De-Evolution

A/N: I never intended to write a sequel to Evolution, but I got so many people asking for one that the Muse decided to oblige. I have never had a story write itself so fast in my life, so this story is dedicated to all the people who kick started the Muse into a writing frenzy. You guys rule!

This story takes place 200 years after Evolution. Much of the story will be told in various flashbacks, but the time line will skip around. Clues will be given as to what year it is and such, but please assume nothing just because you haven’t been told it yet.
XXX

Chapter 1

It’s all over but the crying
Fade to black I’m sick of trying
-Garbage

Attempt number twenty four was a knife dipped in battery acid that she’d siphoned from their transport. She slashed her way vertically down both her arms. Then she worked her way down her legs. She hit the veins dead on. The knife had melted into mush by the time she finished. The spilling blood bubbled and burned its way out of her flesh. It took a moment for her to realize that the echoing sounds bouncing off the walls were her own screams. She blacked out.

XXX

“Close yer eyes, luv.”

Buffy giggled and leaned closer to where she sensed Spike was.

“Hey, now. It’s not a surprise if you keep trying to suss it out.”

She pouted behind the hands that lay pressed over her face.

“And no pouting. I can sense when you do that you know.”

She couldn’t help but smile at that.

Spike moved to stand behind her. He wrapped his hands around her wrists and pulled them away from her face. “Happy anniversary, luv.”

Buffy gasped at the scene before her. He had recreated their wedding day…well, as best he could. Most of the guest list was long gone.

The grassy hill held two rows of plain, white folding chairs separated by a pathway of smooth stones. At the end of the path was a white wooden chupa interlaced with pink and white roses. Behind the chupa was a small pond, although there was no Willow to help the lit candles hover just above the water.

“Oh, Spike...It’s,” She turned to throw her arms around him only to find him kneeling if front of her.

“Buffy, will you do me the honors of giving me your hand in marriage a second time?” He held up a small emerald ring that made Buffy’s eyes tear up. It was Dawn’s engagement ring. She had thought Dawn had been buried with it. “Nibblet…she gave it to me just before…she wanted you to have it someday and I thought this would be a good,” Spike swallowed hard and didn’t finish his sentence. .

“Sssh, I love it…I love you. I love you and I’d marry you a million times over.” Buffy dropped to her knees in front of him and threw her arms around his neck.

“Well, we could do that, you know,” Spike murmured between kisses. “Got eternity to spend marrying you over and over again. Could do it once a year if you like.”

“No. Not every year. Just like this,” she said. “Once a century, you and me and this grassy hill.”

“Happy one hundred, pet.”

XXX

It was dark when she opened her eyes. Time didn’t matter anymore. It was light. It was dark. She was here, he wasn’t, and she couldn’t join him.

Buffy looked down at her arms. Completely healed. Not ever a raised line to show where she ripped her veins apart.

She stood up and surveyed her kitchen. Not her kitchen, their kitchen. The battery acid had eaten a hole through the island. Tears sprang to her eyes. Spike loved that island. He said it reminded him of the island in her house back in Sunnydale when he used to sit with her mom and drink hot chocolate. It was the one thing he had asked they install in every place they’d ever lived, and she had ruined it.

“’M sorry, ‘m sorry,” she sobbed as she began filling cups of water to pour on the smoldering hole. “I’ll fix it, and it will be right as-as rain, you’ll see, and when you come back you won’t even know the hole was there…” Buffy dropped the glass and covered her face with her hands. Her knees hit the floor as she collapsed. “Please give him back to me. Please,” she begged to the empty air. “I’ve been a good Slayer. I fought the good fight. I killed your demons and stopped your apocalypses. Please let me have him back. He’s my everything.”

XXX


“Hey, Buffy?”

“Yeah?”

“Have you seen my duster? I can’t find it,” Spike called out from the bedroom.

“Which one?”

“The one you got me last Christmas. I want to wear it when we go out tonight.”

Buffy walked into the room and leaned against the door frame. She watched in amusement as Spike crawled under the bed, then peered behind the dresser before looking under the bed again.

“Where did you see it last,” she asked, trying to maintain a straight face.

“Night before last. I came home, took it off, and draped it on the dresser. Now it’s not there. I can’t understand it.”

