The Spare

by Mediancat

A sequel to Fiat Voluntas Tua. Doc has a plan to bring Glory back to life . . . a plan which involves both the scoobies and the Charmed Ones, and which even their combined abilities may not be able to stop.

The Buffy characters are owned by Joss; the Charmed characters, by Aaron Spelling. This fits in somewhere after Normal Again on Buffy , and right before the vampire episode on Charmed.



The new Source (but you can call him Cole) was hard at work trying to figure out the talent needed to give Phoebe the final push to move out NOW. She'd agreed a week or so back, but found a couple of reasons here and there to delay.

The Source couldn't afford second thoughts. Severing Phoebe Halliwell's ties to her sisters as much as he could was of paramount importance. So he stepped up the nuisances, minor power outages and so forth; but he couldn't do that too much or Paige would get suspicious again.

Paige. It didn't matter how much he tried to convince her otherwise, something in Paige just wouldn't let her believe that Cole was a good guy. Too bad for her that she was right, but the Source couldn't afford any outright attacks. So he had to work a balancing act.

Suddenly the Seer appeared in front of him. "What is it?" he asked, not angrily but with a definite "this-better-be-good" tone in his voice.

"There's . . . something," the Seer said uncertainly. "Something big that could put a crimp in your plans. The details are vague . . . what have you heard of a power called Glorificus?"

The Source laughed. "She thought she was a god, and now she's dead," he said. "I'm not interested."

The Seer shook her head. "No . . . she's on the comeback trail. I'm not entirely sure how . . . but I definitely see her remanifesting in San Francisco in two days' time, then going to . . . the Hellmouth. Two days after THAT I see hell on earth. And not the metaphorical kind you're aiming for, either. If . . . If this comes to pass, all your plans, all your schemes . . . all your wishes for that child we both hope grows inside Phoebe Halliwell . . . all will lie in ruins. And that, I guarantee you, I DO see."

"Anything else?"

"No," the Seer said. "Nothing concrete. All sorts of possibilities." Noting the sour look on the Source's face, she said, "You should welcome my words. Without them, you would know NOTHING of this grim future."

"Great," the Source said. "Everything's going to go to hell, but I can't tell you how or why. See you later. Your advice might be more welcome if it was more concrete."

The Seer hesitated. "There is –"

"Yes?" The Source said, rapidly losing his patience.

"There's something new AND old about this. Something that is, simultaneously, new and old. It plays a vital role. It sounds silly, I know –"

"So you have no desire to see this future come to pass?" The Source asked.

"Do you?"

"No," the Source said. "But if a version of hell's truly coming to Earth, the Charmed Ones aren't going to want it either. I think YOU should tell them about it." At her hesitance, he said, "I would have no reason to know about it . . . and this isn't something we should trust to the whims of fate, or to whatever demons I can frighten into working for me. They might decide they prefer Glorificus' version of hell to my own."

"Alright," the Seer said after a time. "But this is the way we need to go about it."

* * * * *

Spike knocked furiously on the front door of the Summers residence late one night. When Dawn finally opened the door, Spike made a production of a sigh of relief and said, "Good to see you, niblet. Sis around?"

"Upstairs sacked out," Dawn said. "Rough night of Slayage."

"Wake her, would you? And stick around; this concerns you."

Fifteen minutes later a very irritated Buffy Summers, Dawn and Spike were sitting in the Summers living room. "You've got five minutes to make this good, Spike," Buffy said.

"It won't take me five seconds," was Spike's response. "Doc's back in town."

They blinked, then Buffy said, "So call Bugs Bunny or something." Dawn's head shot up.

"Are you bleeding kidding? Doc. That bloke who threw me off a building and –"

"The guy who cut me," Dawn said. She looked almost terrified.

"And set the stage for me dying," Buffy said. "What's his angle? And what's yours?"

"Mine is watching out for little sister here," Spike said. "I made you a promise a while back and I plan to keep it. His? Well, the last time he was around he damn near unleashed hell on Earth to get that piss-ass god of his back home. From what I hear he seems to think he's got a line on doing it again."

"Small flaw in that theory, Spike," Buffy said. "Glory's dead."

Spike said, "Yeah, well, so were you. Not that much of a handicap in these parts."

"How do we know she's dead?" Dawn asked abruptly.

Spike looked at her nervously. They'd never actually told Dawn about Giles' strangling Ben. "She was dead," Spike said. "I saw the body. There was no life in it." To his relief, the little bit seemed to go along with that. "I don't know his plans; he plays things close to the vest. Only way I even found out what I have was by beating the living hell out of one of Glory's remaining minions."

"She still has minions?" Buffy asked. "I would have thought they'd have packed up and moved on."

"Kind of hard for some to do," Spike said. "And if Doc gets his way they won't exactly have been wasting their time."

"So we find Doc and we pound him until he dies," Buffy said. "Problem solved."

"This guy's survived a sword through the heart and being thrown off a five- story building," Spike said. "Plus, he knows a LOT about magic. And then there's his tongue."

"His tongue? Never mind, I don't want to know."

"No, you don't. So do you want to take a little trip to his apartment?"

"I thought you said pounding might not be the answer," Buffy said suspiciously.

"Can't hurt," Spike said, shrugging.

* * * * *

Phoebe opened her eyes and looked around. She was at the edge of a desert. Immediately to her right was a fairly steep hill. "What's . . . going on?" she asked.

"A good question," came a voice from maybe thirty feet away. She looked up and saw . . . Tara? In a kind of flowing dress. "And the answers will be here soon. Be ready."

Phoebe shook her head. "This can't be a prophecy," she said. "I don't get my visions this way."

"Accept that which you cannot change," Tara said. "You may think you know what's coming . . . what's to be. You have no idea."

"Uh-huh," Phoebe said. "I'll be waking up now."

As she turned around she heard Tara say, "Be back before tomorrow's eve."

Phoebe looked forward and charging towards her up the hill was a wild-eyed blonde woman, who slapped her once, twice . . .

And abruptly she was being shaken. She'd fallen asleep at her keyboard. Before she could be shaken again, she grabbed the shaker's hand and said, "What are you doing?" The nearest clock read just past midnight.

"I saw you all moving around with your head on the table. I wanted to make sure you were okay –"

"What are you doing up so late?"

Before there was any answer, Paige walked in, a bit bleary-eyed. "What are you doing here?" she asked.

"I just thought –"

"Leave the just thinking to me," Paige said. "And get to bed, would you? You've got softball practice tomorrow morning."

The young woman stopped at the door. "You know, just because you're my big sister doesn't mean you ALWAYS get to boss me around." Then she stormed off.

Paige went after her. "Eve!" she said. "Eve!"



Part 2



They'd woken up Willow and given her the five-second summary, then asked her to stay with Dawn. Dawn, thank goodness, had had no desire whatsoever to come with; one encounter with a man willing to slice her open had been more than sufficient.

Not that, if she got the plans, she wasn't planning to gut Doc with a rusty knife. That's assuming there was any left. Spike was surprisingly graphic, even for him, as to what he was going to do with the bastard when they caught him; it started with acupuncture with toothed swords and moved on from there.

"I never thought I'd be saying this," Buffy said, "But I'm riding along in your train of thought this time."

"Good to hear," Spike said.

"Of course, the odds of him actually BEING at this apartment –"

"Slim and none, I know, and likely Slim's split town. Still, it's the only place to start now that that ponce Willy finally wised up and split Sunnyhell for somewhere safer."

"Really?" Buffy asked. "I hadn't heard that. Where'd he go?"

"Somewhere in the West Bank, I think." Buffy took this in stride for a second, then looked at Spike oddly. "Gotcha, love," the vampire said.

Buffy just laughed.

But he was wrong about the apartment. "I don't get this," Spike said as he and Buffy kicked down the door. "Place looks just like it did last time I was here."

"Are you sure he actually left town?" Buffy asked as they walked inside.

"Believe me. I scoured this place stem to stern looking for him. Neither hide – well, scale – nor hair of him. And here it is, looking all sparkly."

And right then the demon himself appeared across the room. "Hello, there, Spike," Doc said pleasantly. "Didn't expect to see you again. And YOU. Didn't we meet on the top of a building?"

"I threw you off of it," Buffy said. "I was hoping you'd splat."

Smiling, Doc said, "Nope. I bounced. Anyway, what can I do for you folks?"

"Die."

"I've got other plans," Doc said.

"Care to share?" Buffy asked.

"My last name isn't Doom," Doc said. "I'm not going to blurt out my mad schemes. And now, if you'll excuse me –" he turned like he was making ready to go.

Spike growled and charged across the room . . . and crashed into the wall. He turned around and swung at Doc – and his fists passed right through the demon. "Bloody hell," he said. "You're a ghost."

"Not a ghost," Buffy said slowly. "Something more like . . . a hologram."

"Impressive," Doc said, sounding like he meant it. "No wonder you've survived being a Slayer for so long. Of course, you didn't really survive, did you . . .? Oh well. Fair is fair. You came back, after all."

"To hell with this," Spike said, more than a little pissed at having been taken in by the illusion. "Let's get out of here."

Doc, or the reasonable facsimile thereof, said, "Diavoli che il revere Glorificus, uccide gli intrusi!" Suddenly three red-skinned demons appeared in front of them. "These are more of Glorificus' followers. They're not too happy with you."

"More illusions," Spike spat right before one of them decked him in the head.

"Not hardly," Doc said, and vanished – and the contents of the room along with him.

It was a tougher fight than it should have been, with Spike having been ambushed. But eventually, Buffy and Spike managed to kill the three red- skinned demons, though they were battered and bruised when they finished the fight.

"Damn it to hell," Spike said. "This was a trap. Who knows where the hell that scaly bastard's gotten to by now?" He looked around the apartment, but apart from the two of them and the three dead demons there wasn't anything else there.

As Spike started to invent new swearwords, Buffy thought for a second. "We don't know where he's gotten to . . . but I think we know what he's up to."

"What?" Spike asked.

"Before he introduced us to our play dates, Doc said something about fair being fair about how I came back from the dead."

"You don't think –"

"Oh, I definitely do. He thinks he's got an angle on bringing Glory back."

"You bet he does," said someone in the doorway.

They turned. Spike started towards the being standing there, but Buffy held him back. "Don't worry," she said. "This one's not out to hurt us – just annoy us."

"I should resent that, but I don't have any time to waste."

Buffy said, "Well, then, why don't you just cut to the chase, Whistler?"

* * * * *

Phoebe said, "Paige!"

Paige came back into the room. "Yeah?"

"Let your sister stew for a minute. We got bigger fish." She sighed. "Better go wake up Piper too."

Fifteen minutes later the Charmed Ones were downstairs sitting around the dining room table. Piper had a "this-had-better-be-good" look on her face, but she didn't say anything. Quickly, Phoebe explained her dream. When she was done, Piper said, "Um, sis . . . you don't get premonitions in dreams."

Phoebe sighed. "I know, I know. But there was something about this one."

"Yeah," Paige said. "What's this about tomorrow's eve?"

"Tomorrow's eve is today," Piper said. "Time travel? Unless it has to do with your sister."

Glaring, Paige said, "Don't even joke about that. We've managed to keep her out of trouble so far, and I REALLY want to stay the course there."

"With time travel, well, it wouldn't be the first time," Phoebe sighed. "But I didn't get that impression. And the blonde woman –"

Paige said, "What about her?"

"I didn't get as good a look as I wanted thanks to YOUR SISTER," Phoebe said pointedly.

"So sorry," Paige said. "From now on I'll keep her chained to her bed."

"Could the two of you perhaps cut down a bit on the acid?" Piper said. "I'd like to not have to replace the floor." They looked at her. "Right. Too late for jokes. The blonde woman?"

"Well, she tried to kill me. I'm not sure. In the few seconds I saw her, I got the impression she was very, VERY evil." The door opened behind them; as Cole walked towards them, he left it open.

Cole said , "Did you get a premonition about a small, bad-tempered blonde?"

"Uh-huh," Phoebe said. "Um, honey, I know we're kind of casual around these parts, but it's still considered good manners to shut the door when you come in. And why are you so late, anyway?"

"The reason I'm so late is standing outside," he said. "Waiting for a guarantee you'll hear her out."

"Is this about the blonde?"

"Yeah, and it's not a woman. Her name's Glorificus. She's a god –" at the Charmed Ones' disbelieving looks, he said, "Well, she was powerful enough, she had worshippers and she called herself a god. Not too many people argued with her. She's dead."

"Then why are we worried?" Piper asked.

"Because," a voice said from the doorway, "She's coming back."

They recognized the voice; all three spun in their seats and saw the Seer standing there. "What's in it for you?" Phoebe asked skeptically.

"Because her brand of evil is not MY brand of evil," the Seer said in her mellifluous voice. "What Glorificus desired before her demise is to return to her home dimension. But the way she plans to return would bring about chaos and anarchy – chaos and anarchy I have no desire to see. Nor should you."

"If all it's going to do is mess with your plans," Paige said.

"The last time she tried it," the Seer said calmly, "Dragons appeared and a massive building was changed into a habitat for monsters so vile I would have nothing to do with them. And she FAILED this time. If she succeeded –"

Phoebe looked at Cole. "You believe her?" The fact that the last time Cole had encountered the Seer the woman had left him unconscious inside a crypt made Cole's belief hard to swallow.

Cole nodded. "I do. It took her a couple of hours to convince me – that's why I'm so late. Back from – back from my time as a demon I remember hearing about her. A being so powerful they simply called her "The Beast." The Source wasn't worried about her, but remember . . . the Source was insane."

"But she's DEAD," Piper said.

A voice from the stairs said, "Who's dead?"

In a voice pushed beyond the edge of patience, Paige said, "Calvin Coolidge. Now go back to bed."

When it became obvious that no one was going to say anything, Eve went back upstairs.

"You might want to tell your sister," the Seer said, "to hide in her room for a while. If someone is planning to return Glorificus to the world things could get very dangerous." Her smile was insincere.

"Thanks for the concern –" Paige began.

Cole interrupted her, "Sorry, this may be a stupid question," he said. "But who the hell was that?"



Part 3



"Huhwha?" Phoebe said.

The Source (but you can call him Cole) looked at the figure retreating up the stairs. No, he didn't recognize her, but everyone else here (including the Seer) seemed to. "That was my sister, numb-brain," Paige said with a slight edge of hostility. "You know? She's only been living here ever since I moved in."

There was something screwy here, and not something he could figure out right away. Paige didn't have another sister; her parents had adopted only her. Best to cover things up for the moment until he could figure out what was going on. "Sorry," he said apologetically. "Must have been a trick of the light; I didn't recognize her. Now, about this premonition you had –"

Phoebe, not sounding entirely convinced, said, "It was weird. I dreamed it – but I KNOW it was premonitional."

"I believe you," the Source said, trying to distract everyone from asking why he didn't know this sister everyone else seemed to. "You said Tara was in it, right? Willow's ex-girlfriend, the one who's friends with the Slayer?" Phoebe nodded. "That fits."

"Why?"

"Because the person who killed Glorificus was the Slayer herself," the Seer said.

"WELL then," Piper said. "That give us an angle." She went for the phone.

"Um," Paige said, "You do realize it's about 12:30 in the morning, right?"

"Unfortunately for us, evil doesn't keep banker's hours. Buffy'll understand."

But Buffy wasn't there. Willow WAS, though. Unfortunately, The Source's superhuman abilities didn't include superhearing, so all he caught was Piper's end of the conversation. "Hey, Willow. Sorry to wake you – oh, good. Is Buffy there? Well, maybe you can help. We're getting information from a couple of different sources – no, not THAT one, but close. Anyway, we think maybe someone's trying to bring Glorificus back from the dead – Willow? Oh, I see." To everyone else in the room. "Dropped the phone." Back into the receiver: "Yeah, Phoebs had a premonition and one of our enemies also let us know she'd heard something. You're kidding. Tell me you're kidding." To everyone else in the room: "She's not kidding." Back into the receiver: "This Doc, then . . . you're sure he'd be the kind to – no, no, just doublechecking. Looks like our enemy might have been telling the truth. Tell Buffy to give us a call when she gets in. We might need to work together on this. Bye."

"I assume," the Seer said frostily, "That you have received independent confirmation?"

"Looks like," Piper sighed. "Willow tells me Spike had a lead on a demon named Doc –"

"Independent agent," the Source murmured. "I always hated the bastard." Everyone looked at him. "Back when I was Belthazor, I mean. He didn't give a crap about the Source's plans at all."

"Some things never change," Phoebe said. "This demon?"

"Yeah," Piper said. "Doc was a big-time follower of this Glorificus and Spike said the man was back in town with 'big plans.' Figuring out a way to restore his god would be right up his alley."

"And it couldn't just be a coincidence," Paige asked skeptically. Now everyone looked at her. "Right. No such thing as coincidence in our line of work."

"Two things I don't believe in," Piper said. "Coincidence and leprechauns."

The Source cleared his throat.

"Don't tell me," Piper said. "I'm wrong about the leprechauns."

"No, as far as I know, you're right," The Source said. "Seer, is there anything else?" He glared at her meaningfully. On the way here they'd agreed this was not the time to hold anything back. The Seer had seen no angle to it, nothing they could do to improve their own edge; and if she couldn't see an angle, it almost certainly didn't exist.

