Willow Rosenburg awoke at the sound of her loud blaring alarm on her nightstand. She opened one eye and glared at the time contraption. Grudgingly she reached out and slapped on the snooze.
She had been dreaming. Dreaming peacefully of times before things had gone bad. When Buffy had been around.
To Willow, things wouldn’t be as bad if she hadn’t meddled into problems that weren’t meant to be dabbled in. She turned her head to look at the empty bed, currently occupied by her roommate who she knew nothing about. It was her fault that Buffy wasn’t her roommate. It was her fault that Buffy chose to not graduate. It was all her fault. No matter how many times the others told her it wasn’t, she knew.
Putting her somber thoughts to the back of her mind, the redhead stood up and began to get ready for her day. She was meeting up with Xander and Oz and they were going to go see Giles. They had rarely seen the ex-watcher much since they had started college. Well, Willow and Oz at least. Xander had chosen to live out of his parent’s house still, down at the basement and paying a little rent. The brunette best friend Willow had known since kindergarten, was now working for Giles at Joyce’s gallery, and had a thousand year old ex-demon as his girlfriend who didn’t know the boundaries of public and private conversations. Before the poor boy had been constantly changing jobs from and to all things he hated.
By the time she finished getting dressed there was a knock on her door. When she opened it, to her surprise she found both Xander and Oz already standing in her doorway looking bright and awake for the morning.
Willow frowned, thinking she had overslept and gotten the time wrong. Looking back, Willow spied at her clock. 9:00.
“We decided to just meet you up here,” Oz explained as he walked in, giving Willow a good morning peck on the lips and handing her, her usual coffee that she drank from the café on the campus. Xander followed behind, bending a little to give Willow a hug.
“Oh okay. I just need to grab my bag.” Reaching over, she spotted her small messenger style bag and snatched it up. Out of the corner of her eyes, she spotted Xander raiding her small mini fridge. “Ready?”
Xander stood up and took a bite of one her apples. “I knew you use me only for food,” The redhead said with a frown.
The shaggy haired boy faked a hurt expression, pretending that Willow had wounded him with her words. “Where’s your roommate Rosenburg?” He asked, noticing for the first time that Willow’s roommate, whom Xander found hot hadn’t shushed them like she usually did when they were over while she slept. Which was kind of hard since she always slept.
Willow scrunched up her nose, she didn’t really like her roommate. The two never acknowledged each other or the fact that they lived together. Her name was Jenn Tubbman from San Francisco. She was a rather wild child and would constantly stumble around two in the morning drunk. Most nights she wouldn’t come home at all and it was obvious she spent her nights at some guy’s place by the same pile of clothes that were strewn on her bed that was there the night before.
Unconsciously Willow thought what it would be like to have Buffy as a roommate instead of this hard rocker big city girl. Though the real question was would Buffy be rooming with her? There were so many different stages of Buffy when Willow had known her, it would be like choosing one out of a barrel. The Buffy version she would hope for was the carefree bubbly girl who just happened to be the slayer. It’s your own fault she’s not here.
“So, shall we head out?” Oz asked, sensing Willow’s discomfort. The other two nodded solemnly. Visiting Giles was hard. They liked seeing him because they missed him, especially after they had graduated but it was definitely getting harder. And the teenagers knew why. Each time they visited and Giles opened the door, they could see the fleeting hope passing through his eyes that Buffy was with them. That she had come back to them. The person that had brought them all together was missing. Sometimes when they sat all quietly together they could almost hear her making some sarcastic comment about Giles’ methods. Complaining about some fashion emergency that had occurred while she had been on patrol the night before.
Yeah they definitely missed their slayer.
Rupert Giles stood in his kitchen, solemnly stirring the mixture from his tea bag as he tried to read the newspaper in front of him. It was hard when his thoughts were straying. He could hear his girlfriend, his companion that still taught at Sunnydale High with him humming as she walked into the apartment looking through the mail.
It was a surprise to anyone, at least those who knew, that Giles would still be working at the library. After Buffy had left Sunnydale High it was a surprise that Giles had stayed there even to finish the end of the year. He didn’t have a slayer and it was known there were painful memories for the now former watcher to haunt the place where he had shared with his slayer, who was more like a daughter to him. The optimistic side of Rupert Giles hoped that Buffy would just walk in through the swinging library doors, yelling for him to tell her what was up in the spooky world of the hell mouth. And as each day passed, as he worked in the library, each day turned out to be the same. No Buffy. No annoying, but expected comments about her hair even though she should be listening to him.
