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'Ah' thought Marcus, with a pleased grin as he observed the now fully awake creature before him 'this is more like it'. The man stood naked and unashamed, his expression, a mixture between annoyance and boredom, showed a creature undaunted by waking a captive. His flinty eyes held a power and arrogance that Marcus approved of and his confident demeanour spoke of a resourceful survivor

"Solomon, send for Beatrice" He commanded without sparing the Vaith a glance. "Beatrice has a gift" he explained to the caged creature "she'll know whether or not we can let you out"

"Piss off" a clipped accented voice

"Now, now William. We're all friends here no need for unpleasantness"

"Friends don't call me William" the man stated his voice eerily calm "nor do they lock me in a bloody cage"

"No of course not, Spike. The measure is only temporary I assure you, for security, you understand?" Marcus amicable tone grated on the others nerves

"Right, great. So where's this bird, I don't fancy spendin' too much time cooped up like a bloody budgie. Got places to be, you know, people to kill"

……….

“So what we got?” Dawn smiled Buffy was back in command, the slayer at the helm. Finally she was seeing something real from her sister, and nothing could spoil that now.

“Umm, hey baby, what’s going on?” Richard’s confident voice caused every set of eye’s to turn on him.

Buffy’s eyes widened almost comically in surprise “Oh not much, just a big old get together, reunion, ya know?” She smiled a pretty plastic smile “Me and the old gang”

“Wow, baby that’s great, why didn’t you tell me? I waited for you, we where supposed to be picking out flowers today.” He asked without a hint of irritation.

“Oh my God, Richard I am so sorry, I completely forgot” she replied slapping her forehead “This was all very impromptu, Xander just got back today. Are you terribly cross with me” she pouted a little then batting her eyes at him winningly.

Dawn felt a sudden need to gag, the old Buffy had never used such cheap tricks, well maybe she had but still it was nauseating. “Hi Rich” she greeted perkily and enjoyed watching him prickle at the abbreviation of his name. “Guys this is Rich, Rich this is Angel, Giles and Xander”

Visibly swallowing his irritation with the youngest Summers he smiled his most charming smile “A pleasure. I’ve heard an awful lot about both Xander and Mr Giles, I’m afraid your name isn’t familiar Mr Angel”

“Just Angel” He replied curtly, obviously not taking to the sharp suited lawyer.

“Well, it’s a pleasure to meet all of you, I hope you’ll all be able to make it to the wedding” His smile became genuine and adoring as he wrapped an arm around Buffy’s shoulder.

“Of course they will honey” Buffy tilted her head to smile up at him “Did you go ahead and choose without me?”

“No sweetheart, I rescheduled for tomorrow at two, you’ll be able to make it right?”

Giles looked sharply at Buffy, clearly trying to convey that she had no time for this, but she ignored his look “Of course, we could get lunch at that little Italian, before we go”

“Great, I’ll pick you up here at twelve” he gave her a kiss and made to leave

“Ok, bye baby” her smile fell away as he exited the house

“Buffy” it was Giles who began to voice the groups concerns “We have a great deal to do if we are going to be ready to take on Marcus and his army, there won’t be any time for…”

“No Giles” Buffy’s voice was harsh and loud in the tense atmosphere of the Summers living room “I’ve agreed to do this but I will not let it ruin my life. I’ve worked hard to get here Giles, sacrificed…” she paused visibly collecting herself “this is not going to spoil anything, everything is going to be perfect.”

With that she was gone storming out of the house.

……..

“And Dru?” Spikes asked carefully

“I’m sorry” Sincere regret and sympathy filled Marcus’ honeyed voice “She… after knocking you out the Slayer burned the church to the ground. Neither of you made it.”

Spike took a slow calming breath, he remembered that day well he had Angel, he had the Dulac cross, he had the translation of the ritual that would heal his dark princess, he was so close, and then the Slayer. Damn her to hell! She would pay for this, for killing him, for taking his queen away from him, God, but how she would pay.

“So why’d you bring me back?” the inevitable question

“I have plans, Spike, plans that I would rather not have Buffy Summers meddling in” he leaned forward conspiratorially “I rather assumed that you could deal with that, keep here out of my way, and if you do then maybe my Shaman could… well you understand” sitting back he observed as the vampire swallowed the bait

“Oh I’ll keep her out of the way, in the ground! You just make sure your man has enough
Juice to get me my girl back, deal?”

“One moment” Marcus smiled coolly before drawing the raven-haired vampire that had been observing their conversation aside. “Beatrice, my love. What do you see?”

She smiled coyly at him looking up through her lashes “His hatred is like a fine wine, I feel quite drunk.”

