Those Who Favor Fire

by Mediancat

Set at the end of Buffy 6/Charmed 4. During Grave, something goes wrong, and the world is destroyed. Can Anya, Angel and the Charmed ones set things right again?

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I've tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

-- Robert Frost, "Fire and Ice"



Lying on the floor of the ruined Magic Box, Giles said, "Something's wrong."

Anya - nervous, alert - said, "What?"

More resignation in his voice then he'd ever thought possible, Giles said, "No one's going to be able to stop her."

"What?"

"The magic isn't working fast enough," Giles said. "There's no one to stop her."

"What? Then, then, make it work! We didn't come this far so the world could end!" She looked over at Giles; his eyes were closed. Anya slapped him. "Don't die."

"Not yet," Giles said. "But soon." He frowned. "It should not be happening like this. The coven -" He broke off. "Leave me."

"You're joking."

"Absolutely, Anya," Giles said. "The world is about to come to an end and I've chosen to start my career as a stand-up comedian. No, I mean, you're the only one who can escape this. S-somehow come back in time and prevent it."

"Make a wish," Anya said.

"It's -" he said, fading. "It's not powerful enough."

"The world's coming to an end," Anya said. "And you've chosen to start your career as a pessimist." She held out the necklace. "MAKE A FRIGGING WISH ALREADY!"

He coughed. "I wish you'd go find someone who could fix this." Then he closed his eyes again.

Anya leaned downed and kissed his forehead, and tears in her eyes, said "Done."

* * * * *

For once for the Halliwells, it was a slow night. Paige, Piper and Phoebe sat there watching a MASH rerun.

"I hate syndication," Piper complained. "I bet we're missing a lot of the good lines."

"Well," Phoebe said, "Maybe if SOMEONE would spring for a DVD player we could see what we're missing. But no -"

Paige just munched popcorn. Piper and Phoebe had been cheerfully bitching at each other all night, and she was happy to watch it.

They hadn't seen Cole since that night a week or so back with the FBI agent. Whatever had happened with him, apparently he wasn't ready to make another appearance. Paige figured that was good for Phoebe. She'd been on such a damn roller coaster recently.

On the screen, Hawkeye was cracking wise to Major Winchester. Paige reached for the remote to turn of the volume - and dropped the remote when someone suddenly teleported in right in front of them.

They yelped in unison and instinctively prepped themselves for an attack, but it was only Anya.

Piper said, "The next time you're going to drop in for a visit, knock. We don't respond to well to people popping into our living rooms. Makes us nervous."

"And since when can you teleport?" Phoebe asked.

"Since I became a vengeance demon again," Anya said. "Look. I don't have time. Don't ask any stupid questions. Don't ask any smart ones, either. The world's coming to an end."

"It couldn't be," Piper said. "We would have been - LEO!"

"Tara got killed, Willow went crazy with grief and right now she's ready to finish this world-destroyed-in-fire ritual. Buffy can't stop it. No one can. But you -"

Again Piper yelled, "LEO!"

The Whitelighter orbed in. Before Anya could say anything, he looked at her and said, "I know." Then he took a deep breath and said to the Charmed Ones, "She's right. We can't stop it. But we might be able to fix it later."

"How exactly if we're all dead?" Paige asked.

"We won't be. You can shield yourselves. But you only have a couple of minutes."

"We can do more than that," Piper said. "Remember, we have a giant pentagram centered here. Helps anchor our powers through the elements. I think we can save most of San Francisco." They all ran for the attic, where Piper began frantically paging through the Book of Shadows.

"Anything I can do?" Anya asked.

"Go back," Leo said. "Get Buffy - or Xander. Save them too."

"I can't," Anya said. "I can't take anyone with me. I'm lucky I don't show up naked." Then, "Don't you think I would have brought them with me if I could?"

"Yes," Leo said quietly.

"I'll be right back," Anya said as she teleported out. When she came back a few seconds later, she said, "It's starting." There was more agony in those two words than Paige ever could have imagined hearing.

"We're ready," Piper said.

Then, in unison: "Power of Three, direct us. Power of the elements, protect us. Power of Three, direct us. Power of the elements, protect us. Power of Three, direct us. Power of the elements, protect us." They kept chanting for as long as it took.

Around them, the world burned.

Part 2

Power shot out from Halliwell Manor in five directions, in very visible bluish-purple rays. They hit the five corners of the pentagram and spread out to cover a circle.

People looked up and wondered what was going on. A few of them, being witches or warlocks themselves, knew; and a few of the ones who WEREN'T people also knew. The Halliwells were setting up some kind of shield.

When they saw the fire coat the sky overhead, every single power in the area, good, evil, or indifferent, dropped whatever they were doing and did their best to add their power to the Halliwells'. This was no time to worry about factions.

The rest of the world wasn't so fortunate.

The flames took Buffy, Dawn, and the rest of them almost immediately. Jonathan and Andrew it killed a half second later.

In Los Angeles, Lilah Morgan was being grilled about her experiences with Wesley when she saw the fire coming. She decked Linwood right before the fire consumed them both.

Fred and Gunn never saw it coming.

Neither did Faith, still serving out her sentence for manslaughter.

Ethan Rayne, still stuck in a top-secret military prison somewhere in the Arizona desert, survived slightly longer . . . although he wasn't very happy about it.

Within a minute it was crossing the world. Riley Finn and his wife, in the middle of an assignment to clear out a nest of O-O demons just off the coast of Maui, immediately jumped into the ocean and did their best to sink like stones.

Good idea. They just didn't have the time to make it work. The ocean around them boiled.

In a cave in Africa, a newly souled Spike was told, "It's a pity you won't be able to enjoy it . . ."

And he, too, burned.

Within five minutes the surface of the earth, pole to pole, Perth to Perth Amboy, had been charred.

The astronauts up in the international space station survived . . . as did everyone more than a mile deep in the ocean. A few witches and assorted other magic-users had enough time to shield themselves or dive into alternate dimensions, provided they weren't picky about where they landed.

The sum total of human survivors by that count was under two dozen. And they were too scattered to do any good.

And the Charmed Ones' voices couldn't hold out forever.

* * * * *

Anya popped in and out. Finally, a half hour after they started, she said, "It's over."

Phoebe spoke first. "Water . . ." Leo ran downstairs and came back up with three bottles of spring water.

"Go easy on it," he said. "The power's out." Of course it would be.

"I'd imagine," Piper said after draining her bottle. "Everything else will be too. Water, phones . . ."

"Did you guys get the impression someone else was helping us?" Paige asked. About thirty seconds in she'd felt an influx of power. Not much . . . but enough to make sure the shield didn't fall.

Phoebe nodded, saying. "Yeah. Not surprised. Any witch out there would have seen what was going on." Then, to Leo and Anya: "What did go on?"

Anya gave them more details, starting with the trio's exploits, running through Warren's murder of Tara and his subsequent skinning. "And Willow went to the hills on the outskirts of town and raised part of a temple to Vocipaxa - where she completed a ritual some of her worshippers had started to end the world."

Leo said, "Vocipaxa? Dear god, no wonder . . . "

"Who is Vocipaxa?" Paige asked.

"Fire demon," Anya said. "Nasty. Vicious. Evil as they come."

"Worse than that," Leo said. "Vocipaxa is the spirit of pure destruction. Evil doesn't begin to describe her. Most of the forces of evil would be helping us right now."

"I felt those people helping us too," Piper said. "I'd be surprised if some hadn't." They all went downstairs and sat down. "What do we do now?" she asked.

Fiercely, Anya said, "FIX IT."

"Great idea," Phoebe said. "Little short on the details."

"I don't do details," Anya said, nervousness evident in her voice. "I do vengeance." She wasn't mouthing off, Paige realized; she was desperately searching for something to do . . . and she wasn't at all confident she could do it herself.

"What about your necklace?" Paige asked. "Power of the wish. Maybe if -"

"It's not powerful enough against Vocipaxa," Leo said. "Even if all of the vengeance demons got together, they wouldn't be able to undo this. We're going to need something even bigger." He frowned.

"The last thing Giles did," Anya said, "Was wish that I would find people who could fix the world. I found you. You CAN make this better. I just don't know how."

"I think we need to go see what happened," Paige said. "Then we can figure out what to do."

"Leo?" Phoebe said.

"I'll go check with the Elders," he said. "This is new territory for them too."

He orbed away. Paige looked at Anya. "Can you follow me."

Anya nodded. "I think so."

Then they went out to view the devastation.

* * * * *

In the ashes of what had once been Santa Carolita, California, three women appeared in a burst of green energy.

The youngest looked around and laughed disbelievingly. "Son of a bitch, Kendy. You were right."

Kendall Severance looked at her younger sister. "And you thought what, Kit? That mom and dad and granddad and grandma were lying to us about Vocipaxa all these years?" She smiled. "We just did it, sisters. We destroyed the world."

The third and oldest said, "Vocipaxa destroyed the world. We just . . . cleared a few obstacles out of the way." She closed her eyes and frowned. "But not all."

"What do you have, Kali?" Kit asked.

"San Francisco."

Kendall laughed again. "Of course, San Francisco."

"The Charmed Ones?" Kit asked. "Never mind. Of course it's the Charmed Ones."

Kali shook her head. "Well, this is what we've been waiting our whole lives for. Ready?"

The Severances clasped hands. When they broke, Kendall said, "Okay then, now we know what we're going to do . . . how are we going to get there?"

* * * * *

On a blackened hilltop overlooking the scorched remnants of Sunnydale, California, a dark-haired Willow Rosenberg woke up.

As she saw the world in ruins, she said only one thing:

"This is weird."

Part 3

They landed at the border between what had been saved, and what hadn't.

Outside, hardly anything was left even half-intact. A few buildings had survived the flames, but even they were charred wreckage, as far as the eye could see. The water bubbled and boiled; the air was warm.

Nothing moved at all.

Anya and the Halliwells just stood there for a few moments, drinking in the extent of the carnage. Finally, Paige said. "Is - is the entire rest of the world like this?"

Anya teleported out and reappeared thirty seconds later. "Yup."

