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Chapter 24

Christmas came to Sunnydale just as it did to everywhere else in the world. Spike and Beth were back on track ever since Spike decided it didn’t matter to him who Beth was before she was turned. She was still the same sweet, innocent vampiress that he fell in love with when he first came to Sunnydale. They had spent Christmas Eve making sweet love followed by several rounds of raunchy shagging. All in all, Spike thought it was the best Christmas that he had ever spent on the planet.

New Year’s Eve found the entire Scooby gang, and all of their allies, having a party to celebrate the incoming year. The only person not totally happy was Cassie who missed Angel terribly. She had a date with a young college boy named Parker, but when said boy tried to hit on Beth, he found himself at the fangs of a very disgruntled Spike. It took both Buffy and Xander to calm the grumpy vampire down.

Beth and Cassie’s birthdays were within days of each other, and that in itself was cause for another celebration. The party was interrupted by the arrival of a Fyral demon which Spike almost immediately declared was Rupert Giles. While Cassie and Faith were off looking for Ethan Rayne, who they had determined was the culprit of the transformation, the other Scoobies tried to ignore the fact that Anya pulled Giles into another room for orgasms. After Rayne left town again with his tail between his legs, things settled down, but not for long.

The Specter was patrolling alone. Spike had a poker date with Clem at Willy’s Alibi Room. However, the Specter wasn’t too upset. She had a lot to think about, and that required alone time. The Specter knew she needed to tell Spike all about herself. The sooner the better if the truth be known.

The Specter fought and killed a vampire in the warehouse district close to where she used to live before she and Spike moved to their house. As she stood looking down at the dust, she heard a shout.

“Hey!” A security guard ran up with a flashlight, which he shined in the Specter’s face. He took in her mask, but he had seen weirder things in Sunnydale than a gal in a mask before. “If you’re looking for one of those rave things, I’m afraid you’re too late. I ran a bunch of kids out of here last night.”

The Specter gave a small shrug to indicate that she didn’t care.

“You know, if it was my call, I’d let you do whatever you want. It’s not like anyone’s using this place or nothin’. But they just don’t pay me enough to argue with the boss.” The watchman looked around.

The Specter turned to leave the way she had come. Behind her the guard leaned over, and he picked something up off the ground.

“Oh, hey, miss don’t forget your… whatever it is.” The guard held out a glowing ball. “Guess glow balls are the in thing this year.”

The Specter took the ball from the guard with a shrug. She had no idea what the thing was, but she could feel a supernatural air about it. She decided to take the item to Anya, and maybe she’d know what it was.

The next day Beth wasn’t thinking about the glowing ball that she had discovered the night before as the Specter. She was at the hospital with Joyce who she had found on the floor of the kitchen passed out. While there, Beth ran into the security guard, but he wasn’t the same man that he was the night before. Something had made the man go crazy overnight. This had every part of Beth worried. Was there a new epidemic happening in Sunnydale?

After Beth got Joyce settled at home, and checked up on Dawn at Janice’s, she went out as the Specter again. It was time to investigate the warehouse a little closer.

When the Specter slipped inside the warehouse, she found a monk tied up to a chair. She blinked in surprise as she was not expecting to find anything like that. The monk was semi-conscious, and she hurried to loosen the ropes that bound him. When he grunted in pain, the Specter tried to make him feel better, but to no avail. She let out a guttural grunt as she turned to grab her attacker’s neck.

“I’m not stupid,” the Specter grumbled.

“What did you say?” The blond haired woman gave the Specter gave a withering look. “I mean really, speak the native language.” She threw the Specter across the room.

The Specter crashed into the brick wall with a tremendous amount of force. She rose to her feet with a growl. She glanced at the monk for a minute before she gave a feral grin that she knew her opponent couldn’t see behind her mask.

“My town, my rules,” the Specter grunted in English. Then, she dashed towards the monk, grabbed him, and crashed out the window in just a few seconds, leaving behind a flabbergasted Hell-God.

As the Specter and the monk escaped across the parking lot, Glory had a major temper tantrum resulting in the destruction of the warehouse that buried her beneath tons of rubble.

“Stop, please,” the monk moaned. He was in so much pain.

The Specter pointed towards the street to indicate that they needed to keep going.

“My journey’s done, I think, Slayer.”

Beth stared at the monk in surprise. How did he know her secret?

“Yes, I know your secret. You must protect the Key.” The monk coughed as he sank to the ground.

“Protect together?” The Specter sank to the ground next to the monk.

“No, I am dying. The Beast did too much damage. You and your mate must protect the Key together.” The monk coughed again. This time there was blood. “The Key is energy. It’s a portal that opens the door…”

“Glow ball?” The Specter asked.

“No. For centuries it had no form at all. My brethren were its only keepers. Then the abomination found us. We had to hide the Key. We gave it form and molded it into flesh … made it human and sent it to you.” The monk grabbed the Specter’s arm. “She is fashioned from your flesh and that of your mate. She is your sister in name only.”

Beth reached up and pulled off her mask. She stared down at the monk before she changed into her vampiric visage. “Our memories?”

“We built them.” The monk could feel his heart slowing down. “She’s helpless. An innocent now. We couldn’t give you an infant, and she couldn’t be your childe in the other way. The Key would never tolerate the impurity of a vampire demon.”

“But…” Beth was unsure of what to say.

“You cannot abandon her. She belongs to you.”

“Mine!” Beth growled. She could feel all three sides of herself merging into one as she uttered the word that claimed her daughter as part of her family.

Across town at Revello Drive, Dawn sat up from where she was writing in her diary. She felt something go through her very soul. “What the hell was that?”

At Willy’s bar, Spike stopped in the middle of raking in his winnings. He shuddered for a moment as he wondered what the hell just happened.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Beth stepped into Betty Meers’ house. She let the woman lead her down to the basement where Warren was sitting in from of a television playing with a Playstation gaming system.

“I need you to make me two of your robots,” Beth said. “I’ll pay you good money for them.” She handed Warren two files. One was marked ‘Joyce Summers’, and the other was marked ‘Dawn Summers’.





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