Title: Demons and Souls, Part 13/14

Author: sibling

Email: sibling@fanfiction.net

Author's Note: If you'll notice, I finally decided how long the story would be. Next chapter will tie things up and get them ready for Book II. Now you'll just have to wait till I'm ready.

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As the training session wound down, Buffy had to admit that Dawn was good. Really good. Her aim was as good -- maybe even a bit better -- as Buffy's had been when Giles had introduced her to the crossbow. Her reflexes were also good, and her speed was something that just had to be seen to be believed. She almost made Buffy feel old.

Dawn didn't seem to be as strong as her older sister, but neither one was concerned about that just yet. It had taken several months for Merrick and the Council to track Buffy down after the death of the previous Slayer, and she was probably up to full Slayer strength by the time her first Watcher had shown up at her school.

"Okay, Dawn, last one, then we go home. On my signal, I want you to come through the door and fire at both targets as quickly as you see them. Let's see if you can be fast and accurate."

"All right. Just make sure you're in a safe place; I don't want to have any accidents with this thing." Dawn said as she went just outside the room.

"Oooh, yeah. I remember the time I was doing this same exercise with thrown stakes and almost nailed Giles. Lucky thing he was wearing armor at the time. But a crossbow bolt will go right through armor, so I'm gonna get in that little corner behind the door." She pointed at the little nook.

Then she closed the door, and set up the target dummies, about thirty-five feet apart, one thirty feet from the door, the other at nearly fifty feet. Then she went back to the door, cracked it, and peeked through to make sure Dawn wasn't cheating. Satisfied, she got into her hiding place, waited a little while to make sure Dawn couldn't predict when the signal would come, and shouted, "Now!" as she hit the button on her stopwatch.

The door flew open. Twang-thunk! Twang-thunk!

Buffy hit the button again, and looked at the watch. "One-point-six seconds. Whoa!" Then she went over to check out the targets. The first shot, at the closer target, was dead in the center of the heart-shaped target on the dummy. The second one wasn't quite as centered, but still well in the paint. "Two good shots, Dawnie. I'm impressed."

Dawn glowed at the compliment. "Really?"

"Yeah." Then she walked over to Dawn. "And to prove it, that crossbow is now yours to keep."

"Mine?" Dawn's brow wrinkled in confusion.

"You need a weapon you can use in an emergency. Something you can reach for automatically, without having to look around for it. Until Spike and Giles say you're up to the up-close-and-personal work, I want you to keep this thing," she tapped the crossbow significantly, "within reach at all times. Ezcept for school, of course. They kinda freak out when they see students carrying weapons around."

Dawn grinned. "Thanks. I'll remember that." Then she gave her sister a roguish look, and said, "So when do I get to take this out on a patrol?"

Buffy glared at her. "Don't push your luck, Slayer Junior. You can only load two shots at a time in that thing, and it takes a long time to re-load. Too long, if you're in a real fight with a bunch of baddies. So no patrolling until you've had more hand-to-hand practice." She frowned. "Then we'll see."

* * *

As the two sisters, Willow, and Tara headed for Buffy's house for dinner, Buffy warned everyone, "Now, no telling Spike about this marriage thing. He'll either be on his knees or out the door in a flash, and neither one would make me happy right now."

"Okay, Buffy," Willow answered.

Tara added, "But if we can't find another solution to your problem, you might want to consider . . . cutting Spike off. After all, why buy the cow . . . " She winked at the petite Slayer, who almost choked as everyone laughed.

"Tara! I'm surprised at you!"

"I'm not," said Willow. "You guys just haven't seen Tara in one of her mischievous moods. She usually only lets this side of her out in private. Like this one time, she cast a spell on my notebook computer. Whenever I sat down with it, it would say to me, 'Oooh, Willow, your lap is so nice and warm.' And when I started typing, it kept giggling and saying 'That tickles!'" She glared in mock anger at her lover. "I can't even repeat what it said when I plugged in the power cord."

* * *

The four young women ate dinner together, trading jokes and stories. But as it got later and later, Buffy began to get worried. "I don't like this. Spike should've been back a long time ago."

Willow shrugged. "He's probably just taking one last look around the old crypt. You know, for old times' sake?"

