Complement

XXII – Even With My Eyes Closed
(Part A)

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The vampire had the teenage boy cornered in the dead end alley. The boy backed up in fear and confusion. He didn't understand what was going on. Why was this guy chasing him? Why was this guy interested in whether or not his blood was hot? What was with this guy wanting to rip his throat out and drink hisod? od? The boy felt like he was in some bad B ho mov movie, or in one hell of a warped, weird dream.

The teenage boy and vampire turned at the sound of a door openiA heA head popped out, they saw a young blond-haired woman, her hair was long, straight and parted down the middle, her complexion light, she had sparkling light hazel-green eyes, and a lazy smile playing around her lips. Even as scared as he was the boy couldn't help but think how beautiful she was. Less then a second later, another head popped out of the open door over the shoulder of the blond. It too belonged to a young woman. Only where the first woman was light this one was dark. With long wavy raven-auburn tresses, a sprinkle of freckles ran across the bridge of her nose and over the tops of her cheeks, her eyes were a very dark-chocolate-brown, and a sensual lopsided grin played around her lips. Her hand rested on the blond woman's shoulder, thumb gently caressing. They were a striking pair, light on dark, and the young bouldould have many a dream about the two of them for years to come.

"Hey. What's going on?" The blonde's tone was innocent aneet.eet. There was nothing threatening about either of the women. But had either the vampire or teenage boy looked closely they would have seen a flash, a flicker, in the eyes of both women, would have seen that with that simple look both of the women had assessed the situation in just a single glance.

"Help me! Call the police!" Theck-hck-haired boy squeaked in fright.

The vampire glared at the two women trying to intimidate them. He snarled at blond, "Get out of here, girl." The vampire turned his back on the girls dismissing them, and his attention back to his meal.

The blond moved out of the doorway into the alleyway playing the stereotypical dumb-blond, "You guys havin' a fight? 'Cause, you know, fighting's not cool."

The raven-haired woman leaned her lanky body up against the doorframe; her arms crossed and barely contained her snicker at the blonde's words, a twinkle of amusement in her eyes.

Tamp amp turned his head and glared again at the stupid girls. The teenage boy tried to warn them one more time. "Get out of here!"

The vampire waved off the boy, "No, no, she wants to stay..." He turned around and directed the full weight of his stare at the blond, he leered at her. "...I don't mind a little appetizer..."

The blond frowned at the vamp, a look of concentration on her face as she moved casually closer to him. "Have you ever heard the expression, biting off more than you can chew?" The vampire frowned at her, shaking his head no, but not showing any fear. 'Where's the fear?' the blond wondered. "O-k-a-y... Um...... how about the expression, 'Vampire Slayer?'

The woman in the doorway did snicker this time, and whispered, "Good one!" but the blond was the only one who heard her.

"What the Hell are you talking about?" The vampire was confused and by the look on the blonde's face she con confused that he was confused.

"Wow! Never heard that one. Okay, how about, Oh God! My leg, my leg?"

This time the raven-haired beauty out and out laughed at the blonde's words. The vampire was pissed and decided he had enough of this shit. He lunged at the blond, thinking to himself the one in the doorway would be next. It looked like he was going to have a three-course meal tonight. The blond casually sidestepped the vampire's lunge. Then hit him with a hard roundhouse punch, spinning him a little, she followed through with a front-snap kick to his knee. The sound of breaking bones loudly echoed in the alleyway.

The vampire growled out as he fell, "Oh God, my leg! Ahhh!"

"See? Now we're communicating." The blond leaned down pointing a finger at the vamp.

The raven-haired woman watched from the doorway as an almost physical change came over her lover, as she went from playing the dumb-blond to The Slayer. She couldn't help but feel that somehow this time it felt different. Something was different, but what? The connection between them as Slayers felt stronger and it... it... Then it hit her what it was, always before it felt the same but different, different in the way as to how each women felt about being Chosen. Always before the blond fought against, resented, tried to keep herself and The Slayer separate, but not now. That was the difference the lictlict that had never existed for the raven-haired beauty was finally gone in the blond now. Something over the last twenty-four hours had changed that. Elizabeth Anne Buffy Summers had finally merged, accepted, that The Slayer was her and she was the The Slayer.' That there was never a difference, that she had been since the day she was born, Buffy and The Slayer, not separate but one in the same. She finally saw, understood, and believed what Faith always had; who and what being the Slayer was, is. A gift, an honor, a protector, defender of the light, as something she was always born to be. And that simple acknowledgement strengthened, and heightened all the connections between them. It made them stronger, and opened the door for both Slayers' full potential to be awakened.

Faith turned her attention back to Buffy and the vampire, leaving the exploration of this stronger, newer connection/realization for tomorrow, and gave a silent prayer that there would be a tomorrow. Right now, she wanted to watch the fun, she loved to watch Buffy in action, she was staying out of the fight because instinctively she knew this was something Buffy needed to do on her own. She moved a little, making herself more comfortable against the door jam.

The vampire after a few stunned seconds jumped back up ignoring his broken leg, grabbed Buffy by the throat and threw her against the brick wall. He followed her, and tried to grab her again, she blocked him, pushing his reaching hands aside with ease. She punched him in the face hard and fast, then kneed him, and was behind him before he even had a chance to react. She kicked him from behind and sent him flying into a dumpster. Really pissed off now, the vampire half-turned and backhanded Buffy, sending her stumbling backwards towards the teenage boy.

