had Buffy dying after a severe attack and the SG and Spike all around her, in poor shape themselves

Disclaimer: I do not own anyone or anything in the "Buffyverse" except in my dreams… all hail Joss!!!

Distribution: Ask and ye shall receive ;

Feedback: I'd love some… catalysts@sympatico.ca

Original fiction and poetry: Try my URL http://jane.crimescene.org/~wench/Cpindex.html

Dedication: To everyone who hopes BTVS starts doing something less humiliating with Spike

Note: this takes place in the current season except that I cannot abide by the BS that has Spike in love with Buffy so I've changed that slightly.

Buffy the Vampire ???? (part 1 of ?)

Willow couldn't believe that it was real. She clutched Tara's hand and slowly sank to her knees on the ground. They were all silent for a moment as they looked at the piles of dust and bloody demon corpses around them. The attack had been intense. They had been lucky that Glory had turned into Ben, who had then fled, before they had all been killed.

Her tired green eyes touched upon all of her loved ones as she pressed her other hand into the gaping wound in her side. Everyone seemed to be moving in slow motion and Willow's eyes locked onto Buffy as she tried to get up and failed.

Buffy winced and tried to turn it into a smile, "I'm fine, you can't keep a tough Slayer down." She attempted to stand again when she realized her hand was in a pool of blood. Her blood. The realization of her impending death showed in her eyes and slowly the rest of the gang began to know it was so, without speaking a word.

Dawn wavered on her feet as the rest of the gang spoke of spells and hospitals but without hope for they knew that it could not be.

"What is the point of being the KEY when I can't save my own sister!" Dawn screamed and fell to the ashphalt, crying. Spike moved to her side, "Pluck up niblet, she's still alive. And with life there's hope."

Spike knew that he was lying. Being undead as long as he had, he knew when Death was about to occur.

Dawn still cried, furious that she cannot unlock her own Keyness to save Buffy. "Buffy, I'm sorry for everything I've done. I never meant any of the mean things I've done or said or wrote in my diaries about you. And… I'm sorry that I'm the Key and that you had to protect me. I wish you would've let Glory take me. Then you'd be OK."

"Dawn," Buffy reached up and stroked his sister's hair, "I love you. Don't talk like that. And I know that you behave like a pain in the butt should."

Giles got into the pool of blood and cradled Buffy's head in his lap, speaking to her in soft, comforting whispers as only a true father could.

Shock was beginning to sink in.

Anya turned to Spike, "She can't die like this. Why don't you turn her? Save her."

"He can't do that Anya," Xander turned to her, angrily, "Then Sunnydale would really be screwed. A new vamp who used to be a Slayer would destroy us all. It wouldn't be her."

"Unless Willow and I performed the soul restoration spell before she rose," Tara suggested, glad for the feel of Willow's hand in her own and glad that Spike hadn't noticed yet.

Giles speaks only to Buffy, "It's your choice, yours and Spike's."

She looked at Spike and then at the rest of the gang, "My work here isn't done. Sunnydale still needs me and I," she paused and coughed up some dark blood, "still need all of you"

Spike looks to Willow for her approval and she nods once. He commits the act, carefully and silently. As he drains her, he begins to feel what she was. He feels her love for Dawn, her grief over her mother, her devotion to Giles, her fears of how the triangle of himself, Willow and Tara would turn out and her respect for him."

The others stood quietly around her prostate form except for Xander. He stood a bit away, with his back to them all.

"Xand," Buffy called out weakly, with her last breath of life, "you're the brother I never had... and one of my best friends, don't hate me. Help me. Love me. I'll need you when I wake up."

Xander rushes to her side, pushing his way between Anya and Tara and takes Buffy's hand as the light leaves her eyes. "I'm here. I'm here."

Everyone holds their breath as Spike tears open a vein and his blood drips into Buffy's pale mouth. At first it is slow but then they can see her lips tighten and she begins to suck as Spike throws back his head, trying to ignore the sexual rush of pleasure that turning someone invokes.

Instead, he locks his eyes to Willow's. Transmitting a message that he wishes it was her and that someday, it will be.

Buffy's head falls back and Giles closes her eyes.

"It has begun."