Chapter 4: Oracle

-Hallway-

Valerie and Spike reach the door at the end of the hall; Valerie stops and turns to face Spike, she hands him the contract that he had signed in blood minuets earlier. It was at this point that Spike realizes that Valerie didn't intend to go through the door with him.

Valerie: "You have to go in alone, I'm not allowed… when you get to the other side you will see the Oracle, she is a direct link to the powers that be, give her your contract and she will tell you what your goal is, then you tell her where and when you want to be sent back to, choose a large event, something that would be considered time altering; it's those events that usually are the ones that allow you to complete your goal… if you have any questions feel free to ask her."

Spike just nods before turning the door knob and walking into the room. Brilliant white light blinded him and clouded his senses for a moment. He turns around to look behind him to find that the door that he had walked through was missing, all the surrounded him was an abyss of white nothingness. There was no structure, no walls no ceiling, no floor to stand upon yet he stood as if there was.

Spike: "They've really got a thing for the blinding oblivion look up here don't they?"

Voice: "Here there is no form, all creations are energy, the form which you see at the sorting station is merely an illusion, a comfort zone."

Spike whirled around to face the voice, his coat tails flapping at his legs as he turns. Before him there was what Spike assumed to be the Oracle, he had never seen one before; if he had he would sure have remembered. The vision before him was pure beauty. She wore a long white robe that tied with gold rope around the waste. Her arms were bare and glittered as did the rest of her skin in a shade of gold, and not a tanned type of gold either, her skin looked as if she had been made from the purest form of shiny, greedy, liquid gold. Her lips were blue, though an odd sight to see, they only enhanced her beauty. Her hair was long and a shiny blond gold color, it glistened and glittered with a few small streaks of blue within it to match her lips; but the most magnificent thing about her was her eyes. They were blue, but they weren't just blue, they were the most amazing shade of blue ever imaginable, they looked as if they were so deep that you could fall into them and simply get lost with the lack of intention to try and get out.

Oracle: "I am the Oracle, what is it that you wish to ask me lower being?"

Spike: "I've come because of this event amend thing…but, you seem like a smart lady and

I have a few questions first."

Oracle: "I am the oracle; I see all that has been and all that shall be."

Spike: "Right then… If I do this, and I fail, then what happens?"

Oracle: "You have three chances to complete the goal which I will set for you, each time you fail you are brought back here for another chance, should you fail all chances, or should you succeed what comes next I do not know, I can only give you choices."

Spike: "But you just said that you know all that happens, can't you just see into the future and see what happens to me?"

Oracle: "I cannot see choice, only options, there are different roads that you could follow what you choose I cannot know."

Spike just nods and takes a deep breath. It was all up to him now. He looks down at the signature on the contract in his hand, he knew that he had to do this, he'd never give up fighting, he had to try and redeem himself, what else was there to do. He handed his contract to the oracle; she looks at it then her eyes frost over and she gets an expression on her face as if she was seeing something that was mystical, something that not many had the chance of seeing.

Oracle: "You have loved and lost."

It wasn't a question, it was a statement and Spike just listened intently waiting for her to say more.

Oracle: "But can you love with loss, can you give up what you love for the greater good, to save the world, to save your self, or are you owned by your love so much that you would do anything for it, for her?"

Spike: "I don't understand, do you want me to give up what I love, or hold on to it."

Spike looked on hoping for a response, but the Oracle just went on with what she was saying as if Spike wasn't even there.

Oracle: "Your goal is to stop what should not have been done, let it come about the way that it should have. To be pulled from heaven and set back in the world before one is ready to be let back in is not the right thing to do, prevent this William and you shall be proven to have true love."

Spike: "Buffy."

Oracle: "Yes, she is the one who was pulled back too soon… and yet so close to when she would arrive again."

Spike: "I have to stop her from being brought back?"

Oracle: "The witch's spell disrupted the time line like a ripple in a pond after a stone is dropped the future was altered, your goal is to change this outcome, do you understand?"

Spike: "yes."

Oracle: "Then where do you choose to be sent back to?"

Logically Spike knew where he should go back to stop that event, but it would mean preventing everything that had happened between them, he couldn't get over the idea of taking away the few moments he had had with her. Besides Spike had no real intention of completing his goal, he wanted to go back, and he would prevent something, but it wasn't a life being brought back, it was a death, and it wasn't hers, it was his own. If he never died then he would never have ended up in this place in the first place. So in Spike's mind the easy way out was to stop his death, that would fix everything.

Spike: "Send me back to just before we went to fight the first evil."

Oracle: "Is that your decision?"

Spike: "Yes."

The next thing that Spike knew was that he felt like he was falling, no not falling, being sucked, pulled out of where he was. The room went blank as if it blew up in a cloud of smoke, his vision was hazy and his senses blurry, then everything felt heavy and dark, Spike opens his eyes and stands in the entrance of the school. It had just been built and yet Spike could see the damage that the Hellmouth had already inflicted upon it. Wood was talking to the potentials about not running in the halls and everyone looked scared, he saw her. Buffy was walking further into the school just up ahead of him and Spike grinned realizing that this could actually work.

AN: Action is coming your way in the next chapter! Thanks to all my reviewers: Fin Mac Cool, and funkydevil206... also to answer a question about the change in tense, no that wasn't on purpose, just one of those mistakes I tend not to catch. I try and write in present tense, but when I have a fic that I take alot of breaks when writing I have a tendency to switch back and forth each time I pick it back up. Sory if it gets really annoying, I'll try and look over it more to keep it in the same tense.