Chapter 22

The Following Takes Place Between 9 pm and 10 pm on the day of the autumnal equinox

Faith had only heard second-hand information about the Initiative and Professor Walsh's project, therefore it took her several seconds to place Willow's remarks. "Wait a minute. Adam-Adam? The half-man, half demon, half army surplus creation?" she finally said. "I thought it was scrap metal."

"So did I," said Willow. "I guess it's true our military never learns from its mistakes."

"How did you beat him the first time?"

"A Sumerian binding spell combined with an enjoining spell and good old Slayer strength." Willow looked at the approaching figures. "Of course when we did it, I was still only a novice witch. There's a chance I might be able to kill him with one good shot right now."

"Well what are you waiting for, a written invitation?" said Faith anxiously.

Willow began chanting in a foreign tongue. Very slowly she began to glow. Faith ducked out of her way as a huge stream on magic power began flowing from her fingers.

It took less then ten seconds for the energy to reach the five figures. In that time two things happened. First, three of the four vampires managed to jump out of the way of the magic blast which was bad-- Faith didn't know how many vampires could react so quickly. The fourth was instantly incinerated. Second Adam-- or whatever it was-- raised one of his arms. The arm took the brunt of the magical assault, glowed white…and was gone.

Faith looked up at Willow. "Houston, we have a problem."

"What-- How-- Adam never had that kind of resistance to magic." Willow responded.

"I guess he got a major upgrade." The three remaining vamps and Adam 2.0 continued marching towards Willow and Faith. Faith looked at the witch. "I'm open to suggestions."

Willow thought for a second. "When we fought him the last time, Adam's power source was a coil of Uranium 235 encased in lead near his spine." She hesitated. "Spar with him for a while. See if you can find anything in his defenses you can exploit long enough for us to remove the power source."

"Guess we don't have a lot of other options." Faith got ready to move. "Anything else about the Iron Giant I should watch for?"

"His arms. " said Willow. "He's got some nasty surprises up his sleeves. Literally." She looked ahead. "Stay low. I'll give you cover."

"All right. "

"And Faith." Willow hesitated. "Don't die."

Faith gave a small smile. "Been there, done that." She got ready. "One, two, go!" Faith was moving on the last word. When she had gone ten feet, Willow was firing magic. This time, all three of the vamps fell back rather than risk being burned to a crisp.

In less than thirty seconds she was nearly in his face. "We haven't been formally introduced. My name is Faith. And you're about to meet the rest of me."

Faith began by hitting the robot-demon hybrid in the chest. It was like punching a vault. "Interesting." he said. "I had expected that a Slayers punches would be more devastating."

"You know I'm a Slayer." This wasn't good.

"Indeed." Suddenly he swung at her.

Faith was surprised. Given his size and build she didn't think that he could move that quickly.

"Your name and those of your friends are a vital part of my programming."

"You really have adapted from your last job, Adam." Faith tried to attack him but he was easily took her hits.

"You are in error. I am not Adam." The two of them circled each other. "I am an improved modification of the Adam-prototype. One could say I am an entire generation ahead of that design."

One of his arms shifted until a gun attachment appeared on it.

"You may call me Cain."

9:06:27/9:06:28/9:06:29

"You sure that this is the right place?" Angel asked. He and Buffy had arrived at the beach five minutes earlier but had yet to see any sign of Willow or Faith, let alone Harmony and Cordelia/Jasmine.

They heard machine gun fire. "I've got a gut feeling this is it," Buffy said. Before Angel had brought the car to a stop, she leapt out and ran towards the sound of gunfire. Angel considered trying to drive on to the beach but decided against it-- he probably wouldn't be able to get any traction on the soft sand. Instead he pulled over, got out and started running after Buffy.

Thirty seconds later he found her. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"I'm just getting a little tired of having the This is Your Lifeguest stars showing up." Buffy sounded more irritated then concerned.

"Who is it now?" Angel asked.

"Remember when I told you about the evil robot our friends in the government were trying to build to make a better demon?"

That particular time wasn't one Angel liked to remember, but he did. "Yeah." he said wearily

Buffy gestured to the horizon. "Well I think Faith is fighting his evil twin."

