Disclaimer:All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Beta’d by the wonderful Marella916 and All4Spike. Banner by the lovely and talented nmcil12.
After a spectacular defeat at the end of NFA, resulting in all life in this dimension ending, the Powers have decided to give the dimension one more chance. They decide our favorite blonde vampire is just the guy for the job. Numbed from recent events Spike thinks they've gone barmy, he's not a hero but the Powers insist. What's a souled vamp to do when he is sent back in time?
 
Just a warning: This is an AU spuffy story. BUT Buffy is only 16 when this starts so the spuffy lovin' while it will happen won't be for awhile. There will be briefly Bangel. I don't mind Angel, but I do not like the pairing of Buffy/Angel but it is necessary to the plot. I have rated this M for now for adult language, eventually there will be smut but like I said it won't happen right away so try to be patient. I hope you enjoy what I have done with the characters. I have used certain elements of the show, certain bad guys and even some dialog.

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The sounds of a struggle reached everyone sitting in the library. They rushed to the door and saw Xander in a crumpled heap while Spike blocked the blows coming from Buffy. As soon as the two supernatural beings broke apart to regroup, Giles plowed between them. “What is the meaning of this?”

“Was bringing the boy and the slayer attacked.”

“You had Xander over your shoulder, unconscious! I knew you couldn’t be trusted!” As Buffy was shouting, a new voice entered the fray.

 “I warned you.”

“ Peaches! How nice of you to join us.” Spike tossed casually over his shoulder as he bent to pick Xander back up. “Now bugger off.”

“Stay away from him!” Buffy yelled as she ran over and shoved Spike away from the teenager.

“STOP!” Giles outburst made everyone freeze. “Spike could you tell me why Xander is unconscious?”

“He and the cheerleader were having a bit of a tiff. Somethin’ didn’t smell right with ‘im. Wasn’t talkin’ like himself either. Figured it was safer to knock ‘im out.”

“I was about to use some of the moves Spike showed me on him!” When everyone turned to look at her, Cordelia explained further. “There’s something really wrong with him. He wasn’t acting like himself at all. No goofy jokes or anything. He was kind of scary.”

“He’s been acting weird since yesterday. Now that you mention it, that whole group who went into the hyena exhibit have been acting weird.” Willow wrung her hands nervously as she looked at her unconscious friend.

“How do you mean, Willow?” Giles asked as he herded the group back inside the library. Buffy and Angel watched Spike as he carried Xander, warily bringing up the rear.

“I heard Principle Flutie saying that he found Kyle, Rhonda, Torrie and Lance chasing the school mascot. When he asked them what they were doing, they told him they were hungry.”

“Cordelia, could you tell me what happened exactly with you and Xander?” Giles sighed heavily.

“It’s personal. Lets just say there is a lot of groveling in his future before I forgive him, and leave it at that, Giles.”

“I’m afraid I can’t. If we are to figure out exactly what is going on, I need to know what kind of strange behavior he exhibited.” And I’m starting to tire of all the word games that these children play. He thought to himself.

“Leave off, Rupes. The git wasn’t himself. I stopped him before things got outta hand.” Spike dumped Xander in the book cage and closed the door with a bang, shaking it to make sure it was locked. Cordelia threw a grateful glance at Spike for not telling the group what had happened, she was still a little shaken. Cordy wasn’t kidding when she said that Xander had some serious groveling to do. No one pushed Cordelia Marie Chase into doing something before she was ready. And sex? Whether with Xander or someone else that was not something she was ready for. Just the thought that Xander might have tried to force her had her knees trembling, and she plopped down into a nearby chair.

                                                                                                §

Hours of research and one terrified zoo keeper later, courtesy of Spike, and Giles had his answer. The hyenas were worshipped by a group that practiced taking on the spirit of the animal.
“That bloody idiot! He tried a dangerous spell to imbue himself with the spirit of the hyenas and instead caught the children in it! We need to do the reversal at the zoo. We need to be close to the animals for it to work.”

Tracking down the rest of the pack was easier than they expected. Subduing them all was a little harder but eventually all of the teenagers affected were in a sacred circle that Giles had drawn on the floor of the hyena house. Almost immediately after the reversal was done, they tried to pretend that they had no memories of what had transpired. When there was no apology from Xander for his actions, Cordelia left without saying goodbye to anyone.

“Harris, you need to talk to your bird. You scared her and you need to make it right,” Spike growled at the chagrined boy. Leaving the rest to find their own way home, Spike moved to catch up with Cordy.

 “Oi, cheerleader! Hold up there, pet.” Matching his stride to the furious girl’s pace, Spike tried to smooth things between the couple. “Just listen to me for a bit. He’s a teenage hormone bomb fantasizing about girls every other minute. But the Xander I know wouldn’t try to force you to do something that you weren’t ready for. He’s embarrassed that you saw that ugly side of him but give ‘im a little time and he’ll come ‘round to apologize.”

