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"This should be the place. Buffy?" asked Wesley as they got out of Angel's car. One of Angel's cars that was. Buffy couldn't understand why he was so upset about one car when he had a dozen others. If she didn't know that he was well over two hundred years old she would have suspected him of having a mid-life crisis.

"Crap, the only vampire I sense is Angel," Buffy said.

"There's the Viper, looks like old Spikey boy was here though." Gunn said resting his axe on his shoulder. Buffy couldn't help but looking at it from the corner of her eye. She didn't want to be rude and stare, but it look almost like it had been made out of a hubcap.

"In that case I suggest we see if we can find any clues as to where he has gone." Wesley said.

Angel sniffed the air. "This way," he headed toward the entrance to the apartment complex.

They went inside, and Angel lead them to an elevator. "Looks like we're taking the stairs."

"Why? Elevator's not out." Gunn said.

"I can't smell which button he pressed. I'll have to sniff each floor individually until we find the right one. The stairs will be faster than waiting for the doors to open and close on every floor." Angel replied.

Nine floors later. Angel's nose lead them to apartment 914. They all looked at each other.

Gunn shrugged and said, "Knock knock." And banged loudly on the door.

After a few moments the door opened the length of the security chain and a woman peered out at them. "Yes?" she asked.

Buffy may not have had a vampire's sense of smell, but she would have recognized that skanky perfume anywhere. "YOU!" she shouted, and slammed herself into the door with enough force to break the chain and send the woman flying back into the room.

"The girl does make an entrance, you have to give her that." Gunn said as he followed Buffy into the room.

"Really, I'm not sure th-" Wesley stopped suddenly as he got a look at the woman sprawled on the floor. "Rebecca?!" They all turned to look at Wesley.

"Hello Wesley," the woman said as she lifted herself up off the floor. Her accent was unmistakably british. "And you my dear, judging by your manners, you must be Buffy Summers."

"And you're dead if you don't tell me what you did to Spike." Buffy said hauling the woman to her feet.

"Oh dear," Wesley said, "You're not still performing those experiments are you?"

"Hardly, what would be the point? Miss Summers here has already done that work for me."

"Okay anyone want to fill in the blanks for those of us not from Merry Olde England?" Gunn said.

"Yes of course," Wesley said, "This is Rebecca Worthington, she and I went to the Watcher's Academy together. In fact she was Head Girl. However, the council later fired her when they discovered that she had been performing magical experiments on the blood of the Potential she was training. Not to mention her research into several areas involving vampires and forbidden blood rights."

"Neat. Now where's Spike?" Buffy said shaking her.

"Well he's not here. Though I'm sure you're pet vampire could have told you that. I'm not sure where he is actually." Rebecca said.

"Hey, I'm not a pet, I'm the boss here," Angel barked from just outside the doorway to the apartment. No one was paying any attention to him though.

"Yeah, but I'm betting you do know where he is. Or at least where he's going and," Buffy punched her fist through the wall next to the woman's head, "I think you're going to tell me."

"Now, now Miss Summers. You may be uncouth, uncivilized, and unreasonable. But I rather doubt that you will hurt a human being."

"Maybe not, but he's UNdead," Buffy quipped as she spun the woman around and tossed her out into the hallway and Angel's waiting arms. Angel even cooperated and vamped for effect.

"He has a soul, right? I mean. . . he won't . . ." the former Watcher gulped, her bravado no longer holding up. Angel growled, "Alright, just . . . look he's on his way to Brazil. Probably halfway there already. I chartered a flight for him."

"Why's he going to Brazil?" Buffy asked. How the hell was she going to get a flight to Brazil at this time of night?

The woman laughed, regaining some of her composure. "It doesn't matter, even if you got there in time, you couldn't stop him. Nothing can stop him, not sunlight, fire, stakes, decapitation. Nothing."

"Stop him from what?" Angel asked, obviously uncomfortable with the idea of an invulnerable Spike.

"Justice."

"Oh please," Buffy said, "if you want justice hire a lawyer, in fact I know just the law firm for you. You are obviously into the whole vengeance things. What with the Erin's eyes."

"The Erinyes," Wesley corrected from over by a desk where he was shuffling through papers.

"Whatever. Point is, you want someone dead don't you? Who is it?"

"I think I know," Wesley said, holding up a piece of paper. "Willow. And Xander as well from the looks of it."

"Willow? As in cute little red-headed witch, Willow?" Gunn asked.

"Let me see that," Buffy grabbed the paper from Wesley. It had two columns, one titled 'Location of Willow Rosenberg' the other 'Location of Alexander Harris'. Each column contained every address her two friends had stayed at for the past ten months.

"All right. That's it, no more games. Why are you after Willow and Xander?" Angel said as he slammed Rebecca into the hallway wall. He might not care much for Spike, but Willow, and even Xander had been friends of his. He didn't want anything to happen to them.

"Because those foolish children are responsible for my mother's death!" came the woman's angry retort.

"You're mother died in the explosion at the Council's headquarters. I don't see how that could possibly be their fault." Wesley said.

