Buffy, Spike, and Chloe sat on Rhoda’s couch, set across from the high-backed chair where Natalia sat. Natalia’s face was covered in tears, her eyes darting between the faces on the couch and the floor.

“I’m sorry,” she said in a small voice.

Buffy sighed.

“We understand why you did it, Natalia…it’s…it’s just….”

Spike, failing at controlling his anger, turned a rage-filled glare at Natalia.

“What were you thinking?”

“I…I don’t know anymore, Daddy,” Natalia said, “I didn’t want him to suffer the same fate as Evan.”

“He wouldn’t have you daft bint,” Spike said, through clenched jaws, “He was killed by a sodding dragon. The only one that was left in existence, I might add.”

“I know that…it…it’s just that you can’t protect him from his own power, so how can I expect you to protect him from things that want to take it from him?”

Buffy raised an eyebrow at her eldest daughter.

“What do you mean?”

Natalia sighed, her unnaturally youthful face showing the wear of the years.

“A few days before the battle, Uncle Wesley and I were confronted by a demon.”

~55 Years Earlier~

Wesley and Natalia stood on the precipice of the mountain close to Natalia’s Welsh home. The elderly man held the deteriorating body of Illyria close to his chest. Natalia had assisted her elderly friend to carry the dying goddess up the mountain, in the hope that the height would stop her transition from Fred’s body into another host. As the goddess left the form of the once demure scientist, her true form was seen. She was enormous, covered in tentacles, and growled at the pair of humans before her. Something caught the goddess’ attention, causing her to land on the precipice in front of the humans. A grey dragon dove down at the group from the sky.

“Death to the promised ones,” it called as it jettisoned through the air towards Natalia.

In a moment of residual humanity, Illyria took flight and dove into the dragon, and injecting it with a liquid emitted from a spiked end at one of her tentacles. It responded by snapping the goddess in half with its powerful jaws, and the pair fell, limp and lifeless, down the mountainside. Natalia ran down the sloping ground toward the bodies, only to find the dragon still clinging to life. It lifted its head up slightly and stared into her eyes.

“You would have been wise to let me kill you, promised one. It would have been easier…now he will have to suffer for your sins…and you will watch as he burns. My mate will see to that. There should not be humans like you…too powerful for those pathetic bodies…even if you are immortals. You will never be able to control the power without another like you,” it began to cough up green blood and smoke. “And he will be dead within three days.”

The dragon expired on the mountainside, its body locked in a death grip with the destroyed body of Illyria, and Natalia ran up the mountain to help Wesley and hopefully, find some help before it was too late.

By the end of the day, Wesley had exhausted his resources and the two of them felt comfortable enough with their preparedness for the battle which they knew would commence soon to relax for a moment. Wesley pointed to a spell in a large tome he was perusing.

“Do we have everything we need for this, Natalia?”

She looked over the ingredients and nodded.

“Yes…I’ll have to grab the rat’s eyes from the basement, but other than that we’re good to go, Uncle Wes.”

“Good…now, I don’t think there’s a need to trouble your parents with this threat at the moment…they need to be at the top of their game if we’re going to be dealing with the amount of monsters we think are going to attack.”

“But they already know about the battle coming…we’ve already killed a dozen of the scouts and….”

“Yes, I know, my dear, and as you can see, they will have other things to focus on…best that you and I focus on this threat on our own…you’re very strong, Natalia…and I have enough knowledge and resources at my command that I can assist you in fixing this situation long before it escalates.”

Natalia nodded and sat down next to Wesley, who had begun to chant in preparations for the spell. Everything went off without a hitch until the foundation of the house rocked with a force they hadn’t anticipated. Giles ran, wobbled, rather, into the large room the pair were working in just as a vial fell from Wesley’s wrinkled hand and shattered on the ground. Giles’ eyes widened behind his thick glasses.

“What have you done?!”

--

“They had begun attacking by that point…Uncle Giles blamed Uncle Wes for unleashing the hordes so early…but it was all my fault…if I had just…gods, if that first dragon had just killed me instead, Evan wouldn’t have died,” Natalia said, beginning to weep as she looked up at her parents. “God…Mummy…Daddy…I’m so sorry.”

Buffy rose from her chair, tears falling freely from her face, and walked to her daughter, pulling her out of her chair and into her arms.

“Sweetie…it wasn’t your fault…you could never…god, Natalia…Evan’s death was not your fault. Do you think we would’ve reacted differently if it had been you who died instead of Evan?”

Natalia shrugged.

“You always had to protect him…if I failed, it would have been just my fault…it would’ve been easier.”

Buffy shook her head and drew Natalia closer to her embrace.

