Time definitely didn't fly when you weren't having fun.

Buffy kicked a rock on the grass and muttered grumpily under her breath. Her patrol buddy for the night was not the one she wanted, no way was this one a scrumptiously shaped vampire who could kiss her until her eyes crossed and her toes curled. Nope, instead she was stuck with Cordy the Sarah Connor wannabe. Buffy sighed and wondered for the umpteenth time what Spike was doing. Giles had been all with the bad moody and said that she and Cordelia had to patrol so that the newbie could get some more fighting experience. Part of Buffy realised that this was a good thing. Angelus had been efficient in his tormenting of Cordelia, leaving toy surprises like dead cheerleaders all over campus and it was time for him to be dust in the wind. After she'd grudgingly agreed he'd then taken Spike aside and they'd had some muttered conversation which led to Spike's face dropping and then clouding with anger. Buffy frowned, wondering what the hell that had been about; Spike had lit out of the library as if his duster was on fire, closely followed by a puffing Xandershape.

"Hsst, wake up," Cordelia's voice whispered across the moonlit cemetery. She waved her hand, gesturing for the preoccupied blonde to join her.

"What's up?" Buffy slide down into a crouch next to the short-haired girl and peeped around the gravestone. Her eyes widened in surprise, "whoa, what the hell is that?" She eyed the lump of grey slime with trepidation; her shoes were new and so cute and not ready to be sacrificed to the altar of Slayerdom.

"Dunno, but it's gross and slimy and I think we need to squish it!" Cordelia exclaimed and then leapt up with a banshee yell and did a series of flips over to the unsuspecting demon. Her agility and years of cheerleading practise gave her a gymnastic edge over the the original Scoobies who were also not blessed with the Slayer gene. Buffy had to admit that she was not a hindrance like Willow and Xander usually where; with Cordy she could trust her to fight without having to watch her all the time. Between herself, Spike and Giles the intensive training they'd given Cordelia was paying off. Now all they could hope was that the emotional damage would slowly heal. Though Buffy kinda doubted it'd be quick, the taller girl's admission earlier on about having to dust her parents combined with the absence of plastic surgeon bound Harmony for the last week all equalled meltdown in her book. 'But hey, Harmony kinda deserved the smack down and it isn't as if that was her real nose in the first place.'

"Buffy, need a hand here," Cordelia grunted through punches and kicks with the endangered demon.

With that Buffy pulled out the stake Spike had given her and pressed the release that she'd found on it releasing the silver stiletto blade thus winning her the stake off Spike.

With a holler she leapt into the fray slicing and dicing as she went.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Are you sure?"

"Look at it," Spike growled.

"Don't wanna." Xander squeezed shut his eyes and shook his head. "Not good, I'll have nightmares."

"Look you nit, shutting your eyes and shaking your noggin isn't going to make it all go away." Spike hit the teen on the back of the head with the leather bound book they'd 'liberated' from Angel's old flat. He hoped that the smack might actually knock some sense into the nit, he may like the boy but sometimes the pup just made him want to run screaming down Main Street tearing his peroxided hair out.

The two of them had gone off at Giles's behest to retrieve the small book that Spike had mentioned in passing earlier. The avid gleam in the Watcher's eyes signalling that the Codex might be significant had not been missed by the observant vampire. Spike rubbed his chin thoughtfully, up until recently he had thought that he'd read anything of significance about slayers. But he'd been wrong and now he was buggered. Spike castigated himself for not flicking through the cursed thing before mentioning it to Rupes. The two of them had done so and the prophecy they'd stumbled over wasn't good. It didn't bode well for Buffy. 'Well sod that, we'll find a way to cheat this effing hermit's wet dream.'

Spike glared at the starkly painted walls of the abandoned room which was now being used to store the boxes of the recently unsouled vampire. Spike had been the one to reluctantly go and pack up the contents after making sure he was safe from home invasions from the Grand Poobah. Best way was by signing over the deeds of the building to an unsuspecting Slayer. He'd managed to circumvent the whole 'having to be invited in' by being inside the building whilst signing the papers. Spike grinned. Little did Buffy know she was now the proud owner of a substantial real estate portfolio. He made a mental note to make sure to tell her—someday. The sight of Angelus hammering on the invisible barrier later that night had taken the sting out of the entire procedure for Spike. But the capper for the evening was the water balloons filled with holy water that he and the whelp had launched on the git and his she-bitch, driving them both off cursing into the night. 'He loved the scent of burning vamp skin in the evening.'

"Hey, enough with the smacking of the head. The brain cells are few and far between as it is and the less damage the better. I'm not like Giles who can afford to be knocked out over and over and still have the book smarts." Xander ducked and poked Spike in the ribs in self defence and inadvertently discovered the so-called Big Bad's secret weakness. "Oh my god, you're such a girl!" he exclaimed happily and proceeded to tickle the squirming vampire into a snickering puddle on the floor.