"Don't you? Idiot. But then that's why the Council fired you wasn't it," she looked around the room, "None of you know do you? None of you know what they did, the forces they tampered with, the powers they tapped into. Didn't it ever occur to you to wonder why in the thousands of years there have been Slayers, the First never tired to end the Slayer line until a year ago? It was because of her." She pointed at Buffy. "When her friends brought her back from the dead they altered the natural order of things, allowing the First the chance it needed. If your friends had only left you in the ground," she said glaring at Buffy, "the Council would still exist. My mother, the other Watchers, not to mention all those innocent girls would still be alive."

**********************************

"It's not you fault Buffy, you can't blame yourself for any of this," Angel said.

Buffy wanted to believe him, but just couldn't.

"Angel's right you know. Even if what the crazy Watcher lady said was true, which it SO is not, it's not like you asked to come back," Dawn put her arm around her sister.

Buffy hugged her back, glad for her sister being there, even if it felt irresponsible dragging her along. Not that she had had any choice.

After they had gotten everything they could from Rebecca, Angel's team had leapt into action cell phones at the ready. Buffy had to admit, she was impressed, and glad she'd gone to them. She was starting to think that Giles was leaping to conclusions about the whole evil lawyer thing.

Wesley had called his department. They were going to clean out Rebecca's stash of mystical paraphernalia, and see if they could figure the spell she had cast on Spike and, hopefully, a way to stop him.

Gunn had called to schedule a flight for her and Angel on one of Wolfram & Hart's planes and to let the office in Rio know they were coming.

Angel had driven her to her father's house, so she could tell Dawn that she was going to have to fly to Brazil to find Spike. Not to mention to get some clothes better suited for fighting. On the way she'd used his cell phone to call Willow and Xander.

Her sister of course, hearing that Spike was in trouble had refused not only to go back to bed, but insisted on coming. The argument had woken their father. At which point Buffy realized they didn't have time for this, so she'd given in to Dawn, made a lame excuse to her father, and told him that his car would be returned once it had been cleaned.

On the way to the airport she'd called Giles to fill him in. Now they were on their way. According to Fred, Wolfram & Hart had special planes that not only had that mystic glass that protected vampires from the sun, but also went really fast, so they should actually be able to beat Spike to Brazil despite his head start.

"I know," she told Dawn, "it's not that I want to be dead or anything, but it's wrong me being here. I've always known that. It wasn't supposed to be this way." Buffy looked at her sister, scared that she would see the signs of one of Dawn's teenage, angst, tantrums. But her sister had grown up. Dawn understood this had nothing to do with whether or not Buffy wanted to be with her. "And now, here I am, flying to Brazil to keep my boyfriend from killing my best friend."

Dawn giggled and her face lit up, "Boyfriend? Does that mean you and Spike. . ?"

"He's not her boyfriend," Angel growled.

Before Dawn could make this worse Buffy spoke up, "Yeah, he is. Or maybe not so much right now, but I want him to be."

"What about cookie dough?"

Buffy took a deep breath. She didn't want to do this, but all things considered, Angel had been acting almost like an adult. He deserved an explanation.

"Look, that was, it was a nice idea. But it's not me. Or maybe I just baked quicker than I thought I would. I'm not The Slayer anymore, but I'm still, I'll always be, a Slayer. I'll never be a normal girl, I'll never have the normal life that you wanted for me, that I used to want. Not because of duty and responsibility, I mean all that stuff's real, but because I can't turn my back on who I am. Do you remember Kendra? She once told me that I talked about Slaying as if it was a job, but it's not, it's who I am. And she right. It took me a long time to realize that, to accept it, but it's true.

"And Spike gets that. He loves me for being the Slayer and for being Buffy. And. . .I love him. I know there's lots of stuff that he can't give me. But it's not all stuff I want. The kids, the dog, the picket fence I don't want that. I just want. . . I just want to be loved by someone I don't have to hide myself from or lie to. And that, Spike can give me."

"I'm going to check on our prisoner," Angel said and got up and left the cabin.

****************

Willow was scared. Not so much of Spike, all though she couldn't say she was thrilled with the idea of being hunted by an invincible vampire. She was scared of herself.

That was really all she was ever scared of anymore. Most of the time she was okay. Most of the time she knew she had a handle on things. But, had she mentioned the invincible vampire that was hunting her. When push came to shove, Willow was scared that her survival instinct was too strong, that she would call on whatever power she needed to protect herself, and that way lay potential badness.

And then there was the guilt. She had brought this all on herself. There was no one to blame but her. When Buffy had called to warn Willow about Spike, she'd tried to leave out the part of why Rebecca Worthington wanted Willow dead. But Willow had insisted until Buffy told her.

Buffy had insisted that it wasn't true. That the former Watcher was just crazy. But it made too much sense to Willow. It just felt all too true.

And it wasn't just all those dead girls and Watchers that now haunted Willow, it was Tara and Anya. Had she not brought Buffy back, Warren would never have shot Tara. Had she not brought Buffy back, there wouldn't have been any uber-vamps to kill Anya.

Was she now going to be responsible for Xander's death too. That was almost the worst. Tara and Anya had had some idea, at least as much as Willow, as to what they were doing in bringing Buffy back. Xander had been, mystically speaking, an innocent. He simply didn't know enough about magic to understand the kind of power they had tapped into that night.

"It's going to be okay baby, it's just one vampire, and you've got you're own personal Vampire Slayer body guard." Kennedy said, trying to cheer her up.

For the vigintillionth time Willow wished Tara was there. Tara would have understood.





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