Chapter Twenty-Eight

Demon Underground.

Angel had tracked Spike down less than a minute after leaving Cole and Paige behind, although that was mainly because once the other vampire had sensed his grandsire's presence, he had begun to do the same thing.

It seemed that Spike had no intention of letting The Source in on what was happening, having guessed that he wouldn't hold up his side of the bargain and remove the chip, and instead figured that he would take out his frustration over having yet another chance to become a proper vampire once again slip through his fingers by beating up someone, or in this case something, that wouldn't cause debilitating pain from the attempt.

The two vampires traded barbs for a while, feeling the other out, reverting back to they way they would react to one another when they were part of the most fearsome quartet in Europe. Finally, when he became tired of hearing the bleach blonde vampire talk, Angel lost his patience and began the battle.

The souled vampire was soon surprised, and later disconcerted, to find that Spike was holding his own against him. In all of their previous confrontations, Angel had always had the upper hand and had trounced Spike on each occasion with relative ease. Now though, the fight was far more even, and Angel had the sneaking suspicion that his opponent was still holding a little back when he was nearing his limit.

When Spike had noticed Angel's surprise, he was quick to boast as to his newfound fighting ability. "Well, Peaches, while you were wallowing in self pity for a century over what you are, I had travelled the world with Dru to learn from the best, so I could be the biggest Big Bad on the planet. I might not have succeeded, but I did become better than you."

After that statement, Spike began to prove just how true that was. Whatever had been held back by the Blonde vampire was let loose, and Angel soon found himself on the defensive. For every move Angel had Spike had a counter move; for every blow he landed he received two in return.

Once again, Angel's close-minded opinion of his opponent had been his downfall, not going straight for the kill when he had the chance to do so due to misplaced confidence, and the souled vampire knew that he would not be the victor this time around, and that Spike would not let him continue to exist like he had done so before.

Soon a leg sweep that Angel hadn't seen coming laid the Champion on his back, Spike quickly leaning over him stake in hand.

"See how the mighty have fallen," Spike mocked, "the great Angelus, the Scourge of Europe, beaten by the childe of his childe. It looks as though your luck has finally run out."

As though the Fates had heard his decree, it was at that moment that the cave system began to rumble, the very ground Spike stood on shaking violently. As Spike battled to maintain his footing, Angel spotted that a large piece of the roof above them was about to fall, and only just managed to roll out of the way.

Spike however was not as fortunate, and soon found his legs and lower torso crushed by the large boulder, experiencing the feeling of paralysis for the second time in his un-life and knowing that this time it would be permanent.

Angel had managed to get to his feet and dodge as more parts of the cave began to come down around him, and plucked a stake from within his jacket out to dust his grandchilde, when the side of him he would like to believe belonged exclusively to his soulless self gave him an idea.

"Just like every other time I came out on top William," Angel said, his tone sounding more like Angelus than he would care to admit, "I shall leave you alive, only this time there will be no one around to nurse you back to health. There will be no Drusilla to look after you. There will be no minions to take the fall in your stead. You will be left here, alone with your hunger, for as long as your body can sustain itself."

As Spike listened to his fate, he became more and more scared, not wanting to experience the prolonged and excoriating end that his grandsire intended to leave him to. "You bastard!" he spat, trickles of blood leaving his mouth as he spoke. "You can't leave me like this! Kill me if you must, but don't leave me to such a fate!" he pleaded in vain, knowing that mercy was not a quality he would find being used in his direction.

"Goodbye William," Angel said with finality, "give my regards to Darla when you eventually get to Hell."

Angel then turned and made his way back the way he came, hoping that he would escape and not share in Spike's fate, ignoring the vampire's screams.

"Angelus!"

"ANGELUS!!"


Wesley and the others made their way through the tunnels as fast as they could, knowing that it wouldn't take long for the remaining demons to realise that they hadn't transported out of the caver, instead only using a blinding spell on them to allow their escape.