The boy scrambled out of her way, running for cover and cowering in the corner of the alley. The vampire growled and punched Buffy in the face.

'Hate it when they hit me in the face! Asshole!'

He picked her up by the neck and slammed her down on top of another dumpster. Wanting to return the favor Buffy kicked the vamp in the face. 'There!' mentally she stuck her tongue out at the vamp.

Unable to resist showing off for Faith who stood watching amused and aroused - 'Woo Hoo! Love these echoes' - in the doorway, Buffy did a cartwheel off the dumpster landing on her feet gracefully. Moving like a predator, she hit the vampire with a series of staggering kicks, forcing him backwards, until he landed on top of a pile of wooden crates. The crates shattered under his weight, and pieces of splintered wood flew into the air. The vampire gave a short-lived sigh of relief that he hadn't been staked by one of the splintered pieces of wood.

His sigh quickly turned to a strangled rumble of fury. In the blink of an eye, Buffy snatched a piece of the flying crate out of the air, with dexterity and speed the vampire knew wasn't quite human. He lunged up at her and saw almost as if in slow motion, the makeshift stake coming towards him, and then he was just dust. She dropped the makeshift stake and stared down at the vampire's dust, she could see the boy still cowering in shock, in fear, out of the corner of her eye.

"Wow. Been a long while since I met one didn't know me," she turned around towards the doorway and Faith, she took a step towards her and paused, she turned her head and looked back at the boy, " You should get home."

She started to walk towards the raven-haired beauty again, whose eyes were raking over her with a very hungry look.

"H-h-ow did you...do that?" Came the boy's trembling voice from behind her.

Buffy answered him without turning around, keeping her eyes locked on her lover in the doorway, "It's what I do," her voice was low and throaty, and she didn't miss the little shudder that rippled under Faith's skin.

"But you're... you're just a girl ..." The boy said as if trying to convince her, the other woman, and himself.

Buffy stopped, still keeping her eyes on the woman in front of her, "That's what I keep saying." She was just a very special kind of girl, just like Faith. Special indeed, and in that second Buffy's conscious mind accepted what her unconscious mind already had. She looked at Faith, the echo she got from her telling her that Faith had already known this, and got a sweeping sensation of the changes between them, their connections, she gasped and Faith smiled at her in understanding

The boy took off running down the alleyway. The raven-haired Slayer watched as the bloniredired Slayer started moving towards her again. Moving like a predator stalking its prey, slow, graceful, sensuous, and this time it was Faith who was reminded of a panther. The second the other Slayer was within arms reach, she grabbed her by the waist of her pants and dragged her to her, trying to pin her up against the wall by the door.

It was the raven-haired Slayer though, who found herself pinned next to the door, arms above her head, back up against the wall.

The first of the Chosen Two leaned up into to her, her lips a hairsbreadth away from Faith's. Who couldn't have stop the shudder that went through her even if she wanted to, when her lover whispered to her, low, husky, "You know there was one thing that I lied about..."

"What's that?" she whispered back, and smiled at the answering shudder she felt go through her lover.

The look she received was purely carnal, primal. "That the whole slaying thing didn't make me hungry and...." Then the blond-haired Slayer leaned the length and weight of her body fully against the raven-haired Slayer, who managed to get a moaned "B," out before her mouth was captured, and devoured.

The sound of a lone wolf howling at the moon split the silence of the night.
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She slid her hands down the length of Faith's arms, dragging her nails down the sensitive underside of them. She continued running them down over the length of her torso, stopping briefly to rest upon Faith's waist. She slid them behind Faith, resting them right above her buttocks, and pulled Faith's hips towards her hard, sliding Faith over her slightly raised thigh, which was now between her legs. Both Slayers were having flashbacks to the night at the Bronze. Only now, it felt like they both had been waiting two years to feel the touch of the other.

Faith, who was not to be outdone slid her hands behind Buffy's back, pulled her to her tighter and slightly down onto her own raised thigh. She let her knees buckle and arched her back letting her shoulders slide down the wall behind her, pulling Buffy with her, never breaking their kiss. She sat back almost completely onto her calves and pulleffy ffy closer to her, until they were both straddling each other's thighs.

Buffy moaned into Faith's mouth. Faith captured and drank the moan down like it was the sweetest nectar on the face of the earth. Buffy pulled out of the kiss, gasping for breath, her heart racing, lava running through her veins. She skimmed her mouth along Faith's cheek, over to her ear, stopping to capture, nibble on her lobe. Then she found the sensitive spot behind Faith's ear, scraping her teeth along it, mumbling, "We shouldn't... be... doing this...... We should......... stop........."

Buffy continued running her mouth, her tongue, raking her teeth along that sensitive spot, mumbling the same thing, over and over. While Faith's hands roamed, over her back, around up her sides, brushing along the sides of her breasts. Stifling her moans of agreement against Buffy's neck, "You're...... right...B...... Stop......... now........." that only served to send shudders of desire down Buffy's spine.

She knew it was inappropriate, knew it was selfish. Knew that it was out and out wrong in so many ways to be doing this in the back alleyway of the Magic Shop, that she couldn't even count them. Doing this, feeling the need, the desire, the want, while some fucking lunatic-exiled-god held the fate of her sister, them, the world as they knew it, in the balance. But in the back of her mind ran the continuous harsh, cold, very real reality, that there might not be a tomorrow for her, for Faith, for either of them, for any of them.

