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Author's Chapter Notes:
Thank you for all the feedback and nice comments. This Chapter was really hard for some reason, please let me know what you think.
Angel struggled out from underneath Giles, yelling Spike’s name and ordering the security team to follow them, but no one moved.

“Is anyone even going to attempt to go after them?” He yelled after he untangled himself and stood up.

Gunn looked at him like he just lost his mind. “And what kind of chance would we have had at keeping up with them?” He responded.

Meanwhile, Wesley had begun directing the security officers, who were still standing, to help the injured. “The ones who were hit with tranquilizers can go to the infirmary until they wake up. Is anyone injured badly enough that we need to go to the hospital?” He asked them.

“There was one of you who could have kept up with them.” Angel snapped, glaring at Illyria.

Illyria met his glare head on, but didn’t offer any explanation or apology.

Realizing once again that he had no control over this creature Angel turned and directed his anger at the two other people still standing.

“All right.” He marched up to Willow and Xander who looked at him guardedly. “You two are going to explain what’s going.” He ordered them. Willow nodded.



Buffy raced along the streets of LA, thanks lots of back alleys; she encountered no one except for a few homeless, who thought she was just a drunken hallucination. She knew that she was clear of the Slayers and the other humans after only a mile, but she didn’t stop.

She could still feel him behind her.

She knew he could sense her better than the others and while he wasn’t traveling at the same pace she was he was still a steady presence behind her.

She couldn’t understand how he could be there.

How he was real, this anomaly of a vampire.

She had faced him time and time again, in this lifetime and others before it. Twice he had defeated her power, the only one of his kind to hunt the hunter.

She wondered if the Wisemen, the Watcher’s, had called him back to hunt her, to bring her back under their control.
Then she remembered how he protected her from the weapons the humans had.

But he was also with the team controlled by the other vampire. Why would he be working with one he had once helped her destroy?

Suddenly, she could feel him more strongly. He was getting closer. Her contemplation had slowed her speed. She sped up once again broadening the gap between them.


Spike followed after Buffy as fast as he could. At some points he came to places where she must have climbed straight up a wall or building and he would have to circle around, ever fearful of losing her scent. He never stopped moving, but even still he couldn’t help but think she could lose him if she really wanted to.

If he had taken the time to stop and think he may have wondered what he planned to do when he caught up with her. Chasing a primal Slayer, out into the night, alone, was probably even a dumber idea than chasing after a crazy Slayer alone.

Yet Spike never stopped to think, the only thing he did was follow the feeling inside of him, the one that was in his blood and pulling him straight towards his Slayer.



Back upstairs in his office, with Illyria and Wesley, Angel confronted Willow and Xander who stood across the room.

“What did you do to her?” He demanded.

“We didn’t do anything to her.” Xander yelled indignantly.

“So she just turned into a savage killer overnight for no reason? Give me a break.” Angel said sarcastically.

Xander glared hatefully at him. “Oh and a moment of true happiness is a better excuse?”

Angel growled at him.

“Why is it that Spike without a soul never tried to kill Buffy the way you did? Why is it he doesn’t seem that much different?”

“ENOUGH!!” Willow’s voice carried the weight of her power. Everyone turned to her in surprise, except Illyria. Her gaze was cold and calculating, considering. It made Willow suddenly nervous.

“Look Angel, we didn’t do this to Buffy. We were afraid something like this was going to happen, but by the time we figured out she might be in danger, it was already too late.” She told him, avoiding Illyria’s gaze.

“Why did you think something like this might happen?” Wesley asked. He was much more calm, compared to Angel. His past life as a Watcher had his curiosity piqued as to what had happened to the Slayer. He was well aware that Buffy was the oldest living Slayer on record.

In truth it felt good to be thinking of something other than Fred for the moment.

He felt a sudden pang of guilt for thinking like that, but forced him mind to listen to Willow’s reply before he got lost in his guilt.

Willow paused leery of saying something she shouldn’t.

“She wasn’t the first one was she, Willow?” Angel’s voice was very cold as realization dawned on him.

“Faith.” Wesley breathed. “Oh good Lord.” He exclaimed. Faith as a primal Slayer was a very frightening prospect.

