"What do you mean she got away? You told me she was patrolling alone for a change."
The fledgling vampire cowered on the floor where she had thrown him. "I'm sorry boss, I-I d-didn't know-Spike was there."
He got up and backed away as she began to stalk towards him. "Why should I care about that infant? I sent you to capture the Slayer and bring her here! She knows where the Key is and I mean to have it!"
"Yes, boss, sorry, boss," he panted, covering his head and cornered against the wall she had punched in when he returned without the others or the Slayer.
He didn't notice the wooden boards sticking out of the wall as he tried to disappear into it. She made a sharp move as if she was going to hit him and he flinched back too quickly to get out of the way. All that remained was a pile of ash.
Glory rolled her eyes and flopped down in the large and comfortable recliner that sat in the foyer of the mansion. She tapped her perfectly manicured nails on the wooden table next to her and tried to figure out what she was missing. The stupid monk had to die before he could tell her where the Key was. But, she knew that the Slayer had to have it. Who else could protect something so powerful?
She decided that she needed a better plan and more competent lackeys.
2 a.m., Downtown Sunnydale
Buffy and Spike walked, still hand in hand, down the main street which was lined with all sorts of all night stores. Videos, coffee and most importantly, restaurants that would serve what he had promised her, food.
The silence to the restaurant from the cemetery was companionable. Spike had refused to let go of her hand until they slid into the booth across from each other. Buffy looked around the diner, to see that it was almost deserted. A couple of lone diners were sitting on stools at the counter, not looking at each other or anything at all except their food. Buffy picked up the menu, and was suddenly ravenous.
A grim looking waitress came by the table a couple of minutes later and asked what they would be having. Spike ordered some coffee and the waitress looked at Buffy.
"I'll have the cheeseburger duo, can I have some extra pickles please? Cheese fries with gravy, mozzarella sticks and a strawberry milkshake." The waitress raised her eyebrows, still jotting everything down and walked back to the kitchen to place the order.
Spike's eyes nearly bugged out of his head. "Bloody hell, Slayer!"
"Well I'm eating for three now right?" Buffy quipped.
Angel Investigations
She raised her leg in a kick that was meant to send her opponent flying. He only caught it and pushed her back, sending her to the ground. She got up with a screech and in a rage of flying arms ran at him. He wasn't prepared for the onslaught and a few punches connected with face and chest. Behind his arms blocking her motions, he studied her attack. He thought it was a little crude. Arm after arm, he began blocking her blow for blow and she let out a frustrated cry, backed up and grabbed for the first weapon she could find. She jumped to higher ground to strike at a better angle.
Angel was rather surprised to find a pillow coming down squarely on top of his head.
Wesley called out. "That's enough, Faith."
She turned to him, hiding a giggle. He looked at her sternly. It had been very hard to accept Faith as not the psycho who had almost tortured him to death. Seeing her that rainy night all those months ago, and then hearing that she had turned herself into the police had still not lessened his inner feeling of hate and disappointment, in himself. He had failed as a Watcher and his Slayer had been nothing but homicidal sociopath. Now, as she had been called on to take on Buffy's duties in the months to come, in the little time she had been with him again, he saw that the time she had spent in jail had calmed her and allowed her to deal with if not conquer most of her inner demons. It hadn't been his fault.
"You still have the strength and the power, you've been working out?" Faith nodded and he continued, "But you must learn to fight without letting your emotions cloud your judgment. If you are frustrated it will show in your actions and you can't afford to be sloppy. That should be enough for tonight. Thank you, Angel."
Faith nodded at Wesley's statement, still holding the pillow behind her back. Angel deftly snatched it out of her hands and threatened her with it teasingly before throwing it back onto the couch and going up to his room. Faith went up the opposite stairway in search of a room of her own.
Cordelia raised her eyebrows and looked at Wesley. "Are you sure about this?"
