Title: "Episode 83 & 1/2 - With A Little Help From My Friends".
Part: 11/12
Author: "A Gentleman Of Leisure".
Summary: There's a stranger in town and the world's about to end. Who you gonna call?
Story Type: In-Canon adventure set between Episodes 83 & 84 (hence the title).
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Up to Series 5, Episode 83 (of course).
Pairing: In-Canon.
Disclaimer: The-Powers-That-Be own everything. 'Nuff said?

Author's Note: I'm a British writer, so there may be some terms (and spelling) not used in the US. OK? Now read on...

*

Part Eleven - 'The End' - The Doors.


"Look out! Grab her!"

Buffy leaped forward to catch her sister's arm, and was pulled back by a hand much stronger than she was.

"Let me go! She'll fall, she'll be killed down there!"

Michael stood there holding Buffy back, gripping her firmly by the elbows. She kicked out at him and fought violently, trying to twist out of his grasp, but it was as if she was a small child held in the steel hands of a giant.

"It's the way things are, Buffy", he told her. He seemed completely calm, exactly the opposite of the Scoobies. "Be still. Let your sister go to do her destiny - it's what has to be for your universe".

"Damn you, Michael, stop talking in cliches! This isn't her destiny. It's not! You know that don't you - you seem to know everything! It can't be this!" Buffy cried out, but she struggled vainly.

Meanwhile Dawn slid gradually down the slope on a slowly moving avalanche of rubble, maintaining her balance all the time as if she was surfing, and using The Spear as a balance pole like a tightrope walker. She never cried out, she never spoke a word, not a sound. She didn't even look back.

Up on the edge of the crater everyone was shouting at Michael at the tops of their voices and struggling to rush after Dawn, but somehow, by saying 'Be Still' to Buffy, his words had taken control over them all so that they were completely helpless, and none of them could even take a single step forwards. All bar one were fixed to the spot, and unnoticed, he stepped quietly over the rim and began the long slippery descent after the girl.

The voices of those high above died away in the roaring of the heat and light all around him, until he could no longer hear them.

And strangely, the lower he got into the Pit, the quieter it became. When he reached the bottom everything around him was absolutely silent, and he could see Dawn a little way away from him, transfixed by the sight of the Egg in front of her, with the D'Yah Ba'Wuk moving and shifting and seeming to change its shape inside its translucent shell all the while.

Quietly he walked towards her and put his hand on her shoulder. Perfectly calmly she half turned, and looked over her shoulder at him.

"Hello Spike", she said with a smile. "Fancy meeting you here".

"Nice to see you still in one piece, platelet. I just happened to be passing by, and I thought you could use a little company. You OK on what you have to do?"

"Oh yes, but it does seem a shame, though. We'll destroy that universe just to save this one".

Spike shrugged. "It has to be, kiddo. That's just the way this Multiverse thing seems to work. Sad, but true - it's them or us - the old Law Of The Jungle".

"It's a pity, though. It's a beautiful looking thing".

Dawn stood and looked directly into the heart of the brightest object this side of the sun, tapping her foot absent mindedly, and whistling to herself while she waited for the universe in front of her to start to hatch. She seemed to have forgotten that outside, Sunnydale was going down in flames and mayhem, but all that seemed utterly unimportant as they stood waiting.

Up above on the rim the others, exhausted from their impossible struggle with Michael, watched in angry, anxious silence.

"Nothing's happening", said Xander. "Can you see anything, Buffy? You've got the best eyesight of all of us".

"No, nothing's happening. They're just standing there. I'm glad she's got someone with her, at least, though it should be me down there". She looked daggers at Michael, who still had hold of her arm. She shook herself loose and moved away to stand by Giles. Willow came and put an arm round her briefly.

"She'll be fine, Buffy. Really. Michael won't let anything happen to her, I'm quite sure".

