Lost Champion


Chapter Two

AN: Collaboration between Thianna and Elizabeth Anne Summers. Thanks yous to Elizabeth Anne Summers, McChick and 2zen2 for betaing.

AN2: Just want to mention that Angel season 5 didn’t happen in this universe. Flashback/dream sequence is from Never Leave Me and Chosen




Buffy was sitting on the edge of her bed as she looked over at Spike, tied down to a chair.

“I don’ remember anythin’,” he said a bit sadly.

“Well, you were having pretty bad withdrawal episodes.”

“No, not that pet. I don’ remember … I… I don’ remember anythin’ that I did.” Spike lowered his head as he clenched his fists. “Nothin’… it’s like a dream, like I’m watchin’ someone else doin’ it. I should have realized something was up when I was losin’ time… wakin’ up in strange places.”

“So when did your chip stop working?”

“I didn’ know it stopped. … Not ‘til now anyway.”

“How about the losing time?” she said, moving a little closer to him.

Spike shrugged his shoulders. “I thought it came with well… you know…”

“When you got your soul. … How did you do it?”

Spike managed a smirk. “Saw a man about a girl. Sought out a legend, traveled t’ the other side of the world an’ made a deal with a demon,” he said with a small sigh.

“You make it sound so simple.”

“Fine, there was a price. There were trials, torture, pain and suffering … of sorts.”

“Of sorts?” She tilted her head and blinked at him confused. It wasn’t like he was the most lucid person before the soul, but ever since then it seemed she needed a Spike-to-Buffy translator most of the time. It made her head hurt.

“Well, it’s all relative now isn’t it pet?”

Buffy arched an eyebrow at yet another confusing response. “Meaning?”

The blond vampire sighed once more. “It means, pet, that I have come t’ redefine the words pain an’ sufferin’ since I fell in love with you.”

She crossed her arms across her chest and frowned. Did he realize how insulting that sounded? “How can you say that?”

“I just slaughtered half of Sunnydale, pet. I’m not really worried about bein’ polite anymore.”

Obviously he did realize how insulting it had sounded... “So what, you’re feeling sorry for yourself, now?”

“No. For once I’m feelin’ honest with myself. You used me.”

Buffy closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She didn’t need to be reminded just how much she abused their relationship. Yes, she admitted to herself that it was a relationship. It wasn’t the healthiest for either of them but it was there. There were feelings involved. “Yes, Spike. I did.”

**

Spike strained against his restraints, trying to prove a point. He was at a loss. Someone or something was using him and he didn’t know what to do. He needed to show Buffy that he needed to be staked.

“You need the pain we cause you. You need the hate t’ do your job, t’ be the slayer.”

“I don’t hate like that. Not you or myself. Not anymore. Listen to me. You’re not alive because of hate or pain. You’re alive because I saw you change.”

Spike lunged at her again, the chains rattling. “Fuckin’ window dressin’.”

But Buffy wouldn’t back down. “It would be easier if it was, right? It would be easier if all this wasn’t an act? You faced the monster inside of you and fought back.” Buffy closed the distance between them and looked into his eyes. “I believe in you, Spike”

**

Buffy was looking at what used to be Sunnydale and though she was smiling, tears were slowly streaming down her face.

“Buffy, is everything okay?” Dawn asked with concern.

“I’m okay, Dawn. Oh my… I’m crying because I wasn’t sure we’d make it.” It was a lie. She was crying for someone that gave her the greatest gift in the world – a new life.


**


Spike woke up with a start, the image of Buffy crying still fresh in his sleep fogged mind. *Yeah right, mate. She wouldn’ be cryin’ for you,* he thought.

He looked around and images of himself on the wall reminded him exactly where he was. He was in the “real” world. Funny how that word doesn’t seem to have a lot of meaning to him now. What was real? In this dimension he was a bloody character in a television show. But he knew he wasn’t a figment of someone’s imagination. He was flesh and bones. He was a vampire, though apparently not of the combustible variety in this world. He wondered why the trip to this dimension had that affect on him. Maybe he could talk with the blonde bird about that later.

He took in a deep breath and that girl’s scent filled his senses. He felt a tinge of guilt at having taken up her bed but she insisted and he wasn’t in the mind to argue.

