Chapter 5 - explanations
Spike, Buffy and Dawn drove around in the car Buffy had rented earlier trying to find the small house that the seer lived in. That was much easier said then done.
"I thought you said you knew where she lives?" Buffy said impatiently to her ex-boyfriend.
Spike rolled his eyes.
"A lot has changed over the years, that happens," he said for the umpteenth time. "And this would go much faster if the two of you would just be quiet and let me think."
"What? I haven't said anything. Don't be all blaming me here, Spike. Leave me out of this!" Dawn exclaimed from the backseat.
Spike groaned.
"Please?" he said tiredly.
~*~
Xander and Anya sat in a couple of uncomfortable chair in a tiny room in the office building. The only other person in the room was an old woman sitting at a desk reading. She hadn't made any indication at all during the ten minutes they had been there that she had noticed their presence. Finally she looked up.
"What are you're names?" she said in bad English.
"Ehm, I'm Xander Harris, and this is Anya," Xander said nervously. "Could you please tell us why we're being held here?"
The old woman looked at him amusedly.
"You're not being held, you can go at any time you want. But I don't recommend it, if you desire to get the answers to you're questions, young man."
Anya looked at her annoyed.
"Well then I suggest you start talking, or else I and my ex-fiancé will leave."
The old woman laughed unpleasantly.
"You're an impatient one, aren't you? You will get to talk to Nils when he's ready, but I don't think you'll have to wait much longer."
As if her words had been some sort of sign a tall blond man in his late twenties walked in and gave them a polite smile.
"Hello, I'm Nils Jonsson. It's very nice meeting you. We've been expecting you now for the last couple of weeks, I'm surprised it took you so long to find us," he said, with a very nice and friendly voice. The kind of guy you just can't dislike.
Xander stood up impatiently so that he was just as tall as the blond man was.
"Okay, lets skip the hello's and go straight to the business, okay? How did you know we where coming?" he said.
"The council told us," Nils replied, like it where the most obvious thing in the world. "I thought you already knew that, they told us you had a man from the council with you."
Anya sighed in frustration.
"Yes we have, but he seems to find it unimportant to tell us such things."
Nils looked at her in surprise.
"But I talked to Mr. Giles yesterday and he said it was all going after schedule. I must have misunderstood something."
"Yes, you must have," Xander said sounding hostile.
Nils put his hands on the two Americans shoulder's and led them out of the room.
"Yes you're right. And I find it very unnecessary to argue about such a thing. Lets go to somewhere more comfortable and talk about more important things."
Before Xander had time to say anything Anya smiled brightly.
"That sounds great. I'm starving."
Nils chuckled and looked at her.
"The cafeteria it is then."
~*~
The house was just as he'd remembered it. It was red with white corners and only one floor. It couldn't be more then three rooms inside. In the yard in front of it were small apple trees, but without leaves since it was winter.
Spike stopped the car and asked the girls to stay inside while he checked the place out. But before he even got to place on foot on the stairs the door was opened and a young woman came out.
"Hello William. I've been expecting you and the girls. Why wont you ask them to come over here?" she said with a warm voice, that held no trace of that this girl was in fact an ancient demon.
Spike gave her one of his most charming smiles before he gave her a hug.
"You haven't changed one bit, have you Anna?" he said.
She laughed.
"No, why would I? But you on the other hand, have changed very much. If it wasn't for that famous smile of yours I wouldn't have recognized you."
Spike smiled widely and then turned around and called for Buffy and Dawn.
"'S all right. Come over here and meet Anna."
Buffy and Dawn climbed out hesitantly and walked up to them. Dawn watched the seer curiously. She was short and had long brown hair. She looked not a day older then eighteen.
"You don't look like you're a thousand years old," she said.
Spike looked away to hide his smile, but Buffy stared at her sister shocked.
"Dawn!"
"Don't worry," Anna said, laughing. "I know I don't look old. And in fact, I'm even older then you said, Dawn. I celebrated my two-thousand and twenty- fifth birthday two weeks ago."
Buffy watched the demon pensively.
"Spike said that you're a seer," she finally said. "What do you know about the Hellmouth that is about to open here?"
