Sorry that it took longer than expected to get this chapter up, real life is a bitch. Next one will be up in two weeks.

Review Responses:

ShalBrenfan, Lightdemondarkangel, Damia - Queen of the Gypsi's, GoldenRat, Delauro, thank you for all of your reviews!

Torture of Persephone, sorry about the weirdo hold. I had plans for those amulets, I just needed some room to play with to get relationships where they needed to be. :)

Kyra2, Me? Imperil my characters? No. grin Hee hee, of course there's danger. Mwahahaha. :)

Irina, I've never really thought of looking at Buffy and Rogue's relationship like that before. Definitely something to consider thanks! And thank you for letting me know how much you're enjoying the fic. I love receiving reviews like yours, it lets me know that you're really reading and are invested in the fic. Yay!

My reviewers are just awesome! Thank you guys!

A/N: The spell in this fic comes from the season three BtVS episode, The Zeppo. Words were taken from the transcript on Twenty-Four

Rogue stepped back to look over the candles she and Bobby had arranged in their hiding place. Her stomach flip-flopped as she reached into her pocket for the lighter.

"Not yet," Bobby whispered. "Let's wait until the fighting starts so we attract less attention."

She nodded and then realized he couldn't really see her in the darkness. "Ok. It's just that I'm so nervous and excited all at the same time."

Bobby wrapped his arms around her waist. "Me too. I can't believe she actually said she needed us."

"I know," she said, leaning into his embrace. "I thought she was just being nice by letting us research and stuff - that it would keep us out of trouble. But she kept her promise to us."

"Hopefully she'll keep opening up," he said, placing a quick kiss on top of her head. "I just hope we can do this."

"We can and we will," Rogue said firmly, her southern accent getting thicker with her emotions. "Because Buffy needs us to. Heck, the world needs us to."

XXXXXXX

"Oz! What are you doing?" Buffy hissed, turning away from her friend. She was thankful that the darkness covered the blush she knew was creeping up on her cheeks.

He looked over at her with a bland expression. "I'm shifting for the fight," he reminded her.

"I know that, but why are you removing your clothes?"

"So I don't rip them when I shift," he stated in a tone that clearly said she should have remembered that detail.

"But do you have to do that here where I can see your nakedness?" She asked, still not turning around.

He finally understood what was wrong and he chuckled softly. "Sorry. I got used to the openness of the monks. Nudity wasn't a big deal."
"It's ok, it's just... You surprised me is all," she said, a little embarrassed.

"I'll go shift behind that bush," Oz said, still chuckling.

"Fine.. you... go do that," she said, still not looking. A few minutes later she could hear bones grinding and cracking, only then did she turn around. She was greeted by Oz's werewolf form loping silently up to her.

He sniffed the air and growled deep in his chest.

"I know they're out there," Buffy said, hesitantly resting a hand on his hairy head. Intellectually she knew he was in control of the wolf, but her instincts were screaming the exact opposite. She forced herself to relax and calm down. "But we have to wait just a little bit longer."

XXXXXXX

"I hate waiting," Scott muttered from his hiding place next to Logan.

"Really?" Logan asked in surprise, looking over at the younger man. "I thought you were the patient one."

"I am. It's just that my nerves get wound tight when I'm waiting for a fight," Scott confessed. "Makes me twitchy."

Logan could only stare at him and say, "Huh, who would have thought?"

The two men returned to their silent watch, until Logan spoke up a few minutes later. "Something about this doesn't feel right."
"Her plan is solid."

"I know, but when we got here something felt off."
Scott frowned and thought it over for a moment. "Maybe your instincts are reacting to the hellmouth."
"Whaddaya mean, Cyke?"
"You patrol with Buffy almost every night, you've got your own heightened senses, plus you seem to be more attuned to your surroundings than the rest of us. You could be picking up on the unnatural, mystical properties of the opening hellmouth and that could be the source of your unease."
Again, Logan found himself staring at Scott in shock. Scott had, in an abstract way, given him credit for his abilities and even validated his sense of unease. As he thought back, he realized that the younger man had been attempting to be cordial to him for quite a while. For the first time, Logan began to understand that a friendship between him and Scott was actually possible. The least he could do was return the favor. With a half grin, he said, "Yer probably right."

