"Why so nervous, William?" a mocking voice rang out.
Spike turned to see a woman wearing clothing from the late 1800s standing next to a tombstone. "Anne?" he breathed. "It can't be you. You're…"
"Dead? Well so are you. Yet you still go on. You took my life so you could continue yours. Do you still write poetry, William?"
Spike stumbled back and fell over a tombstone. A man stood next to it.
"I was on my way home to my wife and children. They had to beg on the street because of you!"
"Not me!" Spike jumped up. "It wasn't me!"
"I should have strangled you as soon as you came out of my womb, William." His mother stood in his way. "You had the devil in you even then."
"Oh God, oh God," Spike stumbled back.
"I don't think he's going to answer you," an 11-year-old girl with black hair glared at him.
Spike lurched around them and circled a tombstone, trying to get away.
"Did it make you feel like a big man, all of the killing?" a trim black woman with an Afro asked. The coat that he stole from her was back on her, floating in a non-existent breeze. "Is that what the attraction was? You were a pathetic nothing before you were given the power. Is the swagger just to cover up the memory of a nothing momma's boy?"
Spike brushed past her and fled. Ghostly victims sprang up around him, screaming at him.
"Murderer!"
"Coward!"
"Bastard!"
"Devil!"
He stumbled and fell and they were upon him, thousands of them. They tore at him and he knew they wanted to rip him apart. His victims come to take their revenge. Some he hadn't even killed but watched as Dru had drank them. They wanted him just the same.
"You don't deserve happiness!"
"You don't deserve forgiveness!"
"You don't deserve redemption!"
He screamed.
They stopped. They weren't looking at him anymore. They were looking back to where he had run from. And they were whispering.
"She's here!"
"She's come!"
Spike sat up and watched as they parted to make way for someone.
She looked like an angel. Her white shirt and skirt set off her blond hair. She seemed to light up the darkness of the night.
"Buffy," he whispered.
"You are so pathetic, William," she said in her steely Slayer voice. "You think coming back with a soul will make me forgive what you did? You hurt me in the most despicable way and having your soul back is supposed to make up for it? A pushed around bookworm loser is supposed to make me welcome you back with open arms? Please. I'm never going to care about you. Not quite a monster, not quite a man. You were good for shag, but nothing else. You're beneath me."
The monster in him raged. He felt his face slide into the vampire. "You're going to pay you cold-hearted bitch!" He grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her to him. She struggled but he overpowered her. His fangs sunk into her soft flesh and her blood warmed him. He let her corpse fall to his feet. He stared at it, watched the blood turn her white shirt red.
"My God, William, what have you done?"
He looked up. All of his victims were gone. Only one woman stood there, looking at him in disbelief.
"Tara?"
She shook her head and turned away. "You don't deserve love."
Spike woke with a gasp, feeling sick. He got dressed quickly. He had to get out of the crypt.
Buffy walked along the graveyard, thinking. She knew that a huge obstacle to any feelings for Spike had always been no soul. And now…
She noticed she was right outside of his door. She stood outside, hand on the crypt, wanting and not wanting to go in. She shook her head. She had been over this so many times over the last couple of weeks. She had talked about it to anyone who would listen, Dawn, Willow, Giles, Zander reluctantly, even co-workers, though she left out the vampire part. She had come to a decision, now it was time to act on it. No more wimping out. Time to face the past like a woman.
Spike had to get outside, get rid of the dream residue. Hurt something preferably. "I'm not a slave to the beast anymore," he told himself. "I control it. I love Buffy. I'm not going to do anything to hurt…" he stopped and cocked his head. She was outside his door. He stood quietly in the crypt.
If it were trouble, she would have barged in.
If it were to kill him, she would have barged in.
That only left one thing and he wasn't playing anymore. He went out through the tunnels.
Buffy took a deep breath. Here goes nothing, she thought. She opened the door. "Spike?" Even as she walked in and looked around, she knew he was gone.
Spike walked along the cool night. "I'm not going to be some bloody pouf like Angel and moan and mope because I'm not worthy of some girl. I'm not going to live like a beat dog, ready to snap. If I'm not worthy of love right now, I'll kick some ass until I am. No brooding.
A scream pierced the air.
"Time to do some damage!" he ran to the sound.
Four X'ha Guila demons surrounded a woman with a toddler. The woman was bent down, her arms around the child, as if that could protect her. The X'ha Guila laughed and chatted in their own language. Spike knew what X'ha Guila liked to eat.
"Gents am I interrupting dinner?"
One of the X'ha Guila turned to look at him. "Get lost vampire."
