Templum Bellonae

This is a Spike/Xander story, continuing in Blue-Eyed Boy, with a Spike/Buffy epilogue, Some Scenes from the Later Life of Two Heroes (which continues in the in-progress Waiting Around.) I was just looking for some light, snarky, S/X fun when I stumbled across this, like fishing for trout and catching a shark instead.

After Not Fade Away, Spike is living with Illyria, mourning Angel and the rest of the gang, and isn’t really prepared when Xander, back from Africa and profoundly damaged, shows up in LA.

Over and above some really great writing, there are a few things I think this story does really well. Most S/X stories, profoundly as I love them, tend to gloss over Xander’s attitude toward demons in general and Spike in particular. This one doesn’t, while offering a plausible reason why Xander would get involved with him. I like that the story doesn’t take the easy way out, making Spike the answer to all of Xander’s problems. There’s also a certain amount of humour, even absurdity, which helps to lighten some of the darker moments.

The best thing about The Approved Mode of Payback and Blue-Eyed Boy is that they take a hard look at what the outcome of Chosen might have been, and sadly, their predictions seem all too plausible.

The Approved Mode of Payback by Herself

This goes AU after Season 3. Aeryn leaves Moya, and returns, but she’s a little fuzzy on what’s happened in the meantime. When they finally figure it out, she and John attempt to retrieve something from Grayza’s command carrier, with less-than-ideal results.

I like this story, but I’m not sure I’d have bothered to recommend it if it weren’t for the awesome follow-up fics, all of which I liked better. Here are all the stories in the series:

• The Future or Something Like It by Officersun524
• Future’s End by Kernezelda
• Future Interruptus by Kernezelda
• Days of Future Past by Officersun524
• A Shared Future by Kernezelda

Future’s End recounts the beginning and end of John’s time with Grayza. I don’t want to spoil anything, but I will say that I like the original characters, especially the most important one, and I like getting to see a bit of Braca’s point of view and feelings about Crichton, something that will continue in the other stories.

Days of Future Past and A Shared Future are alternate versions of the same basic events, both set after John’s rescue from Grayza.

Future Interruptus is a companion to Future’s End, filling in the details of the time John was with Grayza, from her point of view. I suggest that this be read last, even though chronologically it takes place earlier, for a couple of reasons. The most important is that it’s simply a better story than any of the others, and I think the later stories suffer a bit in comparison. Unlike the others, Future Interruptus is a character piece; although it has a plot, the real focus is on Grayza and the relationship she (thinks she) has with John. Maybe it’s just me, but I’ll take a good character-driven story over an equally good plot-driven one any day, and as an exploration of Grayza’s character, Future Interruptus is more than good; it’s superb.

(I’ve come to have more of an appreciation for her since I watched Rebecca Riggs, the actress who plays her, talk about Mele-On Grayza in clips from the Season 4 DVD on Youtube.)

The Future or Something Like It by Officersun524 and Kernezelda

AU where Daniel, rather than Sha’re, is taken as a host.

Diving to Drown by Tafkar

No slash at all. John rescues Rodney from imprisonment in a torture facility. Told from the perspective of John’s hostage.

He’s half the bulk of Calmoore, but something about this man makes her bodyguard look like an amateur, a fake. He smells of sweat and blood and metal and dirt, and a static crackle of nervous energy. He’s lean, and handsome, and she’s never met anyone so frightening in her life.

Exigencies by Rivier

Followed by Obvious Place and Open Blade, all by Magus Minor.

There’s an equally good and somewhat lighter follow-up trilogy by Ellex, composed of Predator, Shiver, and Frenzy.

Presents a very disturbing picture of what might be lurking under John Sheppard’s affable charm.

But it’s only a question of time until he loses it again. Until the knife comes out and he - there’s a scream from the speaker. He jumps, sits up, stares at the screen. This is the best part.

This is - better than porn. And he supposes he should feel guilty. But he can’t quite manage it. Because it gets him so hard. It makes him come like nothing else he’s ever had, and in his more lucid moments he hates that about himself. That something where not even one of the participants takes their clothes off is better than the best ever blowjob.

