Flashback
"Your finally beginning to relize it, arn't you?" She pondered outloud, as she looked back at her pupil's reflection in the mirror as she tied her long gray wavy hair up into a braid. Her old blue eyes stared un-nervingly as a small smile grew upon her tattered chipped and weathered lips.
"Relize what old woman?!" The girl snapped back, ever since she watched the weekly ritual her teacher preformed to the different gods, she had been edgy. Even more so then she usually was, it was the first ritual she had watched, the other times she had endulged in her massive lust for violence and bloodspill.
"That no matter how hard you try, you can never be as innocent as you wish to become. Even with those drugs the Council creates for you, they can only calm the temper of the hellish being that lies within your soul."
"Hasn't it occured to you yet that maybe I never HAD a soul to begin with?"
"If you didn't have a soul, would you have kept me alive?" She paused then turned around narrowing her eyes lightly, "I can never replace your mother, you know that Cecilia Ann Doloreius"
Rage overcame the girl as she gritted her teeth and balled her hands into fists tight and leaking blood from split skin, "Never speak of my mother again Elizabeth! I forbid you to EVER speak of them both!" She roared across the room to her.
"Oh but my darling Cecilia, one cannot grow without facing the past. It's not like you know your mother and sister much at all either"
With the mention of her family she snapped, in a cry of rage and torment she lept forward drawing her egyptian dagger that had been not only tainted with her own blood but the blood of the innocents. She burried the blade deep within the lung and heart of the old woman and pressed the blade down, tearing apart organs, skin, and even slicing through the ribs. Pulling the dagger from her trembling body she whispered into the womans ear, "I told you its forbidden, now dear Elizabeth, you will return to your gods you so enjoy talking to." without diverting her eyes she dropped the dying bleeding woman to the ground, and left.
Her last dying words she sputtered out with a mix of her last breaths and her own blood, "May my goddess Shiori bring your life into order once again my child."
End Flashback
At the strike of noon the doors of the crypt flew open, a force of anger and fury flew through the doors as the figure entered. "Where is she Spike! I know she's in here, now bring her out!" At the beginning of the yelling Spike swiftly moved off the bed from the girl's side and up to the main level to meet the enraged Summers woman.
"Shut your sodding mouth will ya? She's downstairs sleeping. What gives you the right anyways to bloody well burst in here in the middle of the bleedin day?" He growled back at her in a snappish tone.
"She was supposed to watch Dawn, Glory may be gone Spike, but I still have to keep Dawn safe AND go patrolling." She stomped off past the peroxide blonde vampire and went downstairs to wake Rei and give her all the lectures she's been bottleing up for the past 10 hours. She stopped frozen in spot when she saw the thickly bandaged red stained arm laying ontop of the blankets that the girl laid benieth. "My god! Spike what happened?!" She asked in a hurry of worried hushed gasps as she knelt before the injured girl.
"Slit her arm from wrist to elbow's what shes done. Found her all bandaged up and passed out by the time i got back before dawn. I've a feeling our dear Nancyboy found her and bandaged her all up, luv. Still oblivious as to why though." He stood at the foot of the bed shifting his weight uncomfortably from one foot to the other every so often.
"What would Angel want with her though?"
"Might want to ask the lil bit when she wakes up pet." He gave the sleeping girl a once over to make sure she was sleeping peacefully before turning around and making his way upstairs to fetch himself blood from the fridge, while Buffy slowly followed.
"So why'd she come here anyways?" She asked meekly, taking a seat upon the beat up couch in the self-proclaimed living room.
"Thought you would've known, he didnt want her there anymore, decided he needed a place that he could call his own for himself and Anya. It's not like you or the bleedin watcher are any different anyways" He sipped away at the blood he had poured into a dark blue mug for himself.
"Thats not fair Spike, I-I just cant have everyone in the house anymore..." Her voice drowned into muttering of excuses.
"Oh sure, you'd rather be off dusting vamps or shagging my nancyboy sire, is that it?" Buffy's face plunged into defence and opened her mouth to protest, "And dont you turn around to use that 'But he has a soul now' excuse with me. He's lost it buffy, or didnt you hear about it from your old man watcher? Too bloody well busy sucking face to see it!"
Buffy stood and glared stepping closer to spike, shooting off every train of thought running through her mind. "He hasnt lost it Spike, of all people, I would be able to tell, and we talked. He's still the soul-attached vampire that i sent into Hell to save the world Spike. Maybe you're loosing your ability to tell them apart."
