1Dawn arrived on the scene just in time to face two giant red saber-toothed demons all by herself. She pulled out her sword and started swinging to keep them at arm's length. The demon on her left charged her. Dawn stuck her her sword out and it penetrated the demon's skull as the beast knocked her down. The sword went clear through its head without killing the demon. But it did get up off of Dawn. She stood up and slashed it in the face. This wound quickly disappeared, as had the previous wound Dawn inflicted. She turned to her right. The other demon swung at her with its left paw. She chopped off the paw with her long sword before it could wound her. But then the first demon swiped at her from behind, sticking its palm quills in her back. Dawn went down.
It was at this point Dawn screamed. While she was down on her knees, the demon in front of her, whose paw she had severed, came at her with its saber teeth. While still down, she swung her sword, and the blade clanged against the teeth. It didn't cause the demon any damage, but it kept Dawn from getting chomped on and bought her time to get to her feet. Buffy appeared on Dawn's far left, behind the uninjured demon. She saw Dawn being assailed by two beasts at once. "Dawny I'm here," she yelled out. When the healthy demon turned to face Buffy, she ran up and kicked the tall creature's legs, tripping it up. It landed on its back with a loud, ground-rattling thud. Then Buffy ran over to help Dawn with the other demon.
"How do you kill these things," Dawn asked.
"Stabbing them in the heart seems to work." The demon reached its right arm out to keep Buffy away, then shot its head at Dawn to try to bite her. She moved back. Buffy heard the other demon moving. She glanced back and saw it standing up behind Dawn. The demon in front of Dawn took a swipe at her head. She ducked. At that moment, when Dawn was crouched down, Buffy ran at her, leaped off her back with her left foot, and flew at the demon behind Dawn. Using Dawn as a vault allowed Buffy to get high enough in the air to kick the ten foot-tall demon in the face with her right foot. It fell to the ground.
Meanwhile, Patrick moved behind the demon which was in front of Dawn. He leaped on its back, hoping to stake it. The demon quickly threw him off, and he landed in the pine trees. But this attack distracted the demon long enough for Dawn to charge in and stab it through the heart with her sword. Dawn breathed several huge sighs of relief and fell to her knees for a moment to rest and recover her bearings. At least killing this demon was not too messy.
Buffy had knocked the other demon on its back. She got on top and tried to stake it, but the demon scratched her in her left temple, just outside of her left eye. She stepped back and the demon got up on all fours and charged Buffy, its giant jaws open and ready to crush her to bits. She kicked it in the head, stopping the first charge. She shuffled counterclockwise to get at the beast from the side. It turned and charged her again. Buffy stepped out of the way, leaped in the air, and kicked it on the left side of its head. But she kicked it as it charged forward, and the monster's momentum spun Buffy around in midair, as if she had tried to kick a charging rhino. Buffy landed on her back. The demon turned round and leaped on top of her. She pulled out her long stake (one of Patrick's former torches) and put it through the demon's heart. She stabbed the demon so hard that the tip of the stake came out its back end. For a moment Buffy groaned under the weight of the creature. Then it disappeared.
Buffy slowly rolled over and got up. Dawn had risen to her feet by then. Patrick emerged from the trees, bruised by his fall (the demon tossed him more than 20 feet in the air) and scratched by the branches and pine needles he fell into. "I'm so sorry," Buffy told Dawn. "I'm so sorry I couldn't help you sooner." She hugged Dawn, whom she was very proud of. First the giant snake, then the demon double-team.
"I thought we were going to fight vampires," Dawn replied. "Where are the vampires? I miss them. They're small, with tiny fangs, and no claws."
"We already killed the vampires. When I tried to break into the Temple, four of those things manifested. I killed the two out front. Course Patrick helped. You had to take on two all alone."
"Only for a little while. You made it here in time." Buffy hugged Dawn again. "I'm so proud of you Dawny. You've been so brave and so tough tonight."
"We all have," Dawn modestly but truthfully replied. "I wanted to get here earlier, but it took a long time to get that slime off my skin. And I think it clogged up the shower drain. Sorry about that."
"That's okay," Buffy replied. "It so doesn't matter right now." Buffy felt the blood on Dawn's back. "You're bleeding."
Dawn looked at Buffy's face. "So are you."
"We all are," Patrick said from nearby. "Course I'm not requesting any hugs for it. I'm not the hugging type. Plus bleeding on other people isn't my favorite way of showing gratitude." Buffy and Dawn kept hugging. "I hate to spoil this touching moment of sibling bonding, but the world's still due to end in 40 minutes." Buffy and Dawn stopped hugging. Dawn looked very worried. She didn't know how close they were to the deadline, since she was heading home when Patrick told Buffy, Willow and Xander about the timeline.
