Hey everybody! I'd like to say that I've enjoyed my time working on this story, but its time to give it a rest. They time will come when I will start up it's sequel, but you are here to read the conclusion of my best work so far. I wold like to send thanks to all those who have supported and sent me reviews and this is the list as follows:

Ms. Perception, Mimi_Love_Fox, Eternal*Sailor*Darkness, Elemental Psionic, maliek, BeautifulAli, Alonna, Angelfirenze, Khalina, Tobert, E5, insanechildfanfic, Darklight, The Five Tailed Youko, Everlyn , SU, Harm Marie, Emma DMh, Anna, Melissa, Lee and the Barefoot Awards.

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Time has been transformed, and we have changed; it has advanced and set us in motion; it has unveiled its face, inspiring us with bewilderment and exhilaration.

~ Kahlil Gibran ~

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Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

~ Susan Ertz ~

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Epilog ~ Forever Young

Three hundred years does not add up to a long time for vampires that have all eternity. So for dhampire William Edward Lancaster, he was going to have to live a long, long time before his final rest came to greet him. For the first eighty-one years of his new being, he had aged like anyone due to a spell he had cast so that he could be with the woman he loved. But when she passed on from this world, the truth was show. A sixteen-year-old boy that only needed nineteen more years to turn seventeen. It had been hard for his family to deal with that, even though they knew it had been coming.

At nineteen, William himself felt lost. Although he still had family, they just couldn't fill in that enormous gap. He wanted something that he remembered, so the typical place to find him was wondering about the graveyard on his estate, taking with those how had passed on and just might be hearing him up in heaven. With the wind blowing in his hair, he watched the sunrise, and remembered them all.

"Do you think that it is wise for one's heart to stay confined in memories of the past"

William whirled around to find himself facing a being he never thought he would see again: Déjà the Power of Reoccurrence. He had grown from his scrawny teenager appearance to that of mere two or three years older then his current appearance, but still the stark white coloring and intense pink eyes.

"They say memories keep people alive, and they do. But your memories are in complete and the Powers that Be have sent me to give you a small gift"

"A gift? Like a birthday present? Jeez what next?" William replied coolly.

"That will be what ever you make of it Protector. At this moment however, we want to help make all your memories complete"

"But how do you intend to do that?"

"You'll see"

There was a flash of light and Déjà was gone, but shockingly standing in his place were the figures of Spike and the first William Lancaster. William grounded and rubbed his forehead while his two older 'personalities' looked about in confusion.

Spike turned to look at Liam Lancaster and then stepped back, eyes as wide as saucers. Now Liam looked a trifle scared, looking at Spike, he was repeatedly rubbing his glasses to make sure he was seeing properly.

"Some gift" William scoffed out loud. "This'll be a nightmare"

Then Spike and Liam turned now to his and were shocked once again to see that there was another version of themselves, only this time with feline ears and a tail.

"Now mate, would you kindly tell me what the bloody hell is going on here?" Spike demanded, knowing full well that Liam would have none of the answers. William just didn't know what to say – this was Spike for heaven's sake! This was the vampire he was before Angel had made that wish. What could he say to him?

"I – I would like – like to know too" Liam stuttered.

Spike turned a glare on Liam, but directed his attention back to William.

"My god, this really 'is' a battle of the wits" he muttered, then straitened himself out and went directly to the problem. And asked the one question he knew he had to start with.

"What is the last thing that you remember"

"Well I remember fleeing the humiliation of Cicely's party" Liam started and Spike shivered. "I had run down a dark ally and tore up all my poems. Then this lady dressed in a dark gown came – she said effulgent – then the last was pain"

"Drusilla" Spike and William said at the same time, and then looked at each other.

"The last thing that I bloody well remember was trying to warn ol' Peaches about a damned vengeance demon" Spike supplied. "He would listen to me and then the pillock had to go and make a wish – then nothing"

"Well now this all makes perfect sense now" William sighed. "You both remember that last instant before the consciousness of your beings were changed. Liam remembers ever event leading up to when Drusilla sired him and he became Spike. Spike remembers all events leading up to the wish that transformed him and created me"

Liam looked even more confused, but for Spike all of this was becoming clear.

"So the nancy-boy and I aren't real are we?" he asked seriously.

"What do you mean not real?" Liam asked startled.

