Shards of Glass
by Larilyn
www.geocities.com/larilyn1975/buffymain.html larilyn1@hotmail.com
Disclaimer: Joss owns the whole Buffy world, I own my world. Wish I could trade.
Rating-NC-17
Summary -Sequel to All the King’s Horses… which is in itself a sequel to Shattered. Its a trilogy, get it? Thirty years after Spike turned Buffy, he’s paying for his mistake with two unlikely allies
Spoilers- through the Gift
Shards of Glass
"Willow? I have the…." The orb of Thesuleh crashed to the floor and shattered when Tara saw the sight of her lover, pale as death…death….
Spike bolted awake. The sun had started to set across the London sky. He ripped the sheet off of his sweat soaked skin. "Thirty bloody years… same damn nightmare," he mumbled.
***
Spike watched as the Watcher bounced his grandchild on his knee. The ex-demon hovered nearby animatedly chatting with their daughter.
He watched her grow up from this rooftop, beautiful, like her mother. Smart as a whip, must’ve come from the Watcher. And now Alexandra Giles had a child, a beautiful little girl with blond ringlets.
"Life goes on." A feminine voice echoed behind him.
The vampire spun, annoyed that he hadn’t sensed her presence. "Who the fuck are you?"
"A friend." She stated simply as she moved to his side. "You’ll watch them until they die, won’t you? You really think after all this time that she’ll come after them? Patience isn’t one of Buffy’s virtues."
She was a lovely thing, all legs and lovely brown locks that cascaded down her back in soft waves. And those eyes…
She watched him study her. She supplied, "You knew my father."
Spike chuckled, "You have his eyes. The rest of you looks like the cheerleader. Lucky you." He hunted for his lighter and pack of smokes before he asked, "You got a name, pet?"
"Angela Chase."
"So the poof got his redemption. Bully for him."
"And you?"
He scoffed at her and lit a cigarette, the smoke swirling around him.
"Let me tell you a story," she began with her angelic voice.
"Does it start with once upon a time?"
"Once upon a time, there was a big bad vampire. One of the biggest and baddest. Until one day, the army shoved a chip in his head, and he could only hurt demons. Being the big bad vampire that he was, he decided that demons were better than nothing, so he worked with the Slayer, killing demons right and left. But he screwed up. He fell in love with her. And it wasn’t too terribly long before she fell in love with him. And this is where it gets interesting. She nearly died, and the big bad vampire did the only thing his grief addled brain could think of. He turned her."
"I’ve heard this story." Spike mumbled.
"The Slayer went on a rampage, killing her two best friends."
"Actually," Interrupted Spike, "This is where it gets interesting. The ones the Slayer left behind decided to put a nice little curse on yours truly. Every time she kills, I feel the victim’s pain."
"It was the best thing that ever happened to you."
"So you got your father’s sick sense of humor, did ya?"
Angel’s daughter glanced across the way at Giles and his family. His younger daughter was missing from the tableau. "Elizabeth?" She asked.
"At University. I can’t be two places at once."
"She’s safe." Angela assured.
"And you can be sure of this how?"
"I didn’t just inherit my mother’s good looks. I also inherited her gift. Although I have a great deal more control over it than she did."
"Damned modest aren’t you, pet?"
"Honest." She smirked, so very much like the cheerleader, "Elizabeth is safe, I can sense her. I also sense that you are about to…"
"Arrrrgh!" Spike cried out in pain, clutching his neck. Dropping to his knees, he glanced up at the girl.
"She’s feeding. It’ll pass." Unconcerned, she supported Spike as he rose to his feet.
"You can see her?" He asked through, the pain. Spike was mildly annoyed with the girl, no fawning over his plight or pain. She just yawned as she nodded an affirmative.
"Tuesday." She said with no sympathy, "It was bad."
"Yeah. Buffy loves torture, gets her off."
"And you felt every second of it."
As he reached for another cigarette, he chided, "What was it you said about the curse being the best thing ever to happen to me?"
"Its the price of redemption, William."
***
He swirled the beer around in the mug, not really drinking it anyway. "So, pet, You’re here to be my…what? Coach? Cheerleader? Conscience?"
"I’m your seer."