As they reached the mouth of the cave where they had originally entered, they could see Gunn, Buffy, Paige, Willow and Tara waiting anxiously for them, the five of them heaving a collective sigh of relief as they spotted their friends coming into view.

As the last of the quintet left the cave, they started to feel the earth move, as though there were an earthquake. While the phenomenon was not unheard of in San Francisco, they were far enough away from the fault lines to know that they violent shaking they were experiencing was more localised than that and they all turned their attention to the cave entrance.

They all moved further away from the cave when the sounds of angry demons giving chase could be heard, which soon became sounds of anguish as the cave collapsed around them, trapping them beneath tonnes and tonnes of rubble. The group knew that there would have been some smart enough to shimmer away, but that many of the demons would have been gripped with fear and incapable of using their powers in time to save themselves from being crushed by the falling debris.

As the dust cleared, the group looked at one another and asked two questions.

"Where's Angel?"

"Where's Xander?"

Not one of them had the answers.


Angel had been unsuccessful in escaping in time, and while he hadn't become pinned like Spike, he was still facing the prospect of becoming mad from hunger and experiencing the excruciating anguish of feeling your own body eat itself until he was nothing more than a skeleton.

Quickly resigning himself to his fate, knowing that there would be no way he could move the rubble, the vampire removed another stake from his jacket and prepared himself to use it. Just as he was to plunge the stake into his chest, he noticed a white gaseous substance coming through the rocks.

Soon the space Angel found himself in was filled with the gas, and he first felt pain, and then felt nothing as the world went dark.

P3,
San Francisco,
California.

It was a subdued group that entered the club, having searched for Xander and Angel for an hour before heading back. They knew that if either of them were okay, they would make it back to P3 by sunrise as arranged, so they had little choice but to sit around and wait.

At least, that is what they had thought.

Once entering the club, they realised that they had a whole new set of problems that would keep them more than occupied. Spying the three prone bodies on the floor, the group split up into three groups, each one going to their respective fallen friend.

Piper and the others all rushed over to Leo, horrified by the large pool of blood surrounding him, and by the deathly pale complexion on his skin. Knowing that it would be pointless to check for a pulse on someone who had been dead for nearly sixty years, Piper bent down in the blood pool and gently shook her fiancé's shoulder. She could feel her sisters and Cole standing behind her, all showing different levels of distress, but no one was capable of making a sound as they waited for any sign of life from their friend.

After a few moments of shaking, Leo moved ever so slightly and opened one very bloodshot eye. "Piper?" he mumbled almost incoherently, unable to see who was crouching above him but somehow knowing it was Piper.

"Hey," she whispered, smiling brightly even as tears streamed down her face.

They had been through things before and had been injured on many occasions, but Piper couldn't remember a time she had been so scared for someone else in her life. Seeing her future husband lying in his own blood was a sight she thought she would never see, and now knew that it was a sigh she would never wish to see again.

"Dawn… Glory took… tried to…" his words became more and more jumbled as he struggled to keep conscious.

"Shh, keep your strength," Piper told him, stroking his face gently. She turned to her sister Paige, who was looking more than a little nauseous, a hopeful look in her eye. "Can you help him?"

"I don't know," she replied, "but I'll try."

Piper nodded gratefully and moved out of the way as Paige knelt down in her place. Laying one hand on his head and one on his chest, Paige closed her eyes and once again concentrated as hard as she could on healing.

Soon, as with Buffy, a white glow appeared where her hands were in contact with his body and spread to cover him. The glow remained for some time, and the others could see that beads of sweat began to appear on Paige's brow as she tried as hard as she could to repair the damage that Glory had wrought, before she finally removed her hands and sagged down beside him, near faint from exhaustion.

"I've done all that I can," she explained, "but something is blocking me from healing him properly."

