Notes: HEHEHE! HAHAHA! Sorry!

I am uploading this chapter and the epilogue together because the epilogue is short. This is officially the last of this story, but do not fear: I am well into the third and final story in this series. I hope everyone who has read it enjoyed it and I hope you will enjoy the 3rd part as well. Reviews are welcome, but do not get upset with me. I will right all wrongs in the next story. It might take me a month to load the first chapters up, but it will be soon. Thank you all!

Chapter Twenty-Four: Never Again

She did not know how she knew, but Buffy knew she was heading in the right direction. She could sense something unfamiliar and three demons down this tunnel. She took a few steps in and then ran forward. Richard was down here.

The green glow of the Pit made her let out the breath she had been holding. She was most definitely in the right place.

What she saw when she entered the chamber was confusing at first. There was the creepy, icky Pit, a much older Ra's al Ghul standing near it, and three demons staring up at a hole in the ceiling, none too happy.

Richard was nowhere to be seen.

He must have escaped through the hole in the ceiling. Thank Heaven for that.

Hoping he was safely away, she concentrated on what she could do to bury the pit. Slayer strength was great and…well, strong, but she wasn't sure how to go about this. If only she had Iron Man's armament or the firepower of the Tumbler.

Your power is great!

The words come into her head with the force of a hurricane.

The power of a champion…

She had heard that before, years ago. A misshapen tower, her sister – the key – bleeding, a portal opened, a hell-god bent on creating hell on earth.

The power of a champion. The blood of a champion.

Buffy knew what she had to do.

Faith was glad she had found Buffy's Byzantine axe, her pride, and joy. He did slice through anything, especially zombies.

She and Spike were taking them out left and right. She felt a little remorse since the zombies were not fighting back. Spike was not impaired by such sentiments.

They had been fighting for what seemed like hours, but had only been more like one hour, and they were pretending they were making a dent. There were so many of them. They were coming from outside of Gotham. Just how far was this woman's reach?

Willow had sent them in the general direction that they had needed to go, but she had informed them that she was only able to locate the source of the zombie uprising. She wasn't sure if it was the Lazarus Pit or the woman herself. She could not locate Buffy, Richard, or Ra's al Ghul.

Spike was in full vamp mode, fangs, and all, bellowing in glee as he tore through zombie after zombie. Faith slashed and slashed, but her arms were starting to feel a little heavy with exhaustion. She still had a while to go, but the vamp would outlast her and they had gotten nowhere so far.

"Spike!" Faith hacked another zombie to the ground. "We need to move. We have to get to the location Willow gave us."

Spike wasn't in a killing frenzy like Faith had thought he saw. He calmed down almost immediately, nodding to her. "You're right. Fighting when they don't fight back isn't as much fun as it was at first."

Knocking the zombies out of their way as they ran, Faith and Spike made their way farther into the city, heading south. Faith had patrolled the city enough to know where she was going, and Spike followed her without question.

Time was running out.

Willow read the paragraph again and then read it again.

She couldn't believe what she was reading.

"Giles!" She screamed, picking up the book and running through the manor to where Giles and Alfred were sitting. Alfred, having nothing else to do, had decided to help them research. He had been a Watcher, a long time ago, but he had been one. And all help was appreciated.

Both men were looking up as she entered the kitchen, noticing her panicky appearance.

"Willow, what is it?" Giles asked, taking his glasses off and laying them on the book he was reading.

"This," she said, out of breath, setting the book down with a loud thump. "According to this, there is another way to close the Lazarus Pit?"

"How?" Alfred asked, hopeful.

"It says that Lazarus Pits can become corrupted by those who use it and that corruption takes over." Willow was talking a mile a minute, but she couldn't help it. "It can be purified by the blood of-" She had to stop and catch her breath. Her heart was pumping in fear and she felt as if she was going to faint. The hopeful look on Alfred's face was dissolving quickly. "The blood of a champion."

"Oh no!" Giles said, shaking his head, rising from his chair. "Buffy."

Why?

That was the only question on Buffy's mind as she stared at the Pit from where she stood.

Why her? How could this be asked of her again?

How could she be asked to not only sacrifice herself, but that of her unborn child? How could see be asked to leave the man she loved, her friends, her daughter behind?

But she had no choice.

If she thought about it any longer, it would be too late.

Slamming her arm into the wall, running it along the wall where sharp rock protruded from neglect, Buffy took a deep breath against the pain, physical, mental, and emotional. And let the blood flow.

Richard stopped dead in his tracks. There in the dark of the tunnel, desperate for a way out, something called to him. At first he was not sure what it was. It was not pulling him back, telling him to turn around and return to the Pit, but he could make out what it was telling him. Concentrating, closing his eyes tight, and blocking out everything else, he focused.

And his heart broke.

"No, Ruh Anna," he whispered there in the dark. Falling to his knees, tears streaming down his cheeks, he wept for the woman who had been like a mother to him since his own had been taken from him.

And now she was being taken from him.

Iron Man fired at Lazara, but even his heavy duty fire power was deflected like it was nothing more than a plastic pellet.

This was not going good. Not at all.

They were out of options.

Batman was not fairing any better. The League of Shadows was many and attacked without mercy. If it had not been for the improvements Tony had made to his armor, he imagined he would be severally wounded otherwise.

They had decided that, as before, Tony would go in high and he would go in low. He had fought the League of Shadows before, had been trained by them. He knew how they worked, how they moved, how they fought. Iron Man had the firepower. It had made sense.

But deep down both knew that the plan might not work. Would more than likely not work. But they had no other choice.

And it wasn't working.

Lazara was powerful and she hadn't even used the extent of her powers yet. The zombies were still coming to her, those that were already there surrounding her, awaiting her orders. All she had to do was think it and they would tear this city apart.

But she was having so much fun.

Though the metal man was getting annoying. He was dodging her fire blasts and firing back. He could not harm her, his weapons were useless, but he was relentless and she was growing tired of it.

She summoned a great force and prepared to fling it forward, stopping the metal man once and for all, but she paused.

Something was wrong.

Ra's al Ghul had just enough time to turn around before the Slayer slammed into him. It always amazed him how someone so small could have such power, but that was the way of the Slayer.

He was falling.

And she was falling with him.

And she was bleeding.

"NO!" He screamed. Foolish girl. Did she not know what she was doing? Did she not know what was going to happen when her blood, the blood of a champion, made contact with the Lazarus Pit?

They both hit the water, and everything went black.

Faith slowed to a stop, her eyes wide in disbelief.

The zombies were falling to the ground.

"Bloody hell!" Spike swore. "What is happening?"

She didn't know.

With one last scream, Lazara collapsed, falling to the ground just as the zombie army she had summoned was.

Tony stared in shock. Was it really over? Taking only a moment to absorb what was going on below him, he fired his grenades, hitting the remaining six League of Shadows ninjas, or whatever they were.

"It's over?" A question as Tony landed next to the Bat. The zombies were immobile, lying all over. This was going to be a hell of a mess to clean up.

Bruce suddenly seemed to jerk and fell to his knees. At first, Tony thought that it was due to an injury, but as he knelt to help his friend, Batman looked up at him, and there were tears in his eyes.

Bruce whispered one word:

"Buffy…"