That was what was special about Buffy. She broke all the rules as the usual slayer should act. Obedient, always listening, always attentive, and willing to learn the icky facts about a demon instead of scrunching up her face with disgust after seeing a slime demon. Hell, the California blonde even broke the rules when it came to dying after she had refused to stay down when the Master had killed her over two years ago.
The last time Giles had seen his slayer was at the graduation, which was rather a surprise. It had only been for a couple of minutes and at a great distance but it was reassuring to him all the same that she was all right. That she was well and safe. However it wasn’t pleasing that she still had the stony expression, the last look he had seen before she had walked out on him and her friends.
“Rupert, they’re still sending us this junk. I’m going to go see if I can get a hold of this company and if they can take us off their damn mailing list.” Giles looked up and saw Jenny looking over a colorful envelope. It was one of the many places that send letters saying the recipient had won one million dollars but only if they responded to their letter, with a deposit.
Giles didn’t respond and looked at the clock in the living room solemnly. The teenagers that had once been known as Buffy’s friends were due any minute to have a visit with the British man and the gypsy woman, possibly catching up. Not only that, but Giles had a matter to discuss with them all about what he noticed in the newspaper yesterday. That had been the extra reason why Giles was so silent that morning.
There had been a high rate of murders and missing people this past week and it stressed the former watcher. Where was the slayer? No matter what, he knew Buffy kept on slaying because it was the only thing left for her. It was the only thing that kept her surviving. Unless the reason there were so many dead townspeople was because the slayer had been killed. Who knew? There would be no report of it in the newspaper. Buffy kept herself secluded from the world, no I.D., and everything related to her was in the name of her estranged father who paid for her, enabling her to live in her home. If Buffy had died, none of them would know and she would be buried as a Jane Doe, the world not knowing what a wonderful girl that could possibly be laying in the ground now.
“Rupert?”
Giles looked up from sipping his tea before he sat down on the couch. Jenny stared at him, a worried expression played out on her face.
“Hmm?”
“Are you worried about her?”
How Jenny could know him so well to know exactly what he thought made Giles wonder. Though it was no surprise. There would be times when Giles would withdraw, getting lost in his heavy thoughts. How were you supposed to act when the person who was like a daughter refused to talk to you?
Before Giles could answer her, there was a knock at the door. Jenny answered it to find the three teenagers that she had come to know so well standing at the doorway. Oz, Willow and Xander, all with small smiles on their faces. Willow gave her a little wave which made Jenny smile. She hoped that this would at least brighten up her lover even if it was a reminder that one person was missing from their group.
“Hey. We come bearing doughnuts,” Xander said as the three walked in. He opened the box to Jenny Calendar and let her pick a doughnut. She took a glazed jelly filled one.
“Hi Giles,” Willow said as she and Oz walked around to sit on the couch next to Giles. The older man looked over to them and smiled.
“Hello Willow.”
“Hey G-man,” Xander said jovially, joining the group with his own doughnut in hand as he referred to Giles by the annoying nickname the Brit absolutely hated.
“How are things?”
“Good. Oz and I are busy with school.”
“Yeah and I got a lame job at this pub. Fake I.D. and everything so I could ‘legally’ serve beer,” Xander informed, indicating he meant the word ‘legally’ to be a loose term by air quoting with his fingers, doughnut clutched in one hand. Giles gave Xander a hard disapproving look but didn’t say anything. “Remind me why I didn’t go to college with you two?”
“Because you wanted to see the whole United States for a year but ended up coming back way early, even after it is too late for even late admissions,” Oz informed Xander.
The brunette shook his head before smacking his forehead. He hated living in the basement but it was the only place that he could afford until he got enough to move out of the hell hole that was known as his parent’s place.
“So…any...you know…sightings?” Willow asked Giles hesitantly, giving him a hopeful smile.
“I’m afraid not.” Giles looked weary as he sighed and pulled his glasses off to clean them. Jenny took her place next to him on the edge of the couch, handing him his cleaning cloth with a solemn look on her face. “However, I have something to discuss with you all. I’m sad to say there has been an increase in murders and number of missing people.”
Xander looked at Giles with wide eyes. “You don’t think…” The boy trailed off, knowing Giles’ own fear. Giles could only shrug, placing his spectacles back on his face.
