Chapter 1



It was a dark and stormy night in Sunnydale. The Slayer decided that any vamps stupid enough to be out in a torrential downpour deserved one more night of unlife, because there was no way in hell she was going out. The only Scooby not out of town on business or pleasure was Willow, her best friend and one wickedly awesome witch.



The two girls had spent hours of best-friend bonding at the day salon being primped and pampered. Both sported perfect manicures and fancy new hairdos, which was another reason Buffy didn't want to go out in the storm.



"Buffy, quit chipping your nail polish," Willow announced when she entered the living room from the kitchen. "You look great. Your students are going to freak when they see the new you." She set the mugs of hot chocolate down on the coffee table.



Buffy’s thoughts touched on her self-defense students. She had taught classes out of the back of Giles’ store since she had graduated from high school. With Faith in town as the truly active Slayer, it had freed Buffy’s time up to pursue the things she liked to do. Teaching self defense classes was an easy way to finance her college classes and her own apartment. Her friend Emmaline Hassib subbed when Buffy had to do her Slayer duty.



"You sure?" Buffy got up and checked her hair in the mirror again. She had to admit the dramatic black streaks through her blond hair and the heavy make up did look stunning. It wasn’t anything like her usual California girl look, but there was still a little nagging voice deep inside her heart that mocked her.



"Buffy, new students will be lining up down the street to sign up for your classes," Willow reassured her. The red haired witch seethed inside to see her once confident friend feeling so unsure of herself. Willow wished once again that Giles had kept his mouth shut when Buffy announced that she and her boyfriend, Riley, were going to try for a baby.



(flashback)



"Buffy, you're the Slayer. You can't get pregnant," Giles declared. He looked from Buffy to the clean-cut looking young man sitting next to her.



"What do you mean?" Buffy asked. She stared at the slightly embarrassed older man while she tightened her grip on Riley's hand.



"Well, er, that is to say…” Giles removed his glasses as his face flushed a deep red. “Slayers can't actually get pregnant, Buffy. All slayers are …er…sterile." Giles’ blush deepened. "It is a side effect of the calling, a way to insure that nothing interferes with their sacred duty."



(end flashback)



Buffy never talked about the argument between her and her boyfriend that followed on the heels of Giles' revelation, but Willow knew it had affected the Slayer deeply. Three heartbreaks of varying degrees in less than a year had taken its toll on the once vivacious girl.



First was Angel, the ensouled vampire that left for parts unknown after telling Buffy she needed to have a normal life with children and a human male. Then there was Parker; he'd seduced Buffy in a sick competition with his frat buddies to see who could sleep with the most freshmen girls.



Riley was heartbreak number three. He was a fresh faced college boy from Iowa. At first he seemed to be everything a girl could want in a boyfriend, but soon his intense desire to start a family made itself known. When Riley found out Buffy was unable to have children, he dropped the petite blond girl like a hot potato. In a matter of days, he had found a new girlfriend in the sister sorority of his frat house.



It was several months later that they learned that Riley was a member of a top-secret, government funded demon hunting group based in Sunnydale. The takedown of the group by Buffy, Faith, and the Scoobies caused the subsequent transfer of all the commandos including Riley and his new girlfriend.



"Good riddance to bad rubbish," Willow whispered. "I wish there was a way I could help Buffy have a baby."



"Did you say something, Wills?" Buffy asked. She caught her friend's eyes in the mirror.



Willow shook herself out of her morose thoughts and smiled brightly at Buffy. "How about we do that research that Giles asked us to do? Tonight is a perfect night for it."



"Um, okay." Buffy wrinkled her nose. She hated research, but she knew it was for a good cause. "I'll grab the books that Anya brought from the Magic Box. I just hope we can figure out who that evil bitch is that wants 'you know what'." She grabbed a pile of books from inside her coffee table.



"It was really smart to send your mom and sister out of the line of fire, Buffy," Willow said softly. "We've never had to do that before." She plopped down on the couch and took the book off the top of the pile.



"Never had a big bad mow through both me and Faith like that before." Buffy flipped the pages of the book she was holding, not even looking at the words. "It really scared me, and I've never seen Faith so pissed."



"It'll be okay, Buffy, honest," Willow assured her friend. When she reached over to give Buffy a hug, she knocked the stack of books over. The two girls giggled before Willow muttered, "Apparently I haven't outgrown the klutz stage yet."



"That's okay, Willow. You'd think I'd be all graceful being the Slayer, but I swear I'm klutzier now than I was before."



Willow bent over to pick up the books, one of which had fallen open. Out of simple curiosity, her eyes fell on the words and as she read her eyes got bigger and bigger. She glanced over at the Slayer, who was busy picking up the other books. "Buffy," Willow whispered. "You've gotta read this."



Buffy took the proffered book from Willow and recited aloud, "Slayers can only be recognized in two ways; a magically enhanced location spell known only to the Council of Watchers, or by actual sight during battle. Outwardly, slayers display all the features of a normal human female. Without magical knowledge or visual confirmation, it is impossible to tell them apart from the rest of the human race.



"For demons, the battles with slayers have been greatly diminished because of Council policy to replace the slayer frequently. No longer is there any need to worry about a family of slayers traveling the dimension. Slayers are no longer allowed to enhance their strength and skill by performing the ritual (page 352) to find their true mate and procreate. This may be one reason why demons have become so prolific in this dimension and tend to gravitate here.



