It happened very fast.
It happened very slowly.
Buffy spun around as Dawn ducked past
her, and threw herself after her sister almost without looking. Dawn
had a head start, Buffy had Slayer speed, it all came down to Buffy's
hands flailing blindly over the edge of the platform, grabbing the
thin material of Dawn's dress, feeling it rip like paper in her hands
as gravity grabbed the teenager and pulled... for a
moment
second
minute
lifetime
everything stopped,
and Buffy was sure she'd been too late. Then her hand found Dawn's
upper arm, seized and held on for dear life.
And so they dangled, Buffy hanging on to her sister with one hand and to the construction where Dawn had been tied up with the other, her legs fumbling for just enough balance to keep them both from plummeting. It took a few seconds for them both to realise what had happened – especially since the portal kept growing bigger, louder and brighter with every passing second.
(Willow stared up at the tower, barely able to see the two struggling bodies on the end of it. Then she turned back to Tara. "I'm sorry, I can't reach her. I just don't have enough juice left... I used it all up when I... when Glory..."
"Shh, it's OK." Tara kissed her forehead. "I'm with you. Whatever happens. I love you."
They embraced, joined hands and closed their eyes.)
"Dawn?" Blinded by the flashes of energy that became ever more frequent below them, Buffy could barely make out her sister as more than a shadow. "I'm gonna pull you up now, OK? Just relax and..."
Dawn replied by sinking her nails in Buffy's wrist. "LET GO OF ME!" She started thrashing wildly, trying to kick off from the tower, but she couldn't reach. The only thing connecting her to the world was Buffy's iron grip on her arm, and even that wasn't half as painful as the knowledge of what would happen if she didn't fall. And so she clawed, flailed, bit and screamed... as Buffy still refused to let go, their blood and tears mixing as it dropped into the portal.
("Come on, Ahn. Wake up, honey. Wake up. Don't be like this." Xander had cleared the rubble off Anya and was desperately trying to wake her up. "We got plans, remember?"
Giles kneeled down next to him. "Xander... are you sure you want her to..."
"What?"
"I'm just saying..." Giles nodded at the portal, which had already grown big enough to light up the whole courtyard. The noise of it had gone from crackling to a sustained howl of white noise that somehow got Giles thinking about Jimi Hendrix's last show. "Maybe she's better off unconscious."
"Shut up, Giles." Xander's voice was equal parts fury and fear. "This isn't how this ends. Buffy saves the day like she always does, we live happily ever after and I get to help you alphabetize demons until we're both boring old farts. ANYA!")
Dawn had calmed down a little, the hysteria giving away to pleading. "Please, Buffy... you have to..." They were deadlocked, Buffy hanging halfway off the platform, off balance, and Dawn dangling, refusing to cooperate. Dawn couldn't fall; Buffy couldn't pull her up.
"I'm not going to drop you, Dawn. You have to help me. You can..." Her voice drifted off as she stared, almost hypnotized, into the fissure below them that kept widening, stretching ever downwards. From her vantage point, Buffy could see that there were things inside. Hundreds... thousands... entire worlds waiting to collide with hers. Just waiting for the opening to become large enough.
("Oh, bloody hell." Spike lurched to his feet and started limping painfully towards the tower, knowing full well there was no way he'd be able to climb all those stairs in time with two broken legs.)
"Buffy, please! There's no time! You have to let go!"
"I can't." Buffy tore her eyes away from the blazing white light and looked at Dawn. "Dawnie, I can't... I'm sorry, but..."
"You HAVE to!" Dawn made a last desperate attempt to tear free, knowing that every second counted. "Everyone's going to die if you don't let me fall!"
"I know. But..." Buffy looked down again, her voice going strangely flat. "I think it's out of our hands now." The rift had reached the ground. And the demon army inside it poured through.