Another Chance (2/9)
Apr. 20th, 2010 09:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stillroseTitle: Another Chance (2/9)
Fandom: BTVS; Spike/Xander
Warnings: Slash, AU 5th/6th season, violence, character death
Rating:NC-17
Summary: Another Spike shows up in Sunnydale insisting he has a soul…and that he loves Xander.
As always: Feedback makes my heart go pitter-patter.
UNBETAED
Previous parts here.
**********
The new Spike turned at looked at the original Spike. He cocked his head and smiled. Xander’s blood froze. He knew that smile. It was the smile Spike wore when he was ready to lay it all out because he had nothing else to lose.
“You can try, mate. You can try,” the new Spike said in a very soft voice.
***********
The original Spike snarled and twitched. Then there was a blur. Twin forms were suddenly locked in battle. Fists were flying, blood was splattering and shirts were tearing. Xander stood frozen in shock as he watched the battle.
He’d seen Spike fight. He’d envied the way Spike was almost a thing of beauty in combat. He was speed and quick strikes. He was the lust for the fight without being a mindless berserker. He fought dirty. He fought mean. He fought to win.
Xander stared as two..TWO Spikes snarled, raged and tore at each other. They were both deadly quick. They both were giving no quarter. Their moves were the same. The same spins. The same punches. The same cool grin as they wiped blood from their chins.
Before Xander could think about what he was doing he stumbled forward and stepped between the two Spikes.
“STOP!” he yelled.
“Out of my way, Harris!”
“Pet, move!”
“NO! Not until somebody tells me why my life is suddenly cursed with two, Spikes! I mean which hell god’s Wheaties did I piss in to deserve this?”
“PET!”
“Xander!”
The human put a hand on the chest of each vampire. It was then that he noted the new vampire wore a black shirt while his Spike wore a red shirt.
And when did I start thinking of Spike as “mine?” Xander wondered before he stuffed that fleeting thought into the deepest darkest well of never-going-there-again in the way back of his mind.
“NO!” Xander insisted. He didn’t know why. It didn’t make sense, but few things had since Buffy had dove off Glory’s high dive of doom to once again save a world who didn’t know she existed.
However, what he did know was that this was a mystery and it tugged at him.
He looked at the Spike in black. He..It could be any of number of things and yet something inside of Xander knew, just knew, it was Spike. He looked back at his Spike in red. This was Spike too.
“C’mon,” he said as he moved past the two vampires and by the piles of dusty remains of their earlier opponents.
“Where are we going, pet?” black shirted Spike asked.
“First, for manliness’s sake I must insist I point out once again I am not your pet,” Xander said as he continued walking, “second, we’re off to see the good witches.”
“Red and Glenda,” red shirted Spike grinned as he dug in his coat for a cigarette and a light.
Xander nodded. He’d learned a long time ago, when in doubt call Willow.
“Pe..Xander this isn’t necessary,” the new Spike said as he sidled up next to the human. “I can explain.”
Xander stopped. He looked at the black shirted Spike.
“You can explain?”
Spike nodded then said, “I wished for it.”
“You..you wished for it?”
“With all my soul, luv. I wished to be with you again.”
***
Xander tried not to stare. He really did but there were two, TWO, Spike’s sitting in Buffy’s living room! This was a twisted amount of wrongness for which there could never be a countering amount of rightness.
One of the Spike’s growled. Xander sighed. Red shirted Spike had been doing that almost non-stop. Xander turned to look at him and was met by the vampire’s fierce gaze.
“Puppy need to go out?” Xander asked.
“I say we stake him,” Spike replied.
“You can try, mate,” the other Spike growled back.
“Oh not this routine again!” Xander cried. “C’mon at least have a funny one. You know, like ‘Who’s on First?”
Dawn giggled and gave a thumbs up. Xander winked at her. She needed to laugh more since her sister died.
Both Spikes snorted in unison.
“Well..as far as w..we can t..tell,” Tara interrupted, “Spike’s story ch..check’s out.”
