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Dawn looked at me. “And what are we going to do while they seek out the crazy girl?”

I put my arm around Dawn’s shoulder. Together, we walked back to the table where the Angel’s team sat. “Well,” I began, “I’m going to assume that there will be some research done to figure out where the girl will go. She not just going to run amok in the night. She probably has a destination in mind. ” Wesley nodded at me so I continued. “You’ve learned by example living on the Hellmouth that research usually precedes the running off and kicking of evil’s wily ass.” I saw Dawn grin out of the corner of my eye as I tried to impart a little Slayer wisdom. “Spike never could wait for the research to be done before running out to do a bit of the old ultra-violence. While we wait for him to come back, with or without her, we’ll help the gang in typical Scooby fashion.” Dawn nodded and went to sit down at the table next to Fred.

Angel returned and began pacing the room. “Maybe Spike was right. Maybe we should just get out there and find her.” He pinched the bridge of his nose as if it was physically painful to admit that.

Fred looked at him, appalled. “Then what? Kill her? What's happening isn't her fault.”

“Spike won’t kill her, Fred.”

Angel spun and exploded at me. “What the hell happened to you? A few years ago, Spike was the thorn in your side, your mortal enemy! And now you’re here defending him?”

“Stop!” I screamed at him. Everyone in the room fell still, hoping to be ignored as the argument raged. “Which part has your knickers in a twist? The fact that I’m moving on, or the fact that it’s Spike? He’s a good man, Angel. And yeah, he was my mortal enemy once, but if you remember correctly, so were you.” I took a deep breath and steadied my voice. “I know it’s easy to blame Spike for the changes I’ve made. I know that I’ve let my grief rule my life lately. But the truth is, it wasn’t all about Spike. I lost a lot more than him that day at the Hellmouth. We lost a lot of the potentials, we lost Anya, and we almost lost Robin. I was hurt pretty bad. We barely made it out of town before it became a crater. I lost my mother’s grave… Tara’s grave…my grave. We lost the Bronze, the Espresso Pump, that great shop where Xander always got donuts. My life was there. Everything we owned was there.“

I turned away from Angel. “I didn’t come here to start a relationship with Spike.” Everyone in the room but Dawn stared at me with disbelief. “The day I left him to die in the Hellmouth, I told him something important. Hell, it was one of the most important things I’ve ever said.” Dawn rose from her chair to wrap her arms around me, seeing the tears gathering in my traitorous eyes. “But he didn’t believe me. He had no cause to. He had no reason to believe that I was anything different than the monster I started as.”

Angel sighed. “You aren’t a monster, Buffy. Even at you’re worst you’ll never be like us. You can’t. You’re human.”

I looked him in the eye. “No, I’m not.”

“What?” Angel looked dumbfounded.

I turned away from his searching gaze while Dawn stepped up for me. “Remember how I mentioned that Buffy fulfilled a prophecy?” she asked.

Wesley stood and walked to Dawn. “What prophecy?”

“Soroxas. Giles has the only copy we know of.” She turned to Angel. “Bring me a speakerphone,” she commanded. When he had done so, she dialed a number and sat down at the table, facing the phone.

“Hello?” the voice of my Watcher sounded throughout the room.

“Hi Giles,” Dawn said brightly. “I need you to explain about the Soroxas prophecy to Angel and his team.”

“Dawn, I’m not sure that’s the best idea. Wolfram and Hart is a cornerstone of evil. God only knows what they would do with information such as this. It could cost Buffy her life…again,” Giles stammered.

“Gee, Giles, I didn’t know you cared.”

“Buffy?” he asked confusedly. “What are you doing in L.A?”

“Long story. No time. Start with how we found it,” I ordered.

I could actually hear him cleaning his glasses over the phone. “Yes, well, when we got here to London, we started rebuilding the Council by going through Quinton Travers home records. We found evidence of safety deposit boxes all over the world in the Council’s name. The first one was in London. Upon collecting the contents, I found it was a dossier completely devoted to Buffy. There was an entire case file, information on her Slayer exploits, her family history, grades, everything. There was also a scroll. It took me an entire month to translate it due to the fifteen languages it was in, everything from Latin to Fyarl. It would have gone much faster if I would have had Spike here to help me. You know, for a vampire, he really was quite the linguist. “

It was the first time I had heard him mention Spike kindly since his death. He cleared his throat and went on. “It wasn’t written like an ordinary prophecy. You know, a few line of cryptic prose. This was incredibly specific. It told of a slayer, in the turning of centuries, who would die twice and yet live, who would defeat a master. This girl would receive a key, love her enemy, defeat a god, make a deal with a monster, and kill a lover. It also said she when she had deterred eight ends of the world, lost her soul mate when the mouth of hell was destroyed, and cried a thousand tears for him, then she would ascend to be the Immortal Slayer.”

All eyes turned to me. I met their gazes with cold indifference.

“You’re an immortal?” Fred asked quietly.

I smirked as I dropped my eyes to stare at the ground. “I didn’t believe it at first either. So we tested it.”





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