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Author's Chapter Notes:
Finals week. This will prolly be my only up date for a week.. or at least till Saturday.
Obvious Conclusions

Buffy walked with the demon. Although they had no goal to reach, their strides held purpose. The Slayer tried to feel the demon inside of her, tried to communicate with it somehow, but the only answers she received were intermittent Vamp outs, and periods of super senses.

All she had to do to finish what had started inside her, was complete a final task. One that she had the worst feeling about. There was a vague feeling that the demon in her was all for the final stage. But that did not provide comfort. In fact it made the knot in her stomach tighten.

The sister walking beside her watched The Slayer's face change as her thoughts were analyzed one by one. "You are still confused. I wish there was more I could do for you." Rashta looked around the dimly lit cavern. "Perhaps there is."

Buffy slowed her pace and looked at the demon. "I thought you said I couldn't know."

"Of your change, no, but of the changes you are causing... I think it would be beneficial. But this should be viewed by your mate as well."

Rashta closed her eyes, and stood very still. Buffy watched the woman concentrate, then heard a voice from behind as a hand fell to her shoulder.

"You all right, luv?" Spike’s voice was laced with concern.

Buffy turned quickly, and saw him. Without thinking she leapt up and held him, clasping her hands behind his neck.

Spike almost lost his balance. The tightness of her grip was a familiar thing, but now there was something a little different. "Got... to breath... Buffy." He said, although he didn't really have that much of a problem with her grip.

She stood back, and saw him smiling at her. "Oh yea." She said, looking at him. He didn't really look different. She reached out a hand to touch his face. He was warm. "They really… you’re really..."

"S'far as I can tell." He said with a cocky grin.

She ran her hand down from his cheek, past his neck, over his chest and over his beating heart. Her eyes flew to his. She smiled lightly and found herself looking into his laughing blue orbs.

He hadn't know the effect his live body would have on her. Some shock he had figured on, but the look in her eyes... he didn't care if he would someday die from a mortal life, the moment he saw her pure happiness, his undead life ended.

Of course, he was still Spike. A beating heart couldn't change that. "So luv, I showed you my new tricks... you gonna' share yours?"

The happiness in Buffy's face melted away along with her human face as she was quickly overtaken by agrivation. "Spike! You are such a pig. I swear. Here I am all happy your breathing... and all you can think of is..." She realized she had just given him exactly what he'd asked for. "Bloody hell!" She yelled in her clearly American accent.

Spike cocked an eyebrow at her.

"Oh great." She threw her hands in the air. "Now I sound like you too!"

She turned around, and faced the sisters who had moved to stand together. "That's about it for me. I think I need to get back to Sunnydale. Now would be very good please."

Spike shook his head at her laughing. “You mean London don’t you kitten?”

“Whatever. I’m done.”

The sisters shared a glance at each other. Akor looked back at the couple. "The time is near, but you must be prepared."

Rashta picked up her sister's sentence. "You friends have been very busy with the humans who are to care for The Slayer."

Buffy cocked her head, not noticing she was still in demon form. Spike watched her features, and studied the form she had taken. All in all, it didn't matter she was beautiful, and his.

"Exactly what have they been up to?" Buffy asked.

"Sister?" Rashta asked Akor.

"My pleasure sister." The Demon raised her hands high and placed them on the wall. A glowing rectangle appeared on the cavern wall. It was not like the mock screen Spike had seen them use before. This resembled a window into another reality.

The four watched as the scene focused, and they could make out the figures shown.

Anya was talking to several children in one of the apartments of the familiar living quarters of The Council. She seemed to be calling to each member in the room. "Anyanka has helped much in your plan Slayer."

Buffy questioned Rashta. "My plan? You mean they've been going on with it?" She turned back to the screen as Xander stood in the Sparring room. Soon a young man came in that she almost mistook as Spike. They watched the young man run past Xander and around a corner.

"Whas' that all about?" Spike asked watching guards emerge, and give chase.

"It was a distraction." Akor answered. "The children have been helping to prepare for the new ways they will follow. They have been learning the ways from your Council Slayer."

Buffy watched the images of a disk being passed from Willow to Dawn, then to a young brunette male. The boy walked into The Rugby room and up a small stand holding equipment Buffy didn't recognize until she saw what appeared to be a CD, or possibly a DVD player. The view panned around the room, now filled with chairs, and a large screen at the far end. It was more of a monitor than a screen, but again she did not recognize the equipment.

Spike pointed when Xander appeared from behind the large flat panel carrying some wood, a tool belt affixed around his waist. Dawn ran up to him and the two walked out the door past many familiar faces the two blondes recognized as several of the children that had gathered for Spike's last story.

