Summary: Buffy explains how she came to be.
Disclaimer: Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy own everything. But I wouldn't mind leasing Spike from them for a couple of weeks :)
Feedback: As always, appreciated.
A Slayer's TaleSpike was lounging on the top of the sarcophagus when Buffy walked into the crypt the following morning. "I knew I'd find you here. This place always reminds me of home. I guess you felt the same way." She tossed a brown paper bag in his direction. "Eat up. You're going to need your strength."
Spike took the blood out of the bag. It looked to be similar to the blood Buffy had given him the night before. Cows blood, he thought, but in a clear plastic package. Almost like the plasma bags he bought at Willy's when he had the money. Never one to be shy about his eating habits, he greedily sunk his fangs into his breakfast. As he drank, he watched Buffy wandered around the crypt.
"I haven't been inside this place in years. I mostly just sit out front, remembering. The first time I found it, I had been here less than a week. I spent a lot of time walking through the cemeteries back then. I know it sounds strange, but it made me feel closer to all of you. Over the years, I spent more time in Sunnydale cemeteries than in any other part of town. Being here was… comforting." She smiled at a favorite memory. "When I found out I was pregnant for the first time, I spent all night sitting in this room. I talked to mom. I talked to all of you. I wished so much you could be here to share in it with me." Buffy's eyes had glazed over at the slight pain the memory caused. So much time, she thought. But she shook the sadness away. She had a story to tell. "Let's take a walk. If you can stand it with your leg and all."
Before Spike had left the night before, Buffy had made a proper splint for his leg. She had also loaned him a crutch she had stored in her basement. "The leg will be fine, it's the sun I'm worried about." Spike gingerly scouted off the top of the sarcophagus. "Still a vampire, pet."
Buffy grabbed Spike's free hand, giving it an impatient tug. The movement, so easy and carefree. He couldn't remember Buffy ever touching him of her own free will. Normally, she made every effort not to touch him. Well, unless it had to do with sex. But this was different. It was a gesture she would make to a friend. "You are so not going to believe this one." Spike had no other choice but to follow the Slayer to the door of the crypt. He stopped abruptly at the opening, almost throwing both of them off balance when Buffy tried to continue through; her hand still wrapped around his. She gave him an exasperated look. "You are the most stubborn man! I swear this won't hurt." Spike looked into her eyes. She wanted him to trust her. He let the Slayer guide his hand into the morning sun and waited for the pain.
But the pain didn't come. Buffy watched the emotions play across the vampire's face as she slowly turned his hand in all directions. The sun was warm and bright, and Spike knew he hadn't felt anything like it in years. Even when he had the Gem of Amara, he had been so single-minded about destroying the Slayer, he hadn't let himself enjoy his brief emergence into light. Buffy again gently tugged on his hand. "Come on, Spike. Come outside with me. It's a beautiful day."
Holding breath he didn't need, Spike stepped out into the full light of day. And it WAS the most beautiful day he had ever seen. And although it was painful to eyes that were unaccustomed to the light, he lifted his face to the sun. "Bloody hell! It's blue!"
Buffy laughed, still dragging him further away from the shadowy entrance of the crypt. "And it's the reason you can walk in the daytime. The sun is blue here, not the yellow-white you are used to. Spike, there are so many things here that you aren't used to. And I'm going to show you all of them."
YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
Buffy knew she needed to tell Spike her story, but right now she was having too much fun just watching him enjoy the day. It was a perfect first day for a vampire who had spent over a hundred years trapped in darkness. The blue sun cast a softening glow over everything it touched. The slight chill of early morning air had broken, leaving the day balmy. It was almost too warm for Spike to wear his duster, but she knew he wouldn't take it off. And she didn't want him to. How many times had she imagined him just like he was right this second? Bleach blond hair and black leather coat, standing under her sun. It touched something deep inside her. Something she thought had long faded away.
If Spike had turned to look at her at that moment, he would have seen love flowing unguarded from Buffy's eyes. For him, the intensity of it would have eclipsed the brightest sun. But he didn't turn to look at her. He was lost in his new world.
Buffy pulled herself together before she approached him. "You need a decent pair of sunglasses." She again grabbed Spike's hand. "We'll walk into town. I know a great little store where we can get you a pair. Then, we'll stop by the deli, grab a couple of sandwiches, some blood, and have a picnic in the park."
The pair made slow progress into town, Spike wanting to stop and look at everything they encountered along the way. Flowers, trees, the sun shining off a red convertible, water glistening in a birdbath. No detail too large or small to escape him. By the time a pair of sunglasses was purchased and lunch was obtained, it was nearly 1:00 in the afternoon. They stopped by Buffy's house along the way to the park, picking up a blanket for the ground. Spike asked about the children. Buffy told him she had left them with the sitter. Her tale was going to take longer than the one Spike had told last night, and she didn't want the interruptions.
When they were both seated on the park lawn, she began. "I thought about this all night. I think the best thing I can do is bring you up to speed as quickly as possible. The details you can read about later. I kept a diary of everything that happened to me. I thought I'd give it to Giles when I got back. At first, I wrote in it everyday. Now I write in it every week or so, or when something important happens. You'll be able to find out much more than I could ever tell you in a day." Buffy broke eye contact with Spike. The beginning was always hard for her. "I'm not exactly sure what happened to me when I jumped into the portal. At first, it was peaceful. I just hung there in the air. It was almost like flying. But it didn't last long. Suddenly, I was in a terrible place. It was Glory's hell dimension. The things that came through the portal were babies compared to the monsters I saw. I fought what I could, hid from the rest, cried a lot, and tried to stay alive."
