The Ruby Slippers

Part 9



By Gem

& PJ



The weapons were packed, the spell books appropriately book-marked and goodbyes alluded to, if not actually expressed. The last line of defense between the world and its untimely end was about to depart Revello Drive, hopefully not for the last time.

"Okay, last one to the hellmouth is a rotten egg." Buffy took a better grip on her leather duffel bag and smiled with all the false cheer she could muster at her mother and her sister. If she had learned anything in the last 8 years, it was the power of a positive attitude, and a ready supply of very sharp weapons.

"Buffy, wait. I want to come too." Dawn grabbed Buffy's coat sleeve as her sister reached out with her free hand to open the front door.

"Dawn, that's crazy. Stay here with Mom." Buffy impatiently tugged her sleeve free of the younger girl's grasp, but no sooner had she done so than Dawn grabbed her again, showing a surprising strength and tenacity.

Or maybe it was just fear.

"Buffy, I'm not kidding. I need to be there."

"Dawn, this is not a parlor magic show," Giles said sternly. "I realize you feel we are relegating you to the sidelines, but we have no other choice. It's risky enough to be taking Xander, Willow and Tara along, given how long it has been since any of them patrolled."

"And whose fault is that, huh?" Xander glanced sharply at Buffy. "I've been willing to do a little demon stomp now and again, but somebody hasn't let me play in a really long time."

"You're welcome," Buffy snapped. She put her bag down with a sigh and took Dawn by the shoulders. "Dawn, you can't come. End of story. Now stay here with Mom and try to keep Anya from saying anything that will force Mom to hurt her."

"Oh we're not planning anything violent," Anya said hastily. "We're going to engage in female bonding rituals. We'll bake cookies and your mother will tell me about her childbirth experiences to prepare me for my own."

"Gee, that...that sounds like fun. Much better than demon hunting." Tara smiled weakly as she struggled for an upside to the plans. "It will be very...very educational, right, Willow?"

Willow caught the ball and did her best to keep it moving. "Umm, yeah, educational. And fattening. Especially for Xander if Anya learns how to bake those little chocolate marshmallow cookies he likes."

Anya's face was grave as she nodded her agreement. "He can eat those by the dozen when Mrs. Summers bakes them. Today she will teach me," she stroked Xander's arm, "and then when you come home you'll eat too many and feel sick and I can take care of you."

She held her husband's eyes with her own, trying to project a confidence she was far from feeling. When he pulled her into his arms a moment later, the tightness of his embrace told her she hadn't fooled anyone.

Dawn ignored them all and concentrated on her objective. "Buffy, I'm supposed to be there, at the hellmouth. I feel it." The desperation was clear in her voice.

Joyce opened her mouth to protest, but Buffy waved at her to be silent. She wasn't sure about Dawn's 'feeling,' but her own was a very bad one. "What do you mean you're 'supposed' to be there?"

Dawn shook her head impatiently. "I can't explain it, but I feel like I belong there, like there's something only I can do." She pulled away from Buffy's grasp to confront Cordelia, who stood waiting in the archway to the living room. "In your visions, did you see me at all?"

Cordelia was unsure how to answer. Her visions happened rapidly, and recognition was a dicey proposition at best. Added to that was the fact that she had never actually seen Dawn until a few hours before, not that she could tell Dawn that, or even mention it in front of the clueless Scoobies...it all made for a tough question to answer.

"I saw a girl," Cordelia answered hesitantly. "I couldn't see a face, or really anything about her except that she was a she, and a young she at that."

"And what happened to this she?" Buffy asked sharply. "Was she killed because she convinced her brainless big sister to take her along to Armageddon as though it was just the movie? Because I'm betting she was, which is why Dawn is staying home."

Faith laid a gentle hand on Buffy's shoulder. "B, if anyone should know this, it's you and me: You can't fight destiny. If little sister is supposed to be there, she'll find a way. Wouldn't you rather know she's there, than have to keep looking over your shoulder for her?"

