by Clueless One
Rating: R
Disclaimers: BTVS & Angel belong to Joss Whedon, ME, UPN, and WB respectively. I'm just borrowing them for a bit.
Summary: Spike returns to Sunnydale after a lay over in the City of Angels. Buffy and Dawn are getting their lives sorted out; Willow is back from her detox in England. Xander and Anya move on with their lives hoping to discover whether they're traveling the same path. Meanwhile one of the Old Ones wake, and begins searching for her bloodline, and reclaiming her family. She's old as mankind Hell-bent on restoring the world to the way it was when she last walked upon it, and seeking revenge on the one who was created to destroy her: The Slayer.
Spoilers: All of Season Six of BtVS and season Three of AtS set in an Alternate Season Seven and Four respectively.
A/N: I'm kind of just jumping right in four months ahead of Grave. Things will pick up action wise soon. Right now I'm just trying to set up the players. Thanks for the reviews they are very much appreciated :)
Feedback: Please? I need feedback. The more the better.
Chapter Two. Issues. They've got issues.
"I don't know why you're messed up. I don't know why your whole life is a chore. Just do me a favor. And check your baggage at the door" The Offspring -She's Got Issues
Dawn awoke to the sound of someone knocking on her door. "Come in."
"Dawn, I need to talk to you before I go to work ok?"
"About what?" she mumbled sleepily before asking, "Is this about Spike?" She dreaded the answer, because she already knew it was.
"This is hard enough to talk about with you," Buffy paused and looked away. "Just let me say it ok? I need to tell you about what it was like with us. We never talked about it, not really."
"I don't want to-" but Buffy cut her off.
"I know you don't Dawnie, I don't want my sixteen year old sister hearing this stuff from me-about me, but you need to know this."
"What's to know Buffy?" she asked sitting up. "He tried to rape you! Xander saw the bruises."
"That's just it Dawn there were always bruises afterward. I enjoyed it, and I gave as good as I got believe me."
"What?"
"When I came back I was angry and hurt, and I shut myself down. But when I was with Spike I...simply put I felt. Being with him made me feel - something other then the pain and confusion of being brought back. Of trying to be what everyone wanted. The first night with Spike…was me. I initiated it. What we did it wasn't tender, it wasn't sweet, and we literally tore a house down doing it." Dawn stared at her, wide eyed at her sisters candidness, both of them blushing.
"There were times when I told him no only to turn around and make it clear that I meant yes. I would tell him to stop, and he would tell me to stop him. It was all part of some game. A way for me to fool myself into thinking he was doing this to me. He knew that if I meant it that I would stop him, and I did."
"Then what happened in the bathroom?"
"I don't know. By that time things had already spiraled out of control for both of us. I hurt him so much, in so many different ways. And he hurt me, but I know he never meant for it to happen."
"Why are you telling me this?" She was beginning to get mad. It sounded like Buffy had forgiven him. How? Why?
"Because, if you want to be mad at Spike fine. If you want to hate him go ahead it's your choice, but I want you doing it because of you. Because he let you down when he left. Not because you feel it's your sacred sisterly duty. Not because you're letting yourself think it's because of him and me. I won't let you use that as an excuse. It hurt him last night when you turned away."
As Buffy started to leave the room Dawn asked, "Did you love him, when you were...?"
"No. I was too confused to hurt to love."
"You don't suddenly love him now do you?"
"No Dawnie," Buffy met her eyes, "but I do care about him. He's coming on patrol tonight, if you're coming be civil to him. Please? I'll see you tonight." Buffy left pulling Dawn's door closed leaving the teen alone lost in thought. Thoughts of a summer only a year past, when the pain of her sister's death was suffocating her. She thought of the blonde vampire whose shoulder she had cried on. She thought of nights they had spent out in the backyard telling stories, talking about what each day would bring, and remembering her sister. He was the only one who would really speak about Buffy with her. Perhaps because she was the only one who would talk to him.
