Back to Humanity
Chapter 2
By Kalifower
Disclaimer: All the characters and settings and everything else is purely owned by Joss and Co.
Comments: This takes place somewhere in the beginning of season 6. After Life Serial but before the musical. The Troika decide to mess with Spike but their plans go haywire. Don't you just love the way the Evil Trio can cause so much trouble, so badly?
Thanks: To everyone who reviewed me. I hope you like this chapter. Only one more to go after this and it'll be up next week.
In Warren's Mom's basement the trio had finally managed to locate Spike on their monitor. They had expected him to be in his crypt this early in the evening and had panicked when he wasn't in. None of them could agree where to look next and they had ended up wrestling on the ground for the remote control. Warren had won and had clicked over the magic box. All they could see was Spike carrying someone to the table in the back of the room.
"It doesn't look like he's lost any of his strength." Andrew pointed out.
"Shut up, Andrew." Jonathan looked heart broken. He was sure the spell had worked. He was pretty sure that he had done everything correctly, and as the spell had said it should bring "the past to the present and confront the evil fiend with his past self." Which meant that Spike should be feeling the weight of his past crimes as a vampire, and become human. He hadn't gotten a spell this wrong in a few years; it was really upsetting.
"No, he's right Jonathan. He looks as dead as ever, and strong to." Warren paused. The body that Spike was laying down looked vaguely familiar, but it wasn't any of the Scoobies. Just when he was going to get a good look at it, Spike flung his jacket over the camera. "I knew we should have put more camera's in the Magic Box." Warren turned off the screen. "Well we'll just start the second phase of the plan. At least we can cause a little chaos at the stupid store, and maybe we'll get lucky and hurt the Slayer."
"Uh, Warren?"
"Yes, Andrew?"
"Um.we won't be able to do the summoning spell until tomorrow night, on the new moon."
"Argggg." Warren looked around for something of Andrew's to hurt, but thought better of it. "Fine, we'll wait until tomorrow."
"What's wrong with him," Tara asked.
"Time travel, I'd suspect." Spike glared but she ducked her head. "And why aren't we doing something about that. Come on peoples, we need to find out why he's here and send him back."
"Wow, I would have never guessed," Buffy said ignoring Spike and looking at the resting body in front of her.
"Never guessed what?" He asked suspiciously.
"You.Never pictured you like this. You know, wearing enough tweed to make Giles nervous, and the glasses, and the...everything" she waved her arm at William.
"Well it didn't seem so bloody important at the time. Plus, it's not like I don't have an image to maintain."
"Right the Big Bad. Somehow I saw you more as Artful Dodger, less as Professor Higgins." She paused. "What am I saying? I never pictured you human."
He was so bloody exasperated. Shouldn't Buffy be fawning all over William, shouldn't she love the ponce? He was just as much sweetness and light as the rest of her friends. Instead, she was ignoring William and him. He narrowed his eyes at the Slayer.
"Spike," she began, noticing his murderous glare.
"Oh," William started to sit up on the table. Spike deflated and his attention moved to his younger self. He felt a responsibility to take care of him, and he hated it. Wasn't it enough that he would die for Buffy and the bit? Wasn't it enough that if she asked he would defend these damn sidekicks of hers until his end, as he had all summer? No, now he had someone else that he had to protect. He was a monster, since when did that come with having responsibility?
"Arggg!" Spike shouted and threw up his hands. No matter how much he wanted to take care of the annoying bugger he had been, he couldn't. He wasn't the kind of man that could. Monster that could. Whatever.
Spike stormed out of the shop into the training room and began to punch the bag. His night out with the Slayer patrolling had busted. He punched the bag. His fight with Xander had dissolved into nothing. He gave a swift roundhouse, swinging the bag on its chain. And worse then anything he could ever imagine, the whole bloody slayer gang was in the Magic Box with all the parts of him that he tried to hide from everyone. He let loose on the bag with a rapid series of alternating jabs.
The boy had no cocky attitude!
Punch.
No swagger!
Punch.
And no confidence! All he had was his poetry!
Oh, God, his poetry. Spike had to stop him from sharing the damned poetry. The bag was left swinging as he ran back into the shop. Dawn and Tara were caring for William, while the rest of the bunch stood by the counter talking.
Spike ran over to William, Dawn and Tara. "Right loves, I'll take over from here." He swept them away with his arms. Turning to his double he said: "Alright, William, have you had an urges to write anything down?"