Angel looked ahead and saw that the dark-haired Slayer did appear to be fighting a giant automaton. "They're doing all our greatest hits, aren't they?" he sighed. "All right. How do you want to handle this?"

Buffy pointed to the left where Willow was dodging attacks from three vampires. "They're playing divide and conquer. I suggest we do the same." Buffy looked at Angel. "You take the vamps, I'll handle Data."

"All right." They split up.

Despite her apparent cool, Buffy was more concerned about the new and improved Adam than she let on. It had been hard enough to kill him the first time. God knew what improvements had been made. Or had they just decided to dig up the old Adam? For that matter, who were they?

Buffy shrugged those questions aside and concentrated on the monster ahead. And the best way to attack this thing was to try hitting the place where she could do the most damage. So, a few feet before she reached Adam, she launched a jump kick into his back.

Problem was, a second before she landed, Adam whirled around and very nearly knocked her out of the sky. She managed to land without breaking anything but it was a near thing.

Adam turned around. "Another Slayer."

He moved a lot faster than the old one. Buffy barely had time to roll away before a giant steel blade sank into the ground where she had been lying. She tried to make the most of the opportunity by kicking him in the face and head, but he absorbed the blows without a problem. "Different people, yet your attacks are similar. Do you use the same strategies because of the power you both have?" He yanked his arm out of the ground. "Interesting."

"Great. Now I'm being lectured by the villains." She tried to look over the monster's head. "You all right, Faith?"

Before she could answer, Adam turned and began the firing a machine gun that seemed to be in his other arm. It was only because of their Slayer agility that both of them were able to avoid being shot. "Now that was a dumb question." Faith said as she reached Buffy.

"You know who this is?" Buffy asked.

Faith nodded. "An Initiative reject. Calls himself Cain."

Then they had to run to get out of the guns range. "Any tips how to beat them?" Faith asked when they could breathe.

"Got a magic gourd and some Tarot cards?" Buffy asked.

"Umm, no."

"Then, no, I haven't." Cain seemed about to charge. They both got ready to fight. "But there are two of us and only one of him, so…" Buffy shrugged. "How hard can it be?"

"I think we're about to find out."

Half a mile away, two men in suits were watching the battle on the television in the back seat of the limousine.

"This prototype is far superior to the previous model," said "Kilner." "We can definitely use him in our work."

"Right now it's keeping them occupied. That's all that matters." Thompson gestured to the back. "Anything else we get is a bonus." He nodded to the driver. "We have a schedule to keep to. Take us to the others."

The driver nodded and started the engine.

9:13:58/9:13:59/9:14:00/9:14:01

Willow hadn't expected that it would take so long to get rid of three measly vampires, even ones as agile as these appeared to be. But, for some reason, they were moving so fast that they were eluding her magical powers. Which was why she was glad to see Angel suddenly appearing. "I was wondering when the cavalry would show up," she called out as he knocked one of the vampires to the ground.

"Buffy's helping Faith with that giant Robo-demon." he said as he ran the rest of the way. "Do you think that we can handle these three?"

"Well, I'm having a little problem magicking them to death," said Willow, "so maybe we should kick their asses old school."

"Works for me." Angel produced a stake. "And Willow?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't use that phrase again. It doesn't work for you."

With that Angel waded into the fray. She decided to do likewise and, picking up a stray branch of a tree, she prepared to go mano y mano with one of the vamps.

As she moved in to face it, Willow realized for the first time that it was a particularly ugly vampire. It wasn't nearly as hideous as those Uber-vamps that had nearly overrun Sunnydale but it was nasty enough.

"I guess you're glad you don't have a reflection," she quipped as she moved in. It didn't respond but that was nothing new. Most of the minions they had been fighting had been light on the small talk and heavy on the ass-kicking.

The vamp continued its rapid parrying and dodging. But though Willow was not a Slayer, she was still a very effective fighter. In less than a minute she managed to knock the vampire down and plunged her tree branch into the vampire's heart.

Where it stayed without the vampire turning to dust.

