Hello guys! Just wanted to let you know that this will be the second to last chapter from the fifth season. Next one will be the last one, and I don't know if I should continue season 6 in this same document or create another story doc for the sixth season. Any ideas? What do you guys prefer? Leave it on the review or PM me to tell me what you'd like.
Don't forget to follow or review, it helps me know what I should improve/if I'm doing fine.
Hope you guys enjoy this.

Lee out.


There was no light, no sound, no Earth or sky. There was nothing, but Ally, in the darkness. The silence was deafening, not even the sound of her breathing was heard. How could she not be breathing? How had she gotten there?

The darkness started moving, the shadows taking form, swaying. It was dizzying, yet she didn't know how to stop it, and she knew she should not stop it. Something was coming from the shadows.

The shape of a person was the first thing she noticed. A head, hair, arms, legs... The figure was hunched over, moving from one side to the other, coming closer to the Potential. It's face became visible, dark skin with white and black paint over it, dangerous looking yet somewhat familiar. It was a woman, dressed in animal skins wrapped around her body, nearing her.

The she spoke. Her voice was raspy, low, and brought the young girl a foreboding sense of important things to come. "You are the link." The woman moved around Ally, eyes never losing her, stalking her. "She's the uncontained power, the protector, made to stop evil from spreading. The other one is the hidden energy, the protected, the one who lets evil out." Without names, without any further explanation, she knew who the woman was talking about. The uncontained power, the hidden energy. Her sisters. "You are the middle ground, the unrealized power, both protector and protected, working with dark and light forces, connected to both sides. The third sister." The figure stopped in front of her, leaning closer, her voice raising an octave. "When the Key opens the portal, the Key must close it. To substitute the Key, you need to make up for both sides of it. The blood and the spirit. Two sides of the same coin. The Slayer and the Potential. You were sent to be the link, the missing piece."

The portal. Glory was going to open the portal. She was going to use Dawn and hell would break loose.

And she was sent to stop it. With Buffy.

"I was sent to die?" Ally's voice was so calm, so accepting, it scared her for a moment. "For my sister."

"You were meant to be their sister, and there is an order to your roles. The first one, the first child, will break the barrier to the lock. The second one, the link, will close the door. The third one will live for them all. So it was seen, so it will be." The woman backed towards the shadows again, the Potential following her, not done with the questions.

"Buffy and I. Both. We both have to die. Can't it only be me? Dawn needs her. We can't both leave her." How could they? She had lost her mom, she couldn't lose her sisters too. It was too soon. Too sudden.

"The third one will live for them all." The woman repeated, and became one with the darkness.


Ally woke with a start, head dizzy, yet one thought stayed clear in the midst of fuzzy words and feelings. She was meant to save Dawn. She was going to do it.

However, she realized she was not with the Gang, or in the gas sation for that matter. She was in a room with blue walls, grey floors and white furniture, sitting on top of a bed with a few machines connected to her.

A hospital.

Where was everyone? Where was Spike? Oh, no, she hadn't missed the rescue, had she? How long had she been asleep or unconscious? She had to get out of there, find her friends, find Dawnie. She had to see her sisters. She had to tell Buffy what she knew.

She took the IV out of her arm and any kind of wire she had plugged to her body, jumping out of the bed while the monitors beeped angrily, happy she at least was still dressed. It couldn't have been so long, then.

She found her boots on the side of her bed, waiting for her, and in less than two minutes she was out in the corridor, running to find someone. The nurses would soon be there, alerted by the lack of vitals on the machine, and she couldn't let them make her stay.

Her heart jumped when she saw three familiar faces on the other side of a waiting room, talking in hushed voices. Her vampire, her father figure and her dorky surrogate big brother. She had never been so happy to see them.

However, they didn't seem very happy to see her.

"What the bloody hell do you think you are doing, up and running?" Spike strode towards her, grabbing her shoulders. "You get back to that bed right now..."

"Shut up. I need to find Buffy." She looked at the other two from over the vamp's shoulder, getting similar quizzical looks from both. "I have something important to tell her. Now."

"She's catatonic. Willow is trying to get to her." Xander informed seriously, but still gestured with his head towards the exit. "They'll go to the Magic Box if she get out of it."