"I wish I was so sure. I swear if she's harmed I'll tear him to pieces if it's the last thing I ever do. I don't care if he is a messenger from The Powers That Be, I'd take them on too".

"I know you would. We all would. We all love Dawn. The world wouldn't be the same without her".

Buffy looked at her friend sharply, but immediately realised that Willow had only meant exactly what she'd just said - she couldn't possibly know anything of the truth about Dawn.

"Thanks, Wills. I know you all care too, just as much as I do".

They peered back down into the glare. Something was happening.

The vague shape inside the Egg stopped slowly twisting and turning this way and that, and moved towards the end where Dawn and Spike stood watching it. They could see its large head in blurred silhouette, a strange uncertain oval with what appeared to be tentacles or feelers sprouting out of where the face must be. It came right up against the inner surface, and they could see what looked like two bulging eyes peering out, as if hoping to make out some details of where it was about to emerge.

"Not so beautiful in close-up, is it, twiglet?".

"I've seen much prettier having half-bricks thrown at them in the street. This one definitely gets zero's for charm and sophistication".

As Dawn spoke she was readying her weapon for action, getting it into a position in which she could throw it at an instant's notice.

"Spike, when it breaks through its shell, you might want to be a little further away - just so I don't bump you with my elbow, of course", she said kindly, thinking of how helpless and frightened even an undead friend might be feeling in these circumstances.

"Don't worry, I'm sticking with you. I'll move round to your other side to be out of the way though, that's all", he said, not feeling nearly as confident as he was trying to sound. He tried to encourage her in his turn. "It's going to be just like when we were in the cellar, only a bit hotter, right?"

"Right", agreed Dawn, not taking her eyes off the D'Yah Ba'Wuk, though she really appreciated his encouragement. Then she added "I know this might sound dumb, but doesn't it look slightly familiar? I've a strange feeling - it's almost as if I've seen something like it somewhere before".

"Huh?" said Spike, but that was all he had time for, because that was the instant the thing inside the Egg opened a mouth full of gigantic teeth, and jabbed forwards at the shell.

It didn't break like an ordinary egg, but then the circumstances were far from ordinary anyway. Instead the shell began to burn away from the point of contact, creating a hole for the creature to poke its head through into Dawn's universe. Then, when the opening was large enough, the burning stopped and faded away, leaving the monster glaring out at them with huge eyes.

"Boy, what an ugly bastard!" Dawn said.

"Absolutely! Look at that long scaly neck, that could stretch out at least as far as us. You mind out for those claws, too!" Spike said, unable to take his eyes off it either. Then, to his surprise, Dawn started to giggle.

High above them on the edge of the crater, Michael and the Scoobies watched as the shell burned away to release the monster. When it poked its head through the opening and started to swing its head to and fro on its snake like neck, Giles gave a sudden exclamation, and to everyone's astonishment he too started to laugh.

The others all turned and stared at him in amazement, but Buffy was watching the events down in the Pit like a hawk, and she realised that Dawn had been distracted by something. She was obviously not properly prepared to defend herself - her Spear was no longer at the ready. She couldn't make out what was going on down there, but she knew that she shouldn't be up where she was, unable to help her little sister. A quick glance told her that Michael's attention was distracted as the others clustered round Giles, who was now doubled up, laughing helplessly with tears running down his face, pointing at the D'Yah Ba'Wuk, and trying to speak.

"Look, look", he was saying, "don't you recognise it? Don't any of you read books any more?" By now he was almost too incoherent to be understood.

So from where she stood, Buffy simply dived headlong over the rim of the Pit, and somersaulted down the slope for quite a way before slowing her uncontrolled descent - spreading out her arms and legs, and digging in with her toes and grabbing at the rubble with her hands, not caring how much damage she was doing to her fingernails. When she came to a halt she scrambled to her feet, shaking the dust out of her hair as she continued to slide slowly down in a shower of rubble, and started to run on downhill, overtaking the debris she'd already disturbed as she went.

