Anya and the Goblin King
Title: Anya and the Goblin King
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Characters: Anya, Spike, Halfrek, Buffy. Mentions of Xander, Willow, Giles, Dawn, Warren, Jonathan, Andrew.
Pairing: Anya/Spike
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Character death references, AU for season 6 and contains spoilers for season 6.
Summary: For the rare pairs challenge at 1_million_words, prompt was the Labyrinth quote "What kind of rubbish is that? It doesn't even start with 'I wish'." *tsk* "All she has to say is 'I wish the goblin king would come and take you away right now! That's not hard is it?!" (which just screamed Anya). Anya gets Spike to make a wish and Xander is taken away by the goblin king; but without Xander, there is no one to reason with Wicked Willow.
"What kind of rubbish is that? It doesn't even start with 'I wish'." *tsk* "All she has to say is 'I wish the goblin king would come and take you away right now! That's not hard is it?!"
Halfrek merely pursed her lips and looked disappointed; Anya knew what she was going to say before she said it. “We both know what the problem is, Anyanka,” Halfrek began. “These strangers you keep trying to persuade to wish harm on Xander, you think they’re suitable people to ask for a wish because they’re dealing with their own breakups, but that’s exactly why their hearts won’t be in it. They don’t know Xander; they’re too focused on their own heartbreaks to care about yours.”
“It would be so much easier if I could just grant my own wishes,” Anya fumed, “and I did try with people who did know him. But none of them would do it.”
“You tried with people who were friends with him,” Halfrek reminded her. “And you did have an opportunity. Spike was there, all ready to make a wish, and you stopped him.”
Anya didn’t need Halfrek to point this out to her; she had had the perfect opportunity, and had wasted it. For a moment, she allowed herself to imagine the way things could have gone had she not stopped Spike, and allowed him to make his wish (she did not know what wish Spike would have made had she allowed him to continue, so chose to go with the goblin king idea she and Halfrek had been discussing)……
Anya wasn’t sure how she was supposed to feel now the goblin king had actually taken Xander away; she had thought she was going to enjoy it, knowing the goblin king was going to inflict unspeakable pain on Xander, and Little Miss Sunshine Buffy wasn’t going to go riding in and save the day. Spike had told her she should make the most of it, that she was better off without that wanker who was basically useless anyway, and in the end Anya had chosen to go with that, knowing he was right. Xander was just a stupid boy, a “bloody fool” to have let her go. Meanwhile Spike was there, understanding her better than Xander ever had, making her feel alive again.
She didn’t kid herself that Spike was the one for her, just as she knew she wasn’t the one for Spike, although they were right for each other in the moment, Anyanka and William the Bloody more suited to each other than they were to Buffy and Xander. They’d drink at the Bronze, Spike cursing the fact that his chip prevented him from feeding on anyone, they’d go back to the Magic Box or to Spike’s crypt to fuck. It wasn’t love; it wasn’t what she had felt for Xander, it wasn’t what Spike told her he felt for Buffy, but it was solace, a distraction from thinking about the past.
In the early days, Anya wondered if Spike would ever make a wish for himself, wishing Buffy away as Anya had persuaded him to wish Xander, and felt unaccountably irritated when he didn’t. She had tried to tell herself that she understood why; Buffy was the Slayer, the world needed her. (She tried to ignore the voice inside her head that pointed out that another Slayer would just be called up in the event of Buffy’s death, although she didn’t know how it worked in the event of abduction by goblin king). And besides, Buffy could be sanctimonious at times, but Anya kind of liked her, thought of her as a friend. Well, sort of. They hadn’t been exactly close since Xander was taken away. And the other thing was, Spike and Anya weren’t in love; both acknowledged they weren’t, they were something, but it wasn’t that. Should Anya really want Spike to still care enough to wish for revenge on Buffy? He was with her now; he’d moved on.
Halfrek smiled to herself. “So, you and William? That’s what you want?”
Anya frowned at the expression on Halfrek’s face; Halfrek had by now admitted that she and Spike had a past, back in 1880 when she was in London living under the name Cecily Addams, and Anya had just found that amusing at the time. She had still been with Xander when Halfrek had admitted that; what did it matter to her? But now, Anya watched Halfrek’s face and wondered what she was really thinking.
“I understand that, Anyanka, I truly do. So go ahead. Get him to make your wish, you’ll have taken care of Xander and earned D’Hoffryn’s trust again.”
Spike ended up being the one to break it to Anya when Tara died; Tara had been one of the more tolerable of the Scoobies, so Anya grieved her as much as she was able to do in the moment. When she heard the news of Warren’s murder by Willow, Anya had to admit to some admiration for her; even as Willow had become more obsessed with magic, Anya had never thought she had that in her. As she heard the news of how Willow had also managed to get to Jonathan and Andrew in prison, Anya found herself thinking she finally understood why D’Hoffryn had offered to make Willow a vengeance demon. If he could see what was happening now, he would probably be more proud of Willow than he had ever been of Anya.
When Buffy came to Anya, Anya’s first instinct was to tell her where to go; her second was to curse Spike for not having extended the wish to having the goblin king carry Buffy away too. Buffy told her tale of woe, a tale of how Willow’s dark magic had grown stronger, how Buffy had summoned Giles back from England to help them fight Willow only for her to steal his magic. With Giles and Dawn both incapacitated and Buffy unable to get through to Willow alone….
“There’s only one person who can get through to Willow and stop her now,” Buffy began, “so I need you to undo your wish. I wish that the goblin king would return Xander to us.”
The revenge may not have worked in the long term, but Anya could console herself with the thought that for an all too brief period of time, Xander had suffered at the hands of the goblin king. And there was still Spike; perhaps having to watch Anya and Spike together would be an acceptable revenge on Xander after all.