Buffy glared at her sister-in-arms and shook off her conciliatory gesture. As close to family as Faith had once been, this was none of her business. This concerned the Summers family only, real and monk-made.

"I just want to know what Dawn thinks she can contribute. She's never been on patrol with me, she hasn't had to fight off a demon breaking into the house since I moved out, and even then she didn't have to do much more than scream and someone else came to do the fighting." Buffy crossed her arms over her chest and tried to feel as remote as she sounded. "What exactly does she think qualifies her to take on the hellmouth?"

Dawn shook her head, her hand rising to brush away unbidden tears. "I don't know. I just know if you don't take me I'll have to follow you because you need me there. I've never felt anything like this, Buffy, honest. It's like its pulling me, except that its actually afraid of me but it knows that I..." she stammered her way into a frustrated silence. "I don't know how to explain it."

"What 'it' are you talking about, Dawn?" Giles asked gently. He could feel Joyce, standing behind him, sinking her nails into his arm, but he ignored her. She knew as well as he that Dawn was no ordinary 17-year-old.

"I don't know. Whatever it is, it's like a giant magnet and I'm the little metal pieces it wants to pick up. Or maybe I'm the magnet; I'm not sure."

"A magnet, yes."

Giles wanted to lash out at someone, at the powers that thwarted Buffy at her every turn at happiness. Having taken so much from her, they still were not content. Worse yet, they made him partner to their crimes by forcing him to see the pattern.

"A magnet," he said, the words dragged from him, "or perhaps something more key."

His meaning was not lost on the two elder Summers women, nor was it appreciated.

"This is crazy," Joyce snapped. "She is not going."

"Absolutely not," Buffy said in a moment of rare agreement. She met Giles' eyes defiantly, and was struck speechless by the pity she saw there.

"You can ride with me, Dawn," he said quietly.

* * * * *

"This place gets creepier every apocalypse," Xander murmured as they walked the halls of the late and unlamented Sunnydale High School. "This better be the last one too, because it's really starting to wig me out."

"Can we make it just the last one we have to stop?" Willow pleaded. "I kind of don't want to be around for the last last one." She gripped Tara's hand a little tighter, and tugged on Xander's sleeve to pull him against her other side.

Dawn was swiveling her head back and forth, trying to absorb as many details as possible during their quick trek down the ruined hallways. "Why don't I remember this place?" she asked of no one in particular.

"You never went here," Buffy answered tersely.

"Yeah, and we all know spectators were discouraged at our graduation," Xander pointed out. "But I would have thought you got dragged to that truly scary exhibition Snyder called a 'talent show' sophomore year. I remember your mom being there, Buff, but...you know I don't think I remember Dawn. That's weird." He shook his head, and then glanced over his shoulder at Dawn. "How did you luck out of that one, kid?"

"I don't know. I don't remember." Dawn's anxiety was clear from the rising tone of her voice. "I don't even remember seeing this place from the outside before. There's like this giant hole in my mind about this place."

"Me too, but that's why I shelled out the big bucks for the high-grade shock therapy," Xander joked. He dropped back a few paces to wrap a brotherly arm around Dawn's narrow shoulders. "Don't let it bug you, Dawn. This place isn't worth remembering."

Buffy glanced anxiously at Giles as Dawn subsided into uneasy silence. This memory gap represented an unusual flaw in the otherwise seamless weaving of Dawn into the Slayer's life. To Buffy, the lapse lent credence to Giles' theory that Dawn was intended to play a part in the hellmouth's final act.

It was not the answer she was hoping for.

"Yes, well, perhaps this isn't the best time for any of us to be wandering down Memory Lane," Giles interjected swiftly. The less Dawn or the others speculated about her missing memories, the better.

Willow gestured at the burnt-out lockers and heat-scarred linoleum. "Look around you, Giles. We are literally wandering down Memory Lane."

Xander winced as his foot slipped on something dark, slimy and formerly alive. "Or maybe it's just Memory Gardens. Is Mayor MacDeath ever going to finish decaying and become one with the planet?"