He had taken care of her being the emotional support she needed, never telling her she had to look at the bright-side. She had put on a false face of strength for the rest her friends because they needed her too, but with Spike she could feel what she truly felt. There was no bright-side not without Buffy, Spike understood that. And so they had lived after burring her body, and burring a part of themselves, and it seemed to her they lived at first more to honor her sisters memory then any other reason. It had been Spike who pulled her out of her depression. He had been the brother she needed to fill the void left after her sister had died.
He left me, when I needed him most. He left me. She thought. Just like dad, mom, Buffy, Giles, and Tara had left. She turned over, clutching her pillow close to her chest, and silently cried herself back to sleep.
***
The sun had about set when Xander finally stopped working on the Millers' shed. It wasn't so much a shed as a giant 1,820 Sq. Ft. Pole Barn, but the odd thing was such structures usually weren't approved of in this kind of neighborhood. Though fact was the Millers' could afford to pay the zoning inspector enough to approve it and officially call it a shed. Funny the way that worked out, and slightly troublesome. It seemed the town was corrupt in ways other then ignoring the things that go bump in the night. Then again this was Sunnydale, and the Millers lived on a good sized spot of land at the edge of the suburbs. No telling what an elderly couple like the Millers wanted a barn this large for. He shuddered. Best to think they want to invest in racing horses. Not everything has to be about the Hellmouth.
Reaching into his back pocket and removing a handkerchief Xander wiped the sweat from his eyes. He was the only one out here, the rest of the crew had gone home at five happily observing union hours, and collecting time and a half for working on a Saturday, but he had stayed. It was either work, go home and find a drink, or go kill a certain blood-sucking fiend. He preferred the last two but either one of them could cost him his friends. Buffy made it clear that morning when she called him not to bother Spike. He didn't like it, but for now he reluctantly agreed. He hated the vampire. The asshole had tried to kill them, then when he said he had changed he had tried to rape Buffy. Plus slept with Anya, that alone was enough to make him want to bath in Spike's dust.
He needed a drink, but he couldn't. He had promised Anya he would quit before he turned into his father. His friends were supportive, but he knew they were worried. He had been sinking into a dark and drunken hole after he left Anya. It was the very reason he left so she wouldn't have to face that. He was so afraid of turning into his father. Only he was doing it and not even realizing all the while. It was Anya and Willow who forced himself to admit it.
Anya. He loved her, even if she stayed a demon, he would still love her. He realized it after she had helped him care for Willow. Helped talk her into going to England and then let her move in with her when she came back. She asked him to go six months without a drink, just six months to prove to her, but more so to himself that he could. Not that he had a series problem, but to prove to himself he wouldn't follow in his father's footsteps. Then they would talk about their future. Two more months, he reminded himself. Only now that he was so close Spike was back, and the desire to get drunk was back as well. Stronger then ever. He picked up a handful of nails, envisioned the vampire's face on the head, and began to drive them into the beam.
***
"I see the 'Bit didn't want to come." He stated as they walked through the gravestones. It wasn't" surprising. If the girl was anything like her sister she could hold a helluva grudge. Though the fact that Dawn was patrolling he still found shocking.
"She's coming, just she was going to patrol by the Bronze. We're going to meet her there. Hey how'd you know she patrolled now?"
"Caught up with Clem today he filled me in. Look I asked if he wanted to keep the crypt. Don't feel much like staying there myself, too many memories."
"Bad memories?" she asked quietly.
"Some, but some good memories that 'urt too much to think about."
"Where will you be staying?"
"S'was thinking of Angelus's Mansion. Fix the place up a bit. Poof told me to take if I wanted, he didn't have any use for it anymore-" He stopped and looked at her. Shit! Me and my big bloody mouth.
She turned her eyes blazing. "You've been to see Angel? You didn't' tell him about us did you? Oh wait, of course you did. I know, you probably went while the smell of me was still fresh on you just to rub his nose in it."
"Buffy." He reached out to place his hand on her shoulder.
