Truth and Myths, chapter 6
February 7, 2004
Today was the day. They would say good-bye to the world they knew. In the end the choice of dimensions had proved easier than they thought. Their final choice was a dimension that seemed to exist as an interdimensional refuge for people from many dimensions.
Angel helped them by sending representatives to speak to a knowledgeable powerful person in all three places. The other two were reluctant to accept new residents from another dimension and both recommended the third.
One even told of a special ward on the refuge dimension that protected both the people arriving from harming it, and vice versa. They would be altered in some way as they arrived, it wouldn't harm them but it would change them. That had led to a debate. But with this being their only real choice inevitably all finally decided they would risk it. Even Andrew, who seemed more curious than fearful.
After the choice was made things were so organized in their destination that identities and some sort of welfare would help them integrate into this new society. They would have a person waiting to greet them and guide them as soon as they arrived.
Willow was performing the spell that would open the dimensional gateway in an hour. For now they could just pretend they were just old friends visiting one another. Xander was with them.
They sat and watched the sunset. Buffy's eyes drifted over to Spike holding the baby. He could go out in the sun now with no fear, at least other than risking a normal human sunburn. His skin did seem to turn pink faster than hers though. There was no doubt his body was returning to human form. His desire for blood was only minimal. A cup of pigs blood once a week satisfied his craving. He however was eating more and more human foods. Holy Water was just water now, and crosses didn't faze him either. He still had the strength and speed though. He could still go into game face if he was angry and she'd seen his eyes glow yellow when he was irritated or startled.
"Buff, I can't believe I'll never see you again." Xander said, barely holding back tears he swore he wouldn't shed until afterwards, when he was alone, and hopefully drunk. It broke the illusion they'd kept up most of the day.
"Hey, I told you already it's not as bad as you think. It's not that hard to travel back and forth. I can come to visit sometime. And if Wes and Fred find a solution then we all can come back to stay."
"Yeah." Xander nodded and smiled, but in his heart he felt this was the last time he'd see Buffy.
"Well, since the lets pretend we're all sixteen mood is broken now anyway, I need to ask you about Giles, Wil."
"What do you need to know?"
"How is he?"
"Not suicidal anymore at least, but Buffy I don't ever think he'll really be back to what he was when he first started being your Watcher."
"I was afraid of that."
"He feels too badly about what he did. He can't forgive the 'monster' he was."
"I know that feeling."
"Me too."
"I feel that way sometimes about the way I treated Anya." Xander's eyes looked far away.
"I guess we all have monsters in us. We just have to learn to deal with them. Spike taught me that."
Willow and Xander nodded.
"It's strange to see him that way." Xander pointed to Spike, cradling the baby with Dawn sitting beside him, both playfully pulling faces and making funny noises.
"A bit." But Buffy's eyes were dreamy with old memories of Spike's compassion and tenderness, back years before he got his soul even. She wondered, as always, why he was so different, how he had stayed part human. Spike didn't know why himself, so another eternal mystery...
After last good-byes Buffy, Spike, their infant daughter Joyceanne, Dawn and Andrew stepped carefully into the center of the circle Willow had laid out. Xander, Wes, Fred and Cordelia stood at the four directional points surrounding the circle. Angel watched seemingly impassive, inside his car, behind the specially tinted windows.
After calling on the directions and elements Willow began the spell. Joyceanne began to whimper, almost as if she sensed the power being raised. Spike stroked her forehead and Buffy cuddled her closer in her carrier. That quieted the infant. Gradually a soft light began to surround them. Andrew's mouth opened in awe. Dawn strained for one last look at Xander, her first big brother figure, he still felt kind of like a brother to her. She mouthed "Good-bye" to him and he saw it and mouthed the same back. Then the light was too bright and everyone squinted until the light began to fade. The effect had much like a bright camera flash. As the light began to fade their eyes slowly adjusted to their new surroundings.
"Wow! It's like the bridge of the Enterprise in Star Trek the Motion Picture!" Andrew exclaimed. The room had a clean but aesthetic look with subdued and comfortable lighting. What looked to be computers and other high tech devices were set into the walls or into desks with a seamless look.
An older woman with salt and pepper hair laughed as she approached them. She looked human except her ears had small points and her eyes looked somewhat cat like. "You aren't the first refugees from Earth to say that." She held out her hand to Andrew and still in awe at his surroundings he shook her hand.
Buffy noticed she and the woman were about the same height.