"I," Piper said, "I - I didn't realize. It hadn't hit me. The world is gone. I mean, it's one thing to talk about it intellectually, and another to see it -"

Phoebe said, "I know." But then she looked at Anya. "We can fix this, though. I know we can."

They began walking around. People were in something of a panic . . . most of them. They had no idea what had happened; some of them had no idea what they were going to be eating in a few days.

People came up, talked to them, asked what had happened. They were told the truth; under the circumstances, there was no point in lying.

A few powers came up and asked them what to do - mostly witches, though three were demons, two were warlocks and one was a water sprite. To all of them they said the same thing: Help people get through it as best as you can. If - if things weren't fixed in a few days, then everyone come to Halliwell Manor and they'd work on it from there.

And all of them, even the demons, agreed.

Another half hour or so of much the same and Piper looked at Phoebe. "You think we've seen enough?"

"More than," Phoebe answered.

They went back to Halliwell Manor. Leo was there waiting for them. "If you were ready -" Piper said.

"You needed to see it yourselves," the Whitelighter said. "I wasn't going to come get you until you really knew what was going on."

"So now we know," Paige said. "What do we do about it?"

"Nothing," Leo said. "Whitelighters are going to come down and make sure everybody gets fed for a while . . . and the civil authorities will handle some of the rest of it."

"The police!" Phoebe said. "Darrell, is he --?"

Leo nodded. "Darrell's fine. He's not going to be able to help you, though - he'll be too busy helping keep the peace. And those witches and demons you ran into, we're going to need them to help us with the food, if they're up to it."

"They should be," Piper said.

"So what happened?" Anya said. "Giles was so sure what he did would work . . . why didn't it?" She seemed personally offended, as though the idea that Giles' having claimed something would work was enough to guarantee it.

"Some kind of interference," Leo said. "Somehow, someone knew what Willow was doing . . . and interfered to make sure that no one would get in her way. This changes the rules."

"How?" Paige asked.

"It means we can interfere too," Leo said. "You've noticed . . . we don't try to change the past. Whether it's something like Prue's death . . . or the events of September 11th . . . we don't try to fix them. We could . . . but we don't. But these events weren't natural." He sighed. "Unfortunately, HOW we fix them is still an open issue. They happened inside the Hellmouth's fifty-mile radius . . . we were lucky to even get as much as we did."

"I guess that leaves it up to us," Piper said.

Phoebe said, "Doesn't it always?"

* * * * *

Of course, Kendy Severance had known damn well, how they were going to get to San Francisco; she'd just been grousing for the sake of grousing. Waving her hand, a box-shaped energy field appeared in front of them. All three Severances stepped in.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Kendy said, "Please make sure all carry-on luggage is stowed in the overhead compartments . . . and please fasten your seat belts, we're about to take off." She concentrated and the box rose from the ground and headed generally northward. "Make sure your tray tables are locked and your chair is in the upright position, and thank you for flying Severance Airlines."

"If you're quite done being a smartass?" Kali said. "The witch who got this started is also still alive . . . I'll keep an eye out. We definitely want to stay out of her way." She sighed. "I wish I could see the future too, but at least we'll be able to avoid her on the way there."

"Speaking of the way there," Kendy said. "Kit? Right now we're zooming along at about thirty miles an hour or so. I dunno about you, but I'd like to get there sometime before midnight."

"I do all the work around here," Kit said melodramatically.

"If you don't like the transportation," Kendy said, "You're free to get out and walk. Better get a flying spell ready, though, 'cause I'm not stopping."

Kit looked over the edge - they were at least a few hundred feet up by this point - then looked at her older sister and said, "Uh . . . no." Then she faced the back of the box, said, "Brace yourselves . . ."

Flame burst from her hands and the Severances zoomed onward.

* * * * *

Willow stood up, her spirit still as dark as her hair. "I didn't think I'd survive this," she said to no one in particular. She looked around at the devastation around her. Not a tree, not a blade of grass stood as far as she could see, and damn few buildings.

But . . . but there was still pain in the world. Still suffering. This wasn't right. NO ONE should be in pain.

No one.

She extended her senses and concentrated . . . of course. The Halliwells.

Shouldn't be a problem. With all the dead witches in the world . . . there was a lot of free-floating power out there. She absorbed some of it and gave herself superhuman speed.

Next stop, San Francisco.

Part 4

While the Halliwells researched, paced, and tried to keep Anya from completely sinking into despair, Leo orbed in and out several times. Many of the Whitelighters had also been caught up in the apocalypse; some just hadn't seen it coming, others had been unwilling to leave their charges. That left the remaining ones working their rear ends off.

They realized quickly that before they went back to actually try to change what had happened, they needed to know exactly what had gone wrong. The first thing they did was grill Anya yet again on absolutely everything that had happened. "Doesn't matter how trivial you think it is," Piper said. "Everything."

This took them a while; when they were done Phoebe said, "We've never met this Giles, right?"

"Right," Anya said. "He was Buffy's Watcher. Until he left earlier this year."

"And he's not a witch himself?"

"No. But he knows a lot about magic. That's how he was able to fight Willow as well as he did."

Piper shook her head. "Something's bothering me about that," she said. "Yeah, it was a hard fight, but he seemed to almost . . . give up there at the end."

"Giles wouldn't have done that!" Anya said defensively.

"What are you thinking?" Paige asked.

"I'm thinking he wanted Willow to win," Piper said. "But from what Anya said he must have had a reason."

"What we need to do," Phoebe said, "Is actually go back and LOOK." She looked at Piper. "Can we do that?"

"We're going to kill ourselves trying," Piper said.

Leo orbed back in, looking a little gaunt. "The Elders have decided to bring all the survivors from elsewhere to San Francisco. We're scanning the planet right now for souls. We've already got the astronauts up in the International Space Station and a coven from Baltimore." He looked away for a second. "I have to get going. Trouble with one of the other survivors." He orbed away again.

"Boy needs some food, stat," Piper muttered.

The Whitelighter orbed back in a few seconds later . . . but he wasn't alone. The startling thing was the identity of his companion, a very wet, dark-haired, brown eyed man.

But it wasn't technically a man; it was a vampire. But a trustworthy one.

Anya said, "Angel?" The vampire nodded his head.

"We found him in a coffin a mile and a half down off the coast of Los Angeles," Leo said. "There was some confusion over whether to rescue him."

"Not that I'm not glad you did," Angel said. "But what the hell's going on?"

Anya said, "Willow destroyed the world."

Angel looked at the Halliwells. "Is she kidding?"

"Afraid not," Piper said. "But we're trying to make it better."

Angel nodded. "Count me in, then . . . but if someone could tell me what, why . . . this is a little overwhelming."

Anya took a deep breath and repeated her story for the fourth time in the last few hours.

* * * * *

"Here she comes," Kali Severance said; in the distance, the towers of San Francisco could barely be seen.

"Going up," Kendy said, and the box went up another couple hundred feet. "If you experience a sudden drop in cabin pressure, you're SOL; we don't have any oxygen masks. Kit -" she made a throat-slitting motion and her younger sister shut off the jet of flame.

Kit sat down on the bottom of the box. "Next time, remind me to lay in some food."

"If everything goes well, there's not going to BE a next time. Remember?" Kendy said. "That little apocalypse thing we just helped with?" Kit stuck out her tongue. Kendy ignored this and turned to Kali. "Where is she now?"

Kali turned and said, "I'm not watching her now. I don't want to take the risk of her noticing we're in the neighborhood when we're . . . in the neighborhood."

Looking down at Kit, Kendy said, "That almost made sense."

Kit nodded and gave a half-grin. "I think that's a record."

Frostily, Kali said, "Have you given any actual thought to what we're going to do when we actually GET to San Francisco?"

"Guns blazing, kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out," Kendy said. "Not God. You know what I mean."

"Kendy -" Kali said

"By the way, did you know that phrase came from an actual abbot? Guy named Arnaud-Amaury, back in the 1200s. Something do to with a siege."

"KENDY!" Kali said.

"Yes?" Kendall Severance said innocently. Still sitting on the box's floor, Kit was heroically not laughing.

Sighing, Kali said, "I don't think that plan's going to work. Every witch left on the planet's going to be in there. Plus probably a few demons and other guys who aren't too interested in bringing about the apocalypse. We go in there trying to kill everyone we'll be dead before we get halfway to Halliwell Manor."

"And your suggestion, oh princess of long-term planning?" Kendy asked.

"My suggestion? We go in pretending to be survivors."

"There were no survivors," Kit said. "That's why we set the world on fire, remember?"

"Did you think I'd spent the entire trip spying on Vocipaxa's summoner?" Kali said. "The Whitelighters have been bringing in people from all over the world. Not MANY people, but some. We'll just be exactly who we are: Three sister witches who somehow managed to avoid the apocalypse."

Kendy was nodding. "Not bad, Kali. Not bad at all. Okay, then, that's the way we'll play it. With any luck, the Halliwells won't know we're their opposite numbers until it's too late."

"What was it you called us when we went back?" Kit said. "I liked that name."

"If the Halliwells are the Charmed Ones," Kendy said. "By the time this is done and the world is dead we're going to be the Only Ones."

"All for one and one for all?" Kali asked a trifle sardonically?

"Something like that," Kendy said, quirking a smile.

* * * * *

Down below them, running at around 100 mph, Willow Rosenberg knew damn well she was passing below three flying witches.

What was the point in flying up to attack them, though? She had enough power of her own . . . and they'd be dead soon enough, anyway.

San Francisco grew steadily closer.

Part 5

When Anya was done - with a few interruptions from the Halliwells -- Angel looked at Leo and said, "I'd like to go back to the coffin now."

"Sorry," Leo said with a wry grin. "I'm a little busy."

Anya said, "That was a joke, right?" Angel nodded. "This isn't funny. Nothing's funny. Please stop trying to be funny, okay?"

"Anya," Angel said gently, "I just found out that of the six billion people left on the planet we have a few hundred thousand left . . . and that someone I've known for years is responsible." He closed his eyes. "Willow. Of all people, Willow. I have to find something to laugh about or I think I'll go crazy."

"Right," Anya said. "I get you. Xander would have said the same thing."

A look of horror crossed Angel's face for just a second, and then he turned to the Halliwells and said, "What's the plan?"