“We can trust him then?”

“Not at all. But he’ll find her out. She’ll cry then, pretty Slayer tears.” Beatrice tilted her head slightly her eyes glazing over “End this life of hers he will, shatter it all to little pieces”

“Perfect. Solomon open the cage, and find our friend something to wear” He cocked and eyebrow in amusement at his own thoughts “He has a lady to impress”
……

“This is nice.” Remarked Buffy smiling and adjusting her sunglasses

“Hmmm… Yes I love eating al fresco” Richard agreed contentedly “reminds me of travelling round Europe”

“I know what you mean, Dawn and I spent some time in France and Italy after the earthquake, everything seemed so relaxed out there. Like you had all the time in the world”

“Yeah, but we Americans unfortunately do not. Come on, we better move or we’ll be late” he threw a generous payment on the table and offered her his arm.

“Alrighty, show me the flowers”

….

“It really is quite remiss of Buffy you know” Giles griped, “She doesn’t seem to have grasped the gravity of the situation at all.”

“She’s just trying to deal, you know she didn’t think she’d have to do this again” As usual Willow was there to defend her best friend. “She just needs a bit of time to readjust that’s all”

“Time we may not have Willow” Giles sighed loudly and removed his spectacles

“She seems a bit, I don’t know, did anyone she was acting a bit odd?” Dawn smile slightly, trust Xander, perceptive ineloquent Xander to be the one to ask.

“She’s been like this for years” she answered aware of the bitterness in her voice “She’s a big faker, living her pretend normal life, pretending to like it. With her fake job and her stupid fake fiancée”

“Dawn, that’s not…” Willow began

“Ok” Dawn relented “maybe the job isn’t a fake but everything else. She’s a Slayer and she goes around pretending like she’s Mrs Joe Normal. Willow could you give up magic?”

“Well, err, no Dawnie I couldn’t. It’s part of who I am. I couldn’t just turn it off, it would be like asking me to stop being Jewish or being gay.”

Dawn smiled at that explanation. “Right” she ploughed on “witchcraft is who you are not what you do. It’s the same with Buffy, I think, she can’t just stop slaying without the whole thing being a lie. And she’s been lying now for so long, I don’t think she knows how to stop”

“I’m not sure about that Dawn” it was Angel who questioned Dawns notion “All Buffy ever wanted was a normal life. And why would she pretend, she had the opportunity to carry on being part of the Slayer life with Giles and the new council”

“Because she think she owes it to him”

“To who?” Giles asked genuinely confused

“Oh don’t be obtuse Giles!” Dawn’s exclamation startled the entire room “Who has everything Buffy’s done since she came back from the dead been about?”

“Spike” Angel said the name softly, his voice a mixture of so many emotions it was impossible to pick one out. His mind reeled, was Dawn right, had Spike been the driving force in Buffy’s life all this time ‘he’s in my heart’ he remembered her confession before the final battle in Sunnydale. Was her picture perfect life really an epitaph to Spike’s sacrifice?

“That’s ridiculous Dawn.” Willow rejected the idea “She cared about him and she’s grateful that he saved the world and all but…”

“He didn’t” All eyes turned to Xander

“Yeah he did Xan! Remember, amulet, big fiery death, Sunnydale just a big ole hole in the ground. God you people still won’t give him the tiniest bit of credit will you even after everything he did for all of us” Dawn knew that she was directing her own guilt at not having made here peace with Spike into anger at Xander, but it made her so mad, at least she could admit she’d been wrong.

“No Dawn. I mean he didn’t die to save the world. Not really his style. He died to save Buffy, and you, and Willow, and though I hate to admit it probably even to save me. But not the world.” He paused then and a fond smile graced his lips “He and Anya where pretty similar in the end, they weren’t hero’s going out to keep the world save for all those faceless innocents, they where just good people trying to protect the people they cared about.”

The room fell silent then and Dawn felt tears pricking her eyes, she move toward him and Xander opened his arms wordlessly to welcome her small frame into his strong comforting embrace.

……

Spike left Marcus’ lair with only the clothes he stood in and the name of a town, he needed nothing else.

He stole the first decent looking car he found, forcing the terrified driver out with a snarling glimpse of his demon face. He hadn’t killed the driver, no particular reason for that, just that she’d been a bit old for his tastes and he’d drunk several bags of A positive while in the comfort of Marcus’ cage.

He hadn’t liked Marcus, hadn’t liked his pretentious lair or his fake sincerity, but it didn’t matter, he was back from the great beyond, eleven years after the Slayer had sent him there. He was back and he was out for blood, Slayer blood to be precise, and he was only hours away.





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