“I hope not,” Giles whispered as he stared off in another direction.
“But…” Willow started. “But…we would know, right? I-I mean, there would be a new slayer and all.”
Everyone turned to look at Willow, and at their alarmed faces the red head just blushed as bright as her hair.
Xander piped up. “Yeah the council would call wouldn’t they?”
“Buffy ended ties with them, remember?” Jenny reminded the three teenagers. Their faces fell, remembering all too well what had happened and their lost friend.
“Why don’t we just go check up on her? You know, at her house,” Oz suggested, startling the rest when he spoke as he had been characteristically quiet all this time.
“Yeah and we do what? Knock on her door, and wait till she opens, go…’Hey Buff, just wanted to make sure you’re not dead because you know, you’re not doing your job real well’” Xander said sarcastically, looking at the werewolf. “I think she would probably slam the door in our faces before our mouths could even open.”
“All we can do right now is patrol as much as possible,” Giles said with an air of sad finality, adjusting his glasses and standing up slowly.
“Things will be okay.”
The next day
Spike slammed his door shut. It had been almost a whole week since he had arrived in the hell mouth town Sunnydale. Since then he had quickly began to establish himself as Master Vampire, leaving its demony residents without as much as a doubt. It was much easier considering the old bat face of his great-great grandsire was no longer the ruler of ‘Sunnyhell’. Spike had already succeeded in gathering a large number of minions and was all set up comfortably in the old Crawford Mansion at the edge of the town.
Spike had also looked over the whole town, visiting the usual haunts the demons usually gathered at to find out who were the higher dogs and making sure they were ridded of.
All in all, Spike had been a busy little vampire.
Yes, taking over the town of Sunnydale would be easy. Along the way, Spike made sure he would find a suitable mate. Someone to rule over Sunnydale by his side.
A woman who would have a stronger bond to Spike than Drusilla, but would never fully replace his wonderful sire completely. Forever, Spike would always have a spot in his heart for his Dru, but he wanted a woman who would forever stay with him. Even to the death. Spike could almost hear Drusilla now if she were still right next to him.
”Spike, my dark prince, you and I will bathe in the blood of these mere mortals. I can hear Miss Edith laughing as we take our rightful thrones as King and Queen.”
Her soft silky voice had always been music to his ears, and there, Spike stood reveling in the memory of his sire’s voice. The way she would dance around listening to the voices that only she could hear. Hell, Spike even missed that ugly porcelain doll.
Yes, Spike loved his sire. His crazy, psycho Drusilla. Now though, it was time for a new woman in his life. One woman he was sure would love him back completely, even more than Drusilla had.
But until then, Spike would continue on his search for that woman while still making his place as Master Vampire. He was going to enjoy himself.
His minions had informed him of a little place that was in the warehouse district of town. Granted it was a human place, but it allowed vampires to come in as long as they completely behaved.
There was a short knocking on the door and Spike barked an order of entrance. Slowly the door opened and one of his higher minions entered. The minion vampire bowed his head regarding his respect to his master. It showed how fearful he was of Spike, descendent of the powerful Aurelius clan.
“Well?” Spike asked, feeling his patience was running on very low tonight. “What is it?”
“Marcus was…,” the vampire started. “Was… dusted.”
“WHAT?!?! You bloody idiots were just supposed to go and round up some bites for the lot of you,” Spike growled, enraged that he had lost Marcus, his very top minion. The vamp had proven him within a week to be very useful to Spike. He had pledged his allegiance and he wasn’t a cocky bastard.
“The slayer.”
Spike stopped moving and whipped his head to look at the fledging. The minion’s head was tilted to the side.
“The slayer?”
“Yes… the others have said she’s been spotted practically looking for us. Hunting to find out information on you, sire.”
Spike began chuckling, almost crazily which came as a shock to the minion. However, there were many things that most didn’t know about the true William the Bloody. Only that he had succeeded in killing two slayers in his short time of his undead life.
“Just what I need. A bloody slayer to deal with.” Though if Spike really thought about it, it worked out rather nicely. He hadn’t only come to Sunnydale to find himself a mate, but the master vampire was desperately itching for a good fight. A fight that would let out his anger over the loss of his sire that he was never able to express. What better way to express that animal state of him but with a fight with a slayer?
