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Chapter 30
 
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Disclaimer: Joss Whedon still owns everything. Nothing new to report on that front.
 
Thank you to all the reviewers who refrained from strangling me over that last cliffhanger! I promise to make it all better…
 
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Chapter 30
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Somewhere in Sunnydale, a clock tolled the last stroke of midnight. Time stopped completely for Buffy and Spike. No, my baby, my daughter, God I failed again, no no no no…
 
As they watched in horror, the Ruler’s arm descended. But at the last second, something happened. The knife shattered in the demon’s hand, as if it had struck a rock. A thundering rumble came from the earth, bringing small stones down and rocking the assembled demons. A white glow seemed to be coming from the center of the altar. Their eyes widened as they saw their child bathed in light. The Ruler backed away slowly, bewildered at this unforeseen development. The glow grew and intensified, and all the demons began to back away, shielding their dark faces. Buffy and Spike watched in astonishment as the tiny infant began to grow before their eyes. Emma morphed smoothly from an infant to a toddler to a child, her hair lengthening to her waist and her blue eyes growing larger and more luminous. The transformation continued until a beautiful young woman stood before them, clothed in white, with Buffy’s straight, light brown hair and Spike’s blue eyes and cheekbones.
 
“You have failed, Dwak Dlam,” Emma spoke in a resonant, clear voice. One of the demon guards recovered himself enough to launch an attack toward her and was repelled with a gesture, sending him smashing with crushing force into the wall. “I am of the Powers. The darkness will not prevail here.”
 
“NO!” screamed the Seer. She threw herself forward, intending somehow to finish the sacrifice, with her bare hands if need be. My moment of triumph! My reward for the years of my service! No! But as she reached the altar a beam of light shot out from the beautiful woman on the altar, and the Seer simply ceased to exist. The sight sent the Ruler and the rest of the assembly into a blind panic.
 
Emma raised her hands as the demons started retreating toward the chamber exits. The ground shook again and falling rock blocked the exits, crushing some demons in the process. Instinctively Spike wrapped his arm around Buffy and they huddled on the floor to protect themselves. The light Emma generated grew brighter and brighter, until it flashed blindingly. The demons let out a collective wailing cry, then silence fell.
 
Spike and Buffy remained huddled, faces hidden, arms around each other, waiting for whatever came next. Then they heard the same clear voice again, speaking tenderly this time. “Mother. Father. Don’t be afraid.”
 
Slowly and painfully they untangled themselves and struggled to a half-sitting position, both of them weak from injury and blood loss. They looked with awe and wonder on the beautiful being in front of them. Their daughter. Apart from her, the cave was empty, the demons gone.
 
Spike found his voice first. “Emma?” he coughed painfully. “How…?” He couldn’t comprehend what he had seen, or what he was seeing now.
 
“The Powers that Be required a new being,” she explained, walking down off the altar and toward them. “One that could act at the intersection of the world of darkness and the world of light, as you two have. They regret the pain they have caused you. It could not be helped. To do otherwise would have risked all life on this world. Your sacrifice kept the demons at bay long enough for my destiny to be fulfilled.”
 
“What happens now?” Buffy stammered. Tears rolled down her cheeks at the loss of her baby, her sister, her own humanity. “Will… will you leave us?”
 
“I must,” Emma replied. She was standing in front of them now, and they both gazed in utter astonishment at this higher being that had come from their love. “I do not belong to this realm. But I will not leave you unrewarded. You have given me life. Now I return the gift.”
 
Emma knelt and embraced her parents, who after a moment of shock embraced her back, feeling her warm, solid form for the first and last time. She kissed each of their foreheads, then stood, placing one hand on each of their heads. Her voice spoke again, but only in their minds this time. You will be human, but more than human. Your senses will be the vampire’s and your strength and speed the Slayer’s. You will not age, and sickness will not touch you. You will be mated and linked to each other forever. You are the Champions of the Powers. Fight always for the light.
 
They closed their eyes as a delicious warmth flooded through them. Heaven. It’s Heaven again, Buffy thought. Spike had never experienced anything so pure, so perfect. They felt themselves changing, expanding, and the melding of their minds grew to a perfect unity. I will always love you, said Emma’s voice in their heads. Be at peace.
 
****************
 
They awoke to find themselves lying on the floor of the ruined school basement. They stirred and got up, looking around in wonder. The gaping opening to the hellmouth was gone. Not just there, and closed, but as if it had never been. They stood and looked at each other. Spike’s mouth dropped open as he placed his hand on his chest. “I’m alive,” he whispered. He reached his hand out to Buffy’s chest and felt the beat there as well. “We’re alive.”
 