"Only that this involves something that is both old and new," she said. "I'm not sure what that is – but it WILL be relevant." Then she looked around and said. "And if that's all, I really should be going. I'm not at all comfortable here." She said it not like it was an insult, but a point of fact.

"Likewise," Piper said. "Will you tell us if you find out anything else?"

"If it's to my advantage, yes," she said, and vanished.

"Well then," Phoebe said, clapping her hands together. "Looks like an allnighter."

"I'll make the coffee," Paige said. "AFTER I make sure that sister of mine is safely tucked away in bed and not EAVESDROPPING AGAIN!" A faint sound of footsteps could be heard from upstairs. "What am I going to do with her?" she said.

"That chaining her to her bed option's looking better and better, isn't it?" Phoebe said.

"I'll tell Leo," Piper said.

Phoebe said, "I guess that leaves me looking through the Book of Shadows. Wanna come with?" she asked Cole.

"Why not," he said. After all, it WAS possible he could figure out more about what was going on with Glorificus.

And maybe, just maybe, to puzzle out a way to use it to his advantage.



* * * * *

"So who the hell ARE you?" Spike asked.

"Someone you ought to be nicer to, Spike," Whistler said. "I helped Buffy here save the world way back with Acathla. Otherwise, well, farewell Piccadilly, goodbye Leicester-bloody-square, eh?"

"The point, Whistler?" Buffy asked.

"The point is that evil's about to take a big swing upwards. Unless you do something to fix it."

"And this has to with somehow bringing Glory back to life?"

"It's not that part you have to worry about so much," Whistler said. "Though, yeah, I can see why you'd want to stop it. The problem is when they try to send her home again. All those demons and assorted interdimensional nasties just won't be too good for the balance of power."

Buffy shook her head. "I can't go through that again."

"Two deaths ought to be enough for any gal, it's true," Whistler said. "It's just that you might not be able to stop that part. But remember, what were YOU like when you first came back? And why would you think Glory would be any different?" He turned around and walked out.

"Want me to chase him down?" Spike offered.

Buffy shook her head. "No point. Whatever's happened I know he isn't BEHIND it. And he's probably given us all the information he can." She looked around the room. "Nothing more we can do here. We'd better check in with Willow."

"If it's all the same with you, love," Spike said. "I'm going to go see if I can find one of the blonde bitch's old minions. If Doc's trying to bring their God back it's a safe bet they'll be involved."

Buffy nodded her head. "Good point," she said. "Go, kick some minion ass."

They walked out to the street and split up there; Spike headed to wherever minions hung out, Buffy went home.

When she got there she got a surprise – not only was Willow there, so was Tara. They were in serious, earnest conversation. "Hi, Buffy," Tara said. "Um, Willow thought it was best to let me know what was going on. How'd. how'd it go?"

"We didn't get killed," Buffy said. "Though a couple of demons tried their hardest." Then she filled them on what she'd learned.

When Buffy was done she saw Willow nodding her head. "While you were gone I got a phone call from Piper Halliwell."

"I'm guessing if she just wanted to exchange bundt cake recipes you wouldn't be bringing this up," Buffy said.

"No," Willow said. "Though, she's a chef, she probably has some good ones." Buffy glared at her. "Phoebe had a premonition involving Glory – and one of their enemies told them she'd heard something similar."

Buffy frowned. "What kind of plot could be so elaborate that it'd stretch from here to San Francisco and back again?"

"Beats me," Willow said. "But Tara and I were just talking – whatever it is is going to require some POWERFUL magicks."

Tara added, "I, I mean, we needed an Urn of Osiris to bring you back, and you're not a god."

"No, I just killed one," Buffy said bitterly. "Okay. Never mind. Did Piper want me to call her back?" Willow nodded. "Then I'll go do that. As of right now Dawn is under TOTAL lockdown. Tell her what's going on, let her do research if she wants, but she goes nowhere and does NOTHING until this is taken care of. I think she'll understand."

"What about Xander?"

Buffy thought for a second. "I was hoping to let him sleep. Use your judgment –" there was a knock at the front door. When Buffy opened it, Xander was standing there. "I see you already did. Xander, can you take Tara and go get some books from the Magic Box, anything that might be helpful?"

"Hi, Xander. Thanks for coming over here in the middle of the night. How are you?"

"I'll take it that's a yes. Now that we all know what we're going to do, I've got a Halliwell to call. Come on, MOVE IT, people!"

Everyone moved.



Part 4



Along the way upstairs, the Source (but you can call him Cole) stopped him to look at this mysterious new addition to Halliwell Manor. "I'll be up in a second," he told Phoebe.

"Okay, but be quick," Phoebe said. "You know Paige isn't fond of you hanging around her sister."

"Understood," the Source said neutrally, doing his best not to let his lack of knowledge show. "It should only be a couple of minutes."

He knocked on the most likely door and was rewarded with a muffled, "Go away, Paige, I'm in bed."

"Not Paige. Cole."

"Oh!" he heard a scramble and then the door opened. "Hey, Cole," the young woman said. "What do you want?" There was no hostility in the voice, as there had been with her interaction with Paige.

He took a second to look her over. Eve Matthews (presumably that was her name) stood about 5'1", with dark, almost black hair and dark brown eyes. Her age, he would guess, would be about 15 or 16. She looked somewhat . . . familiar, although he couldn't place where he'd seen anyone who resembled her. "Hey, Eve. Just wanted to check up on you."

She sighed. "I figured as much," she said, sitting back down on the bed. "I mean, part of me still had hopes that you were coming in here to say, 'Phoebe? Who's Phoebe?' but since you're married it doesn't look like that's going to happen anytime soon."

So Eve had a crush on him. Interesting. "Sorry, no," he said. "Though if I weren't married and you were six or seven years older . . ." She smiled and blushed for a second. "Anyway, I actually thought I'd fill you in a little on what's happening. I get the impression no one tells you much of anything around here."

"Not if they don't have to," Eve said. "And it's ticking me off. I mean, I may not be a Halliwell but as long as I'm stuck here . . . " The Source gave her a one-minute summary, leaving out his conviction that she was part of what was going on. "Do you know anything about this?"

"Me?" Eve squeaked, sincerely it seemed to him. Unless his judgment was way off, she was a pawn here, not a King or a Queen. The next time he got the opportunity to sneak away he'd have to set his assistant to figuring out who she was. "Why would you ask that?"

"Covering all the bases," he asked. "I didn't think so . . . I just thought you might want to feel like part of the action."

"Thanks," she said. "Now you'd better get lost. You know Paige doesn't like me hanging around you. You're a," and she invested the next two words with all the scorn a 15-year-old girl can muster, "dangerous influence." She snorted. "And besides, I DO need to get some sleep. That softball scholarship's not going to win itself."

The Source laughed, "Well, she's right about me being a bad influence . . ." and left the room. He ducked into the bathroom, locked the door, teleported away and told his assistant to find out a way to figure out who or what Eve Matthews really was. If the young demon was put off by an order at one in the morning, she didn't show it, promising instead to get right to work. "No kidnapping, no killing, nothing too blatant," he said. "I want to know who she is BEFORE I figure out what to do with her. If anything. This isn't the time to try to impress me with your initiative."

Then he teleported back into the bathroom and went to catch up with Phoebe.

* * * * *

The Seer rounded a corner and ran into someone unexpected. As you might imagine for someone who has a better handle on the future than most of us, this was about as common as a total eclipse.

The unexpected arrival wasn't hostile, though. "Hello there," she said.

"Evening, Seer," Whistler answered her. "How are you this . . . what periods of time do you use down here, anyway?"

"Frazzled. As you well know." She ignored his question.

"Gotta say, you don't sound it. I mean, your voice, your face . . . you got this whole Nichelle Nichols thing going on."

"Whistler –"

"I know, I know, you were probably going for Eartha Kitt."

"WHISTLER!"

"I can see the frazzle," Whistler said. "Well, the life of an agent of balance is a hard one. You knew the job was dangerous when you took it."

"Also when I quit," the Seer said.

"Did you?" he asked. "I've been hearing how a couple of months ago when the Source released the Hollow you turned against him."

"He was a fool," the Seer said. "It would have ruined all of us eventually. He was too stupid to see that."

"And?"

The Seer sighed. "And the world DOES need good and evil to coexist. I know that. I haven't completely forgotten what I learned."

"Just that you think evil's going to come out on top more often than good."

"If I have anything to say about it, they will."

"You were one of the best," Whistler said.

"That I was." After a second. "Is that all? Or did you have a reason for this beyond simple nostalgia?"

"For the moment we're on the same side. I know you don't want Glorificus to get home any more than I do."

"This is true," the Seer said. "But all the information I have, I've given up."

"Me too. I assume neither of us is stopping there?"

She sighed again. "As always, Whistler, you're annoying, but you're right. This is bigger than a matter of sides, or egos. Any information I get I will share."

"Oh, me too," he said. "Even if the new Source says not to?"

Nodding, she said, "Even if the new Source says – hold it. How do you know there's a new Source?"

"I didn't until now. Always a pleasure doing business with you."

She growled a growl of frustration. DAMN Whistler!



* * * * *

"Hi, Piper."

"Hey, Buffy."

"Willow filled me in. What have you got?"

"A whole lot of pieces, and I don't like what they add up to." She explained the dream Phoebe'd had.

"I had that dream. I get premonition dreams every once in a while; part and parcel of this whole Slayer schtick."

"That EXACT dream?"

"Almost. Close enough. Two major differences. In my case the phrase was 'be back before dawn," and it wasn't Glory charging up the hill at me, it was the First Slayer. She got it, I'm guessing, because you're going to have to deal with Glory. Believe me when I say that you'd rather play Russian roulette with an AK-47 than fight Glory."

"We'd figured out that much – but thanks for the warning. What about 'tomorrow's eve?'"

"Well, I figured out later that it probably referred to my sister."

"Dawn?" The disbelief in Piper's voice was obvious.

"Dawn. Some monks working in opposition to Glory were guarding something they called 'The Key.'"

"Let me guess. It wasn't the key to the executive bathroom."

"Not hardly. It was the Key to getting Glory home. Opening the portal broke down the barriers between dimensions – we had a dragon show up, an earthquake, and god knows what else."

"That would be the chaos the Seer warned us about."

"Most likely. And this just happened with the portal opened for a few minutes before I . . . closed it. If Glory had gone through – well chaos wouldn't have begun to describe it. Hell would."

"And this connects with Dawn . . . how?"

"Dawn WAS the Key. The monks sent her to me, in a form they knew I would protect with my life, and the power of their spell altered people's memories so that NO ONE remembered a world without Dawn. Me, my mom, Xander, Willow, even Spike -- we all knew who she was."

"And . . .?" Piper's voice clearly indicated that she thought she'd figured out where this conversation was going, but wasn't that happy about it.

"And the words changed from dawn in my dream . . . to eve in Phoebe's."

"Paige has a sister named Eve."

"No. She doesn't."



Part 5



As Buffy hung up the phone, she thought she'd convinced Piper to use the trance spell to find out if Eve was real or not.

She'd met Eve on her trip up to San Francisco back in December – back when they'd dealt with Fiat Voluntas Tua. Paige's sister had been a bit of a hardcase, but a lot smarter than she let on. Buffy remembered her frustration at not being able to help them track down the cursed necklace; she remembered hearing her laugh when Buffy and Phoebe went a couple of rounds in the Halliwell Mansion basement; she even remembered her offering a few pointers. A little tae kwan do training and the girl had thought she was Bruce Lee.

What she hadn't remembered was how much she'd looked like Dawn.

Oh, Eve's hair had been almost jet black (and not a dye job), Eve's eyes had been the darkest brown you'd ever seen – and she'd been as heavily into sports as Dawn was schoolwork. But other than that –

Other than that, they could have been twins.

And she hadn't realized it until now. She couldn't have, because (the way she was reading Phoebe's dream) Eve hadn't been around that long. Maybe only a couple of hours.

But she wasn't real; Buffy hadn't met her. That was going to take a little bit of getting used to. One thing that did confuse Buffy is why Eve showed up in San Francisco. Of course, she had no idea what the mechanics of the spell were that had created Dawn or Eve anyway, and that was an issue for later.

Right now, while they were waiting for Xander and Tara to get back, Dawn – who was understandably so keyed up she couldn't sleep – and Willow were surfing the net to see what they could come up with about bringing hellbitches back from the dead. It had taken her five minutes to convince Willow that giving the details to the trance that let one see magical influences was not actually performing magic, that it was more like Sam Malone mixing drinks at Cheers.

So for now she had nothing to do but cool her heels. Spike had woken her up . . . maybe she could sneak in a nap . . .

She woke up suddenly. Spike was standing over her grinning. "Now, isn't this. . . familiar?"

As she sat up, she said, "We're not getting into that again. What do you –" she broke off, noticing that Spike hadn't walked in alone. His companion had pale gray skin and looked like a deformed Cardassian with a skin condition. He was also suspiciously unharmed for one of Glory's former minions. "So, Spike," Buffy asked calmly. "Who's your friend?"

"This is Mess," Spike said.

"Mess," Buffy said. "I think there was also a Dreg and a Murk. Did you have a choice of names? 'cause I gotta say, you guys ended up on the short end of the stick. Not that Brandon or Cody would have fit much better."

"Actually –"

"And that's all the time we have for small talk," Buffy said, voice turning icy. "So, what do you know and why shouldn't I kill you to find it out?"

Mess looked at Spike. "Um, about that," Spike said. "He came along voluntarily. Didn't even need to bruise my fists." He sounded disappointed, and Buffy didn't blame him. But if the ex-minion was in a cooperative mood, there was no call to work him over.

Dammit.

"So, Mess, what do you have for me?" Buffy asked.

Mess began to talk, hesitantly at first, then more confidently. "A couple of weeks ago Doc gathered up we minions of Glorificus who survived her failed homecoming last year and informed us of a plan he had to bring her to life and once again send her home. Most of my brethren were . . . quite thrilled at this news."

"You weren't?" Buffy asked skeptically.

"I wasn't," Mess confirmed. "Understand me, Slayer: I had worshipped Glorificus for my entire life. With all my heart and soul I believed in her; I believed that when we went home we would be granted great power, the power to serve her. You . . . changed all that when you killed her. Most of my brethren were at somewhat loose ends. My conclusions were . . . somewhat different. Had Glorificus been the almighty power she claimed . . . you would not have beaten her. So I did my best to move on with my life. There are few job openings for minions these days . . . unless you wish to work for Jennifer Lopez or Bill Gates. So I began a business as a cult deprogrammer . . . and it's doing quite well, really. The clients don't even question my appearance."

"And this is getting back to Doc sometime before the end of the century?"

"Yes," Mess said, smiling deferentially. "He wouldn't take no for an answer; he said flat out he'd kill anyone who didn't go along with him. I enjoy living, so I played along. In the past couple of weeks, he performed rituals I couldn't begin to understand, and said they were for the creation of a Key. I said we already knew where the Key was . . . he said he knew that full well. But to restore Glorificus he would need two of them. One to bring her back . . . and the other to send her home."

* * * * *

When they finally all gathered together back downstairs – everyone but Leo drinking a large cup of coffee – Piper broke off from a quiet conversation with Leo and said, "Okay, what'd everyone get?"

"Annoyed," Paige said. "Cole, why were you in Eve's room?"

Cole said, "Oh, we were making secret plans for world domination. I get North America, she gets Europe, Phoebe gets Asia, Piper Australia. You get Antarctica."

Phoebe chuckled; before Paige could answer Piper said, "what did everyone get about the problem at hand?"

"TMI," Phoebe said, holding her head. "WAY TMI. But if Buffy took down Glorificus, we should have hired her to kill the Source. We could have spent the last three years in Hawaii." She gave a quick biographical sketch and told everyone to go look at the picture in the book so they knew who they were dealing with. "And what'd you get from Buffy?"

"I'm going to need both of you – Paige and Phoebe, that is -- to do a spell."

Phoebe blinked. "You really need to work on your segues, sis. What spell and why?"

"A spell for determining . . . undue magical influence," Piper said, choosing her words carefully. "And I'm better off not telling you why."

"Paige?"

Shrugging, Paige said, "Beats the hell out of me. You're doing research, Piper is doing interviews, and I'm the girl behind the counter at Starbuck's."

"Cole?"

"Sorry, I left my superhearing powers in my other suit."

"Leo?"

The Whitelighter nodded. "Yeah. I think it's a good idea for you to do the spell. I also think it's a good idea for Piper not to tell you why. It was Buffy's idea."

"Yeah," Piper said. "This helped her when she fought Glory the last time. It helped her figure a few things out . . . well, that's what she says. I'm not so sure I believe her, but I know what she's talking about and you guys don't."

"A double blind test," Paige said. "I'm in."

"More or less," Piper said. "Phoebs?"

Sighing, Phoebe said, "If you and Buffy think it will help – I just wish I knew more about what was going on."

Leo orbed around the world to pick up the necessary ingredients – all the magic stores in the Bay area were, of course, closed at 1:17 in the morning – and Piper told them how to do the spell.

They went up to their respective bedrooms. Feeling more than a little ridiculous, Phoebe did the ward around her and slipped into a trance.

When she opened her eyes the world looked odd, like she was seeing it through smoked glass. She looked around the room and saw nothing different.

