Chapter 5

Angel, Spike, Gunn and Illyria stood before the mass of demons, wondering how many they would kill, how badly they would get injured and whether they would still be standing when it was all over. The demons were advancing on them. The four comrades took one last look at each other before plunging into battle.

"This is gonna be one hell of a fight," Buffy said looking at the demons from the rear of the battle.

"You can count on it B, I'm ready to kick some ass," Faith agreed

Buffy turned to face the other slayers, they were so young and most of them had fear in their eyes.

"Ok, lisaid ready for the fight.

The slayers rushed forward, taking the hell beasts by surprise. Buffy and Faith were in the front, slaying the demons in their wake. The senior partners' numbers were depleting, but some of the younger slayers were being fatally injured aswell. The L.A. gang continued fighting unaware of the help they were recieving. Gunn was losing a lot of blood, adrenoline the only thing keeping him alive. Angel and Spike were doing ok, they were watching each others backs. Illyria was f the younger slayers were being fatally injured aswell. The L.A. gang continued fighting unaware of the help they were recieving. Gunn was losing a lot of blood, adrenoline the only thing keeping him alive. Angel and Spike were doing ok, they were watching each others backs. Illyria was unstoppable. She killed every demon she came into contact with. Then she came face to face with Buffy, they looked at each other for a second, giving each other a nod before plunging back into combat. Illyria knew Buffy was a slayer and she was thinking about telling Angel when she sensed the rest of them. There were at least 200 of them. She realised that, with the help of the slayers, they could win this thing.

The scoobies were also in action and were putting up a pretty good fight. In between killing demons Willow and Tara were trying to help the injured, covering up their wounds and using magic to help those with fatal injuries. Tara saw Gunn fall and immediately rushed over to help him. She dragged him off the battlefield and started attending to him straight away.Willow came over to aid her girlfriend in helping Gunn.

"Hey baby, what's the verdict for Gunn?" the goddess asked.

"Will, he's lost a lot of blood, like way too much, we're gonna have to get him to the a hospital for a transfusion. You know this guy?"

"Yeah he's part of team Angel. I met him when I came here to return Angel's soul. You stay here, I'll take Gunn to the hospital, I've got a feeling they're gonna need you here," Willow said.

"Sweetie your the one who should stay here, I'm not as powerful as you," Tara replied.

"You are powerful Tara, maybe even more than me. You are entirely capable of doing this on your own. I've gotta go now, see you later," she said before giving Tara a kiss on the cheek.

The dragon came swooping down and Angel took his chance to get on it's back, determined that he would be the one to kill it. The dragon flew high up into the air making loops andchanging direction to try and get rid of it's passenger. Then it dived towards the ground at lightning speed. When it was about 10 feet from the ground Angel drove his sword right through the dragon's back and into it's heart. The road shuddered as the dragon hit it. Angel pulled out the sword and jumped off the dragon, turning his attention back to the demons, still oblivious to the fact that the slayers were there.

They fought for hours killing demon after demon, but as the time wore on the casualties became less, slayer mode had finally kicked in. Spike and Angel stopped fighting as their eyes landed on the blonde slayer they both longed for. They watched Buffy as she moved gracefully as if every move was choreographed. It was day break and the sun shone on her hair, Angel and Spike were so mesmerised that they hadn't realised that they were standing in the sunlight. It wasn't untilall the othervamps burst into flames and reduced to dust, that Angel and Spike noticed that they were not. Buffy, Faith and the rest of the scoobies stood before Illyria and the now ex-vampires. They stood in silence, staring away from each other, no one knowing what they could say. They were mostly shocked and confused. Buffy and Spike seemed a littled embarassed. Their situation could not have been more awkward.

After what seemed like an eternity someone finally decided to break the silence.

"But how...what...why aren't captain peroxide and I big piles of dust?" Angel asked.

"Hey, watch it mate," Spike said offended by his comment.

"The Shanshu prophecy has been fufilled," Willow interjected, not wanting an argument to take place.

"But how? I thought it was just about him," Spike said, referring to Angel.

"Well it was about Angel, but it was also about you, prophecies aretricky, you know that, and the Shanshu prophecy has never been able to be properly translated before," Tara told him.

"Then how do you know th..."

"Because we were the ones who prophesised it, me, Tara and Willow," Buffy answered, interupting Angel.

"We saw the prophecy in our past lives," Willow explained.

"You have both been rewarded with your humanity, but as champions you are to valuable to this world so you are still eternally youthful," Tara informed them.

"So basically, it's like your still vamps, but you have a reflection, a pulse, can go in daylight, obviously, but you still run the risk of being killed by a demon,which is highly unlikely,oh and bullets still can't kill you but ow and you're supposed to stop me when I do that," Willow rambled.

"As much as I'd love to stand here and talk all day, I'm beat and I think its fair to say that everyone else is to, so I say we should get some rest and do the talking thing tomorrow," Buffy said, wanting to go before the rest of L.A. woke up and people saw them all just standing there in the middle of the road.

"That sounds good to me," Xander said agreeing.

The other slayers had already started walking to the hotels that Giles had booked. Spike overheard Buffy complaining to Willow about having to sharebeds with the other girls and immediately asked her if she wanted to stay at his place. Buffy accepted his invitation.

The walk to Spike's was a silent one. Neither of them knew what to say. It had been so long since they had a conversation with each other. Spike had been uncharacteristically shy when he had asked Buffy to stay at his apartment. He had been so quiet. Buffy guessed that he might still have feelings for her, which made her feel good inside, but she didn'tknow just how strong those feelings were.

Spike's P.O.V.

God she smells so good. And she looks even more amazing than the last time I saw her. I can't believe she actually said yes. Why is this so hard? It wasn't like this before Why am I so nervous? My palms are actually sweating. Maybe that damn soul is finally working. Its Buffy's fault. I want her so much, more than I ever did before, but its more than that. I want her to be mine. I want to see her laugh and smile. I want to have something real.

They entered through a door in the side of a building and then descended the stairs to Spike's apartment. It was really nice. Buffy looked round, impressed by the decor. Spike realised that Buffy didn't have anything to change into, so he went to his bedroom to get her something to wear.

"Here you can put this on," he said handing Buffy a black shirt, "right, you can take the bed, I'll sleep on the couch," he continued, turning to walk away.

"Spike, wait, stay, we can share the bed,"

"No, its ok, really..." Spike started.

"But, I want you to stay, I want you to hold me," Buffy said not wanting to waste time with stupid mind games.

"Right then," Spike nodded, "I'll just get something to drink while you change. Do you want anything?"

"No thanks, I'm good," Buffy replied.

"Buffy?"

"Yes Spike,"

"Nothing," he answered fogetting what he had wanted to say.

When he got back to his room Buffy was sitting on his bed, looking very hot in Spike's shirt, with her sunkissed complexion and her slender legs. She was perfect. At least Spike thought so. They both got into bed, moving into the middle, Buffy rested her head on Spike's chest.

"Night Spike."

"Night Love."

Buffy fell asleep straight away, exhausted from the battle. Spike watched her as she slept peacefully, with a look of content on her face, fearing that if he closed his eyes that he would wake up to find that it was all just a dream. He wished that he could just hold her for forever and never let her go. He hadn't really thought about it, with everything that had been going on, Andrew had told him to move on, but the truth was he could never move on, he really and truely loved Buffy, even more than he ever had before.