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Part Six
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Willow awoke to the sound of screaming: shocked, horrified shrieks that seemed to come from within her bedroom. Her eyes flew open as sleep left her and she surveyed the scene. What she saw took her breath away.
Her son was standing on the edge of the bed, his little fingers clenched tightly around Buffy’s throat. Willow could already see bruises forming on the Slayer’s white neck as William held her dangling above the ground, helpless and now gasping for air.
"William?!" his mother asked incredulously. "William, let go of her!" Willow began to move towards him, then stopped herself. "Anointed One?"
William turned to face her, dropping Buffy from his grasp as he did so. His irises glowed liked a fire and a slow smile spread across his face. "Your child will soon be mine, unholy mother." The voice coming from William’s lips was hoarse and unlike anything she had ever heard before. "He will bring my wrath upon the world, and there is nothing you can do to stop it." His eyes flickered, the glow disappeared, and Willow could see her son for a moment. "Momma? What’s going on?" The glow returned, and the demon that held William laughed. "Your son tries to fight me. He is strong for a child, but his strength will soon fade. He will never beat his destiny. It is a fate you gave him; the moment you took a demon to your bed you made it so." The glow faded from William’s eyes entirely and he fell to the floor.
Willow scrambled over the bed and to her son’s side. Buffy lay next to him, checking his pulse. She was still trying to catch her breath, and rubbing the angry bruises that the Anointed had left behind.
"Willow, he’s alive for now," Buffy said softly. "But we have to take him to Giles. I think that was only a glimpse of what’s to come."
"Call him; tell him we’re on our way. I’ll get William ready to go." As Buffy left the room Willow scooped her son up in her arms. "You can’t leave me William. You have to fight." He was no longer unconscious , just sleeping deeply from exhaustion. "I’m sorry that you have to go through this, but I will never be sorry that you were born. You’re the only thing in this world that’s truly mine. You have to stay alive. What will I do without you?"
Buffy poked her head in the door. "I’ve got the car running. Are you coming?" Willow nodded and picked up the boy, pulling a blanket around him, as he was only in his footie pajamas. They headed down to the car and within five minutes they were at Giles’ doorstep.
He was waiting, again, on the sidewalk. But instead of heading straight for Willow this time, he immediately approached Buffy, examining her neck. She whispered "It’s nothing" and brushed him away, obviously trying to keep Willow from feeling responsible for any pain inflicted on her. He looked quickly anyway, running his hands over the marks, watching as Buffy flinched. Giles bit his lip and ushered them inside.
"Willow, we have a serious problem," he said once they were seated. "He was able to inflict those kinds of bruises on a *Slayer*. Do you know how much strength is needed for that?" She nodded. "That means the Anointed One’s power is developing faster than it should be."
"His heart rate is slower than normal now," Willow said softly. "I checked it in the car. And he’s paler than when we got to Sunnydale." She fought back tears. "This is really bad, isn’t it?"
Giles looked at Willow, then at the child asleep in his armchair. He knelt down in front of the red head, took her hand in his, and touched her cheek gently. "I’m sorry Willow." Tears welled up in his eyes. "I don’t know how to stop it."
"You’re lying!" She smacked his hand away from her face, and stood up, putting distance between them. "You don’t want to find a way to save William. You’re punishing me because I dared to love the thing that you have dedicated your life to killing. For God’s sake, William is a child! You won’t be letting a demon die; it’s going to be a little boy, *my* little boy! You can’t let him die, Giles." She accepted the open arms he offered and fell against his chest, sobbing. "You can’t let him die."
Giles rested his chin on top of her head, stroking her hair, making the same parental gesture that Willow often made herself. "There’s nothing I can do. William will be overtaken by the Anointed One. Sooner than we expected, it seems."
"But how am I going to live without him, Giles? I’ll have nothing." Willow sniffed.
"It won’t be anything in comparison, but you will always have me, and Giles," Buffy said. "We love you a lot, Willow."
"Thank you." Willow tried to hold back her anger. "Giles, I… well, Spike came to me in a dream and told me all about William and why he can’t live, even if the curse had never come up. He said that vampire and human blood can’t mix. Was that true?"
