shadowscast | Fic update: Before the Time of Dawn (6 of ?)

Here's the next chapter!

I think that there will be just one more chapter after this one, but that the last chapter will be maybe twice the length of the others. At least, that's what I'm thinking now. I've been wrong before.

I hope you enjoy it!

Before the Time of Dawn (WIP: 6 of ?)
By:

shadowscast
Pairing: Spike/Xander
Rating: R for naughty language and implied sexual situations
Summary: Post-series Spike and Xander must travel six years back in time to prevent an apocalypse in the future.
Notes: This chapter is about 2800 words. Beta read by the lovely

flurblewig. Feedback and concrit welcome in comments or by email.

Click for:
Previous chapters in "Before the Time of Dawn"
Previous stories in the Fragments 'verse

Cross-posted to

spike_fics
Cross-posted to

bloodclaim

Chapter Six

"I'm gonna be in big trouble if Mom looks in my room before I get back," Dawn said, frowning nervously. "This better be worth it."

"It is, Niblet," Spike assured her. "You're saving the bloody world,"

She heaved a dramatic sigh. "Yeah, and nobody's ever even going to know about it."

"Welcome to my life." Xander gave her a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. "Tell you what: in 2005 we'll throw you a big party to thank you for all this."

"If I have to wait six years, there'd better be a lot of ice cream," Dawn said.

"All you can eat," Spike promised.

She started to smile. "And presents?"

"Many, many presents."

"And if Mom catches me and yells at me, you'll make sure she apologizes in the future?"

Xander felt his own face freezing into a horrible parody of a smile as he tried not to show by his expression that there was anything wrong with what Dawn had just demanded.

She wasn't looking at him, though, she was looking at Spike, who said without hesitation, "Absolutely. I promise, pet." Then he turned to Xander and said, "We'd better start going over the battle plan, don't you think?"

Tremendously grateful for the change of subject, Xander unfolded a diagram of Sunnydale High and spread it on the table. "Okay. Here's the situation. It's a full moon, so Oz got locked in the book cage at sunset. Willow will be there with him. Giles and Buffy started out there too, but then Giles went to Restfield to consult the Spirit Guides, and Buffy went to Willy's." He glanced at his watch. "That's where they should be now. All we have to do is avoid them."

"This is so cool!" Dawn interjected. "Can we have code names, by the way? I've got one picked out and everything."

"All right, Niblet," Spike said. "What've you got picked, then?"

She grinned. "Magic Spice."

Spike's lips twitched but his voice remained completely level as he said, "Good choice. Now, we're on a tight schedule here, so we'd better let Xander get on with it."

"Right," Xander said, getting himself back on track. "At this point the Sisters are ranged around town individually. At about quarter past ten, Faith is going to meet one of them at the park on Clarkson Street, but I intervene and she, uh, leaves the Sister alive."

"You you or other you?" Dawn asked.

"Other me," Xander said. "Past me." He noticed Spike giving him a significant look. Xander shrugged slightly—don't worry about the Faith thing, we've got more important things to focus on. Spike nodded, apparently getting it. "By then," Xander went on, "we want to be in the school. Because it's about to get crowded in there, and we want to get into a good hiding place before the fun starts."

"The Hellmouth will open in the library, right?" Spike said.

"Yeah. Angel and Buffy will be there, and Willow and Giles, and Faith. The Sisterhood will be ranging a little farther; they'll be in the corridors and the classrooms. Mostly on the first floor. And, um, that's when I come in with some undead friends."

Dawn crinkled her forehead. "I'm not undead," she pointed out.

"Not me me," Xander said. "Other me."

Spike tilted his head, looking appraisingly at Xander. "Wait a mo', pet. Didn't Rupert send you on this interesting job because you know the area and you weren't in the school that night?"

"Well. Yeah. There's a few things Giles doesn't actually know about that night."

"Such as?"

"Jack O'Toole and his undead buddies tried to blow up the school." Xander hesitated, strangely reluctant to let go of the secret he'd kept for six years. "I stopped them."

"Well." Spike gave him an odd look. "Good for you."

Xander held his gaze for a moment, silently promising to talk about it later. Then he pointed at the diagram of the school. "We should hide here, around the top of the main staircase. I'm pretty sure no one ever went up to the second floor that night. From there, we can keep track of what's going on. After I—younger me, I mean, leaves the school, there won't be much time before Giles manages to close the Hellmouth. That's when you come in, Dawn."

She nodded. They'd talked about this part already, on the phone. "I run into the library screaming 'Buffy, Buffy, you have to help, there's demons attacking the house!'"

"You have to pant hard," Spike reminded her. "Like you just ran all the way to the school."

"How many demons?" Xander asked her.

"Um, what do you think—maybe eight?"

"No, answer me like you'll answer Buffy when she asks."

"Okay." Dawn nodded firmly, then opened her eyes wide in feigned panic. "Maybe ten! I don't know! It was a lot and it was dark and I ran through the bushes so they wouldn't see me!"

