Epilogue
10 years later
Deedan dimension
Earth New Refugee community
"Mommy! Daddy"
Spike and Buffy braced for impact. Two children ran full tilt into their arms. The older was a girl with long, light brown, curly hair and startling deep blue eyes. The younger was a small boy just past toddler stage with straight, auburn hair- currently looking like an untidy mop. His eyes were hazel, slowly darkening to a light brown.
Dawn watched her niece and nephew greet their parents from the kitchen doorway. She smiled at the scene. "So where did they send you this time?" she asked.
"Mega mudslide, near where Andrew and his friends live."
"They okay?"
"Yeah, met up with him, in fact."
"He helped turn the slide away from some homes"
"They told them five years ago they'd pulled down too many trees, now they are living with that consequence."
"Thankfully no one died."
"That one kid we rescued though, close thing there."
"And the hysterical mom we had to restrain as the other team brought out her three kids from the collapsed house."
"Yeah got covered in mud head to foot, and it wasn't us wrestling luv" Spike leered.
"Spike!" Both Dawn and Buffy said disapprovingly, but Buffy was half smiling.
Spike laughed, he doubted the kids would understand the suggestive comment, and what harm was in it anyway?
"Oh Buffy think they'll be calling you in to do the greeting, debriefing thing with a girl from Earth, and I think I heard she's one of the new Slayer army kids."
"So we may see Willow on the other side of the portal?"
"That's a definite yes. I just got called in to stabilize it, so it's not all on her."
"Do they know why she's having to come here?"
"Didn't hear much on the details, something about her throwing stuff off in that dimension."
Buffy sighed. "I thought our leaving had fixed the Earth dimension problem."
"No, there's something still unstable there. We've been researching for years, but nada on the reason. But almost any misuse of magic can throw it into crisis."
"Could it still be us?"
"No."
"Oh! They gave me this to give you about the whole thing." Dawn handed Buffy a disk.
"Let's watch it now." Buffy glanced at Dawn and Spike. Even though neither was officially connected to the office, with the girl being from Earth and a Slayer she knew they'd be curious.
Buffy smiled when she saw Barbara had directed this assignment her way rather than to Valerie and Irene. Barbara had recorded part of the information, as usual. Barbara felt delivering the information personally was better than just sending a 'dry' report. And honestly, Buffy sort of agreed with her. Some of the other higher ups would just send the documents, and she had to wade through everything trying to pull out the important details. With Barbara's briefings she could hear what was important, then just skim over all the documents seeing if anything else jumped out at her.
"Buffy, I knew you were the right person for this job. You would have some tenuous connections to the girl, and the others sending her through are your old friends. I know you'll love seeing them again, even if briefly. With Dawn stabilizing the portal you should have approximately an hour to speak to one another if all goes well."
"If something doesn't attack or another disaster." Dawn commented
"They were able to pass through some information on the girl. She was six years old when the Slayer spell activated her. Her name is Emi, she is Japanese by birth, but has lived most of the past 10 years in Cleveland with the other Slayers in training. She was one of the youngest found in the first search. I don't know if you met her or not." Barbara held up a picture of a pretty Asian child "This is what she looked like then. The picture and a current one is also on this disk so you can look at it in more detail."
"Does she look familiar to you, Dawn? I know I don't recognize her."
"Maybe, I'm not sure. It's been 10 years, you know."
"Apparently she got in trouble with magic when she tried to resurrect her boyfriend, who had been recently killed in an attack. Her boyfriend was a werewolf. She had hidden the relationship from the others, but one of your friends discovered it, shortly before the boy died."
"I bet it was Willow." Dawn said. "Xander and Giles had a fight and he left."
If it was Willow, she must have had some major Oz flashback issues." Buffy commented.
Spike nodded, but then looked thoughtful. "Unless with Rupert under Red's lock and key Harris decided to go and help out."
"True."
"Lets see if Barbara tells us."
"After her boyfriend's untimely death Emi tried to secretly resurrect him via a spell. She discovered one amongst some computer files of your friend. Apparently not the same spell used for your resurrection Buffy, but an alternate that could be performed by a single person."
