Title: Perspectives Version: 1.0, posted 2/4/05 (originally posted to the Bloody
Awful Poet Society mailing list, 8/02) Rating: PG
Disclaimer: It's the Jossverse, we just slay in it. (See full
disclaimer on previous page.)
Summary: Post-S5. It's Tuesday night. Scoobies, do you know
where Dawn is?
Perspectives
by Mistral Amara
Tara: Shouldn't we invite Spike to Dawn's birthday party? You
know they're really close.
Xander: You've got to be kidding! He's a vampire, we shouldn't
be encouraging Dawn to hang out with him; we should be putting our foot
down. All our feet. Preferably on his neck.
Anya: Or other, more painful parts. If you want to make a point.
Tara: But he was so helpful in the fight against Glory; and he
really seems to care for Dawn.
Willow: Tara's got a point, Xander.
Giles: It's true that he's been very helpful, and we can
appreciate that. But we must never lose sight of what he is.
Willow: And that would be?
Xander: Hello? He's an evil Vampire!!! You do remember those,
Will? I know it's been a while since we've dealt with anything so
mundane, but still.
Willow: I know, it's just that he hasn't done anything totally
evil in a while.
Xander: Just because he wanted to get into Buffy's pants.
Anya: So that's a bad thing?
Willow: Xander, you saw how badly Glory beat him up! She nearly
killed him. It's kind of hard to get into somebody's pants when you're
dead.
Tara: Or when they are. He's still protecting Dawn--what's that
going to get him?
Giles: Who can solve the labyrinthine motives of Spike's twisted
vampire psyche? But Xander is right for once; it isn't prudent to let
Dawn become dependent on Spike.
Xander: Listen to the Watcher. He knows! A demon is not a good
role model for young impressionable minds.
Anya: Fine. I'll just go home and pack my things. My influence
on you is dangerous enough; who knows what might happen if we had
children?
Xander: Huh? An, you're an ex-demon. Spike's a now-demon.
Anya: Well, you all make it very hard to be human sometimes,
with your goody-goodier-than-thou attitudes. I don't know how you
expect Spike to not be evil when you never treat him like anything
else.
Giles: Anya, I had no idea you felt like this.
Anya: You never asked. I mean, if on some days when you put the
basilisk gall stones in the jar for the anti-flatulence enchanted
gumballs I wish your head would spin around and explode, does that make
me irredeemably evil?
Giles: ---
Willow: Maybe Spike has changed. Giles, couldn't he change if he
wanted to? What about the redeeming power of love?
Giles: Oh, Willow, it sounds very nice, but that almost never
happens, even with humans. There is no recorded case of it happening to
a vampire.
Willow: But Spike hasn't killed anybody for a couple of years
now; and we know he loved Buffy--in a twisted vampire way, but still.
That's what started Angel doing good, why not Spike?
Xander: Because of the chip! Spike hasn't killed anybody because
of the chip. He's like a serial killer in prison. Angel has a soul.
Tara: So Angel is like a serial killer who what--got religion?
What if he backslides?
Willow: <snicker>
Xander: We're losing, aren't we, Giles?
Giles: I'm afraid so. Spike can come to the party. I suppose he
can't influence Dawn too badly during an hour or two in a room with all
the rest of us.
Xander: So where is the Dawnster?
Tara: I haven't seen her.
Willow: This is Tuesday; Anya's day.
Xander: Well, An?
Anya: She's fine. She, uh, went to the circus with a friend.
Giles: There's a circus in town?
Anya: No, it's over in Redmonton. I said she could spend the
night. So, you won't have to have her tomorrow; they won't be back
until late.
Willow: You let her go somewhere overnight without telling us?
Anya, what if she needs protecting? She's still the key!
Anya: <inaudible>
Xander: What?
Anya: She has protection. She went with Spike. He has friends
working in the side show. She should be plenty safe; those Barbura
demons are big.
Tara: It's a demon circus?
Anya: They almost all are. It's the perfect lifestyle for them.
Xander: Clowns are evil. I knew it!
Anya: Back to the demons are evil line again, I
see . . . Giles,
I'm taking off early. I have to move out of Xander's apartment tonight.
Xander: <follows her out> Anya, wait!
Giles: Oh, dear.
-End-
A/N: This was written between S5 and
S6, as speculation that the Scoobies would have varying attitudes
towards Spike after the events of S5. I may have been a hair too
optimistic. But it's still a fun story.