                                                                                                §

It took two days and a lot of prodding by Spike, but eventually Xander admitted that he didn’t have amnesia. “Cordy… I want you to know that I do want to… you know… uh, do it…. I mean, I’m a guy and you’re gorgeous and…. I'm seventeen. Looking at linoleum makes me wanna have sex. I guess the hyena part didn’t want to wait. It was all pretty girl… take now. It was really wrong to try to pretend that I didn’t remember what I did… But I was embarrassed and… I’m sorry Cordy. I never meant to hurt you like that and I promise that I’ll wait until you’re ready, if you can ever forgive me, and I won’t push for it to happen before then.”

“You still have a ton of groveling to do but for now I forgive you.” Standing straight, Cordelia pointed a finger at her boyfriend. “Don’t let it happen again. Just remember that I have a crossbow and I know how to use it. I won’t be so nice next time.”

                                                                                                §

“Jesse! Where’ve you been, man?”

“Fresno.”

“Why?”

“Mom decided we were moving.”

Xander looked at his male best friend. Jesse’s eyes kept darting around the room as though he expected something to jump out at him. “Move? You can’t move! We’ve been friends since first grade. Did your mom say why?”

“Mom’s had enough. First some whack job tried to bite her a couple of months ago. Then a couple of kids in school last week went crazy and attacked me.”

Xander ducked his head in shame. While he had been busy attacking Cordy the rest of the pack had apparently gone after  Jesse. “What happened?”

“Listen, I don’t wanna talk about it. I just figured I’d let you know we were moving. I’ll call and stuff after we move.” Saying goodbye, Jesse made his way out of the building. What he didn’t tell his best friend was that he was glad to be getting out of town. Kyle, Lance and the rest had dragged Jesse into one of the unused storage rooms and had started to rip and tear at his clothes. That had scared him plenty but when they had started biting him as though they were trying to rip his flesh off, he had gotten really scared. A janitor investigating the noises was the only thing that had saved him. Running from the school, Jesse hadn’t stopped until he was safely locked in his house. When his mother had got home from work and seen the wounds, she had dragged him to the doctor and started calling real estate agents.

The doctor had given him antibiotics to help fight any infections that the bites might have caused. Jesse had been too afraid and embarrassed to go back to school, but he owed it to Xander to tell him in person that he was moving.

                                                                                                §

“We need to talk.” Whistler announced as he walked into the living room.

Spike didn’t bother to reply, Whistler had been pestering him for days now and he was getting tired of it.

“You never leave the house except to patrol.”

“You’re starting to nag like a wife there, mate. Sorry, I don’ swing that way.”

“Funny. You know exactly what I mean. You patrol and go to meetings, and that’s it.”

“Tha’s the job innit? Hired muscle, right?”

“Is that what you think? That the Powers sent you here to be some sort of bodyguard?”

“Nah. Not a bodyguard, more like a stand-in. Got me here to do all the heavy liftin’. Once it’s all safe as houses for the slayer, my job’s done, right? So unless you think I’m not doin’ the job right, jus’ leave me alone.” He sat there staring at the television and didn’t say another word until Whistler gave up with a sigh and walked away.

                                                                                                §

It was weird having a Scooby meeting without Spike. Willow twitched in her chair waiting for someone to start talking. Xander had christened the group with the name Scoobies after the incident with Ms. French. I guess that makes me Velma. Great, the geeky best friend computer girl. No wonder Xander never noticed me! Now he’s dating Cordelia and how weird is that? Willow was pulled back out of her thoughts when Whistler started speaking.

“Have any of you spent any time with Spike lately?”

Xander was the first to speak. “Yeah I went patrolling with him yesterday.”

“I had a sparring session with him on Wednesday.” Willow responded just as quickly.

 Giles looked at Whistler questioningly before answering. “He and I went over some new tomes on Tuesday.”

Whistler shook his head at the responses. “So no one has spent any time recently with Spike that wasn’t work related. Without meaning to, or even knowing it, you’ve all managed to convince Spike that he’s just muscle for the group. No wonder he never leaves the house. Spike needs to go out have some fun and make friends.”

“We’re friends!” Willow cried out.

“Really? So you and Xander invited Spike out to the Bronze with you the other night?”

“Um, well no. But we didn’t think he’d like hanging out at a club for teenagers.”

Giles asked, “I had noticed that I rarely see Spike for anything other than slaying-related issues. Whistler, what exactly is the problem with Spike? I have to agree with Willow; I can’t imagine that he would enjoy going to the Bronze.”

“He’s becoming a recluse. Spike never leaves the house except for patrolling or coming to meetings. Being a Champion means saving lives but you need to connect to people, otherwise it becomes a job instead of a calling. He’s losing that connection.”

                                                                                                §

I want to save the world. Buffy knew she was dreaming about the mystery man again. She could hear him as he told her why he wanted to help her stop some apocalypse. She felt weird, as though she couldn’t… no more like shouldn’t trust this man, but she did. At least in this moment, she knew he spoke the truth. Whatever she was fighting was more than she could handle alone and this man was willing to fight by her side.

They were walking and it was dark, so dark that she couldn’t see his face, but oddly enough she could see where she was going. Suddenly her front walk loomed in front of her and the two of them staked a vamp outside her house, right in front of her mom.