"You mean we've killed all these demons and vampires and we still haven't won," Dawn exclaimed, more than a little frustrated.
"Yes, I know it's disappointing," Patrick responded. "But the demons and vampires were just diversions. If we don't get into that Temple and stop the ritual, it will all be for nothing. Dammit that's depressing."
"And breaking and entering doesn't appear to be a viable option," Buffy concluded. "Guess it's all up to Xander. Again."
"And this time a speech won't get the job done," Dawn added.
"We haven't heard from them," Patrick realized.
"Better go find them," Buffy proposed.
Xander had made his cuts and his drilling around the outer edge of the back half of the Temple. Now Willow and he were planting the four five-pound dynamite charges which would hopefully crack the bedrock all the way up to the foundation, causing gravity to pull the back end of the building into the tunnels below.
"Why do I have to place the charges," Willow asked.
"Because you're smaller and can fit up into the spaces I've cut out. Plus, if I don't lift you up there, you'll have to lift me up there."
"Wouldn't it have been easier to bring a ladder?"
"Yes, but it's too late for that. Now you know what to do. Find the small cubby hole. Place it in. I'll do the rest." Xander bent down and took Willow's feet in his hands. Then he stood up and lifted her above his head, reaching his hands up as high as he could. His arms quivered as they held Willow aloft. "Can you see it," Xander asked in between grunts.
Willow had a small flashlight in one hand and the dynamite in the other. She looked around and found the niche the explosives went into. "I see it. I'm putting it in. Got it!"
"You sure?"
"Yes. I'm sure. now get me down before I get clustraphobic. I'm sandwiched in between to slabs of rock." Xander let her down and caught her just before her feet hit the ground. When he grabbed her, her face was about an inch from his. He slowly let her down to the ground.
"This isn't just a pretext to cop a feel," Willow ask and she and Xander held onto one another.
Xander let go. "How can you even ask that?"
"Just trying to lighten an otherwise grave moment. Plus, slicing through the rock with long instruments in order to place something in a hole. Come on Xander, the symbolism's pretty blatant."
"Willow, as you know, men find just about anything sexy. And of course I'm a man. But blasting bedrock is something devoid of sexiness to me. There's nothing remotely erotic about it." They went to place the second charge. Xander looked up at the fissure he was going to lift Willow into. "However, I can't speak for you on that matter. Maybe you're the one getting off on the symbolism." He lifted her up and into the breach.
"That's ridiculous," Willowy yelled from inside the breach, her voice echoing off the rock. "It's in the hole," she told Xander. He let her down and caught her again in his arms. "Why would I be turned on by penis metaphors?"
Xander smirked. "Come on, Will. You're a smart girl. I'm talking about the holes. The ones you're sticking your head into." She quickly realized what he was getting at. She looked mad and punch him in the shoulder. He took a few steps back. "Ow! That hurt!"
"Maybe I really should slap you silly for that one," she responded.
Xander laughed. "Will, you brought it up. Twice. It's your metaphor." They heard running behind them.
"Xander! Willow! Where are you guys?"
"Over here Buffy," Willow yelled back.
"Come to the light," Xander told her, since he had illuminated his work space.
Buffy soon arrived, followed quickly by Dawn and Patrick. "How soon till it's good to go," Buffy asked.
"Five, ten minutes tops," Xander assured her. "The cuts are all made. We've laid down two of the four charges. Get the other two in, and it's showtime."
"Good," Buffy replied. "You gonna set it off from down here?"
"Thought I'd do it above-ground with you guys," Xander told her. "It's a wireless remote detonator. I plan to stand right in front of the Temple when it goes down."
"How have you guys been," Willow asked. "You look hurt."
"Trust me. It could have been so much worse," Buffy told her.
"Vampires that tough?"
"There were the least of our problems," Dawn told Willow.
"How bout we wait outside, let you finish your work," Patrick proposed. "Wouldn't want to distract you." The three of them left and went up to the surface. Willow and Xander went back to work.
"How big did you say those snakes were," she asked Xander, since she missed that fight. "As big as the Mayor?"
"Twenty feet long, but there were two of them. So combined they were two-thirds as big as the Mayor. And Buffy was busy with the other giant demons, so we had to take them down on our own. Just me and Dawn and Patrick."
"Too bad I missed out on all the fun. Actually, not so bad. Don't mean to sound all cowardly. Oooh. Got it." Xander let her down and grabbed her near the ground.
"It's not like you took the day off. You were sick. You almost died. You were in so much pain. It was really scary for a while."
"That's what everyone keeps telling me. Thing is, I hardly remember any of it. I remember being sick, and feverish, but that's about it. If it hurt, I don't remember." She put in the fourth charge and climbed out of the sewer with Xander. They joined up with Buffy, Dawn and Patrick and walked back into the Grove.