"As certain as I will ever will be when it concerns Faith. I was her Watcher, and if she is going to be out and doing what she was chosen for, I must help her."
Cordelia shook her head and said "I still can't believe that Buffy is pregnant. And that the babies are Angel's. Explain to me again-" She broke off with an indrawn hiss of air and closed her eyes. Strange visions came to her, as they always did, but these were even stranger. In the flashes that the visions afforded her, she saw Angel walking in sunlight, chowing down on ice cream, her own apprehensive reaction to his change, the last seconds before time was reversed, the death of the Oracles at the hands of the demon who had intensified her visions so much that she had to be in the hospital, a rush of outer space and ending in seeing Buffy with a banquet in front of her as Spike sat across from her, amazed.
"Phew, for once, The Powers That Be gave me a useful vision. I wonder what the last part meant though?"
"What did you see?" Wesley asked worriedly, his brow creasing into a frown. "I saw….The Oracles murdered, and then I was in a long tunnel of stars and ended up seeing Buffy and Spike sharing dinner, except she was eating most of it."
Wesley nodded and picked up the book which Buffy had left when she was here a couple days ago. "I had always discounted Nostradamus as an overpriced marketing vehicle for the occult. But this prophecy is just too much of a coincidence. 'The fates are returned'. I think that was what you saw, Cordelia. The Powers That Be must have allowed the Oracles to return through the children Buffy is to bear."
"You mean her kids are going to be ambassadors to The Powers? Answering questions and telling the future?" Cordelia asked a little put off from having to take orders from Angel's children too.
Wesley shook his head. "It will be difficult to tell. There has never been anything documented that comes even close to the situation that we are facing. We don't know if we must train these children, if their powers will be inborn or if they will even be babies and children at all. They may be born as fully grown as the Oracles were before and just pick up where they left off before they were killed."
Cordelia squinched her eyes in sympathetic pain at the last suggestion.
The Magic Box
Xander, Willow, Tara and Anya squinched their eyes in sympathetic pain at the last suggestion.
"And Glory is still out there, waiting, watching and plotting, trying to find the Key. Which means that Buffy must face her." Giles continued.
"But, why Buffy? Why can't Faith - " Willow began as Anya began screaming.
They all turned to see a bottomless rift in the floor that culminated in a spiraling mist which Anya was trying desperately to grab a handhold in. She had already fallen halfway in when everyone turned to look. "Xander!" she called out.
He jumped down and made himself prone on the floor and grabbed at one of her hands. It looked like he was about to pull her out when something yanked her in and the portal closed leaving nothing behind, including Anya.
4 a.m., Buffy's House
Buffy and Spike sat on her front steps after walking home from the diner. He teased her good naturedly the whole way back, making her laugh so hard that she had to plead with him to stop before her dinner came back out and on him.
He was aching to have a smoke, but he didn't want to be around her when he did. He had watched enough on the telly to know that it was bad for the little ones. He wanted so badly to be more to her. To be more than Riley for sure, but even more than Angel had been. He could do it. So what if he was a vampire and she was the Slayer? It had happened before, he thought ironically. Nothing was holding him back like it was Angel. He didn't even think he wanted the chip out of his head anymore. He could live with it now. For her -- Oh you daft fool! He thought to himself. She is carrying Angel's children and not yours and she had already made it so clear that she didn't want to be with you.
He hung his head a little further down. Then why wasn't _he_ here for her? Taking care of her while she was pregnant? How could he leave her alone? Spike thought to himself some more. He could be more to her than Angel ever could be! He could take care of her through the next six months and after that, she would have to know that he truly loved her and she would love him back!
"Hello. Earth to Spike! You in there?" Buffy was waving her hand in front of Spike's face. "Did you hear me?"
"Sorry, love. What was that?" He said shaking the melancholy and strange hopefulness out of his face.
"I said that I better go inside. I'm really tired." She stood up and Spike walked her the two steps to her front door.
