…and Dreams...

After three days of training and two nights of patrols together, Buffy managed to convince Manon to agree to Spike patrolling with them. Not because she wanted to keep an eye on him – she trusted him and his promise. Rather, she simply missed him. He had gotten tired of just sitting and watching while she sparred with Manon, so he didn’t come to the store anymore. He had tried helping Giles and Andrea Travers, but the woman was very uncomfortable when he was around, so he had just given up on that. Surprisingly, the two Watchers were almost done anyway. From what Buffy gathered, they not only had had to translate the text from whatever forgotten language it was written in, but also had had to interpret it, as it was written in verse and was as cryptic as most such prophecies of doom seemed to be.

Since Manon had first refused to patrol with him, the two Slayers had gone out by themselves two nights in a row. The younger Slayer had shown a lot of progress, to Buffy’s satisfaction, but she wasn’t as much fun to patrol with as Spike was. Oh, the two girls got along just fine, but the age difference between them, almost eight years, as well as the cultural differences always brought long silences. The one good thing was that Manon seemed to have gotten over the fact that Buffy was a vampire. However, when they started to patrol on the third night, it was quickly obvious that she hadn’t forgotten her first impression about Spike. Her attention was on him, not on their surroundings, which could be dangerous when you were a Slayer. This kind of thing could make you the prey instead of the hunter.

“Who was she?” the girl asked suddenly, her eyes on Spike. “Who was the woman I saw you kill?”

Spike glanced at Buffy before answering. His voice was aiming for indifference but Buffy knew him too well not to see past the pretense.

“Her name is Faith. She is… was the Slayer before you.”

Manon froze for a second, and when she started walking again she remained pointedly a few steps behind the two vampires.

A couple of minutes later, they found their first fledgling of the night. As usual, Buffy motioned for Manon to take care of it, ready to help if necessary. Spike was watching the fight with interest, as it was the first time he’d seen Manon in action since they had stumbled upon her. The improvement was undeniable, as the vamp soon was ashes at Manon’s feet. She looked up at Buffy, smiling proudly, oblivious to the menace that was coming up behind her. Not vamps, this time, but Fyarl demons. Three of them. And the only weapons the Slayers and the vampire had with them were stakes.

“Bloody hell,” she heard Spike mutter. “Think she’s ready for that?”

“Ready or not, she doesn’t have a choice,” Buffy replied.

As they talked, Manon had turned to see what they were looking at. She took a few steps back when she saw the demons, and asked quickly:

“How do we kill these?”

At least, she was thinking fast, Buffy mused.

“Stake through the heart will work just fine, but it’s a bit harder than with vamps. Usually I like to cut off the head, but we’re not equipped for that.”

“Breaking their neck works great too,” Spike commented as he strode toward the closest one and tallest one.

Buffy followed, targeting the second biggest one. It took only a couple of seconds for Manon to join in the fun. As she engaged her own adversary, Buffy tried to keep an eye on the girl, knowing that Spike would be fine. For a while, she was doing OK, not making much progress toward killing the demon but at least staying out of harm’s way. However, soon after Buffy had pushed her stake deep inside her demon’s chest, she turned to find Manon on the ground, her sole weapon out of her reach, and the Fyarl towering over her menacingly. Before Buffy could take a step toward her, Spike was there, demonstrating his earlier statement about neck breaking. Pushing the corpse away from the girl, he offered her his hand to help get up. Manon just stared at him, unmoving.

“You killed the other Slayer and now you save me,” she said slowly, and her voice was shaking a little. ”Why?”

After a couple of seconds, Spike replied, almost in a whisper.

“She wanted to die. Do you?”

The girl shook her head, and at the same time reached for his hand hesitantly.

“Non.”

“Good. Because I’m tired of seeing Slayers die.”

Buffy winced as she heard his words. The time was long past of him boasting about how he had killed his first two Slayers. He had refused to talk about it any more, but she was sure he wasn’t completely past Faith’s death yet; his voice was too strained when he talked of Slayers dying.

Manon had a nasty gash on her arm, so they cut short the patrol and walked her to her motel. She was silent on the way, but she didn’t look at Spike so warily any longer and even thanked him before they left. At least, Buffy thought that was what ‘Merci’ meant. Manon was certainly making more progress as far as fighting was concerned than Buffy was with her French.

A strange idea had sneaked into Spike’s mind as he had taken care of the girl’s demon. A really very peculiar idea.

If I keep her alive until after the apocalypse, it will make up for the Slayers I killed.

It wasn’t even just Faith, now. It was all three of them. The three girls he had killed for no other reason than they were Slayers. Not to feed, not to turn them, but because he could. Buffy’s death was different. He had felt the guilt but he didn’t feel as though he had to pay for it. But the other three…

When had Faith been joined by the other two? He didn’t know when it had happened, or why, but they were now firmly installed in his conscience, bothering him every time his mind drifted to the subject of Slayers. And considering he was living with one and another one was around, it was way too often for his peace of mind.

