SERIES - When Angels Weep

PART - 2

TITLE: Saviour of Humanity

AUTHOR'S NAME: The Sorcerer Bard

AUTHOR'S E-MAIL: thesorcererbard@i-am-the-key.com

RATING: PG-13

PAIRINGS: Tara/Dawn (20 years old) plus standard pairings of Spike/Buffy and Xander/Anya

SUMMARY: Zee-Ra has to be safeguarded, can the gang do it?

SPOILERS: None for the series I think [I haven't seen any of season 6 so you draw your own conclusions].

DISCLAIMER: Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy and 20th Century Fox own Buffy the Vampire Slayer and everything related to them. I own the storyline and Zee-Ra, the Ha'leth and the Oh-th'Maakem.

NOTES: 1) This is only my second attempt at a Tara/Dawn story so feedback is desperately wanted.

2) This story is based on an idea from The Anonymus Reviewer and is set after Buffonia's story 'Zoom from the Moon' [Read it if you can it's a great story].

3) If you notice some discontinuities and small changes in personalities near the end of this part don't worry, all will be explained (He, He, He, I'm pulling a Joss and hinting at things that are gonna happen further down the track).

Major thanks go to Buffonia for beta'ing this story

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When Angels Weep 2 - Saviour of Humanity

"What do you mean the saviour of humanity?" Tara asked.

"The blokes I heard from say the kid was born of a human mother and an angelic father."

"Angelic? You mean an angel?" Buffy's brow lifted in disbelief.

"Yeah, supposedly someone high up in the ranks. They say the Ha'leth have known of the kid's coming for millennia but they could never find out who the bloody parents would be."

"Sounds like they were protected," I said.

I pulled the car to a stop outside the address on the back of the photo.

"Um so what's the plan?" asked Tara as she closed the book.

"Well I'm bettin' she's alone in there," Spike commented.

"Why's that?" Buffy looked at him inquisitively.

"Coz the door's wide open and she's standin' in it," Spike smirked as he pointed at the door.

We all turned to look and sure enough, the girl from the photo was standing there in the door, well in reality she was now walking down the path towards us.

"You are the vampire slayer?" she said calmly looking at Buffy, her voice carried with it a maturity that was impossible for someone her age and her eyes were completely different to those in the photo, in real life her eyes were pure silver with no sign of whites, iris or pupil.

"Yeah, my name's Buffy, what's yours?" I could tell from the tone of Buffy's voice that she was a little disconcerted by the gaze.

"Syria," the girl answered. "Why if you are the vampire slayer do you have a vampire in the car with you?"

"What?"

"You have a vampire sitting right there." Syria pointed at Spike. "Why?"

"It's okay he's a good vampire."

"There is no such thing," Syria replied, all this time her facial expression hadn't changed.

"Hey, I bloody well resent that," Spike said defensively.

"You should mind your language around minors," Syria said as she calmly flicked her hand in his direction. Spike let out a cry of surprise as a cut opened up on his cheek.

"Henn found you." It was a statement not a question.

Buffy must have assumed that Henn was the dead girl, "Yeah, she found us."

"She is dead, correct?"

"Yes," Buffy replied in a sad and slightly uncomfortable tone.

"Do not worry, she served her purpose, she will now go to a better place," Syria looked at Tara and me then turned to glance at the house. "You should all come inside, we will draw attention out here." With that she turned around and made her way up to the house.

I turned to Buffy. "Well?"

"Well, we follow her obviously," Buffy said as she opened her door. "Coming?"

"Yeah, yeah," Spike said following her out.

"We'll be there in a sec," I said, leaning out the car window.

"Okay but don't take too long."

I watched them walk up the front path and into the house before turning to Tara, "Did you find anything?"

"No," Tara sighed. "The only ritual that used a dagger even similar to the one that killed Henn can't be performed by anything other than a Greth demon."

"And it couldn't have been one of them?"

"They became extinct almost three thousand years ago."

"No other leads?"

"None," she hung her head, her tone was one of disappointment.

"Hey." I put a finger under her chin and gently raised her head so I could look her in the eyes. "We'll find an answer."

"But will we find it in time?"

"We always do," I smiled at her, "We'd better get inside."

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The hallway was a bit blandly decorated for my taste, I got the feeling that people didn't live there very much.

As we walked into the hallway just inside the door, I saw Spike standing in the first doorway on my left.

"What's up?"

"The kid's ballin' her eyes out," Spike pointed into the room.

I glanced over Spike's shoulder into the room. There sitting on the couch was the girl with her head in her hands, her shoulders were quivering with each sob. Buffy sat next to her, gently patting her back in a comforting manner.

"What happened?" Tara eyed the scene sorrowfully.

"Dunno, we came in after her and then she just sat there, lowered her head and started wailin'."

"Henn was my best friend." Syria gasped in between sobs. Her voice no longer held the mature quality it had when she had come out to the car.

"Syria?" Buffy asked.

Syria lifted her head and turned to Buffy, her eyes were no longer pure silver, they were now big, brown and puppy-dog like, "I'm not Syria, my name's Eve," she

answered.

Tara and I exchanged a knowing look, there was something familiar about the way she was acting.

"Why did you call yourself Syria before?" Buffy asked with a frown.

"I didn't, that was Syria."

"Buffy," I called quietly.

She looked up at me, her eyes full of bemusement.

"Come here a sec."

She got up and moved towards us, "Spike, Tara look after her."

"Right then," Spike said moving into the room with Tara close behind.

"What is it?" Buffy asked once we were out of earshot of the living room.

"It looks like she may have multiple personalities."

"How can you tell," her voice was laced with sarcasm, "We should get her to the magic shop. We can keep her safe there."

"Well, relatively safe at least," I said with a weary smile.

Buffy smirked before heading back to the living room.

"Spike, we're taking Eve to the magic shop."

"Why?" Spike asked incredulously.

"So we can keep her safe." I frowned at him

"Yeah, okay whatever," Spike stood up and stalked towards the door.

"Come on Eve, we're going somewhere safe," Buffy held her hand out to Eve.

"Okay," she said in a meek voice.

Buffy, Dawn and I'll head back to our place and do some research on these Devil's Bandits," Tara said.

"Okay," Buffy answered as we headed out of the house, Tara closed the door after us.

Spike had placed Eve in his car and buckled her up and was now waiting behind the wheel while Buffy walked round and got in the passenger side.

Tara and I headed to my car.

"Research mode. Hmm this will be fun." Tara's voice carried something tough and hard under it.

"Don't worry about it, we'll find out what we need." I slid my arm around her shoulders.

When we reached the car I opened the door and held it for Tara to hop in, she favoured me with her sweetest smile, it was that smile that had pushed me over the edge and made me realise that I was deeply in love with her.

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To Be Continued In When Angels Weep 3 - Interludes And Flashbacks, Oh My!