She knocked it a way. "Don't. Touch. Me!"
She started to walk away her pace fast. What the bloody fuck just happened? He ran after her.
"What's your problem Slayer?"
"You! You lied! You said you were in Africa, but instead you were off in LA gloating over laying a Slayer, and trying to kill Angel. God and I thought you had changed."
"You loony bint. You have no idea-" She punched him hard enough it rocked his head back, and he felt as well as heard the tell-tale sound of his nose breaking. "Not this time Buffy. No more running. No more hiding behind fighting or shagging."
"I don't know what you mean." She tried walking away. He ran back in front of her. She hit him again, still he didn't back down. Or give in.
"What happened to the girl I was talking to last night? The one who was apologizing to me for doing what you're doing now?" She blinked, tears starting to form in her eyes. Since when did she cry? He wondered, but knew he couldn't back down.
"You really want to hit me go ahead. My body's yours. I told you once I'm your willing slave. I still am Love. Heart, soul, body, and mind I'm yours." Damn I said soul. He hoped she didn't notice the slip. "I never lied to you. I went to Africa, then I went to LA to find the Po- Angel. Yes, he knows what happened, but I didn't tell him to gloat Buffy. I told him because I needed to confide in someone who might somehow understand. What I did to you was killing me, and a part of me hoped that he would end it."
She remained silent and he couldn't tell what she thought by the look on her face. "I didn't go there to fight with him. I went for his help, and then I was with him. I was there nearly three months helping him. I'm the one Cordelia sent to swim down and haul his sorry ass out of the ocean where he was left to starve." He turned kicking a gravestone in half. His voice rising angrily "I'm the one who fed himself to Angelus day and night until 'is mind was clear enough to shut away the demon and the bloodlust, until he wasn't a danger to his friends."
"But you hate him." she mumbled barely audible.
"Damn right I do. I hate Angelus for twenty years of abuse and torture, I hate him for what he did to Dru. For what he did to my family when he finely found them. I hate him and his bitch Darla who held me down and made me watch. Made me taste what he did to them. What he made me do. And I hate Angel for leaving me alone with her while I tried to take care of Dru. I hated him for abandoning us. I hate him for abandoning me."
"Then why?" She sounded like she was crying. He tried to ignore the fact that he was as well.
"He's my Sire, do you know what that means? Dru turned me, but it was with him beside me that I woke. Buffy, it was his blood I first drank. There's a bond that defies love or hate between us." He realized he was sitting on the ground and that Buffy was next to him holding his head against her shoulder, and wondered how he got there. He felt her hand on his neck, warm fingertips brushing the spot where Dru had bit him over a hundred and twenty years ago.
"You really helped him?" He nodded. "Wait he knows about us and he let you live?"
"He has his own life now, said you should too." He hated what he was about to say. "You should call 'ím you know."
"Maybe." She continued rubbing his neck. "Hmm. I never noticed this scar." She sounded like she was talking to herself. "I'm sorry for what I said."
"S'ok, but what about hitting me?" he asked, though he wasn't concerned about that.
"No. I like hitting you, but it's more fun when you hit back. Don't let me hit you and you not hit back."
"Thanks, I think." Her fingers were still playing with the scar.
"I don't like this," he knew what she meant, "It's hers isn't it." He nodded, and he felt her move slightly. She was looking at him and smiled. It was a real smile. A Buffy smile. She had never given him one of those before. Then he saw something mischievous dancing around in her eyes. "I don't like it," she repeated it again and again. It was barely a whisper being breathed out. Her head moved and he felt her warm lips covering the scar. It felt like a jolt of electricity rushing through him. Her mouth opened and he floored by the warm wet sensation. Then she grazed her teeth over top of it before biting down and suckling at the flesh. It was too much for him to stand. Did she realize what she was doing? The symbolism of marking him? She couldn't. He groaned. Hell did she even have a clue what it was doing to him? He felt the skin tear just slightly, knew she had broken flesh, and she stopped. She met his eyes smiling shyly almost like nothing happened. "C'mon Let's find Dawn."