She walked down the hall to see if Paige was okay. It was a surreal experience, but she wasn't worried about getting hurt – and if she concentrated she could see the world as it was normally, rather than with this vague blue tint.

"Paige?" she called.

"Yeah," she said, opening the door. "This is so weird. I've got no idea what to do next."

"Neither do I," Phoebe said. "I –" then she noticed a flicker out of the corner of her eye. She looked for a few seconds at what had just flickered . . .

And suddenly Phoebe understood Piper's not wanting to clue them in on what they were looking for. "Come on, Paige," she said. "I need you to coem look at something."

Paige said, "Don't you go getting all dark and mysterious TOO . . ."

"Come on," Phoebe said. "We should check all the rooms up here before we go downstairs."

"If you say so," she said. They looked in Phoebe's room and nothing changed, no unexpected magical influences. Nothing in the bathroom, either. "What were you expecting, a spell on the deodorant?"

"Keep going," Phoebe said resignedly. When Paige looked like she was going to skip the next room, Phoebe said, "No, we need to check everywhere."

"But that's Eve's room," Paige said.

"I know, sweetie," Phoebe said. "I know."



Part 6



When they came downstairs – to the Source (but you can call him Cole)'s relief – both Paige and Phoebe seemed of have shaken off the trance. He hadn't been quite sure how he was going to explain the magical influence around him.

They were both shaken; Phoebe looked grim, but Paige looked like she was going to collapse at any second. "What'd you find?" Piper asked when they both came over to the table.

"You know damn well what we found," Paige said. "My sister isn't real. How could you do that to me? You knew. You ALL knew!"

"I only figured it out about thirty seconds before you did," Phoebe said, squeezing her sister's shoulder.

Paige obviously wasn't in the mood to be consoled, jerking away and sitting down on the chair. "I mean, how couldn't she be real? I mean, I remember the day Mom and Dad brought her home from the adoption agency when I was twelve. I remember – I remember how she cried for hours when they died in the crash – and how she blamed me because I lived through it. I – I remember working my tail off to make sure no one else adopted her. No one took my sister away from me." She looked up in tears. "I remember how despite all of the fighting we do she was so excited when I finally got custody of her. And none of it was real."

"No," Piper said. "It wasn't." The Source looked around the room. Of all of them, Piper seemed to be handling it best; of course, apart from him she'd had the longest head start.

As Paige was starting to look at him a little uneasily – maybe wondering how the hell nonmagical Cole had tumbled to Eve's unreality before anyone else had – the Source said, "Piper, maybe now you should fill us on on the rest of what Buffy told you." Maybe he wouldn't need the information his assistant was gathering after all.

And Piper gave them the detailed history of the Key and what it was, and how neither Dawn Summers nor Eve were completely human. It took maybe five minutes; after it was over, Paige began protesting again, and the Source said, "I'll be back in a second," and made for the bathroom.

Carefully locking the door behind him, he then teleported to his assistant. She had books open in front of her, was surfing the internet with one hand and talking on the phone with the other. When she looked up and saw her boss standing there she said, "Thanks. Gotta go."

"So what do you have?"

She gave him three minutes' worth of information, most of it duplicating what Piper had learned from Buffy. The only new information was about Doc, who'd apparently amassed quite an organization in the last couple of months – most of them being Glorificus' former minions, but a handful of other demons. "Make a note of their names," he told her. "If they survive the next few days, have them killed. Here you can impress me with your inititative."

"The final thing I have," she said, smirking, "isn't directly about the Key, but I think you'll find it helpful."

She handed him a piece of paper. When he looked down, he saw an address. "And this is?"

"A couple of months ago Doc purchased a plot of land right here in San Francisco," she said. "Here's the address."

The Source smiled. "You've earned your salary this week."

Knowing he didn't have much time, he made a quick jaunt into the underworld and handed the slip to the Seer. "In about fifteen minutes or so, pop in and tell us about this," he said.

"I have seen something else," she said. "If you still wish to defeat Glorificus –" a quick nod confirmed that he did – "Then you're going to need the Slayer's help."

"Tell us that too," he said, and popped back into the bathroom to the sound of Phoebe's knocking. "Cole? Did you fall in?"

"Sorry about that," he said when he opened the door. As they walked back towards the dining room he said, "Figure out what to do yet?"

"Guard Eve," Phoebe said. "Find this Doc and vanquish him."

"So . . . you're planning to keep Eve around?" The Source asked.

Phoebe looked at him funny. "Yeah . . . it's not like she's a stray cat. She's a real girl."

"But . . . she ISN'T real," he said. "Not like you and me."

"She is now," Phoebe said firmly.

He could see that further arguing would get him nowhere. Then, noticing Paige's absence from the rrom, he asked where she was.

"Upstairs waking up Eve," Leo said. "We're going to tell her as much of the truth as we can."

"I hope she can take it," Piper said. "She's had a rough few days recently . . . only she hasn't, has she?"

"As far as we're concerned," Phoebe said firmly, "She's just as real as Buffy's sister. Until we – Leo?"

"Paige is calling me," he said worriedly, and orbed upstairs. The other three ran up and found . . .

Eve's bedroom, ransacked.

Paige, lying on the floor, bleeding from a wound to the leg that Leo was healing.

And Eve herself nowhere in sight.

* * * * *

"Do you know anything about the spell they plan on using to bring her back?" Buffy promptly asked.

"It's . . . not a spell, exactly," Mess said. "Some kind of ritual. Doc's a sorcerer, not a witch. It draws directly on some kind of primal energy. That's all I know. I'm not even a sorcerer . . . and the details, I fear, were well beyond me." Damn, this minion spoke slowly.

"Spike?" Buffy asked. "Got anything you want to ask?"

"Yeah, I do," the vampire said. "How many people does he have?"

"A half dozen demons not counting himself and twelve minions. We're really not that good in a fight, though we can be quite . . . . fanatical when it comes to Glorificus."

"Any of the rest got any special powers?" Spike asked pointedly. Damn; Buffy should have thought about that.

"Four of the demons are . . . most ordinary, for demons. The other two possess various powers. One can throw electricity; both can teleport." After a second, when neither Buffy nor Spike said anything. Mess said, "If there's nothing else . . . I do have a business to run. There's a temple to the demon Lao-Seth in Santa Carolita and a Los Angeles couple that would really like to get their daughter back before she starts getting the ritual scarring." Another second. "Don't worry, though. Lao-Seth is long dead . . . this is just a scam run by some satanists who need some quick cash."

"I hadn't been worried," Buffy said suspiciously. "Spike, hold him." As Spike nodded, Buffy ran upstairs. "Willow!" she called out. "Dawn!" They'd gone up to Willow's room to surf.

When Buffy didn't get an answer, she slammed open the door to Willow's room. Willow was there on the bed, groaning; there was a bruise on her face. Dawn was nowhere to be seen. "Damn it to HELL," she said. "Willow, you okay?"

"Give me a second –" Willow said, rubbing her head.

"When you feel better, come fine me," Buffy said, running downstairs before she heard the answer.

Mess was still standing their calmly, Spike ready to pounce if he so much as blinked funny. "What happened?" the vampire asked.

"Dawn's gone," Buffy said.

"Right." Without another word Spike backhanded Mess into the wall. When he tried to get back up, Spike punched him in the stomach. "Is there any reason at all I shouldn't grind this bastard up and use him for mulch?"

"Not a one I can think of," Buffy said grimly.

"W-wait," Mess sputtered out through blood-stained lips. "Everything I told you has been true. Doc said he'd kill me if I didn't find some way to distract you. He's taking her to San Francisco with the Spare." He was talking a lot faster now.

"The Spare? Who the hell's the Spare?"

"That's Doc's name for the new Key. Sorry," Mess said. "He's got this place in San Francisco . . . I don't know the exact address but there's a sizeable colony of wild parrots nearby. The two powerful demons are called Malvolio and Batrius. I'm telling you this in the hopes that you won't kill me, of course."

"You're playing both sides against the middle," Buffy said.

"Exactly," Mess said, seeming relieved, though Buffy had no idea why. "I distracted you so they won't kill me . . . but I really don't want them to win, which is why I've told you all of this."

Buffy nodded. "Fair enough. If Dawn lives, you live. Spike, there should still be some chains in the basement. Make sure he isn't going anywhere, then get back up here."

"What are we doing?"

"Road trip."



Part 7

A little over an hour later, they were in San Francisco. Xander and Tara had come back in right after Buffy hung up, and she hustled everyone out the door after making sure Willow had her laptop and Mess was secure in the basement. "Anything strong enough to break those chains and I'll be glad I wasn't around to get in its way," Spike'd said as they departed.

It had been a bit of a bitch hiding the car, but they'd pulled it off. Leo had had to orb them there in two shifts, and Xander had complained about "transporting" until Buffy told him to knock off the Dr. McCoy imitation, but they made it.

When they orbed, Buffy had expected it to be a bigger deal. Instead, she saw sparkles of white, and the off-road scene vanished to be replaced by the inside of the Charmed Ones' house. Xander, Willow and Tara were already there, Tara in deep discussion with Piper and Willow trying her best to console an obviously upset Paige. Leo was healing Willow of her injuries. Phoebe walked up and said hi, then added, "about ten minutes after Piper hung up we got some information . . . the exact address of somewhere this Doc guy owns." Cole seemed to be a little irritated with Xander about something, and there was a loud and frustrated pounding from the roof. Then she looked at Buffy oddly. "Wasn't Spike supposed to be with you?"

Feeling really stupid, Buffy looked around the room. Spike was nowhere in sight. Damn. The Halliwells had never invited him in. "Is there any quick way to get off the roof?"

"Jumping," Piper said, with a rueful grin on her face. "I completely forgot . . . Spike's a vampire." She yelled up to the roof, "SPIKE! COME IN!"

Leo orbed away, and seconds later was back with a pissed Spike. "What took you so bloody long?" he demanded.

"We were deep in discussion," Buffy said. "Sorry about that."

"

Well," Spike said, clearly in the mood for a fight, "Next time be more careful. Pointy pieces of wood and me don't get along. I might have landed on some weather vane."

"This house doesn't have a weather vane," Phoebe said.

"You get the bloody point," Spike snapped. Then, a bit calmer, he said, "Right. What's going on?"

"We're in share mode at the moment," Buffy said. "This place Doc owns -- is it near a large group of wild parrots?" Buffy asked.

"Huh? Not that I know . . . we have two flocks here, a small one near Delores Park, one around Telegraph Hill. This address is way the hell down in South San Francisco. Why?"

"Information we have from a source. So either he's lying . . . or Doc owns more than one building." Willow took that as her cue and went to plug in her laptop; There was a vague pounding on the roof.

Spike nodded his head. "Doc's got two named demons working for him – " Willow plugged in her computer to the phone jack.

"Really?" Cole said, done with whatever he was saying to Xander.

"Yeah," Spike continued. "One's called Batrius, the other bloke's Malvolio. Never heard of either of them myself."

Shaking his head, Cole said, "I don't know Batrius. Malvolio -- I wouldn't have thought him the type to switch sides. He's a tough customer. Strength, teleportation, and brains. Six feet tall with pale yellow skin, and bald."

"That's the one who attacked me," Willow said. "I wish I knew something more about Doc besides that name."

"Guess we're Book of Shadows bound again, sweetie," Phoebe said to Cole. "We'll check up on Batrius and Doc." Tara asked to join, and Phoebe was a little surprised but said, "Sure, why not."

Grimacing, Cole said, "I'll catch up with you."

"Oh, again?" Phoebe asked, concerned. "Whatever you ate today, don't eat it again." And the three of them walked off.

Buffy looked over and saw Paige, still sitting disconsolately on the couch. "I'm going to see what I can do to help her." She walked over, knelt down and said, "I know what you're going through."

"I don't think you do," Paige said glumly.

"Last year I found out Dawn wasn't real, she found out she wasn't real, AND Glory had her kidnapped," Buffy said. "I think I do."

"Yeah, but with you that took six months," Paige said. "I've found out all this in the last three hours. I'm just glad I'm not catatonic."

"Don't go that route," Buffy said. "It doesn't work." Paige only looked confused. "When – when Glory took Dawn, last year," Buffy explained, "I knew that I'd failed – and I took a vacation from the world for several hours. I was – well, I was convinced Glory was going to win, that Dawn was going to die and it was going to be all my fault. Willow had to throw my stupidity into my face to snap me out of it."

"Why aren't you acting the same way?" Paige asked, almost in a whisper. "Why aren't you convinced this time?"

"Because last time, we won."



* * * * *

The Source (but you can call him Cole) was going to have to come up with a new excuse to pop away. He'd vented some of his frustration by rimming Xander out for what he'd done to Anya -- he still liked the vengeance demon, and Anya had already passed on her side of events.

He also knew what Xander couldn't – Anya had gotten an offer from D'Hoffryn to get her old job back and was very likely to take it. He wouldn't have liked to be Xander then. Or, honestly, ever.

First he told his assistant the names of the two demons and told her to work on finding our if Doc owned anything else in San Francisco. Then he went to check in with the Seer, who was under orders to get whatever she could.

As he rounded a corner in the underworld, he heard an unfamiliar voice in conversation with the Seer. ". . . should be of some help." He quickly shapechanged into the form of a demon he'd met a few years back – the ugliest one he'd ever seen – and walked around the corner.

A weaselly-looking man looked back at him. The Seer was a bit taken aback, but recovered quickly and made like she was going to perform introductions. "Don't bother," he growled. "Who are you?" He was no demon The Source had met before.

"Just your friendly neighborhood agent of balance," he said. "Name's Whistler." He nodded slowly. "And you must be the New Source. Good to meet you. Hope you're saner than the old one."

"Saner but no less evil," the Source said. "Seer –"

"We're all on the same side here," she said with only a slight hint of nervousness. "Whistler wants to stop Glorificus the same as we do."

"Good," he nodded. "then you both get to live." Agents of balance were by and large annoying nuisances, but they had their uses – and killing them brought on a LOT more trouble than it was worth.

Whistler looked at him. "Do you have anything YOU care to pass along right now?"

In answer, the Source threw and released an energy ball, aiming it to deliberately miss. Whistler stood there calmly as the ball tore up the earth at his feet. "I'll take that as a no, then. Be seeing you around." Then he walked off.

The Source looked at the Seer. "Don't talk to him again. Any information I want released, I'll tell you about. Understood?"

"Of course. I have nothing new to report."

Annoyed because this trip had been a waste of time, The Source teleported back to the bathroom and went off to "help Phoebe" look once again in the Book of Shadows.

* * * * *

And so once again Dawn found herself being tossed into a room by one of the bad guys. The first thing she did is try the door – it was unlocked! But as she turned the knob, a voice behind her said, wearily, "Don't bother. It's guarded."

Dawn spun and saw a girl about her own age sitting against the back wall. "Hi," she said. "You're Eve, right?"

The girl said, "Yeah, that's me. Or I thought it was me until a couple of hours ago, when my sister told me I was nothing but a little ball of energy in human form." When Dawn got a closer look at her, she was amazed how much like her she looked. Apart from the black hair and the almost-black eyes they could have been twins.

Dawn laughed bitterly. "I felt the same way. Least your sister had the guts to tell you. I had to break into a magic store to find out."

"So how are you handling it now?" Eve said. "I mean, knowing you're not real?"

"I am real," Dawn said. "Now. And that's all that matters. I don't care about my past, really, because I don't have one. But the future had better watch out."

Gesturing at their captivity, Eve said, "Do you think you have a future?"

Dawn said confidently, "Oh yeah. Your sister, her sisters, my sister – they'll come save us, the bad guys'll have their asses kicked. We'll get to gloat."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," a pleasant voice said from the door. Doc stood there in his dark suit. "And I hope you're not bonding – although it doesn't matter, really, I suppose."

Then he spent some looking back and forth between the two of them until Dawn finally said, "What are you doing?"

And in the same pleasant voice Doc said, "Deciding which one of you to kill first."



Part 8



Phoebe's head was in a whirl from all the demons and other assorted beings she'd learned about in the past couple of hours. Plus there was the whole "I only got fifteen minutes of sleep" thing that was beginning ot catch up with them.

Hmm. Maybe Leo could . . . heal them of their sleepiness? She was fairly sure the argument could be made that they weren't asking selfishly. But as she looked around she didn't notice anyone in danger of collapse. Paige was upset, Cole had his stomach bug and Buffy was in General Patton Mode, but the only signs of sleepiness she noted were a few yawns here and there. So she'd keep it in mind but wouldn't ask yet.

The good thing is she had been able to get Doc's real name, although she couldn't exactly pronounce it. Buffy'd been right; he did own two places in town. One was right by Telegraph Hill, and looked to be an office building; the other one looked like a new construction site.

"Right," Buffy said. "They're at the construction site then."

Piper asked, not unreasonably, "Why do you say that?"

"Because that's where they were last time," Buffy said, also not unreasonably.

"And he what?" Phoebe said. "Bought this other building because he's thinking of going into real estate? I think they're both worth checking out."

"I'm actually going to have to go with the three witches on this one," Xander said. "Doc knows we know where Glory set up last time. It could be a trap."

The conversation went on for five more minutes until Paige screamed. All arguing stopped and everyone turned to look at her. She actually smiled for a half-second when she said, "That felt good. Now. We're working on a deadline here, and at least one of us is going to be useless the minute the sun rises." Spike nodded gratefully at that. "So we can't waste any more time bitching about it. Let's divvy up into teams and MOVE."

