SuperSlayerVille 7: Season Three Chapter 14: All Hell Breaks Loose (Part Three), a Smallville + Supernatural Crossover fanfic

Disclaimer: Don't own Smallville, Supernatural or Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Based on Supernatural Season 2 "All Hell Breaks Loose (Part 2)"

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"He's dead, isn't he?"

"Shut up."

Chloe ignored them as she stared down at Sam's face. His eyes were closed, his body still. He wasn't breathing. "Sam," she begged softly, and yet he didn't respond. "No." She wanted to search for a pulse but she daren't take her hand away from his neck, or her wrist from his mouth. The blood loss was starting to get to her, she'd already given Bette blood twice before now, her body was complaining, fighting, but she wouldn't stop. No. "Someone check his pulse!"

"He's dead, Chloe," Bette whispered. "He's gone really pale."

"CHECK HIS PULSE!" Chloe screamed as she closed her eyes and lowered her head.

Surprisingly enough it was Max who knelt down next to her and checked Sam's wrist for a pulse. "I'm not finding anything."

"Check for a heartbeat," Chloe begged.

Max sighed and then did as told. He leaned over, pressed his ear to Sam's chest, and listened. "Nothing."

"No." She shook her head in denial. "NO!" The scream that ripped out of her was unlike any sound she'd ever uttered before, she could feel it in the core of her bones, in every inch of her skin. "NO!"

"Well, I didn't see this coming," an all too familiar voice announced as Azazel stepped out of the darkness, surrounded by countless hellhounds. "I thought Sammy and Max would end up battling to the death. I didn't expect Lily to just shock everyone like that." He raised an eyebrow. "I didn't really see her as competition, to be honest. Much too much of a crier."

Chloe fell silent as she stared down at Sam's paling face. If Azazel was here it only meant one thing - she'd failed - Sam was dead.

"Well, congratulations, Max, on being the last contender breathing, thus winning Little Miss Hellmouth!" Azazel threw his hands in the air, causing confetti he'd been holding to fall down on them. "There's no crown, but there will be glory!"

"Wait, what about her?" Max asked as he pointed to where Bette stood.

"She was never part of the competition, consider her in a different weight category, Junior Edition! Her generation were a backup in case yours ended up being a disappointment." Azazel shook his head and chuckled. "I brought her along because Chloe seemed fond of her. Plus, she's so cute."

Bette merely raised an eyebrow at him.

"I have to say though that I was a little disappointed at this anti-climactic end, I expected more of a show," Azazel admitted with a pout before clearing his throat. "Now that we've gotten all the preliminaries out of the way, on to the main course!"

Chloe remained knelt on the ground, and yet her gaze had slowly shifted from Sam's pale face to his blood, which covered her hand and tinted it red. Her grip trembled, but even as the color continued to drain out of Sam, and his body slowly surely grew colder, she refused to let go. "Sam, you can't do this to me. Please, Sam."

"Cheer up, Buttercup, his death won't have been in vain." Azazel turned to Max. "You can feel it, can't you? Their strength is now in you, and it makes you strong enough to do what needs to be done."

"What needs to be done?" Max wanted to know as he finally stood. "Alice kept telling me that there was some grand meaning behind all of this, that I needed to make sure I was the one who won, but she never told me why. WHY are you doing this?"

"To save this world, and a couple of others," Azazel responded.

"Right." Bette folded her arms over her chest. "A demon wants to save the world."

"A demon wants to save the paradise that's his for the picking, yes." Azazel nodded, his expression straight forwards. "I've done things, made deals, acts you would never believe possible. I've gone to every reality in which Chloe is the Hellmouth - there are more than you think. And I've killed them all. All except her."

Chloe finally looked up at him at that. She thought about the reality in which both she and Sam had entered the consciousness of their counterparts - the reality where she'd left Ava. Was that version of her really dead as well?

"Why?" Bette grounded out past clenched teeth.

"Gathering," Max whispered. "It's like what he did to me. Killed the others in sanctified ground - and whatever inhuman essence he put into them came to me - the next appropriate vessel."