Dawn stopped and sat with Michelle, Richard and a myriad of other faces. Christian came off of the lift as Xander sat in a out of the way spot to remove some nails from the boards.

Christian walked across the room to a group of smaller children where Anya sat playing a game with them. He handed her a note, she read it and pocketed it. Then she returned to the task of entertaining the children. The scene followed Christian through the halls of The Council until it came upon the den that connected to each library. He walked up to a computer and talked to a boy who was typing franticly.

The boy stopped what he was doing and put in a small disk. He typed some more, waited and handed the disk to Christian who headed back out into the halls. The window stayed focused on the den, and soon they saw Giles coming out of a library. His hands were full, and he held a pencil in his mouth as he flipped pages.

Soon Tara walked over to him, and pointed to a page she was reading. He nodded and took the book from her. She walked back to show Willow in a library full of ancient texts.

Buffy looked back at the demons. "What exactly are they doing?"

"Preparation." Rashta answered. "When you were found missing, they knew it was because of one of two things. Either you had died, or come here."

Akor interrupted. "They have great faith in you, both of you."

The blonde couple looked from the demons, to each other, smiled, then looked back to the sisters.

Rashta picked up her speech. "Once your Watcher had decided you must have been called here, they set out to put you ideas in motion. they have given themselves 7 days to accomplish all that needs to be. And with the children, they are nearly finished. Small details are all that are needed for them to be ready, and The Watcher is doing that as you see."

~~`~~

"Yes Tara. This is exactly what I was looking for." Giles took the text from the young woman.

Tara turned and headed back to Willow who was still looking through The Watcher's chronicles. "Was there another one?" The red head asked.

"No, I think he just about has it. I can't believe he's trying to rewrite the whole thing." Tara looked back at the older man. He had not done anything but research for the last 48 hours. When he said he had an idea for a new change, she hadn't thought much of it. Anya had been turned away, so it wasn't demon oriented.

That of course, had perked the redhead's interest, and she peaked. As always, curiosity got the cat, and she was pulled into the research. Tara had just happened upon them this morning after gathering some spell books.

When she saw what the hacker and the Watcher were doing, she insisted on helping. It was one of the few times she ever insisted anything, but if things went the way they hoped, it would be needed.

~~`~~

Xander walked from behind the screen. It was huge, and he knew it wasn't cheap. Unless of course you had a carpenter on hand that did free repairs.

Dawn ran up to him. "Hey Dawnster. What's the haps?"

"Willow and Tara are helping Giles with his research, and he still won't tell us what it's about. Anya is playing with all the little kids. I think you better watch out."

At first Xander didn't get it. But then he realized Dawn's hint at Anya thinking about having kids. His face twitched.

The two went their separate ways and Dawn sat with her friends. "Is Christian done yet?"

Just then Richard spotted the young man coming from the lift. "There he goes." They watched him walk to Anya, then out the commons door."

Michelle turned back around to face her friends. "That's it then?"

Dawn shrugged. "We have the frequency used on the radios, the feed is directly hooked up to Mr. Travers office thanks to Joel and his buddies."

Richard looked around. "Where is Joel anyway?"

Michelle started to giggle with Dawn at the question. "Oh yea." The raven haired girl managed between giggles. "You were in classes when it happened."

"What?" The blonde asked.

Dawn looked right at him and tried her best to keep a straight face. "He's looking for himself." Then doubled over in laughter, Michelle quickly followed.

Richard looked between them, not understanding. "He's looking for himself?" The question no more than left his mouth before he understood the joke. "You mean they are out looking for Spike?"

When both Dawn and Michelle's heads bobbed up and down to confirm his statement, he joined in the laughter.

Ever since that first day of ‘Spike Sightings’ there were regular patrols organized by the elders and all of the children close to graduating were enlisted to help, including the Spike impersonator himself.

~~`~~

Joel stood outside the main hall into the classes section. He had been walking his assigned perimeter for over 2wo hours now, reporting every 30 minutes that, “No, I’ve not seen the vampire as of yet.”

In the meantime his partner Haden had laughed every so often when the pair would pass one of the mirrors and point yelling out, “There he is!”

Joel only looked the first two times but apparently the red headed twin liked the joke so much he couldn’t quit. At this point it was the only distraction on an impossibly idiotic hunt.

~~`~~

"I don't get it. Why show us this if we aren't going to remember it?" Buffy asked seriously.

"You take with you what is needed." Akor answered simply.

"Got to love these ladies. They never really tell you a thing." Spike said putting his hands in his duster contemplating trying for another cigarette. Then thought better of it when he remembered his coughing.

"Your telling me." Buffy said looking back at him. "I can't even get her to tell me what this whole final test thing is."