Apparently Paige had caught Buffy's General Patton bug, and it didn't really look much better on her than it had on the Slayer. Still, Buffy, Spike, Piper and Leo were headed to the construction site, while she, Paige, Cole and Xander were going to check out the one near Telegraph Hill. Tara and Willow were staying behind to do further research and as emergency reserves in case shit started hitting the fan at either location.

First Leo orbed Buffy, Spike and Piper out; then he came back to help Paige get everyone to Telegraph Hill. As he orbed away Phoebe noticed parrots sleeping nearby in the branches of some trees.

"Okay now," Paige said. "Where are they?"

As it turned out, this "office building" was a converted three-story Victorian that looked to be not only larger than Halliwell Manor but also had a substantial yard. Allegedly, it was the home of a legal firm. The place was quiet from the outside and looked not at all like a den of evil. Phoebe said as much.

"Yeah," Xander said. "Things would be so much easier if the bad guys just had the decency to put up flashing neon signs so we'd know where to find them, but apparently there's union rules against that."

"How'd you guess?" Cole asked.

"So . . ." Xander said. "Do we just break in, or –" Paige, though, was already across the street and up the front stairs of the building. "I guess that answers that –" he started to say to Phoebe, but she and Cole had run to catch up with Paige. "Wait for me!" he called out as he hurried after them.

"You know," Phoebe said, "We're going to feel really embarrassed if this is nothing more than an office building."

"Better us be embarrassed than Eve be dead," Paige said, orbing away. A second later, she opened the door from the inside and said, "Come on."

The first floor was deserted; there was a waiting area, a receptionist's desk, a kitchen/lunchroom and what looked to be a records storage area. No demons, no minions. The second floor was equally deserted, and held a half dozen offices and a bathroom. The stairs to the third floor were blocked off, but when they walked up the stairs the third floor clearly hadn't been used – or dusted – in about six months. A few irritated bats was all they shook loose.

As they walked downstairs Cole – after one more stop in the bathroom – came out and said, "Let's check to see if this place has a basement."

It did. There were a half dozen minions down there and a couple of demons.

All dead, burned to a crisp.

"What the hell?" Phoebe asked.

Xander said, "See, this is what happens when you play with matches."

"We know the . . . bad guys aren't interested in Glorificus coming back either," Cole said. "Maybe one of them did this?"

"In which case I say, yippee bad guys," Xander said. "And look, they were even nice enough to leave some papers behind." There were some smoldering plans on the wall.

Phoebe took a closer look. One of them was of the construction site down in South San Francisco, but the other one – "Everyone, take a look at this," she said. "See if you come to the same conclusion I do."

Paige, Xander and Cole crowded around. Paige said, "There wasn't anything going on here and it doesn't look like anything's planned for the construction site either. This place was where they holed up. I think these guys were just bait. Eve's not here, and she's not there either. Neither's Dawn."

"They're digging in the wrong place," Xander said.

* * * * *

Dawn didn't miss a beat. She snapped back, "Eeny, meeny, miney, moe. God! I learned that in kindergarten."

Doc smiled once again. "Your scorn aside, Miss Summers, I truly do have other concerns. Randomness will simply not do. My choice between the Key and the Spare is dictated by logic and other magical concerns." He closed his eyes for a moment, looking first at Dawn, then at Eve. "Ah. That solves it, then. See you later."

"Aren't you going to tell us who you're going to kill first?" Eve demanded.

"Why . . . no," he said, and left.

"What was that about the Key and the Spare?" Eve asked.

"I'm the Key," Dawn said. "I guess that means you're the Spare. I don't know what that means about his choice, though."

"Great,"" Eve grumbled. "Not only am I not real, I'm a living photocopy of someone else. I mean, you have to know how much we look alike."

"So?" Dawn said. "We were both made by the same spell. Only makes sense we'd look alike. But your history – it has to be different from mine."

"It is," Eve said. "My natural parents died in a fire when I was three and I was adopted by the Matthews a year later.. It was great. New family, new last name, new, cool older sister. Dad taught me all about sports – Paige didn't care about them, but I'm a real sportsgeek. And I loved Mom. Me and Paige were as close as we could be – I mean, seeing how different we were agewise. I was a tag-along but she didn't care. It was cool, right? Even when she was drinking we were tight."

Dawn was nodding. "So what happened? How'd you end up here?"

Eve hugged herself. "My parents died, again. And Paige went nuts. In a good way, all responsible and crap. I gave her hell and she put up with it, keeping me around, y'know? We weree mongoose and cobra the way we fought, but she worked her ass off to make sure she could stay with me. And it was okay until we moved into the Halliwell freakshow."

"Don't get along with them?"

"Actually, I love Piper . . . and I like Cole too much for my own good. But now it was like she had a family again . . . and I was just this annoying tagalong."

"Sounds rough."

"It was . . ." Eve said, then shook her head. "Or I thought it was." The last words were as bitter as anything Dawn'd heard in a long time.

Dawn sighed. "It's going to take you a while. It took me a while. Now – "

"Now?" Eve asked.

"Now I'm thinking we try to get out of here," Dawn said. "Any idea where here is? I didn't really get a good look before the demon threw me in."

"I didn't get a much better one . . . but I know where we are. I'm a big football fan -- and, you know, they changed the name because of the damn money, but far as I'm concerned this'll always be Candlestick."



Part 9



The Source (but you can call him Cole) was going to have to come up with a different excuse to pop away; one more "trip to the bathroom" and he suspected Phoebe'd be hauling him off to the doctor tomorrow.

He hadn't actually meant to kill all of the demons and lesser beings downstairs; he'd meant to leave one or two alive to be interrogated. On some level, he still didn't know his own strength.

Still, neither Batrius, Doc, nor Malvolio had been there, which had left it as unequal a fight as human vs. ant, and this DID leave two fewer lesser demons for them to have to contend with.

He'd managed to squeeze in a thirty-second trip to visit the Seer along the way, who'd said she'd seen a huge battle taking place in a large enclosed grassy area, not long in the future. These were more visions than she typically got in a week; he reminded himself to give her a raise once they were done. His assistant, too.

Anyway, Xander was right in his annoying pop culture way: Both groups were digging in the wrong place. Neither site fit the description of a "large enclosed grassy area." He was having a hard time thinking of anyplace in the city that did. And sure, he supposed that Doc could have packed them up to Outer Mongolia, or the bottom of Challenger Deep for that matter, but that wouldn't fit the multiple indications that a confrontation was coming.

There was nothing else in the office that would help them. Nothing he noticed, nothing anyone else noticed. Because Paige couldn't transport them at all at once, they hoofed it outside and she orbed off to get in touch with Leo.

He sighed. Nothing to do but wait. Sometimes being the Source wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

* * * * *

They'd actually teleported in about a block away from the construction site – no sense letting the bad guys know you were coming – and hoofed it the rest of the way.

Buffy'd expected to see something like the half-finished building that Glory had used in Sunnydale; what she got –

She looked up. And up. And up some more. The building must have been at least forty stories tall. "What's the matter?" Piper asked. "Never seen a tall building before?"

"They don't grow 'em that big in Sunnydale," Spike said. "Last thing Glory used as a prop was about one-tenth that size."

"Can anyone even SEE if there's anyone lingering around the upper floors?" Buffy asked. "I'm the Vampire Slayer, not Superman."

"I can do better than that," Leo said, orbing away. When he came back ten seconds later he said, "There's some kind of set-up up there, all right – and a couple of guys with gray skins standing around. I took off before they could do anything, but they did see me."

"That's okay, sweetie," Piper said. "We weren't in total stealth mode. And besides, they're forty stories up. What can they do?"

A rain of bricks answered that question, followed by a jackhammer that narrowly missed Spike's head.

As they ran closer to the building, Buffy looked at Piper and said, "You know better than that."

"I should have," she muttered. "Remind me not to comment on the lack of rain." When they reached cover they were confronted by five minions and two demons who'd apparently been running to see what the hell was going on out there. "That's Batrius," the witch added. "The one on the left."

"Any special powers?" Buffy asked as everyone stood around and gaped.

"Fire, strength, and he's a hell of a fighter."

"Perfect," she said. "Try to leave one of them alive, would you?"

And then the fight began. Batrius roared and threw a ball of flame at them. Leo orbed out of the way, picked up a two-by-four, and started clocking minions over the head whenever he got a free shot. Piper froze two minions before she was jumped by the other demon; Spike pulled it off her a few seconds later.

Meanwhile, Buffy was busy slugging it out with Batrius. Piper hadn't been kidding; this was a demon who knew fighting techniques. Most of them just relied on their strength and abilities, but Batrius had picked up some martial arts skills along the way and wasn't afraid to use them.

They traded blows until Batrius shoved her away and came up with another handful of fire. Throwing herself to the ground, Buffy could feel the fireball's heat as it passed over her, setting a pile of lumber on fire.

Batrius began to conjure up more fire; Buffy sprang forward and tackled him. The fire died where it was and they rolled around on the ground, knocking over a bucket and crashing into a wall. Recovering a split second before Buffy did, Batrius threw her away; she landed on her back.

The rest of the battle was going fairly well; the minions were dead or frozen, and Spike seemed to have his opponent under control. Leo was healing Piper of a couple of scrapes and bruises.

As Buffy got up, Batrius drew back his hand and drew a bead on Leo and Piper. Knowing that the witch would never be able to recover in time and either freeze or blow up the demon, Buffy grabbed the bucket and slammed it down over his outstretched hand right as he was about to hurl his flame.

The fireball exploded inside the bucket and the demon started screaming in pain. Two punches and he was down for the count, and the fight was over.

"Well," Spike said. "Seems to me we've got ourselves a multiplicity of these bastards. So what say we pick one to grill and slaughter the rest?"

"Batrius would know the most," Buffy said. "Most of the minions would cheerfully die rather than give up anything if it meant enhancing the chances of bringing Glory back."

"Yeah," Piper muttered, "But he'll teleport out of here the second he's conscious again. That guy," and she pointed to the one Spike had beaten, "He's probably our best bet."

"Works for me," Buffy said. "But the minions – let's just get them out of the way. Anywhere you haven't orbed to in a while that doesn't have a whole lot of phones?"

"On it," Leo said, and he gathered the startled minions together as Piper unfroze them, orbed away, and came back. "They're going to be hanging out with the musk oxen a while," he said. "I dumped them off somewhere inside the Arctic Circle."

Piper, meanwhile, had blown Batrius to bits. Fortunately, he wasn't immune to that power.

Then Buffy had a thought. "They're not here," she said. "Not yet, anyway."

"Why do you say that?" Piper asked.

"Not enough of a fight," Spike said. "Should've run into a couple dozen of the minions at least, plus ALL of the demons, not just Batrius and this bloke."

"Unless they're waiting somewhere in the forty stories above us," Leo said.

Buffy shook her head. "We'd be under attack already, and except for that little hail of bricks and the jackhammer we haven't seen evidence of anyone else here. Still – Leo, could you get me up to the top floor?"

A few seconds later Buffy and Leo were on the roof of the place. A platform similar to the one Dawn had been bled from stuck off a nearby girder. Buffy walked over, lay down on the beam, and pounded the platform with her fist until it sailed off into the night. "LOOK OUT BELOW," she yelled, though it didn't look like it was going to land anywhere near Spike or Piper.

When she stood up again there were two minions approaching her. Buffy said, "You know me, you know what I can do. Get the hell off this building as fast as you can or," she looked meaningfully over the edge, "I'll send you off as fast as I can."

The minions skedaddled; Buffy took Leo in tow and carefully followed them all the way down, keeping an eye out for anyone else lingering in the framework just in case. No one showed up, and the two minions hit the ground running and took off from there. For all Buffy knew they'd be back as soon as the four of them left, but at least they wouldn't be subjected to scattered brick showers.

"Feel like the scenic route?" Piper asked.

Before Buffy could answer, Paige orbed in next to them. "We're ready if you are," she said.

"We're ready," Buffy said.

Within a few minutes they were back home and it was time for an interrogation.



Part 10



The Source (but you can call him Cole) was thrilled to see that the other group had managed to capture one of their enemies. He determined to worm Doc's location out of the demon so he wouldn't have to have the Seer pop in again. Twice was fine, but he couldn't appear too cooperative with her or Paige might get even more suspicious than she already was.

Or was she, with the universe changed the way it had been? He'd noticed some definite changes in her character since Eve had popped into existence. She seemed . . . more irritable. Moodier. And a lot more distractable. With any luck, she'd been so concerned about her sister that she hadn't had time to develop the same suspicions. She still seemed not to like him much, but that had been true even back during his human days.

Of course, it wasn't like he could just say, "Excuse me, Paige, do you still think I'm evil?" He'd have to keep an eye on things and be a lot more subtle.

Meanwhile, that was another excellent reason to make certain that Doc never got the chance to resurrect Glorificus. With Eve commanding her sister's attention, that might leave the field clearer for him, Phoebe, and that offspring he hoped like hell was growing inside her.

The demon was conscious, bound head to toe, and surly as hell. About five and a half feet tall with gray skin and long teeth, he hadn't been a full worshipper of Glorificus; he'd been working for her hoping that when things shook out he'd wind up a lot more powerful than he currently was. His name was (of all things) Yancy. That right there proved he wasn't a demonic power. No self-respecting demon would be caught dead with a name like that.

And unfortunately, while he was surly and not as devoted as some followers of the would-be Hellgod, he wasn't feeling very cooperative either. "If I talk, they'll kill me – unless you kill me first. And there's nothing else you could offer me to get me to give up the information."

"How about a one-way ride anywhere in the world?" Leo offered.

"They'd find me," Yancy answered. "Some of the minions were as far away as Sri Lanka. Doc has some way of tracking them down. One Frenner demon shouldn't be a problem."

"Unless he was dead too," Buffy said.

Yancy laughed bitterly. "I'm not going to trust you guys to win. No offense. Bur I'm dead no matter what I do, and I'd rather die keeping my word."

"Great," PAige said. "A demon with morals." She walked over and shook the demon by the shoulders. "WHERE'S MY SISTER?!"

The Source sighed, figuring he was going to have to get involved. But before he could get threatening, Willow told Paige, "Let me have a shot." She turned her head and to everyone behind her she mouthed, "Follow my lead." Then, sticking her head close enough that Yancy could have bitten it off if he'd been inclined to – give Willow credit for guts -- she said, "Let me put it this way. You have five witches, a Whitelighter, a vampire slayer, a vampire, and an ex-demon here."

"And me," Xander said hesitantly.

"And Xander. I'm not even going to TELL you what he is."

Phoebe sidled up to the Source. "He is a normal human, right?" she murmured. Willow began to run through some of the nastier spells she'd read about. Everyone else in the room knew she'd promised not to do any more magic, but Yancy didn't know that. The Source cursed the day Willow had run into that bastard Rack; it sounded like Willow could have been a powerful force for his side. He made a mental note to have the warlock murdered.

"As far as I know," he said, answering his wife's wuestion. "Of course, normal humans can be dangerous too. He might burn him with a witticism."

Phoebe shot him an annoyed look but said nothing. Willow was winding up,. ". . . and if THAT's not good enough – Spike?"

"Yeah, Red?" Spike seemed very amused. Maybe if he'd been paying attention the Source would know why.

"Why don't you explain to Yancy here exactly how you got your nickname?"

And this Spike proceeded to do for about five minutes, in detail so graphic Piper, Leo and Tara had to leave the room. When he was done the Source said, "I'm impressed," and meant it.

"Well," Spike said as Willow leaned back in. "I didn't have a lot of fancy powers like you types. I had to get creative."

"I wouldn't exactly say I was soft," the Source said. Willow next invited Buffy to say a few words.

"Who's saying soft?" Spike asked. "I'm saying short on imagination. You got a glowy red ball to solve all your problems, you don't have to use your brains so much. Me, you gave me those powers, I'd refuse 'em. A while back I had something called the Gem of Amarra. With it, vampires don't get tired, they can't be hurt, really. I was going to use it to get revenge on the Slayer."

"And you decided not to?" Piper, Leo and Tara crept back into the room, but hearing Buffy's tales of revenge on her enemies crept right back out again.

Spike laughed. "Hell no. Do I look stupid? I beat the holy hell out of her until she managed to rip the gem off my hand."

"Maybe you should have had it implanted," the Source said. "Harder to rip that way?"

Spike glowered. "Next time I'll keep that in mind. Anyway, if I'd killed the Slayer I think I'd have kept the Gem around so I could go out in the daytime every once in awhile, but I would have taken it off sometimes too. Because if I'm invulnerable, if no one can hurt me, where's the fucking challenge? Where's the fun in that?"

"I'll keep that in mind," the Source echoed back. "On the off chance I'm ever offered Superman's powers."

Again Spike laughed. "You don't want Superman's powers, mate. Remember, he had kryptonite."

The Source stole an uneasy look at Phoebe. "So I've heard."

* * * * *

Buffy was done with telling Yancy what she'd do to him; now Willow invited Cole to do the same thing. Cole broke off a conversation he was having with Spike and knelt so he could look the demon straight in the eyes.

