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Reunions / Part 25

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When Spike ran from the room, Buffy didn’t know what to do. Joy had brought her to the little room hours earlier and told her inside her mind that if she wanted to learn the truth about *Father* she would have to remain in the room and not make any noise no matter what she saw or heard. Buffy had agreed without hesitation. She had sat in the room for over two hours waiting for Spike to arrive and then listened to him and Dawn crying together and trying to sooth each other. The love and trust she had felt them share had nearly overwhelmed her in it’s intensity. When Spike started telling Dawn what he believed to be the truth about Buffy and her feelings for him it had torn her heart. By the time he finished his version of the truth Buffy felt her heart was in ribbons.

Buffy had been crushed earlier in the evening when she had told Spike that she loved him in front of everyone and he had denied her love and walked away from her. She knew that she loved Spike and had loved him long before the destruction of the Hellmouth. But she also knew that Spike could have a thousand reasons not to believe her, because she had never told him so until right before his death. That he had denied her love even then had haunted her dreams for eight years. Now that she knew what he had believed to be true all these years she could understand his denial of her statement of love for him. But what really scared her was she didn’t know how she was going to convince him that she was in love with him. How was she going to make him understand that there was another side of the truth, her side.

Buffys first inclination was to chase after Spike and make him listen to her and believe that she truly did love him. But as she started to take her first step to follow him, Joy touched her arm and stopped her. Inside her head she clearly heard Joy speak to her. *Sister needs you now. Father is to upset to talk or listen to anyone at this time. I will take you to him when the time is right.*

For a moment indecision still gripped Buffy until she looked down and saw Dawn curled on the floor crying. She walked to Dawns side and kneeling down on the floor wrapped her arms around her sister and hugged her tightly. “Dawn. Dawnie, it’s going to be alright. Shhh, it’s okay, it’s okay, everything’s going to be okay.”

Dawn rolled in Buffys arms so that she could look up at her. She had tears streaming down her face and could barely speak. “Ho.. how ca.. can it b.. be okay Buffy? He do.. doesn’t believe yo.. you love him. How can i.. it be okay?” It was at this moment that Dawn realizes something else and her eye grew large with shock and pain. “Buffy, he thinks I lied to him, that I betrayed his trust. I didn’t know you were here, but he’ll never believe me!” Dawn rolled back over and buried her face in her hands and cried even harder than before. Buffy tried to calm and sooth Dawn again, “I’ll tell him the truth Dawnie, I promise. Spike may not believe I love him, but I’ll make him believe you didn’t know I was here, I promise.”

The most difficult part of calming Dawn down and stopping her crying was that Buffy herself was crying most of this time too. When ever one or the other of them looked at the other and saw how much pain the other was feeling it just set them both off crying again. They may have lain there on the floor all night crying in each others arms if Joy had not finally come up to them and laying her hands on both of their heads calmed their emotional turmoil and allowed them to stop crying at last. Once the crying was over and both Buffy and Dawn were able to get up off the floor and stand, Joy led them back to the upper level warehouse were everyone else had been waiting for hours.

When they entered the upper level warehouse where everyone else was gathered Buffy noticed immediately that everyone was divided off into two groups. All of the Slayers, Witches, Watchers, Angel, Nina, Xander and Robin were gathered around the SUV’s they had come in to Spikes place. All of Spikes children, even the youngest, were gathered as a group, spread out in a crescent, blocking entrance to the passage ways that would have led to the living areas of the children and Spike. On one side of the room small glow balls were floating in the air to provide light. The other side of the room had no lights at all, the children sat or stood in the shadows. On one side most of the people sat on the floor or in the SUV‘s, while a few paced nervously. On the other side, children held weapons in their hands, even the youngest, waiting, but determined to let no one pass.

