Chapter 9: One Last Chance

-Summer's house-

Spike opens his eyes, the feeling of vertigo fading and he realizes that he is sitting, slumped on the Summer's couch. It's dark outside, and the living room has a warm glow to it being lit by the lamps on the side tables, Dawn walks in talking about school, she's wearing her pajamas, plaid sweat pants and a long sleeve shirt with the number 07 on it, Spike's leather jacket is hanging on the hook and his hair is frazzled. Dawn sits down next to him and he lookes at her, she has a look on her face as if expecting him to say something, respond to her statement, however Spike hadn't been paying attention this time around. The thought entered his mind that he had to get to the graveyard, they would be starting the ritual soon and he couldn't be late. Spike startles Dawn as he jumps up from the couch and walks over by the door to put his coat on.

Dawn: "Spike, what's wrong?"

Spike: "Come on platelet, we've gotta go."

Dawn gets up from the couch and looks at Spike questioningly, Spike looks her up and down and realizes that she's going to be cold in what she's wearing. He really wanted to just leave her at home, however he knew that soon a biker demon gang would be tearing through Sunnydayle and he had to keep her safe.

Spike: "Go change, put something warmer on, we've got to get to the cemetery."

Dawn: "What? Why? Spike, what's going on?"

Spike: "No time to explain, quick now go change, or it's gonna be too late."

Dawn takes another second to try and read Spike's expression and then turns and runs up the stairs. Spike waits for her fidgeting with his cigarettes and lighter, finally deciding not to smoke and just puts them back in his pocket. He looks around the room, it had been a while since he had been there, it felt odd almost to be there. It seemed so quiet, there weren't any potentials busying about or demons bursting in, just calm. Dawn walked back down the stairs; she was wearing black pants and a red turtle neck sweater.

Spike: "Alright, come on, we've got to go now."

Dawn: "No... not until you tell me where we're going."

Spike: "I already told you, we're going to the cemetery, now come on."

Dawn: "Spike, wait... why, I'm not going anywhere until you tell me why."

Spike stopped, he should have known that Dawn was going to ask questions, and he couldn't give her any answers.

Spike: "Dawn, I don't have time to explain, you just have to trust me on this one... now I have to go do something, and I can't leave you here cause it isn't gonna be safe here... now, can we go?"

Dawn didn't object, she simply followed him. When Spike got outside he looked around for his bike, then after realizing that it wasn't in the driveway he remembered that he didn't have it yet. He grabbed Dawn and pulled her down the street; he found a car and broke in simply by pulling on the door hard enough. Dawn was a little frightened by all the sudden action, however she complied and got into the passenger side of the car as Spike hot wired it; then they drove off towards the cemetery, towards Buffy's grave.

-Buffy's Grave-

The Scoobies were sitting in a circle around her grave, Anya had just gotten her candle lit and they started the ritual. The moon shone bright lighting up everyone's face along with the candles they held. The wind blew through the leaves and Willow sat stone faced prepared to do what she thought was right; she was so far gone in the mindset that she needed to save Buffy, thinking so strongly that she was in a hell dimension that she didn't even consider the alternative, the possibility that she was in heaven.

-Graveyard parking lot-

Spike stops the car not even having paid attention to the parking space lines. He quickly jumps from the car and Dawn gets out as well, she knew where she was, however she wondered why she was there. Spike had been quiet the entire drive, Dawn knew that something was seriously wrong, but she didn't know what to say.

Spike: "Come on Nibblet."

Dawn: "Spike..."

Spike: "Like I said, no time to explain... you'll see."

He grabs her hand and starts to drag her past broken graves, they walk fast. Spike's destination was locked in, he took the shortest path possible, walking over graves and into the dark woods, far into the woods where there weren't any graves; well none but one. Dawn kept up the best she could but nearly tripped a few times, she knew where they were going, and honestly she was scared, she trusted Spike, yes, but she didn't know what was going on. Then it started to make sense, they walked into the clearing and Dawn saw her sister's grave, and all of her friends sitting around it. They were trying to bring her back, Dawn knew that's what they were trying to do, it was a familiar thing to her since she had tried to bring her mom back the year before; but it hadn't worked, she wouldn't have been the same. All Dawn could think was, how could they be doing that if they knew how wrong it was.

Dawn: "What are you doing?"

Everyone turns to look at Dawn, the ritual stops for a moment, they realize they are caught. Spike looks at them all with disgust in his expression and some of them actually looked ashamed, but not Willow. He takes a moment to take in what he was seeing, then he sees the urn, the urn of Osirus. He reaches forward and picks it up and immediately Willow tries to stop him, he holds it up about to smash it but Willow stands up, then slowly so do the rest of them.

Willow: "NO! Spike, stop you don't know what you're doing."

Spike: "Don't know what I'm doing... Do you know what you're doing?"

Willow: "Yes."

Xander: "Spike, just go take Dawn home."

Spike: "You don't even know do you... you have no idea of what this is going to cause."

Dawn: "What are you doing?"

Anya: "We're going to bring her back."

Dawn: "How could you, you know she won't be the same, you know this won't work..."

Tara: "Dawnie, it's different this time."

Willow: "Buffy died a mystical death! She's not supposed to be dead, I can do this."

Spike: "Oh, I damn well know you can... and that's why I'm stopping you."

Spike threw the urn and it smashed into thousands of small pieces and dust as it hit a rock, Willow yelled, and tried to save it but she couldn't. The rest of the scoobies looked on with astonishment realizing that they wouldn't be able to bring her back that was it. Willow started to tear up with rage, Buffy was really dead, and she couldn't do a thing about it. Xander walked over to stand by his best friend seeing the hurt in her eyes, every word she spoke was filled with anguish.

Willow: "How could you! We could have brought her back! I... I..."

Xander: "Willow... it's ok, we can fix it... we can find another one."

Willow: "No, we can't that's it, it's the only one... Oh God, she's really gone."

Anya: "Spike, why did you do that?"

Spike: "Because you were making a big mistake... I bet you all thought you were saving her, you're all so selfish!"

Xander: "Selfish, Buffy's dead..."

Spike: "Exactly, and you were going to pull her back from where she was because you missed her, because you wanted her back, you didn't even give a seconds thought to what she wanted!"

Anya: "Well I don't think she wants to be in a hell dimension, that's for sure."

Spike: "A Hell Dimension! That's where you think she was... You really don't use your brains do you!"

Xander: "Where else would she be?"

Spike: "Try Heaven... what you think someone as good as her would get sent to the fiery pits below, I don't bloody think so! She died to save all your lives and this is how you repay her, by pulling her out of there, by disturbing her peace. She was finally done with all of it and you were about to pull her back into it."

Tara: "I... I never... I didn't think about it that way."

Spike: "Damn right you..."

Before Spike could finish a loud noise of a motorcycle was heard and a biker demon roared through where they were standing. Everyone was rattled and ran off in different directions, Spike grabs Dawn's hand and just runs, Xander and Willow take off in one direction and Anya and Tara keet by each other as they escaped demon.

AN: Thanks once again to all my reviewers: ness345, wicked-angel-413, Carol, and funkydevil206... yes Spike did stop Buffy from coming back, but dont worry its not over yet. I just got 1000 views on this fic as of last chapter, very cool, and I'll have more posted soon.