The Prophecy (2)

We?

“Wait a minute. Who is becoming human exactly?”

Giles glowered at Angel, which the vampire interpreted as scolding for interrupting just after he had asked them all to let him finish. However, the Watcher answered his question.

“You, Buffy and Spike. I thought you knew about it?”

“I knew about myself,” Angel replied, frowning a little.

Spike laughed, and Angel couldn’t help glaring at him. He was still kind of bothered by the way Spike had reacted when he had told him.

“Surprised, soulboy?” he asked with a smirk. “Jealous that you won’t be so special after all?”

Angel was about to reply and put his Childe – because he was still his Childe, whatever he said – back in his place, but Buffy cut him off, while very obviously elbowing her Sire.

“Cordy was in my dreams too,” she explained. “She said all three of us would turn human so that we can fight during the day.”

Angel nodded, still a bit shocked, but genuinely happy for Buffy. She was humanity and life incarnated, and for her to be a vampire was just an abomination. He really wasn’t sure what to think about a human Spike. And, as much as he hated to admit it, even to himself, the annoying blonde had seen right through him about his feelings. Yes, he was jealous. He had been fighting for the Powers That Be for years for his reward, and now his Childe, who didn’t even have a soul, was going to get the same thing.

“It’s great,” he managed to say with a smile.

Buffy smiled back at him, but Spike snorted.

“Well, if that matter is cleared up, perhaps you will let me continue?”

Giles gave a chastising glance around the room, daring anyone else to talk out of turn. When no one said anything, the Watcher carried on:

“The portals will open at noon, so, yes, we will need our resident vampires to be protected against the sun, and Cordelia or whoever she works for was kind enough to think of that. Now the prophecy…”

The Watcher sighed as he noticed Dawn’s raised hand and took off his glasses.

“You have a question Dawn?”

“Actually, I do. Sorry. Not that I mind the fanged club turning human, but does anyone remember where the Hellmouth is exactly? Under Sunnydale High. And I’d know, ‘cause hey, I was there every day not that long ago, and it sure was hell, but my point is, building, no sun?”

“As the portal collides with the Hellmouth, there will be an explosion,” the woman Angel supposed was a Watcher chimed in before Giles could reply. “We expect the school to be destroyed entirely in the process.”

A small smile crept on Dawn’s face, and a word escaped her lips. “Cool.”

“No, it’s not cool,” Xander protested. “I built that school! It’s a very fine building!”

He looked around him, finding nothing but blank stares.

“And I will just shut up now,” he finished.

“Good idea,” Giles mumbled, before adding, louder: “As I was saying, Buffy will become human, and according to the Prophecy, fight whatever is coming out of the two doors with her sisters.”

If Giles’ eyes had been stakes…, Buffy mused as she raised her hand, just like Dawn had a minute ago. He nodded tiredly at her, and she asked:

“First, newsflash, I just have one sister. Not sisters, plural. Second, there’s no way Dawnie gets to fight hellish stuff.”

“Hey, if that’s what the Prophecy says, then I will…”

“No, you won’t.”

With one voice, Buffy, Spike and Steven interrupted the teenager, who started sulking.

“None of us will be able to fight properly if we think you’re going to be in danger,” Buffy explained, and both men confirmed her words with a nod.

“She won’t have to fight literally,” Giles explained. “She will, however, need to be there, as will we, to be able to close the doors. As for your other sister, it is meant as a metaphor, to designate your sister in slaying.”

Oh. OK. Slayer sister. Got that. And at least she can fight.

Buffy glanced at Manon, who hadn’t said a word since the beginning of the meeting. The girl gave her a shy smile, a little uncertain, to which Buffy replied sincerely. She truly wouldn’t have minded having her as a sister.

Taking advantage of the lull in the conversation, Giles started talking again.

“That’s only part of the fighters, the Slayer and her sisters. The other part, in the text, was referred as ‘father, son and brother’. We didn’t quite know what to do with that one, but with Cordelia telling Buffy that Angel, Steven and Spike are to fight this battle, it seems it can fit.”