"Definitely Willow's stuff. So Emi is a bit of a hacker as well."
"The spell was briefly successful, but then he died again turned into a flesh eating zombie and she had to kill him"
"Oh God." Buffy, Spike and Dawn said in unison.
After a few moments of silence Buffy shook her head in sympathy for the girl and for Willow. She also felt some empathy, she hadn't been much older when she'd had to kill Angel because he'd opened up the hell dimension that would have destroyed the world if she hadn't.
Barbara's briefing continued, "Doing that spell made her a destabilizing agent. Your friends have tried to repair the damage. Unfortunately there is not a healing spell strong enough that wouldn't cause as many problems. Sending her here was the least damaging solution they could find."
"Poor kid" Buffy murmured.
"You are the only people here she has even a remote connection to. I'm hoping you don't mind that I've recommended you as well as Spike and Dawn be her guides as well. As she is alone and so young Emi would need to stay with her guides for a least a year before she could strike off on her own."
"So are you going to say yes, Buffy?" Dawn asked.
"Of course, that is, if it's okay with both of you?"
"Yeah, if I could put up with a house full of Potentials for months, I can tolerate one Slayer in Training I guess."
"Same here"
"Okay I'll tell Barbara we're on for it."
Later in their bedroom Buffy groused, "It would have to be a mudslide our first call."
"Still don't feel clean yet, luv? We could take a shower." He leered.
Buffy giggled mischievously she still loved the bad boy Spike as much as always. She loved the other parts of him as well, but something about that bad boy part made her want to do whatever he'd suggest and feel a guilt free naughtiness at the same time. "Well, what are you waiting for?" She teased and took his arm, leading him toward the shower.
"Eager, pet?" A broad grin was added to the leer.
Buffy playfully gave him a flash of her tough look then grinned back, "You bet I am, Spikey!" What had once been a nasty belittling of his name had long since become teasing challenge that let him know she was as interested in being 'naughty' as he was. She'd give as good as she got, if not more. But unlike long ago when that was her way of hiding her love for him behind acts that were designed to be just raw expressions of lust that she wanted to be as ugly as possible, this was high passion, love and lust as one.
The past had been overcome, the memories were there but they no longer shadowed ever action for either of them.
After an enjoyable time in the shower, floor and finally the bed, they cuddled and kissed for a while in the afterglow. Then they drifted off into a peaceful sleep.
Buffy felt both anxious and happy as she waited in the arrival field with Spike and Dawn. If Willow started the spell on time the initial portal should be opening any time now.
Buffy looked over at Spike and saw him bouncing back and forth on his toes. If not for the space limitations due to the area needed for the portal spell she knew he'd be pacing.
Spike went over for the thousandth time what he would say to the little Slayer in Training to try to put her at ease around a vampire- well sort of a vampire anyway. He still thought of himself as one. Buffy thought of all of them, herself included, as "sort of mongrels", using his long ago joking words. She had come to accept things as they were.
Spike wished he could be that comfortable but he still felt oddly out of place, what was he really? Buffy knew of this- they tried not to hide things from each other anymore. She didn't dismiss his feelings, but didn't completely understand why he felt that way in this world where most people were "mongrels". He'd been a soulless vampire though, for over 120 years, human for 30 years before that, and a souled full vampire for a bit over a year, a ghost for three months, and this odd midway between vampire and human for a bit over 10 years.
Buffy had been in this current state longer than she'd been the Slayer, going toward the amount of time she'd thought she was just a typical southern Californian girl. Maybe in twenty years he'd be completely used to this version of himself. He hoped his uncertainly didn't have an effect on their kids. Spike shrugged the train of thought off, he was treading dangerously close to brooding territory. Maybe it was time to do what Buffy suggested the first couple of time he brought up these feelings, talk to Iris about it. Buffy had bonded with their guides Valerie and Irene more than he had, but Iris was an old friend of sorts. Wouldn't hurt to talk and see how long it took her to feel comfortable as essentially a sort of dampire.
Dawn felt excited but relaxed. It would be good to see Willow again, hopefully Xander would be there too. Unlike Spike or Buffy she'd had occasional other portal side encounters with Willow the past few years.
