"My God, Spike. What happened to
you?" Giles considered the vampire's mangled face with a mixture
of concern and suspicion.
"Rupert. Didn't know you were back." Spike sat down heavily, his head still ringing from his recent beating
and the residual effects of the Guinness. "Kiss the Librarian" the
mug of pig's blood in front of him proclaimed. He felt sick.
"I returned from England yesterday." Giles removed his glasses and wiped them absentmindedly with the corner
of his shirt. "I . . . I had to be here."
Spike nodded and looked around the table
at the Scoobies. Xander's lost weight. Wonder if he and Anya
are married yet? The Wiccans are still in love by the looks of it. And Niblet. She looks bad. Dark circles 'round her eyes. Little one like that needs more sleep. Probably not eating proper
either. Wonder if she's still staying with Xander and his ex-demon? Willow must've cast a spell on the Child and Family Services folk to pull
that one off.
"Earth to Spike." Xander's voice
cut through his thoughts. "We kinda need you with us deadboy."
Spike glared at Xander, too exhausted and
hungover to think of a witty reply. "So how do we bring back Buffy? Will and Dawn were kind of sketchy on the details. They just told
me we had to bring her back and they'd found a way." Spike shot a
threatening look at Willow. "Look Wicca girl, I don't want zombie
Buffy. I want *my* Buffy back."
Willow shook her head. "Spike. First I have to point out that she's not *your* Buffy. And of course
she won't be a zombie. None of us want that."
Spike shuffled his feet. "'Kay. I was just checking. Don't get your knickers in a twist."
Willow rolled her eyes. "Just listen,
don't talk."
"Listening. . ."
"No new Slayer has been called." Willow looked at Spike to see his reaction, but his bruised face was an
unreadable mask. She took a big breath and continued. "See,
Buffy died once before. Another Slayer was called then, and when
she was killed Faith was called. Now Faith is in jail and until she
dies the world is effectively Slayerless. The word's gotten out and
the past few months . . . well the Hellmouth has really become demon party
central."
"And I care about this why?"
Tears began streaming from Dawn's eyes. "Because they're after me Spike. Apparently my blood still has amazing
and wacky properties. It's always me. Maybe I should just let
them have me and then it would be over."
Panic flitted across Spike's face. "No. No way. I've lost one of you. You're not dying Dawn. We're gonna fix this."
Dawn exploded. "Oh yeah, you're the
great protector of me. I haven't even seen you for months and . .
."
"Enough." Giles's voice reverberated
through the shop. "You two, sort this out later. Willow continue."
Chastened, Dawn and Spike sank back in
their seats.
"In an obscure passage of the Codex, I
found something about resurrecting the Slayer. It's never been attempted,
but this could have been written with you and Buffy in mind:
'And she shall sacrifice herself to save
the world. And a key shall appear to unlock the door. And the
soulless demon shall drink the blood and find the passage to death through
the water. With his quest, balance shall be restored.'"
Spike's hand shook as he took a sip from
his mug. "So it's all about the blood is it?"
Dawn dried her tears. "It's all about
my blood."
Spike pushed the mug away. "I won't
do it."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"C'mon Niblet, wait up."
"No."
Dawn ran. She just wanted to get
away from him. With every word he betrayed her. He didn't care. He didn't want to help her. Finally her raged erupted. She
turned and faced the vampire limping towards her. "Look, you fucking
pest. I know you loved Buffy and wanted to shag her brains out, but
you don't love me. You've made that really clear these past few months. I was hoping that you'd help with this and then we could both be happy
and have Buffy back. But maybe you don't even care about her? You don't care about anything but you."
Spike stopped. "I'm sorry."
"What?"
"I said I'm sorry."
Dawn stared.
"I'm sorry that I wasn't there for you
after Buffy died. I didn't think you'd want to see me, considering
that I didn't save you and I got her killed. I broke my promise and
she died. I couldn't protect you then and I can't protect you now."
Dawn sighed. "We've gone over this
Spike. It's not your fault. You tried."
"Trying isn't good enough Niblet. Trying gets people hurt and killed."
"But you can fix your mistake now Spike. You can have your precious Buffy back."
"That may be so, but I'm not gonna hurt
you to do it."
"That's the price Spike."
"Then it's too high. 'Sides, that
prophecy seemed bloody ambiguous to me."
"The prophecy doesn't say anything about
killing me. It just says you have to drink my blood. You don't
have to take it all. Besides, you can't drink it directly from me
anyway, 'cause of your chip."
"Yes I can."
Dawn's eyes grew wide. "You can?"
Spike nodded. "Chip works on intent,
Dawn. I think if you want me to bite you and I'm not doing it to
hurt you then . . ."
"Great. So we've found a short cut."
"Don't think so. What would Buffy
say if we did bring her back, and she found out I'd been chomping on her
little sis? Rather have your blood in a mug thanks."
"OK, whatever. You drink the blood,
then you take a swim in the Master's old paddling pool."
"Is that the bit about the water?"
Dawn nodded.
"What if I fail?"
"You won't fail Spike. You have to
come back to me. I still have to show you the earrings I swiped from
Anya."
Spike ruffled Dawn's hair affectionately. "You're a quick study, kid."
END PART TWO