The gang sat in the magic shop after hours surrounded by the materials left by the Watchers about Glory. They had been reading about her for hours and all of the lore seemed grim. She had destroyed towns and villages, could control the weather and minds, and nothing in the literature said how or why she had disappeared or how she could come back.
Frustrated, Buffy slammed her book shut and stood up. "I'm going on patrol."
She took her jacket off the back of her chair and made sure she had her stakes. Putting it on, she breezed out the door letting the bell signal her exit. The group exchanged glances, and saw the same expression reflected around the room. They all hoped that she would be safe.
A Graveyard
Buffy stalked through the cemetery, stake in hand. A cold grip came crashing down on her shoulder and she whirled to strike. An instant before the stake struck home, she saw the face of her assailant and drew back. "Spike," she said through clenched teeth. "What do you want?"
He stood back from her, his expression unreadable. Noticing that she was looking at him, his face reformed into its usual cocky sneer. "What? I can't walk around my own cemetery?"
Buffy blew out a breath of air. Was there something behind that petulant look he was giving her? She shook her head, dismissing it altogether. Remembering his help when Glory had threatened her family, she sighed again and said. "Come on, just don't get in my way."
If his heart still beat, it would have skipped just then. She hadn't even really said that he could patrol with her, but she hadn't told him to get lost either. It was a step in the right direction. Noticing that she was already more than a few yards away, he broke into a run to catch up.
As he did, he ran right into a vampire that was making his way out of the Vargana family tomb. They landed in a heap and began tussling across the ground. Something flew across the lawn, flung out from the young vampire's hand as Spike thrust the stake he always kept with him for occasions such as this. At the same time, Buffy made short work of the other two that had come out behind the one Spike had dusted.
"Are you okay?" they asked each other at the same time. "I'm fine," they answered back. They were both surprised by the others concern and the silence following yawned between them.
"Let's go see what your buddy dropped." Buffy finally suggested. Spike opened his mouth to protest but shut it again as Buffy knelt on the ground next to a headstone and retrieved the object.
"Have you ever seen anything like this before?" she asked with a puzzled furrow across her brow. She held up the dull gold vase with a matching stopper in her other hand. An intricate design was picked out in gilt around the bottom, though most of it was chipped away.
Taking it from her, Spike looked at it. "Can't say that I have, love."
He looked inside the vase and as he did, Buffy noticed the writing that was inscribed across the bottom. He turned it upside down to see if anything came out and Buffy snatched it away from him.
"I wonder what this means," Buffy muttered, still looking at the inscription. It was obviously in another language. She thought it was Latin, judging by all of the books in Giles' personal collection she had just been through.
She read it out loud forming her mouth around the unfamiliar syllables. When she completed the phrase, she shrugged her shoulders and said, "Nope, I still don't know what that means - WHOA!!"
Buffy's eyes grew wide with alarm as her feet and legs went out from under her. She looked down and saw them blur and discorporate. She felt drawn to the vase and saw the colors of her legs being pulled in.
Spike watched as Buffy began to be sucked into the vase, dumbfounded. The vase lay on the ground, where she had dropped it. Finally realizing the situation, he dropped to the ground as her midsection was being pulled in. He grabbed onto her hands. "Buffy, hold on!"
"I can't!" she cried out as she was pulled into the vase completely. The stopper rose from the ground and plugged itself back into the vase.
Spike picked up the bottle and looked at it curiously. "Slayer? You in there?"
Receiving no answer, he shook it. "Buffy?"
"Of course I'm in here, you stooge. Open up the top and let me out!" her voice called out hollowly from inside the strange jug. Spike dripped the vase in surprise and from inside, he could still hear her voice. "OW!"
"Sorry, sorry," he said, quickly retrieving the vase. He uncorked the tope and a mist emerged from it. When the mist was out fully, it took on the form of Buffy.
She was still wearing her tank top and leather pants, but around her wrists were thin golden bands. "What the hell is going on here?" she asked, irate. It wasn't everyday that she was turned into mist and pulled into a vase only to come out with new accessories.
"Damned if I know, Slayer," he replied.