"My seer. So, what is it I’m supposed to do?"
"The same thing you’ve been doing. Kill demons, stake vampires…"
"And watch the Watcher?"
She nodded in assent. "Big things are coming, William. You’ve got a part to play."
"I don’t understand. Its not as if I have a soul like Peach…your father."
"That makes you all the more remarkable. You have a conscience without a soul."
"Thirty years of feeling the pain of every single victim of my favorite mistake will do that to a bloke."
"Eventually, she’s going to have to die."
"I know." He admitted before taking a swig of beer.
***
They walked back to Spike’s in near silence. It was on the crowded London sidewalk that Spike first saw her. She was like a specter from the past, from his nightmares, haunting him for what he had done. For what he had allowed to happen.
"William?" Angie’s voice pulled him away from her. "Spike? Is everything all right?"
"Yeah," he mumbled, still scanning the crowd for another glimpse of her.
"Did you know that girl?"
Spike grabbed Angela’s arms and gave her a good shake, "Did you see her? You saw her?"
Angie nodded numbly and Spike took off, running down the sidewalk, pushing people out of the way, but she had disappeared. His seer caught up to him, panting for breath, "Spike? What…?"
"Nothing." He shook his head. "It wasn’t who I thought. She would have aged. Must be losing my mind."
***
Tara choked back the bile in her throat when she saw Xander lying in a pool of his own blood.
"Anya!" She screamed, "Anya! Where are you!" She fell to her knees, twisting the front of her shirt around her fingers, softly she begged, "Please be okay. I don’t want to be alone."
Tara heard a thump in the closet and crawled over. She swung open the door to reveal the ex-demon cowering on the floor.
The two survivors reached for each other, "Willow?" Anya asked.
Tara sadly nodded, tears streaming down her cheeks.
"And Giles?"
Tara’s eyes widened in terror, "He doesn’t know…unless."
Anya wouldn’t let her complete the thought, "No! Giles can’t be dead."
"We have to warn him."
***
"Giles!" Spike yelled in his sleep. "Giles!"
The phone’s insistent ringing pulled him from his sleep. He pulled it from the receiver without saying hello.
"You were having a nightmare."
"Angela? How did you…?"
"I saw you. Woke me up." With a sigh, she added, "Are you okay?"
"Peachy." He mumbled he hung up the phone.
***
"If Glory begins the ritual... If we can't stop her ..."
Buffy exploded at her watcher, "Say it. Come on, we're bloody well talking about this, tell me to kill my sister!"
"She's not your sister."
Buffy lured the young man into her room, seductively pushing on to her bed. "You like danger baby?"
"Spike. Its five o’clock in the morning."
He glared at Tara, his ice blue eyes piercing through her. "I trusted you." He growled, the rumble seeming all the more menacing in the pre-dawn quiet.
"Spike…"
"Does your little witch have any idea what she’s done? Do you?"
"We brought her back. Willow knew she could."
"And she didn’t stop to think once about whether she should. You know where Dawnie said she was?"
Tara shook her head and swept an errant piece of brown hair from her face.
"She said she was with her mother."
Buffy kissed her victim thoroughly, parting only to remove his shirt. She kissed her way down to the waistband of his jeans.
Dawn was fully dressed in the bath full of water. She lay lifeless in the crimson liquid
Buffy unfastened his jeans and pulled them off. Quickly she removed her top before climbing back onto him.
She was motionless on the ground. Spike took her in his arms and gently shook her, while his grief shook him.
"One breath, baby. That’s all I’m asking for."
He cried out in triumph when she obliged.
"Spike." Her voice was barely recognizable, "I’m…"
"Gonna be fine." He finished, "Everything’s gonna be fine, luv. You’re the Slayer. You’ll heal."
Even as he said this her eyes began to roll back. He was going to lose her too. Spike did the only thing his grief-addled brain could think of. He bit into his wrist, drawing borrowed blood, and pressed it to his lover’s lips.
Buffy’s victim reached up to find her breasts, cupping them through the fine fabric of her bra. With a practiced motion, she removed it, letting them fall free.
Her fangs sank into Willow. Spike watched with a mix of pleasure and horror as Buffy took her first victim.