"Divine… power… blocks…" Leo said weakly,

"It's okay Leo," Cole told him, his voice surprisingly gentle, "I understand." He turned to the others and tried to explain. "Glory is a goddess, and her power suppresses your ability to heal. You might have been able to do something had the injuries not been so extensive, just as Leo had done for us the first time she was here, but…"

"Do not tell me there's nothing we can do for him!" Piper screamed cutting him off from finishing his sentence. She needed a way to vent the anger she felt building inside and Cole was the closest and most obvious target.

She immediately felt bad for shouting at him like that, especially when he had done nothing to deserve it, but he waved away her attempt at apologising with a smile, knowing to not take offence.

"Elders…" a delirious Leo mumbled.

They didn't need to hear any more for them to understand what Leo meant, as Paige quickly placed her hand on his arm and orbed up to the Elders Realm. Moments later, Cordelia's shout of panic drew their attention to the fact that Angel and Xander weren't the only ones missing from their group and they realised that rest was something they would not yet achieve.


She had known Dawn was missing almost before she entered the club, almost able to feel her absence like a physical thing. Buffy only managed to refrain from screaming in terror by sheer force of will, knowing that if she lost herself to the despair that was currently coursing through her veins she would be of no use to her mom, Dawn or anyone.

Seeing her mother laid out on the floor in such an uncomfortable position almost caused her to black out from the intensity of her emotions, nightmares she'd had in the past of coming home one day to find her mother dead coming to the forefront of her mind. Again, she forced those harrowing images from her mind as she went over to her mom, carefully kneeling down beside her for fear that any sudden movements would cause more damage.

Giles and the others knew her well enough to leave her be as Buffy gently rolled her mother over onto her back and checked her over for injuries, staying close enough to offer moral support but keeping far enough back to ensure that they didn't make her feel crowded.

Once she was happy that Joyce was uninjured, Buffy held her hand out and found a small bottle of salts placed in her hand a moment later, a small murmur of thanks to Giles coming from her lips before she opened the bottle and gently wafted it under her mother's nose. As she saw Joyce begin to come round, she closed the bottle and gently moved her into a seated position.

As Joyce opened her eyes, they all heard Cordelia's outburst and watched in dismay as Joyce's face crumpled into abstract misery, tears almost exploding out of her face her grief was so intense. "My baby girl, she's taken my baby girl," she wept, Buffy watching helplessly as her mother trembled uncontrollably in her grasp, her tears joining Joyce's on the ground.

"We'll get her back mom," Buffy whispered, promising to do whatever was necessary to make her words come true, "we'll get Dawn back. I promise."


Wesley and Gunn went over to Cordelia, who was already showing signs of coming to as they approached.

"What the hell hit me?" she asked as they knelt down beside her.

"Not sure," Wesley replied, looking over her with a critical eye for injuries, "we just got here ourselves."

Cordelia groaned for a moment before her eyes snapped open in fright and she bolted upright. "Dawn! Where is she!?" she shouted, frantically looking around the club.

"I haven't seen her," Gunn told her, feeling concerned and angry with himself for not noticing the young woman's absence before now.

"That bitch!" Cordelia screamed as she got to her feet. "When I see her I'm going to shove that reject from a porno through a meat grinder!"

"Who?" Wesley asked forcefully, wanting to know who had taken the youngest Summers girl and feeling bad that he hadn't noticed until now.

"Some blonde skank with a bad perm," the former cheerleader turned Seer spat. Seeing the blank looks coming from her two friends, she rolled her eyes impatiently, "Glory you morons. She came in, knocked Leo flying, talked about her Key, knocked Joyce and I aside like we were nothing and then I guess she took Dawn with her. Xander left me here to protect her; great job I did huh?" she berated herself.

"Glory is a Hell Goddess Cor," Gunn stated quietly but firmly, "I doubt she'd find any of us much of a fight, not even if were all here together. You did everything you could, no one could ask more."

"Xander could," she grumbled belligerently, not really believing what she'd said but was unwilling to let go of her guilt.