"Well, right now we're trying to find out exactly how the past was altered," Piper said. "I mean, the results are obvious, but if we don't know what broke we can't fix it."

"I'm thinking Giles poisoned the well," Angel said. "Or at least he tried to."

"'splain, please -" Phoebe said.

"You said it felt like he wanted Willow to win that fight - maybe there was something in the magic he passed on. Or there was supposed to be."

"That's a thought," Piper said. "Right now we're working on a spell that'll let us observe what happened in the past."

"Include me in," Angel said. "Anya too." Anya smiled at him gratefully.

The spell they eventually came up with wasn't their usual style; it was a ritual, and Anya actually knew more about how to cast it than they did.

"This is a little embarrassing," Paige said. "I mean, we're the Charmed Ones . . . shouldn't we be the experts here?"

"Oh, I'm sure you are," Anya said. "But I've been alive for 1100 years. I've picked up a few things along the way. Including a detailed knowledge of how to torture people with toothpicks, if we actually catch who did this. I have plans. Vengeance plans." She sighed and led the Halliwells and Angel through the ritual.

A screen appeared in front of them and they began viewing the past.

* * * * *

"So, should we walk in or fly?" Kit Severance asked. She was back to shooting flames off the back end of the box. "I mean, we're getting close. Maybe we don't want to clue them in on how powerful we are."

"We're witches," Kali said. "We survived an apocalypse. I don't think they're going to think we're amateurs anyway."

"We're not amateurs?" Kendy asked. "Damn. Someone's behind on sending out those paychecks then." At Kali's glare she said, a tad more seriously, "Still, maybe it's best to shut down the fire. No sense giving them too much of a clue what we can do until we absolutely have to."

Kit said, "Righty-ho," and the jet of fire stopped. "What do you think our apocalypse bringer's going to do?" As the fire died down, Kendy brought the box down to a cruising altitude of about fifty feet above the ground.

Kali concentrated and said, "Right now, she's trying to set the town on fire," she said. "Not doing a bad job of either - no, it's out. Her problem's going to be that she's more powerful than any of them, but she's not more powerful than all of them put together."

Kit said, once more sitting down, "Still, it should be a nice little distractio - aahh!" The scream was because a Whitelighter had just orbed in next to her. Instinctively, she kicked out and the Whitelighter fell over the edge of the box.

"Well, that was smart," Kendy said.

The Whitelighter in question, a pretty young woman who looked to be about their own age, orbed back in next to them and said, "Sorry to have startled you. I'm Susan. I'm guessing you survived the conflagration too?"

"Naah," Kendy said. "We died. These are our ghosts." Whitelighters could be such idiots.

Susan started and said, "Okay. I get it. You're joking." She gestured to the charred world below. "Not much to joke about now." She frowned. "You're evil."

"We're evil," Kali said. "But don't worry. Right now we don't have any master plans. The important thing right now is to make what we can out of what we have left."

"There'll be time enough for our evil plans later," Kendy said impishly.

"That's the right attitude . . ." Susan said. "Well, at least half of it is. Just . . . land. Those of us with powers are trying to keep control over those who don't, feeding them and keeping the peace. Help out where you can." Then she orbed away again.

"Not even any customs," Kit said. "Just . . . just land. I love it. They're making it easy for us."

"They must be swamped, poor dears," Kendy said.

"Still, if we fly straight towards Halliwell Manor we're going to draw more than a few glances. We don't need the once-over twice right now," Kali said. "There's a park down there. Land. We'll walk the rest of the way."

Fifteen minutes later they were lost. "Walk the rest of the way," Kendy said mockingly. "It'll be a snap."

"I never said it would be a snap," Kali said irritably. "How did I know it would be so difficult to find the Halliwells?"

A man standing nearby - short, cute, hair dyed black - said, "You're looking for the Halliwells?"

"Yeah," Kendy said, "We think we can help them fix this."

"I know where they live," he said. "I can take you there."

Kit smiled. "Thanks," she said. "I'm Kit Severance, by the way; these are my sisters Kendy and Kali."

The man nodded and shook their hands. "Oz. Anyone else with you?"

"No," Kendy said. "We're the only ones."

* * * * *

Okay, Willow thought after her third attempt at burning down what was left of San Francisco failed. There had to be a better way to go about this. Maybe there was another way to bring the apocalypse.

She'd drained the energy from two more witches along the way and had no worries about losing power.

These people . . . they were still in pain. They needed their pain to be over.

Willow had no illusions they would agree with her.

Part 6

This is the way the world ends

This is the way the world ends

This is the way the world ends

Not with a bang but a whimper.

-- T. S. Eliot, "The Hollow Men"

In front of them, the magical viewscreen flickered onto a picture of Sunnydale some hours earlier. "Watch it as carefully as you can," Anya said. "This isn't a TV. We don't have volume control and there's no pause button."

"Got it, thanks," Piper said impatiently.

The scene was right outside the Magic Box. There were definitely sounds of a fight going on inside . . . and about thirty seconds into the struggle, a fireball came shooting out of the shop's roof, heading northwards. Buffy ran out shortly afterwards, sprinting after the fireball.

"Willow sent that to kill Jonathan and Andrew," Anya explained. "Now -" She never finished the sentence; in the alley behind the shop three young women with green eyes and blonde hair suddenly popped into existence. The tallest had an amused grin on her face; the other two looked a little worried. All three were gorgeous.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Angel said, "I think we have our time travelers."

"Beautiful Sunnydale, California," the tall one said. "Everybody remember where we parked."

"Not the time to be funny, Kendy," one of the other ones said. More fighting could be heard from inside the shop.

"According to you," Kendy said, "It's never time to be funny."

"Alternate Tuesdays," another one said.

"Quiet for a second . . . I don't want her to notice me . . ." The other two shut up. "Okay . . . okay . . . now! She's draining him!"

They waited a couple of seconds, and then in unison, the three chanted, "While the magic maintains its flow, from good to evil may it now go!" A vague red glow left them and entered the shop.

Piper, Paige and Phoebe exchanged worried looks. That had all seemed very familiar.

"Did it work, Kali?" Kendy asked.

"I think so . . . get down!" As Willow flew by overhead, the three witches crouched and did their best to look like they belonged in an alley. Either their deception worked or they were beneath Willow's notice.

"You realize we're going to have to follow her, right?" the one they didn't know the name of said. "I think I'd rather go fifteen rounds with Mike Tyson."

"Ah, Tyson's a wuss," Kendy said. "So? Kali?"

"She said something like, the poor bastards, and went off."

Kendy nodded. "Good. It's working so far - what is it?" Kali was frowning.

"Someone's watching us," Kali said. "I don't know who or where . . . but someone's watching us. Someone good."

Phoebe looked at the rest of them. "They can't possibly mean us - I mean, there's no way -"

"There is," Anya said. "One of that ritual's drawbacks. They can't see or hear us, but if they're looking for us they'll know we're watching."

"Don't know who you are," Kendy said to the air. "But you can't stop us. The Halliwells may be the Charmed Ones - but once the end of the world comes we're going to be the Only Ones." She looked back at Kali. "Right then. Is she far enough ahead of us?"

"I think so," Kali said. "Besides, we don't need to actually follow her . . . just be sure she's not interrupted."

Kendy then created some kind of . . . mobile force field, about five feet square. They all stood on it and it began moving.

"Now that we have a few minutes," Piper said. "Leo? Who the hell are these people? Because they're a lot like . . ."

"Us," Paige said. "Only evil."

"They're not like you," Anya said. "They have blonde hair."

"Okay," Phoebe said, "They're like us except they have good dye jobs."

A perplexed look on his face, Leo said, "Don't know who they are. Which doesn't mean anything. Wouldn't be the first time evil had shown up in some form I'd never heard of before."

"For what it's worth, I've never heard of them either," Angel said, and Anya echoed the sentiment.

"Anti-Charmed," Paige said. "I guess it shouldn't be too much of a shock -"

"It is to me," Leo said firmly. "If they ARE your opposite numbers I think I would have been told about it." He paused. "Besides, you already did this once, right? Three warlocks?"

"Uh-huh," Piper said sarcastically. "I also remember that not quite panning out. And besides, the Elders NEVER withhold information from you or make you do things you don't like. The warlocks didn't live up to their potential; maybe these people do."

"Shush, you!" Anya said. "They're back -"

But if what they'd seen so far confused and horrified them, it was nothing compared to what they saw next.

The three women glided to a stop at the base of a wooded hill. Towards the top of the hill, on a clearing, a figure could be seen - presumably, that was Willow calling forth the temple of Vocipaxa.

Xander was charging towards the base of the hill, so intent on reaching the top he didn't even notice the three witches. He noticed them when they glided in front of him. Nodding, he said, "Hello, ladies. I'd love to stay and chat, but I'm in a hurry -" He tried to angle around them and they moved to block his way again. "Okay," he said. "This obviously isn't a coincidence."

"Not hardly," Kendy said. "Kit?"

Kit nodded and a burst of flame shot out from her hands.

Xander dove out of the way and ran up the hill.

He made it a good twenty feet before they killed him. Anya yelped and began to cry.

Clapping her hands together, Kendy said as Xander's body burned, "Well, that was fun."

"You want to go back and see if it worked?"

Kali looked at her watch. "Twenty minutes in the future, here we come . . ."

They vanished.

The screen caught them again, popping into the ashes of another ruined city with a green flash.

Kit laughed skeptically. "Son of a bitch, Kendy. You were right."

Kendy looked at her and said, "And you thought what, Kit? That mom and dad and granddad and grandma were lying to us about Vocipaxa all these years?" She smiled triumphantly. "We just did it, sisters. We destroyed the world."

"They're sisters!" Paige said. Anya was still crying, but she was once again watching the screen.

"Vocipaxa destroyed the world," Kali said. "We just . . . cleared a few obstacles out of the way." She closed her eyes and frowned. "But not all."

"What do you have, Kali?" Kit asked.

"San Francisco."

Kendall laughed again. "Of course, San Francisco."

"We've seen enough," Phoebe said, and seconds later the screen faded away. "Okay, we know there are three evil witches . . . who know who we are . . . coming to San Francisco, and they're not happy with us. Could this get worse?"

