Thanks to Laine, Tay, Wicked, MM, and Aislynn for letting be rant on about this story in the chat tonight :) Pari
A/N: AU=Alternate Universe and ~~~ will represent the passage of time (forward and backward) Just watch the dates :)
Present day Verona, Italy
“I don’t know if I can do this again, and I don’t think it’s fair that you’re asking.” She said as she stood with her back to him, and stared out the window. She wrapped her arms around herself to fend off the sudden chill that surrounded her, a chill that didn’t come from the night air, since it was summer and quite humid out, this chill was due to the visitor that sat on her couch.
“I know it’s not and I’m sorry I wouldn’t be here asking if it wasn’t crucial.”
“But why me, haven’t I given enough?” She asked as she swiftly turned to face him, as her eyes glistened with impending tears. He lowered his head, his heart breaking for what his presences was doing to this woman he loved like a daughter. “I thought I was free of it now, that I could have a normal life…be a normal girl.” She nearly whispered the last part as a tear finally rolled down her cheek.
“Yes we had all thought that, with the spell Willow had cast awakening all the slayers in the world, but,” He hesitated not sure how to break the news to her.
“But what?” She urged him on.
“But it seems that it was only temporary, and to be honest I always thought that it would be, what Willow did threw nature off course. This world was never intended to have more then one Slayer at a time. Eventual Nature would correct this occurrence, and it has.”
“What?”
“All of the slayers are losing their powers, they’re returning to normalcy.” Her brow bunched in confusion and disbelief as she listened, she then shook her head to the idea of it. “Even Faith…” Her head shot up and her eyes widened as she looked to him.
“Faith? Faith is losing her powers too?” She asked stunned and angered.
“Yes, it seems the powers that be have decided to fix the lineage completely. You returning from the dead not once but twice, well it shouldn’t have been as far as they are concerned, but they let it slide since it didn’t cause any great disturbance but now, with slayers all over the world, it had to be fixed, all of it. Now it is as it should have always been, one girl in all the world…”
“Don’t give me that bullshit Giles, it worked when I was 15, not now. Why Faith and not me?”
“I honestly don’t know, maybe because of Faith’s past actions, maybe because you’re more experienced, you have saved the world many times Buffy.”
“Yes and in the end I usually lose something, either my life or someone I love.” She nearly choked on the last words, and she closed her eyes to the thoughts of their last apocalypse. “This is not fair Giles, and I just don’t know if I can do it anymore.”
“Well if it’s any consolation, you’re not the slayer needed for this apocalypse, I just want you to help out. Two Slayers are better than one as we’ve learned.” Buffy stared at him now in complete confusion.
“But you just said that everyone except me is losing their powers, so what other slayer is there.”
“Well according to the prophecy…” Buffy cut him off with a groan as she rolled her eyes.
“Who wrote all these prophecy cause I’d really like to beat the snot out of them.” Giles smiles despite the situation and then continued.
“It states that to win this battle, we need the best slayer in all the worlds, ‘the slayer’. Of course at first you came to mind but then there was a description and well it took Willow and I a while to understand that it didn’t mean you and thus it didn’t mean this world. And Willow did a location spell just with a broader map, and we’ve located her.”
“Great, though I’ll admit a tiny part of me is disappointed that I’m not the greatest slayer in all the worlds, but the majority of me is doing a happy dance that this time I’m not the one who has to save the day, that being said, why are you here again?”
“Buffy you’ve done it many times, you know what it takes to get it done, and on top of all that rubbish, I know ‘you’ and I trust ‘you’. I know that if something goes wrong with Nina, you can handle whatever comes.”
“Nina?” Buffy questioned.
“The greatest slayer, her name is Nina.” Giles replied and Buffy sighed heavily.
“Dawn is going to be so pissed, so you’re telling her.” Giles smiled and nodded his head in agreement. “So where is this Nina, guess we should get to know each other a bit.”
“Uhm…well you see Willow is still try to do a teleporting spell, one that will open a door from our world to hers…”
“Wait, you mean you don’t even have her here yet?”
“Uhm…no.” Giles stuttered as he removed his glasses and cleaned them before placing them back on his face.