"Ding ding! So you've got something in that noggin!" Azazel grinned. "Except, it's a little more complicated with her. I mean, she's literally the Hellmouth, means I couldn't exactly bring that with me. I'd have died, and I'm doing all of this to live a very long life, so I had to do the deed and leave the reality as a… container… for the energies until everything was done. Because, you know, with her dead, what's there to keep the energies at bay? Hellmouth poisoning is a nasty thing."

Chloe's eyes widened in absolute horror at the implications. If he'd killed the other versions of her which were Hellmouths, and if that'd caused the Hellmouth energy inside of her to escape free into the world - it could have a huge environmental effect! Depending on just how long the poisoning had lasted - as well as the degree - it could've destroyed towns upon towns of innocent lives! Not to mention polluting water and crops!

"Do you know why you were created, Chloe?" Azazel asked softly, drawing her attention from her mental horrors and back onto him. "No, of you don't, everyone's been keeping things from you. Me as well." He took in a deep breath. "Truth be told, you were only created as the embodiment of the Hellmouth - every Hellmouthy version of you was created - so that the Hellmouth would mask your scent, your energy, your essence."

She frowned. "What—?"

"You had a form before you were this person, creation," he informed her in a severe tone. "A beautiful form, a coveted one. That was why they chose to do what they did. The best witches of a number of realities understood the danger you posed in your true form, and came upon an idea to split your essence, weakening it, and masking it with the darkness of the Hellmouth." He smiled. "You shone too brightly, Chloe. He'd have found you immediately had he escaped at that time."

"Who?" Chloe asked softly.

Azazel ignored the question. "Your essence split into different bodies, each masked by the Hellmouth's energy, you were better hidden, yes, but what they failed to understand was that by doing so they gave him more opportunities to find you. One vessel is harder to hide it, yes, but your energy had melded with the Hellmouth. One vessel is all that is needed now. And one vessel is easier to hide, to keep hidden." He moved closer. "I'm going to unite your errant energies, make you whole, and then I'll save this world."

"How?" Chloe wanted to know.

"You're going on a trip," Azazel responded immediately. "I"m going to send you to a world without magic, one where he'll never find you. I great evil is coming for you, one which will use you to destroy the world, and while I like to think myself as evil, this person is so much greater than even I."

"Who?" Bette pressed. "Who are you so scared of?"

"He goes by many names, but the one we mostly use is the Glorified One." Azazel didn't deny that he was scared of this other person. That scared her. "Chloe, you're a key to a door which must never be opened, because if it is, it'll tear apart the fabric of reality. And I can't let that happen. I like living here too much."

"So your solution is to send me to this world without magic?" Chloe lowered her gaze once more to Sam's pallid face. Sam had died for something like this? It left a sour taste in her mouth. "That won't work. He'll find out about me, and when he did he'd track you down and figure out where I am."

"I've already thought that through," Azazel responded with a frown. "That is why the spell that will take you to the world without magic will also remove all memory of you from those who knew you. You'll be a fleeting memory they'll forget upon waking up."

Oh god. He was serious!

"The spell will work to fit you into that world, you'll have a past, a future," Azazel announced immediately. "You can finally live a normal life as a human. In a world without magic, there is no such thing as a Hellmouth, or a Key. You will be able to live out the rest of your lives as normal human beings - as you should've."

"Wait, lives?" Max's voice choked. "What do you mean lives?"

"Why do you think I needed to find a powerful Special Child?" Azazel wanted to know with disgust. "I need you so that we can breach the barrier between worlds, long enough to not only collect the Hellmouth energies awaiting their vessel, but for you three to make your way to the world without magic. It'll take the strongest of magics to open a door to that world, and it won't last for more than a couple of seconds." He paused and eyed the shocked guy curiously. "You have her energy in you, Max. You can't stay. Neither of you can." He chuckled. "Do you think I've let the other Special Children live? No. They're dead. Every single one of them. The only ones still alive are you and Bette."

Bette's eyes widened.

"No." Max shook his head. "I can't—I won't! Alice—I won't leave her!"

"You have no choice, Alice doesn't want to go," Azazel replied with no sympathy whatsoever. "And you're not staying."

