Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine (except Simon & Jessica), blah, blah, blah …
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Xander felt the movement behind him before he heard it. A Slayer he wasn't, but growing up in Sunnydale taught you a few things. He threw himself to the ground, narrowly avoiding the arm sweeping around to take him. The figure above him made a small sound of surprise, changing the direction of attack instantly and throwing herself towards Xander's throat. He rolled to one side, struggling to free the stake from his pocket, where it had caught in the lining. His attacker landed hard beside him. She turned her head towards him and snarled, her fangs glinting. Xander scrambled backwards, ripping his pocket as he wrenched the stake out and held it ready. The vampire giggled at him, pulling herself into a crouch. She waited, looking for an opening. Xander got his feet under him and tried to get up, keeping the stake ready. He was concentrating all his attention on the creature in front of him, and didn't see Simon making his way around to the side, a piece of wood in his hands raised to strike. Xander made it to his feet and was calculating the best direction to run when Simon struck. It wasn't a very hard or accurate blow, but it was enough to distract him so that Jessica could strike. She moved fast and hard. Xander felt the wood hit him and an instant later, there were fangs in his neck and he was being forced to the ground, his arms pinned to his sides.
My God, he thought vaguely, this is it. He could feel the blood draining from him, his will being sucked away. The world around him got dimmer and dimmer. Seems appropriate really, he told himself as he started to grey out. Somewhere in the distance, he could hear shouting, but it didn't seem to matter anymore; nothing mattered.
For the first time, Simon watched as his sister seized the young man and started to feed. He could see the blood around her lips and on his neck; he was watching her drain his essence. Since she had been turned, he hadn't watched her feed. Now he saw the true power of his sister and it exhilarated and terrified him at the same time. She was truly a creature of darkness and with her at his side they would succeed.
"Hey, stop right there!"
Simon whirled around. Running towards them was a young policeman. He was drawing his gun and aiming at Jessica. She stopped feeding and turned slowly to face the officer, blood staining the pale skin around her lips and an excited shine in her eyes. She hadn't drained their victim.
"Jessica," Simon whispered, "We don't have time."
She turned to him, her eyes flashing, "I just want to have a little fun, brother. Humour me."
"Put your hands on your head and kneel on the ground with your back to me," the young cop was obviously new in town. Jessica started towards him slowly.
"Stop right there, lady!" he was shaking, but determined and wasn't giving any ground. Jessica smiled at him and morphed into her vampire face. The cop froze for an instant and she leapt the last few feet. Reflexively, he fired, the bullet passing straight through her shoulder. Jessica barely registered anything, plucking the gun from his unresisting hand and throwing it across the street. She placed a hand on his shoulder and he fell to his knees.
"Please," the word was whispered, barely audible on the night air. Jessica smiled again and leaned in close to speak in his ear.
"Don't worry, sweetie; you're coming back."
She sank her fangs into his neck, pushing him further down to the ground and straddling him, her hands pinning his wrists to the pavement. Simon watched in awe.
Xander lay across the street, watching the young cop being slowly drained. The vampire was taking her time about it, enjoying his struggles. Xander could hardly move, let alone help. Painfully, he pushed himself up to his knees and glanced around. He was only a couple of streets from Buffy's place. If he could get there in time, Buffy could come and track down the vamp before she took anyone else. Dying in the street wouldn't help the cop. Grabbing the wall next to him, Xander pulled himself up and staggered away from the scene, his hand pressed to his neck, the blood oozing slowly through his fingers.
Spike sat at the table, barely touching his food. He listened to Buffy and Dawn chatting and teasing each other as they ate, a small smile on his face. After years of torturing others and months of torturing himself, he had finally found a degree of happiness. The guilt and remorse still gnawed at him, but it was good to know that forgiveness was his and that it had been given freely. He could allow himself to smile again.
There was a harsh banging at the door, tearing the three out of their relaxed state of mind. Buffy was on her feet, pushing Dawn behind her and her sister was trying to get to the door to see what was going on. There was a brief sisterly scuffle. Spike rolled his eyes.
"I'll get it," senses alert and ready, he sidled over to the window and peered out. Buffy took up a position behind the door. Dawn moved over to the weapons chest and opened it.
"It's Xander," Spike told them. Buffy visibly relaxed and opened the door. Her friend fell inside, collapsing onto her.
"Spike!"
Spike grabbed Xander under the arms and half dragged, half carried him to the couch, laying him gently down. Dawn gasped beside him and made for the kitchen.
