Chapter 2 - Answers
Wandering through Sunnydale for over an hour, Spike never even caught a glimpse of the woman he was searching for. Walking past Restfield Cemetery, he briefly slowed down, hearing the distinct sound of fighting in the distance.
Breaking out into a run, he rounded the corner of a mausoleum to see a woman in the distance, fighting another vampire. Seeing that she was easily holding her own, Spike stopped and admired her form as she fought with a grace he’d never witnessed. Knowing that his own fighting style was more street-fighting with a little kickboxing thrown in, this girl was amazing in her precision. She had changed into a pair of red leather pants and a black turtleneck sweater, her long hair flying behind her with every spinning kick. Staring as she easily staked the vamp and turned her attention to him, tucking the stake into the waistband of her pants.
“So, I guess you asked your Watcher,” she said with a slight smile.
“Who are you?” he asked, narrowing his eyes to watch her.
“You mean you don’t know?” she asked, raising an eyebrow in amusement.
“I know who Buffy Summers was. I asked who you are.”
“Well, then, that’s convenient since Buffy and I are one and the same,” she said with a slight smile.
“Buffy died almost a decade ago, and it wasn’t a vamp attack. So I’m thinking that you’re fresh out of options. Now…who are you?”
“Let me guess,” she said, approaching him, only to turn away and wander around him in a slow circle. “You heard about the Master, the first death, and Angelus. I’m guessing you even caught a little bit about the mayor and Adam. And then there was Glory and the Key. You heard all about the big sacrifice, but,” she paused as she came to a stop in front of him. “You didn’t hear about her third death.”
“I’ve heard enough.”
“No,” she said, shaking her head with an amused smile on her face. “You’ve heard the Cliff’s Notes version. You don’t know the details. You don’t know how I felt powerless against the Master until after he killed me. And I’m willing to bet that you weren’t told that Angel and I were lovers and that was the trigger that turned him into Angelus. Did you hear about the Slayer that you replaced?”
“Faith.”
“Yeah,” she replied, her tone softening as her eyes misted over. “What do you know about her?”
“She was good. Not the best, but she held her own. Couldn’t resist the pull to the darker side of slaying, and the line blurred between what was right and wrong. Turned herself in and served her time to be let out six years ago. Two years after that, she was killed in an ambush.”
Watching as the woman’s eyes glimmered with tears, he frowned when she looked down, hiding her face from his gaze.
“She shouldn’t have gone alone,” she whispered.
“What?”
Her eyes snapped up to his, suddenly remembering where she was and who she was talking to. “You don’t even believe I’m me. Why will you believe anything I tell you?”
“Why don’t you tell me yourself and let me draw my own conclusions?”
“Fair enough,” she said softly, nodding her acceptance. “Faith and I…we were two halves of the spectrum. Darkness and light. So similar, and yet, completely different at the same time. She felt overshadowed by me, and that’s what led to her joining forces with the mayor. That led to a lot of things, all of the bad persuasion. Not the least of which was when she poisoned Angel. Only the blood of a Slayer could cure him, and I was determined to give him a cure. I went to Faith’s apartment…we fought…and I ended up putting her in a coma. I…cured…Angel by myself, and Faith stayed in the coma for nine months. When she woke up, she was angry. With a lot of help, I managed to defeat the mayor, and that meant I had killed her surrogate father. To make a long…a little less long, we battled it out, she did some things that I thought unforgivable at the time, and she left for L.A.”
“End of story?” Spike asked, knowing that she was leaving out a good portion of the story, since she hadn’t explained anything about Faith’s death.
“No,” she said softly. “Angel was there at the time, living in L.A., and he wanted to help her. I disagreed, but eventually, it didn’t matter what we decided because Faith turned herself in. She was let out on probation after five years, and I went to L.A. to see if we could reconcile some of our differences. Turns out, the years had matured us both, and we grew to be the sisters that our lineage called for. Two years after she was released, we were supposed to meet at a factory that had a nest of vamps. Faith got there early and went in alone…like she was always big on doing and…I was too late. I got there in time to hold her hand as she died…then I hunted down each and every vamp, and they were met with a very painful and dusty ending.”
Spike noticed the tears building up in her eyes by the end of the story, trying not to think of how this woman was affecting him. “If you’re Buffy, how are you here? You jumped from that tower nine years ago.”
“Yeah, here’s the part that isn’t in your history book…or more accurately, Watcher’s Diaries. My Watcher never revealed that I came back. He didn’t want the Council getting any ideas in their twisted little heads about experiments or anything like that. I have a friend who’s a witch-”
“The one who re-ensouled Angelus?”
Buffy eyes snapped up to his at the question. “Yeah. She thought my essence was caught in a Hell dimension, so she decided I should be brought back. My friends…they…they worked a spell on me, and, presto, Buffy’s back. What they didn’t know was that I wasn’t in a Hell dimension…I was happy. I think…I think that they pulled me out of heaven.”
Pausing as she looked at the ground, Buffy tried to gather her thoughts, not wanting to make eye contact with the man in front of her. “I was only back for a few days when I got a call from Angel. He wanted to see me. We met at a little rundown place halfway between Sunnydale and Los Angeles. What I didn’t know is that when he heard that I was back, he was happy. Perfectly happy in fact…I wasn’t met with the man I loved…I was met with the thing that hates me.”
Suddenly feeling the urge to take her into his arms as the tears streamed down her face, Spike barely refrained as she continued, “I was missing for a week, and everyone was getting worried. Angelus had turned me before I even knew what was happening. He has an uncanny way of portraying his opposite personality…no matter which one it is. I was chained and tortured for almost a week before my friends figured out what was going on. Willow managed to work the spell again, and Angel has one more thing to add to the list of what Angelus did that he feels sorry for.”
