Family of Eternity

Buffy, Spike and all of their characters are owned by Joss and whoever else claims copyrights to them. I do not own them or their concept, nor am I making any sort of money off of this. However, there are new characters being introduced in this story that I do own. Do not steal.


May 21, 2000
Prologue

Buffy closed her eyes, feeling the power of the first slayer flow through her. In her hand she held Adam’s power supply, the patchwork demon dead without it. But it all faded away. The Initiative room she was in, her friends just outside the doorway. Her boyfriend at her side. Everything. A fire roaring to existence before her had her jumping and backing away, though she whipped around in surprise to find she was in the desert, the light of the bonfire her only company. That and a shadowed figure that was regarding her silently with brilliant silver eyes. It was crouched down, not necessarily hiding so much as lurking.

“THIS IS WHO YOU ARE.”

She flinched as she was bombarded with images of her past. Getting her first bicycle. Showing her mother a picture she had colored. Her first day at Kindergarten. Bringing home a small gray kitten. Laughing at cartoons. Talking to boys. Going shopping with her popular friends. Trying out for cheerleading. Being called to be a slayer. Trained by Merrick. Watching Lothos kill Merrick and then she killing him. Her first day at Sunnydale. Willow. Xander. Giles. Angel. Dying by the Master’s hand. Killing the Master. Spike. Drusilla. Acathala. Angel leaving for Los Angeles. First day of college. Riley. Anya. Adam...

She gulped in mouth fulls of air, her body refusing to breathe during all of that. Panting, she looked back at the figure but was too busy trying to make herself calm down to speak. So, it spoke instead, “That was who you were, and are up to this point. Just like any story, the choices that are made determine who and what we are going to be. THIS IS WHO YOU COULD BE.”

Buffy was nearly thrown off her feet as she was assaulted with a future. And it was one she wasn’t happy about. Dracula coming to town and showing her a possible darkness to her power. Her mother getting sick. A sister she had never seen suddenly appearing in her life. Glorificus, a godling, bent on destruction. Riley getting involved with vampire whores and consequently leaving. Her mom dying. Spike getting tortured but not betraying her after he fell in love with her. Tara getting her brain zapped to mush. A great fight with Glory. Buffy dying and being torn back from heaven months later by a magic hungry Willow and her obtuse friends. She using Spike for sex. Anya and Xander getting engaged. Giles leaving town. Anya and Xander breaking up. Buffy dumping Spike even as she broke both their hearts. Dawn, the sister she never had, becoming a klepto. Spike sleeping with Anya. Attempted rape. Murder. Spike getting a soul. The first evil bent on destruction. Potential slayers in danger. Spike comes back to town crazy. Buffy raising an army with her friends and Faith. The final battle, closing the Hellmouth with Spike’s life.

The blond slayer didn’t even know why she was weeping beyond control, hand covering her mouth and arm wrapped around her stomach. The figure in the shadows didn’t come into the light. Didn’t move in fact, simply spoke in gentle tones as it stood, “You have precious time to make all of this right. If you can change but one event in the coming weeks, then this world will not be your reality and another possibility will be in store for you.” Then the figure stepped into the light, and though it wasn’t his voice, Spike was in its place, “But you won’t because demon’s can’t feel, right? But you will have to choose, my dear slayer...as we must all choose...love...give...forgive...”

Buffy opened her eyes after several moments and started as she realized she was back in that room again, the power leaving her. She dropped Adam’s power supply and turned to glance at Riley. A shudder went through her just looking at him and she sidestepped his attempt to guide her out without making it look like it was intentional. She walked with as much outer calm as she could muster, looking over her friends who seemed both tired and happy. Her eyes swept over their forms to Spike who had arrived just in time to fend off a demon. And there was an uneasy air between all of them.

***

Spike tried to stay ahead of the group, just wanting to disappear before one of them changed their minds and decided to dust him. Too bad he was just a wee bit slow avoiding the slayer. With an angry grunt she grabbed a hold of him, grip threatening to break his arm but he didn’t let it show. Just calmly looked back at her sneering face with a defiant smirk of his own, “We can’t leave you by yourself for five minutes, can we?”

Rolling his eyes and yanking free. What the hell. He didn’t have anything to lose, “Come down off your bloody high horse. We all know I’ll do what it takes to get this chip out...sides, we’re even now.”

Her entire body shaking in anger, “We saved your ass! You owe us so-...”

