The explosion of pre-teen energy crashed into the house. Kyle, oldest and leader of this little invasion force established a connection with the computer. He located Granny and called out to his companions and they all headed to the upstairs drawing room.
Once there, they found Granny to be asleep. Lisa, Kyle's kid sister, started screaming "Granny! It's us! Granny!"
"She's not dead, is she?" asked Darian, Kyle's friend.
"Nah, Just deaf." He proceeded to tap her on the arm.
Granny woke pretty quickly. "Oh, there you are," she said.
Lisa said something but Granny interrupted her "Now, dear, you know Granny's deaf." She turned to Kyle "Hand me my plug-in, would you?"
Kyle handed her a tiny disk, less then half an inch across. Granny plugged it into her comm-port at the base of her skull.
She was instantly assaulted by an avalanche of sound. "Settle down, Lisa," she said.
Lisa continued at a slightly lower volume "Granny! We saw a cow on the way over, a real life cow. She was big, I didn't know cows were THAT big. Kyle says Cows give milk, but that's not true, right? Milk is made in factories, right?"
Granny smiled at Lisa and nodded occasionally. Meanwhile, she surfed to where she provided her password and then her son's ID. After a few seconds, the site projected a streetmap in her mind. There was a fast moving red dot on it.
She requested a connection to William.
'Hi mom,' she heard in her head.
'Hello William,' she replied.
'Sorry I didn't have time to come in, you don't mind the extra kid, do you?' William sent.
''course not, but can you send me his file?'
'Sure,' there was a slight lapse in William's voice. Willow was suddenly aware of the third kid's life story, at least those parts his parents allowed her access to. 'Got it?'
'Yes, thanks. Do be careful, baby.'
'Mom! Don't ever send that over an open channel, I have a reputation to maintain.' He continued 'And the reason I'm driving so fast is because the new slayer's acting up. They've asked for me.'
'Just be careful, ok?'
'Sure mom.'
'Give my love to Marion.'
''Kay, I'll leave her a note in her inbox.'
'No William, you will not. Tonight, when you're sitting down for dinner, you'll tell your wife, using your mouth that I sent my love.'
'Mom, you're hopeless.'
'I know, love you.'
'Love you.' And William disconnected. The whole exchange had taken just half a minute, Willow saw on her internal clock.
She returned to reality just in time to hear Kyle ask "Gran, why do you unplug all the time?"
"The implant is uncomfortable," Willow explained.
"But we learned in class that comm-ports are perfectly harmless," Kyle insisted.
"Was this class sponsored by Sega by any chance?" Granny Willow asked.
"Erm, yeah it was, why?"
"Never believe classes sponsored by the manufacturer, dear," Willow said.
"Tell us a story!" Lisa demanded.
"A story?" Willow asked.
"Yeah," Darian said, "Kyle says you know the fastest stories."
"Ok, a story." Willow scanned her memory. "Have I ever told you about the voicesnatchers?"
"No, Gran, tell, tell!" Lisa shouted.
"Alright then, once upon a time, in the town of Bocadel ..." Willow started.
"Oooh, Bocadel, that's where the chosen girl lives, right?" Lisa wanted to know.
"Yes, very good," Willow turned to Kyle "Can you tell me who belonged to the chosen ones little group?"
Kyle tried to remember without accessing his data files "There's the chosen girl or course, and the sage and ... erm ... the carpenter and ..."
"Come one, Kyle, one more," Willow encouraged him.
"The red witch! Yes, that's it, the red witch."
"Yes, very good, Kyle. Now, one day people woke up and they couldn't speak," Willow continued.
"There was no sound?" Lisa asked.
"There was sound, birds whistled, car engines rumbled, every thing made sound, except for people's voices. No one could say a word, no matter how hard they tried. They couldn't whisper, they couldn't speak, they couldn't even shout!
The chosen girls and her friends of course tried to figure out what had happened, but they couldn't find anything. So, that night they all went to bed having not spoken a single word all day."
