A/N: I would like to apologize for the delay in getting this chapter posted. Everyone at Simply Buffy appreciates the reviews and support from all of you that have been reading this. There will be one more chapter after this!

Chapter 16

by AngelAddicted, aka idontknowu2

> > >

"Oh God. Oh God. Oh God." Dawn screeched.

One of her captures jerked his head around. "Would you shut your hole!"

"Oh God. Oh God. Oh God." She repeated.

"Uh-oh."

"Uh-Oh what?" The vampire driving questioned.

"She's leaking! That can't be good. What do we do? What do we do!"

The vampire started shuffled around the floorboard while still trying to drive. "Look for something to clean it up with. Her water broke. The baby's coming soon."

"There's nothing here!" The vampire in the passenger seat started to panic. "Oh God. Oh God. Oh God."

"Don't speak that name, Barbos! Do you know what Master would do if he heard that? Now, just breath."

Barbos leaned back in his seat. "He Hoo. He Hoo."

"No you, idiot. The girl." Dawn looked at both of them.

"I can't do this alone. I need my sister!"

> > >

Buffy limped over to Angel's car. "Who's driving me?" No one answered. "Come on!"

"Come on, B." Faith said, nearing her. "I know you want to save your sister. And, we do too. But, Willow and Tara haven't even figured out where to go. We have to know where we're going."

"Here!" Willow shouted, running outside. She was waving a piece of paper in her hand. "That's where most of the town's super natural energy is coming from."

"We suspect that's where Dawnie is," Tara finished.

Angel walked in front of Willow and snatched the piece of paper. "Let's go."

Buffy got into the passenger seat as Angel settled into the driver's seat. Willow and Wesley jumped into the back and Illyria followed. Faith made Buffy scoot over to the middle of the front seat as she squeezed in. Angel pulled out of the driveway and sped down the street with Giles, Tara, Xander, Anya and Gunn looking on.

"Guess we're backup again?" Xander looked at everyone.

Giles placed his glasses back on his face after cleaning them. "Come on." So everyone piled into Giles' car and followed Buffy and the others.

> > >

"You'll have to," The driver spoke. "Your sister's probably dead by now anyhow." The vampire pulled the car to an old rundown building. Barbos immediately jumped out and ran to the doors. "It's coming! The child is coming!"

"BARBOS!" The vampire shouted, trying to get Dawn out of the car.

"Right..."

Barbos ran over to help Dawn inside. They made their way inside and to Dawn's surprise, the place didn't look half bad. It actually looked pretty nice. Nothing like the outside. There as a couch, pool table, mini-kitchen, bathroom, and two bedrooms. Dawn was a bit confused: demons lived here. And the place looked...well, normal. An older female demon walked over to Dawn and gently guided her to her room as Dawn looked around the room, confused. They made their way into a fairly large room. It had a big bed, and a couple chairs in the room.

"NO!" Dawn said, struggling against the demons who were trying to get her into bed. "Just let me go! Please."

"Miss, please, just get in." A young woman spoke. "This is better than another place you could be. Would you rather be down in our basement, where Master wanted you in the first place? I told him your child's birth would come easier if you were comfortable. If you refuse, he will put you down there."

Dawn locked eyes with the woman. After realizing she would be better off here than in the basement, she made her way into the bed. After being settled in, the demons left the room. The woman was gathering up some pillows from the closet.

"You'll be giving birth soon," she said without looking at Dawn.

Dawn let out a heavy sigh. "Why are you...here? With..."

"Demons?" Dawn nodded. "They, the Master, saved me from some breed of demons that were trying to kill me. He said I could live if I worked for him. I think it's a fair trade, don't you?"

"No. I don't. You're a sla-."

"My child has arrived, I see," The Master shouted walking into the room.

Dawn's eyes filled with anger. "You're not getting my baby. This is my-ahhh!" Dawn was interrupted by a contraction. She screamed out in pain.

"Now now, dear. Don't stress. My child needs to be healthy if he's going to supply me with strength."

"Strength?" Dawn breathed. "Wha-what?" Her forehead wrinkled with confusion.

"Your child. Your wonderful child. He holds so much power. Power of The Destroyer-conceived by two vampires, and power of you, The Key. Do you know how much power that is, Dawn?" The Master of the vampires and demons made his way to Dawn's side. He brushed her hair from her face. "I can do so much more with that power. And I'll have you to thank for that." Dawn flinched at his touch.

"It's a 'she'! And you won't get her, dammit!"

"Shhh. This will all be over soon."

> > >

Angel had ignored lights and road signs the whole drive. But, he was forced to come to a stop as a trolley was passing.

Buffy's eyes were darting back and forth as they drove. Her mind was racing with thoughts.

"It's a girl!" Willow shrieked.

Anya came up behind Willow, who was holding the new baby. "I'm an aunt!"

Xander came up beside Anya, putting a hand on Willow and Anya's shoulders. "I'm an uncle!"

"Me too!" Gunn shouted, smiling big. Everyone looked at Gunn strangely. "What?" Gunn returned the look then leaned over everyone else to admire the new baby.

"I do not understand the excitement for this burden." Illyria spoke, walking over to examine the child.

"It's not a burden!" Tara, too, walked over to the new life. "It's an iddy widdy baby." She said, speaking in 'baby language.'

