Miracle Author: Elsa Frohman Feedback: elsa@frohman.net Rating: PG-13 Spoilers: None, nada! This isn't even finale speculation. It's
based on nothing at all. Just an excuse for some Spuff. I've got to
say, after reading this over, it is uncharacteristically messianic.
Not my usual gig... Summary: The final battle has happened, but we don't know how it
came out.
The light was the white of freshly washed sheets, with that
lingering perfume of linen and rose water that he remembered from
his childhood. His mother had always insisted that the sheets be
sprinkled with rose water before they were ironed and folded, and
stacked in the linen closet.
Those linens hadn't been this white, come to think of it. Oxyclean
hadn't been invented yet. But that was still the kind of white that
surrounded him. It wasn't hard and bright, it was soft and diffuse.
The light of fresh egg shells, clean paper and clouds on a sunny
day. How long since he'd seen clouds in sunshine?
"Spike..."
He turned and found her standing behind him.
"Buffy..."
"What did you do?"
"The only thing I could, pet. Why are you here? Are you dead too?"
"I don't know. This isn't like..." She broke off and let out a
strange little laugh.
She wasn't dressed as she'd been in the fight. She was wearing a
lace tunic and a soft blue skirt with a handkerchief hem. Her hair
was loose around her shoulders -- she never left it loose when she
went to fight any more.
"Isn't like what? What's so funny?"
"I wonder how many people in history have been able to say this.
This isn't like the last time I died."
Spike smiled. "Maybe it's different each time."
"Is this what it was like the last time you died?"
Spike shook his head. "There was nothing then. Nothing at all
between passing out as a human and waking as a vampire."
"Why did you do it?"
"Like I said, it was the only thing left I could do."
"But you didn't have to. Not like that..."
"I was trapped in a shadow. The sun had come up. My shade was
shrinking second by second. I could stay where I was and wait for
the sun to get me, or I could choose my moment and try to make it
count for something.
"I had one thing left I could do, and I wanted to do it so that it
would help you."
"I'm sorry."
"For what? You did the best you could. It was a hell of a battle.
We held them off for hours -- long enough to make it a problem for
vampires."
Buffy looked down sadly. "I'm sorry I led you into a battle we
couldn't win."
"Did we lose?"
Buffy paused. "Um... I don't know."
"Bugger! You'd think whoever runs the universe would at least let
us see how it came out."
"Yeah, sort of feels like having to answer the phone during the
last five minutes of the program you've been waiting to see
forever."
"What happened to you? Or do you know?"
"I'm not sure. It was strange."
"I hoped I'd have enough momentum to hit the Turok Han you were
fighting before I burned up completely. Did I make it?"
Buffy nodded. "You slammed into him and he ... vaporized. But, it
wasn't like when you hit one of them with a flame. It was just a
flash and he was gone -- nothing left but a nasty smell."
"Good. Then it was worth something."
"But you didn't turn to dust either. I've seen vampires go up
before. It was different. The light was so bright. And there didn't
seem to be any flames. It was just hovering there in front of me. A
big, roughly Spike-sized glowy ball. I thought maybe I could save
you -- if I could put out the fire. I reached out and ..."
Spike cocked his head in puzzlement. "It certainly felt like
burning up -- at least for the first couple of seconds. After that,
I couldn't really feel anything..."
"There wasn't any fire," Buffy said softly. "It was warm -- like
the warm of getting under a big fluffy blanket on a cold night --
but there wasn't any burning or any pain when I reached in. And
then I thought I could feel you and I grabbed your hand..."
"Yes? Then what?"
"Then nothing. I looked around and I was here."
"Sorry..."
"For what?"
"Looks like I didn't just get the Turok Han -- I managed to take
you out as well. Fucked up again..."
"I don't know about that, Spike. This doesn't feel like where you
end up when you fuck up."
"Doesn't seem like it's heaven either..."
"No, it doesn't," Buffy said, looking around -- though there was
clearly nothing to see.
"I wonder if the Catholics are right..."
"About what?"
"Purgatory. Do you suppose we're in some sort of cosmic waiting
room? Any minute now the judge shows up and you pack it off to
heaven, and I go ..."
"I wouldn't be so sure about that."
"I might be reformed, pet, but I don't think I racked up enough
points for a trip to heaven."
Buffy smiled. "Nobody does. If you did, you'd be guilty of the sin
of pride."
Spike laughed. "I suppose so."
"Isn't purgatory supposed to be fire and brimstoney?"
Spike shrugged. "I don't suppose anybody ever got there and came
back to tell about it."
"You never know. I think there's more coming back happening than
most people know about."
"That there is," Spike said with a chuckle.
"I just wish I knew how the others did. Kennedy was holding her own
last I saw of her. Giles -- he'd lasted pretty well, but I think
two of them had him cornered. I was trying to get free of mine to
go to him when ... well you know."
Spike nodded.
"And Angel -- oh God. The sun was up. I don't know where he was..."