"Xander may well have changed a lot these past couple of years," Wesley said, "but I doubt he has changed so greatly that he would blame you for what has happened. He'll more than likely blame himself," he added, showing that his former profession wasn't just in name only.

"Is it just me," Gunn commented loudly enough for the whole group to hear him, "or has it just got cooler in her by about ten degrees?"

Surprised, the others all murmured in agreement as they felt the sudden chill in the air, all the more strange due to the balmy nature of the weather so far, even so early in the morning.

A pearly white gas then appeared from nowhere in the middle of the dance floor area, as though someone had just dumped a bucket of dry ice on the floor. Justifiably paranoid, the group readied themselves for attack, especially as the gas gave off a feeling unlike anything they had ever experienced before; not exactly evil, but most definitely powerful.

The gas spread so that it covered an area approximately ten feet in diameter reaching from floor to ceiling, before beginning to contract and becoming more solid. As the gas cloud grew smaller, it began to take on the shape of two humanoid lifeforms, before the gas dissipated completely leaving behind Xander and Angel. The moment the gas disappeared completely, Angel collapsed with a groan of pain, curling up into a foetal position.

"Sorry we're late," Xander informed them cheerfully, "traffic was a bitch." As he looked around the room and noticed the expression on everybody's faces, not to mention the pool of drying blood on the floor, the jovial look on Xander's faced vanished and was replaced with one of concern. "What happened? Where's Dawn? Where's Paige and Leo?" he asked in quick succession, each question sounding more forceful than the last.

"She took her," Joyce told him brokenly, "she took my baby girl."

Once again overcome with tears, Joyce sobbed into her daughter's shoulder, the blonde Slayer doing what she could to be as supportive to her mother as she had always been to her. As Buffy gently rocked her distraught mother, Cordelia took up the mantel of explaining what happened.

"While you were all out saving Buffy," she began, apologising with her eyes to the woman in question for the tone that appeared in her voice and actually feeling happy that she saw a nod of acceptance, "Glory showed up. She took Leo out straight away to ensure he couldn't orb her out like last time from what I remember Phoebe telling me. When Joyce and I got in her way, she batted us aside like flies and then the next thing I remember is coming to seeing Leo in a pool of his own blood and Dawn missing."

Xander looked at the expression on Cordelia's face and while she was doing an admirable job of hiding it, he could see that she was beating herself up over what had happened, blaming herself for not doing more to stop Glory. He went over to her and gently placed his hand on her shoulder, squeezing slightly.

"Hey now," he said soothingly, moving his hand down to stroke her arm. It was a testament to her emotional state that she was allowing him to do so. "You did everything that you could, and that is all anyone could ask for. The last time we met, she knocked us all about like we were nothing but insects, so you have nothing to feel ashamed about." Seeing that he wasn't getting through, he continued. "Glory is a Hell Goddess Cor, so unless you're packing a tactical nuke in your clothing somewhere, there was nothing you could do. You know," he continued, his tone becoming teasing, "I should check to see whether you are carrying a tactical nuke somewhere on you, just to be thorough."

"As if!" she retorted, her self-recrimination forgotten as her eyes blazed at the young man whilst striking him on the arm hard. "You lost that privilege a long time ago," she informed him haughtily, before her eyes went wide as she realised what he'd done. "You sneaky bastard," she told him, her voice tinged with begrudging respect.

"Hey, I had to do something," he said in defence, not sounding sorry in the least, "and that was the path of least resistance."

"Xander," Wesley cut in, feeling that now was the right time to do so, "why is Angel in such pain?"

"Could be something to do with our mode of transport I suppose," he replied vaguely, side stepping the rogue demon hunter and making his way towards Buffy and Joyce.

Giles and the others knew that they would only be in the way, so they quietly moved away to allow the trio some privacy, Xander acknowledging their actions with an almost smile. The young man then knelt down in front of Joyce and took her hands into his own, the action causing her to look up at him.

