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Summary:
Warnings:
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prologue [Spike's POV]
Spike pulled his DeSoto over to the side of the road and scowled.Turning his bleached blonde head to the side, he scrutinized his dark haired,dark eyed Childe and frowned. Lex just looked back at him, a world of sadness and loss in his eyes.
"Are you *sure* about this pet? I mean, we can all turn around and head off to somewhere else. Europe? Asia? Even South America like Dru's been prattling on about? What do you say?"
Lex seemed as if he were about to say something, but then the youngest of the three vampires bit back his words. Instead, he just shook his head softly and shrugged, sorrow radiating out of his very being.
"I'm sorry Spike. I wish that were possible, but... if events don't happen *exactly* like they did *last* time, I might just... *vanish* some night. Who knows? I can only tell you the things that I remember from my mortal life... and I *know* that you and Dru went to Sunnydale to search for Angelus to cure Dru's illness. I've told you what will happen... or, what *did* happen.Just... remember, if you need *anything*, anything at *all*, contact me here and I'll get it for you."
Spike smiled at that. He could feel the worry rolling off of his beloved Childe and he tried very hard not to let it show how much Lex's concern was effecting him. He felt torn in two. Part of him was turning into a bleedin' marshmallow, all sticky gooey sap and mushiness. The other part of him was practically jumping out of his skin from wrecked nerves. Normally,he didn't care if his Dark Princess and his Dark Prince saw how emotional and silly he got over things, but this time his sweet Lex had enough to deal with and Spike didn't want to add any more. So, he forced away his apprehension and forced a cocky grin onto his face.
"Not to worry pet, I'm the Big Bad and all. Slayer won't know what hit her."
Lex just shook his head and grinned wickedly.
"That's true. You're gonna rock her world to it's foundation. Hell,you're rock *my* world harder than it's ever been rocked before."
Spike's grin turned into a real honest smirk. He loved it when Lex told stories about his time as a mortal. Not only was he a master storyteller with a sharp and sardonic sense of humor, but they were the kinds of tales that demons could enjoy immensely. All full of slayers, vampires, spells and life and death struggles.
"Hell Spike, my mortal self had *nightmares* about you and Dru! And a few 'please don't let me piss myself so I can die with *some* dignity' type of confrontations."
They shared a quiet chuckle and then Spike watched as all the humor drained out of his Childe's dark eyes and they flashed gold briefly.
"But, this is going to test you harder than anything else ever did, and it's gonna push you to your very limits... and beyond. You'll suffer..."
Spike waved him silent. They had been down this road before, lots of times. Spike had a choice. He could go into Sunnydale and let events come to pass as they had done during Lex's mortal life and he *himself* would pay a terrible price to ensure his Childe's very existence, or... he could turn away and risk Lex vanishing into nothingness as a different destiny took hold ofhim.
"Yeah... well. I'll survive. I did last time, right? Well, I can do it again."
Lex grinned at him. It was a shaky grin, but it was there.
Suddenly, the dark haired vampire leaned across the empty space between them and wrapped his arms tightly around Spike, a low sounding whimper catching in his throat. Spike felt his own eyes tear up slightly and his unbeating heart felt like a lump of lead in his chest. This was the first time ina lmost 60 years that he would be separated from his one and only Childe, and he didn't like it. Unable to resist one last lingering taste, Spike vamped out and sank his fangs deeply into Lex's throat. Thick rich blood welled up in his mouth and he rolled it around his tongue, savoring the unique flavor that was pure Lex.
Finally, he released his Childe and Lex opened the car door and stepped out into the Los Angelus night. With Drusilla and Miss Edith firmly ensconced in the back seat, Spike turned the car around and headed back north. Towards Sunnydale and his destiny.
act 1 [Willow's POV]
Willow arranged the spell components on the makeshift alter and tried to explain her reasoning to Tara once more.