He smiled and shook his head . "I can't do any of those things to you," he said calmly. "I don't have my powers any more. Oh, sure, I could slap you around a bit – and don't think I wouldn't enjoy that – but after what Buffy and Spike have said THEY could do to you, that's got to seem like pretty small potatoes. Am I right?" His voice remained amiable and friendly throughout, though there was a definite dark undercurrent there. Cole used his hundred years as a demon well.

Yancy said, "Yes –" which was the first word he'd said since the interrogation started.

"I thought so," he continued. "But even as a former demon I have connections. You know that, right? I know people who know demons who know some pretty powerful forces of evil. You know there's rumors of a new Source, right?"

Cole's head was no more than a foot away from Yancy's by this point; terrified, the demon nodded.

"Well, I can tell you unequivocally those rumors are true." Paige, Phoebe, and the recently returned Leo and Piper exchanged worried looks. "And if you're afraid of what THEY'RE going to do to you," he said, "Imagine what HE'LL do to you if you don't tell."

"Okay, okay!" Yancy said, eyes still riveted to Cole. "I'll talk."

"So talk," Piper said. "Where is Doc holding Eve and Dawn?"

"3Com," Yancy said. Then, recognizing Buffy's confusion, said, "Candlestick?"

"The football stadium?" Xander asked. "No, that can't be right. Even if this is the offseason there'd still be people there."

"All he needs is one night," Yancy gasped out. "Do you think he's afraid of killing off a few security guards? All he needs is a big open space where people won't be able to see him."

"Inside a football stadium certainly qualifies," Cole said. "How many people does he have there with him?"

"No PEOPLE," Yancy said. "Five more demons like me, a bigshot named Malvolio, and two or three dozen minions, plus The Key and The Spare."

"My sister has a name," Paige said. "Use it."

Yancy shrugged as best as he could in his bonds. "I don't know their names, I don't care. What time is it?"

Buffy looked up at the clock. "2:47 AM."

"You'd better hurry, then; the resurrection's scheduled in 13 minutes."



Part 11



Somewhere, somewhen, on a vast field, Whistler faced his superiors.

Being forces of neutrality, they appeared exactly as the perceiver believed they'd appear. In Whistler's case that meant he saw them as a couple of old men on a seesaw. He thought of them as Lefty and Righty; not exactly imaginative, but they'd never shared their real names. Or their titles, either. Privately, he called them the Lords of Balance, but for all he knew they called themselves Libra or Those Who Keep Order or The Two Mighty Beings of Ultimate Neutrality. Or Bert and Ernie.

"We've been monitoring the Glorificus situation," Lefty said when he reached the highest point.

"I've been running myself ragged trying to make sure everything balances out," Whistler said. "I mean, yeah, you may see this devil-may-care façade, but it's a lot of work."

"It is still in an unbalance," Righty said. Lefty'd spoken six words, so he spoke six words.

This was a surprise. "Are you sure?" Whistler asked.

"We are certain," Lefty said. "Now the unbalance is different."

"Different, how?" was Whistler's obvious question.

"It has shifted sides, from good to evil," Righty said. The seesaw moved in time to their words.

"The balance must be restored."

"Our neutrality must be maintained."

"Good must win out."

"But not so quickly."

Whistler wanted to be sure he was hearing this right. "So you want me to slow the victory down?"

"Precisely."

"Exactly."

"If good triumphs too soon, a disequilibrium will be created."

"A disequilibrium which will lead to utter and complete chaos."

Whistler interrupted; if these two got going, they'd be at it all night. "And chaos would be bad for everyone. Yeah, I get it. What do you suggest I do?"

Lefty seemed almost offended. "We don't make those suggestions."

"It's all up to you," Righty added.

"You're good at that."

"You have the power."

Whistler sighed. "What, SPECIFICALLY, needs to happen?" They told him. "You're kidding," he said.

"We don't have a sense of humor," Lefty said.

"So 'kidding' is not in our nature."

"Goodbye, Whistler."

"Good luck."

Whistler closed his eyes and found himself back on Earth. Damn. This wasn't fair.

Well, in the long run, sure it was. But in the short run?

Damn.

* * * * *

The door slammed open and Doc walked in, flanked by a half dozen minions. "Bring them," he said.

Neither Dawn nor Eve struggled . . . until they got out onto a main walkway. Having jointly agreed that they might as well run for it when they got the chance, Dawn screamed and the two girls scrambled off in opposite directions.

Their bout with freedom lasted maybe thirty seconds. As Dawn rounded a curve, she ran smack into the same demon with pale yellow skin who kidnapped her. When he brought her back to Doc, he said, in the same perky tone he said damn near everything, "Malvolio is one of Glorificus' most powerful converts. He has proven . . . most useful in the past. Malvolio, if you would?"

The demon strode forward and picked up first Dawn and then Eve, one under each arm, with about as much effort as it would have taken Dawn to pick up a loaf of bread. As he carried them down to the field, Eve simply glared at Dawn. "I told you this wasn't going to work," she said.

"Come now, little Spare," Doc said. "I would have been disappointed if the two of you hadn't tried something."

"AND STOP CALLING ME SPARE!" Eve shrieked. "I have a name! Use it!"

"I created you," he said. "I think that entitles me to certain privileges, don't you?" They began to walk through a long tunnel.

Dawn said, "Whoa, whoa. YOU created her?"

"Of course," Doc said. "Who else would have done it?"

"I thought there could only be one Key at a time."

Doc laughed. "It took me six months to find the spell those monks used in your creation. Once I did so . . . I could have called any number of Keys into existence and attached them to powers of Good. But why waste the time? Glorificus is, after all, waiting."

Nothing else was said until they reached the center of the field. Dozens of other minions milled about, putting the finishing touches on some kind of raised platform. There were five humans on it, bound, gagged and terrified.

Malvolio plopped them down and Doc said, "Don't go anywhere."

"Like we could," Eve said..

"True," Doc said amiably as he walked off towards the center of the platform. There was some kind of hole there, about ten feet across; Dawn couldn't see more from where she was standing.

Then she realized Eve had just asked her a question. "Sorry, didn't hear you," she said.

"I said," and she pointed to the other captives, "How'd they get dragged into this?"

"They're food," Dawn said bitterly.

"Ewwww," Eve said. "That is so extremely gross. The minions eat –"

"No," Dawn said. "You don't get it. Those are food for Glory. She sucks brains. That's how convinced they are that she's coming back."

* * * * *

The first thing Phoebe did when Cole backed away from their captive was say, "About that New Source thing . . ."

"Total bluff," he said, laughing. "I just thought, being a demon, he'd be more afraid of that than he would any of us." After a pause. "Even if Buffy, Spike and Willow were coming up with some really good ways to cause pain."

Oddly, for someone willing to be so graphic in her imagined tortures, Buffy seemed to have moral qualms about killing helpless victims. So instead she had Leo orb Yancy to somewhere in the Serengeti. When the Whitelighter came back he grumbled, "Someone needs to tell Buffy I'm more than just a taxi service."

"What's the matter?" Cole asked. "She didn't give you a big enough tip?"

Leo gave him a mock glare and they got ready to go. No one was staying behind this time, though Cole, Xander and Willow were going to do their best to stay away from the big guns.

They decided to orb into somewhere in the stands to avoid getting caught up in whatever spell was going on down on the field. Buffy, Spike and Piper were going in first as a quick-strike team; then Leo was going to come back, get Paige, and bring everyone else along.

They didn't have a lot of time for formalities, though they did drag an sword for Buffy out of storage. "If I'd thought of it," Buffy said, "I would have brought Olaf's hammer here."

"Wait a second," Paige said, sticking out her hands. "Olaf's Hammer!" Within moments, a large metallic hammer orbed in . . . and Paige, holding it, fell flat on her face. "Heavier than I thought," she muttered sheepishly as she stood up.

"Don't feel too bad," Buffy said, picking the hammer up. "Olaf was about seven feet tall. I'm lucky I can use the thing." She spun it in her hands. "Sure was a lot of help against Glory, though."

"How did you get a troll's hammer?" Piper asked.

"I beat up a troll," Buffy answered.

And then it was time for them to orb away. They only had nine minutes, so they were cutting it closer than they would have liked.

But as Leo began to orb to the stadium . . .

It became obvious something was wrong. The orbing never stopped. It changed color, for the first time Phoebe could remember, from white to a pale gold to the darkest yellow Phoebe had ever seen, and then Leo was back alone.

He promptly collapsed. Within seconds, he rolled into a sitting position, holding his head. "What happened?" Paige demanded.

"I ran into something," he said, gasping for breath. "Some kind of shield. I – I lost Buffy, Spike and Piper. I think they made it through, but I couldn't tell you where they landed."

Cole and Xander hefted him to his feet and got him to the couch. Paige immediately asked, "Where was this shield?"

Leo looked like he was on the verge of passing out. "Right around the stadium. I think." After a second. "I'm okay, by the way."

"Good." She looked at Phoebe. "Sis, you're with me." She grabbed Phoebe's hand.

"Can you handle the both of us?" Phoebe demanded.

"We're about to find out."

They orbed away.



Part 12



Okay now, Buffy had only gone orbing a couple of times before, but she was fairly sure the end process didn't involve plummeting twenty feet.

Twisting in midair – she had maybe a couple of seconds to get this right – she somehow managed to straddle a couple of seats and land on her feet. Quickly, she reached out and caught Piper before she too crashed into the seats – falling over as she did so, but at least she cushioned the blow – and after making sure she wasn't badly injured, looked around for Spike and Leo. Olaf's hammer crashed into seats a few feet away. The sound reverberated throughout the stadium.

Spike was a few feet behind her; he hadn't managed to land on his feet but he didn't seem hurt. There was no Leo in sight. As they untangled, Piper asked, "What just happened?" Then, noticing that her husband hadn't joined them, she said, "And where's Leo?"

"You're asking me?" Buffy said. "You're the one who's used to this. Has Leo ever not shown up before?"

Worriedly, Piper shook her head. "No. And – did you notice things got yellow for a second? That's never happened before either."

Before Buffy could answer, Spike said, "I understand you worrying about your husband and all, but we've got about eight minutes to stop a hellgod. Could we worry later?"

"No, we can't worry later," Piper snapped. "But there's nothing I can do about it without running all the way back home. So let's get down there and stop the resurrection."

Out on the field, there was some kind of platform about fifty feet across, with a hole in the middle. A quick headcount showed Buffy there were thirty minions, six demons, plus Doc and some yellow-skinned monstrosity she assumed was Malvolio. Several of them seemed to be coming in their general direction. Eve and Dawn were standing at the edge of the platform, and in the hole – "Piper, do you recognize that?"

There was a distortion in the hole, like they were looking at it through extreme heat. "No clue, but I'm betting that's where they're going to be pulling Glory from. Now come on. We have to get down onto the field and fight our way through that crowd, and we're not going to have any backup."

Buffy picked up the hammer and they ran back through the stadium. "I hope you've been here before," she said. "Because I have no clue."

"I know where I'm going," Piper said. "We're not going to have much of an element of surprise no matter how we go about this; let's at least get as good a running start as we can."

A couple of minutes later they were charging down through the stands, on a bit of an off angle from where they'd landed in the upper deck. Most of the minions and demons were aiming for another entrance so when they vaulted the railing and ended up on the stadium grass they got a fair distance towards the platform before they had to start fighting.

Piper blew up the first minions that charged in, but she couldn't get all of them. To Buffy's surprise, she turned out to be a perfectly competent hand-to-hand combatant – she'd had some training, if not Buffy's strength or depth.

Around a half dozen minions and a couple of the demons stayed with Doc up on the platform; everyone else in the stadium was coming at them hard. Buffy was knocking down minions right and left with the hammer, but they weebled, wobbled, and came right back at her.

Spike wound up fighting some demon she'd never seen before in her life; he was about seven feet tall with human-colored skin, but ears the size of an elephant's. Skinny but faster than Buffy would have thought, he was proving a formidable opponent –

Right at the time they damn well didn't need any formidable opponents. If it wasn't for the hammer, even with the raw power they had there they'd have been overwhelmed; as it was they weren't making any progress.

Buffy could hear Dawn shout, "Buffy!" as Doc began to chant and a liquid light appeared in the vicinity of the platform's hole. Grimly, all three combatants pressed harder at their enemies, trying desperately to clear a path.

They'd make it.

They'd make it.

Wouldn't they?

* * * * *

Dawn's heart leapt for a second as she saw Buffy, Spike and Piper come down through the stands. Beside her, Eve's face betrayed similar emotions.

"Don't get too excited," Doc said, and sent pretty much his entire force out to stop them. "It's only a few moments now. Malvolio, hold them, please?" He bent down and picked up a long sword with a glowing green gem in the hilt.

The giant yellow demon put one arm on each of them. The arms just kind of lay there, but Dawn was pretty sure if she or Eve decided to break for it again Malvolio was quite capable of shoving them through the platforms before they could take a step.

In the distance, the battle was going badly. Buffy wasn't losing, but she wasn't winning. "Don't worry," Doc said as he smeared his face with some kind of paint. "It won't be long."

"If you're trying to look like Braveheart you're doing a really sucky job of it," Eve snarled.

"Not my intention," Doc said amiably as he coated the sword with something. "But thanks for the fashion critique." Then he walked over by the edge of the hole and said, "Alimentazioni di tempo e di spazio! Apra questo percorso alla sostanza principale!"

Dawn shouted, "BUFFY!"

And the hole began to radiate light, a bright liquid light oozing and pulsating, moving in a slow spiral. "Alimentazioni di luci ed ombre!" he once again said. "Accetti questa offerta! Lascilo modellare e modellare la sostanza principale! Lascilo chiamata indietro Glorificus la dia!"

The light began to flow towards Doc, hovering there. The sorcerer demon held out the sword, looked in their direction and said, "Now, Malvolio!"

And Malvolio shoved Eve straight at the point of the sword.

* * * * *

Paige and Phoebe orbed in about a block or so from 3Com. They hadn't had any trouble at all. Paige took off running the second the orbing ended, leaving Phoebe to tag after her. Phoebe was in much better shape, but she couldn't catch up with her younger sister.

They ran around the edge of the stadium until they found a door. Rearing back and using all her strength and magic, Phoebe kicked the door in. Sprinting through the stadium, they ran across a couple of dead guards but no one else' apparently everyone was out on the field.

A minute or so later, they hit the field at a dead run. At the other end, dozens of demons and minions were fighting Buffy, Piper and Spike; on a raised stage-like thing in the middle of the field, Doc was chanting in Italian, and there was some kind of light show going on.

A couple of the minions who were still standing up there saw them and came rushing at them. Phoebe took them both down with one punch, making sure neither got in Paige's way.

The ritual almost seemed to be done. Paige redoubled her speed, Phoebe just behind her. They were no more than five feet from the platform when on the stage, Doc said, ". . . Lascilo chiamata indietro Glorificus la dia!" and then, holding out a sword, "Now, Malvolio!" And the demon threw Eve forward.

Right onto the blade, which Doc brought downwards as hard as he could.

At the same time, Dawn and Paige shrieked, "NO!"

As Eve screamed, green energy came pouring out and collided with the fluid light. "Li modello Glorificus!"

The energy and light mixed and coagulated, glowing bright enough that Phoebe had to shield her eyes.

When the light faded, a hand appeared over the edge of the hole.

Malvolio walked over, reached down and pulled a blonde woman in a tight red dress onto the platform. The one Phoebe'd seen in her premonition earlier that night.

Glorificus.

The goddess looked around, snorted and said, "Well, it's about damn time."



Part 13



The Source (but you can call him Cole) was worried.

He had no way of getting to the stadium – at least, nothing realistic – that wouldn't give his identity away. Of course, his simple presence there would more or less give it away.

In the kitchen, Leo was eating to try to recover his strength, munching down handfuls of dry cereal. He was also still a little woozy from whatever he'd run into; it had been the Whitelighter equivalent of getting cracked over the head by a baseball bat.

The Source HAD managed a quick trip back to the underworld, but neither his assistant nor the Seer had had anything to do with the shield. He told the assistant to give up on Eve for the moment and try to figure out what she could about the shield. Instinct told him Doc had set it up, but he wanted to be sure someone else hadn't decided to get into the game.

Meanwhile, Tara, having gotten as much information from Leo as she could, was working on researching the shield spell. Not being familiar with the Book of Shadows, she was having a rougher go than any of the Charmed Ones would have but seemed to be slowly figuring out how to use the thing. Willow was looking on the computer – it seemed like that was what she did when things got rough now that magic was off her menu – and Xander was pacing.

And pacing.

And pacing.

Until finally the Source stuck out his hand and said, "Cut it out."

"I want to DO something," the boy said.

"Well, so do I," the Source answered. "But you don't see me wearing a hole into the floor."

"Of course not," Xander said. "You're an ex-demon. Probably got some kind of supernatural patience thing going."

"Xander," he said irritably. "You would test a saint's patience and I," he grabbed the boy by the collar, "Am far from a saint."

Jerking free, Xander said, "Just take a swing. Give me an excuse. You've been ragging me all night and I'm getting a little tired of it." Of course, the Source could kill him easier than snapping his fingers, but he didn't feel like exposing his true nature then and there.

Besides, he knew he could wipe the floor with him in a fair fight, anyway.

Willow said, "Xander, Cole, knock it off. You don't want to see me get cranky."

They both stepped back. Somewhat lamely, Xander said, "Well, he has."

