Author's Note: A breather, this chapter. But I think they're entitled. In the meantime, I am building to a showdown.

Disclaimer: The Daria characters were created by Glenn Eichler, the Buffy characters by Joss Whedon, and the original ones by me.

X X X X X

Buffy knocked on the back door of the van -- "Who is it?" Spike asked.

"Knights of Byzantium!" Buffy said. "We're here to murder you!"

"Ha ha," Spike's muffled voice came through the door -- "Alright. Go ahead." She then opened the door, after which Daria gently laid Willow down in the back. Spike scowled. "What happened to Red?"

"Knights hit her with a dart," Buffy said. "Dr. Vaughn says she should be okay, though."

"Anyone else hurt?" Everyone else who came in the SUV was getting back into it. The Lane siblings and Tara gathered around the van.

"Xander got hit on the back of the head," Daria said. "Also, and more importantly, a lot of Knights will be nursing bruises and broken limbs."

"But nothing happened to you?" Spike asked.

"I can sense your disappointment."

"If you could knock off the banter," Buffy said. "I need to dump these --" The pile of weapons came into the van next to Willow. Daria started to hand Olaf's Hammer back to her, but Buffy said, "Hold on," and peeled one of the swords off the top of the pile.

"What's your thinking?" Daria asked.

"My thinking is that we don't want them following us," Buffy said. Then she went over to the Knights' SUVs and began slashing their tires. When she got back to the van, she put the sword back in and said, "Now I'll take the hammer?"

"Why?" Daria asked. "Are you planning to smash in their windshields?" The tone in her voice was amused and approving, though. At least Buffy thought it was; you couldn't always quite tell, with Daria.

"You slashed their tires?" Spike asked as Tara climbed into the back of the van. Buffy nodded and Spike laughed. "Good goin', love. Did you think to swipe their cell phones, too?"

"No point," Buffy said. "There's got to be a phone inside the center over there, and it's still open. Still, this should slow them down enough for us to get to Lawndale." She clapped her hands. "Okay! Everyone in! I want to be as far ahead of them as possible. Trent --"

"Yeah?"

"I realize we've asked a lot of you, but if you could lead us to Lawndale, I'd appreciate it."

"Sure," he said. "But I still want the whole story. I'm thinking of writing a concept album about it."

Buffy blinked, turned around, and climbed into the back of the SUV, squeezing past the second row of seats.

"Slashing tires?" Lynette Vaughn asked from the driver's seat.

"Anything to slow them down," Buffy said.

"I'm not disapproving of what you did," the psychiatrist said. "I might have tried to be a little more subtle about it -- I probably would have tinkered under the hood -- but that's a matter of style, not substance."

"Me and things mechanical don't exactly get along very well together," Buffy said. "Especially cars."

"Then I'd think you'd want to tinker beneath the hoods of their cars."

Xander said, "No. If she tried to break something, she'd probably wind up souping up their engines. The rule when driving with Buffy is, don't let her drive. Ever. Actually, it's keep her as far from the steering wheel as possible. If there was a fourth row of seats, we'd put her back there."

"She can't be that bad," Dr. Vaughn said.

"Oh, she's not," Anya said. "She's worse."

"Much as I hate to join in the piling on," Giles said from the front passenger seat, "I'm forced to agree. Dawn and Xander would be better suited to drive this vehicle than Buffy."

"Dawn's what? 15?" Dr. Vaughn said. "And Xander probably has a mild concussion --"

"My point," Giles said, "Stands."

Buffy opened her mouth to protest, then closed it again, because honestly, what was the point? Maybe some day she'd be able to master the fine art of driving, but for the moment, if she needed to go somewhere, she was either going to have to have someone else drive her, or hoof it.

Xander, thankfully, changed the subject. "So how did the Lanes take the battle?"

"You could never tell that Jane Lane had just had a sword-wielding maniac threaten to slit her throat," Buffy said. "As for Trent, he seems to have gotten past his initial shock. The last thing I heard, he was planning to write a concept album about the experience."

"You can't let him do that," Giles said.