"Oh, Christ!" Spike turned to Buffy and saw the horror on her face. There was blood all over Xander's shirt and on his neck. Clearly visible were two puncture wounds.
Dawn was back, crouching down next to Spike with a bowl of water and a cloth. She started to clean up the wound.
"Is he going to be okay?" she asked, her voice slightly strangled.
"He's gonna be fine, bit."
Buffy leaned over Xander and stroked his check gently. His eyes opened slowly.
"Buffy, near the Bronze, a vamp got a cop. Got to stop her."
"It's okay, Xander," Buffy soothed him, "You're going to be okay."
She glanced up at Spike. He nodded slightly.
"Dawn, you stay here and look after Xander. Get him cleaned up and see if you can get him up to Willow's room. Stay with him. Spike and I are going to have a look for this vampire."
Dawn nodded, intent on the wounds on Xander's neck. She was crying a little. Buffy went to her weapons chest and started to sort out stakes.
"You gonna be okay, niblet?" Spike asked her.
She smiled up at him, "I'll be fine. Go get the vamp."
Spike squeezed her shoulder and turned to go, grabbing some weapons from Buffy. As they left, Buffy turned back to her sister.
"And keep the doors locked."
Then they were gone.
They moved swiftly through the streets, keeping an eye out for anything on the way. They reached the Bronze quickly and spread out from there, searching the nearby streets. They quickly found the street in which Xander and the cop had been attacked, but there was no trace of the body or the vampire.
Two hours later, the search had slowed and Spike and Buffy started to make their way home. They were taking a short cut through the park. Buffy was looking up at the stars and wondering how long it had been since she noticed them, when Spike stopped her with a hand on her arm.
"What's that?"
"What's what?" Buffy whispered, peering ahead into the dark.
"That!"
"What?"
Spike sighed dramatically, "Oh, for God's sake," he strode off ahead, not even checking to see if Buffy was following. By the time she caught up with him, he was standing next to a dark form lying crumpled on the grass. It was the young policeman. Spike was staring at the body.
"He's just a kid," he breathed. Buffy put a hand on his shoulder, moving him out of the way and crouching down next to the body.
"Spike, help me lift this up – I think there's something under here."
Spike shuddered slightly as he helped Buffy to lift the young man's body and move it gently to the side. Struggling against the images of so many similar victims he had left in the past, he bent and looked at the dark symbol on the grass.
"Blood," he murmured. Buffy nodded in agreement and fumbled in her pockets for a piece of paper. Spike gave her a pen and she copied the mark down carefully. They moved the body back to where it had been. In silence, they made their way to a nearby payphone, where Buffy called the police and hung up without giving her name. They made their way home.
Dawn started awake when she heard the door close downstairs.
"Dawn?"
"Up here, Buffy," Dawn checked on Xander. He was in a deep sleep, but his pulse was stronger and his colour was starting to return. Buffy slipped into the room quietly.
"How is he?"
"He came round about an hour ago and I gave him some soup. He's been asleep for a while now. Did you find the thing that did this?" Dawn looked at her sister and noted the blood on her hands.
"No, but we found the cop. Dead. And we got another symbol to research." Buffy glanced down at her hand and saw the blood, "I'll just go and clean up."
Buffy finished cleaning the blood off her hands and changed into her sweats. She got down to the lounge in time to see Spike and Dawn setting up some leftovers on the coffee table.
"I thought we could all do with finishing dinner," Spike said.
Dawn settled herself down on the couch and opened a can of soda. Buffy sat next to her and reached for her plate. Spike dropped down onto the armchair. They ate in silence, all traces of their earlier chatter gone. It's good to be back, thought Spike ruefully.
Buffy struggled to open her eyes, dragging herself awake with sheer force of will. She blinked and looked around her. On the table were the remains of their supper. Spike was slumped asleep in the armchair, the blanket once again draped over him and a book open on his lap. Buffy realised that she had been using her open book as a pillow and lifted her head slowly, peeling her cheek off the pages. Something had woken her up, but she couldn't remember what. There was a knock at the door; that must have been it. She pushed herself up from the couch, stretching and picking her way through the books on the floor, and went and opened the door. Her mouth dropped open.
"Giles! Willow!" she shrieked. Behind her, Spike started awake and slid off the armchair with a crash. Buffy threw herself at the pair on the doorstep and gathered them into a hug. Willow was gasping for air before she let them go.
