Wow!
So many different interpretations about Dawn's comment … and no one's seemed to hit upon the right answer yet! I suggest you go back and read the prophecy ... they usually help to clear things up …
I'm back home from University now – but my computer's not hooked up to the 'net. That means updates may be loaded on two or three at a time, since I've got to transfer them to my Dad's computer to update.
But I have a funny feeling that no one's going to complain … J
Something Green
Chapter 36
The darkness was a living thing.
Horribly, wonderfully quiet it whispered sweet nothings in his ear as it seduced him, carried him off struggling, welcoming, to its embrace.
The silky threads of night dominated him, pulling, pushing him towards their wondrous end. Xander could feel the Power in the night, the sudden desire – no, need – for blood came to him and he found himself lost in the darkness, all senses strangling to find a heartbeat – any heartbeat.
It's too much for him! Pull back – pull back!
The voice shouted from somewhere behind him, Xander suppressed a cry of rage and pain as the darkness melted slowly away from him. He could still feel it – dimly – as it clawed at the surface of his mind and called to him with its secrets. He longed to take it back within himself, but was denied.
Soon, another voice – unknown to him – whispered softly from the air around him. You're not ready for us yet – but soon you will be, Hero.
"Xander?"
The voice, loud and harsh – not at all like the silky sweetness that had spoken so lovingly to him – interrupted his world and brought him crashing back to himself. He felt the tentacles of the darkness brushing at him still, but their calls were harsh now, and foreign. Fighting a sudden panic he reached upwards to what he felt was less heavy then the night-time around him. As a cry of grief from the darkness surged through him, Xander urged himself desperately forwards and broke the surface of the Night as he felt the blinking tide of Day waiting.
"I'm here!" he shouted, hoping one of the two being he was supposed to be aiding could help him.
A flash of dawn then broke above him and Xander found himself standing on the cobblestones outside a quaint Victorian house. Before him, utterly at home in the brightening dawn, was the older version of Spike, still dressed in his antique suit and holding a notebook. His nervousness was significantly lessened, and he seemed at home in the street.
Still, the man frowned as Xander walked up to him, "Strange," he said, almost to himself, "I expected Spike to be lured to the darkness and you to save him where I could not, unexpected that he would save you instead."
Xander just stared at him confused, Spike rescued me?, until from behind him he heard a familiar cough.
"Well couldn't just let the kid drown now, could I? Slayer'd never forgive me."
Xander turned around to see the real Spike, complete in his duster and platinum hair, lounging comfortably against a brick wall in the shadows. Xander recognized it as the tail end of the alley they had visited before, though this time it was filled with the moving shadows of demons. He recognized Spike's voice then as the one that had dragged him out of the darkness.
The darkness. From inside his mind the cool, silky voice that had spoken to him seemed to laugh in delight at his shiver of revulsion at the memory, though it did not try and seduce him again. Unwillingly, Xander felt part of himself reach out in longing ness towards that voice, just as another half of him shuddered. The voice laughed again, but directed his attention from his own thoughts to the scene before him. Softly, as from a great distance, it whispered one word in his mind.
Like a stone the word dropped through his being, and looking around himself in confusion, Xander suddenly understood the dilemma before him – the human Spike stood in the brightening dawn, the vampire Spike existed in the dark. The two could not come in together without one getting bitten or burned. The voice had whispered balance, and though he knew it somehow meant more to him then he consciously understood, at the moment the word directed him to the solution of the Spike's before him. Somehow he had to convince them to meet, half way between the darkness and the light, if they were to have any chance of surviving this joining sane.
Taking a quick glance around himself, Xander saw a stair case leading to the top of building beside him, which stood perfectly balanced between the darkness and the light. His every movement accentuated, Xander crossed the cobblestone street and sat comfortably on the third step. Glancing quickly at the sun, he saw how it had moved almost imperceptibly higher in the sky, and noticed how a little of the darkness in Spike's alley had disappeared. He understood then that this joining would take place if the two men involved were ready or not, and that they had only a limited amount of time before the real Spike had to wake and help Buffy save the day.
Forcing his hands to rest easily on the stone steps beside him and not give away his nervousness at playing peacemaker, Xander directed his attention to Vampire Spike.
"Thank you for the rescuing then," he tried to force a chuckle but found it came easily, "just doesn't tell Willow I said that, I'd never live it down."
Vampire Spike smirked and nodded, "No problem mate."
Human Spike stood waiting in the sunlight, arms crossed above his chest, "Well come on then," he said to vampire Spike, "we haven't got all day."