The poet looked stunned. "What? Oh, heavens no. I've been so overwhelmed that composing has been the furthest from my mind."
"Good!" Spike lowered his voice, no need for the Scoobies to overhear anything. "They're all so uncouth, they think poetry is a waste of time."
"Oh." William looked wounded. "May I impose and ask a question of you?"
"What?"
"I was wondering where am I? Why do you look so much like me? And why does everyone here dress and speak so queerly?"
"You mean they haven't told you? I thought they'd jump at the opportunity to ruin our good name. I am you. This is your future." William looked disbelieving. "Really, mate. In a few of your years you'll meet the woman of your dreams and she'll give you a gift. It makes you strong and powerful and immortal. So here I am, helping these people, who fight the baddies."
"This is like some fantastic penny dreadful. I can't believe this." Spike smiled and turned around to leave. "I have one more question." Spike winced and faced William. "If this is the future, then how exactly did I get here?"
"Magic, most likely. That's what I'm going to talk to the rest of the gang about." Spike walked over the meeting and acting loud and chummy. "So how are we coming on the William situation?"
Everyone immediately became suspicious. Why did they always act so weird when he tried to be friendly?
"The William situation?" Buffy said.
Giles cut her off before she could continue, "We were actually hoping that we could ask you..."
Spike held up his hands interrupting the older looking man. "I have no idea why he's here, Rupert. One minute I was waiting to go on patrol with Buffy, the next blinding pain and then I woke up with him lying beside me."
"Odd." Giles paused. "Tara and Willow, do you think you could find out if there was a spell used?"
"Oh, you could use that spell that I did last year to find out if Mom was under some sort of magical attack." Buffy said.
"Good idea." Turning to the witches he added, "let's see if that works. There aren't too many time travel spells so if it's magic then we will have an idea where to start."
Willow nodded and went to the balcony to look for the information on the spell. Grabbing a book she came down stairs and whispered something to Tara. Both women went into the training room.
"Buffy and Spike why don't you go on patrol like you were originally planning. I think we can take care of William while you're out."
As much as he wanted to stay with William to make sure that he didn't do anything stupid, Spike needed to go out and fight. "Good idea." He walked over to the shelf and grabbed his coat, meeting up with Buffy. Unnoticed, he knocked over a small vase with a camera hidden inside. She scowled at him and walked out the door in front of him.
Buffy was suspicious; Spike was not acting like himself. Not that having your human self visit from the past wasn't cause for you to act a little weird, but his moods were swinging out of control, more then she had ever seen before. Usually, he was annoying and always acting cooler-than-thou. Sometimes, more recently, he acted nice and almost human. But today in the shop, he had gone from being so mad that she thought she was going to have to fight him, to scary helpful. She was way weirded out.
They were quiet while on patrol. Spike looked angry, which meant that he was likely to be looking for a fight. Buffy hoped that they found some vamps soon, or some other demon. Whenever he was in moods like this, and his attention was on her, he would start to pick a fight. She was not in the mood to deal with him. She heard a slight shuffling and turned to face Spike. He had heard it too and they went to investigate the noise.
Behind a small grove to trees was a group of four people. If this hadn't been a graveyard in Sunnydale, and she hadn't been the Slayer then she might have thought they were human, but her common sense and that slight tingle in her gut told her that they were vampires.
"What are a group of nasties like you doing out on a night like this?" Spike sauntered out behind the trees that were hiding Buffy and him. Buffy rolled her eyes in exasperation. Spike had just ruined a nice, easy kill.
The vamps took one look at Spike and the Slayer and ran. Well, at least they were smart. It gave her a happy when vampires saw her and ran; it meant that she was doing her job. Of course, the Buffy that these may have known might have been the bot that replaced her this summer. Spike snarled and chased after the vamps. Jeez, he really was just itching for a fight.
She ran off after the vampires and caught up with the group shortly after Spike had. He was already in the thick of the fight. He had just staked the first one he caught and was fighting the other three all at once. She got behind one that was dodging a high kick Spike had just aimed towards him and Buffy staked his back. That left two more. Before she could move towards the others Spike staked the one behind him and snapped his arms up to the neck of the burly one in front of him. Moving quickly he grabbed the big vampire by the neck and twisted his head away from the body.
"Ewww." Buffy scrunched her nose.
