Revelations

Buffy woke up on Spike's living room floor with Dawn on one side of her and Whistler on the other. "Wha-" she stammered.

"You passed out a little," said Dawn.

As the thoughts cleared a little in her head, Buffy remembered the catalyst for her black out, "Spike!" she shouted, attempting to get up, but Whistler pushed her down again.

"Take it easy, sister. I've gotta explain some stuff to you before you go rushing into that room."

"But he's there. You said. You said- that there was a reason I couldn't feel his presence."

Buffy looked around her, trying to hold back her inevitable tears. "He's dead," she choked.

"Couldn't be more wrong," said Whistler, and she stared at him. Both Dawn and Buffy waited for him to elaborate; the tension building inside of them.

"What's going on? Let me up!"

"I'll let you up, just promise not to go in there. Not yet."

Buffy's mind flew off in all kinds of crazy directions. First she thought that maybe he didn't want to see her. Or that maybe he was unconscious. Or badly injured. Or the room was cloaked. She wondered if he was in there doing something she wouldn't want to see. She wondered if he was with Harmony, or Dru. Some new bit on the side.

"Buffy, hey, focus on me. Do you promise to wait and listen? It's really important."

"Yes. I promise," she said, pushing Whistler off so she could get to her feet before sitting down on the couch.

"Explain. Quickly. Dawn, come sit by me. This better be good."

"Okay, okay. Pressure. Where to start? He's going through a transformation, kind of. If it's disrupted he could be in real trouble."

"Transformation? From what to what? And why? And what's it got to do with you?"

"I'm here to take care of him during the process. To make sure he's not disturbed. The Powers that Be sent me; seems I'm their main minion again, now that the Cordelia chick's gone."

"Where's Cordy gone?" Dawn butted in.
"She's dead?" Buffy asked, and Whistler nodded.

"I thought you knew. Assumed Angel would have told you."

"There hasn't been a whole lot of communication going on of late."

"Where is Angel?" Dawn interrupted again and Buffy shot her a look. "Last question I promise."

"He's with Nina, I expect."

"Who is-"

"Dawn! Enough. We can get back to that later."

"Right," said Whistler. "So, there was this prophecy – the Shanshu Prophecy – basically stating that a vampire with a soul would fight in the apocalypse and at the end, assuming he survived, he'd become human again."

"I don't understand," said Buffy.

"Well, no. I'm not done. Umm… where was I? Yeah, so everyone assumed the prophecy was about Angel, including the Senior Partners. So they wanted to get him out of the way- to make sure he couldn't succeed. So they sent him that shiny necklace, hoping he'd die shutting the hellmouth; except, as you know, that wasn't how it went down. Spike wore the necklace and ruined that plan. The Senior P then brought Spike back so there'd be a contender for Angel. And that's what happened, there were two vampires with souls wandering around and suddenly the prophecy didn't seem so clear cut. The Senior P had halved the chances of Angel becoming human, and when he waged war against them together with Spike it was anyone's guess what would happen. No-one knew if the prophecy would come to pass. No-one knew who'd survive or who it was all about."

"I'm getting a headache. What does all of this mean? Keep it simple, please."

"Both Angel and Spike survived the mega battle with the Senior P but, as it turned out, the prophecy wasn't a complete crock o' crap and it just so happened to be about Spike here."

"Spike's becoming human, again?"

"Yeah. Process takes seven days apparently. Don't ask me why. But-"

"Five are down so there's not long left to go."

"How'd you know?"

"He's been moonlighting in her dreams for most of the past week," said Dawn.

In shock Buffy kept adding all of the new information together in her head. "I can only feel the presence of the supernatural. He's changing which is why I can't sense his."

"Yes."

"And I can't sit with him?"

"No. No-one can go near that room. It's a delicate process. I'm sorry, Buff, but you're gonna have to wait two more days."

"And he'll be human?"

"Yes."

"I think I need to lie on the floor again."

"That can be arranged."

To be continued…