Chapter Thirty- One- Ready, Set, Go

Buffy descended the steps with Spike right behind her. They made it to the foot of the stairs where they saw a man. He stood by the door, looking worn and desperate. It seemed as if he might topple over at any second.

He took one staggering move toward them. “Are you the slayer?” he choked.

“That’d be me. She who likes pointy pieces of wood,” Buffy said.

The man took a good look at his supposed heroin. His eyes grew wide as he spotted her enlarged middle. “Y-You’re . . .”

“Really fat?” she commented, cupping a hand over where her daughter lay.

“Pregnant.” The stranger shook his head. “This can’t be right. You are supposed to help me.”

“If worse comes to worse I can use my weight against me.” She smiled.

“I wouldn’t underestimate her, mate,” Spike advised.

“Would you like to sit down?” Buffy asked. She led the man into the living room. She was afraid he might collapse.

They settled down, Buffy and Spike on the couch. The man drooped in the recliner.

“Let’s start with introductions. Hi, I’m Buffy. And you are. . .?”

“Rick.”

“So, how’d you know to come to me? I don’t have slayer written on my forehead. At least I hope I don’t. I haven’t brought myself to look in the mirror lately.”

Spike frowned at her with disapproval. “Stop it with the ugly pregnant jokes, pet.”

Buffy laughed. “Sorry, couldn’t resist. I’ll stop.”

“M-My wife is dead,” Rick stammered. “Somebody . . . Something raided our home. They hurt Susie and took my daughter into the basement. Just before Susie. . . died. . .” He took a deep breath. “She said that she heard them talking. They said something about a ritual. The Ritual of Bound Destruction. She also told me to find you. That you were the only one who could stop them.

Slayer and ex-vampire exchanged looks. They knew this was serious. Any ceremony performed by a demon meant total badness. Spike knew first-hand. He had brought Drusilla back to full strength. Buffy knew because she had averted quite a few.

“I’m calling Giles,” Buffy declared. “This requires scholarly knowledge.”

“I agree, luv.”

The watcher answered his phone right away. He told Buffy that he would meet them at The Magic Box. She agreed and hung up, telling everyone what the plan was.

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Buffy, Spike, Dawn, Alexis, Willow, and Rick gathered around the table at the shop. Xander was yet again unreachable. Anya and he had been extremely busy lately. They had to make lots of arrangements for their move and their son’s birth.

Each person had a book. They furiously scanned every page, searching for a reference to the ritual.

Willow looked up from her volume. She gave them a sheepish smile. “Sorry, I need a moment to rest my eyes.”

Buffy nodded. “That’s fine, Will.” She lowered her book as well. “In fact maybe we all should take a break.”

“No!” Rick protested. “Keep looking. We have to save my baby girl.”

“And we will,” Buffy assured the man. “But we can’t do that if we can’t even think straight.”

“Eureka!” Giles stood up, triumphantly.

The gang stared at Giles. He cleared his throat, the excited expression leaving his face.

“Did you really just say that?” Buffy questioned.

Giles took off his glasses to clean. “Yes, I’m afraid I did.” He replaced his glasses and gestured to the text he held. “I found it. We should have looked here in the first place. It is the Compilation of Fallen Rituals after all.”

Buffy rolled her eyes. “Of course.” She stepped closer. “What we got? Is it the end of the world and we’re all going to die, yada yada yada?”

“The world can’t end!” Dawn piped up. “Brian’s going to ask me to Semi-Formal. At least . . . I’m hoping he will. But he never will if the world is gonna end.”

“The world is not going to end. I’ll stop it,” Buffy vowed. She met Giles’s eyes. “What do I have to do to stop it?”

“Nothing,” Giles simply said.

“Huh?”

“Nothing,” he repeated. “It isn’t an apocalyptic ritual.”

“Oh.”

“Good!” Alexis exclaimed. “That’s good, right?”

“Of course,” Giles answered. “But this ritual isn’t to be taken lightly.”

“What are we dealing with?” Buffy asked.

Giles studied the page he had open. “The Ritual of Bound Destruction is a ceremony performed on someone in order to kill another. The person is bound spiritually to another a distance away. Then the person is sacrificed. There’s chanting involved and a few other technicalities. The result is two dead people.”

Buffy crossed her arms. “So they’re doing this because they can’t get to the person they really want to kill?”

“It seems that way.”

Fury raged in Rick’s eyes. He even shook with anger. “They want to kill my daughter!”

Willow covered her mouth, her eyes wide. “Oh, God! They’re going to kill a helpless baby? That‘s awful.”

“And wrong,” Dawn added. “I wanna kick their asses until they fall apart limb-by-limb.”

That was all Buffy could take. She stormed into the training room, going straight to the weapons. It was her nature to rush into things without planning. The situation also hit too close to home. She was going to be a parent herself. She was not going to let a baby die.

The others followed her.

“Buffy,” Giles said. “I haven’t finished reading everything about the ritual. You must stop this rashness and . . . “

“Suit up,” Buffy ordered. “Read on the way.”

She grabbed a hefty sword. She swung the blade confidently through the air. She noticed Spike about to say something beside her.

“One word about how I can’t fight in my condition and there will be hell to pay.”

Spike shook his head. “Nothing of the sort. Just be careful, luv. Promise me you’ll be careful.”

She gave him a quick smile. “Always.”

The tender moment ended as soon as it began. She spun around. She stood tall and determined. “Let’s go!”

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Only a couple more chapters left.