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Spiral

Prologue

Buffy, Dawn and Willow stare at Glory standing in the hole she ripped in the wall of Tara’s room. Tara is still enraptured by the glory of the Key.

Buffy’s hesitation ends. She grabs Dawn and smashes through Tara’s door out into the hallway, dragging Dawn with her.

Glory moves to follow, but she runs into the magical barrier Willow has quickly erected. Willow does an incantation, and Glory is knocked flying. Willow grabs Tara, and follows Buffy and Dawn through the broken door.

Buffy drags Dawn through the student residence’s common area, and out the doors. Glory smashes through a wall and looks around. She sees the open doors, and takes off, running with impossible speed.

Buffy runs across campus, still dragging Dawn along behind her. Dawn stumbles and falls. She can’t keep up. Buffy picks her up, and keeps running. She carries Dawn to the edge of the street, but Glory is suddenly standing in front of her. Buffy stops and puts Dawn down.

“I really hate it when people touch my things,” says Glory. “Last words Slay-runt?”

“Just one,” says Buffy. “Truck.”

Glory gets slammed by an 18 wheel tanker truck coming down the road. Buffy grabs Dawn and runs again.

Glory smashes in the roof of the car she lands on. She starts to sit up, but she stops. “No! Not now, you idiot!” She hits herself in the side of her head. “Let go…” She starts to roll off the wrecked car as she transforms.

“…of my body!” Ben lands on his knees on the road. He looks down at the dress he’s wearing “Oh, god.”

Act I

The gang has all assembled in Xander’s apartment. Dawn describes their escape to everyone while Buffy keeps a nervous watch out through the blinds. “…and she’s coming right at us, and Buffy’s just standing there, not even blinking, like ‘bring it on,’ and—wham!” Dawn slaps her fist into her palm. “Hell-bitch in orbit.”

Giles and Xander are amazed. Giles starts to tell Buffy how proud he is of her, how their training is really paying off, but Buffy interrupts him without turning around. “A truck hit her.”

“You threw it at her?” asks Anya hopefully.

“Well, no,” says Dawn. “She more kind of waited for it to hit Glory. But then Buffy ran really fast, and we got away.”

Buffy doesn’t really understand how they got away. She doesn’t think that truck would have slowed Glory down for more than a few seconds. Giles doesn’t think it matters. The important thing is that they are safe now.

Buffy scoffs at that. “Safe? We’ve barely been able to manage not getting seriously dead every time we’ve crossed paths with Glory. Now that she knows that Dawn is the Key…”

Giles is sure that there must be some way to fight Glory. Maybe there is something in the Book of Tarnis that they must have overlooked.

“Piano!” says Anya suddenly.

“Because that’s what we used to kill that big demon that one time.” Xander turns to look at her. “No, wait. That was a rocket launcher. Ahn, what are you talking about?”

“We should drop a piano on her,” says Anya. “Well, it always works for that creepy cartoon rabbit when he’s running from that nice man with the speech impediment.”

If that doesn’t work Giles suggests that they can paint a convincing tunnel on the side of a mountain. He thinks that they should all go to the Magic Box for more researching.

Buffy turns away from the window. “We can’t fight her. She’s too strong, Giles. We’re not going to win this with stakes or spells or pulling out some uranium power core. She’s a god, and she’s coming for us. So let’s just not be here when she starts knocking.”

“Run away?” asks Anya. “Finally, a sensible plan.”

Xander doesn’t think that’s what Buffy meant, but it most definitely is. “We stay, we die. Show of hands for that option.” Buffy looks around the room. No one’s hand goes up. She tells them to start packing. No one is to go home, and no one is to tell anyone that they are going.

“Cool,” says Dawn quietly. “Don’t have to study for that geometry test.”

Xander asks what they are going to use for transportation. They won’t all fit in his car. Buffy tells him to just get his stuff together. She’ll take care of the transportation.

Ben comes down the stairs in Glory’s apartment. He’s changed into a grey sweatshirt and cotton pants, and he’s followed by the minion Gronx carrying the tattered remains of Glory’s dress. She is dismayed by its condition. It’s going to be impossible to repair. There are still signs of Willow’s attack on Glory in the broken objects and furniture scattered around the apartment.

Ben really couldn’t care less about the dress. It’s not his colour anyway.

