Title: Return
Author: Ivytree
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: All characters belong to Joss Whedon, UPN, Mutant Enemy, etc.
Feedback: Please!
Summary: The Spike Show. An alternative ending for season 6. Souled-up (really souled-up) Spike and the Scoobies battle to keep the Hellmouth closed.
----------------------------------------------------
RETURN
Part 33. Fire and Night
Crimson flames roared up from the rift in the earth; thunder cracked and lightning sizzled. The vampire cultists simply abased themselves face down before the Hellmouth and allowed themselves to be staked. It was an eerie and somehow repulsive task, but Buffy and Xander dusted all but a few who lost their nerve and scrambled away towards the woods. Then they turned to see what was happening within the barrier.
Acrid smoke billowed out of the crack in the earth and from its midst rose three great black serpentine heads, each as long as a man was tall, with blazing, many-colored eyes and gaping jaws. They were as black inside as out, tooth, tongue, and craw glistening like obsidian.
"I knew there'd be monsters!" Buffy said, "Maybe we can distract them!"
"No!" panted Xander, leaning on his axe. "Buff, if we go in we can't come out - what if more critters show up out here?"
She knew he was right. They began to circle warily around the perimeter, alert for any further offensive from the streets or woods. It felt curiously familiar, like any normal patrol; but their nerves were taut, for much more was at risk. They heard another crash of thunder; the blue-white light of the spell and the red glow from the fissure were the only illumination. If any critter did approach, they wouldn't see or hear it until it was quite close.
Suddenly, without a sound, a slight figure streaked towards the boundary. Behind it barreled a light-colored pickup truck, right across the grass, and they could see Clem's frantic face behind the wheel. They hardly had a chance to react as Willow shot past them and threw herself at the translucent web.
"No - Willow, no!" Buffy yelled.
For a moment Willow faced them, and her eyes wide with what looked like terror - then she turned, forced her way in, and sprinted towards the other end where Spike and Giles stood.
Xander stood motionless a few feet away, staring.
"What's she doing? She can't come out again," he said hollowly.
Clem stumbled up to Buffy. "Believe me, Slayer, I couldn't stop her!" he said. "She just ran straight past me!"
Buffy remembered her dream, and her eyes blurred with tears.
"Damn!" Spike thought to himself. "Blast and confound the girl!" His mind was divided between maintaining the spell and keeping an eye out for trouble, and here it was. Willow struggled through the barrier, and ran towards him along the edge of the fissure, insanely oblivious to the looming hell-beasts. As she passed them, three great black heads swung around, obviously centering on her; Spike could see their eyes flash red and their jaws open. Now he could also see riders on the huge necks, small, wizened creatures, with scorched, blistered skin and little curved horns. They, too, spotted Willow; he saw them pointing and cackling. As she drew nearer he could see her mouth moving - bugger! She was calling his name. As he watched, powerless to stop it, locked in place by white magic, one of the great necks bent and the sooty-skinned rider reached down and seized her arms; as she screamed and struggled, the monster's head rose up again, lifting Willow with it. The fiend, or imp, or whatever it was, slung her kicking figure over the neck of the beast, and the head sank from view into the abyss.
Spike could hear a faint outcry from Buffy, Xander and Clem, but he stood paralyzed for one more helpless instant. Then the solution sprang to the front of his mind - a solution too appalling to carry out. "No," he whispered angrily. "No, you can't!" But there was no time, no other way; he was trapped. His face twisting bitterly, he subdued his emotions, gathered his concentration, and was briefly still. Then he stepped away from the linkage.
Struggling to keep focus, Giles saw Willow taken; he too remembered Buffy's dream. With deep alarm, he saw an expression of anger and despair cross Spike's face before he left his position. Then, for the second time in three days, Giles felt the hair at the nape of his neck begin to stir and ice run down his spine, despite the heat of the inferno - for standing in Spike's place was a ghost, like the one he had seen it the car on the way to Rack's. It was a different ghost; the faint, shimmering outline was of a small woman, and he could see her clearly enough to see that she was wearing trousers instead of a skirt or gown of any kind, but he couldn't make out her features. She held her arms out to channel the magic stream exactly as Spike had done, and the spell that restrained the opening to Hell continued unbroken.
Spike, meanwhile, dashed down the length of the barrier and lunged abruptly through the translucent wall, gripping Xander's arm and pulling him back inside. He half dragged, half-carried Xander's protesting form back to his former post and set him on his feet.