“She was with us, in London when it happened.” Willow concurred.

“One day she was the same old Faith, and then the next morning her window was broken out and we were following a dusty, trail of demon carcasses around London Below. It took three days to track her down and capture her. That’s when we finally tried to reach Buffy, but she had changed about the same time Faith had, so we were too late.”

Angel realized it must have happened right after he and Spike had left Rome. He wondered if their being there had something to do with it before discarding that idea. If it were because of them, Faith probably wouldn’t have been affected as well.

“Magic doesn’t have any effect on them. They seem to have some kind of natural buffer against it. We can’t even track them using a locator spell.” Willow continued.

“So they will attack demons as well as vampires?” Wesley had to ask, picking up on a comment earlier from Xander; his brain was going a mile a minute by this point. He wished Giles were awake so he could grill him for more information.

“Demon, vampire, your occasional London Below giant boar, anything in that range.” Xander clarified, only wishing he were kidding as he remembered the remains of that boar.

“Although, we believe that she won’t chase down a demon unless it is killing or doing something mean and evil.” Willow added quickly, trying to defend Buffy.

“She distinguishes somehow?” Wesley leaned forward, and made some notes.

“That’s not always the case, Will.” Xander said quietly.

“Yeah, I’m not killing anyone, or doing anything evil.” Angel snarked at them.

Xander rolled his eyes, held up his hands and gestured around the room. “Says the guy sitting on top of the evil empire.”

“I wasn’t talking about you, anyway.” Xander continued. “Remember the Immortal?” He went on not waiting for an answer. “Turns out he wasn’t so Immortal.”



When she had woken up days before, Buffy immediately knew everything was different. Her senses were stronger; she could feel the power running through her veins. It filled her, consumed her. She was still Buffy, she had her memories, but she also had all the Slayer memories filling her mind, that combined with the amount of power she now held hadn’t left too much room for her humanity. The Slayer was the one in charge.

She had looked at the one still asleep next to her. He was no warrior; he had no understanding of her calling, her duty. He had idea of what she really was, he just saw her as the cute blonde American Slayer, and he was with her for the novelty, nothing more, she knew.

She tried to remember, what had made her allow him into her life. He wasn’t worthy of using her body, not that he was even that good at that, too controlled and arrogant even in that aspect of their life.

She felt him wake up and knew he immediately sensed the difference in her, and it frightened him. He tried to attack her, not having the sense to know he was no match for her and why he felt the need to attack first she did not know. It really made no difference to her; she had simply ripped him apart with her bare hands.

Even if the Immortal one could come back from that, it would be years before anyone would be able to collect all the pieces to put him back together.

After that, she knew she didn’t want to be trapped by the Council, she wasn’t going to be their pawn any longer. So she ran out into the night and tried to revel in her newfound freedom, only to find her joy of the hunt was tainted. She found herself thinking again and again of the vampire that had stolen her innocence and comparing him to the one she had woken up next to. Since none of the creatures she found in Rome had offered enough of a challenge to distract her from these feelings, she finally decided she would track down the vampire who had disgraced her so. Then she would be free from this shame.



“So Buffy is completely possessed by the spirit of the Slayer?” Angel asked.

“Pretty much. We’ve been trying to research the find out what demon the Watcher’s originally used to create the Slayer.” Willow said. “But so far, no luck.”

“I know what manner of demon this is.” Illyria spoke. “I recognized it tonight when I got close enough to her.”

“Would you care to tell us your majesty?” Angel couldn’t keep the derision out of his voice.

“Your undeserved arrogance makes you a fool.” Illyria told him coldly.

“Please.” Wesley interrupted before they began fighting. “Would you share what you know of these creatures with us?”

Angel turned his glare on Wesley, for bending to her ego.

“They were from my time. Their ways were simplistic and beneath us, but they were strong fighters. They were the fighters of our armies, like our pets.”

“How were their ways simplistic?” Willow asked her. “Did they not have a consciousness, like intelligent creatures?”