After leaving the kid with her Watcher to fuss over her injury, he and Buffy walked through a couple of cemeteries, finishing the interrupted patrol.

“So what do you think of her fighting technique?” Buffy asked him as they finally headed toward home.

“Not too bad from the little I saw, but she doesn’t dance as well as you do.”

His Slayer flashed him a bright smile at that, and stopped in the middle of the sidewalk to plant a kiss on his lips. The quick kiss however lingered, and hands started to wander, searching for skin.

“Slayer, let’s get home,” he breathed against her mouth.

“Race you there,” she replied with a mischievous grin.

Before he could agree, she was already running, and he followed without really trying to catch up with her. Letting her win the race could be awfully pleasant for him later. Probably more so than winning. He was almost sure he knew what she would ask as her reward, and he would be very happy to oblige.

They managed to keep it mostly quiet, but Buffy had the feeling that Giles would be looking at anything but them the next day. Just like he had developed a tendency to avoid seeing Dawn and Steven most mornings. The teenagers were oblivious, anyway, too caught up in each other to even notice. And Buffy couldn’t really blame them; she would have enjoyed very much having nothing to think about but her lover. But that was a luxury to her on most days, and even more so with the impending doom. Still, enjoying a few hours and forgetting everything except for his touch was deliciously refreshing to her mind and soul, if a bit tiring for her body. It was almost morning when she finally drifted into sleep, Spike spooned snuggly against her back.

The sun on her skin felt good after so long, and she was surprised that she wasn’t even thinking of finding shelter. And even more shocked when she felt her heart beat. She had forgotten how it felt.

She was on a beach, barefoot in the sand, small waves coming up to lick her toes. It took her a short moment to recognize the place. This was where Faith had died. It looked quite different during the day; the sand was golden instead of silver, the ocean glittering under the sun, the blue of the sky as light as Spike’s eyes when he was happy..

“It was a nice place to die. And to be reborn.”

Startled, Buffy almost jumped, turning quickly to the woman behind her.

“Cordy?”

Cordelia smiled as she patted the beach towel on which she was sitting, inviting Buffy to join her. She was exactly as Buffy remembered her from the last time she had seen her, the day she disappeared.

“OK,” she said after Buffy had settled down beside her, still stunned. “Let me clarify a couple of things first, because I’m still not very good at the dream thing. This is a dream, one of your prophetic Slayer dreams or whatever you call them. And I am a messenger from the Powers That Be.”

She stopped for a second then, looking at Buffy expectantly, but all the Slayer could find to say was:

“Huh?”

Cordelia sighed and looked up at the sky, as if imploring someone.

“Anyway. It doesn’t really matter. But what I’m going to say now is very important, so listen carefully.”

Despite herself, Buffy nodded.

“The prophecy Giles is working on, that’s a really ugly one. When the portal opens, you’ll need all the help you can get to close it again. You already have Manon, Spike and Steven, but you’ll need more. I’m working on Angel right now, but the poor guy has some trouble believing it’s not a normal dream. I would never have thought he was dreaming of me sometimes.”

Her voice trailed for a second, and a goofy grin came to her lips. However, she quickly shook her head and continued her speech.

“The problem is, the portal will open during the day, and there’s no way I can give you a little eclipse like we had for our graduation. Apparently, we can’t use the same trick twice. Stupid rule. Especially since last time the eclipse helped the other side. But I’m digressing. So. Big battle. Sunlight. How do you have your good vamps fight it? Any idea? Yeah, I guessed not. Don’t worry, I have the answer. You make them humans, that’s how. Of course, you’ll all keep your strength, because if you’re just regular humans, it doesn’t really help. But you get the idea.”

Buffy blinked several times, shaking her head, because the thing was, she wasn’t sure she was getting the idea at all.

“Cordy, what are you saying exactly? That I’m going to be human again?”

“Yes, but not just you,” Cordelia replied a bit impatiently. “You, Angel, and Spike. So that you can fight that battle. And if you survive it, you get to keep your humanity. Cool, huh? I thought you’d like it. And I’m sure Angel will too, he’s been waiting for it long enough. Spike... well, he's something else, isn't he? I've been keeping an eye on him, and I think he might have a bit of trouble adjusting. But we’ll give him time before the big day to get used to it. Any questions?”

Buffy felt too baffled to say one word, and Cordelia was soon talking again.

“So, that’s the big event of the year. But before that, I’m afraid there’s a little one coming for you.”

“A little what?” Buffy interrupted. “A little apocalypse? They come in different sizes now?”

Cordelia smiled. “Nothing so bad, no. Just a little test, I would say. A question of trust. You’ll understand when it happens. And when it does, just remember everything.”

That didn’t make any sense to Buffy, but when she started to say so, she realized Cordelia was gone.

At the same instant, Buffy opened her eyes, finding herself back in Spike’s embrace. She just stared, blindly, at the wall she was facing, all of Cordelia’s words coming back to her. She hadn’t understood all of it, but she was sure of two things. That it had been a Slayer dream, and that she would soon be human again, as would the man she loved.

And a single hopeful tear soaked into the pillow under her face.