"Listen!" Spike said compellingly, as a dumbfounded Xander struggled to get his balance; "I'm going for Willow, and I'm putting you in my place -"
Xander couldn't quite grasp what he was supposed to do. "She's gone," he said, perplexed. "I can't - I don't know how -"
Spike's blue eyes pierced his. "Listen! You've used magic before; you can do this. Listen to Anya. Hear her voice. Come on, you can do it - just trust her, Monkey Boy!"
Xander felt a moment of panic; he remembered all that talk of incineration, even if no one else did. With a sudden push, before he could protest further, Spike thrust him into the place where he himself had stood, where the spectral woman now flickered. Xander shuddered as the ghost melted right into his body - but all at once he could hear Anya's voice in his head, clear and reassuring. He felt the pure stream of white magic flow through him, joining him to her and to Giles and Jonathan, and faintly to one other. His dread faded as the beauty of it filled him. He could see Anya, her lovely face confidant, her eyes holding his. 'Trust,' he heard her say, though her lips weren't moving, 'accept. Hold on. Open, not closed. Belief, not fear.' He drew a deep, shaky breath, and kept his gaze steadily on her, putting all his faith in her; Anya would not let him down. He knew it.
Grabbing the axe from Xander's unresisting hands, Spike spun and raced away towards the edge of the crack in the earth. Giles saw him assume his demon face, fiercer than he had ever beheld it, and an unfamiliar bluish light passed over his body - then he deliberately jumped over the edge, after Willow.
Outside the barrier, Buffy screamed.
TBC
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"Where no thing rests and no man is,
And only fire and night hold sway;
The beat, the thunder and the hiss
Cease not, and change not, night nor day.
And moving at unheard commands,
The abysses and vast fires between,
Flit figures that with clanking hands
Obey a hideous routine;
They are not flesh, they are not bone,
They see not with the human eye,
And from their iron lips is blown
A dreadful and monotonous cry;
And whoso of our mortal race
Should find that city unaware,
Lean Death would smite him face to face,
And blanch him with its venomed air:
Or caught by the terrific spell,
Each thread of memory snapt and cut,
His soul would shrivel and its shell
Go rattling like an empty nut."
Archibald Lampman, The City at the End of Things
Author: Ivytree
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: All characters belong to Joss Whedon, UPN, Mutant Enemy, etc.
Feedback: Please!
Summary: The Spike Show. An alternative ending for season 6. Souled-up (really souled-up) Spike and the Scoobies battle to keep the Hellmouth closed.
----------------------------------------------------
RETURN
Part 33. Fire and Night
Crimson flames roared up from the rift in the earth; thunder cracked and lightning sizzled. The vampire cultists simply abased themselves face down before the Hellmouth and allowed themselves to be staked. It was an eerie and somehow repulsive task, but Buffy and Xander dusted all but a few who lost their nerve and scrambled away towards the woods. Then they turned to see what was happening within the barrier.
Acrid smoke billowed out of the crack in the earth and from its midst rose three great black serpentine heads, each as long as a man was tall, with blazing, many-colored eyes and gaping jaws. They were as black inside as out, tooth, tongue, and craw glistening like obsidian.
"I knew there'd be monsters!" Buffy said, "Maybe we can distract them!"
"No!" panted Xander, leaning on his axe. "Buff, if we go in we can't come out - what if more critters show up out here?"
She knew he was right. They began to circle warily around the perimeter, alert for any further offensive from the streets or woods. It felt curiously familiar, like any normal patrol; but their nerves were taut, for much more was at risk. They heard another crash of thunder; the blue-white light of the spell and the red glow from the fissure were the only illumination. If any critter did approach, they wouldn't see or hear it until it was quite close.
Suddenly, without a sound, a slight figure streaked towards the boundary. Behind it barreled a light-colored pickup truck, right across the grass, and they could see Clem's frantic face behind the wheel. They hardly had a chance to react as Willow shot past them and threw herself at the translucent web.
"No - Willow, no!" Buffy yelled.
For a moment Willow faced them, and her eyes wide with what looked like terror - then she turned, forced her way in, and sprinted towards the other end where Spike and Giles stood.
Xander stood motionless a few feet away, staring.
"What's she doing? She can't come out again," he said hollowly.
Clem stumbled up to Buffy. "Believe me, Slayer, I couldn't stop her!" he said. "She just ran straight past me!"
Buffy remembered her dream, and her eyes blurred with tears.
