Chapter Ten – Four Paths of Destiny

Spike watched the scene begin to pour out before his eyes. He no longer felt the weight of the crystal in his hands – thing was... it wasn't even there anymore. It was like it was drawing him into it – making him life this future that may unfold if he chooses. He knew that it was futile to fight against the pull, but he was loosing the will to keep struggling. The warrior within him was giving up and Spike knew that once that happened, he was lost.

It felt like being born again, but then a sense of foreboding struck. This future wasn't right... it was evil. Spike closed his eyes tight as he fell to uncertainty into some unknown era.

- Dark Era -

"My Lord, what are your wishes?"

"Kill them"

"My Lord?"

"You ask me what my wishes were and I told you. Have fun with the cattle"

He sent the minion off with a wave of his hand and swirled about to look out on to the world. He was a dark and imposing figure, clad in black and red with brilliant white hair that shown like the night stars. Power radiated off of him in waves and no one disobeyed. Once he had been just a simple man of simple means, then he had become a legendary dark warrior that was whipped into submission and made to be merely human. But now he was back again, the darkest creature with all the power – as it always should have been.

He stepped out into what had become the light of day and smiled. His world. The Underground worshipped him now for his defeat over the pitiful humans and the Sun. Yes, he had scorched the sun. He had taken away all the power the humans had to defend themselves and now they belonged to him and his kind.

Spike was the ruler of this world now. Vampires were the dominant species and the humans were their food source. He held everything in his grasp and even the demons could not go against his word or suffer for their insolence. Sure there were still the Slayers, but he had broken them all those years ago.

Faith, the Dark Slayer was now commander of the fleets, his childe and second in command – no one messed with her. She was Hell incarnate and made the best master of all those that walked beneath her, wither they be human or vampire or otherwise.

And then there was Buffy, the Light Slayer. She had escaped him just before he planed to turn her. But were did she have to run in a world like this? He had sired all of her human friends and now the followed him faithfully (well all except Xander Harris, whom Spike had personal whipped into submission as a house pet). Yes Buffy was a broken slayer – she had been broken since the moment she miscarried and her infant child died within her womb. It had only been some few remaining humans that had helped her survive and now she was nowhere near as powerful as she had once been.

With a pleasured sigh, Spike took in an unneeded deep breath of the carnage that raged out side. The skis were red and the air smelled like blood and burning flesh – only those worthy enough escaped the flames and joined the vampires in their love for the eternal night. There was a knock at his chamber doors and Spike strode forward to answer it.

As usual, it was Faith. Immaculately dressed in her tight fitting black and blood red leather armor, she looked like some Hell spawned goddess, out to wreck havoc on the world – and she was.

"Sire, the cattle are acting up. Word has gotten out that their Golden Haired Savior was coming for them"

"Buffy? Good God, do they really expect a washed up slayer to save them?" he laughed, concealing the bitterness so that his childe wouldn't sense weakness.

"They still have hope" the dark slayer hissed.

"And it has driven most of them insane"

Faith smiled.

"So, what should we do about her Sire?"

"Let her come"

"What!?"

"She'll be coming for me luv; like always. It seems to be her way. She'll come, she'll fight and she'll lose. That's what happens ever time – but this time she wont be getting away from me"

"You'll finally turn her then?" Faith asked, disgust crossing her face.

"If I can" he replied tartly to his favorite childe. "But if she is more then a pain, I'll be forced to kill her and then I'll be free forever of those wretched feelings that I still feel for her"

"She had you whipped Sire"

"I know... and for that I'll make her pay"

-------

Spike watched as the battle worn Buffy chopped though his guards. They were all pushovers anyway. She'd get a real fight soon. He crouched in a dark little hidey-hole, out of sight to anyone. From his spot Spike could see the equal murder and mayhem from both sides – but it didn't really matter; nothing had for so long.

Buffy dusted the last two guards and took to the stairs. She was like and archangel ready to give out the punishments of God on the wicked. His Slayer... the one that got away. She seemed to glide as she drew closer and once she was in range, Spike leapt out; tackling her full on.