Anna gave her another smile before turning to the door.
"There is much time to discuss those serious and worrying matters. I suggest we talk about something else first over coffee."
Spike shrugged and walked in after the seer, and was soon followed by the slayer and her sister.
The kitchen had all kinds of modern equipment's, but still it looked like it was from a painting from the 19th century. The walls were painted dark green and the table and chairs were all dark brown. The small coffee cups were small and white with small drawings on them. It felt very welcoming and homey.
"Nice place you got here," Dawn said politely.
Anna filled her cup with coffee and sat down next to her.
"Thank you. That's so nice. I've had it this way for the last hundred years, I've only added some cooking equipment's. It's nice to be able to make some food if I have visitors." She stood up again and took something out of the fridge. It was a bag of blood. She handed it to Spike who looked at it suspiciously.
"Is it." he started.
"Yes," she said before he had time to finish his question. "But don't worry, my niece took it from the blood-bank at the hospital. No one has been injured in the process of getting you that blood."
"Thanks. And by the way, how is Sara? I guess she's finished university by now," he said.
For a moment it was like a shadow passed over Anna's face and she looked away.
"Sara is dead," she said shortly. "I'm talking about her daughter, Alexandra."
Spike looked at her sympathetically.
"I'm sorry. I know you cared very much about her."
Anna nodded and gave him a mug to put the blood in.
Buffy and Dawn looked back and forth between Spike and Anna.
"I'm sorry but. niece? By the fact she had a daughter I'm guessing she's human? Am I the only one not getting this?" Buffy said.
Spike gave her a 'think for a minute' look, but Anna just gave her one of her no familiar gentle smiles.
"She's not my real nice, or they aren't, or whatever. I took care of their great-great grandmother many years ago and since then they've been a part of my family, or actually, I've been a part of theirs."
Dawn leaned in curiously.
"But aren't they wondering about the fact that you're not aging?" she asked.
"No," Anna laughed. "They know all about what I am, and what I do for a living. It would have been quite hard to keep it from then. Actually Alexandra is a very skilled witch, and I hear that one of your companions is also a witch, Alexandra has been looking forward to your arrival for months now."
"Months? I don't understand. We only decided to go here last week." Buffy said confused.
"Remember the bit about the visions, luv?" Spike asked amused.
Buffy blushed and looked down.
"Oh, yeah right. Forgot."
"When are we going to meet Alexandra, then? And how old is she?" Dawn said, gaining a thankful look from her older sister for the change of subject.
Anna took a sip of her coffee before answering the teenager.
"Oh, she's 19, and I imagine she'll be back within an hour or so."
"Can't you see when she'll be back?" Dawn wondered.
Spike laughed and put his mug down.
"I don't think she uses her gifts to find out such small things, niblet."
"No, I don't," the seer agreed. "But if you want to know the exact time she'll be here, I can call her on her cell phone."
Dawn shrugged and tried to look like she didn't care.
Soon Anna had a phone in her hand, waiting for her niece to answer. The only one of the others in the room that could her what was said was Spike.
"Hej Anna!" a woman said. "Vad är det?" (Hi, what is it?)
"Hej, jag undrade bara när ni kommer. Vad tycker du om våra gäster?" Anna replied. (Hi, I just wondered when you'll be here. What do you think about our guests?)
The voice of the girl became almost a whisper, and Spike had to concentrate hard to hear what she said.
"Vi kommer om en halvtimme ungefär. Gubben är ganska sur och tråkig, men han verkar ganska smart. Å tjejen. Hon verkar jätte trevlig, väldigt. trevlig." (We'll be there in about 30 minutes. The old man is quite boring and sullen, but he seems to be very intelligent. And the girl. She seems to be very nice, very. nice."
Spike chuckled and Anna gave him a warning look. He looked away trying to look innocent, but not succeeding.
"Trevlig, va?" Anna laughed. "Det har man ju hört förut. Men skynda dig hem nu." (Nice, huh? I've heard that one before. Just hurry home now.)
When Anna had hung up she gave the vampire a deadly look.
"Anyone ever told you eavesdropping is a very bad habit?" she asked.
Spike smirked at her.
