Chapter 15: Playing the Parts

Sorry this is out later than I said, but it's longer than usual, so maybe that negates it or something. This chapter is either confusing, or you've already predicted the end. Take your pick, really.

Chapter 15: Playing the Parts

Buffy and Spike watched from the window as Willow walked off with Dawn. Buffy had refused to let Dawn walk over by herself, but neither she or Spike could risk accompanying her. They'd staged a short conversation on the porch which had informed their watchers that Willow was taking Dawn shopping. Buffy and Spike had then gone back inside, and were now sitting in the living room at a loss for anything to do.

They had a few hours before they expected Glory. They weren't sure exactly when she would show up, but they had guess sometimes around sunset or maybe just after. It was just mid-afternoon now, they'd wanted to leave a wide window to get Dawn away, but now she wasn't around to make jokes and relieve some of the tension.

Buffy didn't understand how Dawn could joke at a time like this. She knew that she understood the seriousness of the situation. It was her own life at stake after all, but Buffy just supposed that her sister had been taking lessons from Xander.

The world's going to end? Hey, that's funny.

Buffy and Spike weren't used to dealing with their stress that way. Normally, they would fight, or train, or something, but right now they just couldn't bring themselves up to it. They wouldn't exactly get tired, but they didn't want to be caught unaware.

Buffy settled herself against Spike on the couch, and tried to relax. He put his arms around her and buried his face in her hair, letting her smell assault his senses. They'd done so much of this in the past few days, just holding each other, offering comfort. It wasn't something normal for them, but at the moment they needed each other's strength.

It was the first time Buffy had ever allowed herself to take strength from someone.

She'd taken heart, but not strength. She'd never needed to before. Her friends gave her desire, and will, but all of her strength had come from within her. She'd taken physical help before, they'd all merged themselves to defeat Adam, but she'd never taken the mental and emotional help. The hardest things she'd ever had to do, she'd done alone.

Sent Angel to Hell to save the world, left her friends for their own protection, stabbed Faith to save Angel. When it came right down to it, she had always been alone.

Her friends, her family, they gave her love, and Spike gave her fire. They all gave her what she needed to stay alive and not give up like so many Slayers in the past. But she'd never done this.

She and Spike were feeding off each other. Not literally, in a vampire/demon/hellmouth sense, but every little bit of strength and calm they each could muster was shared with the other. And as they shared it, they could build on it. She'd never felt this with anyone, and the fear that was building inside her with the passing hours was being kept under control.

She wondered if they ever discussed this is psych 101.

If they did, she wasn't awake at the time.

Maybe this wasn't a purely psychological thing. Maybe it was a Slayer related thing, or something to so with Spike's new non dusty vampire breed. She couldn't believe something that was only in her mind could make her feel this thing.

She didn't know what to call it. She wasn't calm, far from it, and she was still scared, but somehow all that didn't seem to matter. All that mattered was that right now, she knew everyone was still safe and alive. She could feel it.

She'd always felt that relying on her friends and family somehow made her weaker. What did it say about her that she couldn't do her job without them? She had accepted their help, but inside her she had always felt somewhat inadequate. She completely managed to gloss over the fact that she had become one of the most successful Slayers in history.

The good things tend to get left out during self-recrimination.

But this thing she was feeling now, it was giving her an entirely new perspective. She wasn't weaker for relying on her friends, no matter what the Council said. Giles had tried to tell her so many times. They were her link to the world, something to keep her anchored and stable. And Spike…

Spike gave her normal.

Which was odd, considering he was a vampire. But that was really the point. Everyone else she worried about, making her constantly focused on the world that would hurt them should it ever get the chance. Spike was from that world, he knew its tricks, all its dark secrets. She didn't have to constantly worry about him. He could protect himself, and her friends. He was from both worlds, and he was exactly what she needed.

They would fight with words, and with fists. Spike had been right when he told her about herself. They were always dancing, and it made her forget all the problems she had with reality. Talking with him, she forgot they weren't just two normal people who liked each other so much they weren't afraid to piss each other off with their opinions and actions.

