Bright and early the next morning, even before the sun was up, Spike and Buffy were on Giles' doorstep bearing coffee, donuts, and breakfast sandwiches from Hassib's Donut Heaven.
The two blonds were discussing the startling revelation they had been given at the donut shop. Having Hassib's wife RoseSeri sit down at the table where they were waiting and pull out legal documents was quite surprising to them. Being given ownership not only to Joyce's house, but to another house in Sunnydale, a deserted hotel in Los Angeles, a penthouse in New York City, and Spike's estate in England, was baffling. Finding out that another set of Immortal Guardians, a Slayer Sultana and her mate, had purchased the buildings in such a way they could be used by all the guardians in all dimensions was clearly mind-boggling. Both Spike and Buffy decided that they would definitely be moving into the second Sunnydale house.
While the three of them were eating, Giles watched Spike and Buffy's interactions. He decided there was something very different about both of them, he decided. Buffy was showing a girly side that the Watcher hadn't seen since her first days in Sunnydale. The vampire sitting across from him wasn't the same vampire that had been chained in the bathtub just the day before. Oh, sure, he was still a snarky arsehole, but when Spike looked at Buffy his eyes became tender and not a little bit awed.
"So, tell me about this big apocalypse of yours," Giles said. He took out a tablet to take notes on.
"Can we work up to it?" Buffy asked sheepishly. "There's a lot of story here." She gave Spike a half hearted smile. She knew that Spike was going to have a hard time with some of the events of their past becoming common knowledge with Giles. They both had done things they weren't proud of.
"Fine," Giles huffed. He put his pencil tip down on the paper. "Maybe you could start with Spike's chip."
"Don't have it any more, Watcher." Spike reached out for Buffy's hand. He needed a bit of moral support. To him it wasn't all that long ago that Giles was trying to kill him.
"It's part of the whole coming back in time thing," Buffy offered. "We have our memories, and Spike has his soul but no chip." She snapped her fingers. "Oh, and my wings are ... gone."
"Soul? Wings?" Giles bolted out of his chair and grabbed the bottle of whiskey from the kitchen bar. This was already turning out to be a lot more than he thought would be revealed. "Yes, I do believe the beginning is the best place to start." He poured himself and Spike a drink. It was too early, but what the hell?
"The U.S. government has a covert operation under the university," Buffy said. "They're trying to make an army of ultimate killing machines from humans and demons combined. That's how Spike got the chip in the first place."
"Did they succeed?" Giles gasped at the implication. Demons were bad enough to battle. He didn't want to contemplate all of the problems hybrids could wreck on the world.
"We never ran across any other chipped vamps here in Sunnyhell," Spike answered. "That doesn't mean they weren't gonna ship me off somewhere b'fore I escaped."
"I suppose by their standards Adam was a success and a failure. He was their main creation," Buffy murmured. "He was powerful. We couldn't fight him without magic."
"But they couldn't control him," Spike interjected. "He was organizin' the other demons and vampires. Even came to yours truly with a plan to get the chip out."
"How can we change this?" Giles wanted to know.
"Not sure we can. Maggie Walsh is a megalomaniac with delusions of grandeur." Buffy sighed unhappily. "She's not gonna believe that her pet project will kill her as soon as he wakes up. On the upside, I know which joining spell we used against him."
"Yeah, but that relied on the Whelp and Red being part of it," Spike grumbled. "After last night, I'm not so sure they're gonna be too friendly t'wards us. Maybe we can shut them down before that bitch gets all her parts together for Adam."
"I know we had them before, but I have you and Anya now." Buffy squeezed Spike's hand. "And, I - I think we should go talk to Tara. Include her in the group without the worry of being with us just because she's Willow's girlfriend."
Spike nodded in agreement. He had been greatly saddened when he found out about Tara's death at the hands of Warren, and not even his soul could be upset with the revenge Willow had exacted in her name. If there was one Scooby out of all of them that would be accepting of the Slayer and him having a relationship, it would be the Wicca. Spike chuckled to himself while he remembered the last time he had any real interaction with the girl.
Yeah, that was funny, Spike, Buffy laughed. Hearing sweet, innocent Tara throw out those bawdy things at you.
She knew, didn't she? Spike asked. That we were shaggin'?
