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Chapter 18
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"What’s with the foliage, Pops? Afraid to face me mano a mano?" Spike accused. "Fists and fangs were always too real for the likes of ‘The Great Angelus’. Looks like the soul didn’t give you any sense of fair play or old-fashioned courage."

Insulted, Angel tossed the makeshift stake to one side and prepared to face off. Spike took up a back stance, preparing for Angel to attack. They hadn’t gone one on one in nearly a century, but Spike knew the first strike would come from the older vampire. Angelus had been secure in his dominant position where Spike was concerned back then and old habits die hard. This was a different Spike though, honed in the fires of survival and tempered in the wisdom of age.

Angel blustered up to Spike and pushed him backwards. Spike allowed his body to fall as close to Angel’s feet as possible. Angel smirked at the easy conquest, not noticing Spike’s deliberate positioning beneath him. Placing his leg tight on Angel’s inside thigh, Spike casually threw Angel over his shoulder. The elder vampire landed flat on his back, the wind knocked out of him.

Angel was up a split second after Spike leapt to his feet. Before Angel could deliver his next punch, Spike nailed him with a solid front kick to the jaw. Angel was beginning to realize the boy had learned a few moves over the past century and this fight was going to take more effort than previously anticipated.

"You aren’t fit to touch the bottom of Buffy’s feet," Angel taunted as he leveled a lunge punch to Spike’s midsection.

"And you’re what…Barbie’s Dream Date?" Spike snorted. "I’m as fit as you and not as likely to eat her friends and family." Spike delivered an elbow punch to Angel’s chest to punctuate his point.

"I have a soul, Spike; I don’t eat people," Angel said sternly. He twisted to the left and used a snap kick that rocketed Spike’s head back upon connection.

"Well, bully for you, Peaches! I don’t eat people either. I just use self-control to stop myself," Spike said proudly as he smashed his knee into Angel’s groin. Angel’s "mfft" of pain sounded like music to Spike.

Angel started to punch Spike’s face only to have Spike use a masterful upper block to prevent contact. The smaller vampire was managing to deflect the worst Angel had aimed his way so far and it was driving Angel crazy.

"Dru cried for you, Spike. I told her you didn’t give a damn about her anymore and sent me to dust her," Angel smiled inwardly as his words hit home with more force than any physical blow. He used Spike’s emotional reaction to land two punches to Spike’s face. Before Spike recovered, Angel used a sweeping kick to knock the younger vampire to the ground.

Spike used his knee to keep Angel from falling on him and raining the blows he intended to deliver. As Angel lost his balance, Spike grabbed at his sleeve and used the momentum to throw Angel over his body to land hard in front of him.

"You bloody bastard," Spike huffed, "You KNOW that wasn’t the only choice!" He was up and hovering over Angel, fury written on his face. "You made her as crazy as a soup sandwich, then just walked away. You could have led the bint, made her behave. Poor thing was already conditioned to do anything her daddy told her to." Spike kicked Angel in the ribs. "Too much trouble for Soul Boy though," he kicked again and was satisfied to hear the sound of a crack as his Doc made contact.

Angel grabbed at Spike’s boot and pulled him off balance long enough to regain his feet. Before Spike was back on solid ground, Angel hit him with a low side kick that Spike spotted in time to use a timely sweeping block to avoid.

Spike was deflecting almost every punch Angel could throw at him with moves he’d mastered over the years. They were both doing plenty of damage as fists and feet connected with muscled flesh, yet neither had a clear advantage.

Spike managed to get a park bench between them to allow time to determine the best offense to finish this pitiful showing as soon as possible. "You forget, I’m from your future. I KNOW how the great Angel & Buffy love story works out. It doesn’t! You lose that precious soul of yours, kill or torture people Buffy loves, try to destroy the world, force Buffy to run a sword through you and otherwise prove what a shining example of manhood you’re…not!" Spike’s words stopped Angel’s advance as he took in what the younger vamp was saying.

"I would never hurt Buffy," Angel denied. "You’re lying."

