Chapter 16: Spiral
May 2, 2001 – Wednesday
U.C. Sunnydale
Buffy exploded into action as she grabbed Dawn and flung herself through Tara's dorm room door, back first. They spilled out into the hallway and Buffy scrambled to her feet, yanking Dawn up. "Run!" She took off with Dawn down the hall and out into the commons.
Glory laughed as she started after them, confident of victory now she knew who the key was bound to at last.
Then Willow held up her hand, rendering the hell god immobile with her wiccan enchantment. As soon as that was done, she grabbed Tara's hand and followed Buffy and Dawn out of the room.
Willow uttered something under her breath which sent the god flying back out the hole the god had made into the bushes.
Buffy jostled students out of the way as she made for the double doors on the other side and outside running full tilt, half dragging Dawn. They raced through the streets, while Willow and Tara behind them headed in the opposite direction, trying to create a false trail.
Glory turned into a blur, running faster than the eye could see as she strove to catch up with the slayer and her key.
"Buffy, pick me up." Dawn instructed, breathing heavily, her energy levels failing her.
"What?" Buffy asked looking toward Dawn.
"Carry me. My legs are giving out. I'm not a Slayer, I'm not morphed, and we don't have time to wait for me to morph. I can't keep up," Dawn informed her sister.
Buffy gathered Dawn up into her arms and broke into another slayer enhanced run, heading for the tree-lined park on the other side of the street.
Unfortunately, it was all for naught as suddenly Glory appeared before them. "I really hate it when people touch my things," the hell god declared.
Buffy froze before her, out of options for the moment.
"Last words, slay-runt?" Glory asked smugly, feeling her victory close at hand.
In the distance a gentle hum evolved into a pounding drumming, the sound of engines gunned, signaling the start of things to come.
Dawn smiled as she identified the source of the noise. "Just one. Truck," she answered for her sister.
Glory turned to her right, just in time to see the sight of her impending doom, as an eighteen-wheeler barreled into her. The truck tore past, brakes squealing.
Dawn and Buffy ran through the park on the other side of the street for the sanctuary of other one of their friend's homes.
Xander's Apartment
"And then whoosh!" Dawn said as she recapped the events to the rest of the Scoobies, now gathered at Xander's apartment, a temporary sanctuary to gather and prepare for when the god caught up with them. "All of a sudden Glory's standing right there in front of us, all skanky and blonde and thinking she's all that, just 'cause some bumpy heads kiss her stinky feet ..." she paused, reconsidering for a brief moment. "She does have nice feet. And she's coming right at us, and Buffy's just standing there not even blinking, like 'Bring it on,' and then, wham! Hell-bitch in orbit."
"Go, Buff!" Xander cheered.
"I knew you two would best Glory eventually," Giles uttered, sufficiently proud.
"A truck hit her," Buffy stated absently, her gaze fixed on the view from the window where the hell god had as yet refused to appear.
"Oh," Giles murmured, surprised, and a little disappointed.
"Buffy threw it at her?" Anya asked hopefully.
"No," Dawn replied. "We more kind of waited for it to hit Glory."
"Then you teleported?" Willow asked.
"Not enough time to morph or teleport away," Dawn said. "Not with Glory that close. So, we ran."
"I don't know how we got away," Buffy confessed, turning from the window. "That truck couldn't have slowed her down for more than a second."
"Well, how isn't important, all that matters is that the two of you are safe," Giles remarked.
"Safe?" Buffy scoffed bitterly. "We've barely been able to manage not getting ourselves seriously dead every time we've crossed paths with Glory. And now that she knows that Dawn has the key," she let her sentence end, leaving everyone else present to imagine the consequences of that reality.
"Floaty green shimmers." Tara said as she stared at Dawn. She then looked at Willow. "Why don't you shimmer?"
Willow looked to the Gang, her face a swirl of fear, pain, and a whole mountain of guilt. "She didn't mean to. You know that, right?"
"We know." Dawn said. "I'm as much to blame as Tara is. Because I drew her attention to me."
"But it's done, and now we have to deal with it." Buffy said.
"Perhaps there's something in the Book of Tarnis, something that we've missed," Giles suggested carefully. "Something we can use against Glory."
"A piano!" Anya cried excitedly.
