Bloody fucking shit-piss mother…
Spike lifted his head.
Why had the alley gone all bright and wispy?
"Demon!"
Shit cunt bastard. He hurt all over, and he was pissed as hell at whoever kept yelling at him. "Yeah?"
"Demon!" it was that voice doing it. It boomed right through him. Christ… he sat up and took a look around. Everything was extremely cloudy. Not like blurry… like, clouds. Shiny, sparkly clouds. Spike put fingers on the bridge of his nose, noticing as he did that he'd gone all bumpy. Where was everyone, Angel, Illyria, Gunn?
This thought woke him up like an arrow to the chest. The apocalypse! Had they gotten out all right? It had certainly looked like the others were going to, surprise surprise. He'd stayed with them, ever the stupid ass. Didn't leave even at the big finish, when he'd realized he was going to…
Bloody pricking hellspawn-cock. He'd died, hadn't he?
"Stand, demon!"
Who the hell was that, ordering him around like fuckin' God almighty?
Oh!
Oh.
Spike warily stood. He scanned his surroundings. Couldn't see anyone else. No… not see, but Spike could feel Him. Her. It. There was a presence, calming, benevolent, loving. It was making Spike all jumpy.
"You have violated the prophecy of all time. You have defiled a sacred text with your Lucifer's blood."
Bloody hell. He was always doing something wrong, wasn't he? Spike's mind began filling with loving visions of himself and a cigarette, holding hands, running down the beach together. Cigarette, cigarette… God is here and he's royally pissed… please, please Christ send me a cigarette…
"You are unfit to bear the penalty divinely foretold. You cheated that through agents of darkness; brought back from hellfire through black means. You have not borne your soul through suffering, nor through pain won redemption. You hold it instead a prize."
Spike made himself concentrate on the words. Right, no suffering… what a weird way to go. To get the Big Guy all cranky because he hadn't sweated enough, (well, yeah, and the whole evil-lawyer thing, but that was hardly his own doing) when here he'd just stopped the bad guys and (once again) saved the world…
Suddenly, Spike lost his ability to think logically. An incredible joy suffused his being. Better than Buffy. Better than sex. Better than sex with Buffy!... maybe. He'd saved the world. He'd… he noticed he was going to cry. Swearing again, he tried to wipe his eyes. He started laughing, somehow, without stopping crying. He, Spike! Spike was now the people's champion, and all that rot? Spike, angsty, petty I'm-a-creature-of-the-night, I'm-not-worthy-of-love Spike. He grinned, but his mouth twisted into a sob, another wave of emotion rapidly beginning to overwhelm him. She'd told him all right. The silly, drama-queen slayer… and it was all out of pity. That thought, on the edge of his mind for a year, finally thrust its way into his conscious, releasing unbearable pain—
"Be still!" All at once, Spike calmed down. "I see your soul in you. My examination is complete; you will not feel passion again until I have finished. I have determined what actions you must take as penance."
Was this God fellow responsible for that lightning-tour of his emotions? "Do I get a say in this?" Spike's voice came out rather more quietly and timidly than it usually did. He cleared his throat, looking around somewhat nervously. He sensed rather than heard the deity's amusement. No, of course he didn't. Dumb question.
"You will suffer the penalty yet."
"Thank heavens, that was really starting to worry me," he muttered. He suddenly felt a painful pressure on his chest, making inhalation impossible. This was discipline? Like being in a bloody Catholic school, it was.
"Despite the errors you have caused, your being has known the necessary suffering – soulless though it was." There was their weird feeling again, like he was being mocked. "Soon enough your reward shall be lived out, and all things will once again be in balance. Until then, go…" Spike could swear he felt a sigh of resignation. "Go where you may do the least harm."
The voice sank into his body and left a thrumming. His sight blurred until there was only brightness, then till all he could feel was the beating in his blood.