Regardless of the lack of a smoke, Spike began coughing. Buff looked back at him. "She told you didn't she?" Buffy looked back at Rashta, who was staring down her sister.

"I told him nothing." Akor pleaded. "I only said that for the final changes, the demon was necessary."

Rashta shook her head at the ceiling. "Sister. He is a Vampire. Do you think he could not understand the implications?"

Buffy interrupted. "Apparently she couldn't, so why not tell me since the damage is done." She looked back at Spike. "Or you could tell me."

Spike took a few steps back from his love, fear now clutching his now very human and stressed stomach. "I tried to tell her the Vamp thing was too much." He pointed back at the arguing sisters. "I swear I did."

Buffy was furious, but now scared since Spike didn't even want to tell her. It was something he protested, but for her. Not for himself.

“What is it?“ She implored to Spike.

He shook his head, obviously not wanting to share.

“Spike?“ She asked, now simply worried.

“You’re no going to like it, luv.“

“That much I can tell.“ She rolled her eyes.

“It’s,“ He started and paused a bit too long. Buffy put her hands on her hips and raised a brow, which looked more menacing then normal considering she’d still not managed to hide he demon.

Spike ran his fingers through his gelled hair and took a deep breath. “Alright, you’ve got to know I had nothing to do with this.” He started.

“Uh hu.” She said mater-of-factly nodding and waiting for him to go on.

“Well, it‘s really got more to do with that Pure bint and her boy toy I think but, um, yeah-” He really was concerned with her reaction. He absolutely didn’t feel like getting punched in the nose today. “Has to do with the teeth and… and the connection. Or in this case, a reconnection.”

She stared at him, not quite sure how being a Grrr was going to help with any connection. After all the only thing she could do now was see in he dark, hear really well, bite people… Buffy came to the most logical conclusion. She slowly looked up at him again.

"Oh." Was her only response. Short and sweet and clearly shocked.

She leaned against the cavern's wall, and slid down the rough surface. Through all of this, her face had yet to shift back to her human form. She looked between the sisters. They just stood quietly, looking down at the girl.

Buffy turned and looked up at Spike. He was still several paces from her, but his concern was so plain that she didn't need him to be near to know that it hadn't been something he wanted forced on her.

Buffy sighed and rubbed her forehead with the palm of her hand. Spike watched her. She had had to deal with too much since they had come to England. He really just wanted to take her home. Back to the strange, but familiar life they had begun to make.

Carefully, Spike walked up to her, and crouched down next to her. "Buffy?"

She put a hand up, but didn't look up. "Just... just give me a second."

He leaned back against the wall, and waited.

'So?' she said to herself. 'This is where I decide isn't it?' So what if she remembered every sensation that ran through her from Angel's and Dracula's bite. They had marked her, and she had dealt with it the best way she knew how. By avoiding it at all costs.

It wasn't that she dreaded it, in fact several of her fantasies included it. But the fear that came with the feeling? The thought of letting Spike bite her? And apparently she was supposed to do some nibbling as well. It was overwhelming.

Either she would find that she was a dark killer like Dracula had accused, or Spike would leave her and the emptiness would drain her of anything she had loved about being with him.

Now, she sat here wishing she could be honest, with to herself, and to him. She looked up and at the sisters, both looking at her in understanding. They had obviously heard her mind. "I though I asked you to stop that?"

"Some thoughts are too intense to block." Rashta explained.

Buffy scowled at her. "Fine." Buffy looked back at Spike. "Just... fine."

She stood up and pulled her hair back looking at him. "Well?"

Spike stood there. "Not like that, luv. Not with that attitude."

Buffy froze. "What do you mean?"

"It's not my bloody supper. It's..." He turned his back to her. "You can't act like it's just some thing you have to do." He turned back around and faced her. "It's a mating... not a snack."

Buffy let her hair fall back on her neck. The sisters were silent, and forgotten. "Like you did with Dru?"

Spike shook his head. "No."

Buffy eyes' showed her confusion. Then she remembered how hurt Spike was when Drusilla had run back to Angelus. Dru must have never mated with him.

Buffy stammered. "Is it.. what will happen.. I mean..."

Spike took a few more steps to her and took her hands in his. "It's forever. It's no runnun' away. It's no matter what ever in this world leaves you, I won't… I can't. Either way, that IS how it is. Even without the mating."

For some reason, Buffy found her legs no longer were able to hold her. She began to tumble, but barely moved before she felt his arms wrap around her, holding her up.

"And I'll never let you fall." He whispered in her ear.

The sisters raised their arms and the couple vanished from the caverns.


Chapter End Notes:
Hope you likey... Now, does anyone know the proper way to show an immage? *It is larger than 200x200 so the site wont allow it*



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