Everyone was more or less quiet as they made their way back home. Xander had left to go back to his place with all the wedding guest that they were currently living with and Willow was a couple steps behind the brunettes, beside Buffy. Ally had been awfully silent since the helicopter had disappeared, and no one had tried to talk to her yet.
There was so much they had to talk about. Dawn knew that the thing about her brother had to be tackled soon, but maybe they should give her some time. After all, she had just said goodbye to people she held very close to her heart and her boyfriend had been the villain of the day.
She was so disappointed in Spike. How could he have done that? He had been pretty good since Ally came to town. Way to ruin it.
Dawn settled for throwing an arm around Ally the way the eldest often did with her and spokein hushed tones so that it was a somewhat private conversation. "You okay?"
Ally looked at her and smiled softly, a gesture that didn't reach her eyes, before wrapping an arm around her baby sister. "Yeah. Just... confused. A lot has happened today."
"I know." The teen rested her head on the junior Slayer's shoulder, sympathising with her. "You know you can talk to me anytime, right?"
"Yeah. It's just... Wait till we get home. I'll tell you girls all about it. I'm sure you have a lot of questions." She glanced back at Buffy and Willow over her shoulder, and Dawn would have sworn she looked nervous and a bit afraid.
No sooner had they arrived home, Ally entered the living room, Dawn following her and gesturing for Buffy and Willow to do the same.
"Better get this over with now." The brunette Slayer announced, sitting down on one of the armchairs, the other three on the couch.
While Buffy, Will and Dawn exchanged nervous glances, Ally watched them. The teen was always supportive of her, but maybe this would be a bit of a stretch. It wasn't an easy subject.
Dawn, seeing the other two were as unsure as she was, decided to take the lead. "So... you have a brother?"
Ally nodded, her whole body tense as she opened her mouth to speak, but no sounds came out for a few seconds. Her eyes darted from one sister to the other, occasionally stopping on Will, before she gulped and shifted in her seat. "Yeah." She finally answered, twisting her hands in front of her. "He's three years older than me. I haven't seen him in six years, or the rest of my family for that matter."
"The rest? Who else is there?" Continued Buffy, genuinely interested.
"Five uncles, four aunts, two grandpas, one grandma, about... twelve cousins. And some more extended family. They... they don't even know I'm alive." Her voice broke, yet she managed to hold back the tears. "I left with my dad when I was thirteen to go to the military base where he would be working most of the time. I... I had an special education, and there was a man at the base who knew a lot about things I wanted to pursue later, so I decided to go with my dad when the opportunity arose." She breathed deeply and let her hands fall on her lap. "I met Riley there, on my second day. I liked him from the first moment, so I followed him everywhere when he was free. He didn't seem to be bothered, and instead started to teach me how to hold a gun, or how to defend myself in a basic fight. Graham and him became really protective of me, and so my dad trusted them to take care of me when he was away. It started to become a common thing, which he hadn't planned for, but I didn't want to leave the base. When I was fourteen, Riley took me to his grandparent's for Thanksgiving, because my dad was working across the country. So... I started to spend even more time with him. I didn't go back home for Christmas, or Easter Holidays, or summer. I stayed with Riley and Graham all along. Dad was busy too and couldn't go back except for once or twice. But then when I was fifteen, mom came to visit a few days before dad's birthday. We went on a little family trip, stayed in L.A. for a few days. By then, Riley had told me about this super secret special program they were being trained for."
"The Initiative." Buffy supplied, nodding in understanding, her face dark in concern. All three girls on the couch knew Ally's story was about to reach its turning point.
"Yeah." Ally met her eyes before staring at the floor again. "So... one evening, I asked my parents to take me to the movies to watch Starship Troopers. We were on our way to the theatre when we were attacked. It was dark and my parents... they-they never realized our attackers weren't human. Lucky me, I caught a... glimpse of their faces and... recognized them from how Riley had described them. He had told me how to kill those, in-in case I e-ever encountered one... I was lucky some were noobs, and managed to kill a couple before a... man saved me. He took me away from there..." She was trembling by that point and Dawn couldn't stand to just sit so far from her. She got up and sat on the arm of Ally's seat, wrapping an arm around her sister's shoulders. "I was in shock at first. I... I could have saved them. I-I could have told them what the vampires were, I could have... could have told them to grab a stick and shove it in the attackers' chest... but I was fre-freaking out and didn't do shit for them." Tears started streaming down her face, Dawn's free hand clutching both of hers. She looked up to her baby sister for a moment and waited a couple seconds until she had somewhat calmed down. "When I finally got my shit together, I begged the man who saved me and gave me shelter for a few days to train me. He refused at first, but I didn't really give him a choice. Either he trained me and prepare me to fight vampires, or I was gonna go find vampires by myself and try to kill them with basic self-defence skills. I never called home. I never let anyone from my old life know I was alive. I couldn't go home and pretend vampires didn't exist. Everyone would think I was crazy and it was the trauma making me go mad. And I was ashamed. I couldn't save my parents, even when I knew how to. I couldn't face my family. I changed my last name, trained for hours on end, started slaying. Four years later, here I am." She exhaled and slumped on Dawn's side, her head resting on the teen's shoulder.