"My name is Barbara. I came from Earth too, back in the early 1970's." She smiled at them.
Buffy wondered how old she was, when she came here. She didn't look older than mid 40's.
"I'm Buffy and this is my daughter Joyceanne and my...partner Spike."
Barbara chuckled. They told me that some of you had charmingly quirky names. I remembered a girl was named Dawn, but forgot the other names.
"That would be me." Dawn grinned.
Barbara smiled fondly at Dawn. "You look a lot like Valerie, or Valerie when she came here that is."
"Who's Valerie?"
"Oh how remiss of me" Barbara's accent drifted back to her Yorkshire Moors roots. "Valerie and her companion will be your guides. Valerie was a Slayer like you were Buffy." Barbara laughed. "I'm terrible at remembering names, but other things- sharp as a tack! I read your minibiographies this morning, with the details your representative gave us."
Spike had been silent until then, but spoke up now. "So why were you picked to do greeting duty, and what will we have to do before you let us go on our merry way?"
Barbara hesitated for a moment, wondering how much details they needed to be reassured. "You'll all need medical checkups. It's standard procedure for all new arrivals. Don't worry, you shouldn't need shots or anything invasive. Just a general exam by a doctor and scan by a mage. It's more for your benefit than anything else. I'm sure you were told that traveling here alters you?"
With nods from all but the infant Barbara breathed a sigh of relief. Every so often they'd get arrivals that didn't know and had some painful adjusting to go through. Like herself.
"Good. We'll go there now so you can get this over with and meet up with your guides." On the way to the medical center Barbara told them her arrival story. "I looked as human as you before I came through" Barbara looked at Buffy. "I didn't realize I had changed when I came through, but saw myself in a mirror in the medical center."
"What happened?" Dawn asked.
"I screamed- loudly."
Everyone laughed, including Barbara.
"Once they got me calmed down they ran tests, and discovered my recessive elvish genes had become dominant-"
"You're like Arwen!" Andrew exclaimed.
Barbara laughed. "So you still read Tolkien?"
Spike rolled his eyes. "They made a bloody trilogy of movies of LORD of the RINGS. The boy here," Spike points at Andrew "loves them and goes on and on about it."
Barbara smiled indulgently at Andrew. Andrew was in total adoration mode. "I'm not exactly like Arwen, but yes I do have Elvish ancestry, as does my partner Ian. He changed similarly but with his thick hair and very dark brown eyes I hadn't noticed."
"Did he scream too?" Dawn said snarkily.
"No he actually took it pretty calmly, nothing much surprises Ian."
"Oz" Buffy murmurs with a smile of nostalgia.
"As in the movie?" Barbara replies with a confused look.
"No, just a friend back in high school. Nothing ever phased him much, not even when he found out he was a werewolf."
Barbara looked surprised, "You had a friend that was a werewolf?" Then she laughed, "I shouldn't be surprised, as a Slayer you probably had a lot of unusual friends."
Buffy nodded.
"Well here we are." Barbara pointed at the blue tinted glass-like doors in front of them. "They should have everything set up already for you. Valerie should meet up with you after your tests are done."
"So you aren't staying with us till she gets here?"
"No, have to get to a meeting. Maybe we can meet up some time again." Barbara gave them all a quick smile then turned and walked back the way they had come.
"Well into the breech" Spike strode toward the doors which proved to be automatic, sliding open, revealing a bustling room with various medical people scurring around.
Buffy was glad when the procedures were over with. She found out that her alteration had been relatively minor in the physical sense. She now read clearly as a human demon mix. Her desire to slay demons and vampires had been tempered though, it only reacted if needed for defense of herself or others. The baby registered as almost exactly the same. Buffy thought, Joyceanne may be a sort of Slayer, like Giles said it was possible for her to be. Buffy explained this to the others when they met again after their exams.
"Well luv, looks like I changed the least. Coming through just basically froze my changing back where it was. I'm a vampire/human mix for good." He looked at her with a bit of trepidation, would she be disappointed he would never become fully human?
Buffy hugged him tight in response and then kissed him, only breaking it off when Dawn cleared her throat loudly. Buffy blushed lightly. She looked at her sister and said, "Sorry, was swept up in the moment."
Spike chuckled, completely relieved, and curved his arm around Buffy's shoulders.
"So what did they tell you 'Bit" Spike said with affection.
"It's kind of scary and freaky."
"What?" Buffy sat up straight with her relaxed feeling of just minutes ago gone.
"Hoping it's not scary and freaky."
"What?"