“You mean he is Spike?” Xander asked.
“Just not our, Spike,” Willow replied.
“And ..a…a soul?” Xander prompted.
“Right here, pet,” Spike said.
“Pet?” All three girls asked at once.
Red shirted Spike growled. Xander groaned.
“He’s really Spike?” Xander asked trying to keep the women’s focus off away from things he did not want to know.
Tara and Willow nodded.
“Told ya,” Black shirted Spike said.
“But ho…”
“I wished it.”
“You wished it?”
The new Spike nodded.
“Vengeance?” Xander wasn’t sure he wanted to know the answer but he was confused.
The new Spike seemed to get almost impossibly pale then shook his head.
“Second chance, pet.”
The original Spike growled. Xander rolled his eyes and looked back at his girls.
“Soul?” Xander prompted again.
“Well according to our ‘reveal’ spell, he does have one,” Willow said.
“Stupid tosser!” Red shirted Spike snorted. “Went and got yerself cursed with a soul. Probably followin’ and sniffin’ around after ‘Gelus and t’d off the same set of gypsies!”
“I earned it!” the other Spike barked.
“Earned it?” all the humans asked.
The new Spike looked down at his feet for a moment before looking back up at Xander.
“Knew you’d never accept me the way I was, pet. Yer the White Knight all rainbows and puppy dog tails. Oh I could have chained ya up…”
Xander’s Spike flew up off the couch. In one of those rare unspoken and unacknowledged moments where the two men seemed to operate on an intimate level of understanding, Spike’s attack was halted by Xander’s held up hand motioning him to stop.
The new Spike’s eyes widened for a moment, turned sad then looked away from the other two.
“I…” the new Spike struggled to continue, “I knew I could break you but that wouldn’t get me you.”
“Me?” Xander squeaked. A dangerous rumble emanated deep from the red shirted Spike’s chest.
The new Spike nodded.
“If I wanted you, I’d have to be the man ya could love. The man you deserved,” the other Spike explained. “So I went to Africa to see a demon and I fought for one. I fought for my soul.”
“You gotta a soul…for XANDER!” Dawn cried! “How romantic!”
“BLOODY HELL!” Spike snapped.
“ME?” Xander squeaked again.
Tara and Willow stared at each other then at the two vampires.
“Xan,” the other Spike said as he took a step forward. Xander took a step back as his Spike suddenly put himself between the human and the other vampire. “Xander, I..we…”
“You bastard!” Spike snarled. “Ya come in here springin’ love on the boy and ya never even stopped ta consider if it would have even been welcome?”
Boy? Some part of Xander’s mind engaged. Man here. Job, ex-fiancé, truck payments and everything.
“Why wouldn’t it? We were good together? We were…”
“Because ya silly tosser not everything’s the same in every ‘verse! Ya know that! Magicks and demons can’t be trusted!”
“I’m not a wet-eared git suckin’ at the tit of his first dolly!” The black shirted Spike growled.
“Could have fooled me!” Red shirted Spike barked back.
“I was very specific for what I wished.”
“Which was?” Willow asked.
“A universe for a second chance with Xander,” the other Spike replied.
“And you wished this..with Anya?” Xander asked.
“Course.”
“A v..vengeance demon?” Tara tried to clarify.
“No, Anaya’s not a vengeance demon. Just a wish demon.”
“Still bloody dangerous!” The current universe’s Spike growled.
“Pet,” The new Spike focused back on Xander as he tried taking another step towards the human. “Please just let me…”
“Back up!” Xander’s Spike growled.
“Get the fuck outta my way!” the other Spike growled as he vamped out, grabbed his doppleganger’s jacket and snarled.
Dawn gasped. Xander charged forward.
“Calm down right now!”
“Pe…”
“This is NOT happening here. This NOT happening in front of Dawn!”
“It’s OK, Bit,” red shirted Spike said in the most soothing voice he could muster around his fangs, “this silly bugger’s soul’s got ‘im a bit high strung is all. Ol’ Spike’s got everything under control.”