There was a knock at the door. Piper walked over and opened it. Standing there was Oz . . .

And Kali, Kendy, and Kit were there behind him.

Piper looked at Phoebe and said, "You know better than that."

Part 7

As Oz led them through the streets of what was left of San Francisco, he engaged the Severances in conversation. He was a nice enough guy, not completely human although they couldn't peg exactly what he was.

"So, how do you know the Halliwells?" he asked.

"By reputation only," Kendy said. "But we know they're the ones responsible for . . . saving what they could."

"Not surprised," Oz said. "From what?"

"Excuse me?" Kali asked.

"Saving from what?" Oz said. "You seem to know."

"Some witch in Sunnydale invoked a . . . fire demon, we think," Kendy said.

Oz stopped so rapidly Kali ran into him. Concern evident in his deadpan voice, he said, "Sunnydale? Are you sure?"

"As sure as we can be," Kali said. "Why? Do you know a witch from Sunnydale?"

Kendy slapped her sister on the arm. "Of course he knows a witch from Sunnydale, numb-brain. Why else would he have asked the question?"

"Technically, not a witch. Two. Three if you count the rat." At the Severances' look of confusion he said, "Long story. Not worth bothering with, really. How do you know this?"

"Kali's a clairvoyant," Kit explained. "She . . . saw the witch perform the ritual. We couldn't have stopped it." If we'd wanted to, Kendy added silently.

"Who was she?"

"I'd never seen her before," Kali said. "She was very pale, with almost black eyes and jet-black hair."

Oz said. "Oh."

"Not one of the witches you knew?" Kendy asked as they started walking again.

"Doesn't sound like it," Oz said. "Wasn't expecting it to be. But I had to be sure."

To distract him from pressing any further questions their way, Kendy asked, "And you know the Halliwells how?"

"Through music. I'm in a band. We headquarter out of here, we've played in the club one of them owns, and whenever we're in town we hole up next door." He closed his eyes. "Why would someone do this?"

"Do what?" Kit asked.

"End the world. I've dealt with world-enders before," Oz said. THIS surprised them. "Back in Sunnydale. A couple of times. They were usually crazy. I never could understand them."

From their brief acquaintance with the man, the Severances had had Oz pegged as a great stone face - never showed his emotions. Given that everyone else around them was either hysterical or throwing themselves into the (hopefully futile) task of trying to preserve San Francisco, this had been something of a relief.

Unfortunately for them, even great stone faces had their limits.

"No clue," Kendy said. She was the best liar of the three of them. "Why someone would want to . . . end all of this when the world has so much to offer?" Amazingly, she kept her sarcasm out of her voice. The world sucked. She knew it, Kali knew it, Kit knew it, their parents and grandparents and all the followers of Vocipaxa knew it.

And the sooner this world ended, the sooner Vocipaxa could get around to creating a better one. One without all the garbage this one had.

Kendy Severance couldn't wait.

She wasn't crazy, either. And neither were her sisters.

Oz stopped short of hysteria - WELL short of hysteria. There was definite pain in his voice, though, almost enough to make Kendy feel sorry for him. But even if she HAD empathized with the man, that wouldn't have changed anything.

Again, time for a subject change. "How much longer is it going to take us to get there? My feet are KILLING me."

"Not long now," Oz said. "A few more minutes. What can you do to help them?"

Kali fielded this one. "As far as we know," she said coolly, "We were the closest survivors. We're pretty powerful; we'd like to do more than just feed the hungry and keep Frisco healthy." And every word was true.

"Not Frisco," Oz said. "Natives never call it that. Insults 'em, I think."

"Ah," Kali said. "San Francisco, then. Anyway, that's what we want to do."

"Understood," Oz said. "Noble of you."

"That's our middle name," Kit said pleasantly.

"I thought it was Elizabeth," Kendy said.

And then the time for chitchat was over, because they were at the top of one of San Francisco's many hills and the legendary Halliwell manor stood less than a quarter mile away.

Oz took the lead and knocked on the door. Kendy, Kali and Kit looked at each other. Kali said, "ready sisters?"

"Ready," Kit said. Kendy just stuck out her tongue.

And the door opened and Piper Halliwell was standing there -

And, worse luck, she seemed to recognize them.

So they'd been the ones the Severances had felt watching them back in Sunnydale. Piper looked at someone outside their line of sight and said, "You know better than that."

* * * * *

After she got away from the "damned, interfering" Whitelighters, Willow went more or less to ground, not hiding out, exactly, but not making any big, showy expressions of power until she figured out what to do next.

San Francisco wasn't like Sunnydale. She didn't have the damned magical history of the place stored in her head. Sure, there were probably a dozen ways to trash the place and end everyone's pain, but she needed to make sure she wasn't interrupted. She was stronger than anyone; she wasn't stronger than EVERYONE.

No help from the local big bads, either; one of the fires she'd set had been extinguished by a Pyrotik, and they LIVED to burn things down. If even the nastiest demons were lining up with the forces of sweetness and light, she was on her own.

The Halliwells - DAMN them - could have probably come up with a half dozen ways to blow up the planet just by looking through their Book of Shadows, but unfortunately she hadn't been provided with one.

So she'd just go steal theirs.

Part 8

Oz blinked. This wasn't the reaction he'd been expecting. And behind the Halliwells . . . was that Angel? And Anya, the ex-demon? Slowly, realizing he'd maybe made a mistake, he sidled around the room until he was standing next to the vampire. Angel was busily restraining Anya from doing something; presumably attacking the Severances.

"Hey man," Oz said. "What's going on?"

"Those are the bad guys," Angel said. "They're the ones who helped the world come to an end."

"They brought the apocalypse?" Oz asked. The Severances and the Halliwells were bantering back and forth.

"No," Anya said bitterly, "They just made sure it would happen. By killing Xander. WILLOW brought the apocalypse."

Oz's breath caught in his throat. "Tell me what you just said isn't true." Almost pleading, he repeated, "Tell me!"

"I wish I could," Anya said. "But the bad guys killed Tara and Willow went crazy."

"This . . . this is beyond crazy," Oz said.

"Well, no shit," Anya said.

Oz closed his eyes. "So what do we do now?"

"We wait," Angel said. "We're supporting actors in this little drama, I think; we should take our cues from the Halliwells. Be observant. Oz - the tall one's named Kendy -"

"I know their names," Oz said. "I walked them here."

"Right," Angel said. Well, she creates force fields."

"She can shape them too," Anya added.

Angel nodded his thanks. "Kit can shoot fire from her hands, and Kali can see and maybe hear things at a distance."

"Kendy seems to be the leader," Oz said. "She did most of the talking."

"We may need that. Still, we may be limited in what we can do."

"I have plans," Anya said. "Vengeance-oriented plans. Everyone's dead and I don't like it, and I'm going to find some way of punishing them for it."

After a moment, Oz said, "I believe the right word here is amen."

And they watched.

* * * * *

As the Severances entered Halliwell Manor everyone stood around and stared at each other for a few seconds. "Charmed Ones?" Kendy asked.

"The three and only," Phoebe said, her words clipped. "And you're the Only Ones."

"Yup," Kit said. "Well, shortly."

There was another period of silence, broken by Paige. "So," she said. "Shouldn't we be attacking each other or something . . .?" In the background, Angel held Anya back and quietly began talking to her and Oz.

"In a few minutes," Kendy said, "We'll be at each other's throats. Unless you WANT to make it easy for us and just surrender?" Phoebe noticed that the two groups of sisters were in nearly identical positions, seemingly at ease but ready for attack at any time.

"Funny, we were going to ask the same of you," Piper said, "So you can take that as a no and what the hell do you think you've been doing?

"Trying to make sure the world comes to an end," Kendy said. "Where the hell have you been?" She had an oddly light tone to her voice.

"Here making sure it DOESN'T," Piper said.

Kali waved a hand to the window tightly. "Have you actually seen the rest of the world?" She gazed at the Halliwells intently. "We've already won. San Francisco's just too dumb to have figured that out."

"Chalk one up for stupidity," Phoebe muttered.

"We'd rather chalk one up for the apocalypse," Kit said.

"Why would you guys want to do this?" Paige asked. "Why would you want the world to end?"

"Do I look like Lex Luthor?" Kali asked irritably.

"Well, maybe if you shaved your head . . ." Kendy said.

Piper threw up her hands. "Witty banter," she said. "The world's at stake and we're exchanging witty banter."

"Would you rather be exchanging blows?" Kit asked. "Because, you know, we can do that if you'd rather." She raised her arm and everyone tensed.

Before the witchy equivalent of World War III could begin, cooler heads prevailed and Kendy grabbed her sisters' arm. "Slow down, sis," she said. "They're gonna be dead soon enough. Give 'em their last few pathetic moments of life."

"Your generosity is overwhelming," Phoebe said. Still, things de-tensed slightly, though it was a temporary cease fire and everyone knew it.

"Well, it's not like things can get any worse for you," Kendy said. "Now, really, can they?"

Paige closed her eyes. "Never say that," she said. "It's a rule. Whenever you say things can't get any worse, they always get worse. It's one of the unbending laws of nature. Right up there with gravity."

Piper looked at her as though she'd grown a third head. "What are you doing?"

Shrugging Paige, said, "Well, they might not have known the sitcom rule . . . "

While the odd conversation continued, Phoebe snuck a look at Angel, Anya and Oz. They were deceptively casual, but Phoebe'd spent long enough fighting the forces of evil to know when someone was an innocent bystander and when they just looked like it. They were waiting for things to get hairy; the Only Ones were glancing at them occasionally out of the corner of their eye, so a surprise attack was out, but Phoebe would have bet demons to diamonds that when the fighting started their enemies would be paying more attention to them than to the other three.

Not that Angel, Anya and Oz weren't dangerous, but still, the psychology of the situation . . . it comforted her, oddly, knowing that they had allies and the Only Ones didn't.

Anyway. It looked like the fight was ready to start; Kendy said, "And I think we've killed enough time, don't you?"

Piper nodded vigorously. It was time, apparently for things to get worse.

But before the two sides could actually start slugging it out, the front door of Halliwell Manor exploded and Willow floated in, her eyes dark and murderous.

