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The Circle was formed, and Dawn stepped to the gap between Buffy and Spike. The athame was ready in her right hand and she clung onto Spike with her left. Dawn was nervous: Spike could smell it. He squeezed her hand and shot her a smirk as Buffy and the other slayers came to stand behind them. As soon as the enjoining spell was started Dawn would open up the portal using the map Br. Roberto had given them. Willow was busy with another location spell. The bright light whipped through the pages of the atlas and soon settled on one particular page.

‘Hethron, a couple of steps closer to hell than we are,’ she told Dawn and Buffy, ‘human based but vampire and demon run. I suggest all the white hats don their flags.’ It had been Xander’s idea: everyone going through the portal would wear a white armband, just in case they met doppelgangers the other side. He remembered the vampire Willow who had come to Sunnydale and didn’t want to make a mistake again.


Willow looked around the circle she had formed on the floor. It was big, it had to be, it would be Travers’ prison once he was returned to their world, his prison and his death cell. Giles would strip him of all his powers, and free of the magic it was assumed that hopefully, he would simply age to 800+ in a matter of seconds. If not, once stripped of his powers Charles or Marcus would simply kill him. They had plenty of reason and no soul to prevent it.

Xander, Giles and Rachael took their places: North, South, and West. Willow took the East point for herself. Br. Roberto stood to one side armed with holy water, bell, book and candle. He could bless the whole area and make it deadly to the forces of darkness if he had to. They were reluctant to use his skills though, in case it hurt Spike or any other friendly vampire instead of the nasties coming through the gate. A simple door had been set up in the middle of the room. It led nowhere… yet… it simply was.

‘We thought it useful as it will control the size of the gateway Dawn opens,’ explained Marcus.

‘Thank you. When Glory did this she simply opened the portal and it spread out every which way,’ Dawn remembered.

‘Yes; well, we have no intention of bringing about Armageddon.’

All was ready. The Enjoining spell would empower Buffy as it had before. She would then be able to use Giles’ linguistic abilities to speak Sumerian, to do the paralysing spell on Travers. Spike and Marcus would act as bodyguards through the gate: Spike on Dawn and Marcus on Buffy, not that anyone really thought she’d need it.

The slayers with them would protect the magic wielders inside the first circle. Willow didn’t want to have to do too many spells: that led to dark roots and darker eyes.

Dawn kept saying the name ‘Hethron’ out loud as she made ready to open the doorway. Willow started the enjoining spell. She had done it before when they defeated Adam and this time was even easier.

Angel took his place at the head of the slayers who were going in with them. Xander looked across at Buffy.

‘Don’t like you going in there alone.’

‘I’m not,’ she replied.

Dawn made a small cut on her wrist and, as the blood touched the door jamb, she called out, ‘HETHRON!’ A wind appeared from nowhere, causing the door to fly open. Behind it Buffy and Spike could see a room, lined with shelves.

‘Looks like Dumbledore’s study,’ grinned Dawn. Buffy and Marcus leapt for the doorway, weapons ready. Spike and Dawn followed. Then Angel led the slayers through. As they went through the doorway Spike gently licked his daughter’s wound, sealing it. Stopping the portal from opening further. Marcus, Angel and Spike had vamped out as soon as they went through the doorway. Golden eyes scanned the room. Travers was there, caressing glowing globes; he hadn’t noticed his visitors.

Willow started the chanting:


‘Power of the Slayer and all who wield it,
Last to ancient first,
Grant us thy domain and primal strength,
Accept us and the powers we possess.
Because mind and heart and spirit join,
Let the hand encompass us,
Do thy will…’

She placed a tarot card in front of herself.

‘Spiritus: spirit,’

She handed Xander the next.

‘Animus: heart,’

The last went to Giles.

‘Sophus: the mind.’

They all said, ‘Manus: the hand.’

Willow’s eyes started glowing white, so bright it burnt any who looked at her; her hair turned white and a gentle wind ruffled and played with it.

‘We enjoin that we may inhabit the vessel, the hand, daughter of Sineya, first of the ones,
‘We implore thee, bring us to the vessel. Take us now.’

The golden light shot out from the centre of the circle straight for the door and into Buffy.

That was when Travers noticed the invaders. He started to reach out a hand and chant. He aimed at Dawn, the key, but Buffy smiled and held out a hand towards the blast. It turned into a rainbow.