"I think that's just something that crawled in here and died," Willow said helpfully, shining her flashlight on his upraised shoe. "It's still sort of juicy. The Mayor was more like blackened Cajun demon poppers after the big boom. Extra crispy."

A moment later Willow stumbled, courtesy of a hand landing forcefully on her back. "Hey!" she cried, turning around to confront an angry Cordelia. "What's up with the hitting? No hitting allowed."

"Except demons," Xander qualified.

Cordelia ignored Xander and his comments in order to focus her wrath on Willow. "Could you be any ruder? I expect it from him, but not from Little Miss Mother May I."

"Excuse..."

"Okay, so the mayor was a genocidal lunatic with all the personal charm of Leona Helmsley PMSing." Cordelia casually dismissed the mayor's character flaws with a wave of her hand. "Faith, who happens to be walking all of three feet away from you, and coincidentally can hear things at that range, actually liked the old demon." She crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes as she stared down her startled former classmate. "Way to be sensitive, Willow."

Faith grinned in spite of herself and pressed her hand to her heart. "Cor, I'm touched. Honest."

"But...but we always do 'laugh-in-the-face-of-horrible-death' jokes," Willow protested. "I didn't mean to hurt Faith's feelings. I wasn't even thinking."

"Obviously," Cordelia drawled, tossing her head.

"May we please cease this childish squabbling until after we have killed the nasty demons and saved the world?" Giles' tone was icy, a stark contrast to the fire in his eyes. "Quite honestly, when you behave like this I am hard pressed to believe that any of you have aged a day since the first time I met you."

"Sorry, Dad," Xander said with mock penitence. "I guess we're all a little amped about being on patrol again. It's almost like old times."

"Not quite," Giles said quietly, his anger giving way to anxiety as he glanced at Buffy.

Buffy, whose silences had grown to outnumber her conversations over the years, and who now preferred the solitude of her own thoughts to the companionship of friends. Buffy, whose passion had turned into a sense of responsibility and her joy to duty fulfilled.

Buffy, who had always spoken of this day as though it would be her greatest challenge...or, more chillingly, her last obstacle.

Giles was ashamed to admit he wasn't sure which he should fear more: what would happen if she lost, or what she would do if she won.and then must face the rest of her life.

"Giles is right; play time is over." The Slayer stopped dead in front of the dangling library doors, forcing the others behind her to halt as well. "Before we go in, I want to get the order straight. Faith and I are point, Giles, Wes and Gunn are the second wave, and Cordy and Xander are in charge of guarding the Spell Sisters, and my sister." She looked sharply at Dawn. "Do not move from Xander's side, do you hear? I don't care what 'feelings' you get; you stay with him."

"I'll take care of the chit," Spike grumbled as he casually edged into the hallway from the side corridor where he had been waiting.

"Spike," Buffy said flatly. "I didn't think you'd be here. How did you even find out?"

"The Watcher called to tell me not to make any long-range vacation plans. Figured since you were letting the rest of the gang play this time, little Spikey might be eligible for one last round of PacDemon before the world ends."

"Whatever." Buffy carefully placed her weapons bag on the ground and began to dole out armaments, saving the largest battleaxe for herself. "Spike, you're with Xander on Dawn detail. Cordy, take good care of Willow and Tara. If you get in trouble... "

"Hey, I know my way around a hatchet after all these years," Cordelia interrupted her. "We'll be fine. You're the one with the rough part."

"I still wish you'd let me help with the actual fight." Faith tossed the scroll she was carrying from one hand to the other. "I'm used to being the bodyguard, not Whitney Houston."

"We've been over this," Buffy answered impatiently. "You've had longer to get familiar with the incantation."

"Two hours in the car on the way down," Faith protested.

"And I've had more training and battle experience than you, especially lately," Buffy continued, her voice firmly overriding the other slayer's objections.

"So I'm guessing Xander hasn't been watching those prison flicks at your place." Faith grimaced as she stared down at the scroll. "Okay, your town, your show, but I still don't like it."

"I can live with that. Now can we do this?" Without waiting for a reply, Buffy vanished into the library, Faith falling in line right behind her.