“Oh, yes. Inappropriate humour,” says Gronx. “Heh, heh. Most amusing. I don’t suppose you know what led to this sartorial tragedy.”

“That’s not how it works. You know that.”

“Yes, of course. I just thought, maybe after her Magnificent Incandescence was returned to this manly and…painfully handsome assemblage, you might have noticed something interesting: a Key in human form, perhaps, lounging about unattended.”

“If I did, do you really think I would tell you?” asks Ben.

Gronx doesn’t understand Ben’s attitude. “No one can stand against her Blindingly Scrumptious Luminescence.”

“Glory. Her name is Glory,” says Ben. “And she’s your god, you little scab, not mine.”

“With all due respect, and fear of sharp objects, you exist, sir, only because of her Divine Greatness.”

“You mean her Divine Failure, don’t you?” asks Ben. Gronx is stung by that comment. “I didn’t ask for any of this. I just want to be normal.”

“We play the hand we’re dealt,” says Gronx.

“Nothing’s mine, is it?” asks Ben. “I mean, this life, this body— it’s all infected. The only thing I’ve ever cared about, she’s taken away from me. You know why I wanted to become a doctor?”

“Flattering drawstring pants?” asks Gronx.

“To be close to people, to witness their lives and their deaths, to be there alongside them, a part of everyday humanity. Maybe it’s the drugs.”

“Drugs, sir?”

“Find the right combination, keep her buried where she belongs.”

“Impossible. Her magnificence can never be fully contained,” says Gronx. “She is a perfect, all-encompassing light! One you should feel honoured to be bathed in.”

“Oh, yeah, I’m thrilled, especially with the part where she gets her Key back and I cease to exist.”

“True. This oh-so-appealing form will of necessity be shrugged off.”

“Not if I get the Key first,” says Ben.

“And if you did, what then?” asks Gronx. “Could you do it? Take a human life with your own hands? Oblivion is such a small inconvenience in the service of a deity. Accept your fate. I mean, you said it yourself. This life was never really yours anyway, was it?”

“It doesn’t matter how I came by it. It’s mine, and I plan on keeping it.”

Buffy’s friends wait nervously on a street corner. Willow sits with Tara on the bags they have packed. Anya tends to jump at the passage of every car.

“We just need to stay calm,” says Giles.

“Hey, we got to be like Sergeant Rock,” says Xander. “Cool and collected in the face of overwhelming odds.”

“Overwhelming?” asks Anya. “How much more than whelming would that be exactly?”

“Everything will be all right,” says Giles. “We just need to stay here calmly. As soon as Buffy arrives…” An ancient Winnebego with its windshield mostly covered from the inside with aluminum foil, except for a narrow slit in front of the driver’s seat, screeches to a stop in front of him, and the door opens. “…we’ll feel oddly worse.”

Everyone climbs into the Winnebego, carrying their meager supplies and shooting looks at the driver as they pass him. “What’s he doing here?” asks Giles.

Spike turns to look at Giles, his eyes protected from the daylight by a pair of welder’s goggles. “Just out for a jaunt. Thought I’d swing by and say howdy.”

“Out,” says Giles.

Buffy looks up from the table she’s seated at. She has several maps spread out that she’s been studying. “He’s here because we need him.”

Xander isn’t any happier than Giles to see Spike, but Buffy insists that he come along. Spike’s the only one other than her who has any sort of a chance of protecting Dawn from Glory. Xander still wants to argue.

Buffy jumps to her feet. “Look, this isn’t a discussion! He stays. Get over it.” She moves into the bedroom at the back of the Winnebego, and shuts the door.

Spike looks around at the rest of them. “Buckle up, kids! Daddy’s puttin’ the hammer down.” The RV lurches into motion.

Two Knights of Byzantium—dressed in civilian clothes and wearing ball caps pulled low over their foreheads to cover their tattoos—check Orlando out of Sunnydale Hospital.

Dante puts his signature at the bottom of the release form, and turns away from the nurse. They start to take Orlando toward the door. “See? Did I not tell you how easy it would be for us to—”

“Hey!” calls the nurse from behind them. They freeze. Dante slowly turns around while his companion pulls a dagger out of the sleave of his jacket. “My pen?” The nurse holds out her hand. Dante sheepishly hands it over, and they take Orlando out.

Orlando looks around in wonder at the trees as they lead him through the woods. “The trees are singing water!” They hear a noise and stop.