As they came up from behind, the younger children who were at the back of their group noticed them first and let the others know they were coming. The children parted silently and let Joy lead Dawn and Buffy through the middle of their group then closed rank after they had passed. Buffy saw that a number of Slayers that had been sitting on the floor or in the SUV’s were getting to their feet. Others who had been standing or pacing started moving toward her and Dawn. Joy had stopped walking with them when they neared their friends.

The first to get to Buffy and Dawn were Giles and Willow, with Xander, Faith and Robin right behind them. “Buffy, Dawn, are you alright?” Giles asked anxiously. Both Dawn and Buffys cloths were smeared with dust from lying on the floor, their eyes were red and puffy from crying and tear streaks showed clearly on their faces. Willow didn’t ask, she just rushed up to both of them and threw her arms around them and hugged them both. “We’ve been worried frantic, you’ve been gone for hours” Giles continued as he too finally was close enough to embrace both girls and be sure they were unharmed. “These children wouldn’t let us search for you. That girl” Giles pointed at a tall thin girl with long straight blonde hair, “told us you were safe, but if we tried to leave this area we would have to fight them.”

“Yeah, what’s with these kids, B” Faith asked in almost a whisper as she to approached Buffy and laid one hand on her arm, as if to assure herself that Buffy really was okay? “The other night we were all friendly like and now even the half-pints have got weapons and want to rumble with us.”

Dawn spoke up before Buffy could. “It’s okay guys, they were just trying to protect Spike, that‘s all.”

“Why would they think they need to protect Spike” Willow asked incredulously? “We’ve been coming here for days and they haven’t been afraid of us before.”

“Well for one thing” Buffy said with a rasp in her voice from all her previous crying, “there’s over forty of us this time. Were all carrying weapons, more or less, and Spike. Well, um, he’s, ah, kind of upset, and ah, not with them right now” she finished lamely.

“Buffy” Giles asked tentatively “where is Spike, right now, I mean?”

“I’m not sure” Buffy responded as a tear ran down her cheek from her right eye. “Joy said she will take me to him when he’s ready to talk to me.”

“Did you say Joy told you” Giles asked with a puzzled look on his face? “Do you mean she actually does talk, I didn’t understand that to be the case.”

“No, she just does it inside your head, that’s all” Buffy responded without thinking about it.

“You mean in sentences” Willow asked, her eyes wide open is surprise, “not just words or feelings?”

“Yeah, words, sentences, paragraphs, exclamation points and periods, all of it” Buffy replied with a puzzled tone in her voice. “What are you getting at?”

“Buffy” Willow said “Dawn and I have been trying to talk to Joy for days. I mean she seems to understand whatever we say, but all I ever get, besides whistles and chirps, are one or two words at a time, inside my head, and sometimes I get feelings. Dawn told me she gets the same thing.”

Buffy looked over at Dawn and she nodded her head in agreement. “Well I wouldn’t call her a chatterbox or anything, but yeah, conversation, we just talk.”

“Do you talk to her out loud or inside your head” Willow asked, getting excited?

Buffy thought about it for a moment, shrugged her shoulders and replied “Both, sort of depended what we were saying or if I needed to be quiet. It was just like we did, you, me and Xander, before I fought the Turok-Han.”

While the small group of Giles, Willow, Xander, Faith and Robin had gathered around Buffy, the rest of their group had all moved closer to her too. Including Angel in his wheelchair, being pushed by Nina and Connor at her side.

The children on the other hand had all gathered behind Joy in silence. She was making whistles, coos and clicks with her tongue and motioning with her hands. Whatever she was saying seemed to be enough because the children seemed to be relaxing their guard. In fact, some of the middle aged children started leading the younger ones back toward their living area.

Before anyone noticed that she was there, Joy was at Buffys side and took Buffys hand into hers. Buffy looked down at her and smiled, then knelt down so they were eye to eye. *The young ones will be fed and sleep now* Joy said inside Buffys head. *Friends will be coming soon. We would not want your friends to hurt our friends. Some of them are different from your friends, but they will not harm any of you. They will be coming through the sewers. Will you ask your friends not to harm them?*

Buffy smiled at Joy and nodded her head, she then stood up and called out in a voice loud enough for all to hear “Okay everybody, listen up.”

