Chapter twelve

"He's dying..." Anya said in a low voice, raising her head to look at Giles.

Giles was kneeling on the floor, drawing the signs they needed for the spell that was going to send Willow back to the present. The former Watcher raised his head and met Anya's eyes.

"Giles, we don't have much time left" Anya firmly said, she got up from her chair and got close to him, kneeling on the floor next to him.

"I know that, Anya..." Giles said looking at her.

"Have you ever seen a vampire dying from this poison?" Anya asked, she turned her head to look at Spike, the blonde vampire was lightly squirming on the couch, some of the boils on his face had erupted, and pus was coming

out from them.

Anya couldn't help notice that although Spike looked like he had lost consciousness; his hands were still clenched in fists. Blood was staining the couch.

Over the last eighteen hours Giles and she had constantly turned his body over, not to let the burns on his back worsen.

She couldn't say whether Spike was in his game face, since it was almost too burnt to distinguish his features any more.

She knew that if Willow came back in time to save him, those burns were going to vanish immediately...she

was afraid, though, that the red-head wasn't going to make it.

"No, I didn't...but I am sure Willow will..."

"We have to start the spell now...what if that Electra chick dusts Eric? We can't take this risk..."

Giles sighed; tempted to ask Anya since when she was so fond of Spike or so selfless ...the answer that came up in his mind surprised him. It had all changed the previous month.

 It had all changed during those four days, since then they had all got closer to each other, even Anya.

He lightly pinched the bridge of his nose before saying, "I can bring her back, but Eric did cast another spell on her, don't you remember?"

"The Philomela spell?” Anya asked.

Giles raised an eyebrow surprised, Anya shrugged and said, "Don't be so surprised, I've been around for a long time, remember?"

"You ought to know, then, how difficult it is to undo that spell"

Anya nodded, but surprised Giles saying, "Willow has been willing to take the risk because she didn't want to lose him, we'll take care of that spell, when she comes back...colour me wearing her resolve face, Giles...we have to bring Willow back..."

"We don't even know whether William gave his blood to her"

"I...did" Spike's voice was but a whisper, yet both Giles and Anya started, turning to look at him. He was unmoving, his jaws clenched.

"Did you?" Giles asked.

"Are...y...you ...bloody...deaf?" Spike asked.

He didn't open his eyes, and his voice was very weak, yet Giles couldn't help being relieved, the very fact that the vampire had been still listening to them and had found the strength to talk, showed how he was still fighting, how adamant he was in refusing to give up.

He had heard Spike promising Willow not to give up...and he was trying very hard to keep that promise.

He thought about Willow, who had chosen to bear on her shoulders a huge responsibility going back in time. She had taken a big risk; she was still risking her life...to help the man she loved.

Just like Spike had risked his cover and defied the orders to help her.

Anya's voice interrupted the train of his thoughts when she said, "Giles we have to decide very quickly, we can't waste time..."

Giles nodded running a hand through his hair and said, "Let's do it..."

Anya smiled at him and couldn't help saying, "Way to go G-Man!"

Giles couldn't help the lump which formed in his throat when Spike chimed in a weaker voice, "Don't...c...call him t...that"

*~~*~~*~~*~~*

The temptation was strong...so strong, a temptation emphasized by the tiredness he was beginning to feel. It would have been so easy to let his demon taking over and finish that bitch, yet despite how dangerous and strong Electra was, Eric couldn't let himself to.

He couldn't let his demon taking over...he didn't have the courage, he couldn'

t, not even to save the world...not again.

He kept fighting her, and was surprised that she hadn't morphed in her game face, either. He was puzzled by her behaviour.

More than once she had had the chance to dust him, since they had begun fighting...yet each time she made stupid mistakes, giving him the chance to get free.

What game was she playing? What did she really want from them?

Once again Electra charged him, she hit him in the stomach, with a kick, Eric punched her with all his might, throwing her against a wall, Electra shook her head and leant against it almost panting, "Ok, gheraious I got it,

you're strong and you like me against this wall, wanna give a shot at it?"

Eric stretched his hands toward her and while a green iridescent light poured out from his hands and it wrapped around her body he smiled saying, "Thanks, but no thanks. I say we shouldn't waste any more time "

~ Willow's lips were swollen when he saw her. She was slowly walking down the hallway, her hair tousled, and from where he was he could see tears, glistening in her eyes. ~

He looked around while he got close to the blonde vampire, ignoring the recollections that were forming in his head. Ignoring that old...but at the same time new heart-ache he was feeling. He bent and took from the floor one

of the broken bolts Electra had dodged from Buffy.

"What...are you in a hurry? Life is too short?" she quipped, resting her head against the wall.

~ "Did he give you the blood?" he asked, making his presence known to her.

She started and turned toward him. He was leaning against the closed door of his study. She shot him an angry look, but nodded.