Ally nodded. It was better to go with some other plan. Buffy dying should not be the first plan. If they could find a way of getting Dawn away from Glory, better.

Still unsure about letting her out of the hospital, even though Ally only felt sore all over, Spike put an arm around her waist protectively before they all left, shocked nurses trying to find the escaped patient with a thousand bruises who had been in a coma not fifteen minutes earlier.


She knew that if she told them, they would try to stop her, to stop Buffy. Only Buffy would understand. She couldn't tell the Gang, she couldn't tell Spike.

Spike.

They were at the Magic Shop, researching, waiting for Buffy to snap out of it and come back to them. They needed her. Dawn needed her. The world needed her. If she didn't recover, Ally wouldn't be able to close the portal, to save Dawn, and their world and all the hell dimensions would be one.

Yet none of it meant anything for Ally if Dawn was dead. The only way to stop the Apocalypse would be to either get to Dawn before the ritual, which was coincidentally that same night, or Buffy and her close the portal. In no way would they sacrifice Dawn.

She wasn't going to lose her again.

Once again, the Potential's eyes drifted to the blond vampire, sitting on the stairs to the darkest section of the store, the second floor. His legs came to both sides of the brunette, only two steps under him, a book on the Beast in her hands. He looked tired and bored, if not impatient, waiting there for the world to end. She didn't want to see him like that. Not in what could be their last day together.

She shifted closer to one of his legs, draping an arm around it to still hold the book in front of her with both hands, laying her head on his thigh. She needed to be closer to him, because she knew that she was probably going to say goodbye soon. Too soon.

His hand found its way to her head, fingers treading through her locks, caressing her scalp. In a moment like that, she found solace in his company, in his touch. If her life was about to end, she was content with giving him her last kiss. She would have to make goodbye memorable. One last taste of him to bring with her to her death.


Buffy was finally there, and she was ready to take some action.

"Hear you found the ritual text." She focused on her Watcher, trying to find what they were facing.

The Potential was sure she had never seen Giles so reluctant of sharing information, and she had an idea why it was. "Uh, something like that, yes. Um ... well, uh ... according to these scrolls, uh, it's possible for Glory to be stopped." He paused, Buffy gesturing for him to go on, no time to lose. "I-I'm afraid it's, um ... well, Buffy, I've read these things very carefully and there's not much ... margin for error. You understand what I'm saying?" Ally did, but the Slayer really didn't know what they were facing. She had to wait for them to tell her before she poured more information on her sister. "Um ... Glory ... plans to open a ... dimensional portal ... by way of a ritual bloodletting."

There was it. The Key, the way to open the door. Now Buffy knew it too. "Dawn's blood."

"Yes. Once the blood is shed at a certain time and place ... the fabric which separates all realities will ... be ripped apart. Dimensions will ... pour into one another, uh, with no barriers to stop them. Reality as we know it will be destroyed, and ... chaos will reign on earth."

Everyone listened intently to the old man, no one daring to interrupt his description of the end of the world, terrified and even more hell bent on stopping it.

The Slayer didn't let it make her cower. "So how do we stop it?"

"The portal will only close once the blood is stopped ... and the only way for that to happen is, um ..." He avoided looking at his protégée in the eye, unsure, before finally meeting her gaze. "Buffy, the only way is to kill Dawn."

Ally stood from the stairs then, stalking forward, letting the book fall on the table with a loud thud and grabbing Buffy's arm to take her to the back Alley, away from the Gang. "We need five minutes. Don't come. Keep on searching." She ordered, not looking at anyone in particular, dragging the Slayer behind her.

Once outside, away from the door and after making sure no one was listening, the Potential turned towards her sister, whose face was devoid of colour. Giles' words were too much.

"Buff, there's another way. Dawn's not going to die. I won't let it happen. We won't let it happen. You hear me?" She took the blonde's hand and squeezed tightly, making the other's eyes focus on her.

"Another way? Why hasn't Giles told me?" She frowned, voice weak and vulnerable. There was no way she would let her sister die. Even if it meant the end of the world. But another way sounded better.