"You don't look like you've been running through bushes," Spike noted. "We'll find you a bush on the way to the school."

"What did they look like?" Xander asked.

"About as tall as Angel, with long pink hair, big teeth, and tails!" she said, still putting on a convincing show of desperate panic. "The tails had this three-part forky thing at the end," she added, slightly calmer.

"Not so much detail, Niblet," Spike said. "Not at first. Stick with the tall, big teeth, tails. That's general enough. Sounds scary. When you all get to the house and find nothing there, Mr. Giles is sure to ask you for more detail. Then throw in the pink hair and the fork at the end of the tail, and he'll recognize them as Chiradimen demons. They're a mostly harmless breed. Like to dance around a house and scare the wits out of the occupants, then teleport back to their lair and laugh about the funny faces the humans made."

"Those sound like pretty lame demons," Dawn said, wrinkling her nose.

Xander shrugged acknowledgment; they were pretty lame. "So, ready to roll?"

Dawn nodded. "Magic Spice reporting for duty, ready to save the world!"

***

They parked a block away and scurried through the shadows up to the front door of the school. Spike peeked through the door and then motioned for the others to follow.

The school was still quiet. The three of them ran straight to the main staircase and up, and stopped at the top. They sat side by side with their backs to the wall.

Dawn and Spike, sitting to either side of Xander, were both panting a little from their sprint. Xander wasn't; he had his morning runs to thank for that.

There were twigs and leaves stuck in Dawn's hair and on her shirt, and she had a faint red scratch on her right cheek. True to his word, Spike had stopped at a park with some good bushes on the way to the school, and Dawn had enthusiastically plunged through them to attain the desired effect. Xander squeezed her shoulder. "You are awesome, you know," he whispered.

She grinned. "Big party in 2005, right?" she whispered back.

"You bet." Even though Dawn wouldn't actually remember any of this, Xander decided they should throw her a party when they got back to the future. Eighteen-year-old Dawn certainly wouldn't object.

On Xander's left, Spike was still trying to catch his breath. He was sounding a little wheezy.

"Spike?" Xander whispered. "You all right?"

Spike pressed his head back against the wall and closed his eyes. He looked like he was trying to control his breathing, but not so much succeeding.

"Is he okay?" Dawn whispered, sounding a little scared.

"He'll be okay," Xander whispered back, outwardly calm. He reached into Spike's pocket and took out the inhaler. "Spike, you need this." He took Spike's hand and closed it around the molded plastic. Spike opened his eyes, and his gaze darted to Dawn for a moment before returning to Xander. With obvious reluctance, he shook the inhaler and took a dose.

Xander breathed again as soon as Spike did. Spike tucked the inhaler back in his pocket, eyes straight ahead and jaw tight. Xander guessed that it hadn't been easy, doing that in front of Dawn. He put his hand on Spike's leg and wished he could say something.

"Do you have asthma?" Dawn asked.

Spike flinched, barely noticeably, then turned to face Dawn. "Yeah," he said. "Ever since I turned human."

"A girl in my class has really bad asthma," Dawn said. "She's not even allowed to do P.E."

"Ah," Spike said. "Well, mine's not that bad."

"I bet you miss not having to breathe, huh?"

Spike was saved from the conversation by the sound of the school's front door opening. He put his finger to his lips in the 'shhh' gesture and raised his eyebrows at Dawn. She nodded and pressed back against the wall. Spike peeked around the corner quickly and then retreated. "Think it's your boys," he whispered to Xander.

"Where are we going to make the cake?" said someone down in the lobby. Xander thought he recognized the voice of the first guy Jack had raised, the big dumb one who'd been buried in his letterman's jacket. Bob? Bob.

Dawn tapped Xander on the shoulder. Cake? she mouthed silently, looking puzzled.

Bomb, he mouthed back. And then, since she still looked confused, he mimed an explosion with his hands. Her eyes widened.

"I know just the place," said Jack O'Toole. That wasn't a voice Xander was ever going to forget. "Come on, boys, we're going to the boiler room."

Their footsteps faded away down the hall.

"Now what?" Dawn whispered.

"We wait," Xander said. "They'll be coming back the same way in a few minutes. It'll be a while before the serious excitement starts."

Dawn rocked her knees back and forth. "I didn't know saving the world was going to be so boring."

Spike leaned closer to Dawn—casually putting his arm around Xander as he did so. "Tell you what, Niblet. I used to tell you vampire stories, keep you entertained—used to, that is, from my perspective. Hasn't happened yet from yours, obviously. Wanna hear one?"

She nodded, eyes sparkling.

"All right then. So, let's see. It was the winter of 1885, and four especially evil and powerful vampires had just arrived in Vienna by train...."

Xander listened to the story, as fascinated as Dawn but for different reasons. Spike never wanted to talk about his vampire exploits to Xander—not in any specific terms, anyway. Sometimes in the middle of the night he woke up sweating and shaking with tears on his face, and when Xander woke up too and asked him what was wrong he'd say he was dreaming about being a vampire, but he never got into details.