"Sorry I was too crude for your delicate sensibilities Slayer." He raised narrowed his eyes and cocked his head to one side. "Perhaps you'd prefer Wimpy William."
"The who.what? What the hell are you talking about Spike?"
"William, the twit back at the magic shop right now. My human self in all his tweedy glory."
"I knew who you were talking about. Why would I want to patrol with him? What the hell is wrong with you tonight? You're acting like, well I was going to say annoying, but you're always annoying so maybe there's no problem there."
"Annoying?" Changing the subject he added, "I didn't see you helping much with those vamps I just dusted. Just standing around and watching me." He leered at her, "like what you see?"
"Oh, gross Spike, I couldn't do much else but watch since 'Mr. Likes to Fight' basically killed them all single handed." She stopped and thought for a second, "not that I'm actually complaining about not having to fight." She was calming down again; she felt her mind returning to her gray calm. "Whatever, I just don't care Spike."
He looked into her eyes and she thought she saw fear in them. What was he so afraid of? "Sick of the fight already?" She wasn't exactly sure which fight he was referencing. Pacing around Spike continued, "It's just that the damn fool that I was, is hanging out with the Scoobies. I can't stand it!" He had that wild look about him again, like he wanted to kill something. She felt her body tense and she looked away. When she looked back he was leaning against a gravestone, his whole body slumped in defeat. "I hated myself then, and I hate myself now, just at the moment the self I hate is in the third person.
"He's such a git, I was such a git. I've tried so hard not to be him for so long. After I was turned I realized how I had wasted all 26 years of my life. I was damned certain that I wasn't going to waste my unlife in the same way. Seeing him here is like seeing all the things you hate about yourself right in front of you. He's so weak and.."
She cut him off because she didn't want to deal with a Spike-rant. "Well, yeah, he's kinda weak, but you said yourself he should just be getting over a long, bad cold or something. Everyone is weak after stuff like that. It's just been too long since you were sick." Why she was comforting Spike, she had no clue.
She continued, "William seems nice in a stuffy, British-y way. And it's not going to change anyone's opinion of you. Like Dawn, she already likes you and was protective of William and Xander hates you and pretty much ignores William. It all works out." She stopped for a moment, "I guess not that Xander ignoring William is of the good, but you know what I mean." She saw him smile weakly. It was so weird; they were having a conversation.
She smiled a little back at him. "Come on, if you're still in a fighty mood, I'll let you stake the next vamp we come across."
"I can think of better ways to burn off extra energy, Slayer."
"God, Spike! You are such a pig!"
William was scared and confused, but at least he had tea. He took the mug from the older gentleman. He still could not believe that all this was happening. Considering the long illness he was recovering from, he was convinced that this was a dream. A very elaborate dream about the future. He was disturbed by the apparent lack of dress and informality that people had here in the future, or in his hallucination. The men were not so appallingly dressed as the women. It was odd perhaps, and certainly eccentric, but it was still breeches and a shirt. But the women were also wearing breeches. He had heard about it, and seen it last Season in London with the Suffragettes, but this was obviously normal dress. It was all so tight and revealing. It made him feel a bit uncomfortable and he was amazed that the other men in the room did not seem to care that the women were wearing such revealing outfits. The only woman who was dressed near modestly was the cherubic blonde who touted herself a witch. William found her quite beautiful with the shy, soft features of a doe and hair like soft moonlight on the moor. Or what he imagined moonlight would look like on a moor since he had never actually seen one. He blinked away his thoughts. The illness must have shook loose a more vivid and queer imagination in him to imagine of such things.
"So, uh, William, what do you do?" The dark hair young man said. William believed that he had been called Xander earlier. Such a strange name. He felt ill and wanted to lie down, but he had been asked a question and was loath to prove that he was a vulgarian to his future/dream self's friends.
"Do? Do you mean what is my profession?
"Yeah that's what I said." Turning to Anya Xander said, "he's doing that thing, you know, that Giles does, with the words."
"It's called speaking honey," Anya said non-committally dusting some of the display shelves around her.
"My older brother has recently joined the family firm. My father and him are lawyers in Fenton and Son's, one of the largest law firms in England." He said proudly, "I am still in school, but had to leave last semester because of my illness. I should be able to return to Oxford this fall and complete my degree."