Buffy stepped close and cupped his face in her hands. “Warm,” she said, astonishment breaking over her face. “Oh God, Spike!” She pulled him into a kiss and they reveled in the heat of each other’s mouths.
 
They broke the kiss and stood, foreheads touching, gasping for breath. Our baby became a higher Power, Buffy wondered. How did we do that?
 
I think we had help, love, Spike replied. Then they were kissing again, but they gradually became aware that things were different. They still had the enhanced hearing they had enjoyed as vampires, and their noses were as keen as ever. Their muscles flexed against each other, and they could feel the Slayer strength in both their veins. Emma was right – we’re alive, but more than we were.
 
Oh Spike, I’m going to miss her, Buffy as tears came to her eyes.
 
Spike held her close and stroked her hair. Me too, sweetheart. They clung to each other in the ruins, relief and sorrow fighting for first position in their minds.
 
After an untold time, they realized that they could sense the dawn approaching. “Do you think… is it okay for us?” Buffy asked.
 
“Only one way to find out,” Spike said. Taking her hand, they moved through the rubble, pausing at the edge, where the sunlight shone on the other side of an overhang. Taking a deep breath, they stepped as one into the light.
 
*****************************
 
The sun had just risen, bathing the world in shades of orange and gold. Spike closed his eyes and basked in the warmth of his first sunrise in nearly a century and a half. He opened his eyes and looked down at Buffy, seeing the sun in her hair for the first time at close range. Buffy watched how the sun made Spike’s eyes glow, and how his white hair caught the light. They drank in the sight of each other for a long minute before Spike bent to kiss her, slowly and tenderly.
 
The sound of running feet hit their ears and they broke off the kiss, turning to see the Scoobies and Wesley making their way toward them. Their friends stopped short, hardly grasping what they were seeing. “You’re… you’re outside!” Xander stammered out at last.
 
“We’re alive again,” Buffy said simply. She and Spike stood with their arms around each other’s waists, facing the astounded group.
 
“How is this possible?” Giles asked in a voice filled with wonder. “And where’s the baby? Where’s Emma?”
 
Tears sprung up in Buffy’s eyes at her daughter’s name. Spike was the one who said, “Our girl turned out to be a higher power. She destroyed the Dwak Dlam, and sent us back to the land of the living.”
 
“But where is she?” Willow asked, deeply confused.
 
“She’s gone,” Buffy said softly. “She… doesn’t belong here. She belongs with the Powers.”
 
The others stared for a long minute, mouths gaping and eyes wide. Then Giles recovered himself and stepped forward, pulling Buffy into a warm embrace. “Oh thank God,” he said. “You had us all worried.” The others crowded around, hugging Buffy and Spike, laughing with relief. After the excitement died down, the couple pulled away again.
 
“I still don’t understand,” Anya said. “How could a baby do all that?”
 
“Can we go somewhere where we can talk?” Buffy asked. “It’s a long story, and I know you want to know what happened, but it’s a lot for us.” The pleading tone to her voice touched them all, and they realized they were overwhelming her again.
 
“Of course,” said Giles. “Why don’t we go back to my apartment? We can have some breakfast and try to make sense of all this.”
 
Spike found himself unexpectedly hungry for something other than blood, for the first time in a very, very long time. “Sounds good,” he said. You okay with this?
 
Best to explain it once and get it over with, Buffy responded. Aloud she said, “Let’s go then.”
 
Spike and Buffy walked in silence, arms around each other, as they made their way to Giles’ place. The others were clearly relieved that the crisis had been averted, but their happiness was tempered by occasional worried glances at the blond couple. No one knew what to make of the newly resurrected pair, and they felt both awe and a small amount of fear in their presence.
 
When they reached the apartment, Giles set about making coffee and tea, and Willow and Tara pitched in to produce pancakes for everyone. The table was not big enough for them all, so they ate perched here and there around the apartment.
 
Spike took a bite of his syrup laden pancakes and closed his eyes, nearly crooning. “I thought human food tasted pretty good before, but the vampire taste buds really don’t do it justice. My God, this is delicious.” He was equally enraptured by the coffee. “Has coffee always been this good?”
 
The others laughed a bit at Spike’s near-orgasm over human food. “Just wait until you try pizza,” Xander laughed.
 
“Or buffalo wings,” added Tara, remembering Spike’s penchant for those at the bronze.
 
“I don’t know if I’ll be able to stand it,” Spike said. “But I will make a valiant effort.” He helped himself to another pancake and Buffy smiled as she passed him the syrup.
 
