Sunnydale, Spring 2003
"I just don't understand why you and Faith are allowed back in the house like you never did anything," Andrew whined.
"It's not like we never did anything," Spike muttered bitterly. He and Andrew had been stuck together in the church for hours and Spike was going insane. The only comforting thought was that after the final battle with the First, he'd never see Andrew again. "We're both pretty well aware of what we've done."
"I know, but..." Andrew shrugged. "You too did way worse things than I did... I mean, I heard Faith almost raped Xander once." Spike kept his silence. "And Buffy is still way nicer to you two than she is to me."
Spike cocked his head to the side. "Now, you've seen the way Buffy talks to Faith, right?"
Andrew was silent, which Spike would generally have been grateful for, except it was a depressed, moody sort of quiet and, at that moment, Andrew reminded Spike horribly of that Hobbit from the movie.
"Is this going to be you complaining about how no one gives you a fair break again?" Spike asked, a little exasperated. "Because you do know Faith and I did put in a little more time being beaten and tortured and thrown in chains than you, right?"
"No, it's not that," Andrew shook his head. "It's just... I don't understand how she can forgive any of it." Spike looked at Andrew with genuine surprise for the first time. "I mean, I can't even forgive myself," Andrew explained.
"You shouldn't," Spike shrugged. "None of us should." Spike took a deep breath that he didn't really need and threw back his head. "Buffy's better than we are. She's a hero. If she forgives us... Well, it's more than we deserve, anyway," he chuckled.
For a moment, they just sat in silence.
Than finally, Andrew found his voice. "I have to urinate," he said softly, getting up and preparing to turn around.
Spike shot him a menacing look. "No, you don't."
Andrew sat right back down.
Scotland, Now
"This is building?" Buffy asked, glancing, from the safety of the shadows, at the decaying concrete and brick corpse across the street.
Ofelia nodded. She had taken them this far, but it looked like she'd have to sit out the rest of this fight or risk throwing up on Buffy's shoes again, which was exactly no option.
"Should we try to sneak in the back way?" Karina suggested helpfully.
Buffy scoped the building out. There was only one sentry posted and he hardly seemed like a challenge. "I've got a better idea," Buffy smiled. "Let's dress nice and flirt with the bouncer."
The guard was slightly shorter than Buffy, but his arms and legs were thicker than her whole body... looking at him, Buffy realized the only chapter of his life she didn't know at first glance was exactly how old he was when the shameful incident in the locker room took place. She walked right up to him with absolutely no regard for the fact that he was clearly the doorman to an urban fortress.
"Hi," she said casually.
"You shall not pass," he replied, sounding for all the world like he was made of granite.
"Okay, not a passing lane," Buffy agreed. "You got a name?" she asked sweetly.
"Denton," he more coughed than said.
"Okay, Denton," Buffy began warmly. "Can we get in here?'
He had a strange look on his face, like he was making a very concentrated effort to stare at his own nose, but couldn't get the focus right. "You shall not pass," he garbled flatly.
Buffy shrugged, she knew when she first saw mini-Hulk that she'd end up beating him senseless. "Okay, girls," she called back to her team, "he looks human, so I'm going for the wound..." Suddenly he slammed his fists together and five rows of wicked-looking thorns sprung out of his forearms. "On the other hand..."
-----
"Anyway, so we all thought we'd found the right spell, but it turns out it would have made Dawnie much too small," Andrew babbled. "I mean, spiders would have started being a major problem, so..."
Spike was sure that if he spent another moment listening to Andrew, his brows were going to knit together permanently. "Andrew, for God's sake, mate..." began... then froze as he something hit him. "Wait. Dawn's giant now?"
Andrew nodded. "Bigger than big and taller than tall," he confirmed. "You didn't know that?"
"I have explained to you that I'm trying to maintain a low-profile with Buffy, right?" Spike replied, making sure that he kept his tone low and dangerous.
"No, I know," Andrew said nervously. "It's just... I don't know how well that's going to work now. I mean, are you sure you want to move in here?"
Spike took a good, long look at Andrew. "I have never been less sure of anything in my life."
-----
Buffy and the new Slayers were slowly making their way through the abandoned complex when the commline crackled into existence. "Buffy? Are you there?"
"Hey, Xander," Buffy replied warmly.