For what seemed like the first time that night, Tara spoke. "I've noticed that too, actually. Why are you so angry at Xander, Cole?"

The Source said, "Anya. I know what happened with the wedding. It kind of pissed me off."

Willow said patiently, "And so you decide to give him grief about it in the middle of a crisis?"

The Source reminded himself to calm down. Cole's influence was showing far too strongly, even if he was fond of Anyanka. Better not to antagonize anyone or raise any further suspicions by being too much of an asshole. "You're right."

When he didn't say anything else, Xander prompted, "And?"

"And what?" he asked. "I'm not saying what I said was wrong, just that the timing was. I don't owe any apologies."

More silence, then Tara said, "I wonder what's taking so long."

* * * * *

During the ritual, everyone had been paralyzed; of all of them, Piper recovered first, freezing the entire mass of minions in front of her. She charged towards the platform, Buffy close behind. Spike lingered to break every minion's neck within reach.

On the other side of the platform, Paige stood there, unmoving. Phoebe shook her a couple times, then yelled in her ear, "PAIGE!"

She shook her head and said, "What?"

"Let's go. We can still save Dawn. And we need to make sure Glorificus doesn't unleash her hell on earth."

"Dawn." Then she closed her eyes and said. "Right. We'll save Dawn. After all, Eve was just the Spare, right? She didn't really exist. As long as we stop Glorificus, everything's fine, right?"

"I understand you're upset –"

"You," Paige said angrily, "don't understand ANYTHING."

Without another word she strode towards the platform, her eyes flashing with anger.

Doc, meanwhile, hadn't been standing still. Quickly, he'd guided the newly resurrected Glorificus to the five people tied up on the platform, where she'd stuck her hands into two of their skulls. "And now," she said, looking at the angry quartet coming at her, "For the main course."

"Apologies, Glorificus," Doc said, "You're nowhere near as strong as you think you are. Not yet. Malvolio!"

Malvolio raised his hands and lowered them –

And with that gesture everyone on the platform vanished.

The next thing everyone heard was Spike swearing. "Dammit to bloody hell –"

Buffy turned and said, "Not now, Spike." But she could see why he was angry. All the minions left alive had also vanished, leaving them with a dozen corpses and no one to interrogate.

Spike said, "I don't see a better time."

Buffy hopped onto the platform, pulling Piper up after her; Spike hurried to catch up. On the other side, Phoebe and Paige did likewise. The expression on Paige's face was murderous.

When she got to the hole in the center, Buffy looked down. Nothing there, at least nothing like there'd been a few minutes earlier. Even the sides of the hole weren't singed.

She looked up and saw Paige walking directly towards her. "What we need to do," Buffy said. "Is look around and see—"

Paige punched her.

Startles, Buffy said,. "What –"

Paige punched her again. "You lied to me," she said, drawing back her hand.

Buffy grabbed her arm. "Okay, you're upset. Those two are on the house. Try it again and you'll be spending the rest of the night unconscious."

"What are you doing?" Phoebe asked.

"She lied to me," Paige said. "She LIED to me!" Tears began to run down her cheek. "She lied to me . . ."

Phoebe hugged Paige; Piper asked Buffy, "Do you have any idea what she's talking about?"

"Not a clue," Buffy said.

"You promised me we'd win," Paige said. "You promised me we'd beat Glorificus. You said you'd been through this before." She pulled away from Phoebe's embrace and looked at Buffy. "YOU DIDN'T TELL ME SHE WAS GOING TO DIE."

"I didn't know," Buffy said. "Paige, you have no idea how sorry I am this happened. I'd give almost anything for Eve not to have died. But – "

"But you can't afford to break down now, sweetie," Piper continued. "That anger you've got towards Buffy? Channel it towards Doc. HE'S the one who did this."

"I know," Paige said. "But . . . could you give me a minute?"

And there was silence throughout the stadium, except for the sound of Paige Matthews crying.

* * * * *

Whistler turned away from his view of 3Com Park and went back to visit his superiors. Their expressions seemed colder, more distant, than they had before.

As the seesaw rocked back and forth, Righty said, "Well done."

"Nice job," Lefty added unnecessarily.

Whistler asked, "Why?"

"We told you why this needed to be done."

"Good's early triumph would have brought unneeded imbalance."

"Her death was necessary."

"Unfortunate, lamentable, but necessary."

"Okay, then," Whistler said. "If why wasn't the right question, how about how? How would Eve Matthews' survival have impacted the future?"

"You know the spell that created Dawn Summers," Righty said.

"It formed her out of the Slayer's substance."

"The same was true of Eve."

"Who was made from Paige Matthews."

As usual, the Lords of Balance were being obtuse. "And?" Whistler prompted impatiently.

"That should be enough for you to figure it out."

"Now, go, make certain things continue to stay on track."

And Whistler once again found himself back on Earth.

Some days . . .

Some days his job sucked.



Part 14



After a minute, Spike said, "Now then, don't you think we need to be getting out of here? I mean, don't get me wrong, I love closure as much as the next bloke, but this light show's bound to have attracted some attention, and I don't see us doing much to stop Glory if we're being interrogated by the local constabulary."

Slowly, Phoebe said, "Spike's right, sweetie. We need to get going."

"I'd like to see what happened to Leo," Piper said.

Phoebe looked at her and said, "He came back. He seemed a little woozy and dazed, but he came back."

Piper muttered, "And you couldn't have mentioned this sooner?"

While Paige had been crying, Buffy and Spike had been walking the scene, seeing if Doc had left anything behind. He had – the sword Doc had used to kill Eve. Buffy didn't feel like upsetting Paige, so she tossed it to Spike, picked up the hammer, and said, "Let's go, then. Paige? You ready?"

Still sniffling a bit, Paige said, "Yeah. I'm ready. Let's go find Doc and cut him into tiny pieces."

"I'm game," Buffy said, "But I think we'd better check in to see how Leo's doing first."

They made it outside 3Com Park without incident, though they were starting to hear the sirens in the distance when Paige took Piper and orbed away.

No need to worry, though; when Paige came back, Leo was with her, looking a bit unsteady on his feet. He and Paige grabbed hands and orbed the rest of them back to Halliwell Manor.

First they got the complete story on what had happened to Leo. "I think you're done for the night," Piper said once he was done. "Don't want to take the risk on you running into any more shields."

"You won't," came a voice from near the kitchen. They all turned. "And all Leo's going to need to recuperate is a little R&R."

"Whistler," Buffy said. "What next?"

"And how do you know?" Xander asked suspiciously.

Whistler closed his eyes, obviously distraught. "Because no one in Doc's party has the know-how to set up that kind of barricade . . . and because . . . because I'm the one who set it up in the first place."

"You WHAT?" Piper asked.

Everyone in the room was looking at the agent of balance with similar expressions of disbelief.

Everyone, that is, except Paige, who held out her palm and said, "knife!"

A knife, a wicked-looking thing with a blade about six inches long, orbed into her outstretched hand.

She immediately threw it at Whistler.

He stepped aside and the knife buried itself in the wall. "Nice throw," Whistler muttered. Piper leapt to restrain Paige from conjuring up any more blades . . . at least, until they got the full story. Maybe then Buffy wouldn't mind watching Whistler take a knife to the chest.

"Why, Whistler?" Phoebe said, looking at Buffy. "I thought you said he was on our side."

"Apparently I thought wrong," Buffy answered.

"I'm on no one's side," Whistler said bitterly. "I'm neutral, remember? And neutrality is better served . . . by Eve Matthews' death. I wish it hadn't had to be so. Believe me."

"What I believe," Cole said steadily, "Is that if you don't get out of here in the next ten seconds we are going to make you wish you'd never interfered. Agent of balance or not."

Taking one more shot, Whistler looked at Buffy. "Try to explain it to them, please?"

"I'm fresh out of sympathy for murderers right now," Buffy said. "Try again when you can go ice skating in hell."

Whistler nodded a little sadly. "Okay, then," he said. "But I'm telling the truth: I didn't want this." He walked towards the back of the house and was gone.

"After we're done with Doc," Paige said, "He's next."

Leo, who once they'd gotten back had collapsed onto the couch, said, "No, he isn't." He stood up, a little shakily – Piper immediately came over and steadied her husband. "Whistler is a legitimate spirit of neutrality. Much as I hate what he did, he's certain to have had a legitimate reason for doing it. Balance is important . . . remember how the Seer helped us with the Hollow."

Paige looked at the Whitelighter disbelievingly. "You're defending him?"

"No . . . just saying why you can't take revenge. Good, evil AND neutrality would come after you then."

Xander walked over to Paige. "It's okay," he said. "Still plenty of ass left to kick."

"Then why are we waiting?" Paige asked.

"Because we don't know where to go yet," Buffy said. "But we'll figure it out. Dawn's still out there."

* * * * *

The Source (but you can call him Cole) tried to figure out what to do next. He needed to let his assistant know she could call it a night, and he needed to figure out where Glorificus was, and he needed to do both in a hurry.

As he thought, he overheard Piper, Willow, Tara and Leo talking. The Whitelighter was still sitting on the couch. That shield could prove useful. Mentally, he cancelled his assistant's night off.

"Are you sure you want to do that?" Willow asked dubiously, stealing glances in Tara's direction. "I mean . . . when I did it . . ."

"When you did it," Leo said, "Your intentions were evil. Ours aren't."

"What's going on?" The Source asked.

Tara looked up at him. "They're talking about making Paige forget about Eve," she said. "I'm disagreeing with them." And she'd have cause to; Willow putting an amnesia spell on her in the past had been the reason they'd broken up.

He agreed with the young witch, though not for her reasons. "I'm with you," he said.

Whispering, Piper said, "Why?"

"It's going to sound like a cliché, I know," the Source said, "But I'm betting right now she's never wanted to do anything more in her life than kill Doc and stop Glorificus. Don't tell me you don't feel some pain at Eve's death. I know I do, even though my brain's telling me she was only alive for about three hours."

"Of course I do," Piper said. "That's the point."

"No, it isn't. This isn't the time for cool professionalism. This is the time to be pissed."

Willow said, "Not our argument, but I'll go along with what you're saying."

"I'm not saying," the Source continued, "That we give vent to unrestrained anger. But –"

Nodding slowly, Piper said, "I hear you. Leo?"

The Whitelighter sighed. "Well . . . for now. But I reserve the right to erase it later."

"But, but ASK Paige before you do it," Tara said.

Leo said, "I will. I promise."

"Good. Now that that's settled –"

But of course, the current fight wasn't the Source's major motivation. He needed Paige to remember Eve – to grieve – because of the distraction factor. Crying for her dead sister would put a crimp in any plans she might have to investigate him.

So overall things were going well.

Now all he needed was some damn privacy.

* * * * *

Dawn watched helplessly as first Glory came back and then Malvolio teleported them all away.

They landed towards the bottom of a tall building under construction.

"Thank you, Malvolio," Doc said. Then, apparently noticing something way up high, he said, "Minions, if you would reconstruct the platform on which the Key is to stand?" A half dozen minions immediately headed for the interior of the building, a couple of pathetic little demon wannabes trailing them.

Glory looked up and said to Doc, "I hope you don't expect me to walk all the way up THERE."

"Well, maybe if you didn't wear high heels," Dawn snapped.

Glory walked over. "I wouldn't piss me off, little girl," she said. "I'm not the same as I was last time."

"So?" Dawn said. "You can't kill me yet, and you're obviously not full- strength yourself or you wouldn't be letting reptile boy over there do your dirty work."

"So what?" Glory said. "Even weak as I am I'm more than a match for big sis. And killing me ain't gonna be as easy this time around."

"Oh yeah?" Dawn spat. "Why's that?"

And then Glory leaned in and said two terrifying words: "No Ben."



Part 15



Piper, Leo, Willow, Tara and Cole broke away from what they were doing and scattered. Phoebe leaned over for a quick kiss as her husband passed by; disappointingly, he didn't linger.

When she saw his destination, she said, "Okay, that does it. Doctor tomorrow."

He protested. "Coffee. I swear. Not even going to sit down."

"Better not," she said. This new job of his – he liked it, it made him money, he felt productive again, but it seemed to be killing his stomach.

She made a mental note. Definitely doctor.

And then, since everyone seemed to be milling around, she clapped her hands and said, "Okay. Where do we go from here?"

"If we knew, sweetie, we'd be going there," Piper said. "We're still trying to figure out where they went." Paige paced frustratedly behind the couch.

"Call me crazy . . ." Phoebe began.

Xander said, "Okay, you're crazy." Everyone glared at him. "Best straight line all night and I'm supposed to what? Let it pass?"

Phoebe soldiered on. ". . . but what about the building under construction? You DID say there'd been a platform thingy set up there . . . like the one you saw the last time you fought Glorificus."

"Makes sense," Willow said from behind her keyboard. "Especially because everything I've tried here and I can't find evidence they own any other property in the city."

"And that lawyer's office you described didn't fit Glory's bill at all," Buffy said.

"From the visions – that dream I had, the vision the Seer mentioned – I don't think they all took off for parts unknown," Phoebe continued.

"They couldn't have," Cole said from behind them. "Malvolio's powers don't work like that. He's the best teleporter I've ever met, but a group that large he couldn't have gotten more than a few miles."

"A few miles?" Leo asked. "I couldn't have gotten that group twenty feet."

"Probably why they call him the best," Xander said. "But buck up, big guy. I bet he can't heal worth a darn."

"So are we all agreed, then?" Phoebe said. Everyone grunted their agreement. "Good. How many cars do we have?"

"We're not going to need cars," Leo said, standing up. "I think I can manage the orbing if Paige helps me."

"Honey," Piper said, "You just got the Whitelighter equivalent of a concussion. This isn't the time to prove your manhood."

"I'll only be providing what Paige can't," Leo said. "Besides, this is important."

Buffy walked over and looked him square in the eye. "You sure you can handle this?" she asked. Leo nodded gamely. "Alright then. I'm satisfied. Paige!"

A little peeved, Piper said, "Wait a second. Leo, you might get hurt worse."

"When it comes to saving the world," Buffy said tiredly, "You don't hold anything back for the next fight, because there just might not be one. PAIGE!"

After a few seconds' search, they realized why she wasn't answering.

She wasn't there.

* * * * *

Dawn was teleported up to the top of the tower and tossed in a room much like the one she'd been in previously.

"Please, feel free to scream or moan," Doc said as they locked her in. "If it makes you feel better. No one will be able to hear you."

"I didn't scream last time," Dawn said in her chilliest voice. "I didn't scream when you murdered Eve, or when you brought the hellbitch back to life. I'm not going to scream now."

"Don't call the divine Glorificus that," Doc said. "It isn't respectful."

"What are you going to do? Kill me twice?"

"If I have to," Doc said. "I can figure out a way to do it."

And then he left.

Dawn could hear, and occasionally see through cracks in the walls, stuff going on the outside. From the cussing it sounded like Buffy had knocked their previous sacrificial platform off the building. Didn't make Dawn cry in the least.

For a second she would have sworn she saw orbing. But no one came charging to her rescue, so she must have been wrong.

As for Glory . . . while she was much an evil skank as ever, she definitely seemed off her game. Oh, she was still doing that majorly gross thing where she stuck her hands in people's heads, but she definitely wasn't all there. Even as there as she'd been before, and let's face it, Glory had never exactly been a poster child for rationality even on her best day.

Anyway. Dawn had been thinking it over, and she'd come to her answer. If it got to the point where it didn't look like Buffy or the Halliwells were going to pull a rescue – if it came to being bled and opening up a portal to another dimension and letting Glory win – she was going to do her best to throw herself over the edge.

She wouldn't let Buffy die again.

And the one thing she KNEW none of these demons could do was fly.



* * * * *

Okay, this might not have been the smartest thing Paige had ever done in her life.

But if it ended the debate – and maybe got Dawn back quicker – she was willing to give it a shot.

She orbed about a block away from the skyscraper. Her control wasn't as perfect as Leo's; sometimes she might be off by a few feet. And while this didn't matter on the ground (and something about it wouldn't let her try to materialize INSIDE something), a matter of a few feet on the top of a building under construction could mean the difference between a tricky landing and plunging hundreds of feet to her death.

And she wasn't so sure she could orb out while she was actually falling.

Anyway, she crept up to the base of the building. Sure enough, it was teeming with minions and a couple of demons she wouldn't even have wasted an incantation on.

Her stomach was growling; she wasn't used to this much orbing. She called quietly for an energy bar from her private stash and quickly wolfed it down, then aimed for the highest floor she could see that looked at least somewhat complete.

Success. But when she looked up, she still had another twenty stories or so to go. She was positive this wasn't going to be fun.

By the time she got to the top floor, she felt like she'd just run a marathon. Damn, she needed to get more training from Leo. And this was even WITH the bottle of water and extra energy bar she'd orbed in.

Carefully, she looked around. There were minions all over the place –

And right over there, the would-be goddess herself, standing next to Doc.

Doc.

The son of a bitch who'd killed Eve.

She –

No.

She couldn't. Not now. It'd be suicide.

Taking a couple of deep breaths, she turned around.

Dawn was nowhere in sight.

She crept around for a few minutes . . . No, they wouldn't have kept her on the ground, they needed her to be up here near the bloodletting.

After a couple of minutes, she noticed this one enclosed area a couple of demons were guarding. Well, hell, you don't win the fight by hanging back. She orbed inside the room –

And scared the hell out of Dawn, who fortunately had the presence of mind not to scream.