The Watcher nodded. "Vampires usually cannot reproduce, at least in the biological sense. It was a miracle that William was born at all because mixing vampiric and human genes basically contradicts itself. The vampire half will eventually kill the human side. It’s a battle that can’t be won."
"Spike told me as much. But you’re quite sure? There aren’t any cases of vampire children outliving this death warrant?" The redhead tugged the ends of her hair, trying to keep herself from screaming. She had to find a way to save her son.
"I’ve only heard of four other children being born half vampire, half human in all of recorded history. Three of them died by the time they were two years old." He seemed unwilling to continue, but Willow’s eyes prompted him. "Seth Cartwright, who was born in 1843, in England, lived to be sixteen years old."
"How did he survive so long?" she asked.
"His mother was a Slayer. Emilia Cartwright was a beautiful young girl who was one of the few Slayers that lived long enough to marry. Four months after her wedding her husband was attacked by vampires, and he impregnated her that night, while his change was still incomplete. Her husband was found out, and killed, but Emilia refused to abort the child. The Council took the boy once he was born and told Emilia that Seth had been dead at birth. She committed suicide soon after." Willow cringed, remembering her own suicide attempt. "Anyhow, the reason that Seth did live well into his teens was because of his parentage. He had half of a Slayer’s strength and the ability to stay alive. His father had not been completely vampiric when Emilia conceived. Seth may have had many factors on his side, but the vampire inside eventually won. He died like all the others."
"But why has William lived so long?" She had a perplexed look on her face. "You said the others died by the time they were two. I’m not a Slayer, and Spike had been a vampire for over a hundred years. My son has no factors on his side."
"I suspect it’s because you’re a witch," he guessed. "Witchery is a genetic default; it’s a lack of certain genes which keeps the human race closed off from supernatural. That lack of genes may have been beneficial to William’s life span. But it’s only a theory."
Willow sighed, her heart sinking. "So my son will be possessed by a demon, and consequently die, or he will fade away because his vampiric and human side can never survive together. Either way he’s going to die." Giles nodded. "I don’t want my son to die a demon. I don’t want him to become one at all. No one should be forced out of life by evil. I want William to be a human, and not be damned. Because if he dies with the Anointed One controlling his soul, there’s no telling what could happened, is there?"
"No, there’s not."
Willow glanced at the Codex. "When I dreamt of Spike last night, he explained to me how he could be resurrected. Spike told me the only way to have him return was to take William’s place in the world. You did say the Codex predicted his resurrection, didn’t you?"
"Yes, but the only way to have him come back was sacrificing William, so I kept quiet about what I knew. It is not a pleasant act. You are to witness your child dying, and at the moment you could save him, you are to deny him that right. Then as William died, Spike would return."
"Willow?" Buffy spoke up timidly. "I hate to be the one who says this, but it has to be said. You could turn your back. It would work. William is going to be possessed by the Anointed or he will die naturally. His body or his soul will die within the week’s end; we’ve come to that conclusion. You could deny him because he won’t have a chance to live. It’s been determined so."
A tortured expression crept across Willow’s petite features. "If I could do that, I would. I know that William will die, you tell me he’s going to, but I still can’t stand by and let it happen. I’ll never turn my back on him. I don’t think I would be physically able to restrain myself from doing everything possible to save him." She glanced at William’s sleeping form. "Can you leave us please?" she asked Buffy and Giles. "I want some time alone with my son. Before…" She swallowed her tears. "Before he…. Please, just go."
Giles and Buffy headed out the apartment door. "We’ll be downstairs in the shop. If you need us, call." He glanced at the bruises on Buffy’s neck. "Scream, if you must. But don’t let the Anointed hurt you. Remember, it’s not William that you see then. It’s evil." Willow nodded and sat down beside her son, watching how his auburn hair and his smooth childish face glowed with life in the morning sunlight, shinning like an angel of heaven. She picked up his hand and intertwined their fingers. As she remembered the day he was born, and how she had counted his fingers and toes to be sure they were all there, the floodgate broke, and a torrent of tears fell from Willow’s brown eyes.
That's all for now! I will be adding more though; I promise.
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