‘Pretty,’ commented Dawn. She felt totally at peace.

Travers watched in astonishment. One of his most powerful spells negated that quickly. He made a movement over his own body and twenty Travers’ appeared in the room. They moved around, weaving in and out. They even smelled the same. Spike felt helpless but Buffy just laughed. Xander could see through most things, right to the heart of the matter and he was with her, he was in her. Buffy just pointed at one of the Travers’.

‘You can’t hide from me; you will never hide from me.’

She started to chant.

‘See clear, see straight, see what is true and what is false.’

Twenty Travers’ vanished, leaving only one. The real one.

Spike growled and leapt for the wizard but found himself moving slowly, as if time was lethargic.

Buffy smiled and moved her hand again.

‘You can’t stop me. You have no power over me, little girl.’ gloated Travers.

Buffy started on the paralysing spell:

‘Shame en den,
‘Gesh to me en den,
‘Ze me en den,
‘Oh cush to me a tala,
‘I am un shan dal!’

As the spell took effect Travers became helpless. He couldn’t move any of his limbs. His spine seemed to turn to iron, unwieldy and immobile.

‘I’ll kill you, slayer, you have no power over me.’

‘You never did understand the powers of the slayer. We are forever.’

Buffy waved her hand again and his arms were pinned to his sides. Two vampires moved forward and picked him up, Spike at the head and Angel grabbing the feet.

Marcus and the Slayerettes started looking around the room. He went towards the shelves and shelves lined with globes. Orbs of Thesula. Soul holders, hundreds of them and each occupied.

Marcus started to collect them together, gently placing them into large Hessian sacks he’d found. Each of the girls helped pack. Those that knew what they were, were shocked. So many orbs, so many souls. They moved them to the doorway that hung in midair. One of the girls went through and started taking the bags off of Marcus and the other slayers. The pile grew and grew. Travers stopped throwing insults and grew quieter as the pile grew higher.

Anti-climatically, Spike and Angel simply went back through the portal and dropped the body into the circle. Travers was their prisoner.

‘You bitches, you don’t understand, you can’t touch me.’

‘We have no intention of touching you,’ replied Giles, ‘and if you have any sense of self-preservation at all, you’ll stop calling these young ladies such names.’ Giles waved his hand in the direction of Travers. ‘Silence.’

Spike held out his hand and helped Dawn through the doorway. Willow collapsed as Buffy came through the entrance. Xander couldn’t breathe. His chest felt tight and it hurt. But it was over. They were safe.

Buffy looked at her friends. Again when it really counted, they were there. In her mind, lending their strength to her. She realised how much she loved Willow, Xander and Giles.

As Willow started to get her breath back, she looked at Spike and Buffy holding hands. For some reason Kennedy’s face kept crossing her mind.
‘Kennedy,’ blurted out Xander.

‘I was just thinking about her as well,’ said Giles.

‘Me too,’ added Willow, ‘me too.’

‘I was thinking about when we betrayed Buffy - and we did betray her, all of us throwing her out of her house, except Spike of course,’ Xander said.

‘I think we all underestimated Spike from the beginning.’ Giles added.

‘Why are we talking like this? I did the spell right, I know I did.’ Willow was beginning to panic.

‘There is no problem with your spell, Willow. I did one to open up our eyes to find Travers; seems it opened up our eyes to other things as well.’ Buffy explained.

‘Seems we know who our mole is: Kennedy. It seems your spell freed our memories of the last weeks from before Sunnydale fell. Travers had put Kennedy into his employ with promises of money and power and she had accepted.’ Giles explained

‘I am so sorry all of you,’ Buffy said. ‘It must be horrid to find out like this.’

‘I really think it should be us who apologise.’ Xander interrupted. ‘We were the ones that turned on you and now we know why, but that is no excuse. Little miss magic put the mojo on us to use our fears and turned all those hidden thoughts into nasty, cruel actions. We should have known better.’ Xander looked so ashamed that Buffy looked at her friends and they all started crying together They went into a big hug. Xander had a lovely smile on his face, his arms full of Buffy and Willow. Giles had his arms around Willow and pulled Dawn into the hug. The five of them just stood there in front of everyone holding onto each other.





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