As he formed a new plan, a smile broke out over his ruggedly good looking face and Spike turned to look at the minion. “I’ll take care of it. Now move! I’m going out.” The minion scurried out of the way to allow Spike a path of exit. It had just seemed like as if the normal Sunnydale was better than what he had originally thought.
”You know what, little one? You always have this dream, but no matter what… you can’t seem to kill me. Just like you couldn’t the first time,” The Master’s menacing voice said as it echoed through out the underground sewer. Suddenly Buffy felt his presence behind her.
She whipped around, her grip on the hilt of her crossbow becoming tighter. Her formal Spring Fling dress, the dress for the dance she should have been attending swished at her feet with every movement she made. However all she came face to face with was empty space. Nothing was there. Déjà vu much Summers? Buffy thought to herself as she mentally slapped her head. Isn’t a repetitive nightmare a whole fucking case of déjà vu?
Buffy heard the chuckle coming from the deformed ancient vampire originate from some point in the buried church. “Come on. Stop being such a chicken. I thought you were some master vampire.”
Nothing happened. It seemed as if someone had pressed mute on her dream. The eerily familiar chill crept up Buffy’s spine. A cold breeze of wind brushed against her skin, making Buffy shiver. Something was different. It never felt like this… never in her dreams.
Suddenly a sharp pain shot from Buffy’s abdomen, as if someone had stabbed her with her own stake. The slayer screamed in agony only hearing her cries of pain as she doubled over pressing her hands against her stomach. Desperately trying to make the pain subside.
Another evil chuckle echoed against the dark rock walls, making Buffy’s ears feel like they were on fire. This chuckle was completely different. It did not to belong to the Master. She lifted her head and froze as if another bout of pain had ripped through her body. Staring into icy cold blue eyes, the rest stayed shadowed by darkness, Buffy could only gasp.
One hour later
Buffy Summers, vampire slayer, slammed her hands against the ground and pushed hard, with enough momentum to pull her whole body up from its horizontal position on the ground. She came up through the air landing on her feet as her arms came up to shield her from any potential danger.
Out of the corner of her eyes she saw a vamp coming at her. Spinning on her toe she made a hasty turn towards it, her other leg spinning out in a roundhouse kick, connecting with the vamp’s jaw and sending it soaring through the air. Another vampire, the one who had thrown her to the ground charged at her from her right side. Without taking her eyes from the soaring vamp that she had just kicked, Buffy Summers pulled out the stake she held from her inner jacket pocket and plunged it in the charging vamp’s chest before it could wrap its hands around her neck. He fell to dust, leaving Buffy to walk away and towards the vampire that she had just kicked. She pulled her arm back and staked it in the heart while he was still on the ground.
“And that makes six,” Buffy said to herself once the vamp turned to complete dust. The slayer put away her stake into the back of her waistband and reached up to straighten her cross necklace that had turned around haphazardly on her neck while she had fought.
Buffy looked over her surroundings from where she stood in the center of Rosewood Cemetery.
Tonight it had been one after the other which was good considering the fact that she had gotten no real action due to her being needed to be at the club earlier than usual. So far, Buffy had only been out an hour after sunset and she quickly realized it was best if she began to make her way towards work. Pulling up the sleeve of the wool sweater she wore, she cursed at how time was going so fast considering for once she just wanted everything to possibly slow down.
Breaking out into a run, Buffy exited out of Rosewood Cemetery. She didn’t stop until she got to the street and sidewalk. She had woken up almost half an hour before, and had actually been able to come out for a quick sweep of patrol. Today, after arriving home she had been too awake to go to bed. Instead the slayer had opted to take out any frustrations she harbored before finally conking out around noon. All in all she was restless. She had been restless constantly since she had found out there was a new master vamp in town. She couldn’t sleep as well. She didn’t know why. Buffy wondered if it was her slayer side reacting because a master vampire was so close. It had happened with the Master.
So, instead Buffy took out her wired nerves on the punching bag, training and working herself out.
For the past week Buffy had hit up the local haunts of demon bars like Willy’s. The brownnosing bartender had kept claiming that there were no new big arrivals, even after Buffy began to throw punches in order to beat the information out of him.
Buffy knew one thing. This master vampire was quick with recruiting minions. Lately that was all Buffy had killed. Buffy could tell by the way she had spied them while hunting. Immature, too quick, and just all around sloppy. Mostly they were just grabbing, probably to take back to wherever they were hiding at.