"Yeah, lots of 'em. But don't worry, I didn't listen."
Dawn started to giggle uncontrollably, but Buffy gave him an annoyed look.
"Can't you ever be serious?" she asked.
"What's the fun 'bout that, luv?" he replied quickly.
Before they had time to start arguing for real Anna broke in.
"I think it's time for us to start talking about the important things, don't you?" she said calmly, but with steel in her voice. Both the Slayer and the vampire quickly looked away from each other. For reason none of them could understand they felt uncomfortable doing anything against the seer's will.
"Okay then. Ask me anything you want, but I can't guarantee that I'll answer you. Not that I can't but some things you're just not supposed to know yet. And I also want you to know that I'm not taking sides here, if any of you're enemies come her tomorrow and ask me questions, I will answer him just as I've answered you," Anna said.
Buffy looked at her suspiciously.
"But I thought you where." Buffy started, not sure what word she should use. Finally she took the first word that came up in her mind. ". good."
The seer looked at Spike sternly.
"You didn't explain to her what I am?" she asked him.
Spike moved uncomfortably under her gaze, avoiding too meet her eyes.
"I did explain. Just not in detail. She knows that you're a seer, and I did say that you where on neither side, not good not evil. But you have to admit that you didn't seem very much like and evil person when we came here, no one would ever think badly of you," he said trying to explain himself.
Anna sighed and turned to the two Summers' sisters.
"I guess I have to tell you about me before we go on talking about anything else. I'm a keeper of balance and truth. I can not lie, or cheer for any team. The reason for me being nice is that there is not evil in me, but there is no goodness in me either, I'm just being polite. And yes, I can love, but love has nothing to do with good or evil, love is it's own thing. If I should decide to only help you out, and totally ignore the forces of darkness, the balance would brake and it would be the start of total chaos. There are a couple of more demons like me out in the world, and if one of us fails, and some already has, it's up to the rest of us to fix it. But in the process of doing so we could start even more problems, so we do everything we can to keep ourselves in the middle."
Buffy had listened carefully to everything she had said, and now she looked at the seer harshly.
"So you say you're not evil, but not good either. Then what about you're niece? What is she? I guess she's not like you, since she is human. Have you made her evil, or good? All to keep the balance, I presume."
Anna looked at Spike pleadingly. He smiled at the seer reassuringly before turning to the Slayer.
"Pet, don't be so harsh with her. She's only doing what she has to do, just like you are," he said softly.
"And Alexandra is good," Anna said calmly, with only a hint of irritation in her voice. "Her mother never really liked the fact that I couldn't take sides, and she made sure of that Alexandra never where in contact with the demons and vampires that came to visit me and ask for my advise. She had quite a temperament." She smiled at Spike. "I think you're boyfriend here can give you an example of that."
"He's not my boyfri-," Buffy started saying, but was cut of by Spike's hand on her mouth.
"'S all right, luv. She knows that." He chuckled a little, as he seemed to recall some distant memory.
"What's funny," Buffy asked. "I didn't see anything funny about that."
Spike rolled his eyes at her.
"I just remember what Sara did the last time I was here," he said. "She kicked me out before I even had time to knock on the door. For a usual human woman without any super strength that's pretty impressing. I would probably have done something to her if it weren't for that miss seer here stopped me."
"Why did she kick you out?" Dawn asked curiously. "Did you do anything?"
Spike laughed and took up his mug with blood again.
"Nah, nothing really. Just some remark about her hair."
This made Anna break out into uncontrollable laughter, and soon also Dawn. Buffy tried her best not to accompany them, even though she had some problems with that.
Spike watched the Slayer with interest, she really seemed to be in a better mood these days.
"Okay, I think it's time to start talking business now, don't you?" an annoyed Buffy said. "What do you know about the Hellmouth."
"You really are impatient, don't you?" Anna said. "I guess that's a good thing if you are a Slayer. I know a lot of things about the Hellmouth, and it would take to long to tell you all about it, so I think you should narrow your question down."
"When did the Hellmouth start to open here?" Spike said. "Neither of us had even heard the slightest about it until a couple of days ago."