"I know it sounds... strange, but I just don't buy that story about itbeing too painful for Spike to talk about. I mean, he *likes* to brag,about *everything*, why not his Childe? I *know* that Lex was dusted inPrague when Drusilla got hurt, but that doesn't really explain it. Not from a*Spike* point of view. I mean, the *only* reason we even found out about Lex was that Xander just *happened* to find it listed in one of the Watcher's Journals and he asked."
Tara shrugged slightly and gathered together some herbs that she had stored in tupperware containers to help them keep their freshness.Walking over to Willow, she handed them to the red haired witch and offered a small sad smile.
"I... I don't know. I think that he was... genuinely upset when it was mentioned. Well... shocked anyway. He *did* do that eyes-popping-out-of-his-head thing and demanded to know *why* Xander wanted to know."
Willow nodded her head decisively.
"*Exactly*! I mean, if Lex is dust, why would he care if we were curious about him? He *loves* to tell stories, but he's never once mentioned him. Why? What's he hiding? After all, *Dru* left him and he *still* tells stories about *her*."
The blonde shook her head and shrugged once more.
"I don't know. I have no idea why he didn't want to tell us about Lex."
Willow finished setting up and turned to face her lover.
"Look, I just want to do this spell to find out more about this mysterious Lex vampire. It's just a simple modification of a scrying spell. It'll allow us to look through the veils of time and see into the past. The water in this bowl will act as a viewing screen. We should see events as they happened back then if we do this right. So... will you help me?"
Tara's lips twisted slightly in thought as she considered her lover's plan and request. She leaned forward and read through the spell once and she didn't see anything *wrong*, but there was this little voice in the back ofher head that was trying to warn her about something. Then, Willow pouted at her, her soft full bottom lip sticking out and her big green eyes pleading and Tara firmly pushed that little voice out of her mind and nodded her consent.She would help.
Standing side by side, the two witches each lit a candle and gathered a handful of the herbs. Then, together they began to recite the spell.Slowly and carefully, Tara sprinkled the herbs she held over her candle. They sparked quickly and then turned into shimmering bits of gold glitter that floated around them and the alter. Then, Willow sprinkled her herbs over the other candle and they turned into bits of bright red glitter that floated around them and the alter as well. At that point, they began chanting again, repeating the last verse three times, each time slightly louder and faster than before.Finally, the spell was complete and a fuzzy and hazy image began to form in the bowl of water.
It was at that point that their door burst open and Xander rushed in.His expression was one of grief and frustration as nervous energy and angst rolled off of him in palpable waves.
"Wills I'm *so* sorry to just interrupt and all, but Anya just dumped me and I *really * need to talk. What am I going to do? I *love* her!"
Willow turned to face Xander as he barged across the room. With an abstract sort of horror forming in her chest, she watched as if everything was happening in slow motion so she wouldn't miss a single detail. She could see that tears were pooling in his eyes and he lifted a hand up to wipe themaway. With his hand and arm covering his eyes, Xander didn't see Miss Kitty dash from her spot on top of the bookcase to greet her friend. The young feline twined around his legs in her usual fashion, possibly hoping that he would start handing out kitty-treats like he normally did during visits. Xander tripped over the purring ball of fluff and lost his balance, his arms flung out to the side waving wildly.
Instead of catching his fall, his one arm smacked into the makeshift alter, knocking it over. The bowl of water tipped over, splashing Xander from head to toe even as the container of herbs flew through the air,sprinkling him liberally with them. A clap of thunder and lightening flashed across the clear evening sky and a whirlwind rushed through the room. Papers and herbs and knick-knacks flew through the air and the candles blew out.
In self-defense, Willow and Tara dropped to the floor, praying and hoping that nothing broke and that no one ended up getting hurt. Clutching her girlfriend tightly, Willow huddled on the floor until, as suddenly as the indoor windstorm started, everything grew still and quiet.
Cautiously lifting her head, Willow looked around. Everything was a total wreck. Papers and books lay scattered everywhere. Magic components and paraphernalia had been tossed about in random patterns. And Xander was... *gone*.
"Oh no... oh Goddess... oh no..."
At the sound of her panicked babbling, Tara's head popped up and she too glanced around.
