Chapter 15

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Willow told Buffy and the others what Wilson and the other Molochites tried to do to her. Xander was particularly angry at this cult, if Willow hadn't already killed them, Xander would have. Giles was trying to figure out why they attacked Willow specifically. Buffy thought they were just sociopaths who might enjoy hurting a pregnant woman, and/or raping a bunch of lesbians. But Giles figured that, even if that were true, it seemed a big coincidence they would attack a very powerful witch by chance. Willow's pregnancy was unusual, some in the supernatural community might fear such an unusual child. Wilson Christopher and the others were likely pawns for a much more powerful creature, someone who wanted Willow and her unborn child dead.

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The incident with Wilson Christopher and his cult had put things in perspective for Willow. Despite the unusual nature of her pregnancy, her instinct had been to protect her unborn child. She knew it would be difficult at times, but she did love her unborn child, Willow wanted to give her daughter a good life. Unfortunately things were going to be more difficult for her than for most new mothers. There were rumors that the final slayer would soon be born. As far as most vampires were concerned, this might mean the end of all vampires. Some wanted to stop this, they might turn this into a self-fullfilling prophecy. Many vampires just wanted to avoid this potential slayer, especially if Buffy Summers was protecting the kid. But those who were wiling to risk Buffy's wrath, they would regret it.

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President Wilkins was went ahead with his plans to make peace with the vampires and other demons. He used the rumors of the final slayer to convince some vampires that he could protect them, if they agreed to his terms. For better or worse Buffy and Faith worked together again. They killed the vampire known as Sunday, but her former minion, known as Rookie, seemed wiling to go along with Wilkins' amnesty. Rookie seemed to have been a stoner hippie before he was sired, now he had returned to his peaceful hippie ways. Odd as it seemed, vampires like him and Harmony Kendall might represent the future of vampirism. Faith wondered, some unknown woman was pregnant with the final slayer, and now Willow was pregnant. She didn't expect Buffy or the others to confirm this, maybe Willow wasn't even sure. President Wilkins and his advisors speculated that there would be several potentials who could become the final slayer. Even if Willow's daughter was a potential, there was no guarantee that she would become the final slayer. But others would also make this connection, and the underworld had plenty of punks who wanted to make a name for themselves by murdering the final slayer.

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Over the next few weeks things were fairly normal in Sunnydale. As the Concillium Mortuum recovered Dracula kidnapped Xander, forced his help so that the Council could better adapt to this new world. Xander helped teach them about things like television, the internet, he even taught Dracula how to ride a motorcycle. Buffy rescued Xander, but Xander asked her not to fight the Council. Since they were as close to a government as vampires ever had, they might be neccessary to help negotiate the peace with president Wilkins. Buffy also suspected that Xander feared what the Council could do to her, now that they had almost recovered. It was sweet, and Buffy found herself more drawn to her best friend, in a way she never had before, but perhaps he had always hoped she would. During this time Angel's old friend, detective Kate Lockley, she tried to raise cops from the dead, including her own father. She used these zombie cops to try and make the streets safer, for a while it seemed to work. They stopped the Delta Zeta Kappa fraternity from resuming their work of sacrificing innocent girls to the demon Machida in exchange for wealth and power. The zombie cops rescued the girls, and killed most of the members, including high ranking members like Tom Warner and Parker Abrams. Others present at this ritual included Mr Trick, leading detective Lockley to suspect that the Delta Zeta Kappa fraternity and its members were allied with president Wilkins, but it was possible that Trick was freelance. In any event Trick tried to salvage the ritual by offering a wounded Parker to Machida. It wasn't perfect, but it might temporarily avoid Machida's wrath. Although the zombie cops did some good, they soon became impossible to control, beating and even murdering low level drug users and turnstile jumpers. Kate was forced to return them to the grave, and she later turned herself in to face the consequences of her actions. Spike left Sunnydale during this time, he still wanted to give Drusilla a chance to find redemption. He wanted to bring her back. And Willow promised to restore her soul, but she had to be relatively close for the spell to work. So now it was up to Spike to try and save the woman he had once loved. These things were all fairly normal for Sunnydale. But for better or worse things were changing, and there was no going back.

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As vampires and other creatures began to live more openly, to become mainstream, there was resistance to this idea. Kakistos became the leader of the vampires opposed to amnesty. The name he had long ago chosen for himself meant "Worst of the worst" and he intended to live up to this reputation. They slaughtered humans, making peace negotiations much more difficult. Humans were less likely to support peace with vampires if they only saw vampires acting like this. Colonel mcNamara and his unit, including his right hand Riley Finn, were killing a lot of vampires who served Kakistos, but so far they hadn't found Kakistos himself. There was also human resistance to the peace initiative. Holtz knew that his son Steven would sneak off to see his biological parents, sometimes he wondered if he'd done the right thing in taking him in, whether his true nature was evil. He began to speak with like minded individuals, those who didn't want vampires and other demons living in their community. He never told them about Steven's heritage, but he knew they might find out on their own. Certain measures had to be taken.

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As president Wilkins and the Concilium Mortuum negotiated, and the public at large contemplated a brave new peace, another figure made plans of their own. For the most part things were going according to plan. Time to initiate the next part, and this involved turning Dawn into a vampire.