Chapter 12

True Power

"No! No!Nooooo!" Willow screams as her hair turns black. Picking up Jesse's sword, she stands and whips it around in a 180° arc, taking out half a dozen Turokhan and driving several others back over the edge of the precipice to slam into the cavern floor far below.

Because of the power she is using, the sword starts to turn black. Then images of another life start to flare in her mind. Jesse, Xander, and herself are happy. They are a family.

Seeing these new images in her mind push her over the deep end. With a ferocious growl, she spins and decapitates more Turokhan.

As Buffy turns around after decapitating ADAM, she see's Jesse lying on the ground. Dead.

"Oh God, No." she gasps. Then she looks up from her body to see Willow standing there with her sword in hand.

"Will?" Buffy calls out. As she hears her name Willow turns around with a murderous look on her face.

Glory picks up Kennedy by the neck and starts to choke her. As she lifts her off her feet, she looks over and spots Willow. Snapping the struggling girls neck, she quickly makes her way over to the ultra powerful Wicca.

"Well if it isn't the Witch Bitch." Glory quips as she steps up to Willow. "Long time no ..." she starts only for her eyes to go wide as Willow stabs her in the heart and for Buffy to decapitate her. As her now headless body falls to the ground, Buffy grabs Willow by the arm.

"Will snap out of it." Buffy says as she lowers her scythe to her side.

"They killed her Buffy." Willow says as a tear falls down from her left eye.

"I know Will but..."

"THEY KILLED HERRRRRRR!" Willow screams as a power surge goes through her (kinda like on Dragon Ball Z, when they power up). The force of which knocked everybody to the ground, except The Master, Spike, and herself. Three wierd lights emante from Jesse's body and enter into Willow. Because of all the power she is using, she doesn't notice.

"Now, Now Now Red. You'll get to join your daughter soon enough." The Master says as he walks up to her.

'My daughter? But how?' Willow thinks to herself. Losing control of her magick at this new information, she lifts the sword and runs at The Master. Ducking under a powerful swing from the sword The Master threw a vicious punch at Willow, which was deflected by a red barrier.

"So the Witch has some new tricks?" The Master asks rubbing his fist.

Willow lets out a growl and charges him. He deftly side-steps, using her own momentum to flip her unto the ground. She kicks him backward but he quickly recovers and lifts her up, hurling her through a stone column. She's nearly unconscious. The Master scoops up the sword and twirls it in his hands as he stands over her.

"Time to die." The Master says as he lifts the sword over his head.

"Not likely." Willow says as she holds her right hand out. As if an invisible force snactched the weapon, it left The Master's hands and went into Willow's as she stood to her feet.

The Master rushes Willow and she swings the sword around in a lightning-quick series of blows. He dodges them all and wrenches the weapon from her grasp, kicking her backward into the wall. He aims the sword perfectly at her head and thrusts forward. She dodges at the last instant and the blade slams into the rock, embedded up to the hilt. Willow hurls The Master away and rips the sword from the wall, charging at him full speed.

The Master swings at her, one punch after another, but Willow ducks and weaves, then whips the swords blade around sideways in a deadly arc, catching him full in the chest. He stops, stunned, as Willow rips the blade back out, opening him up from one side of his body to the other.

"Be seeing you." Willow quips.

With almost super-human strength she slices him in half with her sword. Finally ending The First for good.

After that last surge of energy from Willow, Spike braces himself against the wall as a surge of energy wells up within him.

"Oh, bollocks…" Spike shouts out in pain. The white-hot energy coalesces around the amulet and rockets upward, punching a hole up through the ceiling of the cavern and through the basement of the school, tearing up and out through the building.

Spike stands pinned in the center of a glowing ring of orange light.

"Buffy!" Spike calls out almost as if he were going to cry. Buffy looks over at Spike as she comes too and can't believe her eyes.

"Spike!" Buffy calls out, still a little dizzily.

Before she can move, the medallion suddenly flares into life, lit with the intensity of a million suns. Streams of pure solar energy radiate outward in a circle like beams from a lighthouse. The energy pulses sweep the cavern, destroying every Turok-han they touch.

The vampire creatures scream in agony as they are cut down and annihilated by the hundreds, then by the thousands as the light extends down into the chasm. Buffy runs to Spike's side as the cavern around them begins to shake and tremble. Chunks of rock and pointed stalactites tumble from the ceiling as the ground lurches beneath their feet.

"Everybody out now!" Faith calls out as she and the others get off the ground.

The girls follow Faith's lead and dash up the stairs and into the school basement. Faith stays behind, helping the injured to safety as Buffy stands before Spike who is still pinned in place, illuminated by a crimson glow. She wants to help him but is unsure what to do.