Buffy glared at her. "Spike is not moving in with us . . . yet." she finished hesitantly.

The other three girls just gave her knowing looks. "Right, Buffy," Tara said with a wink. "Tell us another one. I'll bet that for the next two months, Spike doesn't spend the night anywhere except your room."

Buffy snorted, "In his dreams."

Suddenly Dawn gasped. "Dreams! Oh my God! I never told you about my dreams!"

Buffy turned to her. "What? You had the Slayer dreams? All confused and warning-like?"

"Yeah, Saturday night. I meant to ask you about it, but you told me about starting training with Spike, and I completely forgot about it! There were a couple of things I didn't understand at the time," she explained, "like seeing myself fighting with Spike. Now I know what that meant. But there was something else. I saw Drusilla."

Buffy whispered, "Oh, no! I've got to check on Spike! She'll be after him!" And she raced for the door, calling out, "Grab some weapons, call Xander, and we'll meet up at the old mansion; that's the last place Drusilla used as a base here in Sunnydale! I'm heading over to Spike's crypt to see if he's okay."

Dawn started to follow her, "I'm coming with you!"

Buffy shouted, "No, Dawn! Stay with Willow and Tara! Keep each other safe! I'll see you at the mansion!" And then she was gone.

* * *

When Buffy got to Spike's crypt, the door was ajar and there was no sign of the vampire. And then her heart nearly stopped beating when she saw the note -- a black rose laid on top of it -- on the sarcophagus Spike sometimes used as a bed.

"The mouth?" Buffy said to herself. She must mean the Hellmouth. What's she doing there? She frowned. No "little friend" of Spike's was missing. That crazy bitch sent him off on a wild goose chase! Then she thought of something. If Spike came here right after I went to the Magic Box . . . she looked at her watch. That was four hours ago! He'd've gotten back to me by now! She must've laid a trap for him! He could be hurt, or . . .

"Spike! Don't leave me! You promised!" With that cry, Buffy was out the door and running toward her old high school as fast as her legs would carry her.

* * *

The first thing Spike noticed was the smell. A flat, stale smell of smoke and ashes.

The second thing he noticed was that he was chained to a wall.

And the third thing was Drusilla, standing next to Buffy with a knife in her hand.

The Slayer was also chained, to a post that had been driven into the floor. He looked at the chains that held him; they were anchored by rings driven into the wall. The post was about ten feet straight in front of him. She must've spent a long time setting this up. How long has the crazy bird been in town, hiding right under our noses? And where are we, anyway?

He looked around. They were in a burned-out wreck of a building. He had his suspicions almost immediately, and the crack in the floor about twenty feet away from the post confirmed them.

They were in the old Sunnydale High Library, at the Hellmouth.

"Oh look, my Spike has finally woken up!" Drusilla stepped closer to Spike, running a finger along his jawline, but never taking her eyes off Buffy.

Buffy looked sadly at Spike. "Sorry Spike, I blew it. She left a note at your crypt, addressed to you. Made me think she'd lured you into a trap, and I came running to the rescue."

Drusilla laughed and clapped her hands. "Oh, yes you did, you did very well indeed! You came right here to rescue Spike from the awful trap! But the trap was for you, wasn't it dearie? And all the wonderful things that Spike had hidden away made it possible!" She pointed, and Spike noticed a pile of his stolen Initiative equipment, including tazer and tranquilizer guns.

He groaned. Drusilla was mad, but she had never been stupid. She had played them both perfectly. "What are you doing back in Sunnyhell, Dru?"

She walked away from Spike, and circled around Buffy, never once taking her eyes off the Slayer. "I was reading the cards, and they told me I was in danger. A little girl who loved my Spike was going to kill me, unless I got to her first. I thought she," and she pointed with the knife at Buffy, "might be the one, but I wasn't sure." She giggled madly. "She seemed so resistant to your charms last year. I couldn’t understand it at all. I would have fallen for you in an instant if you had done for me what you did for her."

Buffy growled, "Stop looking at me like that, you psycho bitch! Why do you keep staring at me?"

Drusilla gave her an intense look, and said, "The mouth told me all about you, girl. It said the Slayer who loved my Spike couldn't kill me as long as I saw you first. I always listen to what the mouth tells me to do."