"Because that's what we used to kill that big demon that one time!" Xander remarked sarcastically. "No wait, that was a rocket launcher." He turned to his girlfriend. "Anya, what are you talking about?"
"We should drop a piano on her," Anya replied, causing everyone to look at her with a view to questioning her sanity. "Well, it always works for that creepy cartoon rabbit when he's running from that nice man with the speech impediment."
Giles rolled his eyes. "Yes, or perhaps we could paint a convincing tunnel on the side of a mountain," he mocked. "Let's just keep thinking, everyone. Perhaps we should reassemble at the magic shop, see if there's anything-"
"We can't fight her," Buffy interrupted.
Giles looked at his Slayer, shocked at her blunt prospect of defeat. "W-well not yet, no, but-"
Dawn shook her head. "Giles, Buffy and I can't. Even both of us together have never made a dent."
"She's too strong, Giles. We're not going to win this with, with Dawn's Zeo Powers, or stakes, or swords, or spells, or pulling out some uranium power core," Buffy added, recapping the last solutions for their previous trials. "She's a god and she's coming for us. So, let's just not be here when she starts knocking."
"Run away?" Lynn queried.
"Finally, a sensible plan," Anya decided.
"That's not what she meant," Xander said hurriedly, concerned now. "Is it?"
"Well, we can't stay here!" Dawn replied. "She'll just kill you all off one by one until there's no one left standing between her and me."
"Buffy, Dawn, we all understand the severity of the situation, but there must be another way," Giles reasoned in a soothing tone, an attempt to calm the tempestuous situation.
"No," Buffy's tone was harsh and firm in her denials. "We stay, we die. Show of hands for that option."
None were raised, knowing that with the sisters' present state of mind it would be useless to try and persuade them otherwise just now.
"All right," Buffy remarked. "Nobody goes home, nobody tells anybody we're leaving. Just pack up whatever supplies we need and that's it, we're gone."
"What about wheels?" Xander asked. "I don't think everybody's going to fit in the Xandermobile. And we all don't have teleport function with our wrist communicators."
"And I can only orb so many at once," Lynn added.
"Just get your stuff together," Buffy replied. "I'll handle the rest."
Streets of Sunnydale
"Anybody else feel that?" Anya asked the Scoobies as they waited on the benches outside her and Xander's apartment, the warm rays of the Californian sunny weather a complete contrast to the stormy turmoil inside every one of them.
"What?" Lynn asked.
"Cold draft of paralyzing fear," Anya answered.
"We just need to stay calm," Giles advised.
"Calm, right," Willow mused skeptically.
"Hey, we got to be like Sergeant Rock," Xander pointed out. "Cool and collected in the face of overwhelming odds."
"Overwhelming?" Anya echoed. "How much more than whelming would that be exactly?"
"Look, everything will be all right, we just need to stay here calmly," Giles continued, trying to prevent the mutiny which was now steadily brewing. "As soon as Buffy and Dawn arrive—"
He broke off as a large, rather old, motor home braked hard in front of them.
"—we'll feel oddly worse," Giles finished spotting Spike at the wheel. "What's he doing here?" he asked Buffy and Dawn as everyone picked up their stuff before entering the vehicle.
"Just out for a jaunt," Spike said, dryly. "Thought I'd swing by and say howdy."
"Out," Giles ordered as he took a step toward Spike.
"He's here because Buffy and I need him," Dawn informed everyone.
"The hell we do," Xander countered.
"If Glory finds us, he's the only one besides myself that has a chance of protecting Dawn," Buffy informed him.
"Buffy, Dawn, come on, he—" Xander started.
Dawn got right up into Xander's face. "This isn't a discussion! He stays. Get over it." She and Buffy disappeared into the back of the RV, sliding the door behind them.
Giles and Xander glared at Spike, who gave them a huge grin. "Buckle up, kids! Daddy's puttin' the
hammer down," the vampire informed them.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
"Shouldn't somebody be asking, 'Are we there yet?'" Anya queried. "Isn't that what small entertaining children do?"
"That kind of only works if you know where you're going," Lynn reminded her.
Anya turned to the driver. "Do we know where we're going yet?"