Tears filled Max's eyes as he shook his head. "She wouldn't do that. She—she wouldn't abandon me like that! She's all I have!"

"Alice would never live in a world in which she didn't have the power of witchcraft," Azazel explained to him as if to a child. "She groomed you because she knew the Glorified One would come one day, and she needed to make sure there was at least someone strong enough to do what had to be done."

"No," Max whispered shakily. "That's not true!"

Azazel made an annoyed little sound in his throat. "C'mon Champ, let's be reasonable here. A woman like that doesn't just get with a kid like you because of love. Either she's bored, sexually frustrated, or using you. My guess is that it was all three."

"We love each other," Max growled out as his whole body trembled in emotion. "I won't leave her. I won't go." His eyes narrowed as he angrily wiped the tear from them. "And there's nothing you can do to convince me otherwise."

"Fine." Azazel rolled his eyes. "Have it your way." And with that he reached his arm out and jerked his hand rapidly.

A loud cracking sound echoed throughout the night's air as Max's head swung on his neck.

Bette's eyes widened as she brought her hands to her mouth to smother her cry.

Chloe watched Max's body collapse lifelessly on the ground between Sam and Lily's corpses. Tears filled her eyes as her lips parted and closed wordlessly.

"Congratulations Miss Columbia," Azazel turned to Bette. "Miss Philippines has just dropped dead."

Bette stared up at Azazel with huge, terrified eyes. "I—I don't—."

Azazel sighed and raised his hand.

In seconds Bette lifted into the air. She grabbed at her throat and choked out, desperately gasping for oxygen.

"Stop it!" Chloe screamed. "She'll do it!"

"I don't know," Azazel mumbled. "She doesn't look too convinced."

"She's convinced!" Chloe got in between them. "Bette, tell him you're convinced! Tell him you'll do it!"

Bette tried to speak, but visibly couldn't. Instead, she nodded furiously.

"Are you sure?" Azazel asked her in amusement. "I don't want you to do anything you don't want to."

Bette continued to shake her head desperately as she slowly turned blue.

"Good!" The demon cheered as he opened his fist.

Bette immediately fell back to the ground and took in desperate gasps of air. She looked up, and would've said something, but she cried out as she gripped at her chest.

"What are you doing to her?" Chloe asked in horror.

"Nothing, she's just finally getting the energy from Maxi Pad." Azazel clasped his hands together. "As soon as she's done, it's time to open some doors." He grinned, it was all teeth. "We have some errant Hellmouth energy in need of collection."

Dean needed Chloe here. If she could just give Cordelia some of her blood everything would be fine! But no matter how many times he kept calling everyone, anyone, no one would answer. He begged any unseen power to allow him to get in contact with them. He'd do anything - give anything - to save Cordelia's life. He just needed to be given the chance! Just a measly chance! PLEASE! Just ONE chance!

"Clark!" He yelled in desperation, hoping against hope that the guy was still 'keeping an ear out for him'. "Kal-El! Whoever you are! Please—!"

"My name is Kal-El," the man declared as he appeared in front of Dean. "Don't ever call me Clark."

"I need you to get Chloe." Dean gripped his shirt desperately. "Please, bring her. She can save Cordelia. If she—."

Kal-El stared at him in surprise. "You don't know?"

Cold apprehension settled in Dean's gut as he let go of Angel's shirt. "What happened?"

"Chloe's disappeared." Kal took in a deep breath. "She's been taken - has been missing for a while now."

"What?" Dean whispered, unable to believe what he was hearing. "We talked to Buffy every couple of days. She never—."

"She didn't realize what was happening, none of us did." Kal ran his fingers through his hair. "Chloe left to stay with the Watcher Council, she thought they'd be able to keep her safe from Azazel. We expected her to be incommunicado, but I started to worry when I realized I couldn't sense her anymore, couldn't keep an ear out for her. We found out that the Watcher Council's been destroyed. We don't even know if she even got to their compound."

Dean sat down hard on the seat. "My brother was taken earlier. There was sulfur everywhere."

"Animus demon," Kal whispered. "Azazel."