"It’s all you ever did." Spike looked Angel directly in the eye as he drove his point home. "All your love brought the girl was tears and heartbreak. You left a mess there second only to the mess you made of Dru. Left Buffy so insecure she couldn’t let herself feel or trust her instincts."

Angel moved to Spike’s side of the bench as he listened, fuming at the images Spike’s words caused to flit through his mind.

Angel lashed out with his right fist only to have Spike grab his arm in a strong wristlock. Spike kicked Angel soundly in the midsection without letting go of his wrist. He pulled back slightly and swung out a right side kick behind Angel’s right knee, smiling in grim satisfaction as he heard Angel’s wrist snap in his grasp. "And point goes to the battlin’ Brit," Spike gloated.

Angel cradled his broken wrist and started to lash out with his weaker left fist, but Spike caught it in his hands and asked, "You sure you wanna do that, Pops? Mite hard dealin’ with BOTH wrists broken."

Angel backed down reluctantly. "Look, I just finished levelin’ with Buffy. Not in her good graces again--not yet anyway--but not dust either. Mum likes me, by the way…never did like you," Spike smirked at Angel’s angry glare. "You say you respect Buffy. Prove it! Let her make her own choices now she knows the whole truth. She’s the bloody Slayer, Angel; she can make her own decisions. Needs a partner, not a rescuer."

~~~

Buffy was having a more difficult fight doing her nightly patrol than either of her two suitors. Vampires had never been out in such numbers before and she had to take them out in multiples. "Hmmm. Maybe Giles can explain why it’s suddenly vamp fiesta time on the Hellmouth."

She resented the intrusion of stakage activity when she had important Spike information to process. He had been as sweet as ever and his explanations made sense in a weird ‘this IS the Hellmouth, after all’ way. Time traveling, wish-blessed vampires were as likely as anything else Buffy encountered on a regular basis.


She made one more round of the vamp hot spots and headed home to sleep on her decision about letting Spike get up close and personal again. "It’s not like he’s tried to kill me or anything, not this time around anyway.

Spike had been honest about his attempts on her life in his own time period. "Funny how he never managed to kill me then!" Buffy smiled to herself at the idea that Spike had likely never really wanted her dead at any time then OR now. After all, Spike had a century of experience behind him. If he’d been serious, Buffy would have been dead. If he had truly wished her dead when he came back in time, he’d had plenty of opportunity.

Heartened by those thoughts, Buffy headed home. Any doubts she might have had about Spike’s intentions towards her or how he planed to behave from now on had been settled by his honest admissions on her back porch over her mom’s cocoa.

"With all that Spike knows about what’s coming down in the next few years, my job should be a piece of cake," Buffy grinned at the first bit of Slayer-related comfort she’d gotten since arriving at the Hellmouth.

~~~

Giles took the Codex with him to school to double check his final translation of the prophecy that had so terrified him the Friday before. He’d spent the weekend in the company of Jenny and would have contacted Buffy immediately without Jenny’s gentle advice to let the girl have a weekend free of the knowledge of the prophecy’s menace.

"Let Buffy have her dinner with Spike. Let her work through that whole mess without muddying everything up with omens of death. She’s only sixteen, Rupert. Let her have a somewhat normal weekend where her only worry is boyfriend problems." Jenny hoped Spike had gone through with his plan to show up for the dinner with Buffy and her mother.

"That’s just it, Jenny, nothing about Spike is normal," Giles insisted. "Not many teenage girls’ boyfriend problems stem from discovering the boyfriend in question perished before the turn of the century!" Giles looked slightly smug in trumping Jenny’s arguments. "Add to that the time travel, Spike’s personal history and Buffy’s sacred duty and there is nothing normal about the situation at all."

Jenny wasn’t going to let that be the last word. "True, but it may be as normal as the Slayer will ever get. Did you ever think that Spike might actually help Buffy live long enough for close to normal to be possible? Perhaps with a Master Vampire fighting at her side, watching her back, caring about her safety and survival, Buffy could grow to actual old age. I think THAT is a piece of normal we’d all love to see Buffy have."

Jenny was here in the library now, poring over the text and Giles’ translation of it, trying to find some flaw in the ancient prophecy.

