Chapter Eight: Forgive Me

The light around them dims and they reach for each other.
"What now?" Anya sighs.
"I don't..." Xander stops.

A large set of doors ahead of them is opening, pouring soft golden light into the room. Xander takes Anya's hand and cautiously, they step closer. They breath a sigh of relief at seeing a beautiful grotto on the other side, separated from them by a calm, shimmering waterfall.

The figure of a woman stands on the other side as if she has been waiting for them. Shadowed by the rising sun at her back, they do not recognize her until she walks closer and extends her hand, motioning for them to come through the water.

"Tara! It's Tara." Xander takes a step closer to the waterfall then looks back to Anya. "It was her. That was her voice I heard when we got here." Xander smiles excitedly and nearly sprints for the water. "This is the way out. It's gotta be. She's here to lead us home." He reaches for Tara's outstretched hand and steps cleanly through. He looks over his shoulder to see that Anya isn't following him.

"Come on!" He holds his hand out to her.Anya walks up to the water and reaches to take Xander's hand on the other side. She recoils with a hiss when her hand touches the water. Confused, she looks at her hand then back to the water that burned her skin.

"Xander..?"
"Ahaahaa! Haha ha!" They both turn at the sound of the vicious laughter to see their black robed tormentor come flying in above them. The hooded figure swoops around Anya and around the room.
Xander yells to her "Anya, quick!"
"I can't."
"Of course you can."
Realization dawns on Anya. She turns from Xander with a sorrowful look on her face. "It's no use, Xander." The spirit stops to float just a little ways away from her. He throws his hood back and laughs again. "It's Spike."
"I told you that it wasn't vengeance."
"You lied?" Xander glares up at the false Spike then turns back to Anya. "You said it was solace; that... You lied. We've never lied to each other! What...I can't even...!"

Anya:
"Yes, I lied.
I thought I could just get back at you
Could bring back all my evil
and be nothing but aloof
That I could simply will it was the real untruth
I was wrong
and wore a mask to cover my deceit
But underneath it all I couldn't keep away my doubt
Now I'm left without a mask and one question left to ask
I'm sorry, please help me, forgive me
Don't hate me, don't leave me, forgive me
Forgive me my debt as only you could
Forgive me the hate,
Replace evil with good
Forgive me and find out that you
Will be able to forgive yourself too.

Xander cuts in:
My sweet Anya,
I never told you that you were my sun
I didn't know that day I could so have hurt you
If I only knew, I'd have stayed by you
I'm so sorry, I couldn't be the husband you deserved
And I regret that I missed out on our first step, those two words
that I never heard -now it seems absurd
Can you forgive me?
Open up your heart and let me in
No matter if the fates against us turn
There's one thing through all of this I've learned
That what I need from you is to.. forgive me, I'm sorry, believe me
Stop hating, stop hurting, forgive me
Forgive how I've harmed you
Please can we stop this blame
Forgive, if not forget I know it's not too late
Forgive me and you'll discover too you will be able to forgive yourself too.

Anya gives him a teary smile and nods.
"NO!" They both look up at Spike's roar before he explodes in a cloud of smoke and sparks.
Xander reaches back out to Anya under the water and grasps her hand. A little hesitant, she closes her eyes as he pulls her through and into his arms. They colapse to the ground in a fierce embrace.

Anya is the first to open her eyes. She pulls back a little to take a look around. They find themselves sitting on remote beach with the sun rising at their back. The grotto is gone and so is Tara.
She smiles back at Xander pulling him to her for a quick, but intense kiss. "It's over; we're back."
"Thank God; no more singing." Xander pauses and looks up and down the beach. "Um, An?"
She looks at him questioningly.
"You do realize we're in the middle of nowhere and have to hike it back home from here?"
"Oh, but I was hoping, I mean we have this whole beach to ourselves an..."
He pulls her in for a crushing kiss before she can finish leaving her breathless when it ends.
"Well, no one said we had to leave right now."
They laugh together as Xander rolls her down on her back and kisses her again. They smile lovingly as the tides lap around them, washing them clean of all past sins against one another.

FINITE

A/N: Alright, alright, before you pelt me with the rotten fruit that's been sittin in the back of your fridge (with a stench permiating every niche of your house so bad your friends don't even acknowledge you have a home anymore) that you've saved for just such an occasion -I'm sorry; I know this took waaaaay too long to finish and that I've just been a lazy sod for not doing it sooner, but, I mean, come on weren't you paying attention to the last song? "Stop hating, don't hurt me, forgive me."

As funny as the idea of this story was to me (especially Dawn as Joxer!) it wasn't easy trying to match up words in the songs to make them fit the original music; there were a few spots where I just got fed up and skipped 'em though. But for the most part I used the soundtrack from Bitter Suite to sing (in a desert area completely isolated miles away from civilization) my lyrics along with the music to see if it worked or not.

Okay, so now that you've stopped glaring at me and tossing up that fruit in a menacing fasion, well, most of you at any rate, I shall trudge off to see if I can actually get anywhere with my other story.