Buffy rubbed her eyes and yawned “Please tell me someone has something” she begged, allowing her head to fall forward onto the dusty tome Giles had her reading.
“’Fraid not” Willow replied despondently “All we know is what we knew four hours ago. Marcus, very old, made a name for himself during the Napoleonic wars killing French troops in Spain. Disappeared in the early twenties, not seen again till he reappeared three months ago in Sudan with a Pick ‘n’ Mix army of Demons.”
“But now you think he’s here?” Buffy asked Giles.
“Demon informants claim he has come to America yes, but not before his followers made those attacks on the Slayers” Giles sighed, suddenly feeling very old and rather helpless.
“And what are the Slayers doing now?”
“They have formed four tactical groups, Europe, Africa, Australasia and Americas” Giles explained “As many as can be tracked down and as are willing have gathered together into these camps, each camp has between two and three hundred slayers”
“Wow” Buffy looked startled “that’s a lot of Slayers, I didn’t know you had found so many”
“Yeah we got more Slayers than we know what to do with” Xander commented.
“We?” Buffy frowned at her friend
“Ah yes, Xander has been involved in fieldwork for the council for several years now” It was Giles who came forward with an explanation. “He’s very talented at putting new and frightened girls at ease, he’s helped more than one that I fear we would otherwise have lost”
“Oh” was all Buffy could think to say, was she really so out of touch with the people and things that had once meant the world to her?
“Ah ha!” Willow exclaimed, her attention riveted on her laptop
There was a long pause while the group waited for an explanation from the red head
“Er, Willow?” Angel prompted
“Oh sorry, I’ve found something on what Marcus has been up to for the last century” she looked up “He’s been canvassing”
“Eh? Like a politician?” Buffy asked giving her friend a doubtful look
“I think so, it’s not definite, but I’ve found a number of reports of delegations from various demon clans meeting a mystery someone. Same MO every time eww…” Willow broke off with a disgusted expression on her face.
“What?”
“Oh sorry, there’s a ritual, blood sacrifice. There are pictures”
“Ugh! Won’t be looking at those. So we got that he’s recruiting” Buffy surmised “But we still have no handle on where any of this is going down.
“Again our information is sketchy at best” Giles informed them “But some of our people have been plotting some interesting trends in demon sightings and kill reports. The pattern does suggest a general movement of several demon groups towards north eastern America”
“Cleveland?” Angel asked
“Faith and the others report no extra demon activity in the area. We have considered moving the Americas slayer group to that area to offer support” Giles supplied
“Seems logical” Xander responded, “If bad shits going down, then I’ll take any odds it’s going down at the USA premier Halloween theme park”
“Gotta agreed with Xan on this one. It’s always the hellmouth” Buffy said nodding
“Very well I’ll give the order, perhaps it would be best if we based the entire operation there” Giles suggested with faux casualness.
“What!” Buffy was on her feet defiance rippling through her body “You want me to go to Cleveland? Ah ah, no way!”
“It would only be for a short time Buffy” Giles spoke calmly holding up a placating hand “there is no way you can lead the fight from here”
“Again I say, no way!” Buffy’s resolve was obvious in the tone of her voice and set of her jaw “I will not leave my job, I will not leave my home and I will not leave my fiancée this close to the wedding. I told you Giles I’m not giving up my life”
…….
Spike cruised into the typical Californian town a little before dawn, he considered trying to fine someone to eat before holding up for the day, the motel clerk had been a tasty looking thing, dark haired and voluptuous, but he decided against it, not wanting to draw the Slayers attention to his presence before he was ready.
He lay back on the cheap motel blankets and puffed thoughtfully on his second to last Marlboro. He thought of his dark princess and her intoxicating madness, letting his mind conjure images of her, feeding, dancing beneath the stars, lying naked and breathless beneath him. He sighed his heart constricting painfully as he pictured her the last time he’d seen her, hanging limply alongside her sire, her glossy black hair falling back to reveal her beautiful face.
Stumping out his cigarette he let himself relive that fateful night. He seemed to remember there being two slayers, but that couldn’t be right. There had been Buffy all smart mouthed and feisty, but there had also been another, grim faced and clinical, he’d have to find out what that was all about. Maybe he’d ask Buffy before he killed her.
He stopped himself abruptly, he had just thought of the Slayer as Buffy, twice. Odd. Maybe the trip back from the dead was messing with his head. He stood and stripped gracefully before wandering toward the bathroom. Looking around the brightly lit tiled room he felt a strange sense of unease, almost akin to regret. Something tugged unnervingly at his consciousness as he regarded the pale shower curtain.
Physically shaking himself he turned on the water “Get a grip mate” he muttered before stepping into the scalding spray.
…….
“So your friends are still in town?” Richard asked her the next evening as they ate dinner together at the very expensive La Maison “You’ve been very busy with them these last few days”
“Yeah well you know it’s good to catch up, haven’t seen Angel and Xander in years.” She looked wistful then her hazel eyes unfocused.