Their commander, General Gregor, steps out of the trees. He is an older man, slightly balding, and his face is marked with the scars of many battles. His forehead tattoo is larger than the others. He is pleased to see that Dante has completed his mission. “Welcome home, Orlando. I swear by my sword your sacrifice will not go unavenged.”

Orlando fingers the jewels on the chain of rank the general is wearing. “Pretty little girl, she’s shiny, too.”

Gregor looks sadly at Orlando. “Watch him,” he tells Dante. “Make sure he’s comfortable.”

“So shiny,” says Orlando. “Pretty little shiny Key.”

The general’s attention snaps back to Orlando. “The Key. You’ve seen it?”

“Pretty little shiny girl.”

“The monks,” says Gregor, “they’ve made it human.”

“We know the Slayer’s protecting the Key,” says Dante. “If what Orlando says is true…”

Gregor turns to the rest of the knights assembled behind him. “Prepare to advance! We end this now!”

The knights gathered in the woods begin to march. There are about forty foot soldiers, all dressed in chain mail, and another ten mounted on horseback.

Act II

The Winnebego leaves Sunnydale. Giles has taken over driving, and opened a larger hole in the aluminum foil covering the windshield so he can see where he’s going. Xander, Anya, Tara, Willow and Dawn are seated around the table, leaving no space for Spike, so he’s on the floor. Xander is starting to get motion sickness, and struggling not to throw up.

Anya tells them that Xander doesn’t travel well. “He’s like fine shrimp.” Xander starts to look even greener.

Anya is already growing impatient. She wants to know when they are going to get where they are going, or even where they are going.

“We’d already be somewhere if Captain Slowpoke would give up the wheel,” says Spike. “Hey, gramps! Bloody step on it!”

“Step on what?” asks Giles. “I’ve driven tricycles with more power.”

“I should’ve nicked that Porsche I had my eye on.” Spike says to Dawn. “There’s just enough room for me, you, and big sis.” He sees the way Xander is glaring at him. “What?”

“Would you give it a rest or…”

“Or what? You’re going to toss your cookies on my shoes?”

“Or you can be undead man walking,” says Xander. “See how fast you can hitch a ride with a flaming…thumb.”

“Fine.” Spike looks at Xander. “Shrimp.”

Xander nearly heaves, and leaves his place a the table to go join Giles up front. Spike moves into the seat Xander vacated.

“That guy is bloodsucking the last nerve right out of me.” Xander tells Giles, but Giles thinks Buffy may be right about Spike being useful if they get into a confrontation.

“I don’t know if Buffy’s thinking too clear on that one, or anything else right now,” says Xander. “I’ve never seen her so…”

“She’s been through more than her fair share of late,” says Giles. “She just needs a chance to catch her breath, regroup. She’ll be all right.” He sounds like he’s trying to convince himself as much as Xander.

Willow is pouring through some spell books she brought along. Dawn asks her if she’s having any luck. She isn’t. She’s been looking for some defensive barrier spells, but she hasn’t found any that will work while they’re moving.

Tara leans across Willow, and reaches out for Dawn. “So pretty. Can I have one?” Dawn pulls away, uncomfortable with the way Tara reacts to her. Willow tries to settle Tara back down. Dawn tries to deflect attention away from her by asking if anyone’s hungry.

Anya thinks that food is a good idea. She pulls a frying pan, and a can of Spam out of her bag. “Who’s up for some tasty fried meat products?”

Spike suddenly cries out, and jumps out of his seat clutching a smoldering hand. Tara had opened the blinds in the window so she could see out. Willow pulls her away from the window, and Tara starts to cry.

Willow apologises to Spike. “She didn’t mean to. She doesn’t know what she’s doing.”

“No biggie.” Spike holds up his hand. “Look, the skin’s already stopped smoking. You go ahead and play peek-a-boo with Mr. Sunshine all you like. It keeps the ride from getting boring.”

“All the light’s gone,” cries Tara.

“No. Shh, baby.” Willow hugs her. “The light’s still outside, okay?”

“All dark,” cries Tara. “All dark. Dark…”

Glory’s brain suck victims in the psychiatric ward at Sunnydale Hospital are babbling. “All dark,” they mumble. “Soon. Dark. Soon…soon…soon…”

Gronx and Murk sit on the floor of Glory’s apartment with a circle of burning candles and runes drawn in blood on the floor between them.