The dot of blue light created by Rama and Manu had grown into a round ball six inches in diameter. It was bright blue and covered with flecks of gold and silver which gleamed and filled the interior with a glowing light. "It's beautiful," Rama said.
"It should be," Manu answered. "It is perfection incarnate. Soon it will destroy all the false Forms around us, the mere Shadows of Reality, and we shall ascend to live among the Perfected Forms in the True Reality."
"And we shall be among the Perfected Forms," Rama added.
"Along with our disciples. The moment has almost arrived. A little more work, and we shall liberate the Orb from its sanctum. Once the Perfection has escaped into the wider world, nothing can stop it from completing our mission."
The five of them stood right in front of the Temple. Xander pulled out the remote detonator. "Well. Here goes everything." He pressed a red button. They heard a few small explosions. Then the loud noise of tons of bedrock fracturing. A crack appeared at the center of the side walls. It ran up to the top of the edifice. The Temple had been split in half. The very back of the Temple started descending. It pulled the rest of the rear half down with it. It was like watching the back half of a ship break off and sink keel first into the ocean. It was going just as Xander had hoped.
Inside the collapsing Temple, the Orb stayed still. Rama and Manu made themselves incorporeal so that their bodies would not fall into the abyss. They hovered around the Orb. "It must be an earthquake," Rama speculated. His voice was full of fear. This was not supposed to be happening. Certainly not at this moment.
Manu was not worried. "The Earth does not make us tremble. We make the Earth tremble!" Rama remembered they could not only defy matter. They could control it. The walls came back up. The back half of the building rose from the ground and put itself back together. After a few seconds, there was no visible trace of what had just happened.
Xander's labor had been nullified. He was devastated and deeply perplexed. "How did they do that?"
"Magic," Willow replied, staring at the front of the Temple. Her pupils dilated until they completely covered the whites of her eyes. The ground beneath them began to tremble violently. But the trembling was confined exclusively to the Sacred Grove. However, the Temple at the center of the Grove stood still, and the ground beneath it did not shake. All five of them fell to the ground. The earth shook too violently for even Buffy to stand up. After one minute, ground stopped trembling. Everyone stood up. The situation was desperate. They had tried everything, and nothing had breached the Temple. Xander, Patrick and Dawn looked defeated. Buffy of course would not give up.
"I'm going to climb on top, try to hack in through the roof. Xander, get me your sledgehammer, or anything you have that will do the trick." Willow stood there, motionless, staring and the front door, oblivious to the panic all around her.
"Yanus. Guardian of the threshold. I humbly beseech you. Offer me your protection." The front pair of doors opened outward. The rear pair opened inward. Willow walked up the Temple steps and stood in between the doorways. The Orb's light flooded out into the front of the Grove where Buffy, Xander, Dawn and Patrick stood. They could see Manu and Rama inside. The vampires appeared to be sitting on air at either side of the orb. None of them could quite make sense of what was happening.
Rama turned to look at Willow. "How nice of you to volunteer to be the first to go."
"And how nice FOR you," Manu added. "Throw yourself at our mercy, and you have my word we will let you ascend into Paradise with us. You will be the one human we save."
"You should feel honored," Rama added.
"FOOLS," Willow bellowed.
"You're in way over you head," Manu told her arrogantly. "What we're doing is beyond magic. Do you have any idea what you are looking at?"
"You rank amateurs," Willow told them.
"You really don't know what you're looking at," Rama told her.
"No. YOU do not know what your are looking at. Your shiny plaything. You think it is our end and your beginning. But it is only YOUR end. Its womb shall become your tomb."
"How adorable," Manu said to Rama. "She thinks she's an Oracle." Willow interrupted before Rama could respond with a joke of his own.
"From the realm of desire I depart.
The realm of illusion I abjure forever.
My eyes were opened by the profoundest suffering of grieving love.
I saw the world end."
The inner set of doors slammed shut. Willow slowly backed out and down the steps. The outer set of doors slammed shut. A Loud explosion could be heard in the Grove. It came from inside the Temple. It's roof shook and its walls trembled. The rear half of the Temple sunk into the ground. Xander's work, which the Mausolus had undone, was now redone. Then the front half of the Temple crumbled and tumbled into the Earth. Nothing stood above ground level. At the level of the grass was a flat pile of rubble. Willow fell to the ground. For a few seconds, the other four just stood there, watching the dust rise from the ruins, trying to make sense of what they had witnessed. Then Xander saw Willow on the ground.
"Willow! Willow! Are you okay? Buffy, she's down!" Buffy went over to her as well. Willow's eyes were closed. She wasn't responsive.