"Leave off, this is serious." Spike hated that he'd lost serious cool points with the giggles and the wriggling. He also wondered at the sanity of the boy that after being presented with a written prophecy of the death of his friend. 'Wonder if his mum dropped him on the head often?'

"Shhhh, come join me in the land of denial, it's a pretty place with nice happy views." Xander stood and offered a hand to pull Spike up. "Look, shiny lights."

"We need to get this to Giles and get working on a solution to this." Spike tucked away the small tattered Pergamum Codex he'd found amongst the few books of poetry Angel pretended to read when he'd wanted to appear broody—but Spike now knew his real addiction. The piles of worn and dog eared Harlequin bodice rippers he'd found hidden under his grandsire's bed had given him away.

"Yeah I know, but what can we do?" Xander's face darkened with determination. "We have to make sure this doesn't happen."

Spike rocked on his heels and pondered the dilemma. "Let me think on it as we head back."

"Good and maybe I might get inspired too." Xander stuffed his hands into his pockets and aimed a hard kick at one of the boxes, nodding in satisfaction at the sound of glass breaking.

"Vandal."

"Bloodsucker."

"Utter git."

"Stuck in a '80's fashion rut."

"Whelp with a Hawaii Five O fixation."

"Slayer sniffer."

"Xander, that's disgusting!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"You know, there was a time when all this slime on your clothes would've lead to 'ewww gross' and me having to foot massive dry cleaning bills." Buffy sank down next to Cordelia who was lying flat on her back on top of the mausoleum they had climbed onto.

"Yeah well, there was a time when I wasn't emotionally scarred and my parents weren't dust in my dustpan," she responded dryly. She ran her fingers through her short hair pointedly and then tucked her arms behind her head, fingers laced together.

Buffy glanced hesitantly over at the silent girl and opened her mouth to say something and then snapped it shut.

"Spill already, less with the guppy impersonations," Cordelia managed a small smile to take the sting out of her words. Of all of them, Buffy and Spike she considered friends and if Buffy had a question then far be it for her to be all Miss Avoidy. It was bad for her skin, all the repressing the others did. She'd wondered if Xander was deliberately pretending not to realise that Willow had the hots for him. Cordy had spotted that fairly early on and tried to get Willow to say something, but her people skills had never been of the good and they sure as hell were lacking since Angel had gone all Edward Scissorhands on her head and heart. The fumbled attempt to get Willow to share with Xander had led to tears from the redhead and a major headache for her. So now she ignored the two of them, it was easier.

"Are you okay?" Buffy whispered, staring fixedly at her hands.

"Getting better. Nothing like a kick in the teeth and a makeover from hell to give you new perspective on life." Cordelia sat up and crossed her legs and glared balefully at the slime that was crusting nicely on her cargo pants. "Look, I wouldn't be all care to share with anyone else but, well, with you or Spike it doesn't hurt to talk about this." She picked at some of the pale grey ooze and watched as it flaked off. She rubbed her fingers together as if testing the substance of the demon blood. "I hate him. I hate what he did to me and my parents – my friends. Sometimes when it gets really bad I wish it'd been anyone but me." She looked through her lashes at Buffy; the unspoken words, 'rather you than me' clung to the air around them. Buffy ducked her head and nodded, accepting that Cordy was only human and hell, she'd thought the exact same thing - well almost.

"If it helps, I am sorry. Maybe if I hadn't known him or, you know—" Buffy didn't want to voice the suspicions that she and Spike had discussed. The ones where it made Cordelia seem even nastier, the ones where it was only because Angel had shown interest in Buffy that she'd taken him to bed. That was in the past and the ex-cheerleader was now her friend and Buffy knew that real friends were few and far between and were to be treasured and taken care of. Cordelia had made mistakes, all of them had, but that was in the past, and now they had to learn to deal and cope with the new changes in all their lives.

"Yeah, well I guess then we'd all be very much different, but that's not what happened and now we get on with the dusting his ass and then we party."

"Ohhh, a party and we weren't invited. Well that is just plain rude."

A silky tone filled with malice interrupted the two girl's bonding moment with chilling results. It was him and he'd brought a skanky friend. A slutty looking blonde vampire, that Spike had luckily filled them all in on: Angelus's sire Darla, the favourite of the Master. Buffy frowned down at the short woman, bad thoughts filling her head with ideas that she'd rather not entertain. 'Ewww, he was only stalking me cos I'm short and blonde, he was searching for a substitute for his sire.' Shaking the icky thoughts out of her head, Buffy rolled onto her knees, her eyes never leaving the newly reunited vamp couple.

