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Third "book" in the series that started with
Spike's Will Be Done, and
continued with True Colors. Like
True Colors, it has been split into several sections to make
life easier. If you want to catch up with the story without
reading the earlier parts then you can check out The Story
So Far.
Round 2
Rogue Poet Awards
 
 
Round 8
Lost in Spike Awards
Round 3
Round 4
VK Awards
The story so far...
Okay, everything went the same way as the show at least as far as Entropy, except for one slight difference. When Buffy had her magical clear out in Gone, instead of throwing everything out, she gave the box to Spike for safe-keeping.
This resulted in a rather different set of events when Spike hit "rock-bottom". By the time he reached the Magic Box, he already knew exactly what spell he wanted and was sobering up in preparation for casting magic. He took some time out to comfort Anya, and while they were indulging in some innocent mutual consolation, Spike wished that Buffy and Xander had the courage to follow their hearts rather than always worrying about what could go wrong all the time. As Anya would say, "wish granted".
Xander got all splotchy and possessive when he saw them dancing at the Bronze on the nerds' cameras, so much so that he whisked Anya off from the Magic Box the next day for a Vegas wedding. (Anya gave her power centre to Xander as a wedding gift, on the proviso that he didn't break it.) Spike cast the "Will Be Done" spell and made three wishes, that Buffy would be honest about her feelings, that she would work out exactly what she really wanted and that she'd really understand his feelings for her.
Before the first two wishes could have too much effect, the third one kicked in, and Buffy found her consciousness hitchhiking in Spike's body for a while, leaving her body conspicuously vacant. Eventually everything got sorted out but not before Buffy found out she'd been jumping to conclusions over the demon egg affair.
This, the insight she had into Spike's feelings and the wish Anya granted, led her to actually give him a decent chance. One thing led to another, and the "ripples" caused by that first change continued to spread outward. The nerds were captured and subdued before they could follow through on their plan for the armoured car heist, so neither Buffy nor Tara were ever shot. Willow never went on a rampage. Instead of the orbs being destroyed, Spike managed to take them from Warren and gave them to Xander as a wedding present. That sort of takes us up to the end of 'Spike's Will Be Done'.
Buffy and Spike are now engaged, something most of the Scoobies have come to accept. Xander, however, is caught up in some inner turmoil about the whole thing. He knows he has to come to terms with the relationship if he wants to remain friends with Buffy. However, he still doesn't trust Spike, and he keeps putting his foot in it.
Things in LA also turned out just a bit differently after Buffy and Spike decided to pay Angel a visit. Spike managed to point out to Connor (Buff and Spikey were introduced to him as Stephen) that Justine's attempt to fake something that looked like a vampire bite wasn't really very convincing. Though he still wouldn't let Angel help with burying Holtz, things certainly weren't so bad between father and son as they would have been. Buffy managed to come to terms with her feelings for Angel, and Spike and Angel managed to part on neutral terms.
Buffy also talked Giles into offering Wesley a job at The Magic Box. Though at that point we didn't yet know if he'd take up the offer, he and Spike seemed to get on quite well with each other. Buffy was intending to invite the LA gang to the wedding, but then Dawn pointed out that Angel's presence might be distressing for Giles, so now she's not so sure. Preparations for the wedding, which by then was about two months off, were and still are ongoing.
On other fronts, the gang have begun to put two and two together from Riley's earlier visit and have decided he must have access to some sort of surveillance on the Scoobies. They also know, thanks to Buffy being in Spike's head, that he isn't the Doctor. Once Buffy remembered Sam's comment about working in an infirmary, they began to have their own suspicions. Anya confirmed, from Buffy's description that the hatchlings weren't suvoltes, but a relatively harmless scavenger species. The only reason they would have swarmed was if they were using a pheromone signature to find their mother. As Spike pointed out, the smell wasn't coming from her underwear, so that only left the clothes Riley supplied. All things considered, Iowa Boy and Wonder Wife aren't exactly popular, and Spike is getting a bit paranoid. He's even suspicious of Dawn's new boyfriend, a new arrival in town. He also thinks the government knows about Dawn being the key and is worried that if she shows any sign of being anything more than a normal teenage girl that they could view her as a threat to national security.
Buffy got to meet some of Clem's family, his mother Lily, who is an extremely gifted empath, his niece Rosa and her mother Marie, who is human. When Clem says it's nearly two years since Rosa's father was killed, Buffy begins to suspect that he was a victim of the Initiative. She also reassesses her own actions and who she has become.
Spike also got Giles to investigate any possible occurrences where a vampire and a slayer made a mutual claim, or where a human and a vampire were bonded. So far his research has been inconclusive, and he warned the pair against making Spike's claim on Buffy (which happened in the heat of passion) mutual until he can research further. Buffy never really was that good at following the watcher's advice, though. When we left the story, the couple had done just that and experienced a number of shared flashbacks to scenes of them together, topped off with a seemingly prophetic vision of their wedding reception. The overall effect was similar to what happened when Buffy tasted Dracula's blood.
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Taking over where True Colors stopped, Spike and Buffy
take Dawn and the witches on their LA shopping expedition,
and run into some old acquaintences, including Drusilla.
Despite having a new childe, what Dru really wants is her
Spike back, and she'll stop at nothing to make it happen.
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2 - House of Fire |
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Spike is free of Drusilla's clutches,
but Lorne is still in trouble. Can the combined Scooby /
Fang gang get to him before it's too late? Probably, okay
yes they will, 'cause they're heroes that's what they do,
but you won't find out how if you don't read it.
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3 - Family Tree |
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For now, the action is over (well, almost). Spike and
Angel take advantage of the lull in events to lay the ghosts
of the past to rest and just maybe they'll manage to lay
the foundations for a new beginning.
Section
4 - You're the One |
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Basically, it's time for Spike and Buffy to come down
and take stock of what's happened over the last few days.
Of course, they've still got to work in having Dawn's boyfriend
over, and Spike's got a little surprise of his own that
he's been working on since before he was taken. When you're
talking about this pair you can never take it for granted
that things will run smoothly.
Section
5 - Welcome to my Nightmare |
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As always, nothing is as simple as it seems it should
be. Buffy discovers there's a bit more of a problem than
Spike simply "sleeping the sleep of the knocked unconscious".
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6 - Girls Just Wanna Have Fun |
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Dawn decides it's time for her to spread her wings
a bit, while Spike and Buffy are otherwise occupied. Unfortunately for
her, she couldn't have picked a worse possible time.
Link to the description for Fumbling
Towards Ecstasy, Book 4 in
the series |
