On the one hand, I hate Xander so, so much, and think he deserves a beat down of his own. On the other hand, I'm just so glad SOMEONE understands that Buffy was in no place to consent and that what Spike did was rape.

i find this story interesting,, i do not like spike most of the time...

when you are not your self you cant be blamed..

xander attack buffy not his foult..

buffy attack xander and every body else not his foult

spike attack buffy not his fault..

i can live with that spike attinng buffy not his fault... ok here are my question. spike is still vampire, that did not change he still has no soul, so he still a threat they can kill him..

if spike is still evil, then he cant make the chose to be good. ok then he cant make the chose who to sleep with, so buffy sleeping with his is wrong...

spike hit buffy (xander would not have) spike told buffy she belongs in the dark, and sold deamon eggs kill many, and tried to rape buffy yet xander a jerk for not trusting him

here is my problem spike chose to get a soul... if spike chose to get a soul, then he chose to try to rape buffy, to kill people how far back did he have that chose.. if angelus after he kill jenny stop and said i going to be good would they forgive him. noo

why does every think spike does bad it he is a deamon not his faoult, every think he did good he is a great guy..

spike is one of two think, he had a chose and chose to be kill people, and tried to rape buffy, he then chose to get a soul... then he is a murder he is ted bunny saying i am going be good now.. to bad

or spike was evil and had know chose,, then it was wrong of him to be with buffy... he has a soul now but he is a new person... so they still should not trust himm what did he do good with a soul he never help anyone but buffy. never said sorry for everythink he did and when they kick buffy out of the house what would have happen if faith was not there would he have kill every one.. he told wood i kill you if you look at be funny... could you see angel tell giles that i kill jenny to mad and if you look at me funny i will kill you.. the only think he did was die at the end.. and even that i find funny... he put the neckless on for buffy. and only when he started to stay did it start working... i belive that he still had a lot of deamon in him and it started to burn off...

Lovely.

Very good, and so true. I think she was capable f giving consent, but she wasn't completly okay either. She needed help. Everyone could see that,so why didn't they help her?

She did, however, abuse him a lot, just becuse she could, both metally and physically, so I think it's a lot of blame to go around, but rape is still horrible. Inexusable.

I still don't see why or how those two could have fallen in love in any way. It did nothing but ruin both characters, and create a lot of mess. Spuffy is a fucked up relationship.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for realizing that Spike is not noble in any sense of the word, that Buffy is mentally unstable, and that Spuffy is not a happy relationship.

Honestly, I love Spike. But I will be the first to point out that he didn't go to Africa to get a soul and until then he didn't give a tinker's damn about the horrible things he'd done. No vampire ever does.

Spuffy was a *mutually* abusive relationship. Buffy has been abusing Spike since he get the chip because he's a vampire and she could get away with it. The second Spike realized he could hurt Buffy back he did, with a passion. It's a seriously messed up relationship. Very few people seem to acknowledge that, whether Spike and Buffy's feelings for each other are love or not, they are not in any sort of a healthy relationship (I feel the same of Xander and Anya, but that's a rant for another time).

Also, to several people on this board who spoke about Buffy's rape: Victim-blaming much? NOTHING excuses rape. There is NO POSSIBlE set of circumstances that excuses the fact that Spike attempted to take advantage of Buffy. It does not matter if she abused him, it does not matter how much she said that they shouldn't be having sex and that it wasn't right, the SECOND she told him to knock it off, he should have. Vampire full-of-evil or not, that's the way the world works.

In short, Tenhawk, I thought this was great. While I don't see Xander as quite so eloquent when trying to kill someone, I do feel you captured quite well the problems present within the Spuffy relationship and the events during Seeing Red and after.

Excellent one shot.

"She wanted me because of the spell, she was coming to me... but it still would have been rape, Spike. Because she wasn't fit to give consent."

"Ashes to ashes." He said quietly, "and dust to dust."

"You never understood, Spike. Redemption isn't a destination... It's a road."

I'll be the first to admit my hatred of both Spike (post season 4) and Spuffy, but you are not writing Xander. Xander isn't that articulate or well-read. He speaks from the heart and loves comic books. I can easily see Xander going off to kill Spike after what happened to Buffy, but the things he says here are not things Xander would say. He's an incredibly passionate character, and the last thing he'd need to do is justify himself to Spike, of all people. He wouldn't tell him what he did wrong because he doesn't need to, just like the fact that Angel having a soul meant shit to him, at least at first, in Revelations; Angel killed Ms. Calendar and he needed to die, end of story.

The fact that this Xander speaks this way says to me that he isn't much more than a mouthpiece for your own frustrations. That's fine. I think your story would have been recieved better if it had remained true to the characters' voices though.

Damn. You know, I'm surprised to realize it's not your mistubderstanding of Spike's characterization and motivations that bother me, it's your mischaracterization of Xander.

And on top of that, the idea that Spike has been raping Buffy all season? What show have you been watching. I watched the show where Buffy had engaged in an abusive relationship with Spike, until she realized she couldn't be with him without loving him, and regularly emotionally and physically abusing someone who loved her was destroying her internally.

Try to look back at their relationship without thinking only about their genders and assuming that Buffy was the victim because she was the woman, and look at the behavior patterns instead. You might find it enlightening.

And on your way, I wish you'd stop turning the loving, flawed but generous and forgiving person that Xander is into a hypocritical asshole that he was in this fic. Xander listened to Buffy, and as evidenced on the show staying with his hurt friend was more important than exacting vengence over something he didn't have all the information about. That Xander is the Heart of the Scooby gang- try writing *him* instead.

Another bad Xander charactarization to go with Spike-hatred. Xander's never mentioned the hyena-spell rape ever, so it doesn't appear to bother him, but he's been very quick to blame all his misdeeds on spells, rather than his own weekness.

Great Story...

Don't let Spuffy flames get to you,they would excuse Spike if he murdered a kindergarden class saying somehow they deserved it,just like the attempted rape,it's all Buffy's fault,these people need to go talk to rape victims and tell them how it was ALL their fault they were attacked.. morons.

It's interesting that you focused upon the attempted rape and not the fact that Buffy's physical and more importantly, emotional abuse of Spike during part of S6 led to the incident, in the first place.

*snorts*

I diagnose 'Xander-obsessive' syndrome.

Cure: Read a Xander character-death fanfiction.

Thank you for all your time.

A powerful Xander piece. This is what should've happened. Unfortunately the writers of the show lacka a little something called 'common sense' these days. Great job as always Ten :)

Zauriel ...

I have read this more than once and I adore it!

YES.

Thank you for posting this. Finally, someone gets it. Xander's comments are what my friends and I have been discussing for too long about why Spike's allowed to live.