Buffy glanced over at Cordelia and rose smoothly; taking advantage of their position, she glared down her nose at Angelus and his momma from Hell. "What do you want?" She crossed her arms, making a show of the silver handled stake gripped calmly in her hands. Cordelia stood up and glared down at the vampire who'd humiliated her and turned her family into monsters she'd had to put down like rabid dogs. She was acutely conscious of her looks in comparison to the dainty blonde vampiress super-glued to his side and her vocal cords paralysed. "Eww, the Catholic school girl outfit is kinda erring on the side of gross, isn't it?" Buffy mocked. "What happened? You woke up one night and realised an entire generation had passed you by so you thought, 'oh hey, I'll catch up by watching lame ass John Hughes films?'"

"Shut up, you nasty little girl," Darla hissed through her fangs. Not even looking at Buffy, she focused on the girl her darling boy had taken to his bed; the Slayer was inconsequential at the moment. She was here for blood and it was the tall girl's she wanted to bathe in. She snarled at Cordelia, aching to rip her throat out and destroy the child who'd dared to sleep with her Angelus.

"Awww, gonna cry?" Buffy mocked and casually flicked her stake in her hand, Spike's words from training earlier on echoing in her head. 'A Slayer must always reach for her weapon', then he'd gone all fangy and snarled and bounced around her like a Furbie on acid, teasing her that he already had his. It had stuck in her brain on repeat and now she was mentally thanking him.

"Jeez, that's the best you can come up with, you freak in a kilt?" Cordelia's voice was strong and even as she pulled herself up to her full height and stared daggers at the two vampires.

"Ohhh, has the little girl got her spine back?" Darla slithered around Angelus, trailing her hand over his broad back and chuckling lightly. "Was wondering if Angelus had hacked it out of you along with your hair?" she mocked cruelly and patted her blonde locks pointedly, saccharine venom dripping of each word.

"Please, as if!" Cordelia reached into her jacket pocket and her fingers curled around the cool bottle she had tucked in there earlier. "As one night stands go, it didn't rate much on the Richter scale. Come on, from one girl unfortunately in the know to another, you gotta agree he hasn't got much going on in the trouser department." She raised her free hand and pointedly wriggled her pinky finger. "Not that big actually...was a bit of a disappointment really." She set her chin firmly and dared Angelus to refute the truth.

Before Darla could lie through her gnarled teeth, Angelus growled and launched himself at the mausoleum, a litany of curses and hissed threats falling from his mouth. Darla was close on his heels, howling angrily at the continued taunts about her fashion victim looks and how easily she must be satisfied with the weenie. They were stalled in their tracks by the shattering of glass on Angelus's forehead and the ominous hiss of flesh burning.

"Paybacks a bitch and guess what? I'm one too," Cordelia yelled as she pulled another vial of holy water out of her pocket and threw it at Darla, hitting her square in the neck. She looked down impassively at Angelus, her face blank, not revealing her irreverent thoughts; 'Omg, what did I ever see in him? Those leather pants make his ass look huoooge!' Instead she focused on causing the maximum amount of damage she could.

"I am going to kill you, little girl. Mark my words, it'll be painful and drawn out and you will suffer through hell before the end and will die begging for release," Angelus snarled, blinking through the smoke that was issuing from his burnt skin.

"Yeah, you and what army, fat ass! From here it looks like you're going a whiter shade of pale with the pain this so called little girl has inflicted on you and hey, I've only just started, Peaches," she taunted. With each word her mental wounds healed, bring out a stronger and more determined aspect of her psyche.

"Cordy, go you!" Buffy praised her as she crouched down to jump off the crypt and throw herself into the fray.

"Wait, I have something else." The taller girl pulled out a plastic bottle and something else. She squirted the two growling vampires and then flicked a match and dropped it on their heads, igniting the lighter fluid she'd sprayed on them. A Spike special, one of many dirty tricks he'd taught them all despite Giles tutting in disapproval in the background.

