Willow walked silently through the cemetery, taking in the changes that had occurred over the year.  The cemetery was slightly larger than when she had visit last.  That was to be expected.  This was Sunnydale after all. Some things didn’t change. Although, ironically, Sunnydale was one of the few places that didn’t show the change of times as readily as the rest of the world.  It was as if this small town situated on a Hellmouth, was separated, isolated from the rest of the world.  In a way, she guessed it was.

    Willow smiled sadly at her companion.  When she reached the grave she was seeking she turned to the other woman.
  “Tell me again why we come here?”  She asked.
  The woman smiled wistfully, “I don’t have that answer.  Only you can decide when you’ve suffered enough.”  She paused, allowing her words to sink in and then grinned, “But if you asked me, you reached the statute of limitations on unwavering guilt a few centuries back.”

    Willow smiled at her friend, and then grew somber.  “Do you think it would have mattered?” She asked quietly.  It was a question she often asked herself, but could never come up with a good answer.
“What?’  Her companion asked, knowing what Willow was referring to but also realizing, she needed to voice her questions, as she always did.
“Would it have made a difference if they had known that the prophecy was fulfilled?”
“No, not to them.  It would have mattered to him.”  Her friends’ voice was quiet, reminding her of the pain they both shared.
Willow nodded.  “I know.  But it’s too late now.  Too much has happened.  Too much time has passed.” She whispered as she ran her hands along the tombstone.
“It’s never too late” Her companion’s words shook her to the core, knowing the truth in them.

*******

     “Something’s happened.”

   Spike looked up at his sire.

 “I can feel it.  Something isn’t right.”

  Spike walked over to where his sire stood and stared out of the windows into the blackened sky.

  “Druscilla?”  He asked, knowing that was the only explanation.

  “She’s in danger.”  He turned to his favorite childe.  “Get the boys. We’re going for a trip.”

******

     The girl watched the pair of women suspiciously.  She had been told that they would be here. She had been told that she should kill them.  She had thought it was a waste of time.  Why would a vampire want to warn her of the arrival of two more?  It didn’t make any sense.

   But now that she was here, she realized that the assumption wasn’t exactly accurate.  One of them was definitely a vampire. She could feel it.  But the other one, she wasn’t.  She was mortal, as far as she could tell, but what would a mortal woman be doing hanging around a vampire?

    Lysia stepped out of the shadows, and followed the vampire.  She crept up behind her, preparing to drive a stake through her heart, when she felt an arm grab her wrist.  The same wrist which was holding the stake.
The vampire kept walking, apparently ignorant to the attempt on her life.  Lysia whirled around to face the person who dared interrupt her kill.
 “How dare you!”  She snapped, trying to pull her wrist free from the woman’s grasp. “I should kill you for that!”  She growled.

   The woman let her go, and laughed, taking a step back.  “That I’d pay good money to see.”  She turned her back on the Slayer, only to have the girl thrust the stake into her shoulder.

  It hurt, but only for a second.  Willow spun around, green eyes glowing angrily, as she pulled the wooden stick out of her shoulder, where it had embedded itself.  She broke the weapon in half and tossed it to the floor.
 “I. Don’t. Like. To. Be. Staked.”  She snarled, enunciated each word carefully.

  The Slayer stared incredulously at the woman.  She was angry, and maybe a little hurt, but mostly angry.  She had embedded the weapon halfway into the woman’s shoulder.  She should be screaming in pain.  Instead she acted as if it was nothing more than a misquito bite.

  Willow turned away from the slayer for a moment, walking in the direction her companion had gone. A few feet away she stopped and turned back to the girl.

  “I suggest you keep away from my friend.  Even if you could kill her, you can’t kill me.  Death will await you if you try.”  She turned and sprinted off towards a row of trees where her friend was waiting for her with an amused expression.

 “What?”  Willow asked.
“Can’t I take you anywhere without you starting a fight?”
Willow was about to retort when she saw the humor in the older woman’s eyes, and laughed.  She linked their arms, and started to walk out of the cemetery.

 ********

     Lysia walked back towards her house deep in thought.  She didn’t know what it was about the women in the cemetery, but they frightened her.
   She could only remember two vampires that had ever brought about that kind of fear.  But they had only come to Sunnydale looking for something, or someone, and had only stayed for a week.  It was a week too long, as far as she had been concerned.  There was something about that pair which had shook her to her core.  She had the same feeling about these women.  She hoped they would be leaving town soon.