"Oh shit." Willow knew this was bad, but had no time to analyze why and how it was happening; if she did she'd be dead. "Okay," she said to herself, "Plan B." Rapidly she began to chant a spell that she had been working on for a couple of years but had never quite perfected. But she must have found the right phrasing because when she was done a ball of sunshine appeared and attacked the vampire.

It managed to turn the vamp into a pile of ash, but Willow thought that it took a lot longer than usual for a vampire to combust. It didn't help matters that the vamp gave a scream that could have been heard in Encino.

"This could be trouble," Willow said, and suddenly it occurred that it was in more ways than one. "Angel!" she yelled as she ran down to the two figures fighting in the darkness.

Angel knocked the vamp down and headed back towards her. "We've got a problem," Angel said. "I know what these vamps are."

"What?" asked Willow.

"They're elder members of the Order of Aurelius."

Willow placed the name. "The Order the Master came from?"

"The same. Some of the elders were more resistant to the usual methods of destruction." Angel nodded. "Staking them will just annoy them. It's gonna make this difficult."

"In more ways than one." said Willow. She gestured behind her. "Twenty feet away is a force field. Behind that field are Harmony, Jasmine and whatever nasty plan they've been cooking up all day. Any minute now they're going to create that temporal bend unless we can knock that field down."

Angel looked ahead of him-- where the two remaining elder vampires were standing. "And they're not going to make that easy either." He turned to Willow. "How long do you think it will take to bring the field down?"

"Five minutes, which I'm not going to get if those two and Optimus Prime keep making it difficult."

"So how do we handle this?"

Willow thought for a few seconds. "I've got an idea. But it's going to require some quick work and precision moving on all of our parts. Can you handle it?"

"I'll have too." Angel brushed his hands over his forehead. "What do you need me to do?"

9:21:08/9:21:09/9:21:10

"Wakey, wakey."

When he felt the hands tapping against his chest, Spike was very reluctant to rouse himself from consciousness. It wasn't just because he had been hit with a surge of electrical power strong enough to stun a small elephant. It was because he knew that when he did things were going to start moving and, when they were finished, he-- as well as a lot of people he liked-- were almost certainly going to be dead. He was surprised to find that even though he was certain of what was going to happen to him when he left this dimension, he was actually more concerned about the others.

Good lord, he thought, I really have turned into Captain Hairdo.

"Up and at 'em, Spike." The prodding and the voice were no longer gentle. He reluctantly raised his head to find that he was looking at Harmony. "I hope you're not tired," she said sweetly. "It would be ashamed if you were winked out of existence and didn't know it."

Spike couldn't let this go. "I guess I was wrong," he said bravely. "You get an army of minions to fight for you, you learn about a series of rituals that could bring about the end-times, but you're still the same old tart who can't get her banter right."

If this bothered Harmony, it only did for a second. "And I can't earn the respect of a man who I don't give a flying fuck about anymore." She smirked at him. "It's a shame. The old you would have loved the chaos that's about to unfold when you are removed from the timeline. It's a shame that neither of you will see it." She looked a little confused at what she had just said, and then shrugged it off. "However I do hope that you stay around long enough to watch this."

Harmony stepped aside. Spike looked ahead-- and was shocked to see Buffy, Faith and Angel fighting someone that shouldn't be there at all. "What the--" He looked Harmony as several things clicked at once. "All right, how long have you been working with those soldier boys?"

"Oh, you mean your old friends at the Initiative." Harmony smiled beatifically. "Didn't you know? They're part of Wolfram & Hart's government division. They've been most helpful, haven't they Thompson?"

Spike looked behind him to see that the sodding bastard was standing just a few feet away. "Yes. Though they're usually reluctant to aid our projects, they were more than willing to help when they learned that a former HST was involved. They were even willing to test one of their more advanced prototypes in a combat situation to provide assistance." Thompson's look turned even more serious. "Miss Kendall, you are aware of the repercussions should all of this fail to work."

"If this 'fails to work' I will certainly be dust long before I have to worry about the government. " Harmony began walking over to the other side of the beach. "Which is why I believe that we should make sure nothing goes wrong, Cordelia?"

As Spike turned his head around, he realized two things. First, that there were three heavily armed men guarding him, doubtless itching for him to do something stupid. The second was that Cordelia/Jasmine was standing about fifteen feet to his left and she was currently just a few feet away from Lindsey. Both of them were glowing strangely. Spike had a nasty idea of what was going on.

