Here it is, folks - the last story in the
Daywalker Cycle. Thanks for coming on this ride with me.
---
Title: Echoes
Pairing: Buffy/Willow, Faith/Dakota, mention
of Buffy/Giles and Willow/Giles
Rating:
PG-13
Disclaimers: the
usual.
Spoilers:
None
Feedback: Yeah!
Distribution: Ask
first.
Summary: The final story in the Daywalker
Cycle.
---
Part One
The dog days of summer were at their miserable peak on a certain
day in Southern California, and the heat was making Willow Summers, nee
Rosenberg more irritable than usual.
Willow, as a general rule, was not an irritable sort of person; however,
the normal rules of operation had been recently suspended in the Summers
household. This is how it came to
pass that on this particular day, Willow was alone on the back porch of the
house on Revello Drive, eating a popsicle and trying to control her raging
hormones.
Buffy, to no one's surprise, had escaped the house shortly after
breakfast, claiming Watcher duties.
Willow had to laugh, at least to herself, every time she thought of Buffy
as a Watcher. The two concepts, at
one time completely antithetical, now meshed in a new form that was uniquely and
completely Buffy. She leaned back
in her lounge chair and let her mind drift, thinking about all the things that
had happened since Giles had agreed to father their
child.
Three days after arriving in Sunnydale, Nicki Roland had nearly
gotten herself killed goofing around on patrol with Buffy. She would bear a bite-scar on her neck
for the rest of her life, and her outlook had altered drastically, much to
everyone's relief. After that, she
had thrown herself into her magick training and into research with the Scoobies,
making herself a valuable member of the
team.
Three months later, Dawn had returned to Sunnydale, officially
Partnering Janna Markham. Judging
by their body language, Buffy and Willow privately thought the girls'
partnership might be more than just professional, but had decided not to say
anything until the subject was brought up to them. The two girls stayed with Buffy and
Willow long enough to find an apartment of their own, and then set up
housekeeping themselves.
Two months after that, Willow had awakened one morning with an
overpowering nausea. It repeated
itself for two days, at which point a home test confirmed that efforts had been
successful: Willow was pregnant.
Slightly less than a month later, the Slayer-Partner team of Kerry
Roberts and Kate Miglione arrived in Sunnydale with a proposition from the
Academy that Buffy found impossible to
refuse.
The title of Watcher was revived and applied to Buffy, who became
the first officially retired Slayer in history. She turned her efforts now to working
with and training the new girls.
She still researched, she still trained herself, and she continued to
patrol twice a week, but for the first time in a long time, Buffy was really,
deeply happy. Buffy was also now
drawing a sizable paycheck from the funds that had once belonged to the
Watcher's Council.
Three Slayers and two Partners now patrolled the Hellmouth, and
suddenly Sunnydale was a much safer place to be. And then the calls started coming
in. The first one came from Willy
the Snitch, who showed up at the house on Revello one morning with an
envelope. Willow, fresh from a
particularly unpleasant bout of morning sickness, had been less than pleased to
find Willy on the porch, but invited him in anyway. He simply shook his head, asking her to
give the envelope to "the head Slayer."
"She's not the Slayer any more," Willow had said, but Willy shook
his head.
"Once the Slayer, always the Slayer," the slick little man told
her. "Just give her that,
please. She'll know what to do with
it."
The envelope, it turned out, contained a plea for assistance from
a coven of witches in south Florida.
A nest of vampires had set up housekeeping on South Beach and were
snacking on the tourists. Buffy
dispatched both teams to Miami to take care of the problem. A day and a half later, Maria Ortega and
Virginia Marcos arrived in Sunnydale.
Faith called that night.
"You're not the active Slayer any more, B," Faith told her candidly in a
tone that brooked no argument.
"You're twenty-five years old.
As far as Slayers go, that's pretty much old age. It's time for you to step back and let
the younger girls patrol the Hellmouth.
Send teams out like you need to, but keep one with you at all
times."
"I can't just sit back, Faith," Buffy told her. "I'm the Slayer. Even if I am semi-retired. I have to do
this."
"You won't be the Slayer for long, then," Faith snapped back in a
voice Buffy had never heard her use before. "Ask Giles. Make him tell you. Ask him who the longest-lived Slayer in
history is. And then decide whether
or not you want to keep on patrolling."
Buffy had asked Giles that very same night, and was stunned by his
answer. "The longest-lived Slayer
in history? Why, Buffy, I thought
you knew... it's you."
Buffy had stopped patrolling completely after that, except for an
occasional foray out to observe one of the teams in action. Otherwise, she focused herself
completely on research and on training the girls in the gym they'd built next
door to the Magic Box.
