Chapter 25

Buffy looked around her and realized she was in the Ancient Ones' dimension. She turned around and came face to face with a beautiful woman with long brown hair. She was clothed in a shimmering white toga and her skin was a milky white. "Welcome Buffy." She said.

"What's going on?" Buffy asked. She looked down at herself and realized she was clothed just the same.

"You are here to finish the war."

"What war?"

"The one that is raging now in your home world." The woman held out her hand. "Come, there isn't much time."

"For what?" Buffy took the woman's hand, trusting her completely for some reason.

"For your innitiation into our fold."

"Am I dead?"

The woman looked sad suddenly. "Yes, young one, you are dead."

Buffy pulled her hand away. "No!"

"Yes. It is the only way to end the Powers' reign."

"Why?"
"You must become one of us. It will increase our powers to a measure beyond imagination and the Powers will be demolished. The Ancient Ones will be restored and you will reign as one of us."

"But I can't raise my twins."

"It is a heavy priace, I admit."

"One I'm not willing to pay. Send me back."

"We cannot."

"Then you're no better than the Powers." The woman looked taken aback. "You talked about giving me happiness, but this isn't it. Raising my family is happiness to me. Please."

The woman looked away from her. She seemed to be struggling with something and then she said, "Stay here." Buffy watched as the woman walked away and then disappeared. Tears streamed down her face at the very thought of her twins growing up without their mother. She would never become an Ancient if that was the price. She had to be there to raise her children.

"They need their mother." She whispered, looking down at her feet.

When Buffy looked back up, she was in a room made entirely out of white marble. There was a round table in the middle of the immense room and around it sat 13 women and four men all dressed in the same shimmering togas and all of them had the same milky white skin. Buffy realized their skin also shimmered as if it had been showered in glitter. The woman... Desidre was her name, although how Buffy knew that was beyond her... walked forward from her seat. Buffy didn't think she had seen her stand.

"What would you have us do?" Desidre asked. "If we send you back, your world will fall. Your friends will die. Your husband will die. Your children will die."

Buffy shook her head. "I have to try."

"You will fail. The Powers will reign supreme with nothing holding them back. You must become one of us. We do not wish to cause this pain for you, but it is the only way."

"You said I would have happiness. You said these babies were to bring on a better future."

"Yes. And they have."
"You planned this! You knew I would die when those babies were born."

"We are sorry. It was the only way."

"Then find another way. I can't leave my babies alone."

"They are not alone."

"They need their mother. Please."

The Ancients turned away from her and talked amongst themselves. Buffy strained to hear them, but their voices were lower than even her Slayer hearing could pick up. It made her wonder how they even heard each other. Finally Desidre rose and walked over to her. She took Buffy's hands. "You must become one of us, or the war will only end with your world's demise. However, we are willing to make a compromise."

"What? Anything."
"We will allow you to return to your world once it is saved. There will be no more demons, no more Slayers... Only humans. The world will be restored to what it once was before the Powers ruled. Magic will be contained and all references to dark magic will be erased."

"I can live with that."
"However, you will return to us once the twins have reached their 18th birthday. That is the only compromise."

"Will I be able to return to my world for the important things? Like, college graduations and their weddings? Their first children. I want to be able to see my grandchildren."

"And you will. But it will be only through the eyes of others. You can watch your world from here through others eyes."

"But..."

"Buffy, we understand your hesitation. There really isn't much time."

"21st birthday."

"What?"

"Let me stay until they turn 21. It's the least you can do."

Desidre turned to look at the others. They each hesitated, but then, one by one, they nodded their heads in agreement. "Very well. The day after the twins' 21st birthday, you will return to us."

Buffy sighed. "Agreed."

"Come, there isn't much time left."

Angel looked up at Shy towering over him. The vampire with a soul had been beaten down like never before. Connor and Willow were unconcious across the room. Elijah had beaten Connor and Shy had managed to get past Angel long enough to almost kill Willow. Angel hadn't seen Dawn since he had sent her to Buffy's room. He didn't know what had happened to Spike, Illyria, Xander, Giles, Faith, and the others. For all he knew, they could be dead already. The doctors and any patients that could walk had long ago left the building. They had abandoned everyone else to their fate. As for Angel's fate...

"Any last words, vampire?" Shy growled.

"Go to hell?" Angel said, struggling to his feet.

"No thanks, but it sounds like a great place for you to go."

"Been there, done that."