This wasn't the Master, Kakistos, Drusilla, The Judge, Adam, William the Bloody, Darla, The Mayor, or even The Scourge of Europe – Angelus, this was a God they were going up against tonight. A God who had kicked her ass more then once, a God who she couldn't seem to damage, hurt at all, a God who they didn't know how to kill. While the threat of dying had always been there, the odds were with them, not against them. This time though, they weren't. This time the smart bet, the bet bet was on the God, not the Slayers, not even with the two of them fighting together. And she could feel in their echoes that Faith knew all of this too.

But knowing that only made the desire, the passion, escalate, fast, furiously, and out of control for both Slayers in a matter of seconds. It was more than that, it was in the need to feel alive, to be with, to touch, to feel the warmth, the , to, to memorize each other, their sighs, their moans, feel their breath, their heat against you one more time, and the ice-cold bone deep fear that you might never get the chance again. It was a reaffirmation of feelings and even more. Buffy moved her mouth away from Faith's neck and looked at her, locking their eyes. Everything she was feeling she saw reflected back in those dark, dark, brown eyes. The thoughts, the feeling were exactly the same, they could see it in each other's eyes, feel it in the echoes, feel it in the place inside of themselves that held the other.

The act of dusting a ridiculously simple vampire brought to the surface all of the hidden thoughts, fears of the Chosen Two. It drove home with vicious force the very real reality that this could truly be the last time they were together as just simply Faith and Buffy. Once they went back into the Magic Shop, Buffy and Faith would fade and the Chosen Two would take their place. While it was true that they and The Slayer were one in the same, there were times when they were just The Slayer. When what they felt for each other came secondary, had to come second to what they had to do, had to be, how they had to act, react, and they might not ever get the chance to be just them, after tonight.

Buffy brought her mouth down almost brutally onto Faith's. It was all in that kiss, the love, the fear, the despera, th, the wrongness, the rightness, the passion, all of it and more. Faith was keening into her mouth, and Buffy was moaning back, dimly she realized they were both shivering, trembling, crying.

Buffy pulled back from the kiss, and both Slayers reached up at the same time to brush the tears gently away from each other's face. Faith leaned in and caught a few of the still silently falling tears from Buffy with her tongue. She took a shaky breath, leaned her forehead against Buffy's and stared into her eyes.

"I love you," she whispered and if it weren't for Buffy's Slayer hearing she would not have heard her.

Buffy's whole body shook from those so softly spoken words, because unlike other people she not only heard them, but felt the truth of them, was surrounded by them, encompassed and awed by them in the echo she got from Faith. And she sent back her own love for Faith and Faith gasped, trembling. Something happened between them in that second that Buffy couldn't even begin to try to put into words. It was like a sharing of energy, a merging, she felt like hot currents of electricity were running between them, every hair on her body was standing on end and when Faith nodded slightly to her, she knew Faith was feeling the same thing too.

Buffy ducked down her head and kissed Faith. The kiss was the same but more than what they had shared earlier that day. And Buffy didn't care that she was being selfish, didn't care that this was wrong, because something inside of her was urging her on, some deep seeded instinct, and it felt like some outside force was there too, telling her no matter how wrong this was, it was just as right. It was almost as if a prophecy was being played out, almost like the choice was being taken out of both the Slayers' hands. Like before, everything faded from both Slayers' minds, there was just them and what was between them. For them and the rest of the world it was as if time stood still. As if the gods themselves were giving the Chosen Two these few minutes in time.

Giving them not to the Slayers, but to Buffy and Faith.

Buffy broke their kiss and once again locked her eyes with Faith; they didn't need any words between them because with absolute certainty she knew Faith felt it all, and understood it too. As if they had a mind of their own, her hands slid down to Faith's hips. Faith's own hands mirrored Buffy's exactly. Their hands upon each other's hips they encouraged the other to rock, slide upon each other's thighs. They started a rhythm between them that was as old as time, moving together in perfect synchronicity.
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They were still moving against each other, breath labored, hearts pounding a furious beat, sparks of heat running under their skins, molten heat pumping through their veins. All in perfect sync with the other, together but separately, feeling the other's emotions, feeling their own. Separate but the same. One but individual. It was all too much and too little at the same time. Too fast and too slow. Rushed, but as if they had taken all the time in the world with each other.

They took each other to a place they had never been before in the back alley, amidst the dumpsters and garbage on the ground. It didn't matter, theyn'tn't see it, all they saw was the other, all they felt was the other. All they had was this moment in time before their world could possibly change forever. It felt like hours, but was only minutes in reality.

"I love you Faith"

"I love you B."

Had they said that aloud, or did they only hear it in their minds? Then all coherent thought fled as the world they had made for each other exploded in a kaleidoscope of colors around them. They clung to each other like there was no tomorrow, as their bodies trembled, convulsed around the other, as sparks seemed to fly from inside and outside of their skin. As they felt as if they were inside, a part of the other, separate, but the same. As they created a link between them and left a piece of themselves inside of the other for all time. The connection between them solidified, merged, became a bond that could never be severed by anyone, anything, not even themselves.

They collapsed into each other a little awed, humbled, terrified, overwhelmed, but reveling in this anyway. Certain that nothing and no one could ever truly separate them again, not even death. They leaned their foreheads together realizing they had never once stopped crying. They moved towards each other again at the same time, as one but separate, as the world started to come back into focus, as reality started to intrude once again, and softly they kissed.