Phoebe looked at Piper. "NOW can I say it?"

Part 9

Willow strode directly up to the Halliwells - casually shoving the Severances a few feet backwards with her mind in the process - and said, "The Book of Shadows."

Piper recovered from the shock first and said, "Was there a verb connected with that sentence?" As subtly as she could, she tried to freeze Willow.

"Don't be a smartass," Willow said.

"At this point it's pretty much all we have left. You can't have it."

"Of course I can," Willow said in a don't-fuck-with-me voice. "The question is whether I'm going to kill you now or later and if you don't knock off trying to freeze me it's definitely going to be now."

Piper quit gesturing.

Oz stepped around the Only Ones - who were standing there alertly watching the exchange - and said, "Willow -"

Willow spun, the look on her face equal looks amusement and amazement, and said, "Oz. My god." She looked a few feet beyond him and said, "And Angel. And Anya." She stopped. "Didn't I deal with you already?" Anya looked troubled, but didn't answer.

Astonishingly casually, Oz said to Willow, "Hey. What happened to you?"

She turned back to look at the Halliwells. "Really scraping the bottom of the barrel, aren't you? I mean, couldn't you come up with ANYONE else besides a guy who dumped me three years ago and a whiny vampire?"

"You killed everyone else," Paige snapped.

Willow turned back to face Oz. Angel, who hadn't spoken since Willow had come storming in, edged around the side of the room as unobtrusively as he possibly could, and Piper leaned over and whispered something to Paige. Paige nodded.

Contemptuously, Willow said, "Oz. This is really your fault, you know."

"Really."

"Of course it is. Think about it. If you'd been able to keep it in your pants, if you hadn't taken off on a six-month long quest for self- knowledge, then I would never have met and fallen in love with Tara."

"Her death set this off," Oz said. "I'm sorry -"

"Sorry. Right." She paused a second. "It wouldn't have happened with you. I can tell you that right now. You weren't worth much. But Tara - she was worth the world."

Oz said, "This - this isn't you -"

"Oz, you walked out on me two and a half years ago. You have no idea who the hell I am. So quit telling me this isn't me."

"I know you don't mean this. Any of this."

I just burned the world to a frigging CINDER," Willow said. "Not bad for someone who didn't mean it."

Oz was clearly searching for the words, the words that would make Willow understand why what she was doing was wrong, evil. But he couldn't find them.

And that's when the fun started. By this time Angel had crept to where he was standing behind the Severances. He tapped the nearest one on the shoulder (who happened to be Kit) and when she turned around he dropped her with one punch.

In the next five seconds, in rapid succession, Paige orbed away, Kendy spun and set up a force field that pinned Angel to the wall, Phoebe kicked Kali in the knee, Anya teleported away, and Willow screamed louder and longer than anyone had ever heard in their lives.

Everyone who'd been standing when the screaming started wasn't when it stopped. In fact, only Piper and Kendy were even conscious. Willow said harshly, "Stay out of my way," and sprinted up the stairs at superhuman speed.

Kendy and Piper bent down to check on their sisters, then, satisfied they were still alive, ran up the steps, Kendy following as soon as she figured out where Piper was going.

Which was, of course, the attic, and the Book of Shadows.

Piper knew the Book protected itself against evil . . . but she was still worried. As powerful and determined as Willow was right now . . . she might figure out how to circumvent it.

Then the world would really be in trouble.

* * * * *

When Angel clocked Kit Severance, Paige orbed away and began frantically searching the Book of Shadows. A second later, Anya teleported in next to her and said, "What's going on?"

"I need to find something and protect this," Paige said. "You try to hold off anyone who comes in here."

Anya said, "I'll do what I can, but -"

"I know she's stronger than you," Paige said, still looking. "Just do your best."

"The Wish I made said you could fix this," Anya said. "So fix it. Please." She walked over by the door. They heard someone running very quickly up the stairs; Anya stuck out her leg, almost without thinking, and Willow burst open the door and tripped over it. As fast as she was running, she ended up sliding across the floor and crashing into the far wall.

She stood and with a gesture knocked Anya down the stairs. Paige looked up, grabbed the Book of Shadows and orbed away. As she dissolved, though, she felt - felt? - an arm around her wrist and a voice saying, "get back here."

Shortly thereafter, she found herself back in the attic, with Willow holding her saying "Give me that." Then, apparently figuring (rightly) that Paige wasn't going to give it up voluntarily, Willow simply kicked her into a wall and tried to grab the Book.

Its defense mechanisms kicked in, and Willow was knocked backwards by a powerful electric shock. "I should have figured something like this." She muttered, "Isoli!" to herself and then picked it up again. The book leapt from her grasp. Paige stood up, but with a wave of her hand Willow slammed her back into the wall.

"I don't have time for this," she said, and gestured. The book rose into the air, and telekinetically she read through it. After a second she said, "This'll do," tore a hole in the wall with a word and floated out. The Book of Shadows went with her.

As Paige stood up, Piper ran into the room, followed quickly by Kendy Severance, who looked at the departing Willow Rosenberg and pumped her fists, saying, "Damn, that's beautiful."

"Shut up," Piper said.

Laughing as though she'd just heard something funny, Kendy said, "Naah. You."

And force fields formed around both their heads.

Part 10

Angel woke up and felt the force field holding him against the wall begin to weaken. Without hesitation, he pushed against it with all his strength; it gave way, slowly, like he was pushing his way through a wall of taffy, but he finally freed himself.

Quick check around. No Anya, no Kendy, no Piper, no Paige, everyone else unconscious on the floor. He reached down and slapped Phoebe awake. On the second slap, she reached up and grabbed his arm, saying, "Okay, okay, I'm awake."

"Good," he said. "No time for what happened's. Willow came into your house looking for something."

"The Book of Shadows," Phoebe said as Angel pulled her to her feet.

"Right. Well, a lot of people aren't here right now -"

"Which means they're with the book," Phoebe said. "Follow me."

Angel quickly woke Oz and told him to keep an eye on the two remaining Severances, and then jogged up the stairs after Phoebe, who was faster than he would have expected. They came across Anya at the bottom of a stairway leading further up. Her neck looked like it was broken.

Damn.

Sounds of a struggle could be heard from upstairs. Regretfully, they stepped over Anya's body and charged up the steps.

They were met by a barrier at the top. Angel pounded on it fruitlessly. "I can hear you knocking, but you can't come in!" Through the open doorway they could see Kendy Severance standing there, and Piper and Paige on the floor with miniature force fields on their heads, clearly suffocating. "Now you two just wait and I'll get to you soon enough." The huge hole in the far wall barely registered.

"I'm thinking otherwise," Angel said. "I'm thinking you've got a limit on how many of these fields you can maintain at once. Especially," he threw a devastating punch at the barrier, "If I'm hitting it as hard as I can."

"We," Phoebe said grimly, and added her blows to Angel's own. Kendy said, "That's not going to work." They kept hitting it, ignoring her gibe. Piper and Paige's lives depended on it.

Kendy's grin faded; she began to sweat. Finally, just before it looked like she was going pass out, she lowered the force field herself and backed as far away as she could. Phoebe stumbled in; Angel raced across the room, avoiding the few feeble balls of force Kendy threw at him, and knocked her unconscious with one punch.

The globes around Piper and Paige's heads vanished. Phoebe leaned down, then yelled, "LEO!"

The Whitelighter orbed in, clearly exhausted, but when he saw Piper and Paige lying there on the floor he didn't stop to ask stupid questions. He leaned down and some kind of glow came from his hands.

"Healing them?" Angel asked.

"If he doesn't, SHE'S dead," Phoebe muttered, pointing towards Kendy's unconscious figure. But murder wasn't in Phoebe's immediate future plans; first Piper and then Paige coughed and began to sit up.

After making sure they were okay, Phoebe looked over towards an empty lectern in the middle of the room and said, "she got the book." Leo murmured a few words to Piper and orbed back out.

Paige said, "not all of it," and pulled out a few pages she'd torn from the book. "I got whatever time spells I could come up with."

Phoebe read through them. "We can do this."

"I hope so," Angel said. "Look down there." He pointed to the bottom of the stairs. For the first time, Piper and Paige saw Anya's body lying there.

"Willow killed her," Piper said. "I saw the body on the way up."

"She killed her without hardly thinking about it," Paige said. "Just because she was in her way."

"That's not the Willow I know," Angel said. "You know, it's odd. All of this about the world coming to an end, and all those billions of people, and this - someone I knew, even if it was only barely - this is what brings it home. This is wrong. This -" he gestured around him, a gesture encompassing the entire planet - "This. All of it."

"That's why we're going to try to fix it, sweetie," Phoebe said.

"I promised her we would," Paige said.

* * * * *

Oz woke up instantly when Angel touched him, a fringe benefit of years of being a werewolf. A few feet away lay two of the Severances - Kit and Kali. Shortly after that, after having told Oz to keep an eye on the sisters, Angel ran upstairs after Phoebe.

Oz could hear faint sounds coming from way upstairs, so he assumed that's where everyone else was. He was irritated at himself for having not only so badly misjudged the Severances, but for having led them directly to the Halliwells.

Guessing that what was upstairs was fairly important - he felt certain they wouldn't have abandoned him with two evil witches if it hadn't been - he stood up and determined to guard the two Severances and make sure they didn't cause any more trouble.

He also knew he was at somewhat of a disadvantage against the witches. But that didn't faze him. Very little actually ever fazed him, though Willow's causing the end of the world certainly qualified.

Willow . . . what had happened to her? He couldn't pretend that her words hadn't hurt him, though he knew that they were half-truth at best. But this . . . this black-haired, black-eyed pool of venom resembled her in looks only. He could understand how Tara's death would have upset her - to the core. Losing Willow had affected him the same way.

But to do this . . . something must have happened in the interim.

He didn't realize he was speaking out loud until he heard Kali Severance say, "Something did happen," as she sat up. "We happened." Next to her, her sister was also waking up.

"You happened?" Oz asked.

"Sure did," Kit said, joining her sister awake. "We made sure of it."

"You - you destroyed the world?" Oz asked. "Willow wasn't part of it?"

