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many thanks as always to those kind enough to review. it really makes my day.
Xander watched as Willow made her way though the stacks of Orbs, reaching for those she could name. Giles and Morty were sticking post-it notes onto the Orbs with the names of the girls they knew, but it was so few. Buffy, Dawn and Joyce had gone off for a quiet chat and Spike and Angel were both brooding over the fact that Morty seemed to be a good guy now.

‘You sure we can’t try and kill him?’ asked Spike. Angel growled. ‘I think both Buffy and Dawn would have us if we tried. I don’t like the idea of him around any more than you do William, but he’s the Slayer’s friend and I for one don’t want my ass whooping in public. It gets embarrassing when a slip of a girl shoves a stake through you and you know the only reason you’re not dust is that she chose to use a plastic one rather than a wooden one.’

‘Know how you feel; but- The Immortal, and you sure we can’t just sort of accidentally break his neck?’

‘It wouldn’t do any good, wouldn’t kill me anyway,’ the man in question told them. ‘The name isn’t just for show, it’s real. There is no way to kill me until my job is done.’

‘And what’s that?’ Asked Spike hopefully.

‘None of your business.’ The Immortal One answered with a smile. ‘Now come and help, you might recognise some of these poor souls.’

Charles was trying to talk to the Orbs and listen if there was a reply. But even with preternatural hearing there was nothing he could make out.

‘What should we do, guess at the names and hope that all the ‘Janes’ step forward together?’

‘I don’t think that would work,’ said Giles. ‘It’s a great pity that all those records held by the council were destroyed. They had all the old watcher’s diaries, they would have had the slayer’s names in them.’

‘Well we know some. Those that fought at Sunnyhell,’ Spike pointed out.

‘Those are the ones that Willow is working through at the moment. Amy, Emma and anyone else we can think of.’ Xander told him. ‘But it still leaves about seven hundred plus that we simply have no idea of, and we don’t have much time. Travers can only be held for another two hours at most. Willow says the freeing spell is simple and quick and she’s belting through them as fast as she can, but we need names.’

‘I know one,’ said Buffy, coming back into the room. ‘I know the name of the slayer before me; what if she knew the slayer before her, we could follow the line that way, slayer to slayer.’

Dawn had followed her in. ‘Joyce had to leave for a while, said we were needed here’ she explained.

‘Who was the slayer before you?’ Spike asked quietly.

‘Her name was Louise and she was from France,’ Buffy replied.

Rachael tried something. ‘Louise’s Orb, come to me,’ as she concentrated hard on the piles of orbs in front of her. One started moving by itself. Xander lunged for it before it fell from the table and rushed it across to Willow in the circle.

‘I didn’t know you knew magic.’ Giles said to Rachael.

‘Willow taught me a few party tricks that’s all, nothing big.’

‘Well, well done.’ Giles told her.

Xander hurried back to them. ‘It worked, and the next slayer is Maryanne from America,’ he said panting. ‘This is going to keep us fit if we have to run back and forward the whole time.’

Spike looked up at Giles. ‘I suggest we get everyone in here, give them a group of Orbs and share the running around.’

‘Good thought,’ Giles said and went off, calling for the slayerettes as he did so. It didn’t take long for the room to become full of willing help. Dawn, Giles and Marcus went into the Circle Room with Willow, taking notes on anything the slayerettes wanted to tell them before the girls went through the portal Dawn had opened. The Tapes were becoming full of notes on demons, and just what Travers had been up to for all those years. The girls he had sold into slavery, the deals he’d made with Wolfram and Hart, the slayers he had betrayed, the people he’d killed on the watchers’ council when they’d gotten too close to the truth. It would take them months to sort through it all.

Meanwhile Rachael called again. This time Marcus was closest and took the orb through. And so it continued for a good five minutes: Rachael would call the name and one of the slayerettes would grab the Orb and take it to Willow. It was then that Nikki Woods’ name was called. Xander took that one through. He looked at the Orb. It hit him worse with this one, the cruelty of Travers to hold Slayers Souls captive for all the years just to use as an energy source for his magic. He handed the Orb across to Willow. She held on to Nikki Wood’s for a couple of seconds before starting to chant.

‘Stop!’ Yelled Xander. Willow looked at him in surprise.

