A/N: In this story I need you to believe one thing - the adjoining spell is not needed by a pure slayer.

Chapter 8

Three days.

Three event filled, aggravatingly boring days. Buffy was surprisingly under-whelmed at the prospect of eternal youth. She couldn't build up any enthusiasm at all for Bronzing, movie night or Double Choc Ripple Ice Cream.

She had dismissed Parker with an unexcited wave of her hand and a flat 'it's not you, it's me' type speech. Even as the brunette persisted, almost begging her to give him a chance, Buffy was unable to feel even the slightest remorse for her uncaring rejection of the older student.

Her mind was consumed with thoughts; blond, annoying, vampire type thoughts. She missed him, and it was beginning to bug the hell out of her. 

It wasn't like it had been with Angel; the soul sucking depression, the angst filled moments, and the complete and utter obsessive quality of their relationship was completely lacking.

Spike didn't make her feel like she had to let him lead; with him she believed she could take her turn at the forefront or stand at his side as an equal. He personified life and energy, passion and rage, where Angel had been all about drama and intrigue. Spike shouted out who he was in pride, with each and every evil-intending step he made, while Angel tried to deny his demon in shame. She didn't doubt for a minute that Spike would be able to make her laugh with abandon, scream with rage and weep with joy or misery. He was Love's Bitch and his demon adored her. Angel had never made her laugh in complete and utter joy. Hell! The best she'd got there was a half-hearted giggle or two and let's not forget that Angel's demon hated her.

It was a hard pill to swallow. She didn't even really know Spike, but the differences between him and his grandsire were glaringly obvious - even to a girl who enjoyed living in quasi-Egyptian suburbia, one of the ones with that famous river running right through the middle.

The fact that the Slayer had clearly chosen Spike from the start was like having a bowl of ice water thrown in her face. Buffy pouted unhappily at the thought that she hadn't had even an inkling of the Slayer's feelings, but since the night the claim had been placed on Spike, the blonde teen had been unable to shut her slayer side out. Giles had told her that she was finally beginning the process of blending with her inner warrior. The concept was daunting, and in unusual Buffy fashion she turned introspective, intending to get to know her other side and, as a result, she found herself.

As the sunlight kissed its goodnight to the ground, Buffy made her way to her watcher's apartment. Her melancholy mood was buoyed a little by the whispering through her link to the blond vampire that was telling her that he was almost ready to come home.

A slight skip was added to her brisk pace as her mood lightened. While she was waiting for her future mate she decided that now was the perfect time to discuss with Giles what the full slayer calling meant to her, to Spike and to their future.

"Buffy, is it possible for you to communicate with your slayer side?" Giles asked as the two of them took seats in the watcher's small living room.

"What? You mean, like, mental convo or something?"

"Precisely." With a considered look, Giles made a suggestion. "Unless, of course, you would be willing to allow her to surface so that I may speak to her directly?"

Reaching into herself, Buffy brought forward her inner being, figuring that letting that side speak to her watcher face to face, so to speak, would save them all a lot of time and her a hell of a lot of patience.

Luminous lavender eyes focused on the suddenly tense watcher. He had not been prepared for the blonde's easy acquiescence. To say that he was slightly unnerved by the eyes that seemed to reflect age and wisdom would have been a serious understatement.

"What is it you wish to know?" the Being asked curiously. This human mattered greatly to her conduit and for that reason alone she was prepared to speak with him.

"You are a separate entity to my slayer," he stated cautiously, waiting for confirmation.

"I am a separate entity from Buffy. I am the power behind the slayer line. I gift those I chose with their powers, but have held back the majority of this so that the Chosen Two can inherit the full magnitude of their rightful gifts. I do so for the sake of balance. The girls that I bless are mine. They do not belong to the fools of the Council any more than the elders who believed they were responsible for creating the first slayer so long ago. I am, was and will be. Once this Chosen faced her destiny with the Master, I gave the fools their puppet and then the Slayer that they deserved, as I settled within this one to await the prophesised time," the ancient power informed him, her cold smile showing the deliberateness of her actions. "The Council now have a slayer that will treat them with exactly the same respect they have always treated my Chosen...her time on this plane will be long and she will be the last."

Giles was horrified at the prospect of a world without slayers. "But, their mission? Surely the balance will be swayed if the chosen protector is someone like Faith or worse - no slayer at all."

She laughed in amusement. "The council wished a slayer of their own; I have merely given them what they wanted. My chosen champion and her mate will protect the balance. They are eternal and neither would allow themselves to become pawns of the Council. All will be as it should once the mating is complete."

"How will this change Buffy?" he asked tremulously.

"Once the mating is complete, I shall pass on their birth-rite to my two champions and my time here will be done. This vessel had made the mistake of believing me to be her slayer side and believed that once she had embraced that aspect of herself we would be one. But, by willingly allowing me to use her body she has enabled the truth to be known. She is aware of all that we say. My time is almost done in this realm. Once I leave this girl will become what she was, but with additional powers and full knowledge of her gifts...as will her mate."

"The Council will not willingly accept these changes," Giles cautioned, his trepidation for the daughter of his heart palpable.

Lavender eyes softened as she smiled at the concerned man. "Nothing can harm her while I reside within, now that she has accepted my presence. Once I leave she will share his invulnerability. However, you should suggest to him that he will need to conceal it within."

"Invulnerable? Conceal what?" the confused watcher asked.