    She was almost to her house when she stopped, feeling the presence of a vampire behind her.  She turned around.  It was the same one who had told her about the two in the cemetery.
  “What do you want?”  She snapped, pulling a stake out of her jacket.

  “You didn’t kill them.”  It was an accusation. “They will kill you, unless you kill them first”

 She lowered her stake, “Who are you?”  She asked as the vampire retreated into the shadows.

  Lysia continued her walk home, trying to shake off the strangeness of the evening, and the feeling of dread it brought her.

******

Willow walked down the quiet streets of Sunnydale.  She was being watched.  That girl was following her.  The Slayer was curious, she knew.  She wanted to know who she was.  Willow fought the urge to scare the girl.  She knew she was just doing her job.  She was supposed to fight the forces of evil.  Fight the creatures of the night.  And no matter how many centuries had passed, Willow could never get used to the fact that she was one of them now.  A creature that wasn’t supposed to exist, except in fairy tales.  A being who didn’t exist, not really.  She was alone.  There were no other’s of her kind.  She was the last.  There would be no future generations.  No one to pass on her legacy too.  But then again, she would live forever, so there would be no need.  The world could die, and she’d still be here, alone, as she always had been, always would be.  Not like in the beginning, it was worse then.  Before Willow had found her.  Her companion, her closest friend. A creature whose life depended on the death of others.  But fate had dealt her a hand she couldn’t just walk away from. There were lives at stake.  Maybe not her own, but lives nonetheless.
   No, it wasn’t her life she could lose, but her soul, her very being.

  *******

      “Where exactly are we going?” Spike asked impatiently.  They had been traveling for three days, and they were no closer to finding Druscilla, or even why it was she was in danger. “Are you sure, you’re not just imagining things?  You do look a little pale” he said the last with a smirk.  His sire growled in response.

 “Spike, my boy, trust me.  Don’t I always fix things?”  He asked, regaining some of his humor.

“Yes, but that’s usually because you’re the one that broke them, peaches.”  Spike couldn’t resist antagonizing his sire.  He was just too much fun to irritate.

 Angelus’ eyes glowed yellow, “Don’t push it!”

******

    Willow stopped and turned around, seeking out the figure who was following her.
“You can come out.  I know your there.’  She called into the shadows.  After a moment Lysia walked out from behind with a stake poised above her.  Willow smiled.  “Haven’t we already been through this?”  She asked, humor sparkling in her green eyes.

 “Who are you?  What are you?”  The slayer asked.

  Willow shrugged, “what do you think?”  She had no desire to hurt this girl, nor did she wish to explain herself to the child.

 “You’re not a vampire.  You’re mortal.  But…” Lysia couldn’t come up with an explanation to account for what had happened on their earlier encounter.

“Am I?”  Willow asked, her eyes glowing in the darkness.  “Maybe I am wolf, in sheep’s clothing.”  As she spoke, she allowed her body to transform.  First into the dark, dangerous wolf, and then into a soft, fluffy sheep.  Within seconds, she had returned to her previous form. Her voice took on a lilting tone, one that frightened the young slayer.  “I am nothing, and yet, I am everything.  I am all that ahs been, all that will ever be.”  Willow transformed herself into a small bird and flew away, before the girl had a chance to process what had happened.

   ******

    When Willow returned to the hotel, she found her companion sitting at the small table in the kitchenette.
  “You’ve been naughty.”  She said without turning around. Willow smiled at her friend’s uncanny ability to know what she was doing, almost before she knew herself.

  “We must go.  He is coming.  He’s getting closer.  He feels me, I draw him here.”  She turned to look at Willow.  “Did you find the one?  Is she here?”

  Willow shook her head.  “No.  The only thing I found was the Slayer, and I seriously doubt she knows anything.  If Revonna were here, We’d know.  But you’re right, if Angelus is coming, we must go.  Now.  Tonight. I am not ready yet.”
   Her companion nodded, then smiled, “Who is it you’re not ready for?”

   Willow was about to answer when her companion collapsed on a heap on the floor, shaking uncontrollably with the vision which had haunted her for the past two weeks.

  ********

Spike looked out at the familiar city, and then turned to his sire.

“I think you’re losing your touch, pops.”  He smirked. “We were here last year.  She wasn’t here then, and she isn’t here now.”

