Guardian
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Just playing with the lovely characters of a creative mastermind we all know as Joss.
Moaning, he turned over, feeling the warmed surface of broken stone press against his cheek. Something hovered just on the edge of his perception, and he forced his eyes open. A low green glow fell over what he assumed was a courtyard of some kind, and he pushed himself into a sitting position, trying to recall why it all looked very familiar.
"Welcome."
Startled, Spike whipped his head around to face the owner of the voice, a soft groan escaping his lips when his eyes finally focused. The Guardian...Dru.
"Welcome? That all you can say?" With a derisive snort, he continued. "Sorry, love. Not feeling particularly welcomed right now."
He launched to his feet, surveying his surroundings with a predator's eye. Enormous columns rose from the floor to support the high ceiling. A thin layer of grit covered everything, including the mosaic laid out before him. With a frown, he reached out to brush away the dust, eyes widening at each inch uncovered. His eyelids fluttered shut, and a flash of memory - Buffy's bloodied palm, reminded him why he was here. Dru watched as he slowly put the pieces together.
Over his shoulder, her heard her titter quietly.
"I'm glad someone finds this bloody amusing." He leaned back against a column facing her. "So...what now."
"Now we finish."
"And how exactly is that, pet?" His voice sharp-edged with irritation. "Because from past experience, the longer I'm here...the longer I'm not there. They've been through enough, what with you lot making me a babbling loony and all. Don't care to worry them anymore."
The Guardian closed the distance between them, Dru's image vanishing in front of his eyes - splitting, revealing their true nature. A human female of about nineteen, hair a warm chestnut color swept away from her face and held with a golden clasp, her eyes like his, the color of ice. A reptile-looking demon, hide covered with iridescent green scales and laced with battle scars, one rheumy yellowed eye missing, leaving an empty socket. And the angelic being, for whom there was no physical form, only a bright blinding light and a resonant hum.
The demon limped forward, holding a charm in his outstretched hand. He forced it into Spike's palm, claws digging into tender flesh.
"For darkness."
He shuffled back towards the others and Spike blinked as the disembodied glow shimmered before his eyes. A whisper danced through his head, and he felt a tingling sensation run across his skin and up his arm as the second charm dropped out of thin air, coming to rest atop the other.
"For light."
The girl stepped forward, and clasped his hand between hers, pressing the last charm into his palm. She raised her eyes to his, and he saw a flicker of a smile there. With a chuckle, he returned the smile. Girl had spirit...he liked that.
"And for the balance between." Her words rose through the still air, wrapping them in a brilliant green cocoon as she placed ever more pressure on his hand. Spike felt his skin grow warm, and as the metals fused together in his palm he hissed in pain. "Let him be marked and bound. Sworn in his duty. The balance-keeper."
He fell to his knees, skin still sizzling with heat as the girl held his hand in hers.
"Do you accept?"
With a raised eyebrow, his eyes met hers again, voice strangled and quiet. "Do I have a choice?"
"We all have choices, William. Such is the way."
"And if I don't?"
"Your physical form will shrivel and turn to dust and your consciousness will remain here with us.
"Not much of a choice then, is it?"
She shrugged slightly, and grinned. "I said we all have choices, never said they were good."
"Right then. Let's get on with it, haven't got all day."
The girl released his hands, taking the small bit of metal from his palm as she retreated. Her form faded from view, darkness overtaking his senses until, once again he was alone, in The Void.
*****
Buffy looked across her bed to where her watcher crouched on the other side, trying to find any signs of life in the vampire that lay before him. Not an easy task. All they knew so far was that he wasn't technically dead...he hadn't dusted yet. And every now and again his body would twitch and writhe between the covers, his mouth open but soundless, and she wasn't sure if he was gasping or trying to scream.
Five hours, he'd been like this, and nothing they did seemed to pull him out of whatever dream he was caught in. When Dawn saw him, she'd broken down in inconsolable tears. Willow and Tara had swung by shortly thereafter to collect her, promising to hit the books as soon as they got home.
"I thought this was supposed to help?" Her voice wavered when she spoke.
