Becoming, Part Three

By: PhoenixJustice

Disclaimer: BTVS is owned by Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and others who are not me. I only own this story and make no profit from this.

Warning: Rated M for graphic sexual content, language, violence, etc.

Pairing: Spike/Buffy Summers, etc.

Setting: In the middle of Becoming, Part Two; possible spoilers for the entire series (including comics.)

Summary: Well. They never said it'd be an easy Reward.

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There wasn't much in life that surprised him any longer. After seeing the world, in both its best and its worst, in seeing the various forms of life, in seeing how the world truly was, not much surprised him. In becoming a Watcher, especially after, not much surprised him afterwards, because he had already seen so much.

But he was fairly certain this was the first time he'd seen a literal portal from Hell (or a Hell-dimension. There were several, after all) spit out a naked, shivering, man into the rain.

And even more surprising than that (if that were possible)...he recognized the person.

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It was quiet on the way to Revello; all could feel the tenseness in the air. The ease in which they had all travelled, even up to Sunnydale's welcome sign, was no longer around. The tension emanated almost completely from one person in their group, which was no surprise to any of them (much less her.)

"So..." She finally says, dispelling the silence that had been around them for minutes. "Anyone else get the sudden urge to run away and never look back? Anyone?"

"Slayer-" "Buffy-" Spike and Faith say at nearly the same time.

She sighs, shoulders tense. "I know, I know. It's just...look, I don't feel sorry for my time alone with you Spike. You know I don't. I love you more than any word can do justice to. And I'm so happy I could find you Faith and we could connect like this in a way that I couldn't with your future counterpart, especially this early. But...I also hate disappointment. What do I say to them? More than that, what is there to say in general? How do I even begin to explain..."

"You're not alone here, luv." Spike tells her, grabbing onto her shoulders, forcing her to look at him. "You'll never be alone, so long as 'm here. You know that. This is just a small bit to get through. You'll see. And if they don't like it, they can shove off. And we'll go somewhere else."

"Right." Faith agrees. "You said Cleveland was another Hellmouth, right? Smaller or whatever, but I'm sure the people there still'd be happy to see a couple Slayers and a wayward vampire do their thing there."

Buffy lets out a breath she didn't know she was holding and feels a lot of her tense feelings leave her body. They were right. And it felt good, more than good, to know that she'd always have at least two people who had her back no matter what.

"You're right. Both of you. Thank you." She tells them sincerely. She squares her shoulders. "Alright, let's do this then. Bring it on, people."

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Coming back to a party, of all things, was the last thing that she expected. Well, party might be a bit of a stretch, in certain terms, but it was certainly a social gathering. The people gathered there all look up in shock. Xander stands up, eyes wide, not noticing that his pizza was sliding off of the paper plate in his slack hand.

"Buffy!" He exclaims, around a mouthful of what must be more pizza. "It's Buffy!"

"And Spike!" Willow exclaims, though this was spoken with a bit of fear.

"And a stranger." Oz remarks, much more mildly than the other two.

"Buffy!" Joyce exclaims, immediately dropping her food and coming over to her. If she is afraid at all of Spike or anything else, she doesn't show it, as she immediately embraces her daughter.

Buffy swallows against a lump of emotion in her throat, hugging her mother back, taking care not to bruise her with her much greater strength. Of all the things she had imagined when coming back, this was nothing like she imagined. For one, she imagined a scolding or two immediately.

Also, less pizza.

And Giles socializing and eating pizza with the others.

"Hi, mom." She squeaks out.

Joyce pulls back, visible tears in her eyes. "Honey, are you alright? We've all been worried sick about you! I'm going to ground you for fifty years, but let it be known it's all done in love."

Buffy lets out a choked laugh.

"It's fine. I'm fine. More than fine. It's...complicated." She shares a brief look with Spike who looked rather bemused at the whole situation as well, while Faith looked more amused than anything (and a bit wistful at Joyce's obvious love for Buffy, which Faith had never been able to share with her own mother.) "But it's good! We just...with everything...had to get away for a bit."