He slid out of the bed and stretched sore muscles. He made his way towards the living room to find that Marie was still fast asleep, the sounds and images on the T.V. apparently had lulled her to sleep. With a sigh, Spike went back into her room and spotted her computer. He had seen Red use it before and though people may think he wasn’t computer savvy, he knew enough to get by. A small smile appeared on his face as he remembered using one to track down Buffy once. He plopped himself on the chair and smirked at seeing himself as the desktop’s wallpaper again. He placed his hand on the mouse and opened up the browser to access a search engine. He placed his fingers on the keyboard but his mind was a blank. What should he search for? Coming up with a blank, he went to access the Favorites menu on the browser hoping that maybe there would be a link to some Wiccan spells or websites. He skimmed through the list of links but stopped when he saw the folder labeled Spuffy.

“Spuffy? What in the bloody hell is Spuffy?” he wondered out loud.

He accessed the folder and clicked on the first link. The page loaded and he was treated to a picture of him kissing Buffy. His curiosity piqued, he started reading the text on the screen. His eyes grew bigger as he saw links to what seemed like stories all about him and Buffy. He couldn’t help but click on a few of them and start reading.

**

Marie let out a yawn as she sat up from the couch and rubbed at her blurry eyes. She smiled. Yesterday seemed to be her lucky day. Spike was real and in her apartment. Of course, she promised to help send him back, but just the idea of spending time with him, though short, was enough to make her smile uncontrollably. She made her way to her room to get a change of clothes and was surprised to see that he was awake and puttering about on her computer.

“Bloody hell!”

Marie moved closer to see what had made the blond vampire cry out. She wasn’t sure if she should giggle or feel sorry for him. He apparently found a Spuffy fanfic website and was reading one of the stories. Upon closer examination, she noticed that he was actually reading one of her works.

“Hey… What do ya think you’re doin’?” she said trying to mask her slight embarrassment with mock irritation at the vampire.

Spike turned to look at her. “How many people do this? I mean... well… how many stories of me are out there?”

“Lots…” She grinned. “And you just saw the Spuffy ones.”

He blinked in disbelief. “There’s more?”

“Umm… well, I’ve actually seen you paired with just about every person on the show.” She nodded with a grin.

“You’ve got t’ be jokin’, pet.”

Marie shook her head and bent over him to quickly pull up a page devoted to Spike fanfiction featuring pretty much every pairing imaginable. “I think Spoyce and Spawn are totally squicky, though.”

“Everyone? You can’t be serious. … Everyone?” His mind was still trying to figure out ‘Spoyce’ and ‘Spawn’. When it did, he looked at her as if she had just told him all about her menstrual cycle or something equally disgusting to him.

She just shrugged. “You don’t have to believe me. I’m just tellin’ you how it is. Maybe it’s best you didn’t know about the other stuff.”

“Other stuff?” The blond vampire raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

Marie smiled wistfully, her lips turning up in the corners to form a slight grin as she started thinking about one of the manipulations she saw the other day on the Darker Spike community. She shook her head when she saw the pensive look on his face.

“Oh, stop broodin’, ya big baby,” she finally said.

“I am not broodin’ luv.”

“Yes you are! Now I’m goin’ to take a quick shower. After that we can go all research mode and find a way to send you back.” She turned towards her closet to grab some clothes. “Chicken wings are still in the fridge. Help yourself.”

She stopped and looked towards him as she remembered something randomly. “Oh, and later we can go try to see if Wally World’ll give us some blood for you, okay?”

Spike watched as his gracious hostess disappeared into the bathroom. With a sigh, he looked back at the computer screen and clicked on another open window. It brought up a picture of Buffy, looking out onto the horizon. He didn’t have to read the caption to know when this one was taken. He reached out with his fingers to touch the screen, closing his eyes to imagine himself running his fingers through her hair. They did it. They closed the Hellmouth and saved the world. As she looked towards her future, could she have thought about him? Is she wondering if he found peace? If and when Marie found a way to send him back, would Buffy still want to see him?

There were so many things he hadn’t been able to say to her. Even on that night before they faced the First, there was more touching than talking. It was enough, though. What more could a champion ask for than to be in the arms of the woman who was his world.

