I'll start off with a quick review of 'ow you got in this mess and work my way on from there. Fell free to chip in with any details."

Future Spike sat back in the chair and began.

******************************

"Doom of the world as you know it's been goin' on for years, ever since man started burning more fossil fuels and churnin' out more Carbon Dioxide that the world could cope with. Of course they started to realize that in the Nineties and tried to cut it back. But then in 2001 that prat George takes the USA out of the Kyoto agreement and sends America's pollution levels through the roof by burning all the coal and oil he can muster. American jobs and power supplies are more important than the environment was his excuse. An excuse that the rest of the world quietly used to get on with their own pollutin'."

"Not that we noticed, Joyce had died and the Slayer and the Scoobies was in tatters. Even I shed a few tears before I settled down in the crypt with my lovely Buffy-bot and took to shaggin' the arse off her." Future Spike smiled at that point, the memories were flooding back now. "For me that seemed like the start of happy days, then that bitch Glory got me the next day and it seemed my life was 'eadin' for the usual shower of shit an' misery."

"Course when Buffy found out I 'adn't told on Dawn under torture, that I'd been a bloody hero suddenly I stopped being 'er enemy and became 'er friend. My pain was nothin' after that, it was like heaven."

"Then Glory nearly killed poor Buffy and it all changed." The present Spike interrupted.

"I know, will you let me tell this, I know you've lived it too but it sets the scene." Present Spike ignored the two fingered salute he received and carried on remembering. "Yeah Glory did indeed suck Buffy's brain. Near broke my heart it did when Willow came and told me, with what 'ad appened to Tara she por luv was cut to ribbons. We blubbed on each others shoulder's. But once we was over that we decided that there was no way that bitch was gettin' away with it an' we got our Buffy back!"

"And then we went looking for revenge and Dawn. On our way back into Sunnydale who should we meet but the poof and 'is crew and our morale really bucked up, or at least the girls did, I feared 'e'd take 'er off me as usual."

"Now despite throwing Buffy fifteen feet across a graveyard into my willing hands you could tell Buffy's resurrection worried Glorificus, cause for once she scarpered. We girded up an' followed knowing she'd go straight for where Dawn was stashed. My moment of glory came when I whisked the nibblet clear. Buffy kissed me and gave me a big hug and my despair disappeared. Then we turned and faced the bitch who did a very strange thing."

"Right there in mid fight she suddenly turned into Ben her brother. Also immortal but so much more squishy and breakable. Summer's was well pissed off that this was the solution to 'er troubles an' we 'ad half an hour's blubbin' from Dawn and slow weeping from her, over Ben's beggin' that she save the world and get it done. Then screams that Glory's comin' back and Buffy strikes and finishes it."

"Now what a distraught Slayer she was after that. And into whose arms did she collapse blubbin' fit to break your heart. Why mine of course. The poof looked like 'e was going to blow a gasket 'e looked so pissed, but there was nothin' 'e could do with 'er so upset. He was out of town within' a day, and that was the last we saw of 'im too."

"Couple of nights after that Buffy turns up at the crypt and jumps me good and proper. We wind up tearin' each other's clothes off and going at it good an' hard against the wall, then on top of the sarcophagus, then on the bed for about an hour or two."

"Happy day's, we spent a month shaggin' like bunnies and lookin' after Dawn, then I went to LA and explained the facts of the matter to Hank, he signed the bloodstained papers and I adopted Dawn an’ we was family. Me an Buffy just screwed and slewed, or should that be layed and Slayed. Willow cured Tara and we was all one big 'appy family, for a few months anyway."

"Course though the other point about current affairs that we'd overlooked, that silly bloody Texan and the Chinese."

"Of course we heard the echo of that whole spy plane business, mid air collision, crew as hostages. But it was what George did in response that really tore it. He caved in to the right wing of the Republican party and signed a deal selling the Taiwanese warships, naval aircraft and submarines. Everyone thought that the Chinese would just bitch a lot but decide to lump it and just not talk to the Yank's anymore, they couldn't 'ave been more wrong."

"They warned the US and Taiwan that any further arms deals would be treated as an act of war. The Taiwanese came back to the USA wantin' modern tanks and fighter jets. George signed up for that one too and the Chinese saw red."

"They reacted by taking a leaf out of Jack Kennedy's book. Their fleet pushed out into the Pacific and declared Taiwan to be under a blockade on all shipments of military materials. They start stoppin' and searchin' merchant ships, but at the same time being very careful to let everyone see them not interferin' with none military stuff and lettin' Taiwan trade as normal."