Anna seemed to be deep in thought, and it took what felt like hours for Spike before she replied.
"I started seeing it in my visions about six years ago, but the first time I saw any physical evidence of it was four months ago, I saw how a girl was dragged into a hole in the ground and was given to a large demon. He ate her whole, it was a horrible sight, I couldn't eat for days. And then three says later a five year old girl disappeared."
"Why didn't you help her?" Buffy asked. "Surely you could have warned someone and made sure the girl was protected."
Anna sighed.
"I can get involved in such things, you have to understand that. It was a necessary thing that had to happen, and if I would have stopped it things wouldn't have gone as it was supposed to."
Buffy was about to say something else when she was stopped by a warning look from her sister.
"Is the Hellmouth almost opened already?" Dawn asked.
"No, not yet. After the girls disappearance the people here started looking out after unnatural things, such as vampires and demons. Soon some of them even came to me, and I told them as much as I could without disturbing the balance. That was the start of the group that has been killing vampires here the last couple of months, and if I remember it correctly, two of your friends are visiting them as we speak," she said. "This group has slowed down the opening of the Hellmouth enough to give you time to come here, just as I had foreseen."
Buffy looked up at the seer.
"But will it open soon? How much time do we have?" she asked.
Anna smiled at Spike and walked to her fridge.
"You want any more blood, William?" she asked.
Buffy punched down her hands into the table in frustration.
"Please, can't you just answer my question? Will it open soon?"
Anna turned around with an angry expression. It almost looks like her eyes were filled with lightening.
"You have to learn to be patient, girl! Yes, it will happen soon, you have time to see the sun set eight times and then on the eight night it will open. That have I foreseen."
Buffy and Dawn looked at each other hesitantly. The seer obviously wasn't as harmless as they'd thought.
"So you're saying we have eight days? Tha' isn't tha' bad, we've beaten worse things then tha'," Spike said softly, clearly trying to make Anna calm down.
"Yes William, I'm sure you have. But this is bigger then anything you've ever faced before. In my visions I saw death and pain, and one of you will loose someone you love more then anything else. And those that survive will never be the same again. I warn you to take this lightly," Anna said, still sounding very angry.
They all stared at her in horror.
"Die? Who is going to die?" Spike asked, his gaze went back and forth between Buffy and Dawn.
Anna looked him in the eyes.
"I'm sorry, but I can't tell you that. Please ask something else."
"Will we win?" Buffy asked.
The seer smiled secretively.
"That hasn't been shown to me, I do not think it's decided yet. All I know is that what you do now is going to affect the outcome, so don't do anything hasty."
Buffy sighed and got up from her chair and started pacing.
"Great! You can tell us about horrible things that will happen, but not how we can prevent it! That's just typical."
Spike got up also and put one arm around her shoulders. Soon she leaned her head against his chest and they stood like that. Soon Buffy's eyes were filled with tears threatening to fall.
"I am sorry, but there is nothing I can do," Anna said harshly. "And I don't think that it's fair to blame me for this, you should be happy to know as much as I've told you already, and there is still a couple of more things I'm allowed to tell you."
Neither Buffy nor Spike said anything, so Dawn was the one that had to continue with the questions.
"What is it we're up against? Is it vampire's or demons, or both?" she asked worriedly. "And how many are they?"
Anna gave her a comforting smile and put one hand over hers and squeezed.
"Demons, vampires and even humans. There is traitors among those that says they will help you, so don't trust anyone else but those you really know. But everyone is a not traitor, some are really good. So don't deny help when it's offered to you."
Spike frowned at her.
"So we're supposed to accept help from people when we know that they might betray us at any second, and that they're probably spreading out information about what we're doing and planning to the enemy?"
"William, William. Always so fast to judge. You might be surprised of how much these people here could help you-there is the possibility that they might be the ones making you loose, but you don't know that, do you? But I can't decide what you shall do." She gave him a warm smile before getting up from her chair. "Excuse me, I'm just going to open the door for my niece and your friends."
Spike looked at her puzzled.
"There is no one there, I can't here anyone," he said.
Anna laughed before opening the door, and at that moment a car became visible further down the road.
"Patients, William, patients," she said.