"Hello luv. Did you miss me?"

"No" she snarled and threw his off her.

He knew her brave words were a lie. Buffy really had missed him. She missed her Spike, not the Spike that he had become.

"How caring of you" he smirked.

"You know I'm here to kill you"

She circled him like a predator and he did not make a move. He would let her come to him.

"Sure and like always I'll end up kick you ass"

"I'm more powerful then I once was Spike"

"Then let's dance and you can show me what you got"

She lunged at him, stake at the ready. She was faster, stronger and whiled more inner rage then ever before. But he was still faster. The stake only managed to glance across Spike right cheek; cutting a jagged bolt into his alabaster skin. He raised a hand and gingerly touched the wound, licking the blood that came off on his fingers. And he smiled.

"So much fury, but that was just a two-step pet – you have try harder then that"

Then they danced. It was blow for blow, an even match. Buffy seemed to come alive now with every ounce of her wanting to kill the demon that took her love away from her. They fought it out and neither planned to give in, but Buffy had slowly begun to weaken.

And she knew it.

"So luv, you ready to give up"

"Never"

He struck her cruelly in the side and she went to her knees. Spike knelt be side her, holding her so tightly to him that she would have no hope in escaping.

"Well now the great slayer will come to an end" he purred in her ear.

Buffy only just managed to whisper out the words that changed everything as he delivered the killing blow. Any normal person wouldn't have heard her, but with his vampiric senses, Spike knew the one thing that never seemed quite right. He had nearly killed Buffy before when he killed her child and know he knew.

"Let me be with our baby"

And he screamed as the pain finally set in.

Spike was wrenched out of that future with brutal force. The world was spinning and it was making him sick. He sobbed as the memories that were still fresh in his mind burned him remorselessly. He had killed Buffy and his own child – he had brought devastation upon the world.

Then he fell from the torrent and into another - into another world to suffer as never before.

- Silent Era -

The world was a barren wasteland. The cities were empty, the oceans dry and no life anywhere. Spike stared out at the world and it was silent – too silent. He shivered as he saw that it was all too much for him to bare. The silence was eating away at him.

Slowly Spike took to the empty streets of Sunnydale. This town had never seen anything like this before – this town was never quite. The people had vanished in the middle of everything, leaving newspapers to litter the ground and lave doors to stand open... it was as if everyone had just vanished all so a sudden in the middle of everything.

It didn't take him long to reach 1630 Rovello Drive. The door to the Summers' house was left slightly ajar and without needing an invitation, he stepped in. There was a full bowl of cereal at the table that didn't even look as if it had been sitting alone there very long. The rest of the house was a mess just like it would have normally been housing two hormonal young women. He went up the stairs and into Buffy's room. It was the same as always – the sent of slayer. He sat down on the edge of her bed and sighed. On her pillow a diary lay open with the pen off to the side.

The current entry was only partially written and that intrigued him to pick it up.

I couldn't find Spike that night. The boy he had been with told me that the powers he was dealing with were too strong and wouldn't let him go. But then everyone started to vanish. All over the world people were up and disappearing – I think that power was so strong that instead of just taking Spike, it decided it wanted to take the whole world too.

I write today in order to say goodbye. The world is empty now except Sunnydale – oh yes it would be the Hellmouth that would be the last swallowed up. Xander and Anya had disappeared – I know that they won't be coming back. So now all that's left of the Scoobies are Dawn and I, but I can feel the silence drawing closer and I have the feeling that now Dawn is gone too. I only wish that when I finally go too, that I'll have...

The last of the entry ended in a slight scribble from where her pen had dropped out of her hand in the middle of writing. So Buffy had vanished along with the whole world. He had caused a chain reaction that lead to the whole world being swallowed up.

Spike sat on Buffy's bed and wept. She was gone along with everything else. All he could do was weep.

