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Revelations Book 1
Xander clanked as he walked; he had strung so many knives and hand axes from his belt that his pants threatened to fall down. Spike's axe looked as though it might topple him at any moment, but he clung to it with a covetous grin. Buffy had taken the usual complement of stakes, figuring that her nightmares usually involved vampires, but had added a two handed sword in a sheath on her back and a couple of throwing knives for non-vampire threats. Even Dawn got in on the action with a smaller sword than her sister's, though she now looked as though she regretted choosing something so heavy. Tara and Willow had eschewed any physical weapons in favour of their more formidable mental ones. Together they must have made quite an impressive display.
They had been travelling into the withered hills for what seemed like hours - but might have been only minutes, watches not being among the items they had imagined for themselves in this dream. They were feeling as though they were more in danger from boredom than from the Nightmare Master's minions, when Spike came to an abrupt halt. "Bloody hell," he hissed. "That's not a tower, it's a damn tree."
Buffy squinted into the gloom. "How can you be sure?" she asked. "I can't make out anything at this distance."
"Seeing in near darkness is just another of my many skills, love. I told you that you didn't appreciate me," he said with a grin entirely too cheerful for someone trapped in a nightmare world.
"How could a tree be that big?" she wondered, ignoring his dig at her.
"It actually makes more sense. That it's a tree, I mean," Tara said, flushing when all their faces turned her way in curiosity. "Humans have been having nightmares for tens of thousands of years, long before we were building structures."
"We dream too," Spike interjected. "We demons. And we've been around even longer, in one form or another."
Tara nodded acknowledgement. "So there's no reason to limit it to human structures, even."
"You know, it sounds an awful lot like the Norse legend of the world tree Yggdrasil," Willow added. "It passed through and supported all the worlds of creation. It's part of one of the oldest of genesis stories. Maybe the early Vikings saw the tree in their dreams."
"A tree appears in a number of religions," Tara continued. "The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in Eden, or the Bo tree under which Prince Siddhartha received his revelations. It's a powerful symbol - of an almost primeval magic."
Xander found himself trading an eye-rolling glance with Spike and Dawn, who clearly shared the sentiment that there could, in fact, be worse torments than never ending nightmares.
Uncertainty flickered momentarily across Buffy's features. "If the Nightmare Master is that old and powerful, then how can just six of us defeat him?"
"The Slayer magic is nearly as old," Spike said suddenly, infuriated with Tara and Willow for provoking Buffy's hesitation.
"I don't have any magic," she said, looking to him in confusion.
"A Slayer doesn't have magic," he clarified, reining in his temper for her sake. "She is magic - as old as humanity is, at least. There's all the power you'll need."
"Where did you learn so much about Slayers, Spike?" Xander asked sarcastically, stung that Spike should so easily switch sides to join the scholars. "Did you get hold of a Slayer handbook somehow?"
"Killed two of them, didn't I?" Spike retorted.
"And this should make us trust you?" Xander was just as quick with his own rejoinder.
"It should make you believe me. Know your enemy, yeh? Uh, former enemy," he amended, with an apologetic glance aside at Buffy. She nodded impatiently, acknowledging that she recognized the past - and still wanted him in her present. He restrained himself from indulging in the flights of poetic fancy this encouraged. Get on with it, right. He focussed his next words only on her.
"Legend has it that the first Slayer was a powerful demon, called by the shadowmen and born into the body of a girl. They wanted her to be able to protect the tribes from the nasties like yours truly that would otherwise have killed them all." For an instant, his eyes glowed yellow and sharp teeth gleamed in his grin. "Those blokes were the first watchers. They chose a girl so as to have some hopes of controlling the demon, I figure, and there's only supposed to be one called at a time because they're so bloody chaotic and dangerous. Wild magic, like you said," he nodded to Willow and Tara, who were listening raptly. Buffy, strangely, didn't seem upset at the idea that there was a demonic basis to her powers. You always wondered why I said we two belong together. Now you know.
"I'm not a demon," Buffy protested mildly. Concerns about what she might or might not be were pushed aside by the job at hand, and she was impatient to continue.
"No love, you're as human as the rest of them," he said, gesturing around with the head of his axe. "But that's not all you are. And since you've been brought back, you know you've changed somehow."
"I explained that to her," Tara said firmly. "It's a side effect of the resurrection spell, nothing more. Some minor changes on a cellular level that fool your chip."
Spike sneered at the suggestion. "Oh, right. Like you really believe that's all it is. Doesn't that seem a little simplistic to you? When I died, I came back a vampire. Death's not a minor change."
Buffy stared into the distance, letting the conversation flow around her. A few weeks ago, she had torn into Spike for suggesting anything of the sort. Now she was rapt with a new sense of purpose that settled serenity over her like a familiar and well-loved comforter. If that was coming from changes when she had died and was reborn - again - then she for one would welcome it, whatever the source.
She watched Spike and Tara arguing and nearly laughed when Spike pinched at the bridge of his nose with his fingers in frustration. He reminds me of Giles when he does that, the way he used to push his glasses up. Don't think Spike would appreciate the comparison, though.
"I believe there's something to both of your ideas, Spike," she cut them off before Willow joined the fray and things degenerated into a shouting match. "It could explain a lot about what I can do, and why I seem to be stronger now than ever. But this isn't the time for Slayer self-discovery - we need to get moving again. If I can't win, I can at least go down trying."
She looked around the group and her face contracted in a puzzled frown. "Where's Dawn?"