After our fight, I had her check the spell to see why I came back wrong.
"Bloody hell, Buffy. Since when did you listen to me?" Spike switched from speaking to Buffy in his thoughts to out loud.
Giles jolted in his seat. One minute Spike and Buffy were looking at each other, and the next Spike was cursing. That is going to take some getting use to.
"Since that stupid love's bitch speech you made in the Magic Box, that's when." Buffy looked down at her lap. "I broke up with Angel that night, and I gotta say that was so much less heartbreaking than breaking up with you." Buffy suddenly realized that Spike and she had a rapt audience watching their every move.
"It's awfully early in the morning to throwing my name around," Anya said through a yawn. She ignored the startled looks of the other occupants of the room who realized she'd just popped in after they mentioned her name. "I did what you wanted, Buffy. That Jonathan boy is with Wesley. He's my new boyfriend. I have big plans on training him up right."
"Jonathan?" Buffy blinked. She'd never pegged Jonathan for Anya's type of 'orgasm' buddy.
"No, Wesley." Anya plopped down in one of the chairs, and she grabbed one of the donuts. "He's taking me out on a date tonight. A real date. Xander never took me out on dates." She nibbled away at the sweet confection, quite pleased with herself. "I am very glad you guys told me about his lack of commitment problems."
"Anya?" Giles looked from her to the two blonds. "What's going on here? How did she get her powers back?"
"Oh, Spike and Buffy are the Immortal Guardians." Anya was oblivious to the grimace Buffy threw her way. "They selected me as their first companion. So, I needed my powers back, but it isn't the same as before."
"We hadn't gotten that far yet," Buffy muttered. She looked at Giles and sighed. "Got your pencil ready, Giles? Okay, here goes. Dawn's the Key. Ben is Glory, and Glory is Ben."
"You do realize he isn't gonna remember that, pet," Spike teased. He remembered the lengths he had to go to before to get the Scoobies to finally get the clue that Ben and Glory were sharing the same body.
"Shush." Buffy slapped Spike on the arm. "Glorye's a Hellgod that wants to open the portal between the dimensions to go home. I died to close the portal, because I love my sister. Willow, Tara, Xander and Anya resurrected me. They thought I was in Hell, but I was in heaven."
"Slow down, Buffy," Giles said while he wrote frantically. "Willow did a resurrection spell? Didn't she realize how dangerous that was?" His glasses were nearly broken with the speed he ripped themoff his face to rub the lenses.
"She didn't care, Giles." Buffy closed her eyes. "I was sad and lonely and depressed. After a knock-down drag out fight with Spike where we discovered the chip didn't work on me, he and I had a very, not so nice sexual relationship. He loves me, and he was doing what he could to help, but I was so damaged, Giles." Her eyes filled with tears, and they leaked down her cheeks from beneath her closed lids. "I was not in a good place. I abused him until he fought back. Thing is, I told Angel that Spike knows me, and he does. He knew I loved him, tried to tell me more than once, and... and... "
"What the Slayer is trying to tell you is I tried to rape her, but I stopped," Spike said softly.
"What?" Giles shouted while he jumped to his feet. "He did what?"
"Sit down, Giles," Buffy sighed. She opened her eyes to stare at her Watcher. She wouldn't let him take out his anger and hatred at Spike this time around. "I forgave him long ago. Even before he left town on his quest to 'give me what I deserve' and ended up with his soul. If I'd wanted vengeance on him, all I would have done was ask Anya. She was all vengeancy demon because of Xander dumping her at the altar."
"Need to tell him what else was goin' on at the time, luv," Spike said, again in a soft voice.
"Yeah, I know." Buffy wiped the tears off her face. Even the memories brought enough pain forward to make her cry. "Tara was shot by Warren Meers. This guy thinks he's some kinda big bad. Willow went off the deep end, Giles. That spell yesterday? It's nothing. She tried to end the world all by herself, and she almost succeeded."
"The girl has power, Rupes, lots of power," Spike grunted. "Right before we came here, she made all the potentials into Slayers."
"What?" Giles was dumbfounded.
"You like saying that, huh?" Buffy asked. "We were fighting the First Evil. The vampires down there in the Hellmouth give the Master a run for his money in the ugly department." She shuddered at the memory. "Harder than Hell to kill, too. You have to chop off their heads."