“We loved you both equally, Natalia. When Evan died, we were devastated.”

“And we were devastated when you vanished after he died, poppet. We looked for you for years…still tried to keep as close a watch on you as we could with the help of Rhoda,” Spike said, standing up and putting a hand on his eldest daughter’s shoulder.

Natalia released a shuddering breath.

“How can you ever forgive me for this?”

“For what? Scaring us out of our minds for a while? Poppet,” Spike said, a small smile falling on his lips, “You’ve been doing that since you were born.”

Buffy laughed lightly.

“Oh, god, Spike, do you remember the first time she jumped dimensions?”

“In the park, the Memorial Day when she was six.”

“I scoured that park for three hours trying to find you before Willow caught your essence.”

Natalia smiled widely and wiped the tears from her face.

“It was a dimension made up of ice cream. You wouldn’t have wanted to leave it either.”

“I can imagine,” Buffy said with a smile.

“So what am I to do now, Mummy? I can leave if you wish,” Natalia said, her voice wavering.

Shaking her head, Buffy motioned for Chloe to come over to her.

“We need you here, Natalia. If Chloe and Brayden are as powerful as you seem to think they are, they’ll need your help in figuring out control and how to use their powers for good.”

“I’m going to need help calming my mind, Mummy…I’m frightened at what I might do if I become unstable again,” Natalia said, her hand rubbing the back of her neck.

Spike nodded.

“We’ll get you help, poppet…you’re our girl, remember? There’s nothing we can’t do for you.”

--

A few months later, after an intense rehabilitation program from Rhoda, Natalia’s mind and powers had stabilized, and she had begun instructing Chloe on how to access and control her own powers. Gabriella was simply happy to have another sister closer to her age-range (at least aesthetically speaking) that she had few complaints once her eldest sister had completed her training. Grady, though unsure of the elder sister, slowly warmed up to her and she assisted in his mental training program. Though neither he nor his twin, had metaphysical powers, her training allowed both of them to calm their minds enough to sense creatures and dangers that they normally would’ve ignored. Buffy and Spike were overjoyed that their family was complete again, though they always felt the pang of agony that was left by their eldest son’s early demise.

--

~100 Years Later~

“A little help here, Spike,” Buffy screamed as she struggled to push a giant horned demon off of her.

“Busy on my own, love.”

Spike jumped back as the sandy ground beneath them quaked, releasing a 300-foot centipede. It shrieked and salivated, and snapped its jaws around Spike.

“Bloody hell.”

He locked eyes with Buffy for a fleeting second before he was snapped in half by the beast’s powerful jaws. Buffy ran towards him, her eyes widened in disbelief. She cut the head from the giant centipede without a second thought as she got to her mate’s side…or, sides, rather.

“Spike.”

Buffy fell to her knees in front of her mate’s expired form, feeling her own life begin to slip away. She focused her mind and forced herself to breathe as she mentally called out to her daughter.

“Chloe…get everyone here…get to me…hurry…I don’t know how much longer I can hold on.”

As soon as she had finished her thought, a bright purple light flashed in front of her. Her children and a few others stood before her, staring down at the Slayer and her vampire. Natalia ran to her mother’s side and grabbed her shoulders just as Buffy’s strength began to waver. A sprightly red-headed woman stood back, watching Natalia intently. In her arms she held a sleeping infant, Natalia’s child from an unsuccessful attempt at a relationship. Her mate had run off a few months after they had claimed each other. He was a master vampire, much like Spike, but didn’t have the same loyalties Natalia was convinced that he had. The red-head, Alice, was Grady’s companion, but spent quite a bit of her time caring for Natalia’s infant, Elias, as she and Grady were reproductively challenged. Natalia leaned Buffy back onto her lap and motioned for her siblings to come over. Grady and Gabriella, though now almost 120 years old, still had their youthful looks and attitudes. Grady kissed Buffy’s hand and held back his tears. Buffy smiled slowly, her eyes flickering in and out of focus. Gabriella laid a soft kiss on her mother’s forehead before turning into a tall brunette man’s arms and beginning to weep. The man, Philippe, had been her longtime beau, whom she had met while the family was recovering from Natalia’s betrayal a century ago. Brayden, who had grown into a tall, strapping man with Buffy’s blonde hair and Spike’s piercing blue eyes, pressed a kiss to Buffy’s cheek before stepping back and grabbing the hand of the short blue and tan demon, Celia, that he had wed just two short days before. Chloe, who had yet to settle down and, despite her unparalleled power, still had the smallest stature out of all her siblings, knelt before her mother and uttered a quick incantation to keep her focus for a moment.

“We all love you, Mom. Tell Papa we love him too. We will see you soon….”