He knew what had happened, he could smell sex and blood on her, he could smell tears and fear...and rage...and it was intoxicating. ~

Pain was evident on Electra's face, yet she sounded amused when she added, "Is this the part where you rip my heart out of my chest? With your bare hands? C'mon get it over with it..."

~ Why his future self, had sent that girl back in the past?

She looked so frail, so young. She slowly got close to him hugging her arms over her chest, she wasn't looking at him but when he attempted to touch her shoulder, she jerked her head up.

Her eyes were full of tears, yet she adamantly refused to let them slip down her cheeks, her green eyes bore into his, and in them he saw a strength, a fire that surprised him.

She wasn't frail; she had gone against time to save William. ~

"Or you will lose the two lovebirds' reunion..." she softly added.

Eric frowned, how did Electra know about what was going on? Why could he still smell Willow? Why did he feel the urge to close his eyes and shook away the memories? Why could he see himself having done that for years after that day?

~ Although his older self hadn't written why...he knew.

She had gone back in time to save the man she was in love with.

He was surprised realizing he was almost envious of William....of what he had had with her...of what he was going to have, one day.

"I apologise for my behaviour" he said somewhat meekly. Since when did he feel the need to apologise?

She smiled at him and shook her head. She mouthed something he didn't understand, and suddenly wished to know her voice.

Were they friends in the future? How had they met? ~

"What can I say, I'm old fashioned..." he said smiling

Electra wasn't struggling to break free, she let out a chuckle and said in a low, almost hypnotic voice "Oh, you disappoint me, gheraious, I wanted you to let me taste your darkness..."

~ What was happening to him? Since when a woman, a *human* woman he had known for less than twenty four hours mattered so much to him?

"I..." he started, and for the first time in longer he could remember he was at a loss for word.

She was arching a delicate eyebrow at him, and he couldn't help smiling at her, his smile quickly faded when she mouthed, "I want to go home..."

She had come from a very distant future, to retrieve William's blood. She had come from a very faraway place, from a different kind of life...and had forbid herself to rewrite history accepting a spell that could damage her brain ...

She probably hated him.

She was probably in love with William...and he was sure that if William had let himself to, he would have fallen in love with her, as well...

He didn't want her to go.

"Can you help me?" she mouthed. ~

“I wanted you to *hurt* me, baby..." she continued, blowing a kiss at him.

Eric shook his head both at Electra's words and at his recollections.

How had he fought them, afterwards. He raised his hand, ready to stake her, but almost let the stake drop when the events replayed themselves in his mind, as if they had just happened.

~ He didn't want her to leave....ever again. Yet when, he looked into her eyes, he couldn't help smiling at her and say, "Of course...come with me..."

She smiled at him, and impulsively circled his neck with an arm and kissed his cheek.

Without wanting it, without even realizing it...he had fallen in love with that woman from the future. ~

His makeshift stake dropped on the floor and he took a step back, shaking his head, losing concentration. Electra pulled free, Eric didn't see her little smile, she spin kicked him, sending him to the floor.

"I guess it will be for the next time, see you around gheraious...." She said.

Eric heard a sharp popping sound, and when he raised his head Electra had disappeared.

~ See you around gheraious ~

He looked around while he rose on his feet. Why had Electra spared him?

He was pondering whether to look for her, when he smelled it.

Magic...

The watcher and the former demon were casting the spell to bring Willow back.

"They're going to kill her...it's too soon..." he said through clenched teeth, quickly heading toward the door.

He had to hurry, neither Anya nor Giles could bring Willow back...without killing her in the process.

 The story might have just changed, yet he felt like he had loved her forever...burying that love deep inside his heart...trying to forget her...loving and losing again.

He couldn't lose Willow...not her too.

He felt his face stretching, morphing, and for an instant he was afraid he wasn't going to be able to control his feelings. He closed his eyes and forced himself to block out his anger and rage, he forced himself to block out his feelings.

After all that's all he had done for the last four centuries and half.

*~~*~~*~~*~~*

<Why are we here?>

Willow silently wondered, looking around. Eric had scared ten years out of her life, casting a relocation spell. One moment they had been in Eric's study, within a circle, a moment later they had appeared in William's room.

"No one can see, hear or feel us, we have to follow him" Eric said, as if he had read her mind.

Willow turned toward the dark-haired vampire, frowning.

"It is the procedure, in order to bind his soul to his body when..."

Willow stopped him, by raising a hand. As if her life hadn't been already complicated, she was now going to see William die.

She looked around, the room was dark, the sun had set, and William wasn't there. She was seeing the room, through a greenish light.

She was inside some kind a shield. She sighed, noticing that her jeans and her shirt had disappeared...and so had the few books that had been there that morning.