"You're sure you're fine?" Giles pipes up, coming over now, giving a not quite glare at Spike.

"Yes. I mean, look it's complicated, like I said. But you know I'm not under a thrall, since Spike doesn't have that kind of power-" "Hey!" "-so you know I'm here with my own mind and all that."

"We?" Willow asks, showing part of the reason she was one of the most smart people in the group. Even in the midst of excitement, she still noticed a small detail like that.

"We." Buffy affirms. "But hey, is there something I'm missing? What's up with the party?"

"Not a party. We just started adding more food and drink to Scooby meetings." Xander says. "And hey, little miss leaves town, what's up with the we?"

"What's up with not telling me that Willow was putting Angel's soul back into his body?" Buffy retorts back, cheekily.

Xander's eyes widen in surprise.

"I mean, it still ended up being too late. Again. But yeah. I know you're not on the liking Angel wagon, but hey, not all things that are dark are evil. You're one of my best friends and I consider you a brother and nothing more, Xander Harris. I get the need to look after me, but no more of that, okay?"

Everyone's jaw's couldn't have dropped any further.

"But why is Spike here?" Willow asks.

"Part of that whole we thing." Buffy says. She steps back to grab onto Spike's hand, squeezing it. He smiles at her. "Cause you know, me having to take out Angel was very not fun. Again, especially. But it was all worth it to see Spike again. I...waited a long time for it."

"And again, I say with the...huh?" Xander says.

"She's a time traveller." Faith and Oz say at the same time.

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"Excuse me?" Joyce says.

"I'm sorry, miss...?" Giles starts.

"Faith. Faith Lehane."

"Miss Lehane. I don't know how much of the world you might think you know, but it-"

"She's the new Slayer, Giles." Buffy tells him.

That gives Giles considerable pause. "You're sure?"

"A hundred percent. I knew her from before." Buffy says, amused now, her previous anxiety before getting here having gone. "Plus her skills and strength would show you that as well."

"But-time travel." Giles says. "There might be very powerful forces out there, but something like time travel has never been proven to be-"

"What if it came from an Emissary of the Powers?" Buffy says, omitting the fact that it was a future version of Cordelia, because if she said that she knew they'd never believe the truth then.

"Well-" Giles stutters.

"The future?" Joyce whispers, falling back into the chair behind her.

"But how did you guess that?" Willow asks Oz.

Oz shrugs, in the easy way he usually did. "Her eyes. They're old eyes."

"They've seen the world." Spike says.

Oz looks at him and they have a surprisingly connected moment, nodding at each other.

"And no, it's just me," Buffy tells them all. "Me who came back, I mean. If that's what you're wondering. Well...I'm sure you're wondering a lot of things, of course. But that...yeah. Just me."

Just me. But I cannot say that I am alone. Not anymore.

"But why? Why come back?" is the question that her mother finally asks, looking up. "And when? I came ready to give you a good scolding for leaving but...more than that. And before you speak again...Buffy." Joyce looks up at her from her position in the chair. "I'm sorry."

Buffy's eyes widen. "Huh? Sorry for-"

"I should never have snapped at you like that. You're...important to the world." Joyce says. "But more than that, something I should never have lost sight of, even in shock, is that you're most important to me. You're my daughter and I love you. It doesn't matter if you're from here now or the future, if you're old or young, or whatever form you might take. You're my child and I love you and I'm sorry."

"Mom." Buffy chokes out.

She stands there for a moment, eyes closed, feeling Spike's reassuring presense next to her, feeling Faith's reassuringly friendly hand on her back, before letting out a breath, opening her eyes.

"Thank you." She tells her mother. "That means more to me than I can say. As for the rest...I'll tell you all what I can."

"About why you came back?"