"The mouth?" Spike asked, "What the hell are you talking about?"

"That." She gestured toward the crack in the floor. "It's been telling me things all week. Wonderful things." Her smile got even bigger. "It said the Day is coming!"

"What day?"

"The Last Day!" she said happily. She bit her lip in excitement "It told me how it was all going to happen, and how the humans would try to stop it. Although," and she made a quizzical face and scratched her head with her index finger, "I wonder how twenty-eight duckies could stop the end of the world? Or was it doxies?" She giggled. "Oh well, it doesn't matter. I don't want to stop it, after all. What I want to do right now is show you the new game I invented!" She smiled gleefully at Spike.

"What kind of game?" the vampire asked fearfully. He was sure he knew the kind of thing Dru had in mind; after all, she had learned torture from the best.

She giggled. "Oooo, it's going to be so much fun! I'm going to play with your little girl," she said as she stroked Buffy's cheek with the flat of her knife, "and you're going to watch. And watch. And watch!" She smiled happily, like a little child. "You see, I'm not going to let her die, not until you tell me to. And the last thing she sees and hears will be my darling Spike telling me to kill her!

"And when she's finally dead, I'll start playing with you, for as long as you let me play with her. And then I'll decide whether you're ready to be a good dog again or not." She smiled, and her smile encompassed total innocence and pure evil at the same time. "Doesn't that sound like a wonderful game?"

"Actually, I prefer Scrabble."

Drusilla turned at the sudden voice . . . and there was a twang-thunk! as a crossbow bolt buried itself in the middle of her chest.

The last thing Drusilla saw before she collapsed into dust was the hard, blue gaze of Dawn Summers as she stepped out of the shadows.

Dawn lowered the crossbow she was holding and sighed. "I thought I was never going to get a clear shot." She looked over at Buffy, who was staring at her in disbelief. "I know the Slayer's supposed to have this colossal struggle with the villain when she comes to the rescue like this, but I figured I'd skip the fight and just save your butts."

* * *

"After we all went to the mansion and realized it was a dead end, I told the others to go back to our place and wait to hear from me," Dawn explained while she unlocked the chains around her still-stunned sister. Luckily, metal objects like keys could survive the dusting of the vampire that held them. "I told them I was going to do a recon at Spike's crypt and meet them at home."

"So why didn't you? Meet them, I mean," asked Buffy in a daze. She couldn't believe this.

"I found the letter at Spike's and guessed what had happened." She glanced over at Spike. "I don't think Spike would have fallen for that 'little friend' line, not without checking in to see just who was missing first, and calling on the rest of us for backup." She looked at him.

Spike nodded. "She's right, luv. Last year I might've gone haring off by myself, but lately I've learned how much easier it is to fight with someone watching my back. Even Xander is better than no backup at all." He grimaced.

Dawn continued. "So I figured Drusilla's trap had to be for you. I called the others from a pay phone," she said as she gave Buffy an aggravated glare, "and then came here. They should get here any minute now."

Buffy rubbed her wrists as the chains came off, to get the circulation going again. She sighed, "I'm sorry, okay? I panicked. When I realized how long Spike had been missing, I thought . . ." She looked up at Spike, and there were tears glistening in her eyes. "I was afraid she'd killed you," she whispered.

Spike half-smiled at her as Dawn started to work on his chains. "Silly girl. Can't get rid of me that easily." Then he asked Dawn, "Why'd you wait so long to kill the crazy bird, though? You cut that one too damn close, Niblet!"

Dawn frowned. "I was checking things out from around the corner over there." She pointed. "The way she was circling around Buffy, always keeping her eyes on her, the only time I had a clear shot at her was when Buffy was in between us. I figured I would only get one shot at her, so I waited until I could surprise her into turning towards me." She grinned. "With that white lace thing in the middle of her blouse, it was just like target practice."

Spike rolled his eyes and chuckled. "That's my Lil' Bit."

* * *

It was at that point that the Scoobies arrived, and Buffy and Spike had the embarrassing experience of telling the others how Dawn had saved them.

Xander grinned and high-fived her. "Way to go, Dawnmeister! Your first official Slayage!"