Dean nodded numbly. "He must have them both." Suddenly a sound Dean had given up on hearing sounded in the night. His eyes widened as he glanced down to see his phone ringing - Buffy's name was displayed on the caller ID. He answered it immediately. "Slayer, why the hell is no one answering their—?"

"Sam and Chloe are being kept by Azazel in this town called Cold Oak in South Dakota," Buffy interrupted him. "We've been on a plane to get here, and I forgot to turn my phone back on when we landed. We're almost there. Something's bad's happening, Dean."

Kal's eyes widened, obviously having heard Buffy's words.

"We're coming," Dean announced immediately. Not only was his brother in danger, but so was Chloe. He'd help them, he'd save them, and then Chloe could come and save Cordelia.

"You're not going to be on tim—."

Dean hung up and looked at Kal. "What are we waiting—?"

In seconds the world shifted rapidly, and Kal was once more superseding them away.

Dean was never going to get used to this feeling.

Chloe's and Bette's palms were sliced, their bloods mixing as their hands were bound together with sigil-inscribed leather. Azazel had summoned a pentagram, and as he chanted, more and more Animus demons appeared, chanting different choruses until an unholy symphony filled the air. The hellhounds began to howl, joining in the infernal song. Something called to her, something foreign yet so familiar, and then a tear ripped itself in the air in front of her. She felt it as she might feel a zipper in her clothes lowering, and it started a chain reaction as all around her and Bette tears in their reality opened up, all opening to Cold Oak, yet the differences in each reality were subtle yet there.

The only similarity in each dimension was the utter destruction and lifelessness as Hellmouth energy immediately began to seep out of their dimensions. Trees were withered away into burnt husks, the ground was charred black, and the air so polluted with endless black it looked impossible to actually breathe. That blackest of black travelled slowly out of their tears towards Chloe like dark clawed hands.

Fear filled Bette's eyes.

"Bette, look at me," Chloe whispered, hating the terror she could hear in her own tone. "It's okay. Just look at me."

Bette nodded, her lips trembling, her eyes filling with tears.

As the claws of black reached closer and closer to Chloe, she wanted to close her eyes, wanted to hide from what was about to happen, but she needed to be strong for Bette. That was the only reason she was strong enough to remain staring into Bette's eyes as the Hellmouth energy closed in around them and then pierced into her in a wave so painful she nearly passed out.

A lighter shade of black slowly curled around Bette, and she sobbed in utter terror as it encircled her like a snake. Her eyes widened and she gasped in shock as this second strain of black emerged with a snake's head and bit down on her neck.

Almost instantaneously, Bette erupted into flames.

Dean tumbled to the ground as he was dropped. He rolled, his elbow hitting something, it hurt! The sandy blonde looked up once he'd stopped rolling, about to yell at Kal about the less than gentle landing, only to realize that Kal was battling someone. Multiple someones. If the black eyes and the smell of sulfur that filled the place had anything to say about it, these were Animus demons, and while Kal was no doubt more powerful, they had numbers.

The sound of screaming caught his attention, and he turned towards the large bonfire which lit up the night… only to realize that there were two figures deep within the blaze. Two female figures. And he recognized one of them. "Chloe?" He hurried towards them, to try and yank her out, but someone stepped in front of him.

"She's fine," the demon flashed yellow eyes - Azazel! "As are you. I can smell it all over you, the curse is fading away."

Frozen by those very words, knowing what they meant, Dean found it hard to breathe. "Shut up! She's still alive! I still have a chance! I can save her!"

"Oh, wait, you're not here for Chloe, are you?" Azazel tutted. "Her blood's not going to stop it, Dean. If your girlfriend was the sacrifice, then your father would've used the Lazarus Blade. Once someone is stabbed with that there is no coming back, the wounds will continue to reopen, to resurrect if you will. She loves you. She'll die because of it. There's nothing that can stop that once it starts. Not even I could stop that."

"No." He shook his head, voice hoarse in his denial. "There has to be a way. There has to be!"

"I'm sorry for you," Azazel announced with surprising genuine emotion. "Losing your brother and girlfriend in one night. You have shitty luck."