They rose on shaky legs, straightening out their clothes, their hair with equally trembling hands. They calmed their breathing. No words were exchanged between them, there wasn't a need, there was a perfect understanding between them now, in the echoes that lived within them. They moved over to the door, turned to each other and kissed once more, before entering; each praying that it wouldn't be their last.

They reached together and opened the door; hand in hand, they walked into the Magic Shop. With each step they took down the hallway, they let the part of themselves that was just Buffy and Faith fade, and it was The Slayers, the Chosen Two that emerged into the main room of the shop.
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They were in pure hardcore research mode, well, Willow, Xander and Giles were. Spike was sitting on the ladder that led up to the Off-Limits loft of the shop, smoking a cigarette. Anya was off to the side fiddling with something on one of the shelves. Tara was just looking around blankly rocking, humming and muttering to herself. Buffy and Faith's attention was entirely focused on Giles; they barely even noticed anyone else in the room.

Xander looked up from his book when they came back into the shop; he noticed the light gleam of sweat on both of their skins and the slightly flushed look they shared, "Something going on out back?"

The Chosen Two dropped their linked hands and Buffy moved forward towards the table, Faith stayed where she was. "Vampire," Buffy told him not dropping her gaze from Giles.

"Oh."

"Anything?" Buffy waited for Giles to look up from his book and answer her.

Giles could feel the weight of her stare on him. He raised his hand towards his glasses as if to take them off. His hand hovered over them for a second in indecision, then he dropped it back down to the table and raised his eyes to her.

"Nothing you want to hear. The ritual is... uh..."

Buffy cut his stammering off, "Explain it to me again."

"There's nothing new to..." His tone filled with sorrow, remorse. Buffy and Dawn were like his own daughters, this was killing him inside.

"Go through it again," Buffy's told him in a slow, calm, almost soothing voice.

Everyone except Faith and Anya looked nervously at Buffy. There was something almost too calm about her. Anya looked first at Buffy and then Faith, there was something different about them, something if she were still a vengeance demon she would recognize, but now couldn't quite put her finger on it. Something had happened besides just sex between the two of them since they had gone out back and come back inside. It was eluding her; she dropped it from her mind and turned her attention to Giles instead.

"The Key was... living energy. It needed to be channeled, poured into a specific place at a specific time. The energy... would flow into that spot, the walls between the dimensions break down. It stops... the energy's used up... the walls come back up. Glory uses that time to get back to her dimension, not caring that all manner of hell will be unleashed on Earth in the meantime."

Anya looked between the two grim faces of the Chosen Two and felt fear, real fear coil in the pit of her stomach for the first time in over a thousand years. She didn't want to ask, didn't want to hear the answer that she already feared she knew, but she did anyway. "Um... But only for a little while, right? The walls come back, uh... n-no more hell?" Anya looked expectantly at Giles, but it was Willow who answered her.

"That's only if the energy is stopped. And now the Key is human... " Willow paused not even for a second and looked over her shoulder at Buffy before she finished, "...is Dawn."

Giles looked down and began to read from the book in front of him, "The blood flows, the gates will open. The gates will close when it flows no more." He took off his glasses again, not even remembering putting them on and looked up at Buffy and continued, "When Dawn is dead."

The sound of a pin dropping could have been heard when Giles finished reading the harsh, unrelenting, terrifying words from the book, silence ruled until Tara broke it. "I have places to be!"

They all looked over at her; she was curled up into a ball in a chair. Quiet again, she stared at them blankly, lost in the world that Glory had forced her into.

"Why blood? Why is it Dawn's blood, why couldn't it be, like, a lymph ritual?"

'Stupid bloody humans! After all this time you would think they would get it!' Spike couldn't help but think toselfself. He could barely contain his sarcasm and contempt when he answered Xander, "'Cause it's always gotta be blood."

"We're not actually discussing dinner right now." Xander snorted.

'Fucking bloody chip. Hate it, hate it!'

"Blood is life, lackbrain. Why do you think we eat it? It's what keeps you going, makes you warm, makes you hard, makes you other than dead." This time a little bit of his contempt and sarcasm did slip through. Spike lowered his voice when it hit him that it was Little Bit, he was in essence, talking about and he finished in a quiet regretful tone, "Course it's her blood."

Spike looked from one face to another. Finally, they were getting it. As he looked though from Giles, to Willow, to Buffy and then Faith, he saw that they had always understood it on some level, even if they didn't want to admit it to themselves.

Buffy moved closer to the table, her gaze still intent on Giles, Faith moved to stand off to the side, right behind her.

"Pretty simple math, here. We stop Glory before she can start the ritual. There's still a couple of hours, right?" It was a little eerie how calm Buffy's voice was.

"If my calculations are right, but Buffy..."

Buffy cut him off, her voice was hard, demanding, like a General addressing her troops. "I don't want to hear it..." She turned her back on him as if dismissing him.

"I understand that..." Giles tone was soft, he did understand, but someone had to make the hard choice and he didn't think that Buffy could.

She whipped back around to face him, "No! No, you don't understand! We're not talking about this!"

Giles jumped up facing her down. He didn't want to do it but he did, it wasn't simply just Dawn's life in the balance here it was the fate of the worlds as well. "Yes we bloody well are!" Everyone looked at Giles in shock. They could probably count the number of times on one hand that he had ever yelled at Buffy. He saw their shocked expressions, calmed himself and lowered his voice, "If Glory begins the ritual... If we can't stop her..."

"Say it. Come on, we're bloody well talking about this, tell me to kill my sister!" Buffy's voice had a hardness to it that Giles had never heard directed at him before.