"What are you doing here? Why didn't you tell me you were coming home? When did you leave England?" Buffy stepped back to let them in, taking their bags from them. Giles held up a hand to stop the flow of questions and opened his mouth to reply.
"Giles!" another voice squealed from upstairs and a teenage figure streaked down the stairs and knocked him back into the door.
"Hello, Dawn," he said painfully.
"Hey, Dawnie," Willow looked nervous. Dawn let go of Giles and turned to Willow. There was a pause as their eyes met.
"Hi Willow," Dawn stepped forward and hugged the ex-witch tightly, gulping back tears. When they parted, Willow started to speak.
"Guys, I want to say that … "
"Wait, Will," Buffy interrupted her, "You don't have to say anything if you don't want to. Everything's okay now; we understand and we forgave you ages ago."
"Thanks guys," Willow's tears were flowing freely now and Buffy and Dawn weren't far behind. They stood crying in a three-way hug, while Giles polished his glasses frantically. Spike smiled slightly, feeling sorry for the Watcher; he never had been very comfortable with any show of affection. Neither had Spike, when he came to think about it. Maybe he should spare the old boy the embarrassment.
"A lot of it going about these days," he said as extracted himself from the blanket and stood up, "Forgiveness, I mean. Now stop with the touchy-feely stuff, Giles looks like he's gonna have a stroke."
The girls broke apart. Giles and Willow stood with their mouths slightly open, staring at Spike. He began to feel awkward and shifted his feet.
"All right, all right; I'm not the bearded woman in a side-show," Willow continued to stare, "I'll go and put the kettle on." As he left the room, he heard Dawn giggling and he smiled. Everything was almost right with his world.
Xander joined them in the lounge later when he woke up. The meeting between him and Willow had been very emotional and the others had left them to it, standing in the kitchen and trying to make conversation so it wouldn't seem as if they were listening. Xander had pretty much ignored Spike, but he wasn't trying to bait him, which Buffy saw as a start. Now, they all sat with their various drinks discussing the current crisis. Giles had started by explaining why they had returned to Sunnydale, then Willow described the dreams she had been having of Tara. Buffy and Spike confirmed that something was going on in Sunnydale and told their version of events. Xander ended the synopsis by describing the vampire attack on him in detail. Willow was almost in tears again at the thought that she had almost lost him.
"Do you have sketches of these symbols?" Giles asked, reaching for his suitcase. It had several books in it that the druids had lent him.
"Of course. Seven years I've been the Slayer and he asks me if I made a sketch," Buffy grumbled good-naturedly as she stood up to get the two scraps of paper. She took them off the sideboard and handed them to Giles. He peered at them for a moment and handed them silently to Willow.
"We've been checking out anything to do with vampire cults in the books you left," Spike told them.
"This isn't just vampires," Willow replied, "I recognise these symbols. This one," she held up the first piece, "is the symbol representing Aries superimposed on the symbol of its ruling planet, Mars. This other one is Taurus combined with Venus, its own ruling planet."
"Why would a vampire be leaving astrological symbols under her victims?" Xander asked the obvious question.
"Willow has been telling me to 'check the dates' almost nightly for the last two weeks. It didn't even occur to me to check the alignment of any astrological bodies. Willow, would you be able to calculate an astrological chart based on this information?" Giles was polishing his glasses again.
"Sure, I'll just get my laptop and have a look at the alignment of all the planets in the next couple of weeks." Willow got up and headed for the dining room, taking one of her bags with her. Buffy looked at Giles.
"How serious could this be?"
"I'm afraid it could be very serious. You yourself have only had prescient visions of the future when the situation was dire, so I can only assume that Willow's visions of Tara are of similar importance. Also, astrology plays a very major role in a great number of predictions, usually those of apocalyptic proportions," Giles replaced his glasses.
"Great, another apocalypse. I'm getting really good at those."
Spike left them talking and let himself quietly out of the back door. He lit a cigarette and stood looking up at the clouds, his duster wrapped around him. It was a warm day, but he felt cold. There was a movement behind him.
"Hello, Giles," he turned to the older man and held out his hand, "Didn't get a chance to say hi properly. How was England?"
Giles shook the offered hand, "Actually, Willow and I were in Anglesey."
Spike nodded, "Never went to Wales myself. Heard it was nice."
"Yes, it's quite beautiful in places."
Their small talk failed them and they stood in awkward silence for a moment. Spike couldn't stand it for long.
"Look, I don't know what Buffy told you, but I didn't come back here to finish what I started that night."