"Then why'd he attack her Buffy? Sundown last night, she had left the crypt to watch the sunset, the moment the sun had vanished he was at her throat, fangs and all. Didnt kill her though, probably decided that shes going to be his new little toy!"
Buffy stood speachless, could Angel really have done a thing, or had he turned back to Angelus and just acted like his souled half to get on Buffy's good side and to pump information out of her about Dawn and Glory. Then it hit her Dawn, he knew about Dawn being the Key, what if he had some similar plan like Glory's, to open the portals and unleash hell upon earth, to let the dimentions bleed themselves together in a rage of destruction, just to get back at her for sending him to hell.
Buffy was so caugh up in her own shock she almost didnt notice as Rei walked across the room and over to the fridge, nearly dragging her feet to retrieve a pizza pocket from its chilly insides. She perked up and watched the girl before pulling herself together to question Rei left right in center. "Rei? Rei, are you alright?" Her gaze followed the girl as she made her way to be seated on the bloodstained couch, the same spot she had sat in the night previous.
Spike silently watched from his perch beside the fridge on a slab of stone counter. Rei took a small bite of her snack and flicked on the tv. Her response came as a dark mutter, barely audioable, but clear enough to understand. "Am I alright, of course I'm not fucking alright. I should've died last night, would've caused a lot less people grief in the long run."
"What are you talking about? Everyone would miss you, I'm sure even your family would miss you, wherever they are." Buffy replied as she took a seat on the other side of the couch.
"Oh sure, they'll rise from their rotten dried up shallow graves and grieve upon my trecherious grave. I'm sure as hell that none of you would miss me, maybe the little munchkin, but s'only cuz I take care of her." She took another bite and itched at her bandaged arm, "I think some new less soaked and soiled bandages would be in order though. Not that it would matter if it got itself infected or not, it'd be an interesting way to go out, 'And on lighter news today, the worlds darkest protecter died from an infection in a wound she made herself, and now heres Michel with the news.' Wouldn't that be funny Spike?" She turned her head over to the perched vampire, her tone of voice was sarcastic but quite amused as well.
"Bloody well ironic I'd say bit."
"Why are you so concentraited on dying?"
"Why not?"
"Because theres people that care about you and need you in their lives maybe?"
"Sure, I'll prance about in a pansy field all fucking day. That sound good enough for you Buffy? The only good I'm doin on this earth at the moment is keeping an eye on your marvelous key, and depleating Spikes supply of pizza pops!" Quickly becoming annoyed with the topic of life she let out a low growl.
Buffy shook her head and paused for a moment, "What did you mean by The worlds Darkest Protector?"
"Nothing important, don't you go worrying your pretty golden head about it girl. You've got bigger things to worry about at the moment, like for example our beloved Angelus, and why he seems to have taken a liking to me."
"You mean you don't know?"
"No ideas, no leads, no nothing golden girl. Best frolic off to your watcher now, go see if his heart is still pumping his precious blood through his aged veins, and then harrass him for information like your doing to me..."
She looked hurt, she was just trying to get whatever Rei knew out in the open so that she might be able to take care of the situation. Without another word she rose from the couch and left the crypt, fleeing back to the Magic box.
Once Rei was sure Buffy had left for good she turned to Rei, "Darla sent him after me."
"Darla? But how would she even know who you are?" He lept down from his seat upon the cold countertop and made his way to the spot where Buffy had just recently vacated. She began unwrapping the long bandages from her arm and tossed them onto her lap, she ran her finger carefully up the long line of stitches holding the deep gash tightly closed, then ran her finger over another scar across her wrist.
"You see this one? I made that when I was about 14. When I had lived on a farm for my younger mortal years of my life. I'd gone on a fury binge and mutilated the animals my so called father had kept. He had screamed at me, and I fled off to the barn, up into the hay storage. Pulled out my dagger that I'd gotten on the streets from a girl that turned out to be my sister...Anyways, I cut almost right to the bone, then watched a few minutes as I bled before trying to wrap up the wound. I found that I didnt have the energy to even tie it up, but to my odd fortune, another had been hiding up in the dark rafters of the barn. She came down, wrapped up my arm and cleaned it all up free of blood. I only had gotten a glimpse of her before I began to pass out, she was gorgious, blonde hair tied up at the back of her head, and beautiful expensive clothing. I remember however what she had said to me as she took me into her arms to cradle me. 'Sleep well child, for when the time comes, my own childe will come to take care of your tender mind and body, and train your soul.'"