Willow squeezed Tara's hand as they followed the slayers through the doorway. "Let's just hope we can get the hellmouth to take a binding spell seriously this time."

"Why don't we just throw bananas in it?" Xander suggested. He held the door open for Dawn and Cordelia as he continued, "They're modest little fruits, but if you want binding they're the...okay, I'll be quiet now."

* * * * *

Nature had started to take over the remains of the old library in the years since the Mayor met his maker. The outer wall was crumbling, and an unusually damp summer had given life to the vines that crept over its upper limits. The rains had also left the remaining woodwork moldering in the darker corners, giving off a damp rotted smell that pervaded the room despite the air let in by the holes in the wall. The floor was littered with clods of broken plaster and pulpy books, ready and waiting to trip the unwary trespasser and hurtle them into the gaping hole in the center of the room.

That hole was the only source of light in the room, pulsing with an unearthly blue-white glow that flickered across the decaying ceiling. Buffy had expected to see a demon, or several demons, immediately upon entering, but the hellmouth was eerily silent and apparently abandoned.

"Hey, look, no monsters. Can we go now?" The relief in Xander's voice was palpable; however much he wanted to support Buffy, he was also deeply interested in having a future with his wife and yet-to-be born child.

"This...this isn't right," Buffy answered slowly. She shot a quick glance at Cordelia. "Was your vision this quiet, Cor?"

Cordelia eyed the dimly lit room speculatively. "Umm, no, there was a whole lot more screaming and bleeding going on. Of course the visions are more of a Christmas Yet-to-Be sort of thing, so maybe by just being here we're preventing the whole deal." She smiled gamely, but no one was fooled, not even Cordelia.

A sudden rumble grew from the mouth of hell.

"I'm thinking no." Buffy took a few steps towards the hole, gesturing for Faith to join her as she peered down into the abyss.

An instant later a forest of tentacles snaked up over the edge and twined around Faith, yanking her down into the hole before Willow could finish screaming.

"My turn," Buffy sighed. "Take care of Dawn."

Without another word she hefted the axe in her hand and jumped down after Faith, leaving her friends stunned into silence.

Silent, that is, until the tentacles came back for them.

* * * * *

Buffy landed abruptly on the hard earth inside the mouth of hell, staggering slightly when she touched down. She remembered it being a much longer fall the last time, but it seemed the hellmouth was closer to the surface these days. Not exactly the best news she'd had all day, she reflected grimly in the instant before she saw Faith.

The dark-haired Slayer was lying on the ground like a discarded doll, limbs twisted beneath her unmoving body. The sickly white tentacles of the alpha hellbeast hovered over her, not touching, but not permitting aid either.

"Faith, are you still in there? Talk to me!"

For one fleeting moment Buffy, the demon, even the hellmouth itself seemed to freeze waiting for Faith's reply.

The answer, when it came, was only a groan. Still, it was sufficient to assure life, if not immediate good health, and for now that was enough for both sides to continue.

As Buffy raised her axe to start hacking her way through to her friend, the tentacles began to quiver. First they turned slowly towards Buffy, almost seeming to look at her, and then in a blur of motion they shot up to the top of the hole and outward.

Up and out toward the Scoobies and Dawn.

There was no more time for plans or battle tactics. It was a simple case of slash and smash, striking out at any part of the demon close enough to be reached and then stepping in closer to reach still more of it. Gradually Buffy sensed Faith beginning to stir off to her side. She moved slowly in front of her injured companion, trying to shield her from the demon's "sight" and advances long enough for Faith to join the fight.

"I'm on it, B," she heard Faith call at last, and a moment later a knife whistled through the air past her ear and planted itself in one of the tentacles. Buffy breathed the tiniest sigh of relief, and started planning again.

They needed to do the incantation; it was the only way to permanently defeat the beast, and the others creeping up from behind it. But it now looked like it would take both of them fighting full bore to contain the demons, and even that might not be enough.

Meanwhile, the demon was also striking out at those she loved on the floor above, and Buffy was powerless to stop it.