Willow leaned closer, "That night a group of demons came to town. They were called the voicesnatchers. The voicesnatchers floated several centimetres above the ground, thus making no sound as they moved. They were tall and pale and they were very strong. They went to the dorm ..."
"Isn't that were the red witch lived?" Lisa asked.
"Yes, and the red witch was in her room all night. She was afraid to come out. But the voicesnatchers didn't go to her. They went to another room. They knocked, gently so only the boy in the room could hear them.
The boy opened the door and he saw these hideous creatures standing before him. He screams at the top of his longs ... but of course, no one could hear him.
The demons floated into his room. They pinned him against the wall and ... they cut out his heart!"
Lisa let out a little scream.
"When they were done in this room, they went to a different room. But on their way there, they saw a girl that was late coming home. The girl screamed a silent scream. She tried to run but the voicesnatchers were fast. She pounded on all the doors, but no one dared to let her in.
Finally, she knocked on the door of the red witch. The red witch thought that it was the chosen girl coming home, and she opened the door. The girl jumped in, but before they could shut the door, a voicesnatcher had already entered the room. The red witch and the girl ran out. The demons chased them.
The demons came closer and closer." To add dramatic effect, Willow closed the kid's connections to the central computer, thus making them feel isolated and trapped.
"The red witch dragged the girl into a room and they locked the door.
The demons started pounding on the door and it was clear that the door wouldn't hold them for much longer.
Now, there was a big machine in this room and the red witch wanted to put it in front of the door. She reached out to the machine with her ghosthands but it was to heavy.
The girl saw what she was doing and she grabbed the hand of the red witch.
The red witch instantly felt that this girl was also a witch ... the yellow witch.
Together their ghosthands reached for the machine. Now it did move, it smashed into the door just when one of the voicesnatchers came in. It crushed the demon and blocked the path for the others.
And so, the two witches were able to escape and warn the chosen girl." Willow paused for a moment. Then she said "Did you like the story?"
Kyle piped up "But Gran, how did they defeat the voicesnatchers?"
"Defeat them? What if they didn't defeat them? What is they're still about? In fact," Willow pressed herself against the back of the chair "There's one right there!" She pointed behind the children.
They screamed like mad. Kyle was first to regain his composure "That's no demon, it's uncle Spike!"
Lisa flew at uncle Spike and Spike took her in his arms. She turned to Granny Willow "There aren't REALLY any demons? Are there?"
Willow looked at the demon holding her great-granddaughter, smiled a little and replied "No dear, there aren't any REAL demons, right uncle Spike?"
"Course not," Spike said, "it's all just stories."
"Ma'am," Darian said "you should open a site with your stories. You'd be bigger then Harry Potter!"
"That's not hard," Kyle said "The Potter books haven't been very good since Rowling stopped writing them."
The discussion was about to devolve into the age old question as to which of the 67 Harry Potter books was best but then Lisa noticed the occupants list in the central computer had an extra entry. "Granny Tara's home!" she shouted.
The kids all stormed back downstairs.
Willow tried to send Tara a message but she too disliked the implants. So Willow just sent her a good old-fashioned telepathic message warning her about the impending juggernaut of kids heading her way.
Now that they were alone, she said "Hi Spike."
"Hey, Red," Spike replied.
"Ha," Willow laughed "funny how you keep calling me that." As if to demonstrate, she ran her fingers through her thoroughly gray hair.
Spike was already half way to the bar.
Willow accessed the computer and unlocked the cabinet. She also send a command to the microwave freezer to make ice.
Spike poured himself a drink.
"How's Buffy?" Willow asked.
Spike smirked "Pissed off, of course, what else."
"What's she done now."
Spike sighed "She wanted to try out for the US Olympic team ... figure skating."
"That's SO not gonna look weird. You of course told her not to."
Spike nodded.
"And she wanted to anyway."
Spike smiled and nodded again. "I had to hide her skates! Hid em where she'll never look for em."
"Where?"
"Oh, in a big box marked 'skates'."
They both laughed at that.
"She sometimes gets these bursts of energy," Spike mused.
Willow replied, "You'd expect the slayer to be stronger then that, even in old age."