They were erasing William from the face of Earth. As if he had never existed. She started when the door of the room opened.

William got in, holding a sheet in his left hand, quickly heading toward his desk, lightening then some candles.

He looked down at the sheet he had been holding in his hand and read it, for what it looked like hours.

"He has been given his assignment." Eric calmly explained, without looking at her.

Willow wasn't listening to him, though. She kept looking at William, although he looked calm, she could see that the restlessness, the tension that had built in his body since that afternoon hadn't disappeared, not even the sex had helped him.

His hands were still trembling. The same hands that had touched her that afternoon, that had longed for her skin.

She swallowed and took a step toward him, but stopped when with a quick gesture William, threw the few sheets that were still on the desk on the floor.

He turned and for an instant she was sure he had looked at her.

<Oh, God...he's so young...so alone...>

His face hardened, she saw him steeling himself, he closed his eyes, and Willow wished she could go close to him and touch him....she wished she could give him strength.

William shook his head and opened his eyes, and Willow almost took a step back, seeing how cold his eyes had become.

His face had become a mask. There weren't regrets; there weren't doubts anymore...just an air of restlessness and eagerness.

He tightened in his brown duster and turned taking a look outside the window. It was raining...so hard that it was almost impossible to see what there was outside.

They both knew though. The things that went bump in the night, the thing...in the visage of a dark haired woman that was going to steal his life and his heart.

William turned and looked around in the room, probably noticing how poorly it was furnished. There was a crumpled sheet on the floor, not very far from where she was, Willow took a step back, brushing Eric's chest with her shoulders.

William knelt on the floor, taking the crumpled sheet in his hands, lowering his head toward it. He closed his eyes.

Willow turned toward Eric, the dark haired vampire had a serious expression on his face, perhaps William's impending death was affecting him after all.

William slowly rose on his feet, letting the sheet fall on the floor, he shook his head and let out a laugh....and Willow was surprised noticing that wasn't the laughter of a mad man....perhaps a desperate man...but not a mad man.

William knew what he was doing...he had given up everything to embrace that mission.

He took another look at the window and shrugged, heading then toward the door.

"We have to follow him..."

Willow nodded without looking at Eric, she took a step forward, and knelt on the floor, unable to withstand temptation, she took the sheet in her hands and quickly read what was written on it, feeling her eyes filling with tears while she grazed the words written on the sheet with trembling fingers

<< We defy augury.

There is a special providence in the fall of a sparrow.

If it be now 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not  now, yet it will come.

The readiness is all.

Since no man of ought he leaves, knows aught, what is to leave betimes?

Let be>>

She swallowed while rising on her feet, clutching the sheet in her hands, "I hope you will find peace" she mouthed.

She turned toward Eric and nodded, the dark-haired vampire stretched a hand toward her and she took it. She closed her eyes when the vampire began chanting.

She hoped to be strong enough....strong enough to watch the man who was going to become the man she had fallen in love with, die.

*~~*~~*~~*~~*

"Is everything ready?" Giles asked looking at Anya.

Spike knew he didn't have much time left. The recollections were all there, now...he recalled everything.

How he had come back to his room, only to find it devoid of the few things that had belonged to him.

"Yes, we just have to cast the spell..."

Spike wished he had the strength to tell them to stop talking, he just wanted to rest...the only reason he still hadn't given in to the pain, the only reason why even now, was still fighting against the poison, was because of Willow.

He wanted to see her...explain why he had left her...explain to her why he hadn't loved her.

"Oh, Chronos god of time we invoke thee" Giles started, ignoring the ringing of the phone.

"In thy name we break through the blanket of time" Anya continued

Time... Spike recalled how the words on that sheet had seemed to blur ...and how he had wished he had had more time.

For the umpteenth time, pain gripped him, corroded him...and for the umpteenth time, Spike gritted his teeth, fighting back the pain, knowing he was desperately hanging on the last vestiges of his strength.

"In thy name we bend Time" Giles added

He recalled now, how he had forgotten about Willow, about that young red-head, who had tried to give him peace in the darkest hour of his life.

He recalled how he hadn't recognized her, when they had met...and how the recollections of those twenty-four hours, had returned only when they had really known each other...and how he had refused them, burying them so deep inside himself that he had almost started to believe it had all been a coincidence

"In thy name we create a bridge" Anya continued.

The telephone was still ringing, but neither Giles nor Anya paid attention to its shrill sound.

Spike realized that Willow hadn't changed history...not the main events...but he now had recollections of staring at her, trying to figure out something, something he hadn't exactly been able to pinpoint....not until now.

The apartment's door burst open, breaking Giles' words in mid sentence.

"You can't do the spell now...they aren't ready in the past..." Eric voice announced.

"He is worsening..." Giles said in a low voice.

"I know, but killing the red-head is not going to help William, and it's what you're doing!"