“I don’t owe you a bloody thing, luv.” She blinked in surprise, both that he had cut her off so effortlessly and the fact that he was so calm. He backed up a step and looked away before sighing and glancing at her, ticking things off on his fingers, “Came to Sunnydale and attacked you, you attacked back. We stayed pretty even up till I got crippled.” He winced subtly at the word but pressed forward, “And after Angelus had
his field day with sending the world to hell...”

She snorted, hands on her hips, “First of all you sent that big blue demon after us...”

“Dru’s idea, not mine.”

“...secondly, you joined up with Angelus...”

His eyes swept over her form, “See again to Dru, also your sweet ass. For obvious reasons and I had little say from a wheelchair.”

She blushed at that one. She didn’t mean to have such a girlish reaction but it happened. Yet, he didn’t comment on that, merely waited for her to counter, “Besides, you did it to get Dru back, not to help me.”

He glared lightly, “Told you I liked this world. Did it for that...saved the watcher for you, though...Dru was a bonus. Sides, you can’t tell me that your lot doesn’t do things for selfish reasons either.”

Off in the distance, Willow and Xander both glanced at one another. Willow held up a single finger: one point for Spike. Xander rolled his eyes. Spike wasn’t known for blatantly lying but he was known to misrepresent the truth. Giles had flinched from the past memories of being tortured at the hands of Angelus and could reluctantly admit to himself Spike had saved him in a way. So like the other two he remained silent and watched. Buffy stamped her foot in frustration and pointed a finger at him, “We protected you from the Initiative and...” She hurried when he opened his mouth, “and, I even fed you. Myself. Me. Through a straw.” She made a disgusted face at the last one and he cocked his head just a little to the side.

He glared lightly, eyes indicating her neck, “Fed Angelus, didn’t ya?”

His head shifted from the sharp impact of her open palm across his face. Considering she could have done far worse, he was almost relieved. Buffy felt anger pulse through her, feeling undeniably cheap at such a reference, “I don’t know why your skanky ho even bothered killing you! You’re just a waste of space. Nothing. Beneath us!”

Spike became instantly still. Slowly his head turned, cold blue eyes staring at her. She started squirming when he just stared and crossed her arms over her chest. He smiled slightly, suddenly, and nodded, “I’m not even real to you, am I?”

Blinking at the subject change, all she could do was open her mouth with a very intelligent, “Huh?”

He shook his head and mumbled, “Get a bleeding soul and maybe...” Buffy involuntarily shut her eyes as the visions she’d been given ran quickly through her mind at the mere mention of a soul. He looked down a little, not noticing her reaction, “Not real. Dead. Dust. Take your pick.” Then he just shrugged.

Opening her eyes, she frowned at that one. For once she was actually feeling bad that he might have taken that to heart, “Y-you’re real...just...y’know, demon...”

She trailed off awkwardly and he chuckled. Though when he looked back up it was obviously without humor. And for a brief moment she saw William. Not William the bloody or the vampire, just a man who was as lost as everyone else, “If that were so, then you’d have the courtesy to acknowledge the good I do along with the bad...but all you see is the bad.” He shrugged again and turned away, still speaking, “Not that I care, evil and all...” The words were said without heat or meaning, like a catch phrase that wasn’t taken seriously. All of them caught it, “What I’m saying is that you did save me...but you get no points for it when you don’t even acknowledge what I’ve done for you.” He turned back and gave her another look, “We’re still mortal enemies, Goldilocks...cause as far as I know we didn’t call another truce.”

He straightened a little and turned, hands stuffed in his pockets and walking away from the silent group. Buffy watched him go. She could acknowledge that he was right. He’d done some good, helped them a few times, yet they still treated him like shit. With a sigh she realized if they really did want him on their team, they were going to have to forgive and forget. She blinked once. Forgive.

***

Spike glanced at the book in his hands, fingering the simple imprinted lettering and toying with a decision. He could hear the slayer rustling around in her room and tried to contemplate what the hell he was doing. It was insane of him and he ruefully thought about the look on her face before staking him. Her words from earlier still swirled through his brain, leaving him with a gaping hole over his unbeating heart. It was just too much of a coincidence that two women from separate lifetimes would both say he was beneath them. And while he was confident the slayer would never love him, it didn’t lessen the sting. Still. Shaking his head with a sigh, he lowered the book to the floor and propped it up against the door.

“Bloody insane.” Straightening and taking out a cigarette, he popped it in his mouth and lit up. He let the demon bury his hurt and anger, forcing it down into the back of his mind. He could use it in a fight later, but for now the emotion would be ignored. With the chip in his head he’d had to bury a lot of his emotions. He glanced at one of the students stepping out of his room and flashed his game face. Smirking when the student bolted with a scream, he turned and sauntered off, “Yeah...still got it...”