Shaking her head, Buffy walked over to the closet, opened the door and pulled out the jacket. “Oh,” she said in a mocking tone. “Look what I found in the closet…right where it belongs. I wonder how it could have gotten there.”

Spike sat back on his haunches, a sheepish grin on his face. “Er, sorry ‘bout that, luv. Meant to hang it up and all that.”

“Uh-huh,” Buffy replied. “You know that might have worked in the beginning, but after almost two hundred years, I’ve given up on hoping that you’ll ever, ever, ever learn to hang your damn duster in the closet.”

Spike looked up at her through his lashes. “I guess I’ve been a naughty man and you’ll have to punish me.” He crawled toward her, and ran his hands slowly up the backs of her legs and under her skirt.

Buffy moaned when he began to pepper her lower regions with kisses, and she felt her knees begin to weaken.

“I must always, always remember to hang up my clothes when I’m not wearing them,” Spike murmured between kisses.

“Oh,” Buffy closed her eyes. “Mmmm, not that I don’t, oh, love where this is, ooh, going…” She fisted her hands in his hair as his tongue entered her. “Oh, Spike…We’ve got to…go…made…oh, right there…plans.”

Spike growled into her thigh and ignored her, sinking his teeth into the tender skin before lathing it with his tongue.

“Yes! I mean…oh, God. Spike…promised…”

He pressed his tongue flat against her clit and she came, screaming his name and shifting into game face. He stood up quickly and sank his fangs into her neck. She came again, sinking her own fangs into him.

“Mine,” he growled.

“As you are mine,” she whispered back.

They stayed frozen in each other’s arms for a moment before Spike spoke again. “Do we really have to go see Angel?”

XXX

Angel stood outside the door to Buffy and Spike’s accommodations and ran his fingers through his hair. He wanted to go in. He wanted to help her the way she had helped him after Cordelia’s passing, and then Connor’s passing after that.

For the first day she had been in shock. She didn’t move, didn’t blink, barely seemed to breathe. He’d tried to feed her, both food and blood, but she wouldn’t open her mouth. Just sat still as stone and stared off into space.

The second day, she’d began screaming. Long, angst filled screams that shook his entire being until he thought that his soul would break under her sadness. He’d tried to hold her, but she knocked him across the room. She pulled at her hair and scratched welts into her arms as she shredded her clothes with her nails. He’d sat in the corner of the room and watched her, unsure of how to help.

Her first suicide attempt had been on day three. He should have known better then to fall asleep. To sleep meant there had been quiet, quiet meant Buffy had stopped screaming, no screaming meant badness all around.

The first attempt was a simple slitting of the wrists. He’d found her lying in the bathtub, her hair floating in the blood red water around her like a golden halo. She sat straight up, sputtering on the water as he entered the bathroom.

“Not dead,” she mumbled. “Didn’t work, not dead.”

She stepped out of the tub letting the blood drip down her body in small rivers as she walked toward the door.

“Don’t get blood on the carpet, Spike,” she mumbled. “It’s my bloody carpet too, and if I want to drip blood all over my bloody carpet I will,” she answered herself, lowering her voice and giving it a British accent. “No ‘cause I always have to clean it up.”

Angel watched in morbid fascination as Buffy held the two sided conversation with herself.

“Buffy?” he said softly.

For a moment she acted like she hadn’t heard him, but the she’d pivoted slightly to face him.

“Your fault,” she said. “Your fault! Your FAULT! YOURFAULTYOURFAULTYOURFAULTYOURFAULT!” She’d catapulted herself at him, clawing at his face and shrieking. “Went out to meet YOU! Still be here if you hadn’t wanted to go to dinner.”

Angel fended her off the best he could without hurting her. “Buffy! Think about what you’re saying. We always meet for dinner at this time of year. The first-OW-Friday of –OW- June to do the memorandum for the gang. It was your idea. We’ve been doing it for a hundred and fifty years.”

She’d thrown him out of the house, literally. The moment he was out the door, she began muttering the dis-invite spell. A beating heart meant demons needed an invitation to her home. The invisible field had been up before he could get his bearings, and he’d been forced to spend the past two weeks with his face pressed against her windows as he watched Buffy try to kill herself again and again.

