AUTHOR'S NOTE Only two chapters to go after this! Only one note – I liked the image of the Mayor's blood still being sticky on the floor. I know it's against all laws of physics for blood to not dry after twenty years, but it's demon blood and just suspend your disbelief.

DISCLAIMER Still don't own them.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Krit and Syl shared a doubtful look. Max looked at Logan, her eyes plainly saying, "She's crazy." Jace rubbed her stomach worriedly and Sari and Jondy merely shook their heads as they all looked at the ruined, blackened building in front of them.

"I'm not sure this is a good idea," Sari finally said.

Willow did not reply. Instead, she marched away from the group, past the faded sign that had once read "Sunnydale High School" and up the path toward what appeared to have once been the front door.

Dawn and Tara shared a look. Tara ran up after her. "Will," she said softly. "Will, stop."

Willow came to a halt. She did not turn her head but kept her milky eyes in the direction of the building. Tara could see that there were tears in them. "Baby, what's going on?"

"I never wanted to come back here," she said. "Never in a million years."

Tara gently took Willow's hand. "What are we doing here?"

Willow took a deep, resolute breath. "We have to trap the First. And we're going to do it just like the Master once trapped himself trying to open the Hellmouth."

Tara drew a sharp breath. "The Hellmouth?"

Dawn had come up slowly behind him, but stopped short. "We're going to open the Hellmouth?" she asked, her voice shrill.

"What?"

Tara, Dawn, and Willow turned toward the voice to see the Slayers, Logan, and Krit behind them, their mouths open. "But I thought that that was the portal to infinite badness," Jondy said.

Willow nodded. "It is."

Max nodded toward the school. "And it's in there?"

Again, Willow nodded. Max crossed her arms. "There is no way I'm going in there."

"This building has been home to three Slayers," Willow said. "Two of them fought here, one of them died here. Now there are five Slayers." She smiled wryly. "No better place I can think of."

"No better place to what?" Jace asked. "To die?"

"To end this."

They all looked at Syl. She was staring at the high school's broken front doors. "It has to be here. It feels like it has to be here."

Dawn looked at her and nodded. "Spoken like a true Slayer."

Syl led the way up the path and carefully picked her way around the jagged glass edges of the entrance. One by one, the others followed her with no other arguments.

Around them, the charred building creaked and groaned threateningly. "Are you sure we're safe in here?" Jace whispered.

"I'd rather take my chances in here," Jondy shot back. "Do you want to get carted back to Manticore?"

"That wasn't Manticore," Sari said. "I don't know what that was."

Willow stopped in the middle of the ruined hallway. She turned sharply on the rest of them. "Listen to me!" she said. "That out there was Manticore. It has always been Manticore. It is also every other terrible thing that has ever walked this earth."

The transgenics shifted uneasily. Even Tara and Dawn offered no argument. Willow sighed. "This is the only way to trap the First."

"Trap," Logan repeated.

Regretfully, Willow nodded. "Not kill," Max said.

"How do you kill Evil itself?" Dawn pointed out quietly.

They stood in depressed silence. A strong gale whistled past the old school, sending a rain of char and ash down on them. "Come on," Willow finally said, starting down the hallway again. "We need to get to the library."

It was difficult for the ten of them to maneuver through the wreckage of Sunnydale High. Between the blasted remains of lockers and the floor still sticky with demon blood after twenty years, even walking was dangerous.

"How do you know where you're going?" Krit asked.

"Willow, Buffy, and Xander practically lived in the library during high school," Dawn said. "Even blind, she could find it better than I could."

"Damn skippy," Willow said with a nod and a small smile.

Again they lapsed into silence, concentrating on finding stable ground. The floor opened up into gaping holes in some places, revealing the unforgiving concrete floor of the basement far below. Logan let go of Max's hand and quickened his pace to catch up with Willow. "So how exactly does this work?" he asked.

"The First is drawing power from the Hellmouth," she said. "If we can even begin to open it, the First won't be able to stay away."

"And then we close it, trapping the First in some kind of limbo," he said.

"That's the idea."

Logan raised his eyebrows. "Without getting ourselves trapped too?"

With a shrug, Willow nodded. Before she could add anything, though, she was cut off by a cry from behind them. The group stopped and whirled around to see Jace doubled over in pain.

"Oh no," Tara whispered.

Willow glanced around with her milky eyes. "What is it?"

Jace straightened up and glared at her stomach. "This is the worst possible time!" she scolded it.

"Is it coming right now?" Krit asked, a slight edge of panic in his voice.

Jace winced as she had another contraction. "Yep. Now."

Logan and the transgenics shared scared glances. "This can't be happening," Max muttered.

Syl looked at her Watcher and the two witches. "Can't you do something? A spell or something to put the labor on hold?"

Firmly, Tara shook her head. "Birth and death are the two absolute forces of nature. We cannot mess with them." She glanced at Willow's eyes and added, "We learned that lesson."

The wind outside grew to a howl, mirroring Jace's moaning. "We'll have the deliver the baby here," Logan finally said.

"And what about the Big Bad on our tail?" Dawn asked.

"Or the fact that we're in a building that could collapse on our heads at any minute?" Krit added.

"Or that none of us has field med training?" Jondy said, her voice higher than usual.

Sari buried her head in her hands for a moment, then took a deep breath and said, "I can do it."

Syl, Krit, Max, Jondy, and Jace all looked at their sister. "You can?" Jondy asked.

"Well, I used to work on a ranch," Sari said. "Sometimes we had to help the horses give birth."

Jace let out another cry. "Whatever, I don't care who does it! Just help me!"

"Buffy once had her boyfriend hide in here when he was on the run from the Initiative," Willow said. "Somewhere over by the science labs I think. The building was more stable over there." Vaguely, she pointed off to her left. "It's down that way."

Sari put her arm around Jace and led her toward the left. "Good luck," she said somberly.

Then they were gone. Suddenly two Slayers down, the group of eight continued toward the library.