"We'd already be somewhere if Captain Slowpoke would give up the wheel," Spike growled. "Hey! Gramps! Bloody step on it!"
"Step on what?" Giles countered, having changed shifts at the wheel with Spike. "I've driven tricycles with more power."
"Is anybody else queasy?" Xander asked.
Anya rubbed Xander's arm consolingly. "He doesn't travel well," she informed them. "He's like fine shrimp."
"I shoulda nicked that Porsche I had my eye on," Spike mused to Lynn. "There's just enough room for me, you, Dawn and Buffy." He frowned as Xander attempted to glare at him. "What?"
Xander swallowed hard. "Would you give it a rest, or..."
"Or what," Spike countered mockingly. "You're going to toss your cookies on my shoes?"
"Or you can be undead man walking," Xander replied. "See how fast you can hitch a ride with a flaming thumb." He then rose from his seat to join Giles in the front. "That guy is bloodsucking the last nerve right outta me."
"Buffy does have a point. In a confrontation, Spike could prove..." Giles said. "... useful."
"I don't know if Buffy … or Dawn … are thinking too clear on that one. Or anything else right now. I've never seen them so…"
"They had more than their share to deal with of late. Besides this gives us all a chance to catch a breath, to regroup." Giles said.
The RV reached the provincial route for the neighboring states, its withered state the only thing preventing the vehicle from resembling others out for a road trip.
"Any luck?" Lynn asked her fellow witch who was surrounded by a small collection of vital wiccan works.
"Uh, if you define luck as the absence of success, plenty," Willow replied, looking up from the spell book she was currently perusing. "There's a couple of barrier spells, but they only work on a fixed location. I haven't found anything that will work while we're still moving."
"Anyone hungry?" Lynn asked.
"Ooh! Snacks!" Anya cried in sudden eagerness. "The secret to any successful migration." She reached into her backpack and retrieved a frying pan and a tinned box of spam. "Who's up for some tasty fried meat products?"
Tara pulled open one of the blinds. The direct sunlight scorched Spike as he danced back, his skin smoldering. "Hey!" he screamed.
"Tara, no!" Willow quickly closed the blind, scolding Tara. "What did I tell you?!" Tara burst into tears, sobbing like a little child. She instantly regretted snapping at Tara as she cradled her girlfriend. "No, shhh... I'm sorry. It's okay. shhh... She didn't mean it. She doesn't know what she's doing."
Spike awkwardly tried to console Tara. "Yeah, no biggie. Look, skin's already stopped smoking. You go ahead and play peek-a-boo with Mr. Sunshine all you want. Keep the ride from getting boring."
Tara sobbed desperately. "All the light is gone."
Willow tentatively took Tara into her arms. "No, shh, baby. The light's still outside, okay?"
"All dark. All dark," Tara uttered as she cried in Willow's embrace.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
The motor home reached the road which served for passage through one of the many large national parks which surrounded the state, a forest barrier before the deserts belonging to its neighbors beyond.
"How are you doing?" Dawn questioned as she sat with her sister.
"About the same as you, probably," Buffy admitted. "You know I'm the Slayer. The Chosen one, all mythic and defendery. Evil Nasties are supposed to flee from me, not the other way around."
"We're not fleeing," Dawn remarked. "We're ... moving at a brisk pace."
"Quaintly referred to in some cultures as the big scaredy runaway," Buffy countered. "She just keeps coming," she whispered. "Glory. Riley. Tara. Mom—" she shuddered at the thought of their losses, as Dawn wrapped an arm around her.
"I know," Dawn replied. "But there's a bright side."
"There is?" Buffy sought to confirm.
"At least things can't get any crazier. Right?" Dawn offered.
Whereupon arrows started flying through the window, one barely missing Buffy's head. She ducked, then glared at her sister.
"You know this is your fault for saying that," Buffy uttered before carefully turning to see who fired the weapon.
"Are those who I think they are?" Dawn queried, staring at the pursuing army which she could see out of the window.
Buffy nodded. "Yep. I'll take Knights of Byzantium for five hundred." She rose from the bed and walked in the direction of the main room.
"Giles!" Dawn cried as they entered the driver's area.
"I see them," Giles replied, increasing his speed.
"Bloody hell!" Spike swore as another bunch of arrows shot through the room barely missing his head.
