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Author's Chapter Notes:
yet again many many thanks to those that reviewed. it makes my day to receive them. hope you are still enjoying. not long to go now
Robin looked at his mother, he still couldn’t believe she was there.

‘It is you, isn’t it?’

‘Yes baby boy its me. You’ve grown so big and good looking, you look like your father; he was some man as well.’

Faith watched as mother and son walked over to a small couch and started talking. She felt like a spare wheel. She turned to see the vampire she had been introduced to bringing another Orb into the room and handing it to Willow.

Willow, who was still sitting inside the circle, said something in Latin, called a name and another girl appeared in a puff of smoke. Looked like some cheap Hollywood effect. But the girl was definitely there. Faith watched as the figure seemed to get more and more solid over a couple of seconds, Willow quietly murmuring something to the girl who answered just as quietly. Then Willow pointed at the shining doorway. The girl made her way towards the light as the vampire went back into the room with the Orbs, calling out a name as he went.

Willow stretched her back like a cat and reached for a bottle of water. ‘Hi Faith, long time no see,’ she said.

‘You got a moment to talk, Red? Robin’s having an open heart with his mom and its getting a bit sickly sweet for me.’

‘Yes, no problem, but just a couple of minutes though, they’ll be bringing me another Orb soon. We’re getting through about 50 an hour, but it’s taking too long. We need a way to speed up if we can: Travers will be out in about an hours time even with the progress we’re making.’

‘Progress?’

‘Yep, the Slayers all know the name of the slayer before them, so we can free them all but it’s taking too long. And all that time Travers is pulling energy from them like a battery, and with that he can just break free and then he says he’s going to kill us all.’

‘But you’re all still here?’

‘No, Marcus has taken the women and children somewhere safe. He’s one of the Covenant that first alerted us to the problem. These vampires have kids so you can see why Buffy wants to help them, and as an added bonus they were after Travers.’ Willow added with a grin, then headed back into position as Charles came back into the room with another Orb. Willow continued her work, and Charles left again shortly with another name. Giles had wandered in at some point and took over from Andrew, sitting in the corner asking questions of the spectres before they left through the doorway.

‘Can I ask you something? If you can’t stop Travers pulling energy off of the slayers in the Orbs, couldn’t you isolate the Orbs so they don’t leak energy, Giles?’ Faith asked.

Giles opened his mouth to talk, then closed it again, then opened it again. He continued to do an impression of a goldfish for a couple of minutes. Xander, bringing in the next Orb, laughed.

‘You’ve broken Giles! Why have you broken Giles?’ he asked Faith.

‘Oh dear Lord,’ said Giles, cleaning his glasses frantically. ‘Faith has just pointed out an obvious answer to our time problem. If we isolate all the Orbs inside a circle, and prevent them from leaking energy, Travers won’t be able to get them. Giving us all the time we need to free the slayers from their imprisonment and finish the job we came to do,’ Giles explained. ‘And she’s managed to make me feel a complete idiot in the process.’

‘Well I do live with a high school principal, it was bound to rub off eventually.’

‘I like it. Who’s going to do the magic though? Willow is dropping, although she’s trying to hide it, and I don’t know anyone else that can do her job. We only have about an hour.’ Xander reminded them.

‘Tell Willow to hold on and I’ll ring the coven in Devon, I’m sure they can send someone. Actually, we’ll have Dawn open the Doorway and whoever it is can walk straight here.’

With that he hurried off to use the phone leaving Faith and Xander alone.

Faith was called out of her daze by the sound of her name. Robin must have called two or three times from the look on his face. He signalled over to the two of them on the couch.
‘Mom, this is Faith and you’re going to be a gran,’ Robin said, with obvious pride, gently rubbing Faith’s stomach.

Nikki smiled at the dark haired beauty looking at her son with love in her eyes.

‘I’m glad that Robin has found someone to share his life with, and congratulations on the new arrival. I hope you’ll both be very happy in your life together. Now I need to tell you something. It’s about Spike. I know he’s here in the building.’

Robin tensed immediately. He didn’t want to have to kill Spike; neither did he want to have to explain to his mother why her murderer went unpunished. But he’d made peace with Spike after Sunnydale. Robin honestly felt that saving the world did sort of pay off a debt.

Nikki looked at her son. It was nice to know she could still read him, even if he was a man now.

‘No, not killing the vampire, that’s not what I want. I know he killed me but it wasn’t like you thought, Robin. I let him.’

Robin looked towards Faith, devastated. It was one thing that he’d lost his mother so young but to think that she’d abandoned him broke his heart all over again. He went to walk away but Faith stopped him.

‘Lets just hear what she has to say, shall we?’ The slayer suggested.

‘Thank you, Faith. I didn’t just choose to abandon you, baby boy; Travers had put a price on both our heads. We had been running for a couple of years. I don’t suppose you remember us all moving from place to place, but we did. Seedy motels and cheap apartments. My watcher found out that Travers was after you as well: slayers’ children have powerful magic in their blood, and he was getting closer and closer, seems he didn’t like slayers that had any hold on life either. He was going to have you killed, and not quickly. He had gotten so close, so very close and I couldn’t let you die: you were my world, my reason for being. The only light in my dark life, so I found a master vampire who could take me out, without it looking like a set-up. I pulled the fight. It wasn’t just him, he was a really good fighter. He killed me, yes, but it was quick and then I was trapped in the Orb. Didn’t know about that bit, didn’t plan on that bit, but most important thing to me was that you were safe.
‘You wait until that little one is born then you’ll understand you will do ANYTHING to keep them protected, anything at all.

‘And it wasn’t so high a price to pay. You lived. You lived,’ she repeated softly. Stroking his cheek. ‘You see, baby boy, you were and still are the most important thing in my world.’

Robin looked at her through new eyes. This woman was amazing in so many ways. To give up her very life to keep him safe. He knew then in his heart she had truly loved him and always would. Robin felt the tears on his face long before he realised that he was crying. His mom loved him more than anything else in the world.

‘Still have problems with the bleached wonder but I’m glad you don’t want him dead. He saved the world, killed himself, wiped out tourak kan and closed a hell mouth; really don’t think I’ll be forgiven if I try to put a stake through him now.’

‘Well I’m glad. I’m glad you’re not full of hate, it just eats you up from the inside. That’s what happened to Travers. He was just full of hate and jealousy. While we were in the Orbs we could hear what was going on but couldn’t influence it. One of the girls found a way for us to talk to one another when he wasn’t around, you see he was jealous of the strength of the slayers and jealous of the love his slayer had. It was, and is, her reward from heaven for doing her job; each of us was supposed to have a love like that. We’re supposed to meet someone who becomes our sun and moon and he was jealous. So he set about destroying the line. Did a good job of the destruction. He used to rant at us, blaming us for the ills in the world, the fact that demons were winning. He weakened the line and he blames us for not being strong enough. You my darling boy are a slayers’ reward - as is Spike.

‘Now I must go, but I’ll be back when that little one is born; you’ll feel me around.’

Nikki placed a ghostly kiss on Robin’s cheek and brushed Faith’s head and walked into the light.





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