"Damn!" Spike thought to himself. "Blast and confound the girl!" His mind was divided between maintaining the spell and keeping an eye out for trouble, and here it was. Willow struggled through the barrier, and ran towards him along the edge of the fissure, insanely oblivious to the looming hell-beasts. As she passed them, three great black heads swung around, obviously centering on her; Spike could see their eyes flash red and their jaws open. Now he could also see riders on the huge necks, small, wizened creatures, with scorched, blistered skin and little curved horns. They, too, spotted Willow; he saw them pointing and cackling. As she drew nearer he could see her mouth moving - bugger! She was calling his name. As he watched, powerless to stop it, locked in place by white magic, one of the great necks bent and the sooty-skinned rider reached down and seized her arms; as she screamed and struggled, the monster's head rose up again, lifting Willow with it. The fiend, or imp, or whatever it was, slung her kicking figure over the neck of the beast, and the head sank from view into the abyss.
Spike could hear a faint outcry from Buffy, Xander and Clem, but he stood paralyzed for one more helpless instant. Then the solution sprang to the front of his mind - a solution too appalling to carry out. "No," he whispered angrily. "No, you can't!" But there was no time, no other way; he was trapped. His face twisting bitterly, he subdued his emotions, gathered his concentration, and was briefly still. Then he stepped away from the linkage.
Struggling to keep focus, Giles saw Willow taken; he too remembered Buffy's dream. With deep alarm, he saw an expression of anger and despair cross Spike's face before he left his position. Then, for the second time in three days, Giles felt the hair at the nape of his neck begin to stir and ice run down his spine, despite the heat of the inferno - for standing in Spike's place was a ghost, like the one he had seen it the car on the way to Rack's. It was a different ghost; the faint, shimmering outline was of a small woman, and he could see her clearly enough to see that she was wearing trousers instead of a skirt or gown of any kind, but he couldn't make out her features. She held her arms out to channel the magic stream exactly as Spike had done, and the spell that restrained the opening to Hell continued unbroken.
Spike, meanwhile, dashed down the length of the barrier and lunged abruptly through the translucent wall, gripping Xander's arm and pulling him back inside. He half dragged, half-carried Xander's protesting form back to his former post and set him on his feet.
"Listen!" Spike said compellingly, as a dumbfounded Xander struggled to get his balance; "I'm going for Willow, and I'm putting you in my place -"
Xander couldn't quite grasp what he was supposed to do. "She's gone," he said, perplexed. "I can't - I don't know how -"
Spike's blue eyes pierced his. "Listen! You've used magic before; you can do this. Listen to Anya. Hear her voice. Come on, you can do it - just trust her, Monkey Boy!"
Xander felt a moment of panic; he remembered all that talk of incineration, even if no one else did. With a sudden push, before he could protest further, Spike thrust him into the place where he himself had stood, where the spectral woman now flickered. Xander shuddered as the ghost melted right into his body - but all at once he could hear Anya's voice in his head, clear and reassuring. He felt the pure stream of white magic flow through him, joining him to her and to Giles and Jonathan, and faintly to one other. His dread faded as the beauty of it filled him. He could see Anya, her lovely face confidant, her eyes holding his. 'Trust,' he heard her say, though her lips weren't moving, 'accept. Hold on. Open, not closed. Belief, not fear.' He drew a deep, shaky breath, and kept his gaze steadily on her, putting all his faith in her; Anya would not let him down. He knew it.
Grabbing the axe from Xander's unresisting hands, Spike spun and raced away towards the edge of the crack in the earth. Giles saw him assume his demon face, fiercer than he had ever beheld it, and an unfamiliar bluish light passed over his body - then he deliberately jumped over the edge, after Willow.
Outside the barrier, Buffy screamed.
TBC
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"Where no thing rests and no man is,
And only fire and night hold sway;
The beat, the thunder and the hiss
Cease not, and change not, night nor day.
And moving at unheard commands,
The abysses and vast fires between,
Flit figures that with clanking hands
Obey a hideous routine;
They are not flesh, they are not bone,
They see not with the human eye,
And from their iron lips is blown
A dreadful and monotonous cry;
And whoso of our mortal race
Should find that city unaware,
Lean Death would smite him face to face,
And blanch him with its venomed air:
Or caught by the terrific spell,
Each thread of memory snapt and cut,
His soul would shrivel and its shell
Go rattling like an empty nut."
Archibald Lampman, The City at the End of Things