Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy: The Vampire Slayer.

Scotland

The plane had landed outside the compound as Buffy and Angel exited and Willow and Xander rushed to her, relieved before Spike, Faith, Giles and Satsu walked out as well.

Angel then spotted Giles, who tensed under his glare before Angel approached him and next thing everyone else knew, Angel punched him in the face, breaking his nose as Giles fell to the ground, with a loud 'crack' sounding off as his glasses fell off him, much to everyone's surprise, though it then became obvious to them why.

"That's for Fred, you son of a bitch." Angel snarled.

Giles knew very well he had it coming and as he recovered, he tensed when he saw the looks of disappointment of all the Scoobies looking down on him. When Angel and Spike had told Buffy about Giles refusing to help them with Illyria and trying to save Fred, all because they had been associated with Wolfram & Hart at the time, especially Buffy and Willow were furious on their behalf, which ended up in Buffy punching Giles and Willow slapping him and Spike also attacking him, when he had returned to Buffy after Los Angeles and it had also resulted in Giles losing a large part of authority within the Slayer Organization as well. Even though it had been almost a year since then and the Scoobies had gotten over it, Angel was far from a forgiving mood since this was the first time after five years he was seeing Giles again.

"I deserve that." Giles said.

"You're only lucky Wesley isn't here anymore and that we still need you, otherwise you'd be a dead man already." Angel growled and everyone shuddered at looking at the dark look in his eyes. If they didn't know any better, they would have thought that they were facing Angelus, but in this case, no one was really intending to stop Angel, since Giles had it coming, though they all began mourning again at the mention of Wesley and the pain from losing Dawn was also still fresh.

Buffy then approached Xander, Willow and Faith, looking apologetic.

"Thank God you're back." Xander said, relieved as he and Willow hugged her.

"Yeah…" Buffy said before turning to Willow. "Willow, I'm sorry for—"

"It's OK, Buffy." Willow assured.

"It's alright, we get it, don't worry about it, Buff." Xander nodded.

"No one's blaming you, B." Faith said before they pulled away from each other.

"I may have a lead on Simone and Amy. Ethan Rayne was selling some magical equipment to them, Riley's interrogating him. He'll let us know once he gets something useful." Buffy said.

Angel was walking down the corridor before he and Spike faced each other and the awkwardness could be tasted in the air.

"Well… I suppose I should thank you for bringing her back." Spike said.

Angel felt awkward as well. Even though he and Spike would never be the best of friends, when the situation called for it, they worked well together and while Angel and Buffy had moved on from each other long ago, they would always care about each other.

"It was the least I could do." Angel said.

"And you're not—" Spike began but was cut off.

"No. While I'll always care about her, we'd moved on from each other long ago." Angel said and Spike relaxed, though he couldn't help but wonder…

"You've found someone else?" Spike asked.

"Well…" Angel chuckled. "Nina."

"The werewolf girl?" Spike asked in surprise. "I thought you'd sent her away."

"I came back to her, when it all blew over in L.A. We talked and she was happy that I made it out alive, but she said it'd take some time before we could work things out." Angel explained.

"How's it going so far?" Spike asked curiously.

"Work in progress, she'll get over it eventually." Angel admitted, remembering when he had come looking for Nina and while she understood why he had sent her away, she needed to process everything that had happened before they would start over.

Spike chuckled, imagining how it must have been like, given how mad Buffy had been, when he had returned to her and she had found out he had kept being alive secret from her for months.

"I can tell that you care for her. Buffy." Angel said as Spike turned to him again.

"Damn right." Spike nodded firmly.

"As long as you two make each other happy and you're good for her, you and I are good. But mark my words, Spike, the second you hurt her, soul or no soul…" Angel trailed off as he gave Spike a glare briefly.

"I'll hold you to that." Spike nodded as they shook hands. Even though they would be far from best friends and they would always have issues with each other, Angel and Spike had proven themselves to be a good team and even though Angel knew he and Buffy wouldn't work out and he would always have issues with Spike, as long as Spike made Buffy happy in ways Angel couldn't, Angel could learn to live with it.

Buffy sat down, when she saw someone approach and looked up to see Spike.

"I'm glad you're back, Buffy." Spike said.

"Yeah." Buffy said as he sat across her.

