Thanks again to the reviewers! It's so encouraging to see that some people really like this fic. I guess we've reached the climax in this chapter, at least concerning the plot. But there's still a lot to sort out between Dawn and Spike… Perhaps in the sequel?
Chapter 9
Relief flooded Spike when he heard Dawn shout his name and he had to smile although the situation was anything but pleasant. It took a moment for him to register that Dawn was being hit by what looked like gigantic rays of light. And, what was odd, that she still managed to smile back at him. The rays had burned a huge hole in the book with which she had presumably tried to protect herself and which she still held uselessly in both hands. As she had her head turned toward him, her right cheek was illuminated by the blinding light.
The very sight of Dawn, looking vaguely angelic and also eerily powerful, made Spike catch his breath for one short moment. He had to shake himself mentally in order to refocus on the situation. What was it I came here for? Right, kill Shaman, save Dawn.
But then he realised that Dawn didn't actually need saving. The power that he had noticed radiating from her seemed to increase by the minute, making her smile more brightly and self-confidently. Instead of pleading Spike with her eyes to help her, she jerked her chin almost imperceptibly towards one corner of the cell, where the young man Spike had seen in his vision lay, unmoving. Spike got her message instantly: Take care of him, I can manage this on my own.
Obviously, she felt something change within her because she suddenly turned her head back to her attacker. Her smile faltered, leaving a determined and slightly scary expression on her face. The bolts of lightning that shot out of Shaman's hands now hit her fully on the forehead and she struggled against them, as if they'd knock her down otherwise.
Having noticed the intruder, Shaman obviously decided that he'd better take care of him first, before focussing on killing Dawn. With visible effort, he tried to point his hands at Spike, but didn't manage to move them at all. It was as if Dawn willed the connection between herself and Shaman to continue.
Shaman, who now looked confused and not a little frightened, cursed and seemed to redouble his efforts. "I don't know what kind of trick this is, you little bitch, but do you really think you can withstand my power for long?" He gave a short bark of laughter, but it didn't sound as evil and arrogant as he had intended it to be, due to his mounting nervousness. "You were foolish enough to bring that damned book into my reach; now that it is destroyed, the last evidence for the occurrences of a century ago is destroyed with it."
"No, you smug bastard! There's still Agatha! And loads of other people! Half of Pacantia knows the truth," Spike yelled, who had propped Ken against the nearest wall and was torn between his unspoken promise to help Ken, and the urgent desire to get to Dawn and fight at her side.
This time, Shaman's laughter was genuinely condescending and made Spike want to beat him to a bloody pulp right now, just to shut him up. "That poor creature and her little club of rebels?" At Spike's astonished look, he continued, "What, did you think I did not know about them? They are like irksome gnats; annoying, but easy to kill. They could not have caused any serious damage to me anyway. But rest assured, I will deal with Agatha as soon as I am done with you, just like I dealt with her grandfather, who forfeited his life when he wrote this diary."
Before Spike could process what Shaman had said, he heard Dawn begin to pant. Her face was screwed up in concentration, and beads of sweat had formed along her hairline. With a last look at Ken, who was so pale that the small rivulet of deep red blood that still ran from his nose stood in a harsh contrast to the rest of his face, Spike knew what he had to do. It was not a conscious decision at all that he made in that moment, but he felt such a strong attraction emanating from Dawn, such a strong urge to be as near to her as possible, that he took the few steps that separated them and grasped both of her hands.
When their hands made contact, it felt like an electric shock, if electric shocks were a mixture of pain and pleasure that surpassed everything that Spike had ever experienced. The only thing he could vaguely compare to it was the feeling he'd had when he'd got his soul. But this felt like pure power, and as an ex-vampire, Spike knew what it was like to feel strong, powerful, invincible. This was beyond every sensation he ever could have imagined.
Looking at Dawn, Spike knew that she felt exactly the same way.
Simultaneously, they closed their eyes, letting the energy that had all of a sudden surrounded both their bodies course through them. Due to their linked hands some part of Dawn's essence moved on to Spike and the other way around. There was a brief thought flashing in Dawn's mind: If I lose some essential part of me, I really shouldn't feel so... complete. Unbeknownst to her, Spike asked himself almost the same thing.
They were one.
Two pieces of a whole, united after what - in retrospect - seemed like an eternity of being separated. With their energies mingling, they felt strength and courage gradually rise in them, growing to an all-consuming force the likes of which neither of them had ever known.