“The dolly is all broken.”

Angel jerked out of his thoughts at the sound of the voice.

“Poor dolly,” Drusilla said, stepping out of the shadows to stand beside him. “But don’t worry, Mummy’s come to make it all better again.

Chapter 2

It’s a cold man’s nightmare to be warm where she lays
And he’s to go through fire to be sure that’s where he stays
-Cathy Davy

Xander threw the cards on the table with a sigh and looked at the clock again. “So did Spike tell anyone that he was going to be late to the game tonight?” he asked the other two demons at the table.

“Naw, he didn’t talk to me,” Mike said, scratching one claw against his spiked face.

“Wait, is this da week he was takin’ da Slayer on vacation for their anniversary?” Sid asked. “’Cause ‘member, he told us that we had to call in Bob to take his spot that week.”

Xander shook his head. “No, their anniversary’s not for another two weeks. Are there any apocalypses scheduled this week that you know of?”

Sid shook his head.

“There was one like a week ago, but I think some monks in Prague took care of it,” Mike said.

Xander leaned forward, resting his arms on the table. “Monks…in Prague…took care of an apocalypse. What world are you living in? There hasn’t been any form of religion since the religious wars of 2139, so how did monks stop an apocalypse?”

Mike looked down at the table and became very interested in a mole on his hand.

“Sid, didn’t you talk to Spike last week when you called to cancel the game?” Xander asked.

“No, no one picked up da phone so I leave a message after the beep, but no one call me back.”

“Why don’t we call now?” Mike asked.

Xander shot him a look of exasperation. “And how would you like to do that Mike? There’s no phone here, remember? Hello! Demon library.”

“We could go visit him,” Sid suggested.

“And this is why Spike and I kick your asses in cards every week. I.Can’t.Leave.The.Library. Remember that part? It’s part of my contract. I live here twenty four/seven except on my two weeks allotted vacation every year.”

Sid laughed, “Oh yeah, I remember the pictures that Anya showed us from your vacation last year. They were funny.”

Xander sighed and leaned back in his chair with his eyes closed. He was muttering to himself under his breath. There was a slight poof of smoke and Anya appeared next to him.

“Xander, honey, this better be important because I was in the middle of eviscerating a man,” she said impatiently.

“Ahn, would you mind swinging by Spike and Buffy’s later tonight before you come home. Spike didn’t show up for the card game tonight, and no one’s heard from him in two weeks.”

Anya frowned, “You know, Buffy was supposed to meet me for lunch on Saturday but she didn’t show up. I was quite mad about it at the time, but luckily I was called away on some wish and I guess I forgot about it.”

Xander chewed his lower lip. “Something’s not right here. Buffy missing lunch? Spike missing cards? Spike never misses cards.”

Anya patted him on the head affectionately, “I’ll swing by after work, okay?” She kissed him on the cheek.

“Have fun doing vengeance, Miss Anya,” Sid said respectfully. Anya had granted the wish that had given Sid his speech issues. She also gave him webbed toes, but he was able to hide that part.

Anya nodded at him and disappeared from the room.

XXX

“Unca Ike! Unca Ike!”

“Oof!” Spike’s legs were knocked out from under him by the toddler that slammed into him at full ramming speed.

“Marry Krismas, Unca Ike!” Taylor yelled as he scooted up Spike’s body to wrap his arms around the vampire’s neck.

“Merry Christmas Taylor,” Spike replied. “My you’re getting awfully strong there.”

“Yep, almos as strong as you and Aunt Uffy. That’s what mommy says.”

“Oh she does, eh? Well, Mr. Strongman, why don’t you go help your Aunt Buffy with the goodies from the car while I put the prezzies under the tree.”

“’Kay!” Taylor stood up and raced out the door to where Buffy was trying to balance several grocery bags of food.

“Hi Spike,” Dawn said, wiping her hand on a dish towel as she came into the room. “Sorry about that, but he’s been so excited about you coming to visit. He’s hoping to do flying man in front of the mirror again.”

Spike grinned, “Oh, is he now?”

“Buffy, do you need help?” Dawn asked as her sister came through the door.