"Buffy why did-"
She spoke slowly. "I...didn't...like...it. Now lets find my sister before she gets into trouble." He didn't argue just followed her, a million thoughts buzzing through his mind.
***
The young man, known as Steven, followed the highway walking alone in the soggy and chilly California night. A part of him still was amazed at this world and most likely always would be. All the things in it, laws, electricity, automobiles, television, plumbing, people, and music. This was the world he was meant to live in not the hell he was from. A world he was meant to live in with a demon for a father he reminded himself.
It still hurt that the man he thought of as his father, the man who had loved him, was dead. And the newfound knowledge that he had betrayed his real father; believing he had been the one to kill Holtz was a much fresher wound. Had he really been wrong about the vampire? Could having a soul make him good? Those were questions he didn't really want answered. Things were much simpler with everything being black and white. Shades of gray were too confusing. Still it hadn't been Angelus that killed his father, though he had found out after it was too late, it had been Justine. She had taken Holtz's life framing Angelus.
Another wound Justine. The woman had died saving him from a nameless demon. He could still see her blood a dark crimson pool surrounding her. A jagged knife protruding from her chest, the tip coming out her back. The knife had been thrown at him, but he hadn't seen it and he would have been if Justine had stepped in front of it. Before she died she had confessed her sins, Sins against Holtz, Angelus, and himself. Sins that left Steven more confused then ever in his eighteen years. He had felt an odd pull to go and free the demon he had sent to the bottom of the ocean so many months ago. But instead he settled on simply leaving an anonymous note for Fred, telling where to find Angelus. Only by the time he arrived he discovered they already had. So he left feeling a strange sensation of guilt forming inside him. A part of him was calling out to go back, and ask forgiveness. A part of him yearned to be a part of the family he had momentarily allowed himself to indulge in. Watching movies with Fred, talking with Cordelia, listening to Gunn. Most of all though a part of him cried out to stand beside Angelus. When they had fought together he had felt complete, when they trained together that night he had felt loved. He heard Angelus's voice as he locked him in the coffin. "Some day you'll learn the truth - and you'll hate yourself. Don't. It's not your fault I don't blame you. Listen to me. I love you! Never forget that. Connor?! Connor, never forget that I'm your father and that I love you."
He wiped the moisture from his eyes, and remembered his father's words. "He's a demon Steven never forget that. He's Angelus the devil with an Angel's face the father of lies."
He shivered clutching the green, worn, and ratty woolen jacket closer around himself, feeling a sudden need for warmth. It wasn't much to look at, better then the rest of the raggedy clothes he wore, and much better then anything he had owned in the world he was from. He sighed. He knew what he needed to do. He was different, he had a gift the world had need of, and his father had taught him that God gifted man so he can help others. A low rumble formed deep within his stomach and he was reminded again how long it had been since he last ate. Without Justine looking after him he had no money, and as he soon learned without money there was only one way to get anything in this world. It was live or die so he took what he had to, but he had stole only what he needed to survive on. All the while remembering he would face God's wraith for the sins he was committing.
So this is Sunnydale, he thought as he passed the welcome sign. Doesn't seem so bad of a place. He soon found himself to be wrong as he headed deeper into the town, and a familiar feeling entered his body. It radiated from the town pouring into his skin, a feeling of despair, darkness, and evil. The farther into the town he got the more it felt like Quor-toth. He frowned, he had been told that Sunnydale was a bad place by Justine. That's why she was going there, but this was...it felt like being at the edge of Hell. Then his thoughts were pulled away when he heard a woman screaming in terror. With a slight smile he rushed off towards the sound. Where there were screams there usually would be a fight.