Spike’s body stiffened against Buffy, and she glanced at him just as he flashed a smirk up at Steven. Angel, he very blatantly ignored.

“So, that’s it,” Giles said with a sigh. “At noon in eleven days, Sunnydale High will blow up and hell will literally pour out of it. We have fighters to kill anything that gets out while our magically inclined crew tries to close the doors before midnight.”

Said like this, it sure didn’t seem that hard. It never did, before the day of the actual fight. But on the battleground, things had a nasty way of turning out much differently than they were supposed to.

There was maybe a minute of silence after the Watcher was done talking, while everyone was absorbing what he had said, when Glinda spoke up, though she was still shy about talking in front of the assembled Scoobies, despite all they had been through together.

“What if a demon manages to get away? I mean, if they all come out at once, one might escape, and end up running around loose in Sunnydale.”

“We could find a protective spell,” Red proposed excitedly. “Like, a big bubble around the high school, so nothing can get out. Or in. We don’t need anyone looking over our shoulder while we’re in the newly destroyed school fighting demons.”

That was a good idea, and there were nods of agreement all around for Willow. And that made Spike wonder why they couldn’t just have a sun proof bubble and forget the whole human thing. He let out a quiet sigh, and Buffy looked at him, an eyebrow arched questioningly. He shook his head and smiled at her. His hesitancy was nothing he wanted her concerned about.

The ‘magically inclined’, as the Watcher had called them, discussed the bubble thing for a moment, until Xander’s insistent coughing brought their attention back to him.

“OK, a job for everyone and everyone doing their job, so what do Anya and I do? No little bit of Prophecy about us?”

Anya was nodding next to him, agreeing that she wanted to participate too. There was still something odd about her…

“I guess you can help with the slaying,” Giles suggested.

“No they can’t,” Spike interjected suddenly.

There, he had it. He knew what was different with Anya, and he wanted to slap himself for not understanding sooner. He would have realized earlier if he had been paying closer attention.

“And why not, evil soon-not-so-undead?”

Xander’s teasing was partly surprised, partly irritated. The boy wanted to fight, he truly did. He wanted to be useful, even if his talent at fighting was, well, not pathetic, but not very far from it either.

“You want to tell him, Anya?” Spike said softly. “It’s not my place to.”

“Say what?” she replied with a frown.

Spike rolled his eyes. Just great. The bint didn’t even know.

“You’re pregnant,” he said bluntly, earning stares from all persons present.

“I am what?”

“She’s what?”

Surprise, panic, and a hint of hope, in both Harrises’ voices.

“Pregnant,” Spike repeated without adding anything.

They looked at each other, still looking incredulous, but it was starting to sink in at last. Anya placed a hand on her belly, and one of Xander’s covered it.

“How do you know?” Buffy asked him with a frown.

“Just listen, luv. When there’s no noise, you can hear his heartbeat. It’s quiet but it beats very fast, easy to recognize.”

As he finished talking, silence fell on the room, and Spike was sure they were all trying to hear, though only vampires’ ears would catch it. He watched the wonder flutter over his Slayer’s face, then she was grinning madly and he kissed the side of her head, pleased at her evident delight.

“I can hear it too,” she said excitedly. “Congratulation guys!”

There was a general group hug, which Spike didn’t manage to escape despite his desperate attempts. Everybody quickly agreed with him that the expectant mother was not to fight under any circumstances, and that Xander should be kept out of the battle if possible. No one wanted the new member of the Scooby gang to be orphaned even before he was born.

The soon to be parents agreed to stay out of the battle, but they admitted feeling a bit guilty at being on the side line while their friends fought. Manon made a suggestion then. It was the first time she had talked tonight. She was a bit intimidated at being in the middle of all these people, some of whom she was meeting for the first time. Also, her Slayer sense was all jumpy, with the two vampires she had gotten used to plus the new one, which no one had warned her about. How these people could be so used to having vampires among them was still a wonder to her. She didn’t mind them so much, it just felt weird. Of course, from what she understood, they wouldn’t remain vampires for very long.