Though it killed him inside to say it to her, he did it anyway in a quiet firm voice, "She's not your sister."

She waited a beat before answering him; there was a thoughtful look on her fac"No."No. She's not. She's more than that. She's me. The monks made her out of me. I hold her... I feel closer to her than..." Buffy looked down at the table, her Slayer façade slipping from her. Right now she was just plain ol' Buffy, Dawn's sister. But the Slayer disagreed, Dawn was her sister too. She looked back up, and she continued, the Slayer and Buffy were in total accord, "It's not just the memories they built. It's icalical. Dawn... is a part of me. The only part that I..."

"We'll solve this. We will. Don't have another coma, okay?" Willow smiled at Buffy who gave her a small smile in return.

Still keeping his voice quiet, Giles told her, all of them, "If the ritual starts, then every living creature in this and every other dimension imaginable will suffer unbearable torment and death..." He looked directly at Buffy, "...including Dawn."

"Then the last thing she'll see is me protecting." ." Buffy's voice, determination was made of steel; they all knew that she was not going to change her mind. She didn't need to turn around to know that Faith had nodded her agreement behind her.

Giles looked at Faith first, then at Buffy, he knew that neither of them would veer from their chosen course. His whole being filled with sorrow it was reflected in his soft voice. "You'll fail. You'll die. We all will." Then he turned away from the table, from them.

"I'm sorry," Buffy told his slowly retreating back as she and the others watched him walk away from her. "I love you all... but I'm sorry." Then she turned away from the table and them, looking to Faith for comfort, understanding.

Giles paused and turned to look back at her. Then they all jumped a little when Anya spoke up in a loud voice out of practically nowhere.

"OKAY!" Anya raised her hand casting her own vote first, something she had seen on television. "All in favor of stopping Glory BEFORE the ritual! Suggestions? Ideas?" She snapped her fingers, trying to get them to pay attention, participate, raise their hands. Xander was thinking to himself he was going to have to cut down on her television, but he loved her anyway. "Time's 'a-wastin'..."

Spike looked at Buffy he couldn't help it, a bloke could wish after all, "Uh... when you say you love us all..."

"Shut up." Giles and Xander yelled at him together, while Faith just gave him a look and raised her eyebrow at him in warning. She didn't feel bad for him but she could totally relate to what it felt like to love Buffy, and not have her love you in return. After all she had been there, done that and fuck if she wasn't glad that it was no longer true.

"Willow! I bet you've got some dark spell a brewin. Uh... make her a.. ah... a toad? Little hoppy toad, we hit her with a hammer..."

"Hoppy toad..." Tara giggled out at Anya's suggestion.

"What about Ben? He can be killed, right? I mean, I know he's an innocent, but, you know, not, like Dawn innocent. We could kill a... regular guy..." Everyone looked at Xander, surprised, confused but considering what he said. No one noticed the flicker in both Giles and Faith's eyes. As Xander considered it himself, he felt disgusted that he even made the suggestion, it was apparent in his softly spoken God.

"It's doubtful he'll surface again this close to the ritual. We haveexpeexpect it's Glory we're dealing with." Giles was back in full scale Watcher mode.

"We don't have to kill her... um... we just stop her from performing the ritual. I mean, there's just the one time she can do it, right?" Willow was still in take-charge mode, still thinking on her feet. She had changed over the last year; the shy, young redhead had turned into a confident powerful witch.

"Yeah, we get her on the ropes; we just gotta keep her occupied till it's too late!" Spike agreed with Willow.

"Okay, but I'm still not hearing enough ideas, she's a god, let's think outside the box!" Anya was still playing the cheerleader, encouraging her fellow squad-mates to get into the game. Too much television definitely, Xander thought to himself.

"Why don't you go think outside the bleedin' box?"

"Yes, Anya, apart from your incredibly un-infectious enthusiasm, have you anything to contribute?"

Anya thought about it for a minute then blurted out, "The Dagon's Sphere!"

"Sorry?" The confusion was clearly written across Giles face.

"When Buffy first met Glory she found that magical..." She gestured over towards the wall. "...glowy sphere that was meant to repel Glory. We've got it in the basement." Okay, everyone was looking at her in surprise. She smiled proudly, happy finally to be able to contribute, to help. "It might drive her back, or hurt her... Ooooh!" Anya hurried over to the display case, in full-scale cheerleader slash game-show hostess mode. She waved her hand showing, presenting the item in the case just like she had seen the women do on The Price is Right game show. "And... Olaf the Troll-god's enchanted hammer." She moved her hand away so that everyone could see the very large, heavy hammer in the case. "You wanna fight a god, use the weapon of a god." Anya finished beaming proudly, having to hold herself back from clapping her hands enthusiastically like a two-year-old.

Spike watched as Buffy walked over to the display cabinet he started to tell her, "Uh... Nah... that thing's too heavy to..." And barely kept his mouth from dropping open as Buffy lifted it with ease. Almost like it was made out the same thing that nerf balls were. "Yeah. Good." He finished lamely.

"I like this," Buffy smiled at Anya, "Thanks!"

"Here to help. Want to live!"

Everyone was a little bit bewildered by how smart and how helpful Anya was suddenly being. Xander puffed up his chest proud of his girlfriend and looked at her with something short of a leer, but with total devotion and love, "Smart chicks are sooooo hot."

"You couldn't have figured that out in tenth grade...?"

