Title: The shell without Humanity

Rating:PG-13

Disclaimer:Not smart enough, or enough money so it ain't mine. DAMN YOU WHEDON!

Summary: AU on Grave. During, not after so it's more original than most.

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He moved in the darkness of the crypt without eyes.

He needed none.

Everything had been prepared as instructed. The combination was set and ready to unlock it.

He often wondered why he even did anything anymore, there was nothing inside him, he was empty, and in the abyss lied the darkness that kept him among the living so to speak.

He slowly walked around his creation. If he was truly evil, he would admire the beauty of the whole terrible display. Twelve beings of immense dark power, dead but still containing the necessary magic to fuel the lock. And the little extra icing on the cake, the innocent girl. The one who might not survive.

If he was truly good he would cringe away from this place, feeling the room soaked in dark magic, such evil and power like none other. But at the same time he would be concerned and fear for the girl. The same girl giving him the most angered, hurt and evil glare he had ever seen while tears ran down her cheeks.

But he was nothing, just a shell, felt nothing except for the few wisps of emotion left behind. The one thing he did feel for was the perfection of the whole play. The way things would come from completely different directions to lock onto one moment.

As he walked he could feel the first tumbler lock into place, the stars, planets, and earth were moving into position. Deciding to prepare himself, he cut his hand and began to paint the appropriate symbols and designs on his body with his black blood.

He focused on how the oil would slide onto his skin, then sizzle and dry. He wondered when his body had no longer became a consumer, drawing from the dark magic, to becoming the dark magic, his blood incarnate of what laid within him.

Something in him stirred, curiosity, he hadn't really thought of it, but he found it so strange that the demon had fought this, fought such power. He of course could no longer understand it because there was nothing that could explain it, no emotion to work off of.

As he painted on the thick tar, which he called his blood, his mind began to wander toward the possibilities. Depending on how things went he could die, sent forever into the peaceful oblivion, or slaughter them all and rule this bright planet. Which did he want?

Not even the "powers that be" could know.

But it could go either way. The spell had been created in the dark place of pain and tears, a combination to a lock placed at the beginning of time. But the vampire had been bold in his last few hours of stained sanity and added something to it.

His ears caught the sound of her crying again, muttering the slayer's name. He found no pleasure in it but chuckled all the same. In a way this all is the cause of the short blonde.

His chuckling stopped when he felt that it was time to lock in the second tumbler. Walking smoothly and without haste he moved into the center circle. Kneeling, he put both hands on the symbols at his sides that allowed him to power the great machine he had created.

He then began to hum. The sound in his throat sounded like a thousand soft words spoke in a thousand different languages, all coming together into a low hum that vibrated the whole room. He could feel the power stretching, using the burn markings as conduits in which to ride. He couldn't see it, but he knew the markings on the floor were glowing and pulsing away from him along the spiral, slowly stretching out to each of the circles surrounding the sources, including Dawn. The second tumbler was locked into place.

In the background he could hear and smell the girls growing panic. He almost chuckled again, that sound would have once brought the vampire to his knees, now he didn't care if she lived or died. The hum got more and more intense, going from soft words to shouting chants. Now the flow was reversed. The symbols on the foreheads of the sources began to glow as the power was being drawn from them. It was then he heard the girl scream.

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They had been cautious when entering the crypt. Watchful for any demon ambushes or booby-traps.

It felt like the whole place was vibrating, making the hairs on the back of everyone's neck stand on end. Willow was visibly shaking, the darkness surrounded this place, and a part of her felt the draw towards it, while the majority cringed.

The cautiousness was thrown out the window as Buffy dashed forward into the lower level after hearing Dawn scream. Giles yelled after her but nothing was stopping her. Seeing this they all went into a sprint. When they all got down there the sight before them was something almost beautiful but terrifying at the same time.

The room glowed a bright fire like color, and a single pulse, some brighter than others, moved from each of the dead bodies, riding the lines stemming from each circle toward the spiral. Everyone except for Buffy was taken aback by Spikes appearance. You could see the tears shine in Willows eyes.

"DAWN!"

They were all shaken out of their own thoughts when they heard Buffy yell. What they saw left them wide eyed. Bright light, green light, looked like cream in the air, was coming out of Dawn's mouth and eyes, sliding along the markings to stop in a circle of writing along the line stemming from her circle. Once all the light stopped sliding out of her, Dawn went limp, eyes eerily open, staring at nothing.

That shot a jolt through everyone who immediately ran to her. Buffy quickly broke the chains holding her baby sister and cradled her body while Giles took her pulse.

Buffy's eyes clouded over with tears and looked at Giles imploringly. When He took his fingers away tears fell down the watcher's face.