"I'm the Key again. Well, sort of, but not the way I was when..."
"When Glory was chasing after you."
"Yeah. They said what I am now is still human, but I can access the Key power whenever I want to, and no blood should be necessary, no gaping dimensional holes either. They said with training I should be able to control it completely."
"So you'll be hopping dimensions for your career I guess" Buffy said with a touch of envy.
"Yeah probably. But hey that means we can visit back home once I get control."
"Hey, isn't anyone going to ask how I changed?" Andrew blurted out.
"Sure, what did they say?" Dawn asked politely.
"They said I can access magic now! Something about how my being around magic and playing with it so much back on Earth opened the channels, and now I can train to be a mage!"
Buffy and Spike both wondered what they could do here. No one had told them anything yet. Maybe the mysterious guides they were waiting on now would give them some options.
Dawn and Andrew had decided to see if they could find some decent food for everyone. A short time later, a middle aged woman with short dark reddish brown hair approached Buffy and Spike. When she got closer to them Buffy could tell she was quite short. Wow, hardly ever see an adult woman shorter than me." Buffy thought.
"Hi I'm Valerie. Sorry I was late. It was my fault. I overslept." She smiled at them sheepishly.
"It's okay. I do stuff like that too." Buffy smiled back at her.
"Must be something about being a Slayer."
Buffy nodded. She was astonished this tiny middle-aged woman had once been a Slayer. I thought I was short. Wow, I don't think she's even five feet tall!
"Bet she didn't tell you she was my Watcher though."
"No."
Valerie laughed. "She's so absentminded."
Buffy grinned, "Sort of an absentminded Professor thing?"
"Yes! I take it you had more the normal type Watcher?"
"Not exactly. He was known as quite a rebel one."
"I bet not as much as Barbara."
"Probably not if she's here, not there." Buffy felt uncomfortable with this talk about Watchers, and wanted to steer the conversation away from that painful subject. "So how did you end up here, and how did I become a Slayer with you still..."
"Being alive? That's a long story..."
"Got plenty of time now."
"Okay, fair enough. I know about you, you should know about me. We have even more similarities than you know right now. I think I should start with that."
Valerie motioned a taller woman over. Buffy guessed her to be about Faith's height, she looked young enough to be Valerie's daughter, but Buffy could tell she wasn't by the way the two women looked at each other. With a sharp pang of loss she realized it reminded her of Willow and Tara.
"Hi, I'm Ir-"
"-is." Spike finished, quite surprised. Iris, equal startled said, "Spike?"
Both Valerie and Buffy responded to their partners, stunned: "You know each other?"
Spike said quickly, "We met a few times back in the 30's. Played some poker games with her and her Sire. He was a poncy type, could hardly believe he could be anyone's Sire. Think all he had going for him was pretty boy looks and a powerful thrall. Worst poker player I met. You knew when he had good cards or bad, any fool could see it. Now Iris here, she was the best. Cleared out whatever the pot was. I figured she was scamming but I never caught it."
Valerie giggled girlishly. "I saw Iris do that to lots of people. She taught me a few things." Valerie blushed lightly at her unintended innuendo.
"Thanks Spike, you're a pretty good player yourself."
"Know a few things." He said both with uncharacteristic modesty and to tease the other Slayer a bit.
Iris laughed. "Still the lady charmer I see."
Spike smiled.
"So you're a vampire too? I thought I sensed more than one here, but considering this world I figured that maybe there might be some other vampires around."
"Yes I am, and yes there are."
"So what happened to your Sire?"
"Poor Marion, never was much of a fighter, he saved his skin as long as he did by his thrall powers. He was killed by the Slayer before Valerie, after I finally got tired of feeling sorry for him and left him. He followed me and when I rejected him I think that took what little fight he had left in him. I heard through the demon grapevine a few months later that he was gone. What about you Spike, what happened to Dru? Burkley was so scared of her his hands would shake when he played poker with you."
"Dru dumped me when I started falling in love with Buffy. I was always second to Angelus with Dru, but she couldn't tolerate any competition in my heart, even though I didn't know I was falling in love yet. Tried to get her to take me back doing all sorts of crazy stunts, worked for a short time then she took up with a chaos demon right in front of my face and said we should just be friends now. Came back to Sunnydale in a right rage. Blamed Buffy for it. We fought some intense battles as mortal enemies at first, but I finally gave into the inevitable and stopped fighting my real feelings for her."