"That?" Buffy laughs. "That's the easy part. Why does someone do what could be the most scary thing in the world? For love, of course."

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"You're on the next plane to Sunnydale."

"Sir?"

"You heard me." Travers says, gruffly. "I don't like Rupert Giles' evasion and smart talk. It's time he learned a swift lesson. I should not have to tell you how much is on the line for you in this, do I?"

"No, sir." Is the weak but immediate reply.

"Good. That will be all."

"But sir," He hesitantly says. "About the new Slayer?"

"That will be taken care of. Now will that be all, Mr. Wyndam-Pryce, or do you have anything else to interrupt with?"

"No, sir."

"Then that will be all."

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Getting the naked vampire up off the pavement and out of the rain hadn't been an easy task. He might be fairly strong, by vanilla human standards, he didn't have super strength. It makes him have to evoke one of his held spells, giving him a boost of strength that might not put him on par with the Slayer, but would have put him at least on the level of a decently strengthed vampire.

Provided he didn't have to do any sort of fighting (the portal had closed once the vampire had been spat out of it and hadn't brought anything with him), then doing this should be alright. He'd be a bit weak once the spell ran its course, but good sleep and food would put that right.

Luckily for the both of them, this time of night wasn't populated and the area wasn't populated much anyhow (something he had been looking for when buying the house he had settled on.) And Mariposa was a well trained dog who would follow him without him having to pull at her leash.

With the extra strength and speed brought by the held spell, he gets back to his place in mere minutes, despite the long trail he had come from. Long walks at night were both for giving Mariposa and himself a good workout and making sure nothing...off...was around the area.

Self-retired Watcher he might be, but that didn't mean he'd ever close his eyes to the truth of the world. Especially after...

He gets the vampire inside and settles him carefully on his bed, the largest space he could easily lay him, getting a few things from his bathroom after he does so. He quickly checks him for any obvious scrapes or wounds but doesn't find anything that looks extra threatening. The vampire looks very pale though-paler than one would expect, even for a vampire. If not for the vampire looking robust still, he'd have said from the paleness that he had been starving.

Still, there are a few minor abrasions here and there that he cleans up and he bundles him up as best as he can. The vampire was shivering, despite cold not affecting a vampire like it would a human.

What had happened to Angelus to do this to him?

"Or no, you go by Angel now, don't you?" He murmurs. He might not have been apart of the Watcher's Council any longer, but that didn't mean he still didn't keep tabs on things. A few years felt like a decade to him, in how much he had obsessively learned-and grieved.

As if the world were a trigger, Angel finally starts to stir, his eyes openingly slowly. He looks around for a moment before his eyes settle on the other man.

"You must be wondering where you are right now," the man tells him. "I-"

Angel lunges at him.

He can only briefly be thankful that he had done the spell which had helped him get Angel here, as the reflexes it offers lets him at least get an arm up, despite the blinding speed in which Angel reaches for him. The vampire grabs his arm and bites, making him gasp, sucking greedily on his arm.

So he was hungry.

He'd feel severe pain in the morning, but right now, all he can do is look as Angel holds on for a moment longer, before pushing his arm away, scooting back, looking at the man with growing horror in his eyes that have gained recognition. Not recognition of the man but of the world.

"Oh god," Angel says hoarsely. "I'm not-I'm sorry-I'm-I didn't mean that. I didn't mean-"

"It's alright." The man assures him. "I know. I know you didn't mean it, Angel."

That stops Angel and he looks at the man in confusion. "Do I...know you?"

Watcher he might have been. And he easily could have hated the world after the death of India, hated anything that wasn't human, for the love that had been taken from him. Instead it had made him want to know more about the world, even if only from the safety of his own bubble.

"No, but I know who you are. As for me, I was a Watcher. Now I guess I'm only a man. I'm Christopher. Christopher Botwell."

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I hope you enjoyed this!

Let me know what you thought!

-PhoenixJustice