The older man, Giles, choked on the tea he was drinking spilling it down the front of his shirt. As he walked away to clean it off William was sure he heard the man muttering something like, "bloody Oxford! And he never lifts a finger to help with book research! I should just stake him now."
"Did I upset the gentleman, Mr. Giles, I believe?"
"The who? Giles? I can't believe that Spike is calling Giles a gentleman. I mean not that he isn't, but still this is Spike." Shaking his head Xander said, "today is even more Twilight Zone then normal for Sunnydale."
"I remember Rod Sterling. He was a pretty powerful warlock, and a great writer. That show was very popular with demons, those who had TV's at least."
"The Twilight Zone was written by a warlock?" Xander paused. "You know, it actually explains a lot."
The redheaded young lady glared at the couple, "don't pay any attention to them. You seem so different then the Spike that we know."
"I have noticed that he is much more brusque then his upbringing would recommend. Perhaps it's because he's a champion?"
"Wait a second, champion?" Xander said. "Did he tell you that he was a champion? Of what, vampires everywhere?" This caused even more confusion for William. Of what was the young man speaking?
"P-p-pardon?"
"Xander," the redhead whispered. "Let him think whatever he wants about Spike, we don't need to complicate things right now."
"But Willow, he told himself," Xander grimaced at the phrase, "that he was a champion, and I'm pretty sure that William thinks he spends the next hundred years of his existence as a pretty good guy and not a murderer."
William's eyes went wide with horror. "M-m-murderer?"
"Xander!" Willow turned her eyes towards Tara and silently pleaded for help. The other witch came to the rescue.
"William, uh, Spike is a sort of champion now, but he wasn't the best of, ah, people in the past. In fact, he's done some really horrible things. But now he's trying to be a better person. He helps us fight the bad guys." Willow glared at Xander before he could jump in and he sat back down.
"Yes," Anya spoke up. "People can do horrible things in their past, or your future, and be forgiven. Look at me, I maimed people with vengeance for over a thousand years and now I help the good guys fight demons like I used to be. Although, this is a lot more stressful then being a demon, and without the good benefits package, which is why I had to learn to invest so wisely." As if to reassure herself, she walked over to the register and began counting her money.
"But I'm good now?" William asked.
"Well, you are when it really counts, although you make some mistakes." Tara smiled. "You try very hard, especially for Buffy and Dawn."
A sudden warm smile broke on his lips, he understood why his dream/future self was attempting to reform. "I fight for the love of a lady?" It was horribly romantic and would make a wonderful epic poem if he remembered it when he awoke.
"Well I wouldn't say love so much as hate. Buffy hates Spike." Xander said.
"Xander, you're really not helping."
"What? It's true, Spike is obsessed with Buffy but she could care less about him."
The Scoobies gasped when they saw William eyes narrow in anguish. Why must they stare at him so? Couldn't they see he was upset? Dawn walked over to Willow, "that's weird, that's what Spike looks like when he's angry. I was kinda forgetting that he was Spike, or will be, or whatever. But that was too weird. Ugh."
"I second that ugh," Willow said.
"I third it," Xander continued. "But it would be creepier if he took a cigarette out of his coat and said something sarcastic."
Giles stepped out of the employee restroom oblivious to the conversation before hand. "William, do you know Latin and ancient Greek?"
"Of course, Sir, what type of education would I have if I could not? Basic fluency is required for entrance to Oxford."
"What modern languages do you know?" The older one sighed.
"Well besides English, I'm fluent in French and Italian."
Giles took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. "He's never raised a bloody hand to help us with translation!" He looked up at the young man. "Would you mind helping these young ladies," he pointed to Tara and Willow, "translate some spells that would help you get home?"
"I would be delighted to help. Considering how my other self is a champion, I will endeavor to lighten his burden and attempt to translate whatever I can."
"Wonderful," Giles commented dryly, letting the comment slide.
The phone rang and Giles picked it up. "Good Evening, Magic Box. How can I help you? Oh, yes, no he's fine. We'll take him to your house. I'm sure he'll be fine. Yes, yes." After he hung up he turned to the group. "That was Buffy, she said that we should take William to her house. He can spend the night on the couch in the living room. Apparently she had to talk Spike out of having William stay in his crypt."
Meanwhile, William was walking over the telephone, but before he could touch it he heard what Mr. Giles was saying. "Crypt?"
"That's just slang for a home, you know like crib." Dawn said quickly. William was confused, crib? But he dropped the subject.