"Yes – I am the only one here that is real. The both of you are only a part of me. Liam became Spike and Spike became William – me"

"What did Angel do exactly?" Spike asked.

"He made a wish. Wished that you would stop being such a baby and you know how vengeance demons interpret the wishes they grant. You were turned into a four-year-old – which led to me. I remembered everything prior to that moment and was now without my parents"

"But if you didn't have 'our' parents, then who took care of you? – and why do you have a tail?" Liam rambled out, trying to understand more then four hundred years of knowledge.

Surprisingly, Spike nodded in agreement.

"First it was Angel, but that went disastrously bad and then it was Winnie"

"Winnie?"

"Fred"

"Oh. That's nice" Spike smiled. "She was a nice bird, better her then Angel any day"

"Now about being a cat" he took hold of his long feline tail. "It was much worse then this before, but that was Harmony's fault"

"Well I'd expect something like that for that silly bint, but why are we here?"

William blushed, realizing he hadn't told then yet.

"My – our memories are not complete. When you became me, I was now an infant. I remembered what our father did before he died, he was a watcher"

"What! He was a part of the Council of Wankers!?" Spike shouted in disgust.

Spike received an exasperated glare before William answered.

"The both of you might want to sit back to you while I explain my life. It's complicated"

Liam and Spike listened while William began his tale. How he was a mage, how he became a changeling and grew up in the offices of Wolfram & Hart. That progressed to meeting Buffy and her son Darcy Osbourne, his second meeting with Drusilla, becoming a dhampire and meeting the love of his life, Rowena Rosenberg. Then the trail of Kennedy, meeting his father, the return of Tara, the death of Buffy, Oz and Giles, bring down Wolfram & Hart, the birth of his three children. His life was condensed into the essentials of what made him who he was. It left his older egos speechless.

Then Liam told his story. Twenty-four years wasn't much, that and the fact that he hadn't remembered the first nine until now. He spoke of Cicely and how he had no idea she would turn out to be his angle of death. Spike snorted at this and told the 18th century young man that Cicely ended up becoming a vengeance demon for wronged children know that was know as Halfrek and that she was dead.

Spike became the center of attention when he told his story. How he killed their mother, his bloody unlife of gore, the two slayers he killed and the slow transformation into someone entirely different from himself. There was the chip from the Initiative, his love for Buffy and his friendship with Dawn, Glory, the First Evil, his sacrifice to close the Sunnydale Hellmouth and ultimately ending up with Angel and his gang.

"We've had a whacked life haven't we?" William said when it was all over.

"I think that I've had my soul purpose fulfilled" Liam smiled sadly. "It was nice meeting who I turned into, eve though I'll never understand. I sincerely hope that I can make a difference for you"

Liam shimmered and became one with the glaring sunlight. Spike and William felt his part of their consciousness become a part of them once again.

"You felt creepy mate" Spike shuddered and then began to root around in his coat looking for a pack of cigarettes.

"Do you want to meet my family" William waved a hand at the graveyard behind them.

"It would be an honor" he replied as he was unsuccessful in finding any smokes.

Together the walked down the rows together stopping at the important resting-places.

"My wife, how beautiful she was"

ROWENA HECATE LANCASTER
FAIR HAIRED
02/14/2004 – 05/29/2096

* Flashback *

"He needs a lot of help doesn't he?" Rowena whispered to Darcy and he nodded.

"Its not like I cant still hear you" William muttered under his breath.

Rowena then motioned Darcy to leave the room. He nodded again understanding what the young witch wanted and left the room.

"So where should we start first? I'm Rowena Hecate Rosenberg"

"Goody, I get Red's daughter as my shrink"

* End Flashback *

Spike nearly choked on a laugh, having experienced the flashback to William's first meeting with Rowena. They went on till they stopped at the next most important grave.

"My best friend, Buffy's son"

DARCY LIAM OSBOURNE
DARK ONE
12/25/05 – 09/06/2103

* Flashback *

"What is that stuff?"

William paced back and forth, waiting impatiently from the liquid to cool in the glass beaker. This boy, the Slayer's son wasn't bad company and actually thought he has sort of funny.

"It's an appearance altering potion. If consumed by someone that is either not human or does not look human will gain the appearance of a human. Not to say that you could make yourself look like a someone famous, but just what you would look like if you yourself were human" he replied, stopping to add gentle cooling charm around the beaker.