It hadn't lasted all that long, but the pain was enough to last centuries. Buffy was gone and she would always be just out of his reach. Spike felt the pull of destiny as he was yanked yet again into another spiral and thrown off to meet yet another future in which he had to choose from...

- Powerless Era -

"Spike wake up, we have to go!"

He opened in tear burned eyes to see Buffy standing over him. She was battle scared and frightened – a combination that he had never seen on her before.

"Buffy... what's wrong luv?"

"No time to talk, just come on"

She hauled him to his feet and all his muscles groaned in protest. They ran down the street together, stumbling over torn up pavement and broken objects. Spike could feel his head swimming with pain, but he moved on for her. What was happening? Why was Sunnydale like this? And why was the Slayer scared?

"Luv... what's wrong? What happened here?" he asked as she paused to get her breath.

"You don't remember, do you?" she asked and turned her hazel eyes upon him. "You must have hit your head harder then I thought"

At her comment he reached up to feel that his head was bleeding.

"Buffy... please tell me"

He watched her pause as if in hesitation, and then in a slow, but still firm voice she began her tale.

"It happened two years ago. The Furies of the Underworld rose up to destroy the Powers that Be. The world has been in shambles since. Our baby... the Powers had made it possible... when they died... so did our baby" she was starting to ramble, tears pouring down her face. "Angel died first without their help and everyone with powers lost them. I haven't been able to do anything to help, but run ever since. I... I lost my powers too. I'm not the Slayer anymore"

He took her into his arms and held her tight, trying his best to sooth his near hysterical love.

"Hush now, its okay. Things like this happen, but we can't fall apart. It doesn't matter if you don't have the power anymore, you are still the Slayer. You were always meant to be the Slayer and there is nothing that can change that. You have the skills and the drive to fight down evil. Hell I even heard you fought off a vampire without your powers at eighteen. I love you Buffy and that's all that matters. You are strong and I know if you start to believe it again, we might just save the day one more time"

"You think so?"

"I know so, but I say we regroup. Do you know anyone that still resists...all this?"

He waved his hand out about the Sunnydale that was starting to fall into ruin. The sky was smoky black from all the fires burning around the town and the world he knew would be just as bad.

"Umm... there's still Giles, Xander and Dawn. They have rounded up most of the survivors of Sunnydale. Cordelia, Connor, Fred and Wesley survived out of Angel's friends and have allied themselves with us to find a safe haven. The geeks Jonathan and Andrew came back from Mexico to tell. Surprisingly since they were both cursed to carry dark powers, they still have theirs"

"You mean they help on their own free wills?" Spike laughed.

"Yes actually. When the world started to go to hell, they came back to help. Only Warren had been the only evil in their team, and those two just went along – so they weren't really evil. Jonathan has formed a force field around the university and that's were we have all be staying. Andrew has the ability to summon demons, so he gets them to come to places where they'll be powerless and with our numbers we can kill them easily"

"That's good... I think we should start running now"

Buffy looked over her shoulder in his direction to see that a horde of Mashilba demons were coming their way. She yanked Spike down a corner ally and they both made the mad dash for safety. It was about a half hour later by the time they reached the Sunnydale campus. Buffy was panting over time and Spike has a major stitch in his side. Together they passed through the wall of blue energy surrounding the campus and into Dawn Summers waiting arms.

The youngest Summers' girl looked rather the worse for ware. She wore disheveled and her once sleek hair was cropped short and ratty. Xander was also there, sporting scars all over his face. They stood there waiting for the last two of their team to return from the city.

They had sent Buffy out to relocate Spike, whom hadn't shown up the previous night after a mission into the outlying Sunnydale. And it wasn't like they had to force her either – they couldn't stop her was the problem. Dawn was shocked to see the bloody patch on one side of Spike's face and only hoped that he was all right.

"Whoa... nibblet is that you? Bloody hell you look like something the cat dragged in"

Buffy elbowed him sharply in the ribs and then winced when he cursed with pain because she had jarred a broken rib.