Spike had the guts to stand up to her, and never be apologetic about it. He constantly surprised her, and since she started seeing him for what he really was, he had never let her down.

She'd pushed him away more times than she could count, and still he'd never left her. He'd always been there, even if she hadn't acknowledged him.

She was amazed that this man could still love her after everything she'd said to him. If she had been in his position she had no doubt she wouldn't have been nearly so forgiving. There was just something so different about Spike.

He couldn't be categorised. There probably wasn't another being like him on the planet. He was totally individual, and completely unique.

Unpredictable.

Anything's a weapon when you use it right.

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Glory waited with impatience for the sun to set. She would take the Key an hour after dark, and anyone with her would meet a fate that was long overdue.

Especially that vampire.

He would pay. His death would be the most painful, even if it did have to be quick. She couldn't waste the time to torture him again, though it was a great pity. She had a few new ideas she would have liked to try.

Still, no matter. Dead was dead, even if you could argue that that was debatable what with the number of vampires in this town. It was kind of funny that nobody had noticed all the people who died of blood loss each week, or hadn't commented on all the people she brainsucked. Ben had told the morons that she'd filled the mental ward in the hospital, and still it wasn't really out of the ordinary.

From a purely demonic/evil hellgod point of view, this town was perfect.

It didn't even have a real Slayer.

Since she'd heard that the Slayer was the Key, she had done some research and found out that the real Slayer really was in jail somewhere. The Slayer the Key was pretending to be had apparently died a few years ago, and the monks had altered a few memories to make her unremarkable. It had confirmed everything they'd said, and made her job so much easier and suddenly a lot less frustrating.

And a lot more fun.

Without the pressure of finding the Key, Glory had had much more time to relax and plan for what she would do to the Slayer when she took her. She needed to be alive for the ritual, but it didn't say anywhere that she had to be in good condition.

She didn't have to be sane, either.

Glory might not be able to brainsuck her, but she could torture her by making her watch while she killed all her protectors. The Key would be a gibbering wreak of fear once she was through.

It wasn't nearly enough, but it would have to do.

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Buffy shuddered as a chill raced through her. She started suddenly as she realised that she and Spike had both fallen asleep again. Sure, it was relaxing, but it didn't really help their situation any. She gave Spike a light punch in the ribs to wake him up.

Spike grunted and came instantly awake as awareness rushed in. He looked around quickly, slightly wild-eyed, until he realised that they were still alone. He was still so on edge, and while he was dreading the confrontation, he couldn't wait for the night to be over.

He looked outside to see night had fallen. Buffy was pacing already, and Spike got off the couch and stretched. Buffy glared at him, but he just shrugged.

"Wasn't my fault," he muttered.

"Spike, we have to get ready. She could be here any time now." Buffy couldn't keep the slight tremble out of her voice.

Spike nodded. "All right luv. Red set everything up?"

"You know she did."

"Yeah, right, okay. Good. Let's do this then."

Buffy nodded, and walked out of the room. Spike stood there, not really having anything to do but wait. He hated waiting, it was the worst part.

Suddenly the entire front wall of the lounge room collapsed. Spike instinctively dropped to the floor and as he sheltered himself from falling masonry, he was forced to revise his opinion about waiting.

Whatever was coming next was so much worse.

Buffy raced back into the room at the sound of her house being torn apart. She quickly took in Spike lying on the floor, but her attention was then captured by Glory, who was stepping over the ruins of the wall.

"Hello Sweetcheeks." Glory's smile stretched from ear to ear.

"Glory." Buffy's voice didn't betray any fear.

"That's right hon. And guess what? I'm here for my Key."

"You ruined my house."

Glory was surprised at the Slayer's lack of fear. She had expected her to try and run, or fight, or something. Not comment on property damage.

"I know who the Key is."

Buffy didn't react. "Do you?"

Buffy's lack of reaction threw Glory. This wasn't going how she had expected it to. Why wasn't the Slayer scared? And where was that damn vampire?