The first time had been five years ago. The person was a witch friend of Willow's. The spell she had used had backfired and caused some ugly consequences. After the guide had come for the woman, she and Willow had talked.
She told Willow how everyone was doing here and Willow got her up to speed on everyone there. Willow had hinted around the last time they'd talked that way, about a year ago. Xander and Giles had kind of patched up their friendship. That Xander had finally found someone, no surprise, another sort of demon chick, and they had gotten married a few months back.
Willow's relationship with Kennedy had long ago fizzled out, before they had even left for Deedan actually. Willow had a few other girlfriends since then, but had finally found "the real thing, like I could have had with Tara, if I hadn't been pushy." It was a friend she'd had in that English coven. They'd been friends for years then it just seemed to change over to love over time.
Dawn smiled, that's what had happened with her partner, Tory. He was a friend of a friend of Andrew's. They'd started working together on some portal transfers. They'd even taken a few jaunts into other dimensions together. One day he'd asked her if she'd like to live with him and it just felt right. They had been together two years now. They still hadn't found a permanent house they liked but had a place they rented, but seemed to spend more time at Spike and Buffy's place than their own. Spike and Tory actually got along pretty good- once Spike was assured Tory was "good folk" that is. Spike still acted like a big brother to her, it was kind of funny. Dawn liked being around their kids. It worked out for their schedules too, Dawn's work was usually at a different time of day than Buffy's and Spike's so the kids had the comfort of a family member's presence almost all the time. Tory was watching them today while they helped this girl Emi. Dawn liked how well Tory took to being an uncle to the kids. Maybe it was time to have a kid of their own. Might be nice.
Dawn saw the tell-tell shimmer that the portal was opening. Time for work now, daydream later.
"I see the girl" Spike said, his heightened senses still better than human.
Buffy and Dawn had to wait for the glow to die down but Buffy could sense the girl was a Slayer as soon as the portal opened.
Emi walked forward, her head ducked down, afraid to meet these strangers eyes. She was being sent here because she was such a failure that only the great Buffy Summers could train her. The Watcher of Ms. Summers had informed her that she had done something so monstrous that the old council's punishment would have been death after a proper chastisement. Emi shuddered contemplating that fate. Perhaps she should have killed herself after having to kill that thing she had turned Claude into and saved everyone the trouble.
Willow felt like she was reliving her past, having to see how the things she had done had affected everyone around her. It made it hard to reach out to Emi, so many emotions clouded the way.
Xander had tried to reach the girl, tell her about the times he had done horrible things. She seemed to half listen but was too lost in misery to really hear. It reminded him of Buffy how each trauma locked her farther and farther away from them, and how they had just made it worse by letting resentment at that turn into taking advantage of her, making more demands on her. And when Spike was the only one that could reach her turning that resentment on him.
Dawn smiled, Willow and Xander were both there. Then her smile faded. There at the third quarter was Giles. He looked awful, so old and haggard. He looked 30 years older, not 10. The woman at the fourth quarter must be Willow's witch girlfriend, Dawn didn't recognize her. She looked like a person that smiled easily though, a red head like Willow, but taller and maybe slightly younger.
Buffy walked up to the portal and took Emi's hand guiding her back to where Spike still stood. Emi still hadn't raised her head.
"Hullo." Spike said in his gentlest tone.
Emi slowly raised her head. She recognized the vampire Spike from school lectures. Feelings seemed to be mixed about him. Some people adored him, called him the "hero of Sunnydale," "the real vampire with a soul" and other titles of praise. Mr. Giles didn't like him much though, "that bloody prat" seemed to be a favorite description. Mr. Harris said they'd had some bad history and Mr. Giles had some problems too. Mr. Harris called the vampire kind of insulting names too but it seemed more of a friendly thing. Ms. Rosenberg didn't say much about him but she said he was a hero and Ms. Summer's great love. They had somehow had a child together but something about that or their magical returns from their heroic deaths had sent things off course and they had to go to this dimension.
"Hello Mr. Spike" Emi whispered.
Buffy couldn't help the laugh that bubbled out.
