Buffy strode into the building steadily, her eyes scanning the walls and windows that had been so familiar just a short time ago. Yet so much had changed it was difficult to grasp.
Coming to a halt in the main hallway of the Compound, Buffy realised that it wasn't just quiet, it was completely soundless. As though the very earth was holding its breath. Buffy couldn't hear birds or traffic sounds from outside that were the usual background sounds she was used to here. Neither was there the common chatter and squeals from nearly a hundred teenage girls together under one roof.
Buffy turned slowly in a circle, sending her senses further and further out as she searched for anything, but she came up zilch.
Spike stood at his spot to her left, his body loose and ready, bouncing slightly on the toes of his boots and he flashed her a grin as he cracked his neck from side to side and settled his shoulders. She couldn't have stopped the smile that quirked up one corner of her mouth at that so familiar move. No matter the odds or opponent, her Spike always went into battle with a smile and a readiness to fight.
A new black leather jacket and a visit to the drugstore this morning had returned the vampire to the breathtaking creature he had been when they first met all those years ago outside of the Bronze. When he had finally stepped out of the bathroom back at the Hyperon, with his beautiful curls snipped, bleached and glued down into obedience, Buffy had felt a keen sense of loss. Of so many years lost to them, so much pain that she had been unable to stop the tear that had run down her face. A worried Spike had halted them quickly enough with kisses and caresses and now Buffy took a moment to take in the familiarity of the demon beside her. And she smiled. This was right. Him and her, here, together. Finally.
The smile died and she motioned with her head down the hall and Spike nodded in return, indicating to the Slayer to take the lead. But before she took a single step, he swept her into a tight embrace, lips crushing down onto hers as he longingly feasted at her lips. Just as quickly, he released her and quirking that breathtaking eyebrow, motioned her forward as though nothing had happened. Buffy felt the overwhelming sensation of love and knew it was reflected in her eyes as she gazed at her beloved Vampire as he looked back with deep love himself.
But the moment was gently put aside and Buffy nodded as she stepped forward into the unknown.
Both sets of eyes scanning the windows and doors as they made their way down the hallway, and still nothing. Buffy's hands clenched and she fought to relax them. No matter what happened today, it was finally going to be finished.
She felt a tingle run across her neck and she knew that Angel had breached the Compound as well and she could only hope that Faith had gotten in at her spot as well. She wouldn't know for sure until they saw one another again.
"Slayer?" Spike breathed his question and she nodded, telling him that she felt the other vampire as well.
They finally made it to the doors that led to the main compound area, where the buildings all opened into a massive courtyard and Spike motioned with his head towards the doors, indicating that he could sense people there. So that's where they all were. Buffy reached into her pocket and pressed the button on her phone, sending out the prearranged signal. A buzz from beside her told her that the signal had reached Spike's phone at least.
Lifting her chin and squaring her shoulders, she took one last breath. This was it. The final move in what seemed like an endless game of chess that she only just realised she had been playing.
One last glance to her side and green eyes met blue and held. She realised something in that moment, something she had known but only realised for certain in that very second.
This did not only FEEL right, but it felt as though it should have been this from the start. Buffy with Spike by her side. Her champion, standing by the side of the Earth's Champion. Two halves of the same whole. She reached out her hand and caressed his cheek, her thumb running along that cheekbone.
Then she turned and faced the door once more. Spike by her side as they simultaneously kicked the massive door open.
The courtyard was filled with Slayers and Witches.
The Slayers were in their squad formations, fists and weapons ready as they faced the duo who stood in the now shattered doorway. As Buffy ran her eyes over the assembled girls, she thought it seemed less than the almost 100 she knew to be here. In fact, she would guess that a good 1/3 were missing and she wondered where they would be hiding. She sent a quick prayer up to the PTB that Faith and Angel were safe and ready to go.
In the centre of the Courtyard as though Royalty, surrounded by court and minions was Rupert Giles. Face pinched and sour, his hands clasped behind his back, he stared coldly at the intruders as they stood in the doorway. Never had he embodied the Watchers Council more than he did at that very moment. Eyes sliced from Buffy to Spike and the look of pure hatred that blossomed there would have shocked Buffy if she hadn't already known it existed. The constant flashback memories had opened her eyes to so much that she had ignored or missed. She restrained the impulse to step protectively in front of her love, instead masking the very slight twitch as a glance at the two people standing either side of Her Ex Watcher.