XXXXXXX

Jean looked over at her friend and saw the harsh lines of worry mar her beautiful face. "What's wrong?"
"Just that in all of these years of saving individuals or groups, we thought we were doing something momentous," Storm said in her softly accented voice. "But all that time, Buffy was secretly saving the world several times and in secret. She's never received the praise or acknowledgement worthy of her."

"Don't sell yourself short," Jean said. "The people we've helped or saved believe what we've done was momentous. And it was, for them. But I see what you mean about Buffy."
"What should we do about it?"
"I'm not sure, but we'll think of something."
XXXXXXX

Kurt looked over the clearing from his position in the treetops. He was thankful that Buffy had given him the task of helping everyone during this fight. Even though he accepted the fact that the creatures below were not of God's creation, he did not relish the killing of them. Violence was not part of his nature, but neither was he willing to let any of his newfound friends get hurt.

His yellow eyes could make out Buffy and what he assumed to be Oz's were form emerge from the trees. He sighed to himself as the fighting and the killing began below.

XXXXXXX

Buffy felt the magicks converging in the ground beneath her as she swung her scythe. She knew that the hellmouth would be opening in a few minutes and she hoped to eliminate as many of the excess demons as possible before then. Her hands expertly guided the scythe into demon after demon.

She spared a glance over at Oz. She had never seen him fight in his were form and she was more than a little curious. His hairy, muscular form moved easily through the demons. He somehow managed to stay out of their reach, but still inflicted deadly wounds on them. Buffy could clearly see Oz's personality shine through as he calmly weighed every movement and reaction. Satisfied that he would be able to take care of himself, she swung her scythe behind her, neatly decapitating the demon trying to sneak up on her.

XXXXXXX

Logan finally understood why Buffy had insisted on he and Scott keep up their training together. While they didn't fight together as smoothly as he and Buffy, there was a familiarity that almost allowed each other to anticipate the other's movements. His claws ripped open one demon as another exploded only inches away from him.

"Cuttin' it a little close there, ain't ya, Cyke?" Logan growled as he ducked under the swing of another demon.

"Nah! There was a good six inches between you," Scott cheerfully called out.

"Nice to know yer concerned for my well-bein'," Logan said, throwing the demon into the path of Scott's beam.

"Not really," Scott replied after incinerating it. "Buffy would kill me if I let anything happen to you."

At the mention of the tiny blonde, Logan looked across the clearing to check on her. He could see a strange, hairy, man-sized, wolf-thing fighting with her. It wasn't exactly how he pictured a werewolf to look like. Then again, no one would ever suspect that the lone figure to stand against the forces of evil to be a tiny, Californian blonde either.

"Wolvie! Pay attention," Scott yelled as he blasted a demon racing towards the older man.

Pulling his attention back to the fight, he snarled, "Don't call me Wolvie."

XXXXXXX

The ground shook beneath their feet and several demons were thrown back as the ground exploded upward. A multi-headed demon rose up and it's tentacles reached out and grabbed whatever was closest. Many demons that had been previously guarding the hellmouth found themselves eaten by the very thing they had been protecting.

"Rogue! Bobby! That's your cue!" Buffy shouted as she cut off the end of the tentacle that was reaching for her.

She hated to admit it, but she was growing a little concerned. They hadn't cleared away as many of the demons as she had hoped. There was the distinct possibility that the giant demon could pull itself out of the hellmouth and gain purchase in their dimension. She had no idea what was waiting to come through next, but she had a feeling that it would be worse.

XXXXXXX

"Cyke! Behind ya!" Logan yelled.

Scott turned and shot a beam at the tentacle, but it bounced harmlessly off. Realizing the problem just a fraction too late, he fumbled for the sword Buffy had insisted he carry as the tentacle closed the distance. Suddenly, he felt arms around him, then found himself on the other side of the clearing.

"Thanks, Kurt," he said gratefully.

