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Thanks for my amazing reviews, hope you enjoy the new chapter
Morgana and Willow started to form another circle. No rest for them, they had to ensure that none of the Hyperion crew, or in fact any of the slayers, lost none of their memories of what had happened in the past year. They had altered time and the timeline had to be put right. Memories were returned, overlaying the ones they had acquired by living that year.

They had already prepared the holding spell to protect all those within the Hyperion from losing the memories of what the last few years had been like before Faith had taken the leap; now they sat quietly within a circle and the case of blood supplied by Mary in front of them that was their contact with the slayers. The spell was relatively simple: Willow and Morgana completed it easily. But they were thorough: they had to be. Before the last syllable of the spell was spoken though, Willow threw out the vial containing Andrew's blood. He didn't need to remember his torture; they could fill him in on the details later. Maybe that would help heal his mind, if it didn’t they could always do the spell later.

They were ready, the words spoken and the deed done.

The hardest part was to come. They had to follow Spike’s year with Wolf Ram and Hart and correct anything that had happened there. That would need thought and time.

‘Actually no, it needs Spike.’ Cordy appeared in front of them in her full glory. ‘You don’t want to even know what happens without him; you need to send him back into the amulet then send the amulet to Angel at Wolf Ram and Hart, and he needs to go now.’

‘But Buffy?’ Willow cried.

‘It will be less than a day for her, she won’t know anyway. I’ve sent her deeper into sleep, she won’t know a thing. You send him back while he’s still unconscious, the amulet kicks him out as a ghost, and you go collect him on the day that Angel takes on the fiends from hell. Then the rest of you will really live the year you lived, with no need for false memories.
‘You need to keep his coat, though. Trust me on that and would you please hurry up? I need my new wardrobe, and don’t forget to leave the Gem of Amara here.’ she vanished in a flash of golden light, leaving only a ghost of a voice, begging them to hurry up and do what they were supposed to.

Willow and Morgana seemed to get the knowledge from out of nowhere as they spoke the words that would send Spike back to WRH and Angel. They had to believe they were doing the right thing. The words were quickly spoken and they could then leave their protective circle and re-join everyone else. Job done - for now.

Dawn turned round in the medical unit and watched in horror as Spike vanished in front of her eyes. Her cries brought Martin running in from the room where he was resting. Dawn turned into his embrace crying her heart out. Her friend was gone: she started to get hysterical, crying and yelling incoherently. Martin just wrapped his arms around the poor girl and hung on tightly. It was all he could do. He felt like his heart was breaking along with hers. Spike had seemed… well, dead, but accepting the blood a few minutes ago, and now he was gone.

Willow and Morgana hadn’t thought about the effect on Dawn, they too were summoned by her cries, along with the slayers and Clem. Septamus heard the noise but as no-one was calling him, he went back to trying to decipher the latest tome from Cordy.

The slayers looked in horror at the bed, empty except that the Gem that had kept Spike alive was sitting on the crumpled sheet. Dawn was screaming into Martin’s face. ‘Where is he, what have you done?’

‘Nothing, I swear! I have just finished with Anya and he vanished, it wasn’t me!’

‘It was us,’ Willow said quietly, coming into the room properly. ‘Cordy told us to send him back. We have to fetch him again.’

‘Why?’ Dawn couldn’t be consoled. ‘Didn’t you want Buffy to be happy? You pull her out of heaven, keep Spike away from her, lie about him being back, then when we are finally all together you send him away… do you hate us that much Willow?’

She wanted her surrogate brother home, safe, she hadn’t even gotten to say goodbye to him and he was gone again. She felt like her heart was breaking in two.

Willow felt the tears well up. ‘It wasn’t like that. He needed to go back and live his year with Angel or everything would be lost.’

‘What do you mean?’ Rona asked. She was willing to at least allow the witches to explain before she killed them both. They were all still on edge about whose side everyone was on, and this seemed a betrayal of Buffy and the Slayers.