"Willow come on!" Faith calls out as she pulls on Willow's arm.

"I can't! They killed my girl." Willow says as she begins to cry. Faith gives her a look, until she looks down on the ground and see's Kennedy. (Faith didn't know that Willow was really talking about Jesse.)

"I'm sorry Red." Faith says as she punches Willow in the back of the head knocking her unconcious. The force of the blow also making her hair turn back red and the slayer's power to leave her body.

Lifting up her limp body, she glances at the still body of Kennedy once more and makes a dash for the exit.

"I can feel it, Buffy." Spike says as he tries to touch his chest. But can't because the power is to great.

"What?" Buffy asks trying to get closer to him.

"My soul." Spike answers. "It's really there. It kind of stings." Buffy looks around desperately as the last of the Slayers climb up and out of the Hellmouth.

All the girls are gone, having escaped up through the Seal and into the school. It's just Buffy and Spike now.

Behind her a vast section of the cavern ceiling collapses inward, millions of tons of rock crashing into the abyss. Faith calls down frantically from the top of the stairs near the Seal.

"Buffy, come on!"

Faith takes one last desperate look at Buffy, then leaps up into the school above, with Willow in hand.

"Gotta move, lamb. I think it's fair to say, school's out for the bloody summer."

"Spike!" Buffy says desperately with tears in her eyes.

"I mean it!" Spike screams. "I gotta do this."

The light emanating from the amulet flares even brighter and Buffy reaches out and takes Spike's hand in her own, entwining her fingers with his. A moment, then both their hands burst into flame. Buffy ignores the fire and holds his gaze with her own.

"I love you." Buffy says, finally telling him, her feelings. Spike looks at Buffy, a flood of emotions pouring through him. He smiles at her ironically.

"No, you don't. But thanks for saying it." Spike says with a smile.

They share one last look between them, two souls come together as one at last, then the ground heaves beneath their feet and chunks of stone slam down like bombs around them.

"Now go!" Spike yells. Buffy lets go of Spike's hand and runs up through the Seal.

Spike trembles with the intensity of the energy pouring through him. He stares at the maelstrom of destruction in front of him and grins sardonically, the same old Spike to the last.

"I want to see how it ends." Spike says to himself.

The front of the school explodes in a shower of dust and debris. From within the hellish storm of flying brick and masonry, a lone figure emerges, running for her life. It's Faith, carrying Willow. She dashes across the parking lot and leaps onto the school bus with the others.

Buffy dodges and weaves through the crumbling hallways as they disintegrate around her. She comes to the front entrance but finds the way completely blocked. Turning around, she sees moonlight streaming down from above and runs up the stairs.

Spike smiles wickedly as the magickal energy coursing through him reaches a fever pitch. His face begins to blacken in spots which rapidly join together as he's consumed from within by the power of his soul. Within seconds he disintegrates into dust.

The smile never leaves his face as he dies a hero.

Dies a champion.

Dies good.

As the bus races down the street, Buffy paces it on the rooftops of the adjacent buildings above, running for all she's worth, even gaining on the bus as it flies toward the city limits at 60+ miles per hour. Behind her, the buildings fall away as the town is slowly sucked into the Hellmouth. As the warehouse beneath her feet collapses into rubble, she leaps two dozen feet to the next building and keeps running.

Buffy makes one last desperate super-human leap into mid-air. She sails past the Sun Cinema marquee and lands hard on top of the bus. Buffy turns around and watches as the bus shoots away from the town that has been her home for the last seven years. Watches as the entire city disappears into the abyss, leaving nothing but a vast gaping hole in its place.

"What caused all of this?" Giles asked the group as they got off the bus.

"Spike did." Buffy answered leaning against the bus.

"Spike?" Angel, Giles, Principal Wood, and Nikki shout at once.

"Yeah he did."

"Damnit!" Nikki yells as she kicks a stone into the crater that used to be Sunnydale.

"What's wrong mom?" Wood asks as he touches her on the shoulder. "Are you mad that you want be able to get your revenge?"

"No! I'm mad because that son of a bitch burned up with my coat on." She replied with a pout.

"Willow?" Xander shouted, as he saw the still form of his best friend on the bus. "What the hell happened?"

"I'm sorry. It was the only way I could get her to leave." Faith said as she looked down at her feet.

"Why wouldn't she want to leave?" Xander asked as Willow began to come to.

"Jesse...Jesse!" Willow shouted as she looked up at Xander.

"What about..." He figures out what happened as he see's her sword in Willow's hand.

"Oh Willow." Xander soothes as he rocks her back and forth.

TBC...

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