Giles rocked back on his haunches and removed his glasses, cleaning them slowly on his shirttail. "We really have no idea what has happened, Buffy. For all we know he's going through a final transformation of some kind. I wish you had told me you planned to complete the ritual." He shot her a disapproving look. "My efforts have been focused on finding a way around it, instead of seeking the end result." With a sigh, he replaced his glasses and stood.
"Giles...look, I'm sorry. The second time, well I had no control over that. And the third...God, you should have seen him. He looked so lost. So broken. I couldn't let him stay that way."
"Of course not. But you might have at least told someone what you intended to do."
Buffy winced as another round of convulsions passed through Spike's body, fresh tears threatening to spill across her cheeks. Giles turned his back on them to stare at the setting sun beyond the window. Sometimes, he thought, she can be so utterly foolish.
"Will he be okay?" In that moment, she seemed so young and small...a child seeking reassurance that the world was an easy place where no one ever died. She knew better, and she was far too old to delude in such a manner, so he gave her the hard truth instead of the easy lie.
"Honestly, Buffy...I don't know."
*****
Wisps of green energy swum around him, licking at his legs and arms as they propelled him onwards. Through time. Through space. He'd long ago lost track of when and where he was, his ears honed to a constant, low, vibrating hum as the slideshow flickered and changed. Battles waged. Alliances sealed. Every event, in every dimension, past and present. And death. So much death. The one certainty that all this brought him was that sooner or later, everyone dies. And for all his noble ambition, he began to question if the choice he had made was the right one.
As if on cue, a familiar vision swept past his eyes. Buffy smiling, her arm wrapped around Dawn's shoulders as they walked away from the teetering tower, leading the group of exhausted, but triumphant Scoobies home.
Definitely the right choice.
*****
Giles was downstairs on the phone with Willow, probably recommending texts to search for clues to Spike's...condition. Her watcher hadn't said anything to her, but she could tell he was worried. By now Spike had been out going on twelve hours, and the night was slowly creeping into morning. He looked so peaceful when he was asleep. Well, when he wasn't having seizures. She reached a hand out to brush the moisture from his cheeks. Whatever he was seeing, it upset him. Buffy couldn't help but blame herself. Logically, she knew it wasn't her fault, but if she hadn't rushed into things without thinking at least they would have a better idea of what was going on. Know when and if he would snap out of it. With a weak smile, she curled her fingers through Spike's and squeezed his hand, a surprised gasp slipping from between her lips when he squeezed back. It was a good sign.
"Come on, Spike." She whispered softly. "Never knew anything that could keep Big Bad down."
Buffy laughed to herself. Big Bad. He had always thought of himself that way. Even after his pathetic display when Dru dumped him. Even after he returned the second time and failed miserably to hold onto the Gem of Amara. Even after he showed up on Giles doorstep, chipped, begging for their help. When she looked back down at his sleeping features, she saw what he had always been. A big softie wrapped in a thick plated armor of snark and swagger. A man that craved love so deeply, he'd do anything for even the slightest chance it might be returned. She started to wonder if the line he'd fed her about his past was anywhere close to the truth. Buffy had no doubt he'd faced the Slayers and won, but she couldn't quite believe he'd been a hard-nosed London pickpocket before he was turned...too much residual emotion.
"You can do this."
*****
When he shook himself to consciousness, he lay amongst the grit and broken stone at the temple again, none the worse for wear really...except for a thrumming ache between his ears.
"That all you got?" He shouted into the empty air.
"Not quite." Spike turned towards the voice and saw the girl reclined against one of the columns lazily inspecting her fingernails. "Walk with me." Her gilded sandal scraped against the sand covering the floor as she turned on her heel and strode outside.
His body obeyed, and soon he was loping after her, out into the desert. Effortlessly, he fell in step with her, waiting for her to speak. When the silence grew too confining for the vampire, he broke it.
"So...uh, what do they call you, pet?"
She stopped walking, and her face twisted when she looked at him, as if he'd asked something completely absurd. Still, she didn't answer.
"Your name?"
The girl sighed, soft and sibilant, like the sand rubbing together beneath their feet "In life I was called Fiona. Here, I have no name save the one I'm given...Guardian."