Willow and Xander exchanged smiles, and for just a second, they were once again just the two plain old goofball kids that grew up together.

"Well. We have some ideas, if we could actually get Glory on the run, but, um...."

"But we still have no idea how to find her." Buffy said to Giles as she watched Faith who was giving the hammer an almost sensual look. One thing that hadn't changed about Faith was she still loved new toys.

"Big day... Oh, it calls me! I have to be there!" Tara told them, the deep seeded part of herself hoping they would understand. They all looked at Tara, then at each other, speculatively. Buffy and Faith exchanged thoughtful glances. "Big day!!!!"
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Dawn was sitting on the floor, eyes closed, knees drawn up to her chest, arms wrapped tightly around them. She heard Ben enter the room; she knew it was him without having to look. She ignored him, but he was insisting on talking to her. He wanted her to change into an antique looking gown, and then he was trying to explain to her why he was doing this, but she didn't care. She answered him sarcastically, he made her sick, she didn't want to look, hear, or be around him anymore.

"Change!"

"What?" He was confused change into what? He already had on what he was supposed to wear; she was the one who needed to change.

"Change. Be her. I don't wanna look at you." 'You piece of shit' - Faith again, Dawn thought to herself.

He shook his head no at her, confused, contrite, in sorrow, "Dawn, I don't think you wanna..."

Her voice started out low but with each word, it grew louder until she was yelling at him, "Be Glory! Be Glory! GloRY! GLORY! GLORY!"

"Will you just stop..."

"...shouting already?" Glory finished for Ben after he morphed. Dawn glowered at her, and Glory was a little bit confused, she thought the kid wanted her here. "Huh." She looked over the medieval dress that she was holding that Dawn was supposed to put on. She shook it, as if shaking out imaginary wrinkles, then turned her attention back to Dawn. "So... what's the hubbub, bub?" Glory sat down in a chair and made herself comfortable, "...What do you got against old Benjy?"

"He's a monster. At least you're up front about it."

Glory started playing, picking at the dress, fidgeting like a remorseful three-year-old. "Don't be so hard on the boy. He just wants to live... most guys would do the same. Besides, he's probably the reason your sis and her little cartoon pals are still alive. That little nagging pinch of humanity that makes me go for the hurt instead of the kill." She looked directly at Dawn so she would know that she was telling her the truth, so the kid could see it in her eyes. But 'god' only knew why this was important to her. "Lowering myself to trade blows with a Slayer when I should have just put my fist through her heart." She stood up irritated now and looked at the damn dress again. "It's gotta be Ben."

"Or maybe you just can't take her." Dawn told her pulling a Faith only this time she said it aloud. 'Fuck it, the bitch is gonna bleed me anyway', - Faith again. Did it really matter that she was cursing now anyway?

Glory flung the gown at Dawn, who grabbed a hold of it startled. Glory smiled and furiously yanked on it, pulling Dawn right up off the floor. Dawn was proud of herself when she didn't lose her balance and she stood glaring at Glory facing off against her. She watched as a flicker of something flashed across Glory's face and she knew that when she spoke it was going to be in that irritatingly, sickly-sweet voice that grated her last nerve.

"Hmmm... funny thing... You've been here for a few hours now and I haven't seen big sis galloping in to save you. She probably knows what a terrible mistake that'd be."

"She's not afraid of you," Dawn stared at Glory with confidence. She knew her sister and it wouldn't matter even if she was afraid of her, her sister, when it came down to it would be here for her, she knew that.

"Oh, no, sweetie baby, I'm talking about the ritual. 'Cause you know, I bleed you, the portals open, but once you die, they close. The faster you die, the better for your sorry species." Glory grabbed Dawn hurtfully by the face, and drank in the fear she saw there. Damn she couldn't wait to get home, she so missed this. "I'm bettin' Buffy knows that. And since you're not really her sister... "I'm guessing she isn't gonna show. And if she does..." Glory squeezed Dawns face tighter and almost swooned as Dawn flinched in pain. "...it might not be to save you." Glory tossed Dawn from her like a rag doll, letting out a brief second of that hysterical madwoman giggle that made chills go down Dawn's spine.

Down landed on the floor hard, face first and jerked her head back just in time from smashing against the grating on the floor. She felt the gown fall down beside her, and she looked up at Glory who was smirking at her. She pressed her face up against the grating; a solitary tear fell from her eye as she whispered, "Buffy."
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Buffy was in the training room alone. Faith was out front rummaging though the weapons chest in delight, acting a lot like a five-year-old who had been given free rein in a candy store. Giles took one last look at her shaking his head before he left the main area of the shop to go join Buffy.

When he entered, he stood for a second watching Buffy pound away at the body bag. With alternating punches of deadly force, she was hitting the bag with everything she was worth. He walked over towards her, his heart breaking for her;y wey were too young these Slayers to have so much weight on their slim shoulders. "You sure you're not going to tire yourself out?"

She stopped punching the bag, there was still a little bit of anger in her demeanor, 'm s'm sure." She started beating up the bag again after she answered him.

"We're... still working on ideas." Buffy stopped hitting the bag again, the anger draining out of her as Giles spoke to her. "Time's short, but, uh... best leave it to the last moment." He watched Buffy as she stretched out her muscles. "If we go in too early and she takes us out, no chance of getting her to miss her window."

"Then we wait." She threw a punch at the bag with such force that the chain snapped. The bag flew a few feet and hit the ground hard, had it been a person the next sounds would have been ones of pain and bones breaking. She shook out her arm as she stared at the bag.