Buffy took a deep breath. "There were other humans there. After a few days or weeks, I'm not sure which, I ran into them. They were fighting something enormous. It looked like a dragon with two heads. I helped out, picking up a sword that had fallen from a dead man's hand. After the creature was killed, I stayed with them. No one seemed to question my presence. They thought I was one of them. They had a small camp hidden in the caves of a mountain. You could barely call it shelter, but it worked. I had the first food I hadn't had to kill on my own. And I slept for the first time without worrying about the monsters outside."
"But in the middle of the night, something woke me. It was a familiar feeling, but it felt so out of place. I felt vampires. See, I hadn't seen a vampire in Glory's dimension, so the feeling of one so near, really set me off. I woke up swinging. It took four of them to hold me down, and another to wrestle the weapon away from me. They thought I had gone insane. They tied me up and left me in the cave while they went to fight."
"Once they returned, the leader started questioning me. He was a vampire, full game face. But his eyes were green. This sounds stupid, but it was the strangest thing I had ever seen. I mean, Slayer, used to looking into the golden eyes of a vamp. Green wasn't something I had ever seen before. I refused to tell him anything. Eventually, he let someone else question me, a human. I didn't know what the hell was going on, and I finally broke down. That's when they realized I wasn't from their world."
"See they were from here. Amara. That's where you are right now. The gem in the ring you found, it came from this dimension. It houses the power of the blue sun. That's why you were able to walk in the daylight when you held it, and that's why you can walk around here. The Amarians, I swear that's their name, were defending a rift in their own dimension. Their people were working on a way to close the rift that was created when Dawn's blood opened the dimensional portals. When I jumped, it closed the portal in our dimension, but it didn't help the others. I guess it really did need to be Dawn after all."
A slight shudder past through Buffy's body. "Anyway. They left me tied up. Not trusting me, and I don't blame them. But they did take me back with them when they left the hell-dimension. The people I was with, they were a fighting unit. Part of an army. An army that is controlled by the Watcher's Council."
Buffy stopped for a moment, waiting for Spike to question everything she was telling him, but he just motioned for her to continue. "This world is a mirror image of our own, with a few slight changes. Here, vampires and humans co-exist. The Watcher's Council is made up of both. They protect this dimension from invasion by others, and control the evil element at work. It's much easier than at home. Everyone here has Slayer strength. It hits during puberty, just like mine did. Giles would be in heaven if he could spend one day talking to their historians. The first Slayer was probably sent by the Amarians to our dimension to help battle evil. They have sent emissaries all through the dimensions."
"I was brought before the Council. I told them my story and they believed me. I was the explanation they had been looking for in regards to the rift in dimensions. I stayed with different members of the Council for weeks, answering questions while they furiously wrote everything down. I also made a friend." Buffy smiled at Spike, placing her hand on his cheek. "William is a member of the Council. I met him the third day I was there. He is the spitting image of you, without the bleach in your hair. At first, I thought it was you. It took him forever to convince me we didn't know each other. He must be what you were like before you were turned. He talks like Giles and he wears silly tweed jackets. But he has your honesty and your blue eyes." Buffy let her hand fall back to her side.
"He's also a vampire. To me, he was a link to home. Even if it was a false link. But at least I didn't feel alone anymore. When I started recognizing continents and countries and cities on maps, they decided I had come from a parallel universe. We looked for me here, looked for mom, Giles, Dawn, Willow, Xander, Tara, Anya. Anyone and everyone I had ever known. But we weren't able to find them. William thinks even though this place is a parallel to ours, it isn't an exact replica. Everyone I know might be here, but they could have different names, live in different places. There really is no way of knowing. The fact that I recognized anyone at all is still a mystery to them."
"The Council agreed to help me adjust to this place. They felt a responsibility for me because I was a Slayer. At first, I went along with them. I knew eventually you guys would find a way to get here. If it was possible, Giles would find the way. So I asked if I could go home to Sunnydale."
"William came with me. He helped me find a job, find an apartment. He stayed with me while I adjusted to living a 'normal' life. He even helped me contact the owner of my old house. That's how I met Tony, my husband. He lived in my house."
"I don't know what I would have done without William or Tony. The first year I was here, they were everything to me. I would wake up screaming from nightmares. I would lose myself in hysterics, thinking all of you were dead. I constantly felt the need to patrol. The vampires walking around during the day gave me the wiggins. I was a mess. But slowly, I moved past it."
"Tony and I dated for almost two years before we got married. I was pregnant in less than a month. And that scared the hell out of me. A Slayer isn't supposed to live long enough to get pregnant. I was a basket case through the entire pregnancy. But the moment I saw Dawn, I knew I was where I belonged."
"I've been here for twelve years. Dawn is nine, Xander is seven, and Willow is three. She'll be four next month. I have a husband who loves me. And a life I wouldn't trade for anything on the planet. I still think about all of you every day. Think about everything I've missed." The tears were flowing like a river down Buffy's cheeks. "I wanted Giles to give me away at my wedding. I wanted Willow to be the godmother of my children. I wanted Xander to hang out with Tony and teach him to build things. I wanted Tara to calm me down the first time Dawnie fell and skinned her knee. I wanted Anya to teach the girls about sex because I won't be able to get through the conversation. I wanted Angel to see that I finally found my normal life." Buffy reached for Spike's hands. She almost broke the bones with the force of her grip. "And I wanted you to walk in the sun with me."
---TBC