Willow stared at the two heroes from her place by Giles' side, her face a picture of sorrow and worry, but her hands spoke a different story. As her teeth worried her lips in an obvious show of nerves, her hands were very subtly and very calmly crafting a spell, the magics glinting softly in the early evening shadows. On Giles' other side, surprising the Slayer only monetarily, was the long missed Xander, his face stone still, giving nothing away. Buffy snorted unsurprised. She should have known that he would be here. He had always thought himself the only choice for Buffy. His jealousy had warped him since the very beginning and out of everyone, had at least been the most honest about his feelings, although that meant little in all reality. Behind them, the Watchers Coven was gathered and Buffy could feel the battering that the hex bags were protecting them from, as the Coven sought to snipe and worry at them even now.
Without looking away from the trio in the centre, Buffy stepped forward, ignoring the squads of slayers that fell back as she and Spike passed, then moved back to surround them again. The duo stopped and within seconds, were surrounded on three sides by Slayers. But neither of them even glanced away from the trio in front of them for a moment. They were the reason for all this after all.
Murmurings and shuffling's were the only sounds in the still air of the LA evening as opponents were sized up. For nearly all the Slayers present tonight, this was their first time facing one of the most famous Vampires in history, alongside the most famous person in their world - The Original Slayer.
Neither blonde was particularly tall, their colouring and size complementing each other perfectly, their matching outfits of black leather jackets, red shirts and black pants sealing the visual deal. There weren't that many Sunnydale Slayers left after the Hellmouth Battle, so nearly all the Slayers there only had the memory of a smaller, beaten and broken slayer to remember.
This was not that slayer.
This wasn't even the Slayer that the Sunnydale Slayers remembered.
This was a Slayer that screamed Power. Confidence. This was The Slayer in all her Full Glory. She appeared to pulse with power, her very countenance seemed to glow. And she was fully complemented by the Master Vampire that stood by her side. Not in the position of Guard or follower, but as a Fellow Warrior, standing proudly by her side.
Silence fell as though a blanket had smothered the entire city. And still the two groups stared silently at each other.
Buffy cocked her head to the side, clasped her arms behind her back as she returned her gaze to her former father figure and watched as he reined in his obvious hatred and smoothed his features. He raised his hand and removed the glasses and proceeded to clear them off with a clean handkerchief as he shook his head in sorrow.
"Buffy. I am so very disappointed…"
"Shut the fuck up Giles." Buffy said conversationally, cutting off the watcher before he could get going with his obviously prepared speech of guilt and oppression. "I'm not really interested in hearing any bile you feel you have to spew."
"Oh, nice turn of phrase there love, good to know you've been listening here and there."
Buffy smiled at the joking tone of Spike.
"Well, between you and Angel, it's gotta sink in sometime or other." She joked back, not taking her eyes from the group. She felt a sense of vicious satisfaction at the flinch from all three at the mention of both vampires. She reached over and squeezed the hand that grasped hers briefly, enjoying witnessing another flinch from the group at the sight of the mild PDA.
"Oh, tell your pets behind you to quit the useless spells, save their strength for what's coming." Buffy threw at the trio and Willow gasped Buffy's name at the coldness he heard in the Slayer's voice.
Buffy turned to the redheaded woman and just as coldly, spoke to the stunned redhead. "What? Something to say Wills?"
Willow's look of surprise and worry melted away as she realised that Buffy had never bought her act and a sneer replaced it. She brought her hands up and did away with the subtlety and finished casting the spell, holding it ready.
"You have always been a selfish bitch Buffy, it's about time you realised that. Thankfully I'm happy to teach this lesson."
Buffy merely raised an eyebrow and pursed her lips unimpressed.
"Oh Willow, I have come to realise a lot lately and I'm going to take great pleasure in expressing it clearly and in great depth to you all. I do wonder at your take on this and just how you came to think who will be taught and who will be the teacher today." Buffy shook her head and smiled nonchalantly at the blinking redhead. "Let's just say, I'm ready to teach."
Giles and Willow both blinked at the blatant declaration in Buffy's voice. Buffy rolled her eyes.