After a short while, Dawn and Spike reached the summit of their combined powers and a shock wave began to radiate from their midst, seizing first Shaman and Ken and then spreading out in circles which grew wider and wider.
Both men were knocked to the ground, as well as everyone who got hit by the shock wave, which still hadn't stopped progressing. For a split second, one by one, they were illuminated by white, blinding light.
When the wave reached the invisible barrier that cut off the town from its environment, the wall which had confined the Pacantians for so long to their imprisonment without their knowledge seemed to stir, as though the very air had started to move. If someone from the outside had watched the magical dome which covered Pacantia, it would have seemed to that person like a bubble that was about to pop.
People were gazing upwards with unbelieving, terrified faces. It was hard for them to comprehend such an event, when their peace had never been disrupted before.
The change caused by the joining of Dawn's and Spike's powers was obvious: One could clearly see proof of it in the expression of all Pacantians. The terror at the shock wave gradually gave way to a look of dawning comprehension, followed by disgust at being betrayed.
It was as if a curtain had been lifted, when the people looked around. The now visible barriers crumbled and slowly dissolved, leaving them with a feeling that was completely new to most of them: liberty. A liberty that was not only a physical freedom, because they were now free to depart from their former prison if they chose to. But it also gave them back their free will and memory.
Although the inhabitants of Pacantia knew that they had been blinded and fooled for decades, they felt pure joy at being released and freed. One by one, they got up and looked at each other, trying to find out whether the other people had experienced the same.
When it had finally sunk in that all of them had witnessed that strange event, they knew they could start a new life without bonds and boundaries.
Back at the Manor, Dawn and Spike collapsed and fell to the ground, exhausted but still conscious. Their hands were still linked, neither of them daring to break the connection.
"What have we done?" Dawn asked with a feeble, strained voice. Realising that she was currently speaking to Spike who wasn't supposed to be here at all gave her new strength and she screwed up her face in bewilderment and just glared at him.
He seemed to understand her confusion. "Dawn, I know what you must be thinking. I don't fully get it myself, but... Look, there's a prophecy and-"
But she didn't let him finish. Her facial expression changed from confusion to something much more unpleasant in a heart beat. He knew that look and inwardly braced himself, expecting the tantrum she would throw when she was angry, but it wasn't as bad as he had thought. At least, Dawn remained sitting.
"What?! Another prophecy? Hello, definitely not Buffy here, so why's there a frigging prophecy about me?" Glancing at Spike, she added, "...and you." She shook her head in exasperation. "I'm sick of all that. What good is it to steal a magic book from Willow and vanishing from the spot, just to be still part of a prophecy I knew nothing about?!" Dawn hesitated and seemed to remember something. "Wait a minute. It was the spell that I cast in the woods that had brought me here. That couldn't have been a coincidence, could it? And the fact that you aren't dead but here with me-"
"- was the PTB's doing, yes", Spike finished for her.
Dawn rolled her eyes. "Yeah, who else could be responsible for that?" At last, she withdrew her hands from Spike's and gestured wildly around to emphasize what she meant. Spike oddly regretted that their hands weren't linked anymore. Seeing Dawn again and having the opportunity to be so close to her in order to fulfil some prophecy that had been imposed on them filled his heart with something he couldn't really explain.
Dawn must've seen him frown because she stopped gesturing and now looked with concern into his blue eyes. "Are you okay? You look upset."
Dawn realised that she had missed these eyes. A few years ago when she had had a crush on Spike, she used to steal a glance at him whenever she thought he wasn't looking. She could have drowned in these deep, blue pools.
Spike didn't answer her and for a certain time, neither of them spoke a word, not breaking eye contact. Finally, Spike got up and held out a hand to Dawn to help her up, which she gratefully took since she didn't fully trust her weak legs. Slowly, he let go off her small hand and willed himself not to touch her shiny hair, just the way he had done in his cave in Sunnydale when he'd tried to convince her that it hadn't been her fault that Glory had hurt Tara.
Clearing his throat, he asked, "What are we supposed to do with them?" He motioned toward Shaman and Ken who were still lying on the floor, unmoving. Hearing Spike's voice, she snapped out of her reverie and made a thoughtful face. Never had she had this profound urge to embrace him. She remembered the time after Buffy's death when Spike had taken care of her and they had often hugged, trying to console each other. Then, she had desperately needed him, and now, she felt a similar desire to be as near him as possible. But she didn't need comfort or consolation now. This desire went deeper.
