Author's Notes: Ok, here's part two. Hopefully there aren't too many mistakes but it there are it's because my laptop has died and I'm now using my windows phone to write on which is a pain in the butt!

Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy the show, characters or anything else recognizable and I make no profit from this. Only happiness from reviews and virtual cookies.

Reward

They woke early due to the amount of light out in the open. The fire had gone out but the rocks were still warm where it had been. Buffy sat up but stayed in her sleeping bag. Now she faced another problem, there were no bathrooms in the desert. Did she have to ask Giles where to go? 'God that's embarrassing...maybe if I just sneak off quick and go behind some rocks...no I can't just vanish without saying anything he'd worry.'

"Um...Giles?" she asked not looking at him. "There don't happen to be any bathroom in the desert by any chance?"

"No, no bathrooms." he replied holding back a laughed. "But there's an outhouse back by the car if you don't feel comfortable going outside."

"Giles, how many women do you know of that would feel perfectly comfortable going to the bathroom in the desert?" she asked bluntly.

"Fair point, although it's not like most men would relish going in the open either." he replied. "I suggest then that we pack up here and head back to the car where we can change among other things and then return with only what we need for the day, after all the car is only a ten minute walk away."

She agreed and reluctantly climbed out of her sleeping bag to pack up her things and follow him back to the car.

"It could be difficult trying to change in the outhouse as it isn't well lit and its somewhat small." he commented.

"You think?" she retorted eyeing the tiny shed.

"So I suggest using the car to change, not exactly privacy as we would wish it but enough to prevent passers by from noticing anything." he suggested.

"Right. So...I'll um be right back." she said awkwardly putting her things in the trunk of the car and walking over to the tiny shack. She wrinkled her nose at the dark and dusty inside. It was nothing more than a large hole in the ground with a wooden seat and shed built around it. Lovely. Still, better than nothing. She was grateful to have tissues with her as there was a distinct lack of toilet roll and plumbing. She made do as quickly as possible and came out to see Giles still in his sleepwear leant over some running water.

"Sure, there's a random tap but not a proper bathroom." she muttered heading over to him. He appeared to be rinsing off the plates and things from yesterday using a rather crude looking tap. Still she supposed it was better than leaving the plates to get moldy.

"I wouldn't drink this water however, it doesn't look the cleanest." he commented. "Did you want to change?"

She walked over to the car and rummaged in her bag until she found some clean clothes. Having found them she climbed into the car and shut the door hoping it would be enough to hide her modesty as she changed. Once she climbed back out of the car fully dressed she spotted Giles stood a little way off looking out at the desert.

"All done, your turn." she smiled feeling much better now that she was dressed.

She couldn't help but giggle as he hunched over and climbed into the back of the car.

The car shook a little as he moved around in the back awkwardly and she giggled again as he climbed out still fastening his belt. For some reason the image of his hands on his belt seemed very intimate and lingered with her.

"Well that isn't an experience I'd like to repeat any time soon." he commented moving tk the trunk of the car and rummaging through the bags. "We'll just take the bare essentials back with us for now I think."

"Sure." she nodded. "Why is incense essential?"

"Because the, well, whoever it was that you spoke to may have told you some things but they didn't really help you feel reconnected." he replied. "I thought that since we are waiting here anyway we might try the meditation again or perhaps one of the rituals."

"Oh, sure I guess if we're just sat around anyway." she shrugged.

So that was how she found herself sat in front of a light fire in the heat of the desert and wishing she had worn shorts. She sat trying to reach an inner calm while trying to ignore the sweat slowly rolling down her back.

"It's not working." she sighed after a long time opening her eyes.

"Very well, we shall try something else. There are a few things in this book that we can try." he said passing her an open book. "If you read these two and then I will direct you to another two and you can decide which you would like to try."

She obediently read the passages in front of her and when she had finished he took the book back to turn to a different page and let her continue until she had read all the possible options.

"This one." she said handing him back the book.

"Are you certain?" he asked. "It may show you things about yourself you do not wish to see or may not even know about."

"I- Giles one of my biggest fears has been that I came back missing something, my soul. Like I left that part of me behind where I was and only came back as me but...less. I need to see it." she explained.

"Buffy I assure you that you aren't missing anything." he said covering her hand and squeezing slightly. "I will set it up for you and act as your anchor but you will need to perform the chant."

"Um...alright. I can do that..." she replied uncertainly.