***

Buffy explained to everyone that friends of Spike and the children would start arriving soon and that everyone needed to be careful not to harm or offend them. It was also agreed that all the SUV’s would be moved to a far side of the open warehouse to get them out of the middle of the area that would be used later for the meeting/conference/party that would be held later. Willow and the other three witches went around the room and floated more glow balls into the air to light up the big room more evenly. Some of the children using push brooms started sweeping the central area of the warehouse floor. The van that Willow, and by extension Giles, had purchased for Spike earlier in the week was driven into the warehouse and some of the children started unloading boxes and bags. The slayers, seeing what the children were doing joined in on the clean up and unloaded food and soft drinks that they had brought along with them from the SUV’s.

Two hours before sun rise, on a signal from the tall blonde girl that had seemed to be in charge of the children earlier, two of the older boys opened a large sliding door to one side of the warehouse and an old school bus was driven inside. As Buffy and the rest of her group watched, fifteen people got off the bus and were greeted enthusiastically by Joy and the other children. All of the people on the bus were adults and as each dismounted from the bus they were carrying large wrapped boxes and bags decorated with bows and ribbons. Joy was trilling like a song bird as she rushed from person to person giving them all hugs and kisses that were returned with equal enthusiasm. As each adult finished their greetings to Joy the other children mobbed them with hugs and kisses too.

One of the women that got off the bus seemed somehow familiar to Buffy. She was thin with long blond hair and looked to be in her early to mid thirties. When Joy took her hand and started leading her toward Buffy and the rest of her group, Buffy realized who the woman was coming toward her. It had been nearly thirteen years since the last time they had seen each other and nearly that long since the last time Buffy had even thought about her or even wondered if she was still alive.

As the woman stopped in front of her Buffy dug franticly for her name until it came, “Lilly” she asked tentatively?

“It’s Anne now, remember? I took your name so that I could be brave like you are Buffy” Anne replied with a smile as she reached out and took Buffys hand into hers. “I’ve needed to be strong at times over the years and when ever I did, I thought about you.”

Buffy stood there for a few moments then wrapped her arms around Anne and gave her a hug. Anne was returning the hug to Buffy when suddenly she went stiff in Buffys arms. Buffy, not understanding why, took a half step back to look at Anne’s face and saw that Anne was looking past Buffy and that her eyes were wide open, as if in shock. When Buffy looked over her shoulder she saw that Angel had come forward in his wheelchair and that it was him that Anne was looking toward. As she watched she saw tears form in Anne’s eyes and one ran down her cheek. When Anne let go of Buffy and stepped around her, Buffy let her go.

“Hello Angel” Anne said quietly as another tear ran down her cheek. “We all thought you were dead.”

Angel grimaced, then replied in a choked voice “Hello Anne.”

“Does Spike know you’re here” she asked in a still quiet voice as more tears ran down her face.

Angel grimaced again before speaking, “He knows, but we haven’t talked yet. He hasn’t been around much since I got here.”

“Don’t hurt him Angel” Anne replied as she wiped her tears away with the back of her hand. “He’s got enough pain to live with, he doesn’t need more from you.”

Angel seemed shocked by Anne’s words. “I’m not here to hurt Spike, Anne. That’s the last thing I’d want to do. I came here to tell him I’m sorry. I thought he was dead with everyone else. I thought I was the only one that survived, I didn’t know. I was nearly killed” Angel slapped the arm rest of his wheelchair “and by the time I healed up there wasn’t any way I could come back and do anyone any good.”

“That’s not much of an excuse Angel” Anne said, with all trace of warmth gone from her voice. “You use to have a lot of friends in this city. When we thought you were dead we grieved for you, we missed you. In seven years you could have picked up a phone just once and called someone to say you were still alive.” Before Angel could respond to what she had just said, Anne turned her back on him and walked away to rejoin her friends. As she walked away it occurred to Buffy that the tears that Anne had been shedding hadn’t been for Angel at all, they had been for Spike. Buffy wondered what kind of relationship Anne and Spike had together for her to know so much about his pain.