Buffy enjoyed the sight of the stupid boy’s head between her legs. His unpracticed tongue giving her no pleasure. Her pleasure would come later.
Tara hovered over the spell book, desperate to fix what had been broken.
Buffy impaled herself on her victim’s erection, fiercely riding him until the boy climaxed.
She slid the knife across the girl’s stomach while she screamed. Spike doubled over in pain.
"Buffy, stop. The pain…"
"I like pain," she callously said as she slid the knife into the girl’s abdomen.
She giggled with glee, clapping at Spike’s performance.
The boy looked into Buffy’s eyes, "Baby, you’re amazing."
"You ain’t seen nothing yet." She promised.
As her fangs sank into his neck, Spike awoke, screaming in agony as the boy died.
***
"Oh Goody, she’s here." Spike smiled despite himself at Angela’s arrival. "Its been a long three weeks, pet, I’m bloody exhausted."
"Well you aren’t getting the night off tonight, bucko. Here’s the address of this evening’s damsel in distress."
"You know, luv, I’m beginning to hate these visions of yours."
"Tough."
"You’re a right bitch, you know that? What, were you abused as a child?"
"Are you kidding? I was worshipped by my parents, who by the way, are still deliriously happy after twenty-eight years of marriage. Now get off your ass and get going. She needs your help."
While his strong hand was still on the shiny doorknob, she called out, "Spike? There’s a talisman. It mustn’t fall into the wrong hands. Shit, I sound like my father."
He nodded in assent and left to do his duty.
***
He sensed her before he saw her. His former mate was there in that dark London alley.
He smelled the fear of her prey. Sensed Buffy’s excitement.
She sensed him too.
In full game face, she spun from her target and faced Spike. "Hello, lover."
She still took his breath away, even with the ridges and fangs, she was still a sight to behold. But she wasn’t Buffy any more. He had seen to that and it haunted him.
Her intended victim was cornered in the dead end of the alley. He couldn’t make out her face, it was hidden by a curtain of light brown hair, but something about her was…familiar.
Spike held on to his human features while he casually confronted Buffy. "Up to the big evil again, luv?"
As soon as she shifted her focus from the girl to Spike, the girl scampered behind some trash bins. She was still trapped, but not as easy to find.
"Damn," the female vampire complained, "You made me lose my dinner. Where’d she go?" She began flinging metal trash cans about. Their clanging rang throughout the dank alley. "Wanna help me find her?"
"No."
"Oh that’s right," Buffy once again turned her attention to Spike, "You don’t like it when I eat."
"The eating I don’t mind. Its the killing I have a problem with."
"But you should see her, Spike. You’ll wanna kill her. And she has a nice toy."
A stake emerged from his pocket and he held it loosely, lackadaisically, in his hand.
"You gonna kill me with that?" Buffy asked offhandedly.
"Yes."
She lunged at him, going for his throat with her outstretched hands. Spike knocked them away and slammed her into the trash cans.
He heard her quarry whimper in fear as Buffy landed close to where she lay hidden.
Buffy lunged again. Beating Spike back as fiercely as she had once loved him. He kicked her in the gut causing her to stagger back. The stake in his hand plunged into her flesh, just above her heart. With a shriek of pain, disgust and loathing, Buffy scampered away, knowing that Spike’s attention would quickly divert from her and the stake that had landed so very close to her heart, to the innocent hiding amongst the garbage.
She knew him well. Exactly as she had anticipated, Spike went to help the girl the second Buffy had left the alley.
"You’re all right now, luv. Come on out. Alleyways aren’t safe at night."
As soon as she emerged and stepped into the light, Spike felt his unbeating heart leap in his chest. "But that’s…impossible."
***
Tara handed Angela the talisman for examination. "I don’t know what it is, or what it does."
"It does something." Spike commented. "Because you look exactly the same as…"
"…the day I found it." Tara tucked her hair behind her ear and glanced around the room, avoiding Spike’s ceaseless gaze. She hadn’t aged beyond about the age of twenty-five. "Anya sold the Magic Box when she moved to London with Giles. She asked me to handle the inventory for her, sell it all off. That’s when I found it, tucked behind some jars in the basement. I don’t know why I kept it. It just called to me. After a while I realized, I wasn’t really aging."