"Oh my... what a... mess."
Willow turned and clutched at Tara's arm tightly, shock and fear etched into her face.
"No, you don't understand. Xander! He's gone!"
"Gone?"
Willow nodded frantically at her bewildered lover.
"*Gone*! I think... I think the spell took him! Took him to the past or something."
Willow watched anxiously as Tara closed her eyes and her features took on a blank expression. She knew that her lover was 'feeling' the pattern and flow of their magic to try and trace out what happened and hers tomach tied itself into knots as the seconds ticked by. Finally, Tara opened her eyes and frowned sadly.
"You're... right. The spell *did* take him away."
act 2 [Giles's POV]
Giles looked up from where he was researching Spike's Childe Lex for Buffy while she worked off some of her aggression and tension in the training area with Riley. With a sigh, he removed his glasses and began to polish them absently while he allowed his thoughts to swirl.
Apparently, Buffy had confronted Spike about his defeating two slayer's and, while he had mentioned, in quite sordid detail, his relationships with Drusilla, Angelus and Darla, he had failed to even*once* tell her about Lex. Not his death, his career as a bloodthirsty vampire, nor his dusting in Prague. He hadn't even given a hint that Lex had existed at all.
Xander had shrugged Spike's reluctance to discuss Lex off, his concern slying more with his floundering romance with Anya. Willow had been as curious as a young kitten about the mysterious vampire and Buffy had been enraged that Spike had left out such an important detail.
He admitted to himself that he was perplexed as to *why* the blonde vampire would neglect to talk about his Childe. It just... didn't seem right toGiles. It didn't fit in with what he knew of the blonde's personality. Her emembered reading about Lex in the Chronicles and Watcher's Journals, but hehadn't focused too much energy on studying him since he was no longer a threat, but now Giles wondered. Why *would* Spike hide that knowledge? Did it hint at an unseen weakness in the blonde? Or did Spike perhaps dust his own Childe himself in order to save Drusilla?
Shrugging, Giles finished cleaning his glasses and was about to go back to his reading when the front door to the Magic Box burst open and Willow and Tara rushed in. He could tell right away that something was terribly wrong.Both of the young witches were visibly upset and flushed. They were also breathing heavy, as if they had run the entire way across town. In fact, as soon as they were inside, Tara collapsed onto one of the chairs at his research table.
"Giles! We need your help. It's an *emergency*!"
Standing quickly, Giles's helped Willow into a chair next to her girlfriend and tried to brace himself for the bad news.
"What? What happened? Some demon or... something?"
Both girls shook their heads in the negative, still panting for breath.It was finally Willow who was able to answer first.
"Xan... Xander..."
Giles's suppressed a groan and the urge to roll his eyes. That boy *always* managed to get himself into the worst sort of trouble. And then it was up to everyone else to bail him out of the mess.
"I'm almost afraid to ask, but... What... what did he do this time?"
"No... it's serious. Bigger than Anya dumping him. Bigger than a messy room. I'm talking *big* big."
Giles frowned. Willow still had the habit of babbling incoherently when she was greatly distressed and he had no clue as to what she was going on about.
"I'm sorry. The problem is that Anya broke off her relationship with Xander, so he made a... *mess*?"
Willow shook her head again and took a deep breath.
"*No*! Anya dumped him. He came to see us for comfort. He messed up our spell when he burst in. Then we sort of accidently sent him backwards through time."
Giles felt his heart clench up for a brief moment. He *couldn't* have heard what he *thought* he heard. It was a mistake. It *couldn't* be correct.His ears must have... malfunctioned or something.
"What was that again?"
Willow clammed up, her green eyes going big and watery and she sucked in her bottom lip and began nibbling on it. It was Tara who picked up the story.
"Um... We did a spell to see back in time. A scrying spell, that's all.Honest. But... somehow, when Xander tipped over the alter, it*mutated*. Now... we think he traveled back in time to the year we had been viewing."
