Rising Darkness:
Dawn watches the falling sun through the living room window. She watches as the orange glowing orb moves closer to the horizon and the black and blue of the night overcome the sky. Everyone in the house is aware of the darkening atmosphere; this night’s twilight has a heaviness to it that they’ve never felt before. There’s an impending sense of fear for what will come after the darkness has taken over the sky. Fear of what Buffy will have become.
Upstairs Buffy’s body is lit with the last of the warm glowing rays from the sun. As it’s swallowed up by the horizon all the warm color that it’s laid across her skin drains from her. Soon the sun has vanished completely from the sky and Buffy’s body is left in darkness. It’s then that her transformation begins. The tiny cuts and scars that cover her body like a road map from years of being the slayer smooth and vanish leaving only perfection.
Her finger nails grow in length and thickness, their tips thin to a sharp razors edge. Her muscles flex and tighten, her breasts become more firm, her joints more flexible. Every inch of her body becomes stronger, improved and enhanced. Even her eyelashes darken and curl. The transformation sweeps up her body like a cool breeze changing her completely. It affects every cell, every atom, every ounce of her being.
The little wrinkles and dark circles that had been starting to form around the slayer’s eyes smooth from existence. Her lips plump, skin smoothes and a healthy glow and shine overcomes her blonde locks. In a short time Buffy goes from being dead to being reborn. Yellow eyes snap open as teeth lengthen and skin morphs into that of her vampire face.
--
Spike paces restlessly in the entry way, he strums his fingers through his hair and glances at the stairs, each time with the intention to climb them and each time failing to do so. The sun has set moments ago and everyone is anxiously waiting to see what will happen next. Then out of the corner of his eye he sees her. Spike’s pacing comes to an abrupt halt and he stands at the end of the staircase looking up at her with awe. She’s morphed back to her human face and slowly moves toward him step by step. As Spike watches her he’s reminded of the year before when he first saw her after the scoobies brought her back. She had walked downstairs with a new life then and now she is doing it once again.
Spike finds himself speechless. He stands in complete awe of her, in awe of her dazzling green eyes and milk white skin. She moves down the stairs like an angel dressed in black and Spike feels as though he should kneel before her, but he’s too stunned by her beauty to do so.
Dawn, Willow and Xander stand up from their seated positions in the living room as they realize that Buffy is coming down the stairs; Giles however, remains seated, part of him doesn’t want to see her like this, at least not yet, he simply isn’t ready. Dawn, Willow and Xander hover in the doorway and watch her with curious eyes.
As Buffy walks down the last of the stairs a strong feeling of blood lust takes over her. She can smell the irony substance in the air from small cuts and bruises the potentials and her friends have sustained. It takes all her will not to vamp out, she doesn’t want for her friends to see her like this in the most desperate way, but she finds that she is so very hungry.
“Buffy,” Dawn says taking a hesitant step closer to her sister. Her movement disrupts the air and sends a breeze of irony air toward Buffy.
“Don’t look at me,” Buffy abruptly turns her face away from her sister as a growl erupts from her lips and the need to feed overcomes her features.
Spike walks up to Buffy and places a hand on her back, her sudden movements have snapped him back to reality.
“Come on pet, we’ll take care of that,” he says as he leads her into the kitchen. He looks behind him for a moment as they walk to see slightly hurt expressions across the scoobies faces. He offers them a reassuring look and then disappears through the doorway.
--
They stand alone in the kitchen but Buffy still has her back to Spike. She’s ashamed of her face; ashamed for anyone to see her like this, even him. Even another vampire; Buffy then thinks and still can’t find a way for that word to describe herself in her mind. Spike tries to get her to turn toward him, but she jerks away.
“Hey… come on now, there’s no reason for you to hide from me… let me see,” Spike says in a gentle voice, and his warm tone is just enough to get Buffy to turn to him, however her eyes still stare down at the ground and not up at his face. Spike reaches out to her and lifts her chin. After a moment her yellow eyes flutter up to his blue ones. He watches as they rock back and forth in their sockets trying to read his expression then he runs a thumb over the ridges on her forehead and takes in every inch of her visible transformation. For the first time Spike’s fingers don’t feel cold against her skin. They feel warm, as she thinks about it she realizes that it’s because they are now the same temperature.