"Now George 'as really got problems. In 'is boots I'd 'ave faxed Taiwan the relevant blue prints and let em build their own weapons, they’d have probably done it right quick as well. George though doesn't see things like that, he's leading a country that spends $276 billion a year on defence against a country spendin $90 billion, what's 'e got to fear. So he 'as a variety of military bits and peices loaded on two old merchant ships. Backs 'em up with a US Navy battlegroup and with due fanfare sends 'em on their way."

"They meet the Chinese two 'undred miles out, it starts off with shots across bows, that goes on for two hours, each side dischargin' about twenty rounds without so much as scratchin' the other side's paint. It looks like the convoy is going to get through when either accidentally or deliberately a Chinese Frigate puts a 5inch shell into the bows of the lead merchant ship stopping it dead. A US Navy vessel puts two harpoon missiles into the offending warship and all hell breaks loose, within half an hour twelve Chinese ships are sunk and the US are down one merchant ship and a destroyer with four more warships limpin' towards Okinawa or Pearl."

"China goes ballistic literally, scuds rain down on Taiwan as the Chinese start loadin' troops onto every troop transport they have ready for the big D-Day style invasion. The American's turn to their old pal airpower confident they can do the usual job without getting their hands too bloody."

"But this is different from Iraq or Kosovo, the Chinese have a big airforce and they send it in too fight. The Americans are along way from home and they can't get onto the airfields in Taiwan due to the missile barrage, things don't look too good. They need to come up with somethin'."

"None of us believed it would happen." Both Spike's sighed wearily. "But there was no way George was willin' to preside over the second lost American war. So he exploded two tactical nuclear missiles over the areas were the Chinese Scud batterys where, claiming that it was a limited action and that he was saving the lives of 'undreds of US an' Taiwanese pilots, also said that if the Chinese dared to 'it back he'd do the same again but much worse."

"The Chinese sat back and thought about it for two days whilst the battle swung the US and Taiwan's way. The missile attacks reduced the US was able to get Taiwans airfields back in some kind of order an' start 'ittin the ports and airfields 'ard. Media stops screamin with fear about Chinese retaliation and starts saying that George might 'ave just won 'is war."

"China didn't have many intercontinental missiles, but it 'ad enough to fire off four of them. They landed between 2am and 2.30 am Western Standard on a cold night in October. One 'it Seattle, one 'it San Francisco, one it LA and the last one detonates in San Diego."

"We were indoors thank god. But I felt it like a hot fire in my 'eart. My Sire was still my Sire wheather I wanted 'er or not. Dru was turned to ash in an instant along with Darla. Angel copped it in exactly the same way." The present Spike took up the story staring straight ahead. "But bein underground the flash wasn't a problem that far out, and the blast waves didn't reach us either. But the earth tremours they set off took out 'alf the town. There was panic and alot of runnin' about but in the end it turned out we was all ok. Or at least that was 'ow it seemed."

"George nuked twenty Chinese cities the next day." Future Spike intoned drily, the horror along way behind him. "Over nine million died in the blasts, just under a million Americans had died in the Chinese attacks. George sent the Chinese a list of the fifty targets he'd strike the next day if they didn't cease all attacks on Taiwan and the USA. Realizing that they were messin' with a bloke who'd lost it completely and aware that they didn't 'ave much more to throw they threw in the towel pretty smartly."

"But the wind was blowin' south from LA." Spike shuddered wishing his future self wasn't making him relive all this. "And the fallout came with it. Buffy got Dawn out of town by midday the day after the strike. Xander and Anya loaded 'er into a car and was off towards Phoenix and then Denver as fast as they could go. We, Buffy, Giles, Willow and Tara and me stayed to see what 'ad 'appened to the Hellmouth. We spent four days livin' in that radiation till Giles confirmed that the Hellmouth was sealed by the earthquake and announced we could leave."

"It was on the third day that my chip stopped working, we was patrolling lookin' for vampire's Buffy and I when this bunch of bleedin' looters jumped us. Lookin' to take either our money or Buffy's cute ass, she laid into them of course but there was alot of them and when one of 'em went for her back with a knife I didn't hesitate, headaches or not I gave him a left to the jaw that sent him out cold and I didn't feel a thing."