"No worries there, pet. He had better position than I did. When the
sun started rising, he retreated back into the school. I was
trapped out in the courtyard. So the sun didn't get him. Of course,
I don't know how many more of the nasties there were inside."
Buffy nodded. "I don't think Anya made it..."
Spike shook his head. "I saw. But she made them smart before they
got her. She might not have had any powers, but the girl knew what
to do with a sword."
"Do you suppose this is hell? We have to spend all eternity not
knowing what happened to Willow and Xander and Vi and Amanda? And
Faith... I don't even know what happened to Faith."
"At least Dawn was safe..." Spike said softly.
"I hope. But if we lost..."
"I know, nobody would be safe then. But, you know what, pet? I
don't think this is hell. You know why?"
"Why?"
"Because you wouldn't be with me if it was."
Buffy smiled sadly. "I know you think I would go straight to
heaven, but..."
"No, that's not what I mean. I mean, having you with me -- this
couldn't possibly be hell."
Buffy blushed slightly.
"But it's not heaven either."
"No?" she asked, surprised he was equivocating.
"It would be heaven if I was kissing you."
Buffy smiled. "And why aren't you?"
Spike looked both surprised and confused.
"I mean," Buffy said, filling the awkward silence, "here we are --
nowhere, with nothing to do, no place to go..."
Spike stepped closer. "Nobody to see, nothing happening..."
Buffy looked up into his face, "No phone, no television..."
"No books, no radio..."
She came into his arms and offered her lips. Her face was turned
up, her eyes closed. The soft light played over her and made her
more beautiful than he ever remembered. He bent his head down and
touched her lightly -- a butterfly's kiss first, just brushing his
lips against hers.
Buffy sighed, inhaling the clean air and sharp scent of Spike's
body so close to hers. She parted her lips slightly and he came
back to her, more firmly this time, his cool lips exploring hers in
a slow rhythm of pleasure. His arms were around her -- so solid, so
reassuring.
Her heart pounded against his chest. Her body was so warm, so
inviting. He kissed a trail along the line of her chin to find his
way down her neck to the pulse point at the base.
"Maybe this is heaven after all," he whispered.
Buffy giggled.
"Oh, come on, Slayer? Break the mood any? What's so funny now?"
Spike said with feigned irritation.
"I wonder if it's OK to, um... you know... in heaven."
"It'd be a pretty piss-poor heaven if you couldn't!" Spike said
with a laugh. "But then, you're the one who's been here before."
"Not here," Buffy said.
"We could find out. Give it a whirl and see if a bloke shows up in
a robe and tells us to get a room..."
Buffy raised an eyebrow.
"Come on, Slayer, you know you want it..."
Buffy laughed out loud. "OK, but if we get kicked out, I am so
kicking your ass around hell..."
The light was a wonder to all who saw it. There had been battle.
There had been monsters. There had been a few heroes who stayed and
fought when all seemed lost. Then the light came -- twin globes
revolving around one another like a binary star.
The light stopped the monsters that had poured from beneath the
high school. Whatever it touched was cleansed. It was so powerful
that it penetrated the brick and mortar of the high school walls as if
they were tissue paper. It penetrated the ground and when it reached
the basement where the hellmouth had opened, that gaping maw
shriveled and collapsed back on itself. And the ground shook, and
Sunnydale High School fell into itself, disappearing as if it had never
been built.
And when the building was gone, the earth was healed where it had
stood, and a field of daisies and blue cornflowers grew in its
place -- all in the span of a day.
And the light healed those injured in the battle. An eye grew in
the face of the man who had lost one. Flesh torn asunder was healed
as if it had never been harmed. A dead heart began to beat again, and
one who had walked in darkness for centuries emerged into morning's
sunshine.
For three days and three nights, the light shone over the empty
field where the high school had been. People came and looked on it,
and thanked whatever deities they chose to pray to. There were
stories of crippled children coming to see the light and walking
away. And of blindness cured. And cancers that shrank and
disappeared.
On the third night, the light began to fade. The last of the
defenders returned. It only seemed right to be there for the end --
to say farewell to the two who had sacrificed themselves to save
the world.
They formed a loose circle around the gently glowing orbs as the
cleansing light died. It was sunrise once again, and slowly, the light in
the sky overwhelmed the last glimmers of the Sunnydale Miracle, as it
would be known in later years.
Then finally, as the glow died away, there was a flash and a
clap of thunder.
The survivors of the final battle rubbed their eyes, and when they
opened them again, there, nestled among the wildflowers, were two
naked bodies -- a man and a woman. The newcomers sat up and blinked
in surprise, then looked at one another.
"Who are you?" they asked at once, seeing only one another, not the
circle of people surrounding them.
The one with two eyes once again came forward and offered his
jacket to the woman. The one who had been a vampire, but was no
more, gave his duster to the man.
The two were as newborns -- they remembered nothing of their past,
nothing of where they had been. The pain and anger, shame and regret,
fear and uncertainty had all been washed away.
They only knew that somehow they belonged together -- and so it was
to be for all the remaining days of their lives.