"You are most welcome, mein friend," Kurt said softly with a sigh. The blue skinned mutant used his tail to knock away a demon that was next to them.

XXXXXXX

Bobby whirled around as he heard something crashing through the forest. He and Rogue had been busy lighting, what seemed to him to be, the hundred candles needed for the spell.

A large grey demon lumbered out of the tree and straight for Rogue, who was standing after lighting the last candle. "Rogue! Duck!"

Hearing the urgency in his voice, she quickly complied. Bobby raised his right hand and sent an icy stream towards the demon. When it was firmly encased in ice, he ran over and hugged Rogue. "Are you ok?" He asked.

"Fine, just startled," she said, smiling up at him. "Let's finish this spell so we can go home."
XXXXXXX

Logan growled, as the tentacles that grabbed at him appeared to be never-ending. For every one that he chopped off, two more seemed to take its place. He was so busy concentrating on them, that he never sensed the pack of demons sneaking up from the rear until it was too late.

They swarmed on him, cutting and biting. Logan fought back at first and took quite a few down with his claws. But even his advanced healing was having difficulties metabolizing the poison their bites injected into his blood. Eventually he succumbed and collapsed beneath them.

Jean faltered as she felt Logan's pain and anger. Her eyes searched the battlefield and watched as he fell. She heard his last mental cry for Buffy and that he felt as if he had failed her.

The doctor in her wanted to run to him and tend to his injuries as she saw the demons move away from his lifeless body in search of another victim. But she knew that the fate of the world depended on Rogue and Bobby completing the spell and it was her job to protect them. Logan would have to wait.

XXXXXXX

Rogue and Bobby kept their eyes on their surroundings as they began reciting the spell. In unison they said, "Terra, vente, ignis et pluvia. Cuncta quattuor numina. Vos obsecro. Defendete nos a recente malo resoluto."

They jumped as several bolts of lightening struck behind them. The teens turned around to see three smoking demon bodies.

"Keep going!" Storm cried at them from the sky.

They returned their attention back to the spell. "Omnia vasa veritatis!" They said together.

"Now Buffy!" Rogue yelled across the clearing.

Buffy, hearing the command, slammed the scythe into the largest head, causing it to scream in pain. The thing sank back into the ground and pulled the dirt back on top of itself, leaving no indication that it had ever been there at all.

The demons left standing found that their chances of survival would be better if they left, ran away. The X-Men, Buffy, and Oz finally relaxed and took a moment to breathe as they gathered together in the clearing.

"Where's Logan?" Buffy asked when he didn't join them.

"I forgot!" Jean cried, running over to where she had seen him fall.

"Forgot? Forgot what?" Buffy asked, following.

"I saw him fall, but I couldn't help because I was protecting Rogue and Bobby," Jean explained, kneeling next to Logan's battered and bloodied prone form.

Seeing the man who had battered down her defenses with love dead on the ground, Buffy saw red. She wanted to launch herself at Jean for not helping him earlier, but she also knew that Jean had made the hard decision of saving the world over helping a friend. It was the same decision she would have made.

Instead, she collapsed with tears streaming down her face. She should have known that this would happen. She had allowed herself to get attached and now Logan had to pay the price.

"It's all my fault," she sobbed, burying her face in her blood covered hands.

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Jean couldn't stop the soft smile that tugged at her lips. "His last thought before he lost consciousness was that he failed you by leaving you."
Buffy shook her head. "He didn't fail me. I'm the one who failed him. If I had held him off, he wouldn't have been here fighting. And he wouldn't be dead."
"He's not dead, Buffy," Jean said gently.

The blonde's head snapped up and she blinked in surprise. "He's not?" At Jean's shake of her head, Buffy extended her senses. Sure enough, she could hear his shallow breathing and the slow beating of his heart.

Jean looked at Kurt. "Get him back to the mansion, we'll meet you there." As Kurt disappeared with Logan, she got up and walked over to Buffy. "He's tougher than you think, he'll make it." She reached out a hand and helped Buffy to her feet.

Buffy could only follow silently. Her tears leaving tracks on her dirty face.