"Cool. So what's it like to be a cat?" the boy asked with curiosity.

"What's it like to be a werewolf?" William countered.

The boy gapped and stuttered "How - how did you know that?"

"Dogs aren't the only animal with an excellent sense of smell mate"

"Oh sorry, forgot about that"

"No problem. Well I'm William as you know, so would you care to tell me your name?"

"I'm Darcy Osbourne"

* End Flashback *

"You see" William said as they kept waking. "Rowena, Darcy and my children were the most important people in my life, especially my children. They once took a trip back to an alter-reality past and met you"

"Really?" Spike was surprised and raised his scared eyebrow.

"Yah, they thought you were cool" he replied, smirked and raised his own scared eyebrow.

That caused Spike to smile in spite of the mood. They came upon all the others.

ARES ROWAN LANCASTER
03/21/2021 – 04/19/2119

EROS OWEN LANCASTER
03/21/2021 – 04/19/2120

ISIS TYESHA STARRIX
03/21/2021 – 04/19/2118

"Same day, on a year apart"

From there was Buffy & Oz, Giles, Angel & Nina, Wesley & Fred, Gunn, Lorne, Warrick & Joyce, Connor, Shamus and Kordelia. There were others, but the two visitors could not find it in themselves to look any more, but they only stopped when a shout came from the house.

"Grandpa William!"

William groaned, while Spike turned to him and laughed.

"And who would that be mate?"

"Oh, just my very annoying great, great grandson Gavin. Him along with Soren Osbourne"

"Must be fun," Spike said sarcastically. "I'm fading now"

They looked at down at Spike's body to see that it was beginning to vanish as the sun began to go down. Spike looked back to William and there was a look on the blond vampire's face that could almost be a mix of gratitude and regret.

"Thanks" he said. "I couldn't have been a better person if it hadn't been for becoming you. I wish I could stay longer, but then again, I was always apart of you – "

He coughed.

"All this sappy stuff is getting to me"

"Doesn't look go on you anyway mate" William agreed. "It was nice meeting you, you're a lot better then Angel always used to tell me"

"Figures that the old wanker would say something like that" Spike chuckled as he disappeared. "You're not half bad yourself"

William found himself alone again once Spike had become apart of him once again like Liam had. The setting sun cast an eerie glow over the graveyard and he hastily made his way back up to the house. There was still the sound of unforgotten laughter that echoed in those walls. He had been a child here once and all those memories that he had lost so long ago had been restored. He felt whole again for the first time in over three hundred years.

Gavin and Soren bounded down the stairs as fast as they could upon hearing William enter the house. At seventeen years of age, their expressions were filled with mischief. Gavin had scraggily rust colored hair, teal eyes – not to mention that he looked rather ridiculous having inherited feline traits – a tail and ears just like William's. As for Soren, that boy looked like Darcy. He was tall with copper hair, hazel eyes and freckles to spare.

"So are we going yet?" Gavin asked.

"Going where?" William asked the over excited teenager.

"Are you kidding us?" Soren gasped exasperatedly.

"To Avalon of course!" they said together.

"Oh – right" William smirked. "Can you give me a minute?"

He turned and started to walk back towards the open veranda. Behind him he could hear Soren grumbling about that they had been waiting all day and then Gavin shouted out his reply.

"Well please hurry okay. You know we won't be young forever"

They wouldn't have been able to hear the next thing he said, even if they had they strongest of hearing. It was in his mind, in his heart, and even in his very soul. The Powers knew what he thought was true and that was the irony of his very existence – being young for what would almost seem like forever. He turned and looked to them and all he could speak was the bare truth and they didn't expect anything more.

"No, you wont"

The End

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Hey! I'm so sad! I almost don't want to say good bye. This was the most fun I've ever had and glade that you could share it with me. I hope you liked this conclusion to Forever Young. I gave you my heart and soul and you handled it with the utmost care. I thank you, everyone that has ever read this story.

To anyone that is also sad that I am hanging up the towel for this story, I'll say again that I am already working on the outline for the sequel. Or how Timon & Pumba put – an in-between-quel – I have changed my mind on going on the history of Darcy and have decided I would rather write about an adventure all of their children will have. And just for confirmation, it will be placed under the Buffy the Vampire Slayer category rather then Angel. Thank you very much for shearing this with me. Later!*

Golden_Eyed_Vamp