She was getting aggravated though. Every minion vampire she had in her grasp were more than tight lipped. All they let out was that their master would avenge their deaths. From the meager amount of information out of incredibly loyal vampires, Buffy knew this Big Bad was a male. That was it.
Besides her unwanted and inescapable job, the part time one was just normal as ever. The guy Riley had stopped by a few times usually alone, sitting at the bar trying to chat with Buffy. She found the creepy feeling she got from him fading but she could always recognize it deep down within her. It would always rise for sure each time he tried to touch her. Innocent gestures such as touching her arm.
The streets were empty as Buffy walked down them. With the sudden rising of murders and missing people residents were staying in a little more. The night before Buffy had even spotted Willow, Xander, and Giles doing their own patrol, and Buffy had hightailed it out of the cemetery. She thought maybe that was what had left her so restless tonight. They probably think I’m not doing my job.
At the thought of her old friends, Buffy began to stomp down the street. She cut through an alley to decrease her time of being late. The slayer half jogged, careful to not trip and fall in her boots. Coming to other side of the alley, she turned the corner only to run straight into something. Being caught off balance, Buffy reached out to grab onto something as she fell. Her grasp latched onto something that was a lot softer than a wall. She felt herself being pulled up suddenly before she could even connect with the ground.
“You okay luv?” Buffy looked up, straightening out her clothes to find what she had run into was a very real guy. Not to mention a hot guy.
His hair caught her attention first, dyed a shockingly bleached blonde color and was slicked back with gel. The gel reminded her too much of her somewhat ex did. He was dressed in all black. Black jeans, black t-shirt, black boots, and a long black leather duster that graced his well defined body, making Buffy drool deep down.
No one affected her like this before and it unsettled Buffy greatly. She looked the man in the eye and found herself rendered speechless. He had beautiful azure colored eyes, so beautiful that she left a gasp slip unbidden from her lips.
“I’m so sorry,” Buffy spoke, finally remembering where her head was.
“It’s okay.” His voice rang with a smooth British accent. Gotta drool over a guy with an accent. Buffy noted, trying desperately not to stare so obviously. “A young girl like you shouldn’t be out so late.” His voice was so sensual it made her feel like his words were wrapping around her body. The man gave her a charming smile, one that Buffy was sure this guy had used on many other women before.
Buffy straightened up. “Well I can take care of myself. Besides a girl’s gotta work,” she told him as she pointed in the direction she was headed in. Remembering work, Buffy now knew she was definitely going to be late.
“Then I should probably let you go. Don’t want a beauty like you getting into trouble with the boss.” Buffy watched him move to the side to allow her to pass. He gave her that same charming smile.
Buffy smiled back, stepping forward and waving goodbye to him. She continued down the street trying not to look back, even when she did feel his eyes watching her.
Her eyes were fixed to the ground, pulling her coat around her tighter. The temperature was still dropping this whole week. Every night after a scorching autumn day, the weather would suddenly become colder, biting into the slayer’s skin while she patrolled. At first Buffy suspected the weird changes of temperature was due to the fact that there was the new vampire master on the hell mouth. However, not even a vamp as old as the Master could pull something like that off.
After the whole deal with the Master, dying by his hands, many thought Buffy had come to terms with her short death during the summer after the year of her freshman year. However during the whole trip she had to visit her father she had been on edge, her nightmares that still repeated themselves haunting her. Upon coming back to the hell mouth she had gone through too many to ever really get over it all. Instead it had stayed in the back of her mind, in the dark shadows of her conscience.
Buffy stepped up through the back door since she was late. She rushed to the bar trying to dodge the pissy dancers as they walked around in the back getting ready.
“Well it’s about time you got here,” Matthew stated as Buffy put away her things. Buffy ignored him, throwing herself into work, not even missing a beat.
“Hey Buffy.” Buffy looked up and found the college boy of Sunnydale University, Riley Finn standing on the other side of the bar. Buffy groaned inwardly, trying not to grimace. Riley had been coming to the bar regularly for the past week. Chatting Buffy up to the point that even the patrons knew the all American boy was interested in her.
“Hello Riley,” Buffy greeted politely. “What can I get for you?” she asked as she sat down on one of the bar stools. She could feel Riley’s eyes raking her up and down.
“I’ll just take a rolling rock.”
“Coming right up.” Buffy turned away from the bar, never noticing the lean bleached blonde walk through the front doors of the strip club.
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