"I'm sorry Buffy."

She just stared at him for what seemed like hours, but slowy her face crumpled, she began to sob into her little sisters shoulder, rocking her dead body gently.

Everyone around the two were crying, except for the Willow. She herself was staring at was happening all around them. The pulses were moving along the spiral joining together, getting brighter as they moved closer to the center. When the pulse was almost halfway there, the whitish green light holding in the second circle began to move along the spiral.

Seeing this Willow knew it was almost time. Pushing past the group she kneeled in front of the weeping slayer.

"Buffy, listen to me, I can bring her back..."

Giles was the first to object.

"No Willow, not again..."

She ignored him and continued trying to get the crying slayers attention.

"Her soul is in the spiral Buffy, mixed in with all the key energy,"

That caught her attention. With teary eyes she looked at the light make it's way past the halfway point. They all looked in the direction. The fiery pulse reached the center circle. When it entered the circle All the surface veins in his body blackened, and the symbols on his body burned brightly. As quickly as it had entered his body with such violence it left , running along the line behind him up the wall and into the spiral around the pentagram. Willow, seeing she was running out of time, continued.

"We can't stop him now, It's gone too far, but if we do this, we have to draw it back through the spiral before it reaches him. "

Buffy looked a bit lost, looking at each of the people around her before settling her eyes on the strained form in the center of it all. With that her face hardened and she tersely nodded.

Willow gently took Dawns limp form from her sisters arms and laid her down length wise on top of the line leading to the spiral. Soon they were all sitting around the body holding hands with Willow facing the pentagram mural.

She began chanting using the love and energy in the circle to separate the key energy from the soul. Willow could see part of the light reverse it's direction and without warning shot through the spiral into Dawn. Her body arched as her open eyes glowed in a way Buffy knew all too well.

"Buffy?"

Dawn immediately sat up and hugged her sister with a force that would break a normal persons ribs. They were crying now, all of them, but this time it wasn't because of grief.

Of course Anya was the person to break the touching moment.

"Umm guys, not to totally ruin the moment but Spike's still trying to unleash a big evil."

Everyone's attention went from the vengeance demon to the vampire.

The pulse had made it to the Pentagram.

The earth had started to shake, and for the first time they noticed that the humming noise had gotten painfully loud. The White energy moving toward him was almost there when the Pentagram opened to show a deep blackness behind it. For a moment nothing happened, like calm before the storm. Suddenly a huge demon spewed forth.

It had two long horns, red eyes and it's lower half was vapor, in fact the whole body was translucent and glowed with power. Willow jumped back, her body starting to shake hard because of the darkness and evil it filled the room with.

At the same time both the key energy and the demon, were sucked into his body. They all cringed when he let out a long and gut wrenching scream. Everything seemed to explode, wind from nowhere blew hard like a storm blowing out the candles. The ground shook so hard that it cracked in many place. Such was the violence that caused them to huddled together to protect against the raging magic.

But something odd happened, Spike seemed to calm as if nothing was happening. He looked at Buffy and Dawn, like the old Spike used to. Everything seemed to fall away, the wind and shaking earth weren't there. A moment of understanding and focuse dawned on the two, this is how it was planned, how it was supposed to happen. The evil was being destroyed by the ancient key energy.

In the end Spike had protected them. Even after his death.

He smiled.

The smile was so simple, soft and kind that it made Dawn's eyes well up with new tears. The shaking started to worsen when the lines burned into his body began to glow, flickering from fire to green light, growing brighter and brighter until they had to cover their eyes, crowding together to offer some sort of protection.

Then it all stopped.

The wind disappeared, and the ground calmed. When they all opened their eyes the room was almost completely dark, the only light came from the few candles that had survived the storm. From the little light they saw the room was empty, the murals had been scarred and scratched beyond recognition, all that was left was a little ash in the center of the room.

Dazed they collected themselves and got back up. Dawn and Buffy clutching each other slowly walked toward the center to where the ash laid.

It was weird, all that was left of him was ash. Didn't seem fitting. For someone who entered their lives in darkness, and left them in the light, just seemed to be a mocking tribute to him.

Nothing remained of him, just ashes.

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A/N: AHA! THE LAST CHAPTER! It's finished, finito, finis, fin. You get the idea. I think I rushed it a bit, but it's hard to find a good ending at the right pace.

Tell me what you think, about the story, about the characters, about the ending. for the love of god Please!

If you have too much to write for a simple review, e-mail me. igore_12584@yahoo.com

I would like to thank those people who did review and were supportive. for those who weren't supportive, kiss my lilly white @#$ you @#$%*es. (damn ff.net censors)

If you would like me to write an epilogue you will either have to review, or e-mail me what you would like in it.