Spike was still unabashedly staring at her. Angela had busied herself sketching the object, oblivious to any tension around her, or maybe just not giving a damn. Handing the talisman back to Tara, Angela said, "I’ll do some research. Find out what it is." Halfway out the door she added, "William, keep her safe. If Buffy wants it…"
"…then it must be important." He nodded.
"End of the world important, I’d guess."
As soon as Angela had left the room became quiet. Neither Spike nor Tara knowing exactly what to say.
The vampire broke the silence first. "So…What brings you to London, luv?"
"Giles. I’ve been having strange dreams about you. About her." She nodded toward the door that Angela had exited from. "I came to ask for his help, to figure it all out." The whole time, she avoided Spike’s gaze, pacing around the room, busying herself fingering his things.
"Glad I found you first. He’s kept his distance from past uglies."
Silence reigned for a few minutes while Spike found the courage to tell her, "I looked for you. For years after…"
"…I cursed you?" It was the first time her blue eyes actually met his. He couldn’t read her expression. Regret, maybe?
He corrected, "After I left Buffy."
Tara turned her attention to the window and the people in the street outside. People that led wonderful, boring, normal lives.
Spike felt compelled to continue, "I wanted to protect you from her."
She nodded to the couple on the sidewalk, "Like you’ve been protecting Giles & Anya?"
He smirked and went to her side, "Caught me." He watched her watch them enter their building hand in hand. "They have two daughters," he told her. "Alexandra and Elizabeth. And a new grandbaby."
"In my dreams…" Tara’s voice floated like a silk thread, "Angela said that you were going to be a key player in the Apocalypse. I figured…"
"That I’d be on the side doing the causing. Fair enough."
She nodded. Once again she cast her eyes up to meet his. "Thank you. For saving me."
"Right back at you." The curse. The fact that he was thanking her for thirty years of torment felt like a stake through the heart to the witch.
Feeling the need to explain herself, Tara breathed, "I was so…"
Spike placed a cool finger on her bottom lip. "Don’t. I understand."
He was so close. And so very sensuous. "Spike, its been such a long time. I haven’t been close to anyone since…"
"If I could give her back to you, I would." He leaned in as he spoke. Her warm breath tickled his lips. "Can I offer myself as a consolation?"
"I… I’ve never…"
Spike could feel her pulse quickening, could sense the blood rushing through her.
"I’ll go slow."
"I’ve been so lonely."
"I know."
Tara lifted her lips ever so slightly to brush against his. Liking the feeling, she went back, pressing them more firmly against his mouth while his arms took her and held her close. Two survivors clinging to a raft in a raging sea.
Tender hands grasped her gently. Comforting arms lifted her and carried to her to his bed.
Hands that she expected to be rough, callused by one hundred and fifty years of living, softly caressed her skin while removing her clothes.
Spike’s lips, tongue, and hands moved her in a way she hadn’t been in half a lifetime. And when he slid himself inside her, thirty years of loneliness faded away.
***
Suddenly the horde parted, flung aside by something magical.
"What the..?" Xander stammered.
"Willow." Spike clarified with a yell as he darted, ax in hand, toward the ladder that would lead him to where Dawn was chained high above the city, but the sight of Glory’s slaves flying through the air was as big as a shock to the Slayer’s allies as it was to Glory’s, and Spike didn’t get to the scaffolding before the horde closed in around him.
Towering over the Sunnydale skyline, Dawn stood on the scaffolding, but she was not alone. The demon Doc, cut her, blood dripped down off of her toes, and the portal started to open.
Down below, Giles made it to the scaffolding and had begun to climb up. Spike was closing in on him, ascending the rickety structure. Both men were trying to get to Dawn, but now that the ritual had started, their intentions were very different.
Doc turned to face the Watcher and the vampire. "You’re too late. The ritual has already begun.
"Let the girl go," Snarled Spike.
The demon looked perplexed, "I don't smell a soul anywhere on you... why do you even care?"
"I made a promise to a lady. Let's you and me have a go."
He dove for Doc. In the ensuing brawl, Doc’s ritual knife fell from his hand and was picked up
by the Watcher. Giles didn’t join the fray, instead he cast his sad eyes toward Buffy’s sister.
