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Author's Chapter Notes:
5 reviews more than I've ever had before. many many thanks.
hope you enjoy chapter 2
Riley came to see me,’ Buffy started.

‘Riley? How was he?’ It seemed a neutral question that wouldn’t upset Buffy.

‘Alive and still with Sam, she’s pregnant, William Riley Finn, that’s what they’re calling the baby.’

‘William, does he remember who else shared that name?’ laughed Willow.

‘Yep, he does. I mean he really does, it’s sort of the point, seems Spike saved their lives a couple of months back and…'

Buffy burst into tears again. The other slayers weren’t sure about this, they were used to bitchy Buffy, they were used to in-charge Buffy, but they’d all hoped they’d seen the last of crying, upset Buffy. She’d been around far too much in the year and a half since Sunnydale. Buffy had always had to be strong, for years she had been the only slayer. Even after Kendra and then Faith had been called she was THE slayer, the chosen one, the one whose name alone struck fear into the hearts (or other organs) of demons. She'd only broken down after the wounded had been cared for and families contacted. Then she'd collapsed into a depression that had taken weeks for her to come out from.

Dawn looked at her heart broken sister and she continued the story.

‘Spike was in LA working with Angel, and they went after the Black circle. But it didn't go the way they hoped: in fact the demons were winning when Riley and Co turned up. They got trapped in a warehouse and would have died if Spike hadn't broken them out. He died to save Riley and Sam and a load of special forces…


‘They are only alive because he cleared the way. Angel had started a war he couldn’t possibly win, and he lost everything.’

Willow gasped at the tale. The Circle was the council for all that was evil. How could Angel think to bring it down, it would take far too much power; it took the combined energies of two Gods just to confine them in Sodom and Gomorrah and the stories of that battle had come down to the present day.

‘Worst was, Giles knew he was alive and hadn’t said anything to her,’ Dawn continued. ‘Seemed to think that it was nothing important, he was nothing, less than nothing.’

They all sat quietly, thinking about what they had been told. Willow noticed the beautiful ring on Buffy's finger. ‘That's new,' she whispered to Dawn.

‘Riley said he made his ashes into a ring… Willow, could you see if you could sense Spike in the diamond?’ Dawn continued.

Willow held her hand over the gem. ‘Feels like it belonged to him at some point,’ she whispered.

Buffy smiled a weak thanks, she had something of Spike’s. She had her connection to her love.

‘Now, why the protection?’ The witch asked, breaking the silence with the quickness of her voice.

‘I don’t think Giles is well. He was so horrid to me, he seemed cold, distant, the things he said were so cruel…

‘So we need a truth spell. Something that will show us what’s really going on, and free us from any spells that are on us.’ Buffy explained. ‘And we need it fast, but we don’t want anyone outside this room to be affected, not yet. We don’t want anyone else to know what’s going on.’

The girls nodded, they could see the wisdom of keeping it quiet. And since Sunnydale, had learnt not to doubt Buffy. They had doubted her once and it had cost them the lives of potentials. Even Faith respected Buffy's experience and wisdom, not that she'd actually admit it of course, but she wouldn’t let anyone else ever disrespect the Elder Slayer.

‘No-one Willow, not Giles, not Andrew, not even Xander. Until we know why Giles was so harsh, no-one is to know what's going on.’ Buffy reiterated.

Willow nodded. ‘OK, understood.’

Willow started the spell. It should have been easy a simple ‘show all’ spell, and a release spell, but something was blocking her. She could feel a force pushing back against her mind, blocking her at every turn.

She gave an imploring glance at Kennedy: she felt as though she were going to die. Whatever secret was being protected the wards were powerful, some of the most powerful Willow had ever encountered.

Kennedy reached for her lover and grabbed her hand. Viv and Rona linked on from the other side. Buffy joined her hands and strength and Dawn completed the circle. So much power backing the witch swung the balance back in their favour and Willow could feel the walls break down. Their minds felt as though white hot spikes had been driven in as memories came flooding in.