* * * * *

On the first floor of the room once known as the Sunnydale High library, another battle was being waged, with about as much success.

Giles, Gunn and Wesley were closest to the "body" of the largest beast, hacking away at any of the flailing white limbs that came near. If they couldn't kill the demon, their job was to try and beat a clear path to its source so that Buffy and Faith would have an escape route. Tara and Willow had abandoned their protection spells and joined Cordelia in the fight to keep the tentacles of the same great white beast from advancing beyond the library walls. Spike and Xander were trying to keep Dawn behind them as they waged their own battle with a smaller, yet equally deadly demon that had crept out of the hellmouth using the tentacled demon as a rope ladder.

From the ferocity and strength the demons displayed in relatively open terrain, every warrior for good knew that the Slayers did not stand much chance in the small and contained area below. They would need back up in the hole itself, but getting there was the problem. The slimy white demon took up most of the opening, and he didn't seem to want to move.

As the chaos raged around her, Dawn slowly slipped away from her protectors. There was a force guiding her, pulling her towards the mouth even as the tentacled demon reached out for her. She dimly heard Spike shout, and then Xander, but she ignored their entreaties. She followed the path created by rising walls of undulating tentacles, trusting the higher power she felt calling to her to provide her safe passage.

And then it would be her turn to guarantee the same to a no-less deserving soul in need of guidance.

* * * * *

Buffy staggered back a pace, breathing harshly through strained lungs as she fell against the wall. She could scarcely stand any more; the demons raged at them from all sides and she had to bear the brunt of their attacks, now that Faith was trying to invoke the closure spell. She alone must hold back the demons long enough for Faith to finish, or they would both die trying.

But it was so hard, and it hurt, worse than any physical pain she'd ever known. She no longer kept tally on what was broken or merely sprained; she was fairly sure all were breaks now. Her hands fought to hold the wooden handle of the axe, made slippery by her own blood, and her feet demanded purchase on a ground drenched in more of the same.

This, then, was the battle she had been saved for. This was the battle Angel, among others, had died to ensure she would be here to win. To honor the memories of all those who had fallen, she could do no less.

And yet she was so very tired.

Her ears had grown accustomed to the screaming, both from her friends above and the demons below. It all blended together now, just the familiar cacophony of a world being torn apart by the forces of darkness.

Darkness. The word drifted through her numbed and battle-scarred brain. What a wonderful, peaceful idea.

She was jolted from her lapse into near-unconsciousness by the sound of a name ripped from Faith's lips.

"Dawn! Get out!"

Dawn. Dawn was here, in the mouth of hell. In the one place Giles tried to tell Buffy that her sister belonged.

Buffy fought back the darkness that fogged her brain, and the weakness that dragged at her limbs. Dawn must be removed, immediately, before the hellmouth recognized its danger; or the world its salvation. Buffy had sacrificed one too many in the name of world salvation.

It ended here.

Faith abandoned the incantation and began to fight again, trying to protect Dawn from the myriad of demons. As the dark-haired Slayer battled, the younger girl calmly crossed behind her to retrieve the discarded scroll, smiling faintly at her sister as she passed.

A moment later, Dawn started reading the incantation and the mouth of hell began to turn in upon itself.

Buffy struggled to stand erect without the wall's support. Her shaking arms raised the battleaxe to defend her family, even if it meant letting the world stand on its own. A white tentacle reached out for Dawn and Buffy threw all her remaining strength into her swing, falling heavily at her sister's feet on the downward stroke.

She couldn't rise again. She tried to focus her energies, tried to draw on every ounce of willpower at her command, tried to use every technique Giles or Angel had ever taught her to find her inner reserves.

But it was all gone.

In desperation, she called out to Angel, willing him to come to her, even though she knew he promised only to come at her last moment. She would gladly let this be the moment if he could just lend her a trace of the strength she had always found in his soul.