"I imagine you hate me right now." There was such sadness in his voice. He heard her sigh in sadness as well, but she didn't turn around, or answer him. He took a few hesitant steps closer to her. "I love Dawn." The truth of it could be heard loud and clear in his words. But both of them knew it didn't change a thing.

"I know," she answered still with her back to him. He was like a father to her; it was killing her that it had come to this between them.

"But I have sworn to protect this sorry worand and sometimes that means saying and doing... what other people can't. What they shouldn't have to."

Buffy composed herself as best as possible and turned to face him, "You try to hurt her, you know I'll stop you."

"I know."

A second passed, Buffy turned, walked over to the couch and sat down. Giles trailed slowly after her, stopping and standing in front of her. Both silently wishing that they were just ordinary people, oblivious like the majority of the world to what evil there really was in it.

"How many apocalypses is this for us?" Her voice was tired and way too old sounding for her age.

"Oh... uh... well..." He sat down, taking off his glasses like he always did when he was thinking. "...six, at least." He leaned back carefully, still mindful of his wound. "Feels like a hundred." This time it was his voice that sounded weary. He was tired, truth be told.

"I've always stopped them. Always won."

"Yes."

"I sacrificed Angel to save the world. I loved him so much... But I knew... What was right, I don't have that any more. I don't understand. I don't know how to live in this world, if these are the choices." His heart was breaking for her, for all of them. For the deep down, bone weariness he heard in her voice. "If everything just gets stripped away... I don't see the point. I just wish..." The tears were forming in her eyes and she was having a hard time holding them back, "I just wish my mom was here."

Giles watched as she held the tears back, she was almost resigned to them. He noticed though a change in her, and realized like Faith had earlier that there was no longer a conflict in her. Buffy had finally accepted that she and The Slayer were one in the same. It was this acceptance Giles knew, that was giving her the knowledge that something was, felt not quite right about what was going on now with Glory.

Buffy got up from the couch and started heading for the door. She stopped when she was almost there and turned around to look at him once again. There was one thing she still hadn't told Giles about her Slayer Quest, in fact only Faith, and now Willow who found out about it during their mind-meld knew. Buffy decided now was as good a time as any to tell him. "The spirit guide told me... that Death is my gift. Guess that means a Slayer really is just a killer after all."

"I think you're wrong about that," and Giles had the feeling that she knew it too.

"It doesn't matter. If Dawn dies, then I'm done with it. I'm quitting."

She turned back around, needing to be with Faith and left him alone sitting on the couch mulling over her words.
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Dawn was wearing the gown that Ben brought in for her. Glory had given her the choice of either putting it on herself or having one of the minions do it for her. The thought of one of those human-rat like things touching her made her skin crawl. She had folded her clothes in a neat pile and carried them over to a chair; she placed them upon it and knelt beside the chair. Her eyes were wet and her face streaked with dried tear tracks. She was silent, lost inside of her own head. Calling to her sister, Faith, the Scoobs, Spike, Giles, over and over inside of her head, hoping somehow, that she shared a connection with one of them, any of them in the same way that Buffy and Faith shared one.

Glory was standing off to the side, writing, she had a gleeful smile on her face. A minion entered the room and hurried over to her whispering close to the exiled god's ear something too low for Dawn to hear. She watched them out of the corner of her eye as she neatly arranged her sneakers under the chair. She turned her head and looked up as Glory started talking in that fucking irritating, sickly, sweet-as-goddamn-syrup voice of hers.

"Okay, campers! It's almost stab time!" Glory smiled at Dawn and the minions in general. "You two, get her."

The minion in the room and another one who came through the door on Glory's command hurried over to Dawn. She started to back away, fear taking hold of her, she screamed at them, at the room, at the world, "NO! "

'Pleaseohpleaseohpleaseidon'twanttodie!'

"BUFFY!!!!"

The minions ignored her screams and grabbed her; she continued screaming as she tried to get out of their grasp. No words, just whimpers, and shouts of fear. Glory watched them, licking her lips tasting the fear of the girl upon them. Loving it, she smiled in pleasure, growling out in sensual voice, "See you in a few." Glory was almost disappointed when they dragged the struggling girl out of the room. Then again, she would see her soon, and even better, she would be going home soon!

They dragged Dawn through the outer courtyard while she still struggled to free herself from their painful grip. They dragged her past the crazies that were still working away and it wasn't until they dragged her up the first step that she raised her head, looked up and saw what everyone had been so busy building. Confusion and fear threatened to overwhelm her at the sight above her.

A tower rose up out of the ground, over a hundred feet high, reminding her in an odd way of an oil well. The only thing spoiling the illusion was a platform forty feet in length, which stuck out like some obscene narrow diving board. The diving board had what looked like poles jutting from it and ended in a half circle. They began to drag her again and she flung herself backwards, trying to break away from them. They tightened their hold on her and continued to drag her up the steps.

The tower was a monster, something surreal, something that should only be in nightmares, as it stood stark and absolute against the darkness of the night sky.

'BUFFYFAITHBUFFYFAITHBUFFYFAITHBUFFYFAITHBUFFYFAITHBUFFYFAITHBUFFYFAITHBUFFYFAI...
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Giles yelled down to Xander and Anya in the basement, "Any luck? Have you found the Dagon Sphere?"

Anya yelled up to him coming out from behind the stairs, trying to put her shirt back on fast, afraid that Giles might decide to come down there. "Umm... I'm sure it's here! Just be a minute..."