Vampire Spike snorted, "What? You want me to come out there with you? Bloody hell no, get burned to crisp I would. Come on over in here so we both stay safe."
Human Spike shook his head, "Have you looked over your shoulder once? There must be a hundred thousand vampires back there – I'm not letting myself get bit by any of them, thank you very much."
Vampire Spike seemed unconcerned, "I can keep the badies off you."
Human Spike was unimpressed, "I think not."
Xander sighed loudly, this was going to be harder then he thought. Waving to Human Spike he beckoned him closer. "I can hardly hear you – if you're both going to bicker then at least come sit and be comfortable."
Xander turned and looked at Vampire Spike, "You too, there's plenty of steps here in the dark, no one will get burned or bitten and we'll all be able to talk without screaming."
Both Spike's seemed to hesitate, and Xander felt his temper rising, "You both agreed to do this! I'm supposed to be here to help you – let me help or let me leave, at least I care enough about Buffy to be there when she's got to take on the enemy alone!"
That got them. Snorting their indignation, hands clenched into fists, both the Human and Vampire variations of Spike slowly closed the distances to Xander. Each refused to sit, but stood leaning against the stone pillars of the steps on which Xander sat.
He sighed, both Spike's stood glaring at each other, neither apparently as willing to go through with this joining as they were a few minutes ago. Xander sat between them, having no idea what to do next.
Get them to talk to each other – a new voice in his head said, this one filled not with the warmth and silky softness of the Night, but with a lighter airiness he couldn't place – they have to agree to get along.
Who are you? Xander spoke silently, but received no answer. Looking up at the Human Spike, he noticed the notebook he clenched tightly.
"What's that?" He asked the man, indicating the book.
The Man glared at the Vampire, "He knows well enough what it is – when we join, I want to keep our writings."
The Vampire snorted, "Bloody hell no – I'd be the laughing stock of Sunnyhell, not just a traitor to our kind, now I write bloody poetry!"
Xander had to resist the sudden urge to laugh. Instead he turned to the Vampire, "So if he wants to keep your writing, what do you want to keep, Spike?"
The Vampire seemed to think for a moment, "Fighting. William here never threw a punch a day in his life – but it's the only thing that's kept me sane while I've been chipped. I don't want to feel all guilty the next time I try and take on baddie."
The Human Spike – William, Xander remembered – nodded, "Agreed, but I don't want you going after humans, no biting of the innocents; I won't stand for it."
"I've got this bloody chip man, thought you were watching the scene up there."
"I mean always, Spike. If you ever get the chip out or it stops working, I don't want us biting humans!"
'Us', Xander noted, they were beginning to think as one again. He looked at the shadow's preserving Spike's domain. They had edged a little farther inward, not much time left now.
Now it was Spike's turn to nod, "Fine – no biting of the walking hamburgers." He looked suddenly uncomfortable, "What about the … the guilt? I saw Peaches when he got his soul back; he said the voices kept shouting at him. I don't want to be incapacitated like that, especially if we're running back into a fight."
William's glare relaxed slightly and he looked almost saddened, "I can't make them go away, Spike. The voices, their all the people you killed as a vampire. I can try and talk to them, convince them they don't need to punish you, that you'll suffer enough as it is, but I can't promise anything. They're not under my control."
Spike nodded, more slowly this time. "Fine, I can accept that." He glared again at William, "Anything else you'd like to swing over my head?"
William's eyes softened, "There's just one thing you need to understand Spike; something that might be used against you later. Mother – she didn't mean what she said that night."
Spike's knees seemed to turn to water and he caught himself on the low stone wall, the half still swallowed in shadow. Xander stared at him in confusion, but Spike seemed oblivious to him and looked only at William, "You've – you've spoken to her?"
William nodded, "You can't see her now, but she wants you to know that she's happy, her soul was released when you killed the demon, and she thanks you for that."
Spike didn't say anything, but relief was evident on his face. Sensing the two of them were as close as they were ever going to be, even though he had no idea what they were talking about, Xander stood up on the stone steps. The two version's of Spike looked at him, then stared at each other.
"Right then," Human Spike nodded, standing straight and holding out his hand, palm first.
"Guess so," Vampire Spike agreed, and held out his own hand, also palm first.
The sun was right behind him now, using Xander's shadow as a balancing point, the two version of the same man leaned forward and touched.
Xander heard both voices in his head cheer as a grey mist enveloped them all. The last thing he heard before he blacked out was the cool, misty voice speaking again in his ear.
Remember.