Tbc...
Please R&R!
Chapter 9
Relief flooded Spike when he heard Dawn shout his name and he had to smile although the situation was anything but pleasant. It took a moment for him to register that Dawn was being hit by what looked like gigantic rays of light. And, what was odd, that she still managed to smile back at him. The rays had burned a huge hole in the book with which she had presumably tried to protect herself and which she still held uselessly in both hands. As she had her head turned toward him, her right cheek was illuminated by the blinding light.
The very sight of Dawn, looking vaguely angelic and also eerily powerful, made Spike catch his breath for one short moment. He had to shake himself mentally in order to refocus on the situation. What was it I came here for? Right, kill Shaman, save Dawn.
But then he realised that Dawn didn't actually need saving. The power that he had noticed radiating from her seemed to increase by the minute, making her smile more brightly and self-confidently. Instead of pleading Spike with her eyes to help her, she jerked her chin almost imperceptibly towards one corner of the cell, where the young man Spike had seen in his vision lay, unmoving. Spike got her message instantly: Take care of him, I can manage this on my own.
Obviously, she felt something change within her because she suddenly turned her head back to her attacker. Her smile faltered, leaving a determined and slightly scary expression on her face. The bolts of lightning that shot out of Shaman's hands now hit her fully on the forehead and she struggled against them, as if they'd knock her down otherwise.
Having noticed the intruder, Shaman obviously decided that he'd better take care of him first, before focussing on killing Dawn. With visible effort, he tried to point his hands at Spike, but didn't manage to move them at all. It was as if Dawn willed the connection between herself and Shaman to continue.
Shaman, who now looked confused and not a little frightened, cursed and seemed to redouble his efforts. "I don't know what kind of trick this is, you little bitch, but do you really think you can withstand my power for long?" He gave a short bark of laughter, but it didn't sound as evil and arrogant as he had intended it to be, due to his mounting nervousness. "You were foolish enough to bring that damned book into my reach; now that it is destroyed, the last evidence for the occurrences of a century ago is destroyed with it."
"No, you smug bastard! There's still Agatha! And loads of other people! Half of Pacantia knows the truth," Spike yelled, who had propped Ken against the nearest wall and was torn between his unspoken promise to help Ken, and the urgent desire to get to Dawn and fight at her side.
This time, Shaman's laughter was genuinely condescending and made Spike want to beat him to a bloody pulp right now, just to shut him up. "That poor creature and her little club of rebels?" At Spike's astonished look, he continued, "What, did you think I did not know about them? They are like irksome gnats; annoying, but easy to kill. They could not have caused any serious damage to me anyway. But rest assured, I will deal with Agatha as soon as I am done with you, just like I dealt with her grandfather, who forfeited his life when he wrote this diary."
Before Spike could process what Shaman had said, he heard Dawn begin to pant. Her face was screwed up in concentration, and beads of sweat had formed along her hairline. With a last look at Ken, who was so pale that the small rivulet of deep red blood that still ran from his nose stood in a harsh contrast to the rest of his face, Spike knew what he had to do. It was not a conscious decision at all that he made in that moment, but he felt such a strong attraction emanating from Dawn, such a strong urge to be as near to her as possible, that he took the few steps that separated them and grasped both of her hands.
When their hands made contact, it felt like an electric shock, if electric shocks were a mixture of pain and pleasure that surpassed everything that Spike had ever experienced. The only thing he could vaguely compare to it was the feeling he'd had when he'd got his soul. But this felt like pure power, and as an ex-vampire, Spike knew what it was like to feel strong, powerful, invincible. This was beyond every sensation he ever could have imagined.
Looking at Dawn, Spike knew that she felt exactly the same way.
Simultaneously, they closed their eyes, letting the energy that had all of a sudden surrounded both their bodies course through them. Due to their linked hands some part of Dawn's essence moved on to Spike and the other way around. There was a brief thought flashing in Dawn's mind: If I lose some essential part of me, I really shouldn't feel so... complete. Unbeknownst to her, Spike asked himself almost the same thing.
They were one.
Two pieces of a whole, united after what - in retrospect - seemed like an eternity of being separated. With their energies mingling, they felt strength and courage gradually rise in them, growing to an all-consuming force the likes of which neither of them had ever known.
