Author's Note: Thanks to Kar and to all my readers. Moving into the home stretch here. I might even get this done by the end of the month. No promises though. Please keep the feedback coming!

Previously: Buffy jumped off the tower to save the world about thirty years ago. Twenty years later Dawn was killed in a car accident and left her daughter Anne in Spike's care. While Anne was dying in a hospital with Spike at her side, slayer Lieuko was being slaughtered by Drusilla. This caused a rift in the Scoobies when Jesse Harris blamed Spike for her death. Buffy's return has gone a long way to reuniting Xander with the few remaining members of the group, but the slayer is struggling to find a place in a much-changed world where her friends are old and grey, Angel is human, Spike has a soul, and Willow might want to kill her. Recently, Tashi made a friend in Bianca Chase and Jess spilled one of Willow’s secrets to his mother.

In our fourteenth installment, Tara has a moment of inspiration and there is an unpleasant development.

Warning: This chapter contains a character death.


Chapter 14


Buffy watched Spike sleep and knew she was wearing a dopey, satisfied grin. She had worn him out. It had been bothering her, itching in her brain, the weird gentleness he was using with her. It had taken her a while to realize he must have learned that in his years with the seldom-mentioned Katya and whoever else might have passed through his life while she was dead. Tonight she had made it perfectly clear that she wasn't fragile, that he wasn't going to break her. If anything, he might turn out to be the delicate one.

He'd seemed a little frightened, actually, by her fierceness. It had never seemed to bother him when she fought. Maybe it was too much of a reminder of what they were, that they were built to destroy each other. It still threw her sometimes, how solemn and still he had become. When had that happened?

She had missed so much. Buffy tried to imagine what it would have been like if Willow had managed to bring her back all those years ago. She would have come back to a world just like the one she left, where Dawn needed looking after and there was no one to pay the mortgage and there was no clever young slayer to share patrol with but there was Spike following her around with wet puppy eyes, hounding her for time and attention she didn't have to spare.

On the other hand, if Willow had succeeded then, her old friend probably wouldn't be trying to eradicate humanity now. Buffy sighed and shrugged into Spike's ratty old robe. Her body was exhausted, but her mind could not wind down. They knew what was going on; they would find a way to stop it.

And if she had to die again to save the world this time, she just hoped she could stay that way.


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So, the cheerleader's daughter was amongst them. Angel might have mentioned that she was near, as he might have mentioned a number of things over the years. Spike watched her pore over books in Connie's living room and wondered if he should try calling the asylum. Sounded like Cordelia was still having moments of lucidity now and then, but she had told him and Xander both several times to leave her be, leave her locked in her room, trapped in her visions. Sometimes they'd get a message, relayed by credulous nurses who did their best to convey her ramblings. They were always right, and so they had kept up their end of the agreement and left her alone.

Seems she'd been seeing her girl though, and he was glad of that. And seeing Tashi whispering and giggling with someone her own age, he was glad of that too. It wasn't healthy the way she kept apart from others. A slayer without friends and family was vulnerable.

Spike scanned her face, trying to gather some clue to her paternity. Had his suspicions, of course, and Faith's accusations. Didn't see how it could be though, as Peaches and everything of him was still dead at the time. Plus he couldn't imagine the cheerleader could make him give over one of his own, but maybe he didn't know the old man as well as he thought.

Whatever and whoever she was, she was brimming over with magic. Using it in that casual, easy way Willow once had. It scared him a bit, especially given her mother's own peculiar gifts. Had she known her girl would be needed in Sunnydale someday?

Young Chase wasn't the fourth slayer, he knew that the minute he laid eyes on her. No one seemed to know who or where their mystery girl was. Except Willow. That fact wasn't exactly giving him confidence in their success.

Tara closed her book loudly, seeming to startle herself. "I think I have an idea," she explained. "I need some of my own books."

"Care to share?" Connie drawled.

Tara shook her head. "It's just an idea about an idea, really, you know? I wouldn't want to get our hopes up."

Buffy traipsed in a few minutes after Tara left. She gave him a warm, secret smile. Spike was still a little surprised by her improved attitude. Perhaps, he mused grimly, it was the prospect of dying again that was brightening her outlook.

"Time to patrol?" she suggested.

He didn't say much, preferring to listen to Bianca and Buffy trade stories about her mother or Bianca and Tashi nattering on about girly things. There was something strange in the air, something he couldn't quite put his finger on, like there was family near. Or maybe he was just sensing the coming of the Big Bad; demons often did.

Xander met up with them in the second cemetery. He didn't look like he'd slept much; Anya's presence always had that effect. Would be doing a number on Jess as well, he imagined.

"You okay?"

He met Xander's eyes. "Not so much. Something in the air."

"Yeah. I hate this part, the waiting for the other shoe to drop." Xander sighed and moved to answer his beeping phone. Suddenly he went white as a sheet.

"What? Harris, what is it?"

The answer came out as such a whisper that Spike could barely hear it. "Tara."


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Tara felt a slow smile creeping over her face. It would work; they would be able to put the giant back to sleep. There was a slight catch in the whole plan, and she might not have enough power to pull it off. Bianca might be able to help though; the girl was a natural. She hadn't seen raw talent like that in years.

"Tara? Is it open?"

She tucked a marker into her book and absently set it on a shelf. Her stomach growled in anticipation. "Sure, Curtis, you can come in."

A sudden chill jolted up her spine as the door opened. Curtis, or what had once been the familiar delivery boy from Thai Palace, grinned at her with a deadly mouth. Behind him was Willow, looking placid and pleased with herself.

"What are you doing here?" she demanded.

"Oh, sweetie, you know why I'm here."

And immediately she did know. Willow wanted to wipe humanity off the earth, leaving only demons. "It won't be me," Tara insisted. "It won't be me, Willow."

Willow shook her head. "Oh, it will be close enough. And I've missed you so much." She shrugged. “It will do.”

Tara made a futile move toward the door, but she knew it was over before she began. She felt the sharp agony in her neck, her body thrashing to get free, gasping for breath. She felt herself slipping away, slipping into stillness. A sharp smell filled her nostrils and she realized what was about to happen. She opened her mouth and uttered one quiet word.

The spark flew up from her lips to the ceiling, and the sprinklers exploded. Curtis dropped her, shrieking and howling. She heard his body explode into dust and Willow's screams of protest. And then, mercifully, she heard nothing anymore.


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I'm working on the next chapter now. Only a few more to go. Thanks for sticking with me on this one.