Love Brings You, Chapter 13/14

All that’s left is the epilogue which I will link to this when it’s written later this week. Really the story is over.

Title: Love Brings You
Author: maryperk73703
Season: 5
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Buffy’s talk with Glory’s dying monk has surprising revelations.

Chapter 13

Giles helped Xander settle Anya on the bed in the back of the RV. “What did the doctor say,” he asked.

“There wasn’t anything they could do.” Xander took Anya’s hand. “It seems like Glory’s really getting around though. They were full up at the hospital. They were starting to send some of the patients who had been with the longest down to the Rocky Point Sanitarium.

“So you brought her with you.”

“She’s my girl,” Xander stated. “For better or worse. Besides, it’s my fault she was where Glory could get a hold of her.”

Giles shook his head. “No, Xander.”

“We had a fight.” Xander glanced up to the front of the Winnebago where Spike and Buffy were sitting in the Captain’s chairs. He turned back to Giles. “Anya said she was my soul mate, but if the other you hadn’t busted her power source that she wouldn’t have looked for me.”

“Oh, Xander,” Giles sighed.

“So, I guess soul mates really are a thing, and a hundred years difference isn’t all that much.” Xander turned back to Anya. “You want something to drink, sweetie?”

“All the light gone,” Anya replied. She started to become agitated. “Dark … all dark.”

“Hey guys,” Buffy called back to the others. “Mom and Dawn are on their way. Spike and I are gonna go meet them at the front of the Magic Box.”

“Okay, Buffy.” Giles waved at the Slayer. “Just do be careful. If Glory’s minions can convince her that Spike’s the Key, he could be in danger.”

Buffy nodded. “We’ll be careful.” She turned to Spike. “Let’s grab some of those manly weapons on our way through the store.” She was out the door with Spike on her heels before anyone could say a word.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

Spike and Buffy stood outside the front of the Magic Box waiting for Joyce and Dawn to arrive. They kept their eye out not only for the Summers females, but for Glory and her minions. Finally, Joyce pulled up in the Jeep. Dawn jumped out of the front seat.

“Sorry, we’re late,” Dawn said. “Mrs. McNeil was having one of her drunken fits and wouldn’t leave us alone. We finally had to tell her that there was a bug infestation in our house for her to go away.”

Joyce got out of the Jeep. She went to the back tailgate which she lifted. Then, she pulled two bags out of the back for Dawn and herself. Buffy went to help her mom with the luggage.

“Let me close that up for you, Joyce.” Spike ambled over to the back of the Jeep while Buffy, Dawn, and Joyce went to the front door of the Magic Box.

A black four door sedan screeched around the corner a block away. It roared up to the Magic Box, and it stopped. Two of Glory’s minions leapt out of the back.

“Get inside, I’ll hold them off.” Buffy moved to intercept the minions.

“Grab the vampire. He’s the Key,” Jinx shouted through the rolled down passenger window. “I’m sure of it.”

“You better be,” Jinx muttered. He warily eyed the Slayer who had dropped the bag she was carrying. She was rapidly closing in on him and his fellow minion Gronx. “Grab him, Gronx.”

Jinx and Gronx grabbed Spike, and they dragged him into the back of the sedan. The car sped away before Buffy was able to reach the edge of the sidewalk.

“I know where they are taking him,” Dawn said. “We need to get there before Glory makes him bleed.”

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Buffy sat in the front seat of Xander’s car with Olaf’s troll hammer across her lap and the Dagon’s Sphere in her pocket. Giles was at the wheel. Dawn was in the backseat whispering with Tara and Willow.

Joyce had stayed behind to help Xander with Anya. Dawn had warned them that the people mind-sucked by Glory would try to converge on the ceremony location.

“What are you going to do in the event that Spike bleeds?” Giles asked.

Buffy glanced back at Dawn for a second. “I suppose what I did last time around.”

Giles pulled up to the vacant lot where the ceremony was set to occur. The sky darkened above them. The group got out of the car, and they looked up.

And up.

And up.

Glory’s minions had built a five story tall ramshackle tower in the vacant lot.

“The portal must open up there,” Giles said. He squinted his eyes. “I think I see Spike up there.”

Buffy nodded. “I’m going after Glory. I need you, Willow, and Tara to keep the minions and crazy people off of me.”

“I’m going after Spike,” Dawn said. “If the dimensions are opened we’re in deep shit.”

“Language, Dawnie,” Buffy said absentmindedly. Most of her attention was now on Glory.

Dawn shook her head. She was used to her mother’s fighting style. Then, she turned to Tara and Willow. “Use the spell I taught you to keep everyone away from Buffy.” She looked up towards the top of the tower, and her eyes started to shine bright green. Dawn disappeared with a pop.