"Fiona it is then." She smiled sweetly.
"There's more to you than meets the eye, vampire."
"First rule of any good defense," His smile echoed hers. "Always keep 'em guessing."
She giggled, a happy girlish noise that reminded him of Dawn. Reminded him why he was here, and more importantly why he had to get home...duty. Felt nice to have a purpose again, even if it wasn't one he'd picked for himself. He turned to her, to ask her if he was free to go, but she was gone. Spike spied her, several paces off when he caught the golden glint of her hair clasp on the crest of a dune. With a sigh, he ran to catch her, the sand slowing him only slightly, and fell into step again beside her.
"So, Fiona. Where we off to?" She ignored his question, and made herself comfortable as she sat, removing her sandals. Grumbling, he settled down next to her.
"William," she said quietly, "There is some concern about your ability to fulfill your duty."
Her soft statement stoked a flame of purely male ego in him, and brought it out to burn. "I'm quite able, love. And willing. Do anything to protect the 'Bit. Even before this..." He waved his hand at their surroundings, trying to find the right word. "development."
"Willing yes. Able is still in question. That's why I've brought you here."
"What exactly are you gettin' at?"
Fiona shifted her body to face him, flipping a long strand of errant hair back over her shoulder. "What would you do if she were attacked by humans?"
Momentarily speechless, Spike searched for an answer. He opened his mouth twice and closed it again after a few seconds. There was no good reply for this. His chip prevented him from hurting humans, and that was that. Somehow, the thing they had once seen as a blessing was now a stumbling block, and he scowled at the injustice of it.
"Or if she were taken in daylight?"
Again, his very nature would prevent him from doing anything about it.
"Bloody hell," he groused. "If I'm so inadequate, why bother bringing me here at all." Spike stood and paced the ground in front of her, seething. "I'd come to terms with this. Accepted my fate, and all that. And here you are telling me I'm not good enough? Bugger this." He turned and started back towards the temple. "Just send me home."
"William." Unwillingly, his body froze and he was held in place. Enraged he threw himself against the invisible barrier, snarling.
"What the hell do you want from me?"
"Listen to me." Fiona strode forward with fire in her eyes and clamped her hand down on his chin. He twisted in her grip like a spoiled child trying to free himself from a scolding parent. "And listen well. We brought you here because you are worthy. Worthy enough we are willing to bend the rules for you." Spike quieted, listening intently. "Never before has there been a demon so willing to go against his nature, with so little encouragement."
She had his attention.
"Angelus..." he whispered.
This brought a smile to her face and laughter to her lips. "Angel? Oh yes, we know all about his gypsy curse. The soul. The prophecies whirling around him and his Champion status"
Spike found a particularly interesting spot on the ground to study as he ran through all the ways he had never lived up to his grandsire.
"We also know about the century of complete uselessness following it."
He couldn't help but grin as his eyes rose to meet hers again.
"It has only been a bit over a year since you acquired your implant, and here you are...you've helped avert at least two apocalypses and willingly given yourself over to a destiny you had no say in, to protect a teenage girl that three years ago you would have rather eaten so much as looked at."
He nodded slowly, accepting her words, knowing them to be true. "So...about this rule-bending...what are we talking?"
"Wouldn't do to spoil the surprise, now would it? It has already been done. For now, I think it is long past time for you to go home."
His words were cut off abruptly as Fiona and the desert disappeared, leaving only void.
*****
Spike's eyelids fluttered open, and the first thing he was aware of was something large and heavy resting on his stomach. When he looked down, all he saw was a mess of golden hair spilled across his chest. With a smile, he raised his hand to brush it away so he could see her face, but found his fingers entangled with hers. Her breathing continued, deep and even, she was asleep. He used his free hand to remove the offending locks, his smile turning into a wide-mouthed grin as he looked at her. She looked so peaceful when she was sleeping. A glance at the clock confirmed that he had been gone a hell of a long time, knew he should wake her. The others were probably hovering downstairs somewhere. Funny how they all came together in times of crisis...like a family. Spike decided they could wait. He wanted to savor every moment of this.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Just playing with the lovely characters of a creative mastermind we all know as Joss.