"It's in Latin but I will say the phrases and get you to copy them a few times, they aren't long. Just two phrases that you repeat until it works." he said. "It takes a lot of strength so I'll need to anchor you in case you need additional magic. It should be easier since we're doing it at a place of power but you haven't done much in the way of magic before so it might feel strange or tiring to you."

"Okie dokey." she nodded. She watched as he arranged a few things and they moved away from the fire. As he did this he kept getting her to repeat after him the words she would have to say.

"Sit there and I shall complete the circle." he instructed. He drew a circle around them closing it behind him as he stepped inside and sat on the ground in front of her. He proceeded to light the candles he had placed in the circle and then a brief chant to bless their circle. "Ready?" he asked. She nodded and he held out both of his hands, scooting as close as he could without jogging the bowl of water in between them. "Take my hands, now focus on the water and begin chanting. Don't stop repeating it until it either works or I tell you to stop."

So she began saying the words that he had taught her, after she had said them a few times she felt more confident in them and felt Giles squeeze her hands reassuringly. The water rippled in front of her as she kept chanting and then it glowed.

As she began to see images in the water she stopped chanting. She saw Dawn, her holding Dawn's hand to hers telling her they were the same. A memory that seemed so old now. Then she saw herself, standing with a crossbow obviously about to battle an enemy. She saw her mother holding her hand...it was almost like a memory only she was seeing herself like a movie. She was only about nine in the memory. Next she saw a picture of her, Willow and Xander in a frame. Her favourite picture from her first year here. She saw Willow casting a spell, her hair glowing white, it wasn't a memory that she recognised. Then she saw Xander leaping in front of her to protect her. She felt her eyes sting with tears. How could she be mad at them for bringing her back? They had meant well. Then she saw herself doing dishes, turning back to talk to someone. She was smiling. She didn't recognise the house. Was this the future or just want she wanted in the future.

Then tears began to fall and she felt Giles squeeze her hands again, letting her know he was there. The image changed from her laughing and talking in a kitchen to another that wasn't a real memory. Giles. Looking down at her like she was the most precious thing in the world, she had seen him look at her only a handful of times in the past. What made her realise that this wasn't a memory though was the fact that they were both led on a bed, fully dressed and not doing anything exactly but she got the distinct impression that it was an intimate scene none the less.

It made her realise with startling clarity that if in all these images rushing past her mind that continued even now didn't include Riley or more importantly didn't include Angel then...Angel no longer had a piece of her heart and soul. How much must it have crushed her friends that she had ran to him the moment she was back? The images had continued with her thoughts and then began to repeat getting faster and faster until suddenly she blinked and they were gone. She dropped the hands holding hers and grabbed the bowl shaking it a little in an attempt to get the images back. She wanted to stare into those happy thoughts forever. Her smiling like her entire world was complete.

"Buffy." Giles voice called gently. She dropped the bowled as if she'd been burnt and stared up at him, tears still falling down her cheeks. "Good Lord Buffy, what is it?" She saw the dread creeping onto his face and shook her head.

"You didn't see?" she asked softly.

"No, why was it that bad?" he asked.

"No, nothing bad not really." she replied wiping her eyes. "I saw so many things...things that aren't real, memories of things that are..."

"So it worked then? You saw into the depths of your soul?" he asked gently, taking her hand.

"It worked." she nodded.

"Then why don't you go and make yourself comfortable, have a drink and something to eat, while I clear this away?" he suggested. She nodded and shakily got to her feet and moved back towards the fire which had now died down considerably from being left untended.

She couldn't figure out what she felt. Everything was so overwhelming but then again the while reason for this trip was to reconnect with herself and the world, to feel things again. Now she felt so much at once she felt just as lost. Were the things she saw that weren't memories going to happen? Was that her future?

"Giles?" she croaked out when he came back over to the fire also. "The things I saw. Were they real?"

"Well, some mostly likely, others perhaps not. It's more to do with your emotions, your thoughts and dreams. It's a very personal thing Buffy. What you saw was essentially a glimpse at part of your own soul, the essence of what makes you who you are. Although it probably had focus on why you're here, what drives you to keep going because that was the answer you wanted." he explained. "It's personal, which is why it was for your eyes only. It is also ever changing. If you were to look again in a years time the things you see may be completely different, a bit different or exactly the same."

"So...it wasn't the future I was seeing?" she asked quietly.

"It could be." he replied honestly. "It is a possible future, not one set in stone or a hope that you have for the future perhaps. I rather suppose that how much it changes depends on how you act upon it or whether you turn away from it."