Dawn remembered hundreds and thousands of years as energy, floating in the void, jumping from time to time and place to place. Using dimensions as toys, exploring the universe in the company of Gods. And the love of her sister and the love Spike had shown her the summer Buffy had been dead. So much love and so much patience with a grieving, difficult teenager. She remembered how she'd begged Giles to stay and help her, but he'd refused and had left her to her fate.

Willow remembered all the time Spike had spent trying to help her come to terms with the evil that she had done. Who better? Who could understand more than someone who had had to face the same mental demons? She remembered how she had been so frightened of her growing power and how little help she'd received to learn how to control it. Giles had let her sink or swim on her own and she nearly sank. She remembered that long summer and Spike trying to comfort her, and trying to take the pressure off her shoulders.

The three junior slayers looked at one another, remembering the hours and hours Spike had spent helping them train. He had stalked them, practised with them, doing all he could to ensure their survival. Teaching them as much as he could about demons, their weaknesses, their strengths, how to kill them, and when to run. He trained them and while they slept he filled the house with foods that comforted them. Their shame was that they hadn't even thought to feed him on slayer blood before the final battle. An advantage that might have saved him.

They remembered Spike saving their lives from a vamp attack, when they had sneaked out of the house and been surrounded by fifty or so hungry vampires thinking they’d found easy meals, when Spike had appeared out of nowhere in full master vamps face and taught the impertinent fledglings a lesson in manners. He had been magnificent.

Kennedy and Willow remembered the kindness he’d shown them when they’d first gotten together. He had spent his own money and hired a room at The Sunnydale Inn and given them a ‘night to remember’. Roses, champagne, the works.

Even when they’d all turned on Buffy he’d still not done anything to make them pay for their treachery. He’d been a good man and they had seemingly forgotten it all. Kennedy and Rona were particularly angry at that. Willow hated the idea that someone had messed with her mind. She thought back to Tara and how Glory had hurt her, and how much damage she, Willow, had done with her stupid spell.

Whoever did this would pay.

But worse hit was Buffy. She was sitting on the floor cross-legged, her arms wrapped around her body, sobbing her heart out.

‘Sweetie? Buffy?’ Willow tried to get through to her friend. It was as though Buffy couldn't even hear them.

‘Buffy you’re scaring me,’ Dawn said, but all Buffy could do was cry, her nails tearing into the flesh on her arms. She seemed totally distraught.

‘Rona help me!' Dawn yelled as she tried to stop Buffy from hurting herself. The blood was running freely down her arms.

Rona and Viv rushed across to their leader and tried to pull her hands away from her arms. They finally managed after a couple of minutes and had to hold onto them, to stop her hurting herself even more.

Even when Buffy had been at her most depressed she hadn't reacted like this. Whatever she had remembered was destroying her mind.

Willow looked into her friend’s pain filled eyes and whispered, 'sleep'.

Instantly Buffy collapsed on the ground fast asleep.

Dawn couldn’t believe the memories that were flooding her mind. Buffy had been so excited about something, but what she couldn’t remember, not straight away. She knew it was important, if only she could remember.
Willow looked around the room.

‘If you’re anything like me you’ll have a thousand new memories running around your mind. So we need time to get them all into order. Whatever was stopping my spell wasn’t able to face all of us. We need to use that. We need to husband our resources until we’ve got this mess sorted. So: any suggestions?’

‘We need to gather all our allies,’ Kennedy started. ‘Willow, love, can you spread the spell? We need Xander, Faith and Robin, but we need them with us. You had better warn them what the spell can do before it hits them as badly as us.’

‘I can, but I won’t. Buffy was quite specific. No one was to know what was going on. No one at all,’ Willow stated, brooking absolutely no arguments.

‘Then we need to get somewhere safe,’ Rona said. ‘Any suggestions?’

‘LA,’ Dawn's thought was spoken aloud. ‘Angel had a hotel in LA, the Hyperion. We could use that as a base, I know there are wards on it; Cordy set them up and she works for the powers. There is also a demon, Lorne, who is an empath. If we could find him, he might be able to help as well.’





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