Moaning, he turned over, feeling the warmed surface of broken stone press against his cheek. Something hovered just on the edge of his perception, and he forced his eyes open. A low green glow fell over what he assumed was a courtyard of some kind, and he pushed himself into a sitting position, trying to recall why it all looked very familiar.
"Welcome."
Startled, Spike whipped his head around to face the owner of the voice, a soft groan escaping his lips when his eyes finally focused. The Guardian...Dru.
"Welcome? That all you can say?" With a derisive snort, he continued. "Sorry, love. Not feeling particularly welcomed right now."
He launched to his feet, surveying his surroundings with a predator's eye. Enormous columns rose from the floor to support the high ceiling. A thin layer of grit covered everything, including the mosaic laid out before him. With a frown, he reached out to brush away the dust, eyes widening at each inch uncovered. His eyelids fluttered shut, and a flash of memory - Buffy's bloodied palm, reminded him why he was here. Dru watched as he slowly put the pieces together.
Over his shoulder, her heard her titter quietly.
"I'm glad someone finds this bloody amusing." He leaned back against a column facing her. "So...what now."
"Now we finish."
"And how exactly is that, pet?" His voice sharp-edged with irritation. "Because from past experience, the longer I'm here...the longer I'm not there. They've been through enough, what with you lot making me a babbling loony and all. Don't care to worry them anymore."
The Guardian closed the distance between them, Dru's image vanishing in front of his eyes - splitting, revealing their true nature. A human female of about nineteen, hair a warm chestnut color swept away from her face and held with a golden clasp, her eyes like his, the color of ice. A reptile-looking demon, hide covered with iridescent green scales and laced with battle scars, one rheumy yellowed eye missing, leaving an empty socket. And the angelic being, for whom there was no physical form, only a bright blinding light and a resonant hum.
The demon limped forward, holding a charm in his outstretched hand. He forced it into Spike's palm, claws digging into tender flesh.
"For darkness."
He shuffled back towards the others and Spike blinked as the disembodied glow shimmered before his eyes. A whisper danced through his head, and he felt a tingling sensation run across his skin and up his arm as the second charm dropped out of thin air, coming to rest atop the other.
"For light."
The girl stepped forward, and clasped his hand between hers, pressing the last charm into his palm. She raised her eyes to his, and he saw a flicker of a smile there. With a chuckle, he returned the smile. Girl had spirit...he liked that.
"And for the balance between." Her words rose through the still air, wrapping them in a brilliant green cocoon as she placed ever more pressure on his hand. Spike felt his skin grow warm, and as the metals fused together in his palm he hissed in pain. "Let him be marked and bound. Sworn in his duty. The balance-keeper."
He fell to his knees, skin still sizzling with heat as the girl held his hand in hers.
"Do you accept?"
With a raised eyebrow, his eyes met hers again, voice strangled and quiet. "Do I have a choice?"
"We all have choices, William. Such is the way."
"And if I don't?"
"Your physical form will shrivel and turn to dust and your consciousness will remain here with us.
"Not much of a choice then, is it?"
She shrugged slightly, and grinned. "I said we all have choices, never said they were good."
"Right then. Let's get on with it, haven't got all day."
The girl released his hands, taking the small bit of metal from his palm as she retreated. Her form faded from view, darkness overtaking his senses until, once again he was alone, in The Void.
*****
Buffy looked across her bed to where her watcher crouched on the other side, trying to find any signs of life in the vampire that lay before him. Not an easy task. All they knew so far was that he wasn't technically dead...he hadn't dusted yet. And every now and again his body would twitch and writhe between the covers, his mouth open but soundless, and she wasn't sure if he was gasping or trying to scream.
Five hours, he'd been like this, and nothing they did seemed to pull him out of whatever dream he was caught in. When Dawn saw him, she'd broken down in inconsolable tears. Willow and Tara had swung by shortly thereafter to collect her, promising to hit the books as soon as they got home.
"I thought this was supposed to help?" Her voice wavered when she spoke.