As he was about to reach the woman and the feeding vampire he saw a cute young girl approach behind them. Before he could yell for her to run she had grabbed the vampire, spinning him around, and landed a hard right to its jaw. Steven stopped when he saw the vampire fall to the ground. The girl was strong. She looked at the woman "Run." Then looked back towards the vampire "You know you shouldn't snack at night, it's not healthy, and you need to hit the gym that's a bit of a blood gut you've got going on there." The vampire started to stand, but she walked over and brought the point of her shoe hard up into its crotch. Steven grimaced the blow was unnecessary and ruthless. It could have easily been killed instead. She pulled out a small wooden stake and tapped against her forehead watching the vampire writhe in agony for a moment then slammed into his chest.
"Big mistake." A large red headed vampire slurred entering the alley. Behind him Steven could make out at least a dozen more. The girl looked confident but he could smell the fear coming from her.
"What's wrong sweetie? Don't be afraid were gonna have ourselves a real good time. Gonna make you scream. Again and again." The vampire leered suggestively.
"Sorry but you've got the wrong sister. I like my guys to have a pulse. Buffy prefers hers cold. Plus eww! You smell like you're decomposing, and well, hygiene, it's a must." The vampire growled and launched at her, the others circling in. Steven shouted running, and grabbing one of the vampires he twisted it's head off. She screamed for him to run. Spinning around ducking a punch and buried his hand in another one's chest crushing its heart, and leaving nothing but dust. He looked over at the girl. The stake was knocked from her hand, but she was still fighting. Fighting incredibly dirty he noticed. Without the stake it was eyes, throat, and crotch she aimed for. She was holding her own, and he had he worked his way over till they were near each other. He saw her fingers wrap around the throat of one of them. Long fingernails dug in, and she squeezed then ripped her arm back.
She was panting as he tore the head off another. That made five dead. Blood covered her arm but he could smell it wasn't hers. In her hand he saw her holding the demons throat, and she appeared both surprised and disgusted by it. The Vampire stood back up; still alive. "Behind you!" he screamed and she turned, ducked, then in a swift motion dove for the stake on the ground. A moment later the throat-less vamp was dust. They had cut the group down to half when more vampires arrived like some sort of damned second wave. What is this place Demon Central?
There were too many, and the thought dawned on him that only one of them could get away alive. Angelus' voice filled his head again. "Civilian! Civilian! Protect her, protect her!" Then he heard Holtz. "If it comes to living or dying child you must always live. Even if you must allow another to die. You can do more good then they ultimately. The needs of the many out way the few." He looked at the girl next to him, his stomach knotted up. Protect her! He started fighting ripping, tearing, but there were just too many they just kept coming. Where were they coming from?
The vampires had them surrounded, and backed up against a wall. They stood side by side as the creatures gathered around, the redheaded one stepping to the front. Steven was forced to admit they were outnumbered and out matched, when he noticed a small flicker. A match arching up in the air and landing in front of the lead vampire. Everyone stopped. Steven looked over to where the match had come from and saw the outline of a man step into the streetlight. He wasn't tall nor large, in fact the man seemed faintly scrawny, small, but there was a sense of danger rolling off the figure in waves. His hair was brownish covered half way up in blonde curling tips. Slowly he removed the cigarette he had lit, breathing out a thick cloud of smoke. The group of vampires stepped back a little. Steven sniffed smelling the newcomer. He was a vampire as well. He looked at the girl but was surprised by a slight hint of a smile that twitched on her lips as she stared at the demon. Didn't she know this creature wasn't here to help?
The blonde regarded the girl in an obvious dismissal of the group of vampires. "Lo Bite-size. In a spot of trouble?"
"It's not as bad as it looks." She said with a confidence. "And for the record I'm still mad at you."
"Figured that."
The redheaded vampire growled, "They're ours find your own meal."
The new vampire scoffed. "Rude bloke ain't he?"
"Sure is. He even had the nerve to threaten my virtue." The girl said addressing the vampire.
"Can't have that now. Big sis'll never let me hear the end of it. `Sides like it or not you're still my little Nibblet, and you're too young not to be virtuous."
