Author's Note: Originally written as the answer to a challenge on B/S central before it went down. Challenge will be posted at the end of the story.

I started this story a very long time ago. After several computer crashes I thought it was lost until recently when I happened upon a lone floppy disc.

I did have a beta for this long ago and far away but when I lost the story for the second time I pretty much gave up.

Suggestions or comments are welcome and any offers from the beta fairy will gladly be excepted... as long as you are of age.

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.

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Willow studied the words of the spell carefully, at the same time running a mental checklist of everything needed.

Elixir of rebirth
Wine of the god
Essence of battle
And the heart of the source

Combine before the moon sets on the third day
And the curse of the dragon shall burn death away

Ok, so all the ingredients… check.

The diagram under the short spell showed the way the circle and symbols should be drawn and in what positions, but that was the only other information. She frowned. There were no instructions that came with it, no words to repeat, and no clue to how the ritual should be started.

She raised her eyes to the others.

Buffy was chewing on her lower lip nervously, but otherwise seemed calm. Angel was brooding (surprise surprise) and Illyria was… well Illyria.

Taking a deep breath as she looked down at the dying vampire, she closed her eyes and muttered an entreaty to the relevant Gods.

Hecate hear my plea
Open my eyes to the truth
Show me the way to restore this warrior lest he be lost to us
Osiris lord of Death I beseech thee
Unveil what is hidden from these mortal eyes
Reveal the path to his salvation

Her simple chant said she opened her eyes, praying that her petition would be granted and she would be given the vision to see what needed to be seen.

Before her eyes, the writing on the page swirled and started to reform.
Where the words and the small diagram had been the only things on the page, now there was another more detailed diagram and another verse.

The diagram showed three beings with their hands bound and a fourth holding a stylised heart under the bound hands. Blood was running from the three joined hands dripping on to the heart and that in turn was running onto the body lying on what could have easily been an altar, or a bed.

Okay, so it looks fairly straightforward, she thought with relief.

Bind Buffy, Angel and Illyria’s hands. Cut them to draw blood and let the flow of the blood mix and drip down on to Spike.

Now let’s see…

Willow studied the new verse, and as she took in the words she couldn’t help feeling there was more to them than just a spell to heal.

The first part of the spell had seemed pretty cryptic, and then it had just turned out to be really literal. So why when reading this did she get the feeling that there was more to this spell than just a way to heal the dragon’s damage?

As the blood flows let their minds be open
To give the gift of life three must join as one
As the blood flows let the words be spoken
And the dragon’s curse shall be undone

So that was pretty self explanatory, now for the actual spell… Hmmm?

While the blood runs red across this token
As it flows let the dragons curse be broken

To sever the ties that bind death to life
Let this be our payment of the tythe

With the essence of a God and the last of the heart
We call this lost warrior back to the start

With a warrior’s gift and blood that is shared
Let the one here before us be spared

With our sacrifice we petition this spell ended
By the grace of Osiris let this warrior be mended

Well that was just embarrassing. It was so third grade. Or like something they’d cook up on that stupid TV show about the three witches. Right then, embarrassing or not this was it.

Hold on, what’s this last part at the bottom?

As the blood fades and his fate is set
The warrior will be reborn with no regret

Willow peered at the page. She had a sudden nasty feeling about those two lines. They didn’t seem to be part of the incantation. Looking at it, it sort of came across as a disclaimer, or (gulp) some kind of warning?

Crap, no time to ponder this.
Gotta do this, warning or not. Ok Spike here we go.

“Right guys, this is what you have to do.”

As she explained the spell to the others, she found herself carefully avoiding Buffy’s eyes. She didn’t want Buffy to sense just how worried she was about what they were about to attempt, so she deliberately focused on the vampire lying on the bed.

*******************************

Kennedy groaned. Raising her aching head she jolted in sudden reaction as the memory of her fight with Faith came rushing back, along with the headache.

Scrambling to her knees, she strained her eyes trying to see where and what the other slayer was up to. Silence threatened to crush her with its heaviness along with the realisation that Faith had beaten her and then dumped her somewhere… else?

Getting to her feet, she carefully extended her arms and her senses trying to work out the boundaries of her undoubted prison. Within a few steps, her certainty was confirmed as she encountered the bars.

“FAITH YOU FUCKING BITCH, I’M GONNA KILL YOU”.

********************************

Buffy tensed as Willow used her sharp little witchy knife to cut the palm of her hand. The pain barely registered as she gazed at the ruined body of the man she loved.

Willow had explained the spell and made it sound fairly straightforward but she knew there was something that Willow wasn’t telling her; Willow was doing the whole avoidy thing she did with her eyes and it was making Buffy really nervous.

The fact that Angel kept darting wounded brooding looks her way whenever he thought she wasn’t looking wasn’t helping either. She had a feeling that she would shortly be asked to explain her reasoning behind a certain cookie dough speech, and just the thought of her stupidity at their last Sunnydale meeting was enough to make her cringe.

Spike had been back for months and worse, had been working with Angel, so there was no way Angel hadn’t blabbed about her whole ‘one day when I’m baked’ speech.

God Spike, why didn’t you let me know?

Closing her eyes briefly against the sight of his damaged form, she tried to understand how the vampire who loved her enough to die for her hadn’t bothered to let her know he was back in the land of the living.

All these wasted months when they could have been together? All the time here in LA leading to this… and now to nearly lose him again without even knowing he was back.

Oh yeah… anger was good.

Her eyes snapped open and she found herself glaring at her erstwhile lover before directing her glare at her other ex. Boy, was there gonna be some hair pulling when this was all over. Angel and Spike both were going to know the wrath of a very pissed off Slayer.