Angelus turned to his childe, his eyes glowing gold.  “She was here.  I can feel her.”

Spike was skeptical.  “Why would she come here, of all places?”

Angelus leaned back up against the tree, and let out an unneeded sigh.

“You ask too many questions.  You never learned to obey.”  He grinned wickedly, and then turned serious. “She comes here every year.  I don’t know why, but she does.”  Angelus stopped and looked into the darkness.  He felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up.  There was someone out there. Leaving Spike behind, he walked towards the shadows

  He hadn’t walked far when he saw something shift in the distance.  He turned back to where his childe still stood and motioned for him to follow.  After a moment, Spike had reached the clearing at the edge of the expanded cemetery.

“What is it?”

Before Angelus could respond, they heard a twig snap from behind them.  Both vampires whirled around.

“Angelus.”

*****

     The Slayer walked through the cemetery seeking out her prey.  The night had been busy.  She had already staked almost a dozen vampires during her forty minutes of patrol.  As she reached the edge of the cemetery she heard voices off to one side.  She crept slowly through the shadows and climbed a tree just above where she believed the voices originated.  She edged out a little farther on the branch to get a better view.

  As Lysia peered down at the creatures below, she almost lost her balance.  There were three of them.  Two vampires and a woman.  The woman looked human, but had a not-quite-mortal energy surrounding her.  It was the vampires that frightened her.  They were the two who had come to town the previous year.  There was something about them, that scared her.  They were evil.  She could feel the energy surrounding them.  It was death itself.
  Lysia had to consciously take control of her breathing and heart rate to keep from alerting the vampires to her presence.  She was thankful for the silence of the night as she listened.

******

  Willow paced around the room as her companion slept.  The visions had been getting worse.  As each day passed, she would see another glimpse into what was to come.  It was inevitable.  The end was near.  The hunter and the hunted could no longer travel a parallel path.
   Willow looked at her friend sleeping peacefully for the first time in a week.  Her raven hair fell like a curtain around her face.  Her pale complexion contrasting with the deep blue of her dress.  Her strength had increased over the last two centuries.  The visions didn’t take as much out of her as they had in the past.  And she no longer spoke in riddles, at least not to the extent that you couldn’t understand her.  Willow smiled fondly as she remembered the last four hundred years.
   In the beginning, the relationship had been awkward.  The two women having to deal with what had been, before the change.  But eventually they had made it to a new place.  A new understanding, where the past no longer mattered.  Their love for one another had grown.  They were sisters in every sense of the word.

   Willow was started out of her thoughts by her friend’s movement.  When she bent down to see if she was all right, deep green eyes looked into blue-grey.  Willow smiled.

“Sleep well?”

The vampire nodded.  “We are safe.  For now.”  She sat up took in her surroundings.  “Where are we?”

Willow searched her mind for the answers.  They had moved around so much recently, she was beginning to forget where one place left off and another began.  “Montana.  We’ll only be here a day.  We need to keep moving.”

The vampire nodded her agreement. “He’s there now.  Revonna, too.  It won’t be long until the hunt begins anew.”

*****

    Angelus stared in disbelief at the creature before him.  “Revonna?”

“Angelus.  It’s been a long time.”  She smiled at the vampire taking in his appearance.

Angelus looked her over closely, scarcely believing she was still alive, much less there in Sunnydale.  She looked the same. Her hair and eyes were black as night, a strong contrast to her pale almost white skin he knew could take on a sliver glow depending on her mood

“What are you doing here?”  He asked with a cocky grin.

“Your childe protects the One”

Angelus turned to Spike, a question in his dark eyes.

“The One?”  Spike asked. He remembered who and what Revonna was with a sense of dread.

“I am not after her, Angelus”  Her words were spoken to the older vampire, ignoring his childe’s question.  “But make no mistake, if she gets in the way, I will kill her.”

Revonna smiled at Angelus, remembering their past before she disappeared into a cloud of smoke.

Angelus turned to Spike.  “Tell the boys to scour the town.  I want to know when she was here, and who she was with. And bring me the Slayer.”

 Spike nodded and turned in the direction they had come to do as his sire asked.  There was trouble coming, and somehow, his sister was in the middle of it.

*****

  Lysia awoke to find herself bound and gagged. It was dark. She could make out the outline of a blindfold. She struggled against her ties as she tried to remember what had happened. She had been attacked by a group of vampires. They had knocked her unconscious and brought her somewhere.
 