"Spike I have a name, and I can take care of myself. I'm sixteen, but then you probably wouldn't know that. You weren't here for my birthday."
"I'm sorry 'bout that. But you're still only sixteen, and your virtue's staying put till you're twenty-five...and married for a few years...Hopefully to some stuffy bloke I think is a completely dull Nancy-boy who couldn't give a bloody frig about your..." He waved his arm in the air. "...Damn virtue." Steven fought a small smile at there bickering momentarily forgetting that the man was a vampire.
"Why do you care Spike. You left." she sounded hurt.
"Dammit this is getting old Bit. I bloody left cause I couldn't control myself and I hurt the Slayer, and I stayed gone till I found what I needed to control the demon. What if I lost control again what if it was with you?"
"This is interesting and all, but I'm hungry now," the redheaded vampire muttered.
Spike looked at the vampires, rage, anger, and annoyance covered his face. "You lot still fuckin' 'ere? Can't you see I'm in the middle of tryin' to suss out a bit of a domestic issue."
"You're Spike, the traitor to our kind." The vampire spit in disgust. Traitor? Steven wondered at that. "Word is you've gone soft, lost your bite, and become the Slayers lap dog..."
"Still got me bite mate, an' then some. An if you lot don't piss off you'll find out first hand."
"One vampire and two freakish humans. The odds don't look so good."
"You know what you're right. You're so outnumbered. Dawn get the boy out of here," a woman's voice said from behind the group. "There now. The two of us against all of you. Sounds about even to me."
Steven found the small slip of a woman and his eyes widened before the girl-Dawn grabbed his arm pulling him away. "But...is she your sister?" Dawn nodded. "Shouldn't we help?" He protested. She looked so small. So helpless.
"Nah she can take care of herself." Once they got out of the alley she turned and had him watch.
"Against all of them alone?"
"She's the Slayer, and she's not alone. Spike's there."
"He's one of them."
She was slow to respond. "He is-was also my friend. For a time my protector." Steven chose not to argue instead he watched the Slayer and vampire fight side by side. It was like nothing he had ever seen. The vampire seemed to fight as savagely as he had, but the girl though was precise using quick and controlled movements. She was quicker then he thought possible, stronger too. The vampire-Spike stopped looked at her then laughed, and began fighting the way she did, matching her movements perfectly. They moved in step to each other dust filling the air between them. In a matter of minutes it was over and they were coming towards him.
"They're good," he breathed knowing it was a huge understatement.
"So I'm Dawn. What's your name?"
***
The pain in his chest had subsided. Four months and his body still felt the effects of his battle with Willow. He had grown accustom to the regular muscle aches and bones mending, but this pain was new, and frightening. He knew what it was of course. The fear he had felt when he read the passage in the old diary. The shock that jolted through his body as his mind connected it with other prophecies. He had finally reached his limit, one to many scares for the old ticker.
"Rupert? Are you returning to bed?" He turned to see Olivia standing tiredly in the doorway, and was momentarily stricken by her beauty. Standing there wrapped only in a thin sheet that molded around her soft curves.
"In a bit."
"Something the matter?" she asked, but he shook his head. "You're not ill are you?"
"No," he lied. "I'm quite well." If having a small heat attack can be called well, he grimly thought. He held his hand out and she walked over taking it. Gently he pulled her down into the chair with him, thankful for the familiar comfort of her body pressed against his.
"Something is wrong. Don't try to deny it."
"Right. It's just I read something a moment ago," he gestured to the stacks of ancient books, scrolls, and old diaries. "It upset me." Nearly bloody well killed me. He thought for a moment of seeing a physician, he knew he needed to, but he decided they would admit him and run tests. He didn't have time for tests, now. Time may well be up. "It's a prophecy written nearly a thousand years ago by a vampire prophet."
"I take it he has a good track record of being right?"
"Yes Aurelius has yet to be proven wrong. Not all of his prophecies happen quite the way he writes but they are never wrong."
