Title: The Wish
Chapter: 1 of ?
Rating: PG-13 (this one'll be tame folks)
Pairings: William/Buffy, Spike/Buffy (but it'll be awhile...), Willow/Tara, Xander/Anya
Spoilers: Early Season 6. Buffy died, Joyce is gone, and oh yeah, HUGE spoilers for Season 5's 'Fool For Love'.
Disclaimer: What do you think? I own nothing. Not even my laptop anymore. *sniff*
Summary: While arguing with Spike, Buffy sarcastically wishes to see Spike as the 'macho man' he was before he was turned. A demon grants her wish, and she soon finds herself in England, 1880. But what she finds isn't exactly what she expected.



 

“Spike, please…”


 

“No! We’re gonna talk ‘bout this now!”


 

Buffy sighed. She could feel another migraine coming on. And it wasn’t even 9:30 yet. The Scoobies were patrolling, and Spike had decided to talk about his declaration of love for her. She didn’t want to talk about it. Ever. And especially not in front of the others. But he wouldn’t stop! Ugh, he annoyed her to no end. Was he born this big a pain in the ass? She could hear him warming up again, and decided enough was enough.


 

“Okay, you wanna talk about it?” Buffy snapped, cutting him off. “We’ll talk about it. About you being sick, twisted, and bent on giving me grief throughout my existence! That’s what we’ll talk about. How you have an obsession for me that’s just…just…” She clenched her fists and turned.


 

“Just what, Slayer?” His lips curled upwards in a snarl, and Buffy suppressed a grin. Finally, she was getting through to him.


 

“I just told you.”


 

Xander sighed and sat down on a headstone. “Look, we’re supposed to be looking out for vamps to dust, not arguing over hormones.”


 

“Oh, but I’ve found a vampire I can dust,” she muttered darkly.


 

“See, that’s your problem. You won’t accept anyone’s offers of love, ‘cause you’re ‘fraid of gettin’ hurt. You don’t know what love is anymore! You turn it away whenever it comes near you. No wonder you’ve never had a boyfriend that’s stayed ‘round here longer.”


 

Buffy could feel her anger soaring to its peak. “Oh yeah, I’m sure you were a macho guy in your day, hanging with all of the pretty ladies.”


 

Spike’s cheeks flushed red. “Don’t push it, Slayer,” he growled.


 

“What, and you weren’t? I would’ve thought they’d been lining up just to see you and hear your voice speak such ‘gentle words’,” she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.


 

Willow and Tara took three steps back and nearly bumped into Anya, who was already pushed against a tree. Xander and Giles quickly joined them. They knew she’d gone too far.


 

The minute the words fell from her mouth, she knew it too. Spike stepped back as if physically hit, the look of hurt on his face quickly replaced by heightening anger and rage.


 

“Take. It. Back,” he growled.


 

Buffy folded her arms. “You know what? I wish I could’ve seen you when you were alive. I bet it would’ve been humorous.”


 

With a cry of rage he lunged at her. He stopped short when the cry of rage continued, even after Spike had closed his mouth. He frowned, then turned to his left.


 

Buffy followed his gaze to find herself staring at the biggest demon she’d ever encountered. Its face was a vast pool of nothing, and its clothes were old robes, torn and ripped.


 

“Buffy!” Giles called, throwing her an axe.


 

“You mind telling me what this thing is?” she asked, catching the axe and ducking as the demon swung at her.


 

“I do believe it’s a Malrox demon, but I thought they didn’t exist,” he said, trailing off.


 

Xander snorted. “Yeah, well, I thought vamps and demons didn’t exist, and look where I am.”


 

Buffy swung wide and hit it in the leg. The demon growled and pulled its right arm back.


 

As Buffy pulled her arms back for a swing that would slice the demon’s trunk in two, a smaller demon suddenly leapt out of the Malrox’s chest and tackled Buffy to the ground.