"Oh, no," Kit said. "She destroyed it alright. We just fiddled around and made sure it happened. Made sure she stayed evil and angry. You know, fun stuff like that."

Oz couldn't keep the anger out of his voice. "YOU did this."

"Ah, screw this," Kit said. "We need to find Kendy." She pointed at Oz -

and suddenly he was on fire.

Burning from without and within, Oz went wolf and leapt on the nearest person, not stopping until they died.

Unfortunately, by that point, so had he.

Part 11

Willow found a page in the Halliwells' Book of Shadows almost immediately; it didn't give every last detail (and why would it, this was a book written by and for Glinda the Good Witch, after all), but it gave her enough to go on.

There was another powerful destructive spirit, almost at Vocipaxa's level; a spirit of ice, ironically enough. His name was Folossen, and there was a temple to him somewhere under the city; it had been buried in the earthquake of 1906, but partly unearthed in the one back in 1989.

The local archaeologists didn't know what to make of it, but the local archaeologists were morons.

As soon as Willow got out of sight of Halliwell Manor, she went to ground and resumed her speed spell instead; she was going to be conspicuous either way but there was no point in making a bigger scene than necessary. The temple wasn't that far away in any event. Willow wasn't entirely sure what to do once she got there, but she did know she had to be there to pull this off. From what she'd read, Folossen would be delighted to come in and finish someone else's botched apocalypse. (These spirits of destruction had quite a rivalry going.)

She made it to the temple, having not been stopped even once. Either she'd been very lucky or the good guys all thought they had more important things to do. Not that they could have taken her, anyway, but she didn't really need the hassle.

And the pain . . . the pain was still out there. The sooner she managed to finish the job she'd begun in Sunnydale, the sooner everyone's pain would end.

After one final look around to make sure no one had followed her, Willow entered the temple. No one else was around, but then she hadn't expected anyone. Folossen-worship had gone out style around the time the temple had disappeared under tons of solid rock.

About half the main room was available, including the damaged altar. Willow stood in the doorway and one final time read over what the Book of Shadows had to say on the subject. Then she tossed it to the ground and walked over to the altar.

The way to STOP this ritual, according to the book, was to interrupt the flow of power between the incanting high priest and Folossen's eye, the focal point of the altar. So she knew what she had to do, more or less.

But since this was a spirit of ice and not fire, the magical energy needed to have a different . . . taste, a different feel. Where Vocipaxa's had been hot, Folossen's needed to be cold.

As she thought about how to change the energy's feel, she began singing quietly to herself. "It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine . . ."

And dammit, she did.

* * * * *

Kit had felt that Oz had pretty much outlived his usefulness when she set him on fire. Sure, he was cute; sure, he'd led them right to the Halliwells, but right now, he was only in their way, and quite honestly he'd been starting to piss her off with all these questions.

They'd known Oz hadn't been completely human, but they hadn't known he'd been a werewolf. Oh, they burned just like everyone else; their hair caught fire quite nicely. But werewolves WERE stronger and tougher than your average human.

Vocipaxa take her soul, Kit hadn't known he was going to be able to attack Kali before he died. But even ablaze as he'd been, he'd still managed to claw and bite her savagely until he finally collapsed. Kit had quickly drawn the flames back into herself, thrown the werewolf's charred corpse out of the way, and looked at her sister.

Nothing could be done. Kali's throat had been ripped out.

Kit sobbed quietly for a few moments, then stood up, drying her tears from her face. Kali shouldn't have had to go like this. Dammit, after all Kali had been through, she'd deserved to see the end. She'd deserved to see Vocipaxa remake the world.

The fire in Kit burned. These Halliwells were going to pay for Kali's death. If they hadn't done their damn protection spell, none of this would have happened.

Voices from upstairs. She left the two bodies where they were and ran to hide around a corner.

"What the hell -" voices came as the Halliwells, plus Angel (carrying her sister) saw Kali and Oz's body.

"Why would she burn her own sister to death?" Paige asked.

"She didn't," Phoebe said, leaning down. "Her throat's ripped out."

Angel swore. "DAMMIT!" he said. "I KNEW I shouldn't have left him alone with them." He pounded his fist on a wall.

"He killed one of the Severances before he died," Paige said, moving over to stand next to him.

"Yeah, lot of comfort that is now."

"Easy," Piper said. "Kit's somewhere around here. We need to keep an eye out for her-"

Kit peeked around the corner, and seeing that everyone was looking down at the corpses, away from her. She didn't bother saying anything dramatic; she simply stepped around the corner and shot a jet of fire from her hands, angling away from Kendy.

She couldn't tell who she was setting on fire, but she knew SOMEONE was burning. She poured it on; higher, hotter, more intense.

And did so until she felt the blow at the base of her skull.

* * * * *

"Piper! Phoebe!" Paige yelled, anguished, as the room burned around them. "Extinguisher!" she called for desperately, and began spraying it as soon as it appeared in her hands.

It seemed to be doing some good. If - if -

The fire disappeared the second Angel clubbed Kit on the back of the skull.

"LEO!" Paige yelled. "LEO!"

The tired Whitelighter orbed in and saw the burned body of his wife and her sister. He knelt down by them and tried to heal them -

But no energy came from his hands. He yelled to the sky, "WHY? WHY AM I NOT MEANT TO DO THIS?"

There was no answer forthcoming. Leo tried, and tried, and tried, and he simply couldn't heal them.

Piper and Phoebe were dead.

Crying, together, she and Leo held each other, while Angel watched with a grim face. After an eternity that couldn't have been any longer than thirty seconds, he said quietly, "Willow may be almost ready to finish the job," he said. "We need to do whatever we can with those time travel spells before it's too late."

Pulling away from Leo, Paige said, "We may have a problem with that."

"What? Can't you do the spells by yourself?"

"It's not that," Paige said. "I'm half Whitelighter."

Leo finished the thought. "And if Whitelighters get within fifty miles of the Hellmouth, they die."

Part 12

Angel hoped that Paige and Leo didn't think he wasn't upset by what had happened. He was. He'd liked the Halliwells, ever since they'd met up in that little cross-universe jaunt a couple of months back. They'd survived as much as any group of people should have been forced to endure. And to die pointlessly like this, right when the universe needed them most, was a horrendous tragedy.

But someone needed to be strong right now. Not that Paige wasn't strong, but she'd just seen her two sisters burn to death. She deserved a little time to grieve, to recover.

Hell, she deserved weeks, but the world didn't have weeks. It might not even have hours.

Still, she deserved her few minutes. Angel had asked for, and gotten, the pages Paige had ripped from their book of Shadows. Going over them, he swore quietly to himself. He'd been hoping for something unlimited, here, so that the two of them could go back as far as they needed, and where they needed, so that Paige wouldn't have to worry about dying when she got near the Hellmouth. Unfortunately, neither of the spells they had would do this; they were designed to go only as far back as was absolutely necessary. And one of them would have put them in the bodies they were in at the time - wouldn't have been so horrible for Paige, but it would have stuck Angel back in the coffin, and he wouldn't have been any help there.

Of course, he wasn't expecting to be overly helpful in any event; it was dark now, but what they needed to change had occurred in the daytime. Angel had this tendency to burst into flames in the daytime.

This left the other spell, which let them travel in their current bodies.

He looked up. Paige had stopped crying, and he had to get the answers to a couple of questions. "Whitelighters die near the Hellmouth, you said."

Leo said, "Right."

"Immediately?"

Leo shook his head. "No. But the longest we've ever known anyone to live is about ten minutes. We haven't been interested in experimenting."

"Understandable. Paige, being half-Whitelighter . . ."

"Should probably live a bit longer," Leo said. "How long, though -"

Wearily, Paige said, "How long doesn't matter. It'll have to be long enough."

"Paige-" Leo said.

Paige closed her eyes. When she reopened them, she said, "Who else do we have?"

"There are dozens of witches out there -" Leo said.

Angel asked quietly, "How many can you find on this short notice?" Before Leo could answer, he added, "That you trust implicitly."

"None," Leo said.

"Then it's settled." She took the spells back from Angel.

"I think the second one is the one we need to use," Angel said. "If we use the first one -"

Paige fixed an annoyed gaze on him. "Who's the expert here?" After a few seconds, she put the first spell aside. "We'll use the second spell."

Leo said, "Hold off a bit." When Paige began to protest, he added, "Get it set up, and if I'm not back before Armageddon hits, get going. But I think I know something that could help you."

He orbed away, and Paige started spell preparations. Throwing herself into the work seemed to be helping her a little.

Angel kept one eye on her, and one eye on the world outside, hoping that neither fell apart before the spell was ready.

* * * * *

Willow laughed.

Summoning Folossen's wrath was going to be easier than she thought. Everyone's pain would be over in, oh, ten minutes, max. Idly, she wondered how Buffy was doing back in that heaven Willow'd ripped her out of - and if Dawn had made it anywhere at all.

Had Dawn even had a soul? That would have been something worth thinking about, once.

That would be something to look forward to, if she thought she would have been around to see it.

She thought about those who'd tried to stop her; all of her so-called friends who couldn't see that when Tara had died, the world had ended.

There was a joke she'd heard once; it involved a western saloon and a big thug going in and saying, "Gimme a beer, and when I drink, EVERYBODY drinks!" So beers were passed all around, and people were happy, and the thug said again, "and when I have another drink, EVERYBODY has another drink!" Once again beers were passed around.

Then the thug pounded his fists on the bar. "And when I pay," he said. "EVERYBODY pays!"

Willow raised her hands and began funneling the energy into the altar.

Give me some suffering, she thought. Because when I suffer, EVERYBODY suffers.

The air grew chillier. The magic was beginning to work.

And when I die -

EVERYBODY dies.

* * * * *

While waiting for Paige to ready her spell, Angel hadn't spent the entire time brooding (though on someone else's troubles, for once). He'd scoured the place stem to stern - after making damn sure that neither surviving Severance sister was going to wake up, by kicking them in the head a few times and then tying them up - and found first, an oversized poncho that barely fit him but that would cover his skin well enough that he wouldn't flame out the second he and Paige landed in the past, and second, a sword he could use a weapon. He'd been hoping for something with a little more heft, but most of the Charmed Ones' battles weren't fought as physically as his.