"Have you encountered any trouble so far?" Xander asked.
Buffy looked down at the severed head of the guard. "Nothing worth mentioning."
She could hear Xander unclench over the phone. "Good. We've just got some information on your guy."
"Really?" Buffy was genuinely surprised; beyond the Ofelia's vision, no one had been able to find anything. "Are you sure the information's good?"
And then she heard Xander clench up again. "We know the source... Willow thinks it's good."
Buffy's curiosity was piqued. "Who is it?"
"Uh... Clem," Xander replied very quickly. Before Buffy could make any further inquiries, Xander buried her an avalanche of Situation.
"So..." Buffy darkly reiterated. "This thing I'm looking for... this thing that can tear apart a Slayer..."
"Is another Slayer," Xander confirmed. "Or a bunch of them."
For a moment, Buffy just thought about it. Even if she killed this "Sleeper" demon, she might never be able to break the girls of their addiction. They had been given every advantage she had and they had become killers. But did that mean she had to put them down like rabid dogs?
"Buffy," Xander began in his softest "sanity" voice, "I want you to remember these girls aren't evil. They're just young and scared... confused... and they latched on to the first thing that came along to give them something to cling to. Even the smartest, strongest woman I know has hooked up with some guys she probably shouldn't have."
Buffy gave him a warm half-smile, which he could feel rather than see over the radio channel. "Xander..."
"Buffy..." he said "I was talking about Willow. I mean, there was that robot thing and Oz, nice guy and all but with cheating and also being a werewolf... I gotta tell you, going gay was the best choice she ever made... and not just for all the new visuals it put in my head, I mean..."
Buffy finally cut him off. "Thank you," she said simply.
"Always," he replied warmly. "We'll see you soon."
"Yeah," Buffy confirmed before severing the connection.
-----
As Buffy and her team began to search the mammoth, darkened squat in earnest, she couldn't help but reflect on Xander's words.
Buffy remembered what it was like when she first got her powers: the fear, the resentment... these girls were going through the same thing. She had dealt with addiction before, she thought hopefully, with Willow and Spike. And while the path had been long and more punchy and kicky and sobby and contained far more pleas to be killed than she was generally comfortable with... it had ultimately worked out.
Even Faith had made more progress than Buffy liked to give her credit for. Buffy was sure that they could find a way to help these girls.
There was only one minor obstacle.
"Where the hell are they?"
-----
Even with the place on alert, it was remarkably easy to slip a single teenage girl into a castle overflowing with them. There were enough Slayers from other bases coming and going all the time that an unknown girl didn't raise so much as eyebrow. The fact that she was carrying a wicked-looking stabbing tool was likewise overlooked, since all the other girls were similarly armed.
"So, what are we going to do with all these new druggie Slayers Buffy's going to bring back? Do you really think we can help all of them?" Willow asked seriously.
"We can try," Xander replied. "I mean, even Peter Parker had to drop the ball before he could accept the whole 'great responsibility' part of the deal... why shouldn't these girls have the same chance?"
"I guess so," Willow replied dubiously.
"Still, gotta feel for the girls on cleaning duty," he added with a smile.
"Synchronized withdrawal," Willow shook her head. "Even if there's only five or six of them..."
"Yeah, it's not going to be a pretty sight," Xander agreed. "Unless, you know, that's your scene."
Xander smiled as Willow laughed; he really missed times like these; it was almost like the old days.
Just then, a young Slayer he didn't recognize shoved passed Willow. Xander was about to remind her of the importance of proper hallway manners, when she struck him harder than he liked with layers upon layers of padding. "Hey, watch it!" he cautioned, wondering why Willow had gotten so pale all of the sudden.
Suddenly, everyone was swarming around Xander. He could feel Slayer arms reaching out to catch him and he was dimly aware of a fight going on in the periphery, but it was all rapidly becoming bleary.
"Relax, people," Xander said woozily. "You'd think this was the first time I ever got stabbed."
One of the other girls was screaming something about Buffy, but he couldn't quite get it.
"Usually cuts and scraps," he admitted weakly. "And it usually feels pretty different, but..."
It was then that Xander noticed they must have been using a new flavor of gravity around the Castle lately... it was pretty different than what he was used to, he thought idly as he slipped quietly into shock.