The Borders of Night Start to Give, Chapter 20/26

[punch_kicker15]

Title: The Borders of Night Start to Give
Author: punch_kicker15
Rating: R
Characters/Relationships: Willow/Giles
Summary: A prophecy leads Giles to practice dark magic once again. This sets him down a dark path, and Willow may be the only one who can help. AU in which Willow’s magic training started earlier than in canon.
Word count: 47,533
Notes: Thanks to scratchingpost1 for generously offering a plot bunny that ate my brain, gilescandy and dragonyphoenix for looking over a very rough first draft and offering helpful suggestions and encouragement. Thanks also to the mods (red_b_rackham and traycer_ and other participants at het_bigbang for all of the help and hand-holding throughout. And special thanks to angelus2hot for some amazing art she created for this story.

Chapter Twenty

Spike

Ever since Buffy broke up with him, Spike hadn't been able to think of anything else. Every time it seemed like he was getting close to having her, someone or something jerked her away. He didn't know how much more he could take. It was past time to take action. He headed to the Magic Box. She was standing at the counter, just as he'd hoped.

He said, "I’m calling in that favor. I want you to do a spell for me."

Willow blinked, gave him a fake smile to try to hide her obvious nervousness. "Um--what kind of spell?"

"I want you to make me fall out of love with Buffy."

She slowly edged away from the counter, away from him. "I -- I don't think I can--"

"Don't play dumb. You were gonna do one on yourself when you couldn't keep your hands off the idiot."

She flinched. Maybe she was thinking about her own mistakes, or how he'd threatened to shove a broken bottle in her face the last time he'd asked her to do a spell. Possibly both.

"I just, I'm not sure magic could take this away completely. I mean, it's kinda like liposuction."

"What the bloody hell are you going on about?" It just figured. She was the one person who could solve his problem, and she was nearly as daft as Dru.

She picked up one of the crystals on the counter and adjusted it so it lined up with the others. "I mean, you can suck the fat away, but if someone's body is programmed to deposit fat somewhere, eventually it will come back. If there's something about you that's designed to love Buffy, maybe it will come back on its own, even if I did the spell."

He choked back a laugh. This was no time to get sidetracked by her odd thought processes. "You ever think that it might have been your magic that made me love Buffy in the first place?"

She looked up at him. "But I did the counter-spell--" There was a slight twitch under her left eye.

He leaned forward, fists resting on the counter. "And maybe you buggered up the counter-spell, too. You weren't particularly reliable at magic back then."

It wasn't entirely the truth. Dru had seen his love for Buffy as far back as Brazil, but Willow didn't need to know about that. Besides, he didn't remember being obsessive about Buffy until after Willow's spell.

The lie had its desired effect: Willow’s indignant expression turned to one of self-doubt. "I, um, I need to think about this, Spike. I can't just do it right away."

He crossed his arms over his chest. "Oh, so when it's a spell you want to do, you can't do it fast enough. But when it helps someone else, all of a sudden, you need to think things through."

She fixed him with a stare that rivaled Darla's for sheer stubbornness. "This is my Resolve Face, Spike. It means I'm gonna have to think about it first."

***

Willow

Willow put up the CLOSED sign, double-checked that the doors to the shop were locked, and started walking back to Revello Drive, turning the conversation with Spike over and over in her head. Maybe she had made him love Buffy with her Thy Will Be Done spell. If the effects were still lingering, and Spike wanted them gone, wasn’t she obligated to remove them?

Leaves crunched under her feet as walked through Wilkins Park. Spike's love for Buffy was complicated. The Buffybot had been--well, incredibly gross--but she also helped save the world, and protected Sunnydale when Buffy was dead. Would Spike have protected Dawn from Glory if he hadn't loved Buffy? Would he want to kill Buffy if he wasn't in love with her? All the hypotheticals were making her head hurt.

***

Buffy

Buffy glared at the pot of beans on the stove. They'd been simmering for hours, and they smelled like they were cooking, but they stubbornly refused to soften. She wished she'd learned more about cooking from her mom. Her mom just made meal planning and preparation seem effortless; for Buffy it was a baffling struggle.

Just when Buffy was about to chuck the beans out and order a pizza, Willow came in, looking worried.

"Buffy, I had a talk with Spike, not about the sleeping together stuff, but kinda about magic, and kinda about you. I know it's something you probably don't want to talk about, but I think we need to, you know, talk, because sometimes uncomfortable conversations are helpful--"

"Willow, come on, just say it while we're both still young."

"He said he thinks that the Thy Will Be Done spell never wore off for him. He wants me to do an anti-love spell on him."

Buffy didn't know what she'd expected Willow to say. Given their very weird lives, the possibilities were endless. But it definitely wasn't that.

"Is that possible? Could you do it?" she asked.

"Well, I talked to Catherine about it. We're not sure if it would work in the long term, or whether it would be something that I'd have to, like, renew over time? 'Cause love spells are tricky that way."

Buffy thought about the desperate look in Spike's eyes. The way he kept coming back to her, even though she didn't love him, even though she kept using him. "I think you should do the spell," she said. Willow didn't answer. Buffy sighed. "Ok, tell me why you have But Face"

Willow asked, "If I do it, is he gonna try to kill you again? You won't have the chip to protect you."

Buffy shrugged. "I can handle him." If it came to that, staking Spike would probably be kinder to him than what she'd been doing to him this year.

***

Spike

He caught Willow's scent on the air. A peculiar feeling, one he hadn't felt since he was human, fluttered in his chest. Nervousness. That was it. Once, he'd been the slayer of Slayers. Now, he was so broken that he was at the mercy of whatever selfish or do-gooder impulse Willow had that day.

Finally, she stepped in to his crypt, carrying a raven feather and some foul-smelling herbs. She was going to set him free.

She looked him in the eye, and said, "Before I do the spell, I wanna make one thing clear. If you try to hurt Buffy after the spell, I. Will. End. You." For such a little bit, she could project a surprising amount of menace.

"Got it," he said.

He watched as she mixed the ingredients, listened to the words of invocation. And then, he felt tiny sparks flare up under his skin, and then burn out.

When all the sparks died down, Willow said, "Try thinking about Buffy."

He thought of her, and that desperate, possessive love for her--was gone, just like that.

"It's gone. You got it right for once."

"Great. Just remember what I said before the spell."

"Right," he said.

She left, and he thought about ways he could get around her, get a shot at Buffy without Willow finding out. But when he thought of killing Buffy, he didn't have the same uncomplicated glee at the prospect that he used to. There was Dawn, who'd taken her sister's death so hard. What would she do if she lost Buffy again?

Somewhere down the line, he'd gone soft. It would be easy to blame the sodding chip, but there was something about Dawn, something he couldn't ensorcel away.

He wasn't a man, but he wasn't completely a monster any more, either. He needed to get out of Sunnydale, figure it out before any of them corrupted him any further.

Chapter 21