She stared up at him with her tired hazel eyes and murmured a goodnight as she reached over his shoulders to clasp her hands behind his neck.
Surprised, Spike gently returned the hug and timidly stroked her hair as he did so. "Goodnight, love."
Buffy released him and looked down. "And thank you. For everything. And for being such a good friend."
Spike's face fell but before she looked up, he smiled, said goodnight again and left as she let herself into her home.
Buffy went upstairs after checking to see that Dawn was sleeping, proceeded to get ready for bed. All the while she talked out loud. She remembered hearing somewhere, that unborn babies were soothed by hearing their mother's voices.
"Well, you guys, or are you girls? Your daddy said that the Oracles were a guy and a girl so maybe that's what you are. It's nice to know that you've finally found some food that you like. You must remember to thank Spike when you're born. Spike is Mommy's good friend. I didn't think he would be my friend when I first met him. Maybe I'll let you call him Uncle Spike." Buffy laughed out loud at the thought of calling Spike 'uncle' and caught notice of Dawn standing in her doorway.
"Why are you talking to yourself?" Dawn asked.
"Why are you up?" Buffy shook her head and just answered, "I'm talking to your niece and nephew. Or at least I think they will be." Buffy retorted playfully.
Dawn smiled at the prospect. Finally, she'll be older than someone. And she'll be able to tell them what to do, like Buffy had told her what to do her whole life. But, she'll also get to help and protect them as Buffy had done her whole life. "Will you let me watch them and help you take care of them?"
"Sure, sis. I'm going to need all the help I can get. Now go back to sleep so I can too."
Dawn smiled brightly, but it dimmed as Buffy again told her what to do - as if she wasn't going to go back to sleep after they were done talking! - and went back to her room.
The Magic Box, Mid Afternoon
Buffy breezed through the door after lunchtime full of happiness. "I had the best night's sleep and for once these two didn't make my breakfast come right back up!"
She looked around the table and saw that Anya wasn't there. As there were no customers in the shop that needed helping, she asked "Where's Anya?"
Xander slammed down his book and snapped "Can't you see that she's not here? She was taken and we don't even know where!"
Giles shot a withering glance at Xander and said to Buffy, "She was taken by an unseen force into a spectral door last night. We tried to call you Buffy, but Dawn said that you weren't home. Where were you?"
"I ran into a lot of vamps in the cemetery, and my 'evening sickness' kicked in. Spike had to help me and then we went out for a late dinner."
Expressions registered surprise all around except for Xander who still looked angry. "Well while you were on your date, we've been working to find her. You think you can help?"
Buffy grabbed at his collar. "You think that I haven't been through a lot in the last three days? Spike was being a friend which is more than I can say for you right now. I want to help you, but you've got to lose the attitude, Xander." With that, she let him slump into his chair.
Willow spoke up, "He's upset. He wasn't able to pull her out before she disappeared."
Buffy nodded and stood behind Xander's chair with a hand on his shoulder. "So now what?"
Tara gave a shy smile, "I've been trying to look into my crystal ball, but I don't think I have the proper spells. All I get is a lot of open sky and a mansion on a hill. I get the feeling that it's nearby. That doesn't mean anything does it?"
"A mansion?" Buffy rolled her eyes. Why can't the bad guys ever pick someplace new? "You guys know the place."
Xander sputtered. "But that is so clichéd! It can't be the same place."
"Do you know of any other mansions around here?" Buffy asked. Seeing everyone shaking their heads, she continued. "Let's suit up and get ready to go. I don't care who has her, but we've got to go get Anya back."
Everyone dispersed in search of the various things they'd be needing for the task ahead. Xander stopped and looked at Buffy who was still standing in the middle of the room. "Thanks, Buff. I don't know what I would do if - "
Buffy cut him off and simply said "I know."
