~~~~
Willow looked as if she was going to stutter, but her answer was crystal clear, "I didn't have the Skyrain."
When she got only confused looks, she explained, "The glitter stuff."
Xander and Angel accepted that. Spike didn't. He didn't say anything - but something still seemed out of place.
Instead, Spike focused back to the original plan. "Let's get this shit done."
Willow shifted for a second, and announced, "I can't do it."
"Say what?" Xander questioned.
She shook her head. "There's a way. I know there is, but I can't do it. I can't find it. It's not a very popular spell if you know what I mean."
Spike's fist hit hard into the surface of a random gravestone with awesome force, and actually dented the stone. "Well if there's a way there's got to be a way to figure it out! We're bloody running out of time! We have to do this now."
"Gypsies. They did it for me, they can do it. Or at least they could, 100 years ago." Angel suggested.
"Well where the hell do we find gypsies in Sunnydale?" Spike blasted.
"Ireland." He answered. "We turn Buffy tonight, take her to Ireland, and find some."
"Fine plan, really. With that bright sun shining through the airplane windows and Buffy, oh, not to mention me, both thirsty for some serious trashing." Spike mocked the plan.
"You got a better idea?" Angel was sort of angry, but not at Spike, at Willow. She'd said she could do it.
All of a sudden, Willow burst out, "All right, we ready to get started?"
Angel rose an eyebrow. "With what?"
Willow had that 'duh' look on her face. "To get to whole soul-giving thing. I have all the stuff I need."
Spike jerked his head back. "Luv, I thought you just said you didn't know how to do that?"
Willow looked confused. "Huh? When?"
Spike, Angel, and Xander shot each other worried looks.
"Just like, 5 seconds ago." Xander took the words right from Angel and Spike's mouths.
Willow was strong with her words. "No. I didn't." She left it at that, and changed topics. "Like you guys said, let's hurry."
"What about the whole true happiness curse thing?" It took Spike a second to figure out he'd been the one to ask it.
Willow blinked. "You mean, will it be there? I honestly don't know. I'm not... cursing, like what happened to Angel. I'm healing. So it shouldn't be there, but be careful, k?"
Spike nodded.
And with that, the two vampires, the witch, and the normal man mixed up in all of this since high school started digging at Buffy's grave again.
Nearly an hour passed before they hit the casket. It took about another ten minutes to dig around it, and they had it out before 2 am.
Xander was the one to open it. All four of them freaked at seeing the body of the girl they all loved so much - and without saying anything, all of them were crying.
Spike was the first to wipe his tears. "She'll be back soon. No reason to cry."
Without even having to argue, Willow was the the one who picked up the body and turned and started to carry it toward's Spike's Cyrpt.
The others followed. No one said a word.
~~~~
It was around 2:30 in the AM, but Giles was surfing the net in search of infomation about adoption and how to go about it. Angel wanted to adopt Dawn, but Giles knew he couldn't. He had only one solution - He was going to do it himself. The idea still seemed weird - becoming Dawn's father.
It felt almost like he was betraying Buffy, but he didn't know quite why. He knew even if the guys brought her back that night, Buffy couldn't let the government have tabs on her.
Especially since they had a certificate that said she was dead.
~~~~
Spike unlocked the same chains he'd chained Buffy in the first time he'd told her he loved her. He shivered at the memory.
He shivered to think about Dru. The fact that she was still there... somewhere. Watching. She always was. He still loved her, and he knew it. That's why he hated her all the more.
It was creepy to hand the key to Xander and clamp the chains down on his own wrists, but he did it anyway.
Angel stood next to Spike, and Willow was still holding Buffy's soon-to-be-risen-again body. Xander set the key down on a table across the room, as far from Spike as he could. He took Buffy's cold body from Willow, and stood in front of Spike and Angel. All of this was done in complete silence.
"I need to set up." Willow commented.
So she did. She lit two candles. One black, and one white. Between them, she set a metal pentacle. Apparently, it seemed like that was all she needed. Instead, she pulled out a package of more Skyrain and dusted it onto Buffy.
Xander was wondering why she'd never used the stuff once before and suddenly needed it for two spells in a row. The thought was dismessed from his brain as soon as he noticed Spike and Angel had transformed.
"Ready?" Came from Spike's mouth, directed at both Willow and Angel. Maybe even Xander.
Willow and Angel nodded, and that was enough for him.
Angel and Spike sank their teeth into Buffy's bare neck, Spike at the left, and Angel at the right.
After less than three second, Buffy's head jerked up. Her face was covered in panic.
Angel stopped for a second and whispered for a second in her ear, "Bite us. Both of us."
Buffy wanted to scream. Scream something. Scream questions, scream answers, and just flat out scream. Instead, she did exactally what Angel had asked. She had no idea what he was thinking, let alone why she was listening. All she knew was that something really weird had happened - and something even weirder was happening right now. Still, she found herself handing off her sould, becuase Angel had just asked her to.
Willow chanted,
Xander was still holding Buffy in his arms, and she never even had a change to get enouph stregth to actually live the evil. She never actually caused any harm. And Xander's way of showing relief was that he simply laughed. Willow even managed to smile.
Buffy, however, was holding her forehead and asking Xander to set her down. He did.
"What the hell just happened?" She let out as soon as she could see straight.
"Welcome to the darkness, luv." Spike smirked. Suddenly he perked up towards Willow, "Hey, what about mine, pet?"
"Sorry. Can't." Willow caught herself saying. "You don't need one. You're the one who called me about Xander. Buffy was dead. You don't need a soul. You're just you."
Spike wrinkled his nose and pouted at that. Although, this whole thing had been done faster than he time to tell if he really did feel the blood lust come back or not. "Alright then, how about we opt for unlocking these chains now?"
Buffy was still in a daze. "Tara killed me. I was - on fire. Tara stopped it. I was crying. I was hungry. I was... little."
Xander was too busy unlocking Spike's chains to make another wise crack. Otherwise you could bet he would.
"Little?" Willow asked, a little confused.
"I was... tiny. Baby tiny. I couldn't talk... but I was hungry. I cried. I think... I think I was reincarnated. I think now... that baby is dead." Buffy messaged her nack on both sides for a second before anyone said anything.
"Are you saying you were born again and we killed of that you by bringing you back?" Angel tried to understand what Buffy was saying.
She nodded. "Uh-huh. But when I was crying... I didn't know anything about Buffy. I was just a little baby in a crib. Not a rebirth, it was a reincarnation. I don't know..." She skipped a beat. "Am I a vampire right now?"
Angel was a little hesitant, they all were, but was the first to answer. He put it as gentle as he could, "yes."
Buffy got a disgusted look on her face and sat down. "Gross."
"Hey, I take that offensivily, pet." Spike screetched.
"I just got a taste for blood. I'm longing to drink blood."