"Horsies!" Tara cried excitedly, peering out the window.
Willow pulled Tara away from the window just before the riders fired more arrows, moving Tara's head on to her lap.
An arrow pierced the driver's side door, narrowly missing Giles. "Weapons?!" he said.
"Hello!" Spike cried. "You're driving one!"
"Don't hit the horsies!" Willow urged.
"Oh, we won't!" Buffy replied. She turned and uttered to her watcher in a voice which only he could hear. "Aim for the horsies."
Giles nodded and steered the RV in the direction of them, but the animals and their riders were well trained cavalry mounts, and deftly moved their steeds out of the way.
"Did we shake them?" Xander asked as the pounding sound which emanated from their hooves touching the asphalt quietened a notch.
In reply the steel blade of a large sword suddenly shot through the ceiling, a hair's breath from Spike's head.
Buffy moved from the station by her watcher to the rear of the vehicle while her mind contemplated available options. "Dawn," she said.
Dawn nodded in understanding. "It's Morphin' Time!" she called out. "Zeo Ranger Six, White!" And the morphing sequence commenced.
"Stay low!" Buffy advised as the knight continued to aim his sword. "Watch out for the-" she broke off, as the weapon suddenly came at her head.
In the nick of time, Spike reached up and grabbed the blade with his hands, shoving the trajectory away from Buffy. He hung on, grunting in pain as the steel sliced into his hands. "Now might be a good time for something heroic," he advised her, as the swordsman above tried to wrest the weapon loose.
Buffy raised her gaze, turned around, and caught sight of a possible solution to gain some advantage. "Dawn! Hatch!"
"Xander," the White Zeo Ranger called the carpenter. "Buffy and I need a boost."
Xander helped first the White Zeo Ranger and then Buffy climb on to the roof through the hatch in the ceiling.
Opposite the sisters, the knight caught sight of his new foes and wrenched his weapon free, causing them to flinch as they heard Spike's howl of pain in response from below.
"White Zeo Power Sword!" the Ranger called out as she swerved her body aside just as the knight thrust the weapon at her. Her sword beamed into her hands and she parried his thrust just in the nick of time.
Buffy then kicked his legs out from under him.
The knight went down, falling backward on to the roof of the motor home, retaining hold of his weapon by sheer force of skill. The White Zeo Ranger mounted him, blocked another swing, then punched him until he dropped the sword.
Inside Lynn tore a piece of cotton sheet in to sections and wrapped the ribbons over the deep sliced cuts in Spike's hands. "Sorry, I can't heal you," she said apologetically. One thing about her Whitelighter powers was she couldn't heal demons or vampires, even vampires like Spike who were doing good.
"It's okay," Spike informed her.
Above them Buffy and the Ranger continued to fight the knight, punching him until he blocked Buffy and kicked her in the head. Buffy fell to the side, grabbing the roof rail to prevent herself from falling.
The White Zeo Ranger kicked the knight, causing him to fall back, then she rushed to her sister and help Buffy back on the roof. They punched him again, then they whirled round in unison to deliver a kick, causing him to scream as he fell off the vehicle.
Another knight climbed up the side.
"Keep the pressure on," Lynn advised as she tied the torn sections of sheet.
"I always do," Spike replied.
Suddenly a knight burst through the window, making a grab for Lynn who orbed out.
Anya hit the crusader with the frying pan, the clash of metal upon metal emitting a violent vibrating chime.
The knight lost his grip on the ladder outside which led to the roof and fell to the hard compacted asphalt below just as Lynn orbed back in.
"Not a piano, but hey," Anya mused in admiration of her handiwork.
On the roof, two knights faced the Ranger and the Slayer, one wielding an axe, the other a mace. Buffy punched her opponent, while the White Zeo Ranger kicked hers. Buffy then kicked hers as the Ranger blocked a blow from her opponent's weapon with her own sword. Buffy then punched her opponent as the White Zeo Ranger executed a back flip and then kicked both of their opponents in the face.
The Ranger used her sword as a ploy to let the mace wielder wrap his chain around it then, while Buffy kicked the one with the axe away. Buffy spun her knight around, before kicking him in the stomach and throwing him off the side of the RV.