Gronx casts some rune stones into the circle and examines their pattern. “It’s coming. The signs are in alignment. Soon victory will be in our grasp. All we need do is seize the moment and squeeze until it bleeds.”

Murk looks at her and smiles.

The Winnebego has left all signs of civilization behind, and is driving along a dusty desert road. Dawn opens the door to the bedroom in the back and looks in on Buffy. Buffy was having a nap, but woke up when Dawn opened the door. Dawn asks if she wants to come watch Anya try to cook. She expects it to be entertaining.

“Maybe later,” says Buffy.

Dawn starts to leave, but she stops, and comes back in. “Thanks.”

“For what?” asks Buffy.

“You know, pretty much everything.”

Buffy looks away. “Yeah. I’m doing a great job.”

“You are!”

Buffy looks up at her sister. “I’m the Slayer, the Chosen One, all mythic and defendery. Evil nasties are supposed to flee from me, not the other way around.”

“You’re not fleeing,” says Dawn. “You’re…moving at a brisk pace.”

“Quaintly referred to in some cultures as ‘the Big Scaredy Runaway.’”

Dawn comes all the way into the room, and sits down in front of Buffy. “It’s the most amazing thing anyone’s ever done for me.”

“It just keeps coming,” says Buffy. “Glory, Riley, Tara… Mom.”

“I know, but there’s a bright side,” says Dawn. “At least things can’t get any crazier. Right?” They gasp as an arrow comes through the wall beside Buffy’s head.

Buffy looks at her sister. “You know this is your fault for saying that.”

Buffy and Dawn peek through the blinds in the side window. They see ten mounted knights chasing after them. Buffy pulls away from the window, rolls her eyes, and sighs. Just how much crazier can things get?

Buffy and Dawn move into the main cabin of the Winnebego. Giles has just noticed the horsemen in his rear view mirror. More arrows start to come through the walls. Buffy pushes Dawn down under the table.

Tara takes a peek through the blinds. “Horsies!” she says with delight. Willow pulls her away from the window just before an arrow comes through the wall near where her head had been.

Giles asks if they’ve got any weapons.

“Hello!” says Spike. “You’re driving one!”

“Don’t hit the horsies!” says Willow.

“We won’t.” Buffy moves up beside Giles. “Aim for the horsies,” she tells him quietly.

Giles swerves the Winnebego toward the horseman coming up beside them, but the horse is a lot more agile and avoids it easily. Another knight rides up behind them, jumps from his horse onto the ladder on the back of the Winnebego, and climbs up onto the roof.

Arrows stop coming through the walls. “Did we lose them?” asks Xander. His question is answered by the sword which comes through the roof and nearly hits him in the head. The knight on the roof pulls his sword out, and tries again. Buffy tells everyone to get down on the floor. The sword comes through the roof again and plunges toward her head.

Spike grabs the blade in his hands, and holds onto it. He looks at Buffy. “Now might be a good time for something heroic.”

Buffy looks up at the roof and sees the vent hatch. She asks Xander for a boost. He lifts her up through the hatch.

Buffy comes up onto the Winnebego roof behind the knight still struggling to free his sword from Spike’s grasp. He finally manages to pull it free, and Spike cries out in pain as his fingers are nearly sliced off.

The knight swings his sword around at Buffy. She ducks under his swing, and kicks his legs out from underneath him. She knocks the sword out of his hands and it falls onto the roof of the Winnebego.

Spike grasps a tea towel in his teeth and tries to rip it into strips with his injured hands, but he can’t get a good enough hold on it. Dawn takes it from him.

The knight nearly throws Buffy off the roof of the Winnebego, but she catches the railing along the edge of the roof and hangs on, dangling over the side.

Dawn tears the tea towel into strips to bandage Spike’s hands.

The knight on the roof leans over the side to get at Buffy. She kicks him in the head, and flips herself back up onto the roof. Another mounted knight throws a grappling hook which catches the railing. He starts to climb up onto the Winnebego too. Buffy kicks the first knight off the roof.

Dawn finishes bandaging Spike’s hands. A knight smashes the window beside her with his mace, and tries to grab her.

Anya bashes the knight on the head with her frying pan, and he falls away onto the road. “Not a piano, but hey.”