“You don’t blame him?”
“It wasn’t him,” she said softly, looking down at the ground with a slight shrug that conveyed how much she hated the situation she was put in. “I know that now. I’m a 29 year old woman stuck in the body of a 20 year old. I’m not the same naïve little girl that I used to be.”
“But, if you were turned, why would he torture you? Wouldn’t he want you to be alive for that part?”
Cringing at the reference to her undead status, Buffy took a deep breath. “That’s why he did it. Angelus never got to kill or turn a Slayer…he never knew that we make completely different vampires. One of the major factors was the fact that I kept my soul. Angelus thinks souls are filthy since he’s been saddled with one for over a hundred years. Mine was disgusting to him, considering I’m now considered his childe. It’s an embarrassment to the demon in him. He felt I needed to be punished for having it.”
“You said one of the factors…what are the others?”
“Nothing much, really,” she said with a shrug. “I’m a little bit stronger than I used to be. My face doesn’t change like other vamps.”
“Why not?” Spike asked, looking at her in confusion.
“I guess the Powers wanted me to stay pretty while I slayed,” she said with a grin.
Smirking at her response, he slowly looked her up and down. “So you’re stuck in that body for all eternity?”
“Yep, till the end of the world, or I meet a dusty ending because someone doesn’t want to hear what I have to say,” she said, giving Spike a pointed look.
“Yeah, sorry ‘bout that, love. I have to call ‘em as I see ‘em. If I’d have known, I never would have thrown the first punch…or the holy water, come to think of it,” he said with a sheepish look.
“I know. I remember how it was. I didn’t believe Angel at first either, so I guess I can let you off the hook,” she replied, hopping up to sit on a tombstone. “Besides, already healed.” She gestured to her formerly burned cheek, hoping to alleviate a little bit of his guilt.
“So why were you looking for me?”
“I thought you could use some help. I’ve been gone for a few years, and I decided to come back to the Hellmouth and keep on fighting the good fight.”
“You have family here?”
“No,” she said, looking down at her hands. “My mom died a few years ago, and my sister is living in New York. I’ve been out there with her for a while, but I felt like I was cramping her style. It’s kinda hard for her to be 24 and expect people to believe that I’m the older sibling.”
“Your dad?”
“I don’t even know if he’s alive. Haven’t heard from him in over ten years.”
“What about Angel?” Something about Spike saying that name made him feel sick. He didn’t want to think about what it meant.
“Angel’s still in L.A. I drop in for a visit from time to time, but he has his own life, too. His soul was anchored by the Powers a few years ago- kind of a reward for all the good he’s done.”
“So why aren’t you with him?” he asked, tightening his jaw as he tilted his head to look at her. “If you’re the one who gives him perfect happiness, wouldn’t he want to spend all of eternity with you?”
“Maybe,” she said with a nod. “But he’s in love with someone else. He also feels guilty about all the things he did to me after I was turned, so he usually avoids me like the plague.”
Spike suddenly felt very sorry for this woman. It seemed everyone she ever cared about left her.
“Your Watcher?”
“He moved back to England after I died…the second time,” she clarified with a smile. “I see him a few times a year. He has his own life, too.”
“Seems like everyone has their own life except you, pet,” he said, coming to lean next to where she was sitting.
“This is my life,” she said solemnly, looking down at her hands. “The Slayer’s destined to be alone…it took me a while, but I’ve figured that much out.”
“Buffy,” Spike said softly as he moved to stand in front of her. With a finger under her chin, he tilted her head up to look him in the eyes, feeling a connection pass through him as he looked into the eyes of someone who had the potential to understand everything about him. “You’re not alone. You’re not the only Slayer.”
Feeling tears spring to her eyes at his soft admission, Buff unconsciously leaned closer to his full lips, Spike dropped his hand to each side of her waist as he moved to close the distance between them. A second before their lips met, Spike’s cell phone began incessantly ringing, causing them to guiltily jump apart. Practically jerking the phone out of his pocket, he angrily flipped it open.
“Hello,” he said with more malice than he intended.
“Spike! Where the hell are you!? Do you realize it’s almost two in the morning, and you were supposed to call me!”
“Cecily, calm down. I’m still out patrolling…lots of vamps out tonight.” Out of the corner of his eye, Spike saw Buffy hop down from her seat and begin to walk away. Catching her by the arm, he shook his head, silently asking her not to go anywhere.
Listening as Spike tried to calm his nagging girlfriend- knowing that it could only be a girlfriend, the way that whiny voice sounded to Buffy’s ears- she took a few steps away. Cursing her vampire hearing for the first time, wanting to soothe her wounded eardrums, she closed her eyes to ward off the headache that seemed to be forming.
‘Who would have thought that vampires could get headaches,’ she thought with a slight smile. ‘Considering I haven’t had one in almost ten years.’
Turning to face the blonde as he snapped the phone shut, he offered her a sheepish smile. “Sorry ‘bout that.”
“No problem,” she said with false cheeriness. “So, my suggestion is, if you’re comfortable with it, is that we start patrolling together.”
Frowning at the sudden change in her voice, he didn’t want her to think he was ignoring the almost-kiss they had, but if she wanted to talk shop, he could do that. “Sounds good. I’ll probably need you to work a few things out with my Watcher, but it’ll be okay. He owns a little occult bookstore on Main Street. You want to meet there tomorrow at sunset?”
“I’ll see you then.”
Watching appreciatively as she walked away, Spike raised an eyebrow at her retreating form. This was going to be a very interesting development.
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