Everyone was still standing around after Anne had walked away not knowing what to say to each other. Angel looked as if he had been hit between the eyes with a club, his head was bowed and he looked in pain. Nina was behind him with her hands resting on his shoulders as she bent over and whispered to him quietly. Connor stood next to the wheelchair quietly but with his hands doubled up into fists. When he finally relaxed his hands he placed one hand on Angels shoulder and gave it a light squeeze. Angel looked up at him with gratitude and made a half smile up at him.

Because of the hush that had fallen over their group, when there was a loud crash from the far back of the warehouse where there wasn’t any light, everyone was equally startled. When the crash was followed by a loud roar that sounded like an enraged lion, all of the Slayers went immediately to defensive positions and those with weapons moved to the front. But as Buffy and the other Slayers looked around none of the children or any of the other visitors seemed to be worried or concerned, which was more than a little puzzling.

When they finally made out some motion moving through the dark toward the light there was another loud roar and one of the biggest demons that Buffy had ever seen stepped out into the light of the floating glow balls. He was at least eight foot tall or close enough to not really matter and had massive shoulders five feet wide. It’s arms were long and massive with overdeveloped muscles and it’s legs looked like tree trunks except where they narrowed down into heavy boots. It’s hands were huge and appeared to have heavy claws meant to be used for ripping and tearing. It had a huge main of red hair that covered it’s whole head and flowed down it’s back. It’s face resembled a lions face with a protruding muzzle, a heavy tongue that was visible and it had long fangs. It’s eyes were a bright yellow. It’s skin coloring was a dark beige and it was only wearing for clothing the heavy boots, a dark green loincloth and heavy leather bracers on it’s wrists and forearms. When it came into full view it resembled more than anything else a giant lion that walked on it’s hind legs. The monster raised itself up to it’s full height with it’s arms raised and out to its sides and tilting it’s head back let out a roar that seemed to shake the whole building as if it were a challenge.

Buffy had raised one hand to keep the slayers from attacking, mainly because she saw several of the adults and older children smiling and waving at the monster. Before anyone could do anything Joy was in front of everyone making a roaring sound of her own, that sounded a lot like a kitten, and was charging toward the monster all alone. When she was still fifteen feet away she launched herself up into the air straight at the monster with her arms spread wide. The monster caught her in it’s huge hands and fell backward onto it’s back and laid there with it’s arms out wide to it’s sides. Joy was sprawled across it’s chest, holding on to it’s hair and making growling sounds, which ended in giggles when she wrapped her arms around it’s neck and started raining kisses all over it’s face. The amount of surprise that Buffy and all the rest in her group was feeling at what had just taken place was only compounded when a half dozen of the smallest of Spike’s children came running around a corner making growling noises and rushing up to Joy and the monster on the floor where they all piled on top of the monsters arms and legs to pin it to the ground. The monster roared and fought against being pinned to the floor to no avail and finally relaxed and admitted defeat. All of the children raised their heads and made loud growling sounds of victory. When the monster then sat up they were all over him with hugs and kisses and the monster was laughing and kissing them all in return.

A half dozen of the older children and some of the visiting adults walked over to the laughing monster and stood around him smiling as he played with the smallest of the children. The laughing, kissing and lack of fear shown by all of the children and the other visiting adults put Buffy and the other slayers at ease. This demon was obviously one of the friends that Joy had mentioned earlier and asked Buffy not to let be harmed. A crooked smile passed over Buffys lips as the thought went through her mind that she was so grateful that whoever this demon was that he was a friend. Because she so didn’t want to have to ever meet a demon as big as him that wasn’t friendly.