Giles rocked back on his haunches and removed his glasses, cleaning them slowly on his shirttail. "We really have no idea what has happened, Buffy. For all we know he's going through a final transformation of some kind. I wish you had told me you planned to complete the ritual." He shot her a disapproving look. "My efforts have been focused on finding a way around it, instead of seeking the end result." With a sigh, he replaced his glasses and stood.
"Giles...look, I'm sorry. The second time, well I had no control over that. And the third...God, you should have seen him. He looked so lost. So broken. I couldn't let him stay that way."
"Of course not. But you might have at least told someone what you intended to do."
Buffy winced as another round of convulsions passed through Spike's body, fresh tears threatening to spill across her cheeks. Giles turned his back on them to stare at the setting sun beyond the window. Sometimes, he thought, she can be so utterly foolish.
"Will he be okay?" In that moment, she seemed so young and small...a child seeking reassurance that the world was an easy place where no one ever died. She knew better, and she was far too old to delude in such a manner, so he gave her the hard truth instead of the easy lie.
"Honestly, Buffy...I don't know."
*****
Wisps of green energy swum around him, licking at his legs and arms as they propelled him onwards. Through time. Through space. He'd long ago lost track of when and where he was, his ears honed to a constant, low, vibrating hum as the slideshow flickered and changed. Battles waged. Alliances sealed. Every event, in every dimension, past and present. And death. So much death. The one certainty that all this brought him was that sooner or later, everyone dies. And for all his noble ambition, he began to question if the choice he had made was the right one.
As if on cue, a familiar vision swept past his eyes. Buffy smiling, her arm wrapped around Dawn's shoulders as they walked away from the teetering tower, leading the group of exhausted, but triumphant Scoobies home.
Definitely the right choice.
*****
Giles was downstairs on the phone with Willow, probably recommending texts to search for clues to Spike's...condition. Her watcher hadn't said anything to her, but she could tell he was worried. By now Spike had been out going on twelve hours, and the night was slowly creeping into morning. He looked so peaceful when he was asleep. Well, when he wasn't having seizures. She reached a hand out to brush the moisture from his cheeks. Whatever he was seeing, it upset him. Buffy couldn't help but blame herself. Logically, she knew it wasn't her fault, but if she hadn't rushed into things without thinking at least they would have a better idea of what was going on. Know when and if he would snap out of it. With a weak smile, she curled her fingers through Spike's and squeezed his hand, a surprised gasp slipping from between her lips when he squeezed back. It was a good sign.
"Come on, Spike." She whispered softly. "Never knew anything that could keep Big Bad down."
Buffy laughed to herself. Big Bad. He had always thought of himself that way. Even after his pathetic display when Dru dumped him. Even after he returned the second time and failed miserably to hold onto the Gem of Amara. Even after he showed up on Giles doorstep, chipped, begging for their help. When she looked back down at his sleeping features, she saw what he had always been. A big softie wrapped in a thick plated armor of snark and swagger. A man that craved love so deeply, he'd do anything for even the slightest chance it might be returned. She started to wonder if the line he'd fed her about his past was anywhere close to the truth. Buffy had no doubt he'd faced the Slayers and won, but she couldn't quite believe he'd been a hard-nosed London pickpocket before he was turned...too much residual emotion.
"You can do this."
*****
When he shook himself to consciousness, he lay amongst the grit and broken stone at the temple again, none the worse for wear really...except for a thrumming ache between his ears.
"That all you got?" He shouted into the empty air.
"Not quite." Spike turned towards the voice and saw the girl reclined against one of the columns lazily inspecting her fingernails. "Walk with me." Her gilded sandal scraped against the sand covering the floor as she turned on her heel and strode outside.
His body obeyed, and soon he was loping after her, out into the desert. Effortlessly, he fell in step with her, waiting for her to speak. When the silence grew too confining for the vampire, he broke it.
"So...uh, what do they call you, pet?"
She stopped walking, and her face twisted when she looked at him, as if he'd asked something completely absurd. Still, she didn't answer.
"Your name?"
The girl sighed, soft and sibilant, like the sand rubbing together beneath their feet "In life I was called Fiona. Here, I have no name save the one I'm given...Guardian."
