Disclaimers: Mutant Enemy and Joss Whedon own it all. I'm just doing this for fun, and hopefully entertainment
Reviews: Welcomed and appreciated
Anya walked into the Magic Shop leading a slightly agitated Xander.
Willow looked up. "What did they say at the hospital?"
"There's really nothing they can do. There appears to be some sort of idiot virus going around by the amount of cots filled with Xander types. They just keep rambling .Going on and on about the world spinning straight to a new day. It really creeped me out. Anyway, they gave me tranquilizers to keep him quiet."
"New day, big day, big, big, day…" Xander tried to walk out the door but Anya stopped him.
"You know, I didn't sign on for this sort of relationship. I mean sex, orgasms, funny little jokes, okay. But Xander being mentally challenged, no I just don't think I'm up for this." She was running a soothing hand up and down Xander's back and shushing him.
Tara smiled at her. "You're doing great Anya. You love him and you'll get him back."
"And if you don't we're all gonna probably die so it won't really matter in the long run, ducks." Spike spoke up.
"Not too well versed in the comfort department, are you?" Tara glared at him.
"Hey, tryin' to make her feel better. Give me kudos for that much, after all I am a soulless demon." He smiled the sexiest smile Tara had ever seen.
"Whatever." She turned back to help Willow and cursed her luck for always finding the most inappropriate people attractive. And to be thinking those thoughts while trying to avert an apocalypse, she had to smile to herself.
"So, where's Dawn?" All heads looked up to see a much disheveled Giles.
"Oh thank god!" Joyce ran to the watcher and fell into his arms. "She took her. Giles, she has Dawn."
Giles held Joyce and looked over her head to Willow and Cordelia. "Glory found us at Buffy's after she sucked the information from Xander." Willow nodded towards Anya and Xander.
"I have places to be." Xander hung his head while Anya continued to try and comfort him. "Places to be."
Giles took a deep breathe and pulled away from Joyce, leading her to a chair. "I'll be right here Joyce."
"Yes, I'm sorry. So sorry. Just lost it for a moment. I'm so glad you're back Rupert." He wiped the tears from her face.
"We'll figure something out." He turned to the group. "Well, I have a bit more information. One thing is certain, we have to stop Glory before she begins the ritual."
"So, you found the ritual?" Angelus went over to Giles.
"Yes." He handed the book over to Angelus, Buffy behind him reading as well.
"Glory ... plans to open a ... dimensional portal ... by way of a ritual bloodletting, which we sorta knew, blah, blah, blah. Once the blood is shed at a certain time and place ... the fabric which separates all realities will ... be ripped apart." Buffy looked up at Giles. "That about it?"
He nodded. "Dimensions will pour into one another, uh, with no barriers to stop them. Reality as we know it will be destroyed, and chaos will reign on earth." Giles spoke softly.
"Bugger that, how do we stop it?" Spike pulled out his cigarettes and offered one to Giles, who took it.
"The portal will only close once the blood is stopped ... and the only way for that to happen is…" Giles held Joyce's eyes, unable to continue.
Buffy finished for her ex-watcher. "Dawn has to die."
Giles took a drag off the cigarette. "The key was living energy. It needed to be channeled, poured into a specific place at a specific time. The energy would flow into that spot and the walls between the dimensions break down. It stops when the energy's used up and the walls come back up. Glory uses that time to get back into her own dimension, not caring that all manner of hell will be unleashed on earth in the meantime."
"Um, but only for a little while, right? The walls come back up and n-no more hell?" Anya stood up from Xander and walked to Giles.
Willow shook her head. "That's only if the energy is stopped. And now the key is human" She over at Joyce, "...is Dawn."
"The blood flows, the gates will open. The gates will close when it flows no more." Giles removed his glasses. "When Dawn is dead."
"So, you're planning on killing my little girl?" Joyce was livid. "You said you'd protect her and now you are planning on killing my daughter?"
Angelus shrugged. "She isn't your daughter. She's more a part of Buffy than a part of you. If she doesn't die we all do." He sounded cold, he was cold. All that mattered to him was that Buffy and he came out of this intact. If it meant saving the world, so be it, but he didn't care.
Buffy looked up at him, knowing exactly what he was thinking. "I suggest we stop Glory before she bleeds Dawn and that will take care of everything. We still have time before she begins her ritual, right?"
Willow looked up. "A few hours, maybe."
"Well, Tara knows where the ritual takes place. We go, maybe if we get lucky we can kill Ben, if not at least we can get Dawn. We just have to stop Glory, right? She only has a certain amount of time to do this."
