Chapter 16 – Into Every Generation
"I still don't think this is gonna work." Anya repeated after Westley had discussed the spell with her, Willow, Dawn, Fred, & Spike. "In my 1,100 years I've never heard of it."
"Doesn't mean it can't be done Anya." Dawn recapped as she grabbed the last chair to clear it from the dining room.
"And we do tend to do a lot of stuff that's never been done before." Willow added.
"Before me and the ponce, you ever heard of a vampire with a bloody soul?" Spike asked as he grabbed one end of the table and Westley grabbed the other and shimmied it out of the room.
"I suppose not," She conceded to the vampire. "So what can I do to help with our current impossible task?"
"Just stay back, everyone but Willow, Spike & I should be in this room." Westley instructed as he re-entered "I don't want Spike's demon going back into anyone but him."
"You really think Spike's true demon will make him strong enough?" Dawn asked "I mean we don't know what kind, or how many demons were funneled into that box Buffy saw."
"I trust his 100 plus year old demon will be sufficient Dawn."
"I mean right now he's only like half demon, being how vampires are, and he's almost as strong as Buffy. I'd wager when he fuses with his demon 100% he'll be twice as strong." Fred theorized triumphantly, then looked around the room at a mix of faces and added "Well that's my theory anyway."
Spike glanced over to Wes who to him had a clear 'God she's amazing' look he knew all too well. Gotta chat with Fred before they leave, it's the least I could do for um if this spell really works. "So we ready mate?"
"I believe so. Ladies if you would please exit to the kitchen or the foyer." Dawn & Fred walked to the entryway to watch while Anya went to stand in the kitchen doorway. "Spike if you would stand at the far corner of the room." He nodded as he walked to the front corner between the curtained windows and the hutch. "Ready Willow?"
"Let's do it." Was her simple reply as she grabbed the box off the floor and prepared to catch Spike's demon. Westley walked over to Spike who held his palm forward, Westley carved into his hand with a knife, making a deep cut, Spike barley flinched. Then Westley sheathed the knife and pulled out a vile of the bright green mora blood, opened it and poured it into Spike's hand. He closed his hand around the blood feeling it start to work in him, he braced himself against the wall. He opened his hand to find the cut and the blood were gone then a grey light lifted from him, and directed itself toward the box Willow held. Once it was inside Willow closed and locked the box.
Spike was still staring at his hand then he slowly lifted it to his throat, pressing two fingers against it. "There it is!" he smiled "I've got a bloody pulse!" Everyone was excited and some more surprised than others that it really worked.
Fred leaned over to dawn and quietly mentioned "A bit smaller reaction than Harmony."
They both giggled at the comment, then Dawn replied "I'd be worried if he had a bigger reaction than her." The both giggled again, but inside the room they were very serious as they started the next spell.
"That was the easy part." Westley reminded as he directed his attention to the box, taking it from Willow and handing her the still bloody knife, so she could perform the preparations.
She took a deep breath then after a moment she began to slice hellebore petals with the bloody knife and let the pieces fall on the box and recited "Demon with-in, return to your purest form, with this offering find your true nature." The box started to glow softly then Willow commanded "Fortis daemon, reditus!" it shook for a moment, then the petals faded into it and the glow were gone. Then the pair turned to the now human Spike. Willow started to recite the shadow men's spell in the original Swahili, as Westley repeated in English to accentuate the spell's power:
"Sisi mnyororo yake duniani"
"We chain him to the earth." Willows hands began to glow with an amber light, she raised them, palms up, and pointed to Spike.
"Na kutumika kama beki kwa wanadamu wote."
"To serve as a protector for all mankind." Westley unlocked the box.
"Katika kila kizazi mwenye kuua mtu amezaliwa,"
"Into every generation a slayer is born," he bagan to open it, letting the demon out, it was now a black thick substance and clearly larger than before. It seemed to look around just as Buffy had described from her experience with the shadow men.
"Msichana mmoja & mtu mmoja katika ulimwengu wote, wateule,"
"One girl & one man in all the world, the chosen ones." The demon swereled aroung the room for a moment, then seemed to realize where Willow was pointing and headed for Spike.