Cordy appeared again. She had been hoping that her presence wouldn’t be needed but everyone going into accusation mode meant she couldn’t stay and choose her new clothes, oh no, she had to go make nice with the humans, ugh. The boss had even threatened to take away her Manola Blaniks if she didn’t sort out the mess. And that just wasn’t fair.

‘It’s like this: no Spike with Angel for a year, we get like total meltdown, demons everywhere, Angel goes Angelus on us all, Clem and Baya don’t meet, so no baby, Riley and Sam get killed in the final battle. LA, in fact most of Southern California, gets taken over by demons, The US of A ends up having to pay 100 virgins a year to each of the demon Lords, Churches are banned, and those humans who can run back to Europe, leaving nothing here but a wasteland and a few warriors trying to keep it together. Slayers are outlawed and vampires have a walk-in pass to any house they like. Not only that, but if you don’t do it there is no one to rescue Anya and Spike, cause Riley isn’t alive to tell Buffy what was needed. In fact the only reason you’re all protected here and don’t know this would be happening is because of Willow’s spell. At the moment anyone outside The Hyperion would be living in hell. So you see I had to have him sent back.
Now you need to burn his Duster so that you have ash to swap for him during the next rescue, and Dawn you need to open a portal just as he gets Sam into the tunnel.
‘Willow, you have to make it appear like he’s going up in flames and leave the dust. Jump to it people: Buffy will be awake soon and I have no intention of being around her if Spike isn’t here, and I have a new pair of shoes to collect.’

‘Same old cheerleader,’ Xander muttered quietly from his place by Anya.

‘Damn right, I don’t intend to change,’ she answered with a smile and a wink before vanishing back into her light.

The Scoobies looked at one another, it all seemed so simple when Cordy explained it.

‘Is it just me,’ Xander started to say, ‘but was anyone else scared by the thought of Cordelia making sense?’

Willow put up her hand. ‘Me too,’ she said.
The old friends smiled at one another, but Dawn wasn’t allowing them any time.

‘Fireball here, Willow,’ she instructed, holding out Spike’s duster.

‘He’s never going to forgive me this one,’ Willow stated, ‘its going to be dead fish and broken bottles all over again.’ But she sent the bolt of tamed lightening anyway. Martin collected up the ashes carefully and put them into a dish. He was amazed at how quickly Dawn had gone from hysteria to cold and calm. Then he understood: she was still in shock but she could do something to help, and the adrenalin insisted that she did all she could.

‘We need a Slayer.’ Rona and Vi stepped forward. The years since Sunnydale had matured them both, they were confident young women now. Not scared fifteen year olds.

‘We’ll go: that way you get two.’

Dawn nodded. She cut her hand shallowly, making sure the portal was big enough but not so big it would go between worlds, and spoke the words.
The swirl of lights signalled all was ready and Dawn handed over the ashes from the duster.

Rona thought they’d stepped into hell: it was raining hard and the sun was high over the city. There were demons everywhere and Spike was clearing a path through them. He looked like a human torch. The humans were following as quickly as they could. Spike was already on fire when Sam vanished down the drain; he turned to prevent the escapees being followed and Rona could hear the drone of planes overhead. She virtually flew at Spike and dragged him through the shimmering light, Vi covering them both with the blanket they’d brought with them. Vi was hit badly by a demon across the face, blood running down the cheek and the blow sending her right through the portal. Dawn closed it quickly as the Slayer landed in a heap at her feet leaving the blast from the first bomb back in LA. Blood splattered out everywhere covering those who had stayed in the vicinity with a fine mist.


Vi got lifted onto a gurney and was hurried after Rona, still carrying Spike, back to the bed he’d left less than an hour before. The blood was ready and waiting for him: it was dripping into his mouth before Vi was even in the room. The only clue that they’d been working at setting the timeline right was the missing duster and Vi’s wound.

They had done it. The timeline was secure.





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