"I saw you all." she smiled to herself. "Like a big movie...or maybe the trailer thing before the movie. You're the reason I'm here, that I keep going and the reason I turned down the offer yesterday. All of you..."

"Which to me says that you aren't a bad person at all. I dare say it makes you a very good person, to have so much of you affected by those around you. You may make selfish choices on occasion but over all you live most of your life for others." he said affectionately.

"Selfish like running off to see Angel?" she asked sadly.

"Well...it probably wasn't the best time to go but we did understand, your love for Angel although impossible is a part of you and we understood that you would naturally want to reconnect with him as it were." he replied. "Perhaps it would have been better to have waited a few days though so that you had some sort of plan as far as Dawn and your lives were concerned but you'd been through something traumatic and would obviously want to be with the person closest to your heart."

"Then why didn't I see him?" she asked furrowing her brow.

"In LA?" he asked not following.

"Now, you were there, and Dawn and Xander and Willow. I even saw passing glimpses of Tara and Oz and Anya...but no Angel and no Riley." she explained. "Riley I get, I didn't love him. I wanted to but I didn't and in their own way I do love Tara and Anya and Oz...although perhaps it was more that they were there in the memories that I saw...the feeling of the memories themselves...now I sound like you. Anyway...Angel. Why no Angel?"

"Perhaps because logically you know that there can be no future for the two of you?" he suggested.

"Giles...I think maybe I don't love him any more." she whispered. "I know that when I look back on before I wonder why on earth I didn't just kill him sooner."

"Hindsight is a fine thing, you couldn't have known." he said stiffly not really wanting to remember how things had been during that time.

"No but...now I know that if he were here and I had to choose between his life and yours I'd choose yours. I don't know how I know or why but I just know. I can live without Angel, I can't live without you." she told him honestly. He didn't reply for a long time. He couldn't describe or explain the warmth that filled him knowing that finally after everything they had been through he had such a place in his slayers heart.

"Then I would agree with you, you have most probably fallen out of love with Angel." he said.

"Go ahead; I know you want to be happy about that. You and Xander aren't exactly big Angel fans." she told him, nudging him with her shoulder.

"Buffy, I can't say I don't feel...relieved that Angel no longer brings you both pain and temptation but my personal feelings on him really don't matter." he sighed, removing his glasses and rubbing his eyes. "It does make me happy to know that you do hold me in some good regard given our somewhat up and down history of course."

"Good reg- Giles! I love you, history or no history. It isn't like at least half of it if not more wasn't my fault." she told him. He opened his mouth to speak but see held up a hand to stop him. "No, history over, forgotten. We're here now and we're good so...you know let's leave it good."

They remained in silence for a while longer before he stood up.

"I'm going to fetch more water from the car, it's frightfully hot." he said. "Do you want anything?"

"Coffee wouldn't hurt but since we're out of that just water. Oh and if you happened to bring back a bag of potato chips then that wouldn't suck." she grinned.

Buffy found herself beginning to worry as time passed and Giles didn't return. It was only around a ten minute walk to the car perhaps a little more in the heat. So it shouldn't have taken him much longer than half an hour to fetch water. Wishing she had a watch so that she knew how long he had actually been gone she decided she'd go find him.

Find him she did. Stood having a very involved conversation with a couple by the car.

"I'm not sure I understand this." she heard her watcher say rubbing his eyes and placing his glasses on the roof of the car.

"Understand what?" she asked joining them.

"Buffy, sorry about the delay." he told her. "Something rather...unusual appears to be going on."

"God Lord," the other man breathed. "Then it's true, you're Buffy Summers...and you're alive."

"You didn't tell the watchers council that I'm not dead?" she asked Giles in disbelief.

"No, I did actually. However there seems to be some misunderstanding never the less." he said. "They seem to be under the impression that you must have died again because it would appear that a new slayer has been called."

"A new slayer? Faith?" Buffy asked looking at Giles in horror.

"Is apparently still fine, the first thing they checked apparently as technically you already passed the torch as it were to Kendra and then Faith so no new slayer was called when you died a second time." he explained.

"And they're sure? It wasn't delayed or anything?" she asked.

"As this time I rather think not." he replied. "Buffy, this is Frederick Mason and his slayer Harriet."

"An honor to meet you Miss Summers, I must say that you've ruffled quite a few feathers in your time." the other watcher said holding out his hand. Buffy cautiously shook it and looked to Giles.

"He's Wesley." she commented dryly.