"If you don't know, then just shut up Spike." Buffy spat. She wanted to hit him, but oddly, something was holding her back. She felt weird, like she should be doing something, but she couldn't figure out what. "We'd better go see Giles."
Spike nodded, trailing after her. He could get used to 'we'.
The Magic Box
Everyone had gone home for the evening and Giles was the only one left when Buffy and Spike had arrived. Buffy finished explaining to him what had happened and Giles had asked to see the mysterious container. He took one look at it and the inscription and sat down, hard.
"Oh, dear. You said Spike was the one who let you out?" he asked.
"Yeah, so?" Buffy replied, not quite sure why he had reacted that way.
Giles got up again and went over to the bookshelves, mumbling to himself. Finally, he retrieved the volume that he was searching for and as he walked back to the table, he turned the pages and spoke. "Buffy, you should have known not to read what was on the lamp."
"The words didn't say made in China?" she quipped, still unable to shake the strange feeling she was having.
"No, they didn't." Giles replied curtly, spreading the pages of the book out for her to see. On the page was a drawing that looked just like the vase she was holding.
The entry read: "The Suurukan Lamp. Once possessed by a spirit known to grant wishes to whomever opened the vessel, now vacant. Was passed down in the Vargana family. Location now unknown. Uses: Can be used to trap a being that has even the smallest amount of dark energy and convert that being into a spirit similar to the one that was housed within previously. Whomsoever would open the Lamp and find a spirit within is entitled to three wishes which can not include death, love or knowledge of the future."
"You're a genie!" Spike cried out as Buffy sank lower and lower onto the ground. The book was cradled in her lap and she closed it, in shock. He picked her up by the shoulders and spun her around, laughing as he did.
"And you're her 'master' for all intents and purposes." Giles continued. He knew even as Spike spoke what the vampire's first wish would be.
"Well, first things first, I wish that you would get this bleedin' chip out of my head." Spike barked at her.
Buffy looked at him uneasily, unable to control her own actions. She raised up her arms and with a flash of light, the chip flew out of Spike's nose. Spike promptly punched Giles in the gut. The older man doubled over in pain and prepared for what he thought would be his last moments on earth.
"Sod it, Watcher, you can't take a hit?" Spike asked, clearly amused and surprised that for the first time in a year, he could hurt something human without mind numbing pain. He eased Giles into a chair, slapped him a little too roughly across the face and settled into the chair beside him.
Noticing Buffy's furious look, he raised his hands in protest. "I was just checking!"
He looked at her, frozen in place as she stalked up to him, stake in hand retrieved from her waistband. She jumped before he could move and straddled his legs, knocking the two of them off the chair. They landed and rolled, with Buffy ending up on top. She raised the stake and said to him, almost lovingly. "We both knew this would happen someday."
As she brought the stake down, Spike braced himself for death, only wishing that he was human so that he couldn't be harmed by the stake. He felt an unfamiliar sensation in his chest. This is what death feels like for a vampire, he thought to himself. He opened his eyes to see Buffy for the last time and instead he saw Buffy with a puzzled look on her face.
"I flashed. What did you wish for?" she asked.
"Oh, bloody hell," he muttered, trying to get up. Was she ever this heavy?
Finally bringing himself to his feet, he leaned against the pillar in the middle of the room. "I don't want to talk about it."
She moved at him with a purpose and reached back to punch him in the nose.
"..uff..," Giles croaked out, trying to get his wind back. Buffy turned to him, remembering that he was still there.
"What is it Giles?" she asked, leaning down to hear him.
"You can't hurt him."
"Sure I can, do you want to watch?" she asked, flippantly.
"Buffy," he stated calmly, finally regaining his composure. "You can't hurt him because technically speaking, he is your master."
"Oh, I get it. Kinda like a magical binding thing. Nice. Ok, vampie, make your last wish so that I can figure a way out of this."
Spike had watched the exchange, trying not to hear his heartbeat whooshing in his ears. "Maybe I don't feel like it, Slayer."