"As slayers can only be impregnated by the master vampire that is their mate, they no longer perform the ritual to find them. It can only be hypothesized that slayers may not even be aware of this information. It is also hypothesized that the Council of Watchers has perpetuated a cover-up of said information, and that modern day slayers may not even be aware of this information."



The book fell from the Slayer's nerveless fingers. "Giles lied to me," she whispered. A sense of betrayal that she hadn’t known since her eighteenth birthday infused her.



"I don't think so, Buffy." Willow tried to quickly reassure her friend as she reached down to pick up the fallen book. "Anya just got these books in a few days ago. I have a feeling that Giles has no idea about this." She flipped to the page referenced in the excerpt to study the True Mate Ritual. "I could do this ritual to call your true mate, if you'd like."



Buffy stared at Willow for a few moments. "What if it turns out to be Angel? I don't think I could deal with that."



"Somehow, I have a feeling that the ritual won't reveal Angel as being your mate." Willow put the book down on the table, and she circled her arm around Buffy's shoulders. "If he was your true mate, he would have cared about you even after he lost his soul. We both know that Angelus hated everything about you and your relationship."



"Can I have a couple of days to think about this?" Buffy asked quietly. As much as she wanted a baby, she wasn't sure she was ready to acknowledge the fact that the only creature that could make her pregnant was one that she was destined to kill. “I don’t want to have to find my mate and then have to slay him.”



"Take all the time you need, Buffy," Willow assured her friend. She got up to get the Slayer another cup of hot chocolate. "You sit back and relax while I finish looking this book over, okay?"



"Sure," Buffy said absentmindedly. Her thoughts were a million miles away, imagining a life with someone by her side that understood what being a slayer meant.



Thirty minutes later, Willow looked up from the book to announce, "There was a slayer in the 1970's that had a little boy. She died at the hands of the self-proclaimed Slayer of Slayers before the Council had a chance to eliminate her. By all accounts she conceived and delivered the child after she was called. Her name was Nikki Wood."



"What happened to the child?" Buffy asked curiously.


"No one knows. Nikki's Watcher disappeared with the boy before the Council could step in. It's quite possible that the boy's father knew they'd be hunted down," Willow answered. She looked over at the clock on the mantle. "Oh, Goddess, I gotta get to bed. I have a class in the morning."



"Yeah. Me, too," Buffy replied while she rose to her feet. "The nursing home over on Broadway wants me to bring the under ten class over for a demonstration. It's part of that big cultural thing the new mayor is promoting."



"Let me know if you decide on doing the ritual, Buffy," Willow murmured, while giving the Slayer a hug. "Tara and I would be happy to help you."



"Please don't mention this to anyone, especially Giles or Xander. I can just imagine what their reactions would be," Buffy whispered back. She felt Willow nod into her shoulder. Buffy ushered her friend out of the apartment before she went to bed. There, she spent the night thinking long and hard about the weighty decision placed on her shoulders.



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



THREE DAYS LATER

"Willow, I want to do the ritual," Buffy told her friend while they sat on the couch. "Tonight, before the others get back into town."



"No problem," Willow answered. "I brought all of the ingredients just in case you were ready."



Buffy watched while the red-haired girl set up for the ritual. Nervousness coiled in her stomach when she thought about what exactly what the two of them were doing here. She chewed on her lip while she stared at Willow in contemplation. She hadn't realized that her friend had gotten so good at her witchcraft. Buffy felt ashamed that she had been so caught up in her own woes that she had neglected her friends lately. That was going to have to change, and pronto!



Before Buffy knew what was going on, Willow’s eyes darkened, and it appeared that she was speaking to someone.



"Chosen, complete, united as one, a dynasty started anew. Sought and now found, I offer you this; a family long overdue. Come be with your mate, William the Bloody." Willow's voice sounded tinny and echoed faintly. "Her name is Buffy and she's in Sunnydale, California. Yes, the home of the Hellmouth. You want to see what she looks like?" Willow's head swung around to stare at Buffy. "Yes, she's quite beautiful. Thank you, Spike." With a puff of air, she extinguished the candles.



The witch wavered and her eyes rolled back. Buffy caught her before she fell to the ground and helped her over to the couch.



Willow giggled softly. "Whoa! That ritual packs a wallop!"



"Tell me about him," Buffy insisted quietly.



"He's very handsome," Willow whispered as she held Buffy's hand tightly. "Blue eyes, the dreamiest cheekbones, and these full, pouty lips. Rowr!" She laughed again, and this time Buffy joined in.



It had been far too long since she'd had a reason to smile.



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



THREE DAYS LATER.



The big black car rolled into Sunnydale in the middle of the night, knocking over the 'Welcome to Sunnydale' sign. It coasted to a stop, and the driver's door opened. Black clad feet stepped out and the car shifted slightly when the man lifted his weight off of the seat. The car door slammed shut, and he stalked to the front of the car. The man pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, put one in his mouth, and lit it with one hand. The Zippo's flame showed yellow demon eyes, lethal fangs, and facial ridges. The streetlight bounced off of his gleaming, bleached blond hair.

"Home, sweet home," he breathed out with a lungful of smoke.