Xander came out from under the stairs, buttoning and zipping his trousers up. It was inappropriate for them to have just done what they just did. Even though she couldn't say it with an absolute certainty, Anya suspected they weren't the only ones that had been inappropriate tonight.

This time Xander yelled up at Giles, trying to keep his voice calm, "Yeah, we're on it..." He raised his voice a little more to make sure that Giles could hear him, "...let's look over here! Where we didn't look yet!"

"Well, time's a factor..." Giles shouted back down reminding them. He wondered what they really had been doing down there the basement wasn't that big. Then again, he really didn't want to know.

"Yes! Yes! Not to worry."

Giles shut the door and they heard as he walked away, they both sighed in relief and actually started to look for the sphere.

"So, are you more, um... relaxed?"

Anya didn't look at him instead she kept looking through the boxes in front of her. "No." The thought of dying actually scared her; it was something she hadn't had to think about in over a thousand yea
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"No? I mean, it sounded like you... uh... arrived." Xander started to pace around her, confused.

"No. Yes um... I had the pleasure moment, and the blissful calm that comes right after it. But that only lasted a couple of seconds and now I'm terrified again."

He could understand terrified, he was a little terrified himself. He tried to calm her, "You don't have to be." Xander moved past her and yanked a drop-cloth off something over by the shelves, he shrieked in surprise. "Gaaah!" He leapt back away from the ewww Buffy-bot.

"Gaaah! What?" Anya jumped too, for a second frantic, that Glory had somehow managed to get past them and was hiding under the drop-cloth.

"Spike's sexbot... Why didn't they melt this thing into scrap?"

The Buffy bot was staring at them with its eyes open and unblinking, as they stared back at it. It was creeping them both out.

"Maybe Willow wanted it." Anya saw the uncomfortable look on Xander's face at that comment. She still needed practice on how to phrase things.

He turned around to look at Anya and his breath caught like it always did when he looked at her. "I don't think Willow feels that way about Buffy... I mean she's gone through a lot of changes, but..."

Anya took pity on 'her Xander' and cut him off as a way of explanation of what she meant, "To study it."

"Right. Robotics." He blushed embarrassed, and Anya smiled at how cute he looked when he did that. "Science."

They both began to search for the Dagon Sphere separately suddenly Anya blurted out teasing him, "Pervert."

"Other pervert."

"And don't frighten me like thaAAAHHH!" Anya shrieked in terror, Xander was by her side in less then a second. "Oh god, who, who would put something like that there, is this supposed to be some sort of sick joke?" She reached into the box again and brought out a small stuffed child's toy bunny. "I mean things aren't bad enough..." Deep breath, "this is an omen!"

"Hey... Hey... shhhhh..." Xander started rubbing her shoulders to soothe and comfort her.

"No, no! It's an omen, it's a higher power, trying to tell me through bunnies that we're all gonna die! Oh, God..." She was well and truly terrified now.

"No it's not," Xander put his arms around her from behind, pulling her tightly to him, as she let the bunny drop back into the box. "It's okay."

"No, you see, usually, when there's an apocalypse, I skedaddle. But now I love you so much that instead I have inappropriately timed sex and try to think of ways to fight a god... and worry terribly that something might happen to you, and also worry that something'll happen to me. And then I have guilt that I'm not more worried about everyone else, but I just don't have enough! I'm just on total overload, and I honestly don't think anything could make me be more nervous than I am right now."

He took one of his hands away from her waist and reached into his pocket. "Care to wager on that?" Xander asked her as he held open a tiny velvet box with a small diamond engagement ring in it, in front of her. Anya's mouth dropped open in stunned surprised. He let her go as she turned to face him. The smile he gave her was both beautiful and gentle, the love he felt for her radiated from him.

"Anya... you wanna marry me?" Anya continued to look at him in stunned surprise for a few more seconds, then she slapped him across the face. "Can I take that as a maybe?" He wasn't quite sure how to react to that slap, she was an ex-vengeance demon after all.

"You're proposing to me!"

"Yes..." Xander bit down the duh.

"You're proposing to me 'cause we're gonna die! And, and, you think it's romantic and sexy and you know you're not gonna have to go through with it, cause the world's gonna end!" She was starting to sound a little like babble mode Willow.

"I'm proposing to you, Anya, because it's not."

"You can't know that."

"I believe it. I think we're gonna get through this. I think I'm gonna live a long... and silly life and I'm not interested in doing that without you around."

She could hear it in his voice the hope and the total belief that the world was not going to end. She felt that belief and hope surround her and it somehow humbled her. "Oh............ Okay."

"Okay?" Xander looked at her in wide-eyed wonder, and thought to himself again how lucky he was, how much he loved this woman in front of him.

"Yes," Anya smiled at this boy, no, this man who had changed her so much, "I mean yes."

They both smiled like lunatics at the ring, almost as if they expected it to smile back at them. Xander began to remove the ring from the box, Anya held out her hand to him. Then gently she stopped him with a single softly spoken word, "No."

"No?" Xander was back to being confused and unsure of how to react.

"After. Give it to me when the world doesn't end."

He smiled at her in perfect understanding. This would give them something to look forward to. Anya put her arms around his neck and drew him to her for a loving kiss.

A kiss for once that had nothing to do with sex, a kiss that was all about what they felt, what she felt for him, and he for her.
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Continued in XXII – Even With My Eyes Closed (Part B)