"Yeah, but 55 years of slayage takes its toll, you wouldn't believe the kind of punishment her body was subjected to, especially in the last couple of years before she retired."
"Oh," Willow said, trying to lighten the mood, "speaking of boxes ..." She sent a command and a cupboard sprang open.
Spike took the box that was inside it. He immediately recognised it "Aha! Smokes from Angel! Bless the old sod."
Ever since the sale of cigarettes had been banned in the US, Angel had been sending big boxes of cigarettes to Spike (or rather, to Willow, since Spike and Buffy were rarely ever home). They were still legal in Argentina.
But by the time Spike had opened the first pack, his mood was sombre again.
"It's all ending, isn't it? Everyone's dying."
"That's an odd remark for someone who's been around death all his ... erm ... death," Willow pondered.
Spike grabbed a little note out of the box. "Here, this is the problem," he said, handing the note to Willow.
Angel had a habit of leaving little notes in those boxes. Their content wasn't exactly earth shattering 'Hello, how are you, how's Buffy, ...' stuff like that. Willow hardly ever bothered to read them. All in all, it had been a year at least since she last saw one. This note, however, shocked her. It wasn't the contents but the way they were written. The handwriting was very uneven, big in one place, tiny a few words on. Parts were so bad, she couldn't even read them with the help of her deciphering software.
Willow tried to sound unconcerned "He must have been distracted when he wrote it. Or ... or maybe he had a cold and sneezed a lot." She studied the note again. "A whole lot," she added.
"He's dying Will," Spike said.
"Well, let's not ..."
Spike cut her off "And you're closer to the grave then the cradle."
Before Willow could reply, he added "And there's Tara's heart condition."
Willow no longer tried to be cheerful, "You know about that?"
Spike nodded without looking at her, "Comes with the territory," without missing a beat, he added, "Her heart's as weak as a new-born kitten."
There was a moment of silence as Spike drained his drink.
"Red," he continued, "I offered to sire you ... and Tara. Why didn't you accept, ever? Had it all worked out. I'd turn you, have Tara resoul you an then we'd do Tara, all nice and tidy."
"There's nothing tidy about becoming a vampire. No offence, but I don't want to be a demon," Willow replied.
"Oh, come on witch! I'm doing all right, why would you be any different? Why didn't you ever accept?"
"Why didn't you and Buffy have any children? Same thing, some minor spell casting et voila, bitty Buffy."
Spike marched up to her, "That's different!"
Willow calmly shook her head, "No, Spike, it exactly the same."
"No," Spike started to pace "It's ... it's different ... Buffy, she could never be pregnant. Slayer, remember! What? She's gonna fight demon while 8 months pregnant?"
Willow rose from her chair, "We could have come up with half a dozen ways to solve that one." She walked up to the vampire and placed her hand on his arm, "Fact of the matter is, immortal or not, you fear death."
Spike frowned.
Willow continued "Not your own, of course, you fear the death of those around you. But, really what can you do? Sire me, Tara, Buffy ... who else? William is getting up there in years ... Will you sire your own son, Spike? How about his kids or how about Kyle and Lisa? How many souled vampires would you want to have running about?"
"I ... I am afraid," Spike admitted, "of being left behind, of being left alone."
Willow nodded, this wasn't exactly news to her. She had known for ages. And she knew Spike had had those fears for at least as long. They just never talked about it. But the question was always there. What will Spike do when all the humans he's close to die? Can he maintain his humanity? Why it was that the conversation had turned to this very topic now, she did not know.
Spike didn't give her much time to ponder the reason. "Willow, there is a purpose to this visit."
Willow reached into the computer, it had been 121 days since Spike had picked up Angel's previous package. The packages always contained 400 cigarettes, an amount he used to puff through in about two weeks. But now, with Buffies fragile health to worry about, he smoked much less. "You're running low on smokes."
"No," Spike said, "well, yes, but that's besides the point." He poured himself another whiskey, brought it to his mouth, but in the few seconds it took him to complete these simple tasks, he had lost interest in the drink. Putting down the glass, he continued, "The watchers, they did the ritual again."