**********
Dawn kicked idly at the clumps of dusty sod at the base of one of the many hillocks. She wasn't at all surprised that her absence hadn't been noticed yet; Willow and Tara could ignore a minor natural disaster when they started in on discussions of the tedious minutiae of magic, and Xander was all wrapped up in anger and envy at Spike - nothing new there. And of course, Spike and Buffy - she was amazed that they were still able to focus on anything besides each other right now. Still, she figured it was about damn time that Buffy admitted she was in love with Spike. Dawn found him to be a vast improvement over Buffy's last vampire boyfriend. Angel had always looked at her with the exact same suspicious expression that Buffy used when she smelt to see if a carton of milk had gone bad. Not really the look for inspiring affection.
A rough scraping sound made her look up from her introspection to see a female figure moving towards her - Tara, sent to retrieve the prodigal, she assumed.
"Dawn, honey?" the woman asked - not Tara, Dawn realized with a shudder. Her blood began to do a fair imitation of ice water, complete with good-sized ice cubes.
"M-Mommy?" she whimpered.
**********
"I can't believe she'd just walk off," Buffy was saying. "What was she thinking? She should know better than this by now."
Spike shrugged casually. "She probably just wanted to get away from the old folks' rambling again," he volunteered.
"You are not allowed to take her side in this, Spike," Buffy said warningly.
"Note to self for future reference - fright makes you testy."
"Get stuffed," she replied. "This isn't funny."
"See?" He fixed her with a thousand-watt grin. "Don't worry pet, we'll find her. She can't have gone far."
A scream rent the dank air, wiping the smile instantly from his face, and they all set off at a run towards the source.
**********
"Get away from me. You can't be real." Dawn gritted her teeth and lifted her sword in both hands.
"But I am real, honey. You wanted me to come back, and here I am." Not-Joyce advanced on her slowly. "You know," she winked conspiratorially, " I wasn't really dead when you buried me. You knew, but you let them do it anyway. I dug myself out when I heard you calling me." And she smiled, revealing tumbled-gravestone teeth clotted with dark soil.
Dawn screamed.
"I'll stay with you always, honey."
Buffy came pelting around from behind a concealing hill followed closely by Spike. She stopped so suddenly on seeing her mother's form that only his inhuman reflexes kept him from crashing into her. The colour drained from her face and she swayed unsteadily. "Mom? No-"
"She's not real!" Dawn yelled, but Buffy still couldn't force her body to move.
Spike pushed past her to confront not-Joyce himself, lifting his axe. She turned to him with a pleasant, perfectly ordinary smile, and said "Why Spike! How nice to see you again. Did you manage to work things out with your girlfriend?"
Agony arced a hot silver wire between his temples, and he staggered back, clutching his head. "Bloody hell," he gasped. "I know she's not real." Another attempt netted him the same result and he howled. "Sodding chip! Can't tell a real human from a dream one? Fucking waste of taxpayer money . . ."
"Protect Dawn," Buffy shouted, and advanced. He had no choice but to fall back and obey.
Buffy confronted her mother's apparition. "You're not our mother. You're only another of the Nightmare Master's creations, and I won't let you hurt my sister."
Not-Joyce's voice was hard when she answered. "You're already hurting her yourself. Why else would she be stealing and skipping school, if it weren't because of your bad influence? Making her eat leftovers from your job instead of proper meals, staying out to all hours - and sleeping with a vampire. No wonder she's been traumatized-"
Buffy's eyes widened in shock. "Shut up!" she stammered.
"Don't you dare speak to me in that tone, young lady." Not-Joyce's attention was caught by Willow, Tara and Xander coming, out of breath, around the hills. "And then you expose her to sick, lesbian relationships in her own home."
Willow's jaw dropped and she froze in place. "Mrs. Summers?" she sputtered, unable to comprehend what she was seeing and hearing. Tara's face went brick red at not-Joyce's comments, and she ducked her head.
"Buffy, make her stop!" Dawn shrieked from where she huddled behind Spike.
"Xander knows what's right, don't you dear?" Not-Joyce went on, unheeding. "Can I get you a cold drink, or would you prefer something . . . hot?" Her hips swayed suggestively towards him, and he recoiled, horror-struck.
"No!" Buffy screamed, breaking free of her paralysis at last. She lunged forward, snatching her sword from her back. Spike barely had time to grab Dawn by the scruff of the neck and press her face to his chest before Buffy's vicious blow struck not-Joyce's head from her shoulders. The body exploded instantly into a cloud of black insects that flew and scuttled and squirmed away in all directions until there was no sign that anything or anyone had ever been standing there.
Buffy slowly sheathed her sword and stood with her head down, breathing deliberately to hold off her incipient hysteria. When she was finally back in control of herself she turned to face the others, but her eyes were still suspiciously bright and her face flushed in anger at and fear for her sister. Her nerves still sang with the adrenalin of the encounter. "No one goes off alone. Do I have to repeat myself for anyone here?"
"Let it go, Slayer. The girl's had a hard lesson already. Right, pet?" Dawn clutched more tightly to Spike's lapels and sniffed loudly, then nodded, her head bobbing against his chest. "Now Bit, if you get my coat all over snot, you know I'll be sending you the cleaning bill." She thumped his chest in indignation with one hand, hard, and he laughed. "That's my Niblet."
He tightened his hold at the back of her neck and bent to kiss the top of her dark head. God, the scent of her is so much like Buffy - but like a child. It lacked only the twin dark undertones of lust and power that marked his lover. He knew now he would walk into fire or sunlight willingly for either one of them; they both held his heart in their hands - only Dawn did so completely innocent of the power she had over him.
He wanted nothing more than to draw Buffy close and offer her the same solace he was giving Dawn. But he could almost see her drawing the mantle of her calling more tightly about her for strength, and knew that the Slayer would accept no comfort from such as him right now. Tara slipped one arm about her shoulders in wordless sympathy.