Dean's world came crashing down. "My brother?"

The demon swept his arm out, and only then did Dean see what he hadn't before.

There, lying on the ground, bathed in his own blood, was his baby brother.

"Sam?" His eyes widened as he took one step, and another, and another, towards his brother. "SAMMY?"

Once the darkness and flames disappeared, Chloe and Bette stared at each other, the shock that they were still alive visible in their expression. The blonde looked around her, surprised to find the tears in the fabric of time and space completely gone. The doors to those realms were closed, and she had a feeling that all life within them was dead, that the only living thing - the Hellmouth energies which had roamed free after the deaths of the Chloe and Special Children of those realities - had left barren worlds which would never know life ever again.

The sound of fighting slowly pierced the bubble of nothingness that'd surrounded them, and Chloe turned to find Kal-El fighting a multitude of demons. She couldn't believe it. Why was he here? How had he found her?

"No! Sammy! No! PLEASE NO!"

That voice chilled her to the bone, and she turned in terror to find Dean kneeling over his brother, sobbing brokenheartedly.

"I CAN'T LOSE YOU TOO!" Dean bawled like a little broken child as he hugged his brother's dead body to his chest and hid his face in his hair. "SAMMY, PLEASE!"

Too? Who else had Dean lost? Please - don't be Cordelia! Please let him have been on time!

"KAL!" She yelled out when he got thrown so hard against a tree it crashed with him. "STOP IT! DON'T FIGHT THEM!"

Kal stopped and looked up at her in confusion.

Azazel turned towards her in surprise as well. "You will give in? Without a fight?"

"Yes," she whispered as she stumbled to her feet and pulled Bette up with her. "But you're going to do something for me first. I have conditions. You can't force me to go, so if you want my help, you'll do what I want."

"Color me intrigued," the demon announced as he smiled and turned towards Chloe. "Name your terms."

"Sam comes back to life," Chloe responded softly, and from the corner of her eyes she saw Dean look up immediately.

"I can't make another Special Child," Azazel announced in a sheepish way. "Bette's the only one now, she's consumed what made him one."

"I don't want him to be a Special Child, I want you to bring him back without any of that," Chloe responded.

"He'd be useless without it," Azazel remarked in confusion. "Why would you want to bring him back for him to just be useless? I won't be able to do any of this until you're gone, so it's not like he could go with you. I won't understand why I have a bonding contract to raise him, but I'll be forced to do it anyway. You understand that he will remain on this side, right? He won't even remember you or what you did for him."

"You don't have to understand," she informed him immediately. "Just bring Sam back to life. As he is. Without being a Special Child."

The demon eyed her curiously. "Okay, but I feel that's not the end of the demands. And before you say I should let Bette stay - I can't. Not even if I wanted to. And I can't save Deano's girlfriend either. As long as she loves him, she'll die."

"Wait." Dean eased his brother's body to the ground as he stood, face impassive. "What do you mean Sam won't remember Chloe? He's been in love with her for as long as he's met her, he'd never forget her!"

Those words hit Chloe like a ton of bricks. Sam had been in love with her? And for so long? Oh god - how could she have been so blind? How had she never realized? She'd only recently suspected he had feelings for her, and never had it occurred to her that he'd harbored them for so long!

"Because when she crosses over into the world without magic, all memory of her will be erased from this world, and from those in it," Azazel replied. "Which is why her little condition is ridiculous."

Dean stared ahead of him unseeingly. He took in a deep breath and closed his eyes before he opened them once more, his expression resolute. "I'm going too."

"What?" Chloe asked in horror. "No!"

"If I go to the world without magic, Cordelia will forget about me," he whispered, pain at the very thought ingrained in his voice. "And if she forgets about me, she won't love me, and if she doesn't love me—."

"She won't die," Azazel finished with wide eyes before he grinned. "Now that is some next level thinking! Bravo! And here I thought you were the dumb brother!"

"Dean," Chloe's voice broke.

"You're saving Sammy and letting him live out a life that he's been cheated out of," Dean whispered as his teary hazels met her greens. "Let me do the same for Cordy."

