Chapter One Hundred and Sixty

Stepladder

New Sunnydale, the world without shrimp - November 2007

Giles was still talking, "the next time he shows up, I'm gonna kill him." Buffy stared at him, surprised by his brazenness. He usually wasn't so forward, so brutal. "He's not hurting you again if I can help it." He sounded bitter, Buffy had noticed that about him lately, he seemed different. But she couldn't put her finger on what it was.

"I-I um," Buffy started, but found she had no words. Logically Giles was right, she knew that, she had nothing to argue with. But in all the years of threatening to stake Spike, she'd never been able to go through with it. The thought of him being actually gone stumped her. Even without a soul, he'd fought for her, protected Dawn. It was selfish, the way he loved her. But then to be so cruel, to have a soul now and to be so reckless with her feelings. Had she been so loose with him over the years that he'd started taking her for granted?

"Why don't we talk about something else, Rupert?" Jenny piped up from beside him. Her arm resting over his, she took Buffy's stuttering as sign. She could sense the tension in the air even without magic. Angel and now Spike, the girl certainly had a thing for vampires. "Tell them about last week."

Giles looked back and her, all the lines on his forehead releasing as he squeezed her hand. "Okay," he said relaxing, putting Spike to the back of his mind. His eyes on the rest of the group, "last week, I was in the office, Sam called me in to deal with an amulet that the council suspect was sold on the black market."

*Flashback* Watcher's Council Offices, London, the world without shrimp - a week before

"Rupert?" Sam was calling down the hallway, "a quick word?"

Giles left his office and joined Sam Zabuto in the conference room. He offered him tea from a table in the corner and they sat down. Sam dribbled a chain in front of him, placing the jewelled amulet on the table. Giles picked it up, analysing it. He adjusted his glasses a few times before squinting and dropping the amulet back down again. "What is this, Sam? The magic it once stored has been released somehow, where was it found?" He said, looking at Sam seriously. He could feel the amulet's power, it tingled when he held it. Like the metal had been infused with some kind of magnetism. It didn't belong.

Sam looked down. "It was sent to us, no return address, no name, but with instructions that you would know what it was and what to do with it."

Giles threaded his fingers through the chain again, "Sam, this is..." He shook his head. He couldn't decide what to tell his colleague, so he got up and left the room with the amulet still in his hands. He'd seen this type of thing before, a bronze chain with not a gem, but an actual stone at the end, carved with various indecipherable markings. In fact he'd seen so many amulets over the years that he was probably now a certifiable expert. Whoever had sent it clearly knew who he was.

"Rupert?" Sam called after him, but it was too late, he was gone.

New Sunnydale, the world without shrimp - November 2007

"So what happened next?" Dawn asked as she sat back down, hot cocoa in hand. Anything council related or catalogue-y fascinated her. Giles reached into his pocket and pulled out the thin chain.

"I searched every book I had, scoured the internet. It looked so familiar to me, but I couldn't find a single reference to this stone in particular. I was wondering if I could pick your brains about it?" He said to the rest of the scoobies. As he passed it round, everyone made a comment or two. Dawn even sat with it for a few minutes, turning it over in her fingers, only to conclude she hadn't seen anything like it before.

"It's a Hybira stone, it's not dangerous, just a nice relic really," Anya said. Leaning forward as she traced the tip of her finger over the ancient engraving in the stone. She closed her eyes, it was a language like braille, one that could be read by touch alone. As Jack fiddled with the chain, she began to read the message aloud. "We Gods, we of power command-" she stopped, her finger poised over the last word. This wasn't good, she thought, but also, no it can't be.

"What is it, Anya?" Willow asked.

Anya glanced up, her eyes snapping open. "Oh, it's nothing, the last word doesn't mean anything, or I just can't read it." But she was lying. That word meant something dark and dangerous. Something she had to deal with alone. So she smiled and kept up the appearance that everything was fine, bouncing Jack on her knee.

"Well that's a shame. I was hoping that you clear up the matter for us," Giles said with a fatherly smile. Anya nodded along with him, but this had her worried.

"Do you mind if I hold on to it for a while, I might be able to find a translation somewhere. Demon connections, you know." She said, tidying away the chain and slipping it into her pocket.

"By all means," Giles replied. "If the council don't know what it is, we can't really do anything with it but label it and put it in a drawer. I'd hate to think of it sitting in my desk gathering dust."

"Reminds me of something Astra brought over from the coven in Devon." Willow said, as Buffy got up and left the room. There was no big evil to defeat, this was just an ordinary day. Apart from the thunderstorm. She walked into the back room, the space they used to use for training that Xander had turned into a kind of playroom for Jack. They didn't need a training room anymore, there was nothing to train for. Buffy sat down on the couch, or flopped into it because she felt like all her energy had been drained. She was a weak slayer now, overpowered by all the girls younger and less tired than she was. She pulled her knees into a ball and dropped her head into her lap. The tears came quickly, she hadn't wanted to cry in front of the others so this was the dam breaking.