When he got back upstairs, Paige was writing frantically on a sheet of paper. When she saw Angel, she put it and the spell pages in her pocket and said, "I'm ready." The sorrow was still there, in her eyes, but it had been overlaid with a fierce determination.

"I am too," Angel said, holding the sword in front of him. "How long will the spell take?"

"About twenty seconds. I'm ready to do it at a moment's notice, if I have to."

"I haven't noticed any signs of an imminent apocalypse yet - but that doesn't mean it's not out there, starting, without our knowledge."

"I know," Paige sighed. "We can't cut this too closely, but -"

She stopped as Leo orbed in. "Willow found an abandoned temple of Folossen," he said. "We've got as many people as possible trying to stop her at that end, but it doesn't look promising. She's set up some kind of shield around the area." Then, to Paige alone: "Hold still." Then he blew a pinch of dust on her.

"What was that?" she asked.

"Every once in a rare while, Whitelighters do have to go to the Hellmouth. If we went in unprotected, we'd begin to feel the effects in a few minutes, and be almost useless a few minutes after that. The dust delays the debilitating effects. It can't extend the time limit. Nothing can."

"So with the dust, I'll be at full strength until I keel over?"

"I wouldn't have put it like -" he stopped.

"What?" Angel asked.

"Go," Leo said. "Willow's summoned Folossen."

On the floor, Kendy Severance said woozily, "Folossen? Tell me you're kidding."

Leo looked at Paige. "Begin the spell." Angel went over and stood next to her as she began to cast it. To Kendy, Leo said, "I'm not kidding."

"NO!" she shouted. "All our work shot to hell."

Grimly, Leo nodded. "And hell's about to freeze over." To Paige, he said. "Good luck."

"I'll need it," she said.

And she and Angel vanished.

Part 13

In a home in Santa Carolita, California, the Severances were putting the final touches on their time travel spell. "Are you sure about this?" Kit asked.

Kendy shook her head. "Naah. I thought I'd send us back in time an hour or so for the most important mission of our lives without knowing exactly what I was doing." She smiled mischievously. "Maybe we'll wind up in a wall or something! It might be fun!"

Kit snorted, while Kali just glared. Kendy said, "You had your sense of humor surgically removed, didn't you?"

Kali kept glowering, but this time she said, "We finally have the chance to live up to our legacy here."

"I know about our legacy. I'm the one that made us an active part of it, remember? After Mom and Dad died, YOU wanted to opt out of it. You didn't see a future in it. Well, when we pull this off we'll be the ones MAKING the future." She matched Kali glare for glare. "Remember?"

Before Kali could say something she might regret, Kit stepped between them and said, "Remember? How could we forget? You tell us like every two days." She smiled to take the sting out of the words. "Now, are we ready for this? Kali, you have the evil-to-good spell ready?"

Nodding, Kali said, "It's ready. What are our plans for Xander Harris? He could still ruin things."

Kendy laughed. "Gimme a break, sis. He's a NORMAL HUMAN. Not even worth breaking a sweat about. Now, folks, remember: We gotta get this right the first time. Vocipaxa's not big on second chances; if we're lucky, he'll let us live."

And the Severances cast their spell and vanished.

* * * * *

Paige and Angel landed in the back alley behind the Magic Box. "How long do we have?" he asked as they hid behind some nearby trashcans.

"About thirty seconds," she answered. "Our time's limited enough as it is."

"True." After a second, "Any idea what we're going to do?"

Paige laughed bitterly. "I'd hoped we could change the flow of Giles' magic back to good from evil. But I don't think I can do that on my own."

"So subtlety's out."

"Unfortunately."

"What's your opinion on killing them?"

Paige said, "Not going to try to, not going to try not to."

Holding up his hands, Angel said, "That sounds like how I'm thinking." Then, "If we can stop them here, we won't need to worry about later."

"Big if, but I get what you mean." A fireball shot through the roof of the shop; seconds later, Buffy came chasing after it down the street. Paige looked at her watch and suddenly had an idea. "Get ready. Three, two . . ."

And the Severances popped in, right on cue. Kendy's amused grin was really starting to piss Paige off. "Beautiful Sunnydale, California. Everybody remember where we parked."

Kali, irritably, said, "Not the time to be funny, Kendy." Sounds of a struggle could be heard inside the store.

If Paige remembered correctly, this was where Kendy answered with, "According to you, there's never a good time to be funny," but before the tallest Severance sister could say anything Paige orbed out.

She orbed back in right behind Kit Severance, grabbed her shoulder, and orbed out.

She didn't know Sunnydale too well, so she just orbed back in a few miles away. They ended up in one of Sunnydale's many graveyards; Kit didn't waste time asking questions, but immediately tried to set Paige on fire.

Paige had been ready for this, though, and ducked, letting the cone of fire travel harmlessly over her head. Then she grabbed Kit's hands before she could fire again. "I think I can orb out before you can do your Human Torch imitation," Paige said. "Try it and the next place I'll orb you will be a mile straight up."

Kit blinked. "You're a Whitelighter. You can't come here."

"Right and wrong." Paige couldn't waste any more time; she let Kit's hands go, hit her as hard as she could (she got knocked down, but not unconscious) and orbed away as Kit's hands began to glow.

She reappeared right next to where she'd left Angel; he was still standing there. "Orb her into a volcano?" he asked.

"Just away from here. What have they been doing?"

"Looking around in confusion, then getting ready to cast a spell. I was ready to charge -"

"Do it," she said. "I'll handle things from this end."

Nervously, Kali and Kendy Severance said, "While the magic maintains its flow -- Angel pulled out his sword, and yelled as he ran forward. Kendy was closest to him; her chant faltered, even as Kali's continued, and a force field flashed in front of Angel, stopping him. A red glow - weaker than the one she'd remembered - emanated from Kali Severance and entered the shop.

Paige chanted quietly, "Good to evil and back again, let the magic be as it had been." A white glow followed it immediately inside.

"Did it work?" Kendy asked her sister.

"I don't know!" came Kali's response. "It might have - I'm not sure."

"Not sure. Great." Kendy threw up her hands and looked at Angel, who was still trying futilely to maneuver around Kendy's force field. "But I'm sure this guy had something to do with it." She studied Angel's poncho and the way he kept his hands firmly inside his cuffs. "Excuse me. Not guy. Vampire."

Kali concentrated a second. "Not just him. We've also got a Whitelighter here watching us."

Paige walked from behind the garbage cans. "Not just a Whitelighter," Kendy said. "A HALLIWELL." She advanced on Paige, angrily. "What did you do with Kit?" Angel maneuvered so he was ready in case Paige needed his sword.

"Put her somewhere well away from here," Paige said. "Did you think I'd killed her?"

"We would have," Kali said.

"You're not me."

"We ought to kill you," Kali said.

Angel said, "You don't have the time." Paige grabbed his arm, ready to orb away at a moment's notice.

Kendy swore. "He's right. We can still win this by stopping Xander Harris." She quickly called a box-like field into existence and she and Kali jumped in, muttering threats along the way.

Then she and her sister vanished around the corner, going faster than either of them could run. Paige looked at her watch. "Seven minutes so far," she said absently. "One down -"

They orbed out.

Part 14

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

Robert Frost, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"

Kit Severance looked around the graveyard after the Whitelighter orbed out.

Briefly, she wondered why a Whitelighter was actively trying to stop them; didn't the damned touched-by-an-angel rejects simply hang back and give advice, and maybe heal every once in a while?

And didn't they DIE in Sunnydale? Because that woman, she hadn't looked anywhere near dead.

But she would.

The Whitelighter had probably thought she was dumping Kit off where she wouldn't be a problem. But she didn't know Sunnydale's geography as well as Kit did, apparently, or she wouldn't have left her a mile and a half from the newly raised temple to Vocipaxa.

No matter what the bitch Whitelighter had done to her sisters, Xander Harris was NOT going to get a chance to save the world.

Kit took off running.

* * * * *

As they flew towards their rendezvous with Xander Harris, a somewhat shaken Kendy Severance said, "You don't know?"

"For the third time, NO," Kali said. "There were supposed to be three of us casting us, and there was only one. And I'm not sure, but I think the Halliwell cast a spell at the same time. I only got a glimpse of it." She threw up her hands. "And what the hell is she doing here? And without her sisters?"

"Not your typical Whitelighter vacation spot, true," Kendy mused. "And the vampire, too . . ." she shook her head. "Someone else is interfering, here. This isn't the way it was supposed to go. No one else was supposed to know . . ." Then it hit her. "They're time travelers, too," she said. "They have to be."

Kali looked at her and said, "Are you sure?"

But Kendy shook her head. "I can't be sure. But it makes sense."

"So what do we do now?"

"That's the million-dollar question. I mean, if she came from the future then we can't have completely won . . ."

"But if we'd failed, they wouldn't have bothered coming back at all," Kali said. "So does that mean that we need to change what we did - are going to do?"

"I hate time travel," Kendy said. After thinking it over for a minute or so, she went on, "The problem is we can't NOT try to kill Xander Harris. I mean, that would foul up our whole future."

"So we just blindly march to our fate?"

Kendy laughed. "When have you known me to blindly march ANYWHERE, sis? No, no, the man still needs to die. We're just going to try to have to kill him somewhere else."

* * * * *

Paige orbed the two of them directly to the place where Xander was due to meet his untimely demise, right at the base of a wooded hill. This afforded Angel some protection, but not enough so that he could take off the poncho.

"Besides," he said. "I'd feel really stupid if I took it off and then I got shoved out into the sun in the middle of the fight."

Checking her watch, Paige said, "Right now, Phoebe and Piper are starting to bitch at each other about the MASH rerun we're watching."

"Right now, I'm under about a mile of the Pacific."

Paige snorted and said, "If I remember correctly, we were halfway through the show when Anya orbed in for the first time. That gives us . . . about seven minutes. Keep an eye out for them. Or Xander."

Angel nodded. "Already on it. But my day vision isn't so great."

Two minutes later, with both of them scanning the horizon, Paige said, "So what are you going to do after we get done?"

