Title: Ring of Endless Light
Author: grrllauren
Synopsis: Ancient mystical beings return for the Key, new creatures are popping up all over the Hellmouth, and Buffy's dealing with coming back from the dead. Takes place after Afterlife, minus the final scene where Buffy tells her friends she was in hell, and then tells Spike she was in Heaven. In my story she remembers nothing, because it doesn't have any bearing on my story. From there it's A/U.
Rating: R
Distribution: I'd be flattered, just ask me first grrllauren@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Buffy, although I do have this wicked fantasy where Buffy and Spike live in my closet…anyway, don't sue me, it's not worth it.

A/N: The title and opening quote are taken from the Henry Vaughan poem, The World. In addition to that throughout the story I'm using names/ideas/general info from The Encyclopaedia of Occultism by Lewis Spence.
^*^I need a Beta reader, if anyone is interested, email me grrllauren@yahoo.com. My grammar sucksL

Ring of Endless Light

"I saw eternity the other night,

Like a great ring of pure and endless light"

pBuffy sat on her back porch, enjoying the calm night air and the clear sky. Things were simple in the night. Dealing with the harsh realities of being alive again where not. Being a mother and sister to Dawn, being a friend to Willow, Tara, Xander and Anya, and protecting her town and the world from the creatures of darkness. That was the hard part.

pShe didn't remember anything from the past few months. It was like having a long-term case of amnesia, like a big hole had been eaten out of her memory. All Buffy knew was that coming back had changed her. Her fighting skills were rusty, her mind tended to wander, and she was distracted easily. All things that could get her killed if she didn't fix them. Just more work for her to do. It made her sympathize with Xander and his construction crew, evil was always destroying, and they were always rebuilding, an endless spiral.

pBuffy let her eyes roam over the backyard. With her mother's death, the confrontation with Glory, and her own death, she hadn't had time to take care of the yard. Xander must have found time to mow the yard, but besides that nothing had really been done to the place. The wooden chairs and table her mom had gotten when they first had moved to Sunnydale, so Buffy and Dawn could sun themselves in the backyard, were still there, along with the wooden bench that her mother had brought with her from LA. Plants had grown up where mulch used to be. Flowers that were the welcome residents mingled with weeds. But the weeds just kept growing, ignoring the fact that they weren't welcome, until you forgot that they didn't belong. Almost like Spike, a weed among her friends. Almost, because in the last year Spike had stopped being a weed. She wasn't sure when it had happened, but she found that she no longer loathed his presence. In fact there were times she welcomed it, enjoyed it. And the look in his eyes as she had walked down the steps after coming back, had been her weapon against the dark thought that crossed her mind since she had been brought back. Buffy just sat there letting her mind wander farther along that track, until something caused her unfocused eyes to come back into focus. She jumped up from the porch and walked over and bent down, searching by the back right leg of the bench. She swore she had seen something move, something that looked like a miniature person. Telling herself she was going crazy, and that her mind was just playing tricks on her, she stood up, only to run right into a black clad chest.

p"Sorry luv" Spike said, stepping back away from Buffy, looking down with a concerned frown, "Just wondering what you were looking at."

pHe had gotten very little chance to see Buffy since her return, and it worried him. Having died and been reborn in a sense, and having clawed his own way out a coffin, he knew how it affected a person. His own memories of the time were faint, but he remembered the shock.

pBuffy blushed "I thought I saw something" she admitted "but I must have been seeing things. I can't trust my eyes since I've been back." With a little sigh she motioned towards the steps, as she moved to sit down. Spike sat down beside her, and watched her as she looked out past the backyard at the sky.

p"Sometimes I think I'm going crazy." She admitted slowly, looking at Spike out of the corner of her eye.

pSpike shook his head. "You're not going crazy Buffy. You were brought back from the dead." His voice took on a hard, steel like quality when he said the word dead. "You were brought back by the people who are suppost to be you bloody friends, and then they expect you to be right as rain. It's okay if your not, Buffy."

pHis words took a bit of the weight off Buffy that she hadn't even noticed was there until he spoke. "I just don't know what to think. I mean it isn't like there is a self-help book I could read to know how being brought back should affect me. There's no 'Resurrection for Dummies' or anything. I don't remember anything from where I was, but my body feels out of shape and like it's made of wood. My mind is worse, it's not like I was a genius before, but now I get lost in my thoughts, or just lost in my head." She admitted this all in a rush, fearing that if she didn't she might never say them, and then no one would ever hear her.

pListening to her, Spike became even more concerned. If her body and mind were out of shape, it just made it that much easier for something to steal her away from him, and he wouldn't let that happen, not when he had just gotten her back.

p"Buffy, you don't give yourself enough credit. You're way more intelligent than you think you are. Look at how well you fight, even without the slayer skills, I bet you could hold your own the roughest of bar fights. As for the training part, you were dead for three months. You can't expect to not be affected."

pBuffy sighed "I guess you're right."

pSpike looked up at the sky, wondering if he should press his luck with fate. Buffy was back, that should be enough, but Spike knew he could never stop trying.

p"If it would help, we could train together at the Magic box until your Watcher gets back. That might help loosen up your muscles and bring some of the basics back. And I could watch your back on patrol…" Spike trailed off, wondering if he was asking for too much too fast.

pBuffy looked over at Spike, and a ghost of a smile crossed her lips.

p"I think I'd like that," She said

hr

pTwo figures stood at the edge of the island, watching as the mist drew them closer and closer to the mainland. One figure, a tall lithe women, with long blonde wavy hair, the other, shorter with dark raven black hair. These two powerful women stood silently as they felt the passage of time weight heavily on them.

p"The tides are shifting once again." The shorter women stated, looking up sideways at her companion.

p"Yes, Cyne," The blonde's eyes seemed to search the mist as she spoke, "that they are. Already some of the lower creatures have made their way out into the world. Soon, we will be able to walk the earth again. Soon we will need to begin the search for the Key."