The Protectors
By Heather Martin
Rated – R
Summary- The monks gave Buffy and Spike one night of fake memories. That would have been enough to change their lives. But when you add a glowing key in the form of an unborn baby, well . . . things wouldn’t just change, they would be turned completely upside-down
Disclaimer- Joss Whedon owns Spike’s eyebrow scar, his bleached hair, his crystal blue eyes, his manly arms, his muscular chest, his tight . . . *cough* Too bad isn’t it? But a girl can dream, right?
Spoilers- Starts during Out of My Mind. The entire Season 5, although I changed it tremendously to suit my own purpose
Chapter 23
Chaos broke out through the group. Willow wondered if she was the only person thinking rational. But even so, she couldn’t come up with a solution. Buffy . . . She didn’t even seem to be there at all. A shell. The sight made Willow want to shudder.
Joyce knelt before her daughter, now fully clothed. The mother had dressed her daughter as if she were a rag doll. She took the slayer’s thin shoulders gently. “Buffy, honey?” No response. “Baby? Come on,” she urged. The woman turned back with wet eyes. They pleaded up at Willow.
“Try again, Will,” Xander said.
Willow nodded, although she feared it would be futile. Joyce moved aside to let the witch take her place. She gazed into her friend’s empty stare. “Buffy? Can you hear me?”
“This bloody well isn’t doing anything!” Spike stepped forward. “She can’t be . . . brain dead. I mean, she’s still Buffy in there. Somewhere.”
Willow could tell Spike was scared. They all were. But he was the most, she could tell, despite how he fought to hide it. He lost his daughter only a short while ago. What would he do without Buffy as well? He’d be left with nothing. She glanced over at her broken Tara. She knew what that felt like. Well . . . almost. At least Tara would look at her.
She never had a friendship with Spike. She never really thought much about his well-being at all. But now she couldn’t help but have compassion for the vampire as she watched him pace.
“Losing Dawn must have pushed her over the edge,” Giles murmured. His eyes seemed to darken even more as he said this.
A sob escaped Joyce’s throat. “My poor baby,” she whispered.
Spike growled. He charged over to Buffy’s side. He took her shoulders and shook her violently. “Time to wake up, luv. Time to get our little girl back!”
“Hey!” Willow protested.
“We tried that,” Xander said.
“Spike. . . .” Anya intervened.
Spike glanced over. “It’s hardly time to get dainty. She’s endowed with slayer strength.” He slapped her across the face. He hardly flinched from the chip’s fire.
“Is it just me, or is he becoming immune to the chip?” Xander spoke up.
Spike stood up and glared at the other man. “Gotten used to it, yeah. Scared, Harris?”
Xander took a step toward Spike, purpose in his gaze. Willow lifted a hand and pushed him away with magic. “Now isn’t the time!” she said harshly.
The men calmed. Their eyes went back to land on Buffy.
Someone had to take charge. Their leader was gone. Willow took a deep breath.
“All right. First we head back to Sunnydale. Anya's looking after Tara. Xander and Spike, you find Glory. Check her apartment; see if she's still there. Try anything stupid, like payback, and I will get very Cranky. Giles, look through your books and see if you can come up with a plan for saving Dawn.” She plastered her face with resolve. “Everyone clear?”
After a moment Anya raised her hand. “Wh-What will you do?”
“I’ll help Buffy.”
“Now, don’t turn me into a toad for asking, but what about if we come across Ben?” Spike questioned.
“I don’t think Buffy needs a doctor at the moment,” Willow said.
Spike rolled his eyes. “Well, yeah, especially one that happens to be Glory.”
“What do you mean?” Giles asked.
“You know, Ben is Glory.”
The whole group stared at the vampire emptily. He frowned.
“You mean Ben is working for Glory?” Willow deduced.
Spike shook his head. “No. Ben ‘is’ Glory. As in they are one and the same. Are you all stoned?”
“When did this all happen?” Anya said.
“Not an hour ago. Ben turned into Glory before all our eyes. You don’t remember?”
Spike sighed deeply. “Very crafty. Glory must be working some kind of mojo to make everyone forget her presto-chango. But yours truly being a vampire, I must stand immune.”
They simply stared.
“Okay, let me explain again,” he said.
+ + +
Glory clutched at her head. She began to rip out pieces of her blond hair. It wasn’t because of hunger either, it was from the screaming. The kid hadn’t stopped crying since she took her.