"Assuming I survive?" Angel asked. "I was planning to head back to L.A. and scare the hell out of my son." Paige gave him a blank look. "He's the one who put me in the coffin." Another blank look. "Just chalk it up to family issues. And you?"

Paige had thought this through. "I don't expect to live through it. Hell, I don't expect to live another ten minutes."

"Kind of pessimistic."

"Not pessimistic. Realistic. These are tough opponents. Even against two of them I'm expecting a long battle."

"Remember something," Angel said. "We don't need to fight to win. Whatever Xander's going to do, he needs to get up that hill to do it. We just need to hold them off long enough to -" He stopped. "What's that?"

"What?"

"Shouting. Xander's shouting. From over there." He pointed towards a slight rise a bit away.

"You're sure?" She walked over to him.

"My day HEARING is fine."

She grabbed his arm and they orbed away.

When they reappeared, they came across a horribly familiar scene. Lacking Kit's ability to burn Xander to death, Kendy had his head trapped inside a small spherical force field.

He was suffocating.

Kali Severance said, "Kit. They're here."

Seconds after they'd orbed in, a force field appeared around them as well. "Don't go anywhere," Kendy said. "We'll be right with you."

Paige and Angel once again orbed away.

The shield orbed with them.

"I set it up to stay in contact with you," Kendy said, turning her head slightly. "You teleport, it teleports." She chuckled. "Just wanted to make sure you didn't violate that pesky prime directive."

Angel whispered in Paige's ear. She nodded, let go of Angel, and orbed.

Immediately after she vanished, Angel's sword lashed out until it was millimeters from Kali's throat. "Let him go," he said.

Kendy Severance didn't flinch. "Nuh-uh," she said. "Once he's dead it doesn't matter what you do to us. Vocipaxa wins." She grinned. "Besides, I never liked Kali that much anyway." A true believer to the end, Kali didn't so much as flinch.

"It's okay, anyway," Angel said. "I'm just the diversion."

-- and THEN Paige orbed in, right next to Kendy, so close that they were both inside the shield Kendy'd set up. This broke her contact with the one suffocating Xander, and he immediately began gasping for air.

As he stood up, he said, "Paige . . . Angel . . . what -"

"Answers later," Angel said. "Now, run. Stop Willow."

To his credit, though it was obvious he had all sorts of questions, Xander knew what was important, and he ran off towards Vocipaxa's temple.

Kendy quickly dropped her shield, but before she could go anywhere Paige grabbed her and said, "Try anything, move, create ONE force field and I swear to God I'll orb you into a wall."

"Good guys don't act like that. It's not MORAL," Kendy said, almost sneering.

"Well, my sense of ethics is a little shaky right now." A moment or so later, she turned to Angel. "I think we did this." By this point Xander was well out of sight.

"I think you're -" Abruptly he caught on fire, screamed, and turned into dust. The sword crashed to the ground, and when the fire cleared Paige could see Kit Severance standing there, her face furious.

"Good of you to join us, sis," Kendy said. "Wanna do something about this growth I've got around my neck?"

"Don't," Kali said as Kit raised her hands. "We'll never make it there in time if you kill Kendy." Xander had had a minute and a half to get ahead of them.

"You're not going to make it anyway," Paige said. "Go home."

"Not a chance in hell," Kit said angrily.

"A chance in hell might be all you have -" Suddenly Paige felt weak and dizzy. No. Not yet. It hadn't been long enough.

She stumbled, but held onto Kendy Severance as long as she could, before Kendy figured out something was wrong and simply stepped forward and let Paige fall to the ground. When she hit she could do nothing but lie there; she didn't even have the strength to orb.

"I KNEW Whitelighters died in Sunnydale," Kit said, raising her hands.

Kali stopped her once again, as Kendy set up their flying box yet again. "We don't have time. She's dying anyway. Let her die knowing she failed."

They flew off.

Paige raised her arm, looked at her watch. They'd given Xander two minutes and twenty-five seconds.

Please, she prayed. Please. Let that have been enough time. Please let Xander save the world.

Please.

Plea-

Part 15

"Hey, black-eyed girl."

* * * * *

Kit looked back for a second. "She's dead," she said as Kendy's force-box rose from the ground and began to move.

"That's nice," Kendy said as they sped up. "Do you think you could maybe give me a little hand here? We're not getting to that temple ANY faster from the wind coming from your lips."

Kit opened her mouth, closed it again, and shot out her strongest flame jet in quite a while.

The box jolted forward so hard it almost tipped over. "Remind me to stop challenging you," Kendy muttered.

* * * * *

"You're not the only one with powers, you know. You may be a hopped-up uberwitch, but this carpenter can drywall you into the next century."

* * * * *

"How long did he have?"

"About two and a half minutes," Kali said. "Plus as long as it takes us to get there."

"Which shouldn't be more than forty-five seconds," Kit said.

"I hope," Kendy said. "Vocipaxa's not going to be too forgiving if we blow this."

Kai said grumpily, "I wish we could do this spell ourselves."

"Well, we can't. Something to do with destiny. We try, we die."

They began to make their way through the trees.

* * * * *

"You've been my best friend my whole life. World gonna end . . . where else would I want to be?"

"Is this the master plan? You're gonna stop me by telling me you love me?"

"Well, I was gonna walk you off a cliff and hand you an anvil, but it seemed kind of cartoony."

* * * * *

"Quit with the fire for a second," Kendy said in the middle of the woods.

Kit stopped shooting out the fire, muttering, "Who put you in charge?"

"If you'd rather walk," Kendy said, and brought their transport to a quick stop. Then she went straight up as fast as she could.

"What are you doing?" Kali asked.

"We need an angle," Kendy said. "We don't want to keep dodging the trees on the way up. This isn't a video game."

* * * * *

"But the thing is, yeah, I love you. I love crayon-breaky Willow, and I love scary veiny Willow. So if I'm going out, it's here. If you want to kill the world, then start with me. I've earned that."

* * * * *

"There! I see them!"

On the top of the hill, Willow was repeatedly attacking Xander magically . . . but not killing him.

"What's she doing?" Kit asked. "Why isn't she killing him? Didn't you two do the spell?"

"I did," Kali said. "Kendy was too busy defending herself against that vampire."

Kit swore.

They got closer, closer . . .

* * * * *

"Shut up!"

"I love you, Willow."

"STOP!"

"I love you."

"Stop."

"I love you. I love you. I love you . . . "

* * * * *

"We're almost there!" Kendy said.

"They're hugging," Kali said, focusing her powers. "She's crying . . . her hair just turned red."

"We didn't need your powers to tell us that." Kendy stopped the box. They were less than a hundred feet away from the embrace, but they might as well have been five miles for all the good it did them.

Neither Willow, crying her eyes out, nor Xander, holding her and letting her do it, saw them floating there.

"Well, shit," Kit said. "We just lost. It can't get any worse."

Space tore beneath them, and fire shot out of the rift.

As the Severances fell into it, Kendy said sternly, "You know better than that."

* * * * *

Elsewhere in Sunnydale:

Buffy and Dawn climbed out of a pit.

Anya discovered that Giles wasn't dead, or even dying, and was happier at the prospect than she would have imagined possible.

Jonathan and Andrew fled.

Xander continued to hold his sobbing best friend. In the back of his mind, he made a note to tell Buffy about having seen Angel and Paige; but this wasn't the time for that.

Vocipaxa was in his hell.

All was right with the world.

* * * * *

EPILOGUE

About an hour ago, Leo had popped in on all three sisters, telling them to get home as fast as they could. Paige orbed away, Piper orbed with her husband, but Phoebe had to last out a meeting with her editor before she could finally get back to the manor.

"What's up?" she asked as soon as she walked in.

"No clue," Piper said. "Leo's been -" she turned and glared at him - "Annoyingly tight-lipped about the whole thing."

"Sorry about the secrecy," he said. "But I have my reasons." He closed his eyes. "Two days ago, a Whitelighter died."

All three sisters' expressions became sympathetic. "Were you close?" Paige asked.

"Very much so," Leo said. But he seemed more confused than upset.

"I'm detecting a lack of sympathy here," Piper said. "You're holding something back. Give."

Leo closed his eyes. "Okay. It started a couple of days ago when the Council of Elders started getting indications that a Whitelighter had died. But they weren't CLEAR indications."

"Why wouldn't they be clear?" Phoebe asked.

"Because they were coming from Sunnydale. That's what threw us off; we weren't expecting it." All three sisters' heads shot up at that. "You know if we go near Sunnydale we die. Because of this, we had to contact some of our human agents to go down there and retrieve the body."

"Dead Whitelighters don't leave a body," Piper said.

"Not normally, no. But this one was . . . different. It wasn't until the Council saw it that they realized how different it was."

Paige said, "Leo, why are you drawing this out so much? You can't be enjoying it."

"I'm not." He looked at them steadily. "I need you three to see the body."

Piper was about to say something flip, but something in her husband's voice dissuaded her. "Okay."

Leo orbed away, and five seconds later orbed back in -

The body he was carrying was Paige's.

Phoebe recovered first. "What the hell? Is this some kind of trick?"

"No. No trick. It really is . . . Paige. She was carrying these," and he pulled out a half dozen pages torn from the Book of Shadows. "They're mostly time travel spells. There are a couple of scribbled notes referring to a group of evil witches called the Only Ones - Kali, Kit and Kendy Severance. When The Council saw these, they figured out that she'd come from only about four hours in the future - sometime Saturday evening."

"What could have happened in that short a time that I - she - would have come back in time, to Sunnydale - when I knew I'd die?"

"Someone was trying to open up the temple of Vocipaxa," Leo said. "That would have brought about Armageddon." Then he shook his head. "But your - HER - body was found in an odd place. Close enough that it must have meant something, far enough away that she couldn't have affected things directly. The Elders have a mystery on their hands." He snorted. "They HATE mysteries."

"I'm not so fond of them right now myself," Piper said.

Right then the phone rang. Phoebe went over to pick it up. After listening for a minute or so, she said to Paige, "It's Xander. He wants to know why you and Angel saved his life last Saturday."

Paige walked over and took the handset, and slowly she and Xander began figuring out exactly what the hell had happened -

Why she'd died.