Her lips trembled with repressed sobs. "You love her."

"You love Angel, and Sam," Dean responded softly. "And yet you're going to leave them."

She looked away immediately. She hadn't wanted to think about Angel. Sure, he mightn't feel the same for her anymore, but she did still love him, and the thought of never seeing him again - of him going on with his life without even remembering the times they'd shared - it tore her apart.

Dean's eyes widened. "Angel! I forgot! He was hurt badly by dad! I don't even know if he's—!"

Chloe turned to look at him in horror.

"He's fine," Kal assured them as he stepped forwards. "I got the bullets out, he's unconscious but he'll recover."

Relief speared through her, but Chloe was unable to keep a single sob from escaping her lips as she stared at her best friend. "Kal."

He moved to stand in front of the pentagram. "Is this something you want to do?"

"I have to do this," she responded. "Have you ever heard of the Glorified One?"

Kal's face darkened immediately. "Isn't he a myth?"

He had. Chloe sniffled as tears fell down her cheek. "I don't know how, but since the Hellmouth energies from the other realities entered me… I know Azazel's telling the truth. I know that if I stay here I'll end up being used to destroy this world and the people I love here." Her voice choked as she gasped in a hurried breath. "People like you and Lucy."

Kal remained resolute, but he reached out and wiped away her tears. "I won't ask you to stay. I understand duty." He took in a deep breath. "Lucy won't."

"Lucy won't remember," Chloe whispered tearfully. "None of you will."

Kal once more wiped her tears.

She leaned into the touch and smiled up at him despite her desire to break down and sob. "I love you, Kal."

The alien didn't answer, he merely leaned forwards and pressed a long, hard kiss against her forehead.

Chloe's eyes closed as more silent tears fell.

"What are your other conditions?" Azazel asked in a solemn tone.

"Sammy has to know he can't trust our father," Dean spoke rapidly. "He has to."

The demon nodded he'd make sure that was so.

"We get to say our goodbyes," she responded softly. "Even if they never remember us, we'll remember. We need to say goodbye to the people we love."

Azazel eyed her in silence and nodded once more.

The leather binding her and Bette together disintegrated.

Bette hugged herself. "I don't have anyone to say goodbye to. You go ahead."

Kal reached into his jacket and pulled out his phone, which he held out to Chloe. "Here."

Thanking him softly, Chloe took the phone and quickly dialed her father's number. She turned her back on the others as she listened to the dial tone.

"Hello?" her father groaned, clearly having been sleeping. "Who is this?"

"Daddy?" Chloe wiped at her tears and cleared her throat. "I'm sorry if I woke you up."

"Honey! Where are you calling me from? I don't recognize the number—are you okay? You've been incommunicado for a bit and we've started getting worried. If it wasn't for Buffy swearing you were okay we'd be calling the police!"

"I'm great dad, I'm sorry for calling so late, I just felt the need to tell you I love you and Jenny, a lot. I missed you guys." She fought the wave of sadness, and instead kept a painful smile on her face. "I love you a lot, and I'm lucky to be your daughter."

He was smiling, she could hear it in his tone. "And I you. Are you coming home soon?"

"Yeah." It hurt to smile. "Go to sleep, okay? We'll talk later."

"At a more decent hour," Gabe laughed. "Goodnight honey."

"Goodnight daddy," she barely kept from crying. "I love you." And with that she hung up.

Out of the corner of her eyes she noticed Kal spirit Dean away, but she didn't wonder where he was going. He had his own goodbyes to say.

Clearing her throat, she dialed another number and listened to the ringtone until the voicemail came on. "No, Spike, answer. Please." She hung up and called him again, and again, and again, but each time it went to voicemail. He was most probably somewhere passed out after drinking too much. Her heart hurt at the thought of not being able to say goodbye to Spike. She brought the phone to her forehead and couldn't keep her sobs from emerging. I can't just abandon him like that, not him, he's been abandoned without thought so many times in the past - I can't do the same! That was why, even though the message would be erased, she went ahead and left one anyway.