The White Zeo Ranger blocked the attack of the axe and then kicked him in the chest, grabbing his weapon. Buffy hit him, making him release the weapon. The White Zeo Ranger swung her sword at him, causing him to duck just as Buffy kicked him over the side.
Another knight was climbing the ladder to the roof, but Buffy taking the captured weapon threw at him, striking him in the chest, causing him to fall on to the ground.
Inside everyone glanced at each other as the noises from the roof quieted, inwardly wondering if it was all right to sigh in relief.
"Everyone all right?" Giles asked, taking his eyes briefly off the road.
The Scoobies nodded silently.
Giles turned back to the road, and suddenly swerved the RV, to avoid the mounted knight before him, carrying a javelin spear.
The knight threw the weapon. It shot through the window, hitting Giles in the side, impaling them. He fell forward on to the steering wheel.
Buffy and the White Zeo Ranger lost their balance on the roof as the vehicle lost its own, and jumped for the ground to prevent themselves being injured. They came up from their roll in time to see the motor home fall on to its side, dust flying off the ground from the impact.
Abandoned Gas Station
Buffy and Dawn helped a wounded Giles inside, having freed him from the javelin spear before leaving the motor home. The others followed in twos, Anya closing the door behind them.
"Let's put him on the counter," Buffy told her sister as they did just that. Then she turned toward the Witchlighter. "Lynn?"
"I can try," Lynn said knowing what Buffy wanted. "But he wasn't hurt fighting demons or by magic. I don't know if it will work."
"I know, just try," Buffy said.
Lynn nodded as she set to trying to heal Giles' wound.
"Um, you two have another plan, right?" Anya asked Buffy and Dawn. "One that doesn't involve pointy knives and a Winnebago?"
"We'll rest here for a minute, but then we have to keep moving," Dawn replied.
"Where?" Xander asked the sisters.
"We don't know!" Buffy shouted. "We just, can't stay here. It's too close to the wreck, we're too easy to find."
"Buffy, Dawn," Lynn said, causing the sisters to run over to the watcher and Witchlighter.
"Well?" Dawn asked.
"I can't heal him," Lynn answered reluctantly. "I've done what I can to slow the bleeding, but..." She paused, as they took in Giles' shallow breathing, the indication of his chances for survival deadly clear.
"Okay. Okay, just-just give us a minute," Buffy murmured, trying to think.
But fate was not generous in its mercy and time allowance for the Slayer or the Ranger today, as an arrow dipped in flames shot through a non-boarded window, embedding itself in the wall behind the sisters as they instinctively jumped aside.
"Everyone, get down!" Dawn cried.
More arrows followed the first, causing all of them to run for what little cover the abandoned gas station now offered.
Dawn peered cautiously out of the window. "We've got company," she announced grimly as she took in the large and fiercely armed battalion of the Knights of Byzantium which had formed outside their temporary redoubt. "And they brought a crusade."
"Willow," Buffy cried. "A protection barrier would be nice."
"I'm working on it!" Willow replied.
The end of an axe blade suddenly broke through a wall next to Dawn's head, barely missing her.
"It's Morphin' Time!" Dawn called out. "Zeo Ranger Six, White!" The morphing sequence commenced just as a knight ran in through the front door, punching her aside, interrupting the morphing sequence. As she hit the floor, Buffy lunged at the knight, punching him, causing the warrior to turn and raise his blade to strike.
Buffy punched the knight aiming to grab Dawn, the kicked him, grabbing his weapon to twist round and flip him over her shoulder. He slipped into unconsciousness on the floor. She turned from him in time to welcome another soldier.
"The key," he commanded as if words could succeed where physical strikes had failed before.
Buffy threw the captured sword at him, making him drop his own. He lunged at her, but she hit him again, making him fall into a support pillar, unconscious as well.
"Enemies, fly and fall," Willow chanted. "Circling arms, raise a wall." She raised her arms and a circle of light came forth from them, gradually expanding outward to encompass the whole building.
"Will? How long will it hold?" Buffy asked.
Willow frowned uncertainly. "Half a day maybe." She glanced at the window, seeing the priests chanting. "Or till Heckle and Jeckle punch a hole through it."
"So. What's the story with these role-playing rejects?" Spike asked.