"Fiona it is then." She smiled sweetly.
"There's more to you than meets the eye, vampire."
"First rule of any good defense," His smile echoed hers. "Always keep 'em guessing."
She giggled, a happy girlish noise that reminded him of Dawn. Reminded him why he was here, and more importantly why he had to get home...duty. Felt nice to have a purpose again, even if it wasn't one he'd picked for himself. He turned to her, to ask her if he was free to go, but she was gone. Spike spied her, several paces off when he caught the golden glint of her hair clasp on the crest of a dune. With a sigh, he ran to catch her, the sand slowing him only slightly, and fell into step again beside her.
"So, Fiona. Where we off to?" She ignored his question, and made herself comfortable as she sat, removing her sandals. Grumbling, he settled down next to her.
"William," she said quietly, "There is some concern about your ability to fulfill your duty."
Her soft statement stoked a flame of purely male ego in him, and brought it out to burn. "I'm quite able, love. And willing. Do anything to protect the 'Bit. Even before this..." He waved his hand at their surroundings, trying to find the right word. "development."
"Willing yes. Able is still in question. That's why I've brought you here."
"What exactly are you gettin' at?"
Fiona shifted her body to face him, flipping a long strand of errant hair back over her shoulder. "What would you do if she were attacked by humans?"
Momentarily speechless, Spike searched for an answer. He opened his mouth twice and closed it again after a few seconds. There was no good reply for this. His chip prevented him from hurting humans, and that was that. Somehow, the thing they had once seen as a blessing was now a stumbling block, and he scowled at the injustice of it.
"Or if she were taken in daylight?"
Again, his very nature would prevent him from doing anything about it.
"Bloody hell," he groused. "If I'm so inadequate, why bother bringing me here at all." Spike stood and paced the ground in front of her, seething. "I'd come to terms with this. Accepted my fate, and all that. And here you are telling me I'm not good enough? Bugger this." He turned and started back towards the temple. "Just send me home."
"William." Unwillingly, his body froze and he was held in place. Enraged he threw himself against the invisible barrier, snarling.
"What the hell do you want from me?"
"Listen to me." Fiona strode forward with fire in her eyes and clamped her hand down on his chin. He twisted in her grip like a spoiled child trying to free himself from a scolding parent. "And listen well. We brought you here because you are worthy. Worthy enough we are willing to bend the rules for you." Spike quieted, listening intently. "Never before has there been a demon so willing to go against his nature, with so little encouragement."
She had his attention.
"Angelus..." he whispered.
This brought a smile to her face and laughter to her lips. "Angel? Oh yes, we know all about his gypsy curse. The soul. The prophecies whirling around him and his Champion status"
Spike found a particularly interesting spot on the ground to study as he ran through all the ways he had never lived up to his grandsire.
"We also know about the century of complete uselessness following it."
He couldn't help but grin as his eyes rose to meet hers again.
"It has only been a bit over a year since you acquired your implant, and here you are...you've helped avert at least two apocalypses and willingly given yourself over to a destiny you had no say in, to protect a teenage girl that three years ago you would have rather eaten so much as looked at."
He nodded slowly, accepting her words, knowing them to be true. "So...about this rule-bending...what are we talking?"
"Wouldn't do to spoil the surprise, now would it? It has already been done. For now, I think it is long past time for you to go home."
His words were cut off abruptly as Fiona and the desert disappeared, leaving only void.
*****
Spike's eyelids fluttered open, and the first thing he was aware of was something large and heavy resting on his stomach. When he looked down, all he saw was a mess of golden hair spilled across his chest. With a smile, he raised his hand to brush it away so he could see her face, but found his fingers entangled with hers. Her breathing continued, deep and even, she was asleep. He used his free hand to remove the offending locks, his smile turning into a wide-mouthed grin as he looked at her. She looked so peaceful when she was sleeping. A glance at the clock confirmed that he had been gone a hell of a long time, knew he should wake her. The others were probably hovering downstairs somewhere. Funny how they all came together in times of crisis...like a family. Spike decided they could wait. He wanted to savor every moment of this.