Angel came up to Willow and took the baby girl from her, gently. "She's beautiful, Dawn." He said, looking at the Dawn, then back at the baby. "Gimme Gimme." Dawn shouted. Angel smiled at the baby once more and handed her off to her mother. She cradled her in her arms.

"I wanna hold her! Let me hold her!" Buffy commanded. She threw out her arms, but was surprised when the were chained to the wall, as were her legs. "Wa-what's going on? I wanna hold my niece!" Buffy began to wiggle in the chains. "Let me hold her!" She shouted again.

Suddenly a hoard of vampires burst into the room. Everyone had weapons already in hand, and began fighting off the vampires. Quickly, it was black. When the lights came back on, only a second later all of Buffy's friends were lying on the ground dead. Dawn still held her baby in her arms, not noticing that they were being attacked. A large demon entered the room.

"Bring me the child!" He shouted in a deep voice. A male vampire walked out from behind the demon and made his way toward Dawn.

"No! You can't have her!" Buffy screamed trying to get out of the chains. Tears were quickly running down her face. She was breathing heavily. "Dawn! Protect her!"

Dawn still didn't look up from her child. The vampire reached for the it, and Dawn willingly let him remove her from her arms, still smiling at her daughter.

"Dawn! What are you doing? Protect her!" Buffy was helpless.

The vampire handed the child to his leader, who held her gently, almost swallowing the baby with his large arms. "My child...my beautiful daughter." He still held the child with one arm, when with the other he wiped out an ax and removed Dawn's head from her shoulders.

"NOOOO!" Buffy cried. The demon disappeared with Dawn's child in tow. And the vampires soon scurried out of the room. Buffy's body fell limp, still chained to the wall. The chains clanked together as she cried.

"3,497." Illyria spoke.

Buffy shook her head as her thoughts were interrupted. "What?"

"The number of lines we've passed on the road, 3,497," she repeated, peering out of the car window.

Willow leaned forward and gave Illyria an odd look. Annoyed at not receiving a responce, Illyria turned back to the window to count the lines as the car started to move again.

> > >

"The doctor's here,"a vampire announced. " The Master stood up. "Good, good. Bring him in." Dawn's face was dampened from sweat and tears. A female vampire leaned over to wipe her forehead. "You're so lucky. Producing the child that will be a part in destroying humanity. I wish I were as fortunate as you." Dawn shot her a glare.

"My baby won't help destroy the world! I won't let it happen. Neither will my sister!" The vampire leaned back into her seat with a pout across her lips.

"So, who's the lucky one carrying the end of humanity?" A demon walked into the room carrying a doctor's bag and wearing a white jacket.

"Would you stop! I'm not gonna let you do this!" Dawn cried. The 'doctor' walked over to Dawn. He pressed his hand on her stomach. "Oh. That baby'll be comin' real soon now. You just relax and don't push until I tell ya' to. Ya hear?" Dawn sighed.

"I want a real doctor. Not some red-neck demon."

"This is a real doctor, Dawn." The Master said. "Mr. Landers is the best one in deliveries with rituals involved. You should thank him for coming all this way from the states. He said he wouldn't allow anyone else to deliver this baby. See, you're special."

Dawn opened her mouth but was once again interrupted. The doctor ran to the end of the bed. "Not yet. Remember Miss Summers, no pushing."

> > >

Angel's hands were clinched on the steering wheel. Buffy just had a blank face when he looked her. He reached down with his right handand placed it on hers. She turned to look at him and leaned her hand on his shoulder. He wrapped his arm around her to reassure her that everything was going to be fine.

> > >

Xander was quickly loading his gun with bullets.

"How you do that so fast? Been in the army or somethin'?" Gunn asked.

"Once. Well, no. It's a long story."

"Well, you doing that...with one eye and all. That's pretty tight." Xander looked at Gunn.

"Thanks. And you shine that sword nicely."

Gunn lifted the sword to observe his work, "Yeah, I do. Don't I? ... Hey." He said, placing the sword back onto his lap. "I uh, got your back incase anything goes...more wrong. Yanno-if you got mine."

"Yeah. I do." Xander said sticking out his hand to shake Gunn's.

"I got yo back too, homie." Anya piped up cheerfully. Gunn raised an eyebrow at her.

"Uh. Thanks."

> > >

"Where'd everyone go?" Dawn asked looking around at the few left in the room, the 'doctor' and a couple vamps. The Doctor looked up at her,

"Oh. They have to set up for the ritual. We all want this to be perfect and memorable. Get ready, almost time to push."

"I can't. I don't want to." Dawn panicked.

"You have to, Miss. Summers. The Master needs your child, he needs your child."

"For what? Why won't you tell me anything?" she said in frustration.

"Blood." he doctor said, annoyed. "He needs the blood."

"My sister's not gonna let you take her. Or our friends. They won't either!"

"Shut up already!" Barbos said, stepping into the room. "You sound like a broken record."

The Master walked into the room and stuck a stake thru Barbos's chest and watched him burst into dust. He put his hands behind his back and walked closer to Dawn.

"Dawn, no one's here to help you. Not your sister. Your friends. Connor. No one. You're all alone."

Dawn shook her head in denial as tears filled her eyes again.

"You'll be having another contraction soon." As he spoke, she did. She grabbed the sheets of the bed and began to tense up.

The doctor rolled his chair closer to the end of the bed. "Time to start pushing."

The Master had a grin plastered on his lips. "Right on time. All is going as planned."

> > >

TBC!