"I swear to you Joyce, if it takes my dying breath to do so, you'll have Dawn back by this time tomorrow," he vowed, his eyes and tone were so determined that Joyce found herself nodding in agreement with him without even noticing.

"Xander," Buffy said hesitantly, the first time she'd said much of anything since leaving, "I want to get her back as much as anyone, but how can you guarantee that?"

Buffy knew that whenever Xander made a statement like that, he meant every word and that to her knowledge he had never made a promise he hadn't kept, but form what she remembered the last time they'd face off against Glory she gone through them like they were wet tissue paper.

"Also, I noticed that you didn't answer my question regarding Angel's current state of anguish," Wesley cut in again, his tone hardening.

The former Watcher suddenly backed up a couple of paces as Xander's face appeared right in front of him in the blink of an eye. Wesley hadn't even seen the young man move from his position in front of the Summers matriarch, and the usually unflappable man felt a frisson of fear curl down his spine.

Xander's sudden change in position had startled everyone in the room, as not even Buffy had seen him move, and his change in demeanour put them all on edge, knowing that there was a good chance he could take them all on and win with ease.

"I'll deal with the Angel question first," Xander told the group as a whole while staring directly into Wesley's eyes, "only because you asked so nicely." He had said it with such forced casualness that everyone could tell he was straining to keep his emotions at bay. "The reason Angel is ins such pain," Xander continued, "is because his body is getting used to the changes I've made."

"What changes?" Gunn asked, not quite able to keep the suspicious tone out of his voice.

"I'd always promised Angelus that when he died I'd be there, and I kept my promise." He turned to Buffy and Joyce. "I always keep my promises."

"How could you when…"

"… The brooding one is still here?" Xander cut in, enjoying the annoyed look Wesley sent his way. "Don't like it when someone does it you, do you?" he asked, going on with his explanation before Wesley could answer. "Something everybody forgets is that Angel and Angelus are separate from one another. That isn't to say they don't share certain traits, an unhealthy obsession with hair products and young blondes being two prime examples, but the important parts, the ones that make up who they are, are polar opposites. Angelus is gone; Angel remains."

"It can't be that simple," Giles commented.

"Of course it isn't that simple," Xander replied, speaking as though to a child. "I couldn't just remove the demon, as it was the only thing keeping the corpse in the condition it was in, and while he wouldn't have dusted, he would have begun ageing rapidly until the body matched it's true age. So, as I couldn't get rid of Angelus," he continued, turning his gaze to Cole, "I decided to change him so that he was far more controllable, and there wouldn't be any danger of him being let loose if Angel got his rocks off."

"You didn't," Cole whispered.

"You bet I did," Xander declared brightly, the Charmed Ones looking at him with wide eyes as they cottoned on, but the others remained clueless. "Angel is no longer a vampire cursed with a soul; he is now a half demon, with the human half dominant."

"How does that make Angelus less dangerous?" Cole asked. "Even with the human side dominant over the demon, in a way the demon side now has more freedom than before."

"That would be the case if Angelus were… all there is probably the best way to put it. When I said that Angelus was gone I meant it. Unlike you, where Belthazor has a mind and personality of his own, Angel's demon side is mindless, allowing him to control it perfectly. If he ever becomes a danger, it will be down to Angel and Angel alone."

"I know I will sound like a broken record when I say this," Wesley said, "but why is he in so much pain?"

"Do you think having your molecules played around with and your psyche twisted are pleasurable experiences, because of you do then I suggest you either find a good shrink or a good dominatrix."

"Alright," Buffy began, "you've answered the Angel question, now answer how you're so sure you'll be able to get Dawn back by tomorrow? And while we're on the subject, how were you able to do that to Angel anyway?"

"The two questions can be answered together. Firstly, I now know that Glory needs for the planets to be in a certain alignment to return home, and that doesn't happen for a coupe of days. As I won't allow her to use Dawn to get home, it's only logical that I'll get her back before then. As to the how I'll be doing it," Xander continued, his tone becoming less sure, "well, that one is going to be a bit difficult for you all to digest, so I'll lead you in slowly.