Even though she couldn’t see them, Lysia knew she was surround by the creatures. She could feel them. Her slayer senses were on over drive. She heard a noise to her left and stopped her struggles, straining to make out what it was.

"Look who’s awake." The voice seemed to turn away from her. "Get the Master."

She heard noises as she presumed one of the vampires went to get their Master. She feared that the Master was one of the vampires she had seen the previous night talking to the woman. They scared her. They both exuded power. More than any others she had ever met in her time on the Hellmouth.
 

She heard new voices enter the room, and footsteps approach her.

"So, this is the Slayer? Not much to look at." The voice was silky, and laced with humor.

"Well you know what they say, Pops? They don’t make ‘em like they used to." The second voice was accented.

It was then that Lysia realized that these two were the vampires she had seen the previous night. An overwhelming sense of dread overcame her.

*****

"It’s time." Willow’s voice was soft, but firm. She turned towards Druscilla and smiled.
 

"I feel a change coming. The stars are whispering to me." Druscilla smiled as she recalled how many times she had used the stars as a means to understand her visions.

"The stars, huh?" Willow asked, "And what do they tell you?"

Druscilla turned and stared deeply into Willow’s green eyes. "The time has come to confront the past. Lay the demon’s to rest."

Willow laughed. "There is only one demon I want to lay to rest."

"So, we return? Go back to where it all began?" The vampire questioned.

"Yes. We go back." Willow nodded her agreement.

*****

Revonna walked through the woods quietly, listening. She could feel the power in the air. It radiated from the Hellmouth, forcing her to pay closer attention the elements.

She bent down and felt the ground. She could feel the slightest tremors in the earth as she looked towards the darkened sky. She could almost see the clouds swirling before her, as night made way for day.

She heard soft footsteps in the brush behind her.

"She’s coming. I feel it." She spoke softly as she turned around to face the other like her.

The woman’s complexion took on a slightly blue hue, which reflected in the soft glow of the breaking day.

"The vampires. They have taken the Slayer. If we’re not careful, they will ruin everything."

Revonna laughed. "Zyalla, you worry too much. They have no control over what is to come."

"You worry too little." Zyalla told her. "The creature will come. Or we shall parish. So it is written, so shall it be. We are wasting time with the half-breeds!" Zyalla snapped, her anger causing her skin to glow a translucent red.

"Enough!" Revonna’s tone was sharp. "We will do as I say. They live until I say otherwise."

Zyalla nodded once. "As you wish."

Revonna smiled, "Now, what shall we do about the Slayer?"

*****

"I will only ask you one more time, pet. Who was here?" Spike’s voice was hard.

"I…don’t know them." Lysia breathed heavily through the pain.

They had been asking her questions for what seemed like hours. For every unacceptable answer she gave, her pain would increase. At first she had refused to tell them anything at all. Soon, the pain became too much and she would give them small bits of information. But it was never what they wanted. She wasn’t even sure what it was they were after, anymore.

"Bloody Hell! This isn’t working!" Spike swore. He turned to a couple of vampires standing guard nearby. "Take her down, clean her up, bring her upstairs."

Spike turned to Angelus who was watching the display with amusement in his dark eyes.

"What now?" Angelus asked.

"You’re asking me? This was you’re brilliant plan!" Spike snapped.

Before Spike had finished uttering the words, Angelus had him pinned up against the back wall, one hand wound around his childe’s throat.

"Don’t forget your place, Boy!" Angelus snarled. He then released his grip and kissed his childe firmly on the lips, forcing his tongue into Spike’s mouth. After a moment of dueling tongues, Angelus pulled away.

"You were saying?" Angelus smirked.

Spike groaned as he moved away from the wall. "You’re a wanker, you know that, mate?"

Angelus chuckled. "And you love it!" He paused for a moment, his eyes growing serious, "She knows something, and we are running out of time."

"I know that. What I don’t know it how Druscilla got mixed up with the Riattae’"

"That’s what we aim to find out." Angelus slapped Spike on the back, "Come. Let’s not keep our guest waiting."

******

Angelus smirked to himself as he entered the room and watched the frightened slayer shrink back in fear. He put on his best seductive smile and approached her.

"Lysia? Is that your name?" He asked.

She nodded her head, too afraid to speak.

I want to help you. But I can’t if you don’t tell me what I want to know. If you do, I can let you go, but if not…" He let the threat hang motioning towards the doorway where Spike stood menacingly.