“And what if when you do find her she says no, did you ever consider that Giles?”
“She won’t, she can’t” Buffy’s face grew serious at these words.
“It’s that bad?”
“Well what’s coming, if it succeeds, will swallow everything, all the worlds, dimensions, universes, everything.”
“Wow.” Buffy said unenthusiastically as she flopped down on the couch as if the wind had been knocked out of her. “So where is the base of operations?”
“Where it all began, in Sunnydale.”
“You have got to be kidding me, last I remember there is no Sunnydale, just a huge hole in the ground.”
“Yes a hole that has been filled in, and the town is already being rebuilt”
“They filled it in?” Buffy asked as she swallowed down the new batch of tears that was forming. “They just buried all of it?” Giles only nodded his head. “Like nothing happened, like no one died there. It’s going to be hard going back there, Giles.” Buffy said as she bowed her head, her tears now falling onto her hands, which sat clasped in her lap. Giles reached out and gently rubbed her back.
“I know and I’m sorry if there were any other way…” Suddenly the door burst open as bickering now filed the room.
How can you think Obi-Wan Kenobi is cuter than Anakin Skywalker ?”
“Uhm, Ewan McGregor, duh.” Dawn replied and she and Andrew bustled into the room, neither noticing they had a visitor.
“Oh come on, Hayden Christensen is way hotter.” Andrew defended and caused Dawn to stare at him in bafflement. “What, like you don’t think he is.” Dawn only shook her head and smiled as she turned towards the living room, and then she let out a high-pitched squeal upon seeing Giles.
“GILES!” She gushed as she ran to him as he stood from his seat, only to be knocked back down by the excited girl. “You’ve finally come to visit us, did you bring me presents?” She rambled on with a goofy grin on her face, which instantly crumbled when she saw her sister who sat silently on the couch with her head still bowed. “Oh no, not again.”
Present day (AU) Sunnydale
The dust hadn’t settle on the ground before she had turned and began to walk off. It wasn’t long before her entourage joined her, having finished off their vampires. They walked in silence until the youngest of the crew spoke out.
“I thought you didn’t lie.” She said with a smirk as she walked beside the woman she thought of as her sister, though they held not blood relations, yet still had a bond that was thicker then blood.
“I don’t” The woman replied as she continued to walk and stared straight ahead.
“I heard you Nina, you promised that Vamp you wouldn’t kill him if he told you where the Rack coven was.”
“Then you heard wrong. I told him I wouldn’t stake him if he told me what I wanted to know, and I didn’t stake him, I shot him.” Their other company chuckled as he kept in stride. “I’m the slayer Dawn, I kill demons.” Nina said as she continued to lead the way.
“No exceptions?” Dawn asked.
“Only Spike,” She answered causing Dawn to look over at the man that accompanied them.
“Why?”
“Because he was there before.”
“Before what?” Dawn asked but didn’t get a reply.
“I’m gonna take the high ground.” Nina said as she moved to Spike who simply lift her and tossed her up onto a nearby mausoleum.
“Guess I struck a nerve.” Dawn mumbled which was futile since her companion was part vamp.
“You ask too many questions kid.” Spike spoke as he now lead them on.
“Well it’s not like she’s forthcoming, she never talks about herself, or anything for that matter. In fact the only time I ever she her lips move in conversation is when you two are alone. I’m just curious about her you know, I’ve been with you guys twelve years and I don’t know you.” Spike snorted out a laugh. “Well I know you in that, I know I can trust you, I know you’re the good guys, you’re my family. But I don’t know what you were like before things went to hell. What were you like before you were turned and before you were shanshued?”
“Now you’re curious about me?” Spike asked but continued looking straight ahead.
“Well you don’t seem to mind talking to me, so you tell me what was Nina like when you met her?”
~~~~
July 12th, 1945 Harlem N.Y:
“You’re a great dancer you know that?” The drunken woman said in between giggles as she hung all over her companion. She hadn’t been his first choice of the night but she was the easiest, so he figured he’d get his fill with her and that would give him the energy to play with the next. “So where do ya wanna go baby, your place or mine?” She giggled out and he inwardly groaned, he knew that if she kept up with her annoying hackling he’d end up snapping her neck, instead of his earlier plans to fuck her, feed, and then dump her somewhere. So he thought it best to end things a quickly as possible, so he yanked her towards a darkened alleyway.