"Wao peke kutazaa nguvu na ujuzi kupambana suckers damu, mapepo na nguvu za giza,"
"They alone will wield the power and skill to fight the vampires, the demons and the forces of darkness," At that the demon entered Spike through his mouth, jostling him about the corner of the room.
"Kuzuia kuenea kwa maovu na jazwa ya idadi yao"
"prevent the spread of evil and the swell of their numbers." Spike managed to stop the demon from throwing him about and stood firm, taking a deep breath, he surpressed the demon within him.
"Wao ni mwenye kuua mtu."
"They are the slayer."
Willow lowered her hands and the glow faded, after a moment she walked over to Spike. She placed a hand against his chest, she clearly felt a heartbeat but more importantly, she did not feel the demon knocking about. She brought her other hand to her mouth and whispered "rete." Her hand started to glow a light blue as she raised it a couple inches infront of Spike's mouth. "Open up Spike." He did as he was told and opened his mouth, to everyones releif, nothing came out for Willow to try and catch. After holding for a minute to be sure Willow pulled her hand away and released the concentration of the spell, returning her hand to normal. "What do ya say Wes? Ya think we got ourselves another slayer?" she asked excitedly.
Westley set the box down and walked over to the window, and threw the shades open. Spike flinched and went to throw his coat up out of habbit, but then stopped and thought for a moment, then let the sun hit him. It felt so warm, but he didn't so much as sizzle. He smiled, then spun around to the buffet that had a mirror sitting on top, seeing his own refection for the first time in over 100 years.
Anya was the first to intrupt the moment of course "Great you're human, but are you stronger or weaker now?"
Spike thought for a moment then a wicked grin covered his face as he headed out the front door, everyone followed him curiously. He knew the neighbors to the left had already vamoosed from town, and there was a pretty hefty oak tree in their front yard. He walked up to it, and motioned the rest to hold back. "This is either gonna be bloody brillitant... or hurt... alot..."
"So eitherway it should be fun for us?" Dawn joshed.
He smiled at his favorite little sister, then he looked back to his target, wound up and sent a round-house kick at the trunk. A lound crack echoed down the street, almost like thunder. The 40 foot tree began to teater, then a strong gust of wind at the wrong moment altered it to fall toawrd the group. Confident in his new strength Spike ran toward them caught the center of the tree and bounced it to the left toward the road and clear of the group.
After a moment of relief for not getting squished Fred inquired. "Is that alot stronger than you were before?"
"Hell of alot stronger pet!" he boasted "You were right, at least bloody double." He smiled and stared up to the sky, basking in the sunlight.
Dawn couldn't contain herself any longer, she ran over to the ex-vampire and hugged him, so excited for him and her sister. "I'll give you like a ba-jillion dollers if I can be the one to tell Buffy!"
"Hell no little bit, that honor is all mine." She released the hug and pouted "But I'm sure you'll catch the show." She swapped her pout for a smile and hugged him again. After she released him he walked over to Westley and Fred "Thanks for everything mates, honestly."
"Oh, it was nothing. It was kind of a fun challenge actually. Always an interesting experiment when you have to think outside the box, and I'm still learning the rules of magic and stuff, and even then it seems like they don't always abide by the rules. Not like physics, but then again physics is always comming up with new rules that trump the old ones and... " Westley placed ahand on her shoulder, she looked up at him then back to Spike "I mean, I'm glad we could help."
"You're welcome." Westley added "So now that your human again, you going to go by your human name, William?"
Spike gave him a dumb look "Don't think so mate." Westley chuckled a little then Spike stepped over to Willow, tried to start once, then stopped unsure of what to say.
"Ya know if you hurt her I'll kill you, super-pumped slayer strength or no." Willow stated bluntly.
"Then why isn't Angel all dusty?"
"Cause he was evil when he hurt her, and I wasn't all wichy and powerful... like now."
"Right, well thanks for trusting me Red." She smiled back at him, the conversation she had with her friend the night before now took on a whole new meaning, most of her points against their relationship were now kaput... So now I should support this beyond weird relationship... right?
"Fire in the hole!" Xander shouted for the 5th time that morning. An explosion erupted from the building, then after the smoke cleared the crew reentered the school through Wood's office window and reset the ladders to climb down to the seal that had a fresh layer of rubble on it. "That should be the last one we need." Xander commented to Buffy as he surveyed the damage from the dynamite. "Now just gotta clean up our mess so we don't trip on it on our way out."