"What… What do you want to know?" She asked cautiously. She didn’t like the blonde vampire and was willing to tell them anything they wanted to know if it meant that she wouldn’t have to be alone with him again. He frightened her.

Angelus spoke soothingly, certain that this girl would tell him what he needed to know. "Two weeks ago, there was a couple of vampires here. One of them was tall, with Raven black hair, grey-blue eyes. They come here every year around the same time. Do you know who I’m talking about?" He watched as she thought about what he had told her.

She nodded slowly before she began speaking. "I know who you’re talking about. But the other woman, she isn’t like you. She isn’t a vampire. I, I don’t know what she is."

"What do you mean, pet?" Spike snarled as he approached the quivering Slayer.

"She… She had powers… She wasn’t human. I staked her, and it didn’t even phase her." Lysia stammered.

"What kind of powers?" Angelus asked in a deceptively calm voice.

"She could change, into animals. First she was human, and then she was a wolf, and then sheep. And she said something that didn’t make any sense."

"What?" Both vampires asked at the same time.

"When I, uh, when I asked her what she was, she said ‘I am nothing, and yet, I am everything. I am all that has been, all that will ever be’ and then she changed into a bird and flew away." Lysia looked up at the vampire to see if he believed her.

Angelus turned and shared a look of understanding with his childe. He then looked back at the slayer and smirked. As he strode out of the room, Angelus motioned to the slayer, "Care to make it number six, my boy?"

Spike grinned as he stalked towards Lysia. "One can never have to many Slayer kills."

*****

Zyalla scowled at Revonna. "You know they’ve got the Slayer."

Revonna waved her away. "They’ll kill her."

"Yes, but what if they find out about the One first? Once they realize who she is, they will interfere." Zyalla explained with a slight hint of irritation.

Revonna sighed. "Zyalla, How long have we been here? Searching for the One, to fulfill her destiny?"

"Six thousand years." Zyalla answered tonelessly.

"And in all that time, have we ever been this close?"

"No, but…"

"But nothing!" Revonna snapped. "The time of transference is at hand. When she was merged with the mortal witch five centuries ago, it set these events in motion. Nothing can detour them. Without the completion of transference, all is lost. This world, and ours. They can not survive alone any longer. The two must be joined."

Zyalla groaned. "I know all of this. But are you certain this is the way? The hunt? The vampires will interfere."

Revonna laughed. "I certainly hope so." When Zyalla looked quizzically at her, Revonna took at deep breath as her skin chained to a golden hue, indicating her shortening temper. "The Makers have wisdom in all things, Zyalla. We know not what their place is. But know this, if they are here, then they are meant to be."

****

Willow turned to Druscilla and smiled easily. "I’m going out. Will you be all right while I’m gone?"

Druscilla shooed her away will her hands. "Yeah, go, fly away, like a little birdie."

Willow laughed, "actually I was thinking more of a cat." She released the muscles in her body and allowed them to melt into the shape of a sleek black panther.

Druscilla watched as the front door opened, seemingly of it’s own will, and allowed the oversized cat to exit.

After her friend had left, Druscilla allowed her mind to drift to what lay ahead of them. It had been over five hundred years since the first part of the prophecy had been fulfilled, and they were now nearing its completion. It didn’t matter how many times she had heard the prophecy over the past four centuries. It still made no sense.

**

At the dawn of time they came

Two worlds, separate yet the same

When the cycle nears its end

Two will become one once again

The merging initiates the change

Furthering the creatures range

When the hunt begins anew

The game will be against the chosen two

When the One ends the game

The Other will be joined by two of the same

The four from this realm join two from the next

It’s both worlds they have been chosen to protect

Two will become one

Or all will be undone

**

Druscilla had tried to make sense of the prophecy, but each time she read it, it seemed to make less sense. Through her visions, she had learned only the first part of the prophecy had been fulfilled. The merging had taken place five centuries ago, since then, Willow had been hunted.

Druscilla smiled softly as she compared the Willow she knew now with the one she had met so long ago in Sunnydale. They were so different, but then, so was she. She had lost most of her insanity five hundred years ago. She didn’t know it at the time, but leaving Spike was the best decision of her unlife. She had lived alone for a century after that. It had changed her. Forced her to face her demons, and her past.

She wondered how long it would take Angelus to catch up with them.

*****

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