"You must ask him that question; it is not my tale to tell."

"Will this new invulnerability protect her from magic?" Giles pursued, unwilling to argue with what he suspected was some sort of deity. "The Council is sure to use magic if all else fails."

"Humans that willingly chose to become involved in the supernatural world are subject to its laws and judgements. Should the fools attempt to harm my Chosen with their limited powers they will be judged for their actions. The Guardians of the Gates not only stop any from entering from other, more violent, realms...they will also send those from here to their destined endplace. They are judge and jury. Their punishments are final. They have power over the supernatural of this realm and are charged with the duty of balance."

"But as life bonded mates, does that not mean that they are tied to Buffy's mortality rather than Spike's immortality?" Giles asked with desperation, sure that the new duty his kind-hearted slayer now faced would break her.

"While one lives, so does the other."

Giles closed his eyes, trying to wrap his mind around the ramifications of what he was hearing. His slayer would be invulnerable because of something that Spike had. She would not be influenced by magic. Quite apart from her normal duties of keeping the balance of violent demons in Sunnydale even, she would be responsible for judging humans that affected the balance by delving into the world of the supernatural, which meant that she may, at some stage, have to send a human to hell.

He was terribly afraid of what that would do to her, because he very much doubted that that sort of power would leave her unaffected.

Lost within the depths of his thoughts, Giles was at first unaware of the static change in the air around him. His first indication that there might be a problem came when the hair on his body stood in response. His eyes snapped open to see Buffy floating within an electrically charged bubble. Her arms were extended in divine supplication; her head thrown back and her mouth open wide in a silent scream.

Giles bounded to his feet then froze, completely clueless as to how to aid his charge.

'SLAYER!' Spike's voice reverberated through her.

Simultaneously Buffy's head snapped forward, her mouth closed and her eyes snapped open. "THEY DARE!" she snarled gutturally in indignant rage.

Floating back down to the ground she pulled her powers back, but the combination of her eye colour and the fury that contorted her features made her almost unrecognisable to her watcher.

Twisting her head slowly to face the frozen Brit, the feral beauty snarled out her proclamation, "There will be judgement tonight."

Giles watched as the walking personification of retribution stormed out of his apartment and for once his fear was for the denizens of the night.

She stalked towards her goal, struggling to soothe the frightened girl within.

Once She had had a name, so long ago that the memory of it had faded. She knew that it would return to her with her passing back through the veil to the higher realms, but She didn't care. For now the only thing that mattered was the fulfilment of the prophecy that was being threatened by arrogant humans who had no idea what they were doing.

Her ire was compounded with the knowledge that this was not her duty. This was the obligation of the Guardians, but the Chosen Two could not do their jobs until they had been gifted with her powers on their joining.

She had waited so long for this; so long for the completion of her mission. She'd had to watch as girl after girl was betrayed by the very beings that had pledged to support them. She had been forced to do nothing while the ones she had chosen were stripped of her protection then forced to face the barbaric ritual that the power hungry beasts of the Council had instigated in an effort to gain more control. She had not been allowed to judge those that had taken it upon themselves to kill her slayer when that girl showed the initiative to think for herself; to learn the truth about the nature of demons; to choose not to slay those that offered no threat.

She relished the fact that the vessel she now protected had already removed herself from the grip of the betrayers, but knew that it had only been allowed because they had believed the petite blonde to no longer be important; no longer of the line. Fools! They would be judged in time; her only regret was that she would not be the one to sentence them.

She didn't pause as She reached the mouth of the caves that would lead her to the underground instillation where the intended mate of her vessel was imprisoned. She sensed him above all the other frightened beings that cried out to her for justice. His fear enraged her as his beast continued to call to her for aid.

Heavy steel double doors fell before her when she sent a small pulse of her power towards them. Cell after cell was depleted of energy as she sucked the electricity that operated them into her surrounding field. Demon after demon escaped from their cells and out the way she had come in. Not one of them challenged her in any way.

She ignored the shouts of alarm from the humans in white coats. The ones in green that tried to fire their energy weapons at her screamed in pain as the energy rebounded on them.

More doors fell as she continued to move forward.  She was oblivious to the small explosions that seemed to surround her as bullets ignited when they came in contact with the field of electricity that surrounded her.

A huge cavernous room housed a frenzy of activity as human after human attempted to impede her progress, but each and every one of them were brushed aside like irritating gnats.

She paused when she saw the demons that were undergoing surgery then quickly disposed of them, ignoring the screams of protest from the white coats as she dispassionately watched the bodies dissolve.

She moved up a small flight of stairs and through another door that uselessly functioned to bar her way.

A door to her left caught her attention, something within calling to the elemental depths of her nature.

The manufactured creature that lay partially completed on a table incensed her; the very existence of the abomination caused the girl within to cry out in outrage. With a wave of her hand She drained the power source, and then used the borrowed power to melt the remains of the aberrant insult to nature.

Returning to her path, oblivious to the shouts and crashes around her and unconcerned with the humans in green that threw themselves at and were rejected by the energy field that surrounded her, She moved with unerring accuracy towards her goal- the vampire that belonged to her vessel.

As She neared the door that separated him from her she heard his maniacal giggle and the raspy but mocking tone of his voice as he spoke to whomever was with him.

"You'll see...oh, you two are bloody well in for it now...you've really brassed her off!"

He wasn't wrong.