Point of No Return

[madimpossibledreamer]

Main Points:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU
Summary:  This is a sketch (in terms of detail, not art), not a fic, though there are fic-shaped segments.  Another one from 2012.  This one involves one of my recurrent themes--it'd be cool to do a multi-universe stuck-in-tournament arc--but I have yet to figure out a way to actually get it to work.  Funny thing: it's saved as spander_untitled but it also has Point of No Return randomly listed at the top of the document, so that's going to be its title.

         Buffy came to herself in what looked like another cemetery.  “Great, die and there’s just more cemeteries.  Can’t a girl get a break now and then?”
         She began walking through it, twirling the stake, and saw someone in front of her—a guy.  Medium length brown hair, decent length coat, nice boots.  Lugging a bag full of stuff.  Looked kind of like he was up to something, but for once her instincts were saying watch first, stake later.
         “Okay!  I’m here!”  She blinked.  That was Xander.  And he wasn’t wearing terrifyingly hideous clothes.
         There was something really, really wrong with this picture.
         “Look, I’m here, and I brought the stuff.  I demand an audience, now.”  He waited a second, then added, “…please?”
         Buffy couldn’t help but smile at that one, but this was turning out really, really, really wrong.
         Something materialized right in front of him, but he didn’t jump.  A demon-y thing in robes.
         “Are you ready for the trials?”  The voice was strangely normal.  Pretty even.  Pretty voiced demon thing.
         Xander nodded.  “I’m ready.” 

         “Buffy, I told you to stay back there.”
         “I don’t know what you’re up to, Xander, but in case you forgot-demons bad.  Making deals with demons bad.”
         He turned on her, face fierce.  “We’ve been through this, Buffy, but just to make this clear to you-again-if it was Dawnie, someone you loved, wouldn’t you do anything, risk anything to get them back?”
         At first she thinks it’s Anya, then Willow.

         “She’s not with me.  U-unless you kill people who just wander in and aren’t supposed to here, in which case she’s totally with me.”

Several trials, then must win 8 rounds in the arena.  Death doesn’t stop it (unless it’s Buffy’s-they’re put in as partners).  Xander can fight, and Buffy gets to the point of impressed and respectful.

Round Three
         Buffy glanced up to see Xander…stabbed in the chest with all eight of the creature’s arm blades.  He stared in disbelief, a slight bit of annoyance, and then he let out a howl as the pain hit him and crumpled.  With a roar, she snapped off part of the railing and charged, taking the demon’s head clean off.  She knelt by Xander, who was beginning to shake, teeth clamped to keep the pain in.
         “Buff,” he manages, shaking turning into an earthquake.
         “Don’t worry, I’ll finish it,” she promises.
         He makes to say something, but he can’t, the convulsions growing stronger, his eyes rolling up into his head.  She shakes him, “Don’t you dare leave me, Xander,” but all she gets is a half smile before the body goes limp in her arms.  A check reveals no pulse.
         The demons throw them in that waiting cell together again.  Buffy doesn’t see the point; it’s not as if he can fight, being dead and all.
         It’s when he convulses again and screams, loudly, that she readies her ever trusty Mr. Pointy again.
         He backs away, weak but clearly conscious, and mutters quickly, “Buff, not vampire.  Or demon.  Me human, like you.  Please, I only just died.  Don’t want to die again, not so soon.  Well, ever; dying hurts.”
         “What are you?” she asks quietly, not lowering the stake, and he answers just as quickly.
         “Cursed human, actually.  No stakeage.  Please with the no stakeage.”

There’s some torture here.

         They reach a room with one of those old wooden doors in the castle, and Buffy figures it probably has to be the dungeon.
         Instead, when the door creaks open, she sees that the room is small, yes, but the walls are lined with shelves filled with books.  And there’s a huddled man on the floor.
         “William!  You’re okay!” Xander rushes forward, but stops as the man tries to draw himself further out of sight.
         “The angry ugly people.  Are they still there?  Don’t want to go out.  It’s not safe at night.”  He’s muttering to himself in a high class British accent, rocking back and forth, and Xander approaches more cautiously.  He looks really familiar, glasses, long lighter brown hair, but Buffy can’t place him.
         “Baby…do you recognize me?”
         “I’m not a baby.  I’m a fully grown man; or just about anyway.”

         “Is that Spike?”
         “Buffy, shh.”

         “You must convince him of your love, and make him accept your sacrifice.”
         They’re sweet together.  Xan finally convinces him & convinces him to leave, saying that he can talk to Willow and find a way to get him back out.  It won’t be long.
         As they’re leaving, what’s like a magical television flickers to life, and they can see what they left-the evil monk asking whether Xander knew it was pointless; that he would be trapped down here forever.  Xan nods, shrugging.  “Sure, but he needed to be safe.”  Torture ensues, a scream being dragged from unwilling lips.
         William fights out of Buffy’s protective grasp (she promised) and back to Xander.  “I’m not leaving him; even if I have to be stuck down here with him myself.”
         That was the final test.  They proved they loved each other and were willing to die for each other.
         Xander gets a bit hysterical laughter and falls.  William unconsciously vamps out, grabbing the guy and slamming him against the wall, a touch of Spike’s accent creeping in, asking if this is the demon monk’s doing.  He says no; it’s the toll of the trials sinking in.

*I know it’s English accent, not British accent.  Buffy wouldn’t know that.