tamingthemuse | Knowledge is Power, PG-13, Buffy, 1/1, Prompt 18

Title: Knowledge is Power
Fandom: Buffy
Prompt: #18 - wergeld
Warnings: S5 spoiler. Not really a happy ending. Not a bad one, but...not what you'd expect from my writing.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Willow comes to Spike with a moral question.

Wordcount: 1623

Concrit equals so much love, you have no idea. So please, let me know!

Also, I know this Spike isn't normally the Spike I write. I tried to touch into a darker, more obsessed Spike with this one. He's a little...deluded, you might say. No real Spike/Buffy in this, though he seems to think so. You'll see.

Also, I was completely intending on writing more Her Saving Grace, but my muse threw this at me instead. *pokes her muse*

Spike would've been just happy enough to sip his drink alone. All right, he wasn't sipping it; it was more of a chugging sort of thing, but sipping didn't get you to a drunk enough state where you could forget about the world going to hell in a hand basket and the sound of a beautiful girl hitting the concrete below after she'd jumped.

Crash bang thud.

Yeah. Wasn't enough drink in the world to do that for him.

So when Willow came in through his crypt door, he was a little on the pissed off side that he couldn't get further pissed. It made sense in his head somewhere. Maybe he was drunk. “What d'you want?” he growled at her, tipping his head back and taking another huge swallow. It burned the back of his throat, but the burning faded away quickly enough to numbness. Ah, the beginnings of a drunken night. He liked that much better.

She stared at him for a moment, and he remembered when she'd been a tiny thing in the warehouse, shivering and fearful and looking absolutely delicious in more ways than one. He should've shagged her then; maybe he wouldn't have been obsessed with Buffy, then.

Maybe he wouldn't have fallen in love with her.

“I need your help on a moral question,” she finally said.

Spike blinked, glancing at the bottle in his hand. There was still a lot of it left; he couldn't be drunk enough to have imagined her saying it, which meant she'd really said it. “Why me?” he asked, frowning. Why the hell would the witch come to him for anything?

Willow bit her lip, and Spike desperately wanted to bite it for her, watch the blood trickle down her pink flesh, watch it continue down her pearly skin...

A smack on the side of his head made him growl, then hiss as the chip flared in his head. “Pay attention,” she ordered, and Spike hated that a little human like her could order him, a Master Vampire, around. As soon as the chip was out...

But he wouldn't. He knew he wouldn't. She was all right enough, he supposed. Plus, he didn't really want to anger a witch. She was getting more powerful by the day, to the point where standing next to her as she did a spell gave him a buzz.

“Listenin',” he said, taking another swallow from the bottle. “What type of moral question we got?”

Willow tapped her foot, but she didn't look nervous. She looked frustrated more than anything. “I think I know where Buffy is,” she finally said.

Spike stared at her, his eyes widening into round saucers. She...but how could... “Where?” he asked after a moment. “Besides the bloody cemetery.”

“Heaven,” Willow replied. “I'm pretty sure she's in heaven.”

Spike leaned back in his chair, contemplating this. Heaven; so she'd made it, then. She'd gotten her reward for all her good deeds here, and she'd earned herself an eternity of happiness. Good for her.

Except she'd left the rest of them in a world that was quickly going to shit. Real nice of her.

“So what's the question, then?” Spike asked. “You know where she is; congratulations. Doesn't help us much, does it?”

Willow gave him a look. “It might. I found a spell that could bring her back.”

The bottle dropped from his hands, and he leaned forward. “Bring her...back?” Bring her back; Willow could bring Buffy back. He'd be able to see her, talk to her, patrol with her, and maybe, just maybe...

Maybe she'd understand him. Maybe she'd give him a chance. She'd let him back into her house, hadn't she? She'd looked so open, so reachable as she'd gone up the stairs, and if she hadn't died, Spike was certain that he'd have gotten a crumb from her, maybe even more than a crumb. She'd been so close, and then...

Crash bang thud.

Death had stopped them from being happy. She would've loved him, if she'd just let herself. Death had split them up and had ended anything that could've happened.