"Ho korias phanaytie toutay tay nuktee," Giles read again. "’The Master shall rise and the Slayer shall …my God, how can I tell her?"

As Giles and Jenny looked at each other in shared worry, the ground began to shake. Mugs filled with hot tea began to rattle on the desk, dancing to the edge of the table and crashing to the floor.

Throughout Sunnydale, buildings were swaying as if they were as limber as the swaying palms. Car alarms were going off and people were rushing to perceived safety.


There were no cracks in the pavement, but the earthquake-savvy Californians were still unnerved by the magnitude of the tremor.

In the library, along with spilled tea, several bookshelves had toppled over and screams could be heard from the hallway beyond the door.

~~~

In the Master’s lair, the old demon stood with arms outstretched. The child vampire looked up at his mentor in awe. "Yes! YES! Shake, earth! This is a sign. We are in the final days. My time has come. Glory! Glory!" The Master looked as one exalted, gazing down at the demon boy. "Whatta ya think? 5.1?"

~~~

Buffy came into the library and took in the damage with wide eyes. "Wow! Damage looks pretty bad. Are we safe in here or should we make the sacrifice and just go home?"

She looked at Giles and took pity on the non-native; "It’s okay, Giles. Earthquakes happen all the time in California. It’s like Pokemon, Crystal Pepsi and the Macarena; if you wait long enough, they go away. Don’t wig. Well, maybe wig, but not because of the quake. The vamps out there are multiplying like little bunnies. Bunnies with sharp teeth and attitude. I haven’t had a patrol this weekend without a kill count of at least four! They’re getting cocky too."

Buffy could see that Giles was distracted and not really listening to her report. "Um, Giles…care much? The least you could do is show some casual interest. A ‘good Lord’ or taking off your glasses to clean them or something."

Giles had only half heard Buffy’s report. His mind was on the likelihood that Buffy was soon to meet one very formidable Master Vampire and the odds of her winning weren’t looking good. "Oh, sorry…yes, I’m very glad you’re all right. Look, Buffy, I can’t really talk right now."

Buffy shrugged and headed for the door. "Fine, that’s okay. I can’t keep putting this off anyway. I have to meet my terrible fate," she sighed dramatically.

Giles whipped around in horror, "What?"

"Biology, the doom of many a sophomore," Buffy quipped.

~~~

The talk around the lunchroom was divided between the earthquake and the Spring Fling dance scheduled for later that week. Willow and Xander were focusing on the dance of feet rather than the dance of furniture. Willow’s heart sunk as Xander went on and on about his chances with Buffy now that Spike was out of the picture. Willow tried to deflect Xander with hints that Buffy and Spike weren’t actually history. Finally she gave up and stepped back to watch Xander make his move.

"Um…Buffy, the Spring Fling is this week. You know, a time for students to gather and…oh, God," he gulped and then continued before he lost his nerve. "Buffy, I want you to go to the dance with me. You and me, on a date."

Buffy blinked several times in surprise. She didn’t want to hurt Xander but had no desire to date anyone but Spike. Besides, Xander was like a brother or a cousin or something and that was just wrong! "I…I don’t know what to say, Xan."

"Well, there’s always, ‘yes, Xander, I’d love to go to the dance with you.’ That’d work for me," he suggested with a smile.

Buffy decided the best policy was honesty. The last weeks with Spike had taught her that much. "Xander, you’re one of my best friends and I don’t want to spoil the friendship we have."

Even hearing these words, Xander refused to take the hint. "Well, I don’t want to spoil it either. But that’s not the point is it? You either feel a thing or you don’t."

Time for the bluntmaster. "I don’t, Xander. I’m sorry, but I just don’t think of you that way."

Xander looked hurt and lashed out in his rejection, "Guess my teeth aren’t pointy enough." Buffy looked at him in shock and the start of anger, so Xander backtracked quickly. "Look, I’m sorry. I don’t handle rejection well. Funny, considering all the practice I’ve had."

~~~

Jenny came into the library with her hands full of computer printouts. "I’ve been surfing the Web looking for unexplained incidents. I figure that last quake was an omen of some kind."