‘Why, Xander?’

‘Robin Wood, could you get him here fast? So he can say goodbye to his Mum?’

‘I could,’ Dawn pointed out. ‘I could open a doorway here and now straight to where he was and bring him back.’

‘Do it,’ said Buffy’s voice from the door, ‘do it to him and Faith. Nikki deserves to meet her daughter -in -law as well. I’ll go with you and explain; the rest of you can take a break. I’m sure Willow needs one by now.

‘Xander, can you see they are all fed and watered?’

‘Yes Ma’am!’ he snapped off a perfect salute and did an about turn to the kitchens.

Dawn reached for her athame and made a small cut on the inside of her wrist and held the blood to the doorway into a cupboard.

Spike smiled. His Niblet was a crafty one. No-one could go through there by mistake.

‘Faith,’ she said, hoping that a name would mean as much to the magic as a place would. The glowing doorway suggested it had worked. Buffy stuck her head through the glow to be greeted by the sight of Faith and Robin sitting on a couch smooching.

‘Cut it out you two,’ she said, ‘you’ve got visitors.’

Faith jumped up stake in hand and turned to face the intruder. Robin grabbed a crossbow from the table with one smooth move and covered the glowing arch.

‘B?’ Faith managed to say as she recognised the head poking through the obviously magical doorway. ‘Way to go girl, you nearly lost your head scaring us like that.’

‘Sorry, but we thought that you and Robin might like to pop over to Rome for ten minutes. Dawn opens up these neat doorways and it makes travelling easier.’

‘Any reason we should?’ Robin asked. It wasn’t like Buffy to waste magic so something must be up.

Buffy looked at the powerful man. She suddenly realised that maybe her coming wasn’t a good idea. She was going to have to break the news of what Travers had done to Nikki: she hadn’t thought that far ahead. Damn.

‘Can I come in?’ she asked. Faith nodded as she lowered her weapon. Robin put the crossbow down on the table where he’d originally got it.
‘Coffee?’ he offered as Buffy sat down.

She nodded and took a deep breath. Why hadn’t she let Spike do this bit? Oh yes, he and Robin Wood were enemies, and she was the head slayer. She felt like giving that title up again.

Buffy took a deep breath for the second time. Faith knew that whatever had forced her to come to them was bad, she had never seen Buffy like this before.

‘Whatever it is B, spit it out, you’re not doing this pregnant lady’s blood pressure any good ,girl.’

Buffy gratefully took the coffee from Robin, took yet another deep breath and began to explain.

‘We met a group of immortal slayers and their mates, and their mates were all master vampires. They are called The Covenent. They work at maintaining the balance between good and evil in the world. They work at destroying demons who hurt others as well as helping demons like Clem- you remember Clem?- to live a safe life. They have been working for centuries to get rid of a powerful Warlock. One that has used Black magic of the most evil kind to lengthen his life and bring him power.’
She stopped and took a sip of her coffee and looked at Faith and Robin.

‘It’s Travers, head of council Travers. He is alive and well, and has been for about 700 years. He’s the warlock. He has been killing off Slayers early and using their spare life force to bolster his own. He then uses their souls trapped in Orbs of Thesula to power his magic. All the slayers that have died in the last 700 years have been captured.’ Buffy looked straight at Robin.

‘All of them, Robin.’

Before it could sink in she continued, ‘We’ve found a way to free them and are back as far as the 70’s. But before we freed the next one Xander, well we all thought, but Xander said, so we thought, if you wanted, but only if you wanted…’

‘B you’re sounding like Willow, spit it out!’

‘Your Mom, she’s next, you see we can talk to the spirits once they’re free, just for a minute or so, and we thought you’d like to say goodbye.’

Robin looked stunned, he couldn’t believe that the head of the council had been so evil, his mother had fought and died for them.

‘Are you coming, only we have to get the name of the next slayer from Nikki so we can keep freeing them. Travers will break out of the prison circle soon and we desperately need to control him. We’ve gone through over thirty slayers so far but there’s hundreds more to do.’

Faith grabbed Robin’s hand and led the way to the shining doorway. ‘Do we just walk through?’

‘Yep. Spike’s on the other side though, along with a couple of other vampires, and Xander,’ but Buffy found she was talking to thin air. Faith and Robin were gone.





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