"Let's find out," Dawn replied. She and Buffy tied the last soldier to a pillar in the rear of the building.
Spike frowned at the guy. "You sure Scarface here can habla the English?"
"He understands us." Buffy remarked sternly. "Don't you?"
"You and the Power Ranger were warned we would return, Slayer," the knight replied.
"Took you long enough," Buffy commented. "What are you supposed to be, some kind of chief?"
"General," he sneered.
"General," Dawn mused. "In charge of what, getting captured?"
"You do not frighten me," the knight replied. He turned, directing his stare at Dawn. "The instrument of chaos must be destroyed."
Buffy reached forward and slapped his face, bringing his gaze back on her. "Look at my sister that way again, and she will be the last thing you ever see," she warned him.
"As I've been told, you and the Ranger protect the key of the beast," the General remarked.
"It's not that simple," Dawn objected.
"Yes," the General countered. "The key has been bound to a human vessel. Yet, this makes no difference. The key is the link. The link must be severed. Such is the will of god."
"What kind of god would demand my sister's life because some monks didn't give her a choice when they bound it to her?" Buffy questioned. "We are not your enemy. Tell your men to stand down."
"No," the General refused.
"It is not Dawn's fault! She's human after all!" Buffy yelled.
"The key is too dangerous to be allowed to exist," the General informed her. "No matter what vessel it has been bound into."
"I will not let anyone tell me-" Buffy broke off her threat as a sound drifted from the behind them. She turned and together with Dawn, walked to where the rest of the Scoobies were quartered, to find Tara struggling in Willow's grasp.
"Shh, shh, shh," Willow urged her girlfriend, trying to quiet her.
"What happened?" Buffy asked crouching before them.
"I don't know, she just went nuts," Anya replied.
"Time! Time, time!" Tara whimpered, breaking free to run to the boarded windows, trying to claw the board away.
Willow ran after Tara, trying to pull her away, eventually taking hold of her waist, swinging her into her arms so she could return Tara to the others. "We have to do something!" she cried. "She, she can't stay this way, Buffy! Dawn!"
"Time... time... time..." Tara continued to chant.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
"I'm sorry," Buffy uttered to her watcher.
"So am I," Dawn added.
"For what?" Giles asked the sisters.
"We should have stayed," Buffy replied.
"If we had, none of this would have happened," Dawn added.
"Don't," he brushed their apology away. "What you two did was necessary. What I've always admired about you both."
"Running away?" Buffy queried.
"Being able to place your heart above all else," Giles replied. "I'm so proud of you both. You both have come so far. You both are everything a Watcher, everything I could have hoped for."
Dawn and Buffy clutched his hands, watching worried as someone who had become like a father to them both closed his eyes. They did not want it to be for the last time.
"Willow," Buffy cried, a plan forming in her mind. "Open a door."
Willow glanced from Buffy to Dawn, who nodded her head in consent, then chanted softly, opening a hole in the barrier.
"It's Morphin' Time!" Dawn called out; she didn't intend to let her sister walk out there alone. "Zeo Ranger Six, White!"
When the morphing sequence completed, the Slayer and the Power Ranger walked outside, the latter carrying a hastily erected white flag consisting of a sheet wrapped round her Power Sword.
"Parley!" the Ranger cried, invoking the ancient rules of sieges, her voice carrying ahead of her sister, who came to a halt before the knights.
Dante held up a hand, bringing his comrades to a halt. "Speak."
"One of our friends was hurt when you attacked us," Buffy stated.
"And ten of my men are dead," Dante replied. "Honorable men." He drew his sword. "Shall we balance the scale?"
"Will you let someone come and help him or not?" Buffy asked.
"Give quarter to an agent of the beast?" Dante asked her. "What madness would move me to such action?"
"This is war, isn't it?" the White Zeo Ranger remarked. "And if I've learned one thing in my history classes, there are rules when it comes to war. If you're as honorable as you think you are, and as you seem to believe your cause is."
"We have your General," Buffy added. "He's alive... for the moment." She let the pause sound ominous.
"One man," Dante conceded.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
"... discharge and bring life!" Willow and Lynn said in unison, casting an electrical spell on the pay phone.
A light flickered to life in the phone booth. Buffy picked up the phone, she heard the dial tone as she nodded. She then dialed.