Buffy sighed, "Took me longer than him. I was still treating him like an enemy even when he was the only one that was really there for me. I couldn't bear the thought that the only person that cared about my welfare was something I had been trained to kill."
Spike put his arm around her. "Wasn't just that, don't make yourself out to be darker than you were."
"I still can't believe you'd forgive me so easily. I can't forgive myself for doing that to you."
Iris said gently, "Sounds like you had a harder time than Valerie and I did."
"Yes, and it was more my fault than his."
"I did my share."
"Perhaps we should just continue our story. It sounds like you have some painful things that you need to get past, I don't think Valerie and I should interfere with that."
Buffy and Spike nodded.
"Barbara found me when I was still a Potential. Demons attacked my family when we were driving home from Chicago one night when I was 13. I was the only survivor. Barbara was working undercover as a registered nurse. She'd been sent to Chicago because the Watchers council had discovered there was a Potential in the area- me. When I came to the hospital she knew I was the one. She became my foster mother afterwards. I became the Slayer when I was 15."
Iris joined back into the conversation. "I came to the Chicago area, mostly to get as far away from my guilt about leaving Marion to his fate as possible. I didn't tell you before but Marion was from Dracula's line, as am I, we tend to not be as "bestial" as some other lines-"
"Like Aurelius." Spike added.
"Yes, None of us are much of fighters either, but our thrall powers are enhanced. Marion was just even less a fighter than even the typical Drucul line vampire. I'm more typical. But I'm different in much the way Spike is. We both retained much of our emotional connections to humanity, including a strong capacity to compassion and even love. I saw Valerie fighting off three vampires, all male and much larger than her. Something snapped in me when I saw that and I immediately jumped into the fight to help her."
"I was surprised that a vampire would be helping a Slayer, but I took it at face value, that it was possible for a vampire to have a sense of anger at something that looked unfair."
"We talked for a while and then her Watcher arrived. Once the situation was explained, they let me go with just a warning if I attacked a human I was dust. It was strange, I never felt much desire to do so again once I helped out Valerie that first time. Before long we had this strange sort of collation going. We all worked together and I took to only drinking animal blood."
"Of course none of this was ever told to the Council. Then when I turned 18 the council called and announced it was time for my Cruciamentum."
"Oh God." Buffy blurted out.
"So you went through it?"
"Yes."
"Someday tell me about it."
"You didn't?"
"No. Barbara didn't know anything about it beforehand. But she found out what it was and then helped me escape it. Iris was the major player in this."
"I just drove the van, sweetheart."
"You did more than that. I survived because of you. After we had been on the run a few months we found a safe house. Barbara discovered the teleportation spell to this dimension and basically that's it. She and Ian- her boyfriend, joined us here a few months later. When I arrived I'd been changed like you were Buffy."
"And I was changed like you, Spike. I got my soul back and was returned to a partly human state."
"Oh Bugger. I wasn't changed at all." Spike said with some disappointment.
"You weren't? You already had your soul and had become partly human?"
"Yeah."
"How?"
Buffy smiled. "That's a long story! Right now I just want to eat something, and besides here come Dawn and Andrew. We all have tales to tell, over dinner!"
Joyceanne picked that moment to begin to wail. "I think she's hungry too. I need to feed her, is there some place where I can do that, then join you?"
"Sure. We need to get you set up in your home anyway. We'll take you all there now. There's a place on the train for nursing mothers, you can feed your baby and relax. Just bring the things you bought with you, we'll all eat on the train."
Spike and Buffy sat down together on the train. Spike put his arm around Buffy's shoulder and she leaned against him. Buffy slid the carrier off her shoulders and settled Joyceanne in her lap. Valerie sat down next to Buffy and Iris on the other side of Spike. Dawn and Andrew took seats facing them. The train car was empty except for them.
"We picked this time of day because there's not many passengers. Iris and I remember how uncomfortable it was at first, being surrounded by strangers."
Joyceanne chose this moment to reawaken and loudly wail her hunger. Buffy blushed lightly. "Um, I'm going to need to nurse her, is there some place I can do this in private right now?"
"This car is given as a priority to nursing moms."
"But I feel uncomfortable with people staring at me when I do."
"Oh! Sorry Buffy, we've lived here so long we've become accustom to seeing nursing moms in public all the time." Iris said sympathetically. "Val, lets go to back and give her some privacy."
Dawn was urging Andrew back the same direction. Spike started to go as well, but Buffy said "No, stay. You've been with me before when I've nursed her, and she's your daughter too." Spike smiled faintly and resettled beside her.