TBC
Spike, Buffy and Dawn drove around in the car Buffy had rented earlier trying to find the small house that the seer lived in. That was much easier said then done.
"I thought you said you knew where she lives?" Buffy said impatiently to her ex-boyfriend.
Spike rolled his eyes.
"A lot has changed over the years, that happens," he said for the umpteenth time. "And this would go much faster if the two of you would just be quiet and let me think."
"What? I haven't said anything. Don't be all blaming me here, Spike. Leave me out of this!" Dawn exclaimed from the backseat.
Spike groaned.
"Please?" he said tiredly.
~*~
Xander and Anya sat in a couple of uncomfortable chair in a tiny room in the office building. The only other person in the room was an old woman sitting at a desk reading. She hadn't made any indication at all during the ten minutes they had been there that she had noticed their presence. Finally she looked up.
"What are you're names?" she said in bad English.
"Ehm, I'm Xander Harris, and this is Anya," Xander said nervously. "Could you please tell us why we're being held here?"
The old woman looked at him amusedly.
"You're not being held, you can go at any time you want. But I don't recommend it, if you desire to get the answers to you're questions, young man."
Anya looked at her annoyed.
"Well then I suggest you start talking, or else I and my ex-fiancé will leave."
The old woman laughed unpleasantly.
"You're an impatient one, aren't you? You will get to talk to Nils when he's ready, but I don't think you'll have to wait much longer."
As if her words had been some sort of sign a tall blond man in his late twenties walked in and gave them a polite smile.
"Hello, I'm Nils Jonsson. It's very nice meeting you. We've been expecting you now for the last couple of weeks, I'm surprised it took you so long to find us," he said, with a very nice and friendly voice. The kind of guy you just can't dislike.
Xander stood up impatiently so that he was just as tall as the blond man was.
"Okay, lets skip the hello's and go straight to the business, okay? How did you know we where coming?" he said.
"The council told us," Nils replied, like it where the most obvious thing in the world. "I thought you already knew that, they told us you had a man from the council with you."
Anya sighed in frustration.
"Yes we have, but he seems to find it unimportant to tell us such things."
Nils looked at her in surprise.
"But I talked to Mr. Giles yesterday and he said it was all going after schedule. I must have misunderstood something."
"Yes, you must have," Xander said sounding hostile.
Nils put his hands on the two Americans shoulder's and led them out of the room.
"Yes you're right. And I find it very unnecessary to argue about such a thing. Lets go to somewhere more comfortable and talk about more important things."
Before Xander had time to say anything Anya smiled brightly.
"That sounds great. I'm starving."
Nils chuckled and looked at her.
"The cafeteria it is then."
~*~
The house was just as he'd remembered it. It was red with white corners and only one floor. It couldn't be more then three rooms inside. In the yard in front of it were small apple trees, but without leaves since it was winter.
Spike stopped the car and asked the girls to stay inside while he checked the place out. But before he even got to place on foot on the stairs the door was opened and a young woman came out.
"Hello William. I've been expecting you and the girls. Why wont you ask them to come over here?" she said with a warm voice, that held no trace of that this girl was in fact an ancient demon.
Spike gave her one of his most charming smiles before he gave her a hug.
"You haven't changed one bit, have you Anna?" he said.
She laughed.
"No, why would I? But you on the other hand, have changed very much. If it wasn't for that famous smile of yours I wouldn't have recognized you."
Spike smiled widely and then turned around and called for Buffy and Dawn.
"'S all right. Come over here and meet Anna."
Buffy and Dawn climbed out hesitantly and walked up to them. Dawn watched the seer curiously. She was short and had long brown hair. She looked not a day older then eighteen.
"You don't look like you're a thousand years old," she said.
Spike looked away to hide his smile, but Buffy stared at her sister shocked.
"Dawn!"
"Don't worry," Anna said, laughing. "I know I don't look old. And in fact, I'm even older then you said, Dawn. I celebrated my two-thousand and twenty- fifth birthday two weeks ago."
Buffy watched the demon pensively.
"Spike said that you're a seer," she finally said. "What do you know about the Hellmouth that is about to open here?"