"No one really blames you for leaving, you know." Spike said and Buffy sighed. "And what happened to Nibblet isn't your fault and she wouldn't blame you either."

"That's what I keep telling myself." Buffy said.

"But it's not getting any easier, no matter how many times you tell it yourself, is it?" Spike asked and Buffy was silent, though he could tell the answer from her eyes. "It may never be easy, Buffy. But you need to let it go. What do you think Dawn would tell you right now?"

Buffy considered and knew Spike had a point. "That no matter what, she loves me. And that she'd stand by me." She then had a faraway look in her eyes. "Back on that tower, I told her that the hardest thing in the world was to live in it."

"And look how long Dawn endured to live in it and how long has everyone stood by you and how far have you all come. They're not fighting this for the sake of the fight. It's because they love you and care about you. And so do I, Buffy. Because we live for as long as we have something worth living for. That's you, Buffy." Spike said as he held her hand, while they looked into each other's eyes and next thing they knew, they began kissing but as they heard footsteps, they realized this was not the time for it as they pulled away.

They all gathered in the main hall as they began strategizing.

"So, any leads on Simone?" Buffy asked.

"Well, since Chicago, there have been no recent reports of attacks by super-strong women or raids on armories, police stations or such." Riley said.

"But I did monitor some social media feed and, well, check this out." Xander said as he showed them his phone.

On it was a post of 'recruiting women with extraordinary strength to find a home and rise up to become a part of new order.'

"I followed that lead already, Simone was one step ahead of me and got away." Buffy said.

"But Ethan finally caved in." Riley said as he hung up. "The spells he sold Simone and Amy, one of them was a cloaking spell that prevented us from tracking them. After some… 'persuasion' he revealed how to undo the cloaking spell, so we'll be able to track them, that is, if you're up for it." He turned to Willow.

"I am." Willow said, determined.

"There's been enough death. It's all because I activated all the Slayers and allowed the likes of Simone to rise and hurt innocent people. But this ends now. Last time we went up against them, we let them draw us into a trap. This time, we'll draw them to us. We'll fight them on our own terms. Simone thinks because she has the power, she can beat anyone weaker than her and we have to prove her wrong." Buffy said before taking a breath. "Dawn died believing in me. In us. I can't let it be for nothing. She still believed in all of us. So we need to give in everything we've got to beat them. For Dawn."

"For Dawn." Xander nodded.

"For Dawn." Giles nodded.

"For Dawn." Angel said.

"For Dawn." Faith said.

"For Dawn." Riley said.

"For Dawnie." Willow nodded.

"For the Nibblet." Spike said before looking at Buffy. "So what's the plan, Buffy?"

Now, the main problem in the situation with Illyria and Fred was unavailability of Anthony Head and Whedon being a jerk again and deciding to ruin Giles further after him neglecting Willow and him being indirectly at blame for Willow's addiction to magic and her becoming Dark Willow and Giles conspiring with Robin to kill Spike, but him refusing to help Angel with Illyria and saving Fred is his greatest sin. While it is understandable that Giles would hate Angel after what happened to Jenny, he let his ego and self-righteousness and dislike of Angel, especially he had taken over W&H, blind his judgement and he refused to help with Illyria and deal with the threat of the Old One and at least try to save Fred. The rest of the Scooby Gang wouldn't ignore something like this, especially Buffy or Willow, and Giles was lucky Angel, Spike or Wesley didn't kill him for that.

While Angel/Cordelia will be OTP for me, Angel/Nina had good chemistry and potential, so here was a reference to it, since it's a bit annoying Nina faded into the background after After the Fall comics and do not get me started on the love triangle between Angel, Buffy and Spike which got dragged out in comic and it's never fully settled who Buffy ends up with and while I'm fine with Buffy/Faith, even though it wouldn't work long-term IMO, and Buffy/Satsu was OK in comics, even though it was a short-time fling, Buffy/Ensouled Spike at the end of the day for me.

Hope you enjoyed the reference to No Way Home and some parts were inspired by Stand with Ward and Queen's 'Alliance of worlds' and 'A tale of Vampires and Slayers' and Aragorn II Elessar's 'The Apocalypse is here'

And to quote Stephen Strange, we're in the endgame now.

So, what do you guys think?

Please review and let me know if you have been enjoying this so far.