Cordelia/Jasmine stopped what she was doing and turned around. "I told you it will be a few more minutes before I've drained enough power."

"And I told you that our first goal was for you to draw enough power so that you could augment our force shield," Harmony snapped.

"Why are you bothering with this?" Cordelia/Jasmine snapped back. "You know as well as I do the not-really wicked Wicca will knock it down no matter how strong it is."

"The stronger it is, the more time it'll take. " Harmony spoke as if she were addressing a four-year old. "The more time it takes, we have a greater chance of pulling this off before Buffy and the cavalry charge the gates and hand us an ass-kicking," Harmony said, getting in her face. "Get it?"

For a second Spike was sure that Cordelia/Jasmine was going to charbroil Harmony. Instead, she walked past her, muttered a few words and began infusing the force shield with her own magic.

Harmony turned towards one of the ugliest looking demons that Spike had ever seen. Clem was handsome by comparison. "How long before we're in position?" she asked it.

"Less than a half-hour," the very ugly demon responded. "Can your boys hold them off that long?"

"They'd better," said Harmony. "Aside from the people I've got here, I've just about run out of subordinates." She took out her cell phone. "And this is the last ace up my sleeve." She spoke into the phone. "Send the second wave."

9:29:38/9:29:39/9:29:40/9:29:41

There had been no time for Angel to map out the plan that Willow had thought up. It was pretty much fight or die. He just managed to yell: "Faith! Switch!"

The dark haired Slayer reacted quickly and, in less than thirty seconds, Willow and Faith were working on the two remaining elder vamps while he helped Buffy fight the fully mechanized demon.

"All right," said Buffy as she danced around Adam II-- or whatever the hell it was called, "You pulled Faith away for a reason, care to share?"

"Willow needs us to keep the robot demon busy while she works on the forcefield." Angel said tersely.

"I see. Her plan wouldn't in any way have mentioned a way to kill this robot demon?"

Angel wasn't happy about that part of the plan either. "She says she's pretty sure that Adam or whatever--"

"Cain." Off Angel's reaction she added, "Guess the people in D.C. do have a sense of humor."

"-- has a device on his arms that enables him to absorb magical--" Angel was interrupted as Cain found a hole in his defense and hit him with a punch that staggered him.

"I find this entire conversation detrimental to my killing you," Cain said as he moved in closer.

Buffy whirled and landed a kick in the stomach. "Well, your killing him would be detrimental to my kicking your ass." That was brave talk considering that her hit barely staggered him.

"I should respond to that," Cain said, turning, "but I'm programmed to kill first and ask questions later." With that he pulled out his steel blade arm and swung it at her. Buffy managed to dodge it but it was a near thing.

Willow had told Angel that it could get bad quickly, but he hadn't realized that Buffy's luck--- which had helped her out dozens of times since Angel had known her--- might be at last about to run out. He was strong, no question, but compared to the power of the Slayer it was minor. They might be able to keep Cain busy but doing that might come at the expense of their lives.

Think Angel. You've fought hulking, seemingly invulnerable things like this before. There's got to be something--

And then it clicked. The basic idea occurred instantly and in less than a minute he had the outline of how to handle this wall of steel and flesh. Admittedly, it was all based on a shaky foundation but he didn't think that he could come up with better.

He was trying to get started when suddenly he sensed something moving in the corner of his eye. He whirled around to see an elder vamp coming at him. "Not now," he muttered to himself. He hit him three times, then grabbed and threw the elder across the beach. He quickly turned his attention back towards Faith, saw that she was still dealing with another elder vamp and did the math. Wonderful, he thought to himself.

He looked at Buffy who still had her hands filled with Cain, looked to the east to see the elder running back towards him, and to his west he saw-- still another vampire. Doesn't she ever run out of dead bodies? he thought to himself before he yelled. "Faith! I could use some help!"