"Okay," she said. "I'm here to –"

Then the door slammed open. "You might be here to," Doc said. "But you won't." Malvolio teleported in and grabbed both of them by their arms. Paige tried to orb away, but she couldn't. "Something about Malvolio," Doc said pleasantly. "Not only can he teleport . . . he can stop others from teleporting if he's touching them. Kind of a useful power at times, don't you think?"

Paige held out her free hand and said, "Knife!" The knife she'd thrown at Whistler earlier appeared in her hand. She reached over and stabbed Malvolio in the arm with it. The demon yelped in pain and let Paige go, but clung tightly to Dawn. There was no shot at getting her clear. "I'll be back," she promised.

"I believe you," Dawn said. "Oh! Tell Buffy no Ben!"

Paige nodded and before Malvolio could take hold of her again she orbed back to the mansion.



Part 16



Just as they were about to go into yet another stage of panic, Paige reappeared in front of them, bruises on her arms.

"Where the hell –" Phoebe said.

"Did you go?" Piper finished.

"Oh, terrific," Paige said. "Tag-team nagging. Look, I thought going all stealthy might do us some good here. I orbed back to that building . . . they're there. I tried to rescue Dawn, Buffy – no sense in both of us losing sisters. But –"

"But?" Buffy said nervously. What had Paige meant by --?

"Oh, no. No, no no," Paige said, "She's still okay. They're rebuilding some kind of extended platform right now. But I had her – I HAD her – and Doc and Malvolio broke in. Malvolio has some kind of power that blocks other teleporters at close range. I got free but I couldn't save Dawn. I'm so sorry."

Disappointed, upset, but not willing to blame Paige (who after all had just put her life on the line), Buffy said, "It's okay, Paige. You tried – you almost succeeded. I wish to hell you had, but –"

Spike – who'd snuck outside for a smoke – came back in and said, "What else did you see? Might give us an advantage if we know the size of her forces."

So Paige described everything she'd seen, ending up with, "Oh yeah, and Dawn said something really weird right before I orbed out. She said to tell you . . . no Ben? What the heck does that –"

Spike and Xander swore, Willow closed her eyes and murmured some kind of prayer, and Buffy fixed her gaze directly on Paige and said, "You're sure?"

"For those of us who have no idea what that means," Piper said, "What does that mean?"

"We don't have time for the details," Buffy said, "But when Glory was exiled to our dimension she was bound to a human . .. who was in control of their shared body most of the time. Ben had no powers and just wanted a normal life."

"Yeah," Xander said. "Unfortunately, when the shit got to hitting the fan last May, Ben decided that he was better off throwing in with his 'sister' than joining up with the good guys. So when Glory died . . . Ben did too." Buffy hadn't actually learned how Glory had died; she'd always assumed the injuries had been to severe and had killed Ben as well.

Now wasn't the time to ask, but she made a mental note to call Giles to double-check once they rescued Dawn and killed the hellgod . . . again.

"But Ben had no powers," Willow said. "If we'd had to – we could have killed Ben, and Glory would have died. If there's no Ben –"

"It gets a lot harder to kill Glory," Phoebe said.

Leo said, "Um, I wouldn't have been all that comfortable anyway. Technically, he'd qualify as an innocent –"

Cole snorted. "The hell he would. The second he voluntarily joined Glorificus he lost that status – whether he did out of an active desire for evil or simply to save his own ass." He stopped and looked thoughtful.

"Hardly an issue now," Spike said. "'cause Dawn made it pretty clear gentle Ben isn't there for us to kick around any more. That leaves us with the far more fun and deadly job of takin' on the hellbitch herself."

"What does that mean?" Paige asked.

"Well, one thing it means is no holding back," Spike said. "We can cut loose. I for one plan to do my damnedest to rip her heart from her chest." Then he, too, looked thoughtful. "Hmmm. Never fed on god's blood before. I wonder –" Then he noticed everyone staring at him. "Well, you don't need to bloody be like that," he protested. "I just haven't had a good bite to eat in a while, is all. You folks wouldn't happen to have any fresh blood lying about?"

"Sorry, no," Piper said, not in the least sincerely. "Maybe when we're done you can have some nice, fresh minion."

Spike spat. "No thanks. Tried it. Like drinkin' warm piss, only not as appetizing. My stomach was gnarly for days after."

"Poor baby," Buffy murmured. "Anyway, Spike has a point – but it leaves us our work cut out for us."

"So," Phoebe said, "We'll come up with a vanquishing spell and – what?" Because both Leo and Cole were shaking their heads.

Cole said, "Glorificus isn't from this dimension, sweetie. She doesn't play by our rules. You can hurt her, but I don't think you'll be able to make her poof away in a jet of flame with a simple spell. Or a complicated one, either. Only one who probably could is the Source. And we all know where HE is right now." He laughed bitterly.

"I hurt her with some spells!" Willow said excitedly, then, in a more subdued voice, added, "Back when I was still doing magic, I mean. I can tell you which ones –"

Tara was shaking her head vigorously. "Those spells – they weren't evil, exactly, but they weren't good, either. The sanity one, though – maybe that one –"

"The sanity one?" Piper asked.

"Glory, in this dimension, feeds on humans' sanity. One of her victims last year was Tara," Willow began. "I found a spell that undid that, restoring Tara's sanity and draining energy from her in the process."

"Hmmm," Phoebe said. "Maybe – on a grand scale –" Willow gave them the details of the spell. "Might be doable." The three Halliwells, plus Tara, confabbed in the kitchen – Paige snagging another energy bar in the process.

The rest of them waited.

* * * * *

The Source (but you can call him Cole) was worried. His last chat with the Seer had confirmed what he'd thought – if they were going to defeat Glorificus and prevent her version of Hell from coming forth, he was going to need to be an active player.

Doc was the weakest of their major enemies, and he was no pushover. Malvolio was one of the most powerful demons out there, and Glorificus was just short of him when it came to power. He was stronger, but not so much stronger that he would have bet the mortgage on him coming out on top in a brawl. Who knew which of his powers would be useful and which might roll off her?

But Glorificus could be beaten with brute force. His skills were probably better used in attacking Malvolio – who was their enemies' hole card. Malvolio's ability to teleport meant that at any point during the fight – as long as he wasn't unconscious or dead – he could pack everyone up and vanish.

There was a demon The Source was thinking of . . . an enforcer who'd been out of favor with the previous administration, who dealt more with other demons than innocents. Taarrnhelm, that was it. If the Charmed Ones, had heard of him, they'd have heard of his honorable nature as well. (Once Taarnhelm made a deal, he stuck by it, no matter the cost. Stupid . . . but useful.)

He had to time this right. He let the flames of teleportation appear around him . . . and he went down to the underworld.

Quickly, he assumed Taarnhelm's form. When the Seer asked what was going on, he said, "Anyone asks, you're holding me captive again. But you're not hurting me."

The Source (but you can call him Taarnhelm) reappeared in Halliwell Manor, his hands raised, ready to clear the hell out if people were in the mood to shoot first and ask questions later. Four witches, a Slayer, a vampire and a Whitelighter looked quite ready to kill him. "Wait," he said. "Wait. My name is Taarnhelm. I'm not here to do harm."

Buffy said, "Well, I'm stumped. What the hell's a Taarnhelm?"

"Taarnhelm," Leo began slowly, "Is an enforcer among demonkind. Never been known to kill an innocent. Known for a sense of honor, though he definitely serves evil."

"I do," The Source said. "The Seer contacted me. Figured you might need some help taking on your enemies."

"Then why is Cole gone?" Phoebe demanded.

'"It wasn't my idea," The Source growled in his best imitation of Taarnhelm's voice. "The Seer wanted a guarantee you wouldn't just kill me flat out. Apparently she has some use for me later. I don't know the way her mind works. But," he said. "I swear on my name that he won't be hurt."

They huddled up. Finally Piper said, "Okay, I guess we don't have a choice."

"No," The Source said. "You don't."



Part 17



After Paige had orbed out, Malvolio hadn't gone more than five feet from Dawn's side – presumably on the chance that either Leo or Paige decided to make a return engagement, although Dawn hadn't seen hide or hair of them.

She'd also been yanked out of the room she'd been held in, and was dragged around depending on what Doc or Glory needed Malvolio to do. Glory was more or less back to her old bitchy self . . . but Doc was still running the show. This didn't surprise Dawn; Doc was a lot smarter than Glory, though that wasn't really saying much.

Buffy had apparently put a big whammy on their plans when she'd destroyed that platform – the one they were going to tie Dawn to the end of. Dawn didn't get why it was such a big freaking deal – how hard could it be to rig up another plank? – but the minions were acting like it was A REALLY IMPORTANT THING, in great big quivering capital letters.

Not that Dawn was in the mood to complain; anything that held the hellbitch up was peachy keen with her. She just wished –

She just wished Eve hadn't had to die. She'd seemed like a nice girl . . . even if there was that bizarro-world lookalike thing going. But that had been as far as the resemblance really went. Eve was a lot more of a sports girl than she'd been; soccer, tennis, and running, plus she'd LOVED going to Giants and '49ers games. Dawn, she couldn't have named three Dodgers if her life had depended on it.

But Eve, like her, had been made just to be destroyed.

Dammit.

Anyway, Buffy hadn't come in leading the cavalry yet. She knew damn well sis wasn't chickening out, so she had to guess that they were making plans – to take on Glory, Doc and Malvolio. They were coming for her. She wasn't even worried about that.

What she was worried about was their timing. The platform was almost done and if they didn't hurry –

If they didn't hurry, she might have to jump off after all.



* * * * *

While the Charmed Ones and the scooby gang went about their business of prepping for their attack, Taarnhelm did stretching exercises and shadowboxed.

Buffy eyed the demon suspiciously, then sidled over and whispered to Leo, "Are you a hundred percent positive we can trust this guy?"

Leo sighed. "As sure as I can be. Taarnhelm very rarely even comes into contact with anyone but other demons . . . or forces of good. Various Sources have used him over the years as an internal policeman. Because he's also known to be honorable, he's one of the ones they send on those rare occasions when the forces of good and evil need to work together on something. He's never broken his word yet."

"Okay," Buffy said. "I just don't like working with the bad guys."

Leo said, "And Spike would be . . .?"

Buffy laughed a little bitterly. "A bad guy I know. Fair enough. I'll trust you on this one."

"Only on this one?" Leo asked.

Piper cut off an answer when she came out of the kitchen and said, "Okay, we think we've puzzled out our way to beat Doc . . . unless our new best demon friend has other ideas?"

"No," Taarnhelm rumbled. "Malvolio is my target. He's been disloyal to the cause anyway. Glorificus is, I fear, beyond my abilities." Paige and Phoebe walked out of the kitchen.

"After we take care of Doc," Phoebe said to Buffy, "We'll do our best to help you and Spike."

"The tongue," Xander said, snapping his fingers furiously. "The tongue."

"Does a cat have yours?" Piper asked. "If not, would you explain?"

"Doc," Xander said. "He's got a tongue. A really long one. Like Toad in the X-Men movie, only real. It hits pretty hard, too."

"And I'm sure you ladies read this much in your big book of spooky stuff," Spike said, "But he's also real hard to kill. Mr. Tongue-tied over there stabbed him through the chest, and Buffy knocked him off a bloody building, and he just kind of bounced and came back. So whatever mojo you got working, make it strong. I don't fancy taking on this wanker a third time."

"Any luck with the sanity spell?" Willow asked. Taarnhelm continued to pace impatiently. Apparently he was eager to get on with the action. Buffy understood how he felt, if not his reasons. They'd already been THROUGH this once before. She wasn't planning to die again.

"The problem is, you need one of the victims to discharge it into," Paige said, a little impatiently. "We don't have one of them lying around. And if we try to drain all of it –"

"Humans aren't built to, er, eat that way," Phoebe said. "We don't need the mental structure Glorificus does."

"So no go?" Tara asked.

"No go," Phoebe said.

"Silly thought," Buffy said. "Why doesn't Paige call one?"

Everyone looked at Paige, who said, "I'll give it a try. But we need to hurry." After a second, she held out her arms and said, "Er, if someone could? I don't have superhuman strength." Buffy nodded and walked over, getting ready to catch whoever orbed in . . . assuming someone did. Paige called out, "Er, person Glorificus made crazy!"

Someone orbed in.

At least, it USED to be someone.

Buffy and Paige simultaneously said, "Euuch!" and jumped back, allowing the remains of whoever that had been to hit the mansion's floor. "What happened to him?" Buffy demanded.

Spike walked forward and examined the remains. "About forty stories, I'd wager," he said.

"That's disgusting," Phoebe said.

"I'm guessing Glory didn't feel the need to have a half-dozen lunatics running around and simply pitched 'em over the edge," Spike said. "Anyone mind if I have a taste before you clean it up?"

"THAT'S even more disgusting," Phoebe said.

"So that's a no?" In response, Phoebe chanted a quick spell and the body vanished . . . along with all the blood that had soaked into the carpet. "Bitch," Spike muttered.

As Phoebe growled, Leo and Buffy stepped in between the two of them. "That's right, Spike," Buffy said. "Take shots at the powerful witch." Sourly, Spike stepped back. Taarnhelm watched the exchange and seemed a little irritated at Spike; Buffy had no idea why.

"Which, which still leaves us with the question of how we're going to do that spell," Tara said. "If the people are dead –"

"We can't," Piper sighed. "Buffy and Spike are just going to have to beat the living hell out of her until some of the rest of us get clear."

"I, I can come up with a couple of other things," Tara said.

"I've got the hammer," Buffy said. "I wish I had the Buffybot and the Dagonsphere, but we should be able to work with what we've got. And –"

"So are we finally ready?" Paige asked.

Piper was about to say yes, but Buffy said, "No . . . no. Damn. Damn. Why didn't we think of this before? We don't want to be slugging it out with these guys on a forty-foot tall building if we can help it. None of us can fly. So why should we let them choose the battlefield?"

Xander said, "They're the ones who have Dawn, Buff. We kind of have to go to them."

Buffy looked at Paige. "No, we don't."

* * * * *

A few minutes later they were in a nearby park. Lots of open space around them.

Buffy warned, "Be ready. They need Dawn for this ritual . . . and Malvolio's pretty damn good at this teleportation thing. Taarnhelm –"

"He won't have the chance to get away," the demon growled.

"Fair enough. Paige –"

Paige nodded, took a deep breath, and held out her arms. "Dawn!" she said. "Dawn! Dawn! Dawn! Dawn! Dawn!"

A confused Dawn orbed into Paige's arms.

Five seconds later, Malvolio followed.

So did Doc, Glory, and a couple dozen minions and assorted demons.

Battle was joined.

Part 18



The Source (but you can call him Taarnhelm) was kind of annoyed he hadn't thought of shifting the field of battle himself. (If he had, he would have picked somewhere besides an open field, somewhere where he could have used more than Taarnhelm's known powers to attack Malvolio.)

But it made perfect sense. Paige had proven herself capable of this kind of weight a long time ago – back when all three sisters had shrunk, she'd called the shrinking wand when to her it was the size of a cannon. One 15- year old girl wasn't that bad, by comparison. And then there was the trollhammer she'd called earlier in the evening.

Still, even if this wasn't his chosen battlefield, the Slayer was right; it was better than dancing about on girders five hundred feet up. As soon as Malvolio appeared – before he could simply focus in on Dawn and teleport off – The Source charged him and hit as hard as he could. Malvolio could teleport better than anyone, but his power came at the slight cost of having to concentrate to use his abilities.

All the Source needed to do is make sure the other demon never got the chance to concentrate. And aim him for that grove of trees in the distance.

There, no one could see what went down.

* * * * *

Xander and Leo stood ready to take on the onrushing minions, Tara behind them to provide magical support. Willow's job was grabbing Dawn away from Paige and keeping her safe.

Of course, safe was a relative term, with a teleporter, a superfast hellgod, a demonic sorcerer, and a couple of dozen minions wandering about.

As soon as Glory appeared, she said to Buffy, "Okay, sweetie. You took something that belongs to me."

"We've done this before, Glory," Buffy said. "It wasn't scary the first time." She and Buffy began to circle around each other. Spike, meanwhile, had done a fast fade . . . but Buffy wasn't worried.

"Your call," the god said. "This isn't personal, you know. It was those damn monks MADE it personal. If they'd only had the decency to make the Key into a key, or a kitten, or a talk show host or something useless like that, but they had to go and make it your sister." She snorted. "I could have headed home free and clear if it hadn't been for those damn monks. This is really their fault."

"Tell you what," Buffy said, hefting the hammer, "After I'm done killing you, I'll go give them a stern talking to." And then, suspiciously, "And why are you trying to avoid a fight?"

"I'll show you avoidance," Glory said, and swung. Buffy dodged the blow and the fight was on.

* * * * *

This left the Charmed ones facing off against Doc.

Or trying to face off against him, anyway. The sorcerer had other ideas, looking towards where Willow was trying to get Dawn clear, and said, "If you'll excuse me—" Then he ran off faster than Phoebe'd expected.

They charged after him. Piper's powers were having no luck; Doc neither conveniently froze nor blew up. Phoebe's powers weren't designed for distance use, and Paige apparently wasn't interested in calling Doc to her.