"Don't take any offence Frederick, Americans take a bit of getting used to." Giles grinned putting a fond hand on his slayers shoulder.

"None taken Rupert, although I hear you've been fitting in just fine." the other watcher laughed.

"You kidding?" Buffy laughed. "He's still all stuffy and stuttering and English. Just with less tweed.". The other slayer burst into laughter much to Buffy's delight.

"We aren't all stuffy, just the oldies who are a bit stuck in their ways." Harriet smiled. Buffy noted the British accent. "Mostly anyone under twenty is OK."

"God, I guess my time really is up then." Buffy pouted. "Giles am I old?"

"Yes my dear, for a slayer you are and I couldn't be more proud of that." he said gently stroking her face. "Do you know how many slayers make it past twenty?"

"I'm going to go with not many." she guessed.

"No, probably less than a quarter of them make it past twenty." he told her.

"And only four slayers on the council's record have ever made it past twenty five so a new slayer being called is good news for you." Frederick added.

"I'm not afraid to die." Buffy told the man boldly. "I've died twice and I'm still here. There may have been another slayer called but I still feel like a slayer so I don't think my retirement is here just yet."

"I-I wasn't implying anything by that Miss Summers, I meant no offence." the new watcher said hastily.

"Anyway, this is all rather unusual. I believe research is needed on the matter." Giles said quickly changing the subject.

"So if they thought I was dead how did the happen to find us?" Buffy asked suddenly.

"Ran out of petrol didn't we?" Harriet said, gesturing to a car at the other side of the main road. "Everything over here is further apart. We were heading over here to see if the owner of this car had any water and knew where the closest petrol station was."

"Well...that's a creepy coincidence." Buffy murmured.

"It is quite the coincidence but I actually know Frederick so he isn't an imposter." Giles assured her. "But as I said, research will hopefully shed some light on the situation."

"Well we can't go anywhere until tonight, we're still...waiting..." she trailed off.

"God heavens, you don't think-"

"That's exactly what I'm thinking." Buffy nodded. "My reward is a new watcher and slayer delivered right to me with a shiny bow."

"Well there's only one way to find out." he said.

"Back into the desert we go." Buffy sighed.

"Do you get the feeling we're missing something here?" Frederick asked almost to himself.

"What you mean the half of a conversation we just got?" his slayer asked before following the other watcher and slayer into the desert.

"How does he know what she's thinking?" her watcher mused as he followed her.

"You're supposed to be the watcher. Use your eyes." the slayer muttered. In a few seconds she had seen how close Buffy and her watcher were. It was like they were connected. She wondered if she'd have that in five years time with her watcher. Although looking at the pair ahead of her she kind of doubted it.

"This is a place of power." Frederick spoke as they stopped. "You plan to consult higher powers?"

"Exactly." Giles nodded. "Harriet, have you done meditative training before? Perhaps if you and Buffy were to try together?"

"Um...not much but I can try right?" the younger girl said. Buffy looked at the new slayer and really looked at her. She was older than Buffy had been when she was called but younger than she was now, perhaps around eighteen but it could he hard to tell with girls who often looked older than they were. She had pale skin and reddish brown curls that were pulled back into a ponytail. She wore jeans and a vest top and looked pretty normal all round, although after Faith and Kendra anyone that was either not an unfeeling slaying machine or insane was going to seem normal.

So the two slayers sat opposite one another staring at the fire. The two watchers also opposite one another, Giles repeated what he had done before and tossed the herbs into the fire. It didn't take as long this time. After only a few minutes of staring at the flames light blinded her and she found herself standing facing the familiar archway.

"Weird." a voice said next to her and Buffy realised that this time Harriet and come with her.

"Come on, this way." she said, leading the way through the archway to face the figures from before.

"You have returned." the female voice spoke. "You wish to know if you are being replaced?". Buffy didn't reply so the figure continued. "Your reward is the choice. There is another slayer to fight for the world either with you, apart from you or instead of you. You may ignore your calling and your strength will gradually fade with each passing year until you live out your remaining life as a normal human woman, or you can carry on as you are but with the assistance of another slayer. You cannot pass the gift on again once you have died but we can. Your world is the freedom of choice."

"How did she get from England to here in less than a day?" Buffy asked curiously.

"It wasn't a day for me. I've been active for five days." Harriet frowned.

"We are the powers that be, time means little to us." the female shrugged. The figures turned and the moment the room was empty Buffy felt a falling sensation and sure enough found herself sprawled on the ground again.