Distro: Mystifying Dreams, WWOMB, WLS, RedsSoulmates, Poetry In Motion, NHA, Writings of the Femail, my Livejournal and others
Spoilers: season 5
Rating: Over 13.
Summary: And they all fall down.
Thanks to Jennillu and Kat for the beta.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I have to hold back the tears as my poor sweet baby walks along in front of me, stumbling as she pulls at her cast. Everyone else follows a short distance behind, saying nothing, but I feel their sympathy. A big old sigh leaves me as I try to get calm and focused. I hope what I have planned works. I don’t know what will happen to Tara if I fail. Rounding a corner, we arrive at some rickety, Nightmare-Before-Christmas tower.
It’s time for the Willow show and I ask for courage. Spike, sweet as he is, offers me a swig of something that I’m pretty certain will melf my insides, but I decline. I need a clear head and a clear heart.
Apparently it’s the crazy convention because a slew of Glory’s brain-suck victims are here, working like manic little elves on the tower. I’m not exactly sure what they are doing to improve it. It’s obviously a structure of architectural genius already.
I can feel myself rolling my eyes at myself for these thoughts, but I can’t seem to stop myself from thinking them. When Tara enters the construction area I know I'd better get it together right now and follow as everyone else gets in place.
Whatever programming Glory has instilled in Tara has her immediately going to work, her cast tossed aside. The hell bitch herself arrives and I get real pissed as her filthy hand clamps down on my sweetie.
“You...what are you doing here?” Glory demands.
She doesn’t see as I approach from behind, thank the goddess. I really need as many breaks as I can get.
“She’s with me,” I say as I put my hands on both her head and Tara, willing the essence of Tara to return to its rightful place. The power surges through me and we all get blasted back on our asses. But I know it worked as I struggle to keep from passing out.
Around me I can hear the fighting, Buffy, or the Buffybot if the plan is going right, making quipping comments, and everyone else has jumped into the fray. I crawl to Tara and she’s just laying there and for a second I think I was wrong, she is still gone. And then she looks at me, really looks at me, and says my name and I feel my heart leaping for joy as I kiss and hug her tightly.
“I found you....I will always find you.”
Even as I say this I can feel it, him, flowing through me, his glee from the fight a tangible thing until he and the others are trapped behind brick throwing minions.
I am snatched away from this by the sound of Dawn screaming for Buffy. Looking skyward, I think I see her at the top of the tower.
Crap! I want so badly to get up there, but it’ll take me all day to climb that thing. Spike, however, can be there is seconds. Nothing is ever fair!
Think, Willow, think!
Someone’s up there.
Huh? Spike? Up there? I look and see someone else besides Dawnie. Was that his voice in my head?
Spike...can you hear me?
Yeah. Loud and clear.
There’s someone up there with Dawn.
Yeah. Can’t tell who.
Get up there. Go now!
Yeah, but...
Go!!
He doesn’t hesitate again and I grab Tara’s hand, using her power to add to mine and the new power inside me. Instantly, as soon as I desire it, Glory’s minions and mindless are tossed aside, making a way for him to get up the tower without being knocked silly by flying mortar.
I don’t have time to marvel at how easy it was to pull that off, or how talking to Spike in my head felt so natural and right. Tara is kissing me, holding me, and I’ve never felt so conflicted or scared. Spike is up there now; I can see him tussling with the other person.
Closing my eyes, I picture myself in him, as part of his being, and send a bolt of my magic through him and into the creature he’s fighting. Tearing me from this supernatural union is the sound of a desperate and angry scream. It’s punctuated by a body hitting the ground a few feet away from me. It’s a small old man, grandfatherly and sweet, but broken and bleeding some green liquid, not dead yet unable to move. Everything considered, he is having a really bad day.
I pull away from Tara’s embrace and walk over to him while he looks up at me, not pleading but resolved. I recognize that look and know that if I let him go, he’ll make us pay later. There is an axe, one of ours maybe, but maybe not. I hope it belongs to this hellish construction crew that Glory created. It would be fitting.
“The Great One will find a way, young lady. This is just a temporary setback,” he vows weakly.
I nod and return his determined look with one of my own before raising the blade and bringing it down quickly, slicing clean through his neck and into the concrete below. There is a strange joy in me that I wisely attribute to Spike just as I turn to see him carrying Dawn down the ramshackle structure.
Dropping the troll-god hammer, Buffy rushes to them and takes Dawn from the vampire, her eyes teary with gratitude. He ducks his head, almost bashfully, and turns away, our eyes meeting as he does. His gaze drifts down to my mouth and just as I think he’ll devour me with his stare, he swoops in and uses his lips instead. The kiss is full of pent up passion, fear of losing each other, and a longing that is so deeply ingrained in me that I wonder at how I ever considered myself in love before. I hear gasping in stereo, Tara and Buffy I think, but it’s too late to stop this and I don’t want to anyway.
Soon we’ll have to face them. I’ll have to answer to Tara, and Spike will have to answer to everyone, but for now, we have each other and this moment and I won’t cheapen it by being ashamed.
The End