”Consciousness does not make you intelligent.” Illyria told her, before answering her question. “But, they had a consciousness. Their entire species revolved around violence, fighting was their way of life; yet, they took no pleasure in torturing or brutalizing their victims. They believed to come upon an opponent unannounced was unfair. They also believed to die in battle was an honor. Their ignorant ways and beliefs caused them to be wiped out, years before my time was finished. Somehow, the spirit of one must have been trapped by one of the others of my kind, in the hopes of bringing them back.” She considered a moment. “The one called Spike enjoys fighting in the same way, that is why I wanted him for my pet. He reminded me of the time when I still ruled.”

Xander blinked at the end of her speech. “You would have gotten along well with my ex-fiancée, I think.” He said slowly.

Willow, exhausted from everything that had happened finally sat down wearily. “Well, we know that the tribesmen originally chose young girls to house the demons essence because they were considered the most useless of the tribe. Since they didn’t know whether this would work or not, they didn’t want to risk one of their young warriors, and older people were viewed with respect. What they didn’t count on was the young girls changing the nature of the demon. When the first girl died the Wiseman thought they had it set up so the Slayer’s nature would pass on to a male. They were shocked when another girl was chosen instead.”

”How do you know all this?” Wesley asked.

Willow didn’t answer not wanting to tell Wesley about the woman who gave Buffy the scythe the last year in Sunnydale. She didn’t want him to know that since then they found other Guardian’s temples around the world with scrolls recording the lives of the Slayers much farther back than the Watcher’s Council had, especially since most of their records were destroyed by Caleb.

“How could a human, change the nature of demon?” Illyria’s question saved her from answering Wesley. “A demon’s nature should be much stronger than that of a human’s, your species is weak.

“Physically, but our emotions set us apart, they make us strong.”

“Emotions make you weak.” Illyria insisted before marching out of the room. Angel looked at Wesley in exasperation, but Wesley could only shrug, uncertain of what had upset her so.

“Go talk to her Wes, find out what else she knows about this demon. See if there’s a way to get it out of Buffy.”

“I don’t think that would be such a good idea.” Willow told him.

“Right now I don’t care what you think. She’s out there right now, and we don’t know when she’ll be back to finish what she started. And no matter what you may think, she does hurt creatures that aren’t engaging in evil. She almost killed my girlfriend.”

“She went after you because of what happened between you when you lost your soul.” Xander spoke slowly as if Angel couldn’t understand his words.

“Ok and what happens when she remembers Spike has killed two Slayers in his time?” Angel asked.

Willow’s eyes widened. “I hadn’t thought about that.”



Buffy was still running, only now she found she didn’t know why.

She slowed down to a stop. There was no reason to run any farther. No matter who this one was working for they could be no help to him now. Whatever reasons he had for following her didn’t matter, she wouldn’t keep running from him.

She was going to face him.

She looked at her surroundings. She was in a dark part of the city with several large buildings. She extended her senses before entering one she knew to empty of everything except rats and vermin.

It was even darker inside, but she was able to see clearly in the blackness and knew he would be able to see, as well as sense her.

She waited, eagerly now, as she prepared to battle this fighter, knowing he would give her the challenge she had been so sorely missing in Rome.

She would find out the truth of his return and what his intentions towards her were.

Most likely she would have to fight him and kill him.

It brought a pang of emotion inside of her, but she pushed it aside. She had a duty to perform and she wasn’t about to be chained to another master again. If this one was here to take her back, she would destroy him.

He wouldn’t beat her. Not again.



Spike felt it when Buffy stopped running and he slowed his pace. He moved forward cautiously, recognizing the part of town they were in wasn’t that far from his small apartment.

He walked right up to the warehouse she had entered. He knew she was just on the inside, waiting for him.

He let his demon face slip forward in anticipation of their confrontation. For a moment he gave in to doubt as he wondered if he would be able to hold her off is she was waiting inside to attack him. What if she staked him before he got a chance to get through to her?

But then he shrugged it off.

This was Buffy.

HIS Slayer.

And he lived for this sort of thing. While he hoped he would be able to bring her back to herself, no matter what happened it would be one hell of a ride.

He couldn’t help the gleeful laugh, as he entered the dark warehouse to face her.





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