On the top of the tower, Doc approached Spike with an evil glint in his eye. He pulled a silver knife from his pocket “The Key, at last,” he hissed.

“Hello, Doc. Long time, no see.” Dawn stood behind Doc.

Doc whirled around brandishing his weapon. He laughed when he saw Dawn behind him. “The Slayer sent a little girl after me?”

“I’m not a little girl.” Dawn’s face and body aged from fourteen to nineteen in a matter of seconds. She stood tall and proud. “I’ve come for you, Caesar Dragomir Constantin. You’re going to stay dead this time.”

Doc laughed. “You’re still nothing except a little girl.”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” Dawn said in a calm voice. “I’ve studied about you since I was eight years old. You will not hurt me again.”

“You cannot stop what her splendidness wants to happen,” Doc said. With a grace that only a supernatural being can possess, he moved to Spike’s side. Doc slide the knife into the soft flesh of the vampire’s belly. “It doesn’t matter anymore now. It’s going to happen.”

“Maybe. Maybe not.” Dawn shrugged. “You won’t be around to witness it.” She raised her hand, and the green glow surrounded all of her instead of just emanating from her eyes. Her voice reached a crescendo of overlapping words.

Doc screamed in anger. He recognized the language of the spell the girl was chanting. How had she found the only thing that would banish him from this plane of existence? He pulled the knife from Spike’s flesh, and he rushed towards the girl.

Before Doc could reach Dawn, he exploded into smoke.

“Good riddance.” Dawn rushed over to where Spike was still tied up. She winced when she saw the blood. “Well, crap.”

Spike looked down at the blood with a sigh. “That’s not good.”

“Nope, it sure isn’t.”

“What did that little wanker do to you?” Spike growled. “Better not lie to me, Nibblet.”

“Tried to steal my magic.” Dawn moved to the edge of the platform. She looked down into the opening portal.

Buffy reached the top of the tower. She rushed over to Spike’s side, and she started to untie him.

Dawn turned around to look at her parents. “Is Glory dead?”

Buffy nodded. “Yeah, I gave her the beat down. Giles is dealing with her human host.”

“Good. Good. I have something to tell you both.” Dawn smiled at her parents. She opened her mouth and she started to speak.

Buffy and Spike stared at their smart, beautiful daughter in absolute amazement. “Will that really work?” Buffy asked.

“I certainly hope so.” Dawn turned, and she leapt into the portal.

“That is one special girl we have there,” Spike replied. He held a hand over his recovering wound. “You know, she never did tell us when she was born.”

Buffy scrunched her nose. “I know. We’ve been too busy to have a girl heart to heart talk.”

“So, Slayer, you want to go out on a date? I promise not to be a creeper. Girls don’t like creepers.”

Buffy threw her head back and laughed. “You’ve already proved to be a creeper, Spike. Too late to change now.”

“What do you say to some wining and dining , Spike style?”

“Sure, William. I’d love to.” Buffy grinned at Spike, but the tower started to sway as a gust of wind blew past. “Let’s get off this thing before we all die.”

Spike and Buffy made their way to the bottom of the tower. Giles, Willow, and Tara were waiting for them the bottom with a group of confused people.

“It appears that with Glory’s demise, that everyone recovered their minds,” Giles stated. “All of the minions ran off.”

Willow looked past Spike and Buffy at the tower steps. “Where’s Dawn?”

Buffy stepped closer to Spike. “She had to close the portal. It’s always about the blood.”

“Oh Buffy,” Giles sighed. “I’m so sorry.”

“I’m gonna miss her though. I can’t wait for her to be nineteen again.” Buffy leaned against Spike.

“So we can ground her for life,” Spike grumbled. He looked down at Buffy, and she looked up at him. “We did good, Slayer.”

“We did.” Buffy leaned up, and she gave Spike a chaste kiss.

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SOMEWHERE IN THE FUTURE

Buffy and Spike ran into the room where William, Tasha, and Taj sat outside a ritual circle holding hands.

“Uh, Mom. Dad,” William said as the kids looked in surprise at their parents.

“Where’s your sister?” Buffy narrowed her eyes.

Tasha tried to look as innocent as possible. “Why would we know where Dawn is?”

“Try pullin’ the other one,” Spike drawled. “We know what the lot of you did. Now where is she?”

A flash of light blinded everyone in the room. When they were able to open them, Dawn stood in the middle of the circle, wearing the exact same outfit she’d been wearing 2001 when she leapt off Glory’s tower.

Dawn waved sheepishly. “Hey, Mom.”

 

Link to the epilogue: http://maryperk73703.livejournal.com/196352.html

 

Originally posted at http://seasonal-spuffy.livejournal.com/541017.html