One of them nudged him. "Give the vamp the woman."
"You can have the woman vamp, but the sweetling is ours!" the third one crowed.
The woman screamed at this. "Please! Please help us!"
Spike looked at her. "Taking a walk at night with the kiddie is not a good idea around these parts. Let this be a lesson to you." He vamped out. "Time for some fun."
Buffy decided to take a swing by the park and head for home. Patrol was a bust. There was nothing. Because he was taking care of it all. For her. For redemption. The others might not like it, but Spike or William, whoever he was now, would be an asset to the Scoobies.
A woman clutching a toddler close to her chest ran by her, crying.
Buffy started after her. "Hey! Are you O.K.? Can I help?"
The woman slowed but didn't stop. "Don't go any farther! Monsters! Thank God for that man! He saved us!" She headed towards the police station.
Buffy watched to make sure she made it into the building, and then headed towards the park. She had an idea as to who the man was.
Spike snapped the neck of the second X'ha Guila. The first one already lay dead at his feet. The other two charged him and he dodged one but not the other. It knocked him down and Spike managed to kick it in its stomach as he went over. The demon growled and slashed at Spike with his claws. Spike winced as he felt the claws filet his side.
The other one was ready to join its buddy when it took a sidekick to the face. It growled at Buffy.
Spike punched his demon in the nose, shattering it despite the demon's protective plating. "I have this."
Buffy kicked her demon in the head again. "Can't let you have all the fun. Besides, some woman was singing the praises of her guardian angel. I had to know if it was you."
"Surprised?" Spike took a punch and returned one.
"By you? Always."
As the demon went for Spike, he reached up and ripped out its throat, the only part on the demon not completely covered by those plates. The demon fell over dead. He grimaced at the smell. "Demon blood. Nasty stuff. My clothes are going to stink for weeks." He turned back to Buffy's fight. "Are you done playing?"
Buffy kicked the demon hard in the back of its neck and Spike heard a snap. So much for protective plates. "Now I am."
"Can't let a man get any action can you Slayer?" Spike asked her. "Here I am trying to do you a favor, trying to make your job easier so you can spend quality time with Little Bit and your friends, have an actual life and what do you do? Go out patrolling. Interrupt my fight."
"Don't do me any favors, Spike."
"No chance of that Slayer. Doesn't do me any good. Never going to win you over. You just don't care. It doesn't matter though. I'm a new man. I want to save the world," he said sarcastically, that familiar sardonic grin spreading across his face.
Buffy's resolve came back at that familiar smile. "God I've missed you." She walked towards him.
The smile dropped and he looked at her in shock. "What?"
She kissed him before he could say anything else. He was surprised but didn't let it get the better of him. He pulled her against him and kissed her back.
She pulled away and looked down.
"So is this the cue to slap me and take off?" he asked, hating himself for it.
"I'm sorry William. I've been over this so many times since I found out about…you. It was so easy to be with you before, I could let myself be distant, not worry about getting hurt in a relationship, because what we had, it was not a relationship. It wasn't anything. I can't live like that. I have to face life. I don't want to be hurt by you Spike."
"I won't hurt you Buffy I promise." He took her by the shoulders and he knew it was true. Dreams be damned, he was not going to harm her ever again. "What happened before I left, it was crazy."
She turned away. "It's not even that Spike. It's over and done with and we can't go back and change it, no matter how much we want to. It's in the past. It's just…I haven't exactly had the most healthy relationship barometer. I've been hurt so many times in all of my relationships I would just like a healthy relationship for a change."
"And evil blood sucking vampire doesn't equal healthy, I know." Spike looked into her eyes. "But Buffy, I love you. That has to be healthy."
"Spike…William…"
"Stop calling me that! It doesn't matter what you call me, I'm still the same person! The man you despise…"
"The man I love."
"The man you…" he stared at her. "What did you say?"
"I love you." She kissed him again.
He took her hand. "Come on."
"Where are we going?"
"To go knock down a building."
"Not exactly in the healthy relationship guidelines. Walk me home. Maybe if you're good, I'll let you see my room."
"I've seen your room before, remember? You were all delusional at the time…"
"God you're dense."
And in another world, in a place where time had no meaning, the soul that used to be a shy girl named Tara smiled. "So it's O.K. then?"
"Everything is back on schedule, thanks to you. Your presence in their dreams helped, " the voice echoed off the walls.
"So it will all come to pass? The prophecies will come true?"
"Yes. Soon the one will come. We, The Powers That Be, have decreed it. So shall it be."
Tara smiled.