Richard drew a deep breath, as good a time as any to try and learn something, anything about Buffy, beyond her taste in food and music. “You never really mentioned them much, I take it you’re all friends from back in Sunnydale?” please Buffy, please just share something with me.
He could see her closing up, steel walls slamming up around her, his fortress Buffy. “Not much to tell, the usual you know”
“No sweetie I don’t you never told me. Did you all go to high school together you’re all about the same age, right?”
“Yeah, right. Ooh shall we get another bottle of Merlot or do you fancy a change?” Bright smile. Conversation over.
Richard sighed, no point pushing, Buffy was as difficult to pin down as an eel when she chose to be. “Whichever you want, have you decided on the menu for the reception yet?”
……
Spike watched her eating out at a fancy restaurant with her obviously wealthy fella. She looked good, she had lost the puppy fat while he’d been dead, but her hair was still long and impossibly shiny cascading over her slim shoulders. He’d never seen a Slayer this old before, wondered if there had ever been one. She must have been even more extraordinary than he gave her credit for to break the twenty-five year barrier.
Again he stopped himself, no it was okay to admire her. She was a Slayer after all and they deserved respect. Comforted he contemplated his next move, he should formulate a plan really, she was obviously not going to be easily beaten. Maybe kidnap the poofy fancy man or stake out her house. All sounded a bit slow though, he wanted his revenge now, wanted her broken and bleeding at his feat. He thought of Drusilla again, he needed to do this right if that prat Marcus was going to bring her back to him.
He waited patiently for them to finished, he’d follow them home see where to go from there.
……
“Wow, what a night” Richard commented softly as he dropped her off at home
“Yeah” she responded in kind, as if anything more than hushed whispers would shatter the perfect tranquillity of the night.
“Night then, will I see you tomorrow?”
“Sorry, I have to work late, going over student files, I’ll see you Wednesday ok?”
Richard’s brow furrowed, Buffy never had to work late, and the exaggerated casualness with which she said it made an unwelcome current of suspicion run through his mind. Refocusing he saw her already halfway up her path, he sighed dejectedly and pulled away.
Buffy heard the car pull away just as she reached her front porch, she sighed, relieved that she had been able to escape any difficult questions about tomorrow. God it was hard she thought, trying to be a normal girl, it’d been hard enough before and now Giles had re-recruited her into the good fight it was exhausting.
Slumping down on the top step she took a deep calming breath and let her head fall into her hands. It would be fine she reassured herself, once Marcus was despatched she would marry Richard move into his perfect suburban house, cut her working hours to part time and have a son she would name William and a daughter named Joyce.
Another shaky sigh, she couldn’t do it, suddenly she felt panicked. She would get it wrong, her son would flunk out and wind up a junky, Richard would leave her for some bimbo secretary, or she’d loose her job, or her house and it would all be for nothing, all this work, all this sacrifice, it would be for nothing. Reaching into her pocket with a trembling hand she found it, smooth and cool between her fingers, slowly she felt her anxiety slipping away replaced by a new wave of resolve. She could do it and she would do it, because it was his gift to her. Smiling wistfully she brought the Zippo up and watched the porch light reflecting off its shiny surface as she turned it over in her hand.
“What ya doin’?”
Startled she guiltily shoved the lighter back in her pocket and turned to her sister “Oh nothing. Just enjoying the night”
Mercifully Dawn didn’t call her on the fib, just took a seat next to her and gazed out into the night. Buffy did the same letting Dawns quiet presence sooth her jangling nerves.
………
He wondered who the girl was. She was younger than Bu… the Slayer, with sleek brown hair, and big soulful eyes somehow his mind called her niblet and he frowned, she was hardly bitesized, much taller than the slayer with long slender legs crossed elegantly and a almost modelesque poise.
He shook his head it didn’t matter, he wasn’t here for the Slayer’s new best friend or her poncy boyfriend. He was here for her, to taste her blood and save his beloved Drusilla.
Suddenly the Slayer looked straight at him, he withdrew deeper into the shadow senses focused for any sign that she had seen him. Of course she hadn’t it was far too dark, he remained motionless for several moments until her attention turned to her companion, then he slipped away into the night.
………
“Buffy what is it?” Dawn asked curiously having been startled by the sudden movement of the Slayers head. She waited a beat, but her sister’s attention remained focused on a patch of shadow across the street. “Buffy?”
“What? Oh God sorry Dawn, I just thought I saw someone?”
“Buffy it’s pitch black what could you possibly see?”
“Well not see exactly” She paused deciding how best to explain. “Do you ever think you see someone, out of the corner of your eye, someone you couldn’t possibly have seen like mom or Anya? But somehow you’re so sure you saw them and it leave you feeling all funny?”
“Um Yeah. I guess, everyone does that sometimes” the brunette answered confused.
Buffy smiled at her gently “Well I just had the supernatural equivalent, thought I saw someone out off the corner of my slayer sense”
Dawn nodded her understanding and slipped an arm around her sister’s shoulder, offering comfort, there was no need to ask whom Buffy thought she had “seen”.
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