Seven Year Slayer Chapter 3

Story outline: Seven years is a long time to slay. Something's gotta change!

Timeline: A few months into an imaginary season 7; Spike is back with a soul; Willow learning to be a good witch; Giles in Sunnydale

Spoilers: Rumors of season 7

Summary: More Slayer lore

Disclaimer: All ME

"Okay, Giles, we're all set, shoot!" Xander said expectantly.

Giles looked troubled. "Um, well, most of this scroll is about locating and identifying the different personae playing a role in the Ascension Ritual: Spirit, Mind and Heart we already have identified; the other major players, Sacrifice and Champion, will have to be found." He coughed.

"Now for the unpleasant bit: the Sacrifice is the persona who must take the place of the Slayer when she ascends. Voluntarily. Requirements are that she must be human, female and virgin."

"Pity! If it was male, demon and been around, we could have sacrificed Spike!" Xander sniped.

Giles sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Sacrifice in this ritual is not literally what you imagine a sacrifice to be, Xander. The person is not cut open on the altar and so forth; the sacrifice is of her life, but in the sense that she will be the Chosen One, the Vampire Slayer, in Buffy's place."

"I'll do it!" Dawn's eyes were shining with excitement. "I'll take Buffy's place! I've always wanted to be a Slayer, it would be so cool!"

"Dawn, this is not a dec…" Giles began, but he was cut off by Buffy's flat 'No."

"No way, Dawn. I'm not going to let that happen to you, like it happened to me. It's not a way of life anyone should choose. Just…just no. Never."

Spike spoke up unexpectedly. "Not your choice to make, Slayer. Dawn's the same age you were when you were called."

"It is so my choice to make! I'm Dawn's guardian. And it is certainly none of your business!"

"Oh really?" Spike refused to back down. "Did your mother have a say in your being Chosen? I remember she didn't like it when she found out, don't I?"

Willow said, with a thoughtful look at Buffy: "Dawn is a different person form you, Buffy. You hated being a Vampire Slayer; you would have preferred to stick to shopping and boys or something. Dawn knows what it means to be a Slayer, and she's always wanted to be part of it."

Spike added: "Plus, added benefit, she won't be in as much danger as you were. I take it you're not gonna ride off into the sunset the moment you've ascended. You'll be the Master Slayer and can stick around to train her."

Dawn followed all this with shining eyes, and looked pleadingly at Buffy. "Buffy, please, It'll be so cool to be a Slayer…"

"It's not cool! " Buffy grated. "You get no sleep, you kill horrible ugly things all night, get blood and worse on your clothes, you can't tell anyone, you have no chance at a normal relationship, you die young!"

"You didn't! " Dawn said heatedly. "And I want to be strong like you. I'll be able to defend myself. I'll never be mugged or raped…"

"Xander, not one word! " Buffy said without looking at him.

"It can be lots of fun too, you know, having supernatural powers! Ordinary human beings just don't know what they're missing!" Anya busied herself giving everyone second rounds of coffee. "Right, Willow, Spike? Would you give it up? Or even you, Buffy?"

Willow and Spike both shook their heads. After a pause Buffy grudgingly admitted that she wouldn't want to go back to being an ordinary human.

"But that's wisdom after the fact", Buffy argued. "Choosing it deliberately is different. Spike did you, in full knowledge, choose to be a vampire?"

"No, " Spike admitted reluctantly. "I had no idea what I was agreeing to when I met Dru."

"Giles! You say something! " Buffy appealed to Giles.

"As I was about to say earlier, this is not a decision to be made lightly. But, as some of you were saying, Dawn is a pretty likely candidate. She not only fits the requirements, but she's also the only candidate who has a fair idea of what she'd be getting into."

"Thanks, Giles! You see, Buffy? Everyone thinks I should do it! Please, Buffy! Think of what it would mean to you!"

Buffy felt trapped. "Why are you all ganging up on me? Don't you see I can't and won't sacrifice my own sister for my selfish needs?"

"Buffy, " Xander said earnestly, "we're not against you. We're for you! We want to give you a chance to take this opportunity, seize your moment! You deserve it! You've been slaying for years, and you never get anything back for it, besides the umbrella. You're a hero, and you deserve rest and a more normal life, and happiness!"

"Hear, hear Xander! Well said!"

Xander glowed at the unaccustomed praise from Giles.

'The answer is still a big no!"

Buffy struggled, grasping for alternatives. "What about Faith? Maybe we can wait till she gets out of prison? We could put out an ad? "

She put her face in her hands. "O god. There is no one else, is there? "

"You know our opinion, Buffy. No need for haste. Think it over." Giles said gently. "I suggest we put this subject to rest for the time being."

*****

Buffy was feeling antsy. Killing five vamps in a row hadn't relieved the tension as much as it usually did. And why hadn't Spike shown up on patrol? It wasn't as if he had anything else to do! He'd already been on his stupid ladder when she'd come in, clothes dusty with vampire remains.

Giles was speaking. "… and get on with the rest of the scroll. If I'm not boring you, of course.