"Let 'em burn."

~~~~~~~~~~~

"Does this read like I think it does?" Spike tapped the pages impatiently, his slim frame taut with tension. Behind him he could hear Xander shuffling worriedly from one foot to the other. Giles humphed under his breath and waved the tense vampire away and kept reading, the priceless volume of slayer lore cradled in his hands.

"Ruddy ponce." Spike flopped into one of the chairs and slammed his booted feet up on the library table; he patted his pockets searching for...

"Don't even think of lighting that," Giles's voice brooked no discussion.

"He's the same when I get the Twinkies out, eyes in the back of his head. You know me and Willow actually checked once, cos you never know here on the Hellmouth. It could happen." Xander slumped down next to the bristling vampire and patted him on the elbow. "Here, try this. I got a pack for you incase Giles wigged." Xander handed the pack of nicotine gum to Spike and slouched down in his chair, unconsciously mimicking his partner in book crime. Spike started at the innocuous pack of gum in surprise, then peeked at Xander from the corner of his eyes, subtly checking to see if it was a trick. Spike shook his head and opened the gift. He tossed a couple of sticks into his mouth and began chewing as loudly as he could.

"Have you shown this to Buffy?" Giles muttered.

"When? As Xander and I legged it back here? What, do you think we made a quick detour and popped in on the Slayer to frighten her to bits with a spine tingling prophecy predicting doom and gloom?" Spike managed to refrain from rolling his eyes and contented himself with cracking his knuckles.

"Right...well...I think we need to think about this. Before we take any action." Giles closed the tome gently and then leapt six foot in the air. Spike had moved in the blink of an eye, game face on and growling into his surprised visage. "I say..."

"No you bloody well don't." Spike growled and reached over and lifted Giles from his feet by the lapels and gave him a good shake. Xander slipped behind Spike and offered silent support. "There will be no thinking about this before we do anything. First thing to do is to tell the Slayer and then we go and rip the old git's dried up heart out and set fire to the rest of him."

"Well really, I don't agree and I am her Watcher. Last thing we need is to put her off balance. Best to keep this quiet."

"What, until she's dead?" Spike asked sarcastically. "Honestly, you lot take the biscuit. Your all too happy to throw your charges to the lions and sit back and nod and tut and say 'oh dear, well it was predicted'. God forbid you actually try and do something to stop it – prophecies are mutable at the best of times, you great ninny." Spike shook Giles again; the Watcher's glasses went flying across the library floor. "No wonder slayers die young – if all they have for help is cowards like you lot."

"Yeah, what he said and also a 'hey!' for the secret keepage. Buffy needs to know about this. Otherwise it could lead to badness and tears," Xander echoed though much less eloquently.

"Needs to know what? Hey Giles, you dropped your glasses and Spike, put my watcher down." Buffy's voice was calm and level as she and Cordelia walked through the swing doors into the stress filled room.

Anger and fangs melted off Spike's face at her dulcet tones and he unceremoniously dropped Giles on his backside and slithered over to Buffy. "Hullo luv, you smell like fire and dust. Had a good night fighting things that go bump and all that?" He ghosted a kiss over her cheek and reached down and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "Alright, Princess?" He glanced over at Cordy and grinned.

"Cool, I set fire to Angelus and Darla the wonder ho! It was awesome," Cordelia practically bounced over to Xander and Giles. "Why is Giles on his ass and what's with the bad moodies?"

"Slayer, pet – now don't get your knickers in a knot over this, cos I promise I will do everything I can do to stop it and the only way it'll happen will be over my dusted body." Spike looked down at her, the fierce determination in his eyes calming her slightly and reassuring her she wasn't alone in whatever he was talking about.

Buffy shivered nervously. "Okaaaay, kinda scaring the untwisty panties off me here, so spill already."

"Will do but firstly, well done Princess with the Peaches and Slapper incineration, hope it hurt before they dusted?" Spike was stunned that the cheerleader had managed it, killing the worst two of his cadre.

"Weeell, they're not dusty...yet, but we got em good." Cordelia pulled Giles up, patted him down and returned his glasses to the now flustered older man.

Spike's head snapped around and his eyes narrowed. "They're not dust?" A chill ran down his spine. "Not good, all you've done is piss 'em off even more," he revealed as he chewed his lower lip worriedly. "They'll be back for vengeance; we need to get to them before they get any of us."

"Spike, what the hell were you and Giles fighting about? Less with the voice of gloom over Angelus and Darla and more with telling of the story tothestartingtofreakoutBuffy, please." Buffy's voice swooped up into the high pitched frequency of anger and panic as she spoke.

"Right," Spike grimaced. He had tabled the Peaches problem. it wasn't as important as his Slayer, and he turned Buffy to face him. He gripped her shoulders firmly, trying to calm her with his touch. He caught her eyes with his and stared down steadily and reassuringly. "Found a prophecy and well—" he grimaced not wanting to vocalise it.

"It says that the Master will kill the Slayer and rise from the mouth of Hell," Giles interjected, realising that it was down to him to tell his Slayer what her fate was. Once he'd listened to Spike's ravings he realised that the vampire was right and that he was wrong. Years of watcher doctrine had flown out of the proverbial window and Giles had then accepted that Buffy was more than the Slayer – she was his friend and nearest thing to family he had. She needed to know – no, deserved to know, so he had bitten the bullet and spoken up, saving Spike the pain of telling her. He sighed and waited for the outburst from his usually voluble charge, but instead there was silence. Cordelia and Xander stood frozen in their places, staring worriedly at Buffy and Spike. Spike stood as still as an obsidian statue, focussed on Buffy to the detriment of the others.

Buffy's left hand fluttered up to her throat. The other reached for one of Spike's and her mouth opened and a sigh escaped. Then she began to laugh, a strange low, forced laugh that was filled with desperation and fear. And then she spoke.

"Oh."