Dawn added happily, "And my first rescue-of-my-sister-and-boyfriend-from-certain-doom, too!"

Buffy rolled her eyes. "I'm never gonna hear the end of this, am I?" she groaned.

Dawn gave her an insufferably smug grin. "Not for a long, long time, sis." Then she paused. "Do you hear something? A voice?"

Everyone stopped and listened. "All I hear is my stomach growling," Spike said.

"And all I hear is my voice saying it's time to get out of this place," growled Buffy.

Xander pouted at her. "Awww, is the poor Jedi Master embarrassed at being rescued by the lowly Apprentice?"

Buffy swatted him. Hard.

TBC

Title: Demons and Souls, Part 14/14

Author: sibling

Email: sibling@fanfiction.net

Author's Note: Okay, this is where I’m going to end “Demons and Souls.” If there are any plot threads still hanging, I left ‘em that way on purpose. Keep your eyes out for the sequel.

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“You okay, Spike?”

“Hmmm?” The vampire had been unusually silent as they made their way out of the ruins of her old school. He hadn't let go of her hand since they’d been freed by Dawn, but he hadn't said a word to her since then either. If Buffy didn’t know better, she’d have said Spike was brooding. “What’s that?”

“Are you all right? I mean, you and Dru-“ She broke off, not knowing what to say.

“Oh, that.” They stopped walking, and Spike let go of her hand long enough to pull out a cigarette and light it. “What I said to you last year, when I was gonna stake her . . . it was true. We spent over a century together, Slayer. She was the first woman who ever showed me any . . . affection. It does mean somethin’ to me . . . knowin’ she’s dead.”

He paused a moment, and took a long drag on the cigarette. “But maybe Tara was right about this whole soul-sharin’ business changing me as much as it’s changed you. ‘Cause right now, being with you, I look back on Dru and me and it all seems . . . lacking. Empty.” Then out of nowhere, a small, ironic smile came to his face.

Buffy blinked at him. “What?”

“Oh, nothing." He started to turn away.

Buffy stopped him by pulling on his arm, and glared at him. "Spill it, blondie. If there's one thing I've learned in the past week, it's the importance of talking about stuff." Then she softened her glare, and continued, "Besides, if it made you smile, I'd like to hear it. I could use some good news."

"Whether it's good or not depends on your point of view, Slayer." He took another big puff, and shook his head. “I can’t help rememberin’ how the Pouf got his soul back. The gypsies put a curse on him, to make him suffer forever. Worst thing that could happen to a bloke, right? At least if you're a vampire," he added after a pause. "Even when he became a soddin' hero, the curse forced him to hurt everyone around him. Especially you. That's what makes it a curse."

He threw the cigarette down and stomped it out. Then he turned to Buffy and took hold of her other hand. “I still don’t know what it means, this whole business of you having my soul. I don’t believe it’s why I love you. Or why your death was the worst thing that ever happened to me.

"But it's beginning to do the same thing to me that the curse did for Angel. And it scares the Hell out of me. But when I look into your eyes, and see love for a man, instead of disgust for a monster . . . I know that it's not a curse. It's a blessing."

Buffy just stared at her lover. An introspective Spike was something that would take a Hell of a lot of getting used to. Like I keep saying, things were a lot simpler when we were just fighting.

Then, what he said suddenly meshed with some things that had been rattling around in her head for the past year. And she felt her whole world turn upside down once more. “Death is my gift,” she whispered.

“Wot?”

She shook herself out of her reverie. “Last year, when I went away into the desert? You know, when you had the robot made?” she said with a glare. Maybe she loved him now, but she still wouldn’t give him any slack about that little faux pas. “I was visiting a sacred place, to ask some questions about . . . what it meant to be the Slayer. I was afraid that being the Slayer meant that I couldn’t love the way I should. But my guide told me . . . that I was full of love. That I loved with all of my soul. That I needed to love, even if it brought me pain. And that love would bring me to my gift. And then she said,” and here she imitated the haunting voice of the Spirit Guide, “’Death is your gift.’”

Spike stared at her. “Bloody hell. What a soddin’ awful thing to say to someone.”

She nodded and looked up into his eyes. “That was just about my reaction. I couldn't understand it. After all that talk about how full of love I was . . . was I nothing but a killer?