A third knight comes up the back ladder, while his comrade with the grappling hook reaches the rooftop too. Buffy is between them. One of Buffy’s new attackers is armed with a morning star, and the second with an axe. She kicks them away, alternating between them until she manages to maneuver them both around to the back end of the Winnebego. She grabs the sword dropped by the first knight. She swings it around and catches the chain of the morning star with it. She gives it a pull, and throws the knight off the roof.

The next knight comes at her with his battle axe. Buffy grabs his arm, and knocks the axe free. She catches it as it’s coming down. She kicks this knight off the Winnebego roof, and spins and throws the axe at another knight who has climbed up the back ladder. The axe catches him in the chest, and he falls away.

Buffy looks around. There are no more knights chasing them.

Down in the cab Giles notices the same thing. He looks back into the cabin and asks if everyone is all right. They all seem to be. Giles turns back around and looks ahead. He sees a single mounted knight coming toward him, carrying a spear.

The knight throws his spear. It smashes through the windshield, and catches Giles in the side. He screams in pain, and loses control of the Winnebego. It starts to swerve, and Buffy is thrown from the roof. She lands on the ground, and rolls upright in time to see the Winnebego roll over onto its side and slide to a stop on the road.

Act III

The group makes its way away from the overturned Winnebego toward a nearby abandoned service station. Buffy and Xander carry the injured Giles between them. Spike covers himself with a blanket for protection from the sunlight. He wants to get under better cover quickly before he bursts into flames.

Spike kicks open the gas station doors, and rushes inside. The rest of them follow him in.

Buffy asks Spike to take over holding Giles and has a quick look around the place while Spike and Xander lift Giles up onto the service counter. The side of Giles’ sweatshirt is soaked in blood. Willow starts to examine the wound. Buffy’s quick survey of the station reveals a small office behind the main section they are in, and a single service bay off to the side.

Buffy checks out a bruise on Dawn’s forehead, and asks if she’s all right. Dawn says she’s fine, but Spike is hurt. Buffy grabs one of Spike’s injured hands and takes a quick look at it. Spike tells her to take it easy.

“They’ll heal,” says Buffy. She leaves Spike and goes to look out through a gap between the boards covering the front window. There is nothing moving outside.

“Florence bloody Nightingale to the rescue,” mumbles Spike.

Anya asks if Buffy has another plan. Hopefully one that doesn’t involve a Winnebego, or pointy knives. Buffy’s working on it. They can rest here for a while, but she doesn’t want to stay at the gas station. It’s too close to the wreck.

Willow calls out for help. She thinks she has slowed Giles’ bleeding a bit, but he isn’t looking good.

“Okay. Okay, just—just give me a minute,” says Buffy.

A flaming arrow punches a hole through the rotting boards covering one of the windows and sticks into the wall. Xander pulls it out, drops it to the floor and stamps out the flames.

Xander goes to the window and looks out through a crack between the boards. “We got company. And they brought a crusade.” There are about twenty Knights of Byzantium surrounding the gas station. More flaming arrows come smashing through the windows.

More knights attack the boarded up windows with axes, trying to chop their way in. Buffy and Spike lay a coffee machine over in front of the doors. Buffy calls out for Willow, but she is already at work, sitting on the floor with one of her books, working on a spell.

Another knight armed with a mace breaks in through the door from the service bay. He swings at Buffy, and knocks her aside. Spike punches the knight, but then his chip cuts in and he screams in pain and clutches at his head. Buffy kicks the knight, and he falls to the floor. Xander grabs his unconscious body and drags it away.

General Gregor comes out of the service bay and looks around. He sees Dawn standing behind the counter on which Giles is lying. “The Key!” He raises his sword. Buffy grabs the mace lying on the floor and throws it at Gregor’s sword arm. It knocks the sword out of his hand. Buffy punches Gregor, and bounces his head off a support column. Gregor falls the floor unconscious.

Willow completes her spell. A wave of energy expands away from her, out through the walls of the gas station. It knocks the knights assaulting its walls flying.

Dante gets back to his feet, and tries to approach the station, but he’s blocked by an invisible wall. “They have the General! Clerics!”

Two elderly men dressed in monk’s robes with crosses hanging from chains around their necks come forward. They approach the barrier and raise their hands to feel it. One of them turns back to Dante. “Energy barrier, a most powerful one.”