"Science and magic are closely linked," Xander explained, his tone reminding Buffy of Giles when he went into lecture mode, "especially when it comes to energy. Energy cannot be lost, it can only be changed," deliberately ignored Willow's murmurs of agreement, "so when the legend stated that The Source would be destroyed, it wasn't… entirely correct."

"As you're still alive," Giles ventured, "I feel safe to assume that you did defeat The Source, so I am having a little trouble understanding what you mean."

"Firstly Mr. Giles, you should never assume as you only make an ass of you and me. Secondly, while The Source is destroyed, his energy is not, because as I said energy cannot be destroyed. Instead it was changed, purified for lack of a better word, and given to me."

"You're The Source!" Piper yelled, her sisters and Cole stepping back from him and taking a defensive posture.

"No," Xander drawled, "I said I have the purified power of The Source. If I were The Source, I wouldn't be explaining myself to you as you'd all be dead," he added bluntly, feeling a little hurt that they would immediately believe the worst of him.

The three sisters were about to disagree when Cole stopped them with a gesture, finding himself surprised that it actually worked. "He has a point," he told them, causing them all to turn and face him, their eyes demanding an explanation. "He doesn't feel anything like The Source, and there is no way he would have stood my continued existence if I were this close to him, which was the reason Xander told me to leave before they fought."

"Power itself cannot be classified as either good or evil," Xander went on, nodding to Cole in thanks for backing him, "it simply is; it is the way that power is used that decides whether it is good or evil. Just like the Three Fold Rule, if you use your power for good, you're good; if you use your power for evil, you're evil. The Source had used his power for eons for evil, and had over time tainted it with that evil, so that when it was passed down it tainted whoever inherited it. However," he went on when he saw people about to comment, "the power had been purified of that taint and then given to me to use as I see fit. So far, I've seen fit to use it to escape from being crushed under tonnes of rubble, rescuing Angel and ensuring that Angelus was no longer a problem, and once I've found Glory I shall retrieve Dawn and then deal with her."

"How do you know you'll be able to take Glory, given that you weren't so successful last time?" Phoebe asked, not wanting to sound like she didn't have faith in him but needing to know he wasn't jumping in without thinking first.

"The Seven told Leo that there were only two beings capable of defeating her without having to go to Her; The Source and The First. I now have the power that The Source had on top of my abilities as 'The One Who Sees', so even if I cannot outright kill her, I will be able to get Dawn back and do Glory enough damage to give us time to think of something else if needs be."

"Pride goeth before a fall," Angel rasped, joining the conversation at last as he slowly moved to a seated position, still in a large amount of pain but not so much that he couldn't control it. "You and Spike both taught me that recently; don't find out the same way I did."

"I don't intend to. As I said, my focus right now is to rescue Dawn, not taking out Glory. What we did to rescue Buffy, will work just as well to rescue Dawn; I will act as the diversion while you guys grab Dawn and bring her back to Joyce."

"That's all well and good," Giles said, "but that plan only has merit if we knew where Glory was."

"Are you trying to be Devil's Advocate, or are you really so pessimistic?" Xander snapped, having quickly grown tired of Giles' constant interruptions.

"I am just trying to be realistic," Giles said in defence of his comments.

"We live in a world where reality can be warped," Xander replied, waving his hand and moving them all back into Halliwell Manor, a pristine looking Halliwell Manor, "on a whim. The only thing that will stop us from doing what we need to are our own doubts."

"How?" Prue asked Xander, completely shocked by how her home looked. It was as though the battle that had almost destroyed it never even took place.

"The damage had been caused indirectly by The Source, I thought it would only be fair that I use his power to put it right," Xander told her simply.

"Could we get back to the part where we get Dawn back?" Buffy asked, trying to be nice but finding her tone snappish as she talked.