9:35:41/9:35:42/9:35:43

Faith hadn't been wild about leaving Buffy to fight Cain, even if Angel was helping her. She had been only marginally reassured when Willow had told her that she thought that she knew how to make it work-- which still didn't fill Faith with confidence because she was the one who was going to have to fight with the Uber-vamps-light, or whatever the hell they were. It had taken her five minutes before she was able to dispatch one of them and it had not been easy. She was dealing with Number Two and it wasn't going much better.

When she heard Angel and saw that he was now fighting yet another ultra vamp, all she could think was It never stops. She looked at Willow who was still trying to crack the force field . "Will, I realize you're busy but if there's anything you could do to make this a little easier--"

"You got a knife?"

Faith hesitated a second, then pulled out the blade she'd had on her since she pumped the vamp for information twelve hours ago. She tossed it to Willow and then spent the next twenty seconds trading blows.

"Faith!" Willow tossed the knife back-- only now it was glowing.

Here goes nothing, she thought, and stabbed at the vampire's chest. The ultra vamp recoiled and Faith could smell burning flesh from where the knife had touched the skin. "This should be fun." she said to herself and went at it with a vengeance. The vamp tried to fight back but now that Faith didn't have to get in so close, he did less damage. In the space of seconds, the vamp was on its last legs.

Faith moved in, then paused, then made a series of slashes. When she had finished, there was a small 'F' on the vamps shirt. "Always wanted to do that." she said before stabbing the vamp right through the heart. As it turned to dust, she said: "Willow does good work," and then she ran to help Angel.

Angel was holding his own against ultra vamp number three (or maybe it was six, Faith had stopped counting) but it was pretty clear that he needed help.

"Angel! To me!" she shouted.

Angel got the message and began to slowly but surely back the vamp towards Faith. Unfortunately-- as had been the case all day-- this vamp was smarter than the norm and knocked Angel back before whirling and coming at Faith. He tried to knock the knife out of her hands but it burned his flesh as soon as he touched it. The vamp recoiled and ended up backing into Angel, who was holding something in his hand.

"Faith! Now!" he shouted.

And the ultra-vamps chest was pierced by Angels stake in his back and Faith's magic knife in the chest. He dissolved into nothing.

"How powerful is that knife?" Angel asked.

"I don't know," admitted Faith. "Willow gave it a magic boost but I don't know how strong it is."

"Hopefully it'll do what we need it to do." Angel looked ahead. It was pretty clear that Cain had Buffy on the ropes.

"See the bracelets on his arms?"

"Yes."

"Aim for them. I think this blade will go right through them.

"And after that?"

"Things will get easier."

'We can only hope."

Faith took a deep breath and ran.

Cain saw her coming and readied his gun arm but when he fired all that came were dry clicks.

"Out of ammo, big guy?" said Buffy aggressively. "What are you going to do now."

The demonoid responding by pressing another button that brought forth a flamethrower. "Improvise." said Cain before whirling around with a flaming arm.

Oooo, flamethrower

Which made things difficult as Faith couldn't get within ten feet of Cain. "Angel!" she yelled.He did his bit by drawing the monster's fire…so to speak. Moving at a speed she didn't think she had in her, Faith ran past the arm that wasn't carrying a blow torch. She drove the blade into the bracelet in a swift movement.

There was a spark and the bracelet came apart. One down, she thought to herself.

But Cain wasn't just going to take this. He whirled around. Faith just managed to duck out of the way of the fire. She backed away and looked for Buffy. "B!" she yelled.

Buffy got the message and ran past him. As she did, she threw a rock at Cain. The stone grazed the arm and caused the flame to sputter for two seconds--long enough for Faith to drive the blade into the other bracelet.

"Now Willow!" Angel yelled.

The witch began to chant very rapidly. Cain reacted by charging at the witch. He never got closer than fifteen feet when a blast of magic paralyzed him.

"Faith!" Somehow Buffy had gotten right next to Cain. "Throw me the knife!" she yelled.

Faith didn't hesitate. The second Buffy grabbed it she drove it into the robots back. After she carved a hole, she pushed her fist into it and yanked. Out came what appeared to be a giant glowing metal heart. The instant it came out, Cain fell to the ground in a heap.

For a moment both Slayers breathed heavily. Finally Buffy spoke. "I guess this is what you call having your metal tested." she said throwing the power source to the ground.

