A/N: Thanks for all the support.
Buffy snorted "You really expect me to believe you're gonna let me live?"
"Sure. You'll live. Of course, we'll lock you and your chosen lover boy away someplace you won't ever escape but you'll be alive," Evil Buffy smiled "We're not completely heartless"
The Slayer rolled her eyes "More likely is you don't want to kill me because another Slayer will be called"
"Well, yeah. There are enough of your filthy lot already" Evil Spike spat on the ground "Bloody bitches, stalking around in the night and killing us. Think your so high and mighty, makes me sick it does. There are hundreds of you...we don't need one more"
Buffy took a breath "You really think that the other Slayers, my friends, aren't gonna come looking for you and kill you?"
"How can they? Only you could hurt me, Slayer," The female demon said "And you'll be in captivity"
"And only he could hurt me," Evil Spike looked at Spike and snorted "And that isn't likely, is it?"
Buffy looked at Angel, looked into his warm brown eyes and he nodded slightly at her, told her to make the decision and not to worry if she didn't choose him. All in that one glance he sent out his message to her – that he loved her, he trusted her and whatever choice she made would be the right one.
Buffy turned to look at Spike, his beautiful blue eyes looked back at her and he gave her a devil-may-care grin followed by a wink. He too, would not influence her decision, he too wanted her choice to be hers alone and he certainly wasn't going to beg for his life.
It was too damn hard because they were both so diplomatic about it she would have given anything for one of them to beg her to let them live but it just wasn't their style. Buffy frowned and she scratched that thought because she would not have done anything for one of them to beg her she would have done anything for all three of them not to be in this situation, for them to be reclining on some beach chairs on the sunny coasts of the Caribbean – they of course wouldn't be vampires, just normal guys. She could see it now, Angel with a straw hat on, Spike sipping a coconut drink with a wreath of flowers around his neck. Both would be wearing Hawaiian shirts and shorts with sunglasses perched on their noses, she would be sitting in-between looking killer in her bikini and sarong. But she was really getting off track now.
"Please," Buffy pleaded with the two demons "Don't do this"
"Oh, we're not gonna do this," Evil Spike grinned.
Evil Buffy smiled "You are. You have to choose Slayer. Who's it gonna be? Angel or Spike?"
The demon woman walked around Angel and laid her hand on his chest, brushing her hand all the way across him as she carried on walking toward Spike who she also then placed her hand on his chest and caressed him. She stopped to stand by Spike tied to the stake and then she looked at her Spike, Evil Spike, and she smiled a wicked lusting smile. She leaned into Evil Spike and whispered something in his ear – he looked up at Spike tied to the stake and raised an eyebrow, smirked.
"Tell you what, Buff," Evil Buffy folded her arms over her chest "We'll let the guys both give you some parting words, huh? That should be fun, right?"
The crowd began to scream with excitement again.
Evil Spike marched over to Angel and gave him a very nasty look "You first, pretty boy"
Angel gave him a very similar look and said nothing so the demon pressed the cattle prod into his chest and fired a couple of hundred volts into him making him shake and buck until Buffy cried out his name because she thought he might burn from the inside out.
"Angel, please," Buffy said, whatever will buy us a few more minutes she added silently but he nodded slowly, he got it.
The vampire with a soul cleared his throat, took a few moments "Buffy...I...I'm not really sure what to say, I've never had to talk to save my life before. I've killed, I've fought and I've battled to save my life and the lives of those around me but when it comes down to words I'm not the champion. So, I'll just say it as best I can. I love you. I'll always love you. There will never be any girl who comes half as close to owning my heart the way you do, even when I...went bad, turned evil I still had the memory of how much I had loved you and it was so strong that it made me want to wash away all thoughts of humanity from my mind. But I couldn't. You're always here, with me...in my heart and in my head every second, even when we're apart. I'm not gonna ask you to choose me just because these demons wanna play their little mind games but just know this...I believe in you and whatever you do, I get it. I understand you wholly. Make the choice or don't...get us all outta this alive or get us all killed, I'll take your side every time, Buffy"
The Slayer's eyes were all for him then. She blocked out the crowd, the demons, everyone until it was just her and Angel. She looked into those eyes of his and knew that every word he had just spoken was absolutely true – that he would be in this with her, and everything and anything else until the end. He would follow her into the depths of hell if she wanted.
"Well," Evil Spike snorted and walked over to the other vampire on the stake "That's gonna be a hard one to top. You can see all the tears glistening in the sweet little Slayer's eyes, what have you got to say, mate?"
Spike kept his eyes on Buffy but spoke to the demon "I am not your mate, mate. So back off, yeah? This is a private thing"
"Sure," Evil Spike nodded and then chuckled "It'll be just between you and her...and about nine hundred other people"
"Spike" Buffy looked deeply into those azure eyes.