By Kalifower
Disclaimer: All the characters and settings and everything else is purely owned by Joss and Co.
Comments: This takes place somewhere in the beginning of season 6. After Life Serial but before the musical. The Troika decide to mess with Spike but their plans go haywire. Don't you just love the way the Evil Trio can cause so much trouble, so badly?
Thanks: To everyone who reviewed me. I hope you like this chapter. Only one more to go after this and it'll be up next week.
In Warren's Mom's basement the trio had finally managed to locate Spike on their monitor. They had expected him to be in his crypt this early in the evening and had panicked when he wasn't in. None of them could agree where to look next and they had ended up wrestling on the ground for the remote control. Warren had won and had clicked over the magic box. All they could see was Spike carrying someone to the table in the back of the room.
"It doesn't look like he's lost any of his strength." Andrew pointed out.
"Shut up, Andrew." Jonathan looked heart broken. He was sure the spell had worked. He was pretty sure that he had done everything correctly, and as the spell had said it should bring "the past to the present and confront the evil fiend with his past self." Which meant that Spike should be feeling the weight of his past crimes as a vampire, and become human. He hadn't gotten a spell this wrong in a few years; it was really upsetting.
"No, he's right Jonathan. He looks as dead as ever, and strong to." Warren paused. The body that Spike was laying down looked vaguely familiar, but it wasn't any of the Scoobies. Just when he was going to get a good look at it, Spike flung his jacket over the camera. "I knew we should have put more camera's in the Magic Box." Warren turned off the screen. "Well we'll just start the second phase of the plan. At least we can cause a little chaos at the stupid store, and maybe we'll get lucky and hurt the Slayer."
"Uh, Warren?"
"Yes, Andrew?"
"Um.we won't be able to do the summoning spell until tomorrow night, on the new moon."
"Argggg." Warren looked around for something of Andrew's to hurt, but thought better of it. "Fine, we'll wait until tomorrow."
"What's wrong with him," Tara asked.
"Time travel, I'd suspect." Spike glared but she ducked her head. "And why aren't we doing something about that. Come on peoples, we need to find out why he's here and send him back."
"Wow, I would have never guessed," Buffy said ignoring Spike and looking at the resting body in front of her.
"Never guessed what?" He asked suspiciously.
"You.Never pictured you like this. You know, wearing enough tweed to make Giles nervous, and the glasses, and the...everything" she waved her arm at William.
"Well it didn't seem so bloody important at the time. Plus, it's not like I don't have an image to maintain."
"Right the Big Bad. Somehow I saw you more as Artful Dodger, less as Professor Higgins." She paused. "What am I saying? I never pictured you human."
He was so bloody exasperated. Shouldn't Buffy be fawning all over William, shouldn't she love the ponce? He was just as much sweetness and light as the rest of her friends. Instead, she was ignoring William and him. He narrowed his eyes at the Slayer.
"Spike," she began, noticing his murderous glare.
"Oh," William started to sit up on the table. Spike deflated and his attention moved to his younger self. He felt a responsibility to take care of him, and he hated it. Wasn't it enough that he would die for Buffy and the bit? Wasn't it enough that if she asked he would defend these damn sidekicks of hers until his end, as he had all summer? No, now he had someone else that he had to protect. He was a monster, since when did that come with having responsibility?
"Arggg!" Spike shouted and threw up his hands. No matter how much he wanted to take care of the annoying bugger he had been, he couldn't. He wasn't the kind of man that could. Monster that could. Whatever.
Spike stormed out of the shop into the training room and began to punch the bag. His night out with the Slayer patrolling had busted. He punched the bag. His fight with Xander had dissolved into nothing. He gave a swift roundhouse, swinging the bag on its chain. And worse then anything he could ever imagine, the whole bloody slayer gang was in the Magic Box with all the parts of him that he tried to hide from everyone. He let loose on the bag with a rapid series of alternating jabs.
The boy had no cocky attitude!
Punch.
No swagger!
Punch.
And no confidence! All he had was his poetry!
Oh, God, his poetry. Spike had to stop him from sharing the damned poetry. The bag was left swinging as he ran back into the shop. Dawn and Tara were caring for William, while the rest of the bunch stood by the counter talking.
Spike ran over to William, Dawn and Tara. "Right loves, I'll take over from here." He swept them away with his arms. Turning to his double he said: "Alright, William, have you had an urges to write anything down?"
