Betaed by Maria and Flight Of Fancy.


”If I want to? What’s the catch?”

“You'll have to work with the people who hurt you.” Merrick tried to read her expression. “The Scooby Gang, Angel and the Council.”

She looked like she was in pain. “Is there anything good for me in this deal?” she asked cold.

“He’ll be alive.”

She was gaping at Merrick. “Bloody hell.”

“Why don’t you just listen to the rest, and then you can come with all the questions you have,” Merrick suggested.

She just nodded her head, having a hard time believing that he could be alive somewhere.

“If I don’t say anything else I’m talking about the past Buffy, just so that’s clear.” He waited for Buffy’s accept before he spoke again.

“When Buffy was attacked, she was on her way to the Master, expecting to die. They all thought she was dead, until Joyce told them where she was. Months later, Kendra found the book. A little has been translated. They have met with Lorne.”

A little smile crept upon her face.

“He took them to the oracles, and they took contact to me. You know about the changeling’s?”

She nodded.

“The Light is supposed to help seal the rift to their home. After that, you have to find out what you want. You can stay, or leave again. If you stay, you have to take over the body of the Buffy that belongs there. If you want to leave, you’ll go back here.”

She took a little time thinking about it all. Merrick sat quiet, waiting. “How is it possible for me to take over her body?”

“In a way it’s your body. It’s a very simple procedure, a little magic and your soul will change place.”

“Who’ll do it? Willow?” she asked angry.

“Don’t worry. I’ll do it.”

“Will it be possible to lose the soul?”

“No! It belongs there. It wont be a curse. We’ll just move the soul to a younger body.” Merrick tried to sound reassuring.

“I'll have to find the spells I did since the last time I was in the company of the Scooby,” she said quiet.

It wasn’t meant for Merrick’s ears, but he heard. “You mean the spells that prevent anyone from placing a spell on you, or to track you?”

She nodded thoughtfully.

“They’ll follow you. They’re on your soul.”

She suddenly looked sadder, then she had been while he was there. “I can’t do it.”

Merrick was surprised. “Why not?”

“I can’t live through it again.” She got up, started to pace the length of the basement.

“Wauw, stop for a second. You have taken it all the wrong way. As long as you close the rift to the changeling’s you can do as you please.”

She stopped pacing. Eyes wide open. “You mean I can change what I want?”

“Correct.”

She squeezed her eyes together to small cracks. Her fists on her hips. “If I choose to stop slaying, that would be okay with the Powers?”

“Yes, it would.”

“I don’t understand. Why? Explain, Merrick.”

“There is a little chance that you can fulfill the prophecy, even if you change things. Love is unpredictable.” He smiled to Buffy. “And Kendra is the slayer. The line runs through her.”

“Just a second. Let me think.” She was standing in the middle of the room. A big smile covering her face. “Can I take revenge?”

Merrick made a face, showing his teeth in the process. “Depends, who and how?”

She had a grim look on her face. “The Council and where it hurts them the most. Their money.”

“Go at them, girl. They deserve it. They knew about the prophecies. So we have a deal?” Merrick held his hand out.

Buffy took it. “Yeah, but don’t you go telling that around. I need it in the bargain with the Council.” She smiled big. “So can I take things with me?”

“Yes, you can. Everything you can carry.”

“No, Merrick. Everything, we can carry. You are staying with me, as my new Watcher, if I need the help.”

“B..bu..but that was not the deal.”

“If you don’t want to stay forever, then stay until I’m settled in the new body and my new place, please, Merrick. I’ll need your help in the start. I was so mad at them, if I had seen them shortly after I found out that Spike had been alive, I would have killed them. I want to make sure that doesn't happen. By the way.” She held up her hand, waving a finger. “When we arrive, I’ll need some money to buy a sweater with a big hood. If we are to arrive in front of the gang, you’ll have to change it.”

”What do you need a sweater for?” Merrick asked curious. “The weather is pleasant.”