"How come your brother wasn't with you?" Willow asked softly, not wanting to upset the brunette anymore.
"He... he wasn't really academically skilled and could barely speak any English. He was in the middle of his exams when mom got the free days, but he couldn't afford to miss school. Still, we were supposed to finally go back home for Christmas, it was only a couple months away..." She sighed and straightened a bit again. "Any more questions? I know today must have been really confusing for all of you."
"First girl Riley ever took home?" Dawn smirked, trying to get her to relax.
Ally started laughing, some of the tears managing to escape her eyes again. "Thanksgiving. His grandma and aunt wouldn't stop teasing him about how the first girl he ever introduced to his family and taken home for a holiday was a fourteen year old kid."
They all giggled at this, imagining Riley with his cheeks bright red all evening. And apparently, it was still going on.
The tension slowly left Ally's body, Dawn noticed right away, and eventually suggested they should go to bed. Everyone was exhausted.
But Buffy wanted to take a walk first. Probably to clear her head, to stake a couple vampires in the graveyard and sleep like a baby afterwards.
As Dawn and Willow went upstairs and Buffy shrugged her jacket on, Ally approached her. "Hey, Buff? Are you gonna go near Spike's crypt?" The blonde frowned lightly but nodded, grabbing a stake and standing by the door. "Just... if you see him, tell him I'll go tomorrow at sunset. That we need to talk. Please."
"You sure?" It wasn't like Ally to leave it for another day, but Buffy could understand it had been an extremely difficult day for her sister. Heck, it had been a difficult day for her, but old friends, family issues and lying boyfriend all in a day? Ally won. "Can I punch him at least?"
"No." The brunette ground out before softening her features again. "Goodnight, Buff."
"Goodnight, Alls." Buffy smiled, walking out the door as the junior Slayer went to bed.
When Dawn heard the phone ring the following afternoon, she would have never expected the turn things were about to take.
Ally ran across the living room to get the phone, the two brunettes and Willow the only ones at home right then. Willow was in her room while Dawn was in the basement taking the laundry out. It had been a relatively calm day, Buffy was working and everything was more or less... normal.
Until the teen went upstairs and heard the sobs coming from the kitchen. It was Ally. Ally was crying.
She hurried and stood by the doorway, watching her sister's back shake as she talked into the phone. "...but how? He... he's my age... he can't... I can't... But... they're there... Everyone will be there... I know... Riley, I can't... I know..."
She was barely getting snippets of the conversation, Ally's words were too broken and the topic of the conversation was unknown to her.
"Here?" The junior Slayer suddenly asked, her voice weak. "Two hours? But I... No." Her tone finally got stable, the shaking lessened and one arm went around her stomach. "Alright. Yeah... Yeah, it's time. Yes. I will. Bye."
And she hung up. Dawn was just frozen, unable to understand what had just happened. It was Riley on the phone, and he had clearly told Ally something that had really upset her.
"Ally? Are you okay? What's going on?" The teen made her presence known, startling the young Slayer, who turned around with a tear streaked face before leaning back against the wall and sliding down to the floor. "Ally." The teen ran to her sister, crouching down beside her and cupping her cheeks. "Ally, tell me what's wrong."
The eldest brunette's gaze was lost for a few seconds, then she fixed it on her baby sister. Her expression was blank. She was too affected. Whatever Riley had told her had overwhelmed her.
"I have to go. I have to go back. I have to pack a bag." She started informing Dawn in a monotone, like a machine answering what it was programmed to. "They're picking me up in two hours."
"Go? Go where?" She was leaving? Dawn didn't want her to go. She was her sister. The teen knew Ally had another family, but she was her sister, as shellfish as it sounded.
"Home."
"Why? What's going on, Ally?"
"He's dead. I will never see him again. It's my last chance to say goodbye."
Dawn got quiet. Someone was dead. Was it her brother? No, she'd said something about him being her same age, hadn't she? Maybe a cousin. Or a friend. Whoever he was, he was dead and it had greatly upset Ally. He must have been important for her.
She had to go back.
"I'll help you pack. But you have to promise to come back soon. I can't lose my sister." Dawn said softly as she held Ally's hands and helped her stand up and move to their room.
Everything had been rushed. They'd barely had time to pack and tell Willow the news so she could call Buffy to work and gather every other Scooby to see Ally off. An army helicopter was coming to pick her up and take her to a military airport, where she would get on a plane home. Riley must have asked for a few favours to get her home in time for the funeral.