"I know, no more giving up the secrets of the Slayer --"

"That's not it," Giles interrupted. "It's just -- concept albums." He shuddered. "They were a horrible idea back in the 1970s and time hasn't improved them in the least."

"I'm sure we can convince him not to commit a crime against music," Buffy said wryly. "Xander? How's your head?"

"It only hurts when I think," Xander said. He had to know it was a straight line.

"So you're pretty much okay?"

"Yup."

After a minute or two of silence -- they were back on what appeared to be a main road -- Lynette Vaughn asked, "What next?"

"What's next is Lawndale, followed by sleep," Buffy said. "We've been in three major fights in the last two and a half days, and gotten less than one full night of sleep. Daria and me have probably gotten even less. I know Glory's plane has probably landed by now, I know we need to be ready for her, but right now we're running on fumes. We might not have time for a full eight hours, but if we don't get some sleep we might as well just surrender the next time we see her for all the good we're going to be in fighting her."

"You realize the Lane house isn't safe," Giles said.

"Unfortunately, yeah," Buffy said. "Mack the Knight knows where Jane lives. I'm counting him to be decent where they're concerned, but I'm still not going to trust him where we're concerned." She paused, then added, "I'd keep going if we could, but right now we don't have a choice. We have to sack out somewhere in Lawndale. We haven't left Glory a trail to follow this time, and Lawndale is a good forty miles from BWI. She'll probably find us eventually, but at least we have some lead time on both her and the Knights."

"Speaking of which --"

"I meant every word I said," Buffy said. "I don't plan on killing them, but I will find a way to destroy the organization if they get in our way again. The bastards have been draining our energy more and more with every fight. Xander might have a concussion, Giles still has an injured shoulder, Willow's unconscious, and Daria and I are flat out exhausted. We need to save something for the big gun when she shows up."

"If she shows up, right, Buff?" Xander said.

"I wish," Buffy said. "But no. When. We just need to be ready."

X X X X X

Faith came to once again in the back of Trent Lane's van. "We're not in for any more shit, are we?"

"No," Jane Lane said, "Daria just said she wanted 'to let you out to romp and play" for a while."

Faith laughed, "Sounds like DM, all right." She looked towards the back of the van and saw Willow still apparently unconscious. :How's Red?"

"Awake," Willow said groggily. "And with a headache that would kill a moose."

"Oh, good. You still look kinda out of it."

"That's because of the headache," Willow said. "I feel like I just woke up after a long night of getting drunk, only without the fun part of actually getting drunk."

"You? Drunk?"

"Yes. Me. Drunk. I've consumed alcohol to the point of near oblivion on a couple of occasions. Don't act so shocked."

"Come a long way in the last few years, haven't you, Red? Switchin' teams, drinkin' to excess. No offense intended." Tara didn't seem offended. She couldn't tell about Willow, Spike was making a point of staring at the van wall, and Jane just seemed amused by the whole thing.

"Yes," Willow said. "I have. What's your point?"

"You've changed. I've changed. Think about who you were two years ago, and who I was."

"I didn't go from evil to good."

"You went from a male werewolf to a female witch. Change is change."

Tara said, "Not, not that I don't think the conversation needs to happen, but does it need to be now?"

"Yeah," Spike said. "Some of us would rather be somewhere else."

"I'll open the back door and you can jump out," Faith said. "Yeah, it needs to be now, 'cause right now you're sort of a captive audience. You've still been treatin' DM like a pariah and it needs to stop. Earlier I said I didn't give a shit if you hated me. I think I'm gonna have to change my mind on that one. 'cause you hatin' me is causin' you to take it out on her. Like actin' all jealous when she keeps savin' Tara."

"Jealous?" Willow asked. "I hardly think of Daria as 'competition.'"

"That's not the only meaning of the fuckin'' word," Faith said. "Jealous: You should be the one savin' Tara, not this newcomer who looks like that bitch you've hated for the last two years for all the shit she did to you and yours. Yes? No?"

A bitter chuckle escaped her lips. "You really are smarter than I thought," Willow said, non-hostilely. "Yes. It shouldn't be you."

"It isn't."

Another chuckle. "My brain gets it. My emotions still have some catching up to do."