Giles felt his face go pale at the very thought of Xander wandering lost and alone in a foreign place and time. The boy must be frightened and confused. He might also be in a great deal of danger. They needed to find out where and when he was and then *get him back* as soon as possible.
He resisted the urge to grab the young girls and shake some sense into their pretty little heads just as he resisted the urge to scream.Instead, he took a deep steadying breath and tried to be as gentle as possible with them to prevent upsetting them further.
"Did you bring a copy of the spell you used? And also, *what* time period were you aiming for? Was it specific in time frame and location?"
Willow sat quietly, nibbling on her full bottom lip, one big wet tear dripping down her pale cheek. Tara, however, reached into the bag she had slung haphazardly across her shoulder and torso. After a brief heartbeat, she pulled out a slim brown leather bound book with pressed goldleaf lettering onthe front proclaiming 'Scrying, Visions and the Third Eye, Volume II'. She opened the book and flipped through the pages swiftly, until, with a little shuddering gasp, she handed the book over to him at the correct page.
"Th... this is the sp... spell we were doing when Xander burst in."
Quickly, Giles read through the spell and the list of components needed to make it work properly. Then, feeling his panic raise up a notch, heread through it again. Confirming what he had figured out the first time he'd read it, a sense of exasperated anger rolled over him. He'd *told* these two time and time again *not* to muck about with untried spells until *after* he'd had ac hance to review it and give his approval, but time and again, they just*assumed* to know enough to work magic without his guidance and it *always* led to trouble.
Taking in a deep breath to try and calm his anger, he leveled his best disappointed mentor expression at them complete with a glasses removal and polishing.
"I hate to be the one to inform you of this, but this spell is *not* a'scrying' spell at all. It's a 'Third Eye' type of spell. That's one where you see through the eyes of a specifically mentioned individual, not just a general overview of the events happening. And I'm afraid that when Xander interrupted the spell, it... latched onto *him* as the person through which it would work. So... if he hadn't knocked over the bowl of water, you would have been able to actually 'see' what he was seeing. And we still might... we just need to find out *exactly* where and when you sent him. What was it you were trying to see?"
The girls both went impossibly paler and Giles found that he was bracing himself for more bad news. Finally, they shared a quick glance and Tara nodded and grabbed her girlfriend's hand in comfort and support. Then, with a soft sigh, Willow turned back to face Giles.
"Um... we weren't looking for a specific time and place... We were looking for a specific *person* and a specific *instant* during that person's life."
Giles frowned as he absorbed that. The intent behind a spell was what fueled it and it often had far reaching effects. Vaguely, he heard thef ront door open and footsteps approach, but this was far more important than any customer could ever be, so he concentrated on Willow and her suddenly distracted and trembling girlfriend.
"*Who*? Who were you looking for? This is terribly important Willow. If we are to have *any* chance of retrieving Xander from the past, we *need*to know to whom you sent him!"
"Bloody Hell! You two *finally* did it, didn't you?"
Giles sighed in frustration even while both girls jumped as if they had been prodded by a pointy stick. With anger leaking around behind his mild mannered facade, Giles turned to *glare* at the bleached blonde vampire that had walked into his shop.
"*Spike*! We don't have *time* for any of your games or tricks. We've a genuine emergency on our hands here!"
But then Willow shocked him to his very core with her next words and he was *certain* that he was going to suffer heart failure.
"Did you *find* Xander? Way back then? *Did* you?"
Giles looked back and forth from the look of horror and guilt etched on Willow's face to the smug smirk that graced Spike's. A feeling of remorse and mind numbing grief hit him like a hammer's blow.
"Oh no... no, no, not *that*... Willow, *please* tell me that youw eren't trying to scry into the past to learn about *Spike*!"
Willow ignored him and continued to stare with wild sad eyes at the Master Vampire. Her next question sent a spear of icy fear and anger through his soul.
"Lex?... That's short for *Alexander*, isn't it?"
Spike didn't answer her directly, his smirk just grew wider until it reached a true smile of happiness. Then, he reached into the back pocket of his jeans and pulled out an old and battered leather wallet.Opening it up, he pulled out a slightly faded picture and handed itover to the red haired witch. Giles leaned over to see it better and gasped in pain and faint shock.