"Handier than a Swiss knife. You know the door to my crypt's got this nasty squeak. Maybe you two could –" Spike said as someone picked up on the other end of the line.
"Hey, it's Buffy. I need to ask you a really big favor ..."
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
"You, uh, forgot to mention the costume party outside," Ben remarked as he entered the building, attired in scrubs.
"Sorry," Buffy replied. "I didn't know who else to call."
"No, it's okay," Ben assured her. "I mean, yeah, not exactly the way I pictured seeing you again, but—" he laughed. "I'll take what I can get."
"Thanks for coming," Buffy replied, gesturing to the man before her. "Because if he dies, a lot of people are gonna be upset."
"My pleasure," Ben said as he surveyed the wound, before raising his eyes to study the rest of them. Then silently he got to work.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
"All right, I think I got him stabilized, but there's a lot of damage," he reported sometime later. "We need to get him out of here."
"Well, I think the guys with the pointy swords kind of have other ideas," Dawn replied.
"Don't they always," Ben mused.
"Look, I know this must seem extra 'Outer Limits' to you," Buffy began in an effort to explain her strange life, but he shook his head.
"This? Naah. I've seen things you wouldn't believe. You know, emergency room, full moon on a Saturday night."
"Look, if this gets too weird, just tell us," Buffy assured him. "Dawn and I'll understand."
"Don't worry about me," Ben replied. "I won't leave until I've worn out my welcome."
Buffy walked away, almost falling into Dawn's arms. Silently Dawn gathered her close, brushing her hair as she clutched at Dawn. "Are you okay?" Dawn whispered into her ear.
"Probably about the same as you," Buffy replied.
Dawn nodded. "Yeah. I've known him less than you, but I have come to see him the same way you do. Especially when Dad has pretty much bailed on us since I moved home. Let's see what we can find out from the General," she uttered
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
"Poor frightened girl," the General sneered as the sisters stood before him; Buffy in front, Dawn behind. "You've no idea what you've gotten yourself into."
Buffy folded her arms over her chest. "Why don't you tell me?"
"Would it make a difference?" he countered. "What do you know of the beast?"
"Strong. Fast. Hell god," Buffy replied.
"From a dimension of unspeakable torment," the General added.
"A demon dimension," Dawn said calmly. "We know. She ruled with two other hell gods, right?"
"Along with the beast they were a triumvirate of suffering and despair," the General continued. "Ruling with equal vengeance. But the beast's power grew beyond even what they could conceive. As did her lust for pain and misery. They looked upon her, what she had become, and trembled."
"A god afraid?" Buffy queried.
The General nodded. "Such was her power. They feared she would attempt to seize their dimension for herself, and decided to strike first. A great battle erupted. In the end, they stood victorious over the beast, barely. She was cast out. Banished to this lower plane of existence, forced to live and eventually die trapped within the body of a mortal, a newborn male, created as her prison. That is the beast's only weakness."
"Kill the man and the god dies," Dawn realized as she and Buffy glanced at each other.
The General inclined his head in agreement. "Unfortunately, the identity of the human vessel has never been discovered."
"I don't understand," Buffy remarked. "Now, I've seen Glory. Not a whole lot going on in the hairy chest department."
"You have seen a glimpse of the true beast," the General replied. "Her power was too great to be completely contained. She's found a way to escape her mortal prison for brief periods, before her energies are exhausted and she's forced back into her living cell of meat and bone."
"What about the Key?" Dawn asked.
The General stared at Dawn. "The key is almost as old as the beast itself. Where it came from, how it was created, the deepest of mysteries. All that is certain is that its power is absolute. Countless generations of my people have sacrificed their lives in search of it, to destroy it before its wrath could be unleashed."
"But the monks found it first," Dawn gathered.
"Yes, and bound it to you with their magicks," the General replied.
"Why didn't they just destroy it?" Buffy asked. "If the key is as dangerous as-"
The General interrupted her. "Because they were fools. They thought they could harness its power for the forces of light. They failed, and paid with their blood."
"What was it created for?" Dawn asked.
"It was created to open the gates that separate dimensions," the General replied. "The beast will use its power, now your power, to return home and seize control of the hell she was banished from."