The Mansion after Sunset
Anya was strapped into an electric chair in a basement. She didn't know where she was, but she remembered how she got here. When she fell through the spectral door, she was unconscious of almost everything except for many hands placing her into this chair. Every time she thought of trying to even hope for rescue, she had been shocked, mildly.
A blonde vision appeared before her, dressed to the nines in all red. "Hi, Glory. Long time no see." Anya parried.
"Oh, so you do remember me even as a pitiful mortal?" Glory returned. "I was surprised when you arrived, to find that you were no longer a demon. That you were even consorting with mortals instead of bringing vengeance upon them. What happened, Anya, lose your touch?"
Anya, despite her seat, rolled her eyes. "I can't believe you're going around in that guise. What's the matter, even you got scared of how you really look?"
Glory glowered at her. "I see you still have a mouth." She flipped a remote and gave Anya an even bigger and longer shock than ever before. When the former vengeance demon's hair started to smoke, she stopped.
Anya weakly sat up and glared right back at Glory. "What do you want?"
"When I first came here, I thought you might be able to help me find the Key, being the second oldest being in this rotten town. I would have even shared a little power with you. But in your frail human form you couldn't even hold any of it." Anya shook her head and laughed, which infuriated Glory, but she didn't shock her this time. "Why are you laughing at me? Don't you dare laugh at me!"
"I'm not laughing." Buffy looked down her crossbow at the ancient demon and let the bolt fly. "Now!" she cried out to all the others.
Buffy had watched the entire exchange between Anya and Glory. It had to be Glory, she thought grimly. She turned to the others who were behind her and let them know who they were dealing with and to stay clear of her.
The bolt hit Glory in the shoulder and she looked at it dumbfounded. She gave Buffy a thousand fold glare as sickly green bile began to run out of the wound. She ran at her, Anya forgotten.
Xander rushed to the chair to release Anya, and as she got up, she forced him to sit so that she could sit in his lap and commence making out with him to thank him. Giles stood over them and cleared his throat. They looked up guiltily and noticed the vampires that had appeared as Glory had run screeching out of the room after Buffy.
Buffy knew this house so well already. She saw the vampires out of the corner of her eye as she left the room. She knew that escape was the only plan for now when it came to Glory. The others could fight the vampires and she would lead Glory back to the room so that they could have her out numbered and fight their way out.
"I can't believe you're running away from me Slayer!" Glory called out as she ran after Buffy. The skin around the wound was already beginning to crust and fade back to her normal dun green. She didn't have the time to heal herself or the concentration to even hold her illusion.
Buffy turned and saw that Glory had almost caught up. She skidded to a halt and let the demon run past her. Buffy did a quick about face and ran back the way she came from. She opened the door to the torture chamber to see Giles and Tara take down the last two vampires. Her friends formed a rough half circle and she stood at the head of it and waited for Glory to come through the door.
"I know you're in there!" Glory cried out frustratedly and threw open the door to see two cross bows, a stave, two witch bolts and a sword aimed straight at her.
Buffy took the sword and pointed at Glory's shoulder. "Ew! What happened to your arm?" she asked sweetly.
Glory glanced down to see that the illusion had faded even more to reveal her whole arm. Throwing both her human and demon arms up in the air with a scream of rage, she disappeared.
Everyone looked to each other with puzzled looks on their faces and left promptly.
The Magic Box, later that night
"The wards are up now Giles," Willow said.
"Good, thank you, Willow, Tara." He turned to Buffy. "That was very clever back there Buffy, appealing to her vanity. But that won't happen again. Glory is going to come back stronger and angry that we caught her off guard and we will need to be prepared."
Buffy put on her mock serious face and saluted. "Yes, sir!" Buffy looked around the room and asked "Where are Xander and Anya?"
"They went back to his place." Willow answered with a quirky smile.
Buffy rolled her eyes and sat down to open the next in a series of old and dusty volumes to find out more about the vainest she-demon she had ever come across.
End Revelations. The Oracle Saga To Be Continued.