After the pancakes had been demolished, they retired with coffee and tea to the living room. Buffy and Spike told the tale, taking turns and stepping up for each other when the telling became difficult. The transformation of their daughter from helpless infant to higher power astounded their listeners, but pained Buffy and Spike deeply. “She told us,” Spike was finishing, “That we would be human, but more than human. I guess we’re immortal, sort of a combination of vampire senses and Slayer abilities.”
 
“I get the idea we can still be killed in combat,” Buffy put in. “But I guess barring that, we’re some sort of immortal Slayers or something.”
 
“Incredible,” Wesley said. “Think of the possibilities.”
 
“But how do you feel about all this?” Tara put in quietly.
 
Buffy bit her lip. “Overwhelmed, to tell you the truth. I don’t know what we’re supposed to do now. I don’t know how to… do this. Forever, I mean.”
 
Spike squeezed her hand. “I think what we mean is, we need to figure out what this new status of ours is for.”
 
“I shall have to report all this to the Watchers’s Council,” Giles said. “This could have tremendous implications for the Slayer line.”
 
“Please,” said Buffy in a small voice. Giles stopped and turned to look at her. “I need some time. I have to bury my sister.” Her statement brought them all back down to earth in a moment.
 
“I’ll help with that,” Giles promised. “There are sure to be questions from the police if you two show up to claim the… the body.”
 
Buffy struggled to maintain control, and Spike picked up on it. “Look, everyone, we need a day or two to get our bearings, yeah? We’ve got a lot of adjustments to make.” Spike stood up, and Buffy followed. “We’re going to go home. We’ll call you in a day or so.” The others nodded their understanding, and after a few more hugs from the gang, Spike and Buffy turned to go.
 
As they walked Spike kept turning his face toward the sun, utterly reveling in the sensation of the warmth and light on his skin. Christ it’s been so long. Didn’t remember what it felt like.
 
You don’t mind? Being alive again? Buffy wondered. I know you always liked being a vampire.
 
It’s more that I hated being the hopeless git that I was, he explained. I was always so weak, a nobody. As a vampire I had strength, I had power, I had a reputation. I guess now I still have the strength and the power, but I’m not that pathetic wanker anymore. And of course, I have you my love.
 
What do you mean?
 
The connection. This claim – I’ll put up with anything to have this, with you. I love you so much, Slayer.
 
I love you too. And hey, aren’t you sort of a Slayer too now? She looked up at him with a half smile.
 
Got a point there, he admitted. He squeezed her a little tighter, and they turned onto Revello Drive. They walked up to the house, slowing their pace unconsciously. Apart from the quick weapons grab, they hadn’t been inside since the attack. They both took a deep breath before they opened the door.
 
They both froze at the entry to the living room, staring at the rug where Dawn had died. Their grief resurfaced as they both realized the house would never have the bouncy, smart, sometimes annoying teen in it again. Side by side, with Buffy’s head on Spike’s shoulder, they silently mourned her, memories flowing freely between them. Buffy turned to Spike after a while and wrapped her arms around him, burying her head in his chest. She closed her eyes and listened to the thump of his heartbeat. What do we do now? Buffy wondered.
 
Try to pick up the pieces, I guess, Spike answered. They went and stood at the bottom of the stairs.
 
“I don’t know if I can go in there,” Buffy said, her mind replaying the horrible attack in their bedroom.
 
“No need to just yet. We can sleep in your mum’s room for now, yeah?”
 
“Yeah,” said Buffy. They were both suddenly exhausted – mentally and physically. They went upstairs, and Spike went ahead and closed the door to their bedroom to shield Buffy from the sight. Spike then realized with bemusement that he really needed to use the restroom for the first time in a few generations. “Pardon me, love,” he said with slight embarrassment as he ducked in and closed the door.
 
Buffy drifted down the hall to Dawn’s room. She walked in, gently running her hands over the evidence of her sister having lived. Dawn’s journal, lying on her desk. The posters of various teen stars. Her stuffed animals. Buffy picked up her pillow and inhaled her sister’s scent. She sat down on the bed, clutching the pillow to her chest as the tears came again. Spike came in a minute later and sat down next to her. He held her and let her cry, then handed her his handkerchief. Come on, pet. Let’s get some rest, yeah?
 
“Spike,” Buffy began, speaking more to Dawn’s pillow than to him. “I don’t… we have to worry about… we’re both human now and…” Spike was puzzled, and couldn’t quite follow her thoughts. Buffy took a deep breath and blurted out, “We need to get some sort of birth control. I don’t want to risk getting pregnant again right away.” She gave him a worried glance, not wanting to hurt his feelings.
 