“Can it be breached?” asks Dante.

“A witch’s magic pales to the might of our God,” says the cleric. “The infidels’ wall shall tumble before us.” He turns back to the barrier, and begins to chant with his companion.

Buffy asks Willow how long her barrier will hold.

“Half a day maybe.” Willow goes and looks out through a crack in the boards at the chanting clerics. “Or until Heckle and Jeckle punch a hole through it.”

“So, what’s the story with these role-playing rejects?” asks Spike.

Buffy looks at the unconscious general lying on the floor. “Let’s find out.”

The sun has set. The Knights of Byzantium have lit fires in barrels surrounding the gas station. General Gregor stands with his hands tied behind his back to the hydraulic hoist in the service bay. He’s awake, but he hasn’t said anything yet. Spike asks Buffy if she’s sure he understands English.

“He understands me. Don’t you?” asks Buffy.

The General decides to end his silence. “You were warned we would return, Slayer.” Buffy thinks it took them long enough. She asks him if he’s some sort of chief. Gregor tells her he’s the general.

“General…in charge of what, getting captured?” asks Buffy.

“You do not frighten me, child.” Gregor turns his head to look at Dawn, standing in the doorway behind Buffy. “The instrument of chaos must be destroyed.”

Buffy grabs Gregor’s head and pulls it around to face her. “Look at her that way again, and she will be the last thing you ever see.”

“As I’ve been told, you protect the Key of the Beast.”

“It’s not that simple,” says Buffy.

“Yes,” says Gregor. “The Key has been transformed, given…breath, life. Yet, this makes no difference. The Key is the link. The link must be severed. Such is the will of God.”

“She doesn’t remember anything about being this Key you’re all looking for,” says Buffy. “The only thing that she remembers is growing up with a mother and a sister that love her! What kind of god would demand her life for something that she has no control over? We are not your enemy. Tell your men to stand down.”

“No,” says Gregor.

“It is not her fault! She’s human now!” shouts Buffy.

“The Key is too dangerous to be allowed to exist, no matter what form it has been pressed into.”

Buffy looks at Gregor. “I will not let anyone tell me—”

Buffy’s interrupted by a cry from Willow in the next room. Buffy runs through and finds Willow trying to hold Tara. Tara breaks free, and tries to pull away the boards over one of the windows before Willow grabs her again.

Buffy asks what’s wrong, but Willow doesn’t know. Tara just went nuts. She tries to hold her.

“Time!” says Tara. “T-t-time!”

Willow tries to comfort her. “We have to do something. She can’t just stay this way, Buffy.”

“Time! Time! Time!” say all the patients in the psychiatric ward. The night nurse tells them that it isn’t time for their medications yet. The patients keep babbling and one of them breaks free from his restraints. The nurse tries to hold him down while shouting for Dr. McCarthy, but another patient who has broken free hits her, and knocks her to the floor.

All of the patients break free from their restraints, and shuffle out of the ward. “Time, time, time!” they keep saying.

“It’s time. It’s time,” says Orlando. He tries to get away from Dante.

Dante holds him. “No, no. Shh. There’s nothing to fear, my brother. The Beast may have taken your mind, but, I swear to you, she will never know the taste of your heart.” He plunges a dagger into Orlando’s heart, and drops his body onto the ground. “Clerics!” he shouts, without turning around. “I want the witch’s barrier down…Now!”

The clerics renew their chanting with greater vigor.

Buffy stands beside Giles, holding his hand. She tells him she’s sorry. They should have stayed in town. He tells her she did what was necessary. It’s what he has always admired about her.

“Running away?” asks Buffy.

“Being able to place your heart above all else,” says Giles. “I’m so proud of you. You’ve come so far. You’re everything a Watcher… Everything I could have hoped for.” He loses consciousness.

Buffy turns away from Giles, and looks at Willow, who is sitting beside a sleeping Tara. “Willow. Open a door.”

Willow looks at Buffy, silently asking her if she really wants to do this.

Buffy and Xander step out of the gas station as an opening forms in the energy barrier surrounding it. Dante and the rest of the knights move toward it, but Dante holds up his hand to stop his comrades when he sees Buffy and Xander. “Speak,” he tells her.

Buffy tells Dante that one of her friends was injured when they attacked them, and asks if he’ll let her bring in someone to help him. Dante has lost ten men himself, and really isn’t interested in giving quarter to the agents of the Beast. He draws his sword.