She didn’t hear it, or didn’t want to.

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Joyce’s house had quieted down. They were sitting in the living room, just relaxing after their meal.

Giles was the first to speak up. “The Council called me just before I left.”

“What did they want?” Xander was half lying down on the couch. Hands on his stomach. Joyce’s food tasted too good to waste.

Giles balanced his cup steadier on the arm of his chair. “They told me that they have found some other prophecies from the same origin. Some old ones and a few new ones. It might not have anything to do with our prophecies, but the old ones are translated. Maybe they can be used to translate more of ours.”

“Have you got more translated?” Joyce asked.

“No, haven’t had much time for it. I had to write down what happened in LA.”

Willow suddenly raised her head from her mug. “If they are old and translated, they’ll have to know if the prophecies from that origin are trustworthy. Right?”

Giles sat up strait. “You are quite right, Willow. When I get home, I’ll call them.”

“You can call them from here, Giles,” Joyce suggested.

“Are you sure, Joyce?” He looked at his watch. “ I’ll pay for the call.”

“That’s fine. Shall I pour you some more tea, while you make your call?”

“Yes, please. The call shouldn’t take too long.” He went to make his call, it took a little longer than he anticipated. He sat down, taking off his glasses.

“Should I pour you a new cup of tea? It must be getting cold?”

“No, thank you. It’s quite alright.” He was polishing his glasses with a faraway look on his face.

“Giles what did they say?” Willow was impatient. She couldn’t wait until he had straightened out his thoughts. She still wanted to ask him why they couldn’t bring Buffy’s soul back.

He looked up, cleared his throat and put his glasses back at its place. “The origin is trustworthy. The prophecies from there always seems a little confusing at first, but they have never seen a prophecy from there, that hasn’t come true. Not in all the time the Council has existed.” He emptied his cup, before he continued. “They want me to call them when the Light is here.”

The normally quiet Oz spoke up. “What if the Light won’t stay in this time line?”

Giles got on his feet. “Then we’ll have to convince it to stay. Maybe with the help of the Council.”

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Spike was sitting at the table reading a newspaper. Dru was dancing around him. He didn’t look at her. She was eating again, and she seemed healthy. Last night he had hoped that she was ready for a little cold comfort. She had turned him down, said he wasn’t hers anymore. Her loan period had almost expired. What she meant by that he didn’t know.

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Buffy started to collect her books to take with her.

Merrick placed a hand on her shoulder. “How do you expect to carry all that?”

“But I can’t leave it. It’s all I got.” Buffy was panicking.

“Let’s see." He held up a book. “Can you buy this book in the time where we are going?”

She looked down at her feet. Her hands behind her back. Shuffling her feet. She looked adorable. Like a child that has been caught. “Yeah,” she admitted.

Merrick held up another book. “We can go through them all. One by one?”

“But I don’t have any money.”

He smiled a little. “Didn’t you just say that you want the Council to pay you, for staying?”

Her face lightened up with a big smile. “You’re right. I’m sorry.” She nodded. “I’ll sift through the books, select those I know I can’t get my hands on.” She found a pad and asked Merrick to write down the titles she left behind. When she was done, there were two boxes filled up with books, and her diaries. Sealing them didn’t take long. “Could you please explain to me how it all will be affected, when I start changing things?”

Merrick looked up from his writing, thought a little. Deciding how to explain it to her. “You started your life at point A. Your life moved forward, until short before point B. There you made a turn on your road, and you ended up here. We go back to before you made that turn, and make sure you don’t do it again.”

“What made me turn another way than I was destined for?”

“The start was Angel. Then a new thing made you take one more turn and then another, and so on. Sometimes you would clash with the main road, but you didn’t stay on it.”

“What was the second thing that made me make one more turn?”

“That was Angelus, and then the killing of Angel.”

“What happened when I clashed with the main road?”

“Time with Spike. One way or another, and for the rest, there’s the book.” The only sound that was heard for a time was the pen making contact with the paper, and Buffy packing clothes in an old leather satchel.