"Because he doesn't know. None of them know. They can't. That's why I brought you here. They would try to stop us." Ally breathed deeply, looking back at the door just in case and lowering her voice even more. "I don't know if you know, but after Glory's attack at the gas station, I was taken to the hospital. I was unconscious. I had a dream, or something like that, but it was a very strange dream. And very real too. There was a woman, I... I think she was a Slayer, she felt like it, she felt like... you in a sense."

"The First Slayer, maybe."

"Maybe. She looked kinda ancient too. She... she told me something. About why I'm here. About you, and Dawn, and me. 'When the Key opens the portal, the Key must close it. To substitute the Key, you need to make up for both sides of it. The blood and the spirit. The Slayer and the Potential. The uncontained power and the unrealized power.'" She recited, thinking back to the time in the darkness, recalling every word. She knew it was a lot to take in, right then, but they had no time. "We can close it, Buffy. If it gets to that, if we can't get Dawn away from Glory before the ritual starts, we can end it. We can close the portal. You and me."

"How can we be sure?"

"We can't. But I'm not going to risk Dawn paying for it. We both have to do it, together. She said there was an order to our roles. 'The first one breaks the barrier of the lock. The second one closes the door'."

"I go first." She realized, jaw setting and hands tightening in her sister's.

"And I go right after you."

"For Dawn."

"For Dawn."


She didn't even react to Giles shouting. She leaned back against Spike, his arm coming around her neck, over her collarbone. Anya tried to divert the attention, get more ideas, but there wasn't much to work on. Keeping Glory away from Dawn or both slayers dying.

But Anya did find something to help. The Dagon Sphere and the troll's hammer. It was something. Anything was a bonus, really.

Ally couldn't really think of anything. Dawn dying was not an option, and that was it. Nothing else. No other way.

Her baby sister was not going to die.

She had zoned out, her hand on Spike's on the side of her neck. He wasn't trying to say anything, knew there was nothing he could say to make it better. He was unaware of the soothing effect he was having on her.

They were almost alone right then. Willow and Tara were the only ones in the main room of the Magic Box with them, the redhead searching for some magic spell that could help them that night. Maybe it was time to say her goodbye. Just in case.

She stood up from the stairs and held her hand out for him, gesturing towards the front door with her head. He raised an eyebrow, though he didn't utter a word, taking her hand a following her out.

It looked like a normal night outside. The world was unaware of what was about to go down. Blessed ignorance.

"What is it, love?" Spike finally asked, tugging at her hand when they were about five feet from the store.

She just turned to face him and wrapped her arms around his neck, softly pecking his lips once before leaning back to be able to look at him. "Things will get rough tonight. Very rough. I... am happy to have you here. I want you to know that."

"An extra arm always comes in handy." He nodded, a bit confused at her attitude.

"No, not that way. I'm not talking about the fight. I'm taking about having you here, with me. You make it better. If you weren't here I... I... don't know if I would still be standing. You make me stronger." Her thumb traced his cheekbone, softly caressing him, lost in his eyes. Blue, and so full of warmth, no one would dare say he was dead. Undead. "Thank you." She whispered, tears filling her eyes, lip trembling.

"I will always be here for you. I'll be waiting. If I go down tonight..." His hands went to her shoulders, one sliding to the side of her face, lightly stroking it. "I'll be happy that I at least had a chance of winning your love, with time..."

"I love you. Now." She confessed, voice trembling, yet a tiny smile tugging at her lips. "I love you."

The vampire froze, eyes wide, lips parted in bewilderment. He had dreamed of it, he had made the AllyBot say it, but nothing could have prepared him for that moment. There he was, a hundred and fifty year old master vampire, in love with a human, a Potential, speechless at her confession of love. She loved him. She did.

How? Why?

He didn't deserve her.

Or maybe he did. Then. He had changed since he'd known her. He was ready to give his life for someone else, to endure torture, and be burnt, and slashed, and risk it all over and over again for love. Maybe he did deserve it, finally.

He had her.

Their lips clashed against one another, slow and sweet at first, slowly turning into hot and fervent, understanding it might be their last. Funny, it was the first real kiss they both had actively taken part into, and maybe their last. They would have to enjoy it as much as possible, use it as a incentive to fight harder when the time came. Fight to be able to have one more kiss.

"I love you." She whispered one last time, both hanging onto every syllable before going back into the store, back to the group and the Apocalypse.