"What does it say?"
"It's just a portion that was written in here. It's from something similar to what the book of Revelations is to Christians. Though the original text I believe has been destroyed. 'In the last days, The Master shall rise and The Chosen One deceives the grave. Thrice does she live, and thrice shall she meet death always deceiving the grave. Nevertheless Slayers are called forth to take their last breath. The Key shall be forged, given flesh and blood. Chaos's Black Knight falls into the Chosen's Light and shifts the Balance. Lilith, our Queen, shall walk this earth again, and by her hand the Chosen One, the Slayer shall die the finale Death. Lilith, her Lovers' seated beside her, the Champion and Warrior-The Sons of Aurelius, together they shall rule on the Mouth of Hell. This I foretell. This I see. So let it be.' That's all there was, but what it's saying is happening now."
"How can you be sure?"
"Well see, Buffy killed The Master nearly seven years ago. As you know she's died twice. The Key is a human," he sighed frustrated. He wasn't ready for this.
"The Black Knight? Any idea who he is?"
"No, but the Champion I believe to be Angel. He is The Powers Champion."
"The Warrior?"
" I fear I have an inkling of a suspicion on who he is or will be somehow. Certainly wish to hell I did not though. It's the other name that grieves me." Frightens the piss out of me. The very sight of it caused his pulse to race in an unsteady beat.
"Lilith?" Olivia asked.
"Yes. There are thousands of legends that speak of her in The Council Libraries. None are conclusive, but the earliest tell of her as one of the first vampire. Perhaps even the very first. But they are myths and legends." Evil's Darkest Birth one tome had read. Chosen by the First Evil to be the counter to humanity. To be the plague that wiped them from this earth, and prepare the way for the return of the rest of the Old Ones. "I fear this is what my mentor Archie tried to prepare me for."
"You think he knew of this and never told you?"
"I think he knew something. Last year I received a letter written by him a full ten months before he died. Only this letter was not supposed to be sent 'till the year 2001 of our lord." He smiled. "He was a stickler for certain traditions. Anyway it held verses of a prophecy. He told me in the end to follow my heart, and to trust in those I love." Archie had also told him that when the time came to search for this prophecy, and to confront The Council, on what else he would find with it. On their grave misuse the Powers trust.
"Do you remember the verse?"
"Betrayers of Darkness
Turned to death Eternal
Sons of Aurelius
Pure once was the Kindred Infernal
Hope A Cursed Champion and Powers' Pawn
Hope A Dark Warrior who loves with a Poetic Heart
What is their choice when blood is drawn
Redemption or Damnation, which will their souls take part
Evil's First and Darkest birth
One from which all else come
Forever has she walked the earth
All who face her succumb
At the Mouth of Hell she strides
Her lineage She comes to reclaim
Light Or Dark Their choice decides
Who will be sacrificed to the Flame"
Silence. "So I take this to mean you're going back to the States?"
"No."
"No? But isn't the Summers girl in trouble?"
"Yes very much so."
"Rupert, I know how you feel about the girl, about all of them. How can you not go back?"
"Archie's last piece of advice to me was to remind me of my duty." He could remember every word in the letter especially the last paragraph.
"You are a Watcher, perhaps the first true watcher in memory. The coming days will be dark, and I fear you will lose much before it ends. I pray for you and yours. I pray your Slayer can stop what is to come, but I would be lying if I thought it possible. Remember who you are Rupert. You are a Watcher first and foremost. You must watch and not interfere with what the Chosen One is going through, Warn her if you wish, help from afar if you can, but stay away until hope is seemingly lost. From the time this letter reaches your hands your path leads off into a different direction then your young charge, but it will converge again, if not in this life then in what comes after. I wish you luck. Know you have made me proud."
"Let's get some sleep," she said after they had sat in silence for sometime. Following Olivia to bed, he decided to contact Angel and send an anonymous e-mail to Willow. He would warn them, he just hoped he was doing the right thing.