Out of Sight by Magus Minor and Ellex

AU. What if Cordelia never started working for Angel after they met at the party in City Of?

Another Life by Rheanna

AU-ish rentboy fic. Spike picks Connor up on the street.

Raven by Ladycat

Creepy, creepy. Wes and the Wild Boy of Quortoth.

Connor is crouched like a noble savage from an old Western, sniffing his closet. Wesley doesn’t have the energy to be surprised.

Untitled snippet by Stakebait

AU where Clark and Lex are step-brothers. Dark and disturbing.

Looking Glass by Jenn

When Clark loses control, Lex is there to protect him.

Undone by Hope

Not really dark, but dark enough. Like so much of Hth’s stuff, I love the writing but wish the story was happier.

They hassled him in the airport at Detroit, and made him stand in line forever at customs. When the woman at the counter finally stamped his passport, she gave him a snide smile and said, “Welcome home.” Clark smiled back, because it always somehow seemed to him that, however far away she was, his mother would know immediately if he was ever rude to anybody for any reason.

And Dark Our Celebration Was by Hth

After St. John leaves the mansion.

(There’s also a companion piece, William Tell)

Devil’s in the Details by Serial Karma

Wow. I am really, ridiculously impressed by this story. One of the best pon farr stories I’ve ever read, and it’s not even a Trek fic. Only a little bit dark, really.

The Same River by Isagel

DS9

Choose your own adventure! Not uniformly dark, but it does have its moments.

Rishi Baba by Karmen Ghia

TOS

And its sequels, New Minglewood Blues and Morning Dew.

A fabulous, sprawling AU that splits off about three years into the first five-year mission. Some pretty awful things happen to Our Heroes; not for the faint of heart.

Deep Elem Blues by Greywolf the Wanderer

Duo returns to his current school after a misson.

Loaded by One Person

Good Duo backstory is hard to come by. This is the best I’ve read so far, and it’s pretty amazing. It’s not at all how I pictured it, but the story makes so much sense and has such emotional resonance that by the time finished it, I was completely convinced. And completely hooked.

This is the story of Duo, Solo, and the L2 plague, which is used so often to create Duo-angst but rarely explored in any depth. I love Duo’s narrative voice in this fic, especially the way he juxtaposes the story of his first weeks on the colony with the account of the early progress of the plague. Lovely, lovely writing.

That night is my last pure night; the first soft whisper of a greater shadow that hangs over the landscape of my life. The last time the rain really belonged to me.

I never met Mary Lenox. The history-books say she was twenty-three, that she was admitted to Wellspring Hospital on May 15, AC 186 and died two days later of respiratory complications. As I figure it, that was seven days after Solo warned me out of the rain.

Her death passed without comment; she was only the first faceless pebble in the landslide to come.

I hesitated for a long time before adding this story to my Top Ten list, not because the fic itself isn’t good enough to justify it, but because I had a sort of unofficial rule that only novel-length fiction would be added to the list. In fact, I still do, but Twilight deserves to be the exception.

Twilight by One Person

What is truth?

Mercy by Koi

The notion of comfort and family is pretty damn tricky. Damned if you do…

Two decades on. Not that dark, but there’s no happy ending.

Last Men Standing by Kita and Mayaan

The Mountains of Mourning is a short story that was originally published (along with two other short stories) in Borders of Infinity, which is part of the Miles Vorkosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujold. It’s a really fantastic series; I recommend every book in the series highly. This story makes most sense if you read it as part of the series, but I think it stands very well on its own, too.

Miles grinned wolfishly. “Oh, Karal, I’m a one-man band, I am. I’m a parade.”

“As you say, just so. Ordinary people need extraordinary examples. So they can say to themselves, well, if he can do that, I can surely do this. No excuses.”

“No quarter, yes, I know that game. Been playing it all my life.”

“I think,” said Karal, “Barrayar needs you. To go on being just what you are.”

“Barrayar will eat me, if it can.”

“Yes,” said Karal, his eyes on the horizon, “so it will.” His gaze fell to the graves at his feet. “But it swallows us all in the end, doesn’t it?”

The Mountains of Mourning by Lois McMaster Bujold