"Willow, can you hear me," Buffy asked.
"Come on Willow. Wake up. Please wake up," Xander pleaded. Patrick and Dawn watched nervously from a little further back. After about thirty seconds, Willow began to move her head. She slowly opened her eyes. They looked normal again. She started hyperventilating.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do it. I didn't. I swear," she told them.
"It's okay Willow," Buffy consoled. "It's okay. Everything's okay. It's over. We won. We did it."
"This wasn't the plan. This wasn't supposed to happen," Willow responded. "Not like this. I didn't want that to happen."
"Willow. Don't apologize for saving us. We're still here. That's all that matters," Xander told her.
"I don't want to go back," Willow told them. "Not to that place. Not ever. I can feel it poisoning me. The darkness. It's come back."
"No it hasn't," Buffy replied.
"It's gone," Xander added. "You're you. It's gone. You're okay." Buffy and Xander helped Willow to her feet.
"It was never gone," Willow declared. "It was just hiding in me, waiting to burst out. And it's burst. It took me over. And I couldn't stop it." She started crying. Xander hugged her. He tried to comfort her.
"Right now, none of us knows what just happened. Whatever happened, or will happen, we're here for you. I'm here for you. And Buffy's here for you. You're gonna be okay. We won't let you fall."
"We won't," Buffy added. Willow looked over at her and tried to stop sobbing.
"You promise?"
"I do," Buffy responded. Willow let go of Xander and hugged Buffy for a moment. "Willow, you did what I couldn't. I don't know how you did it, and you may not know how you did it, but you did it. You did what you had to do."
"And it's gone now," Willow replied. "I just gotta keep it gone."
Dawn came over to the three of them. "Guys. Guys! Patrick's down." Buffy ran over. He was on his back, with his eyes closed. Xander took a few steps in Patrick's direction, but Willow slowed him down by keeping her left arm around his shoulders.
"Do you mind propping me up," she asked.
"Not at all."
"I feel a little drained."
"You've been through a lot today." The two of them walked over to join the others. Buffy slapped Patrick's face lightly a few times. He opened his eyes and started muttering.
"What's wrong," Buffy asked him.
"You woke me up. I was sleeping."
"You just decided to fall asleep out here on the grass?"
"It wasn't really a choice. I haven't slept in days. This night's been exhausting. Add to that the post-crisis let down when all the adrenaline rushes out of your muscles, and I was ready to conk out. Course, I guess I could get a ride home from you guys, and stay awake until then." He stood up. They slowly began walking back to Xander's truck.
Ian jumped down from the roof. "Where ya gooin'," Pitt asked him.
"To take out the Slayer."
"Nuw why would ya do that?"
"She's tired. It's post-battle. So she's not expecting it. It's the perfect time."
"The perfect time is when she's injured. She looks fine to me."
"You don't want to join me, fine. More glory for myself." Pitt jumped down the other side of the roof and walked away. Ian approached the Grove. He hoped to ambush Buffy when she came through the trees. She came out first, before the others. Ian leaped at her from her right side and tackled her. He got on top and hit her twice in the face. She tried to push him off her, But her pinned down her arms. The others saw what was happening. Dawn ran up and staked him in the back. Buffy got up, pretending nothing had happened.
Dawn held her stake. "Thought I wouldn't get a chance to use this tonight." She looked at Buffy. "Guess we're even now. You saved my life. I saved yours."
"No you didn't! Okay, I'm glad you staked him, but I was in no danger whatsoever. I was just about to use by legs to throw him off me."
"Would that have been before or after he bit you?"
"He wasn't going to bite me! If he tried, I was going to head butt him in the nose."
"Fine. So the next time a vampire's got you on your back, pinned to the ground, I'll stand by and do nothing," Dawn joked.
Buffy's mind had moved on. "Where did he come from?"
"Was he one of the missing cult guys," Patrick asked. The fight was over before he got a good look at the vampire.
"No. He wasn't bald like them. Just an ordinary vamp. So I don't know why he was here." Everyone forgot about the matter as they walked to the truck. When they got there, Willow let go of Xander and hugged Patrick. He seemed grateful yet embarrassed by the attention.
"Thanks for saving my life," she told him.
"Technically, a book saved your life. I just followed its directions. But you're welcome, And thanks for saving the world. Makes sense now. The Mausolus used magic, so only magic could defeat them." Xander fetched his tools and put them in the flatbed. The five of them got in the cabin and left.
First they dropped Patrick off, since he was closest. Buffy got out to hug him. "I see your violating my no hugging rule. But I guess Willow set the precedent."
"I don't know what to say, Patrick. Thanks for everything. Not just the research. You did some pretty great fighting tonight. Couldn't have done it without you. I mean that."
"Glad I could do my part."