Anna gave her another smile before turning to the door.
"There is much time to discuss those serious and worrying matters. I suggest we talk about something else first over coffee."
Spike shrugged and walked in after the seer, and was soon followed by the slayer and her sister.
The kitchen had all kinds of modern equipment's, but still it looked like it was from a painting from the 19th century. The walls were painted dark green and the table and chairs were all dark brown. The small coffee cups were small and white with small drawings on them. It felt very welcoming and homey.
"Nice place you got here," Dawn said politely.
Anna filled her cup with coffee and sat down next to her.
"Thank you. That's so nice. I've had it this way for the last hundred years, I've only added some cooking equipment's. It's nice to be able to make some food if I have visitors." She stood up again and took something out of the fridge. It was a bag of blood. She handed it to Spike who looked at it suspiciously.
"Is it." he started.
"Yes," she said before he had time to finish his question. "But don't worry, my niece took it from the blood-bank at the hospital. No one has been injured in the process of getting you that blood."
"Thanks. And by the way, how is Sara? I guess she's finished university by now," he said.
For a moment it was like a shadow passed over Anna's face and she looked away.
"Sara is dead," she said shortly. "I'm talking about her daughter, Alexandra."
Spike looked at her sympathetically.
"I'm sorry. I know you cared very much about her."
Anna nodded and gave him a mug to put the blood in.
Buffy and Dawn looked back and forth between Spike and Anna.
"I'm sorry but. niece? By the fact she had a daughter I'm guessing she's human? Am I the only one not getting this?" Buffy said.
Spike gave her a 'think for a minute' look, but Anna just gave her one of her no familiar gentle smiles.
"She's not my real nice, or they aren't, or whatever. I took care of their great-great grandmother many years ago and since then they've been a part of my family, or actually, I've been a part of theirs."
Dawn leaned in curiously.
"But aren't they wondering about the fact that you're not aging?" she asked.
"No," Anna laughed. "They know all about what I am, and what I do for a living. It would have been quite hard to keep it from then. Actually Alexandra is a very skilled witch, and I hear that one of your companions is also a witch, Alexandra has been looking forward to your arrival for months now."
"Months? I don't understand. We only decided to go here last week." Buffy said confused.
"Remember the bit about the visions, luv?" Spike asked amused.
Buffy blushed and looked down.
"Oh, yeah right. Forgot."
"When are we going to meet Alexandra, then? And how old is she?" Dawn said, gaining a thankful look from her older sister for the change of subject.
Anna took a sip of her coffee before answering the teenager.
"Oh, she's 19, and I imagine she'll be back within an hour or so."
"Can't you see when she'll be back?" Dawn wondered.
Spike laughed and put his mug down.
"I don't think she uses her gifts to find out such small things, niblet."
"No, I don't," the seer agreed. "But if you want to know the exact time she'll be here, I can call her on her cell phone."
Dawn shrugged and tried to look like she didn't care.
Soon Anna had a phone in her hand, waiting for her niece to answer. The only one of the others in the room that could her what was said was Spike.
"Hej Anna!" a woman said. "Vad är det?" (Hi, what is it?)
"Hej, jag undrade bara när ni kommer. Vad tycker du om våra gäster?" Anna replied. (Hi, I just wondered when you'll be here. What do you think about our guests?)
The voice of the girl became almost a whisper, and Spike had to concentrate hard to hear what she said.
"Vi kommer om en halvtimme ungefär. Gubben är ganska sur och tråkig, men han verkar ganska smart. Å tjejen. Hon verkar jätte trevlig, väldigt. trevlig." (We'll be there in about 30 minutes. The old man is quite boring and sullen, but he seems to be very intelligent. And the girl. She seems to be very nice, very. nice."
Spike chuckled and Anna gave him a warning look. He looked away trying to look innocent, but not succeeding.
"Trevlig, va?" Anna laughed. "Det har man ju hört förut. Men skynda dig hem nu." (Nice, huh? I've heard that one before. Just hurry home now.)
When Anna had hung up she gave the vampire a deadly look.
"Anyone ever told you eavesdropping is a very bad habit?" she asked.
Spike smirked at her.