The poet looked stunned. "What? Oh, heavens no. I've been so overwhelmed that composing has been the furthest from my mind."
"Good!" Spike lowered his voice, no need for the Scoobies to overhear anything. "They're all so uncouth, they think poetry is a waste of time."
"Oh." William looked wounded. "May I impose and ask a question of you?"
"What?"
"I was wondering where am I? Why do you look so much like me? And why does everyone here dress and speak so queerly?"
"You mean they haven't told you? I thought they'd jump at the opportunity to ruin our good name. I am you. This is your future." William looked disbelieving. "Really, mate. In a few of your years you'll meet the woman of your dreams and she'll give you a gift. It makes you strong and powerful and immortal. So here I am, helping these people, who fight the baddies."
"This is like some fantastic penny dreadful. I can't believe this." Spike smiled and turned around to leave. "I have one more question." Spike winced and faced William. "If this is the future, then how exactly did I get here?"
"Magic, most likely. That's what I'm going to talk to the rest of the gang about." Spike walked over the meeting and acting loud and chummy. "So how are we coming on the William situation?"
Everyone immediately became suspicious. Why did they always act so weird when he tried to be friendly?
"The William situation?" Buffy said.
Giles cut her off before she could continue, "We were actually hoping that we could ask you..."
Spike held up his hands interrupting the older looking man. "I have no idea why he's here, Rupert. One minute I was waiting to go on patrol with Buffy, the next blinding pain and then I woke up with him lying beside me."
"Odd." Giles paused. "Tara and Willow, do you think you could find out if there was a spell used?"
"Oh, you could use that spell that I did last year to find out if Mom was under some sort of magical attack." Buffy said.
"Good idea." Turning to the witches he added, "let's see if that works. There aren't too many time travel spells so if it's magic then we will have an idea where to start."
Willow nodded and went to the balcony to look for the information on the spell. Grabbing a book she came down stairs and whispered something to Tara. Both women went into the training room.
"Buffy and Spike why don't you go on patrol like you were originally planning. I think we can take care of William while you're out."
As much as he wanted to stay with William to make sure that he didn't do anything stupid, Spike needed to go out and fight. "Good idea." He walked over to the shelf and grabbed his coat, meeting up with Buffy. Unnoticed, he knocked over a small vase with a camera hidden inside. She scowled at him and walked out the door in front of him.
Buffy was suspicious; Spike was not acting like himself. Not that having your human self visit from the past wasn't cause for you to act a little weird, but his moods were swinging out of control, more then she had ever seen before. Usually, he was annoying and always acting cooler-than-thou. Sometimes, more recently, he acted nice and almost human. But today in the shop, he had gone from being so mad that she thought she was going to have to fight him, to scary helpful. She was way weirded out.
They were quiet while on patrol. Spike looked angry, which meant that he was likely to be looking for a fight. Buffy hoped that they found some vamps soon, or some other demon. Whenever he was in moods like this, and his attention was on her, he would start to pick a fight. She was not in the mood to deal with him. She heard a slight shuffling and turned to face Spike. He had heard it too and they went to investigate the noise.
Behind a small grove to trees was a group of four people. If this hadn't been a graveyard in Sunnydale, and she hadn't been the Slayer then she might have thought they were human, but her common sense and that slight tingle in her gut told her that they were vampires.
"What are a group of nasties like you doing out on a night like this?" Spike sauntered out behind the trees that were hiding Buffy and him. Buffy rolled her eyes in exasperation. Spike had just ruined a nice, easy kill.
The vamps took one look at Spike and the Slayer and ran. Well, at least they were smart. It gave her a happy when vampires saw her and ran; it meant that she was doing her job. Of course, the Buffy that these may have known might have been the bot that replaced her this summer. Spike snarled and chased after the vamps. Jeez, he really was just itching for a fight.
She ran off after the vampires and caught up with the group shortly after Spike had. He was already in the thick of the fight. He had just staked the first one he caught and was fighting the other three all at once. She got behind one that was dodging a high kick Spike had just aimed towards him and Buffy staked his back. That left two more. Before she could move towards the others Spike staked the one behind him and snapped his arms up to the neck of the burly one in front of him. Moving quickly he grabbed the big vampire by the neck and twisted his head away from the body.
"Ewww." Buffy scrunched her nose.