As Buffy watched, the demon gently plucked off the smaller children that were hanging on to various parts of his massive body and set them on their feet. He then slowly got to his feet, making sure he didn’t step on anyone. Once on his feet he took a step toward the adults and made a half bow toward them. Anne, who was among the adults, made a half bow toward him and then stepped up to him and wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged herself against him. The demon placed one huge hand against her back and the other gently caressed her head as he smiled down at her and spoke in a deep rumbling voice. “Little Sister, it is good to see you again. Long has it been since you have been to the caverns of the Hool-Mar, we have missed you.”

Buffy could not make out the words that Anne replied to the demon because of distance, but she heard his response. “I thank you for your words of greeting and for the joy of meeting the young ones in combat, even though they defeated me again.” At these words the youngest of the children started giggling and smiling. “I had hoped my Brother would let me face less ferocious opponents this time and give me a fair chance to win.” One of the little boys threw back his head and started growling and soon all of the little one were doing the same.

Whatever Anne said to the demon was covered up by the noise of the children, but when he spoke his words were clear enough to hear. “You do not know where he is? It is not like my Brother to miss the arrival of the High Priest.” Anne spoke to him again and when she finished the demon turned his head toward Buffy and the large group of slayers at her back. Before he spoke the demon released his gentle hold on Anne and straightened up to his full height, his lips pulled back and exposed his fighting fangs fully. His eyes narrowed, his chest swelled from taking in a large breath of air and the tension in the muscles of his arms and legs made them even more pronounced than before, he looked as if he were preparing himself to attack an enemy. “Are they a danger to the Clan? I will not let the High Priest walk into a trap.”

Again, as if seeming to appear from nowhere, Joy was at the side of the demon and reaching up she wrapped her small fingers around one of the clawed fingers of one of his hands. As the demon looked down at Joy everyone could see the tension leaving his body as he knelt down on one knee and bent his head toward her. For long moments he knelt there as if listening closely to someone talking to him quietly. Several times he glanced over at Buffys group, and seemingly at her specifically. Finally he nodded his head to Joy as if accepting or agreeing to something, he then stood up to his full height and with Joy still holding on to his finger he slowly walked toward Buffy.

When the demon stopped in front of Buffy with about six feet between them, Faith had moved up to one side of her and Willow had moved up to the other side. Faith did not have a weapon in her hand, but there was a long knife in her belt. Willow also seemed unarmed, but she held a short silver tube in one hand behind her back. All of the other slayers and witches seemed to be relaxed, but Buffy knew that they were ready to help her if needed.

The demon let Joy continue to hold onto his one hand, but raising the other out to his side with his claws extended, he tilted his head back and made a loud roar that reverberated through out the whole warehouse. He then looked down at Buffy and spoke to her in a deep rumbling voice that made her whole body vibrate. “I am Kar-Hool, Champion of the Hool-Mar Clan. The Child of Light tells me that you are the Champion of your Clan. This is true?”

Buffy squared her shoulders and spoke loud enough for all to hear. “I am Buffy, The Vampire Slayer. We do not call ourselves a Clan, but I am the leader of my group. This is true.”

Kar-Hool glanced down at Joy, then spoke again. “The Vampire Slayer is known through out demon kind, it is a name to be feared. But it is not just vampires that have reason to fear you. The Child says that you are here in peace and that my Clan is not endangered by your presence. This is true?”

Buffy glanced at Joy and saw that she was smiling up at her, then looked up at Kar-Hool. “We are invited guest to the home of Spike and his children. We have come in peace and will offer no harm to anyone, human or demon, that also comes in peace. You have my word.”

Kar-Hool bowed as he spoke “You have the word of Kar-Hool and the Hool-Mar Clan that we come here as invited friends and in peace. No member of my Clan will offer harm to any member of your Clan.”

Buffy understood instinctively that this was a formal declaration of peace. She bowed herself and said to Kar-Hool “It is agreed, there will be peace between us.”

Kar-Hool bowed again “It is agreed.”

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