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Characters: Anya, Spike, Halfrek, Buffy. Mentions of Xander, Willow, Giles, Dawn, Warren, Jonathan, Andrew.
Pairing: Anya/Spike
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Character death references, AU for season 6 and contains spoilers for season 6.
Summary: For the rare pairs challenge at 1_million_words, prompt was the Labyrinth quote "What kind of rubbish is that? It doesn't even start with 'I wish'." *tsk* "All she has to say is 'I wish the goblin king would come and take you away right now! That's not hard is it?!" (which just screamed Anya). Anya gets Spike to make a wish and Xander is taken away by the goblin king; but without Xander, there is no one to reason with Wicked Willow.
"What kind of rubbish is that? It doesn't even start with 'I wish'." *tsk* "All she has to say is 'I wish the goblin king would come and take you away right now! That's not hard is it?!"
Halfrek merely pursed her lips and looked disappointed; Anya knew what she was going to say before she said it. “We both know what the problem is, Anyanka,” Halfrek began. “These strangers you keep trying to persuade to wish harm on Xander, you think they’re suitable people to ask for a wish because they’re dealing with their own breakups, but that’s exactly why their hearts won’t be in it. They don’t know Xander; they’re too focused on their own heartbreaks to care about yours.”
“It would be so much easier if I could just grant my own wishes,” Anya fumed, “and I did try with people who did know him. But none of them would do it.”
“You tried with people who were friends with him,” Halfrek reminded her. “And you did have an opportunity. Spike was there, all ready to make a wish, and you stopped him.”
Anya didn’t need Halfrek to point this out to her; she had had the perfect opportunity, and had wasted it. For a moment, she allowed herself to imagine the way things could have gone had she not stopped Spike, and allowed him to make his wish (she did not know what wish Spike would have made had she allowed him to continue, so chose to go with the goblin king idea she and Halfrek had been discussing)……
Anya wasn’t sure how she was supposed to feel now the goblin king had actually taken Xander away; she had thought she was going to enjoy it, knowing the goblin king was going to inflict unspeakable pain on Xander, and Little Miss Sunshine Buffy wasn’t going to go riding in and save the day. Spike had told her she should make the most of it, that she was better off without that wanker who was basically useless anyway, and in the end Anya had chosen to go with that, knowing he was right. Xander was just a stupid boy, a “bloody fool” to have let her go. Meanwhile Spike was there, understanding her better than Xander ever had, making her feel alive again.
She didn’t kid herself that Spike was the one for her, just as she knew she wasn’t the one for Spike, although they were right for each other in the moment, Anyanka and William the Bloody more suited to each other than they were to Buffy and Xander. They’d drink at the Bronze, Spike cursing the fact that his chip prevented him from feeding on anyone, they’d go back to the Magic Box or to Spike’s crypt to fuck. It wasn’t love; it wasn’t what she had felt for Xander, it wasn’t what Spike told her he felt for Buffy, but it was solace, a distraction from thinking about the past.
In the early days, Anya wondered if Spike would ever make a wish for himself, wishing Buffy away as Anya had persuaded him to wish Xander, and felt unaccountably irritated when he didn’t. She had tried to tell herself that she understood why; Buffy was the Slayer, the world needed her. (She tried to ignore the voice inside her head that pointed out that another Slayer would just be called up in the event of Buffy’s death, although she didn’t know how it worked in the event of abduction by goblin king). And besides, Buffy could be sanctimonious at times, but Anya kind of liked her, thought of her as a friend. Well, sort of. They hadn’t been exactly close since Xander was taken away. And the other thing was, Spike and Anya weren’t in love; both acknowledged they weren’t, they were something, but it wasn’t that. Should Anya really want Spike to still care enough to wish for revenge on Buffy? He was with her now; he’d moved on.
Halfrek smiled to herself. “So, you and William? That’s what you want?”
Anya frowned at the expression on Halfrek’s face; Halfrek had by now admitted that she and Spike had a past, back in 1880 when she was in London living under the name Cecily Addams, and Anya had just found that amusing at the time. She had still been with Xander when Halfrek had admitted that; what did it matter to her? But now, Anya watched Halfrek’s face and wondered what she was really thinking.
“I understand that, Anyanka, I truly do. So go ahead. Get him to make your wish, you’ll have taken care of Xander and earned D’Hoffryn’s trust again.”
Spike ended up being the one to break it to Anya when Tara died; Tara had been one of the more tolerable of the Scoobies, so Anya grieved her as much as she was able to do in the moment. When she heard the news of Warren’s murder by Willow, Anya had to admit to some admiration for her; even as Willow had become more obsessed with magic, Anya had never thought she had that in her. As she heard the news of how Willow had also managed to get to Jonathan and Andrew in prison, Anya found herself thinking she finally understood why D’Hoffryn had offered to make Willow a vengeance demon. If he could see what was happening now, he would probably be more proud of Willow than he had ever been of Anya.
When Buffy came to Anya, Anya’s first instinct was to tell her where to go; her second was to curse Spike for not having extended the wish to having the goblin king carry Buffy away too. Buffy told her tale of woe, a tale of how Willow’s dark magic had grown stronger, how Buffy had summoned Giles back from England to help them fight Willow only for her to steal his magic. With Giles and Dawn both incapacitated and Buffy unable to get through to Willow alone….
“There’s only one person who can get through to Willow and stop her now,” Buffy began, “so I need you to undo your wish. I wish that the goblin king would return Xander to us.”
The revenge may not have worked in the long term, but Anya could console herself with the thought that for an all too brief period of time, Xander had suffered at the hands of the goblin king. And there was still Spike; perhaps having to watch Anya and Spike together would be an acceptable revenge on Xander after all.