“Can I ask you a question, Buffy?” He kept writing so he didn’t see her nod.

She had to speak the words. “Sure, what do you want to know?”

“What do you need a sweater for?”

She stopped packing, and turned to him. “You know how controlling they are. I don’t want them to recognize me before I’ve put down some rules, at least gotten what I want.” She then continued to tell him about her plan.

He laughed out loud. “That’s a revenge, I’ll like to help you with. You deserve it.” They grinned big to each other. “I’m done. What about you?”

“Just one more thing to do.” She went over to the stairs, where she looked at the drawings. She caressed every one of them, before she carefully pulled them down from the wall and rolled them together. She placed them in the bag on the floor. From a little shelf in the corner, she grasped a little box. She looked at the items in it, before she closed it, and placed that in the bag too. She placed the bag on top of one of the boxes.

She turned around herself. Checking that she hadn’t missed something important. At the same time, she tried to take a picture with her mind, wanted to remember the room. It had been her home for so long, it would be strange to call another place home. She changed her focus to Merrick. “I’m done. What now?”

“Now we go to a spot not far from here, where I can open a portal.” He buttoned his coat. “What do you want me to carry?”

She took the bag and the box with the diaries. “That box and the satchel.” Merrick followed Buffy up the stairs, in the kitchen she abruptly stopped. Merrick bumped into her with the box. She turned to him. “Sorry, Merrick, but I forgot my supplies, just a minute.” She ran down to the basement again. She appeared with a smaller satchel than the one Merrick was ordered to carry.

“Are you sure you are done now?” he asked. “You don’t want to pack down the whole house?”

“I did say I was sorry,” she pouted.

Merrick shook his head and walked ahead, out of the house.

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Spike laid on a bed in one of the spare rooms. When he had come home from hunting that night, he had found his belongings thrown out of their room. He turned onto his stomach, buried his face in the pillow. After a hundred years together. He felt like crying.

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Merrick and Buffy walked carefully down the street, avoiding the fires. “Buffy?”

“Hmm. What’s up?”

“What’s wrong with your voice?”

“What do you mean? There’s nothing wrong with my voice.”

“You sound very hoarse, and if I’m not mistaken it has gotten worse.”

“Oh, that. I don’t talk much with others. There can go months between. I don’t seek them out. They only contacted me when they needed me.”

“To kill a demon?” Merrick asked.

“Yeah, and sometimes for an antidote.”

“Antidote?”

“Yep. Some demons contain poison.”

“You have learned a lot.”

“I had to do something with my time. I had a lot of it.” Her head bowed. Cheeks had turned slightly red. “I’ve come to love books.” Merrick observed her expression closely. She seemed shy about her admission.

“It’s okay to like books. It’s great. It will save time when you slay.”

She looked enraged at him. “The deal was that I didn't have to slay.”

Merrick looked her in the eyes. “You don’t have to, but do you really think that you can stop completely?”

After a little while she spoke. “You’re right. As Spike would say: I need a spot of violence before bed,” she admitted. She smiled a little at the memory. At a time where she wouldn’t admit that he was right, but still a good memory. She was ripped out of her thoughts by Merrick's announcement that they had arrived. “What kind of a place is this?”

“From here it should be easier to make a port for a short while. Something about the walls being thinner.” Merrick led the way inside the building. He placed the box on the floor just inside the doorstep, the satchel on top. “Stay back here.” He went to the opposite wall, found a small leather bag in the front pocket of his pants, and loosened the drawstrings. He chanted while he threw the herbs at the wall. After a few minutes of chanting, there was a small glow, that slowly got stronger. Merrick went to Buffy, collected the box and satchel. “Are you ready to go?”

She nodded hesitantly. “Will you help me?” She looked pleading at Merrick. “Help me not to mess it up with Spike?”

He looked seriously at her. “I promise.”

“Then I’m ready.”