And so, after saying goodbye to her sister, Dawn decided to be the one to go tell Spike about Ally leaving, and give him a piece of her mind at the same time.
She found the vampire pacing around his now destroyed home. Everything was carbonized on the lowest level, even around the hole to the crypt. He was moving things that looked just lightly charred to the upper level, probably trying to save something. When he heard her enter he looked up and frowned. He hadn't been expecting her.
Dawn crossed her arms across her chest and glowered, trying to make him understand how bad his situation was right then.
"Oh, bloody hell, you're gonna lecture me, Nibblet?" He groaned, straightening a bit before leaning back against the tomb.
"Yes, and you're gonna listen to every single word." She seethed. Stepping forward, she approached the vampire as authoritatively as she could. "What were you thinking? How could you do that?" He rolled his eyes, trying to act nonchalant, only making the teen angrier. "She trusted you! You were good for so long..."
"Vampire. I'm evil." He reminded her, yet she went on as if he had never spoken.
"... and then you go and pull something like this? Do you have any idea how much you've hurt Ally? She trusted you! She was trying to make the rest of them accept you!"
"Don't need a bunch of idiots to like me..."
"And you betrayed her trust!" She cut him again. She had gotten closer still, poking his chest with one finger. It looked like the message was finally getting to him. "How could you do that? Why would you do something like that?!"
"Needed the money." He finally admitted, averting his eyes.
"What for? You steal whatever you need to!"
He clenched his jaw, shifting uncomfortably. "For Ally." He ground out, getting irritated and the screaming.
"She doesn't need money!"
"I needed it to buy something for her!" He finally snapped, throwing his arms out on his sides and getting away from the tomb, the teen taking a step back from the sudden reaction.
"What the hell would you need that much money for? They said it was a lot, black market stuff, really dangerous." She inquired, confused at his admission.
He huffed and started pacing, eventually settling for sitting on the edge of his armchair. He brought his hands to his head, treading his fingers through his hair. "You have to promise not to tell her, even though it doesn't matter anymore, I guess. She'll be too angry anyway." He asked her, his expression a mix of sadness and desperation. At seeing the teen nod, he continued. "I'd hoped she'd never find out about the eggs. She wasn't supposed to. It should have been over fairly quickly. If that bloody soldier hadn't been here, it would have been fine. Just needed to do it once. Make the deal, get paid, and it'd be over. I wanted to buy the Kusanagi for her."
Dawn wasn't sure she'd heard right. She tilted her heard and furrowed her brows. "The what?
"It's a legendary sword. Caught wind of it being sold for a high prize by a half-demon dealer. She doesn't like jewels so... I needed something... special when I..." He glanced at her and huffed again, shaking his head lightly. "When I asked for her hand."
Dawn's breath hitched, her lungs not getting any oxygen for almost half a minute. Spike was watching her reaction, his face oddly vulnerable.
He was going to propose and he wanted to buy Ally a fucking legendary sword for the occasion.
Oh, god.
"Shocking, huh, Nibblet?" He arched a brow, still hunched over in the armchair.
She'd said that out loud. She hadn't meant to, but fuck! She was shocked.
"Guess she's angry, then... If she sent you..."
"She didn't send me." The teen corrected him. Getting ready to crush him. She didn't really want to, specially not after what he'd said. "I came because she can't. She left."
As if the air had been knocked right out of him, the vampire paled even more that it was usual, his eyes wide and his lips parted in surprise. It couldn't be true. The Nibblet must be wrong.
"She went back home."
Not even waiting for the teen to explain anymore, the vampire rose from his seat and left the crypt, lucky that the sun had just set. His stride was long a steady, his footsteps heavy.
He didn't look back. He didn't take anything. He just knew, Ally wasn't in town anymore, and if she did come back, he didn't want her to find him and remember the last time they'd seen each other. The Little Bit was right. He had betrayed her trust.
He needed to do something that would make him deserving of her once more. He'd fucked up, but he wasn't going to let it happen anymore.
She deserved better. She deserved more than he was right then. More than he could be if he stayed in Sunnydale.
A/N: All right, guys! This is the end of season 6 in my fic! Good? Bad? Awful? You want to chop my head off? Say it in a review! I really want to know what you thought! Did you expect it?
Now, seriously, I hope you guys have like the fic so far. This is really the end of season 6 for me, Ally's gone, Spike's gone, the rest of the story will be more or less the same until season 7. As I've mentioned before, I'm gonna take a break from updating this fic now for a while until I have rewatched season 7 of BtVS and season 3 of Supernatural. The new season of TMS and my new Supernatural fic, You'll Never Walk alone, will probably come up at the same time, so stay tuned! I'm guessing it'll take me a few weeks to get everything organized for both stories, so be patient, please. I want to give you the best content I'm capable of.
I don't have much more to say right now, at least not that I remember, so I guess this is goodbye for now!
Big hug for everyone reading this!
Lee out.