"Buffy, luv," He nodded "We both know I'm not one to bow out of a fight. I love a good brawl, love it when things boil down to just fist and fang...but this, this is not my thing. I know when I'm beat. So, let's be perfectly honest with each other for once, luv. You love Angel. You do not love me. I've been wracking my brains to come up with something deep and meaningful...a decent epitaph, right? But I've never been an academic, a man of words...the pen is mightier then the sword, well, that never applied to me. I prefer a good sword. We've got history, you and me – it's a sordid history but a history nevertheless. You and Angel...you got this eternal love deal all the bloody seconds of all the bloody days, I see it, even if I didn't already know it. I see the way you look at each other...I'd kill for anyone to have ever looked at me in that way just for a split second. Especially if that someone had been you.
I've already died twice, Buffy, what's one more between Slayer and vampire? I love you, you know it but it doesn't matter...'cos not much does nowadays. Tell you the truth, pet? I always dreamed of having a girl like you. You, me, riding down the gold coast, wind in our hair...you know the deal. Of course, you would probably by driving the bloody bike knowing you" Spike chuckled "But I'd take it anyway I could get. You deserve better than me, you deserve someone who you can trust, who you can give yourself to completely. I'd like to think that was me. But it's not. And it never will be. So, decisions, decisions, pet. When it comes down to it, it's always you who has to make the decision because you're her, the Slayer and still the one and only to me. Thankyou, Buffy Summers, for lettin' me be in your life for a little while"
The Slayer looked at him with unwavering attention and she felt the warm droplets of liquid running down her cheeks before she consciously realized that she was crying. It wasn't wracking sobs, that would come later, but they were trailing silently down her face. She tried to understand what he had just said but it sounded so unlike the Spike she knew. He was worn away; the loss of his limb...the night in her arms had taken something out of him. He was a shell of the man he had once been.
She watched as his lips silently formed the words 'do it'.
"I hate to break up the moment, guys," Evil Buffy spoke suddenly in the complete silence of the stadium and turned to look at the kneeling Slayer "Choose"
"They'll come for me," Buffy said, lips trembling, eyes still on Spike "My friends will come for me and then you'll all burn"
Evil Spike chuckled "Doubtful. See we sent them a few of our other reinforcements. They'll be occupied for a while yet. Long enough time for us to be long gone"
Buffy turned to the crown, desperate "Help me!"
None of them responded, just cheered like it was some goddamn game.
"They're enchanted," Evil Buffy informed her cupping her hand to her mouth as though it was a secret not to be shared.
Out of the corner of her eyes Buffy saw a flicker of light and turned towards it. Evil Spike strolled across the stadium to meet up with someone who from that distance Buffy could see looked like Willow who handed him a torch. They had copied Giles, Xander and Willow again and god knows whom they had sent to the Slayer Sanctuary to keep the gang away. Willow stood slightly to the side of the two stakes a few feet away and started doing a strange little jig with her foot. It caught Buffy's attention and she frowned, the demon Willow looked her in the eyes and Buffy suddenly felt lightheaded.
"Buffy,"The Slayer shook her head; there was something wrong with her...a headache.
"Buffy, it's me, it's Willow," The Slayer turned to face the redhead and narrowed her eyes at the voice in her head "It's really me, I swear. I'll prove it to you. Remember that time, in high school when you told me you had that dream about Snyder, the one where a loincloth and ringing bells were heavily involved..."
Buffy had never been so relieved to see her friend ever and she let out a sigh.
"Okay, Willow, I believe you" Buffy answered back in her mind, a blush creeping over her face "How did you get in here?"
"I'll explain later. Buffy, we need to act now. Angel and Spike..." The expression on the Wicca's face was pained.
Buffy gave one swift nod "I can't do anything about the two demons holding me"
"Ah ha! That's where you're wrong, we finally got the spell to reverse their spell" Willow smiled.
"Well, use it!" Buffy pleaded keeping one eye on Evil Spike and he waved the torch around showing it to the crowd.
Willow looked a little worried "It will reveal me to them. They'll know I'm not one of them. Then you'll only have seconds to act..."
"Do it!" Buffy gave her friend and look, a thanks and then turned back to look at Angel and Spike struggling against their constraints as Evil Spike menacingly waved the torch before their faces.
"Who do you pick to die, Buffy?" Evil Buffy asked and took the torch from her lover she dipped it too close to Angel's pyre "This one?"
"No!" Buffy screamed.
"Then, this one" Evil Buffy flipped the torch over.