The scene shifted and now they were inside. The mystery man was in the living room and dream Buffy was nervous; she had left this man alone with her mom. She knew that he was dangerous but at the same time she felt it in her soul that Joyce was safe from him and with him.

                                                                                                §

Spike knew he was right to pull back from the gang. When he had first arrived, he had hoped that things might be different in this dimension, and for a little while it was. Harris would come over a few times a week and the two would play pool on Spike’s new pool table. Red stopped by to ask advice about guys. Even Dawn would come over just to hang out and watch TV. But two weeks before, he had found out what they really thought about him.

He had been at the school, waiting in the library for them to finish classes. Usually they would make a schedule for patrolling and Spike was there to work on it. Spike was the only one who patrolled every night, the rest rotated patrols. The group tumbled into the room, laughing at some joke.  Once they had calmed down a bit, Giles asked who would be available for patrol that night.

“Oh! Oh no, we forgot to tell you, didn’t we?”

“Forgot to tell me what, Willow?”

 “Oz’s band is playing at the Bronze tonight! We’re all going.”

“Surely one of you can go patrol tonight?”

“It’s not like super vamp needs the help, right? I mean Spike can take care of it himself, right Spike? It’s like your job and all.”

“Yeah, sure Harris. No problem. Go enjoy yourselves. I’ll take care of it, no worries.”

After that, Spike had pulled farther and farther away from the group. He rarely patrolled with them anymore, instead preferring to go alone. The fighting was cathartic; he could throw himself into it without having to keep tabs on the humans. Stupid Sod. Are you really surprised? You thought what? That for once you might have friends? Ha! You’re getting soft in your old age Spike. You let yourself care about these teenagers. Don’t need to care to do the job. You didn’t care when you got that chip stuffed into your head. Did it for the thrill of the fight. Stick to that, caring about these people is just going to get you hurt. Had enough of that to last a couple of lifetimes.

                                                                                                §

“Come to nag me some more?” Spike asked as Whistler walked into the TV room.

“You need to get out of this house.”

“I’m going on patrol in a bit.”

“Why don’t you go to the Bronze, you could have a drink or two, maybe talk to some people?”

“You gonna keep at me if I don’t?” He hen pecks like a woman.

“Yeah, so save us both the trouble, all right?”

“Fine.” Spike stomped out of the room grabbing his duster as he made his way out of the house. He decided to patrol first before he drowned his sorrows in booze. Angel kept shooting him dirty looks any time their paths crossed and it wouldn’t do to be three sheets to the wind if he came across him. He knew that Angel was just looking for the opportunity to try to dust him.

Slouched in a dim booth in the corner, Spike watched as everyone talked, laughed and danced. The blooming onion he ordered was sitting untouched on the table in front of him. Xander’s sudden arrival startled the vamp. “Hey Spike. What’s up?”

“Nothin’ Harris. Where’s the cheerleader?”

“Ladies’ room.” Looking over his shoulder, Xander checked something before turning back to Spike. “There’s this girl over by the bar, she’s been watching you for a while now.”

Spike craned his neck to see what Xander was talking about. “Tall, red hair, blue eyes, pretty. She’s been checking you out.” The teenager smiled at the girl and waved her over. “See, here she comes now. Have fun!”

Despite not being in the mood for company, Spike found that not only was Sami beautiful, she was easy to be around. They talked for hours, finding that they shared the same taste in music and movies. They were so engrossed with each other that they were startled when the bartender announced last call.

As Spike was walking her home, two vamps jumped out of the darkness and attacked. Trying to make sure that Sami was safe, Spike never saw the blade until it had been imbedded in his abdomen. Snarling, Spike vamped and lifted his attacker by the throat as he plunged a stake into the other one. Once the second vamp was dust, Spike turned his attention to the one dangling from his arm. “Stupid move, Wanker.” He placed his hands on either side of the vampire’s head and twisted sharply. As the attacker’s ashes floated away in the breeze, Spike yanked the blade out of his stomach.  He was pleased to see the gem doing its job as the wound closed up before his eyes.

Spike turned slowly towards Sami, afraid to see fear in her face. When he finally looked at her, he was shocked by the expression on her face.

“I thought you were a vampire! I just wasn’t sure.”

“Wha?”

“I should explain, huh?” A puzzled nod from Spike had Sami continuing. “I’m half empathic. My dad is an empathic demon and my mom is human. I get feelings and emotions from people, but only if I’m in close physical contact. It’s never very clear though. I could tell you were a vamp but there’s something else there so I thought I might have been wrong.”

“No pet you weren’t wrong. Been a vamp a long time. Got my soul a few years ago.”

“Wow! That’s pretty much unheard of!”

Smirking, Spike shrugged his shoulders in a nonchalant gesture.

“So where were we?” he said, coming up next to her.

The two started walking again and were soon deep in conversation again. When they arrived at Sami’s door, Spike decided to take a chance. “Would you..” I’m such a ponce, just ask the bird out! Taking a deep breath Spike tried again. “You want to go out some time?”

“I’d love to.” Sami beamed. She pulled a scrap of paper and a pen from her purse and scribbled her number down. She handed it to him with a quiet goodnight and left him standing under the porch, smiling to himself.