Disclaimer:  I own nothing.  Everything belongs to Joss Whedon and Warner Brothers.

Title:  All That's Good

Part 4:  Back on the Hellmouth

By

Anessa Ramsey

         Buffy stared at her sister and was awed by the way she was dispatching the root demons.  They fought furiously and soon, Xander returned with the rope.  Buffy made sure that Dawn was out first, fighting off the demons as they tried to make sure no one got out.  She beheaded one of the demons coming at her and while they were regrouping she quickly scampered up the rope and onto the solid ground.  Xander pulled the rope up after her so that none of the root demons got a hold of it. 

         "Where's Willow?" he asked, anxiously.

         "Anya teleported in.  She's gone to Kingman's Bluff to raise a satanic temple.  She's going to destroy the world!" Buffy yelled as she took off running for the bluff.  Xander and Dawn hustled to keep up, determined to help her stop Willow.  Buffy was the first to spot her as they crested the hill to the top of the bluff.  The temple was already starting to rise from the ground.

         "Willow!" she screamed, hoping that the girl who was her best was still in there somewhere.

         Before Willow could say a word Buffy saw a great blue shimmer about three feet behind her friend.  One second nothing was there the next she was staring at three young women, a guy, and…Spike?  But not Spike.  Gone was the bleached hair and black clothing.  And were those glasses?  Xander and Dawn had skidded to a halt beside her, both of them having witnessed the appearance of the strangers. 

         Willow spun on them, furious as the interruption, but when she sent a blast of energy flying their direction one of the women threw her hands up and said, "Freeze".  The energy stopped in mid air and the guy who was Spike but not Spike stepped forward.  "I can't let you do this Willow.  It's time to go."

         She started to scream and they could see the magic crackling between her fingers but she never got the chance to use it.  Will touched her and she calmed immediately.  That's when they saw the golden light emanating from his hand.  "Buffy?" Xander said, trying to motivate her into moving…into doing something to stop whatever it was the Spike look-alike was going to do to Willow.

         Will turned to the group behind him.  "Easier than we thought it'd be.  You can go back to the manor.  I'll meet you there later."  Leo orbed Piper and Paige orbed Phoebe off of the cliff top and with a small smile in Dawn's direction, Will grasped Willow's hand and orbed off the cliff as well, leaving three very stunned bystanders wondering what just happened.

         Willow stared at her surroundings.  She was nowhere that she recognized.  It was a bright room with white walls and floors.  For a moment she thought she was in an asylum, but then the background changed into the Magic Box.  Not the destroyed wreck that she'd left behind, but a clean, intact version.  "Where am I?" she yelled, wondering what was going on.  Her hair was changing back to its normal color and the veins were disappearing from her face.

         "You are everywhere…and nowhere," a somewhat familiar British voice said.  Will walked out into the room and Willow gasped, recognizing Spike.  "I'm not him, you know.  I am Will.  I was William."  He paused in front of her.  "I was Spike but he no longer exists.  He gave his life so I could ascend."

Willow ignored him and raised her hand her anger still coursing through her.  "It's a waste of time to try that you know, your magic does not work here."

         She tried to throw energy at him but nothing happened.  "What did you do to me?"

         "We stopped you from ending the world and damning yourself to Hell."

         "I wanted to end the world.  I could feel all the pain.  Everyone was in pain.  I just wanted it to end."

         "Is that what Tara would have wanted of you.  She trusted you, thinking that you were doing better.  Don't dishonor her memory any more than you have."

         "What would you know about it?'

         "Quite a bit.  She misses you already."  His voice dropped to a whisper but it stopped Willow in her tracks.

         "You've seen her?"

         "No, but I've heard her.  She is quite well.  She is at peace and she wants you to know that it didn't hurt.  She didn't suffer."

         Willow dropped to her knees and tears began to form, sliding down her cheeks like tiny rivers.

         "You have a chance here Willow.  You have the opportunity to take matters into your own hands…to try and make amends, but you will have to stay here for some time to do it."

         She looked up at him, tears sparkling in her eyes.  "How did you do it?"

         "With the death of Spike and a ritual performed by the Charmed Ones."

         "Oh."  She frowned staring down at her hands.  Hands that had harmed Giles and tried to kill Dawn, Buffy, Xander…even Anya.  How would they ever forgive her?  Did they even know where she was?

         "We didn't exactly give them an itinerary, Willow.  They have no idea where you are, though they're desperately trying to find out.  But this realm doesn't exist to them.  The only one who could possibly know of its existence is Anyanka, but she cannot travel here."

         "What happens now?"

         "Now?"  He smiled.  "It's time to heal."

         Buffy threw down the book on the floor.  Empty.  They were all empty and of no use.  There was nothing on what Spike was now or where he might have taken Willow.  Anya looked up.  "What did it look like when he appeared?  Like little blue glowing balls of light?"

         "Yeah.  And then they were solid.  I've never seen anything like it."  Buffy said.

         Giles looked down.  He had a very bad feeling about what they witnessed on the bluff.  If what he was thinking was correct, then Spike was now an angel…a Whitelighter.  How it could have possibly occurred he wasn't sure.  He winced, his thoughts being drawn to the present as Buffy wrapped his ribcage in white gauze, pulling tight.  A few bruises, two cracked ribs and a very large headache and he was of the opinion that he made out pretty well.  "Tell me about the others with him.  You said there were five of them altogether."