"Yes." Willow agreed.
"What about you? I mean, the two of you still have the same blood right?" Tara asked.
Buffy looked up at Angelus and laughed. "Honey, I haven't had my own blood for a very long time. No worries about her trying to use me."
She looked over at Willow. "Well Wicca, think you can come up with anything?"
"I think so. Actually Tara and I did. We think, if we can get close enough to Glory we might be able to reverse what Glory did, take back the essence. Give it back to all of those she stole it from. If we can we think it might weaken Glory, make her less coherent. Or, it might make all our heads explode."
"Yeah, make sure that doesn't happen, okay?" Buffy moved back to Angelus.
"I hate all this talk. Let's just go over there and do something." He took Buffy in his arms. "I'm sure between you and me and Spike, we can kill all the little worker bees Glory has. Without them, she'll be a little more vulnerable."
"It's an idea." She kissed his nose.
"No. How can you say that? All those people are innocent victims." Cordelia was appalled.
Buffy laughed. "Hello, demons here. Honestly Cordelia, being a lesbian has made you soft. Back in the day you wouldn't have care who died as long as you were safe and your hair didn't get mussed. Besides, those folks will probably never be quite right."
"That is not true." Anya cried. "Willow's going to reverse it all, she said so."
"Either she's reversing it or heads will explode." Angelus added. "We'll do whatever we have to." Losing his patience, he looked around the room. "Do you all hear me? Whatever we have to do to stop this." He stood and walked outside before he started pulling heads off bodies.
"Don't push us. We don't have to be here you know." Buffy followed her mate outside.
Buffy came up behind Angelus and wrapped her arms around him. "It's almost over lover and then we can get back to our lives." She turned around until she was facing him and reached up to place a kiss on his unresponsive lips. "Baby, please."
He looked down at her. "For all your harsh words to them Buffy, it's never going to be over, is it? You may have chosen me but you never really left them. You never really left her behind, did you?"
Buffy shook her head in confusion and in denial. "What are you talking about?"
"You still have your soul." Angelus looked straight ahead, refusing to look into her eyes.
She made a strange noise in her throat. "What does it matter? I'm with you. You are all I want, all I ever wanted."
"I could kill you for this. For lying to me all these years." His voice was harsh and strangled.
"I never lied to you. We never talked of it. You never asked. Even when I didn't go on the hunt, you never asked. You didn't want to know. Why is it different now?" She was mad and hurt and it showed in her voice.
"Do not take that tone with me. I am still your sire."
"What do you want me to say? To do?" She had changed to a pleading tone.
"Damnit Buffy, I don't know. I…I am not used to this, to these emotions. Angel was, that was his weakness, his indecisiveness. They make me mad. They make me want to destroy, hurt, kill. And my love, are the one I want to do it to." He finally looked down at her, his hand wrapping around her throat. "We will finish this task of yours, then we'll decide how this will play out." He pushed her away, causing her to hit the ground.
She looked up at him, sadness filling her eyes. "I didn't want them Angelus. I never wanted to be with them. Only you, only ever you."
"But if you'd been given the choice, you would've chosen him."
"I always knew it was you. When I made the choice to spend eternity with you I knew who I was spending it with. I was never deluded or confused. I chose you. I choose you now. This other thing, the one with Dawn. She's more than a lost memory Angelus. She's a part of me. She was made from me." She was pleading for him to understand.
"Get up. We'll decide later." He turned and went back into the shop, leaving Buffy to fight the sobs welling up in her chest.
Spike tsked from the shadows and gave a small chuckle.
"God Spike, do you always have to slink? You're such an asshole. Remind me why I haven't killed you?" Buffy started to get up.
He shrugged. "Cause you love my effervescent charm and wit?" He reached out a hand that Buffy looked at him for a moment before taking it. "He'll get over it and forgive you. He can't help himself. He always called me a bitch for love, and I suppose he's right. But he is the biggest bitch when it comes to you. He always knew you retained your soul, he just chose to ignore it. He wanted you more than he hated you. And then he actually fell in love with you. What a ponce." He let his gaze wander over her greedily. "Can't blame the lucky bastard though. No man or demon could resist you, love."
She looked up at him with shock in her eyes.
"You are the most single minded, devoted woman ever. And the whole demon population knows it. The two of you are, well…you are envied." He shrugged. "He'll get over it, of course if we have no world to speak of the both of you will have no worries." He threw his cigarette to the ground and stomped on it. "See you inside with the little white hats. And close your gob, not very lady like."