“You’re beautiful... this is part of who you are now. Don’t be ashamed of it… now lets get you something to eat,” Spike says as he moves to the fridge and pulls out a container of blood.
The second the liquid is out of the fridge Buffy is at his side craving to drink it. Its coppery smell floats through the air enticing her and fueling her hunger. She thinks to herself how odd a feeling it is to have, to lust for blood. She watches him open the lid of the pig’s blood and pour it’s contents into a glass then stick it in the microwave.
“No… stop, I want to drink it cold,” Buffy says putting her hand on Spike’s arm; once again she notices how warm he feels. He gives her an odd look. “Drinking it warm… it’s just more like if it were from a living thing… I don’t…”
“I understand,” Spike says as he hands Buffy the glass.
With her meal in her hand and her face contorted into a demonic mask Buffy glances at the kitchen doorway for fear that one of her friends will walk in to see her like this. Spike notices her apprehension and with out a word leads her to the basement. They sit down on the steps and close the door behind them. Finally Buffy feels comfortable enough to feed. She brings the glass to her lips and as she chugs greedily her fangs make a clanking sound as they hit the inside rim of the cup. Within seconds she’s drained it; she sets the glass down on the step and wipes her lip. Then Buffy glances down at the smeared blood on her hand.
“How do you feel?” Spike asks turning to her. He watches her glare with odd fascination at the red liquid that she wiped from her lips.
“Strong… connected, like I can feel everything around me. All my senses are… sharper… but I also feel… hungry, and not just for blood, for power and destruction.”
“That’s the demon in you.”
“I hate it, I feel like I’m at odds with myself.” And she does, Buffy feels like within her body there is a battle raging between the slayer and the vampire that both are now a part of her – Buffy, the woman.
“It gets easier… it just takes time. You’re still you, Buffy.”
Buffy looks up at him then, her face slides back into its human form and her green eyes reemerge to meet his blue ones. Spike’s glad to see life inside her eyes again, glad to see emotion there, even if that emotion is confusion and sadness. He can tell that she’s finding comfort in him and he’s glad to be there for her.
--
Buffy walks back into the living room now feeling like she has control over her feelings and facial expressions. The gang and potentials are all still there waiting patiently. They sit slumped into the couches and chairs, arms lay crossed or rubbing the back of necks, and discomfort runs rampant through all bodies. Then the scoobies and potentials turn to face Buffy as she enters the room and look on at her as if searching for something, but to them she looks the same, just very well rested. Sure, there are subtle differences, but most of them go unnoticed by the human eye.
“I um… this is going to take me a little getting used to. I’m sorry I ran out before, I just… I wasn’t ready for you to see me and I was too… hungry to control it.”
“Eh, don’t worry about it Buffster, as long as you don’t try to eat any of us I think we’re all good,” Xander says in an attempt to add some humor to the situation and lift the dire mood of the room. When he sees a smile from Buffy he starts to feel a little less wigged out about the whole situation.
“So you really still have your soul then?” Dawn asks.
“Uh, well yeah… I mean I’m pretty sure I do.”
“I think we would know if you didn’t,” Willow adds in.
“So what does it feel like to be Buffy the Vampyre, Vampyre Slayer?” Andrew asks and Buffy watches as all the potentials seem to open up their ears as well wanting to know the answer.
“It’s hard to explain…”
“So… what do we do now?” Kennedy asks still uneasy about the whole thing.
“For the rest of tonight… nothing, I’m going to patrol later and we’ll pick up with all your training tomorrow… I just need a little time to… adjust.”
“No problem Buffy, anything you need just let us know,” Willow says and Buffy smiles at her with a reassuring grin.
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Chapter End Notes:
Thanks once again to my reviewers, also to clear up any confusion when Buffy was turned no potentials were turned into slayers because the slayer line doesn't run through Buffy anymore, it runs through Faith. Thats why when she died in Season 5 there wern't any new slayers.