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Part 8:



“He’s not getting better Giles, and if what you say about the poison is true then he might never get any better only worse. So I don’t see the risk in bringing him back?”



“If you bring him back then Buffy is going to demand to see him! Xander you have repeatedly argued that Buffy is feeling extreme guilt over Spike’s death. How do you think she will feel if you bring him back in that condition? Do you think Buffy’s sense of guilt will allow her to look at Spike, and not cause her an intense emotional pain? Bringing Spike here, now, could very well push Buffy farther away from us.”





Giles listened as Xander angrily threw down the receiver of the telephone, and stormed off muttering something Giles couldn’t make out. He heard Willow give a plea that was answered by a slammed door. A second later he heard another voice on the phone, “Giles, this is Willow. Geoffrey has done his best, but he doesn’t have the resources to take care of Spike here. Also, if Spike is to ever get better wouldn’t it be more likely to occur at Watcher Headquarters with all its texts?”



Giles sighed, “Willow, I’m just worried for Buffy. I don’t know how she will take this.”



“I understand, but Xander is seeing this as if someone had the chance to give him back Anya. He…I don’t think he can give up on Spike. In his mind it would be like giving up on Anya.”



“What do you think Willow?”



“Spike is trapped in his own mind. There are a couple things I would like to try, but I don’t want to do them here.”



“Alright, but I want you to keep an eye on Xander. I don’t want him breaking any of this to Buffy. Telling Buffy this could be very bad.”



Willow hung up, and Giles sighed again. Xander was acting with as much grief and loss as Buffy. He couldn’t see how dangerous this was. Buffy was his daughter, and right now everything inside him told him that he had to protect her. All the texts told him that the poison now making its way through Spike’s body could very well make death the more pleasant option. Turning around in his chair so that he was facing the door of his office he found himself looking into the eyes of Buffy Anne Summers.



“What shouldn’t we be telling Buffy?” In his mind all Giles could think was buggar.







Buffy wait coldly as she and Anna Lynn circled each other. Anna Lynn was a young slayer, and had shown a real attitude problem. She had been picking fights with just about every other slayer here, and now it was Buffy’s turn. The girl was little more then sixteen, and had decided she had learned enough to take on the eldest slayer. Buffy still remembered how Anna had spoken to her when they first met, “So you’re the great Buffy Summers. Kind of skinny aren’t you?”



She wished Faith were here. The other elder slayer was great with dealing with attitude problems, and had a connection to them that Buffy just didn’t have. Right now Faith was dealing with a ‘situation’ in Panama. What made it worse was Buffy knew why she wasn’t able to reach those girls. The part of her they could respond to, Buffy had locked up inside herself after L.A. She wanted to be able to put aside the grief and pain, but it was the one struggle the elder slayer simply could not win.



“Why are you waiting Buffy? Don’t think you can take a young slayer?” Anna Lynn threw a series of hard punches that Buffy avoided easily. Buffy said nothing. Anna seemed to look at Buffy’s silence as weakness. Launching into a furious series of roundhouse kicks and punches that forced Buffy to retreat backwards, Anna Lynn continued to mock Buffy who had not even thrown a punch yet.



Finally one of Anna Lynn’s punches slammed into Buffy’s jaw, Buffy dropped to the floor. “So that’s it? That is all you have Buffy? If that’s all you got then no wonder you couldn’t save your vampire lovers, or maybe you just decided letting them die was easier then breaking up with them?”



At that moment every slayer in the training room turned to look at Anna Lynn and Buffy, as one who looked at two trains heading straight for one another and couldn’t look away. Anna Lynn had thought she had bested Buffy. Buffy had merely been observing her, and now that was done. Buffy flipped herself back to her feet. “Finally decided to fight did you?”Anna said as she threw another punch.



Buffy just grabbed the girl’s fist and stopped it cold. Holding it just long enough to freeze the girl in place, Buffy shot a powerful kick up into Anna’s jaw sending her flying. Anna Lynn tried to struggle to her feet, but Buffy was on her before she could get up. Buffy grabbed her by her throat and slammed her into the closest wall. “Let me makes this clear Anna. You need to learn three very important things. One, you are no where near as good a fighter as you think you are. Two, you will never be better than me. Three, if you even come close to mentioning Angel or Spike in anyway again, I will give you the most horrible, painful death anyone has ever had. Then have Willow resurrect you to start it all over again. Nod if you understand.”



Before she could nod Buffy just started squeezing. “On second thought.” Her fist a vice on Anna Lynn’s throat cutting off the young slayer’s air; fear clearly evident in the young girls eyes, and Buffy was sure that she heard other slayers running towards her. As Anna began to hyperventilate Buffy tossed her to the floor. Then walked away, and began to head for Giles's office. Well I took care of the Anna problem, just probably not how Giles would have liked that I handle it.



As she entered Giles's office she saw him standing up with his back to the door. She wasn’t really trying to listen in on his conversation, but she heard it anyway. His voice was too loud for her not to. “Alright, but I want you to keep an eye on Xander. I don’t want him breaking any of this to Buffy. Telling Buffy this could be very bad.”



Okay something is going on, and I really don’t feel like waiting. “What shouldn’t we be telling Buffy?”



Giles turned around to look at her and had the biggest deer in the headlights look she’d ever seen on anyone’s face.