"There ya go ducks. That's a picture of me, my Dark Princess, and Lex.We paid a pretty penny to the wizard that made it possible for our images to be captured on film for that little family portrait. Oh... Watcher, I need to use your phone."
Giles felt himself nod his head absently in response to the question.He was far too busy staring in abject horror at the wallet size picture in Willow's small pale hand.
Drusilla was dressed in a pale yellow frock with lots of frills and lace. She was seated on what was probably a low backed chair or stoolof some sort. Behind her left shoulder stood Spike, in all his bleached blonde leather wearing glory, a cruelly seductive smirk on his face. He had one hand possessively resting on Dru's shoulder and the other resting on his Childe's arm.
It was the face of Spike's Childe that had so captured the unwavering attention of the two witches and the Watcher, however. From his dark curly hair, to his deep chocolate eyes, to his full lips curving in a soft andalluring smile. He was dark, beautiful, charming and obviously very self assured. He was also painfully familiar to them all... Xander.
It was at the point that Giles turned his attention back on the blonde vampire, meaning to *demand* an explanation. But as he looked over ands aw Spike with the phone to his ear, he *heard* what the vampire was saying and his heart literally skipped a beat.
"Lex?... Cheers, mate. It's Daddy!"
Giles's mind swirled and floundered as he *desperately* tried to catchup with the events that were quickly spinning out of *any* semblance of control. Lex? How could Spike be talking on the phone to *Lex*? Lex was...*dust*! The Journals *said* so!
"*Yes* Luv! The witches did it, just like you always said they would.Yes, tonight, they did it earlier tonight."
Giles watched a wide grin of *real* happiness spread across thevampire's face and he wondered briefly if any of them *ever* knew the true Spike.He couldn't recall *ever* seeing the blonde look so totally happy.
"Where are you pet?"
Whatever response Spike got to that question caused the vampire to turnand look over at him. Giles felt his chest get tight as their eyes met.Spike winked at him and he wasn't sure if that was a *good* thing or a *bad* thing.In either case, he wasn't too sure what it was he wanted to do about itanyway. Part of him wanted to turn Spike *and* the two witches over his knee and paddle them all into submission and remorse. The other part of him wanted torun off and find a safe place to hide and cry his heart out for the boy who had been like a son to him.
"Do you have the DeSoto then?... Right. Well, I don't suppose they'd mind seeing you again, but you have to *promise* not to eat the witches.After all, we *do* owe them for sending you back through time luv. S'only right that we let them live a long life... give 'em plenty of time to think about what they've done and all."
Giles watched as a soft look washed over Spike's face and he blinked inconfusion. That was the expression of someone who loved, and loved deeply at that. While the Journals had often noted that Spike adored, hell practically *worshiped* his family, Giles had never seen it personally and thus he had just sort of... overlooked that aspect of the vampire during the time theyh ad spent together.
His brain, in it's shock, took that moment to marvel over Spike'sacting ability. He'd never once given the hint that he felt anything special for Xander. In fact, more than once, he'd been rather harsh with the boy.However, another part of Giles's brain reminded him that Spike had plenty of opportunities over the past years to kill or maim Xander, and he'd *never* done it. Bloody Hell, he'd *kidnapped* Xander and Willow *pre* chip and he *still* hadn't killed the boy. He had *threatened* too, but he didn't actually *do* it, did he?
Giles was pulled out of his swirling thoughts by Spike hanging up the phone and sauntering over to them. One long fingered pale hand reached out and snagged the picture back. Then it was quickly tucked back into the battered wallet and the wallet was put away into his jean's pocket.
"Right. Well... Lex is on his way over here now. Should be arriving in an hour or so. Says he wants to do a quick visit before we head off.Just... remember, it may have only been a few hours since *you* saw *him*, but to *his* point of view... it's been *decades*! Oh... and *don't* call him*Xander*, he hates that... he's *Lex* now."
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