“We’ll probably need first aid at some point or another,” she said hesitantly, very conscious suddenly of her accent with so many people listening to her. “Maybe Xander and Anya can stay outside the bubble thing and we can go to them if we’re wounded. If we have to fight for twelve hours, we’ll need to rest and eat or drink sometimes too.”

“That’s a good point, Manon,” Giles said immediately.

She glanced at Buffy, happy to see her smile. She liked the older Slayer, and she thought the feeling was mutual. She was actually starting to like the other vampire too, to her own surprise. Still, she wouldn’t mind at all once they all became humans and stopped playing with her senses.

There was some more talking, a lot more, details being cleared and plans drawn. She quickly stopped paying much attention to all of it. Her own role was clear. Slay every demon in sight. Knowing that she wouldn’t be alone for that battle, she wasn’t afraid. Not particularly impatient for the day to come, but not afraid either. When Andrea had first explained to her about being the Slayer, the job had sounded awfully solitary. Now that she had met Buffy and her friends, she realized it would only be lonely if she decided to let it be. And she certainly wouldn’t.

Andrea’s orders had been clear when she had been sent to Sunnydale with the new Slayer. Prevent the apocalypse, and limit to the minimum the contacts with the locals. And yet, there she was, in the middle of their HQ, where she had spent the last few days helping the ex-Watcher translate the prophecy, and where Manon had been training with vampires. If her father knew, he would disown her instantly, she had no doubt about it. And she didn’t care in the least. In a few days, she had found out for herself that the information that had been given to her about the so-called Scoobies had been very much tainted to fit the Council’s view of the world. She understood now how they had survived so much, and why Buffy was still around, even if she was a demon. If she could help it, Andrea had every intention to see Manon live even longer that the Summers girl. And if that meant working with rebels and demons, oh well, so be it. Just as long as someone else took care of informing the Head Watcher.

Sitting on the counter, right next to Angel, Cordelia looked at her army with a satisfied smile. A pity she couldn’t talk to them, really, she almost felt like a general on the morning of a big battle and could have given a magnificent speech.

She liked the way they were planning their fight. She had written the Prophecy, true, but they were the ones deciding on how the actual events would happen. She winced at the thought. Three times, Skip had made her rewrite the damn thing, complaining that she couldn’t make the text too easy. Another one of these stupid rules. What was the point of warning them with a Prophecy if they couldn’t even understand the warning? If she hadn’t let slip a few things to Buffy, Giles and his Watcher friend would still have been wondering who the other fighters were supposed to be. Of course, if they had just mentioned it to any of the three men, they would have had their answer. Well, maybe not. Spike might have kept his mouth shut. He was a serious pain in her immaterial bottom. And he would be even more before it ended, she just knew it.

Shaking her head, she pulled her eyes away from the bleached blonde vampire, letting them slide over the happy Harris couple. She couldn’t help smiling at them. What she had ever seen in Xander, she didn’t know, but she was glad for him and Anya. Cute couples abounded, now that she thought of it. Xander and Anya, Tara and Willow, Dawn and Steven, Buffy and Spike, even the Watchers, though they weren’t quite there yet. But they would be, in time. She had plans for the Watchers Council. All she needed was a little time.

Which left two people, both alone in the middle of so many others. One was sixteen, the other two hundred and a lot of change.

Cordelia glanced at Angel, next to her. He looked a bit lonely. A bit sad, too. She knew he had been affected by the death of Drusilla. She had also seen how he had reacted at the announcement of Buffy and Spike’s return to the living. Happy for her, but not so much for him. Jealous. Still jealous of his Childe, who had taken the love of his unlife, and would now get the reward that Angel felt he had worked so hard for. If she hadn’t been called to another plane of existence, she knew she could have made him forget about the blonde Slayer. As things were, it wasn’t an option. Not now, at least. Probably not ever, if Skip had his way.

Her gaze moved to the young Slayer, and Cordelia pondered her options. It wouldn’t be very hard, really, to push them together. Not hard at all. And it could make them both happy. For a long moment, she considered it. In the end, she did nothing, and just placed her hand over Angel’s shoulder, wishing he could feel her presence, smiling when he glanced, puzzled, at the exact place where her hand rested.