"Yeah, lots of 'em. But don't worry, I didn't listen."
Dawn started to giggle uncontrollably, but Buffy gave him an annoyed look.
"Can't you ever be serious?" she asked.
"What's the fun 'bout that, luv?" he replied quickly.
Before they had time to start arguing for real Anna broke in.
"I think it's time for us to start talking about the important things, don't you?" she said calmly, but with steel in her voice. Both the Slayer and the vampire quickly looked away from each other. For reason none of them could understand they felt uncomfortable doing anything against the seer's will.
"Okay then. Ask me anything you want, but I can't guarantee that I'll answer you. Not that I can't but some things you're just not supposed to know yet. And I also want you to know that I'm not taking sides here, if any of you're enemies come her tomorrow and ask me questions, I will answer him just as I've answered you," Anna said.
Buffy looked at her suspiciously.
"But I thought you where." Buffy started, not sure what word she should use. Finally she took the first word that came up in her mind. ". good."
The seer looked at Spike sternly.
"You didn't explain to her what I am?" she asked him.
Spike moved uncomfortably under her gaze, avoiding too meet her eyes.
"I did explain. Just not in detail. She knows that you're a seer, and I did say that you where on neither side, not good not evil. But you have to admit that you didn't seem very much like and evil person when we came here, no one would ever think badly of you," he said trying to explain himself.
Anna sighed and turned to the two Summers' sisters.
"I guess I have to tell you about me before we go on talking about anything else. I'm a keeper of balance and truth. I can not lie, or cheer for any team. The reason for me being nice is that there is not evil in me, but there is no goodness in me either, I'm just being polite. And yes, I can love, but love has nothing to do with good or evil, love is it's own thing. If I should decide to only help you out, and totally ignore the forces of darkness, the balance would brake and it would be the start of total chaos. There are a couple of more demons like me out in the world, and if one of us fails, and some already has, it's up to the rest of us to fix it. But in the process of doing so we could start even more problems, so we do everything we can to keep ourselves in the middle."
Buffy had listened carefully to everything she had said, and now she looked at the seer harshly.
"So you say you're not evil, but not good either. Then what about you're niece? What is she? I guess she's not like you, since she is human. Have you made her evil, or good? All to keep the balance, I presume."
Anna looked at Spike pleadingly. He smiled at the seer reassuringly before turning to the Slayer.
"Pet, don't be so harsh with her. She's only doing what she has to do, just like you are," he said softly.
"And Alexandra is good," Anna said calmly, with only a hint of irritation in her voice. "Her mother never really liked the fact that I couldn't take sides, and she made sure of that Alexandra never where in contact with the demons and vampires that came to visit me and ask for my advise. She had quite a temperament." She smiled at Spike. "I think you're boyfriend here can give you an example of that."
"He's not my boyfri-," Buffy started saying, but was cut of by Spike's hand on her mouth.
"'S all right, luv. She knows that." He chuckled a little, as he seemed to recall some distant memory.
"What's funny," Buffy asked. "I didn't see anything funny about that."
Spike rolled his eyes at her.
"I just remember what Sara did the last time I was here," he said. "She kicked me out before I even had time to knock on the door. For a usual human woman without any super strength that's pretty impressing. I would probably have done something to her if it weren't for that miss seer here stopped me."
"Why did she kick you out?" Dawn asked curiously. "Did you do anything?"
Spike laughed and took up his mug with blood again.
"Nah, nothing really. Just some remark about her hair."
This made Anna break out into uncontrollable laughter, and soon also Dawn. Buffy tried her best not to accompany them, even though she had some problems with that.
Spike watched the Slayer with interest, she really seemed to be in a better mood these days.
"Okay, I think it's time to start talking business now, don't you?" an annoyed Buffy said. "What do you know about the Hellmouth."
"You really are impatient, don't you?" Anna said. "I guess that's a good thing if you are a Slayer. I know a lot of things about the Hellmouth, and it would take to long to tell you all about it, so I think you should narrow your question down."
"When did the Hellmouth start to open here?" Spike said. "Neither of us had even heard the slightest about it until a couple of days ago."