“I’m done asking.” Buffy steps toward him.

Xander holds Buffy back. “Whoa! Whoa, hey.” He turns to Dante. “This is war, isn’t it? And if there’s one thing I’ve learned from Sergeant Rock, is, in war, there are rules. Or at least there should be, if you’re as honourable as you think you are. Plus we do have your General Forehead Guy.”

Willow casts a spell on the inoperative pay phone in the gas station. The light over it comes on, and Buffy lifts the receiver. She has a dial tone, and dials a number.

Spike thinks that Willow is quite handy, and asks if she’ll come round his crypt once this is all over to do something about his squeaky door. Willow just glares at him.

Buffy gets through to the person she’s called. “Hey, uh, it’s Buffy. I need to ask you a really big favour.”

A car pulls off the road into the abandoned gas station. It stops at the line of knights in front of it. Ben looks out at them nervously, and swallows. He grabs his medical bag and gets out.

Ben stitches up the wound in Giles’ side. “You, uh, forgot to mention the costume party outside,” he tells Buffy.

Buffy apologises for that, but she didn’t know who else to call.

Ben tells Buffy it’s okay. “I mean, yeah, not exactly how I pictured seeing you again, but, uh, I’ll take what I can get.”

“Thank you…for coming,” says Buffy.

Ben looks past her to Dawn. “My pleasure.”

Act IV

Ben finishes bandaging up Giles, but he really thinks that they should get him to a hospital.

Buffy doubts if the guys with the pointy swords outside will let them do that. “Look, I know this must seem extra Outer Limits to you.”

“This?” asks Ben. “No, I’ve seen things you wouldn’t believe. You know, Emergency Room, full moon on a Saturday night.”

Buffy tells Ben she’ll understand if things get too weird and he wants to bail, but he says he’ll stick around as long as she wants him.

Xander goes into the service bay where Spike is still watching the General. Spike is trying to light a cigarette, but he’s having trouble working his lighter with his injured hands.

Xander takes the lighter and lights the cigarette for Spike. “You know those things will kill you.” Spike just looks at him. “Oh…right. I mention today how much I don’t like you?”

“You might have let it slip in,” says Spike. “Once or twice.”

Xander asks how his fingers are doing. Spike thinks that they are nothing compared to what’s going to happen when the Knights of Byzantium break through Willow’s barrier. He thinks that they should take the General, and try to make a break for Ben’s car.

Xander is not impressed with that plan, especially since Spike can’t do anything except throw migraines at them.

“Look, we stay here, we all die,” says Spike. “At least this way, some of us might get—”

“No!” says Buffy. “We’re all going to make it. I’m not losing anyone.” She tells Xander and Spike to go check their supplies.

General Gregor chuckles. He likes what he’s seeing. Dissension in the enemy’s ranks is a good thing.

Buffy punches him. “Shut up.”

The general spits out blood. “Poor, frightened girl. You’ve no idea what you’ve gotten yourself into.”

“Why don’t you tell me?”

“Would it make a difference?” asks the general. “What do you know of the Beast?”

“Strong, fast, hellgod,” says Buffy.

General Gregor tells Buffy that the two other gods who ruled Glory’s dimension grew fearful and jealous of her growing power. They were afraid that she was growing too strong and would overthrow them, so they decided to take action first. After a great battle they defeated the Beast…barely. They cast her out, banished her to this dimension, trapped in within the body of a mortal. A newborn male created as her prison. He is the Beast’s only weakness.

“Kill the man, and the god dies,” says Buffy.

The general confirms this, only they have never been able to discover who the human vessel was.

“I don’t understand,” says Buffy. “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,” says Gregor. “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 me?” asks Dawn from the doorway. “What about the Key?” Buffy tries to send her away, but Dawn wants to know.

“The Key is almost as old as the Beast itself,” says Gregor. “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 and kept it hidden with their magic.

“Why didn’t they just destroy it?” asks Buffy. “If the Key is as dangerous as—”

“Because they were fools!” says Gregor. “They thought they could harness its power for the forces of light. They failed, and paid with their blood.”

“What do I do?” asks Dawn. “What was I created for?”

“You were created to open the gates that separate dimensions. The Beast will use your power to return home and seize control of the hell she was banished from.”