“No, Taylor and I got it all, don’t we Taylor? You are getting so strong,” Buffy said, smiling at the child carrying the salad bowl.

“Yes, just like you and Unca Ike. When I grow up, I’m gonna be a super hero just like you.”

Spike watched the glow that radiated from Buffy’s eye as she talked to Taylor. God he wished they could have children. He knew that Buffy wanted that too. It was hard for her watching Dawn give birth to Taylor and knowing that a child was something she could never have. There had to be something he could do about that.

XXX

Buffy dragged herself from the kitchen to the bedroom on her knees. The bedroom floor was littered with Spike’s t-shirts. She picked up the first one that she came across and held it to her nose, inhaling deeply. The scent was too faint. She dropped it and picked up a different shirt. The scent was faint on that one too. Panicked, she made her way through most of the clothes on the floor.

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no,” she cried frantically.

She stood up and yanked the closet doors open. Quickly, she shuffled through her own clothes, knocking them on the floor in her haste.

“Gotta be one in here, gotta, gotta, gotta.”

Buffy stood on her toes trying to reach the top shelf of the closet. She pulled down all the neatly folded sweaters, knocked over the storage bins so that they fell just past her head, opening and spilling their contents. There in the far corner was a single black shirt. She shrieked and stretched her hand toward it, but she couldn’t reach. Buffy stood on her tiptoes and still couldn’t reach. She jumped and missed. She grabbed the shelf and tried to pull herself up. The entire shelf came loose, hitting her in the head and knocking her out.

XXX

Buffy hopped up and down on her feet.

“Buffy, luv, calm down.” Spike smiled at his beaming wife as she grinned and danced about like a five year old.

“Calm? How can we be calm,” she asked, standing on her toes and pulling him toward her by the lapels of his duster. “Spike, we’re about to meet our daughter.” She giggled. “Spike…we have a daughter!”

“I know we do, pet,” Spike pressed a kiss against her forehead. “And you’re going to make a bloody marvelous mum.”

Buffy bit her lip and grew suddenly quiet.

“Wot’s wrong?” he asked, worriedly.

“Spike,” she whispered. “What-what if she changes her mind? What if she doesn’t sign the papers?”

“Not gonna happen, luv.”

“But-but it could. Things like that happen all the time.”

Spike brushed a lock of hair out of her face, then kissed her tearing eyes. “Then I’ll eat her,” he murmured.

“Mr. and Mrs. Summers?” The doctor waited until he had their attention. “Come with me please.”

Buffy locked her fingers with Spike’s and put on her resolve face before following the doctor into his office. They sat in the chairs the doctor provided, hands still clasped. The doctor sat across from them, behind his desk. He pushed a stack of papers at them.

“I’m pleased to say that after you sign these papers, you are the proud parents of a healthy baby girl.”

Buffy let out a squeal, jumped up and threw her arms around the doctor’s neck. He let out a surprised choke at the strength of her grip.

“Sorry, doc. She’s a bit excited. You know how women get,” Spike said as he pried Buffy off the man. She transferred her arms from the doctor’s neck to Spike’s.

“We have a daughter! We have a daughter! I’m a mom!” she half screamed, half cried. “I wanna see her. Can we see her?” she pleaded, turning back to face the doctor.

He laughed. “Of course, Mrs. Summers, but, please, the papers first?”

Spike chuckled as Buffy grabbed the stack and began signing her name left and right, passing each page to him when he was done.

“Sign faster, Spike,” she whispered low enough that only he could hear. “Don’t make me stake you for being slow. I’ll never forgive you if I have to be a single mom.”

The door opened and a nurse stepped in holding a baby wrapped in a pink blanket. She handed the child to Buffy.

“Oh, oh, Spike look,” Buffy whispered leaning so that Spike could see. “She has ten little fingers…and ten little toes…” she gasped when the baby opened her eyes. They were bright blue. “Hello, little one. I’m your mommy. And this man, that’s your daddy.”

Spike wrapped his arm around Buffy’s waist as she bounced the baby in her arms. “Hello, Madison Joyce,” he whispered.

Chapter 3

If the silence takes you
Then I hope it takes me too
-Death Cab for Cutie

Anya surveyed the scene before her. The entire living room was in shambles and the kitchen looked like a war zone.