Anna seemed to be deep in thought, and it took what felt like hours for Spike before she replied.
"I started seeing it in my visions about six years ago, but the first time I saw any physical evidence of it was four months ago, I saw how a girl was dragged into a hole in the ground and was given to a large demon. He ate her whole, it was a horrible sight, I couldn't eat for days. And then three says later a five year old girl disappeared."
"Why didn't you help her?" Buffy asked. "Surely you could have warned someone and made sure the girl was protected."
Anna sighed.
"I can get involved in such things, you have to understand that. It was a necessary thing that had to happen, and if I would have stopped it things wouldn't have gone as it was supposed to."
Buffy was about to say something else when she was stopped by a warning look from her sister.
"Is the Hellmouth almost opened already?" Dawn asked.
"No, not yet. After the girls disappearance the people here started looking out after unnatural things, such as vampires and demons. Soon some of them even came to me, and I told them as much as I could without disturbing the balance. That was the start of the group that has been killing vampires here the last couple of months, and if I remember it correctly, two of your friends are visiting them as we speak," she said. "This group has slowed down the opening of the Hellmouth enough to give you time to come here, just as I had foreseen."
Buffy looked up at the seer.
"But will it open soon? How much time do we have?" she asked.
Anna smiled at Spike and walked to her fridge.
"You want any more blood, William?" she asked.
Buffy punched down her hands into the table in frustration.
"Please, can't you just answer my question? Will it open soon?"
Anna turned around with an angry expression. It almost looks like her eyes were filled with lightening.
"You have to learn to be patient, girl! Yes, it will happen soon, you have time to see the sun set eight times and then on the eight night it will open. That have I foreseen."
Buffy and Dawn looked at each other hesitantly. The seer obviously wasn't as harmless as they'd thought.
"So you're saying we have eight days? Tha' isn't tha' bad, we've beaten worse things then tha'," Spike said softly, clearly trying to make Anna calm down.
"Yes William, I'm sure you have. But this is bigger then anything you've ever faced before. In my visions I saw death and pain, and one of you will loose someone you love more then anything else. And those that survive will never be the same again. I warn you to take this lightly," Anna said, still sounding very angry.
They all stared at her in horror.
"Die? Who is going to die?" Spike asked, his gaze went back and forth between Buffy and Dawn.
Anna looked him in the eyes.
"I'm sorry, but I can't tell you that. Please ask something else."
"Will we win?" Buffy asked.
The seer smiled secretively.
"That hasn't been shown to me, I do not think it's decided yet. All I know is that what you do now is going to affect the outcome, so don't do anything hasty."
Buffy sighed and got up from her chair and started pacing.
"Great! You can tell us about horrible things that will happen, but not how we can prevent it! That's just typical."
Spike got up also and put one arm around her shoulders. Soon she leaned her head against his chest and they stood like that. Soon Buffy's eyes were filled with tears threatening to fall.
"I am sorry, but there is nothing I can do," Anna said harshly. "And I don't think that it's fair to blame me for this, you should be happy to know as much as I've told you already, and there is still a couple of more things I'm allowed to tell you."
Neither Buffy nor Spike said anything, so Dawn was the one that had to continue with the questions.
"What is it we're up against? Is it vampire's or demons, or both?" she asked worriedly. "And how many are they?"
Anna gave her a comforting smile and put one hand over hers and squeezed.
"Demons, vampires and even humans. There is traitors among those that says they will help you, so don't trust anyone else but those you really know. But everyone is a not traitor, some are really good. So don't deny help when it's offered to you."
Spike frowned at her.
"So we're supposed to accept help from people when we know that they might betray us at any second, and that they're probably spreading out information about what we're doing and planning to the enemy?"
"William, William. Always so fast to judge. You might be surprised of how much these people here could help you-there is the possibility that they might be the ones making you loose, but you don't know that, do you? But I can't decide what you shall do." She gave him a warm smile before getting up from her chair. "Excuse me, I'm just going to open the door for my niece and your friends."
Spike looked at her puzzled.
"There is no one there, I can't here anyone," he said.
Anna laughed before opening the door, and at that moment a car became visible further down the road.
"Patients, William, patients," she said.
TBC