For Dawn, though, there were details. There was a velvet dress and a diamond necklace and blood and soot mixed in the snow. Spike was spinning a gothic horror story, and Xander didn't know for sure whether every detail was true but he guessed that the bulk of them were. Spike didn't use the vampires' real names; Angel was the big brooding Irishman, Darla was the pretty blonde lady, tough as steel, Drusilla was the dark fey beauty, and Spike himself was the fey one's lover, the wild youth. Xander wasn't sure whether Dawn at this point knew enough of Spike's or Angel's history to figure out who the story was really about; if she did, she wasn't saying a word. She just listened in wide-eyed fascination.

Eventually the story was interrupted by the sound of running down below. Spike took a quick peek, then turned to Xander. "You're here," he said.

"Oh man." Xander pressed himself harder against the wall, as though that could make any difference.

"I want to see!" Dawn whispered, and tried to crawl over Xander.

He grabbed her shoulders and held her back. "Too risky."

A door crashed open and there were more footsteps, multiple people this time. "He must be around here somewhere," Jack said. Then the sound of running. Spike snatched another glimpse, just as a roaring squeal and a bigger, further-away crash sounded from the direction of the library.

"One of the Sisters just ran by," Spike reported. "This is shaping up into a bloody French farce!"

Xander tugged Spike back behind the wall. "All we have to do is stay out of the way until it's over."

They could hear muffled screams and shouts now coming from the library.

Dawn cringed. "Buffy's in there. Are you sure she's going to be okay?"

"As long as we don't interfere," Xander assured her, "everything has to go exactly like it did the first time."

Spike shook Xander's hand off. "I have to watch for when you leave, remember?" He edged around the corner again. "Hey, you're chasing one of the dead boys with a fire ax!" he whispered, sounding way too amused with the situation. "Good on you!"

Xander frowned, trying to remember the exact sequence of events. "Was it the skinny one? 'Cause if it was, we're about to come back this way..."

"You're right!" Spike whispered. "Now you're the one fleeing with the zombie on your tail—no, wait, there's three Sisters chasin' the both of you! ... Uh oh." He pulled back around the corner fast.

"Uh oh what?" Dawn said.

"Think maybe one of 'em saw me."

Xander sprang to his feet and yanked Dawn up too. "Dawn, move. Get into a classroom, close the door."

She hesitated, her eyes huge in her face. "What about you?"

There was no time left. Spike made it onto his feet just as the Sister came snarling around the corner. Xander quickly put himself between Dawn and the demon, while Spike held up his hands and said quietly, "Whoa there, girl." Then he made a more complicated gesture, pointing at the palms of his hands each in turn, then at his mouth, and finally making a swoosh motion with his left hand, index finger crooked.

The Sister of Jhe stopped short and ceased growling. She cocked her head, narrowed her glowing red eyes, and then started gesturing back at Spike. She smacked her left palm with her right fist, baby finger extended, and then made a twirling motion with her two index fingers.

"What's going on?" Dawn whispered behind Xander.

"They're talking," Xander explained, pitching his voice low. "Demon sign language." That was the reason that Giles had chosen Spike, in particular, for this mission: he was the only one on the Council who knew the language. In fact the existence of a standard demon sign language had been entirely unknown to the Council until Spike had happened to mention it a few months previously. It opened up a whole area of research that had the more scholarly members of the Council all excited. But for now, the important thing was that this Sister of Jhe seemed to be fluent. Xander relaxed a little, and let Dawn creep up beside him.

Spike and the Sister kept signing at each other. To Xander's admittedly untrained eye it looked kind of like American Sign Language, only with more violent stabby gestures.

After another flurry of hand motions culminating in Spike miming slicing his own throat, the Sister bowed awkwardly and quietly ran away back the way she'd come.

Spike turned back to Xander and Dawn and, leaning against the wall, said "That's done, then. She'll pass the word to the other Sisters."

Xander rubbed his arms uneasily. "It's too early. We weren't supposed to contact them until the Hellmouth closes. What if they change something now?"

"In the original timeline, the Sisters didn't play much of a part in the battle in the library," Spike reminded him. "Their big excitement didn't come until afterwards, when your bloody Scoobies chased them around the school and killed them all."

"And that's where I come in," Dawn said—somewhere between reminding them of her part and seeking reassurance.

"Right," Spike agreed. "And that moment's coming up soon, so we'd better keep an eye out."

"Spike?" Dawn said. "What does this mean?" She mimicked the last sign he'd made in the conversation with the demon, sliding her fingernail along her throat.

"Oh." Spike smiled. "Means 'good-bye.'" He peeked around the corner, then ducked back. "And there you are," he said to Xander. "Walking out nice and peaceful-like."

Xander felt an unexpected rush of adrenaline, realizing what that meant—two floors below them, the bomb had come within a second of detonating. "Okay," he said, reaching for the same calm he knew the Xander downstairs was feeling, "time to get Dawn into position."

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Fic update: Before the Time of Dawn (6 of ?)

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