-----



Dawn didn’t know how, but somehow Buffy knew she had slept with Andrew. That was the only thing that could possibly explain the fact that her sister had pulled away from her in the last few days. Not that she’d been feeling that great either. I can’t believe I slept with Andrew. The images of that night haunted her, and she refused to acknowledge why. She didn’t want to admit that she had used Andrew as Buffy had used Spike.



Dawn wanted to scream, but found she didn’t have the energy. Everything for the last year had been going so wrong. After the hell that was the final days of Sunnydale, the following year had been like heaven. Okay, maybe not heaven. There had still been problems between her and Buffy. Neither of them had truly dealt with Spike’s death or what they thought was his death. Buffy had also been extremely reckless when she patrolled.



However, excluding Spike, Buffy had allowed herself to be an open book to Dawn. Of course that had made Dawn even more determined to open up Buffy on the issue of Spike. Now that was gone. Buffy had withdrawn from everyone including her. Her sister had once again pulled into herself rather then deal with a world she had sacrificed so much to save. Dawn wanted to cry, but couldn’t find the energy. All she could do was sit and stare.



-----



Faith stared out at the Jungles of Panama and prayed desperately that they would find the demon they were looking for so she could go home. Home. That word was something Faith really wasn’t used to having, or at least not in the sense that most people take the word. Robin Wood had had also given her a chance to experience the joys of a real relationship. Robin Wood had done something for her that no other man had ever done for her. He had woken up something inside her that she hadn’t even realized she had been lacking.



In the two years they had been going out the only ‘real’ fight they had was over their reactions to the news from L.A. Robin had been infuriated that Spike had been allowed to return, and he was sure he had been in hell. Then that he had lost for a second time to avenge the death of his mother, by killing Spike.



Faith had nearly left him over that. She had always enjoyed a special connection to both Spike and Angel, and to hear anyone disparage either of them in front of her had been enough to almost send her over the edge. Even now it was a sour point between them.



Spike and Angel had set the example that she was desperately trying to live by. She knew she would never come close to measuring up to their shoes, but they proved to her it could be done. They had given her hope in a world that did it's best to take that from her. She would embrace that gift as her way of remembering them.



-----



Spike could feel the shattered bones in his legs as he stared up at the piss poor tower constructed by Glory’s minions. His mind was screaming at him to move. His arms struggled to move from his sides. I have to get up there. I have to stop Buffy. But his arms did not move, and he watched in horror as the portal opened. Then he saw her. Buffy. She flew from the tower into the open portal like the warrior she was. Spike could only cry as he watched her die again.



Reliving this horrible moment over and over again; trying to save Buffy, save Dawn, but nothing changes. Every time he fails. Every time she dies.



Suddenly she was there. “You think you love me? You let me die Spike. You failed to protect Dawn, and I died because of it. Is that the sign of a man in love?”



Spike tried to close his eyes, move his head, anything to keep himself from looking into Buffy’s eyes. “I’ll bet you enjoyed watching me fall didn’t you? Watching me give Doc his one good day?”



-----



Giles wondered at how much Buffy had heard. This was a situation he had hoped to avoid. After lying to her during Sunnydale’s last days in order to ‘take care’ of Spike, Giles had worked hard to make sure Buffy felt she could trust him. Now he was faced with the possibility of lying to her again, and he was torn. “Oh, that was Willow. I sent her on a mission to Chicago. She was just filling me in. So how was training today?”



Giles prayed that Buffy wouldn’t push any harder. “Training was fine. I dealt with Anna Lynn about as well as I could. Faith needs to come back quick, and Giles...”



“Yes.”



“That is one. As in the one and only lie you get to tell me. Lie to me again, and we are going to have a serious, serious problem. Do you understand me Rupert?” The look in Buffy’s eyes as she spoke was one of cold steel. A look Giles had been sure he would never see directed at him from his slayer, a look that terrified him almost as much as Angelus’s sneer.



-----



Whistler cursed loudly as he made the crossing from Earth to the higher plain. Oracles, couldn’t they make the portal a little smoother? He thought as he rubbed at his head in an attempt to release some of the horrendous pain that was there.



“Ah, good you have arrived,” the first Oracle said.



“Yeah, and it was not a very pleasant trip I might add. Care to explain why I couldn’t get this information in one of your everyday mind numbing visions?”



The male Oracle answered, “This mission requires greater explanation then visions usually allow.”



“Okay, so what’s up?”



“You must go to the slayer.”



“Which one? In case you didn’t notice there is a lot of them down there right now.”



“The eldest slayer. The one who stood guardian over the hellmouth.”



“Oh, that slayer.”



Whistler stared at the Oracle, and shook his head. “The slayer doesn’t like me.”



“That is irrelevant. She must be prepared.”



“For what? No offense, but if it is anything like the last time you guys sent me to see her, I think she’ll probably just kill me on sight.”



“The champion is slipping away. If you do not act there might be nothing left to save.”



“The champion? Angel’s been dead a year and took down the Circle of the Black Thorn. I think you guys might be a little late.”



“No, not Angel. His mission is complete. We speak of the other.” At that moment Whistler was hit by a vision. Images flashed before his eyes of Spike’s life over the last year, and what would happen soon. Unfortunately the Oracles seemed little concerned by the fact that the images being pumped into his head were also causing him an incredible amount of pain. Whistler dropped to his knees as he screamed.



“Wow.”



“Do you understand?”



“Yeah, but this…this is a tall sell. What if she doesn’t want to do this?”



“Then the only answer is death.”





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