Dawn's voice rose over the sound of the humans screaming in the library above. It rose over Faith's outcry as she knelt over the fallen Buffy. It rose over the howl of the demons as one by one they started to wither and fall back into the hellmouth. It rose over the cry of the hellmouth itself, as it recognized its other half. Light to its dark, wellspring to its abyss, yin to its yang.

For it was the door to hell itself, and Dawn was The Key.

* * * * *

"But she's calling for me!"

"No."

"Just let me go to her for a minute. It won't change the outcome, I swear," Angel said desperately. "I can't just sit and watch this."

"Soon," the Being promised.

"She needs me," he insisted.

"She needs to say goodbye," was his answer, delivered in a tone that left no room for arguments.

* * * * *

"Buffy, can you hear me? Everything is okay now. But I think it's time to go."

She heard the voice dimly, as though it was fighting to get through layers of wool or heavy cotton batting to penetrate her eardrums. The screaming had stopped, she knew that; so why was it so hard to hear Dawn?

"Dawn," she mumbled, trying to force her eyes open. "You sound so strange. Are you okay?"

Buffy heard Faith sob as she spoke; Faith, who never cried from pain or fear.

"I'm fine, Buffy," Dawn quickly reassured her. A warm arm wrapped around Buffy's shoulders, pulling her in for a brief embrace. "Thanks to you. Everyone is all right, thanks to you."

"The others? Not hurt?" She struggled to get up to see for herself, but Dawn's arms held her captive.

"They will take care of each other. Your job is done, Buffy; you can rest now."

"Rest?" Buffy breathed the word with disbelief. Rest was not for slayers; it was for them to guard while others enjoyed it.

"Rest," Dawn repeated gently. "You've done what you were called to do, and now it's time to go home; both of us."

"No!" Faith's protest came swiftly; drawn from some ancient primal instinct that Dawn's concept of 'home' no longer included four walls and a mailbox. She reached down and pulled the weakened Buffy from Dawn's treacherous grasp. "She's not going anywhere. You do what you have to do, but she's not going with you."

Buffy struggled to open her eyes, succeeding in time to see Dawn shake her head.

"No, she's not going with me. She has her own journey to finish, now that she's led me to the end of mine."

"It's not fair," Buffy whispered. "You shouldn't have to end up down here all alone, holding the world together."

A brief inner battle was waged within the Slayer's heart. More than anything she wanted to take her promised reward and finally be as one with the man she loved; but family came with its own sacred duties, and there are many kinds of love.

"I'll stay with you, Dawnie." In her heart, she would always be with Angel.

Dawn smiled sweetly at the childhood nickname; a smile more mature, and yet more remote than Buffy could ever remember seeing on her sister's face. It matched the faraway tone in her voice.

"No, Buffy. You've fulfilled your destiny, and you've been released. Now it's my turn; I can feel it." She raised her head and glanced around the crumbling earthen walls of the slowly shrinking hellmouth. "I've been waiting a long time for this. This is the missing half of me, the part I tried to deny but could never be whole without." She returned her attention to Buffy. "You wouldn't want to keep me away from that, would you? You, of all people?"

"I'll miss you." Buffy could hear herself choking on blood as she spoke, but she couldn't feel the pain anymore. The wool that had covered her ears was winding around her body now, wrapping her up safe and warm within its confines.

"No you won't," Dawn promised. "You'll be too happy finally being with Angel to even notice who's not there. And I'll be happy for you."

"B, you have to fight this. You still have people who need you." Faith shook her, little caring if she caused her injured friend pain in her desperation to be understood. "Your mom needs you, and Giles, and all the rest of the gang. And me, I need you. I'm just starting to figure out the angles on this being good deal, but I need the pro to walk me through it."

Buffy could hear Faith talking, but the words floated over her in a blur of meaningless sounds and pauses. She was focused on Dawn's promise, and clinging to it with every ounce of strength she had left.

"He'll be waiting for me?"

"He's been waiting for centuries, since the day he was born. Now it's time for you to bring him home." As Dawn spoke, her fingertips began to glow with a strange silvery light. It spread up her arms and then down the length of her torso, creeping outward to every extremity. "This is your turn, Buffy, yours and Angel's. I know it's not exactly what you hoped for, but eternity isn't such a bad deal either."