Buffy laughs. “That’s it? That’s Glory’s master plan? To go home?”

“You misunderstand,” says Gregor. “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.” He looks at Dawn. “That is what you were created for.”

Dawn sits alone on the desk in the office. Buffy comes in to check on her.

“You think it’s true. What he said?” Dawn asks her sister.

Buffy sits down beside her. “I don’t know.”

“Destroyer of the universe. I guess cutting school doesn’t seem so bad now, huh?”

“It’s not you,” says Buffy. “You know that.”

“But it’s in me, isn’t it? It’s inside me. What are we going to do?”

Buffy hugs Dawn. “I won’t let anything happen to you. I promise.”

Tara is getting agitated again. Willow is trying to get her to eat something, but she’s refusing. Anya volunteers to take over.

Ben cleans up his instruments at the sink in the service bay. General Gregor looks at him. “You.” Ben turns to him in surprise. “You are not a part of this, are you?”

“Just a friend of the family,” says Ben.

“Would you die for them?” asks the general, “Because that is what your future holds if you align yourself with the Slayer and her misguided people.”

“It’s my life, and I’ll do what I please with it.”

“It’s not just your life,” says Gregor. “Unimaginable legions will perish, including everyone here. You can stop this. You can save all their lives by ending one. The little girl. The Key. Destroy it, and the will of the Beast will be broken. She will fade, a distant memory. And all of this madness will end.”

Dawn stands beside Giles, holding his hand. She’s startled when Ben appears behind her. The only other person in the room with them right now is Xander. Ben takes Giles’ pulse.

“Is… Is he going to be okay?” asks Dawn.

“He was hurt pretty bad, Dawn,” says Ben.

“It’s because of me. It’s all my fault,” says Dawn.

“No, it isn’t,” says Ben. Dawn doesn’t think he knows what’s going on.

“I don’t have to. I just know that sometimes terrible things happen to good people.” Ben sees Xander walk off into the service bay and he goes to his medical bag. He fills a syringe with a drug. “It shouldn’t, but it does. It’s nobody’s fault. That’s just the way life is.” Ben moves toward Dawn.

Ben steps around Dawn and injects the drug into Giles’ arm.

“Is that going to help?” asks Dawn. Ben doesn’t answer. He is suddenly looking very scared. He drops the syringe. “Ben?”

Ben runs into the service bay, where everyone else is gathered, and demands to be let out right away. Buffy asks what’s happening, but Dawn—who has followed him—doesn’t know. Ben just started freaking out.

“Let me out!” yells Ben.

Buffy tells Willow to open a door in the barrier, but it’s too late. Ben changes into Glory in front of everyone. Buffy steps in front of Dawn.

Glory looks around. “Ha! Well, what do you know? Little Ben finally did something right!”

“The Beast,” says Gregor.

Glory looks toward him. “Hey, it’s Gregor!” She picks up a hubcap and frisbees it into his chest. “Now it’s not.”

Xander and Spike charge at Glory. Spike gets there first, but she grabs him and throws him at Xander. Buffy isn’t far behind, and Glory grabs her and throws her at Willow, interrupting a spell she was starting. Glory grabs Dawn. Anya tries to grab her too, but Glory snatches Dawn away and runs out of the garage.

Glory runs into Willow’s barrier outside. “Yeah, right.” She punches at it, making a hole open. She grabs Dawn again, and pulls her through.

Buffy charges after them, and bounces off the barrier as it closes up after Glory. She runs back into the garage, yelling for Willow to take down the barrier. She can hear the sound of the Knights of Byzantium attacking Glory outside.

Buffy runs back out of the garage as the barrier collapses. She sees the bodies of the knights and their clerics scattered around on the ground. There is no sign of Glory or Dawn.

Dante—mortally wounded—looks up at Buffy. “The Beast,” he says.

Spike and Xander run for Ben’s car. Spike tells Xander to look for the keys.

Buffy doesn’t move. She looks around at the bodies, and sags to the ground.

“Buffy!” yells Willow, but Buffy doesn’t move. “Buffy, we have to find Dawn. We—we can’t let Glory…” Buffy still doesn’t move. “Buffy, Buffy! Buffy, you have to get up! We need you!” Willow’s voice sounds distant to Buffy. “Buffy, please. Buffy…”

Characters Introduced

• Gronx

Death Toll