The two small figures standing transfixed in front of the remains of the Egg hardly showed any surprise when she finally joined them.

"Hiya B. What do you think of him?" Dawn said without even looking round. She was still giggling a little at the appearance of the monster. "Don't you think he looks a little familiar? Reminds you of something? He does me".

Now she was close up, Buffy looked keenly at the creature - and did a double take.

"Hey! It's as if I've seen it before. But how? And what was it? And where was it?"

"What the hell are you two talking about?" Spike asked, completely at a loss. "Do you mean to say you've come across this thing before?"

"Oh sorry, Spike. No, not exactly", Dawn said. "I guess you're too old - it must be from way after your time. It's..."

She didn't have a chance to finish what she was about to say, because right at that moment the D'Yah Ba'Wuk opened its mouth very wide, and then everything seemed to happen at once.

It breathed in.

And in.

And in, and in, and in...

And everything, the whole of Dawn's world, Buffy's world, Spike's world, gradually started to move towards it.

First a hot gust of wind from nowhere lifted all the dust into the air, everywhere in the world, and started to slowly draw it towards the other universe. And as the wind gradually increased, larger material around them began to move with it too - sand, grit, gravel, fragments of stones, broken bricks, the rubble of the High School, all started to shift and move towards the centre of the light.

High above, Michael stretched out his hands, one holding his sword, around which sparks were playing like an insane halo of lightening, and spoke loudly and clearly in an ancient language. Giles abruptly stopped laughing and wiped his face, straightened up and began to accompany him. Tara and Willow joined in, somehow not needing to know what they were saying, just following Michael's words. Poor Xander watched open mouthed as the world he lived in began to be sucked into the other universe, like so much fluff into a hoover, and Anya gave a subdued shriek and buried her face in his shirt.

Buffy, Dawn and Spike stood with the wind rising about them, as if they were in the path of a massive hurricane, and clung to each other.

"The Spear, Dawn! The Spear!" Buffy shouted over the noise. "This is what it's for! Use it!"

Her sister looked at her and smiled. She felt completely calm. Now she knew what she was here for. She turned back to face the creature from the Pit and balanced her weapon in her right hand, carefully taking her aim. She would have only one shot.

"Just throw the bloody thing, Niblet! It's so bleeding close you couldn't miss it facing the other way with both your bloody eyes shut!" Spike bellowed above the roar of the wind, vainly trying to shield himself by turning up the collar of his long leather coat.

So she threw The Spear.

Spike was right. She couldn't miss.

"Hasta la vista, baby!" she shouted after it.

The Spear went straight into the creature's mouth, just like everything else.

The D'Yah Ba'Wuk abruptly snapped its mouth shut with a great gulp and suddenly looked pained, as if it was suffering from chronic indigestion.

And in that instant the wind stopped.

Everything went absolutely quiet, just like that. There was no sound, no howling of the wind, no roaring of flames as the ruins burned, no screams in the distance. For that one long moment the world was utterly silent.

Then the monster looked almost sadly at Dawn, slowly lowered its head, and gradually, gradually began to shrink away back into the remains of the Egg, getting smaller and smaller. It almost seemed to her that it was as if it was slowly receding into an infinite distance until there was nothing left, and as it did so the unbelievable brilliance began to fade, leaving them all blinded by the light.

Darkness fell gratefully on Sunnydale, the normal darkness of a normal November evening in normal Southern California - that is if anywhere in the Sunnydale area of Southern California can be said to be anything approaching normal anyway!

As their eyes began to become accustomed to the ordinary level of darkness, Buffy realised that her sister was crying uncontrollably, and she put her arms round her to comfort her.

"I killed it", Dawn sobbed. "I didn't really want to hurt it at all".

"You had to", Buffy told her, and patted her gently. "That's what Slayers do". 'Now you know how I feel sometimes', she added, but that was just to herself.


End Of Part Eleven. To Be Concluded...