9:44:28/9:44:29/9:44:30/9:44:31

Angel walked over to Buffy and Faith, both of whom were breathing hard. "You two okay?" he asked.

Several seconds passed before Faith had enough breath to answer. "If I were so inclined, I'd say this wasn't a day at the beach." she said. "But the pun thing is B's deal not mine."

Buffy looked at her. "I don't know. That was kind of me."

Angel gestured at the ruins of Cain. "You sure we've stopped this thing? " When both Slayers fixed him with a look, he continued: "I'm just saying, given our luck and the way the villains have been operating today…"

"Angel." said Buffy. "There are a lot of fatal blows and journeys to hell dimensions that a villain can return from, but when you rip a uranium power core from a robot-demon hybrid, he has definitely gone to meet his maker."

Faith pointed to the power core which stood less than ten feet away. "You're telling me that shit's radioactive?" she said.

"I don't think there's enough for it to be dangerous, and it's surrounded by a layer of lead. In any case we have more pressing problems." Buffy looked ahead. "Are all of the vampires dead?"

Angel did some quick math. "Well Faith, Willow and I dusted five and there don't seem to be any still around." He pointed ahead. "Of course, for all we know Harmony has a couple of dozen ready, willing and able behind the curtain."

"Not likely," said Faith. "Way I figure it, we've dusted or killed a hundred vamps today. Unless she's got access to another dimension, she's gotta be down to a skeleton crew." She thought for a moment. "Hell, she may be down to actual skeletons."

"Well, she doesn't have that or she wouldn't be doing this to begin with," said Buffy. "Still we've been underestimating her since this morning; she may have a few surprises left."

"In either case I think its time that we broke down the door." Angel started to turn towards the witch. "Willow, how much longer until…"

He stopped mid-sentence.

Faith and Buffy turned around and understood why he had .

Willow was now levitating a few feet about the ground. Her hands were raised and she was chanting rapidly.

Faith sighed. "Here we go again."

"Are you sure she's all right?" Angel asked.

"Well, I'm pretty sure that she's going to smash the field." said Buffy. "It's what happens next that we should be concerned about."

The force field became visible and began to crackle and spark. "Get ready." said Buffy.

"You sure?' asked Angel.

"When you see the field rockin' Willow's come a' knocking."

Before Angel or Buffy could react to this rather tasteless joke, the sparks began to glow green and grow larger. They all hit the dirt before there was a huge bang and a huge flash of white light filled the sky.

It took several seconds of blinking for their vision to return. When it did the three of them were somewhat astonished by what they saw.

Where before there had been nothing in front of them but the skyline, the sand and the ocean, a group of people and demons were now visible. Off to one side was Lindsey held in place by three rather large men with very impressive blasters in their hands. To the right stood a furious Harmony and a man in a suit with a few vampires around them. And at the center of it stood the three beings responsible for most of the days events. Cordelia/Jasmine, Spike and Sahjhan.

Cordelia/Jasmine was standing with her arms outstretched, blue bolts of energy stretching from her fingers. Sahjhan was a few feet behind her chanting furiously. Between them stood Spike, levitating in the air.

All of this Angel saw in the space of a second. Then Harmony was shouting. "STOP THEM!" and the three armed men and vamps began running at them.

"Do what you have to but we have to get to Spike now."

Buffy began to run, Faith and Angel just a few feet behind her.

The three men with the guns reached them first. And even though she was five feet away, Faith recognized them as models of the taser rifle that Fred had used hours ago defending Wolfram & Hart. One guess who hired them, she said before she ducked to avoid the first blast. "Look out!" she screamed as she fell.

Angel reacted quicker and managed to dodge another shot. Buffy wasn't as lucky. She stumbled while running and she got hit in the leg. She fell to the ground.

"Buffy!" shouted Angel.

"GO!" she shouted.

Realizing she was right, Faith didn't slow down. Angel, however, despite knowing the consequences couldn't leave Buffy to die. He struck the first gunmen in the face and knocked his blaster out of his arms. Angel hit him twice more before going to Buffy.

"No!" Buffy shouted.