Dean sat down by Cordelia's side. With one hand he gripped her smaller, more delicate one, and with the other he brushed some silky brown tresses out of her face. Even on death's door Cordelia Chase was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen before, and the thought of never seeing her again felt like a stab to the heart. He'd only ever loved one woman in his whole entire life, from young he'd envisioned himself growing old next to her, but if he wanted to give her the chance to grow old and have the many fashionable grandchildren she'd always spoken about, he had to let her go. She'd loved him enough to die for him, and now he had to love her enough to live the rest of his life without her.

Tears formed in his eyes and he brushed them away angrily. "I love you Cordy, more than I even knew I could love someone." His voice choked but he cleared it. He needed to say this. She might never hear this, and she'd forget all about him, but he'd never forget her. He'd never stop loving her. "I want you to be happy." Just the thought of her being with someone else twisted inside of him like a stabbing knife, but he pushed passed it. "I want you to be so fucking happy!"

Lowering his head, Dean breathed in and out, in and out, trying to control his emotions. He had to be strong. He had to do this. For Cordelia. She'd saved him in so many ways during his life, and it was his turn to save her. To be her Big Damned Hero… even if she never knew what he'd done for her. Even if she forgot who he was, that he'd ever existed. As long as she was alive and happy it would be worth it.

"Dream about me sometimes," he whispered. "It doesn't matter if you don't know it's me. Just—I'll dream of you every night." He leaned over her, taking in her face, her most beautiful countenance. "I love you, Cordelia Chase. I wish I could've married you. I wish we could've argued with each other for the rest of our lives." He sniffled, finding it hard to breathe. "Goodbye." He pressed a kiss upon her lips, and let his tears bathe her face before he finally stood and turned to face Kal, who'd remained in the doorway to give him some privacy. "I'm ready."

"Sam." Chloe knelt next to his dead body, fixing his shirt, straightening it, ignoring the blood all over it. "In the end we never had our conversation." She cleared her throat. "We'll never have it now, but I still—I." She took in a deep, deep breath. "Sam, I need you to be happy. I need you to go back to school, to live a long and happy, normal life - to forget all about this messed up world that got you killed." Her hand came to rest over his unseating heart. "I need you to be happy, okay? Become a lawyer, but don't be a douchebag. Don't let it change you. Change the world instead."

She stared down into his face and closed her eyes as she leaned down and pressed a chaste kiss to his lips.

"Are you going to say goodbye to me too?" A voice accused from the darkness.

Chloe looked up and wiped her eyes, stumbling to her feet as Buffy appeared, followed by Giles, Joyce, Ted, Wesley and Faith. "Buffy."

"You're going to leave?" Buffy stormed up towards her, accusation in her tone. She'd obviously stayed in the darkness long enough to hear what was going on. "And you were just going to give me a call?"

"I have to go, Buffy, and I knew that if you were here—."

"That I'd tell you how idiotic you are?" Buffy snapped at her. "You're not going anywhere! You're staying here! With us!"

"No, I'm not." Chloe shook her head. "Buffy, there's an evil out there known as the Glorified One, and he—."

"The Glorified One?" Giles frowned as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "According to lore he's trapped, there's no way that he—."

"He's free," Chloe responded. "I think one of the other versions of me was researching this, because I just know that he's free. And he's close to finding me. Now more than ever that all of me is together again. I have to go to the world without magic. It'll neutralize whatever's inside of me and keep him from finding me."

"What does he want with you, honey?" Joyce asked softly, motherly.

"It's like I'm a key to a door, a door that must never be opened," she realized Azazel had said something similar earlier.

"We can protect you," Faith assured her with her natural bravado. "You've got two Slayers here. No baddie can stand against two of us."

"The Glorified One isn't like anyone else you have ever faced or ever would, he is immortal, truly immortal," Giles whispered. "If this is the truth, if he's coming here, and he's after Chloe, she has to go."

"Giles!" Buffy cried out in betrayal.

"I don't want her to go either, Buffy!" He informed her. "But she's in danger if she stays here."