Spike looked baffled, "Angelus...So that explains why he hasn't kidnapped you, and has been there to tend to your wounds, and keep you pure...in a sence...But why not tell Buffy? You had the chance to tell her."
"Buffy's got enough on her plate as it is, and if she knew, then Giles would know, and the Council would come to round me up."
"What's the sodding Council got to do with this?"
"Their afraid I'll go all massacure on their ass again. If they knew about this whole fiasco, they wouldn't hesitate to hunt me down and take care of the situation."
"You destroyed them last time, you could just do it again, right?"
"I could, but If they got one clear shot on me with even so much as a simple dart, I'd be dead."
"That whole fight with the Slayer a few minutes ago, wouldnt that be better-" He was cut off.
"Most definatly not! I wont let anyone else take my death into their hands. But theres another thing to add in, 'when one slayer falls another shall rise.' If I die Spike, someone else will just take my place....I'm not the type to take a liking to being replaced."
"The one and only, right?" He had a familiar stance on this sence of pride, his was being the Big Bad.
"Exactly. I'm not sure how I'm going to deal with this though. Buffy wouldn't know either, nor Giles." She sighed exhaustedly as she swirled around the leaking fluids from the stitches on her arm with her finger.
"Well luv, best not tire yourself out with this, you need your rest right now. Will be needing all your energy to deal with this one." He moved over, lifted her up and took her downstairs to the bed to sleep, and rewrapped up her arm.
Buffy stormed back into the Magic shop, flew past the few costumers to find Giles, who was just comming out of the back room with a box for Anya. "Giles! Do you know anything about someone or something called 'The worlds Darkest Protector'?"
Giles walked over to the counter and set the box down while scouring his brain for such knowlage, "Not offhand, why?"
"I found Rei, shes at Spikes crypt, Angelus has been to see her twice, first time he attacked her, second time hes mended her arm. I talked to her about half an hour ago and she had mentioned something in her babbling about dying known as the worlds darkest protector."
"I might have something in a few council or watcher journals that came in last week. I could take a look if you like."
"Yes please, it might have something to do with the whole Angelus thing."
Giles walked into the office where he scanned through a few journals in search of the material, meanwhile Buffy gave Anya a hand in restocking different materials from the inventory downstairs. Nearly 20 minutes later Giles emerged from his office with a book in hand, "Buffy, I found something here that seems a bit disturbing." He sat down at the table where Buffy was seated, and began explaining what he had found.
"The only thing I've found had to do with a slayer from the 1750's. The Slayer's name was Bridgget, but it was an odd case, because she had a twin sister named Cecilia. This was the last case in history that a slayer was ever born with a twin sister."
"Whats so special about that?" She interrupted.
"It was a common thing for the twins to both hold the power of a slayer, except...one would be good and fight against demons and forces of evil, and the other..would fight against her sister and aid the hand of evil."
"But she died right? The slayer killed her sister to stop the demons from florishing."
"Actually Buffy, Cecilia killed Bridgget, the slayer had only been recodnized as a slayer for a few months before she was killed, and quite sadistically too. One would suggest Cecilia had gained her ability of torture from Angelus."
"Ok...so one time that evil wins, what happened next?"
"She went on several travelings that involved the murdering of the innocence, until the council caught up with her and captured her, holding her captive for a period of two years. They tested various mixtures together to strip her of her violent bloodlust, one day she got loose and destroyed the containment building she was kept in, and tore apart everyone she found within the building. Not too much more is know about her. Besides the fact that she had killed her sister and mother, caused a few widespred bloodbaths throughout Europe and Asia."
"What was her full name?"
"Cecilia Anne Doloreius, also known to the council as the 'Darkest protector' or the dark slayer, why?"
"Just wondering how Rei knew of her, and why she would somehow refer to Cecilia to herself."
"She may be holding something back from you Buffy. Did she seem at all irritated with your presence?"
"Totally, she even growled at me Giles, who growls...besides vampires and demons anyways."
"Well unless we can somehow get information from her, I dont see much more we can find out about this."
It was that moment that Dawn decided to walk into the Magic shop and listen in on the conversation, "Get information from who Giles?"
Buffy looked at Dawn and her eyes lit up, "I've got an idea."
Ok second chapter is up for you people, the third chapter should be up sometime this week. Many thanks to the one person that reviewed, my sister, she's helped develope my plotlines and ideas for this story so I do believe some thanks and credit should be sent to her.