"The First Evil returns?" Giles' jaw dropped. "How?"
"Magic has consequences," Buffy answered. "A very wise man said that to us once." She squeezed Spike's hand tenderly. "The resurrection caused the First to get a much stronger foothold in our dimension. At least that's what the Eye of Whatchamacallit tell you and Anya when you go visit it."
"How did you get here?" Giles asked.
"Peaches showed up with a little trinket in hand," Spike growled. Even with Buffy's declaration and the subsequent mating, the blond vampire was still unsure of himself.
"Yes, Angel had a necklace to be worn by someone with a soul, but stronger than human." Buffy smiled sweetly at the vampire. "A champion. He wanted to wear it himself, but he wasn't my champion anymore. He hadn't been in very long time."
"You gave it to Spike, didn't you?" Anya piped up. "Ensouled, but stronger than human."
"Yes, I gave it to Spike to wear," Buffy answered. "He's my champion. He stayed to take care of Dawn after I died. I knew he would, just like when he promised he'd make sure you didn't get killed, Giles. He did those things without a soul."
"What are you talking about, Buffy?" Giles was perplexed. The only time Spike had made sure he wasn't hurt was at the hands of Angelus. "You can't mean when Angelus had me?"
"Don't you r'member me avertin' Angelus with his chainsaw?"
"I - I didn't realize that you did that for Buffy," Giles uttered in a whisper. "H-how come you never told me, Buffy?"
Buffy shrugged her shoulders as she said, "I never knew how to bring it up. You never asked about that part of the fight. It's part of why I made you invite Spike into your house in the first place. I knew if he came to me - to us - for help, he must really need it." She looked down at her lap, her face flushed with embarrassment. "And, back then, I was a little mad about the whole thing with Parker. Spike called me on my stupidity, like always, and I was ticked off."
"Called you on the stupidity that was Captain Cardboard, too, didn't I?"
"Ugh, don't remind me," Buffy growled. "We need to keep a better eye on those vamp whorehouses this time around."
"You know, you should just select Giles as your next companion," Anya piped up. "It would make things so much easier, you know."
Spike and Buffy were startled by Anya's suggestion. They were surprised they hadn't considered it yet, but after a brief silent conversation they decided it was a good idea. They each took one of Giles' hands, and a glow went through the three of them. Buffy rushed around the table to hug her Watcher. She was glad to finally have him on their side after so many years of disapproval and heartache.
"I've missed you so much, Giles!" Buffy hugged the Watcher even tighter. "Things started to go bad, and I never thought I could have you back like this. I swear we won't let all that crap happen again between us."
"I need to breathe," Giles squeaked. He was sure he felt one of his ribs give under the pressure of his Slayer's hug. "Why don't we sit down, and we can go over the details of what happens over the next few years."
Details were discussed and plans were made. Giles and Anya got together with Mr. Bogerty from the Magic Box to make the purchase plans. Spike and Buffy ran Harmony out of town, mainly because Spike still had a soft spot for the ditzy blond vampiress. Then, they approached Tara, and they brought her into their little group without the influence of Willow. Together they defeated The Gentleman before any of the deaths occurred. Both Willow and Xander were still in their snits, but Joyce responded wonderfully to any suggestion that Buffy made regarding the future. It was then that both Spike and Buffy decided that she would be their third companion. No illness was taking Joyce Summers from them this time.
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"Amon, are you sure we're in the right place?" Caly wrinkled his nose in disgust. The burned building had a pungent, rotting odor to it that offended the male hell-god's senses.
"Yes, Caly!" Amon growled. "We're on the Hellmouth."
"I thought it would be more... I don't know... spectacular, you know." Caly looked around the room. "This really is quite disappointing."
"You can't have everything you want in life, brother. Besides we have things we need to get done." Amon eyed the stairs while he tried to determine if they were sturdy enough to climb. "It's very odd, you know. Can you feel it, too?"
"Yes, the Key is losing its power."
"Glorificus is going to be most displeased." Amon's grin was evil and slick.
"We must find the Guardians and fast," Caly muttered. He grimaced at the stairs before he trudged up them while he prayed they didn't collapse under his feet.