“Buffy! Spike!” she called, picking her way carefully through the mess. “Are you home? I would have knocked but Angel’s out there with some strange vampiress and she looked a little off her sanity if you get my meaning.”

Anya stood up the bottom of the stairs and chewed her lip. “I’m coming up. Just so you know, okay. I hope that you’re not having boisterous sex or anything. Although I’m sure I would have heard you by now, so I’m thinking you’re not home…or maybe you were robbed. Were you robbed?”

She continued talking as she made her way up the stairs and down the hallway. She paused to look into each room noting that the guest rooms still looked in proper order as did the guest bathroom. The hallway, however, had a trail of Spike’s clothes that lead straight toward the master bedroom.

“Buffy, did you and Spike have a fight? Did you throw him out of the house or something?” It made her feel better to hear her own voice in the silence. The house was never silent, if Buffy and Spike were home there was always some sort of noise, music or laughing or talking or the vidscreen. Hmm, that reminded her. She promised Xander she would see if Spike would let them borrow his copy of Super Beyond Man. The thought made her smile, Xander still loved his comic books and was always trying to get her to bring home the latest from comic to big screen copies of them.

Finally Anya made it to the doorway of the master bedroom, and a gasp escaped her lips. Of all the rooms in the house, this one had seen the most devastation. There was dried blood covering the bed sheets, and the floor was covered in piles of clothing. The closet had been ripped apart, the shelves lying on the floor. Storage tubs lay on their sides, the contents strewn across the floor.

There was a moan from underneath one of the piles and Anya flew into the room, pulling at clothes and pictures and such and throwing them over her shoulder. Blonde hair started to emerge from underneath the rubble and finally she revealed Buff’s face.

“Buffy! Buffy! Open your eyes and look at me!” Anya demanded. “Pulse, pulse, pulse, gotta check for a pulse….wait a minute, you’re immortal. Wake up, Buffy! You have to tell me what happened.”

Anya grasped Buffy underneath her arms and pulled her out from the pile before kneeling next to her and slapping her across the face.

“I said, wake up! Buffy, you need to tell me what happened. Where’s Spike? How long have you been trapped here? Who did this?”

Buffy opened her eyes slowly and looked at Anya. “Anya?” she asked.

“Where’s Spike? What happened?” Anya repeated.

Buffy’s eyes filled with tears and she threw herself at Anya, buring her face in the girl’s lap. “He’s gone! Oh, Anya he’s gone and I can’t go with him. Gone, gone, gone, gone, left me alone. He’s left me all-all alone and they won’t let me go with him,” she sobbed.

Anya froze, “What do you mean, he’s gone?”

“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust,” Buffy sobbed. “Dust to dust, dust to dust, dust to dust, dust, dust, dust, dust, dust, dust in the jar.”

Anya wrapped her arms around the sobbing girl. “Sssh, it’s okay Buffy. It’ll be okay. I’m gonna take you home with me.”

“NO! No, no, no, no, no. This is all I have left. Can’t leave here. If I leave here, alone, then he’s really gone. See, if I stay here he might come back.” Buffy pushed away from Anya in fear.

“Buffy, honey, Spike’s not coming back.”

“Don’t you say that! Don’t s-say that! I’m a good Slayer and the Powers will give him back. They have to. Okay? They have to. See, I kept him so that he can come back.” Buffy stood on wobbling legs and walked over to the nightstand by the bed. She opened the cabinet drawer to reveal an urn and a box.

“Oh, Buffy. Those are just his ashes.”

“Look Anya, I found his present to me.” She pulled out the box and opened it, revealing a red ring.

Anya’s eyes widened. “Buffy, don’t you remember what that is? That’s the red ring of power you gave to Dawn after you first became immortal. It’s powerful, you don’t want to be messing around with that. Buffy, you need to come with me. Xander and I will take care of you.”

“NO!” Buffy stood up and shoved Anya backwards.

“Buffy! What are you doing? I’m trying to help you. I’m your friend.”

“Not my friend. Want me to leave here, leave Spike. I’m not going!”

“Buffy, Spikes d-“ her words were cut off by Buffy’s fist hitting her chin.

