I do not own the Buffy characters.
Takes place sometime after the gift.
Spike had been in the Bronze for about and hour and was
already drunk.
Spike's reverie was abruptly cut short when a young man got face to face with him and started talking.
"Hey, pal…You OK?" he said.
"I'm fine, you poof…Bugger off!" he spat back.
The young man didn't leave, he seemed to get even pushier with the staring and questioning.
"What's wrong?
Spike glared at the young man.
"What the hell are you?" Spike asked.
The corner of the young man's mouth turned up.
"My name is Arashikage (Ah'rah'shi'ka'ge)…And I am your best friend." He was grinning widely, like he knew the punch line to a joke Spike hadn't heard yet.
Spike turned his stool back to the bar, as did his
companion, and looked down at the book of matches lying there.
"How do you figure that, mate?"
The young man looked down at the ring on his right
hand.
"Tell me, what happened to her…this woman you are grieving for?"
Spike's head shot up to meet the stranger's eyes.
"How do you…"
"Tell me about her." The young man did not let him finish.
Spike reached for his beer again.
"She was my soul…" Spike's voice drifted off as he raised the mug to his lips.
Spike did not notice that the ring that had been on this man's finger was now on his.
The stranger looked him in the eyes and asked,
"What would you wish for, if you knew you would get it?"
Spike pondered for a moment...Thinking back to his failure to protect Dawn which had caused Buffy to make that horrible choice in the first place.
"I would wish I could have stopped it when I had a chance…"
Spike's attention was drawn to his finger, where he noticed
the ring and looked up at his drinking buddy questioningly.
"Done."
Spike found himself staring at Doc, who was facing him with a knife.
"Why do you even care?
Not taking his eyes off the demon, he reached back with his
right hand and nearly fainted when he touched Dawn, still tied to the
scaffolding.
Doc's tongue flashed out at him and he dodged it as he had
before, but this time he flipped his foot up at the same time and caught the
knife on the way up.
"And just to be sure…" Spike spun and kicked Doc off the
tower.
Spike untied Dawn and looked down to see Buffy clobbering
Glory a few times with the hammer.
"She's alive!" he yelled, wrapping Dawn in his arms and picking her up and spinning her around in celebration.