"Seriously? THAT surprised you? In the past year alone, you have spied on me, attacked me, attacked my friends, tracked me and oh yeah, let's never forget the continual lying. And that's not even covering my entire LIFE! So what the hell did you expect? Me running back, begging for forgiveness, weeping to be let home again?" She looked from Willow to Giles and snorted at what she saw there.
"I guess you were. I suppose this is what it was all about? Teach the naughty Buffy a lesson, get her to crawl back when she realised her mistakes? And if you couldn't do that, use her as an example to the rest of them? Keep them in line" Buffy jerked her head back at the squads of slayers surrounding her. What she saw in the faces of her former friends confirmed it. The snort of disgust from the blond demon beside her confirmed that he saw it too. She felt nothing but disgust at all of them.
"But I suppose we should be honest here. You have been doing it for years. Years. All of you. To the point where you had me a walking, fighting Zombie and you have the fucking gall to say I'M selfish?" She shook her head and chuckled ruefully and joylessly. "Thank God I finally figured it out. It may have taken a long time and a bit of help, but I finally figured it out." Buffy turned slowly on the spot, looking at the Slayers that surrounded her and Spike and then faced Giles, Willow and Xander again.
"You want me to come home and toe the line? Follow the company rhetoric and be a nice little obedient Slayer, training all the others to be Good Little Girls as well?" Buffy waited for a reply, a sneer crinkling her nose. Giles replaced his glasses, haughtily looked at his former student and as he opened his mouth to speak, Buffy cut over him.
"Not. Going. To. Happen! Ever." She crossed her arms and shook her head at the trio. Her fingers slipped into her jacket pocket and pushed the last button on her phone. She looked across to the beloved face standing beside her and smiled.
"I told you last time we spoke. Never again will I have anything to do with you or the council again. My mind has not changed and in fact, I'm even more sure of that now." She looked over at Spike and smiled, the love she felt warming the areas of her heart that had been so cold for so long. "I have more important things to do with more important people to do them with." And she spun and placed a gentle kiss on cool lips.
The world exploded.
As soon as Buffy's lips had met Spike's, they felt the sudden power-charged wards explode from their hex bags, just in time to protect against the spell Willow had thrown. The spell rebounded and slammed into a squad of Slayers that had charged the second Willow had cast it. The offcourse spell sent the entire squad to their knees screaming in agony as the spell electrified and tortured nerve endings.
But Buffy and Spike hadn't stopped to watch. As soon as the wards shot up, Spike had bent, grasped Buffy's foot and with an almighty combined heave/kick, thrown the blonde Slayer as high into the air as the two super beings had been able to throw her. At the apex of the throw, Buffy crushed the orb that she had snatched from Spike's jacket pocket and threw the glittering remains as far as she could scatter them, magic ensuring that it reached every corner.
Spike oofed slightly as he caught her on the drop and within a 10th of a heartbeat, Buffy was back on her feet, facing her friends once more.
All in all, it had taken less than 20 seconds but the effects were far reaching.
It only took a few seconds for the situation to sink in.
Nearly everyone in the courtyard was still. Not just quiet, not just standing watching and waiting, but frozen completely still. Wherever the dust had touched, time had seemed to stop cold. Slayers stood frozen in their squads, leaders in mind shout, Coven witches halted in mid curse. All bar Buffy and Spike and protected by a forcefield was Xander, Willow and Giles.
The five stood there, watching each other closely, but it didn't last. As the Heroes had expected, Willow immediately gathered a spell together, light sparking as it swirled in darkness between her hands. Buffy sprung forward to strike but Willow was faster and the energy ball hit the Slayer full in the chest and flung her backwards across the courtyard. Spike's fast reflexes the only reason she didn't slam into the slayerette squad frozen behind her. With a glancing once-over to check she was okay, Spike merely tossed her back to her feet, only a few feet back from where she had started.
But the spell was already working its insidious evil.
Darkness pulled at the edges of Buffy's vision and she shook her head in a vain attempt to ward it off. She staggered, going to one knee as the darkness pressed in on her like a live creature, its weight then driving her to all fours. Dimly she could hear Spike shout for her, his 'Slayer!' panicked and angry. Through the gathering darkness, she watched as Spike's demon came to the fore and he lunged at the trio, who seemed prepared as Xander held a stake ready. She hoped he hit them all hard. And that was the last thought she had as the darkness snapped closed around her.