“OW! What the hell did you do that for? Fine. Fine, you don’t want me here then I’m leaving.” Anya yelled, rubbing her cheek. She was gone in a puff of smoke leaving Buffy in the room alone.

XXX

Buffy ducked under the punch from the demon, and managed to get a hit of her own directly in his fleshy stomach. The demon winced and took a few steps backwards.

“You doin’ okay, luv?” Spike called from where he was engaged in his own battle.

“Just fine. Me and ugly here are just finishing up,” she responded as she cut off the demon’s head. “See, finished.”

“Same here,” Spike said, stepping beside her. “Where’d the other one go though?”

They both turned to see demon number three trying to make his way over to the alter of the temple. He held a ceremonial knife above his head. The young girl tied to the table began to double her efforts in an attempt to get free.

Without speaking, both began to run after the demon.

“Spike, get the girl. I’ll get the knife,” Buffy yelled.

“I’ve already got a girl, so I’ll just rescue this one if that’s all right with you, pet.”

Buffy tried not to roll her eyes at him, but a small smile did creep onto her face. She tackled the demon from behind and they rolled on the floor, each trying to get the upper hand. The knife slid into her should and she let out a scream.

“Buffy!”

She heard Spike yelling, but couldn’t answer. The poison from the knife burned into her blood, making her eyes water.

“I guess you’ll make a fine sacrifice as well. Not a virgin, but the Slayer has to count for something,” the demon hissed at her.

“You dumbass, I can’t die,” she retorted.

“Don’t need death,” the demon answered. “Just blood.” He pushed down on her injured should squeezing the blood from the wound. “Thanks, Slayer.”

Buffy couldn’t move. The poison was making her way through her bloodstream and paralyzing her. The demon grabbed her by her hair and began dragging her toward the new free alter. She was dropped suddenly, and she could hear the sounds of a fight directly behind her.

“Come on, Buffy. Shake off the poison now. You can do it,” Spike was yelling.

She concentrated on moving her fingers. “Work with me body.” She thought to herself. “Move your finger. Move your finger.”

There was a squishing sound behind her, and then Spike was kneeling at her side.

“Come on, luv. Need you to start moving for me, kay? Grasp my hand.”

Time seemed to stand still as Buffy struggled to make her hand do her bidding. Finally she was able to wrap her hand around Spike’s.

“There you go. That’s my girl. Gonna get you home now, get you fixed up.”

She felt him slid his arm under her knees, the other around her shoulders, as he lifted her off the ground. He nuzzled her neck affectionately. “Gonna be a long night, luv. Gotta get you movin’. Don’t recon you like the idea of being paralyzed for the rest of eternity. But don’t you worry, we won. Stopped the bitty bad in his tracks, and now ‘m gonna fix you all up.”

Buffy felt the corners of her lips start to twitch in an effort to smile. Yeah, everything would always be alright as long as she had Spike by her side.

XXX

“Drusilla, when did you get here? How did you get here?” Angel backed away from her slightly.

She pouted, “Daddy isn’t happy to see his princess?”

“Just wondering why you’re here.”

Drusilla smiled and sashayed her way closer to him. “Mummy’s here to fix the baby. Her sadness called to me, the grief stripping away my flesh bit by bit until it lay all red and dripping. She calls for her knight to save her, but he’s flown away beyond where her light can reach him.”

“And how are you going to help her?” Angel asked, ignoring the hand that was exploring his chest.

“Shhh, it’s a secret,” she whispered in his ear. “The stars told me how. Lots of red, lots of pain…a little soul for a Champion.”

“What do you mean?” his voice hardened.

“Sssh, can’t tell you. Told too much already. Shhh, secrets, secrets, secrets housed inside my head for too many years, longing to be let out into the world. Open the box let it all out. Poor Pandora didn’t know.”

“What didn’t Pandora know, Dru? What are you going to do to Buffy?”

“Mummy’s don’t hurt babies, not their own at least. Never hurt baby. Bring back the knight, bring back the…night,” she replied and smiled. “Come, let us inside to help her.”

Angel shook his head. “We’re not invited.”

Drusilla opened the door to the house and stepped in. “Maybe you’re not, but she’s calling to me. I must see her.”

A/N: The two different spellings of knight and night were done intentionally.