"There has to be another way." Buffy shook her head. "I'm her Slayer, okay? It's not a coincidence that we were called and brought to Sunnydale at the same time - that we shared dreams and visions. It's why I kept having visions about people who could hack her! We're connected. After she left Sunnydale I lost my way because I'm supposed to be with her! I was called to guard the Hellmouth, remember? It just wasn't the Sunnydale Hellmouth. It was her!"

Giles' eyes were wide.

So were Joyce's.

And Buffy's. She seemed to realize something as she breathed out. "I have to go too."

"Honey, no!" Joyce cried out.

"Buffy!" Chloe snapped at her.

"I have to." Buffy nodded to herself and looked up at Faith. "You've been taking care of things while I've been gone. You'll do fine without me."

"It'll be 5 by 5," Faith assured her, hands on her hips. "But are you sure you want to go? I mean, it seems like you'd lose your Slayer abilities. You'd be forced to be normal, human again."

Joyce's eyes widened further.

"Yes." Buffy took in a deep breath. "But I saw these things for a reason. I was brought here for a reason. And that reason was to go as well. I don't know why, and I don't know how I know, but I do." She turned to her mother. "Mom, I love you. You're the best mother I could've ever hoped for. But I have to go."

"She'll forget about you, Slayer," Azazel warned. "She'll forget you were ever born."

"No I won't," Joyce whispered as she stared down at her daughter. "Because I'm going too."

Buffy gasped in utter shock. "Mom, you can't! Ted's powered by Chloe's energy! He won't survive in the other world!"

"I've already started powering down," Ted broke the silence. "It's why I was driving like such a madman. I could feel the energy leaving me. I'll shut down soon." He smiled down at Joyce and Buffy. "Your mother needs you, Buffy. You can't leave her again."

Buffy's eyes filled with tears. "Ted."

He smiled down at her. "Don't cry, Buffy."

"I'm not crying," Buffy's voice broke. "Wesley is."

True to form, Wesley was standing in the back of the group, eyes filled with tears as he sobbed into a hanky.

Faith stood awkwardly next to him and pretended not to notice him at all. "Don't worry, Buffy. I'll keep this world in order." She took in a deep breath. "And I'll figure a way to get your stepdad back in working order."

"Thank you." Buffy smiled at Faith for the first time ever as Joyce threw herself on Ted and hugged him, crying.

"I will have to leave everything in your hands as well," Giles sighed as he eyed the sobbing Wesley. "God help this world."

Buffy turned to him in shock. "You're coming too?"

"Chloe might be your Hellmouth, but you're my Slayer," he responded in determination. "Where you go, I go."

Buffy's lips trembled as she threw herself onto him and hugged him tightly. Giles' arms wrapped around her and held her close.

Suddenly there was a gust of wind, and Kal was there with Dean. The alien turned to Chloe and took in a deep breath. "Do you want to leave a message with me for Angel? I might remember, you never know."

She tried to form words, but was unable to. In the end, Chloe realized she couldn't say goodbye. It would hurt too much. "No. It's my fault he lost his Soul and learnt to hate himself even more. I think forgetting about me, and the role I played in his life, might be the best thing for Angel."

Kal didn't answer, yet when she flung herself into his arms and hugged him tightly, he held her back so hard it hurt.

Azazel stepped forwards. "We have to do this, now. Everyone, get into the pentragram, quickly. Something—."

Chloe finally stepped out of Kal's embrace and turned to face the demon. "You and yours can't hurt my friends and family. None of them. Ever. That's my last condition."

The demon stared at her and then nodded as he held out his hand. "We have a deal."

Chloe stared at his hand before she placed hers in his.

His eyes flashed gold, sealing the deal.

The blonde let her hand fall from his as she stepped back into the pentagram with the others, who all crowded in with her. Her hand found Bette's and Buffy's, and that started a chain reaction as those inside joined hands. They were heading towards an unknown world, but they wouldn't be alone, they'd face whatever awaited them together.

Her gaze lingered on Sam's body. I'm going to miss you so much Sam.

Azazel and his minions began to chant once more, and she felt the power immediately latch onto her and Bette, fueling the spell as the Animus demons began to scream.

Chloe's green eyes met Kal's.

He was the last thing she saw in this world before everything exploded in blinding light.

One last bit…