Buffy laughed. "That's it? That's Glory's master plan; to go home?"
The General frowned at Buffy. "You misunderstand. Once the key is activated, it won't just open the gates to the beast's dimension. It's going to open all the gates. The walls separating realities will crumble. Dimensions will bleed into each other. Order will be overthrown and the universe will tumble into chaos, all dark, forever." His gaze fell on Dawn. "That is what it was created for."
Dawn turned and walked out of the room, her sister right behind her. "You think it's true, what he said?" she asked.
"I don't know," Buffy replied.
"Because what the monks did to me, I'm now the destroyer of the universe," Dawn mused.
"No," Buffy grabbed her sister's hands. "It's not you. You know that."
"But it's in me isn't it? It's inside me," Dawn countered. "What are we going to do?"
Buffy gathered her sister close. "I won't let anything happen to you; you know that."
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Dawn stood over Giles; her face etched with concern. He was still unconscious but in obvious discomfort. She watched nervously as Ben took Giles' vitals. "Is he going to be okay?"
"He was hurt pretty bad, Dawn." Ben said avoiding the question.
"Do you think he blames me?" Dawn wondered.
Ben watched Xander move into the other room. "No, I don't." He moved to his doctor's bag and prepared a hypo. Suddenly the hypo crashed to the floor as his eyes went wide in terror and he tore into the other room, followed by Dawn. "You have to let me out!"
"Ben –" Dawn queried.
"You don't understand, I got to get out, open a door now!" Ben yelled.
Buffy rushed to her sister. "What happened?"
"I don't know, he just freaked out," Dawn replied.
"Let me out!" Ben cried.
"Okay, Will, open a door," Buffy ordered.
"No! Ha!" Ben screamed.
Then suddenly Glory was there. "Well, what do you know," she mused, looking at her surroundings. "Little Ben finally did something right."
"The beast," the General cried.
"Hey, it's Gregor," Glory remarked. She grabbed a hubcap and threw it. The metallic disc flew across the room into the General's chest, killing him. "Now it's not."
Spike rushed at Glory with a yell, Xander right behind him, aiming for a pre-emptive strike.
Glory hit the vampire in the chest, the force of the impact sending him backward into Xander, who crashed into Anya, rendering them powerless to assist.
Lynn and Willow began enchanting, hurriedly trying her teleport spell.
Buffy rushed at the hell god as Dawn brought out her morpher, preparing to morph. Seconds later she flew back into Willow and Lynn, knocking the breath out of all three of them, ceasing the attempt at witchcraft.
"It's Morphin' Time!" Dawn called out as Glory turned toward her. Glory ripped the morpher from Dawn's hands and threw it away and then grabbed her wrist and ripped the wrist communicator from Dawn's wrist.
"Buffy!" Dawn cried as she was swept into the god's embrace.
Buffy struggled to rise from the floor as Glory dragged Dawn out of the building.
Outside the magical barrier was no match for Glory's free arm, as she punched a hole through it, pulling Dawn through with her.
Behind them the barrier began to close as the Buffy emerged from the building.
"Dawn!" Buffy cried as she hit the barrier too late to break through the temporary breach created by the god. She watched them go, then turned around and walked back inside. "Willow! Lynn! One of you get it down, now!"
"Hear, hear my plea," Willow and Lynn began in unison. "Circling arms protecting me."
The barrier down now, Buffy turned around and ran back outside, until the sight before her caused her to come suddenly to a halt, as she took in the horrific view.
Around her corpses lay upon the ground, everyone a knight of the Byzantium order, fallen soldiers killed where they stood, as though a plague of poisonous gas had conquered them, rendering their besieging force null and void.
"We have to," Willow uttered as she ran outside, the rest of her sentence dying from her lips as she took in the scene.
"The beast," one still dying soldier declared with his final breath.
Spike pointed at the car parked nearby. "The car. Get the keys," he ordered one of the stunned Scoobies.
"Buffy!" Willow cried. "Buffy, we have to find Dawn. We, we can't let Glory-" she broke off as her best friend sank to the ground. "Buffy? Buffy!" she cried as she took in the thousand yard stare. "Buffy, you have to get up! We need you!" she cried as she rushed toward her friend.
It was to no avail. The slayer was lost.