"Great, I'm gonna go see how Angel, Wood, & Rona are doing barricading the basement." Buffy replied as she headed for the basement stairs. Once down she maneuvered her way through to the hall outside the seal where the three of them were stacking shelves, desks and any other items in the basement to board up the door and walls. "Doesn't look like you left me anything to do?"
"Hello Buffy," Wood replied "Yeah, we've got just about everything we could find reinforcing that they stay in that room or up the ladders."
"Will it hold?" Buffy asked directing her question to Angel.
"It should." He replied "So Spike and I waiting here to see if they bust through or up in the office?"
"Well if you say this is secure, I would think there's no point in wasting either of you down here. Wood? There's enough shade in the office area to have Angel & Spike fight there right?"
"It should be sufficient not to roast them." he concurred.
"Okay, we'll plan on that then. Rona you wanna head upstairs and help with the last bit of rubble? And Wood, you could probably head back and get everyone else." They nodded and headed for the stairs.
"You worried?" Angel asked.
"What? No. I mean, not really. Just seems pretty different than our last few apocalypses."
"I don't know, reminds me a lot of our last apocalypse together, the Mayor. We're damaging school property, we're breaking out the flamethrowers again, and everybody we know is fighting, some of which who aren't ready yet."
"I suppose." She surmised as she sat on a teacher's desk at the edge of the barricade "You think I should leave the potentials out of this?"
"I just think you'll need a plan B if the sunshine spell doesn't work and you're stuck in a hole with an army of Turok-Han."
"Oh."
"Yup." Angel joined her on the desk "Don't you wish running was an option, just once?"
Buffy chuckled, then reminded him "Yeah, but I ended up dying in both apocalypses where I tried to run first. That kind of consistency tells me running is a bad idea." Angel had a confused look on his face. "I tried to quit before I faced the Master, and I tried running from Glory."
"Oh. Well then no more running, cause I want you to have a long happy life."
"That's the plan."
He paused for a moment then made one last push "So you really think Spike is gonna be the one to give you that?"
Thrown by the sudden change of topic, but not overall surprised "As hard as it is to see, he really does make me happy Angel." In more ways than one she wanted to add, but decided better of it. "I don't really know how long it'll last, but for now it feels right. He really has been a great ally." She paused to chuckle to herself "Ya know when he saw I was back last fall, it took him about 3 seconds to realize I wasn't the buffy-bot they'd been working with all summer, and his face just lit up. Then he saw my hands were hurt from punching out of the coffin and became so concerned; he was going to help me clean it up but my friends came back and of course he left. Then later I stopped by his crypt and his hands were hurt like mine. He was trying to relate to my pain the best he could, so he could help me through it." She looked to Angel, but only received a blank stare. "The thing is, I'm still not sure how, but he was the one who really helped me work through being pulled outta heaven."
"So he's actually sensitive, that's the big draw? And why was William the Bloody able to help you so much more than Willow, Xander, or Dawn?"
"I think cause he never treated me any different. I was still me, ya know? Anyway, that's probably why he was the first one I told where I really was."
Perturbed by her natural level of comfort and trust with his rival he pushed for another nagging question. "So you see fat grandchildren in the offing with Spike?"
"I highly doubt it, for one vampire, can't have kids. And I got a good talking to from Willow about him last night after I told her about LA and she doesn't really approve either." Angel's face almost turned hopeful at Willow's disapproval, then Buffy added "Plus I'm kinda thinkin' I'll die before I grow to resent him for his youth."
"Buffy…"
"I'm kidding… ya know, mostly."
"Buffy, what are you trying so hard to convince me of?"
"That Spike really is good, and I'm better off with him in my life."
"Okay, so why you trying to convince me, or Willow, or anyone?" now Buffy had the confused look "Look, I'm not sure you could come up with anything to say to convince me that Spike's the better man for you." Buffy looked down. "But I know you'll always be safe with him around, and he does make you happy, even if I don't really understand why… So maybe that's enough."
"Thanks Angel," Buffy turned toward the barricaded room, "Seems to have quieted down, they must almost be done."
"Yeah, the rest of the gang and your new boyfriend will be here before you know it." Buffy simply rolled her eyes at the comment as she made her way to the stairs with Angel following.