“Here.” He said gruffly and she shoved her against the cobblestone wall. His hands quickly went to work, so fast that she seemed to grow even dizzier as he lifted her skirt, yanked away her panties, unzipped himself and embedded fully into her. She gasped out in surprise and slight pain as she threw her head back against the stone, staring up wide-eyed and her mouth agape. Her moans soon filled the alleyway, but it didn’t distract him from his tasked as he continued thrusting into her he rubbed her neck and turned her head slightly. Just as he leaned in to get a taste a familiar scent filled his nostrils and he stilled completely as he turned and looked further into the pitch-black alleyway, hidden by the darkness.
“What’s tha matter baby?” Came the annoying voice and he turned to growl, and tell her to shut up so he could hear better, but when he faced her, her eyed grew as large as saucers and she let out a piercing scream, which only lasted a millisecond before a loud crack could be heard. It was then that he realized that he had vamped out, that the scent he had smelled invoked this involuntary reaction. He turned back to the darkness of the alleyway and listened after a moment he heard it, a sound so slight that a mere human would never have noticed it. He moved towards it, easily tossing the lifeless body he still clutched into a nearby trash heap and then fixing his pants. He had gotten nearly six feet before he found the source of the noise. It was a young black girl who judging by her body, he guessed was probably no more than fourteen, or fifteen. She was sprawled out on the ground, naked, bloodied, badly beaten, and the sight of her angered him, for he instantly knew who have done the act.
“Angelus, what have I told you about playing with your food.” He spoke out with a sigh, knowing that the person he spoke of was long gone by then, thinking he had dumped a corpse. He himself stood baffled at how she had survived, he had been witness to many of Angelus’ torture sessions and he had learned two things, one Angelus was a sick fucker and two the victims never ever lasted long. Yet here one lay broken but still alive, barely. He kneeled down to get a closer look at her, her head was probably twice it’s normal size and her face was so swollen that the only thing he could make out was her nose, and that was only because it was sticking out from the middle of the swollenness. He stood to leave but his feet didn’t move he just continued to stare at her. He didn’t know why and probably would never truly understand why he did what he did next, but he knelt again and gently cradled the broken girl into his arms. He was thankful that he had parked just on the other end of the alleyway and that they were in New York, a town where people generally didn’t give a damn about you and had no problems with stepping over you if you lay dying in the street. He knew no one, who may happen upon them, would even give a second glance to him carrying a bloodied, naked black girl, and none did.
squawks
05/18/17 04:16 am
pj! I remember wishing one of your stories would be finished seriously about a decade ago. Amazing. I just tried an old password I used to use and amazingly got in too. Memories!
pj
03/20/17 01:20 am
10 yrs later, i finally rem my username and password. Pari, you rock. Hope you are well.
Rabbit_moon1
12/23/16 01:12 pm
I donate every month. Please donate to keep this site up!
AudryDaluz1
10/06/16 08:34 am
Great post.
Chrissel
08/31/16 03:45 pm
And anyone else who loves this site, it's worth mentioning there's a nifty little "Donate" option just below the shout box here! ;)
Chrissel
08/31/16 03:43 pm
Just wanted to take a moment to thank Pari and all the mods for maintaining such a great site!
05/18/17 04:16 am
pj! I remember wishing one of your stories would be finished seriously about a decade ago. Amazing. I just tried an old password I used to use and amazingly got in too. Memories!
pj
03/20/17 01:20 am
10 yrs later, i finally rem my username and password. Pari, you rock. Hope you are well.
Rabbit_moon1
12/23/16 01:12 pm
I donate every month. Please donate to keep this site up!
AudryDaluz1
10/06/16 08:34 am
Great post.
Chrissel
08/31/16 03:45 pm
And anyone else who loves this site, it's worth mentioning there's a nifty little "Donate" option just below the shout box here! ;)
Chrissel
08/31/16 03:43 pm
Just wanted to take a moment to thank Pari and all the mods for maintaining such a great site!