Disclaimer: I own nothing…
Summary: Ten years after Spike’s return from Africa, the Initiative has taken control of the world, enslaving the entire human race, and being led by none other than Riley Finn… Buffy, Spike, and the rest of the Scooby gang are forced into hiding… Until the Initiative finds and captures the daughter of the Slayer and the former vampire, and forcing Spike to choose between his daughter and the woman he loves…
Spoilers: none
Author’s Notes: Another oldie… In fact, if not for the summary, I probably wouldn’t even be able to tell ya what it’s about… I had completely forgotten this existed… I don’t even remember why I started it… I think I was inspired by some Arnold Swartzenager movie I was forced to watch… Well, here’s what I’ve got so far… I think there’s another chapter around here somewhere… I just have to find it…
Distribution: If ya want it, take it, just give me credit… And, if ya could, let me know where it’s going.
Feedback: You can send it to brock3005@aol.com or otownfan1520@yahoo.com.
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Prologue:
It was gone… All of it. The world they had once known had dissolved in a matter of months. No, it never really had been an ideal place to live… But it was home. It was theirs. And it had been taken away. Taken away by the man the Slayer had once believed herself to love. Now, that very man was responsible for all loss of life. Everything that happened, he was responsible for. Him… Riley Finn.
When news had spread that the Initiative was taking control in certain areas of the world; destroying it… At the time, she hadn’t believed them. She’d denied it with all that she was. If it turned out to be true, she would be forced to accept that it had always been that way. That it had been the initial plan all along… World domination. She hadn’t been willing to accept that. If she did, she would have been admitting to herself that he had always known. There was no way he could’ve been a part of it; their most prized soldier, no less, without the knowledge of these plans. So she hadn’t allowed herself to believe it.
Then, one night in late September, seven years earlier, Sam, Riley’s wife, had come to the door, knocking frantically, begging to be let in. She was being chased… Hunted down by the very government that she had loyally served for years. He’d sent them after her… Riley himself. She had been too much of a risk to keep alive, and they were determined to have her head… literally. But she’d lost them somewhere, with the help of a fellow government agent, Gauge…
He was playing as their inside agent now. Had been for all seven years, in fact. Ever since the Initiative had taken control, he’d helped them. Probably saved their lives more times than they could count. He would inform them of the safest places to hide out. Places they wouldn’t be found… And if an agent was sent to the site, he would inform them with the simple click of a button, giving them the time they needed to get out and get moving. Always, they were running. And forever would be.
It was in the beginning that they were forced to split up. Xander had taken Willow and fled, though after both had objected vehemently. Anya and Giles had gone together, Sam and Clem sticking close to the two of them at all times at Buffy’s orders. Buffy, Dawn, and Spike had insisted on staying together, refusing to allow the little family they had developed to be torn apart during such a time… That was right around the same time they had discovered Buffy’s condition…
Spike had long since come home to her; human and still in love. At first, she’d tried to deny her own feeling to him… But he had known. He always knew. And eventually she had admitted it… It hadn’t taken her long. Only a few short months. It had been ten years since his return, and with each passing moment, she fell more and more in love with him. Eventually, about two years after that, the pair had been married… Without any objections from what remained of the Scooby gang. Then, the next year, the Initiative’s plan for world domination had been put into effect. After being on the run for only a few short months, Buffy had discovered her pregnancy and after nine long months, she’d given birth to their beautiful baby girl in a secret hospital. Nothing fancy, just a small underground facility made of nothing more than a few cots, and a cooler or two where the antibiotics were stored, due to the constant need for mobility.
Now, here they were, still on the run after seven long years, and nothing seemed to be improving on the surface. They lived underground now… The young girl, Miracle, could most likely count the number of times she’d seen the sun on one hand. It wasn’t any way to bring up a child, but they had no other choice. Were they to step out of hiding for even the shortest time, they would surely be captured. Neither Spike, nor Buffy were willing to let that happen. Spike had taken to watching not only their daughter, but Dawn as well, like a hawk. Never once did he willingly tear his eyes from the two girls… Not unless Buffy was there to lend a watchful eye. And he tended to watch over her the same way; keeping himself awake at all times. Sleep for Spike came only once in a blue moon. For the most part, he refused to even close his eyes for fear a member of Riley’s team would swoop in and take away one of his precious angels.
At times, he would get overly worried… More so than he already tended to… It was at times like these that Buffy was glad his senses and strength had not been taken with his vampirism. Had they been, she wasn’t sure he would’ve been able to handle it. Physically, sure, that was no problem for him… But mentally. If they had taken his strength, his fear would have been focused far too much on the fact that he could possibly lose the battle if it ever came to that. And losing any of the three women he loved would have been more than enough to destroy the former vampire.
Buffy knew better than anyone that, had it not been for Dawn and the promise he’d sworn to keep ‘until the end of the world’, he never would’ve held on. All the others had explained it to her… The scene he had made when he had seen her body lying lifeless on the ground had been almost unbelievable to her. And she hadn’t even seen it for herself. This man loved the three of them more than anything. He would do whatever it took to keep them safe, and the all knew it. Even the youngest of them family. Miracle, even at a mere five and a half years old, knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that her daddy would die before he’d let any type of threat lay so much as a finger on her. And so would mommy…
Their baby girl was everything to them… The miracle that, considering their fates, never should have come to be. But she had. And they loved her with everything in their hearts. She was part of them. Literally. The product of the love and devotion they had always held for one another, despite the desperate denial they had held onto for so very long. But once it had finally ended, leaving them with nothing but the comfort and safety of one another, she had been the heavenly reward. Their perfect little Miracle…
And then there was Dawn... The stubborn teenager the couple had once know had long since disappeared, and in her wake she had left a beautiful, intelligent young woman… though she remained just as stubborn as she had been once upon a time. Spike was still Mr. Overprotective when it came to his Nibblet. That would never change. Even at 25 and after all the training she’d endured from the both of them studying slaying, Dawn was still having to roll her eyes and scoff at his constant watchful eye. But she always listened. No matter what, she did as Spike instructed; her trust in him far outweighing her need for independence… No matter how absurd the man seemed half the time.
So they ran. There was nothing more they could do. To keep their family safe, the Slayer and the former vampire had to do everything in their power to avoid capture. Were they to be caught, they would surely be put to death… Immediately… All of them. Including the child who had been born into the dark world they were forced to live through day after day. There were only a select few who remained in hiding. Word had traveled to them, by way of rumor through the underground, that “the Wicca” and “the watcher”, as they had been referred to, had been captured and enslaved along with every other simple human… Not counting those of the initiative, of course. But Gauge had insisted that, as far as he knew, neither of the two had been brought in, though it was possible.
Now, they just needed to find a way to stop Riley and the Initiative from destroying the world, before it was too late…
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