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Spike had used Buffy's distraction of Glory to sneak out of the room. He quickly made a phone call to Giles, who would work out everything on the other end. Everyone else would be fine, but Spike and Buffy were now on their own.

They had to hold off a God for 3 hours.

Sure, no problem.

Yeah, right.

From his position in the hall, he heard Buffy bolt out of the house. Glory screamed in frustration, and instantly followed. Spike and Buffy both knew that Glory was faster than them, but hopefully, it wouldn't make much of a difference.

The whelp's girlfriend had had some surprisingly good suggestions on how to fight Glory.

Spike smiled slightly. The real fight would come a bit later, but now, he got to have some fun.

He ran upstairs and climbed quietly onto the roof. His senses told him there were five demons in the area and one of them was just below him. He crept to the edge of the roof and looked down, and saw one of the hellbitch's diseased moron followers.

He jumped down behind it had twisted its head before it had realised he was there. Spike looked around, but apparently none of the other demons had been close enough to hear the faint snap as Spike had broken the thing's neck. He let it crumple to the ground, and crept off to deal with the others.

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Giles hung up the phone and turned to Xander and Anya.

"Grab your weapons. We move now."

They both nodded. Anya picked up a baseball bat, but Xander had a bit more experience with weapons than his girlfriend and grabbed a broadsword. Giles picked up an axe. They all headed out the door.

"Someone should pay us for this," Anya muttered.

Xander nodded. "With you completely on that one, Ahn. But the Council has never been known for it's generosity."

"It shouldn't be generosity. We're saving their lives. It's a full time, high risk job. The government should pay us or something. We should complain."

Xander chuckled. "Everybody already does. Not about us, obviously, but nobody thinks they get paid enough."

"We don't get paid at all. It's discrimination. Just because saving the world isn't a registered job description, I'd like to see how long they'd last without us around doing what we're doing."

Xander sighed. He wasn't sure that even with that they were doing they were going to make it through this one. He wasn't worried about their little group, since they weren't really in the action, but he worried about Buffy.

Spike too, when it came right down to it.

They were in the greatest danger. As long as Glory didn't find Dawn, the world would survive, but he wasn't sure about Buffy and Spike. Glory was a God, and she was insane.

Powerful and crazy are two things that should not go together.

They walked out into the street, and headed for the car. There was no sign of surveillance, and Xander let out a sigh of relief. They weren't out of it yet, but his hopes for everyone getting out of this alive couldn't help but going up a little. If Glory hadn't bothered about them, then hopefully she hadn't bothered about Will, Tara and Dawn either. Maybe Glory actually believed they weren't really involved in this.

Someone coughed slightly behind him, and his hopes suddenly plummeted.

They hadn't counted on this.

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Willow put the phone down and turned to Tara and Dawn.

"That was Giles. Glory's made her appearance."

"So we go?" asked Dawn.

Willow nodded. "We have to get out of here, and we can't be seen going. Now is the best time, while Glory's occupied and the others are doing the decoy thing."

Tara picked up the bag of magic supplies they were taking, just in case. As Willow locked the door to their dorm room, something occurred to Dawn.

"Why don't we just go into another room? We don't know for sure that Glory knows you live here, but if she does, she'd know the room as well. Wouldn't the safest thing to do be just go into another room? I mean, she's probably not smart enough to think of searching the rest of the building."

Tara thought a moment, then turned to Willow. "She's right, you know. If Glory really does have people watching the building, if we go outside we're likely to get caught. But if we move into another room, they'll probably never find us. It's a big building."

Willow resisted. "But we have to get Dawnie away. We can't keep her here."

"Sweetie, it's the safest place," said Tara. "And it's only for a few hours. After nine-thirty, we're safe, and everything's finished."

Dawn nodded, vigorously agreeing with Tara. She really didn't want to leave Buffy and Spike. If Glory killed Buffy and came for her, she didn't care if the world ended.

Willow sighed. "Fine, I guess you're right. I don't like it, but if you both think it's best…" she paused, thinking. "Chrisie's room is on the nest floor up. She's out of town until next week, so we could use her room, I guess."