"I'm sure they've missed you." Shy went to punch Angel, but something stopped him. He was suddenly frozen. Angel moved forward a little and saw that only Shy's eyes moved, and they looked panicked. Suddenly, Shy doubled over in pain and let out a scream. Then Elijah ran in, screaming and grabbing his head. Connor and Willow awoke with a start and watched as Elijah and Shy suddenly exploded and turned to ash.

"What's going on?" Connor asked.

"I don't..." Angel started, but he let out a scream and grabbed his head.

"Angel!" Willow yelped, holding one of his arms to keep him steady.

Connor ran over to Angel's other side and grabbed him. "Dad, what's wrong?" All Angel could do was scream and throw himself backwards onto the floor. "Dad!"

Outisde, all the demons and vampires were having seizures and screaming at the top of their lungs. Faith dropped to her knees with a gasp as she felt something invisible rip out of her. Spike was rolling on the ground in front of her, screaming and cussing as he held his head tightly. Faith had no idea what was going on. She tried to help Spike to his feet as he thrashed, but she had a hard time lifting his weight. Hold on, she thought. That's not right. All around her, the demons exploded and disappeared in clouds of different colored ashes. She looked over at Illyria who was screaming and then the blue demon exploded in a cloud of blue and red ashes.

Giles and Xander watched out the windows of the third story of the Hyperion as the demons exploded and turned to dust of all colors. The Slayers all gasped and wavered as if they might fall. They had no clue what was going on, but something big was happening. Giles had a nagging feeling that it had something to do with Buffy.

"She's gone, isn't she?" Xander asked suddenly.

"What?" Giles asked.

"Buffy. She's gone, isn't she?"

Giles looked away sadly. At the bottom of his heart and soul, through every fiber of his being, he knew that his Slayer was dead. He embraced Xander tightly and they began to cry.

Dawn watched over her twin neice and nephew as the choas around her died off. After she had witnessed Buffy's body be wheeled off to the morgue, she had run to the nursery. The nurses hadn't left and they invited Dawn in away from the rampaging demons. Three demons had burst in and Dawn and two other nurses had tried to fight them off. They had thrown whatever they could spare that was heavy at the demons. Then Elijah had found her and shattered the observation window, trying to get at Dawn or the twins. She hadn't known who he was after, but she had thrown herself in front of the twins, guarding them with her life. Elijah was almost on her when he had grabbed his head, screamed, and ran off. Just after that, the demons in the nursery had screamed and then they had exploded into blue and purple and green and red ashes.

Dawn looked around her as the nurses checked on the screaming babies. Surprisingly, the twins were silent, watching Dawn and everyone else around them intently. They each had blue eyes that sparkled with flecks of green. Both of them were so beautiful. They had blonde, fine hair and cute little rose-shaped mouths. Their cheeks were pudgy, baby cheeks and they had all ten fingers and all ten toes. They were so small, though. Dawn assumed that's because they had been born early and premature babies were always small. She also recalled that twin babies were always small.

A nurse walked over to Dawn and began to check on the twins. "These babies are so remarkable."

"Aren't they?" Dawn asked.

"It's too bad about their mother." Dawn looked away. "She was your sister, right?"

"Yeah."

"I'm really sorry. I wish there was something I could do."

"Just make sure those babies are ok."
"Oh, they most definitely are. Most premature twins would have to be put in an incubator and kept under observation for a couple of weeks, but these two... They're little miracles, that's what they are."

Dawn smiled. "Yeah, you have no idea."

"Dawn!" Willow yelled from down the hall. "Dawnie!"

"Willow." Dawn called as Willow ran past.

The red head stopped and looked at Dawn. "You'll never believe it!"

"It's over." Dawn said. "I know."

"Well, that too, but... Angel..."

Just then, Angel walked down the hallway and stopped just in front of the smashed window. Dawn looked at him and realized what had happened. "Oh my God!"

"Yeah!" Willow said.

"Angel, you're..."

"Where's Buffy?" Angel asked.

"She's..."

"Where is she?"
"I'm sorry." Dawn walked up to Angel. "She... They couldn't stop the bleeding."

"No." Angel shook his head. "No, no, no, no, no, no!" He collapsed onto the floor and sobbed into his arms.

Dawn walked over to Angel just as Connor came around the corner. He saw Angel crying and then he saw Dawn and Willow beginning to cry. He realized what had happened and shook his head. "Mom?" Dawn looked at him sadly. "No! Mom!" Connor began to cry. Faith and Spike ran in. The happiness of the two vampires with a soul aquiring their Shanshu was short lived as they grieved for their lost friend.