“Then, on the tower, when Dawn was saying she had to jump into the portal to close it, everything seemed to make sense. This was why I was born. This was my gift. Not anyone else’s death, but mine. I had to give my life to save the people I loved. And so I jumped. And I died. And for a while, I was at peace, because I’d done what I was supposed to do. I was finished . . . complete.”

She took a deep breath, and let it all come out. “Only I was brought back. And I've had to wonder: if that was my gift, then what am I still doing here? Is there any reason at all for me to be alive?

“You just gave me my answer, Spike.”

“What? Changing me is now your great purpose in life?” He snorted.

“No, Spike. It’s far more than that. Remember? I love with all my soul, which is also your soul, ‘love’s bitch?’ Love will lead me to my gift, which is death?” She shook her head; this was all so bewildering, yet it seemed so right, so fitting.

“You loved Cecily with all your soul, and she rejected you, and so you let Drusilla bite you. I love Dawn, and I would do anything for her, and so I died so she could live.

“And now, because of the spell Willow used to bring me back, the soul we share, which has loved so much and hurt so much, binds us together.” She gripped his hands tightly as she said the last part. "That bond didn’t make us love each other, but that soul is what made us love the kind of love that’s so powerful that you’ll die without it, or die for it.

“I don’t know if this is all making sense, Spike. This is like what happened on the tower, everything in my life suddenly being given new meaning. It scares me, too. And you heard Drusilla back there. There’s something big coming, and I don’t know if we’ll be able to stop it. But I think that we’re meant to be together, to fight it.

“And I think . . . I need to tell you about something Willow told me.”

Spike just gazed at her for a long time. Then he said, “Hold that thought a moment, luv.” Then he turned, and bellowed, “DAWN! I want a word with you, now!”

* * *

About an hour later, the four women who lived in the Summers house collapsed into various couches and chairs in their living room. Spike had volunteered to see Xander and Anya home, then do a sweep of the school and his crypt to make sure his weapons stash didn’t fall into anyone else’s hands.

Buffy thought privately that he wanted a little time to himself, to think about what she’d said to him . . . including the possible cure for her condition. She sure needed to think about it.

Willow and Tara were asleep almost as soon as they were off their feet. The blonde Slayer watched them lying in each other’s arms for a while, enjoying the warm glow she felt from seeing her two friends together again.

Yawning, she turned to her younger sister. “I should probably go to bed, and haul you up there, too,” she yawned, “but I don’t think I can even make it up the stairs right now.”

Then, in that rare moment of privacy in their crowded home, she figured it would be a good time to bring up something that had been on her mind since they had left the school. “Umm . . . Dawn? I guess this means you love Spike too?”

Dawn blinked at her sleepily. “Huh?”

“Drusilla said she came back to Sunnydale because she read in her cards that a girl who loved Spike was going to kill her. Since I’m not the one who put a crossbow bolt through her, that leaves you.”

Dawn just peered at Buffy through tired eyes for a moment. Then she put her hand up to her forehead dramatically, and cried, “Yes, yes, Buffy, it’s true! I love Spike! Oh, the tragedy of unrequited passion!” Then she laughed and made a forget-about-it gesture with one hand. “Of course I love Spike, Buffy! He’s saved my life a gazillion times, he’s been there for me when you couldn’t . . . he even forgave me for spilling the beans about Cecily, when I was sure that was the one thing that would earn me a butt-kicking, chip or no chip.

“Don’t you know, Buffy, if I didn’t love him, I wouldn’t trust him with your poor mistreated heart?”

Buffy gave her a weak smile. “Thanks. Nice to know I can rely on my younger sister to look out for me. In more ways than one.“

* * *

The next morning, Dawn protested once again about having to go to school. "I think catching up on sleep I lost while saving your life should be a valid excuse!"

"And how about all the times I had to go to school after saving your life?"

Once again, Dawn ended up going to school anyway.

* * *

Life stabilized for the Slayers and the Scoobies for the next few days. Buffy had Tara take some job applications to UC Sunnydale for her. She figured that the security guard job was the only one she had a real shot at. But the thought of being able to go back to school again soon got her through the tedious workdays at the Palace.