“Not too soon,” Buffy said, her voice nearly failing her. “Be careful.”

Chloe nodded as her mother expired before her. She rose and looked around at the eight people around her.

“It’s up to us now. We are the protectors. The new race. We must make them proud to have begotten us. The fight for the light rages on…it is up to us to pick up where the Slayer and her vampire left off.”

Her brothers and sisters and their mates nodded. Chloe looked down at the ground where her parents’ bodies just were, only to find empty sand. She smiled sadly and looked up into the sky.

“They’re at home now.”

--

Buffy and Spike awoke to the sound of a doorbell ringing. Spike sat up first, looking around himself groggily.

“First five minutes in the bloody afterlife and someone’s already bothering us. Come on, love,” he said, shaking Buffy’s shoulder. “Wakey up. We’ve got company, I wager.”

He looked up at the ceiling of Buffy’s Revello Dr. home and raised an eyebrow.

“Clothes for me and my missus, please.”

They were instantly clothed in matching red silk pajamas, though Spike quickly divested himself of the silk shirt. He ran down the stairs, closely followed by Buffy, to see who could possibly be at the door. A young man with a curly mop of brown hair and bright green eyes smiled at them as they opened the door, his soft features reflecting his youth. He had aged, just as the rest of their children had, to look to be in his mid-twenties, though his face hadn’t changed substantially, his body was more developed and muscular. Buffy’s jaw dropped and her eyes brimmed with tears.

“Evan?!”

“Hi, Mom,” he said, smirking.

She threw her arms around him and drew her close to herself. Spike wrapped his arms around the pair, and attempted, if a bit unsuccessfully, to keep himself from crying.

“Evan, how long have you…?”

“Since I died, Dad…we’ve all been waiting for you.”

“We?”

Evan motioned out of the couple’s door and into the lawn, which was now an actual lawn instead of the ethereal nothingness that it once was. On that lawn stood all of Buffy’s loved ones: her mother, Dawn, Giles, Willow, Xander, Tara, Anya, Andrew, Oz, Kira, Shavie and her full blooded Carynss demon husband, Fioan, Rhoda, Wesley, Fred, and even Cordelia, who was standing suspiciously close to Evan. To Spike’s surprise, a familiar face smiled at him from the crowd.

“Mum?”

“Hello, William,” Anne Pratt said with a smile. “It is very good to see you again.”

Spike’s pride helped him to catch himself before he became a complete wreck in front of the lot of them. He led Buffy over to his mother and smiled at them both.

“Buffy, I’d like to introduce you to my mother, Mrs. Anne Pratt.”

Buffy smiled at the older woman, in whom she could see glimpses of Spike’s facial structure and congenial spark.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, ma’am.”

“Likewise, my dear.”

Evan smiled at his parents and cleared his throat, as he pulled Cordelia’s hand into his.

“Well, since we’re all making introductions…Mom, Dad, I’d like you to meet….”

Buffy raised an eyebrow at the pair of them.

“We already know Cordelia, Evan…are you two…?”

Cordelia huffed and rolled her eyes.

“Hey, everyone else had paired off already and I’m not about to spend eternity as a bachelorette…and I…,” she trailed off as she glanced over at Evan. “Okay, so we’re in love. Big deal, get over it, next topic. Ooh, tonight is luau night at the Bronze…we always need another couple…we still don’t have enough people to fill the joint up yet.”

Buffy grinned conspiratorially at Spike who smiled back at her.

“Sure…we just, uh…have to get ready for it, you know? Get settled in and pick out our outfits?”

Joyce looked knowingly at her daughter.

“Of course you need some time to get settled, dear. Let’s all go over to my house and I’ll make everyone some hot cocoa.”

“Ooh,” Spike said, longingly, “With the little marshmallows?”

Buffy elbowed him in the ribs.

“Uh, Mom? Isn’t this your house too?”

Joyce shook her head and motioned over to Giles, who was currently in a deep conversation with Fioan about the historical reach of the Carnyss demon.

“I’m living with Mister Giles now…his home is very cozy and we get along very nicely,” she said, smiling and waving to the Watcher.

Giles flushed and took his glasses off, cleaning them on his shirt as Fioan continued to brag. Buffy groaned and raised an eyebrow at her mother.

“I knew it.”

Joyce shrugged.

“We’ll see you at the luau, you two.”

Buffy and Spike walked back into their home and smiled at each other. Buffy stretched out on the couch and looked up at Spike, her eyes glistening with anticipation.

“So now that we’re home, Mr. Pratt, what shall we do first?”

Spike didn’t respond, only grinned as he launched himself onto his mate, drawing her into a deep kiss.



THE END!