The gym began quickly to take up a lot of Buffy's time, especially
once she started offering self-defense classes to the general public. Between teaching regular students,
researching, and training the teams, she had very little time to miss patrolling
- even if patrolling had been the type of thing that she would really miss. Plus, at five months, Willow was
beginning to show, and the couple was beginning to make the changed in their
home and in their lives that were necessary for the advent of the new
baby.
Dawn's old room had been cleaned out, and Buffy painted the walls
and ceiling sky blue. Then she
added sponged-on clouds on the ceiling, some birds, grass at the baseboards, and
even a tree. Willow had been
delighted with the finished product.
They had purchased a baby bed, dresser and changing table, and Xander had
surprised them with a handmade rocking
chair.
The dispatched teams returned from Miami after two weeks,
sun-bronzed and jubilant. Not only
had they dusted every vampire in the nest, but they had at Janna's suggestion
also gone out and made contacts in the demon underworld there. These contacts had promised to keep them
informed of any activity in their area that would need to be dealt with by a
Slayer. They had also agreed to
pass on the Slayer Central contact information to individuals in other areas who
would do the same.
Calls began to come in, requests for Slayer assistance from around
the world. Siobhan Kennedy, Callie
Westford, and their Partners Ebony Brooks and Tiffany Moore, arived in Sunnydale
another month after that. Willow,
now seven months gone, no longer suffered from morning sickness, but she also no
longer fit into most of her old clothes.
She started to experience the violent mood swings that chased Buffy out
of the house. Buffy, however, soon
learned that escape never helped, as Willow was apt to be ticked with her for
running when she finally came home.
Giles and Tara had begun researching Rothschear's manuscripts, the
ones which had caused Willow such trouble when they were in England. They were searching for the spells that
Willow/Rothschear had used to activate the Slayers. It was Tara's theory that such a spell
could be used to activate a Slayer when one was needed; such an activation could
even be done when girls graduated from the Academy. That way, when a Slayer was permanently
injured or became, like Buffy had, too old to safely patrol, she could retire
and take on the status of Watcher instead.
Giles had strongly concurred with Tara and they had begun to
research.
Xander and Anya were finally getting married, after several years
of false starts. Xander had
proposed shortly before Willow discovered that she was pregnant. Buffy and Tara had been chosen as
bridesmaids, and Willow and Giles as "groomspeople." Anya had been gently persuaded to
schedule the wedding for after the baby's
birth.
The sound of a car pulling into the driveway brought Willow out of
her reverie. She struggled up out
of her lounge chair, one hand on her distended belly, and started through the
house. She opened the front door
just as a dark-haired figure was reaching up to ring the bell.
"Faith!"
Faith jumped. "Holy
shit, Red! You almost gave me a
heart attack."
"You're a vampire, Faith," Willow responded dryly. "You can't have a heart attack. Come inside."
"I coulda still wet myself or fell out or something," Faith
grumbled cheerfully as she entered, dropping her knapsack on the floor of the
foyer. "Damn, girl, look at
you! How far along are
you?"
"Just at eight months," Willow replied, moving into the living
room and sinking down onto the sofa with a groan. "Eight months, and I could not possibly
be more ready for this to be over."
"I bet," Faith said sympathetically, settling herself on the other
end of the couch. "Is it a girl or
a boy?"
"We don't know," Willow replied, grinning. "We decided we wanted to be
surprised."
"Picked out names yet?"
"Either Robert Alexander or Roberta Dawn," Willow replied, rubbing
absently at her belly where the baby was kicking. "Robert is a variant of Rupert, so
that's where that came from."
"Very cool," Faith approved.
They sat quietly for a moment, and then Faith suddenly shook her
head. "This is crazy. Surreal,
almost."
"What's that?" Willow inquired.
"Us. Me, you, sitting
here, like this. Seven years ago
you wouldn't have gotten close to me without a machete. And I wouldn't blame you. But here we sit, alone in your house, on
the couch; you're about to be a mom, I'm running a school full of girls, and
we're just sitting here talking about your baby." She shook her head. "I would never have thought it was
possible."
Willow smiled gently.
"People change. They grow
up. They learn from their
mistakes." She extended a hand to
Faith. "And people forgive." She squeezed Faith's hand, then let it
go and settled in a bit more comfortable.
"So, what brings you all the way to
Sunnydale?"
"The Academy, what else?" Faith responded, rolling her eyes. "I wanted to check up on the girls,
especially Nicki, dig through the books, and maybe have Giles come and look at
something." She leaned forward now,
her eyes glittering with excitement.
"We've found a... like a miniature Stonehenge, out in the woods. It's got this crazy energy vibe about it
and none of us can figure it out."
"You should take Tara, too," Willow suggested. "She's really
powerful."
"Tara? Oh, your witch
friend. She's still
around?"
Willow nodded. "She
is. She's been a huge help to
us."