The Scoobies started looking through books for any reference to twenty-eight duckies or doxies and how they might avert the end of the world. They found nothing.

Spike proposed to Buffy, on bended knee, in front of the whole Scooby gang. He even had a real engagement ring this time: a diamond surrounded by blood red garnets -- her birthstone. All the girls sobbed in happiness. Xander applauded and cracked a joke about "the second time around."

Buffy happily accepted, and didn't even ask Spike where he'd gotten the ring. She also promised Anya that she would wait until the ex-demon's own wedding before tying the knot, to keep her "maid" status intact.

Dawn continued to train after school with either her sister or her sister’s fiancÈ. She decided that she preferred working with Buffy, even though she knew that Spike was better at getting her to do her best. It wasn’t that he was harder on her than Buffy. He was patient when patience was required . . . and he kicked her butt when she needed to get working on something. Buffy was pretty hesitant about that aspect of training.

But Spike was such a grouch when he had chip-induced headaches!

* * *

On the Thursday after Spike and Buffy’s abduction, Tara asked Dawn if she would take Miss Kitty Fantastico into her room for the night.

“Sure thing, Tara,” Dawn had answered. Then she winked at the older blonde. “She’s only a year old. There are some things an innocent kitty shouldn’t be exposed to, right?” To that, Tara only blushed.

A half-hour later, the blonde witch was at Willow’s door with a huge lit candle.

The redhead beamed at her from the bed. There were tears glistening in her sea-green eyes, but there was warmth in her gaze – and heat. She rose to greet her lover, then said, “I know it’s breaking with tradition, but . . . could we not blow out this out? I never get tired of seeing your hair by candlelight.” She slowly reached out and ran her fingers through Tara’s long blonde hair to illustrate. The witch leaned into her caress and . . . purred in pleasure.

* * *

In the next room, Spike was using his extra-sensitive vampire hearing. He wasn’t being a voyeur – not really. He was just making sure things went as he had planned. In his opinion, those two women were too . . . delicate about sex. Sex, even making love, should be fire and ice, pleasure so great it was painful, passion so explosive you screamed your lover’s name until the Gods ran for cover. Tara and Willow were too sweet and delicate and ethereal with each other all the time.

He'd been watching them over the past few days, and seen that they were still . . . hesitant around each other. He was sure their angelic lovemaking wasn’t going to be enough to erase the last barriers between them. And it didn't look like they were going to make the next move any time soon. They needed to get together and shag each other senseless. And he decided to make sure they did.

He had slipped some Berber Weed into the girls’ dinner that night -- making sure not to get any in Dawn’s, of course. Mixing it into the blood he drank made it all hot and spicy . . . and it did the same thing to humans who ate it. Make them all hot and spicy, that is. He grinned. Not only would Willow and Tara have a truly mind-blowing experience tonight, they would be too distracted to give him a hard time about any noise he and Buffy made . . .

“Spike?”

Speak of the devil, he thought. He had only a brief glimpse of the petite blonde before she attacked him. They only made it to the bed much, much later.

* * *

The next morning, everyone was looking very tired, and very happy. Except for Dawn, who was just very tired.

“I had to put a pillow over my head to get any sleep! What with all the things that went ‘bump-bump-bump’ in the night. Not to mention ‘Oh my God,’ ‘Oh, yes’ and ‘Aaaaaaah!!’”

Tara, Willow, and Buffy blushed furiously. Spike just smirked.

I've got to get myself a boyfriend, Dawn thought.

* * *

Finally, that evening, Giles showed up at the Magic Box, looking very much like he had the last time he had returned to Sunnydale. This time, however, it was Dawn who was the first to greet him. And to give him a Slayer’s bone-crushing hug.

“I . . . see . . . that my suspicions . . . were correct,” he said in a strangled voice.

“Ooops. Sorry,” said an embarrassed Dawn. She quickly lightened her embrace. “Buffy and Spike keep saying I’m as fast as she is, but not as strong.”

Panting, Giles could only reply, “I assure you, Dawn, that you’ll be at full strength in no time, especially with the right training." He let go of her slowly, to greet the young woman waiting behind Dawn.