He'd glance down watching Buffy and the baby, then look out the window at the passing scenery. He also listened to Iris and Valerie's impromptu travelogue for Dawn and Andrew.
After Joyceanne was fed she drifted back to sleep. Spike and Buffy began to ask Valerie and Iris more about this world.
"So this place has been some sort of interdimensional refuge for thousands of years?"
"Yes, and people from Earth have been coming here for at least 700 years, the first recorded ones were a group of two hundred English witches fleeing the beginning of the Inquisition."
"Two hundred at one time! Wow, Willow would be mondo impressed!" Buffy said astonished. It was too bad Willow would likely never know about this. Despite reassurances on both sides, Buffy felt she'd likely never see her friends back home again. She swallowed back the pain quickly before it showed.
"Is Willow a witch?"
"Yeah, Red's a witch, powerful one too, she opened the portal for us."
"Red? So she has red hair I take it?"
Spike nodded, then asked a question of his own. "We've got Dawn and Andrew here all settled into careers, but what can Buffy and I do?"
Iris smiled. "Wondered when that was going to come up. Well, you could always do what Valerie and I do."
"What's that?"
"Well, besides this work, Valerie and I are also emergency responders. If there's some sort of disaster we are on call to help out. Fire, Flood, you name it. We also occasionally do things like break up fights. It's pretty peaceful here- large scale, but small scale fights, especially when chemical stimulation of the mind is involved, still happen."
"Oh."
"Would you two like to do that kind of work?"
"Maybe."
"Possibly."
"Oh if you are worried about being called to dangerous things with having a newborn to care for, don't worry. That's not allowed, neither parent, if there are two, gets hazardous duty until their child is at least 3 years old. They'll send you to the scene all right, but you're transport, not front line."
"And that's only after a full year of training when you start. Plus they test you to make sure you are up to the rigors of the job. Not really a question for either of you, no more than it was for Valerie and myself."
"So what's the pay?"
"Not bad, but it's not something you are doing all the time, off duty pay is half on duty pay. It's a good idea to have another more regular job, if you want to live above basic comfort level. Most people with a kid do."
Buffy says hesitantly, "Could I do the sort of thing your friend that greeted us and stuff did?"
Valerie grinned at Iris. "Told you! Now you have to pay for everyone's meal tonight!"
"Well, I wasn't sure she'd be the type that wanted to. You didn't!"
Valerie giggled. "Hope you brought enough money!" Then she said to Buffy, "Absolutely you can do that! They're actually needing more staff right now, so you're almost guaranteed a position."
"I hope I don't mess up."
Valerie smiled reassuringly. "I bet you'll be better at it than Barbara. Just have a gut feeling about it."
Buffy hoped so.
"And what about you Spike, what hidden talents lay beneath your surface?"
For a moment Spike leered at the easy opening that question gave him. But he chooses just a mildly suggestive comment "Got lots of hidden talents, Buffy knows quite a few."
Iris laughed, despite the soul, the wicked naughty boy was still there.
Spike did consider briefly his love of writing, but cringed to think if he was still as poor as he had been before he was a vampire, he'd be the laughing stock of two dimensions, if not more.
It was Dawn that came to his rescue with a suggestion. "Oh Spike is a way cool storyteller! He'd tell me these stories that were really scary but exciting! I loved to hear them."
Irene nodded. She remember his poker game patter. He did have the ability to captivate an audience, without using thrall. "Yes, I can recall some thrilling tales from you as well."
Buffy agreed. "You do tell stories really good, Spike."
"Is this something you'd like to do Spike?"
"I'm not sure" He was stunned at the sudden praise heaped on him. He felt uncomfortable, like he didn't deserve it. "I'm not all that great I don't think."
"But do you like telling stories?"
"Yeah, and kind of acting them out a bit too."
"Oh I know of about three or four places that would love to have someone like you on staff!" Valerie chimed in.
"I still don't know..."
"You don't have to decide today. Think about it for a few days. We'll be working with you to help all of us to get acclimated for a whole year."
"Okay, I'll think on it." Spike reflected on how quickly his life had changed yet again when Buffy reentered it. He still awoke amazed that she had actually chosen him over Angel. He'd never come in first with anyone, other than with his mum. But Buffy had changed that. He was slowly allowing himself to see she had chosen him long before that final battle in Sunnydale. Finally they had a chance for an open ended future with no shadow of doom hanging over them. It really was a new world for them.