"Is he okay?" Dawn asked, completely unfazed by his comment and then she noticed the bloody patch pf hair on his head.

"No he isn't" Buffy sighed. "He's lost his memory of the last two years. I had to fill him in on everything as we went"

"So you mean..."

"Yes that's what I mean"

They all headed for the front doors of the campus and entered. There were frightened whispers coming everywhere from the survivors as they watched their leaders and protectors march down the hall towards headquarters.

In the university's main office, Andrew Wells sat with his back against one wall. From the look on his face, everyone could tell that the boy had strained himself in look out. It was a harder job these days as he was the only one that could do the job. Have way into the work he found that he was able to mentally project his mind out in the presences of demons and now there was always demons out there.

Buffy went and patted him on the shoulder and he looked up at her with weary eyes.

"So you got him back captain" he smiled as he looked over in Spike's direction.

"Get some sleep Andrew, your no use to use like this"

"T...thanks" he yawned as he just lay down on the floor. "Maybe... maybe I'll even dream about Star Wars"

Spike shock his head as Andrew passed out where he sat. It was like someone had simply turned his lights off. Just then Jonathan Levinson ran into the room panting and near hysterical.

"We have a breech on the frontlines! We need to stop them... there's so many"

"How many?" Spike demanded.

"At least forty"

"Oh damn" Xander cursed. "We'll never be able to stop that many"

Spike turned to look Xander in the eye and glared.

"I may have lost my memory and our best fighters may have lost their powers, but we have survived this long. You never had any powers Harris, but you survived years of knowing Buffy long before this ever happened. You don't need flashy powers to be a warrior and you have always known that"

Xander gaped openly at him and Dawn smiled with pride. This was the old Spike she was hearing – the old Spike they had lost after returning from Africa only a few years before.

"Now if we want to protect these people, then we'll have to fight the loosing battle. But what will matter is that we fought – that we didn't let fate tell us what to do... and we'll go out like the warriors that we are"

Without waiting for any answer, Spike turned on his heals and headed for the frontlines.

-------

There were already people out their fighting to protect their loved ones. So many were dying in order to live and the grounds were becoming stained with blood. Buffy and Spike hadn't seen a massacre like this is a long time. They looked out over the killing and inside - in the place that had once given them extraordinary powers; memories awaken.

Buffy remembered the thrill of what it was like to be the Slayer and Spike remembered the lust for battle that was the last leftover of his once vampiric nature. With Dawn and Xander ready to back them up, the two battle-hardened warriors went to meet their foes.

Old wounds were opened on this battlefield. They tore through their enemies as if they were paper and as if they still possessed their long gone powers. Everything was going good for the defenders until Spike was thrown from the campus and out into the hostile streets of Sunnydale. And it was there that he met the greatest enemies of all – the Furies.

"So this is one that paved our way into this world" the first smiled cruelly.

"Yes, the one that allowed us raise an army from the Hell on Earth" second purred.

"Ooh, but our evil hasn't burnt out the warrior in this one. He has tasted evil and it has grown bitter in his mouth. He will do everything in his power to stop us sisters" the third added as they moved forward to surround him.

"Bloody hell... and I thought Glory was bad" Spike muttered as he looked upon the three Furies.

They were hideous winged women with serpent hair that hissed its anger. It was as if he knew who they were at once. The first was Alecto, the unceasing in pursuit, the second was Tisiphone, the blood avenger and the third was Megaera, jealousy. He remembered from his schooling as a boy that Athena, goddess of Wisdom had given them a place on Olympus and so that just might work on Earth.

"Then stay, oh great ones. If I was the one let come, then stay as long as you want. I grant you stay here for as long as you want, even with all your evil and the knowledge that you caused the death of my child. Stay"

"What!" Alecto screamed. "NO!"

The battles came to an abrupt stop as the three Furies lost their own powers to whiled chaos and became just as legend said.

"No, no, no!" Megaera cried. "We come to wreck destruction, not to stay. Damn you... how did you know our secrets?"