Before Buffy could scream out again the demon lit the pyre beneath Spike's feet and the flames whooshed to life. Spike scrambled against his binding and Buffy struggled so hard against Evil Giles and Evil Xander she thought she would break her arms. In her peripheral hearing she heard Willow saying the spell and the demons attention turned to her. Buffy felt the magic around the demons weaken and then disappear as Evil Buffy and Evil Spike surrounded Willow. Buffy shot both of her elbows backward one catching Evil Giles in the knee and the other catching Evil Xander in the opposite knee. They both screamed and fell to the floor on their damaged knees. They held onto her arms though and as Buffy pulled and scratched and kicked to get away from them the one sight that filled her eyes was that of the fear in Spike's eyes; his fear of being burned alive. The pyre at his feet got a breeze of air and the flames caught on his pant leg, he kicked and struggled even harder with his bindings. She heard a snap and saw Angel's bindings weaken and give and he was almost free.
"Angel!" Buffy yelled as Evil Giles and Evil Xander pulled her roughly down onto her back on the floor "Help Spike!" She managed to scream before the two demons clambered on top of her and began to beat the crap out of her.
But she could fight back now and she did.
She drove the heel of her hand up hard against the demon Giles' nose, so hard that his nose bone splinted and sliced upward into his brain. His eyes bulged and she kicked him away as he began to fall forward. He fell in a crumpled and bloody heap next to her. Evil Xander punched her twice in the face but she had had enough of his crap so she brought her knee up really hard in-between his legs and he gagged and grabbed at himself letting out an inhuman shriek. Buffy punched him in the face then reached up and grabbed his head, twisted until she heard the pop of his neck as it broke.
His heavy body fell on top of her and she lost precious seconds shoving him off and jumping to her feet. Willow was using her magick to break the bindings around Spike as the fire trailed up his leg and sweat beaded his forehead, he closed his eyes and screamed. Buffy started to run to help him until she saw Angel fighting both her evil double and Evil Spike. He was still weak from the cattle prods and being tied up and they were wailing on him pretty badly. Buffy looked back from Angel and Spike and she ran to help Angel.
She grabbed Evil Spike around the back of his neck and threw him to the floor. He looked up at her and grinned, licking his lips sexually. She lifted her boot and stamped down on his face, he let out a groan but when she tried to do it again he caught her foot and twisted her foot painfully. Buffy fell to the floor and he crawled on top of her shoving her head into the ground with both of his hands and pinning her at the waist with his muscular hips. He slammed her head into the ground twice and she could look up enough just to see Willow pulling Spike away from the burning stake, she let out a sigh of relief. As Willow started magically dousing the fires on Spike, Buffy drove her elbow back into Evil Spike's jaw and he fell limply on her. She threw him off and rolled onto him straddling him.
"Fun while it lasted" He sighed.
Buffy killed him.
The crowd's screams droned out everything.
She stood and events seemed to slow down just enough so that Buffy could watch but not stop it. She saw Willow putting out the last of the fires on Spike and him turning to her, a grateful look in his eyes. Angel lay on the floor unconscious and Buffy saw her demon counterpart come up behind Willow with the wooden pointy end of the scythe a fraction of a second before Spike did. Buffy called out Willow's name and started towards her in what seemed like slow motion.
Spike grabbed Willow's arm "Red, move!" He shoved her to the side so hard that she fell to the floor.
Evil Buffy continued her forward momentum and the stake lodged itself deep into the chest of the vampire Buffy loved.
Buffy ground to a stop less than a meter away from Spike "No..." She whispered
His eyes bulged and he looked down at his chest then back up at Buffy, he took a shuddering breath and a stumbling step toward her. He pitched forward and Buffy caught him in her arms, the weight of him made her sink down to her knees with him. She felt his lips against her neck, a whisper in her ear and then he turned to dust. Buffy closed her eyes and felt the dust shower over her, coating her skin.
She took a long deep breath and balled her hands together in fists, handfuls of the dust in her palms.
There was a slight sound behind her, she heard Willow cry out her name.
Buffy whirled around lightening fast and threw the dust, Spike, into the eyes of her demon double.
Evil Buffy stumbled backward arm holding the scythe outwards away as she rubbed at her eyes. Buffy stood and took the scythe from the demon. Whirling around in an arc with the grace of a ballerina Buffy decapitated the bitch.
Then the Slayer sunk back down on her knees with the unconscious form of Angel to her right; Willow crouched down next to her on her left and the crowd's stunned and horrified faces in front of her. Buffy closed her eyes and felt Willow's arm slide across her shoulders. She heard her friend talking but it didn't register.
Spike's last whisper floated through her mind "Made the right choice, luv"
She hadn't made a choice. She hadn't made a choice. She had never told them that she wanted Angel to live over Spike. It had been an accident. Hadn't it?
A/N: Um...please don't hate me? It'll be worth it if you keep reading, Scout's honour!