"No problem Buff," Xander replied genially, surprising Giles and the others by his lack of anger towards her. "I can search for her by her power level, which could only be matched by two or three other beings on this planet. I couldn't check for it before, but The Source already used it once before to originally set her on me, and I can use it to find her now."

"How long will it take?" Joyce asked, the first time she had been able to string a coherent sentence since the attack.

"Shouldn't take too long," he told her reassuringly, "but we can't just go after her guns blazing once I do, as we'll just put her in more risk. Right now, as hard as it may be to hear, she is safe; Glory can't do anything to get home just yet and she needs Dawn alive and healthy until then."

Seeing the look on both Buffy and Joyce's faces, Xander quickly went on. "I'm not saying that we should leave her with Glory, far from it, all I am saying is that we have a small amount of time to ensure that whatever plan we do use," he glanced at Giles briefly, "has the best chance of success."

"What of Glory?" Cordelia asked, thoughts of what she would like to do to the Goddess flooding her mind.

"While I said before that my main focus is to rescue Dawn I meant it," Xander told her, his voice beginning to darken as he too thought of what he would like to do to Glory if given the opportunity, "but we have to face facts that if we don't take Glory out this time, she will keep coming back again and again, and every time that she does is giving her one more opportunity to succeed."

"Can you actually kill a goddess?" Joyce asked, hoping that the answer is yes. The thought of having that… woman after her daughter for the rest of all their lives was a harrowing one, and if there were any way to be rid of her, she would do almost anything to achieve it.

"Not sure, but I'll give it the old college try."

"Now isn't the time to be flippant Xander," Joyce snapped, immediately looking apologetic afterwards.

"You know I mean nothing by it Joyce, it's just how I cope. Anyway, my thoughts were less on killing her and more on sending her away."

"You're not seriously planning on…" Giles began, only for Xander to appear in front of him just like he did Wesley.

"You even try to finish that sentence and you will find out personally exactly how powerful I've become," Xander told Giles seriously, the group looking on as his eyes went from brown, to green, to onyx, and finally to white. "Dawn is the little sister I would have had if Tony hadn't gone after Jessica with a bottle when she was pregnant. I wouldn't take a drop of her blood if my life depended on it, so I'm sure as hell wouldn't even suggest it just to let some Harmony wannabe get home. There's more than one way to skin a cat, and there's more than one way to travel between dimension, or in this case planets given that Glory is from this dimension."

"What? Why would she need to open a dimensional portal using Dawn if there's no need?" the former Watcher asked.

"Because she's crazy?" he replied rhetorically. "That's the reason why all dimensions would merge if she tried; it would cause in layman's terms a feedback loop that would continue until the energy of the spell was used and then would collapse on itself. My guess is that someone told her that she needed the Key to get home, and as I know it wasn't The Source my money's on The First. As Angel can testify," Xander continued, indicating to the newly minted half demon, "The First can be pretty persuasive when it wants to be, and I don't see Glory as being the strong willed type."

"So all we have to do is get her off the planet? Anyone know if NASA has a place spare on the next shuttle to the Moon?" Buffy asked, her tone indicating that she knew that wouldn't be all that easier than killing her.

"Couldn't you just teleport her away?" Cordelia asked, earning approving nods from several around the room.

"Yes, but it would be a one way journey for both of us. I would be using a great deal of power to leave the planet, even more to take someone with me, and being away from the source of my power would leave me too weak to return. Anyway," Xander continued, "I have an idea that should work, as long as I can get the damn thing to work that is."

"What's that?"

"Anyone ever hear of a Chapa'ai?"

Chartered Plane,
En Route To Home, Kansas.

Glory and a sullen looking Dawn were sitting side by side on the plane, sitting opposite to the family who had already chartered this flight. The goddess couldn't help but find the situation ironic; she was on a plane going to Home, where she will prepare to go home herself.

'Persuading' the family to allow their passage had not been difficult, all it had taken was to feed off the brain of their live in nanny for them to be more than accommodating, and it also served as a reminder to Dawn not to misbehave, knowing that she would make the family pay for any indiscretion on her part.

