Chapter 18: Alive

Buffy dropped her sword in the fall, and she heard it clatter toward the ravine below as she clung to the cliff. She’d managed to slow her descent by grabbing onto a plant growing out of the side of the cliff, but her weight pulled the roots from the loose soil and she lost her grasp. She scrambled as she started to slide, finally gaining her footing on some protruding rock. She tried clinging to the dirt, but it was dry and kept crumbling. Every time she made a step of progress, the ground gave way and she slid back down, making it impossible to climb. She pressed her body against the rock face, digging her fingers in wherever they could find purchase, and tried to keep her shaky balance with one tiptoe finding a perch as the other leg flailed helplessly.

“Spike!”

He heard Buffy call his name and relief flooded through him. He glanced at the dragon, which let out its own echoing howl, then back at the cliff, momentarily torn. If he tried to help Buffy, they’d be left vulnerable and the dragon could kill them both. One swoop of its tail could send them both careening towards the rocky terrain below. But he couldn’t risk wasting time with the dragon when Buffy might lose her grip and fall at any moment. Before he could even think what to do, he heard his name again, this time from the edge of the trees.

“Spike!” Xander called as the Scoobies burst out of the woods. Willow and Tara began their spell, and that was all Spike needed to run towards the cliff’s edge.

Xander watched him run off and rolled his eyes. “Hey, anything we can do to help…”

“What’s he doing?” Anya asked.

Willow saw him head to the edge of the cliff and realized the situation. “Buffy,” she said. “Come on, guys, this is us.” She turned back to Tara and resumed her recitations with determination. They had screwed up with Buffy big time, pulling her out of heaven. This was their chance to make it right.

*****

Spike lay down at the edge of the precipice and lowered his hand to Buffy, who was hanging precariously below him. “Grab on!”

She looked up at him anxiously, calculating the distance she had to stretch in order to reach him. “I can’t.” She held onto the cliff, unwilling to let go even for a second, for fear of falling.

“Buffy, I need you to take my hand, okay?” Spike was trying desperately to keep his voice even so she’d be calm. She was the Slayer, they were both strong. As long as she didn’t get scared, this would be easy. “On three… one… t –”

Buffy reached up and grabbed his hand before he could finish counting.

He closed his eyes and let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. “That’s my girl.”

*****

“Slay the dragon,” Xander muttered to himself, staring up at the beast in awe and wondering how exactly he was supposed to do that. He and Anya were just trying to outrun it at the moment, keeping it distracted from the witches as well as Spike, who was still hanging over the cliff holding onto Buffy. It felt like roughly the equivalent of trying to sink a battleship with a Nerf gun.

“Right.” Xander glanced down at his empty hands. “Shoulda brought weapons.” He mentally berated himself for being such an idiot, but a torrent of flame directed at Anya snapped him out of it. “Ahn!” he cried, as his girlfriend tumbled to the ground, tripping over the uneven terrain as she scrambled backward to get out of the path of the flame. “Anya, are you all right?” he asked, dashing to her side. She nodded numbly.

“Will…” Xander said, his voice tinged with desperation as he turned back toward the witches, the only real weapon they had at the moment.

“Trying!” the redhead replied through gritted teeth. “Tara, this isn’t working!”

“Well, um… m-maybe it’s the wrong language? Dragons are – are medieval, right? So, Latin, maybe?” She flipped frantically through the pages of spells they’d brought with them, looking for something they hadn’t tried or something they could tweak and try again.

“Here, this one!” Willow said, grabbing a page from the pile.

Tara looked at the one she’d chosen. “That’s in English. Can you translate it to Latin?”

“I – I can try.” Willow stared at the spell, silently mouthing the translation. She sighed. “I need Giles.”

“Here’s one in Chinese.” Tara gave her a half-hearted expression. “I'm not sure what it does, but dragons are a big part of Asian culture, maybe –”

Suddenly, inspiration struck. “Tara! My immobility spell!”

“Do you have the stuff?”

Willow dug around in her bag until she pulled out the herb pouch she’d taken with her on patrol with Spike. “I hope it’s enough. This thing’s a heck of a lot bigger than a vampire.” She pelted the whole sachet at the dragon and screamed, “Immobilius!”

As the spell began to take effect, the dragon’s movements slowly ground to a halt.

“Now what?” Willow asked in a tiny voice.

*****

As she tried to pull herself up the cliff, Buffy lost her footing and slipped again, dropping a frightening several inches and nearly dragging Spike over the edge with her. He felt himself seesaw forward, bending at the waist and facing the sheer drop below. Fighting gravity with nothing to anchor his legs, he dug his toes in and managed to hold his ground, never letting go of Buffy. Unable to find footing, she dangled from Spike’s hand, letting out frightened whimpers.

“I don’t want to die,” she whispered, as her sweaty palm started to slide out of his grasp. She could feel the blood pounding in her ears as adrenaline and fear took over her body. It wasn’t until that moment that she’d realized she truly didn’t want to die. All this time, she’d been going through life not caring, not feeling, at times welcoming the promise of death. But now that it was here, and all she had to do was let go, she desperately needed to hold on.

*****

“Xander!” Anya cried, spotting the sword Spike had dropped lying a few feet from her. “Sword!” She picked it up and gave it to him. They both looked at it for a moment, realizing that someone had to stab the dragon with it. Xander glanced over at the witches, and prayed they could keep enough spells on the dragon long enough for him to kill it.

He tipped his head back, taking in the full expanse of the beast before him. Almost entirely coated in protective scales, there was only one tiny spot of exposed skin on its underbelly.

“That had better be the heart. Here goes nothing,” Xander muttered, and charged at the dragon. He had to jump to reach its heart, but he was able to pierce it with the sword. The dragon let out another shriek as Willow’s magic began to wear off. Anya ran up and grabbed Xander, pulling him out of the way as the dragon collapsed on the ground.

He stared at it, realizing what he’d done. “Hey, look at me. I slayed a dragon!”

“My knight in shining armor,” replied Anya, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck.

*****

“Buffy, I’ve got you!” Spike told her, his voice her mooring, preventing her from drifting into panic. “I won’t let you fall. Not again.” His own words echoed in his ears: I want you to know, I did save you. Not when it counted, of course. But after that… Every night I save you.

His muscles straining, Spike pulled her up enough so that he could grab her other hand in his. He banished from his mind the images that appeared – visions from his dreams of the many ways he’d saved her from that tower, coupled with the awful memory, now seared into his psyche, of her broken and battered body lying on a pile of rubble after her fall. This time, he’d save her when it counted. With a final burst of strength, he yanked with both arms and lifted her onto the cliff’s edge, where she collapsed limply in his embrace.

“It’s all right, love. I’ve got you.”

He tightened his arms around her, rocking her back and forth and making soothing noises in her ear that gradually dissolved into an endless litany of “Buffy – Buffy – Buffy” repeated in his hoarse, panic-stricken voice. Her hot tears left trails down her dirt-streaked cheeks and she clutched at his T-shirt as though she might fall again if she let go. He buried his face in her hair so neither she nor the gathering Scoobies would see the tears that stained his own face.

“Buffy! Are you all right?” Willow asked, as Spike helped Buffy to her feet.

Spike gazed at her and gently brushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “She’ll be fine, won’t you, pet?”

Buffy smiled shakily, wiping away her tears with the back of her hand. “I’m all right,” she assured her friends. “I’m alive.”

*****

the end