Death, however, could be stopped. He could have her back, and he could get the crumbs he knew she'd give him. Willow could bring her back.

“How?” he asked. It was the obvious next question.

Willow shrugged. “It's not all that difficult; I'm actually surprised I didn't think of it sooner. The spell basically requires us to pay for her life, and we get her back. It's a wergeld, really.”

“Except backwards,” Spike said, and Willow nodded.

“Right. We're the family of the slain party, but we're the ones who'd have to pay the price for her.”

“What's the price?” Spike leaned back again, but didn't bother to retrieve his bottle. This was something he needed to hear while sober.

Willow thought it over for a minute. “It's several things, like the blood of a fawn, eyes of a newt, something of hers, and dirt from a sacred burial ground in China. Pretty much things I can get here or online. Those are the things needed for the offering. I do the incantation and mix all of those things in an urn of Osiris, and when he gets the payment, we get Buffy back.”

“Not zombie Buffy,” Spike said, the thought suddenly occurring to him.

Willow shook her head rapidly. “No, not zombie Buffy. We'd get our Buffy back. For good. Well, until she dies again, but...”

“Then let's do it,” Spike said, pushing himself out of his chair. This was good. This was better than good. Hell, this was better than getting drunk. He could have Buffy back, walking the earth and flashing her beautiful smile again.

Willow held up her hands. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Time to apply the brakes. See, the problem with this whole thing is that I'd be ripping her out of heaven. She's in paradise, Spike. Thus the whole moral question I had. Should I? Or should I leave her there? Just because I have the knowledge and the power doesn't mean I...”

“You listen here,” Spike said, pointing his finger at her. “It's a moral question, yeah, but it basically boils down to one thing: where is she needed more? Heaven?” He spread his arms wide. “Or here? We've been havin' problems with the local demons lately. You know it; I know it. The Hellmouth's too much for our little group to handle, and as soon as they figure out that we don't have a Slayer, we're all dead. Do you think Buffy would want that? Or would she want to be here to help?”

Willow bit her lip, looking unsure. He could tell that she was thinking it over, though; he almost had her. “You said it yourself: this spell will bring her back until she dies again. She'll go right back to heaven: not like they'd turn her away. She'd probably be welcomed back with double the hero points she'll have wracked up between when we brought her back and when she goes again. Not as if we're takin' her out for good, are we?”

The lip biting had stopped, but Willow still looked concerned. “Well...”

“You think Buffy could enjoy herself in heaven while we suffered and died? While Dawn suffered and died?” he said, bringing his voice down to a lower volume. He hated to pull the Bit into this, but he didn't have a choice.

Willow's eyes widened, and there was a fierce determination in them now. He had her. “Consider it done; I'll let you know when I do it,” she said, turning and heading out. Spike watched her go, feeling the urge to shout for joy. He was going to have Buffy back. He was really going to have her back.

He'd make her completely forget about heaven; she'd be so happy here with him, she wouldn't want to go back. He knew she would love him.

Two weeks later, he watched it happen. Willow chanted, and a dark mist covered the grave of Buffy Anne Summers. The earth rumbled briefly, and lightning flashed. Spike didn't care: his eyes were fastened on the grave.

She would be here, and she would be his. He would tell her how much he'd missed her, and how much he loved her, and things would be wonderful. The world needed her. He needed her, and he could finally have her.

She would probably mourn the loss of paradise. He would comfort her, tell her that things were better the way they were now. She was back, wasn't she? And she was with him. She would love him when she realized what he'd done for her. He'd brought her back to the world, to her family and friends, to everything she'd had to give up three months earlier.

A hand shot out of the grass, bloody and dirty. It shook as it grabbed onto the ground and pulled the rest of the body up. Her blonde hair was covered in dirt, and her eyes were wide as she gazed around for the first time in three months in confusion and horror. She pulled herself all the way out, shivering and shaking. It was just shock; she'd be fine.

Her eyes landed on him and Willow, and realization took hold as she saw the remnants of the spell. “Why?” she asked, her voice hoarse from no use. Tears flooded her eyes and rolled down her face, leaving streaks in the dirt upon her cheeks. “Why?” she asked again, her voice coming out as a choked sob.