They all look so happy, all just talking about the council and the coven and Spike like he didn't save the world. Like he's the same as he was when-when... Even her thoughts were stumbling. She believed that slowly, completely out of her control, she had fallen in love with Spike. The one underneath the carnage. The sweet man that perhaps he had once been. Underneath his years of recklessness emerged small snippets of William. It had been a long road to get here. But everything was fine? Wasn't it? The world wasn't ending, but she couldn't handle the carry-on-living part of that right now. Something had to change. She couldn't keep feeling like this, she had to do something. Maybe San Francisco just isn't working for me anymore.

That thought took her by surprise. She was settled-ish, and Dawn was happy, and Willow and Tara had their coven. But she had a dead-end job in retail that she hated, the vamps were half-hearted and no one really needed her. Her next thought was to run back to Angel, to her coveted hiding spot of LA. She could? Couldn't she? Just go back there and help out Angel Investigations. They had a toddler, they probably needed the help. It sounded too good to be true, leaving. But Dawn was graduating the following summer anyway. No, it ties up too neatly.

Buffy shook her head a few more times and tried to talk herself out of it. It all sounded like a dream. Maybe it was. Maybe she needed a cold, hard slap of reality. So she got up and wiped her eyes on her sleeve. She stopped by the kitchen and stared at the happy pictures of them all, Xander had put up around the room. She smiled weakly and took a cookie from the box on the counter. As she walked back into the shop, the others were still happily chatting. They barely noticed she'd been gone, except for Dawn who moved up and let Buffy sit.

'You okay?' she mouthed, Buffy nodded. Rubbing any residual redness from around her eyes and munching on the cookie. Chocolate shall soothe my pain, she thought to herself as Willow talked about the coven. Whatever she decided about LA would stay in her own mind for now, she'd think more about it when she got home. The thought of her leaving and Spike not knowing where to come back to scared her a little. But maybe it was time to move on. Maybe I don't need him anymore.

Tara, Willow and Jenny felt it before it happened. The rain suddenly stopping. Their stomachs dropped like they were on a rollercoaster. Jenny looked up, panicked, trying to find Willow's eyes. But the redhead had already heard it. The sound of water splashing the sidewalk was gone, only replaced by the sounds of people cheering. Sunnydale was an odd place, even in its new incarnation. The people were used to evil, so they were happy when it seemed an apocalypse can been narrowly avoided. Either that, or people were just happy the rain was over. "It's just stopped," Tara said.

Everyone else looked up, and slowly they began to notice, picking themselves up off of various chairs and going to the windows. "It's done, I can feel the magicks shifting away," Willow said, taking Tara's hand. You feel it too? She asked with her mind and her girlfriend nodded.

"Well that's a relief, eh An?" Xander said, but Anya was preoccupied with the amulet to think too hard about the rain.

"Yeah, whatever," she replied.

Xander walked over to the front of the shop and was about to open the door when Buffy cut in front of him. She reached for the handle, sliding across the latch and chain, Anya had locked the door with. She twisted sharply and pulled, the door swinging open. "Spike?" She whispered when she saw him, looming there in the street, bolting for the door. The sky was still a little clouded over but he was beginning to smoke. Buffy stood back as she crossed the threshold, Anya had probably invited him in a year or two ago, but it still stood. He was mumbling incoherently and Buffy had no idea what to do. The others stopped and stared in horror and anticipation. Why was he here? Was he here to hurt them? Surely not. Maybe he'd come to beg Buffy to take him back. None of them knew, but Giles' gaze hardened, crossing his arms he stood in front of the counter, unwilling to budge for anything.

"Dru-Drusilla she-she," he was cursing, his legs shaking, his brow sweating. He was out in the rain. His face looked paler than usual, Buffy noticed. He was out there too long, she thought before she realised she was supposed to be not-caring. Spike drank in the sight of the scoobies, the unbeatable army, and collapsed on the floor of the magic shop. Buffy ran to him and put a hand to his forehead. None of the others moved, they didn't know how this was going to play out. Xander was angry, Anya was indifferent, Giles was furious, Tara wanted to help Buffy, Dawn was trying not to be scared, Willow was confused, Jenny was conflicted. Buffy was crying.

"Look, he's obviously hurt!" She yelled at them, bent over him as his eyes flickered open again.

"B-Buffy?" He questioned, "Drusilla she's-she's gone." He said, trying to lift his arms to find the stake that did it but found he couldn't. He'd dropped the table leg in the warehouse, he reminded himself.

Then Buffy saw it, in the gape of his shirt, a rip down the front. He'd been hurt before, sure. But he'd never had scarring like that. Buffy ripped the remaining material until she was staring at his dead heart. There was a healing puncture to his chest, the scarring all around made it look like some sort of crater. "Oh God," Buffy cried, raising a hand to cover her mouth.

"B-Buffy? My s-soul it's gone-gone. Please help me." He stuttered, his lips almost blue. Whatever was in the rain was having an effect on him. It was like he was really... dead.