Part Thirty Nine

The Stars, the Voices, The sight

Buffy tapped the sharpened stick against her leather covered thigh. The worn black of her last lover's favorite duster was like a second skin over her clothing. She sighed in boredom and pushed a curled lock of hair behind her ear as she walked.

"Here vampires, here vampy-vampires," The slayer sing songed. "Oooh fresh grave."

Buffy stepped to the side of the soft dirt and spied a nearby grave stone with the perfect vantage point. She leaned over and brushed off the cold stone before she sat on it. The slayeress glanced up into the night sky; stars twinkled back only slightly obscured by smog and dust particles.

"You better be a vampire," She announced as she turned her attention to the freshly dug grave.

"Who?"

"Uh… Mindy Laur-" Buffy cut herself off and jumped up. She spun to face the vampiress. "Drusilla."

"Slayer, tsk tsk tsk," Drusilla moved her hand in front of herself, scolding the blonde. "I could have killed you."

"Why didn't you then?"

The Vampire growled, "You still surround him, you changed him. You took my black knight and molded him into your own shape."

Buffy blinked, "Hug?"

"I want my Spike back," Drusilla whined. "You took him, if I kill you…" The vampires tilted her head to the side and stared at the space next to her. "The Voices say I'll get him back." Her features slipped into game face.

"Kill me? " Buffy crossed her arms and tossed her head. "I don't think so-"

Buffy blocked Drusilla's lunge and knocked her away. Dru caught herself and returned a kick into Buffy's back as she fell knocking her head first toward a headstone.

The TV glowed as action flashed across it, on the couch Dawn, Nich, Tara, and Willow, were blissfully unaware of the tragic occurrences happening only ten minutes away in a seemingly empty graveyard.

Spike swallowed as he turned the corner to where he heard the fight. As he thought, Buffy was in a fight with a vampire. Two things surprised him though.

The first thing was the fact that Drusilla was the vampire in question. The second one being that Buffy's head had just met a head stone with a sickening smack.

The male slayer wasted no time in joining the fight, reaching the vampires before she could kill the women he loved.

Drusilla turned just before Spike grabbed her. His hands held her shoulders and one hand, inadvertently bringing her flush against him.

"My William," She purred. Her vampire face slithered across her features. "Have you come home to play with your mum?"

Spike drew his hand from hers shoulder and grasped her neck. His fingers trembled as part of him cried out against him.

"Sorry pet," he murmured as his fingers clenched. "You hurt the girl."

Her unused windpipe easily compacted in his grip; a soft crack was heard as her neck snapped. He couldn't dust her yet, he just wasn't there yet. But, that didn't stop him from sending her away, all neatly packaged to Romania or some such place, which is exactly what he did.

Buffy groaned as she awoke, her eyes quickly snapping open to servey the scenery. She was in her living room, laying on the couch. A frown made its way across her features, how had she gotten there?

A nervous shuffle made its way to her acute ears, she turned her head and her mouth fell open. A few feet from her, two mugs in hand, Spike stood. His hair was blonde, curling slightly in the way she had liked it but had never told him. He was dressed differently then when she had last seen him. A pair of faded blue jeans, a dark blue dress shirt with a white shirt underneath… this was a different vampire then she remembered.

That thought struck something inside of her. She couldn't sense him! At least, not in the usual "come kill me slayer, for I am a big bad vampire!" type sense.

"Sp-Spike?"

He glanced up from staring at his feet, at her startled whisper.

"Hello Buffy," He replied. "Fancy some hot chocolate?"

She had so many questions for him, to which he hopefully had the answers.

A small smile made its way across her lips.

"Sure, if you have some aspirin anyway… I feel like I played chicken with a semi and lost."

He chuckled, finding him self losing his nervousness at her humor.

Nich yawned and glanced at the clock as the end credits scrolled across the screen.

"Where do you think Will is?" Dawn asked, a yawn interrupting her mid-sentence.

Nich frowned, "Maybe he ran into some trouble. I doubt it though. He probably just decided to sneak some beer or cigs for trip through memory lane."

"I hope there wasn't any trouble, I'd rather not have to resurrect another friend," Willow mumbled sleepily. Her head was against Tara's shoulder; Tara, who was oblivious to the entire conversation since sleep had claimed not long before the movie ended.

"So are we going to watch another movie?" Dawn asked standing to stretch.

"Actually," Nich interrupted her. "Sci-fi is replaying BG03 the mini series part two right now, I'd kind of like to watch it if no one minds."

"Nope," Dawn smiled. "The one guys cute."

"Isn't he?" Nich smiled as she turned the VCR off and started to flip the channels. "I just love Jamie Bamber!"

"BG03?" Willow blinked.

Nich glanced at the witch. "You'd probably like it too. It has Katee Sackoff and Tricia Helfer on it."

"Ooooh!" Willow grinned realizing what 'BG03 stood for. "Turn it on! That cylon lady is hot!"

The teenagers laughed at the sleepy witch, waking Tara up from her nap. "The movie's over? Did they find Nemo?"

A/N: Finally, I rewrote it again after coming home from Japan and realizing that when I thought I updated it didn't. For which I am glad, because what I had was ten times worse than this chappie… and that's saying a lot. Oh and yes… that's a shameless plug for Battlestar Galactica… and yes Jamie Bamber who plays the new Apollo is hot… very hot indeed (IOW go to w w w. gateworld. N e t 's Battlestar Galactica section to see what the series is about!) Also, my muse is back since I wrote the part from the TV to the end in about 10 minutes… I also took the SATs today… whoo heh sorry again about the length between updates I have a plan to finish this before I graduate in june and I WILL! The next arch is going to build up to the end… there are two archs following this… one of which will be condesed from my original but not removed since I can't remove that character very easily. -- This is a thanks also to the person who sent the nice review the other day I believe it went: "Hello anybody home?"If they reply, and want a gmail account they can have one. As well as the other first person to ask for one… really… they give you to many to give out… IMHO

Sorry its short. Heh.