"Sorry I was too crude for your delicate sensibilities Slayer." He raised narrowed his eyes and cocked his head to one side. "Perhaps you'd prefer Wimpy William."
"The who.what? What the hell are you talking about Spike?"
"William, the twit back at the magic shop right now. My human self in all his tweedy glory."
"I knew who you were talking about. Why would I want to patrol with him? What the hell is wrong with you tonight? You're acting like, well I was going to say annoying, but you're always annoying so maybe there's no problem there."
"Annoying?" Changing the subject he added, "I didn't see you helping much with those vamps I just dusted. Just standing around and watching me." He leered at her, "like what you see?"
"Oh, gross Spike, I couldn't do much else but watch since 'Mr. Likes to Fight' basically killed them all single handed." She stopped and thought for a second, "not that I'm actually complaining about not having to fight." She was calming down again; she felt her mind returning to her gray calm. "Whatever, I just don't care Spike."
He looked into her eyes and she thought she saw fear in them. What was he so afraid of? "Sick of the fight already?" She wasn't exactly sure which fight he was referencing. Pacing around Spike continued, "It's just that the damn fool that I was, is hanging out with the Scoobies. I can't stand it!" He had that wild look about him again, like he wanted to kill something. She felt her body tense and she looked away. When she looked back he was leaning against a gravestone, his whole body slumped in defeat. "I hated myself then, and I hate myself now, just at the moment the self I hate is in the third person.
"He's such a git, I was such a git. I've tried so hard not to be him for so long. After I was turned I realized how I had wasted all 26 years of my life. I was damned certain that I wasn't going to waste my unlife in the same way. Seeing him here is like seeing all the things you hate about yourself right in front of you. He's so weak and.."
She cut him off because she didn't want to deal with a Spike-rant. "Well, yeah, he's kinda weak, but you said yourself he should just be getting over a long, bad cold or something. Everyone is weak after stuff like that. It's just been too long since you were sick." Why she was comforting Spike, she had no clue.
She continued, "William seems nice in a stuffy, British-y way. And it's not going to change anyone's opinion of you. Like Dawn, she already likes you and was protective of William and Xander hates you and pretty much ignores William. It all works out." She stopped for a moment, "I guess not that Xander ignoring William is of the good, but you know what I mean." She saw him smile weakly. It was so weird; they were having a conversation.
She smiled a little back at him. "Come on, if you're still in a fighty mood, I'll let you stake the next vamp we come across."
"I can think of better ways to burn off extra energy, Slayer."
"God, Spike! You are such a pig!"
William was scared and confused, but at least he had tea. He took the mug from the older gentleman. He still could not believe that all this was happening. Considering the long illness he was recovering from, he was convinced that this was a dream. A very elaborate dream about the future. He was disturbed by the apparent lack of dress and informality that people had here in the future, or in his hallucination. The men were not so appallingly dressed as the women. It was odd perhaps, and certainly eccentric, but it was still breeches and a shirt. But the women were also wearing breeches. He had heard about it, and seen it last Season in London with the Suffragettes, but this was obviously normal dress. It was all so tight and revealing. It made him feel a bit uncomfortable and he was amazed that the other men in the room did not seem to care that the women were wearing such revealing outfits. The only woman who was dressed near modestly was the cherubic blonde who touted herself a witch. William found her quite beautiful with the shy, soft features of a doe and hair like soft moonlight on the moor. Or what he imagined moonlight would look like on a moor since he had never actually seen one. He blinked away his thoughts. The illness must have shook loose a more vivid and queer imagination in him to imagine of such things.
"So, uh, William, what do you do?" The dark hair young man said. William believed that he had been called Xander earlier. Such a strange name. He felt ill and wanted to lie down, but he had been asked a question and was loath to prove that he was a vulgarian to his future/dream self's friends.
"Do? Do you mean what is my profession?
"Yeah that's what I said." Turning to Anya Xander said, "he's doing that thing, you know, that Giles does, with the words."
"It's called speaking honey," Anya said non-committally dusting some of the display shelves around her.
"My older brother has recently joined the family firm. My father and him are lawyers in Fenton and Son's, one of the largest law firms in England." He said proudly, "I am still in school, but had to leave last semester because of my illness. I should be able to return to Oxford this fall and complete my degree."