Dawn and Tara nodded their agreement, and they all headed for the stairwell.

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Outside, shadowy figures prowled the college, looking for two witches and a teenage girl. Every entrance of the dorm buildings were watched, and no one got away unscrutinised.

Soon, a new arrival appeared, and after a quiet conference with one of the figures watching the doors, it stalked off, the figure behind it now crumpled on the ground.

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Buffy hid among the branches of a tree, watching as Glory stalked among the headstones. She had fled to the graveyard, Glory hot on her heals, and had managed to get out of sight long enough to climb a tree.

She caught a glimpse of Spike's white hair as he skirted the graveyard. She had to fight down the impulse to go and join him. That wasn't what she was meant to do. She had to wait here, in this tree, until Glory either found her or decided she wasn't here any more. Either way, when that happened, she had to run again. Glory's attention had to remain focused on her.

Glory kicked a headstone as she passed, and it shattered. She growled in frustration and turned towards the gates of the cemetery. Buffy took this as her queue. She dropped out of the tree, and sprinted toward the other end of the graveyard, away from Glory.

Glory heard the noise and spun around. Seeing the flash of blond hair she smiled, and decided it was time to stop with the games. Her image blurred, and in an instant she was standing in front of Buffy.

"Fun's over."

Buffy just stood there for a moment, and Glory smiled when she realised that the Slayer was probably frozen with fear.

Her smile slipped a little when Buffy punched her.

Stepping back, Glory shook her head a little. Those damn monks must have done something when they hid the Key in the form of the Slayer. Glory hadn't been able to sense her all night, and it was throwing her off. The was also something digging at her mind, an itch, that refused to go away. It was strong right now, and it was very annoying.

It was distracting her, an incessant little thing digging at her mind. Unconsciously she put a hand to her head, digging her fingers slightly into her skull. Buffy smiled, and when Glory noticed, she dropped her hand.

"Bitch. What have you done to me?"

Buffy shrugged. "Not much. Getting to you, is it?"

"It's just a little…" she paused, and shook her head. "It's nothing I can't handle."

"I bet it isn't. But haven't you noticed it only happens when you're near me? Why don't you do yourself a favour and go away?"

Glory gave herself another shake. "Nice try sweetie, but no dice. I want you, and I'll get you. You're my Key, Slayer. You're mine." Her voice was practically a growl.

Buffy backed up and dropped into a fighting stance. "I'm not going without a fight, hellbitch. You can't take me."

Glory smiled. "Honey, you're so unbelievably naive it's not funny. What I want, I get."

Her form blurred again, and suddenly Buffy was flying backwards. Landing on the ground she rolled, coming up on her feet just as Glory reached her and hit her again, this time sending her straight to the ground. Glory nudged her with her foot, but Buffy didn't move.

Two of her minions appeared out of the shadows, and she waved them forward to pick up the Slayer. With a self satisfied smile, Glory and her followers walked out of the graveyard.

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Spike watched from behind the wall of the cemetery. He fingered the Dhagon Sphere in his coat pocket. From what he'd heard, it apparently had had some affect on Glory. Not much, but anything that even distracted her a little was something they needed. They were going to need everything they could get to keep Glory occupied.

He looked at the watch Buffy had made him wear. He almost cursed when he saw it was only just seven. They still had to hold out for two and a half hours.

Scanning the graveyard one last time, Spike left to follow Glory.

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Xander groaned softly as he came to. His head hurt like hell, and the rest of his body wasn't feeling that good either. He was lying on the ground, and when he opened his eyes he saw Anya and Giles lying nearby as well, apparently still completely out of it.

He struggled to sit up, and leant back against a wall. Looking around, he saw they were in a small room with no windows and a rather solid looking door.

After a minute of trying to work some of the aches out of his body he crawled over to his girlfriend, hoping she was alright. From the way he was feeling, it was obvious that their captors had not been gentle with them.

He gave her a small shake, and she came awake slowly. Blinking her eyes open she looked up at him, and then hugged him for all she was worth. Xander groaned a little with pain, and Anya let him go immediately.