Giles looked with interest from the papers to Jenny, so she continued. "Here’s the latest. A cat last week gave birth to a litter of snakes." She placed the papers on the table in front of the Watcher. "A family was swimming in Whisper Lake when the lake began to boil. At Mercy Hospital last night, a baby boy was born with his eyes facing inward." Jenny took a deep, shuddering breath. "I’m not stupid, this is apocalypse level stuff! I’d say we’ve got a problem: the end is pretty seriously nigh."

Giles removed his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. "The Master, as we feared. I believe we have run out of time."

"Have you called Spike?" Jenny had been urging the Watcher to take advantage of Spike’s unique
perspective, having come from the near future. "You really need to use all the resources you have at hand, Rupert. Now isn’t the time for Council niceties and playing by the same old rules."

"No, I don’t suppose it is," Giles agreed. "How do I tell Buffy that she is slated to die?"

"Maybe you don’t," Jenny suggested.

~~~

"Well," Willow asked the crestfallen Xander, "What’d she say?"

"Apart from ‘no’ does it really matter?" Xander looked dejected. "She’s still jonesin’ for Spike and could care less about me."

Willow could have told him that, but Xander had to find out on his own. Time he put aside his crush and just accept the friendship that Buffy readily offered instead. Time Xander noticed other fish in the sea, maybe even fish he already knew. "At least now you know." She smiled in consolation.

Xander looked at Willow with a hint of calculation. "Yeah, you’re right. Deal’s done, polls are in and its time for the concession speech. I know…WE can go! We’ll have a great time. We’ll dance, go wild! Whadda ya say?"

Willow knew Xander expected a quick ‘okay’ from her but she really wasn’t feeling like being a consolation prize, not even for Xander. "No."

Xander proved her point by not even really hearing her at first as he exclaimed, "Great!" Then she saw the moment her ‘no’ registered. "What? Willow, come on…."

"There’s no way! You think I wanna go to the dance with you and watch you wish you were at the dance with her? You think that’s my idea of hijinks? You should know better." Willow looked at Xander, her eyes moist with unshed tears.

Xander looked at his best friend, for the first time really in months, and saw the hurt there. "I didn’t think. I’m sorry, Will."

Willow needed to get away from Xander, away from seeing her own rejection so clearly set before her. "I’m gonna head home, Xander. See you later."

Xander watched Willow turn to leave. He felt bad that he had hurt her, but felt even worse that he was hurting. "That’s okay. I didn’t really want to go. I’m just gonna go home and lie down and listen to country music. The music of pain."

Willow wondered how many country stations she might find on the radio in her room.

~~~

Giles finally made the call to Spike, grateful the vampire seemed to be able to navigate around town in the daytime, even without the Gem. Spike agreed to come to the library and tell what little he knew of Buffy’s encounter with the Master in the original timeline. Before Spike arrived, Giles was visited by that other vampire in the service of good, Angel.

The souled vampire was still nursing his wrist, but his other injuries from the fight were healed. "Do you really think anything Spike has to say will help?"

Angel read the prophecy from the Codex and could see no other possible outcome except for Buffy to meet with a quick end at the hand of the Master.

There was tension strong enough to cut with a knife when Spike arrived, but no open hostility broke out. Giles greeted the newcomer cautiously. "Thank you for coming this early, Spike."

"Yeah," Angel added, "We want to pick your brain, if you can believe that! Never thought there’d be any crop worth picking before."

Spike raised an eyebrow and looked from vampire to Watcher in curiosity. "This poof speakin’ for you?"

"Actually, no, Angel speaks for himself. While I am grateful for any assistance that leads to Buffy
surviving this encounter with the Master, Angel is not representing Buffy in any way."

"You realize I wasn’t in Sunnyhell the first time, right?" Spike had been wracking his brain trying to remember any detail the Scoobies might have mentioned about this time, this battle.

"I remember that Buffy does die, just doesn’t stay that way. By the time Dru," Spike stopped, his eyes closed in pain and misplaced guilt. He tried again, "By the time I got here, there was a whole new Slayer getting called up from somewhere that sounded like the Caribbean. She strolled into town ‘bout the time my plans to fix Dr…er, my plans were startin’ to come together.