Angel turned to see the second gunmen standing two feet away. He had just enough time to think I've killed us both before there was a blast--

-- and the gunmen fell to the ground.

To reveal Lindsey standing three feet away.

Angel ran towards him and grabbed him by his collar. "What, no thank you?" Lindsey managed to spit out.

"The world's ending and you're just jerking off?" Angel snarled.

"In case you forgot, they were holding me prisoner. " Lindsey said just as pissed. "That crazy girlfriend of yours was squeezing magic out of me like I was a goddamn sponge. Right now I couldn't use a spell if I wanted to." Angel suddenly saw that Lindsey was holding the blaster that he had knocked out of his hands. "You want to tear me a new one, do it after you stop the world from ending."

"And how do we do that?" Buffy was now limping over to them.

"Well, there might…" Lindsey trailed off. "Then again, we might not have a problem after all."

"Why?"

Lindsey pointed towards the three figures twenty feet away. Only now it seemed a fourth figure had come up to join them.

Willow.

9:55:32/9:55:33/9:55:34

It had taken Willow a couple of minutes to recharge after blowing the force field away. She knew that she was going to need all her strength to do what was ahead of her. She didn't want to do it but she realized she had no alternative.

"Look at you." she said as she levitated towards Cordelia/Jasmine. "I guess you finally got that whole lower being thing down cold."

Cordelia/Jasmine didn't look up from what she was doing. "I don't have time to play with you." she said.

Willow threw a blast of energy at her. The blast knocked Cordelia/Jasmine back.

The former god turned around. "Now you've done it," she said.

"We've got other stuff to do," Sahjhan warned.

"I've done the hard part. You can handle it from here." Cordelia/Jasmine walked towards Willow. "I'm going to take care of Miss Thinks-She's-a-Goddess."

Willow threw a bolt of power at Cordelia/Jasmine. It didn't cause her any evident pain.

The ex-god returned the salvo with a blast of her own. "You think you can hurt me with borrowed magic?" Willow said incredulously.

"No, this magic is mine. Lindsey gave me a jump start but that helped me tap into my old source." Cordelia/Jasmine gave a cruel smile. "Now I'm ready to rumble."

She began to rise above the ground. Willow rose with her.

"So you're really going to kill one of your old friends." Cordelia/Jasmine said coolly as she began to focus her energy.

Willow swallowed. "Cordelia was never really my friend." she said. "This will be difficult. But a tiny part of me is going to enjoy giving you the ass-kicking you so richly deserve."

Willow began focusing her energy too.

"Bring it on, bitch." spat Cordelia/Jasmine.

Almost simultaneously a bolt of energy came out of both of their fingers. The two bolts began to gather in the space between them.

A small black circle appeared where they met.

Willow's hair began to darken.

Cordelia/Jasmine began to glow.

And the circle grew larger.

Faith knew what was happening and knew who she had to stop. Only problem was she couldn't do it. She had tried several times to hit Sahjhan but it was like swinging at a mirage. He didn't even look up from what he was doing. And something was happening. The area around Spike was beginning to shimmer. Faith was pretty sure he'd be gone soon enough. But right now all she could do was try and fend off the vamps that were trying to stop her.

Not that stopping them would do much good. If Spike disappeared then these vamps-- indeed the whole day-- would seem like a walk in the park. If only there was--

"Faith!" It was Angel. "On your left!"

She looked to her left and saw something. It took her a few seconds to realize what it must be and what it could do. There was no room for being wrong, she just had to do it and pray.

She ran to the right knocking down the vampires until she reached the large brown cylinder. She grabbed it and whirled around.

Am I close enough? Guess I'll have to be.

She pulled the lid off, and had a half second to think she had screwed up before she heard Sahjhan shout: "No! Not again!" A small brown trail of smoke that came out at the urn filling it.

When it was done she closed the Recitian urn, and looked ahead to see that Spike had landed on the ground, shaken but still there.

"I guess the game is over," she said. Then she felt a tap on her shoulder and saw Angel.

"Maybe not yet." he said and pointed up.

Where Cordelia/Jasmine and Willow floated locked in their magical conflict.

And the black circle was getting larger.

9:59:57/9:59:58/9:59:59/10:00:00