"Giles?" Dawn asked with a quivering voice, "You have to stop it, you have to."
"No!" Spike screamed as Giles edged toward the girl, knife in hand. Doc took advantage of the distracted vampire and dove for him, but he overcompensated, and both demons toppled from the tall structure.
***
Spike bolted upright, gasping for unnecessary breath. A calming hand placed on his shoulder drew him back down to the bed.
"Are you all right? Was it Buffy?"
"No." Spike shook his head and drew Tara into his arms. "Just a nightmare."
"They say talking about your bad dreams can help."
"It was that night…with Glory. I keep thinking that maybe if I had been faster, smarter…That night haunts me."
"I killed Ben." Tara whispered, telling a secret she had kept since that night. "I knew that he was Glory. I knew. And it would never be over till she was gone. So I took my hand, and I placed it over his mouth, and I held it there."
"When was this?"
"Right before Buffy saw you fall. Before Giles…Does that make me a monster?"
"Only monster here is me. You did what you had too. Saved us all."
"Like Giles?"
A door flying open ended their conversation. With a quick glance at the couple in bed Angela declared, "Yep, saw that coming." as she rudely entered Spike’s bedroom.
"Oi, knock woman!"
Tara pulled the sheet up closer to her naked body as her flash blushed a fierce shade of red.
"Yeah, whatever." She sat down on the edge of the bed. "I have the skinny on Tara’s little talisman. It’s called the…"
"Angie? Pet? Why don’t you wait in the other room….?"
She rolled her eyes in annoyance. "This is important."
"So important that it can’t wait until I have some clothes on?"
"Fine," she mumbled as she left the room, "Its only the end of the world."
"I think she may have actually inherited every single bad quality her parents had to offer."
"I think she’s nice."
Spike ran his hand down the side of Tara’s face, she closed her eyes with his touch. "You all right, luv?"
"Mmm hmm. We better go save the world, Spike."
***
"Its called the Eye of Eternity. In the hands of a mortal, it gives them immortality. In the hands of a vampire…?"
"Its Apocalyptic?" Tara asked.
"That would explain why Buffy would want it."
"No." Angela interrupted. "Its not bad in and of itself. It gives the demon that holds it the ability to change the past."
"Time travel?" Tara asked wide-eyed.
"More like a cosmic reset device. Buffy could have done any number of things with it. Gone back to any point in the past and relive it, maybe even change it."
Spike rubbed his hand over the stone that Tara held in her hand. "That wouldn’t be so bad. I wouldn’t mind going back to a few places in my past and setting ‘em right."
The stone began to glow a brilliant blue, surrounding and enveloping them all. And then that world faded away and disappeared.
***
"Tara?" Willow asked, still clinging to her love. "Do you see someone up there?"
Tara glanced skyward, to see that Dawn wasn’t alone on the scaffolding. "Yes."
"I’m going to move those people out of the way."
"Give them a heads up," Tara advised, "A few seconds may make all the difference."
***
"At least Buffy’s keeping Glory at bay, she can’t get up there with Dawn. So that’s good." Xander commented. Xander noticed Spike glancing around with confusion. "Spike, you okay?"
Spike shook himself off and murmured, "Yeah. Deja vu or something." He squinted at the scaffolding where Dawn was imprisoned, "Someone's up there."
Anya, Xander and Giles all looked skyward.
Xander demanded with gung ho attitude, "Okay, we gotta charge or something ..."
The ex-demon informed him, "We tried that."
Spike wracked his brain for a way to get to Dawn when a strange sensation overcame him. All of his feelings of deja vu disappeared when Willow’s voice echoed in his head, "Spike...Can you hear me?"
"Loud and clear ..."
The Watcher, perplexed at Spike’s words asked, "Who? What?"
Willow’s lovely voice played in Spike’s head, "Is someone up there with Dawn?"
"Yeah. Can't see who."
"Get up there. Go now."
" Yeah. But…"
"GO!"
Back at the Magic Box, the Eye of Eternity evaporated away. The world was set right again, even though the world was about to lose its most precious gift. Buffy Summers, the Vampire Slayer.
End