The older man, Giles, choked on the tea he was drinking spilling it down the front of his shirt. As he walked away to clean it off William was sure he heard the man muttering something like, "bloody Oxford! And he never lifts a finger to help with book research! I should just stake him now."
"Did I upset the gentleman, Mr. Giles, I believe?"
"The who? Giles? I can't believe that Spike is calling Giles a gentleman. I mean not that he isn't, but still this is Spike." Shaking his head Xander said, "today is even more Twilight Zone then normal for Sunnydale."
"I remember Rod Sterling. He was a pretty powerful warlock, and a great writer. That show was very popular with demons, those who had TV's at least."
"The Twilight Zone was written by a warlock?" Xander paused. "You know, it actually explains a lot."
The redheaded young lady glared at the couple, "don't pay any attention to them. You seem so different then the Spike that we know."
"I have noticed that he is much more brusque then his upbringing would recommend. Perhaps it's because he's a champion?"
"Wait a second, champion?" Xander said. "Did he tell you that he was a champion? Of what, vampires everywhere?" This caused even more confusion for William. Of what was the young man speaking?
"P-p-pardon?"
"Xander," the redhead whispered. "Let him think whatever he wants about Spike, we don't need to complicate things right now."
"But Willow, he told himself," Xander grimaced at the phrase, "that he was a champion, and I'm pretty sure that William thinks he spends the next hundred years of his existence as a pretty good guy and not a murderer."
William's eyes went wide with horror. "M-m-murderer?"
"Xander!" Willow turned her eyes towards Tara and silently pleaded for help. The other witch came to the rescue.
"William, uh, Spike is a sort of champion now, but he wasn't the best of, ah, people in the past. In fact, he's done some really horrible things. But now he's trying to be a better person. He helps us fight the bad guys." Willow glared at Xander before he could jump in and he sat back down.
"Yes," Anya spoke up. "People can do horrible things in their past, or your future, and be forgiven. Look at me, I maimed people with vengeance for over a thousand years and now I help the good guys fight demons like I used to be. Although, this is a lot more stressful then being a demon, and without the good benefits package, which is why I had to learn to invest so wisely." As if to reassure herself, she walked over to the register and began counting her money.
"But I'm good now?" William asked.
"Well, you are when it really counts, although you make some mistakes." Tara smiled. "You try very hard, especially for Buffy and Dawn."
A sudden warm smile broke on his lips, he understood why his dream/future self was attempting to reform. "I fight for the love of a lady?" It was horribly romantic and would make a wonderful epic poem if he remembered it when he awoke.
"Well I wouldn't say love so much as hate. Buffy hates Spike." Xander said.
"Xander, you're really not helping."
"What? It's true, Spike is obsessed with Buffy but she could care less about him."
The Scoobies gasped when they saw William eyes narrow in anguish. Why must they stare at him so? Couldn't they see he was upset? Dawn walked over to Willow, "that's weird, that's what Spike looks like when he's angry. I was kinda forgetting that he was Spike, or will be, or whatever. But that was too weird. Ugh."
"I second that ugh," Willow said.
"I third it," Xander continued. "But it would be creepier if he took a cigarette out of his coat and said something sarcastic."
Giles stepped out of the employee restroom oblivious to the conversation before hand. "William, do you know Latin and ancient Greek?"
"Of course, Sir, what type of education would I have if I could not? Basic fluency is required for entrance to Oxford."
"What modern languages do you know?" The older one sighed.
"Well besides English, I'm fluent in French and Italian."
Giles took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. "He's never raised a bloody hand to help us with translation!" He looked up at the young man. "Would you mind helping these young ladies," he pointed to Tara and Willow, "translate some spells that would help you get home?"
"I would be delighted to help. Considering how my other self is a champion, I will endeavor to lighten his burden and attempt to translate whatever I can."
"Wonderful," Giles commented dryly, letting the comment slide.
The phone rang and Giles picked it up. "Good Evening, Magic Box. How can I help you? Oh, yes, no he's fine. We'll take him to your house. I'm sure he'll be fine. Yes, yes." After he hung up he turned to the group. "That was Buffy, she said that we should take William to her house. He can spend the night on the couch in the living room. Apparently she had to talk Spike out of having William stay in his crypt."
Meanwhile, William was walking over the telephone, but before he could touch it he heard what Mr. Giles was saying. "Crypt?"
"That's just slang for a home, you know like crib." Dawn said quickly. William was confused, crib? But he dropped the subject.