The plane itself actually lived up to Glory's extravagant lifestyle; white leather seats, plush carpet on the floor, and it made a change to the way she'd had to travel recently. It would be one of the very few things she would miss, the lavish way in which those with influence lived on this planet; she had a palace with servants all at her beck and call whenever it suited her, but she had deliberately stunted the technological growth of her 'devoted' followers, to ensure that they didn't begin to see themselves as anything other than her playthings.

While the thought of allowing them to develop far enough to provide her with the things she'd become accustomed to while exiled here on Earth, she would never run the risk of them believing they could think and make decisions for themselves. It wasn't that she worried about them rising up against her, as she'd just sacrifice a few children and make them see things her way, but having to deal with the petty squabbles of a race of beings that should have never been given life to being with was a tedious and time wasting affair.

Despite the things that she would miss, Glory was more than ready to return home and return to the role that she was born for; ultimate ruler of all she surveyed. When she had first found herself exiled here on Earth, she had decided that as a goddess she deserved to be in charge.

It hadn't gone as she'd planned.

The moment she decided to make the world aware of her presence, She arrived and informed her that it would not be in her best interest to try anything on Earth, as She would consider it a challenge to Her authority. Glory may not be the smartest deity in existence, but when The Creator suggests you don't do something, you don't do it.

She began searching for a way home from that moment.

When The First came to her and told her of The Key, she had originally been a little wary, especially as the apparition came to her in the guise of her fallen brother Ben. She and Ben had never got on, as he believed that they should leave the people of their world to their own devices, which caused a lot of tension between the two and had ended with Ben's heart in Glory's hand after she had reached in and pulled it from his chest in his sleep. So, for Ben to suggest a way for her to get back to the people he had wanted to protect from her had sounded more than a little odd, but after a while she had been convinced that it was her only way back to where she belonged and had taken up the search for it zealously.

And now, sitting next to her with a dejected look on her face, was the human incarnation of her Key, and was a step closer to her ultimate goal. Making the Key flesh had thrown her, and maybe the monks believed she wouldn't use it if it were a child, but Glory had decimated thousands of beings for no other reason than because she hadn't in a while, so the notion of draining a young girl dry to return home didn't phase her for a moment.

The only thing that annoyed her was that she needed to wait before she could begin the ritual; a certain planetary alignment was needed for the Key to work properly and it wasn't for another day or so. She had never been one to enjoy waiting, and her search for her Key had strained her patience beyond any and all tolerance, but the thought of finally getting back home was all the incentive she needed to maintain her composure until then.


Dawn was very tempted to use the W word right now, but knowing her luck it would probably only make things worse. Instead, she tried to imagine herself to be as small as possible, hoping in vain to disappear, but knowing that unlike the story she'd been told about Marcie she probably wouldn't be successful.

Her thoughts turned once again to her mom, and the way she had looked before Glory dragged her away. She hoped that she was okay; when her mom had started feeling ill because of the cancer, Dawn had somehow been able to sense her discomfort, and she didn't feel anything like that at the moment, so that had to mean that she was okay.

She had to be okay; she just had to be.

"This is your captain speaking; we are starting to make our final descent, so I advise that you fasten our seatbelts and ensure that your seats are in their upright and locked positions. I repeat…"

Dawn drowned out the voice of the captain as she mechanically fastened her seatbelt, watching as the family that had been unfortunate enough to be caught up in her nightmarish world did so just as mechanically, glancing at their captor every few seconds for fear that any sudden movement may bring down her wrath and end up like their nanny.

She shook her head slightly, expelling the defeatist thoughts that had begun to plague her mind. Xander would come; Xander and Buffy will find her and they'll save her, just they always do. Neither Buffy nor Xander had ever let her down when it mattered most, and she knew with every fibre of her being that they wouldn't let her down now.

They were the good guys, and the good guys always win.

Don't they?