Spike's mouth quirked upward as well. Then continuing the gentle tone he'd greeted her with, "Just Spike. No formalities here."
Buffy put her arm over Emi's shoulder and gave her a reassuring squeeze. "That's right. Welcome to our home."
Willow and Xander felt the tension they'd been carrying around dissipate. Emi already seemed to be coming out of her well of misery just being around Spike and Buffy a few minutes.
Willow closed the portal spell on her side. Dawn was in control now. Xander walked up closer to the portal opening. "Hi Dawnster, so I hear you've got a guy now."
"Yep. His name is Tory, we work together a lot."
"So he hasn't ever been a jerk has he?"
Dawn laughed. The tone was so much like Spike's when she mentioned Tory the first time to him and Buffy. "He's fine. Spike's already done the big brother grill on him."
"So he pass?"
"He'll do." Spike said deadpan.
"You two look a lot different now" Xander said. He'd been surprised. Dawn had mentioned that Buffy and Spike had gone back to their natural hair colors, but hearing that, and seeing that was way different. Amazingly, if anything, they both looked younger now. Spike with his short ultra curly light brown hair and Buffy with slightly wavy hair just past her shoulders that was a sort of dark blonde/light brown/with reddish highlights. He knew it was them but they looked so different- so much healthier, happier and relaxed.
"You look the same though." Buffy smiled. Xander hadn't changed a bit in 10 years, it was reassuring somehow. Willow looked a bit older but still not all that different.
"Hey I lost 20 pounds since the last time you saw me Buff! Been working out, less with the doughnuts too."
"And you found someone too I heard." Dawn smiled.
"Yeah. I'll always love An, but Janie's pretty special."
"Buffy, you look well." It was Giles.
Buffy wasn't sure what to say to him. The anger had faded but she was wary. Not even noticing she was doing it, Buffy clasped Spike's hand and stood slightly in front of him protectively. Spike responded by curving his left arm around her waist. Buffy stepped back so she was directly in front of Spike against his chest. Buffy's instant protective response sparked the same in Spike.
"Hullo Rupert" Spike said, with a hint of a growl in his voice.
Giles grimaced. Dealing with Spike never was enjoyable.
"Spike."
Giles' didn't hide the disgust he felt toward the vampire. Then he resolutely refused to look at him again. Giles again tried to draw Buffy to speak to him. Perhaps business rather than pleasantries would work.
"Buffy, the girl now in your charge," Certainly not in Spike's! Giles thought contemptuously "has made such a grievously stupid mistake that she can no longer remain in this dimension."
Spike saw the poor girl start to shrink in on herself, and start to shake. He touched Emi's arm gently and when she looked back up at him he drew her toward Buffy and himself. Buffy glanced at Spike when she felt the movement. Spike gave a slight nod toward Emi. Buffy saw the girl looked like she was on the edge of a total breakdown. Buffy and Spike both put their right arms around the girl protectively. Buffy drew Emi's head toward her shoulder so she wouldn't have to see Giles' face.
Buffy was angry now. "Giles I know what Emi did. She made a mistake yes, it may have been a bad one, but I've done worse and so have you, so have almost all of us here. She's under my custody now as you just pointed out for me. That means her welfare is my concern. You are threatening that welfare. Stop it right now."
"Giles, Buffy does know. I had the info sent through ahead of time."
Willow tried to desperately diffuse the situation. She regretted giving into Giles about coming here. He had almost begged her to be allowed to participate, to see Buffy. Willow had hoped enough time would have passed on both sides to ease the pain both had caused the other. Not long enough, Willow shook her head.
Giles slumped his shoulders. He'd lost Buffy's fatherly regard forever, and perhaps it was all his own doing. Too kind and protective early on, too harsh and demanding later on. It was easy to blame Spike for Buffy changing, that it was all his doing. Or blame Buffy herself, she wasn't bright enough to see the obvious. But when it all came down to it was it really them or was it himself?
"Rupert."
Spike again. Getting his final blows in? Giles looked at him.
"Don't know why you decided you hated me even more after I got my soul back for Buffy."
"Oh God." Giles groaned. "You mean those weren't induced emotions with those spells?"
"No. They were real." This was Buffy.