Buffy rolled her eyes in exasperation and sat down at the table next to Giles. Something fish hooked in her brain. A memory, no not a memory. Something that had to do with Dawn. A movie she had insisted on seeing at the theatres at least five times. Dawn had been seven years old then and Buffy was still three years away from knowing her calling.
"Free me!" She got up quickly and moved over to Spike.
"What?" he asked, still dazed.
"Free the genie! Wish for my freedom!" she grabbed on to his lapels.
"Why the hell should I? You would still hate me." Whoops, he thought to himself. That last part slipped out before he could stop it.
"You think I hate you?" She asked, slightly hurt. Was that a slight tinge of pink on his face? It must be warm in here, she thought. "Well, I'm supposed to, its in my job description you know?"
"Then why would I free you?" he asked, turning away from her.
"Because, then I wouldn't hate you as much," she replied matter of factly.
"Well then, isn't that a prize?" he retorted, turning back to her. He was ready to tear into her for being such a selfish, hard headed bitch when he saw her eyes. They were looking at him with the same cutting stare that she had always used when around him, but behind that was fear and little hope. He couldn't deny that she was absolutely beautiful like this. Or always. A tear fell unheeded down her cheek and he moved to catch it. "There, there pet. Don't cry. Of course I wish for your freedom."
They all looked around expectantly and when no flash appeared Buffy looked at him. "That was a wish wasn't it? Why didn't it work?" she asked holding out her manacle clad wrists.
"I don't know," he stated, just as confused.
Giles turned the pages of the book he retrieved from the floor. "There must be something here on how to release the genie. Ah here it is. 'The genie may not go free unless a benevolent master uses their last wish to do so, or if the master dies'."
"How could that not be his last wish? He had three and I already did the flashy thing twice." Buffy countered.
Ignoring Buffy, Giles turned to Spike and asked. "What was your second wish?"
Spike looked down at his shoes and tried to think of ways to stall for time. "Oh why not? I wished to be human so that I wouldn't die if she staked me. I didn't know that she couldn't hurt me."
"Interesting. There must have been a loophole in the binding that compensated for this." Giles said mostly to himself as he continued to page through the book.
Meanwhile, Buffy circled him, fascinated. "So I made you human? Now how am I going to keep from murdering you when Giles figures out how to free me?" she asked, a small smile playing on her lips.
"I'm sure you'll think of something," he replied sarcastically.
"You don't have to be so rude. Giles can you kill him? You said that I would be free if he dies."
"Buffy, surely you don't expect me to commit an act of murder? He is a living, breathing human being. I can't do that!" Giles replied, his voice picking up a squeak at the last.
At the same time, Spike cried out "Hey! At least I tried to wish for your freedom. I was doing you a favor and all you can think about is killing me still. What is your problem girl? I give you all I can, I love you with all my heart and this is the thanks I get. I wish this had never happened!"
Buffy reeled back in disbelief. He loved her? "Spike - I - I don't know what to say."
As she went to comfort the vampire turned human, she felt a tingling and let out a groan of dismay. He had wished for something. For none of this to ever happen. As she raised her arms unwillingly to complete his wish, she reached deep within herself to the feelings she had buried under constant fortification of pretended hate and disgust. "I love you too."
She had time enough to see the comprehension in his eyes before the flash surrounded the two of them.
A Graveyard
"Are you okay?" they asked each other at the same time. "I'm fine," they answered back. They were both surprised by the others concern and the silence following yawned between them.
"Let's go see what your buddy dropped." Buffy finally suggested. Spike opened his mouth to protest but shut it again as Buffy knelt on the ground next to a headstone and stood up again, her hands empty.
"I guess Slayers don't have very good tracking skills after all," Spike chortled, lighting a cigarette.
"Shut up Spike. I could swear that I heard it fall right here. Oh well, it couldn't have been that important," she concluded looking up at him.
As their eyes met, a spark flew between them, a wave of understanding. And then, nothing at all. They continued to stare, confused.
"Quit staring at me, I'm not a bloody bug under a microscope." Spike barked.
Buffy looked at him in consternation and then her face lit up. With a smile, she pulled his arm so that it was settled across her shoulders. Too surprised to think, Spike let his arm remain as they walked out of the cemetery together.
The End