Spike smiled. "I learned about you in my schooling – I always loved Greek myths"

"Then die!"

He turned just as Tisiphone ran him through. Her sisters gasped in horror. He had given permission to stay and there was nothing worse then going back. They had mortally wounded the only one that could keep them here and now they had to go back. Their screams filled the air and their armies disappeared.

Buffy ran out into the wreckage to Spike's side. He was fading fast and she looked so ready to sob her heart out for him.

"Don't... don't cry Buffy luv" he whispered. "I saved the world for you"

"Don't leave me" she cried holding his hand to her heart.

"Be brave for... for me. You have to be for everyone. Don't worry about me... I'll be alright. Just be my Slayer – one last time"

She held him close and with his dieing breath she felt the world come to life.

Spike gasped for breath as he came back into the world. He stood at the beginning holding that great big ruby in his hands, but now he was surrounded by many flickering light. Those that were closest had vaguely human appearances – the Vapiris. They were making the world stand still.

Hello William

We've been waiting for you

You seen so much...in no time at all

"Is it over?" he asked unsteadily, the after shock of death still busing inside of him.

Which future do you choose?

Life must go on

Destiny is at hand

Spike looked out at them and shook his head. "I don't choose any of them"

But you must choose

Fate has brought you here

Please choose

"There has to be another way. Until there is, I stay right here"

The Vapiris stared at their champion and smile. He was everything they had hopped for.

There is one other way

It would begin right here

...Do you want it?

"What is it?" Spike asked suspiciously.

A sacrifice

One life for every life

To end the pain

A better future

Your death for every life in this world

Spike just stood there staring now at the stone and not at the apparitions before him. Their words had cut deep and he could feel all of their emotions – he had become one with them and they need his help. In the end, he knew he only had one choice, so he chose the right one.

- Sacrificial Era -

The world slammed back into life and Spike was apart of the world again. The Vapiris had vanished and he was there to stand alone, left to do what had to be done. With a sigh and a deep breath, Spike lifted the stone high above his head and brought it down in incredible force as he let it go to smash against the floor.

The ruby shattered as all the live went out of it. The sound of distant singing filled the air as clouds of light swirled around to the room like a curtain of multicolored silk smoke. The Vapiris were free, along with every human that had been affected by their curse. It was all over.

Thank you

You have ended the curse

We are free

Thank you

We are sorry we cannot help you

Goodbye

Spike fell to his knee coughing as fits of agony hit him from every side. His cries of pain traveled throughout the tunnels, alerting everyone the dwelled within. Seconds later Roho was at his side and then Buffy was there too, holding him close and sobbing into his hair. His Slayer...his Slayer was here.

"Spike don't you dare leave us" she cried as she held him.

She needed him to be there for her and for their baby – he just couldn't die. But as he lay there in her arm, she knew he couldn't stay.

"I have to luv; it was the price of your freedom"

Dawn and Connor entered the cave to find Buffy with Spike and a young African boy of their age standing back, looking as though he wanted to cry, but couldn't. The atmosphere of the cave smelled of coming tragedy and the pain to come. Dawn couldn't bare to watch and buried her face in Connor's shoulder to cry.

"Please Spike... don't leave me" Buffy's tears rolled down her face and dropped silently down onto his face.

"I'm sorry luv, but I have to"

"No, no, no"

"I love you Buffy"

"Spike? Spike?" Buffy looked down at him, but the life had went out of his eyes and she let out a howl of grief.

He had died to protect her. In the end Spike had died for her.

Sorry about the long wait. It took me forever, but I finally got it done! I hope that all those little future tidbits didn't confuse you any – I tried to make the best out of how must info I could actually put into the chapter.

I know it been a long time since the last updated chapter, but I figure I should tell you all anyway. So what did you think? Tell me what you want to happen and I'll see if it'll work.

Back at the start of July, this story was nominated at the Spangfuffy site and I only just found out recently that it won too. Anyways, this chapter is also dedicated to Amandamanda3. Later!