"Well, I'll take her if she wants to come," Faith said
promptly. "Two heads are better
than one."
"Why don't we head down to the shop, then?" Willow suggested. "Unless you're tired - did you want to
take a nap?"
Faith shook her head.
"Nah, I'm five by five. I
slept on the plane."
Willow locked the house and handed Faith the keys to the new
Xterra which stood in the driveway.
"I don't fit behind the wheel any more," she explained as she moved
around to the passenger side.
"You sure it's not twins?"
Willow groaned. "Oh,
God, I hope not." She rubbed at her
temples. "That would be all I'd
need."
"Lookin' to have an only
child?"
"No... Well... We haven't really talked about it." Willow's hand moved to slowly stroke her
belly, smiling as she felt a lazy sort of push from the inside. "Oh, she's
stretching."
They paused at a stop sign and Faith raised an eyebrow.
"She?"
Willow blushed and grinned sheepishly. "Don't tell Buffy. I'm kind of hoping for a
girl."
Faith grinned back.
"No shame in it," she assured Willow. She steered the Xterra carefully into a
spot outside the Magic Box and climbed out to gape at the storefronts. "When did they put a gym
in?"
Willow smiled broadly.
"That's Buffy's gym," she announced proudly as Faith helped her out of
the vehicle. "She trains the girls
there and teaches self-defense classes."
"No shit. That's
great!" Faith, with a huge grin,
made for the front door of the gym.
With Willow behind her, she paused just inside the doorway. Buffy had her back to the door,
instructing a wide-eyed class of youngsters. Faith slid her backpack off and gave
Willow a wicked grin. She turned
then and launched herself across the room at
Buffy.
Buffy saw the eyes of her students shift a half-second before her
Slayer senses screamed a warning.
She spun immediately into a defensive posture just in time to block a
punch from Faith. The children
scattered, racing to the relative safety of Willow's side as the two Slayers
rolled across the mats and came up battle-ready. Willow came up to the side of the
mats. "It's okay, kids," she
assured them. "They're just
sparring. Watch them and
learn." The kids all nodded
solemnly and stared.
Buffy swept Faith's feet out from under her with a kick and leapt
onto the vampire, straddling her waist.
Faith rolled them until she was on top. Buffy punched her in the face, knocking
her back, and then they were both on their feet again, circling each other. They exchanged a few more bouts of
hand-to-hand before Faith kicked Buffy into the wall next to the weapons
rack.
"Faith," Buffy greeted her, catching ehr breath. She wiped blood from the corner of her
mouth. "Long time no
see."
"Yeah, B," Faith responded with a grin through her own split
lip. "Lucky for me you still hit
like you used to."
"Care to test that with something a little stronger?" Buffy
taunted.
Faith raised an eyebrow at the impressive array of bladed weapons
on the rack next to Buffy. "You
lookin' to wind up in the hospital?"
In response, Buffy pulled down the two quarterstaves which framed
the display. She tossed one to
Faith and took up a ready stance with her own. They circled one another for a moment
and then reentered combat. For a
few moments, the only sounds to be heard in the gym were the clack of wood on
wood and the soft grunts of the combatants. Then Faith got a lucky shot in, smacking
Buffy hard across the lower back and knocking her to the mat. Faith dropped to her knees astride
Buffy's shoulders and gently placed one hand on either side of the golden
head. "Snap," she whispered. "Vamps one, Buffy zero. Now do you see why I wanted you
to keep a team here? I never beat
you before, B." She stared into
Buffy's eyes with a quiet intensity.
"We live large and burn out fast, B. Like stars going nova.
Boom."
They stayed in that position for a long moment, the tension
between them almost palpable, before Buffy finally nodded. "Message received, Faith," she said
softly.
"Okay, then," Faith nodded.
She stood and offered Buffy a hand up. "I want that baby to grow up with both
its mothers."
Buffy grinned then and hugged Faith. "Good to see you, Faith. No Dakota? You're here on business,
then."
Faith nodded.
"Nothing apocalyptic, though," she said quickly. "Not this week,
anyway."
They shared a laugh, and then Faith moved to sit on the bench near
the door with Willow while Buffy regathered her scattered students and finished
teaching her class.
---
~~Rainne
******
Buffy: Oh! When I had psychic power, I heard my mother think
that you were like a stevedore during sex... Do you want me to continue?
Giles: Actually, I beg you to stop.
Buffy: What's a stevedore?
--"Who Are You?"--Buffy ep 4x16--
******
Buffy: Oh! When I had psychic power, I heard my mother think
that you were like a stevedore during sex... Do you want me to continue?
Giles: Actually, I beg you to stop.
Buffy: What's a stevedore?
--"Who Are You?"--Buffy ep 4x16--
******
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