“I feel the same, love,” Spike reassured her. “We need some time to grieve Emma before we can try again.”
 
Buffy was grateful for his understanding. “I know she isn’t dead, not really, but I still wanted her so badly.”
 
“Me too,” he said, rubbing her back. Buffy set Dawn’s pillow back in place, smoothing it tenderly. She got up and excused herself to the restroom for a moment. Spike wandered across the hall. Steeling himself, he opened their bedroom door, needing for some reason to face it head on. The room was as he last saw it – covered in blood, their possessions ruined and scattered. He wandered over to the bassinette, which had mostly escaped destruction, and ran his fingers along the edge. He brought up the memory of his daughter’s silken hair. She had my eyes. At the thought he lost the battle with his tears and stood there stricken, staring at the empty cradle. Buffy gasped when she saw the bedroom, and Spike hurriedly turned to block her view of the rest. “I’m sorry, love. I just needed to see… I don’t know what.” They embraced again, both trying to make sense of it all.
 
Is this why we were saved? So that we can never stop grieving? Never stop patrolling? Do I have to fight and lose people forever? Buffy wondered with a tinge of despair.
 
Her despair touched Spike and he straightened up to look into her green eyes. “No. That’s not what we’re going to do. I’m not going to allow that. We’ve been given a gift, not a curse, but I think we need to take charge of it.”
 
“What do you mean?” Buffy asked.
 
“I mean that I think we need to get out of Sunnydale,” Spike explained, making up his mind in that moment. “There is so much bloody world out there, you know? You haven’t seen anything but this little slice of it. I’ve been around more than a century and I haven’t seen all of it, and most of it I haven’t seen in the daylight. We can fight evil anywhere. Evil isn’t confined to Sunnydale – it’s universal. But the crisis here is over, the hellmouth is gone, and I don’t see why we need to stay here to wait for the council to poke us and prod us and order us about.”
 
Buffy slowly brightened at the idea. “Could we really? Just leave it all?”
 
“No reason to think otherwise,” Spike said.
 
“But Giles? And the others?”
 
“We’ll leave them a note, and we’ll figure out how they can get a hold of us if there’s an emergency.”
 
“What about… Dawn?” she asked quietly, fixing him with troubled eyes.
 
Spike thought for a moment. “We can put her to rest. You and I, before we go.”
 
Buffy bit her lip, struggling with the whole idea. “I feel like I’d be… leaving her behind. Abandoning her.”
 
Spike kissed her forehead. “She’ll always be with us, pet. We’re putting the shell in the ground. The important part’s here.” He put his hand on her beating heart. “But I think we deserve some rest so we can heal. I want to walk down the Champs-Elysees with you on a summer afternoon. I want to see the bloody pyramids in Egypt, and watch the sunrise on some tropical island. I’ve never been on an airplane. You’ve never seen London, or Rome, or Vienna. We have so much we can do together, Buffy. And I don’t think the Nibblet would mind.”
 
Buffy heard the truth in his words, and looked into her husband’s blue eyes. “William Pratt, I love you. And I will follow you anywhere.” She kissed him deeply for long minutes, then they broke apart, and started putting their plans into action.
 
*************************
 
After three days with no word from Buffy and Spike, Giles began to get a bit concerned, but he resolved to give them the time they needed. Then on the fourth day, he received a call from the Sunnydale Police, saying that the body of Dawn Summers had been stolen from the morgue. After repeated calls to Buffy and Spike went unanswered, he finally went with Willow and Tara over to the house to see if something was wrong. They knocked on the door, but then found the door was unlocked. “Hello?” Giles said as they walked in. “What in blazes?” he murmured in surprise.
 
The living room was stacked with boxes. Taped to one of them was a note addressed to Giles. He took it down and read aloud:
 
Dear Giles, and everyone,
 
We need to leave Sunnydale. This town and house carry too many painful memories. We need to get away, to heal, and to move on. We will let you know how you can contact us soon. In the meantime, we have made arrangements to have our things stored.
 
We put Dawn to rest, next to my mom. We know that there would be too many questions with a regular funeral, but we needed to say our goodbyes in our own way. We won’t forget her, and we’ll never forget all you’ve done for us. Please give our regrets to the Scoobies, and understand that we both love you all very much. If there is ever a bigger fight than you can handle, we will be there.
 
Love,
Buffy and Spike
 
The three of them looked at each other and at the boxes in stunned silence.

 TBC
 
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