But just as it looked like the sorcerer was about to catch up with the fleeing Willow and Dawn, Paige yelled, "NO!" and orbed directly into his path. They collided and went down while Willow and Dawn kept running. Paige yelled, "Knife!" and one orbed into her hand.

Doc's tongue flickered out of his mouth and wrapped around Paige's neck. "I'm afraid I can't allow you to do that," he said. "These suits are custom- made."

But this gave Phoebe and Piper time to reach the two, and Phoebe dodged Doc's swinging arm and kicked him in the head.

This distracted him long enough for Paige to slam the knife home. Repeatedly, until Piper grabbed her hand. Without a word, Paige dropped the knife. Doc shuddered for a moment and lay still. They quickly unwrapped Doc's tongue from around Paige's neck; then the three witches stood back.

"We're not done, you know," Phoebe said. "All we've done is keep him in one spot for a few minutes. This guy's got more lives than Darryl Strawberry."

"So let's make with the spell," Paige said. "I DON'T want him coming back." She sighed. "I wish to hell this could be painful."

"We know, sweetie," Piper said.

The three witches began to chant. "Let death be a finality –"

Then the minions attacked.

Xander, Leo and Tara hadn't been able to handle the couple of dozen minions and demons all by their lonesome, though they'd done their best to reduce the numbers. Leo avoided having to hurt any of them by orbing a few away to random remote locations of the globe, but he wasn't feeling up to doing that all night. Xander simply waded in grimly with a crowbar he'd picked up from somewhere and started clouting heads, until one he wound up facing off against one of the minor demons instead. And Tara –

Well, she came up with a variant on her dust spell that turned the ground under four or five minions into quicksand, effectively freezing them in place. Unfortunately, the three of them simply couldn't handle all of them . . .

And a half dozen or so plus a couple of the demons got around them and swarmed the Charmed Ones in the midst of their incantation.

It wasn't that it was that hard a battle, really; minions had been chosen for their groveling ability, not their fighting spirit or their capacity for independent thought. Phoebe decked three minions with one punch each, Piper froze the two demons, and even Paige managed to take down a couple.

The remaining one said defiantly, "You will never defeat the Divine Glorificus!"

"Yeah, yeah," Phoebe said as she kicked him in the jaw. They stabbed the two frozen demons and turned around to face Doc again –

Of course he wasn't there.

They looked around.

Of course, they didn't see him.

* * * * *

With the Source (but you can call him Taarnhelm) handicapped, maneuvering Malvolio away from the main action was proving harder than he'd thought.

Malvolio wasn't interested in the least in cooperating, either; though he hadn't done the Source much damage, he'd done some, and they were only about forty feet away from the action. He snuck a look over at Phoebe; she still seemed fine.

As he was indulging in another exchange of punches – he didn't have time to wait for the demonfire to build – an idea came to him. He was trying to stop Malvolio from teleporting.

Why?

He grabbed Malvolio around the waste and teleported them both away.

* * * * *

Glory definitely wasn't in full fighting trim.

Unfortunately for Buffy, this simply meant she was at the level she was when Buffy'd first fought her in the warehouse, not the unholy combination of the Hulk and the Flash she'd turned into later. And this time around Buffy didn't have any robots or Dagonspheres around to help her.

She DID have Olaf's hammer. Thank god.

This wasn't the time to play fair. Buffy was smashing the hellbitch's knee every chance she got.

Spike was taking his sweet old time waiting for an opening; he was carrying a sword Leo'd gotten from somewhere and was supposed to run the goddess through as soon as he could.

Suddenly Buffy went flying though the air, landing a good ten feet from where she'd taken off. She'd also dropped the hammer in the process; as she tried to give up Glory shoved her back down and picked the hammer up.

"See how you like it," she snarled as she swung it downwards.



Part 19

"Damn it," Phoebe said once they were done with the minions. "Where did he go?"

Paige pointed in the direction of the no-longer rapidly-retreating Willow and Dawn. Willow was lying on the ground, while Doc was clutching Dawn tightly. "Malvolio!" He shouted. "Malvolio!"

The Charmed Ones caught up. Paige knelt down to check on Willow – unconscious, not dead – and Phoebe said, "He seems to be unavailable at the moment. Will we do?"

Smiling pleasantly, Doc said, "I think now. Unless you'd planned in joining me in worship of the mighty Glorificus?"

"Not our god of choice," Phoebe said.

Doc shrugged. "Pity. Glorificus is so much more accessible." Dawn was apparently attempting to break free, but wasn't having any luck.

"And insane," Piper said.

"We prefer to think of her as whimsical," Doc said. "In any event –"

"In any event," Piper said, "If you let Dawn go we won't kill you."

"Speak for yourself," Paige said, walking up. "I plan on gutting him with a rusty butter knife."

"Paige –" Phoebe said.

Paige walked forward. She said. "Look. The bastard killed Eve. We know he's going to kill Dawn. We're not even going to come close to getting him to believe that he's going to live out the night. So why pretend? He's not stupid."

Doc nodded. "Indeed not. Incidentally, if any of you tries chanting, I WILL kill her. It would be a pity to do it before it's time, but we need her blood, not her life."

"On the other hand," Paige said, now directly addressing the sorcerer, "Gutting you with a rusty knife is the NICEST thing I can think of doing to you right now. I also might orb out your internal organs. Or . . . I might miss."

"It's so nice to get these things out into the open," Doc said. "Still . . . it does seem to leave us at an impasse, doesn't it?"

Indeed.

* * * * *

The Source (and finally, you can call him that) and Malvolio materialized about three miles straight up. Still clinging to each other, they began to fall.

For the first time that night, Malvolio showed fear. He always had difficulty speaking . . . but finally, he spoke. "Who are you?" he gasped out as they fell. "No one can teleport me against my will."

The Source said not a single thing in answer, instead changing his form back to Cole and letting his eyes speak for him.

"You . . ." Malvolio rasped.

"Me," The Source said.

Then he cut loose.

Later on, he couldn't say if it was the hellfire or the two-mile fall that had actually killed Malvolio.

But since the largest piece they found was about the size of a pea, it was fairly safe to assume he was dead.

* * * * *

Buffy rolled out of the way and the hammer missed her knee by inches.

And FINALLY Spike roared in and tackled Glory.

"The hammer!" Buffy said as she got up. "Get the hammer!"

"Little busy – right now!" Spike said as he grappled with the hellgod. Finally – Glory being, after all, a lot stronger than Spike – she threw the vampire off, though the hammer also fell clear. Before Glory could recover Buffy ran over, picked it up, and helped Spike to his feet.

"Where the hell were you?" she asked.

"Trying to recruit some help," Spike said. "Saw a few local vampires hanging about, thought I'd offer 'em up a taste of God's blood if they gave us a hand."

Glory irritably said, "My blood would kill you."

Spike raised his eyebrows. "Well then. Good thing I didn't volunteer to have a taste myself."

As the two sides circled, Buffy muttered to Spike, "I appreciate the thought, but next time tell me when you're going to try something like this. Glory almost turned my knee into kindling."

Spike was forestalled an answer when Glory charged.

As they struggled back and forth, Buffy reflected that this was different from every other time she'd fought the hellgod. Those other times Glory was fighting with a clear goal in mind. This time, she was just fighting until someone managed to recapture Dawn (over her dead body, of course).

This affected Glory's fighting style a bit. Not that she'd ever been one for technique. Being as strong as she was, she'd never really needed to learn how to fight. And being dead for about a year hadn't taught her a damn thing. As Glory focused on Buffy, Spike took the god's momentary distraction and grabbed her around the neck.

Buffy didn't need to be told twice. With Glory held in place for a few seconds, she swung the hammer once again at the knee she'd been targeting all along. She felt something give. But as she drew back for a second blow, Glory turned, grabbed Spike, and threw him into Buffy, knocking them both down.

This time, unfortunately, she couldn't dodge Glory.

* * * * *

Phoebe snuck a quick look around the park. There were almost no minions left at all, and those that WERE still fighting Piper froze with a distracted wave of her hand.

Leo immediately orbed over once he saw the freeze. Xander ran to do what he could to help Buffy, while Tara joined the Halliwells a few seconds later.

"Look around you," Piper said. "You're losing. It's only you and your boss left."

"That's all we need," Doc said placidly. God, did ANYTHING faze this demon? "And I may point out that I still have the Key in my grasp."

"Which," Tara said. "Is, is all you have. And harm her –"

Doc smiled. "I know. And my life is worth nothing. But Ms. Matthews there has already pointed out that I likely have not long to live in either event. And a choice between a slow death and a fast death is no choice at all."

"I assume you've tried freezing him?" Leo asked.

"He's immune, remember?" Piper responded.

Tara whispered into Phoebe's ear, "Keep him distracted for a minute and duck when I say duck." She seemed rather angry herself. Then she quietly began making casting a spell.

Phoebe told Paige to start cussing Doc out. Paige didn't need much prompting, and revealed a vocabulary of cusswords a merchant marine would have been proud of.

And there was plenty of real pain behind her words. Phoebe had made it through the night by continually reminding herself that Eve wasn't real, had never been real, had only existed for a few hours. It hadn't been easy, still (in the revised history) she'd only known Eve for less than a year. Paige, though, hadn't had that luxury; she'd known her younger sister for ten years. God. What she had to be going through . . .

Once again, Tara whispered in Phoebe's ear. "Duck." Phoebe threw herself to the ground and Tara cut loose with a blast of dust and pebbles that knocked Doc off his feet – and Dawn from his grasp. "Now!" Phoebe yelled to her sisters. "The vanquishing spell!"

As one, they chanted, "Let death be a finality, let that be your reality. Let the magic hear our call and VANQUISH you for once and all!"

As flames began to encircle Doc, he simply gazed on calmly . . . until he was gone.

"THAT was weird," Phoebe said.

"He's gone, I don't care," Paige said, then said. "Dammit, I wanted him to suffer." She looked at Leo. "And don't give me any lectures on how that's evil."

"I wasn't even thinking about it," was Leo's response.

"Good."

Piper asked, "Is everyone okay?" Nods all around. Even Willow, her head wound healed by Leo, was getting to her feet. She looked over at Glorificus, suddenly the only combatant on the field, beating up on Spike, Buffy and Xander. "Anyone not up for this, go kill some minions."

Everyone was up for it. Even Dawn. To her annoyance Leo took her and Willow and orbed them back to the manor.

The rest of them went over to face the hellgod.

* * * * *

The Source (and you can once again call him Taarnhelm) teleported back to the ground a bit away from the main battle.

To his surprise, it seemed to be more or less over. The only being left fighting was Glorificus herself.

And she was surrounded by pretty much everyone. Buffy was a little slow on her feet, and Xander was standing off to one side being healed by Leo, but otherwise no one had really been injured. He wasn't sure whether that was good. He was sure that the Seer would give him a hard time about that, but he didn't care. The important thing was that the battle was over.

Unfortunately, no one had bothered to inform Glorificus. Even though she wasn't the brightest of alleged gods, The Source thought she would have figured out she'd lost by now. But either she hadn't, or she was determined to take as many of the good guys with her when she went.

All he needed to do to further his own cause was hang back a little. it wasn't like The Source actually cared whether Buffy Summers or Paige Matthews lived or died.

But before he could finish his cold analysis, he found himself running towards the scene of the battle.

"Surprised to see you again," Piper said.

"Not half as surprised as I am," the Source answered.

Glorificus looked around. "So this is how it's going to be?" Buffy nodded. "Well, then, fine. I quit."

Spike said, "You what?"

"Are you frigging DEAF, vampire? I said, I quit. Yeah, I could probably kick all your asses –"

"Don't bet on it," Piper murmured.

"But then I still wouldn't have my Key –"

"Not YOUR Key," Buffy and Paige said simultaneously.

"Yeah, fine, whatever," Glorificus said. "Your key, your sister, big whoop. Anyway, I know the way you people work. You've got this morality thing about killing opponents after they surrender. Don't ask ME why – it seems like the best time to kill them – but I'm surrendering. So you can't hurt me." She looked at them. "Well, that IS the way it works, isn't it?"

"You're forgetting something," Spike said. "I don't have morals."

To the Source's surprise, he didn't have to answer next. Buffy said, "I do." And then she swung the hammer at Glorificus' head, knocking her down. "The moral thing to do is kill you."

"Sure, make it hard on me," Spike said as the rest of them attacked.

"Spike," Buffy said, "Shut up."

It was just before daybreak when they killed her.



Part 20

Leo orbed Spike back to Halliwell Manor, but the rest of them had to make it there shanks' mare. The Whitelighter was absolutely exhausted from the massive amount of orbing he'd done over the previous seven-plus hours, and was in serious need of food and rest.

Not the rest of them were fresh as new produce by any stretch; no one'd gotten any sleep that night, and they'd spent a couple of hours killing a god who very much had not wanted to die; apart from Taarnhelm (whose state of exhaustion the rest of them couldn't judge, and didn't care much about in any event), they looked like they'd gotten into an all-night slugfest with the roster of the WWF.

It was not a triumphant march home. Yeah, the bad guys were dead, but this hadn't been a win. No night on which somebody innocent died could be counted a win.

Poor Eve. Born just to be killed.

No one spoke, except a few mumbled words checking on each other's injuries. Once they got back to the mansion, Taarnhelm saluted them all and vanished, to be replaced a few seconds later by a very annoyed Cole.

Phoebe said they'd fill him in later; he didn't complain.

Everyone called in sick after that, even Leo, though his method of calling in was different from everyone else's. Then everybody sacked out.

Even though there was an empty bed, no one took Eve's room.

* * * * *

The Source (but you can call him Cole) waited until everyone else was asleep and quietly made a trip down to the underworld. His assistant had long since gone home, with his blessing.

"I assume you know what happened," The Source said. "You always seem to."

"Approximately," she said. "Though I do wonder why you rushed to help kill Glorificus. If you'd held off a few minutes, who knows who might have been killed?"

"Phoebe," The Source said, though it wasn't his full answer. "I couldn't take that risk."

She said, "There were still ways to protect her and not everyone else."

The Source sighed. "I'm not in the mood for this right now. Glorificus is dead and so's pretty much everyone who'd want to try resurrecting her again. That should leave the road ahead smooth and clear."

Unexpectedly, the Seer laughed. "You're kidding, right?"

* * * * *

Whistler stood on the top of a tall building that would never be used for its intended purpose and looked into the sunrise.

Eventually, someone in the San Francisco city government would figure out that there was a half-finished forty-story building sitting in South San Francisco that no one was working on. The construction company would plead nonpayment, and say that the people who had arranged the whole thing had mysteriously disappeared. Someone would take over – or the lot would be bought and the structure would be torn down. Maybe if someone examined the blueprints, they'd see half a hundred things wrong with the internal structure and wonder how the hell it had ever gotten approved.

But this morning, it was just another building under construction.

Standing there, he thought about what had occurred that night. For millennia, he'd been a servant of neutrality – and even when he'd questioned the methods of the Lords of Balance, he'd never questioned their overall aims.

Tonight . . . there was something different about tonight. He'd always given advice before, tried to arrange the right people at the right time. He'd never been directly responsible for any deaths before . . . on either side. But HE'D had to set up that shield against teleportation tonight . . . and Eve Matthews had had to die.

He didn't know what to do now.

All of a sudden, he smiled for a second. If Angel could see him now, brooding like this –

And then he had his answer. He had helped Angel; maybe Angel could help him.

He walked away from the edge.

Hundreds of feet below, the city woke up and began to move on its way.

* * * * *

People began waking up again around noon. Buffy came downstairs and found Leo sitting on the couch, eating from a bag of potato chips and watching CNN.

"What's going on?" she asked.

Leo looked behind him. "Hey, Buffy. Somebody did something to someone somewhere – or maybe it's the other way around. I haven't really been paying attention."

"Why aren't you –"

"Up with my wife?" Leo finished her question. She nodded. "Paige is in there with her. Phoebe, too. Four would definitely have been a crowd. Besides, I needed to carb up."

"Yeah," Buffy said sheepishly. "Piper mentioned that taxi service thing. Sorry about that."

"You didn't know," Leo said. "It's not a big deal." After a second. "So, how's Dawn?"

"Very upset," Buffy said. "She liked Eve. But she and everyone else are asleep."

"Why aren't you?"

"That goshdarn Slayer metabolism," she said, flexing her right shoulder. "Give me a day this should be back to normal."

"I could shorten that timespan," Leo said, starting to stand up.

Buffy held out a hand. "No, no, you've done enough. Thanks for the offer."

A voice came from the stairs. "What's going on?"

They both turned to see Paige, her eyes red, walking down. "Did we make too much noise?" Buffy asked.

"No, no," Paige said. "I couldn't sleep anyway."

"Eve?" Leo asked.

"Obviously," Paige answered. "It's just – I know she wasn't real. I know this. And yet –"

"It doesn't help, does it?" Buffy asked.

"Not in the least. How do – how do you deal with it?"

"Dawn's my sister," Buffy said simply. "Doesn't matter if it's for 16 years or 16 seconds. The memories are real."

"They don't have to be," Leo said. "I could help you forget, if you wanted."

Paige paused a second. "Part of me wants that. Part of me wants that so bad. But – but – I think it'll be better for me, in the long run, if I don't forget that – even if only for a few hours – I had a sister named Eve. And I loved her."