The silvery glow had completely overtaken Dawn now, blurring her human form and features until they were just a wavering memory of shape and substance. She rose to her feet, or what had been her feet, and slowly backed away from Buffy.

"I can't...can't believe I didn't see this." Buffy fought for the breath to release her final words. She owed Dawn an apology, and she was running out of time. "All this time I thought...I had to protect you from the hellmouth...and it was your destiny."

"Sounds like the rest of the world about you and Angel," Dawn reminded her gently. "But now you're sending me on my way and I'm sending you on yours. What I want to know is: does that make me Glinda...or the ruby slippers?"

Buffy choked on the laughter that welled up within her, past the blood and the tears and the memories. "Always knew you read my diary."

She was sure there was an answering smile lurking beneath the flickering silver light, but the Slayer could no longer see well enough to penetrate the glow. She still heard Faith's voice calling to her, and then she heard the others shouting from the floor above. The only words that made any sense were Dawn's.

"Be happy, Buffy."

Dawn gradually dispersed into individual twinkles of light. As Buffy felt her body being raised to the library above, she could see the silvery sparks coalesce into a fine mist over the opening of the hellmouth, healing it and sealing it until nothing remained but a smooth earthen surface.

* * * * *

Buffy was laid flat on the library floor while friends dear as family hovered over her. She could dimly feel hands stroking her forehead while others gently probed her wounds. Voices tugged at her from every direction, all of them trying to tie her to the leaden, broken vessel they believed to be the real Buffy.

"Buffy, please hang on," Willow whispered in her ear. "Gunn is calling 911; you just have to hang in until the paramedics get here." The witch squeezed her hand, and a moment later Buffy could feel Tara covering both of their hands with her own, lending her spirit as well. "You can do that, right? You're strong."

"Nobody stronger," Xander added stoutly. "Will's right; you can't leave, Buff. You haven't had a chance to laugh at my kid's pointed head yet, and you just know you want to see Anya's face when she realizes what's actually in a dirty diaper." His warm tears splashed on her cheek, tracing a clear path through the hellmouth residue on her skin. "Too much happening to take off now."

She felt a hand at the back of her head, lifting her slightly to make room for a folded coat used as a makeshift pillow. "You can't leave us, Buffy. I know you like to do things your own way, but children are not supposed to die before their parents."

Giles spoke calmly, almost conversationally, but even through the fog in her brain Buffy could hear the underlying bewilderment in his voice; he had never truly believed this day would come. His hand repeatedly smoothed her forehead as he spoke, as though he was trying to hypnotize her into following his instructions. "You can't do this to me, Buffy. It's just not right."

"Stop with the soft sell, Giles; just say no." A hand seized Buffy's shoulder. "You listen to me, Buffy Summers. I know why you're doing this and I won't let you. You can't go chasing after him; a girl needs to play hard to get." Cordelia's voice broke on her last word, and any further pep talks were muffled by Wesley's shoulder and the soothing nonsense words he was murmuring into her hair.

Buffy could hear Gunn on the cell phone, his voice growing louder every frustrating second that it took to explain the situation. Spike was voluble in his mingled curses and prayers as he vented all his unwanted, and unrequited, emotions on the mound of earth that covered the hellmouth.

Faith had been silent since they were raised from the hellmouth; Buffy wasn't even sure if the other slayer was still in the room until she felt a strong hand gripping her chill fingers, and cool lips brushing across her sweaty brow. "Godspeed, B," her old friend said steadily. "When you see him, you plant a big wet one on him for me, okay?"

Buffy wanted to say goodbye, give them her love, tell them not to worry. But then she felt the shiver.

Except it was more than a shiver now. It was a warm tingling that spread over and through her, lighting up both body and soul from within. It was warmth and family; it was love and security and peace, all wrapped up in one tall, dark and now blessedly brood-free package waiting for her on the edges of this reality.

Angel had come for her at last, and now they could both go home.

* * * * *

To Be Continued