“Will someone make that brat shut up!?” Glory demanded. She went over and shook the baby in an attempt to silence it.
One of her favorite minions, Murk, hurried over. “You can’t kill it now, Glorificus. We need it for the ritual. You will be lost in the mortal plane forever.”
She thrust Dawn over to him. He took the squirming infant, almost dropping her. “What shall we do with it, our creamy queen?”
Glory made a shooing motion with her hands. “I don’t care! Just take the thing away!”
Another demon came over, this one female. “We should prepare it for the ritual.”
Glory lounged in a chair. She leaned back and covered her ears. “Whatever, just take it out of my range of hearing.”
The moldy creatures took the confused baby off.
+ + +
Okay, I can do this. I can do this. I can. Willow took a deep breath. She focused into Buffy’s lifeless eyes. She felt herself pull away from the small bedroom. Things shifted and she found herself somewhere else.
Willow stood in the hallway of a house she had never seen before. Pictures hung on the walls. They displayed a happy little girl with brown pigtails and sparkling blue eyes. Willow stopped in front of one that showed her in the arms of both her parents: Buffy and Spike. A family, together, smiling.
Laughter drifted toward Willow. She slowly crept in its direction. It led her to the open door at the end of the hall. She peered in to find a pink and purple children’s bedroom. Dawn lay under a massive amount of blankets. Spike stood near the foot of the bed, and his daughter watched with hero-worship.
“Aunt Willow weakened Glory with her magic. Then your mum was able to have at her.” He parried with a fake sword.
The little girl sat up with interest.
Spike grinned. “I snatched you up before any nasties could harm you.”
Willow fought back tears. In Buffy’s mind she had created a false happily ever after. If only she could have weakened Glory somehow. The barrier spell had taken a lot out of her, though.
“And you tooked me home. Right, daddy?” Dawn questioned with a yawn.
“Right.” Spike bent down to kiss his daughter goodnight.
“And we lived happy ever after.”
“Aren’t they beautiful?”
Willow’s head snapped to the side. Buffy stood beside her, as if appearing from nowhere. The slayer gazed into the room with a ghost of a smile.
“Yes,” Willow agreed. “But, Buffy, you have to come back with me. This isn’t real.”
A moment passed without answer. Buffy hugged herself.
“We need you back home,” Willow went on.
“It’s nice here,” Buffy said.
“I know. But you can’t stay.”
“Why not?”
“We need you,” Willow said again.
“What can I possibly do? I already failed.”
“No, you haven’t. Not yet.”
Buffy closed her eyes. “Glory has Dawn.”
“Yes, but you can get her back. If you stay here she will die. If you come back with me there is still a chance to save her.”
A shudder ran through Buffy. “I can’t stand to lose her, Will. I couldn’t handle that. I’ve lost Angel and I’ve died. I got through that, but . . . losing my own daughter.” She covered her mouth.
Willow wrapped an arm around Buffy. “Then don’t let it happen,” she whispered.
+ + +
Buffy took a deep breath and entered the Magic Box. Willow, Anya, and Tara followed in her tracks. Giles stood up from his seat at the table. “Buffy?”
“Are you all right?” Xander asked.
Buffy nodded. “Yeah. I’m all right.”
“Did you know that Glory is Ben?” Xander blurted.
“So I’ve been told.”
She took a quick glance at Spike. His eyes looked unconvinced by her words. She moved on and spotted a bunch of papers scattered across the table.
“What’s all this?” she questioned.
Giles cleared his throat. “Xander and Spike uncovered documents for the ritual. I've read these things very carefully and there's not much ... margin for error. You understand what I'm saying?”
Buffy crossed her arms. “Might help if you actually said it.”
He nodded. He slowly sat back down. He removed his glasses and took a moment before continuing.
“Um ... Glory ... plans to open a ... dimensional portal ... by way of a ritual bloodletting.”
“Dawn’s blood?”
“Yes. Once the blood is shed at a certain time and place ... the fabric which separates all realities will be ripped apart. Dimensions will ... pour into one another, uh, with no barriers to stop them. Reality as we know it will be destroyed, and ... chaos will reign on earth.”
“How do we stop it?”
Giles’s eyes darted away. “Buffy . . .”
“Giles?” she urged.
He forced his gaze back. “The only way to stop it is to kill Dawn.”
__________________________________________________
I know the Buffy mind part was lame. I’m sorry. I was eager to get on with the actual action part.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
It's been awhile, I know. I've been uninspired lately. Hopefully it has passed