 

In seconds Spike was there, throwing the demon off of her. “Don’t think it’s ‘cause I’m all happy-happy ‘bout you again,” he warned her. “We still have a fight after this one.”


 

“Be happy to oblige. I’ve been looking forward to dusting you for years,” Buffy said, as more demons leapt out of the Malrox’s chest. The other Scoobies came forward to help.


 

With the little ones under control, she could concentrate on the big one. His right arm was still pulled back, but now his right hand was pulsing brightly. She swung for its leg and found herself on the ground, the wind knocked out of her. She struggled to breathe as the source of the hit, two more arms, came out of the chest.


 

“It’s like Felix’s bag of tricks,” she muttered. She pulled herself up and hacked off one of the outstretched arms. The demon howled and with its two other arms, both on the left side, leapt for her. She rolled and dodged the attack and knocked off both arms. She smiled with satisfaction as it let out a terrible roar. She never saw it coming.


 

“BUFFY!!”


 

Buffy turned and found herself face to face with the final arm of the demon. The only thing that stopped her flight was a crypt. Her head knocked against the concrete, and she slumped to the ground, unconscious.


 

The demon crumpled over, then exploded into an array of sparks. “Definitely a Malrox, judging by the fireworks display,” Giles muttered, as the last of the little demons fell at his feet.


 

The rest of the Scoobies were on their way to Buffy. Fear gripped into Spike’s heart like never before. He’d called out to her, tried to warn her of the demon. And he hadn’t meant those things…hadn’t meant to get upset with her…oh please, let her be all right…


 

He reached her and choked back a sob. Her face was covered in blood, and when he touched her neck, he could feel her pulse slowing.


 

“Willow…” he managed, his voice starting to crack.


 

Willow nodded. “We need to get her out of here. Back somewhere safe.”


 

Giles came forward, his eyes widening in shock as he gazed at his fallen Slayer. “There’s…there’s something I should tell you all about the Malrox demon…”




 

Buffy awoke to the sound of laughter. They must be celebrating. The demon must have been defeated. But then, why was piano music playing in the background?


 

Buffy sat up. She wasn’t on her couch. This one was…new, but old. It looked like it could’ve come from the Victorian age. The voices she had heard before were right around the other edge of the sofa. She peeked over the top of the sofa and stared in shock.


 

Men were dressed in frills, and women were dressed in huge hoop skirts. And she knew none of them. Their accent wasn’t American, either…


 

“I say, we may have rain next Thursday! That would put a damper on our hunting trip, wouldn’t it Robert?”


 

“Indeed. We may have to hunt indoors!”


 

More laughter. Buffy began to feel sick. Her world started turning upside down, and for the first time in a long time, she felt scared. She managed to stand and started wobbling towards the door, hoping that fresh air would help. A somehow familiar voice stopped her in her tracks.


 

“I know I’m a bad poet, but I’m a good man and all I ask is that…that you try to see me…”


 

Buffy peeked around the corner and couldn’t believe what she was seeing. A young man that looked strangely familiar was seated next to a girl and he was pleading with her. Buffy blinked, frowning as the young woman next to him stood and cut him off.


 

“I do see you. That’s the problem. You’re nothing to me, William. You’re beneath me.”


 

Those last words hit Buffy almost as hard as they hit the young man, or William. Buffy remembered a night, not too long ago, where she had said those very same words to someone else’s face.


 

The woman stood and walked away, leaving the young man sitting there, tears rising in his eyes. His hands clutched several papers, as he suddenly stood and ran past the laughing men and women, tears freely flowing down his face.


 

Suddenly Buffy staggered. She couldn’t take anymore. She had to get home. Home…where was home? Where was everybody? She started forward and crashed into the young man as they both reached for the door.


 

“Oh! I do apologize, Miss,” he stammered, trying to rapidly blink away tears.


 

Buffy looked up and finally recognized him. She gasped and leaned against the wall.


 

“Miss?”


 

“SPIKE?!”


 

Before he could answer, she closed her eyes and drifted to the floor.