Ah yes, Willow thought, it was about time for that. The watchers had actually become a competent unit once Giles took over. Willow choked up a bit, remembering her late, great mentor. But there was no time to dwell on lost loved ones.
Spike spoke again, "They identified 4 new slayers in waiting." He paused a moment before looking Willow straight in the eyes, "I had them redo the ritual twice, Willow."
Now Willow was getting suspicious, 4 new slayers in waiting was a bit low but by no means a cause for concern. What was Spike on about?
Spike drained his drink, shook his head "It's Lisa ..."
Willow gasped, it felt like an ice cold claw grabbed her heart. Dizziness forced her to sit down. Don't say it, Spike, she thought. DO NOT complete that sentence. As if ignoring the problem made it disappear from reality.
Spike continued, "she's one of them."
A million things raced through Willow's head. In her mind, she saw this little girl ... not even ten yet ... fight demons and vampires in dark alleys and graveyards. She saw her great-grandchild hurt, bleeding ... dead even. With a trembling voice, she croaked, "It's not fair. It is NOT fair! Not my little Lisa, not her."
Her anger gave her enough strength to stand. She marched up to Spike and grabbed his coat, "We've done the selfless sacrifice thing. We've done our part. We fought the good fight and we're done!"
Spike just said, "I'm sorry, Red." As if he had any say in the matter.
Willow frowned, through gritted teeth, she said, "I don't want to loose my little Lisa. I won't loose her." She began to gasp for air.
"Hey, hey, steady on witch, don't croak on me here. Look, it'll be years before she's even eligible to be called. Even then, she's just one of hundreds, thousands even."
Somewhat calmed by Spike's words, Willow sat down again. She looked outside the drawing room window, to the old willow tree in the back yard. Ages ago, Xander had installed a swing there ... to be used by William's kids. Despite virtual immersion games and like-you-were-there recordings and semi-intelligent puppets and fluffy animals, the swing had been immensely popular with William's kids. Now, after many repairs, the swing was a popular item among William's grandchildren, Kyle and Lisa. Willow remembered the many times she and Lisa had used the swing. How much she laughed, how much she cheered. And now, this innocent little thing was trust into the dark world of demons and vampires, blood and gore, stakes, swords and battleaxes.
She turned to Spike, "The Powers ... they don't play fair. The calling isn't truly random. Trust me, after 60 years plus of Wicca, you learn these things. They know us. They remember us. Buffy, the slayer that shouldn't be, is a constant reminder."
Spike walked up to her.
She grabbed his arm. "I can't do it anymore, Spike. I'm to old. I can't keep Lisa safe once the fangs start flying."
In a blatant violation of house rules, Spike lit up a fag. Willow was too distraught to complain. He walked over to the window and took a moment to savour the quite dismal quality of Argentina's finest in cancerware.
With his back still turned to Willow, he said, "I can."
He distinctly heard Willow's heart speed up.
"I asked ...", he laughed a little, "I TOLD the council I'd be her watcher." Now, he laughed out loud, "Half of the sorry buggers nearly had a heart attack!"
Willow stood up again.
Spike turned to face her. Damn, she looked old all of a sudden. Given that she actually WAS old, this shouldn't have come as a surprise. But little Red always ... ALWAYS was full of energy ... of life ... of blood. Bloody hell Spike, stop thinking about siring her!
"Spike," Willow said in a trembling voice, "promise me you will protect her."
"Damn it, Red," Spike burst out, "I just told you I'd be her watcher."
Willow took a step closer, in a much firmer voice, she said "Spike, promise ME you will protect her."
Spike met her in the middle of the room. He pushed a lock of her hair back in place, whispering "Little Willow, always the strong one, always the defender." He kissed her on the forehead, "I will protect her, to the end of the world and beyond."
Willow wrapped her arms around him. She was old, weak, casting even simple spells exhausted her. But, Spike ... Spike was as strong as ever. She gave him a good squeeze as if to check that his muscles were still there, tense like steel like always.
"Thank you," she whispered.
The Fics
Return to Fiji-verse