"Well obviously from there it was a bleedin' walkover, we soon 'ad the lot of 'em decked." Present Spike had the clearer memory so he had the broader smile. "Didn't take me two seconds to realize that the chip 'ad stoped working and start worryin' about Buffy. You see I didn't think for a second about hurting her. I just thought radiation must 'ave done this so I've got to get 'er out."
"We was all packed and gone by morning. All us Scoobies and Willow's people, an' let me tell you the Freeway was packed. They reckoned two thirds of the Californian coasts population moved West that summer and two thirds of them never went back."

"Giles got sick in Colorado Springs. Diagnosis at the hospital was mild radiation poisoning, they shoved him out some pills and sent us on our way. The authorities had an airport open in all the targeted cities, result was every ward across the Mid-West was filling up with burn and crush victims that were being flown out to wherever they could be treated. Passin' casualties among the refugee's weren't getting much of anythin' at all."

"Giles got better though and we got back on the move getting to Denver ten days after the missile exchange." Spike recalled whilst his future self listened and nodded letting his suicidal counterpart get it off his chest. "After an 'eck of an 'unt round a crowded city we tracked down the rest of the gang and sat down and decided what to do."

"The Rosenberg's senior decided that whatever Israel's problems it was better than what was goin' on 'ere. So they announced they was makin' use of the right of return an' emigrating there. Willow was invited along as well and Sheila was real quick about tellin' Willow how she supported her life choice an' 'ow Tara was absolutely invited along too."

"We talked amongst ourselves about what a great idea it would be for Willow to get out, though of course we all smiled like loonies when she said she was stayin'. They all looked a little peaky to me, bit pale, an' a bit green and after Giles flirtition with radiation poisonin' I was worried. But that didn't stop me sneakin' off from time to time an killin' particulary sick lookin' refugees, mercy killin' as you might say. Course I'd 'elp Buffy track down the vampires what was pickin' on the poor refugees, and she'd thank me an' I'd feel so bleedin' guilty that within a few weeks of the chip malfunctioning I was a banker, livin' on bought blood, 'uman or animal. Got so used to it now that I ain't had the urge to feed properly in years." He looked up at the quietly listening future Spike. "That still true."

"No mate, times change." Spike was smoking his thirtytieth cigarette and feeling very light headed indeed. "I was a good boy for a century or so but then things got difficult and it was feed or die. Remind me though how did you wind up here?"

"Giles got in touch with the mother country and asked 'em what we was to do. Did they want us somewhere else now the Hellmouth was closed. They told 'im to do what he liked. Faith was dead cause a new chosen one had appeared, a Thai girl who'd been raised to do what she was told. They were back in business and didn't need Buffy anymore. Giles would get paid and if he wanted any help with information he just had to ask but never darken our doors again was the message we got loud and clear."

"So Giles sits down with Willow and they search the net to decide which East coast US city has the most demonic activity. The Californians was all 'opin' for Miami but it came up as New York. So we packed our stuff up and got on the road once more."

"Before we left though Buffy got confirmation that her fathers insurance company accepted that he'd copped it. She got a big payout to go with the one she got when her mum died. But it didn't look like enough to support a girl who had too many issues to hold down a steady job and put a little sister through College. Which is where Anya came in."

"She persuaded everyone to give her a lot of their money, even I gave 'er all my money but then I'd robbed it anyway. She went an' invested it in construction companies via the net. Two days later when we were on the road George gives a big speech about cities rising, total rip off of Deep Impact, and announces Billion dollar federal aid programmes to all four nuked cities and hundreds of millions for every earthquake hit town. Shares in construction rocketed and we were all quids in."

"That's how come Xander and Anya are currently talkin' about moving to Florida, she was a multi millionaire by 2002 and retired fifteen years ago. Never would tell me how she did it, natural talent or plain demonic cheating. But she made sure we'd be able to risk our lives nightly fightin' evil without money worries so points for 'er."

"So it went for a few years, we settled in 'ere, we fought the evil an' we was 'appy. But there was still that menace hanging over us, fallout and what it did." Spike glanced over at the picture which had been put back on the bedside table. "Buffy got sick just after her twenty fifth birthday for the first time, skin cancer, no big deal the doctors said, not malignant, little operation and it was gone. But it worried me."

"We all knew that the Hellmouth 'ad played it's last joke on us, it bein' there was why we took so long to leave the coast despite being between two ground zero's. It can't be coincidence that now the only ones left are Dawn, Xander and Anya and me."

"Don't make me tell it all," Present Spike now suddenly begged. "The cancers and the sickness, 'ow they passed one by one, 'ow Buffy died with me holding her hand. Just let it pass now and tell me whats to come?"

"Alright mate I understand." Spike answered nodding. "Let me lay it all out for you."