The two Spike’s stared at each other for a moment. Twin golden flames seared each other than slowly they took a step back from each other. The other Spike released his twin. In unison they shook their heads and once again they bore a human visage.
The redshirted Spike turned to face Dawn. He smiled. She mustered a smile back.
“I’m sorry, Xander,” the other Spike said. “I just want to talk.”
The original Spike snorted.
“Talk?”
The new Spike looked around at the people surrounded them.
“Can’t we go some place more private?”
“…And..talk?” Xander managed to say. Now that the threat of a show down between Spike’s in front of Dawn had receded his mind was once again grinding to a halt over the fact there was a universe where he and Spike..Spike and he..they had…
He and Spike in another universe had been lovers! Images of Spike’s lean naked torso suddenly danced unbidden in Xander’s mind. Thoughts of strong arms wrapping around holding him in a loving embrace with soft tender lips trailing down his neck danced through his imagination. Lean fingers wrapping themselves around his hard and aching cock…
Xander’s brain slipped a gear. He froze.
“Xan?”
“Pet?”
“Talk?” Xander repeated trying to purge the unwelcome thoughts and restart his brain.
“Please,” the new Spike said.
Xander blinked.
“Right,” the original Spike said. “Look, Red and Glenda can you do some more research in how ta reverse this arse-tit’s wish?”
The other Spike growled.
“We..we can try,” Tara said.
“What are you going to do?” Willow asked.
“Play chaperone,” Spike said
“Like hell you are!” The other Spike growled.
“Ya wanna talk ta, Harris? Ya do it with me around!”
“Why?”
“Cuz yer a bloody vampire ya pilchard! Soul or no soul ya still have a demon inside ya and I don’t bloody trust ya!”
“And what about you? What makes you so trustworthy?”
“A: I gotta chip. Can’t hurt the monkeys if I tried. B: Bit here loves this Xander meat bag more’n you do and I’m rather fond of the bint. Hopin’ when she grows up ta make a right proper vampire or demon princess of her someday.”
Dawn giggled. Willow and Tara rolled their eyes.
“Over my dead body,” Xander managed to mutter. Talk of Dawn was an immediate jump start for him.
“An added bonus,” chuckled the red shirted Spike.
“Don’t you EVER say that!” The other Spike suddenly yelled as he slammed a fist into the original Spike’s jaw sending the vampire to the floor.
This time it was Spike’s held up hand that stopped Xander and the witches in their tracks. He looked up at the other Spike. He recognized the raw powerful pain shining in the familiar golden eyes.
That’s the way of it then, Spike thought.
“Right,” Spike said as he slowly eased his way to his feet. “Guess I deserved that.”
The other Spike was still rocking on the balls of his feet. He was still ready to deliver more blows.
“Spike,” Xander said softly.
The other Spike shifted his gaze briefly to look at Xander.
“Let’s go talk.”
This time both Spikes looked at Xander. They studied him for a moment then they both took an unneeded breath. They nodded. The new Spike settled.
Xander looked at his girls.
“If you find out anything, let me know,” Xander said.
“Xander do you..I mean…” Willow started to say.
“I’ll be fine. I’ll be with Spike..er the Spikes.”
“Wh..where?” Tara asked.
“My place,” Xander replied. “At least this way if they start fighting again and it gets trashed..no one will be able to tell the difference.”
The “girls” grinned as he gave them each brief kiss on the forehead. Then he motioned at the twin Spikes as he headed for the door. It was going to be a long evening with what he feared would be an even longer conversation.
Though I’ll be on my home turf, Xander thought. That will give me some advantage…right?
no subject
Date: 2010-04-21 06:23 pm (UTC)thank you
Date: 2010-04-22 02:14 am (UTC)Sorry about that. Desert Ice..well I've decided to lock that because I'm currently revamping it (forgive the pun) and converting it to a completely original work. I'm going to try and submit it.
Think of it as a win win because either way it will finally get finsihed and if it gets rejected I'll post the finished product back here. :)
Chaps 3 and 4 are up. :)
sr