"Are you saying there are TWO active Slayers in your time?" Giles was befuddled at the thought.

"Yup. New girl didn’t last long, sad to say. The one that came after her’s still around though, just not exactly active at the moment," Spike shared.

"What, you make a third Slayer kill, Spike?" spat the still hostile Angel.

"Not me," smirked Spike. "You sent a group to grab Rupert here for a game of ‘Torture the Watcher’. Girl got offed by your little army."

Giles was getting tired of all the one-upmanship between the two undead warriors. "Could we get back to the important issues here? I don’t think there is any time to waste discussing a future that is likely already changed."

Giles pulled out the Codex, along with his notes, and spread them on the table before the two vampires. The trio were so engrossed with the prophecy they failed to see Buffy slip into the library.

Buffy heard them talking and was surprised to see Angel and Spike looking like they were working with Giles and not at each other’s throats.

"It’s clear. It’s what’s going to happen, is happening now," Giles was saying.

Spike moved closer to the book on the table, his expression intense. Angel stood arms akimbo with a look that might pass for worry. "It can’t be. You’ve got to be wrong."

Giles shook his head sadly. "I’ve checked it against all my other volumes. It’s very real."

Spike glared at the Watcher, a look of determination fixed on his face. "Well, there’s gotta be some way around it."

Angel’s shoulders slumped in defeat. "Prophecy isn’t to be messed with, Spike. There are Powers at work and you can’t go up against them. If you interfere, you make things worse. There isn’t any way to stop something this well-documented."

"The hell there isn’t," Spike insisted with an angry edge.

Giles sighed and offered, "It’s very plain. Tomorrow night Buffy will face the Master and she will die."

All three turned as one to the sound of Buffy laughing. It was a bitter sound. "SO that’s it, huh? I remember the drill. One Slayer dies, next one’s called! I wonder who she is?" Buffy turned to Giles. "Will you train her or will they send someone else?"

Giles stuttered, "Buffy…I…I…."

Buffy looked from her Watcher to the two vampires, "They say how he’s gonna kill me? Do you think it’ll hurt?" She was crying now and Spike tried to draw her into his arms to comfort her. Buffy moved away, unwilling to be comforted.

"Were you even going to tell me?" she asked of her Watcher.

"I was hoping that I wouldn’t have to, that there was some way around it. That’s why I called Spike to see what he knew about this event in his own timeline." Giles hated the look of resignation he saw on his Slayer’s face. "All the signs indicate…."

"The SIGNS?" Buffy picked up the Codex and tossed it at her Watcher. "Read me the signs." She wiped the notes from the table. "Tell me my fortune! You’re so useful sitting here with all your books. You’re really a lotta help!"

Giles looked chastened. "No, I don’t suppose I am." He took a deep breath and tried to explain what he knew. "Buffy, if the Master rises…."

Buffy pulled back from the three, wild-eyed like a trapped animal. "I don’t care! I don’t care. Giles, I’m sixteen years old. I don’t wanna die. I haven’t lived yet!"

Angel chose that moment to start on a speech about destiny and sacred duty. Buffy wasn’t really listening, but Spike was and he was pissed.

"Shut up, you wanker!" Spike took Buffy by the shoulders and looked into her eyes, trying to infuse her with calm. "I don’t believe in fate, love. Person makes their own fate."

Buffy stared at Spike as if he were offering a lifeline as he continued, "Don’t matter what’s in this," he kicked the fallen book. "What matters is what’s in here," he pointed to her head, "and here," he pointed to her heart. Never been a Slayer like you, pet. Nobody able to put you in some dusty book of might bes."

Buffy allowed Spike to pull her into an embrace as she choked back a sob. "I don’t wanna die, Spike."

"Not gonna," he promised. "Hey, I’m from your future, remember?" He tilted her chin up to make her look at the promise in his eyes. "You were a right pain in my arse, love. Swear to you that you were anything but dead." He hugged her tightly and looked over her head towards his grandsire. "So what fate is it that you can’t avoid?"

~~~