Previously: 'You know, you'll never make it out alive if you don't leave now love' I stated truthfully.

She knew that as much as I did, so why she was still here was beyond me.

'I know, but I'm not leaving without you' she whispered and with that grabbed the amulet with both hands and tugged.

Chapter Two

Buffy tugged on the amulet and its chain. But not hard I could feel was the searing pain from the amulet itself and then what may have been, if I was still human, my neck snapping. 'Damnit', she cursed and then braced herself for another attempt. I couldn't fight her off either.

She had placed herself out of my reach, but close enough so when she leant over she could still grab the amulet. She tugged again, only harder this time. The amulet resisted, but Buffy kept pulling and finally the chain broke.

Having all this power running through your body and then suddenly disappearing definitely takes its toll on a bloke I decided as I fell to my knees. My knees didn't want to co-operate with me so I ended up kissing the ground.

Ever so slowly, I managed to prop myself up on my elbows and look up just in time to see Buffy smile. It was so good just to see her smile. I smiled too. I hadn't seen that in bloody ages. It had all been doom and gloom recently.

'I love you', she whispered. I was about to say 'I love you too pet' but the smile left her face and worry made the smile leave mine. Suddenly without any warning what so ever, she fell.

'Buffy!' I yelled but it was useless.

She fell anyway, only a few feet away though, so I scrambled over.

'Buffy! Can you hear me?' I questioned, hoping desperately that I would get a response. Nothing. It was only then that I realised there was an awful lot of blood on her shirt. She was killing vampires; they didn't bleed; only turned to dust. She wouldn't kill humans either it wasn't in her nature. Curiously and desperately hoping I was wrong, I lifted her shirt. Blood. Tons of the stuff. By the looks of it, someone had come up behind her and stuck a bloody sword through her.

The walls of the cavern shook and debris starting falling from the roof.

Slowly I rose to my knees and carefully picked Buffy up. Being mindful of her head, as I didn't want to hurt her even more. Cradling my love in my arms, I stumbled my way through the cavern to the entrance of the school.

Bodies lay everywhere, Bringers and humans alike. All of them dead but all of them looked somewhat peaceful. As strange as I found this, I knew I must press on if I was to get out of here and get Buffy to safety. At this point I didn't care what happened to me, my only concern was for Buffy.

Stepping over bodies and pieces of debris the size of small cars took more energy out of me than the amulet had, but I knew Buffy's life depended on it so I continued. At last I made it to the school entrance and could see that a bus was waiting not that far in front of me. Only one problem though. It was daylight; I couldn't exactly get to the bus without bursting into flame.

'Where is Buffy? She should be out by now', came a voice not too far from where I was standing. Looking around I found the whelp, Xander pacing in front of the bus. I was about to call out when I then heard him say, 'And Anya. Where is she? What if she never comes out? What am I going to do with my life then? What if I never find love?'

This was at first quite amusing to listen to, then I saw that his lips weren't moving. At all. This threw me and I wan sure if I was hallucinating or not but I had to get his attention.

'Xander!' I cried. 'Help!'

He looked up puzzled, then his eyes widened as he saw who I was carrying. For a brief second I forgot about Buffy and felt extremely bloody self-conscious, as though he was examining me, not the person in my arms.

'Merciful Zeus, Buffy!" Xander breathed.

He looked terrible. All the worrying over his demon no doubt.

'I need you to take her to the bus, I cant take both of us. Thing is, these days I still tend to burst into flame' I explained.

I knew he didn't like me much, and i didn't really like him either, but we both understood that right now, Buffy was more important than us not getting along. I handed her over to Xander and he ran them both to the safety of the bus. I stood for a moment, bracing myself.

'Ready, set, go' I murmured as I threw my duster over my head and raced for the bus. I wasn't as fast as I had been before. Bloody amulet. Still I knew I was going to be ok, even if I could feel my hands starting to sizzle. I arrived at the door and thundered up those bus steps. I still knew I wouldn't be completely safe here; I wedged myself in between two seats and sat on the floor. It was cold and uncomfortable, but it was better than any amulet and it was darker down here than it was on the seat. I would have to make do with it.

'Buffy, where the hell is she? Hand her over'I demanded as I slid my duster off.

Xander stepped forward and gently passed her down to floor level. I snatched her from his grasp, as carefully as I could and lay her in my lap. Her head resting on my chest and her breathing so quietly, even I could hardly hear her.

I used my duster as a blanket and covered us both with it. I didn't like the looks everybody was throwing at us, Buffy was more than vulnerable now, I wanted to protect her and stop the looks so I covered her wound and wrapped my right arm around her waist. With my left, I slowly started stroking her face.

'C'mon Buffy love, be a slayer, this is nothing, you can beat this. I mean you have died multiple times pet, so this really is nothing', I whispered in her ear.

Whilst saying this, I wondered if the whelp had found his demon. I did a quick sweep of the bus to see. All I saw were slayers doing the same thing I was. Comforting friends and trying to keep others conscious. No whelp or demon though.

A moan erupted from Buffy's lips however and I was instantly thrown into a panic.

'Buffy it's ok now, I'm here, I've got you. You're safe now love' I uttered.

A small smile crossed her face, here eyes still closed. She breathed a sigh and whispered, 'Spike'.

Xander came crashing up the bus steps; he must have still been looking for Anya.

'Is Anya here? I can find her anywhere!' he exclaimed in a panic.

Everyone slowly looked down and Andrew, who had been wondering why he didn't die on the seat behind mine, rose and faced the panicked boy.

'Andrew, did you see?' Xander questioned. Andrew's face was sullen.

'I was scared, I'm sorry…' he said. Xander still pressed on.

'Did you see what happened? Was she…' he asked.

Andrew gathered what he could and looked Xander right in the eye.

'She was incredible. She died saving my life' he announced.

Xander smiled, 'That's my girl. Always doing the stupid thing'.

Andrew sadly nodded. A voice sounded from the back of the bus.

'Well it wasn't that stupid if I saved someone was it?' it stated.

A crowd of eyes stared at where the voice had come from. I would have too if the bloody char wasn't in my way. Xander gasped and tears came to his eyes.

'How? Andrew said…' he started.

'As you can see, I'm perfectly fine. Better than fine in fact, I'm fan friggin' tastic' the voice said.

I managed to get a peek at the person sitting up the back by looking under the seats. Although I had a pretty good idea of who it was, thanks to teary eyed boy over there. I was still surprised however, when I got my first sighting of a cheery, bright-eyed Anya, with not a single scratch on her.

'Well what are you waiting for? The ground to swallow us whole? Drive' she ordered.

Robin Wood, son of the second slayer I killed, was a bloody mess, just like the rest of us, but as he was still conscious and sitting in the driver's seat, he dutifully turned the ignition key and the sped us all to safety. Away from the school, away from Sunnydale and most importantly, away from the hellmouth.