When Dawn had run up to greet Giles, Buffy had still been sitting at the table, trying to decide whether she was still mad at Giles for leaving, or happy enough that he'd come back to give him a hug too. Happiness had won out. But as she hugged him, she whispered, "Don't you ever do that to me again, Giles."

Giles nodded. "I understand. I'm not coming back to be your Watcher, Buffy. You've proven time and time again that you don't need one. But . . . I will be your friend, if you let me?"

She smiled. "Yeah. Even if I don't need a Watcher, I need all the friends I can get."

After Giles greeted the other Scoobies -- except for Spike, who only got a flat glare -- he got down to business. “Did you get my text of the prophecy?” he asked

Willow shook her head, “No, Giles. Are you sure it was sent?”

“I’m positive.” He reached for one of his bags, and brought out a small sheaf of paper. “Here are the pages that I sent.”

The redhead took it from him, and the others leaned over her shoulder to read it too. “Oh. I see." She looked worried. "This doesn't look good. But, Dawn's Slayer-ness aside, are you really sure these two ‘twice sisters’ are Buffy and Dawn?"

Buffy chimed in. "Yeah. I mean, I understand that Dawn's the ‘Neverborn’-“ Dawn made a face and a rude noise at that, which her sister ignored. “-but how am I the ‘Thriceborn?’”

“Well, it is a bit of a stretch, but you were born once, and then re-born twice . . . after each time that you died. Now, the ‘shadowselves’ the prophecy refers to must be-“

“-the vampires that originally had the souls that Buffy and Dawn have now,” Willow finished.

Giles nodded. “I think I can guess who Buffy’s shadowself is, it’s Spike. He’s the one who will love. But who is Dawn’s shadowself, who will kill?"

He looked up, his face lined with concern. “We’ve encountered prophecies in the Codex like this before, Dawn, and I’m sure we’ll find a way to prevent-“

“Um, Giles?” Dawn interrupted. “I don’t think you have to worry about me. At least, not from this prophecy. Buffy and I have already stood together, at the Hellmouth, so it’s already happened.” Giles muttered something rude and British at this point, and began frantically cleaning his glasses. “It’s not the shadowselves who will love and kill . . . it's Buffy and me. Buffy loves Spike-“ A choked noise came from Giles. “-and the only vampire I’ve killed since becoming a Slayer is . . . Drusilla.”

Giles sat down heavily and said, “Could someone please find that bottle of single-malt Scotch? I think I’m going to need it.”

“You? You didn’t just find out you’ve got the soul of a lunatic vampire who heard voices, Giles.” Dawn retorted. Then her eyebrows shot up, and she said to the others, “I told you I heard a voice in that library!”

* * *

It took everyone a long time to bring Giles up to speed. At times, Buffy was sure that he was going to faint. And his attitude toward Buffy's relationship with Spike was less than pleased. But Drusilla's ramblings about the end of the world, and her description of what might stop it brought him up short.

"Twenty-eight duckies?" he asked in amazement. "Even for Drusilla, that sounds . . . insane."

"Or doxies," Spike pointed out. "Though that makes even less sense, unless we're about to be flooded with new Slayers." Buffy and Dawn each gave him a hard look.

Giles sighed. "I'm going to have to go back to the Codex and see if there are any more relevant passages."

Willow added, "I'll check the other books of prophecy. If it's the end of the world we're talking about, it should be mentioned in other places."

Dawn added, "I can go back to the Hellmouth, and see if I can understand what it's saying. Maybe I could find out what the twenty-eight duckies are."

Giles shook his head. "No, Dawn. We have no idea of the extent or nature of this . . . gift that you seem to have. It might leave you vulnerable to the Hellmouth's influence, and I won't let you be exposed to that unless we know that it is safe. Speaking of which, I have to find a trained psychic to help you learn to control your talents." He frowned. "The Council won't be able to help much -- there's never been a Slayer with psychic powers before."

Dawn sighed, and looked up at the ceiling. "Key, Slayer, psychic. Is there anything else you guys wanna pile on while you're at it?"

Buffy put her arm around her. "How 'bout sister?"

"And friend?" added Spike, as he embraced the brunette from the other side.

Dawn smiled, and hugged them back. "I guess that'll do."

And on that note, the research began.

FIN (for now)