"They can start by simply gettin' that I ain't who I used to be any more than you are," Faith said. And, to give Willow time to process it, she added, "Shoulda seen your girl out there. She was swattin' away those darts like she was possessed. Musta taken out two Knights all on her own."

Tara said, "It wasn't that spectacular. Really."

From the driver's seat, Trent Lane said, "Don't sell your self short. I saw what you did. Pretty awesome."

"So you're okay with the whole magic thing now?" Faith asked.

"Doesn't matter if I'm okay with it or not," Trent said. "It is what it is. It's not going to go away if I stick my head in the sand."

Faith nodded. "Good attitude to have." Then she looked around. "We got that book around here anywhere?"

Tara rummaged around for a second and handed her the copy of Watchmen. "Here."

"Watchmen?" Jane said.

"You read it? DM and me kinda got a seminar goin' on it, but it'd be nice to talk about it with someone outside my own head."

Jane said, "I've read it. Of course, being who I am, I pay more attention to the art than the words." She smiled. "Actually kind of cool. Picked up a lot of details that way." Then she frowned. "Of course, I missed out on half the storyline, too."

"As long as you caught the symmetry of the one chapter."

"Caught it? It hit me over the head."

"I've read it too," Willow said wearily.

"So? You willin' to talk about it with us?"

"Yes," Willow said. "It might be a good place to start letting my emotions catch up."

"Cool. Now, if you'll excuse me, I wanna see if I can get through the next couple of chapters in -- how long before we get to Lawndale and I have to disappear again?"

"We've just passed the exit from Interstate 795," Jane said. "From here it's about a half hour."

"Plenty of time, then." She settled down to reread part 6.

X X X X X

The Divine Glorificus was pissed. Unusually for her, this did not mean that her immediate surroundings were undergoing some impromptu redecorating, or that people and minions were running for their lives.

At least, not yet it didn't. But give her a few minutes and she might change her mind. At least she wasn't hungry; at least, she'd fed to the point where draining anyone else wasn't doing her mind's structure any good. Ben wasn't trying to take over, but his damned conscience and thoughts were still interfering with hers.

The minions were still being smart enough to stay out of her way. Dammit.

No, what she was angry about was that the trail seemed to have disappeared the second they got to Baltimore.

It had almost been enough to get her killing people until someone told her what she needed to know, but she was holding back. Not because of Benjy's conscience, and not because Doc wanted her to keep a low profile. No, it was because there wasn't a point to it. There were thousands of people in the airport, and while killing them might have worked out some of her rage issues, chances were that's all she'd be doing. Because, really, what was the point in threatening to pull people's intestines out through their ears if they wouldn't be able to tell Glory what she needed to know?

So she sat in one of the BWI waiting areas, glaring at any minion, or human, for that matter, who dared to get too close to her, while Doc tried to find out where they'd all gone.

"I apologize, Divine One," he'd said, "For not being able to use my magic to track them down. But for now I need to hold most of it in abeyance for the ritual of your return. What little I can spare is at your disposal. It's not enough for a tracking spell, but I should be able to use it to help locate your Key."

And he'd gone off, leaving her just sitting there getting angrier and angrier.

It was an hour later, and Glory was just about ready to give in to her 'kill them all until someone tells me where my freakin' key is' urge when Doc finally came back.

"Well?" she snapped.

"I apologize for the delay, Divine One, but it couldn't be helped. However, I have at least managed to get a good idea where the Slayer and her friends are going."

"And that would be? Let me give you a clue, Doc: Don't draw this out. I'm not remotely close to being in the mood."

"Not my intent," Doc said. "In any event, using a few minor charms and glamours, I've managed to find out that they're most likely heading for a town somewhere north of here called Lawndale."

"Why the hell would they go there?"

Doc shrugged. "I honestly don't know. But some of them were driven away in a van owned by someone who lives in the town. At the very least, it should be a good place to start."

"Well, then, let's get going. If she's still in Lawndale, we'll find her if we have tear the city down around her ear." Then she looked at Doc. "Were you going to say anything?"

"Not a word, Divine One," the sorcerer said.