"Xander, are you all right?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I'll be fine. I think I just got roughed up a bit when I was unconscious. What about you?"

Anya stood up and inspected herself. "I think I'm fine. I don't think they hurt me."

"Can you check on Giles?" asked Xander from where he'd settled himself against the wall again.

Anya nodded, and bent down over the Watcher. She gave him a bit of a shake, and when he didn't respond she slapped him a few times.

"Anya!" Xander's voice was clearly a reprimand.

"What?" she asked innocently. "On TV they slap them to wake them up."

Xander shook his head. "No they don't. They throw water on them to wake them, they slap them to stop them acting crazy."

"Oh."

"Doesn't matter," said Xander. "I think he's coming round."

Giles had groaned as was rubbing his head. He sat up slowly, wincing with the movement. "Why do I feel like I've been hit by a truck?" he asked of nobody in particular.

Xander chuckled. "I sympathise G-man. I think they played kick the unconscious scoobies."

Giles grimaced. "It wouldn't surprise me. What happened anyway?"

"That's the tricky bit," said Xander. "I really have no idea. All I know is that some weirdo demon with black eyes was behind us as we tried to get to the car. I was looking right at him, and he smiled at me, and then something big, heavy and scaly hit me over the head. Then when I wake up, I'm in this room feeling like somebody used me for boxing practice."

Giles nodded. "I feel much the same way. I don't know where we are, but I think we can assume that we are being held by Glory."

"But why us?" asked Anya. "I mean, none of us are the Key. We're just like the support crew or something."

Xander shrugged. "As long as we're the only ones Glory's taken, it doesn't really matter what for. I just hope the others are okay."

"I agree," said Giles. "But I can't help but wonder why Glory would bother with us."

Xander sighed. "I don't know, but I guess we'll find out.

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Spike was making his way back to the Summers' house when something caught his eye. He stopped and looked around, hoping to catch another glimpse of what had distracted him. His eyes scanned the street, but he could see nothing unusual. Normally, he would have shrugged it off and forgotten about it, but all his other senses were going off the meter.

Something nearby was giving off a seriously dangerous evil guy vibe.

And it was watching him.

If something was trailing him at the moment, it was almost a certainty that they worked for Glory. And Glory couldn't find out their plans. Spike made a decision, and changed his direction.

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Buffy was doing her best to avoid looking at the front wall of her house. Why was it that there couldn't be a week when someone didn't break some part of her house? Normally it was only windows, but Glory always had to be bigger and better.

Just a window? No way. Breaking walls makes a statement.

Buffy was pissed. Nobody tears down the front of her house and gets away with it. She was going to bitch-slap Glory so hard she'd end up back in her own dimension without the power of the Key. It was a somewhat comforting thought when she was getting more nervous every minute Spike failed to show.

Buffy wished she could contact Willow somehow, just to check on Dawn. The entire plan was useless if Dawn was taken, 'cause that's the end of the world.

Literally.

Yeah, bye.

Buffy was getting worried. Things weren't going how they'd planned. The first part had worked. Glory had chased after Buffy and Spike had killed the demons watching the house. After that, things weren't so good.

Buffy had gone to Xander's apartment to check that their group had gone, but Giles' car was still parked outside, and there were traces of blood on the pavement. Never a good sign. She'd looked around but found nothing. So she'd headed over to the college, to make sure Will and Tara had gotten Dawn away safely, but she couldn't even get near the building. The entire campus was crawling with different types of demons, and Buffy hoped that their continued presence there meant that they had not been able to find Dawn.

She couldn't afford to dwell on the issue right now. There was something going on, and it was something they hadn't expected. Why would Glory send so many demons to capture the guys? It didn't make sense, especially since she had apparently bought the whole 'Buffy is the Key' story. Why bother with everyone else?

It wasn't Glory's style. There was something seriously off here, and it was sending Buffy spider-sense haywire. There was only one thing she could be sure of at the moment.

Another player had entered the game.

End Chapter 15