"Spike, I don't know what has happened between you two since you got back, but Buffy seems to trust you," Giles looked down at his feet, "But if you try and hurt her in any way again, I will personally kill you, human or not."
Spike also took a sudden interest in his own feet, "Fair enough. Thanks for putting in a good word for me."
"Ah, yes. Um, you're welcome," Giles turned quickly on his heel and opened the back door.
"Giles? This apocalypse that might be happening? Buffy won't … "
Giles turned back to him and smiled, "Not this time. Not with you looking after her." He went back into the house, leaving Spike to hope he was right.
"I've found something," Willow called from the dining room. Spike crushed his cigarette under his boot and went inside.
They all gathered around Willow's laptop.
"Okay, so what we have in three nights time is an unusual astrological alignment. I also did a search for any other occurrences of a similar nature on the same night. What we have is four planets returning to their ruling houses; Mars, Venus, Pluto and Saturn, which are the planets that rule Aries, Taurus, Scorpio and Capricorn. I don't know what it means yet, but the planetary alignment takes place on the same night as a lunar eclipse. And that can't be good." Willow looked at Giles, "This isn't my area of expertise; we're going to need some help."
"I have an old contact from the Magic Box – we used to refer customers to her for birth charts and predictions. I'll give her a call and see what she can come up with," Giles laid his hand on Willow's shoulder, "Well done." He left the room to use the phone, digging in his pockets for his address book.
Willow stood up, "Come on, Dawn. Let's see what we can put together for lunch."
Xander was standing up to follow the girls out when Spike stopped him.
"Can I have a word?"
Xander sat back down, eyeing him coldly. Spike took a seat across the table from him and took a deep breath.
"I came back here to make things right. And this is the difficult part," he risked a little smile. Xander didn't, "Okay. Xander, I want to apologise for everything I've ever done or said to hurt you. Especially that thing, I mean that night I … with Anya. I'm sorry."
Xander didn't move for a moment. He studied Spike's face. Then he sighed.
"That wasn't just you. Anya was there as well and I, well, I did leave her at the altar."
"Bloody hell!" Spike put his hands to his head in frustration.
"What's the matter with you?" Xander asked, some of their old antagonism slipping into his voice.
Spike gestured vaguely, "Why is everyone being so bloody reasonable about all this? I did my damndest to make your lives hell! I fucked up people's lives time and again and when I come back, everyone just says, 'oh well, that's okay; all is forgiven'. What the hell is the matter with you people?"
It was Xander's turn to smile; it was a good question, "We've all made a mess of things in the last year, but you weren't there for the worst of it. Since Willow went psycho on us, we've all done some changing. I don't know about Buffy or Giles, but holding a grudge just doesn't seem as important any more."
"So, we're okay?" Spike asked hopefully.
"No. But we will be," Xander stood up carefully and left to join the girls in the kitchen. Spike let out a deep breath he hadn't realised he was holding and put his head down on the table.
Giles was still on the phone half an hour later as the rest of the gang sat around the kitchen eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Buffy was trying to make a shopping list; it had been embarrassing to find it was all she could offer them to eat.
Giles entered the kitchen. He declined the sandwich offered to him by Willow with a wave of his hand.
"I'm afraid it is as serious as I feared," he told them, "I've just finished speaking to Rose, my astrological contact. She's been trying to reach me for some time, but as the Magic Box has been closed, she hasn't been able to. All the signs point towards someone or something trying to bring about an apocalypse."
"Well, like I said, I'm getting good at stopping those," Buffy tried to sound more optimistic than she felt.
"This is different. I'm talking about The Apocalypse; the biblical Apocalypse," Giles sat down and took out the two scraps of paper, "As we already know, these are the symbols for certain planets and those planets rule certain signs of the zodiac. Each of those signs is represented by an animal; Aries the Ram, Taurus the Bull, Scorpio is obviously the Scorpion and Capricorn the Sea-Goat. Rose tells me that in some circles each of these animals is associated with one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. We have a theory that someone is trying to raise the Horsemen."
There was a moment of silence.
"Why do you think that?" Dawn asked eventually.
"The Four Horsemen are supposed to be 'they that lived and once were dead and now are alive for ever more'. It fits the description of a vampire perfectly. There will be two more victims, killed during the next two nights. I can only assume from the planetary alignment that they will rise on the night of the lunar eclipse."
Xander cleared his throat, "And what happens then?"
Giles looked around the room, his expression unreadable, "It will be the End of Days."
Okay, so that chapter was a bit Basil Exposition, but we'll be getting to some action soon.