Stupid vampires, thinking they could make decisions for her! No consideration for her feelings, treating her like some fragile little girl who needed to be protected. Well we’ll just see who needs the protection when I get the two of them alone.

Coming back to herself she noticed Angel eyeing her nervously and took a moment to smile at him sweetly, watching the look on his face go from nervous to panicked before she turned her attention back to Willow and the spell.

She grinned. Oh yeah I’ve still got it.

Angel wasn’t surprised that Buffy was pissed with him, not after she’d made herself so clear over the whole Dana incident. What he was surprised about was her anger over the whole ‘Spike is back and you didn’t tell me’ thing.

Ok, so she might have mentioned that Spike was in her heart but that still didn’t explain why she seemed to be more concerned with the peroxide pest’s wellbeing than the apocalypse they’d just managed to avert.

Judging from the look she had just thrown at him, he had a nasty feeling that they would be having words before the day was out. Assuming of course, that the spell that Willow was casting actually worked, and restored his pain in the ass grandchilde.

Angel had lived for a very long time and seen a lot of horror; mostly at his own behest, but he had found himself truly horrified at the condition of the vampire that had fought by his side.

Willingly distracting the dragon so Angel could get away was one thing, but risking the sort of damage that Spike had suffered? Well he really did not understand Spike, not at all.

Studying him, Angel felt a tug of worry as he considered that Spike might not survive this latest fight, that Willow might not be able to save him.

Even with as much of a pain in the ass the younger vampire was to Angel he had to admit that having him around was never dull, the thought of Spike being gone from the world permanently… he frowned…. Na, never happen.

Spike’s like a cockroach, spray em squash em, burn em. Hell not even a nuke could get rid of them, they always came back.

Stifling a chuckle at the thought, Angel comforted himself with the knowledge that there was no way Spike was going to die, not when he had the chance of gloating that he’d saved his grandsire’s undead ass.

Of course, that did not mean that he had to let Spike know that he had been worried.

Willow was relieved the spell was going off without a hitch. Also the fact that Illyria had been super cooperative was another way big relief.

The blood had been drawn and the words said, now they just had to wait and see if it was going to work.

She studied the vampire on the bed, her eyes flicking nervously between his body and the blood-drenched heart she held below the bound hands of the three. As the first of the drops fell to spatter on the vamps chest, she held her breath, the last few lines of the spell pushing at something in the back of her brain.

As the blood fades and his fate is set
The warrior will be reborn with no regret

Spike had been still as only the dead can be up until this point, but as the first flow of blood pooled on his chest his body started to shake, his head wrenched back and a chilling cry was expelled from what sounded to Willow like the depths of his soul.

Then the blood started to glow with it’s own fiery brilliance.

What before had seemed a small amount, suddenly became a torrent, quickly enveloping the body of the vampire. It brightened to the point that the occupants of the room had to look away, and when Willow chanced to look back in the brief moment that the glow still surrounded him, she saw something she hoped never to see again.

Spike’s body seemed to dissolve before her eyes until the only thing left of him was the glowing red aura in the shape of a man. She knew logically that it must be just the effects of the spell, her heart clenched with dread, as he seemed to waver before her eyes on the verge of disappearing completely.

Just when Willow was certain that the spell had gone bad and that Spike had been consumed by the light, it started to fade.

In the seconds it took for her to register the fact that she could see his form become solid again the light faded completely, leaving him naked and unblemished on the bed.

Buffy blinked back tears from her eyes, the brilliance of the glow having all but blinded her. When at last she was able to see again, the first thing she saw was the awed expression on Willow’s face.

Looking at the bed, Buffy forgot to breathe for a moment as she took in the sight of her restored love. Sobbing with relief, her knees crumpled and she found herself on the floor, with only the edge of the bed supporting her suddenly weak and dizzy body.

Spike? Oh God Spike.

With shaking hands she reached out to touch him, afraid that he would suddenly disappear, but desperate to feel his skin under her hands. He was just as she remembered skin cool to the touch but silky soft and unmarked. His hair was the only glaring difference. It curled about his head in soft brown waves.

She studied his face in wonder, his long dark lashes lay closed over the eyes she had always secretly thought to be his best feature. Trembling hands swept over his sharp cheekbones fluttering across his beautiful mouth, stilling only as they cupped his face with a tenderness that would once have horrified her. She stared at him drinking in the sight of his beauty, seemingly so innocent as he slept.

She remembered other times after their wild and violent couplings, times she had dismissed as weakness on her part. Times when she had laid awake and watched him sleep trying not to marvel that something without a soul could stir her heart the way he did. She had come so close to giving in to what she felt at those times that she was especially vicious to him the next time they were drawn together, determined to deny what her heart knew.

She told herself it was her body that craved him, that it was her need to feel alive that made her come to him. But those times of peace and stillness as she lay in his arms while he slept were the ones that stirred her rage to fury.

No insult or blow on his part had the ability to rouse the Slayer in her the way his sleeping face could.

And now he was here and whole and she could finally tell him just how beautiful she found him, both sleeping and awake.

Willow felt the tears roll down her cheeks as she took in the expression on Buffy’s face.

Goddess, so much love, so much longing, there was not enough words in the world to describe the emotions in her friend’s eyes. Everything that Buffy felt for him was written plain on her face, but if you had asked Willow to describe what they were she wouldn’t have been able to put words to it.

This must be how Buffy felt when asked to describe heaven, came the ragged thought. This is what love looks like. This is what I feel when I look at Tara.

Quietly Willow moved back. Silently gesturing to a dazed and bewildered Angel and the blue god, she backed towards the doorway intent on giving the two reunited lovers some privacy.

Angel looked like he might argue for a moment but Illyria moved between him and the bed, blocking the sight of Buffy and Spike.

Head bowed in defeat he let himself be herded towards the door by the two women.