After a short while, Dawn and Spike reached the summit of their combined powers and a shock wave began to radiate from their midst, seizing first Shaman and Ken and then spreading out in circles which grew wider and wider.
Both men were knocked to the ground, as well as everyone who got hit by the shock wave, which still hadn't stopped progressing. For a split second, one by one, they were illuminated by white, blinding light.
When the wave reached the invisible barrier that cut off the town from its environment, the wall which had confined the Pacantians for so long to their imprisonment without their knowledge seemed to stir, as though the very air had started to move. If someone from the outside had watched the magical dome which covered Pacantia, it would have seemed to that person like a bubble that was about to pop.
People were gazing upwards with unbelieving, terrified faces. It was hard for them to comprehend such an event, when their peace had never been disrupted before.
The change caused by the joining of Dawn's and Spike's powers was obvious: One could clearly see proof of it in the expression of all Pacantians. The terror at the shock wave gradually gave way to a look of dawning comprehension, followed by disgust at being betrayed.
It was as if a curtain had been lifted, when the people looked around. The now visible barriers crumbled and slowly dissolved, leaving them with a feeling that was completely new to most of them: liberty. A liberty that was not only a physical freedom, because they were now free to depart from their former prison if they chose to. But it also gave them back their free will and memory.
Although the inhabitants of Pacantia knew that they had been blinded and fooled for decades, they felt pure joy at being released and freed. One by one, they got up and looked at each other, trying to find out whether the other people had experienced the same.
When it had finally sunk in that all of them had witnessed that strange event, they knew they could start a new life without bonds and boundaries.
Back at the Manor, Dawn and Spike collapsed and fell to the ground, exhausted but still conscious. Their hands were still linked, neither of them daring to break the connection.
"What have we done?" Dawn asked with a feeble, strained voice. Realising that she was currently speaking to Spike who wasn't supposed to be here at all gave her new strength and she screwed up her face in bewilderment and just glared at him.
He seemed to understand her confusion. "Dawn, I know what you must be thinking. I don't fully get it myself, but... Look, there's a prophecy and-"
But she didn't let him finish. Her facial expression changed from confusion to something much more unpleasant in a heart beat. He knew that look and inwardly braced himself, expecting the tantrum she would throw when she was angry, but it wasn't as bad as he had thought. At least, Dawn remained sitting.
"What?! Another prophecy? Hello, definitely not Buffy here, so why's there a frigging prophecy about me?" Glancing at Spike, she added, "...and you." She shook her head in exasperation. "I'm sick of all that. What good is it to steal a magic book from Willow and vanishing from the spot, just to be still part of a prophecy I knew nothing about?!" Dawn hesitated and seemed to remember something. "Wait a minute. It was the spell that I cast in the woods that had brought me here. That couldn't have been a coincidence, could it? And the fact that you aren't dead but here with me-"
"- was the PTB's doing, yes", Spike finished for her.
Dawn rolled her eyes. "Yeah, who else could be responsible for that?" At last, she withdrew her hands from Spike's and gestured wildly around to emphasize what she meant. Spike oddly regretted that their hands weren't linked anymore. Seeing Dawn again and having the opportunity to be so close to her in order to fulfil some prophecy that had been imposed on them filled his heart with something he couldn't really explain.
Dawn must've seen him frown because she stopped gesturing and now looked with concern into his blue eyes. "Are you okay? You look upset."
Dawn realised that she had missed these eyes. A few years ago when she had had a crush on Spike, she used to steal a glance at him whenever she thought he wasn't looking. She could have drowned in these deep, blue pools.
Spike didn't answer her and for a certain time, neither of them spoke a word, not breaking eye contact. Finally, Spike got up and held out a hand to Dawn to help her up, which she gratefully took since she didn't fully trust her weak legs. Slowly, he let go off her small hand and willed himself not to touch her shiny hair, just the way he had done in his cave in Sunnydale when he'd tried to convince her that it hadn't been her fault that Glory had hurt Tara.
Clearing his throat, he asked, "What are we supposed to do with them?" He motioned toward Shaman and Ken who were still lying on the floor, unmoving. Hearing Spike's voice, she snapped out of her reverie and made a thoughtful face. Never had she had this profound urge to embrace him. She remembered the time after Buffy's death when Spike had taken care of her and they had often hugged, trying to console each other. Then, she had desperately needed him, and now, she felt a similar desire to be as near him as possible. But she didn't need comfort or consolation now. This desire went deeper.
Tbc...
Please R&R!