“His world,” Spike said with a chuckle. He opened his eyes and let them rest on Buffy’s picture once again. “Argh…. The damn bird is right. I’m broodin’.”

He pushed the chair away from the computer desk then stood up and made his way towards the kitchen. He opened the refrigerator door and bent down to grab the small box of chicken wings she had kept for him. “Would be bad to be an ungrateful guest,” he said to himself. He went back into the living room and plopped down on the couch. He grabbed the remote control and started flicking through the channels, finally settling on a rerun of Dawson’s Creek.

After a little while, Marie came out still rubbing at the ends of her hair with the towel. She stole a wing and peered over his shoulder towards the television to see what he was watching, face immediately screwing up in disgust.

“Ew gawd, that’s worse than the whole Passions thing! Where’s your cahonies man, watchin’ disgustin’ chick TV!” She made a grab for the remote, mindless of the growling from the irritated vampire.

**

“Hello!.. Umm… Earth to Buffy. Buffy …” Willow called as she waved her hand in front of her best friend’s face.

“Huh? What? Oh... Will... Sorry. … Sorta spaced out there for a second.”

“Are you okay Buffy? We can just go home you know.”

Buffy shook her head. “No. We all deserve some down time “

“Oh, okay. So come join us on the dance floor already.”

“Umm… I will, I’ll just finish my drink.”

Willow offered her friend a smile before she left to join the others on the dance floor.

Buffy let out a small sigh as her eyes were once again transfixed on the wide selection of alcohol behind the bar. She absent-mindedly stirred her water with lemon as she amused herself by reading all the different bottles on the wall, trying to pronounce some of the Italian labels in her head. *I wonder why I chose Italy. I sucked at French in high school and here I am in a European country barely knowing the language, planning to settle down.*

Her eyes drifted to a bottle of Jack Daniel’s as the bartender pulled it from the wall to pour someone a drink. Suddenly memories of Spike flooded her mind and she could have sworn that she felt him running his fingers through his hair. Whiskey, smoke and leather. She never would have thought that those things would give her some peace of mind. But that was all it was. All in her mind. Spike wasn’t here. He couldn’t be here because he sacrificed himself to give her the life she always wanted. Oddly enough, as great as it was to be semi-normal girl, she knew she would never be complete. She couldn’t be, not when a part of her was buried deep in Sunnydale.

She took another drink and glanced towards the dance floor where Willow and Dawn were dancing, Willow doing a good job of warding off any amorous guys that tried to dance with them. Buffy just thought it was too soon to party. She needed to get away and be by herself for awhile. Her friends meant well but they were smothering her in their efforts to cheer her up. So setting down her drink, she made her way to the door and slipped out into the cool Roman air, not noticing the shadow that followed her.

**

“Okay, if you stay long enough to need more blood then you’re so getting’ it yourself,” Marie grumbled as she set the grocery bags on the table, giving Spike a glare as she blamed her bad mood on having to do something for him. “In the real world, it’s REALLY weird for me to be askin’ people for BLOOD. I got totally funny looks, but finally talked him into givin’ me what he had.”

She went to go put the gallon jugs of blood in the fridge, muttering about how it would have been easier if he had just accepted the offering of her neck. Spike leaned his hip against the counter with a smirk, digging in one of the bags for the cocoa he had grabbed along with a bag of little marshmallows.

“Shut your gob, woman,” he said and went about making himself a cup of hot chocolate after she pointed him in the direction of the mugs. “As pale as you are, I know it wouldn’ be safe t’ be usin’ you as snack food. Not if I wanted your help getting’ home.”

“Well, to your dimension, at least,” she muttered as she dug around for a soda.

“What do you mean by that?” He moved to stand in her way so she couldn’t avoid the question. “Explain.”

“Sunnydale... well it’s a big sinkhole now. Thought you saw that when you were pokin’ around on the net earlier.” She grimaced.

“Bloody hell.” He looked down, realizing if that was the case then even if he got back to his dimension he would still have to go about finding out where Buffy had run off to after leaving Sunnydale. She would be setting up a new life for her and Nibblet. Could be anywhere.

Tbc...