Spike gazed at her and smiled with pure bliss. “Because I love you,” he said simply.

Everything was going to be wonderful now.

~Nebula

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

You had indeed scared me - was reading between spread fingers.

An interesting twist on canon... poor Spike. Maybe it was a good thing they bypassed asking him in canon... I would have hated his being complicit in tearing Buffy from her 'final' resting place.

Glad I fave in and read. *smiles*

LOL; I didn't mean to frighten that much! (Though some of the things my brother's jokingly suggested have caused me to do the same thing...)

I think it really was a good thing in the end; he was on Buffy's side then, and he felt badly about it enough to care. That was the difference.

I'm glad you gave in and read it too! ^_^

~Nebula

Oh, god. That's chilling. He sounds just like my ex-husband. ::shudder::

I didn't mean for it to be that creepy! *pets you and offers you chocolate* I need to write some fluff to combat this one...

~Nebula

(deleted comment)

I was contemplating her using some part of him in the sacrifice, but eventually decided against it. It would've taken too much.

Thank you so much; I'm really glad I got him in this one. I know that my Spike isn't a canon!Spike, but I like my Spike better, because this one...I don't like him. I don't know why Astra gave him to me.

I thought it would really fit Willow's canon moments, too. She really did go to anyone who would agree with her in her quest of sorts for more power. It's kind of scary how far lost she got.

~Nebula

Oh that's nice and twisty. Willow coming to Spike with a moral question shows just how out of synch she was by that point. Spike is extra delustional, just like in canon. I fully expect a staking in his immediate future. I half expected Willow to kill him as part of the sacrifice at the last minute. Very good.

Thanks sweetie! I wanted to not just hit Spike canon-wise, but Willow as well. And I did contemplate him dusting, but decided not to. This ending just took hold a little faster, so I went with this one instead. Glad you liked it! ^_^

~Nebula

Very nice. Poor delusional Spike. But he is very true to cannon. It's like he said in season 6, after they did bring Buffy back: Willow knew there was a chance that she'd come back wrong. So wrong that you'd have ... that she would have to get rid of what came back. And I wouldn't let her. If any part of that was Buffy, I wouldn't let her. And that's why she shut me out.
Except this time she dragged him in. Oh, poor Spike. Buffy is going to blame him, after that last line - like it was his idea and his doing.
Very nice.

I'd forgotten all about that quote, but you're right, that really does tie in! Spike would be delusional and ever the hopeful bitch of love to have let it happen. And in the future, I can definitely see Buffy as being very retaliatory to Spike for this one.

Thank you!

~Nebula

Oh that was really excellent. Spot on characterisation from Spike. So obsessed and self obsessed that he really can't see that bringing her back is the most selfish thing they could do.
And I like that your Willow at least asks the question, but in the end she too wants Buffy back - she just wanted someone else to persuade her that it was the right thing to do.

I'd love to see more of this if you get the right prompt.

Thank you so much sweetie! I'm really glad I got him with this one; I don't normally like my Spike like this, but I think it was fun to try him the 'real' way, not my fanon way. At least now I know that I could. ^_^

I'm not sure I could; the latest prompt is going straight to my Spike/Fred, but it's a possibility. I'll have to feed Astra and see what she comes up with. ~_^

~Nebula

Oh lordy, lordy, lordy

This is just so twisted and wrong and completely believable given a drunk, desperate Spike. I like to think that 120 years gave him enough sense to know better than this, but when it comes down to it, he's love's bitch, and he'll do anything for love, even his obsessive, sick version of it.

Thank you so much sweetie! I'm so glad it hit canon Spike!

His 120 years weren't all the best experience in the 'let's be smart' run; if anything, they just furthered his love's bitch mantra, and it's come down to this. I think the response to this story would be a little darker, so I'm not sure if I will, but Astra always has the final say. ~_^

~Nebula

Knowledge is Power, PG-13, Buffy, 1/1, Prompt 18

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