There's a lot of pretty impenetrable stuff about Slayers and vampires being two sides of the same coin. The Slayer is a power of light, with its origins in darkness. Vampires are a force of darkness, who started out as innocents, beings of the light. There are hints of a magical connection between vampires and slayers, apart from Slayer and Slayee that is. But I must admit, I've little idea what this could mean in connection to the ritual."

"Death is the first connection, Watcher, and sex the second: Eros and Thanatos, also sides of the same coin, " Spike said.

"What the hell does that mean, Evil Undead? Slayers are supposed to have sex with vampires? You wish!" Xander looked around for support.

Giles and Willow looked thoughtful, Buffy looked away, and Dawn didn't have a clue. Anya fiddled with some bills at the cash register. Spike looked back steadily, refusing to be drawn. Willow mouthed to Giles: We'll talk! Giles looked nonplussed, but nodded.

A rather strained silence fell.

"You know, " Willow speculated, "this could be the Council suppressing again. A bunch of righteous old men, determined that the sixteen-year-old girls do their bidding? They wouldn't want them sleeping with the enemy. Or with any one at all. I never thought of that...a sexual component in the Slayer's powers… sleeping with vampires would only make her more powerful!"

More strained silence. Coughing.

"Buffy, remember you and Dracula? How you had to fight to get out of his thrall?"

This Buffy could answer. "Yeah, and he kept hinting about my dark power, and how I didn't know the half of it…" She fingered his bite thoughtfully.

Giles manfully wrenched the talk to another subject: "I had also hoped to learn more of our last player, the Eternal Champion. But, alas, it appears that scroll number three dealt with that subject. Are you sure there was no third scroll, Buffy? "

Buffy shrugged. "The demon I killed sure didn't have it on him. But I didn't get that deep into the tunnels. Want me to check it out?"

"If you would, yes. "

Buffy looked at Spike. "You on for tomorrow? "

The Scoobies started to clear up and leave.

*****

'Giles, do you have a minute? I want tot talk to you alone," Buffy asked. They went into the training room. "You probably can guess all the talk tonight kind of wigged me, I mean the bit about Slayers and vampires. So I wanted to ask you some stuff without everyone butting in. What Spike said, does that mean that Slayers are supposed to have sex with vampires? That I'm not some kind of freak, but that it's normal – for Slayers, that is? But there's nothing like that in the Watcher's diaries, right?"

"Yes, yes and no." At Buffy's look, Giles hastened to explain. "There's nothing in the diaries. But none of the really vital stuff seems to be: The first, or this ritual. And yes, I think Spike was right: the text seems to imply that there is a mutual attraction between Slayer and Vampires. I've been thinking it's one of the things that might go to explaining the high mortality rate of Slayers."

"Eew! You mean their lovers ate them?"

"Your talent for language will never cease to amaze me , Buffy. But – yes. I think you've been exceptionally lucky, as indeed in other things: your lover had souls, and/or chips."

"Again with the ew! They had sex with vampires without souls? Yucky and dangerous!"

"Actually, " Giles began, 'It was my impression that you and Spike were… intimate… long before he gained a soul? "

Buffy considered this for a moment. "Yeah, sure, but Spike is different!"

"How is he different? "

"The feelings… he loved Drusilla for a hundred years, the chip, the looks…"

"I'm sure there've been other handsome vampires through the ages; perhaps even natural blonds, " Giles said dryly. "But the feelings, yes, that may be unique. Buffy, I don't want to pry - well, actually, I do. Have you yourself noticed a difference in your response between your human and your vampire lovers?"

Buffy wrinkled her nose. "You mean, is sex better with the one than with the other? Well, yeah! Like comparing a… a shot of heroin to a sip of Gatorade!"

Giles eyebrow rose. "I take it we human males are the lemonade?"

"It's like, not unpleasant as such, but bland and boring, and no stamina…" Buffy stopped. "Sorry, didn't want to hurt your feelings. It's not as if I've tried out all that many, right? Maybe it was just Riley and me…"

They fell silent, feeling embarrassed about the personal stuff.

"Buffy, you've been bitten by vampires. Three, if I'm correct?"

"If this is a roundabout way of asking me if Spike bit me, no he didn't. And Angel only did it because I forced him to."

"It's supposed to be a rush to drink blood! Well, perhaps only in Anne Rice."

Buffy snorted. "Huh! Lestat never has sex with anyone! So how true can those books be? I think we're done here, Giles. I leave here less freaky than I came, which is good." Buffy turned to go. "Actually, one more thing: What 's in it for the vampires?"

At Giles blank look: "Why would they care about having sex with Slayers? What is their gain? What's different for them from sex with other vampires of even humans?"

"I just don't know, Buffy. Redemption? Slayer blood? Revenge? Malice? In memory of their lost humanity? For some reason our reference material never mentions sex. Do you think you can ask Spike?"

"He's not exactly forthcoming these days – but I'll try."

***

"Giles?"

"Willow?"

"Are we thinking the same thing?"

"What?"

"Slayer empowerment by Vampire Sex?"

"It makes me queasy just to think of that as Buffy's destiny".