"The marriage spell? Those emotions you two had were real?"
"Yes, I didn't know it consciously then, but I was already falling in love with Spike."
Spike nodded. "I was a bit farther along. Knew I wanted her, didn't know yet I loved her."
"I kind of knew I wanted Spike but it was wigging me out then. I'd torment him with flirting, then mock him. All to pretend I wasn't sort of turned on already."
Xander and Willow coughed embarrassedly. Definitely getting into the too much information area.
Buffy giggled and blushed lightly. She could be as bad as Anya was, sometimes.
"I'll think on what you've both told me tonight." Giles said gravely. He turned and walked away from the portal site, not looking back.
"See you around. Maybe next time bring your kids. Would like to see them Buff, Spike. And bring your guy Dawnster. He has to make it through the Xander Harris style big brother grilling too." Xander grinned. "Going to go now too. Willow said she had some stuff to tell you about a certain someone I don't like. Don't want to hear annoying news so I'll head out. Giles will probably want someone to talk to later on anyway. I'm probably the best candidate right now."
Xander walked off, then turned and waved back at them just before he got out of sight.
"It's about Angel, right?"
Willow nodded. "Things happened after you left. Bad stuff."
"Did he lose his soul again?"
"No, not that kind of bad. Things blew up at Wolfram and Hart. Literally."
"Who died?" Spike asked worriedly.
"You kind of guessed that, huh. Um, not sure how you felt about her Spike, but Harmony kind of got dusted when things blew up."
Spike merely nodded. Harm couldn't last as a vampire. He knew she'd end up dust before too long. Surprised him, in fact, that she'd lasted as long as she had.
"Who else died?"
Willow took a deep breath. "Fred sort of did and sort of didn't. I don't know the full details but she kind of got possessed for a while then got freed, but something was left over from the demon that possessed her. She was different afterwards. She and Wes are together, still trying to free her from it's corruption."
Spike looked sad. Fred was a sweet girl. He wondered if he'd been there if he would have been able to save her.
"Charles Gunn is missing, we don't know what happened to him."
Spike felt the sharp pang of loss. Gunn had been the first one after Fred to reach out to him.
"What about Angel and Cordy?" Buffy asked.
"They made it out okay, but Cordy's not exactly what we thought she was. She's kind of a ghost but solid. Sort of dead but not."
"Sounds way confusing"
"It is."
"And what about Lorne?"
"Oh yeah, the green demon guy that reads emotions when you sing. He's doing okay. Reopened his demon nightclub. Everybody meets there when we are in L.A."
"And the Wolfram and Hart old employees we knew?"
"Don't know what happened to that Eve person. I heard rumors that bad stuff probably was happening to her though. Knox was killed by Wesley, he caused Fred to get possessed by the demon that sort of killed her. Most of the Wolfram and Hart people were blown up I think. Wes said something about demon contracts on their souls and that they were probably back in some form somewhere in the world."
"So it's still not over."
"No, it's not. And things are still unstable here too and we can't find the cause. Buffy, Spike I hate to say this, but we may have made a mistake sending you and your baby away. Rather than making things unstable you might have kept it from being like it is now."
"Could it be the First acting up again?"
"I don't know Buffy. We haven't found anything really. We are keeping things from crashing out of control but it's a lot more volatile than it was when you were here."
"Do we need to come back?" Buffy felt sick at the possibility that again having to leave a world, especially this one that had become such an accepting home for all of them.
"No. forget what I said. I don't have any proof of it. I'm grasping at any wild theory. We're going to keep researching. If you have anything over there that you can research on maybe you can find something we can't. We're keeping things stable here. If you do find something let us know."
"Same for you Wil."
Willow nodded.
"Time to close the portal." Dawn said.
"We'll keep researching."
"We'll start."
"Take care, all of you."
"You too."
Dawn closed the portal opening. After their eyes all adjusted to the lessened light they walked off the field, returning home with more solemn minds than they had left.
Emi's heart though was a fractionally lighter. These people actually seemed to care about her, even after knowing what she had done. They had said they did worse things even, but people still loved them. It was kind of hard to believe but maybe there was some chance for her to change after all.