         "Yeah, two brunette girls, a redhead girl and a blond guy.  The redhead came on her own and the two other girls were holding onto the guy, like they didn't have the same ability that he did.  But one of them could freeze things.  She literally froze one of Willow's energy attacks in midair."

         "And you say the redhead came on her own?"

         "Yes."

         "What about the third girl?"

         "She stood back and watched.  So did the guy."  Xander snapped.  "They just stood there and watched Spike take Willow god knows where!  We just stood there too.  We didn't do a damn thing to try and stop him."

         "Xander, if what I'm thinking is correct then there was not a thing you could have done."  Giles paused.  "If one of you would be so kind as to get the key from under the cash register, there is a safe in the training room behind the weapons on the left wall.  Inside are my most rare, important books."  He sighed.  This was going to be a long night.  "If I'm remembering correctly, one of the books discusses a group of young women, three young women, sisters, witches known as the Charmed Ones.  Supposedly they are the most powerful witches ever.  Together there is nothing they can't defeat.  And the men you saw with them are without a doubt Whitelighters.  Whitelighters are guides for those fighting the good fight, in many different forms.  Most people have no interaction with their Whitelighter.  They're angels.  Some though, need their Whitelighter as a link to the Elders or Powers, whichever you prefer to call them."

         "So Spike's an angel?" Dawn asked, disbelieving.  "Ask me why I think that's crazy.  He's a vampire."

         "Not to mention rapist," Xander said.

         Giles glanced at Buffy who looked away at Xander's words.  He had a pretty good feeling there was more to it than Spike attacking Buffy and he was fairly certain that it was his slayer's fault.  Anya arrived with his books before he could say anything.  Skimming through them carefully he finally came across what he needed in the third book.  "Here they are.  The Charmed Ones.  Three sisters, each with a great power, who will be the most powerful witches ever and fight the demons that inhabit the earth.  One shall be gifted with the ability to move objects with her mind, the next with the ability to stop time, and the third with the gift of premonitions."

         "Okay, that tells us what they are…not where to find them."

         "What about Whitelighters?"

         "It says that Whitelighters are angels, beings with the ability to orb and heal wounds that have been magically or demonically inflicted.  They answer directly to the Council of Elders.  Apparently there is more to their jobs than just healing.  They are mystic guides and they protect future Whitelighters.  And in this case, stop the end of the world."

         "Giles, how do we find Willow?  That's all that we need to know right at the moment."

         "I'm not sure you do Buffy.  There's every possibility that they're no longer even on this plane of existence."

         Buffy rose and started pacing.  "I will not accept that.  Spike appeared out of the middle of nowhere and took off with Willow.  I don't give a damn that she was planning on ending the world, having her here with us is ten times better than leaving her in his hands.  We need to find them."

         Anya was pacing back and forth nervously behind the counter.  After seeing Willow's capability for destruction she wasn't sure she wanted to share the information that she had.  She would have stayed quiet if Xander hadn't noticed her incessant trek back and forth and the frown marring her pretty face.

         "An…" he said softly.  "What do you know?"

         She looked up to see their eyes all fixed on her.  "Nothing.  I don't know anything."

         "Anya, whatever you know you need to tell us.  Spike took Willow."

         "And that's a bad thing.  She was going to end the world.  Look what she did to my shop…to you…to Giles.  She nearly killed him!  She tried to kill Dawn!"

         "She's our friend Anya.  We don't abandon our friends," Buffy said, trying to coerce her into talking.

         "Oh, but we do.  After all just look at your actions the past few months.  You abandoned all of us in favor of screwing Spike.  You knew he loved you but apparently that didn't matter to you, just as long as he got you off.  No wonder the guy lost it.  Then there's the fact that you yourself tried to kill us all."

         "Anya, that evil thing tried to rape her.  She didn't do anything wrong."

         "I'd call beating Spike until he couldn't move, telling him he's nothing but an evil, soulless thing with nothing good or clean in him, and leaving him lying in an alley not caring if he didn't get to shelter by sunrise qualifies as doing something wrong.  All he tried to do was keep her from turning herself in for Katrina's murder.  He tried to help her and she bloodied him up worse than Glory.  And she was back at his crypt the next night, looking for sex, with no apology or discussion about what she did to him."

         "Is that true?" Giles asked.

         Buffy nodded, hating the look on her friends faces.  This was not the time to be doing this, no matter how much she deserved it.

         "Buffy," Giles whispered, deeply shamed by her actions.

         Dawn looked at her sister as if seeing her for the first time.  "How could you?  He was trying to help you?  What else did you do to him?"

         "Dawn," she began, wanting to save this conversation for another time.

         "No!  We're dealing with this now.  I'm not going to let you put it off or tell me that I'm not old enough to understand.  What did you do to him?"

         Giles stood slowly with Xander's help.  "Now is not the time to get into this.  We need to find Willow.  The rest can wait until later."

         "So where do we start?" Xander asked, ignoring the feeling in his gut that maybe things weren't as black and white as they appeared.  He looked at Buffy who was doing her best to calm Dawn and at Anya who was sweeping up some of